It is no longer about restarting the economy, but finding ways to reinvent it, asserted industry experts during a panel session in Dubai titled Building Stronger Trade Infrastructure.

The panel session, which took place on the second and final day of Global Business Forum Latin America (GBF LATAM 2022), brought together Dr Didacus Jules, Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) from Saint Lucia; Dyogo Oliveira, Former President of the National Association of Airport Management Companies (ANEAA) from Brazil; and Javier Pena Capobianco, Secretary-General of the Association of Latin American Service Exporters from Uruguay.

We are among the most tourism-dependent economies in the world, said Dr Jules, referring to the Eastern Caribbean States. The Covid-19 pandemic [led to] a shutdown of the tourism industry, and in one month, we had a total of 3,340 flights grounded. This had a tremendous impact on supply chains and food imports, but also created opportunities for a transformational approach. It is no longer about restarting the economy but finding ways to reinvent our economy in green, resilient ways.

The regionalisation of trade and the supply chain is an important step in that direction, Dr Jules continued.

Symbiotic approach to trade

Trade has three channels: air, sea, and IT. The latter is now vital and almost every aspect of our lives. We have to approach it with design thinking; we cannot focus on just one element; it has to be a symbiotic approach.

For his part, Capobianco noted that while Covid-19 did have a profound impact on the economy, only one sector came out a winner, and that is the global services sector, most notably IT.

We conducted research with more than 70 leaders, and found that during this difficult time, they managed to attract more people and enhance productivity. They made a radical shift, delivering 100% of services electronically and it became common that companies hire individuals or groups in different parts of the world, he said.

At the same time, this creates challenges: for individuals, who have to deal with personal life and working from home; for companies, who need to figure out how to deal with security issues and how to embrace new hires, and for governments  particularly those in Latin America  who have to think of ways to encourage their own talent and entrepreneurs to create startups in the region itself, Capobianco added.

More than basic infrastructure

Meanwhile, Dyogo Oliveira said: When talk about infrastructure, it is about more than basic infrastructure. We have to look at all elements of infrastructure, such as electricity and IT. These are still issues in Latin America, where countries face fiscal problems, and with that in mind, we have seen increased involvement from the private sector in these issues.

A major lesson we can learn from Dubai is to first build regional hubs and build on them to go worldwide, Oliveira explained. One thing that is absent in Latin America is that we are looking to connect with other countries around the world individually, we never tried to create a hub and make it easier for other countries to connect with us.

GBF Latin America forms part of Dubai Chamber of Commerces flagship Global Business Forum series, which was launched in 2013 to provide Dubais business community with new opportunities and strengthen the emirates position as a global business hub, a dynamic centre of commerce, and a gateway to lucrative new markets.

Held on March 23 and 24 by Dubai Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, the two-day GBF Latin America was organised under the theme Towards a Resilient Future and promoted dialogue between business leaders along three main themes: Reform, Empower and Grow.-- TradeArabia News Service
At the end of Tuesday night, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin told U.S. Supreme Court hopeful Ketanji Brown Jackson that the woman who cleans his office at night was one of the special guests who attended the confirmation hearing.

She said afterwards that it was a great moment for her to be in this room today, he told Jackson, but she asked my staff: Why are some people so mean?

Durbin said he did not think that the senators on his side of the aisle were mean. On Wednesday, however, he started out by saying some of his Republican colleagues were using the confirmation hearing as an opportunity to showcase talking points for the November election.

North Carolina's Thom Tillis was largely not one of them.

Tillis, North Carolina's junior senator since 2015, opted to switch spots at the hearing with fellow Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn and attend Wednesday morning. In contrast to Blackburns insistence late Tuesday that critical race theory was being taught in elementary schools, Tillis opted to ask about recidivism and court packing  two things that were tame compared to his colleagues.

I look at your philosophy with respect, Tillis told Jackson during questioning. Its admirable. I said that the content of your character would be demonstrated this week and it has been.

Instead of focusing on race-based teaching like Blackburn and Ted Cruz, religious fervor like Lindsey Graham or QAnon-soaked questions about child sexual abuse sentencing, Tillis sounded level-headed even when asking about cases that his colleagues brought up the day before.

Do I read that statement to say that you felt, given the circumstances of the time, (the incarcerated) should all be released? he asked Jackson about U.S. v. Wiggins, a case Jackson heard about early releases because of potential exposure to COVID-19. In a similar question about the same case, Blackburn accused Jackson of advocating that each and every criminal defendant in D.C. Corrections custody should be released.

Jackson still noted that Tillis was not, in fact, reading the statement correctly. In the case he referenced, the incarcerated person was not granted compassionate release.

Senator, if you read two more sentences down that is precisely what I focus on, Brown responded. This is a case, United States v. Wiggins, where I was setting up my analysis as to why I would not be releasing Mr. Wiggins.

Tillis line of questioning signals that he, unlike some of his fellow senators, is taking the time to judge Jackson for her character and record instead of using her nomination to rile up his base. After all, thats the way these hearings used to work, when hearings were more about cases and less about scoring points with Fox News.

Its also easy to seem level-headed compared to the way his colleagues have questioned Jackson. Graham, for instance, interrupted her multiple times to make his points and asked Jackson to rate her faith on a scale of 1-10.

Cruz blew up photos of the book "Antiracist Baby" and asked: Do you agree with this book being taught with kids that babies are racist?

But Tillis also appeared to stand up for his GOP colleagues.

I thought it was interesting that they were ridiculing some of my colleagues on this side of the aisle for bringing up the behavior of past Supreme Court hearings, Tillis said. This is really the appropriate venue to do it.

Tillis cited the way Democrats questioned Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. But that comparison was weak: Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault. Barrett was rated unqualified by the American Bar Association and had her hearing rushed through by former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously delayed a judiciary hearing for Merrick Garland for almost an entire year.

Maybe Tillis wants to position himself as a reasonable Republican. Its also possible that he knows he can redeem the party by simply not bringing far right extremism to the senate floor.
ASHEVILLE  A hospital in western North Carolina is facing nearly $30,000 in civil penalties after state labor officials said it violated COVID-19 safety protocols and reporting requirements during the pandemic.

The penalties stem from three inspections by the N.C. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Division in October and November at Mission Hospital in Asheville.

In addition to failing to properly fit employees for N95 respirators, state investigators said the hospital waited to report that one of its workers had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and later died.

The employee was hospitalized Oct. 18 and died Nov. 10, according to the citation. But state officials werent notified until after a complaint was filed 12 days later.

We union nurses have been fighting for a safer workplace throughout the pandemic, Kerri Wilson, a registered nurse in the cardiac step-down unit at Mission Hospital, said in a news release. Our workplace is safer because we spoke up, we reported safety violations and we took the time to show OSH investigators what needed to be corrected.

Wilson is among 1,500 nurses at Mission Hospital who are represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United. The union issued a news release after the citations were announced, saying dozens of nurses at Mission Hospital have spoken with state investigators and led them on walk-throughs of the facility since October. They have also publicly protested unsafe working conditions.

The 730-bed facility in Asheville has the regions only childrens hospital and is operated by HCA Healthcare based in Tennessee.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mission Health said the safety and well-being of our patients and caregivers is our top priority.

According to 36 pages of documents filed by state investigators, the violations reportedly occurred at Mission Hospital and Mission Hospital Copestone, a mental health facility located on the same campus.

The first inspection was Oct. 1 and resulted in one serious violation and one non-serious violation, a labor department spokesperson said. The combined penalty was $7,275.

Inspection reports show the hospital did not give annual fit tests to employees for a tight-fitting facepiece respirator and failed to provide a record of employee fit testing. Inspectors recorded the same infraction during a second inspection on the same day at Copestone, which was also fined $7,275.

A third inspection was performed Nov. 24 in which a spokesperson said Mission Hospital was issued one serious violation and three non-serious violations for a combined penalty of $15,225.

We know the importance in fit-testing and only paused the practice at the guidance of at the North Carolina Department of Labor and OSHA early in the pandemic, the hospital said. Once it was deemed appropriate to reinstate the practice in 2021, Mission Hospital took steps to do so. We value the OSHA tracking and reporting process, however, we are working with them to clarify these recent findings.

Inspectors also said the hospital did not report an employees COVID-19 hospitalization within 24 hours of management being notified.

That employee died on Nov. 10 from a COVID-19 infection, officials said.

According to the citation, the hospital was required to report a work-related COVID-19 fatality within eight hours of the facility being informed of the death. But state officials werent informed about the hospitalization and death until Nov. 22.

Mission Hospital has 15 days after receiving the citations to request a conference with labor department officials, contest the penalties or pay them.
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Terms like the golden hour and the platinum 10-minutes emphasize the urgency with which a trauma patient must receive care in order to survive. But Montanans live in a trauma center desert that stretches over four states, meaning accessing timely care isnt always possible.

Montana is second worst in the nation when it comes to surviving severe trauma, partly due to geographic isolation. The nearest tertiary care facility is 548 miles away in Salt Lake City, Utah, meaning severely injured Montanans are spending their golden hour simply getting to a facility with the necessary resources.

To address the issue, leadership at Billings Clinic announced plans Thursday to become the regions first level I trauma center, the highest designation for trauma centers in the U.S.

The hospitals trauma department has seen a steady increase in volume over the last several years, making the designation a natural next step, said Dr. Michael Englehart, director of trauma services at Billings Clinic.

I believe that people in Montana and the region deserve to have the same quality level of care that they can get anywhere else in the country with a level I trauma center, Englehart said.

Currently, Billings Clinic operates as a level II regional trauma center along with St. Vincent Healthcare, Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula and Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls.

At level II centers, hospitals are able to assemble advanced trauma care for the region by calling in general surgeons and some other specialists, according to Rich Rasmussen, CEO of Montana Hospital Association. Tertiary care needs that require cardiac surgery or microvascular surgery are usually flown out to level I trauma centers.

With the level I designation, Billings Clinic will be required to have in-house coverage at all times by general surgeons and specialists in orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine, plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial, pediatric and critical care.

Additionally, level I centers are required to have research pursuits and demonstrate a commitment to education.

Billings Clinic started revving up its research efforts about a year ago looking into ideas and concepts surrounding unique injuries and barriers to care in Montana. The questions have already yielded evidence of unparalleled challenges in care.

While falls and motor vehicle accidents are the most common traumas in the state, injuries unique to Montana include animal-related injuries, particularly equine traumas.

We actually believe that we may have one of the largest series of equine-related trauma in the United States, said Dr. Gordon Riha, trauma surgeon at Billings Clinic.

Even experienced trauma surgeons across the nation see animal attacks so rarely that a single case of a bear attack presented at a national meeting was laughable, Englehart said.

I was laughing for a different reason because I see this all the time, regularly, Englehart said. So we very clearly have a niche area of expertise that is not seen elsewhere in the country.

About 63% of Montanans live in rural communities that often have a severe lack of services, creating health disparities that are unique to the region. Driving times and a physician shortage heavily felt in rural places results in a lack of primary, preventative and emergency care.

Billings Clinic announced a general surgery residency program earlier this year with a focused rural track to create a pipeline to facilities and build a network of care.

The first general surgery resident will begin training in June 2022.

Educating physicians while also conducting research ensures the next generation of doctors will be trained with the most recent literature, placing Montana on the cutting edge of medicine, Riha said. With Billings Clinic at the center, the hope is that the advancements will trickle down to Montanas rural facilities.

Theres a lot of other facilities in Montana (where we can) develop a network through education through support of these other facilities to help raise the level of care  the end goal is to get (rural facilities) where they need to be, but we also want to keep people close to home, so not transferring people out of state, Englehart said.

Christy Baxter, director of critical care at Billings Clinic, shared her own stories of family trauma on their ranch in Cohagen, Montana.

In 2017, Baxter's father was in an ATV accident on a dirt trail about 12 miles from the highway.

"For those of you who know Eastern Montana, (it's like) get to the highway. The ambulance will meet you there," Baxter said. Her father was then transported to the nearest rural hospital where doctors told her that her father likely wouldn't survive.

Luckily, Baxter had the number of a thoracic surgeon at Billings Clinic who was able to arrange his transport to Billings. Today, Baxter's 81-year-old father continues to ranch in rural Montana.

Building up

Data shows that seriously injured patients have a 25% greater survival rate at a level I trauma center.

And from a clinical standpoint, Billings Clinic has been operating as a level I trauma center for several years, but in order to meet all the criteria for level I designation, which requires in-house immediate services, there are multiple other commitments the hospital must make to bridge the gap from level II to level I.

For trauma I designation, a hospital must have operating rooms available and ready at any time to serve an injured patient. Now, Billings Clinic operating rooms are booked solid on a regular basis, making it hard to fit in emergent trauma surgeries.

To meet the designation criteria, operating rooms and the emergency department will be expanded and a new surgical intensive care unit will be built.

The Clinic will also need to serve 1,200 patients a year with a major trauma or an injury severity score (ISS) greater than 15. To support the demand, new construction on an inpatient cancer care unit, intermediate care unit, neonatal intensive care unit and a transfer center is needed.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Billings Clinic inpatient capacity has been pushed to the breaking point, forcing the hospital to turn away some trauma patients, said Englehart. To accommodate for the increasing volumes, 56 new patient rooms will be added.

But how long it will take for the hospital to become a level I trauma center is unknown. Not only does the hospital need to bulk up its infrastructure, but the research team is being built from the ground up.

One of the reasons were moving forward with the capital campaign is we need foundational money too to keep these projects ongoing, Riha said. This takes a lot of manpower, it takes a lot of hours and it takes a lot of effort.

Funding

The project comes with a $30 million price tag, the largest capital campaign in Billings Clinic's history. So far, the Clinic has secured $13 million in pledges with $5 million coming from an anonymous donor.

The Philip N. Fortin Foundation has contributed $7 million to the campaign and will provide the name for the center as The Philip N. Fortin Trauma Center. The philanthropic organization has already given thousands to the trauma center at Billings Clinic, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.

Another $1 million came from former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, CEO of Belgrade-based Ascent Vision Technologies and Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company.

At the press conference, Sheehy talked about his own brushes with the golden hour during his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He added that he was closer to a level I trauma center during his deployments in the Middle East than anyone in Montana.

"I was unfortunate enough to see the golden hour pass on some folks and see just how quickly that rate of survival dropped off," Sheehy said. Since his time in combat, Sheehy and his wife, Carmen, have been passionate about contributing to advancing trauma care in the state.

In 2021, Sheehy donated millions to Bozeman Health to bring integrated pediatric care to the hospital.

"Elevating our game from a trauma perspective means elevating everybody. Everybody rises and gets better, complex care," Englehart said. "Building a network of facilities that can handle those beyond what their currently able to do is the eventual goal. All boats rise."

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When Americans go to the polls this year, they will be making their most critical choices in generations. At stake is whether Democrats will still be in a majority in the United States Congress, or whether control will be turned over to a Republican party that is still in the thrall of Donald Trump and veering far to the right. Whether we will meet the climate challenge, redress the growth of inequality, rebuild our economy, and protect reproductive rights and democratic institutions all hang in the balance.

Keeping, let alone expanding, its majority will be an uphill battle for Democrats. Because of the structure of our Federal system and deliberate Republican gerrymandering, when compared to the popular vote, Democrats are already underrepresented in both the Senate and House and in state legislatures all across the country.

Much of this under-representation is embedded in smaller, more rural states. Just consider Montana and its neighboring states of North Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho. In the 2020 Congressional elections, something around 40% of the electorate in those four states voted Democratic, yet between them they have only one Democratic member of Congress  Montanas own Jon Tester.

But its not just the system that makes it tough for Democrats in states like Montana to elect members of Congress. All across the country, including in Montana, Democrats have lost support among rural voters. Thats due, in part, to simple neglect. In some places Democrats have turned their attention to other constituencies and stopped engaging with rural voters. But theres something more: for a long time, Montana voters were famous for ticket splitting  theyd vote for a Republican in one race and a Democrat in another. That meant they were evaluating candidates carefully and voting for the person, and not just the party. But sadly, those days seem to be behind us. We are now divided into warring, partisan camps, and its hard for Democrats, or Republicans for that matter, to appeal to voters in the middle, because there are so few voters there.

If we Democrats want to retain, or better yet expand, our majorities in Congress, and move the nation forward and away from the divisions that currently plague us, we have to do much better than we have been at meeting the needs and securing the votes of rural voters. And thats where Montana, and Monica Tranel, come in.

Montanas new, western Congressional district is a must win for Democrats if we are to keep our majority in the U.S. House. And its a must-win for Republicans if they want to take our majority away. The race will attract a lot of attention, and probably a lot of money, but in the end it will be won by the candidate who can appeal to all of the districts voters, urban and rural, and can reach out and break down those hard partisan walls people are sheltering behind in this time of deep divisions. Monica Tranel is that candidate.

Monica grew up in Montana. She can listen to, understand, and respect the concerns and aspirations of Montanans in every corner of the state. She knows how to bridge the partisan divide, and will be respected for her integrity, energy and ability. As a lawyer and forceful advocate for ranchers, small businesses, individuals and consumers, she has taken on powerful corporations and won. She is a workhorse, whether that means rowing for the United States in the Olympics, getting breakfast for her daughters, litigating in court, or showing up at public meetings and speaking her mind. Electing Monica Tranel will help America down the road it must travel.

Nancy Keenan is the former executive director for the Montana Democratic Party, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the former State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Montana.

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Todays Highlight in History:

On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaskas Prince William Sound and began leaking an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.

On March 24:

In 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.

In 1832, a mob in Hiram, Ohio, attacked, tarred and feathered Mormon leaders Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon.

In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch (kohk) announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

In 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her countrys military.

In 1980, one of El Salvadors most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by a sniper as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

In 1995, after 20 years, British soldiers stopped routine patrols in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

In 1999, NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.

In 2010, keeping a promise hed made to anti-abortion Democratic lawmakers to assure passage of his historic health care legislation, President Barack Obama signed an executive order against using federal funds to pay for elective abortions covered by private insurance.

In 2012, Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Republican presidential primary, beating front-runner Mitt Romney in yet another conservative Southern state. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, with a long history of cardiovascular problems, underwent a heart transplant at a Virginia hospital.

In 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus A320, crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board; investigators said the jetliner was deliberately downed by the 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.

In 2016, a U.N. war crimes court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges for orchestrating a campaign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia; Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison. (The sentence was later increased to life in prison.)

In 2017, President Donald Trump and GOP leaders yanked their bill to repeal Obamacare off the House floor when it became clear the measure would fail badly. Former Penn State President Graham Spanier was convicted of hushing up child sexual abuse allegations in 2001 against Jerry Sandusky, whose arrest a decade later blew up into a major scandal for the university. (After losing an appeal, Spanier served nearly two months in jail.)

In 2020, the International Olympic Committee announced that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo would be postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus.

In 2021, the Senate confirmed former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be the nations assistant secretary of health; Levine was the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation. Virginia, the state with the second-highest number of executions, became the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty. Jessica Walter, whose roles included a scheming matriarch on TVs Arrested Development and a stalker in the film Play Misty for Me, died at 80. Nomadland cemented its Oscar front-runner status, winning the top award at the Producers Guild of America Awards.

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DECATUR  With workers still in short supply, Workforce Investment Solutions announced that it was awarded an Illinois Works Grant to offer pre-apprenticeship training to adults 18 years and older.

"There's going to be a lot of baby boomer retiring from the apprenticeships or from vocational jobs, so we still have to grow," said Rocki Wilkerson, executive director of Workforce Investment Solutions. "You have to have new blood coming in and it's kind of like the law of supply and demand; if it's out there, we need to be ready for when those positions aren't being filled."

The grant will provide just under $500,000 in funds and places an emphasis on creating opportunities for women, people of color and veterans to receive pre-apprenticeship skill training in the construction industry at no cost.

Wilkerson said the grant was a combined effort between Josh Sapp, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 146, who wrote the grant, and the Decatur Building and Construction Trades Council.

Wilkerson also said One Level, a local non-profit which provides vocational training and pre-apprenticeship programs, is working alongside everyone to provide the necessary education and pathways for individuals to work in the trades.

"We're gonna go back to the union hall, which will be the IBEW, and we're going to work hands-on with the tools to get them familiarized," said Richard Phillips, vocational manager at One Level. "Once their certificates are completed, they go on to the houses and now they can put the applications in for the trades."

One Level instructor Kaitlin Coate said programs are held at the Decatur Public Library and the main curriculum focuses on the structure of unions and how it benefits workers versus them working in non-union jobs.

Coate said the program is a co-op between One Level and Richland Community College, while the IBEW sponsors the class certification to teach students and Workforce Investment Solution provides the grant money to support students in their endeavors.

The program also covers how to read blueprints, learn math applied to construction work, and basic training for certifications needed to receive positions like CPR and forklift training, Coate said.

Upon completion of training, Coate said participants will earn a multi-craft core industry credential approved by North America's Building Trades Unions, which will enable them apply to several different trade union apprenticeship programs.

"The testing stipulation and the interview process to get into the apprenticeship right away seems kind of strenuous. It can take quite a few weeks, you have to do group interviews with people you've never met that look professional and for a construction job, it's just a different type of mindset," Coate said. "I hope this will be a program that we can bridge that process, to lessen the fear of entering an unknown because we're preparing them for that unknown."

Having worked at nursing homes, Walmart and a plethora of other jobs over the years, Christian Johnson, 23, has always worked to keep himself afloat financially, but knows there are better options available.

After attempting to join a trades union twice before and coming up short both times, Johnson felt like he had no skills in the field and needed something on his resume to show experience.

Luckily, he came across the pre-apprenticeship program at the library taught by Phillips and Coate.

"It's been great actually. It's refreshed me on a whole bunch of math because I'm sure I want to be a plumber and there's a lot of math involved," he said. "This class is helping me every day so I'm confident and I'm gonna be ready this time."

Quajai Seaton, 20, said he found out about the program from his mother and since February he has been learning almost everything he needs to know to get an apprenticeship.

Seaton is even visiting high school students in the area to let them know that there are other options out there instead of college that could make for a worthwhile career.

"For some people, college is for them and for other people, college is not because you could be in a lot of debt," Seaton said. "We're getting paid to be here and we just have a lot knowledge from what we've learned."

"Getting paid here is just a short-term goal, because eventually we will be going to the houses and then we get to into the trades, so it's just about taking the steps," Seaton said.

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DECATUR  The Illinois Army National Guard units in Kankakee and Decatur have received new UH-60V Black Hawk helicopters, the latest rotary-wing aircraft in the Armys inventory.

The helicopters are assigned to the 106th Aviation Regiment.

Weve upgraded from analog to digital technology. The UH-60V gives us a moving map onboard for situational awareness. It has been a needed upgrade for a while, and this is the latest and greatest, said Chief Warrant Officer Herb Stevens, Aviation Support Facility No. 2 commander.

The Illinois Army National Guard was the first to receive the V model UH-60 Black Hawk.

Lt. Col. Jason Celletti, the Illinois Army National Guards state aviation officer, said that nearly 60 aviators needed to be trained to fly the UH-60V. This required the aviators to first become qualified in the Armys previous digital UH-60 model, the M model, which was a 6-week qualification course. This was followed by a two-week training support plan to become qualified on the latest V model.

So far the Illinois Army National Guard has more than 30 aviators qualified on the UH-60M and about 15 fully-qualified UH-60V pilots.

We partnered with Army Operational Test Command, Eastern Army Aviation Training Center, and other various organizations throughout the Department of the Army to ensure the success of the V program, Celletti said.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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DECATUR  The heartbroken father of Decatur murder victim Shemilah Sanders said he was satisfied justice was done Thursday after a jury unanimously convicted Paul M. Folks of shooting her to death.

Shemuel Sanders had tears in his eyes when the verdict came back at 1:34 p.m. in Macon County Circuit Court after the jury had been out for three hours. He exchanged deep hugs with his family and with Special Prosecutor Kate Kurtz, whose eyes also shone with emotion.

Folks, 43, was convicted of both first-degree murder and of personally discharging a firearm when he killed the 22-year-old victim in June of 2020. That personal discharge finding increases the penalty range dramatically and means that Folks faces the prospect of dying in prison after he is sentenced May 4.

Shemuel Sanders said he was happy now to leave the appropriate sentence to Presiding Judge Thomas Griffith. But I believe he (Folks) is going to deserve everything that he gets, he added.

I do want to say this: I believe that he (Folks) wasnt taught life, he didnt have right guidance and he made some bad choices and like I tell the youth today, your actions, the things you do in life, there are consequences.

As he spoke, Sanders clutched a metal medallion he said he was given by Amber Oberheim, the widow of slain former Champaign and former Decatur police Officer Chris Oberheim.

Its my good luck token, he said with a smile. I take it everywhere I go.

He said the job of his family now was to heal as best they can and carry on as best they can "now that we got justice." He added: We will never forget Shemilah; I want us to move on to keep her name alive and keep memories going of Shemilah.

Sanders, 22, died June 9, 2020 in the intensive care unit of Decatur Memorial Hospital. She had been shot in the head the night of June 6 as she tried to flee from a crowd involved in a violent argument near the underpass on East Garfield Avenue.

Following three days of testimony, jurors retired at 10:30 a.m. Thursday to debate their verdict

Folkss defense had rested on the fact there were other gunmen present when the firing started. Defense attorney Diane Couri even suggested that Folks's brother, Gabriel Folks, who testified for the prosecution, may have been the actual shooter.

She said Garbriel Folks, who has a track record of violent offenses and was on parole from federal prison, would do anything, including implicating his own brother, to avoid going back there.

"What more of a motive to throw his brother under the bus?" she added.

Couri also described the scene leading up to the shooting as chaos in the dark, with a loud and raucous crowd and multiple confrontations going on. She said the darkness and confusion produced unreliable and contradictory descriptions of the shooting suspect.

"None of these recitations were consistent at all, whatsoever," said Couri. "We have no consistency." She also told jurors that the police had not been thorough enough in their investigation and concentrated on the wrong suspect.

The jury, however, was clearly more persuaded by the arguments of Special Prosecutor Kurtz who said there was no doubt Folks had killed Sanders. She also described the crowd scene of what had become a street fight before the murder happened as chaotic but told jurors that didnt change the fact many witnesses had been consistent about one thing: Paul Folks fired the fatal shot.

...Person after person after person after person will tell you it was this defendant, Paul Folks, who pulled a gun out and fired it into a crowd of people, shooting, hitting and killing Shemilah Sanders, Kurtz had told the jury at the start of the trial.

In her closing argument Thursday, Kurtz said it would be easy to understand that Sanders' sisters, who were there and watched her get shot, were traumatized by events and so would not recall everything that happened in the same precise detail when testifying.

"That makes them human beings who watched their sister being gunned down," added Kurtz... "It's chaos and then their sister is on the ground bleeding to death from the back of her head."

As she said those words, the victim's father uttered a groan and lowered his head. He had sat in the public gallery watching the trial along with a large contingent of family members there to offer him emotional support.

Sanders has funneled his grief in the wake of his daughter's death into the creation of the Shemilah Outreach Center in Decatur, which provides work projects and activities for young people in a bid to keep them away from trouble and gun violence.

NO DEAL

Folks had turned down a plea deal before the start of the trial that would have required him to admit to second-degree murder, a lesser offense.

And you understand that if you reject that offer, which you have told everyone you want to do, and you proceed to trial and you get convicted of first-degree murder with all these weapons enhancements and so on, that you are going to spend the rest of your life in prison, or pretty close? said the judge.

Yes, your honor, Folks replied.

The defendant had also taken, and ultimately lost, a further gamble when he told the judge he didn't want the jury to be instructed they had the option of finding him guilty of second-degree murder.

"...You are essentially taking the position that you are either going to win or you are going to lose and there is no middle ground, you understand that?" the judge had asked again at the end of the trial before giving the case to the jury.

"I understand, your honor," Folks said.

Another defendant linked to the murder case, Folkss 32-year-old nephew Lavanski S. Folks, was arrested on a weapons charge related to the night of the fatal shooting. He appeared in court in September of 2020 and was sentenced to 24 months' probation after pleading guilty to a charge of the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid

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CHICAGO  The Chicago City Council has voted to pay nearly $1.7 million to five people, including a Black woman who said police dragged her from a car by her hair at a shopping mall amid unrest following George Floyd's 2020 killing.

The council voted 34-13 Wednesday to approve the $1.67 million settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit Mia Wright and four relatives filed against the city.

Wright was a passenger in a car that arrived at the Brickyard Mall on May 31, 2020, amid widespread looting in the days after Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Wright said she and four relatives drove to the mall to go shopping and did not realize it was closed due to the unrest. The lawsuit alleges police officers suddenly surrounded their car, broke the windows with their batons and pulled Wright out of the vehicle by her hair.

Wright alleged that the confrontation left her blind in one eye from flying glass caused by police breaking the car windows.

Officers said they thought some members of Wright's group were attempting to break into a store at the mall to steal goods, city lawyer Caroline Fronczak has said, but the officers also acknowledged nobody in the group matched the descriptions of the suspected looters.

After an investigation, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended eight officers face discipline for their actions in the incident, ranging from firing to reprimands, and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown agreed with the recommendations, Fronczak said.

Under terms of the settlement, Wright will receive $650,000 in damages, while the other four people who were in the car with her will get $243,750 each, WBBM-TV reported.

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IHG Hotels & Resorts, a leading global hotel company, has signed a management agreement with Al Rabea Hotels and Trading Company for Holiday Inn Najran  a conversion property in Najran city in Saudi Arabia.



The hotel is returning to the IHG family having operated as a Holiday Inn hotel from 1995 to 2015.



With this signing, IHG is continues to diversify its portfolio in the country to cater to a new segment of travellers, while aligning with the government's growth plan for secondary cities across the Kingdom. The new hotel is expected to be fully rebranded by end of 2023, with completion across two phases.



Located in the heart of Najran city, Holiday Inn Najran boasts of a stunning setting, surrounded by a lush landscape of trees and overlooking the mountains. Located 20 kms from the city centre and 18 kms from the airport, the hotel will be easily accessible by the visitors.



Following the renovation and rebranding, the hotel with 87-keys will offer 82 well-appointed rooms and five villas for business and leisure travellers, complemented by recreational facilities including an outdoor pool, a gym, a sauna and a steam and jacuzzi. In addition, the hotel will offer various dining options including an all-day dining, a coffee shop, a lobby lounge and a poolside lounge. Business guests will also have access to four spacious meeting rooms equipped for casual meetings to formal presentations.



Haitham Mattar, Managing Director, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG said: It is our great pleasure to welcome back Al Rabea Hotels and Trading Co to the IHG family, and once again establish our presence in the city of Najran. As IHG grows within the Kingdom, we aim to contribute to the realization of the nations ambitions and support tourism development in secondary cities.



As one of the worlds most preferred brand, Holiday Inn is a perfect fit for families and travel explorers alike who frequent emerging destinations like Najran. We are confident that Holiday Inn Najran will cater to the needs of guests visiting the city and looking for a familiar and welcoming experience.



Sheikh Mohammed Mana Rabea Al Garishah, Chairman, Al Rabea Hotels and Trading Co. added: Given IHGs history and strong legacy in the Kingdom, we are honoured to partner with them once again to bring back the much-loved Holiday Inn brand to the city of Najran.



We are confident that this partnership will not only offer the best-in-class service to guests visiting the city in the coming years but will also bring value to our company enabled by the power of the Holiday Inn brand and supported by IHGs experience, global systems and industry leading loyalty programme. As investors, we have witnessed great value in the Holiday Inn brand equity and the profit margins this brand offers to our investment.



The Holiday Inn brand, with hotels around the world, has helped millions of travellers discover new places and connect with each other since its inception in 1952. Designed to meet the needs of both business and leisure travellers, Holiday Inn hotels deliver memorable experiences through warm and welcoming service, contemporary design that blends the familiar with the new, and a sense of comfort unique to the brand and its iconic green sign.



IHG currently operates 36 hotels in Saudi Arabia across five brands including InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites and voco. A further 28 hotels are in the development pipeline, due to open within the next three to five years.  TradeArabia News Service
CHICAGO - The Chicago City Council authorized a $1,675,000 taxpayer-funded settlement Wednesday for a group of people, including a Black woman dragged from her car by Chicago police, who visited the Brickyard Mall in the days following the murder of George Floyd.

Mia Wright and those who were with her that day sued the city in 2020, alleging excessive force by Chicago police at the Northwest Side mall after the death of Floyd, a Black man who died under the knee of white ex-Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin.

The 34-13 council vote, with scant discussion, came a month after four aldermen blocked the first attempt by City Council to approve the settlement, following a heated debate about Black Chicagoans rights and their treatment by police.

Wright and family members said they arrived at the Brickyard Mall in late May 2020 to discover it closed because of civil unrest that occurred across the city in the aftermath of Floyds murder. Police officers suddenly surrounded the car, broke the windows and pulled Wright out of the vehicle by her hair, she said.

While Wright was prone on the ground, an officer placed his knee on her neck, she said. She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, though the charge was later dropped.

A relative who was with Wright captured the incident on video. Eight police officers were disciplined for the incident, according to city lawyer Caroline Fronczak. Five plaintiffs will share the settlement.

Officers said they thought some members of Wrights group were attempting to break into a store at the mall to steal goods, according to Fronczak, but the officers also acknowledged nobody in the group matched the descriptions of the suspected looters.

During Februarys City Council meeting, approval of the settlement was blocked after four aldermen  Raymond Lopez, Felix Cardona, Nick Sposato and Silvana Tabares  used a parliamentary maneuver to delay the vote.

A week before that, Sposato had wondered why Wright, whom he said lived in the West Sides North Lawndale neighborhood, drove to the Northwest Side mall to shop on a day when Chicago was experiencing extensive, well-publicized public disturbances following the Floyd murder.

Sposatos comments prompted Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, to ask: Whats wrong with somebody who lives at Pulaski and Cermak coming to the Brickyard to shop?

People do have the right to move about the city or move about the nation as they choose, Ervin said then.

Besides Lopez, Cardona, Sposato and Tabares, the other aldermen voting against the settlement were Brian Hopkins, George Cardenas, Anthony Napolitano, Brendan Reilly, Anthony Beale, Marty Quinn, Ariel Reboyras, James Gardiner and Ed Burke.

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Cybersecurity experts have been puzzled by the absence of a major cyberattack from Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for crippling sanctions. Kremlin-backed hackers have previously shut down Ukrainian electric grids and propagated malware that caused an estimated $10 billion worth of global damage. This time, barring a few issues on Ukrainian websites and the disruption of a satellite internet provider, its been quiet on the hacking front. Prevailing theories have been that Russias cyber capabilities are not that great, while Ukraine has become better at defending its networks.

A new warning from the White House suggests something more calculated: Russia has simply chosen not to do anything yet. President Vladimir Putin may well have been keeping his cyber assault on hold for the right moment.

Heres the key line in President Joe Bidens statement, published Monday afternoon in Washington: Today, my Administration is reiterating those warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks.

Exploring options could mean a number of things.

U.S. intelligence has been largely right in predicting Russias next moves since invading, so theres good reason to take Bidens warning seriously. Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said on Monday that U.S. intelligence had observed preparatory activity, and that federal agencies last week had convened more than 100 companies to share new cybersecurity threat intelligence.

She added that there was no certainty there will be a cyber incident on critical infrastructure, and that Bidens warning was a call to action.

Cyberattacks have a psychological impact, hurting morale as much as actual infrastructure. They create the illusion that a shadowy group is in control and, worse, could be hiding in wait to cause even more damage. Putin, a former KGB officer who is well-versed in psychological warfare, may have been letting his missiles create the first wave of collective unease for both Ukrainians and the West.

Fortunately, there are basic things that organizations and individuals can do to mitigate potential threats. Companies can invest in running incident response simulations, disabling remote access for employees where its not critical and patching vulnerabilities they already know about. European banks operating in Russia have taken a more blunt approach by simply separating their Russian units from their main computer systems. Commerzbank AG, for instance, has designed a kill switch to make that separation possible, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. Individuals should start using two-factor authentication, if they dont already, to log into email and social media when possible.

The prospect of an attack on the horizon can create a sense of powerlessness at organizations, but there is much they can do to limit how bad the damage gets.

Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology.

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 62F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
If You Go  Who & What: Fritz & Co. Album Release Show  When: Saturday, March 26, at 6 p.m.  Where: Wolf Hills Brewing Co., 149 Deadmore St., Abingdon  Admission: Free  Info: 276-477-1953  Web, audio & video: www.fritzandcompany.com

Through his band Fritz & Co., Logan Fritz explores his life as with a navigators compass. It points with purpose.

A bold adventurer whose guitar follows where his lyrics lead, Abingdons six-string slinger does not simply occupy the rippling waters of rock n roll.

Discern more on Friday, March 26, at Wolf Hills Brewing Co. in Abingdon. The evening heralds the new Fritz & Co. album, Pickin Up the Pieces.

And Then  Who: Logan Fritz  When: Saturday, April 2, at 7 p.m.  Where: Damascus Brewery, 32173 Government Road, Damascus  Admission: Free  Info: 276-469-1069

We started recording the album in December 2021 at Mike Stephensons Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Virginia, said Fritz. I wrote these songs from the ages of 19 to 23. So Ive been sitting on these songs for a while.

Fritzs album follows two previous releases, 2017s Our Beating Hearts and 2018s Sweet Rock N Roll.

Back goes the breastbone on his new record. Open goes the heart. In the span of 11 originals, Fritz examines himself as if under a surgeons scalpel. Into the deepest, darkest realms of his life, he boldly goes.

The writing, it has to be something Im feeling, Fritz said. From the lyrics, you can learn that Ive been through a rough time, came through the other side, hopeful.

Fritzs impassioned vocals accompany his mid-tempo rocking opening track, Runnin Out. A song of self-examination, he asks Did I say too much?

I was in a dark place when I wrote that song, Fritz said. I was asking, Who is out there, listening to me? I was struggling with addiction.

Later, on the title track, Fritz admits to beating myself up, putting myself down. Throughout, hes taking the blame for whatever mistakes hes made.

I didnt forgive myself of what Ive done in the past, Fritz said. Now, Ive started to love myself. Youve got to love yourself before people can love you. Now I can, and now I do.

To be sure, Pickin Up the Pieces does not classify as a happy album. Its a resolution-seeking, rolling stone-moving, heart-wide-open album of divulgence.

There is some light, Fritz said. But its real. Honesty in the lyrics is important. Thats No. 1 for me.

An omnibus of blues in lyrics, alternative folk-rock in sound and revelation in voice, Fritzs new album witnesses a musician rounded well and aiming high. Hes not simply a guitar-wielding rock n roller.

Im trying to show all of my musical sides, Fritz said. This record captures the sound Im going for, somewhere between alternative rock and Americana.

Instrumentation spare, including the electric slide guitar of Matt Mullins, Fritz & Co.s album allows its namesake to open up in its soul-baring lyrics. Wide open for scrutiny, wide open for the world, Fritz shines brilliant beams of light upon periods of darkness en route to creating art thats memorable and even entertaining.

Its an achievement worthy of widespread acclaim for Pickin Up the Pieces, the latest chapter from Fritz & Co.

I want people to think about me when they think about these songs, Fritz said. Im proud of this album.

Tom Netherland is a freelance writer. He may be reached at features@bristolnews.com.
Southwest Virginia recorded more new COVID-19 cases last week than more populous Northeast Tennessee, but the region, as a whole, reported a 16% decline.

Six Southwest Virginia counties reported more new cases during the period of March 18-24 compared to the prior week, with the largest increases in Russell, Washington and Wise counties. However, the entirety of Southwest Virginia reported 256 new cases, up from 238 the prior week  a 7.5% increase after weeks of often precipitous declines, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

Tazewell County had the most new cases with 59, a decrease of one compared to last week, while Washington County Virginia had 44 new cases, compared to 18 last week.

The city of Bristol had just two new cases in the past week compared to three the week prior. It was one of five localities reporting single digit increases.

In its most recent update, the Virginia Department of Health said there is good reason to be optimistic.

In spring of 2021, COVID-19 cases quickly fell from the winter peak and remained at pandemic lows until early September. So far, we seem to be following the same trajectory. Weekly cases have fallen by 93% in the last two months, and most of Virginia is still in decline, according to the report. Every state in the union is on the same downward trajectory, as is Washington D.C. For the moment, models project a mild summer with low case rates and do not forecast another major surge.

Moreover, for the first time since July of 2021, the majority of the commonwealth's counties and cities are experiencing what the Centers for Disease Control define as low community transmission levels.

The state no longer updates those levels on its website  expressed in the seven-day average positivity of all COVID tests administered in a given locality.

However the CDC classifies localities by community risk levels of high, medium or low. As of March 17, the last time the CDC updated its listings, four local areas were classified as high risk  the city of Norton, Dickenson, Lee and Wise counties. Six were listed as medium risk, including Bristol, Buchanan, Russell, Scott and Washington counties. The CDC classified Tazewell and Wythe counties as low risk.

New cases in Tennessee plummeted to the lowest levels since last summer, with 229 new cases a 32.8% decline from the prior weeks 341.

Only Johnson County reported an increase, from one case last week to seven this week, while perennial leaders Sullivan and Washington finished with 54 and 57 new cases respectively, both below last weeks levels, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. New cases in Hamblen, Hancock and Unicoi counties were all in single digits.

The number of positive COVID tests declined statewide but, for the week of March 19, the highest rate of positive tests was seen in the Northeast region, according to TDH. Additionally, 12 of Tennessees 13 public health regions saw a decrease in the number of positive cases compared to the week prior.

The Tennessee figures, which count from March 13 to 19, show seven-day testing positivity rates range from 1.7% in Hamblen County to 9.2% in Unicoi. Washington County was at 7.3% while Sullivan was 5.7%.

Ballad Health System reported Thursday the regions seven-day positivity rate was 6.7%, up slightly compared to last week but well below the 11.9% of two weeks ago.

There are nearly 500 active cases in Northeast Tennessee, including 124 in Sullivan and 104 in Washington County, according to TDH.

Ballad had 81 COVID positive inpatients on Thursday including nine being treated in intensive care, the lowest totals since last July and a 31% decline compared to last Thursday.

276-645-2532

Twitter: @DMcGeeBHC

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The 23rd Annual Wisconsin Jersey Spring Spectacular returns to the Vernon County Fairgrounds in Viroqua, Wis. May 6-7.Showmanship begins on Friday, May 6 at 3:00 p.m. The cattle show will start with winter heifers at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 7. Entry forms and rules are now available for all interested exhibitors. There will be a $20 exhibitor fee and a $10 per animal charge until April 22. Entries submitted April 23-30 will be $25. Following that deadline, the price will rise to $100.Registered Jersey cattle from across the Midwest will circle the ring as breeders distinguish themselves in the industry. In past years, the event welcomed up to 500 attendees with cattle from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond.The Wisconsin Jersey Spring Spectacular will include a silent auction that contributes to the operation of the show. The committee is also accepting sponsors from individuals, organizations, and businesses.The Wisconsin Jersey Spring Spectacular is organized solely by volunteers. For more information about donations or entries, contact Karla Peterson by phone/text at 608-606- 1818, or email at karlap2008@live.com
To mark International Womens Day 2022, Information Age is publishing a special series, Women in IT Leadership. We speak with 15 women in various tech roles across Australia about how they got their start in the IT industry, their approach to leadership, and how to encourage more females into technology careers.





Today, we speak with Mary Stojcevski, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director at Dicker Data.





#iwd2022 #iwd2022

**

Back in 1999 when Mary Stojcevski started working as a part-time financial controller at Dicker Data, she says she had no idea that she would enter one of the more exciting and growing sectors in IT.

Twenty-three years on, she is still with the company and has been there through its growth and technology advancements.

Prior to joining Dicker Data, Mary worked in several mid-tier or smaller accounting firms, working across all facets of accounting including, tax, financial reporting and audit for over ten years.

What attracted her most to Dicker Data was, as a working mother, its close proximity to her home in Sydneys south, plus the flexibility the company offered.

Dicker Data was founded on working mothers. I recall at the time having unique access to that understanding and being able to have structure and work hours that suited my availability and personal commitments to parenting.

In 1999, there were approximately 15 women at Dicker Data all working flexible hours.

Apart from David Dicker, one of the founders and current chairman and CEO, the rest of the workforce were female who were doing all facets of the distribution business including sales, finance and logistics.

Today, the company employs more than 600 people across ANZ and has a gender ratio of 54 per cent male to 46 per cent female. The culture is based on one that exemplifies how the industry should be recognising and accelerating the leadership of women in tech, she adds.

Mary says Dicker Data launched the company around working mothers, so flexibility and equal opportunity was business as usual for the company.

What the company offered was the ability to work flexibly where you got paid for the hours you worked. And we could set the hours we worked around family and personal commitments.

Personally, I moved from a full-time city job to working around school hours.

She believes the Dicker policy was way ahead of its time and it worked exceptionally well. Working women are set up for success to excel and fulfill their greatest work.

During COVID, employees already had their remote working practices in place and were able to easily transition to working from home for longer periods.

Were fortunate being an IT distributor, says Mary. We had a warehouse with work equipment that could be readily accessed for staff to work remotely. Everyone had their computers, and as an organisation we were able to have everyone adapt to working remotely fairly quickly. 

Growing challenges

Marys roles and responsibility have grown with the company. I started as the financial controller in 1999 and today my role is CFO and executive director. I was offered the roles in 2009, prior to the company listing on the ASX.

Its been exciting to watch the business grow to where it is today. While this fast pace of change is exciting, its also sometimes challenging and we have to stop and catch our breath because our growth is continually rising.

Due to the pace of growth, Mary says the company continually checks and reassesses its strategic plan. Being on a continued growth trajectory and in a business heavily invested in working capital means constantly having to manage cash flow.

Holding a leadership position as a woman in the IT distribution sector and being part of a company that empowers other female professionals to thrive and excel in their careers is something Mary treasures.

She is looking forward to seeing how the business continues to evolve, along with being a part of that growth.

Theres a lot of exciting growth opportunities as IT and digital transformation continue to be key considerations for businesses. We are really seeing the divergence of tech and lifestyle.

On a personal level, she loves watching her children carve out their own careers and families.

Ive had to work right through their childhood. I hope this has instilled a good work ethic. Theyre definitely proud of me. My children are now all independent self-sufficient adults, and are actually looking after me! During lockdown, they did coffee runs and cooked lunches!

When it comes to relaxing, she likes to tune out and watch movies.

I do enjoy sitting and watching TV and Netflix, it helps me stop and unwind. Of course, any time with family and friends are always the best. I love a good long walk, preferably by the beach!
Missione Luna: la Nasa concede una seconda chance a Jeff Bezos . Paul Ellis/Pool via REUTERS

La Nasa ha concesso una seconda chance a Jeff Bezos per la Luna. Dopo che lo scorso anno era stato Elon Musk con SpaceX ad aggiudicarsi il contratto per aiutare a riportare gli astronauti americani sulla Luna entro il decennio, l'agenzia spaziale americana ha indetto una nuova gara per nominare un secondo operatore per collaborare al progetto.

Inizialmente la Nasa prevedeva di dichiarare due vincitori gia con la prima gara, ma alla fine aveva optato per uno solo per motivi di budget. Blue Origin di Bezos aveva contestato la decisione, ma senza successo. Ora, anche sotto pressione del Congresso che ha chiesto due operatori in modo che uno possa subentrare all'altro in caso non riesca ad adempiere al suo contratto, la Nasa ha deciso per una seconda gara.

GUARDA ANCHE: Nello spazio a 90 anni, la commozione di William Shatner abbracciato a Jeff Bezos
Regular services between India and the Gulf are expected to restart with New Delhi lifting ban on scheduled international flights from March 27.

The ban is being lifted over two years after the suspension of the flights due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Khaleej Times report quoted Neeraj Kumar, the director of regulations and information for the Director-General of Civil Aviation, as saying: Resumption of commercial international passenger services would imply reversion to bilaterally agreed capacity entitlements and termination of air bubble arrangements.

The resumption of regular services would result in maximum frequency, increased seat availability and enhanced confidence to travel on the India-UAE-India civil aviation corridor, aviation experts said, according to the report.

PP Singh, Regional Manager of Gulf, Middle East and Africa of Air India, told Khaleej Times that the resumption to normal traffic is an excellent development for regional and international airlines operating on the India-UAE sectors. Traffic should return to the pre-Covid-19 schedule, he said.
EFFINGHAM  Thanks to a new collaborative effort, Illinois Libraries Present, Effingham Public Library will join 200 other libraries in hosting bestselling author Jenny Lawson in a free online event at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 30.

Lawson is a journalist, author and blogger known for her great candor in sharing her struggle with mental illness. The Bloggess lives in Texas with her husband and daughter.

Her bestselling titles include: Lets Pretend this Never Happened and Furiously Happy.

Join Lawson and moderator R. Eric Thomas via Zoom to hear more about her most recent bestseller, Broken (in the Best Possible Way).

To register for the free, online event visit effinghamlibrary.org/events, email info@effinghamlibrary.org or call 217-342-2464 ext. 1

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ROCKFORD  A man charged with killing a pregnant northern Illinois woman and her three children in 2016 is representing himself in the quadruple homicide without the help of a lawyer.

Eric Lawon Jackson, 38, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder in the killings. Jackson has chosen to represent himself and has been filing court motions handwritten from jail, the Rockford Register Star reported.

First Assistant Winnebago County State's Attorney Ken LaRue said that "everyone has a right to represent themselves if they want."

But he added that if Jackson represents himself during his trial, he would not be able to claim "ineffective assistance of counsel" as a basis for any appeal because that type of appeal is waived when defendants represent themselves.

LaRue said defendants who attempt to defend themselves often end up hiring an attorney or asking for a public defender before their trial begins.

Winnebago County Public Defender Nick Zimmerman declined to comment, saying he had briefly been among the lawyers representing Jackson before he chose to represent himself.

Jackson was charged in December in the deaths of 27-year-old Keandra Austin and her children, 9-year-old V'Angelo Totty, 6-year-old Keeryn Austin and six-month-old Allya Beasley Austin.

Austin was 16 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed to death in September 2016. Her children were killed by smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning after their rental house in Rockford was set on fire.

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The dual crises of the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine have been testing our governments, our institutions, our diplomacy  and our collective sense of time. In part because of social media, both events already seem intolerably long, even though the Russian invasion of Ukraine is less than a month old.

One of the most prominent words of the last few years is doomscrolling. People can now easily imbibe new information 24/7, about COVID or the war, simply by scrolling through social media on their phones.

In the case of Ukraine, every day there are scores of events to learn about and react to. I can pop into my Twitter feed and see that Russian missiles have started hitting Odesa, the Ukrainian city of Mariupol refuses to surrender, and a shopping mall in Kyiv has been destroyed. I can read multiple analyses of how the China-Russia relationship is evolving, or get the latest about rumors of a coup against Putin. And all this is without even making much of an effort.

Once upon a time, news of war was lumpier and more periodic  people watched the nightly news or read the morning paper. They could turn on the radio and hear more frequent bulletins, but due to the absence of the internet and other means of modern communication, there were far fewer reports from far fewer sources.

The now-neverending stream of information shapes our perception of time. For many people, especially Americas news-intensive elites, it may make the war feel much longer than it actually has been.

This greater sense of witness to atrocities cements this impression. Each moral outrage, no matter how small, is taken in. Several generations ago, people may have heard that there was a big battle over a place called Dien Bien Phu. Nowadays, they can see, replay and share videos of people who died or were injured in the bombing of a theater in Mariupol. Each terrible event somehow feels more intolerable than the last, fueling the feeling that something must give and that the war has to end soon.

That is a dangerous feeling, if only because it makes it harder for leaders to pursue strategies of patience. Polls show high U.S. public support for a no-fly zone, although in my view that would lead to an unacceptably higher risk of escalating the war. This hawkish stance is not hard to understand. If the current situation feels intolerable, then surely something dramatic and decisive has to happen very soon  and better to act than be acted upon. At the very least action will imbue a feeling of having done something.

Doomscrolling-induced impatience also induces people to underrate Russian military prospects. It is true that Russia failed to achieve its objective of an immediate Ukrainian collapse. Still, it took Hitler five weeks to conquer Poland, and that is usually regarded as an extremely successful military campaign.

Its just not clear yet how well, or how badly, the Russians are likely to do. It is hard to embrace that fundamental uncertainty when everything else feels so intolerable.

COVID is a much longer-running story, now more than two years old, but it has engendered similar reactions. People feel that the pandemic is or should be over by now. I myself favor a resumption of normal activity, but am distressed that Congress is treating the matter so cavalierly and refusing to make haste with additional COVID funding. The voter outrage simply isnt there, in large part because the public has decided that the pandemic is over.

At one level that is a very healthy reaction that will help reboot economic activity. On another level, it is extremely dangerous. If a new and more serious variant were to come along, the U.S. would simply not be ready, not even after two years of suffering and more than one million deaths.

It is possible that, over the long run, people will become numb to all this detailed reporting of suffering from both the pandemic and the war. They might forget just how much those events commanded the worlds attention. These moments might come to feel like time-slices rather than eternities.

But for now, we are not at peace with our grasp on time  and this runs the risk of being a major problem for America and the world.

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

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New state unemployment claims in North Carolina continued on a recent decline last week, this time to 2,365, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

Claims were down from a revised 2,616 for the week that ended March 12.

The pandemic low has been 1,848 claims for the week that ended Jan. 1.

The state was 19th in the nation in the number of unemployment filings, up one from last week.

With no COVID-19 pandemic UI programs available for North Carolinians since Sept. 4, the claim totals represent new regular state unemployment-benefit claims.

U.S. Labor listed 12,937 North Carolinians drawing regular state benefits as of March 12, down from a revised 13,863 the previous week.

A slight bump in N.C. claims is likely soon related to the Dec. 18 fire at a QVC distribution center in Rocky Mount.

The company announced it was closing the facility, affecting 1,953 employees. In a WARN Act notice filed with the N.C. Commerce Department, QVC said it would begin permanently letting go of employees Feb. 1.

On March 14, North Carolina has received a $4 million federal workforce grant to help about 650 QVC workers. The funds come from the federal Employment Recovery Dislocated Worker program. Employees in a 10-county area were affected by the plant fire.

Overall, claims in N.C. have been down in part as employers remain reluctant to lay off workers in a tight job market.

This recovery is radically different from the painfully slow one that followed the Great Recession, said John Quinterno, principal with South by North Strategies Ltd., a Chapel Hill research company specializing in economic and social policy.

A key difference is the massive amount of support provided by Congress to households, businesses and state and local governments earlier in the downturn.

Without that support, our recovery trajectory likely would have resembled the long, slow climb that occurred after the Great Recession, Quinterno said.

National outlook

The national filing of initial UI claims was at 187,000, down 28,000 from the week that ended March 12.

U.S. Labor said the March 12 initial UI claims were at the lowest level nationally since 182,000 for the week that ended Sept. 6, 1969.

As of Feb. 12, only New Jersey and New Mexico are receiving federal extended pandemic UI benefits.

That means that almost all of the UI claims currently being reported are with state Labor departments.

The states labor force data does not distinguish how many workers are full time, temporary or part time, or how many jobs people are working.

The U.S. Labor Departments U6 Index does include those individuals. The states U6 jobless rate was 8.4% in December, while the U.S. rate was 7.2% in January. U.S. Labor updates the state U6 rates on a quarterly basis.

Unfortunately, as the virus appears to have receded, a new threat to the economy has appeared with the war in Ukraine, said Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University.

Until the Ukrainian war is resolved, economic uncertainty will remain elevated.

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Book event

As part of its 250th anniversary celebration, Salem Academy and College and Bookmarks will host author Chelsea Clinton in conversation with Salem President Summer McGee at 7 p.m. April 4 at Elberson Fine Arts Center on Salems campus 601 Church St. S in Winston- Salem.

Much of the April 4 event will focus on Clintons new book for young readers called She Persisted in Science. Published by Penguin Young Readers Group and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger, She Persisted in Science was released on March 1.

The book shares the stories of women who became successful scientists and is part of Clintons No. 1 New York Times bestselling She Persisted series. Salem Academy and College is exclusively focused on developing tomorrows health leaders and change agents in STEAM fields and beyond.

The conversation with her will be casual in format and promises to be highly informative about the importance of educating future generations of girls and women in the area of science, said McGee.

In She Persisted in Science, Clinton writes, Being a woman in science isnt always easy. Sometimes women are told that their ideas arent smart enough, their research isnt good enough  simply because theyre women. But that is not true. The world needs everyones scientific discoveries.

The cost to attend the event is $25 at bookmarksnc.org/chelseaclinton and includes a copy of She Persisted in Science. Attendees can donate their books back to Bookmarks as part of its program to increase access to books for children in Winston-Salem.

Cinderella

Professional dancer Jessica Fry McAlister had longed to dance the role of Cinderella. But being a brunette who stands just over 5-foot-3, McAlister didnt look like the traditional Cinderella. But now she has her chance.

Greensboro Ballet will present Cinderella with McAlister in the titular role at 5 p.m. March 26 and 3 p.m. March 27 at Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St. in Greensboro.

Tickets are $20-$40 with a $5 discount for children, students, seniors and the military at 336-333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.

Masks are recommended but not required. Social distancing is encouraged.

Cinderellas Ball, a gala for adults to benefit the Greensboro Ballet will be at 7 p.m. March 26 at Renaissance Room at Carolina Theatre. Donor admission is $60 per ticket or $100 per couple at greensboroballet.org.

Exhibit

The art exhibition A Joy Forever: Asian Brush Paintings by artist and art historian Barbara Rizza Mellin will be on display through March 30 at Forsyth Central Library, Second Floor Art Gallery at 660 W. Fifth St. in Winston-Salem.

Taking its title from a John Keats line of poetry, A thing of beauty is a joy forever, this exhibit features 23 works created in a modern interpretation of an ancient Chinese technique.What I love about Asian brush painting is the simple elegance of the natural subjects, plus the real and apparent spontaneity of the process, Mellin explains.

She creates each image at one sitting, with no preliminary drawing. The idea is to capture the natural essence of the flowers rather than a detailed botanical copy. She uses water color painting and calligraphic line drawing with bamboo brushes. Mellin is a member of Artworks Gallery and national, international and local arts organizations.

Exhibit

A new exhibit called Transitioning will run through March 26 at Artworks Gallery at 564 N. Trade St. in Winston-Salem.

The display will feature work by Alix Hitchcock and Lea Lackey-Zachmann. Hitchcock, who is exhibiting work on paper using hand-pulled prints made into collages and abstract paintings on paper, is interested in the symbolism of humans struggling with their place in the natural world. Lea Lackey-Zachmann, who is exhibiting paintings, prints and drawings, shows a mixture of past thoughts and a beginning of new ideas for discovery and growth in her work  Transitioning.

An opening reception will be from 2 to 4 p.m. March 6.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Call 336-723-5890 or go to www.Artworks-Gallery.org.

Staff reports

Artwork needed

Piedmont Triad Airport Authority is looking for art to feature from N.C. and southern Virginia artists, including two-dimensional paintings, photographs, mixed media and three-dimensional sculpture for inside and outside.

The artwork will be on loan to the PTAA for one year. An agreed-upon fee will be paid for installation time.

Visit flyfrompti.com/art-walking-tour to see current artwork on display or flyfrompti.com/2022-call-to-artists for art submission details.
HIGH POINT  Police arrested a High Point woman after the body of a dog that had been starved to death was found last week at an intersection southeast of downtown.

The male, dark brindle pit mix was found in a crate about 8:30 p.m. Friday at the intersection of Oakland Place and Monroe Place. High Point Police Department investigators determined the dog had been left at the edge of the road the previous night.

The dog "was partially covered in a blanket and a dirty bowl was left as well," according to a police incident report.

Police found that the dog had an implanted microchip and was recently adopted.

Fatima Jordan Bell, 46, was charged with felony killing an animal by starvation, according to a police arrest report. The arrest was made without incident, and bond was set as a written promise to appear.
A Pfafftown man was sentenced to at least 250 years in prison after he was convicted of repeatedly raping and sexually abusing a girl for five years, starting when she was 6.

On Monday, after a weeklong trial, a Forsyth County jury convicted Dale Bernard Hairston, 62, of Ellen Avenue, of a total of 31 counts of child sexual abuse  14 counts of statutory sex offense, 16 counts of indecent liberties and one count of statutory rape. Two counts of statutory rape and one count of statutory sex offense were voluntarily dismissed, according to court records.

A mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years is required for convictions of statutory sex offense and statutory rape. On Tuesday, Judge Eric Morgan of Forsyth Superior Court gave Hairston 10 consecutive sentences of 25 years to 35 years in prison and consolidated the rest. That amounts to a total prison sentence of between 250 to 350 years. Its essentially a life sentence for Hairston.

In the unlikely event that Hairston is released from prison, he will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and he will also be on satellite-based monitoring for the rest of his life, Morgan ruled.

The girl, now 15, testified during the trial that Dale Hairston started touching her private parts when she was 6 years old. He would often take her to school, and would sexually abuse her while he was driving. Other times, she said he would sexually abuse her at his house, on the way to church and at other places.

Assistant District Attorney Pansy Glanton said in closing arguments on Monday and in statements she made for sentencing Tuesday that Hairston tried to have sex with the girl and performed oral sex on the girl.

Glanton said that one time, the girl was sucking on a lollipop while Hairston was in the shower. When Hairston came out of the shower, with a towel around his waist, he told her that he would like the girl to perform oral sex on him in the same way she was licking the lollipop, Glanton said.

According to arrest warrants, Hairston sexually abused and raped the girl between 2013 and 2018. Glanton said that the abuse came to light when the girls mother took her daughters phone after the girl failed two classes in school in 2018. When the mother looked at her daughters phone, she saw adult pornography. She asked her daughter how the pornography got on the phone, and her daughter said Hairston put it on the phone. Later, the girl told her mother that Hairston had molested her, which led to an investigation by the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office.

Glanton said the girl was also exposed to pornographic videos featuring a threesome involving Hairston, his wife, Gloria Hairston and another woman. Gloria Hairston was not charged with a crime.

The State is horrified that this child saw a threesome, involving Hairston, Glanton said in court Tuesday.

During closing arguments, Clark Fischer, Hairstons attorney, contended that the girl was lying and that her statements were inconsistent and unreliable. He argued that the girl, scared that she would get in trouble for failing grades and the pornography found on her phone, made up a story about Hairston molesting her.

Fischer said there was no way Hairston sexually abused her, saying that Hairston was rarely alone with the girl and that Hairston was not the one who took the girl to school; Gloria Hairston took the child to school. Fischer said prosecutors produced no witnesses who could contradict Gloria Hairstons testimony. Dale Hairston testified in court and denied that he molested the girl.

On Tuesday, Fischer said he respected the jurys verdict, even though Hairston was disappointed he was found guilty. Fischer said that Hairston has no criminal record and has been married to Gloria Hairston for more than 20 years. He said Hairston has consistently worked in machine-type industries and has worked in various churches as a musician. Fischer gave notice that Hairston would appeal his conviction to the N.C. Court of Appeal.

Glanton said this is one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse she has prosecuted in years.

It happened for years, she said. So all of her youth is gone because of him.

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In October 2008, the N.C. Supreme Court told Mark Badgett that he could no longer be the district court judge for Surry and Stokes County and that he could no longer hold another judicial office. But early this month, Badgett filed to run for Stokes County Clerk of Superior Court

And then on Monday, the Stokes County Board of Elections voted to remove Badgetts name from the ballot after a Stokes County attorney filed a challenge and that attorney and Badgett worked out a consent order with an assistant county attorney that Badgett would not run for the office. Without the consent order, the Stokes County Board of Elections would have had to hold an evidentiary hearing where Badgett would be required to prove he was eligible to run for the office.

Jason Perry, the elections director for Stokes County, said the elections board made the decision at a meeting on Monday. Badgett could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mark Badgett had been district court judge for Stokes and Surry County since 2004 and was running for another term when the N.C. Supreme Court issued an order removing him from the bench. The court also censured Badgett, ordered that he not hold any further judicial office in North Carolina and made him ineligible for retirement benefits from his former job, which paid an annual salary of $106,445.

The removal came after Badgett presided over a hearing on Feb. 24, 2005 where he made racially biased comments against a defendant in a domestic-violence case. He told Floyd Mandez Carreon, you people always find a way, after Carreon objected to an order to pay his wife $150 a week and to leave his truck and keys with the sheriffs office.

I dont know how you treat women in Mexico, but here you dont treat them that way, Badgett told Carreon, according to the Supreme Court ruling. Badgett also ordered a deputy to search Carreon. The deputy found $140 in cash, which Badgett ordered to be given to the wife, and a Social Security number, which was given to the wifes attorney.

Badgett told an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation that he never told the deputy to search Carreons wallet. He also told the SBI agent that Carreon was known to carry a gun and that he suspected Carreon was a gang member based on his appearance. At another point in the interview, Badgett said he wanted the deputy to get Carreons wallet so he can determine Carreons true identity.

The state Supreme Court said Badgetts statements were inconsistent, false and misleading. The ruling also said that Badgett created a hostile work environment for members of the district attorneys staff and that Badgett was habitually rude and condescending to those appearing before him in the courtroom.

This was not the first time Badgett had gotten in trouble for judicial misconduct. In March 2008, the state Supreme Court censured Badgett and suspended him for 60 days based on misconduct related to failing to disclose a business relationship with Winston-Salem lawyer Clarke Dummit, who appeared before Badgett many times.

In 2010, Badgett was disbarred. Badgett unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Stokes County Board of Commissioners.

Roger Marion, who has a law firm in King, filed a candidate challenge on March 17 and an amended challenge on March 18, saying that the 2008 order from the N.C. Supreme Court prohibited Badgett from running for a judicial office. He argued that based on the state Supreme Court order and North Carolinas Constitution, the clerk of superior court is a judicial office. That makes, Marion argued, Badgett ineligible as a candidate.

On Monday, Marion, Badgett and Assistant County Attorney Jennifer Oakley Michaud met and agreed to a consent order that Badgett not run for clerk of superior court.

Mr. Badgett disagrees with the assertion of non-candidacy but stipulates that he will not be a candidate for Clerk of Superior Court in 2022, the consent order said.

Perry said the Stokes County Board of Elections voted to accept the consent order and to remove Badgetts name from the primary election.

Bradley Thomas Lankford and Clarence William Carter III, also Republicans, have filed to run for the office. Democrat Kathy Joy Kiser is also running for the office. Jason Tuttle is the current clerk of superior court and he did not file to run for re-election.

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A 322-acre mining operation in Yadkin County would employ explosives sparingly when it reaches full capacity, the developer of the proposed project said Wednesday.

Potential noise and vibrations from blasts used to loosen rock deposits have been among major concerns for residents and property owners near the Hamptonville site, especially since West Yadkin Elementary School sits a little more than 1,000 feet from the edge of the site and what would be a fully exposed, 61-acre pit.

But Jack Mitchell, president of a newly formed Winston-Salem-based company called Three Oaks Quarry, told the Journal Wednesday that explosives would be used just twice a month when extraction begins in earnest.

He added that Yadkin County, through a special-use permit required for the project, could dictate when explosions are allowed.

We can do the blasting when students arent in school, and not on weekends, Mitchell said. We can get enough (loosened rock) doing it just twice a month.

Mitchell and others involved in the mine project hosted an all-day drop-in information session Wednesday at the Yadkin County Agricultural and Educational Building. Residents had the opportunity to interact with representatives at about a dozen stations set up around the perimeter of the facilitys banquet hall.

The mining operation would remove deposits of stone, gravel and sand used to create aggregate, a key ingredient in concrete, asphalt and similar road-building and construction materials. A county rezoning and state approval also will be required for the project to move forward.

In the case of Three Oaks Quarry, the term blast would be a bit of a misnomer, Mitchell suggested.

Do a Google search of blasting, he said, and people will see something out in Utah or Nevada where they blast and theres not a home within 100 miles and rocks are flying everywhere, and they have this impression thats what it is.

At the Yadkin facility, liquid emulsion would be poured into holes that are 10 to 50 feet deep, where it is electronically detonated, Mitchell said.

The computer-controlled process creates a fast and timed sequence of shots, which cause the rock to fracture and fall downward to the ground below, he added. Each shot is separated from the next shot for periods measured in thousands of a second, but with the result being a 1.5 to 2 second noise duration.

For anyone nearby, the sound will be muffled rather than a sharp, sudden crack, Mitchell said.

A planned berm 18 feet high and 100 feet wide will encircle the site, creating an added layer of sound insulation, he added. The berm will be created using overfill soil removed to get to the submerged rock.

Horrible location

Possible impacts on groundwater and wells, truck traffic and dust created by the facility also have been mentioned as concerns by neighbors, including Joyce and Terry Long, who tried to avoid a downpour Wednesday by huddling with other project opponents under a white pop-up canopy outside the building where the information session was held.

But the couple, who live on property that has been in Joyce Longs family for five generations, insisted there is an overarching reason for opposing the project.

That mine is literally in the heart of a rural small-town community, Terry Long said as he pushed pooled water from the top of the canopy. Its not an outlier. Theyre putting it right next to the edge of the center of town, right near the school and all these houses. This is a horrible location for a mine in small-town North Carolina.

The Longs are part of a group of neighbors pushing Yadkin officials to strengthen county mining ordinances or ban new mining altogether before Mitchell submits rezoning and special-use permit requests.

Current county mining regulations require a 500-foot setback from the nearest homes or public buildings.

Highest and best use

While exploratory drilling on the site  some as deep as 500 feet  began more than eight months ago, Mitchell repeatedly refused to offer any hints at what he had planned for the property.

The secrecy fed suspicion among neighbors, who were left to speculate on his plans until Mitchell sent them a letter this month detailing his vision for the property.

In an interview Wednesday, Mitchell insisted he didnt know early on what he would do with the property, only that it was a prime piece of undeveloped land strategically located near Interstate 77, U.S. 21 and U.S. 421.

All you have to do is take a look at my background, Mitchell said.

That experience includes residential and mixed-use development, and mining. The initial possibilities for the property were just as broad, he explained.

When I took a look at this property, then looked at the geology of this property, I said, Hey, there could be a lot of different uses here, Mitchell said. So you sit down with the team and ask, What is the highest and best use for the property?

Mitchells exploration and subsequent conversations led him to aggregate mining, he said.

Valid concerns

Mitchell said he has heard and understands the reasons some neighbors oppose the project.

I dont ever want to say were being dismissive because were not, he explained Those are valid concerns.

Mitchell said he will pay upfront to have residential wells and house foundations tested to establish a baseline so future examinations can detect deterioration.

I dont want to have something a year later or 20 years later where they say, This is what happened and youre the cause, he noted. With all the research and everything weve done, I know that risk is minimal. In fact, I think its nonexistent.

Terry Long said he appreciated those gestures, but reiterated that they dont get to the heart of his opposition to the project.

This isnt just a business transaction for us, he said. This decision will determine whether Hamptonville becomes something more industrial or stays a small-town community.

John Deem covers climate change and the environment in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina. His work is funded by a grant from the 1Earth Fund and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. 336-727-7204

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There has been much in the news lately about censorship. The major media have been reporting on Vladimir Putins efforts to keep the Russian people from hearing the truth about his war against Ukraine and what President Biden has called war crimes.

Dictionary.com offers this definition of a censor: an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds. That official can be a head of state, like Putin, the head of a news operation, or even an individual reporter. Anyone who chooses to suppress a story or fails to investigate one because it does not conform to their worldview could be labeled a censor.

Which brings me to the Hunter Biden laptop story, the discovery by The New York Times that his laptop and its contents are real, after all. Not only did the Times and other major and social media ignore the story, in some cases the story was deemed fraudulent and blocked on several platforms.

I think the more accurate explanation as to why the story was censored by these entities is that it was broken by The New York Post, which the mainstream media deem a conservative newspaper and by their standard, unreliable. The line favored by much of the suppression press was that the laptop story was Russian disinformation.

The real unreliable purveyors of disinformation (or no information) are those who failed to do their journalistic duty and investigate. That the story was not followed up on during the 2020 presidential campaign adds to the suspicion, especially among many conservatives, that the information suppression was deliberate. NPR last year corrected an online article that falsely asserted that documents from first son Hunter Bidens laptop had been discredited by U.S. intelligence. The correction came after the election. It took the Times and others until this year to fess up. According to The New York Post, 51 intelligence officers who signed a public letter claiming the laptop story was Russian disinformation have so far refused to apologize.

Fact-checkers published what they said were lies told by Donald Trump. The Washington Post calculated Trump had lied or uttered misleading statements 30,573 times during his four years in office. No such diligence has been conducted by the major media of Hunter Biden and his familys alleged business and personal relationships with nefarious individuals and corrupt governments.

For years the legacy media have seen themselves as the only legitimate sources of news. In a type of if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it still make a sound? scenario, if The New York Times, The Washington Post, broadcast and some cable news networks dont report it, is it still news? Yes, it is and the source  whether it be The New York Post, U.K. Daily Mail or talk radio  should not matter so long as the story can be independently verified.

That The New York Times failed to do so until now is a dereliction of newspapers journalistic duty. Had the information been known before the election, it conceivably might have changed votes in some states where Joe Biden won by narrow margins.

The tardy tacit admission by the Times that the NY Post was right will add to the view of many that todays journalism is driven mostly by agendas and not facts and when information goes against the worldview of reporters and their bosses it is to be ignored.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com
Qatar Airways said that Privilege Club has officially adopted Avios as its reward currency, opening up a world of new opportunities for members travelling across the airlines extensive network of almost 150 destinations.



This partnership offers a combination of benefits, including a wide range of greater guaranteed award seats and competitive prices on Qatar Airways flights, in addition to experiencing the Worlds Best Airline and enjoying the Worlds Best Airport, Hamad International Airport (HIA).



To celebrate Privilege Club adopting Avios, members will enjoy 10,000 bonus Avios in Business or First Class, or 5,000 bonus Avios in Economy Class, when they book their next flight using Cash + Avios by 31 March 2022 using the promo code QRAVIOS. This offer is only available on qatarairways.com and the mobile App, an airline statement said.



The enhanced availability of award seats provides members an even greater choice when spending Avios on Qatar Airways, by taking advantage of its extensive global network of nearly 400 flights a day, serving many parts of the world including five destinations in Australia, 12 in the US, 21 in the Middle East, 28 in Africa, 35 in Europe and 42 in Asia.



This alliance between oneworld partners brings endless exciting benefits for Qatar Airways Privilege Club members, offering British Airways Executive Club members flexibility in combining their Avios accounts and facilitating unlimited transfers of their Avios balances between accounts, without balance limitations or transfer fees. The power to combine Avios also allows members the chance to spend and redeem on both Qatar Airways and British Airways award flights, available on Qatarairways.com and the mobile App.



Members also now have the benefit of accessing more rewards with unique spending opportunities on a wider range of flight award options. Members who have previously enjoyed using the recently enhanced Cash + Qmiles option, can continue enjoying the same reward benefits with Cash + Avios, giving members the power to part-pay their flight bookings on qatarairways.com and the mobile app. Avios can also be used towards a range of rewards including award flights, cabin upgrades, extra baggage and much more.



Current Privilege Club members will experience a seamless transition into the loyalty programmes new reward currency, Avios, with their existing Qmiles balances changing automatically to Avios on a 1:1 ratio basis. While Privilege Club is opening a new world of rewards, familiar Privilege Club features such as Qpoints and Qcredits will remain unchanged. Additionally, the amount of Avios for award flight redemptions will remain the same as it previously did with Qmiles.



Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker stated: As we come out of the most difficult two years in the industry, we want to thank our passengers who have supported us and kept us flying, by taking this chance to reward them in a meaningful way. Adopting Avios maximises our members opportunities to earn and spend rewards across the globe, anticipating their needs after this difficult period. This is a testament to our determination of offering the best experiences for our members, reflecting our journey to perfect our loyalty programme. We look forward to continuing the expansion of our customer benefits, in search of new ways to give our members a chance to collect Avios.



CEO of IAG Loyalty Adam Daniels, said: In recognising the power of Avios, Qatar Airways is now able to offer greater flexibility and richer rewards for its members. The arrival of guaranteed award seats on its network and the ability for members to combine their Avios balances are two great examples of just this. Qatar Airways are looking to redefine loyalty for the Privilege Clubs global member base, we  at IAG Loyalty  look forward to working with them on this significant journey.



IAG Loyalty and Qatar Airways are working to introduce new customer benefits from the partnership, as well as more ways to earn and collect Avios around the world, in the coming months. Future benefits will include an extensive list of both airline and non-airline partnerships, including telecom, retail, lifestyle, financial services and much more.



Privilege Club has recently honoured the loyalty of its valued members by extending their tier status. This initiative benefits all Silver, Gold and Platinum members whose tier status is due for renewal between December 2021 and December 2022. The tier validity of these members would be automatically extended to 31 December 2022.  TradeArabia News Service
Jeff Walker started feeling under the weather on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Though the 54-year-old Lincoln man said he's never really had allergies before, he had been working outside the day before and thought maybe he was having a reaction to dust or other things he may have kicked up while raking leaves and cleaning his deck.

But as the week went on, it was clear he had picked up some kind of a bug. His wife wasn't feeling well either, and because of that, they stayed home on Thanksgiving and didn't gather with family.

As he was eating his Thanksgiving dinner, Walker said he realized he couldn't smell or taste anything. That's when it first hit him that he might have COVID-19.

He and his wife, Janell, both got tested the next day and by Saturday had the results: positive.

But while his wife, who had been vaccinated, had a mild bout of the illness and got better quickly, Walker, who hadn't gotten the vaccine, was in for the fight of his life.

Janell Walker works for CHI Health at Home and tested his oxygen levels the following Monday, finding they were lower than normal. They called his doctor, who told them they should probably go to the emergency room at CHI Health St. Elizabeth to get checked out.

"I thought I was just coming down here for them to (take) a look and then I'd go home," Walker said. "And the next thing I know, I'm getting oxygen tubes, and I'm getting blood work, and I'm getting an IV. And they're taking my shoes off and I'm getting a gown."

He would spend the next two weeks on the hospital's fifth floor, not getting any better. On Dec. 15, it was determined that he needed to go on a ventilator because fluid was continuing to build up in his lungs, making it harder and harder for him to breathe.

Walker had a do not resuscitate order, but his wife convinced him to rescind it, and he was sedated and intubated early in the morning that day.

On Dec. 26, he came off the ventilator and started getting high-flow oxygen instead. But he was still struggling with breathing and having anxiety, so he went back on a ventilator a second time Dec. 30.

Walker said numerous staff members told him later that they didn't think he was going to make it. The odds have not been good for COVID-19 patients who wind up on a ventilator, and they are even worse for those who have to be intubated more than once.

But his second stint on the ventilator was short-lived. On Jan. 3, Walker said he went into surgery to have both a tracheostomy tube and a feeding tube inserted.

He spent two more weeks at St. Elizabeth before being released to a rehabilitation hospital in Omaha, spending a few weeks there and then another several weeks doing inpatient rehab at Bryan West Campus.

In all, Walker spent 87 days in various hospitals and still isn't fully recovered. He lost 70 pounds, including most of his muscle tone, and still walks with a cane. He also occasionally still needs oxygen.

He starts pulmonary rehabilitation next week, which is the final leg of his rehab journey, although he said doctors have not given him a definitive estimate of when he may be back to normal.

Walker gives his wife much of the credit for his recovery, but he also realizes he wouldn't be here without the hard work of the staff at the hospitals he was in, especially those at St. Elizabeth, who cared for him during his darkest days.

On Thursday, he surprised many of them with a visit during their morning meeting.

"You guys saw me at my worst, but I saw all of you at your best," he told them.

The nurses who cared for Walker said they were excited to see him now that he's mostly recovered and appreciated his show of gratitude.

Cheyenne Hartmann, one of the nurses who cared for Walker while he was at St. Elizabeth, said November and December were really hard months, with a lot of very sick COVID-19 patients. Many didn't make it.

"It's really great to see somebody come back and actually acknowledge the work we put in for them," Hartmann said.

Suzie McDonald, another nurse who cared for Walker at various times, said it "means the world" to see him now.

"We were all super-excited to see how he's done because we saw him at his sickest," said McDonald, who like Hartmann started her career during the pandemic.

Walker said he plans to visit staff at the other two hospitals where he spent time, but wanted to visit St. Elizabeth first because the staff there saw him at his worst.

He also plans to write a book about his experience, which he said will be "like a love letter" to the staff because, "I wouldn't be here without you guys."

Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.

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DeFreece said investigators believe the group went back to the farmstead and smoked methamphetamine. Dillard hasn't been seen since.

When family members went to the farmstead and asked to look around, they found the wig she'd been wearing in a bathroom, DeFreece said in the search warrants. Pawnee County Sheriff's deputies later found clothes that belonged to Dilllard on the property.

DeFreece said the man who lives there told investigators Dillard had walked away at about 3 a.m. June 16 after accusing him of sexual assault. He later said a friend picked her up and they drove away, according to the documents.

Since then, she hasn't used her cellphone or posted to social media accounts. And when law enforcement tried to ping her phone, it was turned off or dead.

And the four people believed to be the last to see her alive early June 16 have given conflicting statements, DeFreece said the affidavit.

The man who owns the farmstead is facing drug charges after a July search of the property allegedly turned up methamphetamine, ketamine and carisoprodol, a muscle relaxer, according to court records.

But no one yet has been charged in connection with Dillard's disappearance.

Journal Star reporter Lori Pilger contributed to this story.
TABLE ROCK  The daughter of a Fairbury woman who disappeared near Table Rock last June issued a tearful plea as volunteers and law enforcement officers from more than 10 agencies began a large-scale search for Linda Dillard near the Pawnee County town Thursday morning.

"We definitely miss her, and we hope to find her or any evidence leading toward her," Winterstar Schaber told reporters near the Table Rock Wildlife Management Area, more than nine months after her 55-year-old mother was last seen walking away from a private residence within a few hundred yards of the site, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

As about 150 people began a three-day search for Dillard's remains or evidence in her disappearance, Schaber acknowledged the grim reality of what investigators might uncover in the 600 acres of wooded area.

"I would say I'm mainly hopeful for resolution," she said. "I mean, obviously, it's not an ideal situation for anybody to go through. But I have been mentally preparing myself for quite a while."

State Patrol investigators believe Dillard, who hasn't been seen since June 16, may have been the victim of a crime, including theft, assault, kidnapping or murder, according to search warrants filed in Lancaster and Pawnee counties.

As a State Patrol sergeant briefed search parties on the circumstances of Dillard's disappearance, she told volunteers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln anthropology department to look for bones or clothing, and not to touch anything.

State Patrol Lt. Eric Jones said the specific search area represented a last frontier for investigators, who he said have thoroughly combed much of the area near 62755 715th Road, the acreage Dillard visited in the days leading up to her disappearance.

After a months-long investigation, Jones said the State Patrol chose this weekend for the ground search to ensure foliage was dormant and visibility was high. He said the search area includes about 400 acres of wildlife management area and 200 acres of private land.

"We were out here in July and several other occasions throughout the fall months," he said. "But, as you can imagine, the grass was high, the corn was tall. It just wasn't conducive to doing a really thorough search of the area."

He said investigators haven't received any new information that led them back to the site and declined to say whether the State Patrol is pursuing any suspects in the case. Asked if the agency was concerned a large police presence would tip off potential suspects or negatively impact the investigation, Jones answered with one word: "No."

Authorities have been searching for Dillard since her ex-husband reported her missing June 20, four days after she was last seen.

In court filings, State Patrol Investigator Amanda DeFreece said Dillard had left her home near Fairbury in mid-June to visit friends in the Falls City area.

Dillard and a friend drank at a bar in Salem on June 12, a Saturday, then visited the acreage near the search area and joined a group drinking in Table Rock the next day, DeFreece said in a sworn affidavit.

Investigators believe James Money, who lives on the property, was among the last individuals known to have seen Dillard, according to the affidavit.

Money, who had previously told investigators that Dillard had walked away from the white, two-story house east of Table Rock at about 3 a.m. June 16 after accusing him of sexual assault, later said a friend picked her up and they drove away, according to the affidavit.

As volunteers searched the surrounding area Thursday, Money largely repeated the same claims he made to investigators while offering alternate theories about what happened last June.

The 62-year-old said he had offered haven to Dillard, who he described as an old friend. He said the last time he saw Dillard was as she walked away from his property at about 2:30 a.m. June 16  about an hour after she had called her ex-husband to pick her up, according to the State Patrol.

Money repeatedly said he had nothing to do with Dillard's disappearance.

"What could I do but let her walk off? I can't keep her hostage," Money told the Journal Star on Thursday. "I gave her haven a couple, three days is all.

"I didn't do it," he said, laughing. "I didn't do it."

Nebraska Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information. Tips can be made anonymously at nebraskacrimestoppers.com or by calling 800-422-1494.

Jeffrey Hagemeier, who lives at the house with Money and who said he met Dillard a few times while she visited last June, repeated Money's claim that Dillard left the property on her own accord, though he said he hadn't witnessed it.

"The story I got was that she just took off walking, got all (messed) up and left," he said, then alluded to the fact that there are lots of coyotes in the area.

"I won't even walk around out here at night," he said. "It's entirely possible, if that lady took off walking, disoriented, didn't know where she was, got attacked by them things ... you wouldn't find her. You wouldn't find nothing."

Money and Hagemeier were at the house when the State Patrol served a search warrant there July 22, according to court filings. Both men Thursday said they were detained in July, but neither of them have been charged with any crime relating to Dillard's disappearance.

The warrant did turn up suspected methamphetamine, ketamine and carisoprodol, according to an affidavit for Money's arrest. He was charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance and was jailed until bonding out in September.

Money told the Journal Star he believes the State Patrol planted at least some of the drugs that led to his arrest. He is set to go to trial in June.

As he thought back to last summer, Money said he wished he could alter the events of the night Dillard disappeared  though he said he's not sure what he could have done differently. Maybe he should have stopped her from walking away, he said. Or refused her haven to begin with. But as volunteers and investigators scoured the woods around his property, hoping to find Dillard, Money wasn't sure what he was hoping for. "I'm kind of torn about that," he said. "I wish they would have found her before. But then again, if they do, they're probably gonna throw (charges) at me. "I don't know. I mean, I feel sorry about it. But I didn't do it."

Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley

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Lincoln Fire and Rescue crews battled a large blaze throughout the night Wednesday at a large warehouse building on West O Street.

The building ended up being a total loss.

Crews first responded just before 9:30 p.m. to Carroll Distributing & Construction Supply, 3600 W. O St.

"Fire crews initially went inside, changing operations to a defensive attack due to high heat and instability of the large structure," Capt. Nancy Crist said in a news release.

She said the fire likely had been going for quite a while before it triggered a motion detector that sent Lincoln police there and before a passerby saw smoke and called it in.

A fence around the warehouse and surplus material on the building's exterior made access difficult, and the closest fire hydrant was across the street.

Crist said no fire alarms sounded and there was no sprinkler system.

Lincoln Fire & Rescue rotated crews throughout the night, and personnel returned to the scene throughout the day Thursday to check for flareups.

No one was injured.

The warehouse is on the north side of West O Street, next door to the U.S. Army Reserve Center and across the street from the Lancaster County Jail.

Crist said a fire inspector was working Thursday to determine the cause of the fire and to estimate the damage. But the building and concrete materials inside are believed to be a total loss.

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Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird announced Wednesday that she's nominated the human resources director for the Nebraska Department of Transportation to lead the city and county human resources department.

If approved by the City Council and Lancaster County Board, Barb McIntyre will start her job on April 11 as the director of human resources for Lincoln and Lancaster County, replacing Doug McDaniel, who announced his retirement in February. Her annual salary will be $165,000.

We said the next director of the human resources department should possess a strong work ethic, excellent communication skills, and a commitment to inclusive excellence, Gaylor Baird said in a statement. Barb McIntyre demonstrated all of these qualities and rose to the top of an excellent field of candidates identified through a robust national search for this very important role.

McIntyre has served as director of human resources for the Nebraska Department of Transportation since 2020. Previously, she was the chief human resources officer with JEO Consulting Group for four years and a director of human resources at Ameritas for 11 years.

She has a bachelors degree in business administration from Doane University and a masters degree in human resources from Troy University.

Organizations are about people, and organizations with the best people achieve outstanding accomplishments, McIntyre said. I believe the city of Lincoln and Lancaster County are great organizations and have an unparalleled capability to make a positive impact through their people.

Gaylor Baird said that McIntyres articulated a vision for supporting and developing a workforce that provides critical services to our community members.

County Board Chair Deb Schorr said commissioners were impressed with McIntyres experience in both the public and private sectors, such as her strategies to attract talent, including simplifying the application process.

The human resources department is responsible for recruiting, testing and selecting applicants for county and city positions. It coordinates training, conducts salary surveys, performs classification studies and recommends compensation.

The department also is responsible for labor relations, employee records, drug and alcohol testing, and administration of the police and fire pension and all employee benefit programs.

The department includes the risk management division, which administers workers compensation for city employees, and liability, property and casualty insurance.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSreist

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LOS ANGELES  Three other politicians discovered their campaigns got dirty money from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury and got rid of it, a process where they formally disgorge the money by donating it to charity.

The reason Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry didnt do the same right away?

A prosecutor told him not to, according to his former attorney.

Trey Gowdy, who represented Fortenberry during the investigation into whether he received foreign funds, testified Wednesday that he suggested to prosecutors that Fortenberry would return the funds to the donors, after learning that the money probably came from Chagoury.

Gowdy said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins, the lead prosecutor in the case, told him that Fortenberry shouldnt return it to the donors, in part because it could tip off the donors that they were under federal investigation. When Gowdy asked what Fortenberry should do instead, he said, Jenkins didnt give any suggestions.

When you hear that something is going to hurt an investigation, and your purpose is to assist that investigation, youre not going to do it, Gowdy said.

Day 5 of Fortenberry's federal trial marked the end of the government's case, and the beginning of Fortenberry's defense. As told through the first week of trial, the entire saga started with Fortenberrys support of In Defense of Christians, a group devoted to protecting Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

The A, B and C of IDC were Eli Ayoub, Toufic Baaklini and Chagoury, all of whom are of Lebanese descent. Chagoury used both Ayoub and Baaklini, who are U.S. citizens, to funnel money to the campaigns of U.S. politicians, including: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry. It is illegal for elected U.S. officials to accept donations from foreigners.

The others disgorged the money from their campaigns. Prosecutors have pointed out that Fortenberry took 2 years to do the same.

He didnt do it even after he noticed that most of the money raised at a February 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles came from the same family. Seeing the same last name on the donor forms, Fortenberry asked Baaklini if he should be concerned  and Baaklini told him not to sweat it.

Fortenberry also didnt get rid of the money after a June 2018 phone call in which Ayoub told him that Baaklini had provided $30,000 in cash for the fundraiser and that the cash probably came from Chagoury.

He also didnt get rid of the money after the March 2019 FBI interview at his Lincoln home, prosecutors said.

Then came the second FBI interview in July 2019.

John Littrell, a Fortenberry attorney, asked Gowdy if he would agree with Fortenberrys comment in July 2019 that he was horrified at finding out that it was Chagourys money.

Asked to describe Fortenberrys reaction, Gowdy said: Shock and anger. It was shock, with a subtext of anger.

Part of the subtext of Gowdys testimony Wednesday was this: The attorney seemed to regret that he had allowed Fortenberry to be interviewed by the feds in July 2019.

A former federal and district attorney, as well as congressman, Gowdy said he believed that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness and that the government just wanted to size him up in terms of his reliability and credibility.

In reality, Fortenberry was the subject of the investigation. The FBI had taped the June 2018 phone call between Fortenberry and Ayoub. And FBI agents had taped the Lincoln interview and already had suspected him of lying.

An attorney asked Gowdy if he knew that the FBI had secretly recorded all of those events.

No, he testified, with a smirk.

Did he believe the feds were just sizing up Fortenberry as a witness?

One-hundred percent, Gowdy said emphatically.

Defense attorneys also introduced an FBI memo that they say shows the FBI had predetermined, even before the Lincoln interview, that they were going to charge Fortenberry. In the memo, agent Todd Carter wrote that he would approach Fortenberry and interview him about his conversations with Ayoub and his knowledge of the source of the $30,000 campaign contribution.

Case agents will also seek to indict Fortenberry with misprision (concealment) of felony and conduit contributions. In addition, if case agents determine from the interview that Fortenberry is making false statements, he will be charged with false statements.

A second FBI agent on the case, Edward Choe, testified that he hadnt seen that memo and that he didnt share the opinion that Fortenberry automatically would be charged.

And prosecutors argued that such memos are typical. Any criminal charges are subject to change, depending on what happens in the course of interviews and investigations, they say.

At that point, Choe said, agents had been continually checking to see if Fortenberry had gotten rid of the illegal campaign money. He hadnt.

Another memo caused a stir Wednesday. Prosecutor Jamari Buxton told the judge that he wanted to introduce a memo that Fortenberry had sent to the U.S. House of Representatives clerk just last week, seeking to vote by proxy in the House because of the ongoing public health emergency. Fortenberrys note made no mention of the real reason he can't attend: this trial.

It would counter any notion that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest, Buxton said.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. considered it but ultimately decided against it. He said it would take too much evidence to establish why it was written and the process Congress uses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other testimony, Fortenberrys chief of staff, Andy Braner, testified that his boss is the countrys last great statesman and "a visionary."

The nine-term congressman is so scrupulous that, Braner said, he once made Braner replace an office-stamp on a piece of mail. Fortenberry handed him a stamp from his wallet.

Were not going to have the taxpayers pay for my personal mail, Fortenberry told Braner.

Another time in 2019, Braner said, a visitor from the Middle East tried to hand Braner an envelope of cash in recognition of all the work Fortenberry had done in the Middle East. Braner refused.

Two days later, Braner informed the congressman of the interaction.

Fortenberry was irate, Braner said. He said, Call the (House) Sergeant at Arms and get him up here. Were going to tell him everything and make sure that doesnt happen again. 

Prosecutors noted that the Middle East envoy had offered Braner cash just a month after the FBI had interviewed Fortenberry about his campaign receiving another foreigner's cash. Hence the outrage, Buxton suggested.

Another House member told the jury that she has always known Fortenberry as an honorable person.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, said Fortenberry came across the aisle, literally, to meet her. He wanted to talk about a cause he thought she would share.

Eshoo, a half-Armenian, half-Assyrian representative from Northern California, said Fortenberry was sincere: He wanted her input on the issue of protecting religious minorities in the Middle East.

Thats how I got to meet and work with Jeff, Eshoo said. I think he brings honor to what he does. ... Hes faith filled. Hes honest. His word is always good  I cant say that about all members of Congress.

Whether his word is always good is a question for the federal jury. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating the case Thursday or Friday. Fortenberry is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of trying to conceal his knowledge about the true source of the $30,000 campaign donation.

Fortenberrys defense team is expected to continue Thursday to put the FBI on trial for its handling of the probe. Attorney Ryan Fraser blasted the FBI for showing up unannounced to the Fortenberry home and lying to Celeste Fortenberry, the congressman's wife, about why they were there. Jeff Fortenberry had called then-Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister to send two officers to his house to screen and monitor the FBI agents. Bliemeister is expected to testify Thursday.

When FBI agents showed up, Fraser said, Fortenberry was exhausted, having just returned from a trip to Africa where he was briefed on elephant poaching.

You would expect the FBI to warn you if you were the victim of an illegal foreign campaign donation, asked Littrell.

Oh I would hope so, Eshoo said.

She paused, correcting herself.

I would think so, she said. Not just hope.

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Both the state of Nebraska and Lancaster County eked out small population gains last year, according to the latest update from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lancaster County's estimated population as of July 1 was 324,514, which was up about 1,900 people from the 2020 census as of April of that year and about 1,600 more than the July 2020 population estimate.

The Lincoln Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Lancaster and Seward counties, grew by roughly the same numbers.

In raw numbers, Lancaster County had the second-highest population growth in the state, trailing only Sarpy County. But in terms of percentage growth, it ranked only 20th in the April 2020-July 2021 period and 23rd in the July 2020-July 2021 period.

The 0.5% growth from July 2020-July 2021 was much lower than the recent annual average, which was about 1.3% from 2010-2020.

Still, it was better than many of the state's largest counties. Douglas County grew only 0.1% between April 2020 and July 2021, and it did not grow at all from July-July. Buffalo County had percentage growth that was slightly lower than Lancaster County's, while Hall County had declines of more than 1%.

Adams, Dodge, Lincoln, Madison, Platte and Scotts Bluff counties all either lost population or stayed flat.

Nebraska as a whole added about 2,200 people, for a 0.1% growth rate. That also was much lower than its recent growth rate, which averaged about 0.7% annually from 2010-2020.

The Census Bureau said 73% of U.S. counties and more than 55% of metro areas saw a natural decrease in population, meaning there were more deaths than births, which it attributed in part to increased mortality from COVID-19.

However, many of those counties and metro areas made up that deficit with migration. Overall, 58% of U.S. counties gained population, as did 65% of metro areas, the Census Bureau said.

Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.

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A total of 32,621 hotel rooms are currently under construction in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom prepares to meet pent-up demand from pilgrims returning to its holy cities, according to the latest research from STR, commissioned by Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2022.

ATM 22 will take place at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) from May 9 to May 12.

The analysts found that Saudi Arabia's revenue per available room (RevPAR) recovery index stands at 52 percent, noting that the absence of millions of Muslim pilgrims has significantly impacted hotel performance in Saudi Arabia. Madinah and Makkah witnessed RevPAR rates of just 33 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in 2021.

Although significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels, KSAs hotel performance registered year-on-year gains in 2021 and the sectors recovery is expected to persist throughout the coming year, with pent-up demand driving further improvements as Covid-related restrictions continue to ease, the study said.

Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director ME - Arabian Travel Market, said: As was the case for markets the world over, the global pandemic had a major impact on Saudi Arabias hospitality sector. Even so, STRs findings clearly point to an ongoing and sustained recovery, and we are looking forward to exploring the vast untapped potential of the kingdoms burgeoning tourism sector at ATM 2022.

Hotels in Al Khobar are currently outperforming those in Saudi Arabias other major cities, with RevPAR surpassing pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah, meanwhile, recorded recovery index rates of 88 percent, 85 percent and 56 percent, respectively, last year.

Overseas journeys to top 6 million

In terms of outbound travel, research conducted by Colliers International shows that overseas journeys from the kingdom are set to grow to 6,075,000 in 2022, compared to an estimated 3,793,000 in 2021 and 4,839,000 in 2020. In the longer term, outbound tourist trips are expected to rise to 9,262,000 in 2025, although this figure would still be significantly lower than the peak of 19,751,000 recorded in 2019.

Outbound tourist expenditure is set to grow to SR32.656 billion ($8.7 billion) this year, compared to an estimated SR19.734 billion ($5.26 billion) in 2021 and SR21.969 billion ($5.86 billion) in 2020. Total expenditure is expected to increase to SR54.624 billion ($14.56 billion) in 2025.

Other takeaways from Colliers Internationals analysis include the growth of travel related to visiting friends and relatives (VFR) during the pandemic, which accounted for more than half of outbound trips (55 percent) in 2020, compared to 39 percent in 2019; and an increase in the average trip length, rising from 15.4 days in 2019 to 19.2 days in 2020.

Focus on Saudi tourism at ATM

With two sessions dedicated exclusively to the kingdom, attendees, exhibitors and delegates will have ample opportunity to take a deep dive into Saudi Arabias tourism, travel and hospitality industry at ATM 2022.

The first, From strategy to reality, Saudi Arabias tourism vision comes of age, part of the ATM Saudi Forum, will focus on infrastructure progress, niche markets and fresh opportunities, as the country works to attract 100 million annual visitors by 2030. The second, Saudi Arabias blueprint for responsible tourism development, will explore how sustainability, community inclusion, education and training, and the legacy impact of KSAs broad-ranging tourism vision can offer a best-practice model for other global destinations.

The ATM Saudi Forum will feature high-level experts including Mahmoud Abdulhadi, Deputy Minister for Investment Attraction at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Tourism; Captain Ibrahim Koshy, CEO, Saudia; Amr AlMadani, CEO, the Royal Commission for AlUla; Majed bin Ayed Al-Nefaie, CEO, Seera Group Holding; Fawaz Farooqui, Managing Director, Cruise Saudi; John Pagano, CEO, The Red Sea Development Company & Amaala; and Jerry Inzerillo, CEO, Diriyah Gate Development Authority.

Top exhibitors to take part

ATM 2022 will welcome a range of high-profile exhibitors from the kingdom, including the Saudi Tourism Authority, which has expanded its exhibition area by 40 percent compared to 2021 - as well as Saudia Airlines, Flynas, Seera, The Red Sea Project, NEOM, Dur Hospitality, and first-time participant Al Hokair Group.

While religious tourism will no doubt remain a mainstay for Saudi Arabia, the global travel community is also understandably excited about new prospects that are opening up thanks to the countrys growing investment in other segments, added Curtis.

As its post-pandemic recovery continues to gather pace, ATM 2022 represents the ideal forum in which to discuss the countless opportunities offered by the kingdoms ever-expanding tourism market.

Destination summits on India and Saudi Arabia

Now in its 29th year and working in collaboration with the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Dubais Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) - formerly the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) - the ATM show highlights in 2022 will include, among others, a destination summit focused on the key source market of India, as well as Saudi Arabia.

Previously called Travel Forward, the revamped and rebranded ATM Travel Tech event will take place on the ATM Travel Tech Stage, hosting seminars, debates and presentations as well as the inaugural ATM Draper-Aladdin Start-up Competition.

The dedicated [email protected] forum, meanwhile, will cover current and future trends for tour operators and attractions, focusing on growing business through marketing, technology, distribution, thought leadership and executive-level connections.

ATM will once again play an integral role in Arabian Travel Week, a festival of events dedicated to enabling travel professionals from all over the world to collaborate and shape the recovery of the Middle East travel industry through exhibitions, conferences, breakfast briefings, awards, product launches and networking events.

The UAE remains one of the most Covid-secure countries on the planet, with consistently low case rates and robust measures to ensure tourists' safety at every stage of their visit. Like its neighbouring emirates, Dubai is committed to maintaining the highest hygiene and safety standards. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has endorsed its pandemic management, awarding the city a 'Safe Travels' stamp.

In line with the UAE governments forward-thinking transition to a four-and-a-half-day, Monday-to-Friday workweek, this years edition of ATM will commence on Monday (May 9). - TradeArabia News Service
The Legislature overwhelmingly agreed Wednesday night to allocate $150 million in federal pandemic recovery funding to housing development in North Omaha and South Omaha.

The decision represented a huge victory for Sens. Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney, with Wayne leading the effort to gain designation of federal funding for an affordable housing plan that they have promoted for the Black neighborhoods of North Omaha, accompanied by the support of Sen. Tony Vargas, who joined the pair with a housing development plan for largely Latino South Omaha.

The amendment spearheaded by Wayne was adopted on a 29-1 vote, clearing the path for advancement of the Appropriations Committee's cash fund budget bill (LB1014) on a 41-1 vote, with Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson voting no.

Friesen had objected to the Legislature's sudden spending surge fueled by a flow of federal funding, suggesting that "we're spending too much money foolishly. ... It's like a food fight in the cafeteria."

Wayne argued that the federal housing development assistance available to the state should all be pumped into North Omaha and South Omaha because they were the only parts of the state with plans already in place along with being the areas with the most concentrated need.

Wayne told his colleagues that he votes for rural-generated proposals to lower property taxes "because it benefits people outside Omaha" and he asked if other senators were willing to respond now to demonstrated urban needs.

Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk said he is willing to support "something significant in North Omaha and South Omaha," but wondered "where is Lincoln?" in terms of identifying a plan to address its housing needs.

"No one else has an idea," Wayne said. "We have a detailed plan."

A number of proposals to steer federal pandemic funds to other projects, including a proposed $20 million allotment to reward "stressed, exhausted and underpaid" public school teachers for their work during the pandemic, were considered by the Legislature.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue offered that amendment, but it failed on an 11-18 vote.

"Some people are not big public school supporters," Blood said, "but I am."

A proposal to reward health care workers for their efforts during the pandemic was approved on a 37-1 vote.

"They're burning out" as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte said.

That amendment was offered by Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, who said the proposal would help strengthen the rural health care workforce.

Most rural counties in Nebraska are medically underserved now, he said.

The $10 million appropriation would be split between nursing scholarships and student loan repayments.

Earlier, Sen. John Arch of La Vista won approval of an amendment increase funding for mental health care.

A tentative proposal to provide federal funding for the Lancaster Event Center Fairgrounds, a study of high-speed rail service between Lincoln and Omaha, and HIV preventive services for the high-risk population was rejected.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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The top four Republican contenders for governor in Nebraska agree that Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States.

That includes Conklin Co. CEO Charles W. Herbster, whos endorsed by former President Donald Trump, the main source of baseless assertions that the election was stolen.

In recent interviews with Herbster, hog producer Jim Pillen, state Sen. Brett Lindstrom and former state Sen. Theresa Thibodeau, the Omaha World-Herald asked who won the presidential election in 2020.

Biden emerged with a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College and took the popular vote against Trump by more than 7 million votes.

That should be a really easy question to answer, said Kevin Smith, chair of UNLs political science department. I am aware of no evidence of systematic voter fraud that could call into question in any way the legitimacy of the election outcomes, be that the presidential election or any other statewide race that Im aware of.

What makes answering the question tricky for statewide Republican primary candidates in a strongly red state is the narrative that Trumps camp has pushed and amplified, Smith said: That there was widespread fraud that calls into question the legitimacy of Bidens election.

The political context is what makes that a tough question, not the facts on the ground, Smith said.

The former president continues to cling to the narrative that widespread fraud played a role in his election loss despite the fact that numerous state and federal election officials, a succession of judges, Trumps own attorney general and an arm of his administrations Department of Homeland Security all said there was no evidence to support his claims, the Associated Press reported.

Nationally, Trumps claims have taken root in the minds of a sizable portion of Americans, according to polling. A national Monmouth University poll conducted with just less than 800 adults Jan. 20-24 found that 32% thought Bidens win was only because of voter fraud, consistent with its polling since November 2020. It found that 30% of Republicans thought there was a path to overturn the election results.

Republican candidates for Nebraska governor to debate Thursday without Pillen Jim Pillen won't be among the Republican candidates at Thursday's debate. The choice puzzled some political observers, but not everyone is convinced of debates' importance to a winning strategy.

In Ohio, The Hill reported that just one of five Republican senate candidates at a debate this week raised their hand when asked if the party should move on from the 2020 election. Candidates there are vying for the former presidents endorsement.

Herbster was at Trumps rally Jan. 6, 2021, before the violent attack on the nations Capitol. He was also at a meeting Jan. 5 in Trumps private residence in his Washington hotel, where they discussed how to pressure more members of Congress to object to Electoral College results. He downplays his participation.

I was one of thousands of people who came from all over the United States that were at a very, very peaceful rally, he said. And Ive been to many rallies before. That was not my first one.

He said he never heard anybody was going to go to the Capitol to do anything.

Its unquestionably wrong, he said of the siege. Thats not American.

Herbster didnt object to any of the reporting recently published by the Nebraska Examiner, which obtained text messages between Herbster and staffers from those days. One text in particular demonstrated that Herbster firmly believed the 2020 election was stolen:  this is a very very very important and informational meeting tonight with full written reports of how this election was truly stolen from us and any one who does not believe that is not true is totally inaccurate, he wrote, according to the Examiners reporting.

In April 2021, when he announced his campaign, Herbster told Omaha television station KMTV that he didnt know who won and that there was no way to know, because states wouldnt look at irregularities.

But Herbster was less ambiguous in a recent interview.

Well, Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States, he said. And we have to honor him and wish him well as our president.

Thibodeau, who was once Herbsters running mate but now is pursuing the office in her own right, was the least clear in her answer to the same question. She said she doesnt know if voter fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election.

Were the votes counted and were they accurate? Until we can implement some kind of verification, we cannot know, she said.

However, she said its an issue of the past: But Biden is our president right now, whether we like it or not, and we need to move forward.

Lindstrom and Pillen both also accepted that Biden is president, though Lindstrom said he has met people on the campaign trail who believe Trumps claims.

I dont discount how people feel, Lindstrom said. My message is that we cant talk about the past, we need to talk about the future.

World-Herald reporters Lauren Wagner, Steve Liewer and Dan Crisler contributed to this story.

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RACINE  Hundreds of Racine residents will get financial help to complete their high school education or pursue a professional trade under a new city initiative called GROW Racine.

Mayor Cory Mason and community partners gathered at City Hall on Thursday to announce the $1.5 million initiative. Funding for the program will come from the federal American Rescue Plan Act COVID relief initiative.

Mason said the initiative sends the message that the city council and his office believes in the potential of residents.

We want you to succeed and were investing in your future success, he said.

The program will provide:

250 adult Racine residents with $1,500 scholarships to help them attain high school diplomas or equivalency degrees

Another 250 adult Racine residents with $1,500 scholarships to help them complete local pre-apprenticeship training for careers in the trades.

$600,000 to the Racine Financial Empowerment Center to sustain and grow the center, which provides free, confidential, one-on-one professional financial counseling.

GROW is an acronym: Growing Residents Opportunity & Wealth.

Mason called the investments critically important to addressing disparities in high school degree attainment, homeownership, financial resiliency, and access to family-supporting jobs...

GROW Racine and these scholarships send a clear message to all Racine residents that whatever happened in the past, it cant get in your way anymore, he said. These investments say to all Racine residents, we believe in you, we believe you are worthy, we believe in you, and your familys future success.

Partners

Among those who joined Mason were representatives from the YWCA Southeast Wisconsin, the Racine Family YMCA, WRTP (Wisconsin Regional Training Partnerships)/Big Step, Housing Resources Inc., and Higher Expectations for Racine County.

Marie Hargrove, YMCA Southeast Wisconsin education outreach coordinator, spoke of all the good that would come of the scholarship dollars and the importance of partnerships.

This partnership will be an example of how important it is for all of us to work together so the city of Racine, residents, businesses and all involved can grow together, she said. Therefore, our team is so proud to partnership with the city, with Mayor Mason, in this opportunity.

Ahmad Qawi, president/CEO of the Racine Family YMCA, promoted the importance of collaboration and said those involved would work hard and give the residents of this city the opportunity to get a career in the trades.

He spoke of an 18-year-old who recently graduated from First Choice Pre-Apprenticeship training, got his first job in construction and is now making $26/hour. According to its website, Racine Family YMCAs First Choice is an equal-opportunity partnership between participants, the Y and area employers to prepare individuals from diverse backgrounds for family-sustaining jobs in the construction industry.

Just imagine residents with their high school degrees, with their GEDs, coming out and interested in the trades and being able to have a livable wage, being able to buy a home.

All the young folks talk about generational wealth, Qawi added. It starts today.

According to Investopedia, Generational wealth refers to assets passed by one generation of a family to another. Those assets can include stocks, bonds, and other investments, as well as real estate and family businesses.

Lindsay Blumer, president/CEO of WRTP/Big Step, said, We are beyond excited for this important partnership.

John Anderson, southeast region director of WRTP/Big Step, later explained one of the challenges for people interested in obtaining more education and more job skills is that they may already be working and/or have family responsibilities.

The WRTP/Big Step program is seven weeks, but the training occurs during the day. If someone is working the day shift, they could not pursue the training.

Anderson noted a scholarship would help many people live while they pursued the training necessary to get a job with a family-sustaining wage.

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RACINE  Wednesday, March 23, marked the 1-year anniversary of coronavirus vaccines being administered inside Regency Mall.

March 23, 2021, was the first day of the state-funded AMI Expeditionary Healthcare clinic inside the mall, 5538 Durand Ave.

According to the City of Racine and Racine County, more than 36,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Racine by AMI.

Throughout the past year, the countys vaccination rate grew from 25% to 58%.

Racine area officials heaped praise on the work of AMI in Racine.

On behalf of Racine County Public Health Division, we thank AMI and DHS (Wisconsin Department of Health Services) for their monumental contribution to COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Racine County, Racine County Public Health Officer Jeff Langlieb said in a statement. Their dedication, flexibility, reliability, and responsiveness to the community have been essential in ensuring that as many citizens have an opportunity to be vaccinated. We commend their efforts and welcome their ongoing commitment to serving the residents of Racine County.

Added Racine Mayor Cory Mason: AMI has been a critical partner in our vaccination efforts in the City of Racine. They created the capacity for us to be creative in both our vaccine education efforts and our ability to meet our residents where they are to help get them vaccinated. Without their support, our vaccination rates would be much lower and it is very possible that more City residents would have lost their lives to COVID-19. I thank DHS for committing the resources to Racine and the AMI staff for helping to protect our community.

The AMI clinic at Regency Mall remains free and open to the public. Its current hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturdays.

The rate of new vaccinations has fallen severely in 2022. During the last major spikes in cases in November and December, more than 4,000 doses were being administered in Racine County per week. But the week of March 13, only 190 doses were administered, according to DHS data.

DHS reports that those who are unvaccinated are three times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than those who are vaccinated, 9.5 times more likely to be hospitalized and 14.1 times more likely to die.
These are images of people charged with a crime in Racine County. Booking photos are provided by Racine County law enforcement officials. A de
YORKVILLE  Mount Pleasant and Racine County officials continue to say they have no regrets with the Foxconn project and the hundreds of millions in investment in the mostly undeveloped land east of Interstate 94.

Its still all systems go, even if the projects nature has greatly shifted since 2017.

On Tuesday evening, in the first public Foxconn update meeting since 2019, virtually no new information was shared in a joint session of the Racine County Board and Mount Pleasant Village Board.

Officials spent nearly an hour recapping plans set in place in the past five years, with only vague hints at the future.

At present, the village and county, via nongovernmental economic development corporations, are looking for big projects to fill the empty land.

Foxconn a no-show Representatives from Foxconn didnt attend Tuesday evening. Attorney Alan Marcuvitz, special development counsel to the village in relation to Foxconn, said: We invited Foxconn to send a representative to speak at this meeting, but that invitation was declined. When asked why no one from Foxconn came, he replied: My legal opinion is: I have no idea. Tuesday nights meeting was a reschedule after a Feb. 22 meeting was canceled due to weather. Marcuvitz said that Foxconn representatives declined to attend both meetings without explanation.

Property status

The village still owns much of the land within whats generally considered the Foxconn areas.

In Area 1  where Foxconns buildings are located south of Braun Road, north of the Kenosha County border and west of Highway H to Interstate 94  Mount Pleasant owns fewer than 100 of the nearly 1,200 total acres, according to Alan Marcuvitz, special development counsel to the village in relation to Foxconn.

Of the 1,073 total acres in Area 2, located north of Braun Road and south of Highway 11, little more than half of the acreage is owned by the village; the rest is owned by the Creuziger family, owner of the Land of Giants pumpkin farm.

Excluding an approximately 33-acre power substation put in for Foxconn, the village owns the entirety of 622.5-acre Area 3, which is located immediately east of Area 1 and is entirely undeveloped.

What wasnt brought up Tuesday is that Foxconn has the right of first refusal on the land it doesnt own in the other areas. As such, the Taiwanese tech giant has the ability to prevent speedy development through 2027, although no indication has been given that this power would be exercised.

Local officials have said Foxconn has been supportive of other development in the area.

Foxconn was helpful and cooperative as local officials negotiated with Intel on a $20 billion chipmaking plan, Jim Paetsch, executive director of the Milwaukee 7 Economic Development Partnership, said Tuesday. Had Intel picked Mount Pleasant instead of a site northeast of Columbus, Ohio, it would have built north of Foxconn in Area 2.

If Foxconn doesnt pay

Starting Jan. 1, 2023, Foxconn is required to start paying taxes as if its Mount Pleasant property has an assessed value of $1.4 billion, even if it doesnt have that value, which it almost certainly will not. Right now, according to Mount Pleasant, Foxconns holdings in the village are valued at $520 million.

Todd Taves, chief financial adviser to the village in relation to Foxconn, said that the local expenditures thus far, including more than $200 million in infrastructure costs paid for through bonds, are all covered by the $1.4 billion guarantee by Foxconn.

Thats one of the things that hasnt changed in the past five years. The overarching security is the guarantee that well have a minimum of $1.4 billion in valuation in Area 1 alone, Taves was quoted as saying by Racine County Eye in 2017.

If Foxconn fails to pay its obligations, then Mount Pleasant expects to take possession of its property in Wisconsin. Its land. Its buildings. The globe  officially known as the High-Performance Computing Data Center  for what its worth.

That is considered the failsafe that would prevent the village and county from defaulting on its loans  which could otherwise be catastrophic when as payments have begun coming due  if Foxconn breaks its promise to pay taxes.

Local officials dont want or expect that to happen.

That failsafe is part of a series of safety nets that financially secure the interests of local taxpayers and governments, according to Marcuvitz.

The county is in its third year of paying back on its $148 million bonds. The county is expected to fully pay that off in 2039.

Mount Pleasant has two sets of bonds to pay off.

Starting in 2024, the village will begin paying back $258 million in Tax Increment Revenue Bonds. That is expected to be paid off in 2048. More than half of that cost is in interest, since the principal bond cost is $120 million.

The village was due to make its first payment last year on a 30-year $77.6 million Clean Water Fund Loan from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The failsafe is in place in part because, should Foxconn choose not to write the check to pay off its increased taxes as promised starting next year, it would be virtually impossible for local authorities to force the Taiwanese company to pay up. It would be a challenge to try the case in court. There isnt really a way for Foxconns money to be seized, since it is a foreign company.

Foxconns holdings in Wisconsin include the facilities in Mount Pleasant  the 100-foot-tall globe, the 1-million-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Facility, the 260,000-square-foot Smart Manufacturing Center and the 120,000-square-foot Multi-Purpose Building  plus a would-be headquarters in Milwaukees downtown; a six-story office building on Capitol Square in Madison; and buildings that initially had been announced would hold innovation centers in Green Bay, Eau Claire and Racine.

So far, Foxconn has met all of its financial obligations, Taves said Tuesday, repeating a statement thats been made repeatedly by Foxconn and local government officials over the past three years. Those financial obligations included $60 million upfront to help pay for land acquisition, more than $11 million so far in property taxes and around $22 million in special assessment payments.

Foxconn remains Racine Countys highest taxpayer.

In a tweet Tuesday evening, Robin Palm, a planner for Mount Pleasant, said that as long as Foxconn pays even in its minimum expected tax payment starting next year, that puts the deal in the black so long as there is not a massive cut in property tax rates.

The state contract under which Foxconn is currently operating, renegotiated under Gov. Tony Evers and signed April 2021, aims to allow the state to recover 100% of incentives already paid to Foxconn in the event of a default.

A spokesperson contracted by the village said Wednesday: If Foxconn defaults in the future regarding its financial obligations, the Village would seek compensation to the fullest legal extent.

On deck

The nonprofit economic development agencies tasked with attracting developers to the area  primarily the Racine County Economic Development Corp., the Milwaukee 7 and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.  have suggested there are discussions behind the scenes to bring other developers to Mount Pleasant.

Because of the ways state and federal laws are written, those discussions remain secret and away from public scrutiny. They are often even outside the knowledge of elected officials.

Paetsch mentioned companies in the pharma (pharmaceutical) industry, electric vehicle manufacturers, battery makers and electrical component manufacturers as possibilities to move in next to Foxconn. There are already EV charging stations on the Foxconn campus.

Racine County has terrific assets, Paetsch said.

Paetsch noted that landing a development on the scale of the Intel chip factory  which is promising thousands of permanent and temporary jobs in Ohio  is virtually impossible unless you already have land ready for it. With water mains already put in place, close proximity to an interstate highway and more than 1,000 acres available, the land Mount Pleasant is seeking to fill is still a highly attractive site.

Were sitting pretty good  I think we are in good shape moving forward, said Claude Lois, the former Burlington mayor who is now the contracted manager of the Foxconn project for Mount Pleasant.

Theres a hard reality in economic development that I think sometimes is not understood and not fully appreciated. Without a site ... that you can to put in front of that company, theres really nothing else to talk about, Paetsch said. If you dont have a site at the exact time theyre looking to make that investment, youre not considered for the project.

Marcuvitz explicitly asked for continued verbal support from elected officials: Its a lot easier to work for people cheering you on and hoping that you will succeed than people who dont care.

Whats Foxconn up to?

Foxconn refuses to disclose what its doing in its facilities or who its contracted with. Its not even clear what the purpose of the Globe is.

Lois said that in the Advanced Manufacturing Facility, all their server lines are up and running and that Foxconn is hiring to add to its current local workforce of approximately 800.

Regardless, theyre not going to get to 13,000 jobs, Lois admitted, as was initially pitched when an LCD screenmaking plant was still supposedly on the table.

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Weekend fun and festivities will kick off a day earlier in Racine this summer, as the Downtown Racine Corp. and Kenoshas HarborMarket have joined forces to launch the Racine HarborMarket on the last Thursday of each month, beginning June 30.

The collaboration brings the award-winning, European-style outdoor market that has been a Kenosha fixture for 20 years to Racines Monument Square, a city treasure that has been a site of community celebration since before the namesake Civil War memorial was dedicated on July 4, 1884.

The inaugural event will be from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on June 30. Subsequent Racine HarborMarket events will be held at the same times on July 28, Aug. 25 and Sept. 29.

Adding an event like this diversifies further the festival footprint of our city, DRC Executive Director Kelly Kruse said in a news release. Having the fun of the Racine HarborMarket on Thursdays gets our summer weekends off to an early start.

Kenosha HarborMarket Executive Director Andrea Forgianni said the synergy of the two communities coming together will be memorable.

We could not be more excited to introduce our neighbors to the north to our brand of farmers market, she stated in the release. Its a unique experience that will be even more unique in such a marvelous new location.

Shoppers will be able to find the freshest regional produce, including favorites such as berries and other fruits and vegetables, fresh flower bouquets and plants (vegetables, herbs, shrubs, flowers and more). Artisan baked-goods vendors will be selling pastries, breads, pies, tarts, cookies and more. Arts and crafts vendors also will be on hand, including local and regional galleries, crafters and painters.

Live music also is to be featured on each date of the new market, with Mean Jake performing on June 30. Beer will be available for purchase.

Parking for each event can be found at the Lake Avenue Ramp, 300 Lake Ave., Civic Centre Ramp, 501 Lake Ave., and the McMynn Ramp, 120 7th St., for $2 all day.

Kruse and Forgianni said they hope this becomes a southeast Wisconsin tradition.

I have no doubt Racine will love the HarborMarket, Kruse said. I believe were just getting started.

Added Forgianni, whose late father Ray founded the Kenosha HarborMarket: We expect this to be an enormous success that becomes an annual undertaking, My dad would be so proud that his vision is expanding.

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RACINE  Hundreds of Racine residents will get financial help to complete their high school education or pursue a professional trade under a new city initiative called GROW Racine.

Mayor Cory Mason and other participants are planning an announcement today of a multifaceted program driven by $1.5 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.

Details of the program are scheduled to be unveiled at 10:30 a.m. today during a news conference in the Racine City Hall Council Chambers.

In a statement Wednesday, city officials called GROW Racine a campaign to invest in our residents opportunities and success.

The program will provide 250 adult Racine residents with $1,500 scholarships to help them attain high school diplomas or equivalency degrees, and another 250 adult Racine residents with $1,500 scholarships to help them complete local pre-apprenticeship training for careers in the trades.

Officials said GROW Racine also will support the Racine Financial Empowerment Center to provide financial counseling to Racine residents ages 18 or older to help them improve credit, build savings, prepare for homeownership, and overcome financial challenges.

Funding for the program will come from the American Rescue Plan Act federal COVID relief initiative.

Among those scheduled to join Mason will be representatives from the YWCA Southeast Wisconsin, the Racine Family YMCA, WRTP/Big Step, Housing Resources Inc., and Higher Expectations for Racine County.

The City has allocated $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to invest in the following:

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1. Yes. Raising the bar for future developments will boost the citys housing market.

2. Yes. It will help in newer areas, but more needs to be done to change Killeens image.

3. No. The new standards will just slow down homebuilding and drive away developers.

4.No. The ordinance will do little more than drive up the price of new homes in the city.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say what the effect will be until they have been in place for a while.

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Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Thunderstorms could be strong and possibly severe during the afternoon hours. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High 78F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low around 60F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.


About 2569 families in North East Delhi have filed claims for compensation. Of the 2,569 claims, 1,425 have been examined, while work on the remaining 1,234 is still to begin.

Nikita Jain | TwoCircles.net

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NEW DELHI  39-year-old Rubina Bano has been doing regular work ever since she was brutally beaten up by a Hindu mob in the Chandbagh area when riots hit Northeast Delhi between February 23-25, 2020.

Bano was among the protesters agitating against the Bharatiya Janata Partys decision to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

On February 25, 2020, she was at the protest and was brutally beaten up by a mob, which allegedly included police men as well. I was three months pregnant at the time and when I begged the men to stop, they kicked my stomach saying, lets kill it inside only, she recalled and shuddered.

Rubina was hit with a brick after which she lost consciousness, as per the police complaint filed by her. With multiple injuries all over her body, she could not leave the bed for more than a month.

Rubina has three children, her newborn almost a year old. She is yet to receive compensation from the Delhi government. They are making me run here and there saying I dont have MLC. But when I got an MLC from Hamdard Hospital where I was admitted, they gave me reasons that I could not understand. However, I have provided them with all the required documents and yet I have not received any compensation. Members of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) have visited me thrice but nothing has happened, she told TwoCircles.net.

Despite repeated calls, officials from the district court as well as SDM have refused to address her grievance. I was told a few months ago that I will receive compensation soon, however, they have stopped receiving my calls, she added.

According to reports, about 2569 families in North East Delhi have filed claims for compensation. Of the 2,569 claims, 1,425 have been examined, while work on the remaining 1,234 is still to begin. Once the commission makes its recommendations, the Delhi High Court will examine them before the actual fund disbursement begins.

This number, however, is still less than the ground reality.

Yash, who is a social worker and has been working with lawyers involved in the compensation cases, told TwoCircles.net that the data by the government is not reliable. It does not match up with the experience we have on the ground. The government also has a very loose definition of what it means to fulfill the claim. So, if your house has been looted or if you have lost a few lakhs worth of possession, the government will give Rs. 25,000 and count it as compensation, he said.

Nissar Ahmad had to leave his house at Nallah Road in Bhagirathi Vihar and escape to save himself and his family. One of his Hindu neighbours gave them shelter for a night.

Ahmad is also a key witness in many cases, including a murder that occurred in the area. While he left his home and life on February 24, his property was burnt. The heartbroken man had to pick up his life from scratch and had filed for a claim but only got Rs. 1, 25, 000. I am maybe lucky that this amount of money was given. This was nothing to start my life but I had no option, he said.

Ahmad is now living in a small rented room, along with his family in Mustafabad. I am trying to sell my house because I still cannot go back there. A few times I have tried, the neighbors who used to be friends, now threaten me. They have told me they would kill me if I come here and continue with the cases, Ahmad said.

While the claim is not even five percent of what he was expecting, Ahmad has given up hope. Yash said that like Ahmad, many victims have given up hope for compensation due to the tedious process while others are still fighting.

An official with SDM, who has been taking care of compensation claims, on the condition of anonymity, said that the process is still going on even though it is slow. Delhi government has on the other hand kept a very tight ship and is not even revealing the real number of compensation claims, he said.

As of now, many are still having difficulty rebuilding their lives and are trying hard to revive themselves. I do not know when this nightmare will end. When will I be able to live a life where I do not have financial constraints, Rubina said.

Nikita Jain is an independent journalist. She tweets at @nikita_jain15
RAVENNA  Sarah Ripp grew up visiting her grandpa, Floyd Buck Schroeder, at Wroblewski Feed Supply in Ravenna.

Ripps mom worked nights as a nurse in Kearney, and her dad would get up early each morning to feed cattle so Sarah would stay with her grandparents.

For pretty much the beginning of my childhood (my grandpa) worked here. I remember him going to the feed store to go to work, Ripp said. I grew up coming here. I always knew my grandpa worked here when they first started out so that was kind of cool.

Now Ripp, 24, is no longer just a visitor to the feed store, but the businesss new owner.

Mark and Liz Wroblewski started Wroblewski feed in their garage in 1994. After a month, they moved their business into Ravenna. They moved two more times within the town before settling at the stores current location, 124 Grand Ave., in 2015.

Mark managed the store, and Liz taught at Ravenna Public School and did the books in the evenings and on weekends. The couple decided to retire last year from the feed store due to health reasons. It proved to be the perfect opportunity for Ripp.

Ripp grew up in Ravenna and went on to attend the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

I knew I wanted to do something with animals. I have been a huge animal lover my whole life, she said.

While attending UNL, Ripp originally planned to pursue a career as a veterinarian, but she realized it might not be the right choice for her.

Vets are awesome. Nobody realizes how hard it is to be a vet. I didnt think I had it in me to do that type of profession. I went with a straight animal science major, and I kind of took an interest in rangeland management and how you can manage pasture ground, Ripp explained.

Ripp and her mom, Cindy Schroeder, had talked about her owning a feed store while she was still in college, but Ripp was still uncertain on what career to pursue. After graduation, Ripp returned to Ravenna. She purchased her own cows and worked at Farmers Cooperative Association, but she knew the Coop wasnt the right fit for her.

I was more interested in the animal side of things. I knew that my passion was in more so animal ag than plant ag, she explained.

When the Wroblewskis placed their business for sale in August 2021, Ripp expressed her interest in purchasing the feed store.

They were all gung ho about it, Ripp said with a laugh. They were like. Oh, my gosh, I wish you would have come here sooner. We would have never listed it. So I started working here, and it just worked out.

Ripp began working at the feed store in October and took over ownership with her mom in January. Ripp not only owns the store that her grandpa worked in, but she gave it a name to honor the generations that came before her. Lazy S Triangle Feed is named after a cattle brand that has been in her family for nearly a century.

My great-grandpa, it was his brand. His name was William Schroeder. He got it in 1923. My Grandpa Buck had it. On my 21st birthday, my dad gave it to me, Ripp said. We are raising cattle in the same place my great-grandpa did. Its special.

Ripp will continue to sell livestock feed, livestock tanks, fencing supplies, pet food and animal health supplies. In the future, shed like to add more fencing supplies to their inventory and hopes to begin mixing their own feed.

My background in animal science I feel like is a huge plus. There are a lot of people who go to college, they cant tell you what they learned in college. Im constantly referring back to my college notes, Ripp said.

When customers come to the store, they often ask Ripp if she bought the business with her boyfriend or husband. But as Ripp says, she is the one running the show.

My mom has instilled in me a level of confidence and respect for myself.  There are a lot more men in ag, but that has never intimidated me. I know Im capable. I know Im strong, she said.

Despite being a native of the northern Buffalo County town, Ripp is surprised by how many people who come through her doors who she didnt know before. She knows how important having a feed supply store is to the community.

Its kind of sad because a lot of businesses in small towns are closing. You would be surprised how many people call this feed store and how many people walk through the door every day, she said. Agriculture is so big around here. If they were having to go farther for their supplies and feed, it would be hard.

Coming home to Ravenna after college was always Ripps plan, and while its been an adjustment balancing her business and raising cattle, its been worth it.

I have to get up at 6 in the morning to feed with my brother and break ice and check everything out, and then come to work from 8 to 5 and go back out there to see what needs done. Its a dedication. Its a lifestyle. I enjoy it, she said.
Authorities have been searching for Dillard since her ex-husband reported her missing June 20, four days after she was last seen.

In court filings, State Patrol Investigator Amanda DeFreece said Dillard had left her home near Fairbury in mid-June to visit friends in the Falls City area.

Dillard and a friend drank at a bar in Salem on June 12, a Saturday, then visited the acreage near the search area and joined a group drinking in Table Rock the next day, DeFreece said in a sworn affidavit.

Investigators believe James Money, who lives on the property, was among the last known individuals to have seen Dillard alive, according to the affidavit.

Money, who had previously told investigators that Dillard had walked away from the white, two-story house east of Table Rock at about 3 a.m. June 16 after accusing him of sexual assault, later said a friend picked her up and they drove away, according to the affidavit.

As volunteers searched the surrounding area for Dillard's remains, Money largely repeated the same claims he made to investigators while offering alternate theories about what happened last June.

The 62-year-old said he had offered haven to Dillard, who he described as an old friend. He said the last time he saw Dillard was as she walked away from his property at around 2:30 a.m. June 16  about an hour after she had called her ex-husband to pick her up, according to the State Patrol.

Most of all, Money repeatedly said he had nothing to do with Dillard's disappearance.

"What could I do but let her walk off? I can't keep her hostage," Money told the Journal Star. "I gave her haven a couple, three days is all."

"I didn't do it," he said, laughing. "I didn't do it."

Jeffrey Hagemeier, who lives at the house with Money and who said he met Dillard a few times while she visited last June, repeated Money's claim that the 55-year-old left the property on her own accord, though he said he hadn't witnessed it.

"The story I got was that she just took off walking, got all (messed) up and left," he said, then alluded to the fact that there are lots of coyotes in the area.

"I won't even walk around out here at night," he said. "It's entirely possible, if that lady took off walking, disoriented, didn't know where she was, got attacked by them things ... you wouldn't find her. You wouldn't find nothing."

Money and Hagemeier were at the house when the State Patrol served a search warrant there July 22, according to court filings. Both men on Thursday said they were detained in July, but neither of them have been charged with any crime relating to Dillard's disappearance.

The warrant did turn up suspected methamphetamine, ketamine and carisoprodol, according to an affidavit for Money's arrest. He was charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance and was jailed until bonding out in September, according to court filings.

Money told the Journal Star he believes the State Patrol planted at least some of the drugs that led to his arrest. He is set to go to trial in June.

As he thought back to last June, Money said he wished he could alter the events of the night Dillard disappeared  though he said he's not sure what he could have done differently. Maybe he should have stopped her from walking away, he said. Or refused her haven to begin with.

But as volunteers and investigators scoured the woods around his property, hoping to find Dillard, Money wasn't sure what he was hoping for.

"I'm kind of torn about that," he said. "I wish they would have found her before. But then again, if they do, they're probably gonna throw (charges) at me.

"I don't know. I mean, I feel sorry about it. But I didn't do it."
WEATHER

Mostly cloudy to start, with possible light rain showers. Afternoon will have sunny spells. It will be warm and humid with temperatures 15-18deg in light winds from the west. On this day in 1981, Provisional IRA member and British MP Bobby Sands died after 66 days of hunger strike in the Maze Prison. There would be nine more similar deaths in the following three months.


Research published in the International Growth Center in 2020 found that Muslims were substantially more likely to report sadness and anxiety, as compared to upper-caste Hindus.

Imaad ul Hasan | TwoCircles.net

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NEW DELHI  In the last week of December 2021, six female students were stopped from entering Government Womens PU college in Udupi, Karnataka, for wearing a hijab. Soon afterwards, other colleges in the state followed suit, amidst protests, including Graduation Colleges.

Even though an interim order of the Karnataka High Court on not wearing the hijab was restricted only to pre-university students.

In the third week of February, Muslim students were stopped from entering one such graduation college over hijab. In a video posted on social media, the students are seen telling the cops, We are getting mentally pressured. Do you want us to die under this mental pressure?

In its response, a cop is seen threatening to beat them up with a lathi and file a case.

After a long and polarizing row over Hijab, the Karnataka High court on March 15, upheld a state government order that had banned headscarves in classrooms. This has caused mental health to worsen among these students.

Since the BJP first came into power in 2014, a significant rise in anti-Muslim sentiments has been reported. This has led to several lynchings, many of them in the name of Gau-Raksha, or cow-protection. The narrative of Love Jihad has received legal support in the form of anti-conversion laws after targetted violence continue to take place in its name. From the spread of Covid to the failing economy, a campaign is run to blame it all on Muslims, where sometimes Tablighi Jamaat and street vendors are accused and sometimes a false narrative of population explosion among Muslims is popularized.

Aysha Nourin, a 16- year-old-student from Kundapura of Udupi district, has her exams in the last week of March. She said that she wanted to attend it but was not sure if the college administration would allow her to enter the college wearing a hijab.

We thought after a few days theyll allow us and initially even our non-muslim friends supported us. But now it seems everyone has left us, Aysha told TwoCircles.net, Sitting at home for so many days while our classmates are going ahead is affecting me mentally. I dont have much hope that anything will change after seeing how everything in going according to them.

Research published in the International Growth Center in 2020 found that Muslims were substantially more likely to report sadness and anxiety, as compared to upper-caste Hindus. Increase in prejudice against Muslims, the rise in incidents of lynching, the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam, protests related to the Citizenship Amendment Act, subsequent riots in Delhi, and related events have likely increased levels of depression and anxiety among Muslims the research suggests.

Another research noted that Muslims were 3.5 times more likely to have anxiety or depression than higher-caste Hindus. Yet, reluctance is seen among Muslims in India to seek professional help.

Aafreen Khan, a 24-year-old Communication Professional from New Delhi, said that from questions being asked about her relationship with Pakistan to the behaviour of people changing after they find out her name, she was always made aware of the fact that she was different since childhood. But now she cant come to terms with what is happening in the country sometimes.

Last year on December 15, Aafreen made sure not to use the mobile phone at all. Two years ago Delhi Police carried out a brutal crackdown on Jamia Millia Islamia. She was present in the library where the police entered to attack students. I wanted to stay away from all the posts about that day. But when a friend texted to ask if I was okay, I broke down.

Aafreen said that once when she decided to see a psychologist, she considered searching for a Muslim one. I dont know how to talk about politics with a therapist. How do I tell them that the state is oppressing us?

Ipsa James, a psychotherapist based in Delhi who works on mental health among minorities, believes that this reluctance is genuine and justified. Most psychologists are not taught to look into how social structures are affecting us. A minority going to a Savarna Hindu person is like going to my oppressor for something their kind is causing.

On the other hand, she thinks that there are not a lot of people from the minority who can do this work. Because the mental health sector is still an elitist institution. Hence, talking about their issue remains difficult.

26-year-old Salim Javed, a resident of Mathura district, shared how he didnt go to see the famous Holi of his town this year because of the anxiety he is suffering after the result of the UP elections. When the entire election campaign of BJP was so anti-Muslim, then what are we supposed to expect now? You can see discrimination in the eyes of common citizens and the police who are all poisoned with hate, he said.

Javed said that he is unable to focus on his career because of his worsening mental health.

Talking about the similar political climate around her, Aafreen believes there is little hope. Islamophobia is present much more than we think, and we are waiting only for a miracle to happen, she added.
Country schools will be the subject of our next free public program. On Tuesday, April 5, at 7 p.m., Tomah author and retired teacher Larry Scheckel will present a program at the museum about his new book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School, followed by a discussion.

Scheckel grew up with eight siblings on a farm in the Seneca area of Crawford County. He attended Oak Grove School, a one-room school located on Oak Grove Ridge. The evening will include a PowerPoint presentation about his childhood in a country school, from the lessons and tests to the picnics and holiday programs.

This event will be held in the museums first-floor, wheelchair-accessible conference room. Everyone is welcome to attend.

March is Womens History Month, and there are many women who lived and worked in Vernon County who stand out as businesswomen, care givers, military personnel, and heroines. Blanche Goldsmith, nurse and businesswoman, was the wife of Harlow E. Goldsmith.

First a little background on Mr. Goldsmith. He came to Viroqua in 1907 to work for the Vernon County Censor after working with his father, George, a longtime newspaper editor in Boscobel. He began his career in the newspaper business at age 12. He was owner/editor of the Censor from 1920 to 1950. Goldsmith married Mathilda Tilda Schmirler in 1908 and they had a son, Francis Harlow. Sadly, Mathilda died in 1925.

Blanche M. Draper was born in 1894 on a farm near Bangor, La Crosse County, to John and Minnie Draper. She graduated from Bangor High School and the La Crosse Hospital School of Nursing. Following graduation, she worked for Grandview Hospital in La Crosse and held the positions of superintendent of nurses, surgical floor supervisor, superintendent of the operating room, and anesthetist.

During World War I, Blanche served at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Illinois. She later returned to her duties at Grandview Hospital. On April 29, 1926, Blanche married Harlow Goldsmith at the home of her mother, Minnie Draper, in Bangor. Blanche became an integral part of the operation of the Censor, as editor and bookkeeper.

Mr. Goldsmith was a member of the Viroqua Masons, while Mrs. Goldsmith served as Matron of the Order of the Eastern Star. Both were active members of these organizations.

Harlow Goldsmith passed away in La Crosse on Oct. 13, 1966. Blanche Goldsmith passed away in 1983. Both are interred at the Viroqua Cemetery.

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As Viroqua residents, we are casting our votes for Angie Lawrence, for the School District of Viroqua School Board Member. Angie has dedicated herself to supporting public education, and community improvements which include the soon to be completed Early Children's Center.

She is a true advocate for all students, and she will ensure that every child has the opportunity to maximize their potential. We wish her the very best on Tuesday, April 5 and urge our neighbors and friends to cast their vote for Angie Lawrence.
AARP Wisconsin and Sen. Tammy Baldwin are pushing for Congress to lower the cost of prescription drugs, with many struggling to afford essential medications.

AARP on Thursday morning hosted a virtual press conference with Baldwin, hearing from three state residents who have experienced or witnessed the burdens caused by pricey medications.

Nationwide, 4 million people, including over 126,000 Wisconsinites, have signed a petition calling on Congress to make prescription drugs affordable. Per an AARP survey, 70% of voters feel lowering prescription drug costs is very important.

Americans are fed up with paying three times what people in other countries pay for the same drugs, said AARP Wisconsin Federal Issues Advocacy Director Lisa Lamkins.

Baldwin, who supports the Affordable Insulin Now Act and allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, is a staunch advocate of quality and affordable health care. At age 9, she was hospitalized for a severe illness and labeled as having a preexisting condition, making it difficult for her guardians to obtain insurance coverage for her, Baldwin said.

While the Affordable Care Act 12 years ago remedied that issue, drug costs continue to be an obstacle  a growing one with a third of Americans saw the out of pocket cost of their prescriptions increase in 2020.

I am going to continue working to get the job done on this much needed reform that has broad support from the public ..., Baldwin said. Too many Americans are seeing their out-of-pocket medication costs increase, and certain brand-name prescription drugs in the United States cost two to four times more than they do in other countries. This needs to change, and we need to lower costs for working families who should no longer be at the mercy of big drug corporations.

Wauwatosa resident and retired nurse Nancy Koch during the press conference shared she has an autoimmune, degenerative disease, and her medications delay her need to use a wheelchair. However, her once free medication now costs $140 a month

I simply cant afford that, Koch says Ive been charging it for now but thats not going to be sustainable much longer. I beg the powers-that-be to help lower drug costs so seniors can take the meds they need. Between my husband, who has COPD, and myself, we are swamped.

Karen Justeson, 78, spoke of needing medicine for both her diabetes and heart disease. Last year, she started on two new brand name drugs for diabetes and found great success, but the out-of-pocket cost proved too much, as she is just above the bracket for financial assistance. Switching to a lower cost version of her pills left her with unsatisfactory results and side effects.

I am certain there are many other people throughout Wisconsin who have experienced a similar situation with high drug prices, Justeson said.

Susan Fadness of Madison said while working as a medical social worker, she saw patients whose hospitalizations could have been prevented had they taken their prescribed medications.

But they did not take their medications because of the cost, Fadness said. Many people had to decide how to spend their limited financial resources. Would they pay for housing, for food, or for medications? Understandably, medications were often not the first priority.

While Fadness would try to connect patients with medication assistance programs or hospital charity care funds, the financial help was temporary.

If prescription costs are brought down, many of these situations could be avoided, said Fadness, who noted, If the Senate does not act, it will be at the cost of older Americans and taxpayers.

Lamkins thanked Baldwin for her support, and emphasized the need for timely action.

None of us can wait for the next year or two years or 10 years from now, Lamkins said. We need to get lowered drug prices done this year. And we are counting on you.

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday signed two bills supporting hospitals and health care workers, including one that imposes legal ramifications for those who threaten or harm employees.

During the Wisconsin Hospital Associations (WHAs) annual Advocacy Day event, Evers took the final steps in enacting Assembly Bills 960 and 679. The former, which has been advocated for by local hospitals, will make threatening or committing acts of violence against those working in health care a Class H Felony.

Health care workers are better protected under this new law, said WHA President and CEO Eric Borgerding. WHAs members across the state express appreciation to Speaker (Robin) Vos and Senate Majority Leader (Devin) LeMahieu for authoring this important law...WHA is also grateful to Governor Evers for signing Assembly Bill 960 into law today, showing health care workers that they are vital to our state and important to protect.

Both Mayo Clinic Health System and Gundersen Health System in La Crosse have experienced incidences of verbal or physical harassment towards staff, with pandemic related tensions and longer wait times leading to increased incidents.

Tia Meyer, operations administrator at Mayo Clinic Health System SW Wisconsin, says staff receive training to address belligerent or violent patients or visitors and security is onsite, but the bill will offer peace of mind that perhaps people will rethink their (behavior) to avoid any sort of felony.

Stresses are at an all-time high...caregivers understand people come to us with heightened states of agitation and they try to de-escalate a situation before it becomes physical, but if it does its good to know there may be some restitution that could occur, Meyer adds.

Meyer expressed appreciation for the advocacy of WHA, calling the bill a testament of how (health care workers) are valued in the state, and also now protected by law. Our staff have a right to do their jobs without fear of physical or verbal abuse. This was really a move in the right direction.

Also signed by Evers was Assembly Bill 679, which permanently allows hospitals to provide in-patient level care in the home. The bill is a continuation of current authority given to hospitals that would have expired without legislative action.

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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Local leaders continue to chip away at the widespread PFAS contamination on French Island.

The Campbell Town Board unanimously approved a draft water agreement with the city of La Crosse on Wednesday, which will be sent to the city this week for its review.

Town officials told the Tribune the agreement could not be made public as of Wednesday night. The board met in closed session for about an hour before reconvening in open session to take action on the agreement.

The new water agreement is critical for the town as it moves forward with a possible solution to the PFAS contaminations, specifically if a new water system was installed.

Thats really pivotal to whatever our next step is going to be. The current water agreement does not really give us latitude to move forward with a different water system, supervisor Lee Donahue told residents at a public listening session shortly before the board meeting.

Until that process is completed, we cannot move forward with any other water plan, Donahue said.

The renegotiations harken back to a previous agreement between the two municipalities, which provided water to a handful of properties on the condition of annexation  an unpleasant compromise to many French Island residents that was echoed Wednesday.

Are you going to give us up ... on this water agreement again? one resident asked.

Our plans obviously are to remain an independent community, supervisor Mitch Broehmer said.

Donahue told the group that every member of the Town Board wants to remain independent from the city. She said the goal is still to try to incorporate Campbell into a village once its current boundary agreement expires in 2025.

Last March on the campaign trail, La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds told the Tribune he wasnt interested in discussing annexation as it relates to the PFAS crisis.

It would be highly improper while working to assist our neighbors in the town of Campbell to place aggressive demands upon them, he said at the time. I would not see reason to move forward with any discussion of annexation not directly initiated by the citizens and leadership of the town of Campbell.

Brohmer told residents on Wednesday that installing a municipal water service on the island is currently estimated to cost about $30 million.

Broken down that cost includes about $26 million for installing pipes under the towns roadways at a rate of $1.3 million a mile and 19 miles of roads. Those pipes would still need to be hooked up to homes and facilities, costing about $100 a foot and estimating to be between $5-7million.

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A local group of college students, dubbed Complete-A-Classroom, is hosting a week-long fundraising event in hopes of raising school supplies for teachers of the local Logan Middle School in La Crosse.

The event will take place in-person on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus as well as online via an Amazon wishlist, with specific items in mind that will benefit the teachers.

At the end of the week, there will be a movie showing of "School of Rock" featuring Jack Black at Myrick Park Center in La Crosse on April 15 from 6-8 pm.

The group, Complete-A-Classroom, is focusing on raising physical donations for teachers as teachers on average spend $750 per school year to support their classrooms, and 30% spend over $1,000 per school year.

The goal of this event is to decrease the amount of money that teachers spend on school supplies that should be given due to their position.

The movie night is free to attend though the students will collect physical donations onsite that will be sent over to the school after the event is complete. There will be popcorn and non-alcoholic drinks to munch on during the movie. The students are hosting games such as cornhole, tic-tac-toe, and more from 6-6:30 pm.

For more information, can contact Cassandra Davis at davis6762@uwlax.edu.

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By Jun Sheng

At the critical juncture when the Ukraine crisis is weighing on our minds, the US, the initiator of this crisis, is picking up its old trade of blame-shifting and buck-passing in the attempt to mislead the public, scapegoat other countries, and divert attention from its accountability by fabricating and spreading disinformation.

New York Times recently quoted the so-called western intelligence agency as saying that China warned Russia not to take action in Ukraine during Beijing Winter Olympics, even claiming that China was somewhat familiar with Moscows military plan. Coincidentally, an unnamed American senior official reportedly told China about Russias plan to attack Ukraine, whose warning however fell on deaf ears. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson solemnly dismissed such reports as fake news, saying that China firmly rejects the disinformation fabricated by the US to smear China.

Its crystal clear why and how the Ukraine issue has evolved to what it is today  it is the US-led NATO and its aggressive actions that have, step by step, pushed the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the brink of outbreak. During the leadup to the ongoing war, Washington had kept hyping up tension and fanning up flames in Ukraine, but as soon as the fire caught on, it began to twist facts, deflect attention, and scapegoat China by making groundless accusations, pretending not to see its own blood-covered hands. What a brilliant show of lying through its teeth and pinning the blame on others!

The past few decades are a track record of Americas misdeeds on this account. In 1999, holding up the banner of preventing a humanitarian crisis in Kosovo, the US-led NATO blatantly bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without authorization from the UN Security Council. The then Department of State Spokesperson Rubin publicly accused Kosovo of a racial cleansing, which later proved to be disinformation according to NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea.

In 2003, the US and its western allies started the eight-year-long Iraqi War on the grounds that the country owned weapons of mass destruction, which, however, still havent been found today.

In early April 2018, several American and western media reported chemical weapon attacks in Douma, Syria, following which the US attacked Syria. However, a British media producer Riam Dalati said in his article on social media in 2019 that his six-month-long investigation convinced him that the so-called chemical weapon attack in Douma was intentionally directed and staged.

An unlimited number of facts tell us that for the US, lying is just a normal part of its daily tricks and cheating the world is a necessary sleight of hand to preserve its hegemony. Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Rodriguez called the US adept at achieving its political goals through lying.

For some time now, the US has been calling black white, distorting facts, and concocting and spreading China-related rumors and lies in the international community to besiege and suppress China. The US government and some of its political groups and media platforms have all played a contemptible role in this.

The US government has spread rumors about Chinas Xinjiang in a well-planned and well-organized manner. The news agencies under the US Agency for Global Media knocked up fake news about Xinjiang in a dozen languages and asked media outlets in American allies for wider coverage. During Trumps term, the Republican National Committee circulated a 57-page memo to all factions in the party, which listed in great detail the anti-China assault moves and standard answers to be used when answering COVID-related questions.

Such tricks of confusing right and wrong and manipulating public opinions seriously deviate from the basic norms governing international relations and the human values of honesty and honor. Americas lies have been constantly debunked both by facts and visionary figures. We urge the US side to come back to its senses. Going further down the current path of lying and mudslinging will only accelerate the collapse of its credibility.
If you're looking to explore events outside Lancaster city this weekend, there are several fun options.

Among the events this weekend include a wedding-themed walk in Marietta, a school play production and a river park celebration in Columbia and a Ukraine benefit fundraiser in Ephrata.

Here are seven events to attend in Lancaster County this weekend.

Spring into the Park

Earlier this week, Columbia River Park started a spring-themed event celebrating the local community and the power of going outside. There are free outdoor activities, including giant Jenga, ring toss, bean bag toss, cornhole and more. Food trucks will also be on-scene each day of the multi-day event. The schedule changes by day, find the full itinerary here.

More information: Thursday through Saturday, varying times | Columbia River Park, 41 Walnut St., Columbia | Cost: Free admission, most activities free | More info

'The Lion King Jr.'

Columbia High School will host performances of its student production of Disney's "The Lion King Jr." through Saturday.

More information: Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. | Columbia High School, 901 Ironville Pike, Columbia | Cost: $8 for adults, $4 for seniors and students, free for children 5 years old and younger | More info

Comedy showcase

Comedian Johnny Lee Dam, who started performing in 1991, will headline a comedy showcase at Mickey's Black Box. Local comedians Audrie Marsh De Vitry, Charles Baynard, Manny Santiago and Jarrod McHale will also perform.

More information: Friday from 8 to 11 p.m. | Mickey's Black Box, 101 Rock Lititz Blvd., Lititz | Cost: $10 in advance, $15 the day-of | More info

Jaycee Park stream cleanup

The Manheim Township Sustainability Committee will host a clean-up of Jaycee Park this weekend. Volunteers are encouraged to wear long pants and closed-toe shoes. Gloves and trash bags will be provided. Rain date is Saturday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to noon.

More information: Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon | Lancaster Jaycee Park, 1026 Edgemoor Court, Lancaster | Cost: Free | More info

Ukraine benefit

The Bethany Slavic Church in Ephrata will host a fundraiser benefit for those impacted by the war in Ukraine. The event will feature speakers, food, a silent auction and Ukrainian Easter egg decorating (a tradition called Pysanky). Some proceeds go to the Ukraine Refugee Fund.

More information: Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. | Bethany Slavic Church, 864 Dawn Ave., Ephrata | Cost: Free admission, but participants are encouraged to donate funds while there | More info

Wedding walk

Planning a wedding? There will be several vendors and venue stops this Sunday in Marietta for a wedding-themed walk. Attendees will have access to talk with local bakers, florists, restaurateurs, officiants, painters and more.

More information: Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. | Event starts at The Cassel House, 316 E. Market St., Marietta | Cost: $5 | More info

Kulu Mele

Kulu Mele, an African drum and dance ensemble from Philadelphia, will perform at Franklin & Marshall. The group "preserves and presents traditional dance and Music of Africa and the African diaspora and celebrates contemporary African American culture," according to the event page on F&M's website.

More information: Sunday at 3 p.m. | Barshinger Center for Musical Arts, College Ave., Lancaster | Cost: $10 for general admission, $5 for faculty and professional staff at F&M, free for all students at any institution with a valid ID | More info
Police are warning county residents of a scam claiming to need gift cards to resolve a warrant.

The phone number that shows up on caller ID appears to be the real phone number for the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office and scammers are using the real names of police officers in the county, Northern Lancaster County Regional police said in a news release.

The caller tells people there is a warrant for their arrest and they can avoid going to jail by purchasing gift cards totaling $1,000 or more, police said.

The sheriff's department and police do not ask for money or gift cards and do not call those who have a warrant for their arrest.

If you're contacted by a scammer, police advise you should just hang up.
East Cocalico Township police

FLEEING POLICE

EAST COCALICO TWP.: Gordon Andresen, 30, of Denver, was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, driving while license is suspended for DUI and three summary traffic violations after accelerating away from officers when they attempted to pull him over in the 100 block of North Reamstown Road around 10:15 p.m. on March 19, police said. Andresen, who was later found to have a BAC of 0.04% at the time, eventually stopped in the 100 block of East Church Street where he was arrested and determined to be driving while his license was suspended due to a prior DUI, police said.

Lancaster city police

ASSAULT

LANCASTER: William Lamont Dorty, 40, who is homeless, was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct after assaulting a woman with a vehicle in the first block of Cedar Acres Drive around 3:30 p.m. on March 21, police said. Dorty drove to the womans house and began yelling at her and haranguing her, then threw items at her as multiple children watched from a school bus, police said. Dorty then accelerated his vehicle toward the woman, who ran behind a tree to avoid being struck, police said.

Lititz Borough police

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

LITITZ: Joshua L. Alexander, 47, of Lititz, was charged with two counts of child pornography, two counts of criminal use of a communication facility and disseminating photos of child sex acts after sharing three images of underage children being victimized sexually with another user on Facebook Messenger from his residence in the 400 block of East Front Street at 4:46 p.m. on March 15, 2021, police said.

Manheim Township police

BURGLARY

MANHEIM TWP.: Adam Lee Helman, 28, address unknown, was charged with burglary, theft by unlawful taking and criminal mischief after breaking into Kars on King at 8:15 a.m. on March 20 and stealing the keys to a 2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 valued at $14,950, police said. Officers found Helman in the stolen car later that day, after they were called to a report of suspicious activity in the 2300 block of Lincoln Highway East, police said.

Manor Township police

ASSAULT

MANOR TWP.: Shelby Morgan Acker, 26, of Conestoga, was charged with simple assault and harassment after assaulting a man and pulling a 68-year-old womans hair during a domestic disturbance in the first block of Oak Road around 9:15 p.m. on March 2, police said.

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

MANOR TWP.: Malachin Rosado, 22, of Lancaster, was charged with disorderly conduct after threatening an employee at a Tobias S. Frogg at 1766 Columbia Avenue at 12:24 a.m. on Feb. 26, police said. Rosado yelled at the employee that he was going to smoke you and dead you while making handgun gestures, police said.

DUI

MANOR TWP.: Elwood M. Roberson, 67, of York, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence, risking catastrophe, four counts of recklessly endangering another person and a summary traffic violation after crashing his propane delivery truck into a tractor-trailer and two other vehicles at River and Blue Rock roads at 3:22 p.m. on Feb. 11, police said. Roberson, who had a BAC of 0.210%, drove into oncoming traffic and struck the tractor while his propane truck was about 80% full, police said.

MANOR TWP.: Dylan G. Armstrong, 21, of Millersville, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence and a summary traffic violation after driving his vehicle into an outbuilding on a property in the 1400 block of Prospect Road at 2:59 a.m. on Feb. 18, police said. The property owner reported Armstrong, who was drunk at the time, police said.

HARASSMENT

MANOR TWP.: Orlando Cruz, 37, and Kristina Contes, 27, both of Lancaster, were each charge with harassment after injuring one another during a domestic altercation in the 300 block of Hampden Drive at 9:50 p.m. on Feb, 21, police said.

MANOR TWP.: John F. Himmelsbach, 29, of Lancaster, was charged with harassment after striking a person during a domestic dispute in the 100 block of Stable Drive at 8:51 p.m. on March 18, police said.

INDECENT ASSAULT

MANOR TWP.: Ventura Toj Martinez, 27, whose last known address was in Lancaster, was charged with indecent assault, corruption of minors and unlawful contact with a minor after inappropriately touching a minor in the 100 block of Nursery Lane sometime in early January, police said. Martinezs whereabouts are currently unknown, police said.

THEFT

MANOR TWP.: Arthur S. McHenry, 37, of Glen Mills, was charged with two counts of theft after renting a $4,775 GreenBroz dry flower trimmer from Plant Productions at 3626 Columbia Avenue on Dec. 11, 2020 and then failing to return it, police said. McHentry then took multiple items valued at $182.81 from the same Plant Productions on March 1, 2021 with the promise that he would return to pay for them, but failed to do so, police said.

New Holland police

THEFT

EARL TWP.: Breyan Tyler Lamb, 29, of New Holland, was charged with theft and criminal trespass after he was seen stealing a bicycle from outside a residence in the 800 block of North Railroad Avenue around 9:40 a.m. on March 22, police said. Lamb was later found in the 300 block of North Shirk Road, police said.

Northern Lancaster County Regional police

CRASH

WARWICK TWP.: An unidentified vehicle crashed into a parked car in the first block of Heron Road and then fled the scene without stopping sometime before 12:38 p.m. on March 19, police said.

DISTURBANCE

WARWICK TWP.: A customer refused to leave a McDonalds restaurant at 990 Lititz Pike after receiving less french fries than expected in her order at 4:38 p.m. on March 19, police said. The customer was issued a refund and no charges were filed, police said.

FRAUD

PENN TWP.: A business in the 700 block of West Newport Road was scammed out of more than $2,500 when a fraudulent check was cashed at 2:50 p.m. on March 19, police said.
State Rep. Jim Cox, whose 129th House District includes East Cocalico Township and Adamstown Borough, announced Wednesday he is not seeking reelection to a ninth term.

In the decennial legislative redistricting process, Coxs district lines changed significantly, losing both Lancaster County municipalities and adding part of Reading and its western suburbs. According to the Reading Eagle, the district now favors Democrats, whereas the former 129th was a solid GOP district.

Cox said he will cherish the memories and friendships made over the 15 years hes served in the House, where he currently serves as chairman of the Labor and Industry Committee.

So far, no candidate has filed petitions to run in the new 129th, according to the Department of States website.

Adamstown and East Cocalico will fall inside the newly drawn 99th House District, which straddles the Lancaster and Berks County lines. The district is currently represented by Republican Dave Zimmerman, who is gathering signatures for a planned run for a fifth term.
Legislation introduced in the Pennsylvania House this week would require the public posting of representatives expenses, a development coming just days after The Caucus reported that House leaders were not actively preparing to follow their Senate colleagues in giving the public more access to lawmakers spending on themselves.

The bill, sponsored by a York County Republican and cosponsored by two key leaders of the GOP-led House, would require all state House and Senate expenses to be made available online.

Lawmakers taxpayer-funded perks  like per diems and reimbursements  along with millions in office expenses, technology costs, furniture purchases and more, would be online in a searchable format starting next year under the bill from Rep. Keith Gillespie. Its expected to be voted out of committee as early as next Tuesday, said State Government Committee Chairman Rep. Seth Grove, R-York County.

The 50-member Senate began posting all its expenses monthly starting last September, a step the chamber took without passing a bill or amending its rules. (See the state Senate's monthly expenses here.)

For now, taxpayers still must file Right to Know Law requests to obtain House members spending information. Fulfilling those requests can take more than a month and still might produce records with redactions.

Expense reports for 2021 obtained by The Caucus showed that if the House had begun posting expenses last year, the public would have seen everything from the high-priced contracts for services like legal work, parking and document-copying to individual but costly purchases for technology like 65- to 85-inch Samsung televisions or a $144 selfie ring light with tripod stand. They also would have seen lawmakers who routinely collect per diems that reach almost $200 for a day, The Caucus reported earlier this week.

Those expenses and more were also highlighted in a series of stories last year by The Caucus and Spotlight PA, which found $203 million in lawmakers expenses over four years had received little transparency or scrutiny.

Gillespie said hes been posting his own expenses online for years and his bill was not in response to The Caucus reporting earlier this week. He said full transparency would put everyone on the same playing field.

Some of my colleagues or former colleagues have not necessarily been very transparent or in some cases abused the reimbursements, so this will hopefully put a safety net in place so those abuses will no longer happen, Gillespie said.

House Speaker Bryan Cutler, whose district spans much of the southern half of Lancaster County, is one of the few members to voluntarily post his office expenses on his website. He has said he supports full expense transparency.

But Cutler told The Caucus earlier this month that he believed the House should vote to change the rules to post members expenses. A proposed rules change had been discussed but was not introduced, Cutler's spokesman had said. Mike Straub, the spokesman, said Wednesday that Cutler supported a rules change or a bill and that he is supportive of Gillespie's effort.

Rank-and-file lawmakers, including many from Lancaster County, have repeatedly said they support full expense transparency measures.

Gillespies bill, if passed, would implement the expanded expenses transparency starting when the 2023-24 legislative session opens on Jan. 2, 2023.

Six Republican legislators have already signed on as co-sponsors, including two who would be most responsible for getting it passed in the House. Those are Grove, who chairs the committee where the bill would first get a vote, and Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Centre County Republican who would determine when the bill gets a vote on the House floor, where all 203 members would weigh in.

Increasing legislative transparency and ensuring Pennsylvanians have a government they can be proud of is something we have been prioritizing and examining all session, Benninghoffs spokesman, Jason Gottesman, said in a statement.

Grove said the bill will be up for a vote in the committee on Tuesday.

The bill specifically identifies the expenses to be posted would include legislators per diems, travel allowances and reimbursements, meals, lodging, district and Capitol office expenses, equipment, furniture, committee expenses and more.

Each expense would have to be thoroughly described in the public reports with the name of the lawmaker or employee who was paid or reimbursed, the date the expense was incurred and paid, the legislative purpose of the expense and the specific account from which the expense was paid.

The bill would require all the information to be presented in a format that is searchable by name, office, account and date.

A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Pittsburgh Democratic Sen. Lindsey Williams after The Caucus and Spotlight stories in May 2021. Though that bill never was brought up for votes, Senate leaders asked the chief clerk to begin posting expenses online and the monthly reports began later that summer.

The Caucus bureau chief Brad Bumsted contributed to this report.
THE ISSUE

As LNP | LancasterOnlines Nicole C. Brambila reported last Thursday, restaurateur Nick Barakos spent 36 days on life support last February struggling to breathe as a COVID-19 patient. He set a record as the COVID-19 patient who spent the longest time on a ventilator at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital. Grateful for his survival, Barakos recently donated $10,000 to WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital for the intensive care unit staff he credits with saving his life.

Wed all like to think that the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

Mandatory COVID-19 mitigation measures such as mask-wearing have been dropped in many places, schools included. Most of us are eager to enjoy the warmer months unencumbered by worrying about a virus that has claimed the lives of nearly a million Americans, and more than 1,640 Lancaster County residents.

But Nick Barakos still wears a KN-95 face mask in public, and he readily engages with anyone who asks him why.

I love it when people ask me that, Barakos, 57, owner of Kyma Seafood Grill and Johnnys Bar & Steakhouse in Stevens, told Brambila.

When questioned, he pulls out his cellphone to show the questioner photos of himself in the intensive care unit. One photo, shared with LNP | LancasterOnline, shows Barakos connected to a ventilator, a tube in his mouth, his face gaunt. After five weeks on a ventilator, his kidneys and liver began to shut down. At one point, his family members said, doctors gave him just a 30% chance of surviving. His older sister Vickie Saltos told Brambila that she was devastated.

Somehow, though, he survived.

He had lost 60 pounds from his 5-foot 10-inch frame and so much muscle mass he was too weak to raise a fork to eat, Brambila wrote. He even needed to learn how to walk again.

Barakos, who has a full gym in his basement, has always been strong and healthy, Brambila noted.

When he got infected with the novel coronavirus in early 2021, he was not yet vaccinated.

Now, he told Brambila that he mourns the loss of so many lives to COVID-19. Its a virus, Barakos said. It doesnt discriminate. I think we could have saved a lot more lives if people had gotten vaccinated.

He is right, of course.

So please, if you havent yet been vaccinated against COVID-19  or if youre eligible for a booster, but havent gotten it yet  dont make the mistake of assuming the virus is no longer a threat.

It is true, as LNP | LancasterOnlines Colin Evans reported Wednesday, that COVID-19 infections in Lancaster County continued their gradual decline last week. But, he noted, the decrease in hospitalizations stalled.

The number of patients hospitalized in the county with COVID-19 stood at 15 Tuesday. This is far from the last surges Jan. 12 peak of 233 patients, but it is not zero.

And this statistic reported by Evans is concerning: As of March 18, some 60.7% of eligible Lancaster County residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 48.5% of those fully vaccinated had received their booster shots.

Those numbers are not great.

We know COVID-19 vaccination and the recommended boosters are safe and effective at keeping people out of the hospital. We know this because physicians we trust have vouched for the vaccines. Those physicians include Lancaster County geriatrician Dr. Leon Kraybill, local pediatricians Dr. Pia Fenimore and Dr. Alexandra Solosko, and Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health infectious diseases specialist Dr. Joseph Kontra, as well as our own doctors and those at first-class medical schools such as Johns Hopkins.

We also know that this pandemic has had us fooled and feeling complacent before, only to bring us back to reality with a new variant and a new surge. Weve endured the delta and omicron variants, and now are looking warily at the omicron subvariant known as BA.2.

Virologist Andrew Pekosz at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is quoted on that schools website as saying that the omicron subvariant BA.2 will be moving through populations that are either unvaccinated, havent been boosted, or havent been infected recently. ... There are a significant number of people who either havent been vaccinated or havent been boosted in the U.S.  and boosting is really critical for maximizing your protection.

BA.2 is sweeping through parts of Europe. It is not believed to cause more severe disease than the original version of omicron, but its more infectious.

And many of us no longer are wearing masks or social distancing in public spaces.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that about 35% of new COVID-19 cases in the United States, and more than half of new cases in the Northeast, were caused by the BA.2 subvariant, which has been dubbed stealth omicron.

Its too soon to say whether BA.2 will cause significant problems in the United States. Or whether other variants will follow.

Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease doctor, said this Monday in a Harvard Medical School media briefing, according to The Washington Post: I think the bottom line is that we are living next to this volcano. And the volcano has not erupted recently, and thats great. But we still dont know when the volcano erupts, why the volcano erupts and whether the next eruption is going to be bigger or less big than the last one.

The good news is that Americans can get free COVID-19 tests now from the federal government (see covidtests.gov).

And there are vaccines and booster doses, which will keep most of us out of the hospital even if BA.2 gains a foothold here. But only if we avail ourselves of them.

Alionso Avril, a respiratory therapist and Pulmonary Services team leader at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital, wrote poignantly about Nick Barakos (without divulging his full name) in a recent LNP | LancasterOnline column.

Avril and the hospital's other respiratory therapists had spent a lot of time with Barakos, checking his ventilator at least every four hours  more often if its alarm sounded  turning his head every two hours and his whole body every 24.

At one point, Avril wrote, I said to myself, I am not sure if we have any chance of Nick surviving, but we might. Its almost like watching a movie over and over, but the ending is not always the same. Still, you hope.

So many did not survive. Barakos was among the lucky few to emerge from a lengthy stint on a ventilator.

Ephratas ICU clinical coordinator, Allison Sigman, referred to Barakos in a news release as our miracle, Brambila reported. And Barakos older sister said their family definitely won the lottery.

Few people win the lottery. Please get vaccinated and boosted if you havent already.
Closing Warren Lane Elementary in Inglewood Is a Terrible Decision

If you live in the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD), especially if you are Black and a property taxpayer, you should be concerned about the judgment of Dr. Erika Torres, County Administrator in charge of running Inglewood public schools.

Recently, Torres announced that IUSD is closing Warren Lane (aka Daniel Freeman) Elementary school.

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Parents and others in the community reacted swiftly, letting IUSD and the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) know that they opposed the decision. So far, Torres has largely ignored their disagreement and plowed ahead, leaving their concerns unaddressed.

IUSD, like many California school districts, for many years has experienced declining student enrollment. Since the 2003-04 school year, enrollment has decreased from about 18,000 students to approximately 7,750. As a result, the districts facilities capacity is roughly twice the amount needed to accommodate its students. So, Torres decision to close some of Inglewood schools is fiscally and operationally appropriate.

To assist local educational agencies in selecting which schools to shut down, the California Department of Education developed the Closing a School Best Practices Guide (CASBPG). School districts usually form a School Closing/Consolidation Committee (SCCC) to recommend which schools to close.

Torres formed a pseudo SCCC which allows her to say that the committee recommended closing Warren Lane. But when you view the videos of the SCCC meetings the recommendation actually came from Total School Solutions (TSS), a consulting firm whose business license was suspended by the Franchise Tax Board while it was providing advice to IUSD.

TSSs recommendation criterion relies on current school enrollment and projected future enrollment as the primary factors identifying schools to be closed.

However, it seems, IUSD and TSS totally disregarded the Closing a School Best Practices Guide (CASBPG), which advises, The most obvious criterion, a school with declining enrollment, is not necessarily the best.

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According to CASBPG, it was bad judgment by Torres to adopt TSSs simplistic criterion. Using this criterion will lead IUSD to close the schools it should keep open while keeping open schools it should close.

Another indicator of Torres bad judgment is the fact that she did not involve the Warren Lane community before making her decision. She blindsided them when she made her decision to close the school.

Warren Lane is the kind of school IUSD should keep active in its portfolio of schools. It is in a safe, stable neighborhood offering an ideal environment for educating students.

The schools that Torres is opting to keep open are located under the flight path of LAX or near commercial businesses; exposed to freeway noise and air pollution; and alongside inherently unsafe, high traffic roads. She is keeping open four schools that are older than Warren Lane and seven with greater projected modernization costs.

Warren Lane has IUSDs lowest enrollment. But that is because it is arguably the most neglected school in the district. Bond money promised for facility upgrades was diverted to other schools.

IUSD offers open enrollment, meaning students can opt to attend any school in the district. Enrollment reflects how well the school is maintained and the programs it offers. IUSD can attract students to Warren Lane by using its bond money to upgrade the school and offering rigorous academic programs and popular extracurricular activities.

It is not clear if Torres considered that closing Warren Lane would leave IUSD with only one majority African American school. Or whether being in a majority African American section of Inglewood where the houses are among the highest value in the city should be a reason to keep the school open.

Closing Warren Lane creates a school desert in the middle of zip code 90305. It disenfranchises highly taxed property owners unfairly, forcing them to support schools located in other parts of the school district.

Torres decision may add to the school districts declining enrollment problem because IUSD is not guaranteed that children attending Warren Lane would go to other IUSD schools. Also, voters in the neighborhood would likely not be supportive of future bond measures because its school was closed.

Torres became Inglewoods County Administrator about two years ago. She had never overseen a school district, so she lacks experience making these kinds of decisions. She is supported in her decision by Dr. Debra Duardo, Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools. Because IUSD is in state receivership, the county oversees its schools.

Duardo is Torres boss, and she is fully aware of the reasons why there is opposition to closing Warren Lane, but she is betting that the people she reports to, the Los Angeles County Board of Education and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, view this as an inconsequential decision.

The LACOE Board and the Board of Supervisors have a responsibility to the residents of the Inglewood Unified School District to make sure administrators are making good judgments and following proper procedures on their behalf.

The LACOE Board or the Board of Supervisors can resolve this dispute by directing a Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) or other independent agency to investigate how the recommendation to close Warren Lane was developed. That team should investigate whether IUSD conducted a sufficient review of factors. If not, the decision to close Warren Lane should be rescinded.

Both Duardo and Torres have said to the community, we understand that these decisions are difficult. But acknowledgement is not adequate. They owe parents and the community an explanation of all the factors that led IUSD to closing Warren Lane and visibility to the process through which that decision was made.
by Xinhua writer Wang Xinyi

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Sanctions-addicted Washington is again slapping "penalties" on other countries, targeting Beijing recently with a repeatedly trumped-up charge of human rights violations.

Its ideologically-driven move involving visa restrictions on Chinese officials is yet another malicious trick to contain Beijing by trying to stir up trouble and inflict turmoil on Chinese territory with unwarranted "human rights" allegations.

In fact, the United States has long abused the concepts of "human rights" as a pretext to trample upon international norms and clamor for pressure on other countries including China and as a fig leaf to disguise its despicable history and morbid obsession with supremacy.

It has been peddling completely fabricated lies about Xinjiang such as the so-called "genocide" and "forced labor," based on which it went on to ban imports from there, pressure allies to take sides and politicize the Beijing Winter Olympics.

But lies cannot bear scrutiny. The Uygur population in Xinjiang has doubled to more than 12 million over the past 40 years, while the gross domestic product there has surged by more than 200 times in the past six-plus decades. Absolute poverty has been eliminated. Jobs in the cotton industry pay well and are competitive.

Any sober mind can tell that the more Washington seeks to attack others as a self-proclaimed human rights "preacher," the more it exposes itself as a de facto human rights violator at home and abroad.

In its short history, the United States physically slaughtered, geographically expelled and culturally assimilated Native Americans, and conducted systemic ethnic cleansing against Native Americans over more than a century after the country was founded.

During the period between 1887 and 1933, Native Americans lost about 90 million acres of land. From the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the Indian population nosedived from 5 million to 250,000 -- a real genocide.

There are approximately 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States, and up to 100,000 people were trafficked into the country for forced labor annually over the past five years, studies showed.

Meanwhile, behind a lucrative private prison business is a significant number of U.S. prisoners who have been forced to work for nearly nothing.

In a new poll jointly conducted with NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the Associated Press found that black Americans, many of whom held hope in Democrats' promises on racial justice initiatives in 2020, are especially pessimistic about future progress in achieving racial equality in policing.

Instead of waking up to its bleak reality at home of rampant gun violence, a widening wealth gap, a botched COVID-19 response leading to the death of over 970,000 Americans and deeply entrenched racial divisions stifling people like George Floyd, Washington has chosen to find fault with the human rights records of other countries.

Human rights are "now being used as a cudgel, as a pretext" for the West, especially the United States to "dominate the globe," Daniel Kovalik, human rights expert and lawyer at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, has warned.

Washington's latest decision to divert billions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets to the families of 9/11 victims is rubbing salt into the wounds of millions of suffering Afghan people. By robbing the Afghan people of their life-saving money, it has aggravated the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

To salvage itself from a credit bust, Washington is faced with two choices: to quit using human rights as weapons to destabilize and smear other countries and focus instead on rectifying its own human rights abuses, or perhaps, to sanction itself first so as to disprove the "double standard" charges often leveled at it by people across the world.
Deadline for Business Property Statements Fast Approaching

From the Assessors Office

Theres a deadline fast approaching that oftentimes is overlooked but is significant nevertheless  the Business Property Statements. And the deadline is here.

Each year Business Property Statements, which provide a basis for determining property tax assessments for business equipment and related fixtures, are mailed by my office to most commercial, industrial and professional firms.

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Businesses with personal property with an aggregate cost of $100,000 or more must file a Business Property Statement each year by April 1. This is required by state law. However, you have until May 7 to file. After that a 10% penalty will be applied. Business inventory is exempt from taxation.

Generally, businesses with total personal property that cost less than $100,000 are not required to file a Business Property Statement annually. Instead, a value may be established based on an initial Business Property Statement filing or by an on-site appraisal. That value may be adjusted by subsequent annual on-site appraisals. Please note that if my office mails you a form, you are required by law to return the form regardless of the amount of personal property.

Business Personal Property is typically all property owned or leased by a business except Real Property and Inventory items.

Business Personal Property includes, but is not limited to:

Machinery

Computers

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Office Equipment (e.g. FAX machines, photocopiers)

Telephones

Furniture (e.g. desks, chairs, bookcases)

Supplies

Its important to remember that Business Personal Property is valued annually as of January 1. If you were in business or owned personal property on that day and have the required amount of property, you are required to file, even if the Assessor does not mail one to you. Business Property Statements are private documents and are held confidential by my office.

Having said that, I understand this has been a very difficult year for many businesses and I am inviting you to provide me with information about your business equipment for the possibility of some relief. The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have had a negative impact on the value of many business assets, such as gyms, hotels and movie theaters, while others not so much. Businesses that were operating on Jan. 1 but then regrettably had to shutter are going to be considered. Make no mistake about this, I intend to be proactive about these reductions. As an example, our office proactively reduced Business Personal Property for about 47,000 businesses countywide last year.

Property taxes are based on the assessed value of your property. I also think its important to note that the very reason for our property taxes is to support vital public services provided to all of us, including law enforcement, fire protection, education, parks and recreation, as well as roads.

Property tax bills show land and improvement values. Improvements include all assessable buildings and structures on the land. In general, properties that are owned and used by educational, charitable, religious or government organizations may be exempt from certain property taxes. You may also qualify for certain exemptions.

The bureaucratic name for the Business Personal Property form is the 571-L and as I mentioned it must be filed no later than May 7 to avoid a penalty. However, May 7 falls on a weekend this year so the deadline is actually May 9. To file the form online or just to learn more about this go to https://assessor.lacounty.gov/businessowners/business-prop-statement-filing.

Finally, if you want to contact us by phone, please call (213) 974-3211 or (888) 807-2111 toll-free.

Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang has been in office since 2014. Upon taking office, Prang implemented sweeping reforms to ensure that the strictest ethical guidelines rooted in fairness, accuracy and integrity would be adhered to in his office, which is the largest office of its kind in the nation with 1,400 employees and provides the foundation for a property tax system that generates $17 billion annually.
Debt Relief Mindfully

With COVID-19 in effect for over two years, health professionals have been put to extraordinary tests. But, even with an increased need for frontline workers, many still believe that theres a dire need for more people of color in health care. People aspiring to work in medical professions are often faced with the challenges of being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after they graduate.

This is what led to the creation of Shared Harvest Fund. A social enterprise founded by Dr. NanaEfua Afoh-Manin and her fellow colleagues, Dr. Briana Young, and Dr. Joanne Moreau, this organization is the only one of its kind that offers a student loan debt relief incentive program during the pandemic.

The Shared Harvest Fund creates equitable opportunities to access higher education by leveraging empathy-driven technology to connect borrowers with the chance to be servant leaders in their own neighborhoods while reducing their burdens of student loans. Their unique form of loan forgiveness offers borrowers the privilege to improve their mental health by not having to stress about loan debt or take resources from communities in need.

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The organization started four years ago as a volunteer management platform that was like Tindr meets the peace Corps, matching people with nonprofit organizations, and built a rewards program that allowed people to work in exchange for paying off their student loans.

Shared Harvest Fund stands on four pillars: financial equity, health equity, digital equity, and education. These platforms are interrelated, especially in regard to struggles with finding health professionals of color.

There is a network, said Dr. Nana, but its hard to find! This is because the pipeline of getting BIPOC providers through school and graduated is very narrow. With most of our young professional being first-generation college students as well as first-generation doctors, PAs (physician assistants), and nurses, people fail to mention this six-figure student debt that they carry with them that also limits where they practice and who they provide service to.

Dr. Nana specifically went on to mention how Shared Harvest is taking an honest look at the debt Black women face due to student loans.

Black women face the largest percentage of student loan debt than any other group, but yet we have the highest volunteer record. Our service hours per equivalence to our work hours are much higher than other groups.

She also states that with healthcare needing to go through an entire transformation to make it equitable, we already know who is going to be at the frontline. We cant ask Black women to be at the frontline without taking care of their backline, which is student loans.

Dr. Nana went on to explain that with Shared Harvest Funds active program of decreasing student loans in real time, while actively making strides towards ones medical profession, will make more people become interested and engaged in making healthcare better.

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Since the start of the pandemic, Shared Harvest Fund is more focused on health technology, and working to enhance resources for communities of color. They have even gone as far as creating a telehealth app, myCOVIDmd.

With the pandemic, most people get health insurance or access to providers through telehealth services. However, it usually takes about six weeks to see the medical professional you need, or even get your medical insurance. Our telehealth app is a free public health platform that links users with a network of providers from general physicians to OGYNs to PAs, Dr. NanaEfua Afoh-Manin, also known as Dr. Nana, told the Los Angeles Sentinel.

This app provides the service of simply answering peoples medical questions. Dr. Nana and her colleagues temporarily provided people with healthcare homes where they would assist in providing prescriptions, find out where clients could get tested for specific medical conditions, and even talked to providers to ensure conversations about loved ones in hospitals were clear and understood.

We became that bridge, and naturally realized that providers of color care about people getting lost in the shuffle and falling out of the cracks. We were building a need that goes beyond the pandemic, so our app is about providing access to services for those who need them, explained Dr. Nana.

Shared Harvest Fund has also worked to give back to their communities by hosting pop-up COVID testing block parties around Los Angeles neighborhoods.

We hire DJs and have music, and people come together for connection while gaining information and news. We noticed in COVID, that Black people will often talk to their neighbors or friends about their healthcare before they call a doctor. These block parties were intentional in bringing out the block, and getting people educated with correct information about COVID so when they talk about it and spread news around, its correct.

These events were created to debunk myths, and let people know that theres an organization dedicated to building networks of trust with communities in need. Theyve had around eighty pop-up events, testing over 30,000 people and administering 8,000 vaccines.

With Shared Harvest Fund being an organization created by Black women, these entrepreneurs have run into challenges alongside their prosperous journey.

Black Girl Gold is amazing, but Its not easy to get, said Dr. Nana as she discussed having issues building the right team. People dont always understand the work it takes to create impact. You have to be selective in the people you build with.

However, even with this, Dr. Nana is proud of her organization as well as the work that her and her partners have put into their mission. We designed this organization to fill in a gap and stand strong within our community. I think we do it well.

As 2022 continues, Shared Harvest has a campaign to raise $20M in student debt cancellation for frontline health providers by the end of the year. Dr. Nana and her colleagues are also working to improve the mental health and financial security for BIPOC professionals and educate people more about health equity legislation.

We want a seat at the table of the committee. We wont stop til we get there.

For more information about Shared Harvest Fund, or any of their pop-up parties, visit: https://www.sharedharvestfund.org.
Explainer: Whats Behind the Federal Anti-Lynching Legislation?

President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law the first bill that specifies lynching as a federal hate crime. The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, which Congress passed on March 7, enables the prosecution of crimes as lynchings if they are done during a hate crime in which the victim is injured or slain.

A 2020 version of the bill set the maximum sentence as 10 years. The one Biden will sign comes with 30 years in prison and fines for anyone conspiring to commit an act of lynching that causes death or injury.

The House approved the bill 422-3 with eight members not voting. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent. Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush introduced this version in January 2021. He had introduced a bill as well in January 2019 and the House passed the bill 410-4, but that one stalled in the Senate.

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Lynching has always been a terrorist weapon in the hands of racists in the history of our nation, Rush said in an interview earlier this year. Just as important, he added, is that it remains so _ a continuing weapon to promote racialized terror.

Here is a deeper look at the bill.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

In 2015, the Equal Justice Initiative issued a report that detailed more than 4,400 documented racial terror lynchings of Black people in America between 1877 and 1950.

The Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit later reported that during the 12-year period of Reconstruction following the U.S. Civil War, at least 2,000 Black women, men and children were victims of lynchings.

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is clearly symbolic, in addition to having teeth, said Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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No doubt about that, especially given the long road its taken to have any federal anti-lynching legislation, at all, Hewitt said, adding that the 30-year sentence is valuable because state charges and convictions are not guaranteed to stand. Even if they somehow are able to appeal the underlying sentence, you still have the federal charge.

Acts of violence, including those where the race of the victim is a factor, are covered under state laws, according to Matthew Countryman, Afroamerican and African Studies chair at the University of Michigan.

States, particularly in the South, have been unwilling to enforce these laws, Countryman said. In the 1960s, he said, the Justice Department began charging people with violations of civil rights. The anti-lynching law is another tool, Countryman said. But you need a Justice Department thats willing to prosecute.

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WHAT IS LYNCHING, PRECISELY?

Lynching typically is understood to mean illegal mob actions that result in the slaying of a person based on race without due process for the victim. It became prevalent in the United States, especially in the nations South, during Reconstruction and extended through the end of the 1800s and into the 1900s.

Most often the victims were Black, but people of Mexican and Asian descent also were victimized because of their skin color and ethnicity. For Black Americans, lynching was meant to instill fear and terror, and was used to keep them from voting, protesting and pursuing education.

Public lynchings were warnings to the Black community, said Ersula Ore, associate professor of African and African American studies and rhetoric at Arizona State University and author of Lynching: Violence, Rhetoric, & American Identity.

It was during Reconstruction that Americas modern definition of lynching as an act of white solidarity and a racialized form of social control was forged, she said.

___

ARE THERE RECENT EXAMPLES OF LYNCHING?

Says Rush, the bills sponsor: Lynching is just covered in a different camouflage. The rope has been replaced with a shotgun and semi-automatic weapons.

Some examples of what could fall under that definition:

The 2020 slaying of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia, in which the 25-year-old was jogging when he was followed by three white men in pickup trucks and killed. A federal jury recently determined that incident was motivated by racial hatred.

The 2015 fatal shootings of the Black pastor and eight other Black congregants at Emmanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by Dylann Roof.

In 1998, James Byrd, Jr., a Black man, was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck near Jasper, Texas, by white men. An avowed racist was executed in 2019 for Byrds killing. John William King had a tattoo on his body of a Black man with a noose around his neck hanging from a tree, according to authorities.

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WHY PASS A FEDERAL ANTI-LYNCHING LAW RIGHT NOW?

Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation more than 120 years ago. It had failed to pass anti-lynching legislation nearly 200 times, starting with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep. George Henry White, the only Black member of Congress at the time.

In the early 1920s, the NAACP began its efforts to pass an anti-lynching bill. Federal hate crime legislation eventually was passed in the 1990s _ decades after the civil rights movement.

What the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act does is nationally acknowledge what Black folks have always known, and that is that racialized violence is endemic to Americas way of life, Ore said.

___

WHO WAS EMMETT TILL?

Till, 14, was visiting relatives in Mississippi, from his home in Chicago in 1955 when it was alleged that he whistled at a white woman. He was kidnapped, beaten and shot in the head. A large metal fan also was tied to his neck with barbed wire. Tills body then was thrown into a river. His mother insisted on an open funeral casket to show the world what had been done to her child.

Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were accused, but acquitted by a jury composed entirely of white men. Bryant and Milam later told a reporter that they kidnapped and killed Till.

Countryman called Tills mothers actions an extraordinary campaign of shame on the nation.
First But Not Last: Black Girls See Themselves in Court Pick

In 2013, as she watched President Barack Obamas second inauguration, 7-year-old Veronica Bofah decided she wanted to be just like him. She would go to Harvard and one day be president, too.

Nine years later, the memories are fuzzy, but she remembers everyone around her pointing to Barack and Michelle Obama as the power couple of the moment, and how few Black leaders, especially Black women, she learned about in school.

`At that age, I didnt see many influential Black figures who went to Ivy League or really elite schools, Bofah said. I like to put quotations around that because its very subjective, but that time period was when I started idolizing him. Thats what led me to want to become a role model to other young girls who like look like me.

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Now 17, Bofah has shifted her sights from the presidency to law school. The teenager from Charlotte, North Carolina, wants to represent vulnerable people like immigrants and children who are at a disadvantage when it comes to navigating the legal system. To see Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Black woman and former public defender, nominated to the Supreme Court, felt both empowering and affirming of her own path forward.

Having someone who knows what its like to support clients who are disadvantaged in the system  I think thats kind of what makes her unique, Bofah said.

For Black girls, the possibility of Jackson being the first Black woman on the Supreme Court is a moment of promise, hope and the breaking of yet another barrier. But while the symbolism resonates deeply, many are hungry for deeper change that goes beyond just representation.

Rachel McBride, an 18-year-old high school senior in Atlanta, likened the moment more to a glass elevator than a glass ceiling, moving one level up, while keeping in mind the many more levels left to go.

Its great to be the first, but you never want to be the last, McBride said. One singular person cant be the one to make change. It has to be followed up by more and more people that are willing to make change.

When barriers are broken, McBride said, it is often followed by backlash or a feeling that marginalized communities should be satisfied with the symbolism. While Jackson would bring an invaluable perspective to the court, McBride said, it is not lost on her that the balance of the court would remain unchanged if Jackson were confirmed.

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Already, some have tried to diminish Jacksons nomination as affirmative action or discrimination against white people. Whether that strategy continues as her Senate hearing gets underway Monday is something that will be widely watched.

But those who say that are failing to see how unimpeachable Jacksons accomplishments are, McBride said, from the judges Ivy League degree to her experience on the bench.

McBride said it reminded her of attending a summer camp for media studies at the University of Georgia a few years ago. She said she did twice the work of her classmates but was still accused of slacking off by the instructor.

The really, really stressful thing about being Black, specifically being a Black woman, is that you have to be the best in order to get anywhere, McBride said.

For Black girls, seeing someone like Jackson, the way she wears her hair, her darker complexion, having a name with African origins, fully embrace her Blackness and ascend to the top of the American judicial system is a reminder that they should not have to shrink themselves in order to succeed.

Breana Fowler, a 17-year-old high school senior in Charlotte who wants to become a lawyer, said her mother used to joke that she would become the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice. To see the moment at hand much sooner than either of them thought possible, with someone like Jackson in the role, remains surreal.
Go Disco App Compiles L.A. Activities for African Americans

Ever imagined what it would be like to explore the city of Los Angeles with events catered specifically to you. Or maybe you already live in L.A. and you want to find new friends to hang out with and share fun experiences throughout the City of Angels. A top-rated social app that is designed specifically to your wants and needs is the solution you have been long awaiting.

As the pandemic begins to slowly change how we interact with each other on a day-to-day basis, plenty of opportunities to connect with friends and be social begins to rise. In the L.A.-area, there are plenty of fun, high quality events and social activities to attend. The only problem is, many people do not know where to access or find these events and activities to participate and meet new people. But dont worry, Go Disco is here for you!

Go Disco allows you to filter your likes and preferences to help compile a list of social activities that you might be interested in. These events help people connect more with the outside world and to have fun! This post-modern tech company, Go Disco, was established to help benefit the community by providing events and social gatherings to help focus on the mental health of the users.

When asked about the main focus of the company, CEO and founder Sean Conrad said, The company wants to inspire people to get off-line and connect with friends, family, and other people in the community who might share similar interests.

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This Los Angeles-based company focuses on different initiatives that are tailored toward everyone, with a large majority being fit for African Americans, specifically women of color. A large portion of the events that are covered within the company are women-owned businesses. According to Conrad, the brand is set on making sure that everyone feels included, no matter your race or gender.

We have this hunger to make sure that we are diverse and inclusive for women and their impactful experiences and stories. Our user base is 70% women, so we use that to make our experiences high quality, enjoyable, and unique, said Conrad.

Some of the events and social activities Go Disco has promoted on their platform include:

Chill Out at LAs 1 st Black Women Owned Dispensary ( Gorilla RX Wellness )

Get Inked at an All-Female Tattoo Shop ( The Painted Lady LA )

Have a Shopping Spree at a Female and Black Owned Boutique ( The Doll House Los Angeles )

Visit the Biddy Mason Memorial Park

Make your home as unique as yours at this black-owned home decor store ( Tansy )

As for the future of Go Disco, Conrad stated that the company is growing day by day, as well as improving the niche for the people that use the app.

You can now find Go Disco in the App Store today. Although the app is only available on Apple products, Go Disco will be coming to Android soon!
THE 19TH: BLACK WOMENS QUALIFICATIONS HAVE LONG BEEN QUESTIONED. KETANJI BROWN JACKSONS ALLIES WERE PREPARED.

In the days and weeks leading up to the announcement that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson would be the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House and groups supporting her nomination prepared for potential lines of attack.

The possibilities were fairly predictable, with many of them rooted in tropes pushed on Black women for decades: Is she even qualified for this position? Are her views too radical? Is she too angry? Does her race make her biased?

Vicious, racist, sexist tropes have long been levied against Black women, said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and member of the Black Womens Leadership Collective, which has worked in tandem with the White House on messaging efforts around Jacksons nomination. These are outlandish tropes, but theyre designed to undermine Black women based on stereotypes, based on trying to play to peoples worst instincts and fears.

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Fueled by that history, Jacksons supporters quickly emerged to fend off questions about her credentials. The White House sought support from a range of interested parties, including Black-led organizations, legal academics and law enforcement. The Biden administration has also promoted endorsements from high-profile conservatives.

From her first event as a nominee at the White House on February 25, Jacksons introduction to the public cast her as a choice who is both exceptionally qualified and relatable to a range of experiences. Shes the daughter of teachers who were educated at historically Black colleges. She was a star debater at her Miami high school and went on to graduate from Harvard University twice. She has worked in private practice and as a federal public defender. She has familial ties to law enforcement.

With Jacksons confirmation hearings set to begin on March 21, the criticism against her has largely leaned away from questions about the merit of her nomination, focusing instead on what kind of justice she might be.

I dont know that it was necessarily strategic as much as it was truth telling, Rev. Leah Daughtry, a member of the Black Womens Leadership Collective and a former CEO of the Democratic National Convention, said of the messaging campaigns about Jackson. This is her background. They didnt have to embellish it, make it up, or go find some hidden facts. If that has the added effect of blunting criticism, so be it.

The Black Womens Leadership Collective was formed in the summer of 2020 to rally support for then-candidate Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, who faced racist and sexist commentary when her presence on the ticket was announced. When Biden promised in a 2020 presidential debate that he would nominate a Black woman to become a justice, Daughtry said she knew it would be important for networks like hers to be a firewall for the future nominee and her family as they deal with the stressful and politically charged nomination process.

The collective partnered with the pro-Biden nonprofit Building Back Together and the #SheWillRise campaign to launch a $1 million digital, television and radio ad campaign. Graduating with honors from Harvard Law, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has seen all sides of the justice system up close, as a federal judge, public defender and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Confirmed three times by the U.S. Senate, shes qualified and exceptional, one ad stated.

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The Black Womens Leadership Collective and other Black organizations have also held in-person and online meetings to educate the public about Jacksons story and to put pressure on senators to confirm her. At a rally outside the Supreme Court on March 10, members of Black Womens Roundtable, the National Council of Negro Women, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Council of Jewish Women gathered.

Speaker after speaker repeated that Jackson was not only qualified, but overqualified for the Supreme Court seat. But, like many Black women, she has faced doubts about her abilities at various points in her life, including a guidance counselor who reportedly told her not to set her sights too high when she expressed interest in attending Harvard.

Delisa Saunders, a 65-year-old Washington, D.C., resident who attended the rally, told The 19th that aspects of Jacksons story reflect her own experiences attending a White school in segregated Richmond, Virginia.

When I read above my grade level, the librarian banned me from the library, Saunders said. I had all kinds of experiences with people doubting me as a child, but instead of that defeating me, it just invigorated me even more.

While Black women have been vocal supporters of Jacksons nomination, with the added awareness of how her qualifications were likely to be downplayed, support has come from a range of legal experts and groups invested in the judicial process.One letter signed by 850 women law professors and submitted to Senate leaders on International Womens Day pointed out that Jackson was confirmed with votes from three Republican senators just last summer. Additionally, they said, having four women on the countrys highest court would bring important representation.

The mere visual of four women participating in deciding this countrys most important issues would be inspirational to young Americans, the professors wrote in their letter. The perspective and life experiences of these four women would inform their decision-making and help the entire Court understand the perspective of the majority of American citizens.

Jackson also got quick endorsements from leading conservatives and groups that often align with them. The day her name was announced, she received a statement of support from the Fraternal Order of Police, which reports nearly 400,000 members. From our analysis of Judge Jacksons record and some of her cases, we believe she has considered the facts and applied the law consistently and fairly on a range of issues, the FOPs statement read. There is little doubt that she has the temperament, intellect, legal experience, and family background to have earned this appointment.

In a subsequent statement, the FOP said that about a week before Bidens announcement, the organization was contacted by White House staff members who asked for a reaction to three of the potential nominees, including Jackson, federal district judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court justice Leondra Kruger. The group said they found Jackson to have the most moderate court rulings.

In a statement obtained by CNN and released on February 28, retired appellate court Judge J. Michael Luttig wrote that Republicans prematurely judged Bidens potential nominee when the president first reiterated his promise to nominate a Black woman. Multiple Republican lawmakers criticized Biden at the time for what they asserted was discrimination toward other qualified people. Luttig, who was appointed in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, added in his statement that Jackson is eminently qualified and highly credentialed for the high court.

On March 3, another letter signed by 25 conservative leaders circulated online, asking senators to look beyond politics and to focus on the accomplished background that Jackson can add to the court.

The reason we wrote this letter was because we thought that this is a no brainer. Heres a person who is totally qualified, everybody ought to be able to rally around and say, Shes terrific and should be confirmed, Donald Ayer, a former deputy U.S. attorney general under H.W. Bush, and the lead organizer for the letter, told The 19th.

A March 10 letter addressed to Senate leadership obtained by Fox News and circulated by the White House featured an endorsement from 83 Democratic and Republican former state attorneys general who restated the value of Jacksons legal experience and called for a quick confirmation.
Legendary Jazz & Blues Artist Barbara Morrison Passes at 72

Barbara Morrison came into the world on September 10, 1949. Born in a Michigan suburb, Ypsilanti, Morrison always had a strong love of music, and at the young age of ten, she recorded her first radio appearance in Detroit.

In the 1970s, the talented artist moved to Los Angeles where her precious voice filled the rooms of many Southern California residences.

A known lover of her community, in 2009, she founded the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center in Leimert Park, allowing music fans the gift of listening to live Jazz, Blues, and Soul music from musicians around the world. Morrison provided free music and vocal lessons to children, and even gave them numerous opportunities to perform on her stage.

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In 2011 Barbara Morrison opened another Leimert Park exhibit, the California Jazz & Blues Museum, which celebrated the rich history of legendary Jazz and Blues musicians and vocalists with photos. While doing this, she also served as an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies in the Global/Ethnomusicology Department of UCLA.

Morrisons two and half octave range, melodic voice is known worldwide. She is known for singing rich, high-spirited, and soulful interpretations of familiar Jazz and Blues classics as well as contemporary music.

As a vocalist, the legendary was featured on two Grammy Award-nominated album and a third Grammy Award nominated album with Barbara Morrisons Blue Lady Records as producer. She performed a diverse array of genres from traditional Jazz and Blues to Gospel and Pop.

Over the course of her career, Morrison has performed with a virtual Whos Who of the Jazz and Blues worlds, which included a number of legendary artists such as Ray Charles, Etta James, Johnny Otis and Kenny Burrell. Shes also guest-starred with the Count Basie Orchestra, The Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, and Doc Severinsens Big Band.

Morrisons art will live on in American history forever. Shes been commemorated with several awards, receiving the Living Legend Award from the Living Legend Foundation and the Jammin Foundation, LACMA/LA Jazz Societys LA Treasures Award, and Motowns Hal Award.

A legendary Jazz and Blues artist, Morrisons death has left a heavy shock and saddening within the Los Angeles community. Barbara Morrison, journeyed to Heavens gates on March 16, 2020. She is survived by her brother, Richard Morrison, two sisters, Pamela Morrison-Kersey and Armetta Morrison, along with ten nieces and nephews.

A public viewing for Barbara Morrison for the people of Los Angeles to pay their respects will be Saturday, March 26, 2022 at Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship (2085 South Hobart Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90018) from 11 AM to 1 PM. A Celebration of Barbaras Life will be at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center (4305 Degnan Blvd. #101 Los Angeles, CA 90008) at 2 PM with live music and testimonies from fans and loved ones. Parking will be limited to TV Network News Trucks.

Please keep in mind that the public viewing will be an open casket viewing. Face masks are strongly encouraged while in the church. Morrisons family asks that, in lieu of flowers, people send donations to Barbaras GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-incredible-barbara-morrison

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Barbara Morrison dedicated sixty years of her life to her illustrious music career and her community, while filling our homes and hearts with her magical voice. Her vibrant music and spirit will forever be with us. Rest in Peace to a world-class leader, honorable woman, and Living Legend.

The Morrison Family Statement:

A treasure has been called home to rest peacefully and eternally. Our Matriarch was loved and treasured by the city of LA, and across nations overseas. But mostly, she was treasured by her family. During this time we ask for patience and prayer as we honor her life and come together to pay tribute to her. Thank you for the love, support, and tributes. We see you! God Bless You All.
Masks Are Coming Off, But the CA Housing Industry Remains Unstable  IERC Provides Housing Counseling to Keep You In Your Home

Millions of California homeowners face foreclosure, eviction, and never being able to afford to buy their own home. With people feeling like there is nowhere to turn for help, the Inland Empire Resource Center (IERC) is pushing to educate people about housing, seek housing counseling, and use Californias FREE resources for help in keeping ones home.

On March 17, the IERC held a virtual briefing discussing the California housing crisis. The meeting titled, Mask Are Coming Off, But the CA Housing Crisis Still Remains Unstable, discussed the importance of housing education and how vital it is for renters as well as future and already-existing homeowners.

IERC is a nonprofit organization committed to rebuilding the American Dream. They stand on a belief that housing education and housing counseling programs prove to be extremely beneficial in helping address the challenges of post-foreclosure and eviction stress disorder.

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They want to educate people that FREE housing counseling, from real people, is available across the state.

As of January, there were 721,000 families who owe more than $3.3 billion in back rent. People usually think this a problem solely for renters, but its more about mom-and-pop landlords who actually make up a large portion of homeowners in California, explained Eric Johnson, an information officer with the Marketing and Communications Division of the California Housing Finance Agency.

Johnson continued, These are owners of duplexes and quadplexes who rent out their properties in California and rely on rent to upkeep their homes for renters as well as make up their mortgage payments.

In their National Mortgage Settling Counseling Program, the state of California has about $73.5 million to help people get free counseling at many HUD-approved counseling agencies across the state.

According to the Attorney Generals Office, by using these resources, California homeowners are 60% more likely to avoid foreclosure, secure loan modifications, and even lower monthly payments with the partnership of housing counseling that is tailored for each individual client.

With this, Johnson said that people should be very cautious of counselors who try to charge you for their housing counseling services.

Thats bad. Theres a lot of fraud going on with these services. We want to get the message out that you want to talk to a HUD-approved counselor. Those are people that can help you out, and their help is FREE. If someone asks for money about your housing situation, run as fast as you can.

Linda Jackson, executive director of the IREC, also participated in the briefing to discuss rental relief not just for tenants, but also landlords.

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We hold your hand through the process to go through this. It can be overwhelming to send people, especially for those who dont speak English, to submit applications online, but we even provide pop-up events where we ensure you submit a complete package of appropriate documentation.

For homeowners who feel like theyve done it all to get relief on their back rent, they can also receive grants through the California Mortgage Relief program. You can get help up to $80,000 for help on your mortgage for COVID-related problems, Jackson said. You wont have to pay it back. Its given to you, which is very different from 12 years ago, during times of the recession.

This type of funding has never been given to California residences. Daily, bills have been coming out to provide residents with necessary resources to not only be able to relieve back rent, but also provide affordable housing to those who want to buy their first home.

Even with explanation about these immaculate services from executives, IERC still made sure to provide first-hand accounts from California residents about their experiences with these housing counselors and programs.

I originally ran into a lot of problems uploading the application, said Toni Stovall, HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agency customer. A counselor took the time to help me and walk me through the renters assistance application. Any documents I needed they made sure to stay on top of me because theres a time frame.

Stovall went on to say, A lot of people go through this issue, but dont know how to get the help. It is a process, but they ensure that everything will be fine. With the program have patience. IERC will take care of you and not let you drop the ball. Ive never really seen people so invested in helping you get funds.

March 31, is the last day to apply for emergency rental assistance in the state of California, so IERC encourages people to apply as fast as they can.

Over 23,000 people have been provided hope through this program. For more information or assistance, you can visit https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/community/nms/resources.htm to access a resource of 76 different counseling agencies that have employed more than 217 housing counselors. Its VERY important to talk to a real person with legal expertise in your preferred language about these matters, and not over an instant messaging screen.

You can also visit IERCs website (www.iercsb.org) or via phone at (909) 887-8700 for more information on their nonprofit and about counselors who want to help you.
Michael Bethany Drops New Track  Walk With You

Prolific songwriter, producer, and national independent recording artist Michael Bethany releases his latest offering entitled Walk With You, via Gateway Worship label, which is available now on all digital music platforms.

Download or stream Walk With You here: https://slinky.to/WalkWithYou

Produced by Kyle Lee and written by Michael, Mitch Wong and Rita Springer, Walk With You, which is inspired by Michaels personal intimate time with the Lord, is a compelling song that will capture the heart of every true worshipper.

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Walk With You is the follow-up to 2016s God With Us from his freshman album Yours Forever, which debuted in the Top 5 on Billboards Top Gospel Albums chart.

The Stellar Award nominated songwriter and two-time BMI Christian Song Award recipient (Fred Hammonds They That Wait & Here In Our Praise) is no stranger to the Gospel and Christian music scene. He is not only a gifted songwriter and background vocalist who has worked extensively with artists like Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, Myron Butler, Marvin Sapp, and many others, but he also currently serves as a Pastor of Worship at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX where he resides with his wife and two sons.

Michael has been featured on TBN, Daystar television network and has mentored and empowered worship ministries around the world. His greatest passion is creating worship experiences that activate an Overflow of Intimacy with God.
Remembering Educator Brenda Harris

Like her devotion to her Catholic faith, Brenda Harris willingness to help others, especially disadvantaged people, was consistent and rare, authentic in a way that drew everyone to her, friends and loved ones say.

On March 5, Harris, an outspoken advocate and civil servant who influenced state education policy, died after a brief illness. She was 71.

I had the honor of knowing Brenda for over 35 years, dating back to when she was a senior advisor at the California Department of Education. She was an extraordinary individual, an expert policymaker in the field of education and a fearless civil rights advocate, said Dotson Wilson, former Chief Clerk and Parliamentarian of the California Assembly.

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Whether she was speaking to aspiring young students, academicians or elected officials, Brenda remained steadfast in her goal to implement sound education policy, Wilson continued. I consider it an honor to have known her as a colleague and friend.

Wilson, who was the longest serving African American in the State Assembly, retired in 2019 after 26 years.

Before becoming an education program consultant at the California Department of Education, an advisor to the California State Board of Education and a Professor at Sacramento State University, Harris was an elementary, middle and high school teacher in San Francisco.

Harris, who was a resident of Sacramento when she passed, tutored students and taught classes at several after-school programs and community learning centers in Sacramento and the Bay Area.

When Harris was a teenager, her family moved to Marysville, California, a Yuba County town about 50 miles north of San Francisco. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Gonzaga University in Washington. Later, she transferred to the University of San Francisco (USF) in 1971, where she majored in Communications and Sociology.

She looked up to her parents as role models, both of whom were active participants in the civil rights movement and had participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the mid-1950s, said Jack Weinrieb and Meghan Grant, two San Francisco educators who wrote a biography of Harris.

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Harris would listen to her parents discuss the inhumanity of racism, injustice, and discrimination and quickly learned about the importance of doing her part in social movements, Weinreib and Grant continued. Harris recalls that her mother instilled an understanding that underprivileged populations have similar struggles, no matter their race.

While she was a student at USF, Harris became close to other Black students and participated in several social and political activities on campus and in nearby neighborhoods.

She worked in USFs financial aid office and with the schools Drama department. And she volunteered, lending her time to community organizations serving several disadvantaged city districts with large Black populations, including the Western Addition, BayviewHunters Point, Haight-Ashbury and the Fillmore.

Daniel Hahn, Sacramentos first Black Chief of Police  who served from 2017 until the end of last year  said he was always impressed by how many people Harris knew and how committed she was to helping others.

She was extremely engaged in making tomorrow better for all people, he said. She was constantly introducing me to people in the city and she was always encouraging me to carry out the things I believed in. She wasnt just talk. She always followed through with her actions.

Harris attended St. Ignatius Loyola church in Sacramento and taught classes at the churchs Center for Ignatian Spirituality.

Gratitude is at the core of my existence. Ignatian Spirituality made me a global citizen. Living at this moment in world history, I am to share Ignatian Spirituality with a diverse ecumenical group globally, Harris said in a statement on the centers website.

Regina Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media, said Harris loved the Black press.

She always wanted to know what was happening in Black communities, Wilson said. She was a faithful supporter of Black-owned news outlets across the state.

For her, it was more than just representation. It was about informing people, educating people and improving lives, Wilson said.

A memorial mass for Harris will be held at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Sacramento at 10 a.m. on April l8.
The J-10CE fighter jets soar through sky in the Pakistan Day parade, Islamabad, March 23,2022.

ISLAMABAD, March 24 -- In the annual parade held in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, to celebrate the 82nd Pakistan Day on March 23, the newly inducted Chinese J-10CE fighter jets made a debut.

Five J-10CE fighter jets participated in the military parade. Two of them formed a three-aircraft formation with another F-16 jet, leading the entire flight echelon. The other three J-10CE fighter jets appeared in the eighth echelon. In addition to the J-10CE, the JF-17 and J-7PG fighter jets also flew over the parade ground for review.

The date of Pakistan Day, March 23, also marks the 24th anniversary of the successful maiden flight of the J-10 fighter jet. Its prototypes maiden flight succeeded on the same day in 1998, marking that China became the fifth country in the world capable of independently developing third-generation fighter jets. Now, as China's new-generation main battle aircraft, the J-10 has developed into the J-10A, J-10B, and J-10C series of fighter jets, and some models have been exported in a systematic manner.
Ridley-Thomas Ally and SCLC Attorney Want Karly Katona, a Woman Who Lives in Hancock Park and Who Has Never Lived in the 10th District, to Fill the Vacancy

Attorney John Sweeney suggests that his clients would rather see Karly Katona, a person who doesnt and has never lived in Council District 10, oversee the district rather than have one of the communitys most endeared African American leaders, Herb Wesson, represent the district

Since 1963, when Tom Bradley defeated Joe E. Hollingsworth to become the first African American elected councilmember of the 10th District, the seat has always been seen as a Black seat.

Since 1963, the seat has been held by noted African American community leaders Tom Bradley, David Cunningham, Nate Holden, Martin Ludlow, Herb Wesson and Mark Ridley-Thomas. Now, Mark Ridley-Thomas allies want to give up the historic leadership in the 10th District so that his former chief of staff, Karly Katona, who doesnt even reside in the district and lives in Hancock Park, can lead the district.

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On Friday, March 18, at a press conference regarding Herb Wesson as the interim replacement for Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas (who was suspended by the City Council following his federal indictment on charges of bribery and embezzlement) it was suggested that appointing Ridley-Thomas former chief of staff, Karly Katona, as the interim councilmember instead of Herb Wesson  who has served honorably as the councilmember for the 10th District for over 12 years  would be the best thing for the district.

This suggestion has many voters within the district furious and the mere idea of this appointment is an insult to those who have labored to keep the leadership within the district Black. For John Sweeneys clients to suggest that we, as a community, would lead the movement for changing the face of leadership by vacating a seat that has been historically Black and appointing a non-Black woman to the position is outrageous. If we voluntarily give up the seat, we may never get it back.

When a reporter asked Attorney Sweeney following his press conference about a short list of candidates to fill the vacancy, Sweeney replied, There is no short list. Weve come up with one name and that name is Karly Katona.

For John Sweeney (on behalf of his clients) to suggest this is an insult not only to Herb Wesson, but to all the Black men and women who live in the district, who have served the district socially and politically for years, and are very capable and qualified to hold the historically Black seat.

There are so many strong Black men and women that already live in the district that should be on their list  such as Jacqueline Jackie Dupont-Walker and Melina Abdullah  before we voluntarily vacate one of the most significant and historically Black seats in the history of Los Angeles and it is disgraceful and an insult to all who live in the 10th District and to the legacy of those leaders who previously served with honor and dignity.

The suggestion to appoint Karly Katona because she was Marks selected chief of staff may be good for Marks ego, but certainly is not in the best interest of the 10th Council District or its residents.

The Registered Voters of the 10th contingent have been saying that their opposition to Wessons appointment is based upon it not being an open process. What people have to remember is that the process lies within the authority of the Council President Nury Martinez.

Martinez has openly met with community residents and leaders throughout Council District 10 for months, including many of the members who are a party to the lawsuit. She ultimately selected Herb Wesson to serve as the interim councilmember and this selection was approved unanimously by the entire Los Angeles City Council.

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How much more of an open process could anyone ask for? For this group to only be capable of coming up with one name and that one name does not live in the district is unreasonable, irrational and lacks the credibility that a person making such a vital decision requires.

Karly Katona doesnt even live within the boundaries of the 10th Council District. In fact, the Sentinel has learned that before Judge Mary H. Strobel made her ruling that revoked her temporary restraining order in favor of Wesson being appointed and serving as the interim councilman for the district, Attorney Sweeney on behalf of his clients  SCLC-SC President Pastor William Smart, Joy Atkinson, Kwame Cooper and Harry McElroy (collectively known as the Registered Voters of District 10)  proposed that they would drop their case if they would be allowed to move Katona into the district and then nominate her as the interim councilmember for the 10th Council District.

Wesson and the City of Los Angeles rejected the settlement offer, believing that their case was strong and that they would be victorious in court and in fact, they were. Mr. Sweeney did acknowledge that Karly Katona did not live in the district, but said, As of about three weeks ago, her statement was that she was willing to move into the district to comply with the City Charter.

Attorney Sweeney, in an interview with the Sentinel, was asked why would his clients suggested appointing a person to the seat who does not live in the district, he responded, They (my clients) are extremely confident that Mark Ridley-Thomas will be reseated as the councilmember for the 10th District in this calendar year. This is a temporary caretaker who knows the operations of the council office. That was their overriding concern until their elected official is reseated.

However, Katona had no relationship with the 10th Council District until Mark Ridley-Thomas won his City Council seat and she was named chief of staff a little over a year ago. How can this person be better suited to serve the district than Herb Wesson, who left office only because of term limits and has remained extremely popular within the district because of his thoughtful and caring service to the people of the 10th?

Many residents in the district are outraged that this small group of people would go to such lengths to deny Herb Wesson the right to serve the 10th Council District  a man who is eminently qualified and who has served the district well for years and who continuously won re-election to the seat by over 60% every time he ran for the office.

I am shocked that Rev. Smart and SCLC, Joy Atkinson or any of the other petitioners in the lawsuit would advocate for our community to give up the power of having a Black seat  for a day, for a week, or for a month  it is a violation of the hard work that so many have put forth to retain one of the most historically significant seats in our community. If we give up this seat, which we have fought long and hard to secure and retain, we may never get it back.

Herb Wesson has been selected to lead the Council District 10 until such time as Mark Ridley-Thomas has been cleared of the charges facing him, and until that happens, we must embrace this decision and support this proven leader who can and will provide the 10th Council District with the type leadership it must have and deserves.
Videos recently published online appeared to show the presidents of Russia and Ukraine issuing major statements about the Ukraine war. But the videos were quickly identified by experts as fake and removed from social media.

The videos are known as deepfakes. A deepfake is a video designed to fool people into thinking that is real. People who create deepfakes use different technology tools and methods to make people appear to say things they never said.

Earlier this month, a video was shared on Twitter that appeared to show Russian President Vladimir Putin declaring that a peace agreement had been reached with Ukraine. But the video was from a speech Putin gave on February 21. The video had been manipulated by replacing Putins voice with new audio.

In the speech, Putin appears to say, Weve managed to reach peace with Ukraine. He also goes on to announce that Crimea  which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014  would once again become an independent republic inside Ukraine.

Experts from Reuters news agency and other organizations said their examinations of the video showed that it matched one that was published by Putins official website. In that video, Putin was speaking about the situation in Ukraine before Russia invaded.

In another deepfake, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to urge people in his country to give up their weapons and surrender to Russias invading forces. In that case, both the video and audio had been manipulated in an effort to make it seem like Zelenskyy was offering a surrender.

Both of the videos were widely shared online. Many social media users immediately criticized the quality of the Zelenskyy video. They pointed out that Zelenskyys skin color looked different and that he spoke with an unusual accent. Some people also noted that the video quality was not sharp around his head and face.

Zelenskyys video was also identified as fake by multiple media organizations and fact-checking websites. Nina Schick, writer of the book Deepfakes, told Reuters the video looked like a terrible face swap. A face swap is a digital method that puts one persons face onto another persons body.

Television station Ukraine24 said in a Facebook message that enemy hackers had published the video on its website. The station removed the video, as did Facebook, YouTube and other social media organizations.

Later, Ukraines Ministry of Defense released a video from Zelenskyy in which he denounced the deepfake. He called the attempt a childish provocation.

The head of security policy at Facebooks parent Meta, Nathaniel Gleicher, reacted to the video on Twitter. Earlier today, our teams identified and removed a deepfake video claiming to show President Zelensky issuing a statement he never did, he wrote.

Gleicher added that any similar videos linked to the Ukraine war or other subjects would be removed from Metas social media services for violating company policies covering misinformation.

Twitter says it is also seeking to limit the spread of false information and content about the Ukraine war. The companys Vice President of Global Public Policy, Sinead McSweeney, said those efforts had already resulted in the removal of more than 50,000 pieces of content found to be false or misleading. Among these were old videos of past conflicts presented as if they were taking place in Ukraine.

Sam Gregory is an expert on technology and disinformation for the non-profit group WITNESS. He told Reuters there have been numerous uses of deepfakes so far related to the war in Ukraine. Gregory said some aim to spread misinformation, while others are attempts to present parody.

He warned, however, that there can be a fine line between disinformation and parody, depending on how effective a deepfake is at fooling the public.

On Twitter, he called the Zelenskyy deepfake a best case scenario. He said this is because the video quality was easily recognized as poor and the Ukrainian president was able to quickly publish a real video explaining that it was fake.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Im Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies.

Quiz - Deepfakes of Putin and Zelenskyy Appear Online During Ukraine War Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

fake  adj. false; not true

manipulate  v. to control something or someone to your advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly

match  v. to be the same as something else

hacker  n. a person who uses a computer to illegally break into someone elses computer system to read the information kept there

provocation  n. something you do to make someone angry

parody  n. a film, book, show, etc. that copies someone elses style in a way meant to be funny

scenario  n. a description of what could possibly happen

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The Taliban announced on Wednesday that high schools will not reopen for girls in Afghanistan.

The group went back on their promise, saying they would remain closed until a plan was drawn up to follow Islamic law and Afghan culture.

The decision surprised many people. It left students crying and drew condemnation from aid agencies, rights groups and the international community.

Teachers and students from high schools in Kabul said the girls were excited to return on Wednesday morning, the first day of school in Afghanistan. But they were ordered to go home.

"We all became totally hopeless when the principal told us, she was also crying," said a student, not being named for security reasons.

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they banned female education and most employment.

The international community has demanded the education of girls as a condition for any future recognition of the Taliban. The group took over the country in August following the withdrawal of American and allied troops.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Taliban's decision was "a profound disappointment and deeply damaging for Afghanistan." He said it violated the equal rights of women and girls to education" and called for immediate re-opening.

Last week, the Afghan Ministry of Education had announced that schools would reopen for all students, including girls. On Tuesday evening, a spokesman even released a video congratulating all students on their returning to class.

However, on Wednesday, the Taliban news agency Bakhtar News reported that high schools would be closed for girls until a plan was drawn up to follow Islamic law and Afghan culture.

Suhail Shaheen is a senior Taliban member based in Doha. He blamed the delay on what he called a technical issue over clothing. He said the Ministry of Education was working on uniforms for students around the country.

"We hope the uniform issue is resolved and finalized as soon as possible," he said.

After seven months at home, 16-year-old Khadija returned to school on Wednesday morning. She had stayed up all night in excitement. But just minutes after lining up with her classmates for a welcoming speech, a school official told them they had to leave.

"We couldn't believe we face such conditions... it was like a mourning day. Everyone was crying and hugging each other," she said.

Returning home, she said, "I would like to be a doctor in the future but for now I have no hope, I am like a dead body.

Im Jill Robbins.

Charlotte Greenfield reported this story for Reuters. Hai Do adapted the story for Learning English.

______________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

principal  n. the person in charge of a public school

uniform  n. a special kind of clothing that is worn by all the members of a group or organization

resolve  v. to settle or solve (something)

hug  v. to put your arms around someone especially as a way of showing love or friendship
An Omicron sub-variant of the COVID-19 virus is spreading fast in many parts of the world and raising concerns for experts.

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that BA.2, a sub-variant of Omicron, has caused 35 percent of all new cases in the United States. In the northeastern states, including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, BA.2 has made up more than half of the cases. The total number of infections, however, has been decreasing and officials around the country have lifted measures such as required cloth face coverings and social distancing.

The Omicron variant of the virus was first reported last November in South Africa. It has three main sub-variants known as BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3. Scientists believe they all appeared at the same time but Omicron BA.1 was linked to most of the cases reported over recent months.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) said reported cases of Omicron BA.2 have been increasing in comparison to BA.1. The health agency found that although BA.2 could spread faster, it does not make people sicker than BA.1.

By Tuesday, the WHO wrote in its weekly report that BA.2 had overtaken all other versions of the virus in Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, the Western Pacific and Europe. In Britain, the Office for National Statistics also reported that cases of BA.2 infection had outnumbered other versions by early March.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is the U.S. governments top infectious disease expert. He told ABCs This Week program that the U.S. would likely see an increase of infections like Britain. Fauci said: They have BA.2. They have a relaxation of some restrictions such as indoor masking. Additionally, immunity from vaccines and past infections was also decreasing.

Dr. Eric Topol is head of Scripps Research Translational Institute. He told the Associated Press, Its inevitable we will see a BA.2 wave here.

However, Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington does not expect a big increase in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

He wrote on Twitter: Our models do not suggest there will be much of an increase in the US in the next weeks, if at all. However, it is possible that the rapid return to pre #COVID19 behavior and the spread of BA.2 could see a short period of increasing case numbers.

And an early study in Qatar also suggests that vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will work against both Omicron sub-variants. The results suggest that the level of protection against BA.2 is about the same as for BA.1.

Im Mario Ritter, Jr.

Hai Do wrote this report for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

variant  n. something that is different in some way from others of the same kind;

masking n. the act of putting on a face covering especially for health reasons

inevitable adj. not avoidable; sure to happen

rapid adj. very fast; happening quickly

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The eight-armed sea animal known as the octopus is becoming a popular food in many parts of the world. But, as more people want to eat them, the population in the wild is decreasing.

Experts blame rising ocean water temperatures and overfishing for their falling numbers.

Octopuses do poorly in warm water. And since they are in great demand, fishermen can make more money by catching them in the wild.

As a result, a small fishing village on the Yucatan peninsula in southern Mexico is working with one of the countrys universities. The group wants to find out if the sea animals can be farmed successfully.

An octopus farm would help the local economy, which is being hurt because there are not as many octopi as usual. Octopi is one word for more than one octopus. Octopuses is another plural form of the word.

Carlos Rosas is a biologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. He is working to start an octopus farm in the fishing village of Sisal.

Recently, Rosas showed reporters the farm. He reached into a large tank and pulled out a baby octopus, about the size of a small ball. The octopus lives in the tank with about 250 others. The project aims to see if the babies can live to be large enough inside the tank to be sold for food.

Scientists and animal welfare activists have long been concerned about growing octopi inside tanks. The animals are believed to be able to think and also to feel happiness and worry.

Now, Rosas and his team think they may be able to keep the octopi healthy until they are large enough to sell.

They have created an octopus food made from fish waste, like heads, that are normally thrown back into the ocean by fishermen.

The food is turned into small balls which are fed to the octopi.

Rosas said the farm gets what it needs for the octopi and the fishermen can make extra money by selling their unused fish parts.

He said the plan is to make the fishing business more efficient and raise the number of octopi available for food.

If the project is successful, its timing will be just right. One research company predicts that by 2025, the worldwide demand for octopus will increase by over 60 percent from 2018.

A Spanish company wants to test the octopus food created by the university researchers. If it is successful, Nueva Pescanova will try to open its own octopus farm. Biologists, however, are not sure an octopus farm will be successful, even with the right food.

Sarah McAnulty studies octopi. She said the animals need to have a lot of space. They may even try to eat each other or bite their own arms.

"When you want an animal to be raised for farming, you want a lot of them in a relatively small space, and so you can't really keep them happy together, McAnulty said.

Even with the risks, Rosas said it is a good time to try to raise octopi on a farm. If the farms are successful, the number of animals in the wild can increase.

But the conservation group Oceana said the Mexican government should work harder to help the wild octopus population. Renata Terrazas is vice president of the Mexican part of Oceana. She said the government should do a better job regulating how much fisherman can catch.

She said it is not a good sign for the environment if a nation is trying to keep the seafood business alive by developing farms. She said the message the effort sends is: I don't want to do anything with the oceans and I don't care if we are depleting them.

Rosas said he believes more work needs to be done to make sure octopi raised on farms are healthy. But he added, it is important to think about the fishermen in the village, who are very poor. A successful octopus farm will lift the economy.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for VOA Learning English based a report by Reuters.

Have you tried to eat octopus before? How does it taste to you? Let us know. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit our Facebook page.

Words in This Story

welfare n. the state of being happy, healthy, or successful

efficient adj. able to produce desired results without wasting materials, time, or energy

relatively adv. when compared to others

conservation  n. the protection of animals, plants, and natural resources

regulate  v. to make rules or laws that control (something)

deplete  v. to use most or all of (something important); to greatly reduce the amount of (something)
Leaders in the northeastern American city of Newport, Rhode Island, are facing a difficult question: Should the city continue to rebuild its famous Cliff Walk?

The question is a hard one because parts of the wall keep falling into the sea. Last week, coastal erosion caused nine meters of the path to break into the sea below. Erosion is the slow destruction of something by natural force.

The Cliff Walk is one of the most popular places to visit in Rhode Island. It is a central part of Newports identity. It offers visitors beautiful views of Rhode Islands coastal environment. The five-kilometer path travels next to huge costly homes that sit high above the rocky coastline.

A 2018 study found that about 1.3 million people visit the Cliff Walk each year.

In 2012, a powerful ocean storm washed out parts of the path. The path was repaired then at a cost of $5 million in federal money. But city officials are questioning if they should rebuild this time -- or move it farther inland.

City official Joe Nicholson says he wants to rebuild. He is asking Rhode Islands governor and congressional officials to help.

Like most locals, he has walked the path many times. Its something thats in Newports DNA, Nicholson said.

He does not know how long repairs could take, or how much it might cost. It will not be done in time for the arrival of summer visitors. Engineers came on March 15 to begin examining the damaged area.

The part of the path that recently collapsed is next to private property. So, the path cannot be moved inland there anymore.

John Greichen Jr. lives less than two kilometers away from the path. He says friends from different areas always want to visit the path.

Everyone knows when they come to Newport, theyve got to do the Cliff Walk, he said.

Climate change and the collapse

Scientists say climate change may have created the conditions that led to the collapse.

Michael Mann is the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. He said that larger storms that happen more often can combine with sea level rise to increase the threat of erosion. That can lead to a collapse.

We are now seeing the devastating consequences of climate change playing out in real time, Mann said in an email to The Associated Press.

In February, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and six other agencies issued a report about sea level rise in the United States. The report warned that Americas coastline will see sea levels rise in the next 30 years by as much as they did in the whole 20th century.

NOAA said Newport has seen a sea level rise of about 15 centimeters over the past 50 years. Scientists estimate sea levels are expected to rise another 25-30 centimeters in the next 30 years.

Im Gregory Stachel.

Jennifer McDermott reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

cliff  n. a high, steep surface of rock, earth, or ice

erosion  n. the gradual destruction of something by natural forces (such as water, wind, or ice)

devastating  adj. causing great damage or harm

consequence  n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions

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Scientists in Peru have discovered the skull of an ancestor of modern-day whales.

The fossilized skull is believed to be about 36 million years old. Researchers say the discovery suggests that the animal lived in an ocean that once covered Perus southern Ocucaje desert.

The scientists reported the skull was in good condition when dug up last year. It has a series of long, pointy teeth, said Rodolfo Salas, chief of paleontology at Perus National University of San Marcos. Salas spoke to reporters about the discovery.

Scientists say the ancient mammal was a basilosaurus, which belongs to the cetacean family. This is the same family that includes modern water creatures like whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The name basilosaurus means "king lizard" and the animal is thought to have been about 12 meters long. But it was not a reptile although its long body might have moved like a large snake, the researchers said.

Salas called the animal "a marine monster" that may belong to a new species of basilosaurus. "When it was searching for its food, it surely did a lot of damage," he added.

The skull is already being shown at the university's museum.

Scientists believe the first cetaceans evolved from mammals that lived on land about 55 million years ago. Salas explained that when the ancient basilosaurus died out, its skull likely sank to the bottom of the ocean, where it was quickly buried and remained.

"Back during this age, the conditions for fossilization were very good in Ocucaje," Salas said.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

___________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

skull  n. the part of the head, made of bone, that protects the brain

fossil  n. part of an animal or plant that lived a long time ago that has been preserved in rock

mammal  v. a kind of animal that feeds milk to its young and that usually has hair or fur covering most of its skin

marine  adj. found in or relating to the sea

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants

evolve  v. to develop or make something develop over time
Lapwai, ID (83501)

Today

Partly cloudy early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain this afternoon. High near 60F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 47F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
By Hai Ning

The Russia-Ukraine conflict propelled many European countries to break away from their old taboos and launch an intense series of measures in a new round of reform of defense policies.

Military aid to Ukraine breaks Europes conventions repeatedly. Germany lifted ban on sending air-defense and anti-tank lethal weapons to war zone for the first time. Sweden and Finland both substantially gave up their neutral tradition and provided Ukraine with weapons and ammunition. The EU, for the first time ever, announced to actuate more than EUR 500 million of European Peace Facility to purchase and deliver lethal weapons, fuels and protective gears for a country currently under attack, and that pretty much used up the funds budget for this year. Many other European countries publicly supported or allowed their citizens to fight in Ukraine as international mercenaries.

Military buildup and war preparedness is at full tilt. Its worth special attention that Germany, for the first time ever after its reunification in 1990, increased its defense budget by a large margin and announced to set up a special fund of EUR 100 billion to strengthen the military, saying that it would increase the annual defense spending to over 2 percent of GDP from now on. This means Germany will surpass India to become the worlds third-largest military spender, and its Defense Ministry already announced its plan to buy 35 of Americas F-35 fighter jets. Poland sped up the takeover of 250 M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks from the US, and its Sejm almost unanimously passed the homeland defence bill, which increased the national expenses from the current 2 percent to 3 percent of GDP starting from 2023. Several other European countries also rolled out military-strengthening plans.

North European countries change course to support multilateral defense mechanism. There is a dramatic change in the public opinions of Finland, as a poll showed more than half of its population for the first time now supports joining NATO. Sweden and Finland, two traditionally neutral countries, both expressed willingness to tighten the ties with NATO. Denmark, which upholds Atlanticism and NATO supremacy, intends to join the EU common defense mechanism and will hold a referendum on this in June this year.

The adjustment of defense policies by European countries is a reaction to the abrupt change of situation. More importantly, it is a reflection of the profound change in Europeans security outlook stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In the 21st century, traditional military security has been marginalized in the minds of Europeans. At the end of 2003, the relationship between Europe and Russia reached a peak after the Cold War with their planning for four common spaces  Common Economic Space, the Common Space of Freedom, Security and Justice, the Common Space of External Security, and the Common Space on Research, Education and Culture.

The Russia-Georgia conflict in 2008 and Moscows annexation of Crimea in 2014 dented the strategic mutual trust between Europe and Russia, but there was much room for an upturn and bilateral economic ties, trade and energy deals even increased.

EUs latest Global Strategy issued in 2016 only labeled Russia as a mixed war threat on a relatively low-risk level.

But the flames of war were ignited on the European continent owing to Americas continuous push for NATOs eastward expansion and its instigation regardless of Moscows security concerns. As a result, Europeans that used to oppose defense expenditure squeezing social benefits have changed their mind, and the political figures who used to fear being abandoned by voters for their more militant stances are all eager to step up military preparations to cater to the sudden change of prevalent sentiments.

There are extremely complex historical reasons for the evolution of the Ukraine issue. That Ukraine has been reduced into the forefront of major-country confrontation has also hurt Europe, which is having Russia, the strong neighbor that wont move, on one side and the US, the chief that is not easy to deal with, on the other, while the countries on the continent are all making their own calculations. Against such a backdrop, creating a balanced, valid and sustainable European security architecture seems far beyond reach. In the current entanglement, how to realize strategic independence and lasting peace in the real sense is a question the Europeans should really think about.
Song Wencong is the chief designer of the J-10 fighter jets. He has had experienced the humiliating years of the fall of the homeland, and he knew the importance of having top-notch military strength. At the age of 56, he took over the mission of developing Chinas own fighter jets. Song's earliest memory of fighter jets could track back to his childhood when the Japanese military bombed Kunming city of Chinas Yunnan Province. He joined the army at the age of 19. Song once served as an air force mechanic and went to the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The successive pass-away of his fellows on the battlefield made him realize that the development of powerful equipment was imminent.

He was admitted to the PLA Military Engineering Institute after returning to China, and began his career in aircraft design. In 1986, he was appointed as the chief designer of the J-10 fighter jet at the age of 56 and began the independent research and development of the new-generation fighter jet.

At that time, the development of the J-10 was under enormous pressure. Every link was required to be completed beyond the normal, while the manufacturing team did not even have a real computer. In their shabby waistcoats, researchers had drawn tens of thousands of design drawings in a stuffy warehouse. They did not even have 17 days of break in a year.

Seventeen years later, on March 23, 1998, three days before Song's 68th birthday, a shining J-10 jet slid into the runway. Song followed closely, just like sending his child into the examination room. He witnessed the J-10 soaring into the sky.

Song rushed to the aircraft and hugged the test pilot tightly after the J-10 successfully landed. Since then, Song has changed his birthday to this day, March 23.

At the military parade marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2009, the PLA air force formation whizzed past. The Chinese homegrown high-performance all-weather J-10 fighter jets with independent intellectual property rights attracted the attention of the world.

On September 3, 2015, at the military parade marking the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the J-10 fighter jets with independent intellectual property rights were still reviewed as a symbol of the Chinese Air Force 17 years after its maiden flight.
A Santa Maria man pleaded not guilty to firearms charges last week after a 32-year-old pregnant woman was injured in a shooting between rival gangs near West Fesler Street and North Benwiley Avenue earlier this month, according to records.
An employee at the BP gas station in Necedah rescued an intoxicated driver, who was allegedly four times over the legal limit, after she crashed her vehicle into a gas pump last week, authorities reported.

Juneau County Sheriffs Office deputies were dispatched to the station at 8:23 p.m. on March 15 after Elroy resident April Sink was driving above the legal alcohol limit when she lost control of her vehicle heading eastbound on Wisconsin Highway 21 and crashed into one of the four gas pumps at the BP, according to a report from the Sheriffs Office.

Deputies Brandon Carmody and Jay Helixon arrived at 8:31 p.m. and saw the vehicle and pump in flames, according to the report.

Ivan Ledvina stopped his shift-ending cleaning duties, called 911, and rescued the woman from the vehicle by breaking her rear drivers side window with a hammer and pulling her out before the deputies arrived.

Witness Angela J. Rattunde, who previously observed Sinks erratic driving on Highway 21, assisted Ledvina in rescuing Sink from the burning vehicle, the report said. Carmody then requested Sink be moved across the street for safety purposes, according to the report. Due to an ankle injury, Carmody issued Sink her citations but did not place her under arrest.

I was mopping the floor when it all happened, said Ledvina, who goes by the nickname Mr. Smore for the various events he makes the treats for.

I was by the front door standing and heard tires squeal. Looked up, BOOM! Saw pumps 7 and 8 get blasted off of the island, he said. There was fire, so I immediately hit All stop here on the pumps. Ran outside to the vehicle, busted the window with a hammer and pulled her out of the back seat.

Necedah Fire Department addressed the fire and Camp Douglas Ambulance transported Sink to Mile Bluff Medical Center in Mauston. This is Sinks first operating while intoxicated offense, which resulted in an OWI citation along with various other citations.

The gas station owner, Mike Zolondek, said the Sheriffs Office informed him that the drivers blood alcohol level was 0.354, a level also cited in the Sheriffs Office report.

Zolondek added that the driver missed the gas station driveway and drove into the ditch between the station and the highway before slamming into the gas pump. The car caught fire shortly after the collision.

My employee, Ivan, was here working, said Zolondek. She was pretty darn lucky he was there. A couple fire departments came out and put the fire out. Ivan took a hammer, smashed the window and got her out when the car was still on fire.

Sink claimed she had been rear-ended, according to the sheriffs report. However, Carmody listed in the report that there was no sign of rear impact on the vehicle. The report also states that Sink was unable or unwilling to finish the field sobriety test in which Carmody witnessed four cues of intoxication.

Zolondek, who estimated that the driver struck the gas pump at speeds of 35 mph to 45 mph, said the BP was closed for three days following the incident, which sent the gas pump flying about ten feet. Cement around the impacted gas pump needed to be removed and underground piping needs replacement. The canopy over the gas pumps still has soot remaining from the flames.

Were looking at well over $100,000 worth of work here, said Zolondek.
A 19-year-old with 10 open criminal cases was arrested again Wednesday for an armed robbery that happened last week in Fitchburg, police said.

Katoine Richardson, 19, of the town of Madison, now faces up to 17 charges for an incident in which police say he stole money and a firearm from someone, and then officers later found marijuana, ammunition and the stolen gun while searching a vehicle that Richardson had been driving, Fitchburg Lt. Edward Hartwick said in a statement.

Richardson is the man who allegedly fired his gun, but did not hit anyone, during a scuffle with Madison police on State Street Oct. 10. In a case of friendly-fire, Madison police Officer Keith Brown shot his gun during that incident, hitting another officer who was in physical contact with Richardson while trying to arrest him.

Brown isnt facing any charges in that incident, while Richardson has been charged with several felonies, including two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.

Richardson was out on bail with 10 open cases when he was arrested for the recent robbery, Hartwick said. Richardson was free after local activists posted $11,000 bail for him on Oct. 21.

Fitchburg officers responded to the 2800 block of Oregon Road on Friday for a report of an armed robbery. The victim told police he was meeting up with someone he knows when the person took his gun and money, Hartwick said. Officers identified the robber as Richardson.

On Wednesday, Fitchburg police, Madison police and the Dane County Sheriffs Office arrested Richardson after searching the vehicle he had been driving, Hartwick said.

Law enforcement found marijuana, boxes of ammunition, loaded gun magazines and the stolen gun in the vehicle, Hartwick said. Those items will likely lead to additional charges for Richardson.

Richardson was taken to the Dane County Jail on tentative charges of armed robbery, possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent, endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon, theft of a firearm while armed, and several counts of misdemeanor and felony bail jumping.

Fitchburg police plan to recommend that the Dane County District Attorneys Office file additional charges including possession with intent to deliver marijuana and receiving stolen property.

Fitchburg police are asking anyone with information about the robbery to call the Police Department at 608-270-4300.

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OCONTO  A school superintendent charged with false imprisonment in northeastern Wisconsin was back in court Wednesday.

Suring Schools Superintendent Kelly Casper made her initial appearance in Oconto County Circuit Court where a $5,000 signature bond was set.

Casper is accused of illegally confining some students during searches for vaping devices. The superintendent is accused of illegally detaining six female students who were asked to take off some of their clothes in a high school bathroom during the searches Jan. 17 and 18.

Prosecutors have said the searches themselves were not illegal, WLUK-TV reported.

Casper is on paid administrative leave. She returns to court April 28 when her motion to dismiss the charges is expected to be heard.

The 51-year-old Casper has said the searches were her first at Suring, but that she had previously searched students an estimated 20 times while employed at the Coleman School District.
A Madison man has been sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and being a felon in possession of firearms, authorities reported.

Judge James D. Peterson also sentenced Andre L. McClinton, 50, to 8 years of supervised release, and a money judgment of $313,100, with McClinton also agreeing to forfeit $116,890 in cash, property located in Mount Horeb, three vehicles, and two firearms, the office of U.S. Attorney Timothy M. OShea said in a statement.

The conspiracy took place from September through December 2020 and resulted in McClinton purchasing approximately 9 kilograms of cocaine from Henderson, OShea said. McClinton pleaded guilty to the charges on Dec. 16, 2021.

In 2020, as part of a federal and state investigation into cocaine trafficking in Dane County, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation wiretapped two phones belonging to McClinton. Over the course of several months, investigators intercepted numerous calls and text messages between McClinton and co-defendant Michael C. Henderson centered on Henderson supplying cocaine to McClinton, costs and quality, and recruiting additional customers in Dane County, OShea said.

On Dec. 9, Peterson sentenced Henderson to 84 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and ordered him to forfeit $22,763 in cash, OShea said.

While searching two homes belonging to McClinton, investigators found cocaine packaged for sale, a loaded .45 caliber Glock handgun, ammunition, and $16,580 in cash. Agents also searched three of McClintons vehicles, determined they had sophisticated traps installed in the passenger compartments, and found 7 1/2 pounds of marijuana, a loaded .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, and $100,310 in cash, OShea said.

The FBI analyzed McClintons bank statements, business records, and financial transactions and found evidence that McClinton used drug proceeds to purchase and improve his personal residence, which he sold after being indicted. McClinton used part of the proceeds from the sale of his house to purchase property located in Mount Horeb, and commingled the remaining proceeds into bank accounts and property belonging to an uninvolved third party, OShea said.

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Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), answers reporters' questions on Ukraine situation on March 24, 2022. (Photo:mod.gov.cn)

(The following English text is for reference. In case of any divergence of interpretation, the Chinese text shall prevail.)

Question: According to foreign media reports, an anonymous US official claimed that the US had warned China that Russia was preparing to attack Ukraine and hoped that China would dissuade Russia. Nevertheless, the Chinese side did not take this seriously. China gave the relevant information to Russia and even asked Russia to act after the 2022 Winter Olympics. What is your comment on this, please?

Answer: The so-called assertions that China had prior knowledge about, acquiesced to or tacitly supported this conflict are purely disinformation. All these claims serve only the purpose of shifting blame to and slinging mud at China. China has expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.

The Ukraine issue has its complex historical context and realistic factors. What is happening today is the result of the combined effect of various reasons. However, I believe we all understand which big power bears the biggest responsibility for todays crisis. China holds an objective and impartial attitude and makes independent judgment based on the merits of the matter itself. China believes that to resolve the current crisis, we must uphold the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN), and respect and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. We must adhere to the principle of indivisible security and accommodate the legitimate security concerns of the parties involved. We must settle disputes by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation. And we must keep in mind the long-term peace and stability of the region and put in place a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture .

China's approach is in sharp contrast to that of the US, who has created and shifted crisis to others, and reaped gains from it. We hope that all parties can keep the door open for dialogue, consultation and negotiation to deescalate tensions. China will continue to play a constructive role in seeking and realizing peace.

Question: According to media reports, during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia discovered that the US has multiple biological labs in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation recently released relevant documents, accusing the US operating biological labs in Ukraine and carrying out research of biological weapons. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland acknowledged that the US has biological research facilities in Ukraine and the US is working with the Ukrainian side to prevent relevant research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces. According to a former official of the Security Service of Ukraine , US biological labs in Ukraine are developing biological weapons. What is your comment on this?

Answer: The Chinese side has noticed relevant reports. Biological weapons are weapons of mass destruction and biological militarization is a major issue concerning international peace and security as well as the security interests of all countries. China believes that any information and clues of biological militarization activities should be of great concern to the international community.

The US conducts more biological militarization activities than any other country in the world. It has 336 biological labs in 30 countries around the world. Domestically, the bio-lab in Fort Detrick has carried out a lot of biological militarization activities. Public disclosures say dozens of biological labs in Ukraine are in operation in accordance with the orders from the US Department of Defense. The above-mentioned activities of the US are extremely opaque and pose great security risks. Previously, rare epidemics have broken out in multiple places where US overseas biological labs are located, leading to protests and doubts in many countries. This is also an important reason why the US biological labs in Ukraine have raised widespread concern of the international community.

We have to ask what is the real intention of the US side in conducting these projects? Why hasn't the US released details of these projects? What is the relationship between the US overseas biological labs and the US Department of Defense? If the US labs in Ukraine are only engaged in scientific research and disease monitoring, why has the US Department of Defense got deeply involved in it? And what is the reason behind the consistent blocking by the US alone of the establishment of a multilateral verification mechanism under the Biological Weapons Convention over the past 20 years? The US owes the world clear answers to the five questions. On these important issues concerning principles, the US cannot simply dismiss them as disinformation".

China was once a victim of biological weapons and has always stood for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of all weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons. China firmly opposes the development, possession or use of biological weapons by any country under any circumstances. We believe that the purposes and objectives of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) must be strictly observed. China urges the US to respond to the concerns of the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner, faithfully fulfill its obligations under the Convention, make a complete explanation on its biological militarization activities both at home and abroad, and accept multilateral verification.

Question: Recently, US officials have repeatedly claimed that Russia has asked China for military equipment assistance. The spokesperson from Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied that. What is your comment on this, please?

Answer: The so-called "China provides military assistance to Russia" is absolute disinformation. Both China and Russia have made clarifications on this matter. Recently, the US has been spreading false and malicious information targeting China on the Ukraine issue. It is a shameful action and will only let the international community see the true face of the US as a liar and trouble maker.

It should be emphasized that China's stance on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear. We have been playing a constructive role in promoting peace talks. The top priority at the moment is for all parties to exercise restraint, cool the situation down instead of adding fuel to the fire, and work for diplomatic settlement rather than further escalate the situation. We urge the US to immediately stop smearing and making troubles, earnestly reflect on its disgraceful role in the development and evolution of the Ukraine crisis, and do something practical to ease the tensions in Ukraine.

Question: According to reports, the US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) commander recently expressed the hope that China would learn three lessons from the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. First, if China follows Russia in waging a war against its neighbors, it is bound to be severely sanctioned by the international community; Second, as long as there is an unprovoked attack in the Indo-Pacific region, countries in the region will get united to resist; Third, given the specific terrain, it is hard for China to win a war against its neighbors. What is your comment on these?

Answer: Those who clamor to teach China a "lesson" must learn to take a lesson first. When it comes to provoking other countries and waging wars, if the US were number two in the world, no country would dare to be the number one.

As we all know, China always pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature and adheres to the military strategic guideline of active defense. We stay committed to building a community with a shared future with our neighbors by promoting friendship and partnership with our neighbors based on the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have never invaded other countries, never engaged in proxy wars, never sought spheres of influence, nor participated in any military bloc confrontation. The Chinese military has long deepened practical cooperation with its counterparts of neighboring countries in various fields, proactively provided public security goods, and prudently handled hotspot and sensitive issues, playing an important role in maintaining regional peace and stability.

On peace and security, the US itself has been notorious. Since its founding, the US has frequently provoked wars overseas, exported turmoil around the world, and caused serious humanitarian disasters. It has become the largest source of global conflicts and is in no position to lecture other countries.

Question: It is reported that since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, the DPP authority in Taiwan has been attempting to link the Ukraine issue with the Taiwan question, hyping that the Chinese mainland might take this opportunity to intensify the so-called "military pressure" on Taiwan , and instigating "anti-China activities to protect the Taiwan region". On the other hand, the DPP authority has been strengthening combat preparedness training and enhancing armament and defense capabilities. Some US and Western politicians also took the opportunity to propagate the so-called "military threat" by the mainland to Taiwan, and clamored to assist confrontation by providing weaponry to Taiwan. What is your comment on this, please?

Answer: First of all, it needs to be pointed out that Taiwan is not Ukraine. The Taiwan question and the Ukraine issue are different in nature. Most fundamentally, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair with zero-tolerance of external interference. The two sides across the Taiwan Strait must be and will be reunified. It is the trend of history that can never be stopped by anyone or any force .

The DPP authority has been intensifying its collusion with external forces and making provocations to seek "Taiwan independence", in an attempt to change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China. Such acts are the root cause for the current tension and instability across the Taiwan Strait.

Recently, the DPP authority exploited the situation in Ukraine to chase the clout and assert itself, deliberately hyped up the so-called "threat" from the mainland, raised the tone of cross-Strait confrontation and seeking "Taiwan independence", and even arrogantly clamored for war. Such attempts to seek Taiwan independence by relying on external forces or resorting to force are harming Taiwan and will only push Taiwan into the abyss of disasters.

It is perfectly justified for China to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and allow no external interference. We would like to sternly warn the DPP authority and certain external forces that seeking foreign support to gain Taiwan independence is a dead end, and the scheme to use Taiwan to contain China is doomed to fail. The Chinese PLA stands ready to take all necessary measures to resolutely respond to any provocative actions that endanger China's core interests or undermine the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Dwayne Collins had just been released from jail and was walking out of the building when he was shot in the 200 block of South Carroll Street between the jail and police headquarters.
The Madison School Districts pilot online learning program was approved for expansion to grades 4 and 5 in a split School Board decision Tuesday evening.

The board voted 4-3 to approve an increase to the instructional technology budget by $850,000 to expand the Madison Promise Academy to include students in grades 4-12 using federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funds for the 2022-23 school year.

Board President Ali Muldrow, Vice President Savion Castro, and members Ananda Mirilli and Maia Pearson voted in favor of the motion, while board members Nicki Vander Meulen, Chris Gomez-Schmidt and Cris Carusi voted against.

Before the vote, board members who voted against the motion expressed their support for the online option and concern about using the one-time ESSER funds to hire permanent staff for a long-term program.

I do feel like I need more information on how the current program is functioning and the potential consequences of expanding this program by 10 (full-time staff members) with non-reoccurring ESSER funding, Gomez-Schmidt said.

Vander Meulen and Carusi agreed.

I think were just creating a problem that a future board in two years is going to have to grapple with, Carusi said.

Castro said the board would need to revisit those concerns down the road.

Pearson said she agreed with the concern regarding the use of one-time ESSER funding to hire for permanent positions but at the same time recognized the need for the early approval to expand the program.

Vote, talk and keep it going and figure out how we can make sure the funding is there to continue the program because it has been successful, she said.

Gomez-Schmidt tried to table the discussion to April but failed in a 4-3 vote.

TJ McCray, executive director of library and technical services who is heading up the project, said he sought early approval for the academys expansion, before the 2022-23 budget is finalized, so he can begin the search and hiring process to secure staff for the online school.

McCray said he hopes to recruit teachers for the academy earlier than last year to avoid some of the confusion and frustration experienced by students and families at the start of the 2021-22 school year. He said, with the early approval, he hopes to identify students who plan to enroll in the academy for the coming school year before school lets out in June.

McCray plans to bring data on attendance, staff allocation and enrollment for the academys first year to the April work group meeting at the behest of board members.

Madison Promise Academys pilot online school for students in grades 6-12 had twice as many students apply as the district planned for at the start of the 2021-22 school year. More than 450 students applied to be part of the academys first year; 234 were accepted, and 218 were put on a waiting list.

I was worried at one point because we said, If we build it, they will come. And then they didnt come. And all of a sudden, they all came, McCray said in September.

The online-only learning program was designed to be flexible enough to meet the needs of both students and staff, and offers core classes, electives, comprehensive classes and advanced-placement courses, McCray told the Wisconsin State Journal in June.

Students had the opportunity to switch from online-only learning to in-person learning at the end of each semester, and in-person students had the opportunity to enter online-only learning at the start of each semester, depending on availability.

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An attorney for the former state Supreme Court justice undertaking a review of the 2020 election said decertifying the election is no longer possible, just weeks after his client suggested to the same lawmakers that the Legislature consider the move.

James Bopp, who represents GOP special counsel Michael Gableman in a public records lawsuit, said legislators had the authority to intervene between the election and Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress counted the Electoral College votes.

You had the authority in late November, Bopp told the Assembly elections committee. If you felt that the election was so corrupt  you could have intervened.

But past Jan. 6, 2021, Bopp said, lawmakers had no mechanism, no provision, no anything that would have any practical legal effect.

Bopp said the only way for President Joe Biden to leave office would be through his death, resignation, impeachment or disability under the 25th Amendment.

His statements come a week after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who hired Gableman, met with decertification proponents in a closed-door meeting. After his meeting, Vos said the election cant be decertified but nevertheless made the baseless claim that there had been widespread fraud in 2020.

Vos on Tuesday said he might rescind subpoenas issued to mayors and election officials as part of Gablemans election review, but only to allow a Republican attorney general, if one is elected in November, to file criminal charges.

Three weeks ago, Gableman told the Assembly elections committee that the Legislature ought to take a very hard look at decertifying the states presidential election  something that has long been understood to be legally and constitutionally impossible.

Gablemans review was the latest to fall short of proving widespread fraud. At the same meeting, Gableman claimed 100% of registered voters in Dane and Milwaukee county nursing homes cast absentee ballots in 2020, suggesting at least some of those votes had to have been cast fraudulently due to some of the voters frailty and impaired cognitive capabilities.

But a closer look by the Wisconsin State Journal found only one nursing home where all 12 registered voters cast ballots; turnout among all the others ranged from 42% to 91%.

Some have conflated policies or decisions on election administration that they opposed or which werent explicitly authorized in state law with fraud, even though some of the practices were consistent with past elections, were approved by government bodies in open session or were found to be legal by a court.

Those include grants from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life to help cover the cost of conducting an election during a pandemic. While the grants went to about 214 municipalities, including many that went for Trump, the bulk of the money went to the states five largest cities, which turned out strongly for Joe Biden. Multiple courts have ruled the grants were legal. The grants were also not denied to any municipalities that requested them.

Election deniers also have called for jailing members of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission for advising local clerks they could fix minor errors on ballot envelopes and use ballot drop boxes, which arent addressed in state law. The measures were approved by both Democratic and Republican members of the commission.

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A judge on Wednesday again voiced frustration that Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has not produced emails and text messages related to the investigation he ordered into the 2020 presidential election.

Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn told Vos's attorney that her patience was wearing thin as Vos has yet to produce deleted emails and other messages sought in the lawsuit brought by liberal watchdog group American Oversight.

The judge earlier this month gave Vos until Wednesday to provide the deleted email and text messages, or explain why they cant be retrieved. Vos attorney Ronald Stadler told the judge on Wednesday that the work to retrieve Vos's deleted emails from his legislative account was ongoing and he would need up to two weeks to review whatever is recovered.

I dont know if Im getting back 200 emails or 200,000 emails," he said.

Stadler also said he had an expert witness who would testify that deleted text messages could not be recovered.

Bailey-Rihn ordered Stadler to complete the search for emails by April 7 and set a hearing for that day to hear from his expert witness. She called that a drop dead date.

Thats the last extension Im going to give people," she said. Bailey-Rihn, who is retiring in July, said she wanted to issue a ruling and conclude the case by then.

We need to move on, she said.

The case is one of three seeking records from Vos and the investigator he hired, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who is leading a probe into the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden. Gableman released his most recent report earlier this month and Vos extended his contract through the end of April.

Vos on Tuesday said in an interview on WSAU-AM in Wausau that he may abandon subpoenas he's issued to mayors, elections officials and others as part of the Gableman investigation.

Pulling the subpoenas, which are being challenged in a pair of ongoing lawsuits, could lead to the end of the investigation.

Vos said that rescinding the subpoenas could help some officials be prosecuted for crimes because anyone who has been subpoenaed by the Legislature has immunity from prosecution. He didn't say who could be charged or with what crime.

Three prosecutors have already declined to bring charges against state elections officials related to decisions they made in the 2020 election.

Vos, when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday, texted have to wait and see when asked if he was going to withdraw the subpoenas.

Biden defeated Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome that has withstood recounts, a nonpartisan audit, other reviews and multiple lawsuits.

Gableman began his investigation in June. He is being paid $11,000 a month under a contract Vos signed for $676,000 in taxpayer money.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Wisconsins 10-year legislative maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers and sent the matter back to the states high court, which had adopted the Democratic governors amended proposal.

The rejection of Evers Assembly and Senate district maps by the nations highest court puts the issue back in the hands of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and will further delay the states redistricting process, which state election officials say needs to be resolved in order to prepare for the August primary and November election.

The federal court accepted Evers congressional maps that the state Supreme Court approved, denying a request from Wisconsins Republican congressional lawmakers seeking to block those boundaries.

In an unsigned decision with two liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state Supreme Court did not properly determine whether Evers maps, which create a new, seventh Black majority Assembly district in Milwaukee, comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

We agree that the court committed legal error in its application of decisions of this Court regarding the relationship between the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and the VRA, the justices wrote.

Evers issued a statement Wednesday that the maps he drew comply with federal and state laws, including the equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act, as well as the state Supreme Courts previous ruling that new maps must include minimal changes to existing boundaries.

If we have to go back to the Wisconsin Supreme Court  who have already declared our maps superior to every other proposal  to demonstrate again that these maps are better and fairer than the maps we have now, then thats exactly what well do, Evers said.

The order stipulates that the state Supreme Court is free to take additional evidence if it prefers to reconsider Evers maps, but any new analysis, however, must comply with our equal protection jurisprudence. The majority also notes that the states high court has sufficient time to adopt maps before the Aug. 9 primary.

Sotomayor and Kagan described the decision as unprecedented.

This Courts intervention today is not only extraordinary but also unnecessary, the justices wrote.

The Legislature in its March 7 request for appellate review focused on Evers decision to add a seventh majority-Black Assembly district in Milwaukee, which would dilute the Black majority in the six existing districts. The Legislature argued the state high court never decided whether the seventh district was required by the Voting Rights Act.

The lawmakers claimed Evers used the federal Voting Rights Act as a shield for open and obvious violations of the Constitution.

Evers maps create a total of nine Black majority districts, with two in the Senate and seven in the Assembly. All districts have Black majorities of between 50.09% and 51.39%, according to court filings. The state currently has six majority-Black Assembly districts and two in the Senate, all with a majority range between 51% and 62%.

State Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, also filed a legal challenge to the state Supreme Courts adoption of Evers maps. Taylor, whose district sees its majority drop from 58.4% to 50.62% under Evers boundaries, said the way Evers added a seventh majority-Black Assembly district ultimately waters down the Black vote in all of the districts.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state court did not properly consider whether a race-neutral alternative that did not add a seventh majority-black district would deny black voters equal political opportunity.

Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel for the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said in a statement the U.S. Supreme Courts decision is a critical victory to ensure that our government not make decisions on the basis of race.

UW-Madison Law School associate professor Robert Yablon said the ruling was highly unusual but not entirely surprising.

Although the (Voting Rights Act) aims to ensure fair representational opportunities for communities of color, the court has been cautioning mapmakers to avoid overreliance on race when drawing district lines, he said.

Upcoming elections

With the state Supreme Court now tasked with drafting legislative maps not inconsistent with the U.S. Supreme Courts order, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is sure to face additional delays in implementing new maps for upcoming elections.

From the beginning of the court battle over the states 10-year maps, the commission said in a filing, it had asked the state Supreme Court to put a new redistricting plan in place by March 1.

To properly administer the next election, the commission told the U.S. Supreme Court it needs maps by April 15 in order to record the maps new boundaries in the statewide voter registration system, integrate the new data with voters information and manually review local ward map changes to make sure each voter was in the correct district.

On March 11, the commission told the federal high court that any delay in implementing new maps beyond March 15 would increase the risk of errors in (the statewide voter registration system) and decrease the time available to correct those errors before circulation of nomination papers begins.

This is going to create some real complications for our election process, and I think what were going to see is a flurry of court action coming out of this regarding what the next maps will look like, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a WisPolitics.com online luncheon Wednesday.

Fair Elections project director Sachin Chheda said in a statement the U.S. Supreme Court is throwing Wisconsins legislative elections into chaos just three weeks before candidates in the November election need to begin gathering signatures.

Never has it been clearer that the U.S. Supreme Court majority will do anything it can to advance Republican interests, rather than the law, the Constitution, and the will of the people, Chheda said.

Ongoing battle

The order from the nations highest court is the latest development in the battle over the states next decennial maps that began when Evers vetoed GOP-drawn boundaries in mid-November. The governor had championed boundaries drawn by the Peoples Maps Commission, but those maps failed to get universal support among legislative Democrats, with some criticizing the boundaries for potentially diminishing Black and Hispanic representation in the Legislature.

Evers ultimately submitted new maps to the court, which reduce but maintain Republican majorities in the Legislature while likely preventing them from claiming a veto-proof supermajority. Those maps were drawn after the state Supreme Court in November ruled it would follow a least change approach from the current maps, which are considered some of the most gerrymandered in the nation.

The states high court issued a 4-3 ruling earlier this month in favor of Evers maps.

Republicans currently hold a 61-38 majority in the Assembly and a 21-12 majority in the Senate. Five of the states eight congressional districts are held by Republicans.

Evers office has said the governors maps would have elected 44 Democrats and 55 Republicans in the Assembly, and 13 Democrats and 20 Republicans in the Senate. In Congress, Republicans would maintain five seats to Democrats three.

An analysis of Evers congressional maps by PlanScore, a program that predicts precinct-level votes for districts based on past election results and U.S. Census data led by the Campaign Legal Center, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for nonpartisan maps, found that the governors maps maintain two Democratic-leaning U.S. House districts  Districts 2 and 4, which are held by Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth, and Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee.

The already competitive 3rd Congressional District, currently held by departing Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, would lean Republican under the new maps. With the district up for grabs, the Wisconsin Democratic Party is set to hold its first in-person convention since 2019 in La Crosse in June.

In an interview with WKBT, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler noted the competitive nature of the 3rd Congressional District and said, This is an area where, as Democrats, we need to earn every vote.

The 1st District seat, held by Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, still leans Republican but could become more competitive under new maps.

The Legislature must redraw political lines every decade based on the latest population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2011, Republicans, working in secretive conditions, drew maps that packed Democratic voters into lopsided districts and spread out rural and suburban Republicans into districts with solid, but narrower, majorities. The maps allowed the GOP to hold more than 60% of legislative seats, even when Democrats won all statewide elections in 2018.

Yablon said the state Supreme Court will likely ask the litigants to weigh in on how to proceed. Going forward, Yablon said, the justices could choose another map besides Evers that the court received, ask for amended maps redrawing the Milwaukee-area Assembly districts at issue, conduct additional factfinding to decide whether Evers map is necessary under the Voting Rights Act or explain that its sticking with Evers map for race-neutral reasons.

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Abilene, KS (67410)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing this afternoon. High 54F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low around 50F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
One of three water intakes is now high and dry. The city depends on the lake for 90% of its water. Get the latest on the West's epic megadrought here.
Hayden Beverage is a family business, doing business as a family. As a second-generation owner, I have an obligation to our employees because many of them have been with the company since I was a child. I understand and appreciate that their hard work and commitment helped to put me through college. When the Idaho Legislature gave businesses the green light to use IDeal  Idahos 529 College Savings Program as a perk for employees, I jumped on the chance to help Hayden Beverage employees and their families save for higher education.

I recognize the challenge of saving money when its needed right now for bills, groceries, and other urgent expenses. Our goal has been to incentivize employees to contribute to their IDeal account by matching their savings up to $5,000 annually.

This program has bolstered our companys benefits package, helping to make it an even more essential part of the family-business culture at Hayden Beverage. We know from experience its a valuable tool to recruit and retain quality employees. We offer a list of benefits to our employees, including non-traditional things such as free beer and wine every month. But many of our team members say their IDeal account sits atop the list of favorites. Theres no requirement or expectation to contribute to their account, but as a company we are committed to matching their savings to build on the funds they can afford to set aside for education.

The number of employees using the IDeal benefit has grown over time and its used in a variety of ways. One employee has started saving for her daughters future education expenses. Another employee has two daughters who also work for Hayden Beverage, so we match the savings in all three of their accounts. The daughters are currently attending college and they still work here part-time. In a way, were helping to fund their education in real-time. We also have an employee who was spending so much of their money paying their own college debt that she couldnt afford to save for her kids. However, she was able to use her IDeal account to pay down her student loans with the help of our match so she can start investing in her childrens future education.

People want to work for a company that cares about their employees and their families. IDeal is a unique benefit that more Idaho companies should consider offering as part of their overall benefits package. Doing so sends a clear message that we prioritize improving the lives of our employees.

IDeal helps Hayden Beverage in many ways. Businesses that participate in the savings match receive a state tax advantage. In addition, reducing economic barriers to attending college or technical programs improves the overall quality of the Idaho workforce.

I know IDeal is good for our company and our state. But the best part is hearing about the success stories of our employees and their children. When I hear employees talking to each other about their IDeal accounts and the difference it has made in their lives, I know that we are a family business doing business as a family.

Dodds Hayden is the owner and CEO of Hayden Beverage. He was born and raised in Boise. He served as a Marine officer and has been president or CEO of Hayden Beverage since 2006. He currently serves as the vice chair of the Idaho Board of Correction. He and his wife, Ali, have two boys, Carlo and Dominic.

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A legal aid company accused of preying on undocumented immigrants held in detention centers in Virginia and elsewhere with an illegal bonding practice has failed in an attempt to have a lawsuit against it dismissed.

Roanoke-based U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon denied a motion Monday from Libre By Nexus, which was sued last year by Virginias attorney general and two other states.

The company describes itself as a national legal aid operation that pays the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bonds on a loan basis for people who are being held as part of the countrys broken immigration system.

But according to a lawsuit filed last year, Libre conceals or misrepresents the true costs of its services, charging upfront fees and monthly payments that can amount to thousands of dollars more than the face value of the bond.

Most Libre consumers do not speak or read English; therefore, they cannot understand the terms in the written agreement and rely on Libres oral representations, the lawsuit claims.

An attorney for Libre disputed the allegations, saying the company has a deep commitment to immigrants.

In her opinion, Dillon denied Libres request to have the lawsuit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Joining Virginia in the lawsuit are the states of Massachusetts and New York and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Thousands of immigrants and their families  with an exact number to be proven at trial  have fallen victim to the companys misrepresentations, the lawsuit states.

Generally, detainees in immigration detention centers are eligible for bond if a judge determines they are not a risk to flee or a threat to public safety. The average bond in 2018 was $7,500 nationally, and those unable to pay in cash must obtain third-party financing.

Libre is not a licensed bail bond agent; the company acts as a intermediary between detainees and their bond issuer.

According to the lawsuit, Libre misleads consumers into believing that their monthly fees are paying down their debt and that portions will be refunded at the conclusion of their immigration proceedings.

But many of the costs were not returned, including a fee used to pay for electronic monitoring bracelets the immigrants were required to wear, the lawsuit alleges.

As an example, the lawsuit cites a Libre client with a $10,000 bond whose immigration case took three years to resolve. In that case, the detainee made nonrefundable payments to the company in excess of $17,000.

With Dillon denying the companys request for dismissal, the case will now move forward to a trial at which the states and the federal consumer bureau will request damages and civil penalties.

The lawsuit was filed in Harrisonburgs federal court, not far from Libres principal place of business in Verona. Established in 2014, the company has locations across the country.

Jennifer Lee, a San Francisco lawyer who represents Libre, said Dillons ruling was limited to the narrow scope of subject matter jurisdiction, which was handled by previous counsel.

More broadly, the case allegations sadly do not account for the facts of the companys business model, nor the nuances of an immigrants personal experience, Lee wrote in an email.

While the companys clients are brilliant, resilient people, Lee said, many lack the ability to understand detailed contracts and were better served by oral descriptions delivered in their native language.

The email concluded: Given the companys deep commitment to the immigrant populations whom its programs were designed to help, the company intends to remain steadfast to demonstrate in this suit the true facts about its business to the fullest extent possible, and looks forward to the opportunity to do so.

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* At 1010 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located 9 miles east of Marion, or 7 miles southeast of Lake James State Park, moving northeast at 35 mph. HAZARD...Tornado. SOURCE...Radar indicated rotation. IMPACT...Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely.

* This dangerous storm will be near... Glen Alpine and South Mountains State Park around 1020 PM EDT. Morganton around 1030 PM EDT. Valdese, Drexel, Rutherford College and Connelly Springs around 1040 PM EDT. Lenoir, Cajah's Mountain, Gamewell, Sawmills and Hudson around 1050 PM EDT. Other locations impacted by this dangerous thunderstorm include Collettsville, Oak Hill and Dysartsville.

TAKE COVER NOW! Move to a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. Avoid windows. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris. Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to minor flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. Please report damaging winds, hail, or flooding to the National Weather Service by calling toll free, 1, 800, 2 6 7, 8 1 0 1, or by posting on our Facebook page, or Tweet it using hashtag nwsgsp. Your message should describe the event and the specific location where it occurred.
Saudi Arabias Justice Minister and chairman of the Saudi Bar Association (SBA) Dr. Walid Al-Samaani has issued an order appointing five members, including a woman, to the third session of the board of directors of the association, for the first time in the history of the Gulf country.

Dr. Louay Al-Akkas, will sit on the board with four other men namely Jasser Al-Jasser, Dr. Osama Al-Qahtani, Anas Al-Zamil, Ithar Al-Daij.

The new move is part of the kingdoms strategy to promote women who have been given a gradual and important place in the establishment of the countrys administration.

Dr. Al-Samaani had earlier approved the rules of professional conduct for lawyers aimed at developing the legal profession and raising its professional standards, in addition to enhancing the principles of transparency and responsibility, The Saudi Gazette reports.

The rules, the outlet notes, are also meant to strengthen the legal protection of lawyers and their clients and redefine their responsibility towards clients, colleagues, judicial authorities and the society.

SBA aims to raise the standard of professional practice of lawyers in order to ensure their good performance, increase awareness of their professional duties, and improve lawyers professional practice in the Kingdom.
Somalia: At least three dead in al-Shabaab attack at Mogadishu airport

MOGADISHU, (AFP)  At least three people were killed wednesday in an attack by al-Shabaab Islamists on the airport of the Somali capital Mogadishu, a compound under high protection housing UN offices, embassies and a base of the African Union force (AMISOM).

A policeman, an Amisom soldier and a civilian died in the fighting. Seven other people, mostly security forces, were also injured, Ibrahim Mohamed, an airport police officer, told AFP.

A witness present on the spot, Ismahan Hassan, told AFP a similar assessment.

I saw a Ugandan soldier and a Somali policeman dead. I was also told that a civilian had died  but the number of victims may be higher because of the number of people left in the area when the armed men entered, said the cleaner working in a restaurant.

The two attackers managed to penetrate the perimeter of the airport on Wednesday morning, reputed to be the most secure site in this unstable country in the Horn of Africa.

The attack  during which a gas station caught fire, releasing a thick plume of smoke  lasted about 45 minutes, several witnesses said, before the attackers were shot.

The radical Islamist group al-Shabaab, linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Halane military base and in particular the section of embassies and international missions.

Located within the airport, the Halane complex houses the UN offices, the Amisom base and several Western diplomatic missions, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States.

 Rare attack 

Al-Shabaab, which is fighting Somalias fragile federal government, was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 after an Amisom offensive, but it still controls large areas of rural Somalia and continues to carry out attacks on government and military targets.

They have repeatedly claimed responsibility for mortar attacks on the airport compound. But gun attacks are rare.

The airport had been the target of mortar fire in 2019, leaving nine injured, and in 2020.

In early March, the UN again condemned the firing of six mortar shells against this area housing its facilities, an attack claimed by al-Shabaab.

Somalia, and particularly its capital Mogadishu, has been the scene of multiple attacks in recent weeks, while the country has been waiting for more than a year for the election of a new president.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohameds term in office, known as Farmajo, expired in February 2021 without him having managed to hold an election.

Since then, the process has progressed painfully, delayed by conflicts at the top of the executive and between the central government and some federal states.

After many postponements, the end of the lower house elections has been set for 31 March. This step must open a new phase leading to the appointment of a new head of state.

The repeated delays are of concern to the international community, which believes that they divert the attention of the authorities from issues crucial to the country, such as the al-Shabaab insurgency.
Nearly 840,000 vaccines against Covid-19, received by Kenya via donations, have expired, the Ministry of Health announced Wednesday, deploring a persistent distrust in vaccination as well as the short life of the doses.

These are AstraZeneca vaccines received through the Covax global initiative, the ministry said in a statement. Every expired dose represents a missed opportunity to save a life, it added.

About 30% of the targeted population in Kenya has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, but vaccination has slowed considerably in recent weeks, which have seen the prevalence of the disease decline.

At the beginning of February, some 252,000 anti-Covid doses were being injected daily across the country, but this figure has dropped to 30,000. Among other things, the ministry says second-dose administration has dropped significantly and that some Kenyans are refusing certain vaccines  mainly AstraZeneca.

We continue to observe a reluctance to be vaccinated attributed to rumors and misinformation, especially around fertility fears, the ministry writes.

It also notes that the affected vaccines were delivered in January with an expiration date of February 28. From now on, Kenya will only accept donations of vaccines with a shelf life of at least four months at the time of delivery, the text continues.

Kenya has received a total of more than 27 million vaccines against Covid-19 but has only administered about 17.3 million.

The ministry reiterates that it has plenty of vaccines in stock and calls on Kenyans to get vaccinated to avoid further losses. The government aims to double the number of Kenyans vaccinated to 27 million by the end of the year from the current 8 million.

About 5,650 people have died of coronavirus in Kenya since the first case was detected in March 2020, according to official figures.
At least three people were killed Wednesday in an attack by Shebab Islamists on the airport of the Somali capital Mogadishu, a heavily protected compound housing U.N. offices, embassies and a base for the African Union force (Amisom).

One policeman, one Amisom soldier and one civilian died in the fighting. Seven other people, mostly security forces, were also wounded, said Ibrahim Mohamed, an airport police officer.

A witness at the scene, Ismahan Hassan, gave a similar account. I saw a Ugandan soldier and a Somali policeman dead. I was also told that a civilian was dead  but the number of casualties may be higher because of the number of people who stayed in the area when the gunmen entered, said the restaurant cleaner.

The two assailants managed to enter the airport perimeter on Wednesday morning, which is considered the most secure site in the volatile Horn of Africa country.

The attack  during which a gas station caught fire, releasing a thick plume of smoke  lasted about 45 minutes, several witnesses said, before the attackers were shot dead.

The radical Islamist group Shebab, linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted the Halane military base and in particular the embassy and international missions section.

Located within the airport, the Halane complex houses the UN offices, the Amisom base and several Western diplomatic missions, including those of the UK and the US.

The shebab have repeatedly claimed responsibility for mortar attacks on the airport compound. But gun attacks there are rare. The airport had been the target of mortar fire in 2019, injuring nine people, and in 2020.
The Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is holding an extraordinary summit on Friday in Ghana on the political situation in Mali and has invited the head of the Malian junta, Colonel Assimi Goita, to attend, says a document from the regional organization.

This summit will take place less than a week after the ECOWAS mediator in the Malian crisis left Mali without having reached an agreement with the junta on a timetable for the return of civilians to lead the country, which has been plunged into a deep security and political crisis for the past 10 years.

ECOWAS is conditioning a gradual lifting of the heavy economic and diplomatic sanctions it imposed on Mali on January 9 on the authorities presentation of an acceptable timetable for holding elections that would bring civilians back to power.

ECOWAS has so far called for elections to be held within 12 to 16 months. During the visit of mediator Goodluck Jonathan a few days ago, the military-installed government itself acknowledged that Colonel Goita had reduced the original four-year term (from January 2022) to two years. But during the discussions, the only time frame that was presented by the mediator was twelve months, the Malian government said.

ECOWAS will organize on Friday from 14:00 GMT an extraordinary summit on the political situation in the Republic of Mali, said a document sent by the Commission of the West African organization to the Malian Foreign Affairs.

Colonel Goita, who seized power by force with other colonels in August 2020 and was invested president following a second putsch in May 2021, is invited to take part in the work of the said summit, the document said.

No information has been provided by Malian authorities as to whether Colonel Goita will attend the summit.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

At this point in the pandemic, the public is understandably skittish about any news threatening to thwart our progress toward normalcy. Just as we learned that those who are vaccinated and boosted have good protection against omicron, and it seemed safe to relax some restrictions, terms like "deltacron" and "BA.2" set off familiar feelings of panicor at least exhaustion.

But in this Q&A, virologist Andrew Pekosz offers some reassurance. Speaking with host Josh Sharfstein, vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, Pekosz says variants and subvariants are to be expected, and our vaccinations and boosters continue to protect well against severe disease. Pekosz also discusses who should be most concerned about getting sick, what might happen in the coming weeks, and what we can learn about the omicron variant from the Hong Kong and China COVID-19 crises.

Tell us what's happening with the new omicron subvariant.

Three different versions of omicron are sort of lumped together: BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3. BA.1 caused most of the cases globally throughout December and January. What we're seeing now is BA.2, its sibling, following in its footsteps, and making some inroads in terms of causing cases worldwide.

They're very closely related, but distinct. All the properties of BA.2 so far seem to be similar to what we saw with BA.1 in terms of its ability to escape vaccines, its transmission rate, and its relatively low potential for causing severe disease compared to [a variant] like delta. As a virologist, it's not unexpected, but I understand that everyone's a little tired of hearing about variants coming through.

Does it look like the people who had omicron infection with BA.1 can now get infected with the BA.2 subvariant?

The initial data suggests that if you've been infected with BA.1, you have pretty good immunity against BA.2. It's difficult to predict these things in a pandemic, but my sense is that BA.2 will be moving through populations that are either unvaccinated, haven't been boosted, or haven't been infected recently. The data say BA.1 should protect against BA.2, and probably vice versa.

Since the U.S. had so many infections here, do you think there's a chance we don't encounter the problem that Europe has with BA.2?

That is my hope, based on the numbers that we're seeing now. There are a significant number of people who either haven't been vaccinated or haven't been boosted in the U.S.and boosting is really critical for maximizing your protection from either BA.1 or BA.2. I am optimistic that there's enough population immunity in the U.S. to limit virus spread.

But we have to remember that this is coming at the same time as we're reducing all of our public health interventions. These two things happening at the same time may lead to increased cases.

So 'opening up' could cause a rise in cases in the U.S. from either BA.1 or BA.2?

Absolutely. There's a feeling that we should always blame the virus or the variant for what's going on. I think we have to remember that we're in a very different stage now than we were at Thanksgiving or Christmastime when it comes to our public health interventions. That's going to factor into the case numbers we see.

Any other variants on the horizon that you're watching? I've heard about 'deltacron,' but I don't know if that refers to one of the subvariants we've been discussing.

Deltacron has an interesting history. For a few months now, people have been reporting sequences that look like a combination of the delta variant and the omicron variant. Many of those ended up being sequencing artifacts and not real viruses.

Over the past two weeks, reports have emerged of viruses that have sequences from both of those variants. It's not uncommon with coronaviruses to see this. It's called recombination. We don't know if the threats from deltacron are very significant right now; it seems to resemble the regular omicron.

Other than that, there's a small number of changes to omicron that scientists like myself are monitoring but [aren't at] the level that should concern the general public.

Bottom line: The more variants we get, the more some things stay the samelike get vaccinated against it.

It's amazing how that message just maintains consistency. We did have to add the booster to deal with omicron, but at the end of the day, vaccination and boosting are doing a fantastic job of limiting severe disease and an okay job of limiting infection. They really are the tool to get us back to normalcy.

There are some places in the world that are not experiencing normalcy right now. Hong Kong comes to mind, and China, with major lockdowns. What do you think is going on there?

I think it's probably two major factors. Both of those countries have tried to practice a "COVID zero" policymeaning they've been locked down. They've instituted very strict public health interventions to limit numbers of cases. And omicron is so transmissible that it's been able to overcome public health defenses those countries had in place that worked against other variants. What they've done for other variants isn't working as well against omicron, and you're seeing these surges in cases.

The second thing is, both of those countries have issues with their vaccination programs. Hong Kong in particular has a relatively low vaccination rate in their elderly populationthe population most susceptible to severe COVID. And some of the vaccines that have been used in China don't have as durable an immune response as our mRNA vaccines. Again, it starts with omicron being a more transmissible variant than any that have come before, and now you have to deal with that in a population that has been relatively protected from infection. It poses a big public health problem for those countries.

Looking at the number of deaths we're seeing in Hong Kong from omicron among older adults, do you think it suggests that the story we were telling ourselves about omicron being milder might have just been a reflection of what that variant was doing in a relatively well-vaccinated populationand that the virus is actually quite serious for people who are naive to coronavirus?

That's an incredibly important point. Omicron may not be as virulent as delta was, for instance, but it certainly is comparable to some of the earlier SARS-CoV-2 isolates that we were so concerned about when they first entered the population. If you don't have immunity to SARS-CoV-2, omicron is a very dangerous virus. It's going to continue to target those populations that don't have immunity, because those are the susceptible ones, the ones that the virus can gain access to and [who will] spread it.

Explore further 'Deltacron' variant rare and not a major concern
Recovering from hip or knee replacement surgery can be tough for anyone, but a new study from one hospital showed that Black patients were less likely than white patients to be satisfied with their care after the procedure.

Researchers reviewed survey responses from more than 2,500 people who underwent hip replacement and more than 2,100 people who had knee replacement at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HHS) in New York City between July 2010 and February 2012.

"Our aim was to determine whether overall patient assessment scores differed by race or socioeconomic status," said senior investigator Dr. Susan Goodman, a rheumatologist at HSS.

In both groups, Black patients were more likely than whites to say they were "not completely satisfied" with their care after surgery, but there was no difference between Black and white patients in satisfaction with the outcome of their surgery.

A patient's primary health insurance coverage was not associated with satisfaction in any of the patient groups, according to the study, presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting, in Chicago. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"The study is important because we know that Black patients generally wait longer to seek treatment, presenting with worse pain and function prior to surgery, and we are trying to sort out the barriers to seeking timely care," said study co-author Dr. Mark Figgie, chief emeritus of HSS' Surgical Arthritis Service.

"Patient outcome measures indicate that although Black patients achieve significant improvement after surgery, it does not reach the same level as those who seek timely treatment," Figgie noted in an HHS news release.

"Confidence in the health care system may contribute to the delay in seeking care, and this is something we need to address," he added.

"More research is needed to investigate other factors, such as perceived staff courtesy and baseline pain and function, to understand why disparities exist so we can achieve a high level of patient satisfaction for everyone," Goodman said in the release.

Explore further Knee replacement in folks over 80: Less risky than you think

More information: There's more on joint replacement surgery at the There's more on joint replacement surgery at the U.S. National Institutes of Health

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Modeling of the impact of tumor N-glycans on the targeting by CAR T cells. Left, the N-glycan decoration of tumors 1) repels CAR T cells by impeding immunological synapse formation, which tunes down transcriptional activation and overall effector functions and 2) exacerbates CAR T exhaustion by fostering inhibitory ligandreceptor pair bindings, such as PD-1- PD-L1. Right, the glucose analog 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) accumulates in tumors and inhibits N-glycans synthesis, which allows restoration of CAR T cell effector functions and mitigation of exhaustion. Credit: Science Translational Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abg3072

CAR T cell therapy, the breakthrough method of supercharging patients' T cells in the lab to attack cancer when re-infused, has worked more effectively against cancers of the blood than solid tumors.

Now, in new research aimed at finding out why and how to overcome the problem in solid tumors, scientists in Milan, Italy, have discovered that solid tumors shield themselves in a sugar coating that renders them resistant to CAR T cell attack. Beatrice Greco and colleagues in the Innovative Immunotherapies Unit at IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute are exploring ways to overcome it. They are devising a molecular torpedo that can break the sugar shield, which, in turn, clears a path for CAR T cells to home in and destroy solid cancers.

CAR T cellschimeric antigen receptor T cellsstart out as a patients' own T cells isolated from a blood sample. Next, the cells are primed in a laboratory using a genetic modification process that causes T cells to express a cancer-seeking-and-destroying receptor on their surface.

Despite many years of research, medical scientists have not been able to coax supercharged T cells to function as efficiently against solid tumors as they have for hematological malignancies. And glycosylation of the cancer cell surface, the process of cancer cells fortifying themselves in a thick coat of sugar molecules, has led to difficulties using CAR T against a variety of solid tumors.

Laboratory studies involving animal models suggest a solution to the sugar problem may make its way into human clinical trials in the not-too-distant future.

"Immunotherapy with chimeric antigen receptorengineered T cells showed exceptional successes in patients with refractory B cell malignancies," Greco wrote in Science Translational Medicine. "However, first-in-human studies in solid tumors revealed unique hurdles contributing to poor demonstration of efficacy. Understanding the determinants of tumor recognition by CAR T cells should translate into the design of strategies that can overcome resistance."

It's not just a sugar problem that prevents CAR T cell therapy from working in solid tumors, although the carbohydrate coat has been the biggest barrier to successful treatment. The microenvironment of solid tumors aids in the prevention of CAR T cells from properly infiltrating the tumor site. Additionally, solid tumors also possess few antigens that CAR T cells can readily recognize and zero in on.

Researchers worldwide are working on ways to overcome these barriers, but more work is needed to understand the factors that influence whether a CAR T cell can recognize and interact with its malignant target, scientists in Milan say.

To learn why virtually every type of solid tumor is resistant to CAR T cell therapy, Greco and colleagues looked for what these cancers had in common when it comes to cells shielding themselves against destruction. The team found that "multiple carcinomas express extracellular N-glycans, whose abundance negatively correlates with CAR T cell killing."

N-linked glycosylation refers to a crucial chemical process in which an oligosaccharyltransferase (an enzyme) catalyzes the transfer of an oligosaccharide onto an amino acid acceptor, which in this case is asparagine. An oligosaccharide is a carbohydrate composed of a string of monosaccharide subunits.

Picture this as a process the process of building a chain with multiple units, linking together over and over again. Each each time an oligosaccharide attaches to an exposed asparagine, that's another link in the chain. The end result is tight chain of sugar molecules having built a fortress on cancer cells. At the macro level, of the tumor is shielded in sugars that keep cancer free from attack. Greco and colleagues say N-linked glycosylation is the key to solid tumors' resistance to CAR T cell immunotherapy.

By including a sugar analogan anti-sugar molecule that serves as a torpedoalong with the CAR T cells, the killing power of the emboldened T cells can be enhanced, Greco and colleagues found. And because cancer cells have a multitude of methods to evade any form of treatment, she and her team say that incorporating the anti-sugar molecule into CAR T cell treatments can help overcome multiple tricks that tumors may use to protect themselves.

"We showed that N-glycans protect tumors from CAR T cell killing by interfering with proper immunological synapse formation and reducing transcriptional activation, cytokine production, and cytotoxicity," Greco wrote. "To overcome this barrier, we exploited the high metabolic demand of tumors to safely inhibit N-glycans synthesis."

Pancreatic cells lavishly shield themselves in the carbohydrate compoundsN-glycanson their surface. The N-glycans function as a force field against CAR T cells in pancreatic cancer. The malignancy is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Being able to use CAR T cell immunotherapy could add to the armamentarium that doctors may one day rely on.

To address the sugar coating problem, the team used a molecular torpedoa 2-deoxy-D-glucosea sugar analog that can inhibit the synthesis of N-glycans. The researchers found that treating pancreatic tumors in mice with 2-deoxy-D-glucose broke down the N-glycan shield coating tumor cells, leaving them more vulnerable to CAR T cell therapy.

Moreover, the combined treatment (2-deoxy-D-glucose plus CAR T cell immunotherapy) also sensitized a range of other solid tumors to CAR T cell therapy. These solid tumors included lung, ovarian, and bladder cancers.

While researchers in Milan and beyond are working on ways to overcome barriers to CART T cells' ability to destroy cancers, more work is needed to understand the factors that influence whether a CAR T cell can recognize and interact with its malignant target.

Even among hematological cancers estimates in a flurry of recent studies suggest that CAR T cell therapy has only a 3040% rate of success for durable remission. That means a significant number of patients aren't benefiting from the treatment's promise.

To improve the odds, medical scientists in laboratories worldwide are searching for ways to make CAR T cell cancer therapy work more efficiently for both hematological and solid cancers.

"Overall, our results indicate that tumor N-glycosylation regulates the quality and magnitude of CAR T cell responses, paving the way for the rational design of improved therapies against solid malignancies," Greco said.

Explore further CAR-T immunotherapy could be improved to kill solid tumors

More information: Beatrice Greco et al, Disrupting N-glycan expression on tumor cells boosts chimeric antigen receptor T cell efficacy against solid malignancies, Science Translational Medicine (2022). Journal information: Science Translational Medicine Beatrice Greco et al, Disrupting N-glycan expression on tumor cells boosts chimeric antigen receptor T cell efficacy against solid malignancies,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abg3072

 2022 Science X Network
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

In a phenomenon that researchers are calling a "dual pandemic" because of the severity of the impact of coupled factors, a Rutgers School of Nursing research study has found that non-white nurses are suffering disproportionately from emotional distress, induced by a toxic stew of fears engendered by COVID-19 and reactions to workplace racism.

The work, published in Behavioral Medicine, is one of the first of its kind to quantify such effects and points to a critical need to address the issues of frontline health workers as the pandemic continues.

"We found that variations in nurses' emotional distress were determined, in part, by direct and complex interactions among COVID worry, race and workplace racism experiences," said Charlotte Thomas-Hawkins, an associate dean and associate professor of Nursing Science who led the study. "For nurses of color in our study, workplace racism and COVID-19 represented a dual pandemic; that is, their experiences and worries were synergized to the detriment of their emotional well-being."

Thomas-Hawkins, who is also Director of the Center for Health Services Research and Policy, has long wanted to explore the effects of racism in the healthcare sphere due to her own adverse experiences over decades working as a Black nurse. But key events in 2020 focused her thoughts on their outsized impact on populations of colorthe advent of COVID-19 in the New York metropolitan area in March of that year, and the tragic murder that May of 46-year-old George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis during an arrest.

Health statistics also guided her, showing that Black, Hispanic and Asian people in the U.S. experienced the highest rates of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations. Studies also showed that nearly half of all confirmed healthcare worker cases of COVID-19 infections, deaths and hospitalizations were occurring among workers of color. In addition, nurses were the hardest hit among all healthcare workers.

The interplay of these two forces in American life and their impact on people, she believed, necessitated investigation. "COVID-19 and race in both the U.S. general population and the healthcare workforce are inextricably linked," Thomas-Hawkins said.

In September 2020, during a lull in the COVID pandemic, the researchers surveyed nearly 800 nurses working in acute care hospitals in New Jersey. Participants completed online questionnaires that inquired about indicators of emotional distress, COVID-19 worry and concerns, workplace racial climate, workplace racial microaggression experiences and demographic information.

Participants were asked how worried they were, generally, about COVID, how concerned they were about becoming infected, and how likely it was that someone they knew might become sick from the virus. Questions on experiences with racism focused on whether there were limits to advancement on anything from work opportunities to unwelcoming climates. They were also asked about microaggressions and bias incidents, such as insults, slights and discriminatory behaviors.

The study concluded that:

Non-white nurses reported significantly higher levels of emotional distress and overall worry about COVID.

A higher percentage of non-white nurses (61%) were very worried about COVID compared with the percentage of white nurses (41%) who were very worried.

Non-white nurses perceived more negative racial climates, with Black nurses reporting the most negative climates.

Non-white nurses experienced more racial microaggression experiences, and Black nurses experienced the highest number of racial microaggressions compared with all other racial groups.

If the healthcare industry is going to be successful in diversifying its workforce, the pressures examined in the study are important to understand and address, Thomas-Hawkins noted. "The psychological effects of nurses' workplace COVID exposure and worry will likely last far into the future," Thomas-Hawkins said. "And the persistence of workplace racism will continue to inflict individual-level psychological harm among nurses of color unless it is effectively ameliorated."

More information: Charlotte Thomas-Hawkins et al, Effects of Race, Workplace Racism, and COVID Worry on the Emotional Well-Being of Hospital-Based Nurses: A Dual Pandemic, Behavioral Medicine (2022). Charlotte Thomas-Hawkins et al, Effects of Race, Workplace Racism, and COVID Worry on the Emotional Well-Being of Hospital-Based Nurses: A Dual Pandemic,(2022). DOI: 10.1080/08964289.2021.1977605
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

For two decades, language experts were certain that babies were able to learn language rules from as young as the age of seven months. However, recent research carried out by a consortium of four Dutch baby labs led by researchers from Leiden cast doubts on this certainty. We spoke to researchers Andreea Geambasu, Sybren Spit and Claartje Levelt about the study and the next steps.

The original study was conducted by Marcus, Vijayan, Bandi Rao and Vishton (1999). Levelt emphasizes its impact: "If you look at Google Scholar, for example, there are more than a thousand references to said study. Textbooks on language acquisition always cite it as well: 'babies can learn language rules from as young as seven months old.'"

No proof

"In Marcus' study, they analyzed whether young children as young as seven months old could learn abstract language rules like word order. The babies sat on their parent's lap and listened to a stream of sounds for the duration of two minutes. At the end of those two minutes, a light bulb would turn on to the left or right of the babies," explains Spit. "Once they looked at the lamp, the sounds would repeat themselves. The idea behind it was that if the babies had learned something, they would probably be more interested in sounds in a different sequence from before. With such new sounds, they would look at the lamp longer, which were subsequently the results of the original study."

But the team could not replicate those same results. "We have gathered from our experiments that there is no evidence that seven-month-old babies can learn such patterns, and there is similarly no evidence that babies have a preference for any specific pattern," Geambasu explains. The analysis conducted by the researchers from Leiden showed that babies looked at the lamps for the same amount of time regardless of the different patterns. "Thus, you could say that they have not really learned anything," explains Spit.

Replication crisis

What is the reason behind these contrasting results? "Until recently, studies were limited to testing on fairly small groups of babies, because they are relatively difficult test subjects," Levelt explains. Consequently, there is a large chance that the results are not robust. "Just like in psychology, there is a replication crisis in baby research."

In order to make sure the research is as reliable as possible, the team used a larger group of participants than is usual and wrote a registered report. "This means that you write the article in advance of the experiment. Following this, a journal guarantees that it will publish the article regardless of the results," explains Levelt. "This is important, because it turns out that journals tend to have a publication bias, leaning more towards papers with statistically significant results." Geambasu adds: "This is probably also one of the main causes of the replication crisis. If you only find positive results in literature, it is hard to get a full picture of reality."

Another chance

Nevertheless, the original study will get a second chance. Levelt and her team are going to replicate the study on an even larger scale in the near future. "We are planning on collaborating with baby labs all over the world within the framework of a ManyBabies project. Think of at least a thousand participants," says Levelt. They expect to start testing this summer.

A number of alterations have been made to the original study for the new one. For example, In the new study they will not use the original stimuli. "The stimuli used in Marcus' study mostly focused on English-specific syllables. This is why we want to try using vowels and consonants that occur in many different languages, so that they can be interpreted by babies all over the world," Levelt explains. "It is possible that we were unable to replicate the same results because we presented the original English stimuli to Dutch babies."

However, the team expects that the results will not be replicated this time around as well. "For my Ph.D., I spent a lot of my time replicating this studywith different stimuli as welland never found anything," says Geambasu.

The replication study is part of the NWO project "The building blocks of cognition," which focuses on replicating two major baby studies. The Babylab is still looking for participants for the large replication study. Parents or caretakers of children between five and twelve months of age who are interested in partaking in the study are welcome to apply on the website of Babylab Leiden.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy is not associated with a higher risk of pregnancy complications, according to a large-scale registry study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health published in the journal JAMA.

The study, which comprised almost 160,000 pregnancies, found no increase in the risk of preterm birth, growth retardation, low Apgar scores at birth or the need for neonatal care after vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy.

"The results are reassuring and can hopefully make pregnant individuals more willing to get vaccinated," says co-first author Anne Ortqvist Rosin, researcher at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Solna).

Earlier studies have shown that pregnant women belong to a risk group for serious COVID-19 requiring intensive care with a higher risk of death than non-pregnant women of a fertile age. Pregnant women with severe COVID-19 are also more likely to have preterm births. Since January 2021, efficacious COVID-19 vaccines have been available in Sweden and Norway, and in May 2021 Sweden recommended all pregnant individuals to have a COVID-19 jab, followed in August by Norway.

Lower vaccination rates

"We're still seeing that vaccination rates are lower than in the rest of the population, so it's likely that there's some concern about how the vaccines affect the pregnant individual and the fetus," explains Dr. Ortqvist Rosin. "When the vaccines were produced, pregnant women were not included in the large clinical studies, and until now there have been no population-based data about any risk there might be to them."

The researchers linked Sweden's Pregnancy Register and Norway's Medical Birth Register to each country's vaccination register to obtain data on if and when pregnant individuals were vaccinated and with which vaccine. The study included a total of 157,521 individuals who gave birth between January 2021 and January 2022, of whom almost one fifth (18 percent) had been vaccinated. It was found that vaccinated individuals were at no higher risk than unvaccinated of developing one of the studied complications.

The majority of the pregnant individuals included in the study were vaccinated after week 12 in accordance with current recommendations. 95 percent received an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna). This should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results, which were similar for the different mRNA vaccines irrespective of whether one or two doses were given. Vaccination during the third trimester and vaccination with the Moderna vaccine was associated with a slightly lower risk of neonatal care.

Antibodies pass through the placenta

One potential advantage of vaccination during pregnancy is that the antibodies thus formed pass through the placenta, providing the newborn baby with a certain degree of protection against COVID-19.

"We're now planning to study how long this protection lasts, and if SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination during pregnancy has any other lasting effects on the child's health," says joint last author Professor Olof Stephansson at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Solna).

More information: Maria C. Magnus et al, Association of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination During Pregnancy With Pregnancy Outcomes, JAMA (2022). Journal information: Journal of the American Medical Association Maria C. Magnus et al, Association of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination During Pregnancy With Pregnancy Outcomes,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2022.3271
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

When we initiate an action in our everyday liveschasing after a runaway napkin or getting out of the carthe brain releases a chemical messenger called dopamine that helps regulate the brain area that controls this action.

Dopamine signaling is a highly complex process, and one that scientists are eager to understandespecially given its role in movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

Now, a team at Harvard Medical School has identified a new mechanism that underlies dopamine release in the brain. The research, conducted in mice and published March 24 in Science, shows that another chemical messenger called acetylcholine can trigger the firing of dopamine neurons by binding to a part of these neurons not previously known to initiate firing.

The findings reveal more about how the acetylcholine and dopamine systems in the brain interact, and challenge the existing dogma that signals are initiated at one end of neurons and flow to the other end, where they prompt the release of chemical messengers. More specifically, the research suggests that the axon of a neuron, which has traditionally been considered an output structure, can also initiate signaling.

If confirmed in further animal studies and then in humans, the discovery could inform new strategies for treating diseases such as Parkinson's, in which dopamine signaling is disrupted.

"Defining the interactions of dopamine and acetylcholine is fundamental to understanding how the actions we perform in our daily lives are generated and modulated," said senior author Pascal Kaeser, professor of neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

Sending Signals

Neurons are specialized nerve cells that send and receive signals throughout the body. The signal transmission starts with a neuron receiving a chemical signal in its branched tentacles called dendrites at one end. Next, the nearby cell bodythe cell's command centerintegrates the signal to induce firing, sending an electrical impulse, or action potential, along a long, thin projection called an axon to the far end of the cell. There, the action potential prompts the release of neurotransmitters, chemical messengers that flow to nearby neurons, carrying the message from one cell to the next. Dopamine and acetylcholine are among the most important neurotransmitters in the body. They are involved in the regulation of vital functions including voluntary and involuntary movement, pain processing, pleasure, mood, smooth muscle contraction, and blood vessel dilation, among many others.

Kaeser and his team study the striatum, a centralized cluster of neurons in the brain that integrates input from other brain areas to regulate everyday actions. The researchers are interested in how dopamine neurons, which sit in another region of the brain, the midbrain, but have axons that project into the striatum, communicate with the striatum to modulate its function.

The classic model of this process, Kaeser explained, is that dopamine neurons receive chemical signals in their dendrites in the midbrain, and their cell bodies send action potentials down their axons into the striatum, triggering dopamine release that modulates everyday actions. However, previous research established that this isn't always the case. Sometimes, acetylcholine initiates dopamine release directly in the striatum, seemingly skipping several steps of the signaling process.

"We were fascinated by this because it's a really strong mechanism, but how it actually workshow acetylcholine triggers the release of dopamine, this very important modulator that regulates commands in the striatum, was unknown," Kaeser said.

Looking Local

To investigate this phenomenon in mice, Kaeser and his team used a microscope to analyze brain tissue in which the striatum had been separated from the other regions. They saw sparks of dopamine in the tissue, even though the dendrites and cell bodies of dopamine neurons in the midbrain were cut off from their axons in the striatum.

"This was really striking because it happens without cell bodies, so the neurons don't have their command center, and it happens without stimulation; it just happens on its own," Kaeser said. "This is spontaneous local triggering of dopamine release."

The team then established that there are fewer dopamine signals than acetylcholine signals in the striatum, but each dopamine signal is more powerful and spreads over a larger area of the brainindicating that there is a propagating signal when acetylcholine triggers local dopamine release.

In another set of experiments, the researchers explored the machinery involved. Previous studies revealed that axons on dopamine neurons have few sites for dopamine release, which are used when the cell body initiates an action potential. Kaeser and his team showed that those same sites are responsible for local dopamine release prompted by acetylcholine.

Next, the researchers conducted experiments where they either activated acetylcholine neurons or puffed a drug that acts like acetylcholine directly onto the dopamine axons. When they did this, the acetylcholine induced action potentials in dopamine neurons that propagated the signal and prompted dopamine release. Acetylcholine initiated these action potentials by binding to acetylcholine receptors on the axons of dopamine neurons.

"This is really the heart of the mechanism: It tells you that providing acetylcholine is sufficient to trigger an action potential out of the axon, so you don't need the dendrites of the neuron," Kaeser said.

In a final set of experiments, the team investigated dopamine and acetylcholine signals in the brain as mice moved around in the environment. The researchers found that both signals correlated with the direction in which the mouse's head moved, and the onset of acetylcholine signals occurred just before that of the dopamine signals. When the researchers interfered with acetylcholine receptors on dopamine neurons to disrupt signaling, dopamine levels in the mouse striatum dropped.

"This provides evidence that this mechanism plays in vivo as well, although more research is needed to understand how it affects striatal function and mouse behavior," Kaeser said.

The Big Picture

Although this localized mechanism is only one of three types of dopamine neuron firing in the brain, Kaeser considers it an important onenot least of all because it challenges conventional thinking on how neurons send and receive signals.

"I think the most important insight that comes from this work is that a local signaling system can initiate an action potential in the axon, which is an output structure," Kaeser said. "This goes at a very old, core principle of how neurons work."

It's possible, Kaeser added, that the same mechanism may be used by other axons throughout the brain, especially those with acetylcholine receptors. "We have no direct evidence for that yet, but I do think that we may have to rethink how neurons integrate signals based on this work."

"Now that we have clear evidence that this is happening, we can ask further questions about whether this type of signaling actually happens more commonly than we thought. We may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg," added lead author Changliang Liu, a research fellow in neurobiology at HMS. Liu wants to understand why this localized mechanism of dopamine release is needed, and what advantages it offers over dopamine release initiated by the cell body.

Kaeser is also interested in exploring whether it's possible to completely reverse the directionality of dopamine neurons by sending a signal back up the axon to the cell body and dendrites. If such a reversal can occur, it would further upend the classic view of how neurons function.

Although the study was done in mice, Kaeser noted that the components of the mechanism are conserved across species and are present in humans, suggesting that the mechanism may be present as well.

If the mechanism is confirmed in humans, the findings could eventually inform the development of new treatments for neurodegenerative disorders that affect movement, such as Parkinson's disease. In Parkinson's disease, dopamine neurons start to break down and dopamine levels drop, causing difficulty with walking, balance, and coordination, among other symptoms. Researchers may be able to figure out, for example, how to use acetylcholine neurons as a source of dopamine in the striatum, a strategy that could be used to restore falling dopamine levels.

"If we can define how the dopamine and acetylcholine systems interact, we will definitely better understand what happens when you take out dopamine neurons," Kaeser saida step that "is really important for understanding and treating Parkinson's disease."

Additional authors include Xintong Cai, a visiting graduate student in neurobiology at HMS; Andreas Ritzau-Jost and Stefan Hallermann of Leipzig University; Paul Kramer and Zayd Khaliq of the National Institutes of Health; and Yulong Li of Peking University.

Explore further Previously unknown neural mechanism of habit formation identified

More information: Changliang Liu et al, An action potential initiation mechanism in distal axons for the control of dopamine release, Science (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn0532 Journal information: Science Changliang Liu et al, An action potential initiation mechanism in distal axons for the control of dopamine release,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn0532
Nigerian military say about 7,000 extremist militants surrender in one week

LAGOS,(XINHUA)  At least 7,000 extremist militants, comprising members of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have surrendered to Nigerian government troops in the past one week, a senior military official said on Wednesday.

An onslaught on ISWAP and Boko Haram militants has continued to record significant successes, said Christopher Musa, commander of an ongoing military operation in Nigerias northeast Borno state.

This is evident as thousands of insurgents alongside their families continued to lay down their arms in different parts of Borno to accept peace, he told reporters in the northeast city of Maiduguri.

Those surrendered and their families are expected to be carefully profiled by the Nigerian army and other stakeholders before they undergo rehabilitation processes, Musa said.

The military and other security agencies will continue to devise and implement effective strategies to bring terrorism in the region to a speedy end, he said.

ISWAP has been collaborating with its sister group, Boko Haram, to establish an Islamist state in northeast Nigeria. The terror groups have also extended their attacks to other countries in the Lake Chad Basin.
Men are more likely than women to be offered surgery to ease carpal tunnel syndrome, but a small new study from one hospital suggests that gender may have nothing to do with the disparity.

Instead, the difference may exist because the condition tends to be more severe in men, the researchers said.

Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve in the wrist is compressed due to trauma, arthritis or inflammation of wrist tendons, resulting in numbness, weakness and tingling in the hand and arm.

Patients with mild symptoms are typically given nonsurgical treatments such as bracing or steroid injections, while those with severe symptoms are often offered minimally invasive surgery called carpal tunnel release, which relieves pressure on the median nerve by cutting the carpal ligament.

"However, for patients with moderate symptoms, it's not as obvious whether a nonsurgical or surgical approach is best," said study senior author Dr. Duretti Fufa, a hand and upper extremity surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

The researchers reviewed the records of 949 patients treated for carpal tunnel syndrome at the hospital and grouped them according to disease severity.

Among the 141 women and 90 men with moderate symptoms, women were 23% less likely than men to be offered surgery, and Hispanic and Black women were four times less likely than men in their racial groups to be offered surgery.

While the trends were strong, they were not statistically significant due to the size of the study, the researchers noted.

The results were presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting, in Chicago. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"Overall, our findings suggest that increased utilization by males was largely explained by the fact that men were more likely to present with more severe carpal tunnel syndrome," Fufa said in a hospital news release.

"I suspect that with larger numbers of patients to study, differences based on gender and race may prove to be significant. In the meantime, we hope our findings increase awareness of potential biases to ensure we are providing equitable care to all patients," she said.

This is especially important "for patients with moderate disease symptoms where the decision to pursue surgery is more subjective," Fufa added.

Explore further Find relief for achy hands and wrists

More information: There's more on carpal tunnel syndrome at the There's more on carpal tunnel syndrome at the American College of Rheumatology

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Pro-invasive and indolence signature genes associated with tumor invasion at early-stage lung adenocarcinoma. Credit: Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29230-7

Mount Sinai researchers have developed a novel method to identify aggressive early-stage lung cancers and target drugs known as aurora kinase inhibitors to tumors that are especially likely to respond to them. The findings, published in Nature Communications on March 24, could lead to great advances in treatment for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

The Mount Sinai team used a genomics network model to measure tumor invasivenessdistinguishing aggressive tumors from so-called "indolent" ones, which often cannot be told apart via chest CT scanand identify those that will respond to aurora kinase inhibitors, molecules that can inhibit gene signature regulators.

"The approaches to diagnosing and treating early-stage lung adenocarcinoma are evolving and are based upon advances in understanding the biology and clinical activities of these tumors," said senior author Charles Powell, MD, MBA, Janice and Coleman Rabin Professor of Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Our work using novel network approaches, in collaboration with Sema4, to identify signatures of invasiveness and to identify drugs that can intercept progression of these cancers should contribute to advancing the understanding and outcomes for this cancer."

The research team used a genetically engineered mouse model to define the role of aurora kinases in early progression of the disease. They performed molecular profiling of early-stage lung cancer samples with RNA sequencing and identified signature genes associated with invasiveness of tumors. Researchers from Sema4 used novel genomic networking approaches to identify key network regulators and therapeutic drugs to demonstrate that targeting the signaling pathway reduces lung cancer spread and improves survival. They identified and tested aurora kinase inhibitors, including AMG900, as an effective treatment to intercept lung cancer progression in the models.

The researchers encourage further validation and clinical testing in human tumors. Future studies should examine opportunities to similarly intervene in signaling by immune cells or other cells in the surrounding tumor stroma, researchers said, since cancer progression relies on the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding cells.

Explore further Tailoring lung cancer therapies to individual patients

More information: Seungyeul Yoo et al, Integrative network analysis of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma identifies aurora kinase inhibition as interceptor of invasion and progression Nature Communications (2022). Journal information: Nature Communications Seungyeul Yoo et al, Integrative network analysis of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma identifies aurora kinase inhibition as interceptor of invasion and progression(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29230-7
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Russia's descent into repression under Vladimir Putin reached a tipping point with his decision to invade Ukraine. During this full-scale, unlawful military invasion, he has threatened any country trying to intervene with harsh consequences, which some worry may involve nuclear weapons.

Some have suggested Putin's thinking is entirely rationalthe product of a calculated, harsh realism about global politics, or an attempt to gain domestic strength. Others believe the moves are desperate, wild and overreachingevidence of deep, psychological flaws.

But what exactly is the psychology behind Putin's leadership, and what can we do to counteract its negative effects?

Putin's personality

Putin has a "strong man" attitude. He displays an apparent lack of regret or remorse for his unethical decisions and the negative effect they have on innocent people. He also fails to accept responsibility for negative outcomes, and typically blames others when something goes wrong.

What does this tell us about his personality? While we are not in a position to "diagnose" political leaders without asking them to take a personality test, psychologists can evaluate them through behavioural observations. For example, we can look at speeches, decision-making or interviews over time. This isn't necessarily a bad approachsome people lie on personality tests.

Putin is an autocratic and authoritarian political leader. Decades of studies in the field of organisational psychology show that such leaders are more prone to take important decisions themselves. They also tend to be more task-oriented than interested in the general welfare of their people. Another telling sign is that they maintain a distance between themselves and otherspartly through the use of punishments and threats.

One recent study of 14 authoritarian state leaders, including Putin and the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, found they were less agreeable (in terms of being trustful and altruistic) and less emotionally stable compared with less autocratic leaders. They also scored higher on antisocial, "dark personality traits," such as machiavellianism (manipulation and deception), narcissism (grandiosity, superiority and entitlement) and psychopathy (low empathy, aggression and impulsivity).

Research also suggests that these traits make them less competent and less easily understood by others.

Viewing Putin from this perspective, much evidence points to the conclusion that he has worrisome antisocial tendencies. This is visible in his behaviour toward political rivals and international leaders. One clear example is that when he first met the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, he deliberately brought a large dog to the meeting, despiteor perhaps becausehe knew that she was afraid of dogs.

Another example is the poisoning and imprisonment of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The callous disregard for due process and Navalny's human rights is consistent with dark personality traits.

Psychological tactics

So how can we use this knowledge? What is needed to tackle the war is a two-level game. You need to deal with Putin, but you must also contend with complicating factors created by his webs of relationships, domestically and internationally. The latter involves reinforcing solidarity with Russian citizens and respecting their norms.

This two-level method is a tested approach for dealing with people with antisocial traits working in corporate settings. Ultimately, you need to tackle bad leaders while also taking into account the needs of their employees.

With Putin, we need to take the signs of dark personality traits seriously. It should not be assumed that conventional approaches to diplomacy or negotiations will work. Autocratic leaders with dark personalities often refuse to believe they need to listen to others or engage in conflict resolution. Instead, displays of power may work better.

Research on narcissistic leadership also suggests that giving honest feedback on behavioursuch as calling out lyingcan help to keep such leaders under control. But this should not evolve into a public humiliation, which could easily make matters worse.

Naming and shaming bad actions can also help make it clear that Putin will face international condemnation for his domestic and international human rights violations. While it might seem that this would not affect an autocrat, research suggests political leaders in pure autocracies may be more sensitive to such criticism than leaders in democracies or hybrid regimes. This may be because they ultimately care more about their public image.

The effectiveness of economic sanctionssuch as those currently in use against Putinis debated by scholars. Because such sanctions cause poverty among ordinary people, they can lead to higher levels of authoritarianism as both the leader and people feel victimised by the international community.

Instead, we need to recognise the distorting effects of the type of psychological control that Putin seeks to impose over his people. For example, he fiercely controls information to instil uncertainty and fear among the Russian people. This may ultimately make them support authoritarian leadership for their own "protection." One way to reduce the experience of threat could be to work strategically to try to boost socioeconomic conditions for ordinary Russians rather than financially punishing them.

Another option is to recognise and validate those Russians who seek a group identity that goes beyond the state identity presented by Putin. Whereas the Kremlin uses propaganda to distinguish Russians from peoples who are represented as dangerouswestern, liberal, Protestant, Catholic, MuslimRussian culture and history has historically often reinforced the psychological message that human beings collectively have more in common than what separates us.

Those who are held responsible for the violence and corruption of an autocratic regimeand judged guilty by a courtleave the guardians of a responsible civil society the task to build afresh. If and when that happens, the international community should show solidarity, rather than anger or prejudice, to prevent the type of fear which sustain violent dictatorship.

Autocratic political leaders pose a threat to international stability. We are unlikely to be able to stop them from emergingbut we can use our knowledge of their functioning to limit their disruptive power.

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
A worker moves boxes carrying Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine at SK Bioscience Co. in Andong, South Korea, on Feb. 9, 2022. Before the pandemic, Novavax was a small American company that had never brought any vaccine to market. Its shots have proven highly effective, but it is relying heavily on other companies to make them. Credit: Kim Hyun-tae/Yonhap via AP, File

The company behind a COVID-19 vaccine touted as a key tool for the developing world has sent tens of millions of doses to wealthy nations but provided none yet to the U.N.-backed effort to supply poorer countries, a sign that inequity persists in the global response to the pandemic.

A quarter-million doses from the company were supposed to be available to the vaccine-sharing initiative, called COVAX, by March. But the U.N. agency in charge of deliveries says the first shipments now likely won't be made until April or May.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The company, Novavax, got $388 million from one of the organizations leading COVAX to fast-track the vaccine's development and help make the shot available in poorer countries.

The investment guaranteed COVAX the "right of first refusal" to the first Novavax doses, but the deal applied only to factories in the Czech Republic, South Korea and Spain, said Bjorg Dystvold Nilsson, spokesman for COVAX co-founder CEPI.

There are other factories that aren't part of the dealand their shots are going elsewhere.

The Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker, has manufactured millions of Novavax doses. According to India's Ministry of External Affairs and the institute, more than 28.9 million of those doses were sent to the Netherlands in January and February, while Australia received about 6 million doses. Indonesia also received about 9 million doses in December.

Thousands of other Novavax doses were also shipped from a Netherlands factory to other EU countries.

"Whatever the reason, a vaccine that was believed to be highly suitable for poor countries is now in large part going to rich countries," said Zain Rizvi, a drug policy expert at the U.S. advocacy group Public Citizen. "It's tragic that in year three of the pandemic, we still cannot get the resources, attention and political will to solve vaccine inequity."

Kidney dishes with mounted syringes containing vaccines, from top, Novavax, Biontech and Moderna sit in a refrigerator in a vaccination center ready for vaccination in Prisdorf, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. Even with vaccine supplies improving, some officials were eagerly awaiting the Novavax vaccine in particular because it is easier to transport and store than some other coronavirus shots. Credit: Georg Wendt/dpa via AP, File

The delay is the latest setback for COVAX, which has been repeatedly hit by supply problems and has missed numerous targets to share doses.

Last year, WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus decried the chasm in vaccine supplies between rich and poor countries as a "catastrophic moral failure."

Vaccine availability has been improving in poorer regions recently, but logistical problems persist.

According to data from Oxford University, only about 14% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. More than 680 million doses of COVAX-provided vaccines remain unused or have expired, according to government data.

Even with vaccine supplies improving, some officials were eagerly awaiting the Novavax vaccine in particular because it is easier to transport and store than some other coronavirus shots. They also hoped it might be more enticing to people skeptical of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which suffered through a botched rollout in Europe.

Countries including Zimbabwe, the Central African Republic and Kiribati were among those in line to be offered Novavax doses by March from COVAX.

Before the pandemic, Novavax was a small American company that had never brought any vaccine to market. Its shots have proven highly effective, but it is relying heavily on other companies to make them.

The company, struggling to scale up production, also has delayed delivery to other countries, including some in the European Union. COVAX is supposed to receive more than 1 billion Novavax doses.

Employees pack boxes containing vials of Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, at the Serum Institute of India in Pune on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. The Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker, has manufactured millions of Novavax doses, but none went to COVAX. According to India's Ministry of External Affairs and the institute, more than 28.9 million Novavax doses were sent to the Netherlands in January and February, while Australia received about 6 million doses. Indonesia also received about 9 million doses in December. Credit: AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File

In a statement, the Gaithersburg, Maryland, company acknowledged that it had yet to share any shots with the vaccines alliance Gavi, which fronts the COVAX effort, but said it stands ready to do so.

"We continue to work with Gavi to reach our shared goal of ensuring global access to our protein-based vaccine where it is needed most," Novavax said.

Gavi suggested part of the delay is that the Novavax vaccine wasn't authorized by WHO until December. Gavi said it planned to allocate Novavax in the future and was "in close touch with the manufacturer and expects the supply to be available for delivery when countries need it."

Health officials also worry that the urgency to vaccinate people everywhere against COVID-19 has disappearedespecially as many countries roll back precautions and the world's attention is diverted.

"Rich countries have moved on from COVID and everyone is fixated on the war in Ukraine, but COVID-19 remains an acute crisis for most people in the world," said Ritu Sharma, a vice-president at the charity CARE.

She said COVAX was still desperately short of vaccines and that based on the current pace of vaccination, the world was still "years and years" away from immunizing enough people to stop future COVID-19 waves.

Other experts said it was incumbent on public health agencies to ensure their investments into vaccines would benefit poor countries and to be more transparent about what went wrong.

"Whatever the explanation is, it's unsatisfactory," said Brook Baker, an access to medicines specialist at Northeastern University. "The bottom line is that there are still a lot of unvaccinated people in poor countries and once again, they are at the back of the line."

Explore further Novavax seeks OK for COVID vaccine in needy countries first

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Glioma of the left parietal lobe. CT scan with contrast enhancement. Credit: Mikhail Kalinin/CC BY-SA 3.0

Treatment for glioma has long relied on MRI imaging to track tumor markers and treatment response. But findings from a team at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, led by Carl Koschmann, M.D., pediatric neuro-oncologist at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and researcher with the Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center, suggest a new method could provide additional data about tumor markers before changes appear on an MRI, indicating possible strategies to help clinicians address this aggressive form of cancer. The recent study appeared in Neuro-Oncology.

As part of a phase 1, multi-site clinical trial, Koschmann's team collected cerebrospinal fluid and plasma from patients with Diffuse Midline Glioma, or DMG, through blood draws and lumbar punctures over many months, collecting hundreds of samples. They wanted to track changes in cell-free tumor DNA as patients received treatment concurrent with the clinical trial.

"We examined DNA floating in the plasma and CSF at various points in treatment and used a very sensitive machine called digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) to assess the fraction, called a variant allele fraction (VAF), of mutated DNA versus non-mutated," Koschmann said.

A higher VAF indicates more mutant DNA. Koschmann's team found that patients whose allele fraction went down after receiving the drug in the clinical trial took longer for the tumor to grow larger or relapse, data consistent with the team's expectations.

But the findings from the CSF also revealed a marker that hadn't been shown in this kind of study before, one that couldn't be found relying on MRI imaging alone.

"When the treatment wasn't working and tumors were growing, as captured on an MRI, that didn't always correlate with the VAF rising and the tumor DNA getting worse," said Evan Cantor M.D., first author of the study who performed work at U-M and is now a pediatric neuro-oncology fellow at Washington University. "More often, we saw a spike in the allele fraction in the tumor DNA before the tumor grew, on average about three to four months before."

Koschmann explains that this is the first study of its kind to collect serial CSF in a clinical trial for any type of glioma. "It is very clear that DNA in the CSF can provide a lot of new information about the state of the tumor," he said.

The method falls under the genre of liquid biopsy, which Koschmann describes as an exciting new space in cancer care. For some types of cancer like leukemia, testing blood and bone marrow samples allows patients and physicians to follow the status of the disease and offers a thorough sense of treatment response. But for solid tumors, especially brain tumors, access to multiple metrics to measure tumor growth or response is not possible.

"If you were to come into the clinic right now with a high-grade brain tumor, we'd take an MRI and then make inferences from that imaging about how things are going. But there's a lot of handwaving about what it means, because it's the only piece of data we have about how things are going," Koschmann said.

As these findings suggest, knowing that the increase in the allele fraction proceeds tumor growth, discovered through serial CSF sampling, could inform clinicians about different treatment needs much sooner than if only referencing MRIs. "As a patient or patient family member, you don't want to wait until the MRI worsens to change course," Koschmann said. "Having early information that you might need to adjust treatment is very valuable."

This study was conducted as an exploratory arm of a multisite phase 1 clinical trial across 15 institutions for pediatric patients with midline glioma tumors who have about a 12 to 18 month survival rate. Patients received a promising experimental therapy called ONC201 over the course of months, and in some cases, years.

Koschmann shared the findings from this study with the principal investigators planning the follow-up phase 2 clinical trial with ONC201 through the Pacific Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC). Based on this, the investigators made serial spinal fluid collection standard for every patient on the clinical trial. Koschmann explains that this is one step closer to gathering enough data to see if this method can be integrated into future treatment options.

"If this study validates our early findings, we should be ready to make this part of routine clinical care for patients with DMG even off trial. By rolling this out at trial sites across the country, we're pressing the gas pedal on bringing this test to the clinic."

Explore further For glioma patients, a mutated gene may open the door to new treatment options

More information: Evan Cantor et al, Serial H3K27M cell-free tumor DNA (cf-tDNA) tracking predicts ONC201 treatment response and progression in diffuse midline glioma, Neuro-Oncology (2022). Evan Cantor et al, Serial H3K27M cell-free tumor DNA (cf-tDNA) tracking predicts ONC201 treatment response and progression in diffuse midline glioma,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/noac030
Model representations of heterologous proteins designed for expression in spirulina. a. Ribbon representation of a monomeric VHH (orange; PDB ID:6WAQ) with the solubility enhancer, MBP (green; PDB ID: 5M13). The mature, folded protein results in a monomeric VHH as a fusion to MBP and a C-termini 6X-his affinity tag. b. Ribbon representation of a VHH (orange) with a dimerization motif (blue; PDB ID: 5HVZ) and the solubility enhancer, MBP (green). The mature, folded protein results in a dimeric VHH where dimerization is facilitated by the disulfide-linked dimerization motif. The single polypeptide also contains the solubility enhancer MBP and C-terminal 6X-his affinity tag. c. Ribbon representation of a trimeric VHH (orange). The mature, folded protein results in trimeric VHH (orange) where trimerization is facilitated by the self-assembling homotrimer t-cTRP9X 3 (blue). The single polypeptide also contains a C-terminal 6X-his affinity tag. d. Ribbon representation of heptameric VHH (orange) with the heptamerization motif (blue; PDB ID: 4B0F). The mature, folded protein results in a heptameric VHH where heptamerization is due to intrachain disulfide bond between individual protomers. The polypeptide also contains an N-terminal solubility enhancer MBP fusion and C-terminal 6X-his affinity tag. All structures generated using Pymol (Schrodinger). Credit: Nature Biotechnology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01249-7. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-022-01249-7

A common food source has been converted into a biomanufacturing platform that offers a way to rapidly produce mass quantities of biologic drugs for common diseases that currently lack effective treatments. Researchers at Lumen Bioscience report their groundbreaking genetic engineering methods to highly express bioactive proteins in spirulina using large-scale cultivation and processing methods appropriate for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

The paper also details favorable preclinical and early-stage clinical testing of these manufactured, orally delivered neutralizing antibodies against campylobacter, a major cause of infant mortality in the developing world and a growing antibiotic resistance threat. The product, LMN-101, is now proceeding through Phase 2 clinical trials, and BARDA's CARB-X program is funding development of a second-generation version of this product.

The publication, "Development of Spirulina for the Manufacture and Oral Delivery of Protein Therapeutics," is published in Nature Biotechnology.

"Genetic engineering has transformed the manufacturing of biological products over the past 50 years, yet plant-based biopharmaceutical production has remained an elusive challenge," said Jim Roberts, M.D., Ph.D., lead author and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lumen Bioscience. "Spirulina-based biomanufacturing combines the safety of food-based biotechnology with genetic engineering methods to produce biopharmaceuticals that may address medical needs that current drug-development tools have failed to solve."

Spirulina, a photosynthetic cyanobacterium, is a highly nutritious food and the only microorganism commercially farmed worldwide as a food. Previous attempts to convert this safe, scalable food source into a biomanufacturing platform have proven futile. In the new paper, Lumen researchers detail methods for the constitutive and stable expression of protein therapeutics in spirulina, with productivities and potencies tens to hundreds of fold higher than achievable in other food-based platforms. These advances in scalability and potency make orally delivered biologics commercially feasible for the first time.

"Delivering therapeutic amounts of protein biologics to the intestine presents an enormous challenge, and for this reason targets in the GI tract have long been considered almost undruggable," Roberts said. "The spirulina platform elegantly addresses this challenge. It can be used to produce and deliver the enormous quantities of ingestible biotherapeutics that will be needed to both prevent and treat gastrointestinal diseases. Preventing and treating diarrheal disease, the example reported in today's paper, offers an excellent case study: these highly prevalent diseases have devastating impacts in the developing world, but traditional drug-making tools have failed to generate a solution despite decades of heavy investment. The approach described in today's publication offers new hope to the individuals exposed to these diseases."

Beyond campylobacter, Lumen is currently applying the technology to a growing list of highly prevalent diseases, including the following publicly disclosed programs:

LMN-201, a complex biologic cocktail for prevention of C. difficile infection (in collaboration with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Rockefeller University)

LMN-301, an antibody cocktail for COVID-19 intended for both upper airway and GI delivery (funded in part by the US Army Medical Research and Development Command and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

A complex biologic cocktail for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (targets not yet disclosed)

In collaboration with Novo Nordisk, orally delivered biologics against GI targets relevant to cardiometabolic disease (targets not yet disclosed)

Explore further Microneedle approach to address peanut allergy shows promise in mice

More information: James Roberts, Development of spirulina for the manufacture and oral delivery of protein therapeutics, Nature Biotechnology (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41587-022-01249-7 Journal information: Nature Biotechnology James Roberts, Development of spirulina for the manufacture and oral delivery of protein therapeutics,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01249-7

Provided by Lumen Bioscience
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Stroke survivors may have a higher risk of developing depression or another mood disorder within the first year, according to new research that compared their risk to the general public as well as people who survived a heart attack.

Past research shows depression is common after stroke, affecting nearly one-third of survivors. For the new study, researchers wanted to dig deeper and see how stroke impacts other mental disorders.

The study, published Wednesday in the American Heart Association journal Stroke, focused on 86,111 people in Danish hospitals from 2004 to 2018 with no history of mental health disorders who had a stroke.

It found that stroke survivors had a 15% risk of developing a mood disorder, primarily depression, within the first year. This risk corresponded to an approximately 2.3-fold increased risk compared with matched individuals from the Danish general population. Stroke survivors also had an increased risk for other mental health problems, including substance abuse disorders and stress and anxiety disorders, as well as brain disorders such as dementia. But these conditions were less common.

"Prevention of these outcomes has obvious importance. But unfortunately, that is easier said than done," said Nils Skajaa, the study's lead author. He called for increased recognition of post-stroke mental disorders and early interventions, including counseling.

"Although risks tended to be higher after severe stroke, risks were still increased in patients with mild strokewhich emphasizes a need for mental health evaluation even in patients with seemingly full physical recovery," said Skajaa, a Ph.D. student in clinical epidemiology at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.

The study also showed stroke survivors' chances of developing depression are nearly 70% higher than people who survive a heart attack. A U.S. study published last year in the journal Neurology came to a similar conclusion: Stroke patients were 50% more likely than heart attack patients to develop depression.

Skajaa said the study was limited by the use of hospital data, which might have missed mild cases, and by surveillance biasthe idea that hospitalization and follow-up care might lead to an increased probability of a diagnosis for a mental disorder. While the study was conducted in Denmark, he said the findings also are applicable in the U.S.

Dr. Laura K. Stein, who was not involved in the research, said the study "gives us more insight into the mental health complications following stroke, which may be, at least in part, related to biological changes in the brain. It expands what we know about mental health disorders after stroke and shows us just how much more likely patients with stroke are to develop mental health disorders than people in the general population."

Stein, an assistant professor of neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, called for future research to uncover the biological and psychosocial factors that might contribute to post-stroke depression. She also would like to see studies on the best methods of treating post-stroke depressionnot just with medication, but with counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise and other lifestyle interventions.

Stein pointed out that while post-stroke depression is most common in the first year after a stroke, patients are still at risk for a long time after that.

"Patients, family members and caregivers need to be on the lookout for any signs of depression or other mental health disorders. They need to have a conversation with their doctors about any change in someone's post-stroke trajectory," said Stein, who also is an attending physician at the Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Queens stroke centers.

"Post-stroke depression and other mental health disorders are treatable illnesses. If we take them seriously and investigate all causes and treatment options, it will improve the outcomes and quality of life for stroke survivors in the U.S. and around the world."

More information: Stroke and Risk of Mental Disorders Compared With Matched General Population and Myocardial Infarction Comparators. Stroke, doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.037740 Journal information: Stroke Stroke and Risk of Mental Disorders Compared With Matched General Population and Myocardial Infarction Comparators.
The influence of iconoclasts and icons such as Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan on American culture and music is unrivaled.

Inspired by their lines of harmony and lyrical imagery, Missoula musician Tyson Gerhardt, aka Dusty the Kid, draws from these massive quarries in his first full-length solo album called Days of Love & Rage.

I think it's quite apparent that there's Guthrie and Ochs and Dylan all over the record, Gerhardt said.

Indeed, it is essential for anyone interested in following the tradition of a street poet, social critic and pop icon such as Bob Dylan to remain remarkably attentive to lyrics and the potent powers of description. Gerhardt hopes that he has the scholarship and the soul to do this type of folk-ballad engineering  which includes an ode to labor leader Frank Little, who was assassinated and buried in Butte in 1917, and a nod to the rise of the predominant Bethlehem Steel Corp.  proper justice.

I love stories, said Gerhardt. I have a lot of interest in labor history, which is why I love Butte, and general American history. I have done a lot of studies on Irish history, especially around the Irish Republican Army and the troubles. I love Irish music.

His mothers family hails from Ireland and his father is Romanian. Both of them grew up in New Jersey. When his father was a teenager, he hitchhiked to California and never looked back.

He wandered around the West for most of his life, Gerhardt said. He was, like, a cowboy. ... My mom grew up in the '60s, and likewise, she made the pilgrimage to California. And then they wound up meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

His parents eventually settled in Paradise Valley, Montana, where Gerhardt was raised with a free-spirited eschewing of boundaries. He has latched onto the music as a way of making sense out of his self-willed identity as a young man.

This album, I really feel like I found my voice, said Gerhardt, 26. Since I was a teenager with punk bands, it always was very emulative, trying to sound like and write for hardcore punk bands. This project, it's the first time that I feel like I really found my musical and lyrical voice.

The record captures of phase of growth seasoned on the streets of Missoula, where many summer nights he and friends performed at the corner of Higgins and Broadway or planted themselves on a bench outside of the Union Club.

I think a lot of that came from playing on the street, and only having access to an acoustic guitar or banjo from traveling and lots of busking," Gerhardt said. "When the pandemic happened, I didn't have a job. I was stuck in Missoula. There was nowhere to play. So I got back into playing on the street. I've been playing on the streets since I was a kid. And in the process of that, I formed my band The Recession Special, also a bunch of buskers, and we decided to form a street band.

On Days of Love & Rage Gerhardt invents and toys with a persona more detectable than one of a nameless and faceless street-playing aspirant; its the arrival of an assurance and range possessed by the command of independence, and confidence expanding folks naturalism as it tinkers with the language of surrealism. It all jibes neatly with the continuing saga of Gerhardt's relationship within himself.

Dusty the Kid is the only nickname thats ever been given to me, said Gerhardt. I have always figured that if I were to do a solo project Id have a different name for it. I love stories. I love theatricality and an alter ego or nickname. It's always a little easier to bear heart and face if you've got a little bit of a costume on.

Most of the material comprising the album was written during the spring and summer 2020, with the production completed in Missoula the following winter. At the time Tyson was living out of his 1984 Toyota truck, which he usually parked overnight and slept in the driveway of a friends house. Following a brilliant twist of serendipity, he showed how a sense of adventure can keep a stylistic experiment alive.

Some friends from back home had just got a house in Missoula, and they were letting me take showers over there. Halloween, there was a blizzard. And they came out in the driveway and said, Why don't you come live in the closet? So I moved into their closet at that house. And it was two of my musician friends, who figured that I should just record at the house as long as I was there. We built out the mudroom in the basement of the house to a home studio, with a bunch of scraps from Home ReSource. Quint Bishop used his great talent to engineer the album.

Raw in its approach, Gerhardt's method succeeds in making familiar material seem fresh, the textual elements of storytelling at the forefront. Their very simplicity underscores the relief these songs call out for, the mood that prevails against the idea that surface is all, that life is but a myth.

Indeed, he isnt as interested in being popular as he is in being felt. Primed with a newly minted sense of mission, Gerhardt said that Dusty the Kid plans to hit the road with his suitcase full of stories and take them to wherever they might need to be heard.

The acoustic way that we've been able to make music for hundreds of years is the perfect way for me to play, said Gerhardt. To be able to play acoustically anywhere, to be able to play acoustically on the street, to be able to play acoustically in a pub or a concert hall. Its a revolutionary tool and you can take it anywhere.

Brian DAmbrosio is a journalist and licensed private investigator. His next book, Montana Eccentrics, will be released in the spring. He may be reached at dambrosiobrian@hotmail.com

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The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, turned 12 this week, in spite of efforts to repeal it through both legislation and court action over much of its lifetime. But key decisions facing federal and state lawmakers and the Biden administration in the coming year will say a lot about how many Americans the law ultimately benefits, and how much it will benefit them.

Meanwhile, three leading credit bureaus announced they would stop using most medical debt to determine U.S. consumers creditworthiness. The move comes shortly after the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau threatened to make the agencies eliminate the use of medical debt in consumer credit reports.

This weeks panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Mary Agnes Carey of KHN.

Among the takeaways from this weeks episode:

Administration officials this week celebrated the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, which brought major changes to the U.S. health care system, including expanding private insurance coverage and Medicaid coverage to millions of people, banning restrictions based on preexisting medical conditions, providing no-cost preventive care, and adding restrictions on health insurers profits.

Republicans appear to have lost momentum on repealing the law, and in many ways the public now takes the law for granted. But HuffPosts Jonathan Cohn points out that key provisions could still face disruption in the coming year, including significant premium subsidies that Democrats added to the ACA in 2021. Those are not permanent and would need to be extended by Congress.

A recent report by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund found that many young, healthy people have migrated off ACA exchange plans  which guarantee a wide range of benefits  to cheaper, short-term plans, which were promoted as an alternative by the Trump administration but do not have as many consumer protections. If that migration continues over the long term, the loss of healthy individuals from the ACA plans could undermine the risk pools for those insurers. ACA advocates are watching to see if the Biden administration puts new restrictions on the short-term plans, but that may not be a priority at this time.

The announcement last week by the leading credit rating agencies on medical debt will not provide relief to people who already have those bills on their record, as well as those with the largest unpaid bills.

As state legislatures around the country begin wrapping up their sessions, action is growing on abortion bills. Idahos governor signed a law this week banning abortions and calling on individuals  not state officials  to enforce it through lawsuits. That enforcement mechanism is the same one pioneered by Texas and, so far, not barred by the Supreme Court. The South Dakota governor, meanwhile, signed a law restricting the availability of abortion pills.

Public health officials warn that as the country moves to loosen covid restrictions, there is inadequate testing to spot any resurgence or provide confidence for consumers. The White House says Congress needs to appropriate more money for covid protections, including the purchase of more tests and vaccines. But that funding was left out of the recent government spending bill because Republicans and Democrats couldnt agree on what was needed or how to pay for it.

The White House appears not to have realized before that vote in Congress that the covid spending was in trouble and failed to signal to Capitol Hill the ramifications of not acting. It may turn out to be a costly miscalculation if the country has another major covid wave and the government doesnt have appropriate tools to fight it.

Administration officials appear to be working to sway Republican senators and have promised more information about covid spending and possible options for savings to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the House is not in a rush to consider the Senate bill to switch the nation permanently to daylight saving time. House leaders say they want to study the measure  which breezed through the usually slow-moving Senate this month  and some sleep experts suggest that if the national policy changes, it might be better to go permanently with standard time, instead of daylight saving time.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too:

Julie Rovner: KHNs As States Impose Abortion Bans, Young Doctors Struggle  And Travel Far  To Learn the Procedure, by Sarah Varney

Anna Edney: Politicos Weve Learned Absolutely Nothing: Tests Could Again Be in Short Supply if Covid Surges, by David Lim

Rachel Cohrs: The Guardians Betting Against the NHS: 1bn Private Hospital to Open in Central London, by Julia Kollewe

Also discussed on this weeks podcast:

HuffPosts The Affordable Care Act Turns 12 Today, and It Could Look Pretty Different by Year 13, by Jonathan Cohn

Stats The Breen Bill to Protect Health Providers Is Well-Intentioned. But It Wont Stop Burnout, by Greg Jasani

The Commonwealth Funds Short-Term Health Insurance Markets and the ACA, by Mark A. Hall and Michael J. McCue

To hear all our podcasts, click here.

And subscribe to KHNs What the Health? on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

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Work has begun on the Montana Museum of Art and Cultures building on the north end of the University of Montana campus.

The new three-story, 17,000-square-foot building will be the first standalone structure the museum can call its own, with room to display historically and artistically important items from its 12,000-item Permanent Collection, most of which are out of public view.

Museum director H. Rafael Chacon said the long-awaited moment feels amazing, and to get people excited, theyre placing banners with images from the collection as part of the MMAC on the Move campaign. Theyre largely portraits that show the diversity of the holdings, but for fun and regional flair, theyve included a cow by Andy Warhol.

The museum plans are part of an extension of the Memorial Row that will improve the accessibility and the usability of the area around the Performing Arts/Radio and Television Center, the Student Recreation Center and the Adams Center. A greenway will eventually extend from the Clark Fork River directly to the Oval.

The projected completion date is fall 2023. This is the first phase, lasting from March 19-May 13. General contractor Swank Enterprises has fenced off the eastern section of parking lot P that sits closest to the Adams Center, and the museum itself will stand in the northeastern quarter of that lot. Campus Drive will remain accessible.

We have plans to accommodate events scheduled in the Adams Center during this time, according to a post by Paula Short, associate vice president of campus operations. Those events include UM commencement, Missoula County Public Schools graduations, concerts and other live events.

The reconfigured parking lot will open in fall 2022.

Moving Help

The MMAC will continue its exhibition schedule through 2022 in its current galleries  the Paxson and Meloy, both located in the Performing Arts and Radio Television Building.

However, starting in early January, those two spaces will be used as staging areas for a move thats unusual compared to most.

Were going to be working with students and volunteers to move the collection systematically, Chacon said. They need to document, photograph, clean and conserve the items as needed.

While thats typically an ongoing museum task, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to document everything. Theyre inviting the public to either volunteer or come see the process itself.

The structure is privately funded, including donations from Patt and Terry Payne, and they are still actively seeking money for more needs ahead such as operations, maintenance, staffing and programming.

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MADRID, (AFP)  Under attack over Spains decision to change its stance on the Moroccan Sahara, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday defended the move as crucial to securing a more solid relationship with Morocco.

For 10 months, Spain was in an absolutely unsustainable situation with Morocco, a strategically with whom ties were cut from a political, diplomatic and economic point of view, he said on a visit to occupied Ceuta, one of two Spanish enclaves in North Africa.

This was a crisis that could no longer be sustained over time, that we had to solve, he said.

It was the first time Sanchez has spoken about last Fridays bombshell announcement that Spain had agreed to publicly recognise Rabats autonomy plan for disputed the Moroccan Sahara, a Spanish colony until 1975.
A Missoula man was arrested on suspicion of strangling his wife in front of their young daughter earlier this month.

Owen A. Switzer, 38, is charged with three felonies: reasonable apprehension of aggravated assault, bodily-injury aggravated assault and first-offense strangulation. If convicted of all three counts, Switzer faces up to 45 years in state prison.

On Monday, 911 received a call from a First Step Resource Center employee on behalf of the survivor. The First Step staffer reported the woman had asked them to contact authorities to report she had been strangled by Switzer about two weeks prior, on March 5.

Missoula County Sheriff's deputies responded to Mourning Dove Drive to talk with the survivor. She said she was in an argument with Switzer when he grabbed her throat with both hands and forced her backwards. She rated the pressure he applied as a nine on a scale of one to 10, according to charging documents.

In her affidavit, she indicated she thought was going to die during this, and told law enforcement Switzer had threatened to kill her in the past. She estimated the struggle lasted about 90 seconds.

The survivor said she thought Switzer would have killed her if their 2-year-old daughter had not intervened, who was only a few feet away during the attack and yelling at Switzer to stop. This allowed the woman to escape Switzer's grip and run into the bathroom, according to charging documents.

Switzer pushed the woman, causing her to fall against the edge of a bathtub, breaking three of her ribs. When she asked him to take her to the hospital, charging documents say Switzer refused.

She was apprehensive to call 911 immediately because she was afraid of Switzer's reaction: she disclosed Switzer has physically harmed her in the past on at least two prior occasions. To treat the pain in her ribs, the survivor sought medical treatment at Community Medical Center where staff diagnosed her with three displaced rib fractures.

In an interview with deputies, Switzer said the two were in a fight and he did push the woman into the bathtub, but didn't describe any strangulation.

During Switzer's initial appearance on Wednesday afternoon, Missoula County Justice of the Peace Alex Beal set bail at $100,000. An arraignment hearing is set for April 4.

Strangulation is a significant predictor of future lethal violence, and if someone has been strangled by a partner in the past, their risk of being killed by them is 10 times higher, according to Just Response, a project by the Office on Violence Against Women in the U.S. Department of Justice.

There are many resources available in Missoula for domestic violence survivors.

The Missoula YWCA provides 24-hour crisis counseling, emergency shelter, transitional housing, mental health counseling, legal support and support groups for victims of crime. Their phone number is 406-542-1944.

The Missoula City-County Crime Victim Advocate Program provides legal advocacy for victims of crimes. Advocates can help you obtain a restraining order, report a crime to police or navigate options available to you through the justice system. They can be reached at 406-258-3830.

UM's Student Advocacy Resource Center also provides support for survivors of violence and harassment. They offer free and confidential counseling, advocacy and a 24-hour support line at 406-243-6559.

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The first boats of the year carrying invasive mussels through Montana were intercepted last weekend.

Three boats carrying invasive zebra or quagga mussels were discovered at a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks inspection station near Anaconda. The boats had been out of the water for some time, and the mussels were not viable, the agency said.

One boat was coming from Michigan heading for Yakima, Wash., another other was coming from Florida heading for the Seattle area, and the third boat was coming from Ohio heading to British Columbia.

A few inspection stations opened in the last few weeks with other scheduled to open early next month.

All watercraft coming into Montana are required to have an inspection for invasive species prior to launching. Inspections may be arranged by calling 406-444-2440.

Montana is set to be designated free of invasive mussels as the state moves to delist Tiber Reservoir as a mussel-positive waterbody. Waters infested with invasive mussels have seen a multitude of consequences, from negative impacts on fisheries and other aquatic life to significant costs associated with cleaning and keeping infrastructure clear of the mollusks.

The agency is taking public comment through March 25 to consider stripping "known existence of aquatic invasive mussels, from the agencys rulebook on invasive species.

In 2016 mussel larvae were detected during water sampling at Tiber. A suspected positive sample was also detected at Canyon Ferry Reservoir that same year  Canyon Ferry was delisted two years ago.

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Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen hailed a federal judges ruling this week to block new deportation rules set out by the Biden administration.

Arizona, Ohio and Montana challenged the new policy in November in federal court against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorka. The guidance ordered DHS officials to prioritize deportations of immigrants who pose a threat to national safety.

The states argue DHS bypassed Congress immigration statutes by issuing its own policy. Montana has staked its claim in federal immigration issues as a state that suffers from drug addiction propelled by Mexican drug cartels.

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Newman of Ohio granted the states motion to block DHS from carrying out certain provisions of the new policy while the legal proceedings play out.

This is a great victory for the rule of law, border security and public safety across the country, Knudsen said in a press release, adding that drugs from Mexico end up in Montana communities.

Newman also denied a motion by DHS to dismiss the states case. The judge acknowledged the executive branchs significant authority over immigration, but noted Congress, too, has broad powers over the matter.

 Can the executive displace clear congressional command in the name of resources allocation and enforcement goals? Newman wrote. Here, the answer is no.

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A federal jury this week awarded a Great Falls woman $75,000 after finding a probation officer's excessive force caused her injuries in a parking lot scrum in 2020.

Carrie Gregory sued state probation authorities in 2020 in U.S. District Court in Great Falls for her injuries  a fractured elbow and a sprained wrist  and for law enforcement's failure to maintain surveillance footage of the event.

According to court filings, Gregory in May 2020 had brought her son to the probation and parole office, where he was to be taken into custody for parole violations. While her son was being arrested, probation and parole officer Tomeka Williams arrived on scene and "performed some sort of aggressive maneuver on (Gregory's) arm and forced her head onto the hood of a vehicle," the lawsuit states.

Williams initially planned to press charges against Gregory after the incident, claiming Gregory had injured the officer. But after Gregory's defense attorneys requested several times that law enforcement preserve the video that captured the episode, the Great Falls probation and parole office said it was dropping the charges. According to court filings, the Great Falls probation office told Gregory's attorneys that it was "unable to secure a copy of the video" and the next day said the footage was "long gone."

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris sanctioned the state in March for spoiling the evidence that could have proved Gregory's claim and found Williams did use excessive force. The only questions left to be decided by the jury during the trial were whether Williams' excessive force caused Gregory's injuries and, if so, what damages to award Gregory.

After a three-day trial and three hours of deliberation, the jury concluded the officer's excessive force indeed had caused Gregory's injuries, and awarded her $75,000 in damages. The jury also found the state's probation office was negligent in its actions following the parking lot incident. The jury also found Williams' actions did not justify an award for punitive damages, and that the state's negligence did not cause Gregory to suffer severe emotional stress.

"We just are so grateful for the work of the jury in protecting their fellow citizen and it was a long two-year battle to hold the state accountable and we hope to see justice for Carrie Gregory," said her attorney Daniel Flaherty on Thursday.

The case is not yet closed. Attorneys fees are yet to be decided before the jury verdict could potentially be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Montana Department of Corrections, under which the probation and parole office exists, declined to comment on the verdict Thursday.

The Great Falls Police Department and Officer Scott Fisher were initially named as defendants but were dismissed from the case on March 8 after settling with Gregory.

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Finding enough firefighters to staff seasonal Montana crews is difficult, compounded by experienced personnel transferring to other agencies offering higher pay.

It is an absolute challenge every year, said Sonya Germann, Forestry Division administrator for the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

She made the comment while addressing the Environmental Quality Council during its meeting in Helena on Wednesday.

We have never really been able to fully staff all of our positions, she added.

Germann said shes pleasantly surprised by the number of applicants so far this year, yet there are probably state fire engines that will be unstaffed.

Its hard work. Its low pay. And not a lot of people want to come and fight fire because it is so incredibly hard and the hazards associated with that, she said.

Its also mentally challenging. In a survey answered by 1,841 federal firefighters, the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters found 73% were regularly worried about the possibility of an accident. Sixty percent said their partners have been impacted by an incident at work that resulted in mental health challenges.

Extended absence physically and/or emotionally was the number-one stressor, the survey found.

We especially lose people who are highly qualified, Germann added. It takes a particular thing for somebody to want to stay working for DNRC. I think they stay because of our organization, but that same qualified position can make a lot more money going elsewhere. And we often see that. So we have seen a trend of losing our highly qualified people. And weve seen issues with recruitment.

Germann complimented Gov. Greg Gianforte for raising the hourly wages for wildland firefighters in the face of another dry summer with much of the state in drought conditions. In January, the governors office announced an increase of $1.70 an hour in pay, bringing the minimum base pay to $15.50 an hour in order to compete with other states for personnel.

Also in January, the Biden Administration announced it was raising the base pay for federal firefighters to $15 an hour with recruitment and retention bonuses.

Even this raise pales compared to what California pays state crews. According to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who wrote in an August Los Angeles Times opinion article, Cal Fire was paying around $66,336 for entry-level employees compared to the Forest Services $28,078.

Feinstein also noted the Forest Service was 730 employees shy of its total goal of 5,000 firefighters in 2020 while Cal Fire hired 3,000 additional temporary firefighters.

The Idaho Legislature just approved hazard pay of up to 25% above hourly wages for its firefighters, something the DNRC is also examining as a possible proposal to the Montana Legislature, Germann said.

In honor of former West Yellowstone smokejumper Tim Hart, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters is backing a bill with his name. Hart died last June, 11 days after sustaining injuries in a hard landing while parachuting into the Eicks fire in New Mexico. Hart lived in Cody, Wyoming.

Wildland firefighters deserve to be recognized and compensated for the grueling conditions in which they work and for putting their lives on the line every day, Michelle Hart, Tims wife, said in advocating for the bill. This legislation is a major step forward in achieving that goal.

The Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act was introduced in the House in October. It would raise base pay to no less than $36,163 with cost of living adjustments each year, guaranteed hazardous duty pay when conditions warrant, a housing allowance when 50 miles from home and recruitment and retention bonuses.

So far this year Montana has already had 49 fires burn across 74 acres, compared to last year at this date when 134 fires had burned 9,000 acres, Germann reported.

The states current fire account contains $50.9 million with a projection that $49 million will be needed in the 2022 fiscal year, Germann said.

She went on to praise the partnerships the DNRC has in responding to fires in cooperation with tribal and county fire agencies, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

Wildfire doesnt recognize boundaries or fence lines, neither does smoke, neither do insects or disease, Germann said. We have to be working together, and we have to be doing a lot more of it. Thats the whole premise of the [Montana] Forest Action Plan. We have massive issues. We have 9 million acres of the  forested land out there that is facing significant wildfire risk and forest health issues.

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Since its formation in 2020, the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) has been successful in touting its mission to re-establish rail passenger service through southern Montana. Enthusiasm for the project was heightened in November 2021 with the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which  for the first time in its 51-year history  has designated significant funding for Amtrak, Americas intercity rail passenger service.

But often lost in press releases by the BSPRA and in recent news articles are what should be the primary goals for the funding: Fixing the Amtraks infrastructure and placing it on a path of sustainability.

Contrary to highways, waterways and airports which receive recurring lavish funding from numerous government entities, Amtrak has always been a shoestring operation since its 1971 inception, and relies on private infrastructure (i.e. Americas freight railroads) for most of its routes, including in Montana.

Amtrak is currently broken. In the Northeast  where Amtrak owns and maintains its own trackage  routes need upgrades to handle more traffic and to repair deferred maintenance, some of which goes back to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. On other routes (like the Empire Builder through Northern Montana) trains operate short of rolling stock with equipment over 40 years old. Many station facilities remain non-compliant with ADA guidelines, and the host freight railroads are undercompensated for operating Amtrak trains, resulting in timekeeping issues. Without repairing and stabilizing the Amtrak we have, adding additional routes like a North Coast Hiawatha is counterproductive.

Based on a 2009 study done by Amtrak, restoring the North Coast Hiawatha would cost about $1.4 billion in 2022 dollars. Much has changed in railroad operations since 2009 (during the Great Recession), so indeed a new study to determine cost would be needed. Even with that hefty price tag, the 2009 study dramatically understated cost for stations and some track infrastructure. The capital costs alone for this one route will consume a good portion of the funding available for new services.

The elephant in the room rarely mentioned by proponents of new routes is that operations funding is not perpetual. (For Amtraks current Chicago-West Coast routes  according to questionable Amtrak accounting  thats about $55 million annually per train.) The IIJA covers operations funding for only six years, covering 90% the first year declining to 30% by the sixth year before being discontinued. Any shortfall and funding beyond the sixth year must be covered by Congress in the annual Amtrak appropriation. This is why the North Coast Hiawatha was discontinued in 1979: It (and other trains) were added over the course of the decade; When Congress declined to fully fund all the routes, some were discontinued. The same thing could happen again, possibly even to long-established, well-patronized trains such as the Empire Builder.

We must urge that our elected and appointed officials see that the Amtrak we have is fixed and strengthened before building on a house of cards.

Mark Meyer has been a passenger train advocate for over 50 years. He had 40-year career in railroad operations at Burlington Northern and BNSF. He is a native of Cut Bank, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.

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Rabat  The promotion of the rights of people with disabilities was at the center of talks Wednesday in Rabat, between the Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration and Family, Aawatif Hayar and the U.S. special advisor on International Disability Rights, Sara Minkara.

This meeting was an opportunity to exchange experiences on the programs that could be subjects of partnership between the two countries for the benefit of people with special needs, as well as the various measures undertaken to facilitate the integration of this social category.

On this occasion, Hayar reviewed the various programs and strategies adopted by her department for people with disabilities, welcoming in this regard, the efforts made by other public institutions and partner associations, in terms of support for the education of children with disabilities, the promotion of vocational integration and income-generating activities, in addition to the organization of qualification sessions for the benefit of families for better communication.

She also recalled the programs of school and university integration, integrated education, social protection and integration through sport.

For her part, the American official stressed the importance of promoting the rights of people with disabilities, noting that his visit is meant to learn about the issues and mechanisms dedicated to this social category in the region.
Our property taxes now increase by double digits every year. They are being driven in large part by wealthy out-of-state transplants with sacks of money from selling their Seattle and Silicon Valley homes. Montanans of all economic backgrounds are now considering selling their homes to forestall tax foreclosure. Without change, the number of Montanans facing the same dilemma will skyrocket in the coming years.

Property taxes should be based upon the value of your home when you buy it, not its value after years of out-of-staters bidding up home prices. Instead, youre being taxed based upon paper wealth  not whats actually in your wallet. Just because Zillow.com says your homes value has doubled (or tripled) doesnt mean your ability to pay taxes has.

CI-121, the Montana Property Tax Cap Initiative, will roll back the tax valuation of your home to 2019 levels  prior to the influx of out-of-state COVID transplants, out-of-state investors, and house-flippers grossly distorting our housing market. CI-121 will then cap the annual growth of your property taxes at 2% for as long as you own your home.

Property tax collections are helping produce a nearly $1 billion state surplus - a billion more than the government was counting on two years ago. Much of this is driven by newcomers. They came to escape COVID lockdowns. Now theyre escaping crime-ridden cities across America. That crime will get worse  and everyone knows it. The wise are moving here now  the desperate will follow in the coming years. And theyre paying cash. Out-of-state investors are, too  some by leveraging oceanfront properties in Malibu and Miami. The thunder and roaring accompanying these trust-fund beach boys are not good vibrations but rather a tsunami of soaring property valuations  and soaring property taxes.

The future of Montana belongs to those who can afford to live here. If you are a working-class or fixed-income homeowner living within the wide swathes of the state coveted by the new and growing monied elite, you may soon be taxed out of your home. Many of your neighbors already are. They are being replaced by wealthy outsiders whose values are alien to ours.

Even if youre a middle or upper-middle-class homeowner, Montanas current property tax system will consume much of your retirement nest egg if you stay. Selling may eventually be the only practical option for you, too.

The Montana Legislature is not going to fix this. We all saw this property-tax train wreck coming in 2020. But, unlike prior legislatures, the 2021 Legislature did nothing to fix it. Democrats and too many big-government Republicans like gushing revenues of residential property taxes  especially because the money pours in without them having to vote for a tax increase. And even though opponents admit that the current property-tax system is broken, they never offer any real reforms. And they never will, because they feed off of Helenas gravy train and actual property tax reform would derail that train. This means that CI-121, a citizens initiative, is the only game in town.

Using fear-mongering, opponents insist that police and fire stations will close if CI-121 passes  though they never explain why back-to-back 30-40% annual property tax increases are necessary to keep them open. Or how CI-121 will increase taxes on agricultural property  even though section 6 of the initiative states exactly the opposite. Or why they unsuccessfully asked a judge to enjoin signature gathering for CI-121.

Montanas establishment is using legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, and lies to deny you real property-tax relief. Thats why were asking you to register on our website, grab a clipboard, and join us in getting signatures to place CI-121 on the ballot and allow Montanans to vote for their own destiny. No one should be taxed out of their home. No one.

Al Olszewski is a former state senator and currently a candidate for Montanas western congressional seat. Matthew Monforton is a former legislator from Bozeman and one of the sponsors of CI-121. They can be reached at CapPropertyTaxes.com.

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Now that the U.S. has made it through its latest surge of COVID-19 cases, travel groups are renewing calls for the White House to ease the countrys remaining travel restrictions.

A Tuesday letter from the U.S. Travel Association urges incoming White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha to quickly focus on replacing COVID-related travel measures with endemic-focused policies. This includes repealing the federal mask mandate by April 18, removing the pre-departure testing requirement for inbound vaccinated international travelers and ending international COVID travel advisories.

Airlines for America, the lobbying group for the U.S. airline industry, sent a similar letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

Much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context, Airlines for America's letter reads.

A letter from the U.S. Travel Association urged incoming White House COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha to quickly focus on replacing COVID-related travel measures with endemic-focused policies. This includes repealing the federal mask mandate by April 18.

This isn't the first time the groups have asked White House officials to ease travel restrictions.

A Feb. 2 letter to White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients signed by both Airlines for America and the U.S. Travel Association asked for an end to the pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated passengers flying to the United States. Another February letter to Zients from the two groups asked the Biden administration to lift travel requirements.

NEW 17-HOUR NONSTOP FLIGHT: Air New Zealand to launch route from New York to Auckland

Travel groups: Ease testing requirement for international flights

The letters point to a downfall in COVID-related hospitalizations, infections and deaths; increased vaccination and immunity rates; and new therapeutics as signs that "now is the time" to ease restrictions.

The U.S. Travel Association argues that lifting travel restrictions could boost business travel and international travel's recovery. Business travel spending in 2021 was 56% below 2019 levels, while international travel spending was down 78%, according to the organization.

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SOUTHWEST TO ADD A NEW FARE CLASS: Here's why and what perks it might include (for more money)

The letter, signed by U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow, asks Jha to remove the pre-departure testing requirement immediately upon stepping into his role next month.

The United States has required a negative coronavirus test among all inbound international travelers ages 2 and older since January 2021. A number of other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, have already dropped this requirement.

The Airlines for America letter also calls for Biden to end the testing requirement, saying it has outlived its utility and stymies the return of international travel.

The U.S. inconsistency with these practices creates a competitive disadvantage for U.S. travel and tourism by placing an additional cost and burden on travel to the U.S., the letter reads.

Airlines for America's letter was signed by executives from Alaska Air Group, American Airlines, Atlas Air Worldwide, Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines Holdings and UPS Airlines.

'CRAWLING TO MY SEAT': Some travel experiences can be avoided with better technology

Airline CEOs: Federal mask mandate 'makes no sense'

Both letters also ask for an end to the federal mask mandate for public transportation, which was extended through April 18. The mandate was first announced in January 2021 and requires travelers to mask up on airplanes, trains, buses and in airports and train stations.

Seatback video screens on Delta Air Lines planes remind travelers that masks are required throughout the flight.

It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do, Airlines for Americas letter reads.

The U.S. Travel Association adds that travel measures can be reinstated at any time if new variants emerge.

However, we believe it is time for the administration to lead the country toward a new normal for travel and on a faster road to a full economic recovery," Dow said.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Travel groups want air travel masking, testing requirements lifted
Victoria Coren Mitchell and comedian Leo Kearse have clashed on social media over remarks that he made about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on GB News.

After six years, jailed charity worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe was finally returned to the UK from Iran earlier this month, after the government agreed to settle a 393.8 million debt relating to a decades-old arms deal.

Following a press conference Zaghari-Ratcliffe gave upon her release, she has been accused by internet trolls of being ungrateful to the UK government for paying the debt.

On GB Newss The Headliners show, comedians Diane Spencer and Leo Kearse suggested Zaghari-Ratcliffe was acting ungrateful after she returned home to her husband and her seven-year-old daughter. Zaghari-Radcliffe missed most of her daughters childhood due to her imprisonment.

Only Connect host Coren Mitchell shared a trailer promoting the show on Wednesday (23 March), writing: My word. Im not one to criticise other peoples attempts at TV  I write a column in which basically every week I say that somethings brilliant.

But if this stumbly, cackling, racist incompetence is what GB News puts out as a TRAILER what on earth is the rest of it like?!

In the clip, Spencer can be heard saying: We dont know what has been whispered in [Zaghari-Ratcliffes] ear for the last six years, she may have been sitting there alone, or she may have had someone coming in everyday.

'Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is Iranian for ungrateful.'



The Headliners panel react to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe condemning the Government over her delayed release from Iran.



 Subscribe to GB News on YouTube https://t.co/Wa58gYGZwF pic.twitter.com/5DtCrzrtwF  GB News (@GBNEWS) March 21, 2022

Kearse then suggested Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been radicalised and said that her name was Iranian for ungrateful.

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Following Coren Mitchells tweet, Kearse posted: According to @VictoriaCoren, my comments about Nazanin Zaghari-Markle are racist. Could anyone explain this?

Even putting myself in the mindset of an overthinking self-loathing white saviour wokeist I cant stretch to find the racism.

Coren Mitchell then hit back with: Zaghari-Markle? I dont know whether the irony is greater if you meant that deliberately or if you typed it by mistake!

Look, Im sorry if I hurt your feelings. Im very pro-comedy and I respect your freedom to say whatever you want. I just thought the programme looked s***.

In more tweets on Thursday (24 March), Coren Mitchell explained exactly why she perceived the clip to contain racist remarks.

She then addressed claims that she is a hypocrite for calling out Kearse.

There is literally nothing I can say or do, here, that would stop people saying Im a hypocrite, Im a fascist, I want to ban you, I wouldnt say the same about [x] or [y]  those are just Twitter tropes, infecting the medium like bacteria, she said.

I have publicly defended Jeremy Clarksons joke about shooting strikers, Ive written in support of Jim Davidson, Ive surrounded this whole thing with a constant celebration of your freedom  they accuse me of hypocritical lefty tribalism anyway. Still, its not something I suffer from

Coren Mitchell drew criticism last month for speaking out in support of Jimmy Carr, when a joke he made about the traveller community and the Holocaust caused outrage.

The Independent has contacted GB News, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Leo Kearse for comment.
The Burke County Sheriffs Office has filed a no-trespassing order on a Fish Hatchery Road property after the owners found that strangers have been living there.

On March 16, detectives received a call for assistance from the property owners of 3318 Fish Hatchery Road, Morganton, a sheriffs office release says.

That was after the homeowners had been notified they needed to clean up their property pursuant to a county ordinance. The homeowners told officials the property should be vacant and then went there to investigate, the release says.

The owners found large amounts of trash strewn around the home and in the yard. While they were attempting to clean up the property, the homeowners were confronted and intimated by the people who had been living in the home without permission, the release said.

The release said the homeowners left the property and contacted the sheriffs office for assistance.

On March 18, the owners signed an agreement, and the order was posted by the sheriffs office, the release said. It said deputies will be checking the property periodically, and anyone found there without authorization will be arrested for trespassing.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality will be leading the remediation of Blacktail Creek and the Confluence Area, an effort that is currently in the pre-design phase, said DEQ Project Manager Will George. At this point, the DEQ is working to investigate data gaps in the project, George said, and this phase is expected to last approximately a year to a year and a half.

Key points are missing, George said, explaining the DEQ needs to figure out the extent of the waste in the area, the amount of de-watering required during construction, and how to work around certain pieces of civil infrastructure like the interstate to the south of the site. He added this is one of several remediation projects in the corridor right now.

After the soil, groundwater and surface water in the Blacktail Creek and the Confluence Area tested for elevated levels of arsenic and heavy metals in the 2010s, the Montana DEQ was given the job of leading remediation in 2020.

Both Atlantic Richfield Company and the Montana DEQ, on behalf of the state, will be involved in the remediation. Atlantic Richfield is tasked with both capturing upgradient contaminated groundwater and keeping it from flowing into the Blacktail and Silver Bow creeks and re-contaminating them.

Montana DEQ will excavate tailings, wastes and contaminated soils along Blacktail Creek and where it meets Silver Bow Creek. Once the excavation is done, the Montana DEQ will be responsible for reconstructing the project area, which is roughly from the Grove Gulch confluence with Blacktail Creek by Lexington Avenue to Montana Street.

EPA remedial project manager Nikia Greene said a committee including community members, representatives from the EPA and DEQ, Butte-Silver Bow and Atlantic Richfield is still in talks about where the repository for the waste will be. Montana Resources is in the running for the site, according to Mark Thompson, manager of environmental affairs at Montana Resources.

George said once a repository is chosen for the Blacktail Creek and Confluence Area, other sites in the corridor, such as Grove Gulch and Buffalo Gulch, can use the same repository.

Greene said although there are four locations he knows of in the running, in the best-case scenario Montana Resources will become the site of the repository. Montana Resources is an ideal candidate, he said, because it is out of sight, yet its protected and contained. It would protect human health and the environment, Greene said.

The committee meets April 5 and Greene said they may come closer to a decision then.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality was made the lead on implementing the Blacktail Creek Riparian Actions in the 2020 Butte Priority Soils Operable Unity Consent Decree.

The Blacktail Creek area is a part of The Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area site, which includes 26 miles of stream and streamside space downstream from Butte, according to an EPA document.

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I am angered and disturbed by the response to the war in Ukraine by our states elected leaders. Increasing production of domestic oil and gas is not the answer. There is no security, no peace as long as we are relying on fossil fuels. Our communities deserve a just transition to energy that does not have disastrous effects on our environment and does not escalate geopolitical conditions.

The only way that we can truly end the violence caused by war and stop the aggressions of petro-dictators is to transition off of fossil fuels. Oil runs deep throughout the global economy and it is hurting our communities. The extraction and use of fossil fuel energy causes air pollution, water contamination and now, once again, war. Unfortunately, this week, we have seen a brazen willingness to increase its usefrom our Senators calling for more domestic drilling to NorthWestern Energys hollow 2050 net zero pledge.

Starting now, we need to subsidize and build community solar, wind and energy storage. We need to get homes insulated and switch to heat pumps and induction stoves.

Investing in renewables will improve public health, create jobs (on average, more jobs are created for each unit of electricity generated from renewable sources), save money, and provide an unlimited energy source. The cost of wind and solar power have risen 0 percent since the Russian invasion began.

I stood outside the Gallatin County Courthouse on March 18 with my peers to call on our leaders and our utility to put people over profits. A better world is possible if we invest in renewable energy production in Montana.

We have the 7th-best wind potential in the USA, but we rank 34th in actually using this potential. Today, Montana has only 92 wind jobs. North Dakota has 1,738. Why aren't our leaders and our utility (NorthWestern Energy) putting Montanans to work in expanding local energy production?

To them I say: Quit blaming everyone else and suggesting violent solutions  get to work. We need to stop using fossil fuels. Climate breakdown is happening now.

Isabel Shaida is a Bozeman resident and youth climate organizer. She volunteers with Gallatin Valley Sunrise Movement, Bozeman United for Racial Justice, and currently sits on the Bozeman Citizen Advisory Board for Sustainability.

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MUSCATINE  Emily Erin Resendiz, 27, of West Liberty, the former guidance counselor accused of sexually abusing a student, has asked to have her $100,000 cash-only bail reduced.

She has been in Muscatine County Jail since her March 8 arrest.

According to court documents, Eric Tindal, Resendizs attorney, asked she be released to pretrial release supervision. A bond hearing was set for Friday, but Tindal requested a continuance to gather additional evidence. A pretrial release evaluation has been scheduled and a new hearing set for 2:30 p.m. April 8.

Defendants personal circumstances and background, coupled with the lack of evidence Defendant poses a risk of flight or danger to herself or the community, indicate release pending trial is appropriate, the motion said.

Resendiz, a former West Liberty School District guidance counselor, is charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist, or school employee; two counts of second-degree sexual abuse; criminal trespass; and violating a no-contact order. Sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist or school employee is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Second-degree sexual abuse is a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

On Jan. 24, West Liberty Police received a report Resendiz allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a student. They discovered evidence that suggested Resendiz sexually abused the boy at least twice while she was a guidance counselor at the middle school. According to a booking sheet, the victim had photos on his phone of Resendiz kissing him.

The charges of violating a no-contact order and trespassing stem from a Feb. 22 incident. According to police, an eye-witness saw Resendiz at 12:25 p.m. in her vehicle at West Liberty High School, where a juvenile got into her vehicle and drove off. The juvenile was an immediate family member of a subject with a no-contact order against Resendiz.

Resendiz was previously arrested on Feb. 6 on charges of witness tampering, contempt of court and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

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MUSCATINE  The Muscatine Community School District will again offer its Muskie S.P.A.R.K. program for Muscatine kindergarten to grade 6 students.

S.P.A.R.K. stands for Summer Program for Arts, Recreation & Knowledge."

The program  June 21 to July 22 at Jefferson Elementary School  offers a mix of educational sessions and activities in robotics, engineering, sports, community involvement and art. It's free, and students will be served breakfast and lunch each day.

Dr. Kandy Steel, principal of Jefferson, said 500 students have signed up so far. Steel credits that success to the teachers and staff who started the program and ran it successfully last year, and the community partnerships.

We created this program as a way to provide a wonderful experience for our kids, giving them something to do beyond just sitting and watching TV or being on their computers all summer, Steel said. It gives kids an opportunity to accelerate their learning  well take every child where they are and try to accelerate them and prepare them for their next grade level and beyond.

Funding came from federal COVID-19 relief ESSR dollars, which is expected to pay for the program through the summer of 2023.

Community organizations had such a great time with the students last summer that were expanding the experiences that children will have this year, Steel said. Most of our community partners are already planning their own summer programming around S.P.A.R.K. This really speaks to their commitment to the students in our community.

Stanley Center for Peace and Security, Musser Public Library, the ISU Extension and Outreach, and Muscatine County Conservation are among the partners. Muscatine County Conservation will offer animal meet-and-greets and canoeing at Deep Lakes for older students.

It will be an experience that very few of our students would have without this program, Steel said in reference to the Deep Lakes trip.

Steel said the program also offers students the opportunity to meet kids outside of their class or school and develop teamwork skills.

We would just like to thank the community and all of the parents so far who have signed their children up and are allowing us to spend the summer with them. I think its going to be an awesome opportunity for (these students), Steel said.

Register on the districts website or through its Facebook page, or call the student's school for more information.

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MUSCATINE  The Salvation Armys Emergency Disaster Service responded to aid firefighters Monday morning during a four-alarm fire at a century farm in the 2900 block of New Era Road, just outside Muscatine. A barn was destroyed by the blaze, and nearby buildings were damaged from the heat of the fire. Lt. Greg Bock of the Salvation Army of Muscatine County said the firefighters were happy to see the relief team on the scene to provide food and water. Bock said Blimpies donated a case of water for the firefighters. Bock also said it was a windy day. He did not know the cause of the fire. The National Weather Service provides fire weather updates at weather.gov/dvn/fire.
MUSCATINE  Although The Merrill Soap Company has opened a store in downtown Muscatine, the handcrafted bar soaps and bath bombs will still be available at a variety of shows, including the Muscatine Farmers Market.

The store opened recently at 130 E. Second St. Co-owner Darryl Ravary said he and partner Merrill Lebron still were working at their full-time jobs, leaving the store open only part time. It is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. The shop offers a variety of homemade soap products from laundry soap to body scrubs to beard oil.

We still do our art-and-craft shows around southeast Iowa, Ravary said. We decided to open up a storefront from that.

He said people were responding well to the soaps sold from booth sales so it was time to open a store to see if the soaps could sustain a business.

During closure in January to remodel the store, Ravary brought his soap kitchen from home. He said the soaps are made on-site and customers could see how the soap was made while they were shopping. While special orders are accepted, Ravary said it takes four to six weeks for the soap to cure.

We use oils and goats milk for our soaps, Ravary said.

He became interested in making soap when a friend from his hometown in Michigan was making soap. Every time he went home he found himself buying her out of coconut lime soap. When his friend had health issues and stopped making soap, Ravary decided to try making it himself.

While Lebron and Ravary started making soap only as a hobby, they soon had several friends offering to buy soap from them. After selling many bars of soap to friends, they decided to try selling soap at the farmers market. The business has kept going from there.

Among the top-selling items in the store are the specialized Iowa Soaps  soaps with an Iowa theme. The soaps are tied to the history of Muscatine or a piece of Muscatine culture.

Since beginning with 15 different scents, the business has grown to offering about 200 scents.

A grand-opening ribbon-cutting event for the business will be held at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, March 31. The event is being held by the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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Rabat  The Government Council, convened on Thursday, decided to extend the duration of the state of health emergency throughout the national territory until April 30, 2022, to continue to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of measures taken by public authorities to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Government Council adopted the draft decree No. 2.22.225 extending the duration of the state of health emergency across the national territory, presented by the Minister of Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit, said the Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament, Government Spokesman, Mustapha Baitas at a press briefing after the council.

This project aims to extend the duration of the state of health emergency throughout the national territory, from Thursday, March 31 from 6 p.m. until Saturday, April 30 at 6 p.m., said the Minister.
The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was the scene Wednesday of unrelenting bombardment, with firefighters battling to extinguish fires in residential buildings targeted across the city.

Workers rushed to try to save the capital's artistic patrimony, covering a statue of Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri with sandbags to protect it from potential damage from shelling.

Faced with the onslaught, some turned to religious observance for comfort: A man lit a candle on a cross lighting up an artists co-living studio space being used as a bomb shelter. A religious icon with the image known as St. Javelin, depicting a saint holding a javelin, was pasted on a wall in the space, also used to support volunteer Ukrainian forces.

And even in faraway, Odesa, mostly spared so far of the Russian onslaught, people were preparing for what they feared would soon come to the architectural treasure as volunteers loaded sandbags to defend the city.

Meanwhile, a senior Russian official says the countrys nuclear arsenal should help deter the West from intervening in the war in Ukraine.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state corporation Roscosmos, noted in televised remarks Wednesday that the Russian nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons along with the nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Rogozin pointed at Russian President Vladimir Putins warning to other countries not to meddle with the Russian action in Ukraine. The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance, Rogozin said.

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LOS ANGELES  The days of being forced at airport security checkpoints to remove laptops and liquids from carry-on bags may be coming to an end.

The Transportation Security Administration announced it is spending $781.2 million for hundreds of scanners that use technology employed in hospitals to examine internal organs to more quickly and thoroughly scan carry-on bags for weapons and explosives. That means you can leave your laptops, liquids and other devices in your carry-on bag before it goes through the screener, making the screening process faster.

TSA hopes to install 938 scanners  using computed tomography technology  at most major U.S. airports over the next few years. The first 38 scanners will be installed by this summer, just in time for the busy travel season.

The scanners provide our dedicated frontline officers with one of the best tools available to screen passenger carry-on items and also improves the passenger experience by allowing passengers to keep more items in their carry-on bags during the screening process, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement.

Analogic Corp., a Massachusetts-based technology company, was awarded the $781.2 million order.

The X-ray scanners currently used at most airport checkpoints can generate only a two-dimensional image of the contents of each carry-on bag, making it difficult to distinguish the items inside, especially when bags are crammed with electronics and other devices.

The new CT scanners allow TSA officers to see a 3-D image of the items in a carry-on bag. The images produced by the scanners can be rotated on three axes, making it easier for the officers to identify weapons and explosives.

Thats the beauty of the computed tomography process, said TSA spokesman R. Carter Langston.

Larger CT scanners have been used for several years to scan checked baggage, but until now have been too big to use in the TSA security lines.

The TSA began testing CT scanners in 2018 at airports across the country, including Los Angeles International Airport, Oakland International Airport, San Diego International Airport, McCarran International Airport and Chicago OHare International Airport. LAX now has six CT scanners in use throughout the airport.

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The lives of Ira Yeager and his longtime partner George Warren Hellyer, Jr. were recently celebrated in Calistoga's Pioneer Park by the many friends and admirers of their work they had met over the course of their vibrant and storied lives.

Ira and George, with their multitude of friends they met all over the world, they were diplomats, said Hellyers niece, Jan Du Plain.

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A renowned international artist, Yeager passed away in January at the age of 83. Hellyer, also an artist, passed away in June 2021, at age 99. Both died peacefully at their home in Calistoga. They owned several properties and residences throughout the Bay Area, Yeager with a studio also overlooking the Petrified Forest. He also had homes in San Francisco and Sea Ranch. His work can be found all across the United States and at places in Europe.

Hellyer explored many interests in life, including an early career as a lawyer, and came to art later in life, studying ceramics and raku firing methods. In contrast, Ira was much more focused on art, Du Plain said.

With the help of longtime curator and studio director Brian Fuller, The Yager Galerie opened in 2018 in downtown Calistoga, featuring Yeagers work influenced by his experience with Native Americans. Yeagers father was a well-known fishing and hunting guide to Eddie Bauer in the 1920s, and he had been acquiring and has been gifted Native American artifacts his entire life.

Yeager marched to his own drummer, and in doing so was blessed with a life as unique as the art he created, and the people he touched.

Basically, he was like honey to a bee, said Mother Tabitha of the Holy Assumption Monastery, commenting on his charisma. I saw love and joy in his work, and could see that he really enjoyed talking to people.

Mother Tabitha had first met Yeager at the Calistoga gallery, where he commented on her black, head-to-toe garb. He said she reminded him of the nuns he had seen in Corfu, Greece.

For him it was important to treat each individual like they were the only person in the world. A lot of people dont have that ability, she said.

Yeager and Hellyer met in San Francisco, and lived in Corfu, Greece for nearly a decade. That experience heavily influenced their art, and both of their works are the subject of a new installation at the Calistoga gallery. Unlike when the gallery first opened, one room is entirely devoted to Hellyer's works, giving visitors a deeper insight into their lives, and their art.

Its not something Yeager collectors typically associate with him, said Lilly Lochanko, a gallery associate.

The Yager Galerie is located at 1312 Lincoln Ave.

You can reach Cynthia Sweeney at 942-4035 or csweeney@weeklycalistogan.com.
American Canyon Police on Wednesday arrested a man in connection with a string of vehicle break-ins at a local park, the department announced.

Jamal Rutledge, a 26-year-old Richmond resident, was detained at 12:57 p.m. as he checked in with the Contra Costa County probation office, according to American Canyon Police, which said it obtained a warrant before the probation visit. Rutledge was booked into the Napa County jail on $100,000 bail and also faces an arrest warrant issued in Santa Clara County.

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The arrest was tied to several break-ins during February and March in the parking lot of the Newell Open Space on American Canyons east side, where vehicle windows were smashed and valuables stolen, police said in a news release. After the most recent burglary on March 14, a witness gave police a description of the suspect, his vehicle and the license-plate number.

Four days later, on Friday, an American Canyon Police officer saw a 2016 BMW sedan matching the description shared by the witness, according to the department. The officer recognized the driver as Rutledge and began a pursuit, but the chase was ended due to the suspects reckless driving, police said.

Before booking Rutledge into jail Wednesday, officers found in his pants pocket a window punch tool commonly used to break automotive glass, according to police.
One of the most popular white wines in America is Pinot Grigio, yet it has a lot of naysayers who, thanks to mass-marketed brands, think of Pinot Grigio as a simple, uninteresting, water-like wine.

Those naysayers would easily be quieted after tasting the Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio. Frequently selected for wine of the year lists, the Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio is perhaps the most exceptional Pinot Grigio in the world.

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Livio Felluga started his eponymous winery in 1956, and today it is a standard-bearer for the white wines of Northern Italy. Livio Felluga passed away in 2016 at the age of 102. Today his four children run the winery. And now his granddaughter Laura Felluga is continuing his story.

Livio Felluga was born in 1914 in Izola in Istria, now part of Slovenia. His family produced Refosco and Malvasia and by his mid-20s, Livio was making and selling wines in Italy. He fought in Africa during World War II where his was captured and became a prisoner of war. Eight years later he returned home to Italy empty-handed.

At the time, the wine being made in Italy was bulk wine, consumed by the locals. In the hills of Friuli, he recognized the same Ponca soils (layers of marl and sandstone) from his childhood. He found land in the area of Rosazzo in Colli Orientali in Friuli but could not get a loan to buy land. Eventually, he managed to purchase two vineyards in Rosazzo with the vision to make great wine from the vineyard. Livio was in his early 40s when he released his first vintage in 1956.

From the beginning, while everyone else was blending grape varieties, Livio Felluga wanted to bottle single varietal wines, such as the Pinot Grigio, as well as Sauvignon Blanc, Friulano and others. This might have seemed crazy to others at the time, but Livios vision established him as the patriarch of the wines of Friuli.

Today, the family-owned winery is led by Livios son, Andrea Felluga. Andreas older brother, Maurizio, handles domestic sales, younger brother Filippo is the vineyard manager, and sister Elda oversees the tourism promotion. Andreas daughter Laura is the first grandchild of Livio to join the family business.

There was never pressure for Laura to join the winery but from a young age, she had an interest in wine. Coming into the family business with the reputation of the Felluga name was a lot of pressure, and she explained that she wanted to earn [her family] name. After graduating with degrees in economics and management, Laura worked for a wine fair in China, interned at a wine company in New York, and worked in the cellar in both New Zealand and France. She was living in Bordeaux doing wine production work when her grandfather died.

In 2018, Laura joined the family business, traveling around the world and representing Livio Felluga Wines. She is the keeper of the values of Livio Felluga wines. The winery takes a minimal approach and uses common sense when it comes to biodiversity, sustainability and preservation for future generations. Ultimately, the key message is for the wines to express the place they are from.

The 2020 Pinot Grigio is a brilliant yellow color. The bright nose is rich and complex with orange blossom, peach, apricot, citrus and melon aromas. On the palate, the lovely mouthfeel is fresh and velvety with lingering acidity. The 2018 Sauvignon Blanc is a straw yellow color with a fresh, pretty nose with notes of lemongrass, melon and a subtle touch of dried sage. Medium-bodied, the wine has a creamy texture and a long finish with mineral notes.

While Livio Felluga initially bottled single-variety wines, in 1981 he introduced their Terre Alte white blend. A blend of Friulano, Pinot Bianco and Sauvignon Blanc, Terre Alte is considered one of Italys most prestigious wines, according to the importer's website; in 2011, the wine became a DOCG wine.

I had the pleasure to taste a vertical of Terre Alte. The 2016 Terre Alte, with aromas of white flowers, stone fruit, pineapple, and lemon curd, has a beautiful line of acidity that runs down the center of the palate and then lingers across the tongue.

The 2018 Terre Alte has notes of citrus, pear, crushed stone, and herbs and is broader on the palate with acidity that coats the tongue.

The 2019 Terre Alte has aromas of lemon peel and orange blossom and is savory on the palate with elegant minerality and beautiful structure.

The wines of Livio Felluga are lush, crisp and well-balanced. As I sat with Laura, tasting the wines, and listening to her talk about her family, I noticed the labels on her bottles, which are based on an old map dating back to the 1700s of the Rosazza area and all the towns surrounding their vineyards. As the keeper of the values, she will continue to share the story of her grandfather and of the Livio Felluga Winery.

Allison Levine is owner of Please The Palate, a marketing and event-planning agency. A freelance writer, she contributes to numerous publications while eating and drinking her way around the world. Allison is also the host of the wine podcast Wine Soundtrack USA and a co-host of Crush On This videos on YouTube. Contact her at allison@pleasethepalate.com.
Part I of a continuing series

When we open a bottle of a young Zinfandel, we expect to find a liquid that smells and tastes like Zinfandel. But our odds of that are slim and getting slimmer.

In fact, the same argument could well apply to most red-wine grape varieties grown in California, including some of the most widely planted. Picking them too late is one egregious issue.

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The subject of varietal authenticity has been a fixation of mine for decades. Now Im coming to grips with two recently related phenomena that together have made my view far muddier and confusing. These are the ideas of site eccentricities and vineyard mutations or adaptations.

These related issues lead me toward the notion that some vineyard designations are vital to understanding wine  and other vineyard names are no help at all. This article begins a haphazard series looking at various grape varieties.

With Zinfandel, as Ive known it for decades, Ive always anticipated that the best will have noticeable raspberry and/or strawberry scents. Long-time Dry Creek winemaker Doug Nalle calls this Zinfandels zinberry aroma.

But a growing number of Zins now lack this fruit aroma. Many are brutish, lugubrious, ham-fisted oafs, not the fun-loving sprites most were in the 1970s and 1980s. The charm of lighter, claret-like Zins of decades ago was based on fresh berries, not raisins.

This was evident when the grapes grew in relatively cool areas. Hot-climate Zinfandels can be tasty but often arent identifiable. High alcohols usually are associated with low varietal-ness.

One reason for this increasing loss of zinberry aroma, I contend, is that a lot of current Zinfandels are actually either all Primitivo or made with a lot of that Italian cultivar, which I dont think is very Zin-like.

In the last decade, Ive spoken with lots of Zin growers and plant scientists about this, including Dr. Carole Meredith, whose genetic research at UC Davis was not only authoritative but among the most widely respected in the world. Meredith confirmed that Primitivo is genetically the same as Zinfandel.

But I suggest that that doesnt necessarily mean the two wines will be identical or even similar. Consider how Primitivo first arrived in this country more than 30 years ago and what led to its position here today.

Primitivo surely did have benefits over Zin as a cultivar. Growers say it ripens earlier than older Zin vines, grows well in warmer climes, and is more predictable in the vineyard.

However, Im almost sure that the federal government never considered the basic aromas or flavors of Primitivo when ruling that it was a synonym for Zin. The feds never look at what a wine smells or tastes like. All it knew was that as genetic mirror images, it and Zin were the same.

It ruled that the two terms were interchangeable.

The Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and its predecessor (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives), which regulated such issues, have never been equipped to deal with wine characteristics of grapes. It argues, rightly, that it is not a marketing office. First and foremost, its a tax-collecting agency.

As such, TTB allows U.S. wineries latitude about what wines can be called, even allowing misleading facts on labels. Future columns will document this.

So, sure, Primitivo and Zin are technically identical. But this subject has broader implications. I believe that many grape varieties planted throughout this country are thought to be one thing but may be something else.

And to be clear: Chicanery isnt part of this. In some cases, its just growers lack of knowledge. The late winemaker John Parducci won gold medals for his Pinot Noirs in the late 1950s until an ampelographer from UC Davis told him he had never seen better-looking Charbono vines!

Some aroma and flavor variants emanate from the way some varieties adapt or mutate. Im not alone here. Many grape growers say they suspect some grape varieties they grow may have long been misidentified.

However, such topics rarely are raised outside of university lecture halls, winery labs, grapevine nurseries and technical conferences.

In 1978, Hop Kiln Winery in Sonoma County made a pitch-black red wine with 14.8% alcohol. It called Gamay Beaujolais. The winemaker, Steve Strobel, told me he used Napa Gamay grapes  which had long been misidentified!

The sciences relating to grape identity, including ampelography, could unravel some of the mysteries, but funding is always an issue.

As for Zin, Meredith did the most respected genetic typing of it, reporting that Primitivo was a genetic match to Zin. Also related, she said, were several other grapes from Croatias Dalmatian Coast such as Crljenak Kastelanski, which may be related to an older variety called Tribidrag, and which is also linked to Plavac Mali.

After Primitivo and Zin were known to be twins, several different clones of Primitivo from the warm Puglia area in southwest Italy were imported for analysis. Meredith said most of those clones seemed unworthy of testing. The one that was later was planted here in test plots.

Primitivo and Zin seem to me to differ in some ways. Puglia is considerably warmer than is Dry Creek Valley, where it seems to be one of the better places to grow it in California.

Older California Zin vines also did well in the cooler Russian River Valley, Sierra Foothills, Lodi, Paso Robles, and on Mendocino County hillsides.

Also, most of Puglias better Primitivo wines come in at 16% alcohol or more. Old-vine California Zinfandels from Napa, Sonoma, and the Sierra Foothills historically (40 years ago) were best at about 14%. (In 1973, Grand Cru in Sonoma County made a Zinfandel that said on its front label that it was Late Picked. The alcohol on the label: 13.7%!)

And whereas Zin is a notoriously uneven ripener on the vine and is usually harvested in October, Primitivo is far easier to predict and is usually picked weeks earlier than Zin, avoiding late-season rains (if any).

But by far the most telling aromatic difference is that in classic-area old-vin Zin, I usually find an aroma of moderate-alcohol Zins (13.5% to 14.5%)  Doug Nalles zinberry aromatics. I rarely sense it in Primitivo.

I learned from the winemakers who wanted balanced wines, like Lee Stewart (Souverain), Andre Tchelistcheff (Beaulieu), and Joe Swan, said Doug a week ago. Doug was in the sensational UC Davis enology graduating class of 1971.

Dougs son, Andrew now makes the terrific Nalle Zinfandels as well as other balanced wines.

Doug said that in the week before harvesting their Dry Creek vineyards Zinfandel, he and Andrew walk the same row. One by one, from opposite ends, tasting grapes  not discussing what they tasted until they reach the center of the row. This gives them a sense of what aromatics they need to maximize that zinberry character.

The Nalles do not use Primitivo. Doug was interested in the thesis I proposed, that true Zin and Primitivo might well be genetic mirror images, but that the resulting wines might actually reflect adaptation or mutation those clones had experienced in Puglia before arriving here.

We surely know that many different clones of Pinot Noir offer widely differing aromatics.

I cannot be certain my theory is correct. But I have tasted Zinfandel from the mid-1960s to today from older vines that have no Primitivo added. And Ive tasted recent examples of Zinfandels that do have some of the more recently imported material, either 100%, interplanted, or blended into old-vine Zin. And I think my suspicion is valid.

I just wish there were funds available for someone to conduct a serious scientific sensory analysis to test this theory. I would be a happy participant!

Wine of the Week

2020 Nalle Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley ($45): The aroma of fresh cherries and strawberries comes out after this excellent Zin has been decanted for an hour. It opens further as time goes by, indicating how young it is. With only 13.8% alcohol and modest use of French oak aging, it is claret in style, but with Dry Creeks classic aromatic and mid-palate DNA. A few cases remain of the exceptional 2019 Nalle Zin.

Dan Berger lives in Sonoma County, where he publishes Vintage Experiences, a subscription-only wine newsletter. Write him at winenut@gmail.com. He is also co-host of California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon on KSRO
That winemakers often make a little of their own wine on the side is nothing new. By their very nature winemakers are creative, born experimenters and entrepreneurs.

As such, many create their own small brands by tinkering  making tiny amounts of wine, experimenting with obscure, rarely used wine grapes and testing out different tools and techniques, such as natural winemaking. What is new is that Napas Ownroot Collective is now offering such wines to its subscribers.

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After tasting such a wine from one of her young winemaker friends, Terra Jane Albee, owner of Ownroot, had an epiphany.

I just couldnt stand the idea that no one else was going to get to drink these wines, she said during a Zoom call. The wines from many of these winemakers were so good, but they just didnt have the time or experience to actually share it with the people who might appreciate having access.

For years Albee had been working with more established wine brands, helping them get the word out and building their direct-to-consumer (DtC) businesses, but she had never fully realized the unmet needs of the smallest of producers. She knew that these budding brands could not afford to hire her as a consultant, but she thought wine drinkers might value a subscription-based service that would give them inside access.

Ive been thrilled with the response, Albee said. It has really taken off. We are building a community who value learning about and supporting these small brands, while at the same time getting a chance to connect and enjoy delicious wines that are beyond rare.

Finding ones ownroot

The name ownroot is a reference to the nature and challenges of modern-day winemaking. Because a grapevines own root system is often susceptible to a variety of threats  disease, pests and changing climate conditions  the vast majority of grapevines grown today require a disease-resistant rootstock to thrive. However, at certain exceptionally rare vineyards, the soils and conditions are conducive for a grapevine to thrive without such rootstock, instead growing by using only their own roots. Such sites often produce lovely wines that are unlike anything else on the market.

The way the wine market [e.g., the three-tier system and shipping laws] is designed and created, it is really prohibitive for small wine brands to get out into the world, Albee said. Also, in Napa County, it is hard for small producers to create their own tasting space.

To join Ownroot, participants subscribe at either $8.95 a month or $89.95 a year, which provides access to purchase two small wine brands per month and receive subsidized shipping. Subscribers also get access to the winemakers through virtual tasting events and local in-person gatherings.

The benefit to the subscribers is having Albee and her team search and bring to light some of the most exciting wine projects happening in Northern California, while the benefits to the producers are also substantial.

Birdhorse Wines

The first time we met Terra Jane it just felt like we were family immediately, said Katie Rouse, co-owner and co-winemaker of Birdhorse wines. And its not just with us as winemakers; its the whole community, which just makes it so engaging and inviting to want to be a part of this.

Rouse with her partner, winemaker and co-owner of Birdhorse, Corinne Rich, met while getting their masters degrees in viticulture and enology at UC Davis. Richs day job is assistant winemaker at Scribe Winery in Sonoma, while Rouse is assistant winemaker at Bedrock Wine Co. in Sonoma.

According to their website, Birdhorse represents a vision for the future of California winemaking, a vision anchored in a passion for diversification. We strive to showcase regions, varietals and humans that have long had a presence in this industry but have yet to be celebrated by many of its constituents. We are driven by intellectual curiosity, transparency, science and data but most importantly an ardor for delicious wines and sharing them with the wider drinking public.

Curiosity is one of the cornerstones of the ethos of our brand, Rich said. And like the collective itself, we, too, are trying to celebrate the uncelebrated.

As such, you will not find common wines such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir in the Birdhorse lineup. Instead, Rouse and Rich have searched throughout California to find obscure  often tiny  vineyards to make expressive wines from grapes including Verdelho, Barbera and Arneis.

One such hidden treasure is the Birdhorse Valdiguie (95 cases made and $34 a bottle). This is a jaw-dropping wine that somehow still finds a way to retain its composure. The grapes for this wine originate from a dry-farmed 60-plus-year old-vineyard that is tended by the Frediani family in Calistoga.

The historic vineyard and expert winemaking have coupled to create a singular example of one of Californias oldest grapes  Valdiguie used to be known as Napa Gamay.

Aromatics include ripe South African Natal plum, chaparral sage and nutmeg, with flavors of pomegranate, dried rose petal and sweet molasses. Pair this wine with nearly any cheese  aged Epoisses, Gouda, Morbier or Swiss Vacherin are perfect, although a good cheddar would work, too. This is a versatile wine, so try matching it with charcuterie, a vegetable-roasted sandwich or even smoked trout.

Filomena Wine Co.

Luke Nio, owner/winemaker of Filomena Wine Co., grew up in a big French-Italian family in Northern California where wine was just an everyday part of life. His grandmother  a great cook and one of the Filomenas the winery is named after  always had a bottle of wine in the refrigerator, and his aunt and uncle made a little port from the Alicante Bouschet vines growing in their back yard in Sonoma. The remainder of those grapes were sold to Richard Kasmier of Kaz Winery, a winemaker known for his use of beyond organic viticulture techniques and not using any sulfur during the winemaking process.

In 2010, while he was studying at UC Davis toward a degree in wine and viticulture, Nio began working with Kasmier, who gave him his first opportunity to make his own barrel of wine.

Kaz was doing natural winemaking before it was even a thing, Nio said. It was my first exposure to hands-on winemaking, and that experience, coupled with the almost opposite side of winemaking at Davis, where you learn to add this and fix this by doing that  the combination was a cool way to get both sides of the industry.

Nio still has one case of the wine he made that year  a Cabernet Franc made without the use of sulfur  that he says hes saving for a special occasion.

After graduating, he spent time in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, before becoming the cellar master of Bedrock Wine Co. in 2013. In 2020 Nio become the assistant winemaker at Green and Red winery.

Although Nio does occasionally add a little sulfur to his wines now, it is rarely more than 100 parts per million (normal wines can have up to 300ppm). Additionally, Nio is committed to using only indigenous yeast. He often retains whole clusters of grapes during fermentation and uses the ancient foot-trodden approach during the maceration process.

Like the wines from Birdhorse, Filomena wines are distinct, wonderfully geocentric, complex and anything but common. Beyond a lively Rose made from Cabernet Pfeffer, a cheery Vermentino and a contemplative St. Laurent, the 2016 Griffins Lair Syrah (85 cases made and $42 a bottle) is a standout. It is made from grapes grown in the windy Petaluma Gap region  an area so frequented by high winds that, according the Nio, the grapevines often close down their ability to respire so as to conserve moisture.

The impact is that the vines extend the amount of hang time for the grape clusters, thereby allowing complexity to develop. Aromatics of this expressive wine include black olive, cracked black pepper and savory smoked brisket. Flavors include black cherry liqueur, Worcestershire sauce and clove. This is a pleasantly grippy wine that would pair beautifully with grilled steak or nearly any barbecue.

Birdhorse and Filomena are just two examples of the dozens of small producers within the Ownroot Collective. Given my positive experience with them, I look forward to experiencing the others.
The zeal of the anti-abortion lawmakers is such that they even want to criminalize mifepristone and misoprostol, medications used at home to end early pregnancy. (Victor R. Caivano/AP)

I write in response to letter writer, L.G. Conner from Ellicott City, who in their letter, Abortion ends human life: Thats the Reality (March 18) asks multiple questions, including the age old questions that conservatives harp on, to undo liberals on pro choice, When does life begin? What is the definition of viability? Those gotcha questions need not be answered by pro choice advocates. Abortion is a private matter. It is not for the state to control.

We have HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and its major components are the privacy and the security of sensitive patient health information. All matters of pregnancy and abortion would come under sensitive patient information. The state has no business in that information, for the sake of criminalizing a womans decision to abort her pregnancy. Laws being hatched in Texas, Florida, Mississippi and other states, to be enforced, would lead to this private information becoming public and would shame and punish women for having agency over their own bodies. The zeal of the anti-abortion lawmakers is such that they even want to criminalize mifepristone and misoprostol, medications used at home to end early pregnancy.

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Anti-abortion laws are a direct affront to a womans right to privacy regarding her health information, which is guaranteed to her under HIPAA. All arguments to the contrary are specious.

Usha Nellore, Bel Air

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NEWS.am digest: Large scale protests continue in Yerevan, people forcibly arrested

US Embassy in Havana resumes issuing visas to Cubans

Bloomberg: UK and Japan will help Asian countries reduce dependence on Russian oil

Dollar, euro gain considerable value in Armenia

FLYONE ARMENIA cancels Yerevan flights to, from Lyon, Paris until June 10

Annual inflation in Turkey reaches 69.97% in April

Armenia population as of January 1 announced

Poland builds 50 kilometers of fence on border with Belarus

Azerbaijan promises Europe gas in the hope of loyalty to Baku's crimes

Australia allocates $1.4 billion to modernize its Navy

Peskov says events unrolling in Armenia are countrys internal affair

Grigoryan: Discussions on setting up Armenia-Azerbaijan commission may be completed in near future

Red Cross: No Azerbaijani detainees in Armenia

Armenia official: Peace agreement with Azerbaijan also means solution to Karabakh issue

Armen Grigoryan: There is need to get answers to questions in order to organize Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting

Security Council chief: Baku's statements on Armenia territories belonging to Azerbaijan do not contribute to peace

Armenia official comments on Azerbaijan president's words about 'Zangezur corridor'

Armen Grigoryan: Armenia and Azerbaijan could exchange enclaves

FT: Erdogan used mediation between Russia and Ukraine

Person dies after being hospitalized from one of tents at France Square in Yerevan

Armenia to get 22.6M loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Armenia ruling force MP: Oppositions goal is not saving Karabakh but changing of power

President says Artsakh continues to maintain its vision for future, toward independence

Oppositions uncrowded marches show lack of public support, says Armenia ruling force lawmaker

Trade in Armenia increased by about $80 million, PM says

Scuffle breaks out during civil disobedience march in Yerevan, police attempt to apprehend opposition MP

Pashinyan to Bennett: I am hopeful that Armenian-Israeli relations will flourish in near future

Armenia ruling power legislator: This opposition has always run away from truth

Civil disobedience motorcade being held in Yerevan

EU to ban Russians from buying European real estate

US defense industry facing problems due to supply of weapons to Ukraine

Armenia FM holds discussion at Atlantic Council, speaks about process of normalization of relations with Turkey

Newspaper: Armenia opposition MPs to lose their parliamentary mandates?

Newspaper: Artsakh President says we would not have had so many casualties if war had started half year later

Civil disobedience march kicks off in downtown Yerevan

Civil disobedience actions resume in Yerevan

Blinken tests positive for Covid

Denmark, Finland support European Commission proposal on Russian oil sanctions

Bulgaria to seek exemption from EU proposed Russian oil embargo

Biden says he is ready for additional sanctions against Russia

Switzerland braces for serious power shortage

Uruguay freezes ambassador appointment to Ankara after Cavusoglu's gesture

Czech Republic to seek exemption from proposed EU embargo on Russian oil imports

Charles Michel on the likelihood of Moldova's EU membership

Resistance Movement actions to resume tomorrow early morning

Elon Musk is invited to UK Parliament for buying Twitter

Disobedience march reaches France Square, rally starts

US crude oil shipments to Europe hit highest level in April

NEWS.am digest: Large-scale protests being held in Armenia to demand PMs resignation

Armenia Defense Minister meets with Georgian PM

UK bans imposes sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations in Russia

EU plan to completely ban Russian crude oil threatens Hungary's energy security

EU interested in expanding energy cooperation with Azerbaijan

Germany: Gradual EU ban on Russian oil imports could lead to 'supply disruptions'

Opposition demonstration reaches government residences

Aliyev insists so-called Zangezur corridor 'is already a reality'

Slovakia seeks exemption from EU oil embargo for three years

Defense Ministers of Armenia and Georgia sign cooperation program for 2022

Romanian President approves entry of Stryker Brigade and US fighter squadron into country

Dollar goes up, euro also rises in Armenia

EU studying possibility of providing military assistance to Moldova

Public demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation

Opposition supporters move toward Armenian parliament building

EU envoys can not agree on Russian oil

Armenia Security Council chief briefs Georgia PM on Karabakh conflict settlement process

Armenia deputy police chief says law enforcement has right detain MPs

Large-scale opposition rally starts in central Yerevan

Many teenagers in New Zealand are illiterate

AFP: EU proposes to impose sanctions on Patriarch Kirill

Arestovich says Israel could supply Ukraine with weapons Azerbaijan used in Karabakh war

Parliament speaker threatens Armenian opposition, clergy

Armenia opposition MP: Ex-President Serzh Sargsyan will not hold office in new government

Beijing closes over 60 subway stations due to COVID-19 outbreak

Bayramov, Roquefeuil discuss Azerbaijan-Armenia relations normalization process

Armenia FM meets with US National Democratic Institute president

Armenia ruling force MP: Opposition will not achieve its goal

Armenia 2nd president Robert Kocharyans son blocking road with citizens in Yerevan

Oklahoma bans almost all abortions

Number of children in Japan falls to record low

Karabakh President meets with of Free Homeland-UCA parliamentary faction members
The Biden administration, seeking to deter China from aiding sanctions-hit Russia, on Wednesday warned Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by sanctions, help Moscow evade export controls or process its banned financial transactions, Reuters reported.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that G7 countries would soon announce a unified response to make sure Russia cannot evade Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine with the help of China or any other country.

Speaking aboard Air Force One en route to Brussels where President Joe Biden will attend an emergency NATO summit, Sullivan said, "That's not specifically about China, but it will apply to every significant economy and the decisions that any of those economies take to try, in an intentional and active way, to undermine or weaken the sanctions that we put in place."

He said the US government has conveyed this message to China and that, "We expect similar communication by European Union and individual European countries."

Washington is concerned that China could help Russia "backfill" and access these products by violating trade restrictions. The US government has tools to ensure that can't happen, Sullivan added.

In terms of payments, Sullivan said, the United States and its G7 allies will respond to "systematic efforts, industrial-scale efforts to try to reorient the settlement of financial payments."
For three days now, the citizens of the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] Republic have been deprived of natural gas supply; this happened as a result of the interference of Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia. He added as follows:

"As you know, on March 7, the [natural] gas pipeline supplying [natural gas] to Artsakh was blown up in an area under Azerbaijani control. Azerbaijan did not allowunder various pretextsthe gas pipeline to be repaired, and in the end, it repaired [it]. As a result, according to our information, a valve was installed on the gas pipeline, and on March 1811 days later after restoring the gas supply to Artsakh for 4 dayson March 21, Azerbaijan simply closed the pipeline valve without explosions, thus proving that it was the one behind the March 7 explosion.

Of particular note is the fact that both [natural] gas outages occurred in exceptional [cold winter] weather conditions. (). And in these conditions, Artsakh was deliberately deprived of the natural gas supplies that are vital for heating apartments, kindergartens, schools, hospitals. This is enough to realize that as a result of Azerbaijan's actions, Artsakh is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. I have no doubt, of course, that the heroic people of Artsakh will overcome this ordeal as well.

But with this in mind, I must state that Azerbaijan also provides service to the people of Artsakh with these actions of it because this episode in connection with the gas pipeline is the Artsakh issues very accurate and concise description for the international community. Thanks to this episode, the international community can understand the essence of the Karabakh issue without flipping through 100 pages, studying the nuances of history. This indisputably shows Azerbaijan's policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh; that is: to make it impossible for them to live in their own homeland.

For 1.5 years now, Azerbaijan is drumming up that it won a glorious victory in the 44-day war of 2020. But everything shows that the fact that after so much suffering and deprivation there are about 117,000 Armenians living in Artsakh right now, Azerbaijan considers its biggest defeat, and [therefore] a task has been set [by it] to do everything to complete the policy of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh."
Azerbaijan has set a task to do everything to complete its policy of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia. He added as follows:

"In this sense, the statement issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry the day before, which said that the issue of [natural] gas supply to Artsakh is an internal affair of Azerbaijan, is very symbolic and telling. If we translate this statement from the diplomatic lingo, it will mean, International community, do not look, and allow us to complete without obstructions, unnoticed by the international community or under the name of 'anti-terrorist operations,' the policy of ethnic cleansing and liberation of Artsakh from Armenians through a policy of genocide. Such a thing cannot happen, and Armenias diplomatic service, other officials, political forces, the media, NGOs, individuals, must present in full detail and broadlythrough social mediato the international community, in all instances, what happened in Artsakh during the last 15 days.

Dear compatriots, of course, many react to this event by reminding and criticizing the policy we have adopted of opening an era of peaceful development for our country and the region. But I want to state unequivocally that this policy we have adopted has no alternative. On the contrary, through these actions of its, various provocations, Azerbaijan is trying to divert us from the peace agenda, to delegitimize that agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new escalations, new wars in the region. But we should not give in to such provocations. I have said that in order to bring the peace agenda to fruition, we need strong nerves, and we must not deviate from our declared strategy in any way. Strategy is a strategy by the fact that it should guide us in all situations."
You are aware, of course, that after the first explosion of the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] [natural] gas pipeline, a 5-point proposal for normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan was conveyed to Armenia on March 10. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia.

"We responded very quicklyin writing, on March 14to these proposals, and appealed to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and asked to assist in the organization of peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And on March 21, the Armenian Foreign Minister voiced Armenia's general assessment of the proposals conveyed by Azerbaijan. This assessment is as follows: there is nothing unacceptable for us in the proposals conveyed by Azerbaijan on March 10, except that these proposals do not address all the issues on the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda.

With our response conveyed to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, we have completed the agenda and, therefore, we are ready for the start of peace talks on that basis. [But] on the evening of this position, Azerbaijan shuts the [natural] gas pipeline supplying [natural gas] to Artsakh. Note that Armenia states that the proposals submitted by Azerbaijan are acceptable to Armenia, whereas Azerbaijan shuts the gas pipeline. This is the biggest proof that Azerbaijan's policy is to divert us from the peace agenda," Pashinyan added.

The PM said that the radical opposition in Armenia is dissatisfied with their statement, criticizing them for agreeing to accept the principle of territorial integrity as a principle of normalization of relations with Azerbaijan.

"This criticism is more than strange because [Armenias then-President] Robert Kocharyan, who returned to Yerevan from the OSCE Istanbul Summit on November 19, 1999 and voted for the Charter for European Security defending the principle of territorial integrity, stated, in response to a reporter's question at Yerevans Zvartnots airport: If we talk about territorial integrity in general, we should not say that we are against it. We also have a territory, and we also believe that this territory is needed to respect such a principle.'

After that, [next President] Serzh Sargsyan also negotiated for many years on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflictaccepting the principle of territorial integrity as well as a basic principle of settlement; so no speculation is appropriate here.

We believe that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue has not been an issue of territory, and is not such now either, but an issue of right, and we will consistently defend all the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh[but] not disregarding the rights of other peoples because, as Serzh Sargsyan rightly noted, 'We are not fascists,'" Nikol Pashinyan said.
The situation in the world and in the region is tense, and we consider ourselves responsible for reducing that tension and finding fundamental solutions. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia.

"In this sense, yes, we believe that the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan should start as soon as possible. Moreover, the need to accelerate the work towards the demarcation and delimitation of borders should be notedsimultaneously with steps that increase the level of border security and stability. You know, of course, that we have proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the borderconsidering the de jure approved boundary of Armenia and Azerbaijan of the Soviet times as the compass for withdrawal," Pashinyan added.

The PM, however, stressed that in addition to the full withdrawal, Armenia has also made proposals for the local withdrawal of troops, and is waiting for Azerbaijan's response here as well.

"By the way, after a number of recent events, we did not figure out whether or not Azerbaijan wants the opening of regional communications. If he wants, our proposals remain in force, and we are ready to implement them at any timeliterally at any time. I have said about the Armenian Crossroads project several times; now I do not see the need to go into details," the Armenian premier stated.
YEREVAN.  On Thursday, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized a conference titled European Experience of Sheep Breeding and its Application in Armenia. This event is organized in the framework of the EU Green Agriculture Initiative in Armenia (EU-GAIA) project, funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation. The project is jointly implemented by the Austrian Development Agency and UNDP in Armenia, UNDP informed.

The main objective of the conference was to bring new knowledge in the sector based on the findings and advanced practices adopted in Europe and other parts of the world. Current obstacles in the sector and possibilities for improvement were also covered during the event.

Tigran Gabrielyan, Deputy Minister of Economy, Konstantin Sokulskiy, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Armenia, Andrea Baggioli, International Aid/Cooperation Officer, EU Delegation to Armenia, Klaus Kapper, Head of Office, Austrian Development Agency, Narek Hayrapetyan, Deputy Head of RA Food Safety Inspection Body, welcomed the participants of the conference, which included key stakeholders, sheep sector beneficiaries, farmers, and media.

Sheep breeding is one of the most important branches of animal husbandry in Armenia, which provides about 15 percent of the gross agricultural output. This conference is a great opportunity to identify major obstacles in the sector and bring new ideas and solutions that will contribute to the sustainable growth of the sheep breeding in Armenia, said Konstantin Sokulskiy, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Armenia.

The commitments undertaken in the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) foresee cooperation at preserving, protecting, improving and rehabilitating the environment, and utilizing natural resources in a sustainable manner. Food and nutrition security is about ensuring that everybody is able to access sufficient, affordable and nutritious food. Todays event concerns the sheep value chain. EU Green Agriculture Initiative in Armenia enhances the local value added, modernizes the legal framework governing official controls, guarantees animal health and ensures a safer food chain. As a matter of fact, the provision of furniture, sheep, labeling services, equipment and branding (EU-GAIA contribution: EUR 43,685) enables Maqi sheep breeding genetic center to maintain the pedigree qualities of the imported highly efficient sheep breeds and can offer veterinary, diagnostics and artificial insemination services. Thus, the EU and Armenia cooperation better detects and controls animal disease and addresses health, food and feed safety risks in a more coordinated way, said Andrea Baggioli, International Aid/Cooperation Officer, EU Delegation to Armenia.

EU-GAIA project helps Armenia to find its place in this unique market. Sheep husbandry with focus on meat breeds is another opportunity for the country to increase the export markets, ensure food security and increase local consumption of highly nutritious and healthy meat. Production of lamb, with focus on green and sustainable technologies that preserve local pastures and environment with highly efficient meat breeds, is a key to the success in the sector.

Number of activities were already implemented within the EU GAIA project to support the sheep breeding value chain in Armenia. In particular, more than 400 heads of highly efficient meat sheep breeds were delivered to Armenia and distributed among project beneficiary farmers. In Shirak region, wool processing and sheep leather factories were supported with new equipment aimed to mitigate the bottlenecks of their processing line. Also, a number of training sessions were provided to sheep farmers, including practical in-field demonstrations. Recently the Maqi '' sheep breeding genetic center was established in Azatan community, Shirak region, that will maintain the pedigree qualities of the imported highly efficient sheep breeds and will offer veterinary, diagnostics, and artificial insemination services.
A group of women of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on Thursday held a peaceful rallytogether with their childrenoutside the children's hospital of capital Stepanakert.

They demand that international organizations force Azerbaijan to resume natural gas supply to Artsakh.

The people of Artsakh are concerned that they may be deprived of other vital necessities as well in the near future.

"The people of Artsakh do not want to leave their land and house; let the Azerbaijanis understand that. The people of Artsakh have lived and will live in Artsakh. Artsakh is not Azerbaijan, and will never be! We will live and fight for our rights. They cannot de-Armenianize Artsakh," said a participant of this peaceful protest.
Jens Stoltenberg will stay on as NATO Secretary-General for another year, the Norwegian television channel TV-2 reported on Thursday.

"According to information received by TV-2, Jens Stoltenberg's mandate as NATO secretary-general will be extended for one year," the channel said in a story on its website.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre told TV-2 that he would support extending Stoltenberg's powers in NATO if such a decision were made. According to the prime minister, he discussed this with the secretary-general and informed him of his support.

In addition, several US officials told the Financial Times that they see growing support for extending Stoltenberg's term as head of NATO. On Wednesday, Jake Sullivan, assistant to the US president for national security, said, "We think that Jens Stoltenberg has been doing a fantastic job and, day in and day out, has played a critical leadership role for NATO. Stoltenberg is a real asset to the Alliance," Sullivan added.
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Mayor Brandon Scotts commentary of March 21 regarding transparency, accountability and meaningful civilian oversight being the future of Baltimores police department failed to add that the citizens of Baltimores crime-ridden neighborhoods need to abide by transparency, accountability and oversight to do their part in coming forward to share information regarding shootings (Mayor Scott: Transparency, accountability, and meaningful civilian oversight is the future of Baltimores police department).

Mayor Scott said: If the residents of Baltimore City dont trust the police, there is no hope to curb the violence gripping our city. Mayor Scott missed his opportunity to state that trust works both ways. How can criminals be apprehended if the citizens cant be trusted to come forward and share vital information?

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Negotiations with the Azerbaijani side to resume the natural gas supply in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) continuewith the assistance of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, the Artsakh Info Center informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"The AR [(Artsakh Republic)] government is pursuing the solution of this important humanitarian issue as soon as possible, and we assure that all possible measures are being takenin the diplomatic platform as wellwhich, naturally, are not subject to publicizing.

"In order to resolve the problems caused by the Azerbaijani side, by the decree of the AR President, the power to work with the Russian peacekeeping contingent and conduct negotiations with the Azerbaijani side has been vested in AR Security Council Secretary Vitaly Balasanyan," the Artsakh Info Center statement added, in particular.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held an operational meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, RIA Novosti reported.

"The participants of the meeting exchanged opinions on the current macroeconomic situation in the country. Defense Minister Shoigu reported on the progress of the special military operation, as well as the military efforts to provide humanitarian aid, ensure security and restore vital infrastructure in the liberated territories," Peskov said.

In addition, he said, anti-sanctions topics were touched upon.

"There was a detailed conversation on the negotiation process with Ukraine. Regret was expressed at the slowness of the Ukrainian side," the presidential spokesman said.
No document is currently being discussed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Otherwise, it would be impossible to hide it. Vladimir Vardanyan, a member of the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and chair of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, stated this during Thursdays press briefings in the NA.

According to him, it is simply unnecessary to talk about any such document.

As per the lawmaker, it should be understood that in this case we are talking about an international agreement, which is impossible to hide.

"Such documents go through various international and domestic procedures. This is a ratification, if necessarya referendum," Vardanyan explained.

He added that ever since 1945, international law has in fact prohibited the signing of any secret agreements and treaties.
We are doing everything to improve food security and increase resources. The minister of economy, Vahan Kerobyan, stated about this during Thursdays press briefings at the government of Armenia.

He informed that applications are currently being collected regarding the government's decision to subsidize the purchase prices of fertilizers.

"Besides, the results are being summed up in the provincial halls, and contracts are being signed with suppliers," Kerobyan added.

He assured that the Ministry of Economy of Armenia will do everything to ensure the countrys economic growth at the target level of 7 percent.
Last month, 268 companies were registered in Armenia. The minister of economy, Vahan Kerobyan, stated about this during Thursdays press briefings at the government.

He added that about 1,000 individual entrepreneurs have also been registered in the country.

"They mainly come from Russia; there are also non-residents from Ukraine and Belarus," Kerobyan said.

The minister assured that the Armenian authorities are trying to do everything to create a comfortable environment for these economic entities.
International human rights organization Freedom House has condemned Azerbaijan's disruption of natural gas supply to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

"Azerbaijan must prevent a humanitarian crisis by restoring unhindered [natural] gas supplies to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, who have endured weeks of freezing temps without heat or hot water," Freedom House noted on Twitter.

On Wednesday, another renowned international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, also addressed this matter.

On the same day, the European Union also expressed concern over reports of disruption of natural gas supply in Artsakh capital Stepanakert.
A federal judge approved Baltimore County Councils second attempt to redraw council district boundaries Thursday, but civil rights groups continued to insist the map doesnt deliver a level playing field for Black voters.

U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby informed parties to the case of her decision during a conference call, Council Chairman Julian Jones said, after she ruled last month that the first map would disadvantage Black residents. He said the judges written opinion was expected Friday.

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Jones said the judge had recognized the countys commitment to diversity in working through a complex redistricting process and producing a map that was acceptable to the court while also staying true to the will of our communities.

The county council voted unanimously Thursday evening to approve the new redistricting map.

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I think all of us are ready to do the peoples work on county council, said councilman Izzy Patoka. Lets get on with government.

But the plaintiffs, including the county NAACP, the League of Women Voters of Baltimore County and Common Cause-Maryland, said the plan continued to fall short.

While the revised map that Baltimore County has now proposed is better, better is not enough to fulfill the racial justice requirements of the Voting Rights Act, said a statement released by the groups that filed the suit.

All we were asking for is a level playing field, and I am disappointed that the court did not level the playing field, said Anthony Fugett, a Baltimore County resident and one of seven voters who joined the suit as plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs said they were considering opportunities for a possible appeal, but that it was too soon to elaborate.

The council submitted the new map on March 8, saying it would improve opportunities for people of color to get elected in the county.

But the plaintiffs said the latest effort  like the initial one  would disadvantage Black voters. The organizations, which filed suit against the county in December over the original map, argued that the county, which is about one-third Black, should have two majority-Black council districts. The councils new map has one, District 4, which is one of seven single-member districts.

In her February order, Griggsby required the county to adopt a new map that includes either two reasonably compact majority-Black districts or a new district with a racial balance providing Black voters an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.

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The county chose the second route, preserving District 4  in Western Baltimore County  as a majority-Black district while boosting the Black population in adjacent District 2, currently represented by Patoka, a Democrat from Pikesville. Under the countys plan, the Black population in District 2 would increase from 29.5% to more than 41%. The white population in the district would decrease from more than 55% to about 44%.

Griggsby, during a March 21 court hearing, suggested her decision would rely at least partly on whether the proposed new District 2 was fair to Black voters.

In oral arguments, the county called District 2 a crossover district in which racial polarization was minimized because Black and Jewish voters effectively formed coalitions backing the same candidates.

But the plaintiffs said the district, like some others in the county, demonstrated racial polarization in its voting that could prove detrimental to outnumbered Black voters.

The District 2 configuration means white voters there will continue to have veto power over the desires of Black voters, despite the west side of Baltimore County being majority Black, Fugett said. That speaks volumes to me, and I hope that speaks volumes to all of my neighbors.

But the council said in a news release that the new District 2 enhances the already-existing coalition and cross-over voting to enable Black citizens a meaningful opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

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Griggsby was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in June, making her the first woman of color to serve as a federal judge in the state.
According to our estimates, over 4,000 people arrived in Armenia last month, Denis Avtonomov, Ukraine's Charge d'Affaires in Armenia said at a meeting with journalists on Thursday.

He explained that most of them are citizens of Ukraine of Armenian nationality.

According to him, they solve their problems independently. "The community works with other citizens and we try to help. There are possibilities of settling these citizens on a free basis. We receive such offers from residents of Yerevan and other regions," Avtonomov added.

The diplomat noted that issues of employment are more difficult to solve, since it's almost impossible to find a job in Armenia without knowledge of the Armenian language.

"As for training, our Ministry of Education offers online training," he concluded.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan held a phone conversation with Georgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the continuous development of Armenian-Georgian relations, and strengthening of political dialogue through reciprocal visits of high-level officials.

During the phone conversation, Foreign Minister of Armenia briefed his counterpart on Azerbaijans actions towards exerting psychological pressure against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, hindering normal operation of vital infrastructures during freezing weather conditions, as a result of which Artsakh is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.

Ararat Mirzoyan touched upon the stance of the Armenian side regarding negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the peace agreement, in that context emphasizing the mediating role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

Views were also exchanged on issues regarding regional and international security, the statement reads.
Germany needs an early warning system amid signs of an imminent deterioration in gas imports, utility association BDEW said, a day after Russia announced it would seek ruble payments for gas sales to unfriendly countries, Reuters reported.

There are concrete and serious signs that the gas supply situation is about to deteriorate, BDEW said, citing Russia's demand.

BDEW said the national energy regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, needs to set criteria under which industries and sectors will continue to receive supplies while residential consumers are protected under existing regulations.

Half of Germany's 41.5 million households are heated by natural gas, and industry accounts for a third of the 100 billion cubic meters of national demand in 2021. The country is the largest consumer of Russian gas.

BDEW represents 1900 gas, electricity and water operators.

Across Europe, the energy sector is already experiencing supply issues and soaring gas and electricity prices.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday that Moscow's demand for payment in rubles was a "violation" of supply contracts. He also said he would discuss the response with European partners.

The Russian gas exporter Gazprom has more than 40 long-term gas agreements with European counterparties.

Danish energy giant Orsted, which has a long-term take-or-pay deal with Gazprom, said it was not clear what the likely impact would be. A number of utilities have expressed similar views, saying they are reviewing their contracts and consulting.
Germany's governing coalition has unveiled measures to help households struggling with skyrocketing electricity prices, including a three-month subsidy for petrol and diesel, Reuters reports.

A deal should ease tensions over how to respond to rising energy prices.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner told reporters that the exact size of the package, which also includes tax breaks, was difficult to determine as some details had yet to be clarified.

However, it should be similar in size to the first tax relief package, worth about 13 billion euros, agreed last month, he said.

The agreement provides for a one-time surcharge on the price of electricity in the amount of 300 euros for income tax payers as a surcharge on their wages.

Families will receive a lump sum of 100 per child, which will be doubled for low-income families, and the fuel tax will be reduced to the European minimum rate for three months.

As a result, the price of a liter of gasoline will be reduced by 30 cents and diesel fuel by 14 cents within three months, Lindner said.

The cost of these measures will be covered by this year's supplementary budget, which will be made public next month, which will also include funding for humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees and modernization of the German military.
Russia's war against Ukraine has disrupted peace in Europe and is causing great human suffering and destruction, the joint statement by NATO leaders at the end of the summit in Brussels said.

"We call on President Putin to immediately stop this war and withdraw military forces from Ukraine, and call on Belarus to end its complicity, in line with the Aggression Against Ukraine Resolution adopted at the UN General Assembly of 2 March 2022. Russia should comply with the 16 March ruling by the UN International Court of Justice and immediately suspend military operations. Russias attack on Ukraine threatens global security. Its assault on international norms makes the world less safe. President Putins escalatory rhetoric is irresponsible and destabilizing.

Russia needs to show it is serious about negotiations by immediately implementing a ceasefire. We call on Russia to engage constructively in credible negotiations with Ukraine to achieve concrete results, starting with a sustainable ceasefire and moving towards a complete withdrawal of its troops from Ukrainian territory. Russias continuing aggression while discussions are taking place is deplorable. We support Ukraines efforts to achieve peace, and those undertaken diplomatically by Allies to weigh in on Russia to end the war and relieve human suffering.

We reaffirm our unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders extending to its territorial waters.

Ukraine has a fundamental right to self-defence under the United Nations Charter. Since 2014, we have provided extensive support to Ukraines ability to exercise that right. We have trained Ukraines armed forces, strengthening their military capabilities and capacities and enhancing their resilience.

NATO Allies have stepped up their support and will continue to provide further political and practical support to Ukraine as it continues to defend itself.

NATO Allies will also continue to provide assistance in such areas as cybersecurity and protection against threats of a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear nature.

NATO Allies also provide extensive humanitarian support and are hosting millions of refugees. Foreign Ministers will discuss further our support to Ukraine when they meet in April," the statement reads.
The state of Maryland plans to send millions to beef up a Baltimore Police Department warrant task force, pay for additional federal prosecutors to focus on gun crime in the city and send state troopers to take over traffic patrols on Interstate 83, Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Thursday.

The governor called violent crime in Baltimore the No. 1 concern of Marylanders and said the Maryland State Police will also do more to help other Baltimore Police units, freeing city officers to focus on higher-priority violent crime.

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Hogan said he plans to request the funds from the General Assembly as part of a supplemental budget request.

Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison requested much of the state assistance, including the $6.5 million over the next two years that Hogan announced to expand BPDs Warrant Apprehension Task Force.

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Governor Larry Hogan holds a news conference to discuss his administrations crime fighting efforts, including more funding for law enforcement agencies and crime victim supports. March 24, 2022 (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

In a February letter to Hogan asking for the funds to pay overtime to officers assigned to the unit, Scott said the task force cleared 1,766 warrants, including 986 felony warrants, in 2021 and handles the highest priority and most manpower-intensive warrants.

Additional manpower will help us execute even more of these mission critical warrants, Scott wrote.

Scott thanked the governor Thursday for the money toward improved state and local law enforcement coordination and for victim services.

We both understand just how critically important it is to get our most violent offenders off the streets of Baltimore, the mayor said in a statement. We discussed this coordination when Commissioner Harrison and I met with the Governor last month. I will continue to work with any partners who can bring additional resources to sustainably, urgently, and holistically address violent crime to make Baltimore a safer place for all of our residents.

[ Sloppy police work: Jury acquits man accused of killing ex-Maryland football player ]

Several law enforcement union leaders had complained about the lack of attention and resources for warrant service after the death of James Blue, the husband of a Baltimore Police officer. Blue was gunned down outside a home in Northeast Baltimore on Jan. 25.

Police later charged 18-year-old Sahiou Kargbo, a Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School student, who was wanted on an open warrant for a robbery in Parkville. Baltimore Police and Baltimore County Police waited several days to serve the warrant due to scheduling issues, during which Blue was killed.

State troopers will begin writing tickets on Interstate 83 on July 1, according to Lt. Col. Roland Butler, the chief of operations for the state police. Hogan said that other stepped-up cooperation  including visibility patrols of the city by troopers, help with tracking stolen vehicles and intelligence sharing  has already begun.

The governor also said plans are well underway for future joint state-local operations to arrest people with outstanding warrants in the city.

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Probation and parole agents are now embedded with the Baltimore Police Department, Hogan said. City officials and state lawmakers from Baltimore have called for greater cooperation between state probation agents and city police, given that a substantial proportion of those involved in shootings are on probation or parole.

[ Police commissioner calls violence disheartening as families grieve: You cant accept it ]

The Republican governor, however, mixed his announcement of new aid from the state with sharp criticism of the citys Democratic leaders and Democratic state lawmakers for not taking a harsher, lock-them-up approach to violent crime.

Hogan again pushed for longer prison sentences for crimes involving firearms, a proposal thats met with tepid interest by state lawmakers, whove argued Hogans approach leans heavily on failed tough-on-crime policies that for decades drove up prison populations but didnt improve public safety. Leaders of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly said theyre more interested in taking holistic approaches to crime that include better funding for social services.

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The reality is that, no matter what actions we take at the state level, Baltimore City leaders will never get control of the out-of-control violence if they dont arrest more, prosecute more and give tougher sentences to the most violent criminals to hold them accountable and get them off the streets, Hogan said.

The governor said $3.5 million in funding for the U.S. attorneys office will pay for 10 additional federal prosecutors in Baltimore and four more in Greenbelt, as well as additional investigators, data analysts and support staff.

The new positions under Marylands U.S. attorney, Erek Barron, will be dedicated exclusively to charging Baltimore City repeat violent offenders with federal crimes, Hogan said.

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This unprecedented commitment of funds is a testament to the hardworking professionals of the U.S. Attorneys Office and demonstrate that our partnership with the State of Maryland is stronger than ever in the fight against violent crime, Barron said in a statement.

The governor framed the state funding for federal prosecutors as partly in response to Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosbys handling of criminal cases in the city, which Hogan has frequently denounced.

Mosby has repeatedly defended her offices record of prosecuting violent crimes and dismissed Hogans attacks as politically motivated.

Baltimore Sun reporters Jessica Anderson, Emily Opilo and Lee O. Sanderlin contributed to this article.
NEWS.am digest: Large scale protests continue in Yerevan, people forcibly arrested

US Embassy in Havana resumes issuing visas to Cubans

Bloomberg: UK and Japan will help Asian countries reduce dependence on Russian oil

Dollar, euro gain considerable value in Armenia

FLYONE ARMENIA cancels Yerevan flights to, from Lyon, Paris until June 10

Annual inflation in Turkey reaches 69.97% in April

Armenia population as of January 1 announced

Poland builds 50 kilometers of fence on border with Belarus

Azerbaijan promises Europe gas in the hope of loyalty to Baku's crimes

Australia allocates $1.4 billion to modernize its Navy

Peskov says events unrolling in Armenia are countrys internal affair

Grigoryan: Discussions on setting up Armenia-Azerbaijan commission may be completed in near future

Red Cross: No Azerbaijani detainees in Armenia

Armenia official: Peace agreement with Azerbaijan also means solution to Karabakh issue

Armen Grigoryan: There is need to get answers to questions in order to organize Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting

Security Council chief: Baku's statements on Armenia territories belonging to Azerbaijan do not contribute to peace

Armenia official comments on Azerbaijan president's words about 'Zangezur corridor'

Armen Grigoryan: Armenia and Azerbaijan could exchange enclaves

FT: Erdogan used mediation between Russia and Ukraine

Person dies after being hospitalized from one of tents at France Square in Yerevan

Armenia to get 22.6M loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Armenia ruling force MP: Oppositions goal is not saving Karabakh but changing of power

President says Artsakh continues to maintain its vision for future, toward independence

Oppositions uncrowded marches show lack of public support, says Armenia ruling force lawmaker

Trade in Armenia increased by about $80 million, PM says

Scuffle breaks out during civil disobedience march in Yerevan, police attempt to apprehend opposition MP

Pashinyan to Bennett: I am hopeful that Armenian-Israeli relations will flourish in near future

Armenia ruling power legislator: This opposition has always run away from truth

Civil disobedience motorcade being held in Yerevan

EU to ban Russians from buying European real estate

US defense industry facing problems due to supply of weapons to Ukraine

Armenia FM holds discussion at Atlantic Council, speaks about process of normalization of relations with Turkey

Newspaper: Armenia opposition MPs to lose their parliamentary mandates?

Newspaper: Artsakh President says we would not have had so many casualties if war had started half year later

Civil disobedience march kicks off in downtown Yerevan

Civil disobedience actions resume in Yerevan

Blinken tests positive for Covid

Denmark, Finland support European Commission proposal on Russian oil sanctions

Bulgaria to seek exemption from EU proposed Russian oil embargo

Biden says he is ready for additional sanctions against Russia

Switzerland braces for serious power shortage

Uruguay freezes ambassador appointment to Ankara after Cavusoglu's gesture

Czech Republic to seek exemption from proposed EU embargo on Russian oil imports

Charles Michel on the likelihood of Moldova's EU membership

Resistance Movement actions to resume tomorrow early morning

Elon Musk is invited to UK Parliament for buying Twitter

Disobedience march reaches France Square, rally starts

US crude oil shipments to Europe hit highest level in April

NEWS.am digest: Large-scale protests being held in Armenia to demand PMs resignation

Armenia Defense Minister meets with Georgian PM

UK bans imposes sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations in Russia

EU plan to completely ban Russian crude oil threatens Hungary's energy security

EU interested in expanding energy cooperation with Azerbaijan

Germany: Gradual EU ban on Russian oil imports could lead to 'supply disruptions'

Opposition demonstration reaches government residences

Aliyev insists so-called Zangezur corridor 'is already a reality'

Slovakia seeks exemption from EU oil embargo for three years

Defense Ministers of Armenia and Georgia sign cooperation program for 2022

Romanian President approves entry of Stryker Brigade and US fighter squadron into country

Dollar goes up, euro also rises in Armenia

EU studying possibility of providing military assistance to Moldova

Public demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation

Opposition supporters move toward Armenian parliament building

EU envoys can not agree on Russian oil

Armenia Security Council chief briefs Georgia PM on Karabakh conflict settlement process

Armenia deputy police chief says law enforcement has right detain MPs

Large-scale opposition rally starts in central Yerevan

Many teenagers in New Zealand are illiterate

AFP: EU proposes to impose sanctions on Patriarch Kirill

Arestovich says Israel could supply Ukraine with weapons Azerbaijan used in Karabakh war

Parliament speaker threatens Armenian opposition, clergy

Armenia opposition MP: Ex-President Serzh Sargsyan will not hold office in new government

Beijing closes over 60 subway stations due to COVID-19 outbreak

Bayramov, Roquefeuil discuss Azerbaijan-Armenia relations normalization process

Armenia FM meets with US National Democratic Institute president

Armenia ruling force MP: Opposition will not achieve its goal

Armenia 2nd president Robert Kocharyans son blocking road with citizens in Yerevan

Oklahoma bans almost all abortions

Number of children in Japan falls to record low

Karabakh President meets with of Free Homeland-UCA parliamentary faction members

Armenian judge waves Artsakh flag at Ironman Triathlon (PHOTOS)

There is still lot to do in 'October 27' case, says Armenia Prosecutor General

Ambassador Wiktorin to finance minister: EU ready to continue providing assistance to Armenia government

Armenia Prosecutor General admits there are difficulties in investigation of 'March 1' criminal case

Copper price is stable

3 COVID-19 new cases confirmed in Armenia

American Armenian youth hold protest rally outside Armenia embassy in Washington

Japan protests against North Korean missile

Gold is getting cheaper

U.S.-Armenia Strategic Dialogue issues joint statement

Newspaper: Armenia Patrol Guard Service head to be summoned to Investigative Committee to give explanation

Armenia parliament regular sittings continue

Newspaper: Armenia opposition members falling into National Security Service trap by opening links

Civil disobedience protests resume in Yerevan

Earthquake shakes Armenia-Georgia border zone

Microsoft urges to abandon Internet Explorer

Mark Milley: Potential for significant international conflict between great powers is increasing

EU: Poland fines in rule of law dispute now top $170 million

Putin and Lukashenko discuss ongoing situation

Greece and Bulgaria say new LNG terminal will help reduce dependence on Russia
The United States is imposing new sanctions against Russia in close cooperation and partnership with the EU and G7, the White House said.

"Our sanctions on Russia are unprecedented  in no other circumstance have we moved so swiftly and in such a coordinated fashion to impose devastating costs on any other country," the statement said.

Among the new restrictions:

Full blocking sanctions on more than 400 individuals and entities, including the Duma and its members, additional Russian elites, and Russian defense companies that fuel Putins war machine. This includes:

328 Duma members and sanctioning the Duma as an entity.

Herman Gref, the head of Russias largest financial institution Sberbank and a Putin advisor since the 1990s.

Russian elite Gennady Timchenko, his companies and his family members.

17 board members of Russian financial institution Sovcombank.

48 Large Russian defense state-owned enterprises that are part of Russias defense-industrial base and produce weapons that have been used in Russias assault against Ukraines people, infrastructure, and territory, including Russian Helicopters, Tactical Missiles Corporation, High Precision Systems, NPK Tekhmash OAO, Kronshtadt. We are targeting, and will continue to target, the suppliers of Russias war effort and, in turn, their supply chain.

Establishment of an initiative focused on sanctions evasions. G7 leaders and the European Union today announced an initiative to share information about and coordinate responses related to evasive measures intended to undercut the effectiveness and impact of our joint sanctions actions. Together, we will not allow sanctions evasion or backfilling. As part of this effort, we will also engage other governments on adopting sanctions similar to those already imposed by the G7 and other partners.

Continuing to blunt the Central Banks ability to deploy international reserves, including gold, to prop up the Russian economy and fund Putins brutal war. G7 leaders and the European Union will continue to work jointly to blunt Russias ability to deploy its international reserves to prop up Russias economy and fund Putins war, including by making clear that any transaction involving gold related to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is covered by existing sanctions, the statement reads.
Moscow urges in contacts with both sides to solve the problem with gas supplies to Artsakh as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"The relevant work is being carried out through the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the Russian Energy Ministry and Gazprom. We proceed from the fact that we cannot worsen the already difficult humanitarian situation and ordinary people must not suffer," she said.

Commenting on the violation of the line of contact in the direction of village Parukh of Askeran by the Azerbaijani forces, Zakharova reiterated that neither side should worsen the situation.

Speaking of the implementation of trilateral statements, Zakharova noted that "the focus is on several priority directions - within the trilateral working group, co-chaired by the vice-premiers of the three countries, there is an agreement, perhaps not as quickly as we would like, on packages of development of transport routes with an emphasis on rail and road links." "Interdepartmental contacts continue in terms of launching the process of delimitation and subsequent demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border with the consultative assistance of Russia," she said.

Artsakh Information Center reported that Azerbaijani forces violated the line of contact.

"As of 4:00 pm on March 24, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the line of contact in the direction of the village of Parukh in the Askeran province. Representatives of the Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in the Republic of Artsakh are trying to stop the further advance of the enemy through negotiations and return them to their initial positions. For security reasons women and children of the Khramort community of Askeran are evacuated at the moment," the report says.

Problems with gas supply to Artsakh began on March 8. There was a breakdown at the Azerbaijani-controlled section of the gas pipeline from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The extent of the Azerbaijani involvement in the breakdown has not yet been clarified.

Under various pretexts, the Azerbaijani side did not allow Armenian specialists to fix the pipeline. Azerbaijan undertook to repair the pipeline after long negotiations. Finally, the gas supply was resumed on March 19, but it did not last long: in the evening of March 21, the gas supply was stopped through the direct intervention of Azerbaijan.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 24.03.22:

For three days now, the citizens of the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] have been deprived of natural gas supply; this happened as a result of the interference of Azerbaijan.

On March 7, the natural gas pipeline was blown up in an area under Azerbaijani control. Azerbaijan did not allow under various pretexts the gas pipeline to be repaired, and in the end, it repaired it.

However, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan noted that a valve was installed on the gas pipeline, and on March 1811 days later after restoring the gas supply to Artsakh for 4 dayson March 21, Azerbaijan simply closed the pipeline valve without explosions, thus proving that it was the one behind the March 7 explosion.

Both natural gas outages occurred in exceptional cold winter weather conditions. And in these conditions, Artsakh was deliberately deprived of the natural gas supplies that are vital for heating apartments, kindergartens, schools, and hospitals.

This is enough to realize that as a result of Azerbaijan's actions, Artsakh is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, the PM added.

Artsakh Security Council secretary has already been authorized to work with Russia peacekeepers and negotiate with Azerbaijan over the gas restoring issue.

The international community, including the EU and Freedom House, has also condemned the situation created.

During the governments meeting, the PM also said that the situation in the world and in the region is tense, thus the PM believes that the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan should start as soon as possible.

Pashinyan said they have proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the borderconsidering the de jure approved boundary of Armenia and Azerbaijan of the Soviet times as the compass for withdrawal.

The PM, however, stressed that in addition to the full withdrawal, Armenia has also made proposals for the local withdrawal of troops, and is waiting for Azerbaijan's response here as well.

Speaking about a 5-point proposal of Baku for normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the PM said that Armenia had already appealed to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and asked to assist in the organization of peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The PM also noted that there is nothing unacceptable in the proposals conveyed by Azerbaijan on March 10, except that these proposals dont address all the issues on the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda.

Earlier on Wednesday, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan also noted that there is nothing unacceptable for Armenia in the proposals voiced by Azerbaijan.

The FM once again said that Armenia and Turkey should establish diplomatic relations and open borders.

According to the minister, the decision to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum turned out to be correct.

However, the FM noted that there are no specific agreements yet.

"But the parties confirmed that they continue the process without any preconditions," the FM said.

The Artsakh Information Center reports a violation of the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani forces.

According to the situation as of Thursday noon, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the line of contact in the direction of the village of Parukh, Askeran region.

Parukh village head Vardan Mikayelyan told NEWS.am that the Azerbaijanis entered the village from different directions without firing. There were no Armenian servicemen in the village.

Representatives of the Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in Artsakh are trying through talks to stop the further advance of the enemy and return it to its original positions.

Women and children of the Hramort community of the Askeran region have been evacuated at the moment.

The population is urged to remain calm, the situation is currently stable in all other sections of the contact line.

Exports from Armenia to Russia decreased by almost 30 percent in March.

The minister of economy, Vahan Kerobyan,, however, noted there is growth in the other sectors, and the overall situation with exports is also positiveas this growth was 27-28 percent in February.

"We are working with exporters so that they quickly renew contracts in the conditions of new prices," the minister said.

He assured that exports from Armenia to Russia will increase sharply if there will be a lack of goods in the Russian market.

The situation on the Russian-Georgian border checkpoint Lars is currently unstable.

The checkpoint has been closed for up to 30 days.

Since the beginning of March, the Lars checkpoint is regularly closed for all types of cars due to weather conditions

Some Armenian drivers have also been stuck there for a while.

It is snowing in Lars at the moment, after which the road can be opened for cars in the evening, first for cars, then for trucks.

The customs attache attached to the Armenian Embassy in Russia Aram Tananyan told NEWS.am.

According to him, yesterday, after the opening of the road, about 200 trucks and about 300 cars were able to move from Russia.

"At the moment, there are more than 3,500 trucks on the accumulated road: the traffic jam reaches a length of 120 km," said Tananyan.

According to Tananyan, the snow removal works are carried out by the Georgian side.

Reports over the recent week floated that the United States informally raised with Turkey the possibility of transferring the S-400s to Ukraine as it tries to fend off the Russian special operation that began on Feb. 24.

However, Turkey has rejected the idea of sending its Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Ukraine to help it fight the invading Russian forces.

Though quite unrealistic today, this idea presents an opportunity to discuss the problems Turkey has experienced lately with the West, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun told the Wall Street Journal.

The top official stressed informal proposals would not repair relations, urging the West and the U.S. to deliver F-35 fighter jets and Patriot batteries to Ankara without preconditions.

Meanwhile, the UK plans to transfer 6,000 additional units of weapons to Ukraine, including anti-tank missiles, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

In addition to arms supplies, London intends to allocate 25 million pounds sterling (about 33 million dollars) to pay the salaries of the Ukrainian military

NATO fears that China may support Russia in the conflict with Ukraine, Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that alliance members will discuss Beijing's role in the Ukraine war in Brussels.

"China has provided Russia with political support, including by spreading blatant lies and misinformation," Stoltenberg said ahead of an urgent NATO summit on Thursday.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in turn, noted that Washington is concerned that China could help Russia "backfill" and access these products by violating trade restrictions.

NATO is expected to commit to major increases in troop numbers along its eastern flank, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg telling CNBC ahead of the summit that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a big mistake.

Russia continues to be hit with an array of sanctions that effectively cut off Moscows major financial institutions from Western markets.

The countrys large banks are deeply integrated into the global financial system and it is one of the worlds biggest energy producers, meaning sanctions against Russia could disrupt economies around the world.

However, Russian president Vladimur Putin has decided to respond to the Wests unprecedented sanctions leveled on Moscow in response to the attack on Ukraine.

Now Russia will force Europe to start paying for gas supplies in rubles, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday in TV remarks.

I have decided to implement a set of measures to transfer payments for our gas supplies to unfriendly countries into Russian rubles, Putin said, ordering the changes to be implemented within a week.

Meanwhile, Russia deems all countries that have hit it with sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine as unfriendly.

Europe imports around 40% of its natural gas from Russia, with contracts typically priced in euros. Russias gas exports to unfriendly countries came in at around $50 billion in 2021, according to an estimate by Loko Invest.
Attorneys for a group of Republican delegates pressed a judge Wednesday to reject a Maryland General Assembly-approved map of state legislative districts that they say would illegally favor Democrats in elections.

The plaintiffs, including Republican voters and two groups of GOP delegates, told Alan M. Wilner, a retired judge appointed to the case, during a Maryland Court of Appeals hearing that the map is loaded with irregularly shaped districts that violate a section of the state constitution calling for districts to be compact and to respect natural geographic boundaries.

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At the end of the case we are going to ask that the court declare the districts weve challenged unconstitutional, said Strider Dickson, the attorney for Republican state Dels. Mark Fisher of Calvert County, Nic Kipke of Anne Arundel County and Kathy Szeliga, who represents parts of Harford and Baltimore counties.

Other challenges, including another from state lawmakers, are being heard simultaneously.

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The hearing may last until the end of the week. Wilner said he then will assess all of the evidence before filing a report on the case with the appeals court, which will then rule.

If the map of 141 state delegate districts and 47 senatorial districts is scrapped, the court could order the General Assembly to make a new one. Some plaintiffs have suggested the court substitute in a map offered by a commission created by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and composed of Republican, Democrat and independent voters.

Democrats rejected that Hogan-backed map and, on Jan. 27, the General Assembly adopted its own map.

A speedy resolution is critical because the State Board of Elections needs the final district boundaries to prepare ballots and secure polling places. On March 15, the Court of Appeals pushed back the primary election date from June 28 to July 19 because the redistricting challenge remained unresolved.

Also pending is a similar challenge brought by Republicans against the General Assemblys map of Marylands eight congressional districts. That case is in its final stages in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, but its uncertain when a decision will be rendered.

Both cases have included testimony from expert witnesses on both sides testifying about technical issues such as methods for assessing a districts shape.

Dickson, the attorney, wrote in a recent court filing that one legislative district  in the College Park area  is shaped like a boomerang, while another  stretching from south central Howard County into Anne Arundel County  has a shape that defies description.

Democratic leaders maintained during the General Assemblys debate that the new map is fair and in compliance with requirements in the states constitution.

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Maryland Policy & Politics Weekdays Keep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials. >

During Wednesdays hearing, Dickson said the plaintiffs have been denied evidence by the state that could have helped the Republicans case.

We have not been given access to the reasons why the districts were drawn the way they were drawn, the attorney told the judge. Us not having access to certain of the information about why districts were drawn hurts very badly a number of our claims.

Dickson was referring to recent requests to compel evidence from the state on who was responsible for the actual drawing or construction of legislative districts, and what criteria was used.

The state attorney generals office, which is defending the map, has asserted legislative privilege, which protects some information about legislative acts from being used in court.

Legislative privilege is dictated by the separation of powers in the constitution, assistant attorney general Andrea Trento said at the hearing.

On Feb. 10, Wilner denied the plaintiffs request for this information, saying legislators and their staffs cannot be compelled to explain their legislative conduct or events that occurred in a legislative session, other than before the legislative body.

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Nevertheless, Dickson maintained at the hearing that despite not having that evidence, we still have evidence of clear [state constitutional] violations.
Baker, Hensley to receive OSU American Indian Alumni honor

Media Contact: Chase Carter | OSU Alumni Association | 405-744-2066 | chase.carter@okstate.edu

The Oklahoma State University American Indian Alumni Society is honoring Bob Baker and Jacque Secondine Hensley with its Distinguished Alumni Award.

A public reception will be held Sunday, April 10, from 3-4:30 p.m. at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center. Tickets are $15 per person and may be purchased online at ORANGECONNECTION.org/aiasdar.

Baker is a member of the Cherokee Nation and graduated from OSU in 1983 with a degree in psychology. He then earned a master's degree in public health and administration at the University of Oklahoma. Baker has more than 30 years of experience as a health care professional and administrator. Today, he is the chairman and CEO of 24 Our Care, a Native American-owned health care business based in Tulsa that provides remote services to chronically ill patients throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Baker is the current president of the OSU American Indian Alumni Society and is also a board member of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Bob Baker (left) and Jacque Secondine Hensley were honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the OSU American Indian Alumni Society.

Hensley, a member of the Kaw and Cherokee nations, earned a bachelors degree in education from OSU and then earned a masters degree in counseling psychology from the University of Tulsa. She currently serves as the director of American Indians in Medicine and Science where she cultivates and supports partners with Oklahoma's federally recognized tribes to promote STEM and health care initiatives for their citizens. Prior to her current employment, Hensley was the first Native American liaison for an Oklahoma governor, appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin in July 2012. Most recently, in May 2016, Hensley was elected as the chairwoman of Kaw Nation and served in that role until May 2018.

Net proceeds from the event will go to the OSU American Indian Alumni Society Endowed Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for Native American students attending OSU. The fund was established in 2021, and the first scholarship recipient will be honored at this event.

The OSU Alumni Association serves more than 250,000 alumni, students and friends with programs for Cowboys of all ages. Through the Alumni Association, Cowboys get involved with the OSU family, stay informed of alumni and campus news, give back to support university initiatives and show their pride in Americas brightest orange.
Med student Paul Delgado recognized with LMSA National Scholarship

Media Contact: Sara Plummer | Communications Coordinator | 918-561-1282 | sara.plummer@okstate.edu

By the time Paul Delgado was a teenager she knew she wanted to do something for people and communities that were most in need of help.

I didnt really know why medicine at first, but it somehow felt like a calling, to the point that I moved countries at 13 years old without my immediate family, said Delgado, who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Mexico City before moving back to Oklahoma as a young teen.

Later during my undergraduate training, I realized the impact health disparities have on racial and ethnic minority populations in our state. Throughout the years, I have worked with and have committed to serve communities that are disproportionately impacted by those inequalities, she said.

When it came to deciding on a medical school to attend, Delgado said she knew a main focus of OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine was helping underserved communities in Oklahoma.

I also knew that training at OSU-COM would allow me to treat the entire person and focus on preventative care, which is key when it comes to chronic illness in underserved communities, she said. I was looking for a medical school where I could thrive and not just survive. OSU-COM has really been a home away from home.

I was looking for a medical school where I could thrive and not just survive. OSU-COM has really been a home away from home. - Paul Delgado, OSU-COM medical student

As a first-year medical student, Delgado is one of the founding members of the Latino Medical Student Association chapter at OSU-COM, the first LMSA chapter in the state.

We needed a community on campus where students from Hispanic and Latinx backgrounds could come together and have a familia. Where we could bond over food, language and cultural similarities, she said. While there were organizations on campus that worked on helping the Tulsa community, there was not a specific organization focused on serving the growing Hispanic community of Tulsa.

That commitment to service and support of underserved and underrepresented communities is the major reason Delgado was selected as one of the recipients of the 2022 LMSA National Scholarship, something that was a complete surprise to her.

There are so many LMSA members across the country dedicated to helping Latinx and other underserved communities that I didnt know if my application was strong enough, she said. What I did know was I am passionate about building supportive networks for students, I am committed to addressing the health disparity gap that disproportionately affects communities of color, and I understand the impact organizations like LMSA have on future generations interested in medicine.

Delgado is the first person in her family to go into medicine, and while they dont always understand what shes doing at school, they are her biggest supporters.

Everyone in my family has always encouraged me to go after my dreams, and not just my mother and brother, but every single one of my aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone, she said.

Delgado said one of those dreams is the establishment of the first LMSA chapter in Oklahoma and the national recognition shes received will open new opportunities for Hispanic and Latinx students in the state. But shes not stopping there.

She recently attended the LMSA Southwest Region conference and met other medical students with similar passions and interests leading Delgado to join the LMSA Southwest Regional Board where she will serve as the 2022-23 Regional Program Chair.

Through this position I hope to increase leadership representation at the regional level and further help increase participation from our local chapter in the Southwest Region.
Support Ukraine for peace, president tells world

Volodomyr Zelenskiy appealed for people to show Ukrainian symbols to support the country. File photo: AP

Ukraine's leader called for solidarity on Thursday, a month after Russia's military operation began, warning he would see who sells out at summits in Europe where bolstering sanctions and Nato are planned but restrictions on energy could prove divisive.



US President Joe Biden has arrived in Brussels for meetings of the alliance, G7 and EU over a conflict that began on February 24 and has caused more than 3.6 million refugees to flee the country.



Biden's visit could also shine light on a dispute with European allies, some of whom are heavily reliant on Russian oil and gas, over whether to impose further energy sanctions.



President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Moscow planned to switch gas sales made to "unfriendly" countries to roubles.



As the humanitarian toll from the conflict continues to rise, driving a quarter of Ukraine's population of 44 million from their homes, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on people around the world to take to the streets and demand the war end.



"Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life," he said in a video address.



The United States planned to announce more sanctions on Russian political figures and oligarchs on Thursday, and officials would have more to say on Friday about European energy issues, State Department spokesman Ned Sullivan said.



Ahead of his meeting with Biden, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would boost its forces in Eastern Europe by deploying four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia.



Zelenskiy said on Thursday he expected "serious steps" from Western allies.



He repeated his call for a no-fly zone and complained that the West had not provided Ukraine with planes, modern anti-missile systems, tanks or anti-ship weapons.



"At these three summits we will see who is our friend, who is our partner and who sold us out and betrayed us," he said in a video address released early on Thursday. (Reuters)
China hopes Afghanistan can fend off external forces

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (left) meets with Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kabul. Photo: AFP

China hopes Afghanistan will fulfill its commitment to not allowing any external forces to use its territory to oppose neighbours or harm the security of other nations, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday.



In a statement published by the Foreign Ministry, Wang said he welcomed Afghanistans active participation in the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative and that Beijing would push to extend the China-Pakistan economic corridor into Afghanistan.



Wang made the comments in a meeting with Afghanistan's deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, the statement said. His visit was the highest-level visit by a Chinese official since the Taliban took power in the country in August.



Wang also met with acting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to discuss political and economic ties, including starting work in the mining sector and a Belt and Road role for Afghanistan, according to a statement from an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman.



China is among just a handful of countries, including Pakistan and Qatar, that has sent a minister to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over.



The visit came after widespread global condemnation of the Taliban administration a day earlier, when it unexpectedly ordered girls home from high school, an abrupt U-turn on policy after it had said earlier in the week schools would be open to all students.



Wang later on Thursday arrived in India for talks with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Their meeting will be the highest-level visit by a Chinese official to the country since border clashes soured relations two years ago. (Reuters)
North Korea hails launch of 'new type' of ICBM

Japanese TV shows the news of a missile launched from North Korea. Photo: AFP

North Korea says it test fired its "new type" of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-17 during Thursday's launch to boost its nuclear deterrent against "US imperialism," state media reported on Friday.



It was the first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed North Korea since 2017. Flight data indicated the missile flew higher and longer than any of North Korea's previous tests before crashing into the sea west of Japan.



Leader Kim Jong Un directly guided the test, news agency KCNA reported.



"The emergence of the new strategic weapon of the DPRK would make the whole world clearly aware of the power of our strategic armed forces once again," Kim said, according to KCNA, using the initials of North Korea's official name.



The launch drew condemnation from the leaders of the United States, Japan, and South Korea.



Photos released by state media showed a massive missile, painted black with a white nosecone, rising on a column of flame from a launch vehicle. (Reuters)
A follow-on offering is the issuance of additional shares made by a company after an initial public offering (IPO).

The upcoming FPO is going to be only a fresh issuance of equity shares to public investors without any offer for sale component, a statement said on Wednesday.

The company informed the exchanges that the price band for its FPO has been set at Rs 615 per equity share (at the lower end of the price-band) to Rs 650 per equity share (at the higher end of the price-band).

On Wednesday, it informed the bourses that 19,843,153 equity shares have been allocated to anchor investors at the upper-end of the price-band against the applications from various anchor investors.

Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, The Sultanate of Oman - Ministry of Defence Pension Fund, Yas Takaful PJSC (an Abu Dhabi-based insurance company), MK Cohesion, UPS Group and Alchemy were among the foreign investors that received allocation under the anchor investor portion of the FPO, the statement said.

Currently, Patanjali Group owns about 98.9 per cent stake in Ruchi Soya, while public shareholders own about 1.1 per cent stake.

Post the FPO, Patanjali Group's holding in Ruchi Soya will come down to about 81 per cent, and the public shareholders would hold about 19 per cent.

The entire proceeds from the follow-on issue will be used for furthering the company's business by repayment of certain outstanding loans, meeting its incremental working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes, the company had said recently while announcing the FPO.

Ruchi Soya's Ruchi Gold brand is the market leader in branded palm oil and also the pioneer of soya foods in India under the brand name Nutrela.

--IANS ad/arm

( 325 Words)

2022-03-23-23:08:01 (IANS)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI/SRV): The revolutionary UNO Green Smart Business Card is here to get access to all your information with just one tap. Smart cards offer more security and confidentiality than any other financial or transaction card on the market. With the smart card, users can store personal information like bank records, student identity to access exclusive libraries, company identity cards to gain access through computerized security checkpoints, storing phone contacts, including your URLs, website addresses, social media accounts, fax number, phone number, and more in the card and many other vast benefits that guarantee the security of personal data. The UNO Green Smart Business Card is your discovery to approach the digital era in a better way. The smart card can be used for personal and digital business motives. It is eco-friendly which makes it distinctive and solitary from any other ordinary card in the market. The organization has collaborated with the Sankalp Taru foundation. Expressed as #SaveMotherEarth, the foundation plants a seedling on behalf, after every 3 cards get sold. The objective is to save trees by taking small initiatives such as not using traditional paper business cards. Therefore, shifting to the UNO Green Smart Business Card which is not merely eco friendly but saves tons of rupees that people spends on printing paper cards is the one step revolution in the business market. One of the most remarkable advantages of UNO Green Smart Business Cards is that it is a convenient way to store as much information as you want in one place. UNO Green Smart Business Card come in handy which makes them easy to carry around. Sagar Punwani, the Founder of Uno Green Smart Business Card, states "There's been a massive push to make all things digital over the past two years. Everything from networking conferences to baby showers, work meetings or say even coffee catch ups amongst friends - now has a virtual option! Smart Business Cards gained traction in 2021 - That's the year we launched our product and I can only see us taking 2022 by storm! The days of swapping paper for another are over. They're harmful to the environment and outdated. Smart Business Cards are emerging as the tech-forward favorite for individuals and businesses alike." There are myriad reasons which mark UNO Green Smart Business Card as the best purchase of all. The contactless sharing of information is crucial in these pandemic times, the smart card gives digital access so there's no haphazard. The UNO Green Smart Business Card is designed with details and colours, can also be customized by you. It is fashion with convenience which gives a sense of fashion statement. Inexpensive in nature, which makes it very affordable, a budget-friendly way to promote your business. Easy to distribute and suitable for all industries irrespective of the profiles. The prime base of UNO Green Smart Business Card would be that it's environmentally friendly. Most of the time if there's a change in information, they mostly discard all the paper cards which mostly affects the environment, the smart card provides an easy upgrade that lets you automatically update the changes as per your requirements including contact details, addresses and contrariwise. To get more creative with the UNO Green Smart Business Card you can create art and post it on different social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. To get your creatives noticed, feel free to tag the brand. By bringing a revolution in the business market, something like never before, UNO Green Smart Business Card proves how it creates a difference from any other kind. With its motto towards planting a sapling after every purchase of the product. It surely deserves a buy. For more information: UNO Green Smart Business Card | UNO Green Smart Business Card - Instagram | UNO Green Smart Business Card - Facebook This story is provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI/BusinessWire India): ''Ultimate Ignorance'' an interesting non-fiction book treasuring over three decades of real-life observation by author Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo globally launched on 06 December 2021 receiving exemplary praise from its readers. Some books give a lot of concepts, touching upon many of them briefly. Here in the case of Ultimate Ignorance, the book takes a different route. Through authors simple easy to understand writing style, you get introduced to crucial concepts of life and are dealt with over three decades of relevant real-life observation based research. Title 'Ultimate Ignorance' is the first thing that will catch the attention focusing light on life's big questions Who you are? What you have that money cannot buy? The book starts with an interesting observation about origin of life explaining research-based similarities in scientific and other prevalent thought process of respective eras. In addition to imparting traditional wisdom that applies to every generation, this book helps to unlearn, re-learn, and understand unconventional wisdom. Book Ultimate Ignorance makes some insightful and judicious observations about human origin, inception of the world in quite illuminative and novel approach. In a simple, and humorous writing style Dr Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo describes about Why Me? theory, how it impacts an individual, societies, countries and finally entire world. Why you do what you do? Why should anyone care? What awaits for those who criticize too easily, Why people take dreadful paths when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful. Bold and meticulously researched about topics which affect every life, grabs from beginning and never lets one go till finish makes this a brilliant read. The book Ultimate Ignorance raises significant questions that will ignite an impetus to the reader's contemplation, introspection on their own existence and meaning of life. Ultimate Ignorance divided into six chapters on subjects chose completely intertwine together as they are related to each other in one way or the other. Beginning, Human, Desire, Control, Rules, Boundaries are undoubtedly what characterise each life and instantly relate to them beyond doubt. It is a delightful book that will change the life with insight on logically powerful, commanding subject by international prominence author Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo focus light on life's big questions worth reading. This book helps to focus a clear sense of why the day matters and why every day matters supported by stunning research work makes Ultimate Ignorance written by Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo among one of the most compelling reads of the year and decades to come. Everyone talks about the subconscious mind, Psychology, Power of mind, knows the ever-familiar quotes and the iceberg imagery, but Ultimate Ignorance helps to self-realize on how it impacts, how it traps one in their own boundaries, how it is a neutral zone that is neither a friend nor an enemy and nothing more than a slave. At beginning and end of every chapter of Ultimate Ignorance there are thoughtful surprise elements by the author Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo to recapitulate the key points, individual self-observation, and learnings of the reader. These sections make it convenient for reader to memorise and revisit focus points of each chapter which serves a very practical purpose. Ultimate Ignorance by Hraadyesh is a well-written book, a life-guide comprising simple but powerful thoughts to motivate and inspire day and life, helps to open a new window into a sobering possibility. According to author Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo, the people's major hindrance is the inability to realize that every action and reaction is a result of individual's mental conditioning. In this era of science and artificial intelligence, natural abilities like hunches, intuition, signs, inner voices often looked down. This book Ultimate Ignorance reflects to connect with one's inner self, highlighting presence of age-old notions about power of intuition. This thought process about subconscious mind is among one of the major takeaways from the book Ultimate Ignorance. By his excellent observational skills and clarity of thought, author Hraadyesh Kumar Namdeo is able to strike a perfect balance between research-based facts from science, philosophy, spirituality, and self-help highlighting some interesting thought-provoking observations. The book Ultimate Ignorance is nothing less than sensational which shatters the modern commonplace of science, faith and human nature while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers. Ultimate Ignorance is an interesting reference book, a precious life-guide meant for people of all age groups that will improve mental and overall wellbeing towards prosperous life. Ultimate Ignorance is perfect recipe book to desired success. One can be in their teens or their fifties, if they want to be really successful, if they ever feel meaningless in life or wonder about their real identity, if one is ever confused about how to go forward in life to achieve success in professional, personal life, this book Ultimate Ignorance will help to introspect their mental conditioning to find all answers that lie within them. Pick this engaging book Ultimate Ignorance as the guide to break false perceptions about life. Ultimate Ignorance is fuel for the conscious and unconscious mind that will ignite the urge to learn, grow and succeed as a person in a career, relationship, and life. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
Four companies including Reliance New Energy Solar Limited, Ola Electric Mobility Private Limited, Hyundai Global Motors Company Limited and Rajesh Exports Limited, have been selected to receive incentives under the government's Rs 18,100 crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage, the government said on Thursday. Commenting on the PLI Scheme for ACC Battery Storage, Union Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey said, "Increase in demand for EVs due to a favourable regulatory framework, has mainly attracted investment in this sector. Today big companies are investing in electric vehicle manufacturing in India and are interested to join us. We should give them more encouragement and keep trying to make India a manufacturing hub." Total 10 companies submitted their bids under the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage Programme in India for which Request for Proposal (RFP) was released by the Ministry of Heavy Industries on 22nd October 2021. The scheme was open for receiving applications till 14th January 2022 and the Technical Bids were opened on 15th January 2022. All the 10 bids were evaluated and 9 companies were found responsive and meeting the conditions of eligibility as per the requirements under the RFP. Accordingly, the financial bids for the qualified bidders were opened on March 17, 2022, at 11.45 AM after the announcement of the results of the technical evaluation under the transparent global tender process of RFP, the Ministry of Heavy Industries said in a statement. "Final evaluation of the Selected Bidders was carried out as per Quality & Cost Based Selection (QCBS) mechanism and the bidders were ranked on the basis of their combined technical and financial score. The ACC capacities have been allocated in order of their rank, till a cumulative capacity of 50 GWh per year," it said. The ministry said the selected companies would have to set up the manufacturing facilities within a period of two years. The incentive will be disbursed thereafter over a period of five years on sale of batteries manufactured in India. The Government approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme 'National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage' for achieving manufacturing capacity of 50 Giga Watt Hour (GWh) of ACC for enhancing India's manufacturing capabilities with a budgetary outlay of Rs 18,100 crore. Under this initiative, the emphasis of the Government is to achieve greater domestic value addition, while at the same time ensure that the levelised cost of battery manufacturing in India is globally competitive. The programme is designed in such a manner that it is technology agnostic. The beneficiary firm shall be free to choose suitable advanced technology and the corresponding plant and machinery, raw material and other intermediate goods for setting up cell manufacturing facility to cater to any application. The programme envisages an investment that will boost domestic manufacturing and also facilitate battery storage demand creation for both electric vehicles and stationary storage along with the development of a complete domestic supply chain and Foreign Direct Investment in the country. ACC PLI scheme is expected to accelerate EV adoption and hence translate into net savings of Rs 2,00,000 crore to Rs 2,50,000 crore on account of oil import bill during the period of this programme and increase the share of renewable energy at the national grid level, the ministry said. (ANI)
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 24 (ANI/PRNewswire): Tridhya Intuit has been awarded a winner at ICT Grand Challenge development of 'Smart Water Supply Measurement and Quality Monitoring System' as a part of the National Jal Jeevan Mission, initiated by reverent Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. A total of 278 organizations took part from all over India, and Tridhya Intuit's Amrit got potentially selected under the top 10, then successfully under the top 4, to be a record-breaking winner. Jigar Desai, Founder & CTO of Tridhya Intuit was presented with a winner's certificate by honorable Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. "I congratulate our team for enormous efforts on being able to create a water-safe future for citizens of India with the help of technology. I extend my gratitude to MeitY Startup Hub, CDAC, National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM) - Department of Drinking Water and Sanitization, and, Ministry of Jal Shakti for giving us an opportunity to serve our Nation. With this stepping stone, we are excited to positively transform many more elements with advanced technologies," said Jigar Desai, Founder & CTO, Tridhya Intuit. About Amrit, a Smart Water Management System Amrit is an IoT-based system for real-time monitoring of quality and quantity for potable water. The system has an interactive dashboard for data visualization. It displays live data from various nodes (devices) as per hierarchy. A user can manage the faults in the water distribution network, demands, bills, and supply schedules. Amrit solution helps the government to continuously monitor in real-time the predefined amount (it is 55 LPCD in our case) and appropriate quality of water provided to each household as per the guidelines. Amrit, IoT device and platform The device generates real-time data and interactive graphs with full visibility of the system's technical/financial performance, future predictions, leakage detection, sensor data, etc. It has mobile/web monitoring with remote connectivity. It is a portable device powered by solar with a live display of data on the LED screen. The platform is configured with IoT and it controls remote devices. It supports AI chatbot, geo-tagging and real-time ticket generation for error detection with SMS or email alerts. Tridhya Intuit is a product-based digital transformation company providing solutions using cutting-edge technologies like IoT, AI, and Big Data to create an exclusive customer experience. It has a team of experts from IoT, AI, and Bid Data to provide intelligent, secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. It has been delivering end-to-end creative solutions on time with a client-centric approach. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
New Delhi [India]/ Paris [France]/ Singapore, March 24 (ANI/PRNewswire): BharatPe, one of India's fastest-growing Fintech companies and Ingenico, a Worldline brand, today announced a five-year strategic partnership that will help fuel the adoption of POS devices in India. As a part of the partnership, Ingenico will roll out 100,000 of its Axium range of Android Smart POS and PPaaS (Ingenico's Payments Platform as a Service) to BharatPe's merchant network in India over the next 12 months. The combination of Axium DX8000 Android-based terminals and PPaaS brings BharatPe, the Delhi-based unicorn, a technology stack that is designed to address the needs of a fast-growing and evolving market. Built as per the latest industry norms and using the Android 10 operating system, the large user interface on the Axium terminal makes it ideally suited to BharatPe's merchants. As the No.3 private POS player in India and one that is constantly innovating with new services, BharatPe, with Ingenico's PPaaS solution, will have the flexibility to bring its innovative business applications to the market in the shortest span of time. PPaaS is a suite of payment and commerce services that combines solutions for managing terminals with third-party applications and alternative payment methods. The cloud-based platform works with any payment device beyond the 35 million Ingenico POS already deployed in 170 countries around the world and for online commerce. For Ingenico, this partnership is the opportunity to reinforce its presence in the high-potential Indian market as well as positioning Ingenico as an ecosystem enabler empowering commerce across all channels, simplifying payments and delivering innovative customer journeys. Speaking of the partnership at the India FinTech Expo in Delhi where he is a keynote speaker, Nigel Lee, Ingenico's Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific said: "We are delighted to accompany BharatPe's growth trajectory in India, a strategic market for Ingenico. This partnership is a huge opportunity for Ingenico, to support BharatPe and to extend the range of services it can bring to merchants. In addition, Ingenico's mission for PPaaS is to help its partners manage the different services they make available to their merchants simply and efficiently in a way that is far quicker and easier than other technologies currently allow. We are proud to enable BharatPe to do just that and to support them along their extraordinary growth journey." Speaking on the partnership, Shashvat Nakrani, Co-Founder, BharatPe, said, "We have scripted one of the fastest scale-ups in the POS industry in India since we launched BharatSwipe in 2020. Today, our PoS business is active in 250+ cities and we have deployed more than 1.25 lac (125,000) BharatSwipe machines across offline shops. Also, we are processing US$ 4 bn in annualized transaction processing value on our PoS devices currently. With this strategic partnership with Ingenico, we will be able to add a new dimension to our range of Fintech offerings for offline merchants. The new Axium POS machines coupled with PPaaS will enable us to offer world-class payment and commerce services to our merchant partners and further empower them to grow their business. We will continue to explore strategic partnerships with renowned players across industries so as to offer best-in-class Fintech products and services to our millions of merchant partners." Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is a global leader in the payments industry and the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and acquirers. Powered by 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and innovative solutions fostering their growth. Services offered by Worldline include instore and online commercial acquiring, highly secure payment transaction processing and numerous digital services. In 2021, Worldline generated a proforma revenue close to 4 billion euros. BharatPe was founded in 2018 with the vision of making financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants. In 2018, BharatPe launched India's first UPI interoperable QR code, the first zero MDR payment acceptance service. In 2020, post-Covid, BharatPe also launched India's only zero MDR card acceptance terminals - BharatSwipe. Currently serving over 80 lakh merchants across 150+ cities, the company is a leader in UPI offline transactions, processing 11 crores+ UPI transactions per month (annualized Transaction Processed Value of US$ 16+ Bn in payments). The company has already facilitated disbursement of loans totalling to over INR 3000 crores to over 300,000 merchants, since launch. BharatPe's POS business processes payments of over US$ 4 bn annually on its POS machines. It has a network of 1.25 lac+ machines across cities. BharatPe has raised over US$ 650 million in equity and debt, till date. The company's list of marquee investors includes Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo and Sequoia Capital. In June 2021, the company announced the acquisition of PAYBACK India, the country's largest multi-brand loyalty program company with 100 million+ members. In June 2021, it was also given an in-principle approval by Reserve Bank of India to establish a Small Finance Bank, in partnership with Centrum Financial Services Limited (Centrum), the established and profitable NBFC arm of the Centrum Group. In October 2021, the consortium of Centrum Financial Services Limited (Centrum) and BharatPe, was issued a Small Finance Bank (SFB) license by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). BharatPe also made its grand entry in the Buy Now Pay Later segment with the launch of postpe in October 2021. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI/SRV): With a diverse variety of UG courses for the students in the field of Law, SLS Pune is one of the leading Law universities in the country. The UG courses such as B.B.A L.L.B Hons. [5 years], B.A. L.L.B. Hons. [5 years], L.L.B. [3 Years], L.L.M. along with a diploma and PhD programs proves to make a firm law base for the SLS Pune students. The mission Of SLS Pune is to inculcate the spirit of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakkam' (The world is one family) and to promote ethical and value-based learning. Students from around the globe are here for their UG courses at SLS Pune and hence it creates a diverse culture across the campus and also aids students to adapt different thinking processes and perspectives at the start of their legal journey inculcating global competencies. The professors at SLS Pune are internationally trained, diverse experts who have achieved great recognition in the legal world. Hence learning in this reputed institute is more detailed and structured. The Director of SLS Pune Prof Shashikala Gurpur is the backbone of the university. She is a Fulbright scholar, a PhD degree, one of the top-100 Legal Luminaries of India & has won several honourable awards in the world of Law. Although, even after achieving an ample amount of recognition she still believes in the theory of always remaining a student, and learning everything that helps in the way up the ladder of success. She always has been the biggest cheerleader of her students at SLS Pune and asks them to develop a character like a sponge and absorb all the knowledge. The Director Prof. Shashikala Gurpur says, "The spirit of innovation and sustainable development runs through the veins of SLS Pune, and the ideals of globalized development innate in the very vision of the institute have led to each batch forming a unique community of intense intellectual exchange ." She aims at making the finest law experts for the country through the university and its highly educating UG programs, and hence at SLS Pune, the undergraduate programs are structured in a way where students become absolute all-rounders, who are ready to face any obstacle. SLS Pune has been awarded 5 prestigious awards in the category of top legal colleges in the country. It has also been selected by the Government of India, the Ministry of Social Welfare for awarding scholarships to SC & ST students. SLS, Pune also has collaborations with various bodies and renowned national and international educational institutions. The Under Graduate Programs by SLS Pune gives an opportunity to the students to learn some extra content as the syllabus is specially curated and well managed from the perspective of time every student can dedicate to, and thus there is cushion time to master other legal skills too. In the past few years, SLS Pune has successfully adapted the most up-to-the-minute methods and programs and is all set to educate the future of law. UG programs are the starting checkpoints for every potential professional, and also is very new for them at the beginning, this fact is very well known to SLS Pune. Thus to eliminate this initial awkward phase, a buddy system is followed in the SLS Pune campus. This is where the newly entered students are guided by their buddies (seniors) to create a comfortable atmosphere across the campus. Hence SLS Pune offers other social learnings along with the top-notch UG courses which help students with their social skills for the upcoming dynamic work culture. SLS Pune believes in monitoring all actions on the way up the success for student development and career choices hence regular tracking of academics and extracurricular activities are given attention during the time span of the undergraduate course. This process helps students to set new goals to post the tracking and motivates them to always keep moving forward. Therefore UG Programs at SLS Pune aids students in overall growth and prepares them for the ever-evolving legal world. For more information visit: https://www.symlaw.ac.in/ This story is provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
Delhi NCR [India], March 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): SmartDukaan, a technology-driven direct to retail network committed to bridge the gap between organized urban mobile & electronics retail market and the unstructured sector. It is set to bring millions of retailer's & consumers dreams to reality across the country. With its vast experience in retail and distribution sectors, the firm aspires to be a significant driver in ensuring equitable possibilities for all retailers by providing comprehensive digital and operational assistance. SmartDukaan harnesses the power of technology to help Mobile Phones & Electronics retailers in running their business from inception to delivery. The Company's practical digital solutions are removing the hurdles that retailers experience in their day-to-day operations and empower new players a fair shot to grow their business and prosper in the digital economy. The Company gives its retailers and consumers access to a wide range of brands and goods regardless of location or reach. The Company's branded stores offer rural consumers similar experience and service which is generally offered in metro cities. Tarun Verma, Founder, SmartDukaan said, "Our intent is to make the latest products and services accessible to the consumer regardless of the geography. There is a strong need to understand the way digital can merge with retail to deliver unique shopping experience." With its franchise network, the Company hopes to address the challenges of reach and variety constraints by empowering local shops and developing an organized direct to retail network for the brands. With SmartDukaan, anyone can now start their own retail business and have access to the latest smart products and services for their customers. Moreover, anyone can now be a smart retailer with SmartDukaan just by using their app - the "SmartDukaan Partner App".The idea is to bring the possibility of more transactions through physical stores as well as SD consumer app. SmartDukaan is India's first digital retail platform. Its vision is to help digitize Indian retail by streamlining India's unorganized markets and creating more retail touch points. The Company intends to help digital entrepreneurs in India with its retail friendly solution. For more information, please visit: www.smartdukaan.com. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 24 (ANI/PRNewswire): Tredence Inc., a leading data science and AI solutions provider, unveiled its new brand identity and strategy: Beyond Possible. The transition reflects the company's new go-to-market strategy and renewed focus on providing vertical-specific data science solutions and innovation. Watch the #BeyondPossible brand video Tredence's new look and focus are furthering its ongoing commitment to enabling speed to action, speed to scale and speed to value for its clients across the globe while also facilitating large-scale transformation for accelerated growth. It also aligns with its customer-centric culture of providing deep data science and AI solutions to help businesses and industries enjoy new opportunities and spark future disruptions. Over the past 12 months, Tredence has partnered with an external brand strategy firm to conduct in-depth interviews with clients, employee workshops and surveys to develop an identity that provides a meaningful and cohesive brand experience for its clients, partners and employees. The company's resolute focus remains on empowering the last mile in AI with industry-specific data science accelerators at the decision point and enabling faster value realization for clients. "Over the past few years, our business has transformed radically, presenting the ideal time and opportunity to enhance our marketing strategy. 'Beyond Possible' perfectly encapsulates our aspirations, spirit and current work, which extends beyond delivering just insights or making incremental adjustments. It resonates with our purpose of empowering decisions to help our clients win and prepare for rapid growth. It's a change towards going the extra mile, enabling our clients to see the forest and not just the trees," said Shub Bhowmick, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Tredence. "Our ability to adapt, innovate and transform is at the core of who we are. A beginner's mindset while solving some of the most complex problems helps us expand our clients' vision for transformation. For us, the customer is not just our client sponsor but also the end-user at the front line of our client's business. We're building a comprehensive identity together behind one vision and one strategy focused on growth for clients and ourselves, and Beyond Possible perfectly reflects this futuristic mindset," said Shashank Dubey, Chief Revenue Officer & Co-founder of Tredence. "Beyond Possible is the right podium and the right platform for us to reflect our passion for helping our customers unleash the potential of data science in their respective industries," added Sumit Mehra, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Tredence. "It perfectly describes our ambition, our identity and the kind of work we do today. We go beyond incremental changes. We enable large-scale transformation and set our customers up for accelerated growth." Tredence is a global data science solutions provider focused on solving the last mile problem in AI. The 'last mile' is the gap between insight creation and value realization. Headquartered in San Jose, the company embraces a vertical-first approach and an outcome-driven mindset to help clients win and accelerate value realization from their analytics investments. Tredence is a Great Place to Work-Certified and as a 'Leader' in the Forrester Wave: Customer Analytics Services. Tredence is 1,600-plus employees strong with offices in San Jose, Foster City, Chicago, London, Toronto and Bangalore, with the largest companies in retail, CPG, hi-tech, telecom, healthcare, travel and industrials as clients. For more information, please visit https://tredence.com and follow us at Tredence on LinkedIn. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ3gLQj8NYs This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI/PR Newswire): India based Koubek Crypto Project today announced that their project will reserve a pool of 100 million Koubek Crypto token towards this cause. Asia's 1st Education Metaverse based Crypto Project - Koubek announced that this reserved pool of Koubek Token of 100 million will support continued schooling & upskilling for Ukrainian students. Koubek Crypto made the announcement on Twitter on Thursday, saying that their entire team & Indian people were horrified to see the pictures emerging out of Ukraine and that we together stand for peace. The Koubek Crypto Project has a mission to transform the future of the education system through a revolutionary blockchain project - Thus the Koubek crypto project was born. Koubek Crypto token which is centred around education has decided that - This reserved pool will be utilised for the tuition fees, stationary, scholarships & up-skilling programs for the school & college students. Koubek Crypto Project also announced that - 25 per cent of All the proceeds from buying Koubek Token from their website also would be donated towards the above cause. It also urged its 7000-plus Koubek Token Holders & 1,00,000-plus Koubek Social media community to come forward & contribute towards this cause! This money is much-needed by students living in Ukraine whose future is adversely impacted with the ongoing and horrific invasion by Russia. The war has already led to millions of students forced to leave their studies & flee the country. Since the start of the invasion by Russia- Many companies around the world--like Sony- Playstation, Twitch, Netflix, EA Games, Digital Gurukul have pulled support from the country. Koubek's Co-Founder - Dr Raj Padhiyar said: "We stand with the students of Ukraine who are shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine - and our thoughts are with those people whose lives are affected by this crisis. The community spirit that is at the heart of Koubek Crypto Team and we are proud to announce 100 Million Koubek Crypto Token Pool to provide practical and meaningful education support for Ukrainian students at this difficult times" This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)
Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], March 24 (ANI/BusinessWire India): De Panache surveyed to find out what makes the best interiors in Bangalore and found out using natural materials like natural stones wood with beautiful wall cladding imported from all over the world makes all the difference in having a truly unique designer home. An experienced interior designer empowered with exclusive materials from all over the world and the design sense to conceptualise all the different moving parts into one whole elegant dream home. The survey was conducted online, consisting of new homeowners, of which included apartment owners (50 per cent), villa owners (40 per cent), and others like independent houses & bungalows (10 per cent). Homeowners were asked multiple questions regarding their home interior choices. The survey revealed that more than half (68 per cent) of these new homeowners in Bangalore want to see more "neutral pastel" colours for a soothing feel throughout the home and natural materials like wood and stone in their homes as they are long-lasting and wear and tear-proof. The survey also asked important questions like how they choose an interior designer for their new home and why they feel like investing in home interior design? The respondents made it very clear that Covid has forced them to be at their home for a prolonged time, and investing in the home interior is an investment in themselves. According to one of the respondents of the survey who would like to be anonymous for privacy, reasons told that "For almost 2 years now we have to do everything inside our house and life can become very boring doing all the activities inside the 4 walls of the house, but luckily we had done the interiors before covid, and all corners of the house give me immense pleasure and happiness. All the walls are beautified as I wanted and customised as per my needs. Good interiors saved me from all the boredom. The customizations made me feel as if the house understands me, and we have a connection." De Panache saw a connection between the answers homeowners gave for how to choose an interior designer & what stops a typical homeowner from being satisfied when communicating with the interior designer. 87 per cent of the respondents said they would choose an interior designer if the designer understood their needs and requirements. 88 per cent of respondents said they were not satisfied with the designer as they didn't understand the needs and requirements of the unsatisfied client. 97 per cent of the respondents preferred imported cladding materials from all over the world as it gives a truly unique designer home. Moreover, they felt an experienced designer could merge all the beautiful elements into one holistic design for the whole house. They would choose an interior designer who is capable of such creative visualisation. In a statement, the company's founder, Atreyee Choudhury, said, "We are delighted to see that more and more people are looking to invest in their home interiors in Bangalore. We have focused on offering the best interior design services to our customers. Our goal is to make beautiful homes available to everyone, so we offer a wide range of options, from designing apartments to designing the whole villa or bungalow." The interior design company, De Panache, is fortunate to have a team of creative professionals who have the knowledge and expertise to design and decorate a house. The company offers a wide range of services, including interior design & in-house execution, but not only limited to kitchen and bedroom design and home decor services. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
E-commerce giant Flipkart said on Thursday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MP Industrial Development Corporation (MPIDC) to support small businesses and local artisans under One District One Product (ODOP) initiative in Madhya Pradesh. "To support the ODOP programme of the Government of Madhya Pradesh, the partnership under Flipkart's Samarth initiative will enhance rural livelihoods allowing local businesses, craftsmen, artisans and weavers to offer their products to millions of customers," Flipkart said in a statement. Flipkart Samarth is a nationwide initiative that aims to introduce lakhs of MSMEs, artisans and underserved communities from across the country to new growth opportunities through e-commerce. Samarth breaks entry barriers and helps these sellers set up their business on the Flipkart Marketplace by offering time-bound incubation as well as support with onboarding, free cataloging, marketing, account management, business insights, and warehousing. John Kingsly, Export Commissioner and Managing Director of MPIDC, and Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group, signed the MoU in presence of Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon, Minister, Department of Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion, Madhya Pradesh. "One of the key priorities of our government is to strengthen a flourishing ecosystem for entrepreneurs, artisans, SHGs especially from rural areas, and I would like to commend Flipkart for their efforts and initiatives to take ahead the ambitious ODOP initiative of Government of Madhya Pradesh," said Dattigaon. "Our association with Flipkart will give wings to the dreams of our entrepreneurs and support our capacity-building initiatives for them," he added. Commenting on the MoU, Kumar said, "The partnership is part of Flipkart's Samarth programme conceptualised to provide a sustainable and inclusive digital platform to enhance the livelihood opportunities for MSMEs and artisans, including in Tier-2 and smaller cities." "Extending the government's mission of Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Flipkart Samarth today supports the livelihood of over a million artisans, weavers and craftsmen across India," Flipkart official said. Flipkart launched Samarth programme in 2019 with the objective of building a sustainable and inclusive platform for underserved domestic communities and businesses and to empower them with better livelihood opportunities. Flipkart Samarth currently supports the livelihood of over a million artisans, weavers and craftsmen across India and is working towards bringing more such sellers onto the platform. (ANI)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): Tata Motors, in partnership with PPS Motors has inaugurated a new state-of-the-art dealership at Pallikarnai - in the city of Chennai. With this new facility, the company aims to extend its presence and build a strong foothold in the city. The new dealership facility with presence in Pallikarnai and ECR, Chennai will provide access to world-class Tata Motors Passenger & Electric Vehicles to customers in the region. The showroom has been designed and built as per the Company's Dealership Standards and is strategically located to provide convenient access to the visitors and customers. The dealership employees have been trained under the supervision of Tata Motors experts and will provide a quality customer experience to the visitors. Speaking on the occasion, Ramesh Dorairajan, Senior General Manager - Network Management & EV Sales, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. said, "We are extremely happy to embark on this journey with PPS Motors as our authorised dealer in Chennai. This is the first Tata Motors showroom from PPS Motors in Chennai, which will help us penetrate deeper into the market with the support of their reach and market knowledge. With the addition of this dealership, Tata Motors now boasts of a total of 19 dealerships in Tamil Nadu and 6 dealerships in Chennai alone. Furthermore, Tamil Nadu is a key part of our growth strategy in India and we are confident that this dealership will set new benchmark in sales, service and customer satisfaction in the region." Speaking on the occasion Rajiv Sanghvi, Managing Director, PPS Motors said, "We are delighted to partner with Tata Motors and introduce a new dealership facility in Chennai with showrooms at Pallikarnai & ECR and state of the art workshop at Chrompet & Guindy. The new showroom inaugurated today spans about 5600 sq. ft. with 7 car display at Pallikarnai & 3000 sq. ft. at ECR with six car display. With the best in class products from Tata Motors coupled with our understanding of the customer requirements, we endeavour to provide the best ownership experience to our customers." This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
'The Oscars Red Carpet Show' will air at 6:30 pm ET/3:30 pm PT on ABC.

As per Variety, before the Academy Awards begin at 8 pm ET, the 90-minute special will showcase Oscar nominees, performers, and presenters with a sneak peek at Hollywood's biggest night, including a special appearance by DJ M.O.S. The 'Red Carpet Show' is executive produced by David Chamberlin and Michael Antinoro, alongside Packer and Cowan.

The Academy recently confirmed that Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Finneas, Reba McEntire, and Sebastian Yatra will perform four of the five songs nominated, while Van Morrison will miss out due to his tour schedule.

The 94th Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories around the world. (ANI)
Hollywood star Nicolas Cage has expressed disagreement towards his uncle Francis Ford Coppola when it comes to superhero movies like the Marvel films. According to Variety, recently, while speaking to a magazine, the actor defended the genre against various criticisms made by top filmmakers including Coppola and Martin Scorsese. In 2019, Cappola had been quoted calling Marvel movies "despicable" while supporting Scorsese's critical beliefs about comic book films hurting the film industry. The filmmaker later clarified that he wasn't referring to Marvel films specifically, rather he meant that it's "despicable" how the film industry now values commerce over art. Scorsese and Coppola's primary criticism is that Marvel and comic book films have reshaped exhibition so that only one type of movie now gets produced and distributed at the theatrical level. "There used to be studio films. Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different," Coppola had himself explained in an interview earlier this year. Defending these films, Cage stated, "I don't understand the conflict. I don't agree with them on that perception or opinion. I think that the movies that I make, like 'Pig' or 'Joe,' are not in any kind of conflict with Marvel movies." He continued, "I don't think the Marvel movie had anything to do with the end of the tweener. By tweener, I mean the USD 30 to USD 50 million budget movie. I think movies are in good shape. If you look at 'Power of the Dog,' or if you look at 'Spencer,' or any of Megan Ellison's movies. I think that there's still Paul Thomas Anderson." "Marvel has done a really excellent job of entertaining the whole family. They put a lot of thought into it. I mean, it's definitely had a big progression from when I was doing the first two 'Ghost Rider' movies. Kevin Feige, or whoever is behind that machine, has found a masterful way of weaving the stories together and interconnecting all the characters," the actor added. He further said, "I just, I don't see what the issue is." As per Variety, there have been rumours that in the upcoming 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness', Cage might be reprising his 'Ghost Ride' role. However, during the interview, the actor dismissed this by saying "I'd love to work with Cumberbatch, but I don't think that's happening." (ANI)
Mohamed Diab, the director of Marvel's upcoming 'Moon Knight' series, has said that he feels Hollywood has a long way to go when it comes to depicting his native country Egypt. According to Variety, Diab has attempted to rectify this as 'Moon Knight' will be incorporating elements of Ancient Egyptian mythology in telling the story of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), a mercenary who becomes the conduit of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Recently while speaking to a magazine, the filmmaker said, "In my pitch, there was a big part about Egypt, and how inauthentically it has been portrayed throughout Hollywood's history. It's always exotic - we call it orientalism. It dehumanizes us. We are always naked, we are always sexy, we are always bad, we are always over the top." As a recent example of Western cinema failing Egypt, Diab pointed to 'Wonder Woman 1984' and slammed it for playing into the tropes. "You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us. I remember seeing 'Wonder Woman 1984' and there was a big sequence in Egypt and it was a disgrace for us. You had a sheik - that doesn't make any sense to us. Egypt looked like a country from the Middle Ages. It looked like the desert," Diab said. As per Variety, the filmmaker stated that the relationship between 'Moon Knight' and Egypt is "part of the show because it's part of the comic book. It's part of how he gets his powers. It's ingrained in it." The upcoming series has been created and written by Jeremy Slater, with Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead directing. It's executive produced by Isaac, Slater, Diab, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso and Brad Winderbaum. (ANI)
Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi, who recently commenced filming for his next movie 'Selfiee' in Bhopal, on Thursday, celebrated his 43rd birthday with the cast and crew of the upcoming film. The birthday celebration video of the actor was shared by the makers of 'Selfiee'. Along with it, the makers tweeted, "@emraanhashmi's birthday celebrations are in full swing on the sets of #Selfiee! This frame is everyone's favourite! #HappyBirthdayEmraanHashmi." In the clip, Emraan's co-star Akshay Kumar could be seen standing beside him as he cut a huge chocolate cake. Following that the film's crew broke into Mohammad Rafi's song 'Baar Baar Din Ye Aaye'. The birthday boy seemed impressed as he thanked all of them for the sweet celebration. Actors Diana Penty and Nushrratt Bharuccha will be seen playing the female leads in 'Selfiee', which is helmed by Raj Mehta and is an official remake of the Malayalam blockbuster 'Driving License'. Apart from 'Selfiee', Emraan will also be seen in the Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif-starrer 'Tiger 3'. The trio shot for the movie in several other foreign locations including Turkey, Austria and Russia. (ANI)
It's not just acting chops that Emraan Hashmi is famous for. His hit songs play an important role in his success. On the occasion of his birthday, he treated his fans to a new song titled 'Ishq Nahi Karte', which is sung by none other than B Praak. "I'm blown away by the response to the teaser, and now the song has finally been released on my birthday. The amount of love and admiration we've gotten for the song has been incredible. There is no better gift an actor can receive from their fans than their love and support for their work," Emraan said. The melodious song is composed by both Jaani and B Praak and also features Sahher Bambba apart from Emraan. "It makes me so happy to see that we've returned to the days of music videos. We are overjoyed at the positive reception to the song," Sahher stated. Meanwhile, on the film front, Emraan is currently in Bhopal for the shoot of his film 'Selfiee', co-starring Akshay Kumar and Diana Penty. (ANI)
On Thursday, Deepika took to Instagram and shared a photograph of the pizza slices. The pizza oozed with cheese and had delectable tomato slices on the top.

"drools," she captioned the post.

Deepika's picture of mouth-watering pizza has garnered several likes and comments from netizens. Some even wondered if the actor would eat an entire pizza by herself.

"How do you manage to stay slim by eating junk. Please share tips," a social media user commented.

"The pizza looks so yummy. Going to order one for me," another one wrote.

Deepika is currently in Spain for the shoot of her film 'Pathaan', which also stars Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham. It is scheduled to release in theatres on January 25, 2023. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the people of Bengal to never forgive the perpetrators of incidents like Birbhum violence and those who encourage such criminals. Speaking after virtually inaugurating 'Biplobi Bharat Gallery' at Victoria Memorial Hall, the Prime Minister expressed condolences for the victims of violence in Birbhum and expressed hope that the state government will ensure punishment for the perpetrators of such a heinous crime. Assuring all the cooperation from the Centre, Prime Minister Modi said, "I would also urge the people of Bengal to never forgive the perpetrators of such incidents and those who encourage such criminals." At least 10 persons were charred to death in the violence that allegedly broke out after the murder of a deputy Panchayat Pradhan at Baguti village in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Monday night. Remembering the martyrs on the Shaheed Diwas, the Prime Minister said that the tales of sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev inspire all of us to work tirelessly for the country. "The legacy of our past guides our present, inspires us to build a better future. Therefore, today the country sees its history, its past, as a living source of energy", he said. The Prime Minister said, New India is bringing back the heritage of the country back from abroad where ancient statues used to be smuggled with impunity. In the decades before 2014, only a dozen statues could be brought to India. But in the last seven years, this number has increased to more than 225," the Prime Minister said. He informed the audience that work on renovating the iconic landmarks of the state like Victoria Memorial, iconic galleries, Metcalf House etc is almost over. "Let these symbols of our culture, civilization continue to inspire the present and future generations of India, this is a great effort in this direction," Modi said. The Prime Minister mentioned that a nationwide campaign is going on in India to increase heritage tourism which is being given impetus through several schemes like 'Swadesh Darshan'. Referring to the young age of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Azad and Khudiram Bose, the Prime Minister said that the youth of India should never consider themselves any lesser. "There is nothing which the youth of India cannot do. There is no such goal which the youth of India cannot achieve," he said. The Prime Minister underlined the thread of unity that ran through the freedom struggle where different regions, languages, resources were united in the fervour for serving the country and patriotism. The Prime Minister noted that this eternal feeling of Bharat Bhakti, unity, integrity of India should be our top priority even today. "Whatever may be your political thinking, you may belong to any political party, but any kind of compromise with the unity and integrity of India will be the biggest betrayal to the freedom fighters of India. We have to move forward with a new vision in New India. This new vision is of India's self-confidence, self-reliance, ancient identity and of future upliftment. In this, the sense of duty is of paramount importance," the Prime Minister added. --IANS ssb/skp/ ( 536 Words) 2022-03-23-20:42:06 (IANS)
Sources said that a meeting will take place at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence here to discuss the names to be appointed as ministers in the new Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh.

"After attending the swearing-in ceremony of the Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand, Adityanath reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to discuss and finalise the names of ministers for his new cabinet," sources said.

It is learnt that BJP chief J.P. Nadda and the party's national General Secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh will be present during the meeting at Shah's residence.

"The names of ministers will be discussed after reviewing the performance of the existing ones. There are over a dozen vacancies as some sitting ministers lost the elections, while a few left the party before the polls. While finalising the names, social engineering and regional balance will be also considered," a party insider said.

The Uttar Pradesh legislative party meeting will be held in Lucknow on Thursday, before the swearing-in ceremony of the new Adityanath-led government takes place on March 25.

Central observers Shah and former Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das will be reaching Lucknow on Thursday for the meeting.

--IANS ssb/arm

( 243 Words)

2022-03-23-20:48:05 (IANS)
The police have arrested four terrorist associates linked to the proscribed outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and also recovered four grenades from their possession.

On Wednesday evening, a police party arrested a terrorist associate from near the Bemina chowk, who has been identified as Zubair Sheikh, a resident of Ellahi Bagh Soura, and recovered one hand grenade from his possession.

"During questioning, the accused revealed that he had received the grenade from another terrorist associate named Shamim Ahmed Chilloo, a resident of Tankipora Shaheed Gunj. Chilloo had said that he had received a consignment of four hand grenades from which he had handed over one grenade each to Amir Rehman Dar from Tengpura Bypass, Shahid Ahmed Mir from Dangerpora Nowgam, and Zubair Sheikh," the police said.

During subsequent raids, all the three terrorist associates were arrested and three more hand grenades were recovered from their possession.

--IANS zi/arm

( 188 Words)

2022-03-23-23:04:01 (IANS)
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said" "We reject the uncalled reference to India by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the Opening Ceremony (of the OIC meet in Islamabad)."

"Matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir are entirely the internal affairs of India. Other countries including China have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from public judgement of their internal issues."

Attending the OIC meet - in China's first presence at the OIC, the Chinese Foreign Minister said that "on the Kashmir issue, we have once again heard the call of many Islamic friends. China shares the same aspirations".

Wang said that China believes that the Kashmir "dispute" should properly and peacefully addressed in accordance with the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and the bilateral agreements.

--IANS miz/vd

( 184 Words)

2022-03-23-23:06:05 (IANS)
One person has been arrested in connection with the case of murder of two people, whose bodies were found in a drain near the India International Centre, Delhi Police said on Wednesday. The accused was identified as Atik, 24, a resident of Trilokpuri in east Delhi while the deceased were identified as Khurshid, 31, and Sajjad, 34, both residents of Bihar's Araria district. Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Amrutha Guguloth said that they had received a PCR call at 6.17 p.m. on Tuesday stating that two dead bodies were lying in a drain outside the India International Centre, Lodhi Estate. "As the police reached the spot, the relatives of the deceased people were already there, and also identified the bodies," she said. Police registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder, and launched investigations. "We examined all the CCTV cameras in the area. As per our preliminary investigation, accused Atik's involvement in the said crime came to the fore and we arrested him," the DCP said. Atik has been previously found involved in a case of Arms Act registered at Sarita Vihar police station, while police revealed that one of the deceased, Khurshid, also had a previous involvement in a theft case. Meanwhile, it was learnt that the people came to know about the dead bodies lying in the drain as there was no lid over the manhole. However, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) clarified that the manhole from where the corpses were recovered belonged to MTNL. The NDMC also said that the drains which comes under their jurisdiction are not cleaned manually by NDMC employees/workers, but by mechanical means. --IANS uj/vd ( 294 Words) 2022-03-23-23:20:03 (IANS)
Marriage is no license to "provide special male privilege or a license for unleashing a brutal beast", said the Karnataka High Court while refusing to drop rape charges framed by a trial court against a man for his wife's alleged sexual assault. "The institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer and should not be construed to confer, any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a brutal beast," said a single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court said. The High Court's observations came on a case filed by a woman who accused her husband of treating her as a 'sex slave'. While upholding the charge of rape against the husband, the bench observed: "A man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the 'husband' on the woman 'wife'. If it is punishable to a man, it should be punishable to a man albeit, the man being a husband." At present, the exception to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, says sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape. However, the High Court clarified that the order pertains to the framing of charges against the husband and is not about whether marital rape should be recognised as an offence. "It is for the legislature to delve upon the issue and consider tinkering of the exemption. This Court is not pronouncing upon whether marital rape should be recognised as an offence or the exception be taken away by the legislature," the Karnataka High Court stated. The petitioner alleged said that her husband forced her to have unnatural sex, even in front of their daughter. Earlier in January this year, while hearing the petitions relating to the criminalization of marital rape, the Delhi High Court questioned how the dignity of a married woman is not affected as an unmarried woman when the man imposes himself on her and remarked that relationship cannot put it on a different pedestal as a woman remains a woman. In August 2021, the Chhattisgarh High Court acquitted a man charged with marital rape stating that sexual intercourse or any sexual act between a legally wedded couple is not rape even if done by force. (ANI)
Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "Anguished by the passing away of former CJI RC Lahoti Ji. He will be remembered for his contributions to the judiciary and emphasis on ensuring speedy justice to the underprivileged. Condolences to his family and well-wishers. Om Shanti."

Lahoti passed away at a Delhi hospital on Wednesday.

Justice Lahoti was appointed as the Chief Justice of India on June 1, 2004, and retired on November 1, 2005.

He was born on November 1, 1940, and joined the Bar in District Guna in 1960 while enrolling as an Advocate in 1962.

In April 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a District and Sessions Judge.

After functioning as a District and Sessions Judge for a year, he resigned in May 1978 and reverted to the Bar to practice mainly in the High Court.

He was later appointed as the Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 3, 1988, and was made a permanent Judge on August 4, 1989.

He was transferred to Delhi High Court on February 7, 1994, and thereafter he was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on December 9, 1998. (ANI)
Taking suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. The Court has also directed the state government to submit a status report on the incident in 24 hours (by around 2 pm on Thursday).

A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh.

Ahead of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Rampurhat on Thursday, Superintendent of Police of Birbhum, Nagendra Nath Tripathi inspected the village along with a large contingent of the police personnel.

A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. (ANI)
With this, the active cases in the country have witnessed a dip; at 0.05 per cent, total active COVID infections in India stand at 22,427.

Yesterday, the active COVID cases were 23,087.

Presently, with 5,918 cases, Kerala has the highest number of active COVID infections, followed by Maharashtra (5,089), and Karnataka (1,844).

In the last 24 hours, as many as 2,531 recoveries from the virus and 67 COVID deaths were also reported by the Ministry in a press release.

The death toll has now climbed to 5,16,672, while the total recoveries have mounted to 4,24,75,588.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.29 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was at 0.35 per cent, the health ministry said.

A total of 6,61,954 COVID-19 tests were conducted in India in the last 24 hours. India has so far conducted over 78.49 crore cumulative tests.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive have exceeded 182.23 crore (1,82,23,30,356). 31,81,809 COVID vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years began on March 16, 2022.

So far, 72,17,166 COVID vaccine doses have been administered for the group, of which 18,84,945 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the last 24 hours.

In the drive for the 'precaution doses' to the healthcare workers, frontline workers and 60 plus individuals with comorbidities which commenced on January 10 this year, as many as 2,21,21,816 beneficiaries have been vaccinated. (ANI)
A day after all the three MLAs of Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) joined the BJP, party chief Mukesh Sahani on Thursday refused to resign from the post of Bihar cabinet minister stating that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has to take a decision on it and he will abide by his orders. VIP is part of the BJP-Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar. Addressing a press conference in Patna, the VIP chief said that his political life has been full of struggle and he is ready to fight till his last breath. "My good wishes are with those three MLAs who were with us till yesterday and have joined another party (BJP) now. Our 3 MLAs made their total to 77 MLAs, they became the number one party of Bihar, I congratulate them," said Sahani. When asked about his resignation from the ministerial post, the VIP chief said, "My resignation is the prerogative of CM Nitish Kumar, so I will do as he says. CM Nitish Kumar has to decide who will be a minister in his government. Remove me if you want." Accusing the leaders of Bihar BJP, he said that there was a conspiracy to break him from the very beginning. "Whenever I have tried to move forward, I am a knock in the eyes of the people. I have not done any mistake by contesting the UP elections. I will fight till my last breath for my people but Sanjay Jaiswal lied a lot," said Sahani. He said that BJP Bihar chief Sanjay Jaiswal had no knowledge of the VIP-BJP alliance and has lied a lot. "After talking to the BJP high command, I formed an alliance. Sanjay Jaiswal was not even standing outside the room then. What Sanjay Jaiswal and other BJP leaders are saying, if Union Home Minister Amit Shah says the same thing, then I will accept it. The party which becomes the single largest party by snatching the MLAs of others , that party does not have the right to demand my resignation on moral grounds," he said. Sahni further said in 2020, when he joined the government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, the people could not digest it. "BJP got angry because I demanded reservation of Nishad society in SC or ST category. BJP got angry with us for demanding caste census. I am the son of Nishad. I will continue to fight for the rights of my society. I am the son of Mallah. BJP will know that I have huge public support behind me. I will continue to fight for the most backward till my last breath. I am not afraid of anyone. People want me to do what they say but I am not one of those who do so," he said. Sahni further said that if he had accepted the conditions of BJP and bowed down, then his party would not have broken. "It is the habit of BJP to cheat its allies. Bihar has a by-election in Bochahan. We will fight and win. This was my seat in NDA but BJP fielded a candidate from here. We fought against BJP in Uttar Pradesh. We will fight where it is needed. I will not disclose what was my deal during the time of alliance with the BJP. Amit Shah knows. If the deal is disclosed, it will not be good for the country," he added. The VIP chief said that he has been struggling since the age of 18. "I knew that anything can happen in this fight, people took the decision they wanted to make but I will keep working for the people," he said. In a major setback to Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insan Party, all of its three MLAs joined the BJP on Wednesday. Notably, Sahani who is now left as the only representative from his party as an MLC, is the sitting Minister in the Bihar government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and has shown rebellious colours in the past. The three MLAs who quit the VIP and joined the BJP are Raju Singh, Mishri Lal Yadav, and Swarna Singh. (ANI)
According to the Naval press release, a 61-year-old mariner John A Jimenez of the ro-ro motor vessel Grand Neptune off Kochi coast was evacuated at 3.30 pm on Wednesday after a vessel raised medical distress at 8.30 am.

The patient was critical, requiring immediate hospitalisation, the Maritime Rescue Sub Centre (MRSC) in Kochi was informed.

"Considering the gravity of the situation and fulfilling the Coast Guard mandate of providing assistance to distressed mariner at Sea, MRSC (Kochi) initiated the evacuation operation. Meanwhile, MV Grand Neptune was directed to approach Kochi harbour to reduce response time," the release added.

MRSC (Kochi) liaised with agencies such as Customs, Immigration, Health Department and port control for necessary clearance.

The note further read, "At 4.30 pm the vessel reached off Kochi harbour anchorage and adhering to all COVID-19 Protocol and safety standards, the patient was safely transferred to vessel Tug Ocean Pioneer."

The patient was later shifted to Renai Medicity Hospital in Kochi. (ANI)
Amid controversy over banning Muslims from setting up stalls at temple fairs in Karnataka, vendors at the historic 'Kote Marikamba Jatra' in Shivamogga have put up saffron flags at their stalls. A Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Deen Dayal defended the practice, saying that it is not wrong to put up saffron flags at the stalls. "The flag is a symbol of Hindu religion. We have accommodated only Hindu vendors to open shops," he said. The VHP leader said, "Buyers and sellers should be Hindus. That is the reason, we banned Muslim shops here, as those who are worshipping Hindu deities should do business on our premises." The five-day festival of 'Kote Marikamba Jatra', where devotees offer prayers to Goddess Marikamba, commenced on March 23 with only Hindus being permitted to set up stalls. At several other fairs across the state as well, some temple authorities and organizing committees of fairs have barred Muslims from doing business, after the hijab row in Karnataka. For years, Muslims have been setting up stalls at such annual fairs at temples. In the backdrop of protest against wearing hijab at educational institutions, some of the temple authorities and organising committees have barred Muslim traders from participating in the festival, the first such incident in the state. Several organisations objected to the participation of Muslim traders after many of them had closed their shops to protest the Karnataka High Court verdict upholding the state's ban on hijabs at educational institutions. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Thursday said that exams have nothing to do with Hijab while hearing the mentioning of a plea seeking urgent hearing on a petition challenging the ban on sporting Hijab in educational institutes. Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the petitioner mentioned his plea seeking urgent hearing on petitions challenging Karnataka High Court's order that dismissed petitions against the ban on Hijab in educational institutions. Senior counsel Devadatt Kamat said that exams are starting on March 28 and students would lose a year as authorities are not allowing their entry in educational institutions with hijab. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said, "Exams have nothing to do with the hijab issue." The Court also asked the counsel not to sensationalise the issue. Last week the Supreme Court had said that the appeal challenging the Karnataka High Court's order to uphold ban on Hijab in educational institutions would be listed for hearing after Holi break. Some of the petitioners had approached the apex court challenging the order upholding the Karnataka government's decision which directs strict enforcement of schools and colleges uniform rules. One of the appeals in the top court has alleged "step-motherly behaviour of government authorities which has prevented students from practising their faith and resulted in an unwanted law and order situation". The appeal said the High Court in its impugned order "had vehemently failed to apply its mind and was unable to understand the gravity of the situation as well as the core aspect of the essential religious practices enshrined under Article 25 of the Constitution of India". "Wearing of Hijab or headscarf is a practice that is essential to the practice of Islam," it added. A bench of Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit, and Justice JM Khazi on Tuesday held that the prescription of uniform is a reasonable restriction that students could not object to and dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on Hijab in education institutions, saying they are without merit. The Hijab row had erupted in January this year when the Government PU College in Udupi allegedly barred six girls wearing the Hijab from entering. Following this, the girls sat in protest outside college over being denied entry. After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state as well leading to protests and agitations in several places in Karnataka. As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and banned both Hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decided on the issue. On February 5, the pre-University education board released a circular stating that the students could only wear the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious attire would be allowed in colleges. The order stated that in case a uniform is not prescribed by management committees, then students should wear dresses that go well with the idea of equality and unity, and do not disturb the social order. A batch of petitions was filed against the government's rule in the Karnataka High Court by some girls seeking permission to wear the Hijab in educational institutions. On February 10, the High Court had issued an interim order stating that students should not wear any religious attire to classes till the court issued the final order. The hearings related to the Hijab case were concluded on February 25 and the court had reserved its judgement. (ANI)
After a major forest fire broke out in the Surguja and Dhamtari forest ranges of Chhattisgarh, the forest officials are facing a daunting task to douse the flames as the workers are on strike over various demands. "We're facing difficulties to douse the forest fires as Van Karmchari Sangh is on strike over several demands. If needed we'll take the help of police personnel and home guards to douse the flames", said Divisional Forest Officer (Surguja) Pankaj Kamal. A fire broke out in the forest areas of Gatta Silli Karhaiya Marg of Birgudi range on Tuesday while another fire broke out in the forest of Keregaon range on Wednesday. These forests have been burning for days now, churning out a lot of smoke and damage. The Dhamtari officials informed that forest fires are common in this season, however, they would have controlled it faster if they had all their workers involved. "These forest fires generally occur in this season. Our staff always remains alert. We would have doused it a little quicker but the staff is on strike. Over 300 workers helped douse the fire. It took us a little more time than usual but now the situation is under control," said Mayank Pandey, District Forest Officer. Further details are awaited. (ANI)
As the bench headed by CJI Ramana assembled today morning, the Chief Justice remembered former CJI Lahoti as a fearless independent judge.

"The entire legal fraternity has suffered a great loss with passing of Justice Lahoti. He will always be remembered as a fearless independent judge," CJI Ramana said and expressed condolences to his family and friends.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave said that on behalf of the bar, they expressed deepest condolences and remembered him as one of the finest judge.

Thereafter the bench observed one-minute silence to pay respect to Justice Lahoti.

Justice Lahoti was appointed as the Chief Justice of India on June 1, 2004, and retired on November 1, 2005.

Born on November 1, 1940, Lahoti joined the Bar in District Guna in 1960 and enrolled as an Advocate in 1962. In April 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a District and Sessions Judge.

After functioning as a District and Sessions Judge for a year, he resigned in May 1978 and reverted to the Bar for practice mainly in the High Court.

He was later appointed as the Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 3, 1988, and was made permanent a Judge on August 4, 1989.

He was transferred to Delhi High Court on February 7, 1994, and thereafter he was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on December 9, 1998. (ANI)
"Kerala CM Vijayan Pinarayi called on PM Narendra Modi," Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet.

The Chief Minister will hold a press conference at 4 pm today at Conference hall, Kerala House.

This comes just a day after the Kerala Chief Minister informed that the land acquisition process for the Kochi-Bangalore Industrial Corridor, a leap forward in the industrial sector of Kerala, is progressing rapidly.

Further, this meeting holds crucial importance as several people across Kerala are protesting against the SilverLine project. The first major protest happened in Kottayam's Madampally on March 18.

Vijayan earlier this month said that Left Democratic Front (LDF) led Kerala government will implement the SilverLine project while assuring that the state government would pay four times the prevailing market prices as compensation for acquiring land.

The 529-km SilverLine railway project will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in north Kerala, covering 11 districts through 11 stations. The journey between two stations is expected to take four hours, whereas it currently takes 12 hours to reach from one end to another.

It is also being opposed by the opposition Congress-led UDF, which has been alleging that the project is "unscientific and impractical" and will put a huge financial burden on the state. (ANI)
Special CBI court of Delhi on Thursday dismissed the bail petition of Anand Subramanian in connection with the NSE co-location case. Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and ex-advisor to former MD of National Stock Exchange (NSE), was the first person arrested by the CBI in the case last month. Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal refused to grant the bail to Subramanian. The court recently had kept the order reserved after hearing the arguments of both sides. Earlier, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, who appeared for Subramanian, argued that as far as the allegations contained in the FIR are concerned, the applicant has been wrongly implicated in the case, since he is not connected in any manner with the allegations so levelled. No offence is made out even from a reading of the FIR. "In fact, the FIR pertains to the applicant's alleged role in the unfair access to Co-location facilities to one Sanjay Gupta and his company OPG Security Pvt Ltd. It has been stated that Sanjay Gupta with help from unknown persons, managed the data centre staff of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who passed on information regarding switching on time of NSE exchange servers, which gave him an unfair advantage," submitted Singh. Advocates Vishnu Mohan and Aakashi Lodha also appeared for Arvind Subramanian in the case. The CBI counsel while opposing the bail plea submitted that 832 GB of data was recovered. "We recovered it from the archive. We have written to Microsoft to give us the complete data. He was not cooperating with us. He even deleted material and certain emails. Anand is very influential and there is every possibility that he might flee," said the CBI lawyer. CBI further submitted that this person was known to Chitra Ramkrishna prior to joining the NSE. "There are several emails of this person influencing Chitra. The emails that have been extracted suggests that sensitive information has been leaked," it said. Earlier, the CBI submitted that they are seriously looking at all the aspects of the investigation and a special team of 30 officials consisting of senior officials has been formed to probe the case. "We are also probing the role of SEBI officials in the matter. We have also recently questioned Ravi Narain, former MD of NSE," the CBI said. The court recently sent former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case in Judicial remand. The CBI, while producing Chitra Ramkrishna after arrest, also apprised the court that Chitra did not recognize Anand Subramanian in the first meeting. According to the CBI investigation, group operating officer Anand Subramanian's appointment was influenced by NSE chairman and MD Chitra Ramakrishnan. The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers. Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) penalized the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former CEOs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level. Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016. The market regulatorv observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director. (ANI)
The sources said that the meeting is important ahead of the legislature party meeting.

According to the sources, the legislature party is likely to meet today, a day before the swearing-in of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of the state.

The oath-taking ceremony of Adityanath will take place on March 25, sources said. This will be his second term as the Chief Minister of the state.

As per sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda are on the list of invitees for the scheduled oath-taking ceremony of Yogi Adityanath.

Earlier on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met J P Nadda at the latter's residence.

Adityanath had tendered his resignation from the state Legislative Council after being elected as an MLA from his bastion Gorakhpur and leading his party to a thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh.

Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.

The BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share. (ANI)
Since, the arrest of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, BJP has been pressing for Malik's resignation.

The Special PMLA court on Monday extended the judicial custody of Malik till April 4.

The court has also allowed Malik to be provided with a bed, mattress, and chair during his judicial custody. However, the court has kept his application for home food pending and will decide on this on the next date of hearing.

Malik, the chief of NCP's Mumbai unit and also the Guardian minister for Parbhani and Gondia districts, is currently in judicial custody. He was arrested on February 23.

Last week, the Bombay High Court had denied any interim relief to Malik and refused to pass an order for his release from judicial custody.

The Maharashtra state Assembly's annual budget session is scheduled to end on March 25. (ANI)
A complaint has been filed with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the Legal Cell of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) against violation of human rights of the residents of Baktui village of Birbhum, West Bengal. Complainant Amrish Ranjan Pandey, National Secretary, (IYC) and Ambuj Dixit, National Co-Coordinator, Legal Cell, (IYC) filed a complaint against the West Bengal government demanding an independent investigation in the killings of people in Baktui village, Birbhum, West Bengal. The complaint states, "Media reports show that Trinamool Congress (TMC) has unleashed a wave of violence against political opponents in the area, resulting in arson and killing being widespread in the area. A mass exodus of people is also happening from the village on account of fear of being killed by TMC goons." Following the violence in which several people died, the leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will visit Birbhum on Thursday. "Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will visit Birbhum today, March 24 in the wake of the incident which killed more than eight people. Following his visit to Birbhum in West Bengal, he will submit the report to party leadership," said K Suresh, Chief Whip of Congress in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chowdhury, who is also West Bengal Congress chief, on Wednesday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind, requesting him to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution "to ensure that the Government of West Bengal is carried on in accordance with the provision of the Constitution." As many as eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh. Director-General of Police (DGP) West Bengal, Manoj Malviya informed that 11 arrests have been made in the case so far. He further informed that Bhadu Shaikh's murder was reported on Monday night, an hour after which 7-8 houses nearby had caught fire. A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday took cognizance of the Birbhum incident. (ANI)
Fresh harvest of wheat crops bloomed along the zero line of the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district with the farmers getting support from the Border Security Force (BSF) and the civil administration, officials said on Thursday. The seeds, ploughing, fertilizers, weedicides were given to the locals free of cost under the National Food Security Mission implemented by the Agriculture Department in the area. The officials stated that the local farmers will be provided with farming machinery at a subsidised rate. "We have cultivated a 56.4-hectare area of land with hard work of farmers and with the help of Border Security Force (BSF). I am thankful to the government. Also, we will give 100 tractors, along with farm machinery in subsidy to farmers who cultivate in 5 kms area of zero line" said RK Gupta, Sub-Divisional Agriculture officer, Hiranagar. The cultivation of crops at the zero line was made possible after the declaration of a ceasefire on the India-Pakistan international border as part of an effective foreign policy strongly implemented by both countries. (ANI)
A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh.

Ahead of Banerjee's visit to Rampurhat, Superintendent of Police of Birbhum, Nagendra Nath Tripathi inspected the village along with a large contingent of the police personnel.

Following the direction of the Calcutta High Court, CCTV cameras are being installed in the violence-affected area of Rampurhat. Taking suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. The Court has also directed the state government to submit a status report on the incident in 24 hours (by around 2 pm on Thursday).

A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. (ANI)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said that there will be no tax on wheat exported from the state. The announcement came after Chouhan and Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal held a virtual meeting with exporters. Speaking to ANI, Chouhan said, "There will be no mandi tax imposed on wheat exported from Madhya Pradesh. We will provide all possible facilities to the exporters." With this, the exporters can now buy wheat from mandis or farmers directly, said the Chief Minister. "Railway Board has assured us to provide racks for wheat export," Chouhan added. Notably, India is in talks with countries like Egypt, Turkey, China, Bosnia, Sudan, Nigeria, Iran and other countries beyond its Asian and South Asian neighbours to export wheat. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India is in final talks to start wheat export to Egypt, while discussions are going on with countries like Turkey, China, Bosnia, Sudan, Nigeria, Iran and others to start wheat export. The export of wheat recorded a huge surge at USD 1,742 million during April-January 2021-22, growing 387 per cent over the corresponding period in 2020-21 when it touched USD 340.17 million. India has reported a wheat export worth USD 2,352.22 million in the last three years, including the first 10 months of the current fiscal 2021-22. In 2019-20, the wheat export was worth USD 61.84 million which rose to USD 549.67 million in 2020-21. Though India is not among the top 10 wheat exporters in the global trade, its rate of growth in exports has surpassed that of other countries, indicating the rapid strides it is taking in reaching new markets worldwide. India's wheat exports are mainly to neighbouring countries with Bangladesh having the largest share of more than 54 per cent in both volume and value terms in 2020-21. In 2020-21, India entered new wheat markets such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar and Indonesia. (ANI)
The ceremony was marked by the unfurling of national flags of both the participant countries followed by their national anthems.

Indian Army contingent arrived at Yangiarik, Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

The joint exercise would focus on Counter-Terrorism operations in semi-urban terrain under a United Nations Mandate. The training schedule will focus primarily on sharing tactical level drills and learning best practices from each other. The exercise aims at enhancing understanding, cooperation and interoperability between two armies.

The third edition of the exercise will contiwould be conducted at Yangiarik, Uzbekistan from March 22 to March 31. (ANI)
Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation led by MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the Parliament and urged him to remove the West Bengal Governor in view of the Birbhum incident. TMC delegation including Derek O' Brien, Mahua Moitra and other leaders met Shah. "We have said that Governor of West Bengal should be removed, in view of the Rampurhat, Birbhum incident. His work is against our constitutional system. The parliamentary democratic system is under threat," said Bandyopadhyay, after meeting Amit Shah. He further said that so far 21 persons have been arrested in the incident. "We have given a copy of the letter by the Chief Minister for changing of Governor, to the Home Minister. Our CM is handling the situation finely. 21 persons have been arrested so far, 15 police officials have been asked to go on leave. No guilty person will be spared," said Bandyopadhyay. When asked, what the Home Minister said, the TMC MP said, "He very categorically said that we are not looking for any political angle in this matter. I also believe that there I no political angle in the incident." A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh. Ahead of Banerjee's visit to Rampurhat, Superintendent of Police of Birbhum, Nagendra Nath Tripathi inspected the village along with a large contingent of the police personnel. Following the direction of the Calcutta High Court, CCTV cameras are being installed in the violence-affected area of Rampurhat. Taking suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. The Court has also directed the state government to submit a status report on the incident in 24 hours (by around 2 pm on Thursday). A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. (ANI)
A Delhi Court on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of Umar Khalid, an accused in the northeast Delhi violence larger conspiracy case. Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader, Khalid was arrested on 13 September 2020 under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Karkardooma court had reserved the order on March 3. The order was to be pronounced on 14 March. It was deferred for non-filing of written arguments by the lawyer of Umar Khalid. Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the bail plea on Thursday. Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad had stated that in the case of conspiracy, the wholesome conduct of the accused has to be seen. There are multiple chats and other evidence is there. He also submitted that there is adequate material on record against the accused. He had submitted on the specific question asked by the court on Umar Khalid's speech at Amaravati, that the permission for the program was rejected on 11 February 2020 by the Maharashtra police. Again on 12 February, another application was filed by an office-bearer of the Welfare Party of India mentioning six dignitaries, except Umar Khalid. The father of the accused is the national president of the party. Permission was given only for six people, despite this Umar Khalid went there and gave a speech on 17 February. An FIR was lodged in this regard for not obeying the order, argued the SPP. Senior Advocate Tridip Pais the counsel for the accused rebutted saying that the said order and FIR were illegal because there cannot be restrictions on the right to speech. There are no such restrictions in the Maharashtra Police Act. He argued that Umar Khalid was not named as accused of the said FIR registered in the Amaravati matter. Nothing happened after the speech. The prosecution can not it call it an act of terror because he gave a speech there. "Prosecution is making a mockery of prosecution of UAPA." He also argued that the 'Bharat tere tukde honge' remark was not attributed to Khalid in charge sheet filed in the JNU case 2016. But this time the prosecution has attributed the remark to him. This case is related to the larger conspiracy of northeast Delhi riots in which 53 people died and hundreds had got injured. Delhi police had lodged a larger conspiracy case naming Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima including others. (ANI)
During the brawl, many vehicles were also set on fire.

The deceased identified as Sujit Singh was the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker Udal Singh whose supporters blocked the Mumbai-Agra highway to protest against the incident.

Upon getting the information about the protest, police personnel and administrative officials reached the spot to remove protestors and registered a case against the accused.

"There was a dispute between a person named Raja Verma and Sujit Singh regarding boring. Raja was getting the boring done due to which there was enormous dust in the sky. This led to a serious clash between both the parties," said Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Pawan Jain.

Earlier today, the district administration demolished the houses of the three accused. The main accused Raju Verma and two others have been arrested in the case. (ANI)
While dismissing the bail petition of Anand Subramanian in connection with the NSE co-location case, the Special CBI court of Delhi on Thursday remarked on the mysterious "Himalayan Yogi" and said that the investigating agency is in the process of "removing the secret veil" to reveal "true face" of the Yogi who is "as elusive as the anecdotal Himalayan Yeti". Earlier, the CBI claimed that former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna had been guided by a "Himalayan Yogi" while taking important decisions during her tenure and also shared the bourse's internal matters with a mysterious person -- the Himalayan Yogi. The court noted that the prosecution alleged that the present accused (Anand Subramanian) is the Himalayan Yogi, to whom confidential information regarding the structure and working of NSE was shared on the email rigyajursama@outlook.com by the co-accused Chitra Ramakrishna, who is alleged to have been working in tandem in this alleged insidious conspiracy called co-location scam. The special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal while dismissing the bail plea of Anand Subramanian said that the prosecution at this stage of investigation is stated to be working on disjoint scattered dots, from which it has to conjure a final picture in the shape of a charge sheet. The investigations which are at the initial stage will crystalize into concrete form only after filing the charge sheet. "Therefore, considering the grave and serious allegations against the present accused, as discussed above, no ground for his bail is made out at this stage. The application stands dismissed," said the court. Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and ex-advisor to former MD of National Stock Exchange (NSE) was the first person arrested by the CBI in the case last month. Earlier, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, who appeared for Subramanian, argued that as far as the allegations contained in the FIR are concerned, the applicant has been wrongly implicated in the case, since he is not connected in any manner with the allegations so levelled. No offence is made out even from a reading of the FIR. "In fact, the FIR pertains to the applicant's alleged role in the unfair access to Co-location facilities to one Sanjay Gupta and his company OPG Security Pvt Ltd. It has been stated that Sanjay Gupta with help from unknown persons, managed the data centre staff of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who passed on information regarding switching on time of NSE exchange servers, which gave him an unfair advantage," submitted Singh. Advocates Vishnu Mohan and Aakashi Lodha also appeared for Arvind Subramanian in the case. The CBI counsel while opposing the bail plea submitted that 832 GB of data was recovered. "We recovered it from the archive. We have written to Microsoft to give us the complete data. He was not cooperating with us. He even deleted material and certain emails. Anand is very influential and there is every possibility that he might flee," said the CBI lawyer. CBI further submitted that this person was known to Chitra Ramkrishna prior to joining the NSE. "There are several emails of this person influencing Chitra. The emails that have been extracted suggests that sensitive information has been leaked," it said. Earlier, the CBI submitted that they are seriously looking at all the aspects of the investigation and a special team of 30 officials consisting of senior officials has been formed to probe the case. "We are also probing the role of SEBI officials in the matter. We have also recently questioned Ravi Narain, former MD of NSE," the CBI said. The court recently sent former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case in Judicial remand. According to the CBI investigation, group operating officer Anand Subramanian's appointment was influenced by NSE chairman and MD Chitra Ramakrishnan. The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers. Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) penalized the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former CEOs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level. Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016. The market regulator observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director. (ANI)
The Centre on Thursday assured the Rajya Sabha that all aspects linked to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including impact on trade, are being examined by a group of different Ministries led by the Union Finance Ministry. "...Because of the emerging problems in dealing with Russia, our government is examining various aspects, including the payment aspect. There is a group within the government composed of different ministries. It is led by Finance Ministry to examine these matters," said Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while replying to a supplementary question asked by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral during Question Hour. Gujral mentioned that India has been facing a day-to-day problem when it comes to trade with Russia and said that the West is playing a double game as they continue to import petroleum from Russia while lecturing us (India) not to trade with them. "For many years India had a policy and we used to do rupee trade with Russia. Is the government thinking on those lines so that our exports are not hurt and we continue to import from Russia?" Gujral asked. Jaishankar then clarified that India imports very little oil from Russia. "It is less than one per cent of our imports. And many other countries import 10, 15, 20 times..." Jaishankar said. Replying to another supplementary query of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha, the Minister said that India is very clear on its policy "which is very much guided by our belief that the international border must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state." "At the same time, what is happening in our neighbourhood is obviously it is in our attention. There is a lot of development taking place and we are monitoring them very carefully," said Jaishankar. Noting that India had a robust policy from 1947 onwards whenever territorial integrity or sovereignty is violated anywhere in the world, Jha had asked "Are we in sync with the same kind of policy as far as our statement is concerned on the Ukraine-Russia issue? Are we (India) watching realignment in our immediate neighbourhood?" On another supplementary question asked by BJP leader Swapan Das Gupta, Jaishankar said "our (India's) position is for peace". "When the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) spoke to (Russian) President Putin three times and he spoke to (Ukraine) President Zelensky two times, the intent at that time was to evacuate Indian students as it was a very big issue. But there was also a larger conversation about what we could do to lead to encourage a secession of hostilities and return to diplomacy and dialogue. Today, that sentiment is widely shared by many countries in the world," the External Affairs Minister said. Pointing at increasing polarization, Gupta had asked "Is this going to have any negative impact on some of our (India's) closest allies?" (ANI)
Botswana is witnessing a steady growth in research collabora- tions. Although not a sig- nificant growth, there are signs that research partnerships between local and regional institutions are growing gradually, according to the Department of Research Science and Technol- ogy Director, Lesego Thamae.

Thamae attributes the growth in research partnerships to Botswana being a member of the Science Grant- ing Councils Initiative. The Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub- Saharan Africa (SGCI) is focused on strengthening the capacities of Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in order to support research and evidence- based policies that will contribute to economic and social development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Other members include; Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Senegal, Rwanda, Uganda and Mozambique. Botswana joined the initiative in 2016. Thamae says participation in the SGCI led to new partners, networks, and collabora- tions in projects and research. Participation in the SGCI has en- hanced Botswanas partnership with other SGCI member states, she said.

Through the participation, Botswana has been successfully engaged in the following collaborative initia- tives: the Botswana Digital and In- novation Hub in collaboration with the Research Council of Zimbabwe. They are currently administering two research projects between Botswana and Zimbabwe researchers sponsored by the SGCI with 15 percent budgetary contributions from both Botswana and Zimbabwe. The Projects will complete in November 2022. In 2021, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso successfully co-hosted the SGCI Annual General meeting and the Global Research Councils Africa Annual meeting.

Through the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), Botswana is also among the first 10 SGCI member states to host a Research Chair under the OR Tambo Africa Research Chair Initiative (OR- TARCHi). The Chair is wholly-spon- sored by the National Research Foun- dation (NRF, South Africa) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada). In another initiative, University of Botswana man- aged to receive research grants for three research projects under the Covid-19 Africa Rapid Research Grants. The initiative is sponsored by NRF, South Africa, under the auspices of the SGCI.

Botswana, South Africa and Japan are currently at the tail end of a Research Call, involving research collaboration between researchers in the three countries under the Initiative called Africa  Japan Collaborative Research (A-J CORE) Initiative. The research Projects from collaborative partners are currently at the review stage. Botswana is also participating in a Regional Initiative involving Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe and the German Research Foundation.



The initiative, wholly sponsored by the German Research Foundation, is aimed at proving a platform for development of collaborative projects between researchers from the participating countries sand German researchers. The Department of Research Science and Technology Officers have received training on various courses to attain Professional certification in Research Management through Southern African Research and Innovation Man- agement Association (SARIMA) and University of Wits in South Africa. Regarding the partnership between Botswana and Zimbabwe, the director said the BIUST and the University of Zimbabwe under the thematic area of minerals are spearheading the research partnership. The focus of the bilateral project between the two nations is Coal Beneficiation for the Metallurgical Industry.

According to Professor Edison Muzenda (PhD) from BIUSTs Faculty of Engineering and Technology, they are expected to establish a comprehensive Botswana and Zimbabwe coal database in which the coal and coal seam properties are catalogued. Thamae says about 300 000 Canadian dollars, approximately P3 million was made available through the SGCI for Botswana. We entered into a collaborative relationship on research and in- novation with the Research Council of Zimbabwe and we signed a Memorandum of Understanding. We were able to identify areas of common mutual interests and in this case were mining and minerals research, Thamae said.

Abraham Mathodi, a chief research science and technology officer with the Department of Research Science and Technology adds: Minerals was a thematic area that was agreed by the two countries and out of that two projects from Botswana were successful and both of them came from BIUST. These projects are scheduled to complete in November 2022. The outbreak of COVID-19 has also presented Botswana an opportunity to carry research projects in partnership with other countries.

According to Thamae, through the National Research of South Africa,researchers were called to do research and implement science engagement activities associated with the pandemic. Our role was to get the Botswana researchers to participate in that research, she said. Mathodi adds that, Our role was to facilitate for our Botswana researchers to take part and apply for the grants that were offered and out of that we had about 30 sub- missions from Botswana.

Out of that three successful appli- cations received funding. These were from different institutions in Botswana. The projects are ongoing at the moment and our role now is to facilitate for the implementation of the project. Projects are mainly around issues of COVID-19.



Participation in the SGCI has not only helped Botswana witness an increase in research partnerships but has also helped the Department of Research Science and Technology internal capacity to perform its func- tions. Thamae explains that through the SGCI, Botswana has participated in various capacity building initiatives which had a direct bearing on the development of RSTI in the country.

Some of the capacity building initia- tives that the Department participated in are: Research Granting and Con- tracts management, Research ethics and Integrity, Gender mainstreaming and research, database development and management, Monitoring, Evalu- ation and Learning (MEL), Policy development and Strategy formulation, Science communication and public engagement, Partnerships.

Thamae praised the role played by the SGCI in helping Botswana reach its research, technology and innovation potential. Other countries are advancing very quickly because they have Research Funds or Council, we joined (SGCI) as a government department, but for us the whole area of how research funding is administered has not been really clearly defined, she said. Thamae revealed that Botswana is in the process of setting up a Research Fund with the hope that the countrys research and innovation will be better coordinated and funded.




Bihar BJP President and Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Jaiswal on Thursday slammed Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani for the language used by him for central BJP leaders saying that "he is no more with NDA" in Bihar. VIP is part of the BJP-Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar. In an exclusive interview with ANI, Jaiswal said that all three VIP MLAs who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party were given seats from the VIP party in the 2020 Assembly election in Bihar and if any MLA of NDA speaks like this, it is not acceptable to BJP. The three MLAs who quit the VIP and joined the BJP are Raju Singh, Mishri Lal Yadav, and Swarna Singh. These remarks came after VIP chief Mukesh Sahani accused Bihar BJP leader and said that there was a conspiracy to break him from the very beginning. The VIP president also said that Sanjay Jaiswal had no knowledge of the VIP-BJP alliance and has lied a lot. "The languages VIP chief speaks against our top leadership is against coalition dharma. Efforts were made to convince him but the kind of language he used did not belong to NDA ally," Bihar BJP chief said. Further, the Lok Sabha MP from Bettiah constituency, Sanjay Jaiswal said that the conversation between VIP and Bihar BJP chief had already ended when the VIP filed nomination against the BJP candidate in bypolls for Bochaha Assembly seat. Recently, BJP also announced to field its candidate from the Bochaha assembly seat in the by-election to be held next month. The seat fell vacant after the serving legislator Musafir Paswan's death last year. It is obvious that you will not remain in NDA and will fight against us as well. He has become a victim of RJD's conspiracy. His son had already decided to go to RJD," he added. When asked that BJP demanded his resignation from the Bihar cabinet, Jaiswal stated that this is Chief Minister's prerogative and he has no role in the matter. "Such a person who has lost the election twice, despite that he made a minister in Bihar NDA govt. As soon as the VIP party filed the nomination against our candidate, I received a call from several MLAs. They expressed their desires and they quit the party," he said. Earlier in the day, Sahani refused to resign from the post of Bihar cabinet minister stating that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has to take a decision on it and he will abide by his orders. (ANI)
Raje, who was accompanied by a few MLAs from the state, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, BJP Rajasthan in-charge Arun Singh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Sources told ANI that Vasundhra Raje had 15-20 minute one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister. The meeting with Nadda also lasted about 20 minutes. The sources said that discussion with party leaders was held on the organisational issues and matters concerning the state.

The BJP lost the last election in Rajasthan and is keen to oust the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state. The Congress in Rajasthan had earlier witnessed turmoil following differences between the Chief Minister and party leader Sachin Pilot.

Rajasthan will face assembly polls towards the end of next year.

Vasundhara Raje, who is also BJP vice president, is scheduled to travel to Lucknow to take part in the oath-taking ceremony of Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for a second term. (ANI)
Slamming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over Birbhum violence in which eight people were charred to death earlier this week, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday said that the TMC supremo had destroyed West Bengal by creating 'danav raj' in the state. Chowdhury on Thursday visited the Bogtui village near Rampurhat in Birbhum in which the violence claimed eight lives on Tuesday. The Congress MP also said that TMC supremo's visit to Bogtui village in Birbhum was like a picnic for her. "Chief Minister came here today for a picnic. She came on a helicopter, held a meeting, had food and then left. She should have listened to the locals. She should have talked to the people here and could have heard their agonies," he added. Speaking to ANI, the Congress leader said, "It is a living example of medieval barbarism. There is 'danav raj' instead of 'manav raj' in West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has destroyed Bengal. The connivance of ruling TMC and Police are looting the state. No other state in the country has this kind of situation. Yes, violence happened in Hathras and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. We also went there. But, the situation of Bengal is the worst." Asked about the SIT investigation by the state government, Chowdhury said, "The SIT is just an eyewash. What happened in the Anish Khan case? An SIT was also made at that time. Nothing happened. Some sycophant officers of Didi (Mamata Banerjee) are made the head of SITs. We do not trust the SIT. We have demanded Article 355. We also want a court-monitored CBI probe." Anis Khan, a former student leader was found dead outside his home in Howrah's Amta area last month. His parents had alleged that he was thrown off the roof of the building by four police officers, who had come to search for their son. The police, however, denied the allegations. West Bengal government has formed an SIT to probe the matter. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday landed Bagtui village to meet the kin of those who were killed in the Birbhum violence. A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh. Meanwhile, Calcutta High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident and directed the state government to submit a status report on the incident in 24 hours. The Court had also directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. Following the direction. CCTV cameras are being installed in the violence-affected area of Rampurhat. A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. (ANI)
Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Thursday praised Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, saying the law and order under his watch has improved over the last five years, adding that his government did not discriminate with people on the basis of religion. "Yogi government has done the work of strengthening law and order situation in the last five years. Our government provided security to every single person of the state. We did not ask about anyone's religion before benefitting with our schemes," Amit Shah said after Yogi was elected as the leader of BJP legislative party in Uttar Pradesh. The Bharatiya Janata Party won the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections with a massive mandate- winning 255 out of 403 constituencies- resulting in the return of the party for a second continuous term. This is the first time in almost four decades that any political party has won consecutively. "In the last 35 years, not a single political party has got a majority for two consecutive terms in Uttar Pradesh. In 2014, BJP announced Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India and under his leadership, we saw the dream of forming our government in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 for the first time," Shah said. The Union Home Minister is in Lucknow to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Yogi Adityanath, who welcomed him at the airport. "Warm welcome and greetings to the Hon'ble Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri @AmitShah ji on the historical and holy land of Uttar Pradesh," tweeted Yogi. Preparations are underway for the oath-taking ceremony, which is scheduled for Friday and is expected to be attended by senior BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other chief ministers of BJP-ruled states. Swatantra Dev Singh, the state BJP chief, on Wednesday, inspected the preparations for the oath ceremony at the Ekana Stadium. A grand stage has been set up with a slogan on its poster that reads, 'New UP of New India' (Naye Bharat ka Naya UP). According to sources, around 85 thousand people will be attending the grand ceremony in the state capital's mega stadium. (ANI)
"I extend my heartiest congratulations to Yogi Adityanath on being elected the leader in the Uttar Pradesh BJP Legislature Party meeting today. Under his leadership, the state continues to progress on the path of progress, my best wishes," Rajnath tweeted in Hindi (roughly translated).

Earlier this evening, Yogi Adityanath was elected as the leader of the Legislative Party in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

In the recent Assembly polls, the BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies.

Addressing BJP MLAs in Lucknow, an emotional Yogi Adityanath said: "For the first time, a Chief Minister completed his five-year tenure and the party came to power once again for the second time (in Uttar Pradesh). This has happened for the first time. It has happened under the guidance and leadership of PM Modi."

Adityanath will take oath as UP chief minister at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow tomorrow where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and BJP senior leadership is expected to attend the oath-taking ceremony.

Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state. (ANI)
Three days after he was questioned, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has again summoned Trinamool Congress (TMC) National Secretary Abhishek Banerjee next week to join the probe in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal. Abhishek, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been asked to appear before the investigators at ED Headquarters in the national capital on March 29 when his statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he is expected to be confronted with some "evidences" gathered by officials probing the case, said sources. The 34-year-old MP from Diamond Harbour, Abhishek, was previously questioned on March 21 and in September last year in Delhi. Abhishek and his wife, last year, had moved the Delhi High Court against the summons issued by the agency last year in September which was dismissed on March 11. On March 11, a bench of Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar had denied the relief to Abhishek and his wife over the summons by ED over appearing at the national capital since they are the residents of Bengal. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing ED raising Prevention of PMLA said that the jurisdiction of ED is not 'confined' to any particular area or a police station. Following the court's order, ED issued summons to Abhishek and his wife this year asking them to join the probe on March 21 and March 22 respectively. On September 6 last year, Abhishek was questioned over eight hours here in Delhi in connection with the coal scam. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started the probe in the coal smuggling case and the ED initiated a parallel investigation. The CBI registered the case in November 2020. It is alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, had been sold in the black market over several years by a racket operating in the western parts of West Bengal where the Eastern Coalfields Limited runs several mines. On February 21 last year, a CBI team visited Abhishek's residence and summoned his wife and his sister-in-law Menaka Gambhir over the alleged connection in the coal scam. After quizzing Rujira, the CBI officials said that they are not satisfied with her reply. The ED lodged a case under the provisions of the PMLA based on a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. Local coal operator Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case. The ED had claimed that the parliamentarian was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade. It has arrested two people in this case till now. (ANI)
The murder occurred on February 20.

The NIA reportedly registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Wednesday regarding the murder case of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha Nagaraj, also known as Harsha Hindu.

Earlier, the Karnataka Police had arrested 10 people on March 2 in the murder case and invoked sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967 against them. The Karnataka Police is learnt to have raised suspicion of a larger conspiracy behind Harsha's murder, as he was involved in organizing support for the hijab ban at some of the colleges in Shivamogga.

Sources said that the NIA will soon now seek custody of the arrested suspects to begin investigations in the case.

Harsha, a 27-year-old Bajrang Dal worker in Shivamogga, was allegedly hacked to death by a local Muslim gang. (ANI)
A Special Delhi Court on Thursday granted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) an extension of the investigation period in which human rights activist Khurram Parvez and two others were arrested in a terror funding case in Kashmir. Special NIA Judge Praveen Singh on Thursday while allowing the agency's application said, "I find that as the investigation is in progress, the chances of tampering with evidence cannot be ruled out." "Considering all these facts and circumstances and considering the facts stated in PP report, many of which cannot be disclosed, I find that it is a fit case where further extension for the period of investigation as demanded should be granted. The application at hand is accordingly allowed. The detention of accused persons, namely, Muneer Ahmad Kataria, Arshid Ahmad Tonch and Khurram Parvez for the purpose of investigation, is extended for a further period of 50 days," Court said. NIA in its application stated that Pakistan-based proscribed terrorist organization Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT), which is engaged in waging war against the Government of India, has established a widespread network of operatives/overground workers for providing support in planning and execution of its terrorist activities in various parts of India. The application further stated that accused Muneer Ahmad Chowdhary, Arshid Ahmad Tonch and Jaffar have been running a network of overground workers of LeT and recruited persons across the various states of India. In pursuance to conspiracy, the accused are in contact with their foreign-based handlers and upon their directions are engaged in gathering intelligence on vital installations, security forces as well as identification of target locations for the launching of terrorist attacks. It is further submitted that during the investigation, searches were conducted at various places across Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal and incriminating documents and materials and objects were seized, said NIA. It is further submitted by NIA that during the course of the investigation, accused Muneer Ahmad Kataria, Arshid Ahmad Tonch, Khurram Parvez, Zaffar Baas, Rambhawan Prasad and Chandan Mahato were arrested. According to NIA, the investigation has revealed that certain official secret document of NIA was shared by accused Arvind Digvijay Negi with accused Muneer Ahmad Kataria through encrypted communication channels. It is further submitted that accused Muneer, Khurram and Arshid were taken into police custody and accused Arvind Digvijay Negi was also taken into police custody. During custodial interrogation, these accused were subjected to sustained interrogation. A total of 71 seized exhibits were forwarded to CERT-In and 21 digital gadgets to C-DAC Trivandrum for forensic analysis. The examination of 48 digital devices are yet to be received from the CERT-In. NIA further submitted that investigation is continuing against a number of suspects including the aforesaid accused on a number of aspects which will not be possible to conclude within the period of 130 days. Advocates Tanveer Ahmad Mir and Prabhav Ralli appeared for accused Khurram Parvez. Advocate Vaibhav Mishra, for accused Arshid Ahmad Tonch. Senior Advocate Trideep Pais with advocates Sanya Kumar and Priya Vats appeared for accused Muneer Ahmad Kataria. Advocate Rahul Tyagi, Special Public Prosecutor represented NIA in the court. Lawyers for the accused opposed the NIA plea and said this is in clear violation of the accused's right under Article 21 of the Constitution and submitted that when the last extension was granted, the court itself had observed that blanket extension of 90 days cannot be granted and if the investigating agency speeds up its investigation, it may be possible to conclude the investigation earlier. In this case, NIA Court recently sent IPS officer Arvind Digvijay Negi for Judicial Custody, arrested for allegedly leaking secret documents to an overground worker of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group. (ANI)
Buoyed by the victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday slammed Samajwadi Party for promoting 'criminalization of politics' in the state. He said that it is a proud moment for all as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has got a chance to come to power in the state again. Today, at the BJP Legislature Party meeting, Yogi Adityanath has been elected as the Leader of the Legislative Party in Uttar Pradesh. Addressing an event today after the meeting, Shah said, "It is a proud moment for all of us, when a Chief Minister has got a chance to come to power again. This has not happened in Uttar Pradesh since the general elections started in the country." "It has been possible under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he added. Former BJP chief Shah said that BJP government has brought poor welfare schemes to the common people without any discrimination. "There was no plan for the development of the poor in the SP-BSP government," he said. Shah lashed out at Samajwadi Party for hampering the pace of development in the state. He alleged that for most of the time, there was an atmosphere of political instability in Uttar Pradesh. "This resulted in the rise of casteist and family parties in the politics of Uttar Pradesh," he said. "There was sheer criminalization of politics in the Samajwadi Party government. The people of Uttar Pradesh wanted freedom from this. The time period of 2017 had come and the people here got freedom from it," he said. Home Minister recalled that earlier, the industrialists' conference (for investments to be made in Uttar Pradesh) used to be held in Delhi under the Samajwadi Party government. "This happened because no industrialist was ready to come to Lucknow," Union Home and Cooperation Minister said. Yogi Adityanath led his party to a victory in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share. Adityanath, a monk-turned-politician, won his first-ever Assembly election by a margin of 1,03,390 from Gorakhpur Urban constituency, defeating the Samajwadi Party candidate Subhawati Upendra Dutt Shukla, who secured 62,109 votes in the recently-concluded UP Assembly elections. (ANI)
The anti-terror agency filed the supplementary chargesheet against an accused Shahid Kasam Sumra from Gujarat in NIA Special Court, Ahmedabad.

The case is related to criminal conspiracy hatched by earlier arrested accused Arshad Sota in Dubai along with Pakistani nationals for delivering narcotic drugs in Gujarat from Pakistan.

In furtherance of the conspiracy, the NIA said, 500 kg of narcotic drugs were delivered in three consignments, and the last consignment was in form of a supply of 200 kg of heroin. The NIA had re-registered the case and took over its investigation from Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), Gujarat.

According to an official statement, the accused charge-sheeted yesterday was a close associate of earlier arrested accused persons Arshad Razak Sota and Rafik Adam Sumra and had absconded after committing the crime.

Shahid Kasam Sumra had stored, transported and delivered 495 Kg of the drugs, out of the 500 kg received from Pakistan to Amritsar in Punjab through his associates, the statement read.

Moreover, connected offence registered by Special Task Force (Border Range), Amritsar in its FIR on January 31, 2020, was also taken up by the NIA, said the agency.

The NIA has already filed two charge sheets against 9 arrested accused on August 7, 2020, and May 24 last year in this case.

Further investigation into the case is continuing. (ANI)
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In the first cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami after taking over as CM for the consecutive term, the Uttarakhand government on Thursday decided to form a committee of experts for the implementation of the 'Uniform Civil Code' in the state. Chief Minister Dhami said the new government decided in the first cabinet meeting that a committee of jurists, retired judges, enlightened people of the society and other stakeholders would be constituted to prepare a draft of 'Uniform Civil Code' for the state of Uttarakhand. The scope of this Uniform Civil Code will be equal law on matters like marriage-divorce, real estate and succession for all citizens irrespective of religion. Dhami said that this Uniform Civil Code would be an important step towards fulfilling the dreams of the framers of the Constitution and would give shape to the spirit of the Constitution. This will also be an effective step in the direction of Article 44 of the Indian Constitution, which introduces the concept of the Uniform Civil Code for all citizens of the country. "The Supreme Court has also stressed on its implementation from time to time. Also, in this important decision, we will also get inspiration from the state of Goa which has set an example in the country by implementing a kind of Uniform Civil Code," he said. According to Dhami, the implementation of the 'Uniform Civil Code' at the earliest in Uttarakhand will strengthen equal rights for all citizens of the state. "This will increase social harmony in the state, promote gender justice, empower women empowerment, and at the same time help preserve the exceptional cultural spiritual identity of Devbhoomi, its environment. The 'Uniform Civil Code' of Uttarakhand will stand as an example for other states as well," he emphasized. The committee of experts, intellectuals and stakeholders will be headed by a retired Judge or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court/High Court. It is proposed to constitute, through a notification in the Gazette, the Government of Uttarakhand will constitute a committee as above, in which its composition, terms of reference etc will also be mentioned. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the popular mandate for the second consecutive term in Uttarakhand and won 47 seats in the 70-member assembly. (ANI)
An anthropologist and author from Nagaland has alleged that her 80-year-old disabled mother was subjected to a "strip search" at the Guwahati airport on Thursday after her hip implant set off metal detectors during a security check. The incident took place at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) airport in Guwahati when wheelchair-bound, Mhalo Kikon who underwent a hip replacement surgery last year was forced to undress at the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) security check at the airport. The CISF claimed that their staff on duty followed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The passenger came into the booth for checking at 12.01 pm and left before 12.03 pm. A senior CISF officer said, "The security personnel on duty did her duty as per norms and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). If something appears doubtful in Door frame metal detector (DFMD) or Hand Held Metal Detectors (HHMD) checking, physical checking is mandatory in the next course. However, the matter is being looked into threadbare." As per Dolly Kikon, her mother Mhalo Kikon was travelling with her granddaughter to New Delhi. Dolly Kikon alleged, "the security personnel wanted 'proof' of her (mother's) titanium hip implant and forced her to "undress." In a series of tweets, Dolly Kinon said, "Someone please help! The CISF security personnel team at Guwahati Airport are harassing my niece who is taking care of my mother." Kinon also alleged that the staff took away the complaint form, while her niece was taking a photo of it stating that it is not "allowed". She tweeted, "My mom is distressed." In another tweet, she alleged, "It is disgusting! My 80-year-old disabled mother was forced to pull down her undergarment and get naked. Why? Why?" Responding to her complaint, Guwahati International Airport replied, "Dear Ma'am, we understand that the CISF and Security team have contacted you immediately to further assist the passengers and ensure comfort. The Safety and Security of all our passengers is our topmost priority. We eagerly look forward to serving you at Guwahati Airport." After facing criticism on social media, Guwahati Airport apologized for the inconvenience that the senior citizen had to face. (ANI)
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) showcased its work at Asia's biggest aviation event `Wings India 2022' at Begumpet airport in Hyderabad. It highlighted the development of airport infrastructure with world-class facilities, the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, and other works done to make the Indian Civil Aviation Industry better and affordable for the people. The building design and simulation of the Civil Aviation Research Organisation and the first-ever tableau of the Ministry of Civil Aviation at the Republic Day parade that won first prize was also showcased. Under its research and development initiative, The AAI signed an MoU with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to develop indigenous air traffic management systems (ATMS) with advanced-surface movement guidance and control system (ASMGCS). It is a complex air and ground surveillance system that manages air traffic at airports and in Indian Civil Airspace for safe operation off-fights from take-off to landing. The aim of ATMS with ASMGCS is to provide the air traffic controller with a complete air traffic picture. The Chairman of AAI visited the stall and highlighted the future investment plans. Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman of AAI said, "We are spending almost Rs 25,000 crores in the next three-four years, and we will be upgrading almost more than 40 airports in the next three-four years. Under this initiative of the government, a large number of airports have become operationalized in the last seven years. Earlier, we used to have 74 operational airports, and now we have 130 with 10 helipads and waterways". The AAI is fast developing airport infrastructure to improve air connectivity in the country. "Deoghar Airport is almost ready, Kushinagar was dedicated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the nation a few months back. We would be completing Holangi Airport and Rajkot Hirasar Airport this year then we are also building Dhallaur Airport", said Sanjeev Kumar. The four-day long Wings India 2022 showcases the growth and opportunities in the Civil Aviation sector. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry and FICCI are jointly organizing the biennial event with India@75: New Horizon for Aviation Industry as the main theme. Business to Business and Business to Government deliberations are underway among various stakeholders as the conference cum exhibition is providing a platform for the same. (ANI)
Amid the row over the Birbhum violence, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra on Thursday said democracy is under the biggest threat in West Bengal. The BJP leader slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the "falling law and order situation in West Bengal." Briefing mediapersons here Patra said, "This is the fall of humanity. The way eight people were burnt to death, is a matter of great concern for the entire country. A few questions should be asked to Mamata Banerjee. These are revenge killings. Democracy is under the greatest threat in West Bengal. According to the postmortem report, these people were badly beaten up and then burnt alive. This is almost like a concentration camp. Terming Mamata Banerjee as "Nirmam Banerjee", the BJP leader further said, "These are gruesome killings. This is because the administration is working hand-in-glove with these people. Even ambulances were not being sent to that place on time." Patra demanded that Chief Minister Banerjee aplogoise for her remarks for likening the brutal incident with mere sneezing. He said, "Is this equivalent to sneezing? Would you compare this with sneezing? Mamata Banerjee should apologize." A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday reached Bagtui village in Rampurhat to meet the kin of those who were killed in the Birbhum violence. The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident and directed that the state government submit within 24 hours a status report on the incident. The Court had also directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. Following the direction. CCTV cameras are being installed in the violence-affected area of Rampurhat. A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. (ANI)
A sum of Rs 8 lakh has been handed over via cheque to the parents of Akshaya who was killed after being hit by a municipal corporation truck while crossing the road near Hebbal city, the civic body said on Thursday. "A compensation of Rs 8 lakh through cheque (RS 5 lakh from BBMP and Rs 3 lakh from MLA Byrathi Suresh) has been distributed today to the parents (Narasimhamurthy-Geetha) of Akshaya who lost her life after hit by BBMP's garbage truck while crossing the road near Hebbal," Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike told media persons here. "Along with that, an amount of Rs 2 lakh will be given from the owner of the garbage lorry to the parents of the accident victim," Gupta said. The BBMP Chief Commissioner said that the incident took place on March 21 near Hebbal bus stop in Bengaluru. "We just need to be much more cautious of road safety furthermore. About eight months ago, a pedestrian skywalk was inaugurated very near to the spot where the accident happened. It should be made very well utilized. It should be ensured that the pedestrian subways are in good condition," he added. Action has been taken already against an officer for not ensuring the proper maintenance and the measures would be taken to facilitate free education for the remaining two children of the parents of the deceased girl, he added. Special Commissioner(Project) and East Zonal Commissioner Manoj Jain, Zonal Joint Commissioner Shilpa and other officials were also present during the handover of the cheque today. 15-year-old Akshaya died after being hit by a BBMP trash lorry near a flyover in Bengaluru. The incident occurred after a day when heavy rains lashed Bengaluru and caused waterlogging under flyovers. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and top BJP leaders are amongst those who have been invited to the swearing-in of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and his cabinet colleagues.

Further, top spiritual leaders across religions, have also been invited to the event on March 28, Sawant said on Thursday.

"We have sent invitations to religious leaders across the boardPrime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah . Some have given confirmations. Some have been invited telephonically, while the government will be sending formal invitations to others," the Chief Minister told reporters.

The swearing-in ceremony is being held at an indoor stadium near Panaji where PM Modi, Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, chief ministers of seven BJP ruled states and other central party leaders are expected to be in attendance.

In the recently concluded state Assembly polls, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Goa, winning 20 seats in the 40-member state Assembly and reducing Congress to 11 seats.

The BJP fell one seat short of the majority figure in Goa but is set to retain power in the state with the help of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and independent candidates. (ANI)
A national-level conference was held on Wednesday at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre, to discuss the methods and ways to counter the Pakistan propaganda and radicalization of Kashmiri youth by Pakistan and its covert agencies. On this occasion, Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of J-K was the chief guest and keynote speaker wherein Kashmiri youth, women, and civil society members participated with great enthusiasm. The National level conference saw an open discussion on Kashmiri pandits exodus, rectifying past mistakes. It saw several dignitaries, civil society members and youth participating with great enthusiasm. The other issues discussed in the conference were role of religious leaders in de-radicalization and responsibility of civil society to counter radicalization. Abdul Latief, Mirwise Central Kashmir said, "Although there is a downfall in the terror activities across Kashmir the indoctrination and radicalization of Kashmiri youth by Pakistan is worrisome and methods to counter these tactics used by Pakistan are need of the hour. Kashmir is a place of peace and brotherhood, and especially Kashmir is known for its communal ties and brotherhood." He added, "The youth of the valley are the future of our country and they stay away from drugs so that their future is not spoiled." Mohd Ashraf, a Participant said, "This conference was very informative and it was stated that the girls in the valley should be allowed to pursue education so that they can be independent." The religious speakers believed that sincere efforts should be made in addressing the feelings of any perceived injustice. Rogue political and community leaders, who are playing to the tune of negative elements and spoilers, should be sternly dealt with as per the law. Contemporary educational infrastructure with dedicated security cover should be created and the religious preachers at the mosques should not be allowed to spew venom and spread jihadist ideology. More job opportunities should be created expeditiously by giving a boost to tourism, developing infrastructure. Sanjay Kumar of the Nationalist People's Front said, "This event was organised on how to counter radicalization from the valley." He added that more such programmes will be organised in the month of April. (ANI)
A petition was filed on Thursday seeking direction to constitute a Special Investigating Team (SIT) headed by a retired judge of the apex court or CBI probe into the violence in West Bengal's Bogtui village, Birbhum district that claimed eight lives. The plea Vishnu Gupta, National President Hindu Sena, asked the court to ensure that the culprits are dealt with according to the law in the incident that occurred on March 21. Eight people were charred to death in a late-night fire at Bogtui village near Rampurhat on March 21 a couple of hours after a Trinamool Congress panchayat deputy head was killed by bike-borne miscreants. The plea filed through advocate Barun Kumar Sinha and Abhishek sought direction that investigating agency take over all the FIRs registered by the local police of Birbhum in connection with the incident and to investigate the role played by the Director-General of Police, the government of West Bengal and any other officers of the State government in protecting the real perpetrators of the incident. Direct the investigating agency to place the report before the apex court, the plea said. "The Trinamool Congress local unit is trying to shift the focus to a short-circuit as the cause of the fire. Therefore, the SIT constituted by the state government is investigating the cause of the fire. They are not investigating the houses which were set on fire by the Trinamool Congress workers in retaliation of the bomb attack on Badu Sheikh and consequential death of Trinamool Congress Deputy Panchayat head namely Bhadu Sheikh," the plea added. It further stated, "The SIT constituted by the state government is not considering the murder of more than eight persons who were not permitted to come out of their houses as the exit door was bolted by the assailants from outside. Therefore, they were burnt to death as revenge for the murder of Trinamool Congress panchayat deputy head Bhadu Sheikh." The PIL stated the list of violent incidents that took place in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday took suo moto cognisance of the violence in West Bengal's Birbhum district where eight people were charred to death as their houses were set on fire. The incident is suspected to be the fallout of ruling TMC panchayat official's murder. (ANI)
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Thursday wrote to the Madhya Pradesh government regarding the Commission's inquiry into communal violence in Raisen district. The Commission took cognizance of the said incident and its chairperson Priyank Kanoongo visited Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal and the affected villages of Raisen district to take stock of the situation and to meet the victim minors and their family members on March 20-21. "In view of above, your good office is requested to kindly issue necessary directions to allconcerned to take urgent action on the relevant issues as mentioned in the ibid report and an action taken report, point-wise, may please be shared with the Commission within 20 days from the receipt of this letter," reads the NCPCR's letter to Chief Secretary, Madhya Pradesh. On March 18, a person was killed and several injured in a clash between two groups in Khamaria village in Raisen district. In a viral video, it is believed that two boys of a group had a dispute with a few people of another group. Following the issue, they had a clash wherein a few opened fire leaving several injured. (ANI)
A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed the bail application of Umar Khalid observing that any thesis or research done by any accused can not be a ground for assessing mens rea or his bent of mind. A bail application must be decided on facts presented in the charge sheet. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the bail plea saying there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against Umar Khalid is prima facie true. The Court noted that the contention of Advocate Trideep Pais senior counsel appeared for accused that Umar Khalid is a researcher and his bent of mind can be assessed from his doctoral thesis on welfare aspect of Adivasis of Jharkhand and other writings is not a relevant consideration while deciding the bail application If the bent of mind is to be assessed in this manner, then the co-accused Sharjeel Imam has written a thesis on riots but any thesis or research work, by itself, done by an accused cannot be a ground for assessing mens rea or his bent of mind. A bail application must be decided on facts presented in the charge sheet, the court observed. Umar Khalid is accused in a larger conspiracy case related to the Northeast Delhi violence of February 2020. He was booked under UAPA by Delhi Police Special Cell. He was arrested on 13 September 2020 for conspiracy of Delhi riots 2020. The Court in its order observed, " It is also important to highlight that in a conspiracy, various continuous acts are committed by different accused persons. One act cannot be read in isolation. At times, if read by itself, a particular act on an activity may appear innocuous, but if it is a part of a chain of events constituting a conspiracy, then all the events must be read together. The Court agreed with the contention of the Advocate Trideep Pais, Senior Counsel for accused that accused Umar Khalid was part of the Whatsapp group MSJ and DPSG but he has not written many messages in those groups and they are not overtly provocative or incriminatory. However, the Court observed that the accused was part of such groups created for specific objects and his acts or presence throughout the period beginning from the passing of the CAB Bill in December 2019 till the February 2020 riots, has to be read in totality and not piecemeal. He has connectivity with many accused persons. The Court rejected the contention of defence counsel that the accused was not present in Delhi during the time of riots. In this regard, Court said that in a case of conspiracy, it is not necessary that every accused should be present at the spot. Moreover, as per witness Neon, Amanullah has said that the accused will move out on 23 February 2020 before riots. Witness Tariq Anwar had stated that Umar Khalid had told him to book tickets for him, specifically, for 23 February for travelling to Patna. When he said that the flight tickets are costly and he may book tickets after a few days, then Umar Khalid refused and thereafter, a flight ticket was booked for Umar Khalid for 23 February at 9.30 am, the court observed. Senior Advocate Pais had argued that the present FIR is an omnibus FIR, the narrative of which is in itself fabricated and aimed at an open-ended investigation by which any and every person opposed to the CAA/NRC has been falsely implicated. The accused was not even present in New Delhi from 23-25 February 2020. Thus it is only rhetoric referring to the accused as the 'silent whisper' of the conspiracy or making vague allegations of remote supervision. On the other hand, the bail application was vehemently opposed by the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad. He argued that the Delhi riots was a large scale and deep-rooted conspiracy hatched after the passing of the resolution by the Cabinet Committee ot present CAB in both houses of Parliaments on 4 December 2019. Amit Prasad had argued Umar Khalid participated in the conspiracy. He had also argued that the case under sections is made out against the accused persons. There is sufficient material on record to establish that the accusation against the accused Umar Khalid is prima facie true and hence bail application of the accused may be dismissed. This case pertains to large scale violence in Northeast Delhi in which 53 people had lost their lives and hundreds were injured. (ANI)
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A verbal argument ensued in the Karnataka Assembly on Thursday over Congress leader Siddaramaiah's remark on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh during a discussion on the law and order in the state, following which the Speaker said that everyone (Opposition) will say RSS in the coming days. "It's our RSS, my RSS, you'll all say RSS in coming days," Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said in the House. BJP leader and Minister KS Eshwarappa hit out at the Congress during the discussion and said that "all Muslims and Christians will also say RSS in the future." Congress leader KJ George questioned the Speaker for his remark and said, "Who are you to say Christians and Muslims will say RSS?" Slamming the BJP for the remark, leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah slammed the BJP and said that he would "never ever be part of RSS and say its name." Congress leader Priyank Kharge launched a scathing attack on RSS and alleged that the latter has "burnt the constitution" in Ram Leela Maidan in the past. The speaker lashed out at his for his statement and asked him "not to speak history". Earlier in February this year, the Speaker had lost his cool for anti-RSS slogans by the Congress in the Assembly. Kageri while rebuking Congress had said, "Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a nationalist organisation involved in organizing Hindu society to make country strong; should join hands with RSS in its efforts. You're shouting anti-RSS slogans in Assembly that has no relevance to your political discourse. Won't allow using Assembly to shout such slogans." (ANI)
Acting on a tip-off, troops of 193 Battalion BSF in a joint operation with Meghalaya police launched a search operation in the dense forest area all along a brook in the Gumaghat area that flows from India to Bangladesh and recovered a huge cache of ammunition hidden in a cavity surrounded by limestones.

A senior official of BSF said that the area falls under the Gumaghat police station in the South West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.

"The cache of ammunition found wrapped in a white coloured sack which contained 92 rounds of 5.56mm, 129 rounds of 7.62mm, 160 rounds of 9mm. In the past, such cache was recovered by BSF in the nearby area, which was probably used by insurgent groups for extortion purposes and other illegal activities," the BSF official said.

The place of occurrence is located approximately 900 meters inside India from the international border.

The recovered ammunition was handed over to Gumaghat police station for further disposal and an FIR was lodged. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Thursday that the state government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali as the knowledge partner for the upcoming Medical Devices Park in Nalagarh area of Solan district. As per a statement from the Himachal government, the MoU was approved by the board of members from the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India. Director Industries cum Managing Director, HPSIDC, Rakesh Kumar Prajapati on behalf of the State Government today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Director, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali Professor Dulal Panda. The State Planning Department has sanctioned Rs 74.95 crore for the development of the park to the State Implementation Agency. The Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India will soon release the first installment of worth Rs 30 crores of grant-in aid. Thakur said that, "HPSIDC is the State Implementing Agency for the corporation, development and execution of the medical devices park. NIPER Mohali will establish a Centre for Excellence in Medical Devices Park that will enable Industry-Academia linkage." The Chief Minister added that such linkage is becoming vital for the sustainability of the industry in the present times as technology obsolescence is rapid. He said that for any manufacturer, constant evolution and innovation becomes imperative to stay ahead in the learning curve and compete globally. Thakur pointed out that the project is prestigious for the state and is of national importance as well. He asserted that the state government is committed to creating a state-of-art sector-specific park. "As manufacturers in this Park will be producing high-value products, therefore the state government will be exploring Industry-Academia linkages across the world. Directions have been given to Industries Department to do an Investment Outreach Program with investors across India and countries such as Israel, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany that have cutting-edge technology in the Medical Devices sector. An Investment Outreach has already been initiated and a delegation from South Korea will be visiting Himachal Pradesh in May," he added. (ANI)
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has signed an agreement with India's Goa Shipyard Ltd to obtain a much-needed floating dock worth $20 million as a grant. The dock is to be constructed at SLN dockyard in Trincomalee within the next 30 months, SLN spokesman said. "Floating dock is of paramount necessity to SLN for underwater maintenance and repair of ships and vessels belonging to SLN efficiently. The dry dock presently belonging to SLN can only facilitate underwater repairs of vessels and boats weighing less than 350 tonnes," a navy spokesman stated. SLN explained that languishing in waiting lists, underwater repair servicing of larger vessels and boats belonging to SLN is now done through the private sector. "This procedure causes long delays, affecting the lifetime of the vessels," the navy stated. Having discussed with navies of the friendly nations in the neighbouring region and carrying out studies from 2015 to 2017, SLN had been finally recommended to obtain a floating dock of its own. Subsequently, Sri Lanka had discussed with India on securing a floating dock from the latter at the Military Staff level meetings. In 2020, SLN had received green light from the Cabinet of Ministers to obtain a floating dock from India as a grant and approval was given to select Goa Shipyard Ltd from which the SLN had previously procured two Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessels in 2017 and 2018, the navy spokesman said. "With the floating dock from Goa Shipyard Ltd valued at $20 million, SLN will be able to save $2.1 million (600 million Sri Lankan rupee) annually," he said. --IANS sfl/arm ( 281 Words) 2022-03-24-19:08:04 (IANS)
BJP Vice President and Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal's Medinipur, Dilip Ghosh has slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her failure to curb violence in the state, and claimed that she is targeting Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to hide her failure. In an interaction with IANS, Ghosh also raised questions on the recent Birbhum killings and hit out at the ruling Trinamool Congress over the harrowing incident. Here are some excerpts Q. You (BJP MPs) met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday on the issue of Birbhum violence and demanded intervention. Trinamool Congress MPs also met the Home Minister and demanded the removal of Governor Dhankar. What do you have to say? A. The Governor has become a thorn in the flesh for the Trinamool because he asks questions. Whenever this type of incident (Birbhum violence) happens, he directly asks questions to the administration. This time also, the Governor asked where is the law and order? If a Trinamool Congress leader was killed, why police forces were not deployed immediately? In reaction to that killing, 12 people including children and women were burnt to death. Chief Minister Banerjee is asking the same question which we have been asking. She asked the police to arrest the leader of her party. Will this happen only when the Chief Minister intervenes? Is this law and order? The Governor also raised the same question, so Trinamool is angry with him. The truth is that when these people fail, they target the Governor. Q. But after meeting the Home Minister, Trinamool leader Sudip Bandopadhyay claimed that he informed him about the action taken by the state government on Birbhum violence and the Home Minister was satisfied with the answer. A. How did Sudip Bandopadhyay know that Amit Shah ji is satisfied. If he is satisfied, then why is he sending a team to West Bengal. Amit Shah ji knows Bengal for the last 7-8 years. He is aware of the law and order situation there, has sent advisories several times, but the Mamata government did not budge and she is now on a mission to remove the Governor. Q. The BJP is seeking the intervention of the Central government. What kind of intervention do you want? A. The Central government will have to take a decision as per the Constitution. Not even a year has passed since the new government was elected with a full majority. But that government has failed, law and order has collapsed. There is no security for people. Four days back, one of our MPs was attacked. Two days before that, our district president was attacked. In the last one week, 26 people have been killed in the state. Violence of all kinds -- political, non-political and social, is increasing continuously in the state. The Mamata Banerjee government is responsible for this. Therefore, we demand that for the safety of the people of West Bengal, the Central government should take whatever steps it deems fit as per the Constitution to improve the law and order situation in the state. --IANS stp/skp/ ( 528 Words) 2022-03-24-19:36:02 (IANS)
Suraj Kumar has achieved the 54th rank in the country and he will soon get admission in IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand.

A meritorious student who was preparing for the IIT JEE entrance test for one year in Rajasthan's Kota, he had came to his native village Mosma under Warsaliganj police station in Nawada last year when a person died during an altercation between his family and the neighbours over a dispute over a drain. The complainants had given his name in the FIR and he was arrested on April 19, 2021.

Abhishek Kumar Pandey, the then Jail Superintendent, had helped him in the preparation for the entrance test, providing necessary study materials including notes, books, and stationery items.

Suraj Kumar was released from jail on parole on February 13 this year to give the entrance test.

--IANS ajk/vd

( 178 Words)

2022-03-24-19:58:03 (IANS)
The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday issued show-cause notice to senior IAS officer Niyaz Khan, whose comments on 'The Kashmir Files' resulted in a big controversy in the state. Khan, a 2015 batch IAS officer serving as deputy secretary with the Public Works Department, had last week urged makers of 'The Kashmir Files' to also make a film on the killings of large numbers of Muslims across several states in India. Notice has been issued by the general administration department of the state government which is headed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. According to sources, the show-cause notice has been issued on Thursday evening, mentioning that the officer (Khan) has violated the rules of the civil services. He has been asked to submit his reply in seven days. The notice was sent a day after several state ministers including Home Minister Narottam Mishra demanded action against Khan for his statements on the movie. On Wednesday, Mishra said that the officer had crossed and violated the 'lakshman rekha' (limit) set for (government) officials and therefore, a show cause notice will be issued to seek his reply. In his defence, Khan has maintained that he made statements on a movie using his constitutional right of expression and alleged that he was being targeted for his religious identity. "If expressing an opinion on any serious issue is a violation, then such incidents have come where senior IAS and IPS officers have made comments. But, not a single notice was issued against them. I have been a victim of my name, especially my surname Khan," Niyaz Khan said while talking to IANS on Thursday. Khan added that apart from being an IAS officer, he is also a writer which makes him express his thoughts using the rights of freedom of expression under the Constitution of India. "What wrong did I do if I said that I would be transferred to Kashmir. I have posted four tweets - two on the movie and two on politicians. I will submit my reply to the department." Khan made statements on his Twitter account soon after the movie was released. The controversy over Khan gained momentum after one of his statements on his Twitter account, which reads, "I am thinking to write a book to show the massacre of Muslims on different occasions so that a movie like Kashmir Files could be produced by some producer, so that the pain and suffering of minorities could be brought before Indians." Among several tweets, he pointed directly or indirectly at various people including director of 'The Kashmir Files' Vivek Agnihotri, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and MP and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi. On March 20, Khan had pointed fingers at Owaisi saying, "Owaisi ji is silent on the issue. Please speak on human issues, not only during elections. We have to make a strong country joining shoulders with Hindu brothers. Arab is not our model, India is our model and this land is our motherland." --IANS pd/skp/ ( 518 Words) 2022-03-24-20:36:03 (IANS)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday that if people are so eager to watch 'The Kashmir Files', they should ask director Vivek Agnihotri to put the film on YouTube. "Where is the question of making it (the film) tax-free," Kejriwal asked, while reacting to the demand for making 'The Kashmir Files' tax-free, during the ongoing Assembly session on Thursday. The remarks came a day after BJP leaders demanded that the 'The Kashmir Files' be made tax-free in the national capital during the ongoing Budget session of Delhi Assembly. Kejriwal said that if filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri wants everyone to watch the movie, he should release it on YouTube so that it is available to everyone. Taking a jibe at BJP leaders demanding to make the film tax-free in Delhi, Kejriwal said that "he (Agnihotri) has earned crores in the name of Kashmiri Pandits and you are putting up posters on the walls". "Few years back, a film titled 'Bunty Aur Babli' was released wherein some characters could be seen raising slogans to fulfil their demands, but when the leader asks what are their demands, they appeared unaware of the same," Kejriwal said, adding that some people were raising slogans during the LG's speech on Wednesday, some demanding to make 'The Kashmir Files' tax-free, some others talking about closing liquor shops. Without taking names, the Chief Minister said that they only say what they have been asked to say. "Inside this House, they praised the farm laws, and after they were repealed, they praised that move too. Then they protested against liquor shops. Now they have come up with 'The Kashmir Files'... I have only one request for all of you, think about the nation," Kejriwal said on the floor of the House. ---IANS avr/arm ( 315 Words) 2022-03-24-21:10:02 (IANS)
In a major ruling against Sri Lanka's colonial law against same-sex relationships, the United Nations human rights body has ruled that criminalising consensual, lesbian relations is a human rights violation. On a petition filed by a Sri Lankan female, the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has held that criminalisation of lesbian and bisexual women violates the Convention and demanded to repeal the law. The UN decision came following an eight-year-long battle by Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, an LGBTIQ and women's rights activist. The CEDAW committee termed Section 365-A of Sri Lanka's Penal Code of 1883 (amended in 1995), which criminalises same sex relations between consenting adults, as discrimination against women in Sri Lanka, which violates lesbian and bisexual women's right to non-discrimination under Article 2 (a) and (d)-(g) of the Convention. Sections 365 and 365-A of Sri Lanka's Penal Code are based on 139-year-old British law, which state that "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and "acts of gross indecency" are criminal offences punishable by the law, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years. The Sections are used against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) community in Sri Lanka. "It has been a long journey getting here, but I am satisfied with the ruling and happy that the years of hard work in this case have become successful," said Rosanna, who has been fighting for LGBTIQ rights for the past 22 years with her organisation EQUAL GROUND. While urging the government to decriminalise same-sex sexual relations, the CEDAW committee has also asked Sri Lanka to take measures to protect women against gender-based violence by adopting comprehensive legislation against discrimination against the LGBTIQ community. The UN body has also called on Sri Lankan government to ensure that victims of gender-based violence have access to effective civil and criminal remedies and protection, including counselling, health services and financial services, addressing workplace discrimination against LGBTIQ community, and providing sensitisation training to the law enforcement agencies. "The Sri Lankan government has ratified CEDAW, and this is therefore further encouragement for them to repeal these discriminatory laws and free us from the stigma and violence caused by criminalisation," Rosanna, who herself had been a victim of violence, said. "This sends a strong message to Sri Lanka's policymakers, as well as the international community, that ensuring the rights of all citizens is of foremost priority," she added. --IANS sfl/arm ( 418 Words) 2022-03-24-21:30:02 (IANS)
Deputy Leader of Congress in Karnataka Assembly UT Khader urged the state government to consider allowing students to take exams wearing hijabs of the same colour as their uniform. On the contrary, the Karnataka government has refused to budge on the hijab ban even for the sake of students due to take their board exams. While addressing the assembly during the ongoing legislative session, UT Khader requested Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayana and primary Education Minister B Nagesh to consider the request and allow students to write the exam stating that the exams are very important for the future of those girls. Meanwhile, Congress Legislative party leader Siddaramaiah also demanded the state government allow girls to write exams. But minister for Primary Education B Nagesh replied said "we have to follow high court order". BJP MLAs raised questions over the Hijab issue and said they (students) must follow and respect the High Court's verdict. Earlier today, the Supreme Court said that exams have nothing to do with Hijab while hearing the mentioning of a plea seeking urgent hearing on a petition challenging the ban on sporting Hijab in educational institutes. A bench of Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit, and Justice JM Khazi on Tuesday held that the prescription of uniform is a reasonable restriction that students could not object to and dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on Hijab in educational institutions, saying they are without merit. The Hijab row had erupted in January this year when the Government PU College in Udupi allegedly barred six girls wearing the Hijab from entering. Following this, the girls sat in protest outside college over being denied entry. After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state as well leading to protests and agitations in several places in Karnataka. As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and banned both Hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decided on the issue.On February 5, the pre-University education board released a circular stating that the students could only wear the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious attire would be allowed in colleges. The order stated that in case a uniform is not prescribed by management committees, then students should wear dresses that go well with the idea of equality and unity, and do not disturb the social order. A batch of petitions was filed against the government's rule in the Karnataka High Court by some girls seeking permission to wear the Hijab in educational institutions. (ANI)
In response to Washington's move to expel 12 Russian diplomats, Moscow has also announced that it will expel US diplomats from Russia, according to a statement issued by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. This comes after Washington expelled 12 Russian diplomats from the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, as well as a Russian employee of the UN Secretariat, reported CNN News. "The American side was firmly told that any hostile actions of the United States against Russia would receive a decisive and adequate response," the statement read. A list of expelled American diplomatic employees was declared as "persona non grata" which literally means "an unwelcome person." A senior diplomat from the US diplomatic mission in Moscow was handed a note on Wednesday with the list of the expelled employees, reported CNN News. However, the statement by the Ministry does not make clear which diplomats or how many it intends to expel. Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 with the goals of demilitarizing the country, neutralizing nationalist battalions, ensuring Ukraine remains a neutral country and that Crimea is recognized as a part of Russia that cannot be taken away. Russia also seeks to ensure Ukraine also recognizes the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are independent states. (ANI)
After opposition parties levelled allegations against Pakistan's National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser for siding with Prime Minister Imran Khan over the no-trust motion, Qaiser in his defence said that he would run the assembly's proceedings in accordance with the Constitution. Taking to Twitter, Qaiser wrote: "I, as the custodian of the National Assembly of Pakistan, will fulfil my constitutional obligations and will proceed in accordance with Article 95 of the Constitution and rule 37 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007," reported Geo TV. In conversation with media in Islamabad, the speaker had said, "I will follow the law; I am still in consultation with the NA secretariat about summoning the session and it will be called in line with the constitution." Pakistan Opposition leaders on Monday slammed the National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser for "violating" the Constitution for delaying in conducting voting on no-confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan. Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari slammed the National Assembly speaker for violating the constitutional provision requiring him to convene a meeting of the Lower House within 14 days after receiving a requisition for a session to table a no-trust motion against Imran Khan, Dawn newspaper reported. Sharif claimed Speaker Qaiser had deliberately violated Article 54(3) of the Constitution using the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting as an excuse, Dawn newspaper reported. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman said the government was violating the Constitution and trying to evade the no-confidence motion. According to the Pakistani newspaper, Bilawal advised Speaker Qaiser to follow the Constitution and consult his lawyers before taking any action that might entail his trial under Article 6 of the Constitution (for high treason). He said the government and the speaker had practically demonstrated that they could flout the Constitution. But he hoped the apex court would not take a political stance and stand by the Constitution, law and democracy, Dawn newspaper reported. The Opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust Imran Khan as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8.While the Imran Khan government has exuded confidence to defeat the no-trust motion, the Opposition is sure that they will oust Khan. (ANI)
Notably, Four people were killed in a terror attack by an Arab assailant in Israel's southern city of Beersheba on Tuesday, Israeli police said.

Taking to Twitter, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote, "President Vladimir #Putin and Prime Minister @naftalibennett spoke over the phone. Vladimir Putin gave assessments of the talks and special military operations in Ukraine. He expressed condolences over yesterday's terrorist attack in Israel."

At the end of last month, the Israeli PM offered his country's intermediary services on Ukraine to Putin. Earlier, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had also asked Naftali Bennett to serve as a mediator in possible talks with Russia.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 with the goal of demilitarizing the country, neutralizing nationalist battalions, ensuring Ukraine remains a neutral country and that Crimea is recognized as a part of Russia that cannot be taken away. Russia also seeks to ensure Ukraine also recognizes the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are independent states. (ANI)
French carmaker Renault announced in a statement Wednesday that it has suspended all activities at its Moscow factory after Ukrainian leaders have called for a boycott against the company, accusing Renault of "sponsoring Russia's war machine." The giant carmaker on Tuesday resumed production in Moscow after it suspended production due to a disruption in logistics in late February. However, it again suspended the operations in just three days. Renault owns major Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ and regarding this involvement, the French carmaker said that it's "assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia," reported CNN News. According to Renault Group's financial results, AvtoVAZ's brand Lada represented nearly 21% of the Russian market in 2021. Following the February 24 special military operations by Russia in Ukraine, many automakers including, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Volvo have stopped shipments to Russia, "considering the potential risks associated with trading material with Russia, including the sanctions imposed by the EU and US." The leadership in Ukraine has also been calling out major French companies including Renault, for stopping their operations in Russia. "Renault, Auchan, Leroy Merlin and others must stop being the sponsors of Russia's war machine," Zelensky said. Resonating similar sentiments, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a tweet wrote, "Renault refuses to pull out of Russia. Not that it should surprise anyone when Renault supports a brutal war of aggression in Europe," adding "But mistakes must come with a price, especially when repeated. I call on customers and businesses around the globe to boycott Group Renault." It's been nearly a month since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, deploying tens of thousands of troops into an offensive against its neighbour. (ANI)
Condemning the Taliban's decision to prohibit girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade, United States ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the decision jeopardizes Afghanistan's future and its role in the international community. "This decision to deny education to women and girls reneges a long-standing pledge. The Taliban's refusal to educate its citizens, including women and girls, jeopardizes Afghanistan's future and its role in the international community," Thomas-Greenfield tweeted. US State Department's special representative for Afghan women, Rina Amiri, also condemned the decision as she said that the move was not incidental. "We now know today's decision to stop girls over grade 6 from returning to school was not incidental. It was made by Taliban leadership and is a betrayal of Afghan families. Let's be clear about several things. One, there is nothing Islamic about denying girls an education. One need only look at other Muslim-majority countries to see that. Two, there is nothing Afghan about denying girls an education. Surveys show widespread support among the Afghan people for girls' education," she tweeted. Notably, as the new school year begins in Afghanistan, the Taliban has announced that the boys can continue their education normally, however, the doors of the schools will be closed to girls beyond the sixth grade, reported local media. "The Ministry of Education once again assures our nation that it is fully committed to providing the educational rights of all our compatriots. In order to generalize and standardize the quality of education ..." Tolo News quoted Aziz Ahmad Rayan, director of publications and communications at the Taliban Ministry of Education. Rayan added that the schools for the girls beyond grade six will remain closed for now and the final decision on the same will be made by Taliban leadership. Earlier, after the reports regarding this decision, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) had also condemned the Taliban's move as it tweeted, "The UN in Afghanistan deplores today's reported announcement by the Taliban that they are further extending their indefinite ban on female students above the 6th grade being permitted to return school." Teenage girls across Afghanistan were supposed to return to schools after being banned by the Islamic outfit earlier. Since taking over power in August last year, the Taliban have rolled back women's rights in virtually every area, including crushing women's freedom of movement. According to HRW, women and girls are blocked from accessing health care as well. Reports suggest that women and girls facing violence have no escape route. The majority of countries have refused to formally recognise the Taliban amid worries over their treatment of girls and women and other human rights issues. (ANI)
A statement by The Insider said, "Oksana Baulina had been filming the shelling destruction in the capital's Podilskyi District by Russian troops when she came under rocket fire. Another civilian died with her," reported CNN News.

Moreover, two people who were along with the killed journalist were also wounded and hospitalized.

"The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana's family and friends," the outlet said in the statement adding "We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas where civilians and journalists are killed."

Baulina filed stories from Lviv and Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv. The independent media outlet did not confirm the date of her death. As soon as the statement was released by the media outlet, Baulina's colleagues wrote condolences for her on social media platform Twitter, reported the news channel, reported the newspaper. (ANI)
As the healthcare system in Ukraine continues to remain under significant strain, G7 Health Ministers condemned the 'indiscriminate' attacks on the Ukrainian population, and health facilities and health workers who are caught in the crossfire. "We fully support the joint statement issued by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on 13 March to stop the devastating impact of attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine, such as the horrific shelling of the maternity hospital in Mariupol," read the joint statement. Ministers asserted that intentionally directing attacks at civilians and civilian infrastructure, including health care facilities and workers, violates International Humanitarian Law. "Health must remain a priority, with health workers being protected so they can provide emergency care to save lives, and with health systems and facilities being protected so that they remain accessible to all who need them." The statement read. Since the start of Russia's further invasion, 64 attacks hitting health care facilities have been documented in the WHO's Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care, resulting in 15 deaths and 37 injuries, it added. "In most of the cases, health care facilities were damaged or destroyed. Beyond the immediate deaths and injuries, these attacks have a huge impact on people's lives and reduce access to essential health services - especially for sick and wounded people as well as for children, pregnant women, older persons and other vulnerable populations - and can lead to delayed treatments, worsening the prognosis of affected people and resulting in indirect deaths," concerned the Ministers. Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 with the goal of demilitarizing the country, neutralizing nationalist battalions, ensuring Ukraine remains a neutral country and that Crimea is recognized as a part of Russia that cannot be taken away. Russia also seeks to ensure Ukraine also recognizes the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are independent states. (ANI)
A Chinese government employee was convicted by a US Federal court on Wednesday for his involvement in fraudulently obtaining visas for his co-nationals and helping them in unlawfully working for Beijing offshore. "Liu Zhongsan, a Chinese government employee, has been convicted for his involvement in a conspiracy to defraud the United States and illegally obtain US visas," the Department of Justice said in a press release. The accused was operating an office of the China Association for the International Exchange of Personnel (CAIEP), an agency of the Chinese government that engages in talent recruitment, including recruiting U.S. scientists, academics, engineers and other experts to work for China. "Liu Zhongsan sought to exploit the J-1 research scholar program - which is intended to allow foreign nationals to conduct research at approved US institutions - for the purpose of enabling his conspirators to work for the Chinese government in the US, against the rules of the research scholar program," US Attorney Damian Williams said in the statement. The accused sought to exploit the research scholar scheme to allow recipients to work for the Chinese government and conceal illicit work from the US agencies, the statement added. Liu has been convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and to commit visa fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The development comes just days after US Federal prosecutors charged five agents with spying and harassing Chinese nationals living in the US who were critical of Beijing. Earlier in February, a Canadian court had held that a Chinese government agency 'Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO)' was involved in espionage activities "that harm Canada's interests". The court was hearing an application challenging the denial of citizenship to a Chinese couple who had worked for OCAO in China for 20 years. The court upheld the denial of citizenship, saying that it was reasonable "given the evidence available to the officer," reported National Post. (ANI)
"Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla met UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres at the UNHQs, New York. Discussed issues on UN Security Council's agenda, including Ukraine, Afghanistan and Myanmar," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a Tweet.

Foreign Secretary reaches New York to participate in the United Nations Security Council meeting on cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States (LAS).

On Wednesday, he met UAE Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Almarar on the sidelines of the UNSC meeting.

Shringla congratulated Almarar on the UAE's successful Presidency of the UNSC and the adoption of the Presidential Statement by UNSC on UN-LAS cooperation, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

"(They) also held excellent discussions on further strengthening bilateral ties between India and the UAE," Bagchi said.

The Foreign Secretary also met Dr Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General Department of Operational Support of the United Nations on the occasion.

"As one of the largest troop-contributing countries to UN Peacekeeping Operations, reaffirmed India's steadfast commitment to UN Peacekeeping," the MEA spokesperson said. (ANI)
The project was inaugurated by the Indian Ambassador to Argentina Dinesh Bhatia, jointly with Juan C Hernandez, Chief of Argentine Federal Police and the dean of the Institute of the Argentine Federal Police, the Indian embassy informed in a tweet.

"Amb @dineshbhatia jointly with Juan C Hernandez, Chief of @PFAOficial & Dean of @iupfanoticias inaugurated Yoga Capacitation Project for physical & mental well-being of officials of Argentine Federal Police," the Indian embassy said in a tweet.

Notably, the Indian government has been popularizing Yoga at several international forums highlighting the associated health benefits of the activity.

On Tuesday, the second inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the celebration of International Day of Yoga (IDY)- 2022 was held in New Delhi.

Several Union Ministers attended the meeting and gave information about the activities being carried out by their ministries to create awareness about IDY-2022 and also gave suggestions to enhance the outreach.

The International Day of Yoga is celebrated on 21st June every year since 2015, following the adoption of a United Nations (UN) resolution on the same. (ANI)
Danny is a writer and a Calaveras County native. He studied creative writing and marketing at San Francisco State University and has previously done work as an automotive journalist. He is happy to be back and writing about the local community.

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Manzoor Pashteen, the chairman of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) has reportedly joined the ongoing protest for the release of Hafeez Baloch, a student of Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. A large number of students have been seeking the release of fellow student Hafeez Baloch, who was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani intelligence agencies, reported Pakistan's vernacular media. Along with Abdul Samad Khan, a member of the PTM Central Committee, the PTM chief extended support to the forcefully disappeared student front of Islamabad Press Club on March 19, as per the media report. Over weeks, protests continue in Pakistan demanding the safe release of a research scholar and several others who have been subjected to enforced disappearances in the country. This comes as rights groups continue to raise concerns about significant rights issues in Pakistan, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and the forced disappearance of Pashtun, Sindhi, and Baloch human rights activists. Taking to Twitter Munir Mengal, President of Baloch Voice Association said Pakistan is eliminating the Baloch intellectuals. "Hafeez Baloch, a Mhil student of a University in Islamabad, is in final of MPhil Physics, was disappeared by force by Pakistani military forces from the classroom in Khuzdar while he was teaching students. Pakistan is eliminating the Baloch Intellectuals as they did with Bandla people," Munir Mengal, President of Baloch Voice Association said in a tweet. In an earlier tweet, Mengal had said that alarming reports of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, from the Panjgur district in Balochistan. "Panjgoor alarming reports of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, humiliation, looting of valuables and abuse of rights by Pak Army and FC personnel are coming amid search operations," he added. Pakistan mocks the United Nations' concern over enforced disappearances, which continues to be practised with impunity in the country, according to a Canada-based think tank, which says that these practices remain a taint on Islamabad's human rights record. The International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) said that the rising media scrutiny, protests by human rights workers, and interventions by the judiciary have not been able to shake the conscience of Pakistan's government and its deep state on the issue of the enforced disappearance. In a recent report titled "Living Ghosts," the human rights group Amnesty International documented the practice of enforced disappearances in Pakistan and urged Pakistani authorities to end its use as a tool of state policy. (ANI)
Expressing disappointment over Pakistan's announcements of bilateral agreements with Russia amid invasion of Ukraine, Chairperson of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Robert Menendez, supported by six congressmen, condemned Prime Minister Imran Khan's ill-timed visit to Moscow, local media reported. In a letter addressed to Pakistan Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan on March 16, the Congress members expressed disappointment over Prime Minister Imran Khan's announcement of bilateral trade agreements with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine while also slamming as well as Pakistan's abstention in a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution condemning the Russian invasion. "We are disappointed with your government's decision to abstain from the UN General Assembly's March 2 vote. We are also disappointed that Prime Minister Imran Khan announced bilateral trade agreements with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine," the letter read. The letter was undersigned by Congress members Ted W. Lieu, Tom Malinowski, Juan Vargas, Brian Fitzpatrick, Kathy Manning and David N Cicilline. The letter further criticized the ill-timed Moscow visit of Imran Khan saying that the Pakistani move ran counter to the international community's efforts to support Ukraine's territorial integrity and call out Russia as the aggressor. "The Prime Minister's decision to proceed with his visit to Moscow, at a moment when the world was uniting in support of Ukraine, ran counter to the international community's efforts to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity and call out Russia as the aggressor," the letter read. Later on March 18, Ambassador Asad met pro-Pakistan Senator Chris Van Hollen to apprise him of Islamabad's perspective on Ukraine's situation and developments in Afghanistan, Pakistani vernacular media reported. Imran Khan's Moscow visit on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned in the international community and within Pakistan with some commentators going to the extent of calling the move, 'ill-timed' and 'foolhardy'. Pakistani security experts doubt if Khan had gone to Moscow with any strategy in mind, a media report said. (ANI)
Earlier on February 12, the Sri Lankan Navy has apprehended 12 Rameswaram-based fishermen and two fishing boats after they had gone fishing across the border in the Palk Bay.

Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan, in a written reply in Lok Sabha on February 4, 2022, said Indian fishermen are arrested from time to time by the Sri Lankan authorities for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing in Sri Lankan waters.

"As per the available information, 74 and 159 Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy in 2020 and 2021 respectively," he stated.

Muraleedharan further informed that following the 2+2 initiative in November 2016, when the Foreign and Fisheries Ministers of the two countries met in New Delhi, a bilateral Joint Working Group (JWG) mechanism and meeting of the Ministers for Fisheries of the two countries was institutionalized to address the fishermen issues with Sri Lanka. (ANI)
Nepal PM will be in India during April 1-3.

The Kathmandu Post citing sources said that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has already received and accepted the invitation extended by his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to visit the neighbouring country.

This comes after Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi concluded his three-day Nepal visit.

Last week, Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa visited New Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He had thanked PM Modi for the support extended by India for the Sri Lankan economy.

India has stepped up and pledged a whopping USD 2.415 billion to the island nation to help overcome dire financial constraints caused by external debt payments and a lack of US dollars in the country for business.

In January this year, Jaishankar held a virtual meeting with the Finance Minister of Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa and conveyed that India has always stood with Sri Lanka, and will continue to support Sri Lanka in all possible ways for overcoming the economic and other challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (ANI)
China took part in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting here though it is not a part of the group.

During the meeting between the two friendly nations, Bajwa praised and expressed support for China's foreign policy, saying Beijing has pursued a balanced and steady foreign policy, while being committed to world peace and development and fulfilled its role as a responsible major country in international hotspot areas.

Interestingly, earlier Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had praised India's foreign policy.

Meanwhile, Wang Yi said China appreciated the Pakistani military for its proactive effort and significant contribution over the years in consolidating and strengthening the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, safeguarding the security and smooth progress of the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and ensuring the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan.

Wang also said that the Pakistani military has played the role of stabilizer in building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era. (ANI)
Kyiv [Ukraine], March 24 (ANI/Sputnik): A joint investigation of several European media outlets has shown that refugees of Asian and African origin who fled Ukraine are detained at the borders of the European Union (EU) countries and subjected to discrimination contrary to the laws of the EU, the Independent reported on Thursday. The investigation, which was carried out jointly with Lighthouse Reports, Spiegel, Mediapart and Radio France, shows that multiple African and Asian refugees fleeing Ukraine were experiencing racial discrimination while trying to cross into the EU since the start of the Russian operation. At least 52 third-country nationals who have fled Ukraine are currently being held in detention facilities in Poland, the Independent said, adding that a Nigerian student detained in Estonia, after travelling there to see his family, is now being threatened with deportation. At the same time, an EU directive recommends admitting on humanitarian grounds third country nationals studying or working in Ukraine. On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. In response to Russia's operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow. According to the UN refugee agency, over 3.6 million Ukrainians have already left the country for neighbouring nations since the start of the Russian military operation. (ANI/Sputnik)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday listed six principles to explain India's response to the Ukraine crisis, which included the immediate cessation of violence, return to dialogue, diplomacy and humanitarian access. Responding to a question about the war in Ukraine in Rajya Sabha, Jaishankar said that India's stance regarding the issue is based on six principles. "Our own position on Ukraine concern is very clear, based on six principles - immediate cessation of violence, return to dialogue and diplomacy, global order anchored on international law, UN charter, territorial integrity, humanitarian access. India is sending humanitarian assistance while being in touch with the leadership of Russia, Ukraine," he said. Further responding to a question about the growing relations between Russia and China, Jaishankar said that the government is aware of the changes in international relations. India has sent humanitarian aid consisting of medicines, medical equipment, relief materials to Ukraine. Earlier Jaishankar had informed that 147 foreign nationals hailing from 18 countries were evacuated from the conflict situation in Ukraine as part of 'Operation Ganga' and brought to India. "In line with India's principle of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', foreign nationals were also evacuated from conflict zones and brought to India. They included 147 citizens of 18 countries. Many Ukrainian nationals that are family members of Indian nationals have also been evacuated," Jaishankar said in a statement in the two Houses of Parliament on 'Situation in Ukraine'. He also said that as tensions escalated, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine started a registration drive for Indians in January 2022 and as a result, around 20,000 Indians registered. "Most Indian nationals were students pursuing medical studies in Ukrainian universities dispersed throughout the country," he said. After Russia's forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, the Government of India launched 'Operation Ganga' to bring back stranded Indian nationals from conflict-torn Ukraine. (ANI)
In a recorded message, the Prime Minister began by quoting a verse from the Holy Quran. He noted that Muslims had been told to "stand with good and against evil".

The video message circulated on nation broadcast on television, social media and radio, Imran Khan said that the "group of bandits" who have been looting the county for the last 30 years have joined hands in "auctioning the conscience of the elected public representatives."

"They are practising this publicly," he said.

He said that the people should tell the Opposition that the act of horse-trading being done from black money is "unacceptable" so that nobody dares to commit such crimes next time.

He also asked the people of the country to "stand with the good" and "against evil", urging them to show support.

Earlier, Senator Faisal Javed Khan had tweeted that the premier would deliver an important message to the people of Pakistan and invite them to attend the ruling party's power show in Islamabad on March 27.

Notably, the Opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust Imran Khan as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8.

Khan is set to face a no-confidence vote against him on Friday. (ANI)
Canberra [Australia], March 24 (ANI/Sputnik): While Australia understands the importance of diplomatic contacts with Russia, it does not rule out the expulsion of Russian diplomats in the wake of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday. "The option of expelling diplomats is something is available to government, but at the same time it is potentially useful to have direct lines of communication with, in this case, the Russian government, but that does not mean the government has excluded the option," Payne said in an interview with ABC Radio when asked about the expulsion of the Russian ambassador. The minister observed that other countries have asked Russian diplomatic staff to leave, but "not in every case their ambassador," adding that Australia's government is working with partners to "determine the best approach in these circumstances." Payne also said she is "not going to speculate on Australia's approach" concerning the withdraw of Russia's diplomats, stressing that the option still remains. On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. In response to Russia's operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow. (ANI/Sputnik)
The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine continues to deteriorate even as the conflict that began on February 24 with the Russian announcement of "special military operations" is set to enter its second month. The capital city of Kyiv and the southeastern coastal city of Mariupol remain the epicentres of the heaviest fighting as of now. As many as 87 residential buildings have been damaged in Kyiv since February 24, while Mariupol witnesses brutal fighting with the city being under constant heavy bombardment. The Head of Donetsk Military-Civil Administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, claimed on Sunday said that the Russian occupying forces are refusing to provide food, water and safe passage to thousands of Mariupol residents who are fleeing the conflict. The ongoing conflict has resulted in about 10 million people getting displaced within the country or ending up as refugees abroad till now according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More than 3.5 million refugees have fled to the neighbouring western countries, including Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary, with European Union President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday announcing an economic package of EUR 3.4 billion to support EU countries hosting those fleeing the war. According to UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) almost half of all Ukrainian children have been displaced due to the conflict. As of March 22, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded a total of 2,571 civilian casualties in the country, among them 977 killed and 1,594 injured. The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine has reported 121 children as killed in the conflict Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and airstrikes, OHCHR said. Meanwhile, NATO will hold an extraordinary summit in Brussels today to discuss the military alliance's strategy in the coming days including the provision of humanitarian and military equipment to Ukraine. The US President Joe Biden will begin his three-day visit to Europe, by attending the NATO summit, which will be followed by his attendance at the G7 Leaders' Meeting and European Council Summit. Russia launched its invasion last month after recognising the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as "independent republics." Russia has since continued to maintain that the aim of its operations has been to "demilitarize" and "de-nazify" the country. The Russian actions were immediately condemned by almost all the western countries, who rolled out severe sets of sanctions targetting the Russian economy, and key individuals. A number of countries, including the US, UK, France, Italy, Finland and several others, also banned Russian aircraft over their airspaces. (ANI)
The call came early Friday morning, from hundreds of miles away. Thats how the Neal family in Virginia Beach, Virginia, learned their beloved son and brother had fallen victim to gun violence in Baltimore.

You know, you get a phone call like that, and you cant accept it, said James Willie Neal Jr., whose son died after a shooting off Madison Avenue in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood. In the beginning, it just doesnt seem real.

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Baltimore police responded to the scene around 2:40 a.m. Friday and found James Anthony Neal, 34, collapsed in an alley suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his head, officials said. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arriving, police said.

Over the next several hours, two more people were killed, and six others were injured during a spate of daytime gun violence Friday afternoon and evening  including three double shootings that unfolded in neighborhoods across Baltimore: Otterbein, Upton and Langston Hughes. The city recorded two additional homicides during the rest of the weekend.

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This continued level of violence is both frustrating and disheartening to all of us working to reduce crime and keep residents safe, Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said in a statement Monday morning. I personally spent a good portion of the weekend at multiple crime scenes.  Our city is better than this.

James Anthony Neal, center, and his parents, Tammy Neal and James Willie Neal Jr. (Photo courtesy of Latasha Neal)

Harrison conferred with investigators Friday afternoon at the Otterbein shooting scene on South Charles Street near the Inner Harbor, but he declined to comment further on that case. One of the victims later died at the hospital.

In his statement, Harrison promised that his officers are working hard to hold perpetrators accountable.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott praised the department for a series of weekend arrests, including two suspects charged with attempted murder from previous shootings. He emphasized the importance of policing strategies focused on those who choose acts of violence as their method of conflict resolution.

Even before the recent bloodshed, the Baltimore homicide rate was trending higher than this time last year  76 homicides compared with 65, according to current data from police  and nonfatal shootings are up roughly 40%.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 19 Baltimore Police investigate the shooting scene near Charles Street and Conway Street near downtown Baltimore. Two people died and six others were hospitalized after five separate shootings in neighborhoods across Baltimore Friday afternoon (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

During a phone interview Tuesday from his home in Virginia Beach, James Willie Neal said he had barely slept since receiving the news about his oldest childs slaying.

I have had so many people calling me, saying: Oh God. They just dont believe it  all these people reaching out because they want to help, he said. I guess were gonna get through this. I dont know.

For now, hes trying to focus on giving his son a proper send-off. The family established an online fundraiser to help cover funeral costs.

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The oldest of three siblings, James Anthony Neal radiated kindness and empathy, his family said. He made friends easily and loved to socialize.

His Facebook profile is filled with inspirational quotes, smiling selfies and jokes about 90s cartoon characters.

He had recently been staying with a close friend in Baltimore but was talking about coming back to Virginia Beach, according to his family.

Then, this happened, said his dad, pausing to steady his voice. He choked up again, trying to explain how much he supported his son and always rooted for his success.

James Anthony Neal and his sister, Latasha Neal. (Photo courtesy of James Willie Neal Jr.)

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He said he always wanted to grow up and be like me, said James Willie Neal, a proud Navy veteran who described himself as a devoted family man. He said he let me down a couple times, but I didnt see it that way.

James Anthony Neal was born in Morristown, New Jersey, but the family moved around a lot depending on where his dad was stationed in the Navy. They eventually settled in Virginia Beach.

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His younger sister, Latasha Neal, said she remembers him watching anime and pushing her to read all the Harry Potter books. He graduated from high school with honors.

More recently, she said, he became a doting uncle to her children, who adored him.

He was that person who could find something good in everything, she said. He would give the best advice, even if he doesnt always apply it to himself.

Baltimore Police said detectives have not identified a motive in the case, but the investigation is ongoing.

The department asked anyone with information about the case to contact detectives at 410-396-2100 or use the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
Countless Chinese couples registered their marriages on February 22nd, 2022, as the date comprises many twos, and is regarded as "Love Day", as the Mandarin phonetic ("er") is roughly similar to the word for love ("ai"). Despite a recent increase in weddings on this fortuitous day, China's marriage rate has been quickly declining, contributing to the country's wider demographic challenge. Concerned about overall social and economic volatility, the CCP has suggested several initiatives to increase birth rates, especially ones that focus on women's rights, although these alone aren't enough to entice more residents to marry. The most significant hurdle is that several young people do not want to marry. The marriage rate in Jiangsu decreased by 5% for the time in a 5th consecutive year, according to provincial statistics. Almost half of all respondents cited the prohibitively high expense of having children and getting married as their reason. The South China Morning Post's He Huifeng highlighted findings that Gen Z women are less interested in marriage, as well as the economic implications of this pattern. As per Liu Xin, creative director with an advertising agency "Live for yourself has become a go-to advertising campaign that many brands use to lure female consumers since a large number of women under the age of 35 only want to please themselves in terms of consumption and lifestyles," she further added, "Marriage and childbirth may not make them feel happier, in comparison." There has been substantial opposition to the government's push to encourage young adults to start families, including a change in family-planning rules that would allow people to have three children. According to Shen Jiake, a renowned writer and independent commentator, for such measures to be effective, they need to make young women perceive as if parenthood will improve their rights and standard of living more than not having kids. Consequently, he claims, such measures will fail to raise the population adequately as women are voicing their dissatisfaction with [China's] current marriage and birthing regulations through their real behaviours, as evidenced by the dropping fertility rate. Shen stated, "This has led to an objective fact and trend that half - or a large number of families - stand on the side of young women's rights, in terms of attitudes toward marriage and childbearing". "Besides, the number of well-educated and financially independent young women has equalled or even surpassed that of men of the same age. All of these factors will result in the attitudes and values of young women having a huge influence on society, especially on population trends." Due to China's one-child policy, a huge chunk of wealth currently belongs to young urban females. 50 per cent - or a significant number of families - support young women's rights, according to Communist Party head in Luanzhou, Hebei. As per AFP, CCP-sponsored matching activities enable people to meet in person and online. The local Communist Party chairman in Luanzhou, Hebei, has established "matching spots" around the city of 520,000 residents and circulated registration forms containing personal information for matchmaking events. A party-sponsored event in Jinan, China's eastern province of Shandong, drew over 100 individuals. Printed profiles of visitors indicating their ages, fields of employment, and wealth were strung up among trees at the event, which was held in a public park. While pop music played in the backdrop, a master of ceremonies assisted in the introduction of ice-breaking team activities. A few government marriage initiatives, on the other hand, have backfired. The response to a fresh government initiative in Jiangxi to encourage "leftover women" to marry unemployed rural men was recounted by Ji Siqi of the South China Morning Post. As per a report by Shanghai-based publication The Paper, Yihuang county in Jiangxi province is giving women and their partner's priority consideration in terms of housing and jobs, as well as maternity allowances. Equally controversially, officials are attempting to entice women to marry unemployed men by offering their spouses specialized and entrepreneurial training, business financing, and first preference for government jobs. The plan has been panned online, with women asking why it was a concern if they didn't want to marry. Government plans of this nature have extended to other provinces around the nation. The Xiangyin county administration in Hunan revealed its proposal for "Operation Bed-warming" on its local CCP website, which would enhance matchmaking services and promotion to discourage local women from leaving rural regions. It was like a recommendation made last year by the deputy secretary general of the Shanxi Think Tank Development Association, which received a lot of flak. Coercive tactics have also been used by the CCP to improve marriage rates. One strategy has been to make divorce more difficult, most notably through the new Civil Code's minimum 30-day "cooling off" period, which went into force last year. The divorce rate dropped by 70 per cent shortly after it was passed, and one year later, it is still substantially lower than in prior years. Domestic violence and violence against women have increased because of the legislation. County court records in Fengxian county, show multiple rulings dismissing divorce requests by women who had been victims of human trafficking on the grounds of preserving family unity. Marriage regulations have also been linked to social stability aims, with the government pushing intermarriage in Xinjiang via both forced and voluntary ways. In 2019, the government quadrupled the bonus points for children with one Han Chinese parent on the countrywide college entrance test, while having the extra points for children with both ethnic minority parents. In a more forceful example, one Uyghur survivor of Xinjiang's internment camps told VOA in 2020 that when a government official sought their agreement, her Uyghur neighbours decided to marry their daughter to a Han man; fearing jail, the family grudgingly consented to the marriage. From 2018, there has been a noticeable increase in publications encouraging Han males to marry Uyghur women. During the "Two Sessions" annual legislative and advisory sessions, the CCP's ambitious demographic-related policy options were on full show. Delegates offered several policies to increase birth rates and encourage marriage. Although not all these recommendations will become official policy, their inclusion demonstrates how significant they are to the CCP leadership, however, many people are sceptical about this attempt. (ANI)
Scores of people protested in front of National Museum, Shahbag in Dhaka to mark the genocide by the Pakistan Army in Bangladesh in 1971 in which thousands of people, including children, were slaughtered. The protest organised by Bangladesh Conscious Citizens Committee (BCCC), commemorating Genocide Remembrance Day, saw participation by prominient people including Muktijoddha Professor Dr Neemchand Bhowmik. Leaders and participants of the human chain protest demanded international recognition of this genocide or Operation Searchlight - a planned military pacification carried out by the Pakistani Army. They also demanded an apology by the Pakistan Government and a trial of Pakistani War Criminals immediately. The protest was addressed among others by political analyst FF Major General M A Sikder, Co-Convenor F F M D Salauddin, Member Secretary and Chairman of Bangladesh Bharat Sampriti Parishad FF Fazle Ali, Journalist Basudeb Dhar, Secretary-General of Bangladesh Bharat Sampriti Parshad FF Mehidi Hasan Chowdhury and HBCUP leader Nirmal Chatterjee, Professor Sadia Sharmin. The leaders condemned the massacre of Bangladesh people by the Pakistan Army on March 25 in 1971 when a black veil just showed up over the history of mankind. The Pakistan Army turned entire Bangladesh into a killing field with its indiscriminate killing, torture of innocent people and unprecedented scale of rapes for nine months. That was the kickoff of one of the biggest genocides in the world, led by General Yahya Khan of Pakistan, causing the biggest ever humanitarian catastrophe after World War II. They killed 30 lakh people and violated two lakh women and children. Freedom fighters and researchers claim that still, many mass graves in the district and upazila levels remain unidentified. (ANI)
The incident took place on Wednesday night at Draban Kalan police station in Dera Ismail Khan district, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported citing local police.

The deceased has been identified as Mohammad Fahim and the injured as Hidayatullah.

Both, the deceased and injured were shifted to Mufti Mahmood Hospital, Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. (ANI)
As the global community responds to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Democracy Forum hosted a virtual seminar on March 23, which shone a light on security in the Indo-Pacific region and the roles played there by three major world powers: America, India and China. In his opening comments, TDF President Lord Bruce spoke of India's long policy of non-alignment. But he also highlighted Jawarharlal Nehru's 1949 warning, in response to the emergence of the Cold War, that 'the very process of marshalling the world into hostile camps precipitates the conflict it had sought to avoid. It is arguable that the invasion of Ukraine has pushed India into just this predicament, said Lord Bruce. Forced to confront the consequences of its multipolar alignment with both Russia and the US, India chose to abstain on three occasions at the UN Assembly in the last month, rather than joining the condemnation of Russia's actions - though abstention is not support. Despite its careful strategic balancing of collective security interests in the Indo-Pacific, clearly represented by its membership of the Quad, India has been reluctant to discontinue its reliance on Russia's traditional role as its principal arms supplier, which could lead to the imposition of sanctions by the US. And a more insidious threat to India's security may emerge, added Lord Bruce, if the US recalibrates its global miliary responsibilities and its commitment to the security of Europe, to the detriment of its strategic alliances in the Indo-Pacific region. This could create, as former Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran said, "a nightmare scenario where the United States comes to the conclusion that it confronts a greater threat from Russia and that this justifies a strategic accommodation with China - in blunt terms, to concede Chinese dominance in Asia while safeguarding its European flank." Outlining the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, particularly in relation to US-India-China relations, Dr Walter Ladwig III of King's College, London called the region "a grand strategic domain" and a fusion of the world centre of economic dynamism, vital as a source of raw materials and a transport corridor. According to Ladwig, strategists have long argued that the Indo-Pacific is where the great power rivalries of the 21st century will play out, due to the region's oil, gas and other valuable reserves, and its waterways, which are a vital conduit for bringing those resources to market. Ladwig highlighted the very different foci the various states have in this realm, with the US prioritising the Pacific (since the Indian Ocean has less direct value for the US), and India taking in the whole region and prioritising the Indian Ocean. For China, both the Pacific and Indian Oceans are important, with flashpoints such as Taiwan and problems in the Korean peninsula, and Chinese economic growth depending on sea lanes of the Indian Ocean. One should recognise that the notion of a permanent Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean, and its ostensibly commercial infrastructure projects as part of its maritime silk road, is alarming for India, said Ladwig. And since China is the principal military patron of India's troublesome neighbour Pakistan, Sino-Pakistan economic ties are strengthening and China is moving into India's natural sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific, there are plenty of reasons for India to be looking askance at Beijing. When it comes to the Indo-Pacific, he concluded, India, the US and China are operating in a complicated geopolitical environment where the interests of the various parties only partially overlap and different pressures can simultaneously push pairs of states together, and pull them apart. Dr Kate Sullivan de Estrada, Associate Professor in the International Relations of South Asia, at St Antony's College, Oxford, explored how US engagement with India stands to further polarise US-China rivalry, and also how India is both leveraging and working against this dynamic. She drew out the divergent understandings of the term Indo-Pacific, and the order that is envisaged in that geopolitical domain, positing two images of India in the region: first, as a US partner and a defender of a particular kind of order in the Indo-Pacific. Growing strategic convergence with the US has been valuable for India but it comes at a price, said Sullivan de Estrada, peppered as it is with expectations for India to play balancing and capacity building roles. Also, despite India's very real security concerns vis-a-vis China, it doesn't want to take on the US' 'enemy' image of China, or pursue an overt strategy over Chinese containment. And while India's refusal to take sides over Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disappointed the US and its allies, it could promise a thaw in relations with China, sending a powerful message to Beijing that India does not unequivocally support a US vision of the global order. We have seen for well over a decade how the US has perceived India as central to how it manages the geopolitical challenges posed by China, said Dr Daniel Markey, Senior Advisor on South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace, who considered the risks to the United States associated with increased India-China hostility. While India is a political and security partner for the US, part of a broader Asian counterweight to China, Markey also underscored India's historic reticence to commit to the strategic partnership with the US, given Delhi's doubts about US strategic intentions, eg with regard to Pakistan, and concern that the US was getting too close to China during the Obama era. A breakdown in India-China relations would not serve US interests, said Markey. Greater India-China hostilities will make India more reliant on Russian arms, as well as making India more distracted to its land border, and therefore a less capable strategic partner for the US. For Eyck Freymann, a DPhil candidate in China Studies at Balliol College, Oxford, the focus was on the Quad, what holds it together, what it is for and what it can and cannot become, based on its intrinsic design and membership. He outlined what the Quad is not: it is not a geopolitical coalition to contain China, or an alliance in the traditional sense, including a military one, which might act in defence of Taiwan. Nor is it an investment or trading pact, a grouping that exists to spread or impose democratic norms or a group that exists to speak as one voice outside the Indo-Pacific region. So, what is the Quad? Freymann referred to it as a set of rules -digital, environmental, rules for the law of the sea, labour standards, etc -for what the Indo-Pacific should look like, set collectively rather than by a single country, and creating a playing field upon which the nations of the region will compete. Not that the obvious geopolitical context of the Quad's common interests relating to China can be denied, added Freymann. None of the Quad countries wants to be dependent on China for critical raw materials or components, for example, or for China to become a dominant naval power in the Indian Ocean, or to seize sovereign territory belonging to other states. For all its intrinsic limitations, the Quad is succeeding brilliantly, said Freymann, as evidenced by how concerned it has made China, which wants to fashion a vision for the Indo-Pacific that is neither free nor entirely open. Looking at the subject from an Indian perspective was journalist and author Dr Manoj Joshi. Although the Chinese are seeking to exploit the perceived gap between India and the US, arising out of India's stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they have an uphill task, said Joshi, as Delhi is far from normalising its ties with Beijing and, in fact, India is not happy with the Russian action, but is merely acting to prevent a deeper Russia-China embrace. Also, India is dependent on Russian defence platforms up to 85 per cent and has, furthermore, enjoyed close geopolitical ties with Russia since the 1950s. Close China-Russia ties are not good for India, so Delhi has gone out of its way to keep on the right side of Moscow. India has also rejected Western criticisms of its position, as many European nations have oil sufficiency, or are even importing it from Russia, the expert added. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India's foreign policy helped during the evacuation of Indian nationals under Operation Ganga in Ukraine, Operation Devi Shakti in Afghanistan and Vande Bharat mission during COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at inaugural St. Stephen's MRF distinguished alumni annual lecture here, he said, "Think for a moment as an Indian student happened to be still in Ukraine on February 24, 2021 -- concerned about your education prospects -- you have now found yourself in the middle of the serious conflict and it's not just you, it's 20,000 more of your fellow nationals and there are at the same time, millions of Ukrainians who are trying to get out of the country. Internal travel is itself dangerous and complicated. The borders are overcrowded due to ingestion and in highly impacted cities -- there is even the physical danger of just stepping out in the open due to shellings." Jaishankar said that at times like this, governments swing into action to save their nationals. "This is when you really look up to your government for support and for extrication and indeed this is when the entire foreign policy apparatus swings into action as it did through Operation Ganga. It does so by facilitating transport, including trains and buses. It intervenes at the highest level in Russia and Ukraine to ensure the seizing of fire for safe passage. It engages border authorities to ensure border crossing and in extreme cases, such as, there was a particular town called Sumy. It even traverses conflict zones to assure you of necessary logistics for your safety. Once you are out of Ukraine, it works with neighbouring governments Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland and Moldova to establish transit camps to organize the flight which is required for a safe return to home," said Jaishankar. He told the audience to reflect for a moment on these efforts, the interventions, the relationships at various levels that have gone into this -- starting from the very top and thinking of what it needed to make all of this happen. He also gave the example of Operation Devi Shakti under which Indian nationals were evacuated from Afghanistan when the Taliban laid siege to capital Kabul. "Let me give you another example of Kabul on August 15 last year for whatever reason you found yourself stranded in the middle of the city when the Taliban took over. A huge effort was made by the Indian Government to bring exactly such people home. Quite apart from navigating the city, now controlled by The Taliban checkpoints. You could well ask how difficult could this be?" The Indian minister further gave the intricate details of how such a difficult task was accomplished with the help of years of relationships maintained with the respective countries. "Let me tell you how difficult it was, it was as challenging as combining access to secured American base that was on edge, surrounded by desperate Afghans, suspicious Taliban of using Tajik real support for rapid advances, of accessing Iranian airspace at short notice and quietly utilizing Qatari facilitation. Some of our nationals who are beneficiaries of seats and flights run by the US, France, UK and Emiratis and all these were very delicately negotiated. This was exceptionally complicated logistics, but it was more than that. Behind it was years of relationships that really delivered at the time of need, equally important, this represented the efficacy of our flexible and pragmatic policy -- Indian policy of multiple engagements." Talking about Vande Bharat's mission, he said that it was the largest recorded evacuation exercise in human history. "Operation Devi Shakti flights from Kabul have been stressful but still manageable at short notice, much more daunting was India's challenge in the face of demands generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bande Bharat mission brought back millions of Indians from multiple countries through air, sea and land. It is in fact the largest recorded evacuation exercise in human history," said EAM Jaishankar. He also explained about the complex set of activities for the evacuation and intensive engagement with authorities that made the largest recorded evacuation exercise in human history possible. "The movement of people was only the tip of the iceberg, behind it were a complex set of activities that included organizing, gathering, testing, housing even feeding those who are waiting to be repatriated. Staring first at Wuhan and then moving on to Italy and beyond, this involved an intensive engagement with authorities -- local, provincial, national and it covered everybody from tourists, students to professionals and workers even pilgrims, fishermen and seafarers and it was not just limited to Indians coming back. Many staying abroad, in Gulf countries for instance were given support directly or by interceding with local governments. Here too, the results of cultivation by political leaders and diplomats paid off," he said. Explaining the foreign policy he said, "most of you may not be directly connected to foreign policy. My message to you is that whatever you do in life, the influence of external events will be very considerable. There are few activities that are immune from the globalized world. Keeping this in mind, I would like to talk today about what to the average person is 'good foreign policy'. Perhaps we overcomplicate the answer, confusing the sensible pursuit of interest with very complex formulations. Forget the terminology and just look for the gut answers." Jaishankar said that a "good foreign policy" must work for all. "A good foreign policy must work for you all. Since we are all collective as a country, our national security must be assured. The pursuit of our aspirations must be facilitated, the foreign policy being the link to outside, it should enable us to draw what we seek. We would all like us to be strong, like to look good and would like to feel appreciated. Any policy which ensures all these goals has a lot going for it," said Jaishankar. Earlier today, the external affairs minister in a written statement laid on the table of Rajya Sabha said that the government has been able to safely bring home 22,500 Indian citizens and 147 foreign nationals belonging to 18 countries from Ukraine since February 2022. (ANI)
The Indian Embassy in Nepal organized the third edition of International Entrepreneurship Conclave - Connect [IN] on March 23 in Kathmandu to foster stronger linkages between young entrepreneurs of India and Nepal so that they can work together to unlock newer avenues of economic growth and development. The Indian embassy, in a press release, said that the conclave is a part of the year-long celebrations to mark 75 years of India's independence under "Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav". The conclave was earlier scheduled for the 1st week of February 2022 but had to be postponed to March in view of the Covid situation at that time. The organizing partner is Clockb Business Innovations, and other key partners include GMR, Tata Motors, Tata Meditech and Tootle. According to the release, this initiative brings together innovators, dignitaries and thought leaders from India and Nepal to celebrate the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in our two countries. "The conclave, whose motto is connecting entrepreneurial minds of India and Nepal, embodies the conviction in our two countries that we may have a million problems but we also have a billion minds that can solve them. Through its three editions, Connect [IN] has provided an enabling platform to young entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists and experts from India and Nepal to learn from and connect with each other on a range of domains," the Indian embassy said in a release. The day-long conclave saw the participation of about twenty-five entrepreneurs, including five from India, working in domains as diverse as e-commerce, life sciences, fintech, education technology, social entrepreneurship, food tech, and financial services. Moreover, an audience of close to 400 aspiring entrepreneurs, business leaders, media persons and bankers benefited from the discussions and deliberations that took place during the conclave. The event also featured three-panel discussions focusing on salient matters in the startup space, such as challenges faced by startups during their early stages, funding of startups from VCs' perspective, and on how technology can help overcome barriers in traditional businesses. (ANI)
Underlining the responsibility of Indian diplomacy to create a wide set of options for contingencies, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Thursday said nobody had anticipated the turn of India's bilateral ties with China. Delivering St Stephen's MRF Distinguished Alumni Annual Lecture, he said, "Few would have anticipated the turn that India's relations took with China in the last two years. Any prudent policymaker backs its posture with capabilities and deterrence." "A big responsibility of Indian diplomacy is there to create the widest set of options for such contingencies. This could mean the acquisition of defence capabilities and other supportive measures or securing the understanding of our policies and actions from the international community," he added. During his address, Jaishankar described the 2015 land boundary agreement with Bangladesh as a "notable achievement" of the Modi government. He said this agreement has had a positive impact on the security situation in the east. "More than that it has opened up possibilities of economic cooperation and connectivity for the entire subregion," he added. Jaishankar also noted a different challenge is being faced on the western border vis-a-vis Pakistan. "On that front, the initial goal of diplomacy was to expose and delegitimise Pakistan's cross border terrorism and counteractions which required such as Uri in 2016 and Balakot in 2019. Effective diplomacy ensured a global understanding of India's action," he added. Speaking more on China, the external affairs minister said, the diplomatic interaction with China that is going on in parallel to the military standoff since May 2020, illustrate that foreign and defence policy are joined at the hip. "Here too, the value of global support is self-evident," he said. Noting the "nimbleness" of India's foreign policy, he said the leveraging of a multipolar world has been particularly visible in terms of weapons and technologies needed by our defence forces. "A Rafale aircraft accusation from France can take place at the same time as an MH-60r helicopter or an aircraft from the United States. The S-400 missile system from Russia or Spice bombs from Israel, speaks volumes of our nimbleness," the EAM added. "These are typically accompanied by military exercises and policy exchanges that bring about greater strategic comfort. In short, diplomacy supports, empower and facilitates the national security efforts," he added. (ANI)
Yi's visit is the first by a senior Chinese minister to Afghanistan after Taliban seized power in Kabul in August. The Chinese Foreign Minister's visit come after he completed his three-day visit to Pakistan where he held discussions with the country's top leadership.

He was received by Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on arrival in Kabul.

The two sides are expected to hold talks on issues focusing on China's role in stability and development, the state news agency reported.

The Taliban has courted Chinese investment in recent months. Earlier this month, Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said talks were underway with Beijing over resuming work in the massive copper mine.

This visit also comes at the heels of Wang Yi's expected to visit India to hold talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar.

This will be the first high profile and a physical meeting between the leaders of both countries after the Galwan clash and the beginning of the border stand-off that started in May 2020.

The main aim of Wang's visit is to restart physical engagement and also invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a BRICS meeting to be hosted by Beijing later this year.

It is pertinent to mention that the India-China stand-off at the border is continuing as multiple rounds of military and diplomatic discussions did not reap results. India has called for complete disengagement in eastern Ladakh at all friction points.

The 15th round of Corps Commander level talks between India and China was held at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Indian side on March 11, 2022. (ANI)
After allies of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party again decided to side with the opposition on the upcoming no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the ruling party has doubled up efforts to appease the annoyed coalition partners. Three major coalition partners- Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP)- recently said that they will support the Opposition in the no-confidence motion. Upset with the news of allies joining the opposition camp, Pakistani PM dispatched a team of PTI senior leaders to meet the allies and assure them that their reservations would be addressed, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported citing sources. The PTI leaders met the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to convince them for the last time so that the allies would return to the government and support Pakistani PM in the National Assembly on the voting day. Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the next 48 hours will be "quite crucial" when the political chaos would be cleared. He hoped that the allies would stick with the Pakistani PM in the hour of need. He also hoped that the allies would stick with the government, Dawn reported. Chaudhary further stated that the Pakistani PM "country's biggest" public meeting will take place on March 27 before the no-confidence motion. Meanwhile earlier today the Pakistani PM in a recorded video broadcast on the country television, social media and radio networks, termed the Pakistan opposition as a "group of bandits" who have been looting the county for the last 30 years have joined hands in "auctioning the conscience of the elected public representatives." Khan also invited the people of the country to join him at Islamabad's Parade Ground on March 27. Notably, the Opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust Imran Khan as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8. Khan is set to face a no-confidence vote against him tomorrow. (ANI)
India on Thursday hit out at OIC's references to Kashmir in statements adopted at its meeting in Islamabad, saying these "demonstrate both the irrelevance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation as a body and role of Pakistan as its manipulator". In a strongly-worded response to the OIC statement, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi said references have been made to India and are based on falsehoods and misrepresentation. He said the "absurdity" of OIC commenting on the treatment of minorities at the instance of "a serial violator of human rights like Pakistan", is so evident. Bagchi said countries associated with this exercise should realise its impact on their reputation. "The statements and resolutions adopted at the meeting demonstrate both the irrelevance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation as a body and the role of Pakistan as its manipulator," he said. "References have been made to India that are based on falsehoods and misrepresentation. The absurdity of this body commenting on the treatment of minorities, that too at the instance of a serial violator of human rights like Pakistan, is so evident. Nations and Governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation," he added. Bagchi was responding to media queries on references to India in the statements and resolutions adopted at the OIC meeting in Pakistan. India had on Wednesday rejected the "uncalled reference" to Jammu and Kashmir by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the opening ceremony of the OIC. Bagchi had said matters related to the union territory "are entirely the internal affairs of India" and added other countries including China have no locus standi to comment. (ANI)
Atlas Restaurant Group is reviving James Joyce Irish Pub in Harbor East after it was shut down in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the restaurant group announced Wednesday.

James Joyce pub, named for the acclaimed 20th-century Irish novelist, resided on President Street for 18 years until December 2020, when its doors closed, and the building has since been vacant.

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The restaurant was owned and operated by Washington-area restaurateur Jimmy Fagan from 2002 to 2020. Joe Sweeney, director of marketing and public relations for Atlas Restaurant Group, said the company has reversed the Irish pubs fate by leasing the vacant space.

The restaurant group plans to reopen James Joyce in late summer with a similar menu and nightly live music as a staple. Some menu items will be updated, and minor renovations will be made to the interior. The pub is known for its imported Irish furniture and decorations.

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Irish pubs are known for being places that the community can gather to enjoy food, drinks and friendly conversation, Alex Smith, president and CEO of Atlas Restaurant Group, said in a statement. While James Joyce remained shuttered, the neighborhood and city were missing an important and unique concept that was successful as a result of their neighborly hospitality, which we look forward to continuing.

The restaurant group operates 17 bars and eateries in the city, with eight restaurants in Harbor East.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised apprehension in Taipei that China may try to follow suit and use force to annexe Taiwan. According to reports, China has been sending military aircraft into the air defence identification zone of Taiwan on almost a daily basis. On the other hand, as ground reports from Taiwan reveal, the Russian assault on Ukraine is serving a wake-up call for Taiwan, reported The HK Post. A report in the Financial Times says Taiwanese people are taking more interest in the effectiveness of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger man-portable missiles, which the people are using effectively to stall the advance of the Russian forces. There is also a debate in Taiwan over reinstating conscription and reorganizing the large but poorly trained reserve force of Taiwan. The German broadcasting agency DW has said in a report that Taiwan is holding several military exercises. Drawing the instance of Ukraine, President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen has emphasized that the protection of Taiwan, in addition to international solidarity and assistance, would depend on the unity of the people, reported The HK Post. Taiwan is taking steps to test the combat readiness of troops. Military reservists have been put through a new and more intensive training programme. They are going through live-fire drills to ensure that reservists have basic combat skills. Some 15,000 reservists involving 24 battalions have been involved. The air force and the navy of Taiwan have carried out a series of military exercises, testing the air defence capabilities of Taipei in the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwanese army is also slated to carry out live-fire drills in the offshore islands. US Defence officials have urged Taiwan to build asymmetric capabilities, expand in areas such as cyberwar and use means to project a smaller force against a larger and better-equipped enemy. Taiwan has been advised to draw a lesson from Ukraine on how a small force could thwart the attack of a much stronger enemy. Asymmetric defence, for Taiwan, could mean acquiring large numbers of small and inexpensive capabilities that could make it more difficult for an invader to land on a beach and make headway inland. This could mean the use of weapons like coastal defence cruise missiles, short-range, mobile air defence systems, smart naval mines and drones, reported The HK Post. China has also stepped up its violation of the territorial rights of the smaller littoral states in the South China Sea. These attempts have varied from stepping up threats to Taiwan to adopting threatening postures against smaller littoral states in the South China Sea. Beijing could have hoped now that the attention of the United States is focused on Europe because of the war in Ukraine, it could be the right opportunity for China to bully the smaller nations like the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei and establish its hegemony in the South China Sea; and also complete its unfulfilled agenda of annexing Taiwan. However, Beijing's hopes may still remain a mirage as these smaller nations are offering resistance to the Chinese threat. To the discomfiture of Beijing, Washington, too, continues to remain vigilant in the South China Sea region, reported The HK Post. (ANI)
The explosion occurred at a workplace in the third industrial estate, located on the central Kayapinar district, along the Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa highway route.

The agency reported that an oxygen cylinder at the workplace might have caused the explosion.

Many police and medical teams were dispatched to the scene. The injured were taken to hospital, some with serious wounds, according to the DHA. (ANI/Xinhua)
Ahead of next week's second phase of Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's local body election, locals fear that in some of the conservative areas of the province, the right to vote might be taken away from women. There are some areas in the province, where women can't step out of their houses to cast votes without the permission of their male family members, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported citing Social activist Zakirullah. Zakirullah said that the women's disenfranchisement also takes place in order to favour certain election candidates, while some social activists insisted that women don't cast their votes due to the local traditions. Earlier also, he made such remarks that the candidates had made the arrangement to bar the women voters in the PK-28 constituency (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly), but no such arrangements were seen ahead of Pakistan's local body election. Even in 2019, Zakirullah said that the women didn't cast the vote in a by-election in Pazang VC, saying that under the law, re-polling should be started until the minimum numbers of women cast their votes in the electoral process. Upon the electoral process, Mohammad Aslam, district election commissioner and district monitoring officer said that they are carrying out the campaigns to highlight the importance of vote among the residents. He further stated that the district election commission with the assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had sent the mobile registration vans to 110 of 353 blocks in the district, where usually comparable to other places, the lowest numbers of women turned for voting. "Only four per cent of registered women cast vote in the 2013 general elections and 13 per cent in the 2018 elections, so their overall turnout remained very low," Aslam was quoted as saying by Dawn. "Bearing the local culture, traditions and norms as well as accessibility issues in mind, we established polling stations for women close to their houses to encourage more and more of them to exercise their right to vote," he said. Aslam further stated that if the women voters are less than 10 per cent of the total votes then the Pakistan Election Commission would presume that women were restrained from voting and may declare re-polling or more polling stations would be established or election in the whole constituency would be void. The first phase of elections was held in 17 districts on December 19 and the second phase of KP Local Government polls will be held in the province on March 31. The Election Commission of Pakistan had on January 20 announced the schedule and a code of conduct for the second phase of local government elections in 18 districts of the province, reported the news channel. (ANI)
Sri Lanka's central bank on Thursday said that the island nation's banking system is stable after speculations that a state bank in the country had defaulted. "The Ministry of Finance and the central bank of Sri Lanka wish to assure the public and all other stakeholders that the banking system is stable and that operations of the state banks are being carried out smoothly, contrary to statements made otherwise," the central bank said in a statement. This comes after Member of Parliament Harsha de Silva from the political alliance of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) told the country's parliament that there were reports saying a state bank has defaulted. "With great sadness, we are saying this," Samagi Jana Balawegaya legislator Harsha de Silva told parliament. "We have heard that a state bank has defaulted. Please look into this immediately." The EconomyNext reported that banks of the South Asian country have faced counterparty limit cuts since a downgrade of the sovereign credit which has tightened, making it harder to rollover contracts. State banks are also forced to give dollars for letters of credit to import oil, the report added. Sri Lanka's State Minister of Regional Relations Taraka Balasuriya said that the government has decided to close down some nation's missions as a means of cutting down expenditure. "There are around 65 Sri Lanka foreign missions abroad, and we have seen that some of these missions are not needed as Sri Lankan mission offices of countries close by can handle matters rather than having too many mission offices. This will also save funds," he said. (ANI)
Independence of the judiciary has been prominent in our public discourse. Our constitution provides several measures to ensure that the judicial mechanisms are free from interference by the executive. Several high profile controversies in recent years were discussed in terms of the effect they may have on judicial independence - the very fact being a hallmark of a robust democratic civic space. But not enough attention is accorded to preserving the independence of the legal profession which is an equally important part of upholding the rule of law. Lawyers are the medium through which citizens access the courts. It is also lawyers who advise citizens of their rights under the law and make them aware that they can approach courts for justice. An independent judiciary would be meaningless if the legal profession is not also independent. This principle is recognized internationally. Rule 3 of the International Code of Ethics of the International Bar Association (IBA) mandates that "Lawyers shall preserve independence in the discharge of their professional duty". IBA International Principles on Conduct for the legal profession adopted in 2011 further explain this concept of independence by emphasizing that "[t]he requirement of independence calls upon the individual practicing lawyer, government and civil society to give priority to the independence of the legal profession over personal aspirations and to respect the need for an independent legal profession." In most modern democracies we are used to some common principles around which the legal profession is organized. First, a professional association or council, which has a certain degree of independence from government, regulates the educational standards and other qualifications required to be met to be admitted to the legal profession. Secondly, the code of conduct, forms and particulars of practice conventions, gradations within the profession if any, are all prescribed by the professional body and not by the government. Thirdly, the process by which a lawyer can be disbarred from practice is administered by the professional body. The underlying theme that we take for granted is that the practice of law is independent of government interference or control. But this may not always be true. There is an old joke about underlining the plight of Human Rights lawyers in China. Having naturally found himself ensconced in a prison, a political prisoner decides to seek help. "I need to speak to a human rights lawyer," the prisoner says. His cellmate responds "You've come to the right place then"! The humour in this joke is quite dark if you consider that Chinese lawyers have been subjected to incarceration en masse with as many as 200 being detained in one swoop in 2015. Other such actions by the Chinese government have also been noted by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Government control of the legal profession in China goes far beyond penal recriminations against some Human Rights lawyers. Though the Deng years reversed the Mao era de-professionalization of law, the 1980 Provisional Regulation on Lawyers of the People's Republic of China defined lawyers as "workers of the state". The pervasive state control of the legal profession in China had eased over the years and had been brought under a professional body - The All-China Lawyer's Association. However, a lawyer can still lose her right to practice law for having political views different from that of the government. One prominent case that has received some international attention of late is that of Chang Weiping, who in 2020 lost his license to practice law after attending a gathering of activists in the city of Xiamen. Recent statements by Chairman Xi Jinping have roused further alarm. Xi has openly called for ensuring "political loyalty" from lawyers by giving them "political guidance". He also seeks to weaponize the legal profession and is of the view that China needs to "arm itself with better laws and better lawyers for international struggle". Xi was particular about protecting Chinese interests in the Belt and Road Initiative. Such pronouncements give rise to justified concerns about rule of law in China. Interference in the legal profession will not only be in the sphere of human rights but also the commercial sphere. Lawyers across the democratic world do not hesitate before taking up cases against their government, even on behalf of a foreign company. They are secure in their belief that their invocation of the law will not be seen as an act against their country but as an act in furtherance of the rule of law in their country. A "politically loyal" legal profession would not be able to offer support against a transgressing government in the same way. Disclaimer: The author of this opinion piece is Vikram Hegde, who is an Advocate on Record and is a gold medallist from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He practices before the Supreme Court of India. (ANI)
A 54-year old Christian man was arrested and beaten on blasphemy charges by Pakistani authorities on March 16, local media reported. According to Safia Shahid, the wife of Fansan Shahid, cybercrime officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Gujranwala Circle raided their Lahore home shortly after midnight and took him into custody on allegations that he had made blasphemous comments in a post on Facebook in 2019, reported Morning Star News. The agents seized Fansan Shahid's phone, a photograph and his national identity card and put him into their vehicle, she said. They told her they were taking him to Gujranwala city because the complaint against him had been registered by an Islamist cleric who is a resident of Sialkot District. Safia Shahid said her husband lost his cellphone in 2019, reported Morning Star News. "We believe that the lost phone was misused by someone to post the blasphemous comment, because my husband did not use a passcode for its security, and his Facebook account was also logged in," she said. When she met with her husband briefly in FIA custody in Gujranwala on Wednesday (March 17), he told her they had tortured him into confessing the alleged crime, she said. Her husband has multiple health problems, and as blasphemy cases go on for years without a chance of bail, she said she was extremely worried about how her family would cope. False accusations of blasphemy are common in Pakistan, often motivated by personal vendettas or religious hatred. The highly inflammatory accusations have the potential to spark mob lynchings, vigilante murders and mass protests. Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors' 2022 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country had the second-highest number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Nigeria, with 620 slain during the reporting period from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. Pakistan had the fourth-highest number of churches attacked or closed, with 183, and overall, reported Morning Star News. (ANI)
A total of 38 countries including India abstained. Meanwhile, Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria voted against it.

"The General Assembly adopted a resolution that calls out Russia's assault on Ukraine for creating a dire humanitarian situation, pushes for a humanitarian corridor, and demands that fighting stops. In favour: 140 Against: 5 Abstained: 38," the UN News tweeted.

The resolution deplores the "humanitarian consequences" of Russia's actions.

Earlier this, India had abstained from voting on a similar resolution against Russia at UNGA.

The UNGA had overwhelmingly voted to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (ANI)
The Dawn newspaper reported that the international body was left unconvinced by the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) government's justifications for a recently announced amnesty scheme.

The Pakistani publication said the IMF'S mission and the Pakistan government authorities are unlikely to conclude the ongoing seventh review of the USD 6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) shortly.

The IMF staff mission raised more questions on the estimated impact of relief measures announced by the government and their financing guarantees, Dawn report said.

The newspaper said the mission was dissatisfied with the arguments advanced in favour of the money-whitening scheme for the industrial sector.

"We also reaffirm our commitment to not granting further tax amnesties (continuous structural benchmark) and avoiding the practice of issuing new preferential tax treatments or exemptions," said Pakistan Finance Minister Tarin and State Bank Governor Dr Reza Baqir in a written undertaking.

Pakistani media reports said the discussion between the Pakistan government and IMF was originally targeted to be completed by March 14 but were extended as differences remained.

The discussions on the seventh review of the USD 6bn Extended Fund Facility started on March 4. The IMF had been concerned over the "one step forward, two steps back" approach of the government on critical reforms having serious budget implications, according to Dawn. (ANI)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who arrived in New Delhi from Kabul on Thursday, is set to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday. The meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries will take place tomorrow morning, sources said. Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi after a brief trip to Afghanistan's Kabul and a three-day visit to Pakistan. The visit also comes amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is the first visit of a senior Chinese leader in two years since the border stand-off between the two countries since May 2020. There has been disengagement from areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh and India and China have been holding military and diplomatic talks for further disengagement from the remaining friction points. Wang Yi's comes a day after India rejected his remarks on Kashmir at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Islamabad. India had also said that other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment on India's internal affairs. After the Galwan Valley clash, both countries have held several rounds of border talks to resolve the standoff. India has called for complete disengagement in eastern Ladakh at all friction points. On March 11, the 15th round of Corps Commander level talks were held between the two countries on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo border point in which both sides agreed to maintain the security and stability along the Line of Actual Control in the Western Sector. (ANI)
Visiting French Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on Thursday met with Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and discussed the challenges India faces due to rapid urbanization and the building of smart cities. "French Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari met Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs to discuss how France can help India meet the challenges of rapid urbanization and build Smart Cities. In particular, France will increase its support for smart & clean urban mobility solutions," tweeted Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India. The French Minister is scheduled to highlight his country's support to clean mobility in India. He will hold discussions with Puri on new mobility solutions, including urban cable cars, and an Indo-French seminar for sustainable urban development proposed to be organised jointly by representatives of French land transport companies active in India. He will visit also the New Delhi Railway Station, where French group Alstom will display one of the 800 electric locomotives that are being entirely built in India. Throughout his visit, Minister Djebbari will interact with French companies active in India in the fields of energy, land transport, and aeronautics. He will encourage them to continue investing in India's amazing potential and help meet India's strategic goals. On day one of his three-day visit, Djebbari paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. "In Delhi on the first day of his India visit, French Minister of Transport @Djebbari_JB paid tribute to #MahatmaGandhi at Rajghat. Now more than ever, we should heed the Mahatma's message of peace & non-violence," tweeted Lenain. Djebbari will also be visiting Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The visit aims to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in land, air and sea transport with a focus on sustainable solutions, read the press release of the Consulate General of France in Bangalore In Delhi, Djebbari will hold talks with the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, to discuss the contribution of French companies to develop Indian ports and logistics value chain, as well as the implementation of the joint roadmap on blue economy and ocean governance, adopted by France and India in February 2022. He will also meet the Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, on civil aviation cooperation between France and India. He will underscore the commitment of French companies towards meeting the needs of the fast-growing Indian civil aviation sector. He will also discuss Indo-French cooperation on decarbonising air transport, added the release. Djebbari will visit IElectrix-Shakti, a smart grid demonstrator combining solar photovoltaic technology, battery storage, smart transformer and energy management system. This pilot project, co-funded by the EU, aims at increasing self-consumption of solar energy, power quality, prosumer involvement, and electricity supply resilience. It is implemented by a consortium led by Enedis in partnership with Tata Power-DDL, Schneider Electric, Odit-e, and Geco Global, added the release. In the second leg of his visit, the Minister will attend the opening ceremony of WINGS India 2022 and speak at the ministerial plenary session in Hyderabad. Building on the strong presence of French aeronautics companies in India, he will announce the project of creating a French aeronautics cluster in India and France's support to the sustainable aviation fuel value chain in India. He will visit French exhibitors, including Airbus, which will showcase an A350 aircraft. This will be an occasion to witness the excellent Indo-French cooperation in the aeronautics sector, Airbus aeroplanes accounting for 75 per cent of Indian airline fleets. Djebbari will interact with a visiting delegation of seven companies from France that are carrying out an MRO business roadshow in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, added the release. In the last leg of his visit, Minister Djebbari will visit Nhava Sheva Port, the largest container port in India in Mumbai. French transport and logistics group CMA-CGM in India is participating in the call for tenders for the concession of the Nhava Sheva Container Terminal in Mumbai. French logistics companies can provide their world-class expertise to implement "port to last mile" solutions in India. (ANI)
The state of Maryland reached a $200,000 settlement with a woman who accused a former Baltimore County Sheriffs Office deputy of sexually assaulting her while she was in state custody.

A lawsuit filed by the woman accused the deputy of making inappropriate sexual comments while transporting her from a court hearing in mid-November 2018 and then sexually assaulting her at a holding cell inside a Baltimore County courthouse.

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Charged with second-degree rape, Morton Stanley Winkler Jr., now 56, entered an Alford plea last November to a lesser misdemeanor offense, in which he admitted no guilt but acknowledged that there was sufficient evidence to convict on a charge he was a correctional officer who engaged in a sex act with a person in custody. He was sentenced to two years unsupervised probation.

Winkler resigned Nov. 24 from the Baltimore County Sheriffs Office, according to Ruby Hernandez, a chief deputy with the office.

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He had been placed on administrative duty when the incident was reported, Hernandez said, and then suspended without pay Jan. 27, 2020, shortly after a grand jury indicted him on the rape charge.

Hernandez said internal records showed Winkler had no other internal affairs cases dating back to 2011.

Winklers attorney in the criminal case, Brian Thompson, told The Baltimore Sun his client maintained his innocence. Thompson said Winkler wouldnt be commenting further.

The settlement, obtained by The Sun due to a public records request, shows the $200,000 payment ends her claims against the state, Baltimore County, the Baltimore County Sheriffs Office and Winkler himself. It was signed and dated Jan. 11 by the woman.

The womans attorney, Loyd Byron Hopkins, said his client was satisfied with the settlement, but he called the resolution of Winklers criminal case extraordinary and abnormal. The Sun does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Winkler received perks in his plea deal, including removing his original rape charge from the states public case search system. In addition to receiving no prison time under the plea deal, first reported by The Daily Record, Winkler is not required to be on the sex offender registry.

Thompson said hes orchestrated similar deals in the past, in which a prosecutor agrees to issue a new charging document and let a defendant plead guilty to the agreed upon new charge. That way, Thompson said, the prior charge can be expunged so it doesnt follow them around for the rest of their life.

Under Marylands expungement law, if you get convicted of a lesser offense in an indictment that includes other charges, you cant expunge the other counts and they stay on the states case search website for the rest of your life, Thompson said.

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He called Winklers deal a sound prosecution strategy, as it would prevent Winkler from serving as a corrections officer in the future and avoided a trial Thompson said he was confident he would win.

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

Hopkins, the accusers attorney, said the deal was extraordinary in part because the criminal offense Winkler entered an Alford plea to was not within the realm or family of charges for the original crime.

It would have made sense for a lesser plea to be a second-degree assault or a second-, third- or fourth-degree sex offense, he said, but not the misdemeanor of a law enforcement officer engaging in a sex act with a person in custody.

The Baltimore County States Attorneys Office recused itself from the case due to the close working relationship between both agencies, and the Carroll County States Attorneys Office confirmed in 2020 it had accepted the case as a special prosecutor.

The Carroll County States Attorneys Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Hopkins said the prosecutors misled him and his client about the nature of the plea, leading them to believe it was a guilty plea. Had he known it was an Alford, he said, we would have objected and ... we wouldve told the judge we found this insulting.

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He added that the Alford plea had a bearing on their civil case.

The state of Maryland covered the settlement cost because when a county sheriffs deputy is transporting a prisoner to and from court, he or she becomes a state employee during that process, Hopkins said.
The Indian embassy in Antananarivo organized a trade promotion event on Thursday, which saw the launch of the India-Madagascar Chamber of Commerce in the capital city of the island nation. The event was attended by Valery Fitzgerald Ramonjavelo, Secretary-General of the Presidency of Madagascar, Secretary-General of Ministry of Trade, President of Chamber of Commerce of Antananarivo, Malagasy traders and members of Indian Diaspora. In his opening remarks in the event, Indian Ambassador to Madagascar Abhay Kumar noted: "Bilateral trade in 2021-22 between India and Madagascar stood at USD 363.99 million. India was the second-largest origin of imports for Madagascar in 2020 (EIU-2022) constituting 9.4 per cent of total imports by Madagascar. There is huge potential in the trade sector that the two nations can explore ranging from agricultural commodities to pharmaceuticals, from machinery to textiles." The Indian Ambassador added Madagascar is a beneficiary of India's Duty-Free Preferential Tariff Scheme that provides tariff preferences by India on products originating in Madagascar. "I firmly believe that we may consider setting a goal of achieving USD 1 billion trade figures target between India and Madagascar in the next five years. India-Madagascar Chamber of Commerce will go a long way in strengthening the bilateral trade relationship between our two countries. It will serve as a focal point for numerous Indian and Malagasy traders who would like to do business with our two countries and also those who wish to extend their markets to India or Madagascar," he said. The event also witnessed remarks made by Valery Fitzgerald Ramonjavelo where he welcomed the announcement of the India-Madagascar Chamber of Commerce. "Madagascar is six hours away from the huge market of 1.4 billion people of India and we must work towards maximum utilization of this opportunity," he said. Special videos on Ayurveda and trade opportunities between India and Madagascar were showcased during the event. The event saw a cultural performance by ITEC and ICCR alumni in Madagascar to mark the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. (ANI)
ICT directed the JUI-F to re-submit the application regarding the rally and also asked the party to follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) of the rally, Pakistani channel Geo News reported citing sources.

According to the rally's SOP, public and private properties should not be harmed and the traffic flow won't be affected, during the rally. The SOP further reads that within the premises, no one is allowed to carry the stick and the attendees won't be allowed to go outside.

Notably, the opposition led by Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has completed the preparations for Islamabad's long march ahead of the no-confidence motion against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Earlier, the PDM chief had asked the convoys of the opposition long march to enter Islamabad on March 25 owing to the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFMs) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have done no changes in their rally date. The party scheduled the public rally on March 27 at Islamabad's D-Chowk to show solidarity with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan against the no-trust motion that was tabled by the opposition parties.

The opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust Imran Khan as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8. While the Imran Khan government has exuded confidence to defeat the no-trust motion, the Opposition is sure that they will oust Khan.

Khan is set to face a no-confidence vote against him tomorrow. (ANI)
Chinese companies DiDiChuxing and Hong Kong-based Lenovo have announced that they will cease their businesses in Russia although the Chinese authorities are pressuring the companies to continue their trade in the Russian market. Notably, this decision of the companies follows in the backdrop of a US warning, which was sent to Chinese tech companies, stating that if companies continue their business relationship with the Russian market then sanctions would also be imposed on them. Amidst this development, the largest chipmaker in China, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) expressed its inability to continue its business as it used to do in Moscow as it doesn't want to take any risk in its balance sheet. China can help Moscow during their financial crisis, but the US threatened Beijing that it can impose sanctions on all those countries whosoever does any type of trade with Russia, as per the US-based think tank, Foreign Policy Research Institute. As per the rough estimate, the sanctions on Russia will impact on Chinese economy which is already in recession and the pandemic situation has further shaken its economy. So, Beijing will help Moscow is still speculation but for Russia, China is seen as the ray of hope as it is Moscow's top export market after EU, according to The Singapore Post. Russia exported USD 79.3 billion worth of goods in 2021 to China, while China exported over USD 68 billion of goods to Russia in the same year, according to China's customs agency. "If the US insists on going its own way, China will take strong countermeasures," China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said as quoted by The Singapore Post, China have the option to not follow the US orders but Beijing clearly knows their geopolitical situation, especially in the Taiwan Straits, so, China has to follow the US orders and will not violate the US and the EU-led sanctions by coming to the rescue of Russia. On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves. Western nations have imposed comprehensive sanctions on Moscow. In addition, they introduced sanctions on Belarus for supporting Russia's operation in Ukraine. (ANI)
Washington [US], March 24 (ANI/Sputnik): US oil producers will increase domestic supply by a million barrels a year in response to Washington's call, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said on Thursday. "We have called for an increase in our domestic oil supplies... There is a response by the oil and gas market. It looks like oil supplies will increase by about a million barrels per year. At least our energy information agency has a short-term energy outlook that has been updated to include those increases," she said. Granholm, who spoke at a press conference after the conclusion of the International Energy Agency's Ministerial Meeting in Paris, said that more steps would be needed to deal with the fuel price hike that followed the US ban on Russian oil import. (ANI/Sputnik)
The UN also condemned the attacks which killed an outspoken parliamentarian Amina Mohamed and offered its condolences to the families and relatives of those killed.

"The UN condemns the suicide attacks which killed parliamentarian Amina Mohamed and others in Beledweyne yesterday (Wednesday)," it said in a brief statement. "The UN welcomes an investigation into the heinous act, and calls for Somalia's electoral process to be concluded peacefully and safely."

The move comes as the death toll from the suicide attacks in Beledweyne town where the ongoing elections of the House of the People, the Lower House of the Parliament, were taking place, rose to 30.

Hiraan Regional Police Commander Isak Ali Abdulle said the death toll could increase after several people are still hospitalized with serious wounds.

Abdulle said a suicide bomber wearing explosive vests wrapped around his waist detonated explosives in front of the heavily secured Lamagalaay base. He said the second blast took place at a security checkpoint, targeting vehicles for rushing the injured to the hospitals but no casualties were reported.

Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they targeted government officials including electoral delegates in Beledweyne town taking part in the elections. (ANI/Xinhua)
Larak was wanted in several acts of terrorism in Pakistan, especially Sindh province and belonged to the Usman Saifullah Kurd group of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, reported ARY News

He was on the most wanted list of Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Sindh and joined TTP in August 2020. He was behind the January 2015 suicide attack on imam barakah in Shikarpur which claimed the lives of 53 people and injured 57 others.

He was also involved in planning attacks on army aviation bases, PAF base Samungli, target killings of a minority sect, and multiple attacks in North Waziristan.

This is not the first incident of its kind as TTP leader wanted by Pakistani forces is being assassinated inside Afghanistan and a month back, outlawed TTP top leader and Malakand commander, Mufti Burjan, who was injured in an IED attack in Afghanistan's Kunar, succumbed to his injuries, reported the news channel.

On January 19, a top leader of the banned outfit, Mufti Burjan, was seriously hurt while his driver got killed in an assassination attempt. He was also the shadow governor for the Malakand region in Pakistan. (ANI)
Ahead of the no-confidence motion in National Assembly, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government's ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has suggested a change in the Prime Minister's Office to end the political crisis in the country, reported local media citing sources. "PM Imran Khan should nominate another leader from the PTI in his place so that the coalition parties can take a positive decision," The News International quoted the MQM-P during its meeting with the delegation of PTI at the Parliament Lodges. According to the sources, the government's delegation has assured the MQM-P leadership that all their reservations and problems would be addressed, adding that all the promises made by the PTI will be fulfilled. Further, the PTI delegation also requested its ally to not isolate them in the difficult time of a no-trust motion against Imran Khan. Meanwhile, the MQM-P leaders have complained that despite being the allies of the government for three and half years, none of the promises made to them were fulfilled, according to the media outlet. Notably, it is the second time that MQM-P floated the idea of a government minus-Imran Khan. Earlier, when this idea was floated, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi asserted the PTI's allegiance to Khan and said that there was "no room for Minus-Imran". The Opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust Imran Khan as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8. Khan is set to face a no-confidence vote against him today. (ANI)
US President Joe Biden on Thursday (local time) said that he has amply made it clear to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of the potentially dire economic consequences if China provides assistance to Russia. On the possibility of China providing assistance to Russia, Biden said he had a "very straightforward conversation" with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week on the topic. He made these remarks on the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a news conference after a NATO summit and Group of Seven meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday. He said he "made no threats," but did make clear that Xi "understood the consequences of him helping Russia." He said he pointed out the consequences of Russia's behavior, and pointed out that China had sought to develop stronger economic ties with the West. He said he told Xi "he'd be putting himself at significant jeopardy in those aims, if, in fact, he were to move forward." "I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia. And so I am hopeful that he does not get engaged," Biden said. Moreover, Biden while speaking of the conversation that he held with the Chinese President last Friday said that China had sought to develop stronger economic ties with the West. Calling Russia and Ukraine the "breadbasket" of Europe, Biden said that food shortages will be "real". Biden in remarks after an emergency NATO meeting said, "The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It's imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well." "We had a long discussion in the G7 with ... both the United States, which has a significant -- the third-largest producer of wheat in the world -- as well as Canada, which is also a major, major producer. And we both talked about how we could increase and disseminate more rapidly food ... In addition to that, we talked about urging all the European countries and everyone else to end trade restrictions on sending, limitations on sending food abroad. So we are in the process of working out with our European friends what it would be, what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages," he said. Biden also said that he hopes to visit the Ukrainian refugee when he visits Poland on Friday. "I plan on attempting to see those folks, as well as I, hope I'm going to be able to see -- guess I'm not supposed to say where I'm going, am I. I hope I get to see a lot of people," Biden said at a news conference in Brussels. Replying to a question where the reporter said "deterrence did not work" Biden said, "The maintenance of sanctions -- the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain and the demonstration of why I asked for this NATO meeting today is to be sure that after a month, we will sustain what we're doing, not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That's what will stop him." Furthermore, Biden said that he believes Russia should be removed from the Group of 20. "My answer is yes," Biden said during a news conference when asked about whether Russia should be removed. "It depends on the G20. That was raised today, and I raised the possibility that, if that can't be done - if Indonesia and others do not agree - then we should, in my view, ask to have both Ukraine be able to attend the meetings as well as ... basically (having) Ukraine being able to attend the G20 meeting and observe," he said. (ANI)
Ahead of Opposition's no-confidence motion Session against Prime Minister Imran Khan, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Thursday hit out at the turncoats of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and hinted at 'early elections'. While addressing a press conference post holding a meet with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, the interior minister said that those who switch loyalties won't get any respect, reported ARY News. "Those switching loyalties should keep in mind that early elections could be held in the country," the minister warned. "There are reports that Usman Buzdar is quitting. No one is going anywhere. Buzdar is also standing with PM Imran Khan like a rock," he added. In retaliation to the dissident PTI members who are ready to quit the party, Rasheed said that the ruling party also have the support of the opposition Minister of the National Assembly (MNAs). At the press conference, he spoke of his proposal to the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for the imposition of emergency in the centre and governor's rule in Sindh and said that though he made the proposals however it was rejected by the PM. Rasheed said the ruling PTI will hold a historic public gathering at Islamabad's Parade Ground on March 27. He also said that action against those who spread fake news against institutions, including the army and judiciary will be taken, He added that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan's top probe agency has been directed to take strict action against those using social media for peddling such fake news, reported the news channel. The Opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust Imran Khan as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8. Khan is set to face a no-confidence vote against him today. (ANI)
Criticising the idea of allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin's attend the G20 summit this year at Bali amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that "we need to have people in the room that aren't invading other countries", according to a media report. After the Russian President indicated his intention to attend the G20 summit in Bali in November this year, Morrison said that the idea of sitting around a table with Putin is a "step too far", reported Sky News. Earlier this week, Russia's envoy to Indonesia, Lyudmila Vorobieva, had told a news conference that the Russian President "wants to" go to the summit, adding the country "has been invited". "It will depend on many, many things, including the COVID situation, which is getting better. So far, his intention is... he wants to," the media outlet quoted her as saying. Following this, Morrison said that Australia has been raising concerns regarding Russia's involvement in the G20 in view of its aggressive action against the international rule of law. "We've been raising concerns about this. And Russia has invaded Ukraine. I mean, this is a violent and aggressive act that shatters the international rule of law," he said, according to the media outlet. "And the idea of sitting around a table with Vladimir Putin, who the United States are already in the position of calling out war crimes in Ukraine, for me is a step too far. I think we need to have people in the room that aren't invading other countries," he added. Meanwhile, United States President Joe Biden on Thursday said that he believes Russia should be removed from the G20. Responding to a question regarding the removal of Russia, Biden said, "My answer is yes. It depends on the G20. That was raised today, and I raised the possibility that, if that can't be done - if Indonesia and others do not agree - then we should, in my view, ask to have both Ukraine be able to attend the meetings as well as.. basically Ukraine being able to attend the G20 meeting and observe." Notably, Biden has travelled to Brussels to meet with NATO allies and G7 and European Union leaders over the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. (ANI)
Sona Karakashian Johnston was a leading expert on Theodore Robinson after studying his diaries for decades. (Sun photo by Christopher T. Assaf)

Sona Karakashian Johnston, a retired Baltimore Museum of Art senior curator of painting and sculpture who served the institution for 40 years, died of dementia March 20 at Roland Park Place. She was 83.

Sona made Baltimore her focus and she was able to establish it and its collections as being significant, said Doreen Bolger, former BMA director. She joined with others to establish Baltimore as a leading center of art and culture, one of it most important assets.

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She had a deep knowledge of established European art and an interest in American art  a perfect fit for the Baltimore Museum of Art, Ms. Bolger said.

Born in Boston and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of Karakin Karakashian, a homebuilder, and his wife, Menoush Nazaretian, a homemaker. They were Armenian refugees.

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She was a 1958 Newton High School graduate and earned a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College. She earned a bachelors degree in painting and art history.

In 1961, she entered New York Universitys Institute of Fine Arts, where she studied, served as its slide librarian and met her future husband, William R. Johnston. He was later a Walters Art Museum curator. They married in 1967.

She was soon hired as a Boston Museum of Fine Arts lecturer and helped to lead a 1965 tour of the Soviet Union. She and her group traveled to cities in Uzbekistan, including Samarkand and Tashkent.

After moving to Baltimore in 1967, she became an assistant curator at the Peale Museum on Holliday Street near City Hall.

Martha Sanger and Sona Karakashian Johnston attend a reception for Washington College's new president. (Colby Ware, special to The Baltimore Sun)

She joined the staff at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1970. She was initially an assistant curator and rose to become the senior curator of painting and sculpture. She retired in 2010.

Tom Freudenheim, a former BMA director, said: We had known each other from graduate school and Sona was a serious and knowledgeable art scholar and curator. She was elegant and had a grace about her. In the museum world, when there can be chaos, she floated above it all.

Sona was a genius, said Stiles T. Colwill, former Baltimore Museum of Art board chair. She also had a great voice, and when she spoke, everyone stopped to hear what she had to say and to listen to to her aesthetic comments. She was always right.

She established herself as the expert on Theodore Robinson, the American impressionist whose paintings had been purchased by Etta Cone with her sister Claribel in the 19th century. By carefully reading Robinsons diaries, she found he was a close friend of Claude Monet.

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Mrs. Johnston was recalled as a meticulous, exacting and impassioned Robinson scholar.

Sona is a remarkable treasure for us, said a 2004 Sun quotation from BMA curator Jay Fisher. Shes an object-centered person, a very visual person. She has an artists sensitivity to materials and the experience of making art.

Shes much more visually oriented than most curators are, her husband said in the 2004 article. She likes works that require looking at, studying and thinking about.

Sonas not comfortable with a lot of drama, Mr. Fisher said in 2004. Her choices are more refined and well orchestrated. Shes not the kind of curator who will want a wild flurry of wall color in the galleries.

Said Doreen Bolger, the former BMA director: We met in the 1970s when she was studying Robinsons works and I was working on the impressionist J. Alden Weir. She stepped forward and offered help. It was an example of the ways her reach extended beyond the city.

Sona Karakashian Johnston, curator for the exhibit In Monet's Light: Theodore Robinson at Giverny, discusses restoration work for the painting Watching the Cows (c. 1888) with Lauren Bass, a conservation technician, in 2004. (CHRISTOPHER T. ASSAF / Baltimore Sun)

She organized the BMA show In Monets Light: Theodore Robinson at Giverny.

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Her expertise and interests were broad and far-reaching, as she organized numerous exhibitions of American and French art, BMA curators Katy Rothkopf and Laura Albans said in a museum statement.

Mrs. Johnston also wrote and produced museum catalogs, including 1989s Benjamin West: American Painter at the English Court and the 1983 work American Masterpieces from the Peabody Art Collection.

She also wrote American Paintings 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art, and the traveling exhibition and catalog Faces of Impressionism.

Mrs. Johnston, with her husband, William Johnston, co-curated The Triumph of French Painting, which explored 19th century and early 20th century French art in the collections of the BMA and Walters Art Museum. The show traveled extensively and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.

She organized the 2003 reinstallation of the BMAs collection of 15th century through 19th century European art in the Jacobs Wing.

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

Throughout her fruitful career, she curated numerous small and large installations and exhibitions for the Museum, the BMA statement said.

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She played an instrumental role in securing the George A. Lucas Collection for the BMAs permanent holdings, and always treasured its importance, Ms. Rothkopf and Ms. Albans said. She made many important acquisitions for the Museum for both the European and American collections, as she was the curator for many years responsible for the Jacobs Wing and the American painting and sculpture collection, along with the Antioch mosaics. It was an amazing feat.

[ Esther S. Slaff, a retired businesswoman who was an avid Chesapeake Bay sailor, dies ]

Friends said she was proud of her Armenian heritage and often spoke of her parents who were Armenian refugees. She was also an avid lover of cats and favored Abyssinians.

Both Laura and I remember her speaking fondly of Fiona and Fleur, who had quite the distinctive personalities, Ms. Rothkopf and Ms. Albans said. The house was never without an Abby or a stray that discovered she was a cat-loving softy. Sona had always hoped to curate a show of the cat in art.

Doreen Bolger said, Sona had a long career and she accomplished so much at a time when there was not a lot of space for women.

She is survived by her husband of 56 years, William R. Johnston of Baltimore; her son, Frederic Nazar Johnston of Columbia; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. May 2 at Roland Park Place.
Ruling out any military involvement in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday (local time) said that France has decided to "step up" work to prevent escalation of the war, according to a media report. Macron's remarks came during a press conference after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit and Group of Seven meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday. "We have decided to step up the work to prevent escalation and organize ourselves in case it happens. We are acting on the need to continue adapting our posture to the new strategic circumstances caused by the war in Ukraine and its consequences," CNN quoted Macron as saying as he highlighted the participation of 3,200 French military personnel in NATO exercises. However, ruling out any direct military participation, Macron reiterated that France will not be "co-belligerent" in the war. "We continue to stand by the side of the Ukrainian people with military, economic and humanitarian support. Our determination has led us to adopt with unity an unprecedented series of sanctions," the media outlet quoted him as saying. Further describing a unified response by NATO allies and the European Union (EU) to isolate Russia, Macron said, "Russia has taken a historic responsibility by starting this war. Our strategy is to do everything to stop any escalation and stop as quickly as possible this conflict through our support to Ukraine, our sanctions and the discussions that continue between a few of us and [Russian] President Putin to find the ways and means to a negotiated solution." Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves. What followed the military operation was a slew of sanctions imposed by the western countries targeting the Russian economy. (ANI)
China's zero tolerant COVID policy resulting in the killing of pets is drawing widespread criticism by Chinese citizens who have started questioning the government regarding violation of privacy, security of the property and cruelty against animals, according to a media report. As per a video circulated on China's social media, a pet dog named Snowball was beaten to death by anti-COVID workers, while its owner was in a quarantine facility, reported The Hong Kong Post. Sharing the video on Chinese social media, the pet's owner, a woman living in Huizhou cityin Guangdong in her post lamented how her three-year-old dog was beaten to death by sticks after she was sent to isolation in a quarantine facility as her boyfriend tested positive for COVID-19. In her post, the woman has questioned the COVID workers that how they could kill her dog without a relevant permit and when there is no evidence that a pet can spread COVID-19. The video showcased how the COVID workers wearing PPE kits cornered the dog and beat it to death with a metal rod. Though the original video was removed from the social media platform, it was reposted by other users. Notably, this is not the first incident where a pet was killed as a part of zero-tolerance against COVID-19 in China. Earlier, a health worker killed a pet dog when his owner was quarantined in a local hotel that does not allow pets. In September, the Harbin officials were accused of euthanizing three cats, while its owner was in the hospital due to COVID-19, according to the media outlet. These repeated incidents have infuriated the people in China who have been questioning the authorities if China's Zero COVID strategy is feasible for the long term, considering the massive social price one has to pay. The citizens have questioned the government that "who have given them the right to infringe a citizen's privacy and security of her property," noting that pets are private property and cannot be killed or disposed of without permission of the owner, reported The Hong Kong Post. This type of disinfection procedure of health workers has raised concerns among the citizens, especially pet owners, who have been worried over incidents of animal slaughtering under China's zero COVID policy. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic situation in China continues to heat up as more than 20 provinces and cities have imposed travel bans and lockdowns. The country has clung to a zero-tolerance approach to the virus that relies on stringent lockdowns, mass testing and quarantine in government facilities. (ANI)
Don't believe the fake pizza news circulating on social media.

The latest "definitive list of the best cities for pizza"  based on AnytimeEstimate.com's statistical computation of demographics, Google search trends, cheese-pizza prices and three list-making publishers, including Pizza Today  is a bunch of bunk.

Detroit is not now, nor ever will be, America's No. 1 pizza city.

KONKOL COLUMN: Latest Best-City Clickbait Has Ingredients For Worst Pizza List

Mmmm, Pequod's. (Mark Konkol/ Patch)

Still Wet. High: 46 Low: 29



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Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she plans to push the City Council to give Chicagoans some relief from skyrocketing prices at the pump.  Weve got to do our part at the city level to provide some relief for people that are struggling, she said . (NBC)

Chicago Public Schools is flush with coronavirus relief cash but slow to spend it , according to reporter Sarah Karp's analysis of district spending. About 69 percent of the $536 million budgeted this year  some $370 million  is unspent. (WBEZ)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot tapped Chinatown native Nicole Lee to replace felonious former 11th Ward alderman Patrick Daley Thompson , who was forced to resign after being convicted for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud last month. (Patch)

The Chicago metro area's population declined by about 90,000 people during the coronavirus crisis. Deaths outpaced births and people moved out of town, according to a new U.S. Census report. (AP)

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This article originally appeared on the Chicago Patch
Three people were injured in a multi-vehicle crash this afternoon in Miami County.

The crash was reported just after 3:15 p.m. on State Route 202, just south of U.S. 40.

>> Troy Schools students, parents forced to temporarily shelter in place due to tornado warning

Lieutenant Chris Bobb, of the Miami County Sheriffs Office, told News Center 7 that the crash involved four vehicles, including two dump trucks.

An initial investigation showed that the crash happened when a dump truck ran into the back of another dump truck. That caused the second truck to rear-end an SUV, pushing it into a pickup truck.

>> 2 boys admitted to intensive care; mother facing 9 charges related to suspected abuse

Bobb said one person was transported to Kettering Health Huber and two people were transported to Kettering Health Troy. He said they all sustained minor injuries.

Well update this story as we learn more.
Six high school students were killed in a crash with a semi-truck on Tuesday, March 22, in rural Oklahoma, authorities say.

The students  all girls  were in a passenger vehicle at a stop sign around 12 p.m. Tuesday when their car collided with the semi.

A 16-year-old girl driving a 2015 Chevy Spark was pronounced dead at the scene, as were three more of the victims. The two other passengers died at a Tishomingo hospital, authorities say.

We dont know the full nature or details of what caused the crash, only that the car at some point was at this stop sign and that in the following moments the semi hit them, an Oklahoma State Patrol spokesperson told KFOR . When we got to the scene you could see the car about 100 feet or so from the intersection completely totaled.

All of the victims are from Tishomingo, a town with a population of 3,000 about 120 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. In addition to the 16-year-old driver, there were three 15-year-olds and two 17-year-olds in the vehicle. Only the driver and front-seat passenger wear wearing seat belts.

The truck was described by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Shelby Humphrey as a rock hauler, according to KTEN. The 51-year-old driver was uninjured, authorities say.

Humphrey told KTEN the car was attempting to make a right-hand turn when it was struck by the semi going the opposite direction. Photos of the car show its doors and roof ripped off.

Our prayers are with each of the families involved and our community, the Johnston County Sheriffs Office said. This is an absolute tragedy which will have life-long effects.

The identities of the students has not been publicly disclosed as of Wednesday morning, but they all attended Tishomingo High School, The New York Times reported.

Bobby Waitman, superintendent of Tishomingo Public Schools, called the deaths of the students as a great loss.

Our hearts are broken, and we are grieving with our students and staff, Waitman said.

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Class will be in session at all Tishomingo schools Wednesday and counselors will be available at the high school.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt referred to Tuesday as a sad day in Oklahoma and said he and his wife were mourning the deaths.

13-year-old crashed truck into golf teams van, killing 9 in Texas, officials say
The Activision Blizzard logo sits in front of a neon grid background.

A new lawsuit against Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard by a current employee raises fresh allegations of sexual harassment at the publisher, this time focused on leaders in Blizzards IT department. According to the lawsuit, the current employee was repeatedly subjected to unwanted advances, touching, and inappropriate remarks. She says she was retaliated against after reporting it to HR and subsequently passed over for promotions in an attempt to force her out of the company.

Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 23, the new lawsuit represents a current employee (referred to as Ms. Doe) who first came forward with these allegations in a press conference last December. It claims that despite public promises by Activision Blizzard to support victims, it has continued to retaliate against the employee in the months since she came forward.

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The lawsuit says she was passed over for a promotion weeks later and given no reason why. It also says that in January, the company lied in an email to other employees, saying she had been fired. Activision Blizzards relentless efforts to push her out continued on February 1, 2022, when it hired two new temporary employees to perform the exact duties Ms. Doe performed, the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit also goes into new detail about the apparent sexual misconduct that took place in Blizzards IT department, naming among its defendants three former employees: former chief technology officer Ben Kilgore, former chief information officer Derek Ingalls, and former director of IT, Mark Skorupa. The first two were former Microsoft employees prior to Blizzard. Skorupa is currently a Microsoft employee. Microsoft, which is under scrutiny for its own past handling of sexual harassment cases, is currently moving forward with a $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard.

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Activision Blizzard, Ingalls, and Skorupa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kilgore could not immediately be reached. Microsoft declined to comment.

The acquisition deal came about when the embattled publishers stock price had been falling after months of previous lawsuits and reports alleging years of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at the company. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who is among those accused of failing to address mistreatment, has since apologized to employees, committed to a number of reforms including a new zero tolerance policy for harassment, and entered into a tentative $18 million settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision.

After the planned acquisition was announced in January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised Koticks business acumen and said he was grateful for his leadership and commitment to real change in the months since the allegations first became public in July 2021. This latest lawsuits new allegation of retaliation, however, raises questions about how sweeping and deep some of the companys reforms have gone.

Blizzard employees and supporters protest outside the Irvine, California campus following allegations of widespread harassment and discrimaiton.

In the lawsuit, the employee says the sexual harassment began on her very first day at Blizzard, in 2017, when she was taken out to lunch and repeatedly encouraged to take shots of tequila. At one point Skorupa, her boss, forced his hand on Ms. Does lap. Other instances allegedly included unwanted hugs by Skorupa and Kilgore, comments about her breasts, and other inappropriate remarks. The lawsuit accuses Ingalls of coercing her to stay late with other male employees and play a Jackbox party game which often revolved around sexual jokes. It also alleges that an executive administrative assistant once propositioned her for sex, and that a senior IT manager tried to kiss her. Both are still currently employed at Blizzard.



According to the lawsuit, none of the named employees intervened to stop the harassment or report it to HR. Instead, it alleges the employee was retaliated against after she first reported the abuse herself, in August 2018, by losing responsibilities and being subsequently denied promotions or relocations out of the department. It alleges that in one instance HR tried to excuse the offending behavior, and in another said it would address the issues, but apparently never did. She claims it wasnt until she wrote to then-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack in 2019 about the sexual harassment that she was able to secure a position somewhere else in the company, though for less pay.

According to their LinkedIn profiles, Ingalls left Blizzard in August 2019 for a job at Amazon and Skorupa left in December 2019 to return to Microsoft. Kilgore was reportedly terminated in August 2018, after an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The lawsuit alleges that when this happened, several men in leadership at Blizzard posed for a photo, in which they all gave the middle finger, and Ingalls later emailed it to others. This photo signaled to Ms. Doe that leadership thought Defendant KILGOREs departure for sexual misconduct was a joke, the lawsuit claims.

Prior to being hired at Blizzard, Kilgore was a high-profile VP of Xbox program management at Microsoft, where he helped ship the Xbox One. Ingalls worked with him on the launch as a long-time general manager on Xbox Live operations. Skorupa was a program manager on Xbox. After Kilgore was terminated, Ingalls reportedly joked in a meeting about how staff shouldnt sleep with their assistants.

Blizzards Microsoft connections persist to this day. Its current president, Mike Ybarra, was VP of Game Pass before joining the Overwatch maker in 2019. Dinner with Kilgore and Ingalls tonight, should be fun seeing friends, he tweeted in October 2019. Funny how roles/jobs drift folks apart.

In addition to damages for lost wages, humiliation, mental distress, and other harms, the latest Activision Blizzard lawsuit also seeks court orders to compel Activision to institute a rotating HR department to avoid conflicts of interest and to fire CEO Bobby Kotick. Kotick is expected to step down after the Microsoft deal closes, but not before leaving with an estimated $390 million payout as a result of the acquisition.

The law office representing Kotick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.




The CEOs of the nation's largest airlines are asking the Biden administration to drop the federal mask mandate on airplanes, along with the pre-departure testing requirement for international travelers. Although COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have fallen sharply in the last two months and restrictions are being lifted across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month extended its mass transit mask mandate by 30 days, until mid-April, and masking guidelines for airlines remain in place.

"Now is the time for the administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions  including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate  that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment," the CEOs of 10 U.S.-based passenger and cargo airlines, including Delta, American and United, wrote in a letter to President Biden.

The letter states that while the airlines and their employees supported the federal mask mandate when it was first implemented, especially because it did away with the possibility for airline-by-airline rules in the early days of the pandemic, they now feel it is no longer necessary.

"The persistent and steady decline of hospitalization and death rates are the most compelling indicators that our country is well protected against severe disease from COVID-19," the letter states. "Given that we have entered a different phase of dealing with this virus, we strongly support your view that 'COVID-19 need no longer control our lives.'"

While initially popular with employees, over the past two years flight attendants and gate agents in particular have taken the brunt of flyer frustration over the masking rules. Despite fewer flyers than pre-pandemic levels, cases of disruptive passengers have soared over the last two years. Airlines last year banned thousands of passengers due to unruly behavior.

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"It is critical to recognize that the burden of enforcing both the mask and predeparture testing requirements has fallen on our employees for two years now," the letter read. "This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being."

Citing the planes' onboard air filtration systems as well as the nation's high level of immunity thanks to vaccines and prior infection and the CDC's most recent guidance indicating that 99% of the U.S. population live in areas of low or medium transmission and therefor no longer needs to wear masks indoors, the carriers argue it is time to wind down masking rules for them as well.

The letter noted that masks could also still be worn voluntarily, even if the mandate is removed. "The effectiveness and availability of high-quality masks for those who wish to wear them gives passengers the ability to further protect themselves if they choose to do so," the letter read.

Delta Air Lines, in its own separate statement, also stressed that passengers would not be barred from wearing face masks. "N95 and KN95 masks that were previously unavailable are now widely available for personal protection as are vaccinations and other medical advancements for those who choose them," the carrier wrote.

The carriers also ask Mr. Biden to lift the pre-departure testing for international travelers. They argue such measures are ineffective, citing The World Health Organization, which determined in January that "the failure of travel restrictions introduced after the detection and reporting of Omicron variant to limit international spread of Omicron demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such measures over time." WHO did note, however, that preventative measures such as masking and testing "should be based on risk assessments."

"The United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada have recognized this reality and lifted travel restrictions," the letter states. "The U.S. inconsistency with these practices creates a competitive disadvantage for U.S. travel and tourism by placing an additional cost and burden on travel to the U.S. Further, many outbound travelers are not willing to risk being stranded overseas."

Following a massive surge fueled by the Omicron variant, COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are at their lowest since last summer. Meanwhile, cases in the U.K. are rising again as restrictions are lifted and the Omicron subvariant BA.2 spreads. But the case numbers are nowhere near their Omicron peak, and former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb told "Face the Nation" on Sunday that there is evidence the U.K. has already seen the peak of BA.2 infections.

"I think we're going to continue to see low levels of infection through the summer," Gottlieb predicted. "But before we get there, we're probably going to see some tick-up of infection like the Europeans are seeing right now, maybe not as pronounced."

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The CEOs of several major airlines and cargo carriers are asking the White House to lift Covid-19 precautions for travelers  including mask mandates.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Airlines for America, a trade group, wrote: "The high level of immunity in the U.S., availability of high-quality masks for those who wish to use them, hospital-grade cabin air, widespread vaccine availability and newly available therapeutics provide a strong foundation for the Administration to lift the mask mandate and predeparture testing requirements. We urge you to do so now.

"We are requesting this action not only for the benefit of the traveling public, but also for the thousands of airline employees charged with enforcing a patchwork of now-outdated regulations implemented in response to COVID-19," read Wednesday's letter, which was signed by the heads of 10 airlines, including American, Delta and United.

The Transportation Security Administration announced last month that it was extending the mask mandate on public transportation until April 18.

Frustration over mask requirements on airplanes has contributed to violent outbursts by some passengers who have refused to abide by the rules. The Federal Aviation Administration's tracker says there have been 961 reports of unruly behavior on planes this year, 635 of which involved masks. Since the coronavirus pandemic started, there have been over 4,000 reports of incidents involving masks, the data show.

The number of Covid-19 cases across the country has fallen by almost 24 percent and the number of deaths has fallen by 66 percent over the past two weeks, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened its guidelines on masks.

In the letter, the CEOs said their industry had supported the CDC's guidelines and "leaned into science at every turn."

"At the outset, we voluntarily implemented policies and procedures  mandating face coverings; requiring passenger health acknowledgements and contact tracing information; and enhancing cleaning protocols  to form a multi-layered approach to mitigate risk and prioritize the wellbeing of passengers and employees," they wrote.

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They contended, however, that "much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context."

"People are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do," they wrote.

The White House and the Transportation Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, left, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday, March 24, 2022. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Alabama AG refused to say whether Joe Biden is the "duly elected" president.

"Is he the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States?" Sen. Whitehouse asked.

"He is the president of our country," Marshall said.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Thursday declined to call President Joe Biden the "duly elected" and "lawfully serving" president of the United States.

The refusal came as Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island questioned Marshall during the fourth day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Marshall, invited by Republican leadership, testified against Jackson's confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Is Joseph R. Biden of Delaware the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States of America?" Whitehouse asked Marshall.

Marshall replied, "He is the president of this country."

Whitehouse pressed Marshall again, asking: "Is he the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States?"

"He is the president of our country," Marshall repeated.

"Are you answering that omitting the language 'duly elected and lawfully serving' purposefully?" Whitehouse asked.

"I'm answering the question. He is the president of the United States," Marshall said again.

"And you have no view as to whether he was duly elected or is lawfully serving?" Whitehouse asked for the last time.

"I'm telling you he's the president of the United States," Marshall replied.

Marshall challenged the 2020 presidential election results by signing on to a brief that asked the Supreme Court to reject the votes in four key battleground states that then-nominee Joe Biden won. The Supreme Court tossed out the lawsuit, which was brought by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and backed by the Trump campaign.

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Marshall also served as the head of the Republican Attorneys General Association's fundraising arm, which sent a robocall promoting former President Donald Trump's January 6 rally that took place before rioters stormed the Capitol, The Tennessean reported. Marshall, at the time, condemned the call and said he was "unaware of unauthorized decisions."

During Thursday's hearing, Marshall said, "We've denounced lawlessness, not only as it related to what took place on January 6, but also the lawlessness that continues to go on in our country with violent crime."

A spokesperson for Marshall did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The alleged hitman in the shocking murder-for-hire case that's roiled New Jersey politics in recent months admitted Thursday to killing a Jersey City political operative eight years ago, then taking thousands of dollars in payment from the man's ex-partner.

George Bratsenis, 73, appeared by videoconference before Judge John Michael Vazquez in Newark to plead guilty to killing the operative, Michael Galdieri, on May 22, 2014.

Speaking from within federal prison, the gravel-voiced Bratsenis affirmed that he'd met with Galdieri's ex-partner, Sean Caddle, in April 2014 to plot the killing and arrange for payment.

A month later, Bratsenis and his partner, Bomani Africa, went to Galdieri's apartment and stabbed him to death. Bratsenis said he met Caddle the next day at an Elizabeth diner to collect the thousands of dollars he'd been promised, then split the profits with Africa.

White-bearded and balding, Bratsenis spoke in two- or three-word phrases throughout most of the hearing. Except when he offered a friendly farewell at its conclusion.

"Y'all have a nice day," Bratsenis said. "Take it easy."

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Bratsenis faces a sentence of life imprisonment for the crime. He would be eligible for the death penalty, but the government chose not to pursue it, the court said.

Vazquez will sentence him on Aug. 2.

Phillip Sellinger, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, said in a statement that he hoped the guilty pleas would "bring a measure of justice to the victims memory and for his family."

The plea is another twist in the bizarre case, which has set the state's political community on edge since federal authorities announced it in January.

Authorities have not announced a motive for Caddle to want to have his old partner killed. But Caddle, 44, is now cooperating with authorities as he awaits sentencing from his Sussex County home. And the New Jersey political community is holding its collective breath.

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Both Caddle and Africa have already pleaded guilty to their parts in the scheme.

But federal authorities had not even announced formal charges against Bratsenis, a career criminal and convicted murderer, until this week. This despite Bratsenis signing his plea agreement on Aug. 10, 2021  well before the Caddle case was made public.

Bratsenis appeared in federal court in late February, but Vazquez quickly adjourned the meeting without explanation.

Currently imprisoned for a 2014 armed robbery in Connecticut, Bratsenis has a lengthy rap sheet that spans decades. He was convicted of murder and armed robbery in Connecticut in the 1980s, and later found guilty of committing a string of jewelry store heists in New Jersey that sent him away for decades.

In 2010, he was freed after 24 years in prison.

But Bratsenis was back in handcuffs four years later after police charged him with robbing the Connecticut bank with Africa, a 61-year-old Philadelphia man he met in prison.

Federal prosecutors have said the pair murdered Galdieri toward the end of Bratsenis' four years of freedom.

Still, his attorney, Charles L. Kurmay, argued in court filings last month that Bratsenis should be released on the armed robbery charge because he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer.

"Mr. Bratsenis is old. He is sick. He knows the mistakes that he has made in his life and he has paid for them," Kurmay wrote in the filing. "He would like to be able to not die in prison."

Bratsenis pleaded guilty to murder four weeks after Kurmay's filing.

Steve Janoski covers law enforcement for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news about those who safeguard your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

Twitter: @stevejanoski

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ murder-for-hire hitman pleads guilty to killing political operative
Edgewood High Schools 33 Global Studies International Baccalaureate Magnet Program students have been offered more than $10 million in scholarships, the school announced Monday on its Facebook page.

The awards do not include federal student aid, but include independent scholarships like essay contests, sororities, local scholarships, as well as college and university offered scholarships, said Jamie Childs, International Baccalaureate coordinator at Edgewood High School.

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The most common scholarships students receive, based on academics at their chosen colleges, are merit-based, Childs said. However, scholarships can be specific to the school and the major, so there was not one scholarship that stood out.

As all scholarships are particular to a specific college and/or major, there is not one common scholarship in name that students are given, Childs said. Rather, we see that a large number of our students are given full tuition based on merit, Presidential Scholarships, Deans Scholarships, National Merit Scholarships, Honors College Scholarships, and scholarships based on community service and leadership.

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Edgewood prepares students to get these scholarships with three methods, Childs said. First, school counselor Lawanda Brown provides a parent and student presentation at the end of junior year on how to apply to colleges, complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Early Decision and Action, and applying for scholarships at the college level, the local level and through Naviance, a college planning tool. She then meets with each senior to help them determine which scholarships will be the best fit for their college applications.

Also, the schools scholarship coordinator, Amanda Seiverd, sends out new scholarship offers via email to the senior student body. Additionally, Childs facilitates international scholarships for parents and students, as well as scholarships based on college credit earned during high school within the International Baccalaureate Magnet program. Childs runs sessions on college entrance and scholarship essay writing, holds one-on-one conferences with students to help them withscholarship essays, and runs mock interviews with students to prepare them for their college and scholarship interviews.

The Global Studies International Baccalaureate Magnet Program at Edgewood High School focuses on preparing students for college and careers. The department prepares students to become leaders of societal change through authentic educational opportunities, recursive and rigorous curricula, interdisciplinary and project-based learning, and application of new technologies, according to the website.

As of March 21, the 33 IB students have been offered $10,369,008 in scholarships, according to the programs Facebook page.




British authorities arrested seven individuals on Thursday suspected of hacking major tech companies including Okta and Microsoft, according to Reuters.

"Seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 have been arrested in connection with this investigation and have all been released under investigation," Detective Inspector Michael O'Sullivan of the City of London Police said in a statement to Reuters.

The arrests follow online breaches this week that targeted San Francisco-based software company Okta and Microsoft.

On Tuesday, Okta said it was investigating a potential digital breach after hackers posted screenshots of internal information. An Okta official said the breach could be related to an incident in January that was contained.

The screenshots were posted on Monday by a hacking group known as Lapsus$ on their telegram channel. The hackers said they were targeting "ONLY on Okta customers."

Okta's shares went down about 11 percent following the breach, Reuters reported. The software company provides authenticator services to over 15,000 customers including companies like Fedex and Moody's.

Microsoft also became a target on Wednesday when it confirmed Lapsus$ breached its security system. The tech company said the hacking group breached one account, resulting "in limited access."

According to Microsoft, Lapsus$, a South American hacking group that has been linked to data breaches at Samsung and Ubisoft, targets cryptocurrency accounts to steal wallets and funds.
Mayor Ginger Nelson thanks all who worked toward the Interstate 27 expansion project Wednesday at the "State of the Economy" event.

On Wednesday, the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) hosted its annual State of the Economy event, touting the steady growth that occurred in the city over the last year.

Mayor Ginger Nelson gave opening remarks, praising legislators' efforts in the approval of the Interstate 27 expansion project and its future impact on the city of Amarillo.

This is a huge domino to fall for us, Nelson said. We have been working for decades for this big step."

Nelson said the economic potential that this project will create would be substantial for Amarillo and the entire Panhandle. She also praised the leadership efforts in the city in bringing new business to Amarillo.

Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson welcomes those participating in the "State of the Economy" luncheon Wednesday in downtown Amarillo.

This is a peak season and opportunity for growth for our city, Nelson said. This is not true for every city in Texas.

Headlining the AEDC event as its keynote speaker was Dr. Anne Macy, a professor of finance at West Texas A&M. Macy started her speech by asking the crowd about their level of happiness and relating that to how it relates to the state of the economy.

Macy spoke to the effect that COVID-19 had on the economy but touted the return to economic growth as the effects have dissipated.

Coming out of COVID-19 right now, we are performing well," Macy said. If you look at consumer confidence nationwide with what it is, I think Amarillo is in a good place. We have a lot of good pieces in place in this community.

Dr. Anne Macy, a professor at West Texas A&M, was the keynote speaker Wednesday at the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation's 'State of the Economy' luncheon.

During the presentation, AEDC President Kevin Carter pointed out that the city of Amarillo was able to make significant economic growth in 2021 coming out of the pandemic.

Were the only city over 50,000 with 20 months of continuous sales tax growth. Thats a huge indication of how well our economy is doing, Carter said.

According to the AEDC, Amarillo saw $91,925,630 in sales tax collection and $8,717,588 in hotel/motel tax collection in 2021.

Carter spoke at length during the presentation about six major economic projects that the AEDC was able to bring to Amarillo.

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Following the keynote address, members of the public asked questions of Dr. Anne Macy Wednesday at the "State of Economy" event.

Among those projects was an Amazon fulfillment center, expected to create 500 jobs for the community with over $100 million in capital investment, and Cacique Foods, with a processing facility that will bring 200 new jobs with about $88 million in capital investment to the area.

The AEDC announced that the American Quarter Horse Association has agreed to extend its commitment to Amarillo for 10 more years.

Other major projects added to the city were the North Heights Linen Service adding 200 jobs, Torkworx adding 80 new jobs and RCC Brass contributing 50 new jobs.

In total, these projects created 930 jobs and $34 million in new payroll with $201 million in capital investment. The AEDC invested $16 million toward these projects.

We have come out of the pandemic in relatively good shape compared to the rest of the country, Carter said.

Amarillo Economic Development Corporation President Kevin Carter speaks to the crowd Wednesday at the "State of the Economy" event in downtown Amarillo about the many projects his organization is working on.

Carter said there were many areas that Amarillo has an opportunity to capitalize on. He stressed that innovation and technology jobs were an area where the city is poised to make more inroads in those industries to the effects on current industries that innovation and technology have.

When asked about the citys efforts to increase minority-owned businesses, Carter said that his office is always looking for new opportunities.

We have a very diverse population, and we certainly want to be diverse in our opportunities, Carter said. "We have not just sought out minority-owned businesses, but we certainly ... with jobs that we try to create; we have companies that will be equitable and have opportunities for minorities with their jobs.

Carter said they would love to have more minority-owned businesses such as Cacique Foods, founded by Cuban immigrants in 1973. Cacique is the leading brand of Hispanic style cheese and has committed to Amarillo with a processing and distribution facility.

"Amarillo is a great product. We have a great quality of life, Carter said. There are certainly some things that we can improve on that or make better, and we will continue to do that."

Carter also said that the AEDC had announced a new hiring platform for the city.

Were adding a new platform thats going kick off this next week. Its called Job Up, he said. And it allows it to be more of a job matching than a job board.

Texas has had, you know, has a great climate for business and Amarillo, we think even capitalizes on that even more, Carter added.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo touts economic growth during AEDC 'State of the Economy'




Arizona lawmakers on Thursday sent two bills targeting the state's transgender and nonbinary youth to the governor's desk, where the fate of both bills are still uncertain. If both are signed into law by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, transgender girls would be barred from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity and access to gender-affirming care for minors would be heavily restricted.

Republicans in the state legislature have argued that excluding transgender girls from girls' sports teams would protect the integrity of women's sports, which some say is being threatened by trans players who have an unfair advantage over cisgender players.

"This bill to me is all about biology," Republican Rep. Shawnna Bolick said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. "In my opinion, it's unfair to allow biological males to compete with biological girls sports."

Notably, only a handful of transgender athletes compete on school sports teams in Arizona, and, since 2017, just 16 trans minors have received waivers to play on teams that match their gender identities out of roughly 170,000 student athletes in the state, according to the Arizona Interscholastic Association. Those opposed to the legislation have called it a solution to a nonexistent problem.

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A similar argument was made earlier this week by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) in vetoing his own state's proposed ban on transgender athletes. According to Cox, there are currently just four trans student athletes in the state of Utah, and only one plays on a girls' sports team.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) this week also vetoed a bill that would have required transgender girls to play on boys' sports teams, claiming that the bill as written "leaves too many unanswered questions."

Arizona on Thursday also sent legislation to the governor that would restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary minors. Under the bill, health care professionals may not provide patients under the age of 18 with puberty blockers or hormones when those treatments are to be used for a "gender transition."

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If the intended use of hormones like testosterone and estrogen is to affirm a patient's gender, they are considered "cross-sex hormones," according to the bill.

LGBTQ+ advocates immediately called on Ducey, who has five days to act, to veto the legislation, calling both bills discriminatory and dangerous.

"Arizona has unfortunately joined the long list of states that have made bullying and discriminating against trans students a priority this legislative session," Darrell Hill, ACLU of Arizona policy director, said in a statement. "These unabated attacks on trans kids attempt to solve problems that do not exist and singles out people for simply being transgender. Gov. Ducey should follow in the footsteps of the Republican governors in Idaho and Indiana and veto legislation that harms the health and well-being of transgender youth."

"Today, the Arizona House brought the number of anti-trans bills advanced across the country in a single day to five, passing one restricting trans and nonbinary youth's access to both sports and another banning best-practice, gender-affirming medical care. While the rationale for these bans are not based on fact, the debates surrounding them are having a tangible negative impact on the mental health of an overwhelming majority of trans youth," Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, said in a statement.

"Placing coaches and doctors in a position where they can be disciplined or even imprisoned for following professional best practices and supporting trans and nonbinary youth is unethical and dangerous," Ames said.

A third bill passed by the Arizona legislature on Thursday would outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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The Arizona House on Thursday voted to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, bringing it in line with a growing number of Republican-led states passing "aggressive" anti-abortion measures, The Associated Press reports.

The state Senate had already passed the bill, which closely resembles the Mississippi law currently being considered by the Supreme Court. It will now make its way to Gov. Doug Ducey (R), "an abortion opponent who has signed every piece of anti-abortion legislation that has reached his desk since he took office in 2015," AP notes.

Many Republican-led states have recently moved to curb abortion rights. For example, Texas last year enacted its own incredibly strict abortion ban outlawing the procedure after just six weeks of pregnancy and deputizing private citizens to report those in violation. And earlier this month, the Florida legislature also passed a 15-week abortion ban, which Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to sign. Additionally, Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) on Wednesday signed into law a bill mirroring Texas', while another measure modeled after the Lone Star State's makes its way through the Oklahoma legislature, Axios reports.

The Arizona bill contains no exceptions for rape, incest, or medical emergency. The state also already has "some of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws, including one that would automatically outlaw it if the high court fully overturns [Roe v. Wade]," AP writes.
The New York Times

Russias war against Ukraine has leveled cities, killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions of others from their homes. But quietly, some military analysts and Western officials are asking why the onslaught has not been even worse. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Russia could be going after Ukrainian railways, roads and bridges more aggressively to try to stanch the flow of Western weapons to the front line. It could have bombed more of the infrastructure a
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said he has been raising concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia this year.

"The idea of sitting around a table with Vladimir Putin, who the United States are already in the position of calling out (for) war crimes in Ukraine, for me is a step too far," Morrison said during a media briefing.

Russia's ambassador to Indonesia on Wednesday said Putin intends to attend the G20 summit, dismissing suggestions by some G20 members that Russia could be barred from the group.

(Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
ARCADIA, Calif. (AP)  Bob Baffert has transferred four of his promising 3-year-old colts to other trainers, which will allow them to earn qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby while the Hall of Fame trainer appeals his 90-day suspension.

Baffert on Thursday transferred Messier, Doppelganger and McLaren Vale to trainer Tim Yakteen, who is based at Santa Anita. Blackadder was sent to Kentucky to train under Rodolphe Brisset. All four colts are owned by SF Racing LLC and others.

"We salute Bob for making the tough but necessary decision that will allow them to prove themselves as top talents in racing this year, said Tom Ryan of SF Racing LLC.

The moves came four days after a Kentucky judge denied Bafferts request to stay his 90-day suspension but delayed it until April 4 to allow his attorneys to seek emergency relief through the states Court of Appeals.

Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stewards last month suspended Baffert for 90 days, fined him $7,500, and disqualified Medina Spirit for having the corticosteroid betamethasone in his system when he won the Kentucky Derby last year. Baffert's suspension was originally set to begin March 8.

Baffert's attorneys said they would immediately appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

"Churchill has imposed unprecedented unilateral demands and restrictions regarding participation of these horses," said Clark Brewster, Baffert's attorney. "Legal remedies on Bobs behalf may not be finalized for several months. Therefore, the transfer of training from Bob to Mr. Yakteen will mitigate the losses  at least as they relate to these four horses  during the pendency of the Administrative Agency and Court proceedings.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stated in its original ruling that entry of all horses owned or trained by Baffert is denied pending transfer to persons acceptable to the stewards. It was not immediately clear who the stewards would deem acceptable.

Story continues

Yakteen twice worked as an assistant under Baffert, as well as the late Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham, before opening his own stable. He has never had a starter in the Kentucky Derby.

Brisset, a 34-year-old Frenchman, works out of Kentucky and Florida. He spent 11 years as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Brisset has yet to have a Derby starter.

Messier won the Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 6. Doppelganger finished second and McLaren Vale was third in the San Felipe Stakes on March 5. Blackadder won the El Camino Real Derby on Feb. 12 at Golden Gate Fields, earning an automatic berth to the Preakness on May 21.

At the time, none of the colts earned qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby on May 7 because Baffert has been banned for two years by Churchill Downs Inc. He is suing CDI in federal court.

Messier is being pointed toward the Santa Anita Derby on April 9. Doppelganger is likely for the Arkansas Derby on April 16. Blackadder is expected to run in an East Coast prep for the Kentucky Derby. The biggest points offerings are coming up over the next month.

The most important thing to me is that Messier, Doppelganger, McLaren Vale, and Blackadder  some of the top talent in racing this year  are able to compete, Baffert said in a statement. I encouraged the owners to move them, not only because it is best for these horses and their future in racing but also for fans of the sport who are excited to watch them run. I know that they are in good hands training with Tim and Rudy, and I look forward to cheering them on.

___

More AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports (backslash)




The Biden administration on Thursday announced recommendations for agencies and local governments to adopt in order to increase the amount of Native Americans who vote in elections.

The recommendations include directing the U.S. Postal Service to evaluate whether it can add routes, offices and staff hours to serve Native communities, directing jurisdictions serving Native voters to ensure they can offer effective language assistance, and ensuring that county and municipal election officials locate offices and polling places serving Native communities conveniently.

Senior administration officials added that the administration is calling on states to pass the Native American Voting Rights Act, which aims to ensure equal access to voting for Native Americans, and not wait for Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Democrat's voting rights legislation that has stalled in Congress.

"There are challenges throughout the voting process and some of those are from background conditions that Native Americans find themselves in- things like high poverty rates, high rates of disability, travel distances on many tribal lands," an official said. "Some of them are difficulties specific to individual pieces of the voting process, but we heard about challenges at every stage."

Biden signed an executive order a year ago on promoting access to voting, which directed an all-of-government effort to promote information about the voting process and to further the ability of all eligible Americans to vote.

The recommendations released on Thursday stem from the Interagency Steering Group on Native American Voting Rights, which the executive order created with the mission is to study the barriers Native voters face and to recommend steps to mitigate or eliminate these barriers.

The official said that challenges to Native American voters include getting information to people in languages they speak, restricted information due to broadband challenges, challenges in voter registration, challenges to redistricting, and challenges voting in person as well as access to voting by mail.

Story continues

Over eight million Native Americans are of voting age but in the 2020 election, voter turnout in Native American populations was 13 percent lower than the national average and 17 percentage lower than white non-Hispanic voter average, according to Census figures.

In Arizona, outside of the two major metropolitan areas, only 18 percent of Native American voters have home mail delivery, officials noted.

"It's going to take a whole of society effort to correct that situation," an official said.

The administration released a full report on Thursday that chronicles the recommendations and the Department of the Interior is translating it into six Native languages, including Navajo, Yup'ik, Ojibwe, Cherokee, Lakota, and Native Hawaiian.
This "window box" allows one to compare how the U.S, Naval Academy Chapel was in 1908 with as it is today. The Historic Annapolis Museum. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Capital Gazette)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  The Biden administration on Thursday filed a third lawsuit over voting rights in Texas, keeping America's biggest red state at the center of a fight over new and in many cases more restrictive election laws passed last year by Republicans.

The newest challenge by the Justice Department, which seeks to undo newly drawn county precincts in the tourist hub of Galveston, is the first under Biden to take aim at local voting changes in Texas. But the claims  that Black and Hispanic voters will be disenfranchised  are the same.

Galveston County, which includes the popular island, is divided into four precincts, only one of which had a majority of Black and Hispanic residents. New maps approved by the county's governing board last year made white voters the majority in all precincts.

The county is heavily Republican; former President Donald Trump carried it with 60% of the vote in 2020.

The impact of the adopted plan will be to dilute minority voting strength in Galveston County by eliminating the equal opportunity to elect candidates of choice that minority voters previously enjoyed," the Justice Department argues in the suit.

Zach Davidson, a county spokesman, said the county does not comment on pending litigation.

The Justice Department has already sued Texas over its new redistricting maps in place for 2022, saying the changes discriminate against minority voters, particularly Latinos, who have fueled the states population boom. The Biden administration has also sued Texas over a sweeping new voting law that includes new restrictions on mail ballots, and outlawed drive-thru voting and 24-hour polling places.

An analysis by The Associated Press found that at least 23,000 mail ballots in Texas were rejected this month in the first test of the new voting rules. It amounted to a 13% rejection rate in the nation's first primary of 2022. Typically, the rate of rejected mail ballots is in the low single digits.

Texas has had to defend its maps in court after every redistricting process since the Voting Rights Act took effect in 1965. Previously, Texas and other states with a history of racial discrimination had to seek preapproval before changing election laws, but that is no longer the case after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that requirement in 2013.
This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Thursday, March 24. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Tuesday, March 25, as Russia's invasion continues.

President Joe Biden said Russia should be kicked out of the Group of 20 nations in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, a major step that would further isolate the Kremlin and restrict Russia's say in the global economy.

Russias membership in the group, which represents the worlds major economies, was discussed during an emergency meeting with key U.S. allies, Biden told reporters Thursday during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

He noted that the decision on whether to boot Russia from the group is up to other G-20 members. If the other members decline to revoke Russias membership, Ukraine should be permitted to attend G-20 meetings, Biden said.

The G-20 includes not only Western democracies but also tyrannical and authoritarian countries such as China and Saudi Arabia. The group works to address major issues impacting the global economy.

The U.S. and other allies expelled Russia in 2014 from a smaller group that represents industrialized nations after Russias annexation of Crimea. That alliance, known at the time as the Group of Eight, is now called the Group of Seven, or G-7.

The president's remarks came as the U.S. reinforced a united stand with allies in supporting Ukraine one month into Russias invasion, with added sanctions against the Kremlin aimed at further crippling the country's economy. The sanctions against more than 400 Russian officials and entities came as Russian President Vladimir Putin's economy has shrunk to half the size it was before the invasion, according to the White House.

A senior administration official told reporters that independent assessments indicate Russias last 15 years of economic gains will evaporate this year and inflation will spike to 15%.

Russia, which had the worlds 11th largest economy before the invasion, will fall out of the top 20, according to the official. At the same time, the official said, sanctions are cutting off all sources of potential growth, including blocking Russia from purchasing cutting-edge technology.

Story continues

Biden also announced Thursday he hopes to meet with Ukrainian refugees while in Europe, giving away a part of his schedule that the White House had not announced.

Biden said getting a first-hand look at the effects of the war on Ukrainians will reinforce his commitment to the U.S. playing a major role in helping both those inside and outside Ukraine.

I plan on attempting to see those folks as well as, I hope, I'm going to be able to see -- guess I'm not supposed to say where I'm going, am I? Biden said. But anyway, I hope I get to see a lot of people.

LATEST MOVEMENTS: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine

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Latest developments:

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners Thursday.

Bulgaria is recalling its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in response to "undiplomatic, sharp and rude statements made by Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova. Mitrofanova said Monday that Bulgarians do not "support the rhetoric and actions of their government" regarding Russias invasion.

Herman Gref, the head of Russia's largest bank and a close Putin associate, was among those targeted by sanctions the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled Thursday. As CEO of Sberbank, Gref, 58, also oversees a large number of companies owned by Sberbank in other industries, the department said.

The Russian stock market resumed limited trading Thursday under heavy restrictions almost one month after prices plunged and the market was shut down following Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine says Moscow is forcibly taking civilians to Russia

Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraines ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, have been taken against their will.

The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraines rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said the roughly 400,000 people evacuated to Russia since the start of the military action were from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting for control for nearly eight years.

Russian authorities said they are providing accommodations and dispensing payments to the evacuees.

Ukrainian officials said that the Russians are taking peoples passports and moving them to filtration camps in Ukraines separatist-controlled east before sending them to various distant, economically depressed areas in Russia.

Poll shows Americans support Russian sanctions, think Biden should be tougher

A majority of Americans are supportive of the harsh sanctions on Russia but believe Biden needs to be tougher on the Kremlin after its invasion of Ukraine, according to a poll commissioned by the Associated Press and NORC released Thursday.

The poll, which surveyed 1,082 U.S. adults from Thursday to Monday, found 56% of Americans believe Biden's response to Russia hasn't been tough enough, including a majority of 53% of Democrats. A very small percent, about 6%, said they thought Biden had been "too tough," the poll shows.

Across the board, Americans of both political parties were supportive of the harsh economic blows to Russia. The poll showed 68% were supportive of economic sanctions in general with 70% saying they supported the recent banning oil imported from Russia, which in turn caused gas prices to rise.

 Christal Hayes

Biden: China understands its economic future is 'tied to the West'

President Joe Biden said he is hopeful that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not assist Russia in its war against Ukraine but declined to say whether hes seen any indications that China will intervene.

China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the west than it is to Russia, Biden said. And so I'm hopeful that he does not get engaged.

Biden pointed to his virtual meeting last week with Xi in which the president said he made it clear to him him that he understand the consequences and would be putting himself in significant jeopardy.

Biden said he made no threats, to Xi but pointed out the number of American companies that have pulled out of Russia as a result of Putins barbaric behavior.

 Joey Garrison

Biden: US, NATO will respond if Russia uses chemical weapons

President Joe Biden said the United States and NATO allies would respond to Russia if they used chemical weapons.

We would respond, we would respond if he uses it, Biden said during a press conference Thursday. The nature of the responses depend on the nature of the use.

Biden would not expand on whether the United States has gathered specific intelligence on if Russian President Vladimir Putin is using chemical weapons.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said Russian military forces committed war crimes in Ukraine after hitting civilian targets.

When asked whether there could be a military response if Putin uses chemical weapons, Biden said that NATO would decide as a whole if they would cross that line.

 Rebecca Morin

Residents wait in line to receive aid from the Ukrainian Red Cross in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 24,2022.

Biden says sanctions never deter, defending US actions against Putin

President Joe Biden vigorously defended his administrations use of sanctions on Russia, arguing the financial penalties were never meant to deter Putin from invading Ukraine but are designed to provide sustained pain.

Sanctions never deter, Biden said when pressed why U.S. sanctions have not stopped Putins course in Ukraine. You keep talking about that.

Biden said its the maintenance of sanctions and increasing the pain over the next year that will stop Russia.

We have to demonstrate the purpose, Biden said. The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and for the world to continue to focus on what a brut this guy is.

Biden noted that Putin was banking on NATO being split when he invaded Ukraine. Instead, NATO has never, never been more united than its been today, Biden declared Thursday after an emergency meeting of the allies in Brussels.

But Putin can take anything for another month, including the harsh sanctions, so the alliance must not crack, Biden added.

 Joey Garrison and Maureen Groppe

U.S. to accept 100K refugees, provide $1B in humanitarian assistance

The U.S. will accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and others fleeing Russias invasion and provide more than $1 billion in new humanitarian assistance, the White House announced Thursday.

The funding will pay for food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance.

Although many Ukrainian refugees prefer to remain in Europe where they will be closer to family and their homes, the Biden administration is working to expand and develop new programs with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the U.S.

Food shortages have been a major concern as both Russia and Ukraine are top producers of wheat. Biden discussed with other countries Thursday during a meeting in Brussels how to alleviate the issue, with both Canada and the U.S.  also top producers of the crop  discussing how production can be increased.

Its going to be real, Biden said of food disruptions.

The nations also talked about the need to end trade restrictions on sending food abroad, Biden said.

Biden noted the U.S. has provided $1 billion in assistance to Ukraine and, along with American allies, is committed to identifying "additional equipment, including air defense systems, to help Ukraine. The U.S. is consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

At a news conference Thursday after meeting with key allies in Brussles, Biden said U.S. weapons are flowing into Ukraine to help the embattled country resist Russias invasion.

Speaking to reporters, Biden said the U.S. has committed to provide over $2 billion in military equipment to Ukraine since he became president. Air systems and armor systems ammunitions are flowing into the country as I speak, he said.

Meet Ukraines volunteer online army

Tens of thousands of ordinary people across Europe have joined a grassroots, pro-democratic mission to fight Russia on social media. They call themselves elves because they hunt trolls spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation on Facebook and counter Kremlin conspiracy theories with credible information gathered from allies on the ground in embattled parts of Ukraine.

Their ranks have swelled since the start of the war one month ago as more office workers, doctors, scientists, teachers and IT professionals enlist to stem the flood of pro-Russian falsehoods and conspiracy theories in news feeds.

Ricardas Savukynas, a management consultant from Vilnius, started the underground resistance movement in Lithuania in 2014 during the Ukrainian uprising on Kyivs Maidan Square and Russias annexation of the Crimea Peninsula.

The idea is everybody can be an elf simply by fighting against propaganda, against lies, Savukynas said. Read more here.

 Jessica Guynn

State Department: Russians not attempting to strike weapons convoys

Weapons convoys arriving in Ukraine almost every day thus far have not been targeted by Russia's military, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. Kirby, speaking on Fox News, did not directly respond to a question about how the U.S. and NATO would respond if Russia struck a convoy  accidentally or on purpose  in Poland. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned that convoys "pumping Ukraine with weapons" will be considered legitimate targets.

"We have not seen the Russians attempt to strike any of these convoys," Kirby said. "We're watching this very, very carefully, as you might expect. But so far, we have not seen any attempt by the Russians to stall or to slow these convoys.

Kirby added that the Russian military has their "hands full" in places such as Kyiv, and Chernihiv, Kharkiv and in the south near Crimea.

Zelenskyy seeks 1% military solution

In a video address to a NATO summit Thursday, Ukraine President VolodymyrZelenskyy stressed the need for military assistance. Zelenskyy urged NATO to provide Ukraine with 1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks.

When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security," he said.

Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public to show support for his embattled country.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

US, allies consider providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine

The U.S. is consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there could be technical challenges but that it is something that allies are starting to work on. The Russians have several warships off the coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, according to the official. They include surface combatants that have shelled the city of Mariupol. They also have amphibious landing craft, supply ships and patrol boats.

Ukraines navy reported Thursday that it had sunk the Russian ship Orsk in the Azov near the port city of Berdyansk. It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim.

 Maureen Groppe and Tom Vanden Brook

McConnell: Ukraine war shows need for more US defense spending

The 2023 budget request the White House will send to Congress on Monday must reflect that the world is dangerous and getting smaller, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday.

We have to meet the military requirements that come from being a superpower facing growing threats to our global interests, McConnell said on the Senate floor as he addressed President Joe Bidens meetings with European allies.

McConnell said the U.S. needs to increase defense spending and expand inventories of critical weapons to meet the nations own security ends and to be a reliable supplier of weapons and munitions to allies. He said the war in Ukraine has highlighted shortcomings in both current stockpiles and in the industrial capacity to produce more quickly.

Ukrainian forces can win this fight, he said, but they need more weapons, more ammunition, more fuel. And they need it all as fast as possible.

Dissident Russian journalist Oksana Bauline killed in Kyiv bombardment

Dissident Russian journalist Oksana Baulina was killed while filming in Kyiv, making her at least the fourth journalist to die in the country during the war. Baulina was working as a correspondent for The Insider when Russian troops shelled a shopping center in the Podil district, a historic neighborhood in Kyiv, the site said in a statement. Another civilian was killed and two more people were wounded and hospitalized.

Baulina had fled Russia but had continued to report on corruption inside the Russian government.

"The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana's family and friends," the statement read.

 Asha C. Gilbert

Zelenskyy address doesn't mention 'no-fly' zone, NATO membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked NATO allies Thursday for continued help in his fight against Russias invasion but did not repeat his recurring request for a no-fly" zone, according to the White House. Zelenskyy addressed the NATO summit by video from Ukraine, speaking shortly after the emergency summit was opened by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, according to a senior administration official who described the closed-door gathering on condition of anonymity.

The official said Zelenskyy also did not ask for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance. Russia is opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, one of the conditions Moscow set in the failed negotiations before troops invaded Ukraine.

Zelenskyy's frequents requests for a "no-fly" zone over his country have been dismissed by U.S. and NATO officials who say defending Ukraine skies would risk a wider escalation of the war.

NATO nations agree to strengthen defense forces

NATO leaders agreed Thursday to strengthen its deterrence and defense forces in Europe for the longer-term while increasing support to Ukraine and imposing further costs on Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the alliances emergency meeting.

Transatlantic solidarity remains vital, Stoltenberg tweeted.

In a group statement released after the meeting, NATO leaders said they condemn Russias invasion and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately stop the war and withdraw forces. The leaders also called on Belarus to end its complicity in the war and for China and other countries to stop supporting Russias war effort in any way, and to "refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions. NATO also will enhance cyber capabilities and defenses and substantially increasing defense spending overall.

Russia to expel more American diplomats, State Department says

Russia has begun the process to expel several American diplomats from the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the State Department said Wednesday.

The department said it received a list of diplomats on who have been declared persona non grata by the Russian foreign ministry. It didnt say how many diplomats were affected by the order, which generally results in the expulsion of those targeted within 72 hours.

The State Department called Wednesdays move Russias latest unhelpful and unproductive step in relations between the countries. It urged Russia to end its unjustified expulsions of U.S. diplomats and staff.

 Charles Ventura

US has determined Russia committed war crimes, Blinken says

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States has determined Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Blinken said in a statement.

He said the assessment is based on a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources.

Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion has unleashed unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across Ukraine. He cited reports of indiscriminate attacks, including those deliberately targeting civilians, among other atrocities.

 Deirdre Shesgreen

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine recap: Biden says Russia should be kicked from G-20
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is entirely committed to backing the UK and Irelands bid to host Euro 2028 after earlier appearing to support the idea of playing the tournament in Ukraine (House of Commons/PA) (PA Wire)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is entirely committed to supporting the UK and Irelands bid to host Euro 2028 after he had earlier appeared to back the idea of Ukraine hosting the tournament.

Johnson, who is in Brussels for a Nato summit to discuss Russias invasion of Ukraine, said it was beyond satire that Russia should have declared an interest in hosting either Euro 2028 or Euro 2032. He added that the best thing possible would be for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and for Ukraine to be handed the tournament.

Downing Street moved to clarify Johnsons position, saying he had been responding to a question about Moscows brazen and sorely misjudged attempt to obtain a platform on the international stage by hosting the tournament.

Clearly we remain entirely committed to the UK and Ireland bid for Euro 2028 which retains the Governments full backing, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said.

The spokesman said the Prime Minister would very much like UEFA to rule out Russia hosting the tournament.

All sorts of sporting bodies have taken responsible action in removing Russia from their competitions, the spokesman said.

They should not be able to compete or have the prestige of taking part in global tournaments.

This is not because we want to punish the Russian people, it is simply because it is another way of putting pressure on Putin to reverse his course and change tack.

 UEFA has received declarations of interest to host the 2028 and 2032 editions of the UEFA EURO from four potential bidders following today's deadline.



 The appointment of hosts for both tournaments will be made in September 2023.  UEFA (@UEFA) March 23, 2022

Johnson had initially said: I think the idea of Russia holding any football tournament or any kind of cultural event right now is beyond satire.

I cant believe anybody would seriously consider their suggestion and the best thing possible would be for the entire Russian armed forces to retire forthwith from Ukraine and hand the tournament to them, of course.

Story continues

Senior figures within UEFA who were contacted by the PA news agency on Wednesday evening were dismayed by the Russian bid and expressed hope that it would be immediately dismissed.

The declaration of interest had to be accepted because at this stage the Football Union of Russia (FUR)s membership of UEFA and FIFA has not been suspended, only the right of their national teams and clubs to compete in UEFA and FIFA competitions.

The federations membership of UEFA will be kept under review, UEFA said on Wednesday.

The UK & Ireland bid for the UEFA Euro 2028 has this governments full backing.



Our world-class stadiums and passionate fans stand ready to host one of the worlds greatest sporting events.



Lets bring football home. https://t.co/QWTL3muayA  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 23, 2022

The UK and Ireland first announced their intention to bid for Euro 2028 on February 7 at the end of a feasibility study which had initially been launched with a view to bidding for the 2030 World Cup, and the five associations behind the bid confirmed on Wednesday that a formal expression of interest had been sent to UEFA.

Johnson tweeted in support of that submission on Wednesday, writing: The UK and Ireland bid for the UEFA Euro 2028 has this governments full backing.

Our world-class stadiums and passionate fans stand ready to host one of the worlds greatest sporting events. Lets bring football home.

It had appeared that the UK and Ireland bid would face no opposition before Russias shock entry, and a subsequent submission from perennial bidders Turkey ahead of Wednesday evenings UEFA deadline.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to have given his backing to Ukraine hosting Euro 2028 (Henry Nicholls/PA) (PA Wire)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to suggest Ukraine should be awarded the right to host Euro 2028  despite the UK and Ireland being in the running for the same event.

Johnson was giving his reaction to Wednesdays shock news that Russia had declared an interest in bidding for the 2028 and 2032 continental tournaments, despite the country being banned from international football over their invasion of Ukraine.

The Prime Minister, who is in Brussels for a Nato summit on the Ukraine invasion, said it was beyond satire that Russia should have entered the race, but went on to say that the best thing possible would be for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and for Ukraine to be handed the tournament.

The best thing possible would be for the entire Russian armed forces to retire forthwith from Ukraine and hand the tournament to them.

Boris Johnson

He said: I think the idea of Russia holding any football tournament or any kind of cultural event right now is beyond satire.

I cant believe anybody would seriously consider their suggestion and the best thing possible would be for the entire Russian armed forces to retire forthwith from Ukraine and hand the tournament to them, of course.

The UK and Ireland first announced their intention to bid for Euro 2028 on February 7 at the end of a feasibility study which had initially been launched with a view to bidding for the 2030 World Cup, and the five associations behind the bid confirmed on Wednesday that a formal expression of interest had been sent to UEFA.

Johnson tweeted in support of that submission on Wednesday, writing: The UK and Ireland bid for the UEFA Euro 2028 has this governments full backing.

The UK & Ireland bid for the UEFA Euro 2028 has this governments full backing.



Our world-class stadiums and passionate fans stand ready to host one of the worlds greatest sporting events.



Lets bring football home. https://t.co/QWTL3muayA  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 23, 2022

Our world-class stadiums and passionate fans stand ready to host one of the worlds greatest sporting events. Lets bring football home.

Story continues

The PA news agency is seeking clarification of the Prime Ministers position on the bid.

It had appeared that the UK and Ireland bid would face no opposition before Russias shock entry, and a subsequent submission from perennial bidders Turkey ahead of Wednesday evenings UEFA deadline.

Senior figures within UEFA who were contacted by the PA news agency on Wednesday evening were dismayed by the Russian bid and expressed hope that it would be immediately dismissed.

The declaration of interest had to be accepted because at this stage the Football Union of Russia (FUR)s membership of UEFA and FIFA has not been suspended, only the right of their national teams and clubs to compete in UEFA and FIFA competitions.

 UEFA has received declarations of interest to host the 2028 and 2032 editions of the UEFA EURO from four potential bidders following today's deadline.



 The appointment of hosts for both tournaments will be made in September 2023.  UEFA (@UEFA) March 23, 2022

The federations membership of UEFA will be kept under review, UEFA said on Wednesday.

The FURs president Alexander Dyukov  a member of UEFAs ruling executive committee, said on Wednesday: Submitting the declaration, we proceed from the fact that Russia is well prepared to host large international competitions, enjoys all the required infrastructure and experience in staging large tournaments at the highest level. The deadline for submitting the declaration is April 12, 2023.

This decision does not impose any obligations on us, however we must use every opportunity to communicate with FIFA and UEFA, struggle for every chance to host major tournaments.

If we do nothing, then we will definitely have nothing. We realise that currently the chances have decreased, and yet, if they do exist, you have to seize them.
SOFIA (Reuters) -Bulgaria will recall its ambassador to Russia for consultations in response to "undiplomatic, sharp and rude" comments from the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Thursday.

Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mitrofanova told a Russian TV channel this week that the Bulgarian people did not support the government's rhetoric and position towards what Russia calls its special operation in Ukraine.

Bulgaria, Moscow's closest ally during the Cold War but now a member of the European Union and NATO, has condemned Russia's invasion of its neighbour a month ago.

"We will call back our ambassador from Russia for consultations ... Usually when one country calls back its ambassador for consultations, the other should follow and do the same," Petkov told reporters in Brussels.

"I do not think there is a Bulgarian citizen who can be happy to see a foreign diplomat offending the Bulgarians and the Bulgarian government ... We are a country that respects its institutions and such behaviour is unacceptable."

Sofia, which has cultural, religious and historical ties with Russia, has expelled 12 Russian diplomats over activities deemed incompatible with their status since the Feb. 24 invasion. It has also warned the Russian embassy to avoid using offensive language in its social media posts.

Moscow says its "special military operation" aims to demilitarise Ukraine but Kyiv and the West say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.

Commenting on Wednesday on Mitrofanova's interview, Petkov had said it was unacceptable for a foreign ambassador to speak on behalf of the Bulgarian people against the Bulgarian government and promised a proper diplomatic response.

The Russian embassy to Bulgaria said in a posting in its Telegram channel that Mitrofanova had outlined a point of view, based on an analysis of public opinion, and decried the public criticism from the Bulgarian premier.

(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova;Editing by Alison Williams and Catherine Evans)
Police charged two women with prostitution and licensing offenses following a sting operation last week at an Edgewater massage parlor where detectives say undercover officers were offered sexual favors.

An Anne Arundel County Police detective said in charging papers that Nian Chen, 54, of Annapolis, and Meifang Shi, of Flushing, New York, were not licensed by the state to provide massage therapy despite working at Oriental Massage on Solomons Island Road. In addition, the women were charged with misdemeanor offenses stemming from their attempts to provide undercover officers sexual gratification following their massages, according to court documents.

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The county polices vice unit was alerted by a concerned citizen who had seen suspicious activity at the spa, charging papers say, such as male customers parking far away at other businesses and walking a distance to a rear door, rather than the front.

After providing a massage, Nian, who is listed in business records as an owner of the parlor, offered to touch a male undercover officers genitals in exchange for extra money, county police wrote in charging papers. She was charged with prostitution and practicing massage therapy without a license.

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Without prompting, Meifang attempted to perform a sex act on another undercover officer after about 45 minutes of a massage, the charging papers say. She was charged with a fourth-degree sex offense, as well as practicing massage therapy without a license.

Following the operation, police spoke with the business employees and explained licensing was required, and that exchanging money for sexual acts is illegal, the charging papers say.

Nian and Meifang did not have attorneys listed in online court records. The massage parlor did not respond to calls for comment.

Several prostitution stings in recent years at Anne Arundel massage parlors have lead to New York residents being charged with misdemeanor offenses: in 2019, employees of Evergreen Massage and Escape Massage in Severna Park were charged with prostitution and licensing violations, as were employees of Glen Burnie Spa in Glen Burnie and Oriental Wellness Center in Linthicum in 2018. In those cases, all of the women charged were either granted short probationary sentences or had their cases shelved.

In another 2018 case stemming from an undercover operation at Blue Moon Wellness Center in Linthicum, Xiangdong Tang, a male Rosedale resident, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with five years suspended for profiting from prostitution. Sentencing Xiangdong in 2019, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Mark W. Crooks called Flushing, New York, where an employee of that spa was also a resident, a cesspool of human trafficking.
CALIFORNIA  Residents of California who dont have health insurance can soon expect to pay for COVID-19 tests and treatment with the end Tuesday of a federal program that reimbursed providers for virus-related care.

One of the immediate implications of the expiration of the Trump-era provider relief program: People in California and elsewhere who havent received their COVID-19 booster shots, or even the first in the vaccination series, should do so before April 5, the last day the Uninsured Program will accept vaccination claims.

The program has already stopped accepting claims for testing and treatment.

The reimbursement program was launched in 2020 with $100 billion in funding, and another $78 billion was appropriated later.

The White Houses decision to end the program  due to a lack of funding  also means that, after the end of April, hospitals and other health care providers in California can no longer bill the government for things such as administering COVID-19 vaccines to people who dont have health insurance.

The provider relief funding is ending as the numbers of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline across the country. But a new surge in cases in Western Europe has health officials and experts worried that cases may again go up in the U.S. as well.

Also on Patch: CA Will Stop Requiring COVID Vaccine Proof At Large Indoor Events

The California Department of Public Health has an online list of locations where you can get a vaccine or booster shot.



The nation has come too far in its fight against COVID-19 to back away now, according to Dr. Michael Mina, a former Harvard University epidemiologist and now the chief science officer for eMed, a startup that makes at-home COVID-19 tests.

When you have the time and space to breathe, that's when you prepare and make sure everyone's being taken care of, not when more and more people are dying every day, he told NBC News, recalling how the government was caught unprepared with COVID-19 tests as omicron cases surged around the holidays last winter.

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You don't go to a race and start training and preparing the day of the race, Mina said. That would be a massive mistake.

Also on Patch: Tots In CA Could Soon Get Moderna COVID Vaccinations

The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress are urging lawmakers to approve a new round of funding in the nations fight against COVID-19.



The White House wanted $22.5 billion in coronavirus funding in the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month, but Democrats dropped the request amid disputes that threatened other priorities. Among the points of contention: Republicans wanted to reallocate coronavirus aid previously allocated to states.

Health advocates say continued funding is critical for about 28 million Americans who dont have health insurance. Enrollment in Medicaid and childrens health insurance programs rose sharply during the pandemic to about 85 million people last fall, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Elimination of the provider relief fund deals a strong blow to those who have the greatest risks, due to lower resources and less access to usual care, Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of public health at the Yale School of Medicine, told NBC News.

Even people who have insurance may find themselves questioning if they can afford to get care, Forman added.

Think about the person with a large deductible who would readily access a free monoclonal antibody clinic or testing site for testing and early treatment, but who might be afraid of large bills if they went to a private physician or even a hospital, he told NBC.

The elimination of coronavirus spending in the omnibus bill has left the Biden administration's new COVID-19 road map in some doubt. The decision to save the fight for later underscores the deep partisan divides over the pandemic and the government's response to it but also shows the pandemic is no longer the government's top priority.

Without an infusion of cash in a provider relief program, COVID-19 patients without insurance likely will have to depend on their local hospitals charity and financial assistance programs, which can vary greatly and can be difficult to navigate, according to Kaiser Health News.

The American Hospital Association, a trade industry group, said in a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday that it supports the Biden administrations request for more COVID-19 assistance, including that earmarked for the provider relief program.

While the nation remains weary and is eager to move past this pandemic, the virus continues to evolve and pose a threat to our nations health care system, the hospital group said.

The recent surge of cases and hospitalizations abroad fueled by the Omicron variant known as BA.2 serves as a critical warning: The battle is not over, and hospitals and health systems continue to need resources and flexibilities to care for patients and protect communities.

This article originally appeared on the Across California Patch
This wanted poster shows Evan Neumann, a former Bay Area resident facing federal criminal charges from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, who has been granted asylum in Belarus, the former Soviet nation's state media reported on March 23, 2022. (FBI)

A Northern California man who fled the United States after allegedly assaulting police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been granted political asylum in Belarus, state media there announced this week.

Evan Neumann, 49, who lived in Mill Valley in Marin County, was indicted in December 2021 on 14 counts, including assaulting officers and entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon. But by then, according to the FBI, he was already in Belarus, a former Soviet republic and current staging ground for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Neumann could not be reached for comment. A man who answered a phone number linked to Neumann's brother and identified himself with the same first name as Neumann's brother hung up when a reporter identified themselves as a Los Angeles Times employee.

The U.S. government says Neumann, who hails from a family that owned prominent hotels in Sonoma County, flew to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, and was spotted on police body-cam video outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, wearing a red MAGA hat and an orange and yellow scarf commemorating the Ukrainian Orange Revolution of 2005. Neumann, who spent time in Eastern Europe and reportedly supported the pro-democratic Orange Revolution, also sported a gas mask, according to the government.

Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. (Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

Standing just behind a barricade meant to keep rioters out of the Capitol, according to the government, Neumann berated officers, saying they kneel to antifa because theyre little bitches, and telling one officer that they will be overrun by the crowd and warning: Im willing to die. Are you?

Around 2 p.m, according to the government, Neumann used the barricade as a battering ram, lifting it off the ground and rushing toward the officers. Hours later, after 5 p.m., Neumann was still at a restricted place on the Capitol steps, refusing to leave and calling the officers motherf and fing murderers, according to prosecutors.

Neumann is the son of late Santa Rosa hotelier Claus Neumann, and in the days after the riots, an anonymous tipster claiming to be a family friend gave Neumanns name and home address to federal authorities. Officials then compared their footage with a television interview Neumann did with a local television station after a wildfire.

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In 2017, Santa Rosa police arrested Neumann and his younger brother, Mark, on suspicion of crossing official barricades to visit his mothers destroyed house in the city's Fountaingrove neighborhood after the deadly Tubbs fire.

On Feb. 16, 2021, FBI agents staked out Neumanns house in Mill Valley and then followed him to the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport, where they interviewed him. He admitted to flying to Washington on Jan. 5 and returning on Jan. 7 but declined to say whether he had had any physical engagement with law enforcement or whether he entered any federal buildings during his trip. Neumann, who has had several businesses, including a handbag one, was then allowed to leave the country.

He flew to Italy, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, and then traveled to Ukraine. But, according to interviews Neumann gave to Belarusian state media, he began to fear that he was being watched and, because of close ties between the U.S. and Ukraine, that he could be extradited.

He crossed into Belarus, encountering snakes and boars, he said in an interview with Belarusian state television that has since been posted on YouTube.

In the interview, in which Neumann is pictured at times strolling in a town square with his interviewer and at other times sitting in an office next to a potted plant, he described officers hitting him with pepper spray on Jan. 6 and said very strange things happened at the Capitol. He also asserted that someone inside opened the doors to the building and that rioters were invited to come in.

In the spring of 2021, Neumann sold his two-bedroom house in tony Mill Valley for $1.3 million, closing the deal in a speedy 2 1/2 weeks, according to an interview the buyer gave to ABC7 .

"We did some Googling," Jason Dubaniewicz said in the interview, after learning the seller was in Ukraine. "We found an eclectic person."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
"Do you dare say his name five times?" That's how the "Candyman" is accidentally summoned by a graduate student researching urban legends. The film was released in 1992 by TriStar Pictures starring Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd (pictured).

Come with me and be immortal. Those words would normally sound very inviting, but when the Candyman spoke them to Helen Lyle (played by Virginia Madsen) in the 1992 movie Candyman, he was trying to convince her to forfeit her life. Tony Todd is most famous for playing Daniel Robitaille, aka the Candyman, in the film and its sequels. However, the 6-foot-5, charismatic actor has over 242 acting credits for movies, television, theater and video games. If you attend this weekends HorrorHound Weekend convention at the Sharonville Convention Center, you can meet him in person.

Todd was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Connecticut. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Connecticut and the Eugene ONeill National Theater Institute, and he earned his Masters Degree from the Brown University/Trinity Square Repertory Theater Conservatory.

After graduate school, Tony returned to Hartford, Connecticut, and managed a teenage theater group for a year and a half. Then he moved to New York City and worked in theater. There, Todd got Oliver Stones attention and was hired to be in his first film, Platoon.

Candyman is the film that made Todd one of the most beloved horror actors of our time. In the movie, the Candyman was the ghost of Daniel Robitaille, a well-educated artist who was brutally lynched in 1890. A wealthy man hired Daniel to paint his daughter. The two fell in love and the daughter got pregnant. Sadly, the wealthy father disapproved of their relationship and organized a group to murder Robitaille. During the brutal assault, Robitailles right hand was cut off and replaced with a hook. After that, he was covered with honeycombs and stung to death by bees.

Years later, whenever someone would look into the mirror and say Candyman five times, Robitailles ghost, accompanied by bees, would appear and kill the summoner.

The movies were not easy to film. There were more than 200,000 bees on set for the first movie. During the first three films, Todd was covered with bees, and despite protective gear, he was stung a total of 27 times.

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Todd is quite familiar with Cincinnati. He performed in Dark Paradise: The Legend of the Five-Pointed Star at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in 2001. During his performances, he stayed at the now-defunct Vernon Manor Hotel. Two weeks of his stay were spent in the Beatles Suite.

He is very fond of the Cincinnati Art Museum and some of Cincinnatis restaurants. Tony loves regional theater and Cincinnatis Playhouse is one of his favorites.

What is Todds favorite movie role? The one thats right in front of me is the one thats present. They are like kids. They all have special needs, Tony said.

However, Tony has a different view of his television experiences. My favorite TV experience was with Star Trek. I worked hard to get it. I got the role of Kurn, Todd said. Commander Kurn was Worfs brother. Every time Tony played Commander Kurn, it took four hours for the makeup process to transform the human actor into a Klingon warrior.

Ive been getting a lot of voice-over work, Todd said. Ever since 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,' Ive been booking like crazy including the upcoming 'Spider-Man 2' video game, where I play Venom.

Todd will not be the only actor from Candyman at HorrorHound Weekend. Ted Raimi (Billy), who appeared in the first film, is scheduled to appear.

I am looking forward to attending HorrorHound. I think that it is my third one in 30 years. I always felt that HorrorHound is arguably the number two horror con in the country, Todd said. I love people. I look forward to seeing all the rabid fans with their questions, and their attitudes, wanting a photo op. Its just a beautiful thing because, without the fans, we would be totally inconsequential.

Tony Todd (with Virginia Madsen) stars as the hook-handed title villain of 1992's original "Candyman."

Other celebrities coming to HorrorHound Cincinnati

Scream franchise fans will scream for HorrorHound Weekend. Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott), Matthew Lillard (Stu Macher), Skeet Ulrich (Billy Loomis), Jamie Kennedy (Randy Meeks) and Lee Waddell (stuntman) are expected to be there.

Halloween franchise fans will hallow the opportunity to meet Dick Warlock (Michael Myers), Tom Atkins (Dan Challis), Stacey Nelkin (Ellie Grimbridge), Airon Armstrong (Flashback Michael Myers), Tom Jones Jr. (Dr. Loomis), Michael Smallwood (Marcus), Carmela McNeal (Vanessa Wilson), Tommy Lee Wallace (director of "Halloween III") and Nancy Stephens (Marion).

Walking Dead actors Tom Payne (Paul Jesus Rovia), Ross Marquand (Aaron), Ryan Hurst (Beta) and Steven Ogg (Simon) plan to be walking alive at the convention.

Creepshow alumni Adrienne Barbeau (Wilma Northrup), John Amplass (Nathan as zombie), Darryl Ferrucci (Fluffy), Michael Gornick (film director) and Tom Savini (Garbage Man #2) are scheduled to show, creepy or not.

Remember the Titans actors Ethan Suplee (Louie Lastik) and Wood Harris (Julius Campbell) are expected.

David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown) and Damien Leone (the films director) from Terrifier are scheduled to appear.

Friday the 13th actor Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees) plans to be there.

Mark Dacascos (Eric Draven) from The Crow: Stairway to Heaven is scheduled to be there. He is better known for being the chairman of Iron Chef America.

Lloyd Kaufman (Toby) from Comic Book Junkies plans to appear.

Adam Green, director of the Hatchet film series, is slated to be there.

Tony Cecere, stuntman, from A Nightmare on Elm Street, is scheduled to be there.

Professional wrestlers Ruby Soho and Jon Moxley are planning to appear.

Artists Jason Edmiston, Matty Ryan Tobin, Sara Deck and Gary Pullin are slated to be there.

Grimm Life Collective is also anticipated for the convention.

Jon Moxley: AEW's first Cincinnati show a chance for Cincinnatian to show off hometown

Each celebrity has separate charges for autographs, professional pictures and selfies. Check out the website for prices.

Vendors will sell toys, movies, posters, clothes, art and other merchandise.

HorrorHound will host several events, including Q&A sessions. Indie filmmaker Q&A, Halloween III, Halloween Kills, Scream, Creepshow, Terrifier and The Walking Dead panels are scheduled. A kids' costume contest will be held on Saturday at 5 p.m.

HorrorHound Weekend, what you need to know

Where: Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road.

When: March 25 to 27. Friday 5-10 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission: Friday and Sunday passes cost $35 each. Saturday and full-weekend passes are sold out.

Info: horrorhoundweekend.com.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: HorrorHound Weekend: Meet Tony Todd; stars of 'Scream,' 'Walking Dead'
A cat named Buddy is fighting for his life after two people appeared to encourage their dogs to attack him. The brutal scene, which took place earlier this week in a Philadelphia neighborhood, was caught on camera.

Buddy is still hanging in there, the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is providing Buddy with veterinary care, posted to Facebook on Thursday. He remains in critical condition, but we are cautiously optimistic.

Buddy the cat receiving treatment after a brutal attack from two dogs. (Photo: Pennsylvania SPCA)

Surveillance footage (warning: the video is disturbing, though the most graphic parts of the attack have been blurred out) shows two people walking dogs past a fenced-in porch in Philadelphias Frankford neighborhood. The people let go of the dogs leashes, and the dogs enter the porch and attack Buddy, who can be seen sitting inside the fence. The dog walkers can be heard exclaiming, Good boy! before a man comes out of the building and intervenes.

Right now, our biggest concern is stabilizing Buddy, PSCPA spokesperson Gillian Kocher told HuffPost in an email, adding that vets are also focused on pain management and making sure hes comfortable. The black cat is suffering from wounds across his body, but does not appear to have any internal bleeding or broken bones.

The two dog walkers who apparently sicced the dogs on Buddy could face felony charges of animal fighting and aggravated cruelty to animals, Philly Voice reported.

Despite his injuries, Buddys personality is shining through.

Buddy seems to be a gem for all we can tell so far, Kocher said. He loves chin scratches, has been giving head nudges and loves a warm rag on his whiskers. Only time will tell what else his personality holds, but we think he has a bright future if all goes well.

Prior to the incident, Buddy had been a stray. A local family had him neutered, but then found that he didnt want to live inside and began leaving him food and water on their porch. Kocher said the family did wonderfully by him. However, she said, if Buddy does recover, he will not return to his home, but will be in search of a new one.

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UPDATE: March 26 - Two suspects, one 12-year-old and one 17-year old, have been arrested in connection to the attack, Philly Voice reported. The story language has been updated to reflect that the suspects have been identified and are minors.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
England now has no additional support for those forced to miss work because of COVID. (Getty)

Despite record-high cases of COVID-19 sweeping across the UK, the government has pressed ahead with its decision to end the extra support provided to those who are too sick to work with coronavirus.

From March 24, the government ended COVID-19 provisions within the Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations.

The change in regulation is part of the government's 'living with COVID' plan that was announced after the peak of the Omicron wave over winter.

The new rules mean the UK's Statutory Sick Pay will now be the same for people with COVID and those who are unable to work due to other illnesses.

The UK recorded over 98,000 cases of COVID on Thursday, with over 612,000 cases in the past seven days.

The only time cases have been higher was during the winter Omicron wave.

How is sick pay changing?

At the start of the pandemic, the government brought in changes to the Statutory Sick Pay regulations making them payable from day one, instead of day four.

They also brought in a 500 payment for people self-isolating.

The 500 payment faced heavy criticism as not enough for two weeks of missed work.

It was also means-tested payment for people required to isolate and two-thirds of people who applied for the help were rejected.

Both of these measures have now been scrapped.

Watch: COVID-19: The fullest data to date has dropped on coronavirus deaths in England and Wales - here's what it tells us

Read more: The 10 most common symptoms for COVID at the moment

People in England have not been legally required to self isolate if they caught COVID since 24 February.

This means anyone who is too ill to work with COVID will not just get Statutory Sick Pay, unless their company provides other forms of sick cover.

Employees are entitled to 96.35 per week for 28 weeks if they are unable to work due to illness, amounting to a quarter of average earnings.

This is less than a third of the UK Real Living Wage  346 per week  which is the estimated amount required to meet a person's needs based on the cost of living.

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Workers need to earn at least 120 a week to be eligible, which means an estimated two million do not even qualify for the support.

How does UK sick pay compare to other countries?

On top of the government ending the COVID support for people off work, the base Statutory Sick Pay that has now taken over as the main support mechanism is among the lowest in the developed world.

UK sick pay as a proportion of average national earnings in the first four weeks of illness is just 20%.

This is considerably lower than the next developed nation on the list, Ireland, which has sick pay at 37% of earnings.

UK sick pay is some of the least generous in the developed world (Yahoo News UK/Flourish/OECD/ONS)

Read more: Number of people in hospital with COVID in Scotland higher than ever

Austria and Germany provide 100% of lost income.

In 2018, the European Committee of Social Rights described the level as manifestly inadequate and not in conformity with the European Social Charter.

Stephen Reicher, a member of the Sage subcommittee on behavioural science and professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, said last month that scrapping the law of self-isolation will create a divide where some people can afford to isolate if they have COVID, and others cannot.

Professor Reicher told Yahoo News UK: "What it means is that if you are poor, there's a pressure for you to go to work.

"Our sick pay is so meagre and if there is no other support, then you will have no choice. You will have to go into work whether you like it or not."
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Negotiators for Chevron Corp and the United Steelworkers union (USW) are scheduled to meet next week in an effort to end a strike at a San Francisco-area refinery, spokespeople for both sides said on Thursday.

The negotiators are scheduled to meet on Monday, said B.K. White, first vice president of USW Local 12-5, which represents about 500 workers at Chevron's Richmond, California, refinery, who went on strike on Monday.

"We look forward to joining USW Local 5 in discussions next week and at work again soon," Chevron spokesperson Tyler Kruzich said.

Workers were removed from the refinery on Sunday by Chevron after Local 12-5 issued a strike notice to the company following the collapse of talks after union members twice rejected company contract proposals.

The strike began shortly after 12 a.m. PDT on Monday. The previous contract expired on Feb. 1, but was being extended on a rolling 24-hour basis.

The local sought an additional 5% pay increase on top of a 12% raise over four years negotiated by USW International officials and oil refinery owners in February.

The additional 5% would mostly offset increases in healthcare costs for union members in the San Francisco Bay-area, which has a higher cost of living, union officials have said.

(Reporting by Erwin SebaEditing by Chris Reese and Sam Holmes)
Customers of a hot pot restaurant in China were treated to free meals for three days after they were forced to stay in the establishment due to a COVID-19 lockdown.



A viral video on Weibo shows the experience of a woman named Wang who met her four friends for a late hot pot dinner at a restaurant in the city of Zhengzhou on March 18.



After they finished their meal, three of Wangs friends left. She stayed with the fourth friend to chat. However, when the two of them eventually tried to leave, local authorities told them to stay in the restaurant, along with 10 staff members and around 40 other customers, since someone who tested positive for COVID-19 had recently visited the restaurant.



In China, establishments that are visited by an infected person are temporarily shut down even if there are people inside.



Fortunately for Wang and the other customers, the restaurants owner allowed everyone to eat as much hot pot as they could for free. According to Wang, the owners kindness turned an otherwise scary incident into a pleasant experience for everyone.



"Although this is an unexpected situation that no one wants, the experience this time is quite comfortable and enjoyable," Wang was quoted as saying. "I really can't eat hot pot anymore."





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By Martin Quin Pollard

WUZHOU, China (Reuters) -Chinese investigators began examining the cockpit voice recorder from a China Eastern Airlines jet that plunged into mountainside with 132 people on board as recovery crews searched muddy fields on Thursday for a second black box.

The recording material from the first black box, found on Wednesday, appeared to have survived the impact of Monday's crash in relatively good shape, a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official said.

The cockpit voice recorder would provide investigators with details of communications between the flight's three pilots, which is one more than is normally required on board a Boeing 737-800 plane.

The search continued for the flight data recorder.

Debris from the jetliner including engine blades, horizontal tail stabilisers and other wing remnants was concentrated within 30 metres of the main impact point, which was 20 metres deep.

One 1.3 metre-long fragment suspected to be from the plane was found about 10 km away, prompting a significant expansion of the search area, officials told a news briefing.

No survivors have been found, and experts have said it was all but impossible that anyone could survive such an impact.

Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast when the plane suddenly plunged from cruising altitude at about the time when it should have started its descent to its destination.

The investigation is being led by China but the United States was invited to take part because the plane was designed and manufactured there.

However, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday it had not determined if investigators would travel to China given strict visa and quarantine requirements, and Chinese officials declined to say whether or when NTSB officials would be invited.

"Our work priority is still on search and rescue, and at the same time, carrying out evidence collection and fixation work in the early stage of accident investigation," said Zhu Tao, the CAAC's head of aviation safety.

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"However, when we enter the accident investigation stage, we will invite relevant parties to participate in the accident investigation according to relevant regulations," he said.

SLOW SEARCH

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane briefly appeared to pull out of its nosedive, before plunging again into a heavily forested slope in the mountainous Guangxi region.

Authorities said the pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers during the rapid descent.

It was too early to determine the cause of the crash, which experts say are usually the result of a combination of factors.

"The difficulty now is that we are eager to search for survivors as soon as possible, but our work requires us to search carefully and slowly," Huang Shangwu, deputy director of the Combat Training Office of the Guangxi Fire Rescue Corps said at the site.

Search teams used thermal imaging cameras and life detection devices as well as drones.

"The search area is really large, plus the two days of rain make the path very slippery," said Zhou, among the more than 1,600 people involved in search operations on Thursday.

The flight's captain had 6,709 hours flying experience, while the first and second officers had 31,769 hours and 556 hours, respectively, a China Eastern official said on Wednesday. One co-pilot was an observer to build up experience, the airline said, without disclosing the names of the pilots.

Phoenix Weekly magazine cited an aviation expert who identified the captain as Yang Hongda, the son of a former China Eastern captain, and the first officer as Zhang Zhengping, a pilot with 40 years of experience who mentored other pilots.

The Southern Weekly newspaper reported Yang, 32, had a one-year-old daughter, while Zhang, 59, was a veteran pilot with an impeccable safety record and had been expected to retire this year. Another media outlet, Jimu News identified the less experienced second officer as Ni Gongtao, 27.

China Eastern did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the reports.

(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Ryan Woo, Stella Qiu, Ella Cao and Xiaoyu Yin in Beijing and David Shepardson in Washington; Writing by Jamie Freed and Tony Munroe; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel)
The city of Orlando is hosting a job fair to hire for public works positions on Friday.

The skilled trades hiring event is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Amway Center.

The city said qualified applicants will have the opportunity to be interviewed and receive a conditional job offer during the event.

Officials said there are several positions available for all experience levels, with pay rates ranging from $15 per hour to $26 per hour, depending on the position.

READ: Hank Williams Jrs wife Mary Jane Thomas dies in Florida

Needed positions include:

Automotive Technician

Electrician

Equipment Operator - Heavy

Equipment Operator - Light

Heavy Equipment Technician

Lift Station Operator

Mechanic - Industrial

Sanitation Equipment Operator - Automated

Sanitation Equipment Operator - Commercial

Utility Service Worker

Wastewater Technician

READ: Is there a gas stimulus check coming? State gas tax holidays are more likely

Attendees are encouraged to apply online at orlando.gov/jobs before the event.

Complimentary parking is available in Geico Garage, 400 W. South St.

READ: Jeopardy! contestants apologize after guessing Diana Ross was 95 years old

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
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
Senate Confirmation Hearing For Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson

Ketanji Brown Jackson during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Credit - Julia Nikhinson/Bloomberg Getty Images

Ketanji Brown Jacksons Supreme Court confirmation hearings were historic, grueling, and at times combative between Senators. Now, what a handful of Republicans make of her answers during more than 22 hours of questioning will determine whether the first Black woman is confirmed to the Supreme Court with bipartisan support.

Jackson still needs to be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is set to vote on her on April 4th. Yet many eyes are already turning to the full Senate vote that would follow shortly after. Democrats narrowly control the Senate and can confirm Jackson without any Republican votes. But Republican votes for Jacksons confirmation could be a much needed win for President Joe Biden, and several Democratic Senators tell TIME that they feel optimistic that shes garnered that support.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut on the Judiciary Committee, told TIME Thursday he thinks my colleagues on the Republican side have been impressed by her and expects there will be some who vote to confirm her to the high court. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, also says that he thinks Jackson will be confirmed with bipartisan support and said hes actively speaking with Republican colleagues about her.

Former Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama, Jacksons White House appointed sherpa who has been guiding her around the Hill to private meetings with Senators, told reporters Thursday: Look, were going to get some GOP support, adding well see about how many Republican votes he expects.

Read More: What Ketanji Brown Jackson Could Bring to the Supreme Court

Jackson has already appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee three times before this weeks hearings, and she was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court with bipartisan support just last year. Three Republican Senators voted for her to join the appellate bench: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

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It appears that Graham is unlikely to vote for her this time. I thought she was qualified to be on the Circuit Court. This is a different game, Graham told NBC News Thursday. She could make policy now. Graham, a committee member, fiercely questioned Jackson on her child porn sentencing record after Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, alleged she sentenced offenders to prison time shorter than what federal guidelines recommended. Jackson strongly refuted the characterization, and the White House called the accusation a QAnon-signaling smear.

Collins and Murkowski have not indicated as clearly where they stand on the judge. When asked by TIME if shes been following the hearings, Collins said that she had been, but because her own schedule has been extremely busy shes had her staff assemble a lot of excerpts that she plans to review over the weekend.

In an interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, Murkowski said that Jacksons child porn sentencing record is worth looking into but said shed like to determine whether or not it was a pattern before she decides whether it should impact her vote. If it really is a pattern, thats something I think we should be paying attention to. If it is an issue of  one-offs that have been hyped into more than that, I think thats something we need to try to discern, Murkowski said.

Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, didnt vote to confirm Jackson to the D.C. Circuit but has broken with his party on major votes in the past. When asked by TIME on Thursday if he had thoughts on the judges confirmation hearings, he said hes not watching but will make a review this weekend. In an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, Romney said that the attacks that came from some on the committee were off course and there is no there there.

Collins met with Jackson on March 8, and Jones said Thursday that Murkowski had also already met with the judge. Romney is expected to meet with her next week.

While Democrats have telegraphed optimism that bipartisan support for Jackson is a possibility, Republicans say theyre less sure. Those discussions are ongoing, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told TIME. I dont know if any Republicans will vote to confirm. Hawley also says he doesnt know, adding that people are going to think it over.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, says that he hasnt heard of any Republican whos a yes. Yet he also told TIME that he thinks therell probably be maybe one or two Republicans. When asked who, he said, You can probably guess.

According to the Washington Post, 40 Democrats and one independent have already pledged to support Jacksons confirmation should it come to a floor vote, and 11 Republicans have said they will oppose it, including their Senate leader Mitch McConnell. As of now, moderate Democrats such as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizonawho have broken with their party on key legislative votes over the past yearhave not indicated that they were leaning against confirming the judge, and both voted to confirm her last year.

For now, Democrats say theyre hopeful, but not certain. I think so, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a committee member from California, says about whether Jackson will get any Republican votes. Lets wait and see. I dont want to jinx it.
George Bratsenis, a serial bank robber from Stamford and one-time strong arm man for the mob, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty in federal court Thursday to taking thousands of dollars for carrying out a political murder-for-hire in New Jersey.

Bratsenis, 73, admitted he took what federal prosecutors described as thousands of dollars in cash from well-known New Jersey political operative Sean Caddle in return for killing Michael Galdieri, another political operator who had worked with Caddle in the past.

New Jersey authorities, who have been building the murder case for months, have been silent about a motive. And Bratsenis, balding with close cropped white hair and a matching beard, revealed nothing new Thursday.

He appeared in court in Newark through a video connection from the prison where he is being held and answered, simply Yes, your honor when asked repeatedly if he understood the legal ramifications of admitting to a murder. When it was over, he told U.S. District Judge John Vasquez, You all have a nice day. Take it easy.

In response to questions from the prosecution, Bratsenis admitted that he traveled from Connecticut to New Jersey where he met Caddle on April 20, 2014 and agreed to the murder. Two days later, he acknowledged that he and Bomani Africa, a bank robbery partner from Philadelphia who he met in a New Jersey prison, returned to New Jersey, where they stabbed Galdleri to death in his Jersey City apartment and lit it on fire.

He said Caddle paid him the day after the murder at a diner in Elizabeth, N.J., and he later split the fee with Africa.

Caddle and Africa pleaded guilty to the murder for hire conspiracy, Caddle last year and Africa earlier this year.

This defendant conspired in the ultimate crime  murder for money, FBI Newark Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. said in a release. Those who devalue life  whether out of greed or animus  need to know that the FBI is dedicated to keeping our citizens safe, and nothing will stop us from accomplishing that mission. When you break the law, you will be brought to justice no matter how long it takes.

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Bratsenis, who has spent most of his life in prison on convictions for crimes that include bank robbery and murder, was told Thursday he could spend the rest of it there because he faces a sentence of mandatory life when he returns to court for sentencing on Aug. 2.

Bratsenis built a notorious criminal resume in the 1970s and 80s, after graduating from Stamford High School in 1966 and fighting as a tunnel rat in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Marine Corp. from 1968 to 1972.

After the military, Bratsenis began doing strong arm work for the Gambino crime family, which was a criminal force in the southwest corner of the state and had penetrated the Stamford Police Department, according to federal prosecutors and others.

In 1984, he was charged in a conspiracy with then Stamford police Lt. Lawrence Hogan to murder drug dealer David the Turk Avnayim.

Bratsenis often partnered with Louis Trigger Lou Sclafani, another mob-connected hoodlum  until Sclafani joined the federal witness protection program and turned on him, the prosecutors and other lawyers said. Sclafani was relocated, made millions of dollars in the trash industry and was named man of the year in the new city where he was settled, according to two lawyers who remained in contact with him.

Sclafani was a key government witness against Bratsenis at a 1980s trial when Bratsenis was charged with a variety of felonies, including bank robbery and the conspiracy to kill the Turk. Under cross examination, Sclafani conceded he would not hesitate to lie under oath if he could save himself. Bratsenis was convicted anyway and sentenced to decades in prison.

After serving his Connecticut sentence, Bretsanis was transferred to a New Jersey prison to serve time there for crimes committed there. Genesis of the murder-for-hire could lie in the New Jersey prison.

He was confined for more than three years with Caddles brother, James Caddle, at the Northern State Prison in Newark, according to state corrections department records. James Caddle was in prison on kidnapping, burglary and robbery convictions.

Bratsenis and Africa also met in the New Jersey prison system, according to the Connecticut records. Africa, 61, formerly known as Baxter Randolf Keys, is from Philadelphia.

Bratsenis was incarcerated for a bank robbery conviction and Africa was incarcerated for a robbery conviction, a 2016 prosecution memo filed by the U.S. Attorneys office in New Haven says. From 1999 through 2006, Bratsenis and Africa were both assigned to Block 2C, eight cells apart in cells 32 and 40.

It was while they were together in prison that Bratsenis and Africa agreed to rob banks together when they got out, according to the memo.

Bratsenis and Africa pulled two bank jobs in Fairfield County in 2014, after they were released. Galdieris murder took place between the two.

Bratsenis was arrested after the second bank robbery when local police learned that a white pick-up truck spotted by a bank robbery suspect was owned by his sister. When questioned, she acknowledged owning the truck, but said it was being driven by her brother George, who had recently been released from prison after serving 27 years for bank robberies.

The police spotted Bratsenis driving the truck, pulled him over and searched it. Among other things, they found a mask used in one of the bank robberies, a half dozen hundred dollar bills, and a long-blade butchers knife.
Conor McGregor was arrested on Tuesday for alleged dangerous driving while driving his Bentley Continental GT on a motorway in Dublin.

The UFC superstar was pulled over by Gardai while thought to be travelling to the gym between Lucan and Palmerstown on the N4.

The 33-year-old was charged with dangerous driving and is now due to appear at Blanchardstown District Court next month.

His 140,000 supercar was seized but has since been returned, according to the Irish Independent.

A spokeswoman for McGregor said: Mr. McGregor was driving to the gym when he was stopped by Gardai for alleged road traffic violations. He passed the drug and alcohol tests taken at the station.

While a Garda spokesman confirmed that a man was arrested in relation to the incident and taken to Lucan Garda Station before later being released.

A statement read: Gardai arrested a man aged in his 30s in relation to an incident of dangerous driving in the Palmerstown area yesterday evening, Tuesday 22nd March 2022.

The man was taken to Lucan Garda Station where he was later charged. He has been released pending an appearance before Blanchardstown District Court at a later date.

The 33-year-old, currently recovering from injury sustained in his defeat to Dustin Poirier last year, has previous road traffic convictions.

McGregor previously appeared in court in 2017 and was fined 400 for speeding.

The former champion has been seen in his Bentley Continental GT outside the Black Forge Inn, the Crumlin pub which he owns after purchasing it in 2019 for 2m.
By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) - A booster dose of vaccine against COVID-19 continues to provide robust protection against hospitalisation for older people nearly four months after getting the third dose, new data from the UK's Health Security Agency on Thursday showed.

Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation for people aged over 65, 15 weeks after a booster, was 85%, down from 91% two weeks after getting the third dose, the latest vaccine surveillance report from the agency estimated.

The data is the first released by the UK on the longer term durability of boosters. The UK is administering fourth doses to vulnerable age groups, joining a number of other countries including Israel as the world fights the more infectious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Fourth doses will be given six months after the third dose and a wider campaign is being considered for the autumn.

The report attempts to distinguish between people who were hospitalised because of COVID and those who were in hospital with an illness and test positive as part of routine checks.

The figures come from its calculations regarding people who are in hospital primarily because of respiratory problems, which suggests their admission is more likely to be COVID-related.

For people aged 18-64, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation appears to show a steeper drop - to 67% after 15 weeks, compared with 88% two weeks after the dose.

But UKHSA said this was likely to be because younger people were more likely to be in hospital for another reason and also have COVID, skewing the numbers to make the vaccines seem less effective.

However, the report reiterated that protection against symptomatic disease falls much more dramatically for all groups: from around 60 to 75% effectiveness two to four weeks after a booster, to between 25-40% after 15 weeks.

The UK has mainly administered vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. The booster programme, which started in September, has used Pfizer and Moderna's shots.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Josephine Mason and Grant McCool)
The Biden administration has promised to go after those who may have abused federal financial assistance during the pandemic, and charter schools could be one of the industries under scrutiny.

The publicly funded but privately operated schools that teach a fraction of U.S. children obtained more than $1 billion in forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans designed to help struggling small businesses during the pandemic.

A USA TODAY investigation found more than 1,100 U.S. charter schools had those loans forgiven, but 93% of them may not have needed the money because they were in states that continued to fund their operations at the same level as before the pandemic, or at even higher levels in some cases.

The loan program had enough leeway to allow small businesses, including charter schools, to qualify without showing any financial need. Federal regulations only required businesses seeking the loans to say they faced "economic uncertainty" and the money was necessary to support ongoing operations.

USA TODAY CHARTER SCHOOL INVESTIGATION: Taxpayers covered $28M in PPP loans for KIPP Foundation's charter schools despite its $75M in assets

'THE ETHICAL THING TO DO': Why this small San Diego charter school passed on COVID PPP loans

America's flush charter schools received at least a $1 billion windfall during the pandemic from the Paycheck Protection Program.

A congresswoman and fiscal watchdogs are calling upon the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which administered the loan forgiveness program, to claw back some of that money.

Charter schools' PPP loans

USA TODAY examined documents from the Internal Revenue Service, SBA, state Departments of Education and charter schools, and interviewed dozens of people, including education experts and watchdogs to find:

The range of forgiven loans for 1,139 charter schools in 37 states was $150,746 to $9.8 million.

Some charter schools used the money to increase savings accounts or, in one case, hand millions of dollars to an investor.

A small San Diego charter chain that serves low-income children turned down a $3 million PPP loan, saying taking the money was unethical because California cut no funding to public schools.

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One California charter chain obtained $32.7 million in PPP loans by using 12 separate nonprofit companies that are linked to different schools to get the money. All of the loans were sent to the same address in Lancaster. The chain, Learn4Life, denied any wrongdoing.

KIPP, one of the largest charter chains in the country, saw its bottom line swell by $27 million in fiscal 2020. However, 14 of its affiliate organizations across the country had $28.4 million in PPP loans forgiven. KIPP said its affiliates had additional financial needs.

Have a tip on business or investigative stories? Reach the reporter at craig.harris@usatoday.com or 602-509-3613 or on Twitter @CraigHarrisUSAT or linkedin.com/in/craig-harris-70024030/

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Charter schools and PPP loans: Critics want pandemic funds repaid
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) has a major edge over other platforms, according to MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Lisa Ellis.

"Coinbase is a very unique one-of-a-kind asset providing the infrastructure layer for the crypto economy," Ellis said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "So, you don't have to believe in any particular application of crypto. It can be trading and investing. It can be payments, it can be [non-fungible tokens] NFTs. It can be cross-border transactions."

MoffettNathanson has a 'Buy' rating for the stock and a price target of $600 per share  the highest price target for Coinbase on Wall Street.

In Ellis's opinion, Coinbase is the "leading Western regulated on-ramp and off-ramp into the crypto economy" with more than 160 digital coins on the platform.

"It provides that critical process of helping consumers and businesses migrate between the traditional world, our real world, and the crypto world," Ellis added. "And as in a stock, it's a very unique, one-of-a-kind asset, getting in on the ground floor of one of the most transformational technologies over the next decade."

'An extraordinarily attractive entry point'

Part of the attraction of Coinbase stock right now is its valuation, according to Ellis.

"It's trading right now at literally only less than five times forward revenues, which to put that in perspective: That's about half the valuation of a stock like Shopify, for example, another very popular growth stock," Ellis said. "It's an extraordinarily attractive entry point into this name."

Attendees line up for the Coinbase ferris wheel during 2021 Made In America on September 04, 2021, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

Meanwhile, the underlying cryptocurrencies traded on Coinbase have been in the headlines since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the ever-volatile bitcoin (BTC-USD) in demand in Russia and beyond.

The debate continues on whether bitcoin is a "safe haven" or a risky investment. Some crypto aficionados see bitcoin as "digital gold," a handy place to store cash during times of uncertainty, while others note that the digital currency has been behaving more like risk-on assets amid the current Federal Reserve rate hike cycle.

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The 90-day correlation between bitcoin and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) reached a new 17-month high on Friday, surpassing the February 22nd high, according to data from Arcane Research.

However, according to Arcane's weekly newsletter, "bitcoins correlation to the S&P 500 has only been higher for five days in BTCs history, showing that the current correlation regime is unprecedented in BTCs history."

In either case, the growing interest in digital assets has led to a wide range of platforms offering investors the ability to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies.

"The visible plethora of cryptocurrency exchanges stirs up competitive questions: who are all these different cryptocurrency exchanges, and how is Coinbase differentiated?" Ellis wrote in a note to her clients last month.

We continue to believe that Coinbase occupies a unique, strong competitive position among a wide range of crypto-native competitors due to its differentiated consumer brand, regulatory sophistication, and global scale, she continued. We believe these factors should enable Coinbase to maintain market share and expand into new businesses.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

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Mar. 24The 11th annual Berks Women2Women conference and expo has been set for April 20.

Women2Women is a special program of the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance that focuses on developing women leaders and connecting women from diverse backgrounds to learn, share ideas and mentor each other.

The annual conference and expo will be held at Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading from 7:30 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. The event will feature speakers Ty Muse, president and CEO of VISIONS Federal Credit Union, and Molly Arborgast, owner and founder of POV Sports Marketing.

The event will also serve as an opportunity to honor the winner of the chamber alliance's 2022 ATHENA Award, Christi Terefenko. Terefenko is the executive director and a co-founder of VOiCEup Berks, a nonprofit that seeks to connect people to meaningful volunteer and service-learning opportunities.

The conference will also include three break-out sessions featuring different speakers.

For more information or to register visit berkswomen2women.com.
Tori Cannella says she was dress coded during a recent trip to Disney World. (Images via TikTok/Toragrams)

A woman claims she was forced to accept a free T-shirt at Disney World after her outfit was deemed inappropriate by park staff.

Tori Cannella was visiting the "most magical place on Earth" in a black crop top sweater and a pair of denim cutoff shorts when she was allegedly informed that her outfit was against the parks dress code, and given a free T-shirt to cover up with.

Cannella documented the experience in a now viral video which was uploaded to TikTok earlier this week. In the video, the 23-year-old is escorted by park staff to receive a yellow T-shirt to wear instead of her lace-up crop top.

The video included text that said, "So yeah, just experienced getting dress coded at Disney."

"I mean, I kinda agree with them looking back at this video," she captioned the video, which has received more than 7.1 million views.

According to the dress code page on the Disney World website, the park reserves the right to deny admission to or remove any person wearing attire that is considered inappropriate or attire that could detract from the experience of other guests.

Guests are also prohibited from wearing clothing displaying offensive messages, adult costumes, or items made from offensive material including transparent clothing or garments which exposes inappropriate portions of the body such as string bikini tops, G-strings, bikini bottoms, etc.

The parks are a casual, family-oriented environment. Ensuring that the parks are family-friendly is an important part of the Disney experience. In that spirit, we ask you to use your discretion and common sense, the website adds.

Yahoo Canada has reached out to Disney for comment regarding the allegations made in Cannella's video.

Some viewers agreed with park staff that Cannella's attire was inappropriate, and cautioned her from wearing something so "revealing" around children.

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The top is cute but yall have to be mindful that theres little kids around and they probably shouldnt be seeing something so revealing, wrote one TikTok user.

I like the top but lets say you [are on] a roller coaster and there is wind or something, the last thing they want is the girl flashing kids," another said.

While Cannella didn't seem bothered by the incident, other viewers were upset that she would be confronted by staff for her attire in the first place.

I dont see anything wrong with your outfit? another user commented. Its hot in Florida?

Im sorry but they reached with this one. There is nothing wrong with your original top. Ive seen so much worse, writes someone else.

I used to work there, the rule is that your top cant have just a string to hold it together if that makes sense so thats why," an viewer claiming to be a former Disney employee said.

This isnt the first time a woman has gone viral for being dress-coded by amusement park staff. In June 2021, Alyssa Schueller from Ohio revealed she was also forced to accept a free T-shirt after her outfit was dubbed inappropriate.

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and sign up for our newsletter.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) fears China and Tesla CEO Elon Musk might be getting too close.

Musk  who's also CEO of aerospace company SpaceX  isn't necessarily to blame. Stewart believes China might try to steal incredibly innovative technologies from SpaceX via foreign suppliers and other means, possibly without the CEO's knowledge.

We know that they [China] can many times mask their intentions, the parties that are involved, and they're very, very effective at coming in through back doors, so to speak, Stewart, the third ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told Yahoo Finance Live this week.

Elon Musk poses with Tesla China-made Model 3 vehicle owners during a ceremony in Shanghai in 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Ting via Getty Images)

Stewart says he spoke directly with Musk about his concerns. The lawmaker is also seeking confidential briefings from the National Reconnaissance Office, the wing of the Defense department tasked with launching intelligence satellites and ensuring American security in space.

It would be reasonable for us to want to be assured and want to be secure and know what Elon Musk's companies and what their relationships with China might be, Stewart says. We just want to make sure that there's not technology transfer taking place.

The concerns, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, stem in part from Musks embrace of China largely on behalf of his electric vehicle company Tesla (TSLA). He has focused on the Chinese market for Tesla vehicles and has even appeared on Chinese state television as he works to get a stronger foothold there. Musk also took a $1.4 billion loan from Chinese banks for a Shanghai Tesla factory, which he says has been repaid.

The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure! I encourage people to visit and see for themselves.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2021

The relationship between Musk and China has been far from bump-free, though. Chinese officials recently complained to the UN that its space station had to take evasive actions in space to avoid satellites launched by SpaceXs Starlink project. Musk has also faced persistent recalls of Teslas in China  nearly 300,000 vehicles  over concerns about the cruise control system.

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We have no reason to believe that there's anything malicious

China also has interest in Teslas technology such as its batteries, but it's SpaceX that worries Stewart and other lawmakers the most. There have been covert efforts  which were eventually rebuffed  by Chinese operatives to gain access to SpaceX as a third party investor, according to Stewart.

We have no reason to believe that there's anything malicious taking place here, he says. We don't think that SpaceX wants or, in any way, would deliberately share their technology and in fact, they've been a good U.S. citizen here.

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk attends via video link a session at the China Development Forum held in Beijing, China March 20, 2021. REUTERS/Roxanne Liu

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL.) has also weighed in, recently introducing a bill to ban NASA and the Department of Commerce from working with companies that have suppliers with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

The United States should not sit idly while the CCP infiltrates American companies, steals our intellectual property, and exploits our domestically produced technology, Rubio has said in a statement.

SpaceX didnt respond to a Yahoo Finance request for comment on actions it's taking to protect its technology.

For his part, Stewart says he doesnt believe new legislation will necessarily resolve his concerns.

We have to be persistent in our oversight and in our expectation that China is going to do everything they can and they're not going to try once and just give up," he said. "They're going to try again and again and again.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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(This Mar.24 story corrects to change reference to Ahmed Harif in paragraph 17 to Ahmed, to conform with Ethiopian naming style)

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's government on Thursday declared an immediate, unilateral truce in its conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces to allow aid into the northern province, although it was not clear how it would enforce it.

"The government of Ethiopia hopes that this truce will substantially improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and pave the way for the resolution of the conflict in northern Ethiopia without further bloodshed," the government said in a statement.

The United Nations has said more than 90% of the 5.5 million Tigrayans need food aid.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "hopes that this truce will translate into an effective cessation of hostilities, respected by all parties in this conflict, to allow for effective humanitarian access for all who need it," a U.N. spokesperson said.

The 16-month-old conflict has pitted Tigray's rulers  the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - against the central government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The U.S. State Department welcomed the news and said it strongly supported Ethiopia's commitment to work with humanitarian organisations "to expedite the unimpeded delivery of assistance to all those in need."

A spokesman for the Tigrayan forces did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement, which follows a visit by the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, to the capital Addis Ababa this week.

Ethiopia's government has always said aid is permitted into Tigray, but only a tiny trickle has entered since Ethiopian troops withdrew from Tigray at the end of June last year.

It was not immediately clear how the central government would enforce its edict on the battlefield, where a mix of regional fighters and volunteer militias have been fighting TPLF forces.

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Some convoys have been attacked and looted, others have been unable to get the necessary permission, and in November, local authorities in the region of Afar arrested more than 70 drivers contracted to deliver aid for the United Nations.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SECURITY CONSTRAINTS

Tigrayan leaders have blamed federal authorities and regional governments in Afar and Amhara for blocking aid into Tigray, accusations they deny.

The central government has said Tigrayan fighters have blocked the aid because they have invaded Afar, a neighbouring region along the only land route currently open into Tigray.

The United Nations humanitarian arm OCHA said no trucks have made it into Tigray since Dec. 15, citing administrative as well as security constraints.

OCHA said the aid effort is hampered by a lack of funds, supplies and partners.

This week a U.N. convoy that tried to reach several towns under government control in Afar was stoned, the drivers beaten and the food stolen, according to three aid workers.

Afar police commissioner Ahmed Harif said the aid convoy had been looted by local people because of a misunderstanding over where the aid was going.

Ahmed denied ever blocking aid and said ongoing fighting along the border between two regions made delivering aid impossible.

Tigrayan forces first invaded Afar in July but were pushed back in December. They returned in January, seizing several areas along the road into Tigray  areas they still hold  and displacing more than 300,000 Afar residents.

Amhara regional spokesman Gizachew Muluneh also denied the regional government had ever blocked aid routes and said his administration would not oppose a truce as long as Tigrayan forces abandoned certain disputed border areas.

"If they leave these areas the routes will be opened," Gizachew told Reuters.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw and Giulia Paravicini; Writing by Katharine Houreld and Hereward Holland; Editing by Alison Williams, Nick Macfie, Alexandra Hudson)
By Andreas Rinke, Kate Abnett and Jarrett Renshaw

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union and United States are set to unveil a deal on Friday to supply Europe with more U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG), sources told Reuters, as the European bloc seeks to quickly curb its reliance on Russian fossil fuels.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe's top gas supplier, pushed already-high energy prices to records and has prompted the EU to pledge to cut Russian gas use by two thirds this year, by hiking imports from other countries and quickly expanding renewable energy.

President Joe Biden, who attended the EU leaders summit in Brussels on Thursday, promised the United States would deliver at least 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) more LNG to Europe this year than planned before, sources familiar with the matter said.

One of the sources added the deal would also include higher U.S. LNG exports to the EU in 2023.

But since U.S. LNG plants are already producing LNG at full capacity, analysts said most of the additional gas going to Europe would have to come from exports that would have gone to other parts of the world.

"We expect near-term measures to support European LNG imports to rely on the reallocation of existing supply," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a report, noting "such a relocation to Europe is already happening" because European gas prices have in recent months mostly been the highest in the world.

Jason Feer, global head of business intelligence at Poten & Partners, an energy and shipping consultancy, said there was a little new LNG export capacity expected to enter service in the United States this year.

"But almost all of it in the U.S. already belongs to somebody. It is under contract," Feer said, noting "If Europe wants more LNG, they are going to have to pay for it."

Russia is the EU's top gas supplier, sending a total 155 bcm of gas to the EU in 2021. Most of that came through pipelines and 15 bcm was LNG.

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U.S. LNG exports to the EU topped 22 bcm last year. U.S. exporters have shipped record volumes of LNG to Europe for three consecutive months, as prices there have jumped to more than 10 times higher than a year ago, with buyers in Europe and Asia competing for tight supply.

Moscow on Wednesday said "unfriendly" countries, including EU member states, must start paying in roubles for Russian oil and gas. This heightened concerns of potential disruptions to Europe's gas supply.

On Thursday, some EU leaders said the demand was at odds with supply contracts.

"There are fixed contracts everywhere, with the currency in which the deliveries are to be paid being part of these contracts," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. "In most cases it says euros or dollars, this is the basis we are working on."

"Nobody will pay in roubles," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said.

JOINT GAS PURCHASING

EU leaders are due to agree on Friday, the second day of their summit, to "work together on the joint purchase of gas, LNG and hydrogen" ahead of next winter, and coordinate filling gas storage, according to their draft decision, seen by Reuters.

Those moves are aimed at building up a supply buffer of non-Russian gas. The EU's executive European Commission would lead negotiations pooling demand and seeking gas, following a model the bloc used to buy COVID-19 vaccines.

Countries remain divided, however, on whether to sanction Russian oil and gas directly, a move already taken by the United States. An EU embargo would require unanimous approval from all 27 member states.

Latvia and Poland are among those seeking to halt the hundreds of millions of euros per day Europe pays Russia for fossil fuels.

"Energy sanctions are a way to stop money flowing into (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war coffers," Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Karins said. "The most logical place to move forward is in oil and coal."

Germany, which receives 18% of Russia's gas exports, and Hungary are among those opposed, citing the economic damage an oil embargo would unleash.

Spain, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Portugal proposed energy price caps and decoupling the price of electricity and gas, to rein in consumer bills.

Other countries warn capping wholesale prices would cause problems and undermine efforts to shift to green energy. Any EU-wide decisions are likely to be delayed until a report due this month from energy regulators on EU electricity market reforms.

EU countries are largely responsible for their own energy policies. Governments have already poured billions into national tax cuts and subsidies to curb soaring energy bills.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; additional reporting by Sabine Suiebold, Bart Meijer, Marine Strauss, Bart Meijer, Marcy de Luna and Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Chalmers, Kirsten Donovan, Gabriela Baczynska and David Gregorio)
(Reuters) -The European Medicines Agency on Thursday recommended the use of AstraZeneca Plc's antibody drug for preventing COVID-19 infections at a time the region faces an increase in cases and stagnation in adult vaccinations.

The EMA said the drug, Evusheld, should be used in adults and adolescents above the age of 12 who were not exposed to the virus.

In comparison, other antibody drugs made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, Eli Lilly and Co, and partners GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology have already been approved to treat COVID-19 patients.

Regeneron's antibody drug has been approved in Europe to also prevent COVID-19 infections.

AstraZeneca's COVID drug could be used for preventing infections in people whose immune system is too weak to respond to vaccines, helping ease the pandemic burden on healthcare systems.

While vaccines rely on an intact immune system to develop targeted antibodies and infection-fighting cells, Evusheld contains lab-made antibodies designed to linger in the body for months to contain the virus in case of an infection.

Infections in Europe are on a sharp rise again this month, with the adult vaccination rate stagnating at a little over 83%.

AstraZeneca said on Monday that Evusheld retained neutralising activity against Omicron coronavirus variants, including the highly contagious BA.2 sub-variant, in an independent lab study.

The therapy was found to cut the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77% in trials, with protection lasting for at least six months. It has also been shown to prevent disease progression when given soon after infection.

Reuters reported on the EMA decision on Wednesday, which is expected to be swiftly followed by a confirmation by the European Commission.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Wednesday that will return some of a record budget surplus back to Georgia taxpayers.

House Bill 1302 will give a $250 refund to single filers, $375 to single adults who head a household with dependents and $500 to married couples filing jointly. The refund will only be paid to people who filed tax returns for both the 2020 and 2021 tax years.

In brief remarks as he signed the bill, Kemp saluted lawmakers for agreeing to this great relief that were fixing to get hard working Georgians, returning over a billion dollars of their hard earned money that quite honestly, we didnt need this year.

The income tax refunds had originally been estimated to cost $1.6 billion, but that amount was revised down to $1.1 billion in a March 9 estimate.

Here is everything you need to know about the refund:

What is the HB 1302 Tax Refund?

HB 1302 allows Georgia taxpayers a refund of some or all of the 2020 income taxes due. The Georgia General Assembly recently passed, and Governor Kemp signed, legislation allowing for an additional refund of income taxes from 2020 because the state has experienced a revenue surplus.

How do I know how much I might receive from this refund?

Please refer to your 2020 income tax return. If you filed a Form 500, the amount will be based on your tax liability listed on line 16. If you filed using Form 500EZ, the amount will be based on your tax liability listed on line 4. Tax liability is the amount of tax owed on the return before credit for any withholding, tax credits or other tax payments. Remember, you will not receive more than the maximums listed below.

What is the maximum I can receive for this refund?

It depends on your filing status. Single filers and married individuals who file separately could receive a maximum refund of $250. Head of Household filers could receive a maximum refund of $375. Married individuals who file joint returns could receive a maximum refund of $500.

Example: A Single taxpayer filed a timely 2020 income tax return with a tax liability of $300. The taxpayer filed a timely 2021 return and would be eligible to receive a refund of 2020 taxes in the amount of $250. HB 1302 only allows a maximum refund of $250 for Single filers.

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What if my tax liability was less than these amounts in 2020, do I still get the maximum amount?

No, if you owed less than the maximum amounts listed above, you will only receive a refund for the amount of your actual tax liability.

Example: A Single taxpayer filed a timely 2020 income tax return with a tax liability of $200. The taxpayer filed a timely 2021 return and is eligible to receive a refund of 2020 taxes in the amount of $200. Although the maximum allowable refund is $250 for taxpayers who file Single, the taxpayer cannot receive a refund of more than the actual tax liability of $200.

What do I need to do to qualify?

You need to have filed your 2020 return and your 2021 return by the deadline for filing the 2021 return (including any extension granted by the Department of Revenue).

Whos eligible for the tax refund?

Any Georgian who was a full-year resident in 2020 and 2021 and who also filed a Georgia individual income tax return for 2020 and 2021 is eligible for the refund. Part-year filers who file individual tax returns for both years (2020 and 2021) will be eligible for a proportional refund equal to the maximum amounts based on filing status multiplied by the share of their income taxable in Georgia.

When will I receive this refund?

House Bill 1302 was signed into law by Governor Kemp on March 23, 2022, so some taxpayers may have already filed their 2021 returns. The Department of Revenue will attempt to include the HB 1302 refund along with other refund amounts due. For taxpayers whose 2021 returns have already been processed, the Department of Revenue will issue a separate refund.

I already filed my 2021 return and received my 2021 refund. What do I need to do to claim the H.B. 1302 Refund?

Nothing. The Department of Revenue will automatically update your account and will send the refund to your designated bank account or by check if you did not receive your most recent refund by direct deposit to a designated bank account.

I was a dependent during the 2020 tax year but filed a 2021 return. Do I receive an H.B. 1302 refund?

No, even though you filed a 2021 return, HB 1302 does not allow individuals who were dependents on another individuals return in 2020 to receive a refund for these amounts.

Do part-year residents and taxable nonresidents qualify?

Yes, but the refunds will be prorated in the same manner as tax liabilities are prorated for such taxpayers.

I filed my return using an ITIN number rather than a Social Security Number. Do I qualify to receive this refund?

Maybe. Taxpayers who utilized an ITIN number on their 2020 return will receive a letter from the Department requesting additional information to determine if they qualify. This letter will be sent to Single, Heads of Household, and Married Filing Joint if the return is filed under an ITIN, including Married Filing Joint where only one individual of the joint return uses an ITIN number.

What might reduce the amount of a refund?

Under HB 1302, any refund due would be subject to offset first against existing liabilities owed to the state. Any remaining amount will be refunded to the taxpayer. However, a refund may also be subject to set off debt collection or payments owed to the state such as delinquent child support payments.

Information from this article from the Georgia Department of Revenue. The Associated Press contributed to this article.

RELATED NEWS:
To reassure drivers worried about how the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning will handle real-world weather and roads, Ford engineers put a fleet of pre-production trucks through torture testing along an 8-mile strip of Interstate 70 in Colorado.

Called the Ike Gauntlet, the roadway has a 7% grade and ascends to more than 11,000 feet above sea level.

This is the kind of grade for which you see signs warning of runaway trucks when brakes fail. Auto companies often refer to it as the world's toughest towing test.

Ford engineers aggressively tested the Lightning's towing and off-road capability in extreme temperatures to confirm that longtime customers, as well as new buyers attracted by the battery vehicle, can count on the truck in every circumstance.

AUTOMAKERS STRUGGLE TO KEEP WORKERS: Some don't make it past lunch on their first day

Torture testing, as it's called in the industry, makes all trucks tough, which means they're put through extreme conditions to withstand extreme abuse. Ford released details of the Lightning's tests Wednesday.

"We always knew the product was going to be tough and capable," Dapo Adewusi, vehicle engineering manager for Lightning, told the Free Press.

Ford engineers torture-tested the 2022 F-150 Lightning in Colorado. This image of a pre-production vehicle was taken in February 2022.

How tough?

The testing in Colorado included an 80-mile trip that started in Boulder and ended in Frisco, Ford said. Temperatures dropped to -2 Fahrenheit with two inches of snow while engineers tested the Lightning's 10,000-pound towing capacity.

Similarly, to test in hot weather, Ford engineers during summer 2021 took the Lightning to Arizona to tow across the Davis Dam, located on State Route 68 between Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam. The Lightning ascended from 550 feet elevation to 3,500 feet in 11.4 miles in desert temperatures reaching 118 degrees.

RECALL ALERT: Ford recalls 200,000+ F-150 trucks, SUVs over brake fluid leak

Other examples of truck torture testing conducted with Ford, Toyota and Ram trucks have included:

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Using driving robots to withstand more aggressive, repetitive punishment human bodies cannot.

Driving the mountains of Japan to the brutal four-by-four trails near Moab, Utah, through the blistering roads of Death Valley to the frigid roads of Alaska during the winter.

Soaking the trucks in salt and brine in humidity chambers to simulate 10 years of corrosion in six months

Engineers at Ford say five days of the testing equals 10 years or 150,000 miles of use. This is standard in the truck business and key to the sales of these profitable pickups.

SEE A SMALL CAR FOR SALE? GRAB IT: U.S. Auto market is flooded with SUVs

Engineers used to truck testing said even they were impressed:

"If you've ever driven a (gasoline) truck, towing, coming down a grade or up a grade, the engine is screaming at you," said Adewusi. "We have a tow/haul drive mode similar to (internal combustion) trucks. You hit the drive mode and the truck holds its speed coming down the grade. There's nothing screaming at you. It gets to the point where you think the unit is slowing down coming down a steep grade. Its so effective in maintaining your speed to ensure you are in control of the vehicle."

The experience, in some ways, feels "surreal" because it's so quiet and easy, he said.

All-electric technology changes the feel of everything, engineers told the Free Press.

Dapo Adewusi, vehicle engineering manager of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, is seen here in December 2021. He has been at the company two decades, most recently working on towing testing.

"This vehicle has an independent rear suspension optimized for this truck," Adewusi said.

"If you compare to gas, you notice the difference in the ride quality and how it absorbs road surfaces while you're pulling the trailer," he said, having worked on Ford truck programs for the past two decades.

Anthony Magagnoli, a human factors and lifestyle attributes engineer at Ford, told the Free Press that towing a 10,000 pound box trailer in a Lightning felt "effortless" going up a mountain.

"It's not just the effortless torque that comes from the electric motors, but the low centralized weight and independent rear suspension, combined with the power," he said. "Torque is simply the power that you feel when you hit the accelerator pedal."

What makes it effortless is having two electric motors working and the fact that the torque is available from 0 mph as opposed to a typical gas engine that needs to build up speed. All-electric vehicles have immediate acceleration.

Braking also allows for power regeneration, Magagnoli noted.

"You always have that power available from a low speed. It's all there immediately," Magagnoli said, pointing out that an internal combustion engine (also called ICE) needs to work up to a speed because the energy transfer is just different.

Worst-case wind resistance

Ford engineers also used a box trailer with a flat front that created a ton of wind resistance. The double-axle trailers measured 24 feet in length, with frontal areas of 60 square feet. By comparison, a boat or snowmobile will allow air to flow around them more easily. Ford wanted to test the worst-case towing.

Anthony Magagnoli, human factors and lifestyle attributes engineer at Ford Motor Co., analyzed towing testing for the all-electric 2022 F-150 Lightning in extreme conditions. He is seen here outside his home in Dexter, Mich., on Tuesday.

Ford learned more during off-road testing in Arizona and Colorado, Magagnoli said.

"The Lightning really shines on a loose surface, where you can make use of the power and kick up a lot of dirt. It feels like a rally car," said Magagnoli, who has raced sports cars professionally.

"It has independent rear suspension, a low center of gravity and immediate power," he said. "This is an F-Series pickup at the end of the day. We're not making any excuses for it being a battery electric vehicle. It's going to exceed expectations."

Remind buyers it's all OK

Oh, and the Ford engineer that made the cover of Time magazine? That was Linda Zhang, chief engineer of Lightning. She has been out in the sizzling and frigid temperatures right along with her team, they said.

"She's right there in the trenches with the rest of us, really hands-on with every aspect of the product," Magagnoli said. "When we've needed to react to things we've learned, the team has been, from my particular perspective, mind-bogglingly nimble for a company of our size. This team doesn't feel like a big company. I've seen things implemented and changed faster than you can fathom" for any major automaker.

Karl Brauer, executive analyst for the iseecars.com shopping site, said Ford has earned a reputation over the years for truck strength. It's to be expected, he said.

"You expect it but you also need to hear it to kind of prove your hopes and your suspicions correct," Brauer told the Free Press. "At the end of the day, the reason there are so many F-150s sold every year is because of their reputation of being productive work vehicles that get a whole lot done."

He added, "If you cant feel that same level of confidence and functionality in the electric version, thats going to have a big hit on its appeal to all those traditional F-150 buyers."

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ford F-150 Lightning: Torture tests aim to prove it's Ford-tough.
If you wear glasses, Amazon reviewers swear by these face masks (Photo via Amazon)

Yahoo Lifestyle Canada is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

Wearing a non-medical face mask does not replace hygiene standards or guarantee protection from COVID-19. You should still avoid touching your face, wash your hands frequently using warm water and soap and practice social distancing.

As parts of Canada shift into new phases of COVID-19 protocols, it's important to for Canadians to remember that it's still possible to contract the virus and become very ill  even if you're vaccinated.

Although provinces are beginning to lift mask restrictions, many people still aren't ready to give up wearing protective face coverings in public.

Earlier this month, Canadas deputy chief public health officer, Dr. Howard Njoo, said wearing a face mask is a personal choice under ones individual risk assessment."

Additionally, Dr. Theresa Tam, the countrys chief public health officer, recently urged Canadians not to stigmatize anyone who chooses to wear a mask even after restrictions are lifted.

Think about who you are with  maybe theyre at higher risk, so (have) that consideration for others," Tam said, reiterating that there are still people who remain vulnerable to COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Furthermore, masks are still required in several public settings depending on your local bylaws. In Ontario, for example, masks remain mandatory in healthcare settings, long-term care and retirement homes, public transit, congregate care settings, shelters and jails.

In several parts of Canada, masks remain mandatory in healthcare settings, long-term care and retirement homes. (Photo via Getty)

For Canadians eager to take advantage of the country's soon-to-be relaxed travel restrictions, you will still have to don a mask while inside airports and rail terminals, and while onboard planes and trains.

For those looking to stock up on face masks for spring, Amazon Canada is currently offering shoppers a 35 per cent discount on this 50-pack of medical masks. To take advantage of the deal, scroll below.

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Thinka Health Medical Masks 50-Pack (Photo via Amazon)

$13 $20 at Amazon

The details

These disposable face masks are sold in a pack of 50 and claim to be of surgical-grade quality, protecting against dust and droplet spread.

Each mask offers three layers of protection and features an aluminum strip nose-piece that easily adjusts to the wearer's face.

What people are saying

The 50-pack of disposable face masks has earned an average rating of 4.6 stars based on more than 8,400 customer reviews.

According to one reviewer who claims to be a health professional, the Thinka face masks are "better" than many other disposable medical masks.

These are level one face masks which are "procedural and suitable for daily wear," they say. They're "better" than many other masks used in non-COVID ward hospital settings.

Another shopper says they're the "best masks" you can buy online. Why? They "fit my face snugly" so that my glasses "do not fog up."

Thinka Health Medical Masks 50-Pack (Photo via Amazon)

$13 $20 at Amazon

They're a "great fit" for those who wear glasses, echos a third reviewer. The "best part for me" is being able to get a "snug fit" over the bridge of my nose to "reduce fogging up my glasses."

However, some shoppers say the masks are "scratchy and itchy."

I found the material "very rough" on the inner lining, says one reviewer.

They're a "good fit" but have a "rough material" on the inside, according to another.

Verdict

If you're on the lookout for a way to save and stock up on face masks, this Amazon deal might be for you. The disposable masks have been called a "great fit" for people who wear glasses, and according to some reviewers, they're the "best masks" you can buy online. However, some shoppers note the inner lining is "scratchy and itchy," something to keep in mind before heading to checkout.

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and sign up for our newsletter.
Lee Yong-soo, a woman who was subjected to sexual slavery during World War II under the Imperial Japanese Army, is demanding that the United Nations (UN) seek justice by asking Japan to formally apologize and take full responsibility.



After being inspired by Korean human rights activist Kim Hak-sun, Lee told her story to the world in 1992. She described having been dragged away from home at 16 and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army. Lee faced harrowing torture and abuse at a Japanese military brothel in Taiwan until the end of the war.



With the number of survivors declining, Lee believes that her recent plea to the UN may be her last hope in getting closure. Of the 239 women that registered with the Seoul government as victims, only 12 remain alive today.



Lee believes that the historical dispute between South Korea and Japan cannot be settled without the involvement of the UN and has been campaigning for the issue to be taken to the UNs International Court of Justice (ICJ) since last year.



The 93-year-old leads an international group of sexual slavery survivors and advocates and who sent a petition to the UN last week demanding that the organization take the issue to the ICJ.



The group asked South Korea to call for an arbitration of whether Tokyo has failed to comply with the 1984 Convention Against Torture by downplaying or failing to acknowledge their past war crimes, should Japan fail to jointly bring the case to the ICJ.



In 2015, the ministers of both South Korea and Japan reached an agreement that Japan would send 1 billion yen (approximately $8 million) to a South Korean fund that helps to support the survivors. Lee and the other survivors stated that the Seoul officials had not consulted with them in regards to the agreement, following controversial comments made by Japanese government leaders, leading them to question the sincerity of the gesture.



Japans Foreign Affairs Ministry has described recent lawsuits filed by the victims as being extremely regrettable and absolutely unacceptable, while urging Seoul to comply with the agreement that was settled in 2015. They also stated that their government had not found documents proving that sexual slavery had occured through force by Japans Imperial Army.



Lee expressed to the Associated Press office in Seoul that she would not stop fighting until the very end to receive justice.



Both South Korea and Japan keep waiting for us to die, but I will fight until the very end, Lee said. I think time has so far waited for me so that I can clench my teeth and do everything that I can to resolve this issue.

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Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

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FLORIDA  COVID-19 vaccine-maker Moderna said Wednesday that the pharmaceutical company's trials show its coronavirus vaccines are effective in babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The drug company will ask federal regulators to authorize use of its child-sized two-dose shots in children 6 and younger in Florida and nationwide.

Data from the trials show the vaccines are 44 percent effective in reducing serious disease and illness in young children.

Moderna said it plans to ask the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to grant emergency-use authorization of its child-sized vaccines and to allow the emergency use of a larger two-dose shot for older children and teens. Similar requests will be made to regulators in Europe, the company said.

Two things must occur before young children in Florida can start getting the shots:

The FDA must authorize the emergency use of the vaccine;

If that happens, the Centers for Disease Control must decide whether to recommend it.

The nations approximately 18 million children ages 6 months to 5 years  are the only age group not yet approved for COVID-19 vaccines. Health experts say young children are part of the COVID-19 chain and transmission, and getting shots in their arms will help reduce coronavirus rates in Florida and across the country.

This comes a month after Moderna competitor Pfizer paused its application seeking emergency authorization to offer toddler-sized doses to children under 5. The FDA said at the time it wanted more data on the efficacy of a three-dose series of the vaccine for children ages 6 months to 4 years.

A third dose "may provide a higher level of protection in this age group," the company said in a statement.

Pfizer already has received emergency use authorization for its kid-sized doses for school-age children and full-strength doses for those 12 and older.

Vaccinating the nations youngest children has been somewhat of a moving target over the last couple of months, Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, an investigator in Modernas pediatric studies, said in an interview with The Associated Press. Theres still, I think, a lingering urgency to try to get that done as soon as possible.

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Moderna said early data showed that two weeks after getting the two shots, 6,900 tots enrolled in its study showed youngsters developed virus-fighting antibody levels as strong as young adults getting its full-strength shots, the company said in a news release.

The only side effects, Moderna said, were mild fevers similar to those associated with other common pediatric vaccines.

Children dont generally get as sick with COVID-19 as to adults, but about 400 children younger than five have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to CDC data. Children were hit especially hard by the omicron variant, and children under 5 were hospitalized at higher rates than during the peak of the previous delta surge, according to the CDC.

New COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been trending downward as the third year of the pandemic begins and Americans learn to live with the virus. There are a couple of troubling signs, though.

First, stealth omicron, a variant within a variant known as BA.2, has made its way to the United States. Second, an extra-contagious delta-omicron hybrid, commonly called deltacron, may soon push up U.S. cases.

Also, COVID-19 vaccines in general fend dont fend off BA.2 as well as earlier variants, but do offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 illness, according to the CDC.

Scientists are keeping an eye on deltracron, which shows how wily the coronavirus can be. Dr. Eric Topol, the head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, told The Associated Press a deltacron wave is inevitable, especially now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted and Americans are returning maskless to restaurants, bars, sporting events and other indoor activities.

Florida set a new low last week with fewer than 35,000 residents receiving a COVID vaccine, NBC Miami reported, with about half of those getting their first shot. More than 5.4 million Floridians are unvaccinated, which makes them most vulnerable to BA.2.

The BA.2 strain is more transmissible but not more virulant than BA.1, PBS reported. This means that while BA.2 can spread faster than BA.1, it might not make people sicker.

Moderna conducted its trial during the omicron surge. There were no severe illnesses, and the vaccine was about 44 percent effective at preventing any infection in babies up to age 2, and nearly 38 percent effective in preschoolers.

Modernas request to expand shots to 12- to 17-year-olds has been stalled for months over FDA concern about a very rare side effect, an inflammation of the heart that sometimes occurs in teens and young adults, mostly males, after receiving either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

Moderna has gotten extra scrutiny because its dosages are far larger than Pfizers. The risk also seems to be linked to puberty, and regulators in Canada, Europe and elsewhere recently expanded Moderna vaccinations to kids as young as 6.

That concern has not been seen in the younger children, Northwesterns Muller told The AP.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on the St. Pete Patch
A former Boeing Co. test pilot was acquitted Wednesday on felony charges of deceiving federal regulators about a key flight-control system that played a role in two deadly crashes involving 737 Max jets.

A jury in federal district court in Fort Worth deliberated less than two hours before finding Mark Forkner not guilty on four counts of wire fraud.

Prosecutors accused Forkner of misleading Federal Aviation Administration regulators about the amount of training pilots would need to fly the Max. The FAA required only brief computer-based training for pilots instead of more extensive practice in simulators that could have cost Boeing up to $1 million per plane.

Defense lawyers said Boeing engineers did not tell Forkner about changes to the flight software, known by its acronym, MCAS. They told jurors that Forkner was a scapegoat for Boeing and FAA officials who sought to avoid blame after Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.

We are very grateful that this jury and judge were so smart, so fair, so independent, that they saw through it, defense attorney David Gerger said after the verdict.

The Justice Department did not comment immediately.

Testimony in the trial lasted less than three days, after jury selection and opening statements by lawyers Friday evening. Forkner did not testify. Judge Reed OConnor had instructed the jurors not to consider his silence as a sign of guilt or innocence. The defense called only one witness, a current Boeing pilot, who testified for about one hour.

Forkner was Boeings chief technical pilot for the 737 Max, giving him a key role in determining pilot-training requirements. Prosecutors tried to use Forkners internal messages to colleagues against him, particularly one in which he said he unknowingly misled regulators. He left the company in 2018, months before the first crash, then briefly worked at Southwest Airlines.
MADRID (Reuters) -Former Spanish King Juan Carlos could face trial in Britain in a harassment case brought against him by his former lover after the English High Court ruled on Thursday that he does not have the right to sovereign immunity.

Danish national Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein Sayn, who lives in Britain and has testified that she was romantically involved with the former monarch and received financial information and documents from him, alleged multiple acts of harassment between 2012 and 2020.

"If the case goes further, the Defendant will have an opportunity to defend the claims made against him and, ultimately, the Court will hear evidence and make a decision after a trial," the ruling read.

Law firm Clifford Chance, which is representing Juan Carlos in the case, said their client was "disappointed" with the court's decision and would decide whether or not to appeal after reviewing the judgement with his legal advisers.

The Royal Palace declined to comment. The former king has previously strongly denied what he calls "unsubstantiated allegations", as the court acknowledged.

Spanish and Swiss prosecutors recently dropped a series of investigations into alleged fraud by Juan Carlos, 84, who left Spain for the United Arab Emirates in August 2020 under a cloud of scandal and has lived there since.

The Spanish national prosecutor's office said Juan Carlos's constitutional immunity as a monarch would have protected him even if they could prove wrongdoing in the fraud cases.

Formerly revered for his role in Spain's transition to democracy, Juan Carlos was forced to abdicate in 2014 following a series of scandals including his affair with Sayn-Wittgenstein and is now seen as a liability for his son, King Felipe.

Despite the immunity in Spain, British judge Mr Justice Nicklin found there were no grounds for state immunity in the harassment case as it had no relation to governmental or sovereign activity, opening the door to a trial.

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The court ruling said no investigation into the harassment claim was carried out.

It was not immediately clear if Sayn-Wittgenstein would seek a trial, but her lawyer Robin Rathmell called the ruling "the first step on the road to justice".

"Today's judgment demonstrates that this defendant cannot hide behind position, power, or privilege to avoid this claim," Rathmell said in a statement.

(Reporting by Belen Carreno, Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro; Writing by Nathan Allen; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alexandra Hudson)
By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least four Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by militants in northwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan early on Thursday, the military said.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistan Taliban, which renewed an allegiance with the Taliban when the Islamist militant group took power in Afghanistan last August, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The militants tried to infiltrate Pakistan from Afghanistan in Hassan Khel area of North Waziristan district, Pakistani troops responded and foiled the attempt, the army said.

"Four soldiers were killed during the intense exchange of fire with the militants," the militarys media wing said in a statement on Thursday night.

Militants also suffered heavy casualties, the statement said, quoting intelligence reports, but independent confirmation was not immediately possible because the districts along the mountainous Afghan border are off limits to journalists and human rights organisations.

Last month, at least five Pakistani soldiers were killed at a border post in northwestern Kurram district in a cross-border militant attack from Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Gul Yousafzai; Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, writing by Raza Hassan; editing by Grant McCool)
President Joe Biden and other leaders of the world's major industrialized democracies pledged action on Thursday to address food shortages caused by Russia's war on Ukraine, a top concern for Middle Eastern and African nations that depend on supplies from both countries.

"We will make coherent use of all instruments and funding mechanisms to address food security, and build resilience in the agriculture sector in line with climate and environment goals," leaders of the G-7 group said in a statement after meeting in Brussels. "We will address potential agricultural production and trade disruptions, in particular in vulnerable countries."

The G-7, which consists of the U.S., Japan, Canada, the U.K., France, Germany and Italy, as well as the European Union, also pledged to provide Ukraine with "a sustainable food supply" and to help that country's farmers plant and harvest their crops in the face of severe shortages of fuel and fertilizers.

Ukraine normally is a leading producer of wheat, corn, sunflower oil and other crops. It's also a major provider to the U.N.'s World Food Program, the world's largest humanitarian organization focused on hunger and food security and the biggest international provider of school meals. Along with Russia, Ukraine is also a major supplier to many countries in the Middle East and Africa.

At a press conference in Brussels, Biden warned that the impending food shortages are "going to be real" and that he was talking with other countries about what the U.S., Canada and other major grain producers can do to help poorer countries. Biden said they discussed the need to end any export restrictions that European and other countries have imposed on their food supplies amid panic-buying and supply hoarding.

That could have been a reference to Hungary, which has halted shipments of wheat to other countries, much to the displeasure of the European Commission, the EU's executive body. However, even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's hoarding of grain was blamed for driving up prices and contributing to world hunger.

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The G-7 statement included a joint pledge to avoid export bans and other trade restrictions and to maintain open and transparent markets. It called on other countries to do the same, consistent with World Trade Organization rules, including WTO notification requirements for any exceptions.

While WTO rules broadly prohibit export bans and restrictions, they do allow members to apply them temporarily to prevent or relieve critical shortages of foodstuffs or other essential products. If members do restrict food exports temporarily, they are supposed to give due consideration to the food security needs of others.

The G-7 leaders promised to increase their collective contribution to the World Food Program and other relevant international institutions to help countries with acute food insecurity. They also called for an extraordinary session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization to address the consequences on world food security and agriculture arising from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In another move aimed at stemming food price increases, the G-7 leaders called on participants in the international Agriculture Market Information System to continue to share information and explore options to keep prices under control. That includes sharing information with the World Food Program about each country's level of grain stocks and other key commodities.
Mar. 24MIDLAND  Students from Legacy High School and Midland High School who are currently enrolled in Midland College dual credit Automotive Collision and Repair, Diesel Technology and Energy Technology courses won in several categories at the 2022 SKILLS USA district contests held on Feb. 25 and 26 in San Angelo.

These MC dual credit students brought home six gold medals, six silver medals and four bronze medals. In addition, six MC students placed in the top ten of the Automotive Tool Identification contest.

Gold and silver winners, as well as the six students who placed in the Automotive Tools contest will now compete at the state level.

 Diesel Technology Students: Riley Boren, Gold medals in Diesel and Automotive Maintenance & Light Repair; Mason Standard, Bronze medal in Diesel, Silver medal in Automotive Maintenance & Light Repair; Cayden Ruiz, Silver medal in Diesel; Rhett Pierce, competed in Diesel, Automotive Tool Identification, and Automotive Maintenance & Light Repair; Colin Koonce, competed in Diesel, Automotive Tool Identification, and Automotive Maintenance & Light Repair.

 Energy Technology Students: Jayden Villa, Gold medals in Mechatronics and Automotive Tool Identification; Pedro Rodriguez, Silver medals in Mechatronics and Automotive Tool Identification; Jayson Watkins, Gold medal in Mechatronics; Ariana Flores  Bronze medal in Mechatronics; Joshua Bygrave, Silver medal in Mechatronics; Samuel Gonzalez, Bronze medal in Mechatronics.

 Automotive Collision & Repair Students: Armando Nieto, Gold medal in Auto Refinishing & Blending Paint; Austyn Keys, Bronze medal in Auto Refinishing & Blending Paint; Colton Golden, Silver medal in Auto Collision Repair & MIG Welding.

"We are very proud of these students," Erick Gutierrez, Midland College Applied Technology associate professor, said. "They worked incredibly hard perfecting skills and refining projects. Their efforts were rewarded at the regional contest, and we look forward to showcasing our students' tremendous talent and skills at the state competition."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google urged a judge hearing a U.S. antitrust case against it to reject the Justice Department's request that it be sanctioned, saying it had not abused attorney-client privilege.

The department had asked Judge Amit Mehta to sanction Google, saying the company's "Communicate with Care" program was sometimes a "game" to shield communications that did not genuinely fall under attorney-client privilege.

In a filing dated Thursday, Google said that "allegations of sanctionable misconduct are baseless" and a misreading of a small number of slides used to train employees.

Google also said it was conferring with the government on which emails that are indicated as potentially falling under attorney-client privilege genuinely do. It said it had given the government some of the affected documents.

"Plaintiffs come nowhere close to proving the bad-faith misconduct that is required to strip a party of its privilege protections," Google said in its filing.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Google in 2020, accusing it of violating antitrust law in its handling of its search business. Trial was set for September 2023.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Mark Porter)
A key Senate committee advanced Gov. Bill Lee's legislative overhaul of Tennessee's school funding formula Wednesday, despite making substantial changes to the legislation.

The legislation, which cleared its first hurdle in the General Assembly a day earlier, introduces a new student-based funding formula, dubbed the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement.

TISA would allocate more than $9 billion in state and local funds toward education, including $1.8 billion for students with specific needs, such as those living in concentrated poverty or students with disabilities.

Though the legislation made major advances in the legislature this week, clearing two hurdles, it saw some of its first major revisions from lawmakers, and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn faced some of the toughest questions to date.

Key House hurdle: Gov. Bill Lee's education plan passes first hurdle in General Assembly

Five amendments to the bill were approved by members of the Senate Education Committee Wednesday, including provisions to grant the State Board of Education more authority in defining what "unique learning needs" should receive extra funding and removing charter students from the group of student subgroups that will be granted additional funding.

Both changes could hint at compromises the Lee administration has made with lawmakers and other stakeholder groups who have raised concerns about the additional funding allocated to charter school students and how 10 unique learning needs, known as weights, will be determined.

State will still bear the brunt of additional charter school costs

Funding for charter schools would now come entirely from the state, rather than through a combination of state and local funds under one of the amendments.

The change doesn't decrease the amount of money appropriated for charter schools.

The bill's sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said the change was in response to feedback and concerns.

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Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, during a special legislative session in October.

"We had feedback from some of our local stakeholders that were concerned about having that appropriation in a weight which makes it part of the base," Johnson explained in response to a question.

Local funding: How much will local communities contribute under the new education plan? It's complicated.

"In theory, if we, as a General Assembly, at some point wish to change that amount of money, it could have implications throughout the rest of the formula. And so by being in the direct funding component, if we want to put more money in there we can and it doesn't alter the rest of the formula."

But charter proponents, including the Tennessee Charter School Center, have argued the weighted funding allocation is necessary to make up for the inadequate funding the publicly funded but privately run schools receive across the state.

"Although Tennessees public charter schools are serving thousands of public school students, they do not have access to any local funding for school buildings and facilities like traditional schools do," Elizabeth Fiveash, chief policy officer for the center, said in a statement Wednesday. "Without adequate facilities funding, charter schools are forced to use operating dollars for facilities rather than devoting that funding for teachers and students."

Efforts to strengthen charter schools' ability to expand and have access to facilities have largely stalled in the legislature this year, with a bill that would allow charter schools to bypass local school boards now unlikely to advance this year.

Commissioner faces tough questions

Schwinn faced few questions from senators Wednesday  she already addressed members of the Senate education and finance committees during a joint hearing last week. But she did answer several from Sen. Joey Hensely, R-Hohenwald, including how the state came up with the $6,860 base per-student amount and how the state could guarantee money allocated for individual students are spent on that student.

"Let's say that there are 500 students at a school. We now know how much funding is generated for each of those students. So as a parent, you have that information, as a school, you know the aggregate of those students and certainly at a district level," Schwinn said.

Gov. Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn present a proposed new school funding formula called Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement at Tennessee state Capitol during a news conference in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022.

The commissioner fielded more pointed questioning on Tuesday in the House K-12 subcommittee, particularly from Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, and Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.

The subcommittee also heard public testimony on the bill. David Connor, executive director of the Tennessee County Services Association, said he wanted to address lawmakers about concerns from the county and metro governments TCSA represents.

Connor said he wasnt taking a pro or con position, but he hoped lawmakers would proceed with caution when considering such a major overhaul.

Connor said there are concerns some existing Basic Education Program problems arent addressed in the new TISA formula, including pathways to get real raises to teachers and guarding against monetizing students by incentivizing schools to overidentify children with certain needs.

"If you look at the BEP, one of the biggest complaints from the local government side is we don't feel like it funds all the positions. Depending on the year, there are 10,000 or 11,000 positions outside of the BEP that local school systems fund, Connor said. It takes a huge amount of money to cover all of those positions, and that's not entirely getting resolved under this.

State Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, in 2019.

Clemmons on Tuesday pushed Schwinn on whether local governments will be stuck with a higher bill at the end of the day, which Schwinn has denied.

"It seems like the biggest argument for passage of this is this is going to delay the inevitable, but the inevitable could be avoided if we could spend some time addressing the fundamental problems, Clemmons said.

But Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, the chair of the Senate Education Commission who was previously skeptical of the proposed formula and the legislation's timeline, praised it Wednesday.

"Over these eight weeks, in a great deal of discussion [and] dialogue, not only amongst ourselves, with the department and with our LEAs, I feel well satisfied that we have done well and put together a really solid plan," he said. "So I think we have done our due diligence."

Stay up-to-date on Tennessee's top education news by signing up for our new weekly newsletter, School Zone. Sign up here.

Want to read more stories like this? A subscription to one of our Tennessee publications gets you unlimited access to all the latest news throughout the entire USA TODAY Network.

Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network  Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.

Melissa Brown covers state government and politics. Reach her at mabrown@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee's proposed school funding plan advances despite scrutiny
Gov. Phil Murphy named five new candidates for the NJ Transit board and chose not to renominate one current member who has served for two years.

The governor nominated Carlos A. Medina, Kiabi Carson and Evan Weiss, who will be subject to Senate approval. Murphy also directly appointed Rashonda Brown and Karen Thomas.

"Carlos, Kiabi, Evan, Rashonda, and Karen are the right choices to join the NJ Transit board during this transformative time to ensure appropriate oversight and accountability as we continue to make key improvements," Murphy said in a statement. "Their diverse perspectives will serve as tremendous assets to benefit NJ Transit and New Jersey commuters.

James D. Adams, who has served on the NJ Transit board since February 2020, with the first wave of new members, was not reappointed by Murphy, a person in the governor's office confirmed.

"Adams' term expired at the end of 2020, but he continued to serve on the board as a holdover," said Natalie Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the governor.

Timing of the announcement

The news comes more than three years after Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law the NJ Transit reform bill, a cornerstone of which was to increase the size of the board for more accountability and representation of riders and experts.

The picks announced Thursday include a lawyer, a human resources expert whose company specializes in large-scale construction projects, a Newark nonprofit president, and two current NJ Transit employees.

It also comes just three months after the retirement of Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who co-authored the NJ Transit reform legislation (and a follow-up bill that hasn't made it out of committee) and led lengthy, contentious talks with the governor's office about the first wave of board picks, whom she played a critical role in advancing.

"I am happy that the board will be functioning with a full membership," Weinberg said. "I am profoundly sad that the governor has chosen to replace [Adams], who has shown such ability to represent the customers of NJ Transit and appropriately question the bureaucracy when necessary."

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During his tenure on the board, Adams voted against more agenda items than any other current member and asked detailed questions of agency officials in full board meetings and on the committees on which he served.

Adams most stood out for his repeated, solo "no" votes on NJ Transit's budget proposals.

Though it was merely symbolic  or, as he often said, "in good conscience"  it drew attention to the lack of board involvement in the agency's budget preparation and the governor's budget proposals. Both have perpetuated a decades-long practice of transferring millions of dollars out of the capital budget to fill gaps in the operating spending plan.

Here is an overview of the people Murphy announced Thursday.

Karen Thomas

Karen Thomas.

Thomas is a procurement processor at NJ Transit and has worked at the agency for 33 years. As a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents bus operators and other positions, she fills one of the non-voting labor union seats. Thomas also serves as chair of the Somerset County Commission on the Status of Women and is on the board of Court Appointed Special Advocates of Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties, a nonprofit that helps place abused and neglected children in safe homes.

I look forward to bringing new ideas and fresh perspective to the board while advocating for New Jerseys commuters, Thomas said in a statement.

Carlos A. Medina

Carlos Medina.

Medina is president and CEO of the New Jersey statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and president of Robinson Aerial Surveys Inc. He serves on the boards of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and formerly served on the board of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Having worked in the transportation industry for over 25 years, I am beyond honored to be considered for this fine board, Medina said in a statement.

Kiabi Carson

Kiabi Carson.

Carson oversees human resources for the North American region at Turner & Townsend, a global professional services company that specializes in projects across infrastructure, real estate and natural resources.

As a customer on the NJ Transit rail system since the '90s, my goal is to bring the passenger experience into the board conversation on how we best realize the mission of providing safe, reliable and affordable public transportation, Carson said in a statement.

Evan Weiss

Evan Weiss.

Weiss is president and CEO of Newark Alliance, a nonprofit focused on revitalizing Newark. He previously served as senior adviser for finance and major projects in the Murphy administration, which included leading the states financial review of the Gateway project.

I understand the gravity of this work, especially for New Jerseys cities, where safe and reliable transportation service is foundational for building economic opportunity for all New Jerseyans, said Weiss, who also noted in a statement that he is a lifelong transit bus and rail rider.

Rashonda Brown

Rashonda Brown

Brown has been an NJ Transit conductor and a member of SMART-TD Local 60 for 15 years. She represents one of the non-voting labor positions on the board.

I look forward to working hard to move New Jersey Transit forward and making it better for our commuters and employees, Brown said in a statement.

Board with history

The path to the NJ Transit board  and exit  has been rocky in recent years.

Months of backroom negotiations between Weinberg and the Murphy administration took place before four picks were appointed and approved by the Senate to the board. (And one of those members was not fully involved for three months after that because of a Woodrow Wilson-era conflict-of-interest law.

Two additional names were put forward by Murphy and Weinberg in 2020, but days before they were to appear before the Senate, the governor yanked their appointments for unknown reasons. Questions were raised about whether the governor's picks met the standards of the new law that required some members to be public transit users.

There also are no longer any non-voting labor representatives on the board. Ray Greaves, who represented bus drivers from the largest labor organization affiliated with NJ Transit, resigned from the board after he switched jobs with the union and was not replaced. David Rasmussen, who represented the union for train conductors, was appointed by Murphy in 2020 and resigned in July 2021 after he was arrested and charged with committing insurance fraud.

Currently, nine of the board's 13 seats are filled. They are:

Three ex-officio seats: the chair seat filled by the commissioner of the Department of Transportation, Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti; a representative from the Treasury Department; and a governor's representative, Noreen Giblin.

A seat filled by the Senate president. Sangeeta Doshi was chosen by former Senate President Steve Sweeney.

A seat filled by the Assembly speaker. Shanti Narra was chosen by Speaker Craig Coughlin.

Four seats appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate. They are: Adams, Cedrick Fulton, Bob Gordon and Richard Maroko.

If the three candidates are approved during the Senate process, the board will be fully staffed for the first time as the reform legislation of 2018 intended.

Colleen Wilson covers the Port Authority and NJ Transit for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering the regions transportation systems and how they affect your commute, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: cwilson2@gannettnj.com

Twitter: @colleenallreds

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Transit board candidates named by Phil Murphy
Mar. 23GRAND FORKS  The Grand Forks State's Attorney's Office says the actions of deputies involved in a

late February shooting

were "reasonable and justified in light of the circumstances."

On Feb. 27, Grand Forks County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Brandon Rakoczy and Deputy Dustin Wadholm arrived at a home about 5 miles south of Grand Forks near Thompson, and were immediately warned by the homeowner that the suspect had a gun, according to a news release from the state's attorney's office.

Deputies gave Joseph Espinoza "numerous commands to drop the gun" and he refused to comply, authorities said.

According to the news release, the deputies had retreated several yards back to their squad car. Espinoza allegedly continued to approach the deputies and pointed his firearm at deputies. Both deputies then fired their duty weapons at Espinoza. Espinoza was shot in his left leg.

"After a thorough review of the facts and law, the State's Attorney's Office has concluded the actions of the deputies on scene were objectively reasonable and justified in light of the circumstances," the state's attorney's office said in the news release.

Espinoza was

then arrested and is facing a litany of charges,

including theft of property, robbery, burglary, attempted theft of property, theft of a firearm, terrorizing, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, reckless driving, driving under suspension and leaving the scene of an accident.

Espinoza's charges are pending and he remains in the Grand Forks County Correctional Center.
President Joe Biden will make an announcement soon in response to talks between U.S. and European leaders about increasing liquefied natural gas and oil exports to Europe, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a press conference Thursday.

With respect to the discussions that are happening right now regarding LNG, United States, etc., I'm going to allow the president to make that announcement  and that is soon, she said, in response to a question probing how much supply the U.S. could provide  and what details of the plan might look like.

Details will be important, as experts have warned that the U.S. government doesnt have the power to unilaterally command the private markets, and therefore might be limited in its ability to address Europes supply crunch. And American gas exporters are already shipping their LNG overseas nearly as fast as they can, with little new capacity due to come online during the next two years.

Granholm, alongside International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol, following a meeting with European energy leaders, also continued to emphasize the need to reduce use of fossil fuels overall and accelerate the transition toward clean energy.

The fight against climate change shouldn't be a victim of the Russian invasion, said Birol.

Details: The comments come in the midst of Bidens visit to Europe, where he is strategizing with NATO leadership on how to best increase pressure on Moscow and present a united front against Russia for its war on Ukraine.

One of the fallouts from the war has been heightened energy prices in Europe, especially as buyers have scrambled to find oil suppliers outside Russia. The president is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia this week, including a joint action on European energy security and reducing Europes dependence on Russian gas, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday.

The focus on ramping up gas and oil production to wean the rest of the world off of Russian oil supplies has also raised questions of how the U.S. and European countries  which have goals to cut carbon emissions from their energy supplies in the coming decades to address climate change  can pursue both goals simultaneously.

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Granholm acknowledged theres always concern about increasing infrastructure that would lock in problems related to greenhouse gas emissions. There's no doubt about that. But she added, echoing her Wednesday comments, that nations can do two things at once, in addressing price spikes from the global energy crisis and accelerating toward clean energy resources.

Meanwhile, IEA is encouraging Europeans to wean off gas individually as much as they can.

The agency last week released a 10-point plan to encourage Europeans to reduce their reliance on Russian oil, asking consumers to use gas-fueled vehicles less, and encouraging cities to reduce speed limits and incentivize alternative transportation. Adopting all 10 recommendations could reduce oil demand by 2.7 million barrels per day in the next four months, according to IEA. More than half of Russias oil exports go to Europe.

Background: Granholm told global energy leaders Wednesday that efforts to increase oil supply and the push to transition to cleaner energy resources are not a binary choice, echoing previous comments distinguishing between the immediate need to offset prices with the Biden administrations goal to transition from fossil fuels toward clean power.

The secretary also alluded to creating a Marshall plan for energy security and acknowledged the need for Western countries to ramp up production of critical minerals needed for the clean energy transition.
Mar. 23HAVERHILL  A Groveland and a Newbury student who attend Whittier Tech are among four students recognized by school Superintendent Maureen Lynch for earning the Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy distinction in Spanish. The students are: Roberto Catuc Coc, a senior from Newbury studying electrical; Julio Diaz, a senior from Groveland studying electronics/robotics; Jesus Infante Rodgriguez, a senior from Haverhill studying marketing education and business technology; and Nolan Macario, a senior from Haverhill studying electronics/robotics.The seal recognizes students who have achieved proficiency in English and at least one other language by high school graduation. Students were awarded this distinction based on their performance on the Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages test administered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Students also fulfilled the Carnegie unit credit requirements in English language arts. English Language Coordinator Susannah DiMauro, who serves as the Seal of Biliteracy adviser, helped prepare students for this comprehensive test, which was administered at the end of January.

"Mrs. DiMauro provided us with study materials in January," Diaz said. "The test was administered over two days. It's an honor to add this achievement to my Whittier experience. I can't wait to update my resume. I would definitely encourage more students to take this exam."

The Seal of Biliteracy promotes excellence in the study of world language, respect for human differences by exposing students to other cultures and perspectives, and equity by honoring the diverse literacy skills of those in the community. It also provides evidence of biliteracy skills to future employers and college admissions officers.

"We are particularly proud of these students' achievements, as they represent the highest number of State Seal recipients since our school began the program three years ago. This award is not easy to attain," DiMauro said. "Students must have a high level of fluency in a partner language, demonstrating proficiency in all four domains of speaking, listening, reading and writing. I applaud our administration for initiating this program and for their support of our diverse student body who come with many gifts and talents in a number of different languages and cultures."

Eight heritage languages are represented across 1,261 students at Whittier Tech: Igbo, Swahili, Twi, Portuguese, Spanish, Pashto, Haitian Creole, and various Central American dialects of Spanish.
The bill was pushed through the GOP-led legislature and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed it into law this week.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has signed into law a bill that repeals the permit requirement to carry a gun in the Hoosier State.

Per NBC Chicago, as of July 1, anyone over the age of 18 can carry a handgun in public, barring a few restrictions. The exceptions include Indiana residents who have been convicted of a federal or state crime punishable by a year in prison or more, fugitives from justice, and those ever convicted of domestic violence, domestic battery or criminal stalking.

Guests look over guns in the Taurus booth at the 148th NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits back in April 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Governor Eric Holcomb has signed into law a bill repealing the permit requirement to carry a gun in Indiana. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In addition, anyone restrained by an order of protection or under indictment is not allowed to carry a gun under current state law.

The new law also will not apply to anyone restrained by an order of protection or under indictment, people who have been determined dangerous or mentally defective, any individual committed to a mental institution or those dishonorably discharged from military or National Guard service.

The law was pushed through the Republican-led legislature, and Holcomb, also a Republican, had declined to publicly express his opinion on the matter  however, he did not veto it.

Between @SenatorBrauns racist remarks re: outlawing interracial marriage & @GovHolcombs irresponsible signing of a no permit, open carry gun law in #Indiana, Illinoisans will be avoiding their neighbor to the east like the plague! #BoycottIndiana  Maelstrom312 (@Maelstrom3121) March 23, 2022

I need a cannon. I want to test the limits of Indiana's stupid "constitutional carry" law.



I will also need a flamethrower, a gatling gun, and a rocket launcher.



I intend to open carry these items and/or tow them with my car.  Hail Sagan (@FeedbackNFuzz) March 24, 2022

Supporters of the bill and constitutional carry say that it goes against the Constitution to require citizens to submit to background checks or a permit process to enjoy the right to bear arms.

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However, the states top cop, area prosecutors and Indianas police chiefs coalition took a strong stance against the legislation. State Police Superintendent Doug Carter, a Republican who previously served as sheriff of Hamilton County, has blamed outside influence of national associations or political posturing for its passage.

Its often so easy to talk about your support for public safety, Carter said, according to WGN-TV. But if you choose to support this bill, you will not be supporting us.

Indiana is also a castle doctrine state. The law, also known as Stand Your Ground, has been frequently used by defendants alleging they have killed in self-defense. Its critics note that the defense is more likely to be believed if the victim is Black; additionally, if the shooter is Black, they are more likely to face penalties, according to a 2017 NPR report.

Indiana Democrats also have misgivings about the bill. It hurts to see us advancing a piece of legislation that supports spreading and allowing more guns to be on our streets when violent crime is going up in our nation, said Indianapolis Sen. Fady Qaddoura, according to The Indianapolis Star.

The new law may spark the continuation of a national trend. A 2021 report from Indianas WTHR found that nationwide gun ownership among African American women has increased 87%.

Mildred Willis, a customer at an Indianapolis store, told the network, When you are being targeted  you hear stories like Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland  and you have these incidents going on all across the country. You want to know you have at least a chance of survival because some people are radical.

Everybody deserves an opportunity to protect themselves and their homes, Willis added. They should not be afraid to learn about guns or even own a gun.

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The post Gun permits no longer required to carry a weapon in Indiana starting July 1 appeared first on TheGrio.
Mar. 24HAVERHILL  A Haverhill man who was convicted last November by a federal jury of two counts of distribution of fentanyl was sentenced last week in federal court in Boston to 10 years in prison.

Bernardito Carvajal, 30, a Dominican national who most recently resided in Haverhill, was additionally sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. to three years of supervised release, according to an announcement last Thursday by U.S. Attorney Rachel Rollins.

Carvajal was acquitted of distribution of fentanyl and cocaine resulting in death. Carvajal was indicted in January 2020 and has been in custody since his arrest in July 2019, the announcement said.

"This case is a painful lesson in the devastating and irreversible toll opioids and other substances take on lives and communities," Rollins said. "This defendant is responsible for distributing a lethal drug that took a 26-year-old man's life and yesterday's sentence reflects that. The young man who died here was a beloved son, grandson, brother, stepson and so much more."

Rollins said opioids are the leading cause of drug overdose deaths, which she said have recently reached a record high. Every one of these deaths represents a person, not a mere statistic, she said.

"In virtually every community across the nation, drug traffickers and local dealers are preying on vulnerable individuals and profiting off of pain, addiction, and trauma," Rollins said. "In Massachusetts, law enforcement partners are working collaboratively to bring those who peddle deadly narcotics to justice."

"Fentanyl is causing deaths in record numbers and DEA's top priority is to aggressively pursue anyone who distributes this poison," said Brian Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division. "Today's sentence not only holds Mr. Carvajal accountable for his crimes but serves as a warning to others who are fueling the opioid epidemic."

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In June 2019, Carvajal sold drugs on 11 separate occasions to a 26-year-old victim who, after being sold drugs from Carvajal on June 12, 2019, died of an overdose the following day, officials said.

Carvajal continued to sell fentanyl after this fatal overdose, including another sale six weeks later on July 31, 2019, to an undercover officer. Carvajal was subsequently arrested following that drug deal. At trial, the jury convicted Carvajal of the underlying fentanyl distribution counts.

Rollins, Boyle, and Andover Police Chief Patrick Keefe made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elysa Wan and Stephen Hassink of Rollins' Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils.

But now that farm  like many other licensed grows in states that have legalized marijuana  faces an existential threat: high-inducing cannabis compounds derived not from the heavily regulated and taxed legal marijuana industry, but from a chemical process involving less strictly regulated, cheaply grown hemp.

It's going to make our farm obsolete, Griffis, the chief operating officer of True North Collective, testified before Michigan's Marijuana Regulatory Agency recently. The $3 million or so that Ive invested ... is going to be wiped out.

At the center of the issue is THC, marijuanas main intoxicating component. While marijuana and hemp are the same plant  cannabis  the distinction between the two is a legal one, and comes down to the amount of THC in the plant, specifically the amount of a type of THC called delta-9.

Hemp is defined in federal law by its low delta-9 THC content and is traditionally used for food, clothing and industrial applications. Rope not dope was long a motto for those who advocated the legalization of hemp.

But since Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, authorizing the growing of hemp nationwide in accordance with state or tribal licensing programs, theres been an unforeseen consequence: People exploiting what they see as a loophole in the law have taken that hemp, extracted a non-intoxicating compound called CBD, and chemically changed it  generally by the addition of solvents and heat  into various types of impairing THC.

Unlike the completely artificial, often dangerous drugs known as K2 or Spice and called synthetic marijuana, the chemically created THC at issue here consists of molecules found naturally in cannabis, though sometimes in vanishingly small amounts. It's far cheaper to produce THC chemically from hemp than to extract it from marijuana.

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Because it is derived from hemp, that THC  often in a form called delta-8  can wind up in candies, vape oils and other products sold in gas stations, convenience stores and online, even in states where marijuana is illegal. The Food and Drug Administration warned last year that the substances pose a public health risk due to multiple factors, including the way they are marketed and because of potential contamination when manufactured.

At least 17 states have banned such products, but they remain available in many, including the pioneering legal marijuana state of Washington, where gas station and vape-shop sales of THC created from hemp offer competition to the heavily taxed, regulated and tested marijuana market.

Virginia lawmakers this month approved a bill to strictly limit the amount of THC allowed in hemp-derived products; Gov. Glenn Youngkin has not yet signed it. In Kentucky and Georgia, recent lawsuits have sought to establish that delta-8 products are legal; a Kentucky judge sided with hemp advocates there on Feb. 28, allowing the products to continue to be sold as lawmakers consider a ban.

The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a hemp industry association, has decried the use of hemp-extracted CBD to create intoxicating products, saying it undermines the integrity of the hemp industry and intent of the 2018 Farm Bill.

Supporters call chemically derived THC economical and environmentally friendly. Hemp can be grown in vast fields outdoors, without expensive lighting systems, and can have a lower carbon footprint than marijuana.

Further, processors can make a more consistent product using chemistry to make THC from CBD, they say, and regulators shouldn't stand in the way of market innovations or pick winners and losers in the industry. They liken it to the synthetically created vanilla or caffeine added to food and drinks.

Most growers dont like to hear this, because they feel like its taking away from their market, but its a great product, said Abe Fleishman, of Northstar Hemp in Oregon. It provides an opportunity for companies to scale production, for one, and to make a new product that is, in my opinion, cleaner than your regular THC products.

For critics, the safety isnt proven; the process of making it can leave behind trace amounts of unidentifiable compounds. The method also allows for the manufacture of lesser-known cannabis compounds whose health effects aren't well understood.

Chemically produced THC is unlikely to displace the top-shelf dried cannabis flower preferred by many connoisseurs, but it is so cheap to make that it drastically undercuts marijuana growers who focus on the extract market, and who have spent a lot of time and money adapting to stringent rules for their industry.

Griffis said he's seen the price of delta-9 distillate drop from $50,000 a liter to $6,000  and falling  as THC made from hemp floods the market.

It's an issue that almost every state cannabis regulator is thinking about, said Gillian Schauer, executive director of the Cannabis Regulators Association. It's presenting a lot of challenges to protecting public health and consumer safety, and also to protecting existing state cannabis markets.

And, Schauer said, THC chemically made from hemp is only the tip of the iceberg: It can also be made from bioengineered yeast, so regulators will soon find themselves wrestling with that as well.

In Michigan, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency is considering rules that would allow processors to convert CBD into THC with written prior approval from the agency, which would require demonstrations of the conversion method and product testing. They would also have to label their product as synthetic  a suggestion that has angered processors who note that the molecules are found in nature.

Oregon's Liquor and Cannabis Commission gave marijuana licensees a six-month grace period to sell off intoxicating THC-from-hemp products they had already acquired before a ban takes effect in July.

In California, hemp-derived THC products are not allowed in legal marijuana shops, but regulators are examining the steps necessary to allow them.

Colorado and Washington, which in 2012 became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, last year made clear that synthetically derived cannabinoids, including THC, are not allowed in their legal industries.

After an uproar from licensed growers who said they were being undercut, Washingtons Liquor and Cannabis board seized more than 1,600 pounds (726 kilograms) of chemically created THC products made by a single licensed marijuana company, Unicorn Brands. The board went on to ban them from the regulated market.

For David Postman, the board's chairman, THC made from hemp represents an industrialization of the cannabis industry that he isn't sure voters wanted when they passed Washington's legal marijuana law, which was billed as a harm-reduction measure.

The LCB and the majority of the cannabis industry do not think the legal market should include mind-impairing, lab-created THC, Postman said. Allowing synthetically derived THC in the states legal cannabis market could devastate the industry.

Vicki Christophersen, a lobbyist for the industry group Washington CannaBusiness Association, argues that the boards approach is stifling innovation in ways that will make it tough for Washington to compete nationally, should the federal ban on marijuana ever be lifted.

The collaborations that occur between the hemp industry and the adult-use cannabis industry are not only inevitable, but they're important, she said. We need to look at what is going to advance Washington's industry alongside all the other competitor states that are advancing at a much higher speed than we are.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle.
Robert Bohrer has been named vice president for academic affairs and dean of Hiram College.

Following a national search, Hiram College has named Robert Bohrer II as its new vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college.

As the chief academic officer, Bohrer will serve as a key member of President David Haney's leadership team and will work to identify strategic directions for the college. As part of that, he will be responsible for evaluating current academic offerings and potential new programs within the context of an evolving higher education landscape, while maintaining the colleges commitment to providing a high-quality liberal arts education to all students.

The combination of strong liberal arts, professional programs, and an emphasis on experiential education positions the College well for todays educational environment, Bohrer said. Every interaction I had during the interview process made it clear that Hiram has an extremely strong sense of community and commitment to the College. I look forward to joining this vibrant community and working with campus partners on continuing to shape the academic program to meet the needs of todays students.

Bohrer comes to Hiram from Gettysburg College after serving more than 20 years in faculty and administrative positions, including his most recent role as senior associate provost for academic success. In this role, he worked with partners across campus to enhance enrollment, persistence, and the student experience. Prior to that, he served more than five years as associate provost and dean of public policy programs, where he oversaw the co-curricular Eisenhower Institute, a program grounded in President Dwight D. Eisenhowers legacy of leadership that prepares undergraduates to assume their responsibility as global citizens in public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Dr. Bohrer also served as associate provost for faculty development, as well as an associate professor and department chair for the Department of Political Science.

"I am excited that Dr. Bohrer is joining the executive team at Hiram," Haney said. "He brings with him a wealth of experience in areas that will be essential to Hirams success in coming years. He has a broad and deep understanding not only of private liberal ats colleges, but also of current trends and challenges in the increasingly diverse and complex world of higher education."

Bohrer holds a bachelor of science degree in comprehensive social science from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from Texas A&M University.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Hiram College names Robert Bohrer VP for academic affairs, dean
HOPEWELL  The seven young children who were overdosed on medication Wednesday at a city residence are expected to be OK, authorities said Thursday afternoon.

In the meantime, questions still remain if the children were left unattended at the time of the overdose as was originally reported. Police said the woman who lived at the address on South 16th Avenue told them there was another adult inside the house when she left to run an errand and came back to find four of the kids unresponsive, but police said they have been unable to confirm that the adult was in fact put in charge.

"We talked with the doctors, and they said all the children should make a full recovery," police Lt. Cheyenne Casale said. All seven children were rushed to John Randolph Medical Center first, then transported to two Richmond hospitals. Five of them went to Chippenham Medical Center, and the other two were taken to VCU Medical Center.

Of the seven children, four of them  ages 1, 2, 2 and 3  were initially reported to be in critical condition.

Three of the seven children did not live at the 16th Avenue residence, Casale said. An acquaintance of the resident dropped them off there while she went to tend to business involving a death in the family.

The woman who lived there left to run an errand at a convenience store around the corner from the house. During that time, the 7-year-old, who Casale said was on medication for anxiety, began giving some of those pills to the other children. Casale said he did not know the brand of the anti-anxiety medicine because the label on the bottle appeared to be rubbed off.

It was not clear how long the woman was gone from the house, but Casale said when she returned, she discovered the kids had taken the pills.

"She claimed there was another adult in the house who was supposed to be watching them," Casale said. It was not known what that second adult was doing when the children took the pills.

When emergency crews arrived, they found four of the children breathing but unresponsive. The other three appeared to be coherent.

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John Randolph issued a mass casualty incident, or MCI, which means that the hospital did not have enough medical staff on hand to accommodate all the needs of the children. A fleet of privately owned ambulances took the children from JRMC to the other hospitals.

The Progress-Index witnessed one of the children, a little boy, being wheeled from the JRMC emergency room to one of the ambulances. He was crying a little bit, but otherwise appeared to be awake and aware of his surroundings.

Casale said the investigation into the incident is ongoing. No decisions have been made concerning charges.

Hopewell's Child Protective Services is also looking into the case to determine where the children will go once they are discharged from the hospital, Casale said.

More from The Progress-Index: Man involved in a homicide at a Petersburg hotel has been arrested

More from The Progress-Index: A second man is being prosecuted for the 2019 murder of Joey Spillane in Petersburg

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is daily news coach for USA TODAY's Southeast Region-Unified Central, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and central North Carolina. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell kids who OD'ed on medication will be OK, authorities say
The House Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol will meet Monday to consider recommending that the House hold former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Daniel Scavino in contempt for defying congressional subpoenas.

If the committee recommends a contempt vote and the full House approves the resolution  a likely outcome, given it is made up of Democrats and only two Republicans, who both support investigating the former president's role in the attack  the pair could be referred to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for prosecution.

The committee issued a subpoena for records and testimony from former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro in February, alleging he developed plans to change the outcome of the election.

In the weeks leading up to January 6, Navarro promoted a document he called the "Navarro Report" that asserted baseless and discredited claims of election fraud.

Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro / Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik, AP/Alex Brandon

In a statement on Thursday, Navarro called the possible contempt vote "an unprecedented partisan assault on executive privilege." Navarro, along with other Trump allies who have been subpoenaed, have said they cannot overrule Trump invoking executive privilege. President Biden, meanwhile, has rejected the claims of executive privilege.

"Until this matter has been settled at the Supreme Court, where it is inevitably headed, the Committee should cease its tactics of harassment and intimidation," Navarro said in the statement. "I would be happy to cooperate with the committee in expediting a review of this matter by the Supreme Court and look forward to arguing the case."

In a book published last year, Navarro wrote that he and other Trump advisors constructed a plan called the "Green Bay Sweep" as the "last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats' jaws of deceit."

He described the scheme, which was done in coordination with Steve Bannon, in interviews with The Daily Beast late last year and MSNBC last month. In his appearance on MSNBC, he told host Ari Melber that they had lined up "over 100" congressmen and senators to help challenge the election results in six battleground states that had been won by Joe Biden.

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"These were the places where we believed that if the votes were sent back to those battleground states and looked at again, that there would be enough concern amongst the legislatures that most or all of those states would decertify the election. That would throw the election to the House of Representatives," Navarro said, arguing the plan was legal.

In a statement to CBS News at the time of the subpoena, Navarro accused the January 6 committee of being "domestic terrorists" and called their efforts a "partisan witch hunt." He said that since Trump has invoked executive privilege, the committee should "negotiate any waiver of the privilege with the president and his attorneys directly, not through me."

Scavino, the former White House communications director, was subpoenaed for documents and testimony in September, along with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Senior Counselor Steve Bannon, and former Pentagon Chief of Staff Kashyap Patel.

The committee sought his testimony about Mr. Trump's activities and communications in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol, citing both his presence in the White House that day as well as his more than a decade of work for the former president.

Scavino sued Verizon late last year in an attempt to block the company from handing over his phone records in response to a separate subpoena from the committee.

The House has already voted to hold Bannon and Meadows in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the committee. The Justice Department has yet to take action in Meadows' case after the House vote in December. Bannon was indicted for contempt in November and has pleaded not guilty.

The committee has issued more than 90 subpoenas, including ones to Trump's allies, former White House officials, campaign aides and individuals involved in the planning of the rally outside the White House before the Capitol building came under siege.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the House select committee last year to investigate the January 6 attack, when thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol as Congress counted the electoral votes, a largely ceremonial final step affirming Mr. Biden's victory. Lawmakers were sent fleeing amid the riot, which led to the deaths of five people and the arrests of hundreds more. Trump, who encouraged his supporters to "walk over" to the Capitol during the rally at the Ellipse before the electoral vote count, was impeached by the House one week later for inciting the riot but was later acquitted by the Senate.

Nikole Killion, Ellis Kim and Caroline Linton contributed to this report

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Mar. 24SALEM, Mass.  A petite woman with long, brown hair, Toni Marie Eaton said she met Joel Monegro seven years ago as she was walking down the street in Lawrence.

After driving by her, Monegro stopped and asked her for her phone number. She giggled at first and said, "No." But she eventually gave in.

Monegro told her he wasn't married, she testified.

"At the time your relationship began you believed he was single and childless?" prosecutor Kate MacDougall asked Eaton.

"Exactly," replied Eaton, a 35-year-old mother of seven.

Eaton, of Lowell, would later learn Monegro was indeed married and had three children with his wife, Yesenia, in Lawrence.

Monegro is on trial in Salem Superior Court, charged with murdering Yesenia, 28, on May 28, 2018, in their Doyle Street apartment.

"He would tell me one thing and her another," Eaton testified Wednesday.

MacDougall, in her opening statement Tuesday, said Yesenia suffered 30 stab wounds to her face, neck, torso, arms and back. Despite the "slash wounds," she was able to tell a Lawrence police officer it was Monegro, her high school sweetheart and husband, who stabbed her.

Yesenia was pronounced dead a short time later at a Boston hospital.

The attack occurred after Yesenia learned Joel was having a second child with Eaton, who he'd been having an affair with, she said.

Eaton was about four months pregnant at that time. Her first child with Monegro was born in September of 2016, she testified.

However, defense attorney Kevin Mitchell, in his opening statement, said Monegro acted in self-defense.

He said Monegro, who carries a knife for work purposes, went to the apartment that day to meet Yesenia and give her some money.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Monegro faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Eaton, a witness for the prosecution, said Monegro told her he was single at first but later revealed "the truth."

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"That he did have a wife and children," she said.

Yesenia also called her at times, she testified. Sometimes their conversations were civil. Other times Yesenia was upset.

"But I understand why," Eaton said.

In April 2018 when she found out she was pregnant again with Monegro's child, Eaton described him as being happy with the news. But, she said, Yesenia was not.

"She said, 'How could you let this happen again?'" Eaton testified. "She was upset. I understand."

Monegro wanted to come live with her in Lowell at that time. But she said she wouldn't let him.

"I told him no because I can't trust him. I can't with the lies," she said.

She described Monegro, who worked for a paving company prior to his arrest, as a good provider to their oldest child.

"Everything she needed he was always there," she said.

Under cross examination by Mitchell, Eaton recalled how Yesenia had threatened to harm her and children. Yesenia and a friend came to her house after learning about her second pregnancy with Monegro. They yelled for her to come outside but she wouldn't, Eaton said.

She also testified that Monegro had given her a lock box with important papers inside.

She turned the box over to detectives after Yesenia's death, she said.

The trial continues Thursday and is expected to run into early next week.

Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.
By Anthony Deutsch

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Thursday asked a coalition of countries to back his war crimes investigation in Ukraine, saying "things can get worse" unless the international community acts now.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan was speaking to a meeting of a British-led coalition in The Hague, including prosecutors and justice ministers from 38 countries that have offered the court financial, military and legal assistance.

Khan opened a formal inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine on Feb. 28, four days after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky accuse Russia of targeting civilians and violating the laws of war. Moscow denies the allegation and says it is carrying out a "special military operation" to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war.

The ICC, a global court established to prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, will examine possible atrocities on both sides of the conflict, looking back to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv has authorised the court to investigate on its territory and a team of investigators is collecting evidence in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Khan called on nations to come together to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes.

"If we seize this moment collectively, if we can fortify the rule of law... It is to the benefit not only of this office, or to the ICC, but to the whole international legal order," Khan said.

"If we do not collectively step up. ..things can get worse and history will not judge us well and victims around the world will not judge us well."

British Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told journalists in The Hague that the support for the ICC makes it clear to Putin that "impunity will not be tolerated".

"Those leaders, whether it's in Moscow or commanders on the ground in Ukraine, will be held to account if they commit war crimes and that is the deterrent message that is important to send now," Raab said.

(Reporting by Anthony DeutschEditing by Bernadette Baum and Barbara Lewis)
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday elected public officials and their campaign committees may, in limited circumstances, use campaign funds to pay criminal defense attorney fees.

The case involved a former Chicago city alderman, Danny Solis, who reportedly avoided federal prosecution by agreeing to cooperate with the FBI and Department of Justice in their investigation of another alderman, Ed Burke, who was indicted in May 2020 on federal corruption charges.

Ed Burke is married to Chief Justice Anne Burke, who recused herself from the case. Two other justices, Mary Jane Theis and P. Scott Neville Jr., also did not take part in the decision, leaving only four justices to decide the case  the minimum number needed to issue a majority opinion.

Solis served on the Chicago City Council from 1996-2019 representing the citys 25th Ward and for a time chaired the councils powerful Zoning Committee. He did not run for re-election in 2019 and was succeeded in office by current Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday elected public officials and their campaign committees may, in limited circumstances, use campaign funds to pay criminal defense attorney fees.

According to published reports, Solis had been under investigation as part of the federal governments wide-sweeping probe into public corruption involving state and local elected officials. But in June 2016 he began cooperating with investigators by secretly recording conversations with other public officials.

When he first began cooperating with investigators, he retained the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP. On May 21, 2019, the day after Sigcho-Lopez was sworn into office, the 25th Ward Democratic Organization  the committee that had backed his campaigns  paid the firm $220,000 for legal fees.

What is known now, but was not publicly known then, is that on Jan. 3, 2019, Solis entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorneys office. That was the same day prosecutors indicted Alderman Burke on 19 counts for allegedly using his position to corruptly solicit business for his private law firms from companies involved in redevelopment projects in his 14th Ward.

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That information became public in August 2020 through court filings when Alderman Burkes attorneys sought to suppress some of the evidence that had been gathered against him.

Complaint filed in October 2019

In October 2019, Sigcho-Lopez filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections alleging that the expenditure violated provisions of the Illinois Election Code that regulate campaign disclosure and finance. Specifically, he argued, the payment was made to settle a personal debt that was not related to any of his campaigns or for governmental or political purposes directly related to his official duties or responsibilities.

The board, however, dismissed the complaint on the grounds that spending campaign funds for criminal defense was not specifically prohibited in the Election Code and that Solis legal bill was not a personal loan or debt. Sigcho-Lopez then appealed that decision to the First District Court of Appeals which upheld the boards decision.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in January, much of the discussion focused on whether criminal defense fees constitute customary and reasonable expenses for an officeholders governmental and public service functions.

Attorney argument

Sigcho-Lopezs attorney argued the whole purpose of campaign disclosure laws is to deter and mitigate political corruption, and so the use of those funds to defend an official against charges of political corruption would go against the intent of the law.

But an attorney for the 25th Ward committee argued a public corruption investigation is, by definition, directly tied to an officeholders official duties and, therefore, should be considered an allowable expense.

Are we at that point in Illinois where were going to say that thats an ordinary expense of holding public office? Justice Michael Burke  who is not related to Anne or Ed Burke  asked during the hearing.

Other justices pointed out, however, that political campaigns retain attorneys for a wide range of reasons. They also noted that public officials are sometimes the target of baseless allegations of corruption from political rivals.

In the courts 17-page ruling released Thursday, the remaining four justices drew a narrow line between the arguments of Sigcho-Lopez and those of the 25th Ward committee.

More info about case

They partially rejected the committees argument payment of criminal defense fees is always permissible solely because the General Assembly did not specifically include them in the list of prohibited expenses. But it also partially rejected Sigcho-Lopezs argument that the legal fees were a prohibited personal debt.

Instead, they found, because the General Assembly had not specifically prohibited the payment of criminal defense attorney fees from campaign funds, it is reasonable for the Board of Elections to rule on a case-by-case basis.

And in Solis case, Justice David K. Overstreet wrote for the majority, the expense was permissible because Solis had not been indicted on criminal charges but had only worked with federal investigators using his official capacity to expose public corruption.

Considering the evidence before the Board, we find that the Boards conclusion  that Soliss legal fees amounted to a proper expenditure not prohibited as satisfaction or repayment of a personal debt ... but incurred to defray the customary and reasonable expenses of an officeholder in connection with the performance of governmental and public service functions ...  was not clearly erroneous, the opinion concluded. Thus, we affirm the Boards decision, finding that the complaint was not factually and legally justified.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
An Indiana family celebrated after Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed a bill Monday that would have banned their transgender daughter from playing sports.

There were happy tears shed, Nathaniel Clawson, the father of a 9-year-old trans girl named Kirin, told NBC affiliate WTHR of Indianapolis.

Kirin plays soccer and volleyball and is involved in roller derby. There was dancing, and when I told Kirin, she squealed with glee, Clawson said of Holcombs veto.

But their celebration might be short-lived.

Syndication: The Herald-Times (Rich Janzaruk / USA Today Network)

Indiana legislators have enough votes to override Holcombs veto and enact the bill, which would bar Kirin from playing on girls sports teams at school.

If that happens, Indiana would become the 12th state to ban trans student athletes from playing on the school sports teams that align with their gender identities, as opposed to their assigned sexes at birth.

The issue is part of what advocates have described as a culture war debate ignited by conservatives in recent years to drive voters to the polls. Thirty states have considered bills similar to Indianas this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which tracks the bills.

Supporters of trans athlete bans argue that theyre protecting fairness in womens sports, because trans women get a competitive advantage from going through testosterone-driven puberty.

Advocates say that the bills are a solution in search of a problem and that transgender girls arent dominating girls sports in elementary, middle or high schools  the levels of sport the bills target.

My daughter will never go through male puberty, Clawson told WTHR. He added that Kirin will undergo hormone therapy and that, as a result, she will not have any of the muscle mass, the bone density that people are worried about.

Advocates also say the bills are an attempt to bar trans youths from being able to take part in the same activities as their peers, which could lead to social ostracization in other ways and have negative mental health impacts.

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Clawson told WTHR that sports for kids should also be more about learning skills like teamwork than about winning.

My wife basically has said  and I agree with her  that my kids mental health is more important than your kids trophy, he said.

Holcomb is one of three Republican governors to have vetoed a trans athlete ban. In his veto letter, he said the legislation falls short of providing a consistent statewide policy for fairness in K-12 sports. He said the policy presumes that there is an existing problem with K-12 sports in Indiana and that the goals of consistency and fairness in female sports arent being met.

After thorough review, I find no evidence to support either claim even if I support the effort overall, he wrote.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a similar bill Tuesday, writing in an emotional letter to the Legislature that five numbers led to his veto. He said that 75,000 kids participate in high school sports in Utah and that of those, only four are transgender. Of those four, one plays girls sports. He also cited a 2020 study that found that 86 percent of trans youths have reported suicidal thoughts and that 56 percent have reported attempting suicide.

Four kids and only one of them playing girls sports, he wrote. Thats what all of this is about. Four kids who arent dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day. Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few.

Cox also acknowledged that the Legislature has the votes to override his veto. If a veto override occurs, I hope we can work to find ways to show these four kids that we love them and they have a place in our state, he wrote.

Last year, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, also a Republican, vetoed a similar bill, saying at the time that the state has a level playing field and fairness in girls sports.

To date there has not been a single recorded incident of a transgender girl attempting to play on a North Dakota girls team, he said in a statement at the time.

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BEIRUT (Reuters) -The revival of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers can happen in the short term if the United States shows pragmatism in Vienna negotiations, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday.

"If the United States is pragmatic, a nuclear deal can be reached in the short term," he said during a news conference in Beirut, adding that the vital issue of sanctions relief for Iran was not yet fully resolved.

"Instead of wasting time by playing with words and time, the United States should take the right path and act pragmatically. We are ready for a good, strong and stable agreement, but not at the price of our red lines."

The talks were close to an agreement until Russia made last-minute demands of the United States, insisting that sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine would not hurt its trade with Iran.

On Wednesday, Amirabdollahian said during a trip to Damascus that Iran and world powers are closer to an agreement in Vienna than ever before.

But U.S. officials have been more cautious in their assessment of efforts to revive the accord, which would curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting tough sanctions on Iran's economy.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday the United States and its allies have made progress in Iran nuclear talks but issues remain, and it is unclear if they will be resolved.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Editing by Michael Georgy, Editing by Catherine Evans)
TOKYO (AP)  Shareholders of embattled Japanese electronics and energy giant Toshiba Corp. voted down a major restructuring plan on Thursday, in a setback for the company's management.

The plan proposed last month called for splitting Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. into two companies, one focused on infrastructure and the other on devices. The latter would have been spun off.

Some shareholders, including foreign investment funds and U.S.-based proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholders Services, opposed the plan.

Toshiba management had scrapped an earlier proposal for a three-way split and put forward the latest plan, which was put to a vote at Thursdays extraordinary shareholders meeting.

That new plan failed to win a majority of votes, in a huge setback for Toshiba management, which had defended the new plan as less costly and more stable. One top executive had characterized the move as the companys last chance to fix its brand power and win back peoples trust.

Shareholders also rejected a proposal from major shareholder 3D Investment Partners, based in Singapore, asking for a fuller objective review of strategic alternatives, including a buyout.

During the meeting, shareholders, including several who identified themselves as former Toshiba workers, got up and said the restructuring plan wasnt in the best interests of Toshiba or its employees. Others said splitting a company wont produce value.

Toshiba management had defended the new plan as less costly and more stable than possible alternatives.

Toshibas fortunes have fallen since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, when a tsunami in northeastern Japan sent three reactors into meltdowns. Toshiba is involved with the costly and precarious decommissioning effort, which will take decades.

The companys reputation was also tarnished by an accounting scandal, which involved books being doctored for years.

The company has also seen managerial upheaval. Last year, Nobuaki Kurumatani abruptly resigned as Toshiba president. Kurumatani had headed global fund CVC Capital Partners Japan operations before joining Toshiba in 2018.

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Kurumatani was replaced by Satoshi Tsunakawa, a veteran at Toshiba, who served as chief executive from 2016. Tsunakawa recently announced his resignation, though he remained as chairman.

Taro Shimada, an executive officer and corporate senior vice president, was tapped as president in an interim move. Shimada was an executive at Siemens, both in Japan and the U.S., before joining Toshibas digital operations in 2018.

If approved at a regular shareholders meeting in June, Shimada will become Toshibas first chief executive with a background in digital technology.

We will take into consideration the opinions of the shareholders and will continue to study how we can boost the value of our company, Shimada told shareholders Thursday.

Founded in 1875, Toshiba was a manufacturing pioneer for everything from electric rice cookers to laptop computers. It also invented flash memory, but that division was sold off as its fortunes tumbled.

Toshiba acquired Westinghouse of the U.S. in 2006 with much fanfare, making nuclear power a key part of its business. Westinghouse went bankrupt in 2017, saddling Toshiba with huge red ink at that time. Toshiba sold Westinghouse in 2018.

Toshiba shares, which have recovered in price over the last five years, rose slightly in morning trading.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
BRADENTON, FL  Bagels are a way of life in New Jersey.



Its such a part of your culture when you grow up in New York and New Jersey, Kim Fishman told Patch. Its part of your childhood. Bagels. Pizza. Pork rolls.

When she and her husband moved their family to Lakewood Ranch more than five years ago, she was disappointed  but not surprised  that they couldnt find an authentic NJ or NY bagel.

We were told you cant make bagels in Florida because of the water, the humidity, she said. There are a lot of little challenges.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fishman was determined to figure it out  and she did.

Two years later, shes turned her pandemic hobby into a business, opening Jersey Girl Bagels at 5275 University Parkway in February.

It was important to her that she get the process for creating an authentic bagel right.

Theres nostalgia about bagels that people who arent from N.Y. or N.J. dont understand, Fishman said. Growing up, it was weekend food. That was my vision. Its Saturday morning and youre getting a dozen bagels for your family or youre having a warm egg and cheese (bagel) sandwich.

So, she and her children started making them from scratch in their kitchen.

There are a million different recipes and different filters for water, and water temperature is a huge thing, she said.

When Fishman finally got the recipe right, she started making them for her friends. And with many places closed because of coronavirus in 2020, word spread about her bagels, and she began taking orders for neighbors and friends of friends.

It grew into this small, little business from home. It continued to grow and grow, and it outgrew my kitchen and my capacity, she said. I needed more oven space and storage. I either needed to continue doing this in a bigger way or stop doing this.

She had three refrigerators at her home just for bagels and it wasnt long before she was using a neighbors extra fridge in their garage, as well.

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Fishman considered various possibilities for growing Jersey Girl Bagels, including opening a food truck or ghost kitchen. Ultimately, she to take the leap and open a small bagel shop, signing the lease on her new space in March 2021.

As much as COVID-19 inspired her business, its also created challenges as she prepared to open a brick-and-mortar location, she said. COVID is the reason for the business and also all the hardships that come along with opening the business. Its been a double-edged sword.

Though she ordered all the equipment she needed last May, not all of it was available immediately. Fishmans still waiting on some small parts that wont be available until April.

The buildout of her shop was delayed, as well, as the contractors faced various COVID hiccups, she said.

And that she was baking bagels on such a mass scale  making thousands a day  she needed to tweak her process.

Instead of small hand-crafted batches, she suddenly found herself working with a mixer that can handle 85 pounds of flour at a time and creating 130 pounds of dough a day.

Going from small batch to mass production is definitely an adjustment. The recipe needed to be adjusted a little bit. The timing needs to be adjusted a little bit, Fishman said.

Quality control is more of an issue now, as well. Rather than hand-rolling the bagels, she has a machine to do it for her.

I have a love-hate relationship with the machine, she said. It allows me to make that many bagels at once, but they dont all look the same. They have a different look and I need to sort through them. At home, in small batches, I touch every single bagel. I know what each one looks like.

Customers are always fascinated by her bagel-making process.

Probably because its so difficult to make them in Florida, she said.

While she doesnt import water from New York, shes installed a filtration system that softens the bagel shops water so that its similar to what she might use up north.

The water temperature she uses is key, as well, and needs to be a little cooler than what would normally come out of the faucet in Florida, she said. Dough is picky. You need to have a certain temperature of water, a certain temperature of dough, and the humidity doesnt help things  and we have a lot of humidity.

Once the dough is prepared, she boils and bakes the bagels.

Those are the two questions we get  the water and the other is do you boil them, Fishman said.

Since opening Feb. 17, Jersey Girl Bagels has been busy, often selling out of bagels. On average, she sells about 2,000 daily.

With no seating for customers, its truly an old-fashioned bagel shop, she said. You go to a bagel store, you come in, you pick out what you want, and you go. At this point, Im keeping it simple.

So far, its in keeping with her personal vision for the shop, something that speaks to her childhood in New Jersey.

Its something that, personally, I always missed coming down here and being down here, and I didnt realize how much everybody had the same, mutual feeling, Fishman said. Just the little corner bagel shop. Nothing fancy, just that its good. Where you can come in, get a warm bagel with your favorite cream cheese, and go eat it at home or in your car or wherever.

This article originally appeared on the Bradenton Patch
Jorge Masvidal has been arrested.

Less than 48 hours after he engaged in an alleged altercation with UFC rival Colby Covington, Masvidal was detained by Miami-Dade county police Wednesday evening and booked at 10:27 p.m. local time, according to online records. News of Masvidals arrest was first reported by WPLG Local 10 News.

Masvidal, 37, faces two charges: one count of aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm and one count of criminal mischief. He is currently being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on a $15,000 bond.

A video published by WPLG showed Masvidal briefly jogging into a police station with handcuffs on.

Exclusive @GamebredFighter headed to jail on an aggravated battery charge after his alleged attack on @ColbyCovMMA Exclusive video and story on @WPLGLocal10 pic.twitter.com/HGJhTz25Kj  Rosh Lowe (@roshloweWPLG) March 24, 2022

In a police report obtained Tuesday by MMA Junkie, the MBPD confirmed responding to an incident labeled as a felony battery outside Papi Steak. The report does not state that charges have been filed but identifies Masvidal as the lone suspect.

Covington was not explicitly named in the police report. An MBPD information officer told MMA Junkie the alleged suspect in this incident invoked Marsys Law to protect their information. However, Masvidal identified Covington on Twitter. This happened before TMZ Sports released cell phone video of Covington speaking to police, as well as footage of Masvidal being restrained from Covington.

The police report states that officers responded to a battery call outside the restaurant at 10:54 p.m. local time. There, they met the victim, who fractured a tooth and suffered a wrist abrasion, alleging Masvidal ran up from his left and punched him twice in the face (once in the mouth and once in the left eye) upon leaving the restaurant. Masvidal allegedly said, You shouldnt have been talking about my kids. The victim described a group of three or four other unknown males approaching him in an aggressive manner. Police said that, at that point, the victim pushed one of the unknown makes away and separated himself from the attackers and ran back into the Papi Steak restaurant where he contacted police.

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Masvidal was present on a Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) call less than 10 hours prior to his arrest Wednesday, where he stated he had not been charged. He also described the incident as a mutual happening, but elected not to go into detail as his lawyer was not present.

The alleged incident came 16 days after Covington fought Masvidal for five rounds, en route to a unanimous decision win in the UFC 272 headliner. The bout was the culmination of a feud between the former best friends and American Top Team teammates who became bitter enemies as they both rose to welterweight title contender status.

Afterward, Covington, who now trains at MMA Masters, declared himself the king of Miami, which Masvidal took exception to. Both men indicated they would fight again outside of the octagon if they ran into each other in public.
Mar. 24Lawyers for the state will square off with an attorney for a Maine State Police detective in federal court Thursday over whether his 2018 demotion was because of his allegations that a state police division was illegally collecting and maintaining data on Maine residents' activities.

George Loder, 52, of Scarborough sued the Maine Information and Analysis Center in Augusta and its supervisors in May 2020 in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The center is a division of the Maine State Police that came under fire in the state Legislature following Loder's lawsuit and a hack that showed the center was closely monitoring protests in Maine over police brutality and racism in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The Maine House last year voted to close the center, but that effort died in the Senate.

Loder claimed he was demoted after he told his bosses that the center was collecting and maintaining data illegally, including information about people who had applied to buy guns from firearms dealers, those who legally protested and those who worked at a Maine camp for Israeli and Arab teens.

The state has asked the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Jon Levy, to find that Loder was not demoted because of the allegations he made, but instead that he was forced to return to working as a trooper after he was denied a job with an investigative unit.

Loder alleged in the lawsuit that the state police violated the Whistleblower Protection Act and his First Amendment right to free speech, and that the agency illegally retaliated against him. The complaint also named Col. John Cote, the head of the state police, which oversees the center, and his supervisors at the time, Lt. Scott Ireland and Sgt. Michael Johnston, as defendants.

Levy will hold a remote hearing Thursday afternoon on the state's motion that argues the law is on its side and the case doesn't need to go to trial.

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Loder's attorney, Cynthia Dill of Portland, will argue that the facts about her client's demotion are in dispute and that a jury should decide whether the state discriminated against Loder.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General, which is defending the state police, declined to comment.

Dill said that she and Loder are grateful for the opportunity to fight for his rights.

"Holding the Maine State Police accountable for the unlawful surveillance activity of the MIAC has not been easy but is important," she said Wednesday. "Changes within the agency to protect citizens' privacy have been made thanks to Trooper Loder's courage bringing this case and we expect a trial to fully vindicate him of the unfair smears generated by the state in its shaky defense of collecting and retaining massive amounts of information about law-abiding Maine citizens."

The most recent court filings do not outline the center's alleged illegal activities but focus on whether Loder's concerns about possible spying was a factor in his demotion. Documents also do not outline changes to the center's operations since Loder filed the lawsuit.

In 2018, Loder had been assigned to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in southern Maine from the information and analysis center for five years. He maintained that his supervisor's directive that he share information he learned working on the task force with the center was illegal, and he refused to do so.

Loder was called back to the center by his supervisors to replace a retiring detective and because he had been working with the task force for five years, according to Assistant Attorneys General Paul Suitter and Valerie Wright. Loder allegedly protested that move citing the long commute from his home in Scarborough to Augusta.

Loder applied for what would have been a lateral move as a detective in the criminal investigation division, according to court documents. That position went to a trooper who had been on the job far fewer than the more than two decades Loder had been with the state police. After that, Loder asked to return to being a trooper, a position he now holds.

In its motion for summary judgment, the state claims that the facts don't support Loder's "theory that what he said about the MIAC's activities made a difference in the decision to recall him from the [task force]. Without such evidence of a causal link, he cannot withstand summary judgment on the whistleblower protection claim."

His First Amendment claim fails because he would have been called back to the Maine Information and Analysis Center "regardless of his speech" due to the detective's retirement.

Loder's attorney claims that "it was just 10 days after Loder specifically told Johnston that his information-sharing directive was illegal" that he was called back to the center.

Because facts are in dispute, the case must go to trial, Dill claims.

The judge is expected to issue a written decision in the case at a later date.
VIRGINIA  A federal judge ruled Wednesday that certain schools in Virginia, including some in Fairfax County, Loudoun County and the City of Manassas, can require students to wear face masks if necessary to protect immunocompromised children whose families filed a lawsuit over mask-optional policies.

Judge Norman K. Moon said his order is limited only to the 12 families who filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville. Their children attend 10 different school districts in Virginia and range in age from preschool to 11th grade.

Moon, in his opinion granting injunctive relief, did not challenge a recent state law and an executive order from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin that made the wearing of masks by students optional in Virginia public schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 12 families. On Wednesday, the group tweeted: We are glad the court agreed: No student should have to risk their lives to go to school.

Because Moons ruling only applied to the children of the 12 families, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement Wednesday that the ruling affirms that parents have the right to make choices for their children, The Washington Post reported.

The lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of the families is now expected to move forward in court, WTOP reported.

On Jan. 15, Youngkin signed Executive Order 2, which said parents can opt their children out of masking requirements in Virginia schools, even if the school or district has otherwise determined mandatory masking to be an appropriate COVID-19 prevention measure. On Feb. 26, the Virginia legislature enacted SB 739, codifying the same requirement in a Virginia statute, which went into effect on March 1.

"E.O. 2 and S.B. 739 are the law in Virginia and they remain in force, affording parents the choice whether their children should wear masks to school, notwithstanding any school rule that would require students to wear masks," Moon wrote in his opinion issued Wednesday.



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The 12 families filed their lawsuit in federal court on the basis that the state law violates their rights under federal law, specifically, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. The children of the parents who filed the lawsuit all have disabilities or illnesses that put them at an increased risk of severe injury or death if they contract COVID-19, the judge explained.

In his opinion, Moon wrote that he recognizes the defendants claims that a blanket injunction would not serve the public interest given that student mask mandates are no longer generally recommended by the CDC, and are detrimental to many childrens academic, social, and emotional development, and to their mental health.



The judge also wrote that the court "enjoins Defendants from enforcing E.O. 2 and S.B. 739 only as against these Plaintiffs in their ability to ask for (not definitely to receive) from their schools some amount of masking as a reasonable modification."

"Simply put, federal law demands just such a fact-specific inquiry into reasonableness, and E.O. 2 and S.B. 739  just like any other state law  cannot preclude Plaintiffs from asking for some required masking as a reasonable modification, nor can they bar Plaintiffs schools from implementing some required masking, if in fact, it would constitute a reasonable modification under federal law," Moon said.

The 10 school districts affected by the judges ruling are Albemarle County Public Schools, Manassas City Public Schools, Henrico County Public Schools, Chesterfield County Public Schools, Cumberland County Public Schools, York County School Division, Bedford County Public Schools, Chesapeake City Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools.

RELATED: VA Student Mask Mandates To End March 1 After Youngkin Signs Bill

This article originally appeared on the Falls Church Patch
Mar. 23Kalispell Public Schools has taken its first strides in a yearslong path to transforming "how school is done," after recently wrapping up four public listening sessions at the elementary and middle school level.

One of the listening sessions at Kalispell Middle School on March 16 drew a small audience of 17 that included administrators, parents and a few educators.

"We feel really good about what we're doing with the constraints we have, but we also recognize we can do things better or differently to help kids better," Kalispell Middle School Principal Tryg Johnson said.

Johnson emphasized the session was a time for parents and community members to share their thoughts because administrators and staff held their own listening sessions. Jensen said some teachers will also hold brainstorming sessions with students to also get their input.

Kalispell Middle School Assistant Principal Dallas Stuker told attendees to set aside potential barriers such as time, money, or rules, for the time being, and brainstorm any ideas of what school could be.

"Anything goes here, we're looking for ideas," Stuker said.

"The big question comes down to what's your Disneyland?" Johnson said. "What's the best Disneyland for students, which, you know, is probably a little different for students, teachers and probably will be a little different for parents as well."

KALISPELL SCHOOL District Assistant Superintendent Matt Jensen said roughly 15 to 20 people were in attendance at each of the meetings and some basic themes came out of the responses.

"The first theme was academics," he said. A lot of specific focus on academics  personalized, competency-based, flexible and individualized learning. The next theme was student behavior. Things like tenacity and grit. Parents and administrators want to see we're doing a good job of developing different traits."

"The last theme would be around experiences," he added. "Bbefore kids leave elementary, middle school or high school, they wanted them to have different opportunities whether outdoor-based education or work-based internships."

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Questions about character traits, skills, abilities, family values and success, served as launching points for discussion in what they wanted for children to become "successful, thriving adults." Attendees were asked to think of the questions in relation to not only students but also their own school experiences.

Ideas and suggestions touched on topics such as grade levels, school year schedule, duration of classes/day, integrated learning, mentoring and vocational opportunities.

IN TALKING about what areas of school "bring joy" to students different, for the most part, many talked about different classes, teachers, school pride, sports, hands-on activities such as science club or plays, said parent Lindsey Bushnell, where students can either act or be on the tech crew.

"I love they get to have PE every day," Bushnell added.

Another attendee agreed about the physical exercise, noting the benefits they saw in another school where students would run before the school day started and learned in a classroom free of desks, where, instead, students sat on the floor or a few couches.

One attendee said she had substituted in the school and agreed that getting students away from sitting at a desk all day might curb behavioral issues, transitioning into discussions about shortening class time.

"I notice that they concentrate for a certain amount of time and are just done, completely done. If each class was just shorter and tighter you could get a more focused time," she said, noting the early-release Wednesdays the school district currently has in place as the perfect schedule.

Early-release Wednesdays were first implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic as a time for students to get extra help and for teachers, who were given extra responsibilities, to catch up.

She also suggested snacks no matter the grade level.

"When some kids come to school not eating, from what, probably 7:30 a.m. in the morning to 1 or 12:30 that's a long time to go without eating so some behavioral issues I think are straight up due to blood sugar problems they need to have a snack or something."

Removing time constraints could possibly be achievable with integrated, or cross-curricular learning, attendee Tina Blair, who is the principal at West Valley Middle School, offered.

"You could bring more relevance in class if things were brought together," Blair said, using an example of technical writing and science.

This could help students more easily see how skills learned in one subject transfer to another she said.

ANOTHER AREA of discussion were learning opportunities outside the classroom such as practicums where students could spend a portion of the day working in a business or on a farm, for example, to mirroring something like the high school vocational agriculture center.

Attending vocational classes was life-changing for parent Mike France who shared his personal experience attending a rural school. He said the vocational school was fed by 14 surrounding schools.

"I took small engine repair. I did really well. It springboarded me out," France said. "Vocational school, it just changed my life as far as my education went."

Bushnell suggested having students coming into middle school get involved with mentorships with community members to help them learn what they want to pursue in high school and continue those ties to help them discover who they want to be.

Adding avenues of getting help was another one of her suggestions. For helping students, some sort of program to get help after hours.

"How can we make sure kids have avenues so they are not afraid to take hard classes?" Bushnell asked, later suggesting, "Is there some sort of mentoring center the district could come up with where kids have other times they can get help and how do you make that work for a kid who wants to take an early bird class? They can't go in early to get help and then if they're in activities right after school how does this work?"

REVISING THE school year from 180 days was also discussed. The possibility of breaking up the school year to a different schedule, such as seven weeks on, two weeks off, for instance, was suggested to mitigate what's referred to as "summer learning loss."

Doing away with traditional grade levels and having multi-age classrooms where students could advance at their own pace was another suggestion in how schools could be transformed. Tying into this discussion was whether or not extending the age a student could attend high school would be beneficial.

"I know we're responsible for the state to have them educated by a certain date or there are some elements that count against our districts," Blair said. "There are some students who are ready at 16 or 17 to launch on to college or the trades and there are others that it's gonna take 20 or 21 and I don't think we always allow that unless there's an extreme disability."

Jensen said the next step is to organize the notes and ideas from the meetings and begin prioritizing to set out on the path of transforming "how school is done." The process is currently set out on a nine-year timeline.

"So now we're doing the preliminary work that will determine the scope of the work," Jensen said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 406-758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.
Kansas State Wildcats defensive lineman and Boulder, Colorado native Brayden Wood has announced that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal. A former standout at Fairview High School in Boulder, Wood was a redshirt freshman at Kansas State during the 2021 season.

Wood was a three-star recruit in the high school class of 2021, according to 247Sports. He was recruited by Colorado and had a visit, but did not end up receiving an offer from the Buffs. Boise State, Colorado State, Hawaii, Louisville, and Washington State were among Woods final schools before he chose Kansas State.

The Buffs are losing key defensive players in Nate Landman, Carson Wells, and Mustafa Johnson this year, as well as backfield talents like Christian Gonzalez, Mekhi Blackmon, and Mark Perry who have all transferred. Although there is already some young defensive talent on the roster heading into 2022, with four years of eligibility left Wood could be a potential transfer portal target for Dorrell and his staff.
The Duchess has worn a mixture of custom, new and vintage pieces (Getty)

The Duchess of Cambridge has seen her style subtly evolve in the decade since she officially joined the royal family. But her latest looks prove that her 40s may be her best sartorial years yet.

Prince William and Kate Middleton are currently in the Caribbean celebrating the Queens Platinum Jubilee  a trip which has been met with plenty of controversy.

The week-long trip marks the first official overseas tour the couple has taken since the beginning of the pandemic, and the Duchess has made plenty of style statements showcasing her love of colour and eye for flattering silhouettes.

Her Caribbean wardrobe has encompassed a mixture of new and vintage pieces, including a 1950s striped dress she wore in Belize, and the striking yellow custom-made dress from British designer Roksanda that she sported in Jamaica.

Belize

The Duchess wore Emmy London heels in the style Rebecca (Getty Images)

The Duchess arrived at Philip S W Goldson International Airport in Belize City dressed in a fitted royal blue lacy Jenny Packham dress, which she wore with matching Emmy London heels in the style Rebecca.

For jewellery, she wore a sapphire and diamond necklace, ring and earrings.

Kate wears a Tory Burch dress (Getty Images)

Kate opted for blue once again while taking a tour of the Cheil Mayan chocolate factory. She wore a floral midi dress from Tory Burch which featured a milkmaid neckline and sleeves.

She accessorised with matching blue chandelier earrings from Sezane, a woven clutch bag by Anya Hindmarch and Stuart Weitzman wedged sandals.

Kate wears a Scotch & Soda jacket (Getty Images)

The Duchess dressed for the occasion as she embarked on a trip to the ancient Mayan archaeological site in the jungle during day three of the tour.

She arrived in khaki trousers by G-Star, paired with a simple white t-shirt, Ray-Bans sunglasses and canvas Superga trainers.

She added a light, beige safari-style jacket from Scotch & Soda to the look later on.

Kate stuns in a pink gown from The Vampires Wife (Getty Images)

That evening, the Cambridges attended a reception hosted by the Governor General of Belize at the Mayan ruins in Cahal Pech. The Duchess stunned in a shimmering full-length gown by The Vampires Wife in a vibrant hot pink colour.

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The style, the light sleeper dress, is crafted from silk lame chiffon woven with ruby metallic threads. It features frilled sleeves, a high, rounded neckline and a floor-sweeping hemline.

She accessorised with an embroidered clutch bag and gold statement earrings by Onitaa  which she previously wore to the No Time To Die premiere last September.

The Duchess carried a Mulberry handbag (Getty Images)

The Duchess also wore multiple outfits on day four.

Boarding the plane to make her way to Jamaica, Kate was pictured in a red belted jacket from Yves Saint Laurent, which she styled with wide-leg white trousers, Aquazzura Cece pumps and a matching Mulberry handbag in the style Amberley.

Jamaica

She wore the same Aquazurra pumps seen in Belize (Getty Images)

The Duchess arrived in Jamaica in a custom Roksanda dress in the same shade of yellow as the Jamaican flag.

The dress featured a billowing skirt and accent shoulder. She paired the look with the same Aquazurra pumps seen in Belize.

She wore a vintage 1950s dress (Getty Images)

Later, she changed into a 1950s striped coral and turquoise dress from Willow Hilson Vintage. She paired the look with Maria Black pearl earrings and nude slingback heels.

The Duchess opted for a chic white suit (Getty Images)

For a meeting with Jamaicas prime minister Andrew Holness and his wife Juliet, Kate wore a chic white trouser suit over a pale orange blouse.

She completed the look with a 1960s vintage bright orange handbag by Wayne Taylor.

The Duchess is regularly seen in Jenny Packham (Getty Images)

Arriving at a dinner hosted by Patrick Allen, governor general of Jamaica, the Duchess looked radiant in an A-line, emerald-green tulle gown by Jenny Packham.

The glittering design featured a ruffled, off-the-shoulder neckline. She decorated the dress with her Royal Family Order of the Queen.
Kate Middleton honored Jamaica by wearing a dress in one of its national colors.

The duchess wore a glittery Jenny Packham ball gown to a dinner during her royal tour.

She accessorized with jewels belonging to the Queen.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended a dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica as part of their royal tour of the Caribbean on Wednesday.

Kate Middleton opted for a glittery green ball gown for the event, which was held at King's House, the Governor General's official residence in Jamaica, according to a Kensington Palace press release.

Middleton chose a green Jenny Packham dress as a tribute to Jamaica's national flag, People reports. The Daily Mail reports that Middleton's dress, which is floor-length and has a ruffled neckline, is a green version of the designer's black "Sophia" dress, which is now sold-out online.

She styled her hair in an intricate up-do, and completed the look with emerald earrings and a bracelet on loan from the Queen, People and the Daily Mail reports.

The Duchess of Cambridge. Samir Hussein/Getty Images

She also wore special insignia, the Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victoria Order (GCVO) and the Royal Family Order badge, which is usually reserved for formal events, according to People.

Middleton and Prince William are currently in the Caribbean to attend events in honor of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which marks 70 years on the British throne.

During a speech made at the dinner on Wednesday, William said he was "touched" to hear about Jamaicans' affection for his grandmother.

"Her dedication, commitment, and sense of duty to the Commonwealth family is deeply admired," William said in a speech sent to Insider. "She may be my actual grandmother, but everyone counts her as their grandmother too. And I'm okay with that!"

William also expressed his "sorrow" over the history of slavery in Jamaica, saying it was "abhorrent" and "it never should have happened."

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This comes after the duke and duchess faced protests over Britain's colonial history earlier in their royal tour. They were forced to cancel engagements in Belize on Saturday over protests that occurred after the couple landed their helicopter on a soccer field that's embroiled in a land dispute between Belize citizens and Flora and Fauna International (FFI), a conservation group that lists William as a patron, Reuters previously reported.

Protesters carried signs that read "Prince William leave our land," "Not your land, not your decision," and "Colonial legacy theft continues with Prince & FFI," the publication reported.

Representatives for Jenny Packham and Kensington Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, is sitting before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week during her weeklong confirmation hearing, answering senators' questions on her qualifications, judgments and philosophy. She is speaking for hours on some of the nation's most controversial issues  abortion, critical race theory, court-packing. But some of the hearing's most captivating moments involved no words at all, were found instead in the expressions of the family behind her: a husband overwhelmed with emotion, a daughter who smiled at her mother with awe.

They were tender moments that hinted at the enormity of the day, and Jackson's introduction of her family members helped add important context for how she arrived there. Jackson said without her husband Dr. Patrick Jackson's support "none of this would have been possible," and she told her daughters, Talia and Leila, she knew "it has not been easy as I have tried to navigate the challenges of juggling my career and motherhood" and admitted she "did not always get the balance right."

The way she looks at her mom #Repost @washpostphoto

Photos by @jabinbotsford  Judge Ketanji Brown Jacksons daughter Leila Jackson, right, and husband Dr. Patrick Jackson, left, listen during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. pic.twitter.com/XBMQBviWua  David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) March 21, 2022

Her family's emotion and her nods to their support and sacrifice shine light on the historically overlooked achievements of Black women, the challenges of working mothers, and the value of men who champion them.

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Dr. Patrick Jackson, husband of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, becomes emotional during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday, March 21, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

"Hearings for Supreme Court nominees aren't merely formal political procedures. They're live drama media spectacles. The theatrics aren't a distraction  in many ways they are the focal point of these important cultural moments," said Jackson Katz, a gender expert and author of several books on the politics of masculinity.

Jackson: 'Humbled' by historic nomination to Supreme Court

Karyn Lacy, a sociology professor at the University of Michigan and author of "Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class," said it's important Jackson's husband's tears are not only framed in the context of gender equality but also viewed through the lens of intersectionality. Dr. Patrick Jackson, who is white, is married to a Black woman, which Lacy said gives him a front-row seat to some of the unique challenges Black women face in white-collar occupations.

Analysis: Kamala Harris' inauguration is a milestone moment

"Most white men are not positioned to see the world from this vantage point," she said. "In that sense, Dr. Jackson's tears reminded me of the tears I saw Black people shed, older Black people in particular when Obama was first elected in 2008. It's a recognition that while historically Black people have been denied the opportunity to reach their full potential, every now and then, there's a breakthrough."

Jackson's husband offers 'honest display of emotion'

On social media, many users called Jackson's husband's reaction "powerful," claiming it offered a model for healthy heterosexual partnership.

"One of the great things about media coverage of Brown Jackson's husband's response to her nomination  including his honest display of emotion  is that in an era when so many men in public life are clearly threatened by strong women, it provides men, young men, and boys with a concrete example of a highly successful man who is confident enough to embrace progress for women, which is another way of saying progress for our democratic ideals and values," Katz said.

Tony Porter, founder of A Call to Men, an organization that focuses on reframing the definition of manhood, points out the attention around the display of emotion also underscores how uncommon it remains.

"We would not question this if her mother was wiping a few tears. We would not question it if her daughters or her girlfriend were wiping away a few tears," he said.

Working mothers praise Ketanji Brown Jackson's vulnerability

When Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke to her daughters about failing to always get "the balance right," many working mothers thanked her for her vulnerability. They felt that, too. They feel it still.

Porter said for Jackson to succeed as a Black woman, facing the dual forces of sexism and racism, it likely required her to put in a significant amount of time and energy that at times kept her from being fully present in her children's lives. But he also said it's notable that Jackson felt she needed to apologize for it.

"A woman celebrates the success and then because of socialization, feels she also has a responsibility to apologize for her absence," he said.

Dawn Dow, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland-College Park and author of "Mothering While Black: Boundaries and Burdens of Middle-Class Parenthood," found in her research that middle- and upper-middle-class Black mothers often stay in the workforce, even when their children are young.

Jess Calarco, a sociology professor at Indiana University who studies systems of inequality, said those decisions reflect racial wealth and income inequalities that can make it difficult for many Black mothers to afford to stay home with their children, as well as reflect racist stereotypes that Black women may face if they do decide to stay home with their children full-time, including that they are poor or seeking welfare.

Calarco said Dow's work shows "why and how Ketanji Brown Jackson has persisted despite the challenges of being a Black mother working in a field built for wealthy white men, and also shows us why her family has rallied behind her and cheered her on every step of the way."

Jackson told her daughters she hopes they "have seen that with hard work, determination and love, it can be done. I am so looking forward to seeing what each of you chooses to do with your amazing lives."

The cheering went both ways.

During the hearing, on her daughter Leila's seat was a yellow piece of paper adorned with hand-drawn balloons that read, "You got this!"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ketanji Brown Jackson motherhood comments, husband's tears mean a lot
Colby Covington was allegedly assaulted by UFC rival Jorge Masvidal this week (Getty Images)

Khabib Nurmagomedov has urged UFC fighters not to accept bouts with Colby Covington, who was allegedly assaulted by rival Jorge Masvidal this week.

Masvidal was charged with felony battery after an alleged attack on Covington in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday, three weeks after the latter defeated Masvidal in the main event of UFC 272.

A Miami Beach Police Department report says Covington, 34, claims he was leaving a steak restaurant when Masvidal, 37, ran up from his left side and struck him without notice or warning. The report adds that the defendant struck [Covington] with a closed fist to his mouth and eye. [The] victim suffered a fractured tooth due to these actions.

The police report says that Masvidal had taken offence to Covington mentioning his children.

If you are stronger than someone inside the octagon, it does not mean that you can insult his children, Nurmagomedov wrote on Twitter. No one has the right to insult someones family.

Once you have gone down this path, then be ready to back up your words. You were attacked by professional fighter, the same as you are, your own size, and you go press charges against him to the police?

I think all welterweights should refuse to fight Colby, just dont accept fights with him, let him sit without a fight, it will probably significantly affect him and all fighters who even think of insulting families, who is provoking the fighters to look for someone in restaurants to deal with him.

Masvidal and Covington are former roommates whose friendship has devolved into a bitter rivalry in recent years, and Masvidal had suggested that their differences were not settled with his decision loss to his compatriot.

Masvidal appeared to reference this weeks altercation in the aftermath, when he posted a video on Twitter in which he said: Call this the show-your-face challenge Whats up, Im from Dade county. You talk that s***, youve got to back it up. Thats how my city rolls.




The president and COO of Koch Industries defended the company's decision to continue operations in Russia despite a mass-exodus of major companies from the country amid its invasion in Ukraine.

In a company wide memo, President and COO Dave Robertson told employees he wanted to "share the details that much of the media have left out but are important for you to know."

Robertson laid out three reasons why the company decided to remain in Russia: First, he said that Russian officials are threatening jail time for employees of companies that leave Russia; he claimed that it was impossible to completely shut down the factories; and finally, he stated that glass made at Koch facilities in Russia does not go to the Russian military, but residential buildings.

Last week, Koch Industries announced that their company, Guardian Industries, would continue operating two glass factories that employ 600 people in Russia. Koch Industries also employs 15 people in Russia outside of the Guardian.

In the memo, Robertson added that "abandoning the Guardian plants in Russia would put our employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good."

"This is an extremely volatile and uncertain situation in which we will continue to make decisions that we believe will avoid causing harm to our employees or Ukraine," Robertson said.

"To be clear, Koch condemns the heinous actions of the Russian government in Ukraine, and shortly after learning of the invasion, Guardian suspended all new capital investments in Russia," he added.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, major U.S. companies have moved swiftly to shut down operations in the country. McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Disney and others have suspended operations in Russia in response to its ongoing war with Ukraine.
[](603713):2021 20220325 00:34:06  :

:   2021

Code: 603713 Short Name: Milkyway





Since 1998



























































Milkyway Chemical Supply Chain Service Co.,ltd





2021 annual report summary















































 1

 7















































2022.03.25







J:\\\2019\201902





Chapter 1 Notice



1 The summary is on basis of the full text of the annual report. In order to fully understand the

operating results, financial position and future development plan of the company, investors are

encouraged to read the full text of the annual report on www.sse.com.cn.





2 The board of directors, the board of supervisors as well as the directors, supervisors and senior

managers of the Company guarantee the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of the contents

of the annual report, free from false records, misleading statements or major omissions, and bear

individual and joint legal liabilities.





3 All directors of the company attend the board meeting.





4 Baker Tilly China Certified Public Accountants (special general partnership) issued the standard

unqualified opinion audit report for the company.





5 Profit distribution plan or reserve fund to increase capital stock plan adopted by resolution of the

board of directors during the reporting period.











Chapter 2 Company general information



1. Company profile





Company stock profile





Class





Stock exchange





Shor name of

stock





Code





Previous record





Renminbi ordinary

shares A shares





Shanghai Stock

Exchange





Milkyway





603713





None















Contacts





Board Secretary





Securities affairs representative





Name





Miao Leiming





Rao Yingying





Address





Building 39, Jinxiu Shenjiang

Jinqiao Huahong Innovation Park,

Lane 2777 jinxiu East Road,

Pudong New Area, Shanghai





Building 39, Jinxiu Shenjiang

Jinqiao Huahong Innovation Park,

Lane 2777 jinxiu East Road,

Pudong New Area, Shanghai





Phone





021-

80228498





021-

80228498





E-

mail





ir@mwclg.com





ir@mwclg.com





















2. Overview of business during the reporting period





In 2021, the market of logistics in China reached 335.2 trillion yuan, with a year-

on-

year

growth of 9.2% calculated at comparable prices and an average annual growth of 6.2% in two







J:\\\2019\201902

years. The growth rate returned to the average level of normal years. The structure of logistics

demand changes synchronously with the adjustment of economic structure and industrial

upgrading. Overall, there was industrial logistics made teady progress, international import

logistics encounted considerable downward pressure, and consumption logistics obtained teady

growth. Industrial upgrading creadted increasing number of high-

tech manufacturing logistics

demand, which presented a growing trend and leading effect. According to hazardous Chemical

Logistics Branch of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, the market of the national

chemical logistics industry will exceed 2 trillion yuan by the end of 2021, and the third-

party

chemical logistics take 40%, meaning 800 billion yuan.





Since the explosion of Wenling tank truck and the Lebanese port incident on June 13, 2020,

the government has further strictly controlled and supervised the safe operation of dangerous

goods. The market was highly tightening and strictly controlled. In July 2020, the Office of the

Security Commission of The State Council held an meeting, which assigned safety improvement

task to chemical parks and hazardous chemical enterprises, and initiated the special rectification

work of illegal "small chemical industry".From July 1 to December 31, local public security and

traffic control departments carried out a series of traffic safety special rectification actions of

hazardous chemicals transport. In September 2020, the Security and Commission Office of The

State Council deployed the third round of special investigations on dangerous chemical safety

risks and hidden dangers. At the same time of the steady development of industry supervision, and

the market is moving towards the clean-

up stage of compliance. While steadily pushibging the

industry supervision, security control is put in the first place and the market is moving towards the

compliance cleaning stage.





On September 22, 2020, at the seventy-

fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly,

the Chinese government proposed that "China will enhance its national contribution, adopt more

effective policies and measures, strive for the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, and

achieve carbon neutrality by 2060." On March 5, 2021, in the 2021 Government work report of

The State Council, Premier Li Keqiang emphasized the solid efforts to peak carbon emissions and

neutralize, carbon emissions, formulation of action plan to peak carbon emissions by 2030, and

optimization of industrial structure and energy structure. The promotion of carbon neutrality, as

another development requirement of environmental protection, will accelerate the adjustment of







J:\\\2019\201902

transportation structure in chemical logistics industry from road to rail and water, and promote the

development of multimodal transportation. At the same time, this transformation will introduce the

logistics demand related to LNG, new energy and other clean energy, and brings the development

opportunities for hazardous waste discharge and disposal related fields of chemical enterprises.





China's initiative to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime

Silk Road (hereinafter referred to as the Belt and Road) has attracted great attention from the

international community and received positive response from many countries. The Belt and Road

initiative aims to enhance coordination of economy and policy among countries, improve

connectivity, and carry out bilateral, multilateral and close cooperations with high quality in a

larger scope. It will enable countries to achieve shared benefits through consultation and

collaboration and jointly build a new system of global economic governance. The proposal and

implementation of the "Belt and Road" will promote the trade of chemicals in the countries along

the "Belt and Road", thus bringing broad development space to the global chemical logistics

industry.





As the safety and environmental supervision requirements becoming stricter, which pushes

downstream chemical enterprises moving from the city into industrial park, chemical enterprises

are increasingly demanding for the specialization and safety of logistics. Comprehensive chemical

enterprises prefer to choose professional third-

party logistics service providers. At the same time,

small and non-

standard chemical enterprises were gradually phased out by the supervision and

operating pressure. The industry concentration is expected to improve rapidly.











2.1 Business Scope





Milkyway is a leading chemical supply chain service provider in China, which provides

one-

stop integrated logistics services with freight forwarding, warehousing and transportation as

its core business. It has gradually extended to chemical distribution based on integrated logistics

services to provide integrated chemical goods and trade services. Its service modules are

developing collaboratively to meet the diversified online and offline needs of customers from

different industries and regions. Since its establishment, Milkyway has engaged in its main

business and is committed to providing customers with one-

stop chemical supply chain solutions







J:\\\2019\201902

worldwide.











 One-

stop integrated logistics service





The one-

stop integrated logistics service covers whole-

process logistics services from the

client to the customer. According to business entrustment from chemical industry customers,

Milkyway picks up goods from domestic and overseas consignors, organizes domestic and

international transportation to deliver goods to locations designated by domestic and overseas

consignees. Milkyway ensures high efficiency and security for the flow of goods, information and

capital in the logistics chain.











. Global forwarding business (MGF)





Milkyway provides one-

stop transportation service (by sea, air or rail) for general dangerous

goods worldwide. Our freight forwarding business covers a series of activities related to

international transportation, including traditional import and export cargo collection, booking,

consignment, warehousing, packaging, loading/unloading, transit, distribution, submission and

declaration for inspection, and cargo insurance, as well as international multimodal transportation,

third-

party logistics, contract logistics and other emerging businesses.











. Global shipping and tank container (MTT)





Milkyway provides diversified and flexible leasing and transportation services for domestic

and foreign trade through various types of tank containers; self-

built tank yard network provides

professional 24-

hour container tank technical services, including tank storage, cleaning, heating,

repair, and modification, technical support, etc.; provide transportation and supporting logistics

solutions for LNG tank containers and special chemical tankers.











. Global engineering logistics and dry bulk (MPC)





Global engineering logistics, which integrates various transportation modes, specializes in

delivering professional logistics services for large-

scale general contracting projects, and

providing customized integrated logistics solutions from factory to site, with service covering

fields like oil and gas, petrochemicals, renewable energy, nuclear power, infrastructure,







J:\\\2019\201902

engineering and plant construction, mining and metallurgy. Based on a global network of vessel

resources, the dry bulk service offers stable, flexible and diverse customized shipping solutions for

global trade in bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain and fertilizer.











. Regional warehousing and distribution integration (MRW)





Milkyway operated 550,000 sq.m of professional chemical warehouses, providing customers

with chemical storage, inventory management and operation, as well as value-

added services such

as cargo sorting, sub-

assembly, packaging change, labeling and palletization. The business mainly

consists of two main components, namely, a distribution center providing cargo storage,

distribution, and in-

plant logistics, and foreign trade warehousing related to export

containerization for freight forwarding.











. Regional domestic trade delivery (MRT)





Based on its own transport capacity and purchased capacity, Milkyway establishes domestic

transportation delivery services for all types of chemical products. According to the special

requirements for transportation of different chemical goods, Milkyway provides transportation

vehicles with special functions and special loading equipment to meet various purposes. It offers

nationwide road transportation of various chemical goods in containers, inbound and outbound

services at ports, and multimodal freight forwarding services by domestic waterway, railroad and

air transport between domestic ports. It aims to create a three-

tier network transportation capacity

consisting of intra-

city distribution, inter-

city express transportation and trunk express

transportation. Also, Milkyway provides nationwide chemical contract logistics, reverse logistics,

and small express transportation services.











 Chemical trading service





. Unique distribution (MCD)





Milkyway is leading the digital transformation of global chemical enterprises and aims to

build an integrated logistics and trade service system covering all scenarios. For the chemical

trading service, Milkyway leverages its rich experience in chemical supply chain operation and

networked logistics infrastructure to establish a one-

stop integrated logistics service system, with







J:\\\2019\201902

online services diverting traffic for offline services, and offline services supporting online services.

Milkyway matches the procurement and sales demands of upstream and downstream chemical

manufacturers and customers, and gradually takes over the sales function of upstream

manufacturers and procurement function of downstream manufacturers. This enables it to serve

downstream customers and consumers for manufacturers, and provide distribution services and

supply chain solutions to chemical industry customers.











2.2 Businss Model





Milkyway is committed to becomming the "Super Chemical Amazon", an industrial internet

e-

commerce platform based on the global professional chemical delivery capabilities, connecting

the whole supply chain of logistics, transaction and environmental protection, and providing

high-

standard supply chain services for global customers. The one-

stop whole supply chain

service provided by Milkyway helps customers integrate and optimize logistics links, shorten the

circulation cycle of goods, improve logistics efficiency, and help customers enhance market

competitiveness. With the increase in customer sales, the demand for one-

stop supply chain

solutions also increases. Milkyway grows together with customers, and achieve mutual success.











. MGF/MPC Service Model:





The reveure of MGF/MPC is mainly from freight farwarding agency fees and related

warehouse&transportation charge. Profit growth is driven by business volume and the increase of

service links. Since the expense of the carrier is included in the cost of the freight forwarding, the

revenue and cost of this service model are both high, and the profit margin is relatively lower.





. MTT Service Model





The reveure of MTT mainly comes from the rental os ISO tank&chemical vessel,delivery

charge, as well as related storage& truck fees. The service is provided only for liquid chemical to

reduce unit logitiscs cost by large scale delivery capacity. High level asset utilization,large

volumes driven and VAS will benifit the profit.





. MRW Service Model





The revenue of MRW includes storage rent fees, in and out of the warehouse fees,and

additional value-

added services (sorting, packaging, product compounding,moving, palletizing,







J:\\\2019\201902

labeling, fumigation and other service fees). The pricing comprehensively considers construction

cost, lease cost, market price level, other additional costs, management costs, chemical categories,

labor costs and other factors. The increase of goods turnover will effectively enhance revenue and

profit.





. MRT Service Model





The pricing of MRT refers to weight, goods category, fuel consumption, personnel, vehicle

depreciation cost. Combining with vehicle type, market price level, bridge fees and taxes per car

per kilometer (car/km), setting the tiered pricing strategy according to distance.





. MCD Service Model:





The profit of MCD is mainly created by direct sales (centralized procurement and

distribution)/indirect sales (dealmaking/shop agent operation) of various kinds of chemical

products, supported by competitive prices, professional service, safe one-

stop logistics. Including

product price difference, consulting service fees, logistics service fees and other value-

added

services. Through logistics service empowerment, business revenue certainty and profit space can

be improved.











3. Main Accounting Data and Financial Indicators





3.1 Main accounting data and financial indicators for the past 3 years





Unit: Yuan Currency: RMB











FY2021





FY2020





Year-

on-

year

change(%)





FY2019





Total Asset





7,272,525,201.88





3,678,240,679.85





97.72





2,569,123,443.18





Net assets attributable

to shareholders of the

company





3,152,644,447.94





1,711,372,906.72





84.22





1,434,668,622.92





Revenue





8,644,718,998.17





3,426,952,178.37





152.26





2,418,798,183.45





Net profit attributable to

shareholders of the

company





431,792,852.98





288,498,851.75





49.67





196,058,708.03





Net profit attributable to

shareholders of the

company after

deducting non-

recurring

gains and losses





410,867,527.67





272,753,479.27





50.64





188,360,253.38





Net cash inflow from

operating activities





202,545,286.29





338,555,756.01





-

40.17





212,514,355.26





Weighted average ROE

(%)





15.87





18.34





-

2.47points





14.62





Basic EPS (Yuan/share)





2.6646





1.8644





42.92





1.2859





Diluted EPS

(Yuan/share)





2.6646





1.8644





42.92





1.2859













J:\\\2019\201902





3.2 Main Accounting data by Quarter





Unit: Yuan Currency: RMB











Q1





(Jan-

Mar)





Q2





(Apr-

Jun)





Q3





(Jul-

Sep)





Q4





(Oct-

Dec)





Revenue





1,443,832,244.63





2,018,109,387.10





2,487,627,934.29





2,695,149,432.15





Net profit attributable to

shareholders of the

company





77,649,338.89





105,963,144.34





117,831,142.68





130,349,227.06





Net profit attributable to

shareholders of the

company after

deducting non-

recurring

gains and losses





76,608,616.99





108,621,326.69





101,490,082.34





124,147,501.64





Net cash

inflow/(outflow) from

operating activities





149,630,083.64





73,727,181.31





-

116,961,191.03





96,149,212.37





















4. Shareholders Profile





4.1 The total number of shareholders of ordinary shares, preferred stock shareholders whose

voting rights were restored and shareholders with special voting rights at the end of the

previous month of the reporting period and disclosure date.





Unit: Share





Total number of shareholders of ordinary shares as at the end of

the reporting period





8,541





Total number of shareholders of ordinary shares at the end of last

month prior to the disclosure date of this annual report





7,811





Total number of shareholders of preferred shares whose voting

rights have been restored at the end of the reporting period





Not applicable





Total number of shareholders of preferred shares whose voting

rights have been restored at the end of last month prior to the

disclosure date of this annual report





Not applicable





Top ten shareholders





Name of

shareholder (full

name)





Share

change

during the

Reporting

Period





Number of

shares

held at the

end of the

reporting

period





Percentage

(%)





Number of

restricted

shares





Pledged, marked

or frozen





Nature of

shareholde





Share

status





Number





Chen Yinhe





40,300





44,073,299





26.79





0





-











Domestic

natural person













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Li Renli





36,000





22,381,009





13.61





0











-











Domestic

natural person





Beijing Legend

Maolin

Investment (LP)





-

8,450,273





9,398,996





5.71





0











-











Others





HKEX Group





1,074,490





8,551,673





5.20





0











-











Overseas legal person





Shanghai Yanruo

Investment (LP)





-

522,960





7,003,922





4.26





0











-











Others





Shanghai Yanhui

Investment (LP)





-

489,500





5,010,500





3.05





0











-











Others





Shanghai Yanzhi

Investment (LP)





-

492,417





5,007,583





3.04





0











-











Others





CMB-

Penghua

Emerging

Industry Mixed

Stock Investment

Fund





-

183,517





3,382,872





2.06





0





-











Others





CPIC-

Dividend-

Individual

Dividend





-

639,147





3,370,448





2.05





0





-











Others





CUAM-

Social

Security Fund

Portfolio 423





100,000





3,200,000





1.95





0





-











Others





Explanation on the related

relations or parties acting in

concert among the above

shareholders





1. The companys controlling shareholder and beneficial controller

Chen Yinhe and Shen Lei are married, shareholder Li Renli and

Shen Lei are mother-

child relationship, the company identify the

three people as beneficial controller, Chen Yinhe and Li Renli are

parties acting in concert. 2. Yanji Investment 100% held by Chen

Yinhe is GP of Yanruo Investment, Yanhui Investment, Yanzhi

Investment, Chen Yinhe is the beneficial controller of the three

partnership. 3. Save as the above, the Company is not aware of any

related relationship or parties acting in concert among the aforesaid

shareholders





Explanation on the preference

shareholders with voting rights

restored and numbers of their

shareholdings





Not applicable





















4.2 Equity structure chart among the company and the controlling shareholders









J:\\\2019\201902























4.3 Equity structure chart among the company and the beneficial controller























Chapter 3 Key figures



The company shall, in accordance with the principle of materiality, disclose the major

changes in the company's operating conditions during the reporting period, as well as events that

have had a significant impact on the company's operations during the reporting period and are

expected to have a significant impact in the future.









J:\\\2019\201902

In 2021, the international environment is still complex and severe, and the domestic epidemic

is frequent and multiple factors are superimposed. The company react actively, continuously

improves operation efficiency, accelerates the improvement of response level, and expands market

share. Multiple financial indicators have achieved growth. Major operating performance data are

as follows:





1. Operating performance:





In 2021, the companys total profit was 527.85 million, a year-

on-

year increase of 51.06%;

the net profit attributable to the company's shareholders was 431.79 million, a year-

on-

year

increase of 49.67%; the weighted average ROE was 15.87%, a year-

on-

year decrease of 2.47%;

The EPS was 2.66 yuan per share, an increase of 0.80 yuan over last year. Details are as follows:





The company achieved a total revenue of 8,644.72 million, a year-

on-

year increase of

152.26%. This is because in 2021, the company rapidly develops the chemical trading business

with the integration of material and trading, expands new areas and new customers. The revenue

from trading business reached 3,126.31 million, an increase of 352.59% year-

on-

year; at the same

time, the freight forwarding business developed rapidly, and its revenue reached 3,114.19 million,

an increase of 185.40% year-

on-

year; in addition, the revenue contribution of international

engineering logistics, the company's new business segment, was 234.87 million.





The operating cost was 7,757.99 million, a year-

on-

year increase of 171.80%. The rapid

increase in operating income led to the increase in operating cost. The proportion of trading

business increased and the average gross profit margin was diluted, so the increase in operating

cost was higher than that in operating income.





The sales expenses was 93.61 million, a year-

on-

year increase of 92.24%. The incremental is

mainly due to the increase in sales personnel.





The G&A expenses was 197.62 million, a year-

on-

year increase of 53.75%. The incremental

was mainly due to the increase in personnel.





The financial expenses was 53.72 million, a year-

on-

year increase of 75.84%, mainly due to the

increase in interest expenses.





The R&D expenses was 28.31 million, a year-

on-

year increase of 10.60%.











2. Financial Performance









J:\\\2019\201902

At the end of the reporting period, the company's total assets were 7,272.53 million, a

year-

on-

year increase of 97.72%; total liabilities were 4,052.93 million, a year-

on-

year increase of

113.46%; equity attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 3,152.64 million, a

year-

on-

year increase of 84.22%; asset-

liability ratio was 55.73%, increased by 4.11% The

detailed composition of asset and liability is as follows:





Composition of total assets: At the end of the reporting period, the balance of current

assets was 4,453.64 million, 61.24% of the total assets, mainly including: 2,663.49 million in

notes receivable and accounts receivable, 638.16 million in cash and cash equivalents, and 390.64

million in prepayments. 1,367.58 million in Fixed assets and construction in progress, 18.80% of

the total assets. Fixed assets and construction in progress increased by 63.78% year-

on-

year, the

incremental is mainly due to the M&A last year and warehouses under construction. Intangible

assets are mainly land use rights. At the end of the reporting period, the balance of intangible

assets was 558.89 million, 7.68% of the total assets. Intangible assets increased by 16.42% year on

year, the incremental is mainly due to the M&A Goodwill mainly refers to the difference

between the investment cost and the fair value of the identifiable net assets of the merged

enterprise in acquisition. At the end of the reporting period, the goodwill was 610.34 million, an

increase of 137.00 million compared to last year.





Composition of total liabilities:  Current liabilities was RMB 3,278.72 million, 80.90% of

the total liabilities, an increase of 1,689.15 million year-

on-

year, mainly due to the increase in

accounts payable and notes payable, short-

term loans and other current liabilities. Non-

current

liabilities was 774.21 million, 19.10% of total liabilities, an increase of 465.10 million

year-

on-

year, mainly due to the increase in long-

term borrowings, lease liabilities and deferred tax

liabilities.











3.Cashflow





The company's cash and cash equivalents balance in 2021 was 631.02 million, an increase of

510.76 million year-

on-

year. The details are as follows:





In 2021, the net cash inflow from operating activities was 202.55 million, a year-

on-

year





decrease of 136.01 million, mainly due to the increase in working capital as revenue increased.





In 2021, the net cash outflow from investment activities was 1,440.35 million, a year-

on-

year







J:\\\2019\201902

increase of 1,136.72 million, mainly due to the increase in M&A payments and infrastructure

projects.





In 2021, the net cash inflow from financing activities was 1752.36 million, a year-

on-

year

increase of 1787.00million, mainly due to the increase in cash inflows from non-

public issuance of

shares.

















Chapter 4 2022 Target Algorithm governance, Ecological alliance









Milkyway is committed to building a global point-

to-

point chemical supply chain service

capability, with a large number of SKUs and compliance delivery network to efficiently meet

customer needs. Milkyway will take various forms of terminal as the strategic commanding point

of vertical integration to solve roaring cross-

industry competition, promote the strategic iteration,

and prosper trading and environmental protecting business.











1. Fundamental work, specifying strategic goals to match core capabilities





Improving science and technology innovation for digital governance, by increasing

investment in IT system and innovation: MCP cloud architecture upgrade, BI Combat center 2.0,

VR viewing and unmanned warehousing project. Unification of organizational reform, market

coordination, strategy implementation and other supportive centers; Enhancing safety and quality,

improving real-

time VMI; Developing data analysis of pre-

finding and post events; Construction

of drone inspection station.











2.Future oriented, planning 3-

5 years in advance, preparing for great 2030





Taking various forms of terminal as the strategic commanding point to solve cross-

industry

competitions; launching Jin Chan project and insisting on the undervalue principle when

implementing asset lightweight strategy; Marketization of internal capabilities, as the third growth

pole; Promoting Spark Plan and globalization strategy.











3.Balance profit and loss to ensure high quality annual growth









J:\\\2019\201902

Focusing on the strategic target customers: chip and semiconductor, biomedicine,

consumption upgrade, aerospace, clean energy and so on. Increasing the business scale of MPC,

Prospering MCD and e-

commerce. Adjusting market strategy to enhance customer engagement

and experience; Involving partners as new elements to solidify ecosphere, to concentrate chemical

supply chain and to realize organic growth.











4.Creating success based on cultural convergence and multiple capabilities





Cultural convergence is the only way to reduce cost and increase success. Talents and system

will remain the top priority in the long run. Milkyway will persistently cultivate engineers and

safety culture and build CEO,CSO plan and COE team.

















-

END-













 Code: 603713 Short Name: MilkywaySince 1998Milkyway Chemical Supply Chain Service Co.,ltd2021 annual report summary 1 72022.03.25J:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmChapter 1 Notice1 The summary is on basis of the full text of the annual report. In order to fully understand theoperating results, financial position and future development plan of the company, investors areencouraged to read the full text of the annual report on www.sse.com.cn.2 The board of directors, the board of supervisors as well as the directors, supervisors and seniormanagers of the Company guarantee the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of the contentsof the annual report, free from false records, misleading statements or major omissions, and bearindividual and joint legal liabilities.3 All directors of the company attend the board meeting.4 Baker Tilly China Certified Public Accountants (special general partnership) issued the standardunqualified opinion audit report for the company.5 Profit distribution plan or reserve fund to increase capital stock plan adopted by resolution of theboard of directors during the reporting period.Chapter 2 Company general information1. Company profileCompany stock profileClassStock exchangeShor name ofstockCodePrevious recordRenminbi ordinaryshares A sharesShanghai StockExchangeMilkyway603713NoneContactsBoard SecretarySecurities affairs representativeNameMiao LeimingRao YingyingAddressBuilding 39, Jinxiu ShenjiangJinqiao Huahong Innovation Park,Lane 2777 jinxiu East Road,Pudong New Area, ShanghaiBuilding 39, Jinxiu ShenjiangJinqiao Huahong Innovation Park,Lane 2777 jinxiu East Road,Pudong New Area, ShanghaiPhone021-80228498021-80228498E-mailir@mwclg.comir@mwclg.com2. Overview of business during the reporting periodIn 2021, the market of logistics in China reached 335.2 trillion yuan, with a year-on-yeargrowth of 9.2% calculated at comparable prices and an average annual growth of 6.2% in twoJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmyears. The growth rate returned to the average level of normal years. The structure of logisticsdemand changes synchronously with the adjustment of economic structure and industrialupgrading. Overall, there was industrial logistics made teady progress, international importlogistics encounted considerable downward pressure, and consumption logistics obtained teadygrowth. Industrial upgrading creadted increasing number of high-tech manufacturing logisticsdemand, which presented a growing trend and leading effect. According to hazardous ChemicalLogistics Branch of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, the market of the nationalchemical logistics industry will exceed 2 trillion yuan by the end of 2021, and the third-partychemical logistics take 40%, meaning 800 billion yuan.Since the explosion of Wenling tank truck and the Lebanese port incident on June 13, 2020,the government has further strictly controlled and supervised the safe operation of dangerousgoods. The market was highly tightening and strictly controlled. In July 2020, the Office of theSecurity Commission of The State Council held an meeting, which assigned safety improvementtask to chemical parks and hazardous chemical enterprises, and initiated the special rectificationwork of illegal "small chemical industry".From July 1 to December 31, local public security andtraffic control departments carried out a series of traffic safety special rectification actions ofhazardous chemicals transport. In September 2020, the Security and Commission Office of TheState Council deployed the third round of special investigations on dangerous chemical safetyrisks and hidden dangers. At the same time of the steady development of industry supervision, andthe market is moving towards the clean-up stage of compliance. While steadily pushibging theindustry supervision, security control is put in the first place and the market is moving towards thecompliance cleaning stage.On September 22, 2020, at the seventy-fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly,the Chinese government proposed that "China will enhance its national contribution, adopt moreeffective policies and measures, strive for the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, andachieve carbon neutrality by 2060." On March 5, 2021, in the 2021 Government work report ofThe State Council, Premier Li Keqiang emphasized the solid efforts to peak carbon emissions andneutralize, carbon emissions, formulation of action plan to peak carbon emissions by 2030, andoptimization of industrial structure and energy structure. The promotion of carbon neutrality, asanother development requirement of environmental protection, will accelerate the adjustment ofJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmtransportation structure in chemical logistics industry from road to rail and water, and promote thedevelopment of multimodal transportation. At the same time, this transformation will introduce thelogistics demand related to LNG, new energy and other clean energy, and brings the developmentopportunities for hazardous waste discharge and disposal related fields of chemical enterprises.China's initiative to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century MaritimeSilk Road (hereinafter referred to as the Belt and Road) has attracted great attention from theinternational community and received positive response from many countries. The Belt and Roadinitiative aims to enhance coordination of economy and policy among countries, improveconnectivity, and carry out bilateral, multilateral and close cooperations with high quality in alarger scope. It will enable countries to achieve shared benefits through consultation andcollaboration and jointly build a new system of global economic governance. The proposal andimplementation of the "Belt and Road" will promote the trade of chemicals in the countries alongthe "Belt and Road", thus bringing broad development space to the global chemical logisticsindustry.As the safety and environmental supervision requirements becoming stricter, which pushesdownstream chemical enterprises moving from the city into industrial park, chemical enterprisesare increasingly demanding for the specialization and safety of logistics. Comprehensive chemicalenterprises prefer to choose professional third-party logistics service providers. At the same time,small and non-standard chemical enterprises were gradually phased out by the supervision andoperating pressure. The industry concentration is expected to improve rapidly.2.1 Business ScopeMilkyway is a leading chemical supply chain service provider in China, which providesone-stop integrated logistics services with freight forwarding, warehousing and transportation asits core business. It has gradually extended to chemical distribution based on integrated logisticsservices to provide integrated chemical goods and trade services. Its service modules aredeveloping collaboratively to meet the diversified online and offline needs of customers fromdifferent industries and regions. Since its establishment, Milkyway has engaged in its mainbusiness and is committed to providing customers with one-stop chemical supply chain solutionsJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmworldwide. One-stop integrated logistics serviceThe one-stop integrated logistics service covers whole-process logistics services from theclient to the customer. According to business entrustment from chemical industry customers,Milkyway picks up goods from domestic and overseas consignors, organizes domestic andinternational transportation to deliver goods to locations designated by domestic and overseasconsignees. Milkyway ensures high efficiency and security for the flow of goods, information andcapital in the logistics chain.. Global forwarding business (MGF)Milkyway provides one-stop transportation service (by sea, air or rail) for general dangerousgoods worldwide. Our freight forwarding business covers a series of activities related tointernational transportation, including traditional import and export cargo collection, booking,consignment, warehousing, packaging, loading/unloading, transit, distribution, submission anddeclaration for inspection, and cargo insurance, as well as international multimodal transportation,third-party logistics, contract logistics and other emerging businesses.. Global shipping and tank container (MTT)Milkyway provides diversified and flexible leasing and transportation services for domesticand foreign trade through various types of tank containers; self-built tank yard network providesprofessional 24-hour container tank technical services, including tank storage, cleaning, heating,repair, and modification, technical support, etc.; provide transportation and supporting logisticssolutions for LNG tank containers and special chemical tankers.. Global engineering logistics and dry bulk (MPC)Global engineering logistics, which integrates various transportation modes, specializes indelivering professional logistics services for large-scale general contracting projects, andproviding customized integrated logistics solutions from factory to site, with service coveringfields like oil and gas, petrochemicals, renewable energy, nuclear power, infrastructure,J:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmengineering and plant construction, mining and metallurgy. Based on a global network of vesselresources, the dry bulk service offers stable, flexible and diverse customized shipping solutions forglobal trade in bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain and fertilizer.. Regional warehousing and distribution integration (MRW)Milkyway operated 550,000 sq.m of professional chemical warehouses, providing customerswith chemical storage, inventory management and operation, as well as value-added services suchas cargo sorting, sub-assembly, packaging change, labeling and palletization. The business mainlyconsists of two main components, namely, a distribution center providing cargo storage,distribution, and in-plant logistics, and foreign trade warehousing related to exportcontainerization for freight forwarding.. Regional domestic trade delivery (MRT)Based on its own transport capacity and purchased capacity, Milkyway establishes domestictransportation delivery services for all types of chemical products. According to the specialrequirements for transportation of different chemical goods, Milkyway provides transportationvehicles with special functions and special loading equipment to meet various purposes. It offersnationwide road transportation of various chemical goods in containers, inbound and outboundservices at ports, and multimodal freight forwarding services by domestic waterway, railroad andair transport between domestic ports. It aims to create a three-tier network transportation capacityconsisting of intra-city distribution, inter-city express transportation and trunk expresstransportation. Also, Milkyway provides nationwide chemical contract logistics, reverse logistics,and small express transportation services. Chemical trading service. Unique distribution (MCD)Milkyway is leading the digital transformation of global chemical enterprises and aims tobuild an integrated logistics and trade service system covering all scenarios. For the chemicaltrading service, Milkyway leverages its rich experience in chemical supply chain operation andnetworked logistics infrastructure to establish a one-stop integrated logistics service system, withJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmonline services diverting traffic for offline services, and offline services supporting online services.Milkyway matches the procurement and sales demands of upstream and downstream chemicalmanufacturers and customers, and gradually takes over the sales function of upstreammanufacturers and procurement function of downstream manufacturers. This enables it to servedownstream customers and consumers for manufacturers, and provide distribution services andsupply chain solutions to chemical industry customers.2.2 Businss ModelMilkyway is committed to becomming the "Super Chemical Amazon", an industrial internete-commerce platform based on the global professional chemical delivery capabilities, connectingthe whole supply chain of logistics, transaction and environmental protection, and providinghigh-standard supply chain services for global customers. The one-stop whole supply chainservice provided by Milkyway helps customers integrate and optimize logistics links, shorten thecirculation cycle of goods, improve logistics efficiency, and help customers enhance marketcompetitiveness. With the increase in customer sales, the demand for one-stop supply chainsolutions also increases. Milkyway grows together with customers, and achieve mutual success.. MGF/MPC Service Model:The reveure of MGF/MPC is mainly from freight farwarding agency fees and relatedwarehouse&transportation charge. Profit growth is driven by business volume and the increase ofservice links. Since the expense of the carrier is included in the cost of the freight forwarding, therevenue and cost of this service model are both high, and the profit margin is relatively lower.. MTT Service ModelThe reveure of MTT mainly comes from the rental os ISO tank&chemical vessel,deliverycharge, as well as related storage& truck fees. The service is provided only for liquid chemical toreduce unit logitiscs cost by large scale delivery capacity. High level asset utilization,largevolumes driven and VAS will benifit the profit.. MRW Service ModelThe revenue of MRW includes storage rent fees, in and out of the warehouse fees,andadditional value-added services (sorting, packaging, product compounding,moving, palletizing,J:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmlabeling, fumigation and other service fees). The pricing comprehensively considers constructioncost, lease cost, market price level, other additional costs, management costs, chemical categories,labor costs and other factors. The increase of goods turnover will effectively enhance revenue andprofit.. MRT Service ModelThe pricing of MRT refers to weight, goods category, fuel consumption, personnel, vehicledepreciation cost. Combining with vehicle type, market price level, bridge fees and taxes per carper kilometer (car/km), setting the tiered pricing strategy according to distance.. MCD Service Model:The profit of MCD is mainly created by direct sales (centralized procurement anddistribution)/indirect sales (dealmaking/shop agent operation) of various kinds of chemicalproducts, supported by competitive prices, professional service, safe one-stop logistics. Includingproduct price difference, consulting service fees, logistics service fees and other value-addedservices. Through logistics service empowerment, business revenue certainty and profit space canbe improved.3. Main Accounting Data and Financial Indicators3.1 Main accounting data and financial indicators for the past 3 yearsUnit: Yuan Currency: RMBFY2021FY2020Year-on-yearchange(%)FY2019Total Asset7,272,525,201.883,678,240,679.8597.722,569,123,443.18Net assets attributableto shareholders of thecompany3,152,644,447.941,711,372,906.7284.221,434,668,622.92Revenue8,644,718,998.173,426,952,178.37152.262,418,798,183.45Net profit attributable toshareholders of thecompany431,792,852.98288,498,851.7549.67196,058,708.03Net profit attributable toshareholders of thecompany afterdeducting non-recurringgains and losses410,867,527.67272,753,479.2750.64188,360,253.38Net cash inflow fromoperating activities202,545,286.29338,555,756.0140.17212,514,355.26Weighted average ROE(%)15.8718.342.47points14.62Basic EPS (Yuan/share)2.66461.864442.921.2859Diluted EPS(Yuan/share)2.66461.864442.921.2859J:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cm3.2 Main Accounting data by QuarterUnit: Yuan Currency: RMBQ1(Jan-Mar)Q2(Apr-Jun)Q3(Jul-Sep)Q4(Oct-Dec)Revenue1,443,832,244.632,018,109,387.102,487,627,934.292,695,149,432.15Net profit attributable toshareholders of thecompany77,649,338.89105,963,144.34117,831,142.68130,349,227.06Net profit attributable toshareholders of thecompany afterdeducting non-recurringgains and losses76,608,616.99108,621,326.69101,490,082.34124,147,501.64Net cashinflow/(outflow) fromoperating activities149,630,083.6473,727,181.31116,961,191.0396,149,212.374. Shareholders Profile4.1 The total number of shareholders of ordinary shares, preferred stock shareholders whosevoting rights were restored and shareholders with special voting rights at the end of theprevious month of the reporting period and disclosure date.Unit: ShareTotal number of shareholders of ordinary shares as at the end ofthe reporting period8,541Total number of shareholders of ordinary shares at the end of lastmonth prior to the disclosure date of this annual report7,811Total number of shareholders of preferred shares whose votingrights have been restored at the end of the reporting periodNot applicableTotal number of shareholders of preferred shares whose votingrights have been restored at the end of last month prior to thedisclosure date of this annual reportNot applicableTop ten shareholdersName ofshareholder (fullname)Sharechangeduring theReportingPeriodNumber ofsharesheld at theend of thereportingperiodPercentage(%)Number ofrestrictedsharesPledged, markedor frozenNature ofshareholdeSharestatusNumberChen Yinhe40,30044,073,29926.79Domesticnatural personJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmLi Renli36,00022,381,00913.61Domesticnatural personBeijing LegendMaolinInvestment (LP)8,450,2739,398,9965.71OthersHKEX Group1,074,4908,551,6735.20Overseas legal personShanghai YanruoInvestment (LP)522,9607,003,9224.26OthersShanghai YanhuiInvestment (LP)489,5005,010,5003.05OthersShanghai YanzhiInvestment (LP)492,4175,007,5833.04OthersCMB-PenghuaEmergingIndustry MixedStock InvestmentFund183,5173,382,8722.06OthersCPIC-Dividend-IndividualDividend639,1473,370,4482.05OthersCUAM-SocialSecurity FundPortfolio 423100,0003,200,0001.95OthersExplanation on the relatedrelations or parties acting inconcert among the aboveshareholders1. The companys controlling shareholder and beneficial controllerChen Yinhe and Shen Lei are married, shareholder Li Renli andShen Lei are mother-child relationship, the company identify thethree people as beneficial controller, Chen Yinhe and Li Renli areparties acting in concert. 2. Yanji Investment 100% held by ChenYinhe is GP of Yanruo Investment, Yanhui Investment, YanzhiInvestment, Chen Yinhe is the beneficial controller of the threepartnership. 3. Save as the above, the Company is not aware of anyrelated relationship or parties acting in concert among the aforesaidshareholdersExplanation on the preferenceshareholders with voting rightsrestored and numbers of theirshareholdingsNot applicable4.2 Equity structure chart among the company and the controlling shareholdersJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cm4.3 Equity structure chart among the company and the beneficial controllerChapter 3 Key figuresThe company shall, in accordance with the principle of materiality, disclose the majorchanges in the company's operating conditions during the reporting period, as well as events thathave had a significant impact on the company's operations during the reporting period and areexpected to have a significant impact in the future.J:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmIn 2021, the international environment is still complex and severe, and the domestic epidemicis frequent and multiple factors are superimposed. The company react actively, continuouslyimproves operation efficiency, accelerates the improvement of response level, and expands marketshare. Multiple financial indicators have achieved growth. Major operating performance data areas follows:1. Operating performance:In 2021, the companys total profit was 527.85 million, a year-on-year increase of 51.06%;the net profit attributable to the company's shareholders was 431.79 million, a year-on-yearincrease of 49.67%; the weighted average ROE was 15.87%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.47%;The EPS was 2.66 yuan per share, an increase of 0.80 yuan over last year. Details are as follows:The company achieved a total revenue of 8,644.72 million, a year-on-year increase of152.26%. This is because in 2021, the company rapidly develops the chemical trading businesswith the integration of material and trading, expands new areas and new customers. The revenuefrom trading business reached 3,126.31 million, an increase of 352.59% year-on-year; at the sametime, the freight forwarding business developed rapidly, and its revenue reached 3,114.19 million,an increase of 185.40% year-on-year; in addition, the revenue contribution of internationalengineering logistics, the company's new business segment, was 234.87 million.The operating cost was 7,757.99 million, a year-on-year increase of 171.80%. The rapidincrease in operating income led to the increase in operating cost. The proportion of tradingbusiness increased and the average gross profit margin was diluted, so the increase in operatingcost was higher than that in operating income.The sales expenses was 93.61 million, a year-on-year increase of 92.24%. The incremental ismainly due to the increase in sales personnel.The G&A expenses was 197.62 million, a year-on-year increase of 53.75%. The incrementalwas mainly due to the increase in personnel.The financial expenses was 53.72 million, a year-on-year increase of 75.84%, mainly due to theincrease in interest expenses.The R&D expenses was 28.31 million, a year-on-year increase of 10.60%.2. Financial PerformanceJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmAt the end of the reporting period, the company's total assets were 7,272.53 million, ayear-on-year increase of 97.72%; total liabilities were 4,052.93 million, a year-on-year increase of113.46%; equity attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 3,152.64 million, ayear-on-year increase of 84.22%; asset-liability ratio was 55.73%, increased by 4.11% Thedetailed composition of asset and liability is as follows:Composition of total assets: At the end of the reporting period, the balance of currentassets was 4,453.64 million, 61.24% of the total assets, mainly including: 2,663.49 million innotes receivable and accounts receivable, 638.16 million in cash and cash equivalents, and 390.64million in prepayments. 1,367.58 million in Fixed assets and construction in progress, 18.80% ofthe total assets. Fixed assets and construction in progress increased by 63.78% year-on-year, theincremental is mainly due to the M&A last year and warehouses under construction. Intangibleassets are mainly land use rights. At the end of the reporting period, the balance of intangibleassets was 558.89 million, 7.68% of the total assets. Intangible assets increased by 16.42% year onyear, the incremental is mainly due to the M&A Goodwill mainly refers to the differencebetween the investment cost and the fair value of the identifiable net assets of the mergedenterprise in acquisition. At the end of the reporting period, the goodwill was 610.34 million, anincrease of 137.00 million compared to last year.Composition of total liabilities:  Current liabilities was RMB 3,278.72 million, 80.90% ofthe total liabilities, an increase of 1,689.15 million year-on-year, mainly due to the increase inaccounts payable and notes payable, short-term loans and other current liabilities. Non-currentliabilities was 774.21 million, 19.10% of total liabilities, an increase of 465.10 millionyear-on-year, mainly due to the increase in long-term borrowings, lease liabilities and deferred taxliabilities.3.CashflowThe company's cash and cash equivalents balance in 2021 was 631.02 million, an increase of510.76 million year-on-year. The details are as follows:In 2021, the net cash inflow from operating activities was 202.55 million, a year-on-yeardecrease of 136.01 million, mainly due to the increase in working capital as revenue increased.In 2021, the net cash outflow from investment activities was 1,440.35 million, a year-on-yearJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmincrease of 1,136.72 million, mainly due to the increase in M&A payments and infrastructureprojects.In 2021, the net cash inflow from financing activities was 1752.36 million, a year-on-yearincrease of 1787.00million, mainly due to the increase in cash inflows from non-public issuance ofshares.Chapter 4 2022 Target Algorithm governance, Ecological allianceMilkyway is committed to building a global point-to-point chemical supply chain servicecapability, with a large number of SKUs and compliance delivery network to efficiently meetcustomer needs. Milkyway will take various forms of terminal as the strategic commanding pointof vertical integration to solve roaring cross-industry competition, promote the strategic iteration,and prosper trading and environmental protecting business.1. Fundamental work, specifying strategic goals to match core capabilitiesImproving science and technology innovation for digital governance, by increasinginvestment in IT system and innovation: MCP cloud architecture upgrade, BI Combat center 2.0,VR viewing and unmanned warehousing project. Unification of organizational reform, marketcoordination, strategy implementation and other supportive centers; Enhancing safety and quality,improving real-time VMI; Developing data analysis of pre-finding and post events; Constructionof drone inspection station.2.Future oriented, planning 3-5 years in advance, preparing for great 2030Taking various forms of terminal as the strategic commanding point to solve cross-industrycompetitions; launching Jin Chan project and insisting on the undervalue principle whenimplementing asset lightweight strategy; Marketization of internal capabilities, as the third growthpole; Promoting Spark Plan and globalization strategy.3.Balance profit and loss to ensure high quality annual growthJ:\\\2019\201902  \-4cm.png-4cmFocusing on the strategic target customers: chip and semiconductor, biomedicine,consumption upgrade, aerospace, clean energy and so on. Increasing the business scale of MPC,Prospering MCD and e-commerce. Adjusting market strategy to enhance customer engagementand experience; Involving partners as new elements to solidify ecosphere, to concentrate chemicalsupply chain and to realize organic growth.4.Creating success based on cultural convergence and multiple capabilitiesCultural convergence is the only way to reduce cost and increase success. Talents and systemwill remain the top priority in the long run. Milkyway will persistently cultivate engineers andsafety culture and build CEO,CSO plan and COE team.END-
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Liv Ullmann likes to say that shes given away many Oscars in her life. But shes not talking about losing.

The great Norwegian actor was once a frequent presenter at the awards. She called Peter Finchs name for his posthumous Oscar for Network and stood beside Roger Moore when Sacheen Littlefeather accepted the statuette for Marlon Brando.

So when she heard the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was trying to get in touch with her recently, she figured she was going to be asked to give away another. But David Rubin had better news for her: It was her turn to get one.

The award will be officially given to her at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Friday. Elaine May, Samuel L. Jackson and Danny Glover are also being feted with honorary Oscars.

He really made it sound like I got my Oscar with that telephone conversation, Ullmann, 83, said earlier this week from her part-time residence in Key Largo. I felt I had just been congratulated with a beautiful life. I hung up the phone and thought, Oh Liv, you are so lucky.

Ullmann was nominated for best actress twice, first for Jan Troells The Emigrants in 1971, in which she was up against Cicely Tyson (Sounder), Diana Ross (Lady Sings the Blues) and Liza Minnelli (Cabaret), who won. A few years later she and Ingmar Bergman were up for Face to Face, and she brought her and Bergman's then-12-year-old daughter.

Neither won, which was fine by her. But after, she thought, Oh the poor little one! Mommy and Daddy, they were losers, she laughed.

Ullmann was born in Tokyo in 1938. Her Norwegian father was an engineer whose work took them around the globe. When she was 6 and they were living in New York, her father died after an accident with a propeller. She and her mother and sister soon moved back to Norway, where she was raised.

She got her start in theater and became quite famous for her turn as Nora in A Dolls House in the 1950s. It drew the attention of Edith Carlmar, Norways first female director, who gave Ullmann her first film role.

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I was very innocent and she said, 'You know its a wayward girl? Ullmann said. I was shy. And she said, Are you a virgin? I couldnt believe it. I got the part anyway. My family tried to stop me because they didnt want me to be a wayward girl. But it was an incredible experience. She was a great teacher.

But Ullmann became an international star when she started working with Bergman, a personal and professional collaboration that began with her breakout role in 1966s Persona. Bergman wrote the film after a single encounter with her and her best friend Bibi Andersson (who had already been in several of his films). Though one of two leads, she has only one line in the film as a stage actress who has stopped speaking. She said she understood that in some ways Bergman wrote her character with himself in mind.

I did a lot of talking for Ingmar, she said. We never discussed it. And I may be wrong, but I dont think Im wrong.

All told, she acted in 10 of his movies, including The Passion of Anna (1969), Cries and Whispers (1972), Face to Face (1976) and Autumn Sonata (1978), and directed two scripts he wrote. Their romantic relationship also resulted in the birth of her only child.

When she got the opportunity to direct her first film, Bergman was her first call.

I said, Ingmar, theyre asking me if I can direct, do you think I can direct? And Ingmar said, Yes, you can direct Liv, she laughed. It was only then that I really understood how wonderful actors are.

Looking back at her roles, its Troells two-part saga The Emigrants and The New Land, about a Swedish family coming to America in the mid-19th century, that have only become more meaningful over the years. The films are about refugees, yes, but theyre also about marriage and love and motherhood. And they allowed Ullmann to live a life shed always dreamed about.

I always wanted just one man and it became more than one man. I always wanted many children, and I have one, she said. But thats why its good to be an actor. You get to live the life you never lived.

While shes excited about the Governors Awards, she also cant help but think of war and going to a big celebration as if nothing else is happening. Because something else IS happening. In addition to her own familys wartime experiences (her grandfather died at Dachau for his efforts helping Jews escape from Norway), she was the first woman to be a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

At the moment, Ullmann is busy and in good spirits (You caught me at a happy hour, she said), splitting her time between Key Largo (though she's not a Florida person. I'm Nordic") and Massachusetts with her husband, although she'll always consider Norway her home. Her filmmaker grandson will be accompanying her to the ceremony Friday and after shes done in Los Angeles shell head to London where the British Film Institute is doing a monthlong celebration of her work and then to New York to rehearse a show.

She doesnt think shell direct any more films. Her fifth, and last, was the 2014 adaption of Miss Julie, starring Jessica Chastain, who last year played Ullmans role in an update of Scenes From a Marriage."

I would love to direct, but I know I have to make the borders. I admire Jane Campion, and she will direct more movies, but to do what she does, you have to be strong and young. Im strong but old, she said. But maybe I will do one more film as an actress."

___

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
PM Lee Hsien Loong delivers his live address on Singapores new phase in the fight against COVID-19 on 24 March, 2022. (PHOTO: MCI)

SINGAPORE  Singapore's fight with COVID-19 has taken a major turning point, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (24 March) in a 15-minute live address to the nation.

In his ninth broadcast on the COVID-19 situation, Lee announced an easing of COVID-19 restrictions to take effect from next Tuesday, including the optional wearing of masks in outdoor settings.

This comes after Singapore on Saturday recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago. Last Tuesday, Singapore began streamlining its management measures, which include allowing sports activities to resume.

To date, Singapore has reported 1,044,661 cases and 1,220 deaths due to the coronavirus disease.

WATCH PM LEE'S SPEECH HERE:

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

"My fellow Singaporeans, our fight against COVID-19 has reached a major turning point. We will be making a decisive move towards living with COVID-19.

The Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) will announce the changes after this broadcast. But let me set the context, take stock of our journey thus far, and explain our plans moving forward.

We have battled COVID-19 for more than two years now. Right from the start, we had one overriding aim: to protect lives and prevent as many avoidable deaths as possible.

We saw in other countries, bleak images of people desperately seeking admission into hospitals and healthcare workers being forced to choose who lived and who died.

We were determined to prevent that happening here, and fortunately, we have managed to do so.

Our healthcare system came under strain, but it was not overwhelmed. We ensured enough ICU beds and oxygen for everyone who needed them. We recorded one of the lowest rates of COVID-related deaths in the world.

This has been a tough fight.

With each new wave, we had to move quickly and adapt. Every time we thought we had the pandemic under control, the virus surprised us. In the early stages, when little was known about the virus, we adopted stringent measures.

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Our measures kept community cases very low, and helped us to control and clear a major outbreak in our migrant worker dormitories.

We bought time to ramp up our healthcare capacity and roll out a comprehensive national vaccination programme.

Then, the more dangerous Delta variant struck. Thankfully, by then, our vaccination programme was in full swing.

But we kept strict measures in place to slow the spread of the virus, until we had vaccinated nearly everyone eligible, especially the elderly.

Meanwhile, we changed our health protocols to allow mild cases to recover safely at home, relieving the load on our healthcare system.

When we eased up on SMMs, we had a large wave of COVID-19 cases. But by then, most Singaporeans had been vaccinated and were well protected from the Delta variant.

Still, many patients had to be hospitalised and some, unfortunately, succumbed to the virus. Not too long after the Delta wave subsided, the virus threw us another curveball  this time the even more infectious Omicron variant.

We braced ourselves as countries across the world saw record-high cases. Our numbers went up sharply too, at the peak exceeding 25,000 in a single day.

With our high vaccination rate and strong healthcare system, we were quietly confident we could cope.

Still, we tightened our border measures and held back easing our SMMs, to give our healthcare system and workers time to respond.

We were relieved that Omicron turned out less severe than earlier variants and that relatively few cases were serious enough to need oxygen support or ICU care.

Over the last two weeks, daily new cases have been coming down. Week on week, the ratio is now around 0.8. At this rate, the number of daily infections will halve in about three weeks.

We only achieved this through everyones collective effort.

You understood the mission and did your part, trusted the government, accepted sound medical advice, abided by SMMs patiently and responsibly, got yourself and your loved ones vaccinated, organised yourselves to help one another, self-tested with ART kits and self-isolated if you tested positive.

Businesses and essential workers also did their part to keep our economy and social services going. They adapted repeatedly to changing SMMs. They coped with supply chain and manpower disruptions and stayed resilient despite formidable difficulties, especially in the hard-hit sectors.

Thank you for your grit and resourcefulness. You help us protect Singaporeans livelihoods and prepare ourselves to emerge stronger from the pandemic.

Most of all, I want to thank our healthcare workers. You made tremendous sacrifices, at a heavy personal cost, pulling long shifts, day after day, week after week, since the start of the pandemic, returning to work on rest days to cover for colleagues who caught the virus, putting up with all the safety measures at the hospitals, risking exposure as you cared for infected patients.

Because of you, we have maintained some semblance of normalcy in the past two years.

Some countries have seen mass resignations of healthcare workers. But our healthcare team, doctors, and nurses stayed at their posts and kept on performing their duties.

So to our healthcare and frontline workers, from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of a grateful nation, I want to say: Thank you.

Now we have reached a major milestone in our COVID-19 journey.

The overwhelming majority of our population is fully vaccinated, and nearly everyone eligible has received a booster shot. The Omicron wave has crested and is now subsiding.

With many of us already exposed to the virus and recovered, our population has stronger immunity. Crucially, our healthcare system remains resilient.

It was under considerable stress at the peak of the Omicron wave, but it held up. The load is still heavy, but the pressure is now easing.

In judging how far and fast to ease restrictions, we are very mindful not to stress our healthcare workers and system to breaking point.

We must not place an impossible burden on the healthcare workers, and endanger many COVID and non-COVID patients who urgently need treatment.

At the same time, we must weigh the cost of stringent SMMs on businesses and the economy, and their impact on children needing to learn, youths yearning to interact, families seeking to bond, and communities striving to connect.

Taking all things into consideration, we believe that we are now ready to take a decisive step forward towards living with COVID-19.

We will make the following changes to our SMMs.

First, we will double the group size from the current 5 persons to 10 persons.

Second, we will allow up to 75 per cent of employees who can work from home to return to their workplaces.

Third, we will increase the capacity limit for larger events and settings  those with more than 1,000 people  to 75 per cent.

Fourth, wearing masks outdoors will now be optional. This is because the risk of outdoor transmission is significantly lower. But indoors, masks will still be mandatory.

Finally, we will maintain safe distancing requirements for now  one metre between groups where masks are off, to minimise transmission in mask-off settings.

These changes will come into effect next Tuesday, the 29 March. Concurrently, we will ease up cross-border travel substantially.

Earlier, we were cautious because of uncertainty over Omicrons impact.

Now the Omicron situation is well under control. Nearly all our cases are domestic, originating within the community. Arrivals from abroad constitute only a very small proportion of cases.

We can therefore safely open up our borders. We will drastically streamline testing and quarantine requirements for travellers.

This simplified Vaccinated Travel Framework will let Singaporeans travel abroad more easily  almost like before COVID-19.

It will also lift most restrictions for fully vaccinated visitors entering Singapore.

This will reconnect Singapore with the world; it will give a much-needed boost to businesses, particularly the tourism sector, and help Singapore reclaim its position as a business and aviation hub. The MTF will provide the details.

These domestic and cross-border changes represent a major step towards living with COVID-19. But they stop short of a complete opening up. We remain watchful because COVID-19 may yet bring further surprises.

Some countries have taken a 'Freedom Day' approach. They have declared the pandemic over, relaxed all restrictions at once.

Now, they are anxiously watching their infection and mortality numbers rising rapidly again.

We are choosing to maintain our measured approach, which has served us well over the past two years.

After this major step, we will wait a while to let the situation stabilise. If all goes well, we will ease up further. But we should also be psychologically prepared for more twists and turns ahead.

With more interactions, we too may see another wave of cases. And Omicron will not be the last variant we encounter  the virus will continue to evolve.

Hopefully, new variants will become progressively milder and more flu-like. But it is also possible that more aggressive and dangerous mutants will turn up, just like Delta did.

If that happens, we may have to backtrack and tighten up our restrictions again. We cannot rule this out, even though we hope it will not be necessary.

But whatever happens, we now have the knowledge and the means to keep everyone safe.

For example, giving everyone another booster jab or administering an updated vaccine, if necessary. So please take todays announcements in the right spirit.

Resume more normal lives, enjoy larger gatherings of family and friends, go outdoors without masks, or reunite with loved ones abroad. But do not throw all caution to the wind.

Each one of us must still play our part. Comply with the revised SMMs. If you feel ill, test yourself.

If you test positive, isolate yourself at home. If you test negative and decide to go out, please wear a mask to protect others, even outdoors, just in case.

Let us all continue to exercise personal and social responsibility, to keep ourselves well, to keep others safe, and to avoid adding to the burden on our healthcare workers.

That way, even when new problems arise, we stand a much better chance of keeping things under control and staying on the path to a new normal.

We have come a long way in our fight against COVID-19. We are not yet at the finish line, though we are getting closer.

Key to our response has been the trust that Singaporeans have placed in your government, in the medical authorities, and in each other.

Throughout our journey, we have kept faith and supported one another. This solidarity remains crucial as we tackle fresh challenges ahead.

I thank everyone for your continued trust and support. Let us keep it up, and see through this pandemic as one united people. Thank you."

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, who's running for Senate, with former President Donald Trump at a rally in Cullman, Alabama on August 21, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

GOP strategists said Trump endorsees can't ever cross him because he'll quickly turn on them.

That reminder of Trump's methods came after he rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks.

"Loyalty and honesty mean more to Trump than polling and fundraising," a former Trump aide said.

Donald Trump's purging of Senate hopeful Mo Brooks from his roster of political endorsees, GOP strategists said, should serve as a lesson to MAGA candidates everywhere.

"Loyalty and honesty mean more to President Trump than polling and fundraising," Trump administration alumnus Michael Caputo said of Brooks' cardinal sin, adding that Trump had to cut Brooks loose for losing the faith.

"You don't court President Trump for his endorsement and then toss darts at his back," Caputo told Insider. "Maybe that's business as usual in the Montgomery swamp. We know that's how it often works in the Rayburn building. But President Trump does not play that game."

Trump publicly pulled his support for Brooks, a five-term Alabama Republican congressman who up until Wednesday had been his pick to replace retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby.

Trump's decision to abandon Brooks serves as a reminder of a key characteristic of the former president and businessman; he demands unwavering fealty, holds grudges and seeks revenge for any slight or perception of disloyalty.

Scott Reed, a veteran GOP strategist and chairman of consulting firm Chesapeake Enterprises, urged MAGA world to watch its back.

"With Trump, loyalty is always a one-way street," Reed told Insider.

In a stunning response to Trump's rejection, Brooks said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Republican, had turned Trump against him. He also said Trump repeatedly asked him to "rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House  and hold a new special election for the presidency."

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Brooks participated in Trump's earlier efforts to manipulate the outcome of the 2020 presidential race  he spoke at the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the January 6, 2021Capitol siege, and that night voted to overturn the election results. But Brooks apparently drew the line at somehow forcing Biden from the Oval Office.

"I've told President Trump the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement," Brooks said Wednesday after Trump pulled his endorsement.

Ron Bonjean, a former House and Senate GOP leadership aide turned co-founder of political consulting firm ROKK Solutions, said the 2020 drama likely played a role in the messy breakup but offered an alternative take on what really wrecked the relationship.

"If a candidate doesn't look like a winner, then they risk losing Trump's backing," Bonjean said of Trump's main motivation. "What's clear to Trump is that if you aren't first, then you are last."

Rep. Mo Brooks. Getty

The endorsement shuffle

Brooks has struggled in polling and fundraising, setting up a primary fight with Katie Britt, a former longtime Shelby aide and chief of staff, and military veteran and businessman Mike Durant.

Shelby is backing Britt and is, according to the local news outlet Al.com, is preparing to spend millions of dollars from his campaign coffers to help her win.

Brooks was one of nearly 130 candidates Trump has endorsed since leaving office. In addition to House and Senate races, he's waded into down-ballot races including a mayoral contest in Florida, an insurance commissioner race in Georgia, and a county judge post in Texas.

Trump's biggest score to date has been political neophyte Glenn Youngkin's underdog win over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia's 2021 gubernatorial race. Setbacks he's experienced along the way include Susan Wright's loss to Jake Ellzey in the July 2021 special election to fill the vacancy in Texas 6th district after her husband, incumbent Rep. Ronald Wright, died from COVID, and endorsee Sean Parnell dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race last fall after losing a child-custody battle clouded by allegations of spousal abuse.

A Republican currently advising a campaign vying for one of the GOP's open seats this fall said the Brooks' episode makes one thing abundantly clear.

"If you're a Trump endorsed candidate, you need to run an actual campaign and have MAGA principles," the strategist, who requested that the identity of the state and name be withheld to allow them to speak candidly, told Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mar. 23A Bangor man has been accused of setting at least four fires at Bangor businesses since mid-November.

Christopher Hussey, 49, allegedly set fires at the Bangor Savings Bank branch on State Street, Acadia Federal Credit Union on Broadway, the Union Street Laundry and city-owned property near Northeast Cardiology, which is located off Maine Avenue near Bangor International Airport.

The fires, at least one of which was started in a dumpster, were allegedly set between Nov. 15 and Tuesday, according to the Penobscot County District Attorney's office.

None of the fires appear to have caused substantial damage.

Hussey, who is homeless, was arrested Tuesday after a campfire he started on city-owned property got out of control, District Attorney Marianne Lynch said Wednesday. He was taken to the Penobscot County Jail.

He made his first court appearance remotely Wednesday from the jail before District Court Judge Eric Walker. Walker set bail at $2,500 cash.

He is charged with three counts of arson, a Class A crime, eight counts of failing to control or report a dangerous fire, a Class D crime, and one count each of refusing to submit to arrest and violation of a condition of release, both Class E crimes.

If convicted of arson, Hussey faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. On the bail violation and the failing to control a fire charge, he faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.

Hussey faces up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 on the Class E charges. He also could be ordered to pay restitution if convicted.
Mar. 24SALEM, Mass.  A Mattapan man was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of killing a Lawrence man who was the father of 13 children, authorities said.

Justin Hollingsworth, 30, was convicted of the first degree murder of Jose Manuel Moreta Perello, 46, following a six-day jury trial in Salem Superior Court.

The jury deliberated for about four hours before returning the guilty verdict against Hollingsworth, according to a statement released from District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office.

The penalty for a first degree murder conviction is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge Janice Howe formally sentenced Hollingsworth during a hearing in Salem Superior Court Thursday afternoon.

Relatives told the judge how Perello's murder has created a permanent void in their lives. And the victim's oldest son thanked prosecutors and the police 'for their arduous work to collect sufficient evidence so today there could be justice for my father,' according to Blodgett's office.

"Jose Perello was the father of 13 children and a brother," Assistant District Attorney Kim Gillespie said in her sentencing statement.

"No words beyond what the victim's family has already shared can really articulate their loss," she said.

Gillespie and fellow prosecutor James Gubitose proved Hollingsworth shot Perello ten times near his home on Avon Street in Lawrence on February 16, 2017.

Using surveillance video and cell phone data, prosecutors showed a car registered to Hollingsworth was in the area of Avon and Wilmot Streets for several hours in the days before and on the day of the murder.

Witness statements corroborated video surveillance that placed Hollingworth's 2015 Ford Focus around the corner from the victim's home in the hours leading up to the shooting, according to the release from Blodgett's office.

Video evidence showed a man matching Hollingworth's description approach Perello outside his home just before 4 pm.

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"The man began shooting and then chased the victim down Avon Street. At approximately 4:01 pm, Lawrence Police responded to reports of shots fired and located the victim near the intersection of Trinity and Avon Streets. He was transported to Lawrence General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead," according to the release.

"This was a brazen daytime shooting in a densely populated neighborhood," said Blodgett, in a statement.

"The investigation required painstaking police work to identify to defendant's vehicle and I am grateful that their work resulted in holding the person responsible accountable," he said.

Gillespie and Gubitose were assisted at trial by Essex Victim Advocate Jocelyn Pichardo. Lawrence Police Lt. Hal Rogers and Lt. Pete Sherber, of the Essex State Police Detective Unit, led the investigation.

Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.
Donald Trump. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

In his resignation letter, Manhattan prosecutor Mark F. Pomerantz wrote that after investigating former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, he believes Trump is "guilty of numerous felony violations," The New York Times reports.

Pomerantz also said it would be a "grave failure of justice" not to hold Trump accountable.

The letter, which was obtained by the Times, was submitted on Feb. 23 to new Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. Pomerantz and Carey R. Dunne, another senior prosecutor involved in the inquiry into Trump, resigned after Bragg paused pursuing an indictment of the former president. Bragg's decision, Pomerantz wrote, was "contrary to the public interest. The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes  he did."

Pomerantz and Dunne intended to charge Trump with falsifying business records, specifically his annual financial statements, the Times reports. This is a felony in New York state, and if Pomerantz and Dunne had secured an indictment, Trump would have become the first American president to face criminal charges.

The Times reported in early March that the prosecutors and Bragg disagreed about whether they could prove Trump knowingly falsified the value of his assets on the annual financial statements. In his letter, Pomerantz wrote that before leaving office, Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., directed prosecutors to pursue an indictment of Trump and "other defendants as soon as reasonably possible." He did not list any names.

"No case is perfect," Pomerantz wrote. "Whatever the risks of bringing the case may be, I am convinced that a failure to prosecute will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice."

The district attorney's office said the investigation into Trump is ongoing, and as such, Bragg cannot comment on its specifics. Pomerantz warned in his letter that "I and others believe that your decision not to authorize prosecution now will doom any future prospects that Mr. Trump will be prosecuted for the criminal conduct we have been investigating." Read more at The New York Times.

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LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian authorities in besieged Mariupol said on Thursday about 15,000 civilians had been illegally deported to Russia since Russian forces seized parts of the southern port city.

Ukrainian officials say civilians trapped in Mariupol, which is normally home to about 400,000 people, face a desperate plight without access to food, water, power or heat.

Local authorities said on Sunday that thousands of residents had been taken by force across the border but did not provide a more precise figure. Russian news agencies said at the time that buses had carried several hundred people Moscow calls refugees from Mariupol to Russia in recent days.

"Residents of the Left Bank district are beginning to be deported en masse to Russia. In total, about 15,000 Mariupol residents have been subjected to illegal deportation," Mariupol city council said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Russia denies targeting civilians in what President Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told a video briefing that Ukrainian authorities were continuing efforts to secure agreement from Russia to open a safe corridor to and from Mariupol.

Each side has blamed the other for the repeated failure to agree on arrangements to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, control of which would help Russia secure a land corridor to the Crimea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address to Italy's parliament on Tuesday that there was "nothing left" in Mariupol after weeks of Russian bombardment.

A Reuters team that reached a Russian-controlled part of Mariupol on Sunday described a wasteland of charred apartment blocks and bodies wrapped in blankets lying by a road.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Nick Macfie)
Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has been termed insurrectionist in a lawsuit that seeks to prevent her from running for reelection.

The legal action filed in Georgia by a group of voters asked state officials to prevent the proudly outspoken congresswoman from seeking a second term in elections to be held in January.

At the heart of the legal action is a claim that the 47-year-old Donald Trump loyalist, has rendered herself unfit for office but her support for protesters who attack the US Capitol building on Jan 6 2021.

A provision of the US constitution that was passed in the 19th Century and known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, prohibits politicians from running for Congress if they have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

It also says they cannot seek office if they have given aid or comfort to the nations enemies.

The action in Georgia voters is being spearheaded in part by Free Speech For People, a Texas-based advocacy group that brought a similar challenge to North Carolina Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorns qualifications for office.

A federal judge dismissed the case against Mr Cawthorn case on March 4, but Free Speech for People has urged North Carolina officials to appeal that ruling.

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An airport in Tennessee is reinstalling an art piece featuring an Asian man wearing an Elvis outfit after previously taking it down due to backlash from travelers.



The self-portrait, which shows Asian American artist Tommy Kha dressed as Elvis, was chosen by a committee led by Memphis' Urban Art Commission to be displayed in a newly renovated section of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport.































View this post on Instagram















































A post shared by UrbanArt Commission (@urbanartmemphis)











Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority (MSCAA) said they decided to remove the photo on Monday after they received a lot of "negative feedback" from Elvis fans. Some other travelers reportedly made anti-Asian comments about the piece on social media.



In an earlier statement, MSCAA President and CEO Scott Brockman said he found the "small number" of comments that mentioned Kha's race unacceptable but denied they were the reason it was taken down.



"While we understand that the artist created the piece as a tribute to Elvis, the public reaction has been strong," he explained. "As a result, the airport determined it was best to temporarily remove the piece while we determine our best path forward."



According to Kha, the Memphis-born and -based artist behind the piece, he was not notified of the removal.





Apologies to those who wished to see this piece: it is no longer on display.

After some disturbing complaints about my work, it was decided, and without my knowledge, the pictures were removed. I'm the only artist they have removed. pic.twitter.com/0oX0EO3kBI

 Tommy Kha (@tommykha) March 21, 2022







I'm quite disappointed as it was one of many artworks selected to hang in the new concourse - -an honor that connected me to the place where I grew up (having grown up in Whitehaven, minutes away from Graceland), and the opportunity gave me hope that artists like myself could be represented, Kha wrote as part of a Twitter thread. While I believe people are free to speak their minds, I do not agree that the removal was the right solution.



On Tuesday, MSCAA President and CEO Scott Brockman announced the reinstallation of the art piece.



"As stated yesterday, when the airport created its art program, our goal was to purchase and display artwork that did not include public figures or celebrities but made an exception in this case," Brockman was quoted as saying. "The Airport Authority will continue to emphasize local artists, diversity, and inclusion with this art program, and we will explore additional best practices to address how we handle complaints and public feedback about our artwork."



An MSCAA representative confirmed that the piece will be reinstalled "as soon as possible," but an exact timeline was not given.



The UrbanArt Commission, which immediately protested the removal of Khas work, took to Instagram to express appreciation for the piece being reinstalled.



Story continues





























View this post on Instagram















































A post shared by UrbanArt Commission (@urbanartmemphis)











UAC appreciates everyone who has expressed their support and spoken up over the last several days, especially Tommy for his courage in navigating a hurtful and difficult situation, the commission wrote. We are still committed to working with our partners and artists to support a productive dialogue around this and how to guard against something like this happening in the future. UAC cares deeply about supporting artists and diverse communities, and believes that all of us deserve to feel welcome in Memphis.



In two follow-up tweets, Kha thanked those who supported him and offered his time to talk about what happened in a public forum to better serve the community.





FIRST I want to say thank you to everyone: friends, schoolmates, family, and supporters for coming out the last 24 hoursit is the definition of what Memphis is: the community. I hope I somehow can continue to help elevate others.

Pt. 1

 Tommy Kha (@tommykha) March 23, 2022









I do want to keep the door open as I think there are some lingering sentiments that should be address,

a public forum perhaps where we can discuss what happened that can better serve the community.

Pt. 2

 Tommy Kha (@tommykha) March 23, 2022







"FIRST I want to say thank you to everyone: friends, schoolmates, family, and supporters for coming out the last 24 hoursit is the definition of what Memphis is: the community," Kha wrote. "I hope I somehow can continue to help elevate others."

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NEWARK  A South Amboy couple have pleaded guilty to selling more than $3 million of drugs they made in their basement, including illegal substances for sexual performance enhancement and supplements for body builders.

Keith Kovaleski, 57, and his wife Sylvia Kovaleski, 43, pleaded guilty this week before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to one count of conspiring to distribute misbranded drugs and unapproved new drugs.

As part of their plea agreements the Kovaleskis must forfeit more than $3 million in criminal proceeds.

When they are sentenced July 26, they each face a maximum of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Kovaleskis used the basement of their home to make and label products of their company All American Peptide (AAP), including homemade capsules containing significantly higher dosages of tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis, an erectile dysfunction drug.

The couple also made and sold SARMS, a substance used by bodybuilders as an alternative to steroids.

They also made other drugs that had not been approved for human use, such as clenbuterol, a drug sold in foreign markets.

Court papers say the Kovaleskis did not provide directions for use of their products, such as frequency of administration, dosage information or warnings about side effects.

Between 2014 and January 2019, AAP used its website, allamericanpeptide.com, to market and distribute substances. Court papers say their products were labeled with the same names as those of FDA-approved generic prescription drugs.

In all, they sold more than 30 products in liquid, pill, capsule and other forms.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Middlesex NJ couple admit selling bogus PEDs from their basement
Mar. 23STARKVILLE  Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen made Chris Jans his top option as men's basketball head coach and is paying him as such.

Jans' contract is four years, which is the maximum length for public employees in Mississippi. His base compensation for his first season is $2.4 million. He is eligible for up to $650,000 in performance incentives, according to a university spokesperson.

Jans was hired Sunday by Mississippi State after five seasons at New Mexico State. His hiring came three days after Ben Howland was fired following a seven year tenure at the helm.

Howland's annual sum due for the upcoming and final year of his contract was $850,000, according to a copy acquired by the Daily Journal in a public records request. However, his incentives were reserved. MSU had to pay the remaining year of his contract as part of his termination without cause.

STEFAN KRAJISNIK is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at stefan.krajisnik@djournal.com.
WATCH: Plane erupts with cheers as out of control passenger hauled away by armed police

This is the dramatic moment a plane erupted with cheers after an out-of-control traveller caused a flight to be diverted.

Catherine Bush was handed a lifetime ban by Jet2 and a 5,000 bill after her "extremely disruptive behaviour" which, the airline said, included physical aggression towards other customers and crew.

Fellow passengers on board the Jet2 flight from Manchester to Antalya, Turkey, on Monday were stunned when Bush went on a foul-mouthed rant at staff and allegedly slapped other passengers.

The airline branded her actions a "catalogue of aggressive, abusive and dangerous behaviour".

The woman, understood to be from the Kirklees area of West Yorkshire, was escorted off the plane by armed police in Vienna, Austria, following a diversion.

The woman was filmed screaming, pacing up and down, and shouting at cabin crew.

A member of staff can be seen telling her to stand back, to which she replies: "I am back. Sort your head out you."

The woman was hauled off the flight after allegedly slapping passengers. (Reach)

The airline worker responds: "You are not doing yourself any favours."

The woman then replies: "You're not doing yourself any favours either. So what have I done? Don't touch me, don't f*****g touch me."

She adds: "What have I done? What have I done wrong on this flight, eh? See, you haven't got an answer."

A man can be seen shaking his head at the woman's behaviour.

Another video clip appears to show the moment armed police officers escorted the woman from the plane.

One passenger can be heard to shout: "Wait til you get the bill, love."

A text was sent by Jet2 to passengers onboard the flight after the incident. (Reach)

Others are shouting "bye bye" as the woman is led away by armed officers.

A text sent by Jet2 to passengers onboard the flight shortly before 12pm said: "Hello, we are sorry that due to the disruptive behaviour of a fellow passenger, your flight has been diverted to Vienna. We are working on a situation to get you on your way as soon as possible."

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Flight LS895 arrived in Antalya just after 3pm  one hour and 15 minutes later than scheduled.

Phil Ward, Managing Director of Jet2.com said:

Ms. Bush displayed a continued pattern of appalling behaviour on the flight and she must now face up to the consequences of her actions. We have always made it abundantly clear that, as a family friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour and that we will vigorously pursue any costs incurred as a result of such an incident.

"Although such incidents are very rare, it is unacceptable that our customers and crew should have to experience it. We would like to apologise to anyone who had to experience this behaviour and we would like to commend our highly-trained crew for their exceptional handling of this difficult situation.
A 10-year-old boy from China who used to be particularly scared of pain has voluntarily undergone a grueling bone marrow matching test and given over two dozen vials of his blood to test his compatibility with his sick mother.



Cao Xuanyi, who lives with his family in Anhui Province, reportedly traveled over 400 kilometers (248.55 miles) to the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province with his grandfather for further medical testing on March 7 after his first sample revealed him to be a potential bone marrow donor for his mother.



He used to be particularly scared of pain, but this time, knowing it was to save his mother, he didnt say a word, the boys father, Cao Song, 33, told South China Morning Post.



Doctors purportedly drew 30 vials of the boys blood to check if he would be a suitable donor for Cao Meixia, 33, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in July 2020. The results showed he was a perfect match, and the date of her operation will be determined after her doctor reviews the result of her chemotherapy.



The family had to close down their small clothes business last year following the diagnosis. Before Song and Meixia sought medical treatment in Suzhou, they left Xuanyi and his 3-year-old brother with their grandmother.



Weve only gone home to see the children six or seven times in almost three years, Song said.



Meixias condition initially stabilized after she went through five rounds of chemotherapy, but they soon discovered her cancer had relapsed following a medical examination in December 2021.



The safest option the woman could purportedly take is a bone marrow transplant, but her brother was not a match. The only person who could donate is her son.



If there was another option, I would not ask my child to do this, the father told the Morning Post. Its heartbreaking for me because my child is so young and skinny, even though the doctor assured me that it wouldnt impact his health.



A video showing the boys bravery which was posted on Songs Douyin has received over 23,700 likes at the time of this writing.



Because my mother gave birth to me, I owe it to her, Xuanyi, who is now in their home waiting for the doctors call about the operation, said. I want my mom to accompany me home so that I can be happy every day.



Meixia has completed her ninth chemotherapy session so far, but doctors still need to review the effectiveness of the treatment in eight to nine days before proceeding with the bone marrow transplant.



A similar story took place in Huixian, Henan Province, in 2019 when an 11-year-old boy made it his mission to gain 15 kilograms (33 pounds) so that he could donate his bone marrow to his father.

Story continues

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(Reuters) - Myanmar's military did not commit genocide against minority Rohingya Muslims during 2017 operations in Rakhine state, but crimes may have been committed by personnel on an individual level, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun was responding to a question at a news conference about a U.S. announcement that it had formally determined genocide and crimes against humanity had taken place in "widespread and systematic" attacks.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Davies)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday agreed to beef up their eastern flank in the face of the war waged by Russia in Ukraine, and warned Moscow against the use of chemical arms.

"We remain united and resolute in our determination to oppose Russia's aggression, aid the government and the people of Ukraine, and defend the security of all allies," a joint statement said after national leaders of NATO's 30 member countries met in Brussels.

They agreed to set up four more battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, as well as warning China not to support Russia's war.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Sabine Siebold)
STORY: The unprecedented one-day trio of NATO, G7 and EU summits will be attended by U.S. President Joe Biden. The hectic day of summitry to maintain Western unity will kick off at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where the transatlantic defence alliance's leaders will agree to ramp up military forces on Europe's eastern flank.

Alarmed by the prospect that Russia might escalate the war with its neighbor after a grinding month-long conflict, the 30 nations of NATO will also agree to send Kyiv equipment to defend against biological, chemical and nuclear attacks. The resolve to punish Moscow with massive sanctions will be underlined by an emergency meeting of the G7 advanced economies.

Then, with a summit of the 27-nation European Union, countries representing more than half of the world's gross domestic product will have met in one day.
Streaming service Netflix is expanding its gaming lineup once again with the launch of two more titles, which went live on Tuesday. The new games are called "Shatter Remastered" and "This Is A True Story." The two new titles are now available for iOS and Android users. Netflix also teased its first upcoming first-person shooter title called "Into the Dead 2: Unleashed."

The first new game, "Shatter Remastered," is a retro-inspired brick-breaking game from New Zealand developer PikPok. The game is an updated version of Shatter, a game from New Zealand developer Sidhe that was originally released on the PlayStation 3 in 2009. The refreshed mobile-optimized version includes global leaderboards so users can track their high scores against other players around the world.

Image Credits: Netflix

The second title, "This Is A True Story," is a game that's designed to raise awareness about the lack of safe drinking water in some parts of the world. The game was developed by Frosty Pop in collaboration with Charity: Water, a nonprofit organization that is working to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. The game shares a true story of a sub-Saharan African womans daily struggle to get water for her family. It's based on actual interviews and experiences and allows players to explore a hand-painted landscape while surviving a windstorm, catching poachers, befriending a goat and more.

As for "Into the Dead 2: Unleashed," Netflix hasn't specified when exactly the game will launch, but notes that it's "coming soon." Like "Shatter Remastered," the title was developed by PikPok. The game is a sequel to the zombie action game "Into the Dead." In the game, players must fend off zombie threats while crossing treacherous terrain. The game features multiple chapters, stages and challenges where players can unlock weapons, firearms, explosives and more.

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into the dead 2

Image Credits: Netflix

Like Netflix's other games, users are directed to the new titles through the companys apps on iOS and Android. On Android, users can find games in multiple places, including on a dedicated gaming tab in the apps main navigation. On iOS, games are featured in a dedicated row. The games themselves are hosted on the platforms respective app stores, not on Netflixs infrastructure, but they can only be played by Netflix users. After installation, the games will prompt users to authenticate with their Netflix account information to get started.

Netflix has been building out its gaming service since late last year, when the company debuted its initial lineup that included a couple of Stranger Things-themed titles and other casual games.

Since then, Netflix has rolled out several other titles, including Arcanium: Rise of Akhan, Asphalt Xtreme, Bowling Ballers, Card Blast, Dominoes Cafe, Dungeon Dwarves, Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story, Knittens, Krispee Street, Shooting Hoops, Teeter (Up) and Wonderputt Forever.
In 2019, staff at a Weatherford elementary school told K.S. that her son, at the time a 7-year-old, had been physically restrained in class.

Over the next few weeks, the school district reported to the mother that her son had been restrained again. And again. And again.

K.S.s son is on the autism spectrum, and she knew that led to behavioral issues at school. But she didnt see how it could be necessary for school staff to repeatedly grab or hold down her 51-pound child.

K.S., who asked to be identified with her initials to protect her sons identity, pulled her son out of his special education class at Stephen Austin Elementary School. She followed up with a request for copies of the school surveillance footage of each time her son had been restrained.

When she watched that footage, she said, she realized that the restraints shed been told about were only the beginning.

From what Ive seen in the videos, K.S. said, they failed him completely on every level.

Surveillance footage showed staff grabbed or otherwise restrained K.S.s 7-year-old son multiple times per day in a 53-day period, according to a lawsuit that she has filed against the school district.

Staff at a Weatherford elementary school restrained a 7-year-old on the autism spectrum multiple times per day within a 53-day period, according to a lawsuit from the students mother. In this screen grab of surveillance footage, a staff member put his hand over the childs face.

The school had not reported many of the restraints to K.S., she said, even though the district is legally required to document restraints and inform parents and guardians of each occurrence.

For example, video showed staff pulling K.S.s son out of a chair by his leg  one of many restraints she said she never would have known about if she had not seen the footage.

When watching the videos, K.S. said, you have to literally look for the times theyre not touching him.

The Crisis Prevention Institute defines a restraint as any physical force that restricts a childs movement. Legally, restraints used on students must follow relevant health and safety standards, according to Texas law, and should not intentionally inflict significant physical or emotional discomfort or pain on a student.

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In one video, four staff members assist in holding down the child down as he cries, Help me! In another video, the boy takes a teachers pen, and a staff member responds by grabbing the 7-year-old and holding him with one arm around his neck. In another instance, photos that K.S. shared with the Star-Telegram show a teachers hand completely covering the boys face as the boy reaches up to push the hand away.

K.S. filed a lawsuit in September 2021 accusing the school district of discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and unreasonable seizure. As of March, K.S.s lawsuit against the Weatherford school district was ongoing.

Staff at a Weatherford elementary school restrained a 7-year-old on the autism spectrum multiple times per day within a 53-day period, according to a lawsuit from the students mother. In this screen grab from surveillance footage, four staff members assist in holding the child down because, according to his mother, the child bit his own arm.

In response to questions about the lawsuit, a district spokeswoman said the district strongly denies the inflammatory allegations in the lawsuit and any suggestion that the District has mistreated its students with special needs and said the allegations reflect a very slanted and one-sided tale.

The allegations of abusive restraints at Weatherford are not an anomaly, advocates say.

Advocates say children at Texas schools are excessively restrained by overworked or under-trained staff members, causing physical and mental trauma. Students with disabilities are disproportionately restrained compared to the general population of students, according to a 2020 study by Disability Rights Texas, and often the restraint is in response to behaviors that stem from the childs disability.

Texas laws often protect school staff from legal repercussions for restraining children, advocates and attorneys say, leaving parents with little recourse when they feel their child is being abused at school under the guise of safety restraints.

Thousands of restraints

Restraints are only supposed to be used to protect a child or others from harm, but advocacy groups and investigative reports say school staff excessively use restraints and at times restrain children as a form of discipline or out of frustration.

Nicole East said her nephew, who has dyslexia and is neurodivergent, was restrained 37 times in 81 school days in the Frisco school district in the third grade. The boy received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder due to overuse of seclusion and restraint, she said.

East, a veteran who also has PTSD, moved to Dallas-Fort Worth to help her now-11-year-old nephew. She filed a records request for restraint data from Frisco and nearby school districts.

The data she got back only made her angrier.

From the 2016-17 school year to the 2020-21 school year, staff in the Frisco school district restrained students who qualify for special education a total of 3,706 times involving 403 students, according to the districts data. Each school year, staff performed an average of about 740 restraints on students with disabilities. On average, 26% of restrained students were Black. About 18% of the Frisco special education student population was Black in the 2021-22 school year.

Black students are disproportionately restrained at schools across the state, according to the study on restraints by Disability Rights Texas. Black students make up about 12.6% of the states student population, but experienced 26% of the total reported restraints in 2020, according to the study.

School districts must track all restraints of students in special education but are not required to track restraints of students in the general education population unless theyre restrained by a police officer.

A spokeswoman for the Frisco school district said while Black students were restrained at a disproportionate rate, the rate was lower than what the TEA considers significantly disproportionate. The TEA considers a risk ratio of 2.5 or higher to be significantly disproportionate. The risk ratio involving Black special education students and restraints was 1.6 from the 2016-17 school year to the 2020-21 school year.

Spokeswoman Meghan Cone also said staff are trained to first implement verbal de-escalation strategies. Restraints are only utilized in situations where a student poses a threat to themselves or others or imminent, serious property destruction, Cone said.

Each campus has a team trained to intervene in crisis situations. Each member, which includes administrators, teachers and other staff, receives an initial, seven-hour training in nonviolent crisis intervention and an annual, four-hour refresher training, Cone said. The training emphasizes physical intervention as a last resort and appropriate to the level of risk. Crisis intervention team members must also complete the two-hour Texas Behavior Support Initiative course, which focuses on positive behavior interventions and supports for all students.

Trauma for children

East said her nephew is doing better, but still has nightmares and flashbacks.

Jolene Sanders, advocacy director with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, said the overuse of restraints on children, especially those with disabilities, causes both physical and mental trauma.

There is no reason to use physical force on an 8-year-old, she said.

K.S. said she has seen that mental and physical trauma in her own son.

On one day in November 2019, K.S.s son told teachers multiple times he was going to hurt himself. The school called K.S. to come pick him up, but when she arrived, staff would not let her see her son, she said. Instead, a school resource officer put the child into the back of a police car, according to the lawsuit, and drove the child to Cook Childrens Medical Center to be involuntarily committed.

Once at the hospital, staff at Cook Childrens noticed bruises on the child. According to the lawsuit, the hospital made a Child Protective Services report against the Weatherford school district because of the bruises.

Staff at a Weatherford elementary school restrained a 7-year-old on the autism spectrum hundreds of times within a 53-day period, according to a lawsuit from the students mother. Advocates say children in special education are excessively restrained by Texas school staff, causing physical and mental trauma.

Since the 2019-20 school year, K.S. said, PTSD has been diagnosed and her son has nightmares where he wakes up screaming. Hes afraid of the dark and has developed a stutter.

The trauma is so extensive due directly to how he was treated by the school, K.S. said.

H.H., a Fort Worth mom, said her then-6-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum, was restrained to the point of abuse by staff at his former school.

While she was waiting to pick up her son at his Northwest district elementary school in 2019, H.H. said, she heard her child screaming from a nearby classroom. She ran down the hallway, following her sons cries of, Youre hurting me! and found him inside a classroom. He was cornered by three staff members and covered in red marks, she said, because he wanted a chocolate from the classroom and refused to leave the room when he did not get one. She said one of the staff members told her they have to show (her son) who is in charge.

By the time he got out of that situation, she said, crying, he was sweaty and had peed all over himself. He said, They were holding me down. It hurt so bad, Mom.

The 6-year-old had previously told his mother that staff hurt him at school, but H.H., who knew the staff personally, thought he may have been confused. She knew sometimes her son had to be restrained at school when he was overstimulated or had a meltdown. But as she screamed at school officials from outside the classroom where he was being restrained in December 2019, demanding to know what they were doing to her child, she realized why her son had begged not to go to school for months.

In its own assessment, the school district said H.H.s child did not qualify for special education services and filed a due process claim through the Texas Education Agency. In special education due process claims, a hearing officer decides whether a district provided proper services to a student.

A hearing officer sided with the school district in H.H.s case. Elizabeth Angelone, H.H.s attorney, said hearing officers in TEA due process claims almost never side with parents, which she says is evidence of bias in the system.

In 2019, 30 due process claims were filed with the TEA, including H.H.s. Out of those, a hearing officer denied the parent or students claims and sided with the school district 25 times. In four cases, a hearing officer sided partially with the district and partially with the parent or student. Out of the 30 claims made in 2019, a hearing officer fully sided with the parent or student once.

H.H. filed a lawsuit against the school appealing the due process decision. A federal district judge ruled in 2021 that the school did not violate the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. H.H. appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal was ongoing as of March.

Under federal privacy laws, districts cannot address a specific students affairs, and Northwest district spokesman Anthony Tosie said the district cannot comment on pending litigation. Tosie referred the Star-Telegram to Northwest ISDs restraint policy, which says restraints are used in rare emergency situations and in accordance with school policies. Northwest follows federal and state laws and regulations in regards to special education services, Tosie said.

Physical harm

Along with mental trauma, students can be physically injured by restraints at schools.

Teachers and staff are required to be trained in Crisis Prevention Institute restraint techniques, which are considered safe techniques to restrain a child. Those CPI-approved restraints are mostly variations of holding a childs arms in certain control positions.

But the Crisis Prevention Institute warns through its training modules that all restraints include the risk of physical and emotional harm, including neurological damage and death.

In March 2021, Xavier Hernandez died at John Peter Smith Hospital after he was restrained by multiple staff members at Boulevard Heights, a Fort Worth school for students with disabilities.

Medical examiners ruled Hernandez, 21, died from the combined effects of physical restraint and an antipsychotic medication.

Xavier Hernandez attended Boulevard Heights. On March 1, 2021, teachers restrained him and he was sent to the hospital. He died later that day. In this older photo, he is with his aunt, Ebonie Baltimore.

Clint Bond, the Fort Worth school district spokesman at the time of Hernandezs death, said the district engaged a third party after the incident to conduct an investigation that included, but was not limited to, practices, policies and procedures related to restraints.

In November, a teacher and her classroom assistant in the Burleson school district were arrested and accused of using improper restraints on preschool special education students.

Cheyenne Oakley said the schools principal told her that teacher Jeanna Mangus and paraprofessional Holly Monroe inappropriately touched her 3-year-old son. The pair would cup the 3-year-olds mouth for up to 30 seconds until he would stop crying, Oakley said, or gasp for air, and stick their fingers under childrens armpits and claw them, knowing it wouldnt leave a mark.

In an internal message to parents, the principal said staff at Norwood Elementary are trained only to use CPI restraint techniques and only when necessary to protect a child, but that the two women were not using CPI techniques.

Teachers often do not face charges

H.H. and K.S. filed police reports about their childrens restraints, but charges were not filed in either case.

Texas law generally protects school staff from facing assault charges for restraining students. Under Texas Penal Code 9.26, educators often have blanket immunity against use of force charges, so they cannot be charged with assault if they say the educator reasonably believes the force is necessary... to maintain discipline in a group. Whether a restraint is considered excessive or necessary is a subjective decision often left up to a judge or jury, Sanders said.

(The law) is so vague that anything can fall under that umbrella, she said. If I as a parent drag my kid out from under a table and put my kid in a chokehold, I am obviously going to have CPS at my front door. But if the same thing is done within an educational setting, there is a whole lot of protection there. And there has been for a very long time.

Sanders, in her work with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, said she has seen incidents where a child came home from school with bruises and the teacher admitted to having harmed the child. But even in those cases, where the actor is acknowledging, I shouldnt have done that, she said, theyre still protected under that penal code.

Teachers who have killed students through improper restraints have not only been legally absolved, but they have continued teaching.

In 2002, a Texas teacher pinned 14-year-old Cedrick Napoleon, who weighed 129 pounds, to the floor and lay on top of him. Napoleon, who was in a special education classroom at the time, died. Napoleons death was ruled a homicide, but the grand jury did not indict the teacher. As of 2009, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office, the teacher was teaching in Virginia.

Teachers and staff can also claim they physically restrained a student in loco parentis  the legal term for in place of a parent. The legal doctrine grants teachers the right to act in place of a parent when a child is threatening harm to themselves or others. In K.S.s case, she reported Weatherford staff to police, but the district successfully claimed in loco parentis and staff were not charged, she said.

Courts give great deference to school policies and procedures with regard to discipline, said Angelone, who also was one of K.S.s attorneys. Because the courts give schools such deference and will not substitute the courts own judgment with regard to such matters, teachers are largely protected.

Staff at a Weatherford elementary school restrained a 7-year-old on the autism spectrum multiple times a day within a 53-day period, according to a lawsuit from the students mother. In this screen grab from surveillance footage, a staff member held the child with an arm around his neck after the boy grabbed a staff members pen, the students mother said.

In some cases when staff members physically restrain or harm students, its the students who face criminal charges.

Colleen Elbe, a supervising attorney with Disability Rights, said the group often sees felony charges against children that are the result of staff restraining or having an altercation with students.

Were under the belief that anytime you put your hands on a kid, it increases the likelihood of trauma and injury to staff and students, Elbe said. The last thing we want to see is a child having a reaction against a staff member restraining them and to be criminalized for that reaction. A reaction you or I might have.

In Copperas Cove, a central Texas school district, a child was forcefully restrained multiple times when he tried to leave the assistant principals office in 2018, according to a lawsuit the family against the school district.

The childs Individualized Education Plan allowed him to leave a room if he got too upset, said Angelone, who represents the family in the suit. The child tried to push past the assistant principal, who was blocking the door, and two staff members held him face-down on the floor and laid on top of him, according to the lawsuit. A school nurse noted his lip was cracked and he had a shoulder injury; he was referred to an doctor for a possible fracture.

The orthopedist said the childs injury was suffered due to an assault, according to court documents, but was unable to confirm if his shoulder was fractured. The suit alleged the staff members used excessive force. A judge ruled in 2020 that the Copperas Cove staff members had qualified immunity from assault claims.

United States District Judge Alan Albright wrote in his opinion the ruling was based on the long history of the Court allowing such restraints or even more extreme variants of restraint. Albright also notes that Texas allows a school administrator significant leeway in punishing a student because Texas civil and criminal laws should provide adequate accountability if a student is wrongfully punished.

Albright sided with the school district.

The same day he was restrained, staff members pressed charges against the child, saying the child assaulted them when he tried to escape the restraints. The boys charges were dismissed by the district attorney.

Alternatives to restraints

The website for the Crisis Prevention Institute, the group that advises schools on restraint techniques, urges schools to focus on nonphysical forms of de-escalation. Their recommendation is based on the trauma the physical restraints can cause and research that shows alternative methods have better outcomes for staff and students. In one 2016 case study at a school district, according to CPIs website, school staff were taught to focus on verbal rather than physical interventions. The result was a dramatic decrease in assaults on staff and out-of-school suspensions in the district.

Roxann Breyer has been the head of Hill School, a private school in Fort Worth for children with learning differences, for 16 years. She said when a child acts out, the behavior usually reflects a communication problem, not a behavioral one. At Hill School, the average ratio of teachers to children is 1:4, and staff have regular meetings with parents. By working with the students parents, staff can create individualized plans to figure out what a childs triggers are and how to help them when they are upset.

Teacher Melissa Richards looks over assignments from her students on Dec. 13, 2021, at Hill School of Fort Worth. The private school serves children with learning differences.

In her 16 years at Hill School, Breyer said, only one student has ever been restrained by staff.

Instead of figuring out how to get the kid to calm down, we need to have that time of reflection of why is this kid acting this way now, she said. What set this child off? What is upsetting this student?

Teachers at Hill School are usually able to recognize if a child has a tantrum coming and are able to use techniques specific to that child to de-escalate, Breyer said.

Not all teachers or schools have the resources to handle those situations.

Staff shortages, already a problem in Texas schools, were exacerbated by the pandemic. Teachers might have more students than they can handle in one classroom, and if a child acts out, they might respond with discipline or restraint.

I think these teachers in many cases are over-stressed, overworked and overwhelmed, and they have too many kids that they are responsible for, Breyer said. I worry these teachers are in survival mode for themselves. I dont think it makes it right. We dont touch the kids here unless its a pat on the back.
A former Boeing Co. test pilot was acquitted Wednesday on felony charges of deceiving federal regulators about a key flight-control system that played a role in two deadly crashes involving 737 Max jets.

A jury in federal district court in Fort Worth deliberated less than two hours before finding Mark Forkner not guilty on four counts of wire fraud.

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Prosecutors accused Forkner of misleading Federal Aviation Administration regulators about the amount of training pilots would need to fly the Max. The FAA required only brief computer-based training for pilots instead of more extensive practice in simulators that could have cost Chicago-based Boeing up to $1 million per plane.

Defense lawyers said Boeing engineers did not tell Forkner about changes to the flight software, known by its acronym, MCAS. The lawyers said Forkner was a scapegoat for Boeing and FAA officials who sought to avoid blame after the Max crashes, which killed 346 people.

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We are very grateful that this jury and judge were so smart, so fair, so independent, that they saw through it, defense attorney David Gerger said after the verdict.

Justice Department spokesman Joshua Stueve said the department stands by its investigation and prosecution of the case. While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jurys verdict, he said.

Testimony in the trial lasted less than three days, after jury selection and opening statements by lawyers Friday evening. Forkner did not testify. Judge Reed OConnor had instructed the jurors not to consider his silence as a sign of guilt or innocence. The defense called only one witness, a current Boeing pilot, who testified for about one hour.

Forkner was Boeings chief technical pilot for the 737 Max, giving him a key role in determining pilot-training requirements. Prosecutors tried to use Forkners internal messages to colleagues against him, particularly one in which he said he unknowingly misled regulators. Defense lawyers said Forkners message was a complaint about a flight simulator, not MCAS.

An FAA official who worked with Forkner, Stacey Klein, testified that Forkner lied to her that MCAS would never activate during normal airline use, only in certain high-speed situations that pilots would never encounter. Forkners lawyers said Boeing engineers did not tell him that the scope of the system had been expanded, and that he told Klein what he knew.

Prosecutors based the charges of wire fraud on communications that Forkner had with the FAA and with two big Boeing customers, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Each count carried a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Most pilots familiar with older models of the 737 did not know about MCAS when airlines began receiving Max jets  the system was not in previous Boeing 737s. Prosecutors accused Forkner of downplaying the importance and power of the software, and it was not mentioned in aircraft manuals and pilot-training material.

In the two crashes  in Indonesia in 2018 and in Ethiopia in 2019  MCAS automatically pointed the nose of the plane down based on faulty sensor readings, and pilots were unable to regain control.

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Forkner, who worked at the FAA before joining Boeing, left the aircraft manufacturer in 2018, months before the first crash, then briefly worked at Southwest Airlines.
By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK -Crude prices slid 2% on Thursday after the European Union (EU) could not agree on a plan to boycott Russian oil and on reports that exports from Kazakhstan's Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal could partially resume.

European Union leaders are set to agree at a two-day summit starting on Thursday to jointly buy natural gas as they seek to cut reliance on Russian fuels, with some saying they would not comply with Moscow's demand to buy oil and gas using roubles.

But EU countries remain divided on whether to sanction Russian oil and gas directly, a move already taken by the United States.

Brent futures fell $2.57, or 2.1%, to settle at $119.03 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.59, or 2.3%, to settle at $112.34.

On Wednesday, both benchmarks closed at their highest since March 8.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has prompted the EU to pledge to slash reliance on Russian fossil fuels by hiking imports from other countries and quickly expanding renewable energy.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) offered Kyiv new military assistance and assigned more troops to its eastern flank as London and Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow.

But without an EU embargo of Russian oil, Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said sanctions were unlikely to have a major impact on the oil market.

As the EU remains split on imposing outright bans on Russian oil, analysts at Rystad Energy said India and China could import more Russian barrels to boost their refined products output.

The United States and its allies, meanwhile, were discussing a possible further coordinated release of oil from storage to help calm oil markets.

Also weighing on crude prices, the dollar strengthened for the fourth time in five sessions. A stronger dollar makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies.

Oil prices fell further after ICE increased margins for May Brent crude futures by 19% effective March 25, the third margin update this year.

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Trading was volatile for both crude benchmarks, which rose to fresh two-week highs early in the session on lingering supply concerns including early reports that crude export loadings were suspended at Kazakhstan's CPC terminal following storm damage.

But four sources familiar with the matter said oil exports via the CPC pipeline will partially resume on Thursday.

"Reports that the CPC pipeline would return was a big relief to the market," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York, noting supply disruptions from pipeline shutdowns or Russian sanctions are "a big problem because we can't make up those barrels."

Crude prices drew some support from the drop in U.S. crude in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to the lowest level since May 2002.

U.S. crude at the Cushing storage hub in Oklahoma fell in the week to March 22, traders said, referring to a report from data provider Genscape. U.S. government data has shown stockpiles there rising for the past two weeks.

Canada said it has capacity to increase oil and natural gas exports by up to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 to help improve global energy security.

(Additional reporting by Rowena Edwards in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by David Gregorio, Kirsten Donovan)
A Ukrainian oligarch funded a scheme to paint swastikas in Ukraine, sources told Rolling Stone.

The graffiti reportedly aimed to fuel false claims that Nazis had a large presence in Ukraine.

Putin has said Russia's invasion aimed for the "demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine."

An oligarch with ties to Russia bankrolled a scheme to paint swastikas in Ukraine over the winter as part of a campaign to spread claims that Nazis had a large presence in the country, sources told Rolling Stone.

Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian businessman who formerly had Russian citizenship, used intermediaries to pay criminals between $500 and $1,500 to paint antisemitic graffiti across Ukraine in December, January, and February, the sources reportedly told the publication.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine in late February in what he called a "special military operation". He has called Ukraine's government  whose president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish  a "band of junkies and neo-Nazis" and said that the invasion aimed for the "demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine."

Former Ukrainian kickboxer Oleg Plyush told Rolling Stone that he was friends with Fuks and spoke to him about the swastika plot. Plyush said he was aware of three pieces of antisemitic graffiti that he said were funded by Fuks, including some in Kyiv. The graffiti was carried out by "street thugs," two of whom he personally knew, Plyush told the publication.

Fuks, who is Jewish, helped finance the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv, which Ukrainian officials say was damaged earlier this month by attacks from Russia.

Plyush said that Fuks had told him he had "no choice" but to implement the scheme if he wanted to stay in business in the region. Rolling Stone did not say who this pressure came from.

According to the publication, the use of Nazi symbols is a tactic known to be used by Russian intelligence to help stir unrest, and the claims that Fuks was involved do not suggest the actions were driven by antisemitism.

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Former KGB general Oleg Kalugin wrote in his memoir that KGB officers paid American agents to paint swastikas on synagogues and hospitals in New York and Washington during the Cold War to make it look antisemitic, per Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone said it based its reporting on at least six sources. It said it was unable to independently verify specific vandalism incidences connected to the alleged scheme.

Fuks and his US lawyer did not respond to Rolling Stone's requests for comment. Neither Oleg Plyush nor Fuks' lawyer immediately replied to a request for comment for Insider.

Fuks, who was born in Kharkiv, made his money in the banking and real-estate industries. He negotiated with the Trump Organization about building a Trump Tower in Moscow, which never came to light. He has also worked with Rudy Giuliani.

Fuks was sanctioned alongside hundreds of other Ukrainian individuals, many of them wealthy, by Russia in 2018 as part of measures to hobble Ukraine's economy. He said in 2021 that he had renounced his Russian citizenship after starting the formal process in 2017.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mar. 24MARIETTA  Organizers for the 70th-anniversary service at Saint Joseph Catholic Church were pleasantly surprised.

They had expected some 400 people to show up, and instead found around 800 people gathered in its pews last Friday.

Founded in 1952, the church has more than 4,000 families, according to Monsignor John Walsh. Congregants filled it to the brim for the anniversary of its founding, which, not coincidentally, is also the birthday of the church's namesake.

Walsh was happy to see such a vibrant crowd.

"People are ready to come back after COVID-19," Walsh said. "When I looked out tonight, especially around 6:30 and saw a big group of people there, I figured we would have a very good product tonight."

The two-hour service was attended by high-ranking church leaders, including Bernard Edward Shlesinger III, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, and those in attendance offered prayers and well-wishes by the clergy for Ukraine.

Since Walsh arrived at the church 14 years ago, he's seen it diversify, with large Mexican and African populations joining the parish. To welcome this diversity, some parts of the Mass are conducted in Spanish depending on the number of worshippers in attendance.

"We have different cultures," Walsh said. "We still have people from different areas, and they all seem to be mingling away and working together, which has been great."

In its 70 years in Marietta, the congregation has undergone plenty of changes, most notably building a bigger church building to accommodate a growing population.

After the anniversary service, members of the church spoke of the sense of community they feel coming through Saint Joseph's doors.

Stephen Bird first attended the church's school back in 1966.

"It's changed a lot, but it's always been a welcoming community," he said.

Bird and his wife, Romi Rivera Bird, a native of Mexico City, appreciated Walsh and the church's involvement with Marietta's Mexican community.

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"We came here to start a ministry (in 1999) to serve the Hispanic community that was rolling a lot into Marietta at the time," she said, "so that's something I appreciate about Saint Joseph."

Chinonso Akano, 45, moved to Marietta from Nigeria in 2012 in search of a parish to call home and found it at Saint Joseph's. Akano serves as president of the church's African community and has a seat on the parish council.

"We met people of African descent (here), so we felt like we were at home," Akano said. "They want your input. They want people to be heard because we are all one church, we are all one community."

Now more than a decade into his time with the congregation, Akano, whose four daughters and wife attend service there with him, believes he made the right choice on a place of worship.

"If I had to do it all over again, I'd still come back to St. Joseph," he said.
Orange City Police Lt. Jason Sampsell said he felt a burning sting on his back when his son recently shot him with an airsoft gun that blasts water beads.

Sampsell said it's anything but child's play.

Law enforcement agencies in Volusia County are warning residents of the "Orbeez Challenge," a TikTok trend that's gaining popularity nationwide. It involves targeting random strangers with Orbeez water beads in "drive-by" shootings. Last week, at least one person in Deltona reported that his skin was broken after being hit with one of the beads, law enforcement officials said.

The incidents are part of a dare that is occurring across the nation, the Volusia County Sheriffs Office said last week.

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Police: Shooting someone with water beads, 'That's battery'

Volusia sheriff's deputies confiscated this gel blasting gun aka Orbeez gun, after the 18-year-old owner shot several people with it in Deltona.

But the prank can turn dangerous and shooting someone unknowingly can result in a charge of battery, Sampsell said last week.

In Sampsell's case, the water bead did not break his skin because he was wearing a shirt. But if the bead, about the size of a ball bearing, hits an uncovered part of the body, it can cause an injury, Sampsell said.

These toys are designed to have fun with willing participants, Sampsell said. But if you shoot an unwilling person, that is a battery.

Sampsell added the beads can cause real damage to a person's eyes and more.

If you shoot into a moving vehicle, a person hit can crash and lead to catastrophic damage and injuries, Sampsell said.

Orbeez Challenge incidents in Volusia County

The dare has caused some injuries in Volusia County and led to arrests, said sheriffs spokesman Andrew Gant.

The Sheriffs Office has made at least four arrests in Deltona after people were shot with the beads.

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Port Orange Police Sgt. William Harrison said a woman pushing a stroller was shot in an Orbeez drive-by last week on Cove Point Road.

And in New Smyrna Beach, police are aware of multiple incidents, and have issued warnings on social media letting people know that it is an offense to randomly shoot someone with the water beads, said New Smyrna Beach police Lt. Christopher Kirk.

Weve seen several kids with them, Kirk said. We want them to have a fun spring break and not run into trouble. Thats why we are warning them not to shoot people out in public.

The Volusia County Sheriff's Office has worked two Orbeez shootings where at least six people were hit, according to reports from the agency.

Orbeez shooting arrests

Last week, sheriffs deputies arrested Sean McMullen, 19, of Enterprise, accusing him of shooting an Amazon delivery driver with Orbeez beads on Cloudcroft Drive in Deltona. The driver was struck in his glasses and left side of the neck, according to Sheriffs Office reports.

McMullen was charged with battery, throwing a missile into a dwelling/vehicle/aircraft, and child abuse. He was out on $7,000 bail, according to jail records.

Cameras on the Amazon vehicle captured McMullens vehicle during the March 10 incident. In it, the Amazon driver flinches when he was struck, according to investigators.

Shortly after that attack, McMullen shot a man on Larchmont Drive after the man yelled at McMullen to slow down in the neighborhood, investigators said.

During that incident, McMullen also hit a child in the chest, deputies said, leading to the child abuse charge.

In a separate incident last week, two people at Wes Crile Park in Deltona were hit by the beads fired from a van, Gant said.

The occupants of the same van also shot at a man trimming trees outside his Briarwood Avenue home. The beads broke the mans skin and left a red welt, Gant said.

A woman was also shot while standing by a food truck and was able to describe the van as it fled, deputies said.

Deputies tracked down the vehicle and charged Diego Medina, 18, with battery. Two juveniles were also in the van, and Medina was additionally charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Medina is out of the Volusia County Branch Jail on $1,500 bail, according to jail records. The juveniles were charged with simple battery and released to their parents, sheriff's investigators said.

In a March 14 incident, Volusia County Sheriffs deputies said two carloads of people appeared to be shooting Orbeez at each other from their vehicles when one crashed into a pole at Dewey O. Boster Park in Deltona.

And just this Monday, a 17-year-old New Smyrna Beach High School student was charged with battery on a school employee, a felony, after he shot a campus advisor in the face with the beads, the Sheriff's Office said.

The advisor reported that she was shot while locking a gate near the faculty parking lot. The school employee said she was hit in the face several times, Gant said.

Police stress that a toy designed for innocent fun, can lead to serious consequences.

"Shooting people in public in drive-bys with the toys is not a smart use of it," Sampsell said. "These are offenses that can land you in jail."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Orbeez Challenge brings water beads shootings, arrests in Florida
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  Three months after being pardoned for one of South Koreas worst government-corruption scandals, former President Park Geun-hye went home Thursday after being released from a hospital.

She slowly walked out of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul as cameras flashed and dozens of supporters shouted: Park Geun-hye! President!

I express my greetings to our people for the first time in five years. My health has really improved, thanks to your worries, Park said. She thanked the hospitals medical staff and stepped into a black sedan without taking questions.

She then stopped by a cemetery and offered flowers and incense at the grave of her father, slain military dictator Park Chung-hee, and bowed quietly in tribute.

Hours later, a crowd of thousands waving national flags and balloons chanted her name amid a heavy police presence as Park arrived at her high-walled residence in her southern hometown of Daegu, where supporters covered a path near her home with hundreds of wreaths. Some held up banners with photos of Park and her father and signs claiming her innocence or wishing for her happiness.

Stepping out of the car, Park smiled widely through her COVID-19 mask and hugged a child who presented her with flowers. She then stepped up to a microphone stand in front of her gate to deliver a message thanking her supporters. Her speech was briefly interrupted when someone from the crowd threw what appeared to be a bottle that shattered as it landed nearby, prompting bodyguards to surround her and raise up screens.

The past five years have been a very difficult time for me to endure, Park said before thanking her neighbors in Daegus Dalseong county, where she was voted a four-time lawmaker from 1998 to 2008.

Park said she hopes to make unspecified contributions, even if small, to help the country, but made no specific mention of plans to get involved in politics again.

While I was president, I tried hard to work for our nation and people, but was unable to fulfill a lot of my dreams. Those dreams are now up to the hands of others, Park said.

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Park was ousted from office and imprisoned for bribery and other crimes in 2017 in a stunning fall from grace. She has described herself as a victim of political revenge and refused to attend most of her trials.

Conservatives, who were initially left in disarray by her downfall, recovered to narrowly win this months presidential election, but only after fielding a candidate who had helped send her to jail.

President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol was part of a special investigation team that indicted Park in 2017 for bribery, abuse of power and extortion, which established her as the central figure in an influence-peddling scandal that also involved a shadowy confidante and a billionaire Samsung heir.

Some of Parks supporters at the hospital expressed anger toward Yoon as she was released, shouting that he was a traitor and treacherous criminal, but there were no major scuffles with police.

Yoon, who takes office on May 10, told reporters he wishes for Parks quick recovery from her health problems and hopes to visit her in Daegu soon. When asked whether he plans to invite Park to his inauguration ceremony, Yoon said, Youre supposed to invite all former presidents, so of course.

Park had served less than a quarter of her 22-year sentence before President Moon Jae-in pardoned her in December, citing her health problems and a need to promote unity in the face of pandemic-related difficulties. Moon, who comfortably won the presidential by-elections in 2017 following Park's ouster, sent Park a potted orchid with a ribbon that said always be healthy, his office said.

She had been treated at the Seoul hospital since November. Officials have refused to elaborate on Parks health, but local media said she has been suffering from a lumbar disc problem, a shoulder injury and dental problems as well as mental stress.

Park was once the darling of conservatives in South Korea, who celebrate her father as a hero whose industrial policies pulled the country up from postwar poverty despite his brutal suppression of human rights. She was elected its first female president in 2012, beating Moon by a million votes.
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will lift the requirement to wear masks in confined spaces, except for health care facilities, and remove quarantine rules for travellers and roommates of infected people, Poland's Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Thursday.

"I have decided to introduce two changes as of March 28 - an end to the obligation to wear masks, stipulating that it does not apply to health care facilities", Niedzielski said.

"The second decision is to abolish home isolation and home quarantine for roommates (of infected people) and all quarantines for people entering Poland."

The minister said the migrant crisis, which erupted as a result has of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, did not translate into an increase in coronavirus infections, despite over 2 million refugees arriving in Poland since Feb. 24.

(Reporting by: Pawel Florkiewicz and Alicja Ptak; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Mar. 24East Hartford Police Officer Jose Santiago was arrested March 12 after he brandished his loaded service firearm while drunk at the Red Rock Tavern in Hartford, following a verbal argument with a bar patron, police say.

Santiago was charged with carrying a firearm while under the influence of alcohol and second-degree breach of peace.

East Hartford Deputy Chief Josh Litwin said today that Santiago was placed on administrative duty while an Internal Affairs investigation is conducted.

EAST HARTFORD COP ARRESTED

WHEN: March 12, 2022

WHERE: Red Rock Tavern, 369 Capitol Ave., Hartford

WHAT: Illegal carry of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol; second-degree breach of peace

COURT DATE: April 27, 2022, at Hartford Superior Court

An incident report for the arrest states the following:

A bar patron said that around midnight on March 12, he attempted to start a conversation with Santiago, who was standing against a wall by himself. The patron said Santiago told him not to speak with his hands in his pockets. The patron said he showed that he only had a wallet in his pocket, and Santiago repeated that he should not speak to him with his hands in his pockets.

The patron told police that he then walked away and Santiago made a comment towards him that began a brief verbal argument between the two. The patron said he then left the bar.

Security camera footage reviewed by police showed Santiago appearing to drink multiple alcoholic beverages and having a brief interaction with the patron.

Police say the video showed that after the patron walked out of the bar, Santiago pulled what appeared to be a black handgun from his waist and placed it on the bar counter. Santiago then stood with the firearm in the open for a short time before placing it back in his waist area.

Police say the video then showed Santiago following the patron outside the bar as staff tried to separate them. Santiago followed the patron to the exterior patio while bar staff kept him away, and the patron then called 911.

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Police say an officer that arrived at the scene questioned Santiago, who readily identified himself as an East Hartford police officer and told Hartford police he had his department-issued firearm.

Santiago voluntarily surrendered his firearm to police, who confirmed that it was property of the East Hartford Police Department.

In the arrest report, police state that the firearm matched witnesses' descriptions and was loaded with a round in the chamber. Further, Santiago was found in possession of three magazines of ammunition and a folding knife. The report also states that Santiago's behavior was consistent with a person who was intoxicated.

Court records indicate that Santiago was released from custody without bond, and is scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court on April 27.

Joseph covers East Hartford and South Windsor. He joined the JI in July 2021. Joseph graduated from the University of Connecticut and he is an avid guitarist and coffee enthusiast.
Abbott Laboratories manufacturing plant is shown in Sturgis, Mich., Sept. 23, 2010. Federal safety inspectors say baby formula maker Abbott failed to maintain sanitary conditions at the Michigan manufacturing plant recently linked to a cluster of infant illnesses. (Brandon Watson/AP)

WASHINGTON  Baby formula maker Abbott failed to maintain sanitary conditions and procedures at the Michigan manufacturing plant recently linked to a cluster of infant illnesses, according to findings released Tuesday by federal safety inspectors.

The Food and Drug Administration posted its initial inspection findings from the Abbott plant thats been tied to several infant hospitalizations, including two deaths, due to a rare bacterial infection. Abbott recalled various lots of three popular powdered infant formulas in mid-February. FDA inspectors have been on-site inspecting the Sturgis, Michigan, facility since late January.

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Abbott didnt maintain clean surfaces used in producing and handling the powdered formula, according to the FDA inspection, which concluded last week. Additionally, inspectors found a history of contamination with the bacteria, known as cronobacter, including eight instances between fall 2019 and February of this year.

The report gives the agencys preliminary findings and is likely to be followed by a formal report and a warning to the company.

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Food safety advocates who have followed the recall noted that neither the FDA nor the company has been able to explain what caused the contamination.

This sheds a little more light on what went wrong, but we still dont have all the answers, said Sarah Sorscher of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Abbott and the FDA really need to do more work to get to the bottom of what happened so we can prevent the next outbreak.

Abbott said in a statement it is taking this very seriously and working closely with the FDA to implement corrective actions.

Abbott has not confirmed how many units have been recalled, but the companys brands include some of the best-selling baby formulas in the world, including Similac, Alimentum and EleCare. The company says it continues to produce baby formula at its other plants in the U.S. and overseas.

The recalls have exacerbated ongoing shortages of infant formula due to supply chain issues.

Infections with the cronobacter bacteria are rare but can be fatal in babies. Almost all outbreaks reported in the U.S. have been linked to powdered baby formulas, which dont undergo the same high temperatures used to kill germs in many other foods. Manufacturers have long said that its impossible to eliminate all bacteria from the formulas.

There had been little new information about the recall since last month, despite requests from Senate lawmakers for Abbott to turn over documents on conditions at the Michigan plant.

In a letter last month, members of the Senate health committee specifically asked Abbott about the amount of time it took to start the recall. According to the letter, Abbott first received a report of an illness tied to its formula from Minnesota health officials in September, with additional reports in coming months from Ohio and Texas.

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Its also unclear why the FDA didnt take action at the plant earlier. FDA inspectors visited the plant in late September and cited several problems, including unsanitary conditions, a lack of temperature controls, and employees who failed to sanitize their hands. But none of the problems resulted in a formal FDA warning or requirement that Abbott halt production.

The FDA released the September inspection report Tuesday evening along with another from 2019.

In addition to its plant inspectors, the FDA has scientists at its Washington headquarters who specialize in food outbreaks linked to baby food and formulas. A high-ranking FDA deputy commissioner is also assigned to oversee food safety issues.

The recalled Abbott products can be identified by examining the coding on the bottom of each container. The affected formulas all have an expiration date of April 1, 2022, or later. The company has set up a website where parents can check if products have been recalled.
Mar. 24Police remained mum Thursday about why they searched two properties owned by Eliot Cutler and his wife, adding further intrigue to the investigation involving the two-time candidate for Maine governor.

Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss confirmed Wednesday that searches were conducted at 84 Pine St. in Portland and 523 Naskeag Point Road in Brooklin in Hancock County  properties owned by Cutler and his wife, Melanie, according to tax records. Moss said the searches came after a two-month investigation, but she would not provide any additional information Thursday about what police were investigating, and no warrants had been filed in either Hancock County or Cumberland County courts.

Augusta-based attorney Walt McKee confirmed Thursday that he represents Cutler in the ongoing case, but he, too, declined to answer any questions and would not discuss what was seized from the home. No charges have been filed.

"I can confirm that I do in fact represent Eliot Cutler in these matters," McKee, one of the state's top defense attorneys, wrote in an email. "But unfortunately I can offer no comment at this time."

Ted O'Meara, a longtime friend of Cutler's and his former campaign manager, said he didn't know anything about the investigation.

"I don't know any more than you do," O'Meara said in a text message Thursday to a Press Herald reporter. "We communicate fairly regularly but he has never mentioned or alluded to anything like this. I am totally mystified."

Asked if he had talked to Eliot since Wednesday, O'Meara said he had not.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Cutler refused to answer questions about the searches.

"I have no comment," he said. When pressed further, he replied, "I've told you, I have no comment."

No one answered a phone number for the Brooklin home on Thursday.

Portland's tax records show Cutler and his wife own 84 Pine St., a single-family home in the city's West End. The couple also owns a farm on 47 acres in Brooklin. That property, known locally as Amen Farm, was built in 1850 and overlooks Blue Hill Bay.

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In Maine, a judge must sign off on every search warrant. To get judicial approval, police must show they have enough evidence connecting a person to a crime, a threshold known as probable cause. Police searches are not fishing expeditions. A search warrant must be specific about what types of information or evidence police are seeking, and in turn, they are permitted to seize only property or information that closely matches what they said they were looking for. Following a search, police must file a receipt with the courts listing the items they seized. Searches don't always lead to criminal charges, but they are an important sign that an investigation has intensified.

Cutler is known to most Mainers for his unsuccessful campaigns for governor in 2010 and 2014, but he's spent much of his life in the public eye, first as a political operative, then as a high-powered attorney.

He grew up in Bangor, the oldest of Lawrence and Catherine Cutler's three sons.

His father was a prominent doctor who served for 20 years as chief of medical services at what is now Eastern Maine Medical Center. Lawrence Cutler also was a longtime board member for the University of Maine, whose health center is named after him.

Cutler's mother was a homemaker but was involved in social causes, specifically mental health services and women's rights. She founded or helped establish Community Health and Counseling Services, one of the Bangor area's leading mental health agencies; Spruce Run, which supports women and children affected by domestic violence; and the Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center, which provides family planning and abortion services.

Cutler, by his own admission, was an underachiever academically, which led his parents to suggest a private boarding school. He chose Deerfield Academy in midwestern Massachusetts, at the time a prestigious all-boys school where coats and ties were required.

Deerfield opened the door to Harvard College, where he studied as an undergraduate and joined the Harvard Lampoon, a humor magazine produced by students, some of whom later went on to found National Lampoon, which produced a number of Hollywood movies, including "Animal House" and the "Vacation" series. Cutler has admitted that he partied and drank heavily in college at times, but it also built his political foundation. While there, he took an internship in the office of U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie, who knew the Cutler family, and then went to work for the senator full-time after graduation.

Even when Cutler enrolled in law school at Georgetown University, he continued to work for the senator from his home state. He took a year off from law school to assist with Muskie's unsuccessful 1972 presidential campaign.

Georgetown is also where Cutler met his wife, Melanie Stewart. They married in 1973 and have two adult children, Abigail and Zack.

Melanie Cutler worked as attorney early on before going back to medical school to become a psychiatrist. She practiced in Portland for many years, specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Cutler's political experience and connections led to increasingly high-profile policy-related jobs in Washington, D.C., including as associate director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter.

A lengthy profile of Cutler that ran in the National Journal on Oct. 27, 1979, explored his rise. The headline was: "I Lead Three Lives  The Eliot Cutler Energy Show."

He didn't stay in government, though. Instead, Cutler moved to the private sector, where he worked for three decades as an environmental lawyer on large-scale development projects such as airports, all over the country. He founded a D.C. law firm with partner Jeffrey Stanfield, which they built into one of the country's largest environmental law firms before merging with another major firm, Akin Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, in 2000.

Cutler was extremely wealthy by that point, and he and Melanie moved back to Maine, where they purchased a 15,000-square-foot home in Cape Elizabeth. They sold the mansion last year to Jonathan Bush Jr., nephew to one former president and cousin to another, for $7.6 million.

Cutler continued to work as an attorney and even spent a couple years in China helping his firm open an office there before giving it up prior to the 2010 race for governor.

In that race, Cutler, who ran as an independent despite years working for Democratic politicians, lost to Republican Paul LePage, but only narrowly. He chose to run again in 2014 but that campaign never gained momentum, and he finished a distant third to LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud.

Cutler self-financed both campaigns.

After losing his second race, Cutler didn't stay out of the spotlight long. He was hired a year later by the University of Maine System to oversee the establishment of a new graduate business and law school in Portland. He resigned from that initiative in 2017 and has been mostly out of the public spotlight since.

Staff Writer Matt Byrne contributed to this story.
STORY: Mother Nataliya Kelba, 28, told Reuters on Wednesday (March 23) that she and her 3-year-old daughter Zlata were introduced to the church by her landlady.

The Ukrainian mothers expressed gratitude for the help they have received in Poland so far. "We didnt expect this. They help us with food, with clothes, they help us deal with all kinds of paperwork," said Anna Dyka, mother of 3-year-old Danylo.

While there is no active fighting happening in western Ukraine, uncertainty of the future and constant air-raid alarms prompted the mothers to flee.

"I think that I made the right decision removing my child from this disturbing environment. Even if the route to here was hard for the child, she feels more comfortable here. Im happy for her," said Zoriana-Mariya Kruk, mother of 6-year-old Eva.

The children have been adapting well to their new environment, the mothers explained, some even picking up Polish already.

Poland, home to the biggest Ukrainian Diaspora in the region even before the war, has taken in more than 2.1 million people and while some plan to head elsewhere, the influx has left public services struggling to cope.
By Alicja Ptak and Kuba Stezycki

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish firearms training company said it has seen increased interest in learning to shoot since the start of the war in Ukraine, with many people booking shooting lessons for the first time in their lives.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has unleashed a wave of anxiety in Central Europe and some people in NATO-member Poland, Ukraine's Western neighbour, have enquired about joining the military and learning to use weapons.

"Since the start of the war in Ukraine, interest has increased four or fivefold," said Piotr Mioduchowski, co-owner of PM Shooter. Before the war they had 30-35 calls a day to book a place, now they get more than 200, he said.

He added that most of those who came to the shooting range in the last month had not handled firearms before. Because some people feared the war may spread beyond Ukraine they were looking to get the skills to defend themselves, he said.

One of PM Shooter's regular visitors, Sergiusz Regula, 25, said that although he had trained for several months, after the war started he decided to learn how to shoot with a Kalashnikov.

"We saw in Ukraine, in Kyiv, these Kalashnikovs were distributed to the civilian population... If like in Kyiv, guns were being handed out, I would queue up to defend my city, my home, and my family," he said.

The Territorial Defence Forces (WOT), Poland's volunteer militia modeled on America's National Guard, have seen a seven-fold increase in interest since the war began.

"The spectacular successes of territorial defence there (in Ukraine) have changed the perception of our Territorial Defence Forces," WOT said in a statement.

Some Ukrainians living in Poland, which had the region's largest Ukrainian community of about 1 million people before the war, started to learn at shooting ranges in Poland before joining the army in Ukraine.

"I can't stand on the sidelines. I want to go, I want to defend," Andrii Drahan, a 27-year old taxi driver, said after his second lesson. He plans to return to Ukraine to fight on Monday.

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"We won't be living under Russia that is for sure."

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 on what it calls a "special operation" that it says is designed to destroy its neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

(Reporting by: Alicja Ptak and Kuba Stezycki; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Prince William expressed his profound sorrow when speaking about slavery during a state dinner held by Sir Patrick Allen, the governor-general of Jamaica, on Wednesday.

I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history, William said in his speech, referencing comments Prince Charles made while attending Barbados ceremony to remove his mother, Queen Elizabeth, as head of state in November.

I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened, William said, according to video captured by ITV News royal editor Chris Ship. While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude.

The prince did not formally apologize for Britains role in the slave trade, nor did he mention reparations.

Williams comments come at a precarious time for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who have been plagued by protests on their royal tour of the Caribbean during the queens Platinum Jubilee year.

After protests over the Cambridges presence in Belize, Jamaicans held a demonstration in Kingston at the British High Commission on Tuesday ahead of the royal couples arrival. The protest, organized by the Advocates Network, included an open letter that lists 60 reasons for apologies and reparations from Britain and its royal family.

The Advocates Network released a statement shared with HuffPost on Thursday after Williams speech, saying that his statements were not an apology as many outlets claimed, and said that the princes expression of profound sorrow, is unacceptable.

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It is merely an acknowledgement that slavery was abhorrent. A bad thing that all well thinking persons would condemn. There was no responsibility taken, the statement added. No call out of centuries of British bloody conquest and plunder. No call out of the dehumanization and exploitation.

The organization said that Williams speech whitewashes the abhorrent involvement and enrichment of the monarchy of which the Duke is heir.

This tone deaf statement echoes the well-crafted words of his father. It does not rise to the level of the formal apology that we deserve, the group added. All that it does is to confirm the insensitivity of the Royal family to the plight of Jamaicans today, both here in Jamaica and in Britain.

A Bahamian organization also released a response to the Cambridges impending visit to the Bahamas, asking them to acknowledge and apologize for the British royal familys role in colonization and to make reparations payments.

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness watch as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge speaks on stage during a dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica at King's House on March 23. (Photo: Samir Hussein via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, The Independent reported that Jamaica was in the process of removing Queen Elizabeth as the countrys head of state, something Prime Minister Andrew Holness had spoken about in December and that has long been a topic of discussion in the country.

Holness addressed the countrys desire to become a republic during a meeting with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on Wednesday.

There are issues here which are  as you would know  unresolved. But your presence here gives an opportunity for those issues to be placed in context, put front and center, and to be addressed in as best we can, Holness told the royals.

But Jamaica is, as you would see, a country that is very proud of our history and very proud of what we have achieved, he told the royals. And we are moving on. And we intend to attain, in short order, our development goals and fulfill our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.

While the royals have been criticized for some of their outings and photo opportunities, Lisa Hanna, a four-term member of Jamaicas Parliament and shadow minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, stressed the significance of their tour of the Caribbean.

I think the royal tour is important for a number of reasons, particularly against the background of a new social consciousness that has become even more amplified from a younger generation in this region, Hanna told HuffPost, pointing to the Black Lives Matter movement.

I think Prince William and Duchess Catherine have a unique opportunity to assign their own issues and advocacy. And certainly, it is my desire that they use this visit to stir their own emotions, and perhaps their thoughts, as they ascend to leadership.

This was not your usual start of a bilat in front of the cameras @AndrewHolnessJM in the strongest terms telling the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge that Jamaica is moving on and intends to fulfil our true ambitions as an independent prosperous country pic.twitter.com/I4Z1aYfLH1  Rhiannon Mills (@SkyRhiannon) March 23, 2022

They will refine what their perspective of the monarchy ought to be with an eye towards a fairer and more just global society by looking at reparations, reparative justice, said the politician, who has long advocated for reparations, by looking at atonement for many years of what slavery did to our societies in this continent, and other continents, and what they did to our people.

And I think they have that opportunity, and that is why I think the visit is so important, Hanna said. I respect the duchess. I respect the prince. I dont support the queen being our head of state, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for the queens position. But at this time, I want to see a Jamaican as the head of state.

Hanna added: I want the next generation to be completely self-reliant and courageous in its bravery, and in their bravery taking Jamaica forward on our own, without feeling that there has to be any intrinsic, or historical reliance on the monarchy.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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STORY: On day two of his trip to the Caribbean nation with his wife Kate, William addressed an audience hosted by the governor-general of Jamaica Patrick Allen and expressed that the pain of slavery runs deep.

The speech made reference to the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which takes place on Friday (March 25). William echoed a statement made by his father, the Prince of Wales who last year in Barbados said slavery forever stains our history.

The royal couple arrived in Jamaica on Tuesday as part of a week-long tour of former British Caribbean colonies, but have faced public questioning of the British Empire's legacy.
A proposed merger between two major railroads will lead to disruptive delays to Metra service and exacerbate safety issues for passengers, the commuter rail agency said in a recent federal filing.

The merger would bring more freight trains to the Chicago area, and Metra said it could mean a 400% increase in delays per 100 miles along its Milwaukee District West and Milwaukee District North lines. Freight trains traveling through stations during busy commuter times could pose safety concerns, blocking access to trains and forcing Metra trains to pick up passengers at platforms opposite the side typically scheduled.

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Metras filing was part of a merger application under review by the federal Surface Transportation Board, which would combine the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads in a $31 billion deal. In the Chicago area, Canadian Pacific shares tracks with Metras Milwaukee District West and Milwaukee District North lines, and Metra and west suburban communities have raised concerns about the potential increase in freight trains the merger could bring.

Inbound and outbound trains on the Metra Milwaukee District West line pass each other at the Canadian Pacific Railway Bensenville Intermodal Terminal, as seen from Mannheim Road on March 23, 2022, in Franklin Park. Metra says in a filing that a proposed merger between two major freight lines would cause delays to the commuter service and pose safety threats for customers. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

If approved, the merger would create the only railroad linking Canada, Mexico and the United States. It would be the first major railroad merger since the 1990s.

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It is also expected to bring more freight trains to parts of the Milwaukee District West line, which runs to Schaumburg and Elgin. Canadian Pacific is projecting the merger could add an average of about eight extra freight trains per day to some parts of the line, bringing the total number to an average of just over 11 per day by 2027.

Canadian Pacific is not projecting an increase in freight traffic along the Milwaukee District North line, which runs to Glenview, Deerfield and Lake Forest, though Metra said in its recent filing it fears both Milwaukee District lines could be affected.

The (Surface Transportation) Board should consider that CP has a history of noncooperation and contractual breaches with Metra, that CPs poor dispatching leads to regular  weekly, and in some cases daily  interference with Metras peak and nonpeak train service, endangering and inconveniencing riders, and that the infrastructure on the Metra lines cannot accommodate the trains that the Transaction will bring to Metras lines, Metra said in the filing. The additional freight and Amtrak trains that Applicants propose to bring to Metras lines will degrade the safety and reliability of Metras service.

Canadian Pacific also shares tracks with Amtrak trains, including the Hiawatha service to Milwaukee and parts of the long-distance Empire Builder service out of Chicago. Amtrak has supported the proposed merger, saying Canadian Pacific has consistently earned top marks for causing the least delay to Amtrak passengers and has committed to working with Amtrak to expand and extend service.

Kansas City Southern doesnt operate in the Chicago area, though it does cross paths with Amtrak near East St. Louis.

Canadian Pacific spokesman Andy Cummings touted the Milwaukee District Wests on-time rate from 2016 to 2020, and said the proposed changes do not represent a radical shift in the historic use of the line.

The line between Chicago and Elgin is a double track, which will allow more freight trains without affecting Metra service, he said in a statement, adding that freight trains would not run during the busiest commuter hours.

CP is keenly aware of the importance of efficient rail passenger services and CP has been a good partner to the passenger service operators that use our lines in the United States and Canada, including in suburban Chicago, he said.

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Canadian Pacific is talking with Metra officials about their concerns, he said.

But in the filing, Metra questioned Canadian Pacifics train modeling, saying it conducted separate modeling that was more rigorous, and showed Canadian Pacifics plan for train traffic could not work. The agency also said a separate stretch of track touted as a bypass to the congested Chicago area likely cannot immediately handle the amount of extra freight traffic proposed, meaning more trains would be shifted onto the Metra lines.

An outbound train on the Metra Milwaukee District West line approaches the Bensenville station March 23, 2022, in Bensenville. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

The bottom line is that Metras passengers will suffer, the agency said. Serious delays and interference are inevitable.

Already, the share of riders on the two Milwaukee District lines experiencing freight train-related delays has risen since 2016, and delays remained the same or got worse even as overall ridership fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, Metra said. And extra-long freight trains make the problem worse, because they hang out of the closest Canadian Pacific train yard and block sections of track.

Canadian Pacific will also continue to ignore commuter needs, Metra said. Even as the railroad proposes adding more trains to the tracks, in recent years it denied Metras requests to add or reinstate service, according to the filing.

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On top of delays, the merger will create safety hazards for passengers, Metra said. The way trains are dispatched now too often require passengers to cross tracks unnecessarily, dodge oncoming freight trains, or circumnavigate idling freight trains at Metra stations.

Metra is requesting the board deny the merger application, or at least impose conditions on it. That includes measures like transferring to Metra control over who dispatches trains, track and flyover construction and financial compensation  or, if Metra doesnt get dispatching rights, oversight of Canadian Pacifics dispatching of trains to make sure it doesnt interfere with Metra service.

sfreishtat@chicagotribunec.com
A top prosecutor who was part of the Manhattan district attorneys investigation into former president Donald Trump has said in his resignation letter that he believed the former president was guilty of numerous felony violations.

Prosecutor Mark Pomerantz submitted his resignation last month and told district attorney Alvin Bragg there was evidence sufficient to establish Mr Trumps guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the letter published by the New York Times.

His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people, Mr Pomerantz wrote.

The team that has been investigating Mr Trump harbours no doubt about whether he committed crimes  he did.

The resignation from Mr Pomerantz and the top prosecutor Carey Dunne last month came after Mr Bragg expressed apprehension about moving forward with Mr Trumps case.

Referring to the move as misguided and completely contrary to the public interest, Mr Pomerantz wrote: ...I and others have advised you that we have evidence sufficient to establish Mr Trumps guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and we believe that the prosecution would prevail if charges were brought and the matter were tried to an impartial jury.

No case is perfect. Whatever the risks of bringing the case may be, I am convinced that a failure to prosecute will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice.

He warned that not proceeding in this case would doom future efforts at prosecuting Mr Trump in related cases.

Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Mr Bragg, said in a statement on Wednesday night that the investigation into Mr Trumps case is continuing and that a team of experienced prosecutors is working every day to follow the facts and the law. There is nothing we can or should say at this juncture about an ongoing investigation.

The Manhattan district attorneys office is investigating the former president for misleading lenders or tax authorities about the value of its properties.
LONDON (Reuters) - Russia's defence minister was briefly shown by state media at a meeting of top officials on Thursday after dropping out of public view for days during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Sergei Shoigu, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, is overseeing what Russia calls its "special military operation", but had not been seen in public since March 11, fuelling speculation about his whereabouts.

The 66-year-old was shown on Thursday on a televised split screen of top officials as Putin spoke to his Security Council by video conference in footage released by RIA news agency.

RIA made a point of zooming in on Shoigu in the top left-hand corner of a video screen set in front of Putin. The clip did not contain audio and did not show Shoigu speaking.

The Kremlin said Shoigu had taken part in the Security Council meeting along with other top officials.

Asked about Shoigu's whereabouts, the Kremlin said it was understandable that the defence minister was devoting less time to media appearances.

"The defence minister has a lot on his mind right now. A special military operation is under way. Now is not really the time for media activity," spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Shoigu is a veteran of Russia's political landscape who rose to prominence as the head of the Emergencies Ministry in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Defence minister since 2012, he has sometimes been tipped as a potential successor to Putin in the Kremlin. He and Putin have been pictured in Siberia taking holidays together, fishing and picking mushrooms.

(Reporting by Reuters)
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens to Sen. Ted Cruz during her her confirmation hearing on 23, 2022 in Washington, DC. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings have been fraught with racial overtones and microaggressions.

Republicans badgered her about Critical Race Theory and other topics that had little to do with the job.

There's a discriminatory history dating back to 1916 when a Jewish man was picked for the Supreme Court.

The racial overtones on display during the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson have roots in the discriminatory reasons the Senate started having such hearings nearly a century ago; to stonewall the first Jewish man nominated for the court.

Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing is the latest in nearly a century of incidents in which lawmakers used the process to cast doubt on nominees who didn't fit the historic mold of white, male justices, historians and judicial scholars told Insider.

The Senate judiciary committee held its first confirmation hearing in 1916 because President Woodrow Wilson had nominated celebrated Boston attorney Louis Brandeis  which because of his Jewish background, was an unprecedented and controversial move at the time.

With one exception, only white, Protestant men served on the US Supreme Court until 1894. When Wilson chose a Jewish lawyer, all hell broke loose.

At the time, antisemitism was far more widespread and acceptable in American society, and Jews in the US were often barred from elite business, academic, legal, and social circles because of their status as a religious and ethnic minority.

Before Brandeis, confirmation processes had typically been a formality, with the Senate taking a swift up or down vote on whether to seat a new justice. But Brandeis' nomination prompted the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold the first-ever confirmation hearings, and allow witnesses for and against his nomination, according to the Pew Research Center. The entire process took an unprecedented four months while a vicious public debate about his qualifications ensued.

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"What happens with Brandeis is that the opposition talks in what can only be described as antisemitic code," said Paul Finkelman, chancellor and distinguished professor of history at Gratz College near Philadelphia, told Insider.

While those critics never implicitly named Brandeis' religion, their criticism was a thinly veiled version of an antisemitic stereotype that painted Jews as greedy and money-mongering. Lawyers with the American Bar Association, and the president of Harvard University at the time, wrote letters against Brandeis' nomination. "One of the things they say is that he is too greedy, he's made too much money as a lawyer. Because Brandeis becomes, very early on, an extremely successful lawyer," Finkelman said.

Finkelman saw a clear thread, from Brandeis to Jackson, of critics using Supreme Court confirmations to indirectly attack a nominee based on their gender, race, or religion.

For three days, white Republican senators repeatedly have brought up Supreme Court cases revolving around slavery and interracial marriage and questioned Jackson about the legal underpinning of those cases. They advanced a baseless claim that as a judge, she'd been lenient on people accused of child pornography charges. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas went so far as to wave a children's book meant to teach children about racism in front of Jackson and ask her to define critical race theory.

As Jackson fielded questions from senators, the Republican National Committee posted a graphic on Twitter with her initials crossed out and replaced with CRT, the acronym for critical race theory.

"The nastiness," Finkelman said, "is the same."

The United States Supreme Court, 1930. Standing, left to right, Justice Harlan F. Stone, Justice George Sutherland, Justice Pierce Butler, Justice Owen Roberts; seated, left to right, Justice James Clark McReynolds, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, Justice Willis Van Devanter, Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis. Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images

A minefield for minority nominees ever since

Confirmation hearings for minorities, women, and nominees of color "tend to disproportionately focus on the candidates' judicial philosophy, their take on issues like race and gender discrimination, things that have coding in the race and gender of the nominee," said Alice Bannon, director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

That dynamic played out with Jackson's hearing, Bannon said.

Cruz repeatedly peppered Jackson with questions about race that had nothing to do with her qualifications for the job.

"Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that babies are racist?" Cruz said, asking about the book Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi.

Cruz also asked Jackson to define critical race theory for the record. "It is an academic theory that is about the ways in which race interacts with various institutions," Jackson responded, providing a standard definition of the concept, which has lately been weaponized by conservatives as a culture war issue.

"It doesn't come up in my work as a judge. It's never something that I've studied or relied on. And it wouldn't be something that I would rely on if I were on the Supreme Court," Jackson said.

Cruz's insinuation, however, was that since Jackson was a Black woman, it would.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican of Missouri implied that Jackson had been lenient on people accused of child pornography, and had not sentenced them harshly enough. Legal experts told Insider that Hawley's argument took Jackson's actual judicial record out of context.

Hawley's implication was clear: that as a judge, Jackson was soft on crime. And it was difficult to extricate that argument from her race, observers said.

"This is just the latest manifestation of trying to whip up white fear and anxiety," said Steve Phillips, a founder of media and political strategy organization Democracy in Color.

Bannon pointed to the confirmation process for Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1967, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, as precedent for Jackson's experience.

While Marshall had his defenders in the Senate, like New York's Republican Sen. Jacob Javitz, his nomination was opposed by white, predominantly southern and segregationist senators, Wil Haygood writes in "Showdown," his book about Marshall's confirmation.

Sen. James Eastland, a Mississippi Democrat, asked Marshall, "Are you prejudiced against white people in the South?"

Other segregationist opponents sought to link the political turbulence of the moment to the confirmation hearing, while also denying that their motivations were linked to racism, Haygood argues.

In one instance, Sen. John McClellan, an Arkansas Democrat, told Marshall, "I know there is a crisis in this country, a crime crisis. And I know the philosophy of the Supreme Court one way or the other on these vital issues is going to be of untold consequences and has already been in my judgment of serious consequences to the crime situation."

Marshall "faced far more scrutiny than other recent nominees," Bannon said. "A lot of questioning around so-called 'tough-on-crime' questions that a lot of historians who have looked at those questions really contextualize as grounded in the fact that he was the first Black justice."

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on April 23, 2021. Erin Schaff/AFP/Getty Images

Justice Sotomayor faced similar criticism as recently as 2009

During her confirmation hearing in 2009, Justice Sonia Sotomayor  another historical nominee  also faced criticism from Republicans that centered on her race and gender after she referred to herself as a "wise Latina" during a speech years earlier.

Sotomayor had told students at the University of California, Berkeley law school in 2001 that, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Years later during her confirmation, Republicans, such as former Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, implied that Sotomayor's comments cast doubt on her ability to be impartial as a jurist.

"You say, if there are enough of us, we will make a difference, inferring that it is a good thing if we begin deciding cases differently," Kyl said.

Sotomayor, who became the first woman of color and first Latina on the Supreme Court, was forced to walk back her comments and defend her ability to judge impartially.

During her confirmation process, Sotomayor was also forced to resign from the exclusive women's club, Belizian Grove. Republicans had accused her of participating in an organization that discriminated against men.

Read the original article on Business Insider




A report from the German Marshall Fund, a group aimed at promoting democracy, called for the U.S. to take action over China's moves to isolate Taiwan from international groups on Thursday.

The report details actions China has taken in recent years to claim Taiwan as its own in the eyes of international organizations and groups such as the United Nations.

It is focused on China's interpretation of UN Resolution 2758, which was signed in 1971 and says the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate representative of China at the U.N.

"There is a campaign underway by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to reinterpret UN Resolution 2758 as based on its 'One China' Principle and spread the fallacy that, through the resolution, UN member states came to a determination that Taiwan is a part of the PRC," the report states.

China has worked to pressure the U.N. and other organizations to adopt language that recognizes Taiwan as part of China, with some U.N. documents altered to say "Taiwan, Province of China."

The pro-democracy group is calling on the U.S. to combat these diplomatic advances by creating a coalition of countries to counter China's attempts to change the meaning of resolution 2758, and write a letter to the U.N. secretary general detailing their concerns around China's actions.

They also want the U.S. to pressure other organizations to stop using the phrase "Taiwan, province of China."

"The United States should publicly emphasize the differences between its 'One China' policy and Beijing's 'One China' Principle" and lobby against Chinese officials in high positions in the U.N, according to the group.

Taiwan is one of the most contentious issues between the U.S. and China as China claims the democratically run island as its own territory.

The U.S. takes a position of "strategic ambiguity" in the dispute, neither recognizing Taiwan as its own country nor that it belongs to China.

China has repeatedly flown jets near Taiwanese air space over the past year in what has been seen as provocative moves meant to intimidate the island.

It has also refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, amid concerns that Moscow's war on its neighbor may embolden Beijing to take similar action toward Taiwan.
At 2.54pm on the second day of Ketanji Brown Jacksons confirmation hearings that will determine whether she takes a seat on the US supreme court, the solemn proceedings took a nosedive into farce.

Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, turned theatrically to an outsized blow-up of a childrens book, Antiracist Baby by Ibram X Kendi. Pointing to a cartoon from its pages of an infant in diapers taking their first walk, he asked Jackson: Do you agree with this book  that babies are racist?

Senator, Jackson began with a sigh. And then she paused for seven full seconds, which in the august setting of the Senate judiciary committee hearing felt like a year.

For the one and only time in the 13 hours of questioning that Jackson endured that day, the nominee appeared flummoxed. Or was it flabbergasted?

Here she was, aged 51, with almost a decades experience as a federal judge behind her and, if confirmed, the history-making distinction of becoming the first Black woman to sit on the nations highest court ahead of her. And she was being asked whether babies were racist?

I dont believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or not valued, or less than, that they are victims, oppressors, she said eventually. When Cruz refused to drop the subject she gave a more direct answer.

I have not reviewed any of those books, she said. They dont come up in my work as a judge, which Im respectfully here to address.

Senator Ted Cruz holds up the childrens book Antiracist Baby as he questions Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Photograph: Michael McCoy/Reuters

That Cruz chose to focus on critical race theory (CRT), the years-old academic theory that has become the latest conservative hot-button issue, in his questioning spoke volumes about the brutal social issue politics of todays Republican party. That he did so to a Black woman lent the exchange the astringency of a racial dog-whistle.

Cruzs attack was not unique. Four hours before he began his interrogation, the official Twitter account of the Republican National Committee posted a gif of the nominee bearing her initials KBJ which are then scratched out and replaced with the letters: CRT. Critical race theory is an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society.

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There was another twist to Cruzs questioning. The private elementary school at which he claimed CRT was being taught  Antiracist Baby and all  is Georgetown Day School on whose board Jackson sits as a trustee. When GDS was founded in 1945 it too made history as the first integrated school, serving both Black and white children, in the nations capital.

Lest any of the attendants of the hearings inside the Hart Senate office building or following along on television had doubts about Cruzs motivations, he grilled Jackson on several other racially charged subjects. He began by vaunting his own anti-racist credentials by expressing the admiration he shared with Jackson for Martin Luther King.

Within seconds of that warm embrace, however, the senator segued to a speech that Jackson made in 2020  on MLK day  in which she referred to the 1619 Project.

The project, initiated by the New York Times, seeks to reframe American history by placing the consequences of slavery and the role of African American women front and centre of the national narrative. Cruz asked Jackson if she agreed with some of its more contested conclusions, which he claimed were deeply inaccurate and misleading, to which she replied that she had only mentioned it because it was well known to the students I was talking to.

Again, she stressed, this was a subject that had absolutely nothing to do with her work  or by implication, the job of a supreme court justice.

Outside observers were incensed by Cruzs tactics. What we saw today was an attempt to assail the character of Ketanji Brown Jackson, because her record is so wholly unassailable, Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the racial justice organization, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said on MSNBC.

Raphael Warnock, the Democratic senator from Georgia and former senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta where King once preached, pondered in the New York Times: Would they be asking these questions if this were not a Black woman?

Senator Lindsey Graham questions supreme court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation on Wednesday. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

There were other awkward moments in Jacksons epic inquisition, which she survived while barely dropping the perma-smile from her face. There was the moment that Lindsey Graham, Republican senator from South Carolina, flounced out of the hearing having earlier wrongly accused Jackson of having called George W Bush and the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld war criminals.

Yet more bizarre was the episode when Marsha Blackburn, Republican senator from Tennessee, asked Jackson whether she could provide a definition for the word woman. No, I cant, came the curt reply.

It was all a far cry from the promise delivered by Senator Chuck Grassley, the top Republican in the judiciary committee, at the start of the hearings. There would be no spectacle or political circus coming from his side of the aisle.

Several Republican senators followed that pledge by channelling QAnon. Senators Josh Hawley from Missouri, Cruz and Graham all pursued the inquisitorial line that Jackson had been unduly lenient as a federal district court judge in her sentencing of sex offenders who consume and distribute images of child sex abuse.

Though they avoided stating so explicitly, the senators clearly intended to imply that Jacksons sympathies lay with pedophiles. Thats a short stones throw away from the core conspiracy theory peddled by QAnon, the toxic Donald Trump-supporting online movement.

At its Pizzagate inception during the 2016 presidential campaign, QAnon fantasised about a child trafficking ring around Hillary Clinton and other Democratic leaders and liberal Hollywood celebrities.

As Media Matters has noted, the claim that Jackson was lenient towards sex offenders consuming images of children first surfaced last month. A conservative group American Accountability Foundation (AAF) ran an investigation into her writings while a student at Harvard law school in which she explored discrepancies in sentencing policy in such cases.

The group misleadingly claimed that her writing exposed her as a radical judicial activist dedicated to social justice engineering.

Days before the confirmation hearings began, Republican senators had taken up AAFs lead and were plotting how to use it during the confirmation process. Last week Politico obtained a document that was circulating among the senators in which they rehearsed the claim that the judge routinely handed out light sentences, and that the lightest of all were in child pornography cases.

A pedophile-sympathising, critical race theory-loving, judicial activist, radical leftist social engineer. The vision of the nominee that was presented over hours of Republican grilling made for quite the spectacle.

But will the political circus work? They are trying to find some way to make her look less than qualified, Nelson concluded. They failed miserably.
Mar. 23After nearly three hours of comments and discussion, Dayton's zoning appeals board this week rejected a plan to open a new protective care facility offering mental health and substance abuse crisis services just south of downtown.

Board members and critics said the proposed location is too close to a school and sits in an area already saturated with social services. They said there isn't a compelling reason why the center can't be put somewhere else.

"For us, it is location, location, location," said Timothy Bement, a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals. "I haven't heard a whole lot that really justifies why you feel as an organization that" it must go here.

Supporters were disappointed, saying the decision will lead to a delay in providing vital new crisis treatment and intervention services. But their search for a new location in Montgomery County begins immediately.

Proponents said the proposed crisis center is a critical and final piece of a three-part model to help residents struggling with mental illness and substance abuse.

"While the proposed location of the Crisis Now receiving center will change, our community's need for this innovative level of service will not change," said Helen Jones-Kelley, executive director of Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Services (ADAMHS).

Montgomery County ADAMHS wanted to convert the former AAA building at 825 S. Ludlow St. into a new 24/7 protective care facility that provides "stabilization services" for adults in the throes of a mental health or substance abuse crisis.

ADAMHS already has contracted with RI International to operate a new Crisis Now model, which includes a new hotline that officially launched at the start of this year and already has fielded more than 1,200 calls.

Later this year, the hotline  833-580-CALL or 833-580-2255  will be replaced with an easier-to-remember number: 988. That also will serve as the new number for the national suicide prevention hotline.

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RI International also helped create four new mobile crisis response teams to be dispatched when callers' issues cannot be resolved by phone.

Mobile teams, including trained professionals like clinicians, were dispatched to respond to 3-4% of the calls to the new hotline.

Supporters say the next step is to open a crisis receiving center, which would mean community members in crisis have someone to call, someone to come to them and somewhere to go.

The new center will be a comfortable and inviting alternative to sterile emergency rooms, and it will have trained professionals to help people get the immediate and long-term assistance they need, said Jones-Kelley, with ADAMHS.

Patients will receive treatment, referrals and other kinds of support, and RI International has similar types of facilities in other communities around the nation.

Under the proposal, the crisis receiving center would be a locked, secure facility with psychiatric, nursing and clinical staff, and it would have a maximum capacity of 32 patients, said Susan Vincent, a city planner.

But variances are required to open protective care facilities within 1,000 feet of schools, and the AAA property is located about 680 feet from Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School, Vincent said.

Also, the proposed center would need another variance because it is within 1,000 feet of a similar type of facility: Daybreak's emergency shelter is only about 245 feet away.

Karin Manovich, a South Park resident whose kids attended Chaminade Julienne, said she has great sympathy for people fighting mental illness and addiction, but said this is the wrong place for this project, especially given existing zoning rules.

"Law enforcement for the entire county will be dropping off both addicts and mentally ill adults in crisis to the doorstep of CJ," she said. "Why does this county facility have to be in an area already saturated with high-impact social services agencies?"

She said there must be a vacant building or plot of land somewhere else in the city or county without a school so close by that will work just as well.

City planning staff recommended denial of the variance and conditional use requests, and critics included nearby businesses, residents and institutions. The zoning appeals board unanimously voted against the zoning requests.

Some opponents asked why even have a zoning code if it's just going to be ignored, and they also claimed that approving the request would set a dangerous precedent.

"We believe that this location is really not suitable for Chaminade Julienne," said Joseph Geraghty, chair of CJ's board of trustees.

Geraghty said Chaminade Julienne has made significant investments in its property, and the surrounding area has pockets of new development.

Geraghty said the AAA property could be turned into new housing or other uses, and people are rightfully concerned about the proposed facility's impact on safety.

The midtown area just south of downtown is home to a variety of businesses, including Old Scratch Pizza, Ghostlight Coffee, Rinse Cycle and BarryStaff.

Additionally, the former Montgomery County fairgrounds property south of the AAA building is being targeted for redevelopment.

Thomas Castellanos, a member of RI International's executive team, said they looked at about 50 properties across the county but felt this was the best option.

He said RI International's facilities across the nation go to great lengths to be good neighbors.

Tina Rezash Rogal, director of strategic initiatives and communication for Montgomery County ADAMHS, said many of the comments she's heard in the last couple of months from people who objected to the proposed facility were "laced with stigma and fear."

She said, "The truth is most people with mental illness don't walk around with syringes in their arms. Most people with mental illness do not panhandle. Most people with mental illness are a greater risk of harming themselves than harming others."




Russian officials vowed a hurtful response after Poland decided to expel 45 diplomats from the country, Reuters reported.

Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday called Poland's move "a conscious step towards the final destruction of bilateral relations, the dismantling of which our Polish 'partners' have been systematically carrying out for a long time."

"Russia will not leave this hostile attack without a response, which will make Polish provocateurs think and will hurt them," Russia's foreign ministry added, according to the wire service.

Poland announced on Wednesday that it has expelled Russian diplomats from the country on suspicion of working for the Russian intelligence service, Reuters reported.

Russia's Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev said the country also blocked the embassy's bank accounts because they could be used for money-laundering or terrorist finance, according to Reuters.

In a statement, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki didn't offer details of the actions, adding that he could only "say in general terms that we have been dealing with the freezing of funds of the Russian Federation."

The news from the two countries comes amid Russia's continued invasion of Ukraine, which has sparked a humanitarian crisis. Russian military attacks on Ukrainian cities have prompted refugees to pour over the country's borders into neighboring countries like Poland.
Oksana Baulina, the chief of video operations at the foundation run by the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaking after a live broadcast at the office of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption in Moscow on May 16, 2017. Pavel Golovkin/AP

A Russian journalist died in an airstrike at a shopping center in Kyiv, a Russian news site said.

Oksana Baulina reported for The Insider and previously worked for the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

She's one of several journalists who have died or been injured while reporting on Russia's invasion.

A Russian journalist died in an airstrike on a shopping center in a neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, the independent Russian news site The Insider said in a statement.

Oksana Baulina, 42, a reporter for The Insider, was on assignment in Ukraine filming the destruction of Russian shelling in the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv. She was one of two people who were killed in the rocket strike on the shopping center, and two others were injured in the incident.

"The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana's family and friends," the Russian news site said in a statement. "We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas which result in the deaths of civilians and journalists."

Prior to joining the Russian news site, Baulina worked for the Anti-Corruption Foundation, formed by Putin opponent Alexei Navalny. She left the Moscow nonprofit after Russian authorities listed it as an extremist organization, and she continued to report on government corruption at The Insider.

Prior to working with Navalny's team, she started her journalism career working for lifestyle publications, such as Time Out Moscow and InStyle, The Guardian reported.

Alexey Kovalev, an investigations editor at the Russian news website Meduza, described Baulina as a journalist "with phenomenal sense of moral clarity."

"Oksana ditched a successful career in glossy magazines (I first met her at Time Out Moscow in 2006 where she edited the fashion section) to become an opposition activist, human rights campaigner, and then full-time reporter. Arrested several times, her org declared 'extremist,'" he tweeted.

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"Always at the front of any picket line, immensely resourceful, incredibly brave but never reckless or irresponsible, always directing her superhuman energy to the most righteous causes," Kovalev added. "And a life she gave up for this without a second thought."

Baulina is one of several journalists thus far who have died or been injured while covering the ongoing Russian military assault on Ukraine, the international nonprofit Reporters Without Borders said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan at the Rayburn House Office building on Capitol Hill on September 29, 2021 in Washington, DC.





Top U.S. defense officials have received no response to outreach to their Russian counterparts since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov "have so far declined to engage" in phone calls with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Over the past month, Secretary Austin and Chairman Milley have sought, and continue to seek, calls with their Russian counterparts. Minister Shoigu and General Gerasimov have so far declined to engage," Kirby said.

Relations between the two countries on the diplomatic front have deteriorated as well. Russia this week warned the U.S. that relations could be severed over President Biden calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and informed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that it was expelling some diplomats.

U.S. officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not communicated with his Russian counterpart either, but Kirby stated maintaining connections between defense officials in both countries is "critically importance at this time," according to the Post.

On Wednesday, the U.S. said it has officially determined that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine, as thousands have died during the conflict - including hundreds of civilians with shelling of hospitals, arts centers and bomb shelters.

The U.S. has been careful not to take military actions that could escalate the war in Ukraine, such as imposing a no-fly zone over the country.

The U.S. has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian officials and companies while also providing hundreds of millions worth of arms to Ukraine's military, which has thus far held off Russian efforts to take major population centers.

Updated: Thursday at 12:57 p.m.
Staff, employees and guests arrive to the Old Post Office in Chicago March 21, 2022. Many companies are again calling employees back to the office, but the way employees are returning has changed and many are required to spend fewer days there. According to the building's general manager, in mid-March about 1,600 workers swiped into the building, which is expected to house around 10,000 employees when fully occupied. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Many companies are again calling employees back to the office, after two years that saw staff return in fits and starts as COVID-19 surged and relented.

But the ways office workers are returning have changed. Many are required to spend fewer days in the office, and that trend might be here to stay.

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Tractor-maker John Deere, which recently announced a new, 35,000-square-foot office space at trendy Fulton Market, has moved to fully remote or hybrid work for the long term. Employees are encouraged to be on-site one or two days a week, or one week a month, but managers and employees ultimately determine what the flexible schedule looks like. The new Chicago office space is seen as a collaborative office space to convene, connect and innovate, spokeswoman Jen Hartmann said in an email.

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At JPMorgan Chase, some employees are in the office five days a week. Others work on a hybrid schedule, depending on their role, spokesman Brian Hanover said. The banking giant owns and occupies much of the 60-story Chase Tower downtown.

People pass through the Wacker Drive lobby at Willis Tower in Chicago on March 15, 2022. The building's occupancy rose by about 45% between the first week in February and the first week in March. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

How employees return to the office, and how often theyre there, could affect the future of downtown Chicago. Fewer office workers is one of several changes that could reshape the face of downtown as the city tries to emerge from the pandemic.

Companies are also recognizing increasing demand from employees to work from home, which has provided safety and convenience for office workers for much of the pandemic.

One head count of people returning to offices showed Chicago occupancy was at nearly 35% of pre-pandemic levels during the second week in March, after dipping during the surge of the omicron variant earlier in the year, according to an analysis by security company Kastle of its own building entry data.

A separate survey of 68 Chicago executives taken in December found most thought employees would return to the office by the end of March. The largest share  about 43%  thought employees would return three days a week, according to the survey, conducted by a business group aiming to drive the return of downtown.

A return to the office might be more feasible now, said Derrick Johnson, president of the board of downtown building association BOMA/Chicago. The end of Chicagos mask mandate seems to have made some people feel more comfortable in office settings. Some of the logistical concerns that prevented a return to work earlier in the pandemic, like how to care for children who had not yet returned to school, have been resolved, he said.

Weve hit a point where everyone that wanted to get the shot and get boosted has done so, he said. We kind of understand what COVID means to our life, where for a lot of this period, we didnt really understand.

Johnson is a senior vice president at real estate developer Zeller, where most corporate employees have been back in the office four days a week for months, he said.

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People take advantage of the food and dining area at the Jackson Boulevard entrance to Willis Tower March 15, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

He thinks companies will eventually bring people back to the office five days a week. Employees benefit from being around others who dont think like them, and young workers benefit from mentorship, he said.

But Steven Davis, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who is studying working from home, said hybrid schedules for office workers arent likely to change anytime soon.

Two years of practice, improved technology and increasing demand from employees to work from home has made the concept more palatable for employers, he said. And an ongoing survey conducted by Davis and researchers at other universities shows employers are increasingly warming up to the idea of employees working from home part of the time.

Employers are faced with three choices when it comes to working from home, he said: allow remote work, pay employees higher salaries to compensate for not offering remote work, or accept that they might lose current and future employees if they dont offer remote work as an option.

Most will likely make remote work feasible, Davis said. The key is to divide up workdays so that employees are in the office on days they are doing tasks that will benefit from proximity to their co-workers.

That division might make managers jobs more difficult, but will benefit employees who can save time on getting ready and commuting, he said.

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Before COVID, for most workers, working remotely for much of the week was not really an option, and that meant employers did not really need to respond to it, he said. Because their employees who wanted that option didnt really have a way to make it happen. Now, they do have a way to make it happen.

One company that has embraced a hybrid schedule is Molson Coors, where employees are in the office at least Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Company executives think employees work best together, and beer is a social industry, spokesman Marty Maloney said. But the company also wanted to provide flexibility, and recognized the world has changed.

As long as the schedule keeps working the company has no plans change it, though it could adjust if future developments with the pandemic call for it, Maloney said.

Employees arrive for work at the Old Post Office in Chicago on March 21, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Engineering firm ESD brought its roughly 230 Chicago employees back to the office part time at the beginning of March, after several changes to planned start dates, Executive Chairman Raj Gupta said. For now, in consideration of health concerns, employees are divided into two groups, who each come in two days a week.

In six months, if nothing changes, Gupta plans to move to a hybrid schedule where most employees can choose three days a week to come in  with the expectation that if a big deadline is coming up or a client or co-workers have urgent needs, an employee will come in.

The decision reflects a recognition that employees might have family or other commitments, Gupta said. The company also already had allowed remote work for employees who lived elsewhere in the country or had specific family needs. It can make a hybrid schedule work because it is a service company.

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Im very comfortable with it, he said. And we really had no choice. And if we didnt have that two-year period to work out the kinks and everything, it probably would be a little disconcerting to automatically go to three days a week for the whole company, but since weve been working for two years remotely anyway, Im much more comfortable with it, he said.

The company moved onto Floors 53 and 54 of Willis Tower in 2018, shortly after redevelopment work began at the tower. Even with the hybrid schedule, the office space is worth it to Gupta, because collaboration and development of younger employees is key to the design firm. The building and the companys unique office setup could also help recruit new hires.

Now that employees arent in the office every day, the company could take some of its existing space and reconfigure it, he said.

ESD isnt the only company that recently returned at Willis. Average daily occupancy at the tower shot up by about 45% between the first week of February and the first week of March, a spokesman said. Traffic in the buildings new food court and retail space followed similar trends.

A few blocks south, the Old Post Office welcomed its first tenants months before the pandemic sent office workers home in March 2020. Two years later, on a Wednesday in mid-March, 1,600 workers swiped into the building, which is expected to house around 10,000 employees when fully occupied, said Bryan Oyster, the buildings general manager.

About a week and a half before, between 750 and 1,000 workers swiped in.

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Uber Technologies, one of the buildings large tenants, opened its office in the fall for employees who chose to come in. The company sought to sublease some of its space before the pandemic shutdowns, and later put its construction on hold because of the virus.

It plans in the coming months to have employees working there half the time, said Rachel Perl, Ubers head of U.S. North regulatory strategy and operations, in a statement.

A person shows his documents to a staff member at the Old Post Office as employees arrive for work on March 21, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

The Old Post Office is 97% leased, but not all tenants have moved in, according to the leasing agent, the Telos Group. Much of the leasing took place during the pandemic, and tenants designed their spaces with the intent to have employees back a few days a week, Matt Whipple, one of the leasing agents, said.

For those who have moved in, the building is trying to match companies efforts to encourage employees to come in a few days a week, Oyster said. That can mean moving a scheduled building happy hour from a Friday to a Wednesday, when more tenants are in the building.

As it adjusts, the Old Post Office is getting ready for an influx of workers for the first time.

Now is the first time were actually going to see everyone start to come in at the same time, Oyster said.

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sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com
Three Russian spies spent five years targeting energy infrastructure in 135 countries in an effort to enable the Russian government to gain remote control of power plants, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in an indictment unsealed on Thursday.

From 2012 to 2014, according to the indictment unsealed in a district court in Kansas, the three FSB officers  Pavel Aleksandrovich Akulov, Mikhail Mikhailovich Gavrilov, and Marat Valeryevich Tyukov  worked to hide malware in software updates used by systems that control the equipment in power plants. That tactic and others let the accused install malware on 17,000 devices around the world. The attacks had been previously disclosed in 2018.

From 2014 to 2017, Akulov, Gavrilov and Tyukov are accused of using spearphishing and other tactics to home in on more than 3,300 specific people working in the energy industry. Their targets worked at more than 500 different entities, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to the indictment. In one instance, they are alleged to have compromised the business network of Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp. in Kansas, which runs a nuclear power plant, though a Justice Department official ,who was granted anonymity as a condition of letting reporters join a press conference, said Thursday that the control systems network was not accessed.

The indictment was one of two unsealed Thursday against Russian hackers. A second indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia alleged that Russian national Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh and unnamed co-conspirators targeted a foreign oil facility and a U.S. energy company between 2017 and 2018.

Russian state-sponsored hackers pose a serious and persistent threat to critical infrastructure both in the United States and around the world, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement on Thursday. Although the criminal charges unsealed today reflect past activity, they make crystal clear the urgent ongoing need for American businesses to harden their defenses and remain vigilant.

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The Justice Department official noted that more actions from the U.S. federal government would be announced in the days to come.

These charges show the dark art of the possible when it comes to critical infrastructure, the Justice Department official said.

The official said that the Justice Department chose to unseal the indictments to warn people about risks to critical infrastructure  and to highlight the departments concerns about current malign Russian activity. The official said the indictments are a reminder of the Russian governments intent and capabilities. Unsealing the charges also appears to be tacit acknowledgment that the charged military officials are very unlikely to be arrested and extradited to the U.S.

The State Department later offered a $10 million reward for "for information leading to the identification or location" of Akulov, Gavrilov or Tyukov, who it said were members of an "operational group" known alternatively as Dragonfly, Energetic Bear and Crouching Yeti.

Just days ago, President Joe Biden warned that evolving intelligence showed the Russian government was considering cyberattacks against the U.S. as sanctions bite down and Russian progress on the ground in Ukraine remains largely stalled.

The FBI also warned last week that Russian hackers were targeting U.S. energy companies and other U.S. defense, IT and financial groups. Biden sent a letter to governors this week urging them to take urgent action to protect their systems. CISA today issued an alert detailing the tactics, techniques and procedures used in the energy sector intrusions.

This is far from the first time the U.S. government has called out Russian malicious cyber activity. DHS and FBI put out an alert in March 2018 warning that the Russian government was targeting the U.S. energy sector through a multi-stage intrusion campaign. Biden sanctioned Russia last year for its involvement in the SolarWinds hacking campaign, which allowed Russian government hackers to access the networks of at least a dozen federal agencies and 100 private-sector groups for around a year.
One month ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin went on television to announce he was invading Ukraine and warned the West that attempts to intervene could be met with nuclear retaliation.

In the four weeks since, Russian forces have launched airstrikes, laid siege to its cities, and prompted millions to flee the worst violence Europe has seen in decades. The conflict has reshaped the geopolitical landscape, widening a divide between Moscow and the West redolent of the Cold War. And it has already raised fears of global economic and food crises.

The invasion was predicted for months by Western intelligence agencies and analysts on social media, but while its effects have shaken the world, perhaps the biggest surprise has been a Russian military campaign widely regarded as disastrous to this point.

That's contrasted with a staunch Ukrainian defense, bolstered by support from dozens of allies including the United States, and inspired by the talismanic Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The month-old war has posed the biggest foreign policy challenge so far for President Joe Biden, who had hoped to focus on China but instead jetted to Europe on Wednesday to attend an emergency NATO summit. Biden has been tasked with corralling Washingtons allies against the Kremlin  but without provoking a direct confrontation with a nuclear power.

Western weapons, many of which have been supplied by Washington, have been key in helping Ukraine to hold firm against the Russian advance. Nevertheless, most experts say victory for either side will be difficult and costly  raising the possibility that the conflict could now descend into an even more violent and attritional new phase.

The key question is whether Ukraine can hold out for long enough for the Russian onslaught not merely to be stalled, but actually seen to be visibly failing, said Keir Giles, a Russia military expert and a senior consulting fellow at the London think tank Chatham House.

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That will depend not only on the speed with which Western support can be absorbed by Ukraine, he added, but also the tolerance of Ukraines population and leadership for the horrors that Russia will seek to inflict to bring the conflict to a conclusion.

The war has conjured specters that Europe had hoped were banished to the past.

Tanks have once again rolled onto the soil of a sovereign democracy; civilians have been torn from loved ones at train stations as they flee bombardment; and an autocrat has used historical fantasy to justify a brutal land grab.

The numbers are striking for a conflict younger than 30 days.

Some 10 million people  nearly a quarter of Ukraine's population  have fled their homes, according to the United Nations, either displaced internally or trekking as refugees to neighboring countries, such as Poland and Moldova.

Men react as an evacuation train with their relatives departs to Lviv, at Kyiv central train station in Kyiv (Gleb Garanich / Reuters)

Russia has not released updated figures of its losses, but a NATO official told NBC News that the organization currently estimates that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have died in the past four weeks of war. Adding in Russian troops who have been injured, captured or gone missing, the number could be as high as 30,000 to 40,000, the official said.

Ukraine has been disfigured by the war. Northern cities such as Kharkiv lie in ruin. Mariupol, in the south, is still under siege.

The United Nations humanitarian office officially confirmed more than 2,500 civilian casualties, including dead and wounded, but acknowledges that the total number is likely much higher.

'This is not collateral damage'

Most experts in the West agree that such a relentless assault was not Russia's original plan, but rather the one it eventually settled on as a product of bad planning and execution by its military.

Having already annexed Crimea and supported separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Putin wanted a swift victory, according to experts analyzing Russias military moves and his public statements. They believe he intended to quickly seize Ukrainian cities, removing the government and installing a puppet regime.

After five days, it was obvious this was not going to happen, according to Giles and others.

Instead, Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses on a Russian force seemingly underprepared for a long, tough fight.

In response to this struggle, Putin has pivoted to what experts say is a tried, tested and merciless plan B: bombing civilians into submission.

"The Russian brutality has really surprised me," said Hanna Shelest, a director at the Ukrainian Prism think tank, who lives in the southern city of Odesa. "This is not collateral damage; it's deliberate."

The Kremlin rejects this and says its campaign is going well. But it also denies it is waging a war at all, instead calling it a "special military operation" to remove Ukraine's "neo-Nazi" government and prevent a "genocide" of ethnic Russians  neither of which are true.

Some see Moscow entering into peace talks with Kyiv as proof that it is trying to seek an off-ramp to its failed military objectives.

Image: A Ukrainian serviceman takes a photograph of a damaged church after shelling in a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine on March 10, 2022. (Evgeniy Maloletka / AP)

Meanwhile the war has jolted the West out of the torpor into which many observers believe it had slumped. The U.S., Europe and others have hit Moscow with a salvo of sanctions and boycotts that crippled its economy and isolated the Kremlin as a global outcast.

Zelenskyy has become something of a hero in Europe and beyond, broadcasting daily videos from inside Kyiv even as the capital comes under aerial attacks.

By contrast, Putin has responded by doubling down on the oppressive regime that he has been building for 23 years.

His authorities have shuttered independent news outlets, arrested protesters, and threatened anyone who even utters the word "war" with 15 years in prison. That's not stopped the Russian currency from crashing and people panic-buying key goods in grocery stores, according to videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News.

Eager Putin-watchers have been alarmed at what they see as an emotional, angry president  a far cry from the stoic former KGB officer they are used to studying. Still, vastly outmanning and outgunning Ukraine, the Russian leader shows no sign of withdrawing or slowing the violence, Shelest and others believe.

"We are seeing Russians are trying to regroup and there is no feeling that Russia might try to get out," she said. "Their rhetoric has not changed  its even worse than before."
The leader of a Sarah Lawrence College sex cult tortured a victim who was working for him as a prostitute, repeatedly suffocating her with a plastic bag, the victim testified Thursday.

Claudia Drury, 31, described the night of vicious abuse in October 2018 when Lawrence Ray, 62, handcuffed her naked to a chair over a perceived betrayal. The cult leader subjected Drury to as much as eight hours of interrogation in a room at the Gregory Hotel in Manhattan, she said.

He told me to strip naked. I did, she testified. He ended up binding me to a chair. A desk chair in the room and suffocating me with a plastic bag.

Ray was furious that Drury had shared with one of her sex work clients a blackmail website Ray had created under her name. The site included the names of some of Drurys regular customers, she testified in Manhattan Federal Court.

He had never done anything like that to me before, Drury said. But then he did ... I was suffocating. I was terrified. I was trembling.

Over the course of the night, Ray poured cold water over Drury and put her in front of an air conditioner on full blast, smothered her with a pillow, choked her with a collar and leash and even cut her hair, Drury testified.

He threatened to waterboard me, Drury said.

Ray took a break at one point that night with his second-in-command Isabella Pollok  who is also charged in the case  to order burgers from the Starlight Diner that were delivered to the hotel room, Drury recalled.

Do you think Im going to kill you? I am going to kill you, Ray said in an audio recording played for jurors as he allegedly choked her.

The chilling account came on Drurys fifth day of testimony.

Ray is accused for 17 racketeering counts alleging he physically and sexually abused a group of wayward youngsters from Sarah Lawrence he met through his daughter between 2010 and 2020. Ray tortured his followers in what he called The Ray Family, according to testimony, allegedly hitting one acolyte, Santos Rosario, in the legs with a hammer and tightening a tinfoil noose around another victims genitals. Much of Rays abuse came under the guise of therapy, witnesses have testified.

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Drurys testimony was delayed over the last two weeks as Ray was twice removed from the courtroom due to alleged medical emergencies. He was wheeled out the front door of Manhattan Federal Court on a stretcher and placed into an ambulance both times.

Meanwhile, prosecutors on Monday accidentally released a list of names of Drurys client list of 121 regulars to reporters.

Ray forced many of his victims to give false confessions that they were in on a scheme with former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik to poison him, witnesses have testified. Testimony has revealed Ray was obsessed with Kerik, who was once his close friend.

Drury was so convinced she had wronged Ray that she worked for four years as a prostitute at his behest, turning over about $2.5 million in proceeds to Ray from her sex work, she said. She charged $2,000 per hour.

It was not until April 2019 that one of her clients convinced Drury to get out of the situation, paying for her to get on a train to Philadelphia. She said she never spoke to Ray again.

I left. I got on a train to Philly ... I turned off my phone, she said.
Two years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected on the Navajo Nation, the tribal government still requires mask wearing in public, even as many cities and states elsewhere have relaxed the rule.

It's part of a strategy that was put in place after the coronavirus swept through the Navajo Nation in the early weeks and months of 2020, leaving hundreds of people sick and dying. Officials say it ultimately made Navajo a model for fighting a pandemic.

Navajo officials have reported 1,659 COVID-19 related deaths since the first case was reported. While numbers may be on the decline, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said the pandemic isnt over.

Our response never lessened, said Nez. We are still in that response mode. Mask mandate stays. I think we got much support from our Navajo people when they recognized we are not out of the pandemic.

At the pandemic's start, the Navajo Nation made national news, first because of how hard it was hit, then because of how seriously leaders took the threat of COVID-19. Aside from the mask mandates, Navajo officials implemented a series of 57-hour weekend lockdowns, curfews, stay-at-home orders and checkpoints.

At one point, Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer were exposed and had to quarantine for two weeks.

It was scary at the beginning, said Nez. We didnt know what was going on. There was a lot of fear at the beginning.

Virus spread: As the Navajo Nation confronts cruelties of COVID-19, its leaders say 'we will win'

Miss Navajo Nation Shaandiin Parrish and Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez demonstrate how to wash their hands with a portable hand washing station at a COVID-19 food distribution event on the Navajo Nation in 2020.

Community groups step in

Throughout the pandemic, Nez and Lizer, along with their division directors, worked to give out food and supply boxes to tribal members. They also kept people informed through weekly town hall online sessions, where health care providers and officials discussed the status of COVID-19 on Navajo.

Its not over and its not enough to say we are in an endemic, said Dr. Jill Jim, director of the Navajo Department of Health. Our rates are still quite high. We are still in a pandemic. Although states are lifting restrictions, here on the Navajo Nation we are slowly lifting restrictions.

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Jim said the number may still seem high, but they are slowly coming down, and she emphasized the need for vaccines and boosters. She said officials are focusing on getting children vaccinated, especially with school in session.

Community outreach organizations like Chizh For Cheii were lifelines for people who were isolated at the beginning and during the pandemic. Chizh for Cheii has been delivering wood to elders in need during the winter for years, and it continued as the pandemic hit.

Two years seem like it's gone by fast, said Loren Anthony, who founded Chizh for Cheii a decade ago. Its been on the go almost every day. With that, you get that high from being on the front line to helping the elders to helping the community. It makes you feel good to be out there.

People wait in line at the Dr. Guy Gorman Senior Care Home to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on the Navajo Nation in Chinle on Dec. 18, 2020.

Anthony said he remembers a time when the pandemic was still new. Not much was known about it and it was a concern for him and his crew. Although fearful for themselves, they were also worried about the vulnerable population they served, the elders.

To ensure that each of the Chizh for Cheii crew were responsible and did not take any chances, they made a pact with one another to be extra careful, to avoid traveling or going to gatherings, and to stay within their own group. Being extra cautious worked.

I told my group that we don't know what we are dealing with, said Anthony. We have no clue what this virus is about and we have no idea what is the root of the cause, and what we can do to protect ourselves.

Since Chizh for Cheii had worked with elders already, Anthony said the organization had gained people's trust over the years. When they would deliver wood, the elders werent as reluctant as they were with organizations that had just formed in response to COVID-19 and were newly dropping off supplies. The relationship between Chizh for Cheii and elders was and still is a lifeline.

It got creepy for the elders because other organizations would come through bringing them stuff and they had no idea who they were, said Anthony. So we would have to show them what was going on, because a lot of the elders don't have internet or Facebook or anything like that.

The Pandemic: How COVID-19 struck the heart of the Navajo Nation and how people fought back

Members of AmeriCorps form a chain to prepare bags of flour to be given out to members of the Chinle Chapter at a distribution site at Blue Gap in Chinle, Ariz. on the Navajo Nation on Dec. 9, 2020.

A unified response

Nez has always emphasized the need to be surrounded by public health officials to help guide the response to the pandemic the past two years. He said guidance from public health officials has always been taken seriously and thats why mask mandates are still in place, among other things. He said the Navajo Nation has become a model of how to fight COVID-19.

People need to look at Navajo, said Nez. Open your eyes, look at what Navajo has done. Yes, we went through a surge this past couple of months, but you compare the number of people who caught the virus and how many of those didn't end up in the hospitals. It shows these protocols work. Vaccines also work.

Navajo health officials have made a point of reporting the number of people who recovered from the virus, a number that had reached 51,080 this week.

On Tuesday, two years into the pandemic, tribal health officials reported one new COVID-19 case and one recent death. No deaths were reported over a four-day stretch last week.

Navajo officials began testing early and have administered 503,549 COVID-19 tests. Of those, 52,825 were positive, according to the Navajo Department of Health, in coordination with the Navajo Epidemiology Center and the Navajo Area Indian Health Service.

Dr. Daniel Mays had first come to Gallup Indian Medical Center as a fellow under the University of California San Franciscos Health, Equity, Action and Leadership Initiative. Since 2015, the HEAL Initiative has served over 25,000 Navajo patients annually, and supported 165 health care workers through its two-year fellowship program. Mays had split his fellowship between GIMC and another hospital in Rwanda.

When comparing both sites and their response to COVID-19 over the two years, Mays said both the Navajo Nation and the Rwandan government were excellent at attentiveness, response, coordination and communication.

The communication from the Navajo government was excellent and really changed our ability to respond to this pandemic, said Mays.

Mays said not having a unified response to the pandemic, as was the case in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the three states that border the Navajo Nation, contributed to the spread of COVID-19.

But you go further into true disparities that are historical, and entrenched all the way back to historical trauma that goes back 150 years ago, said Mays. You take all of that together, and you have a more chronic state of stress and inflammation that comes from social inequality. Thats right for covid to cause havoc, because covid likes to set inflammation off.

The Navajo Nations political response and its efforts to get everyone informed continues to make a difference, as is clear to anyone who travels to Navajo Nation or surrounding border towns, where people continue to mask up, said Mays. This he said, was the result of effective messaging.

Imagine what if everyone throughout the country did what the Navajo Nation did, said Nez. Wed be out of this pandemic.

Arlyssa Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send ideas and tips to arlyssa.becenti@arizonarepublic.com.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Navajo leaders say their COVID-19 response has worked
A man was shot and killed in Seattles Columbia City neighborhood Thursday morning.

Neighbors said they heard rapid shots ring out at around 11:30 a.m.

I was in working in my office and then I heard what sounded like gunshots, so I came to the window and looked, opened up the window, and thats when I could hear people screaming, said Brian Ward.

Seattle police arrived in the 4200 block of South Angeline Street to find two people shot and injured on the sidewalk.

The Seattle Fire Department said the victims were a 25-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman.

A third victim, a 25-year-old woman, was transported to Harborview Medical Center with minor injuries.

Investigators are not sure what their relationship is.

Medics rushed both to Harborview Medical Center. The man later died at the hospital.

We have two victims, so theres a story that needs to be unraveled here, said Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud. At this time its still very early on, so were unsure if anybody else was involved.

Seattle police plan to question the woman once shes in stable condition.

Investigators are collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the SPD violent crimes tip line at 206-233-5000.

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Palm Bay police officers rescued a dog that was stuck in the mud in a canal off a local road on Wednesday morning.

Police said someone called them saying that a dog appeared to be stuck in the mud near Minton Road.

K9 Officer Carrol sprung into action to rescue the dog.

Video from the police department shows Carrol pull the dog out of the mud.

Photos: Palm Bay police officer rescues dog stuck in mud in canal

Officers said the water was cold and it appeared that the dog had been there for some time.

They said the dog was worn out and tired.

The dog was reunited with his owner.

READ: Woman discovers kangaroo in her driveway

READ: $1 house no more: Historic home goes for $100K

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Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) pressed senior Biden administration security officials on drugs crossing the southern border on Wednesday, calling its current response "inexcusable" and asking "who's in charge."

"We need to think about it as an attack. It's an attack on our country just as sure as it's an attack that came from Russia or Iran or anywhere else," King said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Service Committee on security cooperation in the Western Hemisphere.

"We've got to change our imagination here. This is an attack, and we got to put the resources on it," he added.

King said the United States does not currently make use of enough intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to stop drugs from crossing the border.

"Here is what's bothering me. If that was a terrorist cell in Latin America killing 100,000 Americans a year, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about not enough ISR and allocating it. I'm absolutely sick of this," he said.

"Even with the limited ISR we have, we are only interdicting 25 percent of the shipments that we know of. ... That's inexcusable," he added.

"Who's in charge? What individual in the United States government is in charge of stopping drugs coming from Latin America?" King asked the officials testifying before the committee.

James Saenz, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for counternarcotics and stabilization policy, responded that government agencies work together on the issue.

King asked whom President Biden should talk to if he wants to keep drugs out of the country, to which Saenz said the president has a director of national drug control policy.

King reiterated that "there isn't anyone, is there," dealing with drugs crossing the border, before Saenz said that the Department of Homeland Security is on the job but can't do it alone.

Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, responded to King's questioning by saying that the movement of drugs into the country was indeed a national security threat.

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"It's an absolute tragedy that hundreds if thousands of Americans are dying and have lives that are being devastated by the phenomena and it is a national security threat, plainly," Dalton said.

However, she added there are not enough resources to cover most global threats.

"There is not enough ISR to cover China, Russia, Ukraine, Iran. It is a global challenge," she said.

Dalton said the department is committed to combating the movement of drugs across the border through building foreign relationships and "working with our regional partners to strengthen their own capacity to address the transitional criminal organizations that are bringing these drugs to our country."

King added that a solution can be found.

"What's the problem? It seems to me that's a very solvable problem. It's just math," he said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday that he will vote against confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying he cannot and will not support the groundbreaking nominee for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.

While McConnells opposition was not unexpected and Jacksons confirmation is still on track, his declaration coming only hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up four days of hearings probably will lead many fellow Republicans to follow suit.

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Democrats can confirm Jackson, the first Black woman nominated for the nations highest court, without any GOP support in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tiebreaking vote.

McConnell slammed the liberal groups that have supported Jackson, and he criticized her for refusing to take a position on the size of the nine-member court, even though that decision is ultimately up to Congress. Some advocacy have pushed for enlarging the court after three of President Donald Trumps nominees cemented a conservative majority.

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Judge Jackson was the court packers pick and she testified like it, McConnell, R-Ky. said in a floor speech.

Over two days of committee questioning this week, Republicans interrogated Jackson about her record as a federal judge, including her sentencing of criminal defendants, as she seeks to become the first Black woman on the nations highest court.

Legal experts praised Jackson in the final day of hearings Thursday, with a top lawyers group saying its review found she has a sterling reputation, exceptional competence and is well qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

Outstanding, excellent, superior, superb, testified Ann Claire Williams, chair of the American Bar Association committee that makes recommendations on federal judges. Those are the comments from virtually everyone we interviewed.

Williams said the group spoke to more than 250 judges and lawyers about Jackson. The question we kept asking ourselves: How does one human being do so much so extraordinary well?

Democrats are hoping to win bipartisan votes for President Joe Bidens historic nominee, but Republicans have portrayed Jackson as soft on crime in her nine years on the federal bench. Jackson, supported by committee Democrats, pushed back on that GOP narrative in more than 22 hours of questioning, explaining the sentencing process in detail and telling them: nothing could be further from the truth.

The four-hour hearing Thursday featured not only legal experts but government officials and civil rights groups who supported Jackson and conservative advocates who opposed her.

Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall, a witness invited by the minority, echoed the Republicans concerns. Marshall said Jacksons supporters cite her as a voice for the vulnerable, but we should be interested in exploring whether her zeal is equally fervent for another class of our most vulnerable  victims of violent crime.

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Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the committee chairman, noted that some Republican senators argued that Jackson was out of the mainstream when it comes to sentencing. Durbin asked the ABA whether such a concern would have surfaced in their interviews with the judges and lawyers who worked with her.

It never came up in any of these interviews, Williams said.

Joseph Drayton, another member of the ABA committee, said Jacksons reputation is stellar.

Democrats tried to portray Marshall himself as out of the mainstream, asking about his efforts to overturn Bidens 2020 presidential victory. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked Marshall whether Biden was the duly elected president. Marshall, who had supported a lawsuit to overturn Donald Trumps defeat  would only say that Biden was president. The Supreme Court dismissed that suit.

The Senate committee is expected to vote on Jacksons nomination by April 4. Democrats are hoping to hold a final confirmation vote by Easter in mid-April, when the Senate leaves Washington for a two-week break.

GOP senators aggressively questioned Jackson on the sentences she has handed down to child pornography offenders in her nine years as a federal judge, her legal advocacy on behalf of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, her thoughts on critical race theory and her religious views.

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The focus on sentencing was part of a larger effort by the committees Republicans  several of whom are potential presidential candidates  to characterize Jacksons record, and her judicial philosophy, as too empathetic and soft on criminals who commit the worst offenses. It was also reflective of an emerging emphasis on crime in GOP midterm election campaigns.

Jackson said she bases sentences on many factors, not just federal guidelines. Sentencing is not a numbers game, she said, noting that there are no mandatory sentences for sex offenders and that there has been significant debate on the subject.

Some of the cases have given her nightmares, she said, and were among the worst that I have seen.

Durbin began Thursdays hearing by thanking most Republicans on the committee, but he also said some of the attacks on the judge were unfair, unrelenting and beneath the dignity of the United States Senate.

Biden chose Jackson in February, fulfilling a campaign pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. She would take the seat of Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced in January that he would retire this summer after 28 years.

Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman. Her confirmation would maintain the current 6-3 conservative majority on the court.

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She would also be the first former public defender on the court, and the first justice with experience representing indigent criminal defendants since Marshall.

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Jessica Gresko, Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Colleen Long in Washington and Aaron Morrison in New York contributed to this report.
Reports looks at Russia's ransomware attacks on U.S.
By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) -Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye left hospital on Thursday three months after she was released from prison where she spent nearly five years following a conviction on corruption charges.

Park, 70, became the country's first democratically elected leader to be forced from office when the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote in 2017 to impeach her over a scandal that also landed the chiefs of two conglomerates, Samsung and Lotte, in jail.

"As president, I tried to work hard for the country and the people but there are many dreams that were not achieved," Park, dressed in a dark navy coat and holding a purse, told hundreds of cheering supporters after arriving at her home in the southeastern city of Daegu.

"But those dreams are tasks for others," Park said, signalling no intention of returning to the political fray. "I will provide support so that talented people can contribute to the development of my hometown of Daegu and the country."

Park is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee and her imprisonment divided a country in which old Cold War rivalry between right and left still shapes politics.

An unidentified object was thrown at Park shortly after she began delivering her televised remarks from a podium but she smiled and thanked the crowd.

"I am extremely grateful that so many people came to warmly greet me even though I had numerous shortcomings and disappointed you," she said.

The Supreme Court last year upheld Park's sentence of 20 years in prison for colluding with a friend, who was also jailed, to receive millions of dollars from the companies, mostly to fund her friend's family and non-profit groups.

Outgoing President Moon Jae-in, who heads a liberal administration, granted Park a special pardon in December, citing her deteriorating health and his hopes to move past the "unfortunate history" and promote national unity.

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Earlier, as Park left the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, she told some 40 supporters that her health had improved. Dozens of officials who served in her administration and her conservative political party also gathered to offer their best wishes.

Park then visited her father's grave before heading home.

Park's release comes days after a presidential election won by conservative candidate Yoon Suk-yeol.

President-elect Yoon, who was in involved in the investigation of the corruption charges against Park when he served as prosecutor-general, said during the election campaign that he was sorry about what happened to her.

On Thursday, he said he hoped to meet her and would invite her to his inauguration in May.

Moon's office said he had sent Park an orchid and wished her well.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin;Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Uditha Jayasinghe and Devjyot Ghoshal

COLOMBO/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will seek World Bank assistance to stave off a severe economic crisis in addition to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue plan to be discussed next month, two sources said.

A 70% drop in foreign exchange reserves since January 2020 has left Sri Lanka struggling to pay for essential imports, including food and fuel, leading to growing unrest and even military deployments at gasoline stations.

Holding paltry reserves of $2.31 billion as of February, the country must repay about $4 billion in debt over the rest of this year, including a $1 billion international sovereign bond that matures in July.

To seek a way out of the crisis, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa will fly to Washington DC next month to hold talks with the IMF and also officials from the World Bank, two sources with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters.

"What we need is budgetary support," one of the sources said, referring to the financial assistance that the Sri Lankan government will ask the World Bank for.

The source was unable to provide the size of World Bank assistance that Sri Lanka could seek.

The World Bank typically extends support to boost exports, improve economic competitiveness and aid growth, analysts said.

In heavily indebted Argentina, for example, the World Bank is working on approving a $2 billion loan package for 2022 that includes support for infrastructure, health, social inclusion and environment projects.

Both sources, who declined to be named, since discussions were confidential, said such assistance would likely come after Sri Lanka entered into an IMF-supported loan programme.

In response to questions from Reuters, the World Bank said it was not currently in talks with Sri Lanka to provide budget support.

"We are engaging with the authorities to identify a comprehensive structural reform program needed to ensure sustainable growth, and around which such support may be possible in the future," the World Bank said.

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Sri Lanka's Finance Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

'DAMN TOUGH'

The amount of funding would depend on the specific goals set by an IMF programme as well as Sri Lanka's trade and fiscal deficits, analysts said, estimating an annual requirement of up to $3 billion from several multilateral and bilateral sources.

"If they have a credible IMF programme then there will be a period, perhaps six months to a year, maybe two, when it will be damn tough," the second source said.

"So how will people survive? That is where institutions like the World Bank will come in with budget support."

An IMF programme will likely focus on external debt restructuring, greater exchange-rate flexibility and better targeted subsidies, which may hit the poor, analysts said.

Transparent energy pricing is also likely to drive up fuel and electricity costs.

The World Bank could promote direct subsidy transfer, push green energy and develop human capital through improvements in health, education, and social protection, the second source said.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe and Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Bradley Perrett)
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A protester was shot and killed in the Sudanese city of Madani on Thursday, medics said, as demonstrators marched across the country to protest a military coup that has been followed by a steep economic downturn.

The 28-year-old is one of 90 protesters killed by security forces, according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, but one of only a few reported outside the capital since protests kicked off in October.

Meanwhile in the capital Khartoum, thousands marched towards the country's presidential palace, but were faced with gunfire, as well as tear gas from security forces, protesters and the resistance committees organising the march said on Thursday.

A Reuters reporter saw several people being carried away bleeding.

Military leaders say that protesters have the right to demonstrate peacefully and that those responsible for deaths belonging to security forces or otherwise will be brought to justice.

Other protests in cities such as Atbara, Gadaref, Nyala, and Sinja were seen in images from social media.

"We came out today to demand a better life for the Sudanese people and an end to the economic suffering and oppression," said 18-year-old student Malak Yousif. "We will keep going and we won't give up," she added.

Sudan's currency has lost more than a third of its value since the coup, rapidly driving up prices for fuel, food, and other goods, and has fallen even further on the parallel market.

In response, state news agency SUNA said that the central bank would deposit hard currency into local banks over three weeks, after receiving deposits from Gulf countries.

However, SUNA did not provide any details or amounts and sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this week that there was no indication of any foreign deposit so far. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have not made statements on the subject.

The military says the coup was a necessary corrective to political infighting and economic troubles. Protesters demand the handover of power to a fully civilian government.

(This story corrects typographical error in headline)

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum and Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Tears glistened on the cheeks of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The tears did not diminish her brilliance. They enhanced it, Bishop Vashti McKenzie told theGrio.

Thursday marked Day 4 in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. It was not as fiery and emotional as Day 3, where Senator Cory Booker came to the defense of Judge Jackson following what many considered racial and sexist attacks by Republicans against Jackson who is poised to become the first Black woman Supreme Court justice.

As previously reported by theGrio, Jackson shed tears at Wednesdays hearing during Senator Bookers stirring speech in which he declared to the circuit court judge, You are worthy!

Dont worry my sistertoday you are my star, said Booker, referencing the star Harriet Tubman looked to as she freed the enslaved.

Booker called out the mistreatment of Jackson, a Black woman, amid an overwhelmingly white male-dominated arena and spoke to the broader hardships of Black women in the United States.

Yesterday, we saw what happens when a strong African American woman under unimaginable scrutiny in the Senate Judiciary Committees proverbial lions den is publicly affirmed, Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first woman bishop in the AME church told theGrio.

Tears glistened on the cheeks of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The tears did not diminish her brilliance. They enhanced it.

While listening to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speak, Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wipes away tears during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 23, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Bishop McKenzie added, Every Black woman in America felt her tears. We sat with her during the interrogation. We smiled with her through the relentless racial sexist overtones. We beamed with her daughter and every mothers daughter who watched their mother flourish under fire.

Judge Brown showed us that she is a legal iron fist in a velvet glove. Her intellect is cloaked in her faith and her humanity, said the Texas bishop. This has served her well at every level from being a public defender to a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals. She will serve America well as a Supreme Court judge.

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Many of the images from the hearing were shared on social media, sparking viral reactions. One of those images was of Jacksons youngest daughter as the smiling teen looked with pride at her mother sitting before the Senate Judiciary Committee in this historic moment. It is that image that has been embraced as representative of the psyche of all Black women and girls and the pride of seeing Judge Jackson take her place in history.

Dr. Patrick Jackson, and daughter Leila Jackson, listens as his wife Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies on the first day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on Monday, March 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

On the list of witnesses offering testimony from various sectors on Thursdays Supreme Court confirmation hearing was U.S. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Within her speech, Congresswoman Beatty focused on what it will mean to Black women and little girls to witness Judge Jacksons ascension to the high court. Beatty used the examples of journalist Ida B. Wells and Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A large portion of the 59-member Congressional Black Caucus attended Jacksons confirmation hearings. Many of those in attendance have been some of the CBCs 29 Black women, including Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (R) greets Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Melanie Campbell of the Black Womens Roundtable said in a statement, As a Black woman, I could not be more proud and thankful to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for her lifetime of service to our nation; and I along with millions of Black women and our allies will continue to have her back as she continues the path to make history by becoming the first Black woman to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court.

As women are celebrating Jackson, Interim President & CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Wade Henderson referred to this historic moment by connecting it to the history of the confirmation of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall 55 years ago. Henderson noted that like Marshall, Jackson was also a defense attorney.

Thursdays witnesses ranged from civil rights, law enforcement and politics. Their testimonies spoke to Judge Jacksons time as a judge, as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and as a public defender. There were also witnesses who spoke about Jackson as a practitioner handing down justice, and the importance and significance of a Black woman being in the deliberating room.

In some of her closing remarks at Thursdays hearing, Congresswoman Beatty emphasized the role of representation as the Senate is one step closer to confirming the nations first Black woman justice.

I think it is an extremely powerful and needed message that we send out to all little girls, but specifically those who are of color. And I think what you saw yesterday, builds for our children, grandchildren and those yet [born] because even today, we are fighting for things that we were fighting for in 1963, 64, 65 and 68, said Beatty.

So today could not only be landmark as we do this, it could propel us for the future that every little girl would then believe that she can soar.

TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post As Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson conclude, Black women beam with pride appeared first on TheGrio.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - A senior Taiwanese official said on Thursday he did not see China adopting a "reunification law" as it would put too much pressure on Beijing to set a timetable for bringing the island under its control, which could severely raise tensions.

China, which views democratically run Taiwan as its own territory, has not officially proposed such legislation, which would be a follow-up to a 2005 law giving Beijing the legal basis for military action if it judges Taiwan to have seceded or to be about to.

But it has been discussed in state media, and last week a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, asked about a suggestion from a political adviser for such a law, said they "carefully listen to and study opinions and suggestions".

Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims and says only its people can decide the island's future.

Taiwan's National Security Bureau Director-General Chen Ming-tong, taking questions from lawmakers in parliament, said a Chinese proposal for such legislation had generated a lot of discussion previously.

"It's equivalent to setting a timetable. In the past, during the Deng Xiaoping era, they tried to set a timetable, but in the end thought it best not to, as it would put pressure on them," Chen said, referring to the Chinese leader who died in 1997.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told a Taiwanese envoy in 2013 that a political solution to their standoff on sovereignty could not be postponed forever, though he has never set a timetable.

China has ramped up its military pressure against Taiwan over the last two years or so, and the Taiwan Strait that separates the two remains a potentially dangerous military flashpoint.

Chen, whose last job was head of Taiwan's China-policy- making Mainland Affairs Council, said he did not think China was gearing up for an attack this year, as Xi was getting ready for a key Communist Party congress at the end of the year to confirm him for a third term in office.

"He needs to maintain stability," Chen said.

(Reporting by Roger Tung and Ben Blanchard)
Taron Egerton has pulled out of his West End play after contracting Covid-19 just weeks after he fainted on stage.

The Rocketman star is currently appearing opposite Jonathan Bailey in a revival of Mike Bartletts Cock at the Ambassadors Theatre.

During his first preview performance on Saturday 5 March, Egerton collapsed mid-performance, with the show resuming 40 minutes later. His understudy Joel Harper-Jackson then performed the role of M.

On Wednesday (23 March), it was announced that Egerton had tested positive for Covid-19 and would be replaced by Harper-Jackson once again.

Taron Egerton has unfortunately tested positive for Covid, a statement read.

In accordance with the productions health & safety protocols, he will now isolate and we expect Taron to return to the show next week.

After collapsing on stage, Egerton reassured fans on social media that he was completely fine and had only been left with a slightly sore neck and a bruised ego.

Cock centres around John (Bailey), a man who falls in love with a woman (Jade Anouka) after going on a break from his long-term boyfriend (Egerton).

You can read The Independents four-star review of Cock here.
A man reacts standing near his house ruined after Russian shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 21, 2022. At least eight people were killed in the attack. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Russias war in Ukraine has killed thousands of people, reduced entire cities to rubble and forced millions to flee their homes. The largest military conflict in Europe since World War II has also upset the international security order and sent dangerous ripples through the global economy.

A look at pivotal moments of the conflict, a month later:

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The road to war

In early 2021, a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine raised fears of an offensive. Moscow withdrew some of the forces in April, paving the way for a June summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their meeting failed to meaningfully ease Russia-U.S. tensions, however.

A renewed buildup of Russian troops along Ukrainian borders began in late October and reached an estimated 150,000 troops by the years end. From the beginning of the troop surge, Moscow denied any plans to attack Ukraine, calling such Western concerns part of a campaign to discredit Russia. At the same time, it urged the U.S. and its allies to keep Ukraine from joining NATO and roll back the alliance forces from Eastern Europe, demands the West rejected as non-starters.

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Then on Feb. 21, Putin abruptly upped the ante, recognizing the independence of pro-Russia rebel regions in eastern Ukraine. Insurgents have been fighting Ukrainian forces there since 2014, when Ukraines Moscow-friendly president was driven from office by mass protests and Russia responded by annexing the Crimean Peninsula.

Invasion begins

In a televised address on Feb. 24, Putin announced the launch of what he called a special military operation intended to demilitarize Ukraine and uproot alleged neo-Nazi nationalists. As he spoke, the Russian military unleashed a series of air raids and missile strikes on Ukraines military facilities and key infrastructure. Russian troops rolled into Ukraine from Crimea in the south, all along the eastern border and from Moscows ally Belarus, which borders Ukraine from the north.

Putin argued that Russia had no choice but to act after Washington and its allies ignored its demand for security guarantees. Western leaders dismissed the claims as a false pretext for the attack.

The Russian military advanced on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, located just 47 miles south of the border with Belarus, closed in on Ukraines second-largest city of Kharkiv in the east and pushed along the Sea of Azov and Black Sea coasts in the south.

While Russia claimed it was only targeting military facilities, air raids and artillery strikes hit residential areas, schools and hospitals across Ukraine.

The assault turned particularly deadly in March:

 On March 1, a Russian rocket hit the regional administration building in Kharkiv, killing 24.

 On March 9, a Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital in the besieged port of Mariupol, killing at least three and injuring 17.

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 On March 16, a Russian bomb flattened a historic theater in Mariupol, even after Ukrainians had scrawled the word children in huge white letters on the pavement next to it to indicate that civilians were sheltering inside. Officials said hundreds of people who were hiding in the basement survived.

 On Monday, at least eight people died in a Russian airstrike on a shopping mall in Kyiv.

Russias top objective in the south is Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov that has been under siege for weeks. Relentless bombardment by the Russians has reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble and killed thousands, turning the city into an emblem of civilian suffering.

Thousands have fled the city, part of a wave of refugees fleeing the country that United Nations officials estimate at more than 3.5 million.

Russia stung by western sanctions

Western allies quickly responded to the invasion with unprecedented economic and financial sanctions.

Several waves of crippling penalties froze an estimated half of Russias $640 billion hard-currency reserves, cut key Russian banks out of the SWIFT financial messaging system, barred Moscow from getting cash in dollars and euros and targeted broad sectors of the Russian economy with rigid trade restrictions. Major international companies moved quickly to leave the Russian market.

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The severe measures  of a magnitude previously only levied against such countries as Iran and North Korea  sent the ruble into a nosedive, provoked a run on deposits and triggered consumer panic.

Russian authorities responded by introducing tight restrictions on hard-currency transactions and stock markets.

Ukraine pleads for more weapons, no-fly zone

While hailing Western sanctions and weapons supplies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has challenged the U.S. and other Western allies to take even stronger measures to stop Russia.

He has continuously urged the U.S. and NATO to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, a demand the allies rejected for fear that it could result in a direct confrontation with Russia and even spark a global conflict.

Zelenskyy also has pleaded with Western allies to provide Ukraine with warplanes and long-range air defense systems. Russia has sternly warned the West against such a move, and discussions on possible deliveries of Soviet-era fighter jets and air defense weapons from Eastern Europe to Ukraine have stalled as the West seeks to avoid a dangerous escalation.

Ukraine has also asked the U.S. and the EU to ramp up sanctions to include a ban on Russian oil and gas exports, a move opposed by many EU members that depend on Russia for a large share of their energy needs.

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Russian offensive bogs down

From the first days, the invasion hasnt gone the way Putin expected. After quickly advancing to the outskirts of Kyiv in the first days of the invasion, Russian troops soon got bogged down in the suburbs.

Instead of surrendering as the Kremlin hoped, Ukrainian troops fought back fiercely in every sector, thwarting Russian attempts to quickly roll into other large cities, including Kharkiv and Chernihiv. Russia also failed to win full control of the skies over Ukraine despite massive strikes targeting the countrys air force and air defense assets.

Russian military convoys have stretched for dozens of miles along a highway leading from Belarus, becoming an easy target for Ukrainian raids and ambushes. In the east, the Russian troops have faced reinforced Ukrainian positions in the rebel regions and made only incremental gains.

And despite their hold on Mariupol, and a quick capture of the ports of Berdyansk and Kherson, the Russians have failed to capture the key shipbuilding center of Mykolaiv and press the offensive farther west toward Odesa.

Western officials say that throughout the war, Russian troops have been hampered by persistent supply shortages, struggling to get food and fuel and lacking proper cold weather gear.

In early March, the Russian military reported the loss of 498 soldiers, then never updated the toll again. In stark contrast, NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops were killed in four weeks of fighting. By way of comparison, the Soviet Union lost about 15,000 troops over a 10-year period during the war in Afghanistan.

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Nuclear threats

On the very first day of the assault, Russian forces took control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where radioactivity is still leaking from historys worst nuclear disaster 36 years ago.

Several days later, they seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europes largest, hitting a training center there and sparking a brief fire that raised fears of a catastrophe until it was put out.

And on Wednesday, Russian military forces destroyed a new laboratory at Chernobyl, according to the Ukrainian state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The international community has raised concerns about both plants safety.

There have been other threats as well.

On March 21, an ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy contaminated an area with a radius of more than 1.5 miles but didnt hurt any civilians in the city of 263,000 because the wind didnt blow in that direction.

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The Russian military has repeatedly alleged that Ukrainian nationalists are hatching plans to blow up a nuclear or chemical facility and then blame it on the Russians  warnings that Western officials fear could herald such an attack from Russia.

Many in the West also fear that with the Russian offensive stalled, Putin could order the use of tactical nuclear weapons or chemical weapons to scare Ukraine and bring it to its knees.

Whats next

Even as his offensive stalls and the Russian economy shudders under the blow of Western sanctions, Putin shows no sign of backing down.

Despite the plummeting ruble and soaring consumer prices, Russian polls show robust support for Putin. Observers attribute those results to the Kremlins massive propaganda campaign and crackdown on dissent.

Putin demands that Ukraine adopt a neutral status, drop its bid to join NATO, agree to demilitarize, recognize Russias sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge the independence of the rebel republics in the Donbas region.

Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukraine is ready to discuss a neutral status along with security guarantees that would preclude any further aggression. But hes said the status of Crimea and the separatist regions could be discussed only after a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

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Putin may now hope to gain more ground and negotiate from the position of force to strong-arm Zelenskyy into making concessions. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators say they are still far from drafting a prospective deal that Putin and Zelenskyy could discuss.
Three shootings in Burton this week have resulted in two men injured and a 52-year-old man killed on Wednesday night, according to police.

Malcolm Donaldson, 52, of Burton died at Beaufort Memorial Hospital on Wednesday after his car was shot on Lexxus Lane near Milledge Village Road, the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office said.

The car that Donaldson was in was hit by multiple gunshots, said Sheriffs Office Maj. Bob Bromage. The agency believes more than one suspect was involved, he said.

Donaldsons autopsy is scheduled for Friday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

In two other unrelated shootings in Burton, two men sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The incidents show a surge of gun violence in an area thats no stranger to shootings.

On Monday after 2 p.m., the Sheriffs Office responded to Ramsey Loop in Burton to find a man in a wheelchair who was shot in the finger, according to a police report.

The following day around 7:45 p.m., deputies responded to Ribaut Road, where they met a victim of a shooting that had happened earlier in Burton. The victims injuries were minor, and he was uncooperative with police, a Sheriffs Office report said.

Wednesdays homicide marks the at least seventh shooting in northern Beaufort County  including the City of Beaufort, Seabrook and Burton  just this month.

The New York Times reports a recent spike in gun violence across the country last weekend, an ominous harbinger for the upcoming summer months which are usually more deadly in the U.S. Criminologists point to a confluence of factors leading to the increase in violence, including continued social and economic impacts from the pandemic and the accompanying increase in gun ownership, the article says.

Anyone with information on Wednesdays killing may contact Lt. Angela Crumpton at 843-255-3409 or share a tip anonymously with Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.
PANAMA CITY  Three Alabama men were arrested after a weekend car burglary spree, Panama City and Lynn Haven police department officials announced Thursday.

Rodricous Antonio Martin, 20; Shaughneysy Mingnon Brown, 19; and Carnell Andre Beard Jr., 19, all of Mobile, are charged with various crimes.

The trio was going into Panama City and Lynn Haven neighborhoods and apartment complexes and pulling on door handles to find unlocked cars, police said.

There was guns taken, there was property taken and there was even a victim in our one of our cases that had been a victim previously by leaving their car door unlocked, Panama City Police Chief Mark Smith said. So again, I just would really like to reach out to the community and ask once again, please lock your car doors, secure your vehicles, secure your property.

The burglaries apparently began in the early morning hours of March 18 when Lynn Haven officers were alerted to a series of burglaries of unlocked cars at Aztec Villas of Venetian Way, the Enclave and Eagle's Landing. An investigating officer noticed a suspicious vehicle and conducted a traffic stop.

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Lynn Haven Police Chief Ricky Ramie said when interviewing the suspects, officers realized the car was stolen from Mobile and the car sped away. One of the suspects fled on foot.

At the same time, Panama City officers were responding to similar break-ins throughout their city.

Martin and Brown were apprehended in Washington County by the Florida Highway Patrol following a pursuit and were booked into the Washington County Jail. Beard was arrested in Bay County and booked into the Bay County Jail.

Martin is charged with one count of armed burglary, one count of grand theft of a firearm, 11 counts of burglary of a conveyance and one count of grand theft auto. Brown is charged with one count of armed burglary, one count of grand theft of a firearm, 11 counts of burglary of a conveyance and one count of grand theft auto. Beard is charged with one count of armed burglary, one count of grand theft of a firearm and 11 counts of burglary of a conveyance.

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Officials from both LHPD and PCPD said they were happy with the quick outcome of the investigation.

We lucked out on this one with just diligent work of the Lynn Haven Police Department identifying the first vehicle that we tried to stop, PCPD Detective Richard Thore said. And then through that, we know the pattern of the folks that come down here and through that vehicle, we knew somebody has been hit, vehicles have been broken into. The next time it happens where 15 or 20 vehicles get broken into, we may not be as lucky.

Thore said there are many factors that go into a thief targeting a neighborhood, but the top reason is the number unlocked cars they can find.

These guys came down here solely for that reason, there was a targeted hit, Thore said. When we see a large amount of vehicle burglaries, it truly is dependent on A, what neighborhood they go to, and then B, the citizens that live in that neighborhood.

Thore added officers have recovered most of the stolen items. He urged all car owners to lock their doors and remove all valuables, saying it takes thieves only 30 seconds to pull on car handles and look through your car.

They probably pulled on a hundred handles in that timeframe, because if I pull your handle and I open up the door, no alarms are going off, Thore said. Nobody's being alerted, it's done through those neighborhoods and they're in and out of your car pretty quickly.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City, Lynn Haven burglary spree lands three Alabama men in jail
Tucker Carlson and Erika Donalds, the wife of Florida Republican congressman Byron Donalds, spent Wednesday night complaining about the rules for an upcoming invitation-only White House reception for spouses of members of Congress hosted by First Lady Jill Biden.

Donalds, who is unvaccinated, declared she should be able to exercise her freedom and her right to do certain things that the White House prohibits for unvaccinated peoplenamely eating, drinking, removing her mask, and getting closer than six feet from other people, according to a screenshot of the invitation that Donalds posted on Twitter on Tuesday. The event also requires a negative COVID test beforehand.

When I saw those COVID protocols, I definitely had to take a second thought about whether I wanted to attend and exert my freedom to live as a free person and exercise my right to eat and drink at a reception like everyone else, despite not being vaccinated, Donalds said. She said she learned of the protocols after having RSVPd and made travel plans.

Carlson agreed, and offered Donalds a suggestion.

Well maybe you do it anyway, the Fox News host said. Maybe you show up, as is your right as an American. They dont own the White House, by the way. They dont get to make the rules. And just attack the hors doeuvre table, and have like eleven glasses of champagne, throw your arm around Dr. Jill and breathe on her. Im serious. Has it occurred to you to do that?

Yes, I absolutely did think about going and just operating as a free person like I feel like I should be able to, Donalds replied, adding she wasnt sure how the rules would be enforced.

Are they going to give us a scarlet letter, some kind of a gold star to let everybody know not to speak to us and for the servers not to serve us? Donalds wondered. I just cant imagine how theyre going to enforce such an absurd rule.

At another point in the interview, the congressional spouse claimed that because she had previously contracted COVID, she has natural immunity and therefore doesnt need to be vaccinated. Similarly, Carlson asserted that recovering from COVID appears to be a more durable immunity to future infection than people whove had the vaccine.

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The CDC, however, advises that you should get vaccinated even if you already had COVID-19.

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish telecoms operator Turkcell, one of three main operators in Ukraine, said around 10% of its infrastructure in the country had been disabled by Russia's invasion, but added there was no damage to its central network.

While Russia has failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city a month after it launched its invasion, which Moscow calls a "special military operation", the fighting has left cities in ruins and destroyed critical infrastructure.

Turkcell, which operates under the name "lifecell" in Ukraine, said in a stock exchange statement on Wednesday that around 10% of its 9,000 base stations in Ukraine were disabled, adding there had been no casualties among its employees.

The company said it had provided the necessary equipment to maintain operations and established backup data centres in Lviv in western Ukraine and some neighbouring nations, adding 45% of its retail stores in the country remained open.

Turkcell's operations in Ukraine comprised 7.8% of its 35.9 billion lira ($2.42 billion) revenue in 2021. They made up about 10% of its profits before interest, depreciation and tax.

NATO member Turkey shares a maritime border with Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and has good ties with both. While being critical of Russia's invasion and supporting Ukraine, Ankara has also launched mediation efforts and called for a ceasefire.

($1 = 14.8150 liras)

(Reporting by Can Sezer; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey regrets the Taliban's announcement that high schools in Afghanistan would remain closed for girls, the foreign ministry said late on Wednesday, calling on the hardline Islamist group to allow education for all.

The Taliban on Wednesday backtracked on their announcement that high schools would open for girls, saying they would remain closed until a plan was drawn up in accordance with Islamic law for them to reopen.

The u-turn took many by surprise, leaving students in tears and drawing condemnation from humanitarian agencies, rights groups and diplomats at a time when the Taliban administration is seeking international recognition.

In a statement, Turkey's foreign ministry said education for all students, including girls, was the expectation of the Afghan people and that it regretted the Taliban's decision.

"We call on the Interim Government of Afghanistan to allow girls of all ages to partake in education in an inclusive manner as soon as possible first and foremost for the benefit of the Afghan people, and emphasize that we will continue to stand by the Afghan people in these difficult days," it said.

Since the takeover of Afghanistan in August by the hardline Islamist Taliban, Turkey has been working with Qatar to maintain operations at Kabul's Hamid Karzai international airport, while holding talks to operate that airport and others if its security conditions are met.

Turkey has not recognised the Taliban leadership, but it has called for more global engagement with them. Ankara also invited Taliban officials to a diplomacy forum it hosted this month, and has said the Afghan leadership must be heard.

The Taliban is seeking to run Afghanistan according to its interpretation of Islamic law, and it wants to gain access billions of dollars in aid to help meet the challenge of worsening and widespread poverty.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has imposed sanctions on two Russian companies and a North Korean entity for transferring sensitive items to North Korea's missile program, the State Department said on Thursday.

It named the Russian entities as the Ardis Group of Companies LLC (Ardis Group) and PFK Profpodshipnik LLC. The North Korean entity targeted for sanctions was named as the Second Academy of Natural Science Foreign Affairs Bureau.

In addition, Russian national Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin and North Korean national Ri Sung Chol were also sanctioned, the State Department said.

The sanctions announcement came on the same day North Korea said it tested a new, powerful type of intercontinental ballistic missile.

"These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRKs ability to advance its missile program and they highlight the negative role Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator to programs of concern," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name.

The United States also sanctioned Zhengzhou Nanbei Instrument Equipment Co Ltd for supplying Syria with equipment controlled by a chemical and biological weapons nonproliferation regime known as the Australia Group.

The State Department said the sanctions on the Chinese company underscored Beijing's shortcomings in implementing export controls and its nonproliferation track record.

(Reporting by Eric BeechEditing by Chris Reese)
Using pandemic-related border restrictions, the Biden administration this month launched a deportation operation to Colombia amid a sharp increase in arrivals of migrants from that country to the U.S.-Mexico border, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told CBS News on Thursday.

Since the start of the campaign, which had not been previously reported, the U.S. has expelled several hundred Colombians under a border rule known as Title 42, which blocks migrants from seeking asylum due to public health concerns, the DHS officials said. The rule was first implemented by the Trump administration.

"Following discussions with the Government of Colombia, in March 2022, DHS began repatriating Colombian nationals to Colombia pursuant to CDC's Title 42 public health order," DHS said in a statement to CBS News.

First enacted in March 2020, Title 42 allows U.S. border agents to quickly "expel" migrants instead of processing them under regular immigration laws, which would otherwise require U.S. officials to review the cases of asylum-seekers who claim they could be persecuted or tortured if deported.

It's unclear how long the recent wave of expulsions to Colombia, which began on March 4, will continue, but it already represents a marked increase from the 20 Colombians expelled under Title 42 in February. Prior to the recent operation, the vast majority of Colombian migrants were allowed to stay and seek asylum in the U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is operating the expulsion flights to Colombia, the agency confirmed. ICE said all migrants are medically screened and tested for COVID-19 before being expelled. They must test negative and not exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 before boarding the expulsion flights to Colombia.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who has been leading Democratic calls for the Biden administration to discontinue Title 42, raised concerns about the expulsions of Colombians.

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"Adding new Title 42 flights shows DHS' concerning dependence on this public health tool as a migration management strategy," Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement to CBS News. "Instead, the Administration should focus resources on building up infrastructure at the border to process asylum seekers and end Title 42 once and for all."

Advocates for asylum-seekers also condemned the Title 42 operation to Colombia.

"The Biden administration is so determined to keep expelling migrants without giving them an opportunity to ask for protection in the United States, that they're paying several hundred dollars per person to put them on planes back to South America," said Adam Isacson, a policy analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Asylum seeking migrants from Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela arrive on U.S. soil after crossing the Colorado River from Mexico on February 21, 2022, in Yuma, Arizona. / Credit: Katie McTiernan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Fourteen months in, the Biden administration has continued the Title 42 expulsions, arguing they remain necessary to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 inside border processing facilities. To date, U.S. officials have carried out 1.7 million expulsions under Title 42, over 70% of them under President Biden.

While Title 42 has been mostly used to expel Mexican and Central American migrants to northern Mexico, the policy has also allowed the U.S. to place some border-crossers on deportation flights to Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras.

The expulsion campaign to Colombia, a close U.S. ally, marks one of the largest Title 42 air operations outside Central America since last fall, when the Biden administration expelled 10,000 Haitians to their destitute homeland in roughly three months  a move that sparked outcry among progressives.

Colombia became the fifth-highest source of non-Mexican migration to the U.S. southern border last month, as well as the largest from South America, overtaking countries like El Salvador, Venezuela and Haiti.

In February, 9,600 Colombian migrants entered U.S. custody along the southern border, an all-time high, according to government data. In fiscal year 2022, which started last October, U.S. border officials have already processed 23,985 Colombians  a 287% increase from the previous fiscal year.

Most migrants from Colombia fly to Mexico and then attempt to enter the U.S. illegally near Yuma, Arizona, where 6,997  or 73%  of the Colombians arrested in February were processed, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures show. Another 1,116 Colombians crossed near Del Rio, Texas, last month.

Citizens of Colombia don't need visas to enter Mexico, though that could change if arrivals of Colombians to the U.S. border remain high. At the behest of the U.S., the Mexican government has already ended visa-free travel for Venezuelans, Brazilians and Ecuadorians.

The Biden administration has maintained a close relationship with Colombia, praising its current center-right government for hosting 2 million Venezuelans who fled their country's economic collapse and for providing them temporary legal status.

"Our hemisphere migration challenges cannot be solved by one nation," or at any one border, Mr. Biden said beside his Colombian counterpart, President Ivan Duque, during a White House meeting earlier this month. "We have to work together."

The Colombian foreign ministry did not respond to requests to comment on the U.S. deportations.

In January, DHS announced it would expel some Venezuelan migrants processed at the U.S. border to Colombia if they used to live there. While officials said the expulsions would continue on a "regular basis," just two Venezuelans were expelled to Colombia that month.

While Mr. Biden's administration exempted unaccompanied children from Title 42 early in his presidency  and codified that exemption this month after a federal court order  it has resisted calls from Democratic lawmakers, public health experts and advocates to end the expulsions, which are backed by Republicans.

Another recent court ruling, however, could force the administration's hand on the issue.

A federal court ruling from earlier this month, if upheld, will require U.S. immigration authorities to interview migrant families traveling with children to ensure they will not face harm if expelled, or to end Title 42 altogether for that population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which authorizes Title 42, has set a March 30 deadline to decide whether to continue the migrant expulsion policy.

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HONG KONG  An American lawyer convicted last year of assaulting a police officer in Hong Kong said on Thursday that he has been deported from the Chinese territory after being released from prison.

The case dates to December 2019, when Samuel Bickett got into a scuffle in a subway station with a plainclothes officer who had forcibly stopped a teenager he accused of fare-dodging. Bickett maintains that the officer failed to identify himself properly, and that even if he had, he was using excessive force against the teenager.

At the time, the city had been roiled by months of sometimes violent antigovernment demonstrations, stoking tensions between protesters and police. In dismissing Bicketts appeal in January, the judge repeatedly defended the officers actions, and said police must be protected given public hostility toward them.

At the time, Bickett, who had been out on bail pending appeal, was returned to Hong Kongs Stanley Prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

In a statement on Twitter on Wednesday, Bickett said he had been released the day before and was on a flight to Washington after a layover in Istanbul.

The Immigration Department denied our request for me to be given a few days to wind up my affairs and say goodbye to my partner and loved ones, and I was instead taken immediately from prison to Immigration Detention, then escorted to a plane the same day, Bickett said.

The Immigration Department said in a statement that it handles each case in accordance with the law and would not comment on individual cases.

Critics of Bicketts conviction say his case reflects growing police impunity and highlights concerns about rule of law and judicial independence in Hong Kong, where there has been a crackdown on dissent since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.

Although he was not arrested in relation to any political activity, Bickett, a former compliance director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has become a critic of the government and an advocate for jailed protesters.

I have faith that one day I will be able to once again walk the streets of a Hong Kong ruled by law and governed with the consent of its people, he said.
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Almost three-quarters of the U.N. General Assembly demanded aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine on Thursday, and criticized Russia for creating a "dire" humanitarian situation after Moscow invaded its neighbor one month ago.

It is the second time the 193-member General Assembly has overwhelmingly isolated Russia over what Moscow calls a "special military operation" that is says aims to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has blasted Russia's "absurd war." Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine, millions made refugees, and cities pulverized in the past month.

The resolution adopted on Thursday, which was drafted by Ukraine and allies, received 140 votes in favor and five votes against - Russia, Syria, North Korean, Eritrea and Belarus - while 38 countries, including China, abstained.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight. There was a round of applause in the hall after the adoption on Thursday.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia described the resolution adopted on Thursday as a "pseudo humanitarian draft" that took a "one-sided view of the situation." He again accused Western countries of a campaign of "unprecedented pressure" to win votes, a claim that the United States has rejected.

Ukraine and its allies had been looking to match or improve on support received for a March 2 General Assembly resolution that deplored Russia's "aggression" and demanded it withdraw its troops. That received 141 yes votes, the same five no votes, while 35 states - including China - abstained.

'ASTOUNDING SUCCESS'

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield described the vote on Thursday as an "astounding success," telling reporters: "There's really no difference between 141 and 140."

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The resolution adopted on Thursday demands the protection of civilians, medical personnel, aid workers, journalists, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. It also demands an end to the siege of cities, in particular Mariupol.

Ukraine and Western allies have accused Moscow of attacking civilians indiscriminately. Moscow denies attacking civilians.

The resolution echoes the March 2 General Assembly text by again demanding that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

South Africa had proposed a rival draft resolution that focused on the humanitarian situation and did not mention Russia. Russia appealed for countries to support that text.

The General Assembly decided not to act on the South African draft after Ukraine called a vote under a rule covering draft resolutions on the same issue.

The General Assembly vote came one day after a Russian-drafted resolution calling for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine - and not mentioning Moscow's role - failed at the U.N. Security Council, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.

The Russian Security Council draft was very similar to the text put forward in the General Assembly by South Africa.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)
BRUSSELS  President Joe Biden and Western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to Vladimir Putins assault on Ukraine, but their offers fell short of the more robust military assistance that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for in a pair of live-video appearances.

The leaders spent Thursday crafting their next steps to counter Russias month-old invasion  and huddling over how they might respond should Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon. They met in a trio of emergency summits that had them shuttling across Brussels for back-to-back-to-back meetings of NATO, the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the 27-member European Council.

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Biden, in an early evening news conference after meeting with NATO and G-7 leaders, warned that a chemical attack by Russia would trigger a response in kind.

Youre asking whether NATO would cross. Wed make that decision at the time, Biden said.

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However, a White House official said later that did not imply any shift in the U.S. position against direct military action in Ukraine. Biden and NATO allies have previously stressed that the U.S. and NATO would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine.

The official was not authorized to comment publicly by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Zelenskyy, while thankful for their help, made clear to the Western allies he needed far more than theyre currently willing to give.

President Joe Biden arrives for a meeting of the G7 Leaders' at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Doug Mills/AP)

One percent of all your planes, one percent of all your tanks, Zelenskyy asked members of the NATO alliance. We cant just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.

Biden, who was attending all three summits, said more aid was on its way. But Western leaders also suggested they were treading carefully so as not to further escalate the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine.

NATO has made a choice to support Ukraine in this war without going to war with Russia, said French President Emmanuel Macron. Therefore we have decided to intensify our ongoing work to prevent any escalation and to get organized in case there is an escalation.

Billions of dollars of military hardware has already been provided. A U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations were discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.

Biden said his top priority at Thursdays meetings was to make certain that the West stayed on the same page in its response to Russian aggression against Ukraine.

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The single most important thing is for us to stay unified, Biden said.

Separately, the White House announced the U.S. would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

Finland announced Thursday it would send more military equipment to Ukraine, its second shipment in about three weeks. And Belgium announced it will add one billion euros to its defense budget in response to Russias invasion..

At the same time, Washington will expand its sanctions on Russia, targeting members of the countrys parliament along with defense contractors. The U.S. will also work with other Western nations to ensure gold reserves held by Russias central bank are subject to existing sanctions.

With Russia facing increasing international isolation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also warned China against coming to Moscows rescue. He called on Beijing to join the rest of the world and clearly condemn the brutal war against Ukraine and not support Russia.

But Stoltenberg also made clear that the West had a responsibility to prevent this conflict from becoming a full-fledged war in Europe.

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The possibility that Russia will use chemical or even nuclear weapons has been a grim topic of conversation in Brussels, but a possibility leaders were preparing for.

White House officials said that both the U.S. and NATO have been working on contingency planning should Russia deploy nonconventional weaponry. NATO has specially trained and equipped forces ready to be deployed if there should be such an attack against a member nations population, territory, or forces.

Stoltenberg said that NATO leaders agreed Thursday to send equipment to Ukraine to help protect it against a chemical weapons attack.

This could include detection equipment, protection and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management, he said.

Biden before departing for Europe on Wednesday said that the possibility of a chemical attack was a real threat. In addition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN this week that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there were an existential threat for our country.

Finlands Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday warned, Russia is capable of anything.

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They dont respect any rules, Marin told reporters. They dont respect any international laws that they are actually committed to.

The Russian invasion has spurred European nations to reconsider their military spending, and Stoltenberg opened the NATO summit by saying the alliance must respond to a new security reality in Europe.

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, theres wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.

The bolstering of forces along NATOs eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will put pressure on national budgets.

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek U.S. help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his countrys economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

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To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession, Scholz said Wednesday.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Unions executive arm, said before Bidens visit that she wanted to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc for the next two winters.

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.

The U.S. is looking for ways to surge LNG supplies to Europe to help, said Jake Sullivan, Bidens national security adviser.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be seeking clarity on how the U.S. and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiraling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where the energy and refugee issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda.

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Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Hannah Fingerhut, Ellen Knickmeyer and Darlene Superville in Washington, Dasha Litvinova in Lviv, Ukraine, and Samuel Petrequin in Brussels contributed to this report.
Uber has agreed to list all New York City taxis on its app.

The deal comes amid a driver shortage for the ride-hailing service and could also mean more customers for taxi drivers after business slowed during the pandemic.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Thursday.

Its the first citywide deal of its kind in the US. Uber has made similar agreements with taxi operators abroad and riders can book taxis in multiple US cities if cab drivers have agreed to appear on the app.

New York is one of Ubers most important areas for business and it has been a battleground between the company and the citys yellow taxis.

Uber global mobility chief Andrew Macdonald said the deal is bigger and bolder than anything weve done, according to The Journal.

The deal is set to be put into action later this spring. The agreement means that the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commissions (TLC) own ride-hailing software will be connected to Ubers.

Uber says that the apps that will be connected to their own software are used by around 14,000 taxi drivers in New York City.

The fare for Uber X and taxis will be similar. New York City Uber drivers get a minimum time and distance rate established by the TLC, but Uber claims that its drivers tend to earn more.

Taxi drivers picking up Uber passengers will be paid using the same mechanism.

The taxi meters charges riders on a different calculus, meaning cab drivers can be paid more, less, or at the same level as Uber drivers depending on each individual journey.

Uber said taxi drivers will be able to see their estimated pay before a journey and may choose to decline if they dont believe that its worth it.

Uber and its taxi partners will get a part of each fare, but the companies havent revealed the terms. Towards the end of last year, Ubers global average take rate was 20 per cent.

Uber, who once wanted to disrupt the taxi sector, has said that they want to list all taxis in the world on its app by 2025. Its certainly ambitious, Mr Macdonald said, according to The Journal. I certainly think its possible.

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New York City deputy mayor overseeing the TLC, Meera Joshi, said the deal creates opportunities for cab drivers without adding more and more cars.

The word disruption was almost in some way a superficial word, she added, noting that while Uber changed the business, it didnt end the taxi sector.

Unions and taxi lobbyists in several countries have launched court cases that banned Uber and regulators have scrutinized its gig-work model. Cab drivers in cities like London, Paris, and Rome have protested against Uber.

Uber first began working with taxis abroad in markets where the company was struggling. It expanded the strategy when it helped its business grow, and Ubers efforts to attract taxi drivers increased during the pandemic.

Uber says it listed 122,000 taxis on its app in 2021  a four-fold increase compared to 2020.
LONDON (AP)  Britains treasury chief is defending his spending priorities after have critics attacked him for not doing enough to help families struggling with the biggest cut in living standards on record.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said Thursday that he understood families were struggling with rising prices but his options were limited because he is focused on shoring up government finances after the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the government is increasing spending on health care, law enforcement and schools, he said.

I think most people will understand that an exceptional experience like (the pandemic) does lead to an exceptional response and thats what were now grappling with, Sunak told Sky News. But also we are continuing to invest in public services  and that, of course, needs to be paid for.

Sunak on Wednesday announced a package of measures to reduce the squeeze on consumers, including a cut in motor fuel taxes, more money for local government aid to low-income residents and raising the threshold at which workers begin to pay social insurance taxes.

But he failed to take bolder steps such as delaying a 1.5% income tax increase set to take effect in April or introduce a tax on windfall profits of energy companies benefiting from soaring oil and natural gas prices.

The new spending plans were announced as the independent Office for Budget Responsibility said inflation would reduce household disposable incomes by 2.2% this year, the biggest drop in living standards since records began in 1957.

The Resolution Foundation, a think tank focused on improving living standards, said the lack of support for low-income families could see 1.3 million people fall below the poverty line this year.

The big picture is that Rishi Sunak has prioritized rebuilding his tax-cutting credentials over supporting the low- to middle-income households who will be hardest hit from the surging cost of living, while also leaving himself fiscal flexibility in the years ahead, Chief Executive Torsten Bell said in a statement.
The U.S. has announced new sanctions against Russia and said it would welcome 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine as President Joe Biden met with world leaders for a series of emergency summits.

The war has caused a humanitarian and refugee crisis, with more than 10 million people displaced, including 4.3 million children  more than half of the country's child population, according to the U.N.

Biden said Thursday that Russia should be removed from the G-20, the group that represents 20 of the world's largest economies, as Western allies gathered in Europe to discuss new support for Kyiv.

That includes imposing further punishment on Moscow one month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged an increase in military aid for his country in an address at the NATO summit in Brussels via video link. His ability to rally countries to Kyivs cause in video messages from the capital has served as a symbol of Ukraines defiant defense and Russias struggling advance.

Biden and U.S. allies were also set to discuss moves to bolster NATOs eastern flank and how to counter the prospect of escalation from the Kremlin amid fears of a chemical or even nuclear attack.

The White House has established a team of national security officials to plan scenarios should Putin use chemical weapons, a senior administration official said.

See full coverage here.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's video address on March 24. Volodymyr Zelenskyy/Telegram

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia made a huge mistake in expecting to capture Ukraine quickly.

He said one month after the invasion began that Russia had "deceived themselves."

He called Russia's actions "state suicide."

Ukraine's President said Russian officials had "deceived themselves" in thinking that Ukraine would quickly fall to Russia, as Russia's progress remains stalled in its brutal invasion.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a video address on March 24  a month since Russia's invasion of Ukraine started.

He said in his address: "A month has passed. We withstood six times longer than the enemy had planned, than the Russian command had reported to the Russian president.'

US and UK and other Western countries have produced intelligence assessments that Russia expected to make quick progress in capturing Ukraine. Instead its war effort has stalled amid fierce Ukrainian resistance and apparent problems with logistics, planning, and coordination among the Russian forces.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia's defense minister had predicted Russia could defeat Ukraine in just a few days.

Russia expert Andrei Soldatov gave a similar assessment in an article by Insider's Tom Porter. Soldatov said that Vladimir Putin and his circle appeared to have convinced themselves that Ukraine would not put up a fight, and is now looking for people to punish and blame for having given such an inaccurate picture.

Zelenskyy in his speech riffed on a similarly bleak Russian view of his country: "They were convinced that Ukraine is not a state. They were convinced that Ukrainians are not a nation. They deceived themselves."

"But we don't care about them. This is their state suicide. And we are just protecting our lives. Our freedom. Our own state. Our children. Hence, our future.

This is a war for independence. And we must win."

Read the original article on Business Insider
STORY: Practicing their plies and pirourettes in downtown Berlin...

many of these ballerinas have been through hell.

Having fled the horrors of war in Ukraine.

Theyve recently been welcomed into the fold of Berlin's main ballet company, by prima ballerina Iana Salenko.

They want just to give up, they dont know how to go on with this situation, so and of course I feel like if I can help, it makes me happy.

The Kyiv born dancer, who has been in the German capital since 2005, has worked tirelessly over the last month to help those in need continue with their training.

They are really happy, they are just thankful for everything what I can do and what I could help and I feel this really love, like Oh really thank you, I thought I would never come back. When they have a chance to connect with the people or coming here to do the class and it feels like I did my job. And of course, its just little job but I feel this happiness.

But its not just Ukrainian dancers who are looking for a position at the Berlin State Ballet.

Dancers from other countries, including Russia, are also keen to join the ensemble.

According to ballet dramaturg Christiane Theobald, the Berlin opera prides itself on being a melting pot of global talent.

We have many, many nationalities here and we have an important duty to ensure Russia-phobia doesnt emerge and that we continue to value each other just as before, as we carry on. 

Together Theobald and Salenko are not only helping the displaced ballerinas with accommodation, ballet shoes and a practice space.

They are also trying to get the dancers auditions at ballet companies abroad or in other fields such as the opera.
(Independent)

President Joe Biden is expected to announce plans for the US to accept 100,000 Ukrainian and other refugees whove fled their homes to escape Russias unprovoked invasion.

According to the United Nations, more than 3 million Ukrainians  including half the countrys children  have left since Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade one month ago.

Mr Biden is expected to make the announcement Thursday from Brussels, Belgium, where he has traveled to attend an extraordinary Nato summit and meet with the European Council to discuss the Wests response to the ongoing crisis.

A decision to accept such a large number of refugees would be one of the largest influxes of refugees into the US in recent years, and would come after criticism that Mr Biden and the United States have not done enough to absorb the massive flow of persons whove been displaced by Russian forces over the last four weeks.

On 12 March, Polish president Andrzej Duda called on the US to speed up the processing of Ukrainian refugees who have relatives already living in the US during a joint appearance with Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to US census data, over 350,000 Ukrainian immigrants currently reside in the United States.

At the time, Mr Duda said the crisis would end up in a refugee disaster if the US did not act swiftly.

But despite promises from Mr Biden to welcome refugees with open arms, his administration has not taken the sorts of public steps that would signal openness to a large flow of displaced persons.

Instead, Biden Administration officials have stressed that the US response to the crisis thus far has been to support efforts by Poland and other neighbouring countries to accept refugees who cross from Ukraine via land borders.
Chicago Public Schools will continue to direct students who contract COVID-19 and unvaccinated students exposed to the virus to temporarily stay home, leaders said Wednesday as a group of parents called on the district to end its contact tracing and quarantine policies.

When children are exposed, they have to quarantine for five days. When they come back, from day six to 10, they have to wear their masks CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said at Wednesdays monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting.

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Those procedures will continue to be in place, and I just want to thank our families and our staff for continuing to respect each other as well as continuing to enforce those procedures.

CPS instituted a mask-optional policy last week  a win for parents who have long called for an offramp to the districts COVID-19 requirements. Now these parents are setting their sights on CPS protocols that require a five-day exclusion from school for infected people and unvaccinated students who come in contact with an infected person. Students can return on the sixth day if they are asymptomatic.

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These policies have been in place since the start of the school year, though the district cut quarantine and isolation time from 10 days to five days in early February to align with government guidance. According to CPS data, 363 students and 53 adults were in quarantine or isolation Tuesday  down from several thousand students and staff members at the omicron-fueled peak in January.

Students leave Back of the Yards College Preparatory High School in Chicago at the end of the school day on March 7, 2022. A week later, Chicago Public Schools became mask optional. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

About 91% of CPS staff members and less than half of CPS students are fully vaccinated, according to district data.

Other Illinois districts have lifted their COVID-19 requirements  such as universal masking, quarantining and testing for unvaccinated staff members  following legal challenges by downstate attorney Tom DeVore.

In early February, an Illinois judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing statewide enforcement of these protocols. Gov. J.B. Pritzker appealed. The appellate court dismissed the appeal as moot because school rules from the Illinois Department of Public Health had been allowed to expire.

The Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear the case, vacating the February temporary restraining order. DeVore has gone back to court on behalf of unvaccinated teachers and vowed to seek legal action if the children of his CPS clients are told to quarantine.

At Wednesdays board meeting, some CPS parents urged the district to ditch its COVID-19 policies.

We need to learn to live with COVID without putting an undue burden on students, families, teachers and staff. This means masks are optional, no quarantines and no exclusion, parent Jennifer Connolly told the board during a public comment period.

Parent Rhiannon Midkiff said healing from the pandemic can begin by normalizing the school environment.

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Its time for CPS to retire these COVID policies. The school board needs to put students first and recognize how important it is to return childrens lives to normal before its too late, Midkiff said.

The Chicago Teachers Union, meanwhile, is asking for increased access to the Virtual Academy for students with certain medical conditions and more protections for medically fragile students and educators.

For example, we have a counselor who is undergoing chemotherapy and is immune-compromised, either requiring students (who) go in to meet with that counselor to have a mask on or to put the counselor in a well-ventilated space where theres lots of room, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said at Wednesdays meeting.

Martinez said Wednesday that in his visits to schools in the last week he saw the vast majority of students and staff continuing continue to wear masks. He said if at any point our risk-level changes, we will put our mask mandate back.

Mask requirements were already restored in some classrooms at Coonley Elementary School as the North Side school experiences a spike in cases that Martinez attributed to students participating in activities outside of school. Board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland pointed out that spring break is in April.

Public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday a new version of the coronavirus highly contagious omicron variant  nicknamed stealth omicron  is on track to dominate Chicago COVID-19 cases by the end of this month.

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CTU immediately opposed the end of the mask mandate, which was a provision in the hard-fought safety agreement the union and district reached in January during a work stoppage. A hearing is scheduled for April after a state labor panel declined to pave the way for an emergency injunction in the case.

Martinez said Wednesday the five days of canceled classes stemming from Januarys labor stoppage will not be made up at the end of this school year, but schools can decide to offer after-school and Saturday activities. Martinez said input was sought from labor unions, parents, students and principals.

The vast majority across every group all said that they would prefer that we continue to invest in programs right now before the school year (ends) and to not add additional school days, Martinez said. The funding is there for any school who wants to provide after-school activities, Saturday academies. Ive talked to our CTU partners about even doing ... vaccination drives. Were more than pleased to support that.

CTU expects to bargain with the district for its members to make up the lost pay.

The board on Wednesday also approved the 2022-23 academic calendar, which features an Aug. 22 return for students, the earliest start date for the district in years. CPS recently surveyed community members on two calendar possibilities and said the votes were nearly even.

We promised the communities that we will build on this engagement process, do it even sooner next year and look at even more options as we think about the future, Martinez said.

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tswartz@tribpub.com
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  A federal judge has issued a second contempt order over poor conditions at a county jail in Mississippi, where court monitors found staff members are afraid to work in a housing unit controlled by gangs of inmates.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves filed the order Wednesday against Hinds County because of problems at the Raymond Detention Center, WLBT-TV reported.

The jail is divided into housing units called pods, and Reeves wrote that conditions in Pod A are particularly egregious," with gangs carrying out attacks and deciding which inmates receive meals.

The living conditions, or lack thereof, and near-complete lack of supervision, have contributed to lawlessness in that part of the facility, Reeves wrote.

Reeves cited the killing of one inmate by others in October in the pod. He wrote that video footage showed the man being hit in the head by one inmate and then stomped on by another. After the inmate died, he was dragged back and propped into a sitting position and was later laid down on a mat. Nine hours passed before officers found his body.

Reeves issued his first civil contempt order against Hinds County on Feb. 4, writing that officials in Mississippi's largest county had failed to fix longstanding problems in the jail. From Feb. 14 to March 1, he heard testimony about conditions to determine whether to order a receivership in which the federal government would take over operation of the jail, with Hinds County paying the tab.

One of the court-appointed monitors of the jail, David Parrish, testified that Pod A is filthy and has broken lights, locks and showers. He also said the pod lacks fire extinguishers and fire hoses.

Everything in the place is torn up, Parrish said. Its just a very bad mess.

The U.S. Justice Department sued Hinds County in 2016 after finding unconstitutional conditions at the jail, including dangerously low staffing levels, violence among detainees and violence by staff against detainees. It also found problems with treatment of juveniles and suicidal detainees. And, it said, the jail had cell doors that would not lock.

Hinds County supervisors agreed to a federal consent decree in 2016, saying the county would correct the problems. Supervisors promised again in 2020 to fix the problems as the county faced the threat of being held in contempt of court.

The legal action over the Hinds County jail is separate from an investigation the Justice Department began in February 2020 after an outbreak of violence in the Mississippi prison system.
The queen of media was sidelined from her eponymous show since last summer due to ongoing health issues

Wendy Williams says, I want my money! in a new clip shared on social media.

The self-described queen of media, 57, posted a video on Instagram Wednesday in which she calls out Wells Fargo for holding her bank account hostage amid concerns that the ailing TV host is not of sound mind.

Im tired of everyone speaking as if theyre me in this scenario, Williams captioned the clip. Its time I let all of my  loving  supporters know whats really been going on with Wendy .

As reported by theGrio, Williams has been sidelined from her eponymous show since last summer due to ongoing health issues. In February, it was reported that her attorney filed a petition asking a judge to force Wells Fargo to restore her access to an account holding several million dollars, according to court documents obtained by theGrio.

My thing is that Ive been asking questions about my money, and when I begin asking questions about my money, suddenly Lori Schiller has got no response regarding my money, Williams said in the Instagram video, referring to her former financial advisor. I want my money. This is not fair.

The bank previously told the court its agreement with Williams allowed it to pause or reject instructions for a proposed transaction if the company suspects financial exploitation, dementia, or undue influence, according to Williams petition.

According to Entertainment Tonight, the bank noted that Williams financial advisor for the past 15 years is a 23-year veteran of the financial services industry with an unblemished record.

Williams accuses Schiller and Wells Fargo of having a guardianship petition about keeping [her] away from [her] money.

Television host Wendy Williams attends the Vulture Festival on May 19, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Vulture Festival)

This is not right and you know this is not fair. And this guy named Bernie Young, I know for a fact that Bernie Young used my American Express card to hire an attorney to file a petition against me, she added.

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That was done with my American Express card. Bernie Young, youre no good. And this is not fair at all.

Williams goes on to accuse a former doctor of sending her medical information to Schiller.

Wells Fargo has used all this stuff to create the guardianship over me, she added. This is not right and certainly, this is not fair, she reiterated.

Williams ex-husband Kevin Hunter also spoke out this week about his lawsuit against Debmar-Mercury, the producer-distributor of The Wendy Williams Show. Last month it was announced that the daytime talker is being replaced this fall with Sherri Shepherds new talk show.

In this July 2014 photo, Sherri Shepherd (left) and Wendy Williams (right) pose for the cameras at Williams 50th birthday celebration at Out Hotel in New York City. (Photo: Rommel Demano/Getty Images)

As reported by theGrio, Hunter worked as executive producer on The Wendy Williams Show until his 2019 separation from Williams. He is accusing the company of wrongful termination, claiming he was fired on the basis of his marital status, which is barred by the New York City Human Rights Law, according to People.

When it comes to whatever narratives that might be spun out thereregarding me, my entire familyI want to first and foremost say I truly respect all I was able to experience with my ex-wife and what we were able to accomplish, said Hunter in an Instagram Live chat.

Williams called it quits on their marriage after he impregnated his long-time mistress, Sharina Hudson. In his Live, Hunter said that while he regrets the hurt it caused, he doesnt regret the relationship or the child and that he wasnt trapped.

When it comes to my personal life, of what the public has been able to see in real-time, I take full accountability for my actions and understand how I might have hurt a lot of people, Hunter said. I did hurt somebody, for that, I wish her nothing but the best and wellness and support.

Hunter claims Williams has had two blood transfusions, and that her unidentified members of her management team were denying her son access to her as well as the medical treatment she needed.

Hunter says that although hes moved on, he remains supportive of his ex and their son.

Im part of somebody elses legacy, and then Im establishing my own legacy for both of my kidsmy beautiful kids, and my current lovely situation with my partner, my friend, my confidante, he added.

The support I will continue to have for my son. The support I will continue to have for his mom, no matter what takes place, Hunter added.

Hunter is seeking $7 million in his lawsuit against Debmar-Mercury.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Wendy Williams speaks out against Wells Fargo: I want my money appeared first on TheGrio.
Did you get a great signing bonus to take on a new job in 2021? Work from home at least much of last year? Are you thinking there's got to be some great tax deduction for decluttering your bedroom to turn it into an eye-catching location for Zoom meetings?

All great things to think about as we're glaring at those 2021 income tax returns, which by the way won't complete themselves by the April 18 deadline in most areas.

Unfortunately, you may not be thrilled when it comes to some job-related situations on your tax return. Here's a quick look at some key questions:

How about a signing bonus? Is it taxable?

Hiring bonuses were fairly common for all sorts of jobs last year. You couldn't drive by a fast food chain without seeing promises of a $400 or $500 bonus for new hires. And many college grads locked in four-figure bonuses or more in some fields.

About half of employers surveyed by Salary.com last summer indicated that they were giving signing bonuses to attract talent as the economy shifted gears and moved forward after COVID-19 vaccination efforts. (For this survey, 405 organizations participated.)

Hourly employees were getting a median hiring bonus of $1,000, salaried employees $5,000, according to the Salary.com survey.

Now, the bonus money might be long gone. But it's time to report it on your tax return.

At tax time, the dollars paid out for your signing bonus typically will be included in your W-2, which reports income received from your employer, according to Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.

The tax information regarding a bonus is generally going to be bundled with the statement for regular wages, he said, so you're not likely to see two separate W-2s.

Whether this bonus will lead to a higher tax bill  or even a better refund  will depend on how much money was withheld in taxes from the bonus and your tax bracket.

Steber said employers had some options about paying out bonuses.

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They're able to count the hiring bonus as supplemental income then have taxes taken out at a higher withholding rate of 22%. (If you're some kind of superstar and received a signing bonus that was more than $1 million, taxes are withheld from the bonus at a 37% rate.)

Other companies add the bonus along with the wages in the next pay period and then the withholding rate can vary but would be the same as the one for wages for the individual, Steber said.

In some cases, it is possible for lower-wage earners to have had too much money withheld at a 22% rate  such as if they're single and making less than $40,525 in 2021 and fall into a 10% or 12% tax bracket. In that case, the extra tax withholding might even contribute to a tax refund.

If your taxes were withheld at a regular rate, though, you might not be seeing much of a refund as a result, Steber said.

More from Susan Tompor:

Michigan's $400 auto insurance refund likely to bring out scammers

IRS says average tax refunds up by 13.7% so far. Is your refund better or worse?

And don't forget the possibility that a bonus  and higher wages  might have bumped you into a higher tax bracket.

We're dealing with seven tax brackets: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and the highest at 37%.

If your income is $40,526 through $86,375 if single, for example, you've hit the 22% bracket.

If married filing a joint return, you've moved into the 22% bracket at an income of $81,051 through $172,750.

Can you claim working from home on taxes?

Forget about trying to add up all your out-of-pocket expenses, such as WiFi, an extra desk or even running the air conditioner or heater a lot more during the day because your employer allowed you to work from home during the pandemic.

It means nothing at tax time.

James Lopiccolo, a CPA and member of the Michigan Association of CPAs, said taxpayers cannot tap into any special tax deductions on their federal income tax returns if they now have a home office but they are an employee of a company and have their income reported on a W-2.

"Prior to the Trump era tax cuts, employees could deduct employee business expenses, including a home office," said Lopiccolo, owner and founder of Capocore Professional Advisors in Lake Orion.

"If you are a 1099 or independent contractor, then home office-related expenses can be written off as business expenses against the 1099 income," Lopiccolo said.

A long list of changes to the tax rules took place in 2018, including raising the standard deduction, lowering tax rates, and making the home office deduction tougher to get.

"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the itemized deduction for an employees unreimbursed business expenses from 2018 through 2025," according to Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Some limited groups of people did get reimbursed for certain extra expenses.

"Some states, such as California and Illinois, have statutes requiring employers to reimburse employees for some expenses incurred if they are required to work from home, but not if work from home is for the convenience of the employee," Luscombe said.

Independent contractors and self-employed workers could be eligible for a home office deduction if they meet the test of "exclusive and regular use" for their office when it comes to administering or managing the business.

If you're considering a deduction as a self-employed worker, remember that space has to have a "regular and exclusive use" for business. See Internal Revenue Service Form 8829, which you would file with Schedule C.

"With any home office deduction, you do have to establish it as your primary place of business," Lopiccolo said.

"Work-from-anywhere" job listings remain popular during a highly competitive, tight labor market but taxpayers need to realize that they won't get a tax deduction from working from home if they're an employee of a company.

Many businesses are looking for workers -- especially in the fast food industry -- as Now Hiring signs and even billboards can be seen from iPhone snaps around the Louisville and southern Indiana area. Jan. 12, 2022

"There are no great tax breaks for W-2 remote workers," said Matthew Kidd, CPA and partner at Blunden & Kidd Accounting & Consulting, P.C., in Livonia.

What about Detroit city income taxes?

In Michigan, some employees are seeing a break on their city income taxes if they don't live in the city and didn't physically work in a city that has an income tax, such as Detroit, in all or part of 2021.

Many Michigan workers who worked remotely during the pandemic may be able to save hundreds of dollars on city income taxes if they file city returns appropriately.

"They need to make sure to track the days physically worked in the city, days worked outside the city and how many vacation and holiday days they had to maximize their city refunds," Kidd said.

Detroit, Pontiac, East Lansing, Hamtramck and 20 other cities in Michigan impose a city income tax that applies to those who live and work in those cities.

In Detroit, the tax is 2.4% for residents and 1.2% for nonresidents. In Grand Rapids and Saginaw, the tax is 1.5% for residents and 0.75% for nonresidents.

If you are a Detroit resident, there isn't a tax break for telecommuting or working remotely because all of your income is subject to Detroit tax, no matter where it is earned.

But if people are working remotely in the suburbs, they could be looking at a tax break.

If all or part of your work days are predominantly outside Detroit, for example, tax experts say that a proportionate amount of wages may be excluded from taxation in the city.

The state notes: "Wages earned as a non-resident while working from a location outside the City of Detroit are not taxable to Detroit."

At the same time: "All wages earned while working in the City of Detroit are taxable."

Take someone whose salary is $70,000. The Detroit city income tax would be $840 at 1.2% for nonresidents. But if you worked nine months out of the year remotely at home in a suburban community, you could save $630 and owe $210 in city income taxes.

The state notes in an FAQ online: "Employers should provide employees with a letter, on company letterhead, stating the dates that employees were directed to work from home. The employees are not required to submit the work log and employer letter with a city income tax return, but taxpayers should still retain the documents and may be required to furnish the documents upon request by a city tax administrator."

You might not save as much as you imagine, though, depending on where you worked. Some employers did stop withholding city of Detroit income taxes, as employees worked remotely during the pandemic in 2021.

General Motors, for example, said early last year that it had stopped withholding city of Detroit income taxes beginning in January 2021 for white-collar workers who were then working remotely but previously had been at the world headquarters in the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

GM said this week: "General Motors complies with the City of Detroits payroll tax withholding requirements. We withhold appropriately when employees are performing their work within the city."

Review your records and see what you paid into the system and where you worked.

Be specific and be able to track the time worked in the city with the income tax and the time worked outside of it.

"It is important that taxpayers working in multiple locations keep contemporaneous detailed documentation/work log of where they earn wages," said Lisa Pohl, principal, director of state and local tax for Rehmann in Grand Rapids.

Taxpayers do not need to send in the work log, she said, but they should keep it as part of their records. Also keep any documentation from an employer who is requiring you to work from home.

The city of Detroit income tax return allows you to compute earnings worked in the city based on days in and out. Any excess withholding taxes will be refunded on your city income tax return when that return is filed. The ratio is determined based on days worked in the city to total days worked.

If you're looking at some type of hybrid workweek in 2022, keep even better records now for where you're working each day if you want to reduce city income tax bills.

Contact Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @tompor. To subscribe, please go to freep.com/specialoffer. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How to handle hiring bonus, working remote, Detroit taxes at tax time
By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The New Zealand government said on Thursday it would take a total of 450 asylum seekers in Australia or its offshore detention centre on Nauru in the South Pacific over the next three year.

Australias hardline immigration policy requires asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia to be sent to offshore detention centres. They are told they will never be settled in Australia and many have spent years in limbo.

"We are pleased to be able to provide resettlement outcomes for refugees who would otherwise have continued to face uncertain futures," New Zealand Minister for Immigration Kris Faafoi said in a statement.

New Zealand will take 150 refugees per year for the next three years and they will follow the same screening and Refugee Quota Programme assessment process that other refugees coming to the country must meet, the statement said.

Australia had previously turned down New Zealand's offer to take the asylum seekers as it was negotiating with the United States to resettle some of them.

The United States has taken in just under a thousand refugees from Australian processing centres, while 112 people remain on Nauru, according to January data from the Refugee Council of Australia.

Other asylum seekers are in detention in Australia.

Rights groups have condemned Australia's treatment of refugees and conditions in its detention centres, but Australia defends the approach as it believes it deters people from making dangerous sea journeys to reach its shores.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Michael Perry)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked people around the world to support Ukraine by gathering to protest Russia's war. UKRINFORM/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Ukraine's president is urging people around the globe to gather on Thursday to protest Russia's war.

"Come from your offices, your homes, your schools, and universities," Zelenskyy said in a video.

Thursday marks the one-month anniversary of Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine.

On Wednesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on global citizens to "come to your squares, your streets" to protest for an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, a month after Moscow launched its offensive.

"Show your standing. Come from your offices, your homes, your schools, and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life," Zelenskyy said in a video published by Ukraine's foreign affairs ministry.

"Come to your squares, your streets, make yourselves visible and heard," he continued. "See that people matter, freedom matters, peace matters, Ukraine matters."

"From March 24, in downtowns of your cities, all as one together to stop the war," Zelenskyy added.

March 24, or Thursday, marks the one-month anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration of a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

In Zelenskyy's address on Wednesday, he said the one month of fighting is "only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land," and called the attack a "war against freedom as it is."

MFA of Ukraine  (@MFA_Ukraine) March 23, 2022

"Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe, of all the people in the world," he said. "It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters. It tries to show that people do not matter, as well as everything else that makes us people."

Ukrainian forces have so far stalled Russia's advance in most major population centers, including the capital of Kyiv. The Kremlin, in turn, has been bombarding Ukrainian cities, including strikes on residential areas and hospitals, which Zelenskyy and the US government have condemned as war crimes.

The United Nations' latest figures recorded 2,571 Ukrainian civilian casualties so far, but it added that the actual toll is likely much higher.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore will be the keynote speaker at the Amherst County Republicans' meeting Monday, March 28.

Gilmore, who served as governor from 1998 to 2002, will speak at the meeting at 7 p.m. at the Madison Heights Community Center, 424 Woodys Lake Road.

Vance Wilkins, chair of the Amherst County Republican Committee, said Gilmore will address Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The meeting is open and the public is invited to attend, Wilkins said.

Gilmore in a recent interview with the Richmond-Times Dispatch said he considers the Russian invasion of Ukraine the most serious crisis in Europe since the Soviet Union divided and walled off Berlin more than 60 years ago.

Gilmore  who served for two years as U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe  dismisses Russian security concerns as baloney and sees the invasion as a first step by Russian President Vladimir Putin to reassert the dominant role in Europe that ended with the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union.

 From staff reports
City prosecutor responds

I am writing this letter to you in response to a letter to the editor from Cameron Howe that you chose to publish on March 16, 2022 ["Eliminate overcharging"]. Ms. Howe accused me and my office as well as the police chief and his department of overcharging and prosecuting frivolous cases.

As Paul Harvey used to famously say, Now for the rest of the story. Howe was initially charged with reckless driving in September 2020. The police, by Virginia Code, cannot charge the lesser included offense of improper driving which is punishable as a fine only. The police can only charge reckless driving then request an amendment to the lesser improper driving once in court. At trial in the Lynchburg General District Court, where Howe was represented by an attorney she chose to hire, Howes charge was reduced to improper driving, she was found guilty of improper driving by the judge, and she was fined. She appealed the conviction to the Lynchburg Circuit Court. The prosecutor chose to be lenient with her and, with Howes agreement and with the agreement of the police officer, set out terms that upon Howes completion of a driver education course, completion of community service, and maintaining good behavior for a year the charge would ultimately be dismissed. Howe agreed to these terms and voluntarily pleaded no contest to the charge. This is far from a case of overzealous prosecution as was the picture painted by Ms. Howe.

What I find disturbing and disingenuous about her complaint and the forum in which she chose to air her grievance is that I had face-to-face meetings and phone conversations with Ms. Howe on matters related to improving life in the City of Lynchburg within the past 6 months. She never once mentioned her overall concerns that the police were unnecessarily overcharging or that we were prosecuting frivolous cases.

I do not speak for the Lynchburg Police Department but can tell you they do take public safety seriously. I and my office take public safety seriously. According to the DMV 2020 Virginia Traffic Crash Facts, the City of Lynchburg saw 1,086 crashes with 6 fatalities and 529 injuries that year. Given those numbers you can see why.

BETHANY HARRISON

Commonwealth's Attorney, Lynchburg
Improvements to apartments that allow seniors to age in place, rental assistance for struggling low-income residents and home renovations that remove accessibility barriers for people with disabilities and the elderly. These are some of the 12 projects to receive funding from the Pottawattamie County Housing Trust Funds 2022 application cycle. The trust fund awarded a total of $279,690 in grants.

The following organizations will receive funding:

Neola Betterment Corporation  $25,000 for renovation of six senior apartments

Peace Haven Retirement Home  $43,053 for upgrades to five bathrooms to make them ADA-accessible

Interfaith-Response  Rental Assistance  $30,000 for deposits and first months rental assistance for 66 households

New Visions Homeless Services  Rehabilitation  $28,084 for phase two of an electronic entry system at Timothy House

Connections Area Agency on Aging  $30,000 for housing renovations on eight to 10 units to remove accessibility barriers for seniors and adults with disabilities

Pottawattamie County General Assistance  $20,000 for continued funding to provide deposit and first months rental assistance

Carson Lofts  $20,000 for rehabilitation of two rental units in downtown Carson

Iowa Legal Aid  $23,053 for funding for an eviction diversion program

Micah House  $20,000 for renovations and upgrades to MICAH House shelter

Habitat for Humanity  $10,000 for down payment assistance for one Habitat homebuyer

Habitat for Humanity  $20,000 for home repairs to three to four units in the homeowner repair program

Family Housing Advisory Services  $10,500 for homebuyer and tenant education and financial assistance for 35 households

Organizations must expend all funding on projects which benefit people below 80% of the federal family median income limit.

Since 2011, the Pottawattamie County Housing Trust Fund has been able to grant more than $1.8 million to help make an impact on affordable housing through the local nonprofits who apply to receive our grant funds, said Lacey Sampson, Pottawattamie County Housing Trust Fund board president. We are thankful for our partnerships with local businesses and private citizens who believe in our organization and donate to help us meet our mission.

Pottawattamie County, Dodge Cares, Iowa West Foundation, American National Bank, Availa Bank, Veridian Credit Union, Telpner Peterson Law Firm, The Sampson Family and NP Dodge contributed matching funds.

Each year the Pottawattamie County Housing Trust Fund allocates funding to organizations or individuals that serve the housing needs of low to moderate-income residents in Pottawattamie County.

As the grant administrator for the Pottawattamie County Housing Trust Fund, MAPA provides staff services including preparation of annual housing assistance plans and grant applications, project and fiscal management and compliance with Iowa Finance Authority requirements.
The Chicago Teachers Union is suing a former top adviser to Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a Jane Doe over their alleged interference in the May election of union officers.

Lisa Schneider-Fabes and the unnamed defendant deceptively sought to influence the outcome of that election for an improper purpose  namely to attempt to put in place at the Chicago Teachers Union a leadership that has a friendlier relationship with city leaders, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court.

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When asked if Jane Doe is the mayor herself, CTU attorney Michael Persoon said, We think that theres a conspiracy to intervene unlawfully and interfere with the normal democratic processes of the Chicago Teachers Union, and were going to take all efforts to discover the extent of that conspiracy. Whatever the results of that investigation are, well follow that, just like any prosecutor, like the U.S. attorney would do.

Last month union leaders discovered Schneider-Fabes was behind a targeted social media campaign waged by Chicago Teachers United. On its website the group promoted itself as an independent organization that believes teachers deserve strong union leadership that supports efforts to ensure great outcomes for our children and to protect wages and benefits for our teachers.

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The union lawsuit alleges Chicago Teachers United is a front organization working to make mischief within Chicago Teachers Union for the political and personal benefit of Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Chicago Teachers United, which noted it is not authorized by any candidate committee, encouraged visitors of its site to go to the Members First Caucus website and learn about its candidates, who are challenging the current CTU leaders. The Chicago Teachers United website was recently deactivated, internet archive records show.

Schneider-Fabes issued a statement to the Tribune Thursday: While Chicago Teachers United has not had the opportunity to review any legal action CTU may file, it has acted at all times consistent with applicable law. Prior to CTUs announcement, Chicago Teachers United already permanently ceased all operations to avoid any further distractions from the important issues facing CPS and its staff, students and parents.

The mayors office said Thursday she has had no involvement in any internal union election.

Persoon pointed to an alleged job posting for an executive director to begin working with Chicago Teachers United in March.

It seems that they still have ongoing operations, Persoon said. And from my investigation, the only thing that Chicago Teachers United existed to do was to interfere with Chicago Teachers Union elections. So until and unless we get an unequivocal statement, and probably a court order enforcing that, that Ms. Schneider-Fabes and her organization are never, ever, ever going to interfere with Chicago Teachers Union elections, we need to press the lawsuit.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey talks to reporters last August about ongoing COVID-19 safety concerns in schools. The union now claims in a lawsuit that an outside group supporting Mayor Lori Lightfoot is interfering with upcoming union elections. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

The unions governing body  the 600-member House of Delegates  passed a resolution last month condemning outside interference in union elections. The union has about 25,000 members.

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CTUs leaders  including President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates  hail from the Caucus of Rank and File Educators. The Members First Caucus announced a challenge to the CORE group in January.

In a statement Thursday, Members First said it stands against outside interference in our internal election. Stacy Davis Gates and her caucus have hurt so many Chicago families and union members with the toxic environment they created. That is why union members want change and we dont need any outside groups to help us deliver that change to the CTU.

The union says its rules prohibit candidates for office from accepting or using contributions of money or anything of value (such as facilities, equipment or supplies) received from people who are not Chicago Teachers Union members. Federal labor law says employers may not contribute funds, directly or indirectly, in support of the candidacy of any person for union office under any conditions.

Schneider-Fabes resigned from Lightfoots administration months after the mayors 2019 election as the citys watchdog investigated the arrangement that allowed Schneider-Fabes to collect a taxpayer-funded paycheck while she lived in Wilmette. She is a Wilmette School District 39 board member.

In its suit, the union is claiming contract interference, civil conspiracy and unfair competition under the Illinois Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The union is asking a judge to order the defendants and those acting in concert with them to stop providing support to union candidates or maintaining deceptive websites that would lead a person to believe the information published was from the Chicago Teachers Union.

Union leaders have had a contentious relationship with Lightfoot since she assumed office nearly three years ago. The latest bitter battle was over the unions demands for more COVID-19 protections at the peak of the omicron surge in January. The district canceled classes for five days as the two sides hammered out a safety agreement.

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Then, last week, Chicago Public Schools moved to a mask-optional policy despite a provision in the union deal for universal masking. CTU said the district relaxed the mask requirements unilaterally, without bargaining. Union leaders blamed Lightfoot and took their case to a state labor panel. A hearing is scheduled for April after the union lost a request last week for an emergency injunction.

The unions May 20 election is shaping up to be the most competitive in years. Several challengers have come forward in recent months. Besides Members First, the Real Caucus and Change the Conversation have announced their candidate slates.

Sharkey said Thursday Change the Conversation is tied to Educators for Excellence, a national organization the union alleges in its suit wants to implement contract changes including negotiating a thin contract that would undermine members existing rights. Educators for Excellence, which is not a defendant in the suit, did not immediately return a Tribune request for comment, nor did a Change the Conversation representative.

In the 2019 election, the CORE group defeated Members First with 66% of the vote. Sharkey announced last month he is not seeking reelection.

Chicago Tribunes Gregory Pratt contributed.

tswartz@tribpub.com
Ashley Kruse works for the city, but she is also deeply involved in local education.

Kruse is a native of Council Bluffs, and she graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 2002. After high school, she earned a bachelors degree in English from Iowa State University and then a masters degree in organizational management from Peru State College in Nebraska. Kruse returned home after college, and she worked in the admissions office at Iowa Western Community College for 10 years, most notably serving as the director of recruiting.

Five years ago, Kruse went from college campus to City Hall, taking the reigns of the communications officer position for the City of Council Bluffs. Two years prior, Kruse had served a representative for Iowa Western when the school helped out with the citys new image campaign. Her experience with the project made for a smooth transition when taking the job at City Hall.

She is still in the role, working to shine a light on the goings on in Council Bluffs. Not too long after taking her job with the city, Kruse also started sitting on the board for the Council Bluffs Schools Foundation, which works to raise funds and provide other kinds of support and resources for the students, staff and families of the Council Bluffs Community School District. She is now the board president and is in her second year in the position.

She sat amongst a room full of colleagues, peers and community partners Wednesday afternoon as foundation members and district officials delivered remarks and the foundations annual report during a luncheon at the Mid-America Center. Following the event, Kruse said the future looks bright for the district, and the Council Bluffs Schools Foundation will be there to support them even more.

I feel like the partnership continues to grow between the foundation and the school district, she said. More and more people are learning about what were doing, and were getting more money and being able to be a greater presence in the classrooms. Were making a difference across all grade levels.

Kruse has another relationship with the district, as her two kids attend College View Elementary. Her daughter, Isla, is a fourth-grader and her son, Cove, is a kindergartener. In her free time, Kruse and her husband, Jesse, enjoy being active outdoors with the family. They love hitting the Council Bluffs trail system, and when traveling theyre always looking for a nice hike.

 Joe Shearer
Doniphan is expanding west.

A major new subdivision, approved by Hall County/Grand Island Regional Planning Commission, will allow a developer to create new lots west of U.S. 281.

Elsbury Construction of Grand Island is readying High Point Development, located west of U.S. 281 and north of Platte River Drive, an area that is largely untouched.

High Point is roughly 58.8 acres. Its adjacent Kracklin Kirks subdivision, one lot located south of Doniphans new Dollar General at Clarice Street, will be 1.5 acres.

The final plat for High Point is only 14.6 acres, explained Regional Planner Chad Nabity.

The preliminary plat is, heres how we expect to lay out the whole thing at this point in time, based on what we see as market conditions, he said. Thats followed up with a final plat thats just a portion of it that they will develop first.

A total of 121 lots are planned for the entire subdivision, with 36 lots in the first phase.

These projects are typically done in phases.

Once you do the final plat there are tax consequences for that, once those are filed, because each of those lots is a buildable lot at that point and can be sold separately, so its worth more than the farm ground as one big piece, Nabity said. Most developers in our area tend to do somewhere between 5 and 15 acres at a time.

RPC approved rezoning for the subdivision on March 2 from transitional agriculture and general commercial to R-3 multiple family residential zone.

The project is one that has been long in the making, Doniphan Mayor Ryan Nickerson said.

Were still in the planning phases and going over plans and drawings and layouts," he said. "We really feel that as long as we continue to follow this process, it can be something that will be very beneficial for Doniphan.

More infrastructure work is needed, Nickerson explained.

Some of that work was done with the completion of Doniphans Dollar General store.

We did have water and sewer on that side of the road because of the Nebraska Public Power building thats been there for a while, he said.

To meet this growth, a new sewage lagoon system will be constructed.

Were being required to do this by the state because we are growing, Nickerson said. When we decided to make the investment on that piece of our infrastructure, we wanted to have a water and sewer system that would meet our needs for growth for the next 50 years.

He added, That way when projects like this subdivision come up, were able to absorb that and reap those benefits.

Amber Schuppan, chair for Doniphans Economic Development Board, said she is excited about the new subdivision.

We have been short of housing for a long time. The residential plans that I have seen, I think its on point with what our community needs, she said. They talked about putting in some condos and townhomes that are going to be part of an HOA, and easy-living smaller units, so possibly some of those people who have become empty-nesters, but want to stay in the community, it might give them an option to live a simpler life.

It would also help Doniphan attract another needed resource: teachers.

Weve struggled with getting them to move into our community, just because we havent had any housing available for them, said Schuppan. I think that will increase those numbers, as well, so we can get them in our community instead of alternate communities.

Such projects are critical to Doniphans future, Nickerson said.

Its good to see growth, he said. It makes me know were going to build a community thats going to be around for the next couple hundred years also. Thats exciting. I think about what itll be like when my kids are my age, and I hope theyre in a community as good and beneficial for them as Doniphan has been for us.
The Council Bluffs landmark commemorating the installation of Brigham Young as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will soon become part of its history.

The Kanesville Tabernacle at 222 E. Broadway is slated for demolition beginning on April 4, according to a press release from the church. Cox Contracting Co. of Council Bluffs has been contracted to dismantle the building.

Its cottonwood, and I believe the original foundation was not sufficient, said Jeff Young, Nebraska regional communication director for the church. So its not structurally sound anymore.

The building was condemned about a year-and-a-half ago and has been closed ever since, Young said.

The big decision was, do we renovate or do we broaden the whole focus to include the history of the area? he said.

The log building was reconstructed in 1996 to tell the story of the reorganization of the First Presidency, the highest governing body of the church, the press release stated. At a church conference held in 1847 in the original tabernacle, the First Presidency was reorganized with Brigham Young serving as church president. This was a seminal event in the history of the church, because it was the first time that body was reorganized since the death of the churchs founder, Joseph Smith Jr.

It carried a lot of significance to the members of the church and the church history, Young said.

The replica is among two dozen historic sites operated by the church across the United States, the press release stated. The purpose of the sites is to highlight the heritage of the Latter-day Saints and to help visitors understand significant events in church history, their link to teachings of the church and their connection to local history.

The structure will be replaced by an interpretive landscape with a path that winds past statuary and interpretive panels, he said. Kenneth D. Lathrum & Associates of Omaha will serve as structural engineering consultants.

Beginning in the spring of 2023, visitors will be able to stroll through the open space to discover, among other stories, how early Latter-day Saints settled along the river in the 1840s before eventually heading west, the press release stated. The self-guided environment will allow visitors to experience history at their own pace.

Its an effort to draw more people to the site, Young said. Were hoping to reach a broader range of people.

The visitor center will be closed during the demolition of the tabernacle for safety reasons and anytime when construction of the new landscape might pose a hazard to visitors, Young said. With those exceptions, the visitor center will be open the rest of the year. The church plans to make updates to the visitor center at a later time.

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If I could just have one more Zoom meeting, Id feel fulfilled.

I can honestly say this thought has never crossed my mind. During a recent Impact CB gathering at Hope-Nets Sequels Thrift Store, Hope-Net Ministries Executive Director Randy Fontaine challenged the young professionals gathered to reflect on what brings our lives meaning.

Impact CB is the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerces program for young professionals, connecting young leaders while promoting community involvement. During Randys time with the group, he asked attendees to pause and hear his message, a message thats beneficial to all of us.

Randy spoke about success versus significance. If you get so busy that everything is about the job, your career, success, money, all that, one day are you going to step back and realize that you missed life? That you missed what was truly important? Randy asked.

Theres no time like the present for this self-examination: What does success look like to you? What is your purpose? How do you spend your time? Your resources? For most of us, these questions illuminate opportunities to better use our energy and assets toward goals of significance.

In your lives and in your career, my challenge is, what are you going to do that is significant? That really changes the culture, changes peoples lives, changes the direction of our community, changes a neighborhood, Randy urged. Think about where you can create margin your life. How can you take an extra two hours a week and make an impact?

In 1990, Randy asked himself these same questions. As a full-service truck stop general manager, Randy had achieved success and industry recognition. He felt a tug for something more, a way to impact generations. Now, Randy does just that as the executive director of Hope-Net Ministries which aids women returning from incarceration, the homeless population in downtown Council Bluffs and families struggling with poverty.

Randy acknowledges that life gets busy but recommends being intentional with your time and gifts and thinking more about significance than success. With significance, success will come.

At SHARE Omaha, we connect those who want to do good to volunteering and supporting causes in an eight-county region, including southwest Iowa. We often hear from people who dont yet know their fit. These individuals want to give of themselves but havent discovered the cause or causes that matter to them.

Randy shares that when he discusses this topic, he asks two questions: What makes you mad and sad? What do you see in the news that shouldnt happen in our community? When you feel that sense of stirring, find a place where you can dip your toe in and volunteer, support a program financially, host an item collection drive, or do good in many other ways.

If Hope-Nets mission of bringing comfort and aid to those in need stirs your desire to do something, theres a place for you. Due to COVID volunteer challenges, Hope-Nets Sequels Thrift Stores had to reduce its hours, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue to support Hope-Nets programs. New volunteers are needed, as are blankets; blankets go out the door as soon they come in.

I invite you to pause. Reflect on whats important to you, your family, your neighborhood. Intentionally give of your time and resources. The impact on Council Bluffs and our surrounding area will be significant.

SHARE Omaha serves an eight-county region, including Pottawattamie County, connecting those who want to do good to ways to volunteer and support causes southwest Iowa. Find your fit for giving back at SHAREomaha.org/Iowa.

Fourney is the marketing and communications manager for SHARE Omaha.
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Morocco and Israel signed a partnership agreement that will help attract investments by Israeli civilian and defense aerospace giant IAIs.

The deal was signed in Rabat by industry minister Ryad Mezzour and head of IAIs Amir Peretz.

This is a strategic partnershipthat paves the way for a win-win aerospace industrial cooperation, said Mezzour, adding that Morocco aspires to attract IAI investments in highly technological areas including engineering, innovation as well as maintenance.

For Peretz, the deal was part of building a new partnership between the two countries. He highlighted Moroccos aerospace industry potential and investments.

Peretz and other senior executives of IAI paid a visit to Moroccos main aerospace manufacturing hub in Nouacer near Casablanca and held talks with local manufacturers to identify investment opportunities.

IAI is developing its activities in new markets and offers advanced technological solutions across the world, said IAI CEO Boaz Levy in a comment on the deal.

Morocco has set up clusters for aerospace part manufacturers that supply Boeing, Airbus and Safran. So far, Morocco produces 38% of an aircraft as operators seek to increase that rate further.

Morocco has some 140 aerospace companies employing 17,000 and has invested in training aerospace engineers.
Morocco and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have signed a new cooperation program focusing on energy efficiency, energy security and climate resilience.

Under the 2022-2023 program, signed in Paris by minister of Energy Transition & Sustainable Development Leila Benali and IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, the agency pledges to support Moroccos decarbonisation program, deployment of renewable energies and plans set for hydrogen energy.

The IEA will provide Morocco assistance to advance low-carbon economy, reduce fossil fuel imports, achieve its renewable energy targets and honor its commitments outlined in the 2030 Energy Strategy.

The new IEA-Morocco cooperation program was sealed on the sidelines of the 2022 IEA ministerial meeting currently held in Paris under the theme: Accelerating global action on clean energy and energy security.

The two-day meeting is convened at a critical time for the global economy and energy markets in view of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 2022 IEA ministerial meeting will address the current urgent energy security challenges generated by the Russia-Ukraine war and geopolitical risks.

Governments from around the world are trying to ensure secure and affordable energy supplies, while implementing the commitments made at the COP26 held in Glasgow to cut global emissions.
Jealousy apparently sparked a 28-year-old man to beat a pregnant woman, causing the death of their baby girl this month on Chicagos Northwest Side, prosecutors said.

Eric Hernandez was denied bail Wednesday afternoon during a livestreamed bond hearing before Cook County Judge Charles Beach.

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That beating resulted in the death of that child, Beach said. Her daughter and your daughter.

Hernandez is charged with murder and aggravated battery to a pregnant person, police said.

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Hernandez and the woman, who have ongoing domestic violence issues, are married but have been separated, prosecutors said. Two of their children were placed in foster care by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services while two others are in the care of relatives.

When she was 26 weeks pregnant with their fifth child, the two went to lunch on the Northwest Side but Hernandez stormed out after they got into an argument at the eatery, according to prosecutors and Chicago police.

She followed him and they got into a black 2011 BMW, where they kept arguing and Hernandez accused her of infidelity. He repeatedly hit her in the face, giving her two black eyes and multiple bruises after parking in the 5200 block of West Grand Avenue.

He began driving again and in the 5400 block of West Grand he stopped and dragged her by the hair from the front passenger seat, slammed her to the ground and kicked her in the back, shoulder, abdomen and rib cage area, according to prosecutors, who said she had to run up stairs to avoid being hit by the car as he sped away, after taking her cellphone and watch.

The woman, who was experiencing fetal distress, flagged down a passing motorist, who took her to a nearby police station. After emergency crews took her to Community First Medical Center, she was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where doctors began to monitor the babys vitals, including her heartbeat, which was low, prosecutors said.

She had an emergency C-section later that day, but the baby only survived 20 minutes, said police and prosecutors.

An autopsy by the medical examiners office determined the cause of her death was prematurity due to internal blunt force injury from an assault and her death was ruled a homicide, prosecutors said.

Hernandez is a lifelong resident of the Chicago area, lives with his parents and a brother and has been employed for the past year as a general laborer, according to his attorney, who asked Beach to set a reasonable bond.

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Beach, who called the nature of the attack heinous and callous, ordered Hernandez back in court on April 11.

rsobol@chicagotribune.com
The World Bank is ready to strengthen its support to Moroccos economic and social development efforts, said Wednesday in Rabat, President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass.

The WB official, who had meetings with Head of the Government Aziz Akhannouch and Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fettah Alaoui, congratulated Morocco for its effective strategy of economic recovery, underlining that the Kingdom has the necessary means to deal with the repercussions of the pandemic and the rise in prices at the global level.

He voiced the World Banks readiness to provide financial and technical support to the various priority reform projects undertaken by the Kingdom.

Malpass, who is on a visit to Morocco, also reaffirmed the international financial institutions commitment and willingness to organize successfully the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to be held in Marrakech in 2023.

The Moroccan officials also voiced Moroccos pledge to spare no effort to ensure a successful organization of the WB-IMF annual meetings.

They welcomed the exemplary long-standing partnership between the Kingdom and the World Bank Group, highlighting the main priority reform projects undertaken by Morocco to promote a dynamic recovery and strengthen the resilience of its economy.

Among these projects, Nadia Fettah Alaoui mentioned the economic recovery plan sponsored by the Mohammed VI Fund for Investment, the generalization of social protection and the reform of the public sector.

The World Bank has been called upon to further strengthen its financial and technical support for the momentum of reforms undertaken by the government, the minister said.

Malpass visit to Morocco for the first time as World Bank President reaffirms the Groups commitment to work with Morocco to achieve better development outcomes for all its citizens.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Morocco next week, as part of a regional tour in the Middle East, reported Wednesday, the American website Axios, which is generally well-informed.

Tony Blinken is expected to travel to the Middle East at the end of his trip to Europe where he is accompanying, from this Thursday, the American president, Joe Biden, in Brussels, then in Poland, according to the Axios site, which quotes US and Israeli officials.

The tour will take the Secretary of State to Israel and the Palestinian territories, and then to Morocco and Algeria.

His original itinerary included stops in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but as the dates of the trip shifted back and forth several times, those visits were dropped, the site indicated.

According to US officials, Blinken wants to use the tour to show US engagement in the region is continuing.

Blinken is expected to arrive in Israel on Saturday evening and have meetings with Israeli officials in Jerusalem and will head Sunday to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian officials.

According to the US and Israeli officials, Blinken will travel on Monday from Israel to Morocco and from there to Algeria, the site said, noting that in recent months, there have been growing tensions between Algeria and Morocco over the Sahara conflict.

Earlier this March, during the visit in Rabat of Undersecretary Wendy Sherman to participate in the Morocco-US strategic dialogue, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita had announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Rabat next May to chair the meeting of the International Coalition against Daesh, to be attended also by France, Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK, Turkey and Spain.

Blinken is also expected to take part in the African-American Economic Forum to be hosted by Marrakech in July.
Moroccos phosphates and fertilizers producer OCP posted an all-time-high profit of 1.6 billion dirhams in 2021, up 272% as the company benefits from the surge in prices of phosphates and derivatives and the high demand on fertilizers.

OCPs total earnings nearly doubled to 84.3 billion dirhams the same year, a boon to public finances hit by an increase in spending on subsidized wheat and cooking gas.

OCP will pay the Moroccan treasury a record $800 million dividend.

The company also raised the challenges due to the fallout of the war in Ukraine, a key exporter of ammonia.

OCP said it will increase imports from Trinidad, Egypt and the Gulf countries.

Earlier, OCP told Reuters it plans to increase fertilizers production to 11.9 million tons from 10.8 million.

Russia has banned exports of all soil nutrients causing prices to soar in the international market amid a high demand from India, the Americas and Africa.
Several of the 2022 Legislatures major spending proposals directly affecting western Nebraska have survived first-round debate unscathed.

The sessions four major budget bills (Legislative Bills 1011, 1012, 1013 and 1014) won first-round approval in a succession of votes between March 15 and Wednesday.

Lawmakers waded through several amendments on each bill  spending their maximum possible eight hours of debate on each  without any direct challenges to western Nebraska projects.

The first three measures, all tapping regular state revenues and cash reserves, include a $50 million boost in state matching funds for industrial rail parks across Nebraska.

North Platte-area leaders have said those funds would enable Lincoln Countys proposed rail park outside Hershey to access $30 million in state help toward its construction and development.

Other projects in those bills include $53.5 million to plan the revival of the 1894 Perkins County Canal and fund a special committees $200 million request for a new Lake McConaughy marina and eastern Nebraska water projects.

Related bills to authorize the canal project (LB 1015) and the Lake Mac and water projects (LB 1023) were also on Wednesdays agenda for possible second-round debate.

LB 1014, advanced 41-1 Wednesday evening, would tap Nebraskas $1.04 billion share of federal COVID-19 funds for $20 million toward North Plattes Sustainable Beef LLC project and $23.5 million toward permanent repairs to a tunnel on the Gering-Fort Laramie Canal.

The Sustainable Beef funds would help offset costs of building the planned North Platte meatpacking plants onsite wastewater treatment system.

The middle of the Gering-Fort Laramie Canals three tunnels collapsed in July 2019, cutting off more than 100,000 acres from irrigation water for a month until temporary tunnel repairs could be made.

The canal, which runs from Wyomings Goshen County into Scotts Bluff County, has awaited a permanent fix since.

State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, chairman of the Legislatures Appropriations Committee, explained Wednesday how his panel narrowed down more than $4 billion worth of ideas for spending the states American Rescue Plan dollars.

Lawmakers had to outline how their requests would meet Congress mandate that ARP spending be tied to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If the Treasury later decides certain spending doesnt meet that standard, it could require the money to be repaid with possible penalties, Stinner said.

We did not want to have any clawbacks that could punish either the state or those getting the money, he told lawmakers.

Appropriations Committee members then were asked to judge which ones best fit them for LB 1014. Their final list, Stinner said, maintained Gov. Pete Ricketts theme of one-time money, one-time spend for COVID-19 funds.

But only about 60% of Ricketts recommended ARP spending made it into the committees proposal, said fellow member Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard. The rest came from individual senators.

Erdman, North Platte Sen. Mike Jacobson and Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer engaged in Wednesdays debate as other lawmakers tried to add or subtract from the committees lineup of ARP projects.

All three spoke against an amendment by Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt that would have redirected $20 million from a $47.7 million item to renovate and expand the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center at Grand Island.

Hunt sought to use that $20 million for additional post-pandemic support for Nebraskas two food banks. Lawmakers earlier voted 43-0 to add $10 million to LB 1014 for that purpose.

She withdrew that amendment, promising to reintroduce it during second-round debate, after a broad array of senators said the Grand Island academy cant wait any longer to be modernized.

It has been at the bottom of the funding list for seven years, said Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood, a Democratic candidate for governor. This is an old problem that has been allowed to fester.

I appreciate Senator Hunt and the issue shes trying to address, Jacobson said. Im just concerned about the source of the funding.

Brewer said he attended the Grand Island training center when the current campus was new 40 years ago. A lot of the structures that were there then are still there now.

But they havent been updated for modern needs, and it takes up to a year for local police departments and sheriffs offices to place new recruits in training classes, he said.

It makes it unmanageable to hire someone, especially when recruits take other jobs rather than wait, Brewer added.

Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk said Scottsbluff Police Chief Kevin Spencer had approached him to share the acute problems rural law enforcement agencies are facing in hiring new officers.

When theres five officers on the shift and theyre supposed to have eight, their safetys compromised, he said.

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A 34-year-old Lexington man is charged in federal court with possession of roughly 550 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Rudy Ortega Raymundo is charged with being in possession of 50 grams of pure meth and more than 500 grams of a mixture of the drug, according to a media release by U.S. Attorney Jan W. Sharps office.

The charges both are related to an Oct. 3 incident.

If convicted, Raymundo faces 10 years to life in prison, five years of supervised release, a $10,000 fine and $100 special assessment.
Planned Parenthood North Central States, which includes Nebraska and Iowa, has received $20 million from MacKenzie Scott, part of the $275 million the philanthropist and author is giving to Planned Parenthood and its 21 affiliates.

The gift to Planned Parenthood North Central States, which also includes Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, is the largest one-time donation in the affiliate's history.

The donation will pay for sexual and reproductive health care, comprehensive sex education and advocacy in the five-state region.

Scott, the former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, also announced this week that she was donating $11 million to Habitat for Humanity of Omaha. The donation is part of the $436 million that she is giving to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its U.S. affiliates.

Andi Curry Grubb, Nebraska executive director of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said organization leaders are exploring ideas for innovating how health care is delivered and will identify more specific strategies this spring and summer before they are adopted.

The North Central States affiliate operates 28 health centers and a telehealth program in the five-state region, serving more than 100,000 patients a year.

Organization officials noted that the gift comes at a critical time for abortion access. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to release a decision this summer on a case challenging Roe v. Wade, the decision that established the right to abortion.
Members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community attend the Say Gay Anyway rally in Miami Beach on March 13. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Jean Eckhoff has been teaching history to middle- and high-school students in Live Oak, Florida, for the past 17 years without any fuss about her sexuality. Its like Dont Ask, Dont Tell, she says. Everyone knows Im gay, but as long as I dont talk about it, its okay. And the limit of her activism was when I went to Pride in New York City.

Under a bill proposed by Republicans in Florida, just saying those words could cost Eckhoff her job. I feel targeted, she says. It would be very easy for a parent to say, Theres my dyke teacher teaching my kid to be gay, and sue the school.

Nicknamed Dont Say Gay by opponents, the legislation prohibits any discussion of LGBTQ+ sexuality or gender in the classroom and empowers parents to sue for violations. While Dont Say Gay is a catchy phrase thats had the intended effect of drawing attention to the bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis any day now, the legislation is much worse than it sounds. Dont Say Gay has a stickiness that helps it stay in peoples heads, but it doesnt convey the full harm that this bill would cause, says Ross Murray, the vice-president of the GLAAD Media Institute.

Ostensibly, HB 1557 is about protecting the rights of parents, which sounds laudable enough. But a close read of the text shows it to be an overly broad piece of legislation that requires school mental-health counselors to out LGBTQ+ children to their parents and makes any discussion of LGBTQ+ issues or identities practically forbidden because parents could start a state investigation and sue for damages any time they feel aggrieved. As a result, the bill endangers the lives of children who already suffer disproportionately high rates of houselessness and self-harm. Really, its the Dont Discuss Anything About Queer or Trans Existence and Dont Counsel Trans or Gay Kids (Instead, You Must Out Them to Their Parents) or Else Parents Can Force a State Investigation of the School, Get Money Damages, and Probably Get You Fired bill.

The bills broad language not only says classroom instruction  on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3, but it also bans such instruction in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards. What does that mean? No one knows, but because the bill empowers parents to sue whenever they perceive a slight, anything is fair game.

Moreover, the preamble to the bill advocates prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels or in a specified manner (emphasis added). Discussion is much broader than classroom instruction. Eckhoff says that as a matter of professional boundaries, she does not discuss her sexual orientation in the classroom. But a lot of these kids, they just knew. I once had a kid come out to me right in front of the whole class. Now shes worried she might lose her job if that happens again.

The provisions governing school counseling are even worse. The bill requires school boards to adopt procedures for notifying a students parent if there is a change in the students services or monitoring related to the students mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being and the schools ability to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for the student. And no district could prohibit school district personnel from notifying a parent about his or her students mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.

The principle here is that it is a parents absolute right to know such things about their children, but the consequences would be that counselors would have to violate confidentiality and out kids to their parents even if it would cause them to be rejected or thrown out of their homes. This is a massive, terrifying inversion of the responsibilities of a counselor. A trans kid who cant talk about their gender identity at home, a closeted gay kid in a conservative Christian family  all public-school counselors would be required by law to out them to their parents, who may be unsupportive or abusive.

Its also dangerous: According to UCLAs Williams Institute, 22 percent of houseless youth are LGBTQ+ even though they account for just 7 percent of the overall population, and around half say they were thrown out of their homes by disapproving parents. LGBTQ+ kids are four times more likely to consider, plan, or attempt suicide than straight ones, according to studies conducted by the Trevor Project. This puts kids at risk, says Eckhoff. As teachers, we arent going to be able to help them.

So what happens if a teacher or counselor does help? Thats where the bills vigilante provisions kick in.

Taking a cue from recent laws targeting critical race theory (whatever that means to Republicans), HR 1557 empowers citizens to enforce its provisions. If one of Eckhoffs students says she discussed gay marriage in class, the students parents can request that a special magistrate investigate the allegation  at the schools expense  with the investigation to be submitted to the states board of education. Parents can also sue for damages and an injunction in court, again at the school districts expense. All of this could be done on the basis of a rumor or allegation because theres no provision barring frivolous complaints or requiring parents to pay for investigations that dont bear fruit. The bill is a license to harass.

This bill is a hot mess waiting to happen, says Anita Hatcher, who has been an educator for 35 years and recently returned to her hometown in Jackson County to take care of her ailing mother. She now teaches sixth grade at the elementary school she attended in the 1970s. I dont think counties realize whats going to fall on them legally with parents saying, I didnt like this  Im going to sue the county at taxpayer expense.

Since no school district can be expected to afford these kinds of investigations or lawsuits, they would be forced to act preemptively. That might entail removing books from the library, instituting gag rules, ending discussions of sexual orientation in sex-ed classes, curtailing faculty advising of gay-straight alliances, and, without a doubt, barring LGBTQ+ teachers personal statements of any kind about themselves, their kids, or their families.

Ironically, Republicans, who normally chant the slogans of local control, centralized all of these investigative and oversight functions in the state bureaucracy. Schools and districts would be given no latitude to determine the appropriate policies for the populations they serve. All would be forced to comply with a state mandate handed down from above. But its not just ironic. As a result of these provisions, the bill would destroy Floridas LGBTQ+-friendly school districts, such as Miami, which would face the impossible choice between hurting their own kids and financial ruin. At least in public schools, gay-friendly enclaves would be extinguished.

The debates around the bill have been a shocking throwback to the anti-gay crusades of the 1970s with conservatives casting gay people as child molesters and opponents of the bill as groomers of children to be gay or trans. DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw said in a tweet, If youre against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you dont denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.

This bill empowers bigotry in the same spirit as weve seen anti-Semitic, anti-Black, anti-immigrant bigotry, says Eckhoff. Its normalizing degradation.

Still, Eckhoff says that if the bill becomes law, she wont back down. When I first saw the headline Dont Say Gay, I thought, I might lose my job over this, she says. But now I say, Bring it on. Im not asking for trouble, but Im 52 years old  why should I play this game? I cant go along with this. This is my life.

Hatcher, who sent her transgender son to live with out-of-state relatives so he could go to school safely, was similarly defiant. We should be promoting inclusion, compromise, understanding  This is the exact opposite of that. People have gone into the deep recesses of their fears, and fears breed prejudice. But, she continued, Im going to go into my classroom, Im gonna close my door, and Im gonna do whats right. You wanna drag me out? Fine. Thats where my moral and ethical principles are.

But it wouldnt really be up to principled teachers like Hatcher because the bill makes it financially impossible even for sympathetic school districts to defend her anywhere in the state. This bill isnt about parental rights; if it were, it would be narrowly tailored, age-limited, and clear. Its about eliminating any safe space for LGBTQ+ kids in the entire state  in no public school in Tampa or Miami or Fort Lauderdale or anywhere else would it be okay to be gay, trans, or simply open about oneself or ones family. There is to be no school in the state where queer kids can get the counseling they need or at least be safe from being reported to their parents for trying.

This bill isnt Dont Say Gay. Its dont be gay or trans.
People watch a TV at the Seoul Railway Station showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch on March 24, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

With Russias devastating invasion of Ukraine continuing to stall, the prospect of a cornered Vladimir Putin unleashing nuclear weapons on Europe and the world is growing  even if its still a remote possibility.

So naturally, Kim Jong-un was feeling left out in the causing nightmares department.

On Thursday, with NATO leaders convening in Brussels for an emergency meeting on Ukraine, the North Korean dictator launched the countrys first intercontinental ballistic-missile test since November 2017 (back then, former President Trump was routinely threatening to destroy Kims country, before the pair formed an unlikely friendship that produced few tangible policy results).

The missile flew for 71 minutes and 671 miles before landing in the ocean near the West Coast of Japan. And North Korea appears to have upped its game since the last provocation of this sort, per CNN:

Japans Vice Defense Minister Makoto Oniki told reporters Thursday the missiles altitude would suggest it is a new type of ICBM, a potential sign North Korea is closer to developing weapons capable of targeting the United States.

Okay, that doesnt sound great, and Kims weapons certainly pose a serious danger to neighboring countries. But if he wants to wrest western attention away from the threat posed by Russia, hes got another thing coming. North Korea may boast impressive missile capability, but does it have nukes that can reach American shores? As The Wall Street Journal reported this month, it sounds like things are still in the planning stages on that front:

Pyongyang has yet to show it can reliably strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon. That requires developing a warhead that can survive the enormous pressure and heat of re-entering the atmosphere. And in its tests the North has launched ICBMs at a steep angle  in part to keep them from splashing down in U.S. territorial waters  which leaves doubts about whether the technology could traverse an actual flight, with its flatter trajectory.

Until North Korea figures this out, Russia remains the more imminent and terrifying threat. Come back when youve figured out the reentering the atmosphere part of this, Kim, and maybe youll climb back to the top of the archvillainy rankings. (Actually, please dont do that.)
ReportLinker

Major players in the dishwashers market are Electrolux AB, LG Electronics, Whirlpool, Robert Bosch, AGA Rangemaster, Asko Appliances Dacor, Fagor America, Haier Group Corporation, Hoover Candy Group, and Miele, Dacor Inc.

New York, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Dishwashers Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06247492/?utm_source=GNW





The global dishwashers market is expected to grow from $70.92 billion in 2021 to $76.55 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%.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 $109.28 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 9.3%.



The dishwashers market consists of revenues generated by entities (organizations, sole traders, or partnerships) that carry out design, manufacturing, and sales of dishwashers.The market also consists of sales of electric dishwashers.



Dishwashers are household electric appliances that are used to clean utensils.



The main product types of dishwashers are freestanding and built-in.A freestanding dishwasher is designed to be a standalone unit that can be placed anywhere that the user has access to water and drainage.



They come standard with sides and a top, and they connect the same way under bench dishwashers do. The dishwashers are used for commercial and residential applications that are distributed through online stores and offline stores.



Asia Pacific was the largest region in the dishwashers market in 2021.Western Europe was the second-largest region in the dishwashers market.



The regions covered in the dishwasher market are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The increase in number of working population is expected to increase the demand for dishwasher appliance market.The working population has busy lifestyles, thus have less time to take care of household activities such as cleaning and washing.



This arises the need for the convenient household appliances which save time and energy of households.Also due to COVID-19 lockdown, when domestic helps were not available, the demand for dishwashers has witnessed a sales surge in India.



The increase in demand is mostly due to lack of time among working professionals during the lockdown period.For instance, according to Bosch-Siemens CEO in India, there was an over booking of 20,000 dishwasher post COVID-19 lockdown period in 2020.



Therefore, increase in number of working populations coupled with COVID-19 norms for social distancing has spurred the demand for dishwashers during the period.



Stainless steel is a major raw material used in dishwashers manufacturing.As the cost of steel increases simultaneously the production cost of dishwasher also increases.



For instance, in late 2020s, the Indian manufacturers of steel has increased the steel prices due to rising iron ore prices and strong demand for steel.In December 2020, the steel companies were charging around $34 to $37 (?2,500 to ?2,700) a ton of both flat and long products.



Therefore, the fluctuation in raw material prices is expected to restrain the dishwashers market during the forecast period.



The household appliance manufacturers are integrating their products with the IoT technology to make customers lives comfortable and convenient.Internet of Things technology is the interconnectivity of physical objects and devices that are integrated with sensors and software that allow them to exchange and collect data.



Major technologies enabling smart household appliances include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, micro server and micro-electromechanical systems. For instance, Bosch has created home connect, an app that enables the user to monitor their refrigerators, cookers, washing machines, dishwashers and other devices from anywhere through their smart phones.



The countries covered in the dishwasher market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK and USA.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06247492/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




Striking Proviso High School District 209 teachers, counselors, social workers and librarians picket outside of Proviso East High School on March 16, 2022, in Maywood. Students have been out of school for more than a week. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Striking Proviso High School District 209 teachers on Wednesday reached a tentative agreement with the school board on a three-year contract that is slated to bring students back into the classrooms at the districts three high schools Monday morning.

We are pleased to reach an agreement that prioritizes our students, parents and communities, Proviso Teachers Union Local 571 President Maggie Riley said in a Wednesday statement.

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Our membership will be voting on the tentative agreement next week, Riley said.

District 209 School Board President Rodney Alexander said in a Wednesday statement the union and district officials are pleased to announce we have reached a tentative agreement on the terms of a three-year contract.

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The Board, District administrators and teachers look forward to continuing to work together to maintain and enhance the quality of education and fiscal stability of District 209 for the benefit of our students, staff and community, Alexander said.

Alexander said all classes and extracurricular activities will resume on Monday and specific contract terms will be available for public release after the union and school board officially vote to approve the agreement.

While students are on spring break this week, they are expected to return to the classroom Monday at Provisos three high schools: Proviso East in Maywood, Proviso West in Hillside and Proviso Math and Science Academy in Forest Park.

The tentative agreement was forged following two weeks of canceled classes for the districts 4,200 students and after striking teachers demanded District 209 Superintendent James Henderson step down in the wake of a heated confrontation with school board member Claudia Medina, who was supporting educators requests for better pay and smaller class sizes.

While the details of the three-year tentative agreement were not available Wednesday, last week Riley said teachers started this bargaining process a year ago with one priority in mind  our students.

We have been fighting for a fair contract that prioritizes student learning, helps efforts to recruit and retain educators, and brings needed stability to District 209, Riley said.

kcullotta@chicagotribune.com
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A newly established scholarship fund in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University will honor an aviation legend by supporting the next generation of aviation leaders.

The Bessie Coleman Annual Scholarship, established by Walt and Ginger Woltosz, will be awarded to Auburn students in professional flight and aviation management. Their annual gift of $100,000 is expected to support up to 10 students each year.

Walt and Ginger Woltosz are aviation enthusiasts and avid Auburn supporters. From 1969 to 1970, while Walt (69, 77) was a graduate student in aerospace engineering at Auburn, he taught in the aviation management program and learned to fly planes in Lanett, Alabama, taking his private pilot check ride in 1970 under former Auburn University Chief Pilot Gary Kitely.

For more than 40 years, the Woltoszes have flown across the U.S. in their own airplanes, ranging from single- and multi-engine propellor-driven planes to business jets. They now add the Bessie Coleman scholarships to a tradition of supporting need-based financial assistance at Auburn.

I have been extremely fortunate to be able to satisfy my passion for flying, and we love sharing the experience with others, Walt Woltosz said. Our goal with the Bessie Coleman scholarships is to allow students who could not otherwise afford to attend Auburn to be able pursue their dreams. The professional flight program is expensive, and the costs alone could turn many students away. A prospective student who dreams of becoming a professional pilot and has the aptitude and attitude to be successful, but is forced to give up their dream, is heartbreaking.

Breanna Amstutz is a senior in aviation management with a minor in business who received one of the first Bessie Coleman scholarships.

A week before Amstutz planned to start college, her father, Peter, passed away. He was a helicopter pilot and largely supported the family financially. The grief of losing a loved one, combined with the financial stress placed on Breanna, her mother Yvonne and her three younger siblings threw the future into uncertainty.

Amstutz said the Bessie Coleman scholarship is a godsend that will not only allow her to finish school with a decreased financial burden, but will help support her entire family.

Telling my mom I got the scholarship, and seeing the relief and happiness in her eyes, was honestly the best for me because I feel like I can now continue to move on with school and know that my moms not stressed about how Im going to pay for it, Amstutz said. This has definitely allowed us to feel less stressed and more hopeful for the future financial-wise. This gives us an opportunity, and we can start saving up for my brother now, who will be going to college next.

The scholarship fund is named after Bessie Coleman, born of an African American mother and Native American father in 1892. In 1921, Coleman became the first American of any race or gender to hold an international pilots license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She is remembered as an iconic aviator who performed dangerous air shows and an activist who refused to perform at venues where guests of color had to enter through different gates.

For professional flight junior Kadon Luke, the Bessie Coleman scholarship will cover tuition and flight training costs. Beyond the financial assistance, Luke said the opportunity drives him to work even harder to become an airline pilot.

This scholarship means a ton to me, and to be one of the recipients of the first ones makes it even more special. Bessie Coleman is a very important person in aviation history and to be chosen to receive a scholarship in her name is an honor, Luke said. After learning about her commitment to becoming a pilot despite everything against her, it gives me motivation to keep pushing through my training and go into an industry where sometimes I may feel like an outlier.

Auburn School of Aviation Director James Witte said the Bessie Coleman Scholarship offers students in both the professional flight and aviation management programs a new opportunity to succeed by bridging the gap between students and costs associated with aviation.

In todays world, the attainment of commercial flight credentials is a resource-intensive undertaking, particularly in view of the cost of learning to fly, Witte said. For the Auburn Aviation student, the pathway to success is broadened and allows a wide range of students who previously would have sought less expensive career opportunities. We cannot sufficiently express our thanks and appreciation for the generosity of Walt and Ginger Woltosz, who made the Bessie Coleman Scholarships possible.

For more information about Auburn Aviation, visit here.
i'd have to remember not to engage in online debates with random people. I'm from northern Europe and I feel like everyone there has something of a consensus about the state of things (and sympathy for Ukraine because we can relate) but I live in France and whew.... the both sideism I keep seeing. >:(

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it's baffling to me how so many people who (often correctly) call out the US etc for their shit are so reluctant to call out Russia, which is also a global power, also meddling in foreign governments, elections etc and actively invading foreign territory (not just in Ukraine, too). Like, I hear so much "this is all due to the West, you can't blame Russia for defending themselves" it's mind-boggling. Not so much in my country cause we had Soviet occupation and have little sympathies for Putin's nostalgia for that era but people online have the worst takes.



like I said before, just because neither side is perfect doesn't mean both sides are equally bad or equally in the wrong. People somehow seem to be unable to differentiate between that? It's like you're either a flawless paragon of virtue or you're just as bad as the serial killer across the hall, that's not how life works!

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Exactly. Ive seen so many people say that im not pro-Russia but I dont support American imperialism/NATO either and its like have you considered viewing this from Ukrainian perspective? Or even just an European one? Whats actually imperialistic is to see this conflict as one between USA and Russia, and not understand Ukraines long history, or furthermore the history of all neighbouring countries to Russia.



And yeah dont get me started on well NATO shouldnt have come so far in the east like ah yes the people should be bombed for that. Cool take.

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A lot of people are very black and white thinkers and are incapable of nuance. I honestly think they can't comprehend the differences.

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Mais tellement. Apres, quoi attendre d'autre d'un pays ou litteralement la moitie des candidats a la presidentielle ont des interets russes -___- Les grands ecarts qu'on voit dans les discours sont hallucinant a ce stade :D

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Maybe it's the circles I run in but I'm glad I don't see a lot of that where I live. France is a bit special in that regard perhaps, see also the toxic culture wars at their unis and their resistance to American influence~

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This entire comment thread is why I love these posts so hard.

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I completely forgot until today that I've technically met Madeline Albright?

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Story time? lol

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ha not really, I tagged along with a friend who went to a book signing? boring

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I'm not from the USA and I first heard of Madeleine Albright from her cameo in Gilmore Girls. RIP

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weird when i'm depressed i don't lead military action against innocent citizens

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With Putin forcing the EU to pay in Rubel for gas/oil/coal I'm curious to see if my government's stance on a ban is changing. I read that a few refineries are already stopping Russian imports.

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I've been wondering about that as well, I know that a lot of energy companies are pissed because their long-term contracts specify that it's to be paid for in dollar so it's not even clear how legal this unilateral decision is or how it can be implemented. And if the EU caves, they'll be propping up the rubel and countering their own sanctions. Very messy. They should at least ban oil and coal, if they can't do gas, but I fear there are still too many countries opposed to it (including Germany, but with many countries hiding behind Germany's stance on this).

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A look at how the eu and european countries are funding the invasion through overreliance on russian gas RIP Madeline Albright.A look at how the eu and european countries are funding the invasion through overreliance on russian gas from cnbc . This is on a lot of international news right now.

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Russian minister of defense not seen for 12 days, has "heart problems."#Russia #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWarhttps://t.co/y1oDHXP8Jt  Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) March 23, 2022



Did Putin slip something into his food? Did Putin slip something into his food?

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Maybe he suddenly grew a heart?

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Or it fell out a window.

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House arrest at the very least, imo!

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OP: I want to thank you again for putting together these entries every day.

I truly appreciate all of the information and the opportunity to interact with others here about what's happening.



I'm so exhausted was gonna comment earlier but couldn't, but now that the NATO summit is happening I'm still exhausted and still needing to sleep but watching the NATO Secretary General doorstep statement at NATO Summit. It seems like it's tough to answer these questions and that makes a lot of sense. I feel like today will be a long day.







I can't even begin to comment on everything going on at this point.



Edit: I find it interesting that when asked if it was a genocide he didn't say yes or no but that it was a clear violation of international law, then welcome the international criminal court to investigate it? or stated that they were in a weird way, either way, i still guess it's hard to comment on this right now??? but let's call it what it is.



He said, "what we have seen is attacks against civilians, civilian infrastructure and this is a clear violation of international law".



The US is only just now claiming what's STILL happening to the Rohingya people is genocide when that has been clear for some time now so let's please use the right terms and not be afraid to use them.







This second video was posted about 40 minutes ago.

I haven't watched the press conference from 19 hours ago but I'm going to try to stay awake for the one at 13:15CET and try watching it live. I was going to sleep but I don't know if I can.



Edit again # idk at this point:

I crashed unfortunately. I missed the live speech but just finished it.







Edited at 2022-03-24 06:41 pm (UTC)

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With calling it genocide I wonder if they're waiting till they hit more of the UN definition of genocide? So far with the criteria ( https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml ) the first three have been done, but I could see people trying to argue that it doesn't 100% fit the definition of genocide and that may make convictions harder so maybe they're waiting till they believe there's 110% evidence? There's also definitely a tendency to see genocide as racial/religious motivated, I'll admit I forgot that national group counts.

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I have not purchased it as I just found out about it.



Charities are listed in the link along with games.



From website under details:



Redeem your keys. The games in this bundle are available on either Steam, GOG, or Rockstar Games Launcher for Windows  and some for Mac and Linux too.





Thank you.



https://www.humblebundle.com/stand-with-ukraine-bundle?hmb_source=humble_home&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_2_layout_index_2_layout_type_carousel_tile_index_1_c_ukrainecharitybundle_bundle





Edited at 2022-03-24 11:32 am (UTC) This is a Humble Bundle for Ukraine - it is Pay what you want, the recommended amount was $52 ish Canadian for me. It contains games, comics, ebooks and software.I have not purchased it as I just found out about it.Charities are listed in the link along with games.From website under details:Redeem your keys. The games in this bundle are available on either Steam, GOG, or Rockstar Games Launcher for Windows  and some for Mac and Linux too.Thank you.

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Zelensky to NATO: Don't say Ukraine's army doesn't meet Alliance's standards.



In a virtual address to NATO, President Zelensky said that he has one demand. After such a war against Russia Please, never, never again tell us that our army does not meet NATO standards.  The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 24, 2022

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In another transmission, we hear the repeated order to cover the entire residential neighbourhood with artillery after the property () has been removed  a likely codeword for Russian personnel or equipment. This could be a war crime. pic.twitter.com/PFrEiF1irV  Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) March 23, 2022

330 schools https://t.co/t4bi2NfpjU  Brett Murphy (@BrettMmurphy) March 23, 2022

Renault backed out again. For now. Renault backed out again. For now.

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https://playforukraine.org/ playforukraine is back up on a different site since the other one got shut down! play and help ukraine!

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ty, I've missed that little game. And I just got my highest score ever so I'm very pleased lol

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what was your score?

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Well that NATO presser was disappointing, especially in light of the address Zelenskyy gave to them. But to be expected. I hope they won't mourn their missed chance to tip the balance in retrospect.

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The granddaughter of the man accused is trying to contact all international publishers (I think it's Hachette) of the book to kill promotion, sales and production of it as well.

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Surprised she hasn't sued for slander, or can you not do that if the person being slandered is dead?

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No clue, and it's less of a suing society here anyway/also.

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The dead have no cause of action for defamation under the common law, and neither do their survivors, unless the words independently reflect upon and defame the survivors.

http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2011/01/can-you-be-sued-for-libeling-dead-john.html



I think it would be Libel, since it's written. And, a person can not sue;The dead have no cause of action for defamation under the common law, and neither do their survivors, unless the words independently reflect upon and defame the survivors.

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It's scary how something like that can be published without being thoroughly fact-checked. I wonder if her other books are sketchy too.

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It'd be great if people could stop trying to profit off the back of her tragedy.

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As if that poor girl hasn't been exploited enough.

She wrote a DIARY! and it get's published without her consent. I hate that for her, even if I know that it's important.



I'm german and we read the whole book in school when I was 13. I was mortified, all of her secrets being subject to discuss between us germans, to know and judge her dreams and hopes.





Edited at 2022-03-24 10:45 am (UTC)

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I thought she wrote one version of her diary wIth the intent of it being published. Because she heard on the radio that they were going to be looking for diaries to publish after the war was over.



She also kept a personal un edited diary

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Her dad removed some content. I'm not sure about her writing 2 diaries. I do know that He removed some pages that talked about se*ual things and I think periods... I'd have to go back and verify that part. It's been awhile since I read up on the topic.



It seemed that her father did try to look out for her privacy at least on topics that most would NOT want out there, but kept the day to day thoughts and some of her writings about growing up.



Edited at 2022-03-24 03:35 pm (UTC)

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This makes more sense than her keeping 2 diaries in such dangerous times.

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The radio thing is accurate, she was organising and editing shortly before she was captured.

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that doesn't change much for me. She was 14 when she edited it. We'll never know what she would have changed as an adult.

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i mean...this seems like the sort of thing you check before you publish the damn thing? wtf???

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It should be the sort of thing you would fact check thoroughly, just to not embarrass yourself.



Legally though, you can speak ill of the dead all you want. That's how about 1,500 men have been accused of being Jack the Ripper in mainstream publishing with very little evidence to "prove" it.



Edited at 2022-03-24 12:46 pm (UTC)

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Who was the supposed informant?

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Another Jewish man in the community

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IIRC, the story was really tragic for the alleged informant.

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I read a comment from historians saying the concept, at best, only has enough evidence to be mentioned as just that, a theory among other possible but unprovable theories.

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Houston!! I didn't know that.

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He said that was the first place his family lived after coming here from South Korea. After that, they moved to Seattle, the Bay Area, and then LA.

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I don't know how actors can smile and look pleasant when they have to deal with ridiculously awful conversations like that.

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she needed to retire in boca 20 years ago.

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Oh, I got three. Someone said three.



Such an unprofessional and purely dumb response and then its like she floundered for something even worse to say 

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i was mortified even reading the transcript

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It's been almost ten years and I'm still mad that Selfie got canceled.

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Right there with you. I cant believe its been that long.

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One of the producers was on a podcast recently and she said she had to fight to get John Cho cast in Selfie. Can you imagine that show without him????????

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Same! All of the actors had such good chemistry together and I really loved the chemistry between John and Karens characters! If anyone has any good recommendations of rom com shows similar to Selfie, im still looking!

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It's hard to believe it's been that long, but yeah, I'm still upset.

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Me: I know they can be unprofessional as hell, but how bad can they be?



Joy: No research done, followed by, "You sound, well, you don't have any accent or anything."





At this point I should be a host on The View. I know I'll slip up and say stupid shit sometimes, but I doubt I could ever be that casually racist or ignorant.



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I couldn't believe the follow up to "I got exactly zero things correct" was her casual racism. Like seriously?



I'm not a professional interviewer but the first problem could have been completely avoided if she had just asked, "Where did you move to? How old were you?" Such a simple fix. And in an interview setting, those are better questions because it allows the subject to have a discussion with you instead of simply answering "yes" (or in this case, having to correct you).

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A short quiz about tv shows where John Cho has guest starred:





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After I found out about his new book, I checked his wikipedia page and learned that this man is turning 50 in June. HOW?!

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NO WAY

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I KNOW! It's been a whole day since I found out and I still can't believe it.

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Missing His Face and Those Abs as favourite project options.



Oy, Joy.

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Cool! I read Krysten Ritter's novel, but I don't think I've ready many others written by celebs. I'll have to check John's out.

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How was her book?

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Quite good, actually. I liked it. The plot was pretty standard, but I thought she had some talent real as a writer.

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Please don't judge me as vote for Selfie as my Favorite John Cho project

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No judgment from me. I loved that show!

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That was my vote, too.

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Hey, I voted for that show too!

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I see that I've nothing to be ashamed of, ONTD loves it too!

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FYI  he's doing an online event today to promote his book. It's an interview with SuChin Pak hosted by Bel Canto Books, an indie bookstore in Long Beach. It costs $17 and includes a signed copy of the book (which retails for $17 anyway). The event is today at 6pm Pacific. More info here

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Aww SuChin!! Ok Im an easy impulse buyer but this one I feel good about

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I'm an especially easy impulse buyer when it comes to books. Any time I go into a bookstore, I somehow manage to find a pile of books I've never heard of that I suddenly need. I am excited to read this book!



At first I was neutral on SuChin when she started on MTV, but I grew to like her because she seemed so unflappable. I felt like anything could have happened and she would just calmly roll with it (which I admire because I'm the opposite and freak out at the smallest things  the other day I shrieked when I was startled by the presence of a bug).

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Thank you for the info. I'm a sucker for books, especially signed ones by people I like.

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I voted Selfie, but wth is Columbus? 

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If I remember correctly, I think he plays the son of a famous architect who is gravely sick and Cho goes to watch over his father (who of course he has a bad relationship with), and in the process meets a young woman who is kinda struggling to figure out her life and they bond over those few days/weeks??? I mainly remember it being an artsy, quiet film. But it was pretty! And I think it was a platonic versus romantic bond between the 2 leads, which I remembered liking lol

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I think he meant where the hell is Columbus on the poll which were mte.

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I saw him walking down the street on Sunday. I didnt even say hi but it made my day 

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Idk why gringos think oh you dont sound like or you have no accent thats great is a compliment, I guess its the expectation for us to assimilate for their comfort.

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It's coming from a woman who defended blackface for Halloween based on it being a "beautiful African woman." And referred to interracial marriage as "It's a thing these days. Everyone is mixing. I think *laugh* it's great."



Edited at 2022-03-24 02:39 pm (UTC)

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I've had so many white people tell me I'm very eloquent for someone who moved to the US at 15, and I never know how to respond. It's like bc I'm ESL I can't speak well or what?!

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I get this alot and also people repeating back words mockingly like you mean this hahaha I think its cute not xenophobia and racism isnt cute

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They're truly the stupidest of stupid people when they compliment how good my English is even though I was born and raised in the US. I really think it just boils down to the fact that they can't understand how my non-white face works. They really can't get over the face so it's like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs. Wow it thinks it's people!

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Joy has always been shady as fuck & lazy. Like when Ice Cube was on the View, she smugly said to him "I bet you regret making Kill The Cops now." The audience loudly applauded her for that. Ice Cube said "That was actually my man Ice T."

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Oof

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On Day 29 of the Russian war in Ukraine, three extraordinary strategy summits are taking place in Europe. A closed-door NATO strategy session, followed by a G7 summit bringing together the worlds most powerful economies, followed by a European Union meeting. If there was any doubt about how serious the conflict in Ukraine is, todays events show just what a threat Putins aggression and unchecked despotism poses to world peace.

This week has seen new waves of violence, with Russian forces battering the southeastern port city of Mariupol, adding 100,000 fleeing Ukrainians to the 3.5 million refugees that have escaped the country in the past month. As Russian troops continue to push into Ukrainian territory the displacement of people and the destruction of Ukrainian assets and livelihoods is set to escalate.

Russia seems to be taking direct aim at the Ukrainian energy grid, with nuclear and renewable energy assets in danger of being completely destroyed by military forces. On February 24, Ukraine disconnected its energy grid from the larger Russian-operated network that it has always depended on to keep the lights on. The move was a long time in the making, and was intended as a temporary trial run as Ukraine seeks to establish energy independence as a requirement for transitioning away from Russia to join the European grid. Just four hours after the grid disconnection, Russia invaded  and Ukrainian energy became a prime and symbolic target.

Some of the Ukrainian assets directly in the line of fire include nearly half of the nations renewable energy facilities, comprising nearly 4 gigawatts (GW) of combined capacity and a total value of over $5.6 billion according to the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE). Another 2.4 GW valued at $3.6 billion in capital investment are in areas directly adjacent to the conflict, rendering them vulnerable if the fighting continues to spread. Together, these assets represent the majority of Ukraines entire renewables industry and could bring Ukraines budding energy transition back to square one. The renewable sectors under threat include wind, solar, biomass, biogas, and hydropower.

Related: The World Could See A Record-Breaking Oil Supply Shock

Renewables continue to represent a small share of Ukraines overall energy mix, which is largely dependent on nuclear energy and fossil fuels. Nuclear energy, which provided 51% of Ukraines total electric power supply in 2020, is also under attack by the Russian invading forces. Since the beginning of the invasion, the Russian army has attacked three nuclear plants in Ukraine, including firing grenades and perhaps artillery shells at Zaporizhzhia, Europes largest nuclear power plant.

In the weeks following the invasion, Ukraine has received permission to join the European grid ahead of schedule and has done so in record time. But while this has afforded some stability to Ukraine, it also poses a major threat to Europe, which has brought an imperiled grid into its network, making the continents grid vulnerable. With Ukrainian power plants under attack, the failure of any one node of the system could send ripples across the entire EUs power grid.

The attack on Ukraines energy grid, and in particular nuclear, poses an extreme threat not just to Ukrainians, but to the global community, from imperiling the stability of Europes power grid to the threat of nuclear war games. The Russian assault on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine [...] unleashed a destabilizing cocktail of events that, in the worst case, could still lead to a severe nuclear accident, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reported last week. And as Russias violence continues and spreads, it may threaten Ukraines other nine nuclear power plants, including older units in western Ukraine that may be less protected against some extreme hazards. The threat of nuclear disaster looms large.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A few weeks ago the Chinese government announced an audacious plan to build 150 new nuclear plants. No specifics were announced but we assume they were planning to build copies of the Chinese-designed 1,000 MW Hualong One reactor, considered an alternative to Westinghouses AP1000. No doubt aware of French and US difficulties completing new reactors on time and within budget, they estimated a per reactor cost of between $2.5-3 billion. The question for us here is: what would a comparable US commitment to build several hundred new nuclear reactors over the next two decades look like?

Our target number of new reactors for the US is 250 assuming roughly 1,000 MW sized units as opposed to small modular reactors (SMRs), enough to maintain nuclear energys 20% share of US-installed electric generating capacity (roughly 1.1 million MWs) while aging reactors could be retired on schedule.

Financing such a project is way beyond the balance sheet capacity of most investor-owned utilities. And more importantly, we believe there is no appetite among utility executives for new nuclear construction after SCANAs multi-billion dollar nuclear plant cancellation and Southern Company's eventual completion of Plant Vogtle at multiples of its original cost estimate. And this is before one even considers the potential influence of anti-nuclear groups and plain old NIMBYs. Given the present lack of interest and inertia regarding this technology, it is not unreasonable to think that, unless something changes, nuclear power in the US may slowly decline to irrelevance.

We think a nuclear program should be viewed the same way as a new weapons system, such as a fighter jet being ordered by the Pentagon. In this situation, a private-sector contractor submits a bid, has it approved, and then builds the system. Massive cost overruns in this context provide fodder for an occasional headline but, otherwise, they are either assumed or ignored as a result of a bipartisan consensus in Congress that routinely authorizes funds for these types of projects. The underlying assumption here is that our leaders mostly agree that these things, regardless of cost, are necessary. And everyone basically moves on.

One underlying assumption here is that manufacturing many units of the same design lowers costs even if the first few models are way over budget. This makes perfect sense when thinking in terms of building several hundred airplanes. Who cares if the first five planes are way over budget if the next 95 are on budget? Its the average cost of the entire fleet that matters. Same with nuclear plants. However, unlike France, the US has never taken this standardized approach. There has been a bespoke aspect to nuclear power plant construction almost from the beginning in the U.S. The mistaken assumption here was that the plant builder, simply by offering local market prices for materials and labor, could complete these enormously complicated projects expeditiously. However, a shortage of skilled labor, critical materials, or architects unfamiliar with new and often changing designs caused delays, or worse, required that previously completed work be totally redone.

One way to diminish the publics obsession with nuclear new build costs is to place these systems development costs on the federal governments balance sheet so that popular outrage over massive cost overruns does not completely stifle our nuclear program. Then hopefully a bipartisan consensus emerges that the program is necessary, it develops a constituency of beneficiaries, new build costs decline, and bureaucratic momentum does the rest.

The politics of new nuclear construction are also difficult for investor-owned utilities to contend with because a new nuclear plant inevitably entails large, unpopular electricity price increases. It is axiomatic in the industry that no one likes inordinately large rate increases. The enhanced public scrutiny via the public service commission or simply from politicians eager to latch on to a popular issue would worry industry executives and shareholders alike. In addition, with the emergence of so-called cord cutters, those installing solar and battery systems and exiting the utility network entirely, the pressure to avoid outsized rate hikes has increased.

The other obvious reason to exclude investor-owned utilities from our proposed program of nuclear new build is geography. The IOUs are by definition geographically constrained. They only operate within a given franchise area. Granted, that area may cover several states. But to us, this is clearly a case where our present, Balkanized electricity ownership system is an organizational and structural impediment to progress. A program of this scale, given the amounts of incremental energy contemplated, should be viewed as a regional or national endeavor. In addition, we would emphasize the need for transmission upgrades that facilitate increasing inter-regional power transfer. The existing ISO/RTO could be allocated multi-reactor nuclear stations based on the prospects for future energy needs and plant retirements.

Related: Big Oil Is No Longer Unbankable

If increased electrification is the goal, then emphasis should be on low prices. Basically, we would turn the concept of the reserve margin on its head. Reserve margins of excess generating capacity are supposed to be adequate but not too big so as to impair profits. This is profit-maximizing corporate behavior. A government on the other hand can take into account far broader societal benefits. If as a society we want to continue to encourage the use of cleaner electricity versus fossil gas and coal, then the price has to remain reasonable so as to permit substantially increased usage. Otherwise, consumer acceptance becomes that much harder. We would advocate for much larger regional reserve margins for two reasons. First, just look at summer peaking in Texas where the electrical grid failed due to an extreme winter peak. It appears that climate change for electric utilities means increasing exposure to wild swings in weather-related demand. Higher reserve margins would only improve reliability at a time when electric utilities are growing and encouraging customers to abandon natural gas in their homes and businesses. This is an intra-utility competition.

Lastly, we want to address one aspect regarding concepts for small modular reactors. First, the name itself is problematic. These next-generation reactor designs contemplate up to eight separate reactors at a single station producing amounts of power almost comparable to those of our present gigawatt-scale plants. While the actual physical footprint of these SMRs is smaller, the cost is still expected to be way above natural gas or renewable electric generation. Our main point is that these are not small, simply small-er. But it is their modularity that is unique and most important. Given manufacturing difficulties with large nuclear reactors, the hope here is that the smaller (and hopefully standardized size) of the individual units makes the manufacturing easier, cheaper, and faster. The goal is for all major components to be manufactured at a facility rather than hand built on the job site. Will this address the current problem of runaway nuclear construction costs? We have no idea. But a techno-friendly approach would suggest building and operating several prototypes and then re-evaluating them.

This also requires a change in mindset. With respect to the adoption of new, costly technologies like nuclear, we would recommend the government adopt a smorgasbord approach. Imagine facing a long table filled with equally delicious items. One good strategy would be to pick very lightly on the first pass and then load up our plates after deciding which is our favorite. We would suggest the same approach with new nuclear technologies. Encourage the development of every competing nuclear technology and then invest heavily in the most promising prototype technologies while recognizing that the also-rans, such as nuclear fusion, may yet offer promising results in the future. Recall that the electric vehicle, which is gaining increasing public acceptance by the day, as a technology, was first available in 1899 and accounted for over 25% of new vehicles sold then.

Our last point concerns the political environment in the US. One of the two major political parties, the Republicans, has pretty firmly embraced the concept of climate change denialism. Former President Trump articulated his party's view the other day at a political rally claiming the climate change issue is a complete hoax and that what we are experiencing is simply changing weather. Regardless of our personal views, the point is that a large percentage of the public may agree with this and that their political party may again be in full control of the federal government in a few years. Unlike in Europe, pro-nuclear advocates cannot offer a new nuclear development program as an appropriate response to ameliorating the harm of increasing CO2 or methane levels. If one denies climate change, nuclear advocates are only offering a high-cost solution to an environmental issue that for many Republicans doesnt exist. Interestingly the poles here have reversed. We previously would have expected the greatest opposition to new nuclear from the political left as in Europe. Now it could come from the political right as well.

For many years, we have argued that nuclear power is not and never was a commercial technology. The nuclear industry and nuclear builders and operators pretended that it was, but relied on government research and development, government insurance, government regulation, and lately, direct government subsidy. US investors no longer buy that story. If we really want a nuclear revival, the government will have to do the reviving directly.

By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Iran plans to boost its crude oil production to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) in the new Persian year that started this week, Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr, chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said on Thursday, Irans Fars News Agency reported.

Iranian oil production has slumped since former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the so-called Iranian nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republics oil exports.

In February, Irans crude oil production was at 2.546 million bpd, up by 44,000 bpd compared to January, according to secondary sources in OPECs latest Monthly Oil Market Report.

As the ongoing talks in Vienna are reportedly in their critical final stage, Iran is now planning for a production boost.

The key area of development will be the West Karoun cluster of oilfields, according to the national oil companys top executive.

The development of the West Karoun cluster will need $12 billion in investment, including $8 billion for shared fields, Khojasteh Mehr said as carried by Fars News Agency.

Our priority is development and maximum production of shared fields, he said. Our vision for 1401 [the new Persian year] is to increase production capacity, which we hope to reach over 4 million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, Irans Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said earlier this week that the Islamic Republic and the world powers are closer than ever to reaching the agreement after nearly a year of talks.

We believe that today we are closer to an agreement in Vienna than ever before, Reuters quoted Amirabdollahian as saying on Wednesday.

The U.S. State Department, for its part, said on Monday that a return to the nuclear deal was neither certain nor imminent.

The legitimate return of Iranian oil is one of the few bearish factors in todays oil market, which has been rattled by the Russian war in Ukraine and the loss of Russian supply through sanctions and buyers self-sanctioning.

Still, it will likely take months for Iran to significantly boost its oil exports, when and if allowed, analysts warn.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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The onetime elected head of the Bloomingdale Township highway commission pleaded guilty Thursday to taking $282,000 in kickbacks from the owner of an excavation company in exchange for approving contracts for roadwork that in many cases was never performed.

Robert Czernek, 71, pleaded guilty to one count of honest-services wire fraud in a telephone hearing before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly. Sentencing guidelines call for up to nine years in prison, but prosecutors have agreed to recommend a much lighter term if he continues to cooperate.

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Czernek was charged in August 2020 with taking kickbacks from Debra Fazio, owner of Bloomingdale-based Bulldog Earth Movers Inc., over a period of more than eight years.

In exchange, Czernek used his official position to approve more than $700,000 in payments for stone delivery, dump-leveling and storm-sewer invoices submitted by Fazios company to Bloomingdale Township.

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The scheme began in 2012, the year Czernek was elected, and continued almost unabated for his entire time in office, according to his plea agreement with prosecutors. The only exception was 2013, an election year, when it was agreed to pause the kickbacks because Czernek did not want to draw any scrutiny, according to his plea agreement with prosecutors.

According to the plea, Czernek concealed the fraud by leaving handwritten notes for Giannini in various secluded places on Bloomingdale Township Highway Department property, according to his plea agreement with prosecutors.

The notes included a description of the work and number of hours purportedly spent by Bulldog on various projects. Fazio later submitted invoices to the township that repeated Czerneks notes word for word, according to the plea agreement.

In order to conceal the extra money from his wife, Czernek told Giannini to have the kickbacks paid by checks written to an old trucking company he owned, Tri-State Express, according to the plea.

In pleading guilty, Czernek agreed to forfeit assets seized as part of the investigation, including about $28,000 in cash, a 1981 Corvette, a 2014 Lexus RX 350 and a 1966 Buick Wildcat.

Fazio, 65, and longtime Bulldog employee Mario Giannini, 60, were also charged and are scheduled to go to trial in May.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
OPEC is concerned that a potential European Union embargo on Russian oil imports would hurt consumers, and has relayed those concerns to the EU, Reuters reported exclusively on Thursday, quoting OPEC sources.

Russia is OPECs key non-OPEC partner in the OPEC+ production agreement, which has been managing supply to the market for several years now. OPEC+ and OPEC have not officially commented on the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the organization usually steers clear of geopolitical commentary or comments on the rule of law or policies in its member states.

The OPEC+ group decided in early March to rubberstamp another 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) increase in its collective oil production in April, despite soaring oil prices after a key member of the pact, Russia, invaded Ukraine a few days prior to the OPEC+ meeting. During the short meeting on March 2, OPEC+ decided to leave its production plan as-is and didnt mention the Russian war in Ukraine, which was the reason why oil prices jumped to above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014.

OPEC officials have met in recent weeks with EU officials, and OPEC has made clear its concern about a possible EU ban on Russian oil, Reuters sources said.

An official at the EU, for their part, commented on the meeting for Reuters that OPEC presented their analysis of the oil market situation and informed us of their plans in terms of oil production.

Nothing is off the table about additional EU sanctions against Russia, the EU official told Reuters.

Earlier this week, oil prices jumped after EU ministers gathered to discuss the idea of potentially joining the U.S. in banning imports of Russian oil. Ministers, however, failed to come to an agreement about whether to punish Putin with an oil embargo. Some small EU members, including Lithuania, pushed for an embargo, but the biggest economy, Germany, was against it.

By Charles Kennedy

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According to one US official, it is intended to ensure supplies of American natural gas and hydrogen for Europe.

Oil dipped about $1 after the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration and European Union are expected to announce a major initiative to direct shipments of liquefied natural gas to Europe during the US presidents visit to Brussels this week. The announcement would come as European officials have asked the US to do more to help them cut their dependence on Russian energy sources.

The announcement, part of a "dramatic effort" to deprive Russia of leverage as it continues to batter Ukraine, would mark an unusual move to reorder the worlds energy flow  a shift that could have an impact long after the war is over. It comes as European officials have asked the United States to do more to help them cut their reliance on Russia for oil and natural gas.

Bidens national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said an agreement would be announced as soon as Friday. According to one US official, it is intended to ensure supplies of American natural gas and hydrogen for Europe.

Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday:

A major priority for both the president and his European allies is to reduce the dependence of Europe on Russian gas, full stop, and the practical road map for how to do that  what steps have to be taken, what the United States can contribute, what Europe has to do itself.

Speaking to EU lawmakers in Brussels on Wednesday, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said all EU members can contribute in reducing our dependency on Russian gas.

Energy policy is also security policy. With REPowerEU we have set the way forward. Tomorrow I will discuss with @POTUS how to prioritize LNG deliveries from ???????? to ???????? in the coming months. We are aiming to have a commitment for additional supplies for the next two winters. pic.twitter.com/xK8DnWHPxT  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 23, 2022

Of course, sending an LNG flotilla to Europe is nothing new and this plan has been floated for a while - a well-known snag here is that Germany has no LNG terminals to onboard any shipments, and so will need at least 1-2 years to build the required facilities at a cost in the billions. It's probably also why after surging more than 20% yesterday following news that Putin will only accept rubles for Russian gas purchases, European gas prices have barely budged following the WaPo report.

By Zerohedge.com

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A consortium operating the pipeline that Kazakhstan uses to export the bulk of its oil has said the route may be largely unusable for up to two months because of infrastructure damage caused by a recent storm.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, or CPC, said in a March 22 statement that two of three tanker loading facilities at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, which allow ships to take on oil at a safe distance from the shore, have been rendered inoperable.

CPC chief executive Nikolai Gorban told reporters on March 23 that the loading of oil at the Novorossiysk terminal has stopped completely for the time being. While oil can be fed into the 1,500-kilometer pipeline, which starts at Kazakhstans giant Tengiz field on the eastern shores of the Caspian, shipments in March and April will fall fivefold compared with the usual volume, he said.

The CPC pipeline carries oil from western Kazakhstan to a port on the Black Sea. (map: Transneft)

The consortium has said it will struggle to find spare components for the damaged tanker loading facilities because of the international sanctions imposed against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin said oil exports through the CPC pipeline may drop by about 1 million barrels daily over the two months it takes to effect repairs, Russias state-run news agency TASS reported.

Analysts cited by the Financial Times expressed some skepticism about the claims of storm damage, noting that none of the consortiums Western partners, which include the majors Chevron and Exxon, who own 15 percent and 7 percent stakes, respectively, have been able to carry out their own inspections.

If a storm shuts down infrastructure or if Russia shuts down infrastructure, Russia can decide when it reopens infrastructure, Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington-based research group, told the Financial Times.

This drop in deliveries is going to be particularly painful for Kazakhstan. More than two-thirds of the countrys oil exports go through the CPC pipeline.

In 2021, CPC shipped 60.7 million tons of oil, equivalent to roughly 510 million barrels, through the Novorossiysk terminal. Of that total, 53 million tons came from the Kashagan, Tengiz and Karachaganak fields in western Kazakhstan. Another 7.7 million tons was delivered by Russian companies.

Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said on March 23 that it is consulting with the CPC on the timing of the resumption of operations at the marine terminal" and that it is also, in the meantime, considering alternative routes for oil exports.

Experts note, however, that there are few viable options.

Oleg Chervinsky, an energy journalist, told Eurasianet that one possibility was to redirect oil flows from the CPC pipeline to the northbound Atyrau-Samara pipeline into Russia. This would mean mixing high-quality Tengiz crude with the relatively impure Russian Urals blend, which currently trades at around two-thirds of the value of the Brent blend that is most commonly quoted on international markets.

Going by sea across the closed Caspian and feeding oil into the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline would only go some way to addressing the export shortfall, since handling capacity at the Kazakh port of Aktau is constrained, Chervinsky said.

"Unfortunately, stopping shipments from the Novorossiysk terminal will lead to a decline in oil production in Kazakhstan, which will lead to a shortfall in revenue for exporters and a reduction in tax revenues further down the chain," he said.

By Eurasianet.org

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As part of drafting contingency plans to meet natural gas demand, the European Union is currently assessing all scenarios, including the possibility of a halt in Russian gas supply to the EU next winter, Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, said on Thursday.

The EU is reassessing scenarios for partial and full disruption of gas deliveries from Russia next winter in order to help member states revise their gas supply contingency plans, Dombrovskis said at the European Parliament today, as carried by Reuters.

During the Parliament session, Dombrovskis outlined the European Commissions plan to cut EU demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of 2022 and completely by 2030 to replenish gas stocks for winter and ensure the provision of affordable, secure, and sustainable energy.

We must be in charge of our own energy future and that means we cannot let any third country destabilise our markets nor influence our energy choices, Dombrovskis said.

The Commission is working at full speed to phase out Russian fossil fuels, under the plan unveiled early this month following Russias invasion of Ukraine, the EC official said.

Europeunlike the United Statescannot afford to go without Russian gas currently, so the European partners have been reluctant to slap sanctions or impose an embargo of imports of oil and gas from Russia.

If Russian gas flows to Europe were interrupted now, Europe would have enough gas to last it through the end of this winter and the following summer without curtailing demand, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said last week. European gas storage levels will likely be within the five-year range by the end of this winter, thanks to mild weather, more arrivals of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and sustained imports from Norway, according to WoodMac. While this winter and the summer could be easier for Europe without Russian gas, some demand curtailments in the 2022-2023 winter will be inevitable, according to Kateryna Filippenko, principal analyst on Wood Mackenzies Europe gas and LNG team.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The association of German utilities is calling on the federal government to create a system for early warning about a potential drop in gas supply, noting that there are serious indications that the gas supply situation is about to deteriorate.

Germany depends on Russian gas for around half of its needs, with many industries using gas and about half of all households heating with gas. The Russian war in Ukraine exposed Germanysand Europesvulnerable reliance on gas and other energy flows from Russia. Europe has been reluctant to impose an embargo or sanctions on Russian energy because of its high dependence on supply from Moscow.

In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced it was changing course in order to eliminate our dependence on imports from individual energy suppliers, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. Germany will build two LNG import facilities, at Brunsbuettel and Wilhelmshaven, and look to speed up the installation of renewable energy capacity to have 100-percent renewable power generation by 2035.

However, unplugging the German energy system from its dependence on Russia will not happen overnight, Chancellor Scholz has said several times over the past weeks, warning that a halt of Russian energy supply would plunge Europe and Germany into a deep recession.

Now the association of the German utilities, BDEW, said that an early warning system is needed as There are concrete and serious indications that the gas supply situation is about to deteriorate, Kerstin Andreae, chairwoman of the BDEW Executive Board, said on Thursday.

Following Vladimir Putins announcement that future gas deliveries will have to be paid for in Russian rubles, the German association cannot rule out an impact on gas flows, Andreae added.

On Wednesday, Putin said that Russia would start charging the countries it considers hostile in rubles for its natural gas.

I have taken a decision to switch to ruble payments for our natural gas supplies to the so-called hostile states, stop using the compromised currencies in such transactions, Putin said.

The Russian Presidentwhose list of hostile states includes the United States, all EU member states, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and many othershas ordered the Bank of Russia, the central bank, to develop a system for payments in rubles within a week.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The United States and the United Kingdom have agreed to send more liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes from Baltimore to the UK and then on to Europe, the British Ambassador to the USA, Karen Pierce, told MSNBC in an interview on Thursday.

The UK and the United States have come to an arrangement under which the LNG terminal in Baltimore will send more of the super-chilled fuel to the UK, and then the UK will further ship it onto Europe, Pierce noted.

Since tensions between Russia and Ukraine flared up early this year, and especially after Putin invaded Ukraine a month ago, the U.S. and Europe have been working to arrange additional LNG cargoes for Europe, if possible, in order to get more supply in case Russian flows are interrupted for whatever reason and as a step toward weaning Europe off Russian gas.

U.S. President Joe Biden and European allies are expected to announce on Friday a plan to redirect gas to Europe and intensify sanctions against Russia, The Washington Post reported this week.

En route to Brussels, where President Biden is meeting with NATO and European allies, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday the United States itself is acting now to help Europe on the issue of dependence on Russian gas, diverting cargoes to help increase the supply of gasU.S. LNGto Europe in the immediate term. And I think you can expect that the U.S. will look for ways to increase LNG supplies, surge LNG supplies to Europe not just over the course of years, but over the course of months as well.

Europeunlike the United Statescannot afford to go without Russian gas currently, so the European partners have been reluctant to slap sanctions or impose an embargo of imports of oil and gas from Russia.

The Russian war in Ukraine made Europe rethink its energy strategy and has now drafted plans to cut EU demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of 2022 and completely by 2030, to replenish gas stocks for winter and ensure the provision of affordable, secure, and sustainable energy.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Nicole Lee speaks during a news conference at Zhou B Art Center in Chicago on March 24, 2022. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, left, nominated Lee to be the next 11th Ward alderman. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoots pick for the next alderman of the 11th Ward is a United Airlines director with deep roots in the citys Chinese American community.

Nicole Lee, director of social impact and community engagement at the Chicago-based airline company, was announced Thursday as the final candidate to replace ex-Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson following his February felony conviction.

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She would be the first Asian American woman to serve on the City Council if confirmed by aldermen.

At a news conference inside Bridgeports Zhou B Art Center to announce the pick, Lightfoot recounted the discrimination Chinese Americans have faced in this country and some of the challenges Lee herself has overcome. Lightfoot noted Lee is a single mom with two sons and praised her for persevering through adversity.

Nicole represents whats good and best about our city, Lightfoot said.

In her remarks, Lee praised the history of the ward, offering a shoutout to the workers who long ago built the citys canals and calling the area a gateway for immigrants seeking to build a new life.

The 11th Ward is Chicago, she said.

Surrounded by schoolmates and her childhood principal, Lee stressed her 11th Ward roots and noted that four generations of her family have lived in the same Chinatown home. She also invoked Bridgeports White Sox, saying 11th Ward residents are grinders who believe in winning ugly.

She said ward residents are looking for someone who is transparent and operates with integrity.

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Im ready to roll up my sleeves and move the 11th Ward in a new direction, Lee said.

Lees appointment would end the wait over who will be the next alderman of the South Side ward, long a stronghold for the Daley family but also home to a burgeoning Asian American population.

Lee has prior experience leading the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, the Local School Council at Haines Elementary School in Chinatown and the Chicago chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans. Her current job entails managing Uniteds relationships with charities and spearheading fundraising campaigns, and shes done similar social engagement work at Premier Bank and BP America.

She has a masters degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and is a product of Chicago Public Schools, having attended Whitney Young Magnet High School, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Asian American leader born and raised in Chinatown.  Seeking to expand and amplify Asian American issues and voices by empowering communities and building coalitions for a (better) Chinatown and Bridgeport and a more equitable Chicago, her resume summary reads.

The mayors selection does have a tie to the Daleys. Her father is Gene Lee, a onetime top aide to former Mayor Richard M. Daley who was convicted in 2014 of stealing from charities. The crime did not involve his duties as Daleys deputy chief of staff.

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Asked Thursday about Gene Lees work under Daley, Lightfoot pivoted, Nicoles her own person.

In her speech, Lee said her father was a role model for her and praised his work ethic as a city official who would work hard to address neighborhood issues.

Lee was among 27 candidates for the position, a list that included a few with connections to the Daley family, several from the Asian American community and some with a first responder background.

The influx of Asian American applicants came as leaders from that community called on Lightfoot to appoint an alderman of Asian descent to replace Thompson, pointing to the lack of current representation in the City Council as well as changing demographics of that ward.

State Rep. Theresa Mah, a Democrat who represents Chinatown and is believed to be the first Asian American elected to the Illinois General Assembly, touted Lees pending appointment Thursday.

It is exciting and historic that the Mayor has appointed the first Alderman from the Chinese American community, Mah said in a statement. I know Nicole and I am confident that she has the right skillset to represent all 11th Ward residents well in City Council.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot presides during a March 23, 2022, City Council meeting at Chicago City Hall. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Josina Morita, chair of the Asian American Caucus, issued a statement calling Lee the perfect person to represent the 11th Ward, Chinatown and the Asian American community. Her leadership and track record on equity, inclusion and social responsibility are exceptional. We welcome her to the Asian American Caucus.

Morita is running unopposed for commissioner of Cook Countys 13th District and would be the county boards first Asian American woman if elected in November.

Lee also received plaudits from Cook County Commissioner John Daley, who serves as the 11th Wards Democratic Party committeeman. Daley is the brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley; Thompson is their nephew.

Id like to congratulate Nicole Lee on being selected as the first Asian American woman to serve on the Chicago City Council, John Daley said in a statement. I believe Nicoles background, work experience and many years of community involvement make her well suited to represent the residents of the 11th Ward.  I look forward to working collaboratively with her.

Bridgeport, long an Irish American enclave, has recently seen those of Asian descent surpass whites to make up the largest share of residents, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. That follows a trend of 2020 U.S. census figures showing Asian Americans as the fastest-growing racial group in Chicago.

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Asian Americans, whose share of the citys residents increased by 31% over the last decade, currently have no representation in City Council. In all of Chicagos history there has only been one Asian American alderman: Ameya Pawar, who represented the majority-white North Side 47th Ward for two terms.

Another factor in play is the ongoing decennial redistricting process of the citys 50 wards, which all but ensures the 11th Ward will be redrawn to include Chinatown and become the citys first majority Asian ward, as both the councils Black and Latino caucuses have for months been on the record supporting the idea.

Thompson resigned a day after his Feb. 14 verdict, as required by state law, meaning the 11th Ward has gone more than a month without representation in City Council. Lightfoot was then given 60 days  until April 15  to get his replacement through the council.

Lee, if approved by the council, would serve until the 2023 election. Political wisdom has it that an incumbent alderman enjoys an advantage over challengers, so if the mayors selection decides to run for a full term, that person could have a leg up in the 2023 race.

At one point Thursday as the audience at the arts center cheered Lee, Lightfoot jokingly encouraged her to enjoy the praise because it doesnt last long.

Take this moment, put it in your heart, Lightfoot told Lee.

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Lightfoot had planned to swear in her pick at Wednesdays City Council meeting but her office announced earlier in the week it needed more time.
DES MOINES (AP)  The family of a boy whose brain was severely injured during birth at an Iowa City hospital has been awarded $97.4 million  believed to be the largest medical malpractice verdict in Iowas history.

A Johnson County jury handed down the award on Monday following a 14-day trial, the Des Moines Register reported. It came in a lawsuit filed by Kathleen and Andrew Kromphardt against Mercy Hospital Iowa City and an obstetrician.

The familys lawsuit contended that the boys brain damage was caused by medical staffs failure to act on signs that the baby was being deprived of oxygen in the hours before his birth and failure to deliver the baby by cesarean section.

The boy is now 3 years old and is unable to walk by himself or speak beyond a few words. The family says he will need 24-hour care for the rest of his life.

Des Moines attorney Fred James, who helped represent the Kromphardts, said he believed it was the largest medical malpractice verdict in Iowa history.

The hospital and the doctors medical practice are to each pay half the award, which includes about $42.2 million to go for costs of the boys future medical or custodial care. The rest is for loss of future earning capacity, pain and suffering and other damages.

The hospital and doctor denied wrongdoing. Each released statements saying they are reviewing their legal options.
LOS ANGELES  Three other politicians discovered their campaigns got dirty money from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury and got rid of it, a process in which they formally disgorge the money by donating it to charity.

The reason Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry didnt do the same right away?

A prosecutor told him not to, according to his former attorney.

Trey Gowdy, who represented Fortenberry during the investigation into whether he received foreign funds, testified Wednesday that he suggested to prosecutors that Fortenberry would return the funds to the donors, after learning that the money probably came from Chagoury. It is illegal for elected U.S. officials to accept donations from foreigners.

Gowdy said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins, the lead prosecutor in the case, told him that Fortenberry shouldnt return it back to the donors, in part because it could tip off the donors that they were under federal investigation. When Gowdy asked what Fortenberry should do instead, he said, Jenkins didnt give any suggestions.

When you hear that something is going to hurt an investigation, and your purpose is to assist that investigation, youre not going to do it, Gowdy said.

Day 5 of Fortenberrys federal trial marked the end of the governments case, and the beginning of Fortenberrys defense. As told through the first week of the trial, the entire saga started with Fortenberrys support of In Defense of Christians, a group devoted to protecting Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

The A, B and C of IDC were Eli Ayoub, Toufic Baaklini and Chagoury, all of whom are of Lebanese descent. Chagoury used both Ayoub and Baaklini, who are U.S. citizens, to illegally funnel money to the campaigns of U.S. politicians, including: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry.

The others disgorged the money from their campaigns. Prosecutors have pointed out that Fortenberry took 2 years to do the same.

He didnt do it even after he noticed that most of the money raised at a February 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles came from the same family. Seeing the same last name on the donor forms, Fortenberry asked Baaklini if he should be concerned  and Baaklini told him not to sweat it.

Fortenberry also didnt get rid of the money after a June 2018 phone call in which Ayoub told him that Baaklini had provided $30,000 in cash for the fundraiser and that the cash probably came from Chagoury.

He also didnt get rid of the money after the March 2019 FBI interview at his Lincoln home, prosecutors said.

Then came the second FBI interview in July 2019.

John Littrell, a Fortenberry attorney, asked Gowdy if he would agree with Fortenberrys comment in July 2019 that he was horrified at finding out that it was Chagourys money.

Asked to describe Fortenberrys reaction, Gowdy said: Shock and anger. It was shock, with a subtext of anger.

Part of the subtext of Gowdys testimony Wednesday was this: The attorney seemed to regret that he had allowed Fortenberry to be interviewed by the feds in July 2019.

A former federal and district attorney, as well as congressman, Gowdy said he believed that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness and that the government just wanted to size him up in terms of his reliability and credibility.

In reality, Fortenberry was the subject of the investigation. The FBI had taped the June 2018 phone call between Fortenberry and Ayoub. And FBI agents had taped the Lincoln interview and already had suspected him of lying.

An attorney asked Gowdy if he knew that the FBI had secretly recorded all of those events.

No, he testified, with a smirk.

Did he believe the feds were just sizing up Fortenberry as a witness?

One-hundred percent, Gowdy said emphatically.

Defense attorneys also introduced an FBI memo that they say shows the FBI had predetermined, even before the Lincoln interview, that they were going to charge Fortenberry. In the memo, agent Todd Carter wrote that he would approach Fortenberry and interview him about his conversations with Ayoub and his knowledge of the source of the $30,000 campaign contribution.

Case agents will also seek to indict Fortenberry with misprision (concealment) of felony and conduit contributions. In addition, if case agents determine from the interview that Fortenberry is making false statements, he will be charged with false statements.

A second FBI agent on the case, Edward Choe, testified that he hadnt seen that memo and that he didnt share the opinion that Fortenberry automatically would be charged.

And prosecutors argued that such memos are typical. Any criminal charges are subject to change, depending on what happens in the course of interviews and investigations, they say.

At that point, Choe said, agents had been continually checking to see if Fortenberry had gotten rid of the illegal campaign money. He hadnt.

Another memo caused a stir Wednesday. Prosecutor Jamari Buxton told the judge that he wanted to introduce a memo that Fortenberry had sent to the U.S. House of Representatives clerk just last week, seeking to vote by proxy in the House because of the ongoing public health emergency. Fortenberrys note made no mention of the real reason he cant attend: this trial.

It would counter any notion that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest, Buxton said.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. considered it but ultimately decided against it. He said it would take too much evidence to establish why it was written and the process Congress uses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other testimony, Fortenberrys chief of staff, Andy Braner, testified that his boss is the countrys last great statesman and a visionary.

The nine-term congressman is so scrupulous that, Braner said, he once made Braner replace an office stamp on a piece of mail. Fortenberry handed him a stamp from his wallet.

Were not going to have the taxpayers pay for my personal mail, Fortenberry told Braner.

Another time in 2019, Braner said, a visitor from the Middle East tried to hand Braner an envelope of cash in recognition of all the work Fortenberry had done in the Middle East. Braner refused.

Two days later, Braner informed the congressman of the interaction.

Fortenberry was irate, Braner said. He said, Call the (House) Sergeant at Arms and get him up here. Were going to tell him everything and make sure that doesnt happen again. 

Prosecutors noted that the Middle East envoy had offered Braner cash just a month after the FBI had interviewed Fortenberry about his campaign receiving another foreigners cash. Hence the outrage, Buxton suggested.

Another House member told the jury that she has always known Fortenberry as an honorable person.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, said Fortenberry came across the aisle, literally, to meet her. He wanted to talk about a cause he thought she would share.

Eshoo, a half-Armenian, half-Assyrian representative from Northern California, said Fortenberry was sincere: He wanted her input on the issue of protecting religious minorities in the Middle East.

Thats how I got to meet and work with Jeff, Eshoo said. I think he brings honor to what he does. ... Hes faith filled. Hes honest. His word is always good  I cant say that about all members of Congress.

Whether his word is always good is a question for the federal jury. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating the case Thursday or Friday. Fortenberry is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of trying to conceal his knowledge about the true source of the $30,000 campaign donation.

Fortenberrys defense team is expected to continue Thursday to put the FBI on trial for its handling of the probe. Attorney Ryan Fraser blasted the FBI for showing up unannounced to the Fortenberry home and lying to Celeste Fortenberry, the congressmans wife, about why they were there. Jeff Fortenberry had called then-Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister to send two officers to his house to screen and monitor the FBI agents. Bliemeister is expected to testify Thursday.

When FBI agents showed up, Fraser said, Fortenberry was exhausted, having just returned from a trip to Africa where he was briefed on elephant poaching.

You would expect the FBI to warn you if you were the victim of an illegal foreign campaign donation? asked Littrell.

Oh, I would hope so, Eshoo said.

She paused, correcting herself.

I would think so, she said. Not just hope.

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The president of Omahas City Council said he has some concerns regarding a proposed ordinance that would strip pandemic authority from the current health director and overhaul the citys process of implementing public health orders.

But he could be in the minority on the council, where a handful of members have already expressed support for the measure ahead of a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Pete Festersen, council president, said while hes open to reviewing the citys approval process in the case of public health declarations and mandates, he feels that the City Council should continue to be advised by infectious disease and public health experts during public health emergencies.

The proposed ordinance doesnt do that, Festersen said.

Under the proposal, introduced by Councilman Vinny Palermo and supported by Mayor Jean Stothert, the county health director would have the power only to certify the presence of an epidemic. After a threat is recognized, a newly established special epidemic health director would be responsible for coming up with a plan to manage it.

During an epidemic, the health directors role would be limited to activating the new special epidemic director, who then would make recommendations regarding health precautions and regulations.

Palermos plan would give the special epidemic director the powers previously held by the county health director during an epidemic. But any order from the new epidemic director could be rejected by the mayor. The City Council then would have the ability to overturn or uphold that rejection by majority vote.

The newly created special epidemic health director position would be filled by the physician medical director for the Omaha Fire Department.

That position is held by Dr. Robert Chaplin, a pediatric critical care physician at Childrens Hospital & Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center.

A call to Chaplin wasnt returned Wednesday.

(The ordinance) would have a pediatrician writing designated health measures, and those are very different medical specialties, Festersen said.

Councilman Danny Begley said he still has reservations and questions on the ordinance that hes working through.

Im talking with colleagues and staff to work through the process to get some resolution on this that we can agree on, Begley said.

Councilman Brinker Harding said that hes also open to suggestions on the proposal and that it does not remove the health director from the decision-making process.

It does more specifically address the authorities and procedures of all parties related to pandemics, and will clear up the cloudiness of the standing ordinance, Harding said.

Harding was one of three council members to oppose the latest public health decision made by Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse.

Huse issued a mask mandate for Omaha in January amid a surge of COVID-19 infections. She cited an astronomical spike in cases and an already overburdened health care system as her justification for the mandate.

At the time, the mandate appeared to have the backing of a majority of City Council members. Some health officials, including the chief of the University of Nebraska Medical Centers infectious diseases division, also voiced support for the mandate.

But council members Aimee Melton, Don Rowe and Harding opposed it, as did Gov. Pete Ricketts and Stothert. Stothert did, however, concede that Huse had the authority to issue the mandate. The mayor said neither she nor the council could void the mandate, which Huse eventually lifted in February.

It was something that I opposed and the council had no say in it, Stothert said. Those making the decisions for the people of Omaha should be those elected to serve them.

The Douglas County Board of Health voted last week to formally oppose the proposal.

The county health director, according to the boards resolution, has the public health knowledge, expertise and experience to make and carry out actions in an epidemic. Neither a special epidemic health director, the mayor nor the City Council is chosen or elected based on their public health expertise, the resolution states.

The proposed ordinance would negatively impact the health and well-being of the public during such times of duress as an epidemic or pandemic, when swift and nonpolitical decision-making is necessary to protect the lives of Omahas citizens, the resolution reads.

Multiple non-elected officials make decisions impacting these citizens on a daily basis, without interference. To now interfere in the City Health Director roles codified, delegated authority can only be construed as being politically influenced, rather than being driven by the long-term public health needs of the community.

Palermo has said that his decision to introduce the ordinance is not political.

This was made for the simple thought that we have directors across the board that make great decisions for the city, but in time of a pandemic, we didnt have one, and we dont have one, Palermo said. He was referring to the lack of an official health director for the City of Omaha, a role that the county health director fills.

Palermo said that identifying a special epidemic health director, codifying the required consultation with health experts before developing orders and having elected officials consider the orders before implementation ensures a thorough and complete process.

Currently, the Douglas County health director is appointed by the Douglas County Board of Health and approved by the Douglas County Board and the State Department of Health and Human Services.

A public hearing on the ordinance will be held during Tuesdays City Council meeting, which starts at 2 p.m. in the citys legislative chambers.

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoots casino push ran into City Council turbulence Wednesday when several aldermen tried to stop her from naming a committee stacked with allies to deal with multiple facets of the huge project.

In a preview of what promises to be a contentious process, Lightfoots plan to create the Special Committee on the Chicago Casino drew accusations from opponents that the mayor is trying to sideline them.

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The council adopted the special committee by a 35-12 vote, setting it up as the body to consider Lightfoots final recommendation of a casino plan before it goes to the full council. The special committee will be made up of council committee chairs and vice chairs who Lightfoot chooses for those posts and who, by and large, support her agenda.

It will also get to vote on any zoning, licensing, public health, traffic and financial issues related to the casino, which would normally go to various council committees tasked with those specific concerns.

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Lightfoot this week announced she had narrowed the list of casino hopefuls from five to three, and said she hoped to recommend a finalist within the next few months. The three surviving proposals are for Ballys at the Chicago Tribune Publishing Center, in River West, Rivers at The 78 in the South Loop and Hard Rock at the proposed One Central megadevelopment near Soldier Field.

Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, will chair the new casino committee. It makes sense to have the many ordinances tied to the development go through the same body, he said.

Otherwise we would have different proposals all over the place, and it would be impossible to keep track of it all, said Tunney, who also chairs the council Zoning Committee. This way, we have a group of aldermen who are well-versed on all the issues, and the entire council is welcome to participate in the meetings.

But mayoral critic Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, said Lightfoots real motive is to quell debate.

Ald. Anthony Beale, during Wednesday's City Council meeting, said stacking the committee with supporters is "a way to circumvent opposition." (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Its a way to circumvent opposition, and just have her hand-picked chairs and vice chairs controlling the whole process, Beale said.

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Ald. Sophia King, 4th, said the casino committee should at least count among its members any aldermen whose wards include whichever casino site gets chosen.

But a move by aldermen to have the committee include all 50 council members instead failed Wednesday.

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The spirited debate on the procedural move shows how high the stakes are in what Lightfoot termed a big, momentous decision facing the city.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, called the introduction of the mayors casino committee resolution rushed and blasted her for what he said was not bringing in the light  a jab at Lightfoots 2019 election slogan that vowed to make government more transparent.

That spurred a retort from Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th: If you want to talk about change, or bring in the light, then turn on the lights in your own office. Thank you.

Lightfoot defended the move, saying that having Tunney chair the new committee and Ald. Jason Ervin serve as vice chair will ensure important aspects of the casino agreement get appropriate attention. Ervin chairs the Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity.

Given the fact that the different aspects of the casino proposal touch amongst a variety of committees, there was a suggestion, and I support it, that we have in effect a super committee that we can put all the issues before that committee and really the entire body out all at one time, she said.

Because the vast majority of the issues are related to zoning, weve asked Chairman Tunney to chair meeting and then, (as) vice chair, Chairman Ervin, because we care obviously a lot about the minority- and women-owned component of this casino. Ample opportunity will be given to every single member of the body to participate, kick the tires, if additional briefings are needed.

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After the full City Council approves a casino operator, the choice will head to the Illinois Gaming Board for consideration.

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LOS ANGELES  History hit Jeff Fortenberry with a devastating blow Thursday.

A federal jury deliberated less than two hours before convicting the nine-term Nebraska congressman on one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

Fortenberry, a 61-year-old Republican, is the highest-ranking elected official to be convicted of a felony in Nebraska history.

Fortenberry betrayed little emotion as the verdict was read. After the guilty verdict was read on the concealment charge, Fortenberry closed his eyes and kept them closed for at least a minute.

His youngest daughter dropped her head into her hands and heaved. His oldest daughter doubled over in the courtroom gallery, her boyfriend comforting her.

Celeste Fortenberry, who had testified earlier Thursday, remained mostly stoic. She comforted her daughters, then her husband, cupping his face with her hands and giving her husband of 26 years a kiss.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. set sentencing for June 28. The congressman faces up to five years in prison on each count, although he also could receive supervised release.

Ironically, he does not have to give up his congressional seat. Federal law requires members of Congress to give up their seats only for crimes that are tied to treason.

It is unclear whether Fortenberrys campaign will continue. He faces a Republican challenger in the May primary: State Sen. Mike Flood. Two Democrats, including State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, also are vying for the seat.

Fortenberrys staff, including his current chief of staff Andy Braner, sat outside a courtroom, stunned. Braner left the courthouse with his hands stuffed in his suit pockets.

Fortenberry exited the courtroom to a gaggle of about seven members of the Nebraska press corps.

Thank you all for coming out here; this is important to Nebraska, Fortenberry said. We always thought it was going to be hard to get a fair process out here. This appeal starts immediately.

Actually, any appeals typically would have to wait until after the June sentencing, although attorneys can ask for a new trial before then.

Fortenberry  the judge determined he was not a flight risk and allowed him to remain free pending sentencing  said his phone was buzzing. One of the texts: a note from one of his five daughters.

She said, I love you Daddy, no matter what anyone else accuses you of, Fortenberry said. Just remember so many other people do, too.

Asked if he would continue his campaign, Fortenberry said his family is going to sit down and evaluate next steps.

The jury of four men and eight women convicted the congressman after watching several tapes of him making incriminating statements.

The investigation ramped up when the FBI discovered that a Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, had been funneling cash into the campaigns of four Republican politicians: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, current California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry.

It is illegal for U.S. elected officials to accept foreign money.

The World-Herald asked prosecutor Mack Jenkins, who led the case with the help of prosecutors Susan Har and Jamari Buxton, if Fortenberry would have been prosecuted had he gotten rid of the money soon after learning it was suspect. The other three politicians werent prosecuted; they got rid of any illegal money soon after they were confronted. Fortenberry took 2 years to give his to charity. And was evasive along the way.

Thats a difficult question to answer, Jenkins said. But I would say that the inaction in this case was certainly evidence of a scheme to conceal.

Jenkins was asked for his message to Nebraskans.

Hopefully they see that the federal government nationwide ensures that politicians follow the law, Jenkins said. Wherever they are.

During closing arguments, prosecutors laid out a slide show of the illegal flow of foreign money into Fortenberrys campaign coffers because of the congressmans support for the cause. That cause was the plight of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

Chagoury gave a bag of $30,000 cash to Toufic Baaklini. Baaklini passed it to Los Angeles Dr. Eli Ayoub. Ayoub gave it to his relatives so they could write checks to Fortenberry at an LA fundraiser in 2016.

Har, an assistant U.S. attorney, told jurors to disregard the defenses suggestion that FBI agents ambushed or targeted Fortenberry.

The question is not, How could they look into the defendant?" Har told jurors. The question is, How could they not?"

Fortenberrys defense questioned how the prosecution could base its entire case on a 10-minute phone call from Ayoub to Fortenberry.

In that June 4, 2018, call, recorded by the FBI, Ayoub told Fortenberry three times that Baaklini provided $30,000 in cash and that the cash probably came from Chagoury.

Attorney John Littrell blasted the FBI for waiting 293 days before confronting Fortenberry about the phone call and expecting him to remember everything.

He also blasted the lead FBI agent in the case  Todd Carter  for a memo he wrote in which he laid out, before interviewing the congressman, that he would be seeking to charge Fortenberry with misprision (concealment) of conduit contributions and, if he lied, making false statements.

If you already have plans to indict someone, this is not a search for the truth, Littrell said. This is a setup.

Littrell noted that Fortenberrys campaign had $1.5 million in its coffers.

Do you really think he would take and put his reputation on the line for $30,000 when he had almost $1.5 million in the bank? Littrell asked jurors. Theres no way he would.

Littrell put up a slide emphasizing Fortenberrys presumption of innocence. He followed that with a slide of Fortenberrys official office photo that said presumption of integrity.

The defense attorney said he had never been in a case where every witness acknowledged that the defendant had a sterling reputation.

Every government witness testified that he is a truthful person, a man of integrity, Littrell said. One witness said it best: He brings integrity to everything he does.

That said, Littrell told jurors his client is flawed.

He talks too much, Littrell said. He doesnt listen enough. He should have paid more attention to his fundraisers.

Thats all true. But thats not a crime. ... Having a faulty memory is not a crime.

Littrell also noted the phone call had been played several times in court. He suggested to jurors that if they had to listen to the call again, that would amount to reasonable doubt. After all, he said, Fortenberry heard the call only once.

If he didnt hear, understand or recall the June 2018 call, then hes not guilty of all three counts, Littrell said.

Har and Jenkins said theres ample evidence that Fortenberry heard Ayoubs words and was concerned.

The defense itself noted that he talked to four people after the phone call, including his wife. Celeste Fortenberry testified that she advised him to contact an attorney.

Fortenberry did. However, that attorney said Fortenberry was so vague about what had been said that she considered it a nonissue. He definitely didnt say anything about the possibility of foreign money into his campaign, the attorney testified.

Har said one of the most obvious restrictions on political fundraising is the ban on foreign money.

Its essentially campaign finance 101, she said.

She said Fortenberry could have taken several off ramps. He could have picked up on his instincts that most of the checks had been written by one family. He could have gotten rid of the money by disgorging it  the formal term for when a politician donates suspected dirty money to charity.

He didnt want to, Har said. He was running for reelection, she said, and he didnt want the embarrassment surrounding a scandal of foreign cash in his campaign.

Prosecutors also pointed out several lies that they say Fortenberry told during interviews with the FBI. Handed a photo of Ayoub, Fortenberry told agents during an interview at his home in Lincoln that he wasnt placing the doctor. After a few seconds, he said Ayoub may have given him a donation.

Littrell had pointed out in defense arguments that Fortenberry didnt recognize Ayoub because the photo was at least 10 years old, taken from a time when Ayoub still had dark, instead of silver, hair.

But Har noted that FBI agents had repeated Ayoubs name several times. And Fortenberry clearly had a rapport with the LA doctor, based in part on the fact that the doctor had spent nine years of his medical training in Omaha.

Not placing him? Har asked. Its someone who hosted a fundraiser for him.

In a follow-up interview in Washington, D.C., in July 2019, Fortenberry also claimed that he had cut off the Ayoub phone call when Ayoub said illegal cash may have been injected into his campaign. But audio of the phone conversation proves Fortenberry didnt cut off the call.

At the end of the day, its a pretty simple case, Jenkins said. Its an all-too-familiar story of a politician caught up in the system, caught up in the cycle of power, who lost his way.

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About 150 people from Nebraska law enforcement agencies and other groups will scour up to 700 acres of land in southeast Nebraska over the next three days to search for the remains of a 55-year-old Tecumseh woman missing since June.

The large-scale search for the body of Linda Dillard or any evidence related to her disappearance began Thursday morning and will continue through Saturday, if needed. It will take place at the Table Rock State Wildlife Management Area and some neighboring private land.

The wildlife management area is about 40 miles east of Beatrice.

Dillard last was seen June 16 near Table Rock. Investigators think she was the victim of a crime, but no one has been arrested in connection with her disappearance.

We have no evidence that she is alive at this time, said Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Eric Jones, who is supervising the investigation. We believe that she is likely deceased.

Jones said officials chose these three days to conduct a search because it was ideal timing after the winter snow but before crops are replanted and foliage grows again. He declined to comment on whether officials had received a specific tip to search the area again. Smaller groups previously have searched ditches and the surrounding property, he said.

The plan this time involves various specialists  including experts who are skilled in recognizing decomposed remains  eight dogs trained to detect human remains or cadavers and two mounted horse search and rescue teams from neighboring Kansas counties.

A professor and several forensic anthropology students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be on site to help searchers distinguish between animal and human bones, Jones said. Also, members from NecroSearch International, a Colorado-based team that helps law enforcement search for human remains, and Midwest Archeological Center, a research center in Lincoln thats part of the National Park Service, also are part of the effort. Dillards family members are helping search, too, Jones said.

No specific spot within the Table Rock area is being targeted, he said. The group will try to cover the entirety of the roughly 400 acres of the park plus an additional nearly 300 acres of nearby private land.

We hope we can get it done in three days, Jones said.

Dillard would have turned 56 years old next week, Jones said, and was a mother and a grandmother.

The Lincoln Journal Star reported in October that investigators think she had been drinking and smoking methamphetamine at a farmstead in the area. A family later found the wig she had been wearing. The man who lives on the property told the Nebraska State Patrol that Dillard walked away early that morning after accusing him of sexual assault and said her ex-husband picked her up and drove her away. Dillards ex-husband reported her missing four days later.

Jones said people should try to avoid the area for the next few days: We would ask that people who are not already involved in the search operation just be aware that a law enforcement operation is taking place in that area.

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Growing demand for cryptocurrency, an unregulated marketplace and a public largely unfamiliar with the digital tender have created fruitful conditions for scammers.

The Better Business Bureau has observed a marked increase in crypto-related complaints, prompting it to conduct a study that was released Thursday.

The BBB found that incidents concerning cryptocurrency submitted to its online Scam Tracker tool exceeded 1,200 in 2021, encompassing almost $8 million in losses. That represents a tripling of reports collected by BBB from 2019 to 2021 and a tripling of monetary losses within just two years.

The numbers were, frankly, astonishing, said Omaha BBB spokesman Josh Planos. Its an industry right now that is ripe with fraud and con artists.

Cryptocurrency is a form of digital money that, through encryption technology, enables anyone to send and receive payments, but because it operates outside of the banking system, it lacks the consequent protections.

The most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was developed in 2009, but many more have been released in the years since.

Use has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to innovation and novel investment opportunities, a trend of which Nebraska lawmakers have taken note.

Last year, the Nebraska Legislature passed the Nebraska Financial Innovation Act, which enables the establishment of digital asset depository institutions, which will be supervised by the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance.

But the introduction of cryptocurrency also has created additional chances that people will fall victim to scams, schemes and fraud.

We have this idea that we have this safety net on us at all times, Planos said. There is no safety net.

Entities, including the Federal Trade Commission and FBI, have reported findings similar to the BBBs study. Using different methodologies, the FBI recorded a nearly 550% increase in financial losses associated with cryptocurrency crimes from 2020 to 2021, totaling more than $1.6 billion.

The FBI identified 97 victims in Nebraska, with losses in excess of $4.2 million, according to the agencys Internet Crime Report.

Earlier this year, the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance highlighted cryptocurrencies and other digital assets as the states top investor threats.

In one instance, an online crypto-mining investment company was barred from selling securities in Nebraska in 2021 after it obtained $725,000 from an investor and her mother.

The company had promised the woman large returns on a cryptocurrency investment, but it required her to submit hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to withdraw the dividends.

Her concerned broker-dealer reported the situation to the state under a law passed earlier in 2021 intended to protect elderly Nebraskans and other vulnerable adults from financial exploitation. It enables broker-dealers and investment advisers to pause transactions and notify state officials.

The essence of cryptocurrency  its untraceability  and the general publics lack of familiarity with it make it attractive for scammers.

Most schemes are advertised on social media, but the methods of conning people are tried and true, such as Ponzi schemes, romance scams and ransomware.

Its so early in this that folks shouldnt be requesting payment with cryptocurrency for products, Planos said. Most businesses are not asking for any payment in crypto.

BBBs research also indicated that people across all demographics fall victim to cryptocurrency scams, but the organization thinks its figures are conservative due to the tendency of such crimes to go unreported.

Planos recommended that people research the reputations of crypto companies before forking over their cash.

The idea behind the study was not to ward off prospective users. There are definite, legitimate applications of cryptocurrency, he said. Theres, unfortunately, bad-faith actors who are looking to turn a quick profit.
LINCOLN  Nebraska lawmakers managed to squeeze more projects and initiatives into the state's $1.04 billion of federal pandemic recovery funds Wednesday.

Over the course of the day, senators adopted six amendments to Legislative Bill 1014 before giving the bill first-round approval on a 41-1 vote. The measure allocates money coming to the state through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Among the changes, State Sen. John Arch of La Vista managed to get $20 million added for a plan aimed at expanding mental health services and building new treatment facilities. The addition would bring the plan total up to $40 million.

He argued that Nebraska has a critical need for more behavioral health services to keep people healthy, employed and out of prison and that the pandemic exacerbated mental health problems, especially for youth.

The plan involves building an inpatient mental health facility for youth in the Omaha area, building or renovating schools serving troubled youth, developing pediatric mental health urgent care centers in Omaha and Kearney and expanding services provided by Community Alliance in Omaha.

Senators also approved a plan to allocate $5 million to help rural health care providers pay off college loans and $5 million to provide scholarships for nursing students. Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil pushed for the money, which is aimed at helping ease the shortage of health care professionals.

Nebraska hospital and medical associations had urged support for both programs to help strengthen the health care workforce, which has suffered losses during the pandemic.

Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha convinced colleagues to direct $150 million to North and South Omaha for business development, community and cultural recovery, job training and other needs.

His amendment did not change the amount allocated by the Appropriations Committee for such uses. But the committee plan called for $50 million of the total to be available to qualified census tracts anywhere in the state.

Qualified census tracts are areas with a high concentration of low-income residents. Half of Nebraskas qualified census tracts are in North and east Omaha, but there are some in several communities.

Wayne, who had worked with Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney on a $450 million plan to transform North Omaha, argued that there had not been any plans put forth on behalf of other parts of the state and there had been no testimony about what their needs might be.

Lawmakers also nixed some amendments offered Wednesday.

Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston proposed to put $60 million into education recovery grants for low-income students. The $2,000 grants could be used for private school tuition, tutoring, digital learning subscriptions, home school curriculum and other K-12 educational services.

The idea had been part of Gov. Pete Ricketts' plan for the ARPA funds but was not included in the Appropriations Committee package.

Albrecht wound up withdrawing her amendment after running into opposition over her proposal to take the money from nursing homes and developmental disability providers.

Lawmakers also rejected a plan to allocate $20 million to support teachers. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, received only 11 yes votes, with 17 senators opting not to vote at all.

Blood's plan would have distributed the $20 million across Nebraska's public school districts for the purposes of school employee retention. Another bill the Legislature is considering would incentivize new teachers to join the profession, but Blood said her amendment would support teachers working today.

"They are sick and tired," Blood said. "And they don't think they are being heard."

The main problem senators had with Blood's plan was that it would take money away from a sewer project at the state fair grounds in Grand Island. However, Blood said that project could still happen if the Legislature used money from the state's general fund.

Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers required senators proposing amendments to spell out what project they would reduce or eliminate to pay for their idea. The pay-for requirement was necessary because the Appropriations Committee package allocated nearly $1.03 billion of the $1.04 billion total.

The committee package included money for 37 projects and initiatives. Among them: replacing aging rural ambulances, boosting health and human services provider payment rates, repairing wastewater systems in state parks, and funding nonprofit construction projects that were interrupted by the pandemic.

Others include: developing rural and urban low-income housing, updating a climate change study, building a rural health complex at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and repairing an irrigation canal that runs from Fort Laramie, Wyoming, to Gering.

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Martha Stoddard Martha Stoddard keeps legislators honest from The World-Herald's Lincoln bureau, where she covers news from the State Capitol. Follow her on Twitter @StoddardOWH. Phone: 402-670-2402 Follow Martha Stoddard 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
LINCOLN  A string of tragic events has left a citizen-led campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Nebraska in search of donations.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana lost two individuals who were expected to make a major contribution to the current legalization campaign.

One of those donors, who contributed to the groups 2020 campaign that nearly made it onto the ballot, died in a plane crash, said State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, a co-sponsor of the campaign. A second person, who was expected to make a contribution, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The campaign, in an email to supporters Wednesday, described the loss as a huge setback.

Despite the tragedies, Wishart was still confident the group could meet its $500,000 fundraising goal by May 1. She declined to say how much the campaign has raised so far, but as of Feb. 28, the campaign had a cash balance that was less than $30,000.

We have done extraordinary things before, Wishart said.

In 2020, the campaign raised about $2.5 million overall, securing more than 182,000 signatures  well above the 87,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot. Though it surpassed the requirement, it was disqualified by the State Supreme Court for containing more than one subject.

This time around, the campaign made two petitions, which each require valid signatures from 7% of registered voters by July 7 to get on the ballot. Based on March registration figures, each petition would need nearly 87,000 signatures. The focus of the two petitions is derived from the concerns outlined by the State Supreme Court in 2020.

The first petition would require the Legislature to enact new statutes protecting doctors who recommend medical cannabis and patients who possess or use the product from criminal penalty, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. The second would require lawmakers to pass a bill protecting private entities that produce and supply cannabis for medical purposes.

Wishart believes each petition has about 25,000 signatures so far, and said signature gathering is one of the main reasons why donations are so crucial to these campaigns. She said the lions share of donations are put toward hiring professionals to collect signatures.

Without adequate funding, Wishart said it would not be impossible for the campaign to succeed, but it would be extraordinary. She said very few citizen-led campaigns in Nebraska have succeeded without sufficient funding.

It would take every person in this state who cares, Wishart said.

Legalization efforts have faced opposition from Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has called marijuana a dangerous drug.

Earlier this year, the governor appeared in an ad sponsored by Smart Approaches to Marijuana Nebraska, a group that opposes legalization. In the ad, Ricketts argued that the only difference between medical and recreational marijuana is the terminology.

Wishart said the campaign will increase its fundraising efforts and ramp up volunteering to make up for the lost donations.

About half of the campaigns recent contributions came from individuals, including nearly $5,000 in donations of $250 or less, according to its Feb. 28 campaign statement. Counting cash and in-kind contributions, companies including Hergert Oil Company, the Marijuana Policy Project and CBD Remedies also donated nearly $10,000 to the campaign.

In terms of cash, the medical marijuana ballot campaign is trailing other high-profile ballot initiatives, including one to raise the minimum wage and another to institute voter ID requirements. The minimum wage campaign reported just over $129,000 cash on hand at the end of January, while the voter ID group reported nearly $61,000 cash on hand at the end of February.

In 2020, the medical marijuana campaign reported $6,774 cash on hand in late February, but it also reported more than $81,000 in year-to-date spending, according to a campaign finance report. At the end of February, the current effort reported a little more than $23,000 in year-to-date expenses.

The 2020 campaign received some of its largest contributions in the late stages of the signature gathering effort.

Some of the largest donations came from Michigan-based cannabis business Sozo Companies, which contributed a total of $300,000 in June of 2020, according to campaign disclosure documents. An Elkhorn company called AgMed LLC contributed $50,000, and Heartland Strategy Group, a consulting firm with offices in Nebraska and Washington, D.C., contributed more than $969,000 in in-kind contributions that same month.

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Nebraskas prison staffing problems have been well documented.

Chronic shortages of guards and other employees. Mandatory overtime that requires some prison guards to stay four more hours after their regular 12-hour shifts, contributing to record overtime costs and employee fatigue and burnout. Rapid turnover.

Articles in the Omaha World-Herald and the nonprofit Flatwater Free Press have described the impact on employees as well as prisoners, who can be locked down for days at a time when Nebraska prisons are among the most crowded in the country.

So its good news that Gov. Pete Ricketts and his administration have been making progress lately in recruiting and retaining corrections staff. Not surprisingly, Nebraskas promising strategy involves paying workers more.

Hefty pay increases for state corrections workers have already reduced staff vacancies by half and should soon cut into forced overtime for prison guards and required weekend lockdowns for many prisoners, World-Herald staff writer Henry J. Cordes reported earlier this month.

Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes said the raises of up to 40%, which were announced in November, have helped the state attract more than 1,000 new applicants and make 267 new hires.

Some 50 of the new hires are staffers who previously left and are now returning to the agency, and 118 are coming from out of state.

We are very pleased with that agreement and the impact it has had on our staffing, Ricketts said.

Under the pay package negotiated with the state union of correctional workers, starting wages for corrections corporals and prison caseworkers are rising from $20 an hour to $28 an hour. That equates to a bump from an annual salary of about $42,000 to $58,000.

Money doesnt solve every problem, but it seems obvious that higher pay makes an admittedly tough job more attractive. And potential corrections workers certainly have other options in a state with a low unemployment rate.

The higher salaries will cost the state and its taxpayers more money, although at least part of that will be offset if overtime pay goes down. But its a necessary expense.

And if the pay raises ultimately help resolve Nebraskas prison staffing problems, the result will be improved working conditions that are fairer to the corrections staffers who perform those important jobs  especially those who have remained on the job despite being forced to work grueling hours.

As Ricketts said: The women and men who serve the state of Nebraska in the Department of Corrections really are heroes.

The Ricketts administration deserves credit for taking a pragmatic approach in trying to fix the staffing problems.

Nebraskans, after all, are practical problem-solvers. At our best, we take a clear-eyed view of issues and dont let politics and petty differences keep us from doing whats right. Were able to assess a difficult challenge, come up with possible solutions, reach compromises and take steps to implement them.

Lets hope that the governor and state senators in the current legislative session can find practical and effective agreement on solving other corrections issues, from severe overcrowding in Nebraska prisons to the societal issues that contribute to such incarceration.

Now that would truly be heroic.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed a measure to use about one-third of the states federal coronavirus relief money to pay off more than half of a $4.5 billion debt in the states pandemic-depleted unemployment insurance fund. A plan to erase the remaining deficit is still being negotiated.

The Democratic-controlled state Senate voted 39-16 along party lines Thursday to approve the plan to deposit $2.7 billion of the roughly $8.1 billion in direct aid Illinois received last year from President Joe Bidens American Rescue Plan into the unemployment insurance trust fund.

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The measure also would use about $1.4 billion in surplus state funds to pay off old employee health insurance bills, shore up a college savings plan that has been headed toward insolvency and make additional deposits into the states woefully underfunded pension plans.

House Majority leader Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, awaits the start of the budget address by Gov. J.B. Pritzker at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on Feb. 19, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

The measure was approved in the House late Wednesday in a similar party-line vote.

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Pritzker called the legislation another milestone in getting Illinois fiscal house in order in a statement issued Friday.

House Majority Leader Greg Harris, who sponsored the measure, made similar comments during debate on the bill earlier in this week.

This is a tremendously important package to resolving our state financial situation, the Chicago Democrat said. We are taking care of in a day what took years and years to build up.

Pritzker and Democrats in the General Assembly previously allocated about $3.8 billion from the federal relief plan for purposes including grants for hospitals, violence prevention programs and infrastructure projects.

But Republicans, who since last spring have repeatedly criticized the majority party for not addressing the unemployment fund debt in the current years $42 billion operating budget, maintained that only about $1.2 billion of the federal relief money has actually been spent. That would leave enough to cover the full unemployment fund debt if the other allocations were abandoned..

This bill leaves a debt in the unemployment system, said state Rep. Tom Demmer of Dixon, whos running in the June 28 GOP primary for state treasurer. The only way to close that debt is to raise taxes and to cut benefits.

GOP lawmakers contend Democrats would rather spend the federal relief money on pet projects in their districts during an election year than on shoring up the unemployment fund.

Ongoing negotiations with business and labor groups over separate legislation to fill the remaining insurance fund hole have touched on the possibility of issuing bonds that likely would be repaid through increased payroll taxes on businesses and reduced or shortened benefits.

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I think its incredibly disingenuous this afternoon and after last nights action in the House for Democrats to be painting todays action as a win or a success for fiscal responsibility, said Sen. Donald DeWitte, a St. Charles Republican. Employers who have been treated with absolute disregard throughout this pandemic will literally be left holding the bag and will be responsible for filling the remaining deficit in the unemployment insurance trust fund.

Sen. Michael Hastings, a Democrat from Frankfort, chided Republicans for criticizing a proposal that would pay off major debt that Illinois owes, such as the College Illinois fund and various group health insurance bills.

Guys, I understand the political posture of both sides of this chamber, Hastings said to the Republicans. But to say, to vote no, to a bill that business is not opposed to, to vote no to a bill that labor is not opposed to, is hypocritical at its finest moment.

A coalition of organizations representing manufacturers, retailers and other businesses said in a statement Thursday they appreciate the governor and members of the General Assembly for taking this positive step and are hopeful that negotiations will continue to resolve the remaining balance of this unprecedented deficit.

In responses to the GOP accusations of pork barrel spending, Democrats counter that federal relief money thats already been budgeted is for necessary expenses allowed under federal guidelines and that Republicans are the ones playing election-year politics.

Not one bill to fix this problem or to address this problem has been introduced by your side, Harris said during Wednesdays House debate. Weve seen a lot of press releases, weve seen a lot of stunts, weve seen a lot of letters, but nothing to really solve the problem.

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Illinois, like a host of other states, borrowed from the federal government in the early phase of the pandemic to keep checks flowing to out-of-work residents as businesses shut down, in large part due to Pritzkers executive orders. The state unemployment agency was overwhelmed with new jobless claims  both real and fraudulent.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security has yet to say exactly how much it believes was paid out to fraudsters using stolen identities.

During a Senate confirmation hearing this week, IDES Director Kristin Richards acknowledged that other states have released estimates, including Michigan, which has estimated it paid out $8.5 billion in fraudulent claims.

Lawmakers are up against an April 1 deadline to allocate the federal relief dollars to the unemployment fund. If they dont act by then, rules from the U.S. Treasury Department would prohibit Illinois from reducing the amount or length of unemployment benefits until 2025.

The state has to pay off interest accrued on the money borrowed for the unemployment fund, which is approaching $42 million and would grow to about $80 million if left unpaid, by September and the remaining debt by November.

Earlier this month, Illinois Democrats in Congress championed a bill that would waive interest payments on federal unemployment loans to help Illinois and other states recover financially through the pandemic.

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Interest payments are penalty payments that we pay, which is essentially nothing more than setting taxpayer dollars on fire, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is also up for reelection this year, said last week and supports a waiver on interest.

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In addition to addressing the unemployment fund debt, the measure heading to Pritzkers desk devotes $300 million toward the states $139.9 billion unfunded pension liabilities, reducing the long-term liability by roughly $1 billion, supporters estimate.

It also repays nearly a $900 million backlog in the group health insurance plan for state employees and directs $230 million toward paying off whats owed to College Illinois, the states onetime prepaid tuition program.

Since the start of the year, Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature have been working with the governors office and IDES, along with business and labor interests, to figure out a way to pay off the debt.

Rep. Jay Hoffman, a Swansea Democrat, accused House Republicans of undermining those negotiations.

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At some point, youll become part of the solution, and I cant wait to (get to) that point, Hoffman said. We made a commitment that this was going to be one of our top priorities in using these federal funds to close this gap that put it in range of getting an agreement between business and labor.

Petrella reported from Chicago.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com

jgorner@chicagotribune.com
PEKIN  The community-based COVID-19 testing site at the Interstate Center in Bloomington will close at the end of March, Reditus Laboratories announced this week.

Aaron Rossi, CEO of the Pekin-based lab that operates the site, said the decision to close the testing site on March 31 was made by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

In the announcement, Rossi said all of Illinois community-based testing sites will close permanently next week, but IDPH has not confirmed this decision. The list of community-based testing sites on the IDPH website has not changed to indicate upcoming site closures.

A statement from IDPH said Reditus remaining contract with the state agency is due to expire in the coming months and will not be renewed.

Acknowledging federal tax fraud charges and a Tazewell County civil lawsuit filed against Rossi, the state agency said IDPH is aware of recent legal actions concerning Mr. Rossi. The Department is not aware of any allegations related to the services Reditus Laboratories has provided to IDPH during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of those services have now concluded.

An IDPH spokesman did not say whether the site closure was related to Rossis charges.

Until March 31, the testing site at 1106 Interstate Drive in Bloomington will continue to operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Drive-up COVID-19 testing will still be available at Reditus Laboratories headquarters at 200 Enterprise Drive in Pekin. This service is available from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Reditus has operated the testing site at the Interstate Center since May 2020 and has operated other sites across the state. According to a statement from the company, Reditus has performed about 200,000 tests at the Bloomington site since it began operation, averaging close to 1,300 people per day at its busiest time in the fall of 2020.

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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PEKIN  One of the latest filings in a lawsuit brought by the business partner of Reditus Laboratories CEO Dr. Aaron Rossi alleges that threats have been made against witnesses who spoke against Rossis pillaging of the company.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2021 by Rossis business associate, Dr. James Davie of Texas-based Davie and Associates Dermatopathology, accuses Rossi of using Reditus Labs money for personal and family use, and attempting to push Davie out of the company without paying him his share.

Rossi, 39, of Bloomington, also was indicted last week on federal tax fraud charges.

William Kelly, a lawyer representing Rossi, said in a court hearing Wednesday that Davie is conducting a media campaign to cause harm to Reditus Labs.

Reditus Labs, which opened in June 2019 and added PCR testing for infectious disease in December 2019, quickly became one of the states largest providers for COVID-19 testing, particularly in Central Illinois. It employs more than 300 workers.

The company has amassed more than $220 million in state contracts to provide COVID-19 testing, according to state records. Davies lawyers accuse Rossi of spending part of that money and all his newfound Covid riches ... on every imaginable luxury item that he or his family desire.

Lawyers for Reditus Labs have previously agreed to remain neutral in the case. The company is represented by Mark Rossi and Janaki Nair; however, Nair filed a motion to leave Wednesday.

Another lawyer is expected to replace Nair, if the motion is granted.

Davies lawyers, who include Scott Lucas and Peter Lubin, have asked Rossi to testify; Rossis attorneys responded with an attempt to quash that motion.

In a related filing Wednesday, Lucas said that someone on behalf of Rossi is using unknown likely burner phones to contact and threaten witnesses with employee retaliation, Wednesday morning.

Tread lightly when throwing daggers. Your exposed. Didnt take too long, reads a text message attached as an exhibit to the court filing.

Also in Wednesdays filing, attorneys alleged Rossis cocaine use and that he is heading out for vacation this week on a private jet, which Davies lawyers say was paid for with Reditus Labs money.

Federal Aviation Administration records show one Mystere Falcon 900 airplane registered to Pekin-based RLL Aviation LLC, a company Rossi owns, according to Illinois Secretary of State records.

Davies lawyers have said in court documents that Reditus financial documents are incomplete and falsely reported; however, they said the business records show dozens of pages of loans to Rossi for company paid purchases to finance his nouveau riche over the top lifestyle.

The plaintiffs second amended complaint has been filed confidentially because of an agreed protective order established in May 2021. But Davies new lawyers, who entered their appearance in the case in January, are requesting that the protective order be lifted and argue that doing so would reveal the company's financial records.

Keeping financial matters secret and out of public record simply because they are embarrassing is plainly contrary to Illinois law and the United States and Illinois constitutions, Davies lawyers wrote in their motion to lift the protective order.

Wednesdays filing said a witness reported Rossi spent at least $250,000 to purchase two albino turtles to breed for future sales. It does not note the source of the funding, but lawyers said it must have come from Reditus Labs.

Tazewell County Judge Chris Doscotch set a series of deadlines and hearings during Wednesdays hearing.

Kelley was given a week to respond to Davies lawyers motion to lift the protective order, and the plaintiffs response to that would be due a week after.

A case management conference hearing is set for April 14. Another hearing is scheduled for May 2.

Rossi also is scheduled to appear in federal court April 7 for an arraignment in a separate case charging him with tax fraud.

READ THE LAWSUIT

(Note: Below is the initial complaint. The most recent complaint was filed under seal)

Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather

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Editor's note: Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died Wednesday of cancer at age 84.

Twenty years before her death, Albright visited Illinois State University to talk about foreign policy and international affairs during a "Global Town Meeting" event. The following article and sidebar appeared in the Sunday, March 24, 2002, edition of The Pantagraph. They chronicled the event that took place the day before.

Preserving a historical record of significant events like this remains a crucial part of The Pantagraph's mission. Click here to learn how you can support local journalism in our community with a digital subscription.

Albright talks politics

Former secretary of state visits ISU

By Kelly Josephsen

Pantagraph Staff

NORMAL  Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says ending violence in the Middle East is like riding a bicycle: If we stop pedaling, well roll backward or fall down altogether.

The Bush administration stopped pedaling in its early months, Albright said, even though the Clinton administration  under which she served  was close to a resolution.

Albright offered that and other opinions Saturday in a frank and wide-reaching Global Town Meeting at Illinois State Universitys Braden Auditorium.

The former secretary of state joined former United Nations Ambassador Donald McHenry, an ISU alumnus, to discuss international affairs. The event was part of the official kickoff for the university family portion of Redefining Normal, ISUs first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign.

Albright and McHenry, who are colleagues at Georgetown University, covered foreign policy issues such as economic sanctions on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and President Bushs axis of evil remarks.

If violence in Israel is to end, the United States must be a major player, Albright said. We were very close to a resolution at Camp David, and Im saddened the situation was allowed to get so much worse. To me its proof the United States must play an active role, she said.

Albright is encouraged by the recent involvement of U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni and Vice President Dick Cheney because ultimately, we are the only country that has the trust of both sides.

McHenry said all parties involved must understand the history behind the violence  but also be willing to put it in the background and look toward the future. It is difficult to try to resolve an issue when people want to get into who did what to whom, he said.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict isnt the only Middle East issue Albright is watching.

She addressed U.S. economic sanctions on Iraq, telling the audience that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein  not America  is keeping food and medicine from Iraqi citizens. He is a threat to his people, he is a threat to the region and therefore he is a threat to us, she said.

Economic sanctions are the only card available to play against Hussein, Albright said. Diplomacy failed repeatedly, but she said she believes now is not the time for military force against Husseins reign, because the United States is committed to the war in Afghanistan.

Therefore, she supports smart sanctions targeted at Hussein and his cronies and better efforts to get food and medicine to the people who need them.

On the topic of Iraq, Albright addressed the axis of evil remarks President Bush has used to describe that country along with Iran and North Korea. She said she was troubled by the label from the get-go.

Albright said she knows from experience that terms like axis of evil might sound good to speech writers but often come back to haunt the person who utters the words.

It probably sounded pretty robust when President Bush first said it, she said. But it falls into the trap we fell into during the Cold War  thinking all communist countries are the same. They are not, so its not a useful term.

Bushs words will probably set America back on its progress with Iran and North Korea, she added. Albright said reform forces are active in Iran and that the Clinton administration was making progress on securing weapons inspections in North Korea. The axis of evil remarks, however, have bred distrust in the United States and stronger ties between the three nations it refers to, she said.

Albright and McHenry agreed the publics need to be educated about foreign affairs is vital, citing phrases like axis as evil. The fear is that those nations will be lumped together, when their situations are not identical, they said.

It is amazing how questions from far away are very important to people in middle America. You are never far removed from the rest of the world in which we live, McHenry said.

The foreign policy experts both agreed that events like Saturdays event at ISU promote understanding of other cultures, religions and places.

Discussions like this are why I welcome the opportunity to talk in front of students about foreign affairs, Albright said.

Albright shares travel stories

By Kelly Josephsen

Pantagraph Staff

NORMAL  Former Secretary of State Madleine Albright gained much from her years in politics, she told the crowd Saturday at ISUs Braden Auditorium.

Albright shared a number of stories from time spent in a number of key U.S. foreign policy roles  including secretary of state, president of the Center for National Policy, permanent representative to the United Nations and a Clinton administration cabinet member.

The terms put 1,038,000 miles of travel under her belt and brought her in contact with numerous world leaders.

Dubbed a Global Town Meeting, Albrights appearance Saturday was peppered with her travel stories that showed an eye for detail and a healthy sense of humor.

Through it all, Albright said she stayed motivated by her belief the United States can do a lot of good through its involvement in foreign affairs.

Albright recounted what she called a weird meeting with Boris Yeltsin. She said she had tried to convince the Russian president that NATO was not a threat to his country. You have to see this not as an alliance against something, but as an alliance for something, she had told him.

Albright also described her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

She said she found herself in a tense situation regarding U.N. leadership. Egypts Boutros Boutros-Ghali was U.N. secretary general, and Albright disagreed with him on ways to address conflicts in Somalia and the Balkans. The secretary general also was unpopular with the U.S. Congress.

When Boutros-Ghali was replaced by Kofi Annan, Boutros-Ghali blamed Albright. But it was OK because I succeeded, and now we have one of our finest secretary generals ever in Kofi Annan, she said.

Albright also recalled a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, that illustrated to her the remarkable power of a dictator.

She said Pyongyang was a place with wide boulevards, huge buildings and not a person in sight. However, while attending a 50th anniversary celebration for the Workers Party in the city, a crowd of 250,000 appeared as if by magic and 100,000 people then danced in step.

She recalled that when reporters later balked at her description of the event as remarkable, she told them: Id never seen 100,000 people dance in step, and it takes a dictator to get them to do that.

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BURR RIDGE  A truck driver about to lose his job over a dispute about pay and property fatally shot his supervisor and wounded a former co-worker at another company in suburban Chicago before he took his own life as officers were closing in on him, police said.

At a news conference Wednesday, Burr Ridge Police Deputy Chief Marc Loftus said Jeremy Spicer, 31, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, had worked at Winners Freight for about a week when he entered the office on Tuesday afternoon and shot his boss, Nicola Misovic, 30.

Misovic was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Loftus said that Spicer then left the building and went to another company where he was previously employed, Force Logistics, and shot a 31-year-old woman he had once worked with there. The woman whose name was not released was taken to a hospital, where she underwent surgery for a leg wound, police said.

Spicer then went to a third company where he once worked, but left after he was told the owner he had asked to see was not there, Loftus said.

He then walked about a mile to another business, and was asked to leave after he spent about 20 minutes in a restroom, according to authorities. Someone in that building called the police. The first officer to arrive saw Spicer sitting outside and took cover after noticing Spicer's handgun. A short time later he heard Spicer shoot himself, Loftus said.

Police declined to talk about a motive but Loftus said that Spicer had just delivered one load for the company, got into a disagreement over a second load and was told he would be let go from his job.

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EDWARDSVILLE  A southern Illinois nurse has been sentenced to a year of probation for not administering lifesaving measures to a nursing home resident nearly five years ago, Illinois State Police said Wednesday.

Christy McCall, 45, of Belleville pleaded guilty to an amended charge of reckless conduct in a Madison County court on March 14, state police said in a news release. She also was ordered to pay fines and fees of $1,039.

Charges of criminal neglect of a long-term care facility resident resulting in death and criminal neglect of a long-term facility resident resulting in injury were vacated under a plea agreement, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

On Aug. 1, 2017, the Collinsville Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center notified the Illinois State Police Medicaid Fraud Control Bureau of an allegation that McCall neglected to provide proper care leading to the death of resident Eunice Vancil, 81, on June 30.

An investigation showed McCall failed to check on Vancil's deteriorating medical condition and failed to apply CPR after being alerted by other nursing home staff of the resident's unresponsiveness.

McCall's attorney, Van-Lear P. Eckert, declined to comment on the case.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended McCall's nursing license, state police said.

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Crude prices declined in volatile trading on Thursday as investors assessed the potential for new supply in tight markets amid prospects of a new Iran deal.



Brent futures were down 15 cents, or 0.12%, at $121.45 a barrel, after falling more than $1 earlier in the session.



U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 75 cents, or 0.65%, to $114.18 a barrel at 0729 GMT, after shedding over $2 earlier.



The contracts had gained $2 and $1, respectively, in morning trade.



White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday the United States and its allies have made progress in Iran nuclear talks but issues remain.



"A lifting of Iranian export restrictions would help alleviate the immense tightness prevalent in crude markets right now," consultancy JBC Energy said in a note.



Iran is already preparing for a ramp-up in exports, and the state refiner NIOC has reportedly started to reach out to former key customers in India and South Korea, the note added.



Both contracts have posted steep gains this week, with Brent futures up more than $14 a barrel, or 13%, since Monday and WTI climbing over $10 a barrel, or 10%, as worries over supply disruptions intensified following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.



Oil markets jumped more than 5% on Wednesday following reports that crude exports from Kazakhstan's Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal had completely halted following storm damage. Russia's deputy prime minister said oil supplies could be stopped for two months. read more



U.S. President Biden is meeting with NATO allies on Thursday and is expected to announce additional sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation".



Meanwhile, stockpiles in the United States fell by 2.5 million barrels last week while inventories from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve declined by 4.2 million barrels, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Market participants had expected a modest increase in supplies.



U.S. oil production remained flat at 11.6 million barrels per day, according to EIA data.



"Though the overall undertone remains quite bullish, $115 per barrel is still a hurdle area for the WTI crude and unless that is taken out convincingly, prices look to witness a breather," said Sugandha Sachdeva, vice president, commodities at Religare Broking.

Source: REUTERS









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Oil prices rose in volatile trading on Wednesday, supported by disruption of Russian and Kazakh crude exports via the CPC pipeline.



Brent crude futures were up $3.13, or 2.7 per cent, at $118.61 a barrel at 1100 GMT.



Prices had earlier fallen to a low of $114.45.



U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $2.69, or 2.5 per cent, to $111.96 a barrel. The contract had earlier slipped to a low of $108.38.



The market remains on edge over the prospect of further sanctions on Russia, the worlds second-largest crude exporter, after its invasion of Ukraine, actions that Moscow calls a special operation.



U.S. President Joe Biden is set to announce more Russian sanctions when he meets with European leaders on Thursday in Brussels, including an emergency meeting of NATO.



European Union member countries remain split on whether to ban imports of Russian crude and oil products which still continue to flow, but this might change once short-term contracts run out.



Next up are Russian exports in April and there we see cancelled cargoes and problems for Russia to find buyers. India and China will buy but that wont be enough to avoid declining Russian exports, said SEB analyst BjarneSchieldrop.



Russia on Tuesday warned of a drop in oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) of up to one million barrels per day (bpd), or one per cent of global oil production, because of storm-damaged berths.



CPC exports stopped fully on Wednesday and repairs will take at least one and a half months, according to a port ship agent.



Plunging crude stockpiles in the United States, the worlds biggest oil consumer, also added to the apprehension around supply.



The latest data from the American Petroleum Institute industry group showed U.S. crude stocks fell by 4.3 million barrels for the week ended March 18, according to market sources.



Nine analysts polled by Reuters on average had estimated crude inventories rose by 100,000 barrels in the week to March 18.



Official U.S. inventory data is due from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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A car bombing killed a senior Yemeni military leader and three of his entourage in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, three security sources said.



The defence ministry confirmed that Brigadier General Thabet Gawas was killed in a "cowardly attack carried out by several terrorist elements" but provided no further details.



Gawas was returning from a personal visit when his car was hit by the blast in a suburb of the city, the security sources said. Aden's AIC Television showed footage of a car in flames.



There was no immediate claim of responsibility.



Gawas had long been an enemy of Yemen's Houthi movement, fighting the group in their northern stronghold of Saada even before they ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.



He participated in operations that expelled the Houthis from the southern Lahj region in 2015, the year that a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen against the Iran-aligned movement.



The defence ministry and the head of the separatist Southern Transitional Council, which has vied with the government for control of Aden, each issued statements mourning Gawas.

Source: REUTERS









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Former National Coordinator for the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) under the NDC administration, Dr. George Atta- Boateng is backing the calls for government to review it educational flagship programme, Free Senior High School to ensure effective implementation and positive outcomes.



His proposals follow calls by a section of the public for the governments flagship educational policy to be reviewed to ease pressure on the economy.



Dr. Atta Boatengs five-point proposal is said to be based on the collected Bio-Data of BECE Candidates in the aspect of their age, gender, school, occupation of parents, household income among others by the leadership of education in Ghana, Ministry of Education (MoE), Ghana Education Service (GES) and West Africa Examination Council (WAEC)



He suggested all students from Private Junior High Schools in the country should be excluded from the Free SHS because they dont need it since they had money to pay for the basic education, they can afford SHS.



He said in as much as only students from Public Junior High Schools should be considered.



However, it should however, be based on a Cost-Sharing of 50-50%, 45-55%, or 40-60% [Candidate-Government] for those who opt to attend Senior High Schools outside their communities; that is, for those in the 70% Placement category.



However, students from Public Junior High Schools who opt for the 30 percent placement within a 10 mile radius that is those who wish to stay in their communities should be given the full free SHS package because that is where poverty is.



Mr. Atta-Boateng thinks government should bring back the Cut-off Aggregate Point of 36 instead of a wholesale admission policy.



We cant be pushing and funding Failed students with Aggregates 37s and 42s to Senior High Schools at all cost, because its free. After all, they always have an option to;



Resit- President John Dramani Mahama introduced this policy in 2015 to help them better their Grades. Hitherto, the BECE was considered a terminal examination -the end of academic journey at that level for some of them.



When all is said and done, Free SHS should be considered a FINANCIAL AID. Full stop.



Read his full proposal below



Based on the collected Bio-Data of BECE Candidates [Age, Gender, School, Occupation of Parents, Household Income, etc] by MOE/GES/WAEC, I offer these suggestions for the review of FREE SHS :



1. All students from Private Junior High Schools in the country should be excluded from the Free SHS. They dont need it. Period!!!



2. Only students from our Public Junior High Schools should be considered. However, it should be based on a Cost-Sharing of 50-50%, 45-55%, or 40-60% [Candidate-Government] for those who opt to attend Senior High Schools outside their communities; that is, for those in the 70% Placement category.



3. Students from Public Junior High Schools who opt for the 30% placement within a 10 mile radius[ those who wish to stay in their communities] should be given the full FREE SHS package. Thats where POVERTY is.



4. Government should stick to the Cut-Off Aggregate Point of 36. We cant be pushing and funding Failed students with Aggregates 37s and 42s to Senior High ScHools at all cost, because its free. After all, they always have an option to;



5. Resit. President John Dramani Mahama introduced this policy in 2015 to help them better their Grades. Hitherto, the BECE was considered a terminal examination -the end of academic journey at that level for some of them.



When all is said and done,Free SHS should be considered a FINANCIAL AID. Full stop.



Dr George Atta-Boateng,

Former CSSPS National Coordinator







Source: daily guide









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AstraZeneca (AZN.L) said on Thursday its drug Imfinzi, along with chemoradiotherapy, failed to achieve the main goal of improving survival in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer without the disease worsening.



The late-stage study, dubbed "CALLA", tested progression-free survival of patients with the combination against chemoradiotherapy alone, the drugmaker said, and the results are seen as a setback for its efforts in a major area of focus.



Imfinzi belongs to the immunotherapy class of treatments that boost the body's own defences to fight cancer by using antibodies that block or bind to foreign substances in the body.



The treatment, mainly a lung cancer therapy, generated $2.41 billion in 2021 sales, and is currently under development and regulatory review for other cancer indications as well, including tumours in the bladder.



"While the results were not what we hoped for, insights from the trial will advance our understanding and application of immunotherapy across our broad clinical development programme," Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said in a statement.













Source: REUTERS









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On March 20, 2022, Tanzanian Minister for Foreign Affairs Liberata Mulamula paid a visit to China via video link, during which, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held video talks with her.

Wang Yi said that China-Tanzania friendship is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and is unbreakable. When referring to Tanzania, the Chinese people will think of Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara). We should carry forward the Tazara Spirit and firmly support and help each other no matter what difficulties or disturbances we encounter, so that the China-Tanzania and China-Africa friendship will always be full of vitality. China is willing to view its relations with Tanzania from a strategic and long-term perspective, guided by the important consensus reached between the two heads of state, continuously deepen the comprehensive cooperative partnership between the two countries and make greater contributions to the independent development of the African continent.

Mulamula congratulated China on the success of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. She said that Tanzania-China relations are at their best in history with fruitful results in practical cooperation in various fields. Tanzania is committed to making Tanzania-China relations a benchmark for Africa-China ties. Tanzania will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China principle, firmly support China's legitimate position, support China in safeguarding its core interests, and oppose external interference in China's internal affairs. Tanzania is ready to enhance bilateral friendly cooperation between the two countries and continuously push bilateral relations to new heights.

The two sides agreed to further align the Belt and Road Initiative with Tanzania's Development Vision 2025 and expand bilateral cooperation in agriculture, trade, investment, infrastructure and other fields.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in fighting COVID-19 and medical and health care. Mulamula thanked China for its strong support for Tanzania's fight against the pandemic and medical and health care. Wang Yi said, as the pandemic is still spreading around the world, China will provide more vaccines and send a new group of medical teams to Zanzibar as soon as possible if Tanzania needs them. The two sides agreed to continue exploring the mobilization of the Tazara railway, so that this landmark project of China-Africa friendship will make new contributions to the economic and social development of the African continent.

The two sides agreed to take the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Tanzania diplomatic ties in 2024 as an opportunity to summarize the valuable experience of bilateral exchanges and cooperation, enhance the design of celebration activities and inject strong impetus into the development of bilateral relations in the next 60 years.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, push for the implementation of the nine programs in Tanzania, and produce more concrete results. Mulamula thanked China for its contribution to Africa's economic recovery and sustainable development, and spoke highly of China's establishment of green lanes for African agricultural exports to China and zero-tariff treatment for African products. Wang Yi stressed that China will be always a reliable partner for Africa's development and revitalization.

The two sides also had an in-depth exchange of views on international issues and agreed that under the current complex and turbulent international situation, developing countries should strengthen solidarity and coordination, uphold multilateralism, and jointly resist the tide of unilateralism, to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
GHANA has recorded 24 new cases of COVID-19, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.



It said the country had 92 active cases with confirmed cases of the disease in the country totalling 160,863 as at last Friday.



The Service also indicated on its website monitored by the Ghanaian Times yesterday that there was one person in a severe state but no one in critical condition.



It added that 159,326 people had recovered from the disease but unfortunately the death toll was currently 1,445.



The service said it had so far conducted 2,393,032tests since the outbreak of the disease in March 2020 with a positivity rate of6.7 per cent.



On the regional case count, Greater Accra leads with active cases of 33 after recording 90,608 cases out of which90,258haverecovered and have been discharged.



Ashanti follows with 22,298 cases with21,909recoveries and discharges.



Western has 8,324 recoveries out of 8,248 cases while Eastern had 7,034 confirmed cases with 6,886 recoveries and discharges.



The Volta Region, the GHS said, had a total of 5,988 cases out of which 5,883 were recoveries and discharges thereby leaving the region with 15 active cases.



Central has 5,402cases with 5,353recoveries and discharges, followed by the Bono East Region with 2,967cases out of which 2,892 people had recovered and have been discharged.



Bono Region has a total of 2,236 recoveries and discharges out of 2,332 cases leaving it with no active cases and the Northern Region has 1,831 recoveries with 1,863 cases.



Upper East has 1,735 cases with 1,673 recoveries whileAhafo Region has 1,136 cases with 1,102 recoveries.



Western North follows with 1,112 cases out of which 1,099 people have recovered and have been discharged.



Oti has 930 cases with 921 recoveries, Upper West has 895 cases with 853 recoveries, North East Region has 384 cases with 373 recoveries while Savannah has 291 cases with 287 recoveries.



Also, the Service said 11 regions had so far not recorded any active cases. They included the Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern, Upper West, Bono, Central, Western North, Northern, Oti, Savannah, and North East regions.



Based on these statistics, the Service has cautioned that the non-adherence of the safety protocols could cause a spike in infections across the country.



The GHS has, therefore, implored the entire populace to strictly observe the COVID-19 safety protocol including staying at home if they had nothing doing in town, observing the social distancing protocol and avoid hand shaking.



Again, it reminded people to mask up properly, particularly when leaving home, and wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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The Central Regional health sector performance indicators for 2021 moved from a low category to a high performing category.



On a scale of five, the Central Regional health directorate, after a cumulative assessment of its performance, moved from 3.6 to hit 4.1 placing the region in the rank of high performing regions in spite of the challenges that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.



The region improved on major indicators including maternal and neonatal mortality.



It ensured a 100 per cent audit of all maternal deaths and had 100 per cent of all its facilities having health emergency departments.



Presenting its report at the Central Regional Health Sector Annual Performance Review in Cape Coast, a member of a team from the Volta Region, Mr Ignatius Akilkpe, who assessed the region, said effective monitoring and supervision at all levels of the health sector setup and the demand for feedback from the various institutions contributed to the high performance.



Challenges



The team, however, pointed out that the high proportion of internally generated revenue spent on personnel emoluments, inadequate functionality of audit committees at the health facility level were some of the challenges and called for structures to enhance them.



The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye in a speech read on his behalf, congratulated the region and said the GHS had worked hard in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Notably, he said public health laboratory testing sites had increased from two to sixty; while the GHS capacity to manage infectious diseases had significantly improved in terms of public health surveillance, clinical response and critical case management.



Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that the action was an opportunity that came with the COVID-19 pandemic and would enable health directorates to respond appropriately to future outbreaks by reactivating those strengthened systems.



Also, he said several service delivery indicators recorded increases, with OPD per capita rate increasing by 11 per cent, skilled delivery coverage increasing by almost seven per cent from 56.7 per cent in 2020 to 63.5 per cent in 2021, and antenatal care clients making their fourth visit increasing by a little over eight per cent from 74 per cent in 2020 to 82.1 per cent during the year under review.



Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the year under review also saw hospital admission rate increasing from 52.2 per cent in the previous year to 64.9 per cent, the administration of iron and folic acid for at least 180 days to 61 per cent of pregnant women, introduction of family planning and childhood cancers into the NHIS benefits package, significant improvement in the management of COVID-19 cases and kick-off of the wellness clinic concept.



Consolidate gains



The Central Regional Director of Health, Dr Akosua Agyeiwaa Owusu-Sarpong, said the directorate would continue to undertake strategies and key interventions that would sustain gains and forge ahead to achieve universal health coverage.



The Central Regional Minister, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, commended the health professionals for their dedication to duty saying that the health sector was core to national well-being and urged them to work to identify gaps and map out strategies to improve service delivery.



Award



The best polyclinic award went to the Bawjiase Polyclinic, followed by the Potsin Polyclinic and then the Ajumako Polyclinic, while the best district hospital went to St Francis Xavier Hospital at Assin Fosu followed by the Dunkwa Municipal Hospital and the Our Lady of Grace Hospital at Breman Asikuma.



The Mfantseman Municipal Health Directorate was adjudged the best among the municipalities, followed by the Assin North Municipal Health Directorate while the Agona West Health Directorate took the third place.



The Assin North Municipal Health Directorate also received a special award for its high COVID-19 vaccination coverage.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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To celebrate this years World Oral Health Day in Ghana, the Ministry of Information, together with Pepsodent, Ghana Dental Association and other relevant stakeholders, have joined forces to encourage Ghanaians to take control of their oral health and avoid severe pain, costly and complicated treatments, and ultimately tooth loss.



To mark the day, a panel discussion was held at the Ministry of Information as part of an ongoing campaign which has been themed Dont Wait Until Its Too Late #TalkToADentist. It stems from global research conducted by Pepsodent which suggests that in Ghana, 4 out of 5 people have lost teeth by the age of 65.



Panellists discussed the biggest barrier to accessing dental care, signs to look out for before seeking professional dental advice and some initiatives engaged by Pepsodent in preventing serious problems that lead to tooth loss among Ghanaians.



The discussion featured Joel Boateng, Oral Care Category Manager, Unilever Ghana, Dr. Cecilia Kakrabah- Quarshie, Vice President of Ghana Dental Association, Eno Quagraine the Founder & CEO of Talkative Mom, Ghana's First Parenting App. It was moderated by Anita Erskine, a seasoned bilingual broadcaster.



In his address to Ghanaians to mark WOHD, the Minister of Information, Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said, Oral health is important because it is critical for wellbeing. It is also important because it affects the people around you. And so, I want to encourage you not just to brush regularly, but to take better care of your general oral health and make it a point to visit your dentist regularly.



Joel Boateng outlined how Pepsodent is working with its partners to ensure Ghanaians across the country get free dental screening. He said, As part of our brands ongoing mission to unleash the power of healthy smiles by eradicating oral disease for everyone, we are providing free dental check-ups via dental screenings centres around the country.



We are also televising free dental consultation in partnership with the Ghana Dental Association through our popular TV programme Time with The Dentist. Through these services, we aim to help Ghanaians take control of their oral health to avoid tooth loss.



This years celebration was characterized by free dental screening at the ministry of information which saw students, members of staff of the ministry and the general public walk in for free dental services.



You can also get your free dental screening at Accra Mall, Achimota Mall, Junction Mall, Okaishie market and some selected communities across the country. To find out more and follow the Dont Wait Until Its Too Late #TalkToADentist campaign, follow @PepsodentGH on social media

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has appealed to all Ghanaians to register their SIM cards by the extended deadline provided by the Ministry.



The SIM re-registration, which began in October last year, was supposed to end this March but the Ministry of Communications in consultation with the Telecom service providers has extended the deadline to July 31st.



A statement issued by the Minister read that ''as at 17th March, 14,091,542 SIM Cards have been linked to the Ghana Card, 10,348,532 Bio-Captures conducted and 99,445 New SIMs registered. Due to a number of factors including the fact that over 7.5 million citizens and residents are yet to obtain Ghana Cards to enable them register their SIM cards, it is clear that the deadline for completion of the registration of the remaining active SIM cards cannot be met''.



It further read; ''More time will also be required to update the SIM Registration App for the registration of diplomats, while a Self-Service SIM Registration App is also being developed to facilitate registration of SIM cards for Ghanaians resident abroad. This will be operational by mid April.''



Speaking on Peace FM's flagship programme ''Kokrokoo'', Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful cautioned Ghanaians not to take the July 31st deadline for granted as there won't be another extension.



She stated emphatically that ''this is the last one''.



She explained that the extension is necessary because the Ministry realized a lot of Ghanaians are facing difficulties in acquiring their Ghana cards, so they would need more time to register their SIM cards.



She also disclosed, as part of measures to facilitate the registration process, her outfit has held talks with the National Identification Authority to create avenues to ease the registration for Ghana cards and issuance of the cards to the registrants.



''There have been many appeals and when we also look at the pace at which we are registering, we can't cover everything. That is why we are registering, so I plead that people won't ignore it and think we will make another noise when we get to the deadline and they will postpone it again. From October (last year) to July (this year), I think we have been magnanimous enough, therefore by then, every person who must register should have finished undergoing the process,'' she 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.

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Ghanaian nationals living overseas will now get the opportunity to register their SIM cards as the Ministry of Communications extends the deadline for the SIM card registration.



The Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, making submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', revealed that the Ministry is creating a Self-service app to enable Ghanaians abroad to register their SIM cards.



She expounded that, by this app, the data of all Ghanaians abroad will be collected.



''Those with Ghana cards can register their SIM cards using the app whereas those who haven't acquired their Ghana cards yet will be notified via SMS and other text message platforms to register for the Ghana card as soon as they return to Ghana.''



On registering the SIM cards while overseas, the Minister noted that the Ghanaian nationals without Ghana cards can use their passports to register the SIM cards.



''When the SIM registration app comes on, we are making arrangements that those who don't have the Ghana card can use their passports to register on the SIM registration app'', she said.



SIM Cards Registration Deadline



The SIM card registration, which began in October 2021 and was to end by 31st March, has been extended to July 31st.



A statement by the Minister of Communications emphasized that ''as at 17th March, 14,091,542 SIM Cards have been linked to the Ghana Card, 10,348,532 Bio-Captures conducted and 99,445 New SIMs registered. Due to a number of factors including the fact that over 7.5 million citizens and residents are yet to obtain Ghana Cards to enable them register their SIM cards, it is clear that the deadline for completion of the registration of the remaining active SIM cards cannot be met''.



It further read; ''More time will also be required to update the SIM Registration App for the registration of diplomats, while a Self-Service SIM Registration App is also being developed to facilitate registration of SIM cards for Ghanaians resident abroad. This will be operational by mid April.''







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The sixth edition of Ghana Beverage Awards (GBA) initially scheduled to come off this Friday, March 25 at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Accra has been postponed to Friday, April 8, 2022.



According to the organizers, Global Media Alliance, this has become necessary due to challenges with the said venue owing to the upcoming ECOWAS Emergency Meeting.



Commenting, Chief Executive Officer for Global Media Alliance, Ernest Boateng expressed his sincerest apologies to the stakeholders and participating beverage companies for the mishap whiles assuring them of his outfits commitment to a stellar event in due time.



We are very much aware of the enthusiasm and excitement with which participating beverage companies and the general public were awaiting this years GBA which was set to come off in a few days. With last years edition being held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were hopeful of bringing beverage enthusiasts together once again to fraternize and celebrate ingenuity and diligence in our beverage space.



Unfortunately, it has become necessary we postpone the event to a later date due to unforeseen circumstances. For this, we would like to render an unqualified apology to participating beverage companies as well as stakeholders of the Ghanaian Beverage industry. We deeply regret any inconvenience caused.



He added, We have come far as a brand with you our patrons solidly behind us over the years; for this we are grateful and at this point, we crave nothing but your understanding and support. We promise to keep you updated on the latest developments in due time.



GBA is proudly supported by the Food and Beverage Association of Ghana (FABAG), Consumer Protection Agency (CPA), Food Research Institute (FRI) under CSIR, Perception Management International (PMI) ,Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).Its media partners are: Citi FM, Happy FM, YFM, Akonoba FM, Neesim FM Bolga Neesim FM Tamale, eTV Ghana, Net 2 TV, Oman FM,Mx 24, Business and Financial Times, Daily Guide and Ghanaweb.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Henceforth, all public institutions, Departments, Agencies, and Companies would be required to prepare and submit Integrity Plans to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).



This is part of the requirements set by the OSP as part of the rollout of the Ghana Corruption League Table, a research-based model designed to assess real and perceived levels of public sector corruption.



The Project, spearheaded by the OSP, will rank public sector agencies against each other on a corruption barometer and the results would be published annually on International Anti-corruption Day.



Speaking at the launch of the League in Accra, Mr Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, said the initiative was akin to a combination of the Corruption Perception Index programme of Transparency International and that of Afrobarometer.



He said the results of the project would form the basis for enhanced pragmatic suppression and repression of corruption in the public sector.



To this end, and as required by regulation 31(2) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L.I. 2374), the project would identify the causes that advance corruption in the public sector including deficiencies in regulations and procedures, deficiencies in the administration of instructions (including lack of internal control mechanisms), individual interest (including greed, lack of ethics and legal awareness), and external influences (including public attitude, culture and traditions)  to facilitate the prevention of corruption, he said.



Mr Agyebeng said the Integrity Plans to be submitted by all public institutions would assess the deficiencies in their regulations, procedures, policies, guidelines, administration instructions and internal control mechanisms.



That, he added, would help to determine the vulnerability and exposure of public institutions to corrupt practices and help manage their susceptibility to corruption and corruption-related offences.



In sum, we will be documenting corruption, measuring corruption, ascertaining the breeding of corruption, naming and shaming peddlers of corruption, accessing the impact of anti-corruption initiatives and taking curative and remedial measures to crack down corruption, he said.



Mr Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, the Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Minister of Justice said he was confident that the Corruption League Table would be used as an important gauge by the public sector agencies in managing corruption risks when conducting businesses.



It will prompt the agencies to review their compliance programmes, identify any compliance risks that may be previously undetected and make adjustments accordingly, he said.



Mr Tuah-Yeboah rallied the citizenry to support the Government to combat corruption, stressing that the Government alone could not eliminate the canker.



Drawing lessons from a compendium of case studies from around the world, no government can fight corruption without the involvement of citizens.



Corruption should be fought vigorously by all citizens. The fight against corruption should not be left in the hands of government alone, he said.



The Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) which came into force on 2 January 2018, established the Office of the Special Prosecutor.



The OSP exist as an independent anti-corruption agency, with the mandate of investigating and prosecuting specific cases of alleged or suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in the public and private sectors.



It also has the duty to recover the proceeds of such acts by disgorging illicit and unexplained wealth and taking steps to prevent corruption.

Source: GNA









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Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, has spoken about the murder of his father and other judges in 1982 during the era of the Peoples National Defence Council (PNDC).



According to him, people high up in power must have given orders for the savage murder of his father and his colleagues.



He particularly stated that the then PNDC Chairman, the late Jerry John Rawlings and his intelligence chief, Kojo Tsikata, must have been in the know of the perpetrators of the crime.



Speaking on Starr FMs personality programme that aired on Wednesday, March 23, 2022; Agyepong said when asked whether he ever forgave Rawlings for the death of his father: I think both he [Rawlings] and Kojo Tsikata died with the truth."



Between the two of them, they know who did it (killed my dad). I dont think Amartey Kwei or any of the soldiers, [23-year-old Amedeka and others], had any connection to my dad and his colleagues.



There is no way they will just walk to their house, picked them and they will go and execute them in such a savage manner without any instructions. But it is okay in life, I believe in God eternally I believe that in life, you have to have the spirit of forgiveness, he narrated.



On Thursday, June 30, 1982, on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of Ghanas Republic, the three judges; Mr Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie, Mrs Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addo and Mr Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, all judges of the High Court and Major Acquah, a retired army officer, were brutally and savagely murdered on the night of their abduction at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains.



The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), appointed a Special Investigation Board with a former Chief Justice, Mr Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe, as chairman to investigate the murders.



The outcome of the investigation led to the prosecution and execution of Joachim Amartey Kwei, a member of the PNDC, Lance Corporals Samuel Amedeka and Michael Senya, and two ex-soldiers- Jonny Dzandu and Tony Tekpor.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, will today address the nation on measures instituted by government to resolve the current economic challenges.



This follows governments crunch meeting recently at Peduase Lodge to find solutions to the raging economic challenges, including the depreciation of the cedi and the recent increment in fuel prices.



In an interaction with members of the Council of State at the Jubilee House Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo revealed that the Finance Minister will address the nation today.



The Finance Ministers address will highlight the outcome of deliberations at the retreat.



Our retreat, which you referred to, is in some way quite timely, because as a general rule, we have retreats each year on a quarterly basis, and this is the first one for this year. Fortunately for us, it coincided with these difficulties, and the public anxiety about the way that the economy was going. It gave us, therefore, the opportunity of the three days to look in-depth at where the economy was headed, and what measures were necessary to be taken.



Some parts have apparently gone before the country, but the decision was that the Minister for Finance, on my instructions, is going to have a major engagement with the nation on Thursday, where he is going to be in a position to lay out specifically, the measures weve taken and we intend to take, to correct, as it were, and put the ship of state, steep on a better keel, President Akufo-Addo said.



Chaired by President Akufo-Addo, the meeting was attended by all NPP MPs, ministers, government appointees, and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) leadership.



It would be recalled that Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, after the proceedings, mentioned that government had approved some measures to mitigate the challenges on Ghanaians and bring the post COVID-19 economy back on track.

Source: daily guide









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On March 22, 2022 local time, Pakistani President Arif Alvi met with visiting State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Presidential Palace in Islamabad.

Alvi said, the friendship between Pakistan and China has remained steadfast for decades, with bilateral cooperation constantly strengthened in various fields. The two countries have always kept close cooperation, and supported and helped each other. Pakistan will unswervingly pursue the one-China principle and support China's positions on all issues concerning its core interests, including the Taiwan question and issues related to Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Pakistan and China share highly aligned positions on international and regional issues. Pakistan firmly opposes any attempt by all external forces to contain China's development.

Alvi congratulated China on completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving the first centenary goal, saying that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has borne fruitful outcomes, greatly improving the lives of the Pakistani people. Pakistan hopes to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in fields such as automobile, textile, medicine, agriculture and information technology.

Wang Yi said, the friendship between China and Pakistan, having withstood the test of evolving international landscape, is rock-solid and unbreakable. Mutual trust and mutual support are the most distinctive features of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. At the beginning of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. President braved the odds and paid a visit to China to express support to the Chinese people. Recently Mr. President publicly expressed support for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and opposition to the politicization of sports. China highly appreciated that. China has always been a long-term and most reliable strategic partner of Pakistan. We firmly support Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and national dignity. We firmly support Pakistan's development, revitalization and prosperity. We firmly support Pakistan in playing a more important role in the international and regional arena. China is ready to advance cooperation with Pakistan in traditional areas, and at the same time expand cooperation in emerging areas such as information technology, e-commerce and digital economy, increase input in social and livelihood projects in Pakistan, and carry out more "small yet smart" cooperation projects. China will encourage more qualified Chinese enterprises to invest and do businesses in Pakistan, help Pakistan enhance its capability for self-generated development and blaze a development path suited to its national conditions.

Wang Yi said, with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the helm, 95 million members of the Communist Party of China making contributions, and 1.4 billion Chinese people united as one, China will surely achieve the second centenary goal, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation cannot be held back. Due to the global changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, both unseen in a century, as well as the constant spillover of the Ukraine crisis, peace and development in today's world are faced with more insecure and unstable factors. China is ready to strengthen strategic communication, solidarity and coordination with Pakistan and other developing countries as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, so as to inject more stability into the region and beyond, and make more contributions to global peace, security and development. Alvi thanked China for upholding justice and championing fairness in the international arena for a long time, and expressed readiness to work with China to uphold the basic norms governing international relations such as mutual respect, non-interference in internal affairs and good neighborliness.

During his visit, Wang Yi met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, held talks with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, attended activities marking Pakistan Day, and will meet with Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa of Pakistan.
The court of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) has ordered the suspension of its sanctions against Mali, pending a "detailed" court ruling, the body's spokesperson said.



In January, the organisation instructed the suspension of all financial institutions under its wing in Mali, after its ruling military junta decided to delay elections meant to restore civilian rule after coups in 2020 and 2021.



A month ago the military junta, which had repeatedly asked for the sanctions to be lifted, filed a complaint with the UEMOA Court of Justice to overturn the decision.



According to the interim government, the sanctions had severe consequences for the population, with Bamako blaming them for debt defaults worth $180m (136m) since January.



The court's ruling does not apply to sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).



The regional bloc, which is organising an extraordinary summit on the situation in Mali on Friday, froze Malian state assets, and suspended non-essential financial transactions.



Mali's military leader Col Assimi Goita is invited to take part in the meeting but has not confirmed his attendance yet.

Source: BBC









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Madam Ama Pomaa Boateng, Deputy Minister of Communications and Digitalization, says cybersecurity plays a crucial role in accelerating Africas economic growth and development.



She has therefore urged stakeholders of the cyber ecosystem to leverage emerging technologies through cybersecurity for the socio-economic benefit of all Africans.



The Deputy Minister made the comments at the opening ceremony of the maiden meeting of the African Union (AU) - Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) Africa Cyber Experts (ACE) Community, in Accra.



The three-day event is being attended by 65 participants from 31 African Countries.



It is on the theme: Setting the Scene for Cybersecurity Status in Africa.



Madam Boateng said according to a publication by the Council on Foreign Relations, as of June 2019, Africa had more than 500 million Internet users, placing the region ahead of other regions such as North America, South America, and the Middle East.



The Deputy Minister said safety and security were key requirements to sustain the gains made in internet connectivity and digitalization.



She said reports further indicated that cybercrime reduced the GDP of African countries by more than 10 per cent, an amount estimated at $4.12 billion in 2021  a development which was very worrying.



Madam Boateng said the 46th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy 2018 indicated that, of a population of about 1.24 billion people in Africa, the estimated number of certified cybersecurity professionals in 2018 was 7,000, representing one for every 177,000 people.



She said this meant that Africa was lacking the requisite talent and resources to deal with its cybersecurity threats and development issues.



The Deputy Minister lauded participants for their commitments thus far and urged them to strengthen the cybersecurity landscape in Africa through collaboration and capacity building.



As you continue with deliberations today, I urge you to open up, by sharing ideas and information on the situation in your countries; what is being done, and how we can work together to support cybersecurity development on the continent.



Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, collaboration with various actors in the global cybersecurity ecosystem is crucial and there is no doubt that diverse views, expertise and datasets can help model effective policies and operational responses to cybercrimes on the continent, she said.

Source: GNA









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Two suspects who feigned to be staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and extorted money from some customers have been arrested and are in police custody.



The suspects: Richard Nii Moi and Edward Quartey, are being held at the Israel Police Station, near Sowutuom in Accra.



Mrs Mary Kpordzih, ECG Achimota District Manager, said the suspects posed as Revenue Collection and Disconnection Officers of ECG and extorted money from customers who could not show receipts of recent payment of their ECG bills.



"Their mode of operation, however, got some of the residents suspicious, which made them demand to see their identification, which proved futile, she said.



The District Manager said the suspects were unconvincing in their responses leading to the residents raising an alarm and reporting their activities to the District Office.



The suspects were traced and arrested, and are currently in the custody of the police for further investigations



Mrs. Kpordzih praised the vigilance of the residents and charged customers to always verify the identity of persons who visited their premises claiming to be staff of the Company.



"When in doubt, always report such suspicious persons to the nearest ECG office or to the police station, she added.



Meanwhile, ECG recently increased its revenue collection activities, including the commissioning of a National Revenue Taskforce to clamp down on customers engaged in illegality.

Source: GNA









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An Accra Circuit Court, hearing the case of two soldiers and seven other civilians accused of trading in ammunitions, have granted the suspects a GH200,000 bail.



The court, presided over by Rosemary Torsu Baah, granted them bail with two sureties, and asked them to be reporting to the criminal investigation department headquarters once a week, till further determination of the case in court.



The accused persons, No. 201709 Cpl Arafat Kunde, soldier; Ex Lance Corporal Ato Rahman Iddrisu alias W.O. Rahman; Mahama Makbool, unemployed; Nancy Ashong, trader; Michael Akwesi Sakyi; Alex Doste; James Mawuena aka James Sedofia (at large); Akwesi aka Upgrade, (at large); and Joseph Papa Quansah (at large) would be answering two counts of illicit trafficking in firearms.



Prosecuting, DSP Sylvester Asare said sometime in January 2022, police received information that some group of persons were dealing in firearms and ammunition.



Upon receipt of the information, police mounted surveillance on the accused persons, and on February 18, 2022, Nancy Ashong was arrested at Fadama, a suburb of Accra, and a search conducted in her kitchen revealed sixteen (16) boxes of 7.2 x 39mm Ball (24,000 rounds of AK 47 ammunition).



He said when Nancy Ashong was questioned at her house on where she got the firearms, she mentioned Mahama Makbool as the person who kept the boxes of ammunition in her kitchen.



Subsequently, Mahama Makbool was arrested at his house close to Nancys residence, and a search conducted in his room revealed one Smith & Wesson SD9 VE pistol with Serial No. FBU2848.



DSP Asare continued that during interrogation, Makbool admitted that he sent the sixteen boxes of the AK47 ammunition to Nancys kitchen for safe keeping.



He said Makbool further admitted ownership of the Smith & Wesson pistol, and mentioned NO. 201709 Cpl Arafat Kunde as the person who supplied him with the ammunition, together with two SMG rifles to be sold to him.



The police later arrested Cpl Arafat Kunde at Kasoa, and during interrogation admitted having supplied twenty (20) boxes of AK47 ammunition to Makbool.



He said Cpl Kunde again mentioned Ex Lance Corporal Ato Rahman Iddrisu alias W.0. Rahman, a retired soldier, as his source of the rifles.



The investigation further led to the arrest of Michael Akwesi Sakyi and Alex Doste as accomplices, where further investigation established that Cpl Kunde was a bodyguard to suspect Kwesi Sakyi, the prosecution stated.



The prosecutor said suspects, Sakyi and W.O Rahman provided an accommodation on the Spintex Road which was used for the illicit activities.



Again, investigation had it that whilst Cpl was in custody, he managed to contact Michael Sekyi, his boss and informed him of extra ammunition kept in his room at Spintex road.



Subsequently, Sakyi and W.O Rahman managed to move six boxes including 9000 rounds of AK 47 assault rifle ammunition from Cpl Kundes room to a house at East Airport residential, and kept same in an abandoned vehicle which was later retrieved by the police, the prosecution added.



DSP Asare said their preliminary investigation had established that in addition to the 22 boxes of AK 47 assault rifle ammunition retrieved from the accused persons, James Mawuena gave two SMG assault rifles to Cpl Kunde to be sold.



Consequently, Cpl Kunde also gave the rifles to Makbool who successfully sold one at the cost of GH11,800.00 and returned the other one to Cpl Kunde.

Source: daily guide









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The Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Amidu Issahaku Chinna, has given the assurance that government is working hard to ensure uninterrupted water supply to citizens across the country.



He, however, said the epileptic water supply in the country could partly be blamed on pollution caused by human activities.



Mr Chinna, in a statement to mark this years International Water Day in Parliament, Accra, said pollution of water on the surface of the earth posed great risk to Ghanas ground water.



The day is observed annually on March 22, to highlight actions needed to tackle water crisis was on the theme: Groundwater, making the invisible visible.



According to Mr Chinna, who is also Member of Parliament for Sissala East, it had become more important to end water pollution because pollution on the surface of the earth poses great risk to our underground water.



He said as a result of the pollution, the cost of producing safe drinking water has increased, making it difficult for water treatment agencies to keep pace with demand.



The turbidity of the raw water makes it very expensive to treat. It is becoming expensive to maintain the equipment in treating water because of the high turbidity of our raw water, Mr Chinna stated.



Treatment plants are not spared the brunt of power outages which affects the regularity of supply to households, he added.



Mr Chinna said government was working fervently to improve on water provision across the country.



He estimated that one million people in the Greater Accra Metropolitan area would be connected to the national grid when the phase II of the Kpong Water Project is completed.



The ministry is working hard to ensure that enough water is produced to Accra residents when the expansion project is completed. This will go a long way to resolve the water challenges consumers are facing in Accra. Mr Chinna said.



He said water projects were being executed in different parts of the country and when completed, would supply potable water to hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians.



Mr Chinna mentioned the Upper East water supply project, expected to serve 347,000 people and the Wa water supply project, expected to benefit 69,000 people, the five district water supply scheme to serve 224,000, rural communities and small town water supply project to serve 182,000.



The rest are the Damango water supply project, 80,000; Yendi water supply project, 133,000, and the Weija water supply rehabilitation project, to connect 1,400 households and 50 stand pipes.



The implementation of these projects is in line with governments policy to ensure that Ghanaians enjoyed access to safe water, Mr Chinna said.



His outfit, he said was undertaking an exercise with UNESCO to quantify Ghanas underground water resources to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Six.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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U.S. President, Joe Biden has stated that the United States will respond if Russia were to use chemical weapons in its invasion of Ukraine.



Accordingly to Biden, who attended a NATO, EU and G7 summit in Brussels on Thursday, March 24, the US' response would depend on the kind of weapons of mass destruction, Russian president, Vladimir Putin will deploy.



"So you've warned about the real threat of chemical weapons being used. Have you gathered specific intelligence that suggests that President Putin is deploying these weapons, moving them into position or considering their use? And would the US or NATO respond with military action if he did use chemical weapons?" the Associated Press asked the US President during his news conference.



Biden responded that he could not provide information on intelligence, but added on the issue of chemical weapons;



"We would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of use."



Also earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance will reinforce its chemical, biological and nuclear defense systems on fears Russia is planning to use such weapons against the people of Ukraine.



Biden said "we're determined to sustain" efforts outlined during the emergency NATO meeting right after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and "to build on them."



"The United States is committed to provide over $2 billion in military equipment to Ukraine since I became president. Anti-air systems, anti-armor systems, , ammunition and our weapons are flowing into Ukraine as I speak. And today, I am announcing the United States is prepared to commit more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to help get relief to millions of Ukrainians affected by the war in Ukraine," Biden said.



Biden said the US is ready to welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in to the country.



Biden also said Putin thought he could catch NATO off guard, but said his actions in Ukraine only tightened the alliance .



"NATO has never, never been more united than it is today. Putin is getting exactly the opposite what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine," he 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.

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As part of a nationwide programme to protect lives on Ghanas water bodies, boat owners and passengers at Akateng in the Upper Manya Krobo of the Eastern Region have been sensitised on various safety protocols.



Among the safety measures include avoiding overloading, wearing of life jackets and also keeping the boats and canoes tidy at all times. Additionally, the boat owners and commuters were also given free life jackets.



The programme is an initiative of the government through the Ministry of Transport in partnership with ZOIL (ECOZOIL), one of the subsidiaries of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC). It is equally aimed at cleaning the countrys landing sites and its surrounding communities.



Addressing the media, the General Manager (GM) of ZOIL, Mrs. Abitha Odame-Nyanteh, expressed her outfits delight in collaborating with the government to undertake this project.



Aside from protecting lives of commuters on the Volta Lake, we also assist in training individuals to set up control units to monitor various activities of the clean-up exercise on the landing sites, she added.



This, she explained, will help create job avenues and also reduce the unemployment rate in the country.



This project is not only for Akateng but a national exercise. And I pray it helps reduce the incidence of accidents on our water bodies to protect precious lives of Ghanaians, she expressed.



According to her, the core mission of the JGC which ZOIL is a member is to improve the lives of Ghanaians.



She was hopeful that the programme after its completion would yield positive impacts in helping to save lives on our water bodies.



The National Coordinator for Volta Lake Transport Safety Project, Mrs. Yaa Oforiwaa, explained that the programme was necessitated by safety concerns on Volta Lake.



Following concerns of safety on our Volta Late, the Ministry of Transport partnered ZOIL to undertake this project of massive clean-up exercise on the countrys landing sites, and also educate the inhabitants around the landing sites as well as boat operators across the country, she said.



She said the landing sites on the Volta Lake have become so untidy, a situation that was posing health risks to residents.

It is along this reason that the Ministry of Transport partnered ZOIL to undertake this all-important exercise. And in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal Six (Clean Water and Sanitation), it is required that we give our valuable Ghanaians access to healthy and quality water and also improve the sanitation of our various communities and Ghana as a whole, she indicated.



She, therefore, entreated residents around water bodies to change their attitudes, cautioning them to refrain from dumping refuse into the lake.



For all you know, the lake rejects this dumped refuse, posing a lot of health threats, she noted.



She was upbeat that the ongoing public education will promote safety on Volta Lake.



This is because we have provided them with logistics like life jackets to protect lives on the lake, she disclosed.

Also, in order to sustain this exercise, a group of people have been trained to be monitoring always. This is not a one-off exercise but a continuous one which will be carried out nationwide, she assured.



Mrs. Oforiwaa stated that public education was also to educate people to appreciate the essence of maintaining a serene environment.



Some boat owners who spoke to the media were excited about the programme.



Mr. Nartey Quainoo, a Boat Inspector and an owner, was full of praise for the partnership between the Ministry of Transport and ECOZOIL to protect lives on Volta Lake.



We will take the education seriously, and I as a boat inspector and an owner will ensure that henceforth, there will be no overloading of passengers on the boats to avoid accidents on the lake. I will also ensure that all my passengers have life jackets on, he gave a firm assurance.



Madam Juliana Odi, a market woman who also spoke to the media, commended ECOZOIL for the donation of the life jackets.



We as market women use the boat regularly for our trading business. And in fact, getting life jackets is a real headache. We are, therefore, grateful for the donation of life jackets by ECOZOIL. It will go a long way to save the lives of commuters, she expressed.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, who has in a series of interviews lashed out at gone AWOL Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo, over her continuous absence from Parliament, appears to be now pleading for her return.



The Nsawam-Adoagyiri lawmaker seems frustrated by issues surrounding Adwoa Safo in recent times  but said it will only be wise if she returns for Ghana if not her party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



Even if we [NPP] have offended her [Adwoa Safo], she should look up to God and for the betterment of Ghana, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show, Ghana Montie.



He said, the party has done a lot for the 'absentee' MP, for which she should be grateful, rather than holding it to ransom.



This not the way to return a favour, he told host Kwesi Aboagye.



Frank Annoh-Dompreh, however, noted that I dont have any issues with her, but behaviour now is worrying.



Sarah Adwoa Safos continuous absence from Parliament is still a burden to the Nana Addo-led governments controversial policy, the E-levy.



Earlier this week, the Dome-Kwabenya MP, after weeks of scathing verbal attacks from members of her own party, posted a cryptic message on her Facebook timeline.



"Survival is more than the preservation of Life. It is tenacity in the face of ruin, an unbroken resolve in the midst of defeat, a glimmer of Hope in the maelstrom and Peace despite the wreckage," it read.



It is not however clear who is the intended recipient of that particular message.





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Minority in Parliament has rejected suggestions by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah that lawmakers should consider taking voluntary salary cuts to help the government fund its flagship programmes due to the economic crisis in the country.



This comes after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reduced the salaries of all his appointees by up to 30 percent.



Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah who doubles as the MP for Ofoase Ayirebi constituency urged his fellow colleagues to consider a pay cut as a way of contributing to the development of Ghana.



When all the cuts are done and everything reviewed, I will propose to my colleague MPs to take voluntary cuts to their salaries. I am an MP and a minister but I receive payment as an MP and not a minister and so I am the same as an MP, he said in an interview on Accra-based Asempa FM.



He continued: If the government does cuts from top to bottom, I will plead with the MPs to also do voluntary pay cuts because when it comes to compensation, the system determines but we can also take voluntary cuts.



The cuts that the executive is contemplating, when everything is said and done and if the executive decides to cut salaries by X percent in this difficult times, then I will propose that we all take cuts on the parliamentary side to help the salvage the situation. We must all come together to solve our challenges and this is my personal view.



The NDC MPs reacting to the pay cuts suggested by Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah said they will not accept the governments offer.



The Member of Parliament for Akatsi North, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe told TV3 that If the executive is talking about this then they should also look at the emoluments. What facilities do they have? As an executive, they have more facilities than the legislators.



According to the NDC We, for instance, provide a number of facilities for ourselves. We pay our drivers, we pay our secretariat, we buy our own fuel. So if the executive is cutting their salaries, are they removing those facilities they enjoy? If those facilities they enjoy will be there then the pay cut for the legislators will not be a fair deal of us.



On the part of the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem MP, Samuel Atta Mills said What kind of pay cut? They should let their own people take pay cuts. Their people are on boards, do you know how much they are making from these boards?



They havent given us common fund for over a year now. The pay cut thing is just a gimmick. If we are going to take a pay cut, what are they going to use the money for? We gave them millions of cedis to use for COVID, have they come to tell us what they used the money for? It is not about the pay cut, it is about irresponsibility on their part.

Source: daily guide









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President Akufo-Addo has given directive to suspend the purchase of imported vehicles with immediate effect as part of the measures to save the economy.



Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta who announced this on Thursday said the move will help reduce government reliance on the importation of vehicles by 50%.



According to him, Discretionary spending is to be further cut by an additional 10%.

The Ministry of Finance is currently meeting with MDAs to review their spending plans for the rest of the three quarters to achieve the discretionary expenditure cuts; these times call for very efficient use of energy resources.



He explained that In line with this, there will be a 50% cut in fuel coupon allocations for all political appointees and Heads of government institutions, including SOEs, effective 1 April 2022 and with immediate effect, Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year.



He said, This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives. We will ensure that the overall effect is to reduce total vehicle purchases by the public sector by at least 50 percent for the period.



He also announced that fuel coupons to government appointees will be slashed by 50% with immediate effect.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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On March 23, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa of Pakistan in Rawalpindi. The two sides had a friendly and in-depth exchange of views on China-Pakistan relations and international and regional issues.

Bajwa warmly welcomed Wang Yi's visit to Pakistan again and his attendance at the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and spoke highly of the high-level strategic cooperation between the two countries. He praised and expressed support for China's foreign policies, noting that China pursues balanced and prudent foreign policies and actively dedicates itself to world peace and development. This fully demonstrates China's role as a responsible major country on international hotspot issues.

Wang Yi congratulated Pakistan on successfully holding the events marking Pakistan Day, saying that China appreciates the positive efforts and important contributions made by the Pakistani military over the years to consolidate and enhance the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan, ensure the safe and smooth development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and safeguard the security of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan. Wang Yi said, the Pakistani military has played the role of a stabilizer and ballast stone in building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.

Bajwa said, the Ukraine issue is very important, but the international community should not ignore the Afghan issue. Pakistan appreciates and supports China's hosting of the Third Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the Afghan Issue Among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan and believes that the international community should pay more attention to and invest more in the people's wellbeing and security issues of Afghanistan.

Wang Yi said, the Afghan issue should not be solved by exerting pressure or imposing sanctions, but by drawing on the wisdom of the East to promote dialogue and communication. Both China and Pakistan encourage the ruling authorities of Afghanistan to actively build an open and inclusive political architecture, implement moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies and resolutely combat terrorism in all its forms. Noting that Afghanistan enjoys favorable geographical advantages, resource endowment and development potential, he said that the international community should support Afghanistan in finding the right path of developing its economy, improving people's wellbeing, and realizing self-reliance and self-improvement.

Bajwa said, Pakistan is highly concerned about the spillover effect of the Ukraine crisis, appreciates China's position of upholding justice and fairness and promoting peace talks, and is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China in this regard.

Wang Yi said, the Ukraine crisis has taught the world that conflicts will eventually break out when one pursues exclusive or absolute security and seeks its own security at the expense of others' security. Today in the 21st century, setting up military blocs and inciting antagonism of camps wins no support and leads nowhere.
Exactly one month after Russia invaded Ukraine, on Feb. 24, an estimated 100,000 Ukrainians remain trapped inside the port city of Mariupol in inhumane conditions, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. There is no more food, no drinking water and no electricity as the constant drum of Russian shelling  upwards of 50 to 100 airstrikes per day by land, air and sea  has reduced much of the city to rubble.

There is nothing left there, Zelensky said of Mariupol on Tuesday, while addressing the Italian Parliament by video. Only ruins.

If captured, Mariupol, which was home to more than 430,000 people prewar, would give Russia strategic control of Ukraines southern coast.

Destroyed buildings and a military vehicle in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Monday. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Inside the city, located on the coast of the Sea of Azov, Ukrainians optimism continues to dwindle.

In this city, everyone is constantly waiting for death, Nadezhda Sukhorukova, a lifelong Mariupol resident, wrote on Facebook, where she chronicled her firsthand account of civilian life during wartime in the city in a series of posts. Last Saturday she was able to escape what she described as hell.

I am alive and now I will live long, she wrote in another post. [But] my city is dying a painful death. Twenty days I was dying with him. I have been through hell.

Inhabitants who are left are mostly confined to bomb shelters and the basements of buildings throughout the city, clinging to the hope that they will eventually be evacuated. Zelensky said Tuesday that 7,000 people had been evacuated during the previous 24 hours, but efforts to free more were thwarted by Russian troops.

Refugees fleeing Mariupol arrive at a hub in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday to be registered. (Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Depleting resources have led some Ukrainians to attempt to flee the city independently on foot, a risky journey of 6 to 12 miles to relative safety that could end in death without a ceasefire, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Ukrainian television.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Mariupol since the war began, according to Ukrainian officials. Corpses of unburied Ukrainians line the citys streets, and with each passing day an even more dire humanitarian disaster unfolds. Without safe corridors to get aid into the city, there have reportedly been no medication or hygiene products available there for more than two weeks.

Story continues

We are working to mobilize supplies and are already providing aid to internally displaced persons across the country, but we need agreement between the parties before we can get aid in and people out, Arran Skinner, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Yahoo News.

A protester at a rally in support of Mariupol, calling on NATO to close the skies over Ukraine. (Mykola Tys/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Russia blames Ukraine for the failure to establish a safe corridor, or passageway, out of Mariupol, while Ukrainian officials accuse Russian troops of compromising aid missions near the city by blocking humanitarian convoys, often by using deadly force. Vereshchuk said that Russians recently captured 11 bus drivers and four aid workers, holding them hostage along with their vehicles.

As more humanitarian workers find themselves in grim circumstances because of the conflict, administering aid to those in need has become a traumatizing feat in itself, as they realize their own lives are in peril.

In a dramatically changed landscape, the work I was doing with [Doctors Without Borders] earlier is no longer possible, Aleksandr Burmin, a staff member of the organization in Ukraine, wrote in a post last week. Many of my colleagues find themselves in the same situation.

Another aid worker described the tense situation in the city as increasingly desperate.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks toward the front line in the city of Irpin on March 12. (Aris Messinis/AFP)

Despite the despair, Ukrainian forces continue to mount a valiant defense against Russian forces looking to advance upon Mariupol, leading to some fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin may escalate the war using chemical or biological weapons.

Putins back is against the wall, President Biden said Tuesday, ahead of a four-day trip to Europe for an emergency NATO meeting on Thursday. And the more his back is against the wall, the greater the severity of the tactics he may employ.

Already, the Russian shelling has decimated most of Mariupol, leaving 80% to 90% of the city destroyed, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The bombing in Mariupol has gotten so bad that the president of Poland has compared it to Nazi war crimes.

My countrymen, Poles, are looking today at Mariupol and are saying, God  they say it with tears in their eyes  Mariupol looks like Warsaw did in 1944 when Nazis, Hitlers Germans, were brutally bombing houses, killing people, killing civilians with no mercy at all, Andrzej Duda said Tuesday while on a visit to Bulgaria.

A woman walks past a damaged building in Mariupol on Monday. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Today the Russian army is behaving in exactly the same way. Russian leaders are behaving in exactly the same way, like Hitler, like the German SS, like the German pilots of the fascist army during World War II.

The last remaining journalists, who were once stationed in Mariupol to capture the grief, have also since left for fear of their lives.

The officer, who had once begged us to show the world his dying city, now pleaded with us to go, Mstyslav Chernov, a video journalist for the Associated Press, recalled on Tuesday in an emotional dispatch from outside the city. We were the last journalists in Mariupol. Now there are none.

Civilians are evacuated along humanitarian corridors from Mariupol on Monday. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Without journalists, power or internet connectivity, Ukrainians left in Mariupol have limited knowledge of the outside world or, except in rare instances, access to a radio. People have lost full communication with family and loved ones.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and its European allies continue to offer Ukraine support through billions in military aid and numerous Russian sanctions, stopping short of engaging in direct conflict.

As of Wednesday, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians had fled the country, with the majority  upwards of 2.1 million  finding refuge in Poland, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

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Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images, Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images (2)
Philippines' Vice President and opposition presidential candidate Leni Robredo greets supporters during a campaign rally in the business district of Pasig city, suburban Manila on March 20, 2022. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP) (Photo by TED ALJIBE/AFP via Getty Images)

Groups and netizens have asked Vice President Leni Robredo to reconsider her support for New Clark City after Robredo expressed her support for the project in her Tarlac sortie.

New Clark City, a 9,450-hectare development located in Capas, Tarlac, has reportedly displaced thousands of Aetas and threatens to displace more.

In a statement Thursday (March 24), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth (NNARA-Youth) urged the presidential candidate to withdraw her support for the project as it "enroaches on the ancestral lands of Aetas that would result to their forcible displacement."

We express our dismay over VP Robredos support for New Clark City. A Gobyernong Tapat [kung saan] Angat Buhay Lahat (With an Honest Government, Everyone's Life Improves) should not leave our indigenous peoples and landless farmers behind, said Melo Cabello, NNARA-Youth National Spokesperson.

Meanwhile, KMP leader and Anakpawis Chairperson Rafael Mariano said that an inclusive and green city that tramples on human rights of indigenous peoples and pushes them further to the periphery is contradictory to the call for Makabayang Pagbabago (Patriotic Change) within the framework of Robredos electoral platform  which prioritizes the rights and demands of the oppressed and marginalized.

The multi-billion-dollar project, one of the projects in President Rorigo Dutertes Build, Build, Build program, threatens to displace at least 65,000 people from 12 villages, according to NNARA-Youth.

A netizen said that the projects contractors have redirected the natural flow of rivers, resulting in drastic changes and disturbance of the ecosystem.

New Clark Citys contractors had redirected the natural flow of Cutcut & Marimla rivers to make way for a 1.4-km river park.



These drastic changes disturbed the fragile ecobalance. Residents noted that birds, fishes, prawn & snakes were disappearing.https://t.co/Bu4fDcvk2v  Mangingisda #154Anakpawis (@MangingisdaSays) March 24, 2022

Scholars from the University of the Philippines and the University of Glasgow, in partnership with community organizers and residents, have earlier established the project Counter-mapping for Peri-Urban Social Justice, in an effort to show the struggles of the farmers and indigenous people affected by the green city.

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The study debunked the governments official narrative that New Clark City would be built on idle land and no indigenous communities would be negatively affected.

Findings from the study revealed drastic changes in the landscape in the area, where former rice fields and agricultural lands were replaced with concrete.

Despite promises of more jobs, which is reportedly the main reason for Robredos support of the project, residents still worry about their loss of livelihood and land. Moreover, plans for relocation were not even discussed.

Pola Rubio is a news writer and photojournalist covering Philippine politics and events. She regularly follows worldwide and local happenings. The views expressed are her own.

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Graphical abstract. Credit: Chem (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2022.03.001

Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now identified the main bottlenecks in performance.

Lithium-sulfur batteries are high on the wish-list for future batteries as they are made from cheaper and more environmentally friendly materials than lithium-ion batteries. They also have higher energy storage capacity and work well at much lower temperatures. However, they suffer from short lifetimes and energy loss. An article just published in the journal Chem by a research group from Uppsala University has now identified the processes that are limiting the performance of the sulfur electrodes that in turn reduces the current that can be delivered. Various different materials are formed during the discharge/charge cycles and these cause various problems. Often a localized shortage of lithium causes a bottleneck.

"Learning about problems allows us to develop new strategies and materials to improve battery performance. Identifying the real bottlenecks is needed to take the next steps. This is big research challenge in a system as complex as lithium-sulfur," says Daniel Brandell, Professor of Materials Chemistry at Uppsala University who works at the Angstrom Advanced Battery Centre.

The study combined various radiation scattering techniques: X-ray analyses were made in Uppsala, Sweden and neutron results came from a large research facility, the Institut Laue Langevin, in Grenoble, France.

"The study demonstrates the importance of using these infrastructures to tackle problems in materials science," says Professor Adrian Rennie. "These instruments are expensive but are necessary to understand such complex systems as these batteries. Many different reactions happen at the same time and materials are formed and can disappear quickly during operation."

The study was carried-out as part of a co-operation with Scania CV AB.

"Electric power is needed for the heavy truck business and not just personal vehicles. They must keep up with developments of a range of different batteries that may soon become highly relevant," says Daniel Brandell.

Explore further Sulphur chemical technology improves battery lifespans

More information: Adrian R. Rennie, Correlations between Precipitation Reactions and Electrochemical Performance of Lithium Sulfur Batteries Studied by Operando Scattering Techniques, Chem (2022). www.cell.com/chem/fulltext/S2451-9294(22)00128-0 Journal information: Chem Adrian R. Rennie, Correlations between Precipitation Reactions and Electrochemical Performance of Lithium Sulfur Batteries Studied by Operando Scattering Techniques,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2022.03.001
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Television: It's not just for people anymore.

These days, programming created specifically for dogs is more frequently popping up on our screens. YouTube offers a nearly endless supply of dog-centered videos, and there's a growing number of television and streaming channels promising 24/7 content to keep pups entertained or even alleviate stress or separation anxiety while owners are away.

But very little is actually understood about how dogs engage with this kind of programming, and what kind of videos most appeal to them.

Now, a new citizen-science study led by a University of WisconsinMadison professor is asking dog owners to help shed some light on these questions. It's no trivial business, as the results could lay the groundwork for developing better ways of assessing vision in dogs.

"The overarching goal in this study is to figure out what dogs like to watch on television," says Freya Mowat, a veterinary clinician-scientist. "This is interesting from a dog behavior standpoint, but as dog vision researchers, we also want to develop engaging methods to test dog vision in either the home or clinic, which we currently just do not have."

Mowat, an assistant professor at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Surgical Sciences and the School of Medicine and Public Health's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, says previous efforts to develop an eye test for dogs have resulted in more than a few "epic fails." Trying to adapt human vision tests for dogs has proved challenging, at best, or required too much training to be viable.

But Mowat believes videos could potentially be the key to holding a dog's attention long enough to gather and assess critical information about visual function. The trick is determining the type of content that's most engaging and appealing to dogs.

To better understand what dogs might be most attracted to on screen, Mowat is seeking individuals from around the globe, and their canine companions, to participate in a "Dog TV" survey. The unique questionnaire asks people to provide information on their dog's screen-viewing habits, as well as information about the dog's age, sex, breed, and where they live.

Participants can also take the optional step of showing their pooch four short videos of subjects potentially of interest to dogs, such as objects and other animals. People will then rate their dog's interest in each video and how closely the dog tracked the moving objects in the videos.

"We intend for this to be a fun activity for both dogs and their people," Mowat says. "And we'd really love to get thousands of responses from individuals across the world, so we can better understand if dogs in Wisconsin like the same kind of videos as dogs in New York or Brazil or any other location."

Ultimately, Mowat says the study could also help answer a question of interest to all dog owners: How do we help our four-legged friends age gracefully?

"As they get older, do dogs need things like brighter lighting in their environment to prevent them from tripping down the stairs in the middle of the night, or other visual cues to help them locate things? These are questions we genuinely don't know the answers to," Mowat says. "We do know that canine retinal function does decline with age and can decline quite significantly. So it's more than likely that visual perception does change, but what that actually means from a lifestyle standpoint is the missing piece of the puzzle."

A future goal, says Mowat, is to compare how a dog's vision ages compared with the human or humans they share a home with.

"After all, a dog has a much shorter lifespan than their owner, and so if there are emerging environmental or lifestyle factors that influence visual aging, it might well show up in our dogs decades before it shows up in us," Mowat explains. "Our dogs could be our sentinelsthe canine in the proverbial coal mine."

Ready to take part and help advance vision research for our canine companions? Click here to answer the questionnaire, which will take approximately 10 to 20 minutes. There is no anticipated risk to study participants or their dogs.
Artistic impression for the valley-selective Hall effect. Credit: ICFO/ Matteo Ceccanti

The way electrons flow in a material determines its electronic properties. For example, when a voltage is sustained across a conducting material, electrons start flowing, generating an electrical current. These electrons are often thought to flow in straight paths, moving along the electric field, much like a ball rolling down a hill. Yet these are not the only trajectories electrons can take: when a magnetic field is applied, the electrons no longer travel in straight paths along the electric field, but in fact, they bend. The bent electronic flows lead to transverse signals called "Hall" responses.

Now, is it possible to bend electrons without applying a magnetic field? In a study recently published in Science, an international team of researchers report that circular polarized light can induce bent electronic flows in bilayer graphene. The study has been carried out by a team including ICFO scientists Jianbo Yin (currently researcher from the Beijing Graphene Institute, China), David Barcons, Iacopo Torre, led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens, in collaboration with Cheng Tan and James Hone from Columbia University, Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi from NIMS Japan and Prof. Justin Song from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

Jianbo Yin, first author of the study, remembers how it all started. "This collaborative study began in 2016 with a conversation between Justin Song and Frank Koppens at a scientific conference." As Justin Song explains, "Electrons are not just particles, but can have a quantum wave-like nature." In quantum materials, such as bilayer graphene, the wave pattern of electrons can exhibit a complex winding often referred to as quantum geometry. "Frank and I talked about the possibility of harnessing quantum geometry in bilayer graphene to bend the flow of electrons with light instead of using magnetic fields."

With this in mind, Jianbo Yin, a researcher in Frank Koppens' team, decided to take on the challenge of experimentally realizing this unusual phenomenon. "Our device was very complicated to build. It took building many devices and flying to Columbia University to work with Cheng Tan and James Hone to improve the device quality."

Close-up of one of the devices used for the experiment carried out by Jianbo Yin and colleagues. Image credit: ICFO. Credit: ICFO

Quantum geometry and valley selectivity

In bilayer graphene, there are two pockets of electron valleys (K and K'): when a perpendicular electric field is applied, the quantum geometrical properties of electrons in these two valleys can cause them to bend in opposite directions. As a result, their Hall effects are canceled out.

In their study, the team of scientists found that by applying circular polarized infrared light onto the bilayer graphene device, they were able to selectively excite one specific valley population of electrons in the material, which generated a photovoltage perpendicular to the usual electron flow. As Koppens highlights, "We now engineered the device and setup in such a way that current only flows with light illumination. With this, we were able to avoid the background noise that hampers measurements and achieve a sensitivity in the detection several orders of magnitude better than any other 2D material." This development is significant because conventional photodetectors often require large voltage biases that can lead to "dark currents" that flow even when there is no light.

Close-up of one of the devices used for the experiment carried out by Jianbo Yin and colleagues. Image credit: ICFO. Credit: ICFO

Jianbo Yin working wiring the device in his new research lab at Beijing Graphene Institute in China, where he is continuing his research in the field. Credit: Jianbo Yin

Yin remarks that "we can control the bending of the electrons with the out-of-plane electric field we apply. We can change the bending angle of these electrons, which can be quantified by the Hall conductivity. By controlling the voltage 'knob,' the Berry curvature [one characteristic of quantum geometry], can be tuned, which can lead to a giant Hall conductivity."

The results of the study open a new realm of many detection and imaging applications, as Koppens finally concludes. "Such discovery could have major implications in applications for infrared and terahertz sensing since bilayer graphene can be transformed from semimetal to semiconductor with a very small bandgap, so it can detect photons of very small energies. It may be also useful, for example, for imaging in space, medical imaging, e.g. for tissue skin cancer, or even for security applications such as the quality inspection of materials."

Jianbo Yin working in his new research lab at Beijing Graphene Institute in China, where he is continuing his research in the field. Credit: Jianbo Yin

The possibilities are manifold and the next steps of research focused on new 2D materials, such as the moire material twisted bilayer graphene, may find new ways of controlling electron flows and unconventional opto-electronic properties.

More information: Jianbo Yin et al, Tunable and giant valley selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene, Science (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4266 Journal information: Science Jianbo Yin et al, Tunable and giant valley selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abl4266
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

With gasoline prices trending over US$4 per gallon nationwide, politicians are feeling the heat. In response, Maryland and Georgia have temporarily waived their state gasoline taxes to reduce the burden on consumers. Other states are considering similar actions, and some members of Congress have called for suspending the federal gas tax. The Conversation asked four experts whether gas tax waivers are an effective way to provide economic relief to U.S. households, and what other impacts these measures could have.

Not a windfall

Jay Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer in Markets, Public Policy and Law, Boston University

As an economist who has studied gasoline prices, I doubt that waiving gas taxes will meaningfully lower prices at the pump. Russia's invasion of Ukraine boosted gasoline prices dramatically, and politicians feel a need to show voters they are doing something. Cutting gas taxes makes great political theater, but as a few numbers show, it is an ineffective policy.

According to the American Automobile Association, the average price of gasoline in Maryland just before the state's gas tax holiday was $4.25 per gallon. Two days after the state stopped charging the gas tax, prices were $3.81. A 44-cent drop may look significant, but it's not that simple.

First, not all of that decrease happened because of eliminating the gas tax. Neither Delaware nor the District of Columbia, both of which border Maryland, had waived their gas taxes. However, over the same time period, Delaware gas prices declined by 19 cents per gallon and D.C. prices fell by almost 16 cents. These drops are partly due to falling oil prices. Florida, which is far from Maryland, saw a 16-cent drop per gallon over this same time period.

The latest U.S. government statistics show that Maryland consumes 4.5 million gallons of gasoline per day. That sounds like a lot, but Maryland has 6 million people. That means the average person consumes about 22 gallons per month. Doing the math, we find that cutting gasoline prices by 44 cents per gallon saves the average person in Maryland about $10 monthlythe price of an average cheese pizza.

Less money to fix roads

Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida

Federal highway maintenance is primarily paid for with gas tax revenues that flow into the Highway Trust Fund. The federal levy of 18.4 cents per gallon, unchanged for almost 30 years, is a major component of these revenues, along with taxes on diesel fuel, gasohol, methanol, liquefied gases and compressed natural gas.

The federal government collects roughly $37 billion to $38 billion per year in revenues from the gas tax. These revenues have remained fairly consistent over the past five years, even through the heart of the pandemic. Other highway-related fines and fees also go into the Highway Trust Fund, but their magnitude is comparatively small.

In 2020, the latest year for which numbers are available, the federal government spent roughly $46 billion on highway projects. This figure does not include the subsidies that the federal government extends to state and local governments to reduce the cost of borrowing for highway projects.

But if the government collected $38 billion in gas taxes, where did the other $8 billion come from? Since most politicians strongly resist raising gas taxes, even to pay for much-needed repairs, the government has turned to less transparent alternatives.

Several times in the past decade, officials have shored up the balance in the Highway Trust Fund with intragovernmental transfers from other accounts. Most recently, the Fund received $10 billion this way in October 2020 and $90 billion in December 2021. That represents $100 billion that was not spent providing other services.

If the Highway Trust Fund faces more shortfalls, program managers will either greenlight fewer infrastructure maintenance projects or transfer money from other programs. This would be the most likely outcome if Congress opts to suspend the federal gas tax.

Ultimately, taxpayers pay for everything that the government does. Policymakers simply decide how and when that will happen.

Americans drive far more today than they did 30 years ago, but highway construction funding hasnt kept up.

Waivers only help drivers

Erich J. Muehlegger, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis

Research shows that for decades, lower-income households have spent a larger fraction of their budgets on gasoline than higher-income households. The growing transition to electric vehicles has contributed to this pattern because high-income households in the U.S. have been more likely to go electric and, as a result, pay less in gasoline taxes.

This means that a gas tax holiday tends to benefit lower-income households relatively more than higher-income householdsbut there are two important caveats.

First, not everyone benefits from a gas tax holiday. The very poor who lack cars, urban households who rely on public transit, and the elderly, who tend to drive less, benefit less from a tax holiday because they consume less gasoline. A gas tax holiday can soften the blow of high gasoline prices for commuters, but it provides little direct benefit to households that do not drive.

Second, even optimistic estimates suggest that gas tax holidays produce relatively modest savings for households. That's because gasoline taxes are a small component of the price of gasoline in the U.S., especially relative to crude oil prices.

Even if savings from a waiver of the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax were entirely passed on to consumers, a typical motorist who drives 10,000 miles per year in a 20 miles-per-gallon Ford F-150 would see about $7.70 in savings per month from a federal gas tax holiday. Drivers of more fuel-efficient vehicles would save even less.

California Democrats propose gas tax rebate that increases with number of dependentshttps://t.co/mI6gzOTEYn  California Rebel Base (@CARebelBase) March 22, 2022

Consider aid for heating and cooling

Sanya Carley, Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University

Millions of Americans face material hardship on a daily basis, and energy costs are a primary contributor. A gas tax waiver could temporarily help relieve people who have to rely on gasoline for transportation and who live in energy poverty.

Current gasoline price spikes are happening at an especially hard time for many households. The winter of 2021-2022 brought frigid temperatures in some regions of the country, and natural gas prices were high. In a recent study, colleagues and I found that 28% of all low-income households struggled to pay their energy bills this past winter, from November through January, and 38% carried debt on their utility accounts.

Now, with higher gasoline prices, filling a 12-gallon tank can cost about $51, up from about $26 in 2020. That increase may prevent households with limited budgets from covering all of their expenses, including basic needs such as food and health care.

Households with vulnerable members, such as small children or people with chronic health issues, are especially burdened by energy expenses than other groups. Temporary relief can be especially helpful for these consumers.

But a gas tax holiday may not be the most effective way to deliver that relief, especially since these waivers are temporary. Direct assistance to households for food and energy spending, or investments in weatherizing homes to reduce their heating and cooling bills, could provide larger and more lasting benefits.

Explore further Study finds rural low-income households bear a larger share of fuel carbon taxes

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A species of giant two-humped camel, Camelus knoblochi, is known to have lived for approximately a quarter of a million years in Central Asia. A new study in Frontiers in Earth Science shows that C. knoblochi's last refuge was in Mongolia until approximately 27,000 years ago. In Mongolia, the last of the species coexisted with anatomically modern humans and maybe the extinct Neanderthals or Denisovans. While the main cause of C. knoblochi's extinction seems to have been climate change, hunting by archaic humans may also have played a role.

"Here we show that the extinct camel, Camelus knoblochi, persisted in Mongolia until climatic and environmental changes nudged it into extinction about 27,000 years ago," said Dr. John W Olsen, Regents' professor emeritus at the School of Anthropology of the University of Arizona, Tucson, US.

Paradoxically, today, southwestern Mongolia hosts one of the last two wild populations of the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel, C. ferus. The new results suggest that C. knoblochi coexisted with C. ferus during the late Pleistocene in Mongolia, so that between-species competition may have been a third cause of C. knoblochi's extinction. Standing nearly three meters tall and weighing more than a ton, C. knoblochi would have dwarfed C. ferus. The precise taxonomic relationships between these two species, other extinct Camelus, and the ancient Paracamelus aren't yet resolved.

Olsen said, "C. knoblochi fossil remains from Tsagaan Agui Cave [in the Gobi Altai Mountains of southwestern Mongolia], which also contains a rich, stratified sequence of human Paleolithic cultural material, suggest that archaic people coexisted and interacted there with C. knoblochi and elsewhere, contemporaneously, with the wild Bactrian camel."

Steppe specialists driven into extinction by desertification

The new study describes five C. knoblochi leg and foot bones found in Tsagaan Agui Cave in 2021, and one from Tugrug Shireet in today's Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia. They were found in association with bones of wolves, cave hyenas, rhinoceroses, horses, wild donkeys, ibexes, wild sheep, and Mongolian gazelles. This assemblage indicates that C. knoblochi lived in montane and lowland steppe environments, less dry habitats than those of its modern relatives.

The authors conclude that C. knoblochi finally went extinct primarily because it was less tolerant of desertification than today's camels, C. ferus, the domestic Bactrian camel C. bactrianus, and the domestic Arabian camel C. dromedarius.

In the late Pleistocene, much of Mongolia's environment became drier and changed from steppe to dry steppe and finally desert.

"Apparently, C. knoblochi was poorly adapted to desert biomes, primarily because such landscapes could not support such large animals, but perhaps there were other reasons as well, related to the availability of fresh water and the ability of camels to store water within the body, poorly adapted mechanisms of thermoregulation, and competition from other members of the faunal community occupying the same trophic niche," wrote the authors.

Towards the end, the last of the species may have lingered, at least seasonally, in the milder forest steppegrassland interspersed with woodlandfurther north in neighboring Siberia. But this habitat probably wasn't ideal either, which could have sounded the death knell for C. knoblochi. The world would not see giant camels again.

Preyed upon or scavenged by humans

What were the relations between archaic humans and C. knoblochi?

Corresponding author Dr. Arina M Khatsenovich, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, Russia, said, "A C. knoblochi metacarpal bone from Tsagaan Agui Cave, dated to between 59,000 and 44,000 years ago, exhibits traces of both butchery by humans and hyenas gnawing on it. This suggests that C. knoblochi was a species that Late Pleistocene humans in Mongolia could hunt or scavenge."

"We don't yet have sufficient material evidence regarding the interaction between humans and C. ferus in the Late Pleistocene, but it likely did not differ from human relationships with C. knoblochias prey, but not a target for domestication."

First author Dr. Alexey Klementiev, a paleobiologist with the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch, said, "We conclude that C. knoblochi became extinct in Mongolia and in Asia, generally, by the end of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (roughly 27,000 years ago) as a result of climate changes that provoked degradation of the steppe ecosystem and intensified the process of aridification."

Explore further Humans migrated to Mongolia much earlier than previously believed

More information: Alexey M. Klementiev et al, First Documented Camelus knoblochi Nehring (1901) and Fossil Camelus ferus Przewalski (1878) From Late Pleistocene Archaeological Contexts in Mongolia Frontiers in Earth Science (2022). Alexey M. Klementiev et al, First Documented Camelus knoblochi Nehring (1901) and Fossil Camelus ferus Przewalski (1878) From Late Pleistocene Archaeological Contexts in Mongolia(2022). DOI: 10.3389/feart.2022.861163
(a) and (b) shows the administrative boundaries of India and National Capital Region (NCR) of India which includes Delhi, and neighboring urban cities. In this study we focused on Delhi, Faridabad and Gurgaon. (c) shows the deformation results (in line of sight) obtained during phase 2 (20162018) analysis acquired in ascending direction. The color bar represents the land subsidence velocity in (mm/year). Red color represents high subsidence region, whereas blue color represents an uplift. Three displacement features (two of them undergoing subsidence, and one showing uplift) are delineated and are marked with a black square in (c). The close-up view of the three areas is shown in (d), (e), (f) respectively. Here (d) refers to Kapashera; (e) refers to Faridabad, and (f) refers to Dwarka. Maps were generated in ArcMap software (Version 10.4; Base Map: World Map; copyright and licensed by ESRI https://desktop.arcgis.com/). Credit: Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-04193-9

Using satellite data, researchers have found that around 100 sq km in and around Delhi has high risk of land subsidence. Groundwater extraction is causing parts of the city to sink, with the largest area experiencing subsidence just 800m away from Delhi international airport.

Land subsidence is a severe often overlooked geological hazard and is a widespread global problem. It can be attributed to underground extraction of minerals, oil, gas and water, as well as natural events such as soil compaction, earthquake, and loess deposits. According to U.S. Geological Survey, more than 80% of land subsidence across the world is caused due to excessive groundwater extraction. When water is extracted from aquifers, the clay between pockets of water collapse gradually, leading to land subsidence.

A study titled "Tracking hidden crisis in India's capital from space: implications of unsustainable groundwater use," published in Scientific Reports co-authored by researchers from IIT Bombay, German Research Centre for Geosciences, University of Cambridge and the Southern Methodist University US have found that the rate of land subsidence near Delhi airport is accelerating rapidly.

During the years 20142016, the subsidence was found to be approximately 11cm/year which rose significantly by almost 50% over the next two years to around 17cm/year. The trend remained almost the same during 20182019, the study found.

"Of all the areas that are under threat, Kapashera near the airport was the most vulnerable because the subsidence rate is extremely high" said Shagun Garg, a doctoral researcher in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Resilience in a Changing World (FIBE2) who is part of the project team.

"The airport requires stable ground because of the risk of major disruption if there's significant ground movement," Garg said. "Kuala Lumpur airport is an example to understand the implications of land subsidence where cracks on taxiways, and water-logging emerged due to soil settlement. Continuous monitoring of Delhi International airport and its connecting roads is therefore crucial."

The study found another deformation in Mahipalpur, just 500m away from the airport where deformation of 15mm per year was observed in 201416, 30mm a year in 201618 and 50mm per year in 201819.

The growing population expansion and urbanization require an enormous amount of water to fulfill the demand. There is a huge gap of 750 million liters a day between the demand and the supply. Millions of residents do not have access to a piped water supply and rely on groundwater for their daily needs. In some places, the water depth is as high as 120m below ground level. The groundwater shortage is further complicated by Delhi's unchecked urbanization, which is disrupting the rejuvenation of the city's aquifers. Concrete and other infrastructure have overtaken the city, blocking rainwater from absorbing into the ground.

Rainwater harvesting is one solution to the problem. Delhi receives an average annual rainfall of 611mm, mostly in July, August, and September. Harvesting rainwater will not only bridge the gap between demand and supply but will also replenish the falling groundwater levels. The groundwater recharge can reduce the increasing rate of land subsidence and can mitigate the risk associated with subsidence.

The Indian Central Ground Water Authority in December 2018, introduced "Water Conservation Fees' for groundwater extraction for domestic and industrial purposes. The fee varies depending on the amount of extraction and the exploited zone (highest for overexploited, critical, and semi-critical blocks). However, it exempts individual households and agricultural users (the largest user of groundwater). Moreover, the current policies are solely based on mitigating the water scarcity problem and do not take into account the hazardous effect of land subsidence.

Despite its slow pace, land subsidence is known to cause losses worth billions of dollars all over the world due to damage to infrastructure, roads, pavements, and underground utilities such as drainage systems, aggravated flood risks and more frequent water-logging.

Can subsidence be reversed? Garg said that a detailed hydro-geological study is required to understand aquifer properties as current available data are limited.

"The Central Ground Water Board, the Geological Survey of India, and the Ministry of Urban Affairs need to investigate whether these trends are reversible," he said. "We suggest the government and policymakers should have a detailed understanding of the geophysical properties of the areas undergoing subsidence, and incentivize rainwater harvesting while ensuring strict implementation of laws against illegal mining of groundwater. The building conditions in hazard zones should be evaluated and proper measures should be taken."

Explore further Germany land motion mapped

More information: Shagun Garg, Mahdi Motagh, J. Indu and Vamshi Karanam, Tracking hidden crisis in India's capital from space: implications of unsustainable groundwater use, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Shagun Garg, Mahdi Motagh, J. Indu and Vamshi Karanam, Tracking hidden crisis in India's capital from space: implications of unsustainable groundwater use,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-04193-9
Rita Kohli. Credit: University of California - Riverside

Teacher education programs that evade discussions of race and racism often leave teacher educators of color to bear the brunt of educating students about these matters, reports a new paper published in AERA Open. Most individuals in a study of teacher educators of color were hired specifically to teach race and racism within programs that, nonetheless, prioritized whiteness and the needs of white student teachers in their curricula. Teacher educators of color experienced harm when the institution did not support them against the resistance to their instruction by white teacher candidates.

"Teacher education often washes its hand of its accountability to racism," said lead author Rita Kohli, an associate professor of education at UC Riverside. "Programs don't always own that they have constructed policies, practices, and content that neglect the realities of race and racism, and that they often hire teacher educators of color to do this labor, which leads to resistance, racial stress, and racial harm."

For the past 12 years, Kohli and co-author Marcos Pizarro at San Jose State University have designed and facilitated a nationally attended professional development workshop for educators of color called the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice, or ITOC. While collaborating with teachers of color over many years, they noticed that teacher educatorsthose who teach teachersshared many similar experiences of racism in their workplaces. They set out to explore if there were any patterns to the experiences of teacher educators of color from various institutions, and learned that teacher education programs are organized in ways that tacitly support the resistance of white students against teacher educators of color.

Over the course of five years, Kohli and Pizarro sent questionnaires to workshop participants, who returned detailed responses. Many of the 141 respondents who met their study criteria discussed incidents where white teacher candidates escalated discomfort with assignments about racism to administrators who reassured them instead of backing up the teacher educators. Others described instances where teacher candidates left scathing teaching evaluations that jeopardized the teacher educator's career, and other behaviors by white teacher candidates and unsupportive administrators that left teacher educators of color feeling stressed, unsupported, and afraid for their jobs. Many reported that race-evasive colleagues devalued their work and encouraged them to engage less with race, while still expecting them to do all the program's work of racial education.

For example, one Black mathematics teacher educator wrote that many of her colleagues believed rigorous content and high expectations were sufficient to resolve racial inequalities. They suggested that attending to race perpetuates racism and one policy leader said, "Who cares if a teacher is green or purple, as long as they do their job?"

Another Black teacher educator said that her colleagues had trouble seeing race and racism at all and in the rare instances when they did recognize racism, they did not know how to engage.

Kohli and Pizarro found that this race-evasiveness saturated most teacher education programs, leading the programs to prioritize teaching topics that made white students feel comfortable, expecting teacher educators of color to facilitate content that challenged students' understanding yet protected their comforta paradoxical task.

Nationally, over 80% teacher educators and 70% of teacher candidates are white, so it is not surprising that the teacher education curriculum is structured to privilege white comfort and produce a predominantly white workforce. The new work reveals the harm teacher educators of color encounter in this environment.

"For decades teacher education programs have operated in ways that are race-evasive," said Kohli. "But now that there is a push to be more responsive to diversity, race, and racial inequity, programs hire teacher educators of color to address race, pigeonhole them in that race work, and, when students resist, they are treated like it is their individual problem."

The paper concludes with four steps teacher education programs can take to address race and racism at the heart of their curriculum.

Challenge race evasiveness by expecting all teacher education faculty to share the responsibility of reflecting on and challenging racism, and for supporting students of color.

Require a base level of racial literacy for admission of teacher candidates, who should be expected to have a basic understanding and willingness to identify and disrupt racism.

Educate white teacher candidates on how whiteness operates.

Expect and prepare to address racism in teacher education programs.

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More information: Rita Kohli and Marcos Pizarro, The Layered Toll of Racism in Teacher Education on Teacher Educators of Color. AERA Open (2022). Rita Kohli and Marcos Pizarro, The Layered Toll of Racism in Teacher Education on Teacher Educators of Color.(2022). doi.org/10.1177/23328584221078538
University of Illinois scientists screened 25 corn lines with exotic germplasm and found multiple accessions showing natural resistance to the new-to-North-America fungal disease, tar spot. Credit: Lauren D. Quinn, University of Illinois

When tar spota fungal disease of corn capable of causing significant yield losspopped out of nowhere in 2015, Midwestern corn growers were left scrambling to manage the outbreak with few effective tools. The industry has since made some progress toward management with fungicides, but many researchers agree resistance is the path forward for living with tar spot.

"There are people looking at using mixed-modes-of-action fungicides, but more research is needed to optimize the timing for that. Ultimately, I think having resistant hybrids is the key to managing this disease long term," says Tiffany Jamann, assistant professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois and co-author of a new study suggesting certain tropical corn germplasm may provide good sources of tar spot resistance.

Jamann and her collaborators grew 25 corn lines from the USDA's Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project in nine locations across four states. Two accessions derived from germplasm from Cuba and BrazilGEMS-0066 and GEMS-0226showed promising levels of tar spot resistance, regardless of where they were grown.

"They consistently performed among the top of all the lines in each environment. Showing similar levels of resistance across locations is a really good indicator they're reliable," says Sarah Lipps, doctoral student and lead author on the study. "And because these lines are available to the public, anybody can use them in a breeding program to develop resistant hybrids."

Jamann notes that "these two accessions weren't perfect. There was still a little bit of disease on them, but I think it's a good starting point. There are definitely improvements to be made, but they were consistent across a lot of environments for us."

In addition to identifying two promising sources of resistance, the study offers a new method of scoring tar spot incidence and severity in the field.

"Generally speaking, when we rate foliar diseases, we use a 0-100% scale," Lipps says. "But with tar spot, because it makes these small dots on the leaf, it's really difficult to accurately estimate 5% versus 20%, etc. It's also hard to estimate disease on a percentage scale across thousands of plants for this disease."

"Looking in the literature, we found a rating scale used for anthracnoseanother fungal diseasethat considers incidence as well as coverage in the plot. So we developed a one-to-nine rating scale for tar spot. It is somewhat similar to what is being used in Latin America to score tar spot and works well for our purposes."

Scoring methods make a big difference in breeding programs. When breeders evaluate dozens or hundreds of lines at a time, they need an efficient and reliable system to gage resistance.

Although they figured out a scoring system, the researchers struggled to inoculate test plots with tar spot. That's because the fungus causing the disease can't be cultured in labs. Instead, they scattered infected plant residue into plots or grew corn in fields that had been infected the previous year.

With the pathogen left to its own devices, the researchers recognized just how much of a role the environment plays in its development.

"We show very clearly in this paper there are a lot of environmental variables important for this disease. Unfortunately, only about half of our locations wound up having enough infection for us to use the data," Jamann says.

Previous studies suggest ideal conditions for the disease include humidity above 75%, wet leaves during the nighttime hours, and temperatures between about 61 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit.

As a next step, Jamann says she plans to look for the genes controlling tar spot resistance. Other researchers have made progress on that in Mexico, but Jamann says the pathogen in Mexico is slightly different from the one corn battles in the upper Midwest. It's possible the same genes in corn activate to resist in both cases, but that still needs to be determined.

Meanwhile, Jamann thinks seed companies could start screening GEMS-0066 and GEMS-0226 against other materials and potentially cross them into their elite lines.

"Companies have been interested in where we should look for resistance and what might be useful for their breeding programs. That's why it was important for us to show there is some resistance in these lines," Jamann says. "So, it's not like a farmer can go out and plant these lines right away, but they can be useful for breeding."

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More information: Sarah Lipps et al, Identification of resistance for Phyllachora maydis of maize in exotic-derived germplasm, Crop Science (2022). Sarah Lipps et al, Identification of resistance forof maize in exotic-derived germplasm,(2022). DOI: 10.1002/csc2.20709
On March 23, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara in Islamabad on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Wang Yi said that Gambia has adhered to the one-China principle and maintained the political foundation for bilateral relations since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations. China appreciates this. China and Gambia firmly support each other in the international arena, which demonstrates the high level of bilateral relations. The sustained, steady and sound development of China-Gambia relations fully conforms to the long-term and fundamental interests of the two peoples. China will continue to support Gambia's national development and the improvement of people's livelihood and is ready to deepen bilateral strategic communication and jointly uphold non-interference in internal affairs, a basic norm governing international relations which underpins the very survival of developing countries.

Tangara said, Gambia-China relations have weathered changing circumstances and moved forward steadily, with smooth progress in cooperation in all areas. The two countries have become the most reliable and strongest partners. Friendship with China is a firm political decision of Gambia. We will always stand with China and always adhere to the one-China principle without any change.

Tangara said that like China, Gambia firmly pursues an independent foreign policy and firmly supports multilateralism. China has played a leading role in promoting global development and made important contributions to the global solidarity against COVID-19. Those arrogant countries are in no position to accuse and attack China.

Wang Yi stressed, it is those countries that wantonly smear and slander China that have committed crimes against many developing countries and brought war and suffering to Muslim countries in history. China's development is a contribution to the growth of the force for peace and for development. We have never engaged in proxy wars nor sought the so-called spheres of influence. We oppose power politics and bloc confrontation, stand for equality among all countries regardless of their sizes, and advocate promoting democracy in international relations. China stands firmly with other developing countries and stands on the right side of history. The revitalization of developing countries represents the trend of human progress. We are fully confident that the 21st century will be the one for developing countries.

Tangara welcomed China's attendance at the session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, and looks forward to further strengthening bilateral exchanges and cooperation. Wang Yi said, the Chinese foreign minister's first attendance at the session marks a new stage in China's relations with the Islamic world. He congratulated Gambia on winning the right to host the OIC Summit, and expects and believes that Gambia will continue to play an active role in the OIC, promote unity and progress in the Islamic world and continuously elevate China-Islamic world exchanges and cooperation to new levels.
An adult male gelada in the Simien Mountains. Credit: India A. Schneider-Crease, Arizona State University

Amongst the high mountain meadows and grasslands of the Ethiopian plateau stands one primate, the geladathe "bleeding heart" monkey named for its brilliant red chest. Geladas are the last of their kind, having outlived their extinct relatives by adopting an unusual lifestyle. Unlike their forest- and savannah-dwelling monkey cousins, geladas have carved out a high-altitude niche all to themselves, contently munching on highland grasses for sustenance.

Along with their adept mountaineering skills, geladas can typically be found in herds, clinging to cliffs in the morning, and resting on their cushion-like rumps that are ideally suited for sitting and grazing all day.

What makes them uniquely adapted to thriving in the thin airs of the plateau, 6,000-14,000 feet above sea level from their baboon cousins? And could these features have implications for human adaptation?

"Life at high altitude is very difficult. The air is colder and contains less oxygen," said Snyder-Mackler. "Our team has studied geladas living in such extreme environments for over a decade, so we have a firsthand understanding of how challenging it can be to live at such heights over extended periods of time. Yet geladas have survived for much longer, making us wonder how exactly they have shifted their biology to adapt to their challenging environments."

To crack open the molecular clues behind high-altitude adaptation, ASU School of Life Sciences professor Noah Snyder-Mackler and postdoctoral researcher Kenneth Chiou led a team to first assemble and sequence the gelada genome.

"We were interested in studying gelada high-altitude adaptations because, unlike any human population, geladas have continuously lived at high altitude for hundreds of thousands of years, giving us a window into how primates cope with extreme environments over "deep time". As geladas are closely related to us and share much of our biology, our hope is that learning more about geladas may lend insights into treatments for diseases and disorders associated with high altitude, including mountain sickness and dangerous swelling of the brain and lungs," said Kenneth Chiou, who combed the continent with colleagues to coordinate access to wild geladas and helped lead the study.

They put together the first gelada reference genome, assembled from a single wild adult female gelada from the Simien Mountains, Ethiopia, and combined it with a detailed study of data collected from wild geladas to identify any adaptations to their high-altitude environment.

Into thin air

Within the gelada genome, the most obvious place to start was by examining hemoglobinsproteins which combine in a group of 4, like a magic 4-leafed clover as the key oxygen-carrying molecule found in blood.

"Many animals that have adapted to high altitude have evolved hemoglobin that can more efficiently bind oxygen, which can increase the efficiency of oxygen delivery in the bloodstream when faced with low-oxygen environments," said Snyder-Mackler.

Sure enough, they first identified gelada-specific amino acid substitutions in the alpha-chain subunit of adult hemoglobin. They thought they had found their molecular signature of high-altitude adaptation. They found two amino acid substitutions in hemoglobin alpha, at sites 12 and 23, that are unique to geladas relative to other primates. Most importantly, these substitutions, along with all coding sequences for this protein, were found in all 70 geladas that were sequenced in the study.

But, when they tested these changes in the lab, they were in for a surprise. Remarkably, they found no differences in P50 (a measurement of the partial pressure at which hemoglobin is 50% saturated) of gelada hemoglobin compared to either humans or baboons.

"When we found unique changes in the molecular sequence of gelada hemoglobin, we thought it was a slam dunk that that these molecular changes would be the key to their ability to thrive at high altitude," said Snyder-Mackler, "But our experiments showed that this is not the case, and provide a good reminder of the importance of experimental validation of compelling hypotheses."

The molecular changes of the amino acid substitutions found in gelada hemoglobin simply did not appear to be associated with increased hemoglobinoxygen affinity. So Snyder-Mackler and Chiou turned to another potential adaptive strategy. When humans ascend to high elevation, our bodies sense the drop in oxygen and typically begin producing more oxygen-carrying hemoglobin and red blood cells in response. If geladas similarly had greater hemoglobin levels in blood, the thinking goes, perhaps they could improve oxygen transport in blood without requiring advantages in oxygen-binding of hemoglobin.

Geladas form three main populations that are each geographically restricted to highland areas of Ethiopia. Credit: Arizona State University

Instead, they found that hemoglobin concentrations in gelada blood were no higher than those of humans, baboons, or even geladas living in zoos at sea level.

"The absence of an elevated hemoglobin concentration in wild geladas living at high altitude suggests that they can still provide enough oxygen to tissues in spite of the reduced availability of oxygen," said Chiou. "There are a lot of other ways geladas could be physiologically compensating for low oxygen and these could entail many kinds of changes to respiratory or circulatory traits that affect oxygen transport."

So, the team was forced to look elsewhere within the genome for high-altitude adaptations.

Next, they looked at a physiological measurement on whether the adaptation could be the result of geladas having evolved a greater lung capacity. Sure enough, from their analysis, they found high-altitude geladas exhibit significantly expanded chest circumferences, potentially allowing for greater lung surface area for increased oxygen diffusion.

"Our results show that geladas have significantly expanded relative chest circumferences compared to baboons, which parallels the larger chest dimensions exhibited by native Andean highlanders," said Chiou. "This finding is consistent with the possibility of expanded lung volumes, but we want to be careful, because we did not directly measure lungs in this study. We also do not yet know whether these differences are developmental responses to low-oxygen environments or due to a genetically controlled component of the adaptive toolkit in geladas."

Ultimately, a comparison to chest dimensions in captive geladas born and reared at low altitude, which are currently unavailable, would help distinguish between these two possibilities.

To higher ground

With the hemoglobin protein picture out of the question and the lung capacity issue remaining unsolved, next, they explored any further evidence from genetic differences. They casted a wide net, across over 20,000 protein-coding genes in the gelada genome. Overall, they identified 103 genes showing signatures of positive selection in geladas that might have evolved in response to the high-altitude environment.

These included four genes involved in a hypoxia pathway (ITGA2, NOTCH4, FERMT1 and MLPH). They also identified several that have been identified as candidate genes in human hypoxia-adapted populations, including FRAS1 (which is involved in renal agenesis and exhibits adaptation signatures in Tibetans and Ethiopians). Another gene was HMBS, which is involved in heme biosynthesis in Nepalese Sherpas, and finally TNRC18, a largely unknown gene that is linked to a selection in Bajau deep-sea divers.

"While we found a lot of overlap between pathways under selection in geladas and human populations living at high altitudes, aside from notable examples listed above, few genes identified by our analysis were shared with candidate genes reported by studies of high-altitude human populations or other high-altitude primates," said Chiou.

"This suggests that gelada adaptations to similar challenges at high altitude may largely involve adaptations in different suites of genes. In other words: natural selection may have found a different molecular solution to the same problem."

With the groundwork completed, they will have to continue their gene studies to further refine their understanding.

Conservation implications

Any time a new genome for an animal is completed, it paints a brand new picture of how the population came to be, and provides insights into their genetic diversity.

Geladas are found almost exclusively from 2,350 to 4,550 meters above sea level, where less atmospheric oxygen is available. This is one of the highest altitudinal ranges for any primate species. Credit: Arizona State University

To better understand the demographic history of geladas, including historical population sizes and population divergence, the team also sequenced the whole genomes of 70 captive and wild geladas from multiple parts of Ethiopia (3 wild central geladas; 50 wild northern geladas; 17 captive geladas of central origin) as well as 20 hamadryas baboons from Filoha, Ethiopia.

The geladas in their sample set fell into two distinct populations that are considered subspecies: the northern population, which encompasses all wild individuals from the Simien Mountains, and the central population, which encompasses wild individuals from Guassa Community Conservation Area as well as most individuals from zoos.

"We found no evidence of interbreeding between the two wild gelada populations, and the genetic data suggest that these two populations have been separated from each other for around 500 thousand years," said Chiou.

They also identified a curious and very large difference in the gelada chromosomes, or karyotype, that appears to be at extremely high frequency and possibly fixed in the northern population of geladasa chromosomal fission. They think that that the chromosomal split arose in northern geladas following this population divergence almost a half-million years ago.

The research team thinks this will be a critical piece of data for conservation efforts going forward, and may scramble the current classification of gelada species.

"Given that chromosomal rearrangements tend to be associated with infertilitylike mules, which are the hybrid offspring of a horse and a donkey, our findings suggest that geladas may encompass at least two distinct biological species," said Chiou.

Chiou says this finding is important for a couple of reasons.

"First, a taxonomic revision would roughly halve the populations of each gelada species and, consequently, add urgency to conservation efforts to preserve this previously unappreciated diversity," said Chiou. "Second, the split chromosome we discovered in northern geladas appears to be an extraordinarily recent example of a stable chromosomal variant in a long-lived primate. It therefore provides a unique opportunity to study chromosome evolution and the role of chromosomal rearrangements in speciation in a primate closely related to humans."

Next steps

With the results from the study, the team hopes to continue to refine their understanding of gelada high-altitude adaptation. They now have many new and fruitful research avenues to explore.

"From this study, we identified a suite of gelada-specific traits that may confer adaptation to their high-altitude environment, including evidence for increased lung capacity and positive selection in a number of hypoxia-related genes and regulatory regions," said Snyder-Mackler.

"With this in mind, our genome assembly and gelada-specific genetic changes provide multiple avenues for future research on the function of the protein-coding and regulatory changes unique to geladas. This research builds on our current understanding of the mechanisms of adaptation to extreme environments and provides an avenue for research that may have a transformative impact on the study and treatment of hypoxia-related conditions."

The work was made possible by a large international effort from more than 30 institutions.

The study appears in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

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More information: Kenneth Chiou, Genomic signatures of high-altitude adaptation and chromosomal polymorphism in geladas, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01703-4 Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution Kenneth Chiou, Genomic signatures of high-altitude adaptation and chromosomal polymorphism in geladas,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01703-4
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The further we move away from a heat source, the cooler the air gets. Bizarrely, the same can't be said for the sun, but University of Otago scientists may have just explained a key part of why.

Study lead Dr. Jonathan Squire, of the Department of Physics, says the surface of the sun starts at 6,000 C, but over a short distance of only a few hundred kilometers, it suddenly heats up to more than a million degrees, becoming its atmosphere, or corona.

"This is so hot that the gas escapes the sun's gravity as 'solar wind,' and flies into space, smashing into Earth and other planets.

"We know from measurements and theory that the sudden temperature jump is related to magnetic fields which thread out of the sun's surface. But, exactly how these work to heat the gas is not well understoodthis is known as the Coronal Heating Problem.

"Astrophysicists have several different ideas about how the magnetic-field energy could be converted into heat to explain the heating, but most have difficulty explaining some aspect of observations," he says.

Dr. Squire and co-author Dr. Romain Meyrand have been working with scientists at Princeton University and the University of Oxford and found two previous theories can be merged into one to solve a key piece of the "problem." The group's findings have just been published in Nature Astronomy.

The popular theories are based on heating caused by turbulence, and heating caused by a type of magnetic wave called ion cyclotron waves.

"Both, however, have some problemturbulence struggles to explain why Hydrogen, Helium and Oxygen in the gas become as hot as they do, while electrons remain surprisingly cold; while the magnetic waves theory could explain this feature, there doesn't seem to be enough of the waves coming off the sun's surface to heat up the gas," Dr. Meyrand says.

The group used six-dimensional supercomputer simulations of the coronal gas to show how these two theories are actually part of the same process, linked together by a bizarre effect called the "helicity barrier."

This intriguing occurrence was discovered in an earlier Otago study, led by Dr. Meyrand.

"If we imagine plasma heating as occurring a bit like water flowing down a hill, with electrons heated right at the bottom, then the helicity barrier acts like a dam, stopping the flow and diverting its energy into ion cyclotron waves. In this way, the helicity barrier links the two theories and resolves each of their individual problems," he explains.

For this latest study, the group stirred the magnetic field lines in simulations and found the turbulence created the waves, which then caused the heating.

"As this happens, the structures and eddies that form end up looking extremely similar to cutting-edge measurements from NASA's Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, which has recently become the first man-made object to actually fly into the corona.

"This gives us confidence that we are accurately capturing key physics in the corona, whichcoupled with the theoretical findings about the heating mechanismsis a promising path to understanding the coronal heating problem," Dr. Meyrand says.

"Understanding more about the sun's atmosphere and the subsequent solar wind is important because of the profound impacts they have on Earth," Dr. Squire explains.

"Effects which result from solar wind's interaction with the Earth's magnetic field is called 'space weather,' which causes everything from Aurora to satellite-destroying radiation and geomagnetic currents which damage the power grid.

"All of this is sourced, fundamentally, by the corona and its heating by magnetic fields, so as well as being interesting for our general understanding of the solar system, the solar-corona's dynamics can have profound impacts on Earth.

"Perhaps, with a better understanding of its basic physics, we will be able to build better models to predict space weather in the future, thus allowing the implementation of protection strategies that could head offliterallybillions of dollars of damage."

More information: Jonathan Squire, High-frequency heating of the solar wind triggered by low-frequency turbulence, Nature Astronomy (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01624-z Journal information: Nature Astronomy Jonathan Squire, High-frequency heating of the solar wind triggered by low-frequency turbulence,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01624-z
Authorities on a Portuguese island in the North Atlantic are preparing for the possible evacuation of local people, as six straight days of minor temblors stoke fears of a possible major earthquake or volcanic eruption.

The president of the Azores Islands' regional government said Thursday that airlines are increasing the number of flights into and out of Sao Jorge, where around 8,300 people live, for people who prefer to leave now.

Scientists say it is hard to predict the consequences of the persistent, though low-intensity, seismic activity.

"Anything could happen, nothing might happen," Azores president Jose Manuel Bolieiro told reporters in televised comments during a visit to the island.

Officials in the island municipality of Velas, the epicenter of more than 2,000 minor earthquakes since March 19, are taking elderly people who might have difficulty in quickly evacuating to another part of the island as a precautionary measure.

Emergency services have established safe corridors for traffic and temporary accommodation for evacuees on the eastern side of the island in case they are needed. Velas has around 3,000 inhabitants.

Any public alerts are to be transmitted on local radio, on social media or by ringing church bells, officials say.

Fishing and farming are the island's economic mainstays.

Sao Jorge is one of the nine islands that make up the Azores, which lie roughly 1,500 kilometers (about 1,000 miles) west of the Portuguese mainland.

Sao Jorge is around 58 kilometers (36 miles) long and six kilometers (almost four miles) across at its widest point.

A line of dormant volcanic cones extends along the island's central ridge, which reaches just over 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) at its highest point.

Sao Jorge is a volcanic island which witnessed eruptions in 1580 and 1808. Both are reported to have caused casualties, but reliable information from the time is not available.

The last volcanic eruption on land in the Azores was in 1957, on Faial Island. An earthquake on the same island in 1998 killed 10 people.

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
An artistic impression of the high-frequency retrograde (HFR) vorticity waves. These waves appear as swirling motions near the equator of the Sun. The rotation in the north is always anti-symmetric to the rotation in the southern hemisphere. These mysterious waves move in the opposite direction to the sun's rotation, which is to the right, three times faster then what is allowed by hydrodynamics alone. Credit: NYU Abu Dhabi

Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi's (NYUAD) Center for Space Science have discovered a new set of waves in the sun that, unexpectedly, appear to travel much faster than predicted by theory.

In the study "Discovery of high-frequency-retrograde vorticity waves in the sun," published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchersled by Research Associate Chris S. Hansondetailed how they analyzed 25 years of space and ground-based data to detect these waves. The high-frequency retrograde (HFR) waves, which move in the opposite direction of the sun's rotation, appear as a pattern of vortices (swirling motions) on the surface of the sun and move at three times the speed established by current theory.

The interior of the sun and stars cannot be imaged by conventional astronomy (e.g. optical, X-ray etc.), and scientists rely on interpreting the surface signatures of a variety of waves to image the interiors. These new HFR waves may yet be an important puzzle piece in our understanding of stars.

Complex interactions between other well known waves and magnetism, gravity or convection could drive the HFR waves at this speed. "If the HFR waves could be attributed to any of these three processes, then the finding would have answered some open questions we still have about the sun," said Hanson. "However, these new waves don't appear to be a result of these processes, and that's exciting because it leads to a whole new set of questions."

This research was conducted within NYUAD's Center for Space Science in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and New York University, using NYUAD and TIFR's computational resources. By studying the sun's interior dynamics through the use of waves scientists can better appreciate the sun's potential impact on the Earth and other planets in our solar system.

"The very existence of HFR modes and their origin is a true mystery and may allude to exciting physics at play," said Shravan Hanasoge, a co-author of the paper. "It has the potential to shed insight on the otherwise unobservable interior of the sun."

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More information: Shravan Hanasoge, Discovery of high-frequency retrograde vorticity waves in the Sun, Nature Astronomy (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01632-z Journal information: Nature Astronomy Shravan Hanasoge, Discovery of high-frequency retrograde vorticity waves in the Sun,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01632-z
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals, but whether they, and other animals and invertebrates, have emotions is being hotly debated and could shake up humans' moral decision-making, says a York University expert in animal minds.

Most countries don't recognize invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, as sentient beings that can feel pain, but the United Kingdom is considering amendments to its animal welfare legislation that would recognize this.

"A London School of Economics (LSE) report commissioned by the U.K. government found there is strong enough evidence to conclude that decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs are sentient," says York University Professor and philosopher Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds, who is working with the LSE team.

Andrews co-wrote an article published today in the journal Science, "The question of animal emotions," with Professor Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Emory University, which discusses the ethical and policy issues around animals being considered sentient.

Andrews points out it has long been thought in Western culture that other animals don't feel pain or have emotions. "It's been a real struggle even to get fish and mammals recognized under welfare law as sentient. So, it's pretty cutting-edge what seems to be happening in the U.K. with invertebrates."

Pre-verbal human babies were considered not to feel pain up until at least the 1980s. It is still thought by many that animals, including invertebrates, don't feel pain and only have unconscious reactions to negative stimuli. However, research on mammals, fish, octopuses, and to a lesser extent crabs, has shown they avoid pain and dangerous locations, and there are signs of empathy in some animals, such as cowsthey become distressed when they see their calf is in pain.

Recognizing the sentience of invertebrates opens a moral and ethical dilemma. Humans can say what they feel, but animals don't have the same tools for describing their emotions. "However, the research so far strongly suggests their existence," says Andrews, is working on a research project called Animals and Moral Practice.

"When we're going about our normal lives, we try not to do harm to other beings. So, it's really about retraining the way we see the world. How exactly to treat other animals remains an open research question," says Andrews. "We don't have sufficient science right now to know exactly what the proper treatment of certain species should be. To determine that, we need greater co-operation between scientists and ethicists."

There may be a point when humans can no longer assume that crayfish, shrimp, and other invertebrates don't feel pain and other emotions.

"If they can no longer be considered immune to felt pain, invertebrate experiences will need to become part of our species' moral landscape," she says. "But pain is just one morally relevant emotion. Invertebrates such as octopuses may experience other emotions such as curiosity in exploration, affection for individuals, or excitement in anticipation of a future reward."

It may be time to look at our world differently.

More information: Frans B. M. de Waal, The question of animal emotions, Science (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2378 Journal information: Science Frans B. M. de Waal, The question of animal emotions,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abo2378
Leon Espert Miranda, Dr. Julian Schmitt and Erik Busley. Credit: Volker Lannert/University of Bonn

Researchers at the University of Bonn have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces. The study is published in the journal Science.

If you plug the outlet of an air pump with your finger, you can still push its piston down. The reason: Gases are fairly easy to compressunlike liquids, for example. If the pump contained water instead of air, it would be essentially impossible to move the piston, even with the greatest effort.

Gases usually consist of atoms or molecules that swirl more or less quickly through space. It is quite similar with light: Its smallest building blocks are photons, which in some respect behave like particles. And these photons can also be treated as a gas, however, one that behaves somewhat unusually: You can compress it under certain conditions with almost no effort. At least that is what theory predicts.

Photons in the mirror box

Researchers from the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) at the University of Bonn have now demonstrated this very effect in experiments for the first time. "To do this, we stored light particles in a tiny box made of mirrors," explains Dr. Julian Schmitt of the IAP, who is a principal investigator in the group of Prof. Dr. Martin Weitz. "The more photons we put in there, the denser the photon gas became."

the optical microresonator realizes the photon box. Credit: Volker Lannert/University of Bonn

The rule is usually as follows: The denser a gas, the harder it is to compress. This is also the case with the plugged air pumpat first the piston can be pushed down very easily, but at some point it can hardly be moved any further, even when applying a lot of force. The Bonn experiments were initially similar: The more photons they put into the mirror box, the more difficult it became to compress the gas.

However, the behavior changed abruptly at a certain point: As soon as the photon gas exceeded a specific density, it could suddenly be compressed with almost no resistance. "This effect results from the rules of quantum mechanics," explains Schmitt, who is also an associate member of the Cluster of Excellence "Matter and Light for Quantum Computing" and project leader in the Transregio Collaborative Research Center 185. The reason: The light particles exhibit a "fuzziness"in simple terms, their location is somewhat blurred. As they come very close to each other at high densities, the photons begin to overlap. Physicists then also speak of a "quantum degeneracy" of the gas. And it becomes much easier to compress such a quantum degenerate gas.

Self-organized photons

If the overlap is strong enough, the light particles fuse to form a kind of super-photon, a Bose-Einstein condensate. In very simplified terms, this process can be compared to the freezing of water: In a liquid state, the water molecules are disordered; then, at the freezing point, the first ice crystals form, which eventually merge into an extended, highly ordered ice layer. "Islands of order" are also formed just before the formation of the Bose-Einstein condensate, and they become larger and larger with the further addition of photons.

The condensate is formed only when these islands have grown so much that the order extends over the entire mirror box containing the photons. This can be compared to a lake on which independent ice floes have finally joined together to form a uniform surface. Naturally, this requires a much larger number of light particles in an extended box as compared to a small one. "We were able to demonstrate this relation in our experiments," Schmitt points out.

To create a gas with variable particle number and well-defined temperature, the researchers use a "heat bath": "We insert molecules into the mirror box that can absorb the photons," Schmitt explains. "Subsequently, they emit new photons that on average possess the temperature of the moleculesin our case, just under 300 Kelvin, which is about room temperature."

The researchers also had to overcome another obstacle: Photon gases are usually not uniformly densethere are far more particles in some places than in others. This is due to the shape of the trap which they are usually contained in. "We took a different approach in our experiments," says Erik Busley, first author of the publication. "We capture the photons in a flat-bottom mirror box that we created using a microstructuring method. This enabled us to create a homogeneous quantum gas of photons for the first time."

In the future, the quantum-enhanced compressibility of the gas will enable research into novel sensors that could measure tiny forces. Besides technological prospects, the results are also of great interest for fundamental research.

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More information: Erik Busley et al, Compressibility and the equation of state of an optical quantum gas in a box, Science (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm2543 Journal information: Science Erik Busley et al, Compressibility and the equation of state of an optical quantum gas in a box,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abm2543
The cooperation of male dolphins for the purpose of reproduction is highly unusual in the animal kingdom. Credit: Simon Allen

The reproductive success of male dolphins is not determined by strength or age, but via social bonds with other males. The better integrated males are in their social network, the more offspring they produce, a new study by an international team of researchers led by the University of Zurich has shown using long-term behavioral and genetic data.

Male dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia live in complex social groups in which they form long-lasting bonds to cooperate with other males. To do this, they join in large, stable alliances. Within these alliances, males form smaller, less stable groups of two to three to mate with females, steal them from other alliances or defend against attacks.

Cooperating for the purpose of reproduction

"This kind of male cooperation for the purpose of reproduction is highly unusual in the animal kingdom. It's only been observed in a much less complex form in some other primates," says Livia Gerber, a former Ph.D. student at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Zurich. Together with an international team led by UZH professor Michael Krutzen, she wanted to find out whether the dolphins' complex social life affects the reproductive success of males, or whether, as in most other species, stronger or more experienced males are more likely to sire offspring. The researchers analyzed 30 years of behavioral data from 85 male dolphins and used genetic data to conduct paternity analyses for more than 400 dolphins.

Credit: University of Zurich

Social bonds more important than strength and age

The study showed that well-integrated "popular" males with strong social bonds to many alliance partners produce the most offspring. Partner stability within the smaller, variable groups of two to three males and the age difference to alliance members, in contrast, played no role in the animals' reproductive success.

Previous research had suggested that social bonds improve the animals' chances of survival, increase their longevity and lead to better immune responses and health. While all these effects might contribute to a male dolphin's lifetime reproductive success, the positive effect of social bond strength on cooperation was probably the key factor, according to first author Gerber: "Well-integrated males might be in a better position to harness the benefits of cooperation and access crucial resources such as food or mates. They may also be more resilient to partner loss compared to those with few, but closer partners."

Social bonds among male dolphins positively impact their reproductive success and are, therefore, directly linked to fitness. Credit:  Simon Allen

Long-lasting friendships improve fitness

Cooperation among social partners is very common in mammals, but its influence on paternity success has not yet been studied in depth. However, understanding the factors that determine reproductive success and thus individual fitness is at the core of evolutionary biology. "Our study is the first to show that social bonds among male dolphins positively impact their reproductive success and are, therefore, directly linked to fitness," says senior author Michael Krutzen. "This had previously only been observed in male chimpanzees and some other primates. Our study expands upon previous findings on land mammals and provides compelling evidence that such highly complex, multi-level social systems also developed independently in the ocean."

The research was published in Current Biology.

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Banner image: The "Baker" explosion, part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear weapon test by the United States military at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia, on July 25, 1946. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Brian Toon has gotten emails from all over the world in the last few weeks, many from people frantically asking what to do or where to go if nuclear war breaks out.

Toon, a professor of atmospheric and space physics and atmospheric and oceanic sciences, is a leading nuclear war researcher, so the sudden flood of panicked messages makes sense. As Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24, he threatened any intervening country with "consequences you have never faced in history."

And during an interview Tuesday with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Putin's chief spokesperson refused to rule out the possibility that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons.

Is Putin serious? And if Russia did deploy nuclear weapons, what would that mean for the rest of the world? Toon shared his nearly 40 years of nuclear expertise to shed some light on the situation.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How real is the threat of nuclear war right now?

I don't think we should be very worried. Putin is fully aware that if he actually started a nuclear war, he would end up with Russia being a burning pile of rubble. There are only 200 cities in Russia with more than 100,000 people. The U.S. could attack every Boulder-sized and bigger city in Russia with 10 nuclear weapons. Putin is certainly aware of that and I don't think he would want that. What he's trying to do is bully the West into not helping Ukraine.

What are the other nuclear implications of Russia's invasion and Putin's threat?

The world is always on a hair-trigger for nuclear war. The American president and the Russian leader have military people who follow them around with nuclear launch codes, because there are all these ground-based missiles that need to be launched within tens of minutes before they are destroyed if we are attacked. For example, there are about 50 nuclear-tipped missiles just north of us near Fort Collins always waiting to be launched at Russia. It's dangerous and it's open to accidents and misunderstandings, but it's unlikely anything is going to happen.

What's the status of nuclear weapons around the world?

In 1986, there were 70,000 nuclear weapons on the planetit was totally out of control. Right now, there are about 13,000 on the planet. That build-down started when former President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, agreed to eliminate a lot of short-range nuclear weapons in Europe because the scientific community told them that if they used all these weapons, they were going to destroy most of the population on the planet.

Now, the U.S. and Russia are limited by treaty to have about 2,000 nuclear weapons each that are ready to fire; they have another 2,000 weapons each that are in storage or reserve that can be brought out in an emergency. The U.S. and Russia have 90 percent of the weapons, but Britain and France have 200 each, China has about 200, India and Pakistan have 150 each, Israel has around 100 and North Korea has some unknown number.

How powerful are today's nuclear weapons?

If you take the smallest nuclear weapon on an American submarine, the zone of death around ground zero is about 3 miles in radius, so drop just one of those in the middle of Denver and it would eliminate a large fraction of the city. An American submarine carries about 96 nuclear warheads and they're each about 10 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb that killed 100,000 people in 1945. That means an American submarine could potentially kill 100 million people if it launched all of its bombs toward cities. And the Russians could do the same.

What would happen if a country decides to use nuclear weapons?

If there was a war between India and Pakistan, which are not very big nuclear weapons countries, and they used half of their arsenals, it would kill somewhere between 50 and 150 million people from the direct explosions in cities. But we think about 1 to 3 billion people would die globally because the smoke from the burning cities would get into the stratosphere and block sunlight. Ground temperatures would fall to Ice Age conditions within weeks and destroy agriculture. People would starve to death because they couldn't grow food.

With a nuclear war between the U.S., Europe and Russia, it would get even colder because there would be even more smoke. In grain-growing areas like Ukraine and Iowa, temperatures would fall below freezing for two years. Not only can you not grow anything, but you don't have transportationthe refineries are going to be destroyed, and power lines are all going to go down. There's only enough food in a city for about six days and there is only enough grain in global storage to feed the world's population for about 60 days. So, this is a threat to the global population, even if you're nowhere near where the explosions occurred.

What long-term concerns do you have?

Unfortunately, Russia and the U.S. have been in an arms race. In future decades, we could have a big problem with how short the warning time of an attack could be. Right now, the President has this 30-minute window to defend against missiles, but Russia is building weapons to shorten the warning time.

If the warning time is just minutesthere won't be time to wake up the U.S. president to have him or her decide to launch our missiles, so what are you going to do? Will we have to have artificial intelligence (AI) decide if we're being attacked and whether we should respond? We will be forced into a situation in which, instead of having the president decide, we're going to have some machine decide?

What's your message to people who are worried about nuclear war right now?

People shouldn't dwell on this. We have enough problems with unending COVID and other social issues. But they should realize there are many nuclear weapons out there, and we need to do something so we don't have threats of nuclear war in the future. New treaties could prevent the use of AI from controlling nuclear weapons and stop the development of new types of nuclear weapons delivery systems that shorten the warning time. Removing land-based missiles in the U.S. could eliminate a target painted on America that we otherwise have to defend by attacking Russia with nuclear weapons if we think, with no time to be sure, that they are attacking us.

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CHPS, on-station around the moon. Credit: USSF/AFRL

As human activity extends outward into the solar system, we'll need a way to keep track of space junk, and the growing number of missions around the moon and beyond.

Recently, the newly-formed U.S. Space Force announced plans to create CHPS, the Cis-lunar Highway Patrol System. Despite an acronym harking back to a certain cheesy TV series in the 1970s, CHPS will provide a serious look at space traffic further out in orbit around the Earth-moon system. Such a network is vital, as private companies and space agencies are set to return to the moon in a big way in the coming decade.

"The CHPS program will deliver space domain awareness, in a region that is one thousand times greater than our current area of responsibility," says CHPS program manager Michael Lopez in a recent press release. "AFRL is interested in hearing from companies that may have ideas that differ from ours, and could contribute to the satellite's capabilities."

The problem was highlighted recently with the impact of a rocket booster on the moon on March 4. Though far from a singular event (discarded objects related to lunar missions have been hitting the moon since the Soviet Union's Luna-1 mission in 1959), this was one of the first such "lost objects" to be re-discovered right before impact. First thought to be a SpaceX Falcon-9 booster from the DSCOVR mission, the booster was later identified as belonging to China's 2014 Chang'e 5-T1 mission, though the CNSA denies it was theirs. LRO still hopes to image the Hertzsprung crater site on the lunar far side, post impact.

The University of Arizona's Space Domain Awareness Lab also played a role in identifying the errant booster, taking a spectra with the University's Robotic Automated Pointing Telescopes for Optical Reflectance Spectroscopy (RAPTORS) telescope system, which noted the artificial paint coating on the object.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (USSF/AFRL) is working in concert with the U.S. Space Force to design a satellite or series of satellites in cis-lunar orbit to form the Cis-Lunar Highway Patrol System. The system will monitor crewed missions, space debris, and natural asteroids in the lunar environment.

The European Space Agency also recently announced plans for a similar communication constellation around the moon, named Moonlight. China already has a permanent lunar farside relay mission, named Queqiao. This Earth-moon L2-based relay assisted with the Chang'e-4 mission in 2019, which performed the first ever successful soft landing on the lunar farside.

CHPS objects of interest. Credit: USSF/AFRL

Such networks will not only be vital to providing real time communications for astronauts on the lunar surface, but can also provide a in-situ positioning system for missions on and around the moon. Such a network will prove vital to operations as activity picks up. Of course, one topic that has yet to be addressed is international cooperation for such a system: Will it be open to any nation or corporation operating on or around the moon, or proprietary?

Coming right up in 2022 alone, we have the inaugural flight of NASA's Space Launch Systems (SLS) rocket with the uncrewed Artemis-1 mission around the moon and the CAPSTONE lunar gateway pathfinder mission launching on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, both in May. This summer, Astrobotics, and Intuitive Machines will begin private rideshare missions to the lunar surface, both under NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program.

Expect to see CHPS in place sometime around 2025, possibly in time for the first crewed Artemis moon landings. The moon is about to be a busy place, and CHPS will be the celestial traffic cop needed to sort things out in cis-lunar orbit.

Explore further China denies making space junk set to crash into Moon
Traveling ionospheric disturbances following an eruption in the kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean, as measured from the global GNSS networks of receivers. The horizontal axis shows time; the vertical axis shows distance. Yellow areas within the white-line envelope as marked by fiducial arrows are enhanced ionospheric disturbances in total electron content (TEC). Distance is measured along Great-Circle loci with origin at Tonga. The positive and negative distance shows TIDs propagating both northward and southward from Tonga. The eruption antipode is in North Africa, approximately 21,000 km away from Tonga. TIDs took 17-18 hours to reach the antipode and the same time to return to Tonga on the next day. Credit: Shunrong Zhang / Haystack Observatory

The recent eruption of Tonga's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, at 04:14:45 UT on Jan. 15, was recently confirmed to have launched far-reaching, massive global disturbances in the Earth's atmosphere.

Using data recorded by more than 5,000 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ground receivers located around the globe, MIT Haystack Observatory scientists and their international partners from the Arctic University of Norway have observed substantial evidence of eruption-generated atmospheric waves and their ionospheric imprints 300 kilometers above the Earth's surface over an extended period. These atmospheric waves were active for at least four days after the eruption and circled the globe three times. Ionospheric disturbances passed over the United States six times, at first from west to east and later in reverse.

This volcanic event was extraordinarily powerful, releasing energy equivalent to 1,000 atomic bombs of the size deployed in 1945. Scientists have known that explosive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes can trigger a series of atmospheric pressure waves, including acoustic waves, and that they can perturb the upper atmosphere a few hundred kilometers above the epicenter. When over the ocean, they can trigger tsunami waves, and therefore upper-atmospheric disturbances. Results from this Tonga eruption have surprised this international team, particularly in their geographic extent and multiple-day durations. These discoveries ultimately suggest new ways in which the atmospheric waves and the global ionosphere are connected.

A new study reporting the results, led by researchers at MIT Haystack Observatory and the Arctic University of Norway, was published March 23 in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

The authors believe the disturbances to be an effect of Lamb waves; these waves, named after mathematician Horace Lamb, travel at the speed of sound globally without much reduction in amplitude. Although they are located predominantly near Earth's surface, these waves can exchange energy with the ionosphere through complex pathways. As stated in the new paper, "prevailing Lamb waves have been reported before as atmospheric responses to the Krakatoa eruption in 1883 and other geohazards. This study provides substantial first evidence of their long-duration imprints up in the global ionosphere."

Haystack has been assembling global GNSS network observations to study important total electron content information on a daily basis since 2000. The observatory shares this data with the international geospace community to enable innovative research on a variety of frontiers, ranging from solar storm effects to low atmospheric forcing. A particular form of space weather caused by ionospheric waves, traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) are often excited by processes including sudden energy inputs from the sun, terrestrial weather, and human-made disturbances. For example, Haystack scientists used TID observations to provide the first evidence that solar eclipses can trigger bow waves in Earth's atmosphere.

Lead author Shun-Rong Zhang says, "Only severe solar storms are known to produce TID global propagation in space for several hours, if not for days; volcanic eruptions and earthquakes normally yield ionospheric disturbances only within thousands of kilometers. By detecting these significant eruption-induced ionospheric disturbances in space over very large distances, we found not only generation of Lamb waves and their global propagation over several days (often monitored as sound waves on the ground for compliance with Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaties) but also a fundamental new physical process. In the end, surface and lower atmospheric signals can make a loud splash, even deep in space."

Beyond these results, Haystack scientists continue additional studies of the Tonga eruption's generation of severe space weather effects.

Explore further Tonga eruption sent ripples through Earth's ionosphere

More information: Shun-Rong Zhang et al, 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption Induced Global Propagation of Ionospheric Disturbances via Lamb Waves Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences (2022). Shun-Rong Zhang et al, 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption Induced Global Propagation of Ionospheric Disturbances via Lamb Waves(2022). DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2022.871275

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
On March 23, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Nigerien Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou in Islamabad on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Wang Yi said that China and Niger enjoy strong mutual trust and friendship and have always firmly supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests. Bilateral economic and trade cooperation is deepening and key projects are progressing smoothly. China is ready to work with Niger to promote the implementation of the outcomes of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and bring more benefits to the Nigerien people.

Wang Yi said, China appreciates Niger's contributions during its tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Niger on multilateral affairs, jointly oppose hegemonism, uphold international fairness and justice and safeguard the common interests of the two countries and other developing countries. China looks forward to Niger's support for the Global Development Initiative (GDI), broadly gathering international consensus and accelerating the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Hassoumi said, the GDI put forward by President Xi Jinping is fully provident and Niger firmly supports it. China has always offered timely assistance to Niger when it encountered difficulties. Niger bears in mind that China was the first to respond to Niger's request for COVID-19 assistance and that the first batch of vaccines arriving in Niger also came from China. China has become an important economic and trade partner of Niger. Niger is ready to deepen its friendship with China and looks forward to more support from China in accelerating economic development and enhancing international competitiveness.

Hassoumi introduced the security situation in the Sahel region and expressed the hope to strengthen regional security cooperation mechanism and improve Niger's security guarantee capability. Wang Yi said that China supports the national security capacity-building of the countries in the Sahel region. Development serves as the foundation of security. China is ready to continue to provide assistance within its capacity to the countries in the Sahel region to speed up development and improve people's livelihood, and mobilize more resources and forge stronger synergy through strengthening South-South cooperation, so as to support African countries in achieving common development.
Map of prevalence estimates of past year intimate partner violence among women aged 15 to 49 years, in 2018. Credit: Lynnmarie Sardinha et al.

Over one in four women (or 27 percent) experience intimate partner violence before the age of 50, according to a worldwide analysis led by researchers from McGill University and the World Health Organization. The largest of its kind, the analysis covers 366 studies involving more than 2 million women in 161 countries.

"Intimate partner violence against womenwhich includes physical and sexual violence by husbands, boyfriends, and other partnersis highly prevalent globally," says McGill University Professor Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, a Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling.

According to the finding published in The Lancet, one in seven women (or 13 percent) experienced intimate partner violence within the last year of the study period between 2000 and 2018. The analysis also found high levels of violence against young women, estimating that 24 percent of those between the ages of 15 to 19 experienced domestic violence in their lifetime.

While the numbers are alarming the true scale of violence is likely even higher, the researchers say, noting that the studies were based on self-reported experiences. Given the stigmatized nature of the issue, women can be hesitant to report their experiences, they explain.

High-income countries reported lower rates of domestic violence

The researchers found regional variations, with high-income countries having lower prevalence of both lifetime and past year violence. The lifetime prevalence among women aged 15 to 49 was highest in Africa, South Asia, and parts of South America. The regions with the lowest estimated lifetime domestic violence against women were Central Asia and Central Europe.

The proportion of women who experienced intimate partner violence in the last year was around 5 percent for North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In regions of Africa, this number was as high as 15 percent to 30 percent.

Violence against women by male intimate partners. Credit: Lynnmarie Sardinha et al.

Canada among countries with lowest rates of domestic violence

"While Canada is among the top 30 countries with the lowest rates of intimate partner violence, it's still a problem that affects 1 in 25 women," notes Professor Maheu-Giroux. "Some provinces in Canada are looking at different ways to address domestic violence. In Quebec, for example, the government approved a pilot project in 2021 to create a special court for victims of domestic and sexual violence," he adds.

Calls to strengthen response in pandemic rebuilding efforts

"Overall, our research shows that governments are not on track to meet global targets to eliminate violence against women and girls. An important takeaway is that even in some high-income countries the prevalence of intimate partner violence is relatively high, which calls for investment in prevention at local and global levels," says Maheu-Giroux.

"In Quebec alone, we witnessed a wave of 17 intimate partner feminicides in 2021the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence and the highest number in more than a decade," he says.

Globally, the problem is likely to have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers explain. There's an urgent need to strengthen the public health response to intimate partner violence, and ensure it's addressed in post-COVID-19 rebuilding efforts, they conclude.

Explore further More than a quarter of women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes, finds new study

More information: Lynnmarie Sardinha et al, Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018, The Lancet (2022). Journal information: The Lancet Lynnmarie Sardinha et al, Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02664-7
Professor Joe Levens, a two-time Pittsburg State University graduate (BST 77, MET 02), has been chosen by the Associated General Contractors Board of Directors for the 2022 Outstanding Educator award.

His work as an educator, a mentor of students, and as a colleague in the construction industry set him apart as an outstanding leader and role model for this award, the AGC said in the announcement.

In addition to a cash award of $5,000, Levens has been invited to the AGCs Annual Convention, to be held March 28-31 in Texas, where he will be recognized at several events throughout the convention. He also will get to choose two of his students to receive a $2,500 scholarship from the AGC Foundation.

Levens has been active in the AGC of Kansas and served as president in 2006.

He began his construction career with Martin K. Eby Construction Co., Inc., shortly after graduation, holding key leadership positions in engineering, field management, project management, estimating and vice president of construction operations.



He is a graduate of the 2003 Leadership Kansas program, is actively involved in numerous civic, professional and university programs, and serves as the director of the Kansas Center for Construction Advancement. In October 2001, he was the recipient of the Pittsburg State University Outstanding Alumni award.

In the latest edition of the Gorilla Connection podcast, listen as Levens shares what drew him to teaching, what he brings to the classroom, and what his students are learning. And, hear how one of his students, Zachary Bures, is using what he learned in the classroom for his senior capstone project  a project that is making a significant impact on an historic building in Pittsburg.

Gorilla Connection
FORT EDWARD  A lawsuit has been filed against the police officers involved in the Tasing of a man inside of the Fort Edward Police Department earlier this year.

Attorney James Knox said his office filed the lawsuit on behalf of his client, Robert Murat-Hinton, against the officers involved, along with the Fort Edward Police Department and the Village of Fort Edward.

Murat-Hinton was arrested on July 8 in connection with a bar fight. In video footage shown by WNYT-TV NewsChannel13, Murat-Hinton is seen kicking a wall while handcuffed, and one of the officers can be heard telling him to stop.

After Murat-Hinton appears to stop, Police Sgt. Dean Watkins shoots him with his Taser twice while officers Joseph DeAngelo, Edward Ackley and Nathan Marshall stand by.

Knox said his firm filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Murat-Hinton, and is suing for excessive force and failure to intervene. Another count in the lawsuit suggests that the department promotes this kind of behavior.

Were going to be exploring whether theres been a policy in the department that authorized this kind of excessive uses of force on detainees, he said.

He said the reason they are looking into such a policy is because of Watkins rank with the department. He said that fact leads him to question whether this is regular behavior for the department.

He noted that the other officers seemed to go about their business for the rest of the evening until EMTs arrived for Murat-Hinton.

There doesnt seem to be any evident concern or alarm about the nature of that brutal assault that they all just witnessed and participated in, Knox said.

This would fall under Monell liability, which allows a plaintiff to sue the municipal employer for promoting policies or practices that are unconstitutional in nature and lead to an officers misconduct.

The prosecution would have to show that there is a policy or practice promoting or excusing excessive force by department members.

Knox said they are investigating that as the case moves ahead.

The conduct of (Watkins) that was seemingly unquestioned by three subordinates who are present, to me strongly indicates that there was such a policy, he said.

Knox said that both the village of Fort Edward and the police department are named in the lawsuit as a precaution. He said he is unsure if there is a significant separation between the village and the department, so they are both included to make sure that the proper defendants are named.

The lawsuit states that as a result of Murat-Hinton being handcuffed to the wall when he was Tased, he could not be driven all the way to the floor, resulting in severe injuries to his wrists, hands and shoulder. He also sustained burns to his skin.

Knox said he has had many cases where he was personally convinced that an officer should have intervened or had the opportunity to stop the use of excessive force.

But he said this is the first time that he has seen it so clearly captured on camera.

What has been remarkable to me about this case, and I expect it will be remarkable as we go forward, is the way in which the other officers stand right by while their supervisor brutalizes somebody who is helpless, who is handcuffed and at the moment of the Tasing is compliant with the officers directions, Knox said.

There is a demand for a jury trial in the lawsuit, but Knox said that is standard procedure when filing with federal court. He said that in a civil case like this one, if you do not demand a jury trial in writing you are not entitled to one if a settlement is not reached.

Knox said he is unsure what will come of this lawsuit and where things will go, but in his eyes there is real change that needs to happen in the department.

Was Mr. Murat-Hinton a perfect person? No, but no one deserves to be treated like that, Knox said.

The process of serving the defendants in this case is underway, according to Knox. The Fort Edward Police Department and Fort Edward Mayor Matt Traver did not respond to The Post-Star for comment by late Wednesday afternoon.

Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at 518-742-3224 or jmullen@poststar.com.

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A Washington County grand jury has indicted John Fox, the suspect in the arson fire that destroyed Greenwichs Wilmarth Building on Feb. 6, on 12 felony counts.

The blaze destroyed a landmark building in the heart of Greenwichs downtown business district, burned out four businesses and left seven tenants homeless. A building next door sustained smoke and water damage.

In an indictment issued on March 10, the grand jury accused Fox of one count of second-degree arson, which is classified as a violent felony, for allegedly intentionally starting a fire in the building when Fox knew others were in the building, and one count of first-degree reckless endangerment, a felony, for engaging in conduct which created a grave risk of death to another person.

There are nine counts of second-degree criminal mischief, a felony, for damaging property valued at more than $1,500 that belonged to other people.

The indictment lists Marta Ward, the buildings owner; Judith Klingebiel, Clifford (Oliver) Mealy, and Penny Spiezio, who had businesses in the building; and tenants Renee DAiuto, Tyler Smith, Pamela Smith, Josh Rodriguez and Samantha Sprague.

DAiuto, Foxs cousin, was letting him stay with her when the fire started in the room where she had put him up.

The 12th count is second-degree assault, classified as a violent felony, stemming from an incident on Feb. 7 when Fox injured an unspecified peace officer in Fort Edward.

Fox fled the Wilmarth building when the fire started. Law enforcement personnel, including a K-9 team, captured him later that day. He was taken to the county jail in Fort Edward for arraignment and held there until he could be transferred to a medical facility in Westchester County for treatment of injuries.

Foxs case has been transferred from Greenwich Village Court, where he made his first court appearance on Feb. 15, to Washington County Court.

Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan said Foxs next court date is May 20.

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BALLSTON SPA  Moreau Town Supervisor Todd Kusnierz said he cannot speak on the lawsuit filed against him by a former Saratoga County employee.

I will just let the record stand for itself, Kusnierz told a Post-Star reporter at Tuesdays Town Board meeting.

Kusnierz has been named along with Saratoga County Administrator Steven Bulger and the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, by former county employee Marcy McNamara.

McNamara, employed with the county since 2009, was the human resources director before she claims she was wrongfully terminated on July 23, 2021.

In the lawsuit, McNamara claims she was discharged from her position after filing an internal complaint against Kusnierz for creating a hostile work environment and speaking in derogatory tones based on her gender. McNamara became the first woman to serve as Saratoga Countys director of human resources when she was promoted in May 2015.

According to the documents, prior to the appointments of Kusnierz as chairman of the board and Bulger as county administrator, reviews of her job performance were always positive.

McNamaras lawsuit states the problems began when she received additional pay, along with other county employees, as an essential worker during the pandemic. In March 2020, Kusnierz publicly expressed his thoughts regarding McNamara being included in the temporary pay increase, stating it was absolutely ridiculous.

She then decided to email a request, which was reportedly ignored, for Kusnierz HR concerns to be relayed through other board members.

The next day at the Board of Supervisors meeting, on March 27, 2020, Kusnierz called for her resignation, according to court documents.

After a formal internal complaint of harassment against Kusnierz was filed by McNamara in April 2020, the county hired an attorney investigator to interview both McNamara and Kusnierz. An investigation concluded in August 2020 found Kusnierz did not discriminate or harass the plaintiff based on gender, but the attorney did state that Kusnierz had acted unprofessionally and suggested he be reminded of the countys harassment policies.

McNamara alleges Kusnierz made attempts to humiliate and diminish her role and responsibilities from 2020 into 2021. She stated she was excluded from meetings with all other department heads and stripped of her additional duties assigned to her in the past such as HIPAA officer or serving on the Labor Management Committee.

Kusnierz told other members of the board he wanted McNamara to be punished for filing a complaint, the documents state.

In May 2021, when her position was up for reappointment for another six-year term as an agenda item for a board meeting, instead of acknowledging McNamaras request for reappointment, the board chose to form a search committee for viable candidates for the position. The lawsuit states this is the first time the board had solicited outside candidates for a position when an internal employee is qualified.

After the board voted, 12-9, against reappointing McNamara, she claims she was prevented from gaining other positions inside the county due to Bulger suggesting other departments not hire her.

McNamara was unable to get another position in the county despite being only a year and a half from the 21-year milestone in her New York State Retirement Plan.

She is seeking payment for compensatory and punitive damages, as well as back pay and benefits.

Saratoga County issued a public statement regarding the matter.

Out of respect for the judicial process, the county will not discuss ongoing litigation, the statement read. As standard practice, the county maintains an insurance policy that includes counsel representation for employees who have been named in litigation.

Jana DeCamilla is a staff writer who covers Moreau, Queensbury, and Lake George. She can be reached at 518-742-3272 or jdecamilla@poststar.com.

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A third candidate has entered the race for the Republican nomination in the 113th state Assembly District, even as friction between the two original candidates is heating up.

Scarlett De Witt of Glens Falls announced her candidacy to The Post-Star on Tuesday, saying she wants to bring a youth perspective to the race for the nomination to challenge four-term incumbent Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake.

De Witt, a 23-year-old restaurant worker and fashion model who has a two-year political science degree, said she thinks the Assembly would be a great entry-level step to a political career.

I may sound a little crazy, but one day I want to be president, she said in a telephone interview.

The other candidates are David Catalfamo, an economic development official and novelist from Wilton, and Michael York, a real estate agent from Saratoga Springs.

York, on March 8, posted a campaign video on YouTube criticizing Catalfamo for remarks he made in a 2017 televised interview, in which he discounted the relevance in politics of sexual harassment charges against Hollywood executives and celebrities.

Voters dont care about that. The voters are not going to vote on that, Catalfamo said in the 2017 interview on Capital Tonight, a Spectrum News politics program. The bigger question is whether or not this year, given the fiscal problems we are going to have, whether were going to have as big of a film tax credit going forward. I think that may be a good reason to go vote.

At the time, Catalfamo was a public relations consultant with Park Strategies, the political consulting and lobbying firm of former Republican U.S. Sen. Alphonse DAmato.

Catalfamo, in a telephone interview on Tuesday, said he had not seen the video, but apparently York relayed his comments out of context.

Im focused on talking to voters and getting our message out, he said. Honestly, I dont look at his ads.

York, in a telephone interview, said that he did not ask permission from Spectrum News to use a segment from its program in his campaign ad.

It was something I found and I shared it, he said.

York captioned the campaign video, Dave Catalfamo Defending Gov. Cuomo Again?

York said that earlier in the program, before the segment that he included in his campaign video, the discussion began with a question about whether it was ethical for Cuomo to hold fundraisers with Hollywood celebrities, in light of sexual harassment accusations.

Catalfamo bristled at York attempting to link him, out of context, with Cuomo.

No one has been more strident of an opponent of Andrew Cuomo than me, he said.

Catalfamo said he left Park Strategies in 2018 to work on the gubernatorial campaign of Marcus Molinaro, Cuomos Republican challenger, after Cuomo threatened retaliation against Park Strategies if any of its employees worked on Molinaros campaign.

Thats how serious I was, he said.

York said he plans to post more campaign videos publicizing Catalfamos past comments in media interviews.

Thats only one gaffe. Hes got so many, York said.

Catalfamo said voters are more concerned about the economy.

Theres a lot of pain, as you know  fuel prices and energy prices, he said. Those are the things that matter to voters, not something I said in 2017.

As to De Witts candidacy, Catalfamo and York both welcomed her to the race and said it was inspiring for a young person to be interested in politics.

Thats what you want to hear, York said.

Good for her. Seriously, good for her, Catalfamo said.

De Witt focuses on education

De Witt said her campaign will focus on changes to the educational system, such as requiring all students to pass a course on financial management in order to graduate, and eliminating standardized testing.

We teach a child to pass a test, and then to pass the next test, meanwhile teaching basic knowledge is being overlooked, she said.

She said that teaching methods should be more flexible to accommodate students who learn in non-traditional ways, and that elementary classrooms should be configured around circular tables, instead of rows of desks, to increase student communication skills.

The district includes portions of Saratoga and Washington counties and Glens Falls in Warren County.

Assimilating immigrants into society will be another emphasis.

De Witt said public documents should be published in the 10 most-common languages spoken in New York.

She said she would push for tax credits for businesses that purchase locally grown produce and meat.

The Saratoga and Washington County Republican Committees have endorsed Catalfamo, and the Warren County Republican Committee has endorsed York.

De Witt entered the race after the endorsement process was completed.

Glens Falls Republican Chairman Michael Borgos said he is not familiar with De Witt and was not aware of her candidacy.

I have had no contact with her whatsoever, he said.

Borgos said he is surprised that De Witt did not reach out to the party to discuss her candidacy and learn about the process of circulating nominating petitions to get on the ballot.

She might be energetic, he said. Its certainly an open process. Its just such a short time frame to work with.

Candidates began circulating nominating petitions on March 1 and must file them with the state Board of Elections by April 7.

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WARRENSBURG  A nursing home owned and operated by Warren County will receive funding for key structural improvements and a makeover.

A total of $4.6 million of capital improvements will go into Countryside Adult Home, located on Schroon River Road in Warrensburg, to bring the facility more up to date as well as address issues that were identified during an engineering assessment in 2019.

The renovations include fixing the building structure, improving the buildings efficiency, enhancing the air quality and adding air conditioning. The buildings roof, doors and window will be replaced, including upgrading the plumbing and electrical utilities.

We are very excited about the impact this work will have. Our care here for residents at Countryside Adult Home has always been superb, and with these improvements our facility will be top-notch as well, said Amy McByrne, director of Countryside Adult Home, in a news release.

The total cost of the project amounts to $4,662,976.

Warren County Planning and Community Development has secured $1.3 million in state grant funding, while an additional $950,000 will come from federal stimulus funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, which will be used for air filtration improvements.

The rest of the cost will be covered by designated county funds.

Countryside Adult Home provides vital services to our seniors, and Warren Countys investment in our adult home will improve the lives of those who live and work at Countryside for years to come, said Kevin Geraghty, Warrensburg town supervisor and chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, in a statement.

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Let me start by saying that I think changing the clocks twice a year is annoying.

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved bipartisan legislation last week that would make daylight saving time permanent, starting in 2023. But according to BuzzFeed News, the bill, titled the Sunshine Protection Act, sort of passed by accident. Since most senators werent even aware it was happening, they didnt object to it, even though some might have wanted to. (If that sounds absurd, thats because it is.)

Currently, nearly a dozen states operate on daylight saving time all year long. North Carolina has tried, unsuccessfully, to become one of them; over the years, bills to make daylight saving time permanent have passed the state House of Representatives but died in the Senate. North Carolinas own Madison Cawthorn even introduced a similar bill in Congress last year, calling for an end to pointless clock adjustments.

But is this the right way  or even the right time  to be changing it? At a press conference last Thursday, a reporter asked North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper what he thought about the Senates passage of the Sunshine Protection Act.

I probably would rather just go back to standard time and stay there, Cooper said. Thats what sleep experts say you should do. But that hasnt been my most pressing issue this week. It was pressing when we actually leapt forward, it was pressing for about 48 hours, but Ill let Congress deal with that.

Cooper is right. Standard time is more closely aligned with our circadian rhythm, experts say, and permanent daylight saving time could result in a kind of social jet lag. That comes with a slew of potential health risks, such as mood disorders, cardiovascular disease and an increase in motor vehicle crashes.

The U.S. has tried to make daylight saving time permanent before, in the 1970s. It didnt work. People got tired of colder, darker mornings, so we quickly switched back.

Of course, most people, understandably, hate when it gets dark at 5 p.m. Its nice to be able to go for a walk in the evenings to decompress, or at least enjoy an hour or two of daylight after the workday ends.

But its not any fun to wake up to darkness, either, especially in the winter. Who doesnt want to see blue sky when opening the blinds every morning, or sip coffee out on the porch before work?

All of these things may be true, and yet Cooper is perhaps even more right in saying that daylight saving time is hardly the most pressing issue right now. It is ironic how quickly the Senate was able to (accidentally?) vote to make daylight saving time permanent, considering how slow it is to accomplish nearly everything else.

Even House Democrats were surprised to see the Senate acting in such haste.

Im really thinking about dying people and Im thinking about whats going on in Ukraine. We just had the president here. I dont give a damn about what people think about it, Rep. Maxine Waters of California said Wednesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would probably take up the issue at some point, but its not their priority right now. And it shouldnt be. Sure, it might be nice to hear that bipartisanship isnt completely dead, but its not particularly heartening that one of the few things politicians can agree on is whether or not we should change our clocks twice a year.

Although it may get people talking, the debate over daylight saving time is a pretty trivial one in the grand scheme of things. There are plenty of urgent issues Congress has hardly addressed at all  voting rights, immigration, preparing for the next stage of the pandemic, just to name a few  and it would be nice if they could find the time to get some of that stuff done, too.

Paige Masten is an opinion writer for the Charlotte Observer and McClatchys North Carolina opinion team.

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Two Atlantic County teens have been named as finalists in the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jerseys Your Song! Your Voice! Shout Down Drugs music competition, which challenges New Jersey high school students to create original music with lyrics containing peer-to-peer substance use prevention messages.

Christianna Braschn of Absegami High School, and Jamar Felder, of Egg Harbor Township High School, earned their spots in the statewide program. Brasch entered with her original song Spread Your Wings and Fly, and Felder entered with his original song 1-800-662-4357.

This year, there were 10 finalists from 7 different counties throughout the state. Online voting has been ongoing and will remain open through midnight on May 11.

Your Song! Your Voice! is sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey with support from 95.9 WRAT and the New Jersey Broadcasters Association. The competition will culminate with the virtual Prevention Concert, to be held on the Shout Down Drugs website (ShoutDownDrugs.com ) on May 12 at 6 p.m. Winners will then be announced live on air on 95.9 WRAT immediately following concert.

This is the 18th year we have held this competition, states Angelo Valente, PDFNJs executive director. I commend these students on being leaders and sharing these inspiring songs with their peers.

The New Jersey Broadcasters Association is honored be a part of Your Song! Your Voice! Shout Down Drugs New Jersey music competition, said Paul Rotella, president and CEO of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association. This competition allows for these teens to showcase their talents and share these important messages.

The first, second and third place winners will be announced live by Jimmy Steal, WRATs Creative Services director and Afternoon Drive host on 95.9 WRAT. The audio show will also remain online for listeners on the Shout Down Drugs website.

The WRAT is excited to be part of the Your Song! Your Voice! Shout Down Drugs New Jersey competition again this year, said Jimmy Steal, These talented teens have worked so hard on their songs and we are excited to share them through the virtual show and announce the winners on-air.
In this early photo of the Zion Methodist Church in Bargaintown, notice the dirt road and horse and wagon out front. The first place of worship was built on Andrew Blackmans land in 1764. It was constructed out of cedar boards cut at Babcocks saw Mill in Bargaintown, with nails made by a blacksmith named Jeffers. This meeting house was used by the Presbyterian Society until 1789. Methodists in this area began using the meeting house until 1814. Since many families were coming to worship, a larger brick church was built in 1822, at a cost of $1,525.95. The bricks were made by Samuel Somers and laid in lime made from shells gathered from Lakes and Sculls Bays. Many of the shingles on the roof were split and shaved by Thomas Garwood. The cedar lumber from the old meeting house was kept and used to shelter horses of the worshipers in the new brick church. Many came from as far away as Tuckahoe and Absecon by horse and wagon.
Oozing with confidence, Kaarina Nangolo, 26, left Namibian students enrolled at the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in awe with her close to perfect command of the Chinese language during an orientation event held in the capital city, Windhoek on Wednesday.

Nangolo, who is now a medical practitioner at one of the country's state hospitals, was enrolled at the CI at UNAM in 2014, thereafter she received a scholarship to study at China's Dalian Medical Institution in 2015.

Speaking to visibly excited Namibian students at the orientation, Nangolo attributed her current status to the CI in Namibia which prepared her for the journey.

"The Chinese language is a difficult language to learn, but the CI at UNAM taught me a lot, which made it easier for me to transition during my 7-year stint in China," she said.

Nangolo's story like many other Namibian beneficiaries started at the CI in Windhoek, where she learnt the Chinese language from entry-level.

"By the time I attended my tertiary education in China, I had an idea of how to communicate, of which my Chinese language was further refined by further lessons I received in China," she said.

Explaining why she chose China, Nangolo, says she loves the Chinese culture and the language as she believes it is mind-opening and vast opportunities are available through speaking the language.

"Now I can write, read and I do not have a language barrier. To be honest, language is very important in any day to day business and I am glad that I enrolled at the CI. Currently, if I want to do any business in terms of ordering stuff from China, I can do it easily in Chinese," she told Xinhua.

Nangolo emphasized that language is vital to understanding another culture, while she encouraged budding Namibians to enrol and study hard and learn Mandarin.

"For one to understand a culture, one must be able to communicate," she said, adding that during her stay in China she experienced life-changing episodes, from developmental advancements to cultural heritage, which she can later plough back into her local community.

Head of UNAM Department of Humanities and Arts, Herman Beyer, commended students that have enrolled at the CI.

"You are brave to take on the task to tackle the Chinese culture and language being offered at the CI. This is a bold move in unlocking vast potentials in the various fields of your studies," he added.

To further the learning of Chinese language and culture in Namibia, the CI seeks to organize some Chinese cultural activities since the progress made over the years was eroded by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, said Liu Dianbo, the CI director at the UNAM.

"We might organize a Chinese Bridge competition and some exchange programmes, with the China University of Geosciences(Beijing). The university is eager and will continue accepting some UNAM staff or students to China for their further study, for a master or PhD degree programme supported by Chinese Government Scholarship," he said.

Furthermore, Liu said the CI will try to reignite some of the Chinese teaching sites this year and offer more Chinese courses to students across the country.

"Currently the challenge the CI in Namibia is facing is that there are not enough Chinese lecturers who can come to Namibia due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "The CI is in the process of luring more potential Chinese lecturers to come to Namibia as the pandemic subsides."

The institute currently offers non-credit Chinese courses in the evening time for many Namibians, he added.

"Due to the COVID-19, we have had to downsize our classes to 20 students, despite many Namibians showing interest in joining the CI at the UNAM," he said.
For the first time since 2019, over 2,500 students from throughout New Jersey, including 24 Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) members from Absegami High School, participated in an in person NJ FBLA State Leadership Conference held at Harrahs Waterfront Convention Center in Atlantic City from March 9-11.

True to the conferences theme, Absegami students demonstrated Success Starts Here, and were ranked among the states best not only in competitive events, but also in scholarship, community service and membership. Eight Absegami students now advance to the FBLA National Leadership Conference in Chicago from June 29-July 2.

Seniors Bhavya Rama and Darshan Surti earned first-place honors in Network Design, a two-part competitive team event which included a collaborative objective test and an on-the-spot role play which tested their ability to evaluate the needs of an organization and then design and implement network solutions.

Freshmen Mahi Patel and Ria Patel earned second-place honors in Introduction to Business Presentation, where they developed a presentation about workplace policies that should remain in place after the pandemic, including work schedule, work location, format of meetings and networking opportunities.

Kiera Liu, a junior, earned third-place honors in Public Service Announcement. She created a 30-second PSA that promoted mental health awareness.

Sophomores Shyna Kataria and Abigail Reed earned fourth-place honors in Introduction to Event Planning, a two-part competitive team event which included a collaborative objective test and a role-play component where they demonstrated their event planning skills, including customer service, convention planning, pricing and supply chain management.

Sameera Hossain, a junior, not only earned fourth-place honors in Public Speaking, but was also elected to the 2022-23 NJ FBLA State Officer Team as the Southern Region vice president.

Khushi Shah, a senior, won a $1,000 NJ FBLA State Scholarship, and sophomore Jatin Punjabi and freshman Mahi Patel, were both selected as NJ FBLA State Members of the Month for October and February, respectively.

Additionally, the following Absegami students were recognized as placing in the Top 10 in the state in their events: junior Madaline Muuo in Cybersecurity; sophomore Jatin Punjabi in Introduction to Information Technology; sophomore Jessica Westcott in Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure; sophomore Samirah Jackson in Introduction to Public Speaking; and freshman Sarah Miguel in Help Desk.

The Absegami High School Chapter as a whole was recognized with the following awards: Largest Local Chapter Membership in the Southern Region, 2nd Place Community Service Challenge Award, 4th Place Passport of Progress Award, March of Dimes Fundraising Award, Stories for Success Award, and Chapter Website Award of Merit.

The statewide conference included an opening session with state officer candidate speeches, a motivational speaker, over 40 onsite competitive events, a convention hub that included a digital scavenger hunt, trivia showdowns, lip sync battles, games and puzzles, a photo station, and power sessions. Workshops gave students the opportunity to learn more about financial literacy, public speaking, service-minded leadership, ice-breakers, dressing for success, college applications and more. The conference concluded with a two-part awards ceremony that was live-streamed to recognize the students accomplishments.

The Absegami High School FBLA chapter, in its eighth year of reactivation, is working toward building community business partnerships and holding events to raise money for students to compete on the national level. To become a sponsor, make a donation, or learn more about membership in FBLA, please contact FBLA Adviser, Dawn Kosko, at dkosko@gehrhsd.net.
MAYS LANDING  Capt. Brian Lee, of the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office, returned to the department March 17 after training at the FBI National Academy.

Lee, who has been with the Prosecutors Office since 2000, completed a 10-week advanced training course at the Quantico, Virginia, academy, the Prosecutors Office said Wednesday in a news release.

The National Academys 281st session consisted of men and women from 45 states and the District of Columbia, including members of law enforcement agencies from 32 countries, five military organizations and six federal civilian organizations, the Prosecutors Office said.

The National Academy offers 10 weeks of advanced communication, leadership and fitness training, the Prosecutors Office said.

Atlantic City attorney takes plea deal in child endangerment case Charges against an Atlantic County attorney previously convicted of endangering the welfare 

This once-in-a-lifetime experience is something that I will never forget, Lee said in a statement. It provided me an opportunity to meet law enforcement executives from all over our country and the world.

Lee works in the Prosecutors Offices Administration Unit, where he has been since June 2008. He also has served in the agencys Intelligence Unit, Narcotics Strike Force and Litigation Unit, the Prosecutors Office said.

Before joining the Prosecutors Office, Lee was a police officer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

I applaud Capt. Lees determination to attend and graduate from the FBI National Academy, and we are excited for his return to ACPO with all of the knowledge he has gained from this experience, Chief of County Investigators Bruce DeShields said.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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ATLANTIC CITY  Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon and former secretary of housing and urban development under President Donald Trump, will deliver the keynote address this weekend at the New Jersey GOP Statewide Leadership Summit at Harrahs Resort Atlantic City.

Carson is scheduled to speak Saturday during the events Speakers Series Luncheon from 1:40 to 2 p.m. His address will be preceded by those from several federal and state legislators, including U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th; U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd; and former state Sen. Tom Kean. New Jersey Republican Chair Bob Hugin will give welcoming remarks at the beginning of the luncheon at 1 p.m.

Assemblyman Don Guardian, R-Atlantic, also is listed as a scheduled speaker.

Jimmy Whitehead to run for Atlantic City mayor again ATLANTIC CITY  James Jimmy Whitehead, director of the RX5 Cyber Center on Atlantic Avenue

The summit begins Friday with discussions about voting, including an event titled Vote by Mail, Early Voting, Voter Reg. & Election Integrity Training Seminar. A similarly themed event, titled Securing the Vote  Ensuring the Integrity of the Election Process, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday.

Another seminar, Restoring Law & Order, is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Friday, during which Republicans are set to criticize the law enforcement policies of President Joe Biden and Gov. Phil Murphy.

A celebration of the success Republicans encountered in state and local races last November is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. Saturday. The GOP did well in last years municipal races, ousting longtime Senate President Steve Sweeney and coming far closer than expected in their efforts to thwart Murphys reelection. The 2021 GOP gubernatorial nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, is set to deliver thank you remarks at 5:45 p.m. Friday.

Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com

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As opportunities to gamble expand across the country, so too are programs that treat gambling addictions.

The John Brooks Recovery Center is now offering a program to treat people with a gambling addiction, the center said this week in a news release.

Patients admitted to the program must be diagnosed with a co-occurring substance-use disorder.

Staff at the Brooks center, which has locations in Atlantic City, Mays Landing and Pleasantville, is providing its gambling treatment at multiple locations.

There is a Gambling Treatment Program at our residential facility in Mays Landing, as well as our outpatient sites in Pleasantville and Atlantic City, Brooks center CEO Michael Santillo said. We also plan to treat clients in the Atlantic County jail.

The state Department of Human Services is funding the program through a grant awarded by its Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Only 10 organizations in the state were selected for the program, with the Brooks center being the only program selected in Atlantic County.

Clinical Services Supervisor Kenneth Litwak, a gambling counselor certified by the International Gambling Counselor Certification Board, is leading the program.

Santillo praised Litwak as especially qualified for the position.

Litwak is one of approximately 20 internationally certified gambling counselors in New Jersey and is only one of 10 individuals who are Level Two certified, Santillo said.

The gambling program offers one-on-one counseling, group counseling and psychoeducation counseling.

The Council on Compulsive Gambling has named the Brooks center as a treatment provider on its 1-800-GAMBLER network.

This is a fee for service grant that will allow up to 26 sessions of treatment in a 12-month period, Litwak said. This grant allows for the treatment of loved ones of people with a gambling problem, not just the problem gambler. This contract provides funds that can be used for residential or outpatient treatment and can even be used for internet gaming disorder.

About 2 million people in the United States have a gambling addiction, according to an AddictionCenter.com report cited in the release.

For more information, visit jbrcnj.org.

Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com

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The township spent years working on how to bring municipal water to the area, where many property owners say saltwater intrusion will eventually make their well water undrinkable.

Rather than trying to run a water main from elsewhere in the township, officials reached a deal to bring water from the Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority north from the Villas section of Lower Township to Del Haven. An agreement was reached in 2019.

Last fall, the Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority approved a $10 million contract to run the water lines.

But in some instances, owners have balked at the $1,600 fee to connect, which is in addition to the money paid to run a line to the property. The connection fee can be paid off over three years without interest. The connection is available to 953 properties, most of them residential, according to Middle Township officials.

Others question the cost per gallon, which will be higher than that paid by some other public water customers, and certainly more than well water. On Middle Townships social media account, other residents complained about the expected road closures that will come with the project.

$10 million contract approval seals deal on Del Haven water MIDDLE TOWNSHIP  A project to bring fresh water to homes in the Del Haven section of the to

Some were enthusiastic about the plan.

I cant wait for clean, fresh drinking water! A little inconvenience now is worth it in the long run, wrote one resident.

Some who live in Del Haven say their water has a chemical aroma or a bad taste.

The committee approved an application to the Innovative Development Fund through the state Department of Community Affairs Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program.

The fund is available to local governments to support innovative projects, including those that reduce cost and provide efficiencies for the community. The township secured similar grants for Whitesboro water and sewer projects in the early 2000s. If the township receives funding, it will be divided among Del Haven property owners to help cover their plumbing costs.

We also are aggressively pursuing every possible grant that could offset the costs for low- and moderate-income residents, said Mayor Tim Donohue. Thats part of our overall objective to give Del Haven residents access to the same service as the rest of the township.

Middle approves mandatory connection ordinance for Del Haven water MIDDLE TOWNSHIP  The Township Committee on Monday passed an ordinance mandating about 1,000

The vote Wednesday was unanimous. According to Donohue, one speaker raised concerns about the cost to residents, but several other people commented at the meeting in favor of the project.

Officials also expect a safety benefit from the project, giving the Del Haven area fire hydrants for the first time. Work is underway on hydrants, according to the township, with work on the pipes to connect to homes expected to start in June, with one section completed at a time over a year.

Residents will have up to a year from the time of completion to connect to the fresh water supply, reads a statement from the township.

The installation of a water main for the Del Haven project will require closing Bayshore Road between Middle and Lower townships for about two weeks. That could start April 4.

The road will remain closed 24 hours a day throughout the two-week period, because the equipment used to drill the tunnel cannot be moved once in position.

Contact Bill Barlow: 609-272-7290 bbarlow@pressofac.com Twitter @jerseynews_bill

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ATLANTIC CITY  Two Atlantic City High School seniors were awarded college money from a scholarship fund dedicated to a city man who was shot and killed.

Ahnjeles Maldonado and Jai Pridgen-Hill were each awarded $1,000 from the Kendal Hudgins Scholarship Fund, which recently held its inaugural scholarship dinner at the Sugar Factory restaurant at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.

Both students plan to attend Rutgers University in the fall, the scholarship fund said.

Both students are extremely bright young scholars who have big dreams, the scholarships founder, Jayde Hudgins, said in a statement. Despite the challenges and hardships Atlantic City youth face every day coming from an underserved community, they have chosen to remain focused on their goals and were determined to rise above any adversity.

The scholarship was founded to honor Jayde Hudgins brother, Kendal Hudgins, who was murdered in the city in 2012.

Family of murdered Atlantic City man preserving his memory through scholarship ATLANTIC CITY  The family of Kendal Hudgins, a city man murdered a decade ago, is working t

The 30-year-old was attending a New Years Eve party when a gunman opened fire, shooting Hudgins about a dozen times and wounding two other men.

The killing remains unsolved.

Kendal Hudgins was described as someone who valued education, earning bachelors and masters degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University in North Jersey.

His family said he wanted to expand opportunities to underprivileged students, which is why the scholarship fund was started.

Not only did my brother have big dreams and goals to change the narrative for himself and his community, but he acted on it, Jayde Hudgins said. For this reason, we vow to support the educational dreams of the youth in Atlantic City.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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A military testing exercise may have caused a sonic boom to be heard in parts of South Jersey on an otherwise calm Tuesday.

Reports on social media came in about 4 p.m. with people saying they heard a loud boom across the area.

Anybody else hearing the loud bangs in South Jersey? Sounds like sonic booms, but weve now heard three or four booms three separate times, Dan Forshaw, a Somers Point resident, said on Twitter at 4:14 p.m.

Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 aircraft, known as VX-23, based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, may have been the cause of the boom, according to Patrick Gordon, public affairs officer for the station.

The air station is roughly 90 miles southwest of Cape May.

VX-23 aircraft flew along a test track that is over the open water at least three miles from South Jersey south to Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, Gordon said.

Loud booms have occurred in the past that were not related to earthquakes, and for some of those, no cause was determined. The most recent was Feb. 10, when loud booms caused minor damage and were heard up and down the Jersey Shore.

Sound waves typically travel upward in the atmosphere under standard atmospheric conditions, or a decrease in temperatures with height. However, there were increases in temperatures with height in the mid-levels of the atmosphere Tuesday. This acts as a wall  sound waves trying to escape upward will be bounced back toward the surface.

If an aircraft is flying at higher altitudes, the wave can carry inland for some distances and on occasion has, as far west as Hammonton, which has often reported rattled windows, said Jim Eberwine, a retired Marine, meteorologist and emergency manager for the city of Absecon.

Contact Joe Martucci: 609-272-7247 jmartucci@pressofac.com Twitter @acpressmartucci

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unexpectedly decided against reopening schools Wednesday to girls above the sixth grade, reneging on a promise and opting to appease their hard-line base at the expense of further alienating the international community.

The surprising decision, confirmed by a Taliban official, is bound to disrupt efforts by the Taliban to win recognition from potential international donors at a time when the country is mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis. The international community has urged Taliban leaders to reopen schools and give women their right to public space.

The reversal was so sudden that the Education Ministry was caught off guard on Wednesday, the start of the school year, as were schools in parts of the Afghan capital of Kabul and elsewhere in the country. Some girls in higher grades returned to schools, only to be told to go home.

Aid organizations said the move exacerbated the uncertainty surrounding Afghanistan's future as the Taliban leadership seems to struggle to get on the same page as it shifts from fighting to governing.

It also came as the leadership was convening in Kandahar amid reports of a possible Cabinet shuffle.

U.S. Special Representative Thomas West tweeted his "shock and deep disappointment" about the decision, calling it "a betrayal of public commitments to the Afghan people and the international community."

He said the Taliban had made it clear that all Afghans have a right to education, adding, "For the sake of the country's future and its relations with the international community, I would urge the Taliban to live up to their commitments to their people."

The Norwegian Relief Committee, which spends about $20 million annually to support primary education in Afghanistan, was still waiting for official word from the Taliban about canceling the classes for girls above the sixth grade.

Berenice Van Dan Driessche, advocacy manager for the committee, said their representatives had not gotten official word of the change as of Wednesday night, and that girls in the 11 provinces where they work had gone to school but were sent home.

The committee's staff in the provinces "reported a lot of disappointment and also a lot of uncertainty" about the future, she said. It said that in some areas, teachers said they would continue to hold classes for the girls until the Taliban issued an official order.

Waheedullah Hashmi, external relations and donor representative with the Taliban-led administration, told The Associated Press the decision was made late Tuesday night.

"We don't say they will be closed forever," Hashmi added.

U.N. special representative Deborah Lyons will try to meet Thursday with the Taliban to ask them to reverse their decision, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Earlier in the week, a statement by the Education Ministry had urged "all students" to return when classes resumed Wednesday.

On Tuesday, ministry spokesman Mawlvi Aziz Ahmad Rayan had told AP that all girls would be allowed back to school, although the Taliban administration would not insist on it in those areas where parents were opposed or where schools could not be segregated.

He was reluctant to give details but promised if schools can meet these conditions, "there would no issue for them" to begin classes for girls in the higher grades.

"In principle, there is no issue from the ministry side, but as I said, it is a sensitive and cultural issue," he added.

The decision to postpone the return of girls at the higher grade levels appeared to be a concession to the rural and deeply tribal backbone of the hard-line Taliban movement that in many parts of the countryside are reluctant to send their daughters to school.

The decision also came as the movement's leadership has been summoned to southern Kandahar by the reclusive Taliban leader, Haibatullah Akhunzada, amid reports of a Cabinet shakeup, according to an Afghan leader who is also a member of the leadership council. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The official said it was possible that some senior interim Cabinet positions could be changed.

Since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021, there have been persistent reports of differences among the senior leadership. According to these reports, more hard-line members are at odds with pragmatists, who want to see a greater engagement with the world. While staying true to their Islamic beliefs, they want to be less harsh than when they last ruled Afghanistan, banning women from work and girls from schools, the reports say.

Television is permitted in Afghanistan today, unlike in the past, and women are not required to wear the all-encompassing burqa. but must wear the traditional hijab, covering their heads. Women have also returned to work in the Health and Education ministries and at Kabul International Airport at passport control and customs.

The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and returned to power after America's chaotic departure last year.

Girls have been banned from school beyond the sixth grade in most of the country since the Taliban's return. Universities opened earlier this year in much of the country, but since taking power the Taliban edicts have been erratic. While a handful of provinces continued to provide education to all, most provinces closed educational institutions for girls and women.

In the capital of Kabul private schools and universities have operated uninterrupted.

The religiously driven Taliban administration fears going forward with enrolling girls beyond the sixth grade could alienate their rural base, Hashmi said.

"The leadership hasn't decided when or how they will allow girls to return to school," he said. While he accepted that urban centers are mostly supportive of education for girls, much of rural Afghanistan is opposed, particularly in Pashtun tribal regions.

In some rural areas, a brother will disown a city-dwelling brother who allows a daughter to go to school, said Hashmi, adding that the Taliban leadership is trying to decide how to open education for girls beyond the sixth grade nationwide.

Most Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns. In their sweep through the country last year, other ethnic groups such as Uzbeks and Tajiks in northern Afghanistan either joined the fight with them or simply did not oppose them.

"We did everything the Taliban asked in terms of Islamic dress, and they promised that girls could go to school and now they have broken their promise," said Mariam Naheebi, a journalist who spoke to the AP in Kabul.

"They have not been honest with us," added Naheebi, who has protested for women's rights.

___
ATLANTIC CITY  Many attractions are exclusive to shore towns, such as Margates Lucy the Elephant, the Absecon lighthouse, the Ocean City Boardwalk and now, in Atlantic City, theres Batman.

Not the Batman, but AC Batman.

The citys friendly neighborhood self-proclaimed superhero, Curtis Bordley, 31, has been dubbed AC Batman by residents who have spotted him throughout the city wearing his signature attire.

If Im off work, of course, I would get involved and assist if someone needs help, said Bordley, who works as a full-time dishwasher at Ocean Casino Resort. Batman stands for justice.

Bordley said he doesnt fight crime like the real Batman does, but hopes to build his legacy by becoming a tourist attraction by taking pictures with the many onlookers and tourists who enjoy his Batman cosplay, similar to the Naked Cowboy, who is well known for mingling and performing for tourists in New York Citys Times Square.

Bordley said hes already off to a good start, as one of his videos went viral, and locals and visitors alike post their AC Batman sightings on social media, giving him more exposure.

AC Batman usually roams the streets, sidewalks and Boardwalk on foot. He doesnt have a Batmobile, but he does have his Bat Bike Bordley said, an electric scooter that gets him around.

Bordley is an Atlantic City resident who moved from Egg Harbor Township about seven years ago. He decided to become the Dark Knight shortly after moving to the city in 2015 when he noticed what he calls the amount of sin in the city.

Sin is destruction, said Bordley who considers himself quite religious.

The city is full of love, said Bordley who didnt specify what religion he practiced, but said he believed in God and would like to spread His love throughout the resort.

When Bordley isnt being AC Batman, he likes to play video games, make music under his rap persona Curtisy Live, practice martial arts and is an aspiring actor. Some of his projects include creating music videos and releasing music on his Soundcloud page.

He is also working on a future AC Batman documentary.

Bordley occasionally dresses up as a devil hunter from the video game, Devil May Cry but doesnt stray from his Batman path too often.

Bordley said he started dressing up as Batman since he was 15. He used to wear the Batman suit in his home until 2016, when he finally had the courage to come out in public as Batman.

Ive been mocked and ridiculed for my Batman costume, said Bordley, who has been picked on by friends, family and strangers for doing what he loves.

Bordley has also had people become violent with him because of his Batman suit as well.

Ive been beaten up, jumped, robbed, just because Im Batman, said Bordley who mentioned how he got his jaw broken by a group of people back in 2020 that required him to have his jaw wired shut.

Bordley said he doesnt feel any different in his Batman costume, he just genuinely enjoys the happiness and smiles AC Batman brings people.

Contact Selena Vazquez: 609-272-7225 svazquez@pressofac.com

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The woman accused of killing her child in 2020 in Rock Island County will serve about two years on a lesser charge after reaching an agreement with the Rock Island County State's Attorney's Office.

Tanda Allee, 25, of Rock Island, was sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections but qualified for day-for-day credit on the sentence, so she will serve about two years.

She and Mateo Williams, 22, of Rock Island, were charged with first-degree murder in the death of 4-month-old Elias S. Austin on March 9 of 2020. The child suffered multiple fractures and died of blunt force trauma to the skull.

Rock Island police officers were called at 9:21 a.m. March 10, 2020, to the 400 block of 12th Avenue for a report of the suspicious sudden death of a baby, according to Rock Island Police Department reports. The death is thought to have happened about 8 p.m. March 9, 2020.

On Monday, Williams was found not guilty in the case, which was tried by Judge Peter Church in a bench trial. Allee testified as a witness for the prosecution.

On Wednesday, Allee pleaded guilty to endangering the life or health of a child causing death, according to county court records. The murder charge was dismissed.

Wednesdays hearing was also before Church, court records state.

Before she was sentenced, Allee waived a presentence investigation, court records state.

The report that results from a presentence investigation is designed to provide a defendant's history to the sentencing judge to aid in determining the appropriate sentence.

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National Art Museum again displays works by masters and modern painters.



A line of people stretching back about 2 kilometers outside the National Art Museum of China created quite a stir on social networks and in the media one November day in 2017. They were waiting to grab a look of Beauty of the New Era, an exhibition of some of the best modern art in the museum's collection.

The reason for the long line was that the exhibition was going to end that same day. The 10-day show was held to celebrate the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and ultimately, it attracted some 130,000 visitors.

The exhibition garnered so much recognition and attention that it is hardly surprising that its second installment was recently unveiled at the National Art Museum, running through March 30.

Nearly 300 works on show are divided into two sections: one featuring Chinese master artists of the 20th century, such as Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong, and another displaying art created over the past decade to reflect the country's progress.

This time the National Art Museum is working with China Media Group. The latter brings to the exhibition documentaries in which the viewers will get rare glimpses of the life and work of some preeminent artists on show. Many of the works at the exhibition were shown at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, which has been held every five years since 1949.

Wu Weishan, the museum director, says the exhibition is to show new classic works compared to those master paintings created previously. The works on show will reflect the country's transformation in the 20th century, including sustainable development, environmental protection and poverty elimination and recent issues, such as people's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

"These works sparkle with insight and wisdom," Wu says. "They are the mirrors of the character of a nation and the pulse of the time. They vividly tell China's stories and make the world better understand the Chinese art and the spirit of Chinese people."

Jin Shangyi, a well-established artist and honorary chairman of the China Artists Association, says the landmark exhibition shows the National Art Museum of China's devotion to enriching people's cultural life by diversifying and utilizing its immense collection of art.

Making full use of its collection for public viewing and education and to tell China's stories well has been essential to the mission of the National Art Museum and its administrators.

Wu, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, also prioritizes this mission on his agenda when attending CPPCC's annual session.

He says the museum has been rotating, real and virtual, collected works by ancient artists and modern masters at exhibitions, not only to show the general public the country's cultural accumulations but also to inspire the creation of "new peaks rising from a highland" of art.

He proposed at this year's session that the museum will continue to enrich its public education programs by inviting noted scholars and artists to give lectures, and arrange workshops at which artists sculpt statues for heroes.

Exchanging with and showing the collections of international museums is also important to introduce the home audience to world art, he says, and meanwhile, to make the voice of China heard, and present a true, multidimensional and panoramic view of China to the world.
DES MOINES  Legislation increasing penalties for people convicted of abusing, assaulting or exploiting older Iowans has been unanimously approved by the Iowa House and Senate and is on its way to the governor.

The House approved the measure, 95-0, Wednesday.

Many of us have dealt with these situations, whether it involves family members, friends, neighbors, you name it, said Republican Rep. Dustin Hite, a New Sharon attorney. Whether it's a family member, whether it's a huckster or whether it's somebody else that this person trusts, we see that they can take advantage of what can be some of our most vulnerable Iowans.

Senate File 522 ensures that we have added protections for Iowans who need it, Hite said. The bill was amended by the House, so it will return to the Senate, which previously approved it 47-0, before going to the governor.

There was some discussion whether enhanced penalties will reduce assault, abuse and exploitation. Hite said, When somebody picks on the most vulnerable of Iowans, they deserve a harsher punishment.

AARP Iowa praised the Legislature for creating criminal sanctions for elder abuse and fix the existing gap in tools available to law enforcement and financial institutions to stop and prevent exploitation.

Passage of this bill comes at a critical time when elder abuse is on the rise in Iowa and across the country, said AARP state Director Brad Anderson.

The bill establishes several crimes, including assault of someone 60 and older. Charges would range from a simple misdemeanor to a Class D felony depending on the circumstances of the assault.

Charges for financial exploitation of an older person would range from a serious misdemeanor to a Class B felony, based on the amount of assets involved.

Charges for elder abuse would range from a serious misdemeanor to a Class C felony, depending on injuries.

What this bill does, is it says to those people that are looking for vulnerable victims, not here, Hite said. Youre not going to do it here.

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The deep blue exterior of Coya's Cafe stood out starkly against the gray Wednesday sky  an unassuming hint at the array of colors filling the restaurant's dining space.

Owner Blanca Moran stood behind the counter, switching between Spanish and English as she described the menu she, her family and staff have crafted together.

Moran opened the cafe three years ago to honor her mother, who ran her own restaurant in the same space years ago and taught her daughter her recipes.

The food and drinks have evolved as Moran discovered new ways of cooking dishes from different regions of Mexico, putting together an array of traditional and new dishes for customers to enjoy.

"I just want for when people come in here, they feel like they're in a little part of Mexico for a little while," Moran said.

Located at 4320 4th Ave. in Moline, Coya's Cafe is offering different specials every day for QC Restaurant Week, an initiative showcasing different local restaurants through March 27.

Thursday's special is $7 Huaraches, a dish made with a fresh corn tortilla, beans, meat, onions, cilantro and cheese. On Friday customers can enjoy a $7 quesadilla, and $7 birria tacos on Saturday. All specials come with a free drink.

Quad-Cities restaurant enthusiasts who stop by participating restaurants like Coya's Cafe can take a picture of their receipt or take a selfie with their food and submit it online for the chance to win restaurant gift cards.

The most unique item on the Coya's Cafe menu is also among the most popular. Moran's 15-year-old son, Pablo, developed the Hot Cheetos and Takis burritos, along with an array of frappes. He works in the restaurant a couple of days a week, and Moran's 25-year-old daughter, Daisy, helps with marketing.

Beyond meals, the cafe also features coffee, yogurt, desserts and other quick food items people can easily pick up and take with them. Everything is made from scratch.

"Even though our location is really small, I try to have a little bit of everything," Moran said.

Her food has sparked fond memories shared by customers of cooking and savoring similar dishes with parents and grandparents. It's those stories and comments from customers that make her job easier, Moran said, even during the hardest of times.

"There are some days that you're just tired and exhausted," Moran said. "And, then somebody comes with just a little comment that makes your day. And you're like, 'Okay. Yeah, let's keep doing it.'

"It's worth it."

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High scores have replaced failing grades, meaning Davenport schools' prolonged academic probation could soon be lifted as it heads to Des Moines Thursday to make another pitch for re-accreditation, the superintendent said.

For nearly three years, the Davenport Community School District has been operating on conditional accreditation and has been implementing a state-required corrective-action plan. Specific improvements were required by the state in the handling of finances, leadership, special education and other areas.

Superintendent TJ Schneckloth assured school board members at a recent meeting that their work to comply with state requirements has improved markedly.

"Overall, all of our ratings on the sheet (of required actions) are a three or four (out of four), and that's the first time that has ever happened," Schneckloth said during a March 10 board meeting. "I'm very proud of that. We're heading in the right direction in every phase. I am now seeing that translate in the classroom. We, the school board, (are) leading the change. We are leading this district."

The Iowa State Board of Education will hear a report on Davenport's accreditation status during its meeting Thursday. The Iowa Department of Education is recommending the state board restore the district's operational control and its full accreditation, according to the meeting agenda.

Davenport Community School District showing continued progress on citation efforts with state The Davenport Community School District is getting closer to being in the green with state e

Davenport first was placed on conditional accreditation in May of 2019. A corrective-action plan was produced, and the state board of education allowed district leaders to attempt to implement it during the 2020-2021 school year. When the district failed to do so, the Iowa Board of Education appointed a superintendent and chief financial officer to work on the plan at the district's expense.

The temporary state oversight was to last six months but was extended another eight months in March of 2021 and again for five months last November. Some of the oversight requirements have been lifted.

Iowa State Board of Education hears update on Davenport school district re-accreditation plan State education officials have given the go-ahead to an updated action plan aimed at restoring the Davenport School District's lost accreditation.

Should the State Board of Education decline to re-accredit the Davenport school district at the recommendation of state education officials, one of several actions could result.

The state board could give the district more time to correct its deficiencies or require additional out-of-district professional guidance.

In the event of de-accreditation, state law provides for a merger at the end of the school year with one or more contiguous districts that are accredited.

Board members could also place the district under receivership for the remainder of the school year, meaning Davenport would be under the supervision and authority of the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency.

The Iowa State Board of Education meeting is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Thursday, with board members slated to receive an update on the Davenport Community School District's accreditation beginning at 3 p.m., according to the meeting agenda.

Members of the public can watch the meeting remotely through video conferencing or by telephone. Instructions for joining remotely are available at https://bit.ly/37ZMFoh.

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Members of the Iowa State Board of Education gave leaders from the Davenport School District a round of applause  even a few hugs  after voting unanimously Thursday to restore the district's accreditation.

For nearly three years, Davenport has been operating on conditional accreditation and has been required to undergo considerable state monitoring and to pay for outside help to repair what was referred to Thursday as "the crisis."

Among the issues were the district's need to provide equitable education for students of color and those with disabilities.

The Iowa Department of Education recommended the re-accreditation, asking the Iowa State Board of Education to relieve itself of oversight of Davenport in every capacity.

Leaders from the Department of Education praised district leadership, saying, "Davenport is actively on the right path."

Davenport schools to find out Thursday whether accreditation is restored For nearly three years, the Davenport Community School District has been operating on conditional accreditation and has been implementing a state-required corrective-action plan.

The seriousness of the district's struggles with leadership, finances, special education and other specific areas of operation were made clear when one member of the Board of Education said at Thursday's meeting in Des Moines, "We don't ever want to see a district get to the point where we were with Davenport."

She referred to Davenport's previous problems as "really desperate."

Superintendent TJ Schneckloth told members of the state board that Thursday's update was different from previous meetings with state leadership because Davenport administrators, teachers and staff now are able to focus less on the past.

"We are future forward now," he said. "Forward planning is very exciting to us."

Several times he used the words "incredibly proud" to convey to state officials the progress that has been made in Davenport by its school board, its administration, its new cabinet, teachers and everyone else who works for the district.

"I believe we're heading in a direction with some momentum," Schneckloth said. "Where we are today ... that (re-accreditation) is a huge recommendation. It doesn't mean we're perfect ... we are unwaveringly committed."

Davenport School Board President Dan Gosa said Thursday's meeting was "night and day" from previous trips to Des Moines; when the Davenport district was under such scrutiny.

"It was kind of a hard, uphill battle ... I enjoy driving the two-and-a-half hours now," Gosa told the board. "I hope a lot of people learn from what we went through."

Board Vice President Linda Hayes told the board, "This was a negative to us that has really turned into a positive."

State officials congratulated the Davenport contingent for its response to the crisis, and State Board member Michael Knedler, whose board term is nearly complete, used his final motion to recommend the re-accreditation.

In a phone call on his way back to Davenport after the meeting, Schneckloth referred to the day as "incredible," saying the district's struggle back has "absolutely been the hardest work we've ever done."

"It's just such an important moment. This is a milestone, not a destination," Schneckloth said. "I wish I could've bottled up the feelings and the energy directed at Davenport today and open it back up for everybody back home in the district who has worked so hard."

Schneckloth had told the Davenport School Board on March 10 that the corrective-action plan was showing the most promising improvements he has seen since the district's troubles began.

Davenport schools to find out Thursday whether accreditation is restored For nearly three years, the Davenport Community School District has been operating on conditional accreditation and has been implementing a state-required corrective-action plan.

Since May 2019, Davenport has been operating on conditional accreditation and was required to implement a corrective-action plan.

When the district failed to do so in the 2020-2021 school year, the Iowa State Board of Education appointed a superintendent and chief financial officer to work on the plan at the district's expense.

The temporary state oversight was to last six months but was extended another eight months in March of 2021 and again for five months last November. Some of the oversight requirements previously were lifted, and the Department of Education on Thursday said there "are still some things" the agency will continue to monitor.

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The Davenport City Council approved a $236 million capital and operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The budget includes no raises to property tax rates, though some fees will go up. The city's $47 million capital budget includes funding for the construction of a new Davenport fire station and a new phase of reconstruction of 53rd Street. The city doesn't plan to add new fire or police staff.

Under the new budget, the city's property tax rates will hold at $16.78 per $1,000 of assessed value. But a resident's tax bill could still go up if their property's value increased.

City fees, however, are set to increase. Fees that fund a hazardous materials response team will increase, as will sewer rates, but not as much as prior years.

Davenport aldermen approved a plan to increase the city's sewer rates 5% annually for the next three years, a reduction from previous yearly increases of 7% or more recently. Fees for solid waste and clean water will also rise, which city staff say will avoid large hikes to pay for capital improvement projects and maintenance.

The city's capital improvement budget includes $22.6 million for streets and sewer projects, including $4.45 million for neighborhood street repair and $4.6 million for high-volume street repair. The second includes $2.1 million for reconstructing and widening 53rd Street from Eastern Avenue to Elmore Circle.

It also includes $10 million to construct a new Fire Station 3. And $1.22 million will go toward a flood-mitigation project at the city's Water Pollution Control Plant and compost facility, and another $1 million to set in motion a newly adopted flood resiliency plan to reduce the impact of Mississippi River flooding along Davenport's riverfront.

The city's DREAM project, which aims to encourage investment and attract homebuyers to Davenport's older neighborhoods, will see an infusion of $1.04 million.

"I always like to point out when we're talking about over 75% of this budget, probably more, we're talking about public infrastructure, public safety, strong neighborhoods," Alderman Kyle Gripp, at-large, said. "And this year, we added in flood mitigation, but when you talk about those three  public safety, public infrastructure and strong neighborhoods  that is where the vast majority of our budget is going, and that's where it should go."

In other business:

Davenport's East River Drive will be able to be open for traffic to the intersections of 3rd and 4th streets during Mississippi flood events up to a flood stage of 22 feet after storm sewer improvements the city council approved on Wednesday. The council approved awarding a contract to Cedar Rapids-based company H.R. Green for the $335,500 project. The city is using federal American Rescue Plan dollars for the project, which would install backflow prevention improvements on the local storm sewer system to keep East River Drive dry until water rises over the seawall, according to council agenda documents. As part of the project, a new storm sewer connection would also be constructed.

Five parks in Davenport are set to get free public Wi-Fi after the Davenport city council approved a contract with Metro Fibernet for $86,591 to install outdoor wireless internet service. Those parks include Cork Hill Park, Emeis Park Pavilion, Fejervary Pavilion, Herington Park and Centennial Park Pavilion.

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U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters on Wednesday he thought the chief Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee was running a fair hearing on the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the nation's highest court.

Wednesday marked the third of four days of hearings where senators questioned Jackson's philosophy and record, after which the committee and the Senate will then decide whether Jackson will be confirmed to the Supreme Court. The Senate, split 50-50, requires a simple majority to confirm Jackson, who would be the first Black woman on the court.

Grassley, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on a call with reporters that it was "gratifying" to hear Brown Jackson say she "did not believe there is a living constitution."

"In the sense that its changing and its infused with my own policy perspective or the policy perspective of the day," Brown Jackson said on Tuesday. "Instead, the Supreme Court has made clear that when youre interpreting the Constitution youre looking at the text at the time of the founding.

In a previous call, Grassley said he looked for a stricter interpretation of statutes and the constitution in judges' and justices' philosophies.

"It was gratifying to hear her (Jackson) say that and we'll be able to measure now for the next 30 years whether she carries it out," Grassley said. "She's very graceful, very smart in her answers. If there's anything that I had concern about it seems to be weak on crime and things of that nature."

Grassley said he would wait until a few days before the committee hearing to publicly announce his vote.

Republican members on the committee on Tuesday and early Wednesday questioned Jackson's record, alleging that she was too lenient on sentencing as a federal judge.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, claimed Jackson gave lesser sentences for defendants convicted of possession of child pornography.

Fact checkers, including from the Associated Press, have found her sentencing is not abnormal compared to other judges across the country. Jackson passionately pushed back against Hawley's assertions, telling about how she would share with those convicted of possessing child pornography statements from victims who've experienced life-long trauma.

In opening remarks on Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, criticized Republican senators for using the hearings at times as "a testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories."

Republican senators, in turn, criticized Durbin for "editorializing" questions and comments made by Republicans.

On the call with reporters, Grassley said he believed Durbin was "running a fair hearing."

Grassley, who has been in the U.S. Senate since 1981 and chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2015 to 2019, said the hearing was calmer than in previous years, calling back to the contentious fight over now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Jackson, nominated by President Biden, would replace liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. Her confirmation is not expected to change the ideological balance of the nation's highest court.

"It's a lot more decorum this time. That's the way it should be," Grassley said. "And maybe one last thing on Durbin, we've seen a deep dive into the record, but it's been very much less personal."

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Despite claims by opponents of financial impropriety, Iowa's top taxpayer watchdog says a state audit of Scott County's plans to build a larger juvenile detention center is unwarranted.

Juvenile justice and civil rights advocates, however, say they're undeterred and intend to appeal the matter to federal officials.

About 175 petitioners signed a request in late November asking the Iowa State Auditor's Office to make an inquiry into Scott County's plans to increase the county's number of juvenile detention beds from 18 to 40.

The signatories expressed concern that a land purchase at the time was not included in the fiscal 2021 budget, that the new center may not be an eligible use of federal COVID-19 recovery funds, and that the new detention center would exceed the state's maximum number of licensed juvenile detention beds in Iowa. Petitioners also alleged that the size and scope of the facility was too large for the county's needs.

"We are concerned these factors have contributed to financial impropriety and cover-up of hidden costs on behalf of the Scott County Board of Supervisors's" planned new juvenile detention center, the petition states.

State Auditor Rob Sand on Wednesday, however, announced his office would not be performing the audit, as the federal COVID-19 relief money has yet to be spent and the new building hasn't yet been constructed. As a result, the auditor's office cannot test compliance with Iowa's law for the maximum number of juvenile detention beds, according to a statement.

"Based upon the request for reaudit and other information provided, we have determined the concerns presented were primarily related to fiscal years 2022 and 2023 or potentially subsequent fiscal years," the auditor's response stated. "In addition, we discussed certain concerns with a representative of the County's independent CPA firm and were satisfied with his response. As a result, we will not be performing reaudit procedures at this time."

County Budget Director David Farmer wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times that "the written comments of the Auditor of State did not identify any financial, compliance or procedural issues and reflects the countys system of controls and business practices."

Board of Supervisors Chair Ken Beck pointed to Sand's response as reinforcing that county is allowed to use up to $10 million of federal COVID-19 dollars for the construction of the new juvenile detention facility under a lost revenue category.

"I think that's kind of really the outcome of that letter that answers the questions they (petitioners) ask because the rest were really moot points for the most part," Beck said.

Pete McRoberts, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said the organization plans to refer the matter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Office of the Inspector General.

"Despite clear guidance that this is an unlawful use of federal recovery funds, the Scott County Board of Supervisors nonetheless proceeded to vote for this new, expanded juvenile detention center," McRoberts responded in an email.

The ACLU previously warned county officials in a letter that if they did not "change course," they would refer the county to the appropriate federal agencies.

"In the coming days, will keep our promise to the people of Scott County," McRoberts said.

Why they want an audit

The petition sent to the State Auditor's Office questioned the county's planned purchase of 936 W. 4th St. in Davenport, arguing the expense was not accurately reflected in the county's budget.

Supervisors initially planned to build the new detention center at the location but later revoked the purchase agreement based on the results of an environmental study. As a result, "this is no longer a concern," the auditor's response stated.

Sand, too, noted the planned size of the facility is a county-level decision and does not fall under the purview of the auditor's office. However, should a new juvenile detention facility be constructed, the construction contract and related costs would be subject to audit review.

The State Auditor's Office also disputed claims by petitioners that federal rules prohibit the use of COVID-19 relief funds to build a new multi-use building that would house the new detention center.

Scott County officials intend to use more than $7 million out of an anticipated $33.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to help pay to build the new center.

A final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Treasury states local governments can claim up to $10 million in lost public sector revenue to be spent on government services, which can include capital expenditures.

"Through the implementation of the Lost Revenue category, the Final Rule does not restrict the use of ARPA funds to projects which were caused or made worse by the pandemic," the auditor's response stated.

Petitioners also requested that minutes be made public of meetings of a Juvenile Detention and Alternatives Advisory Committee that advised the Scott County Board of Supervisors but was convened by the project manager.

Sand's office referred the complaint to the Iowa Public Information Board, which handles complaints related to the state's public records and public disclosure laws.

Farmer supplied the minutes for the meetings to a Quad-City Times reporter upon request but said that a decision on whether to make the minutes public would not be made at this time.

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CHICAGO - Shortly before sentencing former Illinois state Rep. Eddie Acevedo on Wednesday to six months in prison, a federal judge said he wanted to know more about the source of income at the heart of the tax evasion case.

Who was paying Acevedo tens of thousands of dollars in 2017 and 2018, as he transitioned from the General Assembly to a contract lobbyist, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly asked. Was he a self-employed consultant of some sort? Did he receive money only from Company A, referenced in vague terms in Acevedos plea agreement, or was he getting paid by others, too?

Ive got careful lawyers on both sides of this case, and Im guessing those words were chosen carefully, Kennelly said about the murky language of the plea.

Kennellys questions were never fully answered, but they put a brief spotlight on what had brought Acevedo to federal court in the first place.

Nearly three years ago, the former Democratic lawmaker and Chicago police officer found himself in the crosshairs of the U.S. attorneys office amid an ongoing investigation involving an alleged scheme by Commonwealth Edison to bribe then-House Speaker Michael Madigan to assist the utility with legislation it wanted in Springfield.

Acevedo is now the first person to be sentenced in the sweeping probe that has so far led to charges against Madigan, two of his closest advisers, and a slew of former ComEd executives and contract lobbyists, many with ties to the former speaker.

Acevedo previously told the Tribune hed been interviewed by federal investigators as part of that probe. But when he was indicted last year, the relatively minor tax charges made no reference to the ComEd investigation or Madigan at all, and when he pleaded guilty in December, his agreement with the government did not contain any indication that hed agreed to cooperate.

Still, the ComEd probe remained an elephant in the courtroom at Acevedos sentencing, which was conducted via videoconference due to ongoing COVID-19 protocols.

In asking for up to a year behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said that while Acevedo only skirted paying about $37,000 in taxes over three years, a noncustodial sentence would send a message that evading debts to the Internal Revenue Service would not be taken seriously.

What we have in this country is largely an honor system. We kind of count on everybody to do the right thing, said Bhachu, who is also heading up the ongoing probe into Madigan and ComEd. Why should you bother paying your taxes if at the end of the day there isnt much of a consequence? ... If you do end up running afoul of the legal system, you get this light touch and hopes that youll be better in the future?

Acevedos attorney, Gabrielle Sansonetti, asked for two years of probation, pointing out that the amount of the loss was much lower than in most tax cases brought in the same courthouse. She said Acevedos misdeeds, which came after years of collecting a regular paycheck, were mostly the result of a failure to maintain records as a newly minted independent contractor, where money was coming in from various sources.

Sansonetti also said Acevedos decades in public service should be considered a mitigating factor, and not put him on a higher pedestal of responsibility.

There is nothing special about being a police officer or a legislator to suggest you would have some increased knowledge about filing taxes, Sansonetti said.

But Kennelly disagreed, saying cases that involve public figures and that involve public attention do have a different effect than the standard ones. Acevedos background meant that people were paying attention, the judge said, and a sentence of probation would seem like this person got a pass.

It just seems to me that there is a particular responsibility, as a person who makes laws, as a person who enforces laws ... to comply to those laws, Kennelly said. And Mr. Acevedo didnt do that.

Before he was sentenced, Acevedo, 58, apologized in a brief statement to his family and his former constituents.

Its not the way I wanted to be, its not the way I brought my boys up to be, Acevedo said, appearing before Kennelly via a video link. I let them down, and I let my community down, and Im sorry for that, your honor.

Acevedo must report to prison in June.

Acevedo, a Chicago Democrat, served as Madigans assistant majority leader in the House before retiring in 2017. He went on to work as a consultant paid by former state Rep. John Bradley, a Democrat from Downstate Marion and a onetime contract lobbyist for ComEd. Acevedo told the Tribune he had been paid as much as $5,000 a month by Bradley.

Before Bradley, Acevedo said, he had worked as a consultant for Shaw Decremer, a former Democratic House staffer and campaign operative ousted from Madigans political organization following complaints that he was abusive.

Federal authorities subpoenaed the secretary of state in 2019 for Acevedos lobbying records, as well as those of his two sons and their lobbying firm, Apex Strategy LLC. Acevedo was also named in a grand jury subpoena served on Madigans office in July 2020.

Acevedos sons, Alex and Michael, also were indicted with similar tax charges last year and are awaiting trial.

Alex Acevedos attorney alleged in a court filing last year that it was clear investigators were after Madigan. During a proffer meeting between Alex Acevedo and prosecutors in February 2020, at least 75% of the questions asked by the government pertained to Mr. Madigan and his associates, attorney Ricardo Meza wrote.

However, when (Alex) Acevedos truthful responses did not seem to align with what the government sought to hear, the IRS agent pivoted and began asking Mr. Acevedo questions about his 2016 and 2018 tax returns, Meza wrote in the motion.

According to Edward Acevedos plea agreement, after he discovered he was under criminal investigation by the IRS, he had his accountants work up draft reports for the years in question that contained incomplete information about his consulting businesss income and expenses.

ComEd, meanwhile, agreed in 2020 to pay a record $200 million fine as prosecutors unveiled a criminal complaint charging the company with a yearslong bribery scheme involving jobs, contracts and payments to Madigan allies. Under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement with the government, the charges against the utility giant will be dropped in three years if the company continues to cooperate.

Prosecutors said the utility attempted to influence and reward Madigan by providing financial benefits to some close to him, often through a key confidant and adviser at the center of the probe. In November 2020, that confidant, former lawmaker Michael McClain, and three others were charged.

Madigan and McClain were both charged in a separate indictment earlier this month with racketeering conspiracy alleging they participated in a range of corrupt schemes, including the ComEd bribery.

The scandal helped end Madigans reign as the nations longest-serving speaker in January 2021. Madigan later resigned from the Illinois House and as Illinois Democratic Party chairman.

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The state is making more than a half-million dollars available to prepare K-12 teachers to teach computer science.

Computer science is a basic skill set necessary for student success and an added advantage for recruitment in high-demand careers in the rapidly changing, technology-driven workplace, Gov. Kim Reynolds said. These awards equip more educators with the tools and resources needed to prepare K-12 students in computer science.

Through computer science, students build critical thinking, problem-solving and reasoning skills that are transferable across academic disciplines and fields, added Ann Lebo, director of the Iowa Department of Education.

Reynolds and the department have announced $506,084 in annual awards to prepare K-12 teachers in 136 school districts and non-public schools to teach computer science.

The Computer Science Professional Development Incentive Fund awards are part of a commitment to expand computer science instruction in K-12 schools. In 2017, SF 274 established the fund to pay for teacher professional development, including training to teach specific computer science courses and earning in-depth university endorsements to teach computer science. In 2020, Reynolds proposed and the Legislature passed HF 2629 requiring K-12 schools to offer computer science education to all students, starting with high schools in 2022-23.

COLLEGE SAVINGS PLAN: For the ninth time in 16 years, the College Savings Iowa 529 plan has reduced its fees for participants.

By reducing fees, were making it possible for families to keep more money in their accounts, Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald said. Every little bit saved can go a long way to help Iowans afford the educational adventure of a lifetime.

Effective April 1, the annual asset-based fee on the plans investment options will decrease 5.5 percent, which brings the price down from 0.19 percent to 0.18 percent or $1.80 per $1,000 invested annually.

Since Fitzgerald started the plan, College Savings Iowa has grown to over $6.3 billion in assets, with over $3.8 billion having been used for education expenses.

Iowa taxpayers who are College Savings Iowa participants can deduct the first $3,522 they contribute per beneficiary account from their state taxable income in 2022, subject to federal tax regulations.

For more information, visit https://www.collegesavingsiowa.com/.

TITLING FEES: A bill to increase the cost of registering vehicle titles and obtaining a certificate of title was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee over Democratic objections. HF 870 would allow Iowans to register their vehicles titles at any county treasurers office.

Fees, which in some cases havent increased since 1989, would provide $22 million to county budgets, relieving pressure for property tax increases, said Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, R-Northwood.

However, Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, pointed out the fees are based on vehicle prices, which have increased significantly in the past year or two.

The timing is not right for nickeling and diming Iowans with $5 and $10 increases for the privileges of paying so much more to register their vehicles, he said.

The bill, approved 14-8, would raise the fees for a new registration, new title, replacement title and salvage title, manufacturer buyback and security interest. The fees now range from $1 to $11, with most being $7.50.

LEGALIZED MARIJUANA: Senate Democrats took their crack at proposing legalized recreational marijuana in Iowa during debate over a bill on criminal penalties for possession of heroin.

Since the minority Democrats are unable to set the legislative agenda, they chose the heroin bill for their amendment that would regulate marijuana similar to the way alcohol is regulated in the state. Majority Republicans shot down the proposed amendment with a procedural move, ruling it was not relevant to the original bill.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, was among the Democrats who spoke in favor of the proposal. He called the prohibition of marijuana a costly failure.

It has broken up too many families, upended too many livelihoods, thrown too many children into poverty, Bolkcom said of the enforcement of marijuana laws. He also noted data that shows marijuana laws disproportionately impact Black Iowans, who are seven times more likely to be arrested for possession marijuana, the worst disparity in the nation, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates, according to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The bill, HF 2462, passed the Senate by a 44-5 vote.

TAX CODE CHANGES: The Senate passed legislation that would address myriad items in the state tax code, including exempting some products from the state sales tax, expanding the items and services used in food manufacturing that are exempt from the sales tax, exempting up to $20,000 in National Guard pay from the state income tax, expanding a capital gains individual income tax exemption for certain stock sales, and reducing the bank franchise tax rate.

SF 2372 passed on a 43-6 vote.

Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, called the legislation a continuation of rebuilding Iowas tax code for a better tax code for the 21st century.

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DES MOINES  Schools would be required to post their classroom materials and library books online for parents to see  but not twice annually as previously proposed  under school transparency legislation moving in the Iowa House.

Majority Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have pledged to address school transparency after hearing from parents who have expressed concerns about library books and classroom materials they deem to be obscene.

Statehouse Republicans are taking different approaches to the legislation. On Wednesday, House Republicans continued their work advancing their bill, House File 2499.

Our intent here is not to give arbitrary work to teachers, said Rep. Garrett Gobble, R-Ankeny, who teaches in the Ankeny school district and who worked on the new amendment to the original House bill.

We want to make it meaningful and show parents how to engage. But we cant engage for the parents. These resources would be there for the parents to access, but theyd still have to make the decision to access.

Rep. Phil Thompson, R-Jefferson who ran the bill in Wednesdays budget subcommittee hearing, said he has not yet discussed the House proposal with Senate Republicans. He said he has focused on working with his House Republican colleagues and representatives from Gov. Kim Reynolds office.

Reynolds legislative liaison spoke during Wednesdays subcommittee hearing on the House bill.

Thompson said even with the recent changes, the bill will accomplish House Republicans original intent.

We can accomplish the intent of the bill, which is more transparency for parents, Thompson said. This bill is workable for teachers and still accomplishes that.

Advocates for public schools and school boards expressed reservations with the proposal, including the amount of training and time it will take to prepare teachers to upload their curriculum to a new website. But those advocates also said they appreciated the recent changes, which they feel move the bill in a positive direction from the perspective of educators.

The bill also adds some social studies and civics requirements. A requirement that a student score at least 70 percent on a civics test in order to graduate was removed by the amendment; the bill instead requires a civics unit as part of social studies curriculum.

Senate Republicans are weighing their own school transparency proposals, including one that would allow parents to sue educators who distribute materials that any parent deems to be obscene.

In order to send a proposal to Reynolds for her signature, the House and Senate will have to agree on one bill.

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The Olympic Fine Arts exhibition brings together 800 works of art, including posters, paintings, photos and sculptures in celebration of the spirit of the Olympic Games, the beauty of Chinese art and the role of art in promoting the Olympic Games and connecting people around the world.

Organized by the China National Society for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, the exhibition was launched in 2008 to mark the Beijing Olympic Games by showing artwork from across the world.

It has been held five times since, both at home and abroad. The current show is being held at the Mizuo Plaza in Beijing through March 31.
SPRINGFIELD  Members of the Illinois Firefighters Association joined state legislators at a news conference Wednesday to outline a measure that they claim would recruit more long-term volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel by offering them a tax credit.

Senate Bill 3027 would provide a $500 tax credit to those who serve as volunteer firefighters or EMS personnel. To qualify for the tax credit, volunteers must work for a fire department or fire protection district for at least nine months and not receive more than $10,000 in compensation for those services during the taxable year.

Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea, chief sponsor of the bill, said offering the tax credit would help address the shortage of firefighter and EMS personnel at departments that rely on volunteers.

These individuals give up their personal time that could be spent with their families to ensure the well-being of our states residents with no monetary incentive, Belt said.

The bill states that if the tax credit exceeds the tax liability for the year, the excess can be applied to the earliest tax year in which there is a tax liability. The credit will not reduce a taxpayer's liability to less than zero.

During a news conference March 18, Belt noted that if the bill is approved, it would cost about $20 million to $22 million in lost revenue to implement it. Belt said the cost upfront pales in comparison to the lives lost without volunteer firefighters and EMS workers.

Margaret Vaughn, government affairs director at the Illinois Firefighters Association, said the number of emergency calls to fire departments has tripled over the past 20 years, with most calls being for EMS, while the number of volunteer emergency workers continues to decrease.

Vaughn told the story of a fire at a 100-unit apartment dwelling in Silvis, a blaze that, according to National Fire Protection Association standards, should have had 30 firefighters facing it. But only five firefighters showed up.

That is a public safety crisis, Vaughn said.

Vaughn said the aging population, additional training requirements and new policies have been contributing factors in the plummeting number of emergency workers. Training requirements vary by the fire department and district, she said.

National Fire Protection Association standard 1710 sets the minimum requirements for the number of firefighters needed when deploying fire suppression operations, EMS operations and other operations. NFPA standard 1720 establishes the minimum number of volunteers needed to assist professional firefighters.

Rep. Tom Bennett, R-Gibson City, said passing the measure would help address staffing issues in rural areas that cannot afford full-time firefighters. He noted that the incentive can attract new volunteers to keep communities safe while showing appreciation for their service.

They dont do it for the money (or) do it for the glory, Bennett said. They do it because they are committed to their communities, their neighbors and their families and they want to help.

The measure passed the Senate unanimously but awaits further consideration in the House. The House Revenue and Finance Committee is expected to discuss uncertainty as to how the tax credit would be implemented Thursday morning.

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DES MOINES  Legislation increasing penalties for people convicted of abusing, assaulting or exploiting older Iowans has been unanimously approved by the Iowa House and Senate and is on its way to the governor.

The House approved the measure, 95-0, Wednesday.

Many of us have dealt with these situations, whether it involves family members, friends, neighbors, you name it, said Republican Rep. Dustin Hite, a New Sharon attorney. Whether it's a family member, whether it's a huckster or whether it's somebody else that this person trusts, we see that they can take advantage of what can be some of our most vulnerable Iowans.

Senate File 522 ensures that we have added protections for Iowans who need it, Hite said. The bill was amended by the House, so it will return to the Senate, which previously approved it 47-0, before going to the governor.

There was some discussion whether enhanced penalties will reduce assault, abuse and exploitation. Hite said, When somebody picks on the most vulnerable of Iowans, they deserve a harsher punishment.

AARP Iowa praised the Legislature for creating criminal sanctions for elder abuse and fix the existing gap in tools available to law enforcement and financial institutions to stop and prevent exploitation.

Passage of this bill comes at a critical time when elder abuse is on the rise in Iowa and across the country, said AARP state Director Brad Anderson.

The bill establishes several crimes, including assault of someone 60 and older. Charges would range from a simple misdemeanor to a Class D felony depending on the circumstances of the assault.

Charges for financial exploitation of an older person would range from a serious misdemeanor to a Class B felony, based on the amount of assets involved.

Charges for elder abuse would range from a serious misdemeanor to a Class C felony, depending on injuries.

What this bill does, is it says to those people that are looking for vulnerable victims, not here, Hite said. Youre not going to do it here.

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Two weeks shy of the anticipated Chesterfield County budget vote, residents urged elected county officials to invest more in public schools during a public hearing Wednesday night.

What does fully funding education mean? It means trusting the folks we have hired to tell us what they need to get their jobs done and then funding that, Traci Franssen said.

The Board of Supervisors Wednesday public hearing covered the proposed $904 million general fund, $1.38 billion five-year capital improvement program proposal and proposed tax-relief programs, including lowering the real estate tax rate.

Tessa Schuman, who urged the board to fully fund schools, said a historically low property tax rate is so short-sighted when we dont have historically low need. Our need is great  invest in us because even if there is not a student in your home, the value of our schools is in your home.

During Wednesdays public hearing, teachers shared their own stories of working within Chesterfield schools as well as stories on behalf of peers.

The supervisors are slated to vote on the budget, which begins on July 1, on April 6.

Funding for Chesterfield County Public Schools is the largest chunk of the overall county spending pan, with an estimated $347.7 million in local funds for the school division. The countys proposed figure is an increase of $18 million over the current adopted budget.

The School Board approved an $837.5 million operating budget last month, accounting for $9.3 million less than the superintendents proposal. Despite pleas from the School Boards Citizen Budget Advisory Committee to fully fund the superintendents proposal, the board slashed the proposed $23.8 million funding gap to $8.5 million.

At a School Board meeting in February, the CBAC did not hold back in expressing its disappointment with the School Board for not fully funding the superintendents recommendation for the current adopted budget, saying the board did not do enough. The sentiment remains for this years budget season.

While the School Boards CBAC expressed distaste with school funding levels, the countys CBAC gave the county administrators budget proposal a stamp of approval.

According to a county news release, the county CBAC expressed support for the countys prioritization of education, in a Monday letter.

The committee commends the board for managing the allocation of resources throughout the pandemic and applying a discerning, data-driven approach to FY2023 by balancing such complex priorities as tax relief to citizens, investment in infrastructure, funding of education, and public safety needs, Chip Hughey, chairman of the CBAC, said in a statement.

County officials are considering their additional school funding as $28 million because the county fully funded the school systems supplemental retirement plan earlier this year. By paying off the plan, it created an annual $10 million to $11 million in extra spending for the school district, Deputy County Administrator Matt Harris previously said.

Both the school system and county government are looking to spend more money to continue resolving salary decompression for their respective employees. In the current adopted budget, the school system began addressing salary compression among teachers, while the county began looking at compression among public safety employees.

In the latest budget proposal, the school system looks to continue having funds for teacher raises while also elevating salaries for food service staff, bus drivers, custodians, security and clerical support.

The county looks to continue tackling public safety salaries as well as a general employee pay plan. During the first of the two-year plan, pay for specific county-only minimum wage jobs would raise from $12 to $16 per hour, while giving the rest of the workforce a 5% salary adjustment and the annual 2% merit payment for all general government employees.

A highlight of the spending plan, according to county officials, is the proposed tax relief programs in the spending plan, including reducing the real estate tax from 95 cents per $100 assessed value to 92 cents. Supervisors approved lowering the tax to 93 cents in December.

The tax-cut proposals equating to $52 million in savings for taxpayers, including a historic $15 million tax cut for vehicles include: the real estate tax; elderly and disabled tax relief; cutting the vehicle license inspection registration fee in half from $40 to $20; and increasing personal property tax relief thresholds from $1,000 to $1,500.

While Diane Brown, a county resident for the past 22 years, thanked the county for its elderly and disabled tax relief and personal property tax relief thresholds, she also had some concerns about the tax relief programs.

These tax cuts are not very large for the majority of the people in this county, Brown said. Those living in more expensive homes and driving newer and more expensive cars will be receiving more benefits from the tax cuts than other citizens who might be more in need of tax relief.
A City Council committee requested more time to discuss an ordinance that would establish an oversight body for the Richmond Police Department.

The governmental operations standing committee on Wednesday delayed until next month a paper introduced by Mayor Levar Stoneys administration after members of a council-appointed task force, as well as members of the public, criticized the proposal, saying it ignored recommendations from the task force.

Several council members said during and after the meeting that they needed more information, from police and others, and time to get up to speed on the competing proposals that each call for the creation of a civilian review board, but widely differ on the boards scope and authority. Council members dont appear to favor either proposal, as is.

This was never going to be a quick process, said Katherine Jordan, who represents the 2nd District in the citys North Central area on City Council. I worry that if the goal of a CRB is to create more trust, and what has been put out isnt trusted, its just a nonstarter.

Stoneys proposal also received pushback on Wednesday from the citys inspector general, Jim Osuna, who said he was never consulted by the mayors office, which called for a full-time staff member to assist the board and be housed in his office. Osuna said hes supportive of anything that provides more transparency, but worries there could be conflicts if it falls under his purview.

The first I got wind of this was last Tuesday when it came out in the media, Osuna told the committee. I think I would have a little more input had I been included in conversations and made sure we were comfortable with it before, and given it a better look, better analysis on it.

On Tuesday, during the councils public safety committee meeting, which also discussed the paper, members were provided a side-by-side comparison of what is recommended in the ordinance versus by the task force.

While some of the comparisons made in the table suggest similarity, the two are quite different upon closer examination, said Eli Coston, who co-chaired the task force, in an email to council members in which they provided their own analysis of the two recommendations. Moreover, there are inaccuracies in the table as they relate to the task force recommendations.

Both the administration and the task force recommended that board members be compensated, be Richmond residents, and have no immediate ties to law enforcement, which is mandated by state law. Each agreed that the board should have the power to subpoena testimony and documents, and recommend policy changes.

But thats where the similarities appear to end.

Stoneys ordinance calls for a seven-member board; the task force suggests 11 members.

The mayors nine-page paper keeps in place the current complaint and investigation procedures into allegations of officer misconduct that already occurs within the department, adding a layer of oversight at the end of that process.

As envisioned in Stoneys ordinance, the board would review only the most serious investigations completed by the Richmond Police Departments internal affairs unit. It could investigate further, if the board deemed it necessary, by hiring outside investigators or subpoenaing testimony. Then, the board could recommend disciplinary action or policy changes to the police chief, but the ultimate decision is left up to him.

Whereas, the task force calls for an entirely new office with a staff of investigators who would investigate all complaints against officers separately from the internal affairs unit. Based on that investigation, the CRB, not the police chief, would discipline officers if they are found to have done something wrong.

The administration recommended a single full-time staff member to support the board, while the task force called for an executive director, at least five investigators, outside legal counsel, an auditor, a policy analyst, a mediator and other support staff.

Ann-Frances Lambert, who represents the 3rd District in North Side on City Council, said during Wednesdays meeting that the task forces proposal included a whole lot of staff that we dont have.

Thats not happening, said Council member Kristen M. Nye, who represent the 4th District in the citys southwest, after Wednesdays meeting.

The administration said it based a budget, $204,199, on what the task force initially requested and the council approved for fiscal year 2022. But that figure represented only a partial year to get the board established this year, and only one-sixth of the recommended $1.2 million budget from the task force.

The mayors proposal closely matches recommendations suggested by William Pelfrey Jr.  a professor at VCUs L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs with expertise on policing, whom the administration hired as a consultant. Pelfrey said the board is similar to most across the country.

But detractors said Pelfreys analysis lacked the community input that the task force elicited during months of public meetings and direct outreach.

It lost the humanity of it, said Keisha Cummings, a community activist, who spoke during a public comment period on Wednesday. It lacked human experience. Im telling you that in under-resourced areas, people are treated inhumanely and unprofessionally by police.

Maggie Anderson, the mayors chief of staff, emphasized the ordinances compliance with a state law that passed during a 2020 special session of the General Assembly after months of civil unrest where demonstrators called for more oversight and accountability for police. But it only partially incorporates a few of the new authorities granted to CRBs by the legislature, which is more in line with what the task force recommended.

The mayors proposal is fully supported by Chief Gerald Smith, who has been critical of the task force. Under the mayors proposal, Smith would appoint one member to the board  the mayor would appoint three, as would City Council. The task force recommended City Council appoint all members.

Officials from the department provided the public safety committee an overview of its internal affairs process on Tuesday, which several council members said they were unfamiliar with and asked the department to present again at its next organizational development meeting, which all nine council members attend.

Deputy Police Chief Victoria Pearson said Smith supports the review envisioned in the mayors proposal, rather than the oversight of the task force.

In no point are we supporting this because we feel that RPD has failed in this responsibility to the community or to our employees, Pearson said Tuesday. It is because we recognize the call to transparency and accountability and we do not back away from it.

But officers within the department say the current process isnt working. Brendan Leavy, president of RCOP, an organization that represents most of the departments rank-and-file members, said he is all in favor for a civilian review board if they would be able to help expedite these ridiculous internal affairs processes that we have going on right now.

Leavy said he currently has an open investigation against him, which he called long-overdue and bogus.

On Tuesday, the public safety committee voted to recommend approval of the paper to the full City Council on Monday, when a public hearing was planned. But council members present Wednesday agreed that they would likely vote during their informal meeting to delay the matter.
The emotional vortex swirling around the Hanover County School Boards handling of transgender student policies over the past six months continued Wednesday night, though this time the messages were directed at the countys Board of Supervisors.

The board got an earful from parents and supporters on both sides of the transgender issue as about 100 people packed the boards 6 p.m. meeting. Some arrived more than an hour early wearing color-coordinated T-shirts and holding signs. A banner hung from a truck out front that read: Dont Tread on Trans Kids. Others showed up with signs that said Protect Every Child.

The meeting also drew the attendance of Dels. Buddy Fowler, and Scott Wyatt, both Republicans from Hanover. Del. John McGuire, R-Goochland, also was present.

Hanovers school board is one of 16 appointed school boards among the states 133. The intention with Wednesday nights showing was to ratchet up the pressure on the school board members  or to offer support for them  by going directly to the supervisors who put them in their seats.

That sentiment was noted by Supervisors chair Angela Kelly-Wiecek, who addressed the audience ahead of the public comment time. She explained that she and her fellow supervisors have received lots of emails ahead of Wednesdays meeting. The emails either asked the Supervisors to remove school board members, she said, or to demand that the supervisors direct school board members to take certain actions.

While they do appoint school board members, under state law, the board of supervisors does not have any power to compel the school board to act in a certain way or to simply remove a school board member, she said.

Kelly-Wiecek added that the supervisors cannot seek removal of school board members simply because they dont agree with a school vote or a policy decision. She said school board members can only be removed for certain reasons, all of which are tied to individual wrong-doing. She said officially removing a school board member starts with a petition approved by the majority of the supervisors. That petition would be heard by the Hanover County Circuit Court, which would have the final say.

Transgender student policies were an issue that began last summer leading up to the start of the 2021-22 school year. Hanovers school board did not put into place Virginia Department of Education guidelines regarding the treatment of transgender and nonbinary students, as school boards were instructed to do following a 2020 state law.

In November of last year, the board voted down a policy change that would have allowed transgender students to use the bathrooms that matched their identities. In December, the ACLU of Virginia filed a lawsuit against the school board on behalf of the parents of five transgender students  that case is still making its way through the court system. Meanwhile, in January, the ACLU followed with another letter to the school board demanding immediate action for one transgender high school student, who was seeking to use the boys bathroom at their school.

Attorney Lisa Seward responded in February on behalf of the school board, granting the immediate access for that one student.

Earlier this month, the school board voted 4-3 to bring in Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal advocacy group, to review the school boards equal educational opportunities policy. That policy would include issues such as the treatment of transgender students.

That sparked a protest last Friday at Atlee High School, where dozens of supporters of LGBTQ students, as well as about 50 Atlee students, held a walk-out about an hour and a half before the school day ended. Parents and supporters stood along Atlee Station Road directly across from the school, while students mostly stayed on school grounds out front.

In response to that event, a letter dated Tuesday was sent to the supervisors and school board members in support of the school boards actions and against actions taken by the ACLU of Virginia. The letter outlined why the school board was not breaking any state laws regarding its transgender policy, calling the ACLU anti-family and anti-free speech.

The letter decried the December lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of the parents of five transgender students, as well as the subsequent demand letter the ACLU sent to the school board in January regarding the specific high school students access to the boys bathroom.

Tuesdays letter encouraged the supervisors to support their school board. The letter was signed Concerned Parents and by a number of organizations, including #ArmyOfParents, Hanover Patriots and the HanPat School Partnership, the Mechanicsville and Patrick Henry Tea Parties, No Left Turn in Education, Powhatan First, the Virginia Project and Virginia Christian Alliance.

If the Hanover County Board of Supervisors acquiesces to pressure from the ACLU, it will allow the ACLU to impose its dangerous and extremist agenda on all students and parents in Hanover County; an agenda that could put many students, particularly girls, at risk while undermining Hanover Countys existing efforts to create safe school environments where all students can thrive, the letter read. One only has to glance at the ACLUs website to know they are incapable of providing a fair, objective, and accurate legal assessment of any other organization or school policy.

Wednesday, more than 30 people signed up to speak, so the board split up the public comment times. There was one segment at the beginning of the meeting and another at the end to allow everyone to weigh in.

Among the LGBTQ supporters was Kate Tweedy, daughter of famed Secretariat owner, Penny Chenery. She said LGBTQ students only want what we all want, to be accepted for who we are.

Acknowledging several family members who are among the LGBTQ community, their presence in society enriches our quality of life by adding a wider perspective and a deeper understanding of what it is to be human, she said, adding that being afraid of different is not strong, its weak.

Others, however, supported the school boards decisions.

Todd Gathje, director of government relations for The Family Foundation, said he fully supports the school boards decision to bring in ADF. He said the wishes of the majority of Virginians  including Hanover residents  were not considered when the 2020 state law was passed that mandated school boards to adopt transgender policies.

He said specifically the transgender bathroom policies would jeopardize the bodily safety and privacy of young girls. He also said the policy would undermine parental authority by allowing schools to withhold information from parents.

Stand behind the members of the school board, Gathje told the supervisors. In their wisdom, theyve chosen a high-caliber law firm to represent them at no cost to tax payers  this is responsible governance.
Chesterfield and Henrico counties are among 10 school districts that could be affected by a limited injunction barring enforcement of Gov. Glenn Youngkins executive order making masks in schools voluntary.

A federal judge on Wednesday issued an injunction instructing the state not to enforce the order in certain districts where parents of 12 students with health problems filed a federal lawsuit.

Judge Norman K. Moon of U.S. District Court in Virginias Western District said in an order that the parents who filed the suit are likely to prevail on their claim that Youngkins Executive Order No. 2 and a new state law are pre-empted by federal law to the extent that they prevent or limit Plaintiffs schools or school districts from considering Plaintiffs individualized requests that some amount of masking is necessary as a reasonable modification ...

The parents filed the lawsuit against Youngkin and other state officials on Feb. 1.

The impacted school districts and schools are Albemarle County (Brownsville Elementary School), Bedford County (Stanton River Middle), Chesapeake (Grassfield Elementary, Southeastern Elementary), Chesterfield County (Enon Elementary), Cumberland County (Cumberland Elementary), Fairfax County (Stenwood Elementary), Henrico County (Quioccasin Middle), Loudoun County (Trailside Middle and Loudoun County High), Manassas City (Jennie Dean Elementary) and York County (Tabb Middle).

Eileen Cox, a spokesperson for Henricos public schools, said: School administration and HCPS legal counsel are aware of the legal action and are in the process of reviewing the ruling. At this time, the division does not have a comment.

The children of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have such illnesses as cancer, cystic fibrosis, asthma, Down syndrome, lung conditions and weakened immune systems that make COVID-19 more dangerous for them. Because of that, the parents allege that Youngkin and other officials are excluding their children from access to a public education.

The injunction order said: Plaintiffs have provided substantial evidence that exposure to COVID-19 places them at heightened risk of severe illness or death, and that transmission of COVID-19 in their communities and schools specifically presents an acute, ongoing risk; substantial evidence including from Plaintiffs treating physicians that, in a voluntary-masking environment created by these laws, it would be unsafe for Plaintiffs to return to in-person instruction...

The judges memorandum opinion backing up the order said the court cannot rule as a matter of law on whether required masking in schools is reasonable or not. It said the scope of the order was limited to these twelve Plaintiffs and such requests for reasonable modifications as they may make to their school districts. The injunction extends no further.

Attorney General Jason Miyares tweeted on Wednesday evening that the court order means the executive order and the new state law remain in effect and parents still have the choice of whether their children wear masks in schools.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said the injunction means the Americans With Disabilities Act preempts EO2 and SB 739 for the dozen plaintiffs who pursued the litigation, so the defendant school districts must afford the plaintiffs reasonable modifications of the masking policies imposed by the executive order and the law that will protect them when the students attend school.

Tobias added: Judge Moon painstakingly characterized his ruling as narrow and affording relief only to the dozen students partly because the litigation was not a class action that sought broader relief.

VCU loosens mask requirements but will continue requiring them in classrooms On Monday, VCU will only require masks in classrooms, health center spaces and public transit.

The ACLU of Virginia tweeted that it was glad the judge agreed that no student should have to risk their lives to go to school.

The legislature this year passed a new law that forbids a school division from imposing a mask mandate on students. That legislation became law March 1.

pwilson@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6061 Twitter: @patrickmwilson Staff writer Jess Nocera contributed to this report.
As the war in Ukraine intensifies, so do the fears of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., about Russian cyberattacks aimed at the American economy in retaliation for economic sanctions imposed on Russia and its leaders.

Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, said U.S. businesses and other institutions need to be prepared for digital attacks on their information systems if Russian President Vladimir Putin strikes back against opponents of his invasion of Ukraine.

It hasnt happened yet, but as we see Putin more and more isolated and being less successful on the battlefield, this possibility is real, he said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

What would such an attack do?

Warner, who made his fortune in telecommunications before entering politics, cant say, but he worries about the consequences if either Russia or the U.S. unleash their full arsenal of sophisticated cyber weapons.

Weve never seen what cyber-escalation looks like, he said.

Virginians have felt the effects of cybercrime, with ransomware attacks that forced the shutdown of a major gasoline supply pipeline on the East Coast almost a year ago and temporarily crippled the General Assemblys automated systems in December as the legislative session neared.

The ransomware attack on the assemblys information technology systems affected the ability of the Division of Legislative Services to draft bills and resolutions requested by legislators, blocked access to computer files for staff of the assembly money committees days before then-Gov. Ralph Northam proposed a new, two-year state budget, and shut down the assembly voicemail system, among its effects.

Ultimately, the Division of Legislative Automated Systems was able to move to a backup system designed to maintain continuity of government in case of a disaster. The attacker left a ransom note, but without a set financial demand, and the state did not pursue the option of paying.

David Burhop, director of the legislative IT agency, said Wednesday that he still cant talk about how the attackers penetrated the system.

We definitely dont want to provide any technical information that could be used to bring further disruption to the Commonwealth, Burhop said in an email. My agency has taken the steps necessary in mitigating the vulnerabilities associated with the breach and will continue to strengthen our defenses every day.

Asked about the potential for cyberattacks by Russia, he said, We are on high alert all of the time given our recent experience and the events overseas.

The Virginia State Police are leading the criminal investigation of the attack. The malware that infected the legislative systems did not affect the computer systems of the executive branch of government, which also faces incessant attempts to breach its IT networks.

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency estimates that the state experienced more than 66 million attempted cyberattacks last year and its security teams blocked more than 50,000 pieces of malware.

VITA, as it is known, provides IT services to 65 executive branch agencies and some 55,000 state employees.

Many attacks in Virginia are not reported. The House and Senate have passed legislation to require all public bodies to report cyberattacks to the Virginia Fusion Center for intelligence gathering within 24 hours. The U.S. Senate recently adopted legislation to require private companies responsible for critical infrastructure to report all cyberattacks to the federal government.

This is so important, said Warner, who sponsored the legislation to ensure the federal government can document attacks and share information confidentially with private companies to protect their systems.

Gov. Glenn Youngkins administration has made cybersecurity a top priority, especially in consultation with private companies that control much of the critical infrastructure that makes modern society work.

Secretary of Administration Lyn McDermid convened a call with business leaders last week to update them about potential cyberattacks that could affect their industries. More than 300 people participated, representing critical businesses and government agencies at every level.

Im pretty happy with the amount of communication, coordination and information sharing, said McDermid, a former chief information officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Dominion Energy, owner of Virginias largest electric utility.

One of the issues that the General Assembly must resolve when it convenes in special session on April 4 is how much money to provide McDermids office for a comprehensive analysis of Virginias cybersecurity programs.

Youngkin had asked for $40 million over two years, but the competing budget proposals range from $10 million to $20 million.

The administration also is looking for a new chief information officer at VITA to replace Phil Wittmer, a former Kansas CIO who left after less than a month in the job, and a new chief operating officer after the subsequent departure of Jon Ozovek.

Michael Watson, the agencys chief information security officer, is serving as acting CIO.

Hes been in cyber forever and really knows his stuff, McDermid said.

Warner wants Congress to take further action to require minimum cybersecurity standards in critical sectors of the U.S. economy, such as energy, finance, telecommunications and health care.

The challenge is if the bad guy can penetrate a company in any of those domains, youre only as strong as your weakest link, he said.

Warner cited the 2020 cyberattack on the SolarWinds Corp., attributed to groups aligned with the Russian government.

The so-called SUNBURST attack potentially could have affected the IT systems of 18,000 companies, as well as dozens of federal and state agencies, including the Virginia State Corporation Commission. However, the company said the attack actually penetrated the systems of fewer than 100 organizations.

His biggest fear is the possibility that a Russian cyberattack on Ukraine could affect neighboring countries, such as Poland, that are part of NATO. If such an attack caused a loss of life in a NATO country, he said that could trigger guarantees of mutual defense by the U.S. and other members.

Could cyber-escalation literally lead to military conflict? Warner asked. That is an open question.
(Image: Bernama)

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced that the government will provide an insurance protection plan of RM10,000 for poor families who have lost their source of income due to the passing of their heads of household.

With an annual allocation of RM13.4 million, the insurance protection plan is expected to benefit 268,000 poor households that are registered in eKasih. To clarify, eKasih is the national poverty database that was built to collect information on Malaysias poor households, as well as plan and manage the various aids provided to them.

Aside from announcing the insurance protection plan, the Prime Minister said that the Malaysia Social Protection Council (MySPC) will also look into various other efforts to increase the socio-economic level of poor households. These include focusing on and providing value-added programmes that can raise the income of the heads of poor and hardcore poor families registered in eKasih.

On top of that, the council will strive to amplify the social protection agenda at the district administration level. This will be done via the state social protection technical committees.

(Image: Malay Mail/Hari Anggara)

Additionally, the council also launched the Social Protection Database (PDPS), a social protection mechanism that is said to be more dynamic, flexible, and able to respond to any risks faced by members of the Malaysian Family. It will serve as the primary reference for Malaysias social protection programmes that have been launched thus far, encompassing employment, insurance, and social aids.

Ultimately, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri said that the Covid-19 pandemic has helped to highlight the weaknesses of the social protection system in many countries around the world, including Malaysia. He hopes that the various measures that were announced by the MySPC will bolster Malaysias social protection agenda, and assist the government in achieving its target of eliminating hardcore poverty by 2025

(Source: Bernama)

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Certain recent events make this a perfect time for a Casey family update. Thats because weve had an exciting addition to our far-flung brood. Her name is Aria Rose Trinh.

Welcome to the world little girl!

She weighed 4 pounds, 8 ounces at birth on March 1 because she was six weeks early. Initially our teeny-tiny new grandbaby looked like a mess of feeding tubes and breathing tubes and ultraviolet lamps and various other electronic monitoring gizmos.

Despite some early-arrival hiccups, everything has gone mostly swell. The neonatal intensive care unit at Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital released Aria on Sunday, which is when Donna and I skedaddled to Richmond to meet her.

Arias the firstborn to our second-eldest daughter, Erin, 31, and her husband, Eric Trinh. They met here in Roanoke when both worked at Carilion Clinic. In September 2020, they had a COVID wedding and reception in our back yard.

Only 12 people were present, but we broadcast the whole shebang on Zoom, so many more tuned in that way.

Erin worked in Carilions Community Health and Outreach Department, while Eric completed a fellowship in child psychiatry. Thats what he practices now in Virginias capital city. They moved in June after Eric got a job there.

Arias still sleeping about 21 hours a day  probably because shes still supposed to be in Erins womb. Her original due date was mid-April.

Shes getting mothers milk plus supplements about every three hours, and they weigh her every day, by the gram (28.3 grams = 1 ounce). When Donna and I left Richmond Tuesday afternoon, she was just about 4 pounds, 15 ounces. By the time you read this, shell probably top 5 pounds.

Erin and Erics feisty dog  a Pug named Zeus  seems completely fascinated by the diminutive addition to their family. He doesnt leave Arias side much, which is kind of a relief because Zeus is quite an attention-seeker himself.

We feared he might be jealous of our grandbaby  but there are no signs of that, yet. Erin and Erics cat, an orange tabby named Megan, seems far more nonchalant about the new face in the apartment.

Arias our second grandchild. The first was Sadie Strayer, who turned 5 in January and is a firecracker. She lives in a suburb of Austin, Texas. Her mom is our eldest daughter, Caitlin, 34.

Sadie owns dolls that are bigger than Aria, and because of the distance, she hasnt yet met her only cousin in person. Thatll have to wait for this summer, when we get together in Ocean City, Maryland.

Sadies tried to chat on Facetime, using her mothers smartphone. But Aria is still rather taciturn.

At one point, a frustrated Sadie asked, Auntie Erin, can you make her open her eyes more? I want to see them!

Our third daughter, the lovely Anna, 28, lives in Northern Virginia with her boyfriend, Bill. Sharing a town house with them is Annas longtime friend from Patrick Henry High, Ginna Ellis. Remember the old sitcom, Threes Company?

Anna had been working for a marketing company in Reston for a few years. But she quit in December and began working remotely for Caitlins employer. The sister-assisted job change almost doubled Annas income.

Now she deals with hospitals who need to fill staffing gaps with traveling health professionals. She and Bill are planning a move to Richmond after their lease in Reston expires.

The youngest Casey kid is our son Zach, 23, who youve probably read the most about in this column. Thats because I shamelessly pimped his exploits as a newbie driver (back when he was 15 to 19) in these pages. Some of those adventures were quite funny.

More recently, in 2019, I told you about Zachs harrowing backpacking experience in Iceland, where a mentally disturbed fellow backpacker threatened his life out in the middle of nowhere.

At the time, Zach was sending us messages through a satellite gizmo he (fortuitously) took with him to Iceland. It turned into a minor international incident when I frantically phoned the Icelandic National Police in the middle of the night after the other guy threatened Zach with a knife.

The Icelandic cops are amazing, really. They dispatched a SWAT team to rescue Zach, who was at a remote campsite hours away from Reykjavik.

The best thing about that adventure was, Iceland is where Zach met his girlfriend Jessica, whos from Minnesota. (Their introduction occurred at a Reykjavik youth hostel after the SWAT team arrested the other guy.) Theyre still together, and shes now a junior at the University of California, Berkeley.

The two of them spent her sophomore year (and Zachs senior year, at James Madison University) studying from an upstairs bedroom in our house in Grandin Court.

In May, Zach graduated with a degree in biotechnology from James Madison University, and hes now in Berkeley with Jessica.

In January, he landed an entry-level job at a Bay Area biotechnology startup. Its only a few years old, and its growing fast.

The company does cutting-edge pharmaceutical research. Zach got 1,000 stock options for signing on, with potentially more to come.

He prepares human cells for experiments the company conducts, and also performs something called high-throughput chemistry, with whiz-bang technology Ill never be able to fully comprehend.

They live above a coffee shop in downtown Berkeley, in a shoebox-sized apartment that costs a fortune. You could easily buy a whole house in Roanoke for a smaller monthly mortgage payment than their rent, even at todays sky-high prices.

Fortunately, Zach can afford it, because his pay is pretty good. On top of that, just two weeks ago, he got more good news  his employer gave him a $5,000 raise after only eight weeks on the job.

At first, Zach told me, he assumed the raise was a reward for great performance. But he soon discovered everyone at the company at his pay grade received the same bump. Turns out the company was concerned about the rising cost of living, and they didnt want their employees falling behind.

So that pretty much covers the family update. Everyone is gainfully employed  yay!  and the Casey Clan is slowly expanding. Aria Rose is the latest example.

On the rare occasions theyre open, her eyes appear huge in that itty-bitty noggin.

Donna and I feel so grateful and proud.

Contact metro columnist Dan Casey at 981-3423 or dan.casey@roanoke.com . Follow him on Twitter: @dancaseysblog .

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Two incumbent, first-term Republicans in Southwest Virginia are intent on serving second terms in the House of Delegates, but both said they hope to win election to the same seat.

After legislating through their first General Assembly session, Del. Marie March, R-Floyd, and Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, have returned home from Richmond.

Theres already politics at play, March said. Im already basically in a primary with Wren Williams.

Both said they are eyeing election to the new House of Delegates District 47, drawn in 2021 to combine parts of Williams and Marchs current districts 9 and 7, respectively. The new, historically Republican House District 47 includes Carroll, Floyd and Patrick counties, plus western Henry County and Galax.

Common interest in representing the district sets the stage for a Republican primary election, scheduled tentatively for 2023.

Ill be continuing to reside within Patrick County, which will be in the 47th district, Williams said. Ill be running again for re-election in 2023.

March, an entrepreneur, said she dislikes big government.

Im not a politician. I come from being a small business owner, March said. Nobody owns me in Richmond  Im a pro-liberty candidate, and Im a grassroots candidate. Im not bought and paid for by the establishment in any capacity.

Williams, an attorney, said he stands for conservatism.

Our district is fully behind us. Both the 9th district and the new 47th, theyre very supportive of my approach of being a fighter and protecting our conservative values, Williams said. I know the people here, I know the folks, and its a real honor and pleasure to serve them.

One comparison from the 2022 General Assembly session: Williams voted with his party on 82% of strong Republican-majority floor votes, March sided with her colleagues just over 67% of the time, according to party unity data from the Virginia Public Access Project.

If its growing government you know, I want freedom. I want independence as much as we can have it, March said. Thats where youre going to see me differ from some party line.

Williams said he has a proven conservative track record, and his votes in Richmond uphold it.

Im originally from Patrick County. Im from this area, I was born in the Appalachian Blue Ridge Mountains, Williams said. Its really awesome to be able to basically be myself and represent my community. I dont have to change who I am, I dont have to act like Im somebody that Im not.

One vote on which Williams and March differed was to authorize certain uses of facial recognition software by state police. Senate Bill 741 passed the house by a 54-42 vote, with March and Williams on opposite sides of the debate about facial recognition.

I got a lot of grief, even from the caucus, for voting against the facial recognition software, March said. My constituents, were in a rural area. They dont want big brother spying on them with facial recognition software. So I voted against it.

Williams, who voted with the majority in favor of the bill, said it is beneficial to victims, and fits with his pro-law enforcement values.

When it comes to conservative policies and legislation, I support our police, Williams said. Im always going to stand with our police and law enforcement officers.

In the 2021 election for Virginia governor, residents of the new House District 47 voted almost 79% Republican, according to VPAP data.

An election for all of the new House of Delegates districts is currently scheduled for November 2023. But a pending lawsuit, filed by a former state Democratic Party leader, is requesting a judge to instead advance the next state House election to November 2022.

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It was recently announced that celebrated Chinese director Zhang Yimou will return to making movies, following on from presenting fabulous Olympic ceremonies to the world.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Zhang will direct a period movie called "Man Jiang Hong" ("Full River Red"), the title of which is borrowed from the most famous poem by Yue Fei. Yue was a military general during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), well-known for his patriotism and loyalty to his country, who was framed and executed by Prime Minister Qin Hui, one of the most treacherous officials in China's history.



A brief synopsis provided by Huanxi Media explains that the plot revolves around a mysterious incident which takes place in Qin Hui's residence where he would meet representatives from the enemy Jin Dynasty. Behind the incident, it is actually righteous vigilantes who want to slay the traitor. Zhang seems set to retell the historical story in a new perspective, and will co-write the script with screenwriter Chen Yu.

On Monday, Emperor Motion Pictures also announced they will collaborate with Zhang for a sequel to his spy thriller "Cliff Walkers," which took 1.19 billion yuan ($186.7 million) in China to become his biggest grossing film. The film is to be the director's first sequel in his long career spanning 38 years.

Zhang is known to be hardworking and prolific. He recently finished directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which showed a romantic, dreamy and passionate China, and sent a message of world unity via marvelous performances and high-tech visual effects. With the achievement, he has become the first person to direct both Summer and Winter Games ceremonies.

However, his wife Chen Ting spoke out about her concerns for Zhang's workaholic devotion during the Olympics, fearing he was harming his health. She said every hour of his life was occupied by work, and he ate little, and slept little.

Zhang's most recent film "Snipers" was released during the Olympics and has so far grossed 598 million yuan. It was also reported that he will make his TV directorial debut with a show based on "Protagonist," an award-winning novel by Chen Yan about the life of a leading Shaanxi opera star. Meanwhile, the director's latest movie  an urban crime drama titled "Under the Light"  is also awaiting release. Zhang Yimou truly is one of the hardest working people in cinema.
A legal aid company accused of preying on undocumented immigrants held in detention centers in Virginia and elsewhere with an illegal bonding practice has failed in an attempt to have a lawsuit against it dismissed.

Roanoke-based U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon denied a motion Monday from Libre By Nexus, which was sued last year by Virginias attorney general and two other states.

The company describes itself as a national legal aid operation that pays the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bonds on a loan basis for people who are being held as part of the countrys broken immigration system.

But according to a lawsuit filed last year, Libre conceals or misrepresents the true costs of its services, charging upfront fees and monthly payments that can amount to thousands of dollars more than the face value of the bond.

Most Libre consumers do not speak or read English; therefore, they cannot understand the terms in the written agreement and rely on Libres oral representations, the lawsuit claims.

An attorney for Libre disputed the allegations, saying the company has a deep commitment to immigrants.

In her opinion, Dillon denied Libres request to have the lawsuit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Joining Virginia in the lawsuit are the states of Massachusetts and New York and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Thousands of immigrants and their families  with an exact number to be proven at trial  have fallen victim to the companys misrepresentations, the lawsuit states.

Generally, detainees in immigration detention centers are eligible for bond if a judge determines they are not a risk to flee or a threat to public safety. The average bond in 2018 was $7,500 nationally, and those unable to pay in cash must obtain third-party financing.

Libre is not a licensed bail bond agent; the company acts as a intermediary between detainees and their bond issuer.

According to the lawsuit, Libre misleads consumers into believing that their monthly fees are paying down their debt and that portions will be refunded at the conclusion of their immigration proceedings.

But many of the costs were not returned, including a fee used to pay for electronic monitoring bracelets the immigrants were required to wear, the lawsuit alleges.

As an example, the lawsuit cites a Libre client with a $10,000 bond whose immigration case took three years to resolve. In that case, the detainee made nonrefundable payments to the company in excess of $17,000.

With Dillon denying the companys request for dismissal, the case will now move forward to a trial at which the states and the federal consumer bureau will request damages and civil penalties.

The lawsuit was filed in Harrisonburgs federal court, not far from Libres principal place of business in Verona. Established in 2014, the company has locations across the country.

Jennifer Lee, a San Francisco lawyer who represents Libre, said Dillons ruling was limited to the narrow scope of subject matter jurisdiction, which was handled by previous counsel.

More broadly, the case allegations sadly do not account for the facts of the companys business model, nor the nuances of an immigrants personal experience, Lee wrote in an email.

While the companys clients are brilliant, resilient people, Lee said, many lack the ability to understand detailed contracts and were better served by oral descriptions delivered in their native language.

The email concluded: Given the companys deep commitment to the immigrant populations whom its programs were designed to help, the company intends to remain steadfast to demonstrate in this suit the true facts about its business to the fullest extent possible, and looks forward to the opportunity to do so.

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As a former congressman and member of the 2017 Presidents Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, and as a former three-time White House drug policy adviser, we join countless Virginians in commending the House of Delegates rejection of the commercialization and normalization of marijuana in the Old Dominion. The halt of the Big Tobacco-backed push for legalization and sales demonstrates that legislators have delivered on their promise to prioritize the well-being of all Virginians.

When legalization was rushed through during last years legislative session, the legislature failed to listen to scientists and families with important concerns. It should come as no surprise that Altria, Americas largest Big Tobacco company, led the charge on marijuana legalization in Virginia.

The commercialization of marijuana in Virginia  the production, marketing, and sale of the drug  was a rushed policy decision that would have harmed public health and public safety. Additionally, the normalization of marijuana use would have failed to address health risks, such as marijuana-induced psychosis that can occur in people with mental health issues, and for which scant data exists on who is most at risk. Such lax accountability would be unacceptable for any other consumer product, so why should marijuana get a pass?

It was reported during his campaign that now-Gov. Glenn Youngkins main objective [regarding pot] will be making sure minors dont use or have access to marijuana. That is a laudable objective, but it cannot be achieved if the state allows the sale and promotion of the drug.

California, for example, has seen youth marijuana use explode since legalization.

And youth in states that legalized marijuana had rates of past-year cannabis use disorder that were 25% higher than youth in states that did not.

Education, one of the top issues in the 2021 election, is inextricably linked to the marijuana issue, as marijuana use leads to poorer educational outcomes. We know using marijuana harms the adolescent brain by reducing cognition and memory. Investments in substance use prevention, especially for impressionable youth, should be scaled up. Virginias leaders should also dedicate significant resources to increasing treatment for mental health issues and substance use disorders, which have afflicted youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to his colleagues defeating commercialization, House Speaker Todd Gilberts spokesman said, The overriding top-tier concern is that we have to have a regulatory structure in place for retail sales that does not encourage the black market. This is critical because no legal marijuana state has been able to address the problem. Roughly 90% of marijuana sales in Massachusetts last year were on the black market. And half of all sales in Oregon and Washington were illicit.

Virginia should continue to reject commercial sales and invest in prevention of marijuana use and further address criminal justice reform. It is worth noting that legislators should not confuse efforts to legalize marijuana with the decriminalization of its use, which is a different policy that would expunge records and remove criminal penalties for low-level use. We are calling not for increased incarceration but for a balanced policy focused on education and prevention.

Despite popular belief, marijuana commercialization is unpopular with Americans. A February 2021 poll found that 68% of Virginians indicated their support for legalization. However, when two additional policy options are included  decriminalization or medical use  support for legalization drops to 38%, a national poll recently found.

Virginians may not want someone to go to jail for a joint, but they definitely dont want pot gummy bears and youth-targeted billboards.

The recent vote to reject commercialization will help improve mental health, advance public health, and protect public safety across Virginia. Its time to invest in quality prevention, education, and treatment for marijuana-related harms and continue to condemn the sales pitch of Big Tobacco.

Kennedy, a former U.S. representative from Rhode Island and member of the Presidents Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis is the author of A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction. The lead sponsor of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, he is the son of Edward Ted Kennedy. Sabet, a former drug-policy adviser to three U.S. presidents, is president and CEO of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), a non-profit organization he founded with Kennedy and David Frum.
Gov. Glenn Youngkins nomination of Andrew Wheeler to a key cabinet position in Virginia governance should cause every Virginian to lean forward and take notice.

The Wheeler nomination failed, thank God! But determined fringe Gov. Youngkin played the end game, and brought Lightning Rod Wheeler on board his administration as a personal Energy Adviser, at a taxpayer-funded salary of $185,000 per year. Go figure.

Lets retro back to Republican Youngkins campaign, and review some of the now-Gov.s comments and promises.

Multiple media sources, including Wikipedia, recorded Youngkin as having said this about our changing climate:

Asked if he accepts the scientific consensus on the cause of climate change, Youngkin said he does not know what causes climate change and that the cause ultimately does not matter. Really, Gov....?

Thats quite a statement regarding the cause of climate change, particularly coming from a businessman as well credentialed as Glenn Youngkin seems to be.

Then again, I suppose some other fringe Republican voters believe that earthworms transform into fireflies the night of the first full moon in June!

Youngkins statement certainly doesnt appear in vogue with those scientists and engineers who are working diligently, trying to solve the greatest global humanitarian crisis Mother Earth and her inhabitants have ever faced.

Heres the message ... as the Baptists say. Youngkins statement on the unknown cause of climate change defies the cumulative scientific facts and hard evidence of 160 countries, 272 world class global scientists and every leading higher educational institution in the country, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.

Youngkins comments defy every leading newspaper in the country, every major global religion, our top American science organizations a.k.a. the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). His comments also defy hundreds of Forbes 500 corporations, Wall Street, every major global insurer, and every major utility in the country.

Congratulations, Gov. Youngkin ... you seem to have put yourself and your administration in a very special category on the national stage, and thats both embarrassing and troubling to most Virginia families

In my opinion, Youngkins choice of words regarding the cause of our changing climate is actually in itself a disqualifier of Youngkin himself to make sound, logical, and appropriate future decisions on other big, consequential national and global issues, as they may apply to the ongoing health and well-being of Virginia families.

Its true, Gov. Youngkin seems intent on dragging Virginia backward, and that should be of great concern. Just how far backward could that possibly be? Only as far as We-The-People allow him to do same...

Reynolds is retired from a global engineering and technology company. He lives in Roanoke.
" " Need to sort out some scrap metal? Electromagnets to the rescue! Here, an electromagnet is used to pick up some of the approximately 3,500 confiscated guns to be melted down. David McNew/Getty Images

What do a wrecking yard, a rock concert and your front door have in common? They each use electromagnets, devices that create a magnetic field through the application of electricity. Wrecking yards employ extremely powerful electromagnets to move heavy pieces of scrap metal or even entire cars from one place to another. Your favorite band uses electromagnets to amplify the sound coming out of its speakers. And when someone rings your doorbell, a tiny electromagnet pulls a metal clapper against a bell.

Mechanically, an electromagnet is pretty simple. It consists of a length of conductive wire, usually copper, wrapped around a piece of metal. Like Frankenstein's monster, this seems like little more than a loose collection of parts until electricity comes into the picture. But you don't have to wait for a storm to bring an electromagnet to life. A current is introduced, either from a battery or another source of electricity, and flows through the wire. This creates a magnetic field around the coiled wire, magnetizing the metal as if it were a permanent magnet. Electromagnets are useful because you can turn the magnet on and off by completing or interrupting the circuit, respectively.

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Before we go too much farther, we should discuss how electromagnets differ from your run-of-the-mill "permanent" magnets, like the ones holding your Popsicle art to the fridge. As you know, magnets have two poles, "north" and "south," and attract things made of steel, iron or some combination thereof. Like poles repel and opposites attract (ah, the intersection of romance and physics). For example, if you have two bar magnets with their ends marked "north" and "south," the north end of one magnet will attract the south end of the other. On the other hand, the north end of one magnet will repel the north end of the other (and similarly, south will repel south). An electromagnet is the same way, except it is "temporary" -- the magnetic field only exists when electric current is flowing.

The doorbell is a good example of how electromagnets can be used in applications where permanent magnets just wouldn't make any sense. When a guest pushes the button on your front door, the electronic circuitry inside the doorbell closes an electrical loop, meaning the circuit is completed and "turned on." The closed circuit allows electricity to flow, creating a magnetic field and causing the clapper to become magnetized. The hardware of most traditional doorbells consists of a metal bell and metal clapper that, when the magnetic pull causes them to clang together, you hear the chime inside. The bell rings, the guest releases the button, the circuit opens and the doorbell stops its infernal ringing. This on-demand magnetism is what makes the electromagnet so useful.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at electromagnets and discover how these devices take some pretty cool science and apply it to gizmos all around us that make our lives easier.
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 In praise of the continued sentencing sensibility of the National Review's Andrew McCarthy | Main | Prison Policy Initiative provides terrific accounting of COVID pandemic's early impact on prison and jail populations 

March 24, 2022

Applying RLUIPA, Supreme Court rules 8-1 in favor of condemned Texas inmate seeking religious touching in execution chamber

The US Supreme Court handed down a lengthy and notable death penalty administration ruling today with Ramirez v. Collier, No. 21-5592 (S. Ct. Mar. 24, 2022) (available here). Chief Justice Roberts authored the opinion of the Court, which every Justice other than Justice Thomas joined. Justices Sotomayor and Kavanaugh did author concurring opinions. Here is the start and end of the Court's opinion:

A Texas jury sentenced John Ramirez to death for the brutal murder of Pablo Castro. In this litigation, Ramirez does not challenge his conviction. Nor does he challenge his sentence. He asks instead that his long-time pastor be allowed to pray with him and lay hands on him while he is being executed. He says that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), 114 Stat. 803, 42 U. S. C. 2000cc et seq., requires this accommodation. Ramirez sought a preliminary injunction ordering Texas to permit his religious exercise if the State went forward with his execution. The District Court and Court of Appeals declined to grant such relief. We then stayed the execution and granted certiorari.... We hold that Ramirez is likely to prevail on the merits of his RLUIPA claims, and that the other preliminary injunction factors justify relief. If Texas reschedules Ramirezs execution and declines to permit audible prayer or religious touch, the District Court should therefore enter appropriate preliminary relief. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Here is the start of Justice Thomas's dissenting opinion:

Petitioner John Henry Ramirez stabbed Pablo Castro 29 times during a robbery that netted $1.25. Castro bled to death in a parking lot. Since that day, Ramirez has manufactured more than a decade of delay to evade the capital sentence lawfully imposed by the State of Texas. This Court now affords yet another chance for him to delay his execution. Because I think Ramirezs claims either do not warrant equitable relief or are procedurally barred, I respectfully dissent.

March 24, 2022 at 10:28 AM | Permalink

Comments

Clarence Thomas is awesome. His dissent is compelling.

This case shows why federal courts need to be stripped of jurisdiction to hear capital sentencing issues.

Posted by: Federalist | Mar 24, 2022 12:29:24 PM

@Federalist: Perhaps Justice Thomas is just plain wrong. No one would call Justice Alito a friend of the defense bar, and even HE sided with the inmate.

Posted by: Marc Shepherd | Mar 25, 2022 7:34:10 AM

Actually, this case shows why both the Smith decision (giving too little protection to religious practices) and the legislative overreaction to Smith -- RUILPA and RFRA (which give too much protection to both religious practices and religious views on morality) were wrong. Under the current law, notwithstanding the Establishment Clause, the law requires special treatment if a person even claims that they have a religious belief that is infringed by the law as no court wants to get into the weeds of whether the asserted religious belief or practice is sincere. And because RUILPA applies mainly to prisons and zoning decisions, RUILPA has caused never ending headaches for prison officials trying to decide what accommodations they have to make to whatever an inmate can decide is required by the inmate's religion.

Posted by: tmm | Mar 25, 2022 10:57:26 AM

His dissent here may be "compelling," but I'll never know. in light of emails from his wife to Mark Meadows, I now have a hard time even looking at anything Justice Thomas writes. All this time he has had a blatant conflict of interest given his his wife's hard core promotion of Trump's Big Lie and the nonsensical conspiracy theories that are dislcosed in her emails. Is it any coincidence that he was the sole dissenter in the case that required the Archives to turn over Trump's papers to the Jan. 6 Committee? The very papers that disclosed his wife's emails to Meadows! Mr. Justice Thomas, dissent away; we're done.



Posted by: anon12 | Mar 25, 2022 8:53:10 PM

Federalist, if Thomas's dissent is so "compelling," how is it that eight other Justices didn't buy his argument?

Posted by: David from Texas | Mar 25, 2022 9:53:15 PM

Good to see the Fifth Circuit take one on the chin!

Posted by: Mary quite contrary | Mar 25, 2022 9:54:36 PM

tmm --

Nice insight about how RUILPA and RFRA were overreactions to Smith. I hadn't thought of that, but now that you say it, it seems spot on. I also think those statutes show a shrewd liberal exploitation of sometimes poorly considered conservative enthusiasm for religion.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 26, 2022 12:43:25 AM

Thomas's conflicts of interest bring disrepute to the Supreme Court. Everthing Trump touches becomes garbage. Trump touched Thomas's wife; she became garbage; she touched her husband; he became garbage.

Posted by: Jane from Vermont | Mar 26, 2022 3:36:01 PM

I wonder what the reaction would be on this blog if a conservative called the only black Supreme Court Justice, and his wife, "garbage."

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 26, 2022 4:08:50 PM

David from Texaas --

If Harlan's dissent in Plessy is so "compelling," how is it that eight other Justices didn't buy his argument?

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 26, 2022 4:12:21 PM

Mr. Otis, I don't know that anyone ever called Harlen's dissent "compelling." Here, Federalist called the dissent of Thomas "compelling." So your response is a nice irrelevant diversion.

Posted by: Mary from Kentucky | Mar 26, 2022 8:56:57 PM

Virginia Thomas forwarded the following text to Mark Meadows and then added, "I hope its's true":

Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.

rue wacko text. Difficult to believe that her husband was unaware of her wackines, and that it did not play a part in his lone dissent to try to keept her emails emails from the Jan. 6 committee.

Posted by: Dave | Mar 26, 2022 9:02:29 PM

Mary from Kentucky --

"I don't know that anyone ever called Harlen's dissent [from Plessy] 'compelling.'"

Well that's fine, because I didn't call it compelling either. But in fact it is, if not heroic -- or if you want to make the case that the Plessy majority had the better of the argument, feel free.

P.S. Somehow I think you're playing games with your moniker. Are you the same person as "Jane from Vermont"? It sure sounds like you are. What's the point? Is your next comment going to be by "Sally from Iowa"?

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 26, 2022 11:04:51 PM

Dave --

"Difficult to believe that her husband was unaware of her wackines, and that it did not play a part in his lone dissent to try to keept her emails emails from the Jan. 6 committee."

Interesting speculation. Got proof?



Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 26, 2022 11:09:27 PM

Given that the Thomases have been married for decades, it would be shocking if CT was unaware of GT's views. Does it influence his decision-making? One hopes not, but with other justices there is not even a question, because they have the common sense the Thomases lack: to keep their mouths shut.

Most Justices and their spouses have understood, that with the privilege of serving on the nation's highest court, comes the responsibility to maintain not just the *reality* of being impartial, but also the appearance of it. Their failure to live up to that responsibility is a shocking error of judgment, even if CT's votes are not influenced by it at all. Of course, CT cannot control what GT says or does, but if he is at all troubled by it, it's a very well kept secret.

Justice Gorsuch voted with Thomas almost 90% of the time last Term. But you hear no such complaints about Gorsuch. Nor Alito nor the late Chief Justice Rehnquist. Scalia tripped up occasionally, but nowhere near to this extent. While CT and GT are not breaking any laws, we expect judges to uphold a higher standard than merely not being "provably" compromised.

Posted by: Marc Shepherd | Mar 27, 2022 11:35:01 AM

Marc Shepheard. You make excellent points. To follow up: now that we know that Ginni Thomas was actively encouraging the overthrow of the government, shouldn't Thomas resign or be impeached and removed? After all, how can he fairly decide constitutional issues, when his wife is and has been encouraging a coup?

Posted by: anon 12 | Mar 27, 2022 3:02:36 PM

Marc Shepherd --

I think you're conflating the two Thomases. The standards that apply to her (essentially none because she's a private citizen with her own rights to self-expression) are very different from those that apply to him (to avoid the fact and the appearance of pre-judgment in any particular case).

If she thinks exactly as she does, but said it only over the dinner table, would there be the present controversy? I'm not seeing how, even though the beliefs would be exactly the same.

So the question boils down to whether it's PRUDENT for her to be so public with her beliefs. If I were giving advice, which I'm not, my answer would be to step it back. As one of my old bosses at DOJ used to say, in the culture of law, if it's not necessary to say something, it's necessary not to say it. Restraint is almost always better than the urge to self-expression.

Are Justice Thomas's decisions influenced by it? Only he is in a position to know that. Everyone else is guessing. Guessing is not a basis to call (as some have) for resignation or impeachment. Indeed, guessing is not a basis for anything.

Thomas has been in the gunsights of the Left from the get-go, staring with the entirely unproven allegations against him at his confirmation hearing - allegations taking root in the ugly, racist belief that black men have uncontrollable sexual appetites. This racially-tinged antagonism to him affects how we should view the present controversy. By most accounts, including mine, he's consistently the most conservative Justice, and thus likely, other things being equal, to take a favorable view of executive branch authority. After 30 years, that is not a surprise.

In sum, while I think it would be advisable for Mrs. Thomas to be more circumspect, the case for Justice Thomas's recusal, and still less for (the long-time leftist goal) of his removal, has not been made.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 27, 2022 5:10:08 PM

Mr. Otis, you are aware that the appearance of bias is as detrimental to the interests of justice as is actual bias. Whatever may be Thomas's actual opinions, given his wife's outspoken support of a political coup (a wife to whom he is "bonded" [his words]), Thomas has the appearance of bias when ruling on any case relating even tangentially to Donald Trump. If Thomas does not recuse himself from such cases, he brings the Supreme Court into disrepute.

Posted by: anon16 | Mar 27, 2022 6:02:48 PM

The stench of corruption now permeates the Supreme Court. That it has come to this; what a shame.

Posted by: sms | Mar 27, 2022 7:31:03 PM

Although I would not have used the term "garbage" as did Jane from Vermont (see above), she does make a point. Mr. Trump's tentacles have managed to poison almost everyone with whom he has come in contact; and now he's managed (albeit indirectly ) to latch on to Justice Thomas, infecting, besmirching and corrupting the Supreme Court.

Posted by: Heather | Mar 27, 2022 7:36:19 PM

@Bill Otis: I do understand that GT is not subject to the same rules as CT. Nevertheless, every other Justice's spouse, now and in the past, has seemingly understood what she does not -- that appearances matter. Or maybe she totally understands that and doesn't care: who knows?

While you and I know that CT is the most conservative justice, at least by some definitions, I think the current objections are not because he is Black or conservative, but simply because no other Justice's spouse is doing the things that GT does.

Posted by: Marc Shepherd | Mar 28, 2022 7:35:46 AM

The issue with GT and CT comes down to whether her involvement effectively makes her a party to pending cases. Most judges and justices understand that it would be improper to serve in a case in which the spouse or a child was an attorney for a party or an employee of a party. In my state, I know of judges who recused from cases involving the state merely because their child or grandchild worked for the Attorney General's Office even though that child or grandchild was not involved as an attorney in the case in front of the court.

Here the employer is not a full party. Instead, the employer is only involved as an amicus or a lobbyist for the policy at issue in the case. I don't know that this issue has arisen for other justices. I am unaware of any previous spouse that has been an employee of a group that is routinely involved in litigation and lobbying.

While I don't think any judge or justice would decide a case against their normal tendencies because of their relative's employment, the rule is based on the appearance of impropriety which exists two ways. The first is that, even if the judge decides in the way that you would predict knowing the facts and the issues in the case, some people will think that the judge made her decision to benefit the relative. The second is the thought by outsiders that you can improve your chances of success by hiring the judge's relative or getting his employer involved in the litigation. And I think that this type of appearance exists even if the relative's employer is only involved as an amicus or as a lobbyist.

Posted by: tmm | Mar 28, 2022 10:47:34 AM

tmm, having reviewed the comments above, I agree with your analysis. Any district court judge I have appeared before (too many to count in too many districts for too many years), whether arch-conservative or flaming liberal, would recuse himself in these circumstances from Trump-related cases because of the appearance of bias.

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Mar 28, 2022 12:15:07 PM

Michael R. Levine, tmm and Marc Shepherd --

What a pleasure it is to see three consecutive comments by people who think about the issue at hand and stick with that.

There are two difficult questions this topic will have a hard time escaping. The first is how far the impulse for recusal should extend. If, for example, a given Justice's spouse (or sibling, etc.) works for an organization that takes stands on capital punishment, qualified immunity, decarceration, executive v. judicial authority, and the like, should the Justice recuse in all cases raising those issues, or if not, what standards should the Justice use to decide whether to recuse in any particular case?

The second question is who is to decide when there is an "appearance" of impropriety and by what standard. This is an especially vexing issue when the Justice, like Justice Thomas, is a polarizing figure, and the vexation becomes yet more complicated when you throw in race (which I would prefer never to do, but I don't run the show). I think it's overwhelmingly likely that those who like and admire Thomas from the get-go, and trust his integrity, will see no such appearance, while those who dislike and distrust him from the get-go will see it in short order.

More generally, the recusal question has lots of complications. Should Catholic judges recuse themselves from abortion cases? Should gay judges recuse themselves from gay rights cases? Should pacifist judges recuse themselves from cases involving the President's use of military power?

My instinct is that, without more, there should not be recusal in any of those examples. I raise them simply to illustrate that the topic is thornier than it might appear.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 28, 2022 3:43:38 PM

Bill, greetings! With respect to "who is to decide," I'm reminded of one of Freud's observations that has always stuck with me: "Needless to say, no one who suffers from a delusion recognizes it as such." Is it fair to say that, at least many times, no one who suffers from a conflict of interest recognizes it as such?

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Mar 28, 2022 6:12:42 PM

Michael R. Levine --

I agree with Freud (about that, anyway). The conundrum, of course, is that people who do NOT suffer from a delusion will be just as sure of their health (only correctly so) as those who are deluded. So one's own assurance turns out to be a poor measuring stick. On the other hand, the perceptions of others are ALSO a poor measuring stick, as those perceptions are highly likely to be colored by the biases, interests, and politics (or indeed, possibly delusions) of the persons doing the perceiving. So we're kind of stuck.

The current "rule" is that each Justice decides for himself/herself, and if we could devise something better, that would be a subject for another and much longer entry.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 28, 2022 6:53:54 PM

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 Spotlighting that public defenders are underrepresented on all high courts in the US | Main | Applying RLUIPA, Supreme Court rules 8-1 in favor of condemned Texas inmate seeking religious touching in execution chamber 

March 24, 2022

In praise of the continued sentencing sensibility of the National Review's Andrew McCarthy

Though I have been intrigued by the considerable attention given to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's sentencing record even since Senator Josh Hawley's tweets flagged his concerns about about her writings, comments and sentencings in some sex offense cases (background here), I have been quite disappointed by what seemed to me to be a general failure by all of Senators on both sides of the aisle to engage thoughtfully with the deep challenges and profound humanity in any and all sentencing determinations. District judges often say sentencing is the hardest part of their job, and this is true even in the run-of-the-mill cases when the facts are routine and the applicable statutory law is clear and the applicable guidelines are helpful. (A few years ago, I gave a talk (written up here) partially titled "Sentencing is So Dang Hard" which details just some reasons I think judge are right to describe sentencing this way.)

Critically, in federal child pornography (CP) cases, the basic facts are rarely routine, the applicable statutory law is rarely clear, and the applicable guidelines are the very opposite of helpful. In the CP setting, applicable statutory law is quite messy  e.g., what is the real difference between child pornography "possession" and "receipt", how should USSC policy statements be considered here  and the applicable guidelines are widely regarded as badly broken. Those legal realities mean federal sentencing takes on extra layers of challenge in CP cases. The challenges become especially profound when difficult and distinctive facts come along, such as in the oft-discussed Hawkins case where, according to this New York Times article, the prosecutor described "very unique circumstances" involving teenage offender and the defense presented an "evaluation by a psychologist asserting that Mr. Hawkins did not 'demonstrate sexual deviation' but was instead driven to watch the pornographic images as 'a way for him to explore his curiosity about homosexual activity and connect with his emotional peers'."

Under difficult circumstances during questions from mostly GOP Senators, Judge Jackson tried hard to explain her sentencing process and goals, and she did highlight some of the unique challenges these cases present in light of problematic guidelines. But, based on the parts of the hearing I was able to watch, I was generally underwhelmed by the efforts of Judge Jackson's supporters to discuss with her more broadly the deep challenges and profound humanity that all sentencing decision-making involves. And I heard precious little discussion of the particulars of the Hawkins case or other cases in which defendants present significant mitigating circumstances that find little or no expression is problematic guidelines.

But, as the title of this post suggest, there is one commentator who has done a great job in this arena this week, and I want to give a particular shout out to the work he has done to consistently and effectively contextualizing these stories. Specifically, the National Review's Andrew McCarthy has now done three lengthy pieces that are must-reads for everyone following these stories:

"Senator Hawleys Disingenuous Attack against Judge Jacksons Record on Child Pornography"

"Ho-Hum: The Cases Senator Hawley Cites Show Judge Jackson Is an Unremarkable Sentencer in Child-Porn Cases"

"Judge Jackson and Judiciary Committee Republicans Joust on Child-Porn-Possession Case against 18-Year-Old . . . Again"

I flagged the first of these pieces in a prior post, but I want to especially laud Mr. McCarthy for not being content with his important first salvo against this line of attack on Judge Jackson. Mr. McCarthy makes clear that he is not a fan or supporter of Judge Jackson, but he has still been willing to write a significant series of detailed pieces documenting in so many ways why the sentencing discourse by the GOP here is so misguided. Kudos to him (and the National Review) for such sentencing sensibility.

March 24, 2022 at 10:10 AM | Permalink

Comments

Mr. McCarthy had plenty to say about Kevin Clinesmith too. Did you find it sensible? He also had a lot to say about the Russia hoaxdid you find that sensible?

Posted by: Federalist | Mar 24, 2022 1:38:14 PM

I agree with some things Federalist says, but not everything. I agree with some things Andrew McCarthy says, but not everything. I agree with some things Judge Jackson says, but not everything. I even agree with some things Donald Trump and Joe Biden say, but not everything.

If there are certain things said about Kevin Clinesmith and about Russia you want me to weigh in on, link away.

Posted by: Doug B | Mar 24, 2022 3:15:46 PM

Doug --

You neglected the most damning part of your confession: You agree with me on some things (but not everything).

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 24, 2022 3:45:13 PM

Not damning at all, Bill, but I could not decide whether to use the modifier "some" or "most" with you! Jokes aside, I know most Americans agree on a lot more things than it seems, and we are all disserved when we focus on the disagreements.

Posted by: Doug B. | Mar 24, 2022 4:32:07 PM

Doug --

Yup, we agree on a lot more than we let on here, but I try to keep this more-or-less under wraps lest it ruin both our reputations.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Mar 24, 2022 4:50:09 PM

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 Nebraska having a bad time sorting through how to apply good-time credits | Main | Spotlighting that public defenders are underrepresented on all high courts in the US 

March 23, 2022

Is Congress finally on the verge of equalizing crack and powder cocaine sentences?

I asked in this post a few weeks ago, "Why is getting the EQUAL Act through the US Senate proving so challenging?". Excitingly, as detailed in this new Bloomberg piece, headlined "GOP Support Clears Senate Path for Bill on Cocaine Sentencing," it now looks like a bill to equalize crack and powder sentences now may have a ready path to passage. Here are the exciting details:

Ten Senate Republicans have signed on to a bill that would eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses involving crack and powder cocaine, paving the way for likely passage in the evenly divided chamber where 60 votes are needed for most legislation. That looks like youd get to 60, really, said Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, one of the 10 GOP co-sponsors of the EQUAL Act. This is the Democrats prerogative, itd be nice if they would bring it to the floor. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signed onto the bill as a co-sponsor on Monday, but his office did not immediately respond to questions on his plans for floor debate. The bill passed the House, 361-66, in September and President Joe Biden, who campaigned on criminal justice reform, is expected to sign the measure when it reaches his desk. The bill, sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker, eliminates the lower quantity thresholds for crack cocaine, which the bills proponents have said unjustly targets Black offenders. In 2020, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that 77.1% of crack cocaine trafficking offenders were Black and 6.3% were White. Yet White people are more likely to use cocaine in their lifetime than any other group, according to the 2020 National Survey of Drug Use and Health. Current laws establish an 18-to-1 ratio on federal penalties for crack and powder cocaine, meaning anyone found with 28 grams of crack cocaine would face the same five-year mandatory prison sentence as a person found with 500 grams of powder cocaine.... Sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine were originally created in 1986 with a 100-to-1 ratio. The Sentencing Commission issued a special report in 1995 stating the 100-to-1 ratio punished low-level crack dealers far more severely than high-level suppliers of powder cocaine, despite there being no pharmacological difference between the two forms of the drug. Then-President Bill Clinton and Congress rejected the commissions recommendations to amend the law. Fifteen years later, Congress reduced the sentencing disparity from to 18-to-1, but advocates have fought to further narrow the sentencing gap.... Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, recently signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill after studying the issue with constituents, he said, and determining this would be a step toward criminal justice fairness. Moran said it is his expectation that this bill will be considered by the Senate.

A few related posts on the EQUAL Act:

March 23, 2022 at 09:11 PM | Permalink

Comments

Doug: If passed, would this Bill have retroactive effect, leading to the re-sentencing of current inmates, and then the release of thousands of long-term crack inmates from Federal prisons?

Posted by: Jim Gormley | Mar 24, 2022 6:54:05 AM

Good question, Jim. I am pretty sure the version of the law that is garnering support includes this provision: "(2) PAST CASES.In the case of a defendant who, before the date of enactment of this Act, was convicted or sentenced for a Federal offense involving cocaine base, the sentencing court may, on motion of the defendant, the Bureau of Prisons, the attorney for the Government, or on its own motion, impose a reduced sentence after considering the factors set forth in section 3553(a) of title 18, United States Code."

In other words, judges would have discretion to (but not be required to) reduce past crack sentences after passage of this Act.

Posted by: Doug B. | Mar 24, 2022 7:16:49 AM

My potential concern with the language Doug quotes is that it could be read as authorizing a plenary resentencing and so goes beyond remediating the crack:powder disparity. It could treat offenders convicted of crack offenses better than those convicted of powder offenses by giving them a second bite at the apple, ability to show post-offense rehabilitation, etc. It may also fail to offer relief to all whose sentences were adversely affected by the disparity.

I would probably have written differently along the lines of: the court shall determine what sentence would likely have been passed at the time of sentencing if the offense involved powder and shall resentence to that term if less than the imposed term. I understand, though, if that wasn't politically palatable because it would call for reductions for some offenders who Congress doesn't want to see walk out of prison sooner.

Posted by: Jason | Mar 24, 2022 12:03:58 PM

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The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic regulator, in association with the National Energy Administration, on Wednesday unveiled the country's first medium- to long-term (2021-35) plan to promote high-quality development of the hydrogen industry.

Officials and experts said it is part of China's larger drive to build a clean, safe and efficient energy system, marking the country's latest move to achieve its goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Under the plan, China will seek to have around 50,000 hydrogen-fueled vehicles and a batch of hydrogen fueling stations by 2025. By then, the country aims to produce 100,000 metric tons to 200,000 tons of hydrogen generated from renewable energy sources a year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million tons to 2 million tons a year.

According to the plan, a relatively complete hydrogen industry technology innovation system as well as the clean energy-based hydrogen production and supply system will be formed by 2030, which will help in meeting the carbon peak goal.

By 2035, the share of hydrogen generated from renewable energy resources in the final energy consumption will be significantly expanded.

Wang Xiang, deputy director of the Department of Innovation and High-Tech Development at the NDRC, said development of the hydrogen industry will help the energy industry to transition to a green and low-carbon future.

More efforts will be made to promote high-quality development of the hydrogen industry, including building a supporting platform to boost industrial innovation, constructing hydrogen infrastructure and promoting hydrogen applications in fields like transportation and industry, the plan stated.

Ouyang Minggao, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Tsinghua University, said the long-awaited medium- to long-term plan will play an important role in promoting high-quality development of the hydrogen industry in China.

Hydrogen generated from renewable energy resources, he said, is an inevitable choice on the path to green and low-carbon development, and development of the hydrogen industry will help China to achieve its ambitious carbon peak and neutrality goals.

Ouyang also warned of challenges and difficulties ahead, saying China needs to ramp up efforts to boost innovation and make breakthroughs in major fields, including hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems.

More efforts should also be made to build a hydrogen innovation platform, carry out research on core technologies, cultivate more talent and promote international cooperation and exchanges.

Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said the hydrogen industry is nascent, and a clearer road map in the plan will boost the industry.

Green hydrogen, he said, is zero-carbon fuel generated from renewable energy sources like photovoltaic power and wind power, which will reduce carbon emissions during the process compared with hydrogen generated from fossil fuels such as natural gas.

Compared to unstable energy sources like wind turbines and photovoltaic solar panels, hydrogen will provide a stable supply of power, Lin said.

Agreed Wu Qi, executive director of the Wuxi Institute of Digital Economy, who highlighted the importance of developing the hydrogen industry to ensure energy security and achieve the climate change goals.

With the rapid development of technologies like the production, storage, transportation and application of hydrogen, the emerging industry will gradually grab a large share of China's final energy consumption, Wu said.
Causeway between Singapore and Malaysia. (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

SINGAPORE  Land travel between Singapore and Malaysia will be quarantine- and testing-free for fully-vaccinated travellers from 1 April.

This was jointly-announced by both countries following a phone call between Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Thursday (24 March).

Both Singapore and Malaysia will allow fully-vaccinated travellers to enter without the need to undergo quarantine or testing, including pre-departure and on-arrival tests. This will apply to all categories of travellers and modes of transport via the land border.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a media release that, in addition to the designated vaccinated travel bus services, fully-vaccinated travellers may cross the borders (Causeway and Second Link) via private vehicles, such as cars and motorcycles. Singapore and Malaysia are progressively restoring other modes of transport, including cross-border public bus services.

Fully-vaccinated travellers and non-fully vaccinated children aged 12 and below will no longer be required to take a pre-departure test and unsupervised self-administered Antigen Rapid Test (ART) after arriving in Singapore, nor serve a Stay-Home Notice (SHN). This applies to fully vaccinated Malaysian cargo delivery personnel as well.

"The Prime Ministers recognise the good progress that both countries have made in vaccinating their respective populations and managing the COVID-19 pandemic, and note the progress made in resuming cross-border travel through the Vaccinated Travel Lanes (Air) and (Land)," said the Prime Minister's Office of Singapore in a media release on Thursday.

"As Singapore and Malaysia transition to living with COVID-19, both Prime Ministers have agreed that it is timely to further reopen the land border."

PM Lee added, "Singapore and Malaysia enjoy deep, warm and multi-faceted relations, as well as strong people-to-people ties.

Story continues

"Todays announcement is a significant milestone in our transition towards living with COVID-19. It reflects the strong collaboration both sides have enjoyed throughout the pandemic and will help both countries emerge stronger from this crisis."

MTI said that fully-vaccinated travellers will not be required to apply for entry approvals such as the Vaccinated Travel Pass. They must have valid travel documents, such as their passports and Vehicle Entry Permits before arrival at the checkpoints. Motorists should ensure that their vehicles comply with the emissions requirements in Singapore.

PM Ismail also said that the opening will contribute to the recovery effort of both countries, with "positive impacts on the economies and livelihood of the peoples of both countries".

As Malaysia reopens our borders to international travellers starting 1 April 2022, we will achieve another significant milestone in facilitating cross border travel with our immediate neighbour, Singapore. Todays announcement reflects the long-standing relations and multifaceted cooperation as well as strong people-to-people ties between the two countries."

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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     23.6 37   30 2.33 729104.35    3238 13.8%     Hinsland  0.36%     A  0.1%  23.62 8529 20 70.25  70  PLDT90.78 56.44%   16
SAC CITY, Iowa -- An East Sac County High School teacher has pleaded not guilty of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old student.

Stefanie Kelsey's attorney entered not guilty pleas to three counts of third-degree sexual abuse on her behalf Tuesday and waived her right to a preliminary hearing. The charges are all Class C felonies punishable by 10-year prison sentences. Kelsey is free after posting a $30,000 bond.

Kelsey, 34, of Sac City, was arrested March 11, the day after a parent reported rumors about a sexual relationship between Kelsey and the student to the Sac County Sheriff's Office.

According to complaints filed in Sac County District Court, Kesley admitted to authorities that she performed sex acts with the 15-year-old boy from Aug. 25 through March 4. The two allegedly had sexual contact on more than one occasion in a vehicle in Hagge County Park near Sac City and at her Sac City home.

Kelsey was a special education teacher at the high school, which is located in Lake View. At a special school board meeting March 15, board members voted unanimously to accept superintendent Jeff Kruse's recommendation to terminate Kelsey's probationary teaching contract at the end of the current school year. The board also rescinded a prior vote to authorize administrators to offer her a contract for the next school year.

School administrators have cooperated fully with the investigation, Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure said in a March 11 news release.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sutherland, Iowa, man has been sentenced to federal prison for selling methamphetamine while he was on supervised release from a previous drug conviction.

Dustin Martinez, 33, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine for selling the drug from 2019 through March. He was convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in 2016 and was on supervised release at the time he committed his most recent offense.
SIOUX CITY  Siouxland students will soon learn about the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the fuselage of a cargo jet.

The MidAmerica Museum of Aviation and Transportation will create a STEM Learning Center in a former FedExpress jet, thanks to a recent $50,000 grant from the Memphis-based delivery service.

FedEx donated the Boeing 727 in May 2009 as a museum exhibit. Proceeds from the grant will be used to equip the unique classroom.

FedEx aircraft acquisitions and sales advisor Beth Rush presented the check to the museum on March 3. She was in Sioux City 13 years ago when FedEx donated the 727.

The learning center will serve as a dedicated educational space for children, educators, families and community to learn about aviation and encouraging more people to become aerospace engineers, pilots, mechanics or join other aviation careers.

What better place than onboard a 727 aircraft for a classroom, Rush said. These students may be our aviation professionals of the future.

Rush added the program will help recruit more women and girls into the aviation field.

The rehabilitated cargo plane, also known as Daisy, will have a screening area, classroom space and 6 to 8 individual learning labs for various aviation subjects. The cockpit will be cleaned and updated for hands-on learning.

Past president of the museums board of director Pam Mickelson said it has been a journey to get this project off the ground.

The Boeing 727 was flown for eight years as a passenger plane and 21 years as a cargo plane for FedEx. Recently, the interior of the plane has been upgraded and a jetway access bridge allows visitors to step inside.

The funding will be used to repaint the exterior, add new decals, update the interior, add learning space and exhibits, and create and exterior classroom. Additional funding will be needed to create curriculum and add staffing. Those interested in donating and volunteering can contact the museum.

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SIOUX CITY -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will host a public meeting next month in Sioux City to provide a look at planned operations on the river this year.

The meeting, in which corps representatives will provide updates on runoff forecasts and how they will affect the river, is scheduled for 4 p.m. April 12 at the Betty Strong Encounter Center at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, 900 Larsen Park Road.

The corps conducts spring and fall public meetings each year in locations throughout the Missouri River Basin to discuss operation plans for the river's six reservoirs.

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China's Tianwen-1 orbiter has beamed back high-resolution images of Mars, showing dust storms on the surface of the planet.

Released by the China National Space Administration on Thursday, the new pictures with a resolution of 0.5 meters were captured by a camera on the probe, which has been operating in orbit for 609 days at a distance of 277 million km from Earth.

Track marks left by Mars rover Zhurong can be seen in the pictures. With its 306 Martian days of service, the rover has traveled a total of 1,784 meters on the planet.

Zhurong also snapped selfies from Mars. Compared with the images taken shortly after it landed on the planet, the new photos showed a layer of dust accumulated on its surface.

Dust can reduce rovers' power supply. Chinese scientists have specially designed the rover's solar wing to offset the efficiency decline caused by dust coverage.

The rover now has sufficient energy to continue its exploration on Mars, the Chinese space administration said in a statement.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter has monitored dust activities in the northern hemisphere of Mars since late January and sent back pictures of regional dust storms in February. No obvious dusty weather has been observed in the Zhurong rover's inspection area, according to the administration.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has already sent gas prices skyrocketing in the U.S. What comes next and what will this mean for the November midterm elections? Some lawmakers say this is a burden we must bear in order to further economic sanctions against Russia. Experts also say gas prices were already on the rise long before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
LOS ANGELES  Three other politicians discovered their campaigns got dirty money from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury and got rid of it, a process where they formally disgorge the money by donating it to charity.

The reason Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry didnt do the same right away?

A prosecutor told him not to, according to his former attorney.

Trey Gowdy, who represented Fortenberry during the investigation into whether he received foreign funds, testified Wednesday that he suggested to prosecutors that Fortenberry would return the funds to the donors, after learning that the money probably came from Chagoury.

Gowdy said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins, the lead prosecutor in the case, told him that Fortenberry shouldnt return it to the donors, in part because it could tip off the donors that they were under federal investigation. When Gowdy asked what Fortenberry should do instead, he said, Jenkins didnt give any suggestions.

When you hear that something is going to hurt an investigation, and your purpose is to assist that investigation, youre not going to do it, Gowdy said.

Day 5 of Fortenberry's federal trial marked the end of the government's case, and the beginning of Fortenberry's defense. As told through the first week of trial, the entire saga started with Fortenberrys support of In Defense of Christians, a group devoted to protecting Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

The A, B and C of IDC were Eli Ayoub, Toufic Baaklini and Chagoury, all of whom are of Lebanese descent. Chagoury used both Ayoub and Baaklini, who are U.S. citizens, to funnel money to the campaigns of U.S. politicians, including: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry. It is illegal for elected U.S. officials to accept donations from foreigners.

The others disgorged the money from their campaigns. Prosecutors have pointed out that Fortenberry took 2 years to do the same.

He didnt do it even after he noticed that most of the money raised at a February 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles came from the same family. Seeing the same last name on the donor forms, Fortenberry asked Baaklini if he should be concerned  and Baaklini told him not to sweat it.

Fortenberry also didnt get rid of the money after a June 2018 phone call in which Ayoub told him that Baaklini had provided $30,000 in cash for the fundraiser and that the cash probably came from Chagoury.

He also didnt get rid of the money after the March 2019 FBI interview at his Lincoln home, prosecutors said.

Then came the second FBI interview in July 2019.

John Littrell, a Fortenberry attorney, asked Gowdy if he would agree with Fortenberrys comment in July 2019 that he was horrified at finding out that it was Chagourys money.

Asked to describe Fortenberrys reaction, Gowdy said: Shock and anger. It was shock, with a subtext of anger.

Part of the subtext of Gowdys testimony Wednesday was this: The attorney seemed to regret that he had allowed Fortenberry to be interviewed by the feds in July 2019.

A former federal and district attorney, as well as congressman, Gowdy said he believed that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness and that the government just wanted to size him up in terms of his reliability and credibility.

In reality, Fortenberry was the subject of the investigation. The FBI had taped the June 2018 phone call between Fortenberry and Ayoub. And FBI agents had taped the Lincoln interview and already had suspected him of lying.

An attorney asked Gowdy if he knew that the FBI had secretly recorded all of those events.

No, he testified, with a smirk.

Did he believe the feds were just sizing up Fortenberry as a witness?

One-hundred percent, Gowdy said emphatically.

Defense attorneys also introduced an FBI memo that they say shows the FBI had predetermined, even before the Lincoln interview, that they were going to charge Fortenberry. In the memo, agent Todd Carter wrote that he would approach Fortenberry and interview him about his conversations with Ayoub and his knowledge of the source of the $30,000 campaign contribution.

Case agents will also seek to indict Fortenberry with misprision (concealment) of felony and conduit contributions. In addition, if case agents determine from the interview that Fortenberry is making false statements, he will be charged with false statements.

A second FBI agent on the case, Edward Choe, testified that he hadnt seen that memo and that he didnt share the opinion that Fortenberry automatically would be charged.

And prosecutors argued that such memos are typical. Any criminal charges are subject to change, depending on what happens in the course of interviews and investigations, they say.

At that point, Choe said, agents had been continually checking to see if Fortenberry had gotten rid of the illegal campaign money. He hadnt.

Another memo caused a stir Wednesday. Prosecutor Jamari Buxton told the judge that he wanted to introduce a memo that Fortenberry had sent to the U.S. House of Representatives clerk just last week, seeking to vote by proxy in the House because of the ongoing public health emergency. Fortenberrys note made no mention of the real reason he can't attend: this trial.

It would counter any notion that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest, Buxton said.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. considered it but ultimately decided against it. He said it would take too much evidence to establish why it was written and the process Congress uses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other testimony, Fortenberrys chief of staff, Andy Braner, testified that his boss is the countrys last great statesman and "a visionary."

The nine-term congressman is so scrupulous that, Braner said, he once made Braner replace an office-stamp on a piece of mail. Fortenberry handed him a stamp from his wallet.

Were not going to have the taxpayers pay for my personal mail, Fortenberry told Braner.

Another time in 2019, Braner said, a visitor from the Middle East tried to hand Braner an envelope of cash in recognition of all the work Fortenberry had done in the Middle East. Braner refused.

Two days later, Braner informed the congressman of the interaction.

Fortenberry was irate, Braner said. He said, Call the (House) Sergeant at Arms and get him up here. Were going to tell him everything and make sure that doesnt happen again. 

Prosecutors noted that the Middle East envoy had offered Braner cash just a month after the FBI had interviewed Fortenberry about his campaign receiving another foreigner's cash. Hence the outrage, Buxton suggested.

Another House member told the jury that she has always known Fortenberry as an honorable person.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, said Fortenberry came across the aisle, literally, to meet her. He wanted to talk about a cause he thought she would share.

Eshoo, a half-Armenian, half-Assyrian representative from Northern California, said Fortenberry was sincere: He wanted her input on the issue of protecting religious minorities in the Middle East.

Thats how I got to meet and work with Jeff, Eshoo said. I think he brings honor to what he does. ... Hes faith filled. Hes honest. His word is always good  I cant say that about all members of Congress.

Whether his word is always good is a question for the federal jury. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating the case Thursday or Friday. Fortenberry is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of trying to conceal his knowledge about the true source of the $30,000 campaign donation.

Fortenberrys defense team is expected to continue Thursday to put the FBI on trial for its handling of the probe. Attorney Ryan Fraser blasted the FBI for showing up unannounced to the Fortenberry home and lying to Celeste Fortenberry, the congressman's wife, about why they were there. Jeff Fortenberry had called then-Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister to send two officers to his house to screen and monitor the FBI agents. Bliemeister is expected to testify Thursday.

When FBI agents showed up, Fraser said, Fortenberry was exhausted, having just returned from a trip to Africa where he was briefed on elephant poaching.

You would expect the FBI to warn you if you were the victim of an illegal foreign campaign donation, asked Littrell.

Oh I would hope so, Eshoo said.

She paused, correcting herself.

I would think so, she said. Not just hope.

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LOS ANGELES  History hit Jeff Fortenberry with a devastating blow Thursday.

A federal jury deliberated less than two hours before convicting the nine-term Nebraska congressman on one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

Fortenberry, a 61-year-old Republican, is the highest-ranking elected official to be convicted of a felony in Nebraska history.

After the guilty verdict was read on the concealment charge, Fortenberry closed his eyes and kept them closed for at least a minute.

His youngest daughter dropped her head into her hands and heaved. His oldest daughter doubled over in the courtroom gallery, her boyfriend comforting her.

Celeste Fortenberry, who had testified earlier Thursday, remained mostly stoic. She comforted her daughters, then Fortenberry, cupping his face with her hands and giving her husband of 26 years a kiss.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. set sentencing for June 28. The congressman faces up to five years in prison on each count, although he could also receive supervised release.

Ironically, he does not have to give up his congressional seat. Federal law requires members of Congress to give up their seats only for crimes that are tied to treason.

It is unclear whether Fortenberrys campaign will continue. He faces a Republican challenger in the May primary: Norfolk state Sen. Mike Flood. Two Democrats, including Lincoln state Sen. Patty Pansing-Brooks, are also vying for the seat.

Fortenberrys staff, including his current chief of staff Andy Braner, sat outside a courtroom, stunned. Braner left the courthouse with his hands stuffed in his suit pockets.

Fortenberry exited the courtroom to a gaggle of members of the Nebraska press corps.

We always thought it was going to be hard to get a fair process out here, he said. This appeal starts immediately.

Actually, any appeals typically would have to wait until after the June sentencing, although attorneys can ask for a new trial before then.

Fortenberry  the judge determined he was not a flight risk and allowed him to remain free pending sentencing  said his phone was buzzing. One of the texts: a note from one of his five daughters.

She said I love you Daddy, no matter what anyone else accuses you of, Fortenberry said. Just remember so many other people do too.

Asked if he would continue his campaign, Fortenberry said his family is going to sit down and evaluate next steps.

The jury of four men and eight women convicted the congressman after watching several tapes of him making incriminating statements.

The investigation ramped up when the FBI discovered that a Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, had been funneling cash into the campaigns of four Republican politicians: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, current California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry.

It is illegal for U.S. elected officials to accept foreign money.

The World-Herald asked prosecutor Mack Jenkins, who led the case with the help of prosecutors Susan Har and Jamari Buxton, if Fortenberry would have been prosecuted had he gotten rid of the money soon after learning it was suspect. The other three politicians werent prosecuted; they got rid of any illegal money soon after they were confronted. Fortenberry took 2  years to give his to charity. And was evasive along the way.

Thats a difficult question to answer, Jenkins said. But I would say that the inaction in this case was certainly evidence of a scheme to conceal.

Jenkins was asked for his message to Nebraskans.

Hopefully they see that the federal government nationwide ensures that politicians follow the law, Jenkins said.

During closing arguments, prosecutors laid out a slide show of the illegal flow of foreign money into Fortenberrys campaign coffers because of the congressmans support for the cause. That cause was the plight of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

Chagoury gave a bag of $30,000 cash to Toufic Baaklini. Baaklini passed it to Los Angeles Dr. Eli Ayoub. Ayoub gave it to his relatives so they could write checks to Fortenberry at an LA fundraiser in 2016.

Har, an assistant U.S. attorney, told jurors to disregard the defense's suggestion that FBI agents ambushed or targeted Fortenberry.

"The question is not, 'How could they look into the defendant?'" Har told jurors. "The question is, 'How could they not?'"

Fortenberry's wife testifies that he can be absent-minded LOS ANGELES  Before closing arguments, Jeff Fortenberrys wife, Celeste, took the stand and testified that during a critical June 4, 2018, phone call at the center of the case, her husband suffered from all sorts of distractions: exhaustion from a trip to Finland, stress over a daughters upcoming surgery and the breakfast he was cooking. During that phone call, Los Angeles Dr. Eli Ayoub told Fortenberry that a supporter had funneled $30,000 cash to his campaign, and that the cash probably came from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. Replayed the phone call in court Thursday, Celeste Fortenberry identified the sounds. One: Thats him putting water in the teapot. Two: A cast-iron skillet placed on the stove. Three: Sounds like the teapot going onto the stove. Her point: Fortenberry so hated fundraising phone calls that he often distracted himself by doing other things. Fixing raccoon damage to the chimney. Checking on their backyard chickens  before the chickens were killed by opossums. Walking the dog. Cooking breakfast. He really hates doing fundraising calls, and doing something else helps him through it, Celeste Fortenberry testified Thursday. He loathes it. Theres a certain amount of autopilot that he goes on where he can have that conversation because he doesnt have to even think about it. The defense was trying to use that testimony to establish that Fortenberry, the nine-term congressman representing Nebraska's 1st District, wasnt paying close attention when Ayoub suggested three times that Fortenberrys campaign had received the $30,000 cash, probably from Chagoury. Celeste Fortenberry also testified that cellphone reception is bad in the Fortenberrys Lincoln home. The Fortenberrys five daughters  our tech experts, she said  routinely complain about the lack of bars on their AT&T phones. We live in Nebraska, Celeste Fortenberry testified. The state has pretty lousy cellphone service. The defense played a portion of the beginning of the phone call, in which Fortenberrys voice is garbled. The rest of the recording of the call sounded clear, although the defense argues that thats because it was being recorded in California, from Ayoubs phone. What Fortenberry heard on his end is another matter, they suggested. On cross-examination, prosecutor Susan Har played the call again. The recording sounded crisp. One by one, Har went through the sounds. The reception seemed to be so clear that it actually sounded like a teapot, didnt it? Har asked. Yes, it did, Celeste Fortenberry said.

Fortenberrys defense questioned how the prosecution could base its entire case on a 10-minute phone call from Ayoub to Fortenberry.

In that June 4, 2018, call, recorded by the FBI, Ayoub told Fortenberry three times that Baaklini provided $30,000 in cash and that the cash probably came from Chagoury.

Attorney John Littrell blasted the FBI for waiting 293 days before confronting Fortenberry about the phone call and expecting him to remember everything.

He also blasted the lead FBI agent in the case  Todd Carter  for a memo he wrote in which he laid out, before interviewing the congressman, that he would be seeking to charge Fortenberry with (concealment) of conduit contributions and, if he lied, making false statements.

If you already have plans to indict someone, this is not a search for the truth, Littrell said. This is a setup.

Littrell noted that Fortenberrys campaign had $1.5 million in its coffers.

Do you really think he would take and put his reputation on the line for $30,000 when he had almost $1.5 million in the bank? Littrell asked jurors. Theres no way he would.

Littrell put up a slide emphasizing Fortenberrys presumption of innocence. He followed that with a slide of Fortenberrys official office photo that said presumption of integrity.

The defense attorney said he had never been in a case where every witness acknowledged that the defendant had a sterling reputation.

Every government witness testified that he is a truthful person, a man of integrity, Littrell said. One witness said it best: He brings integrity to everything he does.

That said, Littrell told jurors his client is flawed.

He talks too much, Littrell said. He doesnt listen enough. He should have paid more attention to his fundraisers.

Thats all true. But thats not a crime. ... Having a faulty memory is not a crime.

Littrell also noted the phone call had been played several times in court. He suggested to jurors that if they had to listen to the call again, that would amount to reasonable doubt. After all, he said, Fortenberry only heard the call once.

If he didnt hear, understand or recall the June 2018 call, then hes not guilty of all three counts, Littrell said.

Har and Jenkins said theres ample evidence that Fortenberry heard Ayoubs words and was concerned.

The defense itself noted that he talked to four people after the phone call, including his wife. Celeste Fortenberry testified that she advised him to contact an attorney.

Fortenberry did. However, that attorney said Fortenberry was so vague about what had been said that she considered it a nonissue. He definitely didnt say anything about the possibility of foreign money into his campaign, the attorney testified.

Har said one of the most obvious restrictions on political fundraising is the ban on foreign money.

Its essentially campaign finance 101, she said.

She said Fortenberry could have taken several off ramps. He could have picked up on his instincts that most of the checks had been written by one family. He could have gotten rid of the money by disgorging it  the formal term for when a politician donates suspected dirty money to charity.

He didnt want to, Har said. He was running for reelection, she said, and he didnt want the embarrassment surrounding a scandal of foreign cash in his campaign.

Prosecutors also pointed out several lies that they say Fortenberry told during interviews with the FBI. Handed a photo of Ayoub, Fortenberry told agents during an interview at his home in Lincoln that he wasnt placing the doctor. After a few seconds, he said Ayoub may have given him a donation.

Littrell had pointed out in defense arguments that Fortenberry didnt recognize Ayoub because the photo was at least 10 years old, taken from a time when Ayoub still had dark, instead of silver, hair.

But Har noted that FBI agents had repeated Ayoubs name several times. And Fortenberry clearly had a rapport with the LA doctor, based in part on the fact that the doctor had spent nine years of his medical training in Omaha.

Not placing him? Har asked. Its someone who hosted a fundraiser for him.

In a follow-up interview in Washington in July 2019, Fortenberry also claimed that he had cut off the Ayoub phone call when Ayoub said illegal cash may have been injected into his campaign. But audio of the phone conversation proves Fortenberry didn't cut off the call.

At the end of the day, it's a pretty simple case, Jenkins said. Its an all-too-familiar story of a politician caught up in the system, caught up in the cycle of power, who lost his way.

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The top four Republican contenders for governor in Nebraska agree that Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States.

That includes Conklin Co. CEO Charles W. Herbster, whos endorsed by former President Donald Trump, the main source of baseless assertions that the election was stolen.

In recent interviews with Herbster, hog producer Jim Pillen, state Sen. Brett Lindstrom and former state Sen. Theresa Thibodeau, the World-Herald asked who won the presidential election in 2020.

Joe Biden emerged with a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College and took the popular vote against Trump by over 7 million votes.

That should be a really easy question to answer, said Kevin Smith, chair of UNLs political science department. I am aware of no evidence of systematic voter fraud that could call into question in any way the legitimacy of the election outcomes, be that the presidential election or any other statewide race that Im aware of.

What makes answering the question tricky for statewide Republican primary candidates in a strongly red state is the narrative that Trumps camp has pushed and amplified, Smith said: That there was widespread fraud that calls into question the legitimacy of Bidens election.

The political context is what makes that a tough question, not the facts on the ground, Smith said.

The former president continues to cling to the narrative that widespread fraud played a role in his election loss despite the fact that numerous state and federal election officials, a succession of judges, Trumps own attorney general and an arm of his administrations Department of Homeland Security all said there was no evidence to support his claims, the Associated Press reported.

Nationally, Trumps claims have taken root in the minds of a sizable portion of Americans, according to polling. A national Monmouth University poll conducted with just under 800 adults Jan. 20-24 found that 32% thought Bidens win was only due to voter fraud, consistent with its polling since November 2020. It found that 30% of Republicans thought there was a path to overturn the election results.

In Ohio, The Hill reported that just one of five Republican senate candidates at a debate this week raised their hand when asked if the party should move on from the 2020 election. Candidates there are vying for the former presidents endorsement.

Herbster was at Trumps rally Jan. 6, 2021, before the violent attack on the nations Capitol. He was also at a meeting Jan. 5 in Trumps private residence in his Washington hotel, where they discussed how to pressure more members of Congress to object to Electoral College results. He downplays his participation.

I was one of thousands of people who came from all over the United States that were at a very, very peaceful rally, he said. And Ive been to many rallies before. That was not my first one.

He said he never heard anybody was going to go to the Capitol to do anything.

Its unquestionably wrong, he said of the siege. Thats not American.

Herbster didnt object to any of the reporting recently published by the Nebraska Examiner, which obtained text messages between Herbster and staffers from those days. One text in particular demonstrated that Herbster firmly believed the 2020 election was stolen:  this is a very very very important and informational meeting tonight with full written reports of how this election was truly stolen from us and any one who does not believe that is not true is totally inaccurate, he wrote, according to the Examiners reporting.

In April 2021, when he announced his campaign, Herbster told Omaha television station KMTV that he didnt know who won and that there was no way to know, because states wouldnt look at irregularities.

But Herbster was less ambiguous in a recent interview.

Well, Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States, he said. And we have to honor him and wish him well as our president.

Thibodeau, who was once Herbsters running mate but now is pursuing the office in her own right, was the least clear in her answer to the same question. She said she doesnt know if voter fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election.

Were the votes counted and were they accurate? Until we can implement some kind of verification, we cannot know, she said.

However, she said its an issue of the past: But Biden is our president right now, whether we like it or not, and we need to move forward.

Lindstrom and Pillen both also accepted that Biden is president, though Lindstrom said he has met people on the campaign trail who believe Trumps claims.

I dont discount how people feel, Lindstrom said. My message is that we cant talk about the past, we need to talk about the future.

World-Herald reporters Lauren Wagner, Steve Liewer and Dan Crisler contributed to this story.

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DES MOINES -- In a sign Iowa lawmakers may wrap up the 2022 session early, the health and human services budget has received subcommittee approval and is expected in full committee next week.

Thats a month earlier than last year. It could be the earliest its ever moved, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Joel Fry, R-Osceola, said Thursday.

That doesnt mean it will be smooth sailing for the bill, one of the largest budget pieces lawmakers deal with each year. The $6- billion-plus budget, which calls for $2.1 billion from the state general fund, was approved on a party-line vote.

The states share of the budget is $53.6 million more than current spending, a 2.6 percent increase, according to Legislative Services Agency. Its also $39.5 million more than Gov. Kim Reynolds recommended.

It contains incredible opportunities for Iowans, Fry said in his introduction. His priorities are focused on rates as they relate to mental health and intellectual disabilities, and workforce shortage issues.

Unknowns in the budget include a forthcoming report from the federal Department of Justice investigation of alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and failure to provide appropriate settings at the Woodward and Glenwood resource centers.

Fry doesnt expect to see the report before lawmakers adjourn. The resource centers are scheduled for increases of about $1.5 million and $1.2 million, respectively.

He also included language in the budget related to the proposed merger of the Departments of Human Services and Public Health. The Public Health budget was reduced $800,000 to $55.3 million. The DHS budget was increased to $2 billion, which accounted for the full $53.6 million increase in the health and humans services.

Rep. John Forbes, D-Urbandale, had concerns about the realignment. Hes aware several states have combined tho departments, but he wants to make sure its done in a way that doesnt diminish the effectiveness of Public Health.

We want to make sure we have a strong public health department here  especially since we're still in (the) pandemic or endemic and we don't know what's coming down the road in the next few months, he said.

Forbes and Fry also shared a concern about having adequate Medicaid funding when the federal government rescinds the COVID-19 public health emergency. They expect some Iowans receiving benefits will be dis-enrolled.

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The United States Congress denied funding for COVID-19 treatments and control measures earlier in March. As a result, 1,000 Americans are still dying a day from the pandemic. But American lawmakers think the pandemic is already over.



Now Americans will be unable to access tests, vaccines, antibody treatments, or other necessities once funding runs out come summer. But politicians, particularly Republicans, don't care.

Six Republican senators signed a letter saying they oppose providing more funding to Americans impacted by the coronavirus. The senators, including Republican leaders Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, wrote, "We will not support any new supplemental COVID funding packages this year, at the detriment of U.S. taxpayers and American families."

They will leave American families with sick family members to face expensive treatments, and insurance company hassles all on their own. The senators  who are themselves members of Congress  blamed Congress for spending too much money. They will now punish American families for their own perceived sins.

Many Republicans claim that coronavirus doesn't pose a problem anymore. "We don't need Covid funding," Rep. Randy Feenstra from Iowa said. Over 9,000 people from his state have died from the virus, but apparently, they don't need any funding to prevent the next thousand deaths.

The rate of new cases has been declining in the U.S. since mid-January. It appears the U.S. is past the peak of Omicron. Therefore, Republicans say the country should wait until they need it to allocate more funds.

Ignore, for a moment, that there are 30,000 new cases of coronavirus a day just in the United States alone and that the new BA.2 variant is spreading more quickly by the day. The conceit that there is no need for funding for the people getting infected now is bad enough. But those politicians are saying America should be unprepared for the following spike scientists know is coming.

According to a New York Times article from March 19, "Scientists are warning that the United States isn't doing enough to prevent a new surge from endangering vulnerable Americans and potentially upending life again."

Already the surge has begun in Europe after governments got rid of mask rules, just like the U.S. has been doing. European countries, however, have much higher vaccination rates and lower death rates than the U.S.

If the U.S. wants to limit deaths, they need to get more people vaccinated. But unfortunately, it will be too late when cases are already surging. Tests, pills, and vaccines all take time to produce, and Congress cannot even get a bill passed quickly.

The White House warned, "Without funding, the United States will not have enough additional boosters or variant-specific vaccines, if needed, for all Americans. The federal government cannot purchase additional life-saving monoclonal antibody treatments and will run out of supply to send to states as soon as late May. In addition, the federal government cannot purchase sufficient quantities of treatments for immunocompromised individuals."

We have seen this same story repeat itself over and over again. The U.S. prematurely declares victory over coronavirus, gives up on preventative measures, and is surprised when there is a deadly new mass outbreak.

After so many new outbreaks and variants, one would think they would learn, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. The failure of their country's leadership has numbed Americans to death and sickness. They just take it for granted that such out-of-control suffering is normal. America's failed leaders have found they can get away with doing nothing and profit from politicization.

Mitchell Blatt is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
The state said the killing was first-degree murder. That Barnes kicked his way into the house, just as he'd threatened to do in texts later deleted, after she told him their relationship was over and not to come home.
Iowas presidential caucuses wont take place for two years. But, as usual, critics of the caucuses in the Democratic Party are out to end their first-in-the-nation status.

You could see them out in force as the Democratic National Committees rules and bylaws committee met recently. A leaked staff memo, reported in the Des Moines Register, envisioned a new process by which states would have to apply for early-state status based on criteria that pointedly gave little hope to Iowa.

When the meetings were done, no definitive action was taken. But we already know the main complaints about Iowa: The caucuses, because of how they operate, exclude too many people and relatively few attend; the state has little racial and ethnic diversity; the process is confusing; and, in 2020, the party messed up the vote counting so a winner wasnt declared until days later. (We should note this editorial mostly pertains to the Democrats, since it appears Republicans will put Iowa first in 2024).

It also doesnt help Iowa Democrats that the state hasnt been competitive in the general election for a while. Donald Trump won Iowa easily in both 2016 and 2020.

Were not sure what will happen. Iowa has had a knack for surviving these skirmishes over the presidential nominating order. But for a party that relies so much on a diverse voting base, it seems unlikely Iowa will go first again.

So, how should Iowa Democrats move forward?

First, well say that Iowans still have a contribution to make. We have seen the passion and the intelligence that Iowa caucus-goers have brought to the task  of not just assessing candidates, but preparing for and participating on caucus night. Besides, an analysis of the 2020 fiasco showed there was plenty of blame to go around. The national party shares the blame and should be accountable, too.

We also dont think the animus toward Iowa because of its privileged place in the calendar should determine the new rules. We know there are states and activists that just want to toss Iowa aside, but any rules drawn up to determine who goes first shouldnt be written with the express intent of excluding Iowans from consideration.

That said, we think Iowa Democrats need to make significant changes.

First, after the 2020 caucuses, the party needs to restore confidence that it can play a starring role again.

That means proving it can get the votes counted correctly and in a timely manner. The party could go a long way toward demonstrating that by doing away with the caucuses use of state delegate equivalents to determine a winner. Its outdated and violates the one-person-one-vote principle that is the bedrock of public expectations for fair elections. Thats not good for a party that is staking part of its future on the idea that it is defending democracy. Its also confusing, even for caucus veterans. At one time, the system may have seemed quirky; now, it just lends itself to too much confusion and suspicion. Its time to get rid of it.

Its time Iowa make its contest more primary-like. That means finding a way to ensure more people can participate, like an absentee system or a wider voting window. No longer should everybody be required to stuff themselves into an overcrowded room right at 7 p.m. on a cold Monday in order to be counted. If this makes Iowa look like a primary and offends New Hampshire or anybody else, so be it.

Iowans (and this and other media outlets in the state) have gained from decades of national exposure because of the presidential caucuses. Weve had a chance to meet candidates up close like hardly any other state in the nation. Mostly, thats been because of the hard work of Iowa activists, good fortune and the inability of other states to devise a better alternative.

It would be a loss to see first-in-the-nation status go away. But whatever happens, Iowas Democratic caucuses have to change. We believe this because it would benefit the Iowa electorate, but also because it would position the party for the future.

Nationally, we think the DNCs priority ought to be to devise a process that includes as many people as possible; that treats all states fairly; that provides all candidates (not just those with a lot of money) an even playing field; and that affirms confidence in the Democratic process. If that happens, Iowa cant lose, and neither would any other state.

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Dr. Lawrence Eppard is joined by political scientist Mark Sachlebento talk about a phenomenon occurring in the United States, as well as a number of other countries: the median age of our population is rising.
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Tornadoes tore up homes in New Orleans and its suburbs and were reported in communities from Texas to Mississippi and Alabama as severe storms swept across the South in late March 2022. We asked tornado scientist Ernest Agee to explain what causes tornadoes and how the center of U.S. tornado activity has shifted eastward from the traditional Tornado Alley in recent years.

What causes tornadoes?

Tornadoes start with thunderstorms. Think of the thunderstorm as the parent of the tornado. When atmospheric conditions favor the development of severe storms, tornadoes can form.

The recipe for a tornado requires a few important ingredients: low-level heat and moisture and cold air aloft, coupled with a favorable wind field that increases in speed with height, as well as changes in the wind direction in the lower levels.

The right combination of heat, moisture and wind can develop rotating thunderstorms capable of spinning off a tornado or a tornado family. Thunderstorms capable of spinning off tornadoes typically develop along and ahead of a frontal boundary  where warm and cold air masses meet  often accompanied above by a strong jet stream.

Why do tornado outbreaks seem to be getting more frequent and intense? Is climate change playing a role?

Studies do show tornadoes getting more frequent, more intense and more likely to come in swarms.

The most intense and longest-lasting tornadoes tend to come from what are known as supercells  powerful rotating thunderstorms. The December 2021 outbreak, with more than 60 tornadoes that swept across Kentucky and neighboring states, came from a supercell. The 2011 outbreak in Alabama was another.

All of this unfolds under the umbrella of global warming. While its still hard for climate models to assess something as small as a tornado, they do project increases in severe weather.

Forecasting tornadoes. NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory.

Whats interesting is that despite that increase, the per capita death toll from tornadoes has actually gone down in the latter half of the past 100 years. So, as bad as these new outbreaks are, science and technology are saving lives at a faster rate than storms are killing people.

Scientists can now anticipate and forecast areas where tornadoes may develop. If you look at NOAAs Storm Prediction Center website, youll see eight-day outlooks now. Thats based on scientific knowledge and technology able to target where conditions conducive to tornadoes are developing.

People also know what to do now and are more likely to get warnings, and more homes have safe rooms able to withstand a tornado. Social media also plays a big role today. A few years ago, I had a student who was on his familys farm when he got a text warning that a tornado was coming. He and his family got to safety just before the tornado hit.

The Southeast seems to be getting a lot more severe storms. Has Tornado Alley shifted?

In 2016, my students and I published the first paper that clearly showed, statistically, the emergence of another center of tornado activity in the Southeast, centered around Alabama.

Oklahoma still has tornadoes, of course. But the statistical center has moved. Other research since then has found similar shifts.

Mean number of days per year with a tornado registering EF1 strength or greater within 25 miles, 1986-2015. NOAA Storm Prediction Center

We found a notable decrease in both the total number of tornadoes and days with tornadoes in the traditional Tornado Alley in the central plains. At the same time, we found an increase in tornado numbers in whats been dubbed Dixie Alley, extending from Mississippi through Tennessee and Kentucky into southern Indiana.

In the Great Plains, drier air in the western boundary of traditional Tornado Alley probably has something to do with the fact that tornadoes are a declining risk in Oklahoma while wildfire risk is growing.

Research by other scientists suggests that the dry line between the wetter Eastern U.S. and the drier Western U.S., historically around the 100th meridian, has shifted eastward by about 140 miles since the late 1800s. The dry line can be a boundary for convection  the rising of warm air and sinking of colder air that can fuel storms.

While scientists dont have a full picture of the role climate change may be playing, we can certainly say we live in a warmer climate, and that a warming climate provides many of the ingredients for severe storms.

Ernest Agee 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.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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Care and Feeding is Slates parenting advice column. In addition to our traditional advice, every Thursday we feature an assortment of teachers from across the country answering your education questions. Have a question for our teachers? Email askateacher@slate.com or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group.

I live in a location that is about to receive a number of refugee kids. I wonder if you can give me some tips on how to talk to my kids about it? And is there a way for me to advocate on their behalf for things in addition to the money thats being collected to ensure they have access to clothes, materials, meals, etc.?

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My dad was the son of a refugee who fled famine and war at age seven and lost his entire family, and we actually never discussed it. We just glossed over the concept, and my memories of my grandfather do not suggest that this was the best tactic, but maybe at the time, it was the only tactic? My grandfather never wanted for stuffthe refugee community to which my grandfather belonged took care of thatbut there was never any emotional or structural approach to the community trauma. Orphans like my grandfather were just sort of mainstreamed with their peers who were already Americans and sort of pushed to assimilate as quickly as possible into middle-class suburban life, at least externally. There was the sort of fake it til you make it approach, I guess.

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That said, I get its not my place to call out someone elses trauma either, especially if they dont want to go there. Internally, I think its awful that these kids have lost out on a sense of security and that they may never get it back, but I also know that they will wake up and go through school each day and sustain some sort of normalcy because thats how life works (if were lucky). So maybe faking it til you make it is just the best way to survive until you hope the next generation does better?

Can you offer me any tips on how best to support these kids in our schools and be a good community member?

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Helping Hands

Dear HH,

Thank you for thinking about this issue.

I definitely encourage you to talk about the refugees trauma but to your kid, not to the refugees (unless they bring it up). Discuss what a privilege it is to feel safe in your own home or your own country. Let them know that many people have not felt and do not feel safe in this country. Encourage them to imagine what its like to leave your home with nothing but the clothes on your back. Ask them what they think it would take to make them do that. What Im saying is, teach them empathy.

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As for the refugee kids, they are going to feel otheredprobably for a long time. Do whatever you can do to include them in normal kid things. Have them over to play. Meet at the park. Take them to movies. Invite them to birthday parties.

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And, yes, ask about their culture. What food do they miss most? What is school like in their country? What holidays do they celebrate?

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If they offer up sad memories, tell them, That sounds so hard. Dont offer platitudes; dont even tell them it will get better. They probably wont believe you. Just say, Were so glad to have you here, and hope they feel it.

One more note: You mentioned in the beginning of your letter that you plan to collect money for the families material needs. Know that you dont have to reinvent the wheel. Ask the local public schools what theyre doing and what support they need. In addition, there are established organizations in this realm with whom you might join forces. Search online or ask on your neighborhood listservs about local outfits, but two larger organizations are International Rescue Committee and Homes Not Borders.

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Whatever you do, its more than most. Thanks!

Ms. Scott (high school teacher, North Carolina)

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My husband found a great deal for a late winter vacation wed love to be able to take. But it would cause my kindergartener to miss 7 or 8 days of school right at the beginning of the second semester. I dont yet know what the school policy is about whether we can excuse these absences, but Im on the fence regardless of the answer. I tend to be a rule follower. That said, we wouldnt be able to afford the trip at a more conventional time. What should we do?

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Fun to Be Had

Dear Fun to Be Had,

You should 100 percent take the vacation. Your child will in no way fall significantly behind their peers by missing 7-8 days of school. I understand your concern, but the memories and experiences your family will create and have together will be far more valuable to your child than anything they would learn during the week or two of school they would miss.

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One solution to ease your tension may be planning early. You could chat with your childs teacher and ask to have any assignments or work ahead of time. This way you could work on them whenever you have down time on your vacation or while traveling. I sincerely hope your family takes the vacation; your childs future self will almost certainly thank you for the memories.

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Mr. Hersey (elementary school teacher, Washington)

Im writing in about my partner, who has been teaching for about 15 years in a variety of alternative ed positions without a teaching certification. We are in New England. He joined a certification program last year (great benefits and pay, pension, union positiona strong sell) and has been teaching math in an underserved city in the region (Springfield, MA). He is absolutely miserable. The school is a hot mess in a variety of ways, the system is awful, his general Ed classes are 85 percent IEP and support is nonexistent. Ive watched him become deeply depressed over the past year, and pretty hopeless, as I think many teachers are these days. He says he never wants to be in front of a classroom again, but he cant think of any other options for a career. He would hopefully be able to find a position in a better funded district next fall, but no guarantees, and even the thought of that brings him no joy. Any ideas on how to channel decades of teaching experience into anything but teaching?

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Disillusionment Aplenty

Dear Disillusionment,

This school year has been very difficult for teachersIm sorry your partner is feeling so disillusioned. While Im sure its daunting to switch careers after teaching for so long, this is apparently an opportune time to switch careers. Many businesses are short-staffed and struggling to hire.

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He may consider education-adjacent industries, like ed tech, professional development, or curriculum writing. Test prep companies, tutoring services, and even nonprofits are also relevant. Or, he could look for a corporate gig doing training or talent development. And if he wants to leave education behind entirely, there are businesses eager to hire him right now. In fact, he may have an advantage by just showing up to the interview.

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His first job after leaving teaching doesnt have to be a permanent switch. Anecdotally, Ive known friends and colleagues who left teaching and spent the next year or two in a job that pays the bills, figuring out what they want their next career to be. If each day at school presents abject misery, right now he may just need a job that isnt so hard on his heart, even if that job isnt what he wants to spend the next 15 years doing.

I wish your partner good luck,

Ms. Holbrook (high school teacher, Texas)

This is not a classroom question, but I figured you might have some resources: I have an 8-year-old who gets terribly motion sick on the school bus. Have you ever had (or heard of) a student whos successfully dealt with this? Weve tried moving seats, food before and after (and no food), sea bands, and various distraction techniques. We have not tried Dramaminewould it last all day?

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We have about 50 days left in the school year and my 8-year-old has to ride the bus before and after school (her three siblings also ride the bus but havent had the same issues). Next year the bell schedule will change so we can consider driving, but do you have any other suggestions for us to try besides suck it up for the rest of this year?

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Sick of the Bus

Dear Sick,

Not suffering from motion sickness myself, I can only offer solution that Ive watched students who experience motion sickness use in the past. During long bus rides on field trips to Boston and beyond, Ive watched students don headphones and even a sleep mask to reduce the likeliness of motion sickness, explaining to me that a reduction in auditory and visual stimuli can help quite a bit. Ive also had kids tell me that an open window helps them, and Ive even had students take medication prior to long rides. Finally, have you discussed this with your pediatrician? Its worth asking them about it, to rule out anything more serious than run-of-the-mill motion sickness.

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Its also worth consulting your doctor about medication before you decide to use it. Youd need a doctors note anyway, if the school nurse were to give it to your child before they head home from school for the day. I hope this helps. I hate to think of a student starting every day off feeling sick from their ride to school.

Mr. Dicks (fifth grade teacher, Connecticut)

More Advice From Slate

My daughter is a freshman in high school, and she recently got an assignment in life sciences that seems inappropriate. The assignment is for the kids to identify someone in their family who died of cancer, and then students are supposed to research that kind of cancer and create a poster presentation to display for the entire school. This seems like a terrible idea, and an invasion of privacy. Should I talk to the teacher?
How to Do It is Slates sex advice column. Have a question? Send it to Stoya and Rich here. Its anonymous!

Dear How to Do It,

I recently told a couple friends about a moment I had with my boyfriend, and they said I was beyond ridiculous and they would have gone nuclear on a significant other for what I did. I dont think it was so bad! So I come to you for perspective.

My boyfriend and I are in an open relationshiphes OK with me having sex with other guys because he knows I am a horny monster constantly. Through many conversations, hes made it clear it doesnt bother him if I sleep with others, which I do usually once or twice a week. (He does not sleep with other people, but is free to, and we have a good sex life ourselves.) The other day, a sex-only friend I havent seen for a long timeand I have unreal chemistry withtexted me to say he was nearby and wanted to know if I could hang out for a bit. I told him to come over. The problem is that my boyfriend texted me a few minutes later and said hed be home early from work, in about 10 minutes. Unreal-chemistry guy was basically on my street already. Dilemma! I called my boyfriend, told him the truth, and asked if he could give me 20 minutes. My boyfriend said OK, I did my thing with the other guy, and then told boyfriend the coast was clear. My boyfriend playfully rolled his eyes at me when he got home, I thanked him and said I wouldnt make a habit of it, and we moved on.

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When I told my friends about this in the context of a bigger conversation about our relationships, they thought it was a wild thing for me to do, and made me feel like I was behaving terribly toward my boyfriend. Was I? Was this especially inconsiderate or absurd of me? I will accept your ruling.

One Minute!

Dear One Minute,

Give me a moment to pull out my judge costume and the How to Do It-engraved gavel. I rule that your actions were farcical, but not inconsiderate. Ill explain.

Your second paragraph reads a bit like a sitcom, and I think a farcical is a better word than absurd. Consideration has to do with the individual personin this case of your boyfriend, who isnt bothered by your frequent sexual interactions with others. You presented him with the facts, and he agreed to your request. Afterward, he playfully rolled his eyes at you. You considered your actual boyfriends actual boundaries and what hes said to you over the time youve known each other, and you made a choice that he gives no indication of being hurt by. Your friends have every right to expect their partners to consider their own boundaries, which are unique to them, and likely coming from a perspective of monogamy as the default. They may be projecting their boundaries onto your partner here.

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Its worth having a talk with your boyfriend to confirm that his eye roll was indeed playful. You might share with him that your friends are giving you criticism about it, and that you want to make sure you didnt miss something on his end. Its helpful to have check-in talks, and this seems like a good time to have one. Itll validate or alleviate your concern, and you can address any issues from there.

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Its possible that your wild (yes, I would say wild) behavior is part of what your boyfriend loves about you. So, your friends wouldnt want to date you, thats why youre friends and not lovers! Even with incredible time management skills, theres a limit on how many partners you can engage with significantly. I have no doubt youll find enough partners who are unfazed by, or celebratory of, your sexual appetite.

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Dear How to Do It,

Yay! I finally realized my ultimate fantasy of being gangbangedand now I have some follow-up questions.

Im a 34-year-old woman whos always been kinky but never thought I could have a gangbang cause safety, and then got stuck in a series of vanilla relationships that had zero room for anything interesting (my last ex wouldnt even touch my butt!) and then just got stuck cause pandemic/excuses/whatever. I now live in a liberal European city that has tons of swingers clubs and finally bit the bullet and went. I had an amazing time! I banged an actual troupe of firemenI kid you not, and they even gave me a ride home in their ambulance. It was my best life.

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So now Im sore and happy but wondering about aftercare and planning for the future. Are there creams or oils I can use on my battered bits? Im sore and it feels a little out of balance down there, but nothing alarming. Everyone used condoms without needing to be told. We didnt do anal, but Id be into that next timehow should I prepare? Can I safely DP (a huge fantasy) in a context like that or should I save that for when its just me and two dudes I know and trust? Im afraid that it looks hot but is actually the Olympics and probably not easy to do comfortably.

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Also, I dont want to be single foreverare there men who will want to marry a woman like me? Can they overcome the Madonna/whore complex? I want to be a wife and mother but this is also who I am, my perverted side has always been there and isnt going anywhere. Im ready to let her be free but scared too.

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Dear KKBB,

I am so happy for you.

For your soreness, I reached out to Dr. Stacy De-Lin, associate medical director at Planned Parenthood of New York City. She steered you away from coconut oil, saying it wont do much and some folks may be allergic or sensitive. She does have several recommendations: If there are any raw areas of open skin, a sitz bath, a warm bath with a small amount of epsom salts, can be enormously helpful by bringing blood flow to the area to relax the muscles and to help to promote wound healing. For treating swelling, a bag of frozen peas, with a towel between the peas and your sensitive vulva, can help. Ibuprofen can help to reduce pain and swelling too.

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De-Lin has some advice for during the act, as well: Having vaginal irritation and swelling might be a sign that youre not using enough lubricant during intercourse. Be generous with the lube for future encounters, and be sure to always listen to your body: if it starts to hurt, then stop.

As for double penetration, I recommend a less rowdy setting than the center of a gangbang at a club. Ideally you encounter a pair of people who already know they enjoy focusing on a woman together, and have had some practice with double penetration. Maybe you know another woman who has been DPd in your town who can give a recommendation? If that doesnt happen soon enough for you, look for two who get along and arent squeamish about touching other peoples testicles. Its easiest to do a sort of body sandwich, with you in the middle, on something flat and wider than the people involved. The person on the bottom, or the anchor, should be OK with being squished, and able to stay hard without a lot of thrusting. Once youve got both dicks inside you, and they find a rhythm, both should be able to thrust. The less you wiggle, the easier itll be for them to stay in place.

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And not only are there men who will want to marry you, there are men who will absolutely get off on helping you arrange these kinds of sexual scenarios and cheer you through them. You might meet these guys at the sex club, through a dating app, or by happenstance while youre doing other things. In the meantime, you might consider what kinds of relationship structures are interesting to you. Give these concepts a web search: swinging, female led relationships, cuckholdry, vixen/stag, and polyamory. If any of those appeal to you, you might focus your dating efforts in areas that attract people who also want that framework, which could be a different sex club or a fully clothed community munch. If youre on an app, you can include what youre after in your bio. Enjoy!

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Dear How to Do It,

I recently hopped onto Tinder after a long-term relationship, interested in casual/low-pressure dates that could lead to sexy time. One of my matches and I quickly talked about a casual hookup, but I couldnt get safety out of my head (for context, Im a straight woman looking to hook up with men). He offered to meet in a public place, no pressure, then neutral place (hotel), but I told him my comfort level was exchanging last namesyou show me yours, Ill show you mineto text a friend. He didnt seem comfortable with that, and I called it off. I get that personal-information risk is important but feel like my concerns about physical risk outweigh that. If Im honest, the logistics plus the definitive intention of having sex the same night if we had chemistry added some pressure to the situation that also became a turnoff. Was asking for a last name an unreasonable ask? Any tips on safety for casual hookups via the apps?

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Namely

Dear Namely,

I think its reasonable for people to be reluctant to give you their last name, much less proof of it, before meeting. I also think its reasonable to ask for their last name before you enter a private space with them, but that it isnt the most effective. If you really want to have sex with someone who youre worried about, or feel motivated to dot your is and cross your ts, I think a photo of them would be more useful. If they have public photos on their profile that include their face, its easy to screenshot and send along to your friend. Dont share any match-only photos or images from DMs before asking. If they dont look like that photo when they show up, thats a concern.

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What if you met for coffee or a single drink60 or 75 minutesbefore another engagement, so the intention is to meet and see how the chemistry is? Would a later date with the definitive intention of sex also become a turn-off, or is this a potential solution? If so, I think its completely reasonable to meet for a short time in a public place to see how you get along before arranging time for sex. And that appointment you have to leave for can be a telephone check in with a friend and whatever you do to relax at home.

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When youre deciding where to meet, think about whether there will be people inside, but also what the traffic is like outside. If youre driving, will you be able to get to your car easily and will there be people around? If youre taking public transit, how often does the train or bus run, and do you have the money to take a hired car if needed? If youre biking or walking, think about places on your route that you could enter for help and crowded areas where you could lose someone if youre being followed.

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Your first tool of safety should be your gutif youre feeling weird, getting a vibe, put off somehow, leave. Say one pleasant thing, leave, and know that you dont owe them an explanation. A friend who is able to pay attention to their phone during that time should know where you are. Update them if you change locations. And they should have a time to expect to hear from you by. Remember to check in with them at that time, even if its to say youre staying the night. Its crucial that you actually do contact them. If your friend stops expecting to hear from you, the system no longer functions and wont work in the event that you need it.

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Dear How to Do It,

This is probably a bit different to your usual questions, but does historical porn exist? I love reading written historical erotica and romance novels, but does it exist on film? Ive noticed that I find sex scenes in period dramas (especially queer ones) much hotter than modern-day ones. I imagine it would be pretty expensive to produce, and I obviously wouldnt expect scrupulous historical accuracy, but do you know of anywhere that does this?

History Coming Alive

Dear Coming Alive,

Off the top of my head, I could think of a few heterosexual examples, like Bob Gucciones legendary Ancient Rome-themed Caligula. Doing a web search for period porn turns up videos featuring menses, so I reached out to a few experts.

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If youre looking for Victorian-themed porn, Laura Helen Marks, an academic at Tulane, has an entire book about the subject, Alice in Pornoland: Hardcore Encounters with the Victorian Gothic. Asked for queer recommendations, she she couldnt speak to the aesthetic or erotic quality of any titles, but she supplied several: The American Adventures of Surelick Holmes (Ralph Ell, 1975), HIS Dracula (2012), and Lesbian Adventures: Victorian Love Letters (Nica Noelle, 2009). Marks also suggests The Naughty Victorians (Bob Sickinger, 1975), which probably feels more straight than the titles above, but it doesnt really follow the rules of standard porn. Its a super interesting film with great acting and production values.

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But history is a deliciously broad field. If youre into pirates, Jennifer Moorman, an academic at Fordham, suggested Pirates. (In the sequel, Pirates II: Stagnettis Revenge, I can be seen performing in the back of a large Rulers Court scene.) For the U.S. in the 1940s and 1970s, Moorman recommended Courtney Troubles Speakeasy and Nostalgia, respectively. And in case the fantasy of the future works as well as the past, she also recommended Sugar High Glitter City and Rinse Dreams 1982 post-apocalyptic sex nightmare Cafe Flesh, which is one of my favorite films.

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Both scholars mentioned PinkLabel, where some of the mentioned titles are available. Pink and White Productions, founded by Shine Louise Houston in 2005, is a queer porn production company with an on-demand video platform that hosts queer, independent, and feminist pornography. PinkLabel has been collecting and curating queer pornography for several years, and is a place where you can pay for the porn youre viewing. I reached out to its marketing director, Jiz Lee (who Ive directed in adult films and call a friend), for some recommendations from PinkLabels current offerings. Jizs picks span history: Maria Beattys Ecstasy in Berlin 1926, John Christophers 1980 big-budget gay porn feature Centurions of Rome, and Australian filmmaker Anna Brownfields The Bedroom, which follows a bedroom through six decades of shifting social attitudes toward sex. They also gave us the scoop on a new film: Though not necessarily a period piece, this week were releasing Jim Vendiolas Library Hours, which has a classic literary feel, told primarily through voiceover as two queer people exchange handwritten letters.

Marks noted in an email to me, with most historical porn, you have to look to the older stuff. It is expensive to produce, and with shifts in the industry (lower budgets, fewer studio productions, fewer features), it is inevitable that historical porn has become less common. And part of looking to the older stuff can be more consent issues, racial stereotyping, and bigotry, so bear that in mind as youre browsing. Good luck, and enjoy.
The third day of hearings for Ketanji Brown Jacksons confirmation to the Supreme Court came to a close on Wednesday following another 10-plus hours filled with character smears about child pornography from Republican senators and more phony umbrage about some out-of-context quotes. At this point, with just one more day of testimony from outside witnesses remaining, it is worth noting that this entire circus is being performed to try to pick off two or three Republican votesand perhaps one Democratic votethat will probably not come. One of the reasons Sen. Lindsey Graham is quite literally spitting and screaming about amicus briefs filed on behalf of Guantanamo Bay detainees two decades ago is because, having voted to confirm Jackson to a federal appeals court less than a year ago, he must manufacture sufficient umbrage to vote against her now. Happily for Graham, time has gradually reduced him to a pile of free-floating umbrage held together by hair.

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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.

If we can all agree that the purpose of this charade for Graham is to try to flip Sens. Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, and that for Sen. Ted Cruz the purpose of this charade is to goose his own Twitter mentions, and that for Sen. Josh Hawley the purpose is to take what was a fringe endangering our children smear campaign last week and push it to the GOP mainstream today, its manifestly clear who the real pornographers are this week. But if we can all agree what the GOP agenda has been, I remain utterly mystified by the Democrats. They have the votes to confirm. They are about to irrevocably alter the course of American history. So what are they afraid of?

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I wrote earlier this week about the utter failure on the part of Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats to connect this hearing to what is going to be a catastrophic series of progressive losses at the Supreme Court this term, and the almost staggering inability to lay out any kind of theory for progressive jurisprudence, or even a coherent theory for the role of an unelected judiciary in a constitutional democracy. My colleague Mark Joseph Stern wrote today about a broadside attack on the whole idea of unenumerated rights, substantive due process, and the entire line of cases that protect Americans from forced sterilization, indoctrination of their children, and penalties for using birth control, and afford them the right to marry whom they want. More mysterious than this coordinated GOP project to undermine LGBTQ rights, marriage equality, contraception, and abortionagain, none of this is new or shockingwas the almost complete silence from Senate Democrats on these issues of substantive due process, privacy, and bodily autonomy. On the simplest level, the hearing might have been an opportunity to explain why Roe v. Wade is in fact the tip of the constitutional iceberg; that the same doctrinal underpinnings at risk in this terms looming catastrophe of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization could lead to existential losses of countless other freedoms. But the hearings were framed as if Republicans stand to lose the court and the midterms, while the Democrats behaved as if the future of the courts, the Senate, and democracy itself has no bearing on what happened inside the Senate chamber.

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I understand that the decision was taken to just get the nominee confirmed. Take the win. But for those of us watching and waiting to see Democrats support and back the nominee, there was an immense sense of underreaction. Jackson looked alone fending off the QAnon smear brigade for much of these hearings because she was alone, at least until Sen. Cory Booker took it upon himself in his last colloquy to offer up a powerful corrective to the hatred being leveled at her, and to remind us why love can be an equal and opposite reaction to fear.

Sen. @CoryBooker to Judge Jackson: "I'm not letting anybody in the Senate steal my joy...Don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. How do I know that? Because you're here and I know what it's taken for you to sit in that seat." pic.twitter.com/m7cGjLrftZ  CSPAN (@cspan) March 23, 2022

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Chairman Dick Durbins inability to control some of the most shocking bullying and abuse from Cruz, Graham, Tom Cotton, and Hawley left observers speechless. At some point, you need to just start gaveling. But there was also a pervasive sense of Democratic senators almost chilling unwillingness to go to the mat for their nominee, who was being savaged by Cotton, who called her not credible, and Graham, who berated her with the claim that he was sparing her from being bullied like Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Take my word for this one thing: If you have been subject to abuse, bullying, and intimidation, what you really dont need to hear from people in power is that they think you are brave, or that youre modeling perseverance and grace. What you really want is for someone to stand beside you and take a punchor throw one. Yet beyond a handful of such moments, and notably Bookers final speech, virtually everything Democrats did felt insufficient to the moment. More than that, it felt inexplicable.

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Finallyand this actually matters as wellgiven the opportunity to do anything at all about an information war that opened with Hawley alone attempting to smear a respected federal judge as an enabler of child pornography, and that closed with 10 Republicans signing a letter demanding confidential pre-sentencing reports so they could better assess whether a respected federal judge was someone who is an enabler of child pornography, it seems that Democrats opted to do little to counter even that lie. The first rule of parenting is to impose consequences. If we learned anything at all after Jan. 6, 2021, it should have been that leaving misinformation and lies to fester will only encourage them to grow. And if we learned anything else, it should have been that if there are no consequences for the distortion and lies of craven opportunists like Hawley, seemingly sane Republicans will eventually and eagerly join their clown car. Jackson as responsible for child porn went from crackpot to acceptable in under a week. That is what happens when you choose not to engage with a pernicious lie.

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What Republicans put Jackson through today was appalling. The QAnon Reddit smear was appalling, the relentless shouting that she should answer questions she had answered multiple times was appalling, the snide insinuations that maybe she wasnt bothered by violent child pornography because shes OK with it was appalling. To be subject to an all-out inquisition about not having clairvoyance about which sex offenders would reoffend by some of the very same people who invited and justified the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol beggared belief. And to intimate that this kind of insulting, sneering abuse had been leveled at Barrett, as Graham did, was false to the point of ludicrous.

Still, it feels impossible not to lay some responsibility on the side that holds the gavel and let this happen. I dont pretend to understand the strategic goals of elected Democrats. But if the objective was to just force this extraordinary woman through the human spanking machine in the hopes she would just survive, well, mission accomplished. But if there was any broader goal, I dont know what it was. If there was any better narrative than the fact that she was brave, I may have blinked and missed it. And if there is some looming existential terror Senate Democrats faced that precluded them from taking a stand, I sincerely hope to learn of it soon. Jackson deserved better than to simply be forced to persevere almost entirely alone, as she told us she had learned to do during her freshman year at Harvard. She did persevere, and she was authentic, and truthful, and powerful to boot. And in so doing, and in spite of everything, Jackson showed the world just how lucky we will be when she is confirmed as a justice.
 Flash

The 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Two members (Russia and China) voted in favor of the text and 13 others abstained. The text submitted by Russia was rejected.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.

Russia's draft resolution expresses grave concern about reports of civilian casualties and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, including the growing number of internally displaced persons and refugees. The draft text also calls for the protection of civilians, including humanitarian and medical personnel, respect for international law and the protection of civilian objects and critical infrastructure, safe and unhindered evacuation of all civilians, and unhindered humanitarian access in Ukraine.

The council has held three briefings on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine since the conflict erupted, respectively on Feb. 28, March 7 and March 17.
For several decades, Republicans used Supreme Court nomination hearings to sharpen their knives against Roe v. Wade. They have long seized the opportunity to make their case against Roe, railing against the decision as a paragon of judicial activism and overreach. During Ketanji Brown Jacksons hearings this week, GOP senators have, predictably, condemned Roebut not as much as might be expected. Instead, many senators have turned their attention to a different precedent thats likely next on their hit list once Roe likely falls this summer: Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision recognizing same-sex couples constitutional right to marry.

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Loathing for Obergefell emerged early on Tuesday, when Republican Sen. John Cornyn launched a frontal assault on the ruling, then sought Jacksons reaction. He began by criticizing substantive due process, which holds that the liberty protected by the due process clause protects substantive rights, not just procedural ones. The Supreme Court has used this theory to enforce unenumerated rights that it deems fundamental, including the right to marry, raise children, use contraception, and terminate a pregnancy. Along with equal protection, it served as the basis of Obergefell. According to Cornyn, however, this doctrine is just another form of judicial policymaking that can be used to justify basically any result.

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Obergefell, Cornyn told Jackson, was a dramatic departure from previous laws that contradicted 234 years of history. Most states, he pointed out, had not yet repealed their bans on same-sex marriage when the edict came down. Do you share my concern, he asked Jackson, that when the court  creates a new right, declaring that anything conflicting with that is unconstitutional, that it creates a circumstance where those who may hold traditional beliefs on something as important as marriage, that they will be vilified as unwilling to assent to this new orthodoxy?

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Cornyn then lectured Jackson about the alleged evils of Obergefell. When the court overrules the decisions made by the people, he told her, as they did in 32 of the 35 states that decided to recognize only traditional marriage between a man and a woman, that is an act of judicial policymaking. The senator went on to claim that Dred Scott, which treated slaves as chattel property, was a product of substantive due process. (Thats not actually true, but it marks an obvious effort to sully decisions like Obergefell with the taint of racist origins.) Cornyn also dismissed Obergefell as court-made law that were all supposed to salute smartly and follow because nine people who are unelected, who have lifetime tenure, whose salary cannot be reduced while they serve in officefive of them decide that this is the way the world should be.

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Republican Sen. John Kennedy picked up this baton a few hours later. Kennedy criticized Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of Obergefell, for refusing to identify a formula for fundamental rights and instead going case by case.

Can you understand, Kennedy asked, why some Americans go, Wait a minute. These are unenumerated rights. Are justices interpreting the Constitution or are they just deciding a right when they get five votes and its just a moral conviction?  Republican Sen. Ben Sasse also grilled Jackson about substantive due process and the courts authority to create new fundamental rights. He returned to the subject on Wednesday, then expressed disappointment when she declined to disavow the doctrine.

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In case it wasnt clear what these senators were up to, Cornyn made it explicit on Wednesday afternoon. The Constitution doesnt mention the word abortion, he lectured Jackson, just like it doesnt mention the word marriage. These senators appear confident that the Supreme Court will overrule the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which should come down by June. They are so confident, in fact, that they prodded Jackson to say whether she would abide by Dobbs once she joins the court, rather than fight to revive Roe. But on the whole, Republicans were noticeably less engaged over abortion than they were about same-sex marriage.

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Its easy to see why. The GOP, alongside the conservative legal movement, has built up a massive infrastructure to fight the culture wars. After Roe, it will need a new target, and marriage equality is the obvious choice. Republicans never really gave up on the issue, but rather staged a tactical retreat after Obergefell, pressing for sweeping exemptions from civil rights laws to legalize discrimination against same-sex couples. But after Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett replaced the gay-friendly Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this retreat slowed to a crawl, and Republicans sought to regain some ground. They pressed the Supreme Court to roll back protections for same-sex couples (to no availyet) and have now launched a campaign to mandate anti-LGBTQ discrimination in schools. A GOP legislator in Texas has asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to declare that the states ban on same-sex marriage remains valid and enforceable.

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As the architect of Texas vigilante abortion ban has candidly acknowledged, overturning Roe will leave Obergefell hanging by a thread. And the unraveling wont stop there. A number of major decisions protecting reproductive rights, including access to contraception, will be imperiled if the court repudiates substantive due process. So will Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 decision legalizing interracial marriage, whichjust like Obergefellrelied on both due process and equal protection. Republican Sen. Mike Braun claims to have misspoken when he said that Loving should be overturned on Tuesday. But he was only following his beliefs to their logical conclusion.

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The fact that Republicans dont talk much about marriage equality these days doesnt mean theyve accepted it. The GOPs 2020 platform called for the government to cease recognizing same-sex unions. Republican legislators around the country are falling over themselves to ban discussion of same-sex marriage in public schools. And now Republican senators have used the Jackson hearings to test the waters with Obergefell, revealing a newly invigorated push for its reversal. And why not? The crusade against Roe seemed hopeless for decades until, suddenly, it didnt. With six conservative justices installed on the Supreme Court, theres no limit to Republicans anti-gay dreams.
The current nominee to the Supreme Court has an African first nameand it was with a smile that I read the story of how she got it.

Her parents, presumably wanting to show pride in their ancestry as the thriving American descendants of enslaved Africans, had asked her aunt, a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, to send them a list of suitable names. They chose Ketanji Onyika, meaning lovely one.

Soon, she will likely be Justice Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson. In a country where African men and women were once forced to change their names by slave owners, and where having an African-sounding name can still hurt your chances of landing a job, that simple fact is a small but meaningful step forward for Black Americans.

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Not too long ago, it was taken for granted that some immigrants to the United States should anglicize their names. Although the myth that most immigrants from Europe had their names changed while passing through Ellis Island has now been debunked, it is true that some migrants, many of them Jews confronted with antisemitism, did change their names after arrival. Similarly, immigrants from Asia have felt the need to adopt English names for the ease of monolingual Americans who could not properly pronounce names from countries such as China, Vietnam, or South Korea.

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To this day, the ritual of becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States still includes the opportunity for the new citizen to change their name. I immigrated to this country from Nigeria at age 14, and when I was naturalized, I faced enormous pressure both from family members and from others to change my name from Ifeoma. (I declined to do so).

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Unlike the stories of European immigrants bartering their names for anglicized ones that could give them full membership to American society, the story of how Black Americans lost their African names is one of violence and exclusion. The history of slavery in America was not widely discussed in the educational system of Nigeria where I was born. But when Alex Haleys award-winning series Roots finally aired on television in Nigeria, like so many other children, I was transfixed by the story of survival against all odds. One scene from Roots remains seared to my memory. This is the scene where Kunta Kinte is brutally whipped into accepting the English name Toby. To me, this signaled that there was something powerful in an African nameotherwise why inflict so much pain to erase it?

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Many immigrants to the United States who are also racial minorities have taken the Hobsons choice of changing their names because of the labor market and social discrimination they experience. This weighs especially heavily on African immigrants, given how merely having a name that sounds Black can be a disadvantage when looking for work.

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In 2004, Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan published a now-famous field experiment they conducted to test racial discrimination in hiring. They responded with fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. They assigned each resume either a very African Americansounding name (think Lakisha and Jamal) or a very White-sounding name (think Emily or Greg). One result: In general, resumes with White (read European) names received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews. Bertrand and Mullainathan also found that the amount of discrimination was the same across occupations and industries.

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The employers did not know for certain that the job applicants were Black Americansthey were making the conclusion based on how they perceived the name. This is why legal scholars like Mario Barnes and Angela Onwuachi-Willig have argued that employment anti-discrimination law should also protect job applicants who are discriminated against when they are perceived as Black (often based on just their names), even if said applicants are not actually Black.

Many of the popular names that sound Black to Americans, such as Ebony or Jermaine, are not traditionally African. But plenty are. For example, names like Ayanna and Omari come from the Swahili language. In their study, Bertrand and Mullainathan sent out fake resumes with several names that originate in Arabicincluding Hakeem, Kareem, and Aishaa language widely spoken on the African continent. Their study seemed to confirm that, whether it was African American or simply African in origin, bearing a name that was too Black left individuals vulnerable to discrimination.

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I, unfortunately, found myself running my own, admittedly less scientific version of this experiment while looking for my first job out of law school in 2007. Although I had passed the California Bar on my first try, I found myself having difficulty landing a job. A law school friend of mine, who was Korean American and worked in Big Law, suggested that the problem was my name and gently urged me to change it. I took the advice, deleting my first name from my resume and instead using my middle name, Yvonne, which is French. I immediately got several callbacks. But the change never felt right, and I soon reverted back to my original name.

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Has any of this changed? Maybe a bit. We recently had a Black president with his own African name. Also, some African immigrant groups have come to be perceived by many as highly educated and financially successful, even as many African and Caribbean immigrants still struggle with poverty. Nonetheless, a major study conducted in 2021 involving 83,000 fake resumes found that applicants with Black-sounding names were still less likely to get an interview, though the difference was smaller than in 2004.

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If there were any doubt that this social discrimination still exists, just consider the minimally veiled racist remarks Tucker Carlson made about Judge Jacksons African name while questioning her credentials. So, is Ketanji Brown Jacksona name that even Joe Biden has trouble pronouncingone of the top legal minds in the entire country? he asked. In the world of Fox News, an African name alone is disqualifying.

But as Sen. Amy Klobuchar helpfully shared on the first day of hearings for Judge Jacksons confirmation, the nominee has more judicial experience than four people who are already on the Supreme Court. Since the beginning of the confirmation hearings, Judge Jackson has exhibited great poise, eloquence, even temperament, and legal erudition. All virtues that would make her a great colleague. I am heartened by her nomination to the highest court in the United States, one of the top jobs in the world. I hope it will send a signal to all that people with Black-sounding or African names are worthy applicants for any job.
The Vatican announced last week that Pope Francis had invited all the bishops and priests of the world to join him in the prayer for peace and in the consecration and entrustment of Russia and of Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The prayer, which is to take place Friday afternoon, seemed on its face to be an uncontroversial sign of support for the Ukrainian people, but the news sent shockwaves through a certain segment of the Catholic world.

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To the average person, the responses seem nearly impossible to decipher. Holy Father, I am a little bit worried, one person wrote on Twitter. This wont be a legitimate consecration either, another scoffed. Only Idiots think this Freemason will do the consecration, said another. Its about time, but what took so long? one asked. Others pointed to blog posts and videos that warned the popes plans amounted to a globalist trap or that an anti-popes consecration of Russia would lead to dire consequences. What in the world was happening here?

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The popes announcement had tapped into one of the strangest and most heated debates in Catholicism, one that involves speculation about body doubles and forgeries; prophecies and visions of hell; secret messages; two global wars; the attempted assassination of a pope; and, above all, the Virgin Mary.

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The story starts in 1917, when Mary appeared repeatedly to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, in what is considered to be the most recent major apparition to be officially confirmed by the Vatican. Mary gave the children prophecies related to the Great War and a promise to perform a miracle on Oct. 13. When that date came, thousands reported seeing the sun dance in the sky. The children were also given three secrets: apocalyptic visions and global prophecies that two of the children, who died in the 1918 influenza epidemic, would never see made public. The third child, their cousin Lucia dos Santos, would not divulge the first two secrets until the 1940s. The third wouldnt be revealed until the turn of the century.

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The three secrets were cryptic. First, the children were given a vision of hell. Second, they were warned that another, even worse world war would come. And third, they were shown a pope slain at the foot of a cross. This last vision is commonly thought to allude to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, and the ambiguity has fascinated Catholicsand Catholic conspiracy theoristsfor decades.

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But its the second secret that concerns us here. Sister Luciaby then a Carmelite nunwrote in her 1941 memoir that Mary had told the children of a way to avoid an even more devastating war:

To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If they listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not she will scatter her errors through the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and it will be converted and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.

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According to Lucia, Mary visited her again in 1929, repeating that request: The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. Without getting too deep into the theological meaning, a consecration here is akin to a dedicationsetting aside a person or thing or even concept for a holy purpose.

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Sister Lucias prophecies were taken seriously by the church. While the Vatican has maintained that the terrible war in the second secret referred to World War II, it also saw in the revelation the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism. Over the decades, a number of popes have tried to stave off or resolve international conflict by invoking Marys protection: In 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1952, he consecrated the peoples of Russia, specifically. Pope Paul VI renewed the consecration in 1964, and Pope John Paul II did similar renewals during the Cold War in 1981, 1982, and 1984.

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This last consecration in 1984, conducted in St. Peters Square in Rome on behalf of the entire human racenaming Russia specifically would have been politically dangerousand in spiritual union with all the bishops of the world, is considered the one that officially fulfilled Marys request in her visions at Fatima. In 2000, during the momentous revelation of the third secret, Rome revealed that Sister Lucia, in a handwritten letter in 1989, had assured the pope that the consecration had been accepted in Heaven.

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That, according to the Vatican, was the resolution of the second secret. The Cold War ended, communism fell, and Mikhail Gorbachev publicly embraced the Orthodox Church.

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But that was not the end of the story. Many traditionalists, who believe the Catholic Church has betrayed its identity by softening and liberalizing to adjust to the modern world, became enamored with the revelations and questioned the official Vatican line. How could it be, they reasoned, that the 1984 consecration had satisfied Marys requests when the pope didnt specifically mention Russia? And the previous consecrations that had mentioned the country had surely failed because they had neglected to secure the cooperation of all the bishops of the world.

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It wasnt totally unreasonable, they asserted, to think the Vatican had lied about having Sister Lucias stamp of approval, just as they could have lied about the nature of the third secret. The letter could have been a forgery. (Elements of the Fatima conspiracy theories include private letters that appear to contradict Sister Lucias public statements, reports of the Vatican hiding the nun away to silence her, and even body doubles for Sister Lucia.) And as they saw it, Russia had not experienced mass conversions to Roman Catholicism, so it was fairly clear that the prophecy had never been fulfilled. No pope had done it right.

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Theres a subset of Catholics who are really into Fatima, said Mike Lewis, the managing editor of the pro-Francis blog Where Peter Is. Its sanctioned by the church, but the message is very apocalyptic, so traditionalists love it. Children seeing a vision of hellit comes off as fire and brimstones. Its been fodder for conspiracy theorists ever since the 60s.

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According to Lewis, only a tiny percentagemaybe 3 to 5 percentof the 50 million Catholics in the U.S. even know about the Fatima debates. But its a key 3 percent, he said. They follow Catholic news, want to know whats going on in the Vatican, are die-hards for apparitions. And theyre seminariansyoung priests.  This stuff is preached from the pulpit.

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In 2017, Cardinal Raymond Burke, considered a fringe but very influential figure on the Catholic right, gave a speech calling on Pope Francis to do the consecration properly, according to the specific conditions. A mainstream cardinal calling out the pope and embracing the conspiracy theoryit becomes a rallying cry for the anti-Francis movement, Lewis said.

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But Burke was not fixating on the fine print of Lucias visions. He was instead making a distinct theological claim. Burke argued that the world had reached such a place of corruption that it needed a new consecration to put an end to the time of apostasy and the great shortcomings of the Churchs pastors. He told the National Catholic Register more recently that those shortcomings dealt with the violation of the most fundamental tenets of the natural law, citing abortion, euthanasia, divorce, transgender rights and feminism, and restrictions on religious liberty.

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Francis didnt comply. His decision to do another consecration this month, however, didnt come from pressure from Burke or the previous popes skeptics; it came from a plea from the bishops in Ukraine. During this painful and difficult situation of war, we continued to pray, to celebrate the Holy Mass, to adore the Holy Sacrament, to fast and to offer our sufferings requesting Gods mercy. We were joined by the whole world in this, but we see that the war continues, Archbishop Mieczysaw Mokrzycki of Lviv, Ukraine, told the Catholic News Agency. But Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 said that the consecration would be followed by a time of peace. That time of peace is over now, so we need to repeat the act of consecration of Russia and Ukraine.  We believe that this act will be listened to by Our Lady and she will intercede before God for peace in Ukraine.

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On March 15, Francis announced he would say a prayer for the two nations. At first, the announcement was considered a nice gesture and not much more. But when, three days later, a letter circulated that requested the bishops participation as well, the story dramatically changed. This was the consecration. For the Fatima enthusiasts, this was big.

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So why would Francis do this? There has been some speculation that the announcement has to do with his own efforts to quiet the radical traditionalists in the church. It is a rare case where hes being applauded by the traditionalist right, and so thats a good thing, in one sense, said David Gibson, the director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University. In some ways, this can be read as the pope throwing a bone to conservatives.

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But that strategy is doomed to failconspiracy theorists will always find something else to feed the conspiracyand sure enough, opponents of Francis have already started finding issues with the popes approach. They claim that naming Ukraine negates the process, or that all bishops wont actually participate, or any number of other things. So it seems unlikely that Francis is doing this entirely for internal political reasons.

Theres another theory, though: that Francis really believes in this rite and in the secrets of Fatima. Given that headlines often tout the popes more progressive statements, people often forget that Francis is a traditionally devout man with an affection for old-school, popular forms of piety. He often prays at icons, and hes known for encouraging exorcisms. So if you take the church politics out of it, this is very much in keeping with who Francis is, Gibson said.

Despite the fact that the Vatican in its consecration announcement explicitly mentions Fatima, Gibson says Francis hasnt bought into the conspiracy theorists arguments. He does not see these consecrations as magic, where you need to recite the words perfectly every time, he said. Instead, Gibson said, Francis likely sees the consecration as something to adapt to different geopolitical situations to call on Marys support. This is something where you can do these kinds of prayers again and again.

Gibson had one more theory about the Francis consecration, one that assumes the Vatican is more aware of the theories than it lets on. In a way, the popes taking back Fatima and this idea of consecration from the conspiracy theorists, he said, who have owned it for more than a century. And this is an effort to say, No, this is not some crazy apocalyptic thing. This is standard Catholic practice. 

Is there an interesting story happening in your religious community? Email tips to molly.olmstead@slate.com.
This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

Commentators analyzing Vladimir Putins motivations for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine often cite his claims that Ukraines NATO aspirations threatened to bring alliance bases to the frontier of Russia. Or they may point to statements and actions they think suggest he wants to resurrect the former Soviet Union or the Russian Empire. But if that is really what is driving Putin, why is there no indication that he has any territorial ambitions on Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other former republics of the USSR. Its Ukraine, not Turkmenistan. Russia is the dominant political force in the region; if it is trying to recreate the Soviet empire, why hasnt it attempted to simply incorporate these other states? If they are already vassals, as some would say, why was Belarus the only former Soviet republic (other than Russia) to vote against the March 2 United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan abstained, while Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan did not vote.)

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It is important for speculation about Putins imperial ambitions or his alleged concern about NATO not to deflect from a focus on what is the greatest animating fear for Putin: a liberal democracy on his doorstep in the form of the constitutional order of Ukraine.

That is why NATO  and especially the United States  must take a stand in Ukraine. Americans have been discouraged in recent years by repeated attacks on democracy the world over as well as in the United States. The democratic backsliding in Europe, such as in Hungary and Poland, has been particularly disheartening to many Americans, given the U.S. role in helping reunite Europe after the Cold War.

Now in Ukraine, an entire population, led by a courageous president, is risking its survival or being forced to flee horrific bombardment in a fight for democracy, for the ideals that Americans have so long espoused.

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In contradiction to Putins claim that Ukraines potential membership in NATO poses a unique and looming threat to Russias frontier, seizing Ukraine would actually accomplish just that. If the invasion succeeds and Ukraine becomes a part of Russia, bases inside Poland or any other NATO countries neighboring Ukraine would then really be on Russias doorstep. In fact, Putin ignored all evidence that NATO had no plans to admit Ukraine anytime in the near future, and even furthered Ukraines aspirations to accession with his own actions in 2014, when he exponentially multiplied Ukraines  and Eastern Europes  security concerns by seizing Crimea and triggering the war in the Donbas.

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For Putin, Ukraine has been the outlier. Ukraine has been pursuing freedom and democracy determinedly, though haltingly, on its own, and it has had a good deal of success. The fact that this democratic process has been playing out on Putins doorstep, perhaps most notably with the 2014 Revolution of Dignity against his stooge, then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, is terrifying to Putin.

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In the information age, a state of terror such as the one that Putins Russia has become, cannot countenance states of consent, especially next door. It is Ukraines constitutional order  with its independent (though still troubled) judicial system, freedom of the press, multiparty politics, largely legitimate elections, vibrant civil society, and general respect for human rights  that Putin cannot tolerate, lest it provide too tempting an example for democratic activists in his own country who have vehemently opposed him at great risk to their lives and to the public in general that shares so many ties to the people in Ukraine. The peaceful coexistence of the Cold War is, in this respect, not acceptable to Putin.

Allowing Russia to advance its borders wouldnt mollify Putin with some lessening of his perception of a national security threat, so long as each new border abuts the territory of a NATO member. In fact, Putin himself signaled as much in his December demands to the alliance, which included, for instance, that NATO withdraw infrastructure from its own member States in Eastern Europe.

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The principal U.S. intention in agreeing to NATOs expansion to the former Warsaw Pact countries beginning in 1999 was not to create a cordon sanitaire around Russia. Rather, the expansion was intended to shore up the nascent domestic movements toward liberal democracy within those former Soviet satellites. It was the constitutional, not the international, objective that drove NATO enlargement.

So Putins war is a consequence of his fear that Russia as it is today will inevitably slip from his grasp and that more democratic-leaning leaders there, not just those in Ukraine, will one day petition to become members of NATO and that it will become a state of consent. If the West can protect Ukraine  with advanced anti-ship, anti-aircraft, and other defensive weapons, with a sustained airlift and land convoy of food and medicines, with global economic ostracism of Putins regime  that day will come.

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Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson were much more subdued in comparison with the previous three days of outlandish and shameful attacks on the judge. Committee members questionedwithout much dramaa set of panelists about Jacksons qualifications to serve on the United States highest court.

There was one moment, though, that stood out both for the forcefulness of the Democratic responsewhich was lacking all weekand the chilling answers from one of the Republican witnesses. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden was the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States of America in response to questions from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

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Marshall was apparently there to criticize Jacksons criminal law jurisprudence from a law enforcement perspective despite the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police and other police unions. Whitehouse, though, used Marshalls presence as an excuse to grill him on his possible role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and his views on whether Biden was legitimately elected or is an illegal usurper. Compared with the previous three days of hearings, in which Republicans ran a concerted smear campaign to falsely allege Judge Jackson endangers children while Democrats mostly sat on the sidelines, Whitehouses aggressive line of inquiry was downright inspiring.

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Again, the video itself is also chilling, as Whitehouse repeatedly asks Marshall to acknowledge the lawfulness of Bidens presidency and Marshall refuses.

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Testifying against Judge Jacksons SCOTUS nomination, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) repeatedly sidesteps direct questions from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about whether President Biden is the duly elected and lawfully serving president. pic.twitter.com/9E28nkNzRP  The Recount (@therecount) March 24, 2022

Heres the transcript of that portion of the questioning, which is almost comical to read:

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Whitehouse: Is Joseph R. Biden of Delaware the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States of America? Marshall: He is the president of this country. Whitehouse: Is he the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States? Marshall: He is the president of our country. Whitehouse: Are you answering that omitting the language duly elected and lawfully serving purposefully? Marshall: Im answering the question, he is the president of the United States. Whitehouse: And you have no view as to whether he was duly elected or is lawfully serving? Marshall: Im telling you he is the president of the United States.

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Whitehouse pressed Marshall to answer these questions because the attorney general was in charge of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a policy branch of the Republican Attorneys General Association, when it put out a robocall the day before the insurrection calling on patriots to march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal. Indeed, a mob of self-avowed patriots did march on the Capitol, blocking the counting of the electoral vote, and leaving at least five dead in their wake.

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Whitehouse probed Marshalls role in the robocall. The Alabama attorney general said he had no knowledge of the call, its text, or how it was funded. He also denied personally soliciting money for the robocall. Ultimately, 11 Alabama residents have been arrested for taking part in the assault on the Capitol and three others who have been charged for their roles in the insurrection were arrested in Alabama.

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Here is what we do know about the robocall in question: It explicitly called for a march on the Capitol, and prior to the attack, the Rule of Law Defense Fund was listed on the MarchtoSaveAmerica.com website as one of the groups participating in the rally along with Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots, and other groups. The text of the full call, as first reported by Documented, is as follows:

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Im calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message. The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in Presidents Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7 a.m. At 1 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.

Rule of Law Defense Fund leaders denounced the insurrection and claimed to have no involvement in the robocall after it came to light. Last year, though, the Alabama Political Reporter reported that thenRepublican Attorney Generals Association director Adam Piper attended a Jan. 5 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C., along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama; Donald Trump Jr.; Eric Trump; Trumps former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; adviser Peter Navarro; Trumps 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski; and 2016 deputy campaign manager David Bossie. Marshall refused to release his calendar appointments for the period to the Alabama Reporter and denied during his testimony that he was in D.C. on Jan. 6, but he did meet with Trump at the White House just a few weeks before the insurrection. Around that time, he supported a number of lawsuits to overturn the election that were ultimately roundly rejected by the Supreme Court.

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Marshall said in his testimony during Thursdays hearing that he denounced lawlessness  as it relates to what took place on Jan. 6, but in the days after the election, he was a vocal backer of Trumps Big Lie that the election had been stolen. As the Alabama Political Reporter noted, Marshall made a number of statements casting doubt on the results of the election in the lead-up to Jan. 6.

To the extent that Americans can have a belief and a trust in the election results on Election Day then its hard to have faith in those leaders that will take over, Marshall told one radio host on Nov. 16, 2020, after the race had been called for Biden.

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He told another radio host on Nov. 20 that when they change the rules midstream and we still dont know the results, the people of America have a reason to question the validity and the authority of whats taken place through this recent election.

According to the Opelika Auburn News, Marshall marked Alabamas Electoral College Ceremony on Dec. 14 by suggesting other states had cheated. Happily, here in Alabama, the results of this years election w[ere] in no way in doubt, Marshall said at the time. Let us celebrate what Alabama has achieved, but let us not rest, because as weve seen nationally, those seeking to undermine the integrity of our elections remain full of passionate energy.

Its clear that Marshall has not changed that view at all, and based on his selection to testify, its clear where the priorities of the Republican Party remain.
Labour Ministry expects vacancies to grow in coming months.

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There are more than 32,000 job vacancies on the Slovak labour market suitable for foreigners, according to the Labour Ministry. Slovaks are not interested in these jobs, which require lower qualifications or do not involve potential problems with language barriers, the ministry said.

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The ministry added that the number of summer seasonal job vacancies will soon increase to approximately 60,000 and in six months a total of around 92,000 positions could be filled by foreigners.

[Foreigners] can be employed as operators and fitters of machinery and equipment, auxiliary and unqualified workers, for cleaning, as assistants in warehouses, auxiliary workers in production and also as workers in services and trades, cooks, carers, and waiters, Labour Minister Milan Krajniak said, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

Helping the Slovak economy

The Minister said the employment of refugees from Ukraine will significantly reduce the potential negative impact on public finances posed by unemployed refugees relying on the state. Given that foreigners may not earn less than a Slovak citizen, there is an objective assumption that foreigners are not an obstacle to wage growth, he added.

Due to the arrival of workers from third countries, Slovaks will not have their labour costs reduced, since foreigners mainly hold jobs that Slovaks are not interested in, or for which there is a shortage of labour on the market.

Job seekers can go to Sluzbyzamestnanosti.gov.sk, which is also available in Ukrainian, to contact employees directly.

Accommodation, work, school. How to get to Slovakia and how to proceed? Read more

A new website has been set up for Ukrainians who want to work either in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, or Poland. Workania.eu brings together all verified job ads suitable for Ukrainians from Slovak, Czech, and Polish web portals.

In February, the registered unemployment rate in Slovakia fell by a tenth of a percentage point month-on-month to 6.86 percent, according to data from the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and the Family.

Filling vacancies will help the Slovak economy, the press department of the Labour Ministry said.
https://sputniknews.com/20220323/researchers-estimate-star-ages-to-correct-timeline-of-milky-way-galaxy-formation-1094131633.html

Researchers Estimate Star Ages to Correct Timeline of Milky Way Galaxy Formation

Researchers Estimate Star Ages to Correct Timeline of Milky Way Galaxy Formation

The study looks at how the Milky Way's constituent elements came together to form the massive spiral-shaped collection of stars that houses our solar system. 23.03.2022, Sputnik International

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Following research on over a quarter of a million stars among the 100-400 billion stars that make up our home galaxy, astronomers have achieved a new understanding of the Milky Way's creation, the new study, published in the journal Nature, suggested.According to the research, the thicker component of our galaxy's disk of stars at its corea barred spiral galaxy, as astronomers call it  began forming 13 billion years ago, approximately 800 million years after the Big Bang. The circular halo of stars surrounding the disk did not complete forming until roughly 2 billion years later.According to the Wall Street Journal's report on the findings, Amina Helmi, an astronomer at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, said astronomers previously had found no evidence that the disk preceded the halo.Halo stars in past decades were thought to be older than their disk counterparts, according to research. New data from the European Space Agency's Gaia Telescope in 2018, however, cast doubt on that assumption. The new results about the Milky Way, which spans 100,000 light-years and contains massive clouds of gas and dust, as well as an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars and at least as many planets, shed some light on the difficult issue of determining the ages of those stars, some of which are thought to be over 13 billion years old.Astronomers are reportedly unable to identify when specific events in our galaxy's early history occurred without this knowledge.Scientists can determine a star's age by measuring its luminosity, as well as its temperature and chemical composition, using theoretical models that demonstrate how stars evolve over time as they consume hydrogen for fuel.Maosheng Xiang and Hans-Walter Rix, two astronomers from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, used that method in research to establish the precise ages of 247,104 stars in our galaxy's inner halo and disk that were in a certain evolutionary phase for the new study. While this is only a small proportion of the Milky Way's stars, it is 100 times more than was previously employed for star-dating of this type.According to the study, they measured the stars' temperature and elemental makeup using the sun-orbiting Gaia Telescope, which tracks the movement, position, and distance of stars. A ground-based spectroscopy telescope in China also determined luminosity. After determining the stars' ages, researchers looked at their orbits to see if they were in the disk or halodisk stars rotate in almost circular orbits around the galaxy's center, but halo stars do not. The halo's oldest stars formed around the same time as the thick disk, but a new study found that a majority of the Milky Way's halo stars joined the galaxy around 11.2 billion years ago, when a smaller galaxy known as Gaia-Enceladus collided with ours. Halo assembly came to a stop after that merger. The findings "show beyond doubt" that a disk existed in our galaxy at the time of the merger, according to Helmi, cited by the WSJ, who added that the presence of a disk at that time has long been a point of contention.According to the report, Xiang expressed his desire to further study additional stars from a wider area of our galaxy. The new study only looked at stars in a tiny region around the sun, roughly 25,000 light-years from the Milky Way's center.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

https://sputniknews.com/20220219/milky-way-swallowed-up-undiscovered-galaxy-over-eight-billion-years-ago-reveals-esa-gaia-spacecraft-1093178860.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/biden-says-indias-stance-shaky-on-russia-russia-holding-back-on-bombing-ukraine-1094131869.html

Biden Says India's Stance 'Shaky' on Russia; Russia Holding Back on Bombing Ukraine

Biden Says India's Stance 'Shaky' on Russia; Russia Holding Back on Bombing Ukraine

Some experts argue that Russia is holding back on destroying Ukraine to decrease civilian deaths, minimize damage, and create room for negotiation. 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T09:01+0000

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2022-03-24T12:31+0000

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Biden says India's Stance "Shaky" on Russia; Russia holding back on Bombing Ukraine Some experts argue that Russia is holding back on destroying Ukraine to decrease civilian deaths, minimize damage, and create room for negotiation.

Co-hosts Dr. Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon come together to discuss Ukraine's Military Operations. Some experts argue that Russia is holding back on destroying Ukraine to decrease civilian deaths, minimize damage, and create room for negotiation. Also, Sergei Lavrov argues that the Ukraine operation is about much broader geopolitical issues.Teresa Lundy, principal and founder of TML Communications, a leading public relations, communications, and advocacy firm in Pennsylvania, and business columnist at Metro Philly, joins us to discuss the Supreme Court nomination. The issues of George W. Bush's war crimes and Guantanamo Bay are being discussed during the Senate nomination process of Ketanji Brown-Jackson.Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Ukraine. The military-industrial complex should build more manufacturing factories according to President Biden's nominee for the Pentagon's chief weapons purchaser Bill Laplante. Also, a Pentagon official has argued that there is no indication of Russians preparing for a chemical weapons attack in an apparent pushback against recent neocon hawk claims.K. J. Noh, peace activist, writer, and teacher, joins us to discuss China. Australia is caught between its need to please the US empire and its economic ties to China. Also, President Biden is focusing on India's refusal to join the West in a circular economic firing squad.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss the Middle East. The Israel/Palestine issue is a preeminent problem for the Muslim world. Also, the US is upset that the Arab states are moving towards detente and acceptance of the Syrian government.Dr. Yolandra Hancock, board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist, joins us to discuss COVID. The latest version of Omicron accounts for most new infections in the US. Also, we look at the spread of the BA.2 sub-variant around the world.James Carey, writer, activist, and podcaster, joins us to discuss Yemen and Africa. The people of Yemen are suffering massive atrocities as their plight is ignored by Western media. Also, we discuss the extreme risk of famine in Africa as a result of the Ukrainian crisis and subsequent sanctions.Dan Cohen, filmmaker and writer for the Gray Zone Project, joins us to discuss the role of propaganda in the current Ukraine crisis. We examine an article by Dan Cohen in which he "reveals the network of foreign strategists, Washington DC lobbyists, and intelligence-linked media outlets behind Ukraines public relations blitz."We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this programme are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/bulgaria-to-recall-its-ambassador-to-russia-for-consultations-1094149481.html

Bulgaria to Recall Its Ambassador to Russia for Consultations

Bulgaria to Recall Its Ambassador to Russia for Consultations

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Bulgaria will recall its ambassador to Russia, Atanas Krastin, for consultations in the wake of Russian Ambassador to Sofia Eleonora... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

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Earlier this week, Mitrofanova told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster that the people of Bulgaria do not support either the rhetoric or the actions of the country's government in relation to Russia. Following this, the Bulgarian prime minister said that the government was dissatisfied with the ambassador's statements and would prepare a diplomatic response.Bulgaria declared ten Russian diplomats personae non gratae last week. Latvia and Estonia also announced that they have decided to expel three employees of the Russian embassies in their countries, while Lithuania has expelled four. Moscow pledged to respond.

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VND1.9 trillion proposed for upgrading railway tunnels

Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) has proposed VND1.9 trillion (USD81.89 million) in investment to upgrade tunnels on the Hanoi-HCM City railway route.





According to Hoang Gia Khanh, deputy general director of VNR, as many as 28 railway tunnels have deteriorated, including up to 22 on the Hanoi-HCM City route which were all built in the 1927-1935 period. These French-period tunnels pose dangers for train operations.





A tunnel on the Hanoi-HCM City railway route
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that he held a phone conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss further assistance to Ukraine.

"We have discussed with the British Prime Minister the course of hostilities and defense assistance to Ukraine," Zelensky tweeted.

Zelensky said that he had received assurances of Johnson's support on the eve of Thursday's meetings of the Group of Seven (G7) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

For his part, Johnson tweeted that he would urge the international community to send more military aid to Ukraine and step up pressure on Russia.

The leaders of G7 and NATO countries will meet for an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Thursday.
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/china-disagrees-with-g20-removal-of-russia-1094132569.html

China Disagrees With G20 Removal of Russia

China Disagrees With G20 Removal of Russia

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Rachel Blevins discussed current events including China rebuking the G20 removal of Russia, and Poland expelling... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T09:02+0000

2022-03-24T09:02+0000

2022-03-24T09:02+0000

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China Disagrees With G20 Removal of Russia On todays episode of The Backstory, host Rachel Blevins discussed current events including China rebuking the G20 removal of Russia, and Poland expelling forty-five Russian diplomats suspected of espionage.

GUESTRobert Inlakesh - Journalist, Writer, and Political Analyst | Anti-Russian Sentiment Growing, Israeli Support for Extremists in Ukraine, and Israel Labeled an ApartheidMatt Savoy - Cofounder of The Free Thought Project | "Peacekeeper Troops", Russia Surrounded by NATO, and War Time PropagandaIn the first hour, Rachel spoke with Robert Inlakesh about Julian Assange, Israel seen as right-wing, and the public denial of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Robert spoke on President Zelensky's Jewish heritage and Zelensky's support for extremist groups. Robert talked about the funding of Israeli nationalists in Ukraine and Israeli weapons sent to Azov Battalion.In the second hour, Rachel spoke with Matt Savoy about NATO aggression towards Russia, Tucker Carlson attacked for his Ukraine reporting, and martial law in Ukraine. Matt discussed the Biden administration sending US troops to NATO countries and the forgotten history of NATO. Matt talked about the lack of transparency from the Biden administration and the US State Department discouraging peace in Ukraine.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this programme are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/chinas-foreign-minister-reportedly-makes-first-visit-to-delhi-since-deadly-galwan-border-clash-1094156905.html

China's Foreign Minister Reportedly Makes First Visit to Delhi Since Deadly Galwan Border Clash

China's Foreign Minister Reportedly Makes First Visit to Delhi Since Deadly Galwan Border Clash

India and China have held 15 rounds of military-commander level talks since June 2020, when at least 24 casualties were reported from both sides in eastern... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T20:44+0000

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China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, has arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening after a daylong Kabul visit. Government sources in New Delhi said Wang will meet his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday.This is the first such visit by any Chinese official since 2020, when a series of violent border clashes erupted over the construction of border infrastructure in eastern Ladakh.The Chinese minister will likely discuss the stalled disengagement process and the ongoing Ukrainian military and humanitarian crisis. Wang will fly to Kathmandu after making a day trip to Delhi.Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi rejected Wang's "uncalled reference" and said that matters relating to Jammu and Kashmir "are entirely the internal affairs of India" and "other countries including China have no locus standi to comment."On 7 March, Wang said that the border dispute had triggered "setbacks" in the bilateral relationship but would not impact overall Sino-Indian ties.He further suggested that unnamed forces are trying to destabilise relations between the two countries. India has maintained its position since 2020 that normalcy is not possible without peace along the Line of Actual Control.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/chinese-fm-wang-yi-makes-first-visit-to-taliban-ruled-kabul-in-unannounced-stopover-1094161853.html

Chinese FM Wang Yi Makes First Visit to Taliban-Ruled Kabul in Unannounced Stopover

Chinese FM Wang Yi Makes First Visit to Taliban-Ruled Kabul in Unannounced Stopover

Amid a tour of central and southern Asia this week, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi stopped in Kabul, Afghanistan - his first trip to the... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T20:15+0000

2022-03-24T20:15+0000

2022-03-24T20:15+0000

afghanistan

wang yi

taliban

asia-pacific

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Wangs trip was not announced by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters on Thursday morning that if there is any information on that, we will release it in a timely manner.Instead, the notice came from the Taliban, with Ahmad Yasir, a high-ranking government official, tweeting Wangs arrival. A video he retweeted showed Wang being greeted off the plane by Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, and their two delegations sitting around a table, reportedly discussing issues.Eight months earlier, Kabuls main airport was the site of a drama watched by the entire globe as US troops struggled to evacuate their last remaining forces, along with tens of thousands of refugees, their puppet government having already collapsed amid the Taliban offensive. The humiliating situation capped off a failed 20-year occupation war and reconstruction effort that has been said to have cost the US trillions of dollars.While many nations have hesitated to recognize the Islamist group as Afghanistans government, Beijing had no such scruples, making deals with the Taliban even before their victory was complete. Wang had previously met with Taliban officials in Tianjin in July and then in Doha in October.In exchange, the Taliban would get help from Beijing rebuilding Afghanistan. While some Chinese businesses have returned, the going is slow and investment falls far short of the hundreds of billions in aid and subsidies the US and various international aid groups sent to Afghanistan prior to the Taliban takeover. According to a recent report by UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, 95% of the Afghan population is without adequate food, and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported recently that 13,700 Afghan newborns have died from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases since the start of 2022.On Tuesday, Wang met with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and reiterated that the Taliban government should be sternly fighting against any forms of terrorism. Later this month, Beijing will host a meeting of foreign ministers representing Afghanistans neighbors, to discuss the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.*The Taliban: a group under United Nations sanction for terrorist activities**Al-Qaeda: a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/con-artist-sorokin-happy-to-hear-jen-psaki-watching-inventing-anna-touted-it-to-hillary-clinton-1094143871.html

Con Artist Sorokin 'Happy to Hear' Jen Psaki Watching 'Inventing Anna', Touted it to Hillary Clinton

Con Artist Sorokin 'Happy to Hear' Jen Psaki Watching 'Inventing Anna', Touted it to Hillary Clinton

Ex-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, was earlier given movie recommendations by WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T08:45+0000

2022-03-24T08:45+0000

2022-03-24T08:45+0000

us

jen psaki

hillary clinton

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Anna Sorokin, the convicted fraudster who remains in ICE custody in Upstate New York, has revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail that she is "happy to hear" White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is enjoying the Netflix miniseries about her life, "Inventing Anna"."BTW Jen Psaki just said on Twitter that she's watching Inventing Anna and recommended it to Hillary Clinton. "[I'm] happy to hear that Jen Psaki is enjoying me during her Netflix and quarantine time out. Also just got a stay from ICE and wondering if the two are somehow connected," said Sorokin, who also added she is working on a book and podcast.Earlier, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Twitter she had tested positive for COVID-19, and asked followers for movie recommendations for her time in quarantine.Jen Psaki, also staying at home with the coronavirius, was one of the first to respond.Finally watching Inventing Anna (and recommend!) And highly recommend lots of water, tea and juice, she had tweeted.In reply, Hillary Clinton, tweeted her thanks for the tips, and voiced the hope that Psaki would soon feel better.Anna Sorokin, who successfully got away with passing herself off for years as Anna Delvey, a German heiress, by resorting to falsified records to get access to bank loans, hotel stays, plane tickets, and more, according to prosecutors, was found guilty of multiple fraud charges in 2019.She was accused of swindling New York banks and businesses out of around $200,000, as well as deceiving friends and financial institutions into believing she had amassed around $67 million from her father, who supposedly lived overseas.The con artist served almost four years in prison until her release in 2021 on good behaviour. On 25 March 2021, she was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for overstaying her visa.The convicted impostor boasts an army of nearly 1 million Instagram followers, which only grew in size after the February release of the Netflix miniseries narrating her life, featuring Julia Garner in the lead role.Anna Sorokin has claimed that thanks to the $320,000 she received from Netflix for the rights to her life story, she settled her restitution and covers her own legal bills.Anna appeared to express remorse for her fraudulent life in the Daily Mail interview, saying:

https://sputniknews.com/20190509/con-artist-fake-heiress-anna-sorokin-delvey-convicted-prison-sentence-1074844255.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220315/notorious-con-artist-anna-sorokin-to-be-deported-from-us---report-1093879458.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/daesh-cant-challenge-hamas-but-spread-of-their-ideology-is-a-threat-says-ex-salafi-activist-1094138484.html

Daesh Can't Challenge Hamas But Spread of Their Ideology is a Threat, Says Ex-Salafi Activist

Daesh Can't Challenge Hamas But Spread of Their Ideology is a Threat, Says Ex-Salafi Activist

The exact number of Salafis in the Gaza Strip is tough to estimate, but it is believed that there are some 500 people who share this ideology. Those are... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T05:24+0000

2022-03-24T05:24+0000

2022-03-24T05:25+0000

israel

hamas

gaza strip

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Shortly after Mohammed Ghaleb Abou Al Qiyan, a 34-year-old Israeli Arab and a Daesh* sympathizer, murdered four and injured two others in the city of Beersheba, in southern Israel, many residents of the Gaza Strip took to the streets to celebrate the occasion.They sang songs and gave out candy, whereas the Hamas authorities welcomed Abou Al Qiyan's move, calling it heroic.Roots of SalafismHamas, which has controlled the Strip since 2007, seems to have a short memory. Just two years after they had established their control of the enclave, the Islamic group fought openly with a number of local Salafis, when one of their leaders declared the establishment of an Islamic emirate in Gaza.Back then, Hamas managed to quell their uprising, but as Daesh grew stronger in 2014-2015, Salafis started rearing their heads in Gaza again and local authorities have been struggling to contain the spread of their ideology ever since.One of ThemSameer, not his real name, a resident of Gaza, says he was only 17 when he started following the radical Islamic ideology propagated by Daesh."A friend of mine gave me a book titled the Infidels of Hamas and I was so impressed by it that I decided to be part of that movement," he told Sputnik over a video call.It was because of that book that Sameer left his studies and started attending secret gatherings organised by that group. He was going to their prayer meetings and became a regular in their preaching sessions, where they called for the ouster of Hamas from the Gaza Strip and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the Palestinian territories that would adhere to strict religious rules.The number of Daesh sympathisers is hard to estimate. Sameer says there are roughly 500 Salafis in the enclave but they belong to four principal active groups: Jund Ansar Allah, Jaysh al Islam, Jaysh al Umma and A-Tawhid wa Al-Jihad. All of them present a serious headache to the Hamas authorities.In August 2017, a suicide bomber allegedly linked to Daesh killed a Hamas guard and injured several others in southern Gaza.Reports have also suggested that Salafis, who advocate a much harsher stance against Israel than that of Hamas, have repeatedly disobeyed the Islamic group and fired rockets at the Jewish state to trigger a war. And it was they who threatened neighbouring Egypt's stability by establishing ties with the Sinai peninsula terrorist groups.Quelling OppositionPretty soon, Hamas realised it had had enough, and began to persecute the Salafis. They clashes with members of these groups, and they confiscated their weapons.Sameer believes Hamas was not afraid of the Salafis' military capabilities. Boasting tens of thousands of well-trained and equipped soldiers, the Islamic group is able to quell any threat to their rule. But the spread of their ideology and the fact that they were constantly challenging the organisation by disobeying their decisions, was something local authorities could not tolerate.As a result, many of the Salafis have been arrested and thrown in jail without a trial. Sameer says he was one of them.Eventually, Sameer was released. He says he has grown up, left that radical ideology, and is looking for a stable life free of fear and persecution. But he also claims that the past haunts him, and so does Hamas."I have been arrested and jailed three times by Hamas. They took me away even when I dropped that ideology and had nothing to do with neither Daesh nor other Salafis. I am tired of this. All I want now is to learn a new language, leave Gaza and start my life all over, without this constant fear that I will end up in their prison again."*Daesh, also known as ISIS/IS/Islamic State, is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputniknews.com/20220323/beersheba-stabbing-attack-whats-behind-the-deadly-incident-in-the-southern-israeli-city-1094108826.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/finland-hopeful-new-lng-terminal-will-help-wean-country-off-russian-gas-imports-1094138797.html

Finland Hopeful New LNG Terminal Will Help Wean Country Off Russian Gas Imports

Finland Hopeful New LNG Terminal Will Help Wean Country Off Russian Gas Imports

While only 6 percent of Finland's total energy consumption is covered by gas, it is nevertheless a key part of the total mix, and is avidly consumed by Finnish... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T05:37+0000

2022-03-24T05:37+0000

2022-03-24T05:38+0000

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Finland is opening a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Hamina, in an attempt to reduce reliance on imports of gas from Russia.The first ships loaded with LNG will arrive carrying gas in the summer, while the terminal is expected to be fully operational in October.While gas merely accounts for some 6 percent of Finland's total energy consumption, it is a key part of the total mix, being avidly consumed by the Finnish industry.Much of Finland's gas comes from Russia. The majority of natural gas used in Finland arrives via a pipeline from Russia that connects to the Finnish distribution network in Imatra.About a third of Finland's gas is supplied through the Balticconnector gas pipeline between the Finnish town of Inkoo and the Estonian town of Paldiski. The gas comes from the Klaipeda LNG terminal in Lithuania.The Hamina LNG terminal may within a few years supply another third of the gas consumed in Finland. According to Tommiska, it is possible to double the capacity every year in the coming years.Earlier this week, Finance Minister Annika Saarikko proclaimed that Finland must work to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, although she admitted that it won't happen overnight.Earlier in March, Prime Minister Sanna Marin also said Finland intends to drop its energy dependence on Russia as soon as possible, citing a shift in views across Europe following Russia's special operation in Ukraine. Among others, she recalled Germany's decision not to move forward with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. For its part, Finland has frozen plans to allow the Fennovoima consortium to build a nuclear power plant in partnership with Russia's Rosatom.A number of ports across Europe are building LNG terminals or expanding their existing capacity in a bid to reduce reliance on Russian gas. LNG is seen as a more more efficient alternative for long haul transportation of natural gas in cases where pipelines are not an option. Natural gas is liquefied by cooling, a process that reduces its volume some 600 times, sufficiently easing transportation. As of now, Australia, Qatar and the US are the largest LNG exporters.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

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US Sanctions Against Russia Will Not Achieve Its Goals - Ambassador Antonov

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Friday that the US sanctions imposed to undermine the Russian economy will not achieve its goals.



"Serial sanctions strikes will not achieve its goals. There is no way to bring the Russian people to their knees before the untruth. No one will be able to force us to sacrifice the good of our homeland in order to please the will of the United States and its allies," Antonov said in a statement, published by the Russian Embassy in the US on Telegram.



The ambassador urged the US officials to resolve the issues of their own country, rather than to assert themselves at the expense of Russia.



"Obviously, the new 'package' of anti-Russian sanctions is aimed at destroying the economy and undermining the domestic political situation in our country. The US authorities wish to gag all dissenters by flouting their own slogans about the freedom of speech and democracy," Antonov said, referring to the US attempt to punish Russian lawmakers for "expressing their own position, which does not correspond to Washington's guidelines," while they are "defending the national interests of Russia."
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/machu-picchus-name-might-be-wrong-as-study-second-guesses-moniker-of-famed-unesco-site-1094148802.html

Machu Picchus Name Might Be Wrong, as Study Second-Guesses Moniker of Famed UNESCO Site

Machu Picchus Name Might Be Wrong, as Study Second-Guesses Moniker of Famed UNESCO Site

Machu Picchu, one of the worlds best-known archaeological sites, is a 15th-century Inca citadel located on a 2,430-metre mountain ridge in southern Peru. It... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T12:20+0000

2022-03-24T12:20+0000

2022-03-24T12:20+0000

machu picchu

peru

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The ancient pre-Columbian city we know as Machu Picchu may have been called differently by the Inca people, claim a Peruvian historian and US archaeologist. A new analysis of historical documents carried out by Donato Amado Gonzales of Perus ministry of culture and Brian Bauer from the University of Illinois, Chicago, suggests it should be probably called Huayna Picchu.In their paper, published by Nawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology, they reveal how after scrutinizing placenames on 19th-century maps, information in 17th-century documents and the original field notes of the US explorer Hiram Bingham they arrived at the conclusion that none of the aforementioned sources refers to the site as Machu Picchu.Machu Picchu A Misnomer?The site that most recent archaeologists believe was once an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti was likely occupied from 1420-1530 AD.On 24 July 1911, Yale University history lecturer Hiram Bingham III climbed the top of a mountain ridge in Peru and encountered the extraordinary ruins.Bingham is said to have studied old charts and texts, sure that there was an Incan capital city in the Andes that had never been found by Spanish invaders. He climbed the Machu Picchu peak after being finally tipped off by a local muleteer.Now, Gonzales and Bauer say their findings suggest that at the time of their rediscovery, the ruins, offering a maze of houses, temples, palaces, and staircases, all hewn from white granite and dominated by a great granite sundial, were little known even among those who lived in Perus Cusco region.The researchers felt they were on the right track after they discovered mention of the ruins of an Inca town called Huayna Picchu in a 1904 atlas, published seven years before Bingham arrived in Peru.Hiram Bingham, according to the new study, learnt of ruins called Huayna Picchu along the Urubamba River in 1911. That was before he left Cusco in his crusade to find the site. Binghams journals recall a conversation with Adolfo Quevedo, a leader of a nearby town, who referred to the ruins as Huayna Picchu.Furthermore, a local farmer is believed to have told Bingham there were some ruins called 'Huayna Picchu' nearby, as well as other ruins on the summit of Machu Picchu mountain. The latter were discovered to be much smaller than the ones located closer to Huayna Picchu.From his field notes and his letter, it appears that in calling the ruined city Machu Picchu, Bingham was following the information provided by Melchor Arteaga Since Mr. Arteaga lived at the base of the mountain and had visited the ruins before, and even climbed Huayna Picchu, there was no reason for Bingham to question the name, even though in an earlier conversation, held in the town of Urubamba, the ruins were specifically called Huayna Picchu," write the authors.According to Bauer, the original name of the Inca city is more than hinted at in accounts written by Spanish conquerors after they seized Cusco in the late 16th century.We end with a stunning, late 16th-century account when the Indigenous people of the region were considering returning to reoccupy the site, which they called Huayna Picchu, he said, adding:The authors of the analysis concluded that "while Bingham suggested that the name of the fantastic ruins that he brought to the world's attention was 'lost in the shadows of the past' it is of some comfort that continued research is beginning to pierce those shadows and provide insights into the name and history of that city."

https://sputniknews.com/20201102/perus-machu-picchu-reopens-for-tourism-after-covid-19-lockdown-1080960784.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/meghan-markles-new-spotify-podcast-archetypes-to-hit-airwaves-this-summer-1094163358.html

Meghan Markle's New Spotify Podcast Archetypes to Hit Airwaves This Summer

Meghan Markle's New Spotify Podcast Archetypes to Hit Airwaves This Summer

The Duchess of Sussex has signed a reported $24 million deal with Spotify for her podcast 'Archetypes' in which she will investigate labels that try to hold... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T21:40+0000

2022-03-24T21:40+0000

2022-03-24T21:38+0000

duke of sussex

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The podcast debut begins with a soundbite collage made up of sexist slang terms and phrases used in the media, which is followed by Markle noting: This is how we talk about women, the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?I'm Meghan and this is Archetypes; the podcast where we dissect, explore, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back, announces the Duchess of Sussex in her podcasts Wednesday preview.The podcast series is produced by Spotify and Archewell Audio, the latter the Duchess and Duke of Sussexs production company.Markle has had plenty of experience when it comes to being stereotyped. When the UKs beloved Prince Harry announced his bride-to-be was an American woman of color, British media went insane with racist coverage of the new royal in a vain attempt to paint her as the odd one out. The Daily Mail published an hit piece in 2016 titled, Harrys girl is (almost) straight outta Compton, while the Daily Star released a piece of yellow journalism during that same year titled, Harry to marry into gangster royalty?It became clear that Markles introduction into the British royal family wouldnt highlight her upbringing, which includes a campaign she ran when she was 11 to change a television commercial she realized was sexist. The UK tabloid media obsessed over her race, and dissected her family, including a major breach of privacy in which The Mail published a handwritten letter she wrote to her father. Markle later successfully sued the company.In 2021, Harry and Meghan sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a bombshell interview in which they revealed that they received no support from other members of the royal family during the brutal media coverage in the British press.A spokesperson for Archewell Audio has confirmed that the podcast will become available this summer. Spotify and Archwell have said that Markles podcast will be a candid investigation into the history of stereotypes against women, with the Duchess acting as an executive producer as well as Archewells Ben Browning, and Rebecca Sananes.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

https://sputniknews.com/20210522/privacy-doesnt-mean-silence-oprah-defends-prince-harry-meghan-amid-privacy-criticisms-1082962486.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/north-korea-fires-what-could-be-a-ballistic-missile-japan-says-1094139583.html

Moon Accuses Kim Jong-un of Violating Moratorium on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Launches

Moon Accuses Kim Jong-un of Violating Moratorium on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Launches

Last week, South Korean media reported that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was preparing to conduct yet another intercontinental ballistic... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T05:41+0000

2022-03-24T05:41+0000

2022-03-24T08:00+0000

north korea

missile tests

projectiles

japan

south korea

ballistic missile

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in has accused North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un of violating the moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile launches after Pyongyang fired a long-range missile towards the Sea of Japan on Thursday.Earlier in the day South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea had launched a suspected long-range ballistic missile, after initially reporting that Pyongyang fired an "unidentified projectile" towards the Sea of Japan. Seoul said it could be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired on a "lofted" trajectory.South Korea made the statement almost in sync with Japan, which said that the DPRK had fired "what could be a ballistic missile". Japan's Vice Defence Mnister Makoto Oniki said the projectile appeared to be a new model of ICBM, given it had reached an altitude of more than 6,000 km.An emergency response center has been set up under the Japanese prime minister's office in connection with the possible launch. No damage has been reported yet, but the projectile appears to have landed near Japan's northern prefecture of Aomori.Seoul along with Tokyo strongly condemned the launch, with Japan sending a protest note to North Korea.Three days ago, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korean military officials, that the DPRK had fired four shots from multiple rocket launch systems into the western waters of the Yellow Sea. Acording to the news agency, four projectiles fell into the sea within the hour from 7:20 a.m. local time on Sunday (22:00 GMT on Saturday). The South Korean National Security Council was said to have convened an emergency meeting to discuss the incident.Since the end of 2017, Pyongyang had maintained a voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missile systems. However, in January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un decided to consider the resumption of "all temporarily suspended activities" due to what he described as hostile policy on the part of the United States. A number of media outlets and experts viewed the statement as Pyongyang's intention to stop complying with the moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests amid the stalled dialogue with Washington.Since the beginning of this year, North Korea has conducted at least ten tests.

https://sputniknews.com/20220316/north-korea-reportedly-launches-projectile-believed-to-be-ballistic-missile-1093909739.html

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north korea, missile tests, projectiles, japan, south korea, ballistic missile
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China and Saudi Arabia are good friends and brothers who trust each other and seek common development, and both have always supported each other on issues concerning their core interests, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

China is willing to forge all-round, high level cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Wang said during a meeting with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in the Pakistani capital, where Wang is attending the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Wang said China appreciates Saudi Arabia for taking an objective, fair position on issues related to China and for its support for China's legitimate propositions.

China supports Saudi Arabia in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and national dignity, as well as its major development strategies, such as the Green Middle East initiative and the Vision 2030, Wang said.

He added that he would like to seize the opportunity of his participation in the OIC foreign ministers' meeting to elevate the ties between China and the Islamic countries to a new level.

For his part, Faisal said he is proud of the ties between the two countries and their high-level strategic cooperation, and agreed to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries.

He said his country is willing to deepen the integration with China's Belt and Road Initiative and expand its pragmatic cooperation with China in various fields, so as to achieve the complementarity of their respective advantages.

Both Saudi Arabia and China adhere to the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, uphold multilateralism and advocate that international agenda should serve the interests of the majority of countries instead of those of individual states, Faisal added.

Wang and Faisal exchanged views on the cooperation between China and Arab states, and agreed to enhance communication and coordination on the preparation work for the upcoming China-Arab summit, and to join hands to build the China-Arab states community with a shared future in the new era.

They also agreed to step up communication on upgrading the relations between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), accelerate the process of establishing the China-GCC strategic partnership, and work for the achievement of a free trade agreement, so as to provide a strong impetus for their development and the world economic recovery.

Both sides discussed the Yemen issue, with Wang saying that China understands the reasonable concerns of Saudi Arabia and would like to play a constructive role in pushing for a political settlement of the Yemen issue.

Wang and Faisal also held talks on matters related to Ukraine, Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear issue.
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/north-korea-successfully-tested-hwasong-17-icbm-missile-in-latest-launch-dprk-media-says-1094163558.html

North Korea Successfully Tested Hwasong-17 ICBM Missile in Latest Launch, DPRK Media Says

North Korea Successfully Tested Hwasong-17 ICBM Missile in Latest Launch, DPRK Media Says

The test, conducted on Thursday, was noted around the globe and more closely observed by the militaries of Japan and South Korea, marking a return to... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T23:21+0000

2022-03-24T23:21+0000

2022-03-25T01:04+0000

north korea

missile

missile tests

hwasong-7

kim jong-un

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally observed the test-firing of the country's "new type" of intercontinental ballistic missile, the state KCNA news agency reported on Friday.According to the news agency, the missile, which was launched from the Pyongyang International Airport, rose to a maximum altitude of 6,248.5 kilometers and flew a distance of 1,090 kilometers for 4,052 seconds (67 minutes) before hitting a pre-set target in the open waters of the sea of Japan.The Hwasong-17 is a large intercontinental ballistic missile first demonstrated in October 2020. It had never reportedly been fully test-fired. South Korea's military estimated the range of the Thursday launch to be 6,200 kilometers, confirming the DPRK claim, indicating that the test results reveal higher numbers than North Korea's last ICBM test in October 2017.According to KCNA, the North Korean leader stated that the new weapon would "creditably perform its mission and duty as a powerful nuclear war deterrent." The DPRK leader also said that "we must make it clear that anyone who tries to infringe on the security of our country will inevitably pay a terrible price," adding that he "would prepare thoroughly", per the translation.Long-range missile and nuclear testing had been halted after Kim met with then-US President Donald Trump for a failed diplomacy session in 2019. Earlier this year, North Korea warned it might end a self-imposed moratorium on long-range and nuclear tests, amid growing claims from the US and South Korea that Pyongyang would soon fire an ICBM at full range. Also in March, the US accused the DPRK of conducting tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile, but Pyongyang returned that the tests were of "reconnaissance satellites."The South Korean media reported earlier that a test of the Hwasong-17 failed last week, exploding in the skies over the capital shortly after launch.According to reports, the DPRK has tested three ICBMs, the most recent in November 2017, which was assessed as being powerful enough to reach the continental United States.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

https://sputniknews.com/20220324/south-korea-fires-multiple-ballistic-and-guided-missiles-following-alleged-icbm-launch-by-dprk-1094144701.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/rubber-penis-to-spread-awareness-about-family-planning-sparks-outrage-in-rural-india-1094141210.html

Rubber Penis to Spread Awareness About Family Planning Sparks Outrage in Rural India

Rubber Penis to Spread Awareness About Family Planning Sparks Outrage in Rural India

The Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), also known as healthcare workers or frontline workers, are generally assigned the task of door-to-door... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T10:50+0000

2022-03-24T10:50+0000

2022-03-24T10:50+0000

india

india

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A rubber penis used by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers to spread awareness about family planning in villages of the Indian state of Maharashtra has triggered outrage among villagers and politicians in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Men from Buldhana district in Maharashtra even accused ASHA workers of corrupting their wives when they used a rubber penis to demonstrate how a condom is used. Last week, nearly 25,000 family planning kits, including model penises, were distributed throughout the state to ASHA workers. They were asked to spread awareness of family planning. An ASHA worker told The Indian Express that as soon as they take out the model, family members, especially men, take offence. At present, the state is governed by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) or Maharashtra Development Front, an alliance comprising Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party, and Congress. The BJP is the main opposition. Another BJP legislator, Akash Bhundkar, demanded that the state government apologise to the healthcare workers for having caused them "embarrassment". A Mumbai-based ASHA worker, Rekha Nanda, told Sputnik that these kinds of models have already been used elsewhere to spread awareness about family planning but that it is only this time that they have provoked such sharp criticism. Nanda added that "in most other places there had been no outrage at all - it was just in one district, Buldhana, that there was indignation - and some from Nashik district too. Nanda said that there had only been a few ASHA workers who were embarrassed by the incident and that most of them are still willing to reach out to villagers to speak about family planning. The state government has not issued any statement about the issue but the BJP has demanded that the family kits containing a rubber penis be withdrawn.

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india, india, maharashtra, sex, condom, penis, family
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/russian-envoy-poland-blocks-russian-embassys-bank-accounts-under-pretext-of-terrorism-financing-1094145485.html

Russian Envoy: Poland Blocks Russian Embassy's Bank Accounts Under Pretext of 'Terrorism Financing'

Russian Envoy: Poland Blocks Russian Embassy's Bank Accounts Under Pretext of 'Terrorism Financing'

On Wednesday, Poland expelled 45 Russian diplomats over alleged espionage, with Moscow vowing to take reciprocal actions. 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T09:26+0000

2022-03-24T09:26+0000

2022-03-24T09:58+0000

world

situation in ukraine

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sergei andreyev

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Poland has blocked the Russian Embassy's bank accounts under the pretext of 'terrorism financing,' according to the Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreyev. The envoy to Poland, appearing on Russian television, said that the accounts had been frozen since the end of February, in a step by the Polish authorities that violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.It is probably clear to any sane person that the accusations regarding diplomatic representation are more than absurd, not to mention the fact that there is a direct and blatant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Andreev added.This comes after the previous day Poland announced it was expelling 45 Russian diplomats over alleged espionage. Sergey Andreyev slammed the decision as unfounded.Furthermore, Poland does not rule out the expulsion of Russian Ambassador to Warsaw Sergey Andreyev, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said on Thursday, noting that the decision has not been made yet.After Warsaw ordered 45 Russian diplomats out of the country, Moscow pledged to respond to the move, while Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministrys spokeswoman, told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster that the number of diplomats Poland wants to expel is "unprecedented."Poland's move came as part of the swathe of sanctions that Washington, its European and NATO allies have targeted at Russiaover its special operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine after the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against continued attacks from Kiev forces. Moscow has reiterated that the aim of its special operation is to exclusively target military infrastructure, with the Kremlin having no plans to occupy Ukraine.However, in response to what has been labelled an invasion, the US and its allies have been funneling military assistance to Ukraine and unleashing a sanctions campaign, fallout from which has already been felt by the West itself.

https://sputniknews.com/20220323/moscow-vows-response-if-poland-expels-russian-diplomats-1094109283.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220324/albrights-nato-expansion-policy-paved-road-to-ukraine-crisis---ex-macedonian-diplomat-1094135207.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/serbian-oncology-institute-chief-nato-bombing-caused-environmental-disaster-affecting-all-of-europe-1094160287.html

Serbian Oncology Institute Chief: NATO Bombing Caused Environmental Disaster Affecting All of Europe

Serbian Oncology Institute Chief: NATO Bombing Caused Environmental Disaster Affecting All of Europe

During its 78-day bombing campaign in 1999, NATO aircraft dropped at least 15 tonnes of depleted uranium (DU) weapons on Yugoslavia. In addition to the Balkan... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T18:58+0000

2022-03-24T18:58+0000

2022-03-24T19:12+0000

yugoslavia

nato

bombing

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The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia had a devastating impact on the regions ecology, with the use of depleted uranium weapons, combined with attacks on chemical plants and hazardous industrial facilities creating an environmental disaster affecting the whole of Europe, Serbian Institute of Radiology and Oncology director Dr. Danica Grujicic has told Sputnik.Serbian victims of the 1999 NATO's DU munitions began filing lawsuits against the alliance in 2021 and early 2022. Victims and their families are seeking the same level of compensation that Western European servicemen who got high doses of radiation while serving near radioactive ammunition receive.Serbian President Alexandar Vucic has attributed the use of depleted uranium weapons to a dramatic increase in cancer rates, particularly among children whose parents were born in 1990 and onward.Serbia suffers from one of the highest cancer rates in Europe, with nearly 60,000 new oncology patients diagnosed each year. The countrys cancer rate among children is feared to be 2.5 times above the European average, and about 20,000 people die from various cancers every year.Along with high cancer rates, doctors in Serbia have reported an alarming rise in infertility, autoimmune diseases and mental disorders over the past two decades, including post-traumatic stress and other psychological problems associated with the bombings.Grujicic says further research is required to evaluate the true scope of the consequences of NATOs aerial bombardment.Thursday marked the 23rd anniversary of the Western military alliances bombardment of Yugoslavia. At least 2,000 civilians were killed in the operation, with another 12,500 injured. Up to $100 billion in economic damage was caused by the strikes, with tens of thousands of residential buildings and homes, hundreds of kilometers of road and rail infrastructure, and dozens of hospitals, schools, airports, cultural monuments and bridges destroyed.

https://sputniknews.com/20200605/french-court-people-die-of-depleted-uranium-irradiation-in-kosovo-1079531665.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220324/how-us-nato-illegal-bombing-of-yugoslavia-undermined-rule-of-law-in-the-world-23-years-ago-1094157612.html

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Ilya Tsukanov

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yugoslavia, nato, bombing
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/sputnik-finds-documents-on-uk-training-ukrainian-soldiers-for-fighting-in-donbass-1094135011.html

Sputnik Finds Documents on UK Training Ukrainian Soldiers for Fighting in Donbass

Sputnik Finds Documents on UK Training Ukrainian Soldiers for Fighting in Donbass

VOLNOVAKHA, Donetsk Region (Sputnik) - The Royal Tank Regiment of the United Kingdom, the oldest tank unit in the world, took part in training of Ukrainian... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T02:34+0000

2022-03-24T02:34+0000

2022-03-24T05:19+0000

situation in ukraine

sputnik

donetsk people's republic

donetsk region

uk

ukraine

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A Sputnik correspondent found a cache of documents in the liberated city of Volnovakha in the Donetsk Region, among which was a certificate confirming that Ukrainian serviceman Borys Kazarian had completed junior sergeant training courses with the participation of British instructors. The certificate was issued by the Royal Tank Regiment and signed by signed by Col. M. Evans.The documents also revealed that UK instructors trained Ukrainian military in the use of weapons in 2018 when the parties to the Minsk process were trying to resolve the conflict peacefully, and London had not yet announced the supply of NLAW anti-tank grenade launchers.The certificate signed by Col. M. Evans said that the training was from 17 October 2018 to 2 November 2018. According to the certificate, the training consisted of four modules: "weapons training", "navigation", "medical training" and "pairs movement." At the same time, London announced the supply of NLAW anti-tank grenade launchers to Ukraine only at the beginning of 2022.On Wednesday, the UK prime minister's office announced that the country will supply to Ukraine 6,000 missiles and will allocate 25 million pounds ($33 million) for Kiev's urgent military needs.It also added that the amount of such aid "more than doubles" the lethal defensive aid provided to date to "more than 10,000 missiles," on top of the "400 million the UK has committed" in humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine.Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 in response to calls from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics for protection against attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special military operation, which also targets Ukrainian military infrastructure, aims to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. Russia has said it has no plans to occupy Ukraine. Many nations around the world, including those in the West, have imposed numerous crippling sanctions on Russia.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/sweden-to-send-more-arms-to-ukraine-amid-russias-special-op-1094137666.html

Sweden to Send More Arms to Ukraine Amid Russia's Special Op

Sweden to Send More Arms to Ukraine Amid Russia's Special Op

While the new arms donations to Ukraine have been supported by all Swedish parties with no exception, this unanimity is at clearly at odds with popular... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T05:31+0000

2022-03-24T05:31+0000

2022-03-24T05:31+0000

situation in ukraine

ukraine

russia

sweden

military & intelligence

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Sweden will support the Ukrainian military with 5,000 anti-tank rocket launchers, as well as minesweeping equipment, costing taxpayers something to the tune of SEK 205 million ($22 million), in accordance with a decision made by the nation's parliament.Pansarskott 86 (international designation AT-4) are short-range anti-tank weapons designed and manufactured in Sweden by Saab Bofors Dynamics. A single weapon weighs 6.7 kg and measures 102 centimetres in length and can be used once before it is discarded. It can hit targets at a maximum distance of 400 meters. While its explosive power is not fully sufficient to knock out modern tanks, it can nevertheless destroy or deactivate armoured vehicles and fortifications.The arms assistance is meant to help Ukraine against Russia's special operation aimed to "demilitarise and de-Nazify" the country, which Sweden, in line with the rest of the West, has condemned as invasion.Hultqvist opened up for even more deliveries in the future.This will be the second time Sweden has contributed military equipment to a country in conflict, defying its stated principles. In the previous delivery earlier in March, Sweden contributed, among other things, anti-tank weapons, helmets, safety vests and field rations. Subsequently, Supreme Commander Chief Micael Byden confirmed that the equipment had arrived in Ukraine.When it was decided at the end of February about the first delivery of 5,000 anti-tank rocket launchers to Ukraine, all parliamentary parties voted in favour, except the Left Party, which referred to the fact that Sweden doesn't send weapons to war zones.For doing so, the Left was castigated by fellow MPs and the press, to the point of being accused of treason. This time, the Left voted in favour of sending additional arms to the Ukraine, meaning that all of Sweden parties are now in favour of arms assistance to nation in conflict.However, this unanimity clearly contradicts with popular opinion. At the end of February, only 39 percent of Swedes thought that Stockholm should assist Ukraine with weapons.Earlier, Sweden voiced plans to boost its own defence budget to levels unseen in decades, prompting comparisons to massive Cold War-era defence hikes in the 1950s. Additionally, the perennial NATO debate has flared up anew using the Russian operation as a pretext. The special operation was launched by Moscow after Ukrainian attacks in Donbass prompted mass evacuations of civilians, forcing the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to appeal to Russia for aid. Ever since, Moscow has stressed emphatically that it harbours no occupation plans.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

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ukraine, russia, sweden, military & intelligence
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/taiwan-national-security-bureau-director-china-not-planning-reunification-law-1094165561.html

Taiwan National Security Bureau Director: China Not Planning Reunification Law

Taiwan National Security Bureau Director: China Not Planning Reunification Law

Beijing previously told President Joe Biden that it is sincere in seeking a peaceful reunification with Taiwan and is in no rush to take the island. The... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T23:17+0000

2022-03-24T23:17+0000

2022-03-24T23:15+0000

taiwan

china

reunification

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National Security Bureau (NSB) Director General Chen Ming-tong told Taiwanese lawmakers that he does not believe mainland China is considering a reunification law. Chen believes the move would put too much pressure on Beijing to set a timetable for unification.The comments come amid concerns stemming from what is alleged to be a leaked Russian intelligence document stating that Beijing is considering passing a reunification law in the fall. Chen said the document could be considered cognitive warfare targeting Taiwan'' but did not directly blame China or Russia.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is set to hold its 20th annual Congress this fall, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third five-year term. Chen suggested that a third term for Xi would make it unlikely that China would take action against Taiwan, as the CCPs goal will be to maintain stability.A reunification law would be a follow up to the 2005 Anti-Secession law, which stipulates a legal basis by Beijing to take military action against Taipei if it officially announced it had seceded from mainland China.Chen claims that during Deng Xiaoping's reign in China, the mainland nation considered similar legislation but decided against it because of a timetable conundrum.Taiwan is stated by Beijing to be a part of mainland China, however, it has been controlled by a separate government since 1945, after Mao Zedongs Chinese Communist Party took over the mainland from the Kuomintang government, who fled to Taiwan.The CCP still considers Taiwan its territory and has consistently stated that it is eager to bring the island under its control. In 2013, Xi told a Taiwanese envoy that reunification could not wait forever.Reunification is extremely unpopular in Taiwan. A 2021 National Chenchi University poll found that only 1.4% of Taiwanese people support unification as soon as possible and only 6% support maintain the status quo, move towards unification. By contrast, the three most popular responses were maintain the status quo, decide at later date (28.4%), maintain the status quo indefinitely (27.3%) and maintain the status quo, move towards independence (25.1%).Angering Beijing also seems unpopular, with only 6% of respondents selecting independence as soon as possible. Declaring independence would be tantamount to secession from Beijing, potentially enabling the CCP to use the 2005 Anti-Secession law to justify military action.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

https://sputniknews.com/20220314/us-deputy-secretary-of-state-vows-to-do-everything-to-deter-china-from-taking-taiwan-by-force-1093845564.html

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taiwan, china, reunification
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/us-goes-beyond-common-sense-by-accusing-russia-of-war-crimes-in-ukraine---ambassador-1094135690.html

US Goes Beyond Common Sense by Accusing Russia of 'War Crimes' in Ukraine - Ambassador

US Goes Beyond Common Sense by Accusing Russia of 'War Crimes' in Ukraine - Ambassador

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US State Department claims about Russia's alleged "war crimes" in Ukraine go beyond common sense, Russian Ambassador to Washington... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T03:28+0000

2022-03-24T03:28+0000

2022-03-24T03:28+0000

ukraine

russia

anatoly antonov

russian embassy in us

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"Such statements go beyond common sense," Antonov was quoted as saying by the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States on Telegram.According to the senior Russian diplomat, Washington's attempt to arrogate to itself the right to judge who is a "war criminal" is causing repulsion.The Russian ambassador to the United States expressed confidence that the purpose of such accusations by Washington is an attempt "to demonize our country in the eyes of the public, to incite Russophobia."Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 in response to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR and LPR) for protection against intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation, which targets Ukrainian military infrastructure, aims to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. Moscow has said it has no plans to occupy Ukraine. Western nations have imposed numerous sanctions on Russia.

https://sputniknews.com/20220319/pot-and-kettle-former-uk-prime-ministers-demand-war-crimes-trial-for-putin-1094011004.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/us-has-reportedly-readied-contingency-plans-in-event-top-weaponry-is-used-in-ukraine-crisis-1094135817.html

US Has Reportedly Readied Contingency Plans in Event Top Weaponry is Used in Ukraine Crisis

US Has Reportedly Readied Contingency Plans in Event Top Weaponry is Used in Ukraine Crisis

Earlier, the US president, Joe Biden, came to Europe to hold a series of meetings in Brussels and Warsaw with NATO allies and partners in arranging additional... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T04:20+0000

2022-03-24T04:20+0000

2022-03-24T04:19+0000

situation in ukraine

us

biden administration

joe biden

nato

russia

ukraine

ukraine crisis

chemical attack

nuclear weapons

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The Biden administration has put together a team of national security officials to draw scenarios for how the US will respond in the event of a chemical, biological, or nuclear weapon attack by Russia during its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.According to the report, citing sources within the discussions, a so-called 'Tiger Team' is considering what to do if Russia crosses into NATO territory to destroy convoys carrying weapons and aid to embattled Ukraine. The committee, which reportedly meets three times a week in closed meetings, is also considering how to respond if Russia moves into neighboring countries such as Moldova and Georgia, as well as how to prepare European countries for a massive new influx of refugees.Those eventualities are said to be important to Biden's closed door meetings with leaders of the 29 other NATO nations expected on Thursday in Brussels. According to sources, the team of officials was established in a memo signed by Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, on February 28, four days after the special military operation began. An earlier incarnation spent months secretly preparing the US administration for the possibility of the current Russian action in Ukraine. That group was instrumental in developing playbooks for harsh sanctions, troop buildups in NATO countries, and arming the Ukrainian military.The Tiger Team is examining what threshold would compel the alliance to deploy military force in Ukraine as one of its main concerns. This comes after Biden made it clear that he is adamantly opposed to doing so, believing that a direct involvement in ongoing conflict would spiral it out of control, adding that it would be "World War 3." Sullivan's memo also reportedly organized a second team of officials to look at long-term potential for the US to better its geopolitical position as a result of the current standoff over the Ukraine crisis.According to the outlet, the White House believes that the special military operation will hurt Russia in the long term, hurt its economy, and alienate potential allies for years, but some officials reportedly caution that it is too early to tell.In recent weeks, the White House and NATO headquarters have ramped up warnings that Russia may resort to its most potent weapons in its special military operation. Also on Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that if weapons of mass destruction were used inside Ukraine, it would have "dire consequences" for NATO. He also reportedly mentioned that one question being investigated is whether collateral damage would be considered an "attack" on NATO under the organization's charter, evoking the military response.The claims are made as Russian troops discover secret biolaboratories in Ukraine, that were funded by the US. And according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, these laboratories could be used to develop biological weapons. Russia has also repeatedly stressed that it has disposed of its stockpiles of chemical weapons, while the US has its stockpiles. On Tuesday, the Russian embassy in the nation noted that Washington deliberately delayed the destruction of their remaining 3% of chemical weapons.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with CNN this week that the Russian government would only resort to using nuclear weapons in the event of an "existential threat" to its own existence.On Thursday, Biden will attend an extraordinary NATO summit on Ukraine and meet with G7 leaders, according to the White House. He will also attend a European Council summit and hold a bilateral meeting with European Council President Charles Michel, before ending his trip in Warsaw on Saturday where he will discuss humanitarian issues with his Polish counterpart.Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

https://sputniknews.com/20220301/claims-of-russian-use-of-cluster-and-vacuum-munitions-in-ukraine-false-kremlin-1093478454.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220322/russia-would-only-use-nuclear-weapons-if-its-existence-was-threatened-kremlin-says-1094096537.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/we-should-go-in-on-the-ground-watch-biden-complain-nato-bombing-of-yugoslavia-not-ruthless-enough-1094148230.html

We Should Go in on the Ground: Watch Biden Complain NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia Not Ruthless Enough

We Should Go in on the Ground: Watch Biden Complain NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia Not Ruthless Enough

Thursday marks the 23rd anniversary of the start of the 1999 NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia. In 78 days, NATO jets conducted 2,300 sorties, dropping 420,000... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T11:07+0000

2022-03-24T11:07+0000

2022-03-24T11:34+0000

kosovo

yugoslavia

joe biden

videos

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Before entering the Oval Office as Barack Obamas vice president and then as president himself, Joe Biden served as a United States senator for over 30 years. Ahead of, during and after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Biden was consistently one of the top hawks in Washington pushing for the conflict to be expanded into a full-on ground invasion.Look, you have probably the only three people in Washington here who think we should go straight to Belgrade and arrest [Yugoslav president Slobodan] Milosevich, Biden said in a May 1999 appearance on Meet the Press alongside the now late Republican senator John McCain.But lets not kid each other. Were the only three people. The rest of this is malarkey. The Republican Congress wont even vote for the bombing. The NATO forces wont even go along with the idea of ground troops. And whether or not the president will or will not is not relevant. The question to me is: What is the definition of victory? Biden complained. In a second video, dated 1998, before the NATO air campaign began, Biden sparred with Republican lawmaker Joe DioGuardi about the Kosovo crisis, boasting that he had called for Belgrade to be bombed and for US pilots to destroy all bridges on the Drina River during the NATO intervention in Bosnia in 1995, which killed over 150 Bosnian Serbs, destroyed critical civilian infrastructure, and irradiated the region with DU munitions.In a third video, from an April 2002 gala dinner of the Albanian American Civic League in New York City, an apparently inebriated Biden vowed to continue to support having US troops on the ground with loaded rifles and drawn bayonets in the Balkans until US objectives were accomplished.Why some of you ask have I been so relentless on Serbia and [post-Milosevich President Vojislav] Kostunica who I do not trust? Why have I been so reluctant, so persistent in not providing aid to the people of Serbia who are many good people  why? Because until they look in their hearts they can never cure themselves of the disease that they are the oppressed. And as long as they operate on that standard, this cycle will continue and continue and continue. So thats why, not for vengeance, but for release - that its necessary for them to look the devil in the eye, Biden said.Grim AnniversaryNATO began a campaign of air and cruise missile strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 23 March 1999. The operation, cynically dubbed Operation Noble Anvil, continued until 10 June 1999, with a total of about 22,000 metric tonnes of bombs dropped on the country. The use of cluster bombs (37,000 of them) and depleted uranium constituted a violation of the laws of war, and Serbian doctors have reported a dramatic spike in oncological diseases, including juvenile cancers, in the wake of the conflict. In 2017, Serbian scientist Ljubisa Rakic calculated that the amount of DU dropped on Yugoslavia was equivalent to about 170 Hiroshima bombs.The bombing is estimated to have caused up to $100 billion in economic losses, destroying or damaging some 25,000 residential buildings, 470 km of roads, 595 km of railway infrastructure, 14 airports, 19 hospitals, 20 health centers, 69 schools, 18 kindergartens, 176 cultural monuments and 38 bridges. This included a raid on Radio Television of Serbia, which claimed 16 lives, and the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, during which three Chinese nationals were killed. All told, Serbian officials estimate that over a third of NATOs targets were civilian.NATOs formal justification for the attacks was a desire to protect Kosovar Albanians from ethnic cleansing and a humanitarian catastrophe. Before the conflict began, Albanian separatists allied to radical Islamist forces clashed with Serbian army and police forces in Kosovo and attempted to drive ethnic Serbs out of the region. After the bombing campaign was completed and NATO troops entered the breakaway region, separatists continued their campaign of violence against Serbs, with NATO breaking its promise to disarm the Kosovar militants  who have subsequently been accused of a series of grim war crimes ranging from killings of civilians to organ harvesting.In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, forcing over 200,000 ethnic Serbs to leave their homes. Washington established Camp Bondsteel  the second-largest American military base in Europe, and has kept boots on the ground in the region ever since.

https://sputniknews.com/20220324/albrights-nato-expansion-policy-paved-road-to-ukraine-crisis---ex-macedonian-diplomat-1094135207.html

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A flag-raising ceremony is held at the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing during celebrations for the National Day of Pakistan, March 23, 2022. [Photo by Xu Xiaoxuan/China.org.cn]

An event commemorating the National Day of Pakistan was held at the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday.

At the beginning of the activity, Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque raised Pakistan's national flag accompanied by the national anthem.

Following the flag-raising ceremony, the host expressed his sympathy over the crash of the China Eastern Airlines aircraft with 132 people aboard in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday.

Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque speaks during celebrations for the National Day of Pakistan at the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing, March 23, 2022. [Photo by Xu Xiaoxuan/China.org.cn]

Ambassador Haque then outlined the history and struggle of how Pakistan broke free from Britain's colonial rule and secured its independence and freedom.

"It is indeed very important and worthy of rejoicinga time to reflect on our past achievements, to renew our vows for our motherland, and to collectively chart for the future progress and prosperity," said Haque, adding that celebrating national days is important for those nations which value freedom.

He also mentioned the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Pakistan's capital Islamabad this week, which Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi also attended. Haque said that the country is happy to see Pakistan acting as a bridge between China and the Muslim world.

The ambassador went on to underline the enduring friendship and all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan.

"China has become Pakistan's largest trading partner for many years," said Haque. "The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is proceeding very well, which has changed the economic landscape of Pakistan."

The two sides have also decided to launch China-Pakistan health, green, digital, and industry corridors, Haque added. "These initiatives, I'm very confident, would bring our two peoples and two governments even closer and closer, and make our relationship stronger and stronger."

After the speech, students from Pakistan Embassy College Beijing gave a performance and brought the festive atmosphere to a climax.
https://sputniknews.com/20220324/were-moving-on-jamaica-pm-holness-informs-prince-william-kate-that-island-will-break-from-uk-1094136967.html

'We're Moving On': Jamaica PM Holness Informs Prince William, Kate That Island Will Break From UK

'We're Moving On': Jamaica PM Holness Informs Prince William, Kate That Island Will Break From UK

Jamaica was recognized as an English colony following a 1655 takeover from Spain, and was formally named a British colony from 1707 until 1962, when it became... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T04:10+0000

2022-03-24T04:10+0000

2022-03-24T04:10+0000

jamaica

uk

prince william

kate middleton

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Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness got straight to the point during a Wednesday courtesy call with Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, who are presently touring Caribbean countries. "There are issues here which as you would know are unresolved," Holness pointed out during a press photoshoot. Jamaica's move would make it the second Caribbean island to sever relations with the UK Royals, as the island country of Barbados stopped pledging allegiance to the Queen back in November 2021. The Jamaican government has also called on Britain to acknowledge its role in the enslavement of some 600,000 Africans who were inhumanely packed onto ships and transported to sugarcane and banana plantations owned by British enslavers. Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/west-is-playing-double-game-by-calling-on-india-to-stop-trade-with-russia-indias-fm-agrees-1094145257.html

West Playing 'Double Game' by Calling on Delhi to Stop Trade With Russia, Indian FM Agrees With MP

West Playing 'Double Game' by Calling on Delhi to Stop Trade With Russia, Indian FM Agrees With MP

About half of Russias net exports of crude oil and condensate and 75 percent of natural gas head to Europe, the US Energy Information Administration claims... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T11:42+0000

2022-03-24T11:42+0000

2022-03-24T11:55+0000

situation in ukraine

india

russia

ukraine

nato

european union (eu)

natural gas

crude oil

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Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Thursday that he shared concerns, expressed by an Indian parliamentarian, about western allies playing a double game with India by asking the south Asian country to draw down its energy ties with Russia.Gujral went on to ask whether India was contemplating returning to the Cold War-era rupee trade with Russia, so that Indian exports arent hurt and New Delhi could continue to trade with Moscow despite western economic sanctions against Moscow.In his reply to the question, Jaishankar said that the Indian government was examining various options to maintain existing commercial relations with Russia.The Indian foreign minister informed Parliament that a group comprising officials from different ministries was looking at various aspects of the trade ties between India and Russia, including the question of rupee trade.He also sadi that other countries import between 10 and 20 times the amount of oil that we do.The remarks by the chief Indian diplomat come just a couple of days after US President Joe Biden publicly called out India over its shaky response to the Ukraine crisis.While addressing a chief executive officer roundtable at the White House this week, Biden praised the "united response" which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies and the US partners in the Pacific region had made to Russia's special operation in Ukraine.The Quad is - with the possible exception of India being somewhat shaky on some of this - but Japan has been extremely strong, so has Australia, in dealing with Putins aggression. We presented a united front throughout NATO and the Pacific, Biden said.Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki also urged New Delhi against supporting Russia as the western allies push to isolate it economically, politically and culturally in retaliation to Moscows ongoing military operation in Ukraine.Psaki was answering a question about reports that India had decided to increase its crude purchases from Moscow, which has offered energy products and commodities to Delhi at a cheaper price.Psaki, however, admitted that sourcing more Russian oil by India wont violate the US sanctions."But also think about where you want to stand when history books are written about this moment in time, the US official added.Russian President, Vladimir Putin, launched a "special military operation" aimed at the "demilitarisation" and "de-Nazification" of Ukraine on 24 February. Moscow has said that it would cease its military action if Kiev enshrines a "neutral" status in its constitution and pledges that it would never join NATO.After the Russia's operation began, a number of western states imposed sanctions against Moscow.Besides economic sanctions, the US and some eastern European allies such as Poland, urged the EU to ban the imports of Russian oil and other energy products. The US, which used to source around 4 percent of its oil from Russia, announced a ban on Russian crude and other energy imports this month. Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putins war machine, Biden announced this month. However, Washingtons insistence that EU allies completely cease their Russian imports has been met with little success in Europe, with nations such as Germany and Hungary warning that such a measure could have major economic implications and cause thousands of jobs to be lost.

https://sputniknews.com/20220322/indian-ex-pm-adviser-our-position-on-ukraine-not-shaky-but-firm-bidens-remarks-uncalled-for-1094081454.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220324/what-is-rosemont-seneca-hunter-bidens-investment-firm-that-funded-ukrainian-biolabs-1094159926.html

What is Rosemont Seneca, Hunter Bidens Investment Firm that Funded Ukrainian Biolabs?

What is Rosemont Seneca, Hunter Bidens Investment Firm that Funded Ukrainian Biolabs?

Salacious stories have swirled for years about US President Joe Bidens son, Robert Hunter Biden, but they have concealed a deep web of corruption in which... 24.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-24T19:22+0000

2022-03-24T19:22+0000

2022-03-24T19:45+0000

hunter biden

john kerry

joe biden

burisma

ukraine

biolab

investment

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On Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed new information about US-funded biolabs it has discovered in eastern Ukraine amid the Kremlin's special neutralization operation in the nation. According to findings by Russias Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, one company connected to these biolabs and their work was founded by Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, the latter the stepson of former US Secretary of State John Kerry.Rosemont Seneca Partners was founded in 2009 by Biden, Heinz and Heinzs college roommate and fellow financier, Devon Archer, according to the Financial Times. Biden and Heinz were described as company co-owners and Archer as a managing partner in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.The private equity firm was anchored by the Heinz family alternative investment fund, Rosemont Capital, and was formed to be populated by political loyalists and positioned to strike profitable deals overseas with foreign governments and officials with whom the US government was negotiating, according to the 2018 book Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, by Peter Schweizer.This became a problem the following year, when BHR joined the Chinese state-owned defense firm Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to buy anti-vibration automotive parts from American precision-parts manufacturer Henniges - a deal agreed to during the Obama administration. A US Senate investigation in 2019 found a significant conflict of interest in the deal, as anti-vibration technology is considered dual use, having both civilian and military applications.In one notable incident that Joe Biden boasted about years later but which Western media has tried to spin as conspiracy theory, Biden successfully pressured then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Viktor Shokin, Ukraines top prosecutor, who was heading an investigation of Zlochevsky and Burisma. Zlochevsky, meanwhile, was funneling millions to Hunter Biden and Archer for sitting on Burismas board and for Rosemont Senecas consulting services, documents obtained by the Senate probe show.Rosemont Seneca sought to disguise its investments in Burisma, as did top Obama administration officials, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry - Heinzs stepfather. Heinz attempted to distance himself from Archers and Hunters decision to join the Burisma board, writing to Kerrys chief of staff, David Wade, that based only on Heinzs assurances, that Rosemont Seneca was not involved with Burisma, Heinz told the Senate probe.According to the paper, Heinz pulled out of Rosemont as a result of his partners decision.The lack of judgment in this matter was a major catalyst for Mr. Heinz ending his business relationships with Mr. Archer and Mr. Biden, Bastardi suggested.

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hunter biden, john kerry, joe biden, burisma, ukraine, biolab, investment
Century Downs Racetrack and Casino will be going yellow and blue this Saturday (March 26) as the Alberta racetrack shows its support for Ukraine.

Century Downs will be collecting donations for the Ukrainian Equestrian Federation. Every donation will receive an entry for a chance to win a ride in the starting gate in the afternoon's seventh and eighth races. In addition, 50 cents from every pint of draft beer sold on Saturday will also be donated.

The Ukrainian Equestrian Federation Charity Foundation is supporting Ukrainian horse owners, athletes, equestrian clubs, stables and professionals during these tragic times. They are providing support and needs-based assistance on the ground, including assisting with the relocation of horses, providing supplies and organizing logistics to support horses both in Ukraine and/or in their temporary locations across Europe.

To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Saturday Entries - Century Downs.

(With files from Century Downs)
The Grand Circuit's weekly overview highlights the upcoming races at Yonkers Raceway.

This Week: Blue Chip Matchmaker and MGM Borgata Pacing series second legs, Yonkers Raceway, Yonkers, New York. This is the opening event of the 2022 Grand Circuit season.

Schedule of Events: The Grand Circuit at Yonkers features four $40,000 divisions on Friday (March 25) in the second round of the Blue Chip Matchmaker series for open pacing mares. The Monday (March 28) card at Yonkers will feature five $50,000 divisions in the second round of the MGM Borgata Pacing series for open pacers. Each series offers five preliminary rounds leading to the finales, both set for Monday (April 25).

Last Time: It was a chalk-filled start to the 2022 MGM Borgata on Monday night (March 21) at Yonkers Raceway, as the public choice won all five $50,000 divisions for free-for-allers, starting with defending champion This Is The Plan scoring in 1:51.3.

Making his seven-year-old debut, This Is The Plan (Yannick Gingras) had to work a bit to clear Chase H Hanover (Dexter Dunn), but was able to do so well before a :28.2 opening quarter. From there, This Is The Plan maintained command and stayed clear through a :57.1 half and 1:24.2 three-quarters, and he would sprint home in :27.1 to beat Chase H Hanover by 2-3/4 lengths. Sonny Weaver N (Tim Tetrick) was third after a mild first-over bid in the last three-eighths of the mile.

Ron Burke trains This Is The Plan, a gelding by Somebeachsomewhere, for owners Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi, J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby, and Larry Karr. This Is The Plan is now a 21-time winner, and he pushed his bankroll to $2,661,242.

Drama Act was a dominant winner in the first of four $40,000 divisions in the opening round of the Blue Chip Matchmaker for pacing mares at Yonkers Raceway on Friday night (March 18). The Burke-trained mare led virtually wire-to-wire for driver George Brennan and sprinted a final quarter in :27 at the end of the 1:52.2 mile.

The Bethinator and Lit De Rose left inside of Drama Act, with Lit De Rose securing the front for trainer/driver Pat Lachance late on the opening bend. Brennan had Drama Act move alertly to take command before the quarter, and the pair were able to set fractions of :27.2 and :57.2 for the opening half with little movement.

The Bethinator (Tetrick) tried to attack without cover going to the three-quarters, but Drama Act flashed through a 1:25.2 three-quarters and marched away from all her rivals. Lit De Rose was clear for second, with 46-1 shot La Bella Vita N (Marcus Miller) finishing third.

The OK Corral owns Drama Act, a five-year-old daughter of Well Said that won for the 23rd time in her career.

Grand Circuit Standings: In 2022, the Grand Circuit leaders in three categories (driver, trainer and owner) will once again be tracked on a points system (20-10-5 for the top three finishers in divisions/finals and 10-5-2 for the top three finishers in eliminations/legs). Winbak Farms is the sponsor for the 2022 Grand Circuit awards.

Here are the leaders (through the races on March 21, 2022):

Drivers: 1. Dexter Dunn  22; 2. Jordan Stratton  20; 3. Yannick Gingras  17; 4. Jason Bartlett  15; 5t. Marcus Miller  14; 5t. George Brennan  14.

Trainers: 1. Ron Burke  31; 2. Cory Stratton  15; 3. Erv Miller  14; 4. Jennifer Bongiorno  12; 5t. Ricky Bucci  10; 5t. Chris Choate  10; 5t. Shane Tritton  10; 5t. Sheena Cohen  10.

Owners: 1t. Ricky Bucci  10; 1t. Mystical Marker Farms  10; 1t. Jesmeral Stable  10; 1t. Team Tritton Inc.  10; 1t. Robert Devine  10; 1t. The OK Corral  10.

Looking Ahead: Grand Circuit action will continue with legs of the Blue Chip Matchmaker and MGM Borgata over the next three weeks. The finals for both events will be held on April 25.

(With files from Grand Circuit)
This is the first in a series of articles on the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce's 2022 State of the Community program speakers.

Culpeper detectives have worked with the Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal partners on local operations involving kilos of deadly fentanyl and meth in some way connected to drug cartels, County Sheriff Scott Jenkins said in remarks Wednesday at the annual State of the Community program hosted by the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce.

The native son and Republican activist known for his views on immigration mentioned the crime cartel Jalisco as among syndicates with a reach in the Culpeper region. Jenkins said it was the most important community topic he could speak about for the yearly program, held on Zoom for the third year.

We have everything from money laundering to human trafficking going on in this community, houses of actual human slavery People are being housed here, tens of thousands of dollars they owe  for crossing the border and theyre having to work years to pay it off and no one sees it, no one reads about it in the local paper, Jenkins said.

It was one of few public presentations from the sheriff over recent years and he used his 10 minutes or so to talk about immigration issues, focusing on the local aspect of a national issue.

Culpeper Police Chief Chris Jenkins, not related to Sheriff Jenkins, told the Star-Exponent in a phone call Wednesday afternoon that he would have talked about mental health as the most important topic currently impacting Culpeper. He said there are a lot of really sick people, but few treatment beds to help them.

Border, cartel talk

Both Culpeper Jenkins law enforcement leaders serve as command board members with the Virginia State Police Blue Ridge Narcotics & Gang Task Force.

In December, Sheriff Jenkins announced the arrest of an undocumented immigrant living in the town of Culpeper, with ties to "a well-known" cartel. Seized in the operation were guns, magazines, ammunition and around $12,000 in cash.

A sheriffs office spokesman would not confirm Wednesday if the arrestee was specifically connected to Jalisco, characterized by the DEA as a transnational criminal organization. The spokesman said the sheriff stood by his statement naming Jalisco as active in the Culpeper area, but declined to identify the cartel affiliation of the recent arrestee.

Another local law enforcement official stated the arrestee was a local high school graduate who cut hair to make a living. A member of a drug cartel? No, said the source.

Police Chief Jenkins said it was one case and that he would not dispute Sheriff Jenkins claims of cartel activity or get into a "pissing match."

A case here, a case there, Chief Jenkins said, adding he seriously doubted if drug cartels were the No. 1 issue for Culpeper. Theres a lot of dope out here, Chris Jenkins, also a Culpeper native, added. A lot of it is coming out of Baltimore down the 29 corridor.

Cartel activity is happening right under their noses yet the public does not know about it, the sheriff said in his presentation, referencing intertwined federal cases that go on and on. Jenkins said he was going to change that this year to open peoples eyes.

We are going to share information regardless of what is happening on the federal level, Jenkins said.

Culpeper is as safe as it has been for years, he said.

But if you look at whats going on, carnage of the southern border, when you swing the door completely open and have no enforcement action in the last year you see this enormous increase, said Jenkins.

287(g) still in Culpeper

The sheriff continues to professionally partner with federal immigration at ICE as the only local agency in the state still part of the 287(g) immigration enforcement program.

In Culpepers case, it grants local jail deputies, with training from ICE, the authority to conduct limited functions of a federal immigration officer. These include: interrogate undocumented inmates, execute arrest warrants for immigration violations, detain and transport aliens subject to removal to ICE detention facilities and issue immigration detainers, according to the agreement between ICE and Jenkins updated in 2020.

Local 287(g) opponents have said the program has a chilling effect on Culpepers ever-growing and diverse Hispanic population actively contributing to the local economy and community. They say it is counter-productive to community relations.

Police Chief Jenkins said he does not want to contribute to a narrative targeting for drug and crime activity a particular segment of the population. Most local immigrants are just trying to make a living, he said.

What Arizona is doing

Sheriff Jenkins, during Wednesdays presentation, advocated for continued building of the wall on the southern border, saying materials were sitting rusting in the desert. He advocated for an enormous gate and identifying each person who passes through.

Photographs, DNA, fingerprints. I think thats logical if we are going to let them into our country without citizenship, without any requirements, Jenkins said.

Twenty years after 9/11, terrorist attacks from those crossing the border improperly are possible, the sheriff said.

We Culpeper Virginians need to speak up, Jenkins said, tying the rise in fentanyl fatal overdoses to the cartels. Its manufactured mostly in other nations and 90 percent of it crosses the southern border into the U.S.

The sheriff mentioned Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently giving their governor permission to deploy National Guard troops and state law enforcement officers to forcibly send migrants back across the border. The February legal opinion from the Arizona attorney general does not hold the force of law, according to the Associated Press.

Narcan and Ukraine

Jenkins, a vocal Trump supporter, said the current presidential administration has pretty much folded their hands and said anyone can enter. He said the associated flow or drugs into the community will only get worse.

I feel like bringing that to the spotlight at the moment...because its going to increase all the other things we have to deal with day to day, Jenkins said.

The local sheriff began his remarks on immigration by asking if the taking of Ukrainian lives in the current war was more important than lives lost in America to drug deaths and violence. Culpeper has seen an alarming rise in drug deaths, namely fentanyl.

They are being invaded in Ukraine and we are being invaded here in America at our southern border, Scott Jenkins said.

Police Chief Jenkins disagreed about a narrative he didnt think was representative of Culpeper and which could alarm the community. He said his officers are focused on pushing out Narcan to save lives due to drug overdose.

Jail overcrowding update

Ending his remarks, the sheriff indicated progress was being made on the county potentially acquiring the 500-bed state jail facility, vacant for the past eight years, next to Coffeewood Correctional Center in Rapidan.

Overcrowding at the 75-bed Culpeper jail downtown has been an issue for years, leading to local inmates being housed all over the state and millions of dollars in costs.

Jenkins sounded hopeful speaking of discussions with Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Public Safety Director Bob Mosier, former Fauquier sheriff, about gaining access to the empty state jail space.

The conversation started a couple of years ago under the Northam administration, but never materialized. The state now says it will not need to convert the former juvenile facility in Rapidan into a womens facility anytime soon, according to Jenkins.

He said Paige County, facing the same jail issues as Culpeper, would get inmate space in the facility that could also be outsourced to other Virginia counties needing jail space.

Back in 2007 when Culpeper looked at building a 400-bed jail, it would have cost $44 million, the sheriff said. Using the empty state jail located in the county to meet those needs today will cost less, Jenkins said, promising enormous savings to taxpayers.

Jenkins thanked the governor and Mosier for their attention to the issue.

Its just a wonderful thing to see this hopefully coming to fruition soon, he said.

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Roanoke is among Virginia localities that desperately need help combating gun and gang violence, state Attorney General Jason Miyares said Tuesday.

Speaking at Hotel Roanoke to a conference of criminal justice professionals, Miyares announced an effort to establish the Operation Ceasefire Grant Fund, a state crime-fighting initiative.

The fund would provide funding to implement violent crime reduction strategies, provide training for law-enforcement officers and prosecutors, provide equipment for law-enforcement agencies and award grants to organizations that are involved in group violence intervention efforts, according to Virginias Legislative Information System.

The effort mimics one that was implemented in Boston in the 1990s to address youth gun violence. Legislation for the fund, House Bill 833, passed the Virginia House of Delegates in February.

Operation Ceasefire would be managed by the attorney generals office. Miyares expressed a specific interest in providing prosecutors to localities that need help removing crime from city streets.

Weve identified about eight or nine localities which desperately need those, that are going to be going after individuals, particularly gang-related and using guns, Miyares said. The task is going to be huge, but I am confident that, when you get the right resources and you have the right leadership focusing on the right priorities, that we can tackle this.

Roanoke police have reported four gun-related homicides and more than 20 incidents of woundings related to firearms so far in 2022, setting a pace to exceed previous annual records.

We need funds to help us deal with gun violence, Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea said Tuesday.

He also noted that his office was not invited to or otherwise notified about the violent crime conference but said that he would be more than willing to speak with the attorney generals office about potential solutions to the problem.

City council member Joe Cobb, who also serves as the chair of Roanokes Gun Violence Prevention Commission, said he was similarly unaware of the conference and that communication between state and local offices is key to finding solutions.

Were the ones that have been doing the work, Cobb said.

He said the citys gun violence problem has always been at that level that requires state assistance. He said Operation Ceasefire could work.

We could really use that support from the state in Roanoke, Cobb said. But it has to work alongside the community-based programs already in place.

Miyares said community policing in city neighborhoods will be critical in fighting gun violence that often appears to be connected to turf battles and drugs. He said the fight against recidivism will begin as officials address the needs of city youth.

So many young people are just so desperate for money, power and respect, theyll do anything to get it, Miyares said. But you dont get money, power or respect by harming your fellow citizens. You dont get money, power or respect by selling narcotics on the street... What we want is for them to become independent, self-sufficient, productive members of society.

During his brief address to about 300 attendees at the states annual Conference on Violent Crime, Miyares, a Republican elected last fall, expressed support for a bill that was vetoed by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in 2019 that would have allowed prosecutors to charge drug dealers with murder in cases where users die.

If youre selling this poison to our kids, then prosecutors should get every tool in the toolbox to go after you, Miyares said.

The attorney general also said that many public safety departments and officials are underpaid. He said pay increases for everyone in law enforcement at all levels can be anticipated in the next state budget cycle.

The annual Conference on Violent Crimes concludes Wednesday. It was sponsored by the Office of the Attorney General, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Virginia Department of State Police.
Court documents have revealed additional details about the investigation that led to the arrest of a Minatare Police officer accused of stealing weapons from the department.

On Tuesday, March 22, Nebraska State Patrol investigators arrested Bryan Martinez, 32, at his residence on suspicion of issuing or passing a bad check, a Class II misdemeanor, and three counts of theft by unlawful taking, a Class IV felony. Charges were filed Wednesday in Scotts Bluff County Court.

According to court documents, Martinez, who had been employed by the Minatare Police Department since November 2017, is alleged to have taken three firearms from the Minatare Police Department. Martinez headed the department during that time.

Authorities accuse Martinez of having stolen his department-issued Glock 19 pistol, as well as a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol and a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. He is alleged to have pawned the firearms at the Mister Money store in Scottsbluff: the Glock 19 on April 12, 2021, the Sig Sauer on Aug. 5, 2021, and the Mossberg on Oct. 22, 2021. He is alleged to have received $950 for the firearms across the three transactions. The handguns were purchased by other individuals in late December while Martinez allegedly retrieved the shotgun in early January.

According to court documents, the guns were discovered to be missing from the inventory when the Minatare Police Department appointed a new police chief. Inventories and financial documents from the City of Minatare verify their ownership of the missing guns.

Investigators also allege Martinez bought a Zev Technologies 9mm pistol, three Glock 17 magazines, a right-handed holster and a soda from Murdochs Ranch and Home Supply in Scottsbluff on Dec. 8, 2021, then paid for the $1,876.58 purchase with an insufficient check. In January, they said, the business contacted the NSP and reported the insufficient funds. The documents describe one manager telling the NSP that Martinez advised them: I owe you some money. As of mid-March store officials told investigators that the man had done nothing to repay the returned check or return the items.

The court documents allege that Martinez knowingly had a negative account balance when he wrote the check and had not had sufficient funds to pay for the purchase throughout December 2021.

Bail in the case has been set at $25,000 with a 10% provision, which has been posted and Martinez has been released from the Scotts Bluff County Detention Center. Martinez is scheduled to appear for his first court appearance on Friday, April 1. The case is currently slated for a preliminary hearing on April 15.

The Nebraska Attorney Generals Office will prosecute the case. An attorney is not yet listed in Martinezs case.

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ESU-13 recently announced Jessica Broderick to be the incoming director of special education for the 2022-23 school year.

Broderick, who has been with ESU-13 since graduating college nine years ago, currently serves as the assistant director of special education. Before that, she had been a speech-language pathologist, secondary transition specialist and special education coordinator for the special education department at ESU-13.

I have really appreciated all of the support Ive received by everyone at ESU-13, she said. From the time I first started, everybody has been so helpful and kind, and its very clear to me that everyone has the best interest of students and school districts at the forefront of their minds. I appreciate the atmosphere that we have here; we have great coworkers, and (Im) just feeling like Ive been supported as an employee of the organization.

ESU-13 Administrator Laura Barrett said that Brodericks various experiences within the service unit will make her a good fit for the role.

We are thrilled to have Jessica lead our ESU 13 Special Education Team, she said in a press release. She has a variety of experiences that will provide high-quality leadership and support in our school community.

While she will still have some new things to learn, Broderick said she is looking forward to her new leadership role with ESU-13.

(Im excited for) just the continued opportunity that ESU-13 has given me to be a leader within our department, she said. Ive been really lucky in that our special education director has given me the opportunity to be involved in a lot of what she does, and a lot of what our department does already, and so I do feel comfortable with some of what we do, but I also know that I will have a lot of learning to do.

One of the things shes most excited about is working with more schools in the service area.

I will get to work with more of our school districts than I do currently, she said. We have 21 school districts in our service area, and so I work with a few of them now but will get to expand that and work with some schools that I havent before, so thats exciting.

Broderick also said she hopes to continue building on the relationships within ESU-13 and between the service unit and the school districts so that she and the rest of the unit can serve the area to the best of its abilities.

I would want to keep developing relationships and learning more about the schools that we serve and all of the programs that we have at ESU-13. We have a lot going on here, so just continue to broaden my own knowledge about whats going on internally and externally, she said. I think the more we can provide really high quality services for students with disabilities, the better off those students and families and schools will be, so I hope to continue to lead our already amazing special education team and continuing to provide high quality services and support to our schools and families.

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 Flash

Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Nigerien Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou Wednesday on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held in the Pakistani capital.



Wang said that China and Niger have enjoyed solid mutual trust and friendship, and have always firmly supported each other on the issues concerning each other's core interests.

Noting that the two countries have witnessed deepening economic and trade cooperation and smooth advancement of key projects, Wang said China is ready to work with Niger to promote the implementation of the outcomes of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Niger to better benefit the Nigerien people.

China appreciates Niger's contribution during its tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and is willing to strengthen coordination with Niger on multilateral affairs, jointly oppose hegemonism, uphold international equity and justice, and safeguard the common interests of both countries and developing countries at large, Wang said.

China hopes that Niger will support the Global Development Initiative, build greater international consensus and speed up the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Wang added.

For his part, Massaoudou said the Global Development Initiative proposed by the Chinese leader is visionary and has the firm support of Niger.

China has always offered timely assistance to Niger when it encountered difficulties. China is the first to respond to Niger's request for COVID-19 assistance, providing the first batch of vaccines, which Niger will bear in mind, he said.

Niger is willing to deepen its friendship with China, an important economic and trade partner for the country, and accelerate economic development and enhance its international competitiveness with China's support, he added.

The Nigerien foreign minister also introduced the security situation in the Sahel region and hoped to strengthen the regional security cooperation mechanism and enhance Niger's capability to safeguard security.

In response, Wang said that China supports national security capacity building in the Sahel region.

Noting that development is the basis for security, Wang said that China stands ready to continue to provide assistance within its capacity to the countries in the region to accelerate development and improve people's livelihood, and to mobilize more resources and form stronger synergies by strengthening South-South cooperation so as to support African countries to achieve common development.
Several of the 2022 Nebraska Legislatures major spending proposals directly affecting western Nebraska have survived first-round debate unscathed.

The sessions four major budget bills (Legislative Bills 1011, 1012, 1013 and 1014) won first-round approval in a succession of votes between March 15 and Wednesday.

Lawmakers waded through several amendments on each bill  spending their maximum possible eight hours of debate on each  without any direct challenges to western Nebraska projects.

The first three measures, all tapping regular state revenues and cash reserves, include a $50 million boost in state matching funds for industrial rail parks across Nebraska.

North Platte-area leaders have said those funds would enable Lincoln Countys proposed rail park outside Hershey to access $30 million in state help toward its construction and development.

Other projects in those bills include $53.5 million to plan the revival of the 1894 Perkins County Canal and fund a special committees $200 million request for a new Lake McConaughy marina and eastern Nebraska water projects.

Related bills to authorize the canal project (LB 1015) and the Lake Mac and water projects (LB 1023) were also on Wednesdays agenda for possible second-round debate.

LB 1014, advanced 41-1 Wednesday evening, would tap Nebraskas $1.04 billion share of federal COVID-19 funds for $20 million toward North Plattes Sustainable Beef LLC project and $23.5 million toward permanent repairs to a tunnel on the Gering-Fort Laramie Canal.

The Sustainable Beef funds would help offset costs of building the planned North Platte meatpacking plants onsite wastewater treatment system.

The middle of the Gering-Fort Laramie Canals three tunnels collapsed in July 2019, cutting off more than 100,000 acres from irrigation water for a month until temporary tunnel repairs could be made.

The canal, which runs from Wyomings Goshen County into Scotts Bluff County, has awaited a permanent fix since.

State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, chairman of the Legislatures Appropriations Committee, explained Wednesday how his panel narrowed down more than $4 billion worth of ideas for spending the states American Rescue Plan dollars.

Lawmakers had to outline how their requests would meet Congress mandate that ARP spending be tied to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If the Treasury later decides certain spending doesnt meet that standard, it could require the money to be repaid with possible penalties, Stinner said.

We did not want to have any clawbacks that could punish either the state or those getting the money, he told lawmakers.

Appropriations Committee members then were asked to judge which ones best fit them for LB 1014. Their final list, Stinner said, maintained Gov. Pete Ricketts theme of one-time money, one-time spend for COVID-19 funds.

But only about 60% of Ricketts recommended ARP spending made it into the committees proposal, said fellow member Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard. The rest came from individual senators.

Erdman, North Platte Sen. Mike Jacobson and Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer engaged in Wednesdays debate as other lawmakers tried to add or subtract from the committees lineup of ARP projects.

All three spoke against an amendment by Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt that would have redirected $20 million from a $47.7 million item to renovate and expand the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center at Grand Island.

Hunt sought to use that $20 million for additional post-pandemic support for Nebraskas two food banks. Lawmakers earlier voted 43-0 to add $10 million to LB 1014 for that purpose.

She withdrew that amendment, promising to reintroduce it during second-round debate, after a broad array of senators said the Grand Island academy cant wait any longer to be modernized.

It has been at the bottom of the funding list for seven years, said Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood, a Democratic candidate for governor. This is an old problem that has been allowed to fester.

I appreciate Senator Hunt and the issue shes trying to address, Jacobson said. Im just concerned about the source of the funding.

Brewer said he attended the Grand Island training center when the current campus was new 40 years ago. A lot of the structures that were there then are still there now.

But they havent been updated for modern needs, and it takes up to a year for local police departments and sheriffs offices to place new recruits in training classes, he said.

It makes it unmanageable to hire someone, especially when recruits take other jobs rather than wait, Brewer added.

Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk said Scottsbluff Police Chief Kevin Spencer had approached him to share the acute problems rural law enforcement agencies are facing in hiring new officers.

When theres five officers on the shift and theyre supposed to have eight, their safetys compromised, he said.

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A woman was injured in a crash Thursday, March 24 at the intersection of Highway 26 and 21st Avenue in Scottsbluff.

According to Cody Thomas of the Nebraska State Patrol, the driver of a westbound Ford pickup turned into the path of an eastbound Subaru on Highway 26. The driver of the Ford was turning left onto 21st Avenue and had the green light, but not a turn arrow.

The driver of the pickup, who was not injured, was cited on a charge of failure to yield. An woman who was a passenger in the Subaru was transported to Regional West Medical Center by Valley Ambulance. A man and a juvenile female passenger in the Subaru were not injured. All those involved in the crash were wearing seat belts.

The state patrol, Scottsbluff Police Department and Scottsbluff Fire Department converged on the scene around 11:20 a.m. The Subaru sustained major damage to the front of the vehicle, while the Ford had a large, warping dent on the right side. Debris littered the intersection and tools such as hammers and screwdrivers had been launched from the pickup.

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The 2045 Land Development Plan was once again a hot topic as concerns from the public, business and government interests came into conflict at Mondays city council meeting in Statesville.

While the plan isnt a strict policy, it is meant to serve as a guideline for how the city will use land in the coming years.

City Planning Director Sherry Ashley said the process had been delayed in approval as areas such as the Interstate 77 corridor, Interstate 40, areas near the airport, and industrial zones needed further study. Leigh Anne King, director at Clarion Associates, the company that helped the city develop the plan, said the company improved the citys plan after listening to the public.

Still, the use of industrial zones by Martin Marietta around Highway 115, Wilkesboro Highway, has been a particular source of contention, as well as how the city handled development in South Statesville.

There is language in there that will cripple my ward, and parts of Ward 3, Councilman Frederick Foster said.

He said that without a base of retail and other goods and services, developing multi-family housing would be difficult with how the plan was written. King said adjustments could be made to the wording to allow more flexibility and also stated that the business and amenities listed in the wording presented wouldnt be required for a multi-family development to be built. In the end, it was decided to strike the portion that could give the impression the commercial development would be needed, and Ashley pointed out not all of Ward 3 would be under the Neighborhood 2 designation that caused concern.

The public hearing then opened with James Pressly voicing his concerns with the development plan. This wasnt a surprise, as a campaign led by the Pressly Group had accused the city of bowing down to Martin Marietta and other businesses. Pressly is running for a seat on the Statesville City Council.

He also mentioned Fosters concern with the wording, questioning the citys plans as South Statesville didnt have access to the commercial centers that the Neighborhood 2 designation mentions.

That the plan services special interest and political insiders over the needs of our citizens is another tragedy, Pressly said.

He said that Mayor Costi Kutteh owned land in a number of the strategic focus areas and that the plan had been kept a secret. Kutteh interrupted Pressly and said some of those concerns had been addressed, but Pressly fired back and said despite repeated requests to Ashley and the planning department for a copy of the plan, he never received it.

Pressly also said despite the executive director of the Iredell Home Builders Association being listed as interviewed by Clarion as a stakeholder, Daniel Greene was not contacted. He said others werent contacted, either.

Its a sad day in our Statesville city hall when our citizens realize we as taxpayers spend $160,000 on a corrupted land plan, and we ask the city council to reject it, Pressly said in closing.

David Stamey, of Stamey Cattle, said he previously had spoken to the planning department about his concerns and was more complimentary.

After the public hearing, the council expressed more concerns.

Councilman John Staford brought up his concerns with the amount of residentially zoned areas, as he felt it was more enticing to businesses to have it zoned commercial than to have to change it later if business interest comes in. He also hoped to see other areas changed near neighborhoods to avoid having industrial use nearby. Ashley said zoning it with more flexibility was done to respond to market changes and would put the responsibility on planning staff to make sure it was used properly.

Councilman Steve Johnson expressed similar concerns with areas around the airport and interstates, noting that after his time on the county commission, he has seen cities fail to plan properly for development from nearby metropolitan areas. He said while residential areas are needed, ultimately, commercial and residential uses pay the bills. He said it was important to plan now.

Community after community didnt get ahead of urban sprawl, then all the folks moved in there, Johnson said, noting the difficulty of rezoning high-population areas. If you dont get ahead of it, your city in the future is going to be populated by people who consume here but produce somewhere else. What that leaves is that the people that already live here are going to have retail jobs and service jobs. Not going to have enough industrial or commercial property for them to have a good-paying wage.

Councilwoman Doris Allison commented that it was important to find the balance between residential and business interests as housing is currently an issue, saying growth and development go hand-in-hand.

The council has until July 1 to approve a new development plan.

Other items on the agenda

The city approved a request from Richard Angino with Third Wave Housing to proceed with right-of-way abandonment for the extension of Solstice Drive to Wolf Creek Lane and the stub street to vacant property to the north. The motion passed unanimously.

The city council was considering approving the second reading of an ordinance to demolish the dwelling at 522 Stockton St. as unfit for human occupancy. Ashley said the owners had cleaned the property as requested. Kutteh said while the goal is to restore the property, a timeline was needed to make sure improvements were made in a timely manner. The new owners of the property, Matthew and Emily Rand, said they hoped to have all improvements done in nine months, but to have several exterior improvements done in early summer. The second reading was delayed until July with the understanding that there would be improvements to the property by then.

The city held three public hearings, with the first reading approvals of annexations of properties on U.S. 21/Turnersburg Highway and Houpe Road, Northside Drive between Meachum Road and N.C. 115/Wilkesboro Highway, and on James Farm Road at Parcel Drive. All three were approved unanimously.

Consent agenda

Along with the acceptance of minutes from a special meeting on March 7, the council approved an increase in the budget line items for Jet A fuel by $400,000 and AVGAS fuel by $50,000 in the airport operating budget. Kutteh said this was a good sign as the airport sold more jet fuel than it had expected.

Another item approved was a motion for the city to apply for $11 million from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant funds. The city said the project would be funded 95% from federal funds, with the city and county splitting the 5% local share.

It also approved an amendment to the Statesville City Code, regarding parking violations and fines, to clarify that the penalty of $30 is applied to all offenses.

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A cadet in the Mitchell Community College Basic Law Enforcement Training program died Sunday in an automobile crash and now his family is honoring his legacy.

Gavin Doyle Cox, 22, of Huntersville, will be remembered as his family decided to partner with Mitchell Community College to establish the Gavin Cox BLET Scholarship.

Cox was a graduate of East Carolina University, majoring in criminal justice and had attended middle and high school at Pine Lake Preparatory in Mooresville. He was currently enrolled in Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) at Mitchell Community College and was looking forward to a career in law enforcement. He aspired to give back to the community and form amazing bonds with his fellow officers and the citizens he served.

Cox left an everlasting impression on anyone he met. He will forever be remembered for his smile, his larger-than-life personality and his infectious energy. He is also known for being a hard-working individual and sometimes juggling three jobs at a time. He was an early entrepreneur, starting his own lawn business with his brothers when he was 10.

Gavins family has established the scholarship with the intent to support students pursuing a career in law enforcement. This scholarship will ensure Gavins legacy lives on as the Gavin Cox BLET Scholarship and will impact generations of students.

To donate to the scholarship, visit https://mitchellcc.edu/give-online. In the comments box, designate your gift to the Gavin Cox BLET Scholarship. Alternatively, checks can be written to Mitchell Community College. Add Gavin Cox BLET Scholarship to the memo line. Checks can be mailed to:

Advancement Office

Mitchell Community College

500 W. Broad St.

Statesville, NC 28677

For questions regarding donations, contact the Advancement office at 704-878-4321.
The pandemic didnt stop people from visiting Hungry Mother State Park. In actuality, the number of visitors to the Marion park grew.

Andrew Philpott, the park manager, told the Marion Town Council earlier this month that in 2021 Hungry Mother attracted 240,000 visitors, an increase of 16% over the prior year.

Philpott presented the council with a report on the economic impact of Virginias state parks compiled by Dr. Vincent Magnini, who is considered one of the most prolific hospitality researchers in the world. Magnini, a Fulbright Scholar and the author of seven books, teaches at Longwood University.

In the report on 2021, he concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the importance of state parks to tourism. He wrote, State parks help insulate Virginia tourism infrastructure from economic disruptions. When the economy flourishes, people visit state parks when the economy contracts, people STILL visit state parks.

Across the commonwealth, Magnini found those visitors bolstered the economy. In 2021, visitors to the 41 state parks spent an estimated $308.7 million in the state. About 40% of those dollars came from out-of-state tourists.

Philpott noted that Hungry Mother contributed its share, taking in about $10.2 million in visitor spending. That is up from $9.1 million in 2019.

Economic activity associated with the park reached $13.6 million.

All of the state parks in this region bolstered the economy.

The New River Trail State Park achieved $44.4 million of economic activity and $28.8 million in visitor spending.

Visitors to Grayson Highlands spent $7.4 million and created $9.6 million in economic activity.

Natural Tunnel and Wilderness Road state parks were responsible for $6.1 million and $6.4 million, respectively, in economic activity, and $3.8 million and $3.7 million in visitor spending.

Philpott also pointed to the jobs that the park creates both directly and indirectly. Hungry Mother is responsible for 145.2 jobs.

Grayson Highlands jobs number hits 103.2, while Natural Tunnel and Wilderness Road come in at 63 and 65.9.

The superstar on the jobs front is the New River Trail, which passes through multiple counties. The report says it is responsible for 459.6 jobs.

The state parks more than pay for themselves. According to Magninis report, in 2021, for every $1 of general tax revenue provided to state parks, $14.46 is generated in money that wouldnt likely be here otherwise.

Thats a huge economic impact, Philpott said.

The park manager and Ken Heath, Marions director of community and economic development, celebrated the partnership that exists between the town and Hungry Mother.

Marions former assistant director of community and economic development, Alexandra Veatch, now serves as Hungry Mothers assistant manager, and helps foster the relationship.

Philpott said its part of their work to help connect their visitors with restaurants and other businesses in Marion.

According to Heath, the town is working with Virginia Tourism to promote Hungry Mother as a premiere attraction. We couldnt have a better partner at the lake, he said.

Philpott also told the council that the park is updating facilities at the park, undertaking a roofing project on two cabins, the replacement of 20 HVAC units, and upgrades at the amphitheater.

The park manager also said hes happy with the transition of the former restaurant on the park grounds to the Lakeview Event Center. From weddings to meetings, Philpott said, the center is steadily taking bookings.

He noted that annual passes to the park are for sale at the Discovery Center.

And, Philpott is looking to fill park jobs for the coming months. He said, If you know anyone looking for work, send them our way.
A rash of break-ins along State Street near downtown Bristol has resulted in the arrest of a Charlotte, North Carolina, man, police said Thursday.

Danny Charles Wilburn Jr., 43, faces three counts of burglary, three counts of petit larceny and possession of burglary tools. Additional charges are pending in both Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee, according to Bristol Virginia Detective Lt. Steve Crawford.

The burglaries were reported between March 11 and March 14 at businesses along West State Street. Crawford said the incidents occurred during the overnight hours at a floral shop, restaurant and muffler business.

Each of the businesses reported broken glass doors and stolen items. Crawford said investigators used video surveillance and interviews to identify a suspect.

Crawford said an individual, later identified as Wilburn, used bricks or blocks and threw them through glass front doors to enter the businesses. Various items and money were stolen, he added.

Crawford said Bristol, Virginia police took Wilburn into custody. He is being held at the city jail without bail.

Wilburn is also under investigation by the Bristol Tennessee Police Department in connection with incidents on that side of State Street, Crawford said. He may also be linked to another burglary in Bristol, Virginia.

The detective described Wilburn as a transient person who may have family in the area.

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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has charged a Kingsport teenager with attempted murder after authorities said a police officer was shot last Tuesday.

Just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, Kingsport officers received a report that a male juvenile had escaped from the Department of Childrens Services on North Eastman Road, according to a TBI news release issued last Wednesday. An officer found the teenager on Lincoln Street and attempted to take him into custody, the release states.

The juvenile resisted and tried to gain control of the officers service weapon, according to the release. At some point during the struggle, the weapon discharged, striking the officer in the leg. Additional officers arrived a short time later and took the juvenile into custody.

The officer was transported to a local hospital for treatment and has since been released, the TBI said.

The teen, who is not being identified, was also charged with evading arrest.
BRISTOL, Va.  Two Marion, Virginia, men face drug charges following a traffic stop in Bristol, Virginia.

Anthony Johnson, 45, has been charged with possession with intent to distribute a schedule II drug, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm while in possession of drugs and carrying a concealed weapon, according to the Bristol Virginia Police Department. Caleb Greer, 29, has also been charged with possession of a schedule II drug.

Officer Chris Stine stopped the two men along Lee Highway last Tuesday.

During the stop, a canine unit named Kyro conducted an open air sniff and alerted officers to the presence of drugs inside the vehicle.

Officers said they found 4 ounces of methamphetamine, a handgun and more than $6,000 in cash.
COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ore.  Plans to build a methanol plant  once proposed along the Columbia River in Kalama  appear to be over in Oregon as well.

Roughly three months after the owners of the long-planned and controversial Kalama project pulled out of its local agreement, Northwest Innovation Works also filed to stop operations in Oregon.

The company, which has ties to China, filed to officially dissolve Oregon operations in September, while seemingly planning to secure state operations amid a rezone request with the Port of Columbia County in Oregon.

Port of Columbia County Executive Director Sean Clark said an option-to-lease agreement still is in effect with the two entities, and staff is working to contact the company to find out the appropriate next steps in light of the dissolution news breaking this week.

A spokesperson for the Oregon Secretary of State said there is no timeline set by the state for businesses to end operations after filing for dissolution.

Plans

Northwest Innovation Works had been reviewing locating a methanol facility in the Pacific Northwest for decades, including at two locations within about 40 minutes of each other: the Port of Kalama in Cowlitz County and the Port of Columbia County in northern Oregon.

The company recently petitioned to rezone roughly 800 acres of farmland at the Port of Columbia Countys Port of Westward Industrial Park, located outside of Clatskanie.

Northwest Innovation Works pulled out of its proposed Kalama project last June after a key state permit was denied in January 2021.

The $2 billion Kalama plant would have converted natural gas into methanol to manufacture plastics in China, as well as employed about 200 people, according to Northwest Innovation Works.

The company refers to itself as environmentally friendly, but activists disagree. Conservation groups and some area residents opposed the Kalama project for years, criticizing its proposed use of fracked gas, emissions and the potential use of the methanol as fuel.

Northwest Innovation Works representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Permits

The news of the dissolution  first published by the Columbia County Spotlight on Tuesday  opens the question of future industrial projects in the Pacific Northwest.

Cowlitz County Economic Development Council President Ted Sprague said the methanol plant on either side of the Columbia River would have benefited Cowlitz County by bringing jobs almost double the average wage for the area.

The project in Kalama was axed after the state reversed two previously granted permits to Northwest Innovation Works, then denied a permit after conducting its own study on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sprague said the companys permitting process in Washington state was unpredictable, which makes it difficult to sway other industrial businesses to locate in the area. He said accessibility of state permits is the No. 1 question large industrial companies have when scouting locations.

Northwest Innovation Works notified the Port of Kalama on June 4 the company planned to terminate its lease.

Washington State officials reversed its approval of two permits to Northwest Innovation Works in 2017. In 2020, the state released its own study countering an analysis by Northwest Innovation Works and the Port of Kalama, concluding the plant could increase global greenhouse gas emissions. The state denied a shoreline permit as a result.

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You can get the Oppo A15S at an affordable price. Amazon announced Oppo A15S price cut which brings down its rate under Rs. 10000. Check the whole deal here.

If you are looking for a new smartphone offering a decent deal packed with features for your daily use within a budget, then Oppo A15S is what you can consider. Oppo had launched the A15S back in December 2020 featuring a triple camera setup and 2.3GHz Mediatek Helio P35 processor priced at Rs. 13,990. But right now you can get it under Rs. 10,000 on Amazon. Along with the available discount, the deal on Oppo A15S can be bundled up with bank offers and exchange offers which will make the price super affordable. Know all the details about the deal here.

Oppo A15S price on Amazon

Oppo A15S is currently available at the discounted price of Rs. 10,990 on Amazon instead of its real cost of Rs. 13,990. Moreover, you can get an instant discount of up to Rs. 4000 on Yes Bank Credit cards, Standard Chartered Bank Cards, and Bank of Baroda Credit Card. This will bring down the price of Oppo A15S at Rs. 6,990. If you are not eligible for these bank offers, there are a few others too. These offers include, up to 5 percent cashback on HDFC Bank Millennia Credit Cards, 10 percent instant discount up to Rs. 2000 on Federal Bank Debit Card Transactions and up to Rs. 1500 on Federal Bank Debit Card Transactions.

Besides that, Amazon is also offering an exchange offer of up to Rs. 10,350. Well, while trading-in an old smartphone, you can get more discounts on a new Oppo A15S for sure. Though, you need to note that the exchange offer discount will depend on your old smartphone.

Oppo A15S features and specs

At this affordable price, the OPPO A15 features a 6.52-inch HD+ LCD panel powered by a MediaTek Helio P35 SoC coupled with LPDDR4x RAM. For power, it has a 4,230mAh battery which supports 10W charging. Well in optics, the smartphone brings a triple rear-camera setup consisting of a 13MP primary sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth camera. In front, it has a 5MP selfie camera inside a dewdrop notch design. For security purposes, it includes a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as well as AI Face Unlock. And for connectivity, it comes with a dual-SIM, 4G, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GNSS, 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroSD card slot, and a MicroUSB port.
Malicious android app by the name of FaceStealer is stealing Facebook passwords. Google Play Store has slapped a ban on FaceStealer.

A malicious Android app on the Google Play Store has been detected stealing Facebook credentials. Yes! The Google Play app disguised as a cartoonifier app called Craftsart Cartoon Photo Tools allows users to enter their Facebook login credentials and steal their data. Dubbed FaceStealer, trojan was distributed via Google Play Store and third-party app stores! Google Play Store has banned the app, but it may well be on your phone. The trojan has already been installed for over 100,000 times via the Google Play Store. The Android malware makes users upload an image and convert it into a cartoon rendering. This Craftsart Cartoon Photo Tools contains a trojan called Facestealer. It is detected by security researchers and mobile security firm Pradeo. The portal mentioned that the app displays a Facebook login screen that requires users to log in before using it.

According to Jamf security researcher Michal Rajcan, as users enter their credentials, the app sends them to a command and control server at zutuu[.]info [VirusTotal], and steals their data.

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In addition to the C2 server, the malicious Android app is also connected to www.dozenorms[.]club URL [VirusTotal] where they forward the data, reported Bleeping Computers.

The portal says that the malicious trojan Facestealer uses social engineering to steal Facebook credentials and makes connections to a Russian server and give spyware full access to victims Facebook accounts and all data they contain, such as credit card details, conversations, searches, etc.

The malicious app is distributed through Google Play Store

The FaceStealer app is distributed through Google Play and third-party application stores. It appears like popular legitimate photo editing applications in order to reach a large public and conceal its illegal activities. The app has been injected with a small piece of code that easily passes under the radar of the store's safeguards.

The malicious app might have a connection with a Russian domain This is not the first time such an app has appeared on Google Play Store. Earlier also Google blocked several android apps from Google Play Store that were believed to be infected with malicious code or malware.
SpaceX was already close to offering internet service in Ukraine, but Russias invasion accelerated the process, and its now offering consumer connections in a war zone.

SpaceX was already close to offering internet service in Ukraine, but Russias invasion accelerated the process, and its now offering consumer connections in a war zone.

We were close to getting the approvals to offer service but the documents werent all signed, Gwynne Shotwell said Tuesday at the Satellite 2022 conference in Washington. After the conflict began, they tweeted at my boss and that was permission to provide capability.

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SpaceX Starlink service was one of the options Ukraines government sought as Russian forces targeted much of the countrys infrastructure. Viasat Inc. said on March 1 that it suffered a cyberattack, after the invasion, that affected thousands of residential and business internet customers in Ukraine.

SpaceX activated the Starlink service on Feb. 26, the same day Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov implored SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Twitter to send Starlink terminals to help provide Internet service after Russias invasion two days earlier.

France and Poland are helping to fund Starlink terminal shipments to Ukraine, Shotwell told the New York Times. The company has thousands of terminals in Ukraine, a CNBC reporter tweeted, quoting Shotwell.

Beyond its own service, SpaceX is also helping to deploy a rival satellite constellation from OneWeb after that company was forced to end its relationship with Russias space agency, losing its access to the Soyuz launch vehicle. OneWeb said Monday its next launch would be on a SpaceX rocket later this year. The company, owned by the U.K. government, Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Eutelsat SA, has launched 428 satellites to date, or about two-thirds of its planned fleet.

SpaceX can adjust some launch plans with Starlink, its internal customer, to accommodate other clients when needed, said Tom Ochinero, SpaceXs vice president of commercial sales. He spoke at an earlier panel Tuesday at the same conference.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plans to launch tens of thousands of Starlink satellites to provide low-cost internet service to remote and underserved areas. SpaceX wants to provide connections for governments, aviation and maritime businesses.
A reprogrammable D2NN platform. a, An array of programmable metasurfaces is used to construct the PAIM, in which several FGPAs are installed to control the gain factor of each artificial neuron, making PAIM a real-time and re-trainable intelligent machine. b, Schematic diagram of PAIM. An artificial neuron in the learning layer will receive the waves radiated from all artificial neurons in the former layer, making the PAIM structure a fully connected network. The transmission coefficient of each artificial neuron can be trained by using supervised/unsupervised learning or even reinforcement learning methods to achieve various functions. The first layer acts as the input layer by using preset transmission coefficients to encode the input information into the spatial distribution of the EM energy. Credit: Liu et al.

In recent decades, machine learning and deep learning algorithms have become increasingly advanced, so much so that they are now being introduced in a variety of real-world settings. In recent years, some computer scientists and electronics engineers have been exploring the development of an alternative type of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, known as diffractive optical neural networks.

Diffractive optical neural networks are deep neural networks based on diffractive optical technology (i.e., lenses or other components that can alter the phase of light propagating through them). While these networks have been found to achieve ultra-fast computing speeds and high energy efficiencies, typically they are very difficult to program and adapt to different use cases.

Researchers at Southeast University, Peking University and Pazhou Laboratory in China have recently developed a diffractive deep neural network that can be easily programmed to complete different tasks. Their network, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, is based on a flexible and multi-layer metasurface array.

"Our hope was to realize a diffractive neural network in which each unit can be independently and flexibly programmed," Tie Jun Cui, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "Drawing inspiration from our past research on digital programmable metasurfaces, information metasurfaces and experience in electromagnetic regulation, we created a programmable diffractive neural network machine by constructing multilayer programmable transmissive metasurfaces, which we named programmable artificial intelligence machine (PAIM)."

The researchers' diffractive neural network performs calculations that closely resemble those performed by optical diffractive neural networks. More specifically, their network performs matrix network operations when electromagnetic waves propagate through its multi-layer metasurfaces, which resemble the light speed calculations performed by optical diffractive networks.

"The key breakthrough of our work is that each neuron is independently reprogrammable," Cui explained. "Therefore, the entire neural network can be trained and programmed on-site and can also be repeatedly trained according to different task requirements. We design a metasurface unit (neuron) with reprogrammable transmission coefficients that integrates a power amplifier chip."

Spacetime telecommunication system with and without the decoding part of PAIM. a, The spacetime telecommunication system with the decoding part of the PAIM. The first layer of the PAIM acts as a transmitter, radiating spacetime EM waves at 5.5 GHz. The remaining four layers of the PAIM are trained as a denoising and decoding processor located in the transmission channel. The EM environment is fouled by a commercial 5G Wi-Fi router. However, with the help of the PAIM decoder, the transmission error rate declines to 0.52% along with no extra time delay for signal preprocessing. b, The energy distribution on the receiving plane when code 3 and code 4 are transmitted into free space without the decoding part of the PAIM. c, The energy distribution on the receiving plane when all four codes are transmitted into free space without the decoding parts of the PAIM. d, The spacetime telecommunication system without the decoding part of the PAIM. The first layer of the PAIM acts as a transmitter, radiating spacetime EM waves (according to four user codes) at 5.5 GHz, which reach the receiver through free-space propagation. The EM environment is fouled by a commercial 5G Wi-Fi router, causing a high error rate of transmission (49.02%) when transmitting a binary image of our laboratorys emblem. Credit: Liu et al.

Every amplifier in the researchers' network can be digitally controlled through a field-programable gate array (FPGA). FPGAs are systems that contain an array of different programmable logic blocks or units. In the system created by Cui and his colleagues, every individual unit can be independently controlled, which allows engineers to program the entire neural network and allow it to perform well in specific tasks.

"The biggest highlight of our study was the realization of a programmable diffractive neural network in a convenient and efficient way," Cui said. "In the past, optical diffraction deep neural networks were mainly composed of optical media such as silicon dioxide, which were non-adjustable materials. Therefore, this type of optical neural network needs to be trained with the help of a computer, and the final network distribution is obtained before processing."

Most previously developed diffractive optical neural networks remained fixed once they are trained. As a result, they can only complete a set number of tasks, those they were originally trained on. In contrast, as it is based on digital metasurfaces, the network created by Cui and his colleagues can be programmed to complete different tasks.

"Programmable metasurfaces can control electromagnetic waves with a simple architecture, low cost and high efficiency, which is a potential choice for building programmable neural networks," Cui added. "Our PAIM can also directly modulate free-space electromagnetic waves with light speed, which is a potential low-latency signal processing unit used for 5G and 6G wireless communications."

In initial evaluations, the diffractive neural network introduced by this team of researchers achieved very promising results, as it was found to be highly flexible and applicable across a wide range of scenarios. In the future, it could thus be used to solve a variety of real-world problems, including image classification, wave sensing and wireless communication coding/decoding. Meanwhile, Cui and his colleagues will work on improving its performance further.

"The prototype implemented in this work is based on a 5-layer diffractive neural network, each layer has 64 programmable neural networks, and the total number of nodes in the network is relatively low," Cui added. "At the same time, the operating frequency band of this network is lower, resulting in a larger size of the physical network. In our next studies, we plan to further increase the scale of the programmable neurons of the network, improve the network integration, reduce the size and form a set of intelligent computers with stronger computing power and more practicality for sensing and communications."

Explore further All-optical diffractive neural network closes performance gap with electronic neural networks

More information: Che Liu et al, A programmable diffractive deep neural network based on a digital-coding metasurface array, Nature Electronics (2022). Journal information: Nature Electronics Che Liu et al, A programmable diffractive deep neural network based on a digital-coding metasurface array,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-022-00719-9

 2022 Science X Network
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Shortly after President Joe Biden warned of possible Russian cyberattacks, a group of hackers this week made news after targeting Microsoft and authentication service provider Okta.

But experts cautioned against linking the incident with Russia and the ongoing war with Ukraine.

"Obviously, if you just look at timing, you can be suspicious of it, but we don't see any direct links between these individual incidents, from Okta to Microsoft, and Russia," said Rick Holland, chief information security officer at the security firm Digital Shadows. "It's evolving, and things could change."

The group behind this week's attacks, Lapsus$, seemingly emerged in Dec. 2021 and began by focusing on Portuguese-language and South American organizations, Holland said.

Lapsus$ has since moved on to global targets including Nvidia and Samsung.

Microsoft said in a blog post Wednesday that the hackers gained limited access to its system through a single account. The company said "no customer code or data was involved in the observed activities."

Okta, meanwhile, said in a statement that about 2.5% of its costumers may have had their information viewed or acted upon after the company had denied it had been breached.

Holland said that, while high-profile targets like Microsoft and Okta may get widespread attention, they're "only a drop in the bucket."

"Sometimes, with some of the extortion crews, they never become public because the extortion actors are dealing with the companies directly," Holland said.

Small businesses are more vulnerable to ransomware, as they have less staffing and resources to counter cyberattacks.

Bracing for "destructive" Russian cyberattacks

On Monday, Biden again alerted Russia may be preparing to launch cyberattacks in response to the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the U.S. He urged the private sector to " "harden your cyber defenses."

"The magnitude of Russia's cyber capacity is fairly consequential and it's coming," Biden said at the Business Roundtable Quarterly Meeting in Washington.

Russian cyberattacks against the country may be "destructive," said John Bambenek, principal threat hunter at the firm Netenrich.

"If they launched attacks, they're going to be disruptive in nature, knocking things offline, knocking critical infrastructure offline," Bambenek said.

He said Russian attacks may target critical infrastructure like oil production or food supply chains, noting that last year, a group believed to be based in Russia forced the temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline.

"That was ransomware, but at the end of the day, it's like knocking important pieces of critical infrastructure offline that creates large scale disruption," Bambenek said, referring to the Colonial Pipeline hack.

Holland, meanwhile, said the most significant threat companies should worry about is extortion.

"Certain companies need to worry about intellectual property theft and things along those lines," Holland said. "But generally speaking, extortion is at the top of every company's threat model."

The White House said in a statement that much of the country's critical infrastructure "is owned and operated by the private sector" and encouraged businesses to take steps like using multi-factor authentication, and backing up and encrypting data "to protect the critical services on which all Americans rely."

Explore further Okta denies data breach after hackers claim they gained access to internal information

2022 USA Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


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Clute, TX (77531)

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Partly cloudy. High 86F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

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Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 71F. S winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Last week, the Western Virginia Water Authority checked another box on its way to placing a 150,000- to 250,000-gallon elevated water storage tank on a 15 acre piece of land near the Whistle Stop convenience store in Union Hall.

Following a presentation updating the Franklin County Board of Supervisors on the project at the boards regular March 15 meeting, the board unanimously approved the WVWAs request to help pay for the project using $1.5 million of the $3.2 million American Rescue Plan Act funds set aside in 2021 for water and infrastructure.

The project is estimated to cost $3 million total, with the WVWA and Franklin County splitting the cost.

During the March 15 meeting, WVWA Executive Director Michael McEvoy said the 15-acre parcel near the Whistle Stop is potentially large enough to support a third groundwater well in addition to the two which already exist. Following some due diligence activities  such as completion of a preliminary engineering report and approval of a special use permit application  the WVWA intends to purchase the 15-acre parcel from the current landowner.

He [the landowner] has indicated to us hes willing to turn those wells over to us to be the water source, but we still have to complete that negotiation as well and do some testing on those wells. They will require a little bit of treatment, so were expecting to have a small treatment plant  just a small utility building with some pumps and an elevated storage tank, McEvoy said. Weve submitted an application for those facilities to yall [the county board] for approval.

McEvoy said the elevated storage tank will be the master tank for the area and said the 15-acre parcel should also be large enough to support a drainage field for the backwash water from the filtration system.

Eventually, the plan is to hook up the tank and wells with the WVWAs existing system in the area.

The project following the construction of a tank and plant will be used to put in water mains along Virginia 40 and down Kemp Ford Road.

That probably will be really a decision about where we see development patterns, if some existing customers want to hook up. Weve just given that some preliminary looks right now...but we expect to put in a fair amount of water main with this project, McEvoy said.

During the March 15 board meeting, Franklin County Administrator Christopher Whitlow said the county set aside $3.2 million in ARPA funds with public utility projects for the Southlake water system in mind.

Housing is extremely important to the county, the need for housing and growth in our village centers and so forth and to make sure that we have...utilities, water and sewer, Whitlow said.

Union Hall District Supervisor Tommy Cundiff and Blackwater District Supervisor Ronald Mitchell were among those to show interest and enthusiasm for the WVWAs plans for the Union Hall area.

Its very exciting to see that infrastructure is finally getting looked at for the Union Hall town village, Mitchell said during Tuesdays board meeting. Its something that I think we shouldve been doing years ago to get Union Hall up and running and I just want to thank...everybody with the water authority for once again investing in our county.

It will take time, of course, but McEvoy said the WVWA hopes to go out for bid on the project in the fall.

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YORK  Its a challenging climate for ag producers.

Always the gambling kind, livestock and crop operations face especially daunting challenges right now: Russia attacking Ukraine, short supplies of everything, shipping ports bottled up and stymied, obvious climate change, federal regulation, higher prices for the inputs required to support raising a crop and  on a happier note  upwardly trending prices paid to farmers for the bounty of their harvest.

Everything is up when it comes to farm costs, says Central Valley Ag senior agronomist Nic McCarthy, but the opportunity is still there for area farmers large and small to have a healthy bottom line.

The cash price for corn, he said, is up over $2.00 (per bushel) in the last year. Beans are up close to $3 and wheat nearly $4.

On the other side of the balance sheet, McCarthy said, Percentage wise, inputs are close to 50% higher in a year.

Inputs, he explained, is a catchall term for things like fertilizer, pesticides, seed and of course recently skyrocketing fuel prices. It takes a mountain of money to obtain those necessities and many others that raising a crop absolutely requires.

We will continue to see volatility in the market, he assures. Transportation and labor continue to go up, as well. Those are outliers nobody is thinking about.

Supply chain constraints and the impact of just coming off COVID when inventory levels were very low for nearly everything, agriculture-related or otherwise, have stirred the pot mightily.

Gloom and doom aside, McCarthy said there remains room in the black at the bottom line for producers who anticipate the future properly and manage the present efficiently.

As for commodities themselves, at CVA cash corn brought $4.44 a bushel on July 23 of last year, then rose to $5.06 at the beginning of 2022. The number was up nicely to $6.11 on the 11th of this month.

Corresponding numbers on those dates for soy beans were $11.73, $11.95 and $14.26. Milo sold for $4.36 in July, $5.06 at years end and $6.01 on March 11. The same date sequence for wheat began at $6.46, went to $7.57 and on to $10.05.

The profitability pendulum swings in the other direction, though, when fertilizer inputs are considered.

NH3 anhydrous cost producers $744 per 2,000 pounds on July 23 of last year, but its a different story this month with that same quantity carrying a price tag of $1,464. UAN (urea ammonium nitrate) climbed from $417 to $703 over that same time. The corresponding prices for MAP (monoammonium phosphate) are $764 up to $999.

For a specific instance of ags globally complex and confusing times, consider potash; just one product among many instrumental in farming.

McCarthy provided statistics for the period 2018-2020 during which Russia (18%), Belarus (17%) and China (11%) produced a whopping 46% of the worlds supply of potash. Russia and most likely war sympathizer Belarus will fall to zero. With the invasion of neighboring Ukraine being met with international disdain, Russias import and export markets have been sealed tight. Trade in either direction with China is routinely inconsistent and unreliable.

Canada, where 33% of potash was produced in those years, remains a solid source, but its sobering to consider the instability surrounding potash represents just one input upon which producers rely. When dramatic shortages occur  and by all accounts that pattern will not dissipate anytime soon  it is certain prices will skyrocket.

For as long as commodity prices follow operational costs up the ladder, it appears local ag income has a good chance to prosper. But what if they dont? Ah  theres the gamble.
First of all ("first off," as people like to say nowto which the Ed. in me wants to shout, leave the off off!), I have to apologize for comments againI have compiled the "OCOLOYs" comments twice and each time I manage to screw up and kill them off the post again. I frustrate myself. I work on being organized, but let's face it, it is not a native aptitude of mine. Anyway, I wanted to follow up on the film post. I've located two experts who might be able to help answer the question of latent image stabilityone lives in the Los Angeles area and works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and I knew him in the old days, but apparently I'd have to pay to find his telephone number. The other is just up the road in Rochester. (I tried emailing.) There's been a tad bit of confusion in the commentswhat we were talking about is the lag between exposure and development, which is a different thing than the proper storage of unexposed film, or than archival processing, or than the permanence of negatives.

It's not rocket sciencewait, yes it is

I wouldn't mind writing a bit more about film photography. I have a great deal of experience and practical knowledge stored away in my brain. But let me just say this: one thing I definitely learned in my years of editing a magazine about techniques is that generalizing across materials is a minefield. Perilous. A fool's errand. When you do an experiment, you have to accept that you have only tested those exact materials under those exact conditions. You cannot blithely extrapolate outward and make breezy pronouncements about how all such things behave. So many variables affect the results that when David Vestal and another photographer tried to duplicate each other's processing methodologies at long distance in order to solve a problem, they couldn't replicate each other's results, even after trying to chase down every variable they could think of. Something was still different.

There are two common ways to cope with this, and which you prefer might have to do with personality or psychology more than anything. The first is to let the fur fly and not worry about ituse whatever comes to hand, process it however seems best according to whatever advice you can find, and adjust and adapt. In fact we might even call this the Adjust and Adapt Method. In one of Ralph Gibson's darkroom books he told of a photographer who timed his film development by smoking a cigarette and rolling the tank around on the floor with his foot. As soon as the cigarette was done, so was the film. (I think it was a he. Might have been a she.) These are the freewheelin', what-me-worry types. The other is to pick a couple of common materials and incrementally master them, by a continual process of experience, experimentation, and learning. Let's call that the Master the Materials Method. That's what I chose to do. I picked two films and two papers, main and backup (only one developer because I could scratch-mix it from its constituent chemicals if my supply of the pre-mixed packages ever got interrupted), and learned them thoroughly, through-and-through. I may not have known nearly as much about your materials, but I sure knew mine front-to-back and soup-to-nuts.

By Frederick H. Evans. Platinum paper was integral to

Evans's vision and craft.

The disadvantage of the Master the Materials Method is that we're dependent on manufacturers for the continuing supply of said materials, and the more knowledge we have, the more vulnerable we become. I took self-defensive maneuvers when I merely imagined that Kodak Plus-X might be discontinued, and ended up leaving it behind more than twenty years before it was actually discontinued. Did you know Frederick H. Evans gave up photography when the supply of commercial platinum/palladium papers ended because of importation problems caused by WWI? When Oriental Seagull paper stopped being exported in from Japan for a time in the '90s, one master printer was so bereft and distressed that I had to field a cascade of anguished emails and distraught phone calls until he finally found a substitute. All of his printing expertise had been worked out in the context of how that paper behaved and responded. Without it, years of hard-won skills evaporated. Not just a lossa blow. These sorts of problems were common to hear in my world at the time. We knew, for example, that Agfa had quietly changed the formula for Portriga paper long before they announced it. Alarmed Portriga fanatics poured out their hearts. (I finally got Agfa to admit and explain: environmental issues.) Michael A. Smith was so attached to Kodak Azo contact printing paper that when it was discontinued he invested in having a substitute manufactured independently. Linda Connor used to speak in lectures about her worry that Kodak's printing-out paper, called Studio Proof, would be discontinued (she used gold chloride toner to make the image permanent). Sometimes these are issues of artistic continuityit might not have been the case that Linda couldn't find another paper, but just that a changeover of materials would create a sudden, unwanted change in the look of her prints.

This is the reason for my longstanding "philosophical" stance that what I want is for photographers to have what they need to do their work. What I personally want for myself is only one little corner of that. I want everybody to have what they need. Whatever enables their creativity. Whatever enables them to keep using their knowledge and keep practicing their craft the way they wish to and choose to.

Awesome Leitz

Mastering Materials was a heck of a lot of fun, I'll say that. I really enjoyed it. I could expound at length on the differences between enlarger light headsIlford XP2 looked like a completely different film if it was enlarged with a cold light head or the awesome Leitz Focomat II, the Duesenberg of enlargers, which was a true condenser enlarger with very collimated light. I had a standard for the age of my D-76 stockI wouldn't use it if it hadn't aged for five days and I wouldn't use it past 45 days old (it was still good enough at 90 days, but I was conservative). The reason is that the activity of D-76 changes with age. I could have told you all about it. Think it's different with digital? Well, people here wouldn't think so. We know that sensors have been changing continuously, that Photoshop or Capture One take time and effort to master, and that expert printing with the latest inksets and the most beautiful papers is as far as can be imagined from just "pressing a button and the print comes out."

That's enough brain-dump for today. Sorry if this is tl;drI didn't have enough time to write short.

Mike

Book of Interest this Week

Home Fires Volume II: The Present. There is of course a Volume I: The Past. TOP reader Bruce Haley has produced documentary work relating to conflict, humanitarian crises and environmental/industrial/land use issues for 30 years. He received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his coverage of the ethnic civil war in Burma.

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.

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Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 74F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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CARBONDALE  Two people have been sentenced to more than 16 years in prison following a 2021 armed robbery in Carbondale.

Marlin Clark Jr., 19 of Carbondale, and Britni Dowdy, 21, of Murphysboro, each received a sentence of 16-and-a-half years in prison on a charge of armed robbery, a Class X felony, as co-conspirators in an Aug. 1 incident, according to the Jackson County States Attorneys office.

On Oct. 15, 2021, Clark and Dowdy entered open guilty pleas to the armed robbery charge.

On March 22, the Jackson County Court sentenced Clark after a contested sentencing hearing, and upon learning of Clarks sentence Dowdy and the people agreed she should receive the same sentence.

Their charges arose after the Jackson County Sheriffs Department received a report from a 23-year-old Hammond, Indiana man that he had been robbed in an isolated area off of Gold Drive.

The victim said that he had been communicating with Dowdy through the Tinder dating cellphone app, and she had convinced him to drive her and a friend around Carbondale, according to the news release.

At some point in the night, Dowdy allowed Clark and another man into the back seat of the victims vehicle.

Clark then directed the victim to drive to an isolated area off of Gold Drive where Dowdy and Clark, working together with a third individual, robbed the victim, according to the news release.

They took approximately $200 and the key fob the victims vehicle.

While they were arguing about whether to steal the victims car, the victim sped off leaving Clark, Dowdy and the third perpetrator behind.

The investigation of Clark and Dowdys case was conducted by the Jackson County Sheriffs Department, and Assistant States Attorney Jayson Clark was responsible for the successful prosecution of Clark and Dowdy.

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CARBONDALE  Six high school girls felt the heat as they underwent a job-shadowing program of women firefighters fighting the stigma in a male-dominated field.

Carbondale firefighters Courtney Looft and Abigail Burnham created the Badd Axe Ladies program this year to give six girls from Carbondale Community High School a chance to experience hands-on training in the field  something women dont get the chance to do so early on.

When I was younger, I had my father as an opportunity to get experience interacting with firefighters, Looft said. It just got me thinking that the girls that don't have that. All the girls that have entered our program have said, 'I didn't even know this was something I could do.' I want to make sure that girls know that they can do anything. They don't have limits if they are determined enough.

Two girls went through a full day of training at a time.

The girls would start their day at 9 a.m. at the firehouse where they would meet all the on-duty crew, get a tour of the station and then get outfitted with gear.

They then spent the rest of the morning going through drills like mazes, breaking down walls and practicing with forcible entry doors, according to Looft.

Finally, the day ended with a live fire exercise where the girls went through a fake house that had a live fire inside. That was arguably the most exciting part for 18-year-old Lily Bishop.

The training spanned three different days in March.

We chose to start the program this coming March because March is International Womens Month, Burnham said. We feel and hope that this will encourage girls in the Carbondale community, and (hopefully) eventually the surrounding region, to get a unique opportunity to ask women questions about working in the fire service and possibly pursuing a career of their own.

The training did feel different to Rachel Wagner, 17, than most male-dominated fields because she was taught by women.

It definitely makes it more realistic, Wagner said. I guess with a lot of things that are more male-dominated fields when I participate in it, there's definitely a lot of help, you know. So, this is a lot. I feel like it's more about getting an idea of what it would actually be like, because we can see the woman actually doing it instead of just being helped out all the time.

While neither girl is sure of what they want to do in their career they do say the training has increased their likelihood to pursue firefighting  the ultimate goal of the program.

We feel that we have both been given an incredible opportunity to pursue a career that we both love, but we want to encourage more girls to know that they can do the same job that a man can do, Burnham said. It is still very uncommon in non-metropolitan areas such as the Southern Illinois region to see a woman on a fire department, much less two as is the case for Carbondale Fire Department. We want to use that opportunity to give back to the community and give every girl that wants to learn, a chance to see what being a woman in the fire service is and can be.

The girls have walked away with more than a sense of a potential career path.

Now they also have a newfound respect for firefighters.

It was exhausting, Bishop said. The constant crawling, and then the oxygen and all the clothes and stuff, like it added a lot of weight. It was just tiring and hot. I definitely have a lot of respect for what they do. Their work is so important, and it's hard. It's really hard. I got to see firsthand how hard it is.

While this years training only included students from Carbondale Community High School and single day training sessions, both Looft and Burnham hope to expand the program.

If they're thinking that's something I want to do. I want to inspire that and empower them, Looft said. To let them know that they have that ability to do it. Just because you're a female and people might question like do you really have the strength to do that? Sometimes it doesn't even matter if you have the strength, it's about technique. It's about how you're going to use your tools or your body to accomplish a task. You have to learn to adapt to situations the way that you can accomplish them.

To keep up to date with other future programs, visit the Carbondale Fire Department's Facebook page.

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The relationship between people and dogs is unique. Not only do canines provide loyal companionship, but a growing number of dogs work with humans as therapy animals, part of law enforcement, on rescue teams or in support environments.

Sometimes a dogs work is to help humans recover from dangerous situations, but how do the humans help their canine partners with their own dangerous situations?

Southern Illinois University Carbondale animal science Professor Erin Perry has some ideas.

Perry first realized the need to look out for working dogs when she accompanied her search dog, Pic, in efforts following the Joplin, Missouri tornado more than a decade ago. Pic eventually developed sever liver failure as a result of contaminant exposure during of the search assignment.

After I almost lost her and as a scientist, I started digging a little bit more into the methods and procedures we use to decontaminate or wash our dogs at the end of a mission like that, Perry explained. I discovered there was really no data that really validated the recommendations that were in place at the time.

She said her experience led her to improve the way working dogs are cared for after their shifts.

Ive made it a mission that no one else will ever have to suffer that same devastating experience and I am determined to provide evidence-based hygiene and decontamination recommendations for working dogs, she explained.

Perrys efforts are rooted in common sense related to hygiene and nutrition.

When people are exposed to potentially toxic conditions such as may be present in the aftermath of a storm or a search-and-rescue operation, they wear a variety of protective gear which they can take off at the end of the shift, prior to showering. Dogs dont always have that option.

We could take off our dirty clothes, but dogs cant take off their fur. Search dogs need specialized procedures, specific types of shampoos and such, to really keep them safe, she explained.

Perry said her work is trying to identify the most appropriate methods and products for bathing dogs after potential exposures. The goal is to benefit both dog and handler.

Were working to make sure the dog is clean and it's not bringing home those contaminants and then getting on the couch or getting on the bed. Were doing it in a way that is effective, safe for the dog and keeps the dog from potentially bringing home contaminating pathogens, she explained.

She said the recommendations under development will be especially important given that many working dogs such as those trained as companions for humans with specific medical concerns.

Often medical service dogs are assigned or that partner with people who have a medical need; maybe they are immune-compromised, and immune compromised situation could be potentially very, very dangerous for them, she outlined. We have to make sure that those dogs are safe when they come home.

After traveling to new places or working in extreme conditions, people also can debrief and find other ways to de-stress following an assignment. Again, canines may not be able to do that and often the stresses show as illnesses, Perry said.

These environments where dogs are working are very stressful, Perry explained. Ive seen problems or issues from stress  gastrointestinal problems and issues related to exposure  these issues may be amplified in these disciplines. Part of what we are trying to understand is how we can change or manage their nutrition to prevent some of those problems.

Perry said her research not only improves the health of working dogs, it also makes them more efficient in that work.

The work that we do is certainly targeted towards working dogs whose very performance impacts human lives. When those dogs do their jobs that usually means a human's life is on the line, she said.

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Southern Illinois University Carbondale continues to expand the reach of the Saluki Step Ahead program, making transferring from community college to SIU baccalaureate programs easier. Wednesday, the university formally signed agreements with Rend Lake College and Kaskaskia College for participation in the program.

This program helps Rend Lake College graduates successfully continue their academic journeys, RLC President Terry Wilkerson said. Rend Lake has always had a great relationship with several local four-year institutions, and this is one more way to help make the process of earning the next degree that much easier.

The Saluki Step Ahead program allows community college graduates to complete bachelors degrees from SIU online and at a lower cost. The program currently pertains to students in accounting, business administration, criminology and criminal justice, health care management, psychology and radiologic sciences.

Saluki Step Ahead provides a unique opportunity for students, especially for those who are place-bound or perhaps those with a family or a nine-to-five job, to do an online program over two years, finishing their bachelors degree while not disrupting their lives, Josi Rawls, assistant director of undergraduate admissions at SIU told The Southern at an earlier signing ceremony.

SIU Chancellor Austin A. Lane said the agreements give students a seamless transfer pathway.

We are pleased to collaborate with Rend Lake and Kaskaskia colleges to provide another option for place-bound students in this region, Lane said. If these students cannot come to Carbondale to complete their education, we will bring the experience and resources of a doctoral research university to them. This agreement fits well with our strategic plan and its pillars that address partnerships and student success.

With Wednesdays signings, SIU has entered Saluki Step Ahead agreements with 16 community colleges in Illinois and Missouri including John A. Logan College and Shawnee Community College in Southern Illinois. More partnerships are planned.

The program also provides students in the program with annual $4,000 scholarships for their third and fourth year of studies. Representatives of SIU said the goal is for these students to earn their degrees for less than $25,000.

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The last year has been a difficult one for local businesses. Restaurants, shops, and hotels  the businesses that make up the heart of our downtowns  have struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. At a time when many of these businesses are already facing challenges from supply chain problems to labor shortages, too many small businesses have been confronted by yet another hurdle.

Businesses across the country are getting letters from non-practicing entities (sometimes called NPEs or patent trolls) demanding payment for supposed infringement on patents they own for very common processes.

It is extortion and it is wrong.

These NPEs, or so-called trolls, are companies who exist for only one reason  to purchase vague, low-quality patents, and threaten businesses with baseless lawsuits.

For example, an NPE purchased a patent that claimed to own the very idea of scanning a document to email  and then sent out letters to hundreds of small businesses around the country demanding they pay up. For many small businesses, its cheaper and easier to pay off an NPE with a settlement than to go to court.

Last year alone these patent schemes cost small businesses $29 billion lost in patent troll litigation. It is a growing trend and unfortunately it is costing business owners and ultimately consumers dearly.

Congress has long recognized the damage that NPEs can inflict on small businesses and took action to fix it in 2011 through the passage of the America Invents Act (AIA). The bipartisan bill established the Inter Partes Review (IPR) program, which gives businesses a cost-effective way to challenge patent trolls and the validity of low-quality patents. Reforms like these have led to a $2.95 billion increase in GDP, as well as over $1 billion increase in personal income for everyday Americans.

In recent years the AIA has been gutted by changes from the USPTO, undermining the original intent of the law. This includes dramatically weakening IPR by ignoring valid patent challenges. As a result, these alterations have allowed bad actors to continue weaponizing patents for their own financial gain, all while businesses lose $29 billion from litigation each year.

At a time when so many businesses are struggling, we need Congress to take action again. Fortunately, there is bipartisan legislation that can help. Last year, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Restoring the America Invents Act (RAIA). The RAIA will restore the AIA to its original intent of protecting innovators and small businesses by strengthening the IPR program, closing loopholes, and ensuring IPR petitions are heard.

We cant wait any longer for Congress to address the ongoing abuse of our patent system. Congress can fix this problem  theyve done it before, and there is good legislation in the Senate right now that will help businesses like mine. By passing the RAIA, we can ensure that our patent system reinforces high quality patents, dismisses low-quality patents, and continues supporting our countrys innovators, businesses, and manufacturers.

Randy Akin owns Whistle Clean Car Wash in Murphysboro.

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POMONA  Rob Rothrock settled into a chair overlooking the 15-acres of prairie he and his wife Rhonda have created.

The prairie has been a labor of love. It was hard to miss the pride on Rothrocks face as looked over the field of purple and yellow flowers outlined against the line of rapidly turning hardwoods. That pride was reflected in his statement that the fields had been much more colorful a few weeks ago before autumn took its toll.

And, after a morning of collecting and sorting seeds, Rothrock admitted he was a bit spent.

I would say its been a lot of work. he said through a wry smile. Ive had various people that have wanted to start some little project. You want to give them some help. They have the idea they are going to throw some seed out and this beautiful thing is going to happen."

If you put your mind and will to it, as the Rothrocks have done for the past 20 years, something beautiful will happen. Although the view overlooking their prairie is magical, creating the prairie required more than a snap of the fingers.

Thats not to say there wasnt some magic involved. Rothrock said he had no master plan in mind when he first started working the ground nearly 40 years ago. Their land has been transformed through trial, error and a bit of evolution.

Its evolved. he said. I bought the place in 1977 and worked construction all my life. Rhonda and I got together in 2001. The fields here were old pasture. I kept them mowed and stuff like that. I had prairie plants planted in the yard from the beginning. Then in 2003, Rhonda and I were planting different things close to the house in the field, I plowed up about a 10-foot wide strip all around the property. We decided we were going to buy a bunch of prairie seed.

We did that and it was kind of a joke. All the cheap seed, theyre all annuals and all yellow. They all bloomed the first year. We called it the Yellow Brick Road. All the rare stuff we planted; we never did see that. I freaked out that it was going to spread. Before it went to seed, I mowed that down. Then we thought, Well go collecting.

So, they scoured the Southern Illinois countryside, searching for remnants of prairie. They collected some seed here, some other there. Over time, their personal natural wonderland began taking shape.

This is all perennials, at least most of them are, Rothrock said. We have between native forbs, which are flowering plants, grasses and sedges, we have around 150 species. Which is a very high density. Its artificially managed so certain species that are getting very aggressive, I will go out and spray them back to keep things in balance.

There are about 16 state-listed threatened or endangered species on the property. And, there are some plants the Rothrocks didnt know they had until they started managing the property intensely.

As can be expected, wildlife, ranging from insects to amphibians have been drawn to the property.

We have loads of reptiles and amphibians here, Rhonda said. Both grey and green tree frogs, spadefoot toads, peepers, chorus frogs, leopard frogs and several more I cannot remember. We have skinks, some fence lizards, newts and salamanders. I used to have a complete list of snakes on the property, but the list currently includes a least one beautiful milk snake, common kingsnakes, racers, garter snakes, Dikays brown snakes, ringneck snakes, copperheads, timber rattlesnakes and at least one type of water snake.

The prairie also attracts birds such as prairie warblers, yellow-breasted chats, blue grosbeaks and field sparrows.

And, the prairie serves a quite practical purpose.

Weve gotten to where we sell seeds to nurseries wholesale, we dont do any kind of retail, Rob said. We have way more excess seed than they can sell. Sometimes the forest service has bought some. Sometimes we give them seed, and weve given seed to Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge and Green Earth and things like that.

Looking ahead, the Rothrocks are trying to find someone to maintain the prairie, and its invaluable seedbank, once they are unable to maintain it.

I wish we had someplace for it to go to be honest, Rob said.

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Future educators in South Carolina State Universitys Call Me MiSTER program led discussions about school mentoring efforts and the school-to-prison pipeline earlier this month at a national conference in Washington, D.C.

Words cannot describe how powerful the experience of being able to present to hundreds of teachers from across the nation, said Jordan Smith, a freshman in the Call Me MiSTER program. The networking and experience I gained is something that I will never forget.

Smith joined fellow MiSTERs Samuel Murray, Christopher Austin and Keenean Johnson, as well as Dr. Rashad Anderson, campus program director, in leading two plenary sessions at the national A Dream Deferred Conference March 2-4. The Call Me MiSTER program is designed to provide a pipeline of African American male teachers, mentors and role models to South Carolinas public schools and communities.

Since its launch in 2005, the A Dream Deferred conference convenes thousands of education professionals from across the United States to focus on best practices, key data, and research to drive measurable actions to ensure access to opportunity for students of color. This is the fourth time a MiSTER cohort has presented at this annual conference.

The teams first plenary session dealt with how implementing school-based mentoring programs has a trifold effect on students in areas of academics, cultural capital, and reducing risky behavior. The session guided education stakeholders on how to build their own mentoring programs from the ground up.

In the second session, the Call Me MiSTER members discussed the predominant ways the school-to-prison pipeline for elementary Black male students are enacted in everyday classrooms and school practices.

I am absolutely elated of the phenomenal job these MiSTERs did at this conference, Anderson said. For three of the students, this was their first time attending & presenting at a national conference and they all received standing ovations after both presentations. I am proud to lead such a distinguished group of future educators.

For more information about the Call Me MiSTER program, contact Dr. Rashad Anderson at (803) 536-8490 or rander29@scsu.edu.

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Elizabeth Horton has been promoted to director of the South Carolina State University Office of Graduate Services.

The Office of Graduate Services is responsible for all graduate-level admissions, graduate recruitment, and graduate-related student services.

Horton had served as the administrative assistant in the Department of Education for the last seven years.

She joined SC State in 2000 in the School of Graduate Studies as the data entry specialist and held the position until 2004. She was the administrative assistant in the Department of Educational Leadership from 2004-2015.

Over the years, Horton became very knowledgeable of the academic requirements and processes for the School of Graduate Studies. She has relied upon her educational training as a school counselor to assist many graduate and undergraduate students with completing their academic degrees.

Horton worked on several grants, which include the 1890 Research and Extension: Experimental Demonstration of the Etymological Word Learning System, Thurgood Marshall College Fund Award for Blackboard Training, Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity, and the newly awarded Next Generation of Black STEM Teacher Network, as well as the MATTE Bridge Program.

Horton is the 2022 Staff Member of the Year for the Division of Academic Affairs. She received a bachelors degree in organizational management from Claflin University in 2008 and her masters degree in counseling education from SC State in 2012.

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COLUMBIA  Hemingway Sewing Solutions, a subsidiary of Beverly Knits  one of the largest circular knitters in the United States  on Wednesday announced plans to establish operations in Williamsburg County. The companys $3.3 million investment will create 242 new jobs.

Founded in 1980, Beverly Knits designs and develops fabric for a variety of markets including activewear, intimate apparel, outdoor products, mattress and bedding, automotive, industrial and medical. The company also produces fire retardant products for apparel, bedding and industrial end uses.

Located at 60 Apparel Drive in Hemingway, Hemingway Sewing Solutions will manufacture a variety of textile products for brands including Purple Mattress, Indigo and Vapor Apparel, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.

Operations are underway, and individuals interested in joining the Hemingway Sewing Solutions team should email the company.

We are excited to become a part of Williamsburg County! Our investment in Hemingway Sewing Solutions is extremely important as more products are reshored to the USA. Made in the USA is the best way to guarantee quality and delivery of textile products," Hemingway Sewing Solutions CEO Ron Sytz said.

South Carolinas manufacturing history is deeply rooted in the textiles industry, and we are happy that Hemingway Sewing Solutions is continuing that proud tradition. The 242 new jobs they are creating will make a significant and positive impact on the Williamsburg County community, and we welcome them to the South Carolina business family," Gov. Henry McMaster said.

The announcement comes a day after an Italian fabric maker announced it is locating manufacturing operations in Orangeburg County.

Pratrivero USA Inc., a division of Pratrivero Nonwovens, is investing $17.6 million and creating 34 new jobs in the former Mayer Industries building at 3777 Industrial Boulevard. Industrial Boulevard is near Interstate 26s Exit 145.

The investment includes $6.5 million in buildings and $11.1 million in machinery and equipment. The 34 new jobs will be realized within the next three years.

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The bloody images of war in Ukraine are transforming our understanding of the post-Cold War order and reminding us of an important lesson: Energy policy and national security are inextricably linked. As we observe the crisis in Europe, the Biden administration would be wise to move away from damaging climate policies and toward energy independence.

Despite the presidents contention that green energy is the solution to higher gas prices, we know renewables alone are not a viable alternative to fossil fuels because of their intermittent power generation and our current lack of battery storage capacity. Its now widely acknowledged that a green energy transition requires partnering renewables like solar and wind with a reliable baseload energy source such as natural gas or nuclear. Carbon-free nuclear energy would be an optimal alternative, but until that option is more scalable we have no choice but to turn to fossil fuels.

With the average price for regular gas at more than $4 a gallon and the Biden administrations move to ban Russian oil imports driving prices higher, now is the time for the administration to rethink its climate and energy policy.

The administration is reluctant to increase domestic production for fear of further disappointing its climate-focused constituents. Theyve already failed to pass meaningful climate measures through Build Back Better and an about-face on domestic oil and gas production would be a bridge too far. But the reality is, limiting domestic production while importing foreign fossil fuels does nothing to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions  fossil fuels are still being produced and consumed. This approach is climate theater that now comes at a strategic cost.

Instead of boosting domestic production, Biden is just trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

The administration along with its counterparts in the United Arab Emirates have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves to alleviate the upward pressure on oil prices. This, however, is no long-term fix. Prior to the pandemic slump, the United States alone was consuming more than 19 million barrels of oil per day; 60 million barrels will provide limited relief.

The administration, in its negotiations over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is also considering lifting sanctions on Iran so we could begin importing oil again from the worlds leading state sponsor of terror. Likewise with the authoritarian regime in Venezuela.

But this would be a colossal mistake. Why would we want to trade one dangerous dependency on a hostile foreign actor for another?

A better solution would be to ditch the arcane Jones Act, a World War I-era regulation that makes it costly and cumbersome to ship American crude from the Gulf of Mexico to our coastal ports. And because there are no pipelines connecting our coasts to American crude in the Permian Basin, our largest oil field, we must import from overseas. Eliminating this regulation should be a no-brainer.

The administration could also drop its hostile posture toward fossil fuels. Technically domestic production is up, but that increase represents the recovery from the pandemic slump, not an increase in overall production. Prior to the pandemic, the United States was producing almost 13 million barrels a day. The pandemic dramatically reduced demand, resulting in a precipitous drop in supply. Today, were producing about 11.7 million barrels per day, still below our pre-pandemic peak and not enough to meet surging demand.

Moves in the early days of the administration like blocking the Keystone XL pipeline or pausing federal oil and gas leasing sent flashing red signals to the fossil fuel industry that the tide was turning. The leasing pause has since been blocked in court, and while the administration is appealing that decision, it has actually approved more lease sales per month than the Trump administration did in its first three years. Still, more could be done to increase domestic production.

Instead, the administration could drop its efforts to pause federal oil and gas leases, it could publicly acknowledge that energy independence is vital to our national interest, and it could pledge to get out of the way of industry, from fracking to pipeline construction.

We need to learn the right lesson from this conflict: energy independence is key for national security. And transitioning to a green economy before we have adequate technology to do so in a sustainable way sets us up for failure. If Biden wants to lower gas prices and keep hostile foreign actors at bay, increasing domestic fossil fuel production is the best path forward.

Kat Dwyer is co-host of the Whiskey Bench podcast. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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Chu tich UBND TP. Ho Chi Minh Phan Van Mai a co chi ao go kho cho nhung vuong mac oi voi viec xac nhan hoan tat nghia vu ve nha o xa hoi trong cac du an phat trien nha o thuong mai, phat trien o thi sau khi nghe bao cao va y kien tu ai dien cua cac so, nganh.
Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 87F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms developing late. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.

Tomorrow

Thunderstorms in the morning will give way to partly cloudy skies late. A few storms may be severe. High 77F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
The dispute over pollution at the Jim Bridger Power Plant is complicating another set of air quality regulations.

Wyoming committed more than a decade ago to installing costly emissions controls at Bridger units 1 and 2. The controls were part of a plan the state developed to comply with the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Regional Haze Rule, a program meant to reduce smog and improve visibility in national parks and other wilderness areas.

Of the 156 natural places protected under the rule, seven  Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and the Bridger, Fitzpatrick, North Absaroka, Teton and Washakie wildernesses  are located in the state.

Wyomings Jim Bridger, Dave Johnston and Laramie River Station coal plants and the Black Thunder mine rank among the top 15 facilities contributing to regional haze nationally, according to Stephanie Kodish, senior director of the National Parks Conservation Associations Clean Air Program.

Kodish was one of four people to comment about the second round of regional haze implementation planning Wednesday before the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

The periodic updates, completed roughly every 10 years, are meant to demonstrate progress toward reducing smog-forming emissions and ensure that progress will continue.

Even though Wyoming has been working since 2017 on its second-round regional haze plan, its still trying to resolve a dispute about the first round. The state tried several years ago to change its original plan to avoid installing the pollution controls at Bridger units 1 and 2, but the EPA resisted, unconvinced of the revisions effectiveness.

Negotiations dragged on. The compliance deadline for unit 2 came and went.

An emergency suspension issued by Gov. Mark Gordon and a deal between the state and the operating utility, Rocky Mountain Power, kept the unit operating legally, but as Wyoming awaits a response from the EPA, the two units remain stuck in regulatory limbo.

State, PacifiCorp reach deal to save Jim Bridger Power Plant Wyoming officials and the state's largest utility may have averted disaster at the Jim Bridger Power Plant.

Meanwhile, the next plan is almost finished. But several of Wednesdays speakers voiced frustration with its conclusions.

Wyomings proposed round 2 plan found that no additional emission reduction measures were necessary or reasonable.

Kodish disagreed.

The state has wildly missed the mark in its proposed second-round plan, Kodish said. The plan does absolutely nothing to clean up air pollution for Wyomingites and visitors that come to enjoy the wonderful outdoor spaces that the state has to offer.

In its response to Wyomings proposal, the EPA and other federal agencies raised a number of concerns about the states conclusions, as well as its commitment to closing some coal-fired power plants in the coming years: If the State is relying on the source shutdowns as part of its long-term strategy for making reasonable progress, the EPA wrote, Wyoming must make these planned retirements enforceable.

At the heart of the enforceability debate sits Bridger, the No. 3 polluter on the national list. The plants round-one commitments remain unresolved, though the state hopes its agreement with Rocky Mountain Power  conversion of both units to gas within the next few years  will prevail.

That deal, however, hasnt made it into the round-two plan.

Scott Pugrud, corporate counsel for Bridger co-owner Idaho Power, urged the DEQ to include it.

EPA has previously cited the lack of an enforceable conversion date as a reason to require unreasonable emission controls at Bridger, Pugrud said. Its therefore critical for Wyoming to include Bridgers conversion to natural gas operations.

But the conservation groups opposing the plan believe the current plan would be rejected outright by the EPA. Theyre not convinced the legal agreement between the state and Rocky Mountain Power is enforceable enough to satisfy the agency.

Its now up to the DEQ to decide what  if anything  needs to change.

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Wyoming health officials are keeping an eye on a new subvariant of concern even as people around the state are relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.

The World Health Organization said in a statement on Tuesday that the omicron sublineage BA.2 should continue to be considered a variant of concern.

Omicron is still the dominant COVID variant around the world, according to the organization. Omicron BA.2 is one of its most common sublineages.

According to the World Health Organization, reported BA.2 sequences are rising compared to BA.1, another common omicron sublineage. Current data suggest that BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the subvariant has caused 35% of new COVID cases across the nation as of the end of last week.

The subvariant is most prevalent in the northeast region of the U.S. where it makes up over half of new COVID cases. By comparison, an estimated 21% of new cases involve this variant in the region including Wyoming and several surrounding states.

The Wyoming Health Department has identified through sequencing 13 instances of the BA.2 omicron variant in the state so far, according to the departments spokesperson Kim Deti.

The health department sequences results to determine the percentage of variants after a person tests positive for COVID, Deti said. While Wyoming sequences a higher percentage of positive results compared to most other states, she noted that not every positive result is sequenced.

The spread of the new subvariant isnt a reason to panic. Overall, COVID cases are still declining.

The total number of confirmed and probable active cases in Wyoming has decreased by about 46% over the last month, according to data from the states health department. Hospitalizations are also down about 79% from a month ago.

Deti said the increased levels of immunity from vaccination and previous infection have likely played a role in reducing cases.

According to data from the New York Times, at least one in four Wyomingites have been infected by COVID. About 51% of residents are fully vaccinated, and about 58% have received at least one dose.

The Wyoming Health Department has decreased its case update schedule to just Tuesday and Friday following the fall in infections. It formerly reported updates every weekday.

Deti said the health department still encourages people with symptoms to get tested, particularly those who are at higher risk for severe illness. She added that staying up to date on recommended COVID vaccine doses is important.

We will continue to monitor the situation, of course, Deti said.

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As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to decline in Wyoming, the states prisons are relaxing their pandemic policies.

The changes include a return to normal visitation, reductions in COVID testing and a framework that outlines when masks may be phased out.

In-person visitation resumed at all five facilities at the beginning of March, the Department of Corrections previously announced.

At that time, the DOC also increased the number of people who can participate in classes and other group programs. During the pandemic, a statement from the department said, those were limited to 10 people.

Volunteers can also come back to the facilities, but must complete required training first.

On Monday, the department announced a tiered framework that will now guide COVID policies for prison staff and residents. The levels range from green  the lowest risk  to red, which reflects a relatively high level of spread in the facility or its surrounding community.

Based on the most recent data available, all but one of the states prisons are in counties with low transmission rates as determined by the CDC.

The honor farm in Riverton, in Fremont County, is still classified as having medium transmission. DOC spokesperson Paul Martin said Wednesday that pending COVID test results from this week, the facility may fall into the orange, or moderate to high transmission, level. That means they conduct 20% surveillance testing, as was done for most of the pandemic, and require masks for all residents and staff.

The other four prisons are now on the green level, which does not require masks and tests for COVID only when someone is experiencing symptoms. One inmate at the honor conservation camp told the Star-Tribune that everyone in the prison was still masking as of Tuesday.

Martin said the prisons quarantine and isolation protocol will not change under the new policies.

The levels are also determined by how many people are hospitalized with COVID in Wyoming. As of Tuesday, there were 14, according to the state department of health.

In the previous round of testing, 11 people tested positive across the states prisons. Five of those were at the honor farm, four at the honor conservation camp in Newcastle, and one each at the womens center and Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution.

If two or more facilities reach the orange or red level, the guidelines state that DOC officials will resume weekly testing updates and calls with facility administrators to manage the response.

The department also laid out a tiered plan for local offices, like those that deal with probation and parole. When transmission is high, all staff will be tested and visitors will need to wear masks and submit to a temperature screening for necessary visits. When its low, masks and screenings will not be required.

Martin said the department does not determine pandemic policies for contract facilities, including reentry centers.

Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst.

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SMALL business owners in three Caribbean countries will get the opportunity to showcase how their enterprises are transforming their communities, and themselves, due to support from the social enterprise, Nudge Caribbean.

The opportunity comes tomorrow, at an event called Nudge Now, which is being organised by Nudge Caribbean, which was founded by Anya Ayoung-Chee, design strategist and social entrepreneur, and Julie Avey, Massy Groups senior vice president of People and Culture.
The Point is to Change the World, a collection of writings by Guyanese political activist Andaiye, was in the spotlight on Thursday, the first day of the 2022 Bocas Lit Fest, which kicked off with a series of virtual events.

Thursdays conversation centred on Andaiyes writings and legacy.

Journalist Sunity Maharaj said while Andaiye left a legacy through her work, she also used her platform to be open and honest about every aspect of her life, including her battle with cancer.
Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Gender and Child Affai
The issue of school violence has resurfaced with such an intensity that it has the nations 
Arizona lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to outlawing abortion in virtually all circumstances after 15 weeks.

The party-line vote by the House, with only Republicans in support, came over the objections of Democrats who pointed out that there are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. And Rep. Kelli Butler, D-Paradise Valley, said it even forbids terminating a pregnancy in cases of fetal defects where it is clear the baby will not survive outside the womb.

Rep. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, also told lawmakers they are fooling themselves if they believe that the measure, which already has been approved by the Senate, will end abortions. All it will do, she said, is result in women, unable to get legal abortions by doctors, attempting unsafe procedures on themselves.

Im old enough to remember the coat-hanger days, Epstein told colleagues.

It was frightening, she said. When women dont have access to abortion, they can do horrific things because theyre desperate.

The measure now goes to Gov. Doug Ducey who is expected to sign it.

Ducey has given his approval to every abortion restriction that has reached his desk since taking office in 2015. And the governor even has said that he believes the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized the right of women to terminate a pregnancy was wrongly decided and should be overturned.

It is that possibility of Supreme Court action later this year around which SB 1164 is crafted.

Current court rulings bar states from interceding with a womans right to an abortion before the point at which a fetus is viable, generally considered around 22 weeks.

But the nations high court is currently deciding the legality of a a Mississippi law imposing a 15-week ban that is identical to what is being proposed here. If Ducey signs the bill and the justices allow that Mississippi law to take effect, SB 1164 automatically would go into force in Arizona.

If the justices overturn Roe v. Wade entirely, however, whats in this measure could prove moot. That is based on arguments that Arizonas pre-1973 laws outlawing abortion entirely from the moment of conception, which have never been repealed, would once again be enforceable.

As approved, the measure would make it a felony for a doctor to terminate a pregnancy if the gestational age of the fetus is greater than 15 weeks, with a possible one-year prison term.

The only exception would be for a medical emergency. That is limited to any condition where the pregnancy would result in the death of the woman or where there is a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.

A woman who has the procedure, however, is immune from prosecution.

With the votes already lined up, none of the Republican supporters of the measure spoke during the extensive debate. But it took just minutes after the 31-26 roll-call vote for Cathi Herrod, president of the anti-abortion Center for Arizona Policy which crafted the measure, to send out a statement.

With the governors signature, Arizona abortion law will follow the science and better reflect the humanity of preborn life, she said.

Democratic lawmakers had a different take. Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, D-Tucson, called it inappropriate government intrusion.

Parents dont need or want the governments help in family planning, she said. What it also is, Powers Hannley said, is inconsistent with other measures being promoted by the GOP majority.

We talk about parental choice in education, she said. What about parental choice in family planning?

Rep. Domingo DeGrazia, D-Tucson, focused on the lack of exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

He said lawmakers this session have enacted measures designed to protect victims of crime and raised penalties against offenders, with specific emphasis on sexual abuse. In fact, DeGrazia noted, voters years ago inserted a Victims Bill of Rights into the Arizona Constitution, with provisions designed to protect their due process rights.

This bill, however, would prevent victims of rape from deciding for themselves what to do should they become pregnant, he said, saying it would deny them the due processes guaranteed in our constitution.

While no one addressed that issue during Thursdays House vote, Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, the sponsor of SB 1164, said during Senate debate that the manner in which a woman became pregnant is irrelevant.

The baby inside of a woman is a separate life and needs to be protected, she said.

Rep. Judy Schweibert, D-Phoenix, told colleagues of the experience of her son and daughter-in-law who had tried for years to get pregnant.

After the first four months or so, doctors discovered that the fetus was developing without a complete skull or brain, she said. Schweibert said they chose to terminate the pregnancy after they were told the fetus could continue to live in the womb but would not survive outside.

Thankfully, there was no state legislator like me or any of you looking over their shoulder to shame, judge, fine or even jail them or their doctors in this heartbreaking situation, she said.

Rep. Lorenzo Sierra, D-Avondale, said he was voting against the measure because, even as a Catholic, he is unashamedly pro-choice.

I know that people are watching me and probably judging me as I said that, he said. But my relationship with God is mine, as it should be with my wifes and my daughters, my friends and family who are female, as it should be with their body.

On Twitter: @azcapmedia

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More than 400,000 people will visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum this year. Chances are they will leave with 400,000 different memories to share with their friends back home, but describing just what the museum is may not be so easy.

Is the Desert Museum a zoo? An aquarium? An arboretum? An art gallery? A science center?

The answer is yes, it is all those things, which is why the recently published Treasured Legacies is such an ambitious  and noteworthy  addition to the library of Tucson literature.

Released in September by Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press, Treasured Legacies was selected as one of the Southwests Books of the Year by the Pima County Public Library.

It is as hard to summarize as the museum itself; more than an artists portfolio, more than an album of photos, more than a written history.

It is all those things, all in 77 pages that would work just as well in your bookcase as on the coffee table.

Every time you go to the museum you notice things you hadnt seen before, said co-collaborator Anne Warner. After youve seen the animals, you notice the artwork. You see the sculptures and read the poetry. You hear what the docents are teaching the kids while theyre letting them touch a snake. The museum is lots of things. We wanted the book to be lots of things, too.

Warner, a museum volunteer since 2011, was the editor. Other collaborators include Priscilla Baldwin, who co-founded the ASDM Art Institute; Peggy Larson, the ASDM librarian and archivist; and Craig Ivanyi, its executive director.

Their interests and influences are woven together throughout the book, most visibly by the scratchboard portraits of desert animals by Baldwin.

The book is driven by her art, Warner said. Since the museums earliest days, (co-founder) Bill Carr wanted a natural history art museum to be an important part of what we do. He believed art helped tell our story. It always has.

Treasured Legacies is a natural complement to another Desert Museum publication, A Scrapbook, written by Larson and first published by the museum in 2001. It used photos and short stories to lead readers through the museums history.

Treasured Legacies invites readers to look closely at Baldwins scratchboards, which in turn magnify the beauty of animals.

Some Tucsonans, one of us for sure, are surprised to learn the ASDM Art Institute is such an important component of the museums educational program. The institute offers classes, workshops and special exhibitions. A state-of-the-art gallery of wildlife and nature paintings is open daily on museum grounds.

Dont despair, history guy. Treasured Legacies reveals that Carr arrived in Tucson in 1944 with $400 in his pocket, most of which he used to open a bookshop near the university. Youll be reminded the Desert Museum helped establish wildlife sanctuaries near the Gulf of Mexico and reestablish the presence of the Mexican gray wolf in Southern Arizona.

We hear the story behind the museums longtime mascot, George L. Mountainlion, and smile when reminded about the Desert Ark  the Studebaker station wagon Hal Gras drove when taking desert animals to visits at area grade schools.

Words, photos and paintings all contribute to the museums mission, which is to help us understand and appreciate the natural wonders of the Sonoran Desert.

Bill Carr said the Desert Museum is dedicated to life, pure and simple, Warner noted, pointing to Chapter 4. Living it, conserving it, preserving it. . The book reminded us how far the museum has come. But it also made us wonder what the museum will look like 50 years from now; not just our museum, but all museums. All zoos and aquariums, too. What will we look like? What role will we all play?

It is comforting to know the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is already thinking about these things. Thanks to books such as Treasured Legacies, we can begin thinking about them, too.

Treasured Legacies is available at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum gift shop and the ASDM Art Institute. Both take book orders over the phone. Call 520-883-3008 or 520-883-3024.

FOOTNOTES

The Pima Library Foundation will feature Treasured Legacies and chat with its four collaborators in its next Salon Series webinar Thursday at 4 p.m. They will discuss their newly published book and other Desert Museum initiatives. The online conversation is free and open to the public. To register, visit thepimalibraryfoundation.org/ salons

The Desert Museum opened on Labor Day, 1952, with freshly-cut dirt trails through the desert behind the Tucson Mountain House, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and still serves as museum offices. The road through Gates Pass was dirt. Tucson had a population of around 40,000. Museum regulars might be well-advised to purchase A Scrapbook, which is available in the ASDM gift shop. It recounts those early days in words and pictures.

An estimated 100,000 people assembled for the Tucson Festival of Book two weeks ago, executive Melanie Morgan said. It was Tucsons first in-person festival in three years. Morgan said she was happy, grateful and thrilled that so many authors, volunteers and patrons joined the coming-back party at the University of Arizona.

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Quigg, RIchard Sadly, Richard J. "Dick" Quigg, Sr. passed away on April 19, 2022, surrounded by family at his home in Oro Valley, AZ. The cause was prostate cancer. Dick was known for his good humor, kindness, and generosity of spirit among his many caring friends and family, and he .... Read more
A Tucson Police Department officer is being honored for his role in stopping the man behind the July 18 attacks that left three people dead and one injured.

On Friday, Officer Danny Leon will be one of the 10 officers recognized at the ASIS Phoenix Chapters annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Luncheon for acts of valor during the past year. Capt. Mickey Petersen nominated Leon for the honor.

On July 18, Leslie Scarlett killed his girlfriend and set her house on fire before driving to Quincie Douglas Park and ambushing two EMTs inside an AMR ambulance, killing the driver. Scarlett then returned to the house and fired rounds at neighbors and Tucson Fire Department personnel, killing a neighbor and injuring a fire captain.

Scarlett then drove away from the area and crashed his SUV into Leons patrol vehicle. As Scarlett fired shots at Leon, Leon fired back and struck him from 45 yards away. Scarlett was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Under such highly charged conditions, both his courage and his marksmanship were extraordinary, Petersen said in the awards submission. Officer Leons actions prevented a mass shooter from further endangering the public. Well never know how many more lives he saved that day.

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Vietnam sees fall in workplace accidents

Vietnam witnessed a sharp decline in the number of workplace accidents last year, down 1,800 cases or 22.4 percent on-year.



According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs 780 people were killed in 740 workplace accidents, down 18 percent on-year.





A workplace accident in Vietnam



Around 1,500 people were seriously injured at their workplaces in 2021, down 400 people from 2020. HCM City, Hanoi, Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Quang Ninh and Thai Nguyen all ranked highly in terms of the number of deaths related to workplace accidents.



The most serious workplace accidents were involved in construction and mining activities. Ten incidents are facing prosecution.



The main causes for the incidents have been a lack of knowledge of both workers and their employers along with substandard labour safety equipment and violations in labour safety.



The ministry has asked concerned agencies and localities to inspect labour safety regulations at companies that have faced high risks of workplace accidents.


PHOENIX  No Maricopa County election machines used to tally 2020 votes were connected to the internet, according to a new examination.

The finding further undercuts claims by some Donald Trump supporters that the machines were somehow hacked, affecting results.

But the report, issued Wednesday by former U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, is unlikely to end persistent, unverified claims Joe Biden didnt actually defeat Trump in Arizona.

Shadegg, a Phoenix Republican, was hired by the state Senate and Maricopa County to examine the machines. He said the three experts he hired for the study found no evidence that the routers, managed switches, or election devices connected to the public internet. He also said there are no routers, managed switches or Splunk logs in the ballot tabulation center.

He said the experts found that the countys Office of Enterprise Technology, which provides the computer structure for all county departments, does have routers and switches that connect to the public internet.

However, the only election related information on the OET is registration information and records, the report says, adding that it plays no role in the ballot tabulation process. Shadegg also said the offices equipment is never connected, whether by wire or wirelessly, to the ballot tabulation center or any equipment there, which he said is air-gapped from all outside equipment or systems.

No ballot tabulation information is ever received by, sent to, or stored in the OET, he said.

The report comes six months after Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, and county officials agreed to allow outside experts to examine the equipment.

That solution solved the countys concern about having the equipment end up in the hands of Cyber Ninjas, the firm Fann hired to conduct an audit of the 2020 election. County officials didnt trust Doug Logan, who heads that firm, as he had said even before the audit began that he believed the election results were fraudulent.

But Fann was unwilling to accept the countys own assurances the equipment was not compromised. The solution was hiring Shadegg who in turn hired the three experts who were sworn to secrecy before examining the equipment.

Fann said at the time that the deal meant the state would have access to everything we wanted.

On Wednesday, however, Fann was not ready to say she is satisfied that everything is resolved and all questions are answered.

I havent read it yet, she said, declining to comment until she has had a chance to go through the report. Nor was Fann willing to say that the audit, which gained national attention, is now complete.

But Bill Gates, who chairs the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said hes seen enough.

The unanimous conclusions of this expert panel should be a final stake in the heart of the Senates so-called audit,  Gates said in a prepared statement. Whenever impartial, independent, and competent people have examined the countys election practices, they have found no reason to doubt the integrity of those practices.

Cyber Ninjas own hand count of the 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots confirmed Biden did win, and by an even larger margin than the official tally.

But Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, said Shadeggs new report proves nothing about the accuracy of the results. Ive not seen the report myself, he told Capitol Media Services. But if it is as you say, all that shows is there was no external internet connection.

Finchem is campaigning for secretary of state on the platform that the election was rigged, the results should be decertified, and the states 11 electoral votes should be withdrawn from President Joe Biden.

He said it is sophomoric to think the report from Shadegg ends the matter.

Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction, who heads the Senate Government Committee, said she, too, has not seen the report. But Townsend said she still has questions about whether the experts actually got to examine the equipment or instead had to rely on answers furnished by county election officials.

Shadegg, however, said he and the experts examined the facilities and equipment themselves.

He acknowledged that the review he was hired to conduct did not go into various other allegations about how ballots were physically handled, activities at polling locations, or any other procedural questions about how the 2020 election was run.

The report comes as court fights continue over efforts to access Cyber Ninjas records.

Judges in two separate cases have ruled, and appellate courts have affirmed, that documents in the hands of the company relating to the audit are public records and should be released. But Logan has continued to refuse to comply.

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A controversial voucher bill that stirred opposition among local school and state officials was defeated in the Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday, March 23.

SB 1647, authored by Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, would have allowed taxpayer dollars to follow a student to a private school or home school and be used for educational items such as tutoring and transportation.

The measure needed 25 voted to pass, but failed 22 to 24. It narrowly progressed from the Senate Education Committee in February by a vote of 8 to 7.

Sen. J.J. Dossett, D-Owasso, was among those who contested the bill, stating that public money belongs in public schools.

Parents should absolutely pick the best type of education for their children. Public, private and home school options are available in our community, Dossett told the Owasso Reporter. But tax dollars meant for education must stay in the public schools that have the task of educating over 90% of Oklahoma students.

Instead creating schemes to shuffle money around within our education systems, the legislature should be finding ways to make meaningful investments to ensure we keep class sizes down and recruit and retain high quality educators.

Owasso Public Schools interim Superintendent Margaret Coates at the districts February board meeting also publicly announced her disapproval of the proposed legislation.

The reasons are pretty obvious were in opposition, as this will hurt all public schools, Coates said. This law will easily allow for other private, for-profit companies to take advantage of state funds.

Theres an estimated 60,000  students currently who dont attend a public school, which means public schools could lose up to $360 million next school year if funding stays flat and no current public schools students receive a voucher.

Treat said in a Tulsa World story that parents would make the ultimate determination on accountability and that the measure would give parents options.

For a vast majority of the kids, the best option is going to be a local public school; many are served exceedingly well, Treat said. But if they are not served exceedingly well, we cant force them to stay in that system. I think it would be wrong of us as policy makers to do so.

Barbara Hoberock with Tulsa World contributed to this story.

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After 10 years in the making, tenured author and farmer, John Mort, is excited to announce that his newest book, Oklahoma Odyssey is finally complete.

Originally from Missouri, Mort and his wife made the trip southwest about two years ago.

His first book was published in 1987, Tanks a compilation of Vietnam War stories. It won a contest sponsored by the University of Missouri of Kansas City, and it was used as a textbook in a college class at one time. Since then, his career as an author has been steady to say the least, with 11 books attached to his name.

Mort is a Vietnam veteran, and most of his fiction has been about the war. He served the First Cavalry and afterwards attended the University of Iowa, receiving MFA and MLS degrees. Hes also written a lot of stories set in the Ozarks.

This new book, however, Oklahoma Odyssey, is a little bit of a departure from his usual published pieces. Its a western novel about the Land Run of 1893 into the Cherokee Outlet. The settings are in Kansas, Missouri, and of course, Oklahoma. The characters are mostly Mennonites or Osage. In Morts words, Mennonites dont seek revenge.

Mort has always been fascinated by Westerns, specifically the Land Run. In fact, he attributes his interest to writing and researching about the topic for his book to a novel he read in high school.

It was so well written and it definitely stuck with me, Mort said. It struck my fancy, and there are so many elements about it.

There were such a big mix of people that made the Land Run, Mort recalls through his research.

All to get this land that wasnt really theres. It was kind of taken from the Cherokees, that sort of took it from the Osage. The Indians didnt have plotted spaces or deeds back then. It was hunting grounds for them  that really torched history. The Civil War had a lot to do with it, too.

Oklahoma Odyssey takes place in the late fall of 1892, when an outlaw by the name of Eddie Mole shoots a freighter, Barney Kreider, in Jericho Springs, Kans. Some people in the community urged Barneys son, Euly to take revenge. However, Euly is a Mennonite and Mennonities dont seek revenge, Mort writes. Instead, he teams up with Osage acquaintances and starts selling goods and livestock to the settlers converging on Caldwell, Kans. for the land run occurring in the Cherokee Outlet.

Although its a narrative, Mort describes his new book as an anti-revenge novel. Violence is always preferred to be opted out. Mort may even tell you it is a neglected, historical event in western history.

Dealing with Mennonites, they are not violent, Mort described. Or I guess they sometimes can be, but they dont want to be. They are similar to the Amish  they forgive their enemies.

However, there is a violent element at the end, Mort said. We have to keep the western lovers happy!

Mort has written 11 books, including Solider in Paradise and Down along the Piney: Ozark Stories.  Hes even written a number of short stories appearing in a plethora of publications, including the New Yorker and the Chicago Tribune.

I wouldnt recommend an authors life for anybody, Mort said with a laugh. But when you get the book done, finally, it is a wonderful feeling. Some of those scenes you dont know how you wrote. Its a good feeling.

Mort has been researching and traveling for his book, Oklahoma Odyssey for nearly 10 years.

The 324-page book, from the University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, is available for purchase on Amazon. It will appear in nearby bookstores in April.

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In May 2021, the River Parks landmark that used to be known as the Blue Rose Cafe was transformed into a new restaurant called the Sandbar Riverside Cafe, with the adjacent performance space/open-air lounge renamed the Yard Bar.

SERVEGroup, the Tulsa-based food and beverage service contractor that took over the two properties, had wanted these locations operational to be ready for that years Tulsa Tough bicycle competition in June.

However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions on public gatherings, the two venues at 1924 S. Riverside Drive had never held the sort of grand opening desired.

That was remedied March 16, when the Sandbar and Yard Bar held a Re-Grand Opening Celebration, which featured live music by the band Dr. Jr. along with food, drink and other festivities.

The Sandbar was refurbished to accommodate some 200 diners, with the majority of those seats on the restaurants patio, which affords panoramic views of the Arkansas River, as well as Oklahoma sunsets.

The menu includes appetizers, salads, sandwiches and burgers, such as the Tulsa Tough Burger, a double-patty version of the iconic Oklahoma onion burger; the Tulsa Run Salad, that can be ordered topped with grilled or blackened chicken; and Finish Line Brussels Sprouts, which come roasted and topped with a maple glaze.

Hours for the Sandbar are 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. The Yard Bar opens at 3:30 p.m. and closes at sunset Wednesday-Sunday. sandbartulsa.com; theyardtulsa.com.

Tulsa pizza experts compete

Tara Hattan, co-owner and head chef of Zasas Pizza and Wings, 10025 S. Memorial Drive, is in Las Vegas this weekend for the International Pizza Expo, where she will compete in the expos Pizza Acrobatics competition.

Hattan, who got her start working at Andolinis in Tulsa, has earned gold medals at national and international competitions for her ability to make rounds of pizza dough do all kinds of amazing things.

Its really a very physical thing, Hattan said. It involves your whole body to the point that a couple of hours of practicing my dough-tossing is about as strenuous as working out at the gym.

In addition to Hattans performances in competition, Andolinis co-owner Mike Bausch (who with his brother Jim is a co-owner of Zasas Pizza and Wings) will be at the expo, giving talks on how to maximize customer satisfaction, and judging several food competitions.

The International Pizza Expo runs through March 24 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Cocina 66 names new class

Cocina 66, the food incubator program designed for local Latinx culinary entrepreneurs, has announced its second cohort of participants for the 10-week program designed to help them realize their restaurant ambition.

The program was created in 2021 by Kitchen 66, a program of the Lobeck-Taylor Family Foundation, in collaboration with community leader Elian Hurtado and the Uma Center of Tulsa.

We are proud to bring back Cocina 66, said KateLynn Dunning, program director of Kitchen 66. These entrepreneurs bring so much vibrancy and flavor to our local food scene, and support our commitment to the growth of global cuisines in Tulsa.

Participants selected for Cocina 66 will receive marketing and communications support, sales training and access to commercial kitchen space to develop culinary skills in a commercial environment.

The Cocina 66 Spring 2022 Launch Program participants, and their culinary projects, are:

Mharyale State, bakery items.

Gabriela Macchia, antipastos, party trays and Italian sauces.

Ruberto Parra, pasteles and Venezuelan foods.

Ana Berta, Mexican antojitos, or street food items.

Morelba Navarro, custom cakes.

Trinidad Romero, deli sandwiches with tropical flavors.

Monica Sanchez, authentic Puebla foods.

Genoveva Aguilar, organic shaved ice.

Cocina 66 will culminate with a graduation ceremony, in which entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to showcase their new concepts to family, friends and key leaders in the Tulsa community.

To keep up with the progress of the class, follow their journey on Facebook and Instagram at @kitchen66tulsa.

Review: The Wurst

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Dear Dr. Fox: I read with joy your comments to M.S. in Washington, D.C., who said they had a brief communion with a dog they had just met. I believe in reincarnation because of a few experiences a family member and I have had, but my clearest spiritual animal experience involved a recently deceased cat.

Alex had been a problem cat for years  a survivor as a kitten, having spent a few miles trapped in the engine of a moving car. My daughter rescued him, but he was pretty wild and unapproachable for years afterward. Lots of love and spoiling eventually won him over, and he related well to the family, especially to me. He was diagnosed with cancer when he was about 10 years old. One day, I lay down beside him on the bed and went to sleep. When I woke, Alex was gone, his body having given out.

A few days later, I had retired for the night, but was not yet asleep. I clearly felt the familiar thump of a cat jumping on the bed, then the sensation of a little body curling up behind my knees. I could hear purring, and I knew that Alex was paying a visit. I slept, and that was my last visit with Alex. He had come to say goodbye.

I dont tell many people this experience, because I know most wouldnt believe it. Please continue to include in your column the spiritual experiences your readers have with animals.  S.P., Mount Airy, North Carolina

Dear S.P.: Many thanks for having the courage  because such experiences are ridiculed by skeptical materialists  to share your story. Similar instances of cats returning after death are documented in my book Cat Body, Cat Mind, and in the more recent book Animals and Nature First, which also explores other spiritual and ethical aspects of human experience and responsibilities.

What you received from your cat was a blessing indeed: a gift affirming loves enduring power over what we interpret as death. We think of death as the end-all, while in fact, there is life after life once our hearts and minds are opened to the great mystery, which we should celebrate every day! Being mindful is the first step to compassionate action and reverential respect for all life.

Dear Dr. Fox: Our panel of vets just published a comprehensive guide to help pet owners understand how dogs communicate through body language. I think this would be a particularly helpful resource for your readers.

We provide insights on how to interpret a dogs emotional state according to their movement, posture or other body cues. With this guide, we want to keep our pet community well-informed so they keep their pups safe. Our body language guide is available here: betterpet.com/dog-body-language.  Dr. Leslie Brooks, DVM, MPH, vet adviser at betterpet.com

Dear Dr. Brooks: I am glad this is available. For a book on the subject, and additional insights, see my long-selling book Dog Body, Dog Mind: Exploring Your Dogs Consciousness and Total Well-Being.

RABBITS SUSCEPTIBLE TO COVID-19 INFECTION

If you or any family member tests positive for COVID-19, take extra precautions if you have pet rabbits. Though the risk appears low, domestic rabbits may be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 transmitted by humans, according to a study in the journal Veterinary Sciences. Researchers analyzed samples collected from 144 pet rabbits in France during regular veterinary evaluations and found SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in two, though neither rabbit had shown signs of illness.

Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.
One of Tulsas largest churches says it has begun the process of officially splitting off from its parent denomination.

The former Asbury United Methodist Church is now Asbury Church, officials said, and will remain so for at least an interim period during which a decision will be made on the appropriate denomination to join.

The church, 6767 S. Mingo Road, has almost 7,000 members, and is one of the largest Methodist churches in the country.

The announcement comes as the UMC, Americas second largest Protestant denomination, continues to splinter, triggered primarily by traditional and progressive differences over LGBTQ rights.

Asbury Churchs disaffiliation from the United Methodist Church has been inevitable for some time, the Rev. Tom Harrison, senior pastor, said in a statement.

There isnt one issue driving this separation; rather, after years of operating under vastly different approaches to theology, ministry and Christology, it was determined by the leadership of the Church, in conjunction with the pastoral staff, that these approaches are irreconcilable and no longer sustainable. As Asbury Church, we will continue to pursue our mission of helping others follow Jesus.

The announcement, made March 6 at a churchwide meeting, comes at an eventful time for the UMC, as a vote on its future was again recently delayed.

The denomination announced March 3 that it was postponing its General Conference  originally set for Aug. 29-Sept. 6 in Minneapolis  for the third time, this time until 2024.

Delegates were expected to vote on proposals regarding the creation of a new denomination.

On the same day, the new Global Methodist Church, a more conservative Methodist denomination, announced it will officially launch in May.

A video of Asburys announcement and meeting was posted to its website at asburytulsa.org.

Church leaders said the decision to disaffiliate was not done hastily or without great consternation. A transition committee made up of staff and lay leaders has actually been planning the move for three years.

Transition team chairman Jeff Wilkie, speaking at the meeting, said: Our denomination is at a crossroads. Some in the United Methodist Church insist we should change some of the traditional positions dealing with the issues of sexuality. However, sexuality is merely the presenting issue. We believe the real issue is not about sexuality. Its about how we view Scripture.

He said the UMC has moved away from its historic position on the authority of Scripture, and that it creates a very slippery slope.

If someone insists we should change the plain views on spiritual teachings, we could easily change our own views on the deity of Jesus, the Trinity, or anything else that is in the Bible, Wilkie said. We are seeing this being done in United Methodist churches across our country and right here in Tulsa.

Asburys position on the conservative side of the growing divide has been well-documented.

In 2019, the church hosted a global meeting of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, the key organization fighting to retain traditional values in the church. More than a thousand people attended the daylong gathering that was simulcast to some 86 sites around the world.

As part of the formal separation, Asbury Church says it has retained legal aid specializing in religious land use and denominational separations. The church intends to keep its current building and property, and assume current and future debts, expenses and maintenance costs, officials said.

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A security guard who pepper-sprayed a man unprovoked outside an east Tulsa motel in 2020 and then shot him, claiming self-defense, was found guilty of manslaughter on Thursday and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Christopher Straight, who resigned as a sergeant from the Tulsa County Sheriffs Office in 2018 amid an internal investigation that would have resulted in his demotion, was working as a security guard at Knights Inn near 11th Street and Garnett Road, on June 6, 2020.

A manager had asked Carlos Carson, a 36-year-old guest at the motel, to leave the property after Carson reportedly complained about vandalism to his vehicle. Straight told detectives Carson had said he would beat his a after Straight told Carson he needed to leave.

Carson went to place some belongings in his car, and on surveillance video published by the Washington Post, he can be seen walking back toward the motel in a non-aggressive manner, carrying a beverage cup, when Straight steps out of his truck and, from behind his vehicle door, shoots a stream of pepper spray from several feet away toward Carsons face.

Carson staggers before throwing his cup and coming after Straight, hitting him repeatedly with his fists and trying to pull him from the vehicle he stepped back into.

About 20 seconds of struggle later, Straight grabbed his firearm and shot Carson, who was Black.

Straight later acknowledged to police that Carson was not being physically aggressive at all at the moment he sprayed him but said he had used the irritant to deter Carson from becoming aggressive. He said he planned to detain Carson for trespassing until police arrived.

As Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray argued, a defendant cannot initiate a physical altercation, and then claim self-defense when he shoots the victim.

A jury Gray described as being particularly attentive to the evidence of the case and thoughtful in their consideration of a verdict agreed. They found Straight guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the heat of passion during a trial in early March and recommended he serve a sentence of 12 years.

During his formal sentencing Thursday, deputies used a wheelchair to bring Straight, whose attorney described him as severely overweight, into District Judge Tracy Priddys courtroom though he was able to stand and walk on his own.

Two of Carsons family members who were present, his mother and one of his sons, stood before Priddy and addressed Straight.

Phyllis Anderson told Straight her heart has broken every day since he killed her son, and she offered a blanket thanks to everyone in the courtroom who brought Straight to justice, saying she hopes Carson can now rest easier.

Carsons 16-year-old son, Kadin Saffell, began his statement by offering his familys forgiveness and later directed Straight to repentance, reminding him that God is his final judge.

Walking Straight through the consequences of his actions, Saffell reminded Straight that his decisions not only took Carson away from his children, but also took Straight away from his own children for 12 years. That will eventually come to an end after many opportunities for contact with family and in-custody visitations, he said, but Carson will never have that chance.

Carsons killing came in the midst of a national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of a white Minnesotan police officer.

Carsons brother Tulsa Police Officer Ananias Carson has since been accused in an unrelated accessory to a felony case in Tulsa District Court.

Straights attorney, Jim Linger, described Straights actions as a departure from what was normal or expected in his life and urged Priddy to consider his health and letters written by several family members and friends testifying to Straights personality and work performance.

However, after his departure from law enforcement, Straight was fired from one private security company and investigated by TPD while working for another after he allegedly pepper-sprayed a Black woman in another unprovoked attack, the Washington Post reported.

His 13 years of employment at the Tulsa County jail were also checkered with internal investigations and discipline, and federal court records indicate he was the subject of three lawsuits by jail inmates related to his behavior while on duty, according to Tulsa World archives.

Priddy called the shooting incredibly tragic and said she found no reason not to follow the jurys recommended sentence.

Straight is required to serve at least 85% of his sentence under state law, and he will receive credit toward that total for any time he has already been in custody. He will not face a fine in accordance with the jurys recommendation, Priddy said.

Linger notified the court of his intent to appeal the decision, and Straight requested immediate transportation to Oklahoma Department of Corrections custody.

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City councilors voted 7-2 on Wednesday night to approve a resolution establishing a community-led process to come up with recommendations for making amends for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

The vote came eight months after the City Council and Mayor G.T. Bynum approved a nonbinding resolution committing themselves to establishing the process within six months.

The Beyond Apology framework for public engagement was presented by Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper and three other councilors and was crafted by Standpipe Hill Strategies LLC and World Won Development Inc.

The privately funded plan calls for nine months to a year of public meetings, including eight educational/listening sessions, throughout the city and the ongoing involvement of a City Council working group.

The engagement process will be open to all Tulsans with the comfort and accessibility for descendants to be given priority, according to the proposed council resolution.

The ultimate outcome  or goal  of the process is for the City Council to provide a report with proposed action items that have been endorsed by descendants and affected community members.

City Council resolutions must be approved by the mayor. Bynum, who did not attend Wednesdays council meeting, said he is on the record as supporting a process to evaluate how the community can move forward.

I just need time to review the details of this specific proposal, he said.

The massacre of May 31-June 1, 1921, displaced thousands of people and left 35 blocks of the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood in ashes. Thirty-seven deaths from the violence have been confirmed, but the actual figure is widely believed to be much higher.

The resolution approved Wednesday does not make a specific reference to monetary reparations, but it does call for the process to include a review of the possible opportunities for reconciliation spelled out in the states 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission report.

They included, in rank order: payments to living survivors; payments to descendants of those who had property damage during the violence; a scholarship fund; business tax incentives for the Greenwood District; and a memorial.

Wednesdays council discussion included more than an hour of spirited back-and-forth during an afternoon committee meeting and 50 minutes of public comments and council conversation before the vote.

Councilors Phil Lakin and Jayme Fowler were the only councilors to vote against the proposal.

But during the afternoon committee meeting, Councilors Connie Dodson and Jeannie Cue expressed concern about the Beyond Apology proposal.

Cue said she had heard from residents of north Tulsa who said they would not feel comfortable going to the meeting because of who was leading them.

There are just questions in north Tulsa that if we approve this that we are supporting one group in north Tulsa that doesnt necessarily represent the whole community, Cue said.

Lakin and Fowler argued that the council should take the time to consider other options, noting that the resolution approved in June calls for the City Council to establish the community-led process.

So I think my concern is, when did we establish a community-led process? Lakin said. We received a proposal for a community-led process, but I wasnt involved in establishing that community-led process, and I dont know what other community-led processes there are that could be made available to do what is (articulated) in the resolution.

Speaking during the Wednesday night meeting, Lakin asked Greg Robinson, a former candidate for mayor and owner of Standpipe Hill Strategies, if he could support delaying the vote by a week or two so he and others could provide a list of names and organizations that might be interested in participating in the process.

Robinson said that was not his place to say and questioned why the council would feel a need to do such a thing. He noted, for example, that the city did not require a list of stakeholders before it hired a firm to create a process for community engagement on the Police Departments community policing practices.

The question would assert that there is some skepticism potentially that we would actually do that, which is why it is difficult for me to say Yes, you should do that,  Robinson said.

Robinson said he had no intention of turning the Beyond Apology process into a political one and stressed that it would be an inclusive project

Its OK to vote no because we didnt come to you needing you; this is a community-led process, he said. We came to you to invite you into the process, but we are going to have the conversations anyway, and you are welcome to vote no tonight and then watch and allow our community to prove to you that we did it the right way.

We have a lot to do to prove to our own community that we can do this.

Hall-Harper, the lone African American on the council, said she was pleased the resolution passed but expressed frustration with those councilors who she claimed were advocating for more control of the process.

Its typical, very typical, that the white power structure represented on the council felt some type of way about it because they did not have the control, the control to be able to choose who are leaders are, the control to be able to choose what process we use, she said.

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A measure voted through the Oklahoma Senate would require parental consent for minors to access birth control or vaccinations.

Senate Bill 1225 would give parents more control of health care choices for their children. It would require schools and health professionals to get consent from parents before administering vaccinations and female contraceptives.

The bills author, Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, began the discussion of the bill with a story that motivated its existence.

The school loaded up a busload of girls, brought them to the (Tulsa) county health office and injected them with three years of contraception, never did tell the parents, he said.

Tulsa Health Department officials responded to the comments made by Bullard about the agency serving Tulsa County by saying parental involvement is encouraged.

Tulsa Health Department provides services to clients who come to a clinical service location. THD works with multiple community partners to assist clients with transportation needs for services, Preventive Health Division Chief Priscilla Haynes said. Under Title X guidelines, young people of reproductive age can make decisions on their own and may self-consent for family planning services at THD.

Bullard said his measure is more about getting parents informed than limiting contraception.

Were not banning girls from taking it, Bullard said during discussion on the Senate floor Wednesday. Just banning the health departments and schools from administering it to them.

Upon questioning from Sen. Carri Hicks on the language of the measure applying to any health professional, Bullard added hospitals to his list of potential providers.

Bullard said the bill has no protection for a minor who doesnt report they are a sexual assault victim.

Minors would be able to obtain contraceptive services without parental consent if theyve been pregnant before, he said.

Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, began debate on the bill by mentioning how many abortion-restricting measures have already passed in the Senate this session.

We cannot pass this bill, Kirt said, and reduce abortion. This bill limits  all the reasonable ways to reduce teen pregnancy.

Oklahoma remains among the states with the highest teen birth rate, according to a study last year. Compared to the national rate of 16.6 per 1,000 females age 15-19, the teen birth rate in Oklahoma is 27.4.

In addition to contraceptive uses, birth control may be prescribed to relieve menstrual irregularities or painful ovulation, both commonly reported by young women.

Boys dont need parental consent to buy condoms, but girls do for birth control? Hicks asked Bullard, noting the measure seems to apply only to female health.

Some parents may object to contraceptives as a religious belief. The practice has led health care professional organizations to respond that the potential health risks to adolescents if they are unable to obtain reproductive health services are so compelling that legal barriers and deference to parental involvement should not stand in the way of needed health care for patients who request confidentiality.

A floor substitute for the measure added vaccines to health care decisions that require parental consent for minors. The COVID-19 pandemic reignited debate on whether minors should be able to obtain vaccinations without parental consent.

The bill passed 31-11 and moves to the House for consideration.

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OKLAHOMA CITY  The Oklahoma Senate late Wednesday defeated a controversial voucher bill following passionate debate on both sides.

Senate Bill 1647, by Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, would have let public tax dollars go to private schools.

Treat said public money goes to private purposes all the time.

The measure failed by a vote of 22 to 24. Senate leadership held the vote open well over an hour hoping to flip votes. The measure needed 25 votes to pass the Senate.

The vote was declared shortly before midnight.

It faced an uncertain future in the House should it have passed.

House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, said he would not hear the bill.

Gov. Kevin Stitt supported the bill.

I am grateful to Pro Tem Greg Treat and every senator who voted to put parents in charge of their childs education," he said in a statement Thursday. "At the same time, it is deeply concerning that so many voted to deny parents and students choices and keep them trapped in a system that has failed many Oklahoma children and left our state 49th in the nation in education.

Every child deserves the opportunity to attend the school that best works for them, regardless of their zip code or income level, and I will never stop fighting to empower parents and fund students over systems.

Treat amended the bill to put in $128.5 million to offset the cost of the measure, saying he didnt think it would cost that much. Critics suggested the measure would reduce dollars to public schools.

Critics also said the measure did nothing for rural areas of the state where a private school is not available.

Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, said only wealthy families will be able to cover the difference between the voucher and private school tuition.

She said the measure will create pop-up shops across the state with no accountability.

This is more like a subsidy or entitlement, Boren said.

The measure has an income eligibility cap of $154,000 for a family of four.

Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said about 95% of families would be eligible.

This is a bill I passionately believe in, Treat said. It is a bill designed to give opportunity for school choice to kids and their parents.

Treat said the bill is a work in progress, adding that things in it are negotiable.

Sen. J.J. Dossett, D-Owasso, said the bill has no accountability for private schools while lawmakers put tremendous accountability measures on public schools.

Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, said $128 million would pay for 3,657 teacher salaries.

Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, said the accountability is found in the parents. She said the measure gives parents an opportunity to give kids a better education.

The Senate passed a bill to remove the state sales tax on groceries.

Senate Bill 1495, by Treat, passed by a vote of 45-1.

It heads to the House for consideration.

The measure reduces the 4.5% collected by the state to zero.

The bill was amended to make it clear that cities and counties could still collect their taxes on groceries without passing additional ordinances.

The amendment was requested by the Oklahoma Municipal League, Treat said.

For a full fiscal year, the measure would cost $305 million.

The bill passed with no debate.

The Senate also passed Senate Bill 1646, by Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa. The bill is a sentencing reform measure.

It changes several criminal penalties.

For far too long our state has levied punishment that dos not fit the crime, said Adam Maxey, Americans for Prosperity Oklahoma deputy director. Senate Bill 1646 is a reform that will allow Oklahoma to join 36 other states that have a classification system for their felony crimes.

These research-based reforms will put the order back in law and order. The bills author, Sen. Dave Rader, is a defender of taxpayers and supporter of second chances.

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The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Thursday denied Enid attorney Stephen Jones application for original jurisdiction in his lawsuit to stop a planned special election for U.S. senator.

One day after hearing oral arguments on the matter, the court issued a one-sentence order on which all nine justices concurred.

During Wednesdays hearing, several justices asked Jones why he didnt take his case to the federal courts due to his argument revolving around the U.S. Constitution.

The oral arguments convinced them this was one it was best to avoid, Jones said by telephone.

Jones said he has not decided whether to pursue the case in another venue.

Thursdays order is silent on the merits of Jones claim that, under the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the election to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe cant occur until Inhofe actually leaves office.

Last month, Inhofe submitted an irrevocable resignation stating his intent to leave office at the end of this Congress early next year. That was intended to comply with a state law passed last year that provides for appointments and special elections to fill U.S. Senate vacancies.

The law put into statute a practice Oklahoma has used twice before, in 1994 and 2014, to fill expected U.S. Senate vacancies before the incumbents actually left office.

Jones says the 17th Amendment does not allow for such a process. The amendment, adopted in 1912 to move selection of U.S. senators from state legislatures to popular vote, prescribes methods of replacement when vacancies occur.

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With nearly half of those recovering from the infection suffering fatigue and memory problems, no one should still on the fence about whether vaccines can help, Dr. Dale Bratzler says.
When Sen. Jim Inhofe announced his resignation, there were cheers in the Oklahoma State Capitolfrom the happy Democrat Party leaders. The godfather of the Republican Party is leaving on Jan. 3.

Theres a reason. When Inhofe was elected to the U. S. Senate, Oklahoma voter registration was one-third Republican and two-thirds Democrat. By 2022, its flipped. Republicans outnumber Democrats and have taken up conservative values through Inhofes leadership.

In political terms, there are show and work horses. Work horses dont stand in line for the cameras; they are doing the nations business. Inhofe is a work horse who has made a difference for Oklahoma and America for more than 56 years.

Ive been honored to introduce Inhofe at numerous events and, not surprisingly, with his Will Rogers-like demeanor, will cut my introductions short to get down to businessno accolades. Usually, he points to his greatest accomplishment being his wife, Kay, and their 20 kids and grandkids.

Hell be missed by truly conservative Republican candidates seeking office. They know that with the support of Inhofe, their opponent would lose. They know a winner when they see one.

Out of 51 elections, Inhofe has won 48. In 1994 when Sen. David Boren resigned, Dave McCurdy ran against Inhofe for that seat and lost even having had a 20-point lead.

Inhofe will be missed by our military, supporting our troops by securing the latest equipment and technology. Its no coincidence that Oklahomas five military installations are the best equipped.

When some administrations were gutting the military for pet projects, Inhofe, as the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, fought to keep Oklahomas military and economy strong. Presidents, secretaries of defense, military leaders and strategists have depended on Inhofes wisdom for international and domestic decisions on policy and readiness.

Inhofe will be missed by Oklahomas strongest businessthe petroleum industrybecause he was there protecting our greatest resource as businesses, families, schools, hospitals and universities thrive on Oklahoma crude.

Inhofe knows when the oil business is good, Oklahoma is great. Many times in the middle of the night on the Senate floor, when sneaky liberals tried to pass bills to destroy the oil industry, Inhofe debunked their ridiculous arguments. They will not miss him.

Its been my privilege to fly (and will continue flying) with my friend as he travels to military installations and communities talking to Oklahomans. He visits with Washington updates and to keep in touch with real people who keep him grounded.

Inhofe has liberal friendsas we all dowho will miss him because he doesnt waiver in his beliefs. They may be opposite sides of the political fence. But, Inhofe acts as Christians are instructed and respectfully tells them, Im right and youre wrong.

Inhofe was criticized by less-understanding folks who dont appreciate why he takes Jesus to Africa while hes representing the U.S. Senate. I have witnessed presidents and leaders of African countries praying with Inhofe as they place their trust in a man of God who represents America.

Fortunately, Inhofe will continue giving humble advice to those who ask. If they are wise, they will accept it.

Inhofe has made it clear who he wants to continue his legacy, and Oklahomans should respect his reasons.

The legendary Inhofe  the man who tossed a snowball on the Senate floor, who caused world leaders to clutch their pearls when flying to Helsinki to take a stand against claims of man-made global warming, who flew around the world, who protects our military and who brought democracy to African countries is merely stepping aside.

This great man would have impressed our Founding Fathers.

Inhofe will be missed after January. Letters from around the world and across the country have swarmed to his home and office with heartfelt congratulations for his service.

Ill miss seeing my friend riding in Christmas parades, as he shakes hands and waves to the crowd. But as our friend, James Mountain Inhofe, takes a bow, hell forever be in the hearts of Oklahomans for generations to come. Thank you and God bless.

Jerry Buchanan is the former Tulsa County Republican Party chairman and longtime friend of Inhofe.

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Oklahoma lawmakers have shown they still have an appetite for criminal justice reform.

Senate Bill 1458, by state Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, would take another step toward easing the transition from incarceration to life outside prison walls. The bill proposes to remove a number of court fees assessed to offenders convicted of certain crimes.

These fees can amount to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For those leaving prison, finding work can be a challenge, and many of the jobs they get cannot keep up with the long list of court fees with which theyre burdened.

The inability to pay these fees can sometimes land offenders back behind bars.

Officials say circumstances like these can lead some offenders to drop out of the workforce, avoid probation officers and return to crime to make ends meet.

This is the opposite of what we want. Offenders who have served their sentences dont need added burdens that thwart the goal of rebuilding their lives.

There is a question of cost. Court fees help pay for programs administered by state agencies that are involved in Oklahomas criminal justice system.

The Attorney Generals Office, the Corrections Department, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, the Health Department and the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services all receive some funding from these fees.

Thompson said these agencies will not be harmed by trimming court fees.

We are not cutting state agencies, Thompson said. We are funding it. We are just going to take it off the backs of the people.

The fees themselves represent a reaction to onerous tax laws. With 1992s passage of State Question 640  a law that forbids raising taxes without a supermajority vote of the Legislature or approval by voters  lawmakers in past years used fees to keep up with the rising costs of criminal justice.

That effectively transferred a portion of public safety costs from a wider tax base to a small group of people with a chronic inability to pay. SB 1458 reverses that trend.

The bill has passed the Senate and is now in the hands of the House of Representatives. It has the support of Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Too many offenders who want to move beyond the errors of their past and live productive lives face steep financial obstacles to that end, some of which are imposed by the state. Ending this cycle gives them a better chance.

SB 1458 is an example of lawmakers seeing a problem and finding a solution. Its good governance. We urge House members to pass SB 1458 and send it to the governors desk for his signature.

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Ginnie Graham and Bob Doucette discuss the latest state legislation, including the defeat of Senate Bill 1647, which would have let public tax dollars go to private schools.

Also, hundreds of millions in tax cuts are being considered, involving phasing out the states personal and business income taxes; suspending the state sales tax on groceries; giving property tax relief to higher income senior citizens; and mailing out $321 million in tax rebates just ahead of the November general election.

Graham and Doucette also preview their weekend columns and talk SB 1225, a measure voted through the Oklahoma Senate would require parental consent for minors to access birth control or vaccinations.

How to submit a Letter to the Editor (including candidate endorsement letters)

Letters are no more than 250 words (some as short as a couple of paragraphs). We ask for a name and city of residence, (like, "Ginnie Graham, Tulsa"). And those can be submitted by clicking here.

The last day we'll publish campaign-related letters for the area school board races is April 1.

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The impacts of Chinas latest coronavirus lockdowns are rippling through Vietnams business sector due to global supply chain disruptions associated with the Chinese governments zero-COVID strategy.

Many Vietnamese enterprises are searching for ways to reduce their dependence on the Chinese market, a long-standing issue that has become increasingly worse throughout the pandemic.

Transport delays

T.V.H., general director of a truck manufacturing and assembly company with a factory in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, is looking forward to receiving a shipment of auto parts and components that has been delayed for over a week due to congestion in Chinese ports.

The queues of container ships outside major Chinese ports are lengthening by the day as COVID-19 outbreaks in manufacturing export hubs, including Shenzhen and Dongguan, continue to paralyze factories.

Prior to the current lockdowns, it typically took about 35 days for H.s company to receive shipments sent by sea.

Currently, that time has increased to 45 days.

Despite the delays, shipping remains H.s only option given current interruptions in road and train shipping.

Weve had two shipments delayed so far this year, and that has forced us to renegotiate with our partners, which is not easy, H. said, adding that both shipments included about 20 containers with a combined value of over US$1 million.

Had it not been for [our customers] understanding, wed have compensated them for the contract.

For transporting goods from China to Europe by cargo ships of 15,000-16,000 TEUs (a measurement used in the shipping industry to described 20-foot containers), shipping times have increased from 55 to 100 days, according to Vu Ngoc Son, chairman of Hai An Transport and Loading Company.

While Chinas main ports remain open, congestion at these ports only worsens, and many container ships are re-routing in order to avoid delays.

Gridlock at Yantian International Container Terminals in Shenzhen is the worst, according to H.

The situation is affecting supply prices, according to Nguyen Van Thong, director of a company specializing in importing components for internal combustion engines.

We are still finding ways to import goods, but shipping times are certainly much longer, and the price [for different goods] is also on the rise, Thong said.

Higher sea freight fees

Not only are enterprises concerned about scarce supplies, but they are also worried about inflated shipping costs.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of shipping a 40-foot container from a Chinese seaport to Cat Lai Port in Ho Chi Minh City was about $1,100.

That price has now ballooned to the $2,500-3,400 range.

Sending goods in the opposite direction, from Cat Lai Port to China, can cost as much as $9,000  five to six times higher than in the past.

In the worst-case scenario, a shipment may be returned from China due to COVID-19, doubling the cost.

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Chinese emergency workers found on Wednesday one of two black boxes from a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed with 132 people onboard, but U.S. efforts to join the investigation are on hold because of COVID-19 quarantine rules.

The black box device recovered is the plane's cockpit voice recorder, based on an early assessment, a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official told a media briefing, adding that the recording material appeared to have survived impact in relatively good shape.

Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast on Monday when the Boeing 737-800 jet suddenly plunged from cruising altitude at about the time when it should have started its descent before landing.

The cause of the crash has yet to be determined. Most of the jet appears to have disintegrated upon impact, although some debris and human remains have been found.

Rescuers search for the black boxes at a plane crash site in Tengxian county of Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 22, 2022. A China Eastern Airlines passenger plane, flight MU5735, crashed into the mountainside on Monday. Photo: Zhou Hua/Xinhua via REUTERS

"An initial inspection showed that the exterior of the recorder has been severely damaged, but the storage units, while also damaged to some extent, are relatively complete," CAAC official Zhu Tao said.

The black box is being sent to an institute in Beijing for decoding, although how long that takes would depend on the extent of the damage, Zhu said.

Weather along the flight path on Monday did not pose any danger to the aircraft and air controllers had communication with it after take-off and prior to its rapid descent, said Mao Yanfeng, head of aircraft investigation at CAAC.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that Chinese authorities had invited the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to take part in the investigation of the crash, adding that he was very encouraged by the invitation to be on the ground in China.

Plane debris is seen at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 21, 2022. Picture taken March 21, 2022. Photo: cnsphoto via REUTERS

The NTSB, however, later said it had not yet determined if investigators would travel to China in light of visa and quarantine requirements.

"We are working with the Department of State to address those issues with the Chinese government before any travel will be determined," the NTSB said.

China has very few COVID cases and strict requirements for at least two weeks of hotel quarantine on arrival for citizens and foreigners. A World Health Organization team that last year investigated the origins of the pandemic had to quarantine first.

The crash investigation is being led by China but the United States is invited to take part because the plane was manufactured there.

Workers install security cameras at the entrance of Lu village near the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 23, 2022. Photo: REUTERS

The Chinese authorities have said the plane, which did not respond to repeated calls during its descent, met airworthiness standards before take-off and all three pilots - one more than normally required on a 737 - were in good health.

The captain, hired in January 2018, had 6,709 hours flying experience, while the first and second officers had 31,769 hours and 556 hours, respectively, a China Eastern official said.

"From what we know, the performance of the three pilots had been good and their family life relatively harmonious," the official said.

One co-pilot was an observer to build up experience, the airline said.

People, some of who are believed to be relatives of victims, walk near the entrance of Lu village near the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 23, 2022. Photo: REUTERS

Extra precautions

China Eastern tightened precautions after the crash, requiring two senior captains and a senior co-pilot on a three-person crew on some aircraft types, state-backed The Paper said.

Heavy rain in southern China on Wednesday hampered the search for victims and black boxes, with wet weather forecast to last the rest of the week.

Grief-stricken relatives visited the site, among them a retiree surnamed Zhang from Shenzhen, whose eyes filled with tears as he told Reuters his nephew was onboard.

"I hope the country can thoroughly investigate this matter and find out whether it was the manufacturer's fault or it was a maintenance problem," Zhang said.

A drone flies over rescuers working at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane, flight MU5735, crashed in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, in this still image taken from a footage March 22, 2022. Photo: CGTN via REUTERS TV

CAAC has launched a two-week inspection of the sector, involving checks on all regional air traffic control centres, airline companies and flight training institutes to ensure "absolute" safety.

FlightRadar24 data showed the aircraft plunged rapidly at a rate of 31,000 feet per minute.

China has improved air safety over the past two decades, and Monday's disaster was the first major crash in a dozen years.

Rescuers work at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane, flight MU5735, crashed in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, in this still image taken from a footage March 22, 2022. Photo: CGTN via REUTERS TV

China Eastern and two subsidiaries have grounded their fleet of more than 200 Boeing 737-800 jets. An airline official said the move was more an emergency reaction to the crash rather than a response to any safety issue.

The disaster comes as Boeing is working to recover from several crises, notably safety concerns over its 737 MAX model following two deadly crashes and the impact on travel from the pandemic.
Check out the news you should not miss today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Wednesday held phone talks with President-elect of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk-yeol, during which the two leaders discussed measures to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in many fields, the Vietnam News Agency reported the same day.

Society

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has suggested the city government expand its public bicycle rental service as it attracted more than 110,000 registrations in downtown District 1 during the last three months of a test run.

-- Local authorities in the south-central province of Binh Dinh have recently found 25 martyrs' remains at Mit Hill, located in Nhon Son Village, An Nghia Commune, Hoai An District thanks to the information provided by an American veteran who joined a battle there in late 1966.

-- The northern province of Bac Giang will allow local karaoke parlors and online game centers to reopen from Friday provided COVID-19 prevention measures are applied.

Business

-- More than 102 international business leaders and entities from 24 countries and member governments of the International Organization of the Francophonie met with over 420 Vietnamese enterprises to discuss agriculture - food processing, sustainable energy, as well as digital goods and services on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lifestyle

-- Vietnams Central Highlands city of Da Lat has been ranked third among the worlds most endorsed destinations for flowers by Booking.coms global travelers, the travel and accommodation booking platform said in a press release on Wednesday.

-- An exhibition featuring entries from the 2021 World Press Photo competition on Wednesday kicked off at Le Van Tam Park in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City and will be open to the public until April 10.

World news

-- Chinese emergency workers found on Wednesday one of two black boxes from a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed this week with 132 people onboard, and the United States said its investigators had been invited to the crash site, Reuters reported.

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The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has suggested the city government expand its public bicycle rental service in light of the 110,000 users it received during its three-month pilot run.

Do Ba Dan, chairman of Tri Nam Corporation, the operator of the bike share service, revealed on Wednesday that 110,000 users had registered with the company over the past three months.

About 1,300 people registered for the service every day, with more than 130,000 trips covering a total distance of 600,000 kilometers during the projects pilot phase, according to Dan.

Early mornings and late afternoons were peak hours for the service.

Stations near the Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street and shopping malls around the city center were the busiest.

Over the past three months, the operation of the public bicycle rental service has been very stable, the chairman said.

We hope to expand this service to places outside District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City.

A Tri Nam Corporation employee arranges bicycles for the shared service in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

Hailing the impressive number of users Tri Nam Corporation has lured, Bui Hoa An, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, said the department will hold a meeting with the company and professional agencies to assess the service's future prospects.

The transport department plans to propose expanding the service to areas surrounding District 1, such as Binh Thanh District, Phu Nhuan District, District 3 , District 7, and places near bus routes.

It expects the service to contribute to affordable forms of transport in the city.

The municipal transport department inaugurated the bike share service in downtown District 1 on December 16, 2021, putting 500 bicycles into operation at 43 stations.

The cost to rent one bicycle is based on service use time, such as VND5,000 ($0.22) per 30 minutes and VND10,000 ($0.44) per hour.

Customers must download the TNGO app on their cellphones to identify the nearest point where bicycles are available for rent.

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Police in Vietnam's Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang have recently arrested a local man who is believed to supply the gun used in a homicide in the locality.

They suspected 27-year-old Tran Minh Quan, from the provicial capital of My Tho, of supplying the gun used in the shooting death of 15-year-old Huynh Bao Sang earlier this month.

At around 10:00 pm on March 13, Sang was chased and gunned down by two motorbikers while traveling with a friend on Dinh Bo Linh Street in My Tho.

Sang was brought to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his wounds shortly after.

A preliminary investigation revealed that Sang and his friends had had a conflict with a group of strangers earlier in the evening, including Nguyen Ngoc Ty, 17, and Nguyen Thanh Manh, 21.

Ty and Manh later turned themselves in for Sangs death, surrendering a rubber bullet gun, a bullet, and four shell casings to police officers.

Manh said that he had bought the gun online.

An initial examination determined that the gun was used as a support tool.

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Authorities in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam have found 25 martyrs' remains thanks to the information provided by an American veteran who joined a battle there in late 1966.

The remains were found at Mit Hill in Nhon Son Village, An Nghia Commune, Hoai An District, according to Ho Quoc Dung, secretary of the provincial Party Committee.

The discovery was hugely thanks to the information supplied by an American veteran who participated in a battle at Mit Hill on December 27, 1966.

He contacted a Vietnamese veteran and sent the coordinates and images of the mass burial pit, Dung elaborated.

Competent authorities later searched the location and were able to find the remains of 25 fallen soldiers, along with their belongings.

The information provided by the U.S. veteran was very accurate, the official added.

The Binh Dinh Party Committee has agreed to bring the remains to the martyr cemetery in Hoai An District.

The provincial military command is still coordinating with relevant forces to expand the area of the search, according to Colonel Tran Thanh Hai, the provinces military commander.

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A Vietnamese man was rescued by Thai navy forces on Wednesday after he was found paddling an inflatable boat alone toward India to see his wife, from whom he had been separated by COVID-19 for over two years, the Bangkok Post reported.

A fishing boat reported seeing the Vietnamese man paddling at sea at 11:50 am on Wednesday, about 14 kilometers off the Similan Islands and 80 kilometers off the southern Thai province of Phangnga, the Bangkok Post quoted a representative from the Third Fleet as saying.

When sailors and marine park rangers reached the man at 12:45 pm that same day, they found Ho Hoang Hung, 37, on a rubber boat tied to the fishing vessel.

There were a nearly-empty drinking water bottle, a suitcase, and about 10 packets of instant noodles on the 2.5-meter-long rubber boat.

The Vietnamese man told them he was paddling to India to meet his Indian wife in Mumbai.

The two got married two years ago, he said, but were separated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The man said he arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport from Ho Chi Minh City on March 2.

His original plan was to board another flight to India but was unable to obtain a visa.

Instead, he took a bus from Bangkok to Phuket and bought an inflatable boat.

He launched it on March 5 with his sights set on paddling his way to India -- about 2,000 kilometers away.

Fishermen found him after he had spent 18 nights alone at sea.

Thai officials brought him to the office of the Mu Ko Similan National Park in Phangnga to arrange further assistance.

After a two-year suspension, Vietnam has resumed international flights to 20 destinations since February 15, 2022, the third year the Southeast Asian country has struggled with COVID-19.

Before the pandemic, Vietnam had operated flights to 28 destinations.

Eight have yet to agree to the resumption of flights -- namely Brunei, Finland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Macau, Myanmar, and Switzerland.

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Police in Ho Chi Minh City suspect that a local woman had committed suicide by setting her apartment on fire, resulting in her death and her daughter's on Wednesday.

Officers in Tan Phu District are investigating the incident to determine the cause of the blaze that broke out at a flat on the 10th floor of Carillon 5 Apartment Complex on Luy Ban Bich Street in Hoa Thanh Ward early on Wednesday morning.

The incident killed N.T.N.N., 42, and her daughter, 18-year-old N.T.N.M., with eyewitnesses saying that the heat from the fire forced them to climb out of the window. They eventually fell to the ground.

After examining the scene and collecting witnesses statements, investigators believe that the mother may have committed suicide by setting the apartment on fire, according to a source close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Officers also reported a strong smell of gasoline at the scene, the source added.

A fire breaks out at an apartment on the 10th floor of Carillon 5 Apartment Complex in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, March 23, 2022. Photo: A.X. / Tuoi Tre

An official from the Peoples Committee in Hoa Thanh Ward stated that N. was in the last stage of cancer and had signs of depression.

She had previously attempted suicide but had been saved by local residents.

N. and her daughter had been renting the apartment for quite a while, the official added.

Officers under the firefighting and prevention police unit in Tan Phu District arrived at the location after being notified and managed to put out the flames after just a few minutes, but the victims had already died after falling from their flat, according to previous reports.

The blaze burned down about 20 square meters of the apartment as well as multiple assets, while some nearby apartments were also affected.

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On Four Corners next Monday is Wild Weather a BBC Panorama production, that charts increasing extreme weather events around the world.

Dangerous climate change is no longer something we can talk about as being off in the future. Its arrived. Climate scientist, USA

The devastating floods that wreaked havoc in Australias eastern states and the massive destruction caused by the Black Summer fires have rammed home the terrible cost of extreme weather and its aftermath. But Australia is not the only nation experiencing wild, dangerous and unprecedented weather.

Theres no way to have a positive spin on it, its just far worse than we all expect its going to be. Ecologist, UK

On Monday, Four Corners brings you a sobering report from the BBCs Panorama program that charts increasing extreme weather events around the world.

The water started rising. It was terrible. We didnt know what to do. We couldnt stay in the house, but there was nowhere else to go. Flood survivor, Germany

In Germany last year, hundreds of people were killed in floods when record rainfall saw rivers bursting their banks, washing away buildings that had stood since medieval times.

Im incredibly angry weve worked very hard on technology and we also know how to forecast floods at a local levelso why so many people died its so very frustrating. Professor of Hydrology, UK

Soaring temperatures in the northern summer smashed Canadas records and ferocious wildfires, reminiscent of our own Black Summer, burned a town to the ground.

I looked through the window and the clouds were sort of incredibly dark with black bits and burning bits in themit just got darker and darker and then Gordon said, there is no phone there is no internet there is no power, nothing. Wildfire survivor, Canada

From cyclone ravaged farmland in India to Australias wheatbelt and the dust storm choked skies of South Korea, the program shows the impact of extreme weather.

It looks like the end of the world. In this kind of weather, I feel that I really, really dont want to be outside. Resident, South Korea

Climate scientists warn that these are not random acts of bad luck, they are a symptom of our changing climate.

There is no doubt about that, and I think we cannot beat around the bush anymore and be nice to each other and say maybe, maybe, maybe its not happening. Lets get that clear. Climate policy researcher, India

Research commissioned for the program and undertaken by the UK Meteorological Office, shows that this weather is only likely to increase.

What happens into the future is, assuming continued emissions, then these temperatures, these extreme temperatures become a regular occurrence. We would see this every year. Climate scientist, UK

Those pushing for global government action on climate change say the world needs to be prepared for an increase in this wild weather and act now.

Even if we got to net zero tomorrow, the impacts that have been set in chain will continueand thats why making sure that people have defences against flooding, they have defences against a whole range of climate change is very important. President, COP21

Monday 28th of March at 8.30pm on ABC.
Drama is still scoring the biggest lifts in catch-up viewing. Last nights episode of The Responder on SBS may have only drawn 60,000 viewers in overnight numbers, but the previous episode shot up by 195% across the week to 330,000.

That compares to Married at First Sight which lifted by 54%, which is still a huge increase in Total TV.

Overnights is still tops for MAFS which was #1 at 954,000 metro viewers last night, more than double 7:30 (493,000), Hard Quiz (477,000), Warnie (445,000) and Ambulance Australia (323,000).

Later Gogglebox led at 434,000 then Mad as Hell (396,000), Under Investigation (362,000) and The Front Bar (316,000).

Nine network won Wednesday at 34% then Seven 26.1%, 10 17.1%, ABC 15.3% and SBS 7.5%.

Nine News was 842,000 / 840,000 for Nine then A Current Affair (699,000) and Hot Seat (369,000 / 239,000). Nine News Late was 196,000. Footy Classified drew 68,000 across the network.

Seven News won at 912,000 / 866,000 for Seven. The Chase was 494,000 / 320,000 then Home & Away (474,000). The Latest scored 319,000.

The Project pulled 365,000 / 237,000 for 10. 10 News First was 307,000 / 219,000. A replay of Would I Lie to You? was 153,000.

ABC News was 598,000. The Drum (143,000), Starstruck (117,000) and QI (98,000) followed.

On SBS it was SBS World News (176,000 / 125,000), Michael Mosleys Health Intervention (106,000), Life on the Outside (90,000), Mastermind (80,000) and The Responder (60,000).

The Coroner on 7TWO led multichannels at 112,000.

Sunrise: 245,000

Today: 225,000

News Breakfast: 104,000 / 64,000

In Total TV numbers last Wednesday were:

The Responder: 330,000

Married at First Sight: 2.01m

Home & Away: 797,000

Mad as Hell: 714,000

Ambulance Australia: 447,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 23 March 2022
With Seven as Australian broadcaster of the Academy Awards on Monday, Sunrise has exclusive red carpet coverage with Natalie Barr.

Peter Ford is also attending for The Morning Show.

Natalie Barr said: Ive covered floods, fires, elections and terror attacks, so to frock up and head to the biggest red carpet of them all is going to be different, exciting and a whole lot of fun! I cant wait to bring Sunrise viewers all the action of the Academy Awards up close from 5.30am on Monday morning.

Kicking off from 5.30am, join Sunrises Natalie Barr as she rubs shoulders with the biggest stars live from the red carpet of the 94th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Australias #1 brekky show will have exclusive access to the Oscars for this special edition of Sunrise. Joining Nat to bring viewers all the glitz, glamour and celebrity interviews will be Sunrises entertainment guru Nelson Aspen and 7NEWS US Bureau Chief Ashlee Mullany.

Sevens Oscars broadcast begins from 11am AEDT and is repeated 9:40pm.
Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Variable clouds with thunderstorms - possibly severe this afternoon. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High near 75F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, with mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
By Allison Brace 22

The American Philosophical Association awarded University of Dayton philosopher Ernesto Rosen Velasquez the 2021 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought for his work about Latinx communities, Is Latina Mestiza Identity a Being-in-Worlds?

Velasquezs essay challenges capacity theories that presuppose a being by taking a critical look at work by philosopher Mariana Ortega, who examines Latina womens identity by describing them as beings in the world  which inspired Velasquezs essay title. In his piece, Velasquez introduces a new theory that uses a relational approach to determine what it means to be human.

I really enjoy listening and responding to the work of other philosophers, said Velasquez, associate professor of philosophy. All of the pieces I write are prompted by personal and intellectual interest, but it is important to note that to love and care for something you have to appreciate its strengths and be able to look at it critically and seek to make improvements.

The Essay Prize is sponsored by the American Philosophical Association committee on Hispanics. It is awarded to the author of the best unpublished, English-language, philosophical essay in Latin American thought. The winning essay will be published in the APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy.

The selection committee commended Velasquez for an innovative, rigorous contribution to Latinx/Latin American philosophy, one that not only contributes to the growth and expansion of the field, but can also be counted among the best original, English-language philosophical essays of 2021.

Through his research and community engagement, Velasquez has come to determine that a characteristic such as having the capacity to project in the future is not enough to define whether one is human, especially in terms of marginalized or dehumanized populations. In his essay, Velasquez introduces a theory that argues that to be or not to be a human being is entirely relational.

I think from, with and alongside the most vulnerable populations, Velasquez said. We cannot take for granted that freedom is a given; for vulnerable populations liberation is an ongoing struggle. Dehumanized groups of people can have all of the things that are required to be considered human in a biological sense, but if they are not treated as human beings then are they really human? I developed this concept of the human being as a relational notion, so I am a human because other people treat me as such, not because I have a specific feature.

Specializing in decolonial thought, Latinx and Latin American philosophy, critical philosophy of race and political philosophy, Velasquez has used his expertise to diversify the philosophy curriculum since he joined the University faculty in 2009.

Velasquez has developed courses in Latinx, race and hip-hops role in philosophy to complement, build on and critically evaluate the Universitys traditional Western-European philosophy courses.

"Dr. Velasquez continues to be a leader in diversifying and decolonizing the curriculum, said Rebecca Whisnant, professor and Department of Philosophy chair. He brings a similar lens to his own scholarship, and our department is pleased and proud that his research is being recognized with this prestigious award."

Velasquez also played an important role in leading the development of the minor in Latinx and Latin American studies during the spring 2020 semester.

I was thrilled to hear that Dr. Ernesto Velasquez would be receiving the 2021 APA essay prize in Latin American Thought for his essay Is Latina Mestiza Identity a Being-in-Worlds?, said Thomas Morgan, associate professor in the Department of English. This recognition is just another example of his ongoing contributions to making Latinx and Latin American studies visibly present on the University of Dayton campus, from the minor he helped establish to the national recognition this award represents.

Outside of his research, Velasquez spends time working with marginalized community organizations. Through his work with parent-teacher community organizations, The Never Again Movement and movements against police brutality, locally and globally, Velasquez said he has gained valuable knowledge he hopes to use to help make the world a better, wiser place.

Velasquez is thankful to his fellow University faculty for offering support and flexibility not only to create new course formats, but also to write and travel to engage in service around the globe.

It is really an honor to be recognized for your philosophical rigor and excellence by a well-respected and highly regarded group in the field, Velasquez said. This award also has historical significance. Professor Jorge J.E. Gracia was my advisor at State University of New York at Buffalo. He created this award over 20 years ago and he was a pillar in making visible the field of Latinx philosophy in the United States. The timing of this award makes it a sort of tribute to him and his recent passing.

For more information, visit the Race and Ethnic Studies program website.
Triple Check-Raise Secures Fourth Super MILLION$ Title for Martirosian

March 24 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Artur Martirosian was already in an exclusive club of GGPoker players who had triumphed in the Super MILLION$ three times. Not that club has even more exclusivity because the Russian grinder joins Niklas Astedt and Michael Addamo as the only players to have secured four Super MILLION$ titles.

Martirosian sat down second in chips with less than half the stack size of chip leader Mike Watson. Martirosian never gave up and secured his fourth title, and $394,326, under the watchful eyes of Kevin Martin and Eugene Katchalov on GGPoker's YouTube channel.

Super MILLION$ Season 2 Episode 35 Final Table

Place Player Country Prize 1 Artur Martirosian Russia $394,326 2 Mike Watson Croatia $309,184 3 Manuel "OPPikachu" Fischer Austria $242,426 4 Weiran Pu China $190,083 5 Jeff "DollarVig" Berwick Canada $149,041 6 Simon Mattsson Norway $116,860 7 FJAGMA Canada $91,628 8 Sterke Vis Netherlands $71,844 9 Joao Vieira Brazil $56,332

It took almost 30-mins of action for the final table to lose its first player. Joao Vieira limped in from the small blind with pocket jacks before calling off his 15 big blind stack when Weiran Pu moved all-in from the big blind with ace-trey. An ace on the flop and a wheel on the river for Pu resigned Vieira to a ninth-place finish.

Pocket jacks remained true a few hands later and sent Sterke Vis home in eighth. Manuel "OPPikachu" Fischer min-raised to 120,000 from early position with pocket sevens, Vis three-bet all-in for six big blinds with nines, only for Martirosian to four-bet to 760,000 with jacks in the hole from the big blind. Fischer folded, and the five community cards ran ace high, and Vis busted.

"FJAGMA" busted on the very next hand after three-betting all-in for eight big blinds with ace-six after Weiran Pu opened to 132,000 with king-jack. Pu called, flopped a king, and sent the all-in player to the showers.

Simon Mattsson

The eliminations continued with the demise of Simon Mattsson approximately 20 minutes after FJAGMA crashed out. Blinds had increased to 35,000/70,000/8,500a, and Pu raised to 154,000 with pocket nines. Mattsson responded with a three-bet to 434,000 with ace-king of hearts, only for Watson to wake up in the small blind with a pair of aces! Watson made it 854,000 to go, which folded out Pu, but Mattsson pushed his 2,757,838 stack over the line. Of course, Watson instantly called. The aces held and Watson's stack soared to more than 6.9 million with his nearest rival on 4.4 million.

The final five became four with the elimination of Canada's Jeff "DollarVig" Berwick. He open-shoved for only 4.5 big blinds with a pair of deuces in the hole but his timing was off because Fischer laid in wait in the big blind with pocket tens and made the call. Fischer flopped a set and Berwick was drawing dead on the turn.

Fourth-place and $190,083 went to Pu in a cooler of a hand. Fischer opened the betting with a min-raise to 200,000 from under the gun which Pu called on the button. Martirosian called from the small blind, meaning it was three-ways to the queen-queen-jack flop. Martirosian checked, Fischer also checked, and Pu tested the waters with a 287,500 bet. Only Fischer called. The turn was a five, and Fischer checked again. Pu set the price to continue at 887,750 and Fischer paid the asking price. An ace on the river saw Fischer check for a third time, and Pu move all-in for 2,572,252 into the 3,100,500 pot. Fischer snap-called and flipped over queen-jack for a flopped full house, crushing Pu who had turned a smaller full house with his pocket fives!

Fischer was the next player out of the door despite having almost twice as many chips as his final two opponents at the start of three-handed play. First, he lost a large pot to Watson then the rest of his stack to Martirosian. Martirosian made it 352,000 to go from the button with pocket eights and eventually called when Fischer moved all-in from the big blind for 5,845,610 with pocket threes. An ace-high board sent the tournament into the heads-up stage.

Mike Watson had to make do with a runner-up finish

Martirosian held a 2.5-to-1 lead over Watson going into heads-up and it did not take too long for him to get his hands on Watson's stack. The final hand was an epic encounter that saw Martirosian pull off a triple check-raise to win the tournament.

The hand started with Watson limping in with six-deuce of diamonds, and Martirosian calling with queen-ten. Martirosian flopped trip queens with a gutshot straight draw while Watson had nothing but air. Despite this, Watson fired a 200,000 bet after his Russian opponent checked. Martirosian check-raised to 440,000, and was called. Martirosian check-raised Watson's 332,500 turn bet to 840,000 when a deuce turned, and Watson called. The river was another deuce, improving Watson to a worse full house than his opponent. Martirosian checked once again, Watson bet 1,505,000 and called off the 426,539 chips he had behind when Martirosian check-raised all-in. Game over for Watson and Super MILLION$ title number four for Martirosian.
TEHRAN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The life of Israel is dependent on causing instability, Iran's ambassador and representative to the United Nations office in Geneva said on Thursday, adding the Israeli regime ensures its survival at the expense of others.

Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh made the remarks in response to anti-Iran allegations leveled by Israel at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), according to Iranian official news agency IRNA.

Israel blamed Iran for carrying out a missile operation against an Israeli intelligence base in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish regional capital Erbil and accused the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) of destabilizing the region.

On March 13, the IRGC said it hit with missiles an Israeli intelligence base in Erbil.

The operation, according to the IRGC, was in reaction to an Israeli airstrike on Syria's capital Damascus on March 7, in which two IRGC officers were killed.

Baghaei Hamaneh noted that in order to protect and expand itself, Israel is essentially in need of destabilizing its surrounding environment.

He added that Israel has a destabilizing characteristic intrinsically, and this reality has been evident throughout "the Zionist regime's short but miserable lifespan."

As a consequence of following this logic, the Iranian ambassador said, creating crises and chaos has become a defining and special feature of Israel. 
Anh vu fish (Semilabeo notabilis) was previously offered for the king for good luck, especially on the occasion of the New Year. Not as expensive as su vang fish, anh vu fish is priced at hundreds of USD per kilo. Some people choose anh vu fish as a New Year gift. This species lives in the Central Highlands. People believe that eating anh vu fish can cure some diseases and is good for the kidney.
The Waco Civic Theatre continues to move back to pre-pandemic-size productions with a two-weekend run of the Americana musical Bright Star, one with a cast of 20 and a roundabout connection to the community theaters history.

The 2014 musical, written by Waco-born actor, musician, comedian and author Steve Martin, and Dallas native and musician Edie Brickell, tracks the story of a female editor in 1940s North Carolina who finds herself encountering the aftermath of a life-changing romance from 20 years earlier.

Though born in Waco in 1945, Martin and his family moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was five and he barely mentions his hometown in either of his two autobiographies. Clippings from the Tribune-Herald archives, however, show Martins father Glenn was involved in several Baylor, Dramateur Guild and Waco Civic productions from the 1930s to 1940s, serving as WCT president in 1950.

WCT has staged musicals with country songs in the past, but Bright Star has more of a bluegrass flavor, complete with banjo  which Martin plays professionally  said director Eric Shephard. Befitting the rural North Carolina setting of the plays earlier years, the musical also features southern gospel, folk music and jazz.

Shephard first heard the music, in fact, before seeing the play, with the 2016 release of the original cast album, which won a Grammy Award nomination.

The musical focuses on Alice Murphy (Elizabeth Rogers), an editor with the Asheville Southern Journal who has built a career for herself in the male-dominated world of newspapering. She meets Billy Cane (Ethan Trueman), a young man eager to make a splash as a writer, and his personality makes her think of her teens in a smaller town in the 1920s, when she was in love with a young man named Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Robert Mata). That romance led to a pregnancy, a child up for adoption and a 16-year-old girl struggling on her own as a social outcast.

In a story that bounces between the 1920s and 1940s, Murphy finds her past hasnt entirely left nor its effect on her future. Shes extraordinarily resilient, Shephard said of the main character, but added that the musical is populated with other interesting women characters.

And more characters overall, plus a five-piece backing bluegrass ensemble and two actors who play instruments as well. This cast is among the biggest casts weve had. Its more of a return to the musicals we did in the past, said Clarissa Pompa, the theaters diversity outreach coordinator and PR specialist.

Auditions also enabled casting of an onstage relationship with a real-life relationship, Pompa said, with Rogers and her mother Pamela Fette performing as the musicals lead character and her mother Mama Murphy.

Fridays opening night will feature a Bourbon and Biscuits biscuit bar preceding the show and the announcement of the WCTs 2022-23 season before the show begins.

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An estimated crowed of at least 300 turned out for the city of Waco and Waco Fire Departments official grand opening for the $5.2 million 25th Street Station on Wednesday evening.

The station features a neon sign, marquee and front facade reminiscent of the historic 25th Street Theatre. It includes Fire Station No. 6, the fire administration offices and a community meeting space.

On hand for the ribbon-cutting and decoupling of the ceremonial firehose were Waco Mayor Dillon Meek, Council Member Kelly Palmer, and Fire Chief Gregory Summers.

Its a great day when we can advance three major goals with one facility, Meek said. Getting this project completed was team effort and I really have to thank the mayors and city managers before me.

Meek said the city advanced public safety with a modernized fire station and headquarters, restored the appearance of a historic building with the look of the administration and community center and activated the surrounding neighborhoods with the event.

The community room could host civic debates, childrens performances and of course movies to honor the legacy of the 25th Street Theatre, Meek said.

Council Member Palmer said she wanted the event to have the feel of a community block party.

This new public safety center will be an anchor for the community. It will provide a meeting space for three neighborhood associations, and the turnout of small business owners and people who live nearby is amazing, Palmer said.

The neighborhood associations in the Station No. 6 service area include Sanger Heights, Brookview and Dean Highland.

She also said that the citys construction of 25th Street Station was a part of revitalization for 25th Street neighborhoods.

Were doing this in partnership with the surrounding small businesses and people who live nearby, Palmer said. This not gentrification where its done to the neighborhood. This is revitalization because were (council and city staff are) listening to the community.

Clint Harp, host of the Restoration Road television program on Chip and Joanna Gaines Magnolia Network, and his team donated a restored table to the firehouse.

Were so honored to be intertwined with the legacy of this neighborhood and its revitalization, Harp said.

Fire Chief Gregory Summers led the ceremonial uncoupling of a firehose to open the new Fire Station No. 6.

A fire station is an extension of the community, Summers said. When we build a fire station, we design it so that firefighters can get out quickly.

The two bays at Fire Station No. 6 will house the new Engine 6 and also a van that supports the fire and arson investigators, Lt. Keith Guillory said.

The new Engine 6 is in Houston awaiting final inspections by Waco firefighters later this month, the chief said.

Sanger Heights Neighborhood Association leader Richard Lutes said before Wednesdays festivities he regrets that he will not be able to attend the grand opening in person.

The new fire station will be a huge asset to the Sanger Heights neighborhood, Lutes said by phone. We have needed a fire station closer to the neighborhood for a long time.

Homeowners and residents of Sanger Heights also appreciate that the community center portion of the station was built with the look and feel of the historic 25th Street Theatre, Lutes said.

Designs for neon sign and facade the city selected for the portion of the new facility facing 25th Street closely resemble the historic theater in its prime.

Our (Sanger Heights) neighborhood association plans to use the community room for events, fundraisers and meetings, Lutes said.

Brookview Neighborhood Association Secretary Ginger Ritchson said she would look at the community room to confirm it would be suitable for her associations meetings and events.

Were very excited to have a more modern, larger station close to our neighborhood, Ritchson said.

The historic 25th Street Theatre was a staple in Waco history, a city spokesperson said. Opening in 1945, it had a wide screen, 780 seats and air conditioning  a new innovation at the time. The average cost of an evening show at that time was 40 cents.

Many Wacoans have memories of seeing their first movie there as a child, and also remember when it closed in 1982. The last movie shown at the theatre was a reissue of Disneys Bambi, the city spokesperson said.

After a renovation, it reopened as a nightclub for another generation to enjoy for several years until 1992, when it closed. In 2001, the city declared it unsafe for use, and it sat idle until the city bought it in 2018 and announced plan to repurpose it. By 2019, city officials said the structure was too deteriorated and decided to proceed with demolition and new construction.

The new fire station replaces the prior Fire Station No. 6, which was at 2800 Bosque Blvd. and built in 1940.

Station No. 6. is among the citys busiest, with its firefighters running six to ten or more calls daily, Summers said.

The original Station No. 6 was also among the citys smallest and oldest, built even before the 25th Street Theatre. The only fire facility that has served the city longer is the fire administration office housed in historic Central Fire Station, 1016 Columbus Ave.

If you look at the current (now former) administration building it was built in 1932, Summers said last fall as the new facility was taking shape. If you look at the current (now former) fire Station Six, it was built in like 1940, one bay, its a smaller fire station. This (new) facility, both the fire station and the administration building, is going to give us new amenities, a more modern facility and more room for the firefighters.

After the ceremonial hose uncoupling the fire chiefs wife of 36 years, Jeanette Summers, said the chief did not tell her he was applying for this job until the city selected him as a finalist in early 2020.

We still own a house in Arkansas, Jeanette Summers said. But when we go up there to visit, I ask (Gregory) when are we going back home? I love this city. Waco is home now.

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A school bus is flipped on its side after a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

HOUSTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday.

The fatality occurred in hard-hit Arabi in St. Bernard Parish, which borders New Orleans proper.

"There's widespread damage from where it touched down," St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann told a news conference on Wednesday.

"There's heavy damage to multiple structures in the area, they have multiple injuries in the area." said the sheriff.

Pohlmann said rescue workers were searching through the area for more people in need of help.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said on Tuesday night the city was spared from the worst damage.

"As of now there have been no reports of casualties or significant damage to Orleans Parish," Cantrell said in a statement.

"Although the tornado has passed, we're still experiencing heavy rain & gusty winds in the New Orleans area," the mayor tweeted on Wednesday.

Another tornado was confirmed north of Lake Pontchartrain in the coastal state, according to local media reports.

It's rare that a tornado moves through New Orleans, the city pummeled by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago, according to local media reports. A 2017 tornado caused widespread damage when it touched down in the eastern part of the city.

Homes were damaged in a dozen Mississippi counties as the storms moved through Tuesday, the state's emergency management agency tweeted on Wednesday. At least two people were injured in the state.

Some 14,000 customers were without power in Louisiana and Mississippi as of about 10:15 a.m. CDT, while more than 19,000 outages were reported in Texas. according to PowerOutage.us.

Weather.com meteorologists forecast that scattered severe storms will move into the southern Great Lakes on Wednesday and could potentially pack damaging wind gusts and an isolated tornado threat.

On Monday, tornadoes tore through large areas of south central U.S. state Texas and Oklahoma, leaving one woman killed and more than two dozens injured while causing widespread damage before moving eastward into Louisiana and Mississippi. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for 16 counties.

A weather.com report said that a multi-day severe thunderstorm threat is a classic setup for spring, with a potent jet stream disturbance spreading into increasingly humid air over the southern United States, which will give rise to widespread rain and thunderstorms across the area. 

A woman and children check a house damaged by a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

A car flipped upside down is seen after a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

A man inspects a church damaged by a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

A man boards up a house damaged by a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

A girl stands outside a damaged house after a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

A resident sits outside a damaged house after a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

Workers board up a house damaged by a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

A house damaged by a tornado is pictured in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)

People sit outside their damaged house behind fallen power lines after a tornado in Arabi, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, March 23, 2022. At least one person was killed and multiple injured after tornado moved into southern U.S. state Louisiana and struck parts of the state's biggest city New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday. (Photo by Leslie Gamboni/Xinhua)
Ben Selman, of Waco, is the recipient of the 2022 Lola Wright Foundation Award from the Texas Bar Foundation.

The Lola Wright Foundation Award is presented in recognition of outstanding public service in advancing and enhancing legal ethics in Texas.

Selmans professional career has centered on litigation practice with extensive jury and non-jury trial experience, including a number of complex and multiparty cases. He holds a certification from the Board of Legal Specialization in family law, and is of counsel to the Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee law firm in Waco.

Selman has served for the last 33 years as an adjunct professor of law at Baylor Law School, where he received his legal training. He is a frequent lecturer and writer in family law and professional responsibility.

He is an ordained elder and an ordained deacon, as well as an active-duty police, fire and rescue officer with the city of Woodway. Selman and his wife, Chryl, have been married 50 years and have three children and five grandchildren.

Selman will be honored at the Texas Bar Foundation annual dinner June 10 at the Marriott Marquis in Houston. He has selected the Methodist Childrens Home in Waco to receive a $5,000 donation in honor of his acceptance of the Lola Wright Foundation Award.

Attorney John J.P. Palmer said Selman is deserving of the award.

I have practiced law with Ben Selman at Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee since 1989, Palmer said. Ben is constantly answering ethical dilemmas within our firm, in our region and throughout the state. His experience at all levels of disciplinary actions gives those seeking advice insightful answers and options.

Ben helps lawyers who have challenges with substance abuse or other disabilities. Ben is truly a gift to our community.

Founded in 1965 by attorneys determined to assist the public and improve the profession, the Texas Bar Foundation has become the largest charitably funded bar foundation in the country.
Update

Texas State Technical Colleges newest dorm has been evacuated and closed to students after the State Fire Marshals Office found numerous fire hazards, including a damaged sprinkler system, exposed electrical wiring and gaps that would let fire spread more rapidly if one occurred.

In early February, TSTC reported to the State Fire Marshals Office that a portion of Griffith Halls fire sprinkler system in the attic froze, causing a leak that damaged the building and displaced 50 students. After another fire sprinkler pipe break Feb. 23, TSTC again contacted the state fire marshal and told officials there were concerns about proper installation of the fire sprinkler system, according to the Texas State Fire Marshal order requiring the building to be evacuated. The order was issued after an investigation March 8 and a follow-up March 16 revealed a range of issues, including improperly installed sprinkler heads, exposed wiring, electrical outlet boxes that could shock a user or start a fire, and an open void between floors which creates a chimney effect from the ground floor to the attic, according to the evacuation order.

Griffith Hall, the first dorm TSTC has built in at least 25 years, opened in late August, about seven months ago. The 98,000 square foot, $20 million dorm was under construction up until the last minute and housed 210 students initially, about 50 fewer than its full capacity, the Tribune-Herald reported at the time. The facility is named for Thomas Griffith, lead engineer and project manager for the historic Waco Suspension Bridge that spans the Brazos River in downtown Waco and opened in 1870.

PDF: Read the TSTC Fire Marshal order Order for correction of dangerous conditions and remidial action, filed March 17, 2022.

The fire marshals order issued March 17 called TSTC to immediately evacuate the building. Students who lived there have been moved to hotel rooms for the time being, with plans to move them to on- or off-campus housing in the longer term. TSTC spokesperson Peter Macias said it is still too early to tell when students will be able to return to Griffith Hall. There were 169 students living there, according to a TSTC statement.

TSTC is in the beginning stages of reviewing the severity of the issues and researching solutions, Macias said in an email. The plan is to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

On the afternoon of March 16, students received emails from the housing department informing them they would be leaving that night. Emily Moore, a student in the aircraft pilot training program, said getting through to the housing department was impossible as students flooded every line with calls.

Everybody was like OK, theres no way theyre going to move us out by tonight, Moore said. Well, they moved us out. And now everybodys running around like whats happening?

Moore said students were told to pack a weeks worth of clothing and that they would receive more information later. A week later, she was standing outside the residence hall with other students in a similar situation, waiting for someone from the housing department to escort her inside so she could collect her laundry detergent and more belongings. Moore said she followed the colleges rules and emailed the housing department ahead of time, but no one had responded.

Donovan Smith, a Griffith resident studying plumbing and pipefitting technology, said he had to miss two days of class after accidentally leaving his required jeans and work boots in his dorm amid the confusion last week. He said he wants a refund on the more than $2,500 he has paid for housing this semester.

I dont find this fair, Smith said.

Moore said she remembers moving into Griffith Hall in September while workers were still finishing the building and paint splatter still decorated the floors. Once she got settled into her first-floor dorm, she appreciated the residence halls common area, which was equipped with foosball, a pool table and comfortable chairs. The pipe break in early February forced her to move to another room and claimed both the foosball table and pool table as victims.

Smith said his experience in the hall started smoothly but began to go downhill when he realized his door would not shut fully. He said he noticed other strange things, including bathroom lights that came on after a delay.

Moore also said she and other students grew frustrated by fire alarms that would sound at least once a week, and once at 1 a.m., but she said she chalked it up to students misbehaving and setting off the alarms.

The building was designed by Randall Scott Architects and constructed by Lee Lewis Construction, two Texas firms with portfolios that include higher education facilities, student housing and government buildings. Randall Scott Architects declined to give comment for this story, and Lee Lewis Construction did not respond to phone calls on Wednesday.

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Oso Able conference

The Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities will have the inaugural Oso Able Postsecondary Informational Conference from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday in the fourth floor lounge at McLane Stadium, 1001 S. Martin Luther King Blvd.

The event is for young adults with disabilities and their parents to explore opportunities for postsecondary educational and vocational experiences. The conference is also open to local professionals and service providers who provide transition services and support for individuals with disabilities.

For more information, call 254-744-8463.

Grocery giveaway Friday

Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church, in conjunction with Shepherds Heart Food Pantry, will have a grocery giveaway from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday at 2625 S. 18th St. It will include meat, dry goods, canned goods, produce and drinks.

For more information, call 254-722-7429.

Hazardous waste disposal day

The city of Waco will hold a household hazardous waste disposal day from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Solid Waste Operations Center, 501 Schroeder Drive. The service is for all residents of Waco, Bellmead, Hewitt, Lacy Lakeview and Woodway.

For more information, call 254-299-2612.

Womens fitness program

Waco Womens Training Program, hosted by Waco Striders Running Club, will start an eight-week program at 6 p.m. Thursday at Bledsoe-Miller Community Center, 300 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Cost is $70. To sign up, visit runsignup.com/wwtp2022.

Submit printed or typed items to Briefly, P.O. Box 2588, Waco, 76702-2588; or email goingson@wacotrib.com.
Members of Waco Chapter No. 192 of the International Order of DeMolay participated in State Government Weekend Feb. 12-13 at the state Capitol in Austin.

Several chapters from Texas were present with approximately 200 young people on the floors of the House and Senate writing, debating and passing mock legislation.

The Waco chapter was recognized as Outstanding Delegation for the number of bills the chapter members wrote, promoted, debated and passed.

Members taking part were Elijah Akhbar, Trinity Barsalou, Declan Duty, Baylee Engel, Zebian Escobedo, Krystal Hittle, Gavin Pollack, Faith Tarbush and Gage Wilson.

The International Order of DeMolay has 4 million members in 21 countries, and is dedicated to helping young people between 12 to 21 years develop leadership, citizenship and organizational skills based on values such as love of God, family, country and charitable aid.

The chapter meets every Thursday night at Karem Shrine Temple in Waco. For further information, contact Waco DeMolay through the international website, texasdemolay.com/chapters/.
The incoming government of South Koreas President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol faces a complicated, sensitive issue in carrying out his campaign pledge to rebuild relations with the United States. It will be a relief for the Americans to see an administration in Seoul that adopts a realistic attitude toward dealing with the North. For the last five years, the government has pursued a policy of appeasement and reconciliation that has gone nowhere.

At the outset, Yoon should discard outgoing President Moon Jae-ins vision of an end-of-war declaration formally bringing the Korean War to its conclusion. That was an utterly fatuous notion to which pro-Northers in the United States still cling. They are insisting that Congress pass a bill demanding a formal end to the Korean War, but such legislation is obviously going nowhere.

Instead, Yoon should reiterate demands for North Korea to show substantive signs of discarding its nuclear weapons program as a condition for anything, including humanitarian aid. He and the Americans might want to coordinate in new calls for denuclearization. Together, they should refuse to compromise on this demand while remaining open to talks with North Korea, which has been ignoring Moons plea for dialogue for the last three years.

In fact, the failure of the North-South Korean summits of 2018 and 2019 show the uselessness of making concessions to the North in an atmosphere of peace and goodwill. President Moon and Donald Trump as president each met three times with Kim Jong-un. The publicity engendered by all these meetings was incredible. In the global spotlight, they boosted hopes for a new age in inter-Korean relations.

Looking back, however, we realize these meetings, far from advancing the cause of peace, may actually have put the process in reverse. Relations between the two Koreas and between North Korea and the United States have never been worse. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has gone on ordering missile tests, preparing again to launch a satellite that will really be an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and may well be considering a seventh underground nuclear test.

Trumps great mistake after his summit with Kim in Singapore in June 2018 was to cancel joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. Military commanders regard these war games, in which U.S. and South Korean forces participate on the ground, in the air and at sea, as essential for training them to work together against a common foe, the North Koreans. Since then, all the joint exercises have been conducted largely on computers, which may be helpful but are no substitute for forces in action.

Yoon, in one of his first decisions after his inauguration in May, should approve full-scale joint exercises.

I witnessed the final day of the last such war games five years ago. While U.S. warplanes from aircraft carriers roared overhead, tanks advanced on the ground in a large training area south of the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. On the ground, American and South Korean troops accompanied the tanks to a fictional objective on a hillside. It was an impressive display culminating two weeks in which they had gone through a series of exercises that are essential if Kim Jong-un ever shows signs of making good on his threats, including that of firing missiles at targets anywhere from South Korea and Japan to the American mainland.

Its important for both Washington and Seoul to ignore rhetorical intimidation from Pyongyang. There is no reason for ministers and aides to cringe under verbal assaults from the North Korean propaganda machine. In the face of insults and threats, they should work ever more firmly to rebuild and reform the alliance into a viable, strong structure.

President Moon in recent years has weakened the alliance for fear of offending Kim and losing any hope for getting together on a new agreement, a fresh modus vivendi. Washington and Seoul should always be open to dialogue but not at the expense of basic principles and their mutual strength as allies facing not only North Korea but its great ally, China.

Together, under Yoon and President Joe Biden, they can open a new, revived chapter in the historic U.S.-South Korea alliance. We can all look forward to making the alliance stronger, more viable than ever at a critical juncture when the future of the region hangs in the balance.

Donald Kirk is the author of 10 books on Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and the Vietnam War. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
You know who benefits the most from liberal media bias? Conservatives.

I spent much of the last 25 years writing about liberal media bias. Heck, I grew up on the stuff. My father, a longtime editor, used to joke that he worked behind enemy lines. Hed often tutor me about the likes of Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow correspondent who whitewashed Stalins crimes and won a Pulitzer in the process, or Herbert Matthews, the reporter whose Cuba coverage inspired the famous cartoon of Fidel Castro saying, I got my job through The New York Times.

Dan Rather, a CBS News institution with some well-documented biases of his own, used to say liberal media bias was a myth. Suffice it to say, I think he was wrong, and continues to be wrong.

But something has changed. The modern conservative movement begins in the mid-20th century, and for most of that time the media referred to three TV networks, two newspapers and a few newsmagazines  all located within walking distance of each other in Manhattan. Rounding out the list were The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and a handful of similarly liberal big city newspapers. During this era, the media had incredible power to set the agenda. Disagree if you wish, just know that for conservatives this was an article of faith.

Irritation at this center-left conventional wisdom, which dominated not just the media, but academia, created the pearl of modern conservatism. When he launched National Review, William F. Buckley proclaimed that his journal (where I worked for 20 years) would stand athwart history, yelling stop. The talk radio revolution pioneered by Rush Limbaugh and the rise of Fox News can only be understood as a rebellion against the hegemony  real or perceived  of the liberal media.

The story of how that hegemony was shattered by cable news and the internet is by now familiar. But whats interesting is that even as the reigning journalistic gatekeepers were dethroned, conservative rage against the media intensified. In 2008, Sarah Palin, John McCains running mate, became a right-wing darling in large part because the mainstream media hated her. In 2012, Newt Gingrichs presidential campaigns early successes stemmed almost entirely from his relentless focus on attacking the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media.

Whatever you make of his broadsides, its worth noting they were delivered well after Fox had become a ratings behemoth and a slew of right-wing news and opinion outlets had been launched.

Its almost impossible to exaggerate how much of Donald Trumps candidacy and presidency were entwined with the rights animosity for what Gingrich had called the elite media. Trumps war on fake news  his contribution to right-wing rhetoric  was so total he felt perfectly free to dub the press the enemy of the people, praise a politician who physically attacked a journalist and rail against the First Amendment.

Ignore the substance of the criticisms. As an objective matter, this obsession with the elite medias alleged monopoly has intensified in tandem with the unraveling of that monopoly. Republican politicians dont need the elite media to get their messages out anymore. Indeed, often the best thing that can happen to a Republican politician is to earn the scorn of such outlets.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida understands this better than most. Hes made media hostility central to his brand. If the corporate press nationally isnt attacking me, he says, then Im probably not doing my job. (Oddly, his definition of corporate press doesnt include Fox News, where he appears so often he should probably have his mail delivered to the green room.)

If Republican voters havent gotten the news that the monolithic media isnt nearly the monolith it once was, neither has the media itself. When 60 Minutes did a shoddy piece on DeSantis, it was tantamount to an in-kind donation to the governor.

Much of the press is caught in a kind of Baptists and bootleggers loop, in which opposing forces become symbiotically co-dependent. Thanks in part to the blurring of reporting with partisan punditry, particularly on cable news and social media, not to mention the larger trends of tribal polarization, attacks from the left often benefit their right-wing targets (and vice versa). Weirder still, favorable coverage is often no favor. Right-wing denunciations of defund the police  a fringe position among elected Democrats  did far less damage to Democrats than the coverage the idea got from sympathetic media.

There are no easy answers to the problem, but one thing that would help is more skeptical tough love for politicians and political causes from the outlets most inclined to help them. Because the help isnt helping.

Jonah Goldberg, author of the bestselling book Liberal Fascism and formerly an editor at National Review, is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and host of The Remnant podcast.
by Tichaona Chifamba

HARARE, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's national trade development and promotion organization ZimTrade has welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between China and Zimbabwe to pave the way for the southern African country to export citrus fruits to its Asian partner.

The export deal will give Zimbabwe access to a market worth 500 million U.S. dollars annually and open new avenues for local farmers who have previously largely depended on the European market.

The fruits to be exported include oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, tangelos and grapefruits.

ZimTrade chief executive officer Allan Majuru told Xinhua that the signed protocol was a market access requirement that allowed Zimbabwe direct access into the Chinese market.

"Zimbabwe is home to some of the top-quality citrus fruits in the world, which are already performing well in international markets such as Europe," said Majuju.

"As Zimbabwe is focusing on diversifying its export markets, China is a market with potential to be a leading importer of Zimbabwean citrus fruits," he said.

He added that the signing of the protocol fed well into ZimTrade's National Export Strategy which prioritized diversification into non-traditional markets.

"The protocol covers plant health issues such as pest and diseases. Having it in place opens up the Chinese market, which is one of the biggest and fastest-growing markets in the world," he said.

"Now the Zimbabwean farmers are working on building corresponding capacity to supply the required quantities," Majuru said.

Zimbabwe is currently working on scaling up production in its horticulture sector to meet growing demand for citrus fruits worldwide.

The Chinese Embassy in Harare also welcomed the signing of the protocol, saying that the Chinese market would soon enjoy the "sweet and juicy Zimbabwean citrus".

"China will open a Green Channel for the export of African agricultural products. It will benefit more Zimbabwean farmers," the embassy said on its Twitter account. 
The Bishop Neumann girls track team proved they will be a force to be reckoned with this season, taking home first place out of 14 teams with 88.5 points at the Class C Doane Invite on March 18. Finishing in seventh place was Raymond Central with 27 points and the Cavaliers boys got ninth in the team standings with 29.

The strongest event on the track for the area athletes was the girls 60 meter hurdles. The top four positions were either from Neumann or Raymond Central, with Lizzie Lilly claiming first in a time of 10.47, AJ Bosak getting second clocking a 10.52, Autumn Haislet coming in third with a 10.72, and Grace Sullivan getting fourth in a time of 10.92.

The other first place medal won at the meet for the Cavalier girls came from Mary Chvatal in the long jump. She finished with a mark of 15-08.50, while Madelyn Lubischer jumped 15-05 to get third place for the Mustangs.

In the fastest event on the track, the 60 meter dash, there were three girls from the area in the finals. Teresa Quinn was the highest placer in third running an 8.50, while Chvatal got sixth with an 8.61 and freshman Sava Hitz of Raymond Central was seventh in a time of 8.74.

Both Kinslee Bosak and Caitlin McGuigan finished near the top of the pack in the 400 meter dash. Coming in third was Kinslee Bosak clocking a 1:04.54 and McGuigan was three spots back in sixth in a time of 1:07.45.

Coming through with a strong showing in the 800 meter run was a junior for the Cavaliers in Cassie Coufal. She was four seconds behind the leader from Elkhorn Valley, running a 2:37.39.

In a 200 meter dash field that featured over 40 girls, three girls from the area were able to place. They were Kinslee Bosak of Neumann who got third in a time of 28.51, Lubischer for the Mustangs who came in fourth running a 28.58, and Quinn in sixth place with a time of 29.52.

After a promising cross country season, Adelyn Zwick snuck inside the top eight in the 1,600 meter run. She ended up getting seventh place overall in a time of 6:26.96.

In the 4x400 meter relay, the Cavaliers and the Mustangs got second and third place. Neumann crossed the line with a time of 4:29.96 and Raymond Central was five seconds back with a 4:35.58.

The Cavaliers also reached the podium with their 4x800 meter relay team who were only eight seconds off the winners from Clarinda out of Iowa in third with a time of 11:17.80.

Kaysha Swartz was the top performer for Neumann in the field events. She was the Cavaliers leader in the throws, getting third in the shot put with a mark of 34-04.50 and sixth in the discus with a heave 93-10.

In the triple jump, McGuigan was able to tie for third place overall by jumping 30-10.50. The next three finishers behind her were Adelyn Heiss of Raymond Central who jumped 30-05, Julia Ingwersen for the Cavaliers who went 30-04.25, and then Kamarin Simmons for the Mustangs who ended up jumping 29-11.

Simmons tied for fourth place in the high jump competition on the girls side by clearing 4-08. Also getting over 4-08, but getting sixth due to more misses was Bridget Whitney and Quincy Cotter got ninth by jumping 4-06.

It was a tougher than usual day for the Neumann boys track team at Doane. One of the few bright spots for the Cavaliers was Connor Schutt who dominated in the field.

He moved into fifth in the all-time Neumann track record book in the triple jump with a mark of 43-06.75. The solid performances didnt stop there for him, as he got second in the long jump by jumping 20-00 and third in the high jump by clearing 6-00.

In the 1,600 meter run, Jude Polacek did a good job not falling too far behind the lead pack. He ended up getting fifth place overall in a time of 5.11.89.

Other medalists for the Neumann boys were Trent Moudry who got eighth in the shot with a toss of 42-09.50, Mongar in seventh in the 400 meter dash running a 56.50, Calvin Sassaman getting fifth in the 60 meter hurdles clocking a 9.83, and Sassaman again in the 60 meter dash in a time of 7.69 which got him eighth place.

Coming up Neumann will be at the Boys Town Invitational on March 26.
CRETE- The Mead boys and girls track team took to the field at the Class D Indoor meet held at Doane College in Crete on March 17. Despite not competing in any running events, the Raiders took sixth in the boys teams standing with 34 points and the Mead girls got ninth place with 13 points.

The strongest event for the Raiders boys was the long jump and triple jump.

Branden Koranda got second in the event with a jump of 20-00 and coming in third overall was Tyler Pickworth with a mark of 18-10. In 17th place overall was Matt Hanson who ended up going 15-01.

After getting second in the long jump, Pickworth moved up to second place in the triple jump by finishing with a mark of 37-08. Koranda snuck inside the top eight in seventh place by jumping 36-05.25.

AJ Carritt was a one man point scoring machine for Mead in the shot put and discus competitions. He took second in the discus with a throw of 115-07 and tossed the shot 36-07.50 to get fourth place.

The only other event the Raiders competed in on the boys side was the high jump. Hanson was the lone participant for Mead and he got 10th by jumping 4-10.

Coming through with a top three finish for the Raiders in the girls shot put competition was Sophia Brennan who got third with a throw of 30-02. Lilly Flynn ended up getting sixth with a toss of 28-01 and Lilly Watson took 18th with a heave of 23-07.

Good rotation and spin helped Flynn take home a third place finish in the discus competition. Her best throw went 88-00 for the day.

Taking ninth place with a toss of 76-03 was Watson and Haylie Muhlbach got 11th place with a mark of 75-00.

Janie Munter was the top finisher for the Raider in the long jump getting seventh place with a mark of 13-00. Finishing seven spots back in 14th was Michelle Huckeby with a jump of 11-03.50.

In the triple jump, Huckeby and Munter flip flopped finishes. Huckeby came in nine place overall by jumping 25-03 and Munter was right behind her in tenth with a mark of 25-00.

This week Mead competed at the Central City Invite on March 22.
Q: I was renting a townhome when my landlord sold the property. I was paying $1,200 per month as a single parent with one kid. The new owner told me that the Realtor said he could charge me more money for rent. So, he raised the rent on me because the Realtor told him he could.

I suppose the Realtor wanted the sale to go through in order to collect the commission. But the Realtor is hurting folks that cant afford the rent! My job did not pay enough, so I moved out.

A: In todays real estate market, it isnt just housing prices that are rising; rents are rising, in some cases astronomically. That is making rents increasingly unaffordable for a larger number of Americans.

In 2020, a report from the Harvard Center for Joint Housing Studies found nearly one in four renters spent more than 50% of their income on housing in 2018. According to Stessas analysis of Census Bureau data, about 16% of renters are behind on their rent. The number is higher for those renters who have only a high school diploma.

In your case, the Realtor likely tried to excite the buyer by sharing her perspective of the rental market, and how the property might be marketed as an investment property.

But nothing she said should have impacted your lease and the rent you were paying (if you had a lease). Did you? The important thing here is to understand your rights as a tenant. And your lease agreement is the key to those.

When you decide to rent a property, the landlord should give you a lease document to sign. This document should outline what youll pay each month (or year) and for how long. Those are the two most important things that you should care about. Your lease should show that you had an agreement to pay $1,200 per month for one, two or three years (or whatever term you and the landlord agreed to).

Once you and the landlord sign that lease, youre both bound by the terms of the agreement. The landlord shouldnt be able to get out of the lease, and neither should you.

Having that executed lease agreement gives you protection and peace of mind that the rent youve agreed to pay will stay constant during the term of the agreement, even if the owner decides to sell the property. If the owner sells during the term of your lease, the new owner must abide by its terms. So, if you are one month into the lease and the owner sells, the new buyer must abide by the terms of the lease for the next 11 months, or until the term expires.

At the same time, you cant sign a one-year lease agreement and move out after a month. You and your landlord have a contract that each can enforce against the other for the agreed upon length of the lease.

On the other hand, if you dont have a lease, you might simply be a month-to-month tenant and either you or the landlord can notify the other on one months notice of your wish to terminate the lease. This might have been what happened to you.

Some municipalities have landlord-tenant ordinances that require landlords to give tenants more time before the landlord can terminate the lease. In other circumstances, landlords might be limited in the amount they can increase the rent each year. You didnt mention what city you live in, but your city or village hall can tell you if they have a landlord-tenant ordinance and what it says. Before you rent, you should read up on the leasing ordinances in the town where you rent your home, as they might give you additional protection that your lease document might not.

Regarding the real estate agent sharing her opinion of the amount of rent the property could generate, well, thats fair game. The seller is trying to justify the list price, and letting a prospective investor know what income the property could generate is part of what the agent is supposed to do. It is then up to the new owner to decide whether to raise the rent. And its up to you, the tenant, to negotiate as good a deal as you can, or move elsewhere.

We understand that when rents go up, lower income people get hurt more than millionaires. And moving is expensive, especially when you have kids and packing up means finding not only a new home but a new school and perhaps new babysitters, after school care, doctors and more.

What happened to you isnt ideal. But thats the way our real estate market works. Were sorry you were impacted by the sale of your property and hope you were able to find a good alternative place to call home.

(Ilyce Glink is the author of 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (4th Edition). She is also the CEO of Best Money Moves, an app that employers provide to employees to measure and dial down financial stress. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through their website, bestmoneymoves.com.)
LOS ANGELES  Three other politicians discovered their campaigns got dirty money from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury and got rid of it, a process where they formally disgorge the money by donating it to charity.

The reason Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry didnt do the same right away?

A prosecutor told him not to, according to his former attorney.

Trey Gowdy, who represented Fortenberry during the investigation into whether he received foreign funds, testified Wednesday that he suggested to prosecutors that Fortenberry would return the funds to the donors, after learning that the money probably came from Chagoury.

Gowdy said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins, the lead prosecutor in the case, told him that Fortenberry shouldnt return it to the donors, in part because it could tip off the donors that they were under federal investigation. When Gowdy asked what Fortenberry should do instead, he said, Jenkins didnt give any suggestions.

When you hear that something is going to hurt an investigation, and your purpose is to assist that investigation, youre not going to do it, Gowdy said.

Day 5 of Fortenberry's federal trial marked the end of the government's case, and the beginning of Fortenberry's defense. As told through the first week of trial, the entire saga started with Fortenberrys support of In Defense of Christians, a group devoted to protecting Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

The A, B and C of IDC were Eli Ayoub, Toufic Baaklini and Chagoury, all of whom are of Lebanese descent. Chagoury used both Ayoub and Baaklini, who are U.S. citizens, to funnel money to the campaigns of U.S. politicians, including: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry. It is illegal for elected U.S. officials to accept donations from foreigners.

The others disgorged the money from their campaigns. Prosecutors have pointed out that Fortenberry took 2 years to do the same.

He didnt do it even after he noticed that most of the money raised at a February 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles came from the same family. Seeing the same last name on the donor forms, Fortenberry asked Baaklini if he should be concerned  and Baaklini told him not to sweat it.

Fortenberry also didnt get rid of the money after a June 2018 phone call in which Ayoub told him that Baaklini had provided $30,000 in cash for the fundraiser and that the cash probably came from Chagoury.

He also didnt get rid of the money after the March 2019 FBI interview at his Lincoln home, prosecutors said.

Then came the second FBI interview in July 2019.

John Littrell, a Fortenberry attorney, asked Gowdy if he would agree with Fortenberrys comment in July 2019 that he was horrified at finding out that it was Chagourys money.

Asked to describe Fortenberrys reaction, Gowdy said: Shock and anger. It was shock, with a subtext of anger.

Part of the subtext of Gowdys testimony Wednesday was this: The attorney seemed to regret that he had allowed Fortenberry to be interviewed by the feds in July 2019.

A former federal and district attorney, as well as congressman, Gowdy said he believed that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness and that the government just wanted to size him up in terms of his reliability and credibility.

In reality, Fortenberry was the subject of the investigation. The FBI had taped the June 2018 phone call between Fortenberry and Ayoub. And FBI agents had taped the Lincoln interview and already had suspected him of lying.

An attorney asked Gowdy if he knew that the FBI had secretly recorded all of those events.

No, he testified, with a smirk.

Did he believe the feds were just sizing up Fortenberry as a witness?

One-hundred percent, Gowdy said emphatically.

Defense attorneys also introduced an FBI memo that they say shows the FBI had predetermined, even before the Lincoln interview, that they were going to charge Fortenberry. In the memo, agent Todd Carter wrote that he would approach Fortenberry and interview him about his conversations with Ayoub and his knowledge of the source of the $30,000 campaign contribution.

Case agents will also seek to indict Fortenberry with misprision (concealment) of felony and conduit contributions. In addition, if case agents determine from the interview that Fortenberry is making false statements, he will be charged with false statements.

A second FBI agent on the case, Edward Choe, testified that he hadnt seen that memo and that he didnt share the opinion that Fortenberry automatically would be charged.

And prosecutors argued that such memos are typical. Any criminal charges are subject to change, depending on what happens in the course of interviews and investigations, they say.

At that point, Choe said, agents had been continually checking to see if Fortenberry had gotten rid of the illegal campaign money. He hadnt.

Another memo caused a stir Wednesday. Prosecutor Jamari Buxton told the judge that he wanted to introduce a memo that Fortenberry had sent to the U.S. House of Representatives clerk just last week, seeking to vote by proxy in the House because of the ongoing public health emergency. Fortenberrys note made no mention of the real reason he can't attend: this trial.

It would counter any notion that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest, Buxton said.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. considered it but ultimately decided against it. He said it would take too much evidence to establish why it was written and the process Congress uses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other testimony, Fortenberrys chief of staff, Andy Braner, testified that his boss is the countrys last great statesman and "a visionary."

The nine-term congressman is so scrupulous that, Braner said, he once made Braner replace an office-stamp on a piece of mail. Fortenberry handed him a stamp from his wallet.

Were not going to have the taxpayers pay for my personal mail, Fortenberry told Braner.

Another time in 2019, Braner said, a visitor from the Middle East tried to hand Braner an envelope of cash in recognition of all the work Fortenberry had done in the Middle East. Braner refused.

Two days later, Braner informed the congressman of the interaction.

Fortenberry was irate, Braner said. He said, Call the (House) Sergeant at Arms and get him up here. Were going to tell him everything and make sure that doesnt happen again. 

Prosecutors noted that the Middle East envoy had offered Braner cash just a month after the FBI had interviewed Fortenberry about his campaign receiving another foreigner's cash. Hence the outrage, Buxton suggested.

Another House member told the jury that she has always known Fortenberry as an honorable person.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, said Fortenberry came across the aisle, literally, to meet her. He wanted to talk about a cause he thought she would share.

Eshoo, a half-Armenian, half-Assyrian representative from Northern California, said Fortenberry was sincere: He wanted her input on the issue of protecting religious minorities in the Middle East.

Thats how I got to meet and work with Jeff, Eshoo said. I think he brings honor to what he does. ... Hes faith filled. Hes honest. His word is always good  I cant say that about all members of Congress.

Whether his word is always good is a question for the federal jury. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating the case Thursday or Friday. Fortenberry is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of trying to conceal his knowledge about the true source of the $30,000 campaign donation.

Fortenberrys defense team is expected to continue Thursday to put the FBI on trial for its handling of the probe. Attorney Ryan Fraser blasted the FBI for showing up unannounced to the Fortenberry home and lying to Celeste Fortenberry, the congressman's wife, about why they were there. Jeff Fortenberry had called then-Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister to send two officers to his house to screen and monitor the FBI agents. Bliemeister is expected to testify Thursday.

When FBI agents showed up, Fraser said, Fortenberry was exhausted, having just returned from a trip to Africa where he was briefed on elephant poaching.

You would expect the FBI to warn you if you were the victim of an illegal foreign campaign donation, asked Littrell.

Oh I would hope so, Eshoo said.

She paused, correcting herself.

I would think so, she said. Not just hope.
WATERLOO  American Legion National Commander Paul E. Dillard stopped in Waterloo on Wednesday, connecting with fellow veterans and bringing awareness to work his organization does.

Dillard visited the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum, where he toured the exhibits highlighting Iowans contributions to Americas military. He stayed for the weekly Coffee and Camaraderie Hour, mingling with area veterans.

Every state has  their local museums, but yours is very, very impressive and the story goes much deeper because the Sullivan boys, he said.

A native Texan, Dillard enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1965 after graduating from high school and served until 1969. He was deployed to Vietnam and was present for the 1968 Tet Offensive. He joined the American Legion after he was honorably discharged and was elected to the position of national commander in September.

Its pretty easy when you walk into any post in any state because its American Legion family, Dillard said. And when you see American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary and Sons of American Legion and theyre all true Americans, it just keeps you vibrating with what we try and continue to work to get passed in Congress for the benefit of our veterans.

Some of their proposed legislative measures include health care modernization within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and establishment of a national buddy check week within the VA, encouraging peer support among veterans as a means of suicide prevention. The Legion also is pushing for citizenship for immigrants who served honorably in the military, and for pay for Coast Guard personnel during government shutdowns. Their placement in the Department of Homeland Security excludes them from pay like their Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force peers.

The visit also gave Dillard the chance to take part in the coffee hour. Mike Butler, quartermaster for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter, said events like this are an important tool for bonding for veterans. Butler, who served on the U.S.S. Enterprise during the latter part of the Vietnam War, said its a way to connect and to help veterans open up, especially in letting the younger generation who served in Iraq and Afghanistan know that they arent alone.

My dad, who was in Pattons army in World War II, wouldnt talk to me about his war experience until I had been in the Navy and then been off the shore at Vietnam. Then we became comrades, besides just father and son, Butler said. And thats kind of what Coffee and Camaraderie does, it makes you friends again.

While he was there, Dillard broke the ice, along with engaging in some friendly recruiting for the American Legion. He added to its ranks in Waterloo in the short time he was there.

We got three new members, Dillard said. I just asked. So we got three new members just a while ago.

Dillard also visited the American Legion Post No. 176 in Waverly on Wednesday afternoon.

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INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION  Cedar Falls native Raja Chari spacewalked for nearly seven hours Wednesday.

The NASA astronaut  also a 1995 Waterloo Columbus graduate  along with Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency exited the International Space Station at about 8:30 a.m. to make various upgrades and repairs outside of it.

The commander of the SpaceX Crew-3, Chari has been beyond the Earths atmosphere since launching aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Nov. 10 for a six-month mission.

Chari and Maurer, the Expedition 66 flight engineers, finished their work at 3:26 p.m. It was Charis second career spacewalk, and the 248th ever in support of space station assembly, upgrades and maintenance.

My first spacewalk ... didnt disappoint. It was extra great as I got to work with NASA classmate and friend NASA Astronaut Kayla Barron to install structure for new solar panels on the International Space Station. Cameras (images) dont really do the view justice but does give you a sense of how hard it can be to concentrate when theres so much to look at around you, wrote Chari in his most recent Facebook post about his first time March 15. Thanks to the training team at NASAs Johnson Space Center. Working out in space felt a lot like our practice runs in the neutral buoyancy lab.

In preparation for an upcoming solar array installation, Charis second spacewalk involved completing the crews major objective of installing hoses on a radiator beam valve module that routes ammonia through the stations heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature, according to a NASA blog post.

The crew members also installed a power and data cable on the Columbus modules Bartolomeo science platform, replaced an external camera on the stations truss, and conducted other upgrades to station hardware, the blog post added.

WATCH NOW: Interview from space with Cedar Valley astronaut Raja Chari In this Q&A, Chari talks about the mission so far, the constant feeling of falling in zero-gravity, and just how surprising it was to realize how much of the Earth is water.

The pair deferred a few secondary tasks, such as torque resets and cable routing, to a future spacewalk.

Chari and Maurer are living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASAs Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASAs Artemis program, the blog post stated.

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WATERLOO  Relatives of a man who was shot and killed Tuesday morning said the slaying was over a $40 debt.

Police said they were called to Dorray Darnell Coopers apartment at 627 W. Second St. around 4:10 a.m. and found LaVance Cooper suffering from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. Paramedics took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

He was 41.

By the end of the day, Waterloo police arrested Dorray Cooper, 58, LaVances second cousin, on charges of first-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm.

Police said Dorray Cooper shot LaVance Cooper with a handgun.

Relatives said LaVance had borrowed money from his second cousin, and Dorray Cooper wanted to be paid back. The two got in an argument over the money while they were drinking at the apartment, Maruice Smith, a family member, said he had been told.

He got upset and shot him, Smith said. Wow, over $40 youll shoot your own cousin.

Smith remembers LaVance Cooper as a quiet person who usually kept to himself. He said LaVance had been a minister at Union Baptist Church.

He was a good kid, Smith said. He was a good guy and doing the right thing.

Bond for Dorray Cooper was set at $500,000 during a Wednesday initial appearance in court.

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WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has been arrested after police found a pistol with a scratched-off serial number during a traffic stop.

Officers with the Violent Crime Apprehension Team stopped a vehicle at West Fifth and Bayard streets around 12:55 p.m. March 16. A passenger in the vehicle struggled with officers, and police found a 9 mm Hi Point C9 pistol in his waistband, according to court records.

Amarri Ray Nash, 18, was arrested for interference while armed and carrying weapons.

Nash also is awaiting trial for a January incident where he allegedly used a gun to threaten a woman during a road rage incident on Broadway Street.

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WAVERLY  The Bremer County Sheriffs Office will see a change in leadership of its 78-bed jail.

Sheriff Dan Pickett is losing his two top jail officials, who each had tenures with the county spanning longer than a decade. Within about six months of each other, they both accepted new jobs and will no longer be holding the titles of jail administrator and assistant jail administrator.

Jail Administrator Adam Spray became Cedar Falls full-time code enforcement officer Nov. 15.

According to Pickett, the expectation had been Assistant Jail Administrator Dave Hacker might take over for Spray as he had been given more responsibilities in the interim as acting administrator.

But Hacker also has accepted a new job, at the Waterloo Residential Correctional Facility.

UPDATE: One arrested in Waterloo slaying, victim identified A Waterloo man has been arrested for allegedly killing his second cousin in an early morning shooting Tuesday

The Sheriffs Office began accepting applications for a new jail administrator March 9, with the last day to submit one being March 28. Pickett hopes to extend the top candidate an offer, between $59,000 and $62,000, by April 1.

Spray had been making $60,129. According to Nov. 15 county meeting minutes, Hackers annual salary increased from $50,189 to $54,350.

Both are remaining on staff as part-time jailers.

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China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) Zhang Jun speaks during the UN General Assembly Special Emergency Session on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, March 24, 2022. China welcomes any initiative and measure that can help alleviate and resolve the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Zhang Jun said Thursday. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes any initiative and measure that can help alleviate and resolve the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, a Chinese envoy said Thursday.

"China's fundamental starting point is to promote the international community and the UN to attach great importance to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine," China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun told the UN General Assembly Special Emergency Session on Ukraine.

Zhang added that China calls on the parties concerned to strengthen coordination on the humanitarian issue, effectively protect the safety of civilians, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children, and facilitate the personnel evacuation and humanitarian relief operations.

"Based on the current situation, when dealing with the humanitarian issue of Ukraine, the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality established by General Assembly resolution 46/182 should be strictly observed to prevent the politicization of humanitarian issues," said the ambassador.

On the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the envoy said that "it is heart-wrenching to see the continued deterioration of humanitarian situation in Ukraine, as well as the civilian casualties and massive displacement of people caused by the conflict."

"The top priority now is for the parties concerned to maintain maximum restraints, avoid more civilian casualties, and reach a negotiated ceasefire as soon as possible, especially to prevent a larger-scale humanitarian crisis," he said.

Referring to the draft resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine put forward by France, Mexico and others, which was adopted at the General Assembly, the ambassador said that "China recognizes the purpose of the draft resolution, and appreciates the efforts made by France, Mexico and relevant countries in promoting consensus."

However, he pointed out that "it is clear that some elements of the draft resolution go beyond the humanitarian context and some issues are so complex that can only be solved through political negotiations between the parties concerned."

"The draft resolution proposed by South Africa focuses on the humanitarian issue, and addresses the important aspects of the current situation in Ukraine, while emphasizing that the cessation of hostilities is a key first step towards improving the humanitarian situation," he said, adding that "we believe that, under the current conditions, the draft resolution proposed by South Africa is more conducive to promoting the unity of the UN membership and to opening the door for further dialogue and negotiation and a diplomatic solution."

"Therefore, China has co-sponsored the draft resolution proposed by South Africa," the ambassador noted.

On the impact of the Ukraine crisis, Zhang underscored that "the spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis have further brought about global impacts."

"The world is yet to emerge from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ever-escalating implementation of sweeping, non-discriminatory sanctions have caused and will further cause a huge impact on global economy, trade, finance, energy, food and industrial and supply chains, seriously affecting the normal lives of people in all countries, and making the already difficult world economy even worse," he said.

"Developing countries, which make up the majority of the world, are not parties to this conflict. They should not be drawn into the issue and forced to suffer the consequences of geopolitical conflicts and major power rivalry," he said.

The ambassador stressed that in addressing international and regional hotspot issues, there cannot be only two options, namely the use of force and sanctions. "In the face of complex situations, all countries have the right to independently and autonomously decide their own foreign policies. Relevant countries should not adopt a simplistic approach of either friend or foe, black or white, and should not force any country to pick a side."

"Respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries is a basic norm governing international relations that applies to all countries and all situations. There should be no exceptions, still less double standards," he added.

Zhang underlined the importance of dialogue and negotiation, noting that is "the only way out for the Ukraine crisis."

"China strongly calls on the international community to remain rational, strengthen unity and make unremitting efforts for ceasefire and peace. China will continue its constructive role in facilitating peace talks," said the ambassador. 
WATERLOO  Four Cedar Valley companies plan to train people for 140 new jobs with the help of funding borrowed through Hawkeye Community College.

The colleges board of trustees Tuesday gave preliminary approval to the company agreements. It also approved seeking bids on issuing no more than $2.2 million in industrial new jobs training certificates.

Dan Gillen, Hawkeyes vice president of administration and finance, said the actual dollar amount of certificates to be sold is $1.89 million. When the resolution language was created, he noted, we were still working with the companies on this, so we gave ourselves some wiggle room with the resolution.

Two businesses each in Waterloo and Shell Rock are seeking the training funds.

TrinityRail Maintenance Services would create 108 jobs in Shell Rock with another eight created by Shell Rock Soy Processing. In Waterloo, 16 jobs would be created by Dignity Apparel, and D.C. Industries would add another eight positions.

TrinityRail does repairs, maintenance and modifications for train transportation. Shell Rock Soy Processing provides soybean meal, hulls and oil to be used in renewable diesel production.

Dignity Apparel is a cut and sew garment manufacturing company wholly owned by screen printer Image Pointe in Waterloo. D.C. Industries specializes in subcontract manufacturing of machined castings for agricultural and construction equipment businesses.

Hawkeye would issue industrial new jobs training certificates of up to $2.2 million after final authorization is given by trustees at their April meeting.

The calculation of the certificate sale is based on the number of new jobs anticipated and expected wages of those jobs over the next 10 years, which determines the amount of estimated state income tax withholding diversion used to pay back the certificates, Gillen said in an email response to questions.

Participating companies repay the college for the training costs, partially using the state tax diversion of new employees wages.

Of the bond amount, $1.25 million would be used for training, according to college documents. Another $367,575 would be set aside for Hawkeyes administration of the program. Other fees and a reserve fund of $188,850 make up remaining costs that the certificates will pay for.

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DES MOINES  Recollections of a fallen colleague started the day in the Iowa Senate on Wednesday.

Josh Bronsink, who worked on Senate Republicans staff, died March 11 of COVID-19, according to his obituary. Brosnick, who is survived by his wife and two children, died less than a week after his 48th birthday.

Senators on Wednesday morning honored Bronsink with a Senate resolution, which was read by Republican Sens. Jeff Edler of State Center and Mark Costello of Imogene.

Then two Democrats, Sens. Amanda Ragan of Mason City and Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City, spoke in remembrance of Bronsink.

Bolkcom said Bronsink will be remembered for his knowledge and work for the state, and for his sense of humor.

Josh was one of the smartest, kindest, most caring people in this building, Bolkcom said. This made him the perfect person to manage all things related to human resources. He became an expert on all things about taking care of Iowans in need. We could count on Josh for good advice. 

Josh, Bolkcom added, we miss you. We love you. Rest in peace.

ANTI-SEMITISM DEFINITION: Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law one bill that defines anti-Semitism in state law, and another that prohibits the states pension fund from owning stock in a company that boycotts Israel.

House File 2220 places in state law the definition of anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. That bill was unanimously approved by the Senate, 48-0, and passed the House, 66-31.

House File 2373 is designed to target the parent company of Ben & Jerrys, which last July announced its ice cream would no longer be sold in disputed territories in Israel. That bill passed the Senate, 40-5, and the House, 61-35.

Today we express Iowas enduring support for the state of Israel and our categorical rejection of anti-Semitism, Reynolds said in a news release. Together, these bills send an important message: Iowa continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with the state of Israel, one of Americas most important and reliable allies, while fighting all forms of religious and ethnic discrimination.

Reynolds also signed the following bills: SF 2119, an act relating to cosmetology and the practice of threading; SF2266, an act relating to the compensation limits for school corporation board members; HF2466, an act concerning signature requirements for county supervisor candidate nominations; and SF2325, an act relating to workforce housing tax incentive program.

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DES MOINES  Schools would be required to post their classroom materials and library books online for parents to see  but not twice annually as previously proposed  under school transparency legislation moving in the Iowa House.

Majority Republicans in the Legislature have pledged to address school transparency after hearing from parents who have expressed concerns about library books and classroom materials they deem to be obscene.

Statehouse Republicans are taking different approaches to the legislation. On Wednesday, House Republicans continued their work advancing their bill, House File 2499.

Our intent here is not to give arbitrary work to teachers, said Rep. Garrett Gobble, R-Ankeny, who teaches in the Ankeny school district and who worked on the new amendment to the original House bill.

We want to make it meaningful and show parents how to engage. But we cant engage for the parents. These resources would be there for the parents to access, but theyd still have to make the decision to access.

Rep. Phil Thompson, R-Jefferson who ran the bill in Wednesdays budget subcommittee hearing, said he has not yet discussed the House proposal with Senate Republicans. He said he has focused on working with his House Republican colleagues and representatives from Gov. Kim Reynolds office.

Reynolds legislative liaison spoke during Wednesdays subcommittee hearing on the House bill.

Thompson said even with the recent changes, the bill will accomplish House Republicans original intent.

We can accomplish the intent of the bill, which is more transparency for parents, Thompson said. This bill is workable for teachers and still accomplishes that.

Advocates for public schools and school boards expressed reservations with the proposal, including the amount of training and time it will take to prepare teachers to upload their curriculum to a new website. But those advocates also said they appreciated the recent changes, which they feel move the bill in a positive direction from the perspective of educators.

The bill also adds some social studies and civics requirements. A requirement that a student score at least 70 percent on a civics test in order to graduate was removed by the amendment; the bill instead requires a civics unit as part of social studies curriculum.

Senate Republicans are weighing their own school transparency proposals, including one that would allow parents to sue educators who distribute materials that any parent deems to be obscene.

In order to send a proposal to Reynolds for her signature, the House and Senate will have to agree on one bill.

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DES MOINES  Legislation that supporters say will update and repurpose state unemployment compensation to focus on finding jobs for out-of-work Iowans was approved by majority Republicans in the House and Senate on Wednesday.

The bill, as amended, would cut the length of time Iowans can receive unemployment insurance benefits during a year from 26 weeks  the same as 38 states  to 16, less than all but four states. In cases of a business closure, benefits would be reduced from 39 weeks to 26.

The House and Senate approved different versions. The Senate added a one-week waiting period before benefits would become available.

House File 2355 would give a modern mission to Iowa Workforce Development and our unemployment system focusing on re-employment, new skills and new abilities so our workers can fill the modern jobs of today and tomorrow, Rep. Mike Bousselot, R-Ankeny, said before the House approved the bill, 58-37, after more than four hours of debate.

The legislation updates a system from the 1930s when unemployment compensation was the sole safety net for out-of-work Iowans, he said.

That safety net has become too comfortable, according to Gov. Kim Reynolds. In her January Condition of the Sate speech, she told legislators, Government has taken away the need or desire to work. The safety net has become a hammock.

In response, the Republican majorities in the House and Senate approved changes Bousselot said would refocus unemployment on re-employment rather than just being a safety net.

DEMS COULD NOT DISAGREE MORE

Democrats could not disagree more, countered Rep. Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines, who offered several amendments to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 by 2026; prohibit employers asking or requiring job applicants to disclose their criminal history; reinstate Chapter 20 collective bargaining for public employees the Legislature cut in 2017; and increase or create tax credits for child care and housing.

Make no mistake, we in the Democratic Party are going to end what, in my opinion, has been an attack on the workers of this state for the last 12 years, Hunter said, referring to the time the GOP has controlled the House.

We are going to treat workers not as an inconvenience if they're unemployed, but as a valuable cog of this state, deserving of respect and deserving of all the assistance we can give them to find a job that will not only increase their wages, but increase the economy and the well-being of this state.

Without amendments addressing access to affordable housing and child care, Democrats said, the bill does nothing to address Iowas worker shortage.

IOWA JOBLESS RATE LOW

There are, on average, 28,000 unemployment compensation claimants each month, Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, said, but there are more than 50,000 job openings. Reducing benefits wont change that, he said.

In the Senate, Democrats offered amendments to exempt short-term, seasonal workers from job search requirements if they are laid off but are returning to the same job or industry and exempts certain workers from requirement to take lower-paying jobs when their employment is interrupted by unforeseen circumstances or seasonal layoffs.

Democrats questioned the need for the changes, which they said disrespects Iowa workers. The unemployment trust fund has a balance of $1.4 billion, Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D-Cedar Rapids, said, and is one of the healthiest in the nation.

Iowas January unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, down from 4.4 percent a year earlier. Iowa Workforce Development reported about 62,700 Iowans were out of work, down 2,200 from December.

WAITING A WEEK

The requirement that unemployed workers wait one week before becoming eligible for benefits is in 43 other states. Senate Democrats opposed the provision, as did Republican Sen. Zach Nunn, who likened it to a penalty on job-seekers.

There is an immediate impact on working families here, said Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines. That missing week of benefits is immediately hurtful and impactful.

Senate Democrats said the bill will result in a reduction of $10 million per year in benefits paid to unemployed Iowans.

A billion dollars taken out of the pockets of Iowans, who have worked to earn those benefits, and put into the coffers of some of the wealthiest companies that do business in our state, Boulton said.

The Senate passed the bill, 30-20, with only Republicans supporting and two Republicans  Nunn and Sen. Jeff Reichman, R-Montrose  joining Democrats in voting against it.

Because it was amended to include the one-week delay, the bill goes back to the House.

LOWER-PAYING JOBS

State benefits range from $823 a week in Massachusetts to $235 in Mississippi. Iowas rate of $481 a week is 58 percent of the Massachusetts rate and twice Mississippis.

HF 2355 also would change the requirements for taking a job that pays less than the unemployed Iowans previous job.

Under current law, a person on unemployment must take a job if offered based on their length of time on unemployment. The longer a person is on benefits, the lower wages they must accept. If they refuse a job offer that meets the income threshold, benefits stop. Now a person receiving unemployment benefits has six weeks before they must accept a lower paying job.

HF 2355 would shorten that time frame. After one week, a person on unemployment would have to accept a job offering 90 percent of previous wages. That would drop to 80 percent after three weeks, 75 percent after five until they would be required to take a job at 60 percent of their previous wage after eight weeks.

Under the current plan, after 18 weeks of unemployment, a person has to accept a job at 65 percent of their previous pay level.

Most people have found a job by 17 weeks, Bousselot said.

The bill also changes the definition of misconduct. Employees discharged for misconduct, as defined in administrative rules, are not eligible for unemployment benefits. While most of the definition is retained, the bill lists 16 specific acts as misconduct but does not limit misconduct to those acts.

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Actually get it in perspective: If you belong to the naughty list that Russia made? And you want Russian products? Better get some Rubles in stock

Excuse me? But, what about Euro and Dollar? .better get a wheelbarrow so you can hold those worthless fiat papers to buy a loaf of bread with sooner than later.the owner of the products controls who they sell to and how they sell and for what they take as barter

The West truly can do nothing significant here and they are becoming bat %^&* crazy in their powerlessness to control Putin. However long the West doesnt boycott Russian energy totally? The authorizations wont definitively affect Russia.and to cut Russia off completely is suicide by the rope given freely in the past

The main wellspring of Rubles is the Russian Central Bank. When the stock of rubles outside Russia is depleted, which it will be depleted, for Europe needs/must have gas and oil.plus there are many items Russia sells to Europe and nothing will be bought now without Rubles. Russia will exchange Rubles just for things it needs: You know? Like gold, any precious metals, made in house merchandise, whatever  they pick what they desire to purchase/sell and they pay in Rubles and or barter is a possibility. Russia is a producer country, self-sufficient and resource rich. EU is a buyer and need what Russia has. They (Russia) simply wont trade Rubles for USD or Euro  that is unequivocally the point

This is the way it beats the childish actions from the west. You need Russian gas? Russia will offer it to you however, just for things it needs. It thus drives an interest for rubles that must be filled by exchanging genuine products for rubles. The increasing conversion scale of Rubles a result of the expanded interest for Rubles

The child west screams, This is my sandbox! and falls upon the ground kicking its feet and holds its breath until blue and Russia says

Rubles Please!

WtR
Weather Alert

...WINDY TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY, MUCH COLDER TEMPERATURES SUNDAY INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK WITH PERIODS OF RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS... --Today and Friday-- * As has been a repeating story lately, gusty winds will return again today and Friday. Strongest winds will be near and north of US-50 today, spreading across the entire region Friday. Winds will decrease overnight into early Friday morning for valley locations, but are unlikely to completely let up, while ridge winds will remain strong tonight. * Winds will bring travel difficulties both in the air and on the ground. Travel restrictions for high profile vehicles are possible. Check with CalTrans and/or NDOT for the current road information. Areas of blowing dust are possible both afternoons downwind of the Carson Sink and other desert locations, possibly affecting portions of I-80, US-50, and US-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 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 Mother's Day into the first half of next week. Temperatures will be 15-25 degrees below normal. While there is still some uncertainty due to winds and cloud cover, it's possible we could have frost and freeze concerns Sunday-Tuesday nights. Might want to watch those sprinklers and protect any sensitive vegetation. * We will see periods of rain and snow/pellet showers along with slight chances for thunderstorms Sunday through Tuesday. There are solid chances for snow levels to fall to all valley floors by Sunday evening, which may catch many off guard. Mountain passes could see light snow accumulation on roadways during the overnight periods. It will be harder to see any roadway snow accumulation for lower valleys given the time of the year.

...WIND ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 5 AM PDT SATURDAY... * WHAT...Southwest winds 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 55 mph expected. Wind gusts up to 65 mph for wind prone locations. Wave heights on Pyramid Lake of 2 to 4 feet. * WHERE...Greater Reno-Carson City-Minden Area and Western Nevada Basin and Range including Pyramid Lake. * WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 5 AM PDT Saturday. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. Dangerous boating conditions on Pyramid Lake. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Winds will be lighter tonight into early Friday morning for lower valleys before once again increasing during the day Friday and lasting into the night Friday night. Areas of blowing dust are possible downwind of the Carson Sink, which could bring reduced visibility to I-80, US-95, and US-50. Travel restrictions are possible for high profile vehicles. Check with NDOT for the latest on road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Now is the time to secure loose outdoor items such as patio furniture, holiday decorations, and trash cans before winds increase which could blow these items away. The best thing to do is prepare ahead of time by making sure you have extra food and water on hand, flashlights with spare batteries and/or candles in the event of a power outage. &&
Vietnam and OIF affirm close co-operation during Hanoi talks

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son held talks on March 24 alongside Louise Mushikiwabo, secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), who is in Vietnam for an official visit from March 21 to March 26.









Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and OIF Secretary General Louise Mushikiwabo, hold talks in Hanoi. (Photo: VNA)





Minister Son welcomed Mushikiwabos visit, considering it an important milestone in the co-operative relationship between Vietnam and the Francophone community.



He voiced Vietnamese support for the OIFs efforts in promoting French language use, cultural diversity, and high-quality education, especially its initiatives strengthen economic co-operation in the Francophone world, making an important contribution to the post-COVID-19 socio-economic recovery.



Vietnam will continue to participate in the OIFs activities and will become an active and responsible member of the Francophone community, he told his guest.



Minister Son made specific proposals aimed at forging closer co-operation between the two sides in the fields of economics, trade, and French language teaching. He also requested that the OIF support French training for Vietnamese forces participating in UN peacekeeping operations, whilst simultaneously helping to strengthen relations between Vietnam and the African Union (AU).



The Vietnamese Minister thanked the OIF for its attention to regional issues, including the East Sea issue, and expressed hope that it would support the Vietnamese stance on settling East Sea disputes peacefully in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to turn the waters into an area of peace, stability, and prosperity.



In response, Mushikiwabo emphasised that the fact she led the first Francophone trade and economic promotion delegation to Vietnam highlights that the OIF attaches great importance to the role and position of Vietnam within the Francophone community.



She stated that the delegations visit is just a starting point in connecting Vietnamese and Francophone businesses. She suggested that the two sides develop specific plans aimed at realising the outcome of her visit in order to raise economic co-operation between Vietnam and Francophone countries to new heights.



The OIF Secretary General acknowledged the Vietnamese proposals, affirming that the Francophone community will strive to strengthen co-operation with Vietnam in teaching French, joining UN peacekeeping operations, and fostering co-operative relations with the AU.



The same day Mushikiwabo attended and delivered a speech at a high-level economic forum between Vietnam and the OIF in Hanoi.



During her stay, Mushikiwabo is scheduled to pay a courtesy visit to State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and meet other Vietnamese officials.



The OIF leader will also attend ceremonies to mark International Francophonie Day and 25 years of the seventh Francophone Summit in Hanoi.
KAMPALA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Armed cattle rustlers in northeastern Uganda killed five people, including two soldiers and three geologists, police said.

Mike Longole, acting police public relations officer for Mount Moroto region, said in a statement Wednesday that the incident happened on Monday in Moroto District.

"They were on mineral mapping exercise in the above area. The motive of this incident is still a question of investigation," Longole said.

"Joint security forces are committed in ensuring that the perpetrators of this incident are brought to book and two guns added to the wrong hands will be recovered," he added.

Northeastern Uganda, also known as Karamoja, is facing armed cattle rustling or the act of stealing cattle. The Uganda military is currently carrying out a disarmament exercise to stem the practice. 
Troy Driver, accused of killing Naomi Irion, has been formally charged with murder and will be held without bail at the Lyon County Jail.

The arraignment happened Friday, April 8th at a hearing at the Canal Township Justice Court in Fernley. Driver appeared via zoom from Yerington.

The Lyon County District Attorneys Office says Troy Driver fatally shot Naomi Irion before burying her body in the desert, according to an amended criminal complaint.

Lyon County District Attorney Stephen Rye filed the amended criminal complaint Tuesday adding first-degree murder and other crimes to the kidnapping charge already facing 41-year-old Troy Driver.

Driver is accused of kidnapping Irion from the Fernley Walmart parking lot on March 12, and killing her on or before March 25 - the same day Driver was arrested for kidnapping.

Four days later, authorities say investigators acted on a tip and found her body in a grave near the Churchill County line.

Drivers been held in the Lyon County Jail in Fernley on $750,000 bondable bail since his arrest.

Hes now accused of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping, robbery, burglary of a motor vehicle and destroying evidence, according to the new complaint Rye filed Tuesday in Canal Township Justice Court in Fernley.

Drivers public defender, Mario Walther, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint said Driver shot Irion in Churchill County northeast of Fernley, where he took her for the purpose of committing sexual assault and/or purpose of killing her.

The document also alleged that Driver destroyed her cell phone and left pieces in Lyon, Churchill, Pershing, Humboldt and Eureka counties.

The Lyon County Sheriff's Office says Driver shot Irion in the head and chest.

The local community has been rallying around this family since this all started - there are a couple of events this weekend.

Kim Lovett, a Fernley resident says, "For this to happen is a scary thing, that even in our quiet little sleepy town that we have predators out there that would do something like this."

A devastated community that carried hopes of finding Naomi for weeks, and went on countless searches with her family. They said this outcome wasn't one anyone wanted. Some of the resident we spoke with extended their condolences to Naomi's family, and want them to know they are supported. Tisha Leija, another Fernley resident visibly upset told us, "I can't even imagine... the first thing I thought of was poor mom...poor mom...very sad. "

----------------------------------------------------------

The man accused of kidnapping Naomi Irion will stay in Lyon County Jail on $750,000 bondable bail.

41-year-old Troy E. Driver was arrested and booked into the jail last Friday. He's officially now charged with first degree kidnapping, a felony.

"Should the defendant post bail, he will not be released from custody until a GPS monitoring device is installed," Judge Lori Matheus, Canal Township Justice Court said.

The judge set Driver's preliminary hearing for April 12 for 1:30pm.

Irion's family attended the court hearing.

"It does look like they're going to be posting bail, from what I understand, so he's the only one who can help us bring Naomi home," Casey Valley, Irion's brother said. "He's the only one that we know about."

If he does get released from jail, Driver will be ordered to stay out of Fernley. He also must not contact Irion's family.

Driver has a criminal history. According to old articles in the Ukiah Daily Journal, he pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact for his role in a 1997 homicide in Willits, California. He was 17 years old at the time of the murder. The article says Driver stuffed the body of an alleged drug dealer, Paul Steven Rodriguez in a trunk and then left it in a wooded area. The article says he pleaded guilty to three charges of robbery and one of burglary. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison but the article said he could have been released after serving 12.

"It is upsetting to me that there is people out here in the general public that have these capabilities with this kind of past and people should be more aware of that," Naomi's brother, Casey Valley, said. "We talk about sex offenders all the time but where is the list with this guy?"

Deputies also announced Friday, March 25th that Driver's Chevy truck was impounded and is being processed for possible evidence.

This photo below, shows the truck being taken into evidence. David Ausano took the picture from his porch in Fallon, the night of March 25, 2022.

A second public search was organized for Saturday, March 26th, 2022 by Naomi's brother, Casey Valley.

In a Facebook post, he asked community members to gather at Love's Travel Stop on Commerce Center Drive in Fernley, Saturday at 10am. Valley says, "this will be the first of a few areas of a concentrated search." He also requested no pets or children.

During the search on March 26th, more than 110 people showed up to help find Naomi. Diana Irion says she's been getting massages from all over the country from people who want to help her family.

Casey Valley tells us, "Today's search covered more ground, if not just as much, as last weekends search."

--------------------------------------------------------

On Thursday, March 24th, Lyon County Deputies said they identified a potential witness vehicle and occupant(s) that appears in the Walmart parking lot minutes before Naomi was abducted. They say they've contacted the occupant of the car.

The 4-door sedan enters the east Walmart parking lot at approximately 5:15 a.m. and then drives around the median on the east side before parking at the the southeast corner of the Walmart building.

Police were able to locate the vehicle with help from the public.

Irion was last seen March 12th at the parking lot at the Fernley Walmart. Her car was found a few days later and is undergoing processing for possible evidence.

The Lyon County Sheriff's Office held a press conference on Tuesday, along with Irion's family where again they asked for the public's help in finding her, adding they are getting "hundreds" of tips everyday.

They also mentioned that her car, which was found a few days after her disappearance, is still undergoing processing for any related evidence.

Her family also made another plea for help, with her mother saying, "please save my daughter. Bring her home." Because Irion's possible kidnapping happened near I-80, her mother also said that her daughter could be anywhere in the U.S. by now.

Irion's sister and brother also spoke, mentioning that tips to law enforcement can stay anonymous, if need be. He also said that another search will happen this Saturday.

During the weekend, the Lyon County Sheriff's Office released new surveillance video from the Walmart parking lot where Naomi was reportedly last seen.

The footage shows the suspect standing in front of the Walmart entrance, pacing the east side of the building, before walking toward the front of cars with their headlights on.

Authorities say this footage was recorded minutes before Naomi was abducted.

If you were in the east Walmart parking lot between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. on March 12th, 2022 and have not been contacted by law enforcement, reach out to the Lyon County Sheriffs Office, Major Crimes Bureau.

The Lyon County Sheriffs Office can be reached at 775-463-6620, Secret Witness at (775) 322-4900 or by email at detective@lyon-county.org.

Authorities said a cell phone ping led officers to the Wadsworth area last week.

She was last seen wearing a blue Panasonic company shirt, gray cardigan sweater, gray pants, brown boots and was carrying a black purse. She had an iPhone, Airpods and a fidget spinner.

She is 511 tall, weighs about 230 pounds and has green eyes. Her hair is currently dyed black and she has a septum piercing and smiley face tattoo on her right ankle.

On Thursday, March 17th, Lyon County deputies announced that they were working with the Pyramid Lake Police Department and the FBI near Highway 427 in Wadsworth searching for evidence related to the disappearance of Naomi Irion.

They asked the public to stay away from the area as not to damage any evidence.

Her family made a public plea on Thursday for her safe return.

Authorities also thanked the Fernley community for their help. Her family members said that they are in contact with police about the case's progression.

On Friday, supporters gathered at the Round Table Pizza in Fernley to make signs to post around town in hopes of someone recognizing Irion's photo and calling police with information.

The newest released photos show Irion on the morning she was last seen and also include a person of interest.

The investigation now indicates that the suspect may be driving a dark 2020 or newer Chevrolet, 2500, High Country 4-Door Pickup Truck.

Authorities say the forensic evidence collected by investigators show that her disappearance is 'suspicious' in nature and that the driver of the truck "has a direct connection to her disappearance and her current whereabouts."

Previous video surveillance showed that person walking from a nearby 'homeless camp' looking in cars.

The unknown person then gets into the driver's seat of Irion's Mercury Sable and then leaves with her in the passenger seat.

During the course of the investigation, evidence was discovered leading investigators to believe Naomis disappearance was suspicious in nature.

Her 1992 blue Sable has a Nevada license plate of 595T37 was located in a industrial park in Fernley and has since been searched and forensically analyzed.

The first vehicle photo with the plate is Naomi's actual vehicle. The second vehicle photo is a stock photo and not her actual car.

If you have any information, contact Lyon County Sheriff's Office with case number 22ly01068 at 775-463-6620, or call or text your anonymous tip to Secret Witness at 775-322-4900.
Evusheld, a new FDA-approved drug to prevent Covid-19, has been hard to find.
MOGADISHU, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Wednesday's suicide attacks in the central Somali town of Beledweyne rose to 48 while 108 others were wounded, a senior regional official said on Thursday.

President of Somalia's Hirshabelle State Ali Gulawe Hussein said the toll could still rise since several people who were wounded during the Wednesday night attack are in serious conditions.

"We have lost lives and many properties in the disastrous attacks on Wednesday evening, 48 people were killed and some 108 others injured in the twin terrorist attacks. We wish the injured quick recovery and we will take those with serious wounds for specialized treatment abroad," Hussein said in a statement issued in Beledweyne, the capital of Somalia's Hiran region.

He called on the police to reinforce the security Lamagalaay military base where the elections for the Lower House are taking place, about 300 kilometers north of the Somalia capital, Mogadishu.

"Al-Shabab militant group is the enemy of the Somali people and they targeted prominent people in the community," Hussein said and called for the security forces to conduct thorough investigation into the matter.

Among those killed in the attack include outspoken female lawmaker Amina Mohamed, who was killed as she approached a polling station in the town.

The lawmaker, a vocal government critic, was in the town to campaign for her re-election in a vote which was due later this week.

Former Minister of Education, Abdirahman Dahir Osman was also wounded in the attack.

Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they targeted government officials in Beledweyne town who were taking part in the elections.

The Beledweyene attack came a few hours after Somali security forces killed two terrorists in a foiled attack on a Halane military base in Mogadishu. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden looks on as he attends a North Atlantic Council meeting during a NATO summit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24.


Nimbus Silver Zinc Project Update

Perth, Mar 24, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to provide an update on the Nimbus silver-zinc project, adjacent to the Boorara gold mine, 15km east of KalgoorlieBoulder in the goldfields of Western Australia (Figure 1*).HIGHLIGHTS- Independent data review and concept study completed on the 100% owned Nimbus silverzinc project, located 15km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia- Silver currently trading at A$34/oz and zinc at A$5,200/t with increasing demand forecast from the production of electronic devices, electricity transmission and photovoltaic cells used in electric vehicles and solar panels in addition to traditional wealth storage and galvanising- The current global Mineral Resource estimate for Nimbus stands at:o 12.1Mt grading 52g/t Ag for 20.2Moz of silver and 0.9% Zn for 104kt zinc- A high-grade lode exists within this resource immediately below the historic Discovery pit and has a Mineral Resource estimate of:o 260kt grading 774g/t Ag for 6.4Moz silver and 12.8% Zn for 33kt zinc- Exploration Target beneath the Nimbus pits inclusive of oxide silver and primary Zn-Ag-Pb sulphide mineralisation, of between 550,000 tonnes and 700,000 tonnes with a grade range of 3.4 - 3.6% Zn, and 140 - 210g/t Ag, with minor Pb (0.45 - 0.65%)- Concept study confirmed the optimal economic pathway through mining the higher-grade lodes and producing a silver and zinc concentrate with more drilling required to increase overall tonnage and mine life- A gold concentrate from the Company's existing refractory ore at Teal Deeps, Jacques Find and Peyes Farm was also assessed which improved the life of mine and economics- Indicative term sheets received from several potential offtake partners in Europe capable of smelting the complex metallurgy of the concentrate- Approval now given to advance the project to the next level of study and drill testing for additional high-grade tonnage at depth and along the Gretel-Nimbus-Brindabella trend- Drilling planned for the June and September Quarter pending works approvals with the completion of a revised Definitive Feasibility Study expected in the March Quarter 2023Commenting on the Nimbus silver-zinc project, Horizon Managing Director Mr Jon Price said:"With silver and zinc showing sustained price increases, we see the potential to grow the highergrade core within the Nimbus resource at depth and along strike. The Company will continue working to develop a longer-term production profile underpinning a concentrator at site and look forward to further drilling success and the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study."The Company completed a strategic review of the Nimbus silver-zinc project in 2021 and elected to retain the project on a 100% basis. An independent review by consultancy firm Australian Mining Consultants (AMC) and Sedgmen was commissioned to assess the historic data, mine optimisations and metallurgical work to evaluate the optimal pathway forward for the project. The review highlighted the potential of the project through underground mining the fresh higher-grade ore below the historic Discovery pit and generating a silver and a zinc concentrate for sale to potential offtake partners. A gold concentrate was also assessed to improve overall life of mine given the need for additional tonnage to underpin a concentrator at site.Given the drilling success to date along the Gretel-Nimbus-Brindabella trend and the potential for repeat high grade lenses at Nimbus deeps and along strike, a focussed drilling campaign has been planned and will commence in the June Quarter 2022. Exploration Target drilling zones identified below the Nimbus pits are show below (Figure 2 and 3*).Horizon has reviewed and updated resource models and has formed a view that there is a potential VHMS (Zn - Ag - Pb) Exploration Target, inclusive of oxide silver and primary Zn-Ag-Pb sulphide mineralisation, of between 550,000 tonnes and 700,000 tonnes with a grade range of 3.4 - 3.6% Zn, and 140 - 210g/t Ag, with minor Pb (0.45 - 0.65%). To date these Exploration Targets have not been drilled.Figure 4* below shows the existing high-grade silver and zinc-silver-lead VHMS lenses previously identified under the Nimbus Discovery and East pits.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.
JAKARTA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian Police's anti-terrorism unit has arrested five suspected terrorists who are allegedly supporting the armed criminal Islamic State (IS) group, a police officer said on Thursday.

The five suspects were arrested on March 9-15 in four different locations, head of the Densus 88's Operation Division Aswin Siregar told a press conference.

Siregar said the five suspects controlled the "Annajiyah Media Center", which has helped the IS distribute and disseminate terrorism propaganda in digital forms in Indonesia.

"They spread propaganda information, which urges people to join Jihad (an Islamic holy war)," Siregar said. 


Placement Raises $16M to Advance Exploration at Oracle Ridge

Perth, Mar 24, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Eagle Mountain Mining Limited ( ASX:EM2 ) ( OTCMKTS:EGMMF ) is pleased to announce it has received firm commitments to raise $16 million through the issue of approximately 35.5 million fully paid ordinary shares to institutional investors at $0.45 per share ("Placement").The Company would like to thank and acknowledge the strong support of its existing institutional shareholders. In addition, as part of the Placement, Managing Director, Mr Charles Bass, intends to subscribe for $1 million which is subject to shareholder approval to be sought at a forthcoming General Meeting.Commenting on the successful capital raise, CEO, Tim Mason said:"The Board and I are very pleased with the strong support received for this equity raising, in particular from our existing major institutional shareholders who continue to back the Company in our objective to become a significant copper producer.This fund raise will allow us to continue to expand and upgrade the high-grade mineral resources at Oracle Ridge and pave the way for a preliminary feasibility study to commence in 2023. As part of our development pathway, we are refurbishing the underground mine to dramatically improve drilling efficiency and allow for the potential development of an exploration drive which could later be used as an access for mining purposes.I wish to thank Charlie Bass, our Managing Director, who continues to show his unwavering financial support for the Company with another commitment to subscribe for $1 million as part of the Placement.The combination of the strong outlook for the copper market, the competitive strengths of the Oracle Ridge project and ongoing exploration success positions the Company with a solid base for growth in shareholder value."Placement DetailsThe Company has received binding commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors to raise $16 million through the issue of approximately 35.5 million fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of $0.45 per share ("Offer Price"). The Placement comprises two components:- An unconditional placement to raise $15 million via the issue of 33,333,333 fully paid ordinary shares to be issued under the Company's available placement capacity in accordance with Listing Rules 7.1 (10,161,575 shares) and 7.1A (23,171,758 shares) ("Unconditional Placement").- A conditional placement to Managing Director, Mr Charles Bass, who intends to subscribe for $1 million via the issue of 2,222,223 fully paid ordinary shares ("Conditional Placement").The Offer Price of $0.45 represents a 6.2% discount to the last close price of $0.48 per share and a 12.5% discount to the 5-day VWAP of $0.514 per share.The Unconditional Placement is expected to settle on Tuesday 29 March 2022, with the issue and trading of new shares expected to commence on Wednesday 30 March 2022.Mr Bass' participation in the Conditional Placement will be subject to shareholder approval at a forthcoming General Meeting. A Notice of Meeting will be sent to Shareholders in due course seeking approval for the issue of the Placement Shares to an entity associated with Mr Charles Bass.Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited and PAC Partners Securities Pty Ltd acted as Joint Lead Managers to the Placement.About Eagle Mountain Mining Limited

Eagle Mountain Mining Limited (ASX:EM2) (OTCMKTS:EGMMF), is a copper-gold explorer focused on the strategic exploration and development of the Oracle Ridge Copper Mine and the highly prospective greenfield (Silver Mountain) project, both located in Arizona, USA.

Arizona is at the heart of America's mining industry and home to some of the world's largest copper discoveries such as Bagdad, Miami and Resolution, one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world.
OKLAHOMA CITY  An Oklahoma Air National Guard pilot managed to eject safely from an F-16 fighter jet before it crashed on Wednesday into a wooded area in southwest Louisiana, the Guard said in a statement.

There were no reports of injuries on the ground after the crash, and the pilot suffered no severe injury, the statement said.

The pilots family identified him as Maj. Alexander Drummond, mission commander of the Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. Drummond is the son of Gentner Drummond, a Tulsa attorney and a Republican candidate for Oklahoma attorney general.

As a parent, the first thing I wanted to know when I received the news of the crash was, of course  is he OK? Gentner Drummond said in a statement. Im relieved to know that Alexander is alive, receiving outstanding medical care and is expected to make a full recovery.

The pilot and aircraft were on a routine training mission out of Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, the Guard said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: Was the scene with Midge and Lenny Bruce in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel really filmed at Carnegie Hall? I am so sorry there will only be one more season of the show. What a terrific cast.

A: The Amazon Prime Video show enjoyed a three-day shoot in the real Carnegie Hall, the New York Daily News reported last June. That was as the hall was coming out of its COVID-related shutdown, so Maisel did not have to work around concert performances. And the Daily News noted that Carnegies fastidious upkeep and devotion to its history meant that the show did not have to do much to make it look the way it did in the early 60s period of that Maisel episode, which was finale of the eight-episode fourth season. A fifth season will indeed be the shows last. And while I understand your enthusiasm about the cast, I am among those who found Season 4 disappointing.

Q: I am an avid William Petersen fan and watched every episode of the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in which he starred. Last season he returned in CSI: Vegas but now it seems to have disappeared. What happened, and will it return?

A: CSI: Vegas, which blended some veterans of the old series with a new cast, made 10 episodes of its first season and aired them all. (As I have said before, TV series seasons vary considerably in the number of episodes.) The show has been picked up for a second run to air sometime in the 2022-23 season. But Petersen, who reprised his role of Gil Grissom on the new series, reportedly signed on only for the first season as an actor and will not be on camera in the second season (he remains an executive producer). In addition, Jorja Fox  who played Grissoms colleague and lover  will not be back for the second season either. As Grissom goes, she tweeted, so goes Sara.

Q: Im going to ask before you are bombarded with the same question: Why was Julian McMahon (Agent Jess LaCroix) written out of FBI: Most Wanted?

A: Folks were surprised about the death of LaCroix, although it has been known for some time that McMahon was leaving the show, reportedly for additional creative pursuits. As I mentioned here about a month ago, with McMahon gone, Dylan McDermott will be joining Most Wanted. He has most recently been on Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Q: I am wondering about the actors in a movie I saw in 1954 or so. It was an English movie and as an emotional teenager I cried my eyes out. I believe it was called The Girl Who Couldnt Quite.

A: That is the correct title of a 1950 movie based on a play of the same name. It involves a tramp helping a young woman who is unable to smile. Elizabeth Henson played the girl, Ruth, with Bill Owen as the tramp, Tim. The cast also included Betty Stockfeld and Iris Hoey.

Do you have a question or comment about entertainment past, present and future? Write to Rich Heldenfels, P.O. Box 417, Mogadore, OH 44260, or brenfels@gmail.com. Letters may be edited. Individual replies are not guaranteed.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Administrators of the Tiny Homes Village are looking to redirect $500,000 in county money to cover casework and around-the-clock staff as the transitional housing site anticipates ramping up operations.

Its just to go toward helping with the regular operations, said Carolyn Chavez, a village manager, on Wednesday. The amount of money that we are operating off of right now is enough for the current amount of villagers, but as we scale up we obviously just need to scale up that funding as well.

There are currently four residents of the Tiny Homes Village, which was constructed for nearly $5 million and opened in February 2021 with 30 stand-alone, 120-square-foot homes and communal buildings for toilets, showers, cooking, laundry and meeting spaces.

Since then, the village has never had more than eight residents at a time living there. The 2021 Point-in-Time survey counted about 1,560 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people living in Albuquerque. There are currently 65 resident applications that village administrators are waiting on reviewing until the additional funds are allocated, Chavez said.

The half-million dollar funding will come from the countys Behavioral Health Initiative, said Charlie Verploegh, the initiatives assistant director. Specifically, the money will be made available by reassigning $500,000 from the $1 million allocation for community engagement teams.

Once we started running that (community engagement) program, we realized we could run it on $500,000, Verploegh said. We have a contract right now with Youth Development Incorporated, or YDI, to run that program. We realized we just dont need a full million to run community engagement teams, though we would love to have that much. But there just isnt enough money to go around, and the Tiny Homes Village really needs it, so were moving it.

Technically, Behavioral Health doesnt need permission to move the money, Verploegh said, but in the interest of transparency the question will be brought before the Bernalillo County Commission on March 29.

Last November, a county spokesman said finding acceptable residents for the transitional housing community may have been too difficult because of the stringent requirements, and those might have to be reworked.

Chavez said that reassessment process has been completed, and were still kind of polishing the final version. One of the requirements that has been changed is that people with addictions will no longer have to be in recovery for 30 days in order to be accepted as residents.

That doesnt mean we dont have certain requirements around recovery and harm reduction and those kind of things, but were not going to be requiring that they have been in recovery for the last 30 days, Chavez said.

Guidelines that remain in place include disqualifying potential residents if they have extreme behavioral or mental health issues that prevent them from living independently, if they are registered sex offenders or have been found guilty of sex crimes. Residents also must agree to participate in a host of chores to maintain the property.

The Tiny Homes Village is located on the grounds of a once weed-strewn lot behind the Albuquerque Indian Center at 105 Texas SE. Never intended as an emergency shelter, residents can remain at the village for up to two years while they are surrounded by social services, find employment, and become independent and financially stable enough to exit and afford their own housing.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A Sandoval County judge placed Immanuel Segura under house arrest on a GPS monitor as he awaited trial in a shooting case. The judge then released the 18-year-old to the custody of his brother, who lived in Albuquerque.

In the month that followed, according to court records, Segura maintained acceptable communication with his pretrial officer and did not violate house arrest.

Authorities say thats because Segura didnt have a reason to leave. Albuquerque police say he and his brother were selling guns and drugs out of their Northeast Albuquerque apartment.

Immanuel Segura, 18, and Santiago Segura-Fresquez, 21, were arrested Tuesday. Both are charged with trafficking controlled substances.

Segura and Segura-Fresquez have been booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unclear if either has an attorney.

At the time of his arrest, according to 13th Judicial District Court records, Segura was under house arrest and wearing a GPS ankle monitor as he awaited trial on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon from a December 2021 shooting.

APD sent out a news release on Seguras arrest, saying he was selling drugs and guns out of his apartment at the Desert Willow Apartments because he is not allowed to leave due to the ankle monitor.

APD spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said undercover officers bought hundreds of fentanyl pills from the pair before getting a warrant to search the apartment near Alameda and Jefferson.

Atkins said authorities found 3,900 fentanyl pills, 82 grams of methamphetamine, two shotguns, one AR-15 rifle, three pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition, $2,000 in cash and eight stolen Sandoval County deputy badges.

APD Chief Harold Medina said in a statement that the case is exactly why I have been critical of the courts for relying on GPS ankle monitors to keep the public safe from violent suspects.

The release came a day after Medina blasted 2nd Judicial District Judge Stanley Whitaker for releasing the suspect in two separate Albuquerque homicides on an ankle monitor. The risk to the public is too high, Medina said in the Wednesday release.

In a notice of alleged violation of conditions of release filed Wednesday, a pretrial services officer wrote Segura had maintained acceptable communication with this officer, and has not received any GPS violations before his arrest.

A Public Safety Assessment of Seguras latest charge recommends he be released on his own recognizance, although a judge will make the final decision. Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him until trial, calling the 18-year-old a dangerous person directly profiting from harming our community.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Authorities say the man who was fatally shot by police on East Central on Saturday evening was not armed with a gun.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said investigators did not locate a firearm after police shot and killed Collin Neztsosie, 33, near Central and Tramway.

However, detectives spoke to at least four individuals who stated they believed the male was armed with a gun or making motions to appear he was armed with a gun, he said.

APD has said Neztsosie was shot during an altercation with police.

Carlos Rocha, who lives nearby, told the Journal on Wednesday that Neztsosie, who he came across minutes before the shooting, pointed a phone at him  pretending it was a gun.

I started laughing because I saw right away it wasnt a gun, Carlos Rocha said. It was funny to me  at the time.

Rocha said he almost dialed 911 to report it, and that Neztsosie wasnt armed, but was in a hurry to pick up his daughter from work. Twenty minutes later, he said, they pulled up to crime scene tape and numerous officers.

Rocha said he saw Neztsosie, clad in tan work boots and blue jeans, dead on the ground in almost the same spot.

My heart just sank, he said. I got out and told the cop, Dont tell me you shot the guy, please dont tell me that. 

Hours after the shooting, APD Chief Harold Medina said at least one officer fired on Neztsosie, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Medina said officers responded to the area around 5 p.m. after receiving 911 calls of a man pointing a gun at people in the area. He said one of those callers was Neztsosies friend, who told police he was armed, and even Neztsosie called 911.

Medina said when police arrived the situation escalated and shots were fired.

Rocha said he wished he had made that phone call to inform police that Neztsosie wasnt armed.

Clearly he wasnt in his right mind  this whole thing couldve been prevented, he said.

Rocha said he drove up and Neztsosie was standing in the middle of Tramway, south of Central. He said Neztsosie got on one knee like a soldier, pulled out his black phone and cocked it back like a gun, pointing it at Rocha.

You never think something is going to unfold like this, Rocha said.

Rocha said after the shooting he tried to tell police, who initially shooed him away from the scene, that Neztsosie wasnt armed and they took down his information. He said APD never called him to follow up.

After APD sent a release hoping to talk to additional witnesses and asking them to call 242-COPS, Rocha said he tried to call to no avail.

I just stayed on hold forever and ever and ever and ever, he said.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A person was killed after being struck by a falling rock and tumbling down a ladder Wednesday afternoon at Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos.

Joanie Budzileni, a park spokeswoman, said in a news release that the person was climbing up to Alcove House when the incident occurred. She didnt say if the person killed was a man or a woman.

She said after being hit by the rock the visitor fell 30 feet down the second of four ladders. Budzileni said Bandelier Visitor & Resource Protection Rangers and the Los Alamos Fire Department responded to the scene.

While being lowered to the ground with ropes and a litter, the visitor became pulseless and could not be resuscitated, she said in the news release.

Budzileni said the visitors identity is not being released until family has been notified, and the Alcove House remains closed while this incident is under investigation.

Alcove House is located 140 feet above the floor of Frijoles Canyon, according to the monuments website. It was once home to about 25 Ancestral Pueblo people and is now reached by four wooden ladders and several stone stairs.

Wednesdays incident happened during one of the busiest periods for Bandelier as spring break visitors flock to the monument to see its ancient cliff dwellings. Bandelier showcases a human presence dating back more than 11,000 years. The monument has attracted up to 200,000 visitors a year.

This isnt the first time a visitor to Bandelier has been killed. In 2016, 81-year-old Beverly Modlin, of Chicago, was visiting the monument with her family when a 70-foot tree fell in a visitors parking area. Modlin, who was getting into a rental car after a hike when the tree came down, sustained head, spine and other injuries.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Modlins family was settled in 2021 for $1 million.

Journal city editor Martin Salazar contributed to this report.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico exports ballooned by 46% in 2021 to a new annual record of $5.4 billion, thanks largely to bustling activity at the Santa Teresa industrial parks along the Mexican border.

Total worldwide sales jumped by nearly $1.7 billion last year compared with 2020, representing a huge turnaround from a pandemic-induced trade slump in 2020.

That year, state exports plummeted by 21% to $3.69 billion, down from a 2019 peak of $4.68 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

But, last year, global sales blew past that previous annual record by $700 million, or 15% more than the 2019 pre-pandemic record.

The growth reflects significant expansion in general for New Mexico trade with countries around the globe, but, in particular, with sales to Mexico, the states No. 1 export market.

Sales to Mexico grew by 12% to $2.47 billion last year compared with 2020, setting a new annual record for exports to that country.

That demonstrates vibrant activity at the Santa Teresa industrial parks, where business is booming, said Jerry Pacheco, trade consultant and executive director of the International Business Accelerator, which works to recruit trade-related companies to the border region.

Pacheco also writes a regular trade column for the Journal.

More than half a dozen firms set up new operations at Santa Teresa just in the past two years, including companies from Taiwan, Mexico and the U.S.  all of them focused primarily on trade with Mexico, Pacheco told the Albuquerque Economic Forum Wednesday morning.

The states real export growth is in Santa Teresa, because every time we add a company there, it automatically increases New Mexicos exports, Pacheco said.  Were leading the nation in export growth to Mexico and the world.

With pandemic-related trade disruptions slowly but steadily receding, export activity is expected to accelerate even more, said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in an email to the Journal.

As the global supply chain evolves, domestic and international companies alike are investing in and growing their footprint in New Mexico, Lujan Grisham said.

Nonstop border growth

Indeed, a lot more expansion is in the works at Santa Teresa, which is currently home to some 70 companies in 2 million square feet of industrial space just north of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

Last year alone, developers constructed 750,000 square feet of new facilities, including a 315,000-square-foot spec building that Houston-based Blue Road Investments LLC built at Santa Teresas Westpark Logistics Center, the newest of four parks operating in the industrial zone.

That spec building  which Blue Road built before actually lining up tenants in anticipation of growing demand for space  is now fully occupied, encouraging the company to break ground in December on another 365,000-square-foot spec building, Pacheco said. And Abyacsa Construction just broke ground on a 135,000-square-foot building, meaning 500,000 square feet of new construction is now underway.

In addition, just south of the border in San Jeronimo, both the computer-assembly firm Foxconn and candy-maker Sunrise Confections are planning major expansions.

Foxconn, which already assembles about 70,000 Dell computers and tablets per day in a 1.5 million-square-foot facility, broke ground in late December on another 1.2 million square feet, Pacheco said. And Sunrise, which operates a 220,000-square-foot plant in San Jeronimo, will expand by another 280,000 square feet this year.

The new growth is enormous, Pacheco told the Journal. If you add the Santa Teresa and San Jeronimo expansions together, its nearly 2 million square feet now under construction. Thats the most activity Ive ever seen here.

The twin cities

Santa Teresa and San Jeronimo are joined at the hip, with growth on one side directly accelerating growth on the other.

Thats because Santa Teresa-based businesses are primary suppliers of raw materials and components for factories in San Jeronimo, and throughout northern Mexico. They provide everything from copper wire, steel and plastic to electronics and automotive parts.

They also offer warehousing and distribution services for Mexican importers at facilities in the industrial parks.

Its a symbiotic relationship, Pacheco said.

Our primary goal is to build a binational community along the border, he said.

Development on both sides is having immense economic impact. Industrial plants in San Jeronimo now employ about 13,500 people.

And Santa Teresas industrial parks support about 6,000 jobs, and $1.1 billion in annual economic activity in southern New Mexico and El Paso, according to a recent New Mexico State University study.

Were kind of a sleeping giant down there, Pacheco told the Economic Forum. Were bigger than both the state film industry and the New Mexico Spaceport in terms of economic impact.

And, unlike those other two industries, the border industrial parks are providing high-paying jobs in traditionally low-income communities where manufacturing work is hard to come by.

Were not as sexy as the film or space industries, but what we do is meat and potatoes,  Pacheco said. Companies come to New Mexico, invest in new space and equipment, and hire lots of local employees.

Infrastructure investment

All the growth is generating more infrastructure development along the border, with $70.7 million in new state and federal funding now earmarked for Santa Teresa.

That money will finance the construction of a new highway parallel to the border, Pacheco said. It will run from Santa Teresa to Sunland Park, offering commercial traffic a fast, direct link with El Paso.

Another $20 million will finance upgrades at the Dona Ana County International Jetport just north of the industrial parks.

By investing in key infrastructure in the Borderplex, we are creating new jobs and generating additional revenue for the region and the state, Lujan Grisham said in her email.

Santa Teresa now accounts for nearly 60% of all New Mexico exports. But export-oriented business is growing as well in the mid-Rio Grande corridor and other areas.

Sales of transportation equipment, for example  including civilian aircraft, engines and components  contributed to a combined $319 million increase in exports from New Mexico to Panama, Costa Rica and Singapore last year. And exports to Europe climbed 19% from $308 million in 2020 to $367 million last year.

Sales to China also surged in 2021, up by about $900 million. But, by and large, that reflects the ebb and flow of trade between Intel Corp. in Rio Rancho and its sister facilities in Asia, Pacheco said.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A Ukrainian flag is displayed outside their Albuquerque home, where retired University of New Mexico Russian professor Byron Lindsey and his wife, Tania, who was born in the former Soviet Union, pore over reports of Russias Ukraine invasion and stay glued to TV news for hours.

Byron, a professor emeritus of Russian language and literature, spent much of his career living in and traveling to Russia, where he met his wife. They are intrinsically connected to the conflict. Tania has close relatives in Russia and Byron has Russian colleagues at American and Russian universities.

Im not doing anything but thinking about just whats going on, Tania said. The killing. The destroying. This is the nightmare. And why? Why? Just because (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants to show that hes so great? Stupid.

Its an emotional time for the couple. Thousands of civilians have likely been killed in Ukraine and 3.5 million have fled the country since Russia began its invasion last month. They said their strong Russian ties have caused anxiety and shame.

I feel it as a Russian person, yeah, Tania said. When I talked to my niece who lives here she told me, I before introduced myself as Russian. Im not going to do it anymore. 

In an effort to spread knowledge and awareness about the war, Byron is hosting a forum Thursday at UNM titled Voices of Ukraine. The event will feature three native Ukrainians who live in Albuquerque. Two of them are nurses and one is a UNM student.

I want to help inform the community, Byron said. I want to sharpen it a little by having Ukrainian voices speak for themselves, because I think they can make a more poignant statement.

He said he also wants to localize conversation about the future of the war, and the massive amounts of aid and support Ukraine is going to need.

I want community voices to tell us how they think we can proceed from here and form something ongoing, Byron said. I dont see many positive directions that give me a great deal of immediate hope. Long-range hope, yes. Always. But immediate? I really think its going to take a lot more suffering. Theres going to be lots of suffering.

Against the grain

Byrons interest in the Russian language piqued when he was an undergraduate at the University of Texas, and after college he volunteered for the Army, where he attended language school.

From 1959-1962, he was assigned to Germany, where he studied Russian during the Cold War. He then returned to the states and continued to study Russian and Slavic languages. He worked at UNM from 1970 until taking emeritus status in 2007.

I took every opportunity that I had (to go to Russia), and there were numerous academic opportunities, Byron said during a recent interview. I was always trying to get to know and understand Russia better and better and better. My day job may have been research, but my night job, I felt, was being an American in Russian society.

What drew him to Russian language and literature?

During the Cold War, there was a great deal of anti-Russian, anti-Soviet feeling in (America), Byron said. And I sort of like to always in my life go against the grain a bit and thought, Oh, (studying Russia is) going against the grain. And it was glamorous.

Byron and Tania met in Moscow in the 1970s and she left the Soviet Union for America in 1983.

Passive mode

Tania said the couple is staying in regular contact with one of her close relatives, who is still living in Russia. They are sending encrypted messages because Russians can get into trouble with authorities for even talking about the war.

Byron said he has been in contact with Russian academics in Russia and America.

The nightmare is real. (The war) is going at the heart of everything that we had hoped for Russia, he said. Reform, positive, freedom, loving, progressive, creative Russia is being destroyed as they kill Ukrainians. There are two things going on here: Theres the genocide against the Ukrainians. And theres the moral suicide or murder of the Russian intellectuals, the well-informed and the creative people.

This is the realization of my worst fears.

Byron said its extremely difficult for ordinary citizens inside of Russia to get accurate information about their government, which shapes how they perceive the war. Tania said she has relatives who remain supportive of the Russian government.

Byron said Russians he knows have retreated into passive mode.

You need to step back a little and realize that Russian people fear and essentially dislike or maybe in some cases actively hate their own government, he said.

As a Russian literature expert, Byron said there are inspirational materials for the Russian people.

I still hope that theres a Russian spirit that will fall back on its literature. A huge part of Russian literature is opposing the Russian state, he said. Protests, rebellion, sympathy for the underdog, rationality, humanity. These are the great themes of Russian literature. They have plenty of material to fall back on for inspiration.
She contacted the Journal because she wanted us to pull down an old story about her old life, her past life, not who she is now or how far shes come.

But thats the hard truth when we make news. Somewhere in the internet ether, our misdeeds live on eternally, no matter the good weve done since then.

You do a Google search and those bad stories pop up, Ginger Sharpe frets. Its cost me jobs.

We could not help Sharpe erase the sins of her past. But we could shift the focus to the success of her present, the glittery promise of her future.

Thats the story worth Googling.

Sharpe is 38, a proud mom of a 15-year-old daughter, a graphic artist and photographer, an apartment dweller and a peer support worker at Crossroads for Women for women emerging from incarceration and addiction.

She is also one of those emerging women, four years clean and sober.

Shes changed so much since first coming here, said Robert Fontenot, development director at Crossroads. She one of our people we ask first to publicly share her personal story to show the public what we do and how people can recover from their addictions.

Sharpe will be sharing her story as the featured speaker at the nearly sold-out sixth annual Tea Time with Crossroads fundraiser Saturday.

But the story she hoped to stop being shared is the one that appeared March 6, 2018, in the Journal about how she failed a drug test while on probation and blamed it on a prescription her doctor gave her for methamphetamine  which was not true.

The story went national.

It was a stupid mistake I made, listening to a friend, and it backfired, Sharpe said.

Sharpes criminal history stretches back to 2011 and includes misdemeanor shoplifting, fraud and trespassing offenses to felony drug possession, forgery and auto burglary.

But her addiction and abuse began far earlier than that, her childhood filled with neglect, abuse and mental illness.

I didnt come from the best home, she said.

At age 8, she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and prescribed amphetamines. By the time she was 15, she was a full-fledged meth addict, homeless and hitching herself to older, abusive men deep into their own addictions.

The birth of her daughter in her early 20s gave her a reason to get clean. But that was short lived when during a police raid, her child was removed from her custody.

It was November 11, 2011, she said, the date so searing that it still brings her to tears. I was doing OK. But my roommate was selling drugs out of our apartment and I didnt know, and the police came and took my baby. I was in handcuffs and they wouldnt let me hold her as she was screaming.

That, she said, was when she hit bottom.

It felt like I had no reason to live, no hope, she said. I didnt care anymore. My addiction was in full swing.

Sharpe said after her release from jail she had nowhere to go. She shoplifted to eat and buy her meth. At night, she walked the streets, finding respite in all-night casinos, washing up in the restrooms, drinking free sodas and playing penny slots slowly so she wouldnt be kicked out.

I tried not to look homeless, she said.

For extra cash, she went dumpster diving behind a florist shop to retrieve salvageable flowers she crafted into bouquets and sold for $5 apiece.

The flowers were still beautiful, she said. And it felt less degrading than panhandling.

Her efforts werent always well received. A man yelled at her to get a job and spit in her face, she said.

I remember that humiliation, she said. I wasnt asking for a handout. I was trying to be resourceful, to hold on to a little dignity.

The worst humiliation came when she tested positive at the probation office and was made to call her young daughter to tell her she was going back to jail.

But it was during that stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center that she met members of the University of New Mexico Fast Track program, which matches inmates to appropriate services. Sharpe was matched with Crossroads for Women.

The nonprofit provides integrative services including housing, counseling and support to help break the cycles of addiction and abuse. Its symbol is the butterfly, which represents rebirth, transformation, change, hope.

Sharpe became one of those butterflies.

For once, I felt like I had hope, she said. Like I finally had a voice.

Through the program, Sharpe obtained housing and counseling. She was able to graduate from high school at last and have her daughter, now back in her custody, see her don her cap and gown and receive her diploma.

But she has also found time to explore her art. And she plays a mean bass guitar.

It has been a struggle at times. Sharpe was diagnosed in 2011 with lupus. She has post-traumatic stress disorder, walks with a cane because of her debilitating lymphedema and has a blood disorder in which her body produces too many platelets.

I was hard on my body, she said.

She now serves as a peer support worker at Crossroads, holding weekly counseling sessions, called Life on Lifes Terms, with women who are where she has been.

The girls relate to me because Ive been there and they see the changes in me, how great I am doing, she said. And they see it is possible to change, too.

Her five-year plan, she said, is to become a certified peer support worker and take her skills to North Carolina, where she has family, and open a program similar to Crossroads.

I get to change peoples lives with my story and experience, she said. Can you believe it? Change peoples lives!

When Crossroads moved into its new building on Elm NE, Sharpe offered to paint a mural on the lobby wall. The glittery mural, now almost completed, features butterflies, painted by women in the program.

Because just like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly we are working hard to transform our lives into something beautiful, she said.

That is who she is now. And that is the story shes happy to share.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com.
Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, March 23, 2022. (Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)/Handout via Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and the two had friendly and in-depth discussions on the relations between China and Pakistan as well as the regional and international issues.

During the meeting, the Pakistani chief of army staff spoke highly of the high-level strategic cooperation between Pakistan and China.

Bajwa praised and expressed support for China's foreign policy, saying China has pursued a balanced and steady foreign policy, been committed to world peace and development and fulfilled its role as a responsible major country in international hotspot issues.

Wang said China appreciates the Pakistani military for its proactive effort and significant contribution over the years in consolidating and strengthening the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, safeguarding the security and smooth progress of the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and ensuring the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan.

Wang also said that the Pakistani military has played a role of stabilizer and ballast in building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.

On the Afghanistan issue, Wang called for wisdom of the East to promote dialogue and communication to solve it, instead of resorting to pressure or sanctions.

Both China and Pakistan have encouraged the ruling authorities of Afghanistan to actively build an open and inclusive political framework, implement moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies and resolutely fight all forms of terrorism, he said.

Noting that Afghanistan enjoys favorable geographical advantages, resources endowment and development potential, Wang said the international community should support Afghanistan in finding the right path of economic development, livelihood improvement and self-reliance.

Bajwa said that Pakistan is highly concerned about the spillover effect of the Ukraine crisis, appreciates China's stance of upholding justice and balance and promoting peace talks, and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China in this regard.

Noting that the Ukraine crisis has taught the world that conflicts are to occur when one pursues exclusive or absolute security and seeks one's own security over others' insecurity, Wang said that in the 21st century, military blocs and clan rivalries have long lost people's support and are doomed to fail. 
KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraines ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken to Russia.

The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraines rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.

A month into the invasion, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraines navy said it sank a large Russian landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to bring in armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is defending our common values.

U.S President Joe Biden, in Europe for the summit and other high-level meetings, gave assurances more aid is on its way, though it appeared unlikely the West would give Zelenskyy everything he wanted, for fear of triggering a much wider war.

Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders have fought Moscows ground troops to a near-stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

In other developments Thursday:

Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners, the largest swap reported yet, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

The pro-Moscow leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, warned that Polands proposal to deploy a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine will mean World War III.

In Chernihiv, where an airstrike this week destroyed a crucial bridge, a city official, Olexander Lomako, said a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as Russian forces target food storage places. He said about 130,000 people are left in the besieged city, about half its prewar population.

Russia said it will offer safe passage starting Friday to 67 ships from 15 foreign countries that are stranded in Ukrainian ports because of the danger of shelling and mines.

Kyiv and Moscow gave conflicting accounts, meanwhile, about the people being relocated to Russia and whether they were going willingly  as Russia claimed  or were being coerced or lied to.

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said the roughly 400,000 people evacuated to Russia since the start of the military action were from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting for control for nearly eight years.

Russian authorities said they are providing accommodations and dispensing payments to the evacuees.

But Donetsk Region Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that people are being forcibly moved into the territory of the aggressor state. Denisova said those removed by Russian troops included a 92-year-old woman in Mariupol who was forced to go to Taganrog in southern Russia.

Ukrainian officials said that the Russians are taking peoples passports and moving them to filtration camps in Ukraines separatist-controlled east before sending them to various distant, economically depressed areas in Russia.

Among those taken, Ukraines Foreign Ministry charged, were 6,000 residents of Mariupol, the devastated port city in the countrys east. Moscows troops are confiscating identity documents from an additional 15,000 people in a section of Mariupol under Russian control, the ministry said.

Some could be sent as far as the Pacific island of Sakhalin, Ukrainian intelligence said, and are being offered jobs on condition they dont leave for two years. The ministry said the Russians intend to use them as hostages and put more political pressure on Ukraine.

Kyrylenko said that Mariupols residents have been long deprived of information and that the Russians feed them false claims about Ukraines defeats to persuade them to move to Russia.

Russian lies may influence those who have been under the siege, he said.

As for the naval attack in Berdyansk, Ukraine claimed two more ships were damaged and a 3,000-ton fuel tank was destroyed when the Russian ship Orsk was sunk, causing a fire that spread to ammunition supplies.

Zelenskyy rallied the country to keep up its military defense in hopes it would lead to peace.

With every day of our defense, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We are getting closer to victory.  We cant stop even for a minute, for every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live, he said late Thursday in his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war. Across the country, 230 schools and 155 kindergartens have been destroyed. Cities and villages lie in ashes, he said.

Sending a signal that Western sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market but allowed only limited trading to prevent mass sell-offs. Foreigners were barred from selling, and traders were prohibited from short selling, or betting prices would fall.

Millions of people in Ukraine have made their way out of the country, some pushed to the limit after trying to stay and cope.

At the central station in the western city of Lviv, a teenage girl stood in the doorway of a waiting train, a white pet rabbit shivering in her arms. She was on her way to join her mother and then go on to Poland or Germany. She had been traveling alone, leaving other family members behind in Dnipro.

At the beginning I didnt want to leave, she said. Now Im scared for my life.

___

Anna reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv and other AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
SOCORRO  After years of community advocacy, the Eagle Picher Battery Superfund site is set to receive $19 million in federal funds to clean it up, with the money split into $3 million for soil excavation and building demolition, and $16 million for a pump-and-treat remedy for the contaminated groundwater.

The New Mexico Environment Department will be contracting the cleanup work and using some local labor.

Earthea Nance, regional administrator for the Environment Protection Agency, visited Socorro this week to announce the appropriation. She praised the collaboration between local, state and federal government, and the bipartisan support for funding the project. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., in a letter read aloud, and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., in a video message, praised the funding.

I know this community has been waiting a long time, 14 years, Nance said. Thanks to President Bidens bipartisan infrastructure law and the work of Congress, Eagle Picher is one of the previously unfunded Superfund sites that will receive infrastructure money to jump-start the cleanup.

A total of $3.5 billion is being invested in remediation efforts for Superfund sites across the country and the law reinstates chemical excise taxes to help pay for it. The Socorro site is one of 49 previously unfunded high-priority sites that will receive money. The McGaffey and Main Street Groundwater Plume in Roswell is another of the sites that will benefit.

This funding will make a dramatic difference in the EPAs ability to clean up Superfund sites faster and more efficiently, Nance said.

Approximately 60% of the sites getting new funding are located in historically underserved communities.

More than one in four Black and Hispanic Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site, she said. This is unacceptable and we are working to correct this inequity.

The Eagle Picher site was formerly the location of a battery factory and, much earlier, home to a tuberculosis sanatorium. Eagle Picher made printed circuit boards from 1964 to 1976, dumping industrial waste in unlined lagoons at the site. From 1980 to 1989, the company made lead-acid batteries and dumped more industrial waste into the lagoons. In 2007, it became a Superfund site and was listed on the National Priorities List.

In a bankruptcy settlement, the Eagle Picher company paid $4 million to the EPA, which the agency and the state Environmental Department used for feasibility studies and to design a remediation plan. It was not nearly enough to clean up the pollutants, which include TRC (trichloroethylene), lead and asbestos.

The soil excavation can begin quickly and may be complete within two to three years, said Supervisory Environmental Engineer Blake Atkins. Spots in the soil with elevated levels of lead and other metals will be excavated and backfilled with other soil. Remediation for asbestos and lead paint will also be done on existing structures.

Treating the groundwater contamination will take much longer. The EPA already has a design to pump, treat and reinject water, which it may pursue. However, that approach requires a lot of expense and maintenance, so they are examining other options to make sure they choose the best treatment for the water.

We want to have a really good characterization of the site so that the design of the remedy, everyone can feel confident in that, Nance said.
BRUSSELS  President Joe Biden and Western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine, but their offers fell short of the more robust military assistance that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for in a pair of live-video appearances.

Biden also announced the U.S. would welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees  though he said many probably prefer to stay closer to home  and provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

The Western leaders spent Thursday crafting next steps to counter Russia's month-old invasion  and huddling over how they might respond should Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon. They met in a trio of emergency summits that had them shuttling across Brussels for back-to-back-to-back meetings of NATO, the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the 27-member European Council.

Biden, in an early evening news conference after the meetings, warned that a chemical attack by Russia would trigger a response in kind.

You're asking whether NATO would cross. We'd make that decision at the time, Biden said.

However, a White House official said later that did not imply any shift in the U.S. position against direct military action in Ukraine. Biden and NATO allies have stressed that the U.S. and NATO would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine.

The official was not authorized to comment publicly by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Zelenskyy, while thankful for the newly promised help, made clear to the Western allies he needed far more than they're currently willing to give.

One percent of all your planes, one percent of all your tanks, Zelenskyy asked members of the NATO alliance. We can't just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.

Biden said more aid was on its way. But the Western leaders were treading carefully so as not to further escalate the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine.

NATO has made a choice to support Ukraine in this war without going to war with Russia, said French President Emmanuel Macron. Therefore, we have decided to intensify our ongoing work to prevent any escalation and to get organized in case there is an escalation.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries are seeking clarity on how the U.S. and European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression, as well as the refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is to visit Rzeszow, Poland, on Friday, where energy and refugee issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda. He'll get a briefing on humanitarian aid efforts to assist fleeing refugees and meet with U.S. troops from the 82nd Airborne Division who have been deployed in recent weeks to bolster NATO's eastern flank.

Billions of dollars of military hardware have already been provided to Ukraine. A U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations were discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.

Biden said his top priority at Thursday's meetings was to make certain that the West stayed on the same page in its response to Russian aggression against Ukraine. The single most important thing is for us to stay unified, he said.

Finland announced Thursday it would send more military equipment to Ukraine, its second shipment in about three weeks. And Belgium announced it will add one billion euros to its defense budget in response to Russia's invasion..

At the same time, Washington will expand its sanctions on Russia, targeting members of the country's parliament, along with defense contractors. The U.S. said it will also work with other Western nations to ensure gold reserves held by Russia's central bank are subject to existing sanctions.

With Russia facing increasing international isolation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also warned China against coming to Moscow's rescue. He called on Beijing to join the rest of the world and clearly condemn the brutal war against Ukraine and not support Russia.

But Stoltenberg, too, made clear that the West had a responsibility to prevent this conflict from becoming a full-fledged war in Europe.

The possibility that Russia will use chemical or even nuclear weapons has been a grim topic of conversation in Brussels.

Stoltenberg said that NATO leaders agreed Thursday to send equipment to Ukraine to help protect it against a chemical weapons attack.

White House officials said that both the U.S. and NATO have been working on contingency planning should Russia deploy nonconventional weaponry. NATO has specially trained and equipped forces if there should be such an attack against a member nation's population, territory or forces. Ukraine is not a member.

Stoltenberg said in an NBC News interview that, if Russia deployed chemical weapons, that would make an unpredictable, dangerous situation even more dangerous and even more unpredictable. He declined to comment about how the alliance might respond.

The White House National Security Council launched efforts days after the invasion through its Tiger Team, which is tasked with planning three months out, and a second strategy group working on a longer term review of any geopolitical shift that may come, according to a senior administration official.
WASHINGTON  After more than 30 hours of hearings, the Senate is on track to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. But Democrats seem unlikely to confirm her with a robust bipartisan vote, dashing President Joe Bidens hopes for a grand reset after partisan battles over other high court nominees.

On Thursday, just hours after the hearings came to a close, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced he will vote against Jacksons confirmation. He said in a Senate floor speech that he cannot and will not support her for a lifetime appointment.

McConnell slammed the liberal groups that have supported Jackson and he criticized her for refusing to take a position on the size of the nine-member court, even though that decision is ultimately up to Congress. Some advocacy groups have pushed for enlarging the court after three justices nominated by former President Donald Trump cemented a 6-3 conservative majority.

McConnell also cited concerns about her sentencing of criminal defendants  a subject that dominated much of the four days of hearings and was part of a coordinated GOP effort to portray her as soft on crime.

His position was expected, and does not affect Jacksons trajectory to be confirmed by mid-April. But the leaders quick declaration could prompt many of his fellow Republicans to follow suit, thwarting Bidens efforts to bring back the overwhelming bipartisan votes that were commonplace for Supreme Court nominees when he first came to the Senate five decades ago.

I think whomever I pick will get a vote from Republican side, Biden said after Justice Stephen Breyer announced he would step down from the court this summer. As he started his search for a replacement, the president made a point of inviting Republican senators to the White House to hear their advice.

While many GOP senators have praised Jacksons vast experience and qualifications, it was clear at the hearings that Bidens outreach had little effect.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated Jackson about her nine-year record as a federal judge, frequently interrupting her answers. Jackson, supported by committee Democrats, pushed back aggressively on Republicans who said she gave light sentences to sex offenders, explaining her sentencing process in detail and telling them nothing could be further from the truth.

The focus on crime dovetails with an emerging GOP theme for this years midterm elections and is likely to be decisive for many Republican senators. Others have brought up separate reasons to vote against her  from her support from liberal groups to her so-called judicial philosophy.

One or more Republicans could still cast a vote for Jacksons confirmation, but the contentious nature of the four-day hearings laid bare a familiar partisan dynamic, seen over years of pitched fighting over judicial nominations.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, who has been privately lobbying GOP colleagues to support Jackson, said after McConnells announcement that it will be sad for our country and sad as a commentary on where the parties are today if her historic nomination is approved on a strictly partisan vote. The Republicans are testing their messages for the November election, Durbin said.

Durbin said he is still hoping that several Republicans  I hope many more will vote for her.

If not, Democrats can confirm Jackson without any GOP support in the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie.

As talk turned to the voting ahead, the Judiciary panel held its final day of Senate hearings Thursday with a top lawyers group, which said its review found Jackson has a sterling reputation and exceptional competence and is well qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

Outstanding, excellent, superior, superb, testified Ann Claire Williams, chair of the American Bar Association committee that makes recommendations on federal judges. Those are the comments from virtually everyone we interviewed.

Williams said the group spoke to more than 250 judges and lawyers about Jackson. The question we kept asking ourselves: How does one human being do so much so extraordinary well?

Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman. She would also be the first former public defender on the court, and the first justice with experience representing indigent criminal defendants since Marshall. Her confirmation would not alter the current 6-3 conservative majority on the court.

Durbin noted at Thursdays hearing that some Republican senators argued that Jackson was out of the mainstream when it comes to sentencing, and he asked the ABA whether such a concern would have surfaced in their interviews with the judges and lawyers who worked with her.

It never came up in any of these interviews, Williams said.

During questioning Tuesday and Wednesday, GOP senators aggressively queried Jackson on the sentences she handed down to child pornography offenders in her nine years as a federal judge, her legal advocacy on behalf of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, her thoughts on critical race theory and even her religious views.

Many of the hours of questioning were spent on the specifics of the child pornography cases, with the discussion led by several GOP senators who are eyeing the presidency.

Pushing back, Jackson said she bases sentences on many factors, not just federal guidelines. Sentencing is not a numbers game, she said, noting that there are no mandatory sentences for sex offenders and that there has been significant debate on the subject. Democratic senators cited outside experts who said her sentences were within the norm.

Some of those cases have given her nightmares, Jackson said, and were among the worst that I have seen.

The GOP criticism was countered by effusive praise from Democrats, and by reflections on the historic nature of her nomination. The most riveting came from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who used his time Wednesday not to ask questions but to tearfully speak and draw tears from Jackson as well.

Booker, who is Black, said he sees my ancestors and yours when he looks at Jackson.

I know what its taken for you to sit here in this seat, Booker said. You have earned this spot.

___

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Jessica Gresko, Lisa Mascaro and Colleen Long in Washington and Aaron Morrison in New York contributed to this report.
TOKYO  The final cost of the Tokyo Olympics is expected to be about $13.6 billion when the organizing committee dissolves in June and gives a report, organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said Thursday.

Muto hinted to reporters after an executive board meeting that the final cost might be a little bit lower but gave no specific reason why he believes that.

We are looking at every single detail, Muto said. It is not something where I can say this is the major reason why we are expecting a lower figure. It cannot be simply put that way.

Organizers in December said the total cost for Tokyo  delayed one year by the pandemic  was $1.8 billion less than the estimate of $15.4 billion it had been using over the last year. It said this was because of reduced labor costs with no fans allowed to attend.

Olympic costs are notoriously difficult to track, and there is debate about what are and what are not Olympic specific expenditures. Several government audit reports in the run-up to the Tokyo Games suggested the cost may be twice as large as listed.

A study by the University of Oxford concluded the Tokyo Games were the most expensive Olympics on record. The study attempted to measure like-for-like at various Olympics and factored out massive non-Olympic costs that drove price tags up for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi ($51 billion) and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ($40 billion).

No matter the final official cost for Tokyo, $5.9 billon was private money and the rest of the funding was from various levels of Japanese governments.

Muto said expertise gained in Tokyo would be lent to officials in Sapporo, who are bidding for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

Sapporo is believed to be a top candidate along with Salt Lake City and Vancouver. A bid is also possible from Spain. The International Olympic Committee has not said when it will announce the host city.

Muto said expertise gained from Tokyo would also be lent to Osaka, which will hold the 2025 World Expo, and the Japanese city of Nagoya, which is to host the 2026 Asian Games.

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
A former Santa Fe elementary teacher convicted of five felony counts involving sexual abuse of students was sentenced this week to 84 years in prison, the New Mexico Attorney Generals office announced.

Gary Gregor, 65, will serve the sentence in addition to a 114-year sentence he was previously serving for two previous convictions for molesting elementary students. The new sentence brings his total prison sentence to 198 years.

A former teacher at Agua Fria Elementary School in Santa Fe, Gregor was found guilty March 11 by a 1st Judicial District Court jury of four counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and one count of sexual contact with a minor.

In 2019, Gregor was sentenced to 108 years in prison for raping two fourth grade students who were in his class at Fairview Elementary School in Espanola during the 2007-08 school year.

In that case, jurors found Gregor guilty of three counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor, four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and five counts of kidnapping.

In 2020, Gregor was sentenced to an additional six years in prison for one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13 for inappropriately touching a female student in his second grade class at Fairview Elementary during the 2006-07 school year.
An Illinois woman has been identified as the person killed after being hit by a rock and falling at Bandelier National Monument on Wednesday.

Brenda Holzer, 54, of Yorkville, Illinois, died while climbing up to the Alcove House, the park said in a Thursday update.

After being struck by a falling rock, Holzer fell about 25 feet down the second of four ladders, according to the news release.

Bandelier Visitor and Resource Protection Rangers and the Los Alamos Fire Department responded to the incident but, while being lowered to the ground, Holzer could not be resuscitated by rescuers. Holzer taken to Los Alamos Hospital.

Alcove House, which the monument website says is located 140 feet above the floor of Frijoles Canyon and was once home to Ancestral Pueblo people, remains closed while the incident is investigated.
A pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing company is expanding its in-state operational facilities and workforce due to an influx of state funding.

The New Mexico Economic Development Department announced Thursday that it is contributing up to $5 million in Local Economic Development Act funds to Curia, formerly AMRI.

With the funding, Curia will add up to 274 employees in Albuquerque with salaries averaging more than $50,000 and expand its facilities by 65,000 square feet, Bruce Krasnow, state EDD spokesman wrote in a release announcing the funds.

Curia spokeswoman Sue Zaranek said the roles will include positions requiring undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as roles that do not require a higher education degree.

All employees will be New Mexico residents due to LEDA requirements, he said.

The current facility manufactures treatments and vaccines for cancer, cardiovascular, auto-immune, infectious and rare diseases, according to the release. It is also the location of the companys training program for sterile manufacturing employees.

We see this expansion as a great opportunity to make a greater impact in New Mexico, which Im proud to call our home, Jonathan Shoemaker, vice president and general manager of Curia Albuquerque, said. We are fortunate to have access to a skilled workforce and strong partnerships in the community, all committed to growing businesses, creating jobs, and fulfilling our mission to improve patients lives.

LEDA funding will go to improvements and expansion at the companys location at 4401 Alexander NE with the company expected to invest more than $100 million into the Alexander property, Krasnow said.

The companys Balloon Park Road location will add a filling line for vials, syringes and cartridges.

The project is estimated to have $1 billion in economic impact over the next decade, according to the department.

Albuquerque has also pledged $500,000 dependent on city council approval and the company is also eligible for training from the state Job Training Incentive Program.

Albuquerque has fast become a southwestern bioscience hub, attracting new enterprises and making our presence in the industry known through our thriving startup ecosystem and supportive infrastructure, Mayor Tim Keller said in the release.

Based in New York, Curia employs nearly 4,000 people at 29 locations across the globe.
https://www.beyonce.com/ Celebrity

People are boycotting the Sunset Strip hotel property due to unfair treatment of workers as it's also accused of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.

Mar 24, 2022

AceShowbiz - Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce Knowles are known for their Oscars afterparty with that being one of the hottest tickets in Hollywood. The power couple's Gold Party is set to take place on Sunday evening, March 27, but some people are not feeling the location choice.

According to a new report, the rapper's bash will take place at the lavish Chateau Marmont. "Exclu: Jay-Z's Oscar party set to return to the Chateau Marmont, running afoul of a boycott against the hotel over, among other issues, racial discrimination. Boycott supporters include Gabrielle Union, Spike Lee, Issa Rae, Ta-Nehisi Coates & Roxane Gay," The Hollywood Reporter's journalist Gary Baum tweeted on Wednesday, March 23.

People are boycotting the Sunset Strip hotel property due to unfair treatment of workers. It's also accused of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Thomasina Gross, who is a black former server at the hotel, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in 2021, claiming she had been "repeatedly passed over for higher-paying roles in favor of several white hires."

Among those who blasted the hip-hop mogul for holding a party at the hotel was co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11 Kurt Peterson. "For JAY-Z to choose the Chateau Marmont for their Gold Party is shockingly insensitive," he said. "They must move their event and choose an after-party hot spot that treats its workers, especially Black women, with dignity and respect. JAY-Z has a responsibility to do better."

"We hope JAY-Z joins Gabrielle Union, Issa Rae, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, Ashley Nicole Black and Samira Wiley in boycotting Chateau Marmont," Peterson continued.

"I'm a huge fan of Beyonce and Jay-Z, so working at their Gold Party year after year was such an honor and pleasure," Gross added. "They made it a point to acknowledge our hard work and treated us like human beings, not just servers. They said our presence meant a lot to them in terms of helping their party be a success. As I allege in my lawsuit I faced sexual harassment as a Black woman while working other events at Chateau. I can't help but think if Jay-Z knew how Chateau treats their workers, they wouldn't ignore this fact and continue to throw parties there."

It was also said that the union is planning a protest against the event with a picket line. A representative for Jay-Z has yet to comment on the controversy.
Instagram Celebrity

The Eli 'Hawk' Moskowitz depicter on the Netflix karate show admits that it's 'kinda awkward' to date the actress because he was 'actually tight friends with her brother Spencer.'

Mar 24, 2022

AceShowbiz - Peyton List (II) and Jacob Bertrand are officially dating. The "Cobra Kai" co-stars confirmed their romance when they came across a paparazzo at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, March 23.

When walking outside the airport, Peyton admitted that she and Jacob are a "couple." Asked whether it is difficult to "get involved with someone you work with," the actress laughed and said, "I guess so, yeah, and like, think about the consequences later."

Jacob, for his part, shared that he and Peyton "have been dating for a while." The Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz depicter on the Netflix karate show went on to explain, "I've never dated anyone I've worked with before. I don't know, it's kind of like trial by fire almost."

"We've been friends for a while," the 22-year-old continued. "I met her when I was like, 15. I was actually tight friends with her brother Spencer, so that was kinda awkward to be like, 'Hey man, I like your sister.' But yeah, we had fun on set and then hung out off-set."

Peyton and Jacob were linked romantically for quite some time as they posted several pictures together on social media and attended Hollywood events together. Earlier this month, the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" star shared some photos of the two together on his birthday. In the first photo, she was seen leaning on her boyfriend's shoulder during a beach trip.

"happy birthday jacob," the 23-year-old beauty penned in the caption. "man you change your hair a lot. there are not a lot of photos where you are serious without me yelling at you so i had to post those first."

Before becoming an item with Jacob, Peton dated "Shameless" actor Cameron Monaghan from 2017 to 2019. "The Swap" star, on the other hand, dated Serena Pullen for more than five years.
PHNOM PENH, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Thursday has expressed hope that the global tech giant Huawei Technologies will continue its strong support for the development of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the Southeast Asian country.

Hun Sen made the remarks when meeting with Lin Baifeng, Huawei's Asia-Pacific chief, discussing the development of information communication technologies in Cambodia, said personal assistant to the Cambodian prime minister Eang Sophalleth.

Hun Sen expressed his thanks to the Chinese tech giant for providing equipment to help his country fight COVID-19 and train ICT talents, said the official.

"The prime minister has welcomed and encouraged Lin to continue working with Minister of Post and Telecommunications Chea Vandeth to help train more ICT talents and to bring the latest technology to Cambodia for the sake of national security and information sovereignty," he told reporters.

During the meeting, Lin thanked the Cambodian government for supporting Huawei's presence in the kingdom since 1999, pledging that Huawei will continue using its advanced technology to support Cambodia in accelerating the development of its digital connectivity infrastructure.

According to Lin, Huawei Technologies (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. has employed nearly 400 people, and together with its partners, the company provides employment for more than 3,000 people.

Every year, Huawei cultivates more than 1,000 ICT talents for the Cambodian society, he said. "When the COVID-19 situation was serious, we donated our video conferencing system to hospitals" and other anti-epidemic supplies including masks and rapid testing equipment, Lin added. 
WENN/PNP Celebrity

In the message addressed to her former manager Bernie Young, former financial advisor Lori Schiller and Wells Fargo, the former daytime talk show host also says it's 'not fair' to keep her away from her money.

Mar 24, 2022

AceShowbiz - Wendy Williams has more things to say to those who used to handle her business and money. Having been active on social media lately, the TV personality took to Instagram on Wednesday, March 23 to share a video message to her former manager Bernie Young, former financial advisor Lori Schiller and Wells Fargo amid dispute over access to her bank account.

"My thing is that I've been asking questions about my money and when I begin asking questions about my money, suddenly Lori Schiller has got no response regarding my money," she began in the video. "I want my money. This is not fair."

"Wells Fargo has no questions and answers regarding my money. This is not fair. And Lori Schiller and Wells Fargo has this guardianship petition about keeping me away from my money," she went on to say. "This is not right and this is not fair."

She then addressed her message to Bernie, whom she claims used her American Express card to hire an attorney to file a petition against her. "I know for a fact that Bernie Young used my American Express card to hire an attorney to file a petition against me. That was done with my American Express card," she alleged. "You're no good and this is not fair at all."

As for her health issues, Wendy said, "Then there's this person. This A former doctor had medical information about me that I never even got! It was sent over to Lori Schiller. So I haven't gotten this stuff." She added, "I fired this doctor and, again, all I want to know is where is my money? This is not right! And certainly, this is not fair."

Calling out Wells Fargo once again, the 57-year-old said, "Wells Fargo has used all this stuff to create the guardianship over me," before repeating again, "This is not right and certainly this is not fair."

The author then claimed that the New York Court system is "being weird to me," because "without evidence, they took all of this information and continued with what's going on with me, based on what Well Fargo is doing."

She ended her video with a message to Bernie, Lori and Wells Fargo. "Please let me have access to my money," she demanded. "This is not right, and again, this is not fair. Have a pleasant day. Thank you."

Wendy is suing Wells Fargo for freezing her bank account because they believe she "is the victim of undue influence and financial exploitation." The former daytime talk show host, however, has denied this, insisting that she's "of sound mind" and well enough to manage her own money.
WENN/Avalon Celebrity

The 'Call Me by Your Name' actor previously sparked reconciliation rumors with Lili-Rose after they're spotted stepping out separately in downtown Manhattan.

Mar 24, 2022

AceShowbiz - Timothee Chalamet is seemingly ready to mingle following his split from Lily-Rose Depp. More than a year after calling it quits with the daughter of Johnny Depp, the "Call Me by Your Name" actor reportedly has been spotted on the Lox Club dating app.

Revealing the news was Deuxmoi, an Instagram blog known for exposing celebrities' secrets. The page shared a screenshot of someone's DM that read, "Timmy Chalamet is on The Lox Club." Alongside the post, there was a note that read, "got another confirm...listen to last week's podcast episode for more Timmy."

Launched in late 2020 by Austin Kevitch, the Lox Club has been described as the app for "Jews with ridiculously high standards." In addition, the developers for the love-matching app described it as "a virtual speakeasy hidden within an old-school deli."

Timothee began dating Lili-Rose October 2018. While they kept mum about their romance, they were caught on camera kissing during an Italian vacation in September 2019. Less than a year later, however, the "Lady Bird" star was listed as "single" in an issue of British Vogue.

In the summer 2020, Timothee was linked romantically to Eiza Gonzalez. At that time, they were caught flaunting PDA in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. In a photo surfacing online, the two were seen having a steamy make-out session in a hot tub with him kissing her neck from behind.

Fast forward to April 2021, Timothee sparked reconciliation rumors with Lili-Rose after they're spotted stepping out separately in downtown Manhattan. Some of the photos obtained by Just Jared saw the young stars opted for a casual look, with Timothee wearing a white hoodie under a dark blue coat that matched his trousers and black sneakers.

His companion, meanwhile, wore a tan hoodie with the hood peeking out of a black puffer coat and light blue jeans. She completed her look with white sneakers, a maroon face mask covering her nose and mouth and a pair of sunglasses perching at the top of her head.
CALIFORNIA - An interim chancellor for the California State University (CSU) has been appointed after Dr. Joseph I. Castro resigned in February.

The CSU Board of Trustees appointed Jolene Koester, Ph. D, to serve as the interim chancellor. Koester previously served as president of CSU Northridge from 2000 to 2011.

The CSU and its 23 campuses make a significant impact on California and the nation, and I am deeply humbled by the opportunity to serve as their interim chancellor, said Koester in a news release. The commitment of our world-class faculty, staff, administrators, executives, and trustees deeply align with my values to provide life-changing educational opportunities for our students. I look forward to learning and providing my skills to guide the university during this transformational time in CSU history.

Koester will take over on May 1 as interim chancellor, which is expected to last for a year as the board of trustees searches for a permanent chancellor.
LenDenClub, Indias largest Peer-to-Peer Lending platform aiming to drive financial inclusion for all, has appointed Atal Agarwal as the Head Strategy & New Initiatives. The appointment is well calibrated to enable the organisation to cease every new opportunity that is present in its next growth phase. In this newly created position at LenDenClub, Atal will be part of the leadership team, and the board to help the organisation flourish and cultivate.

LenDenClub intends to broaden its brand portfolio and range of services, and Atal will spearhead this strategic drive.

Atal brings over three decades of experience in Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, and Credit Ratings to the board. For over 13 years as an Investment Banker, he held leadership positions with prominent brands such as DSP Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and Jardine Fleming, among others. Atal has managed various disinvestment, capital raising, and advising activities, both debt and equity, in domestic and overseas markets for a diverse range of clients. He also held a senior management position at Crisil, taking a lead on sales and business development initiatives at a pan India level. Atal stems from a distinguished academic background, having earned an MBA from the prestigious IIM Calcutta and a B.Tech-Electronics Engg (Gold Medallist) from IIT Varanasi.

Speaking on the leadership appointment, Bhavin Patel, co-founder & CEO, LenDenClub, said, LenDenClub aims to fill the gap and bring demographics together not covered by traditional credit-providing institutions. It will help create an ecosystem for people to meet their financial goals. The company is now in a position to make a better life for everyone by expanding its financial products to cover its customers entire gamut of needs. Atal is a dynamic professional capable of taking on a leadership role by using his extensive client connections and market expertise. With Atals addition, we will propel LenDenClub into the financial platform of choice.

Speaking on his appointment, Atal Agarwal said, I am honoured to join LenDenClub, an incredibly well-positioned company that strives to fulfill the demands that have been left unattended by others. Today it is the fastest-growing P2P lending platform in the country. Although Peer-to-Peer Lending is still relatively new in India, recently, there has been an accelerated traction from borrowers and investors. It is now the established alternative asset class that provides high risk-adjusted returns compared to traditional fixed income instruments for investors. It is a simple and convenient way for borrowers to get short-term loans. The P2P lending industry is expected to achieve a CAGR of over 20% during the next five years, reaching a size of over $10 billion. I am excited to make a meaningful contribution to the companys exponential growth journey.

During his 12 year tenancy with Financial Institutions Group (FIG) and Corporate Banking with Citibank, Royal Bank of Scotland, and DCB Bank, he was deeply involved in equity/debt capital markets, syndicated loans, club deals, and Banking transactions for a wide range of reputable clientele across domestic corporates, MNCs, PSUs, and banks/FIs. Including five magnificent years as India Head-Business Development, Ratings, at Crisil, Indias leading credit rating agency.

LenDenClubs operational success has been stellar in FY 21-22, with record disbursements, customer acquisitions, top-line growth, profitability, and differentiated product offerings. The company has crafted a multi-pronged strategy to accelerate its growth by becoming the preferred Peer-to-Peer Lending platform for the countrys underserved investors and borrowers and assisting them with their diverse everyday financial needs. This critical strategic appointment will be essential in driving the companys growth objectives.

The company recently completed a successful fundraise of USD 10 million in a Series A round co-led by a consortium of investors, including Tuscan Ventures, Ohm Stock Brokers, and Artha Venture Fund.
Bajaj Electricals Limited (BEL) India's leading consumer appliances brand, has extended its trademark agreement with United Kingdom-based Morphy Richards Limited (part of the Irish headquartered electrical appliances group Glen Dimplex), for usage of the Morphy Richards trademark for a further fifteen years with effect from 1st July, 2022. The extension of the exclusive license will enable BEL to continue using the trademark Morphy Richards for producing, marketing and selling the home appliances in India and neighbouring territories (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka). BEL has been exclusively offering this international brand to Indian consumers since April 2002 and has established it well in the premium home appliances segment. With the license renewal, the company will be able to further strengthen its multi-brand offerings and position in the Indian and neighbouring territories.

Every Indian consumer is looking for hassle-free solutions that make everyday chores easy when it comes to home appliances. For over 85 years, Morphy Richards has been a pioneer in household appliances in Europe, with intuitively designed innovative products that add character to the consumer's home and joy to their life. The world over, Morphy Richards is known for its premium range of home appliances and personal care products, intended to make home life easier and happier. Through this extended partnership, the Indian consumer will continue to enjoy a two-fold benefit of international quality products and trusted service.

Speaking about the trademark license extension, Mr Anuj Poddar, Executive Director, Bajaj Electricals Ltd. said, "We value our long-standing relationship with the Glen Dimplex group. Since 2002, we have offered the exclusive Morphy Richards product range to discerning Indian consumers to make their everyday lives easier and more joyful. We are proud to have made it the most successful international brand offering in its category in India. As a mark of our mutual commitment, the agreement is being extended for 15 years for the first time. This will allow us to plan and grow the Morphy Richards business with a long-term view, thereby enabling superior value creation."

Mr Fergal Naughton, Executive Chairman, Glen Dimplex, said, "We are delighted to have agreed on an extension of our long-standing licensing agreement for Morphy Richards in India for a significant 15-year term; which indicates our commitment to and trust in our partner Bajaj Electricals. We value Bajaj Electricals' dedication to growing the brand in India and are excited by the opportunities presented by this fast-growing market. We look forward to working with Bajaj Electricals over the years to come to offer innovative products for Indian homes which are designed for life and built to last."
No sooner had BARC India resumed publishing the TV News ratings, several news channels began their claims to being the No. 1, thus bringing on a feeling of deja vu. It is the same old story of slicing and dicing the data to project ones channel as No. 1, which was seen prior to BARC suspended TV news ratings one and a half years back.

There has been no fundamental change in the way BARC functions. So, the question is: do advertisers still trust the BARC ratings for news channels? In the absence of news ratings, advertisers had resorted to other methods and spent advertising money on news channels. Now, post-ratings, will there be changes in the way advertisers spend money on news channels?

Adgully reached out to broadcasters, analysts, and advertisers to find answers to these questions in this two-part series.

Guerrilla warfare

The No. 1 position has been a joke for a very long time, says analyst Paritosh Joshi, adding, It is something which has come to as complaints to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on numerous occasions. We have seen such false and unsubstantiated claims of category leadership. They find a particular day of a week or a particular show, where they are able to claim the maximum audience; the visible claim is No. 1. And if you analyse that ad carefully, somewhere at the bottom of the ad it will be written in tiny letters that it is not No. 1 across the board, but No. 1 for 9 to 10 pm from Monday to Friday or something like that. They very tightly define an audience and claim leadership.

He reminds us that there are clear stipulations as to what a channel has to do to claim leadership. You cannot just claim leadership just like that; there are rules that govern what is acceptable to claim leadership, he asserts.

Unfortunately, many of these claims are not acceptable. Eventually, somebody complains against the claim and then they withdraw the ad. But the point is that these guys use it as guerrilla warfare rather than a sustained campaign. Before the ad is complained against, it (the ad) has served its purpose of making a spurious claim. And the claim has already been delivered to people. After that, somebody complains and it is withdrawn, it does not really matter. That is the reality. Therefore, this slicing and dicing are not legitimate as it does not comply with the BARC rules, maintains Joshi.

When contacted to share his perspective, strategic marketing & media consultant Chintamani Rao said that it is the same old story. Nothing has changed from what he has narrated in his book on marketing and media way back in 2010, when TAM did the ratings. Chapter 17, All News is Good News, talks about the news channels of those days and their undying alacrity to be on top.

About the slicing of data, Rao writes: These are not conflicting statements. But when you see the ads from which these claims are quoted, notice the asterisk: Conditions apply. It seems that at every news channel there is someone whose job is to slice and dice TAM data until they find a combination of audience, markets, and day parts in which that channel is No. 1.

News channels indulge the most, among all broadcasters, in obfuscation and half-truths. That is the genre that you would think should value credibility. If I lied about myself all the time, would you trust me to tell the truth about everything else?

As I said, nothings changed! Chintamani Rao tells Adgully, rather wryly.

BARC unchanged

There has been no fundamental change in the way the BARC functions. So do advertisers still trust the BARC ratings for news channels? Broadcasters say that nothing has changed in BARC.

Maybe some service or security protocols or they would have improved upon learning from whatever challenges they have faced. For example, no intervention by the management team with the data team. Nothing significant has changed ever since BARC stopped news ratings, says a Mumbai-based senior broadcast executive who prefers anonymity.

Before finding the impact of resumption of news channels rating, we have to think why the rating was stopped partially only for news channels and then what changes happened before the resumption of the ratings, points out Anil Kumar Singh, CEO of TV5 Kannada news channel and Group CFO TV5.

He is posing some hard and unpalatable questions. Is there any change in the board of directors? No. Is there any change in household Bar-o-Meters because the majority Bar-o-Meters were under manipulation? No, because the ratings of the GEC continued. Is the accountability of the BARC CEO defined? No. Is a new independent process auditor appointed? No. Are any transparency measures such as raw data Vs final rating input data shared with subscribers? No. So, all fundamental, critical and significant factors of functionality and accountability are left unattended. BARC has no credibility, but the most surprising fact and the question is why advertisers body ISA is silently suffering losses. Thats a big question. BARC has failed young entrepreneurs of India and the entire ecosystem of the TV media industry. So, resumption of rating has further complicated the industry, asserts Singh.

According to Paritosh Joshi, the issue with BARC is not the methodology. The issue was somebody was playing mischief with the data.

The allegation was that the data was being tampered with. The panel or the methodology was not being tampered with. The data itself was being tampered with. That is something about which you cannot hold BARC responsible for the design. It is not a question of whether the research design is correct. The research design is not a problem. The problem is that if somebody decides to actually, literally fudge numbers then that kind of fraudulent behavior relates to the ethics of some individuals. There are some crazy people who want to use Return Path data and so on and so forth. I havent been able to find anybody who can convince me that there is a robust way of using Return Path data for generating ratings. You can use Return Path data for a variety of applications. But issuing industry-standard ratings is a terribly bad idea. The issue is not methodological. The issue has been the actual management of the output data and that is still unsettled because it is being investigated and in the court. It is sub-judice, says Joshi.

He does not think that the fundamental methodology needs to change. It is not that there are unlimited methodologies available to measure what people are watching. There are a finite number of ways. And each of those ways has some advantages and drawbacks, he adds.

The Advertisers

In the absence of news ratings, advertisers had resorted to other methods and spent advertising money on news channels. Now that the ratings are back, will there be a drastic change in the way advertisers spend money on news channels?

According to the broadcast executive, the slicing dicing has been happening to suit their needs. But, it all comes down to how the advertisers look at their target market. If the advertisers are looking at an all-India target market, then they will go with a whole bunch of data. If they are looking at top 10 cities or top five metros, then they will slice the data in a certain manner, he explains.

Advertisers, according to Anil Singh, have to find a way to achieve their advertising spend objectives. According to him, advertisers cannot afford to allocate advertising budget based on BARCs hollow channels ratings.

Advertisers need to pick channels based on the popularity of the respective channels region-wise. Else, ultimately advertisers will lose their hard-earned capital and businesses, he adds.

The sad truth, says Joshi, is that in this country, and all over the world, marketing people now maintain an arms length from actually weighing in the issues of ratings for a reason.

With the emergence of media agencies, they are being held responsible for the quantitative brand objective set by the client: so long as we are within your budget and delivering your objectives, leave these issues to us. We will deal with them. It is really agencies who are far closer to ratings than clients. The print medium has effectively lost its measurement. The IRA, for all intent, has died. Does that mean that advertising has stopped in print? Not at all. It is going on because agencies recommend to clients that it is their assessment so they are recommending it, explains Joshi.

Media buying is for a period, says Joshi. Brands buy inventory for a campaign.

Now the new financial year is around the corner, in the short run the impact will be minimal. However, once we are back into the full flow of ratings, week-on-week, it will impact the buying patterns. If there are leadership changes particularly in the larger genres such as Hindi news or Marathi News or Telugu news, definitely there will be an impact on the way the media is being bought over the next few months (six months), but not in the short run, he says.

Beyond BARC

The senior-level television executive argues that the reach of English news channels has been on the decline of late. The broadcasters should see the writing on the wall. In the age of digital, the broadcasters should introspect and attune to the times.

So, what is this whole fuss about? What is the actual reach marketers are getting from these news channels? Is that relevant in the age of digitalization and digitization? Times have changed. The reach of these English news channels are a small subset of any platform. The reach is only declining, and that too dramatically. Today, Amazon claims to have 70 to 80 million customers. And the English news channels give you a reach of 10 lakh or 5 lakh. What is the use for an advertiser? An advertiser can directly communicate with this user base through Amazon or Flipkart or YouTube or Facebook, he maintains.

According to him, the advertisers spending within the TV space is going to be limited. He asserts that it is high time news TV channels wake up and figure out how they want to build their future because the audiences are transitioning to digital and online. And are they building all the capabilities to be able to reach out to the audience in an effective manner.

They have to think beyond BARC, says the executive. They have to ask themselves as to who is the real competitor? Is my competitor the other news channel or YouTube or FB or DailyHunt. It is not about market share conversation when you enter the digital market. Is the market share conversation relevant? Does the advertiser need being served on an English news platform with low reach? The growth of spending on digital is going to be higher because it comes with a lot more targeting, accountability, and capability. You could do geo-targeting, data-led segmentation. You can do focused advertising in digital space, he maintains.

So will ratings help? The ratings will help, says the executive. But it is not going to be a game-changer, because news channels need to still evaluate within the broadcast business how they are standing vis-a-vis where they were three years back and what is the contribution between free and pay.

(Tomorrow: What does it mean for the marketers and advertisers?)
Colors Tamil, the fastest-growing GEC in Tamil Nadu is all set to premiere Meera, a bold new love story, on March 28, 2022 at 9.30 PM. Inspired by the epic love and devotion of legendary poet-saint Mirabais for Lord Krishna, the modern-day tale too shows Meera disregarding all social norms and familial compulsions to carve a special place for herself.

Featuring the ever-charming Actor Khushbu as Meera and Actor Suresh Chandra Menon as Krishna, the show will be aired every Monday to Saturday.

Commenting on the launch, Rajaraman S, Business Head, Colors Tamil, said, We have always strived to create unique narratives that resonate with our audiences and present a fresh and positive perspective towards managing the issues that confront us. Our new offering is in line with our endeavours to showcase women characters that embody empowerment and emancipation. Meera will redefine feminism in terms of equity, self-worth, and self-reliance.

Set in an urban world, Meera, directed by Jawahar and screenplay by Devi Bala, portrays the essence of a woman discovering her self-worth as she goes through trials and tribulations in her life. The shows narrative revolves around a middle-aged couple Meera (essayed by Actor Khushbu) and Krishna (essayed by Actor Suresh Chandra Menon) who rekindle their forgotten love and relationship after 16 years of separation.

Meera is a middle-aged gynecologist who leads a simple but elegant life with her mother and daughter Adhira (played by Akshara). Straightforward in her demeanour, she never misses an opportunity to stand up for what is right and speak her mind, besides being steadfast in her morals and principles. Krishna, on the other hand, is a cardiologist who is mentally strong but is not afraid to show his vulnerable side. He pretends to have moved on in life but still yearns for Meera.

The show also features Actor Pooja Lokesh (Anjali), Actor Shalini (Jothi), Actor Shanthi Williams (Janaki- Meeras mother), Actor Sai Krishna (Ajay), and Actor Pasi Sathya (Annam-the Chief Nurse) in supporting roles.

Sharing his thoughts on the show, director Jawahar said, I am delighted to helm Meera, especially with a phenomenal Actor like Khushbu in the lead. The rest of the cast is also supremely talented. Further, executing the story written by Khushbu is a joy altogether. With Meera, we are attempting to showcase a powerful facet of a woman who is bold, courageous, and chooses her self-respect over everything else. The idea is to create a positive influence on audiences and to encourage women to value themselves and prioritize their dreams and aspirations. I am grateful to Colors Tamil for providing me such a wonderful opportunity again after a huge success of Thirumanam.

Commenting on her role, Actor Khushbu said, I am ecstatic about the show as I not only play the lead role but have also conceptualized the story. It places a lot more responsibility on me. This is one of my dream projects. I have always wanted to build a narrative around a strong, independent, and self-reliant woman for a Tamil GEC. I am glad that I got the opportunity to do so with Meera. I am positive that the audiences will relate to the character and will be equally inspired.

Adding to this, Actor Suresh Chandra Menon said, I am thrilled to play the lead after such a long time, especially in a story that has well-defined characters that play their age while displaying women in such a strong manner. Further, I am honoured to share the space with a talented actor like Khushbu. I am sure that the show will make a place for itself in the hearts and minds of viewers.
Hombale Films, one of Indias premier film production companies, has initiated a unique promotional contest, the Fandom campaign, for the upcoming action saga KGF: Chapter 2. In a first of its kind promotional campaign, it has invited fans to share their artworks for the movie hoardings. The winning entry will be used for the promotion of the movie in hoardings across the country.

Hombale Films is setting a new benchmark in movie promotion for KGF 2, which is reflection of the magnitude of the movie. This also underlines the significance of the fans, who have made this movie a cult and as a gesture of appreciation, Hombale Films has invited them to become an integral part of the movie. Fans over 82 countries in the world will participate in this campaign.

Registration has opened for the contest and the last date for submitting entries is March 30, 2022. Fans can enter the contest by registering at hombalefilms.com/promotions/kgffanboard/.

The fandom campaign is up and running and within 12 hours over 2 lakh people have visited the website. There have been over 18,000 sign-ups from over 80s countries till noon today.

Speaking on the contest, Vijay Kiragandur, Founder of Hombale Films, said: The enigmatic Rocky continues to rule the hearts of fans and the second chapter of KGF is expected to propel this to the zenith of stardom. At Hombale Films, we believe that fans deserve to be even closer to the movie and Rocky, since the success belongs to them as much as us. This contest is a tribute to fans of the film and an effort to bring them even closer with an intimate involvement. They will play an integral part in the movie promotion.

The first song of the most anticipated film of the year, titled Toofan, Rockys anthem was recently launched and marked the beginning of a month-long countdown to this highly anticipated action saga. It amassed a staggering 26 million views in 24 hours, creating a new record in Indian cinema.

The period action film written and directed by Prashanth Neel and produced by Vijay Kiragandur under the banner of Hombale Films is set to release nationwide on 14th April 2022. The film will be released in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, and Malayalam.

An emerging pan-India production house, Hombale Films is all set to bankroll some of the biggest projects of the industry over the next two years. Hombale Films is also the producer of their third pan-India movie with Prabhas titled Salaar. Prashant Neel, one of the most sought-after directors and who created a bang in Indian cinema with the massive hit KGF-Chapter 1 will be directing the movie.
The awareness of hand hygiene and its critical role in public health is now a well-established discourse globally. But as the fear of the pandemic gradually wanes, affordability may cause consumers to revert to washing hands with just water.

ITC Savlon is known for redefining norms and has demonstrated innovative design-thinking approach in responding to consumer needs. In its efforts to address the problem of access, and to make hand hygiene affordable at the last mile, Savlon announces the launch of the new Savlon Powder Handwash.

Priced at just INR 10/-, one Savlon Powder Handwash sachet makes 200ml liquid handwash that provides more than 120 washes. This reduces the cost per use to just 8 paisa, redefining value for the value-conscious consumer. Backed by Savlons trusted 99.9% germ protection, Savlon Powder Handwash addresses the issues of hygiene through improved accessibility, and affordability. The Powder handwash sachet design uses ~91% less plastic compared to a 200ml handwash pump. This unique pack encourages consumers to make sustainable lifestyle choices without having to compromise on value.

Sameer Satpathy, Divisional Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited said, ITC Savlon has been relentless in its approach, designing innovative solutions to encourage a hygiene-first lifestyle across consumer segments. The launch of Savlon Powder Handwash in the sachet format at an affordable price marks a major milestone in the brand's history of delivering value to its consumers. It not only enhances affordable hygiene access to the last mile but also encourages a conscious lifestyle choice by reducing the usage of plastic.

Savlon Powder Handwash Sachet will be available across retail outlets in India and is supported by a functional film that builds awareness for the format and its value offering. Kitaanuon par vaar, Dus rupaiye mein ek sau bees baar! highlights the quality and the value offered at an incredible price point.

ITC Savlon has been at the forefront of this unprecedented outbreak and has been persistent in its efforts to serve the national priority. A key step has been to accelerate innovations that can offer significant anti-viral & anti-bacterial protection that is convenient, affordable and accessible to everyone.
Indian multinational IT company Infosys is going to acquire Oddity, a digital communication and commerce agency based out of Germany, for $50 million in an all cash deal. According to Infosys, Oddity will be a part of Woongdoody, joining its distribution of studios present in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Providence, Seattle, and design centres present in five cities in India.

Marketing and creative agency Woongdoody has been acquired by Infosys in the year 2018, for $75 million. Kristall 247 which is based out of Germany is also be acquired by Infosys for 3,000 euros.

Oddity is considered as one of the biggest independent firms specializing in digital marketing, with over 300 specialists in the field. According to Ravi Kumar S, Infosys President, Odditys experise in the digital ecosystem along with its metaverse - supported design is an ideal supplement to Infosys expertise in technological advancement. The deal between Oddity and Infosys is anticipated to close during the first quarter of 2023.

Oddity provides e-commerce services, digital communication strategies, internal production, designing experiences, transforming products through augmented and virtual reality, across China and Europe
Choteau, MT (59422)

Today

Windy and becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High 76F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy and windy this evening, becoming partly cloudy after midnight. Low 46F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph.
Rashmika Mandanna has been much in talks for her brilliant performance in 'Pushpa'. The audience has been waiting for her next release for a long time and the good news dropped in when the actress was caught up at the Mumbai airport while heading for the shoot of 'Goodbye' in Rishikesh.

Recently, the Shutterbugs at the airport captured Rashmika Mandanna jetting off from Mumbai as she was heading to take a flight for Rishikesh for the next shoot schedule of 'Goodbye'. The actress eventually stopped and posed for the camera and has also been seen mimicking the 'Pushpa Raj style' while having a cute conversation with the media people.

Rashmika kept her look very casual at the airport by wearing a denim jumpsuit with the sunglasses having her black mask on.

Rashmika has some big releases coming up like 'Mission Manju' where she will be seen with Sidharth Malhotra, In 'Goodbye' she will see sharing screen space with Amitabh Bachchan.
Reliance Brands has acquired the India franchisee rights and the present community of stores of Sunglass Hut from DLF Brands, in accordance with two folks acquainted with the event. Sunglass Hut, owned by Italys Luxottica Group, retails multi-brand premium eyewear merchandise from Ray-Ban, Prada, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and Oakley, amongst varied different labels.



Reliance Brands in addition to Timmy Sarna, managing director of DLF Brands, declined to remark. Luxottica didnt reply to ETs e-mail until press time on Wednesday.



Sunglass Hut arrived India in 2013 and at the moment the corporate had mentioned DLF would open round 100 stores over time. There are about 85 Sunglass Hut retailers within the nation. It allows us to become from day one a key player in one of the most promising retail markets for premium and luxury brands working side-by-side with the leading real estate company in the market, Andrea Guerra, then CEO of Luxottica Group had mentioned.



Sunglass Hut is the latest amongst of string of worldwide manufacturers managed by DLF in India together with Mothercare, Mango, Forever 21 and Sephora, to alter fingers. In 2017, Myntra.com had got the native franchisee rights of Mango from the unit of the Delhi actual property big, whereas DLF bought Forever 21s India enterprise to Aditya Birla Group in 2016.



Sunglass Hut is the second international model Reliance has acquired from DLF after its buyout of UKs Mothercare model in 2018.



Reliance Brands, the upmarket manufacturers sellers of Reliance Retail, sells uber luxurious international manufacturers similar to Armani, Burberry, Diesel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Jimmy Choo amongst different swish labels.



Reliance Retail is flush with money as in 2020 it raised 47,265 crore by promoting about 10% to a raft of worldwide personal fairness funds.
Yaara drives you though a gritty timeline of crime, friendship, and edge-of-the-seat excitement. Directed by the thrill maestro Tigmanshu Dhulia and flawless performances by the dynamic cast  Vidyut Jammwal, Shruti Hassan, Amit Sadh, Vijay Varma, and Ankur Vakil, the film, takes you on a journey of four friends- once the chaukdi gang that ruled the streets of crime, return to the dark world of guns after a compelling twist of fate. Join the chaukdi gang for the World Television Premiere of Yaara on &pictures on 25th March at 10 pm.

Talking about his experience, Vidyut Jammwal said, Whenever I watch Yaara, I think of the friends I've had over the years. The depiction of friendship in cinema has evolved and those are the films that have stayed with us, haven't they? Yaara is one such unforgettable film that shows what it means to be there for your friends. Some of the biggest lessons we've learnt come from our friends and this film captures that with its beautiful relatable moments.

Talking about the film, Amit Sadh said, "Love and friendship are two extremely vulnerable emotions, it is effortless yet requires nurturing. I personally keep my friendships very carefully; they are the most important aspect of my life. Yaara is a film that explores these dimensions flawlessly. And I would do exactly what the film showcases. While the film dwelled into the depths of emotions as the characters grew up on the screen and to convey the transition with an edge, we really focused on really looking the part. Tigmanshu sir made this journey of donning the avatar for this crime-thriller with severe body transformations really enriching with his constant support. I would say, Yaara really helped me grow as an artist and as a person."

About Yaara, Tigmanshu Dhulia shared, As the style of storytelling has really changed over the years, the idea as a director is to keep reinventing. With Yaara I have tried to do that. The film is a crime saga about four friends but what I have tried to bring to the table is a relatable story that shows friendship, love, betrayal, relationships and the dynamic of all of this put together. It starts in a period and then goes for several decades, which itself is very interesting for any writer. It was the most difficult casting I have done simply because its a story of four friends and we wanted all of them to be at par with one another. But all actors part of the project have given their absolute best and have portrayed their roles with great fidelity.

Yaara is an action-thriller about the ruthless chaukdi gang, who ruled the world of crime, until a series of cruel circumstances led the four friends who created the gang to different destinations. They reunite after years to rescue their friend from the shackles of the police. Will they be successful in their plan?
Armasuisse

Bern, 24.03.2022 - Switzerland is having at least 24 of a total of 36 F-35A fighter aircraft manufactured in Cameri, Italy. For a further four aircraft, clarifications are underway as to whether their final assembly can take place in Switzerland instead as part of an offset project. The first eight aircraft will be manufactured in the USA because they will be used there on site for the initial training of the Swiss pilots. The agreed price and delivery schedule will remain unchanged and the aircraft will be delivered from 2027.

Over the past few weeks, armasuisse has clarified, together with the US government and the Italian armaments company Leonardo, the possibility of having the majority of the future F-35A fleet of the Swiss Air Force produced in Cameri, Italy (see press release of 15 February 2022). armasuisse has now come to an agreement with the US government and determined that up to 28 of the altogether 36 aircraft will be manufactured in Italy by the company Leonardo. This means that at least 24 aircraft will be manufactured in Italy. For a further four aircraft, Lockheed Martin is currently clarifying, as manufacturer of the F-35A, whether they can be finally assembled in Switzerland as part of an offset project at RUAG; if this is not possible, they will also be manufactured in Cameri. Lockheed Martin will manufacture the first eight aircraft in its production plant in Fort Worth, Texas (USA), so that they can be used subsequently for the initial training of the Swiss pilots in the USA. The contractual agreements with the US government and thus both the price and the delivery schedule will remain unchanged.

The F-35 production line in Cameri

In Cameri, Italy maintains one of two production lines of the F-35 outside of the USA and the only one in Europe. Italy participated in the F-35 programme from the beginning. The Italian Air Force and the Italian Navy operate F-35A and F-35B aircraft. In addition, Leonardo also manufactures F-35A for the Dutch Air Force in Cameri .

Address for enquiries

Kaj-Gunnar Sievert

Head of Communications armasuisse

+41 58 464 62 47

Publisher

Armasuisse

http://www.ar.admin.ch/



General Secretariat DDPS

https://www.vbs.admin.ch/



Defence

http://www.vtg.admin.ch




Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Dubendorf, 24.03.2022 - New research findings, and a resulting fact sheet, provide insights into the problematic spread of the invasive quagga mussel in Switzerland. The authors of the fact sheet are concerned that the aggressive spread of this mussel species will have a substantial detrimental effect on lake ecosystems.

The issue of invasive species is one of the main factors contributing to the loss of species diversity in ecosystems around the world. One such invasive species that is currently proliferating in Swiss waters is the quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis), which originates from the Black Sea region and is now widespread in large parts of Europe and North America. Along with the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), it is one of the most aggressively invasive species.

The zebra mussel has been around in Switzerland since the 1960s, whereas the quagga mussel was first found here in 2014. Since then, it has been introduced into several Swiss lakes. It has almost completely replaced the zebra mussel in Lake Constance. The quagga mussel is able to reproduce almost all year round and can inhabit the soft substrate in deep-water zones. These characteristics, together with the fact that it is more efficient at absorbing nutrients, are considered to be the main reasons why the quagga out-competes the zebra mussel in deepwater lakes, and why it is increasingly crowding it out.

Since its first appearance in Switzerland in 2014 in the River Rhine near Basel, the quagga mussel has rapidly spread throughout Switzerland, as ascertained by a team led by Linda Haltiner from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag and by Hui Zhang from the University of Konstanz. It has so far been found to be present in the following lakes: Lake Geneva, Lake Constance, Lake Neuenburg, Lake Bienne, Lake Murten and Hongrin Lake.

The mussels either spread naturally by floating in the current in their larval state and being carried downstream, or by unintentionally being transported by humans in the ballast, bilge or engine-cooling water of boats and leisure craft used on numerous lakes. In addition, the adult mussels adhere firmly to boats and other objects, and if these are not cleaned or properly dried before being moved to different lakes, the mussels can spread in this way, too. According to the researchers, this extremely rapid spread of the quagga mussel has implications for the Swiss lakes that have not yet been invaded by the species.

Proliferation in Lake Constance

In lakes which have a quagga mussel infestation, the species dominates with far-reaching consequences. This is also evident from its rapid spread in Lake Constance, where it first appeared in 2016. By 2017 it was already present in every corner of the lake, and it has been continuing to spread in the shallow water zone ever since. It is now even colonising the lake in the deeper waters, and is expected to further increase in population density in the deepest zones.

A new fact sheet (in German), compiled as a part of the research project SeeWandel (LakeChange), summarises the reasons for the quagga mussels rapid and widespread colonisation of Lake Constance, and the potential consequences of this for the lakes ecosystem.

Consequences for the ecosystem and society

According to Piet Spaak, a researcher at Eawag and project lead for the SeeWandel project, the detailed consequences of the quagga mussels colonisation of perialpine lakes are as yet unknown. He says: On the basis of observations that we have from North America, we fear that the presence of the quagga mussel will have far-reaching consequences for our lakes ecosystems, the balance of which could potentially be upset.

Possible consequences may include:

Reduction in plankton, as the mussels filter large volumes of phytoplankton

Increase in the visibility depth due to the reduction in plankton

Increase in nutrients on the lake bed, and decrease in nutrients in the open waters, as the mussels live close to the lake bed

Alterations in species communities and in the food web

Reduction in fish stock due to an altered food web

Mussel shells in shore areas

Increased maintenance and costs, e.g. on outflow pipes, boats, fishing nets etc.

Management and remedial measures

The researchers recommend that waters not yet affected be protected as far as possible against introduction of the species. According to current knowledge, the most important measure that can be taken is to prevent further spread: The utmost efforts should be made to protect as-yet unaffected waters from importation of the species. This can be achieved, for example, by awareness-raising campaigns, or by mandating cleaning for boats that have previously been used on another lake. It is also vitally important, says Piet Spaak, to introduce regular and coherent monitoring for the purposes of early identification as well as to better understand the propagation patterns and population dynamics of the quagga mussel.

Project SeeWandel

Seven research institutions in three countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) are working closely together on Project SeeWandel. They are investigating the complex interplay between nutrient depletion, climate change, invasive and non-native species and other stress factors. The focus of their research includes looking at how these factors affect the ecosystem of Lake Constance in terms of biodiversity and function, and the consequences for human use of the lake. For further information, please visit the project website: https://seewandel.org

Address for enquiries

Linda Haltiner, Department Aquatic Ecology, linda.haltiner@eawag.ch, +41 58 765 6429

Publisher

Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

http://www.eawag.ch




Alton, IL (62002)

Today

Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. High around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low near 55F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Wisconsin had 1.6 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending April 17, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricul
More Service Members Seek Relief in Navy SEAL 1 Case

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Liberty Counsel

March 24, 2022



TAMPA, Fla., March 24, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Liberty Counsel has filed another temporary restraining order on behalf of 22 military plaintiffs in Navy SEAL 1 v. Austin who face immediate discipline, including those on Wednesday, March 23, after their religious accommodation requests were denied from the COVID shot mandate.

Liberty Counsel has already asked Judge Steven Merryday to certify the entire class of the military and provide relief from the unlawful shot mandates. Liberty Counsel is working with more than 900 service members and that number grows every day.

Judge Merryday previously granted a preliminary injunction for two service members who were denied religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate. The court based its ruling on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), finding that the Marines and the Navy failed to demonstrate "to the individualized person" two of RFRA's essential requirements on government action that burdens a person's sincere religious belief  a compelling interest and the least restrictive means. This conclusion alone will essentially undo the blanket requirement placed on service members to get the COVID shots when such action burdens their sincere religious beliefs. The court also granted the motion for the two plaintiffs to remain anonymous.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "The abuse and pressure being placed upon these military members is unconscionable and has continued too long. These brave service members give their lives to defend the Constitution, and sadly the freedom they fight to preserve was denied them. We need relief for these plaintiffs as well as the entire class. They should not have to choose between their Christian convictions and their service to our nation."

Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.



SOURCE Liberty Counsel



CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org



Related Links



lc.org/


VOLGA, Iowa  When it comes to preparing a meal, Rob Medberry has a simple goal in mind: Make it simple and make it well.

I just want to fill someone up, he said.

Medberry said he only recently started cooking.

A lot of it is due to the pandemic, he said. We were home and didnt have much to do and had time. I have two daughters here, so we had time and I thought I could teach them a little bit.

Medberry said adding cooking to his home life puts the focus back on family as well. He has four children who are spread out around the country, and going to a restaurant doesnt give the same atmosphere.

You go to a restaurant and its not so much of the experience, he said. Its getting so expensive and to get everybody there and ordered, you lose a lot of time with family. Here, you can sit around while you are waiting for things to cook.

Medberry has a cow-calf operation with some goats and grows row crops, which keeps him busy year round. He is involved with the Iowa Cattlemans Association as well, serving as the president-elect. He is the fifth generation at his home in Volga, in northeastern Iowas Clayton County.

He said he prefers to cook his meat in the kitchen rather than on the grill. He said the flavor is similar, and he would rather be inside where he can talk to the people hes cooking for instead of having to manage two places at once.

One of his go-to cuts of meat is steak or a roast, and during the pandemic he has done a lot with pork loins.

You can slice (pork loins) up for pork chops, you can make a roast or a loin sandwich, he said. Theres not much waste because theres so little fat in them.

When cooking his steak, he sears both sides of the meat for around two minutes in butter and rub spices before finishing them in the oven for around 7 minutes.

Medberry said cooking is a good skill to have when it comes to harvest season. Having a meal in the slow cooker to break up the day is good for keeping fed and for staying safe.

Just to get out of the combine and do something a little different, it breaks up the day, he said. Especially by yourself safety becomes a real issue.

CropWatch Weekly Update Get the Iowa and Illinois CropWatchers report 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.
The terms renewable diesel and biodiesel sound similar. While both start with the same raw material base, they are not quite the same.
Winter often lies too long along the road formerly known as Hilldale, where my woodlot resides. From hill to dale the road gives up its frost 
DONETSK, Ukraine  Workers on a farm near Donetsk in the east of Ukraine were forced to run to the bomb shelter March 15 as missiles fired by 
There are no changes to the U.S. cool and wet forecast into mid-May with the northern and eastern sections of the Corn Belt the toughest areas
NEW ORLEANS, La.  For the Commodity Classic, farmers made their way to New Orleans, like so many of the crops they grow across the country.

At the event, members of the United Soybean Board talked about the latest news in the industry and the impact of the soybean checkoff. Some of the discussion included props, such as a shoe made using soybean products.

When Gary Berg, a farmer from southern Illinois, 75 miles east of St. Louis, took a turn speaking, he described a larger visual aide rolling by the Ernst N. Morial Convention Center.

My prop is the Mississippi River, he said.

Berg said he hauls the bulk of his corn, soybeans and wheat to a river terminal.

We haul probably 90% of our grain to the St. Louis terminal, where it goes down the Mississippi River, he said.

Berg said checkoff funds helped pay to dredge the lower stretches of the river, allowing larges ships to come farther inland and haul more bushels.

This was a really great place to come and see what theyre doing and how theyre using our checkoff dollars, he said.

Meagan Kaiser, a Missouri farmer and vice chair of the United Soybean Board, says the board works to determine farmer-driven priorities to best spend checkoff funds depending on current needs. She also serves the USB executive committee as the sustainability target area coordinator. She says pooling checkoff funds allows farmers to make an impact and look into things bigger than an individual grower could.

Most importantly, the whole objective of the checkoff is to bring a unique value that they cant get anywhere else, she says. We can ask the questions that might be too big for one farmer.

North Dakota farmer Matt Gast said biofuels remain a top priority for the board as well.

Biodiesels a big thing right now, he said. By 2025, crush capacity in the country is going to go up 30%.

Ed Lammers, a Nebraska livestock producer, said the biofuel industry is closely tied to the livestock sector, adding that soybeans make a good feed ingredient.

Ninety-seven percent of the meal that crushers are producing gets into livestock feed, he said. Seventy percent of the soybean is protein.

Dave Walton, an Iowa farmer and treasurer of the Iowa Soybean Association, said it is important for the industry to pay attention to what the market is looking for and develop the soybeans to fill that demand.

We need to identify those quality traits in soybeans that end users want and engineer that through the whole system, he said.

Steve Pitsick, chairman of the Illinois Soybean Association, said there are many current issues that present challenges and opportunities, including what impact electric vehicles might have on biofuels, how farmers can profit off climate change efforts, and consumers paying more attention to the food system.

Everythings kind of evolving in this world, and well see where we fit, Pitsick said. Consumers are wanting to be a lot more informed about what theyre eating. Its been a trend for several years, but its accelerating.

Farmers who serve on commodity groups have to balance a number of responsibilities, but some of the growers spoke about how it is an opportunity to give back.

I feel its very satisfying, Pitsick said. Somebody did it 25 years ago when I was starting farming, and now its my turn.

Walton said help back home is a key to making it work.

It takes a good support network back home, he said. Its a point in my career, I need to give something back to the industry.

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Without agriculture, there would be no pizza.

In a country where the average family eats 40 pizzas a year, thats a scary thought.

Fortunately, agriculture is abundant in southeastern South Dakota, so the pizza supply is safe.

That calls for a celebration, and Ag United for South Dakota is setting out to do just that.

In the weeks leading up to National Ag Day on March 22, Ag United will host farmer-led classroom discussions with area fourth graders about the impact the ag industry makes on their daily lives.

With its ooey-gooey cheese, savory sausage, pepperoni or beef and a perfectly golden crust, pizza is the perfect example to demonstrate how all food comes from agriculture.

We have a pizza party, but its really an agricultural lesson about how we grow everything that goes into making a pizza, said Heidi Zwinger, outreach director for South Dakota Ag United.

Each classroom welcomes a few farmers from each schools region, Zwinger said. A dairy farmer tells the students how the milk from the cows and how its turned into cheese. A wheat farmer discusses the process of growing the wheat that eventually turns into a crust. Hog producers chat about where pork products come from.

Even the soybean and corn farmers get in on the action, even though their products arent directly seen on the pizza.

We talk about how we dont eat most of the corn and soybeans that South Dakota farmers grow, but the cattle and pigs do and they turn it into something we can eat, Zwinger said.

The Ag United team even brings feed samples for the students to see.

Following the lesson, the farmers serve pizza to the students.

The farmers love it, Zwinger said.

When you go to a classroom and visit students, theyre happy just to have somebody come and visit. But when you go in there and talk about your farm, your tractor and your livestock and you also bring pizza along, youre at a pretty high level of cool in those students eyes, she said.

The first South Dakota Ag United Ag Day pizza party was in 2009. Since then, Farmers that have volunteered in the past are often eager to come back year after year.

Its even becoming a family tradition.

Now, some of the younger generations are coming, too. The dad has done it for a number of years and now the son is going to do it this year, too, Zwinger said.

Its just at the same time, just a great opportunity for South Dakota farmers and ag producers to share their story, as well as the story of where food comes from.

The program has reached more than 6,500 students since its inception. This year, 15 classrooms at five different South Dakota schools will get to participate.

Everybody needs to understand where their food comes from, Zwinger said. This really ties the knot for these students.

Its also a great opportunity for South Dakota farmers and ag producers to share their story, as well as the story of where food comes from, she added.

Just as agriculture doesnt stop at food production, the pizza day talks include other ag information as well, including careers in the industry.

So many careers that touch agriculture arent directly farming, Zwinger said.

Many students may not realize that there are ag-based jobs in everything from software engineering to mechanics.

Overall, Zwinger said the purpose of the Ag Day pizza parties is to foster connections, especially considering that many students are two or three generations removed from the farm, if not more.

Agriculture isnt as far away as these kids think it is, she said.

The pizzas are funded through donations, with $25 sponsoring pizza for eight students, $50 covering 16 students and a $75 donation provides pizza for 25 students. Head to agunited.org if youd like to contribute.

Melisa Goss, Associate Editor for the Tri-State Neighbor, is a South Dakota farm girl whose love of travel has allowed her to see ags vital impact around the world, from Americas heartland to the rice paddies of Southeast Asia and many places in between. She makes her home in Sioux Falls with her husband, daughter and miniature schnauzer. You can reach her at mgoss@lee.net.

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Following 10 months of work, FACC AG has completed construction of its new high-tech production plant in Jakovlje, Croatia, with operations now underway. The 128,000m2 facility, designed in cooperation with Fraunhofer Institut, is being used for the manufacturing of lightweight components for the cabin interiors of commercial aircraft and business jets. In addition to production halls, the building is also equipped with offices, social and technical areas.

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FACCs CEO, Robert Machtlinger, explained the investment: With an investment volume of EUR 12.5 million (US$13.7m) for the first expansion phase, this project is the largest greenfield investment outside of Austria in the history of FACC. The outstanding infrastructure as well as the proximity to Zagreb, which boasts a technical university and a highly qualified workforce, were among the reasons for the decision in favour of this location, which is also well connected to international transport networks.

Indeed FACC reports it has not struggled to recruit staff for the Jakovlje facility. Within just three months, the company was able to recruit more than 150 skilled employees. Demand has skyrocketed again, particularly in the area of short- and medium-haul aircraft. This is why we are currently planning the next stage of expansion with additional areas for component assembly and logistics, stated Machtlinger, adding that given the expanding order volumes, the workforce is expected to triple in the long term.

The new plant in Zagreb is part of the recently announced growth strategy of FACC AG, which is preparing for the growth requirements of the future with an investment package of more than EUR 150 million in the coming years. Besides investments in new aerospace projects, a main focus is on a strong expansion of research & development for consistent sustainability and technological leadership. FACCs goal is to establish itself among the top 50 aerospace groups worldwide by 2030. At present, the company ranks among the top 100.
Nearly all great nations come to an end, noted the famed historian, Arnold Toynbee. America is no different. Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, American greatness is threatened.

Our possible demise was accelerated by Barack Obama, a man who had neither the experience, intelligence, nor ideological commitment to America to lead it.

Obama did not comprehend the simple fact that great nations do not bluff. The colossal red line fiasco in Syria spoke volumes to our adversaries. When the green revolution emerged on the streets of Tehran, Obama did nothing.

When the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt showed that its conception of democracy was one person, one vote, one time, and was overthrown by a spontaneous outpouring of millions into the streets of Cairo, Obamas reaction was to attempt to bring back the Muslim Brotherhood.

With the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran agreement, Obama sought to let Iran develop a nuclear weapon at the expense of Americas traditional allies, the Sunni Arabs and Israel. The JCPOA was never about Iran not getting the bomb, but only about delaying it. As if that were something the Iranians would do once the agreement was implemented.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Obama sent the Ukrainians blankets. Not one lethal weapon was sent to Ukraine, not even small arms.

When Israel retaliated against Hamas deluge of rockets, Obama did something that had never been done to any other country engaged in conflict: He cut off American air transport to Israel.

If there were a foreign policy decision to be made that would be injurious to both Americas security and its standing in the world, Obama made it. America had found its Manchurian Candidate.

But the injuries Obama inflicted on America were quickly renewed under President Biden. With the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) up for renewal, the Biden administration did not even enter negotiations with Russian president Putin. Instead, it folded and gave Putin everything he wanted -- a five-year extension with no negotiations.

Biden is attempting to revive the JCPOA agreement with Iran that President Trump had appropriately killed. The Iranians refused to negotiate directly with the Americans and demanded intermediaries. The meetings in Vienna are being led -- even now -- by the Russians. And they are demanding that Russia be immunized from the sanctions imposed on it due to its brutal war in Ukraine in return.

The Israelis and Gulf Arabs look upon this with horror as an act of contemptible weakness at their expense. That is precisely what it is. It comes on top of the debacle in Afghanistan, a statement to those who depend on America that America cannot organize a retreat.

And if this were insufficient, there was Kamala Harris distinguishingly incompetent performance in Poland that must have sent shivers through the spine of the Polish president as she turned to him to answer questions she should have answered. No doubt, Putin was as buoyed by this as he was by watching his diplomats lead the Iranian negotiations.

Among the people who brought Obama and Biden into office are those who believed and stated that America was never great; people who wish to destroy Americas heroes and want to teach its history from the underbelly of racism and slavery.

All people need heroes, and they need a history that reflects their achievements as well as their faults.

Americas devolution into subcultures, inappropriately called cultures, and a regressive tribalism is exploited by the Democrats for political gain.

As we watch Ukrainians line up to get weapons to defend their country, we should ask ourselves, would Americans do this? In the heartland, yes, but among our coastal sophisticates and oppressed minorities wallowing in their victimhood, probably few would show. No doubt, the anti-gun lobby would seek an injunction against the distribution of automatic weapons. The ACLU would sue the gun manufacturers.

Only among those mired in their victimhood was America never great. The greatness of America is seen in the tens of millions who seek to come here.

But that greatness is now threatened. When Reagan was in office, the Soviets were so afraid of him that the KGB sent a delegation to talk to their counterparts in the CIA -- whom they trusted -- to discern Reagans intentions.

Trump was mercurial and equally unpredictable. His statements about Putin led to conclusions about policy that never occurred. Public pronouncements are not policy. Yet Trump, the Queens real-estate developer, who grew up in that gritty business, knew when it was time to take down an opponent.

When I worked in Washington, it was often said that the State Department professionals should be replaced by members of a Los Angeles street gang. Those toughs understood the world as it really was, and not as explained in some graduate seminar at Harvard.

No one can say that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump were in office, but rest assured that Polish airplanes would be piloted by Ukrainians. It is totally disingenuous to tell the Ukrainians the aircraft are unusable and would not make a difference.

Dictators can smell weakness tens of thousands of miles away. Right now, this administration is tempting the dictators. Arnold Toynbee was correct -- nearly all great powers collapse, and this one is being pushed in that direction.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati, and a distinguished fellow with the Haym Salomon Center.

Image: Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress
Should NATO establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine? The question turns on prospects for a clash of allied and Russian aircraft erupting into a wider conflict.

We have been there before. Repeatedly.

In November 1944, Italy-based American fighters attacked a Soviet road convoy in Yugoslavia. Accounts vary as to the cause: either a navigation error or the Russians failure to announce an unexpected breakthrough. In any case, the P-38 Lightnings mistook the Russian vehicles for German and strafed them. Reportedly among the dead was a general.

The Russian top cover descended, resulting in a dogfight that claimed two P-38s and four Yakovlev fighters.

Anticipating high-level problems, U.S. headquarters immediately sent the group commander Stateside. And sure enough, Moscow demanded his execution. However, Colonel Clarence Curly Edwinson retired as a brigadier general.

Throughout the Cold War, Communist fighters downed at least fifteen American aircraft, several in international airspace. Additionally, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) downed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, captured in Russia in 1960, followed by Major Rolf Anderson, killed in his U-2 over Cuba two years later.

No wars ensued.

American and allied air forces clashed with Soviet jet fighters throughout most of the three-year Korean War. At least six Russian planes were splashed by U.S. naval aircraft with four MiG pilots killed in one combat off Vladivostok in 1952.

Long after, Moscow acknowledged losing 335 planes and 120 aircrew among a total 299 personnel killed in Korea. Against orders, some Soviet MiG-15s were pursued to destruction at their sanctuaries in Manchuria.

No wider war ensued.

A much wider war did occur, of course, when General Douglas MacArthurs notoriously sycophantic staff discounted intelligence of China preparing a massive offensive as Americans neared the border in 1950. The tide flooded south, eventually with something over 200,000 Chinese killed or missing before the 1953 armistice.

The Soviet Union provided massive support to Hanoi during the long Vietnam War. The main contributions were jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles with technicians and trainers for each. The official Russian figure is sixteen deaths in Indochina from all causes.

China was even more active, especially with engineering and anti-aircraft units. Vietnam War scholar Merle Pribbenow places Communist Chinese casualties at 1,100 killed and 4,200 wounded through 1975.

No wider war ensued.

Soviet fighters destroyed a Korean Airlines jetliner off the Russian coast in 1983. Nearly 270 civilians died, including conservative Georgia Congressman Larry McDonald.

No war ensued.

No-fly zones have been enforced by coalition nations for longer than some readers remember. For 12 years, 1991 to 2003, Operations Northern and Southern Watch divided Iraq into thirds, protecting Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south, leaving the middle portion available to Saddam Husseins government.

But NFZs pose inherent risks to operators. In a bungled 1994 interception, F-15 Eagle fighters destroyed two U.S. Army helicopters with 26 fatalities from the U.S. and four other nations. In 1998 Saddam Husseins forces began firing on coalition aircraft in NFZs without effect though U.S. and British jets retaliated.

Northern and Southern Watch ended with the allied invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Operation Deny Flight was a 12-nation NATO exercise over Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 to 1995. The most significant action erupted in 1994 when U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcons shot down four Serb jets that had bombed a factory. Deny Flight expanded into Deliberate Force, authorized to attack a wider variety of targets.

In 2011 the U.N. approved a no-fly zone during the Libyan civil war, lasting from March to October. Mostly the U.S., Britain, Canada, and France launched aircraft and missiles against Muammar Qadhafis forces in that period and conducted a naval blockade. Six other nations contributed operational or logistics support, but each assigned its own name; America conducted Odyssey Dawn while Britain launched Ellamy, etc.

Today, NATO long-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) can produce the same result -- a reduction in Russian sorties against Ukraine  as fighter patrols. But that might be considered splitting hairs in Moscow.

NATO countries already have sent shoulder-mounted SAMs to Ukraine, most notably the U.S. Stinger that featured heavily in the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan. Videos show Ukrainian Stingers destroying Russian jets and helicopters.

Ukraine is almost the size of Texas, far larger than all of Iraq, and more akin to Wisconsin. But maintaining a nationwide NFZ might dilute or fracture the enormous international support for Ukraine. A Ukraine NFZ would require a massive multi-national effort including tankers and round the clock maintenance-logistics.

Assuming a Ukrainian NFZ, certainly, the Russians would ramp up their anti-air capability, perhaps prompting the U.S. to deploy stealth F-22 Raptor with trouble-plagued F-35 Lighting II fighters and even B-2 strategic bombers.

F-35 USAF public domain

However, stealth is no guarantor. In 1999 a clever Yugoslav missile battery shot down an F-117 stealth fighteractually, a subsonic attack aircraft with no air-to-air capability -- and reportedly damaged another.

Consequently, even committing stealth jets to Ukraine would require jamming aircraft to escort the strikers, and only the U.S. Navy retains that capability with its EF-18 Growlers. Washington might be reluctant to show its stealth and electronic warfare hands in an arena removed from American interests.

Retired Admiral Leighton Smith commanded NATO forces in Bosnia 1994-1996, being knighted for his leadership. He has rare insight to no-fly zones, as he had been involved in Provide Comfort, recalling, There was no opposition in Iraq. We had complete control of the air and made iron-clad promises to the Iraqis that any violation, or offensive action, would be dealt with immediately and with considerable force.

Of a Ukrainian no-fly zone, Admiral Smith says, I don't know how you would control a NFZ in Ukraine without getting into it with the Russians. A very tricky thing to do unless we declare a humanitarian corridor, and patrol that to allow aid to flow unimpeded. Even then, maintaining an NFZ would be tough. I can't imagine what the rules of engagement would be!
While many have criticized the current enthusiasm for judging the past by the standards of the present (and condemning those past leaders who did not meet them), few have noted how many currently dominant beliefs are totally disconnected from reality and have a profoundly destructive impact. I propose to discuss two of them here: ideas about the nature of mental illness which have produced what Charles Krauthammer called an army of broken souls foraging and freezing in the streets and the conviction that our planet is in existential danger from human-induced climate change. The latter has led to a wholly unwarranted, hugely expensive crusade to eliminate fossil fuels. The chief effect has been to strengthen the leverage of those countries, many of them enemies of the West, that continue to produce these fuels, which remain essential to the functioning of industrial societies.

In the 1960s, a mad idea was born, the notion that there is no such thing as mental illness. Incredibly, it would become the foundation for public policy. The idea sprang independently from two maverick psychiatrists at opposite ideological poles, on the right U.S. psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, an unsparing libertarian, and on the left the British Ronald Laing. Szasz disposed of mental illness by verbal sleight of hand: Mental illnesses do not exist; indeed they cannot exist because the mind is not a bodily part or bodily organ. (Never mind that the brain is the bodily organ that malfunctions in mental illness.) Psychiatry is a form of quackery because it offers cures for which there are no diseases. Laing treated schizophrenia, the most disabling mental illness, as a voyage of discovery; we find that a person who is labeled insane is often the sanest member of his or her family.

Laing was culturally more influential, a guru of the New Left much enamored of his variations on the theme that schizophrenia was a rational way of healing our own appalling state of alienation called normality. But it was Szasz who reshaped care (or more accurately, failure to care) for the mentally ill. The judges who ruled in the major cases that resulted in the massive shutdown of mental hospitals and the inability to treat unwilling (eventually even willing) patients except in extreme circumstances had read neither Szasz nor Laing. But they did read the law journal articles written by members of the emerging mental health bar, whose ideas came straight from Szasz. Bruce Ennis, the bars pioneer, has described how he taught himself about mental illness. Asked in 1968 as a young new hire by the New York Civil Liberties Union to start a project on the rights of the mentally handicapped, Ennis says I went to a library and I looked under law and psychiatry and found some books by a man named Thomas Szasz... I decided it was an important enough subject to devote a lot of my time and life to so I did. Szasz would write the preface to Enniss 1972 book Prisoners of Psychiatry.

Soon entire issues of law journals were devoted to demolishing all psychiatric claims. What was labeled mental illness was simply an alternative lifestyle. Treatments, including anti-psychotic drugs, were all side effects, no positive effects. Indeed, they were a form of torture. We know that the judges who ruled in the major deinstitutionalization and right to refuse treatment cases read these articles because they quoted extensively from them in their decisions. While the need for treatment had traditionally been a basis for treatment, only a quasi-criminal dangerousness standard survived. Intervention was legitimate only when someone was an imminent danger to himself or others, and this was defined so narrowly that the individual had to be on the verge of suicide or murder. Even then, in growing numbers of states, he was presumed competent to refuse treatment, undercutting the very purpose of involuntary commitment.

The tremendously subversive implications of these ideas only became apparent in the 1980s. American society was helpless to deal with an enormous social problem destroying the quality of life of its cities. It still is.

The notion that our planet is in imminent danger of becoming uninhabitable because of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is more recent, dating to the late 1980s. In The Age of Global Warming Rupert Darwall also traces Its roots to two men, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius who, in 1896, wrote a paper predicting that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would increase temperatures by 5 to 6 degrees centigrade, and Guy Callendar, who, over forty years later attributed a global temperature rise from 1934 to 1938 to a rise in C02. Unlike Szasz or Laing, neither have been celebrated in global warming circles, probably because, as Darwall writes, both men thought rising C02 levels were a happy development, contributing to plant growth and staving off a rapid return to an ice age and deadly glaciers.

For all that believers constantly invoke the Science! the Science!, Darwall makes the crucial point that todays global warming theory is not science at all. He reminds us that the sine qua non of a scientific proposition, as Karl Popper pointed out, is that it can be disproven. But the theory of dangerous man-made global warming is immune from falsification, with any real-world departure from expectations (e.g., a decade of flat temperatures prior to 2009 despite a steady rise in C02 emissions) explained by some untestable ad hoc hypothesis. Darwall observes that global warming theory is scientific in the same sense as Marxs theory of history, Freuds psychoanalysis and Alfred Adlers individual psychology. In the case of all three, as Popper pointed out, advocates find only confirming evidence, and that they find wherever they look. (In the case of global warming, believers point to every instance of extreme weather as confirming evidence.) Such theories, Popper said, were prescientific, depending for acceptance on the appeal to authority. This is glaringly apparent in global warming theory, which firmly rests, we are repeatedly told, on the almost universal consensus of scientists.

The attitude toward critics is key. A scientific theory welcomes efforts to test it against empirical evidence. Pseudoscience, depending for its truth on consensus, is deeply hostile to challenge. Marxists accused critics of false consciousness or class interests; Freudians dismissed them as in need of treatment. Former British Labour leader Gordon Browns disposal-by-insult of those who dared to question the global warming apocalypse is typical: We mustnt be distracted by the behind times, anti-science, flat earth climate skeptics.

No one points up the absurdity of the entire enterprise as well as MIT emeritus professor of atmospheric science Richard Lindzen. Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st centurys developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.

As the western world seeks to cut off Russian oil and gas in the wake of Putins invasion of Ukraine, the harmful strategic consequences of its obsession with this terrible idea have become obvious. Pouring vast sums into unreliable wind and solar in pursuit of the will o the wisp of net zero emissions, Europe has forfeited development of its own fossil fuels. Biden is embarked on the same course here. Thus, there is the mind-boggling spectacle of Biden scrambling to enlist rogue regimes like those of Venezuela and Iran to provide the West with oil while doubling down on his efforts to cripple oil and gas development in the U.S.

While there is a plethora of other prevalent terrible ideas in the ascendant, such as changing the purpose of corporations from promoting the interests of shareholders to those of society (as defined by woke activists), an especially corrosive new idea is now in danger of emerging triumphant. This is the notion that any differences in outcome between groups can only be explained by racism. For proponents, if eliminating differences requires overturning our educational and professional institutions, banishing tests and considerations of merit or competence, so be it.

China, which this month implicitly expressed its opinion of the climate change apocalypse by vowing to expand domestic coal mining by 300 million tons a year, and has no intention of changing the nature of math so that everyone can master it, awaits the results.

Rael Jean Isaac is author of Roosters of the Apocalypse: How the Junk Science of Global Warming is Bankrupting the Western World and co-author of Madness in the Streets: How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill.

Image: PxHere
Vladimir Putin has enough bombs and rockets to flatten every major city in Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people seem determined to fight for every block and building. It's beginning to appear that Putin has made a "massive miscalculation," as Boris Johnson has observed and that he may fail in his attempt to conquer Ukraine. But Putin can never admit his mistake. Dictators who admit mistakes tend not to last very long.

So the war rumbles on, rubble grows thick, combatants and civilians die, Ukrainians flee, and Russians become destitute. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is likened to Churchill, while Putin is compared to Hitler. He's become a pariah who will never again be invited to join the polite company of Western leaders. Former friends and allies will shun him. And the Russian people will continue to suffer, so long as he remains their leader.

Putin sees no way out. He is beginning to understand how Hitler must have felt in the bunker, and he may be wondering if things would have turned out differently if Hitler had had the bomb. For the time being, however, he must continue to prosecute this terrible, pointless war, unless...

I submit a modest proposal that could tempt Putin to stop waging war by giving him the face-saving incentive he needs. It would cost nothing. It would save tens of thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars. And it just might avert WWIII.

I propose that Vladimir Putin be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after he announces the end of hostilities and withdraws his troops.

This isn't as crazy as it sounds. If Putin did end the war, he actually would qualify for the prize, which is officially awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." (Incidentally, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has no provisions for disqualifying people who start wars.)

Putin would be an unusual pick, to say the least. But the Nobel Committee has made a number of unusual picks in recent decades. In 1994, it awarded the prize to Yasser Arafat.

In 2002, former president Jimmy Carter won the prize, not because he promoted peace, but because he opposed the policies of then-president Bush 45. "It should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken," confided Nobel Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge. "It's a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States."

In 2007, the Committee awarded the prize to Al Gore for "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change[.]"

In 2009, the prize went to one-term U.S. senator and newly elected U.S. president Barack Obama, for being Barack Obama.

So awarding the Peace Prize to Vladimir Putin would not further disgrace the noble committee. Nothing could.

If Putin were to announce the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of troops, the world would breathe a huge sigh of relief. When the Committee announces Putin's award shortly thereafter, people will be shocked and horrified. But not for long. Attention spans are short in the twenty-first century.

Nobel laureate Vladimir Putin could then explain to the Russian people, credibly, that his military excursion had been a peacekeeping operation that had accomplished its peaceful objective, and that peace reigns once again. President Vladimir Putin would appreciate that he'd been given a rare gift  a second chance to remain in power. Commander-in-chief Vladimir Putin would realize that, insofar as his massive military is massively incompetent and the whole world knows it, he must never attack another country again.

In short, giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Vladimir Putin would do far greater good for far more people than any other prize ever awarded. And this brings me to my second proposal.

If this all works out as I predict, I think the next Nobel Peace Prize should be given to me.

Image: Nobel Foundation.
Joe Biden's weak leadership on the international stage has led to an enormous international crisis. Not only is he inept, but we need to speak plainly and call him out for what he really is: a disgrace. Biden is complicit in the despicable crimes being committed against the Ukrainian people by his lack of action. The United States of America has the military and political power to have already put an end to this, yet he has chosen to do the bare minimum, and as a result, thousands of people are needlessly dying, and mass destruction is being brought to a great and historic nation.

It is made all the worse when you consider that this man has no consistent policies rooted in any sort of logic. He was the Senate sponsor of the failed Kosovo resolution, which still led to the Clinton administration committing war crimes against the Serbian people and murdering hundreds of civilians in the process. He passionately insisted that he was in favor of bombing Belgrade, yet he is too afraid to confront Vladimir Putin, who is mercilessly bombarding the innocent people of Ukraine. This sort of double-standard is unfitting of an American president, and the world is in great peril to have such a man as the de facto leader of the free world.

We must why it is okay to ignore the United States Congress in its refusal to endorse a military campaign against Yugoslavia, but when there is a wide-ranging outcry across the political spectrum to take more action in defense of Ukraine, he remains on the sidelines. The American people have always been willing to step up and sacrifice in defense of freedom and for a just cause and righteous intent. This is one of those moments in history.

This was the same supposed leader who made a campaign promise to hold the Saudi crown prince accountable for the murder of a journalist, which he then shamelessly broke. His rushed, disorganized, and cowardly surrender of Afghanistan to a terrorist organization we had battled for two decades led to the deaths of 13 American service members and to countless friends and allies left behind and showed that the word and commitment of the United States means little in today's world. Now we stand by as a nation that values and yearns for freedom faces a new evil, and we do relatively little.

While there is near-universal consensus on strong sanctions against Russia, and supplying the Ukrainians with whatever aid is required, this needlessly prolongs bloodshed and raises the real risk that an irrational and frustrated Putin could use chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons. How many more people have to die before America does what it has done so many times throughout history and stands strong as a shield of liberty against evil in the world?

In another sign of cowardice, the Biden administration shot down a Polish proposal to give Ukraine much-needed fighter jets for fear, yet again, of upsetting Putin, and that it could be viewed as "escalatory" in nature. All one has to do is look at the ruins of what was once the city of Mariupol, the schools and shelters with innocents in them that by all accounts have been intentionally targeted, and ask, have things not already escalated to an unacceptable level? The great cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv are being attacked relentlessly, and the brave Ukrainian defenders holding them at bay deserve more from us.

Highlighting the extraordinary gravity of this situation, the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, recently said:

My countrymen, Poles, are looking today at Mariupol and are saying, "God"  they say it with tears in their eyes  "Mariupol looks like Warsaw did in 1944 when Nazis, Hitler's Germans, were brutally bombing houses, killing people, killing civilians with no mercy at all."

This is not a matter of liberal or conservative, left or right, hawk or dove. It is time we do what is right. The world still waits on the United States to lead. If we stand up against the murderous despotism of Putin's regime by whatever means are necessary to end it as soon as possible, then Americans can once again call themselves the greatest nation on Earth. The stakes are truly incredibly high, and we must face this challenge with valor and boldness, not with meekness and uncertainty. We need real leadership to be shown now.



Ajay Bruno is a media and political strategist who has worked on behalf of a range of clients, including the Indian ambassador to the U.S., the Polish Consulate-General in NYC, FreedomWorks, and The Federalist Society.

Image: SkyNews/MSNBC video screen shot via YouTube.
Gen. Mark Milley, the Pentagon swamp creature who brought us the Afghanistan pullout and turned the U.S. military focus to "white rage," doesn't seem to be able to get Russia's generals, now bombing Ukraine, to return his phone calls.

According to the Washington Post:

Repeated attempts by the United States' top defense and military leaders to speak with their Russian counterparts have been rejected by Moscow for the last month, leaving the world's two largest nuclear powers in the dark about explanations for military movements and raising fears of a major miscalculation or battlefield accident. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have tried to set up phone calls with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov but the Russians "have so far declined to engage," said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement Wednesday. The attempted calls by Austin and Milley, which have not previously been reported, come as Russia conducts operations near the borders of NATO members Poland and Romania while the United States and its European allies conduct air-policing operations over the Baltic Sea and pour weapons and equipment into Ukraine by ground transport.

This is weird stuff.

After all, wasn't Milley the one who assured the Chinese generals they had nothing to worry about from the U.S. during President Trump's exit because he'd give China the heads-up if any warlike activity against them was coming down? You'd think the Russians might figure they could get something like that to their advantage out of Milley, too.

The Post reports focus on the potential war risk, including nuclear conflict, that comes of it. But it's baffled as to why this could be happening, resorting to quoting a few experts from lefty institutions at the bottom of the piece:

It remains unclear why Russia's top generals have refused to hold calls with their U.S. counterparts. "I suspect that the problem lies with the Russian insistence that this is a 'special military operation' and unwillingness to admit the real nature of the war," said Angela Stent, a Russia scholar at Georgetown University who served as a senior intelligence officer in the Bush administration. The generals may also be waiting on Putin's approval to make the calls, given the high stakes of the conflict, and he may not be signing off, Charap said. Another theory is that Putin may now view the United States as a determined adversary bent on his downfall and not worth engaging. Russian officials bristled at Biden calling Putin a "war criminal," saying it could lead to a complete break in relations.

It misses some of the big ones, though, one of which is the matter of contempt and how much of that the Russians have for Milley (and his wokester U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin).

After all, Milley's signature achievement has been the botched, chaotic, mal-planned, militarily disastrous U.S. pullout of Afghanistan, which left America's military reputation in ruins and effectively negated the U.S.'s decades of sacrifice in blood and treasure. Milley is still on the job, of course, un-fired and undrummed out of the service, so the incompetence now associated with American military leadership is unlikely to change any time soon. Russia's military establishment had warned that the U.S. pullout plan would lead to disaster back in April 2021, and sure enough, it did. Milley's pullout was so bad that it made the orderly Russian pullout from the country back in 1989 look positively good in comparison.

How could the Russians respect a guy like that, or, more importantly, fear him? Much easier to just dismiss his phone calls.

It probably doesn't help that Milley appears to be overweight and out of shape, which is a bad look for a soldier in a position of leadership, and, rather than focus on battle prowess, is fixated on imposing bogus wokester politics throughout the U.S. military. The Russians are sending their battle-hardened generals into battle and have lost at least a half dozen of them in the war. Why would the Russians want to talk to a desk jockey like Milley as a sort of peer? He's not a peer.

That's just one explanation. There are others that the "experts" didn't note very significantly, although some may have simply not been quoted on what they actually said.

One such other issue is that Putin has gotten paranoid and doesn't seem to trust his military. That's in spite of the Russian military leadership's professed and proven loyalty over the years. Fox News reports that Russia's defense minister, Gen. Sergei Shoigu, has been missing for weeks, supposedly due to heart problems:

The head of Russia's Ministry of Defense Sergei Shoigu has not been seen in public for 12 days and is possibly missing, according to reports and messages circulated on Telegram on Wednesday. Investigative journalists from the Russian independent news outlets Mediazona and Agentstvo claimed on Wednesday that the normally media savvy Shoigu has not appeared in public since March 11. There are rumors that Shoigu is in poor health and is experiencing heart problems, while other messages are swirling online suggest Shoigu might have been fired from the ministry and is on house arrest, according to Russian journalists. Fox News has not yet independently verified these allegations.

Maybe he can't pick up the phone...for anyone.

We already know that Putin has thrown top intelligence officials in jail, presumably to keep them from defecting, making public statements denouncing Putin's war, and telling all they know to U.S. intelligence officials. Defense officials would likely be in the same category.

Whatever it is, we know that Milley doesn't have the pull to get his phone calls answered in Moscow. The Post is probably right in thinking that this raises the odds of a U.S.-Russia conflict. If so, it would be another fine mess Milley has gotten us into. Back in the old days, countries would leap to pick up the phone when the U.S. came calling. Today, not so much. What an embarrassment.

Image: Screen shot from Fox News via YouTube.
Who could unite the ununitable  on both sides of the Atlantic? President Putin has undoubtedly accomplished the impossible by bringing together the opposing political forces in the West. No, they did not "unite" in the traditional sense. Still, pro-socialist circles demonstrate a joint front with pro-conservative forces against the Kremlin. Moreover, in response to the unprovoked Russian attack, the West condemned it nonstop. (There are marginal groups of pseudo-conservatives who justify Putin's aggression, but they are undoubtedly in the minority).

That alone indicates that an extraordinary event has occurred. However, it is not simply a proverbial perfect storm. As a matter of fact, we are experiencing a storm of biblical proportions  if one dares to look at the possible future.

At the end of 2021, the left, tarnished in the coronavirus battles (we refer to the pandemic's political, not biological component), needed a pause. In the early stages, the left welcomed the pandemic enthusiastically because, as everyone knows, leftists practice the "no crisis to waste" mode of operation. However, they had no idea how to end it without losing (political) face, and Putin's aggression has opened an escape hatch. The coronavirus pandemic further compressed the coil spring until Putin foolishly released it. By doing so, he has achieved unbelievable things.

While everybody is focused on Ukraine's suffering, it is time to look at the most probable post-war settlement terms. Russia has entered a challenging period. For example, the head of the Russian delegation, which pretends to negotiate with Ukraine, is a former Russian minister of culture, Vladimir Medinsky. He is known for saying that "the fact that Russia has been preserved and developed, proves that our people have one extra chromosome."

Well, after a month or so of fighting, the Russian military  possessing an "extra chromosome"  is no longer respected. During the height of the nuclear scare, the Soviet Union was covered with propaganda posters like "attention: the enemy is eavesdropping." In 2022, Russians must be schooled in "attention: the enemy is taking notice." Those concerned about the Soviet-era nukes are, in reality, worrying more about the mental health of the Kremlin nano-fuehrer than the actual missiles and warheads.

China is no doubt paying attention. Siberia, which is rich in all the elements of the Mendeleev Periodic Table, could be picked up quickly with little resistance  and with the wholehearted support of the local Russian population. The current inhabitants of South Siberia are practically indistinguishable from the Northern Chinese population. For the last decade, a Russian citizen in Siberia marrying a Chinese citizen has been widely considered a stroke of good luck. These Russians would definitely greet the Chinese army  contrary to what Ukrainians did for Russians.

After every day passes without Ukrainian capitulation, Siberia appears to become more and more attractive as an acquisition target rather than well equipped, determined, and supported by Western countries Taiwan. Like everyone else, China has been stunned by the Ukrainian resistance, but a more significant shock has been the largely unified position of the West. Although this unity against the aggressor will not deter China's communists, they will likely put Taiwan on the back burner for now and focus on the low-hanging fruit.

Likewise, the South Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island, currently in Russian hands but previously belonging to Japan, are giving heed. The Konigsberg (today Kaliningrad) region, previously German Prussia, is also tuning in. So it is no surprise that the Russian citizens in these regions, far from Moscow, are eager to do all it takes to relieve massive economic and financial sanctions by merely switching jurisdictions.

Years from now, upon the end of silly anti-all-Russian hysteria, classics like Tchaikovsky, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, and Brodsky will be returned in due course, and Russian scientists will be back at American universities. It's highly likely that Russia will be almost unrecognizable by that time. It is possible that Russia might no longer occupy one-seventh of the planet's landmass. Another reason is that the devastating sanctions are here to stay because no one in Washington has the stomach to behave in a pro-Putin manner in the foreseeable future.

The end of RuZZia as we know it due to economic blockade was brought up exclusively by Russia's self-inflicted wounds. Russia unwisely started shelling and bombing neighboring poor Ukraine, with just one-third GDP per capita compared to Russia's. Instead of a "victorious little war," Russia must brace for a multitude of black swan events. The biblical judgment over Russia is coming, assured by the unprecedented alliance of the left, the right, and the valor of the newborn Ukrainian nation. Rephrasing William Gibson, the Russian defeat is already here  it is just not evenly distributed.

Gary Gindler, Ph.D., is a conservative columnist at Gary Gindler Chronicles and founder of a new science: politiphysics. Follow him on Twitter.

Graphic credit: Victotria Baradinova, Pixabay license.
When protesters rioted in Washington, D.C. after the death of George Floyd, leftist politicians welcomed them. They even went so far as to paint "Black Lives Matter" in large letters along 16th Street.

During her press conference, Mayor Muriel Bowser said, "There are people who are craving to be heard and be seen and to have their humanity recognized. We had the opportunity to send that message loud and clear on a very important street in our city." She said the message was "Black Lives Matter," but this first part of the quote could have just as easily applied to the truck drivers making up the People's Convoy.

Those truckers didn't get a street painted over in their honor. They aren't even allowed into the capital city of their country. They were "banished" to the Beltway, allowed only to circle D.C.

John Falcicchio, chief of staff for Bowser, said, "Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is DC's street and to honor demonstrators who (were) peacefully protesting on Monday evening." This too could apply to the truck driver, and even more so, since many of the D.C. protesters weren't peacefully demonstrating.

When the convoy arrived in Maryland on March 3, they began working with law enforcement agencies to ensure that their travels around the Washington, D.C. beltway would be peaceful and safe. The groups met daily and mapped out the route for the day.

That changed in the middle of the month. The People's Convoy website issued a press release that read, in part, "Despite the convoy's active, transparent and daily communication with special agents from both the Metropolitan DC Police Department and the Maryland State Police Department, the DC Metro Police have blocked all entrances into the US Capital for the past two days."

Snowplows and barricades were utilized to block the off-ramps. Unfortunately, this not only illegally stopped the trucks from entering the city, but stopped all vehicles, causing even more back-ups, delays, and frustration. At times, traffic came to a standstill, and drivers exited their vehicles.

"The District of Columbia was monitoring and prepared for demonstration activity this afternoon," Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency director Christopher Rodriguez said in a statement. It read, "The Metropolitan Police Department implemented targeted traffic control measures as part of our layered mitigation strategy ... to minimize disruptions to our residents and businesses by keeping large commercial vehicles off our surface streets ." This included delivery vehicles for businesses in the city, so how did that minimize disruptions? Instead, it maximized the disruptions to commuters traveling the Beltway.

The press release concluded, "It is a deliberate abuse of power, as law enforcement strips First Amendment Rights away from hardworking taxpayers who merely want to make a statement, peacefully traveling on taxpayer-funded streets."

Our founding fathers would have applauded the truckers. But many of the professional politicians in our nation's capital think they know better what's best for U.S. citizens than those who engrafted rights into our then-fledgling Republic. The very first amendment of the Bill of Rights clarifies that We the People have the right to petition an abusive government.

The officials in Washington didn't learn anything from watching what happened in Ottawa, Canada earlier this year during the Freedom Convoy. Canadian officials took drastic actions against peaceful citizens to drive them out of the city. While those actions eventually "worked," they lost the trust of the citizens they claim to protect. In essence, they won the battle, but they will lose the war.

It seems Washington is on the path to doing the same thing. So far, the only people who have violated the law during the People's Convoy are the politicians, city workers, and police who illegally blocked a public street to keep law-abiding citizens out of the city.

"Every American has a constitutional right to peacefully protest and visit our nation's capital," said Brian Brase, co-organizer of The People's Convoy. "We have circled the Beltway for the past two weeks in a law-abiding demonstration of solidarity with the American people without incident. Threatening arrest and blocking access to D.C. is not going to stop us from making our voices heard."

The government needs to start obeying the law and allow the truckers to pass through the city. They have the right to protest peaceably. If they aren't allowed to do that, they will make sure to voice their frustration at the ballot box, and while D.C. officials may think they are safe from reprisal, federal officials are not. If the unconstitutional leftists are voted out in November, our capital may be put under stricter federal oversight.

Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.

Image via Pixabay.
What doesnt kill you makes you stronger. Except in the case of Phineas Gage, who became a lot of things but strong after an accident that ought to have killed him in 1848. The man survived the passing of an iron rod through his skull, hence becoming a legendary curiosity in medical sciences and a celebrity among the common population, albeit an irritable one.

What Happened to Phineas Gage?

Gage was an ordinary man, which is probably why his extraordinary survival made no newspaper headlines. He was a foreman by profession, and a great one at that. He was smart and genial at the same time, qualities that made him a valued employee and a respected leader among his crew. In September 1848, Phineas was stationed at Cavendish, Vermont in USA as part of a crew cutting a railroad bed at the Rutland & Burlington Railroad. On the thirteenth day of the month, he was assigned the task of stuffing gunpowder into a rock that was to be blasted for the process of construction. The task required handling a 43-inch long iron rod, as thick as an inch and a fourth in diameter, but the young man too was deft at what he did.

He was going about his jobusing the tamping iron to shove the powder into the holewhen friction between the rod and the rock caused a spark to flare. All it took was a split second to cause an explosion. The blast caused the rod in Gages hand to pierce through his left cheek into his skull through and through with high pressure. It destroyed his left eye, and exited from the other side after passing across the left front of his brain.

Its More Strange Than Sad

The above account may sound deathly, but Phineas Gage got through it with a few convulsions at most. Within a few minutes the man was up on his feet, talking, walking and asking around for help. In the city, his case was looked at by Dr Edward H. Williams, who was assisted by Dr John Harlow during the weeks-long treatment. It was Dr Harlow who gave a full account of the case to the Boston Medical Surgery Journal.

The period of convalescence involved two weeks in a semi comatose state and doses of medicines. But soon Gage had recovered fully and ended up at Harvard University to donate the rod that had pierced him. The man who should have been dead was up and walking by mid November, ready to go back to work. But the railroad company refused to take their favourite employee back, for the injury to his brain had conspicuously affected the state of his mind.

Harlow reported that the man had retained his cognition and intelligence, even his memory. But major changes had occurred in his personality. From being "the most efficient and capable foreman" he went to being a shrewd and flaky man, irritable, capricious and insubordinate. He was no longer himself, and became unable to hold a job with responsibility or commitment. Soon Gage was being spotted at circuses across New England, boasting his face and his rod, and would afterwards go on to work at livery stables and among horses in Chile. He exhibited himself in Barnum's American Museum in New York City as well, and some say that people paid to watch the anomaly. The major condition that he developed was epilepsy, which soon increased in frequency as well as severity.

A) The skull of Phineas Gage on display at the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School. B) This figure shows the possible rod trajectory. Photo: Wikimedia

Almost 12 years after the accident, Gage died on May 21, 1861 from an epileptic seizure. Harlow suggested that his mother donate his skull to the University, which she did. For years Phineas continued to inspire revelations in medical sciences and wonder about the capabilities of the human body. A new school of thought emerged studying the correlation between the mind and the brain. Before Phineass accident, the frontal lobes were not known to influence or control human behaviour. The recovery and psychological changes in this unusual victim motivated the likes of David Ferrier and Burkhardt to study how the frontal lobes did not change physiology but affected behaviour and personality.

Psychologist Malcolm Macmillan, one of the greatest researchers of Phineas Gage, suggests that many of the conclusions about his case remain unbacked by concrete evidence. For instance, not much is known about his personality before the accident, and what is known is substantiated only by the accounts of his kin. The degree of change, then, remains questionable for its veracity. In Malcolms eyes, Gages story is important as a testament to how a few facts turn into anecdotes and scientific myths over time.

Phineas Gage after the accident.

Only a handful of people would have known what Phineas looked like in life, but soon the world knew what he looked like with his face mask. The ordinary man was eternalised in his death, and even today his remains rest in the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School.

References

# An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage by Malcolm Macmillan

# No longer Gage: an iron bar through the head

# Phineas Gage and the effect of an iron bar through the head on personality

# Phineas Gage: Neurosciences Most Famous Patient
Nampally Court issues summons to YS Jagan:- A Special sessions court in Nampally that is hearing the cases against the MPs and MLAs issued summons to AP Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy and two others in relation to the 2014 poll code violation case. The summons are served to YS Jagan and the court asked him along with two others to appear in the court on March 28th for the investigation. The sessions court issued summons for YS Jagan as per the directions and instructions from the Supreme Court of India. YS Jagan was booked in Nalgonda district for organizing a roadshow without any permission from the Election Commission during the 2014 polls. YS Jagan's men G Srikanth and G Nagi Reddy too are booked apart from YS Jagan.

After seven years, the case has been transferred to the MLA and MP Court in Nampally from Suryapet police stations. YS Jagan and his aides are booked under Section 188 and Section 143. This is the first time, a house of Representatives has issued summons for a Chief Minister in the country. A case has also been registered on YS Jagan's mother Vijayamma and sister Sharmila for violating the election code.

(Video Source: TV5 News)
Displays in some future smartphones and other products could be set for a big boost on the battery front if a recent leak hinting at the launch of LTPO 3.0 is any indication. In fact, the new display technology could be ready for OEMs or announcements as early as next month. Thats if a recently tweeted Weibo post is anything to go by. Specifically, shared with the Chinese social media site, before being reshared to Twitter by Abhishek Yadav this week.

For clarity, LTPO is a technology that presently exists in version 2.0. It acts as an underpinning technology for OLED and AMOLED display panels. And, summarily, the jump from version 1 to 2 vastly improved displays built on the technology in terms of variable refresh rates. So, taken alongside other less-noteworthy improvements, its an important technology in the industry.

What would be new for AMOLED displays with LTPO 3.0?

In terms of specifics, the latest details dont provide much by way of actual information. But it is said that LTPO 3.0 will enhance previous efforts with the technology on the battery side of the equation. If accurate, the news really couldnt come at a better time.

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Not only have smartphone batteries continued to stagnate. But that stagnation in the technology itself has been coupled with increasingly-powerful chipsets. And, of course, with many companies shifting focus to the software in order to address the issues that combination dredges up. For instance, Android 13 is set to focus even more attention on improving background app battery management.

Displays are still easily the most battery-intensive component in modern smartphones. So any improvement in the technology undergirding those will have a significant impact.

You still wont likely see the new tech anytime soon

Now, the exact level of impact will undoubtedly vary from OEM to OEM and depending on other factors. Such as chipsets and user settings for the display. But LTPO 3.0-enhanced smartphones wont likely ship with better battery life this year, even if the leak is accurate. Typically, some time is needed between a new hardware components announcement and its release in end-products. So 2023 seems like a more likely bet on that front, as of this writing.
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(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 23 - Some 65,350 Ukrainian refugees have come to Italy since the start of the war in their country, the interior ministry said Wednesday.

Some 1,611 people fleeing the Russian invasion have arrived in Italy in the last 24 hours, it said.

The total that have arrived by road is 63,104: 32,361 women, 25,151 children and 5,592 men.

A further 2,246 refugees came by train between March 10 and 22.

The main destinations declared upon entry are still Milan, Rome, Naples and Bologna. (ANSA).


NAPLES - A new museum called the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi is currently under construction on the Saadiyat island and is due to be completed at the end of 2025. The announcement was made by the Department of Culture and Tourism.



The new museum will be home to some of the rarest specimens on the planet. Its galleries will span a 13.8 billion-year journey through time and space, from the beginnings of the universe to a glimpse at its possible future.



Among the most important things in the museum, reported the local newspaper The National, will include "Stan", "the world-famous 11.7 metre-tall Tyrannosaurus rex that is one of the best-preserved and most-studied fossils of the late Cretaceous period predator".



It added that: "Stan will be joined by a specimen of the Murchison meteorite, which crash-landed as a shower of stones in Australia in 1969 and has since revealed new information about the early solar system." The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will also be a scientific research and teaching institution while also allowing visitors into the halls to explore the birth and evolution of the universe, the planet Earth, and the history of life on Earth.



"Natural history has a new home here in Abu Dhabi and we will tell the story of our universe through some of the most incredible specimens known to mankind," Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT - Abu Dhabi, said.



"These are rare gifts from nature that we are proud to protect and share with the world, to unlock knowledge and discovery and to inspire the next generation of global advocates responsible for our precious planet. Natural history has the power to unite us, and we are fulfilling our vision to not only share our experiences and knowledge with the world, but to continue Abu Dhabi's mission as a place for research." The museum's scientific research facility will undertake studies in areas including zoology, palaeontology, marine biology, molecular research (DNA and proteomics) and earth sciences and has been designed to cover an area of more than 35,000 square metres. The design alludes to natural rock formations.




BEIRUT - Since Russian military operations began in Ukraine on February 24, Russia has conducted "only" about 300 airstrikes in the Mediterranean country, a 75% reduction on the previous month. This number was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SPHR), which said that in the period between February 24 and March 22 there had been 298 Russian airstrikes on positions held by anti-government forces and Islamic State (ISIS) affiliates in several regions in the country wracked by war for the past 11 years.



In the previous period, from January 23 to February 23, SOHR had documented about 1,200 airstrikes on Syrian territory.



Russia first intervened militarily in Syria in the autumn of 2015 after being requested to do so by the central government in Damascus under President Bashar al-Assad.
Italy-France innovation event at Paris embassy 200 startups at SMAU Italy RestartsUp in Paris

(ANSAmed) - PARIS, MARCH 24 - The SMAU Italy RestartsUp in Paris initiative was presented Wednesday evening at the Italian embassy.



The initiative aims to foster new collaborations between Italian innovative businesses and their French counterparts.



Taking part were over 200 Italian and French representatives from the startups and innovation spheres alongside investors and institutional representatives.



The event was set to continue on Thursday and Friday with meetings and workshops at Station F, the largest campus of French startups, located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris and which since its foundation has welcomed over 1,000 startups, some of which have become important at the international level.



The Paris event was the first of several ones around the world planned for SMAU, organised in collaboration with the diplomatic network and with ICE to promote collaboration between startups, investors, innovative Italian enterprises, and their main international partners in the sector.



In her opening remarks at the event, Ambassador Teresa Castaldo underscored that support for startups and innovation is one of the cardinal points of promotional activities of the Italian economic and industrial system created in France by the embassy alongside other institutions of the Italian business sector.



Taking part in the event were also SMAU president Pierantonio Macola; the councillor for research, innovation, and startups of the Campania region Valeria Fascione; and Trenord president Federica Santini.



The event organised at the embassy is the first meeting in collaboration with SMAU in Paris to strengthen collaboration between Italy and France in the world of business innovation.



Some 33 Italian startups selected that are active in the agro-food, energy, and health sectors as well as manufacturing and sustainable mobility are taking part in the initiative alongside such Italian businesses known for their innovation as Enel, Snam, Iren, Siram Veolia, Edison, Angelini, Ferrovie dello Stato, Trenord, and Clementoni.



Joining these are the French groups LVMH, Carrefour, L'Oreal, RATP Group, Bouygues Telecom, Servier, and Veolia, which expressed their interest in the initiative.(ANSAmed).




Large crowds have gathered outside the Russian Embassy in south Dublin to mark one month since the invasion of Ukraine.

The embassy has become the focal point for Irish anger over the war raged by Vladimir Putin and the latest demonstration was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

Since the invasion began, protests have been staged across the city and the country as both Irish people and Ukrainians living in Ireland gathered to express outcry at the war.

The Irish Government has also face repeated calls to expel the Russian Ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov.

Those calls have been resisted so far, with both Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney pointing to the benefits of acting alongside other EU member states and stressing the need to keep dialogue open.

Mr Martin was in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the latest EU response to the crisis.

Our general secretary and president @kcallinan50 welcome the ambassador of Ukraine @GeraskoLarysa to our #StandWithUkraine demo at the Russian Embassy pic.twitter.com/YiCRYJMlaU  Irish Congress(ICTU) (@irishcongress) March 24, 2022

The Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko was in attendance on Thursday evening, as the crowds waved Ukrainian flags and a song was sung in support of the war-torn country.

We are grateful, Ireland, for many things, Ms Gerasko told protesters.

For support, for supporting our EU membership. For supporting are immigrants. Our Ukrainians forced to flee the country, because of war. Because of this terrible and horrible situation in Ukraine.

Many Ukrainians dont have homes anymore, many of them. Three-and-a-half million Ukrainians fled the country and six-and-a-half million Ukrainians became internally displaced people.

More than 10,000 have already arrived to Ireland and thank you Ireland for accepting them and for taking care of them.

The ambassadors of Georgia, Lithuania and Poland also addressed the crowd, speaking in solidarity with Ukraine and with each other.

ICTU president Kevin Callinan also spoke at the protest.

Orwell Road was blocked for a time on Thursday evening, as dozens of people waved flags and held placards outside the Russian Embassy.
How China's zero-COVID policy works without compromising economic, social development

Xinhua) 17:13, March 23, 2022

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- In the spring of 2022, China is witnessing another wave of the COVID-19 epidemic. Jilin, one of the hardest-hit provinces, is currently still seeing four-digit daily growth in the number of new infections.

The country countered the outbreak with its dynamic zero-COVID policy. Apart from treating the patients, mass nucleic acid tests were carried out to detect hidden infections as early as possible. On the other hand, tight restrictions on traveling were implemented to cut the spread of the virus.

The aforementioned measures gave rise to another string of claims from some Western countries that China is compromising its economic and social development for the sake of epidemic control. However, this is largely a misunderstanding of the policy.

At a recent meeting, Chinese leadership called for efforts to "achieve the best results in epidemic control with minimum costs, and minimizing the epidemic's impact on the economic and social development." These words are an apt summary of the policy's intentions.

"Instead of curing illnesses, the best doctors prevent them from happening in the first place." This philosophy was carried in Huang Di Nei Jing, an ancient Chinese classic on medicine. The dynamic zero-COVID policy reflects the same philosophy, as it contains domestic virus flare-ups through timely actions before the virus becomes uncontainable and causes greater damage to people's lives.

The policy's effectiveness has been tested in China's containment of earlier outbreaks. Last November, the city of Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province was hit by a new wave of the epidemic. With all-out efforts from local health authorities, the epidemic that affected enterprises, residential areas and educational institutions was brought under control in about a month's time.

Due to timely containment, business operations and people's daily activities quickly resumed without difficulties. This exemplifies how swift implementation of the policy helps to contain the virus without majorly affecting the society and economy. For enterprises that were indeed affected by the epidemic and restrictions, policies to ease their financial stress were put in place in a timely manner.

Measures in accordance with policy also limited the geographical spread of the virus. In the current wave of epidemic, strict restrictions on traveling and commuting were implemented in Jilin Province to contain the virus. As of March 18, the cities of Jilin and Changchun account for about 98 percent of all infections the province reported. Also, the provinces of Heilongjiang and Liaoning, adjacent to Jilin, are seeing much fewer new cases, further proving the effectiveness of travel restrictions.

With such measures in place, hard-hit regions can devote all their efforts to fighting the virus, while economic activities in areas unaffected or less affected by the epidemic can proceed with necessary precautions. Moreover, less-affected regions can spare personnel and resources to regions in need. For example, 265 medical personnel and over 14 tonnes of medical resources from Shaanxi Province, where the epidemic is under control, arrived on March 20 in Jilin to help with the control efforts.

Apart from these considerations, the biggest reason for China to adopt the policy is the principle of putting the people and human life above anything else.

For the Chinese government, not a single life is expendable in the fight against the virus. This is why China's zero-COVID policy features timely detection of cases; preventing mass infections, severe illness and deaths; and avoiding straining medical resources to better meet people's daily medical needs.

The more infectious Omicron variant poses a great challenge to China's epidemic control. As leading Chinese epidemiologist Liang Wannian has warned, "If there is a large absolute number of people infected, the number of severe cases and deaths in the population as a whole will be high, which can still inflict great harm." Under such circumstances, the zero-COVID policy is essential for the country to detect and cure patients as early as possible.

In more than two years of fighting against the epidemic, China has summarized its experience and formulated anti-epidemic policies that suit its own situation. These policies, dynamic zero-COVID policy included, are expected to continue guiding China's efforts in containing the epidemic until the battle against the virus is won.

(Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun)
Britain's Prince Harry appears onstage at the 2021 Global Citizen Live concert at Central Park in New York, U.S., September 25, 2021. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

Parts of some documents in the Duke of Sussexs claim against the Home Office over his police protection in the UK will remain secret, a High Court judge has ruled.

Harry is bringing legal action over a decision not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family while in the UK.

The duke wants to bring his children to visit from the US, but he and his family are unable to return to his home because it is too dangerous, a representative previously said.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Yui Mok/PA)

At a preliminary hearing last month, the High Court in London heard an application by both sides for some parts of the court documents in the case to be kept private.

The court was told that both the duke and the Home Office were agreed on the vast majority of what should be redacted from witness evidence and the document outlining the dukes case.

In a judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Swift said the bid to redact documents was allowed.

This judgment does not consider the merits of that claim, it concerns only the extent to which it is necessary for information relied on in support of the claim to remain confidential.

Some of the information relied on concerns security arrangements put in place either for the claimant or for other public figures in the United Kingdom. For obvious reasons information on such matters usually remains confidential.

Mr Justice Swift said that some parts of his reasons for the decision would have to remain confidential as well.

He added that editing out information from court documents would avoid the risk that putting information into the public domain concerning security arrangements made on past occasions, and the general approach to whether and if so what arrangements should be made, may impair the effectiveness of arrangements in place now, or which may be put in place in the future.

Information about these matters would self-evidently be of interest to anyone wishing to harm a person within the scope of the security arrangements and would assist them to piece together previous practice with a view to anticipating present or future security provision, he continued.

Thursdays ruling only covers the redaction of documents and does not decide the dukes claim against the Home Office or whether it can go ahead.

Harry is challenging the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) over his security, after being told he would no longer be given the same degree of personal protective security when visiting.

The dukes barrister, Shaheed Fatima QC, previously told the court that Harry considers the UK is and always will be his home.

A representative for Harry previously said the duke wants to fund the security himself, rather than ask taxpayers to foot the bill.

However, Robert Palmer QC, for the Home Office, previously told the court the dukes offer of private funding was irrelevant.

In written submissions, he said: Personal protective security by the police is not available on a privately financed basis, and Ravec does not make decisions on the provision of such security on the basis that any financial contribution could be sought or obtained to pay for it.
Anoosheh Ashoori has said he will not be able to celebrate his return to the UK until the release of other detainees in Iran.

Mr Ashoori, 68, a retired civil engineer, was arrested in August 2017 while visiting his elderly mother in Tehran, and held in Evin prison  a place he called the valley of hell.

Despite living in the UK for 20 years, Mr Ashoori was convicted of spying for Israels Mossad intelligence agency and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori arrive at Brize Norton (Leon Neal/PA)

He arrived back in the UK last week on the same flight as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, another British-Iranian who spent six years in detention in Iran.

Mr Ashoori said he 100% agreed with what Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had said during a press conference about how she should have been released six years ago.

Speaking on Sky News Beth Rigby Interviews, Mr Ashoori said: I agree with Nazanin 100%. She in fact put her finger on the right button by saying that.

She should have been here years ago if that debt was paid. That wasnt a ransom that was a debt that the British government owed.

It should have been paid and if it was paid perhaps none of this would have happened. So yes, I feel a bit angry.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said it had taken too long for the Government to pay a 400 million debt to Iran, which helped secure her release.

Speaking about other people still detained in Iran, including wildlife conservationist Morad Tahbaz, a British-US national, Mr Ashoori said: Such fine people. Such nice people. Morad Tahbaz, he should be here with us.

He needs medical attention, and he is not getting it. We cannot celebrate anything without them being here.

I am feeling so bitter that he was not on the same plane with us and Im not going to be quiet until he is back and until the rest of the dual nationals are released.

I feel I have left such fine people.

Mr Ashoori, who said he attempted suicide and went on hunger strike while in prison, said the focus should not be on the people who have been released, but on those who are still detained.

Roxanne Tahbaz, the daughter of Morad Tahbaz, during a press conference this week (Victoria Jones/PA)

I think the best thing for us is that we should concentrate not on us, because we are now safe, we are here.

We should concentrate on the people we have left behind, he said.

The husband and father said many of them are innocent and their lives have been destroyed.

He told Sky News: I cannot be joyful because Ive got friends back there who are going through the same suffering.

How can I celebrate? How can I be happy?

Mr Ashoori added: Again I stress on the fact that Morad is one of them but there are many others.

But Im not at liberty to name them. They are there. And the feeling, the suffering is more intensified when you are left behind.

Mr Ashoori said that he had dreams about his wife Sherry and his children while he was in prison.

He said Sherry is his best friend in life, adding: Even now, I was touching Sherrys hand to make sure this is reality this is happening.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe (Victoria Jones/PA)

We became serious when she was 17, we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and we are still boyfriend and girlfriend.

Asked how he will celebrate his birthday next month, he said: Ill leave it to Sherry and the kids, but again it is not going to be a full celebration.

Unfortunately the main celebration is when Morad returns together with the rest of the dual nationals then we are going to raise our glasses of champagne altogether.

 Beth Rigby Interviews is on Sky News at 9pm on Thursday. Also available on the Sky News YouTube channel.
This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Thursday, March 24. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Tuesday, March 25, as Russia's invasion continues.

President Joe Biden said Russia should be kicked out of the Group of 20 nations in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, a major step that would further isolate the Kremlin and restrict Russia's say in the global economy.

Russias membership in the group, which represents the worlds major economies, was discussed during an emergency meeting with key U.S. allies, Biden told reporters Thursday during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

He noted that the decision on whether to boot Russia from the group is up to other G-20 members. If the other members decline to revoke Russias membership, Ukraine should be permitted to attend G-20 meetings, Biden said.

The G-20 includes not only Western democracies but also tyrannical and authoritarian countries such as China and Saudi Arabia. The group works to address major issues impacting the global economy.

The U.S. and other allies expelled Russia in 2014 from a smaller group that represents industrialized nations after Russias annexation of Crimea. That alliance, known at the time as the Group of Eight, is now called the Group of Seven, or G-7.

The president's remarks came as the U.S. reinforced a united stand with allies in supporting Ukraine one month into Russias invasion, with added sanctions against the Kremlin aimed at further crippling the country's economy. The sanctions against more than 400 Russian officials and entities came as Russian President Vladimir Putin's economy has shrunk to half the size it was before the invasion, according to the White House.

A senior administration official told reporters that independent assessments indicate Russias last 15 years of economic gains will evaporate this year and inflation will spike to 15%.

Russia, which had the worlds 11th largest economy before the invasion, will fall out of the top 20, according to the official. At the same time, the official said, sanctions are cutting off all sources of potential growth, including blocking Russia from purchasing cutting-edge technology.

Biden also announced Thursday he hopes to meet with Ukrainian refugees while in Europe, giving away a part of his schedule that the White House had not announced.

Biden said getting a first-hand look at the effects of the war on Ukrainians will reinforce his commitment to the U.S. playing a major role in helping both those inside and outside Ukraine.

I plan on attempting to see those folks as well as, I hope, I'm going to be able to see -- guess I'm not supposed to say where I'm going, am I? Biden said. But anyway, I hope I get to see a lot of people.

LATEST MOVEMENTS: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine

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Latest developments:

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners Thursday.

Bulgaria is recalling its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in response to "undiplomatic, sharp and rude statements made by Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova. Mitrofanova said Monday that Bulgarians do not "support the rhetoric and actions of their government" regarding Russias invasion.

Herman Gref, the head of Russia's largest bank and a close Putin associate, was among those targeted by sanctions the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled Thursday. As CEO of Sberbank, Gref, 58, also oversees a large number of companies owned by Sberbank in other industries, the department said.

The Russian stock market resumed limited trading Thursday under heavy restrictions almost one month after prices plunged and the market was shut down following Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine says Moscow is forcibly taking civilians to Russia

Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraines ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, have been taken against their will.

The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraines rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said the roughly 400,000 people evacuated to Russia since the start of the military action were from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting for control for nearly eight years.

Russian authorities said they are providing accommodations and dispensing payments to the evacuees.

Ukrainian officials said that the Russians are taking peoples passports and moving them to filtration camps in Ukraines separatist-controlled east before sending them to various distant, economically depressed areas in Russia.

Poll shows Americans support Russian sanctions, think Biden should be tougher

A majority of Americans are supportive of the harsh sanctions on Russia but believe Biden needs to be tougher on the Kremlin after its invasion of Ukraine, according to a poll commissioned by the Associated Press and NORC released Thursday.

The poll, which surveyed 1,082 U.S. adults from Thursday to Monday, found 56% of Americans believe Biden's response to Russia hasn't been tough enough, including a majority of 53% of Democrats. A very small percent, about 6%, said they thought Biden had been "too tough," the poll shows.

Across the board, Americans of both political parties were supportive of the harsh economic blows to Russia. The poll showed 68% were supportive of economic sanctions in general with 70% saying they supported the recent banning oil imported from Russia, which in turn caused gas prices to rise.

 Christal Hayes

Biden: China understands its economic future is 'tied to the West'

President Joe Biden said he is hopeful that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not assist Russia in its war against Ukraine but declined to say whether hes seen any indications that China will intervene.

China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the west than it is to Russia, Biden said. And so I'm hopeful that he does not get engaged.

Biden pointed to his virtual meeting last week with Xi in which the president said he made it clear to him him that he understand the consequences and would be putting himself in significant jeopardy.

Biden said he made no threats, to Xi but pointed out the number of American companies that have pulled out of Russia as a result of Putins barbaric behavior.

 Joey Garrison

Biden: US, NATO will respond if Russia uses chemical weapons

President Joe Biden said the United States and NATO allies would respond to Russia if they used chemical weapons.

We would respond, we would respond if he uses it, Biden said during a press conference Thursday. The nature of the responses depend on the nature of the use.

Biden would not expand on whether the United States has gathered specific intelligence on if Russian President Vladimir Putin is using chemical weapons.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said Russian military forces committed war crimes in Ukraine after hitting civilian targets.

When asked whether there could be a military response if Putin uses chemical weapons, Biden said that NATO would decide as a whole if they would cross that line.

 Rebecca Morin

Residents wait in line to receive aid from the Ukrainian Red Cross in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 24,2022.

Biden says sanctions never deter, defending US actions against Putin

President Joe Biden vigorously defended his administrations use of sanctions on Russia, arguing the financial penalties were never meant to deter Putin from invading Ukraine but are designed to provide sustained pain.

Sanctions never deter, Biden said when pressed why U.S. sanctions have not stopped Putins course in Ukraine. You keep talking about that.

Biden said its the maintenance of sanctions and increasing the pain over the next year that will stop Russia.

We have to demonstrate the purpose, Biden said. The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and for the world to continue to focus on what a brut this guy is.

Biden noted that Putin was banking on NATO being split when he invaded Ukraine. Instead, NATO has never, never been more united than its been today, Biden declared Thursday after an emergency meeting of the allies in Brussels.

But Putin can take anything for another month, including the harsh sanctions, so the alliance must not crack, Biden added.

 Joey Garrison and Maureen Groppe

U.S. to accept 100K refugees, provide $1B in humanitarian assistance

The U.S. will accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and others fleeing Russias invasion and provide more than $1 billion in new humanitarian assistance, the White House announced Thursday.

The funding will pay for food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance.

Although many Ukrainian refugees prefer to remain in Europe where they will be closer to family and their homes, the Biden administration is working to expand and develop new programs with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the U.S.

Food shortages have been a major concern as both Russia and Ukraine are top producers of wheat. Biden discussed with other countries Thursday during a meeting in Brussels how to alleviate the issue, with both Canada and the U.S.  also top producers of the crop  discussing how production can be increased.

Its going to be real, Biden said of food disruptions.

The nations also talked about the need to end trade restrictions on sending food abroad, Biden said.

Biden noted the U.S. has provided $1 billion in assistance to Ukraine and, along with American allies, is committed to identifying "additional equipment, including air defense systems, to help Ukraine. The U.S. is consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

At a news conference Thursday after meeting with key allies in Brussles, Biden said U.S. weapons are flowing into Ukraine to help the embattled country resist Russias invasion.

Speaking to reporters, Biden said the U.S. has committed to provide over $2 billion in military equipment to Ukraine since he became president. Air systems and armor systems ammunitions are flowing into the country as I speak, he said.

Meet Ukraines volunteer online army

Tens of thousands of ordinary people across Europe have joined a grassroots, pro-democratic mission to fight Russia on social media. They call themselves elves because they hunt trolls spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation on Facebook and counter Kremlin conspiracy theories with credible information gathered from allies on the ground in embattled parts of Ukraine.

Their ranks have swelled since the start of the war one month ago as more office workers, doctors, scientists, teachers and IT professionals enlist to stem the flood of pro-Russian falsehoods and conspiracy theories in news feeds.

Ricardas Savukynas, a management consultant from Vilnius, started the underground resistance movement in Lithuania in 2014 during the Ukrainian uprising on Kyivs Maidan Square and Russias annexation of the Crimea Peninsula.

The idea is everybody can be an elf simply by fighting against propaganda, against lies, Savukynas said. Read more here.

 Jessica Guynn

State Department: Russians not attempting to strike weapons convoys

Weapons convoys arriving in Ukraine almost every day thus far have not been targeted by Russia's military, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. Kirby, speaking on Fox News, did not directly respond to a question about how the U.S. and NATO would respond if Russia struck a convoy  accidentally or on purpose  in Poland. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned that convoys "pumping Ukraine with weapons" will be considered legitimate targets.

"We have not seen the Russians attempt to strike any of these convoys," Kirby said. "We're watching this very, very carefully, as you might expect. But so far, we have not seen any attempt by the Russians to stall or to slow these convoys.

Kirby added that the Russian military has their "hands full" in places such as Kyiv, and Chernihiv, Kharkiv and in the south near Crimea.

Zelenskyy seeks 1% military solution

In a video address to a NATO summit Thursday, Ukraine President VolodymyrZelenskyy stressed the need for military assistance. Zelenskyy urged NATO to provide Ukraine with 1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks.

When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security," he said.

Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public to show support for his embattled country.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

US, allies consider providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine

The U.S. is consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there could be technical challenges but that it is something that allies are starting to work on. The Russians have several warships off the coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, according to the official. They include surface combatants that have shelled the city of Mariupol. They also have amphibious landing craft, supply ships and patrol boats.

Ukraines navy reported Thursday that it had sunk the Russian ship Orsk in the Azov near the port city of Berdyansk. It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim.

 Maureen Groppe and Tom Vanden Brook

McConnell: Ukraine war shows need for more US defense spending

The 2023 budget request the White House will send to Congress on Monday must reflect that the world is dangerous and getting smaller, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday.

We have to meet the military requirements that come from being a superpower facing growing threats to our global interests, McConnell said on the Senate floor as he addressed President Joe Bidens meetings with European allies.

McConnell said the U.S. needs to increase defense spending and expand inventories of critical weapons to meet the nations own security ends and to be a reliable supplier of weapons and munitions to allies. He said the war in Ukraine has highlighted shortcomings in both current stockpiles and in the industrial capacity to produce more quickly.

Ukrainian forces can win this fight, he said, but they need more weapons, more ammunition, more fuel. And they need it all as fast as possible.

Dissident Russian journalist Oksana Bauline killed in Kyiv bombardment

Dissident Russian journalist Oksana Baulina was killed while filming in Kyiv, making her at least the fourth journalist to die in the country during the war. Baulina was working as a correspondent for The Insider when Russian troops shelled a shopping center in the Podil district, a historic neighborhood in Kyiv, the site said in a statement. Another civilian was killed and two more people were wounded and hospitalized.

Baulina had fled Russia but had continued to report on corruption inside the Russian government.

"The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana's family and friends," the statement read.

 Asha C. Gilbert

Zelenskyy address doesn't mention 'no-fly' zone, NATO membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked NATO allies Thursday for continued help in his fight against Russias invasion but did not repeat his recurring request for a no-fly" zone, according to the White House. Zelenskyy addressed the NATO summit by video from Ukraine, speaking shortly after the emergency summit was opened by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, according to a senior administration official who described the closed-door gathering on condition of anonymity.

The official said Zelenskyy also did not ask for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance. Russia is opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, one of the conditions Moscow set in the failed negotiations before troops invaded Ukraine.

Zelenskyy's frequents requests for a "no-fly" zone over his country have been dismissed by U.S. and NATO officials who say defending Ukraine skies would risk a wider escalation of the war.

NATO nations agree to strengthen defense forces

NATO leaders agreed Thursday to strengthen its deterrence and defense forces in Europe for the longer-term while increasing support to Ukraine and imposing further costs on Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the alliances emergency meeting.

Transatlantic solidarity remains vital, Stoltenberg tweeted.

In a group statement released after the meeting, NATO leaders said they condemn Russias invasion and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately stop the war and withdraw forces. The leaders also called on Belarus to end its complicity in the war and for China and other countries to stop supporting Russias war effort in any way, and to "refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions. NATO also will enhance cyber capabilities and defenses and substantially increasing defense spending overall.

Russia to expel more American diplomats, State Department says

Russia has begun the process to expel several American diplomats from the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the State Department said Wednesday.

The department said it received a list of diplomats on who have been declared persona non grata by the Russian foreign ministry. It didnt say how many diplomats were affected by the order, which generally results in the expulsion of those targeted within 72 hours.

The State Department called Wednesdays move Russias latest unhelpful and unproductive step in relations between the countries. It urged Russia to end its unjustified expulsions of U.S. diplomats and staff.

 Charles Ventura

US has determined Russia committed war crimes, Blinken says

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States has determined Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Blinken said in a statement.

He said the assessment is based on a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources.

Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion has unleashed unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across Ukraine. He cited reports of indiscriminate attacks, including those deliberately targeting civilians, among other atrocities.

 Deirdre Shesgreen

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine recap: Biden says Russia should be kicked from G-20
President Biden said Thursday that Russia should be ejected from the G20, a political bloc of economic powerhouse nations, though he indicated that the punishment for President Vladimir Putins painful war was unlikely.

Biden, who has slapped escalating economic sanctions on the Kremlin over its bloody month-old invasion of Ukraine, said that Ukraine should be allowed to attend the G20s meetings if Russia is not removed. Ukraine is not a member.

In an evening news conference at NATOs headquarters in Brussels, Biden said that the removal of Russia from the G20 had been discussed earlier in the day, which was packed with extraordinary diplomatic summits of Western powers.

My answer is yes, Biden told a reporter who asked about the G20 step. That depends on the G20. That was raised today. And I raised the possibility, if that cant be done  if Indonesia and others do not agree  then we should, in my view, ask to have Ukraine be able to attend the meetings.

President Joe Biden takes his seat as he prepares for the G7 Summit with other leaders at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022.





President Joe Biden takes his seat as he prepares for the G7 Summit with other leaders at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022. (DOUG MILLS/)

Indonesia is due to host a summit of G20 nations in October. Russia has said Putin intends to attend the gathering.

However unlikely, the removal of Russia from the G20 would represent a potent step toward cementing Russia as an outcast state in the eyes of the world. The G20 includes a hodgepodge of democracies and more authoritarian governments, like Saudi Arabia and China.

China opposes removing Russia from the G20, Reuters reported Wednesday. The Chinese government has avoided criticizing the Kremlin during the military conflict, Europes largest since World War II.

But Biden has pledged to turn Putin into a pariah over the war, which has killed thousands of people, decimated Ukraines cities and, according to the UN, sent more than 3.6 million refugees spilling out of the country.

Earlier Thursday, Biden and the leaders of NATOs 29 other member states issued a lengthy statement condemning Putin and pronouncing that the ruthless invasion has shattered peace in Europe and is causing enormous human suffering and destruction.

From left: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden and France's President Emmanuel Macron arrive for a G7 leaders meeting during a NATO summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022.





From left: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden and France's President Emmanuel Macron arrive for a G7 leaders meeting during a NATO summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022. (HENRY NICHOLLS/)

The statement said NATO is moving to bolster its longer-term deterrence and defense posture and will further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to maintain credible deterrence.

Some 40,000 NATO troops are stationed on the blocs eastern flank, according to the alliance.

Ukraine is not a part of NATO, a 72-year-old group of states bound to collective defense, and Putins assault appears to be intended, in part, to keep it that way.

After meeting with NATO leaders in Belgium on Thursday, Biden was scheduled to travel to Warsaw on Friday. A neighbor of Ukraine and a NATO member, Poland has welcomed some 2.2 million refugees who have fled the war.

The U.S. has sent thousands of troops to Poland, hoping to shore up NATOs defenses and deter any further western advance from Russia. The Russian Army has found itself in a military slog in Ukraine, though, frozen on the ground and resorting to devastating air assaults on cities.

Russia appears surprised by how poorly its military has performed against inspired Ukrainian troops bravely defending their 30-year-old sovereign nation.

The war has not only united Ukrainians in defense of their beleaguered homeland, it has also created what many view as a high-water mark in post-World War II cohesion of Western alliances.

NATO has never  never  been more united than it is today, Biden said. Putin is getting exactly the opposite of what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.
Boris Johnson will urge western allies to help keep the flame of freedom alive in Ukraine as he pledged the UK will supply thousands more missiles to the military in Kyiv.

The Prime Minister is joining fellow Nato leaders in Brussels for an emergency summit to discuss the latest situation a month on from the start of the Russian invasion.

He will use the visit to set out details of a new support package for Ukrainian forces, including 6,000 more missiles comprising anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry.

The UK stands with Ukraine, now and in the future. As my friend @ZelenskyyUa says: we will win together. https://t.co/LABQs8fFpE  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 23, 2022

It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for worldwide demonstrations on Thursday to mark exactly a month since Russia launched its invasion.

The Nato meeting, which will be addressed remotely by Mr Zelensky, is expected to sign off on the formation of four new battlegroups in eastern Europe.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the battlegroups  each numbering between 1,000 and 1,500 troops  would be deployed in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

The alliance already has 40,000 troops in Europe under its direct command, nearly 10 times the number it had a few months ago.

Mr Stoltenberg told a news conference on Wednesday that the forces will remain in place as long as necessary.

(PA Graphics)

This is a significant reinforcement of our presence in the east with air, sea and land forces, he said.

We are there to protect and defend allies, ready to respond massively to any potential threat or attack against any Nato allied country.

He said he expected leaders would agree additional support for Ukraine, including cybersecurity assistance and equipment to help protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

They are also expected to address the role of China, amid concerns that Beijing has been supporting Russia disinformation efforts and could be preparing to supply military equipment.

(PA Graphics)

Ahead of President Joe Bidens attendance at the summit, the US administration announced it had formally assessed that Russian forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken cited the besieged city of Mariupol where an estimated 100,000 people remain trapped with chronic shortages of food and clean drinking water.

In a call with Mr Zelensky on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said the bombardment of civilian areas in the city was unconscionable and demanded a response from the international community.

The Prime Minister said it was time for western powers to step up the supply of military hardware to Kyiv as well as increasing sanctions against Moscow.

We cannot and will not stand by while Russia grinds Ukraines towns and cities into dust, he said in a statement ahead of the summit.

(PA Graphics)

The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight.

One month into this crisis, the international community faces a choice. We can keep the flame of freedom alive in Ukraine, or risk it being snuffed out across Europe and the world.

As well as sending more missiles, the UK is providing 25 million from the Foreign Offices conflict security and stabilisation fund to help pay the salaries of Ukrainian soldiers and pilots.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, including next-generation light anti-tank weapons systems (Nlaws) and Javelin missiles.

It is also supplying and training Ukrainian troops in the use of Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles as well as providing body armour, helmets and combat boots.

The Government will provide an additional 4.1 million to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and Ukraine as well as new support for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab will chair a meeting of justice and foreign ministers in The Hague on Thursday to co-ordinate support for the ICCs war crimes investigations.

He is expected to announce an additional 1 million in funding for the court, as well as new support from UK soldiers with expertise in intelligence gathering and Scotland Yards War Crimes Team.

Mr Raab said: President Putin and his commanders should know that they will be held to account for their actions, and risk ending up spending the rest of their days behind bars.
Only part of the story. Craig Conover isnt a fan of how the start of his relationship with Paige DeSorbo has been portrayed on season 6 of Summer House.

Read article

I was upset for a while, but you gotta suck it up, the 33-year-old reality star exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, March 22, while promoting his book Pillow Talk: Whats Wrong with My Sewing? It just is what it is at the end of the day.

Conover explained that he was OK with the network showing him and his antics, but he disapproved of how little of the good times they showed between him and the Amazon Live fashion host, 29.

Charles Sykes/Bravo

The fact that they made our relationship anything [negative]  it was pretty disappointing. I [had] just gotten out of a long-time relationship, he added. She was doing her own thing and we lived in different cities and for three months we just, you know, we did our own thing and honestly it worked.

The Sewing Down South founder raised eyebrows earlier this year when his July 2021 visit to the Hamptons played out on multiple episodes of Summer House. During his time on the show, Conover was confronted about his alleged hookup with Kristin Cavallari, which he claimed took place while he and DeSorbo were casually dating and therefore allowed to see other people.

Obviously a lot of context was left out [during those episodes], but you know, I have [no one] to blame for doing that other than myself, the Bravo star explained to Us, seemingly referring to his claim that he had hookup with the Laguna Beach alum, 35, not his pal Austen Kroll. So you deal with it.

Read article

During the January 31 episode of the reality series, Conover spilled details about his alleged romantic encounter with Cavallari to DeSorbo. He doubled down on his claims during the February 7 episode, saying, If Im in Nashville, do I have someone that I might hook up with? Yeah. Paige, I will never lie to you. You and I are not exclusive right now. You didnt want to be because you just got out of a relationship.

The Uncommon James founder, for her part, denied in July 2021 that she was more than friends with Conover or Kroll, 34. A source exclusively told Us after the story line played out on Summer House in February that Conover was making it up and that the Hills alum never hooked up with him.

The Southern Charm star didnt address the rumored Cavallari romance directly on Tuesday, instead he told Us that the highlights of his budding relationship with the Giggly Squad podcast cohost were shown in a skewed light.

Jonathan Leibson/Polk Imaging/Shutterstock

I really wished, you know, some more of the positive wouldve been focused on [with Paige]. At the end of the day, you let it go and it is what it is, Conover said. You cant complain about it or you shouldnt be doing it, you know?

He added: They cut our date because it was so positive and so happy that it wouldnt have made sense to show it. Those were the things that I was really upset about because Paige and I, we are a good example of a non-traditional relationship ending up in a really great place.

Looking back, the attorney, who became Instagram official with DeSorbo in the fall of 2021, recalled the positives of his Hamptons trip and his early days getting to know the New York native.

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I think we had a really nice summer, like, her and I really did, the Delaware native told Us, adding that they had so many cute dates in the city over the summer before becoming official. It got to a point where I didnt want to see anyone else and she didnt wanna see anyone else and I couldnt wait to introduce her to my parents.

Conover recalled their romance being shown in a pretty dark light on television, but said they are now in a good place.

My parents [approve]. I dont think I would be allowed to be with anyone else if Paige and I didnt make it. My mom has decided that Paige is her daughter-in-law. And I feel the same about her parents, the Pillows and Beer podcast cohost revealed. Weve only been officially dating for a little over six months  and no one ever plans on breaking up or bad things happening, but in our perfect world, yes, well get married and have a family.

Pillow Talk: Whats Wrong with My Sewing? hits bookshelves on Tuesday, March 29. Summer House airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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Touching tribute. While Duchess Kate has stepped out in stunning ensemble after stunning ensemble during her royal tour of the Caribbean, her latest look, a Jenny Packham emerald dress, is hands-down her best yet.

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And get this: the 40-year-old royal honored both Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth with her outfit, which she wore to a dinner in Jamaica. The gorgeous, jewel-toned hue was an obvious nod to the countrys flag, but royal style watchers also pointed out that the dress was reminiscent of a look the late Princess of Wales previously wore.

For her official engagement portraits, which were taken in May 1981 by Lord Snowdon at Highgrove House, Princess Diana wore a Nettie Vogues taffeta dress in the same emerald tone. The late royal went on to rewear the dress numerous times.

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Royal style watchers quickly picked up on the look-a-like moment, taking to Twitter to share their observations. This dress reminds me of something Diana wore, a user wrote, while another added, Kate! Is wearing a new dress! Remember DIANA! All about the dress! someone else wrote.

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Duchess Kates jewelry also held a special significance. Her earrings and bracelet were both on loan from the Queen. The Queen previously wore the stunning gems when she hosted Barack and Michelle Obama for dinner in May 2011.

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The Hold Still author also wore the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth on her bodice, which features a portrait of the monarch. Then, on her waistline, the duchess fastened the Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.

This subtle nod to the crown didnt go unnoticed either. Absolutely wonderful. How beautiful, without a doubt, the best future queen. The Crown Jewel, someone tweeted. I thought nothing could top the gold dress moment, user wrote, referencing the gown the royal wore to the No Time to Die premiere. Absolutely loving this. Shook. And the Queens jewels to boot!

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While this emerald look will no doubt go down in history, the royal has had a handful of fabulous style moments since kicking off the tour of the Caribbean earlier this week.

Upon touching down in Belize, the royal donned a Jenny Packham royal blue skirt suit that was a nod to the countrys flag. She continued her colorful outfit streak, steeping out in floral dresses, bright yellow numbers and even orange tops.
Gabrielle Union is still promoting her latest movie, family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, but she's not so sure she'll be asked back if there's a sequel.

"I was very clear about my thoughts about Disney funding hate and oppression," she said on Wednesday's edition of the Keep It! podcast. "They might murder off my character, you know, in Cheaper by the Dozen. The sequel [might be] 'Zoey has died in a tragic accident.' The reality is, I don't know. I will never know how my name is spoken of in rooms due to me telling the truth, right? I have no idea. Luckily, there's enough other companies that are willing to hire me, knowing that I tell the truth and I will not be held back by fear."

Union executive produced and plays family matriarch Zoey Baker in the film, a remake of the 2003 movie of the same name that starred Steve Martin and Hilary Duff. What she was alluding to, of course, is what happened when she showed up at its premiere March 16 at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.

"I'm incredibly proud of this," Union told The Hollywood Reporter, "especially right now, because we actually say gay."

Union, the stepmother of 14-year-old trans daughter Zaya, made the statement just as Disney was being criticized for its slow response to oppose Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. The legislation restricts what teachers can say about sexual orientation and gender identity. State lawmakers have already approved it, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that he will soon sign it into law. Disney employees staged a walkout Tuesday in protest.

Gabrielle Union's stepdaughter, Zaya, whose dad is Dwyane Wade, is part of the LGBTQ community. (Photo: Andrew Toth/Getty Images)

On the podcast, Union said corporations need to do more than support causes on social media.

"If you're going to take a stand and be all about diversity and inclusion  and it's not just about black boxes after George Floyd died  you need to actually put your money where your mouth is," she said. "You can't stand against hate and oppression and fund hate and oppression. That doesn't work."

The actress also said she's baffled by celebrities who don't advocate for others.

"You know, you have people who are untouchable in Hollywood," Union said, "and they have no problem speaking about the environment or animals and showed more concern when the gorilla in Cincinnati was, you know, murdered. But [they] are silent about their neighbors and their family members. I dont understand it, because they can't do anything to you."

For her, the answer is clear.

"We have this platform, and we are in a position to tell the truth," she said. "At some point, ya gotta say, 'I think I have enough money or things or power that I can be honest.' I don't know what that line in the sand is or how many billions someone needs to just tell the truth, shame the devil. I don't know what that barometer is for everybody. But we hit that number a long time ago."

A turning point for Union was when she successfully sued her former employer, now called Payless, for negligence after she was raped at the store where she worked. They had failed to warn employees, after the same man had robbed a different location.

"So, at 19, I made a decision about who I was going to be in this world, and what I would stand for and not stand for. Obviously, it was at the lowest, darkest moment of my life, most terrifying moment of my life, but then moving forward, I just wasnt as afraid of taking on bad faith actors, bad people. Im just not afraid. I almost died. Can I get any lower? Death is lower, but the only thing standing between me and death is losing my soul because Im afraid of losing my position or things or access or whatever? What is the point of living if I gotta live on my knees? And not in a good way."
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Social Security is a lifeline for millions of retirees and other older Americans who are still in the workforce. Making sure you qualify for every dollar youve got coming to you is not a step you want to skip  and believe it or not, Social Security is not guaranteed. In fact, there are more than a half-dozen ways that you could miss out on benefits that you were counting on and that you paid for with your tax dollars.

Find Out: Best Cities To Retire on a Budget of $1,500 a MonthRead More: 14 Key Signs You Will Run Out of Money in Retirement

You Failed the Social Security Earnings Test

Early claimers who are still working have to pass the Social Security earnings test in order to qualify for benefits. There is no such test once you reach full retirement age. In 2021, the Social Security Administration (SSA) temporarily withheld $1 in benefits for every $2 earned over $18,960, although theres a more forgiving monthly test for those entering the year of full retirement.

You Came Up Short on Credits

In order to receive Social Security payments, you have to first work for a certain amount of time, pay taxes into the system and build up enough credits to qualify for benefits. In 2021, you got one credit for every $1,470 in income earned, up to one credit per quarter or four credits per year. Most people must have 40 credits to receive Social Security benefits, which means you have to work for 10 years before youre eligible.

You Have Debt That Qualifies For Garnishment

Its hard for private lenders to snatch your Social Security payments, but your benefits can be garnished to satisfy certain kinds of other debts. Among them are alimony, child support and restitution, but the states determine what constitutes a valid order for garnishment. If your benefits have been garnished for any of these reasons, contact the appropriate state agency, not the SSA.

If you guessed that tax debt is one of the other exceptions, you would be correct. The Department of the Treasury can garnish up to 15% of your Social Security benefits every month until your tax debt is paid. The Treasury Department can also garnish your benefits for nontax debt, including any federal student loans you might have defaulted on.

Youre Covered Under the Civil Service Retirement System

Instead of paying into Social Security, some federal employees hired before 1984 have instead been contributing to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). The CSRS was formed as part of the 1920 Civil Service Retirement Act and was replaced by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) in 1987. CSRS recipients do not receive Social Security benefits unless theyre eligible through another job or through a spouse.

Youre Covered By the Railroad Retirement Act

Some railroad workers are also covered by a retirement system outside of Social Security and are ineligible for benefits. People who participate in the Railroad Retirement Act pay more of their salaries into the fund but receive higher payments when they retire  particularly career employees with at least 30 years on the job.

You Dont Qualify For a Divorced Spouses Benefits

Some people are eligible to receive benefits on their former spouses records, but they have to meet certain qualifications first. You must have been married for 10 years or longer and you must not be remarried, although you can still qualify if your former spouse remarries. There are other requirements, too, so if you were planning on applying for benefits on a former spouses record, make sure you qualify first.

You Moved  Like, Far  in Retirement

In most cases, you can collect Social Security in another country if you live abroad in retirement, although you have to follow strict and specific rules from both the SSA and your host country. The SSA, however, is generally forbidden from sending payments to a handful of countries, but dont worry. None of them are exactly beacons for U.S. retirees.

They include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Some exceptions can be made for some eligible retirees in those countries, but you can never collect Social Security in Cuba and North Korea.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 7 Reasons You Might Not Receive Social Security Benefits
Benjamin Franklin famously said, "nothing is certain but death and taxes." Skip filing your taxes, and the IRS will come calling. And when it does, you'll likely face penalties and interest  and even lose your chance to receive a tax refund.

See: Here's the No. 1 Thing Americans Do With Their Tax Refund

Taxes in 2022: Find Out Everything You Need To Know About Filing, Refunds and More

But there are ways to reduce some  or all  of your tax bill legally. If you want to save some money, learn more about how to avoid paying taxes without breaking any laws.

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How To Avoid Paying Taxes Legally

The IRS offers Americans a variety of tax credits and deductions that can legally reduce how much you'll owe. All Americans should know what deductions and credits they're eligible for  not knowing is like leaving money on the table. Keep reading to find out some ways to save on some or all  depending on how many credits and deductions you qualify for  of your tax bill.

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1. Qualify For Tax Credits

Many people don't realize that a tax credit is the equivalent of free money. Tax deductions reduce the amount of taxable income you can claim, and tax credits reduce the tax you owe and, in many cases, result in a nice refund.The IRS offers a large number of tax credits that encompass everything from buying energy-efficient products for your home to health insurance premium payments to being in a low- to moderate-income household. The key to benefiting from these credits is examining all of the purchases you've made throughout the year to see if you are owed money.There are 17 tax credits for individuals you can take advantage of in five categories:Education credits

Family tax credits

Healthcare credits

Homeownership and real estate credits

Income and savings credits

Check out the IRS credits and deductions page for a breakdown of all the credits you may be eligible for.

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2. Take Itemized Deductions

Most people take the standard deduction available to them when filing taxes to avoid providing proof of all of the purchases they've made throughout the year. Besides, itemized deductions often don't add up to more than the standard deduction.But if you've made substantial payments for mortgage interest, property taxes, medical expenses, local and state taxes or have made major charitable contributions, it could be worth it to take this step. These tax deductions are subtracted from your adjusted gross income, which reduces your taxable income. So if you want to know how to avoid property tax or how to get out of paying school taxes, you might be out of luck. But you might also be able to deduct them from your income and use them to avoid other taxes.The IRS has an interactive tax assistant that can walk you through the process to determine the general standard deduction you may be eligible for in just five minutes.According to the tax assistant, a 39-year-old married couple filing a 2020 joint return is eligible for a $24,800 standard deduction. Use the figure calculated for your tax situation to decide which deduction is greater  the standard deduction or an itemized list of all your purchases and expenses.Check out the lower half of the IRS credits and deductions page for more information about all the tax deductions you may be eligible for.

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3. Enroll In College

One way to take advantage of tax deductions or credits is to enroll in college. The government currently offers credits and deductions  you usually have to take one or the other  to go back to school online or in your community.Students can take advantage of one of two education tax credits: The first is the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which offers up to $2,500 off the cost of tuition, fees and course materials paid during the taxable year per eligible student. Another credit to consider is the Lifetime Learning Credit, which offers up to $2,000 off the cost of tuition, fees and course materials. You can claim only one credit per year.Also, keep in mind that financial aid in the form of grants and work-study offer tax-free cash that doesn't count as taxable income. Scholarships also help pay for school and are nontaxable as long as the money is used for school-related purposes like tuition, fees, books, supplies and equipment.There's no doubt that it's difficult to legally avoid paying taxes, but by taking advantage of credits and deductions, you could improve your chances of doing so.

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Is It Possible To Pay Nothing in Taxes?

A tax deduction works by lowering your taxable income, so you pay less in taxes. If you want to avoid paying taxes, you'll need to make your tax deductions equal to or greater than your income. For example, using the case where the IRS interactive tax assistant calculated a standard tax deduction of $24,800 if you and your spouse earned $24,000 that tax year, you will pay nothing in taxes. Remember this refers to federal taxes  you may be subject to local and state taxes.If the deductions you qualify for aren't enough to completely eliminate your tax bill, you'll need to plan on making less money the following year. Don't think that moving outside of the U.S. will help you avoid paying taxes  according to the IRS, "if you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien living outside the United States, your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you live."It's always best to consult with a tax professional who can help you reduce or eliminate your tax bill without getting in trouble for tax fraud.

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Is Avoiding Taxes Legal?

Yes and no. Tax avoidance, where you attempt to minimize your taxes, is legal  as long as the deductions you use are allowed. Tax evasion, where you deliberately fail to pay a portion or all of your taxes, is illegal.File your annual tax returns even if you can't afford it or don't think you owe taxes, to avoid trouble. Tax evasion can result in fines and expensive interest on the amount you owe. The IRS could even freeze your bank accounts and garnish your wages until you file and pay your taxes.Instead of skipping taxes, you should look to minimize what you owe. There are many tax deductions and tax credits you can take advantage of to lower your tax bill. Depending on your eligibility for deductions and credits, you may be lucky enough to eliminate your tax bill completely, but don't bank on it.

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How To Get Out of Paying Taxes: Bizarre Case Studies

One way or another, most Americans are expected to pay taxes. Tax avoidance might be legal, but tax evasion constitutes a serious crime. Do it and you'll likely end up paying a tax penalty.So, how to not pay taxes legally? It turns out that you can avoid paying taxes if you understand some of the ins and outs of the tax code. And in many cases, some Americans have turned not paying taxes into something of an art form, securing deductions for things that would normally seem entirely off limits. So, here are some pretty novel ideas for how not to pay taxes.

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1. Drunken Driver Turns DUI Into Tax Deduction

Some people have all the luck  or incredible persistence. Justin Rohrs managed to slide his truck off an embankment in 2005, only to be slapped with a DUI for driving intoxicated. Despite the circumstance under which his car was damaged, he decided to file an insurance claim for his truck for $33,629. After his insurer denied his claim, he attempted to claim his vehicle loss as a tax deduction.At first, the IRS wasn't having any of it. Rohrs took the matter to the U.S. Tax Court, claiming that he deserved a casualty loss deduction for his damaged truck. Shockingly, the judge agreed and allowed him to take the deduction.

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2. Cats Can Be Worth Big Money

Jan Van Dusen, a cat lover with more than 70 felines in her home, spent much of her time caring for strays she found in the wild. In some instances, after caring for the cats, she'd release them back into the wild. But more often than not, she fostered her furry friends and tried to find good homes for them.The cost of caring for the cats began to mount for Van Dusen, so when she filed her 2004 tax return, she tried to write off $12,068 for cat-rescue items like food, vet bills, paper towels and more. After the IRS informed her that those expenses counted as personal ones and she couldn't deduct them, she sued the IRS. Following a long battle, Van Dusen proved her cat care was charity, resulting in the IRS finally granting deductions for most of her claims.

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3. Exotic Dancer's Breast Implants Pay For Themselves

Cynthia Hess, also known by her stage name Tonda Marie, was an exotic dancer who wanted to improve her business. In other words, she wanted bigger breasts. After getting a breast enlargement procedure done, her business grew  along with the jump in her bra size to a 56FF.Hess, now known as Chesty Love, decided to deduct her implants as a business expense. The IRS turned down her request, stating that business deductions work only in circumstances that are ordinary and necessary.Hess sued the IRS, arguing that her new breasts should be considered a business uniform. She went on to say that she planned to have them removed immediately after retiring from exotic dancing. After much convincing, the tax court agreed that she would have added breasts that large only for business purposes  they were 10 pounds each  and decided to grant the deduction.

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4. Even Drug Dealers Get Tax Deductions

Drug dealer Jeffrey Edmondson could teach classes on how to avoid paying taxes legally. He got himself in trouble with the law after being busted and charged with drug trafficking. Eager to get even more out of the dealer, the IRS audited him for $17,000 in back taxes after he failed to declare his income from drug dealing.Edmondson decided the government wouldn't have the last laugh. Leading up to his trial, he filed a tax return that listed his taxable net income along with a list of business deductions. He left his occupation blank, of course. After looking at his return, the IRS turned down his deductions. But Edmondson was not ready to give up.He took the matter to Tax Court, where he claimed he'd established a home business and wanted to claim home-office deductions  including drugs. Surprisingly, the judge agreed to allow him to deduct his expenses, which included a $50 scale, more than 19,000 miles in business mileage on his car and 100 pounds of marijuana.

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5. Bribes Can Be a Business Write-Off

Shady businessman William D. Zack ran a fake invoicing scheme that landed him in hot water with the IRS. The U.S. government sued him for unpaid taxes on unreported income totaling $311,601 for the tax years 1985 and 1986. But Zack argued that his total unreported income for those years should be reduced by $90,286  money that went toward bribes over those years, stating that he made the bribes in order to obtain work for his business entities. Surprisingly, the court ruled in his favor, and the total unreported income he had to pay back taxes on was reduced.

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6. Professional Gambler Makes a Winning Bet Against the IRS

In 2001, professional gambler Robert Mayo wagered over $131,000 and won $120,000. On his tax return, he listed his gambling losses, as well as his expenses for travel and research, as tax deductions. Mayo argued that the $10,000 he was in the hole should be considered operating losses rather than wagering losses because gambling was his profession. The tax court ruled in his favor, and his case set the precedent for a new law that allowed full-time professional gamblers to claim gambling losses and expenses as business expenses, according to Casino Players Report.

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7. An NBA Star Deducts His Fines

In 2010, former NBA star Lamar Odom sued the IRS after the agency said he owed $87,000 in taxes and interest. Odom had taken tax deductions for $12,000 in sports fines and $178,000 for fitness expenses, both of which the IRS said he could not take deductions for. Odom argued that both the fines and personal fitness fees were necessary for this line of work, Forbes reported."These (NBA) fines are commonly assessed on professional athletes and are work-related," Odom told the court. "Therefore the fines incurred are ordinary and necessary employee business expense."In 2012, the case was settled, and the IRS agreed to take only about $9,000 in owed taxes and interest  about 10% of what it was originally seeking. These types of deductions won't fly in the 2021 tax year, unfortunately. Only self-employed individuals can deduct job-related expenses under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

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8. Scuba Diving Trips to the Florida Keys Deemed a Business Expense

Tax preparer Jody Padar, CPA, told CNN Money that a firefighter who worked in a cold climate was able to write off scuba diving training trips to the Florida Keys as a business expense on his taxes. He was able to claim the deduction because the scuba diving certification was required for his job with the fire department's dive team.As with Odom's case, this type of deduction would no longer apply, as unreimbursed business expenses can't be deducted for employees under the new tax law.

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9. A World Traveler Deducts a $50,000 Trip

If you dream about traveling around the world  and writing off the cost  it might be possible. Tax preparer Jerry Lewin told CNN Money about a client of his who took a multiyear trip around the world with stops in Italy, France and Greece  and the client wanted to write off the entire $50,000 cost of the trip. In the end, the client was able to write it off because he published a book about his travels  and even though it was published by a very small publisher and only sold 20 copies, it counted as a business expense.

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10. A Business Deduction for Wining and Dining Informants

A police officer who worked with Padar wined and dined  and sometimes just paid outright  for information from valuable informants. Whatever money wasn't reimbursed by the police department was able to be deducted as a business expense, CNN Money reported.Once again, these types of deductions wouldn't fly under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

DedMityay / Shutterstock.com

11. An iPhone as a Medical Expense

After suffering severe brain injuries stemming from a car accident, one taxpayer was actually prescribed an iPhone by her doctor. The phone allowed her to be more independent  it reminded her of things she needed to do and answered questions for her via Siri  so it was able to qualify as a medical expense, CNN Money reported.As of 2020, the IRS allows taxpayers who itemize their deductions to deduct their total qualified unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 10% of their adjusted gross income.More From GOBankingRatesUnplug These Appliances That Hike Up Your Electricity Bill

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Cynthia Bowman and Gabrielle Olya contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How To Avoid Paying Taxes Legally  and the 11 Craziest Ways People Have Done It
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Canada launched talks on a new free trade deal on Thursday, as Britain's trade minister visited her Canadian counterpart to try to deepen ties already worth $25 billion.

Britain said the talks would aim to build on a trade continuity agreement with Canada, which rolled over EU trade arrangements before Britain left the bloc's trading sphere at the end of 2020.

"There is huge potential to strengthen and grow trade between our two countries," British trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement.

"We want a new deal for the 21st century  one that will boost our thriving services sector, promote higher standards of living and act as a beacon for others to follow in its world-leading commitments on climate change and womens economic empowerment."

The trade ministry said the relationship with Canada was worth 19 billion pounds ($25.06 billion) in 2020, and a new deal could help make it easier for the services sector to trade in Canada.

It also said Britain would aim to reduce administrative barriers which can prevent smaller businesses from accessing the preferential tariffs that are already in place.

Trevelyan is meeting her Canadian counterpart Mary Ng in Ottawa after earlier this week striking a deal with the United States to end a four-year dispute over U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs during a visit. ($1 = 0.7582 pounds)

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Boris Johnson has conceded it would be a challenge to give Volodymyr Zelensky the tanks he has demanded, as he hit back at the Kremlin effectively labelling him enemy number one among western leaders.

The Prime Minister said it would logistically be very difficult to supply the Ukrainian president with the tanks and jets he asked for during a Nato summit on Wednesday.

But Mr Johnson said allies would strive to give Mr Zelensky weapons in the quantity and of the quality he needs to defend his nation from the Russian invasion.

He pledged more missiles and a new deployment of UK troops to Bulgaria, while doubling personnel in Poland and Estonia to boost Nato on the eastern flanks.

Mr Zelensky, who regularly speaks to the Prime Minister, did not bring up his longstanding demand for Nato to enforce a no-fly zone of Ukraine.

Instead, he pleaded when appearing virtually at the summit in Brussels for 1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks.

Western allies have previously been hesitant about providing jets out of concerns it could further provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Johnson accepted Mr Zelensky wanted more from Nato, saying allies felt agony about their inability to do more given the constraints we face.

What President Zelensky wants is to try to relieve Mariupol and to help the thousands of Ukrainian fighters in the city. To that end he does need armour, as he sees it, the Prime Minister told reporters.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss leave Nato headquarters following a summit on Russias invasion of Ukraine in Brussels, Belgium (Henry Nicholls/PA)

We are looking at what we can do to help. But logistically it looks very difficult both with armour and with jets.

Mr Johnson said at the moment were looking at the equipment we think is more immediately valuable, including the new package of 6,000 more missiles.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the state-owned RIA news agency as saying Mr Johnson is the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian.

Speaking at the press conference in Brussels, the Prime Minister said: Absolutely not, least of all me. I think Im probably the only Prime Minister in UK history to be called Boris, I think I have that distinction, and Im not remotely anti-Russian.

But I think what we all agree is that what Vladimir Putin is doing, the way hes leading Russia at the moment, is utterly catastrophic, that his invasion of Ukraine is inhuman and barbaric.

And the conduct of that invasion is now moving into the type of behaviour that, as I said before, we havent seen in the continent of Europe for 80 years, and its horrific.

We stand with the people of Kyiv, of Mairupol, of Lviv and Donetsk. The people of Ukraine will prevail and Putin must fail. pic.twitter.com/WNyslwmDc0  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) March 24, 2022

So you can be sympathetic towards ordinary Russians, who are being so badly led, but you can be deeply hostile to the decisions of Vladimir Putin.

Mr Johnson warned the Russian president that he would be hit with very, very severe consequences if he used chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine as allies fear.

You have to have a bit of ambiguity about your response but I think it would be catastrophic for him if he were to do that, the Prime Minister said.

After the meeting, US President Joe Biden said the use of chemical weapons would be met with a response in kind depending on the nature of the use.

A western official said that the use of such weapons would mark a fundamental change in the Ukrainian conflict but said it was highly unlikely it would be met with Nato troops in Ukraine.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg announced an agreement to provide assistance in the cyber-security sphere and equipment to protect against biological, chemical and nuclear threats.

US President Joe Biden speaks with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg ahead of a G7 leaders meeting during a Nato summit on Russias invasion of Ukraine (Henry Nicholls/PA)

And leaders approved the deployment of new Nato battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia to shore up the defence alliances eastern flank.

Mr Johnson urged a targeting of Mr Putins gold reserves to prevent him trying to get around sanctions as he announced a fresh wave of travel bans and asset freezes.

Among those targeted were the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organisation accused of plotting to assassinate Mr Zelensky.

The Foreign Office said a total of 1,000 fresh sanctions have been handed out since the invasion began, with 65 more announced after Mr Johnson arrived in Belgium.

They included Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler and Galina Danilchenko, who was installed by Moscow as the mayor of occupied Melitopol in south-east Ukraine.

Banks, a diamond producer and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, were also among the newly targeted.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, including next-generation light anti-tank weapons systems (Nlaws) and Javelin missiles.

It is also supplying and training Ukrainian troops in the use of Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles as well as providing body armour, helmets and combat boots.

The Government will provide an additional 4.1 million to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and Ukraine as well as new support for the International Criminal Court (ICC).
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, militaries in South Korea and Japan said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in the North's development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

The North's return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for President Biden as he responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Korea's incoming conservative administration.

Japanese authorities said the launch appeared to be a "new type" of ICBM that flew for about 71 minutes to an altitude of about 6,000km (3,728 miles) and a range of 1,100km (684 miles) from its launch site.

It landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 170 km (106 miles) west of the northern prefecture of Aomori, at 3:44 p.m. (0644 GMT), the coast guard said.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff put the missile's maximum altitude at 6,200km and its range at 1,080km.

'Clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions'

That is further and longer than North Korea's last ICBM test in 2017, when it launched a Hwasong-15 missile that flew for 53 minutes to an altitude of about 4,475km and range of 950km.

South Korean deputy national security advisor Suh Choo-suk condemned the launch as "a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and a reversal of the moratorium on ICBM launches, which North Korea had promised to the international community."

South Korea's JCS said the latest missile was launched from near Sunan, where Pyongyang's international airport is located. On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile from that airport that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff, South Korea's military said.

Officials did not elaborate on the type of ICBM used in Thursday's launch, but U.S. and South Korean officials have warned recently that North Korea had been preparing to test fire its largest ICBM yet, the Hwasong-17.

U.S. officials said at least two recent tests, on Feb. 27 and March 5, featured the Hwasong-17.

"The purpose of these tests, which did not demonstrate ICBM range, was likely to evaluate this new system before conducting a test at full range in the future, potentially disguised as a space launch," a U.S. official said at the time.

Pyongyang did not identify the missile system used in those launches, but said they were testing components for a reconnaissance satellite system.

11th North Korean missile test this year

This month, leader Kim Jong Un said North Korea would soon launch multiple satellites to monitor military movements by the United States and its allies.

Thursday's launch would be at least the 11th North Korean missile test this year, an unprecedented frequency that has drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Analysts say the Hwasong-17 is "considerably larger" than the Hwasong-15. It was first unveiled in October 2020 and displayed a second time in October 2021.

The missile, which has been shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the world's largest road-mobile ICBMs.

Its diameter is estimated at 2.4 metres to 2.5 meters, with its total mass, when fully fuelled, probably ranging from 80,000 kg to 110,000 kg, according to 38 North, a U.S.-based programme that monitors North Korea.

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, Kim declared a self-imposed moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearisation talks.

That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who held several historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never gained a concrete pact to limit the North's nuclear or missile arsenals.

On Jan. 19, North Korea said it would bolster its defences against the United States and consider resuming "all temporally suspended activities", according to state news agency KCNA, an apparent reference to the self-imposed moratorium.

Looming prospect of possible nuclear tests

New construction has also been spotted at North Korea's only known nuclear test site, which was shuttered in 2018.

The looming prospect of possible nuclear tests, more joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, and the new conservative South Korean president mean "all conditions are present for a tit-for-tat chain reaction of escalatory steps," said Chad O'Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.

"Though Biden would prefer to focus exclusively on the Ukraine crisis, it's likely he will soon face crisis-level tensions between the Koreas," he said.

With the sanctions regime at an impasse at the U.N. Security Council and North Korea opposed to talks on denuclearisation for the foreseeable future, Pyongyang is now likely capable of making serious progress on its weapons development programme with little risk of substantive punishment, O'Carroll added.
FILE  Fidelity Investments chairman & CEO Edward Ned Johnson III, left, addresses an audience as General Electric chairman & CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt, right, looks on during a Boston College Chief Executives Club luncheon, Sept. 25, 2002, in Boston. Fidelity Investments announced that Johnson died Wednesday, March 23, 2022. He was 91. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

NEW YORK (AP)  Edward Ned Johnson III, a businessman who grew Fidelity Investments into the financial giant it is today, has died. He was 91.

Johnson's family confirmed Thursday that he died on Wednesday but did not give a cause of death.

Born in Boston at the start of the Great Depression, Johnson joined his fathers firm in 1957 as a portfolio manager. He became president of Fidelity in 1972 and, after his father retired in 1976, became chairman and CEO.

While his father founded Fidelity, Johnsons four-decade tenure transformed the firm into the Wall Street and investment giant that it is today.

We are immensely proud of his achievements and grateful for his life, the Johnson family said in a statement. He was a visionary, an innovator, and a philanthropist who had tremendous curiosity about the world around him and who lived his life to the fullest each and every day.

When Johnson took over, the way Americans saved and planned for retirement was about to change fundamentally. Companies began to move away from pension plans. The Individual Retirement Account, better known as the IRA, was created in 1974. The 401(k) account, an employer-sponsored retirement plan that invested in stocks and bonds but was ultimately run by the individual employee, was created by Congress in 1978.

Fidelity benefited from a massive broadening and interest in investing that started in the 1980s. The stock market was no longer something just for the rich; it was now a vehicle that nearly every retirement account in the U.S. had a stake in. Under Johnson, Fidelity started selling mutual funds directly to the public. The company also started offering discount brokerage services that made stock investing significantly cheaper.

These efforts paid off. When Johnson took over Fidelity in 1977, the company had $3.9 billion in assets under management. When he retired as chairman in 2014, Fidelity had $5.7 trillion in assets under management. Fidelitys growth made Johnson and his family billionaires. The firm now holds more than $11 trillion in assets, according to its most recent annual report.

The Boston-based company, which is still privately held, is now run by Johnsons daughter, Abigail Johnson.

Johnson donated his wealth mostly anonymously, according to the family, but some named places he gave funds to included the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Johnson is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Lillie Johnson, and three children: Abigail, Elizabeth Johnson and Edward Johnson IV.
The Biden administration is issuing a new rule Thursday that will allow asylum officers, rather than just immigration court judges, to adjudicate the claims of immigrants seeking asylum at the border, according to officials with the departments of Homeland Security and Justice.

The new process is part of an effort to shorten the time between when an immigrant crosses the border and the ruling on whether they should be deported or allowed to stay in the United States.

Under the new rule, if an asylum officer grants protections to an immigrant, the immigrant can remain in the U.S. and bypass immigration courts.

If an asylum officer decides an immigrant is not eligible for asylum, the case will go to an immigration judge who must decide within 90 days whether the immigrant should be deported.

Currently, immigration courts are backlogged with over 1.2 million cases, creating a two-year wait for most immigrants to receive a decision.

The current system for handling asylum claims at our borders has long needed repair, said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The administration has not yet decided how many immigrants will be able to use the new system, due to the limited number of available asylum officers, the officials said.

Migrants Cross From Mexico Into U.S. Near Ciudad Juarez (John Moore / Getty Images file)

In July 2021, NBC News was first to report on plans to allow asylum officers to grant immigrants protections to stay in the U.S.

At the time, the Biden administration was also considering a plan that would allow families crossing the border the right to legal counsel. But the final rule, to be published Thursday, makes no mention of that plan.

The new rule will not apply to unaccompanied children, who are given special protections under U.S. immigration law.
With a suspension looming, Bob Baffert is transferring several Kentucky Derby horses to other trainers. (Rob Carr / Getty Images)

Trainer Bob Baffert, with time running out for any of his legal options to reach resolution, is transferring three of his Kentucky Derby hopefuls to Tim Yakteen, and one to Rodolphe Brisset, so that the horses can gain points and qualify to run on racings most famous day.

Messier, Doppelganger and McLaren Vale will all move to the barn of Yakteen, Bafferts former assistant. Blackadder will ship to Kentucky and run for Brisset. Doppelganger has already moved to Yakteens barn, and the others will move in the next few days.

These are all good horses and they deserve to go, Baffert told The Times on Thursday. Its just such a great race, both the Kentucky Derby and Oaks. Its great for the fans and the sport. The fans deserve to see these horses run.

Messier won the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita by 15 lengths in his last start and is scheduled to race in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9. Doppelganger finished second in the San Felipe Stakes and probably will race in the Arkansas Derby on April 16. McLaren Vale finished third in the San Vicente in his last start and has yet to go two turns; Baffert said he was unsure where he would race. Blackadder, who won the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields to gain an automatic berth to the Preakness, probably will race in the Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway on April 2 or the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 9.

All of the horses are owned in part by SF Racing. If any of the horses finish first or second in their final prep race, they should gain enough points to make the starting gate in Louisville on May 7.

We are grateful for Bobs outstanding training effort with them, said Tom Ryan of SF Racing LLC. We salute Bob for making the tough but necessary decision that will allow [those horses] to prove themselves as top talents in racing this year.

Baffert said he was still evaluating if any of his 3-year-old fillies would change barns to try to qualify for the Kentucky Oaks.

The moves were made because Baffert is ineligible to receive any Kentucky Derby qualifying points while under a two-year ban by Churchill Downs. The home of the Kentucky Derby put the sanctions on Baffert after four medication positives in about a year. Two of the positives were the result of contamination, generally out of a trainers control.

The one that forced the issue, in Churchills thinking, was Medina Spirit, when the colt tested positive for betamethasone, a legal anti-inflammatory that is illegal on race day. Bafferts attorneys contend the rule on the drug applies only when injected, not when applied in an ointment, which is how they say the colt received the medication. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission disagreed, and Medina Spirit was disqualified as the Derby winner.

Baffert has four legal cases awaiting resolution. The most immediate is his petition to the Kentucky Court of Appeals to issue a stay of his 90-day suspension while the Medina Spirit decision is under appeal, which is another case. It is almost automatic that stays are granted while a case is under appeal, but in this case, the KHRC and a district court judge denied it. If the stay is not granted, Baffert will start his suspension April 4.

Baffert is also suing Churchill Downs Inc., its chief executive and board chairman for banning him from all CDI properties for two years. He is also fighting a ban by the New York Racing Assn., and awaiting a decision on a hearing held in January. None of Bafferts medication violations occurred in New York.

I think ever since I first got word after the Derby of the positive, its been very frustrating, Baffert said. I cant believe we are going through this. Its how your life can change overnight. Its been a long and frustrating process. We were hoping we could get together and figure this out.

But Ive stayed focused on my horses. Unfortunately, I wont be able to train them, but Im going to sit back and root for them and hope they do well.

If Baffert does not get a stay from Kentucky, he will have to close down his barn at Santa Anita for the duration of the suspension because it is more than 60 days and covered by Rule 1843.3.

The California Horse Racing Boards position is that Rule 1843.3 applies to violations that occur in California, the CHRB said in a statement. However, in the absence of any clarifying language in Rule 1884, commonly known as the reciprocity rule, the CHRB intends to apply Rule 1843.3 in its entirety to Kentuckys 90-day suspension of trainer Bob Baffert.

If Baffert is suspended, its unclear if Yakteen or other trainers would get most of Bafferts horses.

Right now, thats a question thats not ready to be answered, Baffert said.

Yakteen has had two stints as Bafferts assistant. He started when Baffert trained quarter horses. When Baffert switched to thoroughbreds in 1988, Yakteen went with him and stayed until 1991, when he moved to assist Charlie Whittingham. Yakteen returned to Bafferts barn in 1997, where he stayed for seven years before going out on his own.

Perhaps his best horse has been Mucho Unusual, who won the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita in 2020. The 6-year-old mare has won almost $1 million.

Yakteen has been a staunch supporter of Baffert and got into an altercation with trainer Richard Baltas at Santa Anitas Clockers Corner one morning when, according to a CHRB incident report, Baltas was bad-mouthing Baffert after the Hall of Fame trainer had his suspension in Arkansas overturned. Yakteen came to his defense, verbally and physically, and the April 2020 incident ended with a slightly injured security guard and both trainers fined $500.

Yakteen has never had a Kentucky Derby starter but did assist Baffert for many Derbies. Brisset also has never had a Derby starter but was instrumental in the early part of Justifys career. Justify was Bafferts second Triple Crown winner.

This could be a career-changing event for them, Baffert said of the two trainers. You hate to lose horses, but its the horse that makes the trainer. And they are two very good horsemen.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A San Diego appeals court judge made history in California on Tuesday, after becoming the first Latina member of the California Supreme Court.

Justice Patricia Guerrero, 50, is a daughter of Mexican immigrants who grew up in Southern Californias Imperial Valley.

She was nominated by Gov. Gavin Newson last month and approved by a 3-0 vote of the Commission on Judicial Appointments.

Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, chair of the commission, announced her confirmation Tuesday, according to a news release.

Guerrero, who has served as an associate justice on the states 4th District Court of Appeal since 2017, will fill the vacancy left by Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who stepped down last year.

Justice Patricia Guerrero speaks during her confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court of California before the Commission on Judicial Appointments on Tuesday in San Francisco.





Justice Patricia Guerrero speaks during her confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court of California before the Commission on Judicial Appointments on Tuesday in San Francisco. (Eric Risberg/)

She has also served as a judge at the San Diego County Superior Court, worked as a partner at a law firm, and served as an assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California.

According to a report by the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, Guerrero is exceptionally well qualified for the states high court, and universally lauded for her superior intellect, clear writing, judicial temperament, work ethic, and compassion.

Two dozen family members and friends  including her father, sister, husband, as well as friends who grew up with her in Imperial Valley  attended the confirmation hearing in the Supreme Court Courtroom in San Francisco.

Guerrero said that she was humbled by the magnitude of the moment, praising those who came before her.

As Ive tried to express, this is not just about me, or really even just about my parents, but its about so many others just like us, she said, according to The Associated Press.

This is a story of the American dream, the belief that with hard work, perseverance and opportunities, anything is possible. And for that I am thankful.

Justice Guerrero is expected to be sworn in Monday by Gov. Newsom.
Ryan Smith, left, and Allen Cheney, co-owners of Thomasville Pictures, attend an event in Nashville in 2019. (Getty Images)

The Directors Guild of America has told its members to stop work on a new horror movie backed by one of the producers of "Rust," Thomasville Pictures.

In a recent note to members, the union said it pulled its backing of the project, citing safety concerns. The decision in effect bars directors, assistant directors and unit production managers from working on the Georgia production.

"Representatives of the DGA informed the producers of specific safety requirements that needed to be satisfied for the film to be covered under a DGA agreement. The producers failed to meet those conditions," the guild said in a statement.

The DGA did not specify the alleged safety issues on the film.

Thomasville Pictures, which registered in Georgia in 2017, disputed there were any safety issues on "Oak" and said production continues on the movie.

On Oak, we continue to work hand in hand with IATSE and SAG-AFTRA Safety Committees to ensure a safe working environment for all cast and crew," Thomasville Pictures spokesman Stefan Friedman said in a statement. "We look forward to building on these local and national collaborations with all of our guild partners as we continue to produce films in Georgia and elsewhere around the country.

The DGA's move to distance its members from the production, which was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter, highlights ongoing safety concerns on film sets following the "Rust" shooting last fall.

Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the New Mexico film set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. The fatal shooting came after a series of alleged safety breaches.

No criminal charges have been filed following the incident, which is being investigated by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office.

Thomasville Pictures has continued to work on other productions even as the New Mexico-based western was shut down.

Thomasville is also producing the Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek feature Sam & Kate." The DGA is still a signatory on that feature  a status required for its members to be engaged on a project.

"Our team is proud to be working with SAG-AFTRA and IATSE on our two current projects in Thomasville and with DGA on Sam and Kate," Friedman said.

Thomasville Pictures and other producers have been subject to several lawsuits, including a wrongful death claim from the family of Hutchins. That lawsuit alleged that Baldwin and other producers of the low-budget film sacrificed safety by hiring inexperienced workers and disregarding safety concerns flagged by the camera crew.

Producers of "Rust" have disputed the claims and said they were not made aware of official complaints about weapon safety on set.

Safety issues have been raised on other projects involving Ryan Smith and Allen Cheney, the co-owners of Thomasville Pictures.

In Georgia last year, first camera assistant Lisa Long raised safety concerns while filming the action thriller One Way, starring Machine Gun Kelly, Long said.

Long was bothered by what she saw as first assistant director Dave Halls disregard for safety protocols and reported his behavior to two producers and a Local 600 union representative of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, she said.

Halls was also a first assistant director on Rust. Halls told investigators that he did not check all the rounds in the gun before it was handed to Baldwin, a major breach of safety standards.

Halls' attorney has said armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed was responsible for making sure the firearm was safe.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Germantown, Md., oral surgeon has been accused of supplying his drug-addicted girlfriend with ketamine and other drugs until her fatal overdose.

James Michael Ryan, 48, was arrested Tuesday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Sarah Harris.

Harris, a former patient, began working at Ryans practice as a surgical technician in October 2020 and the two began a romantic relationship in January 2021, according to the Montgomery County Department of Police.

At some point, she moved in with Ryan and he allegedly began feeding her controlled substances, including propofol, ketamine, diazepam and midazolam.

I dont think youll find a vein. Im so dehydrated, Harris texted Ryan on Sept. 27, according to court documents obtained by the Washington Post.

Ryan allegedly instructed her to drink water and take a Xanax.

Sarah Harris developed an ever-worsening addiction that was continuously fed over the months by Ryan, investigators wrote.

James Michael Ryan





James Michael Ryan is charged in his girlfriend's death.

Texts also showed Harris admitting a ketamine overdose to a friend, according to the court documents.

On Jan. 26, Harris was found dead at Ryans home from a drug overdose.

The loss of such a remarkable daughter, sister, granddaughter, aunt and one of a kind woman is utterly devastating. Sarahs family and friends will strive to honor her elegant memory by living their lives with love and compassion, reads an online obituary for Harris.

Sarah had a passion for learning, drawing, and spending time with her puppy Winston. She loved photography, traveling, meeting new people, exploring Gods creations, animals, laughing with her sisters, and most of all creating precious memories with her family. She had a personality that would light up a room and she carried a radiant smile along with it. She marched to the beat of her own drum and was like no other. She loved fiercely and passionately, feeling incredibly blessed each day of her life.

Along with reckless endangerment and a series of drug charges, Ryan was charged with depraved heart second-degree murder, meaning that he did not kill Harris with premeditation but rather showed an extreme indifference to her life and should have known better about the dangers of the drugs he was providing.

Ryan was ordered held without bail.
WASHINGTON (AP)  As President Biden meets with key allies in Brussels to coordinate a stronger response to Russia's monthlong assault on Ukraine, a new poll shows Americans have yet to rally around his leadership.

Concern about Russia has swelled and support for a major U.S. role in the conflict strengthened in the last month, but Biden's negative approval rating has not budged, according to the poll Thursday from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Few are very confident that he can handle a crisis, and a majority thinks he lacks toughness in dealing with Russia.

Only 43% of Americans approve of Biden and a similar percentage approve of his handling of the relationship with Russia. Both measures are little different from an AP-NORC poll conducted days before the Feb. 24 invasion.

The U.S., along with NATO allies, have tried to isolate Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin with sanctions, including freezing foreign assets of Russias central bank and cutting off its supply to essential war materiel. But Russia has continued for a month to batter cities in Ukraine with air strikes and artillery, despite a stalled ground invasion.

Over the next three days, the Biden administration aims to work with key European allies on a united strategy to aid Ukraine militarily, increase sanctions on Russia and wrestle with the worsening humanitarian crisis, according to Jake Sullivan, Bidens national security adviser.

A new AP-NORC poll finds more Republicans than Democrats say Biden's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has not been tough enough, but even members of his own party are closely divided over his approach.

Biden does so on shaky ground with the American public. Only about a quarter are very confident that the president has the ability to handle a crisis, promote U.S. standing in the world or effectively manage the U.S. military, though most have at least some confidence.

Fifty-six percent of Americans think Biden has not been tough enough on Russia, while 36% say his approach has been about right.

Even among members of his own party, Biden faces pressure to do more. The poll shows Democrats are closely divided over the presidents response, with 43% saying he hasnt been tough enough. Somewhat more, 53%, say its been about right.

I understand hes between a rock and a hard place, said Rachel Collins, a 41-year-old Democrat from Chicago. It just feels like Putins not going to stop at Ukraine.

Collins, an elementary school teacher, said she feels like shes watching history unfolding yet again.

How many years are we gonna watch this happen and then have to step in anyway? she added. It just feels inevitable and, in the meantime, were just watching all these people suffer.

While support for a major U.S. role has grown since last month, from 26% to 40%, Biden faces a tightrope walk to avoid war and to curb the impact on the American people. The poll shows close to half of Americans are extremely or very concerned about being drawn into war with Russia.

Biden has repeatedly said that he will not send American troops to Ukraine, though some have been deployed to neighboring NATO countries.

I think that hes doing the right thing and being cautious, but its really hard when youre watching and reading about these stories day to day, Collins said. More aggressive at where we are means putting troops on the ground, and I dont necessarily know if thats the answer either."

"Then, you know, therell be people saying why are we putting troops in there, she added.

'Hes scared of Putin'

While Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support the U.S. having a major role in Russias war, most also say they think Bidens response has not been tough enough.

Hes scared, said David Stoddard, a retired border patrol agent in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Hes scared of Putin. Hes scared of (Chinas) Xi (Jinping). Hes scared of everything.

Stoddard, 76, would prefer somebody like former President Donald Trump over Biden to tell Putin that Putin may have a red button but the United States red button is bigger, he said.

Stoddard thinks theres more Biden could be doing to strengthen sanctions and support Ukraine militarily, including transferring Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine from a NATO air base in Germany, which the Pentagon declined to do earlier in March. The administration has said it is determined to avoid further action that could be seen as escalatory by Putin.

Majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike said they approve of economic sanctions imposed on Russia in general and on the ban on Russian oil in particular, according to the poll. But while 77% of Democrats approve of how Biden is handling the relationship with Russia, just 12% of Republicans do.

While some Democrats acknowledged thinking that Biden could be doing more, many are confident in him to do whats best for the country.

Im sure theres more that he could do, said Chris Hollander, a research assistant in Denver. But as far as being tough, hes not a pushover.

Listening to the intelligence community and getting NATO countries to work together reflect Bidens behind the scenes leadership, Hollander, 33, said. I think hes threading a needle.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,082 adults was conducted March 17-21 using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The Biden administration, seeking to deter China from aiding sanctions-hit Russia, on Wednesday warned Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by sanctions, help Moscow evade export controls or process its banned financial transactions.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that G7 countries would soon announce a unified response to make sure Russia cannot evade Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine with the help of China or any other country.

Speaking aboard Air Force One en route to Brussels where President Biden will attend an emergency NATO summit, Sullivan said, "That's not specifically about China, but it will apply to every significant economy and the decisions that any of those economies take to try, in an intentional and active way, to undermine or weaken the sanctions that we put in place."

He said the U.S. government has conveyed this message to China and that, "We expect similar communication by European Union and individual European countries."

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks at the White House

After Biden had a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, Beijing condemned the sanctions on Russia. It said "sweeping and indiscriminate sanctions would only make the people suffer" and should not be "further escalated."

U.S. export restrictions are intended to block Russian access to critical goods such as commercial electronics, computers and aircraft parts.

Washington is concerned that China could help Russia "backfill" and access these products by violating trade restrictions. The U.S. government has tools to ensure that can't happen, Sullivan added.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters on Wednesday that the United States would punish any companies that violate the export controls on goods like semiconductors.

In terms of payments, Sullivan said, the United States and its G7 allies will respond to "systematic efforts, industrial-scale efforts to try to reorient the settlement of financial payments."

China has not condemned Russia's action in Ukraine, though it has expressed deep concern about the war.
FILE - People wait to vote in-person at Reed High School in Sparks, Nev., prior to polls closing on Nov. 3, 2020. Elected officials in a northern Nevada county have rejected sweeping election reforms that would have posted sheriff's deputies at polling sites and required most votes to be cast with paper ballots counted by hand. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Local, state and federal officials must do more to ensure Native Americans facing persistent, longstanding and deep-rooted barriers to voting have equal access to ballots, a White House report released Thursday said.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives vote at lower rates than the national average but have been a key constituency in tight races and states with large Native populations. A surge in voter turnout among tribal members in Arizona, for example, helped lead Joe Biden to victory in the state that hadnt supported a Democrat in a White House contest since 1996.

The Biden administration's report comes a year after he issued an executive order promoting voting rights and establishing a steering committee to look at particular barriers to voting in Indigenous communities. Those include state laws and local practices that disenfranchise Indigenous voters, unequal access to early voting and reliance on a mail system that is unreliable, the report stated.

For far too long, members of tribal nations and Native communities have faced unnecessary burdens when they attempt to exercise their sacred right to vote, the White House said.

The administration called on Congress to pass voting rights legislation, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and another focused on Native Americans. But those bills are going nowhere. Republicans wouldn't support them, and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have been unwilling to override the filibuster to allow the legislation to pass.

In the states, Republican legislatures and governors recently have passed dozens of restrictive laws dealing with voting and elections. They have limited the use of mail voting, which proved hugely popular during the pandemic, implemented strict voter ID requirements, eliminated ballot drop boxes and created several penalties for local election officials who could be accused of violating certain laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year in a broader case over Arizona voting regulations to uphold a prohibition on counting ballots cast in the wrong precinct and returning early ballots for another person. Native American voting rights advocates saw it as another notch in a long history of voting discrimination.

Bills that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed last year to codify the practice of giving voters who didnt sign mail-in ballots until 7 p.m. on Election Day to do so and that address voter rolls, also complicate voting, tribal leaders said.

Democrats say the new laws are designed to target their voters, although the mail voting restrictions also tend to hurt Republicans.

In the absence of action, the Biden administration is seeking changes at more local levels while maintaining pressure on Congress. The White House pointed to enhanced safeguards for Native American voters in Nevada, Washington and Colorado and suggested other states follow their lead.

The report recommended further recommended that jurisdictions serving Native voters offer language assistance even when they're not legally required to. And the U.S. Postal Service should consider adding routes or boosting personnel in Indian Country, the report said.

The White House highlighted efforts within federal agencies that include the Interior Department working to designate tribal colleges in New Mexico and Kansas as voter registration centers. The Treasury Department will provide voter education through its income tax assistance centers, the White House said.

And the U.S. Department of Justice has more than doubled its voting rights enforcement to ensure election officials are complying with federal law, senior administration officials said. The administration noted, though, that the protections in the Voting Rights Act to prohibit racial discrimination in voting no longer are adequate.

Tribal leaders in Alaska told the steering committee that despite successful litigation to ensure language assistance, the services haven't reached their communities, according to the committee's report. A tribal leader on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana said a county election official did not comply with a directive to provide drop boxes on the reservation until three days before the election, the report states.

Poverty among Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, hostility between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and cultural disrespect also impact voting patterns in Indigenous communities, the administration noted.

The White House report will be translated into six Indigenous languages: Navajo, Ojibwe, Cherokee, Yup'ik, Lakota and Native Hawaiian.

The report builds on the work of other groups, including the Native American Rights Fund that outlined the challenges to voting in Indian Country, deepened by the pandemic: online registration hampered by spotty or no internet service, ballots delivered to rarely-checked post office boxes and turnout curbed by a general reluctance to vote by mail.

It is a strong first step in ensuring that Native American voters have equal access to the vote, the Native American Rights Fund said Thursday.

Despite the challenges, Native American voting rights groups increasingly have mobilized over the years to boost turnout that is about 13% lower than the national average, according to the White House. The states will the largest percentage of Native Americans and Alaska Natives are: Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana.

___

Fonseca covers Indigenous communities on AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FonsecaAP
The ruler of Dubai abused his former wife to an exorbitant degree, the High Court has found at the end of a lengthy legal battle over their two children.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 72, consistently displayed coercive and controlling behaviour with respect to those members of his family who he regards as behaving contrary to his will, senior judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said in a judgment published on Thursday.

The ruling is expected to be the final significant decision in the court case between Sheikh Mohammed and his sixth wife Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 47, who fled the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April 2019, having become terrified of her then-husband.

In the most recent judgment, Sir Andrew  the most senior family court judge in England and Wales  limited Sheikh Mohammeds parental responsibility for his daughter and son, Al Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 10.

Princess Haya previously attended hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London (Aaron Chown/PA)

Princess Haya will now have sole responsibility for their two children in regards to their medical care and schooling.

The decision to afford the mother sole responsibility for these important matters is justified by the need to reduce the potential for continuing harm to the children, Sir Andrew ruled, finding the co-parenting relationship was entirely bankrupt.

At the start of the lengthy proceedings, Sheikh Mohammed applied for the summary return of the two children to Dubai.

However, since October 2019 he has accepted they will live in England, and recently opted not to pursue direct contact with the two children.

This means he will have no face-to-face contact with the children, but can instead contact them indirectly, such as through telephone calls.

After fleeing to the UK nearly three years ago, Princess Haya applied for the children to be made wards of court and asked the High Court to make a series of findings about Sheikh Mohammed.

This led to nearly 20 judgments  including two fact-finding rulings and a record-breaking financial award of around 550 million for Princess Hayas lifelong security costs and the childrens care.

Sheikh Mohammed, the vice president and prime minister of the UAE, was previously found to have conducted a campaign of fear and intimidation against Princess Haya, as well as hacking her phone and orchestrating the abduction of two of his adult daughters.

In Thursdays judgment, Sir Andrew found that Sheikh Mohammeds behaviour towards his ex-wife was domestic abuse conducted on a scale which is entirely outside the ordinary circumstances of cases heard in the family court in this jurisdiction.

He added: Given his immense power and wealth, the potential for the father, and those in Dubai who do his bidding, to act remorselessly against the interests of the mother has been proved during these proceedings.

The judge said that the sustained abuse towards Princess Haya likely had a profound impact upon every aspect of her day-to-day life and her emotional wellbeing.

He continued: It will have totally dominated her thoughts, taken away her peace of mind and removed from her any sense of autonomy.

Sheikh Mohammed is heavily involved in horse racing, the court has previously heard (Joe Giddens/PA)

In an earlier ruling, Sheikh Mohammed was banned from buying a 30 million estate directly overlooking his ex-wifes home in Berkshire, with Sir Andrew finding the attempted purchase took place in secret.

The High Court also previously heard that the multimillion-pound spyware Pegasus  which is only available to states  had been used on Princess Hayas phone with the rulers express or implied authority.

The phone hacking, which Sir Andrew described as an astonishingly intrusive and abusive action, also targeted members of Princess Hayas security and legal teams  including her solicitor and Conservative peer Baroness Shackleton.

In the most recent ruling, Sir Andrew said: The father has acted, in a wide manner of ways, over a period of years, in a wholly coercive and controlling manner towards the childrens mother to a degree which can only be seen by her to be all consuming and all encompassing.

His Highness behaviour towards the mother, in each of its separate manifestations, whether by threats, poems, coordinating press reports, covertly arranging to purchase property immediately overlooking hers, phone-hacking or in the conduct of this litigation, has been abusive to a high, indeed exorbitant, degree.

Despite the courts findings, in no respect has His Highness accepted that any of this behaviour has either taken place or that he has had any part in orchestrating it.

Sir Andrew later said he accepted that Sheikh Mohammed loved the two children, who loved him back.

However, the judge later said there was an absence of any acceptance of responsibility, expression of remorse or understanding of the impact of this behaviour on the mother by Sheikh Mohammed.

There has been not one word of apology to, or sympathy for, her, Sir Andrew added.

In her first statement about the High Court case, Princess Haya said that her and her children are not pawns to be used for division after the ruling.

She said: There are no words, no words at all, to describe the love, respect, admiration, and pride I have for the two bravest souls of all, Jalila and Zayed.

They have met every hardship and challenge with dignity, faith and a renewed resolve to be kinder and more humble people, determined to love, serve, and contribute to a better world.

A spokesperson for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said the ruler wished to make clear that: He loves his children and cherishes their love for him. He has always cared and provided for them, and always will.

He maintains his denial of the allegations made in these contentious proceedings, and asks that the media respect the privacy of his children and do not intrude into their lives.
Russian intelligence services have targeted national infrastructure including UK energy companies and the engineering and industrial sectors in a calculated and dangerous hacking campaign spanning nearly a decade.

The UK and western allies have linked Russias Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the KGB, to a historic global campaign targeting critical national infrastructure, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said on Thursday.

The department said the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was almost certain that the FSBs Centre 16, which it said was also known by its hacker group pseudonyms of Energetic Bear, Berserk Bear and Crouching Yeti, had targeted critical IT systems and national infrastructure in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Undated handout photo issued by GCHQ of the GCHQ building in Cheltenham (GCHQ/PA)

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: Russias targeting of critical national infrastructure is calculated and dangerous.

It shows (Vladimir) Putin is prepared to risk lives to sow division and confusion among allies.

It comes as the US Department of Justice unsealed two indictments charging four defendants, all Russian nationals who worked for the Russian government, in connection with hacking.

In the UK, the FCDO said Centre 16 had focused on engineering and industrial control companies, where hackers may be able to access contact lists of hacked companies and establish long term access to networks, and had also targeted UK energy companies.

It also linked the group to compromising software used by European manufacturers and wind turbine developers, gaining access through spear-phishing to European and North American energy sectors, and stealing user information and getting into US energy and nuclear facilities as well as the water, aviation and critical manufacturing sectors.

Spear-phishing is when targeted emails or text messages are sent to specific people, groups or organisations, for malicious purposes such as data theft, espionage, or fraud.

Centre 16 was also understood to have gained access to the email address of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, posing as the Russian Federal Tax Service to conduct spear-phishing against Russian nationals including the press secretary of Kremlin critic and former oligarch Mikhail Khordorkov, who now lives in the UK.

File photo of a woman using a laptop (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Separately, Ms Truss also added to the UK sanctions list a subsidiary of Russias defence ministry, the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics for an incident involving overriding the safety controls of a Saudi petro-chemicals plant in 2017.

Ms Truss said: We are sending a clear message to the Kremlin by sanctioning those who target people, businesses and infrastructure.

We will not tolerate it.

We will continue to work together with our allies to turn the ratchet and starve Putins war machine of its funding and resources.

In 2020, the NCSC linked another Russian hacking group, APT29  also known as Cosy Bear or The Dukes, with targeting organisations working on Covid-19 vaccines.

It said the hacking group was almost certainly linked to the Russian state.

The FCDO on Thursday said APT29 fell under Russias Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR.

Other groups such as APT28  also known as Fancy Bear or Strontium  and Sandworm came under Russias military intelligence wing, the GRU.

APT28 was thought to be behind the September 2016 cyber attack on the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), where hackers accessed the personal information of athletes.
Polina Kovaleva is in her mid-twenties, and said to have masters degree from a leading London university and experience travelling the world.

But as of today, she has also been sanctioned by the UK Government over Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Ms Kovaleva, 26, is the alleged stepdaughter of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and is said to own a London property worth in the region of 4 million.

Her assets in the UK will now be frozen, along with the other newly targeted individuals, the Foreign Office said  which means no person or company in the country can do business with her.

A new financial sanctions notice from the Treasury, published on Thursday, gave a Kensington address for her property, which tallies with reports she bought a luxury apartment in the area with no mortgage in 2016, when she was only 21.

MPs and campaigners had previously called for Ms Kovaleva to be sanctioned, according to The Daily Telegraph, as her mother is said to be Mr Lavrovs alleged mistress.

The Daily Mail said Ms Kovaleva was targeted by angry protesters outside her property earlier this month, with some wielding signs plastered with her face and the words war criminals daughter.

Reports suggest she attended a private boarding school in Bristol before achieving a first-class degree from Loughborough University.

It is said that she later gained a masters in economics and strategy for business from Imperial College London, and worked for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant.

The Times reported that her now-deleted social media profiles featured photos of her travelling the world.

The FCDO said the move to target Ms Kovaleva sent a strong signal that people benefiting from association of those responsible for Russian aggression are within the scope of its sanctions.

The Treasury notice said there are reasonable grounds to suspect that (Ms Kovaleva) is associated with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov through her mothers relationship with him.

It added that Mr Lavrov is is a senior member of the government of Russia, and a key decision-maker.

He is thereby involved in its attempts to destabilise Ukraine and undermining and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine, it said.

Meanwhile, the Government has announced it will target Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler.

The FCDO said the oil tycoon is reportedly worth an estimated 1.2 billion, and has close business links to Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, who was added to the UKs sanctions list on March 10.

The Treasury notice stated that the pair have had a close relationship for decades.

It comes after a private jet suspected of being linked to the oligarch was impounded at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire hours before it was due to fly to Dubai earlier this month.

The aircraft was detained on the orders of Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to enable an investigation into its connection with Mr Shvidler.
A second man jailed for three and a half years over a multimillion-dollar bribery conspiracy to secure oil infrastructure contracts in Iraq has had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Paul Bond, 69, was originally convicted for involvement in an alleged plot to pay out bribes totalling six million US dollars (4.9 million) to politicians and state-owned companies after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

The former secondary school teacher was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to give corrupt payments following a prosecution brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Mr Bond was convicted for his alleged role in the conspiracy alongside Stephen Whiteley, Basil Al-Jarah and Ziad Akle.

In December last year, Mr Akle had his conviction overturned after three senior judges found that the SFO failed fundamentally to provide documents that had a clear potential to embarrass the SFO in their prosecution of this case related to the agencys contact with US citizen David Tinsley.

The Court of Appeal was told that Mr Tinsley had acted as a fixer for the founder of Unaoil, British-Iranian Ata Ahsani, and his two sons.

The court heard Mr Tinsley had contact with the director of the SFO, Lisa Osofsky, and indicated to the agency that he had contacted Mr Akle and Al-Jarah to discuss their pleas.

A prisoners hand pokes through bars (Andrew Parsons/PA)

Senior judges previously said the SFO should have had nothing to do with Mr Tinsley.

On Thursday, Mr Bond challenged his conviction on similar grounds as Mr Akle.

Granting the appeal, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Jay and Mr Justice Bennathan, found that the SFOs failure to disclose the documents had rendered the conviction unsafe.

The applicant was prevented from presenting his case in its best light and as such his conviction is unsafe, he ruled.

Following the ruling, Mary Monson Solicitors, who represented Mr Bond, said they were grateful but not remotely surprised that his appeal was successful.

A spokesperson added: Elements of the case against him reeked from the start.

The conduct of the SFO, including those who made the crucial decisions regarding disclosure of this material, displayed an institutional arrogance which betrayed an air of untouchability.

It seems other-worldly that the director of the SFO herself could have seen fit to meet with David Tinsley and correspondent regularly with him during the case.

They continued: He has lived a blameless life, yet found himself tangled up in this illegitimate prosecution.

He spent one year and 23 days locked in a prison cell for more than 23 hours each day.

This injustice was only made possible by the tapping up of his co-defendants by the very agency which was prosecuting him, overseen and specifically encouraged by that organisations boss Lisa Osofsky.
Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the looping animated GIF image format, died this month.

The death was confirmed in an obituary, which said Wilhite, one the chief architect of America Online, died March 14  just days after his 74th birthday on March 3. He died of Covid, his wife, Kathaleen, confirmed.

Wilhite began his career at Compuserve, the first major commercial online service provider.

In 1987, while at Compuserve, he created the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, to compress images to make them accessible for early modem speeds.

Years later, it became social media's primary method of conveying emotion and memetic communication. The GIF format has been used as a convenient way to show graphs, drawings and simple animations.

In the early 2010s, the format exploded. Whether it was Jasmine Masters from RuPauls Drag Race saying And I oop- or Kermit the Frog drinking Lipton tea, there was no shortage of expression that could be conveyed by Wilhites GIF.

In 2012, GIF was pronounced word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary, thanks to its resurgence in popularity among bloggers, especially on Tumblr and other sites.

Many over the years debated how GIF is supposed to be pronounced. In 2013, Wilhite settled the debate, declaring that it is pronounced with a soft "g," like the peanut butter brand Jif. Some still use a hard "g" when they use the word.

In 2013, Wilhite received Lifetime Achievement Award at the Webby Awards for his invention and his contribution to internet culture.

Kathaleen Wilhite said it was a "wonderful moment in his life going to New York and winning that award. However, she said, "they should have honored him a lot sooner."

He retired in the early 2000s and spent time camping and traveling.

Wilhite is survived by his wife, four stepchildren, a son, 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, according to his obituary.

A funeral service was held Tuesday in Milford, Ohio.
U.S. airline CEOs urge Biden to lift COVID mask mandate -letter FILE PHOTO: Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Atlanta, Georgia

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The chief executives of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and other carriers on Wednesday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to end a federal mask mandate on airplanes and international pre-departure testing requirements.

The airline executives, including the chairman of Southwest Airlines and JetBlue's CEO, said in a letter the restrictions "are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment."

The Biden administration this month opted to extend current COVID-19 mask requirements at airports, train stations, ride share vehicles and other transit modes through April 18. The order was set to expire on March 18.

"It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in

crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do," the airline letter said.

The White House declined to comment, but earlier this month said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was working to help develop "a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor."

Delta CEO Ed Bastian in a separate statement https://news.delta.com/delta-asks-biden-administration-end-covid-era-travel-restrictions said "considering the improved public health metrics in the U.S. and medical advancements to prevent the worst outcomes of COVID-19, the federal mask mandate and pre-departure testing no longer fits with the current environment."

The letter also made reference to "thousands of airline employees charged with enforcing" the COVID rules.

The mask requirements have resulted in significant friction on airplanes. The Federal Aviation Administration says since January 2021, there have been a record 6,942 unruly passenger incidents reported - and 70% involved masking rules

Last week, the U.S. Senate voted 57 to 40 to overturn the 13-month-old public health order requiring masks on airplanes and other forms of public transportation, a move that drew a quick veto threat from Biden.

The mask mandate has drawn significant opposition from Republicans who noted the CDC says 99.5% of Americans live in places where it is safe to ditch indoor masks.

The letter cited the CDC data arguing "the science clearly supports lifting the mask mandate."

The 2021 CDC order said the mask mandate could help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in crowded transport settings.

(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
Not at all. It just seems like a lot of back-and-forth talk.

Yes. I'm growing very worried over what might happen.

If it keeps up, I might be a little more concerned.

I think there are much larger things to concern us as a country.

It's hard to tell; I can't take the leader of either country seriously.

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YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The citizens of the Republic of Artsakh are deprived of natural gas supply for already three days, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting. He said that the supply was cut off as a result of Azerbaijans intervention.

As you know, on March 7 the pipeline supplying gas to Artsakh was blown up in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. Using the most various pretexts, Azerbaijan was not allowing repair works and eventually Azerbaijan itself repaired it. As a result, the information we have indicates that Azerbaijan installed a valve on the pipeline.

On March 18, 11 days later, after restoring the gas supply to Artsakh for 4 days Azerbaijan simply closed the valve without any explosions on March 21, thus proving that it was behind the March 7 explosion, the PM said.

PM Pashinyan highlighted the fact that both cases of the supply cut-off happened in unique circumstances.

On March 7, unprecedented amount of snowfalls in the last 30 years happened in Artsakh and unprecedented drop in air temperatures were recorded. New record snowfalls and freezing cold was recorded on March 21 and in some places the snowfalls reached one and a half meters, one meter in capital Stepanakert, and the temperature reached minus eight degrees. And in these conditions Artsakh was intentionally deprived by Azerbaijan from the vitally significant natural gas supplies for heating apartments, kindergartens, schools and hospitals, PM Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that this is enough to understand that as a result of Azerbaijans actions Artsakh is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.

Pashinyan said he has no doubts that the heroic people of Artsakh will overcome this trial as well.

But with this realization I must also say for the record that with its actions Azerbaijan is also rendering a service to the people of Artsakh, because this episode concerning the gas pipeline is a very precise and brief description of the Artsakh conflict for the international community. With this episode, the international community can understand the essence of the Karabakh conflict without reading hundreds of pages and studying the nuances of history.

This unequivocally showcases Azerbaijans policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh: That is  to make their life in their own homeland impossible. For one and a half years now, Azerbaijan is boasting of its so-called glorious victory in the 2020 44-day war, but everything shows that the fact that after so much suffering and deprivations, today, right now over 117,000 Armenians live in Artsakh, Azerbaijan considers this fact its biggest defeat and has set an objective to complete its policy of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, PM Pashinyan said.

In this context, Pashinyan said the Azerbaijani foreign ministrys latest statement is very symbolic and speaks volumes, because Baku said in this statement that the Artsakh gas supply issue is its internal affair.

If we interpret this from diplomatic language, this means that they are saying  international community, dont look this way and let us complete our policy of getting rid of Armenians by genocidal policy and ethnic cleansing in Artsakh under the pretext of so-called anti-terror actions or simply without obstructions, quietly. No such thing can happen, and the diplomatic service of Armenia, other government officials, political forces, media, NGOs and individuals should in detail and widely present to the international community through social media everything that happened in Artsakh in the past 15 days, Pashinyan said.

On March 8, the authorities of Artsakh said that the main pipeline supplying gas from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged on March 7 and the supply was stopped.

The Artsakh authorities had said the area where the damage occurred was in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. It was reported that the Azerbaijani military deliberately damaged the pipeline.

The Azerbaijani authorities obstructed repair works for days. Only on March 16 the authorities in Artsakh announced that the Azerbaijani side itself began the repair work. However, days later, the gas supply was cut again. Authorities said they have reasons to believe that during the repairs the Azeri authorities installed a valve on the pipeline in order to shut it down whenever they want.

Meanwhile, the population of Artsakh is without gas and heating amid freezing temperatures and snowfalls. The Artsakh foreign ministry described Azerbaijans actions as humanitarian terrorism.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the current situation emphasizes the urgency of clear response of the international community towards preventing the humanitarian crisis.

On March 22 the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan and the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan issued a joint statement, calling on international human rights organizations to pressure Azerbaijan and eliminate its gross and continuous human rights violations against the Armenians of Artsakh.

On March 23, the FM of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said they utilized all diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation.

On March 23, the European Union expressed its concerns.

On March 24, Freedom House urged Azerbaijan to prevent humanitarian crisis and restore gas supplies to Artsakh.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The policy adopted by Armenia on opening an era of peaceful development for the region has no alternative, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the Cabinet meeting today, stating that although many react to the current gas problem in Artsakh by reminding and criticizing the policy of opening a peaceful development era for the country and the region.

Quite the contrary, with its actions, numerous provocations Azerbaijan is trying to divert us from our agenda of peace, to deligitimize that agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new escalations, new wars in the region. But we must not give in to these and such kind of provocations. I have stated that for implementing the peace agenda we need firm nerves and we must not deviate from our declared strategy in any way. Strategy is a strategy that should guide us in all situations, the PM said.

He reminded that after the first explosion of the gas pipeline, on March 10, a 5-point proposal on the settlement of the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan was handed over to Armenia.

We have responded to these proposals in writing very quickly, on March 14, and have applied to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, requesting to assist in organizing the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And on March 21, 2022, the Foreign Minister of Armenia voiced Armenias overall assessment to the proposals presented by Azerbaijan, and that assessment is the following:

There is nothing unacceptable for us in the proposals submitted by Azerbaijan. Its another thing that these proposals do not address all issues on he Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. With our response, submitted to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, we have amended that agenda and thus, we are ready for the launch of peace talks on this base.

On the day this position was announced, in the evening, Azerbaijan closes the pipeline supplying gas to Artsakh. Pay attention please, Armenia announces that the proposals presented by Azerbaijan are acceptable for Armenia, but Azerbaijan closes the gas pipeline, and this is the greatest proof that Azerbaijans policy is to divert us from the peace agenda, Pashinyan said.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed what he described as the radical oppositions criticism claiming that his administration has agreed to accept the principle of territorial integrity as the principle of normalization of relations.

Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting that this criticism is more than strange.

PM Pashinyan reminded a 1999 statement by then-President Robert Kocharyan, who said If we speak about territorial integrity in general, we shouldnt say that we oppose it. We also have territory, and we too consider that this territory requires adherence to such principle. Pashinyan said Kocharyan made this statement after returning to Yerevan in 1999 from the OSCE Istanbul summit where he had voted in favor of the security charter in Europe, which defends territorial integrity.

After him, Serzh Sargsyan also negotiated over the NK conflict settlement for many years, accepting the principle of territorial integrity, among others, as a fundamental principle for resolution. Therefore, speculations are inappropriate here. We believe that the Nagorno Karabakh has never been a territorial conflict and isnt such now as well, it is an issue of rights and we will consistently defend all rights of the Armenians of Artsakh, also by not ignoring the rights of other nations, because, as Serzh Sargsyan once rightfully said in a latest interview  we are not fascists, Pashinyan said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan earlier also said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The situation around the world and in the region is tense and Armenia considers itself responsible to de-escalate this tension and find fundamental solutions, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

In this regard, indeed, we think that the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be launched as soon as possible. Moreover, the border demarcation and delimitation works must be accelerated parallel to the measures for increasing the level of security and stability at the border. You know certainly that we have made the proposal of reciprocal withdrawal of troops on the border, considering the de jure borderline confirmed between Armenia and Azerbaijan during Soviet times as an indicative for pulling back, the PM said.

Pashinyan added that in addition to the proposal of the general withdrawal, Armenia also proposed local withdrawals, and is still awaiting a response from Azerbaijan.

Particularly, in the Yeraskh section we proposed them to pull back several positions from our territory, and in turn we will pull back several positions from their territory, and thus we will solve the issue of one of the most fierce locations of the past one and a half year. We are waiting for a response from Azerbaijan, the PM said.

However, PM Pashinyan said that after the latest developments it is unclear whether or not Azerbaijan truly wants the opening of regional connections.

Its not very clear for us whether Azerbaijan wants the opening of regional connections or not. If it does, our proposals are still in force and we are ready to start implementing them at any moment, literally at any moment, Pashinyan said, reminding that he has numerously talked about the Armenian Crossroad project.
YEREVAN, MRCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Turkish historian Taner Akcam delivered a lecture on the Anatomy of the Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1878-1924, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens on March 23.

The lecture was organized by the Armenian Embassy in Greece and the Faculty of Political Science and Public Management of the University, the Embassy said in a news release.

The lecture was attended by the Universitys students, lecturers, representatives of the Greek parliament and the Armenian community.

Ambassador of Armenia to Greece Tigran Mkrtchyan addressed the event participants online and thanked the University of Athens for assisting to hold the lecture. He highly valued Taner Akcams activity in greatly contributing to the education on genocide by his valuable scientific works about genocides and crimes against humanity.

In his remarks the Ambassador touched upon the importance of resolutions authored by Armenia in the UN Human Rights Council on prevention of genocides, and stated that many countries, including Greece, acted as co-authors of the resolution.

During his lecture Turkish historian Taner Akcam talked about the genocide committed against the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire and mentioned the factors which served a base for its implementation.

He said after the assassination of Hrant Dink, the Turkish society has started to face its historical past, however, he adds that Turkey still has a long path to pass for recognizing the fact of Genocide at a state level. He says this is also a matter of legal consequences which is also not clearly perceived in that country.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. With support of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, the authorities in Artsakh continue negotiations with the Azerbaijani side for the restoration of gas supply, the Artsakh authorities said on March 24.

The government of the Republic of Artsakh seeks to resolve this highly important humanitarian issue as soon as possible and we assure that we are taking all possible measures also in the diplomatic arena, which naturally arent subject to publicizing, the governments Information Center said.

It added that the President Arayik Harutyunyan authorized Secretary of the Security Council Vitaly Balasanyan to act as the negotiator.

The authorities of Artsakh said that the main pipeline supplying gas from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged on March 7 and the supply stopped.

The Artsakh authorities had said the area where the damage occurred was in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. It was reported that the Azerbaijani military deliberately damaged the pipeline.

The Azerbaijani authorities obstructed repair works for days. Only on March 16 the authorities in Artsakh announced that the Azerbaijani side itself began the repair work. However, days later, the gas supply was cut again. Authorities said they have reasons to believe that during the repairs the Azeri authorities installed a valve on the pipeline in order to shut it down whenever they want.

Meanwhile, the population of Artsakh is without gas and heating amid freezing temperatures and snowfalls. The Artsakh foreign ministry described Azerbaijans actions as humanitarian terrorism.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the current situation emphasizes the urgency of clear response of the international community towards preventing the humanitarian crisis.

On March 22 the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan and the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan issued a joint statement, calling on international human rights organizations to pressure Azerbaijan and eliminate its gross and continuous human rights violations against the Armenians of Artsakh.

On March 23, the FM of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said they utilized all diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation.

On March 23, the European Union expressed its concerns.

On March 24, Freedom House urged Azerbaijan to prevent humanitarian crisis and restore gas supplies to Artsakh.

Speaking on the gas supply cut-off, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the March 24 Cabinet meeting that Azerbaijan seeks to finish ethnic cleansing in Artsakh.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is set to extend his term as head of the alliance by another year due to the war in Ukraine, Norwegian broadcaster TV2 reported citing unnamed sources.



Any extension needs to be agreed by all 30 NATO members at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. During the UN 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, the Armenian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan delivered a speech, presenting the programs for the displaced residents of Artsakh.

Mkrtchyan told ARMENPRESS that he presented the challenges facing the people of Artsakh who were displaced as a result of Azerbaijans war of aggression.

The majority of the more than 90,000 displaced people from Artsakh are women and children, and they have been included in different support programs. I presented the work aimed at overcoming the social crisis. I also spoke about what needs to be done to ensure dignified conditions for them, Mkrtchyan said.

A significant part of the displaced persons have returned, but many have stayed in Armenia and they require assistance and dignified conditions. Accommodation remains a problem. As long as their housing issue isnt solved in Artsakh they will stay in Armenia.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged NATO to provide Kyiv with unlimited military aid in a message via video link.

"To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions. In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us," the Ukrainian leader told NATO representatives gathered in Brussels as reported by France24.

US President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels on Thursday to attend a series of NATO, G7, and European Union summits on the war in Ukraine. Biden will later visit Warsaw to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda.
YEREVAN, MRCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan held a telephone conversation today with Vice Prime Minister/Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, David Zalkaliani, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

The sides discussed issues relating to the constant development of the Armenian-Georgian relations, the strengthening of political dialogue through mutual visits of top officials.

During the talk the Armenian FM introduced his Georgian counterpart on Azerbaijans psychological pressures against the people of Nagorno Karabakh, actions on obstructing the normal operation of vital infrastructure in these cold weather conditions, as a result of which Artsakh is currently facing a humanitarian crisis.

He also presented the position of the Armenian side on starting negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan around peace agreement, highlighting the mediating role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship in this context.

The ministers also exchanged ideas about the regional and international security.
YEREVAN, 24 MARCH, ARMENPERSS. The protection of the line of contact in the direction of Parukh, Khramort settlements of Askeran region, ensuring the security of the civilian population living in those communities is within the mission of the Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in the Artsakh Republic, ARMENPRESS reports the information headquarters of Artsakh informs.

It is noted that at the moment the peacekeepers are at their bases, the negotiations are continuing.

"We once again urge the population to remain calm, the situation on all other parts of the line of contact is stable at the moment," the statement said.

The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the line of contact in the direction of the village of Parukh in Artsakhs Askeran region.The government of Artsakh said representatives of the Artsakh Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh are attempting to prevent through negotiations the further advance of the Azerbaijani troops and return them to their original positions.

As a safety precaution, women and children in the village of Khramort in Askeran region have been evacuated.
I expect the state government will definitely punish those who committed such a heinous sin on the great land of Bengal. PM Modi said

Forensic experts collect samples from the house of Sona Sheikh where seven people were burnt to death keeping captive in their room, allegedly for avenging the killing of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh, at Rampurhat in Birbhum district, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (PTI)

Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought punishment and no mercy by the Mamata Banerjee government towards the culprits of the heinous sin in Birbhum, West Bengal, hours after the Calcutta high court took suo moto cognisance of the carnage, expressed shock over the horror and ordered the state government to file a status report by 2 pm on Thursday.

Inaugurating the Biplobi Bharat Gallery at Victoria Memorial in Kolkata virtually from New Delhi, Mr Modi started his address with the carnage at Bogtui village in Rampurhat. He said: At the outset, I express my sadness and solidarity with the violent incident in Birbhum. I expect the state government will definitely punish those who committed such a heinous sin on the great land of Bengal. I also urge the people of Bengal not to forgive the culprits of such a crime and those who inspire them ever. On behalf of the Central government, I further assure the state government of providing all kinds of assistance that it needs to punish the accused at the earliest.

At the high court, a series of petitions praying for a NIA probe into the murder of TMC upa pradhan Bhadu Sheikh and a CBI investigation on the massacre came up for hearing by a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj in the morning. BJP leader and lawyer Tarunjyoti Tiwari, who is among the petitioners, said: The bench took suo moto cognisance of the barbarity and expressed shock over it.

During the hearing, the state government, represented by advocate-general S.N. Mookherjee, vehemently opposed the probe by any Central agency with an argument that 20 persons were arrested by the police and the completion of the post-mortem of the victims. The two judges then directed the state government to submit the case diary and other reports within 24 hours.

They also instructed West Bengal DGP Manoj Malviya immediately instal CCTV cameras with adequate storage facilities covering all angles of the scene of the crime in the presence of the district judge of Burdwan East. Mr Malviya, in consultation with the district judge, has also been asked to ensure that the witnesses in the case are adequately protected and not threatened or influenced by anyone.

The high court further directed the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to visit the scene of the crime and collect the necessary evidence for forensic examination without any delay. The development came on a day many victims family members alleged that the bodies were buried late on Tuesday night while keeping them in the dark.

They also claimed a local Trinamul Congress leader, Anarul Hossain, had introduced himself as the victims kin to identify the bodies and help the administration to carry out the burial hurriedly. Mr Hossain, however, denied these charges. The villagers also complained that the police did not come to their rescue during the massacre despite repeated calls. The leaders of the Left parties and the BJP made a beeline for the violence-hit zone on Wednesday to reap political dividends.
More than ten million Ukrainians have already fled homes and cities under sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an impassioned plea Thursday for citizens worldwide to pour onto streets and squares in global protest against Russia's bloody month-old invasion.

In a late-night television address from the emptied streets of his nation's besieged capital Kyiv, a defiant but visibly tired Zelensky appealed in English for worldwide solidarity.

"The world must stop the war," he said. "Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life."

His appeal came one month after Russian tanks rolled over the border, bringing a conflict that has killed untold thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides.

More than ten million Ukrainians have already fled homes and cities under sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air.

There is growing evidence that Russia's once-vaunted military has become badly bogged down, and has been forced to turn to long-range bombardment to break Ukrainian resolve.

In the southern port city of Mariupol alone, 100,000 people are trapped without food, water or power and enduring fierce shelling by Russian forces.

In the city's hospital, local officials said staff have evacuated patients to the basement, where they are treated by candlelight beside 600-700 other local residents seeking what little safety they can.

The US government on Wednesday said the Kremlin's bombing campaign amounted to war crimes, further escalating a confrontation between Moscow and the West that has rivalled the worst crises of the Cold War.

"We've seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine."

So far the conflict has not spilt over into direct military conflagration between Russia and NATO, but there are growing fears Russia may up the ante with a chemical, biological or even tactical nuclear attack.

US President Joe Biden is in Brussels for back-to-back emergency NATO, G7, and European Union summits from Thursday that will bring pledges of more lethal weapons for Ukraine, more punishing sanctions on Russia's already crisis-wracked economy and warnings about further escalation.

Ukrainian resistance

NATO officials believe that -- armed with an arsenal of Western anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons -- Ukrainian forces may have already killed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers and wounded perhaps 30,000-40,000.

Putin's regime officially puts the number of Russian fallen at under 500, and has introduced draconian censorship laws to prevent independently verified news about what it calls a "special military operation."

But Ukrainian civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.

Zelensky admitted the last month had been "long" but hailed Ukrainian resistance that has been much more ferocious than Russia expected and would endure for as long as it takes.

"This is a war for independence and we must win," he said in the late-night address, flitting between Ukrainian and his native Russian.

"We will rebuild every city, we will bring the invaders to justice for every crime," he said. "All our people will live in a free Ukraine."

Recent days have brought claims of Ukrainian forces not only repelling attacks from the much larger and much better armed Russian military, but launching counteroffensives and winning back territory around Kyiv.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that "the small city of Makariv and almost all of Irpin is already under the control of Ukrainian soldiers".

AFP journalists reported fierce exchanges of artillery fire in Irpin.

British military intelligence said Ukraine had "probably retaken Makariv and Moschun" to the northwest of the capital and "there is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin."

Putin responds

Facing mounting diplomatic and economic pressure, Putin's regime has responded by warning Russia could use nuclear weapons if it faces an "existential threat", and launched tit-for-tat retaliation against the West.

Moscow moved to expel US diplomats in retaliation for Washington's move earlier this month to remove 12 of Moscow's US-based representatives to the United Nations.

In an effort to blunt the damage done by sanctions to the national currency, Putin said Wednesday that Russia will only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to "unfriendly countries", which include all EU members.

The manoeuver sharpened growing debate in Europe -- which is heavily dependent on Russian energy imports -- about possible bans on Russian oil and gas.

Moscow has warned an embargo would prompt a "collapse" of the global energy market.

While Europe has appeared fractured on the question of an oil embargo, there are also signs of fissures within Putin's regime.

Moscow recently confirmed that Anatoly Chubais -- a former Kremlin chief of staff who oversaw liberal economic reforms in the 1990s -- quit his post as a Putin advisor. He has reportedly fled the country in protest at the war.

Russia still has a vital friend in China, which pushed back against suggestions that Moscow should be expelled from the G20 group of countries.

But Scott Morrison, prime minister of G20 member Australia, said he believed that Putin attending the summit would be "a step too far."

NATO reinforces

In the latest sign that the war has reinvigorated NATO, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg announced it would send more reinforcements to guard against Russia expanding its campaign.

The leaders at Thursday's summit will agree to "major increases of forces" including four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The allies will also offer "additional support" to Kyiv against nuclear and chemical threats, he said.

But NATO members, while maintaining a steady supply of anti-tank and short-range anti-aircraft missiles, have refused Zelensky's demands for a no-fly zone over Ukraine or shipment of warplanes to the Ukrainian air force, fearing all-out war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Nearly a month into the invasion, peace talks have agreed on daily humanitarian corridors for refugees, and Ukraine says it is willing to countenance some Russian demands subject to a national referendum.

But it has refused to bow to demands to disarm and renounce its pro-Western ambitions.

Ukraine's lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said the peace talks were encountering "significant difficulties." Moscow accused the United States of undermining the process.

'Tip of an iceberg'

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that the humanitarian disaster in Ukraine was only getting worse.

"The problems we face so far... are really the tip of an iceberg of need," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said.

"And there's going to have to be a further, massive scaling up of assistance within Ukraine in the coming weeks, because I have never, myself, seen such complex needs, and so quickly in a crisis that has developed so fast."

"We have reached maybe, for once, an appropriate level of horror at what's happening in Ukraine," he said.
Tomorrow Iraqi Christians will join the pontiff for the consecration of Russia and Ukraine to Mary. The government does not have a "clear" position on the war, it seeks to safeguard relations with Moscow and Washington. Solidarity and closeness in a letter sent to the Archbishop of Kiev. Those who have lived through the war "know what disasters it can cause".

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - Iraqis "are against the war", ordinary people "want peace" in Ukraine as in their own country, appeals for detente are multiplying on television because "we have experienced" conflicts and violence, and their consequences first hand, says Chaldean Patriarch, Card. Louis Raphael Sako. He shared his fears with AsiaNews about the new front that has opened up on Europe's doorstep following Moscow's invasion of Kiev, with the risk that it could turn into a conflict on a global scale with the use of atomic weapons.

This is why tomorrow the Iraqi Church will join Pope Francis on the occasion of the consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. "We have planned a prayer service at the Marian shrine in Baghdad", explains the Chaldean Primate.

He continues that the government has "no clear position" on a war that is part of "a complicated situation at the regional and global level". The authorities in Baghdad, which boast solid economic and military ties with Washington and Moscow, "cannot make a clear-cut choice of field". However, the population "remembers the same scenario experienced 20 years ago" with the US invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime - as before with the war in Kuwait.

"At that time, I was in Mosul. We lived for over a month under US bombs" he recalls. The solution to the problem, he warns, can only pass "through dialogue". If there is no confrontation, no open exchange of positions, the damage "will affect everyone. In recent days I have sent a letter to the archbishop of Kiev expressing our solidarity and closeness. From Iraq we pray for peace, dialogue and a solution to the controversies. Anyone who has experienced war", he warns, "knows how many disasters it can cause", both on a human and material level.

In the meantime, the first consequences of the Ukrainian crisis are beginning to be seen on the economic level. In recent days, protests have broken out in the south of the country over the escalation in food prices, which local officials believe is linked to the conflict. For a week, the price of cooking oil and flour has skyrocketed in local markets, triggering demonstrations of discontent that the authorities have tried to defuse by announcing measures to support spending. The scene of the protest was the central square in Nassiriya, already the epicentre of the 2019 popular uprising against corruption that spread to most of the country.

"The rising prices are strangling us, both bread and other foodstuffs," Hassan Kazem, a retired teacher from the city, told Afp. "We can barely," he added, "make ends meet. The central government recently announced measures to limit the consequences of the global price increase, allocating an allowance of about 64 euros for pensioners with incomes below 630 euros per month; the bonus is extended to civil servants earning less than 310 euros. In addition, customs duties on foodstuffs, basic consumer goods and materials used on construction sites have been suspended for two months.

Iraqis are "tired" of the suffering they have suffered and experienced in recent years, which the various governments have tried to "address" but in practice have remained "unresolved", accumulating over time various "crisis factors". The pope's visit in March last year, still a current event, "was a message of joy, peace and coexistence" for everyone. To commemorate this event, the Patriarch concluded, "we recited the prayer of St Francis of Assisi, followed by a special prayer addressed by a Shiite, a Sunni and a Yazidi. United under the banner of peace".
by Li Qiang

Fighter jets and a frigate have been delivered,the possible arrival of eight submarines pending. In 10 years, China has sold almost US$ 6 billion worth of armaments to the Pakistanis. Beijing is exploiting the war in Ukraine, and the US distraction, to advance in South Asia. Border tensions with Delhi remain.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - With the common rival India in its sights, China has increased its arms sales to Pakistan. Relations between the two countries continue to expand, beyond economic cooperation to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi Jinping's mega-infrastructure project to further China's global influence.

In a meeting on 22 March with Pakistani Premier Imran Khan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that within its capabilities Beijing "stands ready to provide assistance within its capacity for Pakistan to overcome difficulties and recover its economy". For his part, according to the Chinese communique, the leader of Islamabad expressed the hope of achieving common achievements and cooperating "in all areas".

China is Pakistan's leading arms supplier. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has calculated that between 2012 and 2021 Beijing has sold Pakistan nearly 6 billion dollars worth of arms, with a peak last year of 753 million.

This month, the Chinese delivered to the Pakistanis six J-10CE fighter jets, which the Beijing Air Force often uses for its raids near Taiwan. Islamabad added 50 JF-17 fighter jets, developed jointly with China, to its arsenal. In January, the Pakistani Navy took possession of a Chinese-built frigate. International media have revealed that Pakistan also wants to buy eight submarines from China, four of which would be built in its own shipyards.

Various observers believe China is exploiting the US distraction over Ukraine to strengthen its position in South Asia. Pakistan has always been the focus of these anti-Indian attempts: since the partition of 1947, after the end of the British colonial rule, Islamabad and Delhi have fought several wars, especially over the sovereignty over Kashmir.

China and India share a 3,488 km border in the Himalayas, over which they fought a brief but bloody conflict in 1962. Delhi claims large parts of Aksai Chin (which the Chinese obtained from Pakistan); Beijing has claims on the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Since 1975, the two armed forces have faced each other several times, often without casualties. On 15 June 2020, however, Indian and Chinese troops faced each other in the Galwan valley, between Indian Ladakh and Chinese Aksai Chin: 20 Indian soldiers died; unconfirmed sources initially spoke of 45 Chinese casualties.

After that clash, military commanders from both sides held 15 meetings to lower tensions. Little progress has been made, with the joint withdrawal of troops from three points of 'friction' along the disputed border - agreements that have not prevented further skirmishes from breaking out.

The stalemate in negotiations has led to an increasing militarisation of the Sino-Indian border. Thousands of heavily armed troops are deployed on both sides of the border. The contenders are also engaged in extending their border infrastructure to facilitate possible war operations.

It should be noted that a large part of India's weaponry is of Russian production, a condition that in the medium to long term may put a strain on the "friendship without limits" that China and Russia have forged against the US and its allies. In addition, in January the Philippines purchased three batteries of Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles, developed by India in collaboration with Russia. Vietnam and Indonesia are also among the possible buyers of the Russian-Indian projectile: Manila, Hanoi and Jakarta are contesting Beijing's territorial claims over almost the entire South China Sea.

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Today's headlines: a well-known blogger arrested in Vietnam; South Korea reopens to Russians, but not for tourism; in Laos, two villages demand compensation for dam construction; in India, the release of a young activist is denied; search continues in China for a second black box from recent plane crash.

PALESTINE - UKRAINE

A young couple fleeing Ukraine have found refuge in Gaza: Viktoria Breij chose the homeland of her husband, Ibrahim Saidam, to escape the war after the Russian invasion. The two, married for two years, met in Kyiv when she was a pharmacy student and he was a medical student, originally from Bureij, a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

RUSSIA - BELARUS

Russians are offering various incentives in addition to money, including free military training, to attract Belarusians to join the fighting in Ukraine. Members of the Russian services are directly targeting Belarusian soldiers, offering to join the Russian army with a salary of ,000-1,500 a month, who for the moment do not seem very motivated to jump into the fighting.

SOUTH KOREA - RUSSIA

South Korea will reinstate visa-free entry to the country for Russians from 1 April, which was restricted in April 2020 due to Covid. It will be sufficient to register with the K-Eta (Korea Electronic Travel Authorisation) system. Travel for study, medical treatment and humanitarian reasons is permitted, but not for tourism.

KYRGYZSTAN

Two demonstrations were held at the same time in Biskek, one for and one against the Russian war in Ukraine. Only the participants of the second one were fined, while no one took responsibility for the first one.

LAOS

Inhabitants of two villages in northern Laos will be relocated to make room for the construction of a dam in Luang Prabang (a Unesco heritage site) on the Mekong River, and are demanding more compensation than the local authorities have already granted. The USD 3 billion project will be carried out by a Vietnamese and a Thai company.

CHINA

Rescue teams are searching for a second black box from the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed with 132 passengers on board in Guangxi, southern China. Yesterday, a first black box was found in good condition and is believed to contain cockpit recordings.

INDIA

An Indian court denied bail to an activist arrested 18 months ago on charges of inciting riots in the capital Delhi. Umar Khalid is accused of being a "key conspirator" in the clashes in which 53 people, mostly Muslims, died in February 2020. Khalid denies the charges, saying he took part in a peaceful protest.

VIETNAM

A court in Vietnam sentenced a 51-year-old well-known commentator, Le Van Dung, to five years in prison for "insulting the honour and prestige of the Communist Party and state leaders". Before his arrest in June, Dung had been broadcasting daily videos on his social channels. Despite openings in recent years, the Communists continued to control society with censorship and repression of activists.
Speaking to the Italian Women's Centre, Francis said that he was ashamed that some countries opted recently to increase military spending as a response to war. A culture of caring rather than weapons is the true path. Gandhi, he noted, led a people to freedom via the path of nonviolence. Women offer an alternative model of politics.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis met with members of the Centro Italiano Femminile (Italian Women's Centre) during an audience in the Vaticans Clementine Hall.

In his address, he stressed the importance of their voice in changing the way the world is ruled, from a logic of power to one of care and service. He also turned to the war in Ukraine, calling for disarmament and the pursuit of world peace. This is a tall challenge and, in the popes view, women have a particular responsibility.

Speaking of womens involvement in society, the pontiff referred to the conflict in Ukraine, noting that good politics cannot come from the culture of power understood as domination and oppression, but only from a culture of caring, caring for people and their dignity, and caring for our common home. Unfortunately, the shameful war we are witnessing negatively proves it.

"We have had plenty of regional wars, he explained, which is why I said we were [already] into a piecemeal third world war, a little everywhere, until this one, which is larger and threatens the whole world. Yet, the basic problem is the same: we continue to rule the world like a 'chessboard', where the powerful study ways to extend dominance to the detriment of others.

Pope Francis slammed the renewed arms race. I felt ashamed when I read that a group of states (those of NATO) decided to spend 2 per cent on the purchase of weapons. This is madness, he bemoaned.

"The real answer is not other weapons, other sanctions, other political-military alliances, but another approach, a different way of governing the now globalised world, not showing aggressiveness, but a different way of setting international relations.

The caring model is already in place, thank God, but unfortunately it is still subject to the economic-technocratic-military power. For this reason, he urged women to lead this change of course, towards conversion.

This is Jesuss school. Jesus taught us how the Kingdom of God always develops starting from the small seed. It is Gandhi's school, who led a people to freedom via the path of nonviolence. It is the school of saints of all time, who made humanity grow by bearing witness to a life spent in the service of God and neighbour.

What is more, it is also  I would say above all  the school of countless women who have nurtured and safeguarded life; women who have healed frailties, who have healed wounds, who have healed human and social wounds; women who have dedicated their minds and hearts to the education of new generations.
A similar test failed last week. North Korea ended its moratorium on long-range (and possibly short-range) missile testing. Analysts predict renewed tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies)  North Korea today fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Sea of Japan.

The rocket, which was launched from the Sunan area in the capital Pyongyang, flew for more than 1,000 kilometres, reaching its maximum height of 6,000 kilometres.

The flight of the Hwasong 17, one of the most powerful missiles in North Korea's arsenal, lasted 71 minutes.

The last ICBM test dates back to 2017, a year before Kim Jong-un decided on a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear testing during negotiations with the Trump administration. At the time, the rocket flew for 53 minutes and reached an altitude of 4,000 kilometres.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed the launch this morning, while Japan announced that the missile fell within its exclusive economic zone. South Korea's response was immediate firing missiles as part of an exercise.

According to experts, North Koreas latest test (out of more than a dozen since the start of the year) is a prelude to new tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Although the final assessment of the launch is not yet known, some argue that today's test could be part of Kim's plan to develop an ICBM that reaches 15,000 kilometres.

Others think that Pyongyang is sending a message to South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol who is expected to take a tougher line towards the North.

On 16 March, a similar test, in the same area of Pyongyang, was conducted without success after the weapon exploded immediately after take-off.

While Tokyo and Seoul strongly condemned the launch, Beijing stressed the need for dialogue to pursue peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Today, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is in Brussels for a G7 summit; an extraordinary NATO summit is also taking place in the Belgian capital to tackle the war in Ukraine.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Since 2009, this religious festival has been a UNESCO intangible heritage site. It is celebrated by many peoples of Russia and Central Asia. It promotes the values of peace and solidarity. It raises the question of acceptance of others, and the search for a common language, a problem that exploded in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - March 20 marked the start of the feast of "Nawruz", a holiday of Persian origin, which in Turkish and Iranian culture symbolises the beginning of spring and is remembered with great enthusiasm by many peoples of Russia and Central Asia. In 2009, the festival was included in the UNESCO list of intangible heritage of humanity. This year the celebration overlaps with the tragedies of the war in Ukraine, and many are trying to take advantage of it to seek a break from tensions and threats to the future.

The president of the Russian Institute for Religion and Politics, Anton Ignatenko, gathered representatives of various communities and denominations to call for peace on the occasion of Nawruz. He stressed that this holiday "helps us unite cultures and religions without pretending to elevate one over the others, giving preference to the East rather than the West to the detriment of the unity of mankind".

According to the members of the Institute, as they say in their joint statement, "this holiday helps to spread the values of peace and solidarity, across generations and within families, as well as reconciliation and peaceful neighbourhood, in the preservation of cultural diversity and the strengthening of the sense of friendship between peoples and communities".

Ignatenko pointed out that the presentation of the Nawruz at the UN was attended by many countries, including Azerbaijan, Albania, Afghanistan, Macedonia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey.

Despite the dramatic war tensions, even Russian President Vladimir Putin did not shy away from congratulating Russia's neighbouring peoples celebrating the Nawruz. His message was reported on the presidential website of Uzbekistan, which referred to a telephone conversation between Putin and President Savkat Mirziyoyev, which began with wishes for the Spring Festival.

The deputy chairman of the Religious Administration of Muslims in Russia, Rusan Abbasov, intervened to assure that 'the festival of Nawruz does not contradict the canons of Islam'. He added that the holiday "has been able to integrate with the life and traditions of many different societies... when these traditions do not violate the principles of the Sharjah, they have always been preserved, as can be seen in the different architecture of mosques in various countries".

The celebrations of the 'Nooriz', as it is called in Kyrgyzstan, were particularly solemn, with President Sadyr Zaparov going with his wife to the province of Batken, the most 'Persian' of the country, promising to find solutions to the serious economic problems of the area and the entire country. He promised to find solutions to the serious economic problems in the area and in the country as a whole. A new administrative unit had recently been set up in Batken, "at the beginning of the borders of our homeland, and we must insist on the development of these structures," he said, in order to avoid a reignition of border conflicts with Tajikistan. He called for "not leaving future generations a legacy of conflict and enmity".

The Russian-Uzbek philosopher and writer Akbar Tursunov, a lecturer in St Petersburg, believes that 'this holiday is a cultural event common to all peoples, studied from a mythological, anthropological, theological and artistic point of view... The New Year of the peoples of Iran and the Turkic world is also a tradition that has yet to be studied in depth, with various historical, folkloric and ethnographic aspects'. According to Tursunov, 'the question of acceptance of the other and the search for a common language arises here' - a particularly acute problem, which exploded in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
North Africa is also affected. The water problem compounds food supply problems (primarily wheat) caused by the war in Ukraine. UNICEF notes that the situation will get worse. Long-standing structural problems have compounded the emergency. Risk is highest in Yemen and the Gaza Strip; in the latter, the salinisation of aquifer is becoming a serious issue.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) released on Tuesday,[*] World Water Day, a dire warning concerning water shortages in the Middle East and North Africa.

The water crisis in some parts of the region is becoming increasingly alarming  especially in Yemen and the Strip of Gaza, already under huge strains  compounding the risk of hunger exacerbated by the crisis in stocks caused by the war in Ukraine,

Water scarcity is only going to get worse in this region, said UNICEFs regional climate change adviser, Chris Cormency, citing the effects of climate change.

Long-standing structural problems are aggravating the local water emergency, since nearly half of the water is unaccounted for or lost in leakages due to weak water systems that do not adequately preserve water being pumped.

The crisis, which goes back decades, has remained unresolved. An August 2021 report by UNICEF stated that groundwater has been over-used to meet agricultural needs, starting in the 1970s, when motorised pumps were introduced.

Since then, the problem has worsened as a result of "inadequate governance arrangements, including weak water resource management policies and a lack of regulation.

Internationally, on average agriculture uses 70 per cent of water, but in the Middle East and North Africa, the figure is up to 80 per cent according to the UN agency.

The World Resources Institute confirms the emergency. In a 2019 study, it found that 11 of the 17 countries most at risk are in the region: Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.

In Yemen, the disruption of public services, especially healthcare and water management, has triggered large-scale displacements and spread diseases such as cholera, making the population even more vulnerable.

Only one third of the Yemeni population is connected to a water supply and 9.4 million people are at risk of waterborne diseases, malnutrition and other life-threatening conditions.

Furthermore, in one of the poorest countries in the world, civil war has had a strong impact on access to water and sanitation.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the depletion of the territorys only coastal aquifer has aggravated the local water crisis. As a result, there is "a continuous, high rate drop in the groundwater level in most areas of the Gaza Strip," this according to Mazen Al-Banna, from the local water authority.

Another problem is the progressive salinisation of water, so much so that 98 per cent of the water is unfit for drinking.

Last but not least, the blockade imposed by Israel in 2006, Al-Banna adds, makes it impossible to import materials needed to implement water treatment and sewage plans.

[*] 22 March was first formally adopted in December 1992.
Les Thompson (left, on bass), John Cable, John McEuen and Matt Cartsonis perform during one of their multimedia performances as The Circle Band. The musicians are touring Colorado towns during the first week of April.
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Eons ago, when the Russians werent getting their asses kicked by the numerically inferior Ukrainian military forces, the rumor mill suggested a Fiat Chrysler straight-six engine. Codenamed GME T6 and nicknamed Tornado, the 3.0-liter mill was allegedly leaked by none other than Jeep.

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Even though somehow stable, the average price of gas across the U.S. sits at $4,24, according to the AAA. Since this is an average, there are people in some parts of the country that pay significantly more, and some that pay less. Talking about Wisconsin, the average price people pay here for Regular is $3,94, but this is still high for a lot of them.This is the context a gas station managed by Woodman's Market in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was recently sued by two competitor stations because wait for it, it sells the fuels too cheap. The owners of Shell and BP stations that filed suit against Woodmans claim that the station is breaking the law by selling gas for less than the station itself paid for it. This is apparently illegal in Wisconsin.The rivaling stations are suing Woodmans for damages totaling $80,000 each, based on the number of days they claim that smaller station illegally undercut them. On the other hand, Woodmans defends itself, saying it has not breached the Unfair Sales Act. They in fact compete with a nearby Costco station and thats why they had to lower the prices. Costco usually prices its fuels lower because its profits come mainly from membership fees.This should also be the case with Woodmans, since the cheaper gas attracts customers in its store, and the profits made there balance the lower gas price. Were not legal experts here, but judging by the comments to the video below, this trial should end with a landslide victory for Woodmans. Just ask the jury if they want to pay more for gas. Not only that, but the suing stations would run out of business before even the trial begins, in October, considering the backlash that this caused.
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Developed by Swedish company X Shore, the 26 ft (8 m) Eelex 8000 is described by the manufacturer as the Tesla of electric boats. It has a modular design, is customizable, and is built for high performance.X Shore used low-impact materials such as recycled plastic and cork instead of teak, aiming to start with its floating Tesla a new, more sustainable maritime tradition. The boat has that distinctive Scandinavian look to it, featuring a clean and minimalist design. Sporty in appearance, the Eelex 8000 presents itself as graceful yet solid and powerful at the same time.It is 100 percent electric , equipped with a 225motor that promises top speeds of up to 40 knots (46 mph/76 kph), and likes to cruise at a speed of 20 knots (23 mph/37 kph). Two 63lithium-ion batteries guarantee a range of over 100 Nm on a charge. Thanks to the fast charging capability, the boat can go from 20 to 80 percent in just one hour and 10 minutes.You can configure the Eelex 8000 in countless ways, with X Shore offering a plethora of furnishing possibilities. You can opt for various modules for the boat and customize it to your taste, with more than 10 layouts being available.While the electric boat may strike you as minimalist based on its appearance alone, dont let its clean, simple design fool you. They call it the Tesla of the e-boats for a good reason. Several of them, actually. The Eelex 8000 is packed with first-class technology, starting with its carbon-fiber roof with built-in Bowers and Wilkins speakers and ending with its 24 touchscreen powered by Garmin with X Shore-designed software. The latter is part of the center console that lets you monitor the boat, access and adjust all its functions.You can use the Marq smartwatch and the dedicated X Shore app as remote keys for the boat , controlling various features of the Eelex. For instance, theres a Man Over Board safety feature that automatically stops the boat in case you fall while wearing the watch. Theres also an anti-theft system included that allows you to activate a geofence and receive in-app alerts in case your boat crosses the set perimeter.X Shores all-electric and sustainable boat starts at a price of approximately $330,000, but you have to contact the manufacturer for more details, especially if you want to customize it to your liking.
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Unless you are a fan of Fords electric, you will not remember that it had a recall in Canada due to its windshield and also the glass roof. Both components could not be properly attached. That issue was reported on September 15, 2021. Safety Gate published the defect related to the glass roof on March 17. That's six months and two days of waiting for European customers.The attachment problem could cause the windshield to fly off in a crash. The glass roof could do the same without any impacts: it would just be a matter of air pushing it away from the body. Since this is a problem with gluing these glass components, we could also see water leaks happen due to this issue.We have no idea when Ford warned the European authorities about the situation. If it was earlier than now, it is curious why it takes so long for the same authorities to publish the information on Safety Gate.We have checked Fords website in Germany to see if the recall information is there. Curiously, Ford does not make the information public. You have to insert the VIN of your car at www.fordserviceinfo.com/FSA to verify if your vehicle is involved with any safety problem. Ford also states that it will warn customers about that if they are registered with Ford as the owner. Lets hope that everyone that buys a used Ford remembers to do so and that they were informed about the issue before the European Union website published it.This is another episode that presses the European Union to adopt a faster and simpler process to warn customers about defective products. Although Safety Gate is an excellent idea to do that, it should be much faster. In six months, a dangerous problem in any car can cause quite some damage. It only makes it worse to learn about the issue from other countries without knowing if your vehicle is also affected.According to Safety Gate , Mach-E units made between February 24, 2020, and June 18, 2021, can present the defect. However, the website does not disclose how many electric SUVs will have to go through the recall. Reported by Ford in Germany, the issue also affects cars sold in Romania, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands. All current Mustang Mach-Es are made in Mexico.
Ursa Major was founded in 2015 by Joe Llorente, who previously worked on rocket engines at SpaceX and at Blue Origin. Hadley, the companys first engine, is now in full production, with two major but very different customers. On one hand, it will power the Daytona rocket built by Phantom Space, and on the other hand, it will power the Talon A hypersonic vehicles developed by Stratolaunch , which will be launched by the massive air carrier Roc.Ursa Major claims that Hadley is a pioneering oxygen-rich, staged combustion engine . Boasting 5,000 lbf (6,800 Nm) of thrust, its smaller than typical rocket engines, but this makes it more affordable for a wider range of applications, including first stage, upper stage, and hypersonic vehicles.Its also described as being able to support pre-flight ground testing and static-fire testing, in addition to the flight itself, without requiring modifications.According to the startup, the U.S. relied on Russia and Ukraine for a significant part of its rocket propulsion systems. On the other hand, building their own engines is an extra burden for American space launch companies or the ones that manufacture hypersonic air vehicles. In this context, Ursa Major steps in with an affordable, reliable, and flexible solution.Thirty Hadley engines are planned to be delivered this year, and the propulsion expert isnt stopping there. Its already working on a more powerful engine, called Ripley, boasting 50,000 lbf (68,000 Nm) of thrust.Until then, Hadley, which is mostly 3D printed, will demonstrate its efficiency in powering both the Daytona rocket and the Daytona rocket and Stratolaunchs reusable hypersonic testbed vehicle , designed to reach six times the speed of sound.
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The electric car market is currently trying to catch up with the gasoline vehicle industry. While some EVs are impressively quick from 0 to 60 mph (97 kph), most of them can't match the top speed and mileage of internal combustion vehicles. As strange as it may sound right now, electric vehicles were quite popular in the late 1890s and early 1900s.But several events led to their disappearance, starting with the introduction of the first mass-produced vehicles with internal combustion engines. The invention of the electric starter, the oil boom that made gasoline affordable, and the need for longer-range vehicles for the ever-expanding road system rendered EVs obsolete for several decades.But before that happened, a rivalry between a French aristocrat and a Belgian driver spawned the world's first land speed records . And all were achieved in electric vehicles.The first documented record dates back to December 1898, when French aristocrat Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat drove his Jeantaud Duc to a top speed of 39.24 mph (63.15 kph) over one km (0.62 miles). His benchmark was improved by Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy, who reached 41.42 mph (66.66 kph), but Gaston recaptured his glory the same day by hitting 43.93 mph (70.69 kph).Jenatzy refused to give up and returned to Acheres, France, only 10 days later, to drive his GCA Dogcart to a top speed of 49.93 mph (80.35 kph). Annoyed, Chasseloup-Laubat applied rudimentary streamlining to his Jeantaud Duc and raised the bar to 57.65 mph (92.77 kph) only a week later.The publicity stunt between Jenatzy's manufacturing venture and Paris-based carriage maker Jeantaud came to an end in April 1899, when the former drove the La Jamais Contente to a whopping 65.79 mph (105.87 kph). It might not sound like a lot today, but it was a big deal back in 1899.Not only the first car to exceed 60 mph (97 kph), but the La Jamais Contente was also the first vehicle of any kind to go beyond 100 kph (62 mph). The benchmark remained in place until 1902, when Leon Serpollet hit 75 mph (120.7 kph) in a steam-powered vehicle.What's more, all land speed records that followed were achieved with either steam or internal combustion power, so the La Jamais Contente is the lastto have set a speed record over one km.So what exactly was this contraption called La Jamais Contente, which basically means The Never Satisfied? Well, it's gone into the history books as the first purpose-built land speed racer.Designed by Camille Jenatzy and put together by carriage maker Rothschild, it was essentially a torpedo-shaped shell mounted on a rather crude chassis. The body was made from an alloy called partinium.There's next to no info on this compound, but apparently, it consisted of laminated aluminum , tungsten, and magnesium. Most likely a then-new approach to lightweight composites.The bullet-shaped carriage employed two 25-motors, each driving the rear axle via a chain. The combo delivered about 68 horsepower combined, but that's about as much as we know about Jenatzy's record-setting carriage.The La Jamais Contente never evolved beyond the prototype stage and Jenatzy died in 1913 after being shot in a hunting accident. At the time, internal combustion cars had already taken over the automobile industry.Is the original record car still around? Well, its whereabouts seem to be engulfed in mystery, but a replica of the La Jamais Contente is on display at the National Car Museum at Chateau de Compiegne, France.
The 2005 MY Ducati 999 is powered by a liquid-cooled Testastretta L-twin mill, sporting dual belt-driven camshafts, eight desmodromic valves, and a Marelli fuel injection setup with 54 mm (2.1 inches) throttle bodies. When the crank spins at about 9,750 rpm, the 998cc titan can deliver 140 untamed horses to a six-speed gearbox, which is linked to the rear 17-inch Marchesini wheel through a drive chain.In the zone of 8,000 revs per minute, a maximum torque output of no less than 80 pound-feet (109 Nm) will be summoned at the crankshaft. As soon as it makes contact with the ground, this force is able to catapult Bolognas missile from zero to 60 mph (96 kph) in 2.9 ticks of the stopwatch. Before topping out at 172 mph (277 kph), the 999 will devour the quarter-mile in as little as eleven seconds flat.Its construction features a tubular steel trellis skeleton, which is supported by 43 mm (1.7 inches) upside-down forks and a fully-adjustable Showa monoshock with progressive linkage. The Ducs front wheel comes equipped with dual 320 mm (12.6 inches) brake discs and four-piston Brembo calipers, while the rear hoop flaunts a single 240 mm (9.4 inches) rotor and a two-piston caliper.Weighing in at 439 pounds (199 kg) on an empty stomach, Ducati s predator can store up to 4.1 gallons (15.5 liters) of juice inside its fuel chamber. Now that weve covered the essentials, well have you know the creature shown above these paragraphs is going on the block with a little over 9k miles (14,500 km) on the clock!Recently, this pristine 999 was fitted with an array of modern components in preparation for the sale, including a fresh battery, youthful timing belts, and grippy ContiMotion Z rubber from Continental. The Italian pearl is waiting to meet its new owner on Bring a Trailer, where you may register your bids at no reserve until Friday, March 25. For now, one would only need about 5,500 bones to take the lead.
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Maserati has orchestrated a skilled promotional campaign for their thoroughly delayed Grecale. Ahead of the official unveiling, the company made sure its Arctic-dwelling Grecale Folgore full-prototypes were easy to recognize. The reveal then dropped most fashionably, complete with early-adopter special series. And the company also had a famous voice endorse its new high-rider in no time.Over across the virtual realm, artists quickly started to imagine all sorts of possible scenarios based on Grecale goodies, such as a revival of the Biturbo executive grand tourer series with saloon elegance. However, that one used a little too much of the Alfa Romeo Giulia, rather than the Grecale, if you ask us. Now, the virtual artist better known as X-Tomi Design on social media has quickly imagined a sporty leisure version of the all-new Maserati Grecale in Modena trim.The new, unofficial three-door crossovermember of the CGI Grecale family would be much easier to digest than a Grecale-inspired Biturbo reinvention, frankly, but that does not mean it is any closer to reality. Even the author is well aware of the stark automotive industry realities and said in the description of this Hot Modena Crossover form that it has very little chance of a market appearance.We tend to agree, as Coupes  just like sedans  are slowly but steadily falling out of grace in the face of crossover, SUV, and truck adversity. And automakers have already tried  and failed  to play with these short, modern SUVs. For all it is worth, it seems only Jeep and Ford have nailed the 2-Dooroff-roader approach exactly right. And it is probably all due to their incredible heritage combined with modern, 21st-century amenities!
Taipei-based Rough Crafts have orchestrated some truly astounding custom projects over the years, many of which weve dissected on these very pages. For the exploit well be looking at today (dubbed Midas Royal), the donor was a brand-new Continental GT provided by Royal Enfield s Taiwanese branch, and Winston Yehs specialists were given full freedom to customize it as they pleased.When it had arrived at their garage, the bike was promptly stripped naked of its factory bodywork, making room for a ravishing carbon fiber attire thats been manufactured with the help of a local craftsman. The new outfit consists of a seamlessly sculpted fuel tank cover, angular side panels, and one classy front fairing, as well as a handsome tail unit topped with bespoke upholstery.Lighting comes from Koso-developed LED componentry at both ends, and those snazzy Rough Crafts badges were supplied by 2 Abnormal Sides. As far as the Continental GT s suspension is concerned, Winston and his crew fabricated a new mounting point to accommodate Ohlins state-of-the-art TTX GP shock absorber, which is mated to a double-sided HPM Racing swingarm.At twelve oclock, Midas Royal flaunts CNC Racing triple clamps and a premium pair of Ohlins FGRT upside-down forks. In the unsprung sector, one may find five-spoke carbon fiber wheels measuring 17 inches in diameter, along with Beringer brakes and grippy Diablo Superbike tires from Pirellis catalog. Furthermore, the creatures cockpit is adorned with aftermarket clip-ons, Motogadget grips, and blacked-out levers.Moving on to the powertrain mods, Rough Crafts treated the GTs air- and oil-cooled 648cc parallel-twin mill to Sprint Filter inhalers, Banai Racing exhaust headers, and dual SC-Project mufflers. With these items in place, it was time for Yehs moto surgeons to tackle the machines color scheme, so theyve tasked the paintwork experts over at Air Runner with applying a mixture of clear coat, gloss-black, and gold leaf-plated pinstripes.
As its name suggests, Icon was the first vessel to be rolled out by Icon Yachts, a Dutch-based shipyard that was founded in 2005 by Ton Van Dam and Alex Shnaider. It was the flagship model, built on a 62.5-meter (205 feet) platform. Over the next years, the Dutch company faced several difficulties until it had to declare bankruptcy in 2014.Thats when the Russian millionaire Alexander Mazanov, a well-known name in the banking sector, apparently saved the day. Not only did he buy the Icon superyacht (for a much lower price than its estimated value), but he bought the company itself out of bankruptcy, according to Yacht Harbour . At the time, Icon had been on the market for several years. Mazanov would later sell the vessel, but throughout this entire time, it continued to be a successful charter yacht for the rich.After a refit, Icon was extended to its current size of 67.5 meters (221 feet), enough to boast extravagant features such as a 5-meter (16.4 feet) glass-bottomed infinity pool, a sauna thats big enough for six people, a well-equipped gym, and an impressive selection of water toys, including diving equipment.Its generous beach club welcomes those on board with a spacious bar and a lounging area with a TV. Up to 12 guests can be accommodated in its six elegant staterooms.Icon offers a medium range of 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 miles/7,408 km) and can cut through the waves at 15 knots (17 mph/27.7 kph).Weekly rates for chartering this beautiful superyacht start at 500,000 ($549,000), according to the Fraser Yachts listing  both the shipyard and its first build ended up being successful after all the turmoil. Icon will most likely continue to be a popular charter luxury vessel for a long time.
EV

News of this deal triggered a positive spike in the-maker's stock, helping Tesla surpass $1 trillion in market value. Interestingly enough, Tesla head honcho Elon Musk later said his company had not signed a contract with Hertz, causing shares to fall 4% in early trading yesterday, as reported by Reuters If any of this is based on Hertz, Id like to emphasize that no contract has been signed yet. Hertz deal has zero effect on our economics, tweeted Musk.Still, the Model Y has indeed been added to Hertzs fleet this week and can already be booked alongside its Model 3 sibling.Get inclusive charging costs when you hire a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. Simply charge up at one of the 250,000 approved Shell Recharge stations across Europe or at over 6,000 Tesla Supercharger points and pay no additional cost for recharging, said Hertz.We should point out that they havent done much in terms of copywriting on their website, seen as how one paragraph clearly mentions the Model 3 and Model Y together, followed by the sentence Shift from no time to go time in this future-focused, full-torque sedan, - the least they could have done was add the word crossover.In other Tesla-related news, the company's Gigafactory in Berlin, also known as Giga Berlin , produced its first-ever cars this week, which if youre Elon Musk, was cause for celebration  the billionaire CEO was on location for the delivery of the first German-made Tesla cars.When operating at peak capacity, Giga Berlin will be able to manufacture nearly 500,000 vehicles every year.
Earlier today, we reported that former UFC champion Conor McGregor was arrested for multiple traffic offenses. He was taken to the Lucan police station, where he was charged with dangerous driving, before he was released on bail.Since McGregor is a famous name, we also got footage of his arrest on Tuesday, March 22. Twitter account @Simbot20 shared a video of how a police car chases the former UFC champion, who was behind the wheel of his Bentley Continental GT Speed convertible The footage shows the police car with the sirens turned on while McGregor drives on a highway in Dublin, Ireland. His face is visible in his luxurious convertible which has its top down. The person filming is also heard shouting Up the Mac, which seems to attract McGregors attention for a second, before expressing their disbelief that police are pulling him over.The video doesnt capture his offense though, and McGregor seems to be driving at the speed other cars are driving in the video that surfaced online.Its also worth mentioning that the police seized his expensive convertible temporarily, but returned it to him in the meantime. In a statement to the Irish Independent, McGregor's rep confirmed the former UFC champion was arrested and added that, at the moment of his arrest, he was on his way to the gym. McGregor also had to take a drug and alcohol test at the station, which he passed.This isnt Conor McGregors first road conviction. In 2017, he was charged with overspeeding, and had to pay a 400 ($440) fine.Now, he will have to appear before the district court next month for his latest offense.
Orbex claims to own the largest high-precision metal 3D printer currently in use in Europe, one that was custom-made by the company for the production of its rocket engines. It has been manufacturing 3D-printed engines since 2018, and the Prime micro-launcher is now undergoing tests at a facility in Kinloss, close to the Orbex headquarters. Orbex Prime is set to carry small satellites to low Earth orbit when it will be launched from Space Hub Sutherland, which is considered the first carbon-neutral spaceport in the world.In addition to preparing for the upcoming launch, the spaceflight company will also be developing an innovative X-Ray Inspection System for rocket engines. This system has already proven its efficiency on European launch propulsion systems, but Orbex and FORCE Technology will take it to the next level, extending its capabilities to larger structures, such as the Orbex Prime.The two companies have been awarded a contract from ESA (the European Space Agency), and Orbex will become one of the first launch operators to use this technology prior to flight. Just like a medical CT scanner, this technology shows the detailed interior of rocket engines without damaging them in any way. This way, operators can detect and eliminate potential internal flaws.According to the company, this X-Ray System is set to become a key component of engine testing, one that will give peace of mind to customers, as an extra way of confirming the engines reliability.As the space launch sector continues to grow across the globe, its safe to say that the X-Ray Inspection System will probably be followed by similar technologies meant to ensure the safety and reliability of next-generation rocket engines.
Uber will offer access to its app for almost all taxi drivers in New York. This was made possible through a partnership between the popular ridesharing company and two other taxi apps, Curb and Arro, that initially appeared as a response to the fast digitalization Uber and Lyft brought.Uber and other similar players faced a lot of legal challenges in the past. The established licensed taxi groups wanted car-sharing to be treated under the same laws, but that doesnt fully happen even today. There were some minor wins, but the ride-hailing entities are looking to keep the gig going without taking on too much responsibility. Thats why the disruptors are now joining hands with the conservatives.If youre an Uber user from New York, youll be able very soon to book a trip with a yellow taxi . The client and driver database will be shared with Curb and Arro, while Uber will integrate the well-known taxi operators from both apps in its own platform. Now therell be no difference between taxis and ridesharing in New York.The move comes as a helping hand for this industry in the Empire State, just as things are starting to go back to normal. The health situation that ravaged almost any country on Earth in the last two years changed how people saw their activity as drivers. Most of them left because remote work and restrictions meant less and less people had to go places. Instead of making an effort to bring back its former independent contractors, Uber chose to include in its app the licensed drivers that remained active.This comes as a win for the traditional taxi operators who are now joining forces with their former enemy. Even the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commissioner is welcoming this new development. Ryan Wanttaja said hes excited about any proposal to more easily connect passengers with taxis and look forward to learning more about this agreement between Uber and the taxi apps and ensuring it complies with TLC rules, according to CNN Ubers new idea to partner up with the yellow taxis might also serve as a catalyst for the rapid development of self-driving units that are currently testing in several locations across the country. At the same time, Lyft might also decide to keep its higher than Ubers prices and become the sole ridesharing app that doesnt work with taxis. This new development has surely started a lot of thinking everywhere in the U.S. and Canada, too. Uber is planning on expanding this type of cooperation in every state in America.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Back in January 2021, which is more than a year ago, the peeps at Volkswagen were informed of a field case related to an ID.4 that refused to start up. Four months later, supplier LG Energy Solution identified the root cause of the non-starting condition. Addressed as a quality topic, the issue was presented to the Volkswagen Product Safety Committee in December.Additional details were subsequently requested, and in this period, Volkswagen received yet another field claim alleging a stall while driving. The committee recommended field monitoring and a follow-up presentation, along with further analysis. Group brands ultimately shared information on the stall-while-driving issue in March. Days later, the committee decided to conduct a recall of ID.4 vehicles delivered stateside.Documents filed with thesingle out an unreliable battery connection. The German automaker did use the U word to describe a problem that stems from their cheapo approach to OEM suppliers, an extremely rare case of owning up to ones mistakes.Specific soldering points on the flexible printed circuit assembly inside the battery may not establish a reliable connection due to manufacturing issues. Unreliable connections inside the battery may lead to breakdowns or stalling while driving, ultimately resulting in a crash without warning.What really grinds my gears, however, is that VW was completely aware of the problem and the consequences of this problem in July 2021. Thats when the LG Energy Solution optimized the amount of soldering flux material. Three weeks later, the supplier optimized the automated optical inspection.ID.4 vehicles affected by this recall were produced between December 16th, 2020 and December 8th, 2021. Owners will be notified on May 13th, and other than waiting that long, owners may also want to know that the Wolfsburg-based outfit is developing a remedy for this issue as we speak.Considering that were dealing with incorrect soldering of the flexible printed circuit assembly inside the lithium-ion battery, two outcomes spring to mind: either replace the FPCA or the high-voltage battery altogether.
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The Armenian official did not provide details as he answered a question from a pro-government lawmaker regarding the issue.

Grigorian said that the matter is part of discussions about the currency for the distribution of customs duties within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russia-led economic grouping of five former Soviet countries, including Armenia.

I cannot promise that this issue will be solved now, because there are objective reasons. But today it is at least being discussed in a global sense, and I think that at some point it will become a much more specific agenda, the deputy prime minister said.

For years, especially since joining the EEU in 2015, Armenia has been raising the issue of conducting trade in energy resources, including natural gas, in rubles within the EEU space.

Official reports in Armenia regularly say that the matter is part of ongoing discussions.

Amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for invading and waging an aggressive war against Ukraine, including a ban on transactions in dollars, euros and other hard currencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 23 that Russia will start forcing unfriendly countries  including all European Union states and the United States  to pay for their natural gas supplies in rubles.

The decision came after a dramatic depreciation of the Russian ruble as a result of the crippling sanctions imposed by the West.

Armenia is not on the list of unfriendly countries that Moscow published earlier in March. But despite being also a member of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, Armenia has mostly maintained neutrality on the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.

Despite official Yerevans statements that it seeks trade with Russia in rubles when it comes to the supply of natural gas and other energy resources, Armenian experts are skeptical that the Kremlin will actually agree to receive payments in the Russian currency given the acute demand for hard currency in Russia.

In a recent interview with RFE/RLs Armenian Service, former governor of Armenias Central Bank Bagrat Asatrian also said that payments for Russian natural gas in rubles involved technical difficulties as well.

I dont believe that Russia will agree to that and start selling energy to us in rubles. Besides, it also involves difficulties related to the pricing issue. As you know, there is a notion of international prices for energy resources, which are estimated in dollars, Asatrian said.

Annually Armenia imports more than 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia. At the border, Russias gas giant Gazprom sells it to its Armenian subsidiary for $165 per 1,000 cubic meters, but Armenian users pay almost twice as much for the natural gas supplied to their homes.
Addressing a government session in Yerevan on Thursday, Pashinian said that both cases of the disruption of natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh this month happened during unprecedented harsh weather conditions in the region.

The first disruption of the supply on March 8 due to reported damage to a pipeline pumping natural gas from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh on a section passing through Baku-controlled territory lasted for 11 days as the regions de-facto ethnic Armenian authorities accused Azerbaijan of not allowing their maintenance workers to repair the vital infrastructure.

Gas supply was resumed on March 19 after Azerbaijan reportedly repaired the pipeline following calls from international organizations, including the European Union.

But gas supply again was interrupted on March 21 when Nagorno-Karabakhs de facto authorities accused Baku of having turned off the valve on the pipeline that the Azerbaijani side had purportedly installed during the repairs.

The disruptions of the supply of vital fuel used by people in Stepanakert and elsewhere in the region for heating their homes and for business activities came amid still freezing temperatures despite early spring.

Armenias Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as unacceptable behavior on the part of Azerbaijan in a statement issued on March 22.

Not specifically referring to the issue of natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh, a spokeswoman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Wednesday advised that Armenia should not interfere in Azerbaijans internal affairs.

Armenias prime minister today also insisted that Azerbaijan had installed a valve on the gas pipeline during the repairs. This indisputably shows Azerbaijans policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh  ed.], that is, to make it impossible for them to live in their native land, Pashinian said, stressing that Yerevan has widely presented the issue to the international community.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.

The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 as a result of which Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994. Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the cease-fire following a Moscow-brokered truce.

In his remarks today the Armenian premier also insisted that Azerbaijan will not be able to divert Armenia from the peace agenda. He stressed that there is no alternative to Armenias policy of ushering in an era of peace in the region.

With its actions and various provocations Azerbaijan is trying to divert us from the peace agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new escalations and new wars in the region. But we should not give in to such provocations, Pashinian said.

The Armenian prime minister reaffirmed that Azerbaijans five-point proposal for starting negotiations around a peace treaty with Armenia contained nothing unacceptable for Yerevan.

It is another thing that these proposals do not address all the issues on the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. We have completed the agenda with our reply to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, so we are ready to start peace talks on that basis, Pashinian said.

Baku insists that a future peace treaty with Yerevan should be based on five fundamental principles, including mutual recognition of each others sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual reaffirmation of the absence of territorial claims to each other and a legally binding obligation not to make such claims in the future, abstaining from threatening each others security, delimitation and demarcation of the border with the establishment of diplomatic relations and unblocking of transport links.

In a recent interview with the state-run Armenpress news agency Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that it is vital for the Armenian side that the rights and freedoms of Nagorno-Karabakhs Armenians be clearly guaranteed, and the status of Nagorno-Karabakh be finally clarified. For us, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights, he said.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Mirozyan said that the Russian, American and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group had informed Armenia that its proposals had been passed on to Azerbaijan. He said Baku had not responded to Yerevans proposals yet.

Pashinian today also described as odd criticism heard from the Armenian opposition that by agreeing to hold negotiations with Azerbaijan Armenia was accepting territorial integrity as a principle of normalization of relations. He again said that previous Armenian governments had repeatedly recognized the principle of territorial integrity in negotiations with Azerbaijan.

Stressing that peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan should start as soon as possible, Pashinian pointed to the need to speed up the process of border demarcation and delimitation along with steps to raise the level of border security and stability.

We have proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the de jure established Soviet-era borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. But I want you to know that in addition to a complete withdrawal, we have also proposed local withdrawals, and we are now waiting for Azerbaijans response, the Armenian prime minister said.
During news briefings in parliament on Thursday lawmakers representing the Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions, in particular, referred to the current situation with discontinued gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh that de-facto authorities in the Armenian-populated region blame on Azerbaijan.

The current government of Armenia is trying to wash its hands, giving up on the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh  ed.] issue. The Republic of Armenia thus renounces its obligation to guarantee the sovereignty and security of Artsakh, Deputy Parliament Speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian, of the Hayastan faction, claimed.

Pativ Unems Tigran Abrahamian, meanwhile, criticized the government for lacking a long-term strategy on Nagorno-Karabakh in conditions of increased pressure on the region from Azerbaijan.

The problem here is not only gas supply, the problem here is not only the implementation of certain social programs, the problem is much more complicated, it is much bigger. Regardless of the fact that these issues cannot be solved within a couple of days, the government must have complex programs that also take into account the security component, because the accumulation of these issues, the failure to resolve these issues can lead to two major consequences  either there will be an exodus of Armenians from Artsakh, or it may lead to a new war, Abrahamian said.

During a government session earlier on Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged that the second disruption of natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh this month has brought the region to the verge of a humanitarian disaster.

He said that Armenia is raising this issue with the international community.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also said that Yerevan is using all diplomatic channels to achieve a solution to the gas supply issue in Nagorno-Karabakh that creates humanitarian problems for the regions population in conditions of still freezing temperatures despite early spring.

Mirzoyan also reaffirmed that Armenia is seeking peace talks with Azerbaijan that would, among other things, address the rights and status of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pro-government Civil Contract faction member Arman Yeghoyan also said during todays news briefings that both the government and parliamentarians are working with international partners on a daily basis regarding the situation with the discontinued gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh.
An officer who went to check on someones well-being in Torrington Wednesday ended up shooting a person, police said.

The shooting happened about 4:40 p.m. on Tioga Street, where the officer was sent for what police called a well-being check.

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Upon arrival, an officer was confronted by a male party and was forced to fire his service weapon, Det. Kevin L. Tieman said.

The wounded person was taken to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital and later airlifted to Hartford Hospital to be treated for multiple gunshot wounds. His age and condition werent clear Thursday morning.

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While detectives with the state police gathered evidence at the scene, the newly formed Office of the Inspector General is investigating the shooting, said Brian Foley, assistant to the commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

In a brief written statement, the inspector general, Robert J. Devlin Jr., said, At this time, the Office of Inspector General is investigating the officer-involved shooting incident that occurred yesterday in Torrington. Further information concerning the incident will be provided in the near future.

Christine Dempsey may be reached at cdempsey@courant.com.
Nagorno-Karabakhs Information Headquarters, an agency affiliated with the mostly Armenian-populated regions de facto authorities, said Azerbaijani forces had advanced in the direction of the village of Parukh in the Askeran region. It said it happened at around 4:00 pm (1 pm CET) on Thursday.

Representatives of Nagorno-Karabakhs Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping force have reportedly been trying to hold negotiations with the Azerbaijani side to persuade it stop its further advancement and withdraw.

No information about any fighting or casualties was immediately reported in the context of the incident. But authorities in Stepanakert said that women and children of the nearby village of Khramort had been evacuated for security reasons.

We urge the population to remain calm. The situation on all other sections of the line of contact is stable at the moment, Nagorno-Karabakhs Information Headquarters said.

In a statement released later on Thursday Azerbaijans Defense Ministry denied any advancement of its troops in the territory of Azerbaijan where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed.

It said that specifications of positions and locations are taking place at the site and that no clashes or incidents have occurred.

Armenian media artificially exaggerate the situation. The goal is to create an atmosphere that can cause hysteria and mislead the public. There is no reason to worry, the ministry said, as quoted by the Azerbaijani news website Haqqin.az.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying that Azerbaijans aggressive actions once again show that official Baku continues to grossly violate the terms of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement [on ceasefire].

At least one civilian in the village of Khramort was injured by mortar fire as Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire in the direction of this and several other Armenian communities earlier this month.

Local residents were in particular alarmed by Azerbaijans deployment of military equipment at their positions situated not far from the village. The Russian peacekeepers set up a permanent post in the village two weeks ago, after which no serious incidents have been reported.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry had denied targeting civilians during those incidents. It had accused Armenian forces of firing at its troops deployed in the adjacent Agdam district.

Khramort mayor Zorik Abrahamian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service in the late afternoon that the situation in the village was very serious. He declined to elaborate.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.

The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 in which about 7,000 soldiers and more than 200 civilians were killed. As a result of that war Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.

Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire following a Moscow-brokered truce.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a weekly news briefing on Thursday that Moscow has been in contacts with both sides on the matter.

Corresponding work is being carried out through our countrys Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Energy, as well as Gazprom. We proceed from the understanding that one should not aggravate what is already a difficult humanitarian situation, and ordinary people should not suffer, Zakharova said, as quoted by Russias Tass news agency.

On Tuesday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry accused Azerbaijan of cutting off gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia on territory controlled by its military.

As a result of the second disruption of gas supply to Stepanakert and other towns in Nagorno-Karabakh within a space of two weeks ethnic Armenians in the region face difficulties in heating their homes in still freezing temperatures as well as in running their businesses, including bakeries.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.

The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 as a result of which Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.

Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire following a Moscow-brokered truce.
The Fresno-based tech hub about to open in downtown Bakersfield announced Wednesday an expansion into five additional states as part of an inv
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
Xi sends congratulatory letter to fourth CPC-PCC theory seminar

Xinhua) 07:57, March 24, 2022

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, sent a congratulatory letter to the fourth theory seminar between the CPC and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), which opened on Wednesday.

Noting that the CPC and the PCC are the leadership core of the socialist endeavor in their respective countries, Xi said in his letter that since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people in scoring historic achievements in reform and opening-up, and in socialist modernization, ushering in a new era for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Xi said that the Eighth Congress of the PCC has conducted strategic planning and deployment for the development of the PCC and the country of Cuba, both for the present time and into the future, laying out a blueprint for Cuba to build socialism featuring prosperity, democracy and sustainability.

In the face of new situations and new tasks, Xi said it is an opportune time for the two parties to hold the theory seminar, which is of great significance for the two sides to explore the socialist development paths suited to their national realities.

The CPC is willing to have an in-depth exchange of views with the PCC on major theoretical and practical issues, and to learn from each other regarding their experience of state governance, to promote the continuous development of Party building and the socialist cause in their respective countries, Xi stressed.

The theory seminar, co-hosted by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and the International Relations Department of the PCC Central Committee, is being held virtually from Wednesday to Thursday.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony of the seminar.

Huang said that under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the CPC and Chinese people have made historic achievements, and will certainly build a stronger Marxist ruling party and win a new, greater victory for the socialist cause.

In-depth exchanges and mutual learning between CPC and PCC in theory and practice will help strengthen their respective party building and governance capacity construction, and jointly promote the new development of relations between the two parties and the two countries, Huang said.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization and cadre policy of the PCC Central Committee, spoke highly of China's splendid achievements, saying that the PCC is willing to strengthen exchanges of experience in governing the party and the country with the CPC, promote cooperation with China in various fields, and jointly push forward bilateral relations and the development of socialist cause.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attends the opening ceremony of the fourth theory seminar between the CPC and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on March 23, 2022. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president, sent a congratulatory letter to the seminar, which is being held virtually from Wednesday to Thursday. Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization and cadre policy of the PCC Central Committee, attended the seminar. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attends the opening ceremony of the fourth theory seminar between the CPC and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on March 23, 2022. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president, sent a congratulatory letter to the seminar, which is being held virtually from Wednesday to Thursday. Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization and cadre policy of the PCC Central Committee, attended the seminar. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright introduces Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a campaign event at Rundlett Middle School, in Concord, N.H., Feb. 6, 2016. 'Theres a special place in hell for women who dont help each other," Albright said. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

WASHINGTON  Madeleine Albright fled the Nazis as a child and climbed to the summit of diplomacy and foreign policy in the United States, breaking the glass ceiling as the first female secretary of state and setting the pace for other women to follow.

She has watched her world fall apart, and ever since, she has dedicated her life to spreading to the rest of the world the freedom and tolerance her family found here in America, President Bill Clinton said in announcing his historic choice for Americas top diplomat in December 1996.

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Albright, whose family said she died Wednesday of cancer at age 84, was the daughter of a Czech diplomat, and was born just as Adolf Hitlers Germany started its move down a path of conquest. The bleak years that followed uprooted Albrights family and intimidated Europe.

She grew to be outspoken and advised women years later to act in a more confident manner and to ask questions when they occur and dont wait to ask.

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Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 22, 2009 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on NATO. (Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP)

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent, Albright told HuffPost Living in 2010.

Her determination to use her academic background and her instinct for world affairs, combined with a formidable drive, led to her becoming the first woman to head the State Department. She was not part of the presidential line of succession, however, because of her birth outside the United States.

For decades, Albright was a popular professor at Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service, where her Modern Foreign Governments was a required course and examined autocracies and the rise and fall of nation states, including in Ethiopia, the Czech Republic and the Soviet Union. A scholar influenced heavily by the Cold War, she also took a profound interest in arms control and was a proponent of combating dictatorships.

Albright remained outspoken after leaving government. She criticized President George W. Bush for using the shock of force rather than alliances to foster diplomacy. She said he had driven away moderate Arab leaders and created the potential for a dangerous rift with European allies.

When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked her in January 2007 whether she approved of Bushs proposed surge in U.S. troops in bloodied Iraq, she responded: I think we need a surge in diplomacy. We are viewed in the Middle East as a colonial power and our motives are suspect.

An internationalist, Albright was shaped in part by her background as a refugee. She played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his brutal treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999.

My mindset is Munich, she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies in 1938 abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

She helped win Senate ratification of NATOs expansion and a treaty imposing international restrictions on chemical weapons. She led a successful fight to keep Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali from a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations; he accused her of deception and posing as a friend.

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A Democrat, she was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Clintons first term, but sought to work with Republicans in Congress on issues ranging from Russia to Cuba. As secretary of state she worked with both political parties to reform the State Department and the U.S. Information Agency, which had run Washingtons anti-Soviet messaging since the end of World War II.

Albright advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevics treatment of Bosnia. She once exclaimed to Colin Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Whats the point of having this superb military youre always talking about if we cant use it?

Albright has known firsthand what tyranny and totalitarianism can do to ordinary people, said Michael Zantovsky, a Czech ambassador to Washington. The lesson of Munich is that you do not appease aggressors, you stick by your friends, and you take a stand for values and principles that you really believe in.

I am an eternal optimist, Albright said in 1998, amid an effort to promote peace in the Middle East. But she said getting Israel to pull back on the West Bank and the Palestinians to rout terrorists posed serious problems.

As secretary of state, she made limited progress at first in trying to expand the 1993 Oslo accords that established the principle of self-rule for the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza.

But in 1998, she played a leading role in formulating the Wye Accords that turned over control of about 40% of the West Bank to the Palestinians. Still, a comprehensive peace in the Middle East between Israel and the Arabs eluded the Clinton administration.

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Albright also helped guide U.S. foreign policy during conflicts in the Balkans and the Hutu-Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.

She enjoyed her reputation for plain-speaking. And she turned her love of jewelry into a weapon, telegraphing her messages with the brooch she chose to wear. Called a snake by the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein, she sported a snake pin during a U.N. debate on Iraq.

When devious, I wear a spider; when ready to sting, a bee, she said.

Marie Jana Korbel was born in Prague on May 15, 1937, the daughter of diplomat Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps. Albright later said that she only became aware of her Jewish background after she became secretary of state.

The family returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II, before fleeing again, this time to the United States, in 1948, after the communists rose to power. They settled in Denver, where her father obtained a job at the University of Denver.

News @3 Daily Catch up on the days top headlines sent directly to your inbox weekdays at 3 p.m >

She married journalist and publishing heir Joseph Albright in 1959, three days after her graduation from Wellesley College. They had three daughters before divorcing in 1983.

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Years later, in an interview with biographer Ann Blackman, Albright said: Do powerful women attract men? My own experience happens to be yes, in a way that was not true before.

After college she worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a masters degree in 1968 and a doctoral degree in 1976.

Democratic Sen. Edmund S. Muskie launched her career in politics and diplomacy as a legislative assistant in 1976. She later worked for the National Security Council during the Carter administration and advised Democrats on foreign policy before Clintons election. He nominated her as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1993.

She was fluent in Russian, French and Czech, and knew some Polish, Serbian and German. When meeting in Moscow in 1997 with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, her grasp of Russian was so secure that Yeltsin waved away the interpreter as not necessary.

Following her service in the Clinton administration, she headed a global strategy firm, Albright Stonebridge, and was chair of an investment advisory company that focused on emerging markets. She also wrote several books.

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama in 2012.
Bluefield, WV (24701)

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1964 Tsunami Part 2: Tragedy, Destruction Hits Central Oregon Coast

Published 03/24/22 at 5:25 AM PST

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  For a few days in early 1964, many in Lincoln County on the central Oregon coast were in a daze. A tsunami had torn through the area around midnight on March 27 of that year, generated by what is still the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America, happening up in Alaska. Seaside and Cannon Beach up north had gotten the worst of the tsunami in this state, the south coast had not received as much damage, but the central Oregon coast was hit fairly hard. It was here where four children died, after all. (Photo above of debris at Ona Beach, courtesy Lincoln County Historical Society)

This is part two in a series about the March 27, 1964 quake and subsequent tsunami coming from Alaska. Part 1 about the South Oregon coast is here 1964 Tsunami Part 1: Its Impact on S. Oregon Coast Part 3 is here: 1964 Tsunami Part 3: Tearing Up Bridges, Homes on the N. Oregon Coast

About midnight it was a clear night on this Good Friday. The moon was bathing the ocean water in a pretty light, many recalled. It was placid and beautiful. A family from Tacoma, Washington was camping on the beach at Moolack Beach in Newport: the husband, wife, the dog, and four kids.

And with no warning system in place, no one knew what was coming until it hit. Centered in Prince William Sound at Alaska, the quake sent a tsunami that damaged parts of the Washington coast, Oregon coast, and especially Crescent City, California. In this state, it was hit or miss. Some parts of the coastline received no damage or very little. Others, like in Yachats or Waldport, had entire walls taken out from oceanfront homes, and many docks went missing up and down Lincoln County.

Many beaches were absolutely covered in logs and debris, while others received nothing. Several areas had ocean water that was a deep brown from all the mud sucked into the sea. Other stretches of ocean were normal.

In Waldport's Alsea Bay, water suddenly receded drastically. It was described as looking as if it was nearly sucked dry. When the first surge came rushing in, it took out numerous docks and boats. Other surges followed for about 12 hours. In the following days, upside down hulls could be seen in the bay, along with someone's refrigerator.

Some streets in Waldport were smothered in logs as well, after tidal waves came rushing inland. Back in '64, no one yet used the word tsunami  it was still just known as a tidal wave.

The area between here and Yachats apparently received the worst damage on the central coast. Logs covered Highway 101 in spots, along with rocks, mud and tree limbs. It created a major road block for a time, and bulldozers had to come in and tear down the debris. According to newspaper reports, the Terry-A-While Motel and something then called the Sea and Sands Motel were inundated by rushing water. Massive logs tore through the walls of most oceanfront rooms there, leaving a truly unobstructed ocean view.

From South Beach down close to Yachats, numerous beaches were completely covered in logs.

There were reports of one man stepping out of his trailer near Yachats just as the big wave came in. He is, according to some newspaper reports, the fifth victim in all this, with his body never having been recovered.

It was predicted it would take months to clear the debris in the area.

Back then, Lincoln City was still a year from being named; at this time the area was comprised of a few little hamlets that included Delake, Taft and others. Delake was one of the hardest hit. There and in Depoe Bay, newspaper accounts wrote about ramps leading up to docks that were no longer there.

It was Newport's Beverly Beach that saw the biggest tragedy. Here, Tacoma's Monte and Rita McKenzie had settled into sleep inside a driftwood shelter they'd created, with their four kids - Ricky, 6, Louie, 8,

Bobby, 7, and Tammy, 3 years old.

About 11:30 they were awakened by a small wave that came in, nearly drowning them. After that struggle, they started running for the car up on the cliff, but they weren't fast enough. Rita was knocked over and sent yards down the beach. Father Monte was tossed up against a cliff. Each had kids in their arms when they were attacked by the wave, and both lost hold of all children.

The boy's body was found the following day. The other kids were never found. Sadly, a fifth child of theirs had died the year before in a freak fire accident.

Rita was knocked unconscious and stayed that way for a few days at a Corvallis hospital. For a brief time, she was wrung through a bit of a legal ringer by local authorities who tried to accuse her of some sort of negligence.

Part 3 of the 1964 tsunami series will focus on the north Oregon coast. 1964 Tsunami Part 3: Tearing Up Bridges, Homes on the N. Oregon Coast

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Hillsong Church became an internationally known megachurch after capturing the support and attendance of big time celebrities like Justin and Hailey Bieber, Selena Gomez and Chris Pratt.

The church has, however, found itself in the wake of many scandals and accusations, and the latest news is no exception.

Hillsong announced this week that its founder, Brian Houston, has resigned from the church amid allegations of inappropriate behavior towards two women.

Phil Dooley, the acting senior pastor of Hillsong, announced the news Wednesday morning in a staff meeting, per The Daily Mail.

"We would like to advise you that Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as global senior pastor of Hillsong Church and the board has accepted his resignation," Hillsong said in a statement. We understand there will be much emotion at this news and we all share these feelings. We ask that you continue to pray for them and the entire Houston family during this challenging time.

The church first acknowledged the accusations and impending resignation on March 18, stating that since the allegations had been made public, the church felt it was its duty to speak out and ahead on what was to come.

We have sadly been dealing with two complaints made against Pastor Brian over the last 10 years. These matters  like all such matters under our code of conduct  were dealt with confidentially. In both of these cases we respected the confidentiality of both Pastor Brian and those involved, and we also must abide by local employment law, Hillsong said last week. We are a church that believes in grace, love, restoration and integrity; these are our guiding values.

The church went on to explain that the first accusation came from a decade ago and involved Houston sending inappropriate text messages to a staff member which led to their resignation. The church claims that at the time, Houston was addicted to sleeping tablets and worked with him to receive professional help.

Related: Joel Osteen's Church Received More Than $4 Million In PPP Loans

The second incident occurred in 2019 while Houston was under the influence of alcohol and anti-anxiety medication, the church said, wherein Houston ended up entering a hotel room that was not his and spending the night with an undisclosed female, wherein the conduct was of serious concern.

Houston agreed to step down from his position temporarily but after failing to take all of agreed steps, he was removed from the Hillsong board in 2021.

Like many other churches of its size, Hillsongs governance model has historically placed significant control in the hands of the senior pastor, but we recognize that the way we do things needs to be reviewed, the church shared. We know there are areas on which we can improve, and we will work honestly and transparently to that end.

Hillsong maintains that there is still much to be done in the wake of Houstons removal and that the church does acknowledge that change is needed moving forward.

The church faced another major scandal in late 2021 when famed pastor Carl Lentz (who had been brought into mainstream media via his close friendship with Justin Bieber) was released from the church due to moral failures.

The day after he was fired, Lentz took to social media to announce that he had been unfaithful in his marriage, leading to his mistress coming forward before checking into an outpatient treatment program for mental-health-related issues.

A former Hillsong staff member (who also served as a nanny to Lentzs children) accused Lentz of sexual abuse last summer.

A legal representative for Lentz and wife Laura told NBC at the time that the couple vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as they are being described."

Hillsong was founded by Houston and his wife, Bobbie, in 1983 in Australia and now oversees churches in 30 different countries.

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Robocalls can be downright annoying and never seem to stop coming. In fact, Texas residents get millions of robocalls every day, according to the Robocall Index. So far this year, 919 million robocalls were placed to Texas, equaling roughly 28.9 average calls per person in 2022.

While your first instinct might be to just hang up, a Texas man who has won thousands in legal decisions by suing telemarketers is advising people to stay on the line and turn these illegal calls into cash.

Dan Graham, a Texas-based financial accounting consultant, said he reached a low point last year when he screamed at a telemarketer over the phone. At that point I had a conversion with my wife and she and I were both like 'Wow, this is not a healthy, well-balanced thing to do,'" Graham says. "Either we have to just stop answering the phone or find another way to push back.

Graham decided to flip the script and make the illegal callers pay him. So far, he said he's filed "somewhere between 50 and 60" lawsuits over illegal robo-dialing and has won more than $100,000 in court decisions as a result. Now he's spreading the word on how others can cash in, too.

The first step is to register with the National Do Not Call Registry, which was created to stop unwanted sales calls. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 states marketers "must obtain prior express written consent before robocalling" potential customers.

You have to do that, Graham says, "before you can really start pursuing any claim and then you have to wait 30 days after that to be fair because they need time to implement it," adding he also filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission.

If you don't already have one, Graham says to download a call recording app like Tape a Call in order to log evidence of the phone call. Overlooking this small but important detail cost Graham his first case. "The judge looked at all the evidence I presented and agreed with everything except that I didn't have a recording of the call," Graham explains. "He said 'I can't see because you didn't record the call. I can't grant you this.'"

Under state law, Texas requires only one-party consent, meaning residents can record calls without notifying the other person in the conversation. However, this may not apply in other states, so keep that in mind, Graham notes.

The third and most challenging step is identifying the company behind the call. To figure this out, Graham says he engages with the caller as if he's interested in their product until he is able to get some indication of the company's name. "In the case of an insurance company I'll ask them to give me a quote and ask them to send me an email with it," Graham says. "If you sent me an email, it's hard to argue before a judge that it wasn't them."

Sometimes, Graham even goes as far as charging his credit card to confirm the company name, though he doesn't necessarily recommend this action to everyone. "You really just have to work with it until you have something that you can feel good about going to a judge and say, 'Your honor, clearly there's no reason to doubt that this call was from them,'" Graham says.

Companies registered to do business in Texas are listed on the Secretary of State website, another resource Graham recommends for identifying the company's registered agent who will receive any legal notifications. "When you go through filing the small claims case thats what youll need to know because thats who gets served the citation and the notice that theyre being sued," he says.

Upon confirming the company's name, Graham begins to file a small claims case, which he says can be easily done online on sites like selfhelp.efiletexas.gov. Once submitted, companies usually reach out to ask for more information, at which point Graham gives them specifics on the time and context of the call, and sometimes the recording of the call.

After researching the information, most companies he's dealt with have chosen to settle, Graham says, adding he's only taken three cases to court. The overall process can take between an hour or two to complete, Graham explains, adding its become a new hobby for him. "I probably spend anywhere from four to 10 hours a week on this," he says. "You make time for what you feel is important."

One of the most challenging parts of the process is talking to lawyers, who can oftentimes be intimidating, Graham says. He notes that the process can also be applied to text message scams.

While making some extra cash is nice, Graham says his lawsuits are not just about the money. He wants more people to fight back and force companies with intrusive practices to take accountability for their actions. After getting questions from friends and family on how he did it, Graham started a YouTube channel under the name CFO Dan where he lays out his strategy.

"Not only are [robocallers] breaking the law and just harassing people but oftentimes they're tied to these products and things that take advantage of people," Graham says. "I think it's easy to forget how heinous this actually gets. What ends up happening is the people that are the most vulnerable are the ones that get caught up and robbed."

Despite his success, Graham says his efforts haven't led to a decrease in the calls he receives. "What's crazy is I still get them," he says. "It drives me crazy."
Bedford, PA (15522)

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Lisa Ravindra conducts a remote monitoring telehealth visit with patient Jenny Thomas, top of screen, at Rush River North in Chicago on Oct. 5, 2020. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Community Health Center Inc. has received a $1.1 million grant from the Federal Communications Commission to expand telehealth services for low-income and veteran patients in Connecticut, the Middletown-based provider announced.

The funding comes weeks after CHC received $2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase telehealth access.

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Mark Masselli, CHCs CEO, said the grants represent the latest sign that virtual visits, which have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, are here to stay.

Weve been banging away for 10 or 15 years on telehealth as something we should do, and [the pandemic] was a force multiplier, Masselli said. Not every visit is prime for telehealth, but almost every behavioral health visit is prime for telehealth, and probably 30% of medical visits are prime for telehealth.

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CHC, which operates about 30 locations across Connecticut that serve mostly low-income residents, will use the HHS grant money to expand virtual services for people with diagnosed behavioral health disorders. The FCC award, Masselli said, is targeted toward improving infrastructure, including broadband connections, in schools and homeless shelters, with a particular focus on homeless veterans.

As an example of how expanded telehealth might work, Masselli said CHC might provide a homeless person with a prepaid data plan so that person can access health care even after leaving a shelter.

This does not take away the in-person care that needs to be delivered, Masselli said. But there are many people for whom this is the way theyd like to access it, for a number of reasons.

The FCC grant is one of 16 to be distributed nationwide as part of a fourth round of funding from the agencys Connected Care Pilot Program. Overall, the FCC is funding 107 similar projects across 40 states.

[ Connecticut doctors say telehealth is here to stay, but will remote care help or hurt inequities in access to care? ]

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

Telehealth has assumed an increasingly critical role in health care delivery, enabling patients to access health care services without needing to visit a health care providers medical office, the FCC said in a statement.

Telehealth has become far more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing patients to see physicians without risk of coronavirus exposure. Proponents say virtual visits can play a large role in medicine even after the pandemic, making care more accessible for people who cant easily take time off work or travel long distances for appointments.

Though some advocates worry what telehealth means for patients without access to technology or the skills to effectively use it, Masselli and others argue that telehealth can be valuable as a supplement to traditional medicine, including for those in lower-income brackets.

I think of our population, and theyre cost conscious, Masselli said. They work hourly wages, so if you have them take two buses to get to us, its really half a day of lost work.

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Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order in spring 2020 enabling wider telehealth services, and last May the state legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill allowing an expanded use of telehealth and prohibiting insurers from offering lower reimbursement rates for virtual visits.

In addition to CHC, other Connecticut providers, including the states largest hospital systems, have also expressed a commitment to expanded telehealth. At one point last year, Hartford HealthCare was conducting 25,000 virtual visits a month, particularly for mental health, addiction and other behavioral health issues. Officials at most major hospitals have pledged those services will continue long past the pandemic.

Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.
Our Flag Means Death Puts the Gold in the Golden Age of Piracy

5 Minute Read

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Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi star in Our Flag Means Death, a hilarious and heartwarming tribute to swashbucklers, outcasts, and misfits.

That fandom is strong with this new HBO Max show featuring pirates, and its no wonder. Its a smart, funny, semi-historical series that tickles the funny bone and the heart. Queue up that sea shanty playlist you blared on repeat in early 2020 and put on something frilly. Our Flag Means Death is the pirate content you deserve.

This review contains mild spoilers for Our Flag Means Death. There, now you know. Dont mutiny over it.

Blackbeard & the Gentleman Pirate

Our Flag Means Death is loosely based on the true story of an 18th century pirate named Stede Bonnet. The wealthy Barbados landowner left behind his family and privileged life to become a pirate. Despite being pretty bad at pirating, he became friends with the notorious Blackbeard Edward Teach. The show certainly takes creative liberties when characterizing its subjects, but many of the storys details are actually true. Bonnet did, in fact, pay his crew a wage as opposed to a cut of the profits. And without any seafaring or pirating skills, he relied a lot on his first mate. He certainly wanted to bring an air of refinery to the business of pirating.

Rhys Darby plays Stede Bonnet with what I can only describe as comedic grace. There are plenty of moments to laugh at his inability to be an ocean bad-boy. But his wit and compassion save the day just as much as they land him in trouble. Bonnets character grows throughout the story. And while Darby brings a softness to his performance that is often comedic, its that same softness that gives his performance so much gravitas when its needed.

Meanwhile, Taika Waititis Blackbeard is nothing short of a revelation. When the series trailer premiered, I was a little concerned that the comedy would take away from the fierceness of the Blackbeard legends. I didnt need to worry a bit. Waititi beautifully portrays a jaded adventurer whose cunning delights, terrifies, and saddens in good measure. The chemistry between Darby and Waititi is remarkable but Ill dig more into that in a moment.

Our Flag Means Death  Meet the Crew

The rest of the cast is made up of lovable oddballs. These mostly-fictional mutinous pirates get up to their own shenanigans through the series, giving the show some really enjoyable subplots, for laughs and for feels. Every crew member is worth their screen time, but I do have a few favorites.

Lucius, played by Nathan Foad, is the ships scribe. He keeps beat with Captain Stedes ship by recording its story and calling things as he sees them. Hes got several quotable moments in the show. Frenchie, a crewmate played by Joel Fry (Cruella, Game of Thrones), has an anachronistic knack for conning rich people. Buttons (Ewan Bremner of Trainspotting, Wonder Woman), Black Pete (Matthew Maher), and Roach (Samba Schutte) each bring their own glorious madness to the ships deck. And youll likely recognize Kristian Nairn (Game of Thrones) as Wee John Feeney. And Samson Kayos Oluwande serves as a voice of reason during moments of joyous mayhem, along with his mute friend Jim.

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Of course, its not just the crew of the Revenge that turn in stellar performances. Leslie Jones has some really great moments as Spanish Jackie, and Im very eager for her to return in a second season. In fact, youll recognize several familiar funny faces in the show. Fred Armisen, Will Arnett, Selenis Leyva, Kristen Schall, and Nick Kroll all lend their talents to this hilarious period piece.

The Pirates Who Stole My Heart

For this particular show, HBO Max staggered the episode releases very well. The first three episodes were a little slow to start. But by the end of the third episode, I was intrigued. After the following week and three more episodes, I was a devotee.

One of the shows many highlights is its use of costumes. Stedes wardrobe as a wealthy man of his time is, of course, luxurious. But I have to say, Blackbeards leather looks are giving me a period-appropriate version of gay 70s hustlers, and I would be surprised if that wasnt intentional. The queer representation in this show is stellar. It feels like a love letter to anyone whos been marginalized or ignored for just being themselves.

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Overall, theres a lot of depth to these characters and their stories that still manages to be really, really funny. I honestly saw someone review this as What We Do in the Shadows but pirates and no disrespect to Shadows, but it doesnt hold a candle to the character depth Our Flag Means Death has. Not to be dramatic or anything, but I will be absolutely inconsolable if this show isnt renewed for a second season.

HOLD ON, IM NOT FINISHED! Past this point, there are some pretty hefty show spoilers. If you havent seen the series yet, I recommend pressing pause on this article and coming back once youre caught up.

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Me watching every episode of Our flag means death. pic.twitter.com/BwusZLa2r6  Alina M. (@AMMHolmes) March 17, 2022

Our Flag  How We Tell LGBTQ+ Stories

You probably already know this, but pirates were actually pretty queer. And so, rightly, are the characters in this story. From the get-go, I had the feeling that Flag was going to push past the usual queerbaiting and give me sincerely queer characters  but Ive been burned before. So as the show continued to develop multiple LGBTQ characters, I was gleefully floored.

Stede and Edwards romance is strong but simple. Its impossible not to root for these two characters, and there was slash fic fanart on Twitter almost as soon as the two characters shared screen time. The varied personalities and relationships on the ship pay tribute to the myriad ways queer people have always existed throughout history.

For me personally, seeing the nonbinary performer Vico Ortiz be accepted by their crewmates as Jim once they were out of their disguise. The conversation wasnt overly difficult for their cohorts to grasp. Jim is who they are, and also Jim is not a mermaid. I was so moved to see a story, particularly a period piece, that acknowledges nonbinary people.

The first season of Our Flag Means Death is available to stream now on HBO Max.

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Garment employees work in a sewing section of the Fakhruddin Textile Mills Limited in Gazipur, Bangladesh, Feb. 7, 2021.

Updated at 7:51 a.m. ET on 2022-03-25

Bangladeshi businesspeople are jittery about the future of bilateral trade with Russia, saying that international sanctions over Moscows invasion of Ukraine are disrupting their exports of key products such as ready-made garments.

Port authorities in other countries, for example, have started to offload containers filled with Bangladeshi-made apparel products or other export items bound for Russia, according to the president of a major trade group here.

We export products amounting to nearly U.S. $700 million per year. The two-way trade is over U.S. $1 billion, Md. Jashim Uddin, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told BenarNews.

The sanctions have disrupted the normal trade. Many port authorities dropped the Bangladeshi export items from the ships destined to Russia.

Meanwhile, many international chains ordering Bangladesh-made apparel products for Russian customers have also cancelled orders, he said.

Again, many international brands having shops in Russia used to order products from Bangladesh. They cancelled the orders as they shut the outlets in Russia after the sanctions, he said.

Bangladesh mainly exports apparel, jute, frozen foods, tea, leather, home textiles and ceramic products to Russia. In exchange, Bangladesh imports Russian-made capital machinery, fresh and dried fruit and raw sugar, among other things.

Officials and business leaders in Bangladesh said that bilateral trade had been rising since the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Now the western sanctions have made our trade with a flourishing market, Russia, difficult and uncertain, said Rajiv Chowdhury, managing director of Young4Ever Textile.

We are worried about it, Chowdhury told BenarNews, adding that he had sent a consignment of apparel products to Russia, which sat idle at a port for three consecutive weeks. He declined to disclose which port for reasons of business confidentiality.

Now my Russian buyer says they will receive the consignment through the Latvian port, he said.

Bangladesh and Russia, meanwhile, enjoy a warm relationship in trade, investment and commerce.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh said it would carry on with completing its first nuclear energy plant being built by Russia and would not stop doing business with Moscow, despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is constructing and financing 90 percent of the total cost for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) in Pabna, a district in northwestern Bangladesh. In late 2017, the Russian state-run nuclear energy firm Rosatom began constructing the plant, which has a price-tag of about U.S. $13 billion, and is expected to finish it in mid-2023.

Bangladesh also was among a handful of U.N. member-states that abstained from a vote on a General Assembly resolution on March 2 that condemned the invasion. A majority of member-states voted for the resolution. On Wednesday, however, Bangladesh was among 140 countries that voted in favor of a separate resolution in the United Nations General Assembly calling for the immediate creation of a humanitarian corridor and a stop to the fighting in Ukraine.

This updated version adds information about Bangladesh's new action in the U.N. General Assembly.
Families of some people arrested under SOSMA gather with opposition party members and NGO representatives outside the parliament building to protest against a provision in the act that allows for detention without trial, in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 21, 2019.

Malaysia will no longer allow suspects to be held for 28 days without charge for alleged national security offenses, after parliament voted down a proposal to renew a controversial provision of a law that critics say often is misused for political reasons.

The loss of the parliamentary vote late Wednesday was a major embarrassment for the government, analysts say, especially because more than 30 of its lawmakers were absent.

The governments defeat on the vote over the Special Offenses (Security Measures) Act  or SOSMA  has also prompted calls from within the prime ministers party to break a historic agreement with the opposition, and call for snap polls.

Maria Chin Abdullah, a lawmaker with the opposition Peoples Justice Party (PKR) who was detained for 11 days in 2016 under SOSMA when she was an activist fighting for clean government and fair elections in Malaysia, said she was happy the provision had been repealed.

Huge morale booster! Thank you Thank you! Dewan rejects motion to renew SOSMAs detention without trial, she posted on Twitter.

SOSMA should be abolished entirely, said Nalini Elumalai, a human rights activist.

The 28-day detention period under SOSMA has no judicial oversight, and it violates the international human rights standards for prompt judicial review, she posted on Twitter.

In 2020, Malaysia had detained 1,032 individuals without trial by August, according to the U.S. State Departments Country Report on Malaysian human rights practices.

On Thursday, Musa Hasan, Malaysias former national police chief, expressed concern about the detention provision not being renewed.

Some politicians think that security laws will restrict them from engaging in certain activities. Thats why a lot of them reject security laws, he told BenarNews.

You must understand that Malaysia is exposed to threats without the provision [that was rejected by parliament]. To me, every country has its own security laws. If Malaysia does not want such laws, face the consequences if anything untoward occurs.

Meanwhile, the current inspector general of police said members of the force would no longer enforce the SOSMA clause that frames the provision of up to 28 days in detention without charge  starting July 31, when its validity ends.

Instead, we will use provisions under existing laws, including those under the Criminal Procedure Code, to detain and remand suspects who are under investigation, Sani Abdullah Sani Acrly said.

UMNO lawmakers MIA

The governments loss in its bid to renew the detention provision marks the first time in recent history that an administration has lost a parliamentary vote, said political analyst Azizuddin Mohd Sani of Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Its a shame for the government to have this failure to pass the motion, Azizuddin told BenarNews.

This has never happened in Malaysia, not in recent history at least.

Still, the government lost the bid by only a single vote  86 lawmakers voted against it and 85 for its renewal.

To the consternation of the United Malays National Organization, the party that leads the ruling coalition, more than 30 of its lawmakers were not present in parliament during the vote on the motion. Those not present included UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The defeat prompted a section of UMNO in favor of snap polls to press even harder to advance the general election.

Nazri Aziz, an UMNO lawmaker, for one said in parliament that the government had no moral ground to stand on and should call for an election and let the people decide who should govern the country.

Tunku Mohar Mokhtar, an analyst with the International Islamic University of Malaysia, said that questions have since arisen about whether the vote was sabotaged so the government would call for snap elections. That was unlikely, he said.

I dont think there was a plan to have this bill defeated, but since the bill was rejected, it may give a convenient excuse for some UMNO leaders to justify the need to have the general election earlier, he told BenarNews.

The absence of the MPs is not something new. Some of our MPs habitually skip parliament. Most of them do not give much importance to the legislative process. But the failure for the government to get enough votes simply points to its weak leadership.

Other UMNO lawmakers are calling for dissolving a cooperation agreement with the main opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, which, they alleged, reneged on its promise by voting against the detention provision in parliament.

UMNO chief Zahid said the opposition, through its move in parliament on Wednesday, showed that it did not want political stability in the country.

When the motion tabled this time failed due to lack of support from the Opposition, it is appropriate for all of us to conclude that they have broken their promises, violated the agreement and completely ignored their previous commitments, he said on Facebook.

But Pakatan representatives said that the agreement states they must be consulted on every motion in parliament and they were not, therefore they could vote any way they liked and had not violated the agreement.

We never agreed with the motion on SOSMA, said Anthony Loke, leader of the Democratic Action Party, which is a part of Pakatan,

The question is, has the prime minister lost confidence after the motion on SOSMA was voted down? And the answer is no.

Noah Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to the report.
Children fish at a beach in central Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, Sept. 14, 2012.

The Solomon Islands and China are considering a security pact allowing Beijing to set up military bases and deploy troops in the Pacific island nation a move that drew immediate concern Thursday from close U.S. ally Australia.

Solomon Islands officials signed a policing deal with their Chinese counterparts. A proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military will be sent to the cabinet for consideration, a Solomon Islands government official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying Thursday.

A leaked draft security cooperation agreement circulated on social media and later confirmed by Australian media as authentic says China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands.

This suggests there would be Chinese logistical hubs or bases in the island nation, which occupies a remote but strategic location in the western Pacific, about 1,700 km (1,056 miles) from the Northeastern coast of Australia.

The draft also says relevant forces of China can be used to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands, referring to the deployment of Chinese troops.

This security agreement, if approved, would be eyed with concern by the United States, which has been making efforts to reconnect with the Pacific and to counter Chinas rising influence in the region. Analysts have said Chinese troops presence in the Solomon Islands could raise the risk of confrontation between China and the U.S. and its allies, as well as challenge the U.S.-led vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

Australia, which is a U.S. treaty ally and has its own concerns about Chinas rising military clout, was quick to express its misgivings about the planned agreement.

That is our backyard, this is our neighborhood and we are very concerned of any activity that is taking place in the Pacific Islands, Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews was quoted as saying by Australian ABC.

Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank, said: This is a very serious development in Australia's defense and national security  the very real prospect of a Chinese military presence close to Australia.

If approved by the Solomon Islands cabinet it would also be the first time the Chinese military has an operational presence in the Pacific region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping participates in a meeting with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who is not visible, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Oct. 9, 2019. [Reuters]

Grim prospect

This is pretty grim, said John Blaxland, professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the Australian National University.

I presume the Australian government is formulating a response, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February made a week-long trip to the Indo-Pacific in an effort to elevate American engagement with the remote Pacific islands  described by one analyst as ground zero for U.S.-China strategic competition.

During the trip, the top U.S. diplomat said his country was looking to reopen an embassy in the Solomon Islands to reaffirm the U.S. strategic interest in the region.

Washington closed its embassy in Honiara in 1993.

President Joe Bidens Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said in January that the United States has enormous moral, strategic, historical interests in the Pacific but had not done enough to assist the region.

In recent years, China has been developing closer ties with the Pacific islands, wooing them with infrastructure loans and economic assistance, as well as military exchanges.

The Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019  a move to please Beijing which seeks to diminish the international diplomatic recognition of the government in Taiwan.

The Pacific Islands have of late become a ground zero for the strategic competition between China on one side and the U.S., Australia, and to a lesser extent, Japan, on the other, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense institute based in Hawaii.
Child protection police officers raid the apartment of a suspect in Thailand who allegedly filmed private videos of children and women, in this undated photo that was released with the suspects face blurred.

Thai police arrested 86 suspects on child-sex abuse charges in the first two months of 2022, with police and protection agencies noting that changes in technology use had led to such cases more than doubling since the coronavirus pandemic began.

A police task force last year arrested 73 suspects for alleged crimes, including sexual harassment, possessing child porn materials, trafficking in persons and extortion, said Police Maj. Gen. Wiwat Khamchamnan, chief of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD). The task force provided support to at least 49 victims  boys and girls, all younger than 18  he said.

Technology crimes, including online child sexual exploitation, doubled in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic period, Wiwat told BenarNews, noting about 30 cases were investigated in 2019.

The task force recorded 152 online child sexual abuse cases between June 2015 and September 2020.

Physical crimes have transformed into cybercrimes. People dont even need to visit the dark web to find child sexual materials. Its everywhere on social media these days, Wiwat said.

The dark web refers to internet content accessible only by using specific software, configurations or authorization. It has been used for criminal activities because it provides maximum anonymity.

Exploitation of children

An estimated 400,000 children in Thailand were subjected to exploitation last year alone, according to Disrupting Harm, a report funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children initiative and supported by UNICEF, Interpol and ECPAT, a network of global civil society organizations that works to end online sexual exploitation of children.

The report found that 9 percent of internet-using Thai children between the ages of 12 and 17 were victims of grave instances of online sexual exploitation and abuse.

This includes being blackmailed to engage in sexual activities, someone else sharing their sexual images without permission, or being coerced to engage in sexual activities through promises of money or gifts, said the report released last month.

Twenty-nine percent of the children surveyed said they saw sexual content online by accident, in a pop-up advertisement or social media post, according to the report. Abused children were primarily targeted on social media platforms, specifically Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, followed by online games and in-person interactions.

Authorities and child protection activists said many children are vulnerable because they spend more time online with minimal supervision since the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to stay home.

In most cases, the report said, the boy or girl knew the person who initiated exploitation or abuse, which meant it could be someone close to the child or the childs network. Few of those affected reached out to police, social workers or helplines.

Since 2018, cooperation among Thai police, Interpol, Australian and U.S. authorities has led to arrests of at least three Thai operators of child sex abuse websites with a total subscriber base of more than 65,000 worldwide.

Last year, Thai police arrested a 28-year-old man who claimed to work as an agent for child models, and seized more than 500,000 photographs of child sex abuse  the largest-ever cache. The suspect faces charges of uploading obscene materials, attempted rape of a minor/rape of a minor and child molestation.

Wiwat estimated the value of the child-exploitation-porn industry at about 500 million baht (U.S. $14.9 million) a year, based on transactions under investigation.

Online makes it easier for people to trade sex and sexual-related materials, Wiwat said.

Weerawan Mosby, founder and director of HUG Project shows a survival kit for children exposed to pornographic materials, during an interview in Bangkok, Dec. 28, 2021. [Wilawan Watcharasakwet/BenarNews]

Rising trend

A child rights activist said her NGO last year had assisted nearly 100 children abused by sexual predators.

The cases double every year, and I see the same trend in 2022, said Weerawan Mosby, founder and director of HUG Project, an NGO that works to protect Thai children from sexual abuse and online sex trafficking.

I said it is increasing because there are so many unregulated websites and there is no one to protect the children, Weerawan said. Its easy to register a domain [website] name and find a server, and not comply with the laws.

Weerawan said while many children have reached out to her and other activists her during the pandemic, some are trying to make money by selling themselves online.

We have our concerns regarding live-streaming. Children like going online and thinking this is the easiest way to make money, so they advertise as a call girl, Weerawan said.

Wiwat has similar concerns.

Due to the pandemic economic ripple effects, many kids under 18 advertise themselves to make money, he said. And then they preyed on other children too. There became brokers, using money to bait other kids and sell them on bigger platforms.

Weerawan said collective efforts are needed to end such illicit activities.

Her group has created a survival kit for children and is working with police, prosecutors, and judges to establish guidelines on how to report such cases, not only to the police but also on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

We see children are afraid to report the case to the police because they dont know what the judicial system is like, Weerawan said. They may go to a local police station, but the non-specialist police may not know how to investigate such a case and may inadvertently tell children to find the offenders themselves.

If more arrests are made, and even more serious is taken, the trend could ease, she said.

Subel Rai Bhandari in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Construction has begun on KindCare's assisted-living complex in downtown Bristol. When it's done, the five-story building at Route 6 and North Main Street will be a gateway to downtown from the north. (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)

KindCare is starting work in Bristol on what it promotes as an assisted-living complex geared toward the middle-income elderly, and expects to begin renting to 117 tenants by the spring of 2023.

The five-story building will be the start of what Chief Executive Officer Mark De Pecol envisions as a chain of centers offering standard assisted living apartments along with special memory care sections.

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The company last fall got zoning approval to build a similar project in Naugatuck, a three-story building with 124 units. KindCare also is pursuing sites in Berlin and Manchester.

This will be our flagship, De Pecol said Tuesday at his construction site at the southwestern corner of North Main Street and Farmington Avenue. We can be the Hampton Inn of assisted living.

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KindCare is designing its buildings with nearly all companion care units, the industrys term for a shared apartment.

The unit has two people in it. They each have their own private bedroom, but they share a living room, kitchenette and bathroom. he said. In this way, we can reduce the size of the building. A regular assisted living facility would have 600 square feet and one person; we have 600 square feet and two people.

Artist's image of the KindCare assisted living center planned in Bristol.

But all of the high-end amenities that are in the luxury communities, we have  the library, the arts and crafts rooms, the wellness room, a full restaurant and a bistro beside the restaurant, he told city officials, investors and others at the groundbreaking ceremony.

KindCare is a brand of Fairfield-based Senior Living Development, which has built assisted living centers in mostly affluent communities including Darien, Simsbury, Fairfield and Wilton.

KindCare was created when SLDs founders concluded the middle class is largely left out of high-end assisted living centers, where monthly rents can hit $7,000 and often dont include many day-to-day services.

Our brand is unique. We are luxury affordable assisted living, he said, adding that most assisted living communities are built for upper-income residents.

Seniorliving.org rates Connecticut as having the fifth-highest cost in the United States for assisted living, averaging $6,300 a month. Only Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire and New Jersey top that.

About three years ago my partners and I decided we should come up with an assisted living product thats affordable to the middle class, he said.

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The plan is for monthly rents of $4,500 at the Bristol center, with a higher charge for people in the memory care unit. Those rates also cover numerous care services that are usually billed separately, he added. In the end, the cost should be 20 to 30 percent lower than what a standard assisted living center charges, he said.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

Mayor Jeff Caggiano applauded that philosophy, saying affordable extended care is important.

This is a middle class, blue-collar town, Caggiano said at the ceremony.

City and KindCare officials participate in a ceremony to mark the start of the company's assisted living complex in Bristol. (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)

The city has authorized a 60-unit building; KindCare expects it will be substantially complete by March of 2023.

The design puts all amenities on the first floor. KindCare will rent out apartments on the second, fourth and fifth floor to people 62 and older who need daily assistance. The third floor is reserved for those with Alzheimers or other memory disorders.

KindCare negotiated the project initially with then-Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, but progress stalled when the pandemic hit. De Pecol said the delay was partly beneficial. Engineers have had time to design an ultraviolet system to treat all air as it recirculates through the building, he said.

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When its standing, the building will be the gateway to downtown from the north, said Caggiano, who predicted more new construction in the citys center this year.

This is the beginning of what youre going to see downtown, Caggiano said.
A survivor of abuse, Michele Dinko is now a trauma nurse. She spoke to the Banner about what it's like to live with the burden that former police investigator Leonard Forte placed upon her at age 12, when he sexually assaulted her.
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Aubuchon Realty Company Inc., the owner of the shopping center on Depot Street with T.J.'s Fish Fry, Hollister's Appliances and Anytime Fitness, is being sued after a planned purchase of the center was upended by discovery of a right-of-way access asserted by an abutting property owner.
George Bratsenis, a serial bank robber from Stamford and one-time strong arm man for the mob, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty in federal court Thursday to taking thousands of dollars for carrying out a political murder-for-hire in New Jersey.

Bratsenis, 73, admitted he took what federal prosecutors described as thousands of dollars in cash from well-known New Jersey political operative Sean Caddle in return for killing Michael Galdieri, another political operator who had worked with Caddle in the past.

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New Jersey authorities, who have been building the murder case for months, have been silent about a motive. And Bratsenis, balding with close cropped white hair and a matching beard, revealed nothing new Thursday.

He appeared in court in Newark through a video connection from the prison where he is being held and answered, simply Yes, your honor when asked repeatedly if he understood the legal ramifications of admitting to a murder. When it was over, he told U.S. District Judge John Vasquez, You all have a nice day. Take it easy.

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In response to questions from the prosecution, Bratsenis admitted that he traveled from Connecticut to New Jersey where he met Caddle on April 20, 2014 and agreed to the murder. Two days later, he acknowledged that he and Bomani Africa, a bank robbery partner from Philadelphia who he met in a New Jersey prison, returned to New Jersey, where they stabbed Galdleri to death in his Jersey City apartment and lit it on fire.

He said Caddle paid him the day after the murder at a diner in Elizabeth, N.J., and he later split the fee with Africa.

[ Hard boiled Connecticut criminal is a suspect in a sensational political murder-for-hire, authorities say ]

Caddle and Africa pleaded guilty to the murder for hire conspiracy, Caddle last year and Africa earlier this year.

This defendant conspired in the ultimate crime  murder for money, FBI Newark Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. said in a release. Those who devalue life  whether out of greed or animus  need to know that the FBI is dedicated to keeping our citizens safe, and nothing will stop us from accomplishing that mission. When you break the law, you will be brought to justice no matter how long it takes.

Bratsenis, who has spent most of his life in prison on convictions for crimes that include bank robbery and murder, was told Thursday he could spend the rest of it there because he faces a sentence of mandatory life when he returns to court for sentencing on Aug. 2.

Bratsenis built a notorious criminal resume in the 1970s and 80s, after graduating from Stamford High School in 1966 and fighting as a tunnel rat in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Marine Corp. from 1968 to 1972.

After the military, Bratsenis began doing strong arm work for the Gambino crime family, which was a criminal force in the southwest corner of the state and had penetrated the Stamford Police Department, according to federal prosecutors and others.

In 1984, he was charged in a conspiracy with then Stamford police Lt. Lawrence Hogan to murder drug dealer David the Turk Avnayim.

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Bratsenis often partnered with Louis Trigger Lou Sclafani, another mob-connected hoodlum  until Sclafani joined the federal witness protection program and turned on him, the prosecutors and other lawyers said. Sclafani was relocated, made millions of dollars in the trash industry and was named man of the year in the new city where he was settled, according to two lawyers who remained in contact with him.

Sclafani was a key government witness against Bratsenis at a 1980s trial when Bratsenis was charged with a variety of felonies, including bank robbery and the conspiracy to kill the Turk. Under cross examination, Sclafani conceded he would not hesitate to lie under oath if he could save himself. Bratsenis was convicted anyway and sentenced to decades in prison.

After serving his Connecticut sentence, Bretsanis was transferred to a New Jersey prison to serve time there for crimes committed there. Genesis of the murder-for-hire could lie in the New Jersey prison.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

He was confined for more than three years with Caddles brother, James Caddle, at the Northern State Prison in Newark, according to state corrections department records. James Caddle was in prison on kidnapping, burglary and robbery convictions.

Bratsenis and Africa also met in the New Jersey prison system, according to the Connecticut records. Africa, 61, formerly known as Baxter Randolf Keys, is from Philadelphia.

Bratsenis was incarcerated for a bank robbery conviction and Africa was incarcerated for a robbery conviction, a 2016 prosecution memo filed by the U.S. Attorneys office in New Haven says. From 1999 through 2006, Bratsenis and Africa were both assigned to Block 2C, eight cells apart in cells 32 and 40.

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It was while they were together in prison that Bratsenis and Africa agreed to rob banks together when they got out, according to the memo.

Bratsenis and Africa pulled two bank jobs in Fairfield County in 2014, after they were released. Galdieris murder took place between the two.

Bratsenis was arrested after the second bank robbery when local police learned that a white pick-up truck spotted by a bank robbery witness was owned by his sister. When questioned, she acknowledged owning the truck, but said it was being driven by her brother George, who had recently been released from prison after serving 27 years for bank robberies.

The police spotted Bratsenis driving the truck, pulled him over and searched it. Among other things, they found a mask used in one of the bank robberies, a half dozen hundred dollar bills, and a long-blade butchers knife.
The Cheshire Police Department posted on its Facebook page Wednesday night that residents and visitors to homes and businesses on 4th and 2nd 
Prosecutors midtrial Thursday signaled an interest in calling Nick Carnevale to testify against two men accused of participating in the assault that left him shot twice in the head.
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
NORTH ADAMS  A group of neighbors raising objections to a proposed outdoor cannabis business on Ashland Street have the support of the citys mayor.

Last week, the Planning Board approved New England Alchemy LLCs application for a special permit to manufacture and grow cannabis outdoors at 537 Ashland St., if the company submits improved parking plans that the city approves. The company also still needs approval from the Conservation Commission.

But Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council this week she has concerns and will challenge the Planning Boards approval.

I dont like what happened the other night at the Planning Board meeting, she said. I will not shortchange the people on this petition, the neighborhoods, and I hope you wont either.

With this, please know that the present situation is in the hands of our legal counsel, Macksey said. And we will be challenging the approval of the application as it was presented.

She later added, Im certainly not against cannabis, but what Im against is deteriorating our neighborhoods.

After reviewing the companys application, Macksey said she had concerns about parking, security, conservation, and a reference to an incorrect map and lot number. But most importantly, the lack of public participation in this meeting, because it was held on Zoom rather than in person, she said.

Macksey said her administration asked the Planning Board to postpone making a decision.

Calls to both the companys owner and a lawyer representing it were not returned.

Last year, the company held a community outreach meeting, which is required by the Cannabis Control Commission. A seven-minute meeting in October posted on YouTube shows no one from the public attended. The Cannabis Control Commission requires companies to notify residents within 300 feet of the property line about the meeting.

More than 30 residents on Davenport, Church and Corinth streets and Highland Avenue  nearby but not abutting the site  signed on to a petition opposing the project.

We suspect that this business will negatively impact our property values and our quality of life, especially during the growing season, Diane Parsons, a resident of Highland Avenue told the Council Tuesday night, reading from the petition.

Discussion of possible odors came up at the Planning Board meeting last week. The company plans to use plants like lavender to mitigate the smell, its application says.

Its impossible to say there will be no smell ever, owner Rustin Kluge told the Planning Board.

The site is in an area zoned for industry, he added. Brian Miksic, the boards chair, underscored that point last week. This is specifically zoned to be able to handle things like this, he said.

The business proposes to put an 8-foot-high fence around the property to ensure visibility of plants is eliminated from all reasonable vantage points, the company wrote in its application.
History shows that Republican senators have supported Black candidates for the Supreme Court at a far better rate than Democrats.

The list is very short: Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.

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Democrat former President Lyndon Johnson nominated the first Black to serve on the Supreme Court in 1967. The Democrats had the majority in the Senate. Yet it was the Republican senators who overwhelmingly supported Thurgood Marshall in the confirmation vote.

[ Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson seems headed for confirmation, says no agendas ]

Here are the tallies from that vote: Democrats 37 Yeas - 10 Nays - 11 Not Present Republicans 32 Yeas - 1 Nay - 3 Not Present.

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FILE - Thurgood Marshall, first Black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, is photographed on his first day in court wearing judicial robes Oct. 2, 1967. (AP Photo/Bob Schutz, File) (Bob Schutz/AP)

You can see that a far higher percentage of Republicans voted in favor of Marshall than Democrats. And all Republicans voted for the Clarence Thomas confirmation in 1991.In the 1990s, Republican governors were winning elections on the East and West coasts. It was due to the GOP having the wisdom to work to add voters while not seeking to subtract voters.

Yes, California had a GOP governor as did New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. And yes, all at the same time. Imagine that.

To a degree, its appropriate for GOP senators to challenge - but not badger -Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The Supreme Court is the most powerful court in the land and upon being confirmed she would be having her last job interview.

While teaching college students over the years I would often explain the term loyal opposition. It can be a misconstrued practice and sometimes adversaries take it to an onerous level. But used as intended, it is for the good of the nation to test and evaluate candidates for appointed positions as well as to make legislation better.

However, after the probing and the challenging there comes a time to be objective. Its a time to leave out unnecessary biases and distorted subjectivity. If the positives outweigh the negatives you must vote yes. It should not be a litmus test where one issue can rule out or cancel all the positive attributes of a candidate.

The Republican Party has a solid record on race relations.

Nearly all the groundbreaking events that moved the Civil Rights cause forward was supported more by Republican members of Congress than Democrats. In fact, Democrats were in the way of Civil Rights legislation all too frequently, with a few exceptions.

With former Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhowers encouragement and nomination, former Republican governor turned chief justice Earl Warren brought us the biggest positive out of the Supreme Court to date on race relations - Brown vs. Board of Education. It was a 9-0 vote. A few years later, Eisenhower put the Arkansas National Guard under federal authority and sent 1,000 U.S. Army troops to the state where they would ensure that Blacks could attend a desegregated school. This was the first time the military had returned to the South since the Civil War.

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After Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to block black students from entering the school on Sept 4, President Eisenhower countered this by sending in the federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to class weeks later, making their first day of school Sept. 25, 1957. (AP Photo)

Opinion Weekly Perspective on the week's biggest stories from the Courant's Opinion page >

All the major Civil Rights related bills on housing, labor, and voting in the 1960s were passed thanks to a larger percentage of Republican votes than Democrat ones.

Former President Richard Nixon (another Republican) gave us strong EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) guidelines.

The Affordable Care Act would have come to an abrupt end had it not been for Republican-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts. It was he who cast the deciding vote just a few years ago.

Let us not forget the abysmal Democrat record on race relations over time. Bull Connors, who served as Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, ordered Black citizens to be hosed with water to discourage them from fighting for voting rights. Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in front of the University of Alabama to prevent Black people from enrolling. Georgia Governor Lester Maddox chased Black people out of his restaurant with an ax. And just recently, it was revealed that former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam once donned a Ku Klux Klan outfit or went in blackface (he does not seem to remember which one). Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring also admitted he wore blackface. All Democrats.

On the negative side for Republicans, Black people remember both the You Lie outburst and the making Obama a one-term president comments, both remarks possibly appropriate as campaign rhetoric but totally inappropriate when made on the floor of Congress.

The Senate confirmation vote of Judge Brown Jackson is a clear opportunity for Republicans to score points with the Black community. It should be realized that Democrats cannot and have not won the White House without 90+ percent of the Black vote during this century. Clinton and Gore failed to reach that threshold. Thus, anything positive the GOP can do to inch away at that 90% could ensure a member of the GOP being elected in 2024. Think about it. Republican senators have an opportunity to confirm a judge who does not change the balance on the court. Its a freebie. But she has the most important virtue - she is extremely qualified. The glass must not be half-empty for her while having been half full for others.

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Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticuts 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New Englands first Black member of the House. Host: podcast We Speak Frankly. Author: With God, For God, and For Country. @GaryFranks
The Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire regional school districts should be merged into a single district.

That was the recommendation announced Tuesday by a consultant who, with his team, has conducted two years of research on the best way forward for the neighboring districts.

Quote What we know is that change is happening in South Berkshire, and we believe that you all have the potential to direct this change rather than simply being impacted by it." Jake Eberwein, project manager and consultant to the 8-Town Regional School District Planning Board.

The plan could save as much as $2.1 million with a cut to administrative and other redundancy, said Jake Eberwein, a longtime educator who is project manager for the 8 Town Regional School Planning Board. The board will meet in public session April 5 to discuss the recommendation.

This is just the beginning, said board Chair Lucy Prashker, who reminded those who attended the virtual meeting that there is much more discussion and planning in the boards future. She encouraged the public to send comments through the boards website.

The 23-member panel that includes town officials, educators and citizens from each town came together in 2019 to address the economic and educational problem of steadily declining enrollment and level state aid for the rural schools.

Under the plan, grades nine through 12 from both districts would unite at a new or renovated Monument Mountain Regional High School campus in Great Barrington, which is in the early stages of a proposed building project.

The elementary and middle schools in both districts would remain as is. Middle-schoolers in grades six through eight would remain at the Mount Everett Middle and High School building.

Some form of collaboration or consolidation has been on the table for around two decades, but the monumental task of executing a merger had long stalled talks.

Crushing school budgets gave towns no choice. Both officials and taxpayers, agitating for economic reform around paying for the schools, pushed for a panel that would do a thorough investigation.

The picture is grim. School funding formulas are complex. One thing is certain  the more students, the more money comes in. Rural areas are losing pupils. It all takes a toll on taxpayers that have to make up the difference, as well as on the physical plants.

The current school buildings are under capacity, and there are three school buildings that dont meet the School Building Authoritys highest facilities ratings, Eberwein said during his detailed presentation.

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Two are Southern Berkshires New Marlborough Central School and the Egremont Village School.

The third, Monument, has the lowest rating of the three. It is set to be overhauled, with or without state money, beginning in late 2024 or 2025. The state gave word this month that it likely will foot part the bill for what is loosely estimated at a $100 million upgrade.

This timing gives districts leeway to execute their consolidation plans, Eberwein said. He also later said that a new, right-sized high school with comprehensive programs has the potential to be a significant force for good in an entire community, as it has been in other areas of the county.

Changes in technology and modern learning are factoring in. The schools increasingly want to offer more career-based and vocational learning.

The research team ran three models with different permutations of mergers, one which would have moved some middle schoolers to the other districts buildings.

Eberwein told The Eagle that, while shutting down school buildings does provide substantial savings, buy-in might be hard to find.

Its also one of the more controversial things, so our team was weighing how the eight towns would support a process without alienating a particular town or community, he said.

The teams report, a link to which is on the boards website, shows that the districts should get ahead of steering its destiny in a changing landscape.

What we know is that change is happening in South Berkshire, and we believe that you all have the potential to direct this change rather than simply being impacted by it, Eberwein told the board.

One graphic in the report shows the problems as they are now, and progress made if districts come together, share resources, expand opportunities, strengthen your economy, promote a legislative agenda.
When it comes to recent vaccine mandate protests at Boston Mayor Michelle Wus home, and an ordinance she recently filed that would prevent targeted picketing early in the morning and late at night, people should be able to voice their concerns without going to such extremes, says state Rep. Peter Durant, R-Spencer. He also said that Wus proposed ordinance is not the proper way to deal with frustrated constituents.
As proponents of affordability and transit-oriented development proposals, we feel compelled to respond to housing activist David Finks recent op-ed on transit-oriented development (TOD) and a bill currently before the Planning and Development Committee, HB 5429, to dispel misinformation and innuendos. First, HB 5429 is not really a TOD bill. TOD planning focuses on mixed use around transit hubs.

Instead, this bill is a housing development bill. It ignores the commercial development that is a critically important component of TOD planning. The HB 5429 bill density mandate requires less affordability than most towns currently require in TOD zones, thus not helping the housing-disadvantaged. Aside from those substantive deficiencies, the bill prohibits towns from holding public hearings on development proposals, which chills public participation. Finally, it severely restricts the ability of an estimated dozens of Connecticut towns and cities to develop and continue with its own TOD planning. In short, the bill does the opposite of what its proponents state.

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Why would lawmakers want to take away local control from the very communities they represent?

According to Mr. Fink, this bill would mean those towns would have to give something back to Connecticut  if only allowing some new neighbors in to share the quality of life theyve been hoarding. No, the legislation is actually a gift to developers and would require towns to allow as of right housing development within a half-mile in all directions of all train stations and rapid transit centers in about 60 Connecticut towns. The bill doesnt require any affordable housing on projects under six units, so you might expect existing affordable middle housing to be replaced by luxury townhouses, thus squeezing the housing disadvantaged even more.

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The proponents of the bill fail to recognize that many Connecticut transit centers have TOD development commensurate with a towns existing infrastructure and under the purview of their own planning and zoning commissions. For example, in Fairfield, TOD has been underway for quite some time. Three of these projects are built and occupied, making up 351 dwelling units. A fourth approved project is nearing construction of 357 additional units. Many other towns have taken similar initiatives and continue to plan and implement actual TOD in transit zones on an ongoing basis. Vibrant and sustainable TOD areas are already taking place and further state mandates are unnecessary and onerous.

Mr. Fink stated the legislation should mimic Massachusetts in that it should require transit municipalities to create denser zones near stations and provide grants to help. The bill before the P&D Committee does not mirror the bill in Massachusetts. However, a one-size-fits-all approach around transit is not appropriate in Connecticut given the vast differences in commuting times and train travel times.

Language in the bill as of right means that planning and zoning bodies will be diluted and the elected and appointed public officials with knowledge of towns needs and restrictions, infrastructure, historical preservation and the environmental concerns will be muted, and the voice of the public will be silenced, which is not good for a democratic society. In the Saugatuck section of Westport, for example, the access/egress to I-95 is steps from the train station and the area is surrounded by narrow streets with no sidewalks.

Climate change has arrived in Connecticut, as shown by increasing temperatures, stronger storms and flooding. In the coming decades, its effects will only accelerate  the sea rising from Greenwich to Stonington means greater risk of tidal flooding and storm surges over the next 15 years. Stations along the coastline will be impacted and environmentalists say we should be moving away from the coastline. HB 5429 instead doubles down and increases density in the very places where we should not be building up.

Despite the narratives and information that housing activists like Mr. Fink are putting forth, HB 5429 is not a solution to address affordability in Connecticut. Nuanced solutions are needed to make Connecticut affordable such as jobs, business creation and tax breaks to struggling families.

Alexis Harrison is a member of the Fairfield Town Planning and Zoning Commission.
On Wednesday, the Senate quickly passed a reworked literacy bill, just two days after the House passed it.

House Bill 790 does two things:

It puts an additional $46.6 million into early reading efforts  on top of the existing $26.1 million literacy budget. School districts can use this added funding for all-day kindergarten, augmenting the money they now receive for half-day classes. But no school is required to offer all-day kindergarten, and no parents are required to enroll a child in all-day kindergarten.

The bill will require school districts to explain how they plan to spend supplemental property tax levies.

The levy disclosure language was a key selling point with House members  and the purpose of their literacy bill rewrite. House members wanted some assurance that the states all-day kindergarten funding would prompt districts to move those programs off the local property tax.

The Senate went along Wednesday  after brief debate, and with some misgivings.

This seems to be our kindergarten bill, and weve pretty successfully erased the word kindergarten from this bill, said Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, who voted for the bill despite his misgivings. Nelson said hes worried the Legislature could yank kindergarten funding in the future, and he said he disagreed with the Houses levy disclosure language.

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, said he also was concerned about the disclosure language, but he said he believed it was workable.

Sen. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett

The bills floor sponsor  Senate Education Committee Chairman Steven Thayn, R-Emmett  focused on the meat of the literacy funding plan, unchanged from the original bill senators had passed two weeks ago. Half of the literacy money would go out to schools based on enrollment; the other half would go out based on how many students score at grade level on the Idaho Reading Indicator, or show improvement on the screening test.

The state now distributes literacy dollars based on the number of students who struggle on the IRI  a formula that Thayn and other lawmakers say rewards failure.

As with the first Senate vote, Wednesdays outcome was not in doubt. HB 790 passed 31-3, with only Republicans Regina Bayer of Meridian, Kevin Cook of Idaho Falls and Christy Zito of Hammett in opposition.

Wednesdays vote probably wraps up the Legislatures work on all-day kindergarten, one of the big education topics of the 2022 session.

It also appears to be an election-year victory for Little, who started the session by proposing $46.6 million in optional all-day kindergarten funding. Once the bill reaches his desk, Little has five days to act on it, not counting Sundays.
BOISE - Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has announced that all required special districts in Idaho have agreed to participate in the nationwide opioid settlements with Johnson & Johnson and three major opioid distributors. The entities total participation ensures Idaho will receive its maximum settlement award and that the state receives its allocation as soon as possible.

Idahos maximum allotment is $119 million. In order to receive that amount on the fastest timeline, Idaho needed to obtain releases from certain school, hospital and fire districts across the state. The state received the final release last week.

As a result, the first settlement payments could arrive in Idaho in April. Additionally, the first four years of payments from Johnson & Johnson will be accelerated and paid to the state this year.

I want to thank the special districts who saw the importance in signing on to the settlements, Wasden said. This unanimous participation ensures the best possible outcome. The state and local jurisdictions who now stand to receive settlement money are well positioned to continue fighting the health crisis created by opioid addiction in Idaho.

As part of the settlement, certain special districts were identified in each participating state based on the size of the population they serve. The special districts who participated in the settlements are North Ada County Fire & Rescue, Eagle Fire, Star Fire, Shelley Firth Fire, Nampa Fire Protection District, Middleton Fire, Kootenai Health, Madison County Fire, Meridian Rural Fire Protection District, Whitney Fire, Kuna Rural Fire, Blackfoot Snake River Fire District, Central Fire Protection District, Kootenai County Fire & Rescue, Northern Lakes Fire Protection, Moscow Fire, Bonneville County Fire Protection District #1, Caldwell Rural Fire, Twin Falls Rural Fire, North Bannock Fire, North Cassia Fire, Minidoka County Fire, Gem County Fire Prot. #1, West Ada School District and Boise School District.

All funds must be spent on opioid remediation programs. Under the Idaho Opioid Settlement Intrastate Allocation Agreement, opioid settlement funds will be divided with 40% going directly to participating counties and cities and 20% to regional public health districts. The remaining 40% will be allocated to the State-Directed Opioid Settlement Fund to be appropriated by the Idaho legislature based on recommendations by the Idaho Behavioral Health Council.
Lincoln, NE (68508)

Today

Showers this morning becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. High 54F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 49F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
BOISE - A new report on economic freedom and Americas governors has ranked Idaho Governor Brad Little in 5th place. Washington Governor Jay Inslee was ranked 21st in the report. The top ranking governor was Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and the worst ranking went to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Released earlier this week, the 2021 "Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom: Grading Americas 50 Governors" ranks each governor on their current economic performance and their fiscal and executive policies over their term in office. The report focuses on economic performance, executive policies, and fiscal policy, considering measures such as education freedom, interstate migration, unemployment rate, and debt.

While state governors dont control all state policy, and can do more or less depending on whether their political party controls the legislature as well, the report tries to adjust accordingly.

The top five governors in the report were Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Spencer Cox of Utah, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Jared Polis of Colorado, and Brad Little of Idaho.
Thanks for listening to The OReilly Update. No Spin. Just Facts. Always looking out for YOU.



Heres whats happening across our nation. President Biden travels to Europe, New York Citys unemployment rate the highest in the nation, Disney workers walk-off the job over gay rights, Gas prices smash records in Southern California. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, America's crime and addiction problem.

The O'Reilly Update is on Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms. Subscribe to the podcast here.
Do you own a .co.za with Domains.co.za? Then register the available .joburg, .durban, .capetown or .africa domain name equivalent for only R3.00*!

Domains.co.za has just launched a campaign that will allow all its .co.za customers to register the matching domain name in a .joburg, .durban, .capetown and .africa for only R3.00* per domain name (if available). This promotion aims to make it easier for local businesses to grow their online visibility and brand presence.Domains.co.za has reserved all the available .joburg, .durban, capetown and .africa domain name equivalents of its current .co.za customers. These customers have until midnight 30 June 2022 toand register the available domains at the promotional price of R3.00* per domain.A .co.za domain is most certainly the hero of local domain names and favoured by many South African businesses, says Domains.co.za CEO, Wayne Diamond.New geographic top-level domains, like .joburg and .africa have created quite a stir in the market, however they were never meant to compete with the .co.za geo-TLD, but rather to enhance it. Together these domains can help a business promote its appearance over the internet.Many businesses start out with one domain name, but Diamond believes companies can, and should be able to protect their brand identity online by owning other local geo-TLDs as well.He explains: South African companies looking to expand into Africa can most definitely benefit from utilising a .africa domain. While companies with branches in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town can easily target their geographical customers with the relevant geo-TLD. Obtaining the fitting domain now, secures its availability when the time comes.Having a domain strategy in place shows vision and allows businesses to spread their wings freely into the relevant online markets they have the domain for.The challenge with this strategy of course is that our local geo-TLDs are three times the price of a .co.za domain name. With The Great Domains Rush we want to make it easy and affordable for .co.za domain owners to register and secure geographical domain names alongside their current domains. Click here for more information.
Shortstraw has announced a tour that will see them play in Cape Town for the first time in two years.

Image supplied: Shortstraw will be performing in Cape Town as part of their Fine thanks, and you? tour

Crosscurrent

Mikhaela Faye

Year of Dogs

Kloudink

Sunshine Avenue

Housewife

Paradise Citizens

Dirty Disco Records

The concerts form part of their Fine thanks, and you? tour and are produced by Sun Daze - a team focussed on curating indie & alternative music shows in South Africa.Fans can see Shortstraw play The District in Cape Town CBD on 1 April, and Beau Constantia Amphitheatre, Constantia, on 2 April.In 2015, Shortstraw's album Youthless debuted at #1 on the SA Itunes Chart. They have performed with international stars including The Kooks and Bombay Bicycle Club.Shortstraws hits include Couch Potato, Find A Way (with The Kiffness) and Bikini Weather. Their new song, Okinawa, is now available on all streaming platforms.The Fine thanks and you? tour to Cape Town features a dazzling array of supporting acts including:Tickets are now available here
With the aim to increase access to quality education for the youth of East London, Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI) is investing R71m to develop two new schools in the area.

Image source:  Wavebreak Media Ltd  123RF.com

The investment takes place through OMAIs Education Investment Impact Fund of South Africa (EduFund) and is in partnership with well-known and experienced local education operator, Piyuse Thomas.The new schools will have capacity for 1,120 learners and will be developed over two phases, with the first phase commencing in March for completion in time for the 2023 learner intake. The second phase is due to start in 2024 and is expected to be completed for the 2025 intake."We are incredibly pleased to be partnering with a successful local education operator in this venture, as a deep understanding of the local market is critical to its long-term success, impact and sustainability. Our partner, Mr Piyuse Thomas, has an excellent education track record and we are delighted to be working with him to help improve access to quality education in the under-served East London market, says Kelly Joshua, Head of Education at OMAI.Thomas has been operating his existing high school (the East London Science College) since 2000 and has achieved notable academic success, with a 100% matric pass rate and 73% bachelors pass rate in 2021. This compares with the national averages of 76% and 36% respectively.When we first started out, all those years ago, it was very clear to us that the local community needed better access to quality education. While it is apparent how much we've accomplished since then, substantial unmet demand remains, says Thomas.The total cost to develop the two new schools  to be collectively known as St Josephs College  will amount to R90m and will be funded through a combination of debt and equity from EduFund and equity from the Thomas family. The Thomas family are a local, 100% Black-owned, education operator and will own 60% of the special purpose vehicle that will develop, own, and operate the two new schools, alongside EduFunds 40% stake.This investment addresses the specific needs of the middle-income market segment, where a significant gap to receiving quality education exists. We are incredibly pleased to have secured the funding and investment in partnership with EduFund, without which we could not have realised our growth ambitions, says Thomas.We consider it a privilege to work with mission-driven entrepreneurs to help them scale up in a way that makes a positive impact in the independent education sector. The Thomas familys deep relationships and understanding of the local market will be invaluable as we help develop it for the benefit of more communities, families and young leaders of tomorrow, concludes Joshua.
The One Club for Creativity, a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to support the global creative community, has appointed Duke Group ECD, Suhana Gordhan to its International Board of Directors.

Duke Group ECD, Suhana Gordhan, has been appointed to the One Club's International Board of Directors

Making the SA industry proud

Exceptional Board

They must be prominent international creatives.



Be respected leaders in their given fields.



Exert influence in their respective regions.

APAC

Swati Bhattacharya, creative chairperson, FCB India, New Delhi



Reed Collins, CCO, APAC, Ogilvy, Hong Kong



Tay Guan Hin, CCO, BBDO Singapore



Thomas Hongtack Kim, CCO, RE-BE, Seoul



Steve Jackson, co-founder, Milk & Honey United, Sydney



Kentaro Kimura, International CCO, corporate officer, Hakuhodo; founder, Hakuhodo Kettle, Tokyo



Kelly Pon, CCO, BBH China, Shanghai

Jureeporn Thaidumrong, creative chairperson, CCO, GREYnJ UNITED, Bangkok



Richard Yu, regional CCO, ADK Taiwan, TaipeiEurope:



Susana Albuquerque, ECD, partner, Uzina, Lisbon; president, Clube Criativos



Claus Fischer, founder, Voss-Fischer, Frankfurt; vice president, ADC Germany; treasurer, executive board, ADC Europe



Alexander Kalchev, CCO, DDB Paris



Anu Niemonen, ECD, Wunderman Thompson Finland, Helsinki



Eva Santos, co-CCO, founder, Delirio & Twain, Barcelona



Chaka Sobhani, global CCO, Leo Burnett Worldwide; CCO, Leo Burnett UK and Fallon, London



Bjorn Stahl, CCO, INGO Stockholm



Wesley ter Haar, co-founder, Media.Monks, AmsterdamLatin America:



Joaquin Cubria, CCO, global partner, GUT, Buenos Aires



Sergio Gordilho, co-president, CCO, Africa, Sao Paulo

MENA

Fadi Yaish, founder, CCO,  and us, Dubai

As a member of the International Board, Gordhan will provide input and feedback on the clubs ongoing global programming, help elevate The One Show and ADC Annual Awards in rankings in South Africa, connect the club with advertising and design universities and schools, and recommend outstanding candidates to serve as awards judges.Commenting on her appointment, Gordhan says, The One Club for Creativity is an organisation I have great admiration for, specifically regarding their initiatives that continue to transform the industry at all levels."I wish there was a less cliched word to express this  but I do feel so honoured to be able to serve on this Board and to represent my country amongst this esteemed group of creative minds."She adds that she watched, "with much respect and awe," Xolisa Dyeshana, CCO of Joe Public, carry this role before her. "He has made the South African industry extremely proud, and I hope to do the same. I feel so grateful to be given this opportunity and to be supported by the lovely humans at Duke Advertising," she says.Duke Group CEO, Wayne Naidoo says: There is no-one more qualified nor more deserving than Suhana to fulfill this role. She is a true creative leader and inspiration to so many  I know she is going to be a huge asset to the One Club for Creativity.Suhana is a renowned global creative leader who will play a key role in furthering our mission to support and elevate the global creative community and solidify the relevance of our mission in South Africa, says Kevin Swanepoel, CEO.One reason The One Club is so prestigious is because of its exceptional Board, an impressive group of the most prominent professionals in our field, adds Swanepoel.Board members are drawn from countries with the largest advertising communities and selected based on three criteria.Gordhan is among a diverse group of 21 creative leaders from around the world who will begin three-year terms on the International Board.The new International Board members will work closely with The One Clubs National Board, lead by chairman Glenn Cole, cofounder, creative chairman at 72andSunny, Los Angeles, and vice chair Pum Lefebure, cofounder, CCO at Design Army, Washington DC, to serve as ambassadors for and advisors to the non-profit organisation.
The 4th SA Investment Conference must do more to dispel the impression that corporates are deliberately excluding communities and small businesses from the economy.

Source: Supplied. The Minister of The Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Ebrahim Patel, opens the 4th South Africa Investment Conference.

Corporates are shutting out local SMEs based on the assumption that they are incapable and do not have the capacity;

Corporate entities consistently approach the same sub-contractors and suppliers to do work due to longstanding relationships. They make no effort to proactively engage communities where the developments are taking place; and

Corporates are creating unreasonable compliance requirements, thus preventing smaller service providers from accessing supply-chain opportunities.

With billions in direct capital investment being announced every year, SMEs and communities that neighbour these developments are asking if anything in the pie is left for them.One of South Africas leading business-incubation programmes, Property Point, notes that the perception of economic exclusion is increasing, due to the increased number of site closures by members of communities.Property Points founder, Shawn Theunissen said this perception of exclusion was one of the reasons that small businesses, suppliers, and particularly the unemployed and marginalised from the local communities have resorted to shutting down sites in order to be heard.Disenfranchised communities which include SMEs who have been excluded, have the following criticisms:Most of the businesses within the communities where the looting took place last July offered little economic opportunities to their host or local communities. In the event where the local businesses and suppliers had benefitted from supply-chain opportunities, it would have been easier to protect the assets as was the case in some areas, said Theunissen.This gap in the development opportunity has been noticed by some large corporate entities who have subsequently produced a Local Economic Development (LED) policy that guides them towards overall economic inclusion.Some corporates have taken the lead on LED, but they cannot do it alone. An example is one of Property Points corporate partners who has introduced an LED policy with the aim of developing and fostering access for disadvantaged businesses in communities within which it operates. Similarly, another partner has leaned towards including local community participation as a criteria in their property-development tenders.Such steps have seen a substantial improvement in tempering the levels of animosity and frustration as community engagements have been fostered and small black businesses get more opportunities to showcase their capabilities and to grow in the industry.Theunissen said: Only by making local communities a part of the agenda of the SA Investment Conference and acknowledging them as an integral part of the investment value chain, will we accelerate our ability to address the inequality and poverty that continues to pervade South African society.Should we fail to do so in our most important economic decisions then not only will we exacerbate the dire state of our most vulnerable communities, but we will face the reality of more frequent violent uprisings similar to those that shook the country in July last year.
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China urges Japan to cease provocations on Taiwan question

Xinhua) 08:04, March 24, 2022

(Source: Xinhua)

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China solemnly urges Japan to stop all official ties with the Taiwan region and cease making provocations concerning the Taiwan question, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily press briefing when asked to comment on a recent virtual meeting between former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and leader of the Taiwan region Tsai Ing-wen.

Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory, Wang said, noting that China firmly opposes any form of official exchanges between Taiwan and countries that have diplomatic relations with China, and the region's accession to any agreement or organization of an official nature. "This position is consistent and clear."

"Some political forces in Japan openly collude with 'Taiwan independence' forces and point fingers at the Taiwan question. The Chinese side has expressed firm opposition and strong dissatisfaction, and lodged solemn representations with the Japanese side," he said.

The Taiwan question and the Ukraine issue are different in nature and are not at all comparable, Wang said, noting that Taiwan falls under China's internal affairs and has nothing to do with Japan.

Japan colonized Taiwan for half a century and committed countless crimes, Wang said. China solemnly urges the Japanese side and certain politicians to reflect deeply on history, earnestly abide by the commitments made thus far and the principles stipulated in the four political documents between China and Japan, act prudently on the Taiwan question, and cease provocations.

Wang said that since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority has taken the opportunity to manipulate the topic, mislead the public and embolden "Taiwan independence" forces -- and all of this is in vain.

"No matter what tricks the DPP authority tries to play, it cannot change the fact that Taiwan is a part of China, it cannot stop the overarching trend of Taiwan's return to the motherland, and it cannot stop the eventual collapse of 'Taiwan independence' forces," the spokesperson said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
What's more, the missile launched by the North on Thursday is believed to be the largest ICBM ever tested by the country, and comes after a failed test earlier this month.

The launch occurred as President Biden and other leaders of NATO states gathered in Brussels for back-to-back-to-back summits with NATO, the EU and the G7 where his hopes of convincing the Europeans to ratchet up economic sanctions on Russia will likely collide with their reluctance to risk supplies of Russian energy.

The suspected ICBM reached an altitude of 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) and traveled a distance of 1,080 kilometers (671 miles) with a flight time of 71 minutes before landing in the waters off Japan's western coast, Japan's Defense Ministry revealed in a press conference held after the launch.

Given the high altitude reached by the missile, the Japanese believe it is a "new type of ICBM". Japan's Vice Defense Minister Makoto Oniki said the missile landed inside Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone, 170 kilometers (106 miles) west of Cape Tappi on the northern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu, Oniki said.

Thursday's launch is North Korea's 11th of the year, including one on March 16 which is presumed to have failed, and its longest-range test since November 2017

As one might imagine, the South Koreans "strongly condemned" their neighbors to the North for violating their self-imposed moratorium on ICBM testing. Moon said Pyongyang was causing a "serious threat" to the Korean Peninsula as well as the international community. Of course, Moon will soon be succeeded by President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative anti-North hawk, who won a bitter electoral battle when South Koreans went to the polls earlier this month.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also condemned the launch, speaking to reporters in Belgium: "It is a reckless and unacceptable act, and I strongly condemn it."

Defense analysts scrutinizing the launch said the new ICBM may be a new generation of missile with the capacity to easily reach the continental US, according to CNN.

"North Korea appears to have conducted a 'lofted' missile test. This is a tactic often employed by them to test longer range systems without more provocatively overflying another country," said Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He said the preliminary data of Thursday's test indicate it could be a Hwasong-17, a much larger ICBM than the Hwasong-15 tested in 2017. Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said data indicates Thursday's missile could have a maximum range of about 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles) -- theoretically putting it within reach of the continental United States, depending on the weight of the warhead it would carry -- and about 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) further than the Hwasong-15. Despite the potentially extended range, Kim said Pyongyang has still not demonstrated it has mastered the technology required to enable a warhead to successfully re-enter the Earth's atmosphere into the final stages of flight.

Pyongyang has conducted 10 other missile tests since the start of the year, more than in all of 2021. The North has also carried out multiple rounds of artillery tests over the weekend.
The comments were in response to a proposal we highlighted yesterday that would see the peackeeping force establish protection for humanitarian corridors with a limited no fly zone.

The danger being of course that a limited no fly zone could soon extend to a full no fly zone that would likely trigger World War III.

According to reports, Polish President Andrzej Duda is waiting on a green light from the White House, which some suspect may never come, before the plan can be enacted.

Russian FM Lavrov reacted sternly to the idea, basically threatening war if it is imposed.

Our Polish colleagues have already stated that there will be a NATO summit now, and peacekeepers should be deployed. I hope they understand what is at stake. This will be a direct clash between the Russian and NATO armed forces, which everyone not only wanted to avoid but said that it should never take place in principle, he said.

Lavrov claimed that the plan was just a ruse for Warsaw to establish a foothold in the large western Ukrainian city of Lvov.

Why not, they had such thoughts, and not only thoughts, this occurred in the past, he said.

Lavrov also warned against Baltic states sending their little battalions to fight Russian troops in Ukraine.

Both the United States and the United KIngdom have consistently rejected the idea of a no fly zone, despite President Zelensky and many in the legacy media relentlessly lobbying for it.
YORK COUNTY  A 22-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday night on charges she abused her 3-year-old son, the victim in a Wednesday shooting in Yorktown.

Ayannah Mercedes Chapman is charged with two felony counts of child abuse and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Investigators found 35 pounds of marijuana, $15,000 in cash and multiple firearms in the residence where she lives with the man accused of shooting the child, his son, the York-Poquoson Sherriffs Office said.

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Canaan Lamont Fleming, 22, is wanted for shooting into an occupied dwelling, maiming, two counts of child abuse and reckless handling of a firearm. He is at large.

Canaan L. Fleming, 22, is wanted in connection with the shooting of a 3-year-old York County child. (York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office)

Authorities received a call about 3 a.m. Wednesday from Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital regarding a 3-year-old shooting victim, according to the sheriffs office.

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A family member brought the child into the hospital with injuries after the incident in an apartment in the 7400 block of George Washington Memorial Highway, the sheriffs office said. Deputies found a firearm at the apartment. The injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Fleming and Chapman live in the home where the shooting took place, according to the sheriffs office.

According to sheriffs spokesperson Shelley Ward, the child did not shoot himself. The boy was released from the hospital Wednesday and went home with a family member, police said.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

In earlier communication, a sheriffs office spokesperson indicated the child was a girl. A Thursday press release said the child is a boy.

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Fleming can submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-888-LOCK-U-UP, the tip line at 757-890-4999 (refer to case #2201166) or visit P3tips.com.

Em Holter, emily.holter@virginiamedia.com, 757-256-6657, @EmHolterNews.

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Caitlyn Burchett, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com

Ali Sullivan, 757-677-1974, ali.sullivan@virginiamedia.com


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A Brandon man has safely arrived in Ukraine equipped with essential supplies to aid in the humanitarian crisis in that country.

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A Brandon man has safely arrived in Ukraine equipped with essential supplies to aid in the humanitarian crisis in that country.

Vartan Davtian, 37, left behind a decade-long career working in the Virden oil patch to offer his support to Ukrainians.

SUBMITTED A memorial dedicated to children killed in the Russian war against Ukraine, which Davtian saw in person.

"I did all I could in Brandon and Canada," said Davtian, who was born in Armenia but grew up in Ukraine. "I couldnt just sit there and work, because there is [war] going on."

He decided the most effective way to provide help would be a boots-on-ground approach in Ukraine.

On March 16, he departed Winnipeg, taking with him suitcases full of medical supplies to bring to Ukraine.

It was an arduous journey that saw him fly out of Toronto to Warsaw, Poland, followed by an hours-long bus ride to the Ukrainian border. He did not provide his exact location due to privacy concerns.

He spent his first night in Ukraine in a school that had been converted into a shelter for those fleeing the war.

"People were sleeping in the gym and it was basically all these people sleeping on the floor, so tight to each other. It was so many people in there on the floor and no room on the floor left," Davtian said. "The picture will be stuck in my brain forever. I was heartbroken."

More than 3.1 million people have fled the country, according to the United Nations. However, many Ukrainians have been unable to evacuate the war zone and now lack access to food, water, electricity and medical supplies.

Davtian is currently in a safe haven, but it is difficult to feel any sense of security because air raid sirens are constantly sounding, warning of potential Russian airstrikes or bombings.

"Its really exhausting for those people. My sister is just panicking and paranoid already. Every time she listens to sirens, it just drives everyone crazy," Davtian said. "Most of the rockets [the Russians] launch, its at four or five in the morning. People just cant sleep at all. Its just sirens going off."

During his first morning in Ukraine, rockets were launched 40 kilometres from where he was located.

Living in a war-torn country is akin to existing in another world, he said.

He will be walking in the heart of the city where civilians are working to protect the streets from advancing Russian troops. Davtian will often be stopped and have his passport and papers checked to ensure he is not a threat.

Most intersections he encounters have checkpoints and barricades erected to protect against Russian tanks.

"Its true war right now. Its not anymore the Ukraine it used to be."

The war has destroyed major cities, he said, and it has been heartbreaking watching people struggling to survive after losing everything.

Between Feb. 24 and March 15, 1,900 civilian casualties were recorded in Ukraine, according to the UN. This includes 726 people killed, with the majority of deaths caused by explosive weapons in populated areas. A small town where his parents and sister still live is just one of the communities that has been destroyed by Russian forces.

One of the more striking images he encountered is a memorial to children who have been killed in the war. There is a street filled with empty strollers, each symbolizing an infant death resulting from the invasion.

This is why donations are necessary, he said, and expressed gratitude for the people who have supported Ukraine.

Canada itself has allocated an additional $25 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the start of 2022, including up to $10 million in matching funds to the Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal. The Government of Canada has also offered up to $620 million in sovereign loans to support Ukraines economic resilience.

Davtian will remain in Ukraine for as long as needed to help in any way possible, he said.

"It is a tough time, but we have to stay strong."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
Local Russian Canadians say propaganda has barricaded people still living in their home country from accessing accurate information about the war in Ukraine.

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Local Russian Canadians say propaganda has barricaded people still living in their home country from accessing accurate information about the war in Ukraine.

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military has been shocking and frightening for Russian Canadians to witness, said Olga Antipove, who originally hails from St. Petersburg, Russia.

CHELSEA KEMP/THE BRANDON SUN Dmytro Lupanchuk, a Russian living in Brandon, is photographed on March 7.

"Its the scariest thing ever. Nobody wanted this war," Antipove said.

She feels great sympathy for both countries because innocent people are being hurt by Russian President Vladimir Putins "power grab."

"Im not embarrassed of Russia. I was born there and I spent all my childhood [there]. I love my country," she said.

"I dont want to be judged because of my nationality. I dont wish [for] the war, Im just calling for peace like the whole world."

In her experience Russians receive different information compared to the rest of the world because of the stranglehold government institutions have on media, she said. Perspectives from the "outside world" are becoming increasingly difficult to access because many channels with non-Russian perspectives have been cut off.

Antipoves mother and sisters still live in St. Petersburg and they are unable to talk on the phone. When Antipove calls her mother, the phone will ring but the person on the other end is unable to pick up. She suspects its because the Russian government is blocking her call.

While contemporary Russia is not as severe as the Soviet Union in terms of the suppression of speech, she said, it is still not possible to voice ones opinions as openly as in Canada. As a result, Russians can face harsh ramifications for speaking out against Putin and the war, including arrest.

As reported by The Associated Press, Russian anti-war activists have publicly protested Russias invasion of Ukraine, despite the arrests of hundreds of protesters each day by police. The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much broader share of Russians support the assault on Ukraine. The demonstrations saw more than 6,000 people detained over four days.

Canada will soon impose new sanctions on Russia in an effort to put "maximum pressure on Vladimir Putin," Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said earlier this week. Further details about the sanctions are on their way.

Joly has called Putins invasion of Ukraine a threat to world stability and praised Russians who have dared to demonstrate against the war.

"We know that the Russian people themselves are suffering from these decisions, and I want to thank and support all those dissenting voices within Russia who have taken so much personal risk and shown so much courage in speaking out publicly against the situation in Ukraine."

Putin has worked hard to cultivate an image centred on machismo, said Brandon University political scientist Richard Baker. In terms of domestic politics, the Russian president has made efforts to intimidate political opponents, along with watering down democratic elements of the Russian government and civil society.

"He has this really macho, masculinist image of himself, and this is part of what he wants to portray. He wants to portray that he has power and that hes got this iron fist, and he wants to have that same image conveyed for Russia," Baker said.

"The combination of these kinds of things, this idea of wanting to reconstitute the power of the former Soviet space and a desire to have unquestioned dictatorial power over Russian society and economy and his use of secret police and things like that to imprison people and harass his political opponents  all of this gives us a real insight into things like the free media there."

While the invasion may have been intended to be a show of force by Putin, Baker said, the longer the conflict drags on, the worse it looks for the Russian president.

Dmytro Lupanchuk and his wife, Lana, came to Brandon in 2008 to work at the Maple Leaf factory. They moved to Canada because of the instability Russia faced after the fall of the Soviet Union.

"It was not safe for my kids, for my family," Dmytro said. "Some days I was working three jobs per day and it was not enough money."

Dmytro was born in Russia in 1971 and grew up in an orphanage. He was also a member of the Soviet Union Army before moving to Ukraine in 1992. He spent 18 years in that country, where he met his wife.

Putins claims for why the war was needed are not legitimate in Dmytros opinion, and have been fuelled by propaganda.

Canadian military official Lt.-Col. Yves Desbiens told The Canadian Press the war over Ukraine is being fought on two fronts  armed conflict and disinformation. For the past several years Russia has been refining its tactics when it comes to disinformation.

Russia traditionally follows a pattern of "hybrid warfare," including the use of internet bots and troll farms to influence the economy, politics and culture, he added.

"Theyre rewriting history," he told the CP. "If we go back to the current conflict, all of the lessons that weve learned and all the key findings weve come across over the last years, help us understand how they were going to operate in Ukraine, how they were going to lay out their information campaign."

Dmytro still remembers when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. The United Nations reported that the six-year conflict resulting from the illegal annexation left 14,000 people dead and over 27,000 wounded, while two million residents of Crimea and Donbas were left in need of humanitarian aid.

The majority of Dmytros friends have supported Putins actions because of the limited information available in Russia, he said, and would not believe him when he shared positive stories of his life in Ukraine.

"Not every Russian is supporting Putins regime," Lana said. "They simply dont have access to the truth. They dont have a choice; they are getting the wrong information and thinking its true."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
Manitobas auditor general has launched an investigation to better understand the growing issues of problematic substance use in the province and evaluate the current resources and supports available.

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Manitobas auditor general has launched an investigation to better understand the growing issues of problematic substance use in the province and evaluate the current resources and supports available.

There have been several signifiers indicating a rise in substance use in the province, said auditor general Tyson Shtykalo.

"As an office, weve identified problematic substance use and addictions is a certainly prevalent and growing concern in Manitoba," Shtykalo said. The audit is in the planning stages, which involves the collection of information to determine the final scope and the objective of the audit in relation to substance use services in Manitoba.

The information-gathering stage will include those living with substance use disorders, Indigenous representatives, public service officials, frontline service providers and other stakeholders. Evidence collected at the initial stages of the audit has the potential to be used to support the offices final findings.

"Were looking to report the current state and make recommendations on any gaps that we might find."

During the past two years of the pandemic, the province has seen increases in emergency medical service responses, overdoses, substance use-related hospitalizations and substance use-related deaths, Shtykalo said. At the same time, wait times to residential treatment centres have been increasing.

The final report is expected to be released in mid-2023.

The audit is an opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses in the current substance use disorder support and resources delivery model, the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) said in a statement to the Sun.

The AFM is a Crown agency that provides addictions services across the province.

"We look forward to learnings gained from the audit which may assist in addressing potential gaps while also pointing to vital services and programming that are helping Manitobans with substance use challenges meet their recovery goals."

Carol McKay-Whitecloud is the executive director of Dakota Tiwahe Services, a family-centred organization that provides programs and resources to community members in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. She hopes the provincial audit will consider the cracks in the current system.

"Its not working. We have so many clients that just go through that programming ... [and] at the end of it come back to the community and fall back into the pattern [of addiction]."

Treatment programs are not easily available for rural residents, she said. People seeking help are often shuffled onto waitlists. There are other factors that prevent treatment, including poverty, access to services and transportation.

The audit could have a positive impact if it takes into account and identifies gaps of services, especially in First Nations where resources can be even more limited. Indigenous communities have unique hardships that need to be addressed, she added, including the ongoing experience of historical traumas.

"Alcohol abuse is a layer. There are deeper rooted issues going on for our people. The drugs and chemical dependency is just a symptom."

She hopes the audit will highlight the importance of healing and therapeutic treatments designed for Indigenous peoples.

"We need to develop a resource just for Aboriginal people thats holistic and can incorporate even the use of some traditional strategies."

The audit will likely reveal the current gaps around staff burnout and the need for the cohesion of different services, supports and resources for substance use disorders, said Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation executive director Matt Grills.

"Its important to discuss the real challenges here, especially as we are coming out of the pandemic."

The final report could spur an intersectional approach to addictions and substance use services, too. A robust audit should include all of the intersectional elements associated with treatment, including anti-recidivism, justice and housing, Grills said. This will require the modernization of present resources and supports.

Once the report is released, the next step will be acting on the audits findings, said Solange Machado, co-ordinator for the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network.

A more holistic approach to recovery is needed, she said. This means identifying and treating the factors that led to the addiction in the first place, such as mental health, housing and other factors that contribute to people being in a vulnerable position.

In Westman, there is limited access and a lack of variety in addictions and treatment programs, Machado said, especially because most programs are 28-day programs focused on abstinence  these options do not work for everyone. Increasing the availability and options for addictions treatment in the province is important.

Manitoba has seen a rise in overdose deaths, and this trend has also been occurring in Brandon. There were a reported 314 overdose deaths from January to September 2021.

Machado said there have been some improvements in Brandon, including the opening of a new detox centre, and she hopes the city can continue in this positive direction.

"Weve been hit hard  our overdose numbers have increased, people reporting mental health disorders have increased, and that is not a good mixture," Machado said. "Mental health and substances usually go hand-in-hand, and our mental health system could be improved in Manitoba."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
WINNIPEG  Two Manitoba doctors have recently been censured by the professions regulatory body for failing to meet ethical or professional standards.

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WINNIPEG  Two Manitoba doctors have recently been censured by the professions regulatory body for failing to meet ethical or professional standards.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitobas discipline committee issued the censures Dec. 15, but the decisions were only made public Tuesday. Censures create a disciplinary record that can be considered in future investigations or hearings.

Calls from The Brandon Sun for comment on these cases were not returned by press time.

A rural physician was censured after essentially falsifying a document to indicate he had physically examined a COVID-19-positive patient when he hadnt, before the patient was transferred to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, among other lapses in judgment. He also had to pay the costs of the committees investigation ($4,000).

Dr. Amrinder Singh Mann, listed as practising in Arborg, was on call covering the emergency department of the rural hospital on Jan. 16, 2021, when a 59-year-old man arrived by ambulance with shortness of breath just before 3 p.m. The patient was diagnosed with COVID-19 six days earlier, and had a history of asthma and type 2 diabetes, the committees decision reads.

The location of the hospital was not included in the committees decision.

Mann verbally ordered various treatments over the phone to the nurses handling his care, and eventually ordered the patient be transferred to Winnipeg shortly after 4 p.m. A nurse noted less than an hour later, the patient was feeling better after two of the treatments and no longer required oxygen. The nurse told the doctor the patient improved and suggested he might not need to be transferred.

Mann was angry about that suggestion, the nurse documented, and the patient was transferred to Winnipeg shortly after 7 p.m.

The next day, the doctor wrote a history and physical examination as if he had taken the history and personally examined the patient, when in fact he had done neither, the decision notes  a failure of professional and ethical standards.

The nurse manager raised the concern with the hospitals chief medical officer, which was then brought to the attention of the regional health authoritys vice-president of medical services. Mann was then restricted from working in emergency departments in the region (the restriction remains in place) and the college was contacted.

The discipline committees decision noted the doctor co-operated with its investigation, expressed remorse over his actions, and is committed to learning from the experience, among other points.

Dr. John Ihor Mayba, listed as practising in McCreary  east of Riding Mountain National Park  was also censured Dec. 15 for continuing to prescribe high dosages of benzodiazepines and opioids to a patient who moved out of province without assessing him and without creating medical records, the discipline committees decision reads, which showed a lack of judgment in the practice of medicine.

Mayba became the patients family physician in 2007. The patient had a pre-existing orthopedic injury that made it difficult to control lower-back pain, and already had opioid prescriptions. Over the next 10 years, the doctor continued to treat the patient in Manitoba, twice referring him to surgeons who said the patients pain could not be alleviated by surgery.

In 2017, the patient moved out of province and Mayba wrote him a one-month prescription for the medications he was already taking, and advised him to seek out a new doctor in his new home region. The patient contacted Mayba about two months later, saying he couldnt find one, requesting Mayba continue as his physician. At that point, the doctor faxed prescriptions monthly to a pharmacy in the province where the patient lived.

Mayba said he had monthly contact with the patient by phone and letter, which he compared to telemedicine, a practice that became commonplace amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In his opinion, the doctor had no reason to believe the patient was misusing the medications.

Mayba provided documentation to the committee, which supported that belief as well as his belief the patient was having difficulty finding a new family doctor.

The committee also decided he failed to meet ethical and professional standards by accepting monthly cash payments of about $200 in the same time frame, totaling $6,000, without creating any financial record for or otherwise accounting for the funds.

The doctor did not return the funds to the patient until after the college became aware of his conduct.

Mayba had not made use of the money, he told the college, and instead kept it secured and brought to his clinic administrator to be counted. Mayba said he believed the patient provided the money to retain his services, but would be returned once passed through the clinic.

The committee did not accept the doctors explanations, ruling his conduct unacceptable and representative of a significant breach of ethical and professional standards, as well as reflecting very poor judgment. He paid the investigations costs ($6,000).

 Winnipeg Free Press, with files from The Brandon Sun
As students come together to support one another through recent tragedies on campus and in the community, JMU counselor Donna Garber said it's important to care for yourself and others  here's how.
Want to praise someone or get something off your chest? Darts and Pats is the place to do it.
Vladimir Putins announcement that Russia will invoice gas buyers in unfriendly countries in roubles is either tactical genius or just a stunt that might backfire, most likely the latter.

The announcement, which mainly targets Europe, has thrown the European gas market into chaos, with prices spiking as commodity traders and utilities tried to grapple with the implications of an announcement that was short on detail.

If Putin, pictured with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, fails to coerce foreign buyers into converting their payments into roubles and halted supply, he would lose his largest source of income and foreign exchange. Credit:AP

Even Russia has yet to develop that detail. Putin said his government had directed its state-owned gas export monopoly, Gazprom, to begin work on amending existing contracts for gas supplies and Russias central bank to develop a procedure to enable customers to gain access to the roubles required. He has given them a week to do so.

What Putin is trying to achieve is obvious. The Wests sanctions on Russia and, in particular, the freezing of more than half its $US640 billion ($854 billion) of foreign exchange reserves, initially trashed the rouble, sparking inflation, squeezing Russias ability to pay for imports and fund the invasion of Ukraine and instantly reducing ordinary Russians wealth and living standards.
The Australian sharemarket eked out its third straight day of gains, closing 0.1 per cent higher, up 9.2 points to 7387.1 with mining and energy stocks helping the bourse overcome fresh global concerns over rising inflation and lower growth.

The local bourse started the session by following Wall Streets poor lead overnight, before lifting into positive territory just before noon.

All three major US bourses fell as investors digested weaker outlooks for global growth amid inflationary pressures. The S&P 500 dropped 1.2 per cent while the Dow Jones and tech-heavy NASDAQ both fell 1.3 per cent.

Rising commodity prices helped lift energy and mining stocks on Thursday. Credit:Odessa American

Wilson Asset Management senior investment analyst Shaun Weick said it had been an interesting day given the poor start but ultimately positive finish.

Positioning in general continues to remain pretty defensive, he said, pointing to the outperformance of gold and oil.

[It was a] very commodity-heavy day, with a mix of defensives.

The best performer of the day was AVZ Minerals, up by 7.28 per cent, followed by Whitehaven Coal, which saw a 6.51 per cent lift.

Mr Weick named JB Hi-Fi as one of the companies of the day that had caught his eye after the electronics and whitegoods merchant revealed Australian sales for the third quarter had grown by 10.5 per cent.

JB Hi-Fis share price finished the day up 4.34 per cent off the back of the strong results.

I think its a decent reflection [that], despite the impacts of Omicron through late January, clearly trading bounced back across the retail space quite strongly in February and March, said Mr Weick.

It shows the consumer is still out there in Australia and willing to spend, with such a significant amount of savings built up over the course of the pandemic.

On the other side of the spectrum, biotechnology company Telix Pharmaceuticals shares lost 7.42 per cent of its value, followed closely by buy-now-pay-later outfit Zip Co, which finished Thursday down 5.17 per cent.

Crown Resorts share price saw an incremental lift of 0.2 per cent after being able to hang onto its licence, despite an 11-month royal commission finding it was unsuitable to hold one.

Our enquiries have revealed the Perth casinos efforts to ensure that risk was kept to a minimum have fallen well short of what might reasonably be expected, said a report by Lead Commissioner Neville Owen.
Everyone I spoke to, on that side of the [police] fence, believe she was murdered, says Ford. Which fascinated me, because I didnt expect that an overwhelming number of people would come to me and say, We think she was involved with somebody dodgy. And I couldnt see that she would kill herself. I struggled with that for a long time because it just didnt seem like her. So I was trying to explore the three main theories  that she had cut her foot off and done a runner and escaped; the other theory that kept coming to me was shes involved with some dodgy people and theyve killed her; and then, of course, the third theory was simply that shed gone over [notorious suicide spot] the Gap. Colin Friels plays the invented character of dodgy associate George. To do this, Ford and Miller turned Caddick (played by Kate Atkinson) into her own unreliable narrator. As she says in the opener, If you believe that story [referring to the three theories], you will believe anything. Then again, I found most people will believe anything. Thats how I got rich in the first place. Says Ford: She seemed like the perfect person to do [an unreliable narration] with because if shes going to be telling you the story, then you can bet that the storys going to have whole bits of it that arent true, because thats what she was.

The next thing was to invent someone who could be the mysterious dodgy type Caddick could have become involved with. Enter Colin Friels. The veteran actor plays George, an invented character who Caddick befriends with the intention of adding to her Ponzi scheme. George, however, turns out to have plans for Caddick too. Caddick (Kate Atkinson) and George (Colin Friels) each have their own schemes. Hes in there for the audience, says Friels. To let them in. And you get a perspective on Caddick from him because hes detached from it all. Hes an outsider, hes not a victim, hes a fairly straightforward crook. Friels also saw Caddicks story as a very Sydney tale  Melbourne has the mob and Sydney has rich white ladies ripping off their friends and family.

Since its inception its always been a place of greed, he says of Sydney. Its a pretty divided city  if you look at the eastern suburbs compared to the west, its a pretty big divide. It seems when you go to the eastern suburbs, its a foreign land sometimes if youre from the west. I think Sydneys always been based on, I guess, the accumulation of status and wealth. The great sadness at the heart of Underbelly: Vanishing Act is how the pursuit of that status and wealth impressed no one Caddick cared about. After attending her best friends suburban backyard birthday barbecue, Caddick grumbles about no one appreciating how expensive her dress was. What that came from was talking to a couple of friends who were like, We didnt really care, we werent that impressed, says Ford. One of the stories I learnt early on, which interested me, was that when she went to places like Aspen, she didnt go out that much because she was terrified of being found out by the rich people that she wasnt one of them. But she didnt want to hang out with people who werent rich, who werent eastern suburbs type people, either. She was trapped in nowheresville.

The show was filmed around the street where Caddick lived with her teenage son and Koletti, who drove past them a few times while shooting, says Ford. Did Ford talk to him? As a producer of the show, I did not feel that I wanted to get involved, he says. People were like, Are you going to use his music? Are you gonna do this?, but having hung out with the victims, I didnt really feel like I wanted to open those doors, out of respect for the people who lost their livelihoods. Maya Stange as Angie, the character inspired by Melissa Caddicks childhood friend Katherine Horn. Out of all the people Ford spoke to in writing Underbelly: Vanishing Act (including Caddicks neighbours, who were convinced she hitched a ride on a garbage truck to disappear), he says the one who left the biggest impression was Caddicks childhood friend Katherine Horn, who inspired the fictional character Angie in the show.

Loading She blew my mind completely, says Ford. It was a real turning point in the writing process because Id seen the people who went on TV and said theyre victims, but she was a different kind of human. I walked out of the house knowing that Id found the moral centre of the universe I was about to create. Before that, the story was about an unethical person doing terrible things. Then I found this whole other side of the universe, which was, wow, you can be totally ripped off by someone youve known for 50 years, and she just sat there going, Well, Ive still got my family, my friends and I still have my health. And wheres Melissa? Shes just nothing now. Underbelly: Vanishing Act screens on April 3-4 on Nine at 8.45pm. Nine is the owner of this masthead.
US President Joe Biden is expected to announce increased shipments of liquefied natural gas to Europe on Saturday, part of a long-term initiative to wean the Continent off Russian energy after the invasion of Ukraine.

He plans to discuss the issue with Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Unions executive arm, shortly before leaving for Poland, the final leg of his four-day trip.

Earlier this week, Von der Leyen said we are aiming at having a commitment for additional supplies for the next two winters. And Jake Sullivan, Bidens national security adviser, recently told reporters that the administration wants to quickly surge gas to Europe.

US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference after a NATO summit and Group of Seven meeting at NATO headquarters on Thursday. Credit:AP

Russian energy is a key source of income and political leverage for Moscow. Almost 40 per cent of the European Unions natural gas comes from Russia to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry.

After leaving Brussels, Biden travels to Rzeszow in Poland, where US troops are based roughly an hours drive from the Ukrainian border.

Hell get a briefing on the humanitarian response to the refugees streaming out of Ukraine and those still suffering inside the country. And Biden will meet with US personnel from the 82nd Airborne Division, who serve alongside Polish troops.

Biden is then expected to continue on to Warsaw, where he will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).

Before returning to Washington, the White House said, Biden will give an address on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.

AP
Australia will produce up to 100 million mRNA vaccines a year from 2024 under a 10-year multibillion-dollar deal inked between Moderna and the federal government.

The countrys first mRNA research hub and manufacturing facility will be built in Melbourne. The exact location is subject to negotiations between Moderna and the Andrews government.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison touring Monash University on Thursday morning. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Speaking at Monash Universitys Clayton campus on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said mRNA before the pandemic began was largely looked on as almost science fiction, and now its a science reality.

And its a science reality here in manufacturing in Australia. There are a few countries in the world that have been able to get to this point through the course of the pandemic, and certainly none in the southern hemisphere.
The Australian media regulator is investigating a Melbourne-based Russian community radio program after receiving complaints it was broadcasting Kremlin propaganda on the Ukrainian war, pushing President Vladimir Putins false narrative that Russia is seeking to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority said it was concerned about the complaints it had received. Some called for the program to be immediately shut down, but the stations manager said it would take six weeks to investigate, due to the fact the station was run by volunteers and many things needed translating.

Residents clean up the damage from a missile attack in Kramatorsk. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The war in Ukraine is in its fourth week and Moscow has been amping up its information war against the West to justify its actions. Many major Western news outlets have been forced out of the country and the Kremlin has blocked Russians from accessing numerous social media platforms.

The Russian program on Melbourne ethnic community radio station 3ZZZ regularly espoused Putins disinformation as recently as last week. The listeners are often non-English-speaking migrants and are unlikely to get their information elsewhere.
Lack of leadership shown over Kitching tragedy The thoughtful article from Niki Savva (Kitching saga no place for PM, March 24) reminds us politics is a tough game and quotes Russell Broadbent declaring politics breaks peoples hearts. It doesnt stop their hearts from beating. Savvas report puts the whole Kitching saga into perspective and urges the PM to concentrate on more critical issues facing us than on Labors mishandling of an internal brawl. Denis Suttling, Newport Beach Senator Kitchings death has exposed the leadership weaknesses on both sides of the political divide. Anthony Albanese looked impotent under pressure and this would have concerned possible swinging voters. Scott Morrison ignored any semblance of non-partisan politics to aggressively pursue another political agenda. Neither leader showed leadership, indicating the election is shaping as a battle between two leaders who dont inspire confidence. Max Redmayne, Drummoyne For once, I believe Niki Savva has misinterpreted Scott Morrison. While Morrisons response to Kitchings death was typically unseemly and opportunistic, it may well have achieved what he wanted. People and the media are not talking about his multitudinous errors in the flood response, vaccinations, debt management, Ukraine response, NSW pre-selections and his own deplorable record of controlling bullying in the Liberal Party. His main asset is rat cunning and he has played this sad issue to his advantage. Ross Hudson, Mount Martha (Vic) Savva, with her impeccable forensic and analytical skills, highlights how Morrison once again has shown no regard for the appropriateness and full truth of an issue he uses to advance his agenda, his marketing background again coming to the fore. Louise Dolan, Birchgrove

Morrison is indebted to Bill Shorten. One reason for his surprise 2019 election win was Shorten was never accepted by the electorate. Since his defeat, Shorten has never given Anthony Albanese unequivocal support. Ironic, then, that the havoc Shorten has wrought within Labor over the Kitching affair has given the opportunistic PM yet another chance to make a vacillating Albanese look weak. Ron Sinclair, Windradyne Scott Morrison: Look over here, over there, over anywhere. Its bright and shiny, its Kimberley Kitching, its Albos weight loss. Dont look over there at failing aged care, lack of climate action, environmental destruction, cost-of-living increases, flood damage, rorts scandals. Quick, look back here, its bright and shiny! Judy Hungerford, North Curl Curl Anxiety for future a sign of sanity Professor Patrick McGorry (We can lift the pall over young Australians, March 24) tells us that the mental health of young people is declining due to insecure working conditions and career paths, housing and higher eduction costs, climate change and other social conditions. The suggested cure is better mental health treatment. To be worried about these issues seems to me a sign of sanity rather than mental ill-health. Its not only young people either. I am 77 and Im distressed about climate change. I dont need a psychologist, I need to see action. Rae Litting, Glenhaven We can lift the pall over young Australians but not by being too inward looking. One huge blow from the pandemic was virtually stopping all overseas travel, a traditional rite of passage. No gap years, overseas working or ski trips, study, reconnecting with family and culture in country of origin, etc. This was never just the preserve of the wealthy or privileged  young Australians backpackers were like migratory birds of passage. It will come back, though some may have missed their chance. We should encourage all of them to jump at every opportunity to travel, once all borders are open and restrictions ease. Margaret Johnston, Paddington

Empty promises Another Big Announcement from the federal government (Budget to promise increase in real wages, March 24). A promise of real wage increases in the imminent budget. Have the governments mates in big business agreed to this? Is it a core or non-core promise? Does it have the same status as Morrisons previous election promises, such as the commitment to establish a federal integrity commission? Community scepticism runs high about any politicians promises, especially before an election. Rob Phillips, North Epping Promises, promises. The budget will say that wages will increase, so that will definitely happen. Or that is what the government hopes that people will believe. Never mind that budgetary forecasts have been notoriously wrong  remember the prediction that we will be back in black? Or that the government isnt doing anything to bring it about (apart from crossing its fingers). Predictions arent reality now. David Rush, Lawson Thanks to your correspondent (Letters, March 24) for reminding people to watch next weeks budget for the $10 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, which could be better spent on those suffering from unnatural disasters. Voters should also remember the $20 billion JobKeeper overpayments the Morrison-Joyce government failed to claw back from companies. This huge amount should be etched on every voters mind and now used as the yardstick to judge every announcement by this government. Rob Firth, Cremorne Point Dearth of diversity

It looks as if the ALP will yet again parachute an outsider into a multicultural electorate (Parramatta has ample local talent to vote for, March 24). The ALP has only two candidates of Asian background in NSW, Zhi Soon in Banks and Sally Sitou in Reid and even fewer in other states. The Liberal Party is just as exclusive, apart from Dave Sharma in Wentworth and Gladys Liu in Chisholm in Victoria, it has no candidates of Asian background in winnable seats. The lack of interest in multicultural electorates is demonstrated by both major parties being yet to select candidates for the multicultural electorates of Bennelong and Parramatta weeks out from

an election. Genevieve Kang, Glebe Law of democracy What passes as standard craziness when coming from the loopy right fringe parties cannot be tolerated when it comes from a governing party member, writes your correspondent (Letters, March 24). I beg to differ. In a democracy, even if it is what he says it is, it can be and must be. Ross Drynan, Lindfield Know your names I accept it when people dont get my first name right (Letters, March 24), often I receive letters addressed to Brain Roach. I suppose it could be an acknowledgement of my academic achievement. What annoys me is when my family name is used in a derogatory manner (as more than one high school student learned during my teaching days). My youngest brother was always known as Cocky when he was in the navy. Has your correspondent considered that often a corruption of names is also a form of acceptance and even endearment? Brian Roach, Whitebridge

My memories of an otherwise unremarkable science teacher in year 11 ensured I would forever try to pronounce peoples names correctly. At the time, the first overseas students were arriving in Australia to complete their senior high school years and gain entry to a university. When one girl provided her Chinese name  which I can still vividly recall  the teacher declared, I cant pronounce that! Im going to call you Anna Marie. Fourteen young ladies mouths fell open in disbelief, but that is exactly what she did for the rest of our schooling. Ruth Ratner, Northbridge My surname is Field but it is amazing how often people add an s at the end. I tell people I will zap them if they call me Fields. Even when I was born the nurse put my name as Baby Fields on the tag of my leg (I still have the tag). In my life as a paymaster I had to be spot on for a persons name. Couldnt pay Field for Feild or Fields. Ron Field, Bermagui Song of prophesy Cathy Wilcoxs cartoon (Letters, March 24) with the Four Horsemen of the Climate Apocalypse references the Old Testament but also Bob Dylans All Along The Watchtower song. Dylans message includes So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late. Very prophetic for our climate crisis. Evan Bailey, Glebe Future shock

Current state government planning indicates that in 100 years (Letters, March 24) there will be a casino with tolls taking up the northbound rail line of the Harbour Bridge. Tony Doyle, Fairy Meadow Flowers gone Your correspondent (Letters, March 24) who planted the birdwing vine is onto a reason for Sydneys lack of butterflies. Colourful flowers, which attract butterflies, have gone out of fashion and their caterpillars need green leaves to eat. Sadly, the spiky plants in fashion these days, and paving, dont fill this need. Sue Adams, Dulwich Hill Trash talk Our rubbish bins (Letters, March 24) sport a Greens-supplied Keep Local Councils Local sticker, a Slow Down in my Street decal (courtesy of Labor) and a Water, Not Coal message. I now await garbage day with trepidation. James Deli, Oatley
Schools are failing young people on climate change, researchers say, as thousands of Sydney pupils prepare to ditch class and rally outside Kirribilli House on Friday.

The School Strike 4 Climate protest outside the Prime Ministers residence is one of 36 being held across the country and more than 600 across the world.

Natasha Abhayawickrama and Kayla Hill will be at the climate strike protest at Kirribilli House on Friday. Credit:Janie Barrett

But NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has told students to go to school and advocate for change by being informed citizens.

Organiser and year 12 student Natasha Abhayawickrama, 17, said protesters would join Lismore flood survivors at the rally to send a message to Scott Morrison that they were willing to take the fight for action on climate change to his doorstep.
An infant from the Newcastle area in NSW died from COVID-19 earlier this year, a coronial investigation has concluded, amid rising virus cases in the community and the states hospitals.

The eight-week-olds death was referred to the coroner in January due to uncertainties as to the cause of death, the Hunter New England Local Health District said at the time.

The two-month-old died at John Hunter Hospital in January. Credit:Kate Geraghty

On Thursday morning, NSW Health confirmed the coroner had concluded the infant, who had no underlying health conditions, had died from its COVID-19 infection.

NSW Health offers its heartfelt condolences to the family and asks that their privacy be respected during this most difficult time, it said in a statement.
Almost 40 NSW private schools have been overpaid by more than $1 million a year each, and four were given more than twice as much government money as they were due.

The most over-funded schools were Loreto Kirribilli, St Aloysius College and St Augustines College, which all received an extra $4.5 million in 2020  more than twice as much as the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) determined they needed.

Three of the highest-funded schools and the amounts they received. Clockwise from left: St Aloysius, Loreto and St Augustines.

An analysis of public funding to independent schools in 2020, the most recent figures, also found another 43 schools  including some charging fees of more than $35,000 a year  were given between $250,000 and $1 million extra a year.

The analysis by education economist Adam Rorris, commissioned by the Teachers Federation, analysed public funding to 343 independent schools in 2020 and found 130 were overfunded by a total of $120 million.
The national president of the Health Services Union (HSU) has warned he will withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars in election funding and the campaigning resources of tens of thousands of members unless he is satisfied by the strength of Labors stance on aged care wages.

Gerard Hayes, who presides over 47,000 members as secretary of the dominant NSW, Queensland and ACT branch, said he might even campaign against the federal opposition heading into the May election if he was not convinced of the partys preparedness to fund the sector.

HSU national president Gerard Hayes says he will withhold campaign resources against Labor if he isnt satisfied with its stance on aged-care wages. Credit:Louise Kennerley

We will be intending to make a significant contribution to the ALP campaign, but we wont be doing that until such time as members can understand the support wed be getting from an ALP government, Mr Hayes said.

My reputations out there, Im not a fair-weather friend ... were not wedded to just blindly following people, we will call it for what it is. This is a decent, moral, humane issue that will need to be addressed.
Its been almost seven years since Kabir Duhan Singh made his film debut with Jil (2015), and he says that the industry has changed him a lot, giving him a broader perspective of life.

The kind of interactions I have had with people from different walks of life, the kind of conversations I have been having with creative people, technicians, etc., have made me look at life very objectively, says the actor.

The film industry encourages individuals to bring out their creativity, he says. I have realised that theres more to life than just being an actor. Life in the cinema industry has motivated me to constantly strive for excellence. It taught me how to get along with creative people and how to make important choices in life, the actor says.

Kabir describes his journey so far as satisfying. I started off in Telugu, and I went on to do films in the entire South and even in Bollywood. So I am pleased with the strides that I have been making in the industry, he says, but adds that he still has a long way to go.

The actor feels working in different industries and getting to understand various cultures has been enriching. I got the opportunity to travel to several places in India and abroad, thanks to film shoots, he says, and reveals that a knowledge of diverse cultures leads to free thinking.

I also trained in several art forms and sword fighting, martial arts, etc., and all that made me mentally very strong, he says.

During the pandemic, he realised the importance of having work. Kabir feels fortunate to have got so many assignments during those tough times. I think thats where I became even more serious about work; I feel grateful for the opportunities that came my way, he says, adding that this year he feels even more optimistic.
Lawyers defending Jason Roberts, charged with murder over the shooting deaths of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller more than 23 years ago, have told a court he was not present at the shooting and the prosecution case is based on guesswork and speculation.

Sergeant Silk and Senior Constable Miller were shot moments after they pulled over a blue Hyundai Excel in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, in the early hours of August 16, 1998.

Jason Roberts leaves the Supreme Court. Credit:Jason South

The officers wore plain clothes and were in an unmarked police car on stakeout as police investigated 10 armed robberies on restaurants, takeaway food outlets and small businesses in Melbournes eastern and southern suburbs over the previous five months.

Mr Roberts Supreme Court trial has been told the two officers saw the Hyundai outside the Silky Emperor Chinese restaurant and followed it into Cochranes Road, where they activated a blue flashing light to pull over the car. Both officers were outside their car when shot.
Senior students are still struggling Remote learning is behind us, but the anxieties it provoked in senior secondary students who missed so much class-time over the past two years remain and some students are struggling to readapt to the demands of school. Year 12 student Gitaanjali Nair (left), an elected member of the Victorian Student Representative Council, on a panel discussing mental health. Credit:Joe Armao University High School principal Ciar Foster said teachers at the government school she leads in Parkville had noticed year 11 students in particular were struggling to adjust to the rigours of VCE. Ms Foster said there was a gulf between the expectations teachers placed on students and the volume of work that was done in year 8 compared with year 11.

We have always found its been a bit of a jump between year 10 and year 11, just in terms of the level of anxiety it raises, and students expectations of themselves, but we are noticing that particularly more now, Ms Foster said. Gitaanjali Nair, a year 12 student who is also on the Victorian Student Representative Council, said students were still feeling the loss of many of the extracurricular activities that make up school life. School is an experience, its about debates, its about sports, its about meeting your friends, its about gossiping on the oval and there are all of these little things that we didnt realise were such integral parts of our school experience that we only learnt to love once it was gone, she said. The reading wars are not over Education Minister James Merlino defended Victorias balanced approach to literacy when he spoke at the summit, insisting that phonics is already a core part of the curriculum in the early years of school.

Editor of The Age, Gay Alcorn, and Deputy Premier and Education Minister James Merlino on Wednesday morning. Credit:Joe Armao But he revealed that Victoria is also looking at what is happening inside schools in NSW and South Australia, two states that have recently dumped balanced literacy for a more explicit learning model that gives greater primacy to phonics. Theirs is an approach that the draft Australian curriculum, which will be discussed by education ministers next month, calls on all states and territories to follow. But the debate inside Victorian schools is not settled, with four speakers on a later panel on the reading wars evenly split on whether the state ought to alter its approach to teaching children to read. Diane Snowball, a literacy consultant who has worked in Victorian schools for 55 years, said the balanced approach to literacy should not be thrown out just to follow a current trend towards the greater use of phonics.

When the NAPLAN results came out last year Victoria had higher results in literacy than any other state even though we had more time in lockdown, Ms Snowball said. So I cant understand why we would want to do what other states are doing just because they are doing it. Nathaniel Swain, a primary school teacher and researcher on literacy, said Victorias NAPLAN results glossed over the fact that many students are being let down by teaching practices that are not based on the best evidence about how children learn to read, particularly those with reading difficulties such as dyslexia. There are a lot of programs and assessments that are used at the moment that dont currently reflect the science of what we know of how the brain learns to read, he said. Its only term one, but teachers are already exhausted Teacher burnout was a recurring theme. Several panel members stated that many of their colleagues were running on fumes after pushing through the past two years of remote learning.

The Maths Wars panel (left to right): Greg Ashman, deputy principal and head of research at Ballarat Clarendon College; Alfred Deakin Professor Russell Tytler, Dr Karen McMullen, learning leader of mathematics at Kilbreda College. Moderated by Madeleine Heffernan, education reporter of The Age. Credit:Joe Armao Notions of paying teachers more  one of the key themes of the initial teacher education review federal Education Minister Stuart Robert spoke about  was rated as less important than allowing teachers to reclaim more of their own time. Karen McMullen, the learning leader in mathematics at Kilbreda College in Mentone, said attracting quality graduates into the profession was perhaps less urgent than the challenge of retaining teachers over time. We can incentivise graduate teachers with more money, but weve also got to think how do we retain our good teachers, and I know paying me more probably wouldnt take away the work I do on the weekend or in the evenings, Ms McMullin said. I would much prefer to have more time than more money and I think thats something that needs to be addressed.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has insisted neither he nor his staff was aware Kimberley Kitching felt bullied by her colleagues, as he defended the decision to dump her from the partys Senate tactics committee as a routine political process.

In an effort to draw a line under allegations Senator Kitching was bullied and ostracised in the lead-up to her sudden death earlier this month, Mr Albanese and senior frontbencher Chris Bowen defended the partys processes and sought to characterise the claims as part of the cut and thrust of politics.

Anthony Albanese has been under pressure to open a formal inquiry into allegations Kimberley Kitching was bullied. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer/Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Albanese backed in the assertion by his deputy, Richard Marles, on Wednesday that Senator Kitching never made a formal complaint about her alleged poor treatment, and again rejected calls for an inquiry.

There were no complaints put forward through the processes that have been established that were agreed to unanimously, Mr Albanese said. If people think that you can have an inquiry into someone, whether someones on the tactics committee or not, it just seems to me to be quite an extraordinary suggestion.
Yuri Vododymyrovych hugs his mother, Myroslava, as they grieve next to the grave of his twin brother Fedorchyk Ihor at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine on Thursday. Fedorchyk was a member of the Ukrainian Army and died fighting the Russians in the city of Nova Kakhovka. Credit:Getty Images Russian forces fired two missiles at a Ukrainian military unit on the outskirts of Dnipro, the fourth-largest city in the country, regional emergency services said. The strikes destroyed buildings and set off two fires, while the number of those killed and wounded was still being established. Britains Defence Ministry says Ukraine has re-occupied towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometres east of Kyiv, helped by Russian forces falling back on overextended supply lines. Citing its latest Defence Intelligence update on the war on Friday evening, the ministry said Ukrainian counter-attacks have been successful in pushing Russian forces back and this was likely to continue along the north-western axis from Kyiv towards the Hostomel Airfield. Around the capital Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders appeared to have fought Moscows ground troops to a stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Earlier Ukraine accused Moscow of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered cities to Russia, where some may be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up. Denisova said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken against their will to Russia, and some have reported shortages of food and water there. A neighbour pauses as he tries to extinguish the fire of a house, destroyed after a Russian attack in Kharkiv. Credit:AP Photo The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraines rebel-controlled eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow. Russian authorities said they were providing accommodation and dispensing payments to the evacuees. Loading

But Donetsk Region Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said people are being forcibly moved into the territory of the aggressor state. Denisova said those removed included a 92-year-old woman in Mariupol who was forced to go to Taganrog in southern Russia. Ukrainian officials said Russia was taking Ukrainians passports and moving people to filtration camps in the separatist-controlled areas before sending them to various distant, economically depressed areas in Russia. With the war headed into a second month, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraines navy claimed two more ships were damaged and a 3000-tonne fuel tank was destroyed, when it earlier sunk a large landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to supply Russian forces with armoured vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting. Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed a Russian war supply ship in Berdyansk, near Mariupol. Credit:Ukraine government/Facebook A local Ukrainian government official in the northern city of Chernihiv said a catastrophe is unfolding as Russian troops deliberately target sites where food is being stored. An airstrike there this week destroyed a crucial bridge. City council secretary Olexander Lomako estimated that more than 130,000 people remain in the city, which had a pre-war population of 285,000, but that Ukraine remains in full control.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his nightly video address to rally Ukrainians to move towards peace, move forward. With every day of our defence, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much.  We cant stop even for a minute, for every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live. He said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war. Across the country, 230 schools and 155 kindergartens have been destroyed. Cities and villages lie in ashes, he said. The US says it will work to supply 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year to help it wean off Russian energy supplies, the transatlantic partners said on Saturday (AEDT). The EU is aiming to cut its dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end all Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027 due to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplies around 40 per cent of Europes gas needs.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels on Friday, Zelensky, via video, thanked EU leaders for working together to support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia, including Germanys decision to block Russia from delivering natural gas to Europe through the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline. After a week of relative military success, Volodymyr Zelensky wants to go on the offensive. Credit:AP But he said had these steps been taken earlier, there was a chance Russia would have thought twice about invading. He then appealed to the EU leaders, gathered in Brussels, to move quickly on Ukraines application to join the bloc. Here I ask you, do not delay. Please. For us this is a chance. He then listed the 27 member countries, noting those he said were for us. He appealed to Germany and particularly to Hungary not to block Ukraines bid.

Listen, Viktor, do you know what is happening in Mariupol?, Zelensky said, addressing Hungarian President Viktor Orban. I want to be open once and for all  you should decide for yourself, who you are for. Orban is widely considered to be Russian President Vladimir Putins closest ally among EU leaders. Zelensky said Ukraine was certain that in the decisive moment, Germany also will be with us. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliances leaders agreed to send equipment to help protect Ukraine against chemical attack. Refugees flee by ferry at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing. Credit:AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Friday (AEDT) blaming Russia for the humanitarian crisis and urging an immediate ceasefire and protection for millions of civilians and the homes, schools and hospitals critical to their survival. There was loud applause in the assembly chamber as the result of the vote was announced: 140-5 with only Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea joining Russia in opposing the measure. There were 38 abstentions, including Russian ally China. Separately, the White House announced the US would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide an additional $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) in food, medicine, water and other supplies. Sending a signal that Western sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market but allowed only limited trading to prevent mass sell-offs. Foreigners were barred from selling, and traders were prohibited from short selling, or betting prices would fall. The UN says that more than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the war started a month ago, in the biggest movement of people in Europe since World War II. Most believed they would soon be back home. That hope is waning now.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over the destruction of what he called Russias last chemical warhead. During the Cold War, both Russia and the United States had raced to build their poison arsenals, although the use of chemical weapons had been long outlawed. But, by 2017, as Putin reminded the world, Russia was ahead of the US on a new objective: disarmament. Of course, less than a year later, Russias promise that its chemical arsenal was no more was proved a lie when the deadly Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok was used on British soil in a bungled assassination plot against a defected KGB officer, Sergei Skripal, killing a UK citizen in Salisbury. And, not long before, Russia had backed the Assad regime and its use of chemical weapons to turn the tide of Syrias bloody civil war. Now, with Russia facing fierce resistance from Ukrainians as it invades their homeland, Western leaders are warning that Putin may yet deploy chemical weapons in battle. This would be a war crime and increase pressure on the West to intervene in Ukraine, says Australian National University international relations expert Dr Charles Miller. But look how far Putin has gone already. NATO countries are sending equipment to Ukraine to help it deal with a chemical weapons attack. So, how do chemical weapons work, how might they be used in Ukraine, and what happens if they are? Men modelling gas masks used in World War I by (from left) American, British, French and German forces. Credit:Getty Images What are chemical weapons? Chemical weapons include a broad suite of nasties that humans have cooked up in the lab, explains Dr David Caldicott, an emergency medicine, toxicology and terrorism response expert at ANU. Some are chemicals already used by industry and agriculture, weaponised. Others are specially brewed for warfare. So theres sarin gas, mustard gas, the ones [designed for war], Caldicott says. Novichok too, though thats been used to poison individuals so far, not battle. Then theres chlorine  we put that in our swimming pools.

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Chlorine was one of the first deadly gases used on the battlefield, along with the blister agent mustard gas, during World War I, in an effort to break trench warfare. Chlorine gas is heavier than air, Caldicott says. It burns and chokes the lungs. In craters or trenches, itll just lurk there, it wont evaporate. And it looks like almost a caricature of poisonous gas, theres a yellowy-green hue to it. You can see it clearly. While chemical weapons did not feature on European battlefields the next time world war broke out, the Nazis used a cyanide-based gas to murder Jews and others en masse in gas chambers during the Holocaust. They also developed a new class of poisons known as nerve agents, similar to insecticides, which disrupt the nervous system. (The German scientist who first stumbled upon deadly sarin gas, for example, was actually trying to kill weevils.) Of course, not everyone is totally forthcoming about what they have, clearly. Chemical weapons are banned under international law, and often described as weapons of mass destruction alongside nuclear, biological and radiological arms. The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention, has now destroyed 99 per cent of declared chemical weapons. Of course, not everyone is totally forthcoming about what they have, clearly, says Caldicott. In its war with Iran in the 1980s, Iraq killed many thousands of people, many of them Kurdish civilians, when it unleashed mustard gas and nerve agents such as sarin. (Those gas massacres were later among the crimes former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein was charged with before his execution, notes Miller.) Still from a video shows chlorine gas descending on an Aleppo street in 2016. Credit:Aleppo Media Center More recently Bashar al-Assads regime in Syria used sarin gas and then chlorine in rebel-held cities. In 2013, a sarin attack in Damascus led to a deal guaranteed by its ally Russia that Syria would hand over its chemical weapons (under the threat of a US air strike). But the Assad regime and terror group Islamic State have since used chemical weapons, including the more easily accessible chlorine gas, on Syrian cities, triggering two separate air strikes on the countrys military bases by the West in retaliation.

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Still Assad has faced no major consequences, says Miller. Putins thinking would be: if the West didnt enforce a chemical weapons taboo in Syria, which is a much, much weaker country that they could have gone into, then theyre not going to do it with us, when we are much more powerful. What are the signs Putin is considering a chemical attack? On Tuesday, a senior US defence official said the US had not yet seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian chemical weapons attack in Ukraine but it was closely monitoring intelligence. Just because someones got chemical weapons doesnt mean theyll use them, says Caldicott. Youd be looking for a very well-equipped army, captured soldiers or downed pilots, wearing [protective gear], gas masks. That would certainly imply theres something imminent. They definitely have the capacity to wage chemical war. The question is do they have the inclination because that would cross a line ... Often when Russia is about to do something, Miller says, it starts accusing the other side of the same thing. In recent days, US President Joe Biden has said Putins false claims Ukraine has US-backed chemical and biological weapons labs are a sign he intends to unleash those kinds of weapons himself, a false flag justification. Already, a dangerous ammonia leak at a Ukrainian chemical plant in eastern Sumy, hit by Russian shelling, has been blamed by the Kremlin on Ukrainian extremists  as the Assad regime blamed its chemical attacks on Syrian cities on the opposition (and first responders). Russia even waged a campaign to pin the blame for those gas attacks on civilian rescue group the White Helmets, as a supposed Western plot to discredit Assad. In both Syria and Salisbury, for chemical attacks, Russia has consistently used deception and subterfuge, says Canberra-based military strategy expert Chris Flaherty.

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The chemical threat now looming over Ukraine should be taken seriously, Miller says. Western predictions of the [Ukraine] war so far have been good. And theres not much runway left to deter Putin through economic sanctions, he says, save for outright cutting off of all trade with Russia. Most of its already been done. Then whats left is military intervention. A gas mask is seen on the ground next to a destroyed Russian tank on March 31, 2022 in Malaya Rohan, Ukraine. Credit:Getty Images Global weather monitoring agencies have largely blocked Russia from meteorological data in case of a chemical attack. When youre about to release a toxic agent, you dont want to then have it blow back into your own troops faces, explains Caldicott. So the Russians [would probably be using] drones or weather monitoring if a chemical attack were coming. They definitely have the capacity to wage chemical war, he says. The question is do they have the inclination, because that would cross a line, that may actually get NATO involved. How might Putin use chemical weapons in Ukraine? Many experts are looking to Russias history on the battlefield  including in Syria where it sent in troops to help Assad fight off an uprising  as a guide for what Putin might do. After taking heavy losses in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Russia developed a policy to keep its own troops out of harms way by bombarding cities, even at great cost to civilian lives. This evolved during its bloody war in the former Soviet republic of Chechnya and was later refined in Syria, where Russian forces helped raze cities. Loading As with the US, Russia has come to rely on long-range weapons and air power. Though it outguns Ukraine, its invasion is already well behind schedule, and Russian casualties are mounting as soldiers fail to take key cities. NATO estimates up to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in the first month  roughly the same number the Soviets lost over 10 years in Afghanistan. According to military strategists, Russias attack is culminating  meaning its running out of steam, Miller says. They either need to take cities now or theyre going to have to stop for a while to re-equip and try again.

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Kyiv  the birthplace of both Ukrainian and Russian culture and the seat of the Ukrainian government Putin hopes to overthrow  is the key prize. But any military would find it difficult to take a city like Kyiv by storm, Miller says, especially facing such a large civilian resistance. So if their air bombardment doesnt work, they may look at chemical weapons. Many chemical agents linger in an area, driving out troops and civilians from dug-in positions. When youre fighting amid rubble, bombs and bullets have a limited effect, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a retired British military officer and chemical weapons expert told The Washington Post. But gas is a different story. Loading Says Caldicott, Its truly a form of terror as a weapon. It creates this phenomenal fear, almost the same sort of fear as radioactivity. Theyre like landmines. Theyre not just to kill everybody. They also force your enemy to fight in significantly debilitating conditions, in all that [protective gear] thats exhausting to work in. Miller says Russia may use chemical weapons delivered in traditional military artillery shells. Or it could create a well-orchestrated accident to release the gas and muddy the narrative. To Caldicott, it is likely the Russians would turn to a dual-use chemical widely used, such as chlorine or the less deadly ammonia, rather than its signature agent, Novichok, to help sow confusion about the nature of such an attack. Then they could say it was an accident or the Ukrainians blew up a chemical plant. He may believe that if he cant get Ukrainians to crack by conventional means, then chemical weapons might.

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An Israeli army bulldozer clears the rubble of a house it knocked down during the clearing of a zone between the border fence and the first homes in Rafah. Credit:AP For months Egyptian and Israeli helicopters have been hovering back and forth over Rafah, trying to decide where to put the border. In the end, both sides decided no houses would be destroyed. The border fence would cross rooftops, go through backyards and cut across streets. Houses split half in Israel and half in Egypt would have to decide which, country they wanted to live in and then have their front door on the chosen side. But from Fatchis rooftop you can look out and see, looming towards Rafah from the horizon and stopping abruptly at the edge of the town, a wide, bare, bull-dozed strip. This is the new border being constructed between the Sinai and Israel. It is a bare swathe of earth 40 to 60 metres, wide with an electronically monitored fence, an asphalt road alongside it and, in some sections, minefields.

The Arab people of Rafah say they know that at the first hint of terrorist activity or gun smuggling across the border, a 60-metre strip will be bulldozed right through the centre of the town within 24 hours. Rafah feels like a typical Third World town. It is cluttered with poor housing and shops. The dusty streets are crammed with battered cars, people, donkeys and bikes. Hawkers try to sell you everything imaginable. Above the din, the electronic meuzzin in the mosques minaret five times a day calls the faithful to prayer. You know youre not in Israel proper but in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. The Israelis, however, have no intention of handing back the Gaza, and refer to it as part of Israel. The great irony is that Rafah was united by war and now will be divided by peace. Rafah began as a farming settlement around an oasis at the point where the Sinai meets the Gaza Strip. In 1906, under British pressure, a border line was drawn between Egypt and the Ottoman-ruled Palestine and Rafah became a divided city. When Israel was created in 1948, Gaza was under Egyptian control but Rafah was kept divided. After the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel captured the Sinai and Gaza, Rafah was united and the old border taken down.

An Israeli army patrol Jeep is parked on the Israeli side of the fence which runs through the center of Rafah. Credit:AP Houses and businesses were built across the border line and Rafah grew. People moved from one side of town to the other and the standard of living marginally increased as Arabs found work in Israel. The population was further swollen when 500 Palestinian refugee families were moved into an abandoned UN base adjoining Rafah which is now called Canada. Over the past few months, people in Rafah have been swapping houses, trying to organise their families on one side of the border or the other. There is great uncertainty among the Palestinian refugees. They wonder if they would be better off in Egypt or Israel (which they steadfastly call Palestine) while they await their dream of their own Palestinian State. The senior pharmacist in Rafah, Dr Soleiman Zoarop, said: During four wars there has been no destruction in Rafah. But with peace, damage and destruction will occur. It is a very hard thing. Already on the edge of town, Rafahs only olive press, a plant which stretches 50 metres and includes a well, packing house, and an ancient diesel engine that runs the freezing-unit, has been marked for demolition because it straddles the border. An ice plant, with its well in Gaza and machinery in Sinai, will have to be relocated.

The compensation being offered the Rafah Arabs is a pittance compared to the $A500,000 per head compensation payments going to the Israeli Sinai settlers. The Bedouin village of Dehaniya, not far from Rafah, also will be cut in two. The homes are in Gaza but the grazing lands are in the Sinai. A major problem in patrolling the border is to control the well-established smuggling of drugs and arms as well as Palestine Liberation Army guerrillas. While the border disputes in the northern Sinai are proving a painful human drama, the disputes in the south are haggles over tourism and big business. Israelis are genuinely hurt at having to give up their favorite holiday spots on the Red Sea resorts along the Gulf of Aqaba. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis pour out of their crowded land to swim and dive over the splendid coral reefs of the gulf.

The gulfs attractions were discovered by hippy travellers 15 years ago. Now it is all given back except for one main resort at the top of the gulf, Eilat. The Israelis hope to retain nearby Taba also. At Taba, a multi-million dollar-hotel sits unfinished while its Israeli owner waits to hear if it will be declared to be in Israel or Egypt. Loading The problem is that the old 1906 border wasnt very precisely marked and some of the topographical features have changed. Egypts offer to buy the hotel prompted an angry response from Israels Defence Minister, Mr Sharon, that Israel was not seeking Egyptian largesse  only a proper border. Israelis are hoping they still will be able to visit the Red Sea resorts but already this is proving difficult.
Business is booming at Brighten Home Loans with loan originations up 208% year on year and staff numbers increasing by 70%.

The non-bank lender has welcomed twelve new members to the team so far this year.

We have recently appointed a new BDM, Jay Allen, to the team who joined us from La Trobe Financial where he was a credit analyst, said Brighten head of distribution Natalie Sheehan (pictured above with Allen). Jay previously worked in real estate so brings with him a well-rounded knowledge of the industry.

In February, Brighten appointed Chris Meaker as its inaugural national sales manager to further grow the companys broker network and increase sales across all distribution channels.

With a strong track record in building broker networks and managing high-volume originations, Chris Meaker is an exceptional hire that were thrilled to be welcoming to the Brighten team, said Sheehan.

Read more: Brighten Home Loans reshapes non-bank lending - Australian Broker TV

She said Brightens mission was to reshape non-bank lending in Australia by creating effective and innovative lending solutions to help more home buyers achieve their goal of property ownership.

Despite being a younger company, Brighten was seeing high demand for the unique solutions it offered clients.

We offer a range of competitive full doc, alt doc, and construction loan products available to prime and near prime, resident, and non-resident borrowers, she noted.

Sheehan said she was proud of the values the non-bank lender offered its clients.

We want to strive to be a lender that makes a positive impact on our customers, partners, community, and the planet, she said. We want to lead the way on advocating for positive change and good values within the financial services industry.

Brightens values include sustainability, diversity and inclusion, equality, social responsibility, ethical, and good governance.

We pride ourselves on our diverse culture here at Brighten, as well as our ethical and social responsibilities to those around us and our community, Sheehan said.

The non-bank lender aimed to establish an alternative to the major banks by focusing on new ideas and technology to provide customers and partners with easy-to-use lending solutions.

The firm has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Business finance lender Fifo Capital has bolstered its business development team to grow its broker network and offer brokers more support.

Hasitha Ratnayake Has (pictured) has been appointed as Fifo Capitals senior business development manager.

The addition of Has to the team allows us to continue our growth and bolsters our position as a key player in alternative working capital and cashflow finance, said Fifo Capital CEO Wayne Morris.

Raynayake will assist finance brokers who approach Fifo Capital to use its tailored products.

We have been working more and more with brokers who are seeking a solution to put in place for their clients when the big banks or our competition cant, said Morris.

Ratnayake was formerly senior BDM at Macquarie Bank, and has also worked at ANZ, HSBC, and Bank of Melbourne.

Read more: Wingate acquires stake in financial services provider Fifo

Morris said Ratnayakes role would also support the wider Fifo Capital network and grow broker relationships.

We value our broker relationships and Has is joining us at a time when we are introducing opportunities to make Fifo the funder of brokers choice.

When brokers have clients looking for fast and reflective solutions to get what they need from a cashflow perspective, we want to provide brokers with that solution.

Fifo Capital understood that efficient technology processes could help brokers to secure deals for their clients, Morris said.

We want brokers to be able to get to yes faster and for clients to get to their facilities faster. Whatever we can do to make it simpler and easier to access finance, that is a win-win for everybody and Has is the perfect person for that.

Ratnayake said he was excited to be part of Fifo Capitals growth journey.

I cant wait to share the awesome work the team are already doing, he said. Recent statistics show there are approximately $25 billion in funded payables for Australian businesses each year, now was the right time to join an organisation like Fifo Capital where we can facilitate getting that funding on to Australian SMEs faster, easier, and more innovatively.
Westpac has been the latest big four bank to slash its lowest variable rate, heating up competition in variable home loan rates.

The move follows NAB trimming its basic variable rate on March 9 and ANZ on Feb. 8.

Westpacs lowest variable rate is now an ultra-competitive 2.09% for people with a 30% deposit, while both St George and Bank of Melbourne now offer 2.04% for borrowers with a 40% deposit. There is also a $3,000 cashback on offer for Westpac refinancers and $4,000 for the subsidiaries.

Westpac Groups fixed rates continue to increase, however, with its one- to five-years rates for owner-occupiers and investors now up by 0.3%.

This brings Westpacs four-year fixed rate for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest to 3.99%, a 2.1 percentage points increase to the 1.89% rate in April last year.

RateCity.com.au data showed Westpac home loan rate changes for owner-occupiers:

Rate type Old rate New rate Change Repayment difference $500k Variable 2.19% 2.09% -0.1% -$25 1-yr fixed 2.69% 2.99% 0.3% $80 2-yr fixed 2.89% 3.19% 0.3% $81 3-yr fixed 3.44% 3.74% 0.3% $84 4-yr fixed 3.69% 3.99% 0.3% $86 5-yr fixed 3.99% 4.29% 0.3% $87

Note: Above rates are for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest on a package rate. LVR requirements apply. Monthly repayments are on a $500,000 loan over 30 years.

Its astonishing to see some fixed rates rise by over two percentage points in the last 12 months, when the cash rate hasnt moved a muscle, said Sally Tindall, RateCity.com.au research director. Westpac and other banks are responding to rising costs of funding and expected RBA hikes. As a result, the majority of big four bank owner-occupier fixed rates now start with a 3, some even a 4. Its no wonder the proportion of customers choosing to fix is plummeting.

RateCity.com.au said variable rates were continuing on a different trajectory, for now.

While now is a great time for variable-rate customers to be moving to a lower rate, people need to be acutely aware the RBA is poised to hike this year, Tindall said. A year ago, the battleground for the banks was still squarely set on fixed rates. However, record levels of mortgage holders are now locked into a fixed rate, and so banks have shifted their focus to variable rate customers looking to switch.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday declined to interfere in a petition that urged it to direct filmmakers of The Kashmir Files to delete some controversial scenes in the movie and to declare that the movie was lop-sided and did not portray the ground-realities per se.

Justice P. Madhavi Devi was dealing with a petition filed by Mohamed Sami Ullah Qureshi, member of AIMIM (Inquilab) party, who said that the film was hurting the sentiments of Muslim.

He submitted that the mass murder of Kashmir pundits and compelling them to migrate to other areas was barbaric and inhuman. However, the producer showed it as if the entire Muslim community was against Kashmir pundits. It has been established that jihadists had expelled the pundits from the valley, said Abbasi, counsel for the petitioner.

T. Sujan Kumar Reddy, representing Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), argued that the censor board has given the certification after watching the film. How could the petitioner seek to delete the scenes when he had not challenged the certificate issued by the censor board, he wanted to know and suggested that he could have approached the censor board tribunal.

Sujan Reddy also brought to the notice of the court that the Mumbai High Court had dismissed a PIL against the films release.

Considering the contentions of both sides, Justice Madhavi Devi declined to interfere.
Anyone who has written for a reasonably long time must have dealt with the following questions: Why do I write? What use are my words? Whats my location in the canon of literature? Who can be called an Indian writer? Am I one if Im writing in English either here, in my homeland, or abroad? Over the years, several writers have tried to wrestle with these questions.

No one claims to have addressed them fully. In the Indian context, if someone has meditated on these questions with sensitivity and clarity, breaking away from the cabal of entitled male writers, ...
: FlyBig, the newest scheduled commuter airline of India, on Thursday said it has signed a letter of intent to acquire up to 10 aircraft of De Havilland Canada Twin Series 400 to serve small and remote regions.

FlyBig operates commercial flights to destinations in the North-East, South, and Central under the UDAN Scheme.

A press release from FlyBig said the De Havilland Canada Twin 400 Series has a proven track record of safe, dependable operations, as well as versatility, which includes the ability to descend on land or water.

The letter of intent was signed by Captain Sanjay Mandavia, CMD of FlyBig, and Yogesh Garg, director, sales Asia Pacific, De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, and exchanged at their stall at the ongoing Wings India 2022 Show here, the release said.

Mandavia said, It is a strategic and necessary acquisition. It will be a valuable asset for FlyBig in its quest to provide last-mile connectivity to hinterlands of India. This landmark acquisition will provide competitive thrust and open a niche travel segment in the Indian aviation industry as it can also be used over water to promote tourism.

The De Havilland Twin Series 400 aircraft has the potential to provide last-mile connectivity to inaccessible geographical destinations in India, he further said.

We are very excited to be working with FlyBig to connect underserved destinations that currently rely on inconvenient and inefficient modes of transportation, said Philippe Poutissou, vice-president (sales and marketing), De Havilland Canada.

The Twin Otter Series 400 is a 19-seater aircraft that would meet a wide range of needs in the ever-expanding aviation market of India, opening up access to new commuter as well as coastal and island-hopping routes, according to the release.

(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.)
Food robotics company Mukunda Foods has raised $8 million in a round led by Zomato, taking the company's post-money valuation to $30 million. invested $5 million as part of the round.

The company had previously raised funds from Ncubate Capital, Singapore Angel Network, and Indian Angel Network. The company plans to utilise funds to expand its reach across QSRs, cloud kitchens and the fine dine segment. The company also plans to use a part of the raised capital to introduce services to help the F&B businesses scale.

Mukunda said its products enable restaurants to scale rapidly while maintaining consistency in food quality and customer experience across multiple outlets. It also helps restaurants become more efficient by reducing manpower costs, wastage and increasing kitchen throughput

Eshwar K. Vikas, CEO, and Co-Founder, Mukunda Foods, said: " and Mukunda Foods share the vision of reaching every restaurant and helping them grow. While does it by helping restaurants reach more customers and increasing their revenues, we help the F&B brands increase their profitability and grow fast with our kitchen technologies.

Zomatos investment in Mukunda has come amid the food deliverys announcement to launch a 10-minute delivery service. The company said earlier this week that the plan will be accomplished by using in-kitchen robotics at hyperlocal kitchens where food will be packaged within 10-minutes.

As a part of the service, experts said that restaurants will be required to dispatch a certain number of pre-cooked or half-cooked food to the Zomato stations. However, Business Standard reported earlier that several restaurants are averse to the idea as they fear that participating in the programme might hurt their quality control and brand value.

Meanwhile, there has been an uproar against the quick commerce model itself as gig workers might be put at risk due to the pressure of making faster deliveries. Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has tried to assuage such concerns, saying that delivery workers would not be incentivised or penalised on the basis of their delivery speed.

The company has said that the quick commerce set up would require delivery executives to travel at the same average speed of 20 kilometres per hour as they do now  as the distances between the delivery hubs and customer doorsteps will be minimised to 1-2 kilometres.
Auto components major on Thursday said it has bagged an order from to manufacture and supply aftermarket molded parts for commercial airplane interiors.

This is the first order for from and will commence from the third quarter of FY23. It will be produced at a plant situated in Noida, the company said in a statement.

The company, however, did not disclose the value of the order.

"With this order, becomes a tier-1 supplier to . This marks the beginning of a new journey in line with Motherson's vision for growth in aerospace," Motherson CEO (Aerospace division) Kunal Bajaj said.

Boeing India Senior Director, Supply Chain Ashwani Bhargava, said, "This is an important step in our commitment to the government of India's Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision. As a company with over seven decades of presence in India, Boeing is focused on supporting the development of aerospace and defence capabilities in India."



Motherson said it is scaling its capabilities to provide integrated solutions to the aerospace industry.

"With capabilities in the aerospace ecosystem such as materials, aerostructures, wiring harnesses and global manufacturing footprint, Motherson has the necessary knowhow to support the upcoming ramp-up of production for major global aircraft manufacturers," it added.

This is in line with the company's growth strategy to strengthen non-automotive business as announced during the five-year plan 'Vision 2025,' it 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.)
Software-as-a-service firm Netcore has acquired 90 per cent stake in artificial intelligence-based product discovery platform for USD 100 million to enhance its customer experience technology solutions, a senior company official said on Thursday.

Netcore Cloud group CEO Kalpit Jain told PTI that the company is looking to come up with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in about a year, and will be filing a draft paper for the same by July or August.

Talking about acquisition, Jain said that it is the fourth acquisition for the company in a span of three years.

"Today e-commerce is growing across the globe. Lots of want to go digital, and brands are looking to give a personalised experience to their consumers. has been doing this for years for a lot of brands in developed countries like the US, UK etc. We have been very strong in India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. Unbxd plays a very important role in giving us entry into US and developed countries," he said.

Bootstrapped Netcore will use internal accruals to buy stake from investors in Unbxd, and founders will continue to work at Unbxd. Unbxd has around 150 clients in developed countries, and Netcore will be able to cross-sell its customer management product suite to these clients, Jain said.

Netcore expects to close the current financial year with revenue of around USD 80 million and grow it to around USD 130 million by March 2024.

Jain said the company is looking to grow business in developed countries and push for sales of the entire suite of product portfolio to new-age .

The company will continue to look at inorganic expansion for growth, Jain said, adding that the IPO will enhance its brand reputation and help in attracting new talents.

"It will also give a currency to acquire new . A listed entity can also use stock as a currency for acquisition," Jain said.

He said that 25 per cent of Netcore is owned by employees, and the IPO will provide them with wealth creation opportunities.

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 Americas and the worlds largest aerospace and defence firm  is giving stiff competition in the Indian helicopter market to its rival, . scored early with the multi-billion-dollar sale to the Indian Air Force of Chinook heavy lift choppers and Apache attack helicopters. However, Lockheed Martins subsidiary, Sikorsky, is catching up fast with the $2.12-billion sale to the Indian Navy last year of 24 Seahawk multi-role maritime helicopters.



On Thursday, Sikorsky scored again. Providing a bright start to Wings India 2022  Indias premier civil aviation air show being held at Hyderabad from March 24-28  announced it had leased six Sikorsky S-76D helicopters from Milestone Aviation Group (Milestone), the global leader in helicopter leasing.



Pawan Hans, a government company under the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA), intends to use these helicopters to support onshore and offshore operations by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).



Five of the six helicopters have already been delivered. Milestone and Sikorsky are also contracted to provide with comprehensive logistics and sustainment packages to support the phasing-in of this new helicopter into its fleet.



chief Sanjeev Razdan said: In the medium twin (engine) category, the S-76D is the ideal aircraft to support our offshore operations in South Asia.The helicopter has been launched with a completely new maintenance and support philosophy by Pawan Hans.



Welcoming Pawan Hans into the group of operators that flies choppers, India chief Bill Blair pronounced his company is thrilled that Pawan Hans is introducing the S-76D aircraft to the Indian market to perform critical offshore oil and gas transport missions.



Blair said the inherent reliability of the S-76D, combined with Sikorskys support services, will please customers and is aligned with Lockheed Martins focus on the Indian market.



The highly regarded Sikorsky S-76 helicopter has operated since 1977 in diverse environmental conditions in more than 40 countries on six continents. Sikorsky has delivered more than 875 S-76 helicopters to customers globally, contributing daily to a growing total of more than 7.5 million flight hours.



The S-76D helicopter is an improved version of the S-76, incorporating more modern technologies in order to provide a substantial increase in performance, power and value.



Since 1985, Pawan Hans has been Indias market leader in helicopter operations. Its fleet of 42 helicopters provides services to sectors such as oil and gas exploration, pipeline survey and aerial work, police and utility tasks, and services to VIPs and state governments.



Pawan Hans also provides passenger connectivity to remote, hilly, and inaccessible areas along Indias northern and north-eastern borders. In addition, it has provided inter-island connectivity in the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands.
Ltd has signed agreements to lease six Sikorsky S-76D helicopters from The Milestone Aviation Group.

The aircraft will support Pawan Hans' onshore and offshore helicopter operations in India and the company is contracted to operate two S-76D helicopters for ONGC.

"In addition to the six helicopters, of which five have already been delivered, Milestone and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company are also providing with comprehensive value and sustainment packages to support the phasing-in of this new helicopter type into its fleet," a release said on Thursday.

The announcement about the leasing of helicopters was made during the Wings India event in Hyderabad.

Sanjeev Razdan, Chairman and Managing Director of Pawan Hans, said that in the medium twin category, the S-76D is the ideal aircraft to support our offshore operations in South Asia.

Sikorsky has delivered more than 875 S-76 helicopters to customers globally since 1977.

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State-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) received revenues worth around Rs 13,439 crore from Delhi and Mumbai airports in the last five financial years, according to the .

Under Public Private Partnership (PPP), Delhi and Mumbai airports were handed over to the private partners in 2006.

"During the last five years i.e. from 2016-17 to 2020-21, AAI has received revenues of approximately Rs 8,093 crore from Delhi airport, Rs 5,346 crore from Mumbai airport," Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh told Lok Sabha.

Besides, three airports -- Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru -- were handed over to the Adani Group in October-November 2020. Three other airports -- Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram -- were given to it in October last year.

In a written reply, Singh said the private partners of these six airports have paid approximately Rs 331 crore to AAI as Per Passenger Fee (PPF) till January 2022.

"AAl has also received an amount of Rs 1,888 crore till 15.03.2022 in the form of upfront fee towards the capital expenditure incurred by AAI at these airports," the minister said.

As per the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), 25 airports of AAI have been earmarked for monetisation over the 2022 to 2025 period.

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The government on Wednesday rejected the "uncalled reference" to by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the opening ceremony of the and said matters related to the union territory "are entirely the internal affairs of India".

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said other countries including have no locus standi to comment.

"We reject the uncalled reference to by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the Opening Ceremony. Matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir are entirely the internal affairs of . Other countries including have no locus standi to comment. They should note that refrains from public judgement of their internal issues," Bagchi said.

His response came in response to media queries on reference to made by Chinese Foreign Minister in his speech at OIC meet in Pakistan.

Addressing the OIC meeting on Tuesday, Wang Yi had said stands ready to work with Islamic countries to promote multipolarity in the world.

"On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope," he had said.

The 48th Council of the Foreign Ministers (CFMs) of the OIC concluded in Islamabad today.

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The on Thursday reserved its order in a suo motu petition, along with a bunch of PILs seeking a probe by CBI or NIA, in the death of eight people in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

The state opposed the prayer for CBI or NIA probe, submitting that an enquiry is being conducted by a Special Investigation Team formed by the government and prayed that the SIT be given time to proceed with it.

Eight people, including two children, were charred to death as nearly a dozen huts were set ablaze in Bogtui village early Tuesday in a suspected fallout of the murder of a ruling Trinamool Congress leader and 'upa-pradhan' (deputy chief) of the local panchayat.

Following the conclusion of submissions by all parties over two days, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj said it will consider the arguments and pass the order.

Additional Solicitor General Y J Dastur submitted that the CBI or the NIA are ready to initiate a probe if an order is passed by the high court to that effect.

He informed the court that a seven-member team from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi, will proceed to Bogtui village upon reaching Kolkata on Thursday evening for collection of samples from the crime scene as ordered by the bench earlier.

They will be provided with security by CRPF personnel, Dastur said.

Advocate General S N Mookherjee placed the case diaries of the criminal case lodged in connection with the matter along with a report on the investigation being carried out, as directed by the court.

The advocate general opposed prayers by petitioners for transfer of the case to CBI or NIA and cited several earlier judgements of different courts in support of his argument.

Mookherjee submitted that 31 CCTV cameras have been installed at the place of crime as ordered by the bench on Wednesday.

The petitioners, seeking an enquiry by an agency other than those controlled by the state government, alleged that there is a possibility of tampering with evidence if a probe by CBI or NIA is not ordered immediately.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, advocate Rabishankar Chatterjee said that the high court had ordered a CBI investigation into the Nandigram police firing incident in which 14 people were killed in March 2007 during an anti-land acquisition stir when the Left Front was in power.

Another petitioner submitted that villagers of Bogtui near Rampurhat town were terrified and many of them left for other places for safety.

The AG stated before the court that the authorities have provided protection to witnesses and taken confidence-building measures.

He informed the court that post-mortem examinations on all bodies were videographed, except one.

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New Delhi: India late on Wednesday evening hit back at Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for raking up the Kashmir issue at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers conclave hosted by Pakistan in Islamabad, saying that China has no locus standi to comment on Jammu and Kashmir, which is an internal matter of India, and reminding Beijing that India refrains from commenting publicly on Chinas internal issues.

The late-evening spat comes amidst a possible plan for Mr Wang to visit New Delhi on Thursday and stay on till Friday, although New Delhi had refused to officially confirm any visit by the Chinese foreign minister in the first place. Despite the latest row, however, the possibility of the visit has not been ruled out.

Mr Wang was quoted as saying at the OIC conclave in Islamabad, which he attended as a special guest: On the Kashmir issue, we have heard the voices of many Islamic friends again today, and China has the same desire for this, an apparent reference to a resolution of the issue as per the UN resolutions.

An angry New Delhi lashed out: We reject the uncalled-for reference to India by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi during his speech Matters related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir are entirely the internal affair of India. Other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from public judgement of their internal issues.

Speculation was rife earlier on Wednesday that Mr Wang may reach New Delhi for a brief visit sometime on Thursday and leave for Kathmandu on Friday. There was also the possibility that he may visit Kabul for a few hours on Thursday to meet the Taliban leaders there before undertaking a brief visit to Delhi.

If Mr Wangs visit does takes place, it could indicate the beginning of a thaw in Sino-Indian relations at the top level, especially since the Ukraine conflict has altered geopolitics quite significantly. The West, including the United States and President Joe Biden, is upset with India which has refused to condemn Russia for the military offensive in Ukraine, while calling for a cessation of violence and resolution through dialogue between the warring sides. This could be seen by the Chinese as an opportunity to mend ties with India. China is now seen globally as the main backer of Russia, which is also a time-tested friend of India. There is also a desire both in Moscow and Beijing to strengthen the trilateral Russia-India-China (RIC) forum, which is not possible till Sino-Indian relations are normalised.

If the visit does take place, it will be the first time a top-level visit will take place from either country to the other after the deadly conflict at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh between Indian and Chinese troops two years ago. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar and the Chinese foreign minister have held meetings in third countries, including in Moscow, as well as had telephonic conversations in the past two years, but neither has visited the other country after the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
A Trinamool Congress delegation met Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday and sought the ouster of Governor Jagdeep Dhankar as a political fight over the horrifying killing of eight persons in the state's Birbhum district continued to echo inside and outside Parliament.

In Lok Sabha, BJP MP Saumitra Khan rushed to the Well from his seat in the last rows, shouting angry comments against the state's government and sat in the aisle briefly, alleging that Bengal has become a "land of terror".

Congress member Gaurav Gogoi also slammed the state government for not allowing the party's leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to visit the site of the violence and stopping him nearly 90 km away from the spot, saying it is a blow to democracy.

leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay spoke in Lok Sabha about his meeting with Shah.

The home minister told the delegation that there was no politics over the issue and that firm punishment should be given to the guilty, he said.

After the meeting, Bandyopadhyay told reporters that his party has demanded that the governor be removed, alleging that he was working against constitutional norms.

"Parliamentary system is under threat from him," he said.

Dhankar has had a confrontational relationship with the state government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the latest incident has seen him putting the dispensation in the dock again. Banerjee has in turn hit back at him.

Khan's angry tirade in Lok Saba drew sympathy from many other BJP members but Speaker Om Birla expressed his displeasure, saying the House cannot run in such a manner.

With barbs being exchanged between the two sides, he said members should maintain restrain and dignity.

Eight people, including two children, were charred to death as nearly a dozen huts were set ablaze in Birbhum district early Tuesday in a suspected fallout of the murder of a ruling panchayat official.

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The eight people, including three women and two children, who were burnt alive in Bogtui village in West Bengal's Birbhum district were badly beaten up before the carnage, their post-mortem examination has revealed.

As per preliminary findings of the forensic experts, who conducted the tests on the charred bodies found inside the houses that were allegedly set on fire by unidentified people early on Tuesday, the victims were first badly beaten up and then burnt alive, an official told PTI from Rampurhat hospital.

At least 20 people have been arrested so far in connection with the incident, suspected to have been triggered by the killing of a local leader on Monday evening, and several police personnel and civic volunteers removed on grounds of negligence.

Security has been up in Rampurhat to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's scheduled visit later during the day.

CCTVs have been set up around the helipad where the chief minister's helicopter will land, a senior police officer said.

Banerjee is scheduled to hold meetings with senior police officers including Director General of Police Manoj Malaviya before visiting Bogtui. Later, she may also visit Rampurhat hospital to meet the injured people, another official said.

State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and a five-member central team of the are also scheduled to visit Bogtui.

Banerjee has vowed that strict action will be taken against the perpetrators irrespective of the party affiliation even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the killings as "heinous" and said that the culprits should not be forgiven.

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Pitching for 'One nation, One election', MP Dr D.P Vats on Thursday demanded that all the elections be held at the same time to prevent the national resources from draining.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the lawmaker batted for simultaneous elections. He said that in 1967, the then government had dismissed many state governments and held fresh Assembly polls. "From then only, the nation got into an election mode with polls being held in different intervals throughout the year," he added.

Continuous holding of elections, Vats said, also drains the administrative and the national resources.

Referring to a media report, the leader said that when the Covid pandemic broke out in China, many international manufacturing companies shifted out their base to Indonesia and nearby countries. But India was left out as, according to the report, it is always in election or agitation mode.

He requested that the government, on the basis of consensus among all political parties, hold all elections at the same time.

Other Members also associated with Dr Vats on this issue.

--IANS

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Chinese Foreign Minister arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening in the first highest-level visit between India and China after their ties came under severe strain following the border standoff in eastern Ladakh nearly two years ago.

Wang flew into New Delhi from Kabul on an unannounced visit and he is set to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday morning.

It is learnt that the Chinese foreign minister's visit is more to do with the geopolitical turmoil in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine than the bilateral ties.

Interestingly, there was no official word about Wang's visit from either the Ministry of External Affairs or the Chinese government. Both sides kept the visit under wraps.

At the Friday talks, the Indian side is unlikely to shift focus from the military standoff in eastern Ladakh as it is expected to press for complete disengagement of troops from all the remaining friction points in the region.

The border issue is likely to figure extensively at the meeting between Wang and Doval as they have been serving as the Special Representatives (SR) for boundary talks between the two countries.

The Ukraine crisis is expected to be the other major issue at the talks. Unlike many other leading powers, India has not criticised Russia yet for its invasion of Ukraine and also abstained from voting at the UN platforms in condemning the Russian attack.

It is also not immediately clear whether the Indian side will facilitate a call on by Wang with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The visit also comes a day after India rejected as uncalled for Wang's comments referring to Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad.

China has close ties with Russia and it has been giving signals about its willingness to assist Moscow in dealing with the crippling economic sanctions announced by the US and other Western countries following the Russian attack on Ukraine that was launched a month ago.

Wang began a two-day trip to Pakistan on Tuesday primarily to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a special guest.

Following the conclusion of his trip to Islamabad, he travelled to Afghanistan and held extensive talks with Afghan leaders in Kabul on Thursday. The Chinese foreign minister is also scheduled to visit Kathmandu from March 25 to 27.

It was China that had sent a proposal to India for a visit to New Delhi by Wang as part of his tour of the region. Initially, India was learnt to be reluctant to accept the proposal.

In reflection of India's consistent position on ties with China, Prime Minister Modi on Monday told his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, at a virtual summit that peace and tranquillity in eastern Ladakh is an essential prerequisite for normalisation of India's ties with China.

At the 14th India-Japan summit on Saturday, New Delhi conveyed to Tokyo the same line that its ties with Beijing cannot be business as usual until peace is restored in the eastern Ladakh region.

India and China have held a series of diplomatic and military talks in the last one-and-half years to resolve the eastern Ladakh row.

Jaishankar and Wang held several rounds of talks in Moscow and Dushanbe to defuse tensions in eastern Ladakh during the period.

In September 2020, Jaishankar and Wang held extensive talks in Moscow on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) during which they reached a five-point agreement to resolve the Ladakh standoff.

The pact included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements and protocols on border management and steps to restore peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The two foreign ministers had held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of another SCO meeting in Tajik capital city Dushanbe in July last year with a focus on the border row. They again met in Dushanbe in September.

India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along LAC was key for the overall development of the bilateral ties.

Earlier this month, Wang said some forces have always sought to stoke tensions between China and India, in an apparent reference to the US.

On March 11, India and China held the 15th round of high-level military dialogue to resolve the pending issues in the eastern Ladakh region.

The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.

The face-off escalated after the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15, 2020. As many as 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops were killed in the clashes.

Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector.

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Ministry of Defence has banned import of 107 strategically important line replacement units or sub-systems aimed to enhance self-reliance in .

"In continuous pursuit of self-reliance in and to minimise imports by DPSUs under 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat', Ministry of Defence has approved another list of 107 strategically important Line replacement Units (LRUs)/sub-systems with a timeline beyond which there will be an embargo on their import," the ministry said in a statement.

These 107 sub-systems will be indigenised in the coming years and will only be procured from Indian Industry after the timelines indicated against each of them in the list. The Defence Public Sector Undertakings-wise and timeline-wise lists are:

Indigenisation of these items will be taken up by DPSUs under 'Make' category. 'Make' Category aims to achieve self-reliance by involving greater participation of Indian industry.

Projects involving design and development of equipment, systems, major platforms or upgrades thereof by the industry can be taken up under this category.

DPSUs will offer these identified LRUs/Sub-systems for industry led design and development. This will be a great opportunity for the Indian industry to get integrated in the supply chains of manufacturing major defence platforms.

"The indigenous development of these LRUs/Sub-systems projects will bolster the economy and reduce the import dependence of DPSUs," the statement read.

In addition, it will help harness the design capabilities of the domestic defence industry and position India as a design leader in these technologies.

This list is in continuation to the positive indigenisation list of 2,851 sub-systems, assemblies, sub-assemblies and components which had been earlier notified by the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence on December 27, 2021.

--IANS

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Maharashtra's former home minister Anil Deshmukh has approached the Bombay High Court seeking bail in connection with a money laundering case being investigated by the (ED).

Deshmukh was arrested by the ED on November 2, 2021, and is currently in jail under judicial custody. The 71-year-old NCP leader filed a petition in the HC after a special court rejected his bail plea earlier this month. Deshmukh, in his bail plea filed in the HC through advocates Aniket Nikam and Inderpal Singh on Tuesday, has said he was implicated by the ED in a "false and frivolous" case and that the central agency was misusing its authority. The former minister, who resigned from the state cabinet in April last year, refuted the charges of money laundering and said all alleged transactions cited by the ED in the case were documented.

Deshmukh's bail plea is likely to be heard by a single bench of the HC on Friday. The special court, designated to hear cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), while refusing bail to Deshmukh, had noted that there was evidence to show that the NCP leader was actively involved in money laundering. The ED's case is that while serving as state home minister, Deshmukh misused his official position and through Sachin Waze, a police officer who has been dismissed from service after his arrest in the 'Antilia' bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran killing case last year, collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai.

The money was laundered to Nagpur-based Shri Sai Shikshan Sansthan, an educational trust controlled by the Deshmukh family, the central agency has alleged.

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Employees Union on Wednesday appealed to Prime Minister to "drop proposal to merge MTNL with BSNL".

The employees union of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) also suggested the government to take over Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited's (MTNL) Rs 26,000 crore debt and provide financial assistance to .

"We wish to express our serious concern regarding the merger of and MTNL. The BSNL employees are genuinely concerned that, the merger of MTNL with BSNL will certainly ruin the financial condition of the latter. Due to this reason, right from the beginning, the employees of BSNL have been firmly opposing the merger of BSNL and MTNL," the union said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

The union quoted a senior BSNL official as saying that "MTNL is in the ICU and any day it can be declared dead" and "a catastrophe is waiting to happen in MTNL".

"We fervently appeal to you to kindly drop the proposal to merge MTNL with BSNL. Alternatively, the government should take over MTNL's debt of Rs 26,000 crore. In addition to this, the government should also provide sufficient financial assistance to BSNL, for the rehabilitation of the networks of MTNL. This demand is being raised because, both the mobile as well as landline networks of MTNL are in a dilapidated condition. Hence, we earnestly urge upon you to kindly look into this issue and to kindly take appropriate action to safeguard the interests of BSNL," the union said.

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Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the United Nations Headquarters (UNHQs) in New York and discussed issues on UN Security Council's agenda including and .

"Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla met UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres at the UNHQs, New York. Discussed issues on UN Security Council's agenda, including Ukraine, and Myanmar," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a Tweet.

Foreign Secretary reaches New York to participate in the United Nations Security Council meeting on cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States (LAS).

On Wednesday, he met UAE Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Almarar on the sidelines of the UNSC meeting.

Shringla congratulated Almarar on the UAE's successful Presidency of the UNSC and the adoption of the Presidential Statement by UNSC on UN-LAS cooperation, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

"(They) also held excellent discussions on further strengthening bilateral ties between India and the UAE," Bagchi said.

The Foreign Secretary also met Dr Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General Department of Operational Support of the United Nations on the occasion.

"As one of the largest troop-contributing countries to UN Peacekeeping Operations, reaffirmed India's steadfast commitment to UN Peacekeeping," the MEA spokesperson said.

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India on Thursday abstained in the on a resolution by Ukraine and its allies on the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn eastern European country, saying the focus should be on cessation of hostilities and on urgent humanitarian assistance and the draft did not fully reflect New Delhi's expected focus on these challenges.

The 193-member adopted the draft resolution Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine' by Ukraine and its western allies, with 140 nations voting in favour, five against and 38 abstentions. India abstained on the resolution.

"We firmly believe efforts at the United Nations should contribute to de-escalation of the conflict, facilitate immediate cessation of hostilities to promote dialogue and diplomacy and bring together parties to find an immediate end to the suffering of the people," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said in the Explanation of Vote after the resolution was adopted.

"We continue to underline the need to respect the UN Charter, international law and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. India abstained on the resolution since what we require now is to focus on cessation of hostilities and on urgent humanitarian assistance. The draft resolution did not fully reflect our expected focus on these challenges," Tirumurti said, reiterating India's call for immediate ceasefire.

Tirumurti underlined that India continues to remain deeply concerned at the ongoing situation which has rapidly been deteriorating since the beginning of the hostilities. He noted that the conflict has resulted in death of civilians, and nearly 10 million people have either been displaced internally or moved to neighboring countries.

"We have constantly called for cessation of hostilities," he said, noting with concern that the humanitarian situation continues to worsen, particularly in the conflict zones in urban areas.

"Women, children and elderly are disproportionately affected by the prolonging of this conflict," he said.

Tirumurti emphasised that there is an urgent need to address the humanitarian needs of the affected population. India supports the initiatives of the UN and its agencies and expressed hope that the international community will continue to respond positively to the humanitarian needs of the people of Ukraine, including through extending generous support to the Secretary General's flash appeal and the regional refugee response plan on Ukraine.

He underscored that it is important that humanitarian action is always guided by the principles of humanitarian assistance, which is humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. "These measures should not be politicized."



Tirumurti told the General Assembly that India has already sent over 90 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including medicines and other essential relief material, to Ukraine and its neighbors as part of the nine separate tranches of humanitarian assistance delivered so far.

India is in the process of sending further supplies in the coming days. He also said that India has ensured the safe return of about 22,500 Indians from Ukraine through the Operation Ganga involving 90 flights.

"We have also assisted nationals from 18 other countries in that process. We are deeply appreciative of the facilitation rendered by the authorities of Ukraine and its neighbouring countries and ensuring their safe return."



A rival resolution was also proposed in the by South Africa Humanitarian situation emanating out of the conflict in Ukraine'. It made no mention of Russia and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties in the conflict.

Following objections by Ukraine, the assembly voted to decided whether action should be taken in the on the South African-led draft resolution. With 67 member states voting against, 50 in favour and 36 abstentions, the resolution, supported by China, was not put for vote and no action was taken on that draft. India abstained on this vote as well.

On Wednesday, India, along with 12 other UN Security Council members, had abstained on a resolution by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The UNSC resolution failed to pass as it did not get the required 9 yes votes. Only Russia and China voted in favour of the UNSC resolution.

The draft resolution on Ukraine in the General Assembly demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by Russia against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects; demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel, journalists and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children, be fully protected and also demands that all parties protect civilians fleeing armed conflict and violence, including foreign nationals, notably students, without discrimination, to allow voluntary, safe and unhindered passage.

The resolution recognised that the military offensive of the Russian Federation inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine and its humanitarian consequences are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades and reiterated the call of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Russia to stop its military offensive, as well as his call to establish a ceasefire and to return to the path of dialogue and negotiations.

The resolution also recalled its demand that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

When the 11th Emergency Special Session was opened on February 28, the had on March 2 adopted a resolution titled Aggression against Ukraine' that had overwhelmingly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demanded that Moscow completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine.

India had abstained on the resolution, which was co-sponsored by 96 UN Member States and received 141 votes in favour, a total of 34 abstentions and five nations voting against.

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India, along with 12 other members, abstained on a resolution by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.



The draft resolution by Russia was cosponsored by Syria, North Korea and Belarus. It failed to get adopted in the Council on Wednesday as it did not get the required nine yes votes to pass.



Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution while there were no countries voting against. India and the remaining Security Council members abstained.



Permanent and veto-welding Council member Russia had called for a vote in the 15-nation Security Council on its draft resolution that demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children are fully protected, calls for negotiated ceasefire for enabling safe, rapid, voluntary and unhindered evacuation of civilians, and underscores the need for the parties concerned to agree on humanitarian pauses to this end. The Russian resolution, which makes no reference to its invasion of Ukraine, calls upon all parties concerned to allow safe and unhindered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine, including to foreign nationals without discrimination, and facilitate safe and unhindered access of humanitarian assistance to those in need in and around Ukraine, taking into account the particular needs of women, girls, men and boys, older persons and persons with disabilities.



While other Council members made statements after the vote on the resolution, India did not make any statement. India had previously abstained on two occasions in the Security Council and once in the General Assembly on resolutions on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.



US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield tweeted that in a unified protest vote, 13 members of the Security Council abstained from Russia's farcical resolution deflecting blame for the humanitarian crisis it has created in Ukraine.

In the Explanation of Vote, Thomas-Greenfield said it really is "unconscionable" that Russia would have the audacity to put forward a resolution asking the international community to solve a humanitarian crisis that Russia alone created.



"The United States intends to abstain on this text because, to state the obvious, Russia does not care about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, or the millions of lives and dreams the war has shattered. If they cared, they would stop fighting.

"Russia is the aggressor, the attacker, the invader - the sole party in Ukraine engaged in a campaign of brutality against the people of Ukraine - and they want us to pass a resolution that does not acknowledge their culpability, she said.

UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that her country will not vote for any resolution, either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, that does not recognise that Russia is the sole cause of this unfolding humanitarian catastrophe - and therefore key to ending it.



"Russia's draft called for all parties to respect international humanitarian law. It ignored that Russia is committing war crimes. Russia's draft called for the protection of civilians, including women and children. But it omitted that Russia is bombing maternity hospitals, schools and homes, Woodward said.



The Russian resolution in the Security Council was one of the three resolutions on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine that were put up before the UN General Assembly and the Security Council Wednesday.



The UN General Assembly resumed its 11th Emergency Special Session on Ukraine Wednesday and had two resolutions for consideration before it. The 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on the resolutions Thursday.



One UNGA resolution by Ukraine and its western allies on the Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine' demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by Russia against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects. It also demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel, journalists and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children, be fully protected.



It demands that the parties comply with their obligation to ensure the safe and unhindered humanitarian access of humanitarian personnel as well as their means of transport, supplies and equipment to those in need in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries.



The other rival resolution proposed by South Africa Humanitarian situation emanating out of the conflict in Ukraine' makes no mention of Russia. It calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties in the conflict, and encourages political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means aimed at achieving lasting peace.

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Hyderabad: The Centre has made it categorical that it was not possible to procure the entire paddy stock from Telangana in rabi as was being demanded by the state government.

The Telangana ministers' delegation, which met Union minister for food and public distribution, Piyush Goyal, in Delhi, along with TRS MPs, on Thursday was dealt a big jolt when the minister made this decision clear.

Official sources said Goyal took the delegation to task for making 'meaningless and unjust' demands since last November on the paddy procurement issue despite the Centre clarifying on umpteen occasions that it was not possible to procure entire paddy or boiled rice from Telangana or any other state.

Following the snub, the TRS is to launch agitation programmes in all districts from Friday.

Goyal reminded them about the agreement signed by the state government with Food Corporation of India (FCI) in 2021 stating that it will not supply boiled rice from rabi 2022.

He wondered how they could make such meaningless demands on procuring entire paddy from Telangana in rabi.

After the meeting, Goyal addressed a press conference in which he slammed the state government for misleading farmers on paddy procurement and trying to provoke them against the BJP government at the Centre after distorting facts.

He lashed out at the state government for failing to intimate the Centre about the quantity of raw rice it would supply to FCI in rabi despite repeated reminders.

"We called for a meeting in February with all states on the procurement issue. All states except Telangana intimated us about the quantity of raw rice they wanted to supply to FCI."

Goyal alleged there is an 'anti-farmer government' in Telangana, which miserably failed in handing over rice stocks to FCI but was trying to cover up its failures by blaming the Centre in order to gain political mileage.

Goyal denied any 'discrimination' towards Telangana and said they are procuring paddy from states duly following stipulated norms and procedures. He said that for them Telangana and Punjab were the same.

Addressing a press conference later in Delhi, agriculture minister S. Niranjan Reddy condemned Goyal's criticism of Telangana government.

"The minister's comments are unfortunate and display his arrogance. The BJP government is treating paddy procurement as a political issue and not as an issue concerning the welfare of farmers."

The delegation, comprising Niranjan Reddy, Gangula Kamalakar, Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Puvvada Ajay returned empty-handed, according to official sources.
India on Thursday said its position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been "steadfast and consistent" and that it stood for peace, and also asserted there is no question of linking the Ukraine situation to issues of trade.

Stating that India's stand on the conflict that entered the second month is based on six principles, External Affairs Minister further said that the government is examining various trade-related aspects, including those related to payments. He noted that the crude oil imported from Russia is very little.

In the context of the unfolding developments in Ukraine, India has been emphasising that the global order is anchored on international law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, he added.

Jaishankar was replying to a question and supplementaries on the Ukraine situation during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

"India's position on the Ukraine conflict has been steadfast and consistent. We have expressed deep concern at the worsening situation and called for an immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities," he said.

Jaishankar's comments came in the backdrop of increasing disquiet in the West over India not criticising Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and abstaining from voting at the UN Security Council in condemning the Russian attack.

"In our conversations with global leaders at the highest levels, we have emphasised to all member States of the UN that the global order is anchored on international law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states," he said.

Regarding India's stand on the conflict, the minister stated, "Our position is not that, this is not our problem. Our position is that we are for peace.

"When the Prime Minister spoke to Presidents (of Russia and Ukraine), the intent obviously at that time was the evacuation of students..but there was a larger conversation on what we could do which lead to the cessation of hostilities and return of dialogue and diplomacy. I think today that sentiment is widely shared by many countries. We have articulated it very strongly".

On trade amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, he said, "Indian foreign policy decisions are made in Indian interest and we are guided by our thinking, views and interests. So, there is no question of linking Ukraine situation to issues of trade".

India's position on Ukraine is based on six principles, the minister told the Upper House.

Firstly, India calls for an immediate cessation of violence and hostilities. India stands for peace.

Secondly, India believes that there is no other way than the return through the path of dialogue and diplomacy.

Thirdly, India recognised that global order is anchored on law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states.

Fourthly, India calls for humanitarian access to a conflict situation.

Fifthly, India gives humanitarian assistance. The nation has given 90 tonnes of humanitarian assistance so far. India is looking at providing more, especially medicines.

Lastly, India is in touch with the leadership of both Russia and Ukraine. The Prime Minister himself has spoken to the Presidents of both countries.

Jaishankar noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the leadership of Russia, Ukraine, and its neighbours as well other major world leaders since the unfolding of the crisis.

"He conveyed our considered view to all parties concerned that there is no other choice but the path of diplomacy and dialogue," the minister said.

"In these conversations, the prime minister expressed deep concern about the ongoing conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis. The prime minister reiterated his call for immediate cessation of violence and noted that India has always stood for peaceful resolution of issues and direct dialogue between the two parties."



Replying to a supplementary, Jaishankar said, "Because of the emerging problem in dealing with Russia, the Government is examining various aspects, including the payment aspect".

He told the House that there is a group within the government representing different ministries led by the finance ministry to examine these matters.

As regard to oil trade with Russia, Jaishankar stated, "We import very little (crude) oil from Russia. It is less than one per cent of our imports. Many countries import even 20 times more oil than we do (from Russia)".

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India has friendly relations with both the United States and Russia that stand on their own merit, the foreign ministry told parliament on Thursday, in reply to a query whether the Ukraine war had affected ties.

Over the past decade, India has grown closer to the United States in the face of a resurgent China across the border, but Russia remains its biggest arms supplier. India is the only major country close to the United States that not to have condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine or imposed any sanctions on it.

"India has called for immediate cessation of hostilities and return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue with respect to the conflict in Ukraine," junior foreign minister Meenakashi Lekhi told parliament.

"India has close and friendly relations with both the U.S. and Russia," she added. "They stand on their own merit."

This week, U.S. President Joe Biden said India was the only one of the Quad group of nations that was "somewhat shaky" in acting against Russia. Aimed at containing China, the grouping consists of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

After a visit this week to New Delhi, a U.S. diplomat said the country stood ready to help India with more supplies of military hardware and energy to reduce its reliance on Russia.

From rifles to rockets, about 60% of India's military supplies come from Russia, which analysts say are more cost effective than those from the United States.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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India on Thursday said references made to it at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad were based on "falsehoods and misrepresentation".

The strong reaction by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came a day after the OIC at its foreign ministerial meeting in criticised India for its policy on .

"The statements and resolutions adopted at the meeting demonstrate both the irrelevance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation as a body and the role of as its manipulator," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

He was referring to media queries on references made to India in the resolutions adopted at the OIC meeting.

"References have been made to India that are based on falsehoods and misrepresentation. The absurdity of this body commenting on the treatment of minorities, that too at the instance of a serial violator of human rights like Pakistan, is so evident," Bagchi said.

"Nations and governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation," he said.

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External Affairs Minister on Thursday listed six principles to explain India's response to the Ukraine crisis, which included the immediate cessation of violence, return to dialogue, diplomacy and humanitarian access.

Responding to a question about the war in Ukraine in Rajya Sabha, Jaishankar said that India's stance regarding the issue is based on six principles.

"Our own position on Ukraine concern is very clear, based on six principles - immediate cessation of violence, return to dialogue and diplomacy, global order anchored on international law, UN charter, territorial integrity, humanitarian access. India is sending humanitarian assistance while being in touch with the leadership of Russia, Ukraine," he said.

Further responding to a question about the growing relations between Russia and China, Jaishankar said that the government is aware of the changes in international relations.

India has sent humanitarian aid consisting of medicines, medical equipment, relief materials to Ukraine.

Earlier Jaishankar had informed that 147 foreign nationals hailing from 18 countries were evacuated from the conflict situation in Ukraine as part of 'Operation Ganga' and brought to India.

"In line with India's principle of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', foreign nationals were also evacuated from conflict zones and brought to India. They included 147 citizens of 18 countries. Many Ukrainian nationals that are family members of Indian nationals have also been evacuated," Jaishankar said in a statement in the two Houses of Parliament on 'Situation in Ukraine'.

He also said that as tensions escalated, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine started a registration drive for Indians in January 2022 and as a result, around 20,000 Indians registered. "Most Indian nationals were students pursuing medical studies in Ukrainian universities dispersed throughout the country," he said.

After Russia's forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, the Government of India launched 'Operation Ganga' to bring back stranded Indian nationals from conflict-torn Ukraine.

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government might consider slashing the mandi tax on bought for exports from the state to further push up purchases, as both Centre and states look to capitalize on the favourable global market conditions for Indian .

Sources said a proposal towards this effect was made at a high level meeting that the Union Food and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had with leading grain and cereals exporters from the country and top government officials today.

Chairman of all major ports from across the country along with Chairman of Railway Board were also invited to participate in the meeting called to explore ways and means to further promote exports from India.

The government is also believed to have suggested formulating a single license to purchase wheat from any mandi across the state instead of the current practice of having to secure separate licenses.

Presently, Madhya Pradesh imposes a nominal mandi tax of 1.5-2.0 per cent which is among the lowest in the country and even if this is waived off for exporters it will give further fillip to shipments.

Madhya Pradesh has been one of the main states from where wheat could be exported out of India this year due to high quality of produce, proximity to major ports in the western coast of the country and also low taxes.

Trade sources said the state is also keen to ensure that maximum private purchases take place from Madhya Pradesh in the 2022-23 procurement season as it is sitting on a huge stockpile of carryover wheat from previous years.

So unless the procurement is less this time, the stocks in hand could become unmanageable, a trader from a leading firm said. It is next only to Punjab in official procurement of wheat at MSP.

Madhya Pradesh, has targeted to procure around 12.8 million tonnes of wheat in FY-23, but officials said actual purchases could be much less due to heightened private buying.

Of the total record over 7 million tonnes of wheat exported from India in Fy-22, around 30-50 per cent will be from UP, MP, Gujarat and Rajasthan (largely from the Kota belt), trade sources said.

IN Fy-23, wheat exports from India could reach a fresh milestone of almost 10 million tonnes if the current Russia-Ukraine Crisis lingers on and needless curbs on outbound shipments arent imposed.

Prices of Indian Indian wheat prices in the world markets had shot up to around $360 per tonne (FOB) a few days back in the aftermath of the crisis cooling down a bit to around $330-$340 per tonne (FOB) in the last few days.

The current price of Indian wheat is still the cheapest among all global competitors and the absence of Ukraine and Russia from the world markets for the next few months will give Indian traders a golden chance to ship record quantities.

PORT CONGESTION

Meanwhile, sources said major wheat exporters from India in the meeting today suggested the government provide more railway rakes to clear the shipments fast and also de-clog the ports so that ships carrying Indian wheat can leave the shores quickly.

Port congestion is a major issue as all big ports in the West Coast of the country be it Mundra, Pipavav or Dahej are all clogged with imported urea which has not been lifted for months now.

This should be cleared at the earliest because unless buyers get their cargo on time in this hour of crisis our credibility will suffer, a trader from a leading global cereal exporting firm said. EoM
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien on Thursday termed the Mumbai-Ahmedabad line a "vanity project" of the Centre and accused the government of not addressing the real transportation needs of the common people.

Speaking at a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Railways in the Upper House, O'Brien also sought transparency in the matter regarding the private trains, Tejas, while also criticising the government for lack of "big ideas" to further enhance the national transporter.

"Your outlook on the railways is different from the Trinamool Congress and many other parties... For us, the railways constitutes the infrastructure for the fundamental right of every Indian citizen to travel from point A to point B. It is a fundamental right as far as transport goes. You may look at differently, we do not," he said.

Citing the example of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project, the TMC MP said, "We feel nothing (is) wrong with the at some later stage. To make that bullet train, it costs you about Rs 200 crore a km. Our priority would have been the dedicated freight corridor for 'sabzi' (vegetables), for 'chawal (rice), 'for everything else at Rs 25 crore a km."



He further said, "I understand, I say this on the floor of the House that bullet train is your vanity project."



The total cost of the project is pegged at Rs 1.08 lakh crore. The 508.17-kilometre long network will pass through Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar in Maharashtra; and Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Accusing the government of considering the ability of common Indians to afford expensive trains, he said, "The Vande Bharat Express, the cost of ticket is Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 somewhere in that range."



Commenting on private trains, O'Brien said, "Tejas trains halted eight months later. (In) 2021, we are told dozens of companies filed tenders. Whenever RTI activists write to Railway Boards, no data is available. What is the communication for these private trains?"



Stating that there was an empowered group of secretaries which was set up by the railway ministry, he asked, "How many meetings have they had? Share with MPs what was discussed at those meetings."



Accusing the government of indulging in differential treatment of different railway zones in fund allocation, he said, "Southern Railways got less than Rs 400 crore in the last four years, the Northern Railway, if you add it up, it comes to about Rs 30,000 crore. Conceptually, we talk so much about federalism, but where is the federalism?"



He asked the railways ministry to share the percentage of allocation to states and how much have they received while also suggesting the ministry to consider in a bigger way to make the freight trades affordable in the North East as the region cannot afford expensive freights.

Taking part in the discussion, Neeraj Shekhar (BJP) said in the last few years, the railways has witnessed a drastic change, specially in cleanliness of trains and at stations. Harshvardhan Singh Dungarpur (BJP) also highlighted several steps taken by the government and the railways for development.

G K Vasan from TMC(M) highlighted the lack of sufficient fund allotment for railway projects in Tamil Nadu and sought timely completion of projects in the state. K Ravindra Kumar of TDP asked the minister to fill up the "lakhs of posts" lying vacant in the railways.

Rambhai Harjibhai Mokariya of the BJP also spoke in Gujarati in the discussion to express his views.

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Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba would travel to India next week on a maiden three-day official visit during which he would hold talks with his Indian counterpart and other senior leaders.

Deuba is visiting India from April 1 to 4 at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, an aide of the Nepalese prime minister told PTI, confirming his visit to India, which is yet to be announced officially.

This will be Deuba's first foreign visit since he assumed office in July last year for a record fifth time.

Deuba would hold high-level meetings with his Indian counterpart Modi and other senior leaders during his stay in Delhi, officials here said.

Earlier in January, he was scheduled to travel to India to participate in a business summit in Gujarat. However, the trip was cancelled after the summit was postponed due to the growing cases of Covid-19.

Deuba and Modi had met in Glasgow, Scotland in November last year on the sidelines of the UN climate conference and had a "fruitful talks" on many aspects of India- friendship.

Deuba had thanked his Indian counterpart for providing support to in essential medical supplies and vaccines in its fight against Covid-19 pandemic during their first meeting in Glasgow.

During the meeting, overall matters of the bilateral relations were discussed.

Deuba's visit will take place immediately after Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi's three-day tour to Nepal from March 25 to March 27.

Nepal has recently appointed senior economist Shankar Prasad Sharma as its ambassador to India.

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The Centre on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that it was not considering setting up of a commission as recommended by a parliamentary panel to check "irregularities" in print, electronic and digital platforms.

Noting that was gradually losing its "credibility and integrity", the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology had in December 2021 recommended setting up of a ' Council' with statutory powers to check "irregularities" in print, electronic and digital platforms.

Responding to a query raised in the Upper House of Parliament, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the government regularly meets stakeholders for policy formulation.

"The government regularly holds consultations with stakeholders and utilises data/information available from various sources for policy formulation, building strategies, etc. The setting up of a Media Commission is not considered necessary at present," Thakur said in a written response.

The parliamentary committee, headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, in its Twenty-Seventh Report had suggested the creation of a media commission comprising experts for wider consultations amongst the interested groups/stakeholders to evolve a consensus on setting up of Media Council.

The Committee had said the commission will look into all the complex issues concerning the media and submit its report to the Committee within six months of its inception.

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The OIC Contact Group on said on Wednesday that lasting peace in cannot be achieved without a settlement of the Kashmir issue.

The group met on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the (OIC) in Islamabad and was chaired by the OIC Secretary General Hissien Brahim Taha.

India has previously hit out at the 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations, saying bodies like OIC should not make irresponsible statements.

In its joint communiqu, the OIC Contact Group stressed that lasting peace in cannot be achieved without a just settlement of the core Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions.

The group members reiterated their demand that India must reverse unilateral measures taken on or after 5 August 2019.

Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status on August 5, 2019 and bifurcating it into two Union territories.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

In the Annex to the Joint Communique, the group asked OIC member states to raise the Kashmir issue in their bilateral engagements with India.

The Secretary General and General Secretariat were asked to raise the Kashmir issue and peace and security, human rights and humanitarian dimensions in engagements with various interlocutors, including international, regional and human rights organisations and bodies.

The Jeddah-headquartered bloc, which is the second-largest intergovernmental body after the UN, has usually been supportive of Pakistan and often sided with Islamabad on the Kashmir issue.

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A day after being sworn-in, the Uttarakhand cabinet led by Chief Minister Singh Dhami Thursday decided to form a committee of experts on the implementation of a in the state.

Dhami said after the meeting that Uttarakhand will be the first state to implement such a code, but quickly added that "perhaps it is already in force in Goa".

Goa has been following the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867 which is also called . Post its liberation from the Portuguese rule, the code is survived by virtue of Section 5(1) of the Goa, Daman and Diu Administration Act, 1962.

Its continuance amounts to the non-enforcement of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and Hindu Succession Act, 1956 or Indian Succession Act, 1925 or Shariat (Application) Act, 1937.

Dhami said after the meeting that his government will set up a high-powered committee which will prepare "a draft of the and our government will implement it".

"The Cabinet has unanimously approved the proposal. We also expect other states to follow us."



Dhami was sworn-in as the chief minister of Uttarakhand on Wednesday for a second consecutive term.

"We are a Himalayan state with a distinct cultural and religious heritage. We also share borders with two countries. So, a Uniform Civil Code is necessary. There is a provision for it in Article 44 of the Constitution. Even the Supreme Court has expressed its dissatisfaction in the past on its non-implementation," he said.

Experts, however, are divided on whether a state government can enact a uniform civil code.

Constitution expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary had told PTI recently that both the Centre and states are empowered to bring such a law as issues like marriage, divorce, inheritance and property rights come under the Concurrent List of the Constitution.

But former Union law secretary P K Malhotra was of the view that only the Central government can bring such a law by moving Parliament.

By taking a decision on a Uniform Civil Code at the very first meeting of the state cabinet, Dhami has fulfilled a major pre-poll promise by him.

He had announced on the last day of campaigning for the February 14 state assembly polls that if re-elected, the BJP government will form a high-powered committee consisting of legal experts, all stakeholders, senior citizens and intellectuals to draft a Uniform Civil Code.

At the first meeting of Dhami's newly sworn-in cabinet, state BJP president Madan Kaushik and its general secretary (organisation) Ajeya Kumar handed to the ministers copies of the party's vision document for Uttarakhand.

Dhami said all the commitments made in the vision document will be fulfilled.

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Raising placards and shouting slogans, the TRS members demanded that the government must stop the alleged suicides by the unemployed youths and immediate action should be initiated for the recruitment in one million vacant posts in central government. (LSTV/PTI Photo)

New Delhi: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Thursday staged a walkout in Lok Sabha demanding action from the government to check the alleged suicides by the unemployed youths, and recruitment in one million vacant posts in central government.

As soon as the House met, the TRS members, led by floor leader Nama Nageswara Rao, came to the Well of the House demanding a discussion on the unemployment issue.

Raising placards and shouting slogans, the TRS members demanded that the government must stop the alleged suicides by the unemployed youths and immediate action should be initiated for the recruitment in one million vacant posts in central government.

As Speaker Om Birla did not allow them to raise the issue as the first hour is marked for asking questions by the MPs, the TRS MPs staged a walkout.

The TRS has nine members in Lok Sabha. The party has been taking a belligerent stand of late against the Modi government after lending support to the ruling coalition in Parliament in enacting crucial legislation in the last several years.

TRS supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is also trying to stitch an alliance of non-BJP and non-Congress parties and has met a number of Chief Ministers in the past.

Rao has also stepped up attacks on the Modi government on a number of issues including rise in fuel prices.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that India's stand on the Russia-Ukraine war is based on six principles.

Responding to a question, he said that India has called for immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities. "We stand for peace, we believe that there is no other way than a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy. We recognize that the global order is anchored on international law, UN charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states and we call for humanitarian access to a conflict situation."

He also said, "We have given 90 tonnes of humanitarian assistance so far and we are looking to providing more, especially medicines."

Jaishankar also said that the Government of India is in touch with the leadership of both the Russian Federation and Ukraine on this matter. "The Prime Minister himself has spoken with the Presidents of both the countries. This was also mentioned in a statement made before the House recently," he added.

Responding to a question by MP Naresh Gujral on Indian trade with Russia especially payment in rupees, Jaishankar said that because of the emerging problems with Russia, the government is examining various aspects by the group composed of various Ministries under the aegis of the Finance Ministry to examine the issue of payment.

Replying to the query of Gujral on crude oil import, he said, "we import less than one per cent of crude oil from Russia. Many western countries are importing 15 to 20 times more than what we import."

Replying another question on the development in our neighbourhood, the Minister also said that the government is very clear on principles, "We believe that international order must respect the territorial integrity of States and it is our foremost attention in our neighbourhood."

To a follow-up question about the growing relations between Russia and China, Jaishankar said, the government is aware of the changes in international relations. "We monitor it, we obviously assess it from our own perspective and fashion our strategy in accordance with those developments," he said.

Jaishankar also informed the House that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Vladimir Putin thrice and to Volodymyr Zelensky twice, the evacuations of Indians was the priority, but the major part of the conversations was on what we could do to encourage a cessation of hostility through the dialogue and diplomacy.

--IANS

ams/skp/

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The is set to release a new policy framework to incentivise small aircraft and helicopter operations in order to deepen air connectivity in the country.

In 2016 the launched its regional connectivity scheme - called Udan. Over 400 routes and 66 airports have been operationalised under the Udan scheme.

While the Udan routes at present are being operated by 50-70 seater ATR, Bombardier or Embraer aircraft, the proposed policy will cater to small aircraft with 19 seats or less, sea planes and helicopters.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is expected to announce the small aircraft policy at the Wings India event in Hyderbad on Friday.

The biennial event began on Thursday and is being held against the backdrop of Russian invasion of Ukraine that has pushed up the price of crude oil and threatened global growth.

While the 2020 event, held days prior to nationwide lockdown, turned out to be muted affair, the 2022 edition promises to do better in attendance and aircrafts on display. In 2020 there were 8 aircraft on display while this time there are 12, including the Airbus A350 and Embraer E-195 E2.

Transport ministers from France and Laos are attending the event hosted by the and FICCI. Several state government ministers are also attending the event.

"The policy on small aircraft, helicopters and sea planes would be implemented by states. The civil aviation ministry has created a template of a new policy and it would be upon states to take it up," said a person aware of the matter.

The ministry has also proposed different models of disbursing viability gap funding by states to make the small aircraft or helicopter operations financially viable.

Government-owned Alliance Air has leased two 19 seater Dornier-228 aircraft which it intends to operate on routes in North East states.

Also on Thursday, regional airline flybig announced signing of a letter of intent with Canadian plane maker De Havilland for purchase of upto ten new 19 seater Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft.

"In conjunction with the UDAN initiative, the Indian governments recently released policy to assist in serving small and remote communities, flybigs goal is to provide connectivity to communities that were not previously accessible by air, said Captain Sanjay Mandavia, chairman and managing Director, flybig.

De Havilland Canadas Twin Otter Series 400 is the right aircraft for our operations because of its proven record for safe, reliable operations and its versatility -- including the capability to land on land or water," he said.
Congress leader on Thursday stressed on developing an all-weather deep-water port near international sea routes, saying "a vast majority" of container ships coming to India are transhipped to Colombo and elsewhere due to the lack of significant domestic here.

This has also given China a tremendous dominance in the Indian Ocean, he said in the Lok Sabha while participating in a discussion on demands of grants for the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

"Colombo is transhipping more Indian goods... than any of India's major . In fact, all the so-called major (in India) put out together does not match that in Colombo," Tharoor said.

"Now what's worrying about this is (that) there is a serious geostrategic angle for us being dependent upon Colombo for such a large portion of our goods. Because it is, after all, a port where the Chinese are extremely active. A Chinese firm has just been awarded an eastern container terminal at Colombo port," the former minister of state for external affairs added.

He said the development of ports in India is "important" as ships carry 90 per cent of the world's goods around the globe.

"And, in India's case, it's even more because 95 per cent of the volume of cargo come to our country by shipping, not by any other means," Tharoor added.

He said India has a wonderful and one of the most impressive coastlines in the world.

"We should have developed our ports, which I am sorry to say, we have not yet done so," he said, adding it's because the resources, given to the ministry by Parliament since 2017-18, remains "underutilised"



The Congress MP also questioned the government's policy, saying "there is a piquant situation that India prohibits Chinese firms from investing in building our ports but in effect, we are condoning transhipment of the lion's share of our cargo via a port operated exclusively by China".

"And, where Chinese navy vessels and submarines were regularly calling for resupply," he added.

Noting that shipping is growing bigger, he said larger ships require deeper ports. In the case of India, it has to be "unfortunately extremely expensive", created through dredging, Tharoor said.

The major shipping lines are not stopping at Indian ports because of "very high" logistics cost involved, he said, adding, "This, in fact, means that our economy is helping to pay for foreign ports."



Tharoor said the solution to the problem is available in his Lok Sabha constituency Thiruvananthapuram and urged the government to declare Vizhinjam port as "a major port".

"The Vizhinjam port is an amazing place. It is right there in the international shipping lines and it has an extremely decent connection which can be improved by the government. It has a natural deep draft of 20-24 four metres," 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.)
As the curtain slowly draws at Expo 2020 Dubai, one has to admit that it has been a marvellous event that was bravely curated in the middle of a global pandemic. Even though the worlds greatest show was late by a year, it has not seen any reduction in enthusiasm from both participants and visitors. Over 190 countries have their pavilions up and running at the Expo site spread over 4.3 square kilometres, built up at a cost of US$ 6.8 billion.

The India Pavilion has been one of the most visited pavilions at Expo 2020. It has been acknowledged as One of the Most Iconic amongst participating countries by the American Institute of Architects. The structure with 4000-square meters of display is among the largest pavilions in the Expo. Over the six months, hundreds of business meetings, cultural events, and bilateral and multilateral summits at the India pavilion have showcased emerging opportunities in its fast growing US$ 3-trillion economy. This did take huge amount of meticulous planning by the various stakeholders including the ministries of the government of India, the governments of various states and union territories, the Indian embassy and consulate, businesses, NGOs, diaspora organizations and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). In all, it has been a glittering display of Indias soft power.

The UAE has another great significance. It is home to an expatriate community of Indians numbering 3.4 million, constituting a third of the host countrys population and they have been contributing significantly to the growth of the country and the region. The India Pavilion at the Expo is a symbol of pride for Indians in the region.

The Expo has been an opportunity to reach out to all major economies, explore trade opportunities and help widen Indias trade basket. The India Pavilion has become a converging ground for Indian and global businesses to engage in discussions to further Indias role in the global economy. Twenty-one states took the stage for a week or more and showcased their business opportunities, highlighted their achievements, pitched for investments, and hosted cultural evenings at the Expo.

has facilitated several rounds of meetings between states as well as Indian and global businesses. Over 107 Memorandum of Understanding / Letters of Intent were signed during the last six months in respect of investments into the participating states. The Indian Pavilion has hosted over 319 business-to-government meetings, 39 government-to-government bilateral and multilateral interactions and over 1,500 business to business meetings.

Eighteen ministries of the government also took turns to participate in the Expo. From showcasing opportunities and achievements in space exploration to Indias prowess in healthcare and water management, the India Pavilion encapsulated the countrys potential as well as opportunities across these sectors.

Several sessions and seminars were held at the India Pavilion during the last six months on all ten theme areas of the Expo, namely  climate and biodiversity, space, urban and rural development, tolerance and inclusivity, knowledge and learning, travel and connectivity, global goals, health and wellness, food, agriculture and livelihoods, and water. Each session brought together governments, businesses and civil society who exchanged notes on their experiences - best practices, successes, and challenges in their domain. The sessions at the pavilion turned out to be massive learning experience for everyone.

Start-ups are playing a pivotal role in Indias emerging economy. India is already home to the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world. The India Pavilion has also been a start-up hub with its Elevate series where over 300 young entrepreneurs from India pitched for investments from global venture capital firms. The Elevate platform set up at the India Pavilion has already held twelve rounds of pitches.

What does all this accomplish for Indias people? What will happen after this edition of the Expo is over? The charm and attractiveness of India as an investment and tourist destination will live on. Many of the relationships built will grow into mature business partnerships. India will have deepened its trade and cultural engagement with the world. As the frozen world economy thaws, warms up and continues to grow, India will find a brighter spot for itself in the new age. For us at it has been an honour to contribute to this journey.

(Sanjiv Mehta is the president of .)
Reliance New Energy Solar, Ola Electric Mobility, Hyundai Global Motors, and Rajesh Exports are among four firms that have been selected for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery storage.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Heavy Industries on Thursday, the selected firms will receive incentives under Indias Rs 18,100- crore programme to boost local battery cell production.

The five firms that unsuccessfully bid for the scheme  Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Amara Raja Batteries, India Power Corp, and Exide Industries  are placed under a waiting list.

The selected companies will have to set up the manufacturing facility within a period of two years. The incentive will be disbursed thereafter over a period of five years on sale of batteries manufactured in India.

India has the strongest government support for electrification in the whole world! Excited to be selected for the for manufacturing world class cells in India. Today, 90 per cent of global capacity is in China. We will reverse that and make India a global hub for EVs and cell tech, tweeted Bhavish Aggwarwal, co-founder and CEO, Ola Cabs.

The beneficiary firms will be free to choose suitable advanced technology and the corresponding plant and machinery, raw material and other intermediate goods for setting up cell manufacturing facilities to cater to any application.

The for ACC along with the already launched for automotive sector (Rs 25,938 crore) and Faster Adaption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) (Rs 10,000 crore) will enable India to leapfrog from traditional fossil fuel-based automobile transportation system to environmentally cleaner, sustainable, advanced and more efficient EV based system, said the statement.

Through these schemes, the government seeks to achieve greater domestic value addition and ensure the levelised cost of battery manufacturing in India is globally competitive, it said.
The third round of talks as part of the ongoing India-UK (FTA) negotiations will be hosted by India next month, Britain's Department for International Trade (DIT) said on Thursday.

In a joint outcome statement released by DIT, it was confirmed that a draft treaty text of chapters that will make up the new trade pact was discussed during round two of the negotiations, which concluded in London last Friday.

A delegation of Indian officials were in London for the technical talks, conducted in a hybrid fashion with some negotiators at a dedicated UK negotiations facility and others attending virtually.

For this round of negotiations, draft treaty text was shared and discussed across most chapters that will make up the agreement, the statement reads.

Technical experts from both sides came together for discussions in 64 separate sessions covering 26 policy areas. The third round of negotiations is due to be hosted by India in April 2022, it adds.

The FTA negotiations, launched in January with an end of the year timeline towards a possible interim agreement, have recently been overshadowed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and India's abstentions during United Nations votes condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in the region.

It also emerged on Thursday that a high-level cross-party parliamentary delegation planned from the UK to India against the backdrop of the ongoing FTA negotiations was called off at the last minute due to wider political considerations as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The planned visit was to be led by the House of Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, over the parliamentary recess period in the UK for Easter next month.

The Speaker had been looking forward to travelling with a strong, cross-party delegation of MPs from the House of Commons. Regrettably, it has not been possible for that visit to go ahead as planned, said a spokesperson for the Speaker's Office, without going into the reasons behind the cancellation.

The Indian High Commission in London declined to comment on the visit, which was scheduled for New Delhi and areas in Rajasthan.

India's long-standing strategic alliance with Russia, one of its key defence partners, has come into sharp focus in recent weeks as the west mounts stringent economic sanctions on Putin's regime over the conflict in Ukraine.

The cancellation of the UK parliamentary visit to India appears to indicate the beginning of a trust deficit between two comprehensive strategic partners India and the UK over the Ukraine war, said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.

However, both countries need to better understand each other's position. India underestimates the existential threat to the European security order that Russia's aggression against Ukraine represents to the UK as well as the ideological divide between democracies and autocracies. The UK underestimates India's dependence on Russian arms and spares, even though Russian supplies to India will be disrupted, he said.

According to the strategic expert, unless India is quickly offered alternative defence supply chains, its dependence on Russia will continue. Therefore, compromises will be needed on both sides to meet the aims of Roadmap 2030 for enhanced ties, agreed between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi last year.

This could include the UK looking for, along with the G7 countries, practical and credible alternatives to India's arms dilemma, Roy-Chaudhury added.

Such a way forward was recently also highlighted by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

I think the issue for India is there is some level of dependence on Russia, both in terms of its defence relationships but also in terms of its economic relationships. And I think the way forward is for a closer economic and defence relationship with India. Both by the United Kingdom and also our like-minded allies, the minister told a UK parliamentary committee earlier this month.

(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.)
When the world was upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, metals got their shine back.

In the last two years, demand spurred by infrastructure spending by major economies, energy transition and intermittent supply disruptions fuelled a scorching rally in metals after a downturn during the first Covid wave. Now, Russias war on Ukraine is ensuring that elevated prices stay the course.

According to Research, base metals are currently at their highest levels since 2008, while steel prices in Europe are at an all-time high (in China, steel prices peaked in Q3CY2021). In the domestic market, both steel and base metals are at record levels.

Steel prices before the pandemic were hovering around Rs 40,000 a tonne in India. Prices dropped in H1FY21 as major end-users shut shop with the onset of the pandemic.

When economic activity finally started to resume steadily, H2FY21 saw prices surge to Rs 49,000-50,000 per tonne, said Hetal Gandhi, director, Research.

But it wasnt the end of the upside for steel prices, Gandhi pointed out. 2021 brought a convergence of elevated global prices, raw material cost push from iron ore and then coking coal, and healthy domestic demand growth. This pushed prices up again to Rs 65,000-67,000 per tonne in H1FY22, she said. Prices however have scaled higher since to around Rs 74,000 per tonne.

For major base non-ferrous metals  such as aluminium, copper, zinc, nickel  the pandemic has been an inflection point on the back of supply constraints.

On the London Metal Exchange (LME), in FY21, aluminium prices were up 46.6 per cent, copper 77.9 per cent, zinc 48.1 per cent and nickel 40.1 per cent over the previous year. The rally has extended to FY22.

Companies took advantage of improved margins to pare debt. Between March 2020 and September 2021, major steel producers, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) reduced debt by Rs 87,784 crore.

The significant uptick in steel prices over the past two years has improved margins substantially for domestic steel makers. The improvement has been more pronounced among large players with integrated operations as increase in raw material prices (mainly iron ore) didnt impact their bottom line as much, said Gandhi.

The integrated steel producers also increased their share in production as smaller and secondary producers struggled with raw material shortages and working capital challenges.

In the larger metals play, Vedantas debt has come down since March 2020.

All-round expansion

Higher profitability and stronger balance-sheet prompted companies to push the growth pedal. In steel, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, JSPL, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India), have announced massive expansion plans.

An ICRA report said that in the next five years (FY2022-FY2026), Indias steel capacity is likely to increase by 40 mt, almost double the quantum of capacity added during the previous five-year period spanning from FY2017-FY2021.

In non-ferrous, Vedanta Aluminium is expanding. Our Balco (Bharat Aluminium Company) in Chhattisgarh is on track to double its capacity, our alumina refinery in Lanjigarh is slated to expand from 2 mtpa to 5 mtpa in the next 18-24 months. We are looking to operationalise a couple of our mines in the next financial year, said Rahul Sharma, CEO  Aluminium Business, Vedanta.

The last calendar year ended with an aluminium deficit of about 1.6 million tonnes globally, and this year, the deficit is expected to only grow. Our expansion plans are in line to cater to this opportunity, Sharma added.

Across the board, non-ferrous players have announced capacity expansion, said Gandhi pointing to investment plans by Nalco, Hindalco and Vedanta (in copper).

Way forward

When India locked down and domestic demand was in a slump, metal producers  ferrous and non-ferrous  rode through it by increasing exports.We made good of opportunities that were there in the world. Entire Europe was under the Covid wave (February-April 2020) while China was seeing a V-shaped recovery after the peak of pandemic. So, when India announced a lockdown, we became a large supplier to China, said JSPL Managing Director V R Sharma.

Now, the Russia-Ukraine war is throwing up opportunities. Ranjan Dhar, chief marketing officer, AM/NS India, pointed out that the Indian steel industry has been able to position itself as a viable alternative in different geographies in the event of any supply disruptions  from production curbs by China to Russia-Ukraine war impacting steel trade.

It is not just centrally located but the quality of steel is one of the best in the world today, Dhar said.

Russia and Ukraine are major providers of steel to the world, accounting for 10 per cent of global steel trade. Russia also accounts for 6 per cent of aluminium production and that is an opportunity for low-cost domestic aluminium players.

But the steel sector may face headwinds, going forward. While rising steel prices and higher export opportunities from the Russia-Ukraine war were positives for Indian players, Jayanta Roy, ICRA senior vice president, pointed out, these positives were likely to be offset by rising coking coal prices and higher working capital requirements in business.

Moreover, India's ability to capitalise on the opportunities in export markets will be capped by current high capacity utilisation rates of leading steel companies. Lastly, a demand slowdown induced by the rate tightening cycle by central banks would also be a risk in the medium term, he said.
Delhi University's admission process will undergo a major overhaul if the varsity's executive council approves the proposal to enrol students, who have attained passing marks in Class 12 and cleared the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).

According to officials, the proposal, that has already been cleared by the academic council, will in all probability also see a green signal from the executive council members on Friday.

Nine out of 26 elected members in the academic council had expressed their dissent against the proposal.

Until last year, the university was enrolling only those students that cleared the cut-offs.

The university's academic council, in its meeting on Monday, approved that admissions to the varsity be held based on CUET scores and that a candidate is only required to have cleared Class 12.

As per DU's guidelines, candidates must take CUET in only those subjects which they have cleared in Class 12.

If the subject studied in Class 12 does not figure in CUET, the candidate will have to appear in a subject that is similar or closely related to it.

"Merit will be calculated based on a combination of subjects in which a candidate has appeared in CUET as mentioned in the programme-specific eligibility," according to the guidelines.

The approved rules also state that admissions to minority institutions such as St Stephen's College, and Jesus and Mary College, will also be carried out through CUET.

During the counselling, separate merit lists will be generated for unreserved and minority candidates as per the reservation policy of such colleges.

This will also come up for discussion during the meeting of the executive council, the highest decision-making body of the university. Once approved here, a policy is implemented.

The EC will also be discussing the establishment of the Delhi School of Analytics (DSA) under Institutes of Eminence.

The DSA is likely to offer short and long-term certificate courses, diploma and degree programmes that will enhance the business analytical skills of students.

A proposal on loans from Higher Financing Agency (HEFA) will also be taken up for discussion during the meeting.

The is planning to submit a proposal of Rs 1,075.40 crore to HEFA for infrastructure development and the creation of capital assets.

According to the HEFA funding pattern, the university will have to repay the loan in 20 bi-annual instalments in 10 years.

The university said it has been receiving a very limited allocation for the creation of capital assets in the last three to five years and has been unable to purchase laboratory equipment.

It also highlighted that the condition of its buildings are in a dilapidated state.

The Ministry has already said that major infrastructure projects will be funded only through HEFA and no funds will be released as budgetary support.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
on Thursday said must account all government (central and state) transactions for financial year 2021-22 within the same financial year. As a step to facilitate this, should keep designated branches open for over the counter transactions upto the normal working hours on March 31, 2022, RBI said.

Transactions through national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real time gross settlement (RTGS) system will continue upto 2400 hours on March 31, 2022, RBI said in communication to .

Special clearing will be conducted for collection of government cheques on March 31, 2022 for which the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (DPSS) of RBI will issue necessary instructions.

For reporting the government transactions including GST to RBI, the reporting window of March 31, 2022 will be extended and kept open till 1200 hours on April 1, 2022, RBI said
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is set to considerably increase forces deployed on its eastern flank, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

Addressing a news conference on the eve of an extraordinary summit to discuss the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Stoltenberg added that he expected allies to agree to strengthen NATO's position "on land, in the air, and at sea".

"The first step is the deployment of four new battlegroups. In Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland, this means that we will have eight multinational battlegroups all along the eastern flank. From the Baltic to the Black Sea," he said.

NATO Secretary-General explained how there were hundreds of thousands of Allied troops at heightened readiness across the alliance, including 100,000 US troops in and 40,000 troops under direct NATO command, mostly in the eastern part of the alliance. These are backed by major air and naval power, including five carrier strike groups in the High North and the Mediterranean.

"We face a new reality for our security. So we must reset our deterrence and defense for the longer-term," he stressed, adding that "there is a new sense of urgency. Because we cannot take peace for granted."

Stoltenberg said he expected Allies to agree to provide additional support, including cybersecurity assistance as well as with equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the meeting, Xinhua news agency reported.

He added that any use of biological or chemical weapons would have "far-reaching consequences," while stressing that NATO is ready to "protect and defend allies against any threat, any time".

The NATO summit will be convened in Brussels on Thursday. In a show of Western unity against the war in Ukraine, Brussels will also host a G7 and an EU summit on Thursday.

--IANS

int/khz/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Why is the EU wary of cutting off Russian energy?

Xinhua) 08:08, March 24, 2022

* Over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 25 percent of its oil consumption come from Russia, and there has been a consensus among European countries that the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels should be reduced.

* The EU unveiled a plan to reduce energy imports from Russia, which is striving for independence from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030.

* As the bloc is far from reaching energy self-sufficiency, it appears to be a daunting and almost unattainable goal to reduce its reliance on Russia.

BRUSSELS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The European Union is under mounting pressure from Washington to ban Russian energy imports as European leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden are set to meet and discuss deterrence measures against Russia at a summit here on Thursday.

However, member states of the bloc have not reached an agreement yet on whether a ban would be slapped on Russian energy in the EU.

"Europe's supply of energy for heating, mobility, electricity and industry currently cannot be secured in any other way," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at an EU leaders' summit in France earlier this month.

UNBEARABLE BAN

Over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 25 percent of its oil consumption come from Russia.

Germany has been holding on to its rejection of an abrupt ban. The country's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock argued that the proposed oil embargo was a "question of how much we depend on oil" from Russia.

Other German leaders echoed Baerbock's concern. Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck warned on Saturday that his country would not have enough gas to heat homes and keep industry going next winter if it does not obtain more gas and if deliveries from Russia are cut off.

Photo taken on March 18, 2022 shows diesel and gasoline prices displayed on a board at a gas station in Frankfurt, Germany. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua)

Other EU members, such as Austria and Finland, have also warned against hastily banning energy imports from Russia.

The sanctions imposed by the United States and Britain on Russia's energy sector in response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine have already sent shockwaves across the world's energy markets.

"The implications of a potential loss of Russian oil exports to global markets cannot be understated," the International Energy Agency said in a report released last week.

According to the agency, Russia's oil production disruptions could lead to the biggest supply crisis in decades.

The prospect of an EU ban on Russian oil imports has already stirred the global energy market. On Monday, the crude price jumped more than 7 percent to 115 U.S. dollars a barrel as European diplomats were debating a possible ban on Russian energy imports.

Surging oil prices have pushed transport companies to the brink of bankruptcy in Spain, where truck drivers started a national strike a week ago.

Cars wait to be refueled at a gas station amid rise of fuel prices in Madrid, Spain, March 12, 2022. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua)

As the strike enters its second week, the disruptions to transport are causing food shortages, and certain areas in northern Spain are even at the risk of running out of tap water.

The knock-on effect of energy price spikes has sent the prices of many other items skyrocketing in Germany. The German Farmers' Association said that the price of fertilizer is five times that of the same period last year.

Association President Joachim Rukwied said he was convinced that food prices would climb because farmers and food processors would have to pass the inflated costs on to customers.

The European Central Bank has already lowered its projection for economic growth in the eurozone to 3.7 percent this year.

UNATTAINABLE INDEPENDENCE

There has been a consensus among European countries that the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels should be reduced, if not ended altogether.

The EU unveiled a plan on March 8 to reduce energy imports from Russia. According to the plan called REPowerEU, the EU is striving for independence from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030.

By diversifying gas supplies, speeding up the rollout of renewable energy, and replacing gas in heating and power generation, the EU is attempting to reduce its demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before 2030.

In a post on social media, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed that the EU should phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

Considering that the bloc is far from reaching energy self-sufficiency, it appears to be a daunting and almost unattainable goal to reduce its reliance on Russia, which supplies around 10 percent of the world's oil demand.

Closed pumps are seen in a petrol station in Manchester, Britain, March 17, 2022. (Photo by Jon Super/Xinhua)

Even if the two members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries -- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- with the largest spare capacity on standby are willing to beef up production, the shortfall in supplies in the event of the loss of Russia cannot be filled, according to analysts.

European officials have recently tried to convince some Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to increase their production to tame the soaring price of oil.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have enjoyed a windfall from the oil price spikes since the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted and categorically rejected calls to raise oil production. Instead, they made it clear that they would stick to the "OPEC Plus" commitment, under which OPEC members and Russia would increase oil production at a controlled pace.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
AP Assembly started a discussion on decentralized development in AP here on Thursday, a day when the proceedings were smooth in the absence of the Opposition MLAs. (file photo)

VIJAYAWADA: The AP Assembly started a discussion on decentralized development in AP here on Thursday, a day when the proceedings were smooth in the absence of the Opposition MLAs. The subject of discussion had a direct bearing on the high court order against the state's three capitals formula.

Earlier, the Jagan government withdrew the Three Capitals bill. YSR Congress legislators said there was no need for giving a verdict on the act that was no more in force.

Asserting the legislative competence and its policy-making power, the assembly sent out a message that the legislature, executive and judiciary should play their intended roles without interfering with the domains of others. The will of people will reflect in the mandate, based on which the government takes policy decisions.

Initiating the debate on legislative competence, MLA Dharmana Prasada said courts should not interfere in the functioning of the legislative system. The systems of judiciary, executive, and legislative systems should operate only within their domains.

We chose democracy as a form of government and many great people were behind the making of the Indian Constitution, he said.

Citing Supreme Court judgements about judicial restraint and judicial activism, the MLA criticised the AP high courts remark that a change in government need not give rise to a change in policy, and stressed that it is the peoples mandate that has brought in the legislators to make laws, which no other domain can do.

The MLA asserted that courts cannot run the government and judges cannot legislate. He reminded one and all about the dictums given by the Supreme Court on earlier occasions, saying Judicial activism can act as an unguided missile.

If we cannot make or change policies, why do we need elections every five years, he asked.

Continuing the discussion, MLA Kolusu Parthasarathy came down heavily on the Opposition leaders who trashed the concept of decentralization and the three capitals issue for the sake of political gains by dragging the matter into legal tangles.

He said the previous TD government had estimated a spend of one lakh crore rupees for developing basic infrastructure for the capital city. Such a huge spend for one city could hamper the development of other regions of the state, he said.

Parthasarathy said the three capitals issue has been dragged into a legal tangle by vested interests by questioning the legislative competence of the elected government. The concept of decentralization was proposed to fulfill the aspirations of all three regions, the idea being to specially to develop Rayalaseema and North Andhra districts that were neglected for decades, he said.
Ukraine's 2022 sunflower seed harvest could decrease by 42% to 9.6 million tonnes due to a sharp decrease in the sowing areas following Russia's invasion, APK-Inform agriculture consultancy said late Wednesday.



is the world's largest sunflower seed grower and sunflower oil exporter.



APK-Inform said the 2022 sowing area under sunflowers may fall to a minimum level for 13 years, amounting to about 4.2 million to 4.4 million hectares, or 35% down versus 2021 levels.

"This reduction is due to the fact that much of the battles in the country are concentrated in the main regions of sunflower cultivation," the consultancy said.

It said the harvest of rapeseed could fall by 19% to 2.52 million tonnes, while soybean production is likely to fall by 23% to 2.74 million tonnes.

Ukrainian agriculture minister Roman Leshchenko told Reuters this week that the country's spring crop sowing area may more than halve this year from 2021 levels to some 7 million hectares.

has already started spring sowing.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sri Lankan state-run banks are operating smoothly and the is stable, the island nations central bank said on Thursday, in response to concerns raised by an opposition member of parliament.

Thursdays remarks in parliament came against the backdrop of about $1.4-billion worth of Sri Lankas development bonds set to mature this year, more than two-thirds of them before March, with domestic banks holding about 89 per cent, central bank data shows.

faces an as it struggles to pay for essential imports of food and fuel after a 70 per cent drop in foreign exchange reserves since January 2020 led to a currency devaluation and efforts to seek help from global lenders.

The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of wish to assure the public and all other stakeholders that the is stable, the central bank said in a statement.

State banks operations were being carried out smoothly, contrary to statements otherwise, it added.

Three sources familiar with the matter said the central bank missed a payment on a Development Bond (SLDB) owed to top state-run lender Peoples Bank, which, in turn, failed to honour a swap done with two other commercial banks.

Have to eat half: Lankans feel pain Thusitha Hadaragama stood at a corner store near his home in Sri Lankas Minuwangoda town this week and surveyed groceries to buy for his family of five, including two school-age children, who live on his monthly salary of 50,000 rupees ($181.82). Prices have gone up again. I will buy a little bit, said the driver, who works in Colombo, 40 kilometres away. We will have to eat half of what we ate before. Across Sri Lanka, families like Hadaragamas are feeling the growing pain of the countrys worst in years, which has driven up prices of essentials and triggered shortages. Historically weak government finances, badly timed tax cuts and the Covid-19 pandemic, which pummelled the tourism industry and foreign remittances, have wreaked havoc on the . The country is left with foreign reserves of only around $2.31 billion as of February, even as it faces debt payments of about $4 billion through the rest of the year.

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Condemning the U-turn over re-opening girls' secondary schools in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State rejected the Taliban's excuses for reversing their commitment to the people of .

"Education is a human right, and the United States rejects the Taliban's excuses for reversing their commitment to the people of that all Afghans would be able to return to school at all levels today. As many girls and women were returning to secondary classrooms across the country, they were told to go home until further notice," Blinken said in a statement on Women and Girls' Education in .

Blinken said that the US stands with Afghan girls and their families, who see education as a path to realizing the full potential of Afghanistan's society and economy.

"This decision by the Taliban, if it is not swiftly reversed, will profoundly harm the Afghan people, the country's prospects for economic growth, and the Taliban's ambition to improve their relations with the community," he said.

The UN human rights chief also shared her "profound frustration and disappointment" that six months after the seized power, high school girls have yet to return to the classroom.

"The de facto authorities' failure to adhere to commitments to reopen schools for girls above the sixth grade - in spite of repeated commitments towards girls' education, including during my visit to Kabul two weeks ago - is deeply damaging for Afghanistan", High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

Although high schools were set to open their doors to girls nationwide, authorities reportedly reversed the move early on Wednesday, pending a ruling made on the uniforms they must wear.

"The denial of education violates the human rights of women and girls - beyond their equal right to education, it leaves them more exposed to violence, poverty and exploitation," Bachelet explained.

In a statement, the UN Secretary-General said deeply regretted the Taliban's suspension of the return to school for high school girls.

"The start of the new school year has been anticipated by all students, girls and boys, and parents and families", said Antonio Guterres. He added that the move "despite repeated commitments, is a profound disappointment and deeply damaging for Afghanistan.

The denial of education not only violates the equal rights of women and girls to education, it also jeopardizes the country's future in view of the tremendous contributions by Afghan women and girls.

"I urge the Taliban de facto authorities to open schools for all students without any further delay.

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has said that agreed to roll over USD 4.2 billion debt that was maturing this week, providing a major financial relief to the cash-strapped country.

The USD 2 billion loan by China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has been rolled over, The Express Tribune quoted Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin as saying.

The SAFE deposit loan matured on Wednesday.

Tarin said that the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also conveyed on Tuesday China's willingness to rollover another USD 2.2 billion Chinese commercial loan. The USD 2.2 billion (15 billion yuan) facility was maturing on Friday.

had made repeated requests to Beijing to rollover the debt and the latest request was made last week to the top Chinese leadership, according to the ministry officials.

Beijing had given a commitment to the Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019 to rollover its debt until the Fund programme expires.

During the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan, had sought USD 4 billion rollover of SAFE deposits loans that were maturing in the next few months.

Pakistan had requested a total USD 21 billion lifeline that included a total USD 10.7 billion rollover of both commercial and safe deposits.

These included rollover of SAFE deposits of USD 4 billion and commercial loans of USD 6.7 billion upon maturity.

Pakistan has only USD 15.8 billion foreign exchange reserves as of last week and its currency is fast depreciating. The rupee fell to the lowest ever level of Rs 181.75 to a USD on Tuesday.

Pakistan had also requested to increase the size of the currency swap facility from USD 4.5 billion to USD 10 billion - an additional borrowing of USD 5.5 billion.

The Currency Swap Agreement is a Chinese trade finance facility that Pakistan has been using since 2011 to repay foreign debt and keep its gross foreign currency reserves at comfortable levels instead for trade-related purposes.

The benefit of this arrangement is that the additional Chinese loan will not reflect on the books of the federal government and will not be treated as part of Pakistan's external public debt.

Pakistan had paid Rs 26.1 billion interest on the outstanding balance at agreed rates.

Last month, the IMF said that Pakistan owes USD 18.4 billion or one-fifth of its external public debt to China, which is not only USD 4 billion higher than the officially reported figures but is also the highest lending by any single country or financial institution.

The IMF has made the USD 4 billion loan given by to stabilise the foreign exchange reserves part of the external public debt as of June 2021. Out of this, USD 2 billion has matured but was extended further due to Pakistan's thin financial position.

The amount of USD 18.4 billion is equal to 20 per cent of the external public debt reported by the IMF. It is also the highest amount given by any country or an institution.

The World Bank's outstanding debt towards Pakistan was USD 18.4 billion by the end of the last fiscal year.

The western countries and the financial institutions have been closely watching Pakistan's financial relations with China, particularly after the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The money that Pakistan now needs to pay for foreign loans and the cost of imports is also shown at the higher end of USD 30.4 billion by the IMF in its latest report.

According to the IMF, Pakistan's gross external financing requirements are estimated at USD 30 billion for the current fiscal year that will increase to USD 35 billion in the next fiscal year.

Pakistan largely bridges its external financing gap by taking foreign loans, as the share of foreign direct investment is estimated at only USD 2.6 billion for the current fiscal year.

The delay in closing a deal with the IMF under the 7th Review of USD 6 billion programme could increase the cost of borrowing for Pakistan besides pushing back budget support loans by the lenders, reported The Express Tribune.

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The US is no longer dominating several advanced technologies, an influential American Senator has observed here, saying that China, and have advantages on hypersonic.

"We're in a situation where we have technological improvements. We used to dominate technology. That's no longer the case. Hypersonic, clearly, and India, have advantages on it, Senator Jack Reed, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said during a nomination hearing on Wednesday.

We are about to emerge for the first time in the history of the world in a trilateral nuclear competition. No longer bilateral. The Soviet Union, the -- no, it's China, Russia, and the United States, Reed said and asked Dr William LaPlante, to be undersecretary of defence for acquisition and sustainment, how he intends to address these issues.

LaPlante said he hopes to begin immediately to accelerate getting into the mainstream weapons systems.

These new technologies that you talked about. We do have a lot of initiatives over the last several years, thanks to this committee, using your authority to rapidly contract and to do prototypes. I think that's very good, he said.

We got to get those capabilities rapidly into the weapons systems, and sometimes, bridge what they call the valley of death. So, I pledge to work with the programme officers to make it their job to do continuous upgrades of technology so we can get back into this race that you talked about, he added.

He said the mission of delivering and sustaining timely, cost-effective, and uncompromised capabilities for the armed forces and the DOD has never been more important than it is today.

China, our pacing threat; an increasingly authoritarian focused on regional hegemony; malign actors; and other existential threats pose grave risks to the global order and threaten our way of life, LaPlante said in his opening remarks.

Responding to another question, he said a failed test is one where one doesn't learn.

One has to continue to do testing to your point. We tested in 2010, 2011 a combined DARPA, Air Force experiment to fly in a hypersonic glide vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base to Kwajalein. The two tests, they both failed, and the stopped hypersonic glide vehicle work, he said.

and Russia just kept going. And so you have to test, you have to learn from the tests and just keep going, LaPlante said in response to Senator Angus King. PTI LKJ.

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China's foreign minister made a surprise stop in Kabul on Thursday to meet Afghanistan's rulers, even as the community fumes over the hardline movement's broken promise a day earlier to open schools to girls beyond Grade 6.

The official Bakhtar News Agency announced will meet with leaders to discuss various issues including the extension of political relations, economic, and transit cooperation.

The Taliban, who swept to power last August with the chaotic end to 20 years of war by a US and NATO coalition, have been seeking recognition in order to open up their economy, which has been in free fall since their arrival.

has not shown any inclination to recognize the government but it has avoided criticizing the new rulers, despite their repressive rules directed particularly at women, denying them unhindered access to work and school.

has, however, kept its Embassy in Kabul open and offered limited emergency assistance.

The US-led coalition unseated the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America. They returned to power and installed an all male Taliban-only interim government. The community has been urging them to open up the government to ethnic minorities, non -Taliban and women.

Wang is one of the highest level visitors to since the Taliban's return. China, while refusing to offer recognition, has been engaging with the Taliban since their takeover. has economic and mining interests in and Afghans familiar with past talks between the Taliban and Chinese officials say Beijing wants Taliban commitments to prevent China's Uighur opponents from setting up operations in .

Last July, however, Wang hosted a delegation from the group led by top Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in the Chinese city of Tianjin, shortly before the group seized power from Afghanistan's elected government.

At that meeting, Wang sought assurances the Taliban would not allow anti-China groups to operate under their rule and referred to the group as a pivotal military and political force in Afghanistan.

He said they are expected to play an important role in the process of peace, reconciliation and reconstruction.

There have been reports that militants from among the Turkic Muslim Uyghur minority native to China's northwestern region of Xinjiang have found shelter in Afghanistan. China has carried out a campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, including locking a million or more away in political re-education camps.

The overseas East Turkistan Islamic Movement has for years fought a low-level insurgency against Chinese rule.

It has been aligned with the Islamic State affiliate known as Islamic State in Khorazan Province, an enemy of the Taliban, but its current operational status is not know.

Despite consistent and documented reports of Beijing's crackdown the Uighurs, Wang was welcomed as a special guest this week at a summit in neighboring Pakistan of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

There Wang called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. None of the OIC participants or host Pakistan, who has been particularly vocal about growing Islamophobia, mentioned China's crackdown on its minority Muslims. That has included the destruction of mosques and punishment for those Uighurs who participate in religious edicts.

China also has interest in stability in Afghanistan, as it has been used as a base for insurgent attacks against its nationals in neighboring Pakistan. It also has a multi-billion dollar road project in Pakistan linking the Arabian Sea Port of Gwadar with China in the northwest.

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Chinese Foreign Minister on Wednesday met Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General and discussed matters of mutual interest, regional security and bilateral defence cooperation.

According to a statement by the Army, Wang, who is also the State Councilor, said that the Pakistan- relationship is based on the convergence of views and mutual respect.

He pledged to play his role for further improvements in diplomatic cooperation with at all levels, it said.

Wang reviewed the security provided to the projects being completed under the banner of China- Economic Corridor (CPEC) and said that believes in inclusive prosperity.

Gen. Bajwa thanked Wang for China's continued support to Pakistan.

Wang was invited for the first time to attend the 48th session of the foreign minister of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which was attended by the ministers and delegates from 57 Muslim states and organisations.

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The diplomatic interactions going on with in parallel to the military standoff since May 2020 illustrate that foreign and defence policies are really joined at the hip, External Affairs Minister said on Thursday.

Delivering the St Stephen's College MRF Distinguished Alumni Annual Lecture, he said the world being what it is, self-interest and convergence cannot be fully counted upon, especially with neighbours.

"Their ambitions and emotions are not always predictable, nor indeed their risk-taking propensity. Few would have anticipated, for example, the turn that India's relations with have taken in the last two years. Any prudent policy therefore backs its posture with capabilities and deterrence," he said.

A big responsibility of Indian diplomacy, therefore, is to create the widest set of options for such contingencies, he said, adding that this could mean acquisition of defence capabilities and other supportive measures or securing the understanding for our policies and actions from the community.

And for that matter, in managing or resolving more fraught situations, he said.

Noting that a very different challenge is being faced on the Western boundary vis-a-vis Pakistan, the external affairs minister said on that front, the initial goal of diplomacy was to expose and de-legitimise Pakistan's cross-border terrorism.

When counter-actions were required such as in Uri in 2016 and Balakot in 2019, effective diplomacy ensured global understanding of India's actions," he said.

"Where was concerned, the diplomatic interactions that are going on in parallel to the military stand-off since May 2020 illustrate that foreign and defence policies are really joined at the hip. Here too, the value of global support and understanding is self-evident," Jaishankar said.

Underlining that the leveraging of a multi-polar world has been particularly visible in terms of weapons and technologies needed by our defence forces, Jaishankar said a Rafale aircraft acquisition from France can take place at the same time as that of an MH-60R helicopter or P-8 aircraft from the US, the S-400 missile system from Russia or the Spice bombs from Israel "speaks volumes of our nimbleness".

These are typically accompanied by military exercises and policy exchanges that bring about greater strategic comfort, he said.

In short, diplomacy supports, empowers and facilitates the national security effort, he added.

Jaishankar said some of this happens on the domestic side as well, even if it is less obvious, and pointed out that peace at home has often been troubled by insurgent groups operating in the neighbourhood.

"Adept diplomacy, however, has effectively discouraged neighbours from providing shelter or support, with one notable exception of course. Separatism and fundamentalism have also been propagated from destinations afar, just as violence is sometimes rationalized," he said.

The protection of free speech are misused, usually in the name of democratic rights, Jaishankar said, adding that when arguments and persuasion reach limits, other forms of displeasure sometimes need to be expressed.

"Our overall posture does radiate the message that India will no longer be a soft target and diplomacy in that sense is not always a pleasant business," he said.

A different world view propelled a comprehensive review of the foreign policy post-2014, Jaishankar said.

The new energy in India's endeavours is evident, notably in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's own engagements, he said.

"Some of India's neighbours had not bilaterally hosted an Indian Prime Minister for years on end. Even a proximate region like the Gulf, leave alone those much further off, had seen a want of high-level attention for decades. Smaller nations, whether they are in the Caribbean or the Pacific, had actually been completely neglected,' he said.

"And to be very honest with you, Nations of Africa and Latin America had found their reach-out to be inadequately reciprocated. Now all of this has changed, and you can see that in terms of visits - bilateral visits, in terms of collective summits, in development partnerships and in fact opening of more Indian Embassies abroad," the minister said.

In India's immediate region, the message of 'Neighbourhood First' began to resonate, in fact, from the swearing-in ceremony in 2014, Jaishankar pointed put.

"Its successor in 2019 further reinforced that impression. But this was not just symbolism; discernible progress in projects and activities have also lent it credibility," Jaishankar said.

The minister also lauded the evacuation of Indians in August last year from Afghanistan at the time of the Taliban takeover.

A huge effort was made by the Indian government to bring people home, Jaishankar said.

"It was as challenging as combining access to a secured American base that was on edge, surrounded by desperate Afghans and suspicious Taliban; of using Tajik rear support for very rapid responses, of accessing Iranian airspace at short notice and of quietly utilizing Qatari facilitation," he said.

"Now this might seem, even from my account, as exceptionally complicated logistics. But it was really more than that; behind it were years of relationships that really delivered at a time of need. Equally important, this represented the efficacy of a flexible and pragmatic Indian policy of multiple engagement," the minister said.

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Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, inflicted "exorbitant" domestic abuse against his ex-wife, a senior British judge has concluded as he awarded her sole responsibility for looking after their children.



The ruling caps the end of an extraordinary, bitter and hugely expensive three-year custody battle at the High Court in London between Mohammed and his former wife, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah.



A statement issued on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed said he loved his children and would always provide for them. "He maintains his denial of the allegations made in these contentious proceedings," it said.



The case has included revelations of kidnappings, death threats, the princess's affair with a bodyguard, blackmail, spying, and sophisticated phone hacking set against a background of mansions, expensive clothes, millions of dollars of jewellery and race horses.



The London court has previously ruled the ruler had made Haya fear for her life, had abducted and mistreated two of his daughters by another marriage, and had ordered the phones of Haya and her lawyers, one a British lawmaker, to be hacked using the state security software "Pegasus".



It has also determined that Mohammed, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, must provide a British record of more than 554 million pounds ($730.50 million)for the children's long-term security and maintenance.

In his final ruling, Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division in England and Wales, said Mohammed had "consistently displayed coercive and controlling behaviour" against family members who defied his will.



"Although conducted on a scale which is entirely outside the ordinary circumstances of cases heard in the Family Court in this jurisdiction, the fatheras behaviour towards the mother of his children is adomestic abusea," McFarlane said.

Haya alone should determine all matters relating to the education and health of the couple's two children, Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 10, with Mohammed merely kept informed, the judge concluded.



His relationship with the children will be limited to phone calls and messages after the sheikh himself decided not to pursue direct contact with them, McFarlane said.



'COERCIVE AND CONTROLLING'



Haya thanked the British judicial system and said she would raise her children to respect the traditions of both of their countries of origin. "Jalila, Zayed and I are not pawns to be used for division," she said in a statement.



The publication of the welfare decision on Thursday marks the conclusion of the case which has cost well over 70 million pounds in lawyers' fees, described by McFarlane as "truly enormous legal costs".



The judge said Mohammed, who runs the Godolphin horse-racing operation, was a father who loved his two children, and that they in turn loved him.



But he criticised the sheikh's behaviour and his refusal to even acknowledge his ex-wife's role in caring for the children.

"His Highnessas behaviour towards the mother ... whether by threats, poems, coordinating press reports, covertly arranging to purchase property immediately overlooking hers, phone-hacking or in the conduct of this litigation, has been abusive to a high, indeed exorbitant, degree," McFarlane said.



"Despite the courtas findings, in no respect has His Highness accepted that any of this behaviour has either taken place or that he has had any part in orchestrating it." The sheikh has played no part in the court proceedings.



The saga between the royals began shortly after Haya fled to Britain in April 2019, fearing for her safety following the discovery she was having an affair with a bodyguard.



She was later blackmailed by four members of her security team while the sheikh orchestrated a campaign of intimidation against her, and then later hacked her phone and those of her lawyers, previous court findings have shown.



The rulings against Mohammed appear not to have affected his standing or relations between Britain, and the UAE.

The oil-rich Gulf state pledged last September to invest 10 billion pounds ($13.6 billion) in British clean energy, infrastructure, technology and life sciences, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a visit to Abu Dhabi last week described it as a key partner.

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The European Commission is temporarily allowing (EU) farmers to grow crops on fallow land currently designated as "ecological focus areas" to enhance global as food stocks and storages in Ukraine are being destroyed by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, EU officials have said.

This "exceptional and temporary derogation" aims at increasing the production of crops for food and feed purposes to mitigate the loss of Ukrainian products on the global market, according to Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission in charge of an that works for people. Dombrovskis is also European Commissioner for Trade.

"The EU is an agricultural superpower and we will ensure that our farmers have the Commission's full support to respond to the global needs for food," said Janusz Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for Agriculture.

Farmers will be able to grow food or feed on the four million hectares of EU fallow land this year. All technicalities should be cleared within the next seven days to allow EU farmers to use this extra fertile land in time for the spring sowing season, according to Wojciechowski.

To help EU farmers, the derogation is accompanied by a support package worth 500 million euros ($549 million) for European producers most affected by the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine; advances of direct payment in October for 2023; market safety net measures for the pigmeat market; and temporary flexibilities to existing import requirements on animal feed, Xinhua news agency reported.

The loss of Ukrainian agricultural products resulting from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict could disrupt food supply for lower-income countries in regions such as North Africa and the Middle East, which rely heavily on wheat imports, Dombrovskis said.

Other regions that could be affected by the destruction or loss of Ukrainian agricultural products include Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The EU is also set to help Ukrainian farmers as much as possible to ensure a successful sowing season, despite the conflict. A short and medium-term strategy is being developed by Ukraine with support from the EU to enable the former to feed its citizens and start exporting again.

"Our first priority is to make sure that Ukrainians have enough food, fuel and water. We will also help them to continue planting and growing cereals and oilseeds, much needed for themselves and for the world and facilitate their exports," Wojciechowski said.

--IANS

int/khz/

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The highway is being built by central government at a cost of  14,600 crore. It is expected to be completed by 2025. (Representational Photo: PTI)

KHAMMAM: Farmers belonging to seven mandals of Khammam district are protesting against the acquisition of their lands for a greenfield express highway project between Vijayawada and Nagpur, which will pass through Khammam, Warangal, Mancherial, Repallevada and Chandrapur.

The highway is being built by central government at a cost of  14,600 crore. It is expected to be completed by 2025. The new highway will start from Jakkampudi near Vijayawada and pass through 25 villages in Khammam district, including Errupalem, Pegallapadu, Pedagopavaram, Meenavolu, Thakkellapadu, Dendukuru, Nidanapuram Maturu, Athukuru, Thunikipadu, Srirampuram, Rompinalla, Brahmanapalli, Nagiligonda, Nerada, Prodduturu, Vandanam, Kodumuru, Gopathi and V. Venkatayapalem.

About 1,000 acres of land is expected to be acquired. But pricing has become a big issue. Bonthu Ramesh, a farmer leader, said the road project has turned out to be a curse for farmers in Khammam. State and central governments are doing injustice to farmers by fixing low land prices for acquiring the land. We are not ready to part with our lands, he maintained.

K. Rajasekhar Reddy, a farmer and advocate, pointed out that officials had faced a lot of resistance in Khammam-Devarapalli Greenfiled Highway. He maintained that they will not allow officials to survey their lands for Vijayawada-Nagpur Greenfield Highway.

Farmers are already stressed out with state government acquiring 10,000 acres of their lands for irrigation and coal projects like Sitarama and Ramadasu lift irrigation projects and open cast mines in Sattupalli during last five years.

E. Venkateswarlu, another farmer, pointed out that land prices in the area are high with their price ranging from  23 crore. How can the government expect farmers to give their lands less than the market price, he asked.
The said it has priced the worlds first bond, raising $150 million that will be partly used for the conservation of black rhinos in .

The five-year bond will pay returns determined by the rate of growth in populations of the animals in two South African reserves, the Addo Elephant National Park and the Great Fish River Nature Reserve, the World Banks Bank for Reconstruction and Development said in a statement late Wednesday.

The Conservation Bond is a first-of-its-kind, outcome-based, financial instrument that channels investments to achieve conservation outcomes -- measured in this case by an increase in black populations, the said in the statement.

If successful, the program could be expanded to protect black populations in Kenya as well as other species such as lions, tigers, gorillas and orangutans, an earlier proposal said.

There are five species globally, with most of the animals in and almost all them white rhino. Black rhino numbers have dropped to about 2,600 from 65,000 in 1970, and may once have been as high as 850,000, according to documentation from the . The animals are found in three other African countries, and can weigh as much as 1.4 tons -- much smaller than the white rhino.

Instead of paying a coupon, the issuer will make contributions toward conserving the animals and the buyers of the bond will receive a payment from the Global Environment Facility based on preset targets for population growth.

Credit Suisse Group AG structured the bond and acted as joint bookrunner with Citigroup Inc.

The bond was sold at 94.8% of its nominal aggregate amount and will pay out a maximum success payment of $13.8 million, the World Bank said. Conservation Alpha has been tasked with determining the success of the program and its payments. The verification agent is the Zoological Society of London.

Rhinos are under threat from poaching, mostly because of demand in Vietnam and China for the powder from their horns, which is believed to cure cancer and improve virility. Addo is a 1,640 square kilometer (633 square-mile) reserve, while Great Fish is a 450 square-kilometer park. Both are in South Africas Eastern Cape province and are state run.

While the rhino security is a first, so-called sustainable bonds have been used to finance a variety of outcomes from marine and fisheries projects in the Seychelles to girls education in rural India.
French automaker Renault moved to pause production at its Moscow plant in an apparent move to fend off mounting criticism, breaking ranks with other major that have defied pressure to keep operating in Russia.

The company's board of directors voted Wednesday night to suspend activities at the Renault Moscow plant." It came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the company and others in France of aiding Russia's war effort during an emotional virtual address to parliament.

Dozens of foreign multinational corporations have curtailed their operations in Russia, amid sanctions imposed by the US and its Western allies aimed at crippling the country's economy.

But some have been notable for their reluctance to leave, underlining how it's often a point of pride for France and its to be more independent from the US and United Kingdom when it comes to policy toward Russia. It's a stance that has started to unravel as the war grinds on.

Home improvement giant Leroy Merlin, supermarket chain Auchan and sporting goods retailer Decathlon are among high-profile brands that are refusing to stop their business in Russia. French energy company TotalEnergies issued a combative statement this week, saying it would stop buying Russian oil but warned that a hasty withdrawal would only make Russian partners rich.

It's not just feeling the heat. Swiss multinational food giant Nestl sought to deflect stinging criticism with an announcement Wednesday that it will remove some brands from Russia, including KitKat candy bars and Nesquik milkshake powder, but will keep supplying essential food.

In his address to France's parliament, Zelenskyy name-checked some French companies as he pleaded for them to stop indirectly supporting the war against Ukraine with their presence in Russia.

Renault, Auchan (and) Leroy Merlin must stop sponsoring the Russian war machine, and the murder of children and women, rapes, robberies and looting committed by the Russian army, Zelenskyy said. All companies must remember that values are worth more than profit.

Renault, partly owned by the French government, had temporarily suspended production at its Moscow plant when the war erupted, blaming logistical problems, before reportedly resuming production days ahead of Zelenskyy's French address. The factory makes Renault's Arkana, Kaptur, and Duster SUV and the Terrano model for its Japanese partner Nissan.

The carmaker's failure to abandon its subsidiary Avtovaz which represents lion's share of the group's presence in Russia means it likely will keep facing pressure. Last year alone, Renault sold almost half a million vehicles through its Russian subsidiary.

Renault said it is not immediately withdrawing but merely assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia.

Leroy Merlin has been more intransigent than Renault and like Auchan and Decathlon refuses to shutter its Russian business. In a press statement, Leroy Merlin's management reaffirmed its desire for its Russian stores to stay open in a decision backed by French regional political leadership.

Not even the destruction of a Leroy Merlin store in Kyiv by a Russian bombardment on Sunday night was enough to make parent company Adeo reconsider its position. Ukraine's Defense Ministry also accused the chain of indirectly financing the strike by operating in Russia.

The maintenance of our activity in Russia is a decision which is not easy, it said. We have no reason to condemn our Russian teams for a war they did not choose," adding that it still has responsibility as an employer.

TotalEnergies put out a terse statement Tuesday, after what it called serious and unfounded accusations of complicity in war crimes leveled against TotalEnergies. The energy giant defended its decision to remain in Russia, saying abandoning their Russian interests would enrich Russian investors and they don't have the same resources that other countries like UK and US do.

On Thursday, hackers using the Anonymous name claimed to have taken down websites of Auchan, Leroy Merlin and Decathlon in Russia. All appeared to be nonfunctional for at least part of the day.

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on Thursday said that the investment fund Rosemont Seneca led by Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, is involved in financing the Pentagon's military biological programme in Ukraine.

The US Agency for Development (USAID), the George Soros Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provide financial support to the Pentagon programme, the Russian Defense Ministry added, RT reported.

At the same time, the scientific curator is the US nuclear center at Los Alamos.

"The incoming materials allow us to trace the scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects. Attention is drawn to the involvement in the financing of these activities of structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the Rosemont Seneca investment fund, which is headed by Hunter Biden," said Lt General Igor Kirillov, head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence forces of the Russian Armed Forces, RT reported.

According to him, the fund has resources in the amount of at least $2.4 billion.

"At the same time, the fund has a close relationship with the main contractors of the US military department, including Metabiota, which, along with Black and Veach, is the main supplier of equipment for Pentagon biolabs around the world," he added.

Kirillov said that the Los Alamos nuclear center, where the first American atomic bomb was developed, was one of the scientific curators of the Pentagon's military biological program in Ukraine.

"The scale of the program is impressive. In addition to the military department, the US Agency for Development, the George Soros Foundation, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are directly involved in its implementation. Scientific curation is carried out by leading research organisations, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which develops nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project," he said.

--IANS

san/

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As the healthcare system in Ukraine continues to remain under significant strain, Ministers condemned the 'indiscriminate' attacks on the Ukrainian population, and facilities and workers who are caught in the crossfire.

"We fully support the joint statement issued by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on 13 March to stop the devastating impact of attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine, such as the horrific shelling of the maternity hospital in Mariupol," read the joint statement.

Ministers asserted that intentionally directing attacks at civilians and civilian infrastructure, including health care facilities and workers, violates Humanitarian Law. "Health must remain a priority, with health workers being protected so they can provide emergency care to save lives, and with health systems and facilities being protected so that they remain accessible to all who need them." The statement read.

Since the start of Russia's further invasion, 64 attacks hitting health care facilities have been documented in the WHO's Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care, resulting in 15 deaths and 37 injuries, it added.

"In most of the cases, health care facilities were damaged or destroyed. Beyond the immediate deaths and injuries, these attacks have a huge impact on people's lives and reduce access to essential health services - especially for sick and wounded people as well as for children, pregnant women, older persons and other vulnerable populations - and can lead to delayed treatments, worsening the prognosis of affected people and resulting in indirect deaths," concerned the Ministers.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 with the goal of demilitarizing the country, neutralizing nationalist battalions, ensuring Ukraine remains a neutral country and that Crimea is recognized as a part of Russia that cannot be taken away. Russia also seeks to ensure Ukraine also recognizes the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are independent states.

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A group of Indigenous Australians has gone to court in South Korea seeking to block the country's export credit agencies from funding a deep-sea gas pipeline for the $3.6 billion Barossa gas project off northern Australia.

People from the Tiwi Islands and Larrakia Traditional Owners are seeking an injunction from the Seoul Central District Court to block the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) and the Korea Trade Insurance Corp (K-Sure) from providing loans.

They say they were not properly consulted on the project and a planned pipeline will threaten turtles, dugongs and other sea life which the islanders depend on. "By taking the South Korean Government to court to stop this gas project, we are protecting our family and our land," Tiwi Traditional Owner Daniel Munkara, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

If the loans and loan guarantees potentially worth around $700 million are blocked, that could delay the project, the groups said. K-Sure declined to comment on whether it was planning to provide finance for the Barossa project but said it "supports projects only in line with international environmental standards".

KEXIM had no immediate comment.

The Barossa project, due to start producing gas in 2025, calls for the construction of a roughly 260 kilometre (162-mile) pipeline that will connect offshore gas facilities to an existing pipeline that runs to Darwin.

The project is led by Australia's Santos Ltd and partners include South Korean energy company SK E&S. Santos declined to comment on the legal action but said the Barossa project has all the necessary approvals in place.

"As is the case for all of our projects, we undertake consultation with all key stakeholders where they receive detailed information about the project," a Santos spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne; additional reporting by Joyce Lee in Seoul; editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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The visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said his country is close to reaching an agreement on the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"We believe that today, more than ever, we are closer to reaching an agreement and finalising the deal in Vienna," Amir Abdollahian told the media on Wednesday after a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad and other senior officials in Damascus.

"If America adopted a realistic view and dealt realistically with this matter, we are ready to declare this agreement," he added.

"We have made our final proposals to the US through the EU Coordinator," he said, adding that has made it clear to the American side not to cross its redlines.

signed the JCPOA with world powers in 2015. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, Xinhua news agency reported.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between and the remaining JCPOA parties, with the US indirectly involved, to revive the deal.

--IANS

int/khz/

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Russias descent into repression under Vladimir Putin reached a tipping point with his decision to invade Ukraine. During this full-scale, unlawful military invasion, he has threatened any country trying to intervene with harsh consequences, which some worry may involve nuclear weapons.

Some have suggested Putins thinking is entirely rational  the product of a calculated, harsh realism about global politics, or an attempt to gain domestic strength. Others believe the moves are desperate, wild and overreaching  evidence of deep, psychological flaws.

But what exactly is the psychology behind Putins leadership, and what can we do to counteract its negative effects?

Putins personality

Putin has a strong man attitude. He displays an apparent lack of regret or remorse for his unethical decisions and the negative effect they have on innocent people. He also fails to accept responsibility for negative outcomes, and typically blames others when something goes wrong.

What does this tell us about his personality? While we are not in a position to diagnose political leaders without asking them to take a personality test, psychologists can evaluate them through behavioural observations. For example, we can look at speeches, decision-making or interviews over time. This isnt necessarily a bad approach  some people lie on personality tests.

Putin is an autocratic and authoritarian political leader. Decades of studies in the field of organisational psychology show that such leaders are more prone to take important decisions themselves. They also tend to be more task-oriented than interested in the general welfare of their people. Another telling sign is that they maintain a distance between themselves and others  partly through the use of punishments and threats.

One recent study of 14 authoritarian state leaders, including Putin and the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, found they were less agreeable (in terms of being trustful and altruistic) and less emotionally stable compared with less autocratic leaders. They also scored higher on antisocial, dark personality traits, such as machiavellianism (manipulation and deception), narcissism (grandiosity, superiority and entitlement) and psychopathy (low empathy, aggression and impulsivity).

Research also suggests that these traits make them less competent and less easily understood by others.

Viewing Putin from this perspective, much evidence points to the conclusion that he has worrisome antisocial tendencies. This is visible in his behaviour toward political rivals and leaders. One clear example is that when he first met the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, he deliberately brought a large dog to the meeting, despite  or perhaps because  he knew that she was afraid of dogs.

SERGEI CHIRIKOV/ EPA-EFE

Another example is the poisoning and imprisonment of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The callous disregard for due process and Navalnys human rights is consistent with dark personality traits.

Psychological tactics

So how can we use this knowledge? What is needed to tackle the war is a two-level game. You need to deal with Putin, but you must also contend with complicating factors created by his webs of relationships, domestically and internationally. The latter involves reinforcing solidarity with Russian citizens and respecting their norms.

This two-level method is a tested approach for dealing with people with antisocial traits working in corporate settings. Ultimately, you need to tackle bad leaders while also taking into account the needs of their employees.

With Putin, we need to take the signs of dark personality traits seriously. It should not be assumed that conventional approaches to diplomacy or negotiations will work.

Autocratic leaders with dark personalities often refuse to believe they need to listen to others or engage in conflict resolution. Instead, displays of power may work better.

Research on narcissistic leadership also suggests that giving honest feedback on behaviour  such as calling out lying  can help to keep such leaders under control. But this should not evolve into a public humiliation, which could easily make matters worse.

Naming and shaming bad actions can also help make it clear that Putin will face condemnation for his domestic and human rights violations. While it might seem that this would not affect an autocrat, research suggests political leaders in pure autocracies may be more sensitive to such criticism than leaders in democracies or hybrid regimes. This may be because they ultimately care more about their public image.

The effectiveness of economic sanctions  such as those currently in use against Putin  is debated by scholars. Because such sanctions cause poverty among ordinary people, they can lead to higher levels of authoritarianism as both the leader and people feel victimised by the international community.

Instead, we need to recognise the distorting effects of the type of psychological control that Putin seeks to impose over his people. For example, he fiercely controls information to instil uncertainty and fear among the Russian people. This may ultimately make them support authoritarian leadership for their own protection. One way to reduce the experience of threat could be to work strategically to try to boost socioeconomic conditions for ordinary Russians rather than financially punishing them.

Another option is to recognise and validate those Russians who seek a group identity that goes beyond the state identity presented by Putin. Whereas the Kremlin uses propaganda to distinguish Russians from peoples who are represented as dangerous  western, liberal, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim  Russian culture and history has historically often reinforced the psychological message that human beings collectively have more in common than what separates us.

Those who are held responsible for the violence and corruption of an autocratic regime  and judged guilty by a court  leave the guardians of a responsible civil society the task to build afresh. If and when that happens, the international community should show solidarity, rather than anger or prejudice, to prevent the type of fear which sustain violent dictatorship.

Autocratic political leaders pose a threat to international stability. We are unlikely to be able to stop them from emerging  but we can use our knowledge of their functioning to limit their disruptive power.

Magnus Linden, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Lund University and George R. Wilkes, Director, Relwar Project, King's College London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Western leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday agreed to strengthen their forces in Eastern Europe, increase military aid to and tighten their sanctions on Russia as Moscows assault on its neighbour entered its second month, with no signs of an end in sight.

In a display of unity at an unprecedented triple summit of Nato, the G7 and the European Union, the military alliance announced new battle groups to be stationed in four Eastern European countries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also accused Russia of deploying phosphorus weapons, which spread a powder that ignites when in contact with oxygen and causes severe burns.

This morning, by the way, phosphorus bombs were used. Russian phosphorus bombs. Adults were killed again and children were killed again, he told representatives via video-link.

said its forces had destroyed the Russian landing ship the Orsk at the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea.

Video footage, which Reuters confirmed was filmed from inside Berdyansk, showed a column of smoke rising from a blaze at a dock and the flash of an explosion. Russian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

As US President Joe Biden rallied allies on his first trip aboard since the war began, Washington announced a new $1-billion aid package for . It said it would take in 100,000 refugees.

The United States and Britain expanded their sanctions blacklists. Countries announced new packages of military and humanitarian aid and promises to take in refugees. The EU was due to announce steps to wean itself off Russian energy.

We agreed to strengthen our deterrence and defence for the longer-term. We also agreed to give further support to Ukraine and to continue to impose costs on Russia, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after leaders gathered at headquarters.

Still, those pledges stopped short of President Volodymyr Zelenskyys calls for a full boycott of Russian energy products and a no-fly zone over Ukraine, where thousands of people have been killed, millions become refugees, and cities pulverised since Russian leader Vladimir Putin unleashed his invasion on February 24.

UNICEF said on Thursday more than half of Ukraines children had now been driven from their homes.

In the besieged southern port of Mariupol, hundreds of thousands of people have been hiding in basements with no running water, food, medicine or power.

In a part of the city now captured by Russian troops, a patch of grass between charred hulks of blasted apartment buildings had become a makeshift graveyard, with freshly-dug mounds marked with plastic flowers and crosses made from broken window frames.

The thud of explosions could be heard in the distance when a Reuters team reached there on Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials accused Russia on Thursday of having forcibly deported 15,000 people from the city to Russia. Moscow denies this.

Zelenskyy to Nato: Give us just 1% of what you have

While thanking members of the Western military alliance for the defensive equipment provided so far, Zelenskyy appealed for offensive weapons. You can give us one percent of all your planes. One percent of your tanks. One percent!

Nato extends term of Stoltenberg for one more year

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will remain in his role for an extra year to help steer the 30-nation military organisation through the security crisis sparked by Russias war on Ukraine.

Stoltenberg tweeted on Thursday that he is honoured by the decision of Nato leaders to extend his term until September 30, 2023. As we face the biggest security crisis in a generation, we stand united to keep our alliance strong and our people safe, he said.

Norges Banks interim governor, Ida Wolden Bache, was set to become Norways first permanent woman central bank chief after Stoltenberg withdrew.
After opposition parties levelled allegations against Pakistan's National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser for siding with Prime Minister over the no-trust motion, Qaiser in his defence said that he would run the assembly's proceedings in accordance with the Constitution.

Taking to Twitter, Qaiser wrote: "I, as the custodian of the National Assembly of Pakistan, will fulfil my constitutional obligations and will proceed in accordance with Article 95 of the Constitution and rule 37 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007," reported Geo TV.

In conversation with media in Islamabad, the speaker had said, "I will follow the law; I am still in consultation with the NA secretariat about summoning the session and it will be called in line with the constitution."

Opposition leaders on Monday slammed the National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser for "violating" the Constitution for delaying in conducting voting on no-confidence against Prime Minister .

Muslim League (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif and People's Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari slammed the National Assembly speaker for violating the constitutional provision requiring him to convene a meeting of the Lower House within 14 days after receiving a requisition for a session to table a no-trust motion against Imran Khan, Dawn newspaper reported.

Sharif claimed Speaker Qaiser had deliberately violated Article 54(3) of the Constitution using the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting as an excuse, Dawn newspaper reported.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman said the government was violating the Constitution and trying to evade the no-confidence motion.

According to the Pakistani newspaper, Bilawal advised Speaker Qaiser to follow the Constitution and consult his lawyers before taking any action that might entail his trial under Article 6 of the Constitution (for high treason).

He said the government and the speaker had practically demonstrated that they could flout the Constitution. But he hoped the apex court would not take a political stance and stand by the Constitution, law and democracy, Dawn newspaper reported.

The Opposition parties in Pakistan are jettisoning mutual hatred to oust as they submitted the no-trust motion in the National Assembly secretariat on March 8.While the Imran Khan government has exuded confidence to defeat the no-trust motion, the Opposition is sure that they will oust Khan.

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fired at least one suspected ballistic missile toward the sea Thursday, its neighbours' militaries said, apparently extending its barrage of weapons tests that may culminate with a flight of its biggest-yet intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't immediately say whether the weapon involved in the launch was ballistic or how far it flew.

Japan's Prime Minster's Office Defense Ministry said the North fired a possible ballistic missile.

It was North Korea's 12th round of weapons launches this year and came after it fired suspected artillery pieces into the sea on Sunday.

Experts say the North's unusually fast pace in testing activity underscore its dual goal of advancing its weaponry and applying pressure on Washington over a deepening freeze in nuclear negotiations.

The North conducted two medium-range tests from near its capital area in recent weeks that the US and South Korean militaries later assessed as involving components of the North's largest ICBM, the Hwasong-17, which they said could be tested at full range soon.

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conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in the North's development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.



The North's return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for U.S. President Joe Biden as he responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Korea's incoming conservative administration.



"This launch is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks



destabilising the security situation in the region," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement condemning the launch. "The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilising actions."had put its and nuclear tests on hold since 2017, but has defended the weapons as necessary for self-defence, and said U.S. diplomatic overtures are insincere as long as Washington and its allies maintain "hostile policies" such as sanctions and military drills.

South Korea's outgoing President Moon Jae-in, who made engaging a major goal of his administration, condemned the launch as "a breach of the moratorium on launches that Chairman Kim Jong Un himself promised to the community".



It was also a serious threat to the Korean peninsula, the region and the community, and a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, added Moon, who is due to leave office in May.



The latest missile launch was an "unacceptable act of violence", Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida said.



Thursday's launch prompted South Korea to test-fire a volley of its own, smaller ballistic and air-to-ground missiles to demonstrate it has the "capability and readiness" to precisely strike missile launch sites, command and support facilities, and other targets in North Korea if necessary, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.



NEW ICBM?



Thursday's launch would be at least the 11th North Korean missile test this year, an unprecedented frequency. Japanese authorities said the launch appeared to be a "new type" of ICBM that flew for about 71 minutes to an altitude of about 6,000km (3,728 miles) and a range of 1,100 km (684 miles) from its launch site.

It landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 170 km (106 miles) west of the northern prefecture of Aomori, at 3:44 p.m. (0644 GMT), the coast guard said.



South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff put the missile's maximum altitude at 6,200 km and its range at 1,080 km. That is further and longer than North Korea's last ICBM test in 2017, when it launched a Hwasong-15 missile that flew for 53 minutes to an altitude of about 4,475 km and range of 950 km.

South Korea's JCS said the latest missile was launched from near Sunan, where Pyongyang's airport is located.

On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile from that airport that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff, South Korea's military said. U.S. and South Korean officials have warned recently that North Korea had been preparing to test-fire its largest ICBM yet, the Hwasong-17.

U.S. officials said at least two recent tests, on Feb. 27 and March 5, featured the Hwasong-17 system, but did not demonstrate full ICBM range or capability. Pyongyang did not identify the missile system used in those launches, but said they were testing components for a reconnaissance satellite system.



This month, leader Kim said North Korea would soon launch multiple satellites to monitor military movements by the United States and its allies.



Analysts say the Hwasong-17 is "considerably larger" than the Hwasong-15. It was first unveiled in October 2020 and displayed a second time in October 2021. The missile, which has been shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the world's largest road-mobile ICBMs.

'SERIOUS PROGRESS'

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, Kim declared a self-imposed moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearisation talks. That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who held historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never gained a concrete pact to limit the North's nuclear or missile arsenals.

On Jan. 19, North Korea said it would bolster its defences against the United States and consider resuming "all temporarily suspended activities", according to state news agency KCNA, an apparent reference to the self-imposed moratorium.

New construction has also been spotted at North Korea's only known nuclear test site, which was shuttered in 2018.



The looming prospect of possible nuclear tests, more joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, and the new conservative South Korean president mean "all conditions are present for a tit-for-tat chain reaction of escalatory steps", said Chad O'Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.



"Though Biden would prefer to focus exclusively on the Ukraine crisis, it's likely he will soon face crisis-level tensions between the Koreas," he said.



With the sanctions regime at an impasse at the U.N. Security Council and North Korea opposed to talks on denuclearisation for the foreseeable future, Pyongyang is now likely capable of making serious progress on its weapons development programme with little risk of substantive punishment, O'Carroll added.

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The Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have supported Pakistan's call for a joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the accidental firing of a projectile into the country from India earlier this month.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that a resolution was adopted at the 48th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The resolution urged India to "work constructively with for enhancing regional security and stability through the settlement of outstanding disputes and positively responding to Pakistan's proposal for a Strategic Restraint Regime, including measures for arms control, restraint and confidence building."



The OIC foreign ministers expressed serious concern over the incident which "constituted multiple violations of law", besides "posing a grave threat to regional and peace, security and stability."



Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has described the recent accidental missile release as "regrettable" and asserted that India's missile system is very reliable and the safety procedures are of the highest order. He has said a review of standard operations and maintenance was being conducted and any shortcoming if found, will be immediately rectified.

The resolution further calls on the UN Secretary General and relevant bodies, including UN Security Council and International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), to pursue the matter with India, in line with their mandated duties, to accurately establish the facts to prevent such occurrences in the future.

The OIC is a 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations, including .

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By Rowena Edwards

LONDON - were steady on Thursday as the U.S. president met other Western leaders and investors waited to see how sanctions would be tightened on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Benchmark Brent was up 0.3% at $121.95 a barrel by 1111 GMT, after falling by close to $2 earlier in the session. U.S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was little changed at $114.96 a barrel, after also shedding $2 earlier.

U.S. President Biden was meeting NATO leaders in Brussels for emergency talks as the Ukraine war entered a second month. Biden and European leaders plan to announce additional sanctions against Russia.

Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said sanctions were unlikely to have a major impact on the oil market because they "will probably not include an oil embargo by the EU, as a number of countries that are heavily depend on Russian oil - such as Germany - have opposed this."

The United States and Britain, both far less reliant on Russian crude, have both announced sanctions on oil imports.

have posted steep gains this week. Brent has climbed more than $14 while WTI is up more than $10 a barrel.

U.S. crude in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell to its lowest since May 2002, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, surprising market participants who had expected a modest rise.

Adding to concerns about available supply, slow progress in talks on a deal between world powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear work means prospects for Iranian crude returning to the market have been pushed back.

"Unless Iran is allowed back to the market quickly it is hard to see how further price increase, potentially above the recent peaks, can be avoided," PVM oil broker Tamas Varga said.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday the United States and its allies had made progress in Iran nuclear talks but issues remained.

"A lifting of Iranian export restrictions would help alleviate the immense tightness prevalent in crude right now," consultancy JBC Energy said in a note, adding that Iran was already preparing to a ramp-up exports.

(Additional reporting by Mohi Narayan and Liz Hampton; Editing by Edmund Blair)

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The head of a Dubai government-owned ferry operator at the centre of a bitter labour dispute in the acknowledged on Thursday that the firm should have consulted with workers before firing 786 crew members but chose not to because it knew would never agree to the company's plans.

P & O Ferries Chief Executive Peter Hebblethwaite made the comments under repeated questions from lawmakers who characterised the company's actions as a willful decision to break labour law.

Hebblethwaite said the company was offering workers generous compensation after firing them without notice last week.

The company, which operates in Britain and is owned by a subsidiary of Dubai company DP World, dismissed the workers as part of a restructuring plan needed to save the business.

The fired workers will be replaced by cheaper staff provided by a third-party crew provider.

We assessed that given the fundamental nature of change, no union could accept it and therefore we chose not to consult because a consultation process would have been a sham,'' Hebblethwaite said. We didn't want to put anybody through that.

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The Pentagon's interest in biological laboratories in the former Soviet republics requires clarification, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"US biological laboratories are all over the world and we are most concerned about the presence of these laboratories and the continued creation of new ones in the former Soviet republics," Lavrov added on Wednesday during a meeting with students and teachers of Russia's MGIMO University.

"The fact that the Pentagon expressed interest in the former Soviet laboratories, with the aim of modernising them and creating new facilities, needs to be clarified," he said.

During a special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian military has found that US-funded biological laboratories conducted research with dangerous viruses, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The Russian side has repeatedly urged Washington to explain the purpose of these facilities to the community, Xinhua news agency reported.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised "the unacceptable nature of the military-biological activities of the US in Ukraine."

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Russian President held a telephonic conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and discussed the ongoing military operation in Ukraine as well as expressed his condolences for the recent terror attack in the west Asian country.

Notably, Four people were killed in a terror attack by an Arab assailant in Israel's southern city of Beersheba on Tuesday, Israeli police said.

Taking to Twitter, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote, "President Vladimir #Putin and Prime Minister @naftalibennett spoke over the phone. gave assessments of the talks and special military operations in Ukraine. He expressed condolences over yesterday's terrorist attack in ."

At the end of last month, the Israeli PM offered his country's intermediary services on Ukraine to Putin. Earlier, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had also asked Naftali Bennett to serve as a mediator in possible talks with Russia.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 with the goal of demilitarizing the country, neutralizing nationalist battalions, ensuring Ukraine remains a neutral country and that Crimea is recognized as a part of Russia that cannot be taken away. Russia also seeks to ensure Ukraine also recognizes the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are independent states.

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Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has blocked the service in the country for access to numerous materials containing unreliable information about Moscow's ongoing war in Ukraine, media reports say.

The access to the online resource news.google.com has been blocked, the telecoms regulator told Interfax on Wednesday.

"Based on a request from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Roskomnadzor has restricted access to the News.Google in the country," the statement said.

"The mentioned US Internet news resource provided access to numerous publications and materials containing unreliable, publicly significant information about the course of the special military operation in Ukraine," it added.

Recently, blocked Instagram for nearly 80 million users in the country, after its parent company Meta allowed posts with calls for violence against Russian soldiers and President Vladimir Putin on Facebook and Instagram in some countries.

The social media platform was inaccessible for the vast majority of the country's population, according to internet monitoring service GlobalCheck.

Russian influencers on Instagram posted farewell messages to their followers, asking them to follow them on other social media platforms, or download VPN (virtual private network) software to bypass the ban.

Instagram has also provided a platform for Russians to speak out against the war, including wealthy oligarchs and their families.

--IANS

vc/ksk/

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has expelled several American diplomats from the US Embassy in Moscow and declared them "persona non grata", a State Department spokesperson has said, days after the US ousted Russian staff at the United Nations.

Earlier this month, the US expelled 12 diplomats from Russia's mission to the UN, saying they engaged in espionage activities. The move was described by as a hostile action and gross violation of the commitments by the US as the host country of the United Nations headquarters.

"We can confirm that the US Embassy received a list of diplomats declared "persona non grata" from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 23, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.

After the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war of words and sanctions have intensified between the two countries.

The US has imposed severe sanctions against . This includes individual and economic. Russia too has imposed sanctions against US officials, including President Joe Biden.

This is Russia's latest unhelpful and unproductive step in our bilateral relationship. We call on the Russian government to end its unjustified expulsions of US diplomats and staff, the spokesperson said.

Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments," the spokesperson said.

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After almost one month of suspension, shares in Moscow climbed, with the benchmark MOEX Index rising as much as 12 per cent. While only 33 stocks resumed trading, Russians with fortunes linked to them added $8.3 billion combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index tracking the wealthiest 500 people in the world.

Scores of Russian billionaires got sanctioned by the EU and the UK after the Kremlin started its war against Ukraine. But for the 10 tycoons whose shares resumed trading, the advances were adding to their paper gains. Vladimir Potanin, Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko each grew their fortunes by more than $1 billion on Thursday. Before the trading halt, the 23 tycoons part of the worlds 500 richest people had more than $316 billion of combined wealth.

Russias surges on renewed fears of debt default

The cost of insuring Russian debt surged on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin demanded ruble payments from unfriendly nations for gas purchases.

Credit-default swaps protecting $10 million of the governments bonds for five years were quoted at about $6.4 million upfront and $100,000 annually, according to ICE Data Services. That implies an 87 per cent probability of default, compared with about 60 per cent at the end of last week. Swaps prices soared after Putins announcement renewed investor concerns about the stability of Russian supplies and its ability to service foreign debt amid its war in Ukraine. Russias insistence on ruble payments could trigger disputes and contract negotiations, threatening to disrupt the smooth flow of Russias gas, on which Europe is heavily dependent.

committed war crimes in Ukraine: US

Russian military forces, have committed war crimes in Ukraine by hitting civilian targets and have unleashed unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across the war-torn country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. On February 24, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraines Donetsk and Luhansk as independent entities. Our assessment is based on a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources, he said.

War may erase 15 yrs of economic growth

Russia is set to erase 15 years of economic gains by the end of 2023 after its invasion of Ukraine spurred a multitude of sanctions and prompted companies to pull out of the country, according to the Institute of Finance. The is expected to contract 15 per cent in 2022, followed by a decline of 3 per cent in 2023, leaving gross domestic product where it was about fifteen years ago.

China quietly buying cheap Russian crude

Chinas oil refiners are discreetly purchasing cheap Russian crude as the nations supply continues to seep into the market. Unlike Indias state-run oil refiners, which have issued a number of tenders seeking to buy Russias Urals crude among other grades, traders say Chinas state processors are negotiating privately under the radar with sellers. The nations independent refiners are also quietly buying, according to sources.
Tesla CEO has made a new comment about the Tesla Cybertruck, which recently took a backseat, and said that the automaker aims to complete Cybertruck development this year for production in 2023.

During an event for the start of Model Y deliveries at Gigafactory Berlin, Musk was asked by an employee about Tesla's short-term goals, reports the auto-tech website Electrek.

Musk reiterated that Tesla's focus this year is to ramp up production of current vehicle programmes, especially Model Y and Model 3, but he also offered a rare comment on Cybertruck. He said that Tesla aims to complete the development of the Cybertruck this year for production in 2023.

"We want to complete the development of Cybertruck this year and be ready for production next year," Musk was quoted as saying.

When Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck back in 2019, Tesla said that the electric pickup truck would make it to market by the end of 2021. As the deadline was approaching, the automaker confirmed that production slipped to 2022.

Musk later said that Tesla was targeting a start of production for the electric pickup truck in "late 2022" at Gigafactory Texas.

With the focus clearly on bringing the Model Y to production at the factory, and that being delayed as well, it appeared likely that the Cybertruck production timeline could also slip, the report said.

During Tesla's last earnings report in January, Musk gave an update confirming that Tesla wouldn't launch the Cybertruck or any new vehicle in 2022.

The CEO remained vague when it comes to the electric pickup truck and only said that it would "hopefully come next year" - meaning in 2023.

Since then, there have been rumours that Tesla is planning to start production of the Cybertruck in early 2023.

--IANS

vc/vd

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Chancellor of the Exchequer on Thursday faced questions about the Russian presence of Infosys, the Indian software services company in which his wife Akshata Murty has a share.

With reference to stringent sanctions being imposed on Russia, the Indian-origin finance minister who is the son-in-law of co-founder Narayana Murthy was asked on air if his advice to businesses was not being followed within his own home. The minister stressed that the operations of individual companies was a matter for them.

It's been reported that you've got family links to Russia, that your wife apparently has a stake in the Indian consultancy firm Infosys, a Sky News' reporter said during the television interview.

They operate in Moscow, they have an office there, they have a delivery office there. They've got a connection to the Alpha Bank in Moscow. Are you giving advice to that you're not following in your own home?, she questioned.

Sunak replied that as an elected politician, he was giving the interview about what he's responsible for.

My wife is not, he said.

On being pushed on whether his family was potentially benefiting from Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, he said: I don't think that's the case, and as I said the operations of all companies are up to them.

We've put in place significant sanctions and all the companies we are responsible for are following those as they rightly should, sending a very strong message to Putin's aggression.

He was then asked if Infosys, which also has a presence, was sending a similarly "strong message".

I have absolutely no idea because I have nothing to do with that company, replied Sunak.

An statement said the multinational software services major supports and advocates for peace between and Ukraine.

The statement said: " has a small team of employees based out of Russia, that services some of our global clients, locally. We do not have any active business relationships with local Russian enterprises.

"A key priority for Infosys in times of adversity, is to continue extending support to the community. The company has committed USD 1 million towards relief efforts for the victims of war from Ukraine."



The has imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals, with Sunak issuing a call for all UK companies to think very carefully about any investments in over the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.

I am urging firms to think very carefully about their investments in and how they may aid the Putin regime and I am also clear that there is no case for new investment in Russia. We must collectively go further in our mission to inflict maximum economic pain and to stop further bloodshed, he said earlier this month.

(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 government announced 65 new Russian sanctions on Thursday against a range of key strategic industries and individuals, which it says are aimed at cutting off support for President Vladimir Putin's war machine in Ukraine.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the latest set of sanctions, which add to over 1,000 already imposed by the UK, target key industries supporting Russia's illegal invasion, including Russian Railways and defence company Kronshtadt, the main producer of Russian drones.

The Wagner Group, the organisation of Russian mercenaries reportedly tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has also been sanctioned.

"We've got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today, as we are, sanctioning the Wagner Group, looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ahead of an emergency NATO summit in Brussels.

"We've got to step up. We've got to increase our support," he said.

At the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) meeting, he is set to announce a major military support package for Ukraine, including 6,000 missiles, consisting of anti-tank and high explosive weapons, and 25 million pounds in financial backing for the Ukrainian military.

The UK will also provide an additional 4.1 million pounds for the BBC World Service as part of a cross-government effort to tackle disinformation in and Ukraine, as well as new financial and policing support for the Criminal Court's investigation into war crimes.

Johnson will also urge G7 allies and partners to double down on economic sanctions against the .

These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price, said UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Putin should be under no illusions we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up, she said.

In the latest set of UK sanctions, six more banks are targeted, including Alfa Bank whose co-founders include previously sanctioned oligarchs Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan, and the world's largest diamond producer Alrosa is also sanctioned. Individuals sanctioned in the latest round include the billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, founder of Tinkoff bank Oleg Tinkov, Herman Gref, the CEO of Russia's largest bank Sberbank, and Polina Kovaleva, Foreign Minister Lavrov's stepdaughter. Galina Danilchenko, who was installed by as the mayor of Melitopol, is also sanctioned the first time an individual has been sanctioned for collaboration with Russian forces currently in Ukraine, the FCDO said.

All those sanctioned will have their assets in the UK frozen which means no UK citizen or company can do business with them, and individuals subject to travel bans are also prohibited from travelling to or from the UK. The latest set of sanctions will bring the total global asset value of the banks the UK has sanctioned since the invasion to 500 billion pounds and the net worth of the oligarchs and family members in excess of 150 billion pounds.

Meanwhile, G7 and European Union (EU) leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to discuss longer-term military, diplomatic and humanitarian support for Ukraine and strengthening measures against .

The UK says it has already provided over 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine's armed forces, including Next-Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons Systems (NLAWs) and Javelin missiles. The UK government is also supplying Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles to help Ukrainians defend themselves against aerial bombings, as well as body armour, helmets and combat boots.

(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.)
Britain has sanctioned the stepdaughter of Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as part of a new raft of sanctions on a string of Russian "oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs", Daily Mail reported.

Also among the targets of the new measures announced on Thursday are The Wagner Group mercenaries -- known as 'Putin's private army', and accused of trying to assassinate Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian politicians.

The most prominent target of the sanctions is Imperial College graduate Polina Kovaleva, a glamorous 26-year-old who lives in a 4 million piund home in Kensington.

Polina's mother is reported to be Svetlana Polyakova, 51, a powerful member of the Russian Foreign Ministry, who accompanies Lavrov on every foreign trip and has had a relationship since the early 2000s. It is rumoured that she is Lavrov's 'unofficial' wife, Daily Mail reported.

Polina went to a private boarding school in Bristol before gaining a first-class degree in economics with politics at Loughborough University and later completing a masters in economics and strategy for business at the Imperial College London.

She went on to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, where she helped with mergers and acquisitions, and later worked at Glencore, the mining company. Before buying her own home, she lived in Holland Park, west London, in an apartment in a townhouse that is owned by the Russian Embassy, Daily Mail reported.

Records show that the nearby Ukrainian Embassy alleged had wrongly claimed ownership of the property.

--IANS

san/arm

(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.)
Britain will send thousands more missiles to Ukraine's government as Prime Minister urged Western allies to boost the supply of military aid to .

Johnson is travelling to Brussels on Thursday for talks with NATO and leaders of the Group of Seven. He is expected to provide further details of the new British aid during the visit, including the donation of 6,000 more missiles comprising anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry.

The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight, Johnson said.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to .

The U.K. government also says it is providing some 4 million pounds ($5.3 million) in emergency funding to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and .

(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.)
Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking thousands of civilians from the shattered port city of Mariupol to Russia so that they can be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

A month into the invasion, meanwhile, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraine's navy said it sank a large landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to supply Russian forces with armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is defending our common values. US President Joe Biden, in Europe for a series of summits, gave assurances more aid is on its way.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's leaders agreed to send equipment to help protect Ukraine against chemical attack. Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders appear to have fought Moscow's ground troops to a stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry charged that Russian forces have taken 6,000 Mariupol residents to camps against their will. Russian troops are confiscating identity documents from an additional 15,000 people in a section of Mariupol under Russian control, the ministry said.

Ukrainian military intelligence said Ukrainian civilians are being sent through a camp in Russian-controlled territory, then onward through southern regions of Russia to economically depressed parts of the country.

Some could be sent as far as the Pacific Ocean island of Sakhalin, Ukrainian intelligence said, and are being offered jobs on condition they don't leave for two years.

The claims could not be independently verified. Russia has said it is evacuating thousands of civilians of their own free will.

Photos and video after the naval attack in Berdyansk showed fire and thick plumes of smoke. Russian TV reported earlier this week that the vessel the Ukrainians claimed to have sunk, Orsk, was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk. The port was going to be used to deliver military equipment for the Russians, the report said.

Ukraine claimed two more ships were damaged and a 3,000-ton fuel tank was destroyed when the Orsk was sunk, causing a fire that spread to nearby ammunition supplies.

Sending a signal that Western sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market but allowed only limited trading to prevent mass sell-offs. Foreigners were barred from selling, and traders were prohibited from short selling, or betting prices would fall.

Millions of people in Ukraine have made their way out of the country, some pushed to the limit after trying to stay and cope.

At the central station in the western city of Lviv, a teenage girl stood in the doorway of a waiting train, a white pet rabbit shivering in her arms. She was on her way to join her mother and then go on to Poland or Germany. She had been traveling alone, leaving other family members behind in Dnipro.

At the beginning I didn't want to leave, she said. Now I'm scared for my life.

(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.)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was set to meet with US lawmakers Wednesday to discuss a possible freeze on Russian reserves of gold.

The move comes after several lawmakers introduced the Stop Russian GOLD Act, meant to target Russia's ability to sell its gold reserves to avoid the impact of sanctions.

Current sanctions on Russian elites, the country's Central Bank, President Vladimir Putin and other measures do not impact Russia's gold stockpile, which Putin has been accumulating for several years. holds roughly $130 billion in gold reserves, according to lawmakers.

The Bank of announced Feb. 28 that it would resume the purchase of gold on the domestic precious metals market.

The lawmakers' effort to impose stronger sanctions on the Russian Federation come as President Joe Biden and administration officials travel to Brussels and Warsaw this week with key allies to try to prevent Russia's war on Ukraine from spiraling into an even greater catastrophe.

I look forward to speaking with Secretary Yellen about our bill and what additional steps Treasury can take to stand strong against Putin, said Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

"We cannot allow Putin to take advantage of a loophole that could help his unconscionable attack on Ukraine.

The meeting between Yellen and lawmakers was originally reported by Axios.

(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.)
Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address US.

President and other leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv.

Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with members that the alliance provide effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian onslaught.

Biden was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to coordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with members, and then talk with leaders of the G7 industrialised nations and the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.

On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely.

But a month into the fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition.

In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released intentionally or not and intelligence gathered from open sources.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

A senior US defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city centre.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritising the fight in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said.

The US also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going strictly in accordance with plans.

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance, said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities.

He noted in his televised remarks that Moscow's nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

US officials long have warned that Russia's military doctrine envisages an escalate to deescalate option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin, known for his bluster, did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin.

Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.

Zelenskyy noted in his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth, he said.

In Kyiv, where near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday as the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed since the war broke out.

The independent Russian news outlet The Insider said Russian journalist Oksana Baulina had been killed by shelling in a Kyiv neighbourhood on Wednesday.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting.

But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher.

Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theatre and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war.

Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Kateryna Mytkevich, 39, who arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she said the city is without gas, electricity or running water, and entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed.

I don't understand why we have such a curse," she 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.)
Speaking on the eve of the summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the alliance to provide effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.

We ask that the alliance declare that it will fully assist to win this war, clear our territory of the invaders and restore peace in Ukraine, he said late Wednesday during his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy will speak to the summit by video, the president's office said.

He appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face what he says are Russia's efforts to lobby its interests with some partners to bring them over to its side.

We will see who is a friend, who is a partner and who has sold out and betrayed us, he said in an emotional speech.

Together we should not allow to break anyone in NATO, the EU or G-7, to break them and drag them to the side of war.

Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainian skies are still not closed to Russian aircraft and missiles and that hasn't received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth, he said. We have lasted six times longer than the enemy had planned but the Russian troops are destroying our cities, killing civilians indiscriminately, raping women, kidnapping children, shooting refugees, capturing aid columns and looting.

Switching to Russian, Zelenskyy appealed to Russians to leave so as not to give your tax money to the war. Tens of thousands of Russians already have fled since the war began, fearing the intensifying crackdown at home.

(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.)
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy has called on people worldwide to gather in public to show support for his embattled country as US President and other world leaders on Thursday met for talks focused on pressuring Russia to end the invasion that is entering its second month.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy late Wednesday said in English in an emotional video address recorded in the dark near the presidential offices here.

Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

Brussels was the centre of a flurry of diplomatic activity, with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg opening an emergency summit that brings together Biden and other leaders.

The NATO Secretary General said the alliance was determined to continue to ratchet up the costs on Russia for its aggression.

Russia unleashed its invasion on February 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, but instead of swiftly toppling Ukraine's government, Russian forces are bogged down in a grinding military campaign and the country's economy labouring under punishing sanctions.

The Russian stock market on Thursday resumed limited trading under heavy restrictions almost one month after prices plunged and the market was shut down following the invasion.

Trading of a limited number of stocks including energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft took place under curbs that are meant to prevent a repeat of the massive sell-off that took place on February 24 in anticipation of Western economic sanctions.

Foreigners cannot sell and traders are barred from short selling, or betting prices will fall. The benchmark MOEX index gained 8 per cent in the first minutes of trading.

Ukraine's navy on Thursday reported sinking the Russian ship Orsk in the Sea of Asov near the port city of Berdyansk.

It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim.

Russia has been in possession of the port since February 27, and the Orsk had debarked armoured vehicles there on Monday for use in Moscow's offensive, the Zvezda TV channel of the Russian Defence Ministry said earlier this week.

According to the report, the Orsk was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk, about 80 kilometres west along the coast from the besieged city of Mariupol.

To keep up the pressure on Russia, Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provided effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needed.

Biden was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to coordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with NATO members, and then talk with leaders of the G7 industrialised nations and the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.

On the eve of the meetings, nations signed off on another 500 million euros (USD550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

In its last update on March 2, Russia said that nearly 500 of its soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. However, NATO estimates that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have been killed the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released intentionally or not and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance, said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities.

He noted in his televised remarks that Moscow's nuclear stockpiles included tactical nuclear weapons designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

US officials long have warned that Russia's military doctrine envisages an escalate to deescalate option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflected thinking inside the Kremlin.

Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.

Zelenskyy noted in his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defence systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth, he said.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting.

But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea that was seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll was probably much higher.

Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theatre and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Kateryna Mytkevich, 39, who arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she said the city was without gas, electricity or running water, and entire neighbourhoods had been destroyed.

I don't understand why we have such a curse," she 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.)
Almost three-quarters of the U.N. General Assembly demanded aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine on Thursday, and criticized for creating a "dire" humanitarian situation after invaded its neighbor one month ago.

It is the second time the 193-member General Assembly has overwhelmingly isolated over what calls a "special military operation" that is says aims to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has blasted Russia's "absurd war." Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine, millions made refugees, and cities pulverized in the past month.

The resolution adopted on Thursday, which was drafted by Ukraine and allies, received 140 votes in favor and five votes against - Russia, Syria, North Korean, Eritrea and Belarus - while 38 countries, including China, abstained.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight. There was a round of applause in the hall after the adoption on Thursday.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia described the resolution adopted on Thursday as a "pseudo humanitarian draft" that took a "one-sided view of the situation." He again accused Western countries of a campaign of "unprecedented pressure" to win votes, a claim that the United States has rejected.

Ukraine and its allies had been looking to match or improve on support received for a March 2 General Assembly resolution that deplored Russia's "aggression" and demanded it withdraw its troops. That received 141 yes votes, the same five no votes, while 35 states - including China - abstained.

'Astounding Success'

U.S. Ambassador to the Linda Thomas-Greenfield described the vote on Thursday as an "astounding success," telling reporters: "There's really no difference between 141 and 140."

The resolution adopted on Thursday demands the protection of civilians, medical personnel, aid workers, journalists, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. It also demands an end to the siege of cities, in particular Mariupol.

Ukraine and Western allies have accused of attacking civilians indiscriminately. Moscow denies attacking civilians.

The resolution echoes the March 2 General Assembly text by again demanding that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

South Africa had proposed a rival draft resolution that focused on the humanitarian situation and did not mention . Russia appealed for countries to support that text.

The General Assembly decided not to act on the South African draft after Ukraine called a vote under a rule covering draft resolutions on the same issue.

The General Assembly vote came one day after a Russian-drafted resolution calling for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine - and not mentioning Moscow's role - failed at the U.N. Security Council, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.

The Russian Security Council draft was very similar to the text put forward in the General Assembly by South Africa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Emporia, KS (66801)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain this afternoon. High 61F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

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The on Wednesday defeated a Russian resolution that would have acknowledged Ukraine's growing humanitarian needs -- but without mentioning the Russian invasion that caused the escalating crisis.

To pass, the resolution needed a minimum of nine yes votes in the 15-member council, and no veto by any of the four other members with veto power. But in Wednesday's vote, got support only from China, with the 13 other council members abstaining.

The Russian defeat came on the same day the General Assembly started consideration of a resolution drafted by Ukraine and two dozen other countries from all parts of the world and co-sponsored by nearly 100 nations which clearly states that Russia's aggression is responsible for the growing humanitarian emergency.

The assembly was also to consider a rival South African resolution that makes no mention of and is similar to the defeated Security Council resolution.

introduced its resolution on March 15. A day earlier, France and Mexico decided to move their proposed humanitarian resolution blaming the Russian invasion for the humanitarian crisis out of the Security Council, where it faced a Russian veto. The are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the assembly that by considering the French-Mexican resolution, it was engaging in another political anti-Russian show, set this time in an allegedly humanitarian context. If Western nations were really concerned about the humanitarian situation on the ground, he said, they could show it by voting for Russia's humanitarian resolution in the Security Council.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield vehemently objected when Russia announced Tuesday that it was calling for the Security Council vote on Wednesday, saying: Russia is the aggressor here, and it is absolutely unconscionable for Russia to think that they can put forward a humanitarian resolution.

Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsy urged all nations that stand against Russia's war on his country to vote for a U.N. resolution on the humanitarian consequences of its aggression, saying this would send a powerful message aimed at helping people caught in the conflict and ending Moscow's military action.

Russia's U.N. envoy countered that the emergency special session of the U.N. General Assembly, which is considering the resolution, is just another political anti-Russian show, set this time in an allegedly humanitarian context. Nebenzia urged the assembly's 193 member nations to vote against the Ukrainian-backed measure and support the South African draft resolution that focuses solely on humanitarian issues with no political assessment.

Ukraine's and Russia's ambassadors were among the first of nearly 70 national representatives scheduled to speak before the assembly votes on the rival resolutions on the humanitarian impact of the war, which will mark its one-month anniversary Thursday.

Kyslytsya said the Ukraine-backed assembly resolution, drafted by two dozen diplomats from all parts of the world and cosponsored by nearly 100 countries, focuses on the need to alleviate suffering and for "immediate cessation of hostilities by the Russian Federation.

The intention of the initiators and cosponsors of the draft resolution is to ensure the words are translated into prompt actions on the ground," he said. It will be critical to prevent the spillover effect for the entire world" which is why the text mentions the conflict's impact on food and energy security, especially for least-developed countries.

Nebenzia warned that adoption of that draft will make a resolution to the situation in Ukraine more difficult. That's because it will likely embolden Ukrainian negotiators and nudge them to maintaining the current unrealistic position, which is not related to the situation on the ground, nor to the need to tackle the root causes of Russia's military action, he said.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but they do have clout in reflecting opinion.

The Ukraine-backed draft reiterates the demand of a March 2 resolution adopted by the assembly that Russia immediately stop its military offensive in Ukraine and withdraw all its troops, and it demands protection for all civilians and infrastructure indispensable to their survival.

The draft deplores the dire humanitarian consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine which it says are on a scale that the community has not seen in Europe in decades. And it deplores Russia's shelling, airstrikes and besiegement of densely populated cities, particularly the southern city of Mariupol.

The proposed resolution strongly condemns attacks directed at civilians and civilian objects, including evacuation convoys, and demands that all parties protect civilians fleeing armed conflict and violence. It further demands unhindered access for aid workers, including their transport, supplies and equipment.

The South African draft calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities as a first step in ameliorating the deteriorating humanitarian situation and encourages political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means aimed at achieving lasting peace. It makes no mention of Russia's aggression.

Russian authorities maintain they did not start the war and have repeatedly and falsely decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as fake news. State media outlets and government officials insist Russian troops target only military facilities.

(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.)
Iran, under sweeping economic sanctions, was hawking weapons on Wednesday at a Qatari defense exhibit, a surprising sight at the major conference also showcasing American companies and fighter jets.

Tucked away in the far left corner of the carpeted convention center, commanders from Iran's defense ministry marketed their missiles and air defense weapons systems.

The defense ministry manufactures arms for both Iran's military and its powerful paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a group that plays a singular role in the creation and execution of Iran's national security and foreign policy.

The DIMDEX exhibition serves to promote Qatar, a major non-NATO ally of the United States that's home to the largest American military base in the . The tiny Gulf Arab country, however, also maintains good relations with Iran, with which it shares the world's largest gas field.

Iranian representatives declined to speak with The Associated Press. They handed out brochures to an AP journalist promoting their homemade jet trainers, helicopters and hovercraft.

The Qatari armed forces chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Salem al-Nabet, toured Iran's pavilion before the exhibition wrapped up, inspecting displays of lethal merchandise in glass cases and listening to a sales pitch about machine guns. A giant American flag representing U.S. military contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems could be seen hanging just beside the Iranian stand.

Notably, Iran's pavilion cannot be found on the conference map. The country's defense ministry and armed forces logistics remain under crushing U.S. sanctions over suspected illegal weapons trade.

The Revolutionary Guard, for its part, is widely regarded as a toxic business partner for its designation as a terrorist group by the Trump administration, its global reputation for meddling in regional conflicts and sanctions over its ballistic missile programs and alleged human rights violations.

With talks to restore Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers nearing a resolution four years after former President Trump abandoned it, the possible removal of the Guard's terrorism designation has drawn fierce criticism from America's Mideast allies, like Israel.

The U.S. has balked at the Iranian demand, barring commitments from Tehran to stop funding and arming extremist groups in the region and beyond. Nuclear negotiators have yet to reconvene in Vienna.

(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 US official says the will welcome up to 100,000 from as 3.5 million flee Russia's invasion.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement later Thursday.

The White House has been saying for weeks that the US would accept from Ukraine, but officials had expected most would want to remain in Europe to stay close to their homeland or to family members around Eastern Europe.

Refugee agencies had urged the Biden administration to do more, saying the US could expedite the entry of Ukrainians who had already been in the process of applying to enter the through the country's refugee programme or expanding the total number of Ukrainians who could come into the country under the cap that the administration sets in consultation with Congress.

Previously, the Biden administration set the refugee cap for budget year 2022 at 125,000 after it had been cut to a record low of 15,000 under former President Donald Trump.

(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 US would not like to see a rapid completion of the Moscow-Kiev peace talks but hopes that Russia is mired in prolonged hostilities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"It is unprofitable for Americans that this (negotiation) process will be completed quickly. They want to continue to send weapons to Ukraine," Lavrov added on Wednesday during a meeting with students and teachers of Russia's MGIMO University.

"Apparently, they (Americans) want to keep us in a state of hostilities for as long as possible," he said.

The Russian Foreign Minister expressed concern over the delivery of MiG fighter jets and US Stinger man-portable air defense systems to Ukraine, which will pose "an enormous threat, because they will surely spread all over Europe."

Lavrov stressed that the US has used sanctions on Russia as an instrument to maintain its dominance in the world, Xinhua news agency reported.

"These sanctions are aimed at removing Russia as an obstacle on the way to building a unipolar world ... This is not about . This is about the world order in which the US wants to be the sole sovereign," he added.

--IANS

int/khz/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the country's parliament and the central bank's gold reserves, the White House announced Thursday.

At the same time, Washington will increase its humanitarian assistance by welcoming 100,000 Ukrainian and providing an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

The White House announced the initiatives as US President Joe Biden and world leaders gathered in Brussels for a trio of summits in response to the Russian invasion, seeking new ways to limit the economic and security fallout from the conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the day's first meeting, an emergency NATO summit, where he called for military assistance without limitations".

He pleaded for anti-air and anti-ship weapons, asking is it possible to survive in such a war without this?



It feels like we're in a gray area, between the West and Russia, defending our common values, Zelenskyy said during the video address. This is the scariest thing during a war not to have clear answers to requests for help!



A US official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations are discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg opened the closed-door summit with a sober warning that the alliance must boost its defences and respond to a new security reality in Europe.

We gather at a critical time for our security, he said, addressing the leaders seated at a large round table. We are united in condemning the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Stoltenberg said the alliance is determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war.

In addition to the NATO summit, Brussels is also hosting separate summits of the Group of Seven industrialised nations and if the European Union. Biden is attending all three meetings and will hold a news conference afterward.

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there's wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.

The bolstering of forces along NATO's eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will also put pressure on national budgets.

We need to do more, and therefore we need to invest more. There is a new sense of urgency and I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments in defense, Stoltenberg said before the summit.

Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the US wants to hear "that the resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek US help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession," Scholz said Wednesday.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be looking for clarity on how the United States and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiralling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million have fled in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where both issues are expected to be at the centre of talks with President Andrzej Duda. Another significant moment could come shortly before Biden returns to Washington on Saturday.

The White House said he plans to deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.

Sullivan said Biden and fellow leaders would aim to set out a longer-term game plan for what forces and capabilities are going to be required for the alliance's eastern flank countries.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

All the while, national security officials from Washington to Warsaw are increasingly worried that Putin might deploy chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry. Sullivan said the allies would consult on how to respond to potential contingencies of that sort.

Biden said this week that the possibility of chemical weapons use by Russia was a real threat.

Stoltenberg declined Thursday to discuss whether such a strike is a red line that would draw the alliance into war with Russia. I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect and to react to any type of attack on a NATO allied country, he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a CNN interview this week said that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there was an existential threat for our country.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive arm, said before Biden's visit that she wants to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc for the next two winters.

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.

Sullivan said the United States was looking for ways to surge LNG supplies to Europe to help.

One new sanctions option that Biden is weighing is to target members of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The new sanctions would be rolled out in coordination with Western allies.

Biden arrived in Brussels with Americans increasingly accepting of the need for the US to help stop Putin, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.

But even as concern among Americans has swelled and and support for a major US role in the conflict strengthened in the last month, Biden's negative approval rating has not budged, the AP-NORC poll found. Few are very confident that he can handle a crisis, and a majority thinks he lacks toughness in dealing with Russia.

Biden promised voters that he had the experience to navigate a complicated emergency like the one unfolding in Europe and his trip will be the latest test of that proposition.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Joe Biden and Western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine, but their offers fell short of the more robust military assistance that President pleaded for in a pair of live-video appearances.

The leaders spent Thursday crafting their next steps to counter Russia's month-old invasion and huddling over how they might respond should Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon.

They met in a trio of emergency summits that had them shuttling across Brussels for back-to-back-to-back meetings of NATO, the Group of Seven industrialised nations and the 27-member European Council.

Zelensky, while thankful for their help, made clear to the Western allies he needed far more than they're currently willing to give.

One per cent of all your planes, one percent of all your tanks, Zelensky asked members of the NATO alliance. We can't just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.

US President Biden, who was attending all three summits, said more aid was on its way. But Western leaders also suggested they were treading carefully so as not to further escalate the conflict beyond the borders of .

NATO has made a choice to support in this war without going to war with Russia," said French President Emmanuel Macron. "Therefore we have decided to intensify our ongoing work to prevent any escalation and to get organised in case there is an escalation.

Billions of dollars of military hardware has already been provided. A US official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations were discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.

We are committed to identifying additional equipment, including air defence systems, to help Ukraine, Biden said in a written statement after the NATO meeting.

Separately, the White House announced the U.S. would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

Finland announced Thursday it would send more military equipment to Ukraine, its second shipment in about three weeks. And Belgium announced it will add one billion euros to its defense budget in response to Russia's invasion.

At the same time, Washington will expand its sanctions on Russia, targeting members of the country's parliament along with defense contractors. The US will also work with other Western nations to ensure gold reserves held by Russia's central bank are subject to existing sanctions.



With Russia facing increasing isolation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also warned China against coming to Moscow's rescue. He called on Beijing to join the rest of the world and clearly condemn the brutal war against and not support Russia.

But Stoltenberg also made clear that the West had a "responsibility to prevent this conflict from becoming a full-fledged war in Europe.

The possibility that Russia will use chemical or even nuclear weapons has been a grim topic of conversation in Brussels, but a possibility leaders were preparing for.

White House officials said that both the US and NATO have been working on contingency planning should Russia deploy nonconventional weaponry. NATO has specially trained and equipped forces ready to be deployed if there should be such an attack against a member nation's population, territory, or forces.

Stoltenberg said that NATO leaders agreed Thursday to send equipment to Ukraine to help protect it against a chemical weapons attack.

This could include detection equipment, protection and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management, he said.

Biden before departing for Europe on Wednesday said that the possibility of a chemical attack was a real threat In addition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN this week that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there were an existential threat for our country.

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday warned, Russia is capable of anything. "They don't respect any rules, Marin told reporters. They don't respect any laws that they are actually committed to.

The Russian invasion has spurred European nations to reconsider their military spending, and Stoltenberg opened the NATO summit by saying the alliance must respond to a new security reality in Europe.

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there's wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global .



ALSO READ: Ukraine accuses Moscow of forcibly taking civilians to Russia

The bolstering of forces along NATO's eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will put pressure on national budgets.

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek US help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's . Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession," Scholz said Wednesday.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive arm, said before Biden's visit that she wanted to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc for the next two winters.

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.

The US is looking for ways to surge LNG supplies to Europe to help, said Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be seeking clarity on how the US and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiralling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where the energy and refugee issues are expected to be at the centre of talks with President Andrzej Duda.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

(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 of Suven Pharmaceuticals hit a record high of Rs 617 on rallying 5 per cent on the BSE in Thursdays intra-day trade in otherwise subdued market. In comparison, at 10:41 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.13 per cent at 57,608 points. The shares of the company have surged 18 per cent in the last three days on expectations of strong earnings.

In the past three months, Suven Pharma has outperformed the market by soaring 30 per cent, as against less than a per cent rise in the Sensex benchmark index.

The company is focused on the business of contract development and manufacturing operations (CDMO). Suven provides services to leading global life science and fine chemical majors including custom synthesis, process R&D, scale Up and Contract Manufacturing of intermediates, APIs and formulations.

For the October-December quarter (Q3FY22), Suven Pharma had posted 40 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in standalone profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 136.95 crore, on the back of strong operational performance.

Revenue grew 43 per cent YoY at Rs 401 crore, while Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) jumped 37 per cent YoY at Rs 195 crore. However, Ebitda margins contracted 159 bps to 46.1 per cent, while it improved 162 bps sequentially.

The companys board, in its meeting held on February 8, 2022, had given its in-principle approval to evaluate the acquisition opportunity of Caper Pharma Pvt. Ltd, an SEZ unit in Hyderabad engaged in formulations. The company had said it will evaluate the proposal subject to financial, tax and legal due diligence to finalize the definitive agreements.

Focus on research by global innovators has intensified post Covid & augurs well for pharma CRAMS operations, which remain a key growth driver. The company has announced a Rs 600 crore investment  in upgradation of facilities, absorbing new technology & moving its R&D  executable over a two to three-year horizon, benefits of which may be visible in the long run, ICICI Securities had said in a result update.

In formulations business, 17 ANDAs have been filed, however proposed acquisition of OSD facility of Casper pharma and subsequent operational performance in ramping up this segment amid various challenges would be a key monitorable, the brokerage said.
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Adani Power advanced 2.11% to Rs. 132.90 after the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IHI Corporation and Kowa Company (Kowa) for environmentally sustainable generation.

The parties aim to study the feasibility on a modification to achieve 20% liquid ammonia co-firing ratio and extend this to a ratio up to 100% mono-firing at the Adani Power Mundra Coal Fired Power Plant. Co-firing is the combustion of two different fuels aimed at increasing efficiency.

Adani Power (APL) aims to achieve greenhouse gas reduction targets by evaluating the possibility of potential implementation of ammonia as a fuel in thermal power generation that will utilize Green Hydrogen-derived ammonia in the existing thermal power plant. Kowa supported APL by conducting a global survey of hydrogen and ammonia-related technologies being utilised for power generation.

As per the company's press release, IHI Corporation has demonstrated its ammonia co-firing technology at a large-scale commercial coal-fired power plant in Japan and responded to many inquiries related to ammonia co-firing globally.

The parties, will consider the possibility of ammonia co-firing through the studies, aiming to de-carbonize APL's coal fired assets with the objective to potentially implement the technology in other coalfired units within India.

Adani Power, a part of the diversified Adani Group, is the largest private thermal power producer in India.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 218 crore in Q3 FY22 as against a net loss of Rs 289 crore in Q3 FY21. Total income for Q3 FY 2022 was Rs 5,594 crore, down by 21% as against Rs 7,099 crore in Q3 FY 2020-21.

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City Union Bank announced the opening of four new branches in various districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

As per the exchange filling, the bank has opened two new branches in Alwar and Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), and one each in Odhav-Nikol, Ahemdabad (Gujarat) and Nad Junction, Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).

City Union Bank's net profit rose 15.4% to Rs 196.12 crore on 5.7% decline in total income to Rs 1,195.24 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020.

City Union Bank offers a wide range of banking and financial services across India, including both domestic and International banking services.

Shares of City Union Bank rose 4.83% in yesterday's trade to close at Rs 125.80 on BSE.

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Dr Akjemal Magtymova, Head of Mission and WHO Representative in Syrian Arab Republic

On Mothers Day, I would like to shine a spotlight on the extraordinary resilience and leadership of Syrian women  daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers. For the last 11 years since the start of the crisis in Syria, women have faced many challenges, yet firmly continue to contribute to health, well-being and the advancement of their own families, communities and the country at large.

Women constitute over half of the Syrian population. Over six million women are in need of health support. The majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps and formal and informal settlements are women and children. Almost every third family is headed by a woman, assuming the role of a caretaker and breadwinner, thus significantly contributing to the economy, society and family. Women in Syria have contributed to humanitarian efforts, and in the last two years, have taken a leading role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There has been increasing recognition of the critical role of health care leadership by women, though more effective and sustained investment in the development of future female health care leaders is critical. Throughout my two-year presence in Syria, I have seen many women leaders who are ardent about providing live-saving health services, promoting healthy lifestyles, and driving change and innovation in health. Be it as leaders in the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out; leaders in strategic health sector planning; leaders in national, regional and global health research; leaders in preventing tobacco use and promoting healthy living; leaders in health education and family affairs; leaders in polio immunization; or nurses, community leaders and influencers  all these women have gone the extra mile to ensure health for all.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in Syria has mainstreamed gender equality in its programming and together with national and international health partners makes every effort to ensure that every woman enjoys her right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to dignified, respectful health care throughout pregnancy and childbirth, the right to be free from violence and discrimination, and the right to health information to enable women and girls to make informed decisions about their health and to benefit from the services they need.

Through our rights-based and evidence-based humanitarian programming, through resilience and recovery efforts, and through supporting national strategies such as the National Strategy for Women, Children and Adolescents Health in the Syrian Arab Republic (2020-2025), we continue our commitment to the advancement of the health of women.

Some of the flagship areas where WHO makes tangible stride for womens health are reproductive and maternal health, mental health, the prevention of gender-based violence, and the prevention of and response to sexual exploitation and abuse.

In response to the reproductive health needs of women within Syrias humanitarian settings, WHO and UNFPA established and co-lead the sub-working group to enable efficient coordination among implementing agencies and relevant stakeholders in the country. The fertility rate in Syria was registered as 2.7% per woman in 2021, which is a reduction since 2010 (3.4%). Significant reproductive health needs remain in a county with limited health capacity for the provision of adequate services and a severely depleted health care workforce. WHO supports hospitals in Syria, including in north-east Syria, in providing normal and C-section birth deliveries, as well as in the capacity-building of medical and nursing professionals responsible for family planning, safe maternal and newborn care.

The prevention of and response to gender-based violence across the health sector in Syria has been institutionalized by WHO since 2018. We provide critical, time-sensitive interventions that prevent, mitigate and treat some of the health consequences of gender-based violence and connect survivors to services that improve their well-being. Mental health and psychosocial support services are a critical entry point for helping gender-based violence survivors and, as such, WHO has gradually introduced these services into health and community facilities in recent years rather than presenting them as isolated projects. Together with partners we raise awareness about violence against women, promote gender equality and womens human rights and combat stigma and discrimination.

WHO also champions womens rights within its workplace. Our Organization is equally represented by women and men, shouldering equal burdens and getting paid equally for work of equal value. We actively contribute to the UN Interagency Gender Working Group and to the country, regional and global network for the Prevention and Response to Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PRSEAH). WHO is taking the issue of PRSEAH very seriously, and bringing new insights to this agenda.

As we continue supporting gender mainstreaming in the health sector through research, policy formulation and capacity-building, we draw our inspiration and strength from the women of Syria, who together with other members of society, drive gender transformative changes in achieving universal health coverage and health for all. I wish Happy Mothers Day to all mothers in Syria and across the world and thank you for your determination and commitment to build a better world.
Mindtree announced the inauguration of its first development center in Kolkata.

Despite the pandemic, Mindtree has been recruiting talent in Kolkata for over a year and already employs more than 1,000 professionals in the city.

The company is aggressively adding to its team in Kolkata and expects to double its headcount in the city in the next financial year.

Located in Sector V of Bidhannagar, the 56,000-sq.ft. facility is compliant with LEED standards of environmentally sustainable operations, and has been designed as an agile workplace to enable greater collaboration, innovation and creativity.

From Kolkata, the company is providing digital solutioning, consulting, cloud, core modernization, product engineering, business intelligence, data analytics, CRM platform, and cybersecurity services to some of the world's largest retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, banking, financial services, insurance, travel, transportation, and hospitality companies in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

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Piramal Enterprises: A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on 28th March 2022, to consider and approve the issue of Secured, Rated, Listed, Redeemable, Principal Protected, Market Linked Non-Convertible Debentures up to Rs. 50 crores along with an option to retain oversubscription up to Rs. 325 crore, the total size aggregating up to Rs. 375 crore, on a private placement basis.

Zomato: Zomato Canada Inc. (Zomato Canada), step down subsidiary of the company located in Canada is dissolved with effect from 22 March 2022.

Godrej Agrovet: The company has made additional investment aggregating to Rs.25 crore in the equity share capital of Godrej Maxxmilk Private Limited (GMPL), wholly owned subsidiary company, by way of subscription to rights issue and accordingly, has been allotted 7,35,295 equity shares of face value of Rs.10/- each of GMPL on 22 March 2022.

Nelco: Omnispace, the company reinventing mobile communications, and Nelco, a leading satellite communication service provider in India, announced a strategic cooperation agreement to enable and distribute 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN), direct-to-device satellite services. The collaborative effort will expand the reach of 5G using satellite communication throughout India and South Asia.

Triveni Turbine: Triveni Turbine informed that wholly owned subsidiary Triveni Turbines DMCC has signed an agreement for acquisition of 70% equity shares of TSE Engineering Pty. Ltd. (TSE). TSE is registered under the laws of South Africa and is engaged in high precision engineering repairs and servicing of machinery in sugar and other industrial plants in South African Development Community ('SADC') region.

Poddar Pigments: Poddar Pigments informed that the newly set-up manufacturing facility of the company situated at Greater Sitapura Industrial Park, Rajasthan has started commercial production with effect from 23rd March 2022.

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Caretaker Chief Minister discussed the government formation in the state with the leadership here.

Sources said that the meeting held on Wednesday night, which lasted for more than two hours, at chief J.P. Nadda's residence was also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party's general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh.

"Names and the number of Deputy Chief Ministers were discussed in the meeting. We have come to know that both the current Deputy Chief Ministers will be retained," sources said.

The names of Ministers were also discussed after reviewing the performance of the existing ones.

"There are over a dozen vacancies as some sitting Ministers lost the elections, while a few left the party before the polls. While finalising the names, social engineering and regional balance will be also considered," a party insider said.

After attending the swearing in ceremony of the Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand on Wednesday afternoon, Adityanath reached Delhi in the evening to discuss and finalise names of the Ministers for his new cabinet.

The legislative party meeting will be held in Lucknow on Thursday, before the swearing in ceremony of the new Adityanath-led government takes place the next day.

Central observers Shah and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das will arrive in Lucknow on Thursday afternoon for the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nadda, Union Ministers Shah, Rajnath Singh and others, along with the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and some prominent leaders and personalities have been invited for Adityanath's swearing in ceremony.

--IANS

ssb/ksk/

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Former Congress chief hit out at Prime Minister on Thursday, alleging that he does not care about people, workers or COVID-19 patients.

He cited news reports that claimed that India saw an increased number of suicides due to an economic upheaval over the last two years and that Covid patients did not receive free treatment under the government's "much-hyped" Ayushman Bharat scheme.

"Were Covid victims treated for free? No. Did the poor and workers get minimum income? No. Were small industries saved from sinking? No. The PM does not CARE!" Gandhi alleged in a tweet in Hindi.

He tagged reports that read: "The pandemic's hidden cost: Suicides among Indians who lost jobs and income" and "much-hyped health insurance scheme failed to cover hospital bills", claiming that less than 12 per cent of the hospitalised Covid patients were treated for free under Ayushman Bharat.

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Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Best Laboratory in Coimbatore has launched its new state-of-the-art laboratory at Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore.

The Best Laboratory has 2 branches in Sulur and Sivananda Colony which is situated in the heart of the city with easy access, the laboratory strives to serve the clients across the region. Spread over 2400 square feet, the infrastructure is geared to offer the best experience and results.

Prof. Dr A. Nirmala, MS (GS), DGO, Dean, Coimbatore Medical College & Hospital participated as chief guest and Prof. Dr. V.G. Mohan Prasad, MD (DM), Chairman, VGM Hospitals, K. P. Ramaswamy, Chairman, KPR Group of companies, J. Meena Jayakumar, Chairman, Aalam Vizhuthakal & Vishnu Vittal, Executive Director, Grand World Elder Care participated as guest of honour in the launching ceremony.

The laboratory is founded and managed by a team of professionals including practicing clinicians, micro-biologists, bio-chemists and lab technologist.

(https://thebestlab.co.in/contact) The Best Laboratory offers clinical pathology, Biochemistry, immunology, serology, histo-pathology, cytology and microbiology testing services. FNAC tests are done in the premises by an expert pathologist. Embracing technology for the convenience of clients, results are delivered by WhatsApp and email in the shortest possible time.

Booking of the tests can be done through our website and WhatsApp. A wide range of health checkups including preventive checkups for all age groups, disease-specific comprehensive test packages and (https://thebestlab.co.in/contact) master health checkups are available to ensure the health needs of everyone is met. Customized preoperative checkups are offered for surgical patients.

The state-of-the-art laboratory is computerized, barcoded, interfaced, automated laboratory functioning as an advanced referral lab with faster turnaround time and strict quality control measures.

While talking on the inauguration ceremony Dr S. Avanthi, M.Sc, PhD, Managing Director and Consultant Micro-Biologist said, "We are delighted to launch our new state-of-the-art laboratory in Coimbatore. This will enable us to provide high quality medical checkups at affordable prices to the people of Coimbatore and its environs. Founded by a team of professionals including practicing clinicians, micro-biologists, bio-chemists and lab technologists we are committed to quality and excellence. With our passion for accurate and quick results along with a pleasant experience for our clients, we strive to be your trusted health partner in your journey towards good health. As an inaugural offer, we have announced few discounted health packages. We request the people to utilize those offers and we wish them to stay safe and stay healthy."

The Best Laboratory situated at No.1852/2, DHL Building (Opp to Arul Jothi Hotel), Trichy Road, Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore - 45. As an inaugural offer The Best Laboratory has announced 20% discount for all blood checkups and offering full body checkups from Rs. 300 onwards.

And the laboratory provides 24/7 home collection service to its clients. Customers can avail the offer by contacting these helpline numbers 0422 3569969 and +91 8878874858.

For further details, customers can visit (https://thebestlab.co.in).

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on TV on March 24 night at eight to announce the 21-day lockdown beginning midnight. With just four hours left, anxious people stormed grocery shops, medical stores, ATMs and even liquor vends to get their fill. From March 25, public transport came to a standstill, leaving migrant workers in big cities with no other choice, but to walk. So they walked. Moving stories and disturbing visuals of exhausted families -- with children in the tow -- streaming out of metros and walking towards their homes flooded the newspapers and TV channels. And it was just the beginning. The toll that the contagious virus extracted on lives was unparallel in recent Indian history. Official estimates say that over five lakh lost their lives in the next two years. Some believe that the death toll was way higher. The March 24, 2020 lockdown was the first in the series of many which came later. Now, three waves, two years and several lockdowns later, life is springing back to normalcy. And so is the economy. Perhaps one of the most visible and lasting impacts that the pandemic has had is on how Indians, and people across the world, view work and the workplace. While the hybrid model is here to stay, it is going to be sector-specific. For example, companies in IT and allied industries will continue to work in a hybrid model. In fact, according to a survey by Nasscom and Indeed, 70 per cent of IT companies are trying to employ the hybrid model effectively. Flexible work is another model that has gained acceptance. Hindustan Unilever, Indias biggest FMCG company, has introduced a new flexible work model. Under the scheme, employees would have a flexible association with the company, but still receive financial, security, retirement and medical benefits. The worker will get a monthly retainer. In addition, he or she will get paid for each assignment. And, between assignments, they ate free to do other things that are important to them. The pandemic has also left a lasting impact on what we consume and how we consume. The Boston Consulting Group interviewed consumers during the second wave of Indias Covid-19 outbreak. It then compared that survey with its previous one from August 2020. It also compared the findings to data that it had collected during the pandemic's first phase.

The group that there are accelerating behaviours which increased rapidly after the initial Covid outbreak and continued to increase as time passed.

For example, the number of consumers who purchased nutritional supplements and healthier packaged foods for the first time surged by around 30 per cent during the first stage of the pandemic. And this was still rising as of late May 2021.

Then there are sustained momentum behaviours. These include the use of a wide array of digital services. Use of e-commerce, digital wallets, online educational classes, paid over-the-top media services, and free online video apps like YouTube jumped early in the pandemic.

By the time of the second wave, their use had settled at those elevated levels. These behavioural changes are more permanent than others. As a result, the market for these services is likely to remain robust even after Covid. This was good news for the likes of Amazon and BYJU'S.

There are also sensitive behaviours which tend to change in response to the intensity of the pandemic and lockdowns.

For example, relying on online doctor consultations. According to BCG, the strong growth seen in doctor tele-consultations, compared to visiting them in person, is unlikely to continue after Covid.

Lastly, there were transient behavioural changes. These gained significant traction during the early stages of the pandemic, but didnt last. Examples would be online fitness and hobby classes.

The pandemic may also change how we do business.

India Inc, like the rest of the world, will have to re-evaluate established notions about scale and global supply chains.

In India, before the pandemic, and even now, there has been a call for greater integration with global supply chains. Consequently, the focus has been on large formal enterprises that can leverage their heft to play a significant enough role in said networks.

It is also felt that India could benefit from the shift in global supply chains away from China in the aftermath of COVID-19. And, while that will hold true, there could be a more fundamental shift in store as companies reorganize how they obtain their goods and build resilience.

As the Harvard Business Review explains while dealing with the topic of global supply chains in a post-pandemic world, there is a rise in economic nationalism. According to it, manufacturers across the world are going to face greater competitive and political pressures to increase their domestic production and increase employment in their home countries. They will also be expected to either reduce or eliminate their dependence on sources that are deemed to be risky.

As a result, India Inc and the government cannot only focus on greater integration with global supply chains. Instead, alternatives will have to be found and pursued in parallel.

In the post-pandemic world, people will be more focused on striking a balance between work and life. The embrace of digital tools and channels for making purchases will rise, with a heightened focus on health. And, last but not least, a re-evaluation of how and where to build your products and services.

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On Monday, announced a pilot project to deliver food in just 10 minutes. It will kick off in Gurugram from next month. People on social media slammed the move alleging that it will put the lives of their delivery partners in danger, as they will rush to meet the target.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram was also quick to criticize the move, calling it a ten-minute long gamble with a gig workers life. The Lok Sabha MP had recently asked the government to regulate companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola and Blinkit and protect riders who work for them.

Zomato, on its part, stressed that it would not pressure its drivers to deliver food faster. The plight of gig workers who deliver food, drive cabs and provide professional services for app-based platforms has come to the fore in recent times as they increasingly dot the Indian roads.

So who are these gig workers and what is the A gig worker is a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship.

The encompasses freelancers, online platform workers, self-employed, on-call workers, and other temporary contractual workers.

Gig workers get the flexibility to work for several employers at the same time. A gig economy can benefit employees as well as companies. While workers can choose the projects they want to be associated with, companies can manage costs by adjusting their flexible workforce based on the demand.

The rise of the gig economy is driven by the emergence of tech-enabled platforms, demand for flexible work arrangements and focus on skills.

According to a 2019 report by the India Staffing Federation, India is the fifth largest in flexi-staffing globally, after the US, China, Brazil and Japan.

While the gig economy is prevalent among blue-collar jobs in India the demand for gig workers in white-collar jobs such as project-specific consultants, salespeople, web designers, content writers and software developers is also emerging.

Gig workers work on various compensation models, such as fixed-fee that is decided during the contract initiation, time and effort, actual unit of work delivered, and quality of outcome or a combination of these.

India is currently estimated to have more than 15 million freelance workers engaged in projects in different fields of the gig economy.

The gig economy can serve up to 90 million jobs in the non-farm sectors in India with a potential to add 1.25% to the GDP over the "long term", a report by consultancy firm BCG said.

It also states that gig workers are relatively younger and less educated compared to non-gig workers. They typically work for limited hours in a day, with 61% of gig workers working less than eight hours a day, versus only 11% of non-gig workers.
The cost of the Ukraine-Russia conflict is being paid by global economies. The conflict, which began nearly a month ago, has pushed up prices of various commodities. Prices of building material, for instance, have increased significantly in the past three weeks owing to the conflict and supply chain bottlenecks in Australia. International petcoke prices rose 57% in the past few weeks and could rise further if coal prices remain elevated. Moreover, the rally in crude oil prices will also lead to more hike in diesel prices. One of the key users of these raw materials is the cement sector, which has been seeing consistent price hike since November 2021. The sector had exited the December quarter on an already rough patch, marred by weak demand. The geo-political crisis has only weakened the near-term outlook further. On the bourses, too, have corrected sharply in the last few months. The likes of JK Cement, Ambuja Cements, UltraTech Cement, and ACC have plunged up to 31 per cent thus far in calendar year 2022. In comparison, the BSE Sensex has slipped about a per cent during the same period. These higher costs, analysts say, will impact cement earnings in the near term.

Global brokerage Jefferies has cut its FY23 operating profit estimates for the sector by 19 per cent. It said, Earnings visibility has sharply declined for the Indian cement sector due to the unprecedented increase in costs. The industry needs to take an 8% price hike for every $50 per tonne increase in coal+petcoke prices just to maintain its operating profit per tonne. That said, analysts believe that the current headwinds are transitory in nature as likely price hikes by companies will help aid their margin pressures over the medium-term. Besides, they feel the current elevated international coal and petcoke prices are unsustainable in the long-run. Vishal Periwal of IDBI Capital expects cement players to hike price from the April-June quarter in line with the recent increase in diesel and petrol prices. Shah of Geojit BNP Paribas sees as contrarian bets. He advises investors to buy select stocks in a phased manner. ICICI Securities, meanwhile, is bullish on UltraTech Cement, ACC, JK Lakshmi and Sagar Cement. In nutshell, are likely to trade range-bound in the near term, driven by volatility in commodity prices. However, the sector is expected to see gradual reset in profitability, underpinned by improving demand-supply dynamics, better price discipline and cost optimisation and de-risking efforts. On Thursday, weekly F&O expiry back home, and US President Bidens meeting with NATO members will be keenly watched by the . Besides, they will also track the two-day European Council meeting on further cues regarding banning.
During the past two weeks, members of the Michigan House and Senate education committees have been trying to address the issue of the states teacher shortage. Local educators appreciate the acknowledgment by legislators that there is an issue, but if the proposed bills make it to the desk of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the bills will only give a short-term solution.
3 EU Parliament votes to boost EuroGroup !

---------------------------------

After EuroZone Paris Summit's succes, Sarkozy calls to "think anew how to re-construct Europe !

"EuroZone and EU Institutional debates pave the way to 2009 discussions on EU Future, including Enlargment, Turkey etc. ?





23 October 2008



After EU Parliament strongly suppported in 3 successive Votes this week in Strasbourg French EU Chairmanship's move to boost Euro-Group at EU's core, while ideas on EU Institutional problems are awaited on December, "it's an open Question now" if this may lead to a debate on EU's Future, or not, told us French President, Nicolas Sarkozy''s Spokesman, Pierre-Jerome Henin.



MEPs voted on Thursday fresh Funds to support EuroGroup, after adopting on Wednesday a Resolution asking a "further Evolution" to "the 1st ever meeting of Heads of State and of Government of the Euro-Zone, taking decisions in that capacity", while earlier this week a Report asked "a stronger Institutional setting" for "EuroGroup", extended from "competitiveness/industry" to "environment, employment and education", with "increased powers for Political decision-making", according to a text drafted by French MEP Francoise Beres and German MEP Werner Langen, "10 Years after the creation of Euro" (1999 - 2009).



- Brussels' subsequent "EU Council ..(simply)..ratified the measures decided by EuroGroup on October 12" in Paris, which "were necessary to contain the current Financial Crisis", Resolution observes, expressing also support to the new process succesfully initiated by Sarkozy and due to be completed by agreements with USA and other countries at a Global level.



From now on, it's between two differend but parallel moves : EU's delay, and EuroZone's acceleration, that Enlargement and particularly Turkey's controversial EU bid, will have to search its way :



Indeed, EU's 27 expect a "Roadmap on how to deal with the Irish problem" on Lisbon Treaty ratification after December, risking to pass even 2009 Elections and next Commission with the old Nice Treaty of 2000, out-dated and unfit even for 2004's Enlargement...



On the contrary, EU's core launches a real "Economic Governance for EuroZone at the highest level of Heads of State/Government" of the 15, which started in Paris on October 12 and was strongly supported this week in Strasbourg by Sarkozy and EU Parliament.

----------

- "It's a good idea, to launch such a debate ("on EU's Future") in EU Parliament in view of 2009 Euro-Election : Perhaps some MEPs will seize an opportunity", told us mainstream French MEP Alain Lamassoure, former EU Minister and EU Spokesman for France's governing party UMP.



- "All MEPs' debates on such EU Councils are also part of the larger debate on Europe's future : Now with EuroZone, and even more when, on December, Irish Prime Minister is due to table proposals in Strasbourg on how to deal with EU Treaty's ratification", replied earlier to our question EU Parliament's Press Director and Spokesman, Jaume Duch.

--------------------------------------

Sarkozy has formally anounced his intention to open EU Debates on Economy, Identity/Enlargement (i.e. mainly Turkey), etc. both linked to a popular Political view of Europe, since his Historic speeches on EU in Strasbourg, on February and July 2007, when he stressed that "Europe needs a New Renaissance". At the beginning of the French EU Presidency, on July 2008, replying to a MEP, he suggested that EU Parliament takes an active part in Debates on EU's Future.



- Now, in 2008, "Crisis are an opportunity to re-think how to re-construct Europe", Sarkozy stressed. At any case, the Historic 1st EuroZone Summit of Heads of State/Government, which started replying to the Financial crisis,"is a Turning Point : After that, Europe cannot be governed as before, but differently" : People "like a Europe with Strong Will".



- "We must make the System move !", "Europe needs Innovation" and free political debates. EU "Elections are in a few Months", Sarkozy warned.



He invited EU Parliament to fully play its role as "the Democratic Heart of the Europe we want : United, Independent and Voluntarist, because the World needs Europe's voice".



- "It's no more possible for Euro-Zone to continue without an Economic Government" at the Highest Level of Heads of State/Government, who provide "Democratic Legitimity" and can take important decisions, he announced, strongly supported by EU Parliament's Economic Committee which just voted to boost the "Institutional" aspects of "EuroGroup".



Plasticity offered by the current absence of a special Treaty on EuroZone's Institutions "made it easy to adapt the organization of the 1st Summit with imagination, to efficiently meet urgent needs", he observed, on the occasion of Brittish Prime Minister's exceptionnal presence at the greatest part of EuroGroup's Paris Summit.



- "In EuroZone we have the same Bank, the same Money, and, thus, a same duty for Unity" : "By bringing together EuroGroup's 15 members States we suceeded to find a solution and prepare a Giant Plan of 1.800 Billion euros", Sarkozy reminded of Paris' 1st Historic EuroZone's Summit.



Afterwards, Brussels' EU Council followed the move, and USA's Paulson II Plan was inspired from that. "Europe must promote the idea of Global Economy's Refoundation", he stressed.







- "I was frankly astonished when I found, at the EU, a rigid system, where any New Idea was seen from the outset as a sacrilege, while, on the contrary, Europe needs Innovation !", he described.



F.ex. ,"'When we first spoke about the "Union for the Mediterranean", it was misunderstood as something extraordinary.. When later we had the Russia -Georgia crisis, it seemed against EU's custom to act "in the middle of August", instead of staying a passive spectator ! And when, in front of the Financial ciris, we gathered the 1st EuroZone Summit of the "15", some thought of it as a lese-majeste", he denounced.

----------------------

On Geo-Political Principles :

----------------------

- But, by moving resolutely, "EU obtained the ...withdrawal of Occupation Troops in 2 Months !", reminded Sarkozy, observing that Russia "fulfilled its commitments", in the Georgian crisis, where a "disroportionate reaction" from Moscow followed a "totally inappropriate action" from Tbilisi's troops. "It would be crazy to reply by military means : EU should not become accomplice of another Cold War, imposed by lack of cool heads".. as he said.



In future, "the creation of a common European Economic Area with EU and Russia, would also obtain a raprochment on our Human Rights and Democratic Values", added Sarkozy, in a statement which should logically be applied, a fortiori, to controversial EU "candidate" Turkey..



Particularly when, the same week that EU Parliament voted 2009 EU Funds for Turkey's controversial EU bid, ECHR took a series of judgements condemning Turkey for grave Violations of Human Rights, such as : Torture, death of a political prisoner in unclear circumstances followed by failure to conduct a proper Investigation, "enforced Disappearance" of a youngster aged 17, Killing of a sepherd with Tank Shells, persecuting Journalists for articles on "Missing" People, even a former President of Human Rights' Association, (etc)



- "We (EU) can defend our ideas on respect of Sovereignity and territorial Integrity, on Human Rights and other differences ... without confrontation", Sarkozy stressed, on the occasion of Russian/Georgian conflict, reminding that : "we were only 2 steps from catastroph", when a Peace agreement brokered in Moscow prevented, at the last minute, Russian troops' advance towards Tbilisi.



An EU Parliament Resolution adopted Wednesday in Strasbourg on the occasion of Russia - Georgia conflict, outlines a set of Principle which apply elsewhere too, (particularly when EU Rapporteur for Russia and Turkey is one and same person ; Dutch MEP Ria Oomen-Ruijtanen !)



Clearly rejecting any "military solution to the conflicts", MEPs "condemn ..all those who resorted to force and violence". They denounce a "disproportionate military action", "as well as (an) unilateral decision to recognise the independence" of brekaway regions, "calling.. to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the concerned country, "and the inviolability of its borders recognised by all EU Member States". They warn that "EU must review its policy towards" a 3rd Country, "should .(it)...not comply with its commitments", and "stress that the withdrawal of.... troops from the areas ....is an essential additional step".



EU Parliament "calls for the safe and quick return of refugees, (accepted by Russian President Medvedev) accompanied by the deployment of EU observers on the ground", and "regrets ...that ..EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) is not allowed to enter the ...breakaway regions". Moreover, "It's important to ensure that persons and NGOs ..engaged in defending human and civil rights can operate". "Until ...all remaining issues (are) resolved..., and notably the continuing ...Military presence", "relations with the EU ..cannot be fully normalised", MEPS warned.



As nobody likes to be accused to practice "Double Standards", this should be regarded as "Principles" applicable to any Third Country at EU's Neighborhood.. No ?

-------------------

On Economy :

-----------------------

- "When Financial crisis shook US and EU's Banks, without result from the 1st (American) Paulsen plan, it was the common reply of the 1st EuroZone's Summit, involving some 1800 Billion euros, which started a positive move in the markets, soon strengthened by the follow-up of the US Paulson 2 Plan, noted Sarkozy.



- "Europe should not be only on the defensive, but, if necessary, know also how to take an offensive", he said, brushing away hesitationsto act on Economy: - "I'm for a refondation of Capitaliism, but against Speculators, who betray its values" : "Lack of Rules was profitable to speculators, Not to businessmen !" We must make sure to prevent any such crisis in future". "We, the rest of the World, cannot continue to bear the deficits of the 1st World power without saying anything !", the French President said, applauded by EU Parliament. All this needs "a New Global Governance", on which EU Parliament must debate. That's why "we proposed together with USA, several Summits from mid-November", to which G-8, enlarged to China, India a.o. countries, should participate. UNO's SG; Ban Ki Moon, the IMF, etc.



Financial crisis lowered shares' prices even for healthy companies, sometimes to 1/3 of their initial price, so that strangers might buy EU industries for only a portion of their real value, and Europeans may wake up one day with their main industries sold out to foreigners !



That's one of the reasons for which EU should debate about creating "Golden Shares" for States to jointly take Strategic participations to help European Industries until the end of the Crisis, particularly against distording competition, he suggested, pointing at USA's 35 billion $ plan for American Car Industry."We shall struggle for Europe to be able to build Airplanes, Ships, Trains, Cars, because we need a strong Industry", he concluded.



"F.ex. as we did back in 2004, when as Finance Minister, we bought Alsthom's shares for 800.000 euros, and, after restructuring, we sold them for 2 Millions : Help a company and make money is not so bad"...



As for the UK, "when Ireland announced that it would guarantee only Irish Banks, London City emptied from liquidities in 24 hours : It's the EU which helped to restore the situation, Not the UK alone !", reminded Sarkozy to nationalist British MEP Nigel Farage.







On the contrary, in a last-minute attempt for the EU to catch-up with its Institutional delay "before the European Elections" of June 2009, MEPs simply voted a call for a "set of proposals" to be made for the "Irish public opinion" at the end of the year...

- "As long as Lisbon Treaty is not ratified by all 27 EU Member States, there is an unanimous decision to stop Enlargement, reminded Wednesday in Strasbourg the French Minister for EU affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet..

Added to an indirect but clear warning that, without Lisbon Treaty, all 27 EU Member Countries may not have a Commissioner in the 2009 resuffle, MEPS in the Constitutional/Foreign affairs Committees applauded hoping that this might motivate their Irish friends..
Photographer Zhang Xinming documented life in a capsule hotel in Southwest Chinas Chongqing, after being forced to stay there for 55 days in 2021 due to a Covid-19 outbreak. While the iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, which in 1972 became the first practical example of capsule architecture, has fallen into disrepair, the idea of the capsule hotel is not outdated. These hotels have appeared in cities across China to provide people with a cheap place to stay overnight

May 05, 2022 07:17 PM
Fort Hood, TX (76544)

Today

Variable clouds with thunderstorms - possibly severe this afternoon. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High 78F. SW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Glen, NH (03838)

Today

Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 62F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 41F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Courtesy photo A social knitting group, which meets on Wednesdays at the Plaistow Public Library, seeks new members for camaraderie as well as handcrafted donations to Merrimack Valley Hospice. Pictured (clockwise, from front left) are Nancy Thornton of East Kingston, Barbara Donovon of Plaistow, Kathleen Barron of Merrimac, MA and Lois Marra of North Reading, MA. Not pictured: Pat Brodie of Merrimac, MA.
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Rosalynn and I are saddened by the passing of our friend Secretary Madeleine Albright. I am grateful to Madeleine for her great work during my presidency on my National Security Council staff and afterward for her support of The Carter Center through the years. She has been a highly effective and accomplished diplomat and a trailblazer as the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. Secretary Albrights service to our country and world will inspire generations to come, and we extend our condolences to her family and to the many whose lives have been touched by this remarkable peacemaker.

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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.
Netflix has announced I, Chihuahua, a new feature film from Jorge Gutierrez, who is fresh off the success of his critically-acclaimed limited series Maya and the Three, which won best childrens media at the Annie Awards earlier this month.

Gutierrez signed an overall deal with Netflix in 2020 to create films, series, and interactive projects across preschool, kids & family, and adult animation.

I, Chihuahua will star and be produced by comedian and actor Gabriel Fluffy Iglesias, who has done plenty of voice acting work, including a role on Maya and the Three. Iglesias also does a great stand-up bit on doing voice acting work in animation, though such experiences will no longer be an issue with Gutierrez at the helm.
Photo: Contributed Protesters outside the B.C. provincial Legislature in Victoria last weekend.

Heres the fear: If the convoy people get rooted in Vancouver Island, theyll be harder to get rid of than scotch broom, American bullfrogs, murder hornets or any of the other invasive species that have made their way here.

They wouldnt be the first tourists to come for a spring break, fall in love with the place and decide to stay.

Also, doesnt the idea of importing more malcontents to Victoria, the crackpot capital of Canada, seem just a tad coals-to-Newcastleish? Traditionally, Vancouver Island is where the snowy part of Canada shovels its flakes. Out here on the fringe, were already knee-deep in anti-establishment contrarians who not only march to a different drummer but dance to their own horn section. For generations they have swarmed to the Island as though it were doused in the conspiracy-nut equivalent of Axe body spray.

The protesters who honked their way down-Island to the legislature each weekend for the past two months did so again last weekend, though this time they ran into a police presence arrayed in anticipation of another convoy that was supposed to be headed here.

While Saturdays convoy had plenty of out-of-province and off-Island participation, it was not the cross-Canada one whose arrival we have been bracing for since Ottawa protest instigator James Bauder took to social media and spoke of occupying Victoria for months. A social media post by one of Saturdays organizers indicated Bauders group now might not show up for a few weeks.

Convoy types were aghast Saturday to find their vehicle access to James Bay blocked by the police.

There was all sorts of wounded outrage about government unleashing its goons to prevent a peaceful protest on the legislature lawn, which might have been a reasonable complaint if all the protesters had been doing for the past several weeks was quietly singing Kumbaya in the shelter of the big sequoia tree.

Alas, such is not the case. Being intentionally disruptive, using blaring horns as a substitute for reason, is not peaceful protest. Nor is convoying down the Malahat (Highway) in a slow roll, with big rigs swerving back and forth over the lanes to make sure no one can get by. Nor is parading through downtown when your path is blocked. James Bay residents have felt like hostages in their own homes.

Im sure the protesters felt justified in their actions, as all those who take part in disruptive protests inevitably do. The capital is no stranger to those who, emboldened by a seductive feeling of community and a self-righteous sense of mission, act in ways that are as self-satisfying as they are obnoxiously counter-productive.

No one is going to have their mind changed by such actions; on the contrary, if you block the highway to save the whales, our temptation is to harpoon Moby Dick, just out of spite.

By this point, I neither know nor care about whatever excuse the convoy people are using for clogging the roads and making life miserable for the people who live here.

Vaccine mandates, masks, gas prices, they dont like the way the Island votes, the same ill-defined disaffection that allowed Trump to become president, whatever. Doesnt matter.

You can protest for or against whatever you want  really, fill your boots  but once you start treating ordinary people as cannon fodder in your class war, or whatever it is, you have lost the plot and revealed who you really are, no matter how much you gaslight them with talk of love, freedom and Woodstock.

Vancouver Islanders are fed up. We have been through a hard two years, with most of us doing our best to row the boat in the same direction. Go honk somewhere else.

Jack Knox isa columnist with the Time Colonist newspaper in Victoria.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: @jindisinghka / Twitter The Komagata Maru memorial in Vancouver's Coal Harbour was targeted by vandals

More than two months after a charge was approved and a BC-wide arrest warrant issued Yuniar Kurniawan is in police custody.

Kurniawan was charged by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) in mid-January for the August 22, 2021 vandalism of the Komagata Maru memorial in Coal Harbour. He allegedly was the one who defaced the memorial with white paint and handprints.

"VPD officers located and arrested Yuniar Kurniawan in the Downtown Eastside on Monday night," the police say in a statement.

He was charged with mischief in the attack on the memorial which honours those aboard the Komagata Maru. The ship travelled for two months from India to Vancouver with 376 potential immigrants, all of South Asian descent. They were denied entry into Canada and Vancouver and had to stay on the ship for two months in the Burrard Inlet before they were turned back.

When the charge was announced the president of the Descendants of the Komagata Maru Society Raj Singh Toor thanked police, but noted the attack was a sign that more than 100 years after the Komagata Maru incident the racism that caused the incident still existed.

"For the last century, our families have had to live with the experience of being rejected from Canada because of our race, and it is memorials such as these that help us deal with the pain and damage of racism," Toor writes.

"When these memorials are defaced, the painful memories of intolerance and racism come back."
Photo: Michelle Monroe The Marketplace parking lot in Whistler Village was taped off by police after an assault in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 20.

The RCMP is seeking the public's help in investigating an assault that occurred early Sunday, March 20, in Whistler Village.

Police were called to the Marketplace parking lot on Lorimer Road to assist the BC Ambulance service at about 4:20 a.m., according to a release from the Whistler RCMP.

Whistler RCMP arrived on scene and located two men who had been stabbed and provided aid until they were able to be transported to hospital, the release said.

Squamish RCMP were able to identify two individuals who were believed to have been involved and they were arrested and later released pending further investigation.

All involved were from the Lower Mainland, and in their 20s, police said.

A large section of the Marketplace parking lot was taped off on Sunday morning as police investigated, according to posts on social media.

Whistler RCMP led by the Sea to Sky General Investigations Section continue to investigate the incident, and are asking anyone with information to contact the Whistler RCMP at 604-932-3044.

Pique will update this story if more details become available.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion that he said breaks the heart of every free person on the planet.

Zelenskyy  whose video messages have repeatedly riveted the worlds attention  also said he would speak to NATO members by video to ask the alliance to provide effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian onslaught.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europes biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraines government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritizing the fight in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said. The U.S. also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going strictly in accordance with plans.

Zelenskyy appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face of Russias efforts to lobby its interests with some partners to bring them over to its side, and noted during his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth, he said.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has delivered an urgent plea for military aid to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other NATO leaders, pointedly calling them out for failing to do everything possible to help his country.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has left Europe facing its biggest security threat since the Second World War, but also left hundreds of civilians and thousands of soldiers dead in Ukraine, and displaced 10 million people since the fighting started one month ago.

Zelenskyy repeated his request Thursday for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukrainian airspace to protect his people from Russian bombs and missiles  an ask that NATO's secretary general labelled as a no-go.

In the text of his address posted to his official website, Zelenskyy also chastised NATO members for failing to provide a clear response to his previous plea, or subsequent requests for fighter jets and tanks to bolster his forces.

Zelenskyy didnt blame NATO for the war in his country, but his remarks suggested deep frustration with the seeming lack of political will among NATO members to provide Ukraine all the weapons needed to fend of Putins forces and prevent further deaths.

Ukraine is very much waiting, awaiting real action, real security guarantees, from those whose word is trustworthy, and whose actions can keep the peace, reads Zelenskyys posted remarks.

The remarks coloured a day-long event in the Belgium capital that includes three different summits, two of which Trudeau will be a part of: One with NATO allies, and another with G7 countries. All are focused on finding a path toward ending the fighting in Ukraine.

Arriving at the alliance's glassed-in headquarters Thursday morning, Trudeau said NATO members were united in their condemnation of the "illegal, brutal invasion of a friendly democracy" in Ukraine. Trudeau also said alliance members were equally united in their support for Ukrainians who are fighting for the values that underpin democracies.

Canada has provided military equipment and lethal aid to Ukraine along with other allies, as well as economic sanctions targeted at allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.K. on Thursday unveiled 65 new sanctions to cut funding to Russia's military. Canada and its allies, including the United States, are expected to unveil other, new sanctions later in the day.

Trudeau toured Europe two weeks ago, where he held meetings in London, Berlin and Warsaw. He also visited Canadian troops leading a NATO multinational battlegroup in Latvia.

NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance is sending more troops to the eastern part of Europe to bolster its forces facing Russia.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Stoltenberg said he also expected alliance members to accelerate defence spending to confront NATO's most serious crisis in generations.

"We need to do more, therefore, we need to invest more," he said. "There is a new sense of urgency. I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments on defence."

The comments added to pressure on Trudeau's government to boost Canada's defence budget, which according to NATO estimates stands at 1.39 per cent of the country's gross domestic product in 2021, below NATO's two-per-cent goal.

Canada's defence budget rarely increase at the yearly rate that would be needed to meet the NATO target, said David Perry, an expert on defence spending from the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

He also said the government would have to make decisions swiftly on things like fighter jets to replace the fleet of CF-18s among other large procurement efforts that take years to come to fruition.

"There's no kind of easy, quick solution where the government waves a magic wand and we're at two per cent," Perry said.

A Scotiabank preview of the budget suggests the current political landscape makes it hard to see how the Liberals could reach NATO's spending targets in the short-term.

Any new spending would have to muscle space alongside pharmacare and dental care inked into a "confidence-and-supply" agreement with the NDP in exchange for that parties support in key votes.

On Wednesday, Defence Minister Anita Anand made no mention of aggressive spending options during testimony before a House of Commons committee, instead pointing to planned increases included in the government's 2017 defence policy.

Even with those planned increases, the government projected it would fall short of NATO's target.

"I will say that our government has been making critical smart investments into our forces," she said, adding that spending increases are aimed at ensuring the military has "the right people, equipment, training and culture."
Photo: The Canadian Press U.S. President Joe Biden arrives for a NATO round table meeting in Brussels, Thursday.

Tanks, planes, rockets, air defense systems.

Citing a long list of weaponry he said is vital for his country's survival, the president of Ukraine cranked up pressure on NATO leaders Thursday for military assistance without limitations," telling them that Ukrainian forces are in a gray area, between the West and Russia, defending our common values,.

This is the scariest thing during a war  not to have clear answers to requests for help! Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an emotional video address to NATO leaders gathered in Brussels for an emergency summit.

Zelenskyy urged NATO to provide Ukraine with 1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks" and said: "When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.

I just want you to know  the Alliance can still prevent deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from the Russian occupation ... by providing us with all the weapons were in need of.

The appeal came as international efforts to make Russia pay for its aggression and to contain Europes biggest security crisis since World War II shifted their focus to Brussels.

The Belgian capital became a flurry of diplomatic activity as U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders huddled for a day-long series of talks on the wars repercussions, including the possibility of more sanctions on Russia, how to deal with soaring energy costs and the growing needs of Ukrainian refugees, and how to stiffen defenses in eastern European nations alarmed about Russian aggression.

Opening the NATO summit, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war.

Soon afterward, NATO countries extended Stoltenberg's mandate by a year to allow him to continue leading the military alliance's response to Russia's aggression.

Stoltenberg had been due to leave the post in September and had already been appointed as the next head of Norway's central bank. The Norwegian government said on Thursday that the deputy governor will be in charge until he is free to take over.

Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 but instead of swiftly toppling Ukraines government, its forces are bogged down in a grinding military campaign and its economy is laboring under punishing international sanctions.

This is a month now," Zelenskyy said Thursday in a separate address to Sweden's parliament, the latest of many to whom the Ukrainian leader has pleaded for help. "We have not seen a destruction of this scale since World War II.

After a month of fighting, Western analysts say Ukrainian forces need stocking up again with the weapons that have helped them slow and repel Russian advances. Both sides claimed Thursday to have inflicted more blows. Ukraines navy said it sank a ship that had been used to resupply the Russian campaign with armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken a town, Izyum, in eastern Ukraine after heavy fighting.

But in many areas, Ukrainian forces appear to have battled Russian troops to a stalemate, an outcome that seemed unlikely when Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed his invasion force.

Determined to make Putin change course, and under intense pressure from Zelenskyy to do more, Western nations said more help is on the way for Ukraine.

Sending a signal that sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market Thursday, but allowed only limited trading. The curbs on a reduced number of stocks including energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft were meant to prevent a repeat of a massive selloff that took place Feb. 24. Foreigners were barred from selling and traders were barred from short selling, or betting prices would fall. The benchmark MOEX index gained 8% in the first minutes of trading.

In Ukraine, Russian troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

Just look at what the Russian army has done to our country, Zelenskyy said in his address to Swedish lawmakers. A month of bombings similar to what we have seen in Syria.

Earlier, he also called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy said in English during a video address late Wednesday. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

It is still unclear exactly how many troops Russia has lost in pursuing Putin's aims. Russia hasn't given an update since March 2, when it acknowledged nearly 500 soldiers killed and almost 1,600 wounded. NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have been killed  the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate. Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

After Russia failed to take out Ukraine's government with a lightning-quick strike in the first month, some fear the Kremlin could resort to other, more destructive weapons in its arsenal.

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the countrys nuclear force would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance, said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities. He noted in his televised remarks that Moscows nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials long have warned that Russias military doctrine envisages an escalate to deescalate option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin, known for his bluster, did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin.

For civilians, the misery has been unrelenting.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting. But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher. Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theater and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution blaming Russia for humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and urging an immediate cease-fire and protection for millions of civilians and the homes, schools and hospitals critical to their survival.

The vote Thursday on the resolution was 140-5 with only Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea joining Russia in opposing the measure. There were 38 abstentions, including China.

The resolution deplores the dire humanitarian consequences of Russias aggression which it says is on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades. It deplores Russias shelling, airstrikes and besiegement of densely populated cities, including the southern city of Mariupol, and demands unhindered access for humanitarian aid.

The vote was almost exactly the same as on the March 2 resolution the assembly adopted demanding an immediate Russian cease-fire and withdrawal of troops. It demands protection for all civilians and infrastructure indispensable to their survival. That vote was 141-5 with 35 abstentions.

Russia has denounced the resolution as anti-Russian and accuses its supporters of not really being concerned about the humanitarian situation on the ground, saying they want to politicize aid.

The vote follows the Security Councils overwhelming defeat on Wednesday of a Russian resolution that would have acknowledged Ukraines growing humanitarian needs -- but without mentioning Russia's invasion that has left millions of Ukrainians in desperate need of food, water and shelter.

The council acted few hours after the General Assembly started considering a separate resolution titled Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine, which was drafted by Ukraine and two dozen other countries from all parts of the world. There were over 70 scheduled speakers and only 62 were able to deliver their remarks, so the final speeches and vote were postponed until Thursday.

The assembly will also consider a rival South African resolution, which doesn't mention Russia and is similar to the Russian resolution rejected by the Security Council.

The vote on the Russian resolution reflected Moscows failure to get widespread backing for its military offensive in Ukraine, which marks its one-month anniversary Thursday.

To be adopted, Russia needed a minimum of nine yes votes in the 15-member Security Council and no veto by one of the four other permanent members  the U.S., Britain, France and China. But Russia got support only from its ally China, with the 13 other council members abstaining.

Britains U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, called Russia's draft a cynical effort to exploit the crisis which they have caused and told reporters that Russia has consistently misplayed its hand here, and seriously underestimated the consequences of what its done and the international perception of what its done.

Before and after the vote, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield argued about Russias offensive and its decision to even draft a humanitarian resolution.

Nebenzia told the council that Russia's resolution, like other humanitarian resolution, is not politicized.

Thomas-Greenfield countered that Russia was attempting to use this council to provide cover for its brutal actions.

Russia does not care about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions," she said. If they cared, they would stop fighting. Russia is the aggressor, the attacker, the invader, the sole party in Ukraine engaged in a campaign of brutality against the people of Ukraine, and they want us to pass a resolution that does not acknowledge their culpability.

China's vote Wednesday marked the first time it supported a Russian draft on Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion. It abstained on a March 2 General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of all Russian forces from its smaller neighbor.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said Chinas support for the resolution was to stress its call for the international community to place high importance to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and for the parties to protect the safety of civilians.

Russia introduced its resolution on March 15. A day earlier, France and Mexico decided to move their proposed humanitarian resolution blaming the Russian invasion for the humanitarian crisis out of the Security Council, where it faced a Russian veto, to the 193-member General Assembly where there are no vetoes.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but they do have clout in reflecting international opinion.

Throughout Wednesday, the assembly heard speeches starting with Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsy, who urged all nations to vote for the resolution on the humanitarian consequences of Russia's military assault. He said this would send a powerful message aimed at helping people caught in the conflict and ending Moscows military action.

Nebenzia told the assembly that by considering the Ukraine-backed resolution, it was engaging in another political anti-Russian show, set this time in an allegedly humanitarian context.

He warned that adoption of that draft will make a resolution to the situation in Ukraine more difficult because it will likely embolden Ukrainian negotiators to maintain their current unrealistic position and not tackle the root causes of Russias military action.

Thomas-Greenfield sharply criticized Russia in her assembly speech, saying, In one month, Russia caused the fastest-growing humanitarian catastrophes in the world.

According to the U.N., about 10 million Ukrainians -- a quarter of its population -- have fled their homes and are now displaced in the country or among the 3.6 million refugees, she told the assembly, and 12 million need aid and 5.6 million children are unable to go to school.

South Korean Ambassador Cho Hyun compared what Ukrainian children are experiencing to the plight of kids in his own country during the Korean War in the 1950s. It is this organizations most urgent and collective responsibility to stop this haunting replication of the agonies of children in the 20th century.

Albanian Ambassador Ferit Hoxha urged the worlds nations not to forget the responsibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This is a war of one man, in his own seclusion, and who, by his reckless actions, has managed to generate in a few weeks, the biggest ever solitude and world isolation of his own country.

But Russia has some supporters other than China, including Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, who said the assembly once again is seeing an exploitation of human rights issues in order to create a state of polarization and politicization, used to serve the political interests of some.

The draft reiterates the demand of the March 2 resolution for an immediate Russian cease-fire and it demands protection for all civilians and infrastructure indispensable to their survival.

The resolution deplores the dire humanitarian consequences of Russias aggression which it says is on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades. It deplores Russias shelling, airstrikes and besiegement of densely populated cities, and demands unhindered access for humanitarian aid.

The South African draft calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities as a first step in easing the humanitarian crisis and encourages political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means aimed at achieving lasting peace. It makes no mention of Russias attack.

Russian authorities maintain they did not start the war and have repeatedly and falsely decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as fake news. State media outlets and government officials insist Russian troops target only military facilities.
Photo: The Canadian Press People trying to flee Ukraine wait for trains inside Lviv railway station.

Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking thousands of civilians from the shattered port city of Mariupol to Russia so that they can be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

A month into the invasion, meanwhile, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraines navy said it sank a large landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to supply Russian forces with armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is defending our common values. U.S President Joe Biden, in Europe for a series of summits, gave assurances more aid is on its way.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's leaders agreed to send equipment to help protect Ukraine against chemical attack. Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders appear to have fought Moscow's ground troops to a stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry charged that Russian forces have taken 6,000 Mariupol residents to camps against their will. Russian troops are confiscating identity documents from an additional 15,000 people in a section of Mariupol under Russian control, the ministry said.

Ukrainian military intelligence said Ukrainian civilians are being sent through a camp in Russian-controlled territory, then onward through southern regions of Russia to economically depressed parts of the country.

Some could be sent as far as the Pacific Ocean island of Sakhalin, Ukrainian intelligence said, and are being offered jobs on condition they dont leave for two years.

The claims could not be independently verified. Russia has said it is evacuating thousands of civilians of their own free will.

Photos and video after the naval attack in Berdyansk showed fire and thick plumes of smoke. Russian TV reported earlier this week that the vessel the Ukrainians claimed to have sunk, Orsk, was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk. The port was going to be used to deliver military equipment for the Russians, the report said.

Ukraine claimed two more ships were damaged and a 3,000-ton fuel tank was destroyed when the Orsk was sunk, causing a fire that spread to nearby ammunition supplies.

Sending a signal that Western sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market but allowed only limited trading to prevent mass sell-offs. Foreigners were barred from selling, and traders were prohibited from short selling, or betting prices would fall.

Millions of people in Ukraine have made their way out of the country, some pushed to the limit after trying to stay and cope.

At the central station in the western city of Lviv, a teenage girl stood in the doorway of a waiting train, a white pet rabbit shivering in her arms. She was on her way to join her mother and then go on to Poland or Germany. She had been traveling alone, leaving other family members behind in Dnipro.

At the beginning I didnt want to leave, she said. Now Im scared for my life.
Photo: Contributed

Two B.C. siblings are trying to help Ukrainian family members fleeing war find a place to stay in Metro Vancouver.

Anya Frolova and Stanislav Frolov posted on craigslist earlier this week, looking for a one- to two-bedroom place for their grandmother, father and stepmom.

Quiet, peaceful folks who want a safe place to live, reads the post. They have monetary support from their children who are Canadian citizen [sic] and will be paying all their bills.

Hennadii Frolov, 60, Oksana Komarova, 55, and Oleksandra Frolova, 83, are currently in Poland tied up with a visa issue but could be coming to Canada any day now, Anya tells Glacier Media.

It's been one month since Russia invaded the European country. The invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost a quarter of Ukraine's population, according to the United Nations.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died and estimates of Russian military casualties vary widely, but even conservative figures by Western officials are in the low thousands.

"We have more family in Ukraine, but these are the closest ones to us. Weve been listening to what theyve been going through and we had to help out somehow, Stanislav says.

The siblings speak to the trio every day.

Honestly, the biggest thing is to get them out of the war zone, he adds. "The most important thing is their lives, their safety.

The pair is hoping to secure a rental for $1,500. Anya lives in Vancouver and Stanislav lives in New Westminster and they want to be able to visit their family after work.

"We are trying to get something with at least one bedroom so that grandma can have her space, Anya says. Theyre elderly and they wont be able to work and will have to look after grandma.

Anya and Stanislav will be responsible for their bills and food.

"We have to keep them all together as a group and thats what we are trying to figure out how to get everybody in, he says.

Anya hopes that when people see a photograph of her family, theyll want to help.

Sometimes people would react best by seeing a picture to make it more personal. Its not just an idea, it's real people, she says.

If you think you can offer help or have a place, you can contact the family at [email protected].
Photo: The Canadian Press A woman holds two cellphones in this photo illustration, Monday March 29, 2021 in Chelsea, Que. The CRTC has approved Rogers acquisition of Shaws broadcasting services, subject to some conditions and modifications. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has approved Rogers Communications Inc.s acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc.'s broadcasting services, subject to some conditions and modifications.

Among the conditions are a requirement forcing Rogers to contribute $27.2 million to various initiatives and funds, which is five times what the company had originally proposed.

Rogers must also report annually on its commitments to increase its support for local news, including by employing a higher number of journalists at its Citytv stations and by producing an additional 48 news specials each year that reflect local communities.

The CRTC will also force Rogers to distribute at least 45 independent English and French-language services on each of its cable and satellite services to ensure independent programming services are not placed at a disadvantage when negotiating with Rogers.

Shaw's home telephone, wireless and internet services that Rogers plans to acquire are not subject to the CRTCs approval, but are being reviewed by the Competition Bureau and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

The House of Commons industry and technology committee said earlier this month that Rogers' $26-billion bid for Shaw should not go ahead, but if it does, the government should place conditions on the deal.
Photo: The Canadian Press Workers produce medical marijuana at Canopy Growth Corporation's Tweed facility in Smiths Falls, Ont., on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. A defunct subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corp. is fighting a court battle against the Canada Revenue Agency, which fined the pot company almost half-a-million dollars for allegedly growing cannabis on a Saskatchewan farm before receiving a licence. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

A defunct subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corp. is fighting a court battle against the Canada Revenue Agency, which fined the pot company almost half-a-million dollars in 2020 for allegedly growing cannabis on a Saskatchewan farm before it was licensed to do so.

A statement of claim filed in a Federal Court last month by a numbered company owned by the Smiths Falls, Ont. business argues that the tax agency erred in issuing a $434,611 charge, because the company was producing pot in accordance with its licence.

"The plaintiff is not and was not at any time a producer of illicit cannabis products," the subsidiary said in the document.

Canopy's subsidiary, 11239490 Canada Inc., asked the court to waive or reduce the penalty issued by the CRA.

Canopy confirmed the appeal in an email to The Canadian Press, but refused to provide further comment because the matter is before the court.

The Federal Court said the CRA has yet to file a defence.

"The confidentiality provisions of the laws we administer prevent the CRA from disclosing taxpayer information and as a result, we do not comment on the specific details of court cases," said CRA spokesperson Hayley Hanks in an email to The Canadian Press.

The fine in dispute was levied in November 2020, more than a year after Canopy's subsidiary was incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act in February 2019.

The subsidiary said it was incorporated as a cultivator  a company that would only grow, transfer and sell cannabis in bulk to other Canopy enterprises  and had one outdoor growing facility, a quarter section of leased farmland near St. Louis, Sask.

The company said it received a cannabis license effective June 21, 2019, and another licence under the Excise Act from the CRA that July.

The subsidiary noted the cannabis licence arrived "well into" the growing season that year and placed the company under pressure to "produce sufficient cannabis products to meet the demand of the Canadian market" because recreational marijuana just been legalized in October 2018.

The subsidiary said cannabis plants take between 16 and 18 weeks to grow because they spend between eight and ten weeks in a vegetative state, but once they flower, take another eight weeks to produce a mature bud.

The crop the subsidiary grew in 2019 was transferred to KeyLeaf, another Canopy subsidiary, which was unable to process or extract any pot from the plants, so they were destroyed.

The 2020 crop was grown for research purposes and the balance was destroyed. No money was made on either crop.

The subsidiary said on Nov. 12, 2020, that the Canada Revenue Agency sent it a letter imposing a penalty for contraventions of cannabis provisions within the Excise Act that occurred through "the receipt and cultivation of vegetative cannabis plants before obtaining a cannabis licence."

The subsidiary claims the $434,611 fine was the single largest penalty imposed by the CRA in 2020 and amounts to about two thirds of the estimated fair market value of the 2019 crop, if it was salvageable.

The subsidiary maintains it has never contravened the Excise Act and argues it has "not only co-operated but consulted and worked in conjunction with" the government.

"Notwithstanding this context, the CRA chose to impose the same penalty under the (Excise Act) that would have been imposed upon a criminal enterprise operating an illegal cannabis operation," the subsidiary wrote in its statement of claim.
A key petroleum exploration project in Nepal's Dailekh has been stalled as the contractor Chinese team which had gone back to their country did not return in nearly two years.

An agreement reached between Nepal and China should have already submitted the full report of petroleum exploration. However, the Chinese team, which studied the initial phase in 2020, did not return to Nepal after returning home citing the rise in COVID-19, Nepal's Pardafas News reported.

Since then, China has not sent its team to Nepal.

In February 2020, an agreement was reached between Nepal and the Chinese government for financial and technical assistance of Rs 2.4 billion for exploration and excavation, Pardafas News reported.

As per the agreement, the Chinese team was required to complete the first phase of exploration which included a geological and petroleum survey in the Dailekh area. It also required the officials to identify the drilling site in the district.

The second phase of exploration required surveying the whole country to study the availability of petroleum products in the country.

The availability of petroleum products could only be known after drilling work is completed, the report said.

The Chinese technical and expert team, which was scheduled to arrive on April 11, 2021, has shown not returned yet.

Nepal and China had agreed to cooperate in the exploration and extraction of petroleum products in April 2016.

(ANI)
Oman takes measures to meet shortfall in cement demand

24 March 2022

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion held a joint meeting in Muscat on 22 March 2022 with departments concerned and related companies to discuss cement shortage in some governorates of Oman.

One of the local factories suspended production due to the hike in costs of raw materials in the production prices. Almost immediately, Oman Cement announced its readiness to boost its production capacity by 10 per cent to meet the shortfall.

The meeting resulted in taking several measures to ensure the availability of cement in the upcoming period in all governates of Oman, while maintaining prices. The solutions include the ramping up of output from some local plants and facilitating direct import of cement to meet the demand.

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Danville teenager charged in fatal hit-and-run now being held WITHOUT bond; Caswell County man to spend 20 years in prison on multiple counts of sex offenses involving a minor; Group building Mountain Valley Pipeline hopes third time the charm.
New guideline will enhance oversight of research in frontier fields

By ZHANG ZHIHAO (China Daily) 08:11, March 24, 2022

A staff member tests samples of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine at a vaccine production plant of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) in Beijing, April 11, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

A new national guideline on research ethics and governance will enhance China's oversight of projects in frontier fields, including life sciences, medicine and artificial intelligence, aiming to ensure that scientific and technological progress serves the greater good of humankind, officials and experts said.

The guideline also demands that international research projects abide by the regulations of the participants' home countries and pass ethical reviews. Chinese authorities can organize experts to reevaluate international projects that have high ethical risks, it said.

On Sunday, the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued the country's first comprehensive guideline on enhancing governance over ethics in science and technology.

Xiang Libin, vice-minister of science and technology, said the current ethic governance system cannot keep up with China's rapid sci-tech growth, given how some of the country's cutting-edge scientific endeavors are exploring unchartered territories with many uncertainties.

"Science and technology is a double-edged sword," Xiang said. "Therefore, the guideline plays a key role in building consensus, improving public awareness on the importance of research ethics and governance, and mitigating ethical risks in scientific undertakings."

A key requirement of the guideline is that research ethics should be emphasized and upheld throughout the entire process of scientific research and technological development, Xiang said.

Managing sci-tech ethics in accordance with laws and regulations, swiftly and properly handling emerging ethical challenges, establishing a system of ethical standards based on Chinese characteristics, and enhancing international cooperation in sci-tech governance are also among the top objectives, he added.

Scientific activities should serve the greater good of humankind, respect human and animal rights, treat social groups from different backgrounds fairly and equally, properly prevent and manage ethical risks, and maintain openness and transparency during research, according to the guideline.

"No agency, organization or individual can conduct scientific activities that damage social, public, biological and ecological security, nor can they undermine the safety and well-being of people's lives, health and dignity," it said.

Universities are encouraged to bolster education about research ethics in undergraduate and graduate studies. Chinese authorities should guide universities, research institutions, medical agencies, social groups and companies to optimize their monitoring and early warning mechanisms to spot ethical risks.

Violators of research ethics will be investigated and punished in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, with measures ranging from revoking research grants and titles to banning offenders from conducting future studies.

In regard to ethical review of high-risk research, Dai Guoqing, director of the Department of Supervision and Scientific Integrity at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said there will be a multilayered review mechanism in which a proposal is not only required to pass a review by the ethical committee of the researchers' institution, but also several rounds of reviews by local regulatory agencies.

Feng Chujian, deputy director of the department, said the purpose of enhancing ethical oversight is to nip unethical experiments in the bud, so "ethical supervision should not be an afterthought, nor should it be a simplified or perfunctory process".

Zhai Xiaomei, a member of the National Science and Technology Ethics Committee, said the profound respect for the right to life and personal dignity highlighted in the guideline is in the same spirit that led to the creation of China's first Civil Code, which went into effect in January last year.

In the medical experiments, the rights of trial participants should be fully protected, including their right to privacy and the right to make informed decisions, Zhai said. "They should be treated fairly and justly, and not be forced to make a compromise due to their circumstances."

Zeng Yi, director of the International Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the level of research ethics varies greatly among different scientific disciplines.

Artificial intelligence is one of the fields that sorely needs a comprehensive ethical review and oversight system, he said. "There is still a lot of room for improvements in AI ethics, especially those related to personal data and the user's right to know and choose, but this is also a global challenge."

A major takeaway from the guideline for Zeng is the requirement for international projects to pass ethical reviews in the participants' home countries. "This is a big deal because foreign researchers can no longer carry out studies in China that are deemed too ethically risky in their home countries," he added.

The release of the new guideline, along with the country's efforts to improve research ethics and governance in recent years, show that China has begun a systematic building of ethics in scientific activities, which will benefit the country's sci-tech development and open new areas for international cooperation, Zeng said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The Financial Literacy Committee of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. continues their commitment to Service for all Mankind by hosting virtual financial literacy workshop. The workshop will teach how credit works and taxes 101. The event will take place virtually via Webex from 11 a.m. until noon.



Lack of financial knowledge has led many people to rack up credit card and student loan debt, live paycheck to paycheck, and not save enough for emergencies or retirement. It has resulted in people not being able to buy a home or, in some cases, not able to put enough food on the table, said officials. When Americans personal finance knowledge was tested in the 2021 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index, adults correctly answered only 50 percent of the questions.

It is crucial to teach kids personal finance in high school, financial literacy advocates say. It will help students to make decisions about college loans and budget for living expenses after graduation.



For more information contact Constance Bryant at 227-8884 or email piomegapublicrelations@gmail.com.






Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman on Wednesday denied a new trial for convicted murderer Stephen Maurice Mobley after an issue arose about the state using a peremptory challenge to excuse a black woman as a juror in his 2018 murder trial.

The defense cited the Batson case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which a prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to remove all four available African Americans from the jury pool.

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals had sent the case back to Judge Steelman, who said he did not find that the state in the Mobley case was involved in any discriminatory jury selection.

Prosecutor Cameron Williams cited reasons he excused the juror, saying she had indicated she had rather not serve on the jury, she had been on a jury some 45 years earlier in Connecticut that found not guilty for a person charged with rape, she said she had trouble getting to court, and she indicated she might accept a defense theory of "being in the wrong place at the time."

Judge Steelman said he had also felt the woman perhaps should have been excused, saying she was at least 80 years old.

Mobley picked up a murder charge in 2005 and in 2012 was charged with shooting two people at a Brainerd Road gas station with one of them dying. Those cases wound up being dismissed.

However, he was convicted of a Labor Day 2016 shooting on Pinewood Drive that left two people - Jasmine Hines and Rashaud Taylor - dead. A woman who was injured but survived later testified against him.

He received two life prison sentences in that case.
A woman on Normal Avenue called police and said she received a phone call saying she missed jury duty. The woman said the unknown caller said she needed to pay to keep from having a warrant issued for her arrest. The woman said she was instructed to buy $8,000 in gift cards, which she did. The woman said she lost $8,000 because she discovered the call was a scam. The number was an unknown number that called her phone.

* * *

A woman on Grove Street told police her 2005 Pontiac Grand AM has been broken down for about three years. She said while it was not running, they took the tag off and think they may have thrown it away. The tag was entered into NCIC.

* * *

A man called police and said he either lost his wallet or it was stolen in the parking lot between Steak & Shake and Hobby Lobby at 2288 Gunbarrel Road. He said his credit and debit cards have been used. He understands that he needs to get the details of their usage and make a separate report for credit care fraud. Police recommended that he read the website identitytheft.gov and also place a watch on his credit record.

* * *

Police were called to Arlington Terrace on a disorder call between a woman and her son. Police spoke with the complainant and her son and resolved the disorder.

* * *

Police responded to a vehicle recovered stolen outside of Chattanooga on Morris Hill Road. Police responded to the location for a stolen camper that was not entered into NCIC. Police received the location of the vehicle from an auto theft investigator. The vehicle was stolen from Lavergne Police Department. Police recovered the vehicle and it was towed by S&S Towing #2.

* * *

Police met with the manager of Texas Roadhouse at 7035 Amin Dr. who said she had a disorderly customer. The manager said a female by the name of "Bree" got highly upset at the wait times and began making threats toward staff members. After a few moments of a verbal disorder, the female entered her car and left the scene. Staff wished to report the incident in case the female returned.

* * *

A woman told police she almost pulled in front of a car on Mountain Creek Road. She said the other driver blew its horn and kept going. The woman was afraid that she might have made contact with the car and felt compelled to report the close call. The officer looked at the front end of her car and found no indication of an accident.

* * *

Police were called to 4011 Brainerd Road and told a man and woman there to leave. The man left quickly and quietly but the female was belligerent and yelled about owning the establishment, but she complied with orders to leave. The officer spoke with the manager who thanked police for the assistance.

* * *

An officer responded to an open door at a vacant house on East Martin Luther King Boulevard that the neighbors believe to be occupied by homeless people. The door was unsecured and it did appear that a homeless person had been inside. While checking the property for possible trespassers, the officer noticed a gun cabinet that had been pried open. There was a gun lock, a manual for a pistol and three boxes of .22 ammunition. The door is unable to be secured and no owner/property manager could be located. Given the high probability that a weapon may have been stolen, the officer took the ammunition to Property for safekeeping.

* * *

Police were called to Koblan Drive where they found a male and a female on top of each other in the backyard. Upon further investigation it was clear that both were very intoxicated and had previously been involved in a verbal disorder in the backyard before police arrived. Both said that when police arrived the male had laid down on the ground and the female was hugging him on the ground. Through investigation it was determined that no physical altercation had taken place, and both were directed to stop any verbal altercation.
Friday, March 25 is Medal of Honor Day, and Chattanooga will kick-off the 2022 National Commemoration.



Medal of Honor Day has been designated by the United States Congress as "a day when we, as a nation, pause to reflect on the lives and actions of our Medal of Honor recipients, the men and one woman who have been honored with our highest award for combat valor. Those names - - Sgt. York, Audie Murphy, William Carney, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and others - - are woven through the history of our nation and are synonymous with the character traits exhibited by each: courage, patriotism, sacrifice, commitment, integrity and citizenship."



Officials said, "March 25 was chosen as Medal of Honor Day for a reason that shouts Chattanooga.



"On March 25, 1863, the first Medals of Honor were presented to six members of Andrews Raiders.

On April 12, 1862, 24 volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James Andrews, commandeered a Confederate locomotive named The General outside of Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw) and took it northward toward Chattanooga  doing as much damage as possible to the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad line as they went. Out of fuel, Andrews and his men abandoned the locomotive and scattered into the woods before being captured by Confederate troops. All were put on trial and convicted for acts of unlawful belligerency or being unlawful combatants and spies. Shortly thereafter, Andrews and seven of the Raiders were executed by hanging with the remaining held as prisoners of war. For their acts of valor in The Great Locomotive Chase, six members of Andrews Raiders were awarded the first Medals of Honor in our countrys history on March 25, 1863. Ultimately, 19 of the 24 members of Andrews Raiders would receive the Medal of Honor for their incredible acts of valor on that day."How can local citizens commemorate Medal of Honor Day?1. Log on to the Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center [www.mohhc.org] at sunrise on the 25th [live at 7:15 a.m.] and join us Livestream as Chattanoogans place a wreath at the monument honoring Andrews' Raiders, the first recipients of the Medal of Honor.2. Two for the price of one admission all day at the MOHHC. Grab your friends - - corral your neighbors - - bring the youngest members of the family and visit us.3. The Centers newest exhibit, Chattanooga To Challenger, is ready for viewing. Come help the community commemorate our unique place in history as the 'birthplace of the Medal of Honor' and view the most recent treasure added to the MOHHC: Commander Dick Scobee's Space Medal of Honor.

That visual timeline of courage, integrity, commitment, sacrifice, patriotism and citizenship will unfold as visitors tour the Center and each visitor will be impacted by these ordinary men [and one woman] who accomplished extraordinary tasks in service to this nation.



4. At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 25, Sheena Striker, the director of the Hardin County Museum, shares Jacob Parrott's story; Parrott was the first recipient among Andrews Raiders. The Hardin County Museum, home of Parrotts Medal of Honor, graciously loaned it to the Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center for 2022s special exhibit.



5.. More information about other programs and activities are on-line [www.MOHHC.org] and on the MOHHCs social media sites.



6. Fly your U.S. flag and share the significance of the day with family members and friends.



- - - -

Linda Moss Mines, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Historian, is the vice-chairman of the board of trustees and the vice-president, education, MOHHC and the regent, Chief John Ross Chapter, NSDAR.
Axis Research & Technologies, a bioskills training and cadaver lab facility supporting medical device research, training and education, launched its fourth U.S. location in Chattanooga.

Axis invested in the citys health sciences community with an expansive, extensively renovated two-story 11,000 sq. ft. facility in Chattanooga at 1308 McCallie Ave. in the Orchard Knob neighborhood.



To celebrate the grand opening of the facility, Tennessee State Representative Patsy Hazlewood, local dignitaries, including Mayor Rick Nunley of Soddy-Daisy and Chattanooga Area Chamber Representative John White, were present as Axis received a proclamation from the Chattanooga Area Chamber welcoming the company to the local healthcare, MedTech community.

We were honored to have been welcomed into the community by esteemed local dignitaries, said Nick Moran, founder and CEO of Axis. Chattanooga is a centralized hub for Tennessees highly concentrated hospital sector. Establishing roots to adequately serve this pioneering medical community was a strategic decision to further propel health care, innovation, clinical research and medical device manufacturing training and education.



Officials said, "The turnkey lab is purpose-built for the needs of hospital groups, surgeons, training organizations and medical device research companies. The Chattanooga location features fully equipped, spacious private surgical suites, a large main lab, fully configurable multi-purpose rooms for didactic trainings, dry labs, lunch & learns and more. Additionally, Axis offers robust, state-of-the-art, HIPAA compliant tele-training platform for AV, broadcasting, recording and live streaming with capabilities to reach up to 500 virtual participants around the globe.



"In addition to the physical facilities, each Axis location is staffed with well-trained, highly organized and knowledgeable staff who provide unmatched levels of service. In addition, available services include tissue sourcing, specimen preparation, equipment readiness and room configuration. Catering and other on-site custom needs are also offered."



It is our primary goal to allow our clients to focus on their medical education, symposium or surgical training while the professional Axis team oversees every detail to make the training event a success, said COO Jill Goodwin.



Axis Chattanooga facility is now open for on-site tours and to book lab space and training events.
The Baylor community is invited to attend the annual Global Scholars Symposium on Wednesday, April 20, from 6-8 p.m. in the Probasco Academic Center. The symposium will showcase the work of 15 juniors and seniors enrolled in Baylors Global Scholars Program.

According to faculty member and Global Scholars program director Tim Laramore 99, the topics will range from the state of womens education around the world, to the rise of Hindu Nationalism in India. I am excited for the Baylor community to see what I see every day: Global Scholars diving into complex international issues and exploring their role in the world, said Mr. Laramore.

In addition to student presentations, the symposium will also feature art, photography, informational posters displayed throughout the PAC, and light refreshments.

Baylor's Global Scholars program distinguishes students who apply an international lens to their education by studying world languages, taking globally focused courses such as AP Human Geography and World Religions, seeking out international travel opportunities, and completing a Global Scholars project and portfolio.

The Global Scholars Program builds on Baylors commitment to providing authentic opportunities for students to engage with the world far beyond the gates of Baylor, said Mr. Laramore.

Click here for more on the Global Scholars program.
The owner of the Leapin' Leprechaun Irish pub has been ordered to pick up trash for 10 days and complete 20 days in jail by General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom. He was directed to have no alcohol or illegal drugs.

Brendan O'Doherty pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal impersonation in relation to an incident at the pub on March 5. Police said he gave them a false name, then later was found hiding in the kitchen. At the time, he had a warrant on a previous DUI charge.

Police said an anonymous caller stated there were nearly 20 people involved in a fight in front of the pub, including owner O'Doherty. The owner told police there was no fight, but police said nearby cameras did show that one went on.

Police also said that numerous Leapin' Leprechaun employees were intoxicated, including the owner and bartenders.

Attorney John Wysong said O'Doherty was out trying to break up the fight and was "reprimanding" unruly employees at the time police arrived.

He said O'Doherty needed to get out of jail to operate the six-employee business and to help out his ill 75-year-old mother.

O'Doherty told the judge he had been sober for seven months.

After recent testimony before the City Beer Board one member said the establishment was "out of control" and it was given a 30-day beer license suspension by the board.
The International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO) Local 735 has endorsed Boyd Patterson for Criminal Court Judge, Division III.

The group said, "With over 20 years as a public servant, Mr. Patterson has worked in many roles within the criminal justice system.As a delinquent youth counselor, he helped troubled teens overcome their personal challenges. As a prosecutor, Mr. Patterson obtained numerous convictions against some of the most violent offenders in our community. In his role as Gang Task Force Coordinator, he encouraged the prosecution of gang leaders and the mentoring of at-risk youth.

"Mr. Patterson helped establish Hamilton Countys first Youth Court, Juvenile Recovery Court and Mental Health Court. His commitment to establish a Veterans Court for former soldiers suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues highlights his continuing efforts to improve our community.

"Today, as a Public Defender, Mr. Patterson provides ethical and effective representation of Hamilton Countys poorest citizens.

"Over his 20+ year career, Boyd Patterson has seen crime from many different perspectives. He has consistently and zealously worked to make our community a safer place to live.

"For these reasons, we join our brothers and sisters of IBPO Local 673 and Fraternal Order of Police Rock City Lodge #22 to fully endorse Boyd Patterson for Division III Criminal Court Judge. - IPBO Local #735 Board.

Mr. Patterson said, I am honored to receive the endorsement of law enforcement officers, with whom I have worked for nearly two decades. Respect for the law includes respect for law enforcement and their support highlights my commitment to apply the law fairly to all parties.
It seems like most fans are anticipating Better Call Saul Season 6 with a mix of joy and dread. At last, well finally learn what happened to Saul Goodman after Breaking Bad and the fates of others on the show, but theres also something unsettling about that. Perhaps more plot details will arise over the weeks to help piece it together, but in the meantime, heres what Bob Odenkirk has said about the series finale.

Bob Odenkirk | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Better Call Saul Season 6 gets supremely intense

It seems from the trailer that the show will pick up with Saul and Kim Wexler moving forward with the plot against Howard Hamlin. That means its still years before the start of the Breaking Bad timeline. But as the final season, it is expected to connect at some point.

While the show is known for its slow burn, Odenkirk told Deadline that things would speed up some this season. Theres certainly exciting moments throughout, but towards the end, it gets super supremely intense, he said.

Odenkirk seems especially excited about it finally connecting to Breaking Bad, which notably ended with Saul fleeing New Mexico for Nebraska, where he becomes Cinnabon manager Gene Takovic.

I cant wait for the audience to see this, he added on Sunday Sitdown. Ill tell you one thing, if youre a fan of Breaking Bad and you havent seen Better Call Saul yet, you should catch up because in our final season, the two shows, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are enmeshed like theyve never been before.

The ending is one that satisfies him

In the present, Saul continues to work at Cinnabon, but theres a problem: Hes been recognized by some creepy cabbie named Jeff. Saul was so nervous that he considered going on the run again, but then he changed his mind. He told Ed the Disappearer when they got on the phone that this time, hed handle the problem for himself.

Odenkirk previously said he hoped his character would end up in a better spot than he is in Nebraska. But he also knew there was a possibility he might not due to everything that Saul has done.

Im told that the wheels come off in Season 6 and it explodes in a million directions, he told Collider in 2021. That sounds to me like theres a fair amount of violence, but I dont know for a fact.

Though Rhea Seehorn (Kim Wexler) said the final season is devastating, Odenkirk has promised fans that theyre going to love it regardless.

In the end, I like where it goes, he told The Daily Show host Trevor Noah.

RELATED: Better Call Saul Fans Think This Clip Guarantees a Walter White Appearance in Season 6

When does Better Call Saul Season 6 start?

Better Call Saul will return to AMC on April 18. There are seven episodes to begin, followed by the remaining six starting on July 11. In the meantime, fans can find some of the earlier seasons of Better Call Saul now on Netflix. The fifth season will be available to stream on the site on April 4.

RELATED: Better Call Saul Season 6 Trailer: Mystery Man Allegedly Revealed
Ina Gartens marriage to Jeffrey Garten sometimes has fans wondering the secret to their success. After all, they are happily married and have been for more than 50 years. Gartens said their relationship isnt complicated but shes also revealed Jeffreys support gives her freedom.

Ina Garten and Jeffrey Gartens marriage is not complicated

Ina Garten and Jeffrey Garten | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

During a November 2021 appearance on the podcast, Cooking Up a Storm with Al Roker, Garten discussed her marriage to Jeffrey.

Its no secret, the two of you are  you guys are what, I think, all of us try to aspire to, Roker said. Its actually great, she replied.

When people look at that and ask you about it, what do you tell them? Roker wondered. Im sure people ask you, Whats the secret?

Garten replied, referencing the late film director and writer Nora Ephron. Nora Ephron used to say, when people asked her about her marriage, shed say  its three words. Shed say, Marry an Italian.As for the Food Network stars marriage, she would say its two words  marry Jeffrey.

I mean, hes just a sweetheart  hes just kind, funny, smart, generous. He just wants me to be happy and I want the same thing for him, she explained. Its really not complicated.

Gartens marriage means more freedom to do what she wants

Summer holidays call for hot dogs! Instead of grilled, we like ours over an open fire. Jeffrey and I are traditionalistspotato rolls, Guldens mustard, & LOTS of relish. What do you like? Have a happy & safe holiday weekend and give yourself a break, we all need one this year! pic.twitter.com/AGy0kKUzy1  Ina Garten (@inagarten) September 2, 2021

Gartens marriage to Jeffrey comes down to the two of them making each other a priority.

Jeffrey could be in China or Peru  but if anything happens with me, I know hell drop everything and come home immediately, Garten told Katie Couric during a Today interview.

We just feel connected, she added before explaining its the connection that allows her freedom in their marriage.

I think that if you feel connected with someone, it gives you more freedom, she said. It gives you freedom to do whatever you want to do with their support.

The Barefoot Contessa host credits Jeffrey Garten for her career

My funny Valentine Ive loved you for more than 50 years and Im just getting started! Happy Valentines Day! pic.twitter.com/jyFpOFfkiS  Ina Garten (@inagarten) February 14, 2020

Gartens a Food Network star, 12-time Barefoot Contessa cookbook author, and Daytime Emmy award winner. She credits it all to her husband. As she told Couric, early on in her marriage Jeffrey encouraged her to do something she enjoyed.

Im [from] the generation of women that didnt grow up expecting to do something with their lives. I hold it all to Jeffrey. He came home one day, and I was watching TV, and he was like, If you dont do something, youll be really unhappy. And it was the first moment that I thought, Wow, it never even occurred to me.

Garten had a job at the White House which she eventually quit to run her Barefoot Contessa store. The store, located in the Hamptons, became a success. She owned and operated it for decades before selling it in 1996.

In 1999 Gartens debut cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, hit shelves. By 2002, shed reluctantly agreed to host her own Food Network show. Through it all, of course, Gartens had the support of her husband.

RELATED: Barefoot Contessa: What Ina Garten Lies to Husband Jeffrey Garten About
As Supermans Lois Lane, late actor Margot Kidder knew what it was like to work up close and personal with original Superman Christopher Reeve. But with Henry Cavill, there was something about the new Superman that had what Reeve didnt.

Richard Donner hired Margot Kidder as Lois Lane because she was nutty

Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve | Ron Galella/Getty Images

Although Kidder starred in a few projects before 1978s Superman, it was Lois Lane that would raise her profile. But it was a role she almost missed out on. At the time, Kidder lived in Montana but explained that she wanted to further her career in Hollywood. Her then-agent, Rick Nicita, advised that wouldnt be possible given her location.

The first thing I said to her was, You cant live in Montana and maintain a career here. Youre gonna have to fly in for meetings, Nicita said in an interview with Rolling Stone. She said fine. So right away, I pushed real hard and got her a meeting for Superman. Then I called her, and she said, I cant come in, I have a cutting horse class. Cutting horse?! I said, No way. Youre flying in. Youve gotta be here.

Kidder would eventually do a screen test for Superman director Richard Donner. Afterward, Donner was convinced he found his Lois Lane.

I hired her because she was Margot, Donner explained. Her personality flows through when she acts  nutty and vivacious  and thats what I wanted. For instance, without her contacts, she walks into walls. Shes certifiably blind. One day, she put her lenses in backward, and it fucked up her eyes, so she had to work without them. A lot of people squint when they cant see, but Margot goes wide-eyed. That look became part of Lois Lane, and I made it a law that Margot couldnt wear her contacts on the set.

Margot Kidder believed Henry Cavill was a sexier Superman than Christopher Reeve

Kidder worked with Reeve for his four Superman films after she was hired. Although she since retired from her role as Lois when Man of Steel debuted, she still paid attention to Zack Snyders Superman project. Cavill, in particular, caught Kidders eye, who she couldnt help but compare to her late co-star. When discussing Cavill to MTV News, Kidder believed that the Mission Impossible actor had something that Reeve lacked.

Oh my god, hes heaven. Hes heaven! Hes got a sexuality! As wonderful as Christopher Reeve was  and he was wonderful and perfect  he was not exactly a big steaming heap of sexuality. And this Cavill really is. I loved him on The Tudors. I couldnt get enough of him, Kidder gushed.

Margot Kidder was not a fan of the new Superman

Kidder may have had high hopes for Cavill, but she wasnt a fan of how The Witcher stars Superman was portrayed.

I think there was a cynical decision on the part of the studios, which are now owned by multi-national conglomerates just like everything else on the planet, she once said in an interview with Heyuguys. So they would make these artistic decisions by non-artists  guys would want to hit the millennial demographic because they literally make up about one-quarter of the population.

But to Kidder, focusing on the millennial demographic hurt the story.

Probably, my guess is what happened is when they decided to hit the demographic of the millennials in the later films. I think the directors were good, the actors were good but the basic approach wasnt there, she added.

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Denzel Washington continues to impress audiences with his tremendous performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth. However, some audiences wonder what made the actor decide to turn to material from William Shakespeare for his latest role. Washington revealed the three great reasons for why he decided to sign on for The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Denzel Washington plays Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth

Denzel Washington | Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Tragedy of Macbeth follows a Scottish lord named Macbeth (Washington). He encounters a trio of witches (Kathryn Hunter), who informs him that he will one day become the King of Scotland. His wife, Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand), is eager to support her husband in his rise to power. However, not everything is as it seems.

Joel Coen wrote and directed the film, which is an adaptation of Shakespeares iconic play. McDormand previously performed in stage performances and ultimately convinced Coen to collaborate on bringing the story to the big screen. The Tragedy of Macbeth certainly works as an actors piece for talented folks such as Washington and McDormand.

Denzel Washington decided to join The Tragedy of Macbeth because of Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, and Shakespeare

Variety interviewed Washington to discuss his work on The Tragedy of Macbeth. He talked about his pre-existing relationship with the material and what it took to bring his version of Macbeth to life.

Washington explained that he never saw a full production of Macbeth, except for bits and pieces of a television performance. He intentionally didnt seek out previous iterations of the characters, as he didnt want them to influence his own performance.

Variety revealed that Washington decided to join The Tragedy of Macbeth for three reasons  Coen, McDormand, and the ability to star in a Shakespeare-related film. This is truly a powerhouse trio that certainly brings authenticity to the film.

We had the luxury of almost four weeks of rehearsal, Washington said. So we got to rehearse it like a play, which was great. It felt quite comfortable because it felt like a stage. That made it easier, I think.

McDormand views this project as being something greater than another Shakespearan film adaptation. Rather, its the collaboration between the trio that truly brings it to life.

I dont want to sound like Im patting us on the back, but the three of us are at the top of our game, McDormand said. If you keep doing one thing long enough, you get better. Thats what we should be modeling for our younger colleagues. And Denzel is one of the best that has ever been.

The actor earned his 9th Oscar nomination

King amongst men. Denzel Washington nominated for Actor in a Leading Role for The Tragedy of Macbeth #Oscars pic.twitter.com/9yhHcV35EB  A24 (@A24) February 8, 2022

Washington earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work in The Tragedy of Macbeth. This marks his ninth Oscar nomination. Meanwhile, he has two Oscar wins. He previously won for 1989s Glory and 2001s Training Day. If he wins again, it will mark his third win.

The Tragedy of Macbeth also earned Oscar nominations for Best Achievement in Production Design and Best Achievement in Cinematography. Variety noted that McDormand views the film as an act of passing the baton to a new generation of Shakespearan lovers, but will it be enough to score an Oscar?

RELATED: The Tragedy of Macbeth: Joel Coen Explains Why the Coen Brothers Split Ways
Even among Sir Kenneth Branaghs storied career, the semi-autobiographical Belfast is an accomplishment. He wrote, produced, and directed the film, which earned seven nominations at the 2022 Academy Awards.

Branagh earned or is part of three of those seven Oscar nominations: Best director, best original screenplay, and best picture. But the eight-time Oscar nominee might not be able to be in attendance to pick up a statue should he win. A recent coronavirus (COVID-19) positive could lead to him missing the ceremony. So what happens then?

Branagh and Belfast star Ciaran Hinds had recent coronavirus-positive tests

Sir Kenneth Branagh (L) and actor Ciaran Hinds | Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

The Producers Guild Awards are one stop along the path to Oscars, and young Belfast star Jude Hill revealed Branagh and Hinds positive tests at the March 19 ceremony, as reported by the Belfast Telegraph. Hill indicated he was the only cast member able to attend the PGAs. The Telegraph reported Branaghs and Hinds last public appearance together came on March 13 at the BAFTAs, which saw several entertainers test positive in the days after the event, per Vulture.

Both Branagh and Hinds are isolating, but Branaghs positive test will force him to miss the Oscar Wilde Awards on March 24. If they want to avoid watching the Academy Awards online or on TV, they need to pass Californias coronavirus protocols.

Californias coronavirus restrictions

Sir Kenneth Branagh, director of the Oscar-nominated film Belfast, has tested positive for Covid-19 days before the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. https://t.co/NjqdkJh5Gk  BBC News NI (@BBCNewsNI) March 22, 2022

The Dolby Theater in Hollywood is the site of the Oscars, so anyone attending  or hoping to, in the case of Branagh and Hinds  needs to follow California coronavirus guidelines.

The Golden State has no travel restrictions, per its COVID-19 website, but it follows CDC guidelines and mandates that all non-U.S. citizens be vaccinated.

The strict rules pertaining to large gatherings expire April 1, but until then, anyone attending the Oscars (or any indoor event with 1,000 or more people) needs to:

Provide proof they are fully vaccinated, or

Have received a negative test, and

Provide identification at the door.

For Branagh and Hinds need to test negative within one or two days (for an antigen test and PCR test, respectively) to attend the Academy Awards.

What happens if Branagh cant attend and wins an Oscar?

Some Oscar nominees of the past have refused to attend the ceremony. Paul Newman, Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Woody Allen refused to attend at one time or another, as Today.com notes.

Marlon Brando is the closest comparison to a nominee not attending because of a viral infection in a pandemic. He declined to attend in 1973 and sent native American Sacheen Littlefeather in his place. When he won for best actor, she refused the award and gave a speech in his stead.

The circumstances arent exactly the same, but if Branagh has his name called as the winner for any of his awards, he could ostensibly have Belfast stars Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, or Caitriona Balfe accept on his behalf. Or perhaps producers Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik, or Tamar Thomas could take the stage in his stead.

Belfasts Oscar odds

Branagh has eight Oscar nominations, including the three nominations for Belfast, but he has yet to win one. He has solid odds to break through at the 2022 Academy Awards.

The film has the second-to-best odds, at +130 (bet $100 to win $130), to win for best original screenplay. Licorice Pizza has the best odds at +100 with Dont Look Up No. 3 at +500, so its a close two-film race for the prize.

Belfast has +1,400 odds to win best picture, but The Power of the Dog (-155) and CODA (+130) are the frontrunners. Power of the Dog director Jane Campion (-5,000) is the clear frontrunner for best director ahead of Steven Spielberg (+1,400) and Branagh (+1,600).

Branagh has a real shot at winning for best screenplay, and the real gamble might be guessing who might accept on his behalf if hes not there.

Odds courtesy of Vegas Insider as of March 23, 2022.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are currently on a tour of the Caribbean. The couple recently visited Belize and are now in Jamaica.

However, this trip has attracted some controversies. In fact, some commentators even believe that it might end up backfiring on the royal family.

Kate Middleton and Prince William in Jamaica in 2022 | Karwai Tang/WireImage

Some people in Jamaica protested the Cambridges visit

On March 22, William and Kate arrived in Jamaica after leaving Belize. During the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges arrival, protestors gathered in the capital city of Kingston to voice their disapproval for the royal family.

The protestors called on the United Kingdom to formally apologize for the British Empires treatment of enslaved Africans in Jamaica. The protest also has support from many prominent leaders in the country, who previously wrote a letter demanding these same things.

Additionally, there are reports that Jamaica, which is currently part of the Commonwealth, could be taking steps toward removing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, as some former colonies have done.

It is important as we turn 60 years old as an independent nation that we stand as adults on solid ethical, moral and human justice grounds to say to Britain, who was once our parent, that you have done wrong in enriching yourselves off of chattel slavery and colonialism, Nora Blake, an organizer of the protest, told The Independent. Morally this requires an apology, and it is only just that reparations be made.

The tour might backfire on the royal family, commentators say

Prince William and Kate's tour to Jamaica met with protests, demands for apology https://t.co/l0UfTi5mQ9  ABC News (@abcnews) March 22, 2022

RELATED: Prince Harrys Relationship With Prince William Still Has Not Recovered 1 Year After the Oprah Interview, Expert Says

Although William and Kate were still given a warm visit at the airport, some onlookers believe this tour of Jamaica might end up backfiring on the royal family.

Interesting watching that stuff about Jamaica that you feel that the Royal Family wanted the golden couple to go to try and publicise the monarchy and improve relations and to send them there on a touchy-feely handshake mission, host Martin Lewis said on Good Morning Britain (via Express). And actually, they may well have crystallised opposition to the monarchy and crystallise opposition to having them as heads of states in Jamaica when they went.

Co-host Susanna Reid added, And might have hastened a referendum on whether to become a republic.

Lewis then commented that, instead of getting a PR win, the trip could become a PR gaffe.

Prince William later addressed slavery in a speech

Duke of Cambridge expresses 'profound sorrow' for slave trade but stops short of full apology https://t.co/DpsMKEN7q6  Sky News (@SkyNews) March 24, 2022

On March 23, William and Kate attended a state dinner in Jamaica, where the duke gave a speech and addressed the appalling atrocity of slavery in the Americas.

I strongly agree with my father, The Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history, William said (via Daily Mail), referring to a speech Prince Charles made in November 2021 when Barbados removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state.

William continued, I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened. While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude. The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit. It is this same spirit that spurred on the Windrush generation, who came to the United Kingdom to help rebuild after the Second World War.

He added, We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton had a scuba diving adventure while visiting Belize during their royal tour of the Caribbean. A body language expert shared some insight into the couples expressions and gestures during their underwater exploration.

Prince William and Kate Middleton | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Prince William and Kate Middleton went swimming with the sharks in Belize

On March 22, William and Kate took to Instagram and Twitter to post a video of their diving adventure.

Belize is home to the second largest barrier reef in the world. While the effects of climate change are evident, the Government of Belize and communities across the country deserve huge recognition for their efforts to restore this incredible marine environment  with a commitment to protect 30% of it by 2030, the caption explained.



On Sunday, we were lucky enough to spend time diving at South Water Caye, directly above the spectacular Belize Barrier Reef, the caption added. It was a privilege to see for ourselves the world-leading ocean conservation work being done here.

The video footage included some highlights of their dive in Belize, as they jumped from a boat into the depths and encountered sharks and colorful fish. Both Kate and William are seen swimming and pointing out various interesting aspects underwater and giving the OK hand signal to each other. The video ends with the two popping their heads out of the water.

William pointed out Belizes work on marine protection

In a voiceover, William explained, Its really fantastic to see the underwater environment here in Belize and what wonderful work theyve been doing to protect the coral and the fish life.

He continued, Belizes work on marine protection is world-leading which is crucial when youre protecting the worlds second-largest barrier reef. In fact, its a UNESCO world heritage site.

Its clear to see that Belizeans value their environment whether its the marine environment or the land environment, Prince William added. Its great to see that their commitments are going further and further and we should support them and value their efforts to protect both the marine and the land environments.

While the effects of climate change are evident, the Government of Belize and communities across the country deserve huge recognition for their efforts to restore this incredible marine environment  with a commitment to protect 30% of it by 2030. (2/3) pic.twitter.com/pgSzOUcQgp  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 22, 2022

Body language expert analyzes Prince William and Kate Middletons romantic dive

Body language expert Judi James analyzed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges dive video and shared her insight with Express. This is such powerful footage, watching an heir to the throne and his wife apparently diving in among sharks, highlighting the campaign about climate change while looking calm, relaxed and also undeniably romantic as they do so, she explained.

Using body language to communicate with one another, Kate and William look fearless here as they swim about the barrier reef, James noted. Kate uses an OK hand signs and then some other specific gesticulation to show they must have had training and preparation to get this right.

James pointed out how the couples very relaxed body language as they swim shows they are as entranced as the people watching this video.

Even the way the video ends with the two emerging from the water is a sweet moment, according to the expert. The ending had been made to look romantic too, James shared. The couple emerge at the surface close up and almost face-to-face, suggesting they had swum up there together and possibly hand-in-hand.

RELATED: Prince William and Kate Middletons Playful Exchange and Body Language During Video Call Proves Theyre Really Tight, Expert Shares
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sent shockwaves through the monarchy when they decided to step down as senior royals in 2020. The reaction to their decision among other members of the royal family and Queen Elizabeth IIs choice to hold a closed-door summit have been reported on extensively. However, something Prince Philip said at that time about Meghan has come to light recently.

Heres what the Duke of Edinburgh reportedly told one of his aides about everyone being wrong about Meghan all along.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and Prince Philip standing outside Church of St. Mary Magdalene following Christmas Day Service in 2017 | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Prince Philip was very fond of Meghan at first

Its been reported that in the early days of Meghan and Harrys relationship, Philip became very fond of the former Suits star after speaking with her.

A source previously revealed that Meghan really impressed the royal family patriarch after she showed an interest in learning about his ancestors and heritage.

Meghan asked a lot of questions, about Philips side of the family and his connection to Greece, the insider told Express. The source added that Prince Philip warmed up to her after that, The Duke of Edinburgh really got on with her. The reason he liked her was because she was very bold.

Philip was upset after Meghan and Prince Harry stepped down, and later admitted to being wrong about the duchess

Prince Philip dressed in a suit for his granddaughter Princess Eugenies wedding to Jack Brooksbank | Alastair Grant  WPA Pool/Getty Images

Philips view of Meghan changed, however, following the Sussexes sudden exit from royal life as that is said to be something that really upset Harrys grandfather.

Express noted that biographer Christopher Andersen, who authored several books including Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan, wrote what Philip reportedly told one of his aides after he heard about the duke and duchesss plans.

Andersen relayed the story in his book and quoted Philips staffer telling him that the Duke of Edinburgh said: This shows a complete lack of respect. The aide added that Philip then told the queen: It appears as if we were wrong about her [Meghan] all along.

Meghan and Harry paid tribute to Prince Philip with their childrens names

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shared the first photo of their daughter Lilibet in their 2021 Christmas card https://t.co/lbTn0YVFpr pic.twitter.com/FGbsguQzO6  BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) December 23, 2021

Prince Philip died on April 9, 2021, at the age of 99. Six days before what would have been his 100th birthday, Meghan and Harry welcomed their daughter Lilibet.

Their daughters unique name is what Queen Elizabeth was called by some of the people closest to her over the years. Because Prince Philip was also among those who called his wife that, its thought that the Sussexes were honoring him as well by giving their little one that name.

Lili does in fact carry one of Prince Philips other names too. Just like her big brother, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor has her great-grandfathers adopted surname at the end of her full name.

RELATED: Royal Author Says Prince Philip Thinks Meghan Markle Is as Destructive as Wallis Simpson
The Young and the Restless will be welcoming Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) home soon. Fans said goodbye to the character and his portrayer when they left Genoa City in August 2021. Yet, viewers will be seeing more of Kyle very soon.

Michael Mealor I Johnny Vy/CBS via Getty Images

The Young and the Restless star Michael Mealor returns after signing new contract

Mealor made his The Young and the Restless debut in March 2018. The actor won rave reviews for his performance as Jack Abbotts (Peter Bergman) youngest son. Kyles romance with Summer Newman (Hunter King) made them a super couple as fans rooted for the young lovers to be together.

From every engagement and every heart break, whether you were #KOLA or #SKYLE, yall were along for the rollercoaster. Thank you @youngandrestlesscbs, @cbstv and @sony for trusting me with this incredible character. Thank you for allowing me to be your Kyle Abbott. So much love! pic.twitter.com/zHGrWHPX3g  Michael Mealor (@Michael_Mealor) July 13, 2021

RELATED: The Young and the Restless Fans Want a Happy Ending For Departing Kyle and Summer

After three years, Mealor and his co-star King left in August 2021 after failing to negotiate a new contract. The two made a brief return in October for Victoria Newmans (Amelia Heinle) wedding, and recently Kyle was seen in a video chat with his dad. But Kyle will be back full-time in Genoa City.

According to Soap Opera Digest, Mealor has signed a new contract with the show. Given a recent storyline shocker, Kyles return is coming at the right time.

Kyle Abbott reunites with his presumed dead mother Diane Jenkins

The Young and the Restless pull out the big guns with their storylines. Earlier this week, viewers learned Diane Jenkins (Susan Walters) is Jacks mystery texter and is involved in his story with Allie Nguyen (Kelsey Wang). Dianes appearance came as a shock because she was killed by Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) in 2011.

Dianes return will undoubtedly surprise everyone in Genoa City, including Kyle. Growing up without his mother was difficult, and Diane missed out on many of his milestones. She wasnt around for his wedding to Summer or to meet her grandson Harrison Locke (Kellen Enriquez). Kyle will be stunned to learn his mother is alive, and hell have many questions for her.

While Kyle will be happy to have his mom back, not everyone will be thrilled with her reappearance. Kyles mother-in-law Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford), will have a lot to say about the situation.

Summer Newman joins Kyle Abbott in Genoa City

Kyles return to Genoa City wont be complete without his wife, Summer. The couple moved to Italy because of Summers new job as a handbag designer. But the couple will uproot their lives again now that Diane is back.

However, Kyles plans for a new life in Genoa City wont be without drama. Diane and Phyllis will be reigniting their old rivalry, thus leaving Kyle and Summer stuck in the middle. The couple will choose sides in their mothers feud, which will lead to tension between them.

So it looks like Dianes return may not be a happy one for Kyle.

RELATED: The Young and the Restless: Fans Wonder if Tara Will Ever Return
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In Sydney this week, Hillsong megachurch founder and senior pastor Brian Houston resigned in light of a pending court case and following revelations of pastoral misconduct.

The court case pertains to Houstons alleged concealment of his father sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand in the 1970s. Although Houston removed his father from ministry, reported him to denominational authorities, and has publicly acknowledged that the abuse took place, New South Wales state police claim that Houston knew information relating to the sexual abuse of a young male in the 1970s and failed to bring that information to the attention of police.

The trial is scheduled for October this year.

More recently, the Hillsong global board wrote an email to members about two complaints against Houston. The first, which took place ten years ago, involved inappropriate text messages from Pastor Brian [Houston] to a member of staff, which subsequently resulted in the staff member resigning. This indiscretion was explained as the accidental result of Houston being under the influence of sleeping tablets.

The second complaint took place in 2019 when Houston knocked on the door of a hotel room with a female occupant and spent a significant amount of time in the room. Similar to the other case, his behavior was explained away as the unfortunate result of anti-anxiety medication mixing with alcohol in his system.

Hillsong has made a significant international impact by planting churches all over the world and taking Pentecostalism into the digital age. But with success comes the temptation to do anything to keep the machine running, protect the minister and the ministry, and maintain the rivers of money flowing ineven if it means turning a blind eye to indiscretions or giving excuses for the inexcusable.

What I find disappointing are the explanations for Houstons actions. While medication can adversely affect a persons mental state, it is never a justification for inappropriate behavior. These excuses ring hollow, especially for victims of sexual harassment.

One obvious issue, rightly noted by the Hillsong board, is that Hillsongs governance model has historically placed significant control in the hands of the senior pastor. Freighting one person with authority is not indicative of a healthy leadership culture. We would do well, then, to reflect on which model of church governance and which style of leadership are more conducive to transparency and accountability.

As biblical scholar Andy Judd suggests, we should always ask, Where is power distributed? how are decisions made and reviewed? and what happens next when a leader is forced to move on?

But more important than leadership structures is a persons character. The biblical qualifications for a pastor dont rely on clicks, downloads, book sales, revenue, conference circuits, the number of bums in pews, or how many celebrities attend your church.

Instead, they require a pastor to be above reapproach and self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money (1 Tim. 3:23). Jesus taught that the greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matt 23:1112).

During my time in seminary, I joined a wonderful Bible-believing church, and when I was being considered for a place as a pastoral intern, I met with one of the pastors. Having known me only for a little while, he was optimistic about my potential but wisely cautious about my character.

He said, I know youre gifted, but I dont know if youre godly. Those words have stuck with me ever since.

There is a differencea big onebetween being gifted and being godly. Its the difference between the show you can put on and what desires you harbor in your heart, between what you do on stage and what you do when you think nobody is watching you.

The events surrounding Houston are a reminder that the evangelical world needs leaders who demonstrate Christlike character, not simply public confidence; who grow disciples, not groom sycophants; who see themselves as naked before Christ, not robed in the prestige of their platforms. We need leaders who know that when success becomes an idol, cover-ups become a sacrament.

Michael Bird (PhD University of Queensland) is academic dean and lecturer in New Testament at Ridley College in Melbourne.

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More than 5.2 million children around the world have lost a caregiver to COVID-19, according to a new report released by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal.

The number of newly bereaved children increased so rapidly between March 2020 and October 2021, experts in Christian orphan-care ministries can compare the crisis only to the one caused by HIV/AIDS, which has orphaned a total of 16.5 million people since the 1980s. The response, they hope, will be as earnest as it was in response to AIDSbut different.

Orphan-care ministries see the current crisis as an opportunity to fully turn away from institutionalization, throwing all their support to a family-care model.

Weve learned from the past, Elli Oswald, executive director of the Faith to Action Initiative, told CT. We know that residential care facilities, orphanages, and childrens homes are only Band-Aid responses that dont address the real challenges that children and families are facingand in fact they can cause more trauma and harm to children.

In the 19th century, Christian organizations built orphanages as a swift solution to the dire need of abandoned and neglected children. American Protestants funded orphanages around the world, and Christians became the primary provider of orphan care. What might have been seen as a temporary solution, however, became in many cases permanent.

While it was incredibly generous and well-meaning, it caused harm that we didnt realize, Oswald said.

American Christians give an estimated $3.3 billion to orphanages annually. And orphanages may still sometimes be the best available option in the short term in some situations, Oswald said. But long term, the Faith to Action Initiative and other leading orphan-care ministries seek to support family and community solutions.

A coalition of faith-based ministries, led by the Faith to Action Initiative, wrote a letter to the United Nations last fall in support of family-based care. At the time, 1.5 million children had lost a caregiver to COVID-19.

In 2019, the United Nations passed a resolution prioritizing family-based care and calling for the eventual elimination of institutional homes. Every member state signed on to the resolution. The current crisis, however, could cause some nations to become desperate for easier options. Christian ministries hope the UN will help them solidify government support for best practices.

As we did during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, World Vision seeks to be a leader in a global response to support families ensuring that children can remain with their loving caregivers, said Lisa Bos, director of government relations with World Vision US. But we also need government leaders to prioritize children and address issues like caregiver loss in their COVID response.

Jenny Yang, senior vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, said the pandemic has wiped away 20 years worth of work at decreasing extreme poverty around the world. The hardest-hit nationsincluding India and Brazilare feeling the urgent need to respond to the crisis.

The earlier were able to intervene, the [better] were able to address the root causes of what is causing extreme poverty to rise, she said.

Even in a time of crisis, though, theres a reason to support families, whether that means a single-parent home, a relative, or an extended family.

Families are the God-given institution through which children can experience social, emotional, and economic support, Yang said, so  making sure that orphans are able to be with family, if theyre able to care for them, is extremely important.

Having a family member care for a child is not only in line with biblical principles, but there is evidence its the most practical solution, according to Phil Green, one of the coauthors of The Lancet report and a leader with World Without Orphans. There is a variety of research on the topic, he said, but it generally shows family-based care is more cost effective.

The myth that building orphanages is cheaper and countries cant afford to do it other ways really doesnt stand up to the evidence, he said. We know what works. Lets make a difference in the lives of these childrenbecause children are resilient and can go on to thrive.

Green said his research has also allowed organizations to see the areas of greatest need. The majority of caregiver deaths have been male, depriving many children of fathers. The majority of children impacted by COVID-19 deaths (64%) are between the ages of 10 and 17.

They face increased vulnerabilities to poverty, sexual violence, and other kinds of exploitation. There is potential for the negative impacts of losing a caregiver to ripple into the future, but there is also an opportunity for the church to act now to prevent future harms, Green said.

Religious organizations that might once have taken responsibility for running orphanages can play a pivotal role in placing children in families. Religious leaders can be intimately integrated with a community, according to Green, which enables them to identify needs, empower communities to find solutions, and connect people with necessary resources.

Were seeing around the world that churches are an excellent place to do that family-strengthening piece, he said.

Thats how Bethany Christian Services sees it too.

We have social workers on the ground that are walking alongside the families and providing them and connecting them with services so they can be strengthened and empowered, said Leena Hill, vice president of global services at Bethany.

Over the years, their social workers have also learned that its important to help in the right way.

She said the natural response when looking at horrific statistics from COVID-19 is to want to do somethinganything. And thats good, but its important to respect and strengthen the communities that need help.

Often the solution is available in the communities themselves, she said. More often than not, these children do have a living relative.

The great need to care for orphans could send some back to old models, but Hill hopes people will instead think about how to help pair the children with local solutions or work alongside local solutions already in place.

It could be, she said, a really critical moment for Christians.

What an amazing opportunity, she said, to demonstrate more powerfully the love of Christ by responding well.
Hillsong Atlanta pastor announces resignation in wake of scandals surrounding global church

Sam Collier, the first-ever African American lead pastor of a Hillsong church, has announced he is stepping down from his position as a slew of scandals continue to surround the church and its founder, Brian Houston.

Collier, who with his wife, Toni, led the Atlanta, Georgia-based branch of Hillsong, announced his departure from the church on Wednesday afternoon.

My greatest reason for stepping down as Pastor of Hillsong Atlanta is probably not a secret to any of you. With all of the documentaries, scandals, articles, accusations and the churchs subsequent management of these attacks its become too difficult to lead and grow a young Church in this environment, Collier, who is also an author, adviser to the King family, and founder of A Greater Story Ministries, wrote on social media.

I have no shame in admitting I cried like a baby moments after I informed the Hillsong global pastor of my departure."

Hillsong Atlanta was launched in October 2020 with the goal of reaching and influencing the world by building a large Christ-centered, Bible-based church, changing mindsets and empowering people to lead and impact in every sphere of life, Collier told The Christian Post at the time.

He told CP the church aimed to be a multicultural, spirit-filled and theologically astute church  one that models unity in a desperately divided time in history.

Weve kind of dropped the ball, historically, when it comes to unity, he said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., who once described 11 a.m. on Sunday mornings as "one of the most segregated hours in Christian America."

The world models how to come together better than the church does, he lamented. We want to change that. Hillsong Atlanta wants to provide a model for how to be unified. We want to have a ministry that is multicultural and unified so we can help people learn to live together for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

Colliers announcement came just hours after Hillsong revealed that Houston, who founded the church in 1983 with his wife, Bobbie, had resigned from his role as global senior pastor.

It was revealed that Houston, who had initially stepped down from the church's boards last September after he was charged with concealing child sex offenses, had violated the churchs pastoral code of conduct by entering the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the churchs annual conference in 2019.

We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings," Hillsong said in a statement Wednesday. "Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power, grace, and love of Jesus Christ."

But other high-profile sexual misconduct scandals have plagued the megachurch and its campuses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including the 2020 firing of Carl Lentz, who led Hillsong Church in New York City, over leadership issues and moral failures, including being unfaithful to his wife.

In April 2021, former Hillsong Dallas Lead Pastor Reed Bogard and his wife, Jess, abruptly resigned from their positions. It was revealed that the two were under investigation for leadership failures, resulting in the closure of that campus.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Discovery Plus will premiere a three-episode docuseries titled Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed that purports to highlight how the Australia-based global Evangelical church network has toed the fine line between cult and culture.

Prior to pastoring Hillsong Atlanta, Collier, who wrote the 2020 book, A Greater Story, served at Atlanta-based North Point Community Church, led by Pastor Andy Stanley.

In his statement Wednesday, Collier said he truly loves the Hillsong family and believes they will get through this storm and come out better than they were before.

He revealed that this coming Sunday will mark his final service at Hillsong Atlanta, where he plans to share more information about a new church hes launching on Easter Sunday.

I have appreciated the Hillsong family and want to thank the Houstons for the love they have shown Toni and me, he wrote.
Kentucky church bake sale raises $145K to help Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion

A Ukrainian congregation located near Lexington, Kentucky, has raised approximately $145,000 at a bake sale to raise funds for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Pentecostal Church of Nicholasville held the bake sale on Saturday, with the money raised to help those displaced by the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country, where over 10 million people have been forced to flee.

The event featured a lunch for those who attended and a section at the church where around 100 donated baked goods of various kinds were available for sale.

The bake sales organizer, Victor Selepina, told The Christian Post that nearly all of the congregations members were from Ukraine or had family living there.

Selepina said that he was surprised by the amount raised, saying it wasnt planned but that we never anticipated to have so many people come out and to raise that amount of money.

Our community has been absolutely wonderful, he said, and weve been very, very, very blessed with a community that we live in, and also the opportunities that this country has given us at one point that we can now organize such events.

The donations will be distributed through churches in Ukraine with ties to the Nicholasville congregation. The funds will help buy supplies like food in the western part of the country for those displaced by the conflict.

Some of the efforts to purchase food, according to Selepina, will likely move to Ukraines western neighbor Poland, as it is considered a more convenient place to get supplies.

Selepina encouraged others to do what they can, even if its just a little bit, to help improve the situation for those displaced.

If I have this idea, there is no way I can do this on my own, he said.

It takes a lot of people to do it. We [have] anyone from like 13-year-olds to about 90 that just did their part, baking a batch of cookies, and thats how it came together.

It takes a little to make something big happen.

Across the United States, churches have done their part to help raise funds for Ukrainians fleeing the invasion.

In the Washington, D.C. suburb of Colesville, Maryland, Saint Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral has held bazaars in the last few weeks to raise money for those fleeing violence in Ukraine.

This past Sunday, the bazaar was attended by hundreds. Items for sale included clothes, jewelry, Ukrainian flags and food.

Earlier this month, four churches in Minnesota came together for a charitable event in which 100,000 meals were packed for the needy, with half of them going to Ukraine.

Bethel Lutheran Church of Rochester hosted the meal-packing event, with 250 volunteers packing the meals on behalf of Food for Kidz and the Channel One Regional Food Bank and assistance coming from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Holy Spirit Catholic Church, and the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Most US adults think country is moving in wrong direction morally, turning to family for guidance: study

Despite their dwindling support for organized religion, a majority of Americans, including Christians and non-Christians, are concerned that Americas moral compass is pointed in the wrong direction and they're turning to family for guidance, according to a survey released by Deseret News.

The "Faith in America" survey conducted Jan. 19-26 by The Marist College Poll and sponsored and funded in partnership with Deseret News, fielded responses from 1,653 U.S. adults.

Only 40% of respondents in the survey reported attending religious services at least once or twice a month, which represents a sharp drop from the 52% who reported they regularly attended religious services in April 2011.

Despite the drop in support for organized religion, however, more than half, 54%, of Americans say they still believe in God as described in the Bible. This includes 86% of all who practice a religion and about a third of individuals who report they do not practice a religion, the survey shows. Another 53% of Americans also report that they pray daily.

When it comes to their thoughts on where the country is headed morally, most Americans also agree the nation is heading in the wrong direction.

According to the survey, some 72% of Americans say the nations moral compass is pointed in the wrong direction, while only 22% say its pointed the right way. Among Christians, 74% agree that the nation is moving in the wrong direction morally, while 69% of those who dont practice a religion agree. Majorities of individuals who identified as Democrats, 51%, Republicans, 90%, and Independents, 77%, also agree.

Religious service attendance has continued to trend downward over the past decade, despite over half of Americans saying they believe in God as described in the Bible or pray daily, Hal Boyd, executive editor of Deseret National, said in a statement to CP. With younger age groups less likely to attend religious services than their older counterparts, the downward trend of religious attendance is likely to continue.

The survey shows older Americans are more likely to attend religious services at least weekly than their younger counterparts. Some 43% of adults aged 60 or older reported attending religious services weekly compared with 21% of those 18-29, 25% of those 30-44, and 27% of those 45-59.

Researchers also found that while 65% of Americans do not think being religious is necessary to live a moral life, sentiments vary based on religiosity. Some 78% of those who do not practice a religion believe religion is not necessary to be moral, while 54% of Christians do not think being religious is necessary to live a moral life.

Instead of looking to the church or religious leaders for moral guidance, the majority of Americans, including Christians, look to their family.

Some 79% of Americans reported turning to their family for moral guidance, including 83% of Christians. Among people who arent religious, 74%, said they looked to their family for moral guidance.

The second most popular source of moral guidance Americans cited is the rule of law followed by friends. Religious teachings, a religious leader from a place they worship and a well-known spiritual leader followed those three sources respectively.

Younger generations are less likely than their older counterparts to believe that being religious is necessary in order to live a moral life, Boyd said. Americans actually find themselves looking to family more often than religious teachings when looking for sources of moral guidance.
NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson admits to paying for abortion: 'No one is too far gone to be saved'

The pro-life lieutenant governor of North Carolina has responded to reports highlighting an abortion he paid for in 1989, saying in a video Thursday that it was a decision he lives with every day and why he is so staunch in his views on abortion.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican elected to the post in 2020, has used his platform as an elected official to become an outspoken advocate for the pro-life movement.

But on Tuesday, a Twitter user posted a screenshot of Robinson indicating in an old post on his personal social media page that he once paid for a woman to abort his unborn child decades earlier. Axios reported on the admission Wednesday.

Robinson elaborated on the circumstances of the abortion in a Facebook video Thursday. Appearing alongside his wife, Yolanda, Robinson announced that over 33 years ago, before they were married and had children, we had an abortion.

It was the hardest decision we have ever made, and sadly, we made the wrong one, Robinson said. This decision has been with us ever since. Its because of this experience and our spiritual journey that we are so adamantly pro-life. We know what its like to be in that situation, and we know the pain that an abortion causes.

Robinson delivered a message to everyone that has had this experience [and] carries that burden, informing them that we want you to know [that] you are not alone. He also touched upon the power of forgiveness.

We have a Savior who forgives us of our sins [and] offers us grace, he continued. No one is perfect, but no one is too far gone to be saved. We felt the need to speak with you directly because this issue transcends politics. Our hope is that by telling our story, that it may change the lives of others.

In an Aug. 9, 2012, Facebook post on his personal account, Robinson asked: How can so many people Praise God with their mouths then vote for a man who supports gay marriage and abortion with their hands?

While the then-private citizen did not mention him by name, the posts timing less than three months before the 2012 presidential election implies he may have been referring to then-President Barack Obama.

Robinsons post elicited strong reactions, including one suggesting that Robinson get off his high horse and not judge those who have had abortions. Robinson pushed back on the idea that he was on a high horse.

Im not saying abortion is wrong cause I said so. Its wrong cause God says so. Its wrong when others do it, and it was wrong when I paid for it to be done to my unborn child in 1989, he wrote.

Robinson brought up his previous involvement in an abortion in a comment responding to another one of his Facebook posts about a month later. The post featured a picture depicting a late-term abortion. Robinson asked, What kind of HORROR movie is this?

Oh wait, this is what late term abortion really looks like!!! If I did this to my dogs puppies Id be the lead story on Fox 8 6 o clock news, he stated. Robinson appeared to receive pushback for this Facebook post as well, although some of the 7 comments posted in reaction to are no longer visible.

In one of his responses to the now-deleted comments, Robinson once again admitted to and apologized for paying for an abortion decades earlier.

This has nothing to do with politics. Its about morality, he wrote. Abortions like this one are barbaric.

And by the way I saw your comment on my other post and I intend to keep pointing those fingers at me first. Abortion is wrong. Its wrong when others do it and it was wrong when I (YES I) paid to have MY own child aborted in 1989, he declared.

While Robinsons previous comments invited allegations of hypocrisy from his critics, pro-life groups have come to the lieutenant governors defense.

The North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition issued a statement in support of Robinson Thursday, remarking that the organization was thankful for the transparency communicated by Lt. Governor Mark Robinsons difficult abortion decision over 30 years ago.

Some of North Carolinas most effective and outspoken pro-life advocates are those who fully understand the emotional, physical, and spiritual impacts of abortion because they have personally received or supported an abortion, the statement added. Through prayer, healing, and forgiveness, many former abortion clinic workers, OBGYN doctors, mothers, and fathers have transformed their abortion regret into a mission to diligently advocate for the unborn.

After expressing gratitude for the unwavering commitment from Lt. Governor Robinson to protect life, including the unborn, the North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition shared video footage from one of Robinsons speeches that reflected his current position on abortion.

Its a shame before the Almighty that there are politicians who speak more vehemently about abortion than there are some pastors who shy away from the issue because theyre afraid they might lose a few dollars out of the collection plate, he said.

Additionally, Robinson described abortion as a scourge that needs to be run out of this land and proclaimed that the life in the womb is as important as the life in your living room. He maintained that the time for laying down on this issue ... is over.

In a statement to Axios, the North Carolina Values Coalition offered a similar analysis, stressing that People who have walked through the pain of abortion in some way can be the strongest advocates for the unborn after that experience.

We havent heard his story yet, but what we do know is today Lt. Governor Robinson is genuine in his commitment to protect life, the North Carolina Values Coalition added.

Robinson is not the only outspoken pro-life activist who has personal experience with an abortion.

Toni McFadden, who had an abortion in high school that resulted in serious complications, converted to Christianity after her experience and has since become a pro-life advocate.

Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director whose traumatic abortion experience was depicted in the film Unplanned, now leads a ministry called And Then There Were None, which seeks to help workers in the abortion industry who want to leave their careers behind.

Robinson, the first African American lieutenant governor in North Carolinas history, is widely considered a top candidate for the Republican nomination for the states 2024 gubernatorial election.

According to audio obtained by the left-wing advocacy group Right Wing Watch, Robinson insisted that he was about 95 percent sure were gonna run for governor.
So. Baptist group nominates Voddie Baucham for president of SBC Pastors Conference

Voddie Baucham, the dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia, will be formally nominated as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference at the denominations annual meeting in Anaheim, California, in June.

The announcement came in a statement published Tuesday on the website of Founders Ministries endorsed by a prominent group of Southern Baptists who say they are concerned about the woke direction of Americas largest Protestant denomination. The group also expressed their intention to nominate Tom Ascol, longtime senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida.

Founders Ministries is a conservative group within the SBC where Baucham serves as a board member. The group's statement is endorsed by 11 high-profile Southern Baptists, including Pastor Mike Stone, a member of the SBC Executive Committee, and the steering committee of the Conservative Baptist Network. Stone lost his bid for the SBC presidency in a runoff with Ed Litton in 2021.

We, concerned Southern Baptists of differing geographical, theological and vocational perspectives, in one voice nominate Pastor Tom Ascol for President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and SBC Missionary Voddie Baucham for President of the SBC Pastors Conference, the group began in their statement.

The Southern Baptist Convention badly needs a change of direction. While baptisms and evangelism continue their freefall, a small group of leaders steers our institutions ever closer to the culture, from radical feminism masked as soft complementarianism to the false gospel of Critical Theory and Intersectionality, they continued.

In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, we are all made one in Him. But this Race Marxism divides everyone by their most superficial features, in a never-ending cycle of recrimination and hate. We reject these worldly dogmas. We stand together on the Baptist Faith and Message. We proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture. And we know the vast majority of Southern Baptists do too, they added.

At this critical juncture, we need men to serve who can unite our convention around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe there are no two better men to lead us in this vital task than Tom Ascol and Voddie Baucham.

Baucham did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Wednesday. However, earlier this month, the renowned Southern Baptist preacher, who denounced critical race theory and the social justice movement in his latest book, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalisms Looming Catastrophe, confirmed with CP that he had been asked to accept a nomination for SBC president but wasnt sure he was eligible to accept it.

The 52-year-old leader said Article VIII of SBCs constitution requires that all officers of the SBC must be members of Baptist churches cooperating with this Convention."

Due to his work as a missionary, Baucham has been a member of Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia since 2015. The church is affiliated with Reformed Baptists of Zambia, not the SBC.

I am a missionary sent by an SBC church, supported by an SBC church, reporting to an SBC church, but am technically not a member of that SBC church because my family and I entrusted our souls to a healthy, indigenous, local Baptist church at the behest of our SBC church," he said. "Hence, it appears my commitment to missions and biblical church membership has rendered me ineligible for any office in the SBC. At least thats the way I read it.

Baucham doesnt appear to face any such issue to become president of the SBC's Pastors Conference as the conference has no organizing documents or stated qualifications for its officers.

In a statement on YouTube Tuesday, Ascol said he decided to accept the nomination because he, too, is concerned about the direction of the denomination and that the concerns of Southern Baptists, like himself, were not being treated respectfully and honestly.

I agreed to be nominated for the presidency because I believe we could do better in this regard, he said.

Ive watched with dismay as faithful pastors and members of regular churches have had their concerns dismissed without any serious consideration," he continued. "One of the most recent and egregious examples of this is the way that the 2021 resolutions committee refused to bring out a resolution on the incompatibility of critical race theory and intersectionality with the Baptist Faith and Message. That resolution has had the signatures of over 1,300 faithful Southern Baptist pastors and church members, yet the resolutions committee would not even allow the convention to consider it for a vote. I believe Southern Baptists can do better.

The other signers of the statement endorsing Baucham and Ascol include:

Carol Swain, former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville; Lee Brand, SBC first vice president; Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas; Javier Chavez, senior pastor of Amistad Cristiana International and a member of the CBN steering council; former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran, a member of the CBN steering council; Mark Coppenger, CBN steering council member and former president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Greg Davidson, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Vacaville, California, and state coordinator of the CBN California chapter; Mark DeVine, associate professor of Beeson Divinity School; Brad Jurkovich, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Bossier City, Louisiana, and a CBN steering committee member; and Ronnie Rogers, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma.
The impact of a dinosaur-killing asteroid was more deadly than thought due to more clues left 66 million years ago causing damage to prehistoric earth was mind-boggling.

No one had expected to discover hints of sulfurous deposits practically altering the land and seas. This event led to more organisms dying, with only the fittest managing to survive. Dangers from volcanoes, earthquakes, and space are still the same now, which can erase humanity anytime.

Asteroid Collision Aftermath

The asteroid sent up a catastrophic amount of sulfur into the stratosphere, which started a deadly chain reaction that would lead to the deaths of millions of dinosaurs and other species alive then, reported Science Alert.

The world in the Cretaceous era had sulfuric gases blanket and cool the earth, with endless acid rain falling for thousand of years, cited Live Science. It altered oceans chemically and killed most lives for longer than thought.

According to the study, James Witts, a researcher with expertise in earth sciences from the Bristol University in the UK, initial estimates say that the sulfur brought by the asteroid after impacting the earth affected its climate for a long time.

Sulfur from the land and the atmosphere keep the seas nearly dead, leading scholars to assume that earth was practically lifeless for a long time, said Witts.

Researcher's Accidental Discovery

The study was not expecting to stumble across a clue leading to the find as no one could have predicted what happened 66 million years ago.

A study was planned to examine the geochemistry of ancient shells close to the Brazos River located in Falls County, Texas.

By the end-Cretaceous extinction, it was an inland sea and the dinosaur-killing asteroid when non-avian dinosaurs died en masse close to the Chicxulub crater in Mexico Yucatan Peninsula.

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Researchers collected a sample of sediments on-site that would later shock them. The researchers took the ancient sediments to the Scottish University of St. Andrew, where Aubrey Zerkle, co-author, saw the different sulfur types. It was a smoking gun in research terms that would change everything.

Evidence of exposure to UV light when sulfur would be exposed for differing periods; this was shattering proof of a different nature.

One idea is that the oxygen is not present in the chemical or exposed to a very oxygenated atmosphere at higher altitudes, remarked Witts. At the age of 4.5 billion years and getting its oxygen ladder atmosphere by 2.3 billion years in the past, mentioned Dspace.

He added that their team is the first to come across such proof not seen in the earth's poles, compelling evidence to build a new timeline. Ice cores from the bars have more detectable sulfur than other places.

The chemical is not apparent in marine rocks because it can dilute volcanic sulfur. But having a chunk of cretaceous marine rock shows a lot was present after impact.

Witt added the amount of sulfur after impact was overwhelming and changed the earth's environment, and cooled globally with freezing temperatures and poisoned water sources with acid rain.

The Yucatan is where the chemical sulfur is found in abundance; it would be different if the asteroid hit someplace else. A total of 300 to 500 gigatons of material and cooling the earth to 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.

This dinosaur-killing asteroid hitting the Yucatan sent sulfur to the stratosphere, which overwhelmed the environment for a long time. Life recovered by it took a long time published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Related Article: Earth's Sudden Oxygenation Is Purely Accidental After Several Billion Years, New Theory Explains

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The pro-life community is ready for a post-Roe world

Although its likely still several months away, anticipation and optimism are beginning to build ahead of the Supreme Courts expected ruling on the constitutionality of Mississippis 15-week abortion ban. Thats because for the first time in a generation, there appears to be a legitimate chance that a majority of justices will affirm a states right to put restrictions on the horrific taking of innocent life.

Since Decembers high stakes hearing in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, some have suggested the pro-life community isnt ready for a post-Roe world.

Dont believe it. Its not true. In fact, weve been preparing and waiting for this moment for decades.

Pregnancy resources centers (PRCs) have been around since the 1960s. After the Supreme Court legalized abortion in all 50 states in 1973, the number of these critical outlets grew exponentially. There are over 2,500 of them today. My organization, Focus on the Family, partners with many of them. We do this by providing training and providing ultrasound equipment designed to help expectant mothers hear the heartbeat and see an image of their baby.

Many of these clinics are staffed by volunteers  individuals who have committed their time and personal resources to vulnerable women and innocent children. They expect nothing in return and often never meet the children of the moms in their care. In addition to medical care, these clinics provide diapers, formula, baby food, and clothes. They also provide counseling, and some offer access to housing and employment opportunities.

Christian churches have also been ministering to expectant mothers and their children for decades with prayer and practical assistance. Families have opened their homes and hearts in so many different ways.

Should the High Court allow states to restrict access to abortion, its likely that PRCs and churches will be challenged to meet the rising demand. Theyll be successful if theyre able to mobilize and help women at the local level more than ever before. Christian hospitals and the generosity of private business owners will be called upon to redouble their efforts in providing job training and employment opportunities. If we want to permanently bury abortion, well need to widen a God-centered path to that objective.

American families are already waiting in the wings to welcome these children into their homes. Just consider the fact that between 1 and 2 million couples are currently waiting to adopt a baby in the United States. This means there are more moms and dads available than children already being aborted even before Dobbs is decided.

But adopting a baby in the United States is almost nothing like you see on television or in the movies. It can be an emotional roller coaster for both the birth parents and the adoptive parents. There is both grief and joy and plenty of anxiety to go around.

For birth mothers, the decision to make an adoption plan can be excruciating. These women (and in some cases, men) often want to parent, but for any number of reasons they cannot. Nevertheless, entrusting your child to someone else can be a painful decision in the short term but rewarding in the long term.

Adoptive parents face their own set of challenges. From the exciting but jarring experience of becoming new moms and dads to navigating potential relationships with birth families, the journey will change them, and in profound ways.

The home study process, a necessary step to make sure prospective moms and dads and their places of residence are acceptable and safe, should be simplified and the average cost of $4,000 for the home study alone should be reduced.

With the likelihood of more adoptions in a post-Roe world, the federal government should increase the amount of the adoption tax credit and help reduce the financial burdens to families. The credit is currently $14,440, but the average infant adoption can cost upwards of $40,000!

As Abraham Lincoln sat down to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on New Years Day of 1863, he said, I never in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paperIf my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.

Likewise, the souls of countless pro-life stalwarts have been laboring for years in the pro-life community. Their efforts have often gone largely unnoticed, but their quiet and steady work has brought us to this critical juncture in history. They are ready.
The stories of immigrants remind Americans about what unites us

Few of us who saw it will ever forget the news footage of Afghans clinging to the outside of an aircraft during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Afghans who do not adhere to the Talibans harsh and strict interpretation of Sunni Islam and adherents of other faiths of beliefs are at a grave threat, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Given USCIRF's assessment, its little wonder that the millions of Afghans who are religious minorities were, and still are, willing to risk their lives to escape the country.

Since its inception, America has been seen as a beacon of religious freedom. But how often do we think not only about those who are being persecuted for their religious beliefs in other nations, but also about those who have fled persecution for America?

Immigrants can lead the way in reminding a divided America that freedom of religion  even if we dont adhere to the same religion or practice any religion  is a value that we all can and should embrace.

Over the years, Ive interviewed dozens of immigrant women, and faith has been a prominent theme in our discussions. Most of these women, who hail from nations across the globe, believe in God or hold other religious beliefs. What I have discovered that these women have in common is escaping religious oppression in their home countries and searching for freedom in the United States.

For instance, Hsing-ay Hsus grandfather was a pastor in Communist China whod been persecuted for his faith. When her father had the opportunity to secure a U.S. visa, part of the draw was the promise of religious and individual freedom.

Mai-Phuong Nguyen, MD, survived the Vietnam War and told me how her Buddhist faith helped her heal from tragedy and trauma.

Sasha Grinshpuns family left the Soviet Union because of discrimination and injustice toward Jews that denied them access to the same opportunities as non-Jews.

Nnedi Ifudu Nweke spoke about her Christian faith keeping her grounded during her transition from Nigeria to life in the United States.

Freedom of religion is such an important, foundational idea to America that its the first thing mentioned in the Bill of Rights: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.[i] Religion is listed before freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government.

And rightfully so. Even a cursory study of 20th-century totalitarian regimes  such as those in Cambodia, Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and other countries  tells the same story: religious groups and leaders are typically the first ones targeted and persecuted. Despots want their citizens to place all their hopes in the government, not in any higher power or any other concept that enables them to find the freedom to live with dignity as human beings.

People often think of faith as a divisive topic. As the old saying goes, Dont talk about religion and politics. But faith is a singularly unifying value in the United States. According to a 2020 Public Religion Research Institute study, over 75% of Americans have some kind of religious affiliation, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu.[ii]

At a time when our nation seems more divided than ever, perhaps focusing on something the majority of us hold dear  our faith  can help reunite us. And immigrants can initiate that conversation. We have much to learn from immigrants experiences and stories, especially about what it means to be an American who values religious freedom.

[i] U.S. Const. amend. I.

[ii] PRRI Staff, The 2020 Census of American Religion, Public Religion Research Institute, July 8, 2021, https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/.
Americans are leaving church and most arent coming back: report

In Matthew 11:29 of the Bible, Jesus calls for all those who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him for rest, a rest that the Church has promised new converts for centuries. A new report released Thursday by the American Enterprise Institute shows, however, that despite the proven benefits of belonging to a faith community, Americans are increasingly leaving organized religion with each subsequent generation and the majority arent coming back.

In the report, Generation Z and the future of faith in America, Daniel A. Cox, senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, who also serves as director of the Survey Center on American Life, paints a complicated and diminished view of religion in American life.

Much of the disaffection for religion today is largely driven by people who were once religious. There is a growing population of the religiously unaffiliated whose once religious parents raised them without religion.

Young adults today have had entirely different religious and social experiences than previous generations did. The parents of millennials and Generation Z did less to encourage regular participation in formal worship services and model religious behaviors in their children than had previous generations, Cox wrote. Many childhood religious activities that were once common, such as saying grace, have become more of the exception than the norm.

In line with the wisdom of Proverbs 22:6 which says, train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it, Cox noted that for as long as we have been able to measure religious commitments, childhood religious experiences have strongly predicted adult religiosity.

With more parents raising their children with weak or no bond to a faith community, its a lot more difficult for them to be converted in adulthood.

If someone had robust religious experiences growing up, they are likely to maintain those beliefs and practices into adulthood. Without robust religious experiences to draw on, Americans feel less connected to the traditions and beliefs of their parents faith, Cox explained.

For nearly 30 years, notes Cox, research shows the share of Americans who identify as religious has consistently declined with each new generation.

This pattern continues with Generation Z demonstrating less attachment to religion than the millennial generation did, he said.

Generation Z, born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is now the least religious generation yet, with 34% of them identifying as religiously unaffiliated. Among millennials, 29% identify as religiously unaffiliated, while Generation X stands at 25%. Only 18% of baby boomers and 9% of the silent generation identify as religiously unaffiliated.

Its not only a lack of religious affiliation that distinguishes Generation Z. They are also far more likely to identify as atheist or agnostic, Cox said, noting that some 18% of the cohort identified as either atheist or agnostic.

Only 4% of the silent generation, for example, identify as atheist or agnostic.

Cox noted that one of the most significant changes in American religious culture has been the increasing rate at which Americans can now remain non-religious.

Today, nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans who report having no childhood religious affiliation say they still are unaffiliated as adults, rivaling that of established religious traditions, he wrote.

In 2014, only 53% of Americans raised without a formal religious tradition retained their secular identity as adults. In 2007, that number was 46%.

One explanation for the rise in retention rates among unaffiliated Americans may be that an increasing number of Americans are being raised in nonreligious households and holding onto those commitments into adulthood, Cox said.

Some 29% of Americans who are unaffiliated were raised without religion. In 2014, this share was 21%.

According to Cox, most Americans who abandon their childhood faith cant point to a single event that caused them to leave and characterize it as a gradual drifting away.

Cox pointed to a number of factors that have impacted a diminished view of organized religion, including a breach of trust.

Gallup has found that trust and confidence in organized religion have plummeted over the past two decades. In 2021, only 37% of the public reported having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in religious institutions, a massive decline since 2001 when 60 percent reported feeling confident, he said.

He further added that while only 35% of Americans overall believe religion causes more harm than good, among the disaffiliated who were raised in religious homes, 69% say religion causes problems more than it provides solutions. Some 63% of Americans who have always been religiously unaffiliated also believe religion causes more problems in society than it solves.

And while more than half of Americans say raising children with religion is a benefit, 82% of the religiously unaffiliated disagree. Only 40% of Gen Z see raising children with religion as a good thing.
For King & Country host free concert to benefit Ukrainian refugees

For King & Country announced that they're uniting with humanitarian aid organization Convoy Of Hope to raise money for Ukrainian refugees by hosting a free benefit concert Thursday night.

The Grammy Award-winning duo released their new album What Are We Waiting For? earlier this month, which landed at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 charts and No. 2 overall on Billboards Top Album Sales Chart. Its the second Top 10 album for the brothers, Joel and Luke Smallbone.

To celebrate their success, the Christian band is hosting a free concert special that will be broadcast online as they perform hits from their new album live from the Mojave desert in California. Funds raised from viewer donations will go to Convoy Of Hope and their work in aiding Ukrainian refugees in Eastern Europe.

"For KING + COUNTRY have an incredible following and for them to call on their fans to partner with Convoy of Hope to help our Ukrainian brothers and sisters really speaks to their hearts, Hal Donaldson, president and co-founder of Convoy of Hope, told The Christian Post.

Through their special concert event, Joel and Luke will enable Convoy to continue to deliver the help, and the hope, that is needed in and around Ukraine for the long term. We can't wait to see how God is going to use this concert to ease suffering," he added.

The concert will feature all of the band's new material from the album. It will air at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on Facebook and YouTube.

The money they are helping to raise will bring much-needed relief to people inside Ukraine and refugees in the countries surrounding it, Donaldson added in a statement shared with CP.

Convoy of Hope says their partners across Europe are using the aid they provide to shelter refugees and distribute food, water, hygiene kits and other necessities to those who were forced to flee their homes in Ukraine due to the Russian military's invasion. Convoy of Hope said they have teams providing emergency relief to refugees in five Eastern European countries that are caring for women, children and elderly individuals as many Ukrainian men carry on fighting for their country.

Weve put together a special performance from the Mojave Desert playing a good portion of the new record to celebrate and commemorate the launch, and also raise funding for Convoy of Hope as they bring supplies and shelter to Ukrainian refugees in several countries, for King & Country added.

What Are We Waiting For? centers around a trio of timely topics for an album forged as the U.S. struggled with political tensions, racial divisions and a pandemic.

The single Relate became the duos first track off the record to reach No. 1 on Billboards Hot Christian Songs chart this year. The song highlights the ongoing search for compassion and empathy amid differences, a message both Unity and Together also promote.

In a recent interview with The Christian Post, Luke explained why the duo get involved in social issues.

"Social issues are essentially personal issues just multiplied, the artist told CP.

So if you're not talking about some social issues, then in some cases, you're actually not talking about personal issues. At the end of the day, 'Unity' or 'Relate' is a personal struggle. If you multiply it by the thousands, it becomes a social issue."

Christians should look at social issues as a result of brokenness, he continued.

"So when I talk about unity, I need to be unified with people that I disagree with [first], Smallbone declared. It doesn't necessarily mean you don't call spade a spade on certain issues. I'm not saying that. But I am saying there are always places to be able to find some commonality, some common ground.

"Waiting For? | The Worldwide Special" will be live on Facebook and Youtube.
Death row inmate can have pastor lay hands on him during execution: Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that an inmate on death row in Texas should be allowed to have a pastor lay hands on him and pray aloud when he is executed, reversing a lower court ruling.

In an opinion released Thursday morning, the high court ruled 8-1 that John Henry Ramirez was likely to succeed in his complaint against Texas for not allowing his pastor to lay hands on him when he's executed by lethal injection for having murdered a man in 2004.

The high court reversed an earlier ruling and has remanded the case for further legal proceedings to determine a solution that respects the religious beliefs of Ramirez.

Chief Justice John Roberts gave the court's opinion, concluding that Ramirez is likely to succeed in showing that Texas policy substantially burdens his exercise of religion and that the government has not shown that it is likely to carry that burden.

Given the current record, respondents have not shown that a total ban on audible prayer is the least restrictive means of furthering their asserted interests, wrote Roberts.

Roberts also rejected the governments claim that clergy within the execution chamber should not be allowed to be closer than three feet from a prisoner, in the name of preventing interference with the execution.

We do not see how letting the spiritual advisor stand slightly closer, reach out his arm, and touch a part of the prisoners body well away from the site of any IV line would meaningfully increase risk. And that is all Ramirez requests here, continued Roberts.

We think that preventing accidental interference with the prisons IV lines is a compelling governmental interest. But we also think it is one reasonably addressed by means short of banning all touch in the execution chamber.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter, writing that he questioned the sincerity of Ramirezs beliefs, and viewed the litigation as simply trying to delay his execution.

Ramirez has manufactured more than a decade of delay to evade the capital sentence lawfully imposed by the state of Texas, Thomas wrote.

This Court now affords yet another chance for him to delay his execution. Because I think Ramirezs claims either do not warrant equitable relief or are procedurally barred, I respectfully dissent.

In 2004, Ramirez murdered 46-year-old convenience store worker Pablo Castro in Corpus Christi by stabbing him nearly 30 times. He was later caught in Mexico and sentenced to death.

In February of last year, Ramirez was informed that he would be executed on Sept. 8, 2021. Last June, he requested that his pastor be allowed to lay hands and pray audibly over him, but authorities rejected his request.

Ramirez filed a complaint on the issue, arguing that the rejection violated his rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court delayed his execution while his complaint was being argued, and then agreed to hear arguments on his injunction request.

Faith groups including the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the National Association of Evangelicals filed a brief in support of Ramirez.

"In carrying out the execution of John Henry Ramirez, the state of Texas ... will substantially burden his right of religious exercise if it imposes a blanket ban on his pastor engaging in audible prayer or touching him to give spiritual comfort at his moment of death," stated the brief, in part.

"Previous cases in this Court have already indicated the importance of the right to such meaningful spiritual comfort in the execution chamber for a condemned prisoner of any faith. The amici joining this brief, who include Christian religious bodies of varying theological views, affirm the importance of that right."

Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, a religious liberty legal group that filed an amicus brief in the case, said in a statement Thursday that "[e]ven the condemned have a right to get right with God."

"The Supreme Court correctly recognized that allowing clergy to minister to the condemned in their last moments stands squarely within a history stretching back to George Washington and before," Rassbach said. "That tradition matters.
Vineyard Columbus megachurch pastor Rich Nathan announces successors, married co-pastors

Pastor Rich Nathan of Vineyard Columbus has announced that in two years time he will hand over the leadership of the church and move on to a new position.

Nathan, who leads one of Ohios largest megachurches with an average weekly attendance of close to 8,000 people, explained on his website that he wants to make sure people don't mistake the announcement for any suggestion that he is retiring from ministry.

I'm not retiring! Let me say this in a different way: Im not going anywhere and Im not retiring! he wrote.

The plan is that in January 2021, when I turn 65 I will hand the leadership of Vineyard Columbus over to my successors. But the plan is to have me continue to preach on a preaching team until Im 70. Im still fabulously energized by preaching and seeing people come to Christ and then be transformed by His love. That never gets old! he added.

Vineyard, which uses its record label Vineyard Music to release worship albums for its 2,400 affiliated churches worldwide, announced on its Columbus chapter website that Eric and Julia Pickerill, co-associate pastors to Nathan, will take over as co-senior pastors in January 2021.

The married couple explained that in 2015 they returned from a missionary trip in Amsterdam, and they were trying to figure out where ministry would lead them next, when Eric Pickerill says that God spoke to him and told him that Vineyard Columbus is in their future.

I saw a picture of one church in ten diverse congregations around the city that were living out the kingdom in different ways. My heart caught fire and I thought, This is just like God, allowing us to go to the place where we wanted to be so he could show us the place he wants us to be,' he explained.

Julia Pickerill added: "Around the same time that the Lord spoke to Eric, God gave me a very clear and intersecting word  that he was constraining me to love and serve Vineyard Columbus. In that moment  I can recall where I was sitting when I heard God speak  our familys entire expectation of our future changed! And it didnt just shift logistically  something shifted in our souls. The peace and clarity wed been looking for in our transition finally fell on us. We experienced much external confirmation of our internal leading as well. "

The couple said that they are deeply committed to championing the diversity of the church.

Its all too easy for diversity to be a value instead of a virtue. A value is something we believe and are motivated by, but a virtue is something we practice. Our congregation, campuses, volunteers, leaders and staff, have much more practicing ahead of us, Julia Pickerill said.

We must continue building cross-cultural bridges in our community, being intentional about the ways we worship and communicate, and being diligent in platforming and releasing a diverse cohort of people at all levels in our community.

Nathan pointed out that Vineyard Columbus Church Council and Pastoral Advisory Team unanimously agreed with the Selection Committees recommendation to select Eric and Julia Pickerill for the position.

"Our process was not merely a human weighing of the pros and cons of various candidates. Over the course of our history, Vineyard Columbus has sought to live out the truth that Jesus is the head of the church! He gets to call the shots, not us! He initiates and we follow," the senior pastor wrote.

He concluded by declaring that he believes Vineyard Columbus' best days are ahead.

"I eagerly await the surprising gifts that the Lord has in store for us and for our city as we enter this new chapter in our story," he wrote.
Vineyard Columbus raises $13 million in 6 weeks to open 5 new campuses

The Vineyard Columbus, one of Ohios largest megachurches, has raised over $13 million in six weeks to help the congregation build five new campuses over the next decade and start a pastoral residency program.

Pastor Rich Nathan told The Columbus Dispatch that congregants at the 8,000-member multi-campus church have exceeded the funding goal that was set by church leaders in March as part of a fundraiser to help the church multiply.

As of now, Vineyard Columbus has four campuses. But the goal is for Vineyard Columbus to expand to nine campuses over the next 10 years.

According to the newspaper, Vineyard Columbus fundraising campaign started shortly before Ash Wednesday. The goal was to hit $10 million by Palm Sunday.

The target was $10 million, which was pretty steep, Nathan told the newspaper. I wasnt sure we were going to make it. ... We thought we were kind of shooting for the moon.

Although Palm Sunday has passed. the Vineyard Columbus fundraising campaign will continue.

A video posted to the churchs Facebook page explains that the campaign was launched in response to the projection that hundreds of thousands of new people are expected to move into central Ohio over the next 10 years.

God wants to continue to write his story through Vineyard Columbus and is again asking us to partner with Him to heal the world, the videos narrator explains. He is asking us to continue to knock down walls, plow fields and change the landscape of our city.

In January, the 63-year-old Nathan announced succession plans for when he steps down as Vineyard Columbus senior pastor at the age of 65.

Although Nathan is stepping down from his senior pastor role in January 2021, he made clear that he is not retiring from ministry and will preach as part of a preaching team at the Vineyard Columbus.

When he steps down, he will be succeeded by husband-and-wife duo Eric and Julia Pickerill, who currently serve as Nathans associate pastors.

The Pickerills were unanimously approved by the Vineyard Columbus Church Council and Pastoral Advisory Team, according to Nathan.

"Our process was not merely a human weighing of the pros and cons of various candidates, Nathan wrote on his blog at the time. Over the course of our history, Vineyard Columbus has sought to live out the truth that Jesus is the head of the church! He gets to call the shots, not us! He initiates and we follow.

The Vineyard Columbus current campuses are located in Westerville, Pickerington, Dublin and Columbus.

Vineyard Columbus is also launching a pastoral residency program to equip leaders so that they are prepared to step into these new neighborhoods, love families and love and serve these new communities."

We want to build the pipeline, Nathan explained.
Supreme Court rejects appeal by Christian charity sued by gay lawyer

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a Christian charity's appeal requesting the justices review a lawsuit filed over the organization's refusal to hire a man in a same-sex relationship.

Seattles Union Gospel Mission (SUGM) petitioned the Supreme Court last year regarding its ongoing legal battle with Matthew S. Woods, who had applied for an attorney position with the charity in 2016 but was denied due to him being in a same-sex relationship.

In an order released Monday, the court declined SUGMs petition for a writ of certiorari, with Justice Samuel Alito releasing a statement with the order respecting the decision.

Joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito argued that the Supreme Court has yet to confront whether freedom for religious employers to hire their co-religionists is constitutionally required.

Because of the interlocutory posture of this case, I concur in the denial of certiorari at this time, stated Alito. But the day may soon come when we must decide whether the autonomy guaranteed by the First Amendment protects religious organizations freedom to hire co-religionists without state or judicial interference.

Alito went on to note that the state supreme court decision in the case may warrant our review in the future, but threshold issues would make it difficult for us to review this case in this posture.

Woods, a professed Christian who had volunteered at SUGM's legal aid clinic while he was a law student, applied for a staff attorney position in 2016.

SUGM refused to hire him due to its belief that Woods same-sex relationship violated Christian teaching, prompting Woods to file a complaint in November 2017.

In March 2021, the Washington Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling in favor of SUGM, then remanded the case back to the lower court in order to determine if the charity was eligible for a ministerial exemption.

Justice Barbara A. Madsen wrote the state Supreme Court's majority opinion, arguing that the charity was not a church or religious entity principally responsible for the spiritual lives of its members.

Moreover, Woods sought employment with SUGM as a lawyer specifically, not as a religious minister or teacher, and there is no indication that religious training is necessary for the staff attorney position, ruled Madsen.

It is best left to the trial court to determine whether staff attorneys can qualify as ministers and, consequently, whether Woods discrimination claim under [Washington's Law Against Discrimination] must be barred.

SUGM is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that has successfully argued religious freedom cases at the Supreme Court.

In our view, religious organizations have the right to hire those who share their beliefs without being punished by the government. In fact, six federal appellate courts have already recognized this principle, said ADF Legal Counsel Jake Warner in an earlier interview with The Christian Post.

But the Washington state Supreme Court stands alone against this principle, and it's important enough that we believe that the Supreme Court needs to clarify that the First Amendment protects the right of religious organizations to decide who gets to share their religious message to the public.
Christian leaders, please do not publicly celebrate your liberty to drink

I do not write this article to throw stones. I write it to save lives.

Thats why I make this heartfelt (and anguished) plea: If you are a pastor or ministry leader and you believe that, according to the Bible, you have the liberty to drink alcohol (without drunkenness), please dont turn that liberty into a public boast, as in, Look at how free I am!

You can enjoy that freedom before God, with moderation and discipline. But please dont bash those who practice total abstinence. And please dont use your liberty as a club against legalism. Or as a proof of your spiritual maturity. Or as a demonstration of the Gospel of Grace.

You will destroy many lives in the process, not to mention possibly endanger your own soul.

To be clear, although I have practiced total abstinence since I came to faith in 1971, I do not believe that God requires all believers to do this. The Bible, including the New Testament, warns against drunkenness and lack of moderation, not against drinking alcoholic beverages in general.

And even if it can be argued that wine and other drinks were not as fermented in Bible days as they are today, that argument is largely irrelevant, since drunkenness was still an issue then (see, for example, Proverbs 20:1) and leaders were called to be temperate in their use of alcohol (see, for example, 1 Timothy 3:3).

I have also worked closely with Christian leaders in countries like Italy and England, even staying in their homes. For many of them, having a glass of wine with dinner is as natural as an American having a cup of coffee with breakfast.

Never once did I see any of these leaders drinking to excess (not even close), nor was it ever an issue we needed to discuss.

At the same time, I have worked closely with Christian leaders in countries like India, where it would be unthinkable for a Christian to drink alcohol, let alone a Christian leader.

So, I recognize that, in different cultures, biblical principles of personal liberty can be worked out differently.

My issue here has to do with an attitude found more in America than elsewhere, one in which Christian leaders talk openly about their drinking habits or their favorite alcoholic beverage, to the delight of their followers. We here are free! We are not into legalism! We will not be tied up by religion!

That is where things get dangerous.

A few years back, I watched what happened to an online group of Christians formed for this very purpose. They were no longer bound by legalism when it came to drinking, and they formed a group to share their newfound freedom.

Not surprisingly, within months, they went from talking about their favorite wines and beers to talking about their favorite hard liquors. And you can be sure more than a few of them were starting to find themselves drawn to more and more drinking, either habitually or to drunkenness.

But of course. This kind of thinking heads in one direction only.

Here in America, all this can become especially dangerous. Thats because drinking wine with a meal is far more of a lifestyle in Italy than it is in America, where much of our drinking leads to excess, including drunkenness. And in almost every one of our churches, there are former alcoholics walking a fine line to stay sober.

Thats why having Beer and Bible Studies is such a bad idea. You might well attract some people who otherwise wouldnt attend a Bible study. But you will also be destroying the lives of others, for whom this is the path back to addictive drinking.

Thats why, in another, related context, Paul warned, Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself [speaking of foods]. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:13-17).

Over and again (including this week), I have heard stories of Christians who were set free from alcoholism, realizing that it was crucial for them to abstain for life. Yet they fell back into addiction after seeing another Christian have a glass of beer or wine when they had dinner together.

I have known of others who fell back after seeing liquor in the home of another believer.

Hey, they thought to themselves, if its OK for them to have a drink, why not me? Maybe Im being too strict with myself.

And that one drink plunged them back into destructive addiction.

And this brings us back to the words of Paul: Do not by your eating [or, drinking!] destroy someone for whom Christ died.

This really is very serious business.

One pastor told me about how he used to be so bound by legalism until he met other believers who knew how to drink and have a good time. He was liberated!

Today, he is no longer in ministry, and some of his colleagues have dropped out of ministry as well.

This is very sad, but it is not surprising.

Again, the issue is not whether the Bible calls all believers to abstain totally from alcohol.
Russia accused of bombing 135 hospitals, shelters housing hundreds as death toll rises in Ukraine

An art school sheltering about 400 civilians and a theater with more than 1,000 others are among the many buildings destroyed or damaged by Russias military in Ukraines embattled city of Mariupol, as some fear residents are being transported to concentration and prisoner camps in Russia.

Officials in Ukraine have accused Russian troops of bombing Art School No. 12 in Mariupol, an eastern city on the Sea of Azov that once was home to 400,000 people but has been encircled by the Russian military for the past two weeks.

The city council reported that about 400 people were taking shelter at the school.

It is known that the building was demolished and there are still peaceful people under the rubble, the city council said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.

The alleged bombing of the school comes just days after Russian forces were accused of bombing a theatre in the city that was said to have sheltered over 1,400 civilians. On Friday, Ukrainian commissioner for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, said that as many as 130 people had been rescued from the theatre while over 1,300 were still trapped. The number of casualties has not been reported.

Ukraines First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzheppar claimed last week that Russian forces had not allowed Ukraines security services to rescue people from the theatres rubble.

Inhumanity of Russian troops has no limits, she tweeted.

In a tweet Monday, Dzheppar stated that Russian forces had shelled 135 hospitals since the invasion began last Feb. 24.

Russia wants civilians to be unable to receive medical care, she claimed. Russia is a war criminal.

Since Russia began its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, at least 925 civilians have been killed and 1,496 injured as of a Monday update from the United Nations. Among those killed are 39 children.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, the U.N. statement reads.

Mariuples City Council accused Russian forces of forcibly taking thousands of residents to camps and redirecting some of them to remote cities in Russia.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko voiced concern about alleged deportations of Ukrainian citizens into Russia, comparing such actions to the treatment of Jews in Germany during the Holocaust.

What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, Boychenko was quoted as saying by CNN National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt.

On Telegram, Ukraines human rights spokesperson Lyudmyla Denisova reported that Mariupol residents were transported across the border to a city in Russia that is about 60 miles from Mariupol. From there, Denisova alleges, Ukrainians are shipped by train even deeper into Russia.

The New York Times reports that Mariupols assistant mayor, Pyotr Andryuschenko, claimed that between 4,000 and 4,500 residents have been forcibly taken across the border to Taganrog.

Allegations that Russia is transporting Ukrainians deep into Russia could not be verified. Although Russia hasnt addressed the allegations, the AP notes that Russian media reported busloads of refugees arriving from Ukraine in the last week.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on CNNs State of the Union that she had only heard about the allegations of Mariupol residents being relocated across the Russian border.

I cant confirm it. But I can say it is disturbing, Thomas-Greenfield said. It is unconscionable for Russia to force Ukrainian citizens into Russia and put them in what will basically be concentration and prisoner camps. So, this is something that we need to verify. Russia should not be moving Ukrainian citizens against their will into Russia.

Reports indicate that around 350,000 residents of Mariupol were hiding in shelters and basements as of last Friday. The city council claims that, on average, 50 to 100 bombs are dropped on Mariupol each day.

In his daily address Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the citys destruction will go down in history as a war crime.

The terror the occupiers did to the peaceful city will be remembered for centuries to come. And the more Ukrainians tell the world about it, the more support we find, Zelensky said.

In her interview with CNN, Thomas-Greenfield was asked about the possibility of Russia using chemical weapons in Ukraine. She said the Russians came to the U.N. Security Council Friday with the spurious accusations that the U.S. was supporting Ukraines chemical weapons programs.

What we see happening is, again, this is a false flag effort by the Russians. They are advancing what they might intend to do. Weve seen that happen before. They are the ones whove used chemical weapons. They used them in Syria. Theyve used chemical weapons against their own people, she continued.

And we are concerned that they may use chemical weapons in Ukraine, she added. Weve been clear. If they escalate to this level, we will respond aggressively to what they are doing. Youve seen the consequences so far of our actions against Russia and against Putin, and they are feeling those consequences, and they will feel more if they take this unfortunate decision to use chemical weapons.

Russia President Vladimir Putin said his troops would allow safe corridors out of the city only if Ukrainian fighters lay down their arms.

Russian National Defense Control Centers head Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency TASS that residents of the city had been given until 5 a.m. Monday to respond to the offer, USA Today reported. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk rejected the idea outright.

There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this, she was quoted as saying. I wrote: Instead of wasting time on eight pages of letters, just open the corridor.

Earlier this month, the Russian military exploded a bomb at the entrance of a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in the Donetsk region just hours after President Zelensky said he was ready to hold peace talks with Russia in Jerusalem.

The Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra had sheltered more than 500 evacuees, including 200 children. A bomb exploded 54 yards away from the entrance, injuring several refugees, according to the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security (CSCIS).

In Russia, police have arrested thousands of people protesting against Ukraines invasion amid widespread censorship of social media and news outlets.

Moscow wants Ukraine to stop military action, never join NATO, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and give independence to separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Zelensky said earlier he would be willing to halt the military action in Ukraine, not seek NATO membership and give independent status to the contested territories. Still, he insisted his forces would not give in.

Im ready for a dialogue, but were not ready for surrender, Zelensky told ABC News earlier this month.

About 100 Christian leaders in the United States, more than 280 priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church, and over 400 ministers of Evangelical churches in Russia have called for reconciliation and an immediate end to Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

We mourn the ordeal to which our brothers and sisters in Ukraine were undeservedly subjected, the Russian Orthodox clerics wrote in their open letter. The Last Judgment awaits every person.

The clerics added: No earthly authority, no doctors, no guards will protect from this judgment. Concerned about the salvation of every person who considers himself a child of the Russian Orthodox Church, we do not want him to appear at this judgment, bearing the heavy burden of mothers curses.
The MQ-28A Ghost Bat might be flying with other aircraft capable of autonomous operations like attack and defense. Such a drone vehicle is seen as a force multiplier in human-drone tandems in military aircraft operations.

Many countries are developing versions of the loyal wingman concept to accompany 5th and 6th generation aircraft as a secondary unit.

Australian Military Combat Aircraft

On March 21, an event headed by Australia's Defense Minister Peter Dutton at a Royal Australian Air Force base in Queensland introduced the Ghost Bat as the first aircraft made in Australia in 50 years; it was developed with the help of Boeing.

The name comes from a native mammal down under the hunts and detects prey as a group. Australia first announced this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in May 2020. It is conceived as a UAV with artificial intelligence that can be commanded or be autonomous in flight.

Test done on the drone were high-speed taxi tests when it flew in March 2021, noted Aerotime; also, the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport (WTB) in the south part of Australia is where Boeing will assemble it.

Glen Ferguson, the director of Airpower Teaming System Australia and International at Boeing, says its description of the aircraft's sensors and its Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR suite) will be the first Australian concept.

MQ-28A Ghost Bat Capabilities

The Ghost Bat is developed from Boeing's use of digital engineering with production methods that allow a quick three years from concept to actual aircraft.

Boeing's brand name for global clients will retain the Airpower Teaming System. However, the RAAF Loyal Wingman development program moniker will be retired.

Envisioned by the RAAF and Boeing, the drone will give operation flexibility as a UAV used in modern air battles foreseen as its eventual use.

The MQ-28A Ghost Bat will secure and maintain Australia's most valuable combat aircraft, such as F-35s, Super Hornets, Growlers, and the pilots who fly them. The Australian Defense Force would benefit from the autonomous aircraft's increased agility and capacity.

Read Also: Joe Biden Threatens Brexit Trade Deal Over Article 16 Despite Special Relationship With Great Britain

The Loyal Wingman initiative has acquired approximately $111 million (A$150 million) from the Australian government. As production rises in the coming years, more job opportunities are anticipated to witness significant growth, reported the EurAsian Times.

The Australian government asked for three Ghost Bats UAVs as its first units, but more was bought in no time. Its successful test flight in February 2021 prompted the acquisition of Canberra.

Boeing tested two Ghost Bat UAVs in South Australia's Woomera Range Complex, one of the critical tests.

Developing the drone involved 35 local firms in Australia that worked on the components built to print. These companies include Ferra Engineering, AME Systems, and other firms involved in the program.

Its fuselage uses a novel resin-infusion technology. Composite materials are created, resulting in a lighter and more resilient platform. Via digital engineering and advanced composites will enable the aircraft to accomplish its cost and agility objectives.

Its size is 11.7 meters long and 7.3 meters wide; it flies at less than the supersonic speed with a 2,000-kilometer combat radius.It can do tandem and solo missions as control sees fit. It is armed with sensor packages that would allow it to carry out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks and strategic early-warning operations.

The MQ-28A Ghost Bat offers the next-generation capability for the RAAF in the next theatre aerial combat with unmanned vehicles as partners for aircraft to protect pilots.

Related Article: DARPA's Gremlin Drones Are Capable Of Reloading While in Flight and Can Ride on Designated Transport Aerial Vehicles

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
As the future inevitably becomes more digital, many have opted to switch to digital payment methods in lieu of physical cards.

Now, it looks like forms of identification might be headed that way too, questioning whether or not we will eventually even ned to carry wallets around anymore.

Arizona has just become the first U.S. state to allow residents to show identification by uploading their Drivers License or State ID to their Apple Wallet, though the digital versions will not be accepted in all cases.

Related: Half of of Apple's U.S. Employees Are Now From Underrepresented Communities

Residents that have TSA PreCheck will be able to use their digital identification at select security checkpoints at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Travelers will still need their physical identification when flying back to Arizona, however.

Digital IDs in Arizona will not be permitted for presenting proof of age to consume or purchase alcohol, or for any other usage that might require age verification.

Were thrilled to bring the first drivers license and state ID in Wallet to Arizona today, and provide Arizonans with an easy, secure, and private way to present their ID when traveling, through just a tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch, Jennifer Bailey, Apples vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said in a statement. We look forward to working with many more states and the TSA to bring IDs in Wallet to users across the U.S.

In order to upload an ID to the Apple Wallet, residents can tap the + button at the top of their wallet and follow through the verification process. Users will have to scan the front and back of their physical ids as well as take a photo of themselves in order to verify that they are the same person that the id belongs to.

Georgia will be the next state to roll out the featured, followed by Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Ohio, and the territory of Puerto Rico.

The addition of drivers licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet is an important step in our vision of replacing the physical wallet with a secure and easy-to-use mobile wallet, Bailey said. We are excited that the TSA and so many states are already on board to help bring this to life for travelers across the country using only their iPhone and Apple Watch, and we are already in discussions with many more states as were working to offer this nationwide in the future.

Apple explained that the digital IDs are presented digitally through encrypted communication so users dont need to unlock their devices or show the ID when checking in at security.

The new feature is currently supported on iPhone 8 and later as well as Apple Watch Series 4 and later.

Apple was up over 43% year over year as of Wednesday afternoon.

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With just 200 odd miles between Houston and Acadiana, Louisianas Cajun heartland, the Bayou City puts its own spin on the region's cuisine. Crawfish is practically a way of life here, and our Cajun and Creole offerings run the gamut from old-school kitchens slinging hot boudin and Natchitoches meat pies, to elaborate French Quarter-inspired dining spots where the etouffee is best washed down by a Sazerac or two.

Here are 12 Cajun restaurants to let the good timesand eatsroll in Houston.

Abes Cajun Market

Clear Lakes family-owned and operated meat market and kitchen has been channeling its Louisiana roots to keep locals satiated since 2001. Fill up on Cajun battered crawfish po boys, Natchitoches meat pies, red beans and rice just like maw-maw made, and a house favorite seafood gumbo loaded with jumbo lump crab, crawfish and shrimp. On your way out, pick up some dressing-stuffed chicken breasts or hot pork and shrimp boudin for dinners later in the week.

1080 Clear Lake City Blvd., Ste D

Houston, TX 77620

281-480-2237

Acadian Coast

Acadian Coast

Youll find a mash-up of Creole, Acadian and Houston influences at this coastal-themed stunner in the East End. Plump shrimp brochette over dirty rice, dark-rouxed chicken and andouille gumbo, blackened redfish Pontchartrain and perfectly powder-dusted beignets are just a few of its fortes. Pair them with house cocktails like the Corpse Reviver and Hurricane, both on draft.

2929 Navigation Blvd.

Houston, TX 77003

713-432-9651

Photos courtesy BB's Tex-Orleans/Yelp

BBs Tex-Orleans

BBs Tex-Orleans has expanded to nearly every pocket of Houston. Brooks Basslers Texas-kissed, New Orleans-inspired cafe opened on Montrose and Westheimer in 2007 before making its way to the Heights, Kingwood, Pearland, Tomball and beyond. The O.G. location remains a night owl favoriteserving food until 3 or 4 a.m.and cult offerings including Gulf shrimp and fried oyster poboys, crawfish etouffee and the put-you-to-bed Texas-Cajun fries, a colossal pile of shoestrings smothered in queso, gravy and roast beef debris.

View locations here.

Photo by: Jasmine R/Yelp

The Boil House

Be warned: this boil shack is open only during crawfish season, but when its here (like now), you can get your hands on superb freshwater mudbugs, properly soaked, spiced and boiled, Louisiana-style. Score a patio seat and get messy as you pinch, peel and suck down crawdaddies served piping hot from the bag, along with usual suspects like fat sausage links, mushrooms, corn and potatoes. If youre not ready to dine in quite yet, grab some boiled or live crawfish to bring home from the drive-thru window.

606 E. 11th St.

Houston, TX 77008

Brennan's of Houston / Brennan's of Houston

Brennans of Houston

Cajun and Creole may not be the first cuisine that comes to mind when you think of fine dining, but this sister establishment to New Orleans Commanders Palace and the original Brennans proves it should be. The timeless Houston institution has been open since 1967, marrying truly special, top-of-its-class hospitality with polished Texas Creole fare. Dress up and chow down on sherry-splashed snapping turtle soup; Gulf fish borgne swimming with lump crab, Louisiana oysters and local shrimp in Creole butter; Sazerac cocktails; and the show-stopping, tableside flambeed bananas Foster dessert.

3300 Smith St.

Houston, TX 77006

713-522-9711

Photo courtesy Esther's Cajun Cafe & Soul Food/Yelp

Esther's Cajun Cafe & Soul Food

Dont be fooled by this cafes no-frills atmosphere. Esther Lewis-Bernard is Cajun soul food royalty, taking inspiration from her great-grandmother Mary and learning skills from her momma, Gladiola, to craft her take on Southern traditions. Cajun fare takes center stage on Fridays and Saturdays, when youll find specialties including fried catfish, shrimp and crawfish etouffee, and Sunday-only Cajun chitterlings; and during happy hour, with bar bites ranging from boudin egg rolls to classic gumbo.

5007 North Shepherd

Houston, TX 77018

713-699-1212

Courtesy

Eugenes Gulf Coast Cuisine

The former Dantons restaurant transformed into this seafood-focused spotnow in newer, bigger digswhere the daily specials depend on what wild-caught fish comes in. Expect seasonal soft-shell crab and crawfish, Gulf shrimp and oysters, fresh red snapper, grouper and mahi. The dress here is business casual, but that doesnt mean the Cajun-style eats arent down-home delicious, from the stuffed redfish and catfish-topped red beans and rice to the Buffalo Bayou oyster shooters with Titos vodka.

1985 Welch St.

Houston, TX 77019

713-807-8883

Carla Buerkle

Eunice

Channeling his childhood, chef Drake Leonards brings Big Easy energy to Houstons Upper Kirby district with this refined Cajun-Creole spot. Featuring floor-to-ceiling windows, a stunning bar and picturesque patio, Eunice offers a brasserie-style menu of entrees and shareables, like shellfish-stuffed hearth-roasted oysters, double-smoked bacon-wrapped Cajun duck poppers, smothered Gulf shrimp and grits, and specials like Creole court-bouillon.

3737 Buffalo Speedway

Houston, Texas 77098

832 491 1717

Yelp

Gumbo Jeaux's

Texas meets Louisiana Cajun country at this homegrown haunt, where you can get your Creole shrimp and blackened fish in taco form. Theres classic Cajun, too: crawfish etouffee all thick and buttery, Gulf fish in Pontchartrain sauce and an ace gumbo served spicy with a dark, Texas-style roux.

View locations here.

Heads & Tails

Newer to the scene, this Railway Heights food hall post has already garnered a loyal following. Thats thanks to a roster of off-the-charts good Cajun bites, from the oh-so crispy fried catfish baskets and silky seafood etouffee, to tacos and poboys stuffed with the likes of blackened shrimp, fried crawfish and Creole sausage. During crawfish season, youll want to dig into Louisiana-style boils with house garlic butter boss sauce, too.

8200 Washington Ave., Suite 234

Houston, TX 77007

832-488-7394

James Nielsen/Staff

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

Wed be remiss not to include this Cajun powerhouse from the Pappas family, Houston royalty that have taken the local and national restaurant scene by storm with steaks, barbecue, tacos and more. The Louisiana-style seafood kitchen is the largest of its concepts, with fish flown in fresh daily and specialties including blackened catfish smothered with more seafood and holy trinity-fueled dirty rice, silky-smooth crawfish etouffee and a not-seafood-but-still-worth-it boudin appetizer.

View locations here.

Dave Rossman, Freelance / For the Houston Chronicle

Ragin' Cajun

Locals and homesick Louisianans have been getting their fill of real deal Cajun fare at this neighborhood staple, a part of the Mandola family empire, since it opened as Ray Hays Cajun Po-Boys off Richmond in 1974. Two years later, the owners introduced crawfish boils to the parking lot, and the rest is history. Come for the mudbugsand gumbos, oysters and po boys stay for the good times.

4302 Richmond Ave

Houston, TX 77027

713-623-6321
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Today is International Woman Winemakers Day. Women have been involved in the Texas wine industry since the 1970s. One of the women pioneers in the Texas wine industry is Penny Adams who I have bestowed the title of Texas First Lady of the Vineyard.

She remembers her grandfathers vineyards between Lubbock and Amarillo where she would play in the vineyards and retreat to the grape arbor when it got hot in the summer sun. She followed her passion with the grapes planting her first vineyard in Blanco County and producing her first wine in 1982. However, her first love was horticulture getting her horticulture cegree from Texas A&M in 1980 and later a viticulture degree from Fresno State in California in 1982. She was involved in planting 100 acres of grapes on the UT Systems land in Van Horn County. Penny was the vineyard manager and winemaker for Wedding Oak Winery for eight years, leaving the winery to establish VineCo which provides consulting services for vineyards and winemakers.
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Montgomery County fire departments have taken the call to ward off further wildfire devastation throughout the state amid the 55,000 acres ravaged by the Eastland Complex Fire.

Porter Fire Chief Carter Johnson on Wednesday said there was an estimated 20 county firefighters, along with fire engines, responding to Gov. Greg Abbotts request for backup. Fires have struck Eastland County, just south of Abilene, and surrounding areas in West Texas.

Weve got crews throughout the state of Texas right now, said Johnson, who is the regional coordinator of the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System.

A part of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, TIFMAS deploys firefighters from different parts of the state, including Montgomery County. The deployment started March 12, Johnson said.

Members of the East Montgomery County Fire Department are in Eastland County, those from Conroe Fire and Needhams fire rescue team are in San Angelo in West Texas, Johnson said. The Porter and Willis departments are in the border town of Edinburg, Johnson mentioned.

Those from the South Montgomery County and Springs Timberlakes departments are stationed just south of San Antonio in Pleasanton, he added. These two agencies have responded to six different fires so far during their deployment, according to Montgomery County Fire Marshal Jim Williams.

A total 17 departments from the Greater Houston area were deployed in this latest TIFMAS operation, with a total 200 fire personnel and about 65 pieces of equipment, Johnson detailed.

On yourcouriernews.com: How a Montana business is fighting wildfires, climate change by training pilots in Conroe

For Williams, the response is a preemptive one as fears loom about further wildfire breakouts with regional weather having been so dry. So far, efforts have been effective, the fire marshal noted.

Theyre helping the local teams get it under control, get it out before it gets big, Williams said. Were seeing a lot of these fires are only 50 or a hundred acres and theyre contained before they do any damage.

Williams, who has been serving the county in firefighting for 42 years, remembers when he went on its first in-state deployment in 1988 to battle a 300,000-acre blaze northwest of Abilene. It had been several days after the fire started by then and much destruction had already been wrought, he said.

Depending on the destination, the cost of TIFMAS deployment is footed by state or federal disaster funds.

Theres no cost to the local taxpayer, but our firefighters gain valuable experience, he said. Were better set up now to protect our community and our county if there were another disaster, another wildfire season like we had in 2011 in the Magnolia area, where homes and 20,000 acres were lost.

Before this, the last major wildfire deployment by Montgomery County firefighters was to summer 2020s August Complex Fire in California.

Conroe firefighters were previously deployed for weeks to act as support during last years Hurricane Ida recovery efforts in Louisiana. Since then, Johnson said, there have been four deployments within the state by county firefighters.

Somebody from Montgomery County has been out every month, he said of the deployments.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
For the second day in a row, Alex Jones failed to comply with a court order requiring his deposition in a successful defamation lawsuit brought by families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.

About an hour after it was scheduled to begin, law firms representing the families alerted the media that Jones did not arrive for the in-person questioning.

This cowardly attempt by Mr. Jones to escape accountability for the years he spent spreading lies about Sandy Hook, shows contempt both for the law and the families, the families attorney, Chris Mattei of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, said in a statement.

We will continue to work within the legal system to hold Mr. Jones accountable for his actions.

The no-show marks the second time in two days Jones has failed to appear for his deposition, with his defense attorneys arguing to the court that an unnamed medical condition should excuse him.

According to his defense counsel, Jones did not appear for his Wednesday deposition two days after a Dr. Ben Marble, a guest on his show Infowars, personally observed unnamed symptoms leading to a physical examination on Monday.

Marble, a Florida-based physician who created a free telemedicine website MyFreeDoctor.com during the COVID-19 pandemic, told Jones lawyers he advised Jones to go to an emergency room or call 911 immediately, according to court documents, and subsequently arranged for, comprehensive medical testing to be performed Wednesday morning  the same time as the scheduled deposition.

Late Wednesday evening, attorneys for Jones produced an additional doctors note stemming from the second opinion.

Signed by Dr. Amy Offutt, the redacted five sentence note cites a recommendation made to Jones that he, not attend court proceedings for now, after assessing his unnamed condition.

In her note submitted to the court, Offutt described her, medical visit with Mr. Jones for acute medical issues that were time-sensitive and potentially serious.

We started a comprehensive medical evaluation, and he has labs that are pending to assess his [redacted] status, Offutt wrote to the court. I also gave him ER precautions if he develops escalating symptoms.

According to her website, Ouffutt is an extensively trained integrative medicine physician based in Marble Falls, Texas, who was, recently appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to the Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome Advisory Council.

Her practice provides consultation and treatment to patients for chronic pain, offering yoga and other services including, ozone therapies and IV nutritional therapies.

Despite the added medical testimony from Offutt, Judge Barbara Bellis again denied the motion from the defense, ordering Jones to appear for his deposition Thursday morning.

While the court has no details regarding Dr. Offutts background or qualifications, It appears both from Dr. Marbles letter that the court reviewed yesterday (Tuesday) in camera, and from Dr. Offutts letter today (Wednesday), that the medical issues, while potentially serious, are not currently serious enough to either require his hospitalization; or convince him to stop engaging in his broadcasts, Bellis wrote in her denial.

Of course, if, as Dr. Offutt indicates, he develops escalating symptoms such that he is hospitalized, that change in circumstance would excuse his attendance at the court-ordered deposition, Bellis added.

Jones defense counsel could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.

At a news conference Wednesday, attorneys for the families of the victims said if Jones continues to defy court orders to attend his deposition, they will seek a court order to compel Jones to attend his deposition that could involve his arrest.

What we have requested is that if Mr. Jones does not comply with the courts order to appear tomorrow it should issue a capias, which is essentially the equivalent in a bench warrant that would authorize Mr. Jones arrest and production at a location to give sworn testimony, attorney Christopher Mattei said Wednesday.

Jones attorneys objected to the capias request, arguing later in the day that, while Mr. Jones appears not to have initially complied with his physicians orders, there is every indication that he has finally assented to do so, according to court filings.

Mr. Jones was never subject to a compulsory obligation, and he has yet to receive one in the form of a subpoena. Thus, the Plaintiffs motion for an order cannot be properly considered to be a motion to compel, and their attempt to procure his arrest is untimely.

Bellis declined the capias request, court documents filed Wednesday show, but said missing the Thursday deposition would put Jones, in direct contempt of the courts orders requiring him to appear...

Nothing prevents the plaintiffs from pursuing a motion for commission and subpoena, nor are the plaintiffs prevented from seeking sanctions should Mr. Jones continue to disregard the courts orders, Bellis added.

The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for at 2 p.m. March 30.
Only time will tell if President Joe Biden's current Supreme Court nominee ends up marking a pivotal moment in recent political times.

Pre-law advisor Kyla Stepp at Central Michigan University said the confirmation hearing process for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated for the Supreme Court, has been particularly contentious in comparison to those of two other historic nominees: Thurgood Marshall, the first Black judge to serve on the Supreme Court, and Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

I mean, certainly, when the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, was nominated to the Supreme Court, that was a bit of a turning point," Stepp said. "You know, and back when the first African-American man, Thurgood Marshall, was (nominated), that was also a turning point. So I can see this being one as well.

"What's interesting about this particular turning point, if it is one, is that it is so much more political and contentious than we saw with those other ones," she continued in reference to the nominations of Marshall in 1967 and of O'Connor in 1981. "Both of them were nominated at a time where they were usually confirmed with overwhelming majorities in the Senate because it wasn't seen as a partisan process necessarily. These days, it is."

Jackson is the first Black woman to be nominated for the Supreme Court. The judge is also the first public defender to be nominated, noted Stepp, who is also an associate professor with CMU's political science department.

Stepp said in these hearings, Republican senators may be attempting to get even with their Democratic counterparts because of how Democrats treated former President Donald Trump's nominees to the Supreme Court.

"It really just demonstrates how divided we have become and how the senators are always just looking towards the next election," she said. "Midterms are coming up later this year and you can tell just by the questions that are asked."

Stepp said some questions asked this week, such as those relating to critical race theory, don't relate to Jackson's potential role on the court.

"She's someone who's been a highly respected judge for years," she said.

Updates from Tuesday's hearing

Tuesday was the second day of Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, but it was the first day she had a chance to respond to senators' questions - and accusations.

Jackson would be the first justice in decades to have experience defending people accused of crimes, though the court regularly hears cases in which convicted criminals' lives are in their hands. (In the, presidents have usually nominated people who had experience on the opposite side of the courtroom, as prosecutors.)

"Federal public defenders don't get to pick their clients," Jackson said of representing people who are charged with a crime and can't afford their own lawyer. "They have to represent whoever comes in, and it's a service."

Republicans have used Jackson's relatively unusual background - plus the fact that liberal groups support her - to argue that she is soft on crime. It is a potentially effective political attack, given that Republicans see rising crime rates across the nation as a major midterm issue.

Jackson's opening comments

Jackson promised on Monday she would be an independent jurist who will decide cases "without fear or favor" - emphasizing her neutrality on the bench in hopes of heading off the expected criticism from Republicans that she has been a judicial activist.

Jackson spent her official introduction before the Senate Judiciary Committee detailing her approach as a judge, describing it as narrowly focused on resolving the issues before her. She has been a federal judge for nine years, both on the trial court and now on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

"I know that my role as a judge is a limited one - that the Constitution empowers me only to decide cases and controversies that are properly presented. And I know that my judicial role is further constrained by careful adherence to precedent," Jackson said.

In anticipation of questions from Republicans about her judicial philosophy and rulings against the Trump administration, Jackson emphasized that she decides cases from a "neutral posture."

"I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath," she said.

Jackson's opening remarks capped off a day when both Democratic and Republican senators - who took turns delivering their own statements on the first day of the four-day confirmation hearings - indicated they were eager to turn the page on the bitterness and heated rhetoric of past Supreme Court confirmation battles.






Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright passed away on Wednesday. Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as Secretary of State of the United States, died recently, and a number of powerful figures in our nation's capital have resorted to social media to share their condolences.

Albright, who was 84 years old, died of cancer on Wednesday. She was "surrounded by her family and friends," according to a statement from her family, and various lawmakers commented on her life and death after hearing of her demise.

Lawmakers Remember Madeleine Albright

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on her early life as a refugee who fled the Nazis and Soviet Communism, describing her as a woman who embodied the American dream and motivated women and children around the globe.

Madeleine Albright was one-of-a-kind and first-of-a kind



As a refugee who fled the Nazis and Soviet Communism, she embodied the American dream in rising to become our first female Secretary of State



A titan in American historyher story inspired women and girls across the globe https://t.co/S6N5tYM8sS  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 23, 2022

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democrat, noted in her post that Madeleine Albright "broke barriers" in her life and inspired others in the process. Albright was described as a "trailblazer" and a "committed public servant" by Democratic Florida Representative Val Demmings.

Former presidential contender and Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar also spoke about Albright's role as a trailblazer. "We've achieved so much progress because of strong women like her," she wrote, "and so much more is possible."

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, issued a statement and said on Twitter that he was "grieved to learn that our nation has lost former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright."

I was grieved to learn that our nation has lost former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. My prayers are with Secretary Albrights family and all who mourn her loss. My full statement: https://t.co/w9i8vSuQBo  Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) March 23, 2022

According to Newsweek, her family requested political asylum in the United States in 1948, claiming that they were unable to return home as opponents of their country's communist rule. In 1957, she became a US citizen.

Madeleine Albright later worked as a foreign policy adviser to a number of vice-presidential and presidential candidates after working in the White House during Jimmy Carter's presidency. Albright's first diplomatic mission came shortly after Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993 when she was named ambassador to the United Nations.

Per BBC News, Albright re-entered the public eye just a month ago, on the brink of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with a New York Times editorial criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she first met shortly after he took office in 2000.

Read Also: US, NATO Warning: Belarus 'Likely' to Help Russia in Ukraine Invasion

Who Is Madeleine Albright?

According to Fox News, Madeleine Albright or Marie Jana Korbel was born on May 15, 1937, in Czechoslovakia, and moved to the United States with her family in 1948, following a communist takeover. Her family was Jewish until she was five years old when she converted to Roman Catholicism.

Three of her grandparents were Jewish and perished in detention camps. Albright stated she didn't find out about her family's Jewish ancestry until after she was appointed Secretary of State.

She later worked in former President Bill Clinton's administration, first as the United States ambassador to the United Nations and then as Secretary of State during his second term. As Secretary of State, she was instrumental in persuading the Senate to approve NATO's expansion into former Soviet republics and ratify nuclear non-proliferation accords.

Because of how Kosovar Albanians were handled in 1999, she also helped persuade Clinton to go to war against Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Despite her tenure in the Clinton administration, she remained outspoken and critical of the Bush government's foreign policies after 9/11. Former President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Related Article: Sen. Lindsey Graham Decries Taking Down of Preferred Supreme Court Nominee But Vows To Be Fair in Hearing

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As the first Black woman nominated to a seat on the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a historic figure. She made history when President Joe Biden nominated her, and she will make history again if, as expected, she is confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as the court's newest justice.

But as the first Black woman nominated to the high court, Jackson also bears certain burdens that have become evident during her confirmation hearings. She has been subjected to questioning from some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee that has been explicitly or implicitly all about race.

She has been asked about critical race theory and the history of America's slaveholding past and whether she has been too lenient in her sentencing as a trial judge - issues that are cultural flash points in today's caustic political debate but the first two of which have little to do with the actual work of the Supreme Court.

The grilling she has experienced is a reminder that Black Americans are seen and often judged through a different lens than White Americans - and that they also have life experiences that White Americans do not share.

The questioning has ranged through a series of other predictable issues: abortion, gun rights, her representation as a public defender, court-packing, her judicial philosophy. But the most charged exchanges dealt with issues that have clear racial components.

References to Martin Luther King Jr. punctuated the preliminary comments from some GOP senators. Lawmakers cited King's speech at the 1963 March on Washington, where he said he had a dream that one day "all Americans will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Republicans have used King to express their solidarity with those sentiments and then used that as a shield behind which they have then pummeled Jackson with questions that come with racial overtones.

On Wednesday, she went through a contentious exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over her sentencing practices in cases involving pedophiles and pornography, with Graham repeatedly interrupting her as she tried to answer and committee chairman Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., asking Graham to let her speak.

Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford

Graham has made clear that he is miffed that Biden did not nominate South Carolina federal District Judge J. Michelle Childs, whom Graham had endorsed, and instead selected the more liberal Jackson. This is the same Lindsey Graham who voted last year to confirm Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

On Tuesday, Jackson was asked by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about critical race theory, which has become a target of Republicans in their political campaigns as they have sought to elevate education issues and parents' roles in school curriculums ahead of the midterm elections.

She was asked about this because she sits on the board of Georgetown Day School. Cruz was offended by some of the books about race that are recommended for students there - including one having to do with critical race theory - and seemingly about the fact that the school embraces social justice as part of its overall mission.

The political debate around critical race theory has been focused on public schools. Jackson pointed out that Georgetown Day is a private school, one that was founded as an integrated school in 1945 at a time when D.C. schools were segregated. She also said that the board on which she sits has no role in curriculum issues or reading matter and further that the issue Cruz was raising had nothing to do with her role as a judge.

She was asked by Cruz about the "1619 project," the New York Times Magazine's undertaking to reinterpret the history of the founding of America. She had cited the project and the driving force behind it, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, in a 2020 speech at the University of Michigan.

The 1619 project is now a best-selling book, but it has drawn criticism from several notable historians for some of its historical interpretation. Jackson cited Jones and the project as part of a speech about the role of Black women in American history. Her specific references did not endorse historical assertions that have been challenged but to highlight that the founders who drafted the Constitution built around the ideas of freedom, equality and democracy did so at a time when slavery had existed in the colonies for more than 150 years.

"Thus, it is Jones's provocative thesis that the America that was born in 1776 was not the perfect union that purported to be, and that it is actually only through the hard work, struggles and sacrifices of African Americans over the past two centuries that the United States has finally become the free nation that the framers initially touted," she said, according to a transcript of the speech.

She was challenged on Tuesday by Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on the issue of sentencing for convicted pedophiles and child sexual predators. They said, as Graham said, that Jackson had handed down sentences shorter in duration than recommended by prosecutors. This topic was not raised in any material way when Jackson was nominated to serve on the appellate court less than a year ago.

Democrats said the charges by Republicans were a distortion of Jackson's record and that what is really at issue is a policy question for Congress, as other judges have done as Jackson did in setting sentences. Ahead of this week's hearings, with Hawley making clear his intention to focus on the judge's sentencing practices, the issue had been discredited even by some conservatives.

Beyond the specifics of Jackson's sentencing record cited by the senators, the issue of criminal justice has been used by conservatives in political wars to accuse liberals of being soft on crime and more attentive to the rights of criminals than to the rights of victims.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings have become predictable, more performative politics than honest inquiry. There are still moments of rigorous questioning and intellectual discussion about the court and cases and judicial philosophy. But partisanship rules the hearing room - as it rules so much else - and few if any votes are likely to be changed by the exchanges between senators and Jackson.

Senators play to various audiences, and the hearings offer a convenient platform for them to position themselves for the future. It's clear that for those like Cruz, Hawley and others, the people they are trying to reach are conservative voters who might be attracted to them if they run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Given that environment, the guiding principle for any nominee is: First do no harm. That's been Jackson's approach this week. She has been careful and generally constrained throughout, offering her methodology as a jurist rather than stating a philosophy and at times couching her approach to her role as a judge in conservative language.

In a time of hyperpartisanship, Supreme Court confirmation hearings can become political spectacles, the most recent being the hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. His nomination had a direct bearing on the ideological makeup of the court.

Jackson's nomination will not change the court in any such way, as she will join the liberal block as a successor to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. The ideological balance will remain at 6-3 in favor of the conservatives. That's one reason the hearings have yet to become as supercharged as hearings in the past.

But if the hearings lack the ultimate drama of some in the past, they have been revelatory nonetheless, providing yet another window into how race shapes and sometimes distorts perceptions and attitudes. For the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, that has been a price to be paid.
Thirty-two years after earning the Eagle Globe and Anchor during boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in 1990, Illinois Army National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Kindred of Jacksonville celebrated more than two decades of combined military service during a retirement ceremony Friday at the Illinois Military Academy at Camp Lincoln in Springfield.

Today is a bittersweet day, Kindred, who most recently served as the Human Resources Office sergeant major, told family, friends and fellow soldiers. Its hard for me to grasp that I wont wear this uniform anymore. Twenty-three years of my adult life has been in uniform.

Following Kindreds discharge from the Marine Corps, he had a break in service, working in a civilian career until his brother convinced him to join the National Guard.

Kindred joined the Texas National Guard as a software analyst before becoming an engineer and finding his way home to Illinois, serving in a variety of assignments, including 65th Troop Command, Recruiting and Retention Battalion, 766th Brigade Engineer Battalion, and the 198th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion.

This is a big day for the Kindred family, said Maj. Gen. Eric Little, director of manpower and personnel, National Guard Bureau, in Washington, D.C. Paul and I go way back to 2003, when we were getting ready to deploy to Iraq.

Little said not only during the deployment, but throughout his career, Kindred has kept him in check.

Ive learned a lot from Paul throughout that entire deployment, Little said. He has done a great job which has impacted many families, soldiers and civilians.

Kindred thanked Little for his guidance throughout the years.

Im very blessed to have you here, Kindred said. Your guidance and mentorship throughout my career has meant a lot to me.

Kindred said although he knew his time in uniform was coming to an end, it doesnt make it any easier to end his military service.

There are a lot of emotions tied to today, Kindred said. I knew this day was coming for a couple of months but it was important for me to step aside and retire so other soldiers can advance in their careers.

Kindred said he is grateful for the leaders in the Illinois National Guard for allowing him to serve this long.

Kindred saved his final thank yous for his family.

To my wife, Bobbie, your sacrifice got me here and Im not sure I could have done it without you, he said. To my children, Justice, Cameren and Evan, Im extremely proud of you and look forward to seeing more of your accomplishments in person.

Kindred told the soldiers gathered he was grateful for each one and offered a piece of advice.

Leadership is not about a title or designation, its about impact, influence and inspiration, he said. To every soldier Ive had the opportunity to lead, mentor or develop, thank you for listening and thank you for allowing me to prove that my guidance was worth your time. To all of you who got me to this day, I will miss most of all the ability to be part of your lives.

Following his retirement, Kindred will serve as the Casualty Operations Branch chief at Camp Lincoln.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US administration has publicly stated that members of the Russian military forces committed war crimes in Ukraine.

After Blinken, President Joe Biden, and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman all claimed it was their personal view that war crimes had occurred, the US officially declared that Moscow's soldiers had broken the rules of war.

US Formally Accuses Russian Forces of Committing War Crimes in Ukraine

The US government's decision to submit a formal allegation is a huge step forward after weeks of refusing to state that the airstrikes against civilians in Ukraine were war crimes.

However, it remains to be seen if individuals accused of committing the alleged crimes would face any consequences, as well as whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will be held accountable.

In his statement, Blinken noted "reliable accounts" of indiscriminate and purposeful strikes on people, including the destruction of residential complexes, schools, and hospitals, CNN reported. The State Department expressly mentioned attacks on a maternity facility and a theater in Mariupol. According to the State Department, the Russian term for "children" was written in letters visible from the sky.

The US ambassador at large for global criminal justice, Beth Van Schaack, said she couldn't go into specifics about which acts the US has determined to be war crimes but that the US is "looking at the wide spectrum of activities that Russia's forces are participating in" in Ukraine.

Because neither Russia nor the United States recognizes the International Criminal Court in The Hague, pursuing justice for war crimes committed in Ukraine will be difficult.

The US could still help a prosecution before the court, which had previously opened an investigation into atrocities committed in Ukraine, by assisting in gathering evidence against Russian forces in Ukraine, using some of the vast capabilities it has deployed to track and monitor the conflict.

Read Also: India, UK To Strengthen Ties on Trade, Security; PM Boris Johnson Urges PM Narendra Modi to Condemn Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

UN May Cooperate With US Regarding the Issue

A commission of investigation constituted by the UN Human Rights Council might possibly have US cooperation and endorsement, as per WHAS11.

Experts say Russian soldiers and government officials might be punished in countries like Spain and Germany, where legal codes allow universal jurisdiction or the US may file criminal charges. For charges to be filed under current provisions, an American citizen would have to be among the victims, according to US law.

According to Blinken, the conclusion was based on a "careful review" of public and intelligence sources since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month. The US will share such material with allies, partners, and international organizations entrusted with examining charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to America's top diplomat.

According to SCMP, the US could still help a prosecution before the court, which had previously opened an investigation into atrocities committed in Ukraine, by assisting in the gathering of evidence against Russian forces in Ukraine, using some of the vast capabilities it has deployed to track and monitor the conflict.

Related Article: Joe Biden To Visit Poland To Discuss International Support for Ukraine; Ukrainian Official Urges US President To Talk to Volodymyr Zelensky

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media that Kyiv prepped for an attack on separatist Donbas despite what the West says. These pro-Russian provinces have been under attack by Ukrainian forces. Washington and other western leaders have ignored it, but all hands when Russia stepped in to stop the carnage.

Kyiv's Plans To Capture Donbas

Lavrov claimed last Wednesday that Moscow had proof that Kyiv was stopped by its special operations, reported TASS.

In a speech at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations, he said that Ukrainian authorities deployed 100,020 troops all along the contact line, that the shelling worsened significantly. Also, they began speaking publicly about plan B, which turned out to exist.

Furthermore, he justified the Kremlin's actions to intercede with the documents in hand. If allowed, Kyiv would have attacked these pro-Russian provinces without anyone trying to stop a forced capture of Donbas.

The Foreign Minister added scathing criticisms about how the West has not been facing up with the facts. Instead, the western alliance is using it.

Stating the US and NATO say the Russian forces invaded via these provinces as the Russian special operation kicked off on February 24. Mentioning the Western response architects is to muddle the truth with words and choose what it wants.

The attacks on Donbas and other separatist Ukrainian provinces have been ongoing. Still, it is ignored, but when Russia rolled in to stop in an invasion, remarked Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth?

Western Media Choose To Gloss Over

Lavrov attacked the West over the hypocrisy of the West regarding what has been happening in Ukraine. Russia first acknowledged the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, but Kyiv did not. Their forces have subjected Donetsk and Luhansk to excessive abuse and attacked its civilians with artillery barrages.

The reason is the Ukrainian regime is coursed to counter pro-Russian sentiment and geared to genocide against the people of Donbas and Luhansk, cited Al Jazeera.

One of the reasons the West allowed neo-Nazism and Russophobia in Ukraine is to hide that Kyiv has been attacking Donbas, which caused the Kremlin's mediation, which led to the conflict now.

Last Friday, Lavrov had discussions with Lugansk People's Republic Foreign Minister Vladislav Deinego and DPRs Sergey Peresada. He told his counterparts that Moscow is aware of how their allegiance brought upon death and destruction caused by pro-Ukraine forces.

For years they endured attacks and are still fighting forces that want to stamp them out for loyalty to Russia. The horrors inflicted on them cannot be forgotten, and Kyiv has much to answer.

Western governments have turned a blind eye to the military crimes and attacks on non-combatants not involved in the fighting. Furthermore, the rise of Pro-Nazis and the west destabilization by supporting Kyiv in efforts to undermine the Minsk accord, noted The Nation.

These actions caused by the West and its Kyiv cohort only made this unfortunate event drive everything to this awful result. He added that President Vladimir Putin would not control Ukrainian territory.

Contrary to the claims by NATO and the US, indiscriminate firing is done by precision arms. According to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, the Donetsk and Luhansk were why the Kremlin ordered the rollout, but the West painted it to their narrative.

Related Article: Russians Favor Military Action Against NATO Countries Deemed as Threat by Putin, New Poll Says

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Jenny Cudd was supposed to learn her sentence on Wednesday for her actions on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. Instead, at 9:42 p.m. Tuesday, the government filed for a continuance based on defendants repudiation of an element of the offense.

Specifically, it is the governments position that the defendant has repudiated an element of the offense through statements reflected in the presentence investigation report and made in her sentencing memorandum, according to the motion filed.

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, one hour after the sentencing was set to begin, there was no word as to whether that continuance had been allowed.

Not surprisingly, Cudds attorney, Marina Medvin of Alexandria, Virginia, filed an objection to the notice of a continuance request. She indicated that the continuance was to determine what steps, if any, are appropriate based upon Cudds statement on March 10 to a probation officer during which, among other things, she acknowledged her actions.

The word tepidly was used to describe, by U.S. Attorneys, their reaction to her avowal of responsibility. However, during subsequent conversations over nearly two weeks, no concern was voiced, Medvin declared.

The following is an excerpt from the U.S. Attorneys motion:

On March 10, 2022, the U.S. Probation Officer filed the final Presentence Investigation Report (PSR). The PSR quotes Cudds statements in the presentence interview. According to the

PSR, Cudd stated, I did not realize, at the time, that I was breaking the law when I walked inside through open doors to the Capitol. When I said on TV that I didnt do anything unlawful I genuinely meant that I did not believe that I did anything illegal. I am not trying to absolve myself of responsibility for entering the Capitol, but I wanted the court to know what I did not know at the time I walked in.

On March 16, 2022, the defendant filed her sentencing memorandum, which included similar sentiments.  Specifically, the memorandum states, Ms. Cudd did not realize that entering the Capitol building was a criminal offense at the time she went in.  In the sentencing memorandum, the defendant also requests sanctions against the government for failing to timely provide exculpatory evidence, specifically the location of Vice President Pence at the time Cudd entered the U.S. Capitol building.

On March 21, 2022, undersigned counsel spoke with defense counsel over the phone. Undersigned counsel noted that the statements made in the memorandum and PSR appeared to be a repudiation of one of Section 1752(a)(1)s elements. Undersigned counsel asked whether defense counsel intended to repudiate these post-plea agreement statements or withdraw her plea.

Defense counsel notified government counsel that Cudd was not withdrawing her plea and did not intend repudiate these post-plea agreement statements.

It boils down to whether Jenny Cudd violated her plea agreement when she told probation officers that at the time (Jan. 6, 2021), she didnt realize she was entering the Capitol illegally. Medvin writes the governments claims and requests are ridiculous, not based in law, and suspiciously malicious. They also amount to gamesmanship by a prosecutor, she continued.
Standing in a semicircle on a green and blue patterned rug, a group of 4- and 5-year-old children in Riverside County, Calif., performed a call-and-response with their teacher.

"Who's our president?" the teacher asked in a video filmed last month.

"Biden!" the children responded.

"What do we want to do with him?" the teacher said.

"We want him out!" they chanted, swinging their thumbs back in a "get out" gesture.

The teacher, who is not seen in the video and has not been publicly identified, posted the recording to an app that staff at Turning Point Christian School, a private school in Norco, Calif., use to communicate with parents.

Christina McFadden was on her lunch break on Feb. 18 when she saw the video. She spotted her daughter in the crowd.

"My initial reaction was fear," McFadden, 35, told The Washington Post in a Facebook Messenger exchange. "Fear that this was sent to 14 families with differing views. Fear that it appeared to be a political propaganda video and that it would spread as such with my daughter front and center."

The school removed the video hours later and posted an apology message to the app.

"[The video] did not share our school and church philosophy of honoring and respecting authority including those in government positions," Linda Solorzano, the preschool director, wrote in the note, which was reviewed by The Post.

"We are sorry for any misunderstanding this could [have] created," she added. "With courtesy toward the families of our campus and the children in the classroom I am asking you to please not share with others or post the video on any social media platform."

Turning Point Christian School did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Post.

About a month after the incident, McFadden posted the video on her Facebook page. She was frustrated with the school's response because the teacher faced no disciplinary action, she said.

"The teacher remains in the classroom because, according to the school she is 'repentant and has learned from her mistake,'" McFadden wrote in the March 12 post.

McFadden, a teacher with a master's degree in educational leadership, also said she's disappointed her daughter's teacher "was so proud of this content."

"We as Americans have the right to determine who and what we believe in," she wrote. "We as parents have the right to determine the beliefs and values we want to instill in our children. A teacher does not have the right to indoctrinate her students."

The administration has not publicly acknowledged the video, posted a public apology or commented to media outlets. McFadden said the lack of accountability for the video led her to pull her 5-year-old daughter out of the school and enroll her elsewhere.

"There are a lot of wonderful teachers and innocent children at the school," she said in a message to The Post. "The school administration's lack of response now, and at the time of the video, is a disservice to all of them."
When discussing San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in the context of other recently elected reformist district attorneys across the country, Washington Post columnist and criminal justice reform advocate Radley Balko described Boudin as "among the more radical of the crop."

"Boudins parents were part of the Weather Underground (his father is still in prison for a fatal armored truck robbery in 1981), and he comes from a long lineage of leftist activism," Balko wrote. "Boudin himself served as an interpreter in the presidential palace of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez."

Boudin is lumped in with a cohort that includes George Gascon in Los Angeles, Kim Foxx in Chicago and Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, a group called the Soros-funded DAs by critics. Billionaire George Soros is a prominent left-leaning philanthropist who has become a chief boogeyman for many far-right, antisemitic conspiracy theorists. Soros, who is Jewish, is baselessly accused of using his wealth to create a shadow government that essentially runs the world. There is no evidence to support a conspiracy this enormous. In addition, Boudin, who is also Jewish, is the only member of that group of DAs who has not so far receive funding from Soros Foundation to Promote Open Society nonprofit.

But is Boudin really more radical than the other three? SFGATE dug into the policy records of each of the four district attorneys and found that while the four are quite similar, subtle differences do exist.

Chesa Boudin

Chesa Boudin took office in January 2020, and his primary policy initiatives have been eliminating cash bail and reducing the city's prison population. He has sought to achieve the latter goal by diverting more offenders to mental health and substance abuse programs instead of pursuing convictions and incarceration. An analysis from the San Francisco Chronicle found that Boudin has increased diversion rates for assault, robbery and drug cases and decreased convictions of the same crimes (SFGATE and the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another).

Boudin's office, citing a California Policy Lab report from 2021, has argued that diversion helps reduce recidivism and is preferable to conviction for some crimes. The report found that diversion has a particularly strong effect in reducing recidivism for those charged with drug crimes. Others, including District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, are less persuaded by the success of these programs.

Other policy measures implemented by Boudin early in his tenure include halting the charging of defendants in possession of illegal goods if the illegal goods were obtained through "pretextual" searches, ending sentencing enhancements tied to gang affiliation and stopping enforcement of California's "three strikes" law.

(For deeper examinations of Boudin's record and San Francisco crime generally, you can find additional reading from SFGATE on crime statistics under Boudin, on retail theft specifically and on popular claims made about Boudin's tenure.)

George Gascon

San Francisco's recent trend of increased diversion rates and lower conviction rates began under George Gascon, who served as San Francisco's district attorney between 2011 from 2019 before taking the same position in Los Angeles in 2020.

Boudin and Gascon have lots of similarities, but differ in key respects. San Francisco data shows Boudin and Gascon have similar rates of charging and "action taken" (defined by the District Attorney's Office as any action short of dismissal), meaning the two opted not to bring charges in a similar number of cases. Boudin, however, diverted a higher percentage of cases than Gascon did during his tenure.

Like Boudin, Gascon abolished most cash bail, ended gang-related sentencing enhancements and stopped three-strikes law enforcement immediately after taking office in Los Angeles. Gascon went further than Boudin by banning prosecutors from charging juveniles as adults and seeking life without parole in any case. In February of this year, Gascon, also facing a recall campaign, backtracked on both of those policies, allowing some exemptions in "extraordinary" cases. Boudin has sought to avoid charging juveniles as adults or seeking life without parole but has not implemented a blanket ban on prosecutors seeking such action.

There are also notable differences between Boudin and Gascon on the issues of property crime and retail theft. In response to the high-profile Union Square robberies, Boudin announced a series of new actions to crack down on organized retail theft that included a partnership with neighboring district attorneys as well as the filing of felony charges for those arrested in connection with the Union Square case. Boudin's office said it found two San Francisco shops were reselling stolen goods as part of a larger organized retail theft operation, and Boudin himself has taken a hard line against organized retail theft in his public comments, stating, "These brazen acts will not be tolerated in San Francisco."

Gascon was faced with a similar spate of high-profile thefts earlier this year when the Union Pacific railway was reportedly targeted by thieves raiding cargo trains. Union Pacific criticized Gascon's record generally, and accused the district attorney of releasing too many individuals accused of property crime.

Gascon countered by stating that his office can only bring charges in cases police have made arrests in, and that the number of train theft cases police presented to the DA's office has decreased over the past three years. It's a rebuttal similar to the one Boudin deploys in response to critics over property crime, but unlike Boudin, Gascon has not announced or implemented any new measures relating to cracking down on organized theft.

Kim Foxx

Kim Foxx, the district attorney for Illinois' Cook County (which includes Chicago), first assumed office in 2016 and has been in office the longest of the four. Like Boudin and Gascon, Foxx has placed an emphasis on diversion over conviction and incarceration.

A Chicago Tribune analysis showed that Foxx is dropping felony charges at a higher rate than her predecessor, and that unlike Boudin, Foxx is pursuing conviction for violent crimes such as murder and aggravated battery less frequently than her predecessor did. It's worth noting that generally, district attorney charging rates in Cook County are higher than they are in San Francisco, so Foxx's office dropping more violent crime charges than her predecessor does not necessarily mean she's "softer on violent crime" than Boudin is. San Francisco does not have data for years that predate Boudin and Gascon, and Los Angeles County does not have comprehensive data that would illustrate what Gascon's current charging rates look like.

Like Boudin and Gascon, Foxx supports ending cash bail. She has also pursued bond reform. Unlike Boudin and Gascon, her office has charged juveniles as adults. Foxx also raised the threshold for the value of stolen goods that would trigger felony theft charges from $300 to $1,000. That's a policy Boudin and Gascon have not implemented in their jurisdictions as they are constrained by California's Proposition 47, which sets the threshold for felony theft and fraud at $950. In response to dissatisfaction over retail theft, Foxx has since signaled an openness to lowering the felony threshold, while Boudin and Gascon have remained supportive of Proposition 47.

Foxx received widespread national attention when she dropped all charges against actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of lying to police and staging a hate crime hoax. A special prosecutor was then brought in and hit Smollett with new charges of which he was convicted two weeks ago. The special prosecutor wrote a report alleging that Foxx mishandled the case and should not have dropped charges.

Larry Krasner

Krasner assumed office as district attorney of Philadelphia in January 2018, and like Boudin, Gascon and Foxx, has sought to reduce his jurisdiction's jail population by pursuing diversion and shorter sentences. On several policy areas, however, Krasner contrasts from all three DAs.

Krasner campaigned on abolishing cash bail, and while he is now requiring cash bail in very few cases, he technically has not ended the practice, putting him closer in line with Gascon than Boudin. While Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf placed a statewide moratorium on executions, Krasner has said "you never want to say never" when asked whether he'd consider using the death penalty in certain cases. (Krasner is still opposed to the death penalty generally.)

On property crime, Krasner has not adjusted the monetary threshold for felony theft, as his state sets that line at $2,000. None of this is to say Krasner is "tough on crime." Charging rates are down and Krasner has implemented a number of reformist policies, including no longer prosecuting marijuana possession  marijuana is still illegal in Pennsylvania  and seeking to reduce the number of life sentences without parole.
As the first Black woman nominated to a seat on the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a historic figure. She made history when President Joe Biden nominated her, and she will make history again if, as expected, she is confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as the court's newest justice.

But as the first Black woman nominated to the high court, Jackson also bears certain burdens that have become evident during her confirmation hearings. She has been subjected to questioning from some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee that has been explicitly or implicitly all about race.

She has been asked about critical race theory and the history of America's slaveholding past and whether she has been too lenient in her sentencing as a trial judge - issues that are cultural flash points in today's caustic political debate but the first two of which have little to do with the actual work of the Supreme Court.

The grilling she has experienced is a reminder that Black Americans are seen and often judged through a different lens than White Americans - and that they also have life experiences that White Americans do not share.

The questioning has ranged through a series of other predictable issues: abortion, gun rights, her representation as a public defender, court-packing, her judicial philosophy. But the most charged exchanges dealt with issues that have clear racial components.

References to Martin Luther King Jr. punctuated the preliminary comments from some GOP senators. Lawmakers cited King's speech at the 1963 March on Washington, where he said he had a dream that one day "all Americans will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Republicans have used King to express their solidarity with those sentiments and then used that as a shield behind which they have then pummeled Jackson with questions that come with racial overtones.

On Wednesday, she went through a contentious exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over her sentencing practices in cases involving pedophiles and pornography, with Graham repeatedly interrupting her as she tried to answer and committee chairman Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., asking Graham to let her speak.

Graham has made clear that he is miffed that Biden did not nominate South Carolina federal District Judge J. Michelle Childs, whom Graham had endorsed, and instead selected the more liberal Jackson. This is the same Lindsey Graham who voted last year to confirm Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

On Tuesday, Jackson was asked by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about critical race theory, which has become a target of Republicans in their political campaigns as they have sought to elevate education issues and parents' roles in school curriculums ahead of the midterm elections.

She was asked about this because she sits on the board of Georgetown Day School. Cruz was offended by some of the books about race that are recommended for students there - including one having to do with critical race theory - and seemingly about the fact that the school embraces social justice as part of its overall mission.

The political debate around critical race theory has been focused on public schools. Jackson pointed out that Georgetown Day is a private school, one that was founded as an integrated school in 1945 at a time when D.C. schools were segregated. She also said that the board on which she sits has no role in curriculum issues or reading matter and further that the issue Cruz was raising had nothing to do with her role as a judge.

She was asked by Cruz about the "1619 project," the New York Times Magazine's undertaking to reinterpret the history of the founding of America. She had cited the project and the driving force behind it, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, in a 2020 speech at the University of Michigan.

The 1619 project is now a best-selling book, but it has drawn criticism from several notable historians for some of its historical interpretation. Jackson cited Jones and the project as part of a speech about the role of Black women in American history. Her specific references did not endorse historical assertions that have been challenged but to highlight that the founders who drafted the Constitution built around the ideas of freedom, equality and democracy did so at a time when slavery had existed in the colonies for more than 150 years.

"Thus, it is Jones's provocative thesis that the America that was born in 1776 was not the perfect union that purported to be, and that it is actually only through the hard work, struggles and sacrifices of African Americans over the past two centuries that the United States has finally become the free nation that the framers initially touted," she said, according to a transcript of the speech.

She was challenged on Tuesday by Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on the issue of sentencing for convicted pedophiles and child sexual predators. They said, as Graham said, that Jackson had handed down sentences shorter in duration than recommended by prosecutors. This topic was not raised in any material way when Jackson was nominated to serve on the appellate court less than a year ago.

Democrats said the charges by Republicans were a distortion of Jackson's record and that what is really at issue is a policy question for Congress, as other judges have done as Jackson did in setting sentences. Ahead of this week's hearings, with Hawley making clear his intention to focus on the judge's sentencing practices, the issue had been discredited even by some conservatives.

Beyond the specifics of Jackson's sentencing record cited by the senators, the issue of criminal justice has been used by conservatives in political wars to accuse liberals of being soft on crime and more attentive to the rights of criminals than to the rights of victims.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings have become predictable, more performative politics than honest inquiry. There are still moments of rigorous questioning and intellectual discussion about the court and cases and judicial philosophy. But partisanship rules the hearing room - as it rules so much else - and few if any votes are likely to be changed by the exchanges between senators and Jackson.

Senators play to various audiences, and the hearings offer a convenient platform for them to position themselves for the future. It's clear that for those like Cruz, Hawley and others, the people they are trying to reach are conservative voters who might be attracted to them if they run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Given that environment, the guiding principle for any nominee is: First do no harm. That's been Jackson's approach this week. She has been careful and generally constrained throughout, offering her methodology as a jurist rather than stating a philosophy and at times couching her approach to her role as a judge in conservative language.

In a time of hyperpartisanship, Supreme Court confirmation hearings can become political spectacles, the most recent being the hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. His nomination had a direct bearing on the ideological makeup of the court.

Jackson's nomination will not change the court in any such way, as she will join the liberal block as a successor to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. The ideological balance will remain at 6-3 in favor of the conservatives. That's one reason the hearings have yet to become as supercharged as hearings in the past.

But if the hearings lack the ultimate drama of some in the past, they have been revelatory nonetheless, providing yet another window into how race shapes and sometimes distorts perceptions and attitudes. For the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, that has been a price to be paid.
Ted Cruz has a difficult time staying out of the headlines and today is no different. Hes skyrocketing book sales for Ibram X. Kendis picture book, Antiracist Baby, along with other antiracism lit, which you can be sure was not his intention.

If you havent been following along, Senator Cruz had the audacity to ask SCOTUS nominee Judge Ketanji Brown, who is Harvard-educated, if she believes babies are racist. The question was posed while Senator Cruz held a copy of Ibram X. Kendis picture book, Antiracist Baby, which explains that babies are taught to be racist or antiracist  and now its flying off the shelves.

See all the books Senator Ted Cruz accidentally promoted below.

Antiracist Baby Picture Book Ibram X. Kendi amazon.com $6.84 Shop Now

Judge Jackson gracefully responded to Cruz, later sharing her understanding that critical race theory is an academic theory that is about the ways in which race interacts with various institutions.

While we applaud Judge Ketanji Brown for her when they go low, we go high approach, well, were a little more petty than that. Remember that time Senator Cruz abandoned his constituents for sunnier skies while they froze during an arctic blast and statewide power grid failure? Of course you do. Well, this is our Cancun and we kind of love seeing Senator Cruz notoriety have the exact opposite effect as he intended.

Get in on the action and pick up that book youve been meaning to read, but just havent gotten around to yet. Critical Race Theory, The End of Policing, and How To Be An Antiracist are all great, informative pieces of literature pertinent to our lifetime. And hey, theres no time quite like the present to scoop one up!

We suppose Ted Cruz ability to skyrocket sales for Ibram X. Kendi and other antiracism authors is relatively on-brand, considering hes often been found to be contradictory. His stance against critical race theory and our collective evolution towards equity is only furthering the movement and were all for it. Lets all grab a copy of Antiracist Baby today and show Senator Cruz the ways in which we plan to use his ignominy for the greater good.

Other Books Ted Cruz Accidentally Promoted

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (National Book Award Winner) Ibram X. Kendi amazon.com $10.14 Shop Now

Critical Race Theory (Third Edition): An Introduction (Critical America, 20) NYU Press amazon.com $17.99 Shop Now

The End of Policing amazon.com $107.17 Shop Now

How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi amazon.com $17.00 Shop Now

Hearst Newspapers participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.

Pamela Mahler is an E-Commerce Writer for Local Commerce at Hearst Newspapers. Email her at pamela.mahler@hearst.com.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that so-called "unfriendly countries" pay for his country's natural gas exports in rubles as the nation tries to bring the value of its currency up after it was severely affected by Western sanctions.

The leader's remarks are the latest development in the tensions between Moscow and other countries as Russian troops continue their invasion of Ukraine. Putin said that his country will refuse to accept payments for natural gas supplies that are made in other currencies such as dollars and euros.

Russian Natural Gas Exports

During a government meeting, the Russian president said that he has decided to implement a new set of measures to transfer payment for the country's gas supplies to unfriendly countries. Europe's gas prices saw a surge following Putin's remarks with the region's gas benchmark, the TTF month-ahead contract, seeing a 19% rise before retreating and ending the day lower.

Russia is known to be a large supplier of natural gas and provides roughly 40% of the EU's supply, a dependency that has cast a shadow over Europe's response to the war on Ukraine. Leaders have scrambled to reduce the region's reliability of Russian natural gas exports since the beginning of the invasion, as per the Wall Street Journal.

Putin said that his decision stemmed from the "illegitimate decisions on the so-called freezing of the Russian assets" made by Western countries. He argued that this resulted in a line being crossed over "reliability of their currencies" and has undermined the trust for those currencies.

Read Also: India, UK To Strengthen Ties on Trade, Security; PM Boris Johnson Urges PM Narendra Modi to Condemn Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

But the Russian president previously said that the country would continue to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices fixed in previously concluded contracts. Moscow also revealed a list of the so-called unfriendly countries, which includes the U.S., members of the European Union, Britain, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

According to The Hill, the Kremlin leader's remarks also came several weeks after the European Union announced a plan to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas by roughly two-thirds in 2022. European authorities plan to get off Russian fossil fuels entirely by the end of the decade.

Putin's Demands

However, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck called the Russian president's demand a breach of contract as other buyers of Russian natural gas shared similar views. A senior Polish government source said that Putin's decision would constitute a breach of payment in currency contracts. They added that Poland was not planning to sign new contracts with Gazprom.

Major banks are also now reluctant to trade in Russian assets due to Western sanctions, making Putin's demands even more complicated. A spokesperson for Eneco, a Dutch gas supplier, said that it had a long-term contract denominated in euros.

Gazprom said that 58% of its natural gas sales to Europe and other countries as of Jan. 27 were made in euros. It also noted that U.S. dollars accounted for roughly 39% of gross sales and sterling was at about 3%.

Commodities that are traded worldwide are largely made in U.S. dollar or euro, which when put together, make up about 80% of worldwide currency reserves. In an interview, Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said that there was no danger regarding the gas supply, Yahoo News reported.



Related Article: Russia Could Use Nuclear Weapons if It Faces 'Existential Threat' Amid Invasion of Ukraine

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By giving another batch of stimulus checks, a group of Democratic lawmakers hopes to relieve the burden on American motorists who are struggling with increased gas prices.

Over the weekend, gas prices in the United States dipped somewhat, but not much. The average price of gasoline decreased to $4.27 per gallon on Friday, down 6 cents from the previous high of $4.33 set on March 11.

A Potential New Stimulus Check Will Help Motorists

However, the majority of Americans continue to pay more for gasoline than the previous high of $4.10 established in 2008. The good news is that oil prices have dropped significantly from recent highs, albeit they continue to put a strain on people's budgets, Unica News reported.

With uncertainty about how the US would compensate for an oil shortfall created by President Joe Biden's sanctions against Russian oil and energy, crude oil prices and the average cost of gas are expected to rise in the near future.

Last week, the Biden administration contemplated distributing prepaid gas cards to Americans throughout the country to help alleviate the agony of paying for gas. With millions of Americans returning to work as the pandemic fades, the Biden administration has identified the rising cost of gasoline as a major concern.

The White House was certain, according to a House Democrat engaged in the discussions, that the initiative would be much too costly, ineffective, and impossible for the IRS to handle at a time when it is already dealing with a tremendous backlog of tax forms.

Read Also: Resumption of Student Loan Payments May Increase Delinquencies; 43 Democrats Believe Borrowers Are Unprepared

Republicans Also Propose Other Ways to Help Stuggling Americans

Per NY Post, Republicans have also offered methods to put money back in the pockets of Americans, such as gas tax holidays. Maryland and Georgia, both Republican-controlled states, have temporarily halted their gas taxes.

Last Friday, lawmakers in Georgia and Maryland suspended the levies, providing much-needed respite to drivers in both states. Maryland was the first to act, suspending its gas tax for 30 days, until April 16, according to Governor Larry Hogan.

According to CNN, drivers in the Old Line State can save $0.36 per gallon of gas and $0.37 per gallon of diesel for a limited time after prices jumped by more than $0.40 in a week to an average of $3.85. According to the governor's office, Georgia's gas tax has been waived until May 31, saving drivers $0.29 per gallon on gas and $0.32 per gallon on diesel.

Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are two more Democratic congressmen who have proposed a quarterly refund to customers based on a tax placed on gas and oil firms.

According to a statement, the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax would collect 50% of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and its pre-pandemic average price between 2015 and 2019.

The rise in energy prices, which has been compounded by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, has resulted in higher gas prices for Americans. The national average was $3.54 per gallon a month ago. Americans were spending $2.88 per gallon on average a year ago. According to the AAA, gas prices in the United States recently averaged $4.24 a gallon.

Millions of Americans received a stimulus check for up to $1,400 last spring. These stimulus payments are not subject to taxation. "No, the Third Economic Impact Payment is not includible in your gross income, thus you will not include the third payment in your taxable income on your 2021 Federal income tax return or pay income tax on the third payment," according to the IRS.

Unfortunately, there appear to be some internet hoaxes circulating among those who feel they are being taxed on stimulus checks. Ignore any such incorrect information if you come across it, as per The Motley Fool via MSN.

Related Article: Stimulus Check New York: $1000 Available for New Yorkers [Eligibility, Requirements, How to Apply]

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Security Council fails to adopt resolution on humanitarian situation in Ukraine

Xinhua) 08:13, March 24, 2022

Photo taken on March 18, 2022 shows a Security Council meeting on the biological security issue in Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Russia's draft resolution expresses grave concern about reports of civilian casualties and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, including the growing number of internally displaced persons and refugees.

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Two members (Russia and China) voted in favor of the text and 13 others abstained. The text submitted by Russia was rejected.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.

Russia's draft resolution expresses grave concern about reports of civilian casualties and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, including the growing number of internally displaced persons and refugees. The draft text also calls for the protection of civilians, including humanitarian and medical personnel, respect for international law and the protection of civilian objects and critical infrastructure, safe and unhindered evacuation of all civilians, and unhindered humanitarian access in Ukraine.

The council has held three briefings on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine since the conflict erupted, respectively on Feb. 28, March 7 and March 17.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
The Taliban extremist group, which has taken control of Afghanistan's government after ousting the previous authorities, have reversed their stance on opening high schools for girls, citing that it needed a plan in accordance with Islamic law before opening educational establishments.

Many were taken aback by the broken promise, and it has left students in tears with many humanitarian agencies, rights groups, and diplomats, criticizing the Taliban's administration. The remarks come as the militant group is trying to gain international recognition to officially be in control of the region.

Taliban Closes Schools for Girls

Several teachers and students from three high schools located around the capital Kabul said that some girls have already gone back and were excited to be on campuses on Wednesday morning. However, they were told to go home since the establishments would not be opening yet, leaving them devastated.

One student who was kept anonymous for security reasons said that she and others became "totally hopeless" when the principal told them about the news. The Taliban group was known to have taken control of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 where they banned education and most employment from female citizens, as per Reuters.

Read Also: US Confirms Russia "Committed War Crimes" Days After Joe Biden Called Vladimir Putin a "War Criminal"

The Taliban militant group previously promised that girls would be allowed to go to school as long as they were separated from boys or given different learning hours. They told girls who are above the 6th grade to stay at home until a school uniform appropriate to Sharia and Afghan customs and culture are designed.

Many expect the decision to spark widespread criticism and international condemnation with U.S. diplomats saying that it was "disappointing." An 18-year-old student, Tamana, who goes by her first name for security reasons, said she was so excited that she could not sleep the night before the reopening of schools.

Militant Group's Rule

According to CNN, in a statement, the Afghan education ministry said that it "assures the people of our nation once again that it is fully committed to ensure the rights of our compatriots to education." On Wednesday, the UN mission in Afghanistan responded in a Twitter post saying that it "deplores" the militant group's decision to extend the school ban that has lasted more than six months now.

United States Special Representative Thomas West also posted on Twitter where he expressed his "shock and deep disappointment" regarding the Taliban's decision. He said that it was a betrayal of public commitments to the Afghan people and the international community.

West said that the Taliban themselves made it clear that they were giving all Afghan residents the right to education. He added that for the sake of the country's future and its international relations, the militant group should live up to their commitments to the people of the nation.

On the other hand, the Norwegian Refugee Council, which spends roughly $20 million per year to support primary education in Afghanistan, said it was still waiting for an official response from the Taliban. The inquiry was about the cancellation of classes for Afghan girls above the 6th grade, the Associated Press reported.



Related Article: India, UK To Strengthen Ties on Trade, Security; PM Boris Johnson Urges PM Narendra Modi to Condemn Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

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Canada welcomed 450,000 new international students in 2021, an all-time record Canada's international student population has recovered quickly amid the pandemic. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canada saw nearly 450,000 new study permits take effect last year, a staggering figure that easily broke the previous all-time record set in 2019.

Prior to the pandemic, Canada saw just over 400,000 new study permits take effect before the figure fell to just over 255,000 in 2020. Last years total represents a doubling compared to 2015.

Apply for a Study Permit. Get a Free Legal Consultation.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) releases data on a monthly basis of new study permits that take effect. These are new students arriving to Canada as well as foreign nationals already living in Canada who successfully obtain a study permit.

Unsurprisingly, the period between July and August saw the most new study permits taking effect, over 200,000 in total, right before the start of the 2021/22 academic year.

IRCC also posts year-end data around the first quarter of each new calendar year. The data is a snapshot of all those with a valid study permit on December 31st. The spike in new study permits taking effect led to Canadas international student population almost fully recovering to the pre-pandemic level. As of December 31st, Canada hosted nearly 622,000 international students. Its international student population stood at nearly 640,000 people in 2019 before the pandemic caused it to fall to some 530,000 foreign students in 2020.

At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Canada introduced travel restrictions that affected many prospective students who had yet to enter the country. In October 2020, Canada eased these restrictions which allowed the countrys international student population to recover and explains why Canada saw a record-breaking level of new foreign students arrive last year. The high level of study permits that took effect last year was due in large part to a double cohort of student arrivals; those who wanted to come to Canada in 2020 but could not due to the pandemic, as well as those who intended to begin their studies in Canada in 2021.

Another major contributor to the recovery was likely Canadas easing of Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) rules. Prior to the pandemic, IRCC did not allow distance learning to count towards PGWP eligibility, but they have temporarily relaxed this policy until August 31, 2022 to help those who want to go ahead with their Canadian study plans amid the pandemic.

Apply for a Study Permit. Get a Free Legal Consultation.

International students that complete their studies at an eligible Canadian designated learning institution (DLI) may be able to obtain a PGWP. The PGWP is coveted since it enables international graduates to gain the Canadian work experience they often need to be eligible to apply for permanent residence. DLIs are universities, colleges, and other post-secondary institutions approved by the government to host international students.

In addition to the prospects of gaining permanent residence, international students report they are drawn by Canadas high quality education, multiculturalism, safety, among other factors. Studying in Canada can also be more affordable than other countries with large international student populations like the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Another major benefit of studying in Canada is foreign students are able to work during their studies, which enables them to support themselves financially and gain more work experience.

India remains by far the leading source country, accounting for nearly 35 per cent of Canadas international student population. China remains in second, followed by France. Indias significant share can be largely explained by it having the worlds second largest English-speaking population and its large middle class population.

The top 10 international student source countries (by number of study permit holders on December 31, 2021) were:

1) India: 217,410

2) China: 105,265

3) France: 26,630

4) Iran: 16,900

5) Vietnam: 16,285

6) South Korea: 15,805

7) The Philippines: 15,545

8) The United States: 14,325

9) Nigeria: 13,745

10) Mexico: 11,550

The first step to study in Canada is to conduct research on educational programs and DLIs. You then submit your applications to DLIs and if approved, obtain a Letter of Acceptance (LOA). With the LOA, you can go ahead and submit a study permit application to IRCC. IRCC will consider factors such as evidence you have a genuine interest in studying in Canada and the financial means to support your study and living expenses, among other criteria. IRCC also offers the Student Direct Stream (SDS), an expedited study permit pathway to residents of 14 countries, the largest of which are India, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam, Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Columbia, and Peru.

Many of Canadas immigration programs reward candidates that have studied in Canada. One can obtain extra points via Express Entry for Canadian study experience, and a host of other streams operated by IRCC, the provinces, and territories either do the same, or exist only for international graduates. This is due to Canadian government research showing that international graduates tend to have strong labour market outcomes after obtaining permanent residence.

Apply for a Study Permit. Get a Free Legal Consultation.

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
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A Pennsylvania woman was found guilty of first- and third-degree murder in the killing of a 12-year-old child who was malnourished and abused before his death over two years ago, according to officials.

Maxwell Schollenberger's tortured remains was discovered dead in a dark, locked room on the second floor of an Annville Township home two years ago, and a second individual has been convicted of murder in his killing.

Dad's Girlfriend Convicted to a 12-Year-Old Son's Death

According to Penn Live, Kimberly Maurer, 37, of Annville Township, who was engaged to Maxwell's father, will be sentenced in June 1 for criminal murder and child endangerment.

Criminal murder has a mandatory minimum punishment of life in prison in Pennsylvania. Scott Schollenberger, the boy's father, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release in February after pleading guilty to criminal murder.

Early in the trial, police stated that they discovered Maxwell's naked body, famished and covered in his own excrement in his bedroom - an empty room devoid of light, furniture, and personal belongings.

The Lebanon Daily News reported that jurors debated for less than an hour Tuesday before convicting Kimberly Maurer, 37, of all counts, including child endangerment, involuntary manslaughter, and criminal conspiracy in the murder of 12-year-old Maxwell Schollenberger in May 2020.

When her sentence was handed down on June 1, defense counsel Andrew Race said his client would be condemned to a mandatory life sentence without the chance of parole. The boy's nude, excrement-covered body was discovered on a filthy bed in a room caked with feces and urine, according to Lebanon County police.

The cause of death was linked to protracted famine, malnutrition, and blunt force trauma, according to authorities. He had a shattered eye socket and several indicators of blunt force trauma.

Read Also: Massive Fire Erupts at Pepsi Factory in New Jersey; Pictures Show Company Engulfed in Thick Black Smoke

Pennsylvania Boy Kept in Dark Room, Starved for Years Before Death

Authorities charged Scott Schollenberger Jr., 43, and his fiancee, Maurer, of keeping the boy in a dark room for years, starving him, and abusing him while their other children were treated nicely. Officials stated the boy's room had no lighting and that the drapes were fastened with duct tape while metal hooks kept the room sealed from the outside.

Scott Schollenberger pled guilty to charges of criminal murder, child endangerment, and conspiracy last month, just days before his planned trial date. He was given a life sentence without the chance of parole.

Witnesses testified in Maurer's trial that she neglected to enroll the 12-year-old in school for years, provide him with necessary medical care, and treat him for probable physical and psychological problems, according to the newspaper.

The boy's father, according to Maurer's counsel, organized the torture and murder. According to the newspaper, Race said that she may face charges of endangerment but not more serious charges since the boy's father would not allow anyone else to make decisions for his son.

Per CBS Local, Race expressed disappointment with the conviction on Wednesday, but he said it was "a challenging, terrible case for any jury to examine." Prosecutors claimed Maurer described an inability to manage Max's conduct in social media postings and text messages, as well as incidents of Max urinating and defecating in the family's house. According to District Attorney Pier Hess Graf, the trial "showed jurors what absolute evil personified looks like."

Related Article: New York Mom, Boyfriend Face Charges After 8-Year-Old Autistic Boy Died as a Result of Battered Child Syndrome

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Anunt cu privire la selectarea unui prestator de servicii ce va derula campania de informare si constientizare pentru promovarea comunicarii etice in raport cu refugiati ucraineni in Republica Moldova
Hundreds of companies have said they are withdrawing or suspending operations in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, from energy producer Shell Plc to carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. to PwC, a global professional services firm.

The following is a look at how insurance and international arbitration might soften the blow to those companies, which stand to lose billions of dollars:

Does Standard Insurance Provide Coverage?

No, but companies can purchase political risk as an add-on to trade credit, property and aviation insurance. It covers government seizures of property and forced abandonment, cancellations of government licenses for operations such as mines and the inability to convert foreign currency. The insurance typically covers long-term energy or infrastructure projects, but can be purchased by other types of businesses. Policies are confidential, insurance experts said, and disputes are resolved in private arbitration.

Berne Union, a trade association representing political risk insurers, estimated that $1 billion in new political risk insurance was written in Russia in 2020, its most recent data.

Much of the insurance is written by non-commercial agencies such as the Overseas Private Investment Corp. of the United States and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, part of the World Bank.

Will Companies Leaving Russia Have Claims?

Companies that leave and abandon their business without any action taken by the Russia government to seize control of their assets will have a tough time collecting insurance, according to legal experts.

You see companies saying were leaving because we support Ukraine. The question is then whether the policy covers a voluntary departure, said Micah Skidmore of the law firm Haynes and Boone.

Insurers are most likely to pay claims for revenues earned in Russian rubles that are no longer convertible to foreign currency, said legal experts.

What Might Help Companies Recoup Their Losses?

Russia could take actions that would support claims that assets are being seized. Last week, Russias President Vladimir Putin signed into law a measure that allows the country to place planes leased from foreign companies on Russias aircraft register.

Air Lease Corp AL.N said earlier this month the Russian law demonstrates Moscows intent to confiscate planes and the company expected the move to help the company collect on its insurance.

Sanctions give the aircraft leasing industry until March 28 to sever ties with Russian airlines. If more than 400 jets in Russia are not repossessed, the industry stands to lose almost $10 billion.

Russias ruling United Russia party said in early March it is considering a proposal to nationalize foreign-owned firms that leave the country. If enacted, this measure could also support claims for insurance.

Are There Other Avenues for Compensation?

A company can look to trade agreements signed by Russia which provide for arbitration when government actions damage foreign investment.

The Steptoe & Johnson law firm said last week in a note to clients that classic international arbitration claims include failure to protect intellectual property rights, refusal to release aircraft and expropriation of assets.

At least nine companies from Ukraine used trade agreements to seek billions through arbitration from Russia after Moscow annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.

However, the international arbitration process can take years and Russia does not voluntarily pay awards, according to legal experts.

Franz Sedelmayer, whose German security equipment business was expropriated by Russia in 1996, won a $2.3 million arbitration award in 1998 but spent more than a decade fighting in numerous courts trying to collect the money.

A company would not be able to collect on both insurance and arbitration.
ARABI, La. (AP)  A tornado that menaced New Orleans flipped a schoolbus, ripped off rooftops and deposited a house with a family inside onto the middle of Prosperity Street. Two people were killed as the storm front blew across the South.

Other tornadoes spawned by the same storm system caused so much damage in Texas that the governor declared a disaster in 16 counties, and shredded buildings in Alabama, where torrential rainfall was recorded.

Multiple people were injured. The dead included a woman north of Dallas, Texas, and a person in St. Bernard Parish, next to New Orleans. Authorities didnt immediately describe how they were killed.

The city of New Orleans escaped significant damage, Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted late Tuesday, but tornadoes touched down in Arabi, just east of the city, and further east in Lacombe, across Lake Pontchartrain, the National Weather Service said.

Television stations broadcast live images as the storm damaged an area about 2 miles long and a quarter-mile in Saint Bernard Parish.

Louisiana activated 300 National Guard personnel to clear roads and provide security and engineering support. They joined firefighters and others searching multiple structures to make sure no one had been left behind, said John Rahaim Jr., the parishs homeland security director.

Theyre searching everything, going door to door, Rahaimsaid.

Arabi, just east of the citys Lower 9th Ward, was wrecked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and hit hard again when Hurricane Ida swept through last year.

Stacey Mancusos family just completed repairs to their home in Arabi after Ida ripped off the roof and caused extensive water damage. As Tuesdays tornado tore through their street, she huddled in the laundry room with her husband; two children, ages 16 and 11; and dogs as part of their new roof blew away.

Were alive. Thats what I can say at this point. We still have four walls and part of a roof. I consider myself lucky, said Mancuso. Still, the twister was the third time theyve had major weather damage since Katrina.

Entergy reported that about 3,700 of its remained without electricity on Wednesday. A strong smell of natural gas was in the air and downed power lines forced emergency workers to walk slowly through the wreckage.

Michelle Malasovich was texting relatives from her home in Arabi when all of a sudden the lights started flickering. Her husband, out on the porch, saw the twister coming their way.

It just kept getting louder and louder, Malasovich said. After it passed, they came out to survey the damage _ some columns were blown off their porch and the windows of her Jeep were blown out. Others fared worse: Our neighbors house is in the middle of the street right now.

A family of three was in that home when it went airborne, and the couple emerged from the wreckage seeking help to rescue their daughter, still inside on a breathing machine, neighbors and authorities said.

We had one rescue  a home that was actually picked up and came down in the middle of the street. A young girl was on a ventilator, her father was looking for firefighters to come help, come help, St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis said. And they were already in there taking care of the young lady and shes doing fine.

Some houses were destroyed while pieces of debris hung from electrical wires and trees. An aluminum fishing boat was bent into the shape of a C with its motor across the street.

I wasnt mentally prepared to see what I was seeing, said Amy Sims, who jumped into her car when the tornado warning sounded and drove to the Arabi Heights area to check on her cousin Amanda Hotard and her family.

She said ambulance crews and emergency medics, some crying, were dodging live wires as they went door-to-door through shattered homes. Her cousins home and family were OK, but houses all around them were flattened, she said Wednesday.

A bomb looked like it had gone off, she said.

As the storm front moved eastward, an apparent twister shredded a metal building and shattered windows east of Mobile Bay in Baldwin County, Alabama. The weather service reported more than 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain fell in the central Alabama city of Sylacauga overnight, and the roofs of several homes were damaged in Toxey, Alabama, where tornado warnings were issued.

The wild weather waned as it moved into South Carolina early Wednesday, but the weather service warned that isolated tornadoes remained possible in southern Georgia.

The vicious weather hit Texas on Monday, with several tornadoes reported along the Interstate 35 corridor. In Elgin, broken trees lined the rural roads and pieces of metal uprooted by strong winds hung from the branches as residents stepped gingerly through the mess to clean remnants of broken ceilings, torn down walls and damaged cars.

J.D. Harkins, 59, said he saw two tornadoes pass by his Elgin home.

There used to be a barn there, Harkins said, pointing to an empty plot on his uncles property covered with scattered debris.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said 10 people were injured by storms in the Crockett area, while more than a dozen were reportedly hurt elsewhere. The Grayson County Emergency Management Office said a 73-year-old woman was killed in the community of Sherwood Shores, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Dallas, but provided no details.

Associated Press journalists Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas; Terry Wallace in Dallas; Janet McConnaughy in New Orleans and Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas contributed to this report.

About the photo: Destroyed homes, illuminated by fire engine lights, are seen after a tornado struck the area in Arabi, La., Tuesday, March 22, 2022. A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, ripping down power lines and scattering debris in a part of the city that had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Claremore, OK (74018)

Today

Cloudy early followed by heavy thunderstorms this afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 67F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 51F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Disclaimer

The Cleveland Jewish News does not make endorsements of political candidates and/or political or other ballot issues on any level. Letters, commentaries, opinions, advertisements and online posts appearing in the Cleveland Jewish News, on cjn.org or our social media pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Jewish Publication Company, its board, officers or staff.
A former prosecutor who resigned after leading a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's family business said that the Republican is "guilty of numerous felony violations" while disagreeing with the Manhattan District Attorney's indictment decision.

In his resignation letter that was published on Wednesday, Mark Pomerantz said that there was sufficient evidence to establish that Trump was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The former president is facing allegations that he falsified financial statements to secure loans and burnish his image as a wealthy businessman.

Trump Is Guilty?

The ex-prosecutor said that the team responsible for investigating Trump had no doubt of whether or not he committed the crimes. He said that they were sure that the Republican businessman was actually guilty of the felonies.

Pomerantz and his former co-leader on the Trump investigation, Carey Dunne, handed in their resignation on Feb. 23 after arguments with District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the future of the probe. The two legal experts were top deputies responsible for running the case against Trump on a day-to-day basis, as per Yahoo News.

The former prosecutor's letter included his statements that said he found Brigg's decision not to prosecute Trump was "misguided" and came contrary to the public interest. That was the reason he cited for handing in his resignation.

Read Also: North Carolina Investigates Former Trump Aide Mark Meadows for Alleged Voter Fraud

The investigation that Pomerantz and Dunne led has included fraud and tax evasion charges on the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. A spokesperson for Bragg, Danielle Filson, said during an interview on Wednesday that the probe was still ongoing and noted that the team involved experienced prosecutors.

According to CBS News, the Manhattan district attorney's office started the probe of the former president's business in 2019. At the time, it began looking into hush-money payments that were given to women on his behalf. It later grew into an investigation into whether or not the Republican businessman's company misled lenders or tax authorities regarding the value of its properties.

Fraudulent Valuation on Properties

Bragg's decision to pull back from the case came only a few weeks away when some believed that Trump was going to be prosecuted. Pomerantz said that there was no sense in the decision to postpone law enforcement proceedings regarding the former president's case.

On the other hand, the Trump Organization described the former prosecutor as a "never-Trumper" and was an example of a previously unseen "level of corruption" in the United States legal system.

The former president's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, said that the claims laid in Pomerantz's resignation letter were unwarranted. He also argued that while the former prosecutor had the opportunity to present his so-called evidence to the district attorney and his senior staff, he failed, Newsweek reported.

Trump gave his Statement of Financial Condition, which is an annual snapshot of his holdings. The former president sent the information to banks to secure hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loans on properties. His lawyers said that the documents were accurate and claimed that the investigation saying that they were fraudulent was politically motivated.



Related Article: Pence Raises Tensions With Trump, Contrasts Former President in Stance Regarding Putin's 'Violence'

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This was a lackluster NFL draft. According to reports, television ratings were down 33% for the first round April 28.
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Several CEOs of the largest airlines in the United States have urged President Joe Biden to lift mask mandates on airplanes and testing requirements for pre-departure of international travelers, citing the decline in hospitalization and death rates.

Despite the number of coronavirus cases in the nation falling sharply in the last two months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opted to extend its mass transit mask mandate earlier this month. The decision will increase the requirement by 30 days, making it last until mid-April while maintaining mask mandates for airlines.

Airline Mask Mandates, Testing Requirements

In a letter sent to President Biden, the CEOs of 10 U.S.-based passenger and cargo airlines, including Delta, American, and United, said that it was time for the government to lift federal transportation travel restrictions. They argued that the mask mandates and testing requirements were no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment, as per CBS News.

Furthermore, while the letter states that airlines and their employees supported the removal of the federal mask mandate when it was initially implemented, they argued it was no longer necessary.

According to CNN, the letter also comes after CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday said that the Omicron BA.2 subvariant was not observed to be causing more severe COVID-19 symptoms compared to the original strain. However, the health expert warned that the new subvariant was more transmissible than its predecessor.

Read Also: COVID-19 Warning: Experts Predict Surge of New Cases Caused by Omicron BA.2, Potential Symptoms Revealed

The letter is the first time that the aviation industry has banded together to publicly express its disagreement with the mask mandate. In December, the chief executive of Southwest Airlines, Gary Kelly, cast doubt on the effectiveness of masks on airplanes during a congressional hearing but was not supported by any other.

A day after that hearing, Ed Bastian, the chief executive of Delta airlines, said in an interview that masks were crucial as a safeguard against the coronavirus infection. The union that represents flight attendants from Southwest Airlines, TWU Local 556, wrote a letter earlier this week.

Coronavirus Situation in the U.S.

They sent it to the Biden administration and said that they were urging the government to drop the federal mask mandate for public transportation as a whole. In recent weeks, there is a growing number of Americans, politicians, and business leaders that are calling for the removal of such mandates. Hawaii became the 50th and final state this month to remove its indoor mask mandate, the New York Times reported.

The situation comes as health officials reported that the number of infections caused by the BA.2 subvariant has more than doubled in the last two weeks in the U.S. It is now accountable for more than 34% of all cases that were subject to genetic sequencing.

As per CNBC, the subvariant has steadily been spreading in the United States since Feb. 5 when it was only responsible for roughly 1% of genetically sequenced samples. The CDC said that the BA.2 is found in roughly 50% of new infections in the country because more people are taking tests at home whose results are not included in the official data, said Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.



Related Article: COVID-19 Cases in Schools Can Be Cut by 80% With Better Ventilation System, Italian Study Reports

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Corey Hyde, age 51 of Clinton, passed away Sunday, May 1, 2022 at his home. Visitation and funeral services are being scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Pape Funeral Home.
Two years worth of lockdowns had forced young Filipinos to stay at home, limiting social interactions with peers and inadvertently reducing opportunities for sexual encounters. From 495 births per day in 2019, the rate of births to teenage mothers went down by 13% the following year. But as lockdown restrictions loosen and more young Filipinos are vaccinated, medical experts worry that the effects will not last.

Its already coming back because the root causes of the problem were never addressed, said family planning specialist Dr. Mario Festin during a panel discussion hosted by DKT Philippines Foundation, a non-government organization that promotes family planning through education, research, and outreach and efforts.

Prior to the pandemic, the Philippines had one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the Southeast Asia region. Although access to contraceptives has gradually improved after the implementation of the Reproductive Health Law in 2013, the need for emergency contraception continues to be a barrier for better sexual health and wellness for young Filipinos. Medical experts and Filipinos themselves agree: there is a necessity and desire for emergency contraception to be legalized in the Philippines.

In June 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte declared that the prevention of teenage pregnancy should be considered a national priority. The executive order (EO) acknowledges the endangered patterns of discrimination, deep-seated norms and attitudes that normalize and justify violence against women. However, EO141 points out that the root causes of pregnancy can be fully addressed by sex education, employment, and health promotion.

But medical experts say that more steps should be taken to address the problem  and it starts with making emergency contraception a viable option. Emergency contraception or EC is also known as the morning after pill, and can be used to prevent unwanted pregnancy during instances of unprotected sex. The featured medical experts during the DKT Philippines panel concur that EC is safe to use even for teenagers.

Postinor, a brand of EC, had been previously approved for sale and importation of the drug until the Bureau of Food and Drugs declared the pill as an abortifacient. 20 years after the pill was outlawed, there are still no legal and viable alternatives to EC besides the Yuzpe method. This method makes use of multiple, regular oral contraceptive pills in the absence of a single morning after pill. However, the World Health Organization recommends the use of EC pills, because the Yuzpe Method may cause more severe side effects including nausea and vomiting.

READ: What they dont say about emergency contraception in the Philippines

There is a strong interest in having EC available for sale in the Philippines. In a survey among young, unmarried Filipinas conducted by a global research agency, 73% of respondents expressed interest in the morning after pill. Medical experts are in agreement. In an online survey conducted by DKT Philippines Foundation, they learned that 68% of medical doctors believe that the Food and Drug Administration should reconsider the 20-year-old ban on emergency contraception.

In fact, Representative Maria Lourdes Acosta-Alba, who is the chairperson of the Committee on Women and Gender Equality, believes that it is imperative to include EC on the list of essential medicine as a means to empower both women and the economy.

Obstetrics and Gynecology specialist Dr. Bernabe Marinduque cites anecdotal evidence on the need for EC, especially in cases of natural disasters. Marinduque recalls that there were many instances of rape and sexual abuse of young women after Typhoon Yolanda, but the absence of EC made them vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies.

Despite medical experts underscoring the need for EC, the same DKT Philippines online survey showed that there are still 3% of doctors who would not prescribe it to their patients, believing that its an abortifacient. According to DKT Philippines Chairman Hyam Bolande, changing the term emergency contraception may be key to changing perceptions, as it may have potentially alarming effects. Bolande adds that EC is actually a peri-coital pill  aside from using it right after unprotected sex, it can also be safely used up to 24 hours before the sexual act.

While the pandemic has afforded some breathing space for the rising rate of teenage pregnancy in the country, teenagers now need support to sustain these improved numbers. Ultimately, panelists emphasize that teenagers should have better patient rights to empower their decision making. Having access to the right contraception, they said, is a game-changer.

Teenagers, they say, arent as ignorant of their actions as many believe; they simply need room to act wisely.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  Almost five years since he stepped out of the limelight following his resignation from his Commission on Elections post, former chairman Andy Bautista speaks up for the first time on what made him leave the country.

"I left because of personal and political reasons," said Bautista, who also formerly headed the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

"Kumbaga, tinarget hindi lang ako kundi yung aking pamilya, dinadamay pati ang aking magulang, ang aking mga kapatid," he confided. "Okay na rin yun. Sinabi ko siguro dapat akong umalis tapos kailangan ko rin magpagamot."

[Translation: They preyed not just on me but also my family, they implicated my parents and even my siblings. Things are okay now. I said back then that maybe I had to leave and I also needed to get medical treatment.]

Bautista did not name names.

He was impeached from his Comelec post in 2017 amid allegations of unexplained wealth.

His estranged wife accused him of having more than 335 million in local and foreign bank accounts that were not disclosed in Bautista's Statement of Assets and Liabilities, alongside some real properties supposedly worth over 300 million.

The former official was also questioned for allegedly receiving payoffs from a law firm after referring it to election technology supplier Smartmatic, which was in charge of the 2010, 2013, and 2016 elections in the country.

READ: Solon: Bautista's 'receipt of fee for Smartmatic referral' casts doubt on 2016 polls

Later that year, he was discovered to have flown to the United States, despite a subpoena to attend a Senate probe.

READ: NBI hunting down ex-Comelec chief Andy Bautista in the US

Bautista only responded to a separate accusation that he manipulated the transmission of votes which eventually led to the victory of Vice President Leni Robredo in 2016.

"Sinasabi nga nila, dinaya ko daw at ng Smartmatic yung election noong 2016 para sa bise presidente," he told CNN Philipinnes. "Yan naman ay isang malaking kasinungalingan. Unang una hindi mo naman pwedeng dayain ang vice president tapos yung president, okay."

[Translation: Smartmatic and I were accused of cheating in the 2016 elections in favor of the Vice President. That's a big lie. First of all, you can't just manipulate the results to dictate your preferred vice president, while leaving the presidential result untouched.]

Bautista cited the Supreme Court decision that upheld Robredo's victory and junked the years-long electoral protest of losing candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

Marcos and Robredo are rivals once again, this time, for the country's highest post.

Meanwhile, Bautista said that if Smartmatic could indeed be liable for election fraud, why did the government continue to tap the vote machine-maker in the succeeding years?

"Sasabihin nila, hindi yang Smartmatic, Smartmagic daw. Sinabi ni Pangulong Duterte na hindi na yan gagamitin muli, but in 2019, sino pa rin ang automated elections provider ng Comelec? It was still Smartmatic," he pointed out.

[Translation: They would say Smartmatic had a "Smartmagic" breach. Even President Duterte said they wouldn't use it anymore, but in 2019, which automated elections provider was chosen by Comelec? It was still Smartmatic.]

"Ngayon, 2022 na, sino pa rin?" he added. "So bakit ako nili-link sa Smartmatic eh wala naman akong kinalaman sa kanila?"

[Translation: It's now 2022, it's still them. So why link me to Smartmatic when I have nothing to do with them?]

Marcos' sister Imee, who heads the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms, has been repeatedly pushing for a thorough investigation on the alleged security breach in Smartmatic.

However, the technology provider and Comelec insisted that there was no breach, and that the poll body's system has not been compromised ahead of the 2022 elections.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  An official of the Commission on Elections said the poll body en banc is set to resolve all pending petitions against Bongbong Marcos' presidential bid, as well as PDP-Labans legitimacy case "before the end of April".

Commissioner George Garcia said on Thursday that Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan ordered that the en banc should expedite the resolution for the cases.

"Therefore a decision on these cases, the consolidated cases as well as the case with the MR will be decided before the election, but earlier before the end of April," Garcia said when asked for updates about cases against Marcos.

"Maybe the earliest will be the second week of April, the latest will be the third week of April," he added.

There are five petitions up for resolution, with one separate case pending before the Second Division.

READ: LIST: Petitions against Bongbong Marcos' 2022 presidential bid

According to Garcia, Pangarungan also directed the assigned decision writer of the pending PDP-Laban legitimacy case to come up with a decision before end-April.

They also stressed it is a "very important" legal question on determining dominant parties.

The PDP-Laban rift is between the faction of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and that of Sen. Manny Pacquiao and Senator Koko Pimentel

On Tuesday, the Cusi-led faction announced it is supporting the presidential bid of Pacquiao's rival, former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

READ: Duterte's PDP-Laban faction endorses Marcos presidential bid

Pimentel lambasted the move, saying they are "strangers" to the political party founded by his father.

PDP-Laban was the result of a merger of PDP headed by the late Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Lakas ng Bayan (Laban) founded by the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. meant to stand against the dictatorship of Marcos' father, Ferdinand Marcos.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Melissa Lopez contributed to this report.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, any chemical strike by Russia on Ukraine will alter the direction of the war, however, there are still no signs whether the alliance would respond militarily.

When asked if a chemical constitutes a red line for the alliance, Stoltenberg responded that "NATO is always ready to defend, protect, and react to any form of attack" on a member country. He added that "any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict."

"It would be a blatant violation of international law, and it will have widespread and severe consequences," Stoltenberg said.

His words came as he arrived at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday to preside over a meeting of the military organization's 30 state leaders, including US President Joe Biden, Star Tribune reports.

NATO members are concerned about Russian rhetoric, fearing that Moscow could produce a pretext to justify the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Hence, the leaders are inclined to deal to provide equipment to assist Ukraine in defending itself against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons.

They're also expected to back a plan to establish four new multinational battlegroups in eastern Europe to dissuade Russia from assaulting NATO member countries.

Read Also: Putin Demands 'Unfriendly Countries' Pay For Russian Natural Gas Exports in Rubles To Boost Currency Value

UK, Belgium Prime Ministers Blast Putin

However, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russia has already gone beyond the limits amid the refusal of NATO leaders to rule out retaliation against Moscow if it uses chemical weapons in its attacks on Ukraine.

CNBC reported that upon his arrival for the NATO leaders' summit, Johnson told members of the media that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has already crossed the red line into barbarism."

Johnson emphasized that NATO should now consider "the appalling crisis in Ukraine" and its citizens and explore the other possibilities "to help the people of Ukraine to protect themselves."NATO, as an organization, does not provide weapons to Ukraine.

Despite the continued bombardment of Russian forces in the Eastern European country, the alliance of 30 nations declared that it would not deploy troops and military aircraft to Ukraine to stop the invasion.

NATO also announced that it would not implement any no-fly zone. However, separately or jointly, member countries provide weaponry and other aid to the war-torn country.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo says Putin is a Russian head of state "who has lost any sense of what is reasonable" at present.

He also warned that if Moscow's troops use chemical weapons, it will be dealt with "grave consequences."Though, the meaning of De Croo's pronouncement has to be elaborated yet by NATO.

Ukraine Warns of Possible Chemical Weapons Attacks by Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Wednesday that Russia was planning a chemical-weapons attack on Ukraine. Speaking to Japan's parliament virtually, Zelensky claimed that he had received information that "Russia is preparing attacks using chemical weapons such as sarin," as per Newsweek report.

Sarin is a human-made nerve agent that was originally produced as a pesticide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sarin was used in the 1995 attack on a Tokyo subway system by members of a Japanese cult, which resulted in 14 deaths.

Zelensky's remarks on chemical weapons came days after US President Joe Biden said that Putin is considering using chemical and biological weapons against Ukraine.

Related Article: Volodymyr Zelensky Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is the Ukraine President?

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  Despite leaving the political party, presidential hopeful Panfilo "Ping" Lacson would remain Partido Reporma's candidate on official ballots as the Commission on Elections still honors the certificate of candidacy he filed in October.

Lacson would have to keep Partido Reporma as his political party, at least for official ballots, according to Comelec Commissioner George Garcia.

"Whatever is your party at the time of the filing of the candidacy stays. Whatever change in your affiliation after the filing of candidacy, after the period doesnt matter," he said during a virtual briefing.

"Regardless yung nangyari, it may be political, but as far as the legal effect is concerned, as far as the Comelec is concerned, whatever his or her party was at the time of the filing of October 1-8 will be his party for purposes of the ballot and for purposes of determining the dominant majority, minority party to be determined by the Comelec," Garcia explained.

This makes Lacson "not an independent candidate" despite his decision to resign as chairperson and member of the Partido Reporma on Thursday, Garcia said.

This came after Partido Reporma President Pantaleon Alvarez informed Lacson that their slate in Davao del Norte is set to back a rival candidate.

Alvarez, in a statement, later said officials and members of the party want to extend help to ensure Vice President Robredo wins as president, especially after seeing her campaign gain significant traction as May 9 approaches.

READ: Lacson leaves Partido Reporma as party set to back another presidential bet
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  The Department of Foreign Affairs has repatriated 342 Filipinos from war-torn Ukraine as of Wednesday.

In a tweet, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Arriola said the DFA has also evacuated 63 Filipinos from Ukraine since Russia started to attack the country on Feb. 24. The DFA has assisted 405 individuals in all.

The DFA has raised Crisis Alert Level 4 for all areas in Ukraine due to its ongoing armed conflict with Russia.

The Philippines is among the countries that voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine.

As many world leaders call out Moscow for its actions, President Rodrigo Duterte remains neutral about the issue, but he has admitted the Philippine government will have to take sides when the time comes.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  If former First Lady Imelda Marcos could have it her way, she would join the campaign rallies of her son, presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos.

Thats according to her daughter, Senator Imee Marcos.

Hirap na hirap na kaming awatin. Gustong gustong sumama. E, matanda na, nakakanerbyos, Marcos said in a chance interview after the Pandesal Forum in Quezon City on Thursday.

[Translation: Were having a really hard time stopping her. She really wants to come. But shes old, its nerve-wracking.]

Groups have been calling on the Supreme Court to uphold the Marcos matriarchs 2018 conviction on seven counts of graft for illegally creating private organizations in Switzerland as a government official under the rule of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. She was allowed to post a P300,000 bail due to her old age and health issues.

At the media forum, the senator said her mother, now 92 years old, still finds a way to do some campaigning of her own.

Nagpupumiglas, gustong gusto sumali sa lahat ng rally Talaga namang matanda na siya, may comorbidity na rin, the younger Marcos said.

[Translation: She wont let us stop her, she really wants to come to all the rallies. She really is old, and has comorbidities, too.]

Umiikot din siya ng sarili niya, pinagbabawalan lang namin sa masusukal na lugar na maraming crowd kasi mahirap na ano. Pero ayaw paawat, she added.

[Translation: She also goes around on her own. We just dont allow her to go to crowded areas because of the danger. But she'll have none of it.]

Bongbong leads pre-election surveys and has recently secured the endorsement of a faction in the ruling PDP-Laban party that is backed by President Rodrigo Duterte. The chief executive himself has not announced his choice, but Senator Marcos said they are counting on it.

He has already declared that he will remain neutral On the other hand, hes really not campaigning for everyone so hope springs eternal, she said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  Amid controversies surrounding the unpaid estate taxes of the Marcos family, a former chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government looked back at the scope of their alleged ill-gotten wealth and the huge amount still unrecovered by the government.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Thursday, ex-PCGG chair Andy Bautista cited the estimate of former PCGG chair Jovito Salonga and former US Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Bosworth as of 1986 of up to $10 billion  more than 500 billion in current exchange rate  of accumulated wealth under the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Bautista said the PCGG has so far recovered more than $3 billion or 171 billion ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses and their cronies since the commission was created in 1986. He said if government were to stick with this figure, this means around $6 billion has yet to be retrieved from the family.

"But there was also an estimate provided by Dr. Jesus Estanislao and Dr. Bernie Villegas...their estimate was closer to $30 billion (ill-gotten wealth)," Bautista said.

This amount is equivalent to 1.5 trillion today, nearly a third of the current national budget, which could finance government programs.

Estanislao was a former Finance and Socio-Economic Planning Secretary under the administration of former President Cory Aquino while Villegas was one of the economic advisers of former President Fidel Ramos.

A meeting with the Marcoses

Meanwhile, Bautista recounted how the Marcos siblings reached out to him when he was PCGG chair for an "exploratory" meeting about a potential settlement surrounding the amassed wealth.

"Bakit ka makikipagmeeting tungkol sa potential settlement kung hindi mo naman iniisip na may gusto kang ibalik para matapos na ang mga kaso? (Why would you want to have a meeting for a potential settlement if you don't think that you're supposed to return something to the government just to clear your cases)?" Bautista said.

Bautista said during that conversation, he proposed a negotiating framework to the Marcoses, which would not just require a PCGG approval, but also of then-President Benigno Aquino III as well.

"Sabi ko, 'ito ang gawin natin, isipin natin as of 1986 kung sabihin niyong $10 billion tapos magkano ang nabalik na yaman at that point time  I think we were about 3 point something billion dollars  iawas niyo yun, and yun na, magkakaroon ng negotiation.'"

[Translation: I told them, if as of 1986, the accumulated amount was at $10 billion, minus what was returned, you subtract it from there and we could have a negotiation.]

Bautista never heard from the Marcoses after.

Over 125 billion worth of real and personal properties by the Marcoses are currently under litigation.

Bautista also commented on the family's unsettled estate taxes which have ballooned from 23 billion in 1997 to over 203 billion.

"Dito, ang pwede pa ring mangyari, for example pinapatawan sila ng estate tax ng BIR dahil itong asset na ito kasama doon. Ang pwede nilang sabihin, 'hindi naman amin iyan eh,' so ibabalik nila yung kung ano man yung property na yun, be it cash, be it real estate, be it jewelry." Bautista said.

[Translation: What can happen here is, for example, since the BIR wants them to pay for their estate taxes because of their accumulated assets, the Marcoses can say 'that's not ours,' then they should return the property, be it cash, be it real estate, be it jewelry.]

"Ang problema (the problem is), there's a big issue in respect of what are they claiming to be their own lawfully...I'm sure the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) has some leeway in terms of negotiating what the proper estate tax should be, pero kailangan bayaran yan (but those need to be paid)," he said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24) Vice presidential bets Sen. Kiko Pangilinan and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte have rejected the call to vote for a particular combination that will split up their respective tandems for the top national posts, raising some concerns amid a recent campaign pushing for a Leni Robredo-Sara Durerte (RoSa) combination.

During the Tarlac grand rally of the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem on Wednesday, the senator appealed to a crowd of about 40,000: "Hinihiling ko at pakiusap, yung para kay Leni ay sana para kay Kiko din dahil mahirap na kung iba bise-presidente. Baka iba ang planuhin sa ating President Leni."

[Translation: I wish and request that your vote for Leni should also be a vote for Kiko because it's complicated if there's a different vice president. That person might plan against our President Leni.]

Meanwhile, Duterte said in a video recording on the same day that while she acknowledges certain calls for her to be with another presidential hopeful, she is still sticking with Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos.

"Once again, let me reiterate that I am aware that many of you wish to see me with another presidential candidate. I take that as a sign of confidence in me as a leader," Duterte said. "For that, I am truly, deeply, touched and honored. But I am a person, a woman, a leader who values commitment and word of honor."

She added: "I am running for the position of vice president and my president is Bongbong Marcos."

The RoSa movement was recently launched by congressmen Joey Salceda and Rufus Rodriguez, along with Zamboanga City Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco.

The camp of Robredo previously said she acknowledges different configurations and is willing to work with anyone, including Duterte.

But Robredo also maintained she is sticking with Pangilinan until the very end.

"May mga supporters na iba 'yung choices and iba 'yung pinupush na mga combinations, pero as far as I am concerned, as far as 'yung official campaign structure is concerned, ang aking vice president, until the very end, Kiko Pangilinan," Robredo told reporters on Thursday.

[Translation: There are supporters who have different choices, who are pushing for different combinations, but as far as I am concerned, as far as the official campaign structure is concerned, my vice president, until the very end, is Kiko Pangilinan.]

Marcos and Duterte are currently the frontrunners in surveys of preferred presidential and vice presidential bets.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  Presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson on Thursday resigned as chairperson and member of the Partido Reporma party a few hours before the president and other leaders of the political party shifted allegiance and endorsed the bid of Vice President Leni Robredo.

After less than a year with Partido Reporma, Lacson will now campaign as an independent bet. He said this will work in his favor, dashing rumors that he plans to withdraw from the race.

"Independent-minded ako [I am independent-minded]. I feel more relieved than disappointed," he said in a media briefing.

Commission on Elections Commissioner George Garcia said Lacson's change of affiliation will not affect his presidential bid.

Partido Reporma President Pantaleon Alvarez in a statement said that although Lacson is a qualified candidate, they acknowledge that the electoral terrain has changed.

"Our ground leaders have expressed their wish to participate in that brave calling. And that is why, a hard choice must be made. With a heavy heart, many members of Partido Reporma are constrained to consider a candidate other than their first choice," he said in a statement.

Alvarez said officials and members of the party want to extend help to ensure a Robredo win, especially after seeing her campaign gain significant traction as May 9 approaches.

"We reasonably believe that the only realistic option at this point, with roughly a month and a half left, is to converge with Leni Robredos campaign... We respect the choice of our members and officers. They are not Pink, but they are reformists, and they are for Leni Robredo. The fight for good governance and a better tomorrow for our People has never been, and never will be, limited to a single color," the former House speaker said in a statement.

"Independent-minded ako [I am independent-minded]. I feel more relieved than disappointed," he said in a media briefing.

Commission on Elections Commissioner George Garcia said Lacson's change of affiliation will not affect his presidential bid.

Partido Reporma President Pantaleon Alvarez in a statement said that although Lacson is a qualified candidate, they acknowledge that the electoral terrain has changed.

"Our ground leaders have expressed their wish to participate in that brave calling. And that is why, a hard choice must be made. With a heavy heart, many members of Partido Reporma are constrained to consider a candidate other than their first choice," he said in a statement.

"We reasonably believe that the only realistic option at this point, with roughly a month and a half left, is to converge with Leni Robredos campaign... We respect the choice of our members and officers. They are not Pink, but they are reformists, and they are for Leni Robredo. The fight for good governance and a better tomorrow for our People has never been, and never will be, limited to a single color," the former House speaker said in a statement.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24) President Rodrigo Duterte recently met with one of his aspiring successors, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos, with the chief executive imparting some words of wisdom to the candidate, Malacanang said on Thursday.

It was a cordial and productive meeting, where the President shared his experiences and insights as an outgoing chief executive, acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar said in a statement.

[He] likewise discussed the current governments major achievements and gave pieces of advice to Mr. Marcos, he added.

According to Andanar, the President also expressed optimism that his administrations flagship programs will be continued by the next leadership. No further details were provided as of publishing.

Earlier in the day, Dutertes ally Sen. Bong Go also confirmed that such a meeting took place, even saying that it was one of the factors behind the PDP-Labans move to support the son and namesake of the late dictator.

Duterte, however, has yet to say if he is echoing the endorsement of his party.

READ: Cusi PDP-Laban faction still hopes party chair Duterte will endorse Marcos
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 23) While the record-breaking campaign rallies have been great energizers, the daughters of presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo said the situation on the ground tells a different story.

Aika and Tricia Robredo have been conducting market runs and house-to-house visits to different communities to attract more voters for their mother, admitting that on some instances they are being heckled.

Admittedly, nakakalungkot at nakakainis din (its sad and irritating). Lalo na dahil crossing the line na 'yung iba (since some are already crossing the line). Some of them have already made up their minds and its quite futile to engage, Tricia wrote on her Facebook account.

But just like Patty, I was also doing house to house and market runs prior to PasigLaban that I went to the rally slightly tempered down by my firsthand encounters in different communities, Aika posted on Facebook.

Tricia said the face-to-face, intimate type of campaigning is her favorite since theyre used to it back when their father, late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, would campaign in Naga.

Aika, for her part, reminded fellow "kakampinks" to refrain from calling other candidates followers bobo (stupid) or bayaran (paid), with an appeal to not give up on convincing non-supporters.

Ipaglaban din natin sila. Paanyaya ito sa ating lahat na maging mahinahon, mapagkumbaba at mapagmahal, Aika said.

[Translation: Lets fight for them. This is an invitation to all to be calm, humble, and loving.]

Tricia urged supporters to go out of their circles and understand the plight of those who may have been victims of disinformation.

Matrabaho at minsan nakakadismaya ang ganitong lakad, pero lahat ng bagay pinaghihirapan, Tricia explained. Hataw tayo sa pag-convert sa umaga para mas dumami pa tayong makisaya sa rallies pag gabi.

[Translation: These visits entail a lot of work and are sometimes disappointing, but all things should be strived for. Lets push for non-supporters' conversion in the morning so more peope can be with us during rallies at night.]

In her recent speeches, Robredo has been extending the invitation to the still undecided to join her campaign rallies, which she describes as fun and full of hope.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24) - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) commends San Miguel Corporation (SMC) for exceeding its targets in the dredging and cleanup efforts at the Tullahan-Tinejeros river system.

SMC has pledged 1 billion for the project, which was launched in partnership with the DENR to clean up Manila Bay.

The diversified conglomerate said it has so far dredged nearly 790,000 cubic meters and covered 7.71 kilometers of Tullahan River from sectors 1 to 5. The five sectors span the river's length from the mouth of Manila Bay in Navotas City, up to Potrero in Malabon and Valenzuela City.

"Despite the setback brought about by the pandemic, SMC has proven its dedication in protecting and preserving our environment. We are very grateful for our partnership in securing healthier and cleaner waterways for a better future," said DENR Acting Secretary Jim Sampulna.

As of March 10, SMC said it has finished dredging the portion of the river in Niugan, Malabon City - recovering 93,393 cubic meters of dredged materials.

It has continued dredging operations in some portions of Catmon and Maysilo in the same city. Since starting the project in October 2021, SMC said it has dredged 155,113 cubic meters in the area and targets to finish the activity this month.

"Dredging these areas, which are located close to urban areas and industrial complexes, could help prevent the accumulation of pollutants such as trash, debris, decaying vegetation, and even unwarranted toxic material spills," Sampulna said.

SMC added that it has extended and prioritized the dredging of portions of the river from Lambingan Bridge to Tinajeros Bridge, and from Tinajeros Bridge to Tullahan Bridge, to address flooding during the rainy season.

The corporation has also removed accumulated wastes from the Tullahan River. As of last November, SMC reported extracting 2,500 metric tons of waste daily for a total of 522,498 metric tons.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  The economic recovery policy agenda recently adopted by President Rodrigo Duterte is among efforts to beef up the country's resilience moving forward, Malacanang said Thursday.

"We do not share the view that this is the current Administration's exit plan for this forms part of the country's preparation to build resilience under the New Normal," said Duterte's acting spokesperson Martin Andanar in a statement.

On Mar. 21, Duterte signed Executive Order 166 which adopts the 10-point policy agenda proposed by the Economic Development Cluster.

Among the agenda are the formulation and proposal of legislation allowing the efficient rollout of emergency programs during pandemics and the development of a Comprehensive Pandemic Response Framework.

Andanar said they are certain that EO 166 will be carried by the next administrations. He cited as an example the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Philippines (IATF), created under late President Noynoy Aquino's EO 168 in 2014 which Duterte eventually adopted.

"Unless Executive Order No.166 is modified or revoked, it would remain effective and operational," added the spokesman.

After growing slightly above target at 5.6% in 2021, the economy is expected to expand by 7-9% this year according to Duterte's economic team.
Russia has been accused of deploying phosphorous bombs in Ukraine, raising worries that Vladimir Putin would employ chemical weapons. In the eastern city of Kra, the footage shows what seems to be white phosphorus burning violently on the ground.

White phosphorus fires deeply into tissue, is inhaled as smoke, and is ingested, all of which cause damage and death. Oleksiy Biloshytskiy, the police head of Kramatorsk, shared a video of debris burning on the ground after being touched with a shovel.

Vladimir Putin Is Accused of Using Chemical Weapons in "War Crime"

The footage was shot in a location that serves as the headquarters for Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, footage of phosphorus above Kyiv's northwestern suburbs was broadcast.

In the darkness over Ukraine's capital, the chemical can be seen exploding, The Sun reported. As Putin's invasion falters, Western officials are increasingly fearful that a desperate Putin would resort to chemical weapons.

It comes as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia not to use chemical weapons in Ukraine. According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US has concluded that Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine and will endeavor to prosecute the perpetrators. He claimed evidence of indiscriminate or intentional assaults on populations, as well as the devastation of residential complexes, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, and other locations.

A scary Russian propaganda film spreading over the weekend showed deadly thermobaric missiles capable of destroying human organs. Russian ships in the Black and Caspian Seas launched cruise missile assaults on Ukraine on Saturday and fired hypersonic missiles from Crimean airspace, as per Mirror.

In the Nikolaev area of southern Ukraine, one of the strikes destroyed a big fuel storage facility, while another damaged an armored vehicle repair factory. As he prepared to leave for Europe on Wednesday for a NATO meeting, US President Joe Biden described the use of chemical weapons as a "serious threat."

The United States has also reaffirmed its warning that Russia may be planning a "false flag" strike to legitimize the use of chemical weapons. Biden has stated that Russia's allegation that Ukraine possesses biological and chemical weapons strongly indicates that Putin intends to use them.

Read Also: US, NATO Warning: Belarus 'Likely' to Help Russia in Ukraine Invasion

NATO Agrees To Deploy More Troops

In reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, NATO leaders are expected to agree on deploying four more battle groups to the alliance's eastern frontier. At Thursday's NATO summit in Brussels, leaders will agree to send soldiers to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, according to Stoltenberg.

As Ukraine faces Russia's invading forces, the NATO leader pledged to give further help to deal with chemical and nuclear threats. Putin has been accused of employing illegal white phosphorus weapons in Ukraine, raising worries that he is about to use chemical weapons.

According to Daily Mail, Stoltenberg also accused China of supporting Russia's attack on Ukraine by spreading "blatant lies," and warned Beijing against providing material support to Moscow's military effort.

China, which has not denounced Russia's invasion and has criticized Western sanctions, supported Moscow on Wednesday, calling it an "essential member" of the G20 after the US threatened to expel Moscow. Last week, Biden cautioned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that providing backing to Russia during its invasion of Ukraine would have consequences.

Related Article: US Confirms Russia "Committed War Crimes" Days After Joe Biden Called Vladimir Putin a "War Criminal"

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Women hold up half the sky.

Its not surprising for men to dominate lists of Filipino heroes or prominent figures as historically, womens contributions have been overlooked or left undocumented as a product of their time. Women have always shaped Philippine history and society. However, under a patriarchal rule, their contributions are rarely credited.

According to Feminism and the Women's Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges, in pre-colonial Philippines, women often took on the tasks of the babaylan  regarded as the wisest figure in society in charge of culture, religion, and medicine. The situation shifted during the Spanish colonization which subjected them to the control of the abusive friars. Women reclaimed their space during the Philippine revolution against Spain, with notable figures such as Gregoria Alvarez de Jesus and Gabriela Silang using their intellect, aiding revolutionaries with care, and leading guerilla fronts during the war.

The struggle for womens emancipation continues until today. This womens month, we honor five Filipino women who did not only take up their space but also dedicated their lives to uplifting marginalized women and children as they struggled for the genuine liberation of all oppressed women and peoples.

These women are only some of the many notable Filipinas whose contributions to society deserve to be credited. But we should not fail to remember that every day, millions of ordinary Filipinas keep our nation running and embolden our desire for justice and peace. They range from women farmers tilling the land, women in the fisheries in charge of post-harvest production, working-class women who spend hours standing in factories, and migrant workers who keep the Philippine economy afloat with their remittances.

Illustration by LAZIR CALUYA

Maita Gomez

In popular media, Maita Gomez is often framed as the beauty queen who turned her back on the glamorous life by choosing to serve the people as a red fighter in the New Peoples Army when the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.

Its not surprising that its what feature articles celebrate her for, especially when dominant structures replicate the wrong impression that well-to-do women who live comfortable lives have little interest in struggles larger than their own.

People close to Gomez, however, would like to remember her beyond the narratives of the crowned beauty queen who took up arms, but as a woman who selflessly gave herself for the liberation of workers and peasants. Just like many activists today, Gomez was unjustly detained in prison for standing up against authoritarian regimes. After escaping imprisonment, she organized marginalized peoples in the countryside and used the nom de guerre Ka Dolor.

In 1980, she returned to Manila to become a legal activist. She helped found the nationalist and democratic womens alliance GABRIELA. Until today, GABRIELA empowers women of all sectors to achieve liberation in a sovereign society free from patriarchal values and systemic oppression.

Illustration by LAZIR CALUYA

Rosa Henson

It took 47 years of silence before the Task Force on Filipino Comfort Women went on a nationwide call to gather testimonies from Filipino women who became victims of forced prostitution. The first Filipino to speak was Rosa Henson, at the age of 65, then leading 168 Filipino women to do the same.

Before becoming a comfort woman, Henson had already been subjected to sexual abuse from Japanese soldiers. Angered by this injustice, she joined the communist led-peasant uprising Hukbalahap to support Filipino revolutionaries in the countrys struggle for independence from the Japanese.

Captured while serving as a courier, Henson was abducted to be a comfort woman. She saw this past as a shameful secret and as a way to cope, she took note of every little detail about her abuse and spoke about it to humiliate her abusers. She wrote a book Rosa Henson: Comfort Woman, Slave of Destiny, which recorded her nine months of being a comfort woman at the age of 16.

Henson, however, should be remembered beyond her trauma as a sexual abuse victim, but as a courageous woman who struggled for freedom against oppressors with the strength to rebuild her life despite the gravity of abuse she encountered.

Illustration by LAZIR CALUYA

Doreen Fernandez

Doreen Fernandez is remembered as a prolific writer on Filipino cuisine, whose prose is described to be crystalline, poetic, and direct by The New York Times. She is a known cultural historian and an intellectual whose work documented the complexity of Filipino food intertwined with our history.

READ: Why Tikim is the essential book on Filipino food

But beyond the glossy recognitions from magazines and titles appealing to the bourgeoisie, Fernandez, like Gomez and Henson, was also a revolutionary. During martial law, Fernandez wrote restaurant reviews  work that was then deemed to be less relevant than news under tumultuous times. Open to accepting criticism from her friends, she joined discussion groups to learn about the countrys situation because she felt ignorant.

Politicized, Fernandez then shifted her focus to food consumed by the common Filipino  food sold in the carinderia, served for the peasantry and the working class. Fernandez wrote about food to discuss Philippine society while giving meaning to the values ordinary Filipinos kept.

Fernandez contribution was also not limited to literature. She also supported the resistance movement against Marcos, and used her place as a shelter for comrades in the movement. At her safehouse, she nurtured revolutionaries with good food to support them as they stood at the forefront of fighting the fascist regime.

Illustration by LAZIR CALUYA

Fe Del Mundo

Fe del Mundo revolutionized Philippine medicine by pioneering innovations in her seven-decade medical career. She founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines and is responsible for building the modern health care system that children enjoy today.

She was a woman of many firsts: the first woman admitted to Harvard University, the first female president of the Philippine Pediatric Society and the Philippine Medical Association, the first woman to be named as a National Scientist of the Philippines, and the founder of the Philippine Women's Medical Association.

While such titles are admirable, Del Mundo is remembered as a hero because of her priceless contribution to saving Filipino babies lives. To many children born with underdeveloped organs, Del Mundos intellect and medical crib gave them a second life.

Del Mundo established her own pediatric hospital at the expense of her own house and personal belongings to better serve her patients, free from the bureaucracy of government hospitals. But the doctor didnt let her vast knowledge be confined to the four walls of hospitals afforded by the few  she also brought her services and designed a bamboo incubator to address the needs of rural communities with little to no access to modern healthcare.

Illustration by LAZIR CALUYA

Nanay Mameng

Known for her sharp speeches, Nanay Mameng was a woman whose language was simple but fiery, as described by urban poor group Kadamay. Carmen Nanay Mameng Deunida devoted her long life as an activist, spending four decades active in the peoples movement, even earning the title Mother of the Urban Poor Struggle.

Nanay Mamengs political awakening, like most notable women in this list, began at the height of martial law in 1978, at the age of 50. She was the oldest member of the youth group Kabataan para sa Demokrasya at Nasyonalismo (Kadena).

She was one of the few leaders who had no reservations to talk about public officials candidly  using words tiyanak and peste to describe politicians involved in corruption. Her striking speeches reflected the voice of the poor, piercing powerful figures. Nanay Mameng became an icon in mobilizations, and her distinct voice carried on to sharply criticize the administrations of former presidents Estrada, Arroyo, and Benigno Aquino III.

Despite her frail health at the time, Nanay Mameng also did not keep her mouth shut at the Duterte administrations shortcomings, and reminded people that changes in governance dont mean anything as long as marginalized peoples rights are violated. Nanay Mameng may not have been given the same bourgeois titles as some women in this list, but just like them, she spent her days on the right side of history. Until today, because of her selfless service, the peoples struggle for genuine liberation continues.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  While it reiterated it has not encountered any data breaches, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered a review of its contract with Smartmatic.

During a virtual briefing, Commissioner George Garcia bared several measures ordered by Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan in connection with the allegation of Senator Imee Marcos that there is the possibility of a security breach in the poll system.

READ: Comelec, Smartmatic deny security breach claim by Imee Marcos

Garcia said Pangarungan mandated the Comelec's Law Department to "conduct a review of the contract with Smartmatic and to advise the courses of action to be taken by the Commission as may be provided by law and jurisprudence."

Smartmatic is the provider of automated elections system (AES) and vote-counting machines (VCMs).

"Although we maintain that the Comelec has not fallen victim to any attacks that will amount to a security breach, we will not take these allegations sitting down," Pangarungan said in his statement.

The poll body directed its Executive Director to immediately coordinate with the National Bureau of Investigation, secure a copy of the report from the agency, as well as require Smartmatic to submit its internal investigation report. It also ordered the Deputy Executive Director for Operations and the Information Technology Department to craft "a detailed plan to prevent the occurrence of the similar or related issue."

"We will ensure full transparency. We want an orderly, peaceful and honest elections," Garcia said.

Earlier this year, the Comelec faced another hacking claim made by Manila Bulletin that an unidentified group of hackers was "able to breach the servers of the Comelec, downloading more than 60 gigabytes of data that could possibly affect the elections."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  The Laguna Police provincial director was administratively relieved from his post after he was implicated in the case of missing cockfight enthusiasts.

The Philippine National Police on Wednesday said Col. Rogarth Campo was preemptively sacked after his name was mentioned by gaming tycoon Atong Ang in the Senate investigation into the 34 missing cockfight enthusiasts.

Ang, vice president of Lucky 8 Star Quest, claimed that Campo received P1 million from him for the renovation of the Laguna Police headquarters.

"Ang kaniyang administrative relief is to give way to the ongoing investigation para walang insinuation na may influence itong opisyal sa ginagawang investigation ng PNP relating sa missing sabungeros and revelation ni Mr. Atong Ang sa donation niya na P1 million na allegedly ay tinanggap ni Col. Rogarth Campo," spokesperson PCol Jean Fajardo said in a media briefing.

[Translation: His administrative relief is to give way to the ongoing investigation so there will be no insinuation that he is influencing the PNP investigation into the missing cockfight enthusiasts. It was also because of the revelation of Mr. Atong Ang that Col. Rogarth Campo allegedly received P1 million from him.]

RELATED: Five cops linked to abduction of cockfighter in Laguna

Kidnapping and illegal detention charges have been filed against the eight suspects allegedly involved in the disappearance of 34 cockfight enthusiasts. They have been missing since April 2021.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  One of the biggest political parties in the House of Representatives has thrown its support behind presidential candidate Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.

National Unity Party (NUP), through its spokesperson Reggie Velasco, announced on Thursday the partys endorsement of Marcos as their presidential bet in the May 9 elections.

BBM's (Marcos) call for unity as the basic strategy for economic recovery, amidst the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and global uncertainties, is consistent and supportive of the NUPs primary vision of one nation, one future as enshrined in the Party constitution, Velasco said in a statement.

The NUP made the endorsement after Marcos joined the political party's meeting on Wednesday evening.

The NUP was formed in 2010 as a breakaway faction of Lakas-CMD, which is also endorsing the presidential bid of Marcos and his running mate Sara Duterte, who is a member of the party.

The political party also endorsed Marcos unsuccessful vice presidential run in 2016.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24)  Studies show Sinovacs COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children aged 3 to 5, but it cannot yet be administered to them locally, pending data on effectiveness, vaccine experts panel chairwoman Dr. Nina Gloriani said Thursday.

Sinovac shots are currently recommended for ages 6 to 17.

RELATED: Kids as young as 3 may get their Sinovac dose soon

Pediatric infectious disease specialist and Philippine Pediatric Society fellow Ma. Liza Antoinette Gonzales shared a study in China that showed Sinovac only caused mild to moderate side effects on children within 28 days after the injection. The vaccine was tested on 550 kids and adolescents in age groups of 3 to 5 years, 6 to 11 years. and 12 to 17 years.

The most common side effects for children were pain in the injection site and fever, which didnt last long. Meanwhile, 1% to 4% of the study participants had non-serious cough, headache and loss of appetite.

In general, the adverse reactions were mild to moderate in severity, Gonzales said in forum also attended by Gloriani, adding it is similar to what is observed among adults.

While other countries like Thailand and Hong Kong have approved the use of Sinovac for ages 3 to 5, Philippine vaccine experts who screen vaccines prior to approval want to see more clinical data. Gloriani said they currently only have vaccine effectiveness data on ages 6 to 17.

She said while the study looked into safety for children aged 3 to 5, it did not cover effectiveness in that age group. That was basis to withhold recommendation to give the shots to those aged 3 to 5, she added.

She said they will amend their recommendation once Sinovac provides them with more data on the ongoing final clinical trial phase of the vaccine for this age group.

Gonzales backs the vaccine experts decision, saying the panel not only considers safety but also efficacy and immunogenicity or the immune response it produces.

Sinovac for ages 6 to 17

So, how effective is Sinovac in protecting 6 to 17-year-olds against COVID-19 infection?

A study in Chile shows Sinovac has nearly the same effectiveness as the Pfizer vaccine in preventing hospitalization, intensive care admission and death.

A copy of the slide presented by vaccine experts panel Nina Gloriani shows a comparison of the Sinovac and Pfizer vaccines effectiveness against SARS-Cov2.

At least 32-fold ang increase ng antibodies na nasa sa blood [Theres at least a 32-fold increase in the antibodies in the blood], neutralizing antibodies, four weeks after the second dose, Gloriani said.

RELATED: FDA OKs Sinovac for children aged 6 and older

Is it safe for children with underlying illness?

Gonzales and Gloriani said children with a weak immune system and who have underlying illnesses will benefit most from the Sinovac vaccine. According to Gloriani, the clinical trials included children with comorbidities, but who are medically stable, or healthy at the time of the clinical trial.

Remember, sa 12 to 17 years old na deployment na inuna ang immunocompromised. I would understand ganyan din, basta medically stable at may clearance from pediatrician, Gloriani said.

[Translation: Remember, in the rollout of the vaccines for 12 to 17 years old, those immunocompromised were prioritized. I would understand it is the same case, as long as the kid is medically stable and theres a clearance from a pediatrician.]

However, Gonzales said as Sinovac is an inactivated vaccine, it might be not advised for those who are allergic to a vaccine ingredient or have an unstable, undiagnosed or progressing medical condition.

Ang ganun, di natin siguro pwede i-vaccinate, but otherwise, I do not see any reason what contraindications there would be if the patient would have comorbidity, Gonzales said.

Sinovac is not yet being administered to ages 6 to 17 years in vaccination sites pending the Department of Healths release of implementing guidelines.
(CNN)  Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote opened the continent's largest fertilizer plant this week as war in Ukraine cuts off supplies from Russia, threatening a global food crisis.

The $2.5 billion urea and ammonia fertilizer plant was commissioned by Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos, where Dangote is also due to open a 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery, later this year.

Dangote told CNN Tuesday that the urea market had "gone through the roof."

"People are begging us to sell," he said.

"We are very choosy who we sell this product to. We are loading a ship going to US, Brazil, Mexico, India... The EU are trying to buy from us," he added.

The fertilizer factory sits on 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of land on the outskirts of Lagos and has a capacity to produce 3 million metric tons of urea yearly, making it the second largest plant in the world, Dangote said.

Its launch comes at a critical time. The war in Ukraine has driven up prices and caused global food shortages. Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of urea, potash and phosphate, key components of fertilizers. The countries are also major global suppliers of wheat and other grains.

Urea and ammonia are essential ingredients for farmers to meet production targets and access to fertilizer has been reduced significantly, threatening the global food supply chain.

"We are lucky to have this plant," Dangote added. "It is coming at the right time with the Ukraine-Russia conflict as both Ukraine and Russia control substantial amounts of agricultural inputs ...This can help a lot of African countries. The export market is a seller's market."

The number of people on the edge of famine has jumped to 44 million from 27 million in 2019, the UN's World Food Programme said this month. Parts of Africa could be plunged into hunger in as little as three months if Russia's war in Ukraine drags on, says Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa.

"In the short term, between now and three months, the conflict will affect food supply primarily from a pricing perspective," Sihlobo told CNN.

Nigeria has been trying to diversify its economy away from oil for some time and Dangote believes that the plant could earn the country $5 billion in export revenue each year.

"This is a very huge impact. It is very significant for Nigeria's economy," Dangote told CNN.

Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said reducing fertilizer imports was a key pillar in Buhari's diversification agenda, taking the country from being a net importer of the commodity to self-sufficiency.

"Indeed, during the past five years, over 35 million bags of blended fertilizer has been produced in Nigeria. Consequently, our import bill on fertilizer has not only declined significantly but we are also witnessing rising investment in the fertilizer industry, such as the one being commissioned today by the Dangote Group," he said during a speech at the inauguration of the plant.

"Today, Nigeria is self-sufficient in the production of urea, and we are also the leading producer of urea in the African continent.

Speaking at the event, Buhari said the plant would help Nigeria end dependency on food imports.

"The plant is creating huge opportunities in the area of job creation, warehousing, transport and logistics. This will create significant wealth, reduce poverty, and help in securing the future of our nation."

The Dangote Group is second largest employer in Nigeria after the federal government.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "'People are begging us to sell.' Africa's richest man opens huge fertilizer plant as food crisis looms."
(CNN)  Russian forces have looted and destroyed a laboratory near the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was used to monitor radioactive waste, the Ukrainian government said Wednesday.

The site of the world's worst nuclear disaster fell into Russian hands in the first week of Russia's invasion, triggering fears that safety standards inside the exclusion zone could be compromised.

According to a Ukrainian government agency, the laboratory was part of a European Union-funded attempt to improve radioactive waste management -- through on-site analysis of waste samples, as well as the packaging used to dispose of waste.

The government agency also reported that samples of radionuclides -- unstable atoms that can emit high levels of radiation -- had been removed from the lab. It said it hoped Russia would use the samples to "harm itself, and not the civilized world."

It is the latest scare at the infamous site in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. On Tuesday, Ukraine's government warned of several fires close to the plant, which it said had probably been triggered by Russian artillery or arson.

And staff working at the plant on the day it was captured only recently had the chance to go home, three weeks after they were due to rotate with an incoming team.

Local mayor Yuriy Fomichev spoke to CNN after the workers had been confined to the plant for 10 days, describing them then as, "exhausted, both mentally and emotionally, but mainly physically."

Fomichev said that more than 100 people were shift personnel who should have been relieved after 12 hours.

Some 13 staff members and most of the guards declined to rotate, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a statement published Monday.

Earlier this month, the site was forced to get power from emergency diesel generators for several days, before being reconnected to the national electricity grid after repairs to damaged lines.

More than 30 people died in the immediate aftermath of the April 26, 1986 explosion that tore through Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor near Pripyat.

In the years that followed, countless others died from radiation symptoms, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization. The Ukraine government evacuated some 135,000 people from the area and a 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant will remain uninhabitable for decades.

In the months after the accident, a sarcophagus was built to cover Reactor 4 and contain the radioactive material. This later deteriorated, resulting in radiation leaks.

In 2016, a structure known as the New Safe Confinement was positioned over the sarcophagus. The huge, arched design is intended to prevent the release of contaminated material, as well as protect the sarcophagus from external impacts, such as tornadoes or extreme thunderstorms.
The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas.
After discovering a strange social media remark on Tuesday, Kim Kardashian's fans believe she is pregnant with her and her boyfriend Pete Davidson's first child together.

The reality star and comedian have been dating since October, and many are thinking that they've taken a big step forward in their relationship after seeing his mother, Amy, make a recent statement.

Pete Davidson Is Excited if Kim Kardashian Becomes Pregnant

Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian were photographed embracing in his car after he picked her up from the airport over the weekend. Fans raved about the duo's fiery relationship when photos of them reconciling in Los Angeles were released on a Kardashian news account on Instagram, as per The Sun.

Though she has now deleted the post, it was screenshotted and re-shared by Reddit users. Fans began to wonder if Kim Kardashian was already pregnant with Pete Davidson's child as a result of all of this.

The images that started it was taken a few days ago at the airport when the SNL comedian was waiting to pick Kim up after her weekend vacation to Miami. The reality star thanked him as soon as she got inside the car.

The 41-year-old was flying home on her own G650 aircraft after establishing her SKIMS pop-up store in Miami. Pete, 28, arrived in a Mercedes to pick her up and was welcomed with a pucker.

The King of Staten Island actor enjoyed a "wild" guys' night with Scott Disick over the weekend while his girlfriend was away. On his Instagram Story, Scott, 38, shared a video of his Saturday night.

Amy Davidson, Pete Davidson's mother, expressed her excitement at the prospect of her son having a child with Kim Kardashian in the future. Amy is a frequent Instagram user who has shared countless photos of herself and her son, according to Page Six.

Things have been heating up between the "Saturday Night Live" star and the Founder of Skims, who made their relationship Instagram-official earlier this month when Kardashian published photos of them cuddling. During an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Kim Kardashian also flaunted her love for Pete Davidson.

Pete Davidson evidently views his relationship with Kardashian as long-term, as seen by the fact that he has her first name tattooed on his chest, as well as numerous additional tattoos honoring the KKW Beauty entrepreneur. Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have been spending a lot of time together recently, enjoying Valentine's Day in New York and meeting up in Los Angeles.

Read Also: [Report] Queen Elizabeth Doesn't Want To Be Seen in Wheelchair, Terrified of Looking Like Dying Sister

Kim Kardashian's Struggle Bearing Her Children

Kim Kardashian delivered her first two children, North and Saint West, to term, although both pregnancies were challenging. Preeclampsia and placenta accreta plagued her. Chicago, her second daughter, and Psalm, her second son, were born through a surrogate.

Kim Kardashian said that she suffers from acute depression in an interview with Laura Wasser on the "All's Fair" podcast.

Preeclampsia is a condition in which the placenta affects the blood flow between the mother and the infant, whereas placenta accreta is a condition in which the placenta is connected and lodged too deeply into the uterus's wall.

The 40-year-old is unlikely to subject her body and future children to such a demanding and high-risk pregnancy. She and Pete Davidson would almost certainly use a surrogate if they wanted to start a family of their own, as per The Blast.

While it's not impossible, given that they've just been dating since October and Kim Kardashian became legally single earlier this month, it's a long shot. She still needs to sort out a custody agreement and property partition for her and Kanye West's four children.

Related Article: Kim Kardashian Ramps Up Security, Begs Kanye West's Friends To 'Make Him Stop' After Vile Attacks on Social Media [RUMOR]

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Staff Reporter

Mike has bachelors and masters degrees in journalism from Northwestern and is a 25-year member of the National Press Club. He has won four national writing awards for editorial work. He is a native of McLean, Va., and lives in Millville.
The Delaware State Police are investigating the shooting of a 21-year-old Milford man by a Dewey Beach police officer that resulted in the man's death, after the man was reported as having a gun while at the Starboard restaurant.
Growing up, Ana Wakeman said she was taught the Complementarian view that women are equally dignified with men but have different roles in areas like religious leadership.

Wakeman is now an associate for the Coalition for Christian Outreach at Incarnation Church, an Anglican church that meets in Penn States Eisenhower Chapel inside the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, and she served as the former campus minister for Incarnation.

The CCO is a ministry that partners with churches on or near college campuses, aiming to connect students with those churches, according to Wakeman.

However, before assuming these positions, she had no role models of female leadership in Christianity  since Complementarians argue the Bible does not allow women to lead men in the church.

Yet, Wakeman said she still felt compelled to work in campus ministry, so she enrolled in Reformed Theological Seminarys Charlotte, North Carolina, campus because it had a campus ministry focus within its Master of Divinity program. Wakeman said masters of divinity are normally reserved for ordained pastors.

Even though she was not looking to be ordained, Wakeman said she was always asked why she was there, as well as what her justification was for attending as a woman.

Wakeman said she was one of two Anglicans at the RTS Charlotte campus and one of three female students pursuing a degree other than counseling. Wakeman said she graduated with a Master of Theological Studies, a two-year degree, as opposed to the four-year Master of Divinity.

Wakeman described her experience at RTS as awful and isolating.

It felt like a fight for my life every day, Wakeman said. I had to fight to defend myself every single day, why I was there and why I wanted to be there, and whether I was truly a Christian or not.

Wakeman said some of her professors would say certain portions of classes were meant only for men, so women could tune out if they wanted to.

Classes were, for the most part, addressed to gentlemen, Wakeman said. I am here  I am not a gentleman.

Finishing a Master of Divinity, especially as a woman, was very difficult, Wakeman said, and she instead took the shorter degree for financial reasons and just sanity reasons.

Wakeman said she originally went to RTS on a Presbyterian scholarship, and Presbyterianism is generally a more Complementarian denomination.

In order to finish a Master of Divinity, Wakeman said she needed to serve a certain number of hours at a local Presbyterian church, but no churches would allow her to hold a leadership position.

After admitting she had never really thought about it, Wakeman said she did some research and came to support Egalitarianism, Complementarianisms opposing viewpoint that women are not only equal in dignity but also in capability of occupying the same roles, including church leadership  not merely teaching children and other women.

Wakeman said most Anglican community members accepted her ministry, although one man approached her saying he did not approve of women serving ahead of men in ministry. He did appreciate me and my ministry, and he did financially support me, though, Wakeman said.

Since Anglicans dont consider female leadership an issue of salvation, Anglicans leave the decision of whether to allow women to lead up to local dioceses, according to Wakeman.

The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh does allow women to work in campus ministry, which is partly why Wakeman chose Incarnation.

Rev. Renee Ford, pastor of Woodycrest United Methodist Church on Clearview Avenue in State College and instructional designer and instructor at Penn State, said she found her experience to be the opposite of Wakemans. Fords Methodist seminary proved to be a very welcoming space for people pursuing ministry who are women.

However, Ford said she found more resistance in her church communities.

Ford said shes been the first female pastor for most of the churches she has served, and she said its often a new experience for church members who arent used to a woman as a pastor.

Ironically, the strongest resistance I've gotten has been from older women in the church, Ford said.

Ford said shes observed a pattern where once resistant church members become familiar with her, they slightly ease their beliefs.

The pattern often is, I don't agree that women should be in ministry, and then they go to, I don't know how I feel about women in ministry, but I'm OK with you, Ford said.

Despite this, Ford said she has only had a couple of people who left her church because she was a woman. Some would return whenever she invited a male guest preacher to speak on Sunday.

According to research by Rev. Eileen Cambell-Reed, women composed 20.7% of all U.S. clergy in 2016, as opposed to 2.3% in 1960.

Rev. Jes Kast, of Faith United Church of Christ on College Avenue in State College, said under 15% of all senior or head pastors are women.

Kast said State College is blessed to have many women leading churches.

She used to serve a church in Manhattans Upper West Side, where she loved its diversity of thinking, people and the arts, as well as how much the church valued faith.

Kast said she has served Faith UCC in State College since 2019.

Faith UCC was formed in 1909, and the church acquired its name and current building during the Great Depression, according to its website. Kast said the church has been true to its name ever since.

Kast said faith has been a strong sense of comfort  for both the church throughout its history and herself.

No matter what challenges lay ahead, Gods presence will be with us all, Kast said. Faith is this great tool for us to lean on to know that God is with us.

Kast said the Bible calls faith a gift from God. She said she sees this gift in all of the members of Faith UCC  an assurance that God will be with them.

Faith UCC makes accepting diversity a huge priority, according to Kast.

Kast said the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 are written in the churchs stained glass windows. The Beatitudes, which include Blessed are the merciful and Blessed are the peacemakers, have been a frame of reference for me of what type of sanctuary we are, she said.

Whether you are queer or straight or single or married, we are all in need of healing, we are all in need of love, and we are all in need of sanctuaries to feel a sense of belonging, Kast said.

Kast said women can still serve in the church, and there was a variety of women that were leading in the Bible.

St. Phoebe is dearly important to Kast, she said. The Apostle Paul commended Phoebe to deliver his Letter to the Romans to the Christian church in Rome, Kast said.

She had to know how to interpret the letter  she was there to publicly proclaim the letter, Kast said. Essentially, she acted as a preacher or pastor.

Candace Dannaker, former lay preacher at the First Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, said via email that shes never found a quote by Christ that women should not preach.

Dannaker wrote that the Apostle Paul, who wrote the books of Timothy, does not cite Jesus when delineating gender roles in the church. He only gives his opinion, which Dannaker said has been interpreted out of context.

The Holy Spirit is gender neutral, so if you believe in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, gender isn't an issue with God or Son when the Call is received by a male or female, Dannaker said.

Wakeman said she still intends to become ordained, although she has postponed her ambitions because the Pittsburgh diocese is searching for a bishop, and she doesn't know whether the new bishop will be Complementarian or Egalitarian.

In Wakemans current role as a volunteer, she said shell sometimes play piano and sing on Sunday. She said she will meet with students for spiritual counseling, direction [or] prayer, especially if students want to speak with a female minister.

I unofficially create a lot of fellowship events, Wakeman said.

She said has trivia nights with a group of graduate students on Tuesday nights.

I also have a dog, so sometimes students just want a little therapy dog, Wakeman said.

Ford said State College reminds her of the New York university town where she grew up.

I love that intersection of culture and the diversity that comes from being in a town that has the university here, Ford said.

Kast said she desires all ministries in State College to prosper because theyre all meeting a need in different ways.

According to Kast, she knows the other female pastors of State College very well. She said shes not sure if [she wants] to live anywhere else.

Ford said she thoroughly enjoys being a pastor in State College.

Fords favorite part of her job is being able to walk alongside people with their points of need, help them get excited about God but also help them navigate the joys and the challenges of life and to learn from them as well.

Ford urged anyone  regardless of identity or self-confidence  who feels God calling them to ministry to try not to run from it.
Within Penn States College of Medicine, three female researchers won Whitaker Centers Women of Impact: Celebrating Women in STEM Awards for their advancement in the field, which Elizabeth Proctor said was an honor.

Proctor said she received the Game Changer award under the Whitaker Centers Women of Impact in September 2021 for her research on Alzheimer's disease.

I was really honored and happy that people saw this worth in my work, Proctor, assistant professor of neurosurgery, pharmacology, biomedical engineering, and engineering science and mechanics, said.

For Proctor, shes really passionate about studying Alzheimers disease and the different moving pieces in the disease.

Proctor received her bachelor's degree from Purdue University and Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then she held a postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

One reason Proctor developed an interest in studying Alzheimers disease was watching individuals in her family who were personally affected.

It is so common, and we have no cure, Proctor said. Its a horrible thing to lose yourself, and that is what Alzheimers takes from people.

Proctor said she also saw a gap that somebody with her skill set could fill in the research  and her goal became to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

While completely respecting all the community that has come before, I thought there is this one piece that maybe I could help that I haven't seen anyone else doing, and I am uniquely suited to do it, Proctor said.

She said she wanted to learn what causes patients to present cognitive deficits, memory impairment and all these things that drive people to go to a doctors office and say, I am sick, I need help.

MORE NEWS COVERAGE

+4 State College female ministers overcome resistance to provide welcoming space for community Growing up, Ana Wakeman said she was taught the Complementarian view that women are equally 

What we are trying to do is make this overall map and try to understand how we could affect the entire disease and actually try to fix it in a way that would address all these issues and ultimately make cognition better, Proctor said.

Proctor said in her research lab, she tries to measure at the molecular level different processes that are dysregulated in the disease, using everything from cells to organoids to animals.

We have not done human samples yet, but we hope to in the future, Proctor said. And we try to use all these different systems to untangle all of the processes that are being dysregulated.

Within her research, Proctor said shes trying to come in and do something that has never been done before and potentially make a very large impact on the way the field understands science  which is why she believes she won the award.

I am trying to unite people who do more molecular and cellular work with people who do my physiological research, Proctor said. In the way that I have been trying to do this with computational science, it hasnt been done before.

While Proctor said she wont cure Alzheimers or completely change the field herself, rather, she intends to contribute to the advancement of understanding the disease.

I am not coming in and trying to rescue anything, but I think there are things that I could do that arent being done right now that maybe I am uniquely suited for, Proctor said.

Dr. Shou Ling Leong was also a recipient of the Game Changer award as a result of helping create curriculum for the three-year accelerated medical pathway.

Leong, assistant dean for pathways innovation in the College of Medicine, associate vice chair for education, director of longitudinal and 3+ accelerated pathways, and professor of family and community medicine, said she was thrilled to receive the award.

You never know about these things, Leong said. When you get nominated, you feel that people value what you have done and recognize the impact you have made, but when it is finally validated, it's a joy.

Leong said she wears many hats, such as clinical work, education and research, but what she loves the most is to innovate and develop new things.

She develops new programs, one being the three-year program, and she also conducts assessments and research to make sure the programs are impactful and have measurable outcomes.

For example, with the three-year program, we have done big studies to make sure that students indeed get a good education, Leong said. So after they graduate, they have the competency to be excellent doctors but also satisfied with their curriculum and not stressed and burnt out.

Inspiration for the three-year program came primarily from the news, Leong said, because there has been talk [in the media] that we dont have enough physicians  particularly primary care physicians.

We know that students are graduating with huge amounts of debt, so I want to address those things, Leong said. It became clear to me that by having a three-year program, it would address both of those issues and others, too.

By graduating a year early, students save quite a bit of money and in the process, help to address the physician shortage, Leong said.

Leong said the three-year program has really made a difference in medical education and reframed how we look at medical education  which is why she believes she was a recipient of the award.

I feel very proud and very happy to have gotten the award, Leong said.

Jennifer Moss had been named the Women to Watch Class of 2021 under the Whitaker Centers Women of Impact, which is given to a scientist in their early career.

MORE NEWS COVERAGE

+2 International women students bridge gap between their countries, Penn State Penn State international student Emily Davis said going to an American school has been [her

Moss, assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine, and the department of public health sciences at Penn State, said she conducts research on the impact of geography and community factors on cancer prevention and cancer outcome.

Trying to identify what it is about certain communities  particularly rural communities  that make them more susceptible to elevated rates of cancer incidents and cancer mortality is the center of her research, Moss said.

What shes found is a complex web of factors that influence what makes people more or less likely to engage in behaviors that prevent cancer, such as vaccination, physical activity and screening behaviors, and how they translate into different incidents and mortality, Moss said.

Moss was born in a rural community in Texas and moved around a lot, which is what prompted her to research how cancer affects various populations.

The difference in life expectancy and cancer rates for someone where I was born versus where I got my training were really stark, and it prompted me to think about what I could do with training in behavioral science and social epidemiology in order to reduce the higher rates of cancer we see, and that is what I try and do with my work  identify the causes of these disparities and solutions, ways that we can get health care services to people living in rural communities, Moss said.

Moss has been working with small clinics in Pennsylvania to evaluate how feasible it is for patients, particularly in rural and isolated communities, to use at-home tests for screening of cancer  so they dont have to travel to a doctors office to get screened.

It really empowers patients in rural communities to get tested, and if they do have cancer, we can identify it and diagnose it earlier, Moss said.

Moss said she was very thrilled to receive the award.

I was nominated by the chair of my department, who has always been very supportive of my work and my career, so it was great to get that recognition from the community and join this sort of cohort of women who received awards from the Whitaker Center, Moss said.

The Whitaker Center continues to do a lot of work to support women in science, according to Moss.

Not just for us who are professionals  but also for girls and young women who are still learning about the potential careers in science.

MORE NEWS COVERAGE
Election season is back in State College, and Penn State's University Park Undergraduate Association Elections Commission has updated its list of candidates for the election taking place on March 31.

There will be one executive ticket, 18 at-large candidates instead of 19, and 12 academic college candidates will be listed on the ballot, according to a UPUA release. Additionally, two candidates have declared write-in candidacies for the at-large seats, and one has declared a write-in candidacy for the College of Arts and Architecture seat.

There are no candidates running from any of the following four academic colleges, according to their respective academic representatives: Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, College of Information Sciences and Technology, College of Health and Human Development and the Schreyer Honors College.

The executive ticket has two candidates on the ballot: Najee Rodriguez and Sydney Gibbard.

Rodriguez is running for president, and Gibbard is running for vice president. Hopeful president and vice president elect Rodriguez and Gibbard are aiming to create a revolutionary campaign based on the core values of empathy, equity and empowerment, according to their bio on the UPUA website.

The 18 at-large candidates are Giselle Concepcion, Elliot Copeland, Kayla Davidson, Carter Gangl, Marissa Gillespie, Isabel Graham, Simran Kakar, Conor Kelley, David Morgan, Elijah Neal, Nora OToole, Zachary Perrin, Vikram Raj, Joshua Reynolds, Daniel Rogers III, Lev Rotkin, Siddharth Shah and Zion Sykes.

In addition to those already listed, the write-in candidates on the ballot are Chase Wilson and Ansh Matta.

The 12 academic candidates are representing nine of the 16 academic colleges at Penn State:

Giani Clark of the College of Education

Kyle Quinn of the College of Engineering

Haley Parker of the College of the Liberal Arts

Isaiah Johnson of the College of the Liberal Arts

Michael Diehl of the Smeal College of Business

Ryan Setzenfand of the Smeal College of Business

Michael DiFurio of the Smeal College of Business

Brandon Bixler of the College of Agricultural Sciences

Owen Haddad of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications

Matthew Roy of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

Vincent Smedile of the Eberly College of Science

Ava Phillips of the Division of Undergraduate Studies

For more information about the candidates, voters can review the candidates' biographies and involvements here.

The UPUA Elections Commission will host an Executive Town Hall with the solo executive ticket at 7 p.m. Thursday in the HUB-Robeson Center's Freeman Auditorium, according to the release. Those interested can submit questions for the ticket in advance here.

The UPUA election will take place from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on March 31. Eligible undergraduate students at University Park can cast their ballot here.

Voters will elect one executive ticket for president and vice president, 20 at-large representatives, 14 academic representatives (one for each college) and undergraduate delegates to the University Park Allocation Committee, the release said.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE
Penn States University Park Undergraduate Association unanimously passed Resolution #28-16: In Support of Educators Rights to Teach about Racism and to Oppose Anti-Critical Race Theory Legislation during its weekly meeting Wednesday night.

According to the resolution, CRT provides a research-based framework for understanding how the social construct of race and the impact of racism are present in the work of educators and policymakers."

Critical race theory has been analyzed in academic institutions since the 1970s, and many scholars consider the theory to be a complex array of ideas about racial discrimination inherently incorporated within U.S. law systems, social normalcies and economic programs.

Over the years, the theory spread into far-ranging academic circles, which sparked inspiration for dozens of books, law review articles and conferences about racial prejudices, CNN said.

Kimberle Crenshaw, a law professor who helped coin the terminology of critical race theory, said the true definition of the term has been lost and misconstrued over time, according to The Atlantic.

Crenshaw said the ideas contained within CRT could best be described as a way of looking at laws role platforming, facilitating, producing and even insulating racial inequality in our country.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines academic freedom as the freedom of a teacher to state personal opinions openly without censorship, or without the fear of professional disadvantage, according to the resolution.

The resolution passed said the banning or restriction of CRT poses a direct threat to academic freedom, which not only impacts this issue but sets a dangerous precedent.

Pennsylvania Rep. Russ Diamond (R-102) introduced Pennsylvania H.B.1532, an act providing for restrictions on racist and sexist concepts, for contracts, for penalty and for private cause of action, according to the resolution.

According to the resolution, this sort of legislation represents recent attempts to politicize classrooms across the United States and to push an anti-CRT agenda.

UPUA, according to the resolution, shall oppose Pennsylvania H.B. 1532 and any future efforts from the state legislature to further attack educational equity and the rights of educators to teach about racism.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE
Americans are hurting by the rising pump prices due to uncertainty brought by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, adding to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on economic activities.

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, gas prices were rising as demand surged when pandemic-related restrictions were loosened.

However, the prices were affected further as nations shifted away from Russia, which is one of the world's top oil producers, due to the invasion of Ukraine.

According to AAA's tracking, petrol prices set a new high in mid-March, with the national average reaching $4.33 a gallon of regular unleaded and more than $5.13 for diesel.

Since then, as per the national average, the gas price has decreased significantly, but it remains expensive. Furthermore, average costs in several states continue to exceed $5 per gallon.

Governments Take Action on Oil Price Surge

Federal and state governments have implemented measures to mitigate the impact of surging gas prices on consumers.

The Biden administration announced the release of 30 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve earlier this month. The move is a part of a concerted effort with partners to lower global energy prices. It follows a 50 million barrel release in the fall of last year.

Some members of Congress have also proposed suspending the federal gas tax, which is slightly over 18 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24 cents per gallon for diesel.

Each state has its own set of gas taxes and surcharges. According to the American Petroleum Institute, state gas taxes and levies averaged 38.69 cents a gallon at the beginning of this year.

Some state governments have already moved to postpone gas taxes to assist customers.

The following are the states that suspended gas taxes :

Connecticut

CBS News reported that Connecticut Governor Ted Lamont had supported a bill that suspends the state's 25-cent-per-gallon motor vehicle tax for retail customers, which the state House and Senate enacted on March 23 with bipartisan support. The interim solution will be in effect from April 1 to June 30.

Lamont projected that the tax decrease would cost $90 million.

Georgia

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a law on March 18 suspending the state's excise tax on motor fuel sales for the time being. The state's gasoline cost is 29.1 cents per gallon, while diesel is 32.6 cents per gallon. According to the New York Post, the suspension is in effect until May 31, 2022, and it covers gas, diesel, and several other types of motor fuel, such as liquid propane gas.

Maryland

On March 18, Maryland became the first state to suspend its gas tax. The emergency legislation, which suspends the tax for 30 days, applies to the gas tax of 36.1 cents per gallon and the diesel fuel tax of 36.85 cents per gallon. The state is estimated to lose $100 million as a result of the action.

When asked by CNBC journalists if the 30-day gas tax respite would save Maryland drivers only approximately $15 on average, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan replied that he believes the suspension significantly impacts the typical consumer.

Read Also: Airlines Urge Biden To Lift Mask Mandates, Testing Requirements as COVID-19 Hospitalization, Death Rates Decline

Other States Also Follow

Other states also took actions to help ease the impact of the rising fuel prices.

State Senate Republicans in Ohio have suggested a bill to temporarily slash the motor fuel excise tax rate for gas and diesel from the current state tax of 38.51 cents to 28 cents per gallon for five years.

In California, a group of Democratic senators has proposed using $9 billion from the state budget surplus to give every California taxpayer a $400 gas rebate. It came as the governor requested assistance for those struggling with rising expenditures.

Some Republican legislators in California had proposed suspending the state's gas tax, but they lacked support in the assembly to proceed.

Meanwhile, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers in West Virginia has requested Republican Governor Jim Justice to summon a special session to suspend the state's 35.7 cents per gallon gas tax for 30 days. As of present writing, there is no decision from the governor yet.

Related Article: Climate Groups Doubt the Controversial Black Friday Report of the Biden Administration as Inaccurate; Lawyer Claims There Is Misrepresentation of Facts

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Black Penn State political science professor Errol Henderson has been given the opportunity to file an amended complaint to his federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the university in May 2021, which alleged discrimination and a hostile work environment, according to court documents.

Henderson filed complaints against the university due to alleged "racially hostile work environment" for 10 years. Specifically, Henderson reported "unprofessional and biased behavior of his white colleagues" to the political science department head, Lee Ann Banaszak, since 2014, the lawsuit said.

Banaszak allegedly accused Henderson for "harassment" because Henderson continually raised complaints to her. Henderson attempted to bring the concerns to Penn State President Eric Barron, but according to the lawsuit, no action was taken from the university.

According to case documents, Henderson asked Banaszak to be considered for a full professor position after the publication and success of his book titled "African Realism? International Relations Theory and Africa's Wars in the Postcolonial Era" in 2015. Henderson was denied this opportunity by Banaszak allegedly due to "purported deficiencies in Dr. Henderson's classroom skills and performance."

In 2017, Henderson formally complained to the Associate Vice President of Affirmative Action Suzanne Adair regarding Banaszak's "refusal to consider him" for full professor along with other alleged discriminatory actions in the political science department.

In the 2019 Daily Collegian op-ed "Being Black at Penn State," Henderson shared his experiences with systemic racism at the university and his "battles with toxic race discrimination" within the political science department, the lawsuit said.

"Within weeks of publication, Dr. Henderson learned that several of his white colleagues had raised complaints that he had created a racially hostile work environment for them, and that he was being investigated by Penn State for alleged racial harassment," the lawsuit said.

The university issued Henderson a formal letter of discipline, which charged him with "discrimination and harassment and related inappropriate conduct" while barring Henderson from teaching until June 20, 2021. Henderson was also required to take remedial courses in teaching.

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Boomtown 2022: How to live your best life in Columbia over 50

Columbia makes repeated appearances on lists ranking cities as good places to live. It is perhaps an even better place to mature and retire. A strong health care network, reasonable housing prices, a vibrant, engaged community and an appealing downtown help create an attractive location for all generations, but especially for those over 50. Read more stories.

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On a royal trip, Prince Charles' health was emphasized when the heir to the throne arrived with swollen feet and hands, which he termed "sausage fingers."

Prince Charles' health was exposed on a previous royal journey to India in 2019 when eagle-eyed royal fans couldn't help but notice his swollen hands. As he performed engagements in New Delhi, the heir's seeming swollen red fingers and toes were visible.

Royal Fans Spotted Prince Charles' Rare Physical Condition

The Prince boarded a battery-powered rickshaw after a nine-hour flight to begin his tour of the capital. He made a pit stop at India's version of the Met Office, where he learned about the dense haze that blankets the city every fall.

Have been thinking about Prince Charles swollen sausage hands all day again pic.twitter.com/6qpQYwrYDc  victoria (@vndrlyl) November 25, 2020

Prince Charles also paid a visit to the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara Sikh Temple in a more tranquil hour. His visit fell on the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak's birth, the founder of Sikhism, Daily Express reported. After removing his shoes and socks at the sacred place, Prince Charles entered the temple barefoot.

Prince Charles appeared to have painful-looking swelling in his feet and hands in photos from the expedition. Heat or the consequences of a long-haul travel might have caused the royal's swollen extremities. Swelling and water retention in some regions of the body can occur as a result of inactivity and changes in air conditions when flying.

A build-up of fluid causes swelling in the arms or hands, which usually goes away independently. Oedema is a disorder that occurs when you stay in the same position for too long, consume too much salty food, are pregnant, or take certain medications.

Swollen or puffy arms or hands, as well as glossy, stretched skin, are common symptoms. Swelling can be relieved in a variety of methods, including resting down and elevating the swollen region using cushions, as well as moving and massaging the afflicted areas.

Yep, #PrinceCharles's hands and feet are badly swollen. You would think that with all that money he would have taken better care of himself. In the meantime he should desist from taking off his shoes at least. Hard to see what Diana saw in him. pic.twitter.com/1JWfoh1lZc  #BLM TWEETS FOR TRENDING (@BLM_Tweets) February 27, 2020

Apart from his recent health scare, Prince Charles is unlikely to see Archie and Lilibet any time soon. Prince Charles is looking forward to seeing his grandchildren, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who are his youngest son and daughter-in-law.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's daughter have yet to meet the royal family because Markle gave birth to her in California. After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the United Kingdom, Prince Harry's family has not yet returned to England after moving to the United States in 2020.

Per EpicStream, it's unclear whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will go to the United Kingdom to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. They did, however, declare earlier this month that they would not be attending Prince Philip's burial ceremony on March 29.

Read Also: Queen Elizabeth Allegedly Scolds Meghan Markle For Her Actions Before Wedding With Prince Harry, Royal Biographer Reveals

Prince Charles, Camilla Walkabout, Meet a Viking Group in Ireland

Meanwhile, Prince Charles and Camilla appeared to be in high spirits as they arrived in Ireland's oldest city this afternoon to commemorate the year of the Platinum Jubilee. On the first day of their tour to the Irish Republic, they grinned as they landed in Waterford, in southern Ireland.

According to Daily Mail, Prince Charles and Camilla began their Republic tour with a stop at the city's Viking Triangle, where they were greeted by Reginald's Tower, the country's oldest municipal structure.

They watched with fascination as two actors, members of the Waterford Re-enactment group from Waterford's Medieval Museum, engaged in a simulated fight with swords and shields in front of a Viking longboat.

The heir to the throne also met with Joe Kelly, the Mayor of Waterford, and Eamonn McEneaney, the Director of the Waterford Medieval Museum. The Prince of Wales, 73, and his wife, The Duchess of Cornwall, spoke with Waterford Living History Society performers and reenactors.

Related Article: [Report] Queen Elizabeth Doesn't Want To Be Seen in Wheelchair, Terrified of Looking Like Dying Sister

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03/24/2022

Photo (c) krisanapong detraphiphat - Getty Images COVID-19 tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)

Total U.S. confirmed cases: 79,850,511 (79,805,851)

Total U.S. deaths: 974,976 (973,381)

Total global cases: 474,152,127 (474,340,642)

Total global deaths: 6,106,547 (6,100,583)

CDC says cases are falling but more funding is needed

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the COVID-19 numbers continue to trend in an encouraging direction. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, says the current seven-day daily average of cases is about 28,600, a decrease of about 9% over the previous week.

We have seen cases decrease dramatically over the past few weeks, Walensky said at a White House press briefing. And our national numbers remain close to historic lows, which is really encouraging. In some areas, we are now recording small increases even as cases continue to fall in other areas.

Despite the declines, administration health officials say Congress should appropriate additional funds to counter the virus. They warn that the BA.2 subvariant could result in a surge in new cases like many other countries have experienced.

Scientists studying how COVID-19 affects children

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the coronavirus is why some people get really sick while others dont have any symptoms. In particular, scientists have tried to understand why most children dont get very sick.

Dr. Andrew Freedman, an academic in infectious diseases at the U.K.s Cardiff University Medical School, says theories have suggested a number of different reasons, mostly revolving around a childs immune system.

Theories include a more effective innate immune response, less risk of immune over-reaction as occurs in severe COVID, fewer underlying co-morbidities and possibly fewer ACE-2 receptors in the upper respiratory epithelium  the receptor to which SARS-CoV-2 binds, Freedman told CNBC.

Leafy vegetables may slow COVID-19, researchers find

Heres another reason to have another helping of broccoli. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Childrens Center are citing evidence from lab experiments that suggest a chemical from a compound found abundantly in broccoli and other leafy plants may offer a potentially new and potent weapon against the viruses that cause COVID-19. As an added benefit, they say it may also protect against the common cold.

In a study described in the Nature journal Communications Biology, the researchers demonstrated that the chemical can inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and another human coronavirus in cells and mice.

The group also examined the effects of the chemical  sulforaphane  when combined with remdesivir, an antiviral medication used to shorten the recovery of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 infections. The research team reports that sulforaphane and remdesivir interacted synergistically at several combination ratios to reduce the virus in cells by 50%.

Around the nation
SpaceX won't be the only one that will get astronauts to the moon in the future. NASA has other plans.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced it would be giving another privately-owned company the opportunity of sending a Moon Lander for the Artemis mission in the near future. The decision to support the development of another Moon Lander was due to U.S. Congress allocating the necessary funding to NASA to do so, per Space.com.

NASA's Second Moon Lander Development Details

According to the Administration's announcement, the second and future Moon Landers developed will be used for missions beyond Artemis III, which NASA expects will take place in more than 50 years.

As such, it will issue a draft solicitation in the coming weeks, which would reveal the requirements for future development and demonstration of lunar landing capability to take astronauts between the Moon's orbit and surface.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson mentioned that competition is critical to NASA's success on the lunar surface and beyond as it ensures it can carry out various missions over the next decade.

"Under Artemis, NASA will Carry out a series of groundbreaking missions on and around the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap for humanity: a crewed mission to Mars," Nelson said.

Read More: Starlink Forced To Increase Prices up to $110 Dollars

NASA expects the new landers to have the capability to dock on Gateway, a lunar orbiting space station, increase crew capacity, and transport more science and technology to the Moon's surface, per its specifications for long-term requirements at the Moon.

It is possible that NASA could consider Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Dynetics for the job as they were the previous two finalists for the Administration's landing award.

NASA's Plans with SpaceX

SpaceX, NASA's existing partner on the Artemis missions, will not be left out either. NASA is opening an opportunity for Elon Musk's company to renegotiate the terms of its existing contract to perform additional lunar development work.

This additional lunar development work involves SpaceX transforming its proposed human landing system into a spacecraft that meets the Administration's requirements for "recurring services" for a second demonstration mission.

This opportunity for SpaceX will allow NASA to pursue more development work under its original contract with SpaceX while maximizing NASA's investment.

NASA's Reasons Behind Recent Developments

Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human landing System Program at NASA's Marshall Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said that the addition of a second private company and expanding SpaceX's contract would expedite the Administration's progress toward "a long-term, sustaining lander capability as early as the 2026 or 2027 timeframe."

"We expect to have two companies safely carry astronauts in their landers to the surface of the Moon under NASA's guidance before we ask for services, which could result in multiple experienced providers in the market," Watson-Morgan added.

NASA will host a virtual industry day after the new draft solicitation is published. It also plans to issue the formal request for proposals this summer once comments and questions regarding the draft solicitation process are reviewed.

Related Article: NASA's Space Launch System Rollout a Success! Next Stop: The Moon
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Malawi signs MOU on BRI cooperation with China

Xinhua) 08:15, March 24, 2022

LILONGWE, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Malawi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation on Wednesday in Lilongwe, becoming the latest country to join the multinational project.

At the signing ceremony, Malawi's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo pointed out that joining the BRI will provide new impetus for cooperation between the two countries.

She calls for more bilateral cooperation in poverty reduction, agriculture, infrastructure, health care and other fields.

"Malawi Government remains committed to strengthening its relations with the People's Republic of China at both bilateral and multilateral levels on matters of shared interests," said the minister.

Chinese ambassador to Malawi Liu Hongyang said China stands ready to link the BRI with Malawi's 2063 Vision, and contribute to Malawi's building of an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation.

Over 170 countries and international organizations have so far signed BRI cooperation agreements with China.

Tembo applauded Liu's contributions to the development of China-Malawi ties since his appointment in August 2018.

She hailed the Chinese envoy for facilitating several infrastructural projects in Malawi through grants and concessional loans during his tenure of office.

She listed some of the key infrastructural projects including the Lilongwe Water Program worth 67.7 million U.S. dollars concessional loan, the construction of a dual carriageway in Lilongwe worth 50 million dollars grant and a 15 million dollars grant for the construction of 5 community technical colleges in the country.

"Ambassador Liu has contributed greatly to the Malawi-China relationship since his appointment in 2018," Tembo said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Clockwise from top left are Team AWAW's producers Lee Myeong-ju, Choi Min-gyu, Lim Kyong-ah, Lee Hee-sun, Cho Yu-chae, Ha Hun-tak and Gong Min-jeong, who led Watcha's original show "Join My Table." Courtesy of Watcha



By Lee Gyu-lee



Since the coronavirus pandemic began, traveling overseas has become much harder, if not impossible, with entry restrictions in place across the world.





A poster for the show "Join My Table" / Courtesy of Watcha

As many await their chance to get a dose of culture by traveling again, the streaming platform Watcha's original show, "Join My Table," took a rather different approach to explore different countries through food that offers a sense of "home away from home" to foreigners who live in Korea.



"If we just take a look around, there are plenty of good places to eat ethnic cuisines in Korea. Thanks to those immigrants who came here and took on a role in our society, we are able to enjoy these privileges (for different food)," Lim Kyong-ah, the head of the show's producer team Team AWAW, said in an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. "We wanted to blend in that story for the viewers and offer a sense of tranquility to get through this tough time."



The subtle, feel-good show takes the viewers on a trip to different cities across Korea to get a glimpse into an individual expat or immigrant's lives, like Yemenis in Jeju Island and Indonesians in Ansan of Gyeonggi Province. For each episode, a host from a different country invites the show's main hosts  veteran announcer Lee Keum-hee and her former student and "Love in the Big City" author Park Sang-young  to their favorite restaurant and the surrounding neighborhood.



Taking a guide booklet about the host and the neighborhood, Lee and Park freely exchange conversations from historical background to social issues as they visit different spots, and share life stories as they join the city's host for a meal.





A scene from the show / Courtesy of Watcha



The show is led by a team of producers, Team AWAW,  comprised of Lim, Ha Hun-tak, Lee Myeong-ju, Cho Yu-chae, Gong Min-jeong, Choi Min-gyu, and Lee Hee-sun. The former producers of TV variety shows, such as "Street Food Fighter," "Youn's Kitchen" and "Three Meals a Day," came together to form a collective creator system as the team under Watcha.



Lim said that the show's format began with the simple approach to inviting a person from that country to introduce a restaurant offering its cuisine.



"Like Koreans know the best about Korean food, we just simply thought that we should scout a place in the city where the immigrants are populated. And we realized that those areas, populated with immigrants from a specific country, have a backstory relating to our history," she said. "And as we narrowed down to the restaurants in these areas, we came across the spots where we can learn more about our lives and our country (from the immigrants' perspective)."



However, she also noted that the show tried to avoid putting emphasis on the historical or political background of the immigrants' native country.



"Sure, it'll be helpful to understand where they came from if we learn their historical background. But we just wanted to focus on that individual and on that moment where he or she has fun and shares joy over a meal," she said. "We felt that it would be an over-interpretation to take the story into such broader scope and try to cover all sorts of (political and historical) aspects. So we tried to put a balance in it."





Veteran announcer Lee Keum-hee, right, and author Park Sang-young lead the show as the main hosts. Courtesy of Watcha



So the show intends to tell a story from the expats' and immigrants' personal accounts over food to show that they are no different from any other Koreans.



Producer Ha shared that the production team took a thorough process and approach to find the right host for each city that would best fit the show's purpose.



"(For example,) for Gimhae's episode, there are a lot of people with different nationalities. And when we chose to cover Moroccans in that city, we looked for people whose lives are similar but also different from ours," he said. "Then we came across the boy named Ali whose mother is Moroccan and father is Korean. He was the right fit as he could share his life, coming from a multicultural family, and can relate to our society's future as a Korean native."



Lim added that she hopes the viewers can gain a broader view of the expats' and immigrants' lives in Korea and find them relatable through the show.



"Each city's hosts are people who have rooted their lives in the Korean society and are spending their days healthily, happily, and enjoyably. When we look at only a part of one's life, we might have a partial view as if that small part defines that person," Lim said, adding that they just wanted to see the hosts as a person rather than someone caught in a diplomatic or social issues.



"We thought it would be nice to take out the serious, partial aspects of this person and view them from a slightly different perspective to bring their story to the table  (for example) there are a lot of documentaries about Yemeni refugees going through a hard time. And I felt that the spotlight is mostly on that side of their story. So we decided that we balance it out by shedding light on their joy and happiness."





The show invites expats and immigrants from different countries across Korea to share their country's food and their story. Courtesy of Watcha
Court Resolves Oil and Gas Drilling Disputes

The Supreme Court of Ohio decided two disputes today involving oil and gas drilling rights in eastern Ohio.

In Fonzi v. Brown, the Supreme Court ruled that Monroe County landowners did not reasonably attempt to locate the mineral rights owners when seeking to declare the mineral rights abandoned.

In French v. Ascent Resources-Utica LLC, the Court ruled that controversies over the expiration of an oil and gas lease are exempt from any lease provision requiring arbitration.

In the unanimous opinions, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Seventh District Court of Appeals in Fonzi and reversed the Seventh District in French.

Surface Owners Conduct Limited Search for Mineral Rights Holders

In Fonzi, the Court consolidated two cases concerning adjacent parcels of land in Monroe County. In 1952, Elizabeth Henthorn Fonzi sold a parcel of land she inherited to Donald and Eva Brown. In records related to that parcel, it was noted that, at the time Fonzi obtained the land, she resided in Finleyville, Pennsylvania, which is located in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

That same year, Fonzi sold adjacent land to Everette and Pearl Henthorn. In that deed, Fonzi noted she lived in Washington County, Pennsylvania. The Henthorns later sold their property to members of the Miller family.

In both sales, Fonzi reserved an interest in the oil and gas rights in the land. Beginning in 2011, the Browns and the Millers  the surface property owners  began the process of having Fonzis mineral interests declared as abandoned. The surface owners hired an attorney, who searched the Monroe County public records, conducted limited internet searches, and did not uncover any information about Elizabeth Fonzi or any potential heirs. The surface owners did not conduct any search beyond Monroe County.

In 2012, the surface owners began publishing notices in a Monroe County newspaper of their intent to declare the Fonzi mineral interests abandoned. The surface owners then filed affidavits of abandonment with the county recorder, who subsequently declared the mineral rights were abandoned.

In 2017, the Fonzi heirs filed a complaint in Monroe County Common Pleas Court seeking a declaratory judgment to retain their mineral rights. The Fonzi family members argued the surface owners did not exercise reasonable diligence in attempting to locate them. The surface owners then filed their own declaratory judgment case in Monroe County, arguing that under the Dormant Mineral Act (DMA), they took the appropriate steps to acquire the mineral rights.

The trial court sided with the surface owners, finding they made reasonable efforts to locate the heirs, and the Fonzi family waited too long to file a claim to preserve their mineral rights.

The Fonzis appealed to the Seventh District, which reversed the trial court. The surface owners appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.

Decision Delayed Pending Ruling in Similar Lawsuit

When the Court accepted the Fonzi cases, it announced it would hold the cases pending its decision in Gerrity v. Chervenak. After deciding Gerrity in December 2020, the Court resumed deliberations on the Fonzi cases.

Writing for the Court, Justice Patrick F. Fischer explained the Gerrity decision played an important role in resolving the Fonzi disputes. Todays opinion explained that the DMA, which is R.C. 5301.56, sets forth the process for having mineral rights declared abandoned. The Court has ruled that to claim mineral rights under R.C. 5301.56(E), a surface owner must exercise reasonable diligence to identify all holders of the severed mineral interest, the opinion noted.

Click to Expand

Justice Fischer noted the Court did not set a bright-line rule for what constitutes reasonable diligence, but stated that, generally, a review of the public records in the county where the mineral interest is located will establish the baseline for reasonable diligence.

In Gerrity, the Court ruled that there is no need to search outside of the county where the mineral interest is located if the documents recording the transfer of rights do not indicate whether the mineral-interest holder had died, moved, or transferred the rights to someone else.

Surface owners are not required to do the impossible and locate undiscoverable holders; instead, they must exercise reasonable diligence in attempting to identify and locate holders of the mineral interest, the opinion stated.

The Court concluded, though, that the Fonzi cases are markedly different from Gerrity, where no records in the county with the mineral rights indicated where the last mineral-rights holder was last known to reside.

In Fonzi, the surface owners did not attempt to search Washington County, Pennsylvania, records even though the Monroe County documents listed the last known address of Elizabeth Fonzi in Finleyville. The Court concluded that the surface owners did not exercise reasonable diligence and the surface owners cannot declare the rights were abandoned.

2020-0773 and 2020-0861. Fonzi v. Brown, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-901.

View oral argument video of this case.

Exploration Company Sought to Arbitrate Contract Dispute

In French, Michael and Karen French, along with several other joint owners of a tract in Jefferson County known as the Sutherland Farm, leased the propertys oil and gas rights to Ascent Resources-Utica.

The leases permitted Ascent to occupy the land and granted it the rights to construct wells, buildings, and other structures to facilitate oil and gas exploration and production. They had the traditional terms of an oil and gas lease, with a primary term lasting five years and a secondary term that allowed the leases to continue as long as oil and gas was being produced.

The leases also contained a provision extending the five-year primary term if Ascent secured permits and conducted some aspects of drilling operations more than 90 days before the leases expired. The parties agreed to submit any disputes concerning the lease or performance under the lease to arbitration.

In 2018, French brought an action in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court to declare that Ascents oil and gas leases had expired by operation of law because the company failed to produce oil or gas or commence drilling within the five-year primary lease term. The company countered that the leases were still in effect because Ascent obtained permits to construct wells and had begun constructing them before the leases expired, and the wells subsequently began producing oil and gas.

Ascent asked the trial court to stay the proceedings, claiming they were subject to mandatory arbitration under the leases. The trial court denied the stay, concluding that Frenchs claims involve title or possession to real estate, making them statutorily exempt from arbitration.

Ascent appealed to the Seventh District, which reversed the trial courts decision. The Seventh District acknowledged that oil and gas leases create an interest in real estate, but it held that the dispute regarding Ascents compliance with the lease was not exempt from arbitration because it did not affect title or possession of real estate

The landowners appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.

Click to Expand

Supreme Court Examined Arbitration Law

Writing for the Court, Justice Sharon L. Kennedy stated that resolution of the issue began with examining R.C. 2711.01, the law requiring courts to enforce agreements to use arbitration to settle disputes. However, R.C. 2711.02(B) provides that arbitration requirements do not apply to controversies involving the title to or the possession of real estate.

The Court noted its prior rulings stating that oil and gas leases grant a lessee, such as Ascent, a property interest in the land. It also pointed out that R.C. 5301.09 requires all oil and gas leases to be recorded in the applicable countys land records.

Citing its 2015 Chesapeake Exploration LLC v. Buell decision, the Court explained that an oil and gas lease constitutes a title transaction because it affects title to real estate. The opinion also stated that a lease affects possession of the land because the one leasing it enjoys the reasonable use of the surface to prospect for minerals below it and to produce them when found.

The action in this case is therefore a controversy involving the title to or the possession of real property, Justice Kennedy concluded.

Because the lease dispute was not subject to arbitration, the Court remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

2021-0166. French v. Ascent Resources-Utica LLC, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-869.

View oral argument video of this case.

Please note: Opinion summaries are prepared by the Office of Public Information for the general public and news media. Opinion summaries are not prepared for every opinion, but only for noteworthy cases. Opinion summaries are not to be considered as official headnotes or syllabi of court opinions. The full text of this and other court opinions are available online.
The 12th century was a long time ago, by most measures. But back then, the Pyramids of Giza were just about as ancient as they are today. And the young sultan of Egypt, Al-Aziz Uthman, decided to demolish them.

Sources aren't sure why. Some say that he believed treasure lay buried under the Pyramid of Menkaurenot just inside chambers within but underneath the entire thing. Others say he wanted to raze the pyramids so he could use the stone to build a new city wall. This seems a credible explanation, as other Egyptian leaders had torn down smaller pyramids for their stone.

Al-Aziz did not seem very concerned with the pyramids' historical significance. In fact, he didn't even know the pyramids' historical significance. He knew they were very old, but people around then didn't know just who built the pyramids or why. Long stretches even went by in which people didn't know they were the tombs of kings at all, theorizing instead that maybe they were ancient grain silos.

The sultan ordered his people to get to work tearing down the Pyramid of Menkaure. Things didn't progress very far. You know how it was stunningly hard to construct buildings that large without modern machinery? Destroying buildings that large without modern machinery turned out to be pretty hard too. The workers managed to loosen some of the huge blocks, which fell to the desert floor and surely flattened many assembled onlookers, but it was such a slow process that Al-Aziz finally called them off. The gash they made is still there today.
From left, actors Jared Leto, Adria Arjona and director Daniel Espinosa speak during an online press conference for the film, "Morbius" / Courtesy of Sony Pictures





By Kwak Yeon-soo







Jared Leto, who plays supervillain "Morbius" in the Sony Marvel film of the same name said he feels honored to bring the nuanced character to life for very first time.







Leto stars as Dr. Michael Morbius, an acclaimed biochemist with a rare deteriorated blood disease. When he injects himself with what he believes will be his cure, Morbius acquires superhuman strengths and capabilities and turns into a vampire.







In the press conference with Korean reporters, held via Zoom, Leto said he liked the duality of Dr. Morbius.







"He's not exactly a hero or a villain, but something in betweenThe gray area between good and evil. I think audiences are ready for different takes into a Marvel character. The transformation was already built in the character," Leto said.







The 50-year-old actor explained that he underwent three stages of transformation for the Marvel character.







"In the beginning, Dr. Morbius looks very sick, frail and fragile. He is nearing the end of his life, desperately searching for a cure. After the injection, there's this healthy, strong version of Dr. Morbius, which then turns into something monstrous. That transformation fascinated me. I appreciated the physical challenge," he added.







The actor said he was drawn to the complexity of the anti-hero.







"No one is all good. We are all bad. It's more interesting for me as an actor because my character is nuanced. I like the fact that this film is a big Marvel movie, but it dances on the darker side of the moon. It's in the darker corner of the Multiverse, and I think audiences are ready to explore different genres," he said.







A scene from the film, "Morbius" / Courtesy of Sony Pictures





Actress Adria Arjona, who plays Martine Bancroft, a fellow scientist and the right-hand woman to Dr. Morbius, revealed that she joined the project after going through an audition.







"Martine is a scientist and a doctor who talks with pure conviction. When Morbius transforms, she remains hopeful. She's not so fearful of him. I really enjoyed playing this character," she said.







Arjona also expressed satisfaction about improved portrayals of Latin American woman and said that she loves the idea of not being sexualized or "put in a tight suit."







Director Daniel Espinosa opened up on Leto's mind-blowing method of acting. "The fact that I was allowed to do a picture about a true outsider and somebody that's always been on the verge of the universe was interesting. It was like a dream come true to work with Jared, who has such commitment, dedication and talent. It inspired us all," he said.







Leto also mentioned his endearing interaction with director Espinosa and Arjona. "What I always appreciate about Daniel is his desire to drive to do something and to reach further to elevate the genre and experience. Adria has an absolutely mesmerizing face, and her spirit and personality matches. She was good energy on set," he said.







"Morbius" will hit local theaters, March 30.










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The way Janell Straach sees it, the cybersecurity profession has an image problem, and its keeping women out of the field at a time when the industry needs all the workers it can get.

Straach says female students, when asked to describe cybersecurity work, continue to think of a guy in a hoodie alone at a keyboard. They see disproportionately few women on the job, particularly in the senior ranks. And some still get harassed at conferences, despite codes of conduct meant to discourage inappropriate behavior.

Granted, the first image isnt accurate and hostile experiences arent the norm, Straach says. Yet both perceptions persist.

And the sense of too few women in the field? That, Straach says, is actually true.

Women in Cybersecurity is out to change all that, with Straach one of many leaders on the forefront of that work.

We have to get the message across that women belong, Straach says.

Women in Cybersecurity, or WiCyS, is a 10-year-old nonprofit started in part to bring together women in the profession.

It remains committed to that mission today, with a focus on recruiting, retaining, and advancing women through a collection of programs, initiatives, and a signature annual conference.

The goal, WiCyS leaders say, is to bust the professions image problem by bringing gender equality and overall diversity to the field.

WiCyS Janell Straach, Online MCS Faculty, Rice University and Chairman Of The Board, WiCyS

Were trying to build this community where they say, I do belong. Im not alone. I have a tribe thats like me that does a variety of things in cybersecurity and not just sit in the basement and program, says Straach, a Rice University faculty member who lectures on computer science.

Indeed, WiCyS started in part to address a need for community in a profession that has consistently had a lack of women as well as minorities. The professional association (ISC) puts the percentage of women in the cybersecurity profession at 24%, up from 11% in 2017 (although they attribute the jump to a change in research methodology, not a sudden surge in women entering the field).

Ambareen Siraj, a computer science professor at Tennessee Tech University and the founding director of its Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC), established the organization in 2012 through a National Science Foundation grant. She first launched a conference, which drew two times the women participants that she had expected. Given that high demand, Siraj organized another conference, drawing in more attendees as well as early leaders. The organization grew from there.

Straach was both an early participant and leader.

Straach attended the 2015 conference. She brought along some of her female students from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she was then a senior lecturer, and saw WiCySs impact on them.

Her students hadnt been sure they wanted to pursue careers in cybersecurity before the event but they came away from the conference encouraged and energized, Straach remembers.

Inspired herself, Straach signed on to host WiCySs 2017 conference and grew her involvement in the organization from there. She now serves as chair of the organizations board.

Straach says shes passionate about countering the narrow perceptions and stereotypes about the profession that linger; shes equally committed to breaking down remaining barriers and obstacles that discourage women from the profession and that limit their ascent to senior roles.

Were not just about building the pipeline and keeping the pipeline strong; ultimately were about diversity in the workforce, she adds.

Building up the community

Working with advocates like Straach and others during the past decade, Siraj has grown WiCyS into an alliance of leaders from academia, government, and industry.

Today, WiCyS is a global organization with 5,400 members (women and men) from more than 70 countries. In addition, the organization has 43 professional affiliates around the world as well as 150 student chapters. Affiliate groups are either regional, corporate, or associated with professional rolessuch as the CISO position, the military or cloud security.

The objective, says WiCyS executive director Lynn Dohm, is to cultivate a culture of inclusion.

Were a catalyst for creating opportunities, she says, adding that the organization seeks to bridge gaps and barriers that work to keep women from joining the cybersecurity profession and advancing through its ranks.

WiCyS Lynn Dohm, Executive Director, WiCyS

WiCyS leaders say the organizations efforts remain essential because the percentage of women in the profession, while improving, still remains low; there are both low numbers of women entering the field and a high number leaving. An Accenture report on women in tech found that 50% of women in tech roles leave them by the age of 35, and only 21% say its easy for women to thrive in tech.

We know retention is an issue. We know the advancement opportunities arent here, or the culture of inclusion isnt there, Dohm says.

She adds: Weve made progress in the workforce, but theres lots more work to do.

WiCyS leaders also stress that their efforts dont only benefit women; they support the overall industry, which is struggling to find enough people to fill roles. (ISC) puts the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs at 2.72 million.

Dohm says WiCyS wants to bring not only more women into the field but to support more diversity in the profession overall  something that the organizations leaders say is essential for success.

We know a more diverse team is a more effective cybersecurity team, Dohm adds. We need different ways to think of the issues, problems, challenges and solutions.

WiCyS has a wide range of initiatives to support its objectives.

It continues to hold its signature conference, with its 9th annual one held just recently, on March 17-19, in Cleveland. Although focused on women in cybersecurity, the conferencelike the organization itselfis open to all.

It is also the largest cybersecurity conference that has equal representation of professionals and students, as WiCyS issues a scholarship for a female student to attend for each professional registration it has. This move, WiCyS officials say, helps the organization with the recruitment part of its mission, by supporting up-and-coming professional women who are interested in a cybersecurity career.

Other WiCyS events include an industry leadership summit, a senior leader series, a fall virtual career fair and global webinars.

WiCyS runs a mentorship program, pairing mentees with mentors who use the organizations own curriculum. It also has a student internship program and a veterans apprenticeship program. It hosts a job board, and it runs both a cyber talent emergency fund and veterans assistance initiative.

WiCyS enlists its corporate partners in its programming, too. Target supports its Cyber Defense Challenge, which provides WiCyS members a chance at hands-on experience with a Cyber Defense Team. Meanwhile, Bloomberg, Facebook, and Google support scholarships that WiCyS and certification organization SANSs together offer for security training.

WiCyS welcomes companies as strategic partners, which gives them multiple benefits, but it also has many companies buy individual memberships in bulk for employees and pay for their employees to attend WiCyS events.

Dohm says the programs collectively fit with WiCySs aim to both keep women in the cybersecurity workforce and support their advancement in the field.

Everything we do is about a cohort and community, so as they grow, their networks expand, she says, sharing a common WiCyS mantra that together we thrive.

Representation really does matter

Reema Moussa can attest to the importance of WiCyS bringing women into the field.

Moussa had set her sights on law school while an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she majored in global and international studies. She had thought about a law career focused on human rights, but an undergraduate internship with the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva turned her interests toward technology.

With that in mind, Moussa took a job as a cybersecurity awareness coordinator with her universitys CIO office when she returned to campus for her senior year.

That was my first real exposure to actual topics in cybersecurity and getting more of a real sense of what the field looks like and what the issues are, Moussa says, noting she worked in the department through her senior year and then a second year while earning a masters in technology management.

Now a student at USC Gould School of Law, Moussa is interested in the legal side of cybersecurity and data privacy.

Moussa came to WiCyS as a college senior in early 2020 while attending an RSA Conference session on career development for college students. There she heard a talk by Camille Stewart, an attorney and security executive at Google, who spoke about cybersecurity and diversity. Stewart encouraged Moussa to check out WiCyS.

WiCyS Reema Moussa, student, USC Gould School of Law and Founder and President, WiCyS UCSB Chapter

Buoyed by the experience, Moussa started a WiCyS chapter at her Santa Barbara campus.

But there was more; Moussa says she saw in Stewart an example of the possible career paths within the profession.

For me, representation really does matter, and as a woman and as a daughter of immigrants and a woman of color, as someone who has long felt that there is some sort of game that everyone knows the rules to and I dont, its important to see someone who looks like you and has this shared experience, she explains.

She says she found that first in Stewart and then at WiCyS.

The WiCyS community have given me amazing women and women of color [with whom] I can have candid conversations about what I need to learn, what are the things I should be aware of, she says. And WiCyS provides a place to know that there are women in this field doing amazing things, who can really inspire you to bring yourself to that level.
On February 25, 2022, two days after Russia began its military invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a rare Shields Up warning for U.S.-based organizations, stating: "Every organizationlarge and smallmust be prepared to respond to disruptive cyber activity."

The Shields Up warning is in direct response to increased Russian cyber aggression against Ukrainian and other targets in the region, including recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and malware attacks. In addition to the possibility of disruptive nation-state activities affecting U.S. targets, CISA also warned of an increase in cyber attack activity against U.S. organizations from Russia or hackers acting on Russia's behalf.

The need for this warning was amplified by recent events, including the hacking of over twenty U.S.-based natural gas companies by Russian Intelligence two weeks before the Russian Army invaded Ukraine. With the CISA warning, this recent evidence, and what we know from past attacks against Ukraine it would be irresponsible for organizations to ignore CISA's warning.

Download ExtraHop's guide to responding to CISA's Shields Up warning.

To help organizations prepare for a possible attack, it's important to first, understand the types of attacks organizations should be watching for.

Russian Cyber Attacks and What To Watch For:

Given the speed at which the war against Ukraine is progressing, in the immediate future, attacks are likely to be fast, hard-hitting, and focused on disruption and destruction. Here are some of the attacks to monitor closely.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

DDoS attacks aren't new or particularly sophisticated, but they're still effective at stopping work at government agencies and commercial enterprises in its tracks. Russia has used these attacks before. For example, in 2008, during the country's conflict with Georgia, Russia or another party closely affiliated with the Russian government launched DDoS attacks against the Georgian government and Georgian news agencies.

It's not surprising, then, that on February 15, 2022, DDoS attacks were launched against two of the largest Ukrainian banks as well as the Ukrainian military. More attacks are likely to follow. Targets could expand to include organizations outside of Ukraine.

Ransomware

While the Russian military effort will probably not include Ransomware attacks, the Russian government has unleashed Russian Criminal Cybercrime Enterprises to engage in unrestricted cybercrime activities, including the Conti Gang. The U.S. has already warned companies to be wary of increased ransomware attacks for two reasons. First, Russia might use them to cause trouble for Ukraine. Second, because of rising tensions with the West, the country might become more tolerant of hackers within its own borders. Ransomware gangs that, a year ago, would have feared prosecution by the Russian government might find themselves free to operate as they wish nowprovided they target organizations outside of Russia.

One reason why ransomware attacks are still effective: Too many companies are still using protocols such as RDP and SMBv1 that common ransomware variants rely on for traversing networks. For years, vendors and standards organizations have been urging companies to stop using these outdated protocols, some of which were designed without cybersecurity in mind.

For example, recognizing the protocol's glaring security shortcomings, Microsoft officially discontinued support for SMBv1 nine years ago. But according to a recent survey by ExtraHop, 68% of organizations were still running SMBv1, leaving themselves vulnerable to dangerous malware variants such as WannaCry and NotPetya.

Organizations should assume that if attackers find these protocols active on networks, they'll take advantage of them.

Russian Wiper Malware

Living up to its name, Russian wiper malware is designed to be destructive, wiping out data rather than encrypting it for ransom. Russia has been accused of wielding this kind of malware before, most famously in the NotPetya malware attacks of 2017, which, incidentally, targeted Ukrainian government agencies, news organizations, and utility companies.

Probably as part of an attempt to paralyze the Ukrainian response to its invasion, Russia unleashed a new wiper malware to attack Ukrainian government ministries and financial institutions in February. Fortunately, Microsoft detected the attack within three hours and worked on a response. They dubbed the malware "FoxBlade," updated Microsoft Defender to recognize the malware's signature, and coordinated responses with government agencies and other organizations to block the attack.

Organizations should be wary of similar wiper attacks against a broader range of targets.

Brute Force Attacks

Attackers use brute force attacks to gain credentials that can be used for exploring networks, exfiltrating data, and gaining access to critical systems. One common type of brute force attack is credential stuffing, in which attackers use scripts to automatically feed thousands of compromised username/password combinations into login fields. These attacks succeed a significant amount of the time because, all too often, people reuse email address/password combinations across multiple sites. Billions of compromised username/password combinations are available for little or no money on the dark web.

If a nation state or its affiliates wants to break into organizations, it makes sense for them to take advantage of brute force attacks. Organizations should assume that Russia might do so.

Phishing

As far back as 2018, CISA issued an alert warning that Russian government cyber actors were launching cyber attacks against U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure companies. Many of these attacks involved phishing email campaigns sent from compromised email accounts. These phishing attempts become more credible when they come from a compromised account of an organization's leader.

The goal of phishing attacksthen and nowis often to gain access to privileged accounts on applications and servers, which can then be used for exploring networks, gaining access to operational controls, and spreading malware.

Escalations Among Civilian Hackers

A new element in this war is gangs of volunteer hackers declaring loyalty to Ukraine or Russia and unleashing attacks on their preferred country's behalf. For Ukraine, these hackers are serving as a volunteer cyber army, guarding digital assets, and launching attacks against Russia. For Russia, these volunteers offer more manpower and perhaps some new techniques for waging cyberwar against Ukraine.

For organizations in the U.S., the addition of these volunteers increases the uncertainty of the cyber attacks that may follow. More actors and perhaps more varied attack strategies give security teams all the more reason to ensure their defenses are as strong as possible.

Implementing CISA's Shields Up Guidance to Prevent Cyber Attacks

All organizations, public and private should stay vigilant and prepare for possible intrusions. To do this, security and business leaders alike should review and heed the advice in CISA's Shields Up, which offers guidance to improve overall hygiene and defenses, detect and respond to potential intrusions, and maximize organizational resilience.

To break down the CISA Shields Up guidance further and help organizations understand what steps they should take to reenforce their security posture, ExtraHop has released A Practical Guide to Shields Up, a complete analysis of the Shields Up recommendations with detailed expert advice.

Download the report
In the world of cybercrime, there is not always much good news it seems. However, recently there have been some victories against ransomware criminals. These successes are collaborative efforts that effectively push back against the ransomware ecosystem, not just individual operators.

Cybercrime is big business with a vast network of players. The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model is part of it. This model features developers, operators, and affiliates. Developers are responsible for creating and updating the ransomware. Operators are responsible for running the business, including creating the affiliate program, making the ransomware available to affiliates, and managing rates and settlement payouts. Affiliates identify and attack high-value victims with ransomware, and after a victim pays, the operator pays the ransom money out to affiliates. In some cases, this process is automated with control panels to make payouts.

Although ransomware and RaaS are certainly not on the decline according to FortiGuard Labs threat research, collaboration and attribution are helping. When it comes to threat intelligence and research, finding people is the ultimate goal. Even getting other datasuch as discovering why a group is attacking or the vertical markets or infrastructure they're targetingcan help disrupt campaigns and activity and reduce the number of ransomware settlements paid out.

Partnerships that span across countries and vendors are helping to identify cybercrime syndicates. For example, the World Economic Forums Partnership Against Cybercrime is working to serve as a bridge between the digital expertise of the private sector and the global public sector organizations. Tracking down attackers and tactics makes it easier to know what to do about an attack. Attributing where funds are moving also helps, including crypto wallets and currency flows. And instead of focusing solely on operators, more investigations are going after affiliates, which sends the message that they are not immune from prosecution.

Examples Success Fighting Cybercrime

DOJ Action Against NetWalker Affiliates Leads to Jail Time

On January 27, the DOJ announced a coordinated international law enforcement action to disrupt a sophisticated form of ransomware known as NetWalker, which affected companies, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities. The NetWalker attacks specifically targeted the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the global crisis to extort victims.

A NetWalker affiliate Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins was arrested and, on January 31, subsequently was sentenced to seven years in jail and ordered to pay restitution to a number of organizations. Authorities in Bulgaria also seized a dark web hidden resource used by NetWalker ransomware affiliates to provide payment instructions and communicate with victims. This success is notable because it required cross-border coordination and focused on the affiliate.

DOJ Arrests Criminals Who Stole Cryptocurrency

On February 8, two individuals were arrested in New York City for conspiring to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin that were stolen from a virtual currency exchange and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Law enforcement has seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack so far. As this arrest shows, with due diligence and proper resources, even crypto blockchain can be traced. Although the criminals tried to obfuscate funds through multiple transactions and addresses, effectively laundering the money, they still were caught.

DOJ Charges in 2018 Leads to More Arrests in 2022

Back in 2018, the DOJ announced that it had unsealed a federal indictment charging 36 individuals for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization, an internet-based cybercriminal enterprise engaged in the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband. At the time, federal, state, local, and international law enforcement authorities arrested 13 defendants from the United States and six countries. And on January 24, the Russian news agency TASS announced that four members of the Infraud Organization were arrested in Russia.

REvil Ransomware Gang Members Arrested

In January, 14 members of the notorious REvil cybersecurity gang were arrested in Russia at the request of U.S. authorities. REvil was responsible for the Kaseya attack, and one of the hackers was also involved in the Colonial Pipeline incident.

Every Little Bit Helps

These DOJ successes don't mean ransomware is going away any time soon. Because cybercriminals are paying affiliates commissions to wage attacks, there's likely to be more diversification in cybercrime operations. When you think about all the elements that fall under cybercrime, like money laundering, all of those networks will expand and add to advanced persistent threats and threats from nation-state threat actors.

But here's some good news. The coordinated effort by global law enforcement agencies to dismantle the Emotet botnet led to a decline in activity. Emotet isn't completely dead, but the activity is well below what it once was and not nearly as rampant globally.

There are multiple ways to disrupt the cybercriminal ecosystem, and all of them can make a difference, in small amounts or collectively. Lowering ransomware activity means a reduced number of attacks, less lost data, and fewer ransomware settlements. Although it may be a long, slow, and frustrating process, detection, enforcement, and prosecution do have an impact.

Learn more about FortiGuard Labs threat research and the FortiGuard Security Subscriptions and Services portfolio.
Jeon Dong-seok, who plays both Jekyll and Hyde in the musical, "Jekyll & Hyde," performs in a recent show. Courtesy of OD Company



By Dong Sun-hwa



The world-famous number, "This is the Moment," may be the first thing that pops up into the minds of most people when they think about the musical version of "Jekyll & Hyde." But the theatrical show, which started its current run last year at the Charlotte Theater in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul, has much more to offer in terms of music and performance.



Based on Robert Lewis' 1886 novel, "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Jekyll & Hyde" premiered on Broadway in 1997, with Frank Wildhorn composing the music and Leslie Bricusse writing the lyrics. Since its arrival in Korea in 2004, "Jekyll & Hyde" has been one of the most beloved theatrical shows among Koreans, with an accumulated audience of more than 1.5 million.



The musical follows Dr. Henry Jekyll, a physician who tries to cure his father's mental illness by separating the "good" and "evil" aspects of human nature. After experimenting with his own body, Jekyll succeeds in splitting the two, but this experiment gives birth to his evil half, Edward Hyde, who devastates the city of London with his brutality.



"Jekyll & Hyde" is a thriller featuring the conflict between Jekyll and his darker side, but at the same time, it is a tragic love story involving Jekyll, his fiancee, Emma Carew, and prostitute Lucy Harris.



The clash between Jekyll and Hyde is most visible in "The Confrontation" in Act 2. Actor Jeon Dong-seok, who alternates the roles of Jekyll and Hyde with Park Eun-tae and Kai, transforms back and forth from good to evil in the song, singing about Jekyll's willingness to get rid of Hyde, as well as Hyde's determination to eat Jekyll away. Jeon plays the two contrasting characters flawlessly by employing different voices, tones, facial expressions and hairstyles, captivating audiences with his vivid depictions of both characters.





Haena, who plays Lucy Harris in the musical, "Jekyll & Hyde," performs in a recent show. Courtesy of OD Company



In addition to "The Confrontation" and "This is the Moment," he boasts his vocal prowess and stage presence in the powerful number, "The Transformation," and the sentimental, "In His Eyes," demonstrating why he is one of the most-sought-after musical actors in Korea.



Another attention-grabbing performer is Haena, a member of now-defunct K-pop girl group Matilda, who takes the role of Lucy Harris. Making her first appearance with the number, "Bring on the Men," the actress excels in singing about love and pain. She creates a unique harmony with Jeon for the song, "Dangerous Game," and also with Choi Soo-jin -- who performs Emma Carew -- for "Someone Like You," crooning about her love for Jekyll.



Although the last scenes of the musical, featuring the death of Jekyll, go by too quickly and leave theatergoers wondering how he suddenly succeeded in suppressing Hyde, "Jekyll & Hyde" still fascinates people until the end and asks thought-provoking questions such as: can good and evil ever be separated? Is evil more powerful than good in most people?



"Jekyll & Hyde" is scheduled to run until May 8 at the Charlotte Theater.
Oksana Smith / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

Welcome to the online version of Cannabis CT, a seven-day newsletter course Hearst Connecticut debuted earlier in 2022. Last year, Connecticut legalized cannabis for residents who are 21 and up. But 2022 is the year some key milestones arrive, including the opening of recreational stores in towns that will allow them.

Below you'll find links to all seven parts of the series, which covers everything from legal issues and plant genetics to what to expect at dispensaries.
Editors note: This is part seven of a seven-part series on what readers should know about adult-use, or recreational, cannabis in Connecticut.

As we mentioned in Day 1, growing cannabis plants at home wont be an option until July 2023  unless youre a medical patient who was allowed to get started in October 2021. Either way, the rules are the same.

Lets take a look, courtesy of Hearst Connecticut state government reporter Julia Bergman.

The basics

Medical patients ages 18 and older may grow up to three mature and three immature cannabis plants at home, with a cap of 12 total plants per household. The same rules will apply to all Connecticut adults 21 and older come July 1, 2023.

Plants must be grown indoors at your primary residence and cant be visible from the street or anywhere people under age 21 can access them.

Where do I get seeds?

You can buy seeds online, but perhaps the simplest way is to get them from someone who is already growing cannabis plants. Under Connecticuts law, youre allowed to give away cannabis as a gift.

Seed prices vary depending on the strain and quantity. A quick look online showed prices ranging from $25 to $1,000 depending on the strain.

Which kind of seeds should I get?

Traditional cannabis plants are either male, which produce seed pods, or female, which produce flowers that can be harvested.

If youre buying regular seeds, you have about a 50/50 chance of them being male or female.

Autoflowering feminized cannabis seeds are often recommended for first-time growers. These seeds produce plants that flower on their own and dont require any changes in lighting.

Autoflowers also take less time to grow and are compact, which makes them ideal for growing indoors in small spaces.

The downside? They produce fewer flowers and lower THC levels, Connecticut hemp farmer and Wepa Farms CEO/founder Luis Vega said.

Whats the difference between a mature and immature plant?

Mature plants are in the flowering state, which is when they produce THC, the psychoactive ingredient. Immature plants are in the vegetative state  the period of growth between germination and flowering.

Jordan Fenster / Hearst Connecticut Media Group

What about the lighting?

Plants should get 18 hours of light when theyre in their vegetative state and 12 hours of light when theyre flowering.

Joseph Raymond, founder and president of New England Craft Cannabis Alliance, recommended purchasing LED grow lights, which are more expensive but definitely worth it, as bad lighting can ruin the process.

What other equipment do I need?

Raymond and Vega recommend purchasing a specialized tent to keep a controlled environment. Raymond also suggested supplemental CO2.

Youll need a fan for air circulation. Raymond prefers a peat moss-based soil, or a coconut coir-based soil for hydroponic growing, in which specialized watering systems replace their natural counterparts, sun and rain.

Raymond said growers should water plants one to three days per week. Overwatering and not providing the soil with enough nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers are among the most common mistakes people make, said Kebra Smith-Bolden, a registered nurse and the CEO of Connecticuts CannaHealth.

How long does cannabis take to grow?

Indoor growing times vary but, on average, from seed to harvest it usually takes about three to four months  but this largely depends on lighting and the equipment used.

Growing autoflowering plants takes 8 to 10 weeks on average.

How much cannabis will I be able to harvest from my plants?

That depends on many factors, including the strain and how long you let your plant grow. Raymond and Vega said on average people should expect to get 2 to 4 ounces of pot per plant.

Thats it!

Thanks for going on this journey with us these past seven days. Wed love to hear your thoughts: Did you learn something new? Is there another related topic we should tackle? Would you be interested in a weekly cannabis newsletter?

Send us an email:

Mark Prokop: mprokop@hearstmediact.com



Lindsay Boyle: lindsay.boyle@hearstmediact.com

Thanks again for reading.

More from this series

Day 1 - A primer

Day 2 - How might I feel?

Day 3 - A trip to the dispensary

Day 4 - Inside the law

Day 5 - Inside the law, pt. 2

Day 6 - Medical marijuana

To read the latest stories about cannabis in Connecticut, visit ctinsider.com/cannabis.

To sign up for our newsletters, click here.

An important note: We aren't lawyers and whats written above and elsewhere in this series isn't legal advice  its our best interpretation based on analysis of the lengthy law and conversations with experts.

Recreational cannabis is a new area of law in Connecticut. If you have questions, talk to a lawyer.
For almost 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Roe v. Wade has protected an individuals fundamental right to decide whether or when to be pregnant. Generations of people  especially women  have ordered their lives around its protections. They have depended upon it for their autonomy, their equality, and the realization of their hopes and dreams. Study after study has shown Americans support Roe and the right to choose by overwhelming margins.

Today, that right is under threat as never before, and in ways many of us did not anticipate.

Last fall, the Supreme Court declined to block S.B. 8, the Texas abortion ban that deputizes private bounty hunters to sue, for ruinous statutory damages, any person or organization  physician, nurse, clinic, friend, even the Uber driver  who assists an individual in obtaining an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, the case challenging Mississippis criminal ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, made clear five Supreme Court justices are prepared to overturn Roe. The decision will be handed down this June.

Connecticut is in a better position than most states. Many states that have traditionally supported reproductive rights still have long-dormant antiabortion laws on their books. If Roe is overturned, these old bans will instantly spring back into effect. Luckily, in 1990, we in Connecticut passed Roe into statute and repealed our old abortion bans.

But we are not fully protected. Thats because reactionary legislatures across the country are passing a wave of radical legislation to ban not only nearly all abortions within their borders, but also to criminalize or burden reproductive healthcare provided in states that protect reproductive rights  states including Connecticut.

States have significant power to enforce their laws outside their borders, and antiabortion states have already shown that they will use that power to its maximum. Texass S.B. 8 and its copycats have no territorial limits. A similar Missouri bill expressly targets out-of-state clinics. Another Missouri bill would criminalize aiding in any abortion where the fetus may have been conceived by sexual intercourse in the state.

These laws will be used to target physicians, nurses, medical facilities, friends, family, or others who provide or assist others in obtaining reproductive healthcare that is legally protected here in Connecticut. Additionally, as people from states determined to deny reproductive rights seek care here, our health care infrastructure will likely need additional capacity.

The General Assemblys newly formed, 50-member-strong Reproductive Rights Caucus has mobilized to meet these challenges and developed a two-pronged agenda for this legislative session. First, we must take steps to ensure sufficient access to reproductive health care. Second, we must take measures to prevent other states from imposing their extremist laws here in Connecticut.

House Bill 5261 tackles the first challenge by updating Connecticuts Roe statute to reflect the current standard of care. It would allow us to join the 14 other states, including New York and Massachusetts, that have authorized certain advanced healthcare practitioners other than physicians to provide abortion-related care. The relevant physician licensing body, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, enthusiastically supports this measure to safely increase the number of providers who can provide abortion care.

Meanwhile, H.B. 5414 addresses out-of-state efforts to criminalize or impose civil liability for abortion care provided legally here in Connecticut. It would prohibit state agencies from assisting in out-of-state investigations or prosecutions of reproductive healthcare that is legal in Connecticut. It would protect medical privacy by preventing disclosure of health records or the enforcement of out-of-state subpoenas related to reproductive healthcare that is legal in our state. It would update our extradition statute to ensure Connecticut does not hand over our residents to other states seeking to prosecute them merely for obtaining, providing, or assisting others in obtaining care that is legal here.

Finally, it would create a clawback statute. This provision would allow any person sued under another states S.B. 8-style bounty law for legal reproductive health care here in Connecticut to sue their persecutor right back for reimbursement, plus legal fees, costs, and punitive damages.

These measures have all been assessed Constitutional by leading experts in the relevant legal fields. And they are purely defensive  they come into effect only if other states try to impose their laws on reproductive health care in our state. They expressly do not shield any conduct that would be illegal in Connecticut. They say to other states: put down your sword, and we will lay down our shield.

Unfortunately, recent history teaches that these laws will soon be necessary to protect Connecticut healthcare providers, medical facilities, and residents. And if we wait to act until after the Supreme Court overturns Roe in June, it may be too late.

Connecticut has a long history as a leader on reproductive rights. The times have called upon us again. We must pass the Reproductive Rights Caucuss agenda this session. And our state must continue to work to ensure all its residents can exercise their fundamental right to control their reproductive destinies.

State Rep. Matt Blumenthal (D-Stamford, Darien) and State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest (D-West Hartford) are the co-chairs of the Connecticut General Assemblys Reproductive Rights Caucus.
Anyone who drives on Connecticuts highways will readily note that sections of these highways are often named to honor heroic historical figures. Drive north to Middletown on Route 9 and as you enter the Harbor Park area, you will notice a sign saying Major General Maurice Rose Bridge. General Rose was the highest ranking American officer killed during World War II. He was part of Pattons 3rd Army. Patton called him my best commander. General Rose was born in Middletown.

A section of I-91 from the Meriden town line to Cromwell is named the Sgt. George Ross Dingwall Memorial Highway after the Higganum resident and Middletown policeman killed while pursuing a criminal in January 2000.

Certainly, most area residents have seen a sign in the New Britain area of Route 9 that reads Taras Shevchenko Expressway. Do you realize that this section of highway in Connecticut is the only one named for a person who never set foot in this state? Furthermore, it is the only highway in Connecticut that honors a Ukrainian.

Born on March 9, 1814, into serfdom in Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko was orphaned at age 12. Impressed by his immense artistic talent, his owner, a man named Engelhardt, sent him to St. Petersburg to develop that talent. Eventually, his considerable artistic and literary talent earned Shevchenko his emancipation from serfdom in 1838.

Shevchenko witnessed Russias exploitation and suppression of freedom in his homeland of Ukraine and campaigned publicly and openly in his writings for Ukrainian independence. Some of his poems openly satirized the family of Czar Nicholas I, who promptly sent Shevchenko to prison in 1848, where he suffered until his premature death one day after his 47th birthday on March 10, 1861.

Shevchenkos most famous poem is Katernya, (pronounced Katerina) the story of a young Ukrainian girl who is seduced by a Russian soldier. Katernya gives birth to a baby fathered by that Russian soldier and is ostracized by her village. Eventually, she commits suicide.

So impactful was Katernya that lines from Shevchenkos poem have been memorized by many generations of Ukrainian women to this day. Images of deceived and abandoned Ukrainian women who have suffered under Russian dominance became metaphors for the country of Ukraine itself being used and dominated by Russia. His most quoted line is, Fight on and you shall prevail!

These were inspiring words that still motivate Ukrainians. If you wish to understand the powerful passion that is driving the resistance in Ukraine today, look to the literature of Taras Shevchenko. His writings and paintings are the foundation of all Ukrainian literature and sure proof that the written word still can galvanize a nation.

So the next time you drive by the Shevchenko sign on Route 9 in Connecticut salute or blow a kiss to the memory of a man whose incredible personal courage in the face of Russian oppression still drives the amazing resolution and determination of the Ukrainian people to this day.

A resident of Higganum, Philip R. Devlin taught English, history and Latin at Haddam-Killingworth High School for 30 years.
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Across Connecticut, 157 schools lack critical onsite health services, and even more lack mental health supports, a legislative task force found. Lawmakers have filed a bill that calls for spending $21.8 million to address the problem.

But even under that proposal, more than 100 schools the working group identified as being in need of services could continue to go without.

Help cannot come soon enough amid a crisis in youths wellbeing, local school and health officials said.

The need increased during the pandemic, said Verna Ruffin, superintendent of Waterbury Public Schools, the community identified by the task force as having the greatest need. People are living it right now.

In recent months, hospital leaders in Connecticut have sounded alarm bells as their emergency departments have been overwhelmed with children in crisis during the pandemic.

An incredible mental health burden has been placed on children, the state Department of Public Healths commissioner, Dr. Manisha Juthani, said in late February.

But, relying on hospitals to treat childrens mental health is known to be less effective, and more costly, than getting them help before they reach a crisis stage.

Lawmakers and childrens health advocates have sought and proposed a variety of other measures to address the roots of the problem.

One area that has gained attention is to expand and bolster the states network of school-based health centers  onsite clinics at K-12 schools around Connecticut that provide mental and medical care for kids during school hours.

The centers are considered by many to be one of the most efficient ways to address youth health needs.

A legislative task force, led by the Department of Public Health with members spanning the health and education fields, began meeting late last year to study where to add more school-based mental health services.

The group, in a report released this week, said it found out of 999 schools statewide, roughly two-thirds lack such a health center.

However, among the 694 schools without a school-based health center, some need help in this area significantly more so than others, the group said, and they identified 157 schools that need help the most.

Of any town, Waterbury is home to the highest number of schools in need, but the 157 schools span the state between Danbury and Killingly.

The findings confirm what the states child advocate, Sarah Eagan, told lawmakers in November when she said the majority of school districts in Connecticut dont have school-based mental health.

Lawmakers this session are making earnest efforts to change that. Gov. Ned Lamont last month proposed spending $82.6 million in new funding to address the youth behavioral health crisis.

And amid dozens of proposals with competing priorities, at least one bill in the Senate has set aside $21.8 million for the Department of Public Health to expand the school-based health sites.

Increases in violent behavior

Ruffin, Waterburys superintendent, said after kids came back to in-person learning full-time in the 2021-2022 school year, educators noticed serious differences in students behavior.

We saw increases in violent behavior, she said. The interactions were more reactions than they were conversations. We saw evidence of mediation not working.

Ruffin said the district added more counselors in some schools, and the district noticed tremendous benefit for the kids as a result. Ruffin said its clear which Waterbury schools still need more support.

But the superintendent also said hiring people has been a huge challenge, and she said even if they are given additional funding from the state, she hasnt seen a solution for staffing new clinics.

The majority of Connecticut is in need of more mental health professionals, according to government estimates. One recent CDC-led survey found a third of Connecticut residents have symptoms of anxiety or depression.

Rep. Bill Petit, R-Plainville, agreed the availability of health care providers is the biggest challenge.

Petit, who is a physician and had his own private practice for many years, said legislators are looking at options to remove regulatory barriers that would allow professionals to practice across state lines more easily.

A mental health bill that House legislators are considering takes a few steps to ease the steps of becoming a professional in the field; for example, the legislation would make it easier to practice across state lines and makes obtaining a license smoother.

But Petit also said making sure people have access to mental health services close to home is key to preventing crises. School-based health centers are just one example, he said.

They're local, and they're convenient, and people are more likely to utilize them, Petit said.

The argument for school-based health

Connecticuts health commissioner last month said there is a shortage of inpatient beds in hospitals to treat kids in crisis. Lamonts proposed budget calls for $15 million to open a new 12-bed psychiatric unit at the Connecticut Childrens Medical Center to alleviate backlogs in emergency departments.

But, Melanie Bonjour, manager of the school-based health program at Connecticut Institute for Communities based in Danbury, said emergency departments are a poor substitute for mental health care for the states youths, both in terms of the outcome and the cost.

It's like a band-aid, she said. Its an extremely expensive band-aid, and it doesnt provide long-term care.

School-based health centers, though they are housed on-campus, arent typically operated by schools. Instead, outside organizations  usually a community health network  staffs and runs the program. Every child can use its services for free.

Bonjour, who is also a past president of the states Association of School Based Health Centers, said the model has been shown over decades of work to make kids healthier and safer.

Even if families seek out mental health care in their communities, its easy to fall out of sync and miss appointments, Bonjour said, and some cant afford to pay for the services. But in the school setting, counselors closeness to their patients helps keep students in the loop.

School-based health centers like the five run by Connecticut Institute for Communities accept Medicaid and are legally obligated to offer their services to every student, regardless of ability to pay.

One analysis of emergency department costs nationwide pegged the price of one visit at above $400 for adolescents and teenagers. The costs could increase if the patient is admitted. Running a school-based health center, meanwhile, can cost anywhere between $90,000 and $210,000, depending on what they offer, according to one estimate in the journal Public Health Reports.

Its an effective use of state dollars, Bonjour said.

The state Department of Public Health chips in roughly $125,000 to 90 school-based health centers in 27 communities, meaning the majority of centers must find ways to fund themselves.

Tricia Orozco, who directs East Hartford-based InterCommunity Health Cares school-based health program, said there are waitlists for the mental health providers at most of its seven school sites.

Of those seven clinics, Orozco said five receive partial state funding. The centers offer a full range of primary care for kids, she said, and the organization works to fill in other gaps  by providing a food pantry, for example.

Virtual visits have created flexibility, she said, but some students dont have access to technology. Even in recent weeks, the demand for help with kids behavioral health has continued to increase.

More funding from the state would enable InterCommunity, a nonprofit, to hire more staff and even expand its services to other schools in East Hartford, Orozco said.

We've established that theres a great demand for services, however in the absence of funding, how do school-based health centers hire more staff? she said. School-based health centers are frequently the only health care these students are receiving.

Proposals on the table

Connecticut is home to among the most school-based health centers per capita of any state already, according to the national School-Based Health Alliance, but advocates agree its still inadequate.

In the state Senate, the bill appropriating $21.8 million to school-based health centers directs funds to 36 schools that have no mental health services in any format, located in 11 towns. Seven of those schools are in New Britain, the most of any town.

Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, said the total amount would be split into roughly $590,000 for each of the 36 schools. He said the $21.8 million is a large portion of the budget and a healthy start.

Every community has a school, McCrory said. Why not use that facility that everybody is comfortable going to, whether its for health care or education, to get the services that they need.

McCrory said he would be open to adding more funding to more of the sites the legislative report identified in future sessions.

The Senate bill has the endorsement of the Connecticut Association of School Based Health Centers.

It is not the only proposal on the table that addresses the need for more mental health support in schools.

State representatives put forward a bill in the House of Representatives that calls for a detailed plan to be drafted to expand school-based health across Connecticut. Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, said funding school health centers will help to close the care loop that legislators are trying to address.

We continue the struggle in terms of getting to young people at the most appropriate time to get them help, he said.

House lawmakers still need to decide how much money to appropriate to the various proposals in the 103-page childrens mental health bill, Steinberg said. Later in the legislative session, House and Senate legislators will have to reconcile their proposals, leaving the question of how much school-based health centers will receive open-ended. Steinberg also noted there will be further efforts next year.

Need for state funding

The largest provider of school-based health in the state says it is already growing, even absent of additional state funding.

Community Health Center Inc., a nonprofit, operates more than half of the school-based health clinics in Connecticut, approaching 190 in total, according to an analysis by Hearst Connecticut Media. But only 17 clinics receive state dollars directly from the Department of Public Health.

Not all of the organizations clinics offer all three of the core services the centers could offer: Medical, mental health and dental. But Yvette Highsmith-Francis, vice president of the health networks eastern region, said the organization offers what the school believes it needs, and that almost always includes mental health services.

The organization told legislators recently it saw a 22% increase in the number of children it has treated in the last two years, both inside and outside of schools.

Highsmith-Francis said Community Health Center Inc. has developed a way to sustainably fund the centers without outside support by billing insurance plans and keeping services lightweight and focused on what kids need. In fact, it opens between 10 and 12 of the clinics every year.

Were not asking the school for additional resources, were not dependent on a grant from the state. Were able to respond to the needs of the community, she said. We've never said no to a community that has approached us.

Still, Highsmith-Francis said state aid is needed. She noted funding could help schools that lack the physical space to house a clinic. Others need to be updated to accommodate a medical suite, another common barrier to adding the service, so the organization is suggesting adding sites focused solely on students mental health.

The committee of experts also assigned each of the 157 schools a score based on how much a school-based health center could be needed. Charter schools in Hartford and Bridgeport, each run by the organization Achievement First, topped the list.

Tiffany Bostic, director of social work for the charter, said in a statement the organization supports efforts to increase funding for students in the highest-need communities, noting it would be game-changing in many ways.

Our students would greatly benefit from increased mental health support and programming, she said. They would also benefit academically because learning cant happen until a students basic needs are met.
Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin, left, and Samsung Welfare Foundation director Lee Seo-hyun / Courtesy of each company



By Anna J. Park



Samsung Group heiresses reportedly began selling part of their stakes in Samsung SDS to fund the payment of a huge inheritance tax. Investors are paying keen attention to the move by the bereaved family of late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee as the sell-off can put downward pressure on stock prices.



According to the financial industry, Morgan Stanley and KB Securities sold some 3 million shares of Samsung SDS as a block deal trade on Monday afternoon, after the closing of the day's regular trading session.



Market watchers presumed the stocks came from Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin, the eldest daughter of late tycoon, and Samsung Welfare Foundation director Lee Seo-hyun, his second daughter.



The combined 3.9 percent stake in Samsung SDS is known to have been sold at an 8.8 percent discount rate per share from the closing price of Monday.



Since October 2020 when the late chairman passed away, the two daughters signed a contract with KB Kookmin Bank, asking the financial company to take charge of selling their 3 million shares by April 25.



Due to the block deal, prices of Samsung SDS shares fell by 7.14 percent on Tuesday. Yet the price rose again by 2.69 percent at Wednesday's close, as the stock now faces a lighter burden from overhang issues.



Some 19.94 million shares  or a 0.33 percent stake in Samsung Electronics owned by Hong Ra-hee, the widow of the late tycoon  were also sold in a similar block deal on Wednesday after the closing of regular trading sessions.



The shares were sold at 68,000 won per share, which applied the discount rate of 2.4 percent from the previous trading session's closing price of 70,500 won. A few major global institutional investors are known to have purchased the stocks. With the block deal, Hong is estimated to have secured over 1.3 trillion won in liquidity.



The total amount of inheritance taxes imposed on the family members is estimated to be over 12 trillion won. And 11 trillion won of the tax is levied on the family for inheriting the late chairman's stocks in Samsung subsidiaries, ranging from Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life, Samsung C&T to Samsung SDS.



In December last year, Lee Seo-hyun also sold a 1.73 percent stake in Samsung Life, which is half of her 3.46 percent stake in the insurance affiliate.



As the family decided to pay the tax in installments over five years, market watchers expect more block deal sales to take place.


My wife, Kim Hoffman, spent nine years battling cancer. She spent her last months of life lobbying Connecticut lawmakers to let doctors aid her in dying.

Kim died Jan. 18 without the medication she needed to ease her suffering. I am committed to continuing her advocacy to make sure no one else endures the mental and physical anguish she did without compassionate alternatives.

Connecticuts legislature has considered medical-aid-in-dying legislation more than a dozen times since 1994. Kim was always a supporter, but over the past two years, as her condition worsened and standard medical treatment options were exhausted, she became far more focused.

In March 2021, just two weeks into a medical trial, Kim testified in support of aid-in-dying legislation. She waited more than 12 hours, well into the late evening, to be the 89th of 246 speakers at a Public Health Committee hearing. Legislators were captivated by her story and, despite the hour, engaged her with many questions, comments and well wishes for the trial.

The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee, but it failed to come to a vote there. Kim wanted to keep up the fight but was told there just wasnt time in the legislative calendar. Yet a few weeks later, in the final days of the session, members of the House had enough time to approve a bill making pizza the official state food. The bill didnt make it through the Senate, but Kim was infuriated.

The Legislature had time to consider commemorating pizza, she fumed, but no time to address the needs of dying constituents.

Just four months into the trial, Kims cancer was back, and she was running out of options. All last summer and into the fall, Kim was on a mission: to change enough minds on key legislative committees to get medical aid in dying approved before she died.

She reached out to a dozen lawmakers and advocates who opposed the legislation, appealing to them directly in emails and phone calls. In meetings and other exchanges, she convinced at least two members to change their position. With others, she wasnt so successful, but she was persistent and fearless.

In the last months of her life, Kims energy dwindled. She could no longer hike or even take a short walk. But she still spent precious time telling lawmakers her story in the desperate hope of getting their support; time we could have spent moving to another state where medical aid in dying is authorized; time she could have spent with family, with friends, with me.

Consider her fathers story. Kims father, Herb, was diagnosed with terminal cancer only a few months before Kim died. After her death, he moved to California to live with his son and just this month utilized medical aid in dying there.

Statistics in the states where medical aid in dying is the law show that most terminally ill people dont pursue the option. Of the people who do seek a prescription, a third never use it. What terminally ill people say again and again is that just having the option gives them peace of mind so that they dont have to fear dying in pain.

My wife asked again and again for lawmakers to give her that peace of mind, and she was devastated in her final days when it became clear that she would not get it. To Connecticut lawmakers, I say please dont put another terminally ill person through this agony. Kim deserved better.

Joy Cipollo lives in Glastonbury.
WESTPORT  Thomas Howard was no stranger to hiking, having spent decades climbing mountains and even hoping to climb the second highest peak on each continent.

His loved ones are now remembering him for his loving nature, as well as a lifelong adventurer and well-respected economist, according to his obituary.

Howard, 63 of Westport, was found dead last Friday after he was reported missing while hiking in New York.

The avid hiker had set out to hike on Mt. Colden in North Elba, N.Y., on March 11, expecting to return on March 13. He was reported missing on March 16 after he failed to return from his trip, New York State Police reported. He was found deceased by New York Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers partway up the Trap Dike on Mount Colden in the High Peaks Wilderness Area.

The DEC said later that the rangers discovered Howard under four feet of snow. There was also evidence suggesting an avalanche occurred at the site, however, officials said it is impossible to say for certain.

An investigation by the New York State Police into the cause of death is ongoing, the DEC said. The Howard family wishes to express their gratitude to the community and the searchers for their support. The family asks for privacy as they grieve the loss of their loved one.

He was described in his obituary as a loving and beloved husband, father, sibling and friend.

Howard was an accomplished mountaineer and hiker, according to his obituary. He was an avid track and cross country runner who aspired to climb the Seven Second Summits.

He spent more than 40 years climbing mountains around the world, including ascending Mt. McKinley in Alaska, Mt. Huascaran in Peru and Xixabangma Peak in the Himalayas. He hiked the 273-mile Long Trail in Vermont as well as the entirety of the more that 2,100 miles that make up the Appalachian Trail, spanning from Maine to Georgia.

In October 2021, Howard crossed the entire White Mountain Presidential Range and also scaled Mt. Kenya in the fall of 2021, according to his obituary.

Many will remember him for his deep morality, his thoughtfulness, his loving nature, his intellectual capacity, his generosity and his playful sense of humor, the obituary read.

On top of his love for adventure, Howard was an economist.

Born to Rufus and Martha Howard as the fourth of seven children, Howard went on to study math at Dartmouth College, where he completed an honors thesis exploring the equations and logic required to teach computers to talk.

He later went on to earn his doctorate in economics at Yale University, where he expanded on an interest in econometrics.

He was skilled in forecasting, econometrics, data analysis, and formulating options trading strategies, the obituary read.

Throughout his 40-plus year career, Howard worked as a computer programmer for the Pentagon, a macroeconomist for Fuji Bank, a consultant for Arthur D. Little and PIRA Energy as well as Louis Dreyfus, Statoil, and most recently the Department of Defense.

Howard is survived by his wife, Zhu Zhang Howard (Julie), and his daughters Gwendolyn and Madison Howard.

He is also survived by his six siblings Margaret Paar, James Elbert, Amy Howard Chase, Mary Howard, Martha Howard and Emily Howard, as well as many nieces and nephews.

serenity.bishop@hearstmediact.com
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Considered one of the top issues in the state Capitol this year, the childrens mental health crisis in Connecticut and elsewhere has spurred several proposals now under consideration by lawmakers.

Although the system needed improvements before the pandemic, experts say that health providers have seen a dramatic increase in kids seeking emergency psychiatric care over the last two years.

The number of children and teens waiting in emergency departments for inpatient psychiatric beds in Connecticut grew from 26 to 56 between Feb. 1 and 21, according to the Connecticut Hospital Association. An average of 38 children waited for care on any given day during that time  of those 38, an average of 31 were between 13 and 17 years old, and 7 were 12 years old or younger.

Legislators have hosted forums with behavioral health professionals, state officials and child experts to discuss how the childrens mental health crisis has led to overwhelmed pediatric emergency rooms. They also have examined what improvements to behavioral health services could be made in school districts and surrounding communities throughout the state.

During a hearing last month, Dr. Manisha Juthani, Connecticuts public health commissioner, echoed concerns about the need to improve accessibility in the behavioral health care system so families dont feel like emergency departments are their only choice.

In the last several months, we still do see problems, Juthani said. It is throughput from all the different areas of health care services and behavioral health that can be provided in the outpatient setting to try to prevent children from ending up in the emergency department.

Senators have raised two bills aimed at addressing childrens mental health in schools and across early childhood broadly. Legislators in the House have also floated a sprawling proposal that ties in funding and services across medical centers, educational facilities and the community.

Heres a look at whats in the measures.

Whats in Senate Bill 1?

Lawmakers in the Senate have divided their efforts on childrens mental health and other related issues into two proposals. Senate Bill 1, under consideration by the Education Committee, focuses on resources for children in schools, while the second proposal (Senate Bill 2) targets services across early childhood.

Senate Bill 1 features 23 different sections and covers a range of priorities. It would require the state Department of Education to send a survey to boards of education throughout Connecticut asking how many social workers and school psychologists there are in each district; whether those employees work for one or multiple schools; what geographic area they cover; and how many students they have worked with during the past five years. School boards would have to complete and return the survey. The information would be used to calculate the school-to-social worker and school-to-psychologist ratios.

The bill would create a grant program to help schools hire and retain social workers and psychologists. School officials must submit proposals for how they would spend the money (i.e., how many social workers and/or psychologists they would hire, what those employees would do, etc.). Priority would be given to districts with high student-to-social worker (or psychologist) ratios, or where there are high demands for mental health services.

The measure would also launch a task force to combat ableism, or the discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities. The group would find opportunities to educate students about disability and come up with ways to incorporate those teachings into social-emotional learning sessions.

The bill would allow pharmacists and providers who prescribe medication to dispense naloxone to school officials and provide training on how to use it. It would also give the education department the power to issue a human services permit to any applicant with a Bachelors degree in social work, psychology, sociology, human services or equivalent from an accredited university and who has a minimum of four years work experience (or one year of experience and two years of specialized schooling in the subject). The permits are good for three years and allow workers to provide mental health services in schools.

To read the entire bill, click here.

How much money is involved?

Some provisions of the bill have dollar figures attached. For example, the measure would set aside $60,000 for the education department to hire someone to administer the grant program, $30,000 for a worker who would oversee a new minority teacher scholarship initiative and $21.24 million for school-based health centers to expand mental health services. But other components of the legislation, including the grant program, still do not have funding estimates. The states non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis typically attaches a fiscal note to the bill later in the session that details all of the costs.

How does it differ from the other bills?

Though still a lengthy proposal, Senate Bill 1 centers on mental health efforts in schools, providing resources and training to school districts. Legislators say part of the reason the mental health priorities for children were split into three bills is because there were too many pieces for a single measure.

If we were to put all of the things that we need in one bill, it would be a 500-page bill, said Sen. Saud Anwar, an acting co-chair of the Public Health Committee. Thats the reason we have to separate out those components, to spread out the responsibilities and look at the opportunities.

Whats in Senate Bill 2?

Senate Bill 2 features 45 different sections, covering myriad issues. Included in the measure is a requirement that the state Department of Children and Families operate mobile crisis centers around the clock; a wage supplement grant for child care workers; and a mandate that the states Medicaid program, known as HUSKY, reimburse for services provided by social workers employed under psychologists and licensed clinical social workers.

It would create a special fund to address social determinants of mental health, the social factors  such as housing instability, a lack of access to healthy food, poor education, poverty, racial discrimination, unemployment and adverse early life experiences  that influence a persons mental health. Families dealing with these problems could apply for financial support. The fund would be overseen by DCF, which would set the criteria for dispersing the money.

The bill also includes an optional tax abatement for property taxes paid by child care centers, establishes a youth transitional housing fund, requires the Department of Social Services to study how child care employees can get assistance with their medical costs and forms a Childrens Health Behavioral Cabinet, which will recommend improvements in behavioral health policies and delivery.

Read the entire bill here.

How much money is involved?

Like Senate Bill 1, some components of this measure have funding attached, but there is not yet an overall fiscal note. The legislation proposes $20 million for emergency grants to child care centers, $6 million for mobile crisis response in 2023 and 2024, and $2 million for the social determinants of mental health fund in 2023 and 2024.

How does it differ from the other bills?

Senate Bill 2 addresses mental health and related issues across early childhood more broadly.

Whats in the House bill?

The lengthiest of the three large bills, the mental health proposal offered by lawmakers in the House of Representatives is 103 pages and comprises 73 different sections. It would allow license reciprocity for out-of-state mental health providers in order to expand the workforce; establishes an education loan forgiveness program for qualifying employees in the mental health field who serve children and teenagers; sets up a grant program for hiring and retaining children and adolescent psychiatrists; and sets aside money to increase staff in Intensive Outpatient and Partial Hospitalization programs.

The bill would create and fund a new position in the state education department dubbed the trauma coordinator to oversee best practices for teachers, administrators, coaches and other school staff. It also would mandate that schools adopt a trauma-informed truancy intervention model that considers the refusal of school due to mental health problems.

The proposal also requires individual and group health insurers to cover evidence-based services used to treat mental and behavioral health conditions in children and teenagers.

Read more about the bill here.

How much money is involved?

Like the other proposals, the House bill is awaiting a fiscal note with funding estimates. Few initiatives in the current draft include funding amounts. The bill does suggest putting aside $150,000 for the Department of Public Health for grant-in-aid to a childrens hospital that will coordinate a mental and behavioral health training and consultation program for pediatricians.

How does it differ from the Senate bills?

The House bill includes numerous priorities not outlined in either Senate bill, though there is some overlap. For example, both the House bill and Senate Bill 1 include a proposal for a grant program for school districts to hire and retain social workers and psychologists (the House bill notes that trauma specialists, behavioral technicians, and board certified behavioral analysts may also be hired with the grant funds).

Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, a key proponent, said some of the bills may be updated or amended before being voted out of committee. Senate Bill 1 and the House bill have not yet been voted on; Senate Bill 2 was voted out of committee earlier this month.

How likely are the bills to pass this year?

Legislative leaders and supporters have expressed confidence that all three bills will succeed, calling the issue one of their highest priorities this session.

Ive received many, many calls  many anguished calls  from parents and families sharing stories of the mental and emotional pressures they have been under since COVID burst on the scene two years ago, most [regarding] their children or their grandchildren, Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said at an event in February announcing the bills. We owe it to the next generation of Connecticut to make sure we respond to that by providing essential services for mental health, and especially for young people.

Anwar said the measures have broad backing.

We are really hopeful, because almost all the legislators who have passion and concern [for childrens mental health] have their fingerprints on these bills, he said. And we have done it collaboratively.

Theres an urgent and immediate need [to address] childrens behavioral health.

What has the feedback been like?The trio of bills drew a wide response, with hundreds of pieces of written testimony submitted and multiple public hearings held where people could testify virtually. Many groups and individuals spoke out in favor of the bills, while others raised questions or concerns about them. Some added suggestions for improvement.

Caroline Schweyer, a teacher in Shelton, wrote to legislators that students in her school have been struggling as a result of the pandemic.

We have seen an increase in behavioral issues in school due to unaddressed emotional needs, she wrote. There is not enough mental health staff in the school to sufficiently support all students. Access to social-emotional learning and mental health resources will ensure that students in my school receive the emotional support that they need to be able to focus in my math classroom!

Kathryn Scheinberg Meyer, an attorney who submitted testimony on behalf of the Center for Childrens Advocacy, said the children served by the organization face far too many barriers in accessing quality education and mental health services.

The result? Push-out, in its many forms, she said. For our older clients, this looks like disengagement, discipline, school-based arrests, or even coercion into withdrawal.  For our youngest children, push-out often looks like frequent phone calls home, requiring parents to leave jobs and scramble to pick their children up early because the school cannot or will not deal with the childs challenging behavior.

The timing could not be more critical to strengthen support for children, families, educators, and mental health providers alike.

Dilani Perera, chair of the Counselor Education Department at Fairfield University, recommended that lawmakers revise the House bill to include licensed professional counselors and certified school counselors as school mental health professionals and to pay the registration fee and preparation costs for those counselors.

Officials with the National Association of Social Workers Connecticut chapter asked legislators to provide more context, including the extent of the employee shortage in Connecticut.

There is a shortage of bilingual social workers and male social workers, but it is not clear to what degree there is a shortage of licensed social workers, wrote Stephen Wanczyk-Karp, the executive director. What there is a shortage of is adequate compensation, especially in the non-profit sector, which has led to difficulties in attracting licensed social workers for those employers who are unable to pay adequate salaries.

Theodore Lane, a teacher at Great Oaks Charter School in Bridgeport, said the lack of mental health resources is an obstacle teachers face every day.

I have noticed that students have a very hard time regulating how much they use their phones as an escape from stress since returning in person from quarantine, he said. Our school does not have adequate resources to support students in developing healthy coping mechanisms for when they are met with stress. This has without a doubt impacted the academic success of students in our building.

Access to more funding would help our students bridge mental health gaps created by and during the pandemic.
Alex Jones failed to show up for a deposition scheduled Wednesday morning in Austin, Texas, as part of proceedings in defamation lawsuits filed by the families of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

A Connecticut Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that a physicians note submitted only for the judges viewing did not provide enough evidence on its claim that Jones was confined to his home as a result of medical conditions making it impossible for him to sit for the scheduled, in-person deposition.

In her ruling, Judge Barbara Bellis questioned attorney Kevin Smith, representing Jones, over his clients doctors note suggesting he was confined to his home under a physicians supervision.

In a notice filed Wednesday morning, Smith confirmed his client conducted his broadcast during the Tuesday hearing, and that it took place at, Mr. Jones usual and customary studio in Austin, Texas, and clarified, the studio is not located in Mr. Jones home.

Attorneys representing the families said Jones defense counsel, Norman Pattis, arrived at the in-person questioning, scheduled for 9 a.m. local time, and told them Jones would not be showing up as a result of an unnamed medical condition  despite broadcasting his Infowars show from a studio outside his house the day before, according to his attorneys.

This, in our view, was a cowardly display intended to cheat the plaintiffs of their right to put him under oath and ask him questions about why over the course of many years he lied about them, attorney Christopher Mattei told reporters via Zoom.

Jones defense counsel said his, nonappearance comes upon the advice of a physician who arrived in Austin to visit him on March 20, 2022, according to a court filing.

The filings continue, stating that Jones, so alarmed the physician while being observed on Monday, that he insisted on conducting a physical examination and, immediately advised Mr. Jones to go to an emergency room or call 911.

Jones refused to call emergency services. After the episode, the physician advised him to stay home, which Mr. Jones did not do. The physician subsequently arranged for a comprehensive medical workup to be conducted for Mr. Jones on March 23, 2022.

Mattei said immediately after learning Jones, a controversial talk show host, would not be at the deposition Wednesday morning, the plaintiffs legal team asked a Connecticut court to direct Jones to appear at 9 a.m. Thursday. The court granted the request.

Pattis said in a statement that Jones missed the deposition because he was at a medical appointment. Pattis couldnt be reached for further comment but, according to Mattei, said he has, no indication that [Jones] is going to appear on Thursday.

The families legal team requested the court consider compelling Jones to appear for the deposition if he continues to defy court orders and dodge his appearance.

What we have requested is that if Mr. Jones does not comply with the courts order to appear tomorrow it should issue a capias, which is essentially the equivalent in a bench warrant that would authorize Mr. Jones arrest and production at a location to give sworn testimony, said Mattei.

The judge would only issue the capias if Jones does not attend the deposition Thursday or provide valid medical evidence of his conditions. If granted, the the order for Jones arrest would require assistance from a court in Texas.

The scheduling change represents the third date change for Jones deposition as attorneys for the families seek to question him for first time in the defamation lawsuits  frustrating an already painful process for their clients.

As the hearing took place Tuesday, Jones, a noted conspiracy-theorist radio and internet personality billing himself as a journalist, appeared to be broadcasting on his live daily show.

The issue of whether todays broadcast was from Mr. Jones studio or at his home can more easily be determined by Mr. Smith, who may have unknowingly misled the court into believe that Mr. Jones has been confining himself to his home, Bellis wrote in her order to deny the motion.

The court notice offered to provide Jones studio address if requested but would only ...do so under seal because his studio location has been subject of harassment in the past.

The deposition now scheduled for Thursday morning is part of proceedings as a result of two successful lawsuits brought against Jones by families of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, and one FBI agent who responded to the scene.

Jury selection for a trial to award damages is scheduled to begin in the middle of July.

In addition to the Connecticut defamation suits, families won three others filed in Texas. All five legal wins came by default after Jones refused to comply with court orders demanding documents and financial information.

Our families have suffered a great deal already, Mattei said Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Jones has been defaulted in this case because he has already submitted false information and incomplete information.

I cant say that we are shocked that he would try this desperate ploy, but they are determined, they are persistent, and they are going to keep going, he added.

CORRECTION: An original version of this article incorrectly referred to the type of proceedings occurring in the lawsuit. Jones has been ordered to give a deposition ahead of a jury trial to award damages in the case.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung speaks during a meeting of shareholders at the firm's headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group



By Yi Whan-woo



Shinhan Financial Group announced Thursday it will retire a part of its stocks worth 150 billion won ($123 million) in a bid to raise its stock value and return more benefits to its shareholders.



During a regular shareholders' meeting, the country's second-largest banking group said it will also continue to pay quarterly dividends. Shinhan started paying quarterly dividends last year, becoming the first financial holding company in the country to do so.



"The stock retirement, along with ongoing payments of the quarterly dividends, are among the efforts that show willingness of our company and management to enhance shareholder value," the group said in a statement delivered to The Korea Times. "And we believe our latest measures will send positive signals to the stock market."



The number of stocks planned for retirement are a little more than 3.77 million, which accounts for 0.75 percent of Shinhan Financial Group's entire shares.



The company explained the retirement does not mean a decline in its aggregate capital.



Regarding the quarterly dividends, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung said the firm posted a record net income in 2021 of 4.19 trillion won, over "improved business portfolios" and that it will seek to raise its dividend payout ratio.



"We will make the utmost efforts to develop more diverse and flexible policies," he said.



He described the group's performance last year as "a ceaseless challenge toward the future despite many obstacles." He referred to the firm's acceleration in building a digital platform and enhanced management under environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles.



Meanwhile, the shareholders approved the group's plan in newly appointing and extending tenures for eight of its 12 outside directors.



One of the eight, Kim Jo-seol, an economics professor at the Osaka University of Commerce, was named as an outside director for the next two years.



The remaining seven  Park An-soon, Byeon Yang-ho, Sung Jae-ho, Lee Yoon-jae, Huh Yong-hak, Yoon Jae-won and Jin Hyun-duk  required shareholders' confirmation to extend their terms for another year after serving their first year since 2021.



The group's largest shareholder, the National Pension Service (NPS), is believed to have thrown dissenting votes at sensitive proposals, including the appointment of outside directors.


A Connecticut man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire Thursday, according to federal court documents.

George Bratsenis, 73, of Monroe, appeared by video conference from a jail in New York where he is waiting for a sentencing on a Connecticut bank robbery, according to the Associated Press.

Political consultant Sean Caddle hired Bratsenis in April 2014 to kill longtime associate Michael Galdieri in exchange for thousands of dollars, according to court documents and the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Bratsenis, who has ties to Stamford, and a longtime associate from Philadelphia, Bomani Africa, went to Galdieris apartment in Jersey City and stabbed him to death in May 2014, according to court documents.

The two men then set fire to his apartment, documents show.

After the killing, Bratsenis was paid several thousand dollars in cash, court documents state.

According to the Associated Press, Bratsenis is a career criminal who has been convicted for drug, robbery and weapons offenses. He also pleaded guilty in the 1980s to murder conspiracy after plotting with a former Stamford police lieutenant and two other men to kill a reputed drug courier, the Associated Press reported.

Bratsenis conspiracy to commit murder for hire charge carries a maximum punishment of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced August 2.

Caddle pleaded guilty in January, as did Africa, who served time in a New Jersey prison with Bratsenis in the early 2000s, according to the Associated Press.
BRIDGEPORT - A local store manager is accused of forcing a 12-year-old girl to kiss him in exchange for a bag of chips.

Manuel Perez, 50, the manager of D&B Mini Market on Beechwood Avenue, was charged with risk of injury to a child. He was released after posting $15,000 bond.

Im sorry I dont speak English, said Perez when confronted with the allegations Thursday. He had no further comment.

Police said on March 8, officers were dispatched to Curiale School for a complaint of a sexual assault. When officers got there they met with the 12-year-old girl and her mother, who had just reported an assault to school security, police said.

Police said the girl told them she had stopped at D&B Mini Market on her way to school to buy some chips. The girl said she had gone up to the stores counter to pay for the chips when Perez grabbed her, pulled her to him and then forcefully kissed her on the lips, police said.

Police said the girl managed to pull away from Perez and backed to the rear of the store. Perez then told her she didnt have to pay for the chips and she left, police said.

Police said the girl texted her mother what happened a short time later.

The girl told officers Perez had been friendly to her in the past when she had come into the store and had once given her a hug and a kiss on the top of the head.

Police said when they later confronted Perez with the girls allegations he acknowledged that she had come into the store but denied doing anything inappropriate with her.

He stated he has a wife so why would he need to do that, according to the police report.

Perezs lawyer did not return calls for comment. Perez is scheduled to be in Superior Court on May 19.
What will it take to convince substitute teachers like me to return to the classroom?

Jobs have never been more available. Consider these emails, which arrived in my inbox in mid-December, near the peak of the Omicron onslaught:

From Marilyn Adelberg, the human resources director who oversees the substitute-teacher program in Greenwich.: URGENT REQUEST: Substitutes needed. Then, days later: WE HAVE 38 JOB OPENINGS THIS MORNING! PLEASE SIGN UP IF YOU ARE AVAILABLE TODAY!

By the week prior to Christmas break, the district was offering substitute teachers a $30-a-day bonus added to the $110 we normally earn, an extra $50 a day for those who agree to work an entire week.

Over the years Ive substituted in Greenwich public schools perhaps 20 times. Its among the nations most advantaged school districts, one that until COVID generally had little trouble attracting subs. I volunteered because my roots in education run deep. My wife worked as a speech pathologist in NorwalkPublic Schools for 36 years. Now in semi-retirement, I wanted to help out.

The additional money didnt sway me. Nor, I regret to say, has the districts clear need.

My reasoning is simple: As of March 22, there had been 2,227 positive COVID cases reported this school year among Greenwich students, faculty, administrators, staff and service providers (such as bus drivers). Teachers account for 191 of them, out of a full-time faculty that totals roughly 725. Im 72 years old. Vaccinated and boosted though I am, why would I place myself at such risk?

Im hardly alone. Think about who normally are substitutes, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told me. The cohort who has been most affected by this respiratory virus are people who are older.

This, when the need for subs has never been more acute. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, there are 600,000 fewer educators working in public schools today than there were just two years ago. Every state has struggled, Connecticut among them.

At Omicrons apex, in late January, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took substitute teacher training and worked for a day as a kindergarten teacher at Santa Fes Salazar Elementary School. Earlier, New Mexico State University researchers had reported that the state, at the start of the current school year, had 1,048 unfilled, full-time teacher positions, affecting 20,000 or more students.

Afterward, the governor called upon National Guard members to volunteer to work as subs at state public schools. About 100 did.

Yes, school is back in most American communities. But without enough substitutes to cover for absent teachers, this is what schools look and feel like to those who are there:

From Emily Turano, a seventh-grade consumer sciences teacher at Greenwichs Eastern Middle School. Since Omicron hit, she and her colleagues repeatedly have had to forego their prep period to cover for one another:

Teachers are becoming more run-down, said Turano, who took a sick day earlier this school year. It takes about as long to plan for a class lesson as to teach it. There have been times Ive spent an hour and a half preparing for a 45-minute class. If I now have to substitute during my (one) prep period, that means maybe the fun, fancy lesson I was planning for the next day is going to be a little bit less.

From Hilary Hohmeister, a fourth-grade teacher at the towns Hamilton Avenue School: Each grade used to have recess together, and out on the playground the teachers would discuss the material we were covering, the problems we were encountering. Now each class has recess separately, and its harder to have those discussions.

From Joanna Savino, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Eastern Middle School. She lunches with three or four educators in anothers classroom. They sit well apart: We use that time to decompress and share our feelings, she said. Some have family whove been sick. We have students who have had family members die. Teaching has always been stressful. But these are our conversations now.

Gov. Ned Lamont lifted the statewide, in-school mask mandate for teachers, administrators, staff and students Feb. 28. But anxiety among teachers and the spike in their absenteeism hasnt dissipated. Nor will it affect the willingness of substitutes like me to return.

The Greenwich Public Schools District already knows this. Around the time of the governors announcement, the jockeying among individual schools for potential subs ratcheted up another notch. One recent morning as the school bell was about to ring, I got a phone call from Greenwichs Central Middle School. A staff member asked if Id be willing to come in. The bonus pay arrangement, she said, had been extended through March.

Ron Berler is the author of Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of Americas 45,000 Failing Public Schools. This piece originally appeared in the New York Daily News.
As we age, long-term care needs threaten the financial stability we aim to achieve. To cover the exorbitant costs of care, many couples turn to Medicaid Title 19. However, Connecticuts Medicaid laws are long overdue for revision, failing to protect the financial welfare of the spouse who does not need care, referred to as the community spouse (who is more often a woman).

Fortunately, the state has an opportunity this legislative session to protect community spouses by supporting the Human Services Committees bipartisan effort in Senate Bill 195 (SB 195).

Under current Connecticut law, a community spouse is permitted to keep at least $27,480. This is known as the minimum community spouse protected amount. If the couples countable assets exceed $27,480, then the community spouse can keep one-half of the couples countable assets, but not more than $137,400. This amount is known as the maximum community spouse protected amount.

The current law disproportionately discriminates against lower- and middle-class families who are not permitted to protect the same amount of assets as upper middle-class families. SB 195 raises the minimum community spouse protected amount from $27,480 to $50,000, propelling the state forward in preventing impoverishment of the community spouse.

Here is an example of the discriminatory impact of the current law, in real life numbers: If a married individual in an upper middle-class family applies for Medicaid with $300,000 of countable assets, the Connecticut Department of Social Services determines the amount that the community spouse is permitted to keep by first dividing the couples assets in half. The community spouse is permitted to keep half of the couples assets  in this case, $150,000  capped at the maximum amount of $137,400. Because half of the couples assets exceed the maximum allowable amount, the community spouse keeps the maximum amount of $137,400. By comparison, if a married individual in a middle-class family applies for Medicaid with $120,000 of countable assets, the community spouse is permitted to keep half of the couples assets  in this case, $60,000. However, if the couple has $50,000, the community spouse is allowed to retain no more than $27,480. SB 195 would allow the couple with $50,000 to retain $50,000.

In these examples, the upper middle-class family receives far greater financial protections than a family of lesser means. Without financial protections in place, families are forced into a mad spending dash, purchasing furniture; renovating the home; purchasing prepaid funerals  in essence, throwing money out the window for the sake of expediting eligibility for vital supports and services. The same vital supports and services that upper middle-class families access with $137,400 of assets safely secured. This money is much better spent keeping the community spouse self-sufficient and in her home for a longer period of time. Its the difference between independence and dependence; between dignity and despondency.

AARP Connecticut and elder law attorneys across the state endorse SB 195, recognizing that $27,480 is insufficient to prevent impoverishment of the community spouse. The passage of SB 195 is an imperative and fiscally responsible step toward ensuring that the threat of long-term illness is no longer a nail in the coffin of financial stability for the community spouse.

Kathleen D. Hayes is an elder law attorney. Anna Doroghazi is policy and outreach director for AARP Connecticut.
Spring evokes images of ducks and chicks, rolling green hills and trees dotted with pink and white blooming flowers.

Ducks plus goats plus flowers and rolling hills? Sounds like farm life in Connecticut.

This spring, gather your flock and head to some local farms for fresh produce, bouquets of local flowers and plenty of quality time with goats, chickens, sheep and other classic farm animals.

Here are five Connecticut farms to visit and enjoy the best of spring.

Cheshire Hollow Farm Cheshire Cheshire Hollow Farm Camp only takes six campers per week during its summer sessions. The camp allows kids to explore farm life and hang out with animals. Courtesy of Cheshire Hollow Farm This farm operates year-round in Cheshire and offers farm tours and even summer camp sessions. The family farm tours can include up to 10 people at a time and last for about an hour. Attendees can hold, pet and feed farm animals, including horses, pygmy goats, pot-bellied pigs, bunnies, chickens, cows and more. The farm also has a party barn for birthday parties, which include wagon rides and chances to interact with the farm animals.

Bradley Mountain Farm Southington Bradley Mountain Farm is an activity destination, and hosts goat yoga, goat snuggles, goat strolls, farm camps, soap-making workshops and tours of the Bradley House. Courtesy of Bradley Mountain Farm Bradley Mountain Farm is just outside Hartford at the base of Bradley Mountain in Southington. According to its website, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. The 200-year-old farm was built by Ichabod Bradley in 1813. Courtesy of Bradley Mountain Farm Now, the farm is an activity destination, and hosts goat yoga, goat snuggles, goat strolls, farm camps, soap-making workshops and tours of the Bradley House. The farm also offers memberships, like the goat nanny memberships which allows adults to help socialize and train the farm goats. Theres also a farm explorers membership for children in which they can meet at the farm twice a week to learn about the care and management of farm animals.

Silvermans Farm Easton Silverman's Farm in Easton is open for apple picking. Autumn Driscoll / Hearst Connecticut Media Silvermans Farm is a 100-year-old orchard and animal farm in Easton. The animal farm will open on April 1 for the season, and families can visit with buffalo, llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, fallow deer, emus and long-horn cattle along with other animals. The farm also offers pick-your-own options for apples, blueberries and raspberry. Check with the Facebook page for information on when the pick-your-own fields will open for season.
gettyimagesbank



Shinhan Capital considers acquiring stake in Korbit



By Anna J. Park



Major financial groups in the country are actively seeking business opportunities in the crypto industry, expanding equity investments and also setting up joint ventures. Shinhan Financial Group, for instance, is trying to strengthen its blockchain portfolio, while its subsidiary, Shinhan Capital, mulls over investing in Korbit, one of four major cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea.



Yet the financial giant denied a market rumor that it would invest more than 50 billion won ($41 million) to become the cryptocurrency exchange's third-largest shareholder.



"It's true that Shinhan Capital's venture fund is currently examining whether to make an investment in Korbit, yet the exact amount of the investment hasn't yet been decided," an official from Shinhan Financial Group told The Korea Times.



The official explained that Shinhan Capital's venture fund has invested in various digital industries, including blockchain and NFT-related businesses. When considering that the total amount of investment assigned for the fund is 300 billion won, and that 180 billion won has already been invested, the actual amount of investment into Korbit will be less than half of what the market had anticipated, even if the deal is signed in the end.



"Even if the investment into Korbit is realized in the near future, it is still unknown whether Shinhan Capital will be taking old shares of the cryptocurrency exchange or joining in the issuance of new shares. As of now, the deal has yet to be disclosed in detail or even be signed," the official added.



While discussions are still going on regarding the detailed conditions of the investment, the partnership between Shinhan Bank and Korbit is one of the main reasons why Shinhan Capital is mulling over its possible investment in Korbit.



Shinhan Bank first agreed on a partnership with Korbit in January 2018, in which Shinhan Bank will provide a link between customers' banking accounts and the exchange's digital wallet. The partnership, which is renewed every six months for the renewal of the contract, has been extended so far.



Founded in 2013, Korbit is the country's first cryptocurrency exchange. It is currently one of Korea's four major coin exchanges, along with Upbit, Bithumb and Coinone. NXC, the holding company of gaming giant Nexon, acquired the exchange in 2017, and it is still the largest shareholder of the exchange, with a 64-percent of stake.



In January of this year, SK Square invested 60 billion won into the cryptocurrency exchange, stepping up as its second largest shareholder with a 33-percent stake. The corporate value of the exchange back then was estimated at around 283 billion won.



Financial groups actively engage in crypto business ventures



Other financial groups are also aiming to enter the country's burgeoning cryptocurrency market either in the form of equity investments or joint venture businesses. Market insiders explain that since cryptocurrency's legal status hasn't been fully established yet, the most stable way for traditional financial giants to advance into the market is by strengthening partnerships with blockchain companies.



Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank and NH NongHyup Bank have already established partnerships with blockchain firms in order to expand into the crypto custody services market.



KB Kookmin was the first traditional bank to enter into the market, jointly launching the Korea Digital Asset (KODA) venture in November 2020, along with Haechi Labs and Hashed. The bank also recently completed trial development of a multi-asset digital wallet based on Klaytn, Kakao's blockchain currency. KB Investment, KB Financial's other subsidiary, has also invested some 10 billion won in GOPAX, one of the key cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea last month.



Shinhan Bank also invested in Korea Digital Asset Trust (KDAC), a cryptocurrency asset firm, in January of 2021, following an MOU in October 2020. Shinhan Card is also the first local card company to introduce customized NFT services.



Woori Bank also set up a digital asset custody joint venture with Coinplug, a fintech firm, in July of last year, becoming the country's third major commercial bank to enter the digital asset custody market.



NH NongHyup Bank made a partnership with Cardo, a blockchain firm, in September last year, acquiring equity in the firm. The bank is also providing bank account linkages to two cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb and Coinone.


Local

On 2-year anniversary, ARHS sees COVID becoming like the flu

jeure / By Julian Eure/ Amy Underhill Underhill

Northeastern North Carolina quietly passed a milestone on Saturday: the second anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the region.

Albemarle Regional Health Services, the regional health agency that serves eight counties, reported on March 19, 2020 that a Pasquotank County man had contracted the then-relatively unknown respiratory illness after traveling outside the area.

Since then, more than 32,700 other lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the eight counties. ARHS officials note the figure doesnt include COVID cases detected by in-home tests, which started to grow in use by the end of 2021.

The respiratory illness has taken a toll over the past two years, affecting everything from public health and education to commerce and personal interactions.

But the most impactful toll has been on human life: Complications from COVID have been cited as the cause of death for 406 residents of the eight counties, including one over age 65 in Bertie County last week and two people ages 50-64  one in Bertie, the other in Chowan County  the week before that.

While the case counts and the death toll have garnered a lot of the attention over the past two years, the arrival of vaccines to fight COVID in early 2021 was also a major development.

According to ARHS, 115,000 residents have now received vaccinations against COVID thanks to what agency spokeswoman Amy Underhill called the largest vaccination campaign in ARHS history.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show all eight counties with fully vaccinated rates now above 50% for persons age 5 and older and two counties  Currituck and Camden  with rates above 60%.

One reason the two-year anniversary of the regions first confirmed COVID-19 case passed so quietly on Saturday is arguably because of the success of ARHS vaccination campaign and other COVID-mitigation efforts.

After the omicron variant caused another spike in new COVID cases at the end of 2021, the number of new infections reported in the eight counties has plummeted over the past month.

As of Monday, fewer than 231 countable new cases had been reported in the past seven days, according to CDC data. Pasquotank (97) and Currituck (82) combined for the bulk of the new cases. Two counties  Chowan and Perquimans  had fewer than 10 cases each.

Positivity rates  the percentage of COVID tests that come back positive  have also plummeted across the region. As of Saturday, Chowan had the highest positivity rate: 3.96%. Only Currituck (2.4%) had a rate above 2% and two counties  Camden and Hertford  had zero positivity rates, the CDC data show.

CDC data on Wednesday also showed no new COVID hospitalizations in the eight counties over a seven-day period. Sentara Albemarle Medical Centers dashboard also showed no COVID patients at the hospital as of Wednesday.

COVID cases at nursing homes also have dropped dramatically. As of Friday, ARHS was reporting only one remaining outbreak  15 staff and five resident cases at Three Rivers Health & Rehabilitation Center in Windsor.

To find out how the region was faring as the second anniversary of the first confirmed COVID case was approaching, The Daily Advance posed the following questions to ARHS last week. Underhills responses follow.

TDA: Do you have some general reaction to what the region has been through with COVID the past two years and where we are now? Have we beaten COVID?

Underhill: The COVID-19 landscape looks different today than it did two years ago. As with any new or emerging pathogen and especially in the beginning of a pandemic such as COVID, when we do not have medicines or vaccines, interventions such as distancing, handwashing, and masking are extremely important and our primary defense. Thankfully, with more treatment options and a vaccine that has proven to be extremely effective, we can change our approach and navigate this pandemic much differently today than we did two years ago.

ARHS has worked tirelessly to help meet the needs of our communities during the pandemic. We have had wonderful support from our communities and partner agencies. As tools became available and the impacts of the virus shifted, our response and strategies evolved to meet the needs across the region, and we have learned so much. We are optimistic that we are moving forward from the pandemic and will continue to adapt our response from crisis mode to disease management. ...

Lab confirmed new and active cases have been at or below baseline since mid-February and have been the lowest they have been since last summer. We are very encouraged by these trends and are hopeful that will continue. While we expect to continue to see COVID activity, we expect it will become more endemic like flu or other respiratory viruses.

TDA: We saw recently that two of the counties in ARHS public health district are the moderate zone for transmission, four are in the substantial zone and only two are still in the high zone. What does that say about where we are with the virus?

Underhill: According to the Centers for Disease Controls metrics as of yesterday, all of our counties are now classified as low community transmission.

TDA: We also noticed that Perquimans and Hertford now have reached the 50% threshold for persons 5 and older who are now fully vaccinated. How significant is that?

Underhill: Vaccines and boosters are widely available and help protect against severe illness, hospitalization, and death. The availability of the vaccine has been a true game changer and we are hopeful that the vaccine will be available for those 6 months to 4 years soon. Vaccines have always been a tried and true public health strategy and we are thankful for the technology and resources to get this vaccine out so efficiently. We continue to offer appointments for vaccines across the region and are continuing to educate our communities about the importance of vaccines and boosters.

TDA: What were the biggest challenges ARHS has faced over the past two years when it comes to confronting COVID-19? Was there anything about the virus that surprised you?

Underhill: One of the biggest challenges was ensuring that our community members had the most accurate and pertinent information on prevention and mitigation strategies in the onset of the pandemic and as the pandemic moved forward into the vaccine campaign making sure they were educated about the importance of the vaccine and the availability of it in the region.

TDA: Is there something that went more smoothly than you thought it would?

Underhill: While the pandemic presented numerous challenges, ARHS was extremely fortunate to have such amazing staff and partners willing to step up and go the extra mile to administer about 115,000 COVID vaccines  the largest vaccination campaign in ARHS history. Lessons learned will certainly impact our plans and future efforts but we could not be prouder of how ARHS and our emergency partners were represented at this time.

TDA: Even though new cases have fallen and the rate of transmission is lower, are there things about COVID or our reaction to it two years later that still concern you? Are there new variants we need to be concerned about?

Underhill: As with any virus and especially with an emerging pathogen as noted previously, shifts and drifts in the makeup of the virus are expected. The primary goal of any virus is to infect its host. When that gets harder, it learns how to adapt and we see new strains. Fortunately, the vaccine is proving to be helpful regardless of the strain that is presented. In addition, we will continue monitor all respiratory viruses and trends and use that data to educate the public on when it is necessary to take extra precautions to prevent spread of illness.

TDA: How has COVID changed public health in general and ARHS specifically over the past two years? Is the public more conscious about public health and protecting themselves?

Underhill: COVID has certainly given ARHS an opportunity to show our community the importance of public health and public health interventions. We believe the community has learned how important public health strategies are each and every day. People truly see the value now of handwashing, staying home when you are sick, and even how important both physical and mental health is each and every day. If we focus on these strategies we will positively impact the overall health of our communities.

TDA: ARHS has played a highly visible role in the community over the past two years. Do you see that role changing in any way now that cases have fallen?

Underhill: ARHS is certainly more visible in our communities because of the pandemic and this has given us an opportunity to educate so many about our programs and services, along with how public health ultimately impacts the health of our community. With this, we have broadened our relationships, creating additional partnerships that previously did not exist allowing us to connect our programs to new individuals, and our patients with new services.
Seen above is a screenshot of Korbit's metaverse platform, Korbit Town. Courtesy of Korbit



By Lee Min-hyung



Korea's cryptocurrency exchanges are seeking new business models in the emerging metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) markets.



The moves are part of their efforts to diversify revenue streams into untapped areas with high growth potential by taking advantage of their expertise in blockchain technology.



Major exchange operators such as Dunamu, Bithumb and Korbit have achieved eye-catching earnings growth in recent years on increased crypto-trading commission profits.



But the industry has been agile in finding its next cash cow due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. While the two emerging markets do not currently guarantee any immediate profits, the cryptocurrency exchanges are stepping up their competition to take the lead in the nascent business sectors.



Bithumb recently established its metaverse-focused subsidiary, Bithumb Meta, investing 17 billion won ($14 million). The subsidiary then launched its own metaverse platform through a partnership with Unity, a global software developer.



Bithumb aims to turn the affiliate into a company that operates a leading social metaverse platform here. It remains to be seen how the company differentiates itself from others at a time when a growing number of existing financial and tech firms, particularly in the areas of banking and games, are widening their investments to build their own virtual reality platforms.



Korbit, the nation's first cryptocurrency exchange, has also launched its own metaverse platform called Korbit Town. Korbit's strategy is to expand its metaverse influence by enhancing ties with its key shareholders such as NXC and SK Square. NXC is the holding firm of game developer Nexon, and holds a 65.2 percent stake in Korbit. The investment affiliate of SK Group is the second-largest shareholder of the crypto exchange.



Korbit plans to build a unique metaverse platform by using Nexon's intellectual property in games and SK's IT expertise.



Dunamu, the operator of Korea's largest crypto exchange, Upbit, is also scheduled to launch an NFT marketplace with HYBE this year in the United States. The platform will allow users to buy and sell digital products featuring HYBE's star-studded acts including BTS. Dunamu also operates its own metaverse platform, 2nd Block, featuring a video chat function.



Industry officials said competition will continue heating up in the NFT and metaverse markets, as crypto exchanges as well as existing tech-savvy companies identify the sectors as their next fresh revenue sources.



"Crypto exchanges have no choice but to tap into such businesses powered by blockchain technology, as part of efforts to reduce their heavy reliance on commission revenues," one industry source said. "Even if they achieved unmatched earnings growth last year on the global crypto investment boom, it is hard to say this will last for a long period of time."



As the crypto industry has not yet been institutionalized, exchange operators also understand the inherent uncertainty of the market, so they are more willing than other industry players to invest in NFTs and the metaverse, according to the source.



But investors are advised to pay careful attention when investing in metaverse platforms and NFTs and take multiple factors into consideration.



"Many conglomerates and their subsidiaries are also jumping on the bandwagon by building their own metaverse platforms and issuing NFTs," the source said. "Even if the markets have massive growth potential, they have not been widely recognized as authorized investment areas, which means they carry inherent risk. Some people, particularly in the younger age groups, even engage in a buying spree of NFTs on hopes that their valuation will surge, just as cryptocurrencies have been doing in recent years. But this is a very risky investment pattern at a time when financial authorities do not have specific legal guidelines to protect investors' rights in the digital asset market."


Independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun's family photo taken in October 1909 / Courtesy of Samsung Foundation of Culture



By Park Han-sol



Oct. 26, 1909, a year before Korea was annexed by the Japanese Empire, is remembered by Koreans as a day when independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun (1879-1910) pulled the trigger on Ito Hirobumi, a four-time prime minister of Japan and the first resident-general of Korea, upon his arrival in China's Harbin.



After the assassination, Ahn was arrested on the spot and sent to Lushun Prison, where he spent the final days of his life before being sentenced to death the following year.



This year, the three historic artifacts attesting to Ahn's time spent in prison  one family photo and two of his calligraphic works  will undergo a year-long conservation treatment by the Samsung Foundation of Culture.



The Leeum Museum of Art, operated by the foundation, will conduct the process and transfer them back to the original owner, Ahn Junggeun Memorial Association, in March next year. This is the first time the foundation has been involved in the preservation of independence movement-related cultural artifacts.



A faded black-and-white photo of Ahn's wife, Kim A-ryeo, and his two young sons kept in a silk album was the last remnant of family life for the imprisoned activist.



He never had a chance to reunite with his family after the Harbin incident, for Kim and her two children arrived in the city a day after the shooting, when he had already been taken into custody.



According to the foundation, the photo in question was taken by the Japanese police, who became suspicious of the three Koreans clad in hanbok (Korean traditional dress) roaming around the Chinese city and brought them to the Consulate General of Japan for questioning.



It is presumed to have been given to Ahn later by Sonoki Tsueyoshi, his acting interpreter, following his trial when he received a death sentence. After Ahn's passing, Sonoki kept the item for years before his daughter donated it to an anonymous Japanese collector. In 2020, the photo album was able to return to Korean soil.





Ahn Jung-geun's calligraphic works produced during his time in Lushun Prison / Courtesy of Samsung Foundation of Culture
Michele Chin-King prepares hot lunch two days a week and serves each meal with a smile at Learning Tree Elementary School, said Principal Twila Brown. Even in the summer, she will come and work in the library to get it ready for the school year.
Memphis, TN (38152)

Today

Thunderstorms, accompanied by locally heavy rainfall at times. A few storms may be severe. High near 80F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Barbara Faye Boyles, 75, of Raceland, Kentucky passed away Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at her residence. Barbara was born August 1, 1946, in Load, Kentucky a daughter of the late Homer and Gladys Johnson Boyles. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by one nephew Robert Boyles. Bar
There are, to my mind, few more beautiful places in Britain than the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Its not the grandest of Cambridge chapels. But with its patterned floor and vaulted ceiling, its polished pews and William Morris windows, it is somehow perfect  not just as a monument to the glory of God, but as a place of serenity, a refuge from the shouting of the modern world.

Its more than 20 years since my days at Jesus, where I studied for my doctorate. I cant claim to have been a dedicated chapel-goer, but I always found it the ideal place to clear my mind, alone with the ghosts of centuries past.

Never would I have imagined that the chapel would become the front line in the struggle against the woke fanatics trying to remake Britain in their own image  a battle decided yesterday with a scathing verdict from an ecclesiastical court.

Nor would I have imagined the villains of the story would be the people running my college, caught trying to twist its history in pursuit of their ideological crusade.

Controversial: Jesus College (file photo pictured above) at the University of Cambridge wanted to remove a memorial to Tobias Rustat

Its an extraordinary story, capturing so many aspects of the woke revolution  its profligacy, its hypocrisy, its indifference to nuance and its contempt for truth. But its also a story about a remarkable man, betrayed by the very people who have benefited from his generosity.

Born in 1608 to a former Jesus student, Tobias Rustat was an ardent Royalist during the Civil War and widely admired for his duty, fidelity and loyalty to his King.

Rustat made a lot of money from all sorts of investments. But he was also a dedicated philanthropist, who gave thousands of pounds  the equivalent of millions today  to the poor, the sick, widows and orphans, as well as to his fathers old college.

Rustats donation to Jesus College transformed its fortunes, and his name has been revered for centuries. In my student days, there was a portrait of him in the Senior Common Room. There was a Rustat Feast, and a Rustat scholarship. There were even annual Rustat conferences, in recognition of his role in the colleges history.

But all have since been renamed, because of Rustats links with slavery.

That story began in 1663, when Rustat bought a 1 per cent stake in a company which seems to have traded slaves and minerals out of West Africa. The business collapsed and he lost almost all his investment. But when it restarted as the Royal African Company, shipping thousands of slaves, he invested once again, and this time made a profit.

Of course, it all seems abhorrent today. But at the time, when the abolition movement was virtually non-existent, such investments were common  the equivalent, perhaps, of modern investments in fossil fuel firms, which our successors may not judge kindly.

Two other points about Rustat. First, less than 2 per cent of his fortune was connected with the slave trade. Second, not a penny of the Cambridge money had anything to do with slavery. In fact, he only invested in the Royal African Company after his donation.

The memorial to Tobias Rustat. Born in 1608 to a former Jesus student, Rustat was an ardent Royalist during the Civil War and widely admired for his duty, fidelity and loyalty to his King

None of this, however, could save him when the Black Lives Matter protests broke out. For the college authorities  notably the Master, Sonita Alleyne, a former media executive  Rustat had to go. They wanted to parade their virtue, and he was the perfect scapegoat.

Renaming the scholarships and conferences was easy. The problem was the Chapel.

For high on the west wall is a marble memorial to the colleges most famous benefactor, carved by Grinling Gibbons. It remembers Rustat for his charitable gifts, but the College wanted rid of it.

Theyd probably have done it, too, if it hadnt been for 65 alumni, who fought the case to a hearing of the Consistory Court of the Church of Englands diocese of Ely.

As the alumni rightly argued, the college had distorted the story. As one old Jesuan told the Mail, tearing out the memorial would be a vindictive gesture by an institution that has lost its way.

The irony, is that Jesus is happy to take money from the Chinese Communist Party, an organisation that has herded hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims into concentration camps. Jesus has taken 200,000 from the Chinese state and 155,000 from state-backed telecoms firm Huawei. So much, then, for the colleges principles!

This story encapsulates the hypocrisy of the woke movement. The college claimed Rustats money was tainted by slavery, but it wasnt. They claimed his memorial was causing students harm, but it wasnt. They claimed they wanted an honest debate about history, but they didnt. And they claimed they care about the victims of oppression, but they dont.

An employee looks toward the memorial to Rustat displayed inside Jesus College Chapel at Cambridge University. It remembers Rustat for his charitable gifts, but the College wanted rid of it, writes Dominic Sandbrook (file photo)

One of the witnesses at the hearing was the Oxford historian Professor Lawrence Goldman, an old tutor of mine. As he told the court, the attempt to cancel Rustat was an assault on the colleges history. He was withering about the colleges attempt to judge the past by the standards of the present, which ran counter to the principles of historical scholarship.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the judge noted, there was no real cross-examination of Professor Goldman. For in his understated way, he had exposed the illiteracy and mendacity of Jesuss case for all the world to see.

Equally unsurprisingly, the verdict of the judge, the Worshipful David Hodge QC, makes for blistering reading. At the core of Christianity, as he points out, is the principle of forgiveness. Such forgiveness, he writes, encompasses the whole of humankind, past and present, for we are all sinners; and it extends even to slave traders.

But to this principle the Jesus College authorities were blind. Not only were they content to vandalise their own building and to misrepresent their own history, they were happy to stamp on a central idea of Christianity itself, as long as they could preen themselves on their own righteousness.

The extraordinary thing is that the Archbishop of Canterbury supported them. Why is it such agony, asked Justin Welby last month, to remove a memorial to slavery?

But as the judge points out, it was never a memorial to slavery, but one to philanthropy. So either Welby was being deliberately dishonest, or he was being stupid. Hes either a liar or a fool. Im not qualified to say which.

The extraordinary thing is that the Archbishop of Canterbury (file photo above) supported them. Why is it such agony, asked Justin Welby last month, to remove a memorial to slavery?

For Jesus College the case has been an embarrassment. The colleges leadership have wasted tens of thousands of pounds in a case they deserved to lose  money that could have been spent on scholarships for working-class students.

In their arrogance, they have besmirched the name of my old college, and betrayed the legacy of generations. Theyre a disgrace to the values of a great institution. They should go, and go now.

But theres a wider point. For too long our educational and cultural institutions have grovelled at the feet of the woke movement.

Theyve torn down statues, taken names off buildings, told bare-faced lies about our history and filled our museums with self-righteous captions wittering about Britains supposed crimes and misdemeanours. And to be frank, weve let them get away with it.

All the time the woke bandwagon rolls on. Only yesterday it emerged that Lambeth Council wants to rename Tulse Hill, in South London, because the 17th-century merchant Sir Henry Tulse invested in the slave trade.

And as if thats not mad enough, the council also wants to encourage conversations about streets named after Horatio Nelson, because of his involvement in defence/military actions. Well, what do they expect from an admiral in the Royal Navy?

So while I take my hat off to the alumni and academics who fought my old college and won, I also hope theyll serve as an inspiration for others in the struggles ahead.

The battle of Jesus College Chapel may have been won. But the wider war continues. We can stop these people, and we must. All it takes is the will to do it.
When the demonic despot Joseph Stalin suffered a severe stroke at his country estate outside Moscow in March 1953, his four closest cronies rushed to the scene.

None of them, all candidates to succeed the dictator as leader of the Soviet Union, wanted to see Stalin live. But all were afraid of what might happen if he died.

Eventually, the secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria spoke up: Why are you in such a panic? Cant you see, Comrade Stalin is sleeping soundly. Dont disturb him!

No doctor was summoned for hours. Stalin kept sinking and died a few days later.

With a similar miasma of indecision gripping Vladimir Putins inner circle today, his regime looks under serious threat for the first time since he came to power in 2000.

Mikhail Mizintsev, Director of the Russian National Defence Management Centre, left, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, and President Vladimir Putin view an exhibition of military technology ahead of an extended meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board in the National Defence Management Centre in Moscow

The war in Ukraine has turned into a disaster and everyone is looking for other people to blame. Anyone can be denounced as a warmonger or a traitor, or even both.

Naturally, the seething atmosphere of mistrust is being stoked by intelligence services both in Ukraine and the West.

The counter-intelligence campaigns are aimed in particular at the FSB, the successor to the KGB, which is the keystone of Putins government.

Senior FSB officers are ruthless, highly competent opportunists. They do not support the war out of patriotic mania, or because they subscribe to Putins bare-chested cult of personality.

Anatoly Bolyukh, deputy head of the 5th Service of the Federal Security Service, head of the operational information department

Like the rest of Putins henchmen, they are motivated by greed and their aim is personal power.

They want to make lots of money and spend it on properties in London and the Med, or on sending their children to Western schools.

Currently, sanctions make that very difficult. As a result, they are getting worried  nobody in the FSB wants Russia to become the European equivalent of North Korea.

But I do not believe theres an FSB coup brewing, at least not yet. Russians know their own history and they understand that regime change only happens when the secret police, the military and the politicians all act together  as they did in 1991 when president Mikhail Gorbachev was overthrown.

But Putin has been picking off key figures in all three of these poles of power. First to hear the knock on the door was Colonel General Sergey Beseda, head of the foreign intelligence branch of the FSB, who was arrested two weeks ago, along with his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh, on suspicion of embezzling money from the slush fund meant for bribing foreign officials.

Sergey Orestovich Beseda, 68, a Russian politician and government agent who is the head of the 5th Service of the Federal Security Service, since 2009, and is a Colonel General

But his real crime might have been to encourage Putins belief that Ukrainians were eager for regime change and the Russian invaders would be welcomed by flag-waving crowds bearing bouquets of flowers.

Next for the chop was Roman Gavrilov, the deputy head of the National Guard, who stands accused of leaking classified information to the West and squandering fuel.

The truth is Putin is furious because many young soldiers in the National Guard, a paramilitary force whose peacetime role was to quell protests in Russian cities, are protesting themselves. In Ukraine, they feel they are being treated as cannon fodder.

Gavrilovs arrest allegedly brings the total number of generals sidelined over the bungled invasion to nine. Politicians have not been spared either, with two of Putins closest associates joining the missing list.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has not been seen in public for more than 12 days amid rumours of heart problems.

Many suspect this is a diplomatic ruse and that the truth is that Shoigu has fallen foul of Putins rampant paranoia after his youngest daughter Ksenia, 31, posted a photo on social media, posing with her baby in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.

Then there is Anatoly Chubais, widely seen as the man who talent-spotted Putin in the 1990s and launched his political career.

Anatoly Chubais, special representative of Russian President for relations with international organizations to achieve sustainable development goals, attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

Chubais was rewarded with a series of lucrative sinecures but on Wednesday he enraged his protege by resigning in protest at the war and fleeing to Turkey.

Never since the collapse of the Soviet Union has there been such fervid rumour and counter-rumour in the Kremlin. A circular firing squad is forming, with everyone pointing their guns at each other.

And when conscripts start returning from the Ukraine front, bringing with them horror stories of the war, the political temperature will only rise.

Right now, most ordinary people in Russia believe the state TV version, that a successful military operation is underway to oust a neo-Nazi cabal in Kyiv and prevent ethnic cleansing or even nuclear genocide against Russians in Ukraine.

When that lie is exposed, the people might start to turn against the man at the top. How his cronies respond to that will determine Putins fate.

Mark Galeotti is honorary professor at the University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies and author of We Need To Talk About Putin
Regency romp Bridgerton is set to return to screens this week, with fans set to be treated to not one but two new leading ladies in the steamy drama.

Sex Education's Simone Ashley, 25, plays Kate Sharma, the elder sister of Anthony Bridgerton's intended high society bride Edwina, and has already had her fair share of raunchy scenes in her first Netflix hit drama.

In Bridgerton, she vows to prevent her only sister from marrying Anthony - but ultimately falls in love with the bachelor herself.

Her younger sister is played by fellow newcomer to the series Charithra Chandran, 25, who graduated with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and in 2019 secured a job at a top management consultancy firm in London.

In the novel by Julia Quinn which season two is based on, The Viscount Who Loved Me, the sisters are called Kate and Edwina Sheffield, who grew up in the countryside of England.

In the show, they grew up in India - which was the case the time for many children of British officials working abroad with the East India Company.

Here FEMAIL reveals everything you need to know about the actresses who are set to play the sexiest sisters on TV in the regency romp...

Regency romp Bridgerton is set to return to screens this week, with fans set to be treated to not one but two new leading ladies in the steamy drama: Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran both, 25,

(pictured left) Simone Ashley, 25, plays Kate Sharma, the elder sister of Anthony Bridgerton's intended high society bride Edwina, played by Charithra Chandran, 25, (right). She vows to prevent her only sister from marrying him - but ultimately falls in love with the bachelor herself.

SIMONE ASHLEY: STAR OF SEX EDUCATION (AND NO STRANGER TO A SEX SCENE)

Simone developed her acting skills at the ArtsEd School in Chiswick and has since starred in The Sister and Broadchurch.

She takes over as the leading lady from Phoebe Dynevor whose relationship with the Duke electrified season one, but luckily Simone is no stranger to kinky sex scenes, having starred in the saucy Netflix series Sex Education as Olivia.

During one particularly heated moment, Simone climbs on top of her boyfriend Malik, played by Armin Karima, while wearing full Indian dress and covers his face with a pillow during an orgasm.

She admits that having grown up in a 'household full of Indian academics', her 'incredibly protective' parents were not initially keen about her pursuing a creative career, telling Veylex that she's found it 'stifling at times.

Simone is no stranger to kinky sex scenes, having starred in the saucy Netflix series Sex Education as Olivia

Simone plays one of the leading roles in the second series as new girl in town Kate - a 'headstrong young woman who suffers no fools'

In a scene from Sex Education, Simone's character and her boyfriend put Sellotape on their faces to see each other 'ath their ugliest' when they have sex

'It made me want to escape and do things my own way. Ive always been a bit rebellious in that sense,' she said.

Based on Julia Quinn's romance novels, the sophomore season of the regency drama will follow the plot of Quinn's second Bridgerton book, The Viscount Who Loved Me.

Simone plays new girl in town Kate - a 'headstrong young woman who suffers no fools'.

Kate has no intention of allowing Anthony anywhere near her sister Edwina and vows to disrupt their courtship - but in the process manages to unintentionally lands herself in close proximity to Anthony himself.

Her encounters with the bachelor leave her feeling hot under the collar, while Anthony struggles to reconcile his feelings for his future sister-in-law.

Anthony and Kate's storyline is set to replace the main love story of season 1, which featured Phoebe Dynevor's portrayal of Daphne Bridgerton, wooed by the Duke of Hastings.

The actress trying out a racy party game as Olivia in the hit Netflix show Sex Education

The 25-year-old actress, who has previously starred in Sex Education, will play Kate Sharma - whose surname has been changed to reflect her casting

The character's name has been altered to reflect Simone's South-Asian background, changed from Kate Sheffield.

Simone has plenty of experience acting in saucy scenes, having portrayed Olivia in kinky Sex Education.

One episode sees the character climbing on top of her boyfriend to have sex with him while wearing full Indian dress while her mother sips cups of tea downstairs.

Fearing she makes an ugly face whenever she has an orgasm, she covers his face with a pillow, causing Malek to believe that she has a fetish which freaks him out.

She is later seen putting tape onto Malek's face to make him uglier during sex so she feels at ease.

Simone has said there is 'a lot of sexual tension' in season two of Bridgerton which is why she will not be watching it with her parents.

The star posed for a sensational photoshoot for NET-A-PORTER's digital magazine PORTER and in the accompanying interview, she said: 'The second season is much grittier. Theres a lot of drama and a lot of sexual tension. My parents will be watching it  but not with me!'

While there are several prominent South Asian figures within the Regency period, it appears highly unlikely many would have been able to move seamlessly through high society in the way that characters do in Bridgerton.

CHARITHRA CHANDRAN: THE OXFORD GRADUATE WHO DITCHED CORPORATE CAREER FOR DREAMS

She's landed a coveted role in season two of Netflix's Bridgerton - yet Charithra Chandran didn't always believe she was set out for stardom.

The British actress, 25, graduated with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and in 2019 secured a job at a top management consultancy firm in London.

However, thankfully for fans of the steamy period drama, Charithra, who plays couldn't shake the wonderful feeling that being part of her university's theatre scene had given her.

Taking what was supposed to be just a gap year before committing to her 80-hour a week job, Charithra decided to keep acting by performing in plays and short films, while also sending off her CV and contacting different agencies.

Soon she landed her breakout role in British spy-drama Alex Rider, before winning the part in Bridgerton, which will broadcast it's second season on March 25.

She's landed a coveted role in season two of Netflix's Bridgerton - yet Charithra Chandran (pictured) didn't always believe she was set out for stardom

British-Indian actress Charithra was born and raised in Oxford, where she would later remain after setting her sights on academic success to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford university.

Proving to be a hard grafter from a young age, she worked as a waitress before landing a job as a Parliamentary Assistant in 2015.

Undergoing acting training at the National Youth Theatre from a young age, Charithra quickly found a passion for performing, often showcasing cultural Tamil and Bollywood dances on stage.

While at university, she landed the lead role of Medea at the Keble O'Reilly Theatre during her third year.

The British actress (pictured), 25, graduated with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and in 2019 secured a job at a top management consultancy firm in London

Taking what was supposed to be just a gap year before committing to her 80-hour a week job, Charithra (pictured) decided to keep acting by performing in plays and short films, while also sending off her CV and contacting different agencies

Meanwhile she continued acting while pursuing her academic career, appearing in plays House of Bernarda Alba and Drunk Enough to Say I Love You.

Despite graduating in 2019 with an 80-hour-per-week corporate job at a a management consultancy on her horizon, Charithra's ambition to pursue an acting career was solidified during her gap year.

She spent time chasing as many acting opportunities as she could before being scuppered by the pandemic.

Speaking with The Face, Charithra explained how consistently spending time with creative people changed her perspective on what her future should hold.

She said: 'I'd do more plays and rehearsals than studying... It was the best time of my life. I met the most wonderful, creative, open-minded people and it was where I was most happy'.

Despite being enamoured with an artistic lifestyle, giving up a prosperous future for one full of risk was an impossible thought for the young graduate, until she shunned expectations.

British-Indian actress Charithra was born and raised in Oxford by her parents, both of whom are doctors (pictured, as a child)

Undergoing acting training at the National Youth Theatre from a young age, Charithra (pictured) quickly found a passion for performing, often showcasing cultural Tamil and Bollywood dances on stage

British-Indian actress Charithra (pictured) was born and raised in Oxford, where she would later remain after setting her sights on academic success to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford university

Making homemade showreels and firing her CV to numerous different agencies, Charithra made sure her name was being heard, and compared leaving a corporate job behind to leaving a partner not destined for you.

'Once you find one that you love, you realise that you didn't really love any of your exes. They pale in comparison. That's how I felt about acting, and I could never imagine going back,' she said.

Explaining further to Pop Sugar, the breakout star revealed how the sacrifices her immigrant parents had only fuelled her further.

She said: 'I owed it to myself, and I felt like I owed it to my parents for everything that they'd done for me to truly pursue the path that would give me the most happiness.'

It was this drive that landed Charithra her breakthrough role in the Alex Rider TV series.

It was during the filming for her role in Alex Rider that Charithra first got word she had impressed the Bridgerton casting team, and soon started filming both series simultaneously.

Despite the otherworldly grandeur that viewers of Bridgerton are used to seeing, Charithra felt a great responsibility to anyone who might look up to her character, Edwina.

Despite graduating in 2019 with an 80-hour-per-week corporate job at a a management consultancy on her horizon, Charithra's (pictured) ambition to pursue an acting career was solidified during her gap year

Charithra (pictured at Oxford) graduated from Oxford in 2019 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics before changing career paths

Despite the otherworldly grandeur that viewers of Bridgerton are used to seeing, Charithra (pictured) felt a great responsibility to anyone who might look up to her character, Edwina

Explaining that her character mirrored many modern girls who were being poised to marry a man, she told The Face: 'Edwina shows that you can take control of your life and be so much more than what people expect of you.

'I hope she resonates and connects with people, so that they can see themselves in her.'

In a similar manner, the young actress felt a responsibility to fellow South Asian girls, and speaking to Wion, she revealed: 'I am so excited for all the little brown girls and young women to see the both of us on screen.

'I hope that I can serve as sort of a role model and inspire other South Asian girls to pursue their dreams.'

Despite many parents being wary of such a drastic career change, an enormous part of Charithra's success is due to her parental support.

Growing up in Oxford, Charithra (pictured) was encouraged by her parents to pursue academia, but she soon saw they had opened opportunities to be creative, too

Despite many parents being wary of such a drastic career change, an enormous part of Charithra's (pictured) success is due to her parental support

Both doctors, her mother and father have taken her choices in their stride, with the young actress revealing them to not be taken in by fame.

It's this encouragement that has fuelled Charithra to not take no for an answer and follow her intuition.

'Most of the time, it just feels natural', she described to Wion: 'It's like, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing'.

Charithra previously confessed her friends told her she only bagged a role in Bridgerton 'because she is brown'.

Besides her acting, Charithra (pictured in November 2021) enjoys Bollywood dancing, badminton and comedy, according to her agency profile

The actress (pictured in September 2021) keeps her fans up-to-date on her day-to-day life through her Instagram account, where she shares updates about her career too

She told The Telegraph: 'People assume my success is due to a diversity quota. I've even had friends say to me, "Oh you got that because you're brown,' and that really hurts.'

'What's really scary is that you can start believing it and thinking, "The only reason I got cast as Edwina is because they were looking for an Indian family."'

Besides her acting, Charithra enjoys Bollywood dancing, badminton and comedy, according to her agency profile.

She keeps her fans up-to-date on her day-to-day life through her Instagram account, where she shares updates about her career too.

Jolly, glamorous... but MUCH less sex! Bridgerton series two receives mixed reviews - as critics warn it's not as raunchy as the first installment of the Regency romp Heaving bodices, opulent sets and a will-they-won't-they romance can only mean one thing: Bridgerton is back. Fans hoping to see more of the bare bottoms and raunchy sex scenes that made the first series such a hit are set to be disappointed, TV critics have warned in their reviews. While there is a love story at the centre of the series, this time between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), it is more of a slow-build tension than the all-out, rip-your-clothes-off attraction between the Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page) and Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) in series one. In fact, the first two episodes are entirely sexless. But the series still has plenty to offer, critics insist. They have given the series largely four star reviews which praise the show's welcome frivolity and glamour at such a dark time. As Dan Einav writes in the Financial Times: 'It may never reach the status of high art, but as high camp and escapist entertainment it's pretty irreproachable.' Here, a taste of what the critics have to say... THE TIMES Rating: Carol Midgley writes: The sex scenes in the first series of Bridgerton were considered so 'racy' that some of them were reportedly pirated on to porn sites. Any viewers tuning into the bosom-heaving Regency drama's second series hoping for more of the same, however, may find themselves slightly deflated. While last time it was a mere three minutes into episode one before the copulating commenced, this time more restraint is shown. In fact the entire first episode is sex-free, as is the second... It's still candy-floss flimsy much of the time and packed with frocks, froth and cliche, but it is moreish, a splash of jolliness, glam and colour in a grim world (its timing is excellent). THE DAILY TELEGRAPH Rating: Anita Singh writes: Bridgerton may be frivolous - and the first costume drama to kill off a character by means of anaphylactic shock from a bee sting - but it is determined to make points about womens place in society. As played by Claudia Jessie, Eloise is one of the best things here, bringing a spark that is missing from some of the bigger performances. There are times when the central relationship between Anthony and Kate seems to drag on without much passion. But after bingeing the series - in the service of this review, dear reader - their romance swept me away in the end. Bailey, dare I say it, brings more soul to the role of Lord Bridgerton than Page ever did with the Duke. And, if this is what youre really here for, the sex is all in episode seven. RADIO TIMES Rating: Lauren Morris writes: While the episodes are a bit too long and at points the plot is stretched quite thinly over the season, Bridgerton's second season is just as, if not more, addictive than its first. Aside from the focal romance, we get to see Eloise come into her own while she's still on the hunt for the person behind Lady Whistledown, while season 2 is rather stressful for Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who is finding it more difficult to hide the fact that she's the one writing these gossip rags. Ultimately, if you loved the first season, you're going to savour every single episode of this regency romp, its intriguing new characters and the impressive performances of its excellent cast, with Jonathan Bailey shining in his well-deserved spotlight. THE FINANCIAL TIMES Rating: Dan Einav writes: 'You relish this frivolity nearly as much as I do,' says Queen Charlotte in the new series of Netflix's Regency drama Bridgerton, addressing not only her confidant, Lady Danbury, but also those slightly sniffy viewers among us. Yes, this is a glorified soap opera, the titanically-budgeted show seems to concede, but don't pretend you're not enjoying it. To scoff at Bridgerton's immense popularity  it was Netflix's most watched show until the release of Squid Game  is, ironically, to mirror the haughtiness of its patrician characters. It may never reach the status of high art, but as high camp and escapist entertainment it's pretty irreproachable. THE INDEPENDENT Rating: Nick Hilton writes: Bridgerton harbours no illusions about what it is: a profoundly unsubtle opportunity to see beautiful, bonneted people tup by candlelight. From the overdressed sets  which have the same aesthetic as a WeWork on Valentine's Day  to the overdressed cast, it is a show that indulges our basest qualities, but does so delightfully. Bridgerton might be close to losing the plot, but be honest with yourself: you weren't watching for that anyway. METRO.CO.UK 3.5 stars Sabrina Barr writes: At the start of Bridgerton season two, one cant shake the feeling that while it is an enjoyable watch, it doesnt quite measure up to the magnificence of the first season. When the show first came out, the diverse cast, modern music and steamy show of sex positivity in 19th century society made it feel refreshingly new. So matching its first outing was always going to be a challenging undertaking. However, it is worth the wait for the new episodes to ramp up the action, romance and scandal, with the story strengthening at every turn until viewers suddenly realise how invested they have become in the midst of the decadent tale. MASHABLE With Anthony and Kate  and Bailey and Ashley  Bridgerton Season 2 strikes gold. Even the blockbuster debut season couldn't come close. Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon (Rege-Jean Page) gave us frequent sex scenes between two attractive actors, but the first season never realized what this season does: The true meaning of sexy. Hiring an Indian actor as Kate gives the taut relationship the feel of a Bollywood romance, where characters frequently flirt, fantasize, and declare themselves, but never share so much as a kiss. There are viewers who will not understand, and that is their loss. But for those who do, this author promises an unforgettable courtship that will not soon be surpassed. Advertisement
A Florida woman says her revealing black crop top got her 'dress-coded' at Disney World  and she ended up with a free T-shirt to cover up in.

Tori Cannella, 23, was visiting the Magic Kingdom in Orlando in a pair of denim cutoff shorts and a skin-baring black top when an employee notified her that it was against the park's dress code.

But because Disney is in the business of making magic  not enemies  the park employee simply brought her to a store and gave her a free Walt Disney World tee to wear instead.

A Florida woman says her revealing black crop top got her 'dress-coded' at Disney World

Tori Cannella, 23, was visiting the Magic Kingdom in denim cutoff shorts and a black top when an employee notified her that it was against the park's dress code (pictured on a different visit)

The most magical place on earth - IF you follow the dress code! Disney's clothing regulations, revealed Disney states on its website that it 'reserves the right to deny admission to or remove any person wearing attire that is considered inappropriate or attire that could detract from the experience of other guests'. The company lays out several guidelines for guest attire, however it notes that staff have the right to refuse admittance to anyone that they believe is wearing 'inappropriate' attire, even if that outfit is not banned within the list of rules, which prohibits: Costumes and costume masks worn by anyone over the age of 14, except at Halloween and Christmas events, or relating to specific Star Wars outfits

Clothing with objectionable material, including obscene language or graphics

Excessively torn clothing

Clothing which, by nature, exposes excessive portions of the skin that may be viewed as inappropriate for a family environment

Clothing that touches or drags on the ground

Objectionable tattoos

Although wearing multiple layers is allowed, those who do so may be subject to search upon entry to the parks Advertisement

'So yeah I just experienced getting dress coded at Disney,' she wrote in her video, which has been viewed 6.6 million times in just three days.

'I mean, I kinda agree w them looking back at this video,' she added.

In the clip, she focuses on her outfit, which consists of jean shorts with a silver-colored chain belt.

On top, she's wearing a long-sleeve black crop top, which falls at her waist and barely closes with two ties at the front.

She is also holding a slip of paper, which may explain the dress code violation, though the words are illegible in the video.

But while Tori conceded that her outfit might not have been the most appropriate thing to wear to a theme park, she noted in the comments that the employee who flagged her crop top 'was not very sweet about it', suggesting that she could have been 'in a bad mood' or perhaps 'had it out' for her.

Tori then filmed herself following an employee through the park and ending up at a store, where she was given a yellow T-shirt from Disney's 2020 Retro Holiday T-Shirt collection that retails for $24.99.

In the video, she is holding a slip of paper, which may explain the dress code violation, though the words are illegible in the video

Tori filmed herself following an employee through the park and ending up at a store, where she was given a yellow T-shirt from Disney's 2020 Holiday collection that retails for $24.99

According to Disney World's website, 'Disney reserves the right to deny admission to or remove any person wearing attire that is considered inappropriate'

According to Disney World's website, 'Disney reserves the right to deny admission to or remove any person wearing attire that is considered inappropriate or attire that could detract from the experience of other Guests.

Attire that is 'not appropriate for the parks' can include clothing with objectionable material like obscene language or graphics, excessively torn clothing, and clothing which 'exposes excessive portions of the skin that may be viewed as inappropriate for a family environment.'

Tori said the employee who stopped her 'was not very sweet about it but maybe she was in a bad mood,' suggesting that she 'had it out for me'

In the comments on Tori's video, a former Disney employee chimed in to say 'the rule is that your top can't have just a string to hold it together.'

Many of the other commenters were in agreement that Tori's top was too revealing and 'inappropriate,' with a few pointing out the possibility of a wardrobe malfunction on certain rides.

'Its not a bad/showy crop top but I could see them wanting you to wear something else in case you went on rides and accidentally flashed an 8yo,' one TikTok user commented.

Others were not so convinced however, with one pointing out that Disney's dress code is not particularly consistent.

'Im sorry but they reached with this one,' the person wrote. 'There is nothing wrong with your original top. Ive seen so much worse.'

One noted the irony is Disney's dress code, given that some of the characters 'wear less' as part of their costumes, writing: 'Ive seen Ariel in less.'

Another chimed in: 'I- thats literally probably one of the least revealing crop tops you could wear at least the shirt was free lol.'

Some were fascinated by the fact that Tori received a free T-shirt to wear in place of her crop top, suggesting that they might wear something similar on purpose simply to snag themselves a free shirt.

'Id get dress coded on purpose so I can get a free shirt,' one joked, while another added: 'Maybe Ill do this so i can get a free shirt.'
Janey Godley says she's accepted that she 'may be facing death' after her stage three ovarian cancer diagnosis.

The Scottish comedian, 61, announced in November last year that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and underwent a full hysterectomy in January this year.

However just nine days after the operation, the mother was told that her cancer was stage three and she is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

In an emotional social media post, the 60-year-old stand-up revealed that she's putting her 'trust in science' and has accepted the face that she has 'no real control' over her fate.

Janey found viral fame with her dubbed pastiches of Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon 's coronavirus news briefings during the pandemic.

Janey Godley, pictured last year, has said she's accepted that she 'may be facing death' after her stage three ovarian cancer diagnosis

Sharing a photo of herself cuddled up with her pet dog Honey on Facebook, Janey wrote: 'I think I've had an epiphany.

'I have been resisting the fact I have a life threatening cancer, I have tried to 'fight and be strong' instead of accepting that this whole year I just may be facing death or survival of something I have no real control over.

'I appreciate all the amazing support and I believe my mental health will improve if I just lean into the fact that this cancer is happening.

'I am not alone, millions of people survive this disease and living with it isn't a failure - maybe I don't have to fight every thing that happens to me and trust the science?'

In an emotional social media post, the 60-year-old stand-up revealed that she's putting her 'trust in science' and has accepted the face that she has 'no real control' over her fate

Janey revealed on social media that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was set to undergo a full hysterectomy in November 2021.

The comedian had been forced to cut her UK tour short earlier in the year after noticing 'horrible pain' in her stomach, bloating and exhaustion.

Growths that can be cancerous or benign: What is an ovarian tumor? Ovarian tumours are abnormal growths that start in the ovary and may be cancerous or benign. When cancerous, nine out of ten arise from the cell that line the ovaries and fallopian tubes - known as epithelial ovarian cancer. High-grade serous ovarian cancer makes up six out of every ten epithelial cases. Most actually in the fallopian tubes. These growths tend to be treated via chemo and radiotherapy. Low-grade serous cancers account for just one in ten epithelial cases. These are slow growing and tend to be in younger women. Surgery is the most effective treatment for low-grade serous epithelial cancers. Mucinous tumours make up a small percentage of epithelial ovarian cancer. Source: Target Ovarian Cancer Advertisement

Appearing on ITV Janey explained: 'I was in London and remember walking through Soho from Leister Square theatre. 'The tour had sold out and I had this horrible pain in my stomach and I couldn't really eat.

'Every time I went to eat I felt full, I was bloated and peeing all the time, all the time. I just didn't feel right.

'Exhausted, I could have slept all the way through the night right up to when I went on stage, [spend] two hours on stage and go to bed. So something was definitely wrong.'

After being encouraged to return home by her agent, Janey visited her GP who felt a mass around her stomach and sent her for blood tests, with results detecting a 'problematic' hormone.

On the same day Janey underwent a scan which revealed a sack on her ovary which was diagnosed as ovarian cancer.

The comedian underwent a hysterectomy in January this year, however shortly after the operation was diagnosed with stage three cancer.

In an emotional social media video, she said: 'It's been, I think, nine days since my hysterectomy. I'm still over at Shirley's, recuperating in the best place possible.

'My family are back in Glasgow, they are everybody is just dealing with the news. I just thought that if I got the hysterectomy, that would be the end of everything, but it's not, it's the beginning because I have got stage three ovarian cancer.

'I thought the big operation, that would be it, get on with everything, heal up the scar, get back on tour.

'Not so, my life is completely changed and I have to process what this means now. And, it's obviously going to mean chemotherapy and treatment.

'I don't have any other options other than pretending it doesn't exist and buying an around-the-world plane ticket and just flying around the world, pretending it doesn't exist.

'And I don't think that's an option. I think the best option is to admit that this exists and to process it.'

Janey is currently undergoing chemotherapy and hopes to have her last session in May.
Kind strangers have sent the single mum of an autistic boy some copies of her son's favourite t-shirt to prevent her having to wash it every night.

The mum explained that her son, 7, would wear the grey t-shirt whether clean or dirty and even when still wet from the washing machine.

She would have to take it off the youngster while he was sleeping to wash and dry it overnight knowing the first thing he would do is look for the shirt when he woke up.

A busy mum has revealed how kindhearted strangers sent her copies of her son's favourite shirt to help take the pressure off having to wash it every night

The mum put out a public appeal to Big W shoppers who may have also bought the grey t-shirt last season, and she received a dozen of them.

'Shirts were sent from all over Australia. From other parents of neurodiverse children, to staff who work for Big W. Some very loved shirts. Some gifted by kids of parents reading the post. One was even found, brand new, in store,' she said.

She also revealed that she has been having a difficult time 'in and out' of hospital for her two-year-old daughter.

To add to that stress, her son is often sent home from school, making it impossible for her to work.

'Every one of you sent them without asking for money. Not even to cover the postage. None of you were aware that I am a single mum,' she said.

'The support was overwhelming at a time when not much was going well for me and my little family. It's just me and my two young kids. So it really lifted my spirits.'

The post included a picture of the dozen shirts laying on the grass in the shape of a heart and has been liked by 3700 Big W shoppers.

'So Beautiful! I feel this so much, especially being an ASD parent myself. So happy to see so many other kind people were able to help you,' one woman said.

Another mum said the post melted her heart and left tears rolling down her face.

'Thank you to all the people that contributed and sent those t-shirts, that have made a world of difference to a little boy,' said another.

And others thanked the mum for sharing her story.

The mum explained that her seven-year-old son has autism and would wear the shirt clean, dirty or wet from the washing machine

'I love everything about this post. The vibe. Your gratitude. The kindness of strangers. Everything. Thank you for sharing such a lovely post. So positive,' she said.

'I remember reading about this lovely little boy and his love for this t-shirt! How wonderful that there are so many gorgeous people so willing to help out when they can! Thank you for sharing the outcome,' said another.

One woman revealed she had sent a top and was excited to see the post.

'Love this! Im so glad I was able to add an extra top for your son, I hope things start looking up for you all, youve got this mumma,' she said.

The mum's original post asked for sizes 8 to 12 noting her son 'only wears this shirt'.

She explained her son likes the cross-neck stitching and feel of the material, but doesn't like the green version in shops now.
Are we really still teaching girls to be ashamed of their period? Well, yes, if the widespread reaction to the new Disney Pixar movie Turning Red is anything to go by.

The latest animation from the studio that brought us classics such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo tells the story of Mei, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian schoolgirl grappling with an ancient curse that transforms her into a giant red panda whenever she feels strong emotions.

The red panda, which only affects the females in Meis family, is a thinly disguised metaphor for puberty, the start of periods, and the overwhelming changes this brings.

Despite the fact that childrens animated movies often contain challenging themes  the death of a parent (The Lion King), miscarriage and bereavement (Up), and abusive adults (Tangled and Cinderella)  Turning Reds focus on periods has had parents literally turning red in anger and embarrassment.

Although the film is rated PG, many took to social media to complain that the subject matter was completely inappropriate for young children, with one parent posting on Twitter: Why are we writing a movie around womens menstrual cycles and advertising it as a panda movie?

Its amazing that in these allegedly progressive times, menstruation still causes such a stir. Sadly, this reaction only serves to teach our children, as we ourselves were taught, that periods are dirty, shameful and should be kept hidden.

Turning Reds (pictured) focus on periods has had parents literally turning red in anger and embarrassment

In fact, I dont think Disneys film goes nearly far enough. Since I wrote my book on periods for pre-teen girls, My Period, Ive spoken to many mothers who admit to hiding pads and tampons away. And they certainly wouldnt dream of letting their kids catch even a glimpse of their menstrual blood.

Of course, it was even worse for our mothers and grandmothers  many of whom were given no information about periods before they started, which often made the experience very frightening as they didnt understand why they were suddenly bleeding.

These attitudes have been ingrained over centuries. Two thousand years ago, Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote that contact with period blood turns wine sour, causes hives of bees to die, and that a dog who tastes it will be driven mad.

This might sound extreme, but as recently as 100 years ago, some people believed that periods contained something called menotoxin which could stop bread from rising or milk from turning to butter.

Although these myths largely died out, period products were banned from our TV screens until 1972, and nobody even said the word period on TV until 1985. Social media posts showing period blood have been censored, and who could forget the TV adverts with blue liquid protecting us from the sight of anything red, which ran until 2017.

All of this helps to enforce the belief that periods are something to hide. Even today, leading brand Tampax tells us its wrappers open silently for full discretion  in other words, you can keep the fact youre on your period a secret.

But why should we keep it a secret? And why should we teach our daughters to do so, too? Periods happen to half the population and theyre also a really positive sign that a womans body is in the peak of its health and fertility.

And then there are the persistent euphemisms for parts of the female body. In Turning Red, Meis mum talks about the red peony, and tells her daughter she is a beautiful strong flower who must protect her petals.

So many of us grew up with these replacement words. Words that cannot be uttered are a sure sign of shame and taboo.

I have two daughters, aged 14 and 11, and an eight-year-old son. Im open about my period. To begin with, saying vulva in front of them felt odd, but I realised that this was my problem to overcome  and if I didnt, Id just be passing this burden on to them.

I do feel its had a positive effect as all three of them talk openly without embarrassment. One of my greatest hopes for my children is that theyll grow up happy and confident in their bodies.

Problems or irregularities with a womans period can be a sign of serious health problems. Being too embarrassed to talk about it could prevent her getting proper medical help  or even realising theres something wrong.

Ironically, just as we  as a society  were beginning to make headway in smashing the taboo, women and girls are being erased from the language by companies hoping to appease trans activists.

Recently the period care company Yoppie received more than 2,000 complaints on an Instagram post that aimed to promote better awareness of the full hormonal cycle  something to be applauded. And yet, without a shred of irony, it did so while referring to women as bleeders.

The latest animation from the studio that brought us classics such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo tells the story of Mei (pictured), a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian schoolgirl grappling with an ancient curse that transforms her into a giant red panda whenever she feels strong emotions

Pad company Always recently told us that 61 per cent of young people have felt ashamed for having a period, leaving readers wondering if they really meant that boys were feeling ashamed for having periods, too.

But mothers can and must break this cycle. If we feel embarrassed about periods, we need to explore where those feelings originated.

Chances are, just like Meis red panda, these anxieties were passed down to us by our own mothers, who got it from our grandmothers, and back through the generations.

In Turning Red, each woman in Meis maternal line has had to go through an elaborate ritual to lock up the red panda and hide it away. But Mei chooses not to undergo the ritual and keeps her panda.

Part of female shame is believing that women and girls should not be too real. Meanwhile men get to spend their lives largely free of such hang-ups.

Refusing to hide certain aspects of womanhood is a step towards changing this.

As Mei says at the end of the film, Weve all got a messy, loud, weird part of ourselves hidden away, and a lot of us never let it out. Maybe its about bloody time we did.
Once, receiving a gift set for Mothers Day meant getting a tub of humdrum talc and a bar of nondescript soap. Not any more.

This year, beauty brands are falling over themselves to create specially curated boxes containing everything from hyaluronic face creams to charcoal masks and candles to celebrate the occasion.

And, like beauty advent calendars and the ever-popular beauty subscription boxes, these sets promise amazing value for money  with some as much as 77 per cent cheaper than the cost of buying each item individually.

But do their claims stand up to scrutiny? We test a selection of the biggest names to see which set offers the best bargains and Mum-worthy beauty treats.

Just for Mum: Antonia Hoyle with the luxury gift sets

LUXURY IN LEOPARD PRINT

The Mothers Day Beauty Box, 24, marksandspencer.com

The Mothers Day Beauty Box, 24, marksandspencer.com

THE PRODUCTS: Eight: two Nails Inc nail varnishes, Percy & Reed Blow Dry Cream, Apothecary Sleep Pulse-point Oil, Pur Fully-Charged Mascara (all full-size), and travel-size versions of LOccitane Cherry Blossom Shower Gel, Lumene Nordic Ageless Radiant Youth Pressed Serum and Eve Lom cleanser.

THE SAVING: 69.82, or 74 per cent  to buy the products individually would cost 93.82. (Note: throughout this piece, for smaller sized products that arent sold separately, Ive worked out their approximate cost according to the price per ml of their full-sized equivalents).

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: High. The box comes in a stylish pink leopard-print sleeve with space to write a personalised message. The two Nails Inc varnishes alone would cost 30, the shower gel smells divine and the mini Eve Lom cleanser tempts me to try a product Id never normally splash out on  which I suppose, given every item is available separately in store, is precisely the point.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 5/5

FOR DIEHARD CLARINS FANS

Clarins Double Serum Mothers Day Skincare Gift Set, 68, johnlewis.com

Clarins Double Serum Mothers Day Skincare Gift Set, 68, johnlewis.com

THE PRODUCTS: Three: a full-size Clarins Double Serum, and mini versions of Clarins renewal cleansing mousse and natural lip perfector.

THE SAVING: 11.93, or 15 per cent according to my workings. John Lewis claims the set is worth 104 calculated on the lowest price per ml of the full-size equivalent product within this set sold between 29/12/2021-27/01/2022. But when I work out the prices of the cleansing mousse and lip perfector according to the full-size prices currently on its website, my estimate for the total value comes to 79.93.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: Minimal  it comes in a white cardboard box. For Clarins fans this is a good deal, given Clarins serum, a worldwide bestseller, costs 66.30 alone. But not the best-looking present for variety-loving mums.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 3/5

GREAT FOR GRANDMOTHERS

Feel-Good Favourites Beauty Box, 77, nealsyardremedies.com

Feel-Good Favourites Beauty Box, 77, nealsyardremedies.com

THE PRODUCTS: Eight: Aromatic Massage Oil, Organic Lavender Essential Oil and Rejuvenating Frankincense Toner are full-size. The rest  Wild Rose Beauty Balm, Goodnight Pillow Mist, Wild Rose Hand Cream, Aromatic Shower Gel and Bee Lovely Body Lotion  are generously sized travel versions.

THE SAVINGS: Not much  bought at full price I calculate they would cost 75.63  although if you spend 50 on other Neals Yard products, you can buy this set for 25.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: Neals Yard regulars will love the familiar dark blue glass packaging, good range of treats and eco-friendly cardboard box decorated with a heart. Not a bargain bought alone, but a surefire hit for Granny.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 3/5

BEST FOR THE BIGGEST BARGAIN

The Mothers Day Box: Spoil Her With Beauty, 25, next.co.uk

The Mothers Day Box: Spoil Her With Beauty, 25, next.co.uk

THE PRODUCTS: Eight, although only two are full-size  Iconics Lustre Lip Oil and Brushworks Jade Roller facial massager. There are travel-size versions of Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Moisture Essence, LOccitane Almond Hand Cream, Benefit Roller Lash Mascara, ESPA Positivity Bath and Shower Gel, By Terry Baume De Rose and This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray.

THE SAVINGS: 79.15 or 76 per cent. While Next says its set is worth over 90, I calculate that, actually, it has a value of 104.15. Most of the products are mini versions, but from expensive brands.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: For variety, this is the best box, with the mascara and lip oil  worth 22  my favourites. I wouldnt ordinarily buy a facial massager, but for this price, experimenting is low risk.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 5/5

SAFE BUY FOR BOOTS DEVOTEES

No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced Collection Gift Set, 34.95, boots.com

No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced Collection Gift Set, 34.95, boots.com

THE PRODUCTS: Five skincare products from Boots premium anti-ageing line. Two are full-size  Advanced Eye Cream and Advanced Serum  and there are three miniatures: Advanced Night Cream, Advanced Day Cream and Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate.

THE SAVINGS: 44.55 or 56 per cent  these products have a total value of 79.50.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: The set, while small, arrives in a beautiful floral box to complement the products. No7s anti-ageing line has been around for so long, this isnt an exciting set  but for mums who love the range, it will hit the spot.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 3/5

SPA HAVEN FOR STRESSED MUMS

Mothers Day Beauty Box, 35, uk.sanctuary.com

Mothers Day Beauty Box, 35, uk.sanctuary.com

THE PRODUCTS: Seven Sanctuary Spa products, five full-size. Theres Wellness Sleep Mist, Lasting Moisture Shower Oil, Ultra Rich Wet Skin Moisture Miracle, Super Secret Facial Oil and a Charcoal Bubble Sheet Mask, as well as mini versions of the brands Moisture Burst Face Wash and Foaming Bath Soak.

THE SAVINGS: 21.40, or 38 per cent. Sanctuary says its set is worth 60. I calculate its value at 56.40, but only because the Sleep Mist is on sale, reduced from 12 to 8.40.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: Delivered in a pink-and-gold floral box, this is heaven for Sanctuary fans like me, for whom one sniff of the brands distinctive scent transports them to a time before school runs reduced relaxing bathtimes to biannual events.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 4/5

DESIGNER DECADENCE

Elemis x Rixo Mothers Day Collection, 59, uk.elemis.com

Elemis x Rixo Mothers Day Collection, 59, uk.elemis.com

THE PRODUCTS: Four rose-inspired products from upmarket British anti-ageing brand Elemis, including Pro-Collagen Rose Cleansing Balm, Papaya Enzyme Peel, Pro-Collagen Marine Cream and Pro-Collagen Rose Facial Oil. All are among the smallest versions of the products on sale.

THE SAVINGS: 23.99, or 29 per cent. Elemis say their set is worth 80. I calculate its value at 82.99.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: High  although there are fewer goodies in the gift set than other brands, theyre delivered in a beautiful blue-and-yellow floral washbag by hip British label Rixo.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 3.5/5

Sweet Mother of Mine Beauty Kit, 52, liberty london.com

. . . AND FOR THE FASHIONISTA MUM

Sweet Mother of Mine Beauty Kit, 52, liberty london.com

THE PRODUCTS: Nine, four of which  Aromatherapy Associates De-Stress Essential Oil Rollerball, Sarah Chapman Intense Hydrating Booster Serum, Byredo Rose Rinse Free Hand Wash and Soapsmith Bloomsbury Bath Soak  are full-size. There are also mini versions of Omorovicza Pink Flowers Queen of Hungary Mist perfume, Bamford Geranium Hand & Body Wash and Body Lotion, Dr. Barbara Sturm Cleanser and a Spacemasks Eye Mask.

THE SAVINGS: 182.10, or 77 per cent. Liberty claim its products have a total value of 209  I calculate the cost at 234.10.

PIZZAZZ FACTOR: The most bling of the boxes is patterned with Libertys pretty Raggedy Robin print and a sleeve bearing the logo Sweet Mother of Mine. All the products are from achingly hip brands  Sarah Chapman is the Duchess of Sussexs London facialist and her serum alone retails for 68.

MOTHERS DAY MARKS: 4/5
1. BAGS WITH HIDDEN EXTRAS

Bags of ideas: Susan and Holly

Stone & Mason

stone-and-mason.com

WHO THEY ARE: Having spent years carrying a small bag of daily necessities within a larger handbag so she could easily swap her essentials from bag to bag, former wedding dress designer Susan Stille, 58, came up with the idea of designing bags with a ready-made on-the-go kit inside.

After launching the brand in 2018, she recruited her daughter Holly, 30, who had been working at a fashion start-up, to help with the marketing and social media.

WHAT THEY DO: Bags in punchy colours and structured shapes the Hampton Tote, 225, and the Candy Chain Bracelet, 45, are a good place to start.

The on-the-go kits include a sewing set, pen, lip balm, nail file, cotton buds and antibacterial spray and start from 70.

2. BOHO COOL JEWELS

Founders: Brinker and Eliza

Brinker + Eliza

brinkerand eliza.com

WHO THEY ARE: Trained silversmith Brinker Higgins launched a jewellery brand with her daughter Eliza, 34, a fashion merchandiser, in 2017. They are now both working on the range full-time. When Eliza was a child they used to make charm-covered barrettes, embellish their ski helmets and sew patches on denim jackets. They firmly believe that when it comes to jewellery, more is more.

WHAT THEY DO: Boho-cool jewellery with bright stones, freshwater pearls and chunky twisted chains, starting from around 90. It is all made in their hometown Connecticut studio and stocked on fashion websites Browns, Farfetch and Moda Operandi. We love the gold-plated mother-of-pearl heart drop earrings (121, modaoperandi.com).

3. BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

Team: Cynthia and Najla

Dur Doux

durdoux.com

WHO THEY ARE: Najla Burt dreamed up her brand while at design school in New York. Then she asked her mother, Cynthia, to come on board. Although Cynthia has no formal background in fashion, she made clothes for Najla and her two sisters growing up.

WHAT THEY DO: Attainable luxury from their ready-to-wear line, as well as some standout couture pieces  think giant satin bows atop layers of tulle, bomber jackets adorned with roses, bright colours and fun prints on tailored shapes.

Try a standout sequin pencil skirt (204) teamed with a simple white blouse. The only place you can shop is via their website but they do ship to the UK.

4. PRETTY FLORAL PRINTS

Duo: Charlotte and Bernadette

Bernadette

bernadetteantwerp.com

WHO THEY ARE: Designer Charlotte de Geyter, 29, studied fine art, then interned at London Fashion Week regular Simone Rochas design studio.

But when it was time to branch out on her own, Charlotte called up her mother, Bernadette, a former buyer at Ralph Lauren, and suggested that they start a fashion business.

In 2018, they launched with a few designs and 25 hand-drawn prints. Now, they do a mix of dresses, separates and even a homeware line sold at Net-A-Porter, Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

WHAT THEY DO: A Japanese floral design is their signature print and appears on everything from elegant occasionwear to ladylike knits and satin pyjamas. Their chic satin slip dresses start at 361, so opt for something you would like to hand down to your daughter one day.

5. CHEAP AND CHARMING HOOPS

Hits: Camilla, Emily and Victoria

Nue Hoops

nuehoops.com

WHO THEY ARE: Victoria Darby, 62, used to own baby shoe brand Daisy Roots, loved by Victoria Beckham and other celebrity mums. Now, she has gone into business with her daughters, Camilla, 35, and Emily, 37.

All three love jewellery and Camilla and Emily left their jobs, in digital marketing and finance respectively, in March 2020 to work on Nue Hoops full-time.

WHAT THEY DO: A pared-back range of affordable hoop earrings that you can mix and match with 100 different charms: pearl drops, crystal stars, gold moons, and more. They are about to launch charm necklaces, too.

A celebrity favourite  actresses Sienna Miller, Florence Pugh and Jaime Winstone are all fans. Purchase individual charms from 10 or hoop and charm sets, such as these midi gold hoops with erinite stone charms for 90.

6. SILK SOLUTIONS

Sleek: Tilly, Connie and Minnie

Harmur

harmur.co.uk

WHO THEY ARE: London-based sisters Constance and Matilda Murphy and their mother Minnie Hartley got talking round the kitchen table about how hard it was to find modern, elegant occasionwear.

Soon, they were draping lengths of silk over each other and coming up with four tops that became the brands first samples in 2017. Minnies background as an artist and Constances experience in fashion PR probably didnt hurt. Their latest venture is a bridal range.

WHAT THEY DO: Their elegantly draped silk tops, from 135, in smart neutral tones are Harmurs bestsellers. But they have also branched into halterneck dresses and sleek, long-sleeved midis, as well as some well-draped jumpsuits. Though you could be paying up to 325, all the pieces are made from 100 per cent silk.

7. JACKETS WITH ATTITUDE

Homemade brand: Sally and Lettie

The Design Studio (TDS)

lovetds.com

WHO THEY ARE: Fashion lecturer Sally Pattinson had always made her daughter Letties clothes. Once Lettie started at university, her friends started asking Sally to make pieces for them too. In 2014, the pair started selling chunky cardigans on Instagram. They caught the attention of model Suki Waterhouse, who championed the brand.

WHAT THEY DO: One-of-a-kind jackets in clashing prints made from locally sourced, remnant fabrics. Think faux-fur panels and patchwork sleeves. The crochet cardigans are a big hit too. Everything is handmade. They have sold 12,000 faux-fur bomber jackets for 200 each.
A business has come up with a hilarious way to name and shame difficult customers who send in outrageous complaints.

In a video uploaded to TikTok on Wednesday, @dessertboxes unveiled their new 'Karen Mail' wall which showcases ridiculous emails from disgruntled customers.

The very first addition to the wall includes an email from a customer who was unhappy the business couldn't make a delivery due to flooding in Sydney's west.

In a video uploaded to TikTok on Wednesday, @dessertboxes unveiled their new 'Karen Mail' wall (pictured)

'I'm emailing to say how disappointed I am,' the complaint reads.

'I know that there has been some rain lately but it's ridiculous that your driver didn't deliver the box today because the area my friend lives in is flooded.

'I bet he didn't even try to deliver it. What do you expect me to do now. She didn't get her brownie and now she thinks I don't care.

'I'm sure it wasn't that bad to get to and he was being lazy. Not happy at all.'

The walls features ridiculous emails sent to the business from Karen customers

One customer complained their delivery wasn't made due to flooding in Western Sydney (pictured)

Owner Samantha Khater told Daily Mail Australia they received the email around two weeks ago when a number of western Sydney suburbs were ravaged by floods.

'Werrington [the delivery address] was flooded and SES crew werent letting any cars through,' she said.

'We responded saying that we wont be putting our driver in danger, and that it would be delivered the next day. Karen obviously wasnt very happy.'

Ms Khater said the business has received other ridiculous complaints and offered a sneak peek at the next email to be featured on their Karen Mail wall:

'My son just received a box from his God Mother. I went onto your website and the box is a party brownie.

'When he opened the box there was a green candle and a pink candle. Why would you send a boy a pink candle?

'The message clearly says Happy Birthday Bryan. Bryan is obviously a boy's name. Why would you send a pink candle?

'We obviously didnt use that candle and threw it out. Not sure how hard it was to just put a blue one. NEVER USING YOU AND TELLING EVERYONE.'

Dessert Boxes is a Sydney-based business which delivers gift boxes containing sweets and treats as well as donut bouquets across Australia.
Aldi Australia is bringing back its hugely popular onesie wearable sleeping bags along with a huge range of affordable camping gear in time for the Easter long weekend.

The $49.99 sleeping bag 'One-Z' will be available as part of Aldi's Special Buy sale in stores and online from Saturday April 2.

Customers wanting to get their hands on the onesies better be quick as previous releases saw the popular buy sell out in a matter of hours.

Aldi Australia is bringing back its hugely popular $49.99 Sleeping bag 'One-Z', which has previously sold out in a matter of hours

The onesie wearable sleeping bags will be available as part of Aldi's Special Buy sale in stores and online from Saturday April 2 along with a range of affordable camping and outdoor gear

The onesie sleeping bags are fully insulated, have an elasticised waist and hood and come in small, medium and large sizes that will fit people from 150 cm tall to two-metres tall.

They are available in purple, black, blue and pink, and have previously caused a stir among shoppers keen to get their hands on the cosy buy.

Keen campers also will love the range of camping and outdoor bargains that won't break the bank including a portable 75L fridge freezer for $599, a queen-sized air mattress for just $59.99 and heaps more.

Keen campers will also love the selection of outdoor adventure gear that won't break the bank including four, six or eight person blackout tents starting at $169

Gaze at the stars with the $69.99 spotting scope (pictured) and see what furry creatures have been snooping about your campsite with the $129 wildlife camera

Aldi Australia's top camping buys Premium Tent Pegs $9.99 Camping Tools $9.99ea Tarp Pole $9.99 Camp Rope 40m $9.99 Adults Hiking Socks 2pk $11.99 Light with Bug Zapper $19.99 Cast Iron Cookware $19.99ea Heavy Duty Tarp 3.65m x 3.65m $19.99 Canvas Storage Bags $19.99ea Adults Merino Blend Tee $19.99 Winter Sleeping Bag $24.99 Heavy Duty Tarp 3.6m x 5.55m $29.99 Water Repellent Picnic Rug $29.99 Byron Bay Camp Chair $29.99 Camping First Aid Kit 64pc $29.99 Uniden UHF Handheld Radio 3 pack $49.99 Powered Battery Box $49.99 LED Camping Light Kit $49.99 Sleeping Bag One-Z $49.99 Queen Size Air Mattress $59.99 Adults 3-in-1 Jacket $59.99 Travel Camp Quilt $69.99 Spotting Scope $69.99 Wildlife Camera $129 Solar Panel Kit 160W $169 Night Vision Device $169 Instant Up Blackout Tent 4 Person $169 Instant Up Blackout Tent 6 Person $199 Instant Up Blackout Tent 8 Person $299 (available online only) Inverter Generator 3300W $399 Dual Zone Portable Fridge Freezer 75L $599 Advertisement

There is a blackout four person tent for $169, six person tent for $199 and, available online only for $299, tent that sleeps eight.

Gaze at the stars with the $69.99 spotting scope and see what furry creatures have been snooping about your campsite with the $129 wildlife camera.

Camp in comfort with the $29.99 camp chair, travel quilt for $69.99 and winter sleeping bags at just $24.99 each and keep pesky mosquitos away with the $19.99 light and bug zapper.




North Korea plans to hold various large-scale celebratory events, both online and offline, on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of its late founding leader's birth next month, according to its state media, Thursday.







The North will hold a major spring festival in Pyongyang with magic shows and performances by art troupes around mid-April to commemorate Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un, April 15, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.







"(The festival) will inspire us on our powerful march and help make this meaningful year a revolutionary year of celebrations," the North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, also said.







Pyongyang will stage another major international art festival online this year amid COVID-19 concerns. The April Spring Friendship Art Festival, which started in 1982, is a biennial event that invites art troupes from other countries to celebrate the late founder's birthday.







The anniversary, referred to in the North as the Day of the Sun, is one of the country's biggest national holidays. The North tends to mark every fifth and 10th anniversary with large-scale events, including military parades.







The North also appears to be planning major cultural events this year in an apparent effort to strengthen internal unity amid growing economic pressure from the fallout of global sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.







In 2020, the North canceled almost all major celebrations for the birth anniversary amid the pandemic. (Yonhap)






An Australian supermarket store is getting publicity for all the right reasons after it was heralded as the ultimate spot to source a 'hot man'.

Coles in Miami, on the Gold Coast, has accidentally earned a name for itself as the one-stop-shop for all of your groceries, and lately dating needs.

A group of female housemates created a video on TikTok called 'We went into Australia's most toey supermarket throughout this week and this is what happened'.

Toey usually means nervous or anxiety-inducing but according to Urban Dictionary it can also refer to 'sexual excitement' and 'horniness', which is how it is being referred to in this instance.

A group of female housemates created a video on TikTok called 'We went into Australia's most toey supermarket throughout this week and this is what happened'

'Monday, 5.45pm, one cutie,' reported one of the ladies.

'Hot Coles on Tuesday at 5pm. There were only two cuties,' said another.

A third added: 'Wednesday, 6.22pm. Two cuties and potentially three but I couldn't really see their face'.

The ladies decided that evenings were better than the mornings for trying to spot a 'hottie' at Coles but Saturday was overall the best day.

It would seem the ladies in the footage weren't the only ones aware of the 'Hot Coles' in their area.

'Miami Coles is deadset where all the talent is at,' said one TikTok commenter.

'Omg I always thought this about Miami Coles, ha!' Said another.

A third added: 'Yep, I get this. You're onto something'.

In 2020 a Triple J employee visited the Coles to discover what all of the talk was about, and wasn't disappointed by what he saw.

'So if youre ever in Miami, Gold Coast and feeling a bit frisky, pop into the local supermarket and have a bit of fun,' he said.
The Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in an emerald gown custom-made by British fashion designer Jenny Packham for a glittering state dinner to finish off the fifth day of her Caribbean tour with Prince William.

Kate, 40, donned a glitter tulle piece paired with priceless diamonds lent by the Queen for her and the duke's first visit to Jamaica. She also sported her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star.

The dress is believed to be a bespoke version of Ms Packham's 3,791 'Wonder Glitter Tulle Gown'. She finished off her look with matching emerald-and-diamond earrings and a bracelet loaned by Her Majesty for the special occasion.

It is not the first time Kate has worn designs by the UK fashion label, which counts Angelina Jolie and Taylor Swift among its A-list fans. Last September she wore a dazzling gold number by the brand for the No Time to Die premiere.

Meanwhile, Prince William appeared suave in black tie as they arrived at a dinner thrown in their honour by the Governor General at King's House, his Kingston residence - the most glamorous event so far of their tour.

Earlier in the day, Kate dazzled in a 1,370 fresh white jacket with matching 575 trousers as she joined the Duke, 39, at the Andrew Holness' office, perfectly pairing the outfit with her heels.

The Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in an emerald gown custom-made by British fashion designer Jenny Packham for a glittering state dinner to finish off the fifth day of her Caribbean tour with Prince William

Kate donned a glitter tulle piece paired with priceless diamonds lent by the Queen for her and the duke's first visit to Jamaica. She also sported her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star

The back of the sweeping ballgown was just as impressive with more glitter detailing

Go-to designer: The dress is believed to be a customised version of this Jenny Packham tulle creation

Kate, 40, paired the priceless diamonds with her Royal Family Order - a decoration bestowed by the Queen on her female relatives - and the GCVO Star, which the monarch gifted to her in April 2019 for her eighth wedding anniversary

An honour from the Queen: The Royal Family Order worn by the Duchess of Cambridge The Duchess of Cambridge is wearing the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II, pictured, for the first time The Duchess of Cambridge is wearing the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II. The honour is bestowed by Her Majesty to female members of the royal family and is worn on white tie occasions such as state banquets and the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace. The order, which is also worn by the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne and the Countess of Wessex, features a jewel encased image of the Queen pinned on a chartreuse yellow ribbon and worn on the left shoulder. The miniature portrait, painted on glass, depicts the Queen as a young woman in evening dress wearing the ribbon and star of the Order of the Garter. The image is bordered by diamonds and surmounted by a Tudor Crown in diamonds and red enamel. Its reverse, in silver-gilt, is patterned with rays and depicts the royal cypher and St. Edward's Crown in gold. The Duchess of Cambridge first wore the Order to a state dinner in honour of the King and Queen of the Netherlands in October 2018. Advertisement

Prince William was given a polite round of applause after expressing 'sorrow' for slavery in a seven-minute address to Jamaica.

Ninety invited guests listened to duke's every words before tucking into a four-course meal.

William and Kate met Jamaican leaders in the mansion's cocktail room.

Kate bonded with opposition leader Mike Golding - whose party has said it wants Royal Family to further and apologise for slavery and pay millions in reparations.

Both revealed they had studied at St Andrews, although Kate's alma mater was in Scotland and the politician said his was in the US.

But they chatted amicably and Kate told him: 'I loved my time there.'

Mixing with VIPs in the room William was told how England ace Raheem Sterling had carried out work to help inner city kids in Kingston.

William smiled and recalled his football kickabout in Trench Town. He said: 'I have a soft spot for Raheem.'

The dress is believed to be a bespoke version of Ms Packham's 3,791 'Wonder Glitter Tulle Gown'. She finished off her look with matching emerald-and-diamond earrings and a bracelet loaned by Her Majesty for the special occasion

The Duchess of Cambridge dazzled in diamonds lent to her by the Queen for a glittering state dinner tonight

Pictured: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Patricia Allen during the evening dinner

The couple walked along the verandah at the mansion's dining room greeting guests.

Kate was heard saying: 'It was great I wish I could stay longer. We were tempted by the beaches. Amazing scenery.

'Next time we have to come back with the children.'

Speaking to another group of diners before the banquet, she said: 'The country is beautiful. We just scratched the surface. It's been so short.'

Pictured: William and Kate attend a dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica at King's House in Kingston, Jamaica

Kate wore a green dress by Jenny Packham with priceless jewellery loaned by Her Majesty for her and Prince William's first visit to Jamaica. She also sported her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star

Kate's earrings and bracelet comes from Her Majesty the Queen's Emerald Tassel Parure, which consist of a matching set of earrings, a necklace, bracelet and a ring

They also recreated a photograph taken of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on the staircase when they visited in 1954.

The duke took his seat in the ballroom at the top table - just under a EXIT red fire escape sign.

He sat with Kate, Governor General Patrick Allen, Prime Minister Andrew Holness and their wives.

They ate a four course meal of creamy roasted pumpkin and potatoes, sea bass, garden salad and suzette fanned crepe plus Jamaican Petit Fours.

It is not the first time Kate has worn designs by the UK fashion label, which counts Angelina Jolie and Taylor Swift among its A-list fans
This is the adorable moment the Duke of Cambridge introduced himself to a Jamaican schoolgirl, telling her: 'My name is William'.

The father-of-three met the shy youngster during a visit to Shortwood Teacher Training College in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday.

Showing his gentle nature, William sat down alongside the girl at a child-sized table and said: 'My name is William, what's your name?'

Eventually the little girl looked up to tell him her name and he repeated: 'You're name is Natalia?,' and smiled.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posed for photos with Jamaican schoolchildren during the visit yesterday. Prince William spent time speaking to one little girl

The father-of-three met the shy youngster during a visit to Shortwood Teacher Training College in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday

The Duke of Cambridge also spoke to her about an upcoming birthday and said: 'You're going to have 10 candles? What kind of cake are you going to have?'

The royal, who shares children George, eight, Charlotte, six, and Louis, three, with Kate, looked engaged and interested as he spoke to the school pupil.

During the visit the Duchess of Cambridge, who has a particular interest in early childhood development, addressed students training to be teachers.

She told them: 'You as teachers are at the frontline of this vital work and play a crucial role in shaping our societies by positively impacting the futures of literally thousands of young people over the course of your careers.'

She added: 'Decades of science and research have shown us that our earliest experiences establish the fundamental foundations that shape and connect our future lives.

The Duke of Cambridge also spoke to her about an upcoming birthday and said: 'You're going to have 10 candles? What kind of cake are you going to have?'

'It is when we learn how to form relationships, connect with one another, how to manage our feelings and emotions and it's when we learn how to develop a sense of identity.'

Her comments came shortly after the royal couple received an official welcome from the Caribbean nation's premier, and he described how Jamaica intended to fulfil its destiny 'as an independent, developed, prosperous country'.

The couple went on to pay tribute to the teachers in a moving post shared on their official social media page, with Kate writing: 'The foresight Shortwood had to establish this Early Childhood Education programme was recognition that the early years is fundamental to a childs journey through life.

Kate and William, who share three children, looked thrilled to be meeting the youngsters

Kate could be seen chatting with some of the students in one snap shared on Instagram

'Decades of science and research have shown us, that our earliest experiences establish the fundamental foundations that shape and connect our future lives.'

The Duchess continued: 'It is when we learn how to form relationships, how to connect to one another, how to manage our feelings and emotions. It is when we learn to develop a sense of identity, belonging and worthiness. And it is when we shape our values and understanding of the world we live in.

'By realising the extraordinary impact of early childhood and by learning more about how children grow, think and behave, I truly believe we are on the cusp of one of the biggest opportunities for positive change in generations.

'And when I see the passion, commitment, and enthusiasm on display here at Shortwood, I feel optimistic about what we can all achieve together.'
Kate Middleton paid a touching tribute to Princess Diana last night by sporting a dress inspired by one her late mother-in-law wore on at least three occasions.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, stepped out in an emerald gown custom-made by British fashion designer Jenny Packham for a glittering state dinner in Jamaica to finish off the fifth day of her Caribbean tour with Prince William.

The dress - believed to be a bespoke version of the 3,791 'Wonder Glitter Tulle Gown' - is reminicienst of the Nettie Vogues dress Princess Diana wore in her official engagement photos to Prince Charles, and on at least two more occasions.

Kate Middleton (pictured) paid a touching tribute to Princess Diana last night by sporting a dress inspired by one her late mother-in-law wore on at least three occasions

The dress - believed to be a bespoke version of the 3,791 'Wonder Glitter Tulle Gown' - is reminicienst of the Nettie Vogues dress Princess Diana (pictured) wore in her official engagement photos to Prince Charles, and on at least two more occasion

Designed by Graham Wren for Nettie Vogues, Diana's dress had a cinched in waist with a tulle skirt - similar to Kate's.

Both dresses are the same hue of emerald green, however Diana's feature a very 1980s inspired puff sleeve, while Kate opted for a more modern off-the-shoulder look.

The Princess of Wales was first pictured in the gown for a 1981 photoshoot for her official Snowdon engagement portraits taken at Highgrove House in May 1981.

She sported the taffeta gown again later that same year as she met performers of a gala concert at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea in October.

Designed by Graham Wren for Nettie Vogues, Diana's dress had a cinched in waist with a tulle skirt - similar to Kate's (pictured in October 1982)

Both dresses are the same hue of emerald green, however Diana's feature a very 1980s inspired puff sleeve, while Kate opted for a more modern off-the-shoulder look

The dress was then worn on a third occasion as Diana attend another concert at the Barbican Centre in October 1982, where she accessorised with an emerald and diamond choker.

Last night Kate donned a glitter tulle piece paired with priceless diamonds lent by the Queen for her and the duke's first visit to Jamaica.

She also sported her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star.

Diana is pictured wearing a velvet cape and an emerald green taffeta evening gown designed by Graham Wren at a gala concert at Brangwyn Hall during an official royal tour of Wales in 1982

Kate donned a glitter tulle piece paired with priceless diamonds lent by the Queen for her and the duke's first visit to Jamaica. She also sported her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star

The dress is believed to be a bespoke version of Ms Packham's 3,791 'Wonder Glitter Tulle Gown'. She finished off her look with matching emerald-and-diamond earrings and a bracelet loaned by Her Majesty for the special occasion

Kate has worn the green hue - said to be one of Princess Diana's favourite colour - on dozens of occasions.

Last year, she wore a 1,595 glittering emerald gown by The Vampire's Wife and a pair for the first evening reception during a trip to Ireland.

She sported the hue again at the Wimbledon finals last year, wearing a 1380 dress from London-based designer Emilia Wickstead.

The Duchess of Cambridge is known to pay tribute to the Princess of Wales through her clothes.

The back of the sweeping ballgown was just as impressive with more glitter detailing

Go-to designer: The dress is believed to be a customised version of this Jenny Packham tulle creation

Kate paired the priceless diamonds with her Royal Family Order - a decoration bestowed by the Queen on her female relatives - and the GCVO Star, which the monarch gifted to her in April 2019 for her eighth wedding anniversary

During a trip to Scotland last year, Kate sported an all blue ensemble which closely echoed one of her mother-in-law's 1992 looks.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore a 59.99 Zara blazer and 95.00 pleated midi skirt by Hope Fashion in the colour of the Scottish flag which drew a striking similarity to a look the Princess of Wales donned nearly three decades ago for a day of royal duties in Nottingham.

Kate's sweet tribute to Diana comes as The Duke of Cambridge used the royal visit to Jamaica to tackle Britain's historic role in the slave trade, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history' in a keynote speech alongside his wife at a state dinner last night.

The future king expressed his disgust at the 'appalling atrocity' that has left such a heavy legacy in Jamaica and expressed his 'profound sorrow' that it had ever happened to Jamaican dignitaries.

He spoke out on a tricky tour for the royals, where the Cambridges were greeted like rock stars by the public but politicians, including prime minister Andrew Holness, used meetings to make clear in public they will push for the island to be a republic with a referendum this year. There was also a protest outside the British High Commission by republicans also demanding slavery reparations from Britain and the royals.

In a landmark speech William also referred to his father's previous condemnation of slavery - but stopped short of apologising for the Royal Familys part in the trade.
Queen Elizabeth II will appear on the cover of April's edition of British Vogue for the first time ever in celebration of her Platinum Jubilee.

The cover features a 1957 image of her Majesty, taken by Lord Snowden, the former husband of Princess Margaret. The Queen wears the George IV State Diadem in the photo, which was taken around the time of her tenth wedding anniversary to Prince Philip.

According to a spokeswoman for the magazine, the issue will pay a 'special tribute to Her Majesty, 95, ahead of the Platinum Jubilee, by looking back on its own unique relationship with the Monarch during her 70 years on the throne'.

The publication's editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, noted that in recent years, the 'ancient institution' of the Royal Family has appeared to change, and modernise, making an effort to highlight the work of underrepresent people.

Writing in his editor's letter for the issue, he said: 'When I received my OBE for services to diversity in fashion several years ago, I thought carefully about what the decision to accept it would mean.

The Queen will appear on one of two twin covers for the April edition of British Vogue magazine. The cover features an image of the royal snapped in 1957 by Lord Snowden

Her Majesty, pictured here in February when she met the incoming and outgoing Defence Service Secretaries at Windsor Castle, is also praised in the issue for her personal style

'Ultimately, I saw an ancient institution that was setting about on a programme of change and if they had noticed and wanted to recognise my work as something worth spotlighting, given the fact my endeavours were all about spotlighting under-represented people too, then I felt comfortable - keen, even - to engage.'

This does not mark the first time the publication has featured the Royal Family or that Edward has engaged with the Firm.

In 2016, the Duchess of Cambridge was Vogue's cover star, fronting an issue celebrating the magazine's centenary. And in 2019, the Duchess of Sussex guest-edited an issue. Her cover featured images of woman she described as 'forces for change', including climate activist Greta Thunberg among others.

The issue followed the Duchess of Sussex emailing Edward and suggesting they collaborate, saying they had 'lots in common'.

Additionally, Edward has attended appointments with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during a trip they made to his native Ghana. And he is a global ambassador for the Prince of Waless Princes Trust.

As well as featuring the monarch on its cover, the April issue will also pay tribute to her style.

The publication's deputy editor and fashion features director Sarah Harris praises the Queen's lavishly coloured wardrobe, and outlines some of her fashion standbys, including her classic look of 'an immaculately tailored dress and coat that falls below the knee, accessorised with a matching hat'.

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, appeared on the cover of British Vogue in 2016, celebrating its centenary year

In 2019, Meghan Markle guest-edited the publication, producing this cover featuring images of woman she described as 'forces for change'

She also noted some of her Majesty's favourite accessories, noting that she often chooses a 'three-strand pearl necklace and heirloom brooch, smart Anello & Davide loafers, white cotton-jersey gloves and a glossy framed handbag by Launer, carried in the crook of her arm'.

News of her Majesty's cover comes amid reports that all 54 Commonwealth capitals will light Jubilee beacons during celebrations of the milestone in June.

As per the tradition of marking significant royal occasions with the beacons, the UK will see more than 1,500 illuminated across the nation, starting with the principle beacon at Buckingham Palace.

Additionally, from June 2nd, beacons will be illuminated in capital cities in countries including New Zealand and Australia, as well as across the Pacific region, and the 19 African Commonwealth member states. Europe, and the Caribbean and Americas will follow.

Speaking about the occasion, Bruno Peak, the pageantmaster of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons, said: 'The Queen has lit up the Commonwealth over 70 years through visits and other engagements, it is only fitting that we do likewise for her.'

The other cover of Vogues twin-cover April edition features 'Hollywood Royalty', with a picture of The Queen's Gambit actress Anya Taylor Joy

In the magazine, the actress talks about her experiences filming the hit Netflix TV programme, as well as struggling with her rise to fame

The Queen's cover is one of two special versions of the magazine - the other depicts 'Hollywood Royalty', featuring an image of The Queen's Gambit actress Anya Taylor Joy.

In parallel to her Majesty's cover image, Anya also donned a perfect replica of the George IV State Diadem, which was tilted atop her platinum locks.

Within the issue, Anya opened up about struggling with her rise to stardom during an interview with the magazine and revealed she would meditate by going clubbing at 11am while shooting Netflix hit The Queen's Gambit in Berlin.

She revealed she would go to a club by herself while filming the show. She said: '[I would go] at 11:30 in the morning, dance until 8pm.

'Not talk to anybody, then go home, have a bath, eat some spaghetti and wake up at 4am to go to work. I felt great.'

The April issue of British Vogue will be available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday March 29th.
Kate Middleton threw a spanner in the works for her husband Prince William as the pair tried out a driving stimulator during the second day of their official visit to Jamaica.

As the Duke of Cambridge, 39, took the simulator for a spin during an appointment at the Caribbean Military Technical Training Institute near Montego Bay, the duchess, 40, manipulated the weather and road conditions, creating potholes, and lightening.

A video of Prince William shows him saying his wife 'made [him] skid', as he battled tricky conditions while driving the truck, which is used to train young men.

Meanwhile, Kate was seen in fits of laughter, as she created adverse conditions for her husband, and saw him struggle to control the vehicle.

The Duke of Cambridge, pictured taking the wheel of a simulator at the Caribbean Military Technical Training Institute, accused his wife of 'making him skid' by creating tricky driving conditions like potholes and extreme weather

The duchess reportedly enjoyed the task: a student who watched her using the simulator to create difficult conditions for her husband said Kate described it as 'really good'

According to automative student Oneil Haughton, who joined the duchess who sats a computer she used a computer to create hazards for the duke to navigate, she seem 'excited' by the task.

He added: 'She was changing his experiences of the weather, changing the time of day  she was enjoying it.

'She could make it slippery, she could do anything and she loved it, she said it was really good.'

Staff Sergeant Dave Morgan, who observed William's attempts, added: 'He did well, he was trying and found the gears and dealt with the critical weather.

'The duchess set up some strong cross wind and caused his vehicle to turn over  he was laughing.'

The institute offers an educational programme for young men who need direction in their lives. It teaches them to drive heavy goods vehicles or repair cars, and during the visit, the royal couple met some of its students.

As well as joining a discussion with the young men and their families about the course, Kate and William were given demonstrations of repairing a car and a separate engine by students.

Speaking about the institute's work, director Major Georgette Grant McDonald said more than 3,200 young men had been trained since the programme began in 2012.

The institute uses the simulator (pictured) as part of its programme which teaches young men to drive heavy goods vehicles, as well as how to repair cars

According to a member of staff who oversaw the duke's attempts to drive the simulator (pictured), William did a good job managing the machine

The Duchess of Cambridge looks on intently as her husband tries out a driving simulator - and she created adverse weather effects and other tricky conditions for him to navigate

'Youth and community engagement is one of the strategic lines of effort of the Jamaican Defence Force. We see it as a means of changing the culture of crime and violence in Jamaica.

'So when we empower these youth with a skill, with workplace readiness, techniques and also with positive thinking it gives them hope, it gives them an option.'

During the day's appointments, which also included meeting the Prime Minister of Jamaica and a visit to Shortwood Teachers College, the Duchess honoured a local designer by wearing two bracelets crafted by a Jamaican jewellery maker.

The sparkling wrist adornments were from the brand Steelz and Mantraz, and designed by Lashawndla Bailey-Miller. One was a plain gold bangle, and the other a pearl and gold design.

During the day's appointments, which included meeting the Prime Minister of Jamaica, and visiting the Shortwood Teachers College, the duchess wore bracelets by a local designer

The duchess, pictured while visiting Shortwood Teacher's College in Kingston, donned a white suit paired with a bright orange Ridley blouse

Kate added a touch of glamour to the day's outfit with two sparkling gold bracelets from a Jamaican brand Steelz and Mantraz, designed by Lashawndla Bailey-Miller (left and right)

The Duchess proved she is the queen of co-ordination today as she joined Prince William to meet the Prime Minister of Jamaica, donning a white suit and shoes, with an orange blouse and matching handbag

They finished off her outfit, which featured a 1,370 crisp white jacket paired with matching 575 trousers, 249 vibrant orange blouse from Ridley.

She carried a matching orange 229 handbag from Willow Hilson Vintage - a Cheltenham-based boutique. Kate added a touch of glamour with her 125 Maria Black 'Cha Cha' Earrings.

While the pearl bracelet is currently unavailable on Steelz and Mantraz' site, the gold bangle is currently for sale online for 9,765 Jamaican Dollars, or 48.37.

A description of the bangle on the brand's website reads: 'Worn by the Duchess of Cambridge on her visit to Jamaica in March 2022, this cuff bracelet is sure to please you!'

Steelz and Mantraz' website shows an image of the bangle engraved with the words 'She's Royal', but the duchess' was plain gold.

The royal couple's visit  part of a tour celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year  has been mired by controversy, as they arrived in the country amid calls for the monarchy to pay reparations for its role in slavery.
The Duchess of Cambridge has embraced her role as a queen-in-waiting on a challenging royal tour of the Caribbean, royal experts claim.

Kate, 40, has embodied the poise, charm and composure required of a royal consort, and has been a pillar of support for her husband Prince William as he faces difficult questions and conversations on the Royal Family's role in its Caribbean realms.

Royal author Robert Jobson, who is on tour with Kate and William, told FEMAIL the Duchess 'hasn't put a foot wrong' and has proved she can 'take anything in her stride' while keeping 'a smile on her face'.

Phil Dampier, who has been writing about the royal family for more than 25 years, added the couple have had to 'tread a difficult path' but Kate is a 'supreme diplomat' who is an 'asset' to the Queen because she embodies the future of the monarchy.

Queen-in-waiting: The Duchess of Cambridge has embodied the poise, charm and composure required of a royal consort, and has been a pillar of strength for her husband as he faces challenging questions and conversations on the Royal Family's role in its Caribbean realms

Supportive wife: Kate beams at Prince William during a reception at the Governor General's residence in Kingston, Jamaica, last night

Mixed reception: The Cambridges were greeted like rock stars by the Jamaican public but politicians, including prime minister Andrew Holness, used meetings to make clear in public they will push for the island to be a republic with a referendum this year. There was also a protest outside the British High Commission (pictured)

The Cambridges were greeted like rock stars by the Jamaican public but politicians, including prime minister Andrew Holness, used meetings to make clear in public they will push for the island to be a republic with a referendum this year.

There was also a protest outside the British High Commission by republicans demanding slavery reparations from Britain and the royal family.

The Duchess' skills as a queen-in-waiting were on full display last night when she joined her husband at a black tie dinner hosted by the Governor General.

Kate mingled with dignitaries, captivated the host's wife and leant a supportive hand to her husband as he delivered a speech on Britain's historic role in the slave trade, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history'.

Mr Jobson observed: 'The Duchess of Cambridge has certainly wowed the crowds on this tour, she hasn't put a foot wrong.

'It is very important diplomatically to show that whatever is happening the Royal couple can take it in their stride and always have a smile on their faces.

By his side: Kate mingled with dignitaries, captivated the host's wife and leant a supportive hand to her husband as he delivered a speech on Britain's historic role in the slave trade, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history' (pictured)

'Her interactions are natural and warm. Her exchanges with the school children she has met have gone down very well.'

Mr Dampier agreed, saying: 'Kate has been superb on this tour and supported William magnificently. The couple have had to tread a difficult path of making friendships but always appreciating that these countries are considering ditching the monarchy in the future, which all the royals recognise is their right.

'Kate has met and greeted hundreds of people, shaking hands and chatting to everyone face-to-face, and you can see the crowds warming to her.

'Yes, it's a charm offensive, but I also think it's genuine and she enjoys seeing different countries and meeting people from all walks of life.'

The royal expert pointed to Kate's poise during one awkward moment with Jamaican politician Lisa Hanna, who appeared to turn away from the royal during their official welcoming ceremony, saying: 'She handled it well and just got on with it.'

Composed: Royal author Robert Jobson, who is on tour with Kate and William, told FEMAIL the Duchess 'hasn't put a foot wrong' and has proved she can 'take anything in her stride' while keeping 'a smile on her face', even when she had an awkward encounter with Jamaican politician Lisa Hanna (right)

Warm: The Duchess of Cambridge's interactions with children have been received particularly well. Above, Kate at a teacher training college in Kingston yesterday

Her flair for diplomacy extends to her wardrobe. Kate has endeavoured to showcase local designers and has stepped out in the colours of the Jamaican and Belizean flags in a nod to her hosts.

'Nothing is left to chance,' Mr Jobson explained. 'Just as our Queen did when she was younger on the international stage, the dresses, including the colours to reflect the country she is in, and the jewellery have been perfect.'

Both authors noted how Kate has grown in confidence since marrying William.

'When she first came in to the royal family, Kate took her lead from William. But now she is a star in her own right and knows exactly the tone to take,' Mr Jobson said.

'The Duchess and the Duke have both been first class International super ambassadors, excellent representatives of the Queen and have shown the monarchy is in safe hands, just as the Prince of Wales did on his visit to Barbados in 2017 and for the handover celebrations last year marking the former colony's transition to a republic.'

Stepping into the spotlight: Both authors noted how Kate has grown in confidence since marrying William and now delivers speeches with confidence (above)

Mr Dampier noted this development will be particularly reassuring to the Queen, who is relying on the younger generations to cement the future of the monarchy.

He added: 'When Kate first married William she was shy and tended to garble her words, speaking very quickly and nervously, but now she seems relaxed and in control.

'She has matured so much in the last couple of years and the Queen must be delighted that she has turned out to be such an asset to the royal family.'
The Duchess of Cambridge delivered a masterclass in black tie beauty as she joined Prince William for a lavish dinner at the Governor General's residence in Jamaica last night.

Kate, 40, dazzled in a custom green frock by favourite designer Jenny Packham, which she teamed with a glittering emerald and diamond necklace and earring set borrowed from the Queen.

She continued the glamorous display in her choice of hair and makeup, which was perfectly calculated to complement her outfit without being overpowering.

Hollywood glamour: The Duchess of Cambridge delivered a masterclass in black tie beauty as she joined Prince William for a lavish dinner at the Governor General's residence in Jamaica

Chic updo: The Duchess wore her brunette locks twisted in a complicated updo that complemented the folds of her dress - and crucially meant there were no unsightly flyaways

Radiant: Kate dazzled in a custom green frock by favourite designer Jenny Packham, which she teamed with a glittering emerald and diamond necklace and earring set from the Queen

Speaking to FEMAIL, makeup artist Laura Kay, founder of Laura Kay London, explained her skincare and makeup was 'all about dazzle and sparkle' and made the most of the natural tan the Duchess has picked up during her week in the sun.

Meanwhile hairstylist Tom Smith noted Kate's hairstyle was reminiscent of the complicated updo she sported to the premiere of James Bond No Time To Die, but with extra humidity-beating techniques.

FAIRYTALE HAIR THAT BEATS THE HEAT

Timeless: The Duchess of Cambridge opted for an ornate updo for the black tie dinner

Red carpet inspiration: Hairstylist Tom Smith oted Kate's hairstyle was reminiscent of the complicated updo she sported to the premiere of James Bond No Time To Die (pictured)

Tom Smith, creative director of Evo, says: 'Kate looks like she has stepped out of a fairytale, with an ornate and regal vibe about her.

'There is a lot of attention to detail and care to her hair. It really goes above and beyond.

'Being Royal, there is not as much pressure to tie into current trends and there is always a timeless and traditional quality about all of Kate's looks. But what is starkly different this time is the practicality element of the hair on the head itself being much sleeker.

'You can see a definite heavier use of product. Usually with Kate's evening looks, she still retains a softer and fluffier style, even when hair is sleek or smooth.

'But on this occasion, she has opted for an ultra-sleek style around the face due to the practicality of being in a warmer climate. And all the detail is at the back of the head.

'There is a contrast of volume and texture in the dress. She has a really cinched in waist and then over exaggerated ruffles on her arms/shoulders.

'We also have the same contract in the hair, a very sleek head hugging smooth grained, swept back away from the face with the body of the hair, and then there is all that volume, curl, and texture through the back. The contrast of sleek and head hugging to volume is mirrored in the hair as it is in the dress.

Staying in place: Tom said product was used to create a sleek finish to the front of the head in order to avoid flyaway strands and frizz on a hot and humid night

Hair piece? Tom questions whether the back of the head might have been created using a hair piece, with the Duchess' natural hair tucked under the curls seen at the back of the head

'There is a very thought-out point of view when it comes to her choice of dress and hair style. The lines in the dress mirror the grains in her hair as they are combed away from the face. The ruffles are mirrored in the back of the hair. Therefore, making the hair and the dress work in one cohesive look.

'It might be product but there is a slight shine that has characteristics to a hair piece, particularly synthetic hair seen in the strands of her ornate bun which has been carefully pinned to create beautiful detailing.

'A hair piece could have been used to bulk out her hair as there is a lot of volume in the curls. As well as helping create volume, synthetic hair is also less prone to humidity and my guess is her natural hair is tucked under those curls.

'This would have saved precious time as it would have been prepped in advance.'

DAZZLING MAKEUP FIT FOR A FUTURE QUEEN

Bronzed: Laura noted Kate's complexion is glowing and her skin looks youthful, perhaps as a result of an exfoliating treatment before her night out in Jamaica

'This is undeniably a fashion moment for Kate,' Kate says. 'Her make up is all about dazzle and sparkle. Her make up is surprisingly similar to her wedding look with the different make up elements almost matching.

'The only differences are she has opted for more shine and shimmer on the face and has used more bronze tones and a mid brown eyeliner instead of her almost black signature favourite to define the eyes this time.

'Kate's complexion is glowing and her skin looks youthful and dewier than ever. Perhaps she has prepped with a facial and exfoliated to help her look brighter and improve the appearance of her skin.

'Kate has topped up her tan with bb cream for maximum coverage - it is lighter than foundation which helps avoid a 'heavy caked on' look. The benefit to bb cream it is smooths out any blemishes and imperfections making it perfect for this occasion.

Light and dewy: The makeup artist said bb cream would create a smooth, dewy finish

Making a statement: Kate likes very defined brows but softened her look with bronzed eye make up. A slick of pink lipstick proved the perfect counterpoint to the emerald dress

'In addition, she has delicately applied a striking cream highlighter on her cheekbones and temples, sweeping right up to the inside of her brow line, which reflects the light perfectly and helps to define.

'A touch of pink blush toned bronzer has also swept across has cheekbones which helps stay youthful and fresh.

'For her eyes she has smudged a cooper bronze eye shadow almost as high as her brow line with helps to contrast and also compliment her tan. She has opted for her signature eyeliner and mascara which is applied tightly all over her inner eyes.

'Her brows make a statement, and she has used a brow groomer to brush up and fill in any gaps.

'Finally, Kate has applied a bright pink gloss on her lips to finish off the look. Kate looks carefree and relaxed on her trip. This look really suits her and a beautiful nod to her becoming future Queen one day.'
Kate Middleton was greeted with a warm welcome by the Governor General's wife in Jamaica last night despite her husband indicating Jamaica will abolish the monarchy.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, joined her husband Prince William, 39, for a reception in Kingston last night, where she was greeted by Lady Patricia Allen, the wife of Jamaica's Governor General Patrick Allen.

Pictures show the pair walking side-by-side, with Patricia smiling and greeting the Duchess, as well as sitting next to one another at dinner.

Lady Patricia, who sported a floor-length lace and tulle blue gown, looked delighted to join the royal couple throughout the evening.

Kate Middleton was greeted with a warm welcome by the Governor General's wife in Jamaica last night despite her husband indicating Jamaica will abolish the monarchy

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, joined her husband Prince William, 39, for a reception in Kingston last night, where she was greeted by Lady Patricia Allen, the wife of Jamaica's Governor General Patrick Allen (pictured together)

However, Sir Patrick Allen, the Queen's representative on the Caribbean island, has said a new ministry will oversee the process of removing the monarchy, according to local reports in Jamaica.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness has warned the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge that his nation is 'moving on' and intends to ditch the monarchy during a tense meeting as part of the royal's tour of the Caribbean.

He told the couple Jamaica intends to fulfil its destiny 'as an independent, developed, prosperous country'.

In an exchange that was caught on camera, Mr Holness then told the royal couple that whilst Jamaicans were 'very very happy' to welcome them, 'there are issues here which are as you would know unresolved.'

Pictures show the pair walking side-by-side, with Patricia smiling and greeting the Duchess, as well as sitting next to one another at dinner.

Lady Patricia looked delighted to meet with the royal couple, pictured last night in Jamaica

He added that his nation is 'moving on' and has 'true ambitions' to become an 'independent, developed, prosperous country'.

His comments followed his statement last year that there was 'no question' his country would become a republic. Politicians are pushing for the move to take place within two years and they hope a referendum will take place before the end of 2022.

In February, Sir Patrick gave an annual Throne Speech to Jamaican parliament where he noted the Government's creation of a Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, to comprehensively revisit the country's laws and constitutional infrastructure.

Lady Patricia, who sported a floor-length lace and tulle blue gown, looked delighted to join the royal couple throughout the evening.

Sir Patrick Allen, the Queen's representative on the Caribbean island, has said a new ministry will oversee the process of removing the monarchy, according to local reports in Jamaica. Lady Patricia is pictured with Kate last night

Sir Patrick was joined by his wife Lady Patricia when he was knighted in 2009 by the Queen at Buckingham Palace

During the dinner, The Duke of Cambridge tackled Britain's historic role in the slave trade, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history' in a keynote speech alongside his wife.

On the fifth day of their tour of the Caribbean, the future king expressed his disgust at the 'appalling atrocity' that has left such a heavy legacy in Jamaica and expressed his 'profound sorrow' that it had ever happened to Jamaican dignitaries.

He spoke out on a tricky tour for the royals, where the Cambridges were greeted like rock stars by the public but politicians used meetings to make clear in public they will push for the island to be a republic with a referendum this year.

During the dinner, The Duke of Cambridge tackled Britain's historic role in the slave trade, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history' in a keynote speech alongside his wife. Kate and Patricia are pictured

In a landmark speech William also referred to his father's previous condemnation of slavery - but stopped short of apologising for the Royal Family's part in the trade. Kate is pictured with Sir Patrick and Lady Patricia last night

There was also a protest outside the British High Commission by republicans also demanding slavery reparations from Britain and the royals.

In a landmark speech William also referred to his father's previous condemnation of slavery - but stopped short of apologising for the Royal Family's part in the trade.

The Duchess of Cambridge dazzled in diamonds for the state dinner and wore an off the shoulder green dress by British designer Jenny Packham paired with earrings and a bracelet that were borrowed from Her Majesty the Queen's Emerald Tassel Parure. She also sported her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star.

Prince William was suave in black tie as they arrived at dinner thrown in their honour by the Governor General at King's House, his Kingston residence - the most glamorous event of their so far five-day Caribbean tour.

The couple also re-enacted the historical moment the Queen and the late Duke of Edinburgh walked down the grand central steps inside the house when they first visited Jamaica in 1953.
Trying to keep countries in the Commonwealth might be a 'losing battle' for the Royal Family, royal commentator Camilla Tominey has claimed, in the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's tense tour of the Caribbean.

Camilla, who is the Daily Telegraph's royal editor, was discussing the protesters calling for independence who greeted Prince William, 39 and Kate Middleton, 40, in Jamaica and Belize this week.

Speaking with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning from her house in Hertfordshire, the royal expert said that more countries might 'flirt with republicanism' and leave the Commonwealth when the Prince of Wales, 73, becomes King.

Camilla said that while the Queen, 95, is 'sacrosanct' among the Commonwealth because she's dedicated her life to serving its people, Charles is a more 'polarising' figure, which could trigger the departure of other countries when he ascends the throne.

This comes as Prince William used the royal visit to Jamaica to tackle Britain's historic role in the slave trade, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history' in a keynote speech alongside his wife at a state dinner last night.

Trying to keep countries in the Commonwealth might be a 'losing battle' for the Royal Family, royal commentator Camilla Tominey has claimed, in the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's tour of the Caribbean. Pictured on Monday in Kingston

Camilla began by saying that the Queen 'has arguable been one of the biggest champions of the Commonwealth and its people,' by visiting each of the nations several times throughout her reign to make sure they got to see their monarch as much as possible.

However, she claimed that more people might want to move on from monarchy once Prince Charles takes her place as sovereign.

'From modern day royals' perspective, they think they've done a great deal to forge Commonwealth ties, but of course they might be facing a losing battle here,' she said.

'The truth of the matter is, because of the Queen's performance on the throne and her solid support of Commonwealth Countries, she remains sacrosanct.

Speaking with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning from her house in Hertfordshire, the royal expert said that more countries might 'flirt with republicanism' and leave the Commonwealth when the Prince of Wales, 73, becomes King

Are there going to be more countries flirting with republicanism when we have King Charles III on the throne? Well, yes, maybe,' she added.

The expert claimed that the fact that Charles is a more 'polarising' figure than his mother and the changing times, namely the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, has put the UK's colonial past into perspective.

'He hasn't got that 70 year-sense of longevity and service to the crown and maybe then, especially because it's 2022 and weve had the Black Lives Matter movement and far more thought was given to our colonial past, maybe some of these Commonwealth Countries will fall away,' she said.

'They'll remain in the Commonwealth family, and we will support that, but they may become republics, but will not be the Commonwealth realms of which the Queen is head of,' she added.

While the Queen has been applauded for being one of the best-travelled Monarchs in history, Prince Charles might see some of the Commonwealth countries move on from Monarcy, the expert said

Camilla told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, left, that Prince William, 39 and Kate Middleton, 40, will have to address the UK's colonial past to remain relevant with their younger subjects

Camilla went on to say more was expected of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge than to travel overseas and not address the 'elephant in the room'

'The days of us accepting royals, walking around foreign climbs, not addressing the elephant in the room which is our imperialism and colonial past is over,' she told Phil and Holly.

'And maybe that's a good thing. If you want to remain relevant to the next generation, Will and Kate of course have to accept some of the dissent that they encounter when they go on these tours,' she added.

'My only overriding point would be. If these countries are to be republics, they probably shouldn't take the Barbados approach, which was just for the government to decide, they should genuinely put it to a vote,' she said.

The Duke of Cambridge, pictured with the Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge, has faced the issue of Britain's historic role in the slave trade head on, describing it as 'abhorrent' and a 'stain on our history' in a keynote speech alongside his wife Kate at a state dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica at King's House

Her comments come after Prince William spoke of the 'appalling atrocity' of slavery in Jamiaca at a state dinner last night, and expressed his 'profound sorrow' that it had ever happened.

His speech came during a tricky tour for the royals, where the Cambridges were greeted like rock stars by the public but politicians, including prime minister Andrew Holness, used meetings to make clear in public they will push for the island to be a republic with a referendum this year.

There was also a protest outside the British High Commission by republicans also demanding slavery reparations from Britain and the royals.

In a landmark speech William also referred to his father's previous condemnation of slavery - but stopped short of apologising for the Royal Familys part in the trade.

He said: 'I strongly agree with my father, The Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history. I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened. '

He continued: 'While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude.

The Duchess of Cambridge smiles at her husband before he gave his landmark speech on slavery

'The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit.

'It is this same spirit that spurred on the Windrush generation, who came to the United Kingdom to help rebuild after the Second World War.

'We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society.

'I'm delighted that a national monument acknowledging and celebrating the Windrush generation by Jamaican artist, Basil Watson, will be unveiled later this year in Waterloo Station in London.'

It comes as Jamaica's Prime Minister warned the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge that his nation is 'moving on' and intends to ditch the monarchy during a tense meeting this afternoon following anti-monarchy protests on the Caribbean island as its politicians push for a 2022 independence vote and slave trade reparations.

During the emotional speech, William also said he and his wife were 'very pleased' to be on our first official visit to Jamaica, adding: 'All my family have enjoyed their visits here so much. They have waxed lyrical about the warmth and sense of fun of the Jamaican people and the beauty of this island.

'Already in our short time here, Catherine and I are delighted to have felt what Bob Marley described so many years ago  the spirit of 'One love' that Jamaica has given to the world and which makes this country so special.

'I'm particularly pleased tonight to convey the very best wishes from my grandmother, The Queen of Jamaica, on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee.

'It is no secret that The Queen has a deep affection for Jamaica, forged on her very first visit here with my grandfather, The Duke of Edinburgh, in 1953.

Prince William during a visit with the Governor General of Jamaica at Kings House in Kingston

Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, leave the RAF Voyager aircraft at Norman Manley International Airport as they continue their tour of the Caribbean

'And likewise I have been touched to hear today from Jamaicans, young and old, about their affection for The Queen.

'Her dedication, commitment, and sense of duty to the Commonwealth family is deeply admired. She may be my actual grandmother, but everyone counts her as their grandmother too. And I'm ok with that!

'And of course, as The Queen marks seventy years on the throne, this is also a very special year for Jamaica, as you celebrate your sixtieth anniversary of independence. Now that's double the excuse for a party!'

Prince William was given a polite round of applause following his seven minute address to a complete and respectful silence ballroom at the Governor General's home.
Confucius Institute offers platform for Namibian students to chase dreams

Xinhua) 08:29, March 24, 2022

WINDHOEK, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Oozing with confidence, Kaarina Nangolo, 26, left Namibian students enrolled at the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in awe with her close to perfect command of the Chinese language during an orientation event held in the capital city, Windhoek on Wednesday.

Nangolo, who is now a medical practitioner at one of the country's state hospitals, was enrolled at the CI at UNAM in 2014, thereafter she received a scholarship to study at China's Dalian Medical Institution in 2015.

Speaking to visibly excited Namibian students at the orientation, Nangolo attributed her current status to the CI in Namibia which prepared her for the journey.

"The Chinese language is a difficult language to learn, but the CI at UNAM taught me a lot, which made it easier for me to transition during my 7-year stint in China," she said.

Nangolo's story like many other Namibian beneficiaries started at the CI in Windhoek, where she learnt the Chinese language from entry-level.

"By the time I attended my tertiary education in China, I had an idea of how to communicate, of which my Chinese language was further refined by further lessons I received in China," she said.

Explaining why she chose China, Nangolo, says she loves the Chinese culture and the language as she believes it is mind-opening and vast opportunities are available through speaking the language.

"Now I can write, read and I do not have a language barrier. To be honest, language is very important in any day to day business and I am glad that I enrolled at the CI. Currently, if I want to do any business in terms of ordering stuff from China, I can do it easily in Chinese," she told Xinhua.

Nangolo emphasized that language is vital to understanding another culture, while she encouraged budding Namibians to enrol and study hard and learn Mandarin.

"For one to understand a culture, one must be able to communicate," she said, adding that during her stay in China she experienced life-changing episodes, from developmental advancements to cultural heritage, which she can later plough back into her local community.

Head of UNAM Department of Humanities and Arts, Herman Beyer, commended students that have enrolled at the CI.

"You are brave to take on the task to tackle the Chinese culture and language being offered at the CI. This is a bold move in unlocking vast potentials in the various fields of your studies," he added.

To further the learning of Chinese language and culture in Namibia, the CI seeks to organize some Chinese cultural activities since the progress made over the years was eroded by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, said Liu Dianbo, the CI director at the UNAM.

"We might organize a Chinese Bridge competition and some exchange programmes, with the China University of Geosciences(Beijing). The university is eager and will continue accepting some UNAM staff or students to China for their further study, for a master or PhD degree programme supported by Chinese Government Scholarship," he said.

Furthermore, Liu said the CI will try to reignite some of the Chinese teaching sites this year and offer more Chinese courses to students across the country.

"Currently the challenge the CI in Namibia is facing is that there are not enough Chinese lecturers who can come to Namibia due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "The CI is in the process of luring more potential Chinese lecturers to come to Namibia as the pandemic subsides."

The institute currently offers non-credit Chinese courses in the evening time for many Namibians, he added.

"Due to the COVID-19, we have had to downsize our classes to 20 students, despite many Namibians showing interest in joining the CI at the UNAM," he said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)




North Korea launched an apparent long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea, Thursday, according to the South Korean military.







The North appears to have launched the projectile at an elevated angle, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which did not provide other details.







The North's move came four days after it fired four projectiles into the Yellow Sea, apparently using a multiple launch rocket system, from Sukchon, north of Pyongyang.







Also last week, the North unsuccessfully launched an apparent long-range missile.







Concerns have persisted that the North could engage in provocative acts down the road as it made a veiled threat in January to lift its years-long self-imposed moratorium on nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. (Yonhap)






Margaret Atwood and Art Spiegelman are among the renowned authors who have slammed publishing's sensitivity crisis as they called it 'a culture war that's totally out of control.'

Spiegelman, 74, who penned the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus about the Holocaust, saw the book banned by a Tennessee school district over a few curse words and a nude image earlier this year.

Meanwhile Atwood, 81, saw her a graphic novel version of her critically-acclaimed book The Handmaid's Tale removed from classroom libraries in a Texas school district in December.

Speaking to The Guardian, Atwood said there was a form of moral hysteria around upsetting children, adding: 'Theyre playing woke snowflakery back: [by saying] This might upset people.'

Their comments come after a number of critically-acclaimed authors spoke out on cancel culture within the publishing world.

Margaret Atwood, 81 and Art Spiegelman are among the renowned authors who have slammed publishing's sensitivity crisis as they called it 'a culture war that's totally out of control' (pictured, Atwood)

Spiegelman, who wrote the poignant tale about his parents' survival against Nazi atrocities, said culture surrounding books had become 'the most Orwellian version of society Ive ever lived in.'

He explained: 'Its not as simple as left v right. Its a culture war thats totally out of control.

'As a first-amendment fundamentalist, I believe in the right of anyone to read anything, provided they are properly supported.'

Earlier this month, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted to remove Maus from its curriculum due to 'inappropriate language' (eight swear words) and its 'not wise or healthy' content.

Spiegelman, 74, who penned the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus about the Holocaust, saw the book banned by a Tennessee school district over a few curse words and a nude image earlier this year

The book includes an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting.

Spiegelman, who wrote the poignant tale about his parents' survival against Nazi atrocities, said culture surrounding books had become 'the most Orwellian version of society Ive ever lived in'

The McMinn County Board of Education voted 10-0 to remove Maus on January 10, despite educators arguing that the graphic novel is an 'anchor text' in eighth-grade English language arts instruction and the centerpiece of a months-long study of the Holocaust.

Published in 1991, Maus is inspired by the story of Spiegelman's parents, Vladek and Anja, who survived the Holocaust after being shipped to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The graphic novel depicts Nazis as cats and Jewish people as mice.

Spiegelman's autobiographical book won a Pulitzer in 1992.

The Tennessee board's decision came amid a wave of conservative-sponsored legislation and other actions to pull books from schools, with other banned works including Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

It comes as author Anne Tyler, 80, slammed cancel culture in a new interview, while insisting that she 'should be allowed' to write a book from the 'viewpoint of a black man' without being accused of appropriation.

Atwood saw her a graphic novel version of her critically-acclaimed book The Handmaid's Tale removed from classroom libraries in a Texas school district in December

The author from Baltimore, has sold ten million books during her 50-year career, including her best-selling novel Accidental Tourist, which was turned into a major Hollywood movie in 1988 starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, and her latest release French Braid, which comes out on Tuesday.

However, the writer - who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 - says she has been left horrified by the way in which the industry has changed in recent years, calling particular attention to the negative impact that 'cancel culture' has had on literature.

'Im astonished by the appropriation issue,' she told The Sunday Times. 'It would be very foolish for me to write, lets say, a novel from the viewpoint of a black man, but I think I should be allowed to do it.'

The author added that the misdeeds or crimes of writers should not lead to their works being pulled from shelves, using 19th century artist Paul Gaugin - who reportedly had sex with and fathered children with underage girls. Despite Gaugin's controversial personal life however, his paintings continue to be exhibited in museums around the world.

Baltimore-based author Anne Tyler, 80, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989, has said she is horrified by the implications of 'cancel culture' on literature

According to Tyler, authors should receive the same treatment.

'If an incredibly talented person has written novels in the 1930s or 40s and all of a sudden it is discovered that there was something he said or did  even something as bad as sexual harassment  he should be condemned for it but I dont see why you should withdraw his novels from publication.

'We couldnt look at Gauguins paintings, could we? They would have to be destroyed or put away.'

Earlier this month, award-winning novelist Howard Jacobson said misogyny 'is not a word that should be used about writers' as he made a stand against publishing's sensitivity crisis.

The 79-year-old, who lives in London, said he was repeatedly warned to 'be careful' when writing his memoir Mother's Boy.

The author, who won the Booker Prize for The Finkler Question in 2010, said he was warned by his publisher that his book would make him seem 'not very likeable'.

Having previously been accused of misogyny by critics, he told The Telegraph: 'I've lost the energy for the battle...[Misogyny] is not a critical term. As anti-Semitism is not a critical term...

'Dickens wrote novels that you could say are anti-Semitic  so what have you said? And a male writer is not obliged to like women.'

Meanwhile critically-acclaimed author Kate Clanchy, 57, from Scotland, has found herself at the centre of a cancel culture row over revising her memoir.

Novelist Howard Jacobson, 79, previously said misogyny 'is not a word that should be used about writers' as he made a stand against publishing's sensitivity crisis

She revealed her former publisher Picador recruited 'sensitivity readers' to 'detect and reform problematic racism and ableism' in her Orwell Prize-winning book.

It came after the 2019 memoir about her life as a state school teacher was criticised for allegedly portraying some pupils in a racist manner.

Miss Clanchy, 57, said she was 'horrified that people found prejudice and cruelty' in the book and 'went into the process' of the memoir being scrutinised by the sensitivity 'experts' willingly.

Writing for website UnHerd, she said one focus group rated supposedly offensive words and passages on a scale of one to three.

She wrote: 'One Reader fusspots around single words: I should not use 'disfigure' of a landscape (infraction level 3, as presumably comparing bings  spoil heaps  to boils might be harmful to acne sufferers).

Kate Clanchy (pictured), who wrote Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me, revealed her former publisher Picador recruited 'sensitivity readers' to 'detect and reform problematic racism and ableism' in her Orwell Prize-winning book

'Nor should I use 'handicap' in its ordinary sense of 'impede' (infraction level 2, serious); and I should prefer the acronym 'SEN' to its origin phrase, special educational needs, because it is more inclusive (infraction level 2).'

She added: 'My Readers though, have not been hired as literary people. They are there to help create a book that would play better on Twitter, not one that is better written.'

Miss Clanchy, who was awarded an MBE in 2019, cut ties with Picador before the revised version of the book was published.

Swift Press has reissued it without the changes but with other edits.

Swift Press told the Daily Telegraph: 'The only thing we wish to say is that minor revisions were made because Kate wished to make them.'

Watch The Handmaid's Tale only on Stan in Australia.
Kate Middleton has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

Kate looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

She completed her look with a sophisticated hat featuring floral details and matching white high heels.

Kate Middleton (pictured) has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured), 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

In My Fair Lady, Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn (above)  wears a frilly white gown with black and white bows and matching hat

Kate wore Princess Diana's bracelet (pictured). This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, Kate donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 (pictured) for an engagement in Hong Kong

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, she donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Kate finished her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, including a deep blush and pink lips.

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.

Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Kate (pictured) looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot

The royal mother-of-three (pictured) teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch

Kate (pictured), with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline

After attending the inaugural commissioning parade for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academys officer training programme, the couple will fly to the Bahamas where they will be greeted by prime minister Philip Davis.

The couples trip to the region to mark the Queens Platinum Jubilee has been mired in controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britains historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an appalling atrocity and a stain on our history during a humble address last night.

The duke denounced slavery as abhorrent, saying it should never have happened as he addressed the issue following days of protests calling for reparations from the royal family.

William expressed his profound sorrow at the forced transportation of millions of people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America  a trade which British monarchs either supported or profited from during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Kate (pictured left) finished her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, including a deep blush and pink lips

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today dazzled in white at a military parade in Jamaica

With statement shoulders, Kate's (pictured) midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top

Speaking during his visit to Jamaica with Kate, he echoed the words of his father the Prince of Wales and went on to acknowledge Jamaicas pain.

The Cambridges tour of Belize, Jamaica and the forthcoming final leg in the Bahamas has prompted demonstrations and statements calling for an apology from the royal family. The future king did not say sorry, just as his father Charles had not during his trip to witness Barbados become a republic.

But he praised the Windrush generation of Caribbeans who arrived in the UK a few years after the Second World War to help rebuild the nation depleted by six years of conflict.

Jamaicas prime minister Andrew Holness appeared to suggest his country may be the next country to break away from the monarchy, telling the Cambridges it was moving on and intended to fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.

The Independent has reported the Jamaican government has already begun the process to transition to a republic, with an official appointed to oversee the work.
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The Queen was all smiles as she stood with her walking stick at an official engagement at her Windsor Castle home this week after it was revealed she hopes to attend a thanksgiving service to remember her late husband Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey next Tuesday.

Elizabeth II - currently in residence at Windsor Castle - was pictured wearing half-moon glasses to examine luxury artefacts by British craftwork firm Halcyon Days, which is held in high esteem by the royal family and has three Royal Warrants.

The official engagement marked the Queen's first in-person visit with a significant group of attendees since her pre-Jubilee reception last month when she was joined members of the local community in the Sandringham House ballroom in Norfolk.

The 95-year-old monarch was due to visit the Halcyon Days factory in Staffordshire in 2020 to mark its own Platinum Jubilee of 70 years, but plans were put on hold when the pandemic struck - instead she was visited at her home on Wednesday.

Royal aides recently announced details of The Duke of Edinburgh's upcoming service, which will 'give thanks to his dedication to family, nation and Commonwealth and recognise the importance of his legacy in creating opportunities for young people, promoting environmental stewardship and conservation, and supporting the Armed Forces'.

The palace has yet to confirm whether the Queen will be present at the service, with a source saying that she still 'hopes to attend'. The event will be broadcast live on BBC One from 10.30am until 12.15pm.

The Sun on Sunday previously reported that Buckingham Palace is planning a 'military-style' operation to 'get the Queen to attend her late husband's memorial service while keeping her out of view from paparazzi'.

The monarch is expected to be flown 15 minutes by helicopter from Windsor Castle to Buckingham Palace for the event and will then be driven the short distance from the Palace to Westminster Abbey, sources have claimed.

One source told the Mail on Sunday that Her Majesty does not want to be seen in public in a wheelchair over fears of replicating a 'haunting' photo taken of her late sister Princess Margaret in the months before her death.

It comes after the Queen pulled out of the Commonwealth Day service last week over concerns for her 'comfort' on the 60-mile trip, and whether she could manage having to sit in Westminster Abbey for more than an hour.

Her biographer Robert Hardman also revealed on Wednesday to GB news that Her Majesty was in 'very good spirits' amid recent reports that she is relying on a wheelchair.

Robert, who is the author of the new book 'Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II', said: 'She is the Queen, she wants to be seen as the Queen, she wants to look the part.'

The Queen, 95, now uses a walking stick, confessing to mobility problems, and usually carrying out only light duties at Windsor

The Queen was all smiles as she viewed a display of hand-decorated teapots brought to Windsor Castle for her to see

Taking a closer look at the antique pieces, the Queen held a small oval Windsor Castle trinket box with a red base, decorated with a black and white painting of the monarch's favourite royal residence

The Queen and Philip's second son Prince Andrew is planning to be present at the thanksgiving service next week, despite him paying an estimated 12million earlier this month to settle out of court in a US civil sexual assault case with accuser Virginia Roberts.

But Prince Harry will not travel to the UK for the service amid ongoing legal action that he is taking against the Home Office over Metropolitan Police protection, which he believes he should still be entitled to when in the UK, despite quitting royal duties and moving to California. His spokesman said earlier this month that he 'plans to visit the Queen, his grandma, as soon as possible' but there has been no confirmation of when this might be.

Other Royal Family members expected to be in attendance next Tuesday include Prince Charles; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince William; Kate, Duchess of Cambridge; Prince Edward; and Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

There will also be representatives from the Queen and Philip's royal household, representatives from Philip's regimental affiliations in the UK and the Commonwealth, and members of the clergy and other faiths.

Much has changed since the outbreak of Covid-19, with the Queen now using a walking stick, confessing to mobility problems, and usually carrying out only light duties at Windsor.

The extended audience on Wednesday was a rethinking of the original engagement, with the factory's work and skills being brought to the Queen instead - on a minor scale.

Dressed for spring in a silk floral day dress and wearing her favourite three-string pearl necklace, the Queen appeared in her element, smiling broadly as she was shown the presentation.

The intricately-decorated coffee cups and saucers and enamelled boxes were laid out on a white linen-covered table in the White Drawing Room.

The Queen was said to have particularly enjoyed the visit, picking up some of the tiny enamelled boxes to inspect them.

Her Majesty appeared in high spirits as she viewed the display of artefacts from British craftwork company, Halcyon Days

Wearing half-moon glasses to examine the artefacts, including antique enamelled trinket boxes, she peered at the luxury pieces by British craftwork firm Halcyon Days

It comes as her biographer Robert Hardman revealed on Wednesday to GB news that Her Majesty (pictured) was in 'very good spirits' amid recent reports that she is relying on a wheelchair

Among the items was a selection of the earliest designs - the company was founded in 1950 just two years before the start of the Queen's reign.

Taking a closer look at the antique pieces, the Queen held a small oval Windsor Castle trinket box with a red base, decorated with a black and white painting of the monarch's favourite royal residence.

She also picked up a larger rectangular trinket box, edged in lavender, featuring three colour portraits of her late mother the Queen Mother as a young woman.

The enamelled piece was released in 2005 and features Samuel Warburton's 1923 triptych painting of the Queen Mother in the year she married the Queen's father.

The Queen Mother was an avid fan of the firm's creations, and first commissioned an enamel box in 1970 of her London home Clarence House.

Other members of the royal family soon followed suit, and the Queen Mother went on to issue the company's first Royal Warrant in 1972.

The intricately-decorated coffee cups and saucers and enamelled boxes were laid out on a white linen-covered table in the White Drawing Room

Her Majesty met Dr Peter Harper from the British craftwork company as she viewed a display of artefacts to commemorate the company's 70th anniversary in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle

The monarch also saw Halcyon Days' first ever 'year box' - from the Silver Jubilee of 1977 - and viewed new Platinum Jubilee pieces which are dark blue and painted with platinum flowers of the realm.

She was especially taken with the Castle of Mey tea range, admiring the pastel floral detail, which was inspired by the Queen Mother's favourite flowers including primulas, pansies and Albertine roses.

Perched on the crook of the Queen's left arm was her trademark black patent Launer handbag, and she also held her walking stick as she stood to look at the display.

She wore a sentimental piece of jewellery - her Flower Basket brooch - a basket of gem-studded flowers set with diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds, which she was given by her parents in 1948 to mark the birth of her first child, Prince Charles.

Peter Harper, owner of the firm, and Pamela Harper, chairman and chief executive, talked the Queen through the pieces.

Mrs Harper described the event as a 'great privilege', saying afterwards: 'We are deeply honoured and the experience was simply fabulous.'

Perched on the crook of the Queen's left arm was her trademark black patent Launer handbag, and she also held her walking stick as she stood to look at the display

The Queen wore a sentimental piece of jewellery - her Flower Basket brooch - a basket of gem-studded flowers set with diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds, which she was given by her parents in 1948 to mark the birth of her first child, Prince Charles

Peter Harper, owner of the firm, and Pamela Harper, chairman and chief executive, talked the Queen (pictured) through the pieces

Susan Jones who, along with fellow master artisan Susan Shakespeare, performed the demonstrations for the Queen, said: 'The experience was truly, truly wonderful and one that not many have had and I'm still a bit in shock.

'We were so nervous, but Her Majesty's nature made us feel so relaxed. It was absolutely amazing.'

Princess Alexandra's granddaughter Zenouska Mowatt, who is the company's head of marketing, was also present.

Established to revive the artisan craft of enamelling on copper, Halcyon Days' master artists employ traditional techniques which have been handed down for generations.

The company, which has an enamel factory in Wolverhampton and a fine bone china and jewellery factory in Stoke-on-Trent, is one of only 14 firms in the world to hold all three Royal Warrants, by appointment to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales.

The monarch met Pamela Harper (right) and Dr Peter Harper from British craftwork company, Halcyon Days as she commemorated the company's 70th anniversary in the White Drawing Room

Her Majesty shook hands with Pamela Harper of Halcyon Days as she displayed artefacts to commemorate the company's 70th anniversary in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle

It is the only supplier of objets d'art to the royal household.

The event was the Queen's first official face-to-face engagement with a number of people for more than seven weeks since her Platinum Jubilee reception at Sandringham House.

She contracted Covid in February and also spent more than three months from October under doctors' orders to only conduct light duties.

One Wednesday, her biographer Robert Hardman, said: 'Mobility is something of an issue now.' However, it's not lowered her mood, with Robert adding: 'I'm told by those very close to her that she's in very good spirits, you know - absolutely pin sharp as ever.'

Susan Shakespeare, master enameling artisan from British craftwork company, Halcyon Days, demonstrates traditional methods of enamel decoration in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle

Susan Jones, master gilder from British craftwork company, Halcyon Days, demonstrates traditional methods of gilding in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle

Susan Shakespeare showcasing her skills during the visit to Windsor Castle on Wednesday

A display of artefacts from British craftwork company, Halcyon Days, in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, viewed by the Queen to commemorate the company's 70th anniversary

He continued: 'But, but there is a mobility [issue] inevitably when you're coming up to your 96th birthday and also dignity, I think it's terribly important.

'She is the Queen, she wants to be seen as the Queen, she wants to look the part.'

Mr Hardman's comments come two days after Christopher Biggins told GB News he'd been told the Queen was now largely confined to a wheelchair.

The entertainer said it was 'very sad' but that he hoped she'd be well enough to enjoy the upcoming anniversary celebrations.

He said: 'I have heard that the reason she's not doing a lot of the events that she should be doing and cancelling them is because she is in a wheelchair. She doesn't want to be seen because she's very proud.'

The Queen and Philip's second son Prince Andrew is also planning to be present, despite him paying an estimated 12million earlier this month to settle out of court in a US civil sexual assault case with accuser Virginia Roberts.

But Prince Harry will not travel to the UK for the service amid ongoing legal action that he is taking against the Home Office over Metropolitan Police protection, which he believes he should still be entitled to when in the UK, despite quitting royal duties and moving to California. His spokesman said earlier this month that he 'plans to visit the Queen, his grandma, as soon as possible' but there has been no confirmation of when this might be.

Other Royal Family members expected to be in attendance next Tuesday include Prince Charles; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince William; Kate, Duchess of Cambridge; Prince Edward; and Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

Last week, the Queen missed the Commonwealth Day service which was also at Westminster Abbey - a decision understood to be related to her comfort rather than a specific illness. But she has continued with light duties including virtual audiences conducted via videolink and the occasional face-to-face audience at Windsor Castle.

Next Tuesday's service will 'in particular pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh's contribution to public life and steadfast support for the over 700 charitable organisations' with which he was associated throughout his life.
A 21-year-old model and avid rock climber who had both of her legs amputated due to COVID-19 complications has finally gone home from the hospital after two months.

Claire Bridges from St. Petersburg, Florida was fully vaccinated when she tested positive for COVID-19 in early January.

But having been born with a congenital heart condition, her condition soon worsened, and on January 16 she was admitted to a Tampa hospital and diagnosed with COVID-19 myocarditis, cyanotic, acidosis, rhabdomyolysis, and mild pneumonia.

Restricted blood flow had caused damage to her legs, which had to be amputated.

But Bridges has maintained an optimistic outlook, and last week she joyously celebrated her 21st birthday at home with friends and family.

Claire Bridges, a model from Florida, was home to celebrate her 21st birthday after two months in the hospital battling COVID complications, including a double leg amputation

She was fully vaccinated when she tested positive for COVID-19 in early January

Claire (seen before she was hospitalized) has remained positive, and her father said she was happy to be alive

Bridges was born with a congenital heart condition and was soon hospitalized, requiring life support

Bridges was born with aortic valve stenosis, a narrowing of the heart's aortic valve.

She had open heart surgery at age nine and, according to her mother, Kimberly White Smith, grew 'into an incredible, loving, vivacious, bright young woman.'

But when she tested positive for COVID-19, it 'devastated' her.

Her mother said that she was sent home from the emergency room the first time she went, but she returned with 'extreme leg pain' the next day  and again, she was sent home.

The third time she went to the hospital, her condition was critical, and she coded three times before undergoing a four-hour surgery to place tandem heart life support.

Her mother said there was 'more life support for her lungs, continual kidney dialysis, feeding tube, access lines, [and] IVs,' and Bridges suffered liver damage, kidney failure, and muscle deterioration called rhabdomyolysis  which led to doctors amputating her legs.

According to the CDC, 'rhabdomyolysis (often called rhabdo) is a serious medical condition that can be fatal or result in permanent disability.'

'[The condition] occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood,' the description explains. 'These substances can damage the heart and kidneys and cause permanent disability or even death.'

After her amputation, Bridges' father Wayne revealed on his Facebook page that his daughter was still 'making silly faces and crazy smiles,' despite being left in 'shock' by the news that she had gone into cardiac arrest three times.

'Claire made silly faces and crazy smiles in truest Claire fashion,' he wrote.

She suffered liver damage, kidney failure, and muscle deterioration called rhabdomyolysis, which led to doctors amputating her legs

'As much as she's faced, she's happy to be alive. Thats the thing about Claire, she's very grateful,' her father said

Bridges is an avid rock climber and is awaiting prosthetics so she can get back to it

She was described by a former colleague as a 'young woman full of life and love, who radiates positive energy'

Bridges' father Wayne praised his daughter's 'determination,' calling her a 'warrior' in a tribute posted to his Facebook page

'Claire and I sang "Don't Stop Believing" together even though she could only whisper it. The medical team joined us in in her room soon after and explained everything that has happened to her up to this point.

'She was shocked to know she was in cardiac arrest 3 times and had to be brought back to life. When the moment came to let her know about losing her legs the doctor handled it beautifully but held nothing back.

'Claire whispered, "I want Bionic legs" and smiled. The doctor later asked if she had any questions and she said, "Thank you for saving my life."

'We told everyone she is a fighter and now you see why! Claire is an F'ing amazing young woman and I'm so proud of her. Thank you everyone for your prayers and good vibes today. She still has a long and challenging road ahead and still on some life support but today was a good day!'

After going through such incredible trauma, Bridges has remained positive  and a month later, her parents were sharing a hopeful outlook.

'Shes staying positive. They got to move her around a little bit,' her father, Wayne Bridges, told local Fox 13 in early February. 'She said "This is awesome."

'As much as she's faced, she's happy to be alive. Thats the thing about Claire, she's very grateful,' he added.

In February, was able to sit up for the first time in a month, and on March 15 she shared a photo on Instagram.

She shared photos from the hospitals and thanked the staff who cared for her

In February, was able to sit up for the first time in a month, and on March 15 she shared a photo on Instagram

Finally, last week, she was discharged. 'She is determined, she is excited to come home and she is ready for this next phase,' her father said

'I sat up by myself today!! So stoked,' she wrote, while her father marked the milestone moment on his Facebook page, saying: 'Two months to the day this all started and Claire, for the first time sat up by herself!

'It may not seem like a lot, but for this warrior it's a major victory! And for this victory, it looks like our warrior girl is coming home to her moms house today for the rehab phase of her journey.

'Claire, I am so proud of you and inspired by you. You have overcome more in two months than any of us could imagine in a lifetime. You will be climbing again before you know it. We love you so much!'

Finally, last week, she was discharged.

'She is determined, she is excited to come home and she is ready for this next phase,' her father told WESH.

She is now getting occupational therapy and physical therapy multiple times a week, and was able to be at home to celebrate her 21st birthday with family and friends on Saturday.

Marking the occasion, she shared several photos of herself enjoying the event in her wheelchair, with both of her legs and two fingers bandaged.

She wrote: '21st spent right! Grateful for all the love and wishes.'

She is now getting occupational therapy and physical therapy multiple times a week, and was able to be at home to celebrated her 21st birthday with family and friends on Saturday

Marking the occasion, she shared several photos of herself enjoying the event in her wheelchair, with both of her legs and two fingers bandaged

Meanwhile, over $100,000 in donations have poured in on GoFundMe

In another update this week, she shared that she is preparing to have her stitches removed, which marks another step towards her getting prosthetics.

'Im doing good,' she told her followers. 'I have occupational therapy, physical therapy and at home nursing now multiple times a week and Im getting up and moving a lot more.

'Also get my stitches out of my nubs next week. Ill be walking in no time!'

Meanwhile, over $107,000 in donations have poured in on GoFundMe, and funds are being raised to get her prosthetics so she can get back to rock climbing.

The fundraiser was started by Bridges' roommate, Heather Valdes, shortly after the model was hospitalized.

In her initial post, Heather explained that the pair also worked alongside one another at a local coffee house, Grassroots Kava House.

'She's a daughter, sister, and best friend,' Heather wrote. 'A young woman full of life and love, who radiates positive energy. Her laugh lights up any room. Most of all, she's hysterical...' she wrote.

In addition to working at Grassroots Kava House before being hospitalized, Bridges had also been building up her portfolio as a model.

The 21-year-old was signed with KLA Management, which describes itself as 'a mother agency discovering models, developing them, managing them, helping them reach their full potential.'

In the years since her high school graduation, Bridges took part in several different photoshoots, both in Florida and in Los Angeles.
The Duchess of Cambridge faced a battle with the winds as she attended a military parade alongside Prince William for their final engagement in Jamaica.

Kate, 40, oozed elegance in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined the Duke of Cambridge, 39, at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

But the Duchess was forced to hold on to her stunning floral hat as gusts of wind threatened to send it soaring today.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her lace number with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

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The Duchess of Cambridge (left) faced a battle with the winds as she attended a military parade alongside Prince William for their final engagement in Jamaica

Kate (pictured), 40, oozed elegance in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined the Duke of Cambridge, 39, at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

Attending the military parade today, Kate walked alongside a woman dressed in pink while Prince William strolled in front in footage taken during the outing.

The Duchess, seemingly wanting to avoid a fashion disaster, held firmly on to her hat as the wind picked up in the area.

Alongside her stunning floral headpiece, the Duchess donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Kate (pictured) looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot

The royal mother-of-three (pictured) teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch

Kate (pictured), with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.

After attending the inaugural commissioning parade for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academys officer training programme, the couple will fly to the Bahamas where they will be greeted by prime minister Philip Davis.

The couples trip to the region to mark the Queens Platinum Jubilee has been mired in controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britains historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an appalling atrocity and a stain on our history during a humble address last night.

The duke denounced slavery as abhorrent, saying it should never have happened as he addressed the issue following days of protests calling for reparations from the royal family.

Kate (pictured left) finished her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, including a deep blush and pink lips

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today dazzled in white at a military parade in Jamaica

With statement shoulders, Kate's (pictured) midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top

William expressed his profound sorrow at the forced transportation of millions of people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America  a trade which British monarchs either supported or profited from during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Speaking during his visit to Jamaica with Kate, he echoed the words of his father the Prince of Wales and went on to acknowledge Jamaicas pain.

The Cambridges tour of Belize, Jamaica and the forthcoming final leg in the Bahamas has prompted demonstrations and statements calling for an apology from the royal family. The future king did not say sorry, just as his father Charles had not during his trip to witness Barbados become a republic.

But he praised the Windrush generation of Caribbeans who arrived in the UK a few years after the Second World War to help rebuild the nation depleted by six years of conflict.

Jamaicas prime minister Andrew Holness appeared to suggest his country may be the next country to break away from the monarchy, telling the Cambridges it was moving on and intended to fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.

The Independent has reported the Jamaican government has already begun the process to transition to a republic, with an official appointed to oversee the work.
Prince William proudly donned his royal medals which reflect his decades of service in the royal family as he attended a military parade in Jamaica today.

The Duke of Cambridge, 39, attended at the inaugural Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade earlier today alongside the Duchess, 40, on day six of his Caribbean tour.

He wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamourous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat.

Prince William wore the 2002 Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal alongside the 2012 Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, as well as a Garter star on display as he is a member of the Order of the Garter.

Prince William proudly donned his royal medals which reflect his decades of service in the royal family as he attended a military parade in Jamaica today

He wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamourous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat

Among the medals on display from the Duke were military awards given for Queen's 2002 Golden Jubilee and 2012 Diamond Jubilee.

The pieces were awarded to all military personnel serving at the time of the jubilees, depending on length of service.

Medals have been awarded to mark royal jubilees since the Victorian period when the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign was commemorated in 1887 with a medal.

In recent decades, medals have been issued to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Golden Jubilee in 2002 and Silver Jubilee in 1977.

The Duke was last seen wearing his full military awards when he attended Prince Philip's funeral service in April 2021

Medals will be awarded to living recipients of the Victoria and George Crosses and serving frontline members of the police, fire, emergency services, prison services and Armed Forces who have completed five years service on February 6, the start of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

Meanwhile Prince William also has a Garter star on display as he is a member of the Order of the Garter.

He was awarded the honour in 2008 when he was just 25-years-old.

The Duke was last seen wearing his full military awards when he attended Prince Philip's funeral service in April 2021.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ride in Jamaica a vintage Land Rover used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966 and again in 1994, as they leave a commissioning parade in Kingston on the sixth day of their Caribbean tour

The Order of the Garter Founded in 1348 by Edward III, the Garter is the senior British order of chivalry awarded by the sovereign for outstanding public service and achievement. Originally it served the double purpose of bringing together the sovereign and 25 senior knights who were the country's military leaders as well as establishing a new fellowship in religious worship. The patron saint of the Order is St George. The Order's emblem is a blue ribbon or garter worn by men below the left knee and by women on the left arm. The Garter - also incorporated in the Royal Coat of Arms - bears the famous legend "Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" ("Shame on him who thinks this evil"). The motto could have referred to critics of Edward III's claim to the throne of France. Modern scholars have cast doubt on the tradition that the order was inspired by a garter dropped by Joan, Countess of Salisbury, at a ball in Calais, which the King retrieved and wore on his leg. Although 14th-century knights did wear ladies' favours when jousting, it seems more likely that the garter was a strap used to attach armour. Other items of dress worn by modern Garter Knights include a blue velvet mantle or cloak with the badge of the order on the left shoulder, a vestigial hood of red velvet worn over the right shoulder, and a black velvet hat garnished with white feathers. Every Knight or Lady of the Order is required to display a banner of his or her arms in St George's Chapel, Windsor, together with a helmet, crest and sword, and an enamelled stall-plate. The modern pattern of the Garter ceremony dates from the order's 600th anniversary in 1948 when George VI revived formal installation of new Knights for the first time since 1805. In 1987 the Queen opened the order to non-royal women and the first to be admitted was Lavina, Duchess of Norfolk in 1990. If there are new Knights or Ladies of the Garter, the Queen formally invests them with Order's insignia in the Throne Room of Windsor Castle, followed by lunch in the Waterloo Chamber and the Garter procession to St George's Chapel. Advertisement

The Queen is sovereign of the order and a number of other British and foreign royals are additional knights of the order.

New appointments are announced on St Georges Day but the chivalric and installation ceremonies take place on the Monday of Royal Ascot week, known as Garter Day.

The total number of Garter Knights allowed is 24 and vacancies are created when current members pass away.

Recipients of the honour are chosen because they have held public office, contributed to national life or served the sovereign personally.

The appointment of Knights of the Garter is in the Queens gift and is made without consulting ministers.

Other current members of the order include former prime minister Sir John Major, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, a past president of the Supreme Court, and Admiral Lord Boyce, a former head of the UKs Armed Forces.

During the service hymns were sung and prayers said for the Order of the Garter.

Prince William today quoted Bob Marley as he spoke at a military parade in Jamaica on day six of his Caribbean tour with Kate Middleton, saying: 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.'

The couple attended at the inaugural Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on the island nation for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academy's officer training programme.

And William said: 'You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity.

'Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. "You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice". From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors.'

William also quoted the Queen, continuing: 'Good leadership is hard to define, but it's easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject.'

The Duke referred to her address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, in which she said: 'I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.'

Following today's parade, the Duke and Duchess travelled in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen and Prince Philip in Jamaica in 1953 when they were greeted by thousands of cheering schoolchildren.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge travel in an open-top Land Rover in Kingston, Jamaica, today for the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel, on what is day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today dazzled in white at a military parade in Jamaica

Later this afternoon, the couple - whose children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are at home in London - will fly to The Bahamas where they will be greeted by prime minister Philip Davis.

William and Kate have been visiting the Caribbean to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, but the trip has faced controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britain's historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an 'appalling atrocity' and a 'stain on our history' during an address last night.
The Duchess of Cambridge proved her fashion prowess once again today when departing Jamaica with Prince William for the final leg of their Caribbean tour.

Kate, 40, stunned in a recycled 1,380 green Emilia Wickstead dress, which she first wore at Wimbledon last year, as she and the Duke of Cambridge, 39, said a fond farewell to the country.

The mother-of-three teamed the elegant number - her first recycled piece of the tour - with eye-catching accessories, including the Queen's Hummingbird Brooch, which was gifted to Her Majesty during her visit to Jamaica in 2002.

Earlier today, Kate commanded attention in head-to-toe white as she opted for a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress for a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade.

The Duke and Duchess' tour to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee now heads north to The Bahamas.

The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured) proved her fashion prowess once again today when departing Jamaica with Prince William for the final leg of their Caribbean tour

Kate (pictured), 40, stunned in a recycled 1,380 green Emilia Wickstead dress, which she first wore at Wimbledon last year, as she and the Duke of Cambridge, 39, said a fond farewell to the country

Earlier today, the Duchess of Cambridge (pictured), 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

Kate has long been a fan of Emilia Wickstead dresses, and for her farewell outfit she opted for the 'Denver' frock.

The elegant piece is designed with a tailored darted bodice and swing skirt, which the Duchess teamed with Kiki McDonough earrings and Gianvito Rossi pumps.

She kept her hair pulled back in a bun with a middle parting and opted for a smattering of glamorous makeup.

Ahead of departing for their final destination, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posted on their official Instagram account: 'What an amazing trip so far! Thank you Belize and Jamaica. Next stop, The Bahamas'.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wave goodbye to Jamaica as they depart from the Norman Manley International Airport

The Duchess of Cambridge is seen ahead of her departure on an RAF Voyager with Prince William on day six of their tour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are seen walking towards the plane at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, today

Earlier today, Kate appeared effortlessly elegant in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her ensemble with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

She completed her look with a sophisticated hat featuring floral details and matching white high heels.

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, she donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

The Duchess of Cambridge speaks to dignitaries ahead of her departure on RAF Voyager with Prince William on Thursday

Kate has long been a fan of Emilia Wickstead dresses, and for her farewell outfit she opted for the 'Denver' frock

The mother-of-three teamed her elegant number with eye-catching accessories, including the Queen's Hummingbird Brooch, which was gifted to Her Majesty during her visit to Jamaica in 2002

Prince William and Kate walk towards a waiting aircraft as they depart Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.
Royal fans were left swooning today after Kate Middleton gazed at Prince William while he adjusted his military uniform during a parade in Jamaica.

The Duke, 39, and Duchess of Cambridge, 40, attended the inaugural Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on the island nation for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academy's officer training programme.

The Duke of Cambridge wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamorous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat.

However royal followers couldn't help but spot what appeared to be a candid moment for the couple, as Kate watched Prince William adjusting his uniform as he took a seat at the event.

Royal fans were left swooning today after Kate Middleton gazed at Prince William while he adjusted his military uniform during a parade in Jamaica (pictured)

One royal fan commented: 'She just couldn't stop looking at him!'

Meanwhile another wrote: 'What is it Catherine?...I can't blame her. Her husband is so handsome in his uniform.'

A third added: 'She's being more controlled about it than I would have been!'

The Duke today quoted Bob Marley as he spoke at a military parade in Jamaica on day six of his Caribbean tour with Kate, saying: 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.'

Royal followers couldn't help but spot what appeared to be a candid moment for the couple, as Kate watched Prince William adjusting his uniform as he took a seat at the event

William said: 'You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity.

'Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. "You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice". From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors.'

William also quoted the Queen, continuing: 'Good leadership is hard to define, but it's easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject.'

The Duke referred to her address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, in which she said: 'I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.'

The Duke of Cambridge wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamorous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat

Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Following today's parade, the Duke and Duchess travelled in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen in 1966 and again in 1994.

The couple - whose children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are at home in London - went on to fly to The Bahamas where they were greet by prime minister Philip Davis.

William and Kate have been visiting the Caribbean to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, but the trip has faced controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britain's historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an 'appalling atrocity' and a 'stain on our history' during an address last night.
Prince Albert of Monaco has stepped out for a yachting event in a solo appearance after the palace confirmed Princess Charlene has returned to the principality.

The 64-year-old royal was joined by Prince Charles of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies as he celebrated the tenth anniversary of the 'Monaco, capital of yachting' label at Yacht Club de Monaco this evening.

It comes after his wife Charlene, 44, returned to the principality following an extended stay away due to health problems, including what the palace has previously referred to as a 'state of profound general fatigue'.

The mother-of-two was reportedly admitted to a private Swiss clinic in late November, within days of her return to Monaco following a 10-month absence in her native South Africa.

The palace said in a statement issued earlier this month stating: 'The next few weeks should allow for Princess Charlene to further strengthen her health, before gradually resuming her official duties and commitments.'

Prince Albert of Monaco (pictured) has stepped out for a yachting event in a solo appearance after the palace confirmed Princess Charlene has returned to the principality

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene pictured together during her time in South Africa

The Monaco palace has consistently denied media reports of a rift between Charlene and the principality's ruler Prince Albert, who were wed in 2011, following the princess' long absence.

Prince Albert put on a smart appearance when attending the Yacht Club de Monaco this evening.

He opted for a sophisticated navy blazer teamed with grey trousers and a light blue shirt, as well as a dark blue and red tie for the outing.

'In accordance with her doctors and while her recovery is going well, their royal highnesses have agreed together that Princess Charlene can now continue her convalescence in the principality with her husband and their children,' the palace statement said earlier this month.

It added that 'the coming weeks should enable her to recover completely in order to be able to resume her official duties progressively'.

The 64-year-old royal (pictured) was joined by Prince Charles of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies as he celebrated the tenth anniversary of the 'Monaco, capital of yachting' label at Yacht Club de Monaco this evening

It comes after Prince Albert's wife Charlene, 44, returned to the principality following an extended stay away due to health problems, including what the palace has previously referred to as a 'state of profound general fatigue'. Pictured, Albert at the event (centre right)

The mother-of-two was reportedly admitted to a private Swiss clinic in late November, within days of her return to Monaco following a 10-month absence in her native South Africa. Pictured, Albert at the event

The former Olympic swimmer was admitted to a private Swiss clinic for treatment for 'extreme fatigue' in late November, sources told AFP at the time.

She is also thought to have undergone dental treatment.

'She was clearly exhausted, physically and emotionally. She was overwhelmed and couldn't face official duties, life in general or even family life,' Albert told People magazine in November.

Zimbabwean-born Princess Charlene was hospitalised after collapsing in September in South Africa, where she had been living for several months.

The royal couple has been dogged by rumours about their rocky relationship almost since their marriage, which was briefly hailed as a fairy-tale match for a prince long described as the world's most eligible bachelor.

Princess Charlene returned to Monaco in November, following a 10-month absence in her native South Africa, before being admitted to a treatment centre abroad. This photo was released to mark the reunion

Prince Albert, Princess Caroline of Hanover, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella of Monaco appear on the palace's balcony during the Sainte Devote Celebrations in Monaco on January 27, 2022, without Princess Charlene

Charlene's prolonged absence in South Africa last year sparked speculation in European celebrity magazines that they were headed for divorce.

She underwent surgery in October for an ear, nose and throat infection after checking in under a pseudonym in a Durban hospital, a palace source said at the time.

Friends previously told Page Six that the mother-of-two 'almost died' while she was in her home country, while her husband spoke out to say she is suffering from 'exhaustion, both emotional and physical'.

Timeline: Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's year apart January 27 - Charlene is pictured with Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. March 18 - Charlene is pictured at the memorial for the late Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini at the KwaKhethomthandayo Royal Palace in Nongoma, South Africa April 2 - Charlene posts an Instagram picture of herself, Albert and their twins Jacques and Gabriella for Easter. It is unknown where the image was taken. May 8 - Albert, Jacques and Gabriella attend a Grand Prix event in Monaco without Charlene May 10 - Albert attends Monaco Gala Awards in Monaco without Charlene May 18 - Charlene shares her first picture from her conservation trip in South Africa June 1 - Prince Albert II, Jacques and Gabriella attend event at Oceanic Museum in Monaco June 3 - New photos emerge of Charlene on her conservation trip June 5- Charlene puts on a united front as she shares a photo with her family to mark her niece's fifth birthday with her brother's family and Albert and the twins in South Africa June 7 - Albert and the twins attend the World Rugby Sevens without Charlene June 17 - Prince Albert attends Red Cross Summer concert in Monte Carlo with his sister Princess Caroline of Hanover June 18 - Prince Albert appears alone Monte Carlo TV Festival June 24 - Charlene's foundation releases a statement saying the royal is unable to travel and is undergoing procedures for an ear, nose and throat infection July 2 - Charlene and Albert mark their 10th anniversary separately. 'This year will be the first time that I'm not with my husband on our anniversary in July, which is difficult, and it saddens me,' Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene said in a statement. July 3 - Albert appears with glamorous niece Charlotte Casiraghi at the 15th international Monte-Carlo Jumping event, which is part of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Monaco, July 27 - Prince Albert attends Olympics alone in Tokyo August 13 - Charlene undergoes a four-hour operation. The reason is not announced August 25 - Charlene shares photos of Prince Albert, Gabriella and Jacques visiting her in South Africa September 1 - Charlene is admitted under an alias to the Netcare Alberlito Hospital after suddenly 'collapsing' September 2 - She is discharged, with a statement from the Palais Princier reading: 'Her Highness is closely monitored by Her medical team who said that Her condition was not worrying' September 23 - Prince Albert attends the 2021 Monte Carlo Gala for Planetary Health September 29 - Prince Albert is joined on the red carpet by actress Sharon Stone for a first look at the eagerly anticipated James Bond release September 30 - Charlene releases a stylish video promoting her anti-poaching campaign from her South African bolthole October 3 - Princess Charlene shares a photograph of herself smiling in front of a bible in her first snap since being discharged from hospital following her health scare October 5 - Prince Albert attends Sportel Awards Ceremony in Monte Carlo with nephew Louis Ducruet October 6 - Albert tells RMC radio Charlene is 'ready to come home' October 8 - Princess undergoes surgery in South Africa November 8 - Charlene arrives back in Monaco. Prince Albert said within hours it became clear she was 'unwell' November 13 - Prince Albert attends Expo 2020 in Dubai without Princess Charlene Following his return from the trip, Prince Albert holds an intervention with Charlene's brothers and a sister-in-law in which Charlene 'confirmed' she would seek 'real medically framed treatment' outside of Monaco November 16 - Royal household confirms Princess Charlene will not attend National Day celebrations on November 19 - Prince Albert attends a Monaco Red Cross event without Princess Charlene November 17 - Prince Albert reveals Princess Charlene has left Monaco and is recovering in a secret location November 19 - Prince Albert reveals Charlene is in a treatment facility 'elsewhere in Europe' after a family intervention January 25 - Charlene celebrates her birthday alone outside of Monaco January 26 - Prince Albert is joined by his children and sister without Charlene at St Devote's Day February 27 - Prince Albert and his two children attend AS Monaco football match without Princess Charlene Advertisement

A palace statement released on December 23 revealed Albert and the couple's children were planning to visit Charlene during the Christmas holidays, as well as asking for the family's privacy to be respected.

It added that the princess 'is recuperating in a satisfactory and reassuring manner, although it may take a few more months before her health has reached a full recovery.'

Princess Charlene met Prince Albert in 2000 during a swimming competition in Monaco and the pair married in 2011, before welcoming twins Gabriella and Jacques in 2014.

Charlene returned to her husband and twins Jacques and Gabriella in November following almost a year in South Africa.

While on a solo charity trip to the country, she contracted a severe sinus infection which prevented her from travelling. She subsequently needed surgery to treat the medical condition, which again delayed her return to Monaco.

In the weeks after her arrival, Charlene remained absent from public duties.

Albert later revealed the family reunion had gone 'pretty well' in the first few hours, but it then became 'pretty evident' that Charlene was 'unwell.'

He said the former Olympian 'realised she needed help', adding: 'She was overwhelmed and couldn't face official duties, life in general or even family life.'

Albert explained: 'I'm probably going to say this several times, but this has nothing to do with our relationship. I want to make that very clear. These are not problems within our relationship; not with the relationship between a husband and wife. It's of a different nature.'

He went on to tell a magazine her current state was a result of 'several factors which are private'.

Albert continued: 'She hadn't slept well in a number of days and she wasn't eating at all well. She has lost a lot of weight, which made her vulnerable to other potential ailments. A cold or the flu or God help us, COVID.'

He said it is 'not cancer-related or personal relationship issue' and later said she is suffering from 'exhaustion, both emotional and physical'.

He later confirmed Charlene has been admitted to a treatment facility for undisclosed medical issues, as she works through a period of ill health. The location of the facility was not confirmed, though several sources claim it is in Switzerland.

However friends of the princess spoke out to suggest the issues were more physical than Albert appeared to suggest.

Speaking to Page Six, a source described as the royal's friend said: 'It is unfair that she is being portrayed as having some kind of mental or emotional issue.

'We don't know why the palace is downplaying that she almost died in South Africa.'

The source explained the royal had a severe ear, nose and throat infection, which resulted in 'severe sinus and swallowing issues stemming from an earlier surgery'.

Elsewhere friends of Princess Charlene gave Tatler a rare insight into what the royal is really like, insisting that the former swimmer is a force to be reckoned with.

One source rubbished any public perception that Charlene is 'naive' and trapped in an unhappy marriage with Albert, saying: 'I don't for one second think she did not know what she was doing when she married him.'

But one warned the mother of Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, seven, is not the type to be blindly controlled by the Monaco royal household.

'Charlene is no Princess Di.' one said. 'She may come across as being extremely naive, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is very good at keeping her smarts under wraps.'

Doubts about the central relationship of Monaco's royal family are not new.

Several residents living in the narrow medieval alleys of Monaco Ville confirmed to MailOnline that before she left for South Africa Charlene was spending most of her time outside the Palace, living in a modest two-bedroom apartment above an old chocolate factory about 300m away, rather than in the 12th Century Palace itself.

'We often saw her outside the Palace and she would usually be alone or with a bodyguard,' said one source, 'but she was never with Albert - it was obvious she chose to spend most of her time in the apartment rather than the palace.'

Princess Charlene met Prince Albert in 2000 during a swimming competition in Monaco and the pair married in 2011, before welcoming twins Gabriella and Jacques in 2014.

Born in Rhodesia- a previously unrecongised state in Southern Africa colonised by the British, she relocated to South Africa aged 11.

She had a successful swimming career and went on to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1999 All Africa Games in Johannesburg, as well as representing South Africa at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games and winning a silver medal in the 4  100 m medley relay in the latter competition.

However the pair's marriage has made numerous headlines over the years, with a third paternity suit emerging in December 2020.

Soon afterwards Charlene famously shaved half her head in the style of a punk rocker. Months later she left for South Africa.

The allegations in December 2020 claimed that Albert had fathered a love-child (which would be his third, if proven) with an unnamed Brazilian woman during the time when he and Charlene were already in a relationship.

He has also fathered two other children outside of wedlock. Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, who is now 29 and the result of Albert's affair with an American estate agent, and Alexandre Coste, 18, whose mother is a former Togolese air hostess.

Both children were struck off Monaco's line of succession in return for vast financial settlements.
The Duchess of Cambridge donned the national colour of The Bahamas as she touched down for the final leg of her Caribbean tour.

Showing off her prowess for diplomatic dressing, Kate, 40, stunned in an aquamarine gown with a statement collar as she arrived with Prince William in Nassau today.

The mother-of-three teamed the custom-made dress by Emilia Wickstead with a matching clutch bag and pair of simple Gianvito Rossi suede heels.

The bespoke piece, representing the colours of the country's flag, features a structured collar with a tailored bodice and knee-length skirt.

Mastering the quick change, Kate stepped out earlier today in a recycled green dress paired with the Queen's hummingbird brooch, which was gifted to Her Majesty during her visit to Jamaica in 2002.

The Duchess of Cambridge donned the national colour of The Bahamas as she touched down for the final leg of her Caribbean tour

Showing off her prowess for diplomatic dressing, Kate, 40, stunned in an aquamarine gown with a statement collar as she arrived with Prince William in Nassau today

The Duchess once again delivered a masterclass in maintaining sleek, stylish hair by sweeping her brown tresses back into a chic low ponytail

Opting for a glamorous make-up look, the Duchess sported a dark brown smokey eye with a peach-toned blush, light bronzer and some subtle highlight

The Duchess is pictured arriving at an official meeting with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis

Kate was in high spirits as she was greeted with flowers at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during the official arrival at Lynden Pindling International Airport

Keeping her look simple, Kate opted for minimal jewellery - but added some glitz to her look with a pair of chunky statement earrings, once again donning the county's national colour.

The Duchess once again delivered a masterclass in maintaining sleek, stylish hair by sweeping her brown tresses back into a chic low ponytail.

Opting for a glamorous make-up look, the Duchess sported a dark brown smokey eye with a peach-toned blush, light bronzer and some subtle highlight.

Kate has long been a fan of Emilia Wickstead clothing and earlier today recycled 1,380 green gown, which the Duchess teamed with Kiki McDonough earrings and Gianvito Rossi pumps.

The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured) proved her fashion prowess once again today when departing Jamaica with Prince William for the final leg of their Caribbean tour

Earlier today, the Duchess of Cambridge (pictured), 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

Keeping her look simple, Kate opted for minimal jewellery - but added some glitz to her look with a pair of chunky statement earrings, once again donning the county's national colour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are greeted as they arrive at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas

Ahead of departing for their final destination, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posted on their official Instagram account: 'What an amazing trip so far! Thank you Belize and Jamaica. Next stop, The Bahamas'.

Earlier today, Kate appeared effortlessly elegant in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her ensemble with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

She completed her look with a sophisticated hat featuring floral details and matching white high heels.

The mother-of-three teamed the custom-made dress, by Emilia Wickstead, with a matching clutch bag and pair of simple nude heels

The bespoke piece, representing the colours of the country's flag, features a structured collar with a tailored bodice and knee-length skirt

Prince William and wife Kate Middleton arriving at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas during their Caribean Royal tour

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, she donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a National Security Council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday, following North Korea's launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile earlier in the day. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae



North Korea fires what appears to be an ICBM, violating 2018 moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests



By Jung Da-min



President Moon Jae-in condemned North Korea for test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Thursday, calling it a violation of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.



Presiding over an emergency National Security Council (NSC) meeting shortly after the incident, Moon said North Korea's ICBM launch poses a grave security threat to the East Asian region, including the Korean Peninsula, as well as the international community, and is also a violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, according to Cheong Wa Dae.



He added that North Korea's ICBM launch has posed a grave security threat to the international community as it came amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.



Moon's strongly-worded condemnation came as the latest North Korean provocation constitutes a crossing of the so-called "red line" set by South Korea. In a speech in 2017, the South Korean leader defined the red line as the North's completion of an ICBM along with the capabilities to put a nuclear warhead on it.



Thursday's test-firing of the ICBM was North Korea's 12th missile launch so far this year.



According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), North Korea fired the ICBM around the Sunan district of Pyongyang and the missile was detected at around 2:34 p.m. The ICBM traveled about 1,080 kilometers after rising to a height of over 6,200 kilometers.









Japan's Ministry of Defense said the missile is presumed to have fallen into the ocean at around 3: 44 p.m. some 170 kilometers west of Cape Tappi in Aomori Prefecture, inside Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).



An official at South Korea's JCS said later that the missile flew for about 70 minutes.



The South Korean and U.S. militaries are currently analyzing details of the latest ICBM and they reportedly believe the latest missile may have been different than the Hwasong-17 Pyongyang test-fired on Feb. 27, March 5 and March 16 of this year.



Meanwhile, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team lashed out at the North for the fresh provocation.



Sharing the view that Thursday's ICBM launch is a violation of North Korea's self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missiles, the transition team called on the Moon administration to work closely with the U.S. government and the rest of the world to react appropriately to the provocation.



The transition team also urged the UNSC to meet to discuss North Korea's provocation and come up with necessary measures.





People watch the news on TV at Seoul Station, Thursday, showing North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The North fired the missile toward the East Sea earlier in the day. Yonhap
A woman was forced to have her reproductive organs removed after they fused together due to a condition missed by doctors for decades.

Amanda Cobb, 52, from Ipswich, Suffolk, had suffered with debilitatingly period cramps since she was a teenager but claims medics had always told her it was 'normal'.

It was not until the mother-of-five was admitted to hospital with suspected appendicitis in 2019 that she was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Endometriosis causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow in different organs around the body.

Tissue build-up can be in minimal but in the most painful severe cases it can cause scarring that fuses organs together because of the time it takes for the cells to leave the body after they thicken during the menstrual cycle.

She had to have a hysterectomy in May 2020, which saw doctors remove womb, ovaries and cervix because of the damage the organs had suffered.

Her kidneys, bowel and appendix were also affected but were salvaged.

Amanda Cobb, 52, from Ipswich, Suffolk, had to have have her organs removed when they fused together after doctors failed to diagnose her crippling endometriosis for decades

It was not until the mother-of-five was admitted to hospital with suspected appendicitis that she was diagnosed with the debilitating condition

Endometriosis: What is it, what are the symptoms and how can it be treated? What is endometriosis? Endometriosis is a condition where tissue that covers the inside of the uterus, the endometrium, appears in other parts of the body and causes chronic inflammation, scarring and pelvic pain. The endometriosis tissue outside the uterus will bleed just as it would as the lining of the uterus. According to womenshealth.gov 'this can cause swelling and pain because the tissue grows and bleeds in an area where it cannot easily get out of your body'. According to the NHS, it can appear in many different places 'including the ovaries, Fallopian tubes'. Endometriosis tissue can also appear inside the stomach, in or around the bowel and the bladder. The condition usually affects girls and women of childbearing age and is less likely to affect women who have had menopause. Endometriosis is more common in women in their 30s and 40s. The condition affects 6-10 percent of the general female population in the US, according to a scientific paper published in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics. Endometriosis UK says that one in ten  around 3million  women of reproductive age in the UK have the condition. Endometriosis causes There is no known cause of endometriosis, although one theory posits that family genetics plays a large part. Other potential causes explored are immune system issues and complications from menstrual period flow, whereby the tissue shed during the period ends up flowing through the Fallopian tube to other parts of the body such as the pelvis. Endometrium cells can also spread through the body through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system. Endometriosis symptoms Main endometriosis symptoms include chronic pelvic, lower back and abdominal pain that may be worse than normal during a period; experiencing pain during sexual intercourse, painful bowel movements; bloating and nausea. Painful periods and difficulty getting pregnant are other key symptoms. Experiencing heavy periods and infertility are noted as being symptomatic of endometriosis. The NHS recommends seeing a GP when symptoms manifest, in particular if they are 'having a big impact on your life'. Endometriosis diagnosis The doctor will conduct a pelvic exam and may perform an ultrasound, however, a laparoscopy is currently the only way to confirm an endometriosis diagnosis. A laparoscopy is a procedure that involves the doctor making a small incision in the skin and passing a small tube through it to see if there are any patches of endometriosis tissue. Endometriosis treatment There is no cure for endometriosis. However, the NHS offers treatments that can palliate the symptoms. These include painkillers such as paracetamol, hormone medicines and contraceptives like the pill, the contraceptive patch and an IUS. Surgery to cut out the endometriosis tissue or parts of the organ affected are also options. However, the NHS says that sometimes doctors may not start treatment immediately in order to see if the symptoms improve on their own. Advertisement

Endometriosis affects one in ten women, with the lifelong disease being more common in those suffering painful periods  affecting around six in ten.

Lesions can develop across the entire reproductive system as well as other organs including the bladder, bowels and even the brain.

It can cause reduced fertility, severe pain in the pelvis and bladder or bowel problems, and takes an average of seven-and-a-half years to diagnose because of the variety of symptoms it causes.

Ms Cobb said: 'From a teenager, I was told "that's just how your periods are". It was so bad I couldn't leave the house or move for days at a time  but I thought it was normal.

'It wasn't until 2018 that it all kicked off, I remember laying in bed thinking I had appendicitis or kidney stones.

'I had a surgery when the doctors thought I had cysts on my ovaries  but I woke up and was told they'd had to take out some of my organs.

'I learned the organs were all stuck together because I had endometriosis they managed to save my kidney but everything else was so damaged that it was too late to save them.'

The teaching assistant added: 'Before then, endometriosis hadn't even been mentioned but it turned out I had been suffering since I was a teenager.

'So many people suffer but don't realise because it's not spoken about  it's not ok, or "normal" to be in pain every month.'

Ms Cobb  who works at a special needs school  used to have to miss classes as a teenager because of how bad the pain was.

Despite barely being able to move due to agonising pain, doctors reassured her that's just the way her periods are  so she accepted her fate.

She said: 'It would be so bad, I was in so much pain, that I couldn't leave the house. I'd need days off school every time I had my period.'

Ms Cobb suffered with the intense, heavy periods all throughout her teenage years and into adulthood.

She went onto have five children with three different partners between 1989 and 2010  Amber, 32, Leigh, 30, Chloe, 24, Mikey, 15 and Max, 11  despite the continued pain.

When her youngest was born in 2010, she was hospitalised at 18 weeks gestation with major placenta previa  where the placenta blocks the opening of the cervix.

She spent three months in hospital because of blood loss  and she ended up having an emergency caesarean section at 29 weeks after heavy blood loss.

She said: 'At the time, there was no real explanation for the blood loss.

'I don't know how much blood I lost, but it was a lot  I couldn't see baby Max for a week because the pain was too bad afterwards.

'I remember the midwife speculating that it could be because I'd had a lot of children.

'I always knew that was wrong, because I know women with way more children than me that have been absolutely fine.'

Her painful periods continued as she got on with her life as a working mother and she assumed there was nothing anyone could do to.

Ms Cobb said: 'I would plan everything around my periods  I wouldn't go on holiday if my period was due because I would be in too much pain to enjoy it.

'But I believed that just how it was going to be.'

But eight years later, in July 2018, she woke up one day with crippling abdominal pain  which was so severe she thought she had appendicitis.

An ambulance rushed her to Ipswich Hospital where doctors suggested it could be due to kidney stones.

She went into surgery in August 2018 to investigate her pain  but it was cut short when she had an anaphylactic reaction to the penicillin and muscle relaxants used during surgery.

She woke up in intensive care, and had to wait six months for doctors to establish the cause of the reaction  all the while, her heavy periods and excessive bleeding went unexplained.

In April 2019, keyhole surgery finally revealed the source of her problem after several decades of suffering.

Ms Cobb said: 'I was so shocked when I heard the diagnosis  endometriosis had never even been mentioned before.'

Mrs Cobb (pictured with her partner Ben, centre) her has five children between 1989 and 2010  Amber, 32, Leigh, 30, Chloe, 24, Mikey (right), 15 and Max, 11 (left)

The condition, which affects up to 3million people in the UK, occurs when cells similar to those found in the lining of the womb occur elsewhere in the body  commonly within the pelvis.

These cells are not able to leave the body like with a period, so rather than the lining breaking down each month, it becomes inflamed and painful and scar tissue is formed  which can cause organs to fuse together.

Doctors realised many of Ms Cobb's internal organs were stuck together in this way  including her kidneys, bowel, uterus and appendix  which was the source of her years of agony.

There is no cure and the available treatments often have significant side-effects, affecting fertility, for example, because they contain hormones.

She was referred to a specialist endometriosis clinic in Colchester, but still ended up waiting due to waiting lists with the added pressure from Covid.

Ms Cobb said: 'My condition was getting worse and worse, but there was nothing I could do but wait.'

Eventually, in May 2020, she had a six-hour surgery and woke up to learn both of her ovaries, her fallopian tubes, her cervix and her womb had all been removed permanently.

During the surgery, known as a total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, the surgeons managed to save her kidney, but found everything else too damaged by the years of build-up of scar tissue.

Doctors also explained that her lifetime of heavy periods  and her life-threatening major placenta previa during her fifth pregnancy  were both a result of endometriosis.

Following surgery, she was left with a shocking five-inch scar held together by countless stitches, running down from her belly to below her beltline.

Two years on, the surgery finally put an end to her pain  but Ms Cobb wants to warn others to prevent them going through the same agonising three-decade wait for a diagnosis that she did.

Now, in Endometriosis Awareness Month, she hopes to use her experience to educate other people on the condition  which can easily be dismissed as 'period pain' as she found.

She said: 'It's difficult to explain  or to make people understand  exactly how painful endometriosis is.

'It is so debilitating but there is no cure, and it's often not taken seriously.

'I waited decades for a diagnosis - because I was told "that's just how your periods are". So many people suffer but don't realise, because it's not spoken about.

'It's not ok, or 'normal' to be in crippling pain every month - I don't want anyone to think it is.'
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Covid case numbers are continuing to steadily decline in the U.S., and even while some nations elsewhere suffer recent upticks in cases, officials stateside are assuring Americans that another surge will not be on the way this spring.

Yet, America's most profitable vaccine manufacturers are pushing to roll out a fourth vaccine does, insisting that it's necessary.

Earlier this month, Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rollout a fourth vaccine dose for all American adults. The move was unexpected, especially with CEO Stephane Bancel having previously said another dose would likely not be necessary until the fall at earliest.

On Thursday, Bancel appeared of CNBC's Squawk Box, reneging on previous predictions and now saying the next wave of the virus could strike America 'very soon'.

His statements come as the U.S. is recording 30,733 cases per day, a four percent drop over the past week and a 95 percent drop from the peak of the Omicron surge in mid-January. There are signs that this could reverse soon, though, with nine states now recording increases in cases over the past two weeks.

In the UK, cases started to flare up in recent weeks as well after weeks of figures plummeting. The U.S. often lags a few weeks behind the UK, putting American officials on high alert that there is potential that the same fate will be suffered stateside.

Dr Anthony Fauci, then nation's top infectious disease expert and often a more cautious voice during the pandemic, assured Americans on Wednesday that while cases could slightly rise, a full on surge like what the U.S. experienced over the winter is unlikely.

'Already several countries around the world have some of the 4th dose testing in people at high risk,' Bancel said.

'There's a big wave of BA.2 variant in Europe right now, as many public health experts have said this should start in the U.S. very soon.'

A growing list of experts are saying the exact opposite, though.

'I would not be surprised at all, if we do see somewhat of an uptick,' Fauci said at a Washington Post event this week.

'I don't really see, unless something changes dramatically, that there would be a major surge.'

Experts at Harvard University said that the BA.2 stealth variant, which is believed to be the reason for the recent uptick of cases, would have likely already started the beginning of a surge in America if it was going to do so anytime soon.

'There's really no indication of an increase in cases or deaths in the region that corresponds to this increase in BA.2 infections that we're seeing,' Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at Harvard's Broad Institute, told the Harvard Gazette this week.

The 'stealth' variant, which earned the moniker from its ability to avoid detecting through some sequencing methods, is believed to be the most infectious version of Covid yet - but is just as mild as the BA.1 version of Omciron that took over the world last last year.

According to most recent data revealed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week, BA.2 makes up 35 percent of active Covid cases in the U.S., with BA.1 still being dominant.

BA.2's share of Covid infections in America is growing, though, with the variant only accounting for 23 percent of cases in the week previous.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel (left) said Thursday morning that Americans would need a fourth COVID-19 jab to protect from an upcoming virus surge. Dr Anthony Fauci (right), one of the more cautious voices throughout the pandemic, does not believe an uptick of Covid cases will develop into a full on surge

While it has failed to make a major impact yet on case numbers, data from overseas - referenced by Bancel - is cause for some concern.

Some countries that had experienced declining cases from months, like the UK, France and Denmark, suddenly saw infection rates start to surge last week. Cases seem to have stabilized in these nations and the growth has stopped for now, though.

Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there were over 12 million Covid cases globally last week, a seven percent jump from the previous week.

Deaths dropped, though, down 23 percent to under 33,000 - another sign of the virus's falling mortality.

The increase in cases was entirely clustered in the Western Pacific region, where daily infections jumped 23 percent last week. In Europe, infections stabilized after slightly rising two percent last week.

In the U.S., deaths remain low, dropping below 1,000 per day for the first time since August on Thursday, and dropping 18 percent over the past week.

A fourth dose may be inevitable anyways, even if case numbers remain low. Fauci, Bancel and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla have been among those saying an additional dose was on the way for months, with Bourla even saying annual jabs will be needed for the next decade to control the pandemic.

While the shots have been deemed safe and effective by health officials around the world, and have likely saved millions of lives over the past year, Pfizer and Moderna's goals in the vaccine rollout are not exactly humanitarian.

The companies have each made billions of dollars off of the sales of vaccines to the U.S. and other nations around the world.

Pfizer, its partner BioNTech, and Moderna estimate a combined $50 billion in COVID-19 vaccine sales this year, and those figures will soar even higher if fourth doses are approved.

Just before Moderna made its submission, Pfizer submitted an application to the FDA to get a fourth Covid jab approved for Americans 65 and older.

Both companies are also hoping to rollout jabs to young children in the near future. Currently, the Moderna shot is only available to adults in the U.S., with Pfizer's available to those five and older.

On Wednesday, Moderna announced that it had successfully completed Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for its COVID-19 shot in children aged six months old to 17.

The shots, which are a quarter the size of those given to adults, proved to be around 40 percent effective at preventing infection from the Omicron variant - similar to protection levels it provides adults.

'We are very excited about the data because we met the primary endpoint which was neutralizing antibody which is as good as what we've seen with adults, with boosters, with teenagers,' Bancel said.

Not all experts agree that vaccines for children this young are necessary to end the pandemic, though.

Children face little risk from COVID-19, with a ever-growing trove of data showing that they are not nearly as affected by it as adults are.

The CDC reports that children only account less than 0.1 percent of Covid deaths in the U.S. since the pandemic first began.

A study from the University of Utah last year found that 50 percent of pediatric Covid cases are asymptomatic. The study was performed before the more-mild Omicron variant emerged, meaning the risk for children to even feel symptoms is likely lower now.

Children may also be less likely to spread the virus when infected, with a German study finding that they release as little as only 25 percent of virus particles as adults do.

Data revealed by New York state officials at the end of last month also found that the shot was only 12 percent effective at preventing Covid infection for children aged five to 11.

There is also the concern of myocarditis which, while limited, has been higher for younger Moderna recipients than those of every other vaccine.

Last year, European countries like Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and France all either restricted or stopped the use of the Moderna shot in people 30 and younger out of fear of recipients developing rare heart inflammation.

Officials in those nations instead recommended younger people to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

Pfizer has run into some issues in getting its vaccine out to the youngest age groups too, though.

The company had to shift its Covid vaccine regimen for the youngest children up to three doses from two, as the smaller, three microgram doses, were almost entirely ineffective in children three and four years old.

The New York City-based firm has also submitted data to regulators for its Covid jab in children under the age of five, though the approval process was paused earlier this year.
Many of the clinical trials that showed ivermectin failed to account for the drug's effectiveness against parasitic disease, leading to skewed, inaccurate, results, an analysis finds.

Dr Avi Bitterman, a researcher from Mount Sinai in New York City, told DailyMail.com that many of the studies that found antiviral effectiveness or ivermectin may have instead been treating strongyloidiasis, a parasite that is endemic in some parts of the world, instead.

Because many of these studies were conducted alongside immunosuppressant steroids, which increase the risk of dying from the parasite, and doctors failed to screen for the common disease, it is likely this was just missed by some.

Bitterman's findings raise questions about the peer-review process that allowed these studies to reach publication in the first place, and how many early studies surrounding Covid may have had key flaws that were overlooked in haste.

A research team found that studies that showed ivermectin was effective against COVID-19 made crucial errors by not controlling for endemic parasite diseases that existed in the areas where the studies were conducted

Researchers found a clear correlation between prevalence of strongyloidiasis and the deemed effectiveness of ivermectin

Its an indication that strongyloidiasis prevalence may be a predicator variable on ivermectin being used to treat Covid,' Bitterman said of his team's findings.

'It means that trials performed in strongyloidiasis endemic regions may not extrapolate to other regions. We caution against relying on those extrapolations.'

The study, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, gathered data from 12 published articles analyzing the effectiveness of ivermectin in treating Covid.

Dr Avi Bitterman, who led the study, believes the errors were not made maliciously, but instead in haste as Covid took over the world two years ago

It compared the findings of each study based on its prevalence of strongyloidiasis, and found a strong correlation between the parasite and Covid effectiveness.

Strongyloidiasis is a word-caused stomach infection that is frequent in the southeast Asia and the south pacific regions of the world.

It generally is not life threatening, Bitterman explains, but is a person is using corticosteroids, which suppress the immune system, it can become dangerous.

If you are immunosuppressed, what happens is the strongyloidiasis will become deiminated  its natural breeding cycle gets accelerated,' he said.

'It goes through the gut, into the blood stream, it just goes everywhere. It can have a very high mortality rate of up to 90 percent.'

None of the included studies screened for the parasite before starting the study, which he considered to be a 'standard of care.'

This oversight means that patients in the study that were a part of the control group and received corticosteroids were more likely to die. Not from Covid, though, but from strongyloidiasis.

At the same time, ivermectin is one of the most effective parasite drugs known to the world, and its ability to fights strongyloidiasis meant that patients were generally healthier and more likely to survive the infection.

It creates a systematic bias... it can look very impressive, it looks like Ivermectin can be very good against Covid,' Bitterman said.

He chalks up these mistakes more to researchers overlooking the parasite disease, and not any sort of malice and ill intention, after speaking with some of the trialists.

The findings are concerning, though, Each of these studies had to pass through a rigorous peer-review process to reach publication, and this glaring oversight casts doubt upon the process.

Bitterman chalks up these failures to the novel nature of Covid, and how everyone was scrambling in 2020 to put together any research.

Covid was always a learning curve, when we look in hindsight a lot of these trials took place early in the pandemic... its possible that certain things we could have reasoned out may have been lost through the cracks,' he said, also noting that other experts had a similar hunch as him that these studies were flawed and that someone would have caught the errors eventually.

The studies caused many to start believing the anti-parasite drug is a Covid cure being 'covered up' by health officials.

A reverse effect has emerged as well, where now the drug - which is approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration and highly effective against parasitic disease - now has become associated with conspiracy theorists, damaging its reputation.

Researchers at Harvard University find that Republican-leaning areas of America in particular have seen physicians inappropriately prescribe the drug as a Covid treatment or prevention measure, largely based on these problematic studies.
BOOK OF THE WEEK

SHADOWLANDS: A JOURNEY THROUGH LOST BRITAIN

by Matthew Green (Faber 20, 368 pp)

The French have the phrase nostalgie de la boue, which literally means nostalgia for mud. They use it to describe the sense of feeling gratified by ruin, dissolution or suffering.

Matthew Green immerses himself in that feeling for this intriguing book about Britains lost and abandoned places. There is, we learn as he tours the country, a very personal reason for his emotional state  and his research teaches him a useful lesson.

First stop is Skara Brae, a collection of sandstone houses on the main island of the Orkneys. Revealed in 1850 when a storm washed away the section of beach that had covered them, they are thought to have been built more than 5,000 years ago, making them older than the Pyramids or Stonehenge.

Matthew Green explores Britain's lost and abandoned places in an intriguing new book. Pictured: Ruins of All Saints Church, Dunwich, Suffolk, collapsing due to constant erosion by the sea

Architecture was rather different back then  you insulated your dwelling by piling all your rubbish (including excrement) around the outside, gradually building up a protective layer.

A lot of the detective work at Skara Brae was done in the 1920s by Professor Vere Gordon Childe, an interesting character who spoke 17 languages, whose moustache was a force unto itself, and who could do long division in Roman numerals, as anyone who went to one of his dinners discovered to their cost.

Places disappear for different reasons. Sometimes its due to nature, as in the town of Dunwich, which for centuries has been toppling over the eroding Suffolk coastline. One graveyard that succumbed in the 1540s was left with coffins and bones sticking out of the ground.

Winchelsea in Sussex was completely destroyed by the sea in the 13th century, so a replacement was built higher up the hill. It was the first settlement in Britain since Roman times to be laid out on a grid system. Life was less peaceful in medieval times: Winchelsea kept a collection of 300 large stones to dash out the brains of any invaders.

Other extinctions are caused by man. In the early 1960s the Welsh village of Capel Celyn was evacuated so it could be flooded to form a reservoir supplying water to Liverpool. Some of the stones from its chapel were used in the construction of the dam.

When the reservoir was finished, Liverpool Corporation unwisely decided to hold an opening ceremony. The visiting dignitaries cars had their wing mirrors torn off, and the speeches were drowned out by protest songs.

Of course, these were sung in Welsh, which is why the VIPs had to listen in respectful silence not realising that the words to one song meant all English are a**eholes.

In the early 1960s the Welsh village of Capel Celyn (pictured) was evacuated so it could be flooded to form a reservoir supplying water to Liverpool

In Norfolk youll find  but wont get into  a military facility known as STANTA (Stanford Training Area). It includes six abandoned villages whose inhabitants were ordered to leave during World War II, with assurances that they could return when the war was over. In the end, they never were allowed back. The Ministry of Defence uses the area to this day.

In 2009 they built a replica Afghan village there. The aim was to get troops accustomed to the horrors they would encounter in Afghanistan, so the real thing wouldnt come as so much of a shock. An amputee actor was employed, his leg stub dressed to look like the recently severed limb of a suicide bombing victim, complete with a mechanism for pumping out huge quantities of blood. (It was so realistic it made some of the soldiers physically sick.)

The mundane details of everyday life were recreated, right down to the call to prayer playing out from the mosque, and the synthetically recreated smell of Afghan cooking. Weve replicated everything except for the desert heat, said an MoD spokesman, but theres not much we can do about that in Norfolk.

Very few civilians are allowed inside STANTA. Exceptions were made for the cast and crew of Dads Army, who did some of their filming there.

And each December, friends, relatives and descendants of the residents who were forced out are allowed back into the church in one of the villages, West Tofts, for a carol service. But that is for just one night, writes Green. For the rest of the year, the splendour is for the ghosts.

SHADOWLANDS: A JOURNEY THROUGH LOST BRITAIN by Matthew Green (Faber 20, 368 pp)

Green reveals near the beginning of the book that he has recently suffered both the break-up of his marriage and the death of his father. But the places he visits help him come to terms with his unhappiness, because they remind us of the transience of all earthly things. On an 1886 grave at St Mary (the church in West Tofts) he reads: We are dying day by day.

Another gravestone, the last one surviving in the final few feet of ground once occupied by a Dunwich church, is that of a man who died in 1796, aged 38. Noting that this is his own age now, Green writes: Soon he too will fall to the sea.

This sort of thing could sound morose. But Id argue that Green is highlighting something very important, namely a recognition of our own mortality.

Its crucial, if you want to lead a happy life, to remember that one day life will end. Not in a make the most of every moment sense, but rather to recognise your own unimportance. Nothing lasts for ever, so why worry about it?

As Green puts it near the end of the book: Having toured and meditated upon so many ruins, I had somehow emerged less of a ruin myself.

As well as our own death, we have to accept the deaths of others, and of certain aspects of our life (such as relationships) along the way. Sometimes parts of us have to melt away so other parts can exist.
CURRENT AFFAIRS

THE AGE OF THE STRONGMAN

by Gideon Rachman (Bodley Head 20, 288 pp)

Timing is everything. Gideon Rachman has got his spot on with The Age Of The Strong Man: How The Cult Of The Leader Threatens Democracy Around The World, which comes out as Russias dictator  lets not equivocate here  launches a war of extermination against a neighbouring democratic state.

The chapter on the killer in the Kremlin is entitled Putin  The Archetype. The authors point is that Vladimir Putin has been an inspiration to a certain sort of politician (typically narcissistic).

Donald Trump never hid his admiration  even describing as genius Putins threats to Ukraine masquerading as peace-keeping. President Xi of China pronounced him to be his best friend; the Philippines strongman president Rodrigo Duterte declared: My favourite hero is Putin. And Rachman quotes a British adviser to Saudi Arabias de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman saying his boss had awestruck admiration for Putin.

Gideon Rachman has penned a new book exploring how leaders can be a threat to democracy around the world. Pictured: Russias Vladimir Putin

From Donald Trumps point of view  Rachman has a chapter on him, too  Putin was just trying to make Russia great again. It is undeniable that when he took over as president from Boris Yeltsin (a drunkard) on December 31, 1999, the former KGB officer inherited a country in a collective nervous breakdown.

But it was primarily the rise in oil prices that enabled Putin to restore Russians pensions and prospects, just as it had been the collapse in oil prices that tipped the Soviet economy over the edge.

Still, Putin had posed as a modern reformer; one of the themes of this book is how a succession of leaders who became increasingly vicious and autocratic had captivated Western commentators when they first arrived on the scene. Putin, Xi, Erdogan of Turkey, Rwandas Paul Kagame  all of these were hailed as progressive, enlightened leaders, a fresh start for their countries.

Rachman, engagingly, pleads guilty himself, describing how in 2013 he had been part of a small group of foreigners invited to meet Xi in Beijings Great Hall Of The People, nearly a year after he had been appointed Chinas leader.

Rachman, the Financial Times long-standing chief foreign affairs columnist, records how reassuringly technocratic and rational Xi seemed, and that his willingness to answer questions seemed refreshingly spontaneous.

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Almost a decade on, no one dares question anything the supreme leader says, and the worlds most populous nation is now brainwashed into chanting from Xi Jinping Thought, the modern-day equivalent of Chairman Maos Little Red Book.

In the worlds largest democracy, India, Narendra Modi, too, has embraced the cult of the strong leader, to the extent that, unlike any of his predecessors, he has caused stadiums to be named after him. Indians who received Covid vaccinations were given a certificate with Modis portrait on it.

Meanwhile, the Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, now a U.S. resident, is quoted here saying his friends in India were reluctant even to criticise the government on the telephone: People are afraid, Ive never seen this before.

Again, Rachman is admirably frank about his own misjudgment, having seen this Hindu celibate as refreshing and invigorating, quoting his own effusive columns when Modi first ran for office with some embarrassment.

THE AGE OF THE STRONGMAN by Gideon Rachman (Bodley Head 20, 288 pp)

But he was not alone, far from it, in this naive optimism. One of the reasons is that such characters well understand the sort of noises Western leaders and foreign policy pundits want to hear  and duly make them.

Thus, when he took over from Yeltsin, Putin promised to protect freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the mass media, ownership rights, these fundamental elements of a civilised society. Whereas in fact he always had the career KGB mans contempt for these values.

In such a book it is odd to find Boris Johnson lined up with these dictatorial exponents of the leadership cult. But the chapter concerned is titled Boris Johnson And Brexit Britain; and the FT is the editorial home of the least reconciled to the referendum result of 2016. Rachman complains that, in 2019 (as the anti-Brexit forces mobilised in Parliament with the connivance of the Speaker), Johnson hinted at violence on the streets, saying that those who were trying to thwart Brexit were playing with fire and would reap the whirlwind.

But had Parliament blocked the verdict of the plebiscite which it had itself called and promised to honour, MPs would indeed have been playing with fire  and got badly burnt.

Johnson and Putin dont belong in the same category; not just because the PM is far from a strong leader (veering all over the place like a wobbly shopping trolley according to his former adviser Dominic Cummings), but because the British people, unlike many Russians, dont fetishise such matters. Thank goodness.

Rachmans book went to press just before Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. If this adventure ends as badly as I think it will, the hubristic cult of the strong leader will meet its nemesis.
HISTORY

THE EMPRESS AND THE ENGLISH DOCTOR

by Lucy Ward (Oneworld 20, 352 pp)

More than 200 years after her death, the thing most people remember about Catherine the Great is that she was crushed to death by a horse while attempting to have sex with it.

Although this salacious story is untrue  she collapsed from a stroke in her bathroom  the image of the Russian empress as an immoral, sexually voracious woman has persisted.

This gripping account of her deep friendship with an English doctor  and their battle to save the Russian people from the scourge of smallpox  shows her in an entirely different light.

Lucy Ward has penned a gripping account of Catherine the Great's (pictured) battle to save the Russian people from the scourge of smallpox

From the 16th century onwards smallpox, known as the speckled monster because of its raised rash, overtook the bubonic plague as Europes biggest killer.

Although there was no cure for smallpox, wise women in Turkey had worked out a way of fighting fire with fire.

People who had never had smallpox were given a tiny dose of the virus via a drop of pus, taken from the smallpox blister of someone who was recovering from the disease. This process, now called inoculation, was found to give lifelong immunity against smallpox.

The fashionable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu came across this practice while she was living in Turkey. Her brother had died of smallpox, and she herself bore the scars of the disease. Back in England, she had her own small son inoculated in this way, and badgered others to do the same.

Injecting a small amount of a deadly disease into a person inevitably carried risks and there were several much-publicised cases of people dying shortly afterwards, but it caught on to such an extent that in 1722 King George I had his granddaughters inoculated.

Soon doctors and apothecaries all over the country were carrying out the procedure.

Smallpox was just as virulent across Europe. Russias Empress Catherine II lived in terror of her son and heir, Paul, catching the disease, and decided he had to be inoculated.

The Empress also believed that by setting an example, she could persuade her subjects to accept inoculation. Impressed by how widespread the practice was in Britain, she chose an English doctor for the job.

Born in 1712 into a Quaker family, Thomas Dimsdales sister and nephew had both died of smallpox and he was an enthusiastic advocate of inoculation.

By the time Catherine summoned him, he had inoculated about 6,000 people.

A devoted family man, he politely turned down the request, but when he learned that it had come from the Empress herself he felt it was his duty to accept.

Catherine (pictured) became so close to British doctor Thomas Dimsdale that he was invited into her bedchamber and they spent hours discussing medical matters

After a four-week journey, he and his son Nathaniel arrived at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg in August 1768. The Empress was 39, Dimsdale 56. He spoke in English, the Empress in French (which he understood), and this reserved, upright man was surprised by how friendly, warm and well-informed about medicine she was.

They became so close that he was invited into her bedchamber and they spent hours discussing medical matters while sitting on her bed, sometimes with her lover beside them.

Catherine the Great, born a German princess, had been betrothed at 15 to the strange, awkward Grand Duke Peter, heir to the Russian throne.

Shortly before their wedding, Peter caught smallpox; he survived but, Catherine wrote, he had become hideous. He was a sadist too, whose favourite hobby was whipping his dogs. Their marriage was unconsummated for nine years and both of them took lovers. In 1754, when she gave birth to an heir, Paul, no one could be sure who the father was.

Peter came to the throne in 1762, but his reign lasted a mere 86 days. When he threatened to imprison Catherine and marry his mistress, her supporters staged a dawn coup and Catherine proclaimed herself Empress.

Six days later, Peter was killed in what may have been an accident, or more likely an assassination. To avoid accusations that she was exposing her son to harm, the empress insisted on undergoing the smallpox inoculation before him. Both she and Dimsdale were aware of the risks.

Her death at the hands of a foreign doctor would have caused riots, revenge attacks and possibly even a power struggle. She put an escape plan in place so that, if the worst happened, Dimsdale and Nathaniel could flee.

THE EMPRESS AND THE ENGLISH DOCTOR by Lucy Ward (Oneworld 20, 352 pp)

To the doctors intense relief, Catherine recovered after a few days of fever and pain from stiff limbs, and so did the 14-year-old Grand Duke Paul.

When word got out that the royal family had been successfully protected against smallpox, other aristocratic families rushed to follow their example. The gamble had paid off.

Dimsdale had cannily not specified a fee for his services, and Catherine showed her appreciation: both Dimsdale and Nathaniel were made Barons of the Russian Empire, and Dimsdale was also given a payment of 10,000, the equivalent of 20 million today, and a pension of 500 a year, making him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. When he left, the Empress wept.

Catherine and her doctor corresponded regularly and were to meet one more time.

In 1781, aged 69, Baron Thomas Dimsdale and his wife set out for Russia so he could inoculate the next generation of the royal family, Pauls sons Alexander and Constantine. Catherine was as affectionate as ever towards him.

Her plan had worked, and 30 years after Dimsdales first visit, Russia had overtaken most of the rest of Europe in its acceptance of inoculation.

In 1980, the World Health Organisation announced that smallpox had been eradicated  probably the greatest public health achievement in history. The speckled monster had finally been beaten.
Advertisement

The automotive sector has invested 10.8billion into Britain's drive to become a leading powerhouse for electric vehicles in the last decade, new analysis has revealed.

The total sum has been calculated by totting up all funding towards EV production and battery-making gigafactories in Britain since 2011, which has brought with it 14,320 new jobs, the analysis claims.

Revealing where investments have been made in different parts of the country, the motor trade body has called on stakeholders to match industry's commitment to the UK's electric revolution and highlighted a lack of incentives and charging infrastructure as major hurdles for the future.

Britain's first electric decade: Some 10.8billion investment has been made in the UK to boost the country's position to become an EV powerhouse, according to new analysis

In what the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders calls 'Britain's first electric decade', the first major investment was the 420million spent by Japanese car maker Nissan from 2011 to upgrade its Sunderland plant to build the country's first mass-produced battery electric car, the Leaf.

More than 10 vehicle manufacturers have invested in communities across the country to create jobs and to design, engineer and build the cleanest, greenest vehicles for domestic and export markets.

These include Aston Martin, Bentley, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Mini to name just a few.

Alongside cars, the UK also produces electric taxis, vans, buses and trucks, as established manufacturers and new entrants have invested in building plug-in models in Britain.

WHICH ELECTRIC VEHICLE COMPANIES HAVE INVESTED IN BRITAIN IN THE LAST DECADE? DATE COMPANY INVESTMENT NATURE INVESTMENT (MILLION) 2022 Alexander Dennis Bus production 62 2021-2022 Bentley Vehicle production 2512.5 2021 McLaren Vehicle development 1000 2021 BMW Mini Vehicle development 26 2021 Ford Vehicle parts production 230 2021 Stellantis Van production 100 2021 Nissan/Envision Car and battery production 1000 2021 Lotus Car production 100 2021 Arrival Van and truck production 450 2020 Britishvolt Battery production 2600 2018 Aston Martin Car production 50 2018-2022 Tevva Truck production 57.8 2017 Wrightbus Bus production 5.5 2015-2022 LEVC Car and van production 500 2014-2022 Jaguar Land Rover Vehicle production 1630 2011-2022 Nissan Car and battery production 446.5 Source SMMT

The first major investment was the 420million spent by Japanese car maker Nissan from 2011 to upgrade its Sunderland plant to build the country's first mass-produced battery electric car, the Leaf

More than 10 manufacturers have invested in communities across the UK to create jobs and to design, engineer and build green motors. This includes Mini's Oxford plant where the Mini Electric is produced

In more recent years there has been substantial investment in delivering battery-making gigafactories to power vehicles of the future.

The first will be Britishvolt's 235-acre site in Blyth, Northumberland, shortly followed by the Nissan-Envision AESC facility being built next to the Sunderland car factory.

Both projects have been subject to huge financial backing (2.6billion and 1billion respectively) - including some government funding along the way - in the hope it will boost the UK's desirability to manufacturers considering where in Europe to build their next-generation EVs.

In more recent years there has been substantial investment in delivering battery-making gigafactories to power vehicles of the future. The first will be Britishvolt's 235-acre site in Blyth, Northumberland

Nissan and Envision AESC have also committed to a battery production facility that will be built next to the Sunderland car plant

Such has been the rapid development, production and availability of electric models since 2011 that UK uptake has surged during the decade.

Ten years ago, six models of electric car were available, accounting for less than one in 1,000 new car registrations. Today, there are more than 140 models on the market, with electric vehicles accounting for more than one in six new cars and one in 28 vans registered.

However, only one in 80 cars currently on our roads run on electricity, which is well behind the 2030 target of one in three by 2030, when the Government intends to ban the sales of new petrol and diesel passenger cars as part of its net-zero ambitions.

Speaking at the SMMT's annual EV event, Mike Hawes, the trade body's chief executive, said: 'The UK automotive industry has set out its intent  to meet the challenge of net zero  and has backed that ambition with cash, investing massively during Britain's first electric decade.

'As we enter the second, the stakes are higher, with some of the world's toughest regulation coming, regulation that will seek to determine the pace of change in a market constantly buffeted by headwinds.'

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes spoke on Wednesday during the trade body's 'Electrified' summit in London

Lack of incentives and charging infrastructure could derail Britain's second electric decade

While sales of electric cars are accelerating at pace, the figures somewhat mask the level of consumer appetite for vehicles with plugs.

Which electric vehicles currently qualify for the Plug-in Car Grant? The Plug-in Car Grant was most recently slashed in December 2021. Adjustments to the incentive mean only cars priced less than 32,000 (and that's the list price, not the price you've paid after haggling a discount) are eligible to receive the grant. And the grant amount is now just 1,500 - having originally been 5,000 when launched in 2011 and a more attractive 3,000 just 12 months ago. Just 24 EVs now qualify for the scheme. Take a look at our in-depth report to find out which battery cars are currently eligible for the incentive - and which models have missed out since the December cuts. > READ THE FULL REPORT

The recent rise in demand for EVs has largely been driven by businesses and fleets, which have reaped the reward of generous fiscal incentives, such as low benefit-in-kind tax rates since 2020.

As a result, 'private' consumer purchases represented only around a third of plug-in car registrations in 2021.

And the trade body warns that Britain's second electric decade could be derailed if there are major Government investments to make EV ownership more appealing.

One of the biggest sticking points for the SMMT is the winding up in recent months of purchase incentives for electric cars and the devices to charge them.

In the past 12 months, the Plug-in Car Grant has been slashed twice, cutting the available subsidy to just 1.500 towards the price of a brand new EV - and its only available to buyers of battery models with a value under 32,000.

EV purchase incentives in the UK now pale in comparison to those offered in other European countries. For example, electric car buyers in Germany have 9,000 (almost 7,500) slashed off the price of sub-33,500 models - and 7,500 (approx 6,250) off the price of more expensive versions.

The UK Government's Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) is also due to be dramatically rolled back at the end of this month, with available grants of up to 350 towards the installation of private chargepoints removed entirely.

Rising energy prices will also see the cost of charging an electric car at home rise by around 200 a year, completing a hat-trick of blows to potential first-time EV buyers.

The SMMT says this puts the UK EV adoption at risk of 'falling behind some European markets which offer more attractive incentive packages'.

Electric car purchase incentives in the UK now pale in comparison to those available in other European countries

EV ownership costs set to rise by more than 2,000: The combination of higher energy prices and cuts to taxpayer-funded grants is set to make buying and running and electric car a lot more expensive than it was a year ago

The energy price cap will rise in April by 693 from 1,277 to 1,971 per year for anyone on a default tariff paying via direct debit, Ofgem confirmed this month. This will ultimately have an impact on EV running costs for those who charge at home

It adds that growth in this market will also be dependent on charging infrastructure - and affordability of the public network.

BP set to announce 1bn UK investment to install EV rapid charging points BP will this week announce a fresh 1billion of backing to install new EV charge points in the UK, according to reports in the Financial Times. The investment will bolster the number of rapid chargers in the oil company's Chargemaster network, which currently stands at around 8,000 devices - most of them at fuel stations and motorway services. The company previously said it will install 16,000 superfast UK charging points across the country by 2030.

Analysis shows that there are currently 32 electric cars to every public charger in the UK - a ratio that's widening, having been 16 cars to each device in 2021.

The SMMT says chargepoint operators and government must 'help plug the gap' between EV uptake and infrastructure rollout - and called for the introduction of an independent regulator to ensure the network grows at pace.

On Friday, ministers are expected to provide new details of their charging infrastructure strategy in the hope they can deliver enough devices to meet the growing demand for electric cars and vans.

'Delivering net zero needs a competitive industry and a competitive market,' Hawes added in his statement.

'We need a holistic strategy with binding targets on chargepoint provision, attractive fiscal and purchase incentives, and a reliable, accessible and affordable user experience.

'We need a universal right to charge electric vehicles, for all drivers, wherever they live, wherever they travel and whatever their needs.'
Ferrari, arguably the most iconic of all supercar brands, has this week shown the first official image of its debut SUV model, confirming it will be revealed in full later this year.

Codenamed 'Purosangue', which translates to 'Thoroughbred', the company's first foray into the 4X4 market put it head-to-head against Aston Martin's DBX and Lamborghini's Urus in the 'super-SUV' segment, with prices for the stallion-adorned performance car starting at around 200,000.

While the name is still yet to be confirmed, this image shared on Ferrari's Instagram account shows a high-riding model with design features taken from its low-slung supercars.

First official picture of Ferrari's SUV: The iconic Italian brand's debut 4X4 vehicle will be unveiled this year, it has confirmed. Prices will start from around 200,000

In the social media post, the Maranello car maker said: 'You've heard the rumours... and we're delighted to confirm they're true (some of them).

'All will be revealed later this year.'

The single image shows only the front of the vehicle in a very darkly-lit photo - though a few tweaks of the brightness and exposure reveals a clear look at the bonnet, grille and headlight clusters.

The slim-line headlight design is very reminiscent to that of the SF90 supercar, with LED daytime running lights sitting within a narrow upper grille section that spans the width of the car. The bonnet shape is similar to the Roma grand tourer, though with a widened bulge down the centre of the panel.

Yet it's the enormous gaping grille in the lower section of the car - which in the image looks like it has a floating Ferrari emblem within it - that stands it apart from every other model in its arsenal to date.

What's almost for certain is that the SUV will be based on the Roma GT's platform, with the large bonnet suggesting a ferocious powerplant lies beneath.

It's like to have a tweaked version of the Roma's 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8, which produces over 600bhp, with power sent to all four wheels via a dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

This will pin the Ferrari perfectly against the Lamborghini equivalent, with the Urus' 4.0-litre V8 putting out 640bhp, while Aston Martin's recently-revealed DBX 707 also has a 4.0-litre, eight-cylinder motor producing closer to 700bhp.

That's not to say Ferrari won't also be sold with an electrified powertrain, with the Italian marque's new 296 GTB debuting the brand's V6 plug-in hybrid engine.

Ferrari's first foray into the 4X4 market put it head-to-head against Aston Martin's DBX (left) and Lamborghini's Urus (right) in the 'super-SUV' segment

The first zero-emission all-electric Ferrari will hit the market in 2025, bosses at the legendary car company have confirmed.

Chairman John Elkann said the brand will continue with its electrification strategy, which includes its first battery-only powered model arriving by the middle of the decade - though it hasn't made any promises to cull the internal combustion engine just yet.

Despite the confirmation that it will unveil the Purosangue SUV later this year, Ferrari has still yet to rubberstamp the date for the cars official launch event.

Even if order books do open in 2022, first deliveries will almost certainly not start until next year, with prices from around 200,000.
Rishi Sunak vowed to 'create a new culture of enterprise' by cutting business taxes later this year  but came under fire for not acting immediately.

The Chancellor said he will work with industry this summer 'to get the answers right' before announcing the changes in the autumn Budget.

Setting the stage for sweeping reforms to encourage firms to invest more on training and innovation, he said the focus would be on the apprenticeships levy, tax credits for research and development, and business investment.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he will work with industry over the summer 'to get the answers right' before announcing the changes in the autumn Budget

But he was criticised for failing to announce immediate reforms. And businesses still face a hike in corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in April 2023.

British Chambers of Commerce director general Shevaun Haviland said: 'While there are some positive announcements that firms will welcome, it did not fundamentally address the huge cost pressures they are facing.'

The Chancellor promised to simplify the system of tax credits and cut rates, unveiling a plan which details potential tax cuts for investment and innovation that will be announced this autumn.

It includes a shake-up of the apprenticeship levy, where firms with payrolls over 3million are taxed 0.5 per cent of their wage bill above that level each year.

All businesses can tap this pot to fund apprenticeships, but Sunak said he wanted to ensure the funds were incentivising businesses to invest in the 'right kinds of training'.

Reforms to research and development tax credits would, the Chancellor said, make them 'effective and better value for money'.

The reliefs will be expanded to include data, cloud computing and pure maths. And Sunak said he will work with businesses on a replacement for the UK's super-deduction, which ends in April 2023.

It was introduced in April 2021 to support businesses through Covid and allows them to reduce their tax bill if they invest in their business.

Sunak said he would cut the tax on business investment.'

Rachel Moore, R&D partner at accountant PwC, said the reforms would help offset rising corporation tax rate.

But she said: 'This could come too late for some businesses planning their R&D budgets.

The expansion of R&D reliefs to include pure maths will be welcome, and should pull in more data science and artificial intelligence based R&D.'

Manufacturing industry body Make UK said the apprenticeship levy review was 'overdue and will be widely welcomed'.

It wants the amount firms can spend hiring apprentices raised to cover the 'real cost' of training. Apprentice spending from the levy is capped at 27,000 but some firms say the cost tops 100,000.
Ultra Electronics underlined its status as a leading British defence group as it posted bumper figures.

The company, whose controversial sale to US private equity awaits Government approval, said its order book was a record 1.3billion at the end of 2021.

That was up 22.2 per cent on a year earlier and came as profits rose 1.8 per cent to 116.6million despite a 1.1 per cent slide in revenues to 850.7million.

Profits up: Ultra Electronics, whose controversial sale to US private equity awaits Government approval, said its order book was a record 1.3bn at the end of 2021

It said there was excellent demand for Ultras technology.

And with war raging in Ukraine, it said it was very well placed to take advantage of increased defence spending by the West.

Ultra is seen as a highly strategic British firm because of its work for the military, which includes making submarine-hunting kit.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has faced repeated calls to block its proposed 2.6billion takeover by US private equity firm Advent International amid fears of the hollowing out of Britains defence industry following the sale of the likes of Cobham and GKN.

He has ordered a probe into the deal, citing national security concerns.

Meggitt, another leading defence firm in Britain, is also being sold to the Americans. But ministers are thought to be close to approving the Ultra takeover after Advent agreed to set up a separate board of directors to oversee sensitive Government contracts.

Ultra yesterday pointed to increased defence spending by the Five Eyes nations of the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and more widely, Nato.

As Russia and China deploy advanced submarines, investment into anti-submarine warfare by the Five Eyes nations is expected to increase at over 5 per cent per annum over the next five years, it said, adding that there were opportunities for growth in the medium to long term.

But Ultra said: The tragedy unfolding in Ukraine demonstrates the vital role that the defence industry plays in maintaining stability and sustainability in society.

At Ultra we believe that the solutions we provide are key to protecting the environmental, social, and governance standards that those societies demand.

Advent is trying to buy Ultra through Cobham, a British firm it bought for 4billion in 2019.

Independent aerospace analyst Francis Tusa said: Ultra has unveiled bumper profits and said it has a record strong order book, which begs the question  why sell?

It also further underlines its importance of a strategic British asset and piles pressure on the Government to step up its intervention in its sale.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood said: The war in Ukraine is underlining the vital role the data domain plays in the advancing character of warfare.

Its therefore critical to retain these sovereign strengths and I hope the Trade Secretary will look carefully before companies such as Ultra are allowed to be sold off to foreign interest.
People line up for a COVID-19 test at a screening center near Seoul Station in the center of the capital, March 23. Yonhap





Korea reported nearly 400,000 new COVID-19 cases and record high deaths Wednesday as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus tightened its grip on the country, having infected nearly 20 percent of the 52 million population.







The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 395,598 new infections as of midnight, raising the total caseload to 10,822,836.







While the daily tally was a sharp drop from the previous day's 490,881, which was the second-highest daily number, deaths hit a new record of 470 for a total of 13,902, and a fatality rate of 0.13 percent, the KDCA said.







The number of critically ill patients stood at 1,081, down three from the previous day.







Korea is experiencing the worst wave of the pandemic, surpassing the grim milestone of 10 million infections earlier this week. Nearly 9 million cases have been reported since early February. The daily caseload surged to an all-time high of 621,205 last Wednesday.







The spread of the virus is feared to continue unabated amid relaxed social distancing rules. Earlier this week, the government eased some of its virus-related regulations to support the retail and service sectors bearing the brunt of the pandemic's financial impact. (Yonhap)






The City of London has retained its crown as Europe's dominant financial hub as fears of a post-Brexit fall from grace fail to come to fruition.

Beating the likes of Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, London is now the only European hub in the top 10 of the Global Financial Centres Index, after Shenzhen replaced Paris in tenth place.

Londons pool of highly skilled workers and welcoming business regime were key factors in cementing its position as a force to be reckoned with.

Financial hub: The City of London has retained its crown as Europe's dominant financial hub

Shifts: The top five financial hubs in the world and their performance levels

The index, which covers 126 financial centres, takes into account factors like labour market stability, political stability, infrastructure and innovation and quality of life.

Rankings are based on surveys and 150 factors, with quantitative measures from the World Bank, The Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and United Nations.

New York extended its global lead among the world's top financial powerhouses, with London losing some ground to increasingly competitive rivals in the US and Asia.

The UK's capital held on to second place despite shedding 14 points to 726.

The index from think tank Z/Yen Group in partnership with the China Development Institute showed the US financial capital holding the top spot with 759 points, down 3 points from six months ago.

GFCI said Russia's invasion of Ukraine would affect future rankings for Moscow and St Petersburg, which are likely to fall after coming in at 50th and 110th, respectively, this time.

London's ranking has become closely watched since Britain's departure from the European Union, which largely cut off the UK financial sector from the bloc.

Rankings: New London and London lead the world's financial hubs

Global: The performance of financial hubs all over the world compared

In GFCI's index of fintech ratings, a sector the UK is prioritising in its push to keep London attractive, New York and Shanghai retained first and second positions respectively, while Beijing and San Francisco overtook London to take third and fourth places.

Brexit led to calls from banks for Britain to bolster the capital's competitiveness, with listing rules already eased.

The UK finance ministry plans to give regulators a formal competitiveness remit, though keeping banks safe, consumers protected and markets orderly would remain their top priority.

'A primary objective to promote competitiveness is genuinely a bad idea,' Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said this week.
Marks & Spencer will more than double the number of its shops stocking Jaeger after a successful launch.

The High Street retailer will also begin selling the fashion brand in overseas stores for the first time later this year.

Jaeger was snapped up a little over a year ago after it collapsed under its previous owners.

Jaeger boss Fiona Lambert (pictured), was parachuted in to take control of the brand after it was snapped up by M&S only a year ago, its sixth owner in 20 years

M&S, which recently appointed Stuart Machin and Katie Bickerstaffe as joint chief executives, is using Jaeger to burnish its fashion credentials.

Its been very successful, says Jaeger boss Fiona Lambert, parachuted in shortly after the acquisition.

The response in stores has been fantastic  and not just from Jae- ger customers.

There are a lot of new customers walking into M&S that might not have looked at it before.

Some lines are selling out too quickly, she added.

The label has a rich history and was worn by Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Jean Shrimpton in the 50s and 60s when British music and style led the world.

But Jaegers remaining shops closed for good after it collapsed during the pandemic. M&S bought the brand a year ago, its sixth owner in 20 years.

The range is in 12 stores following a pilot launch before Christmas. Another 14 will be added next month.

Lambert is looking for temporary pop-up shops around the country to help raise the profile of the brand and has not ruled out opening shops again on the High Street in future.

It is already selling online to overseas customers and will launch in stores in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore in the coming months.

Brand new: A model in a dress from Jaegers summer 2022 collection

We anticipate possibly half the business coming internationally across both men and women, she explains.

Lambert concedes multiple owners and historic financial distress means the brand has probably lost a bit of its confidence in recent years.

But, now with the financial clout of M&S behind it, she says: Theres a legacy to carry on. Jaeger is a baby in my hands now and Im going to look after it.

'Of course, I feel like everyone will be watching what were doing because people have this real fondness for Jaeger.

The challenge  or the joy  of this is that people say My mum used to wear it or My nan used to wear it. I think there was an emotional connection.

In recent incarnations the clothes had become a bit stuffy and a bit formal and lost the easy wit of its heyday in the 50s, 60s and 70s, says Lambert, who studied design and design history and still turns her hand to pencilling style ideas on the page in meetings.

Our job is to make it relevant for a much broader set of customers and it not be about age, or what she describes as making an understated statement.

But while Jaeger may still have emotional resonance with its core shoppers, Lambert  who has carved her career at mainstream brands including George at Asda, Next and Dunelm  is not starry-eyed.

People [in M&S] recognise that Jaeger can be an asset by attracting a different customer. Ive been clear from the outset that we should be complimentary, not be in competition, the chief executive says.

Jaeger  at 138 years old, exactly the same age as M&S began selling a smaller range before Christmas. Womenswear accounts for 80 per cent of the range but we think there is a lot more opportunity in mens.

Other M&S stores will get the label over time although Lambert wants it to be in the right stores rather than every store.

But she says: Weve got to earn our space in store.

In the past year, Lambert has breathed new life into Jaeger. In that time she recruited a 35-strong team  mostly on Zoom  and set up an office on the fifth floor of the M&S flagship store at Marble Arch, looking down onto the bustle of Londons Oxford Street and away from its towering, glassy head office in Paddington.

Did that distance from the mothership help provide a fresh perspective? Whether we were in the same building or not, from the outset M&S wanted Jaeger to behave independently, she says.

She has plundered the incredible archive to get a flavour of the fabrics, styles and iconic photography that made Jaeger so enduring.

Founded by Doctor Gustav Jaeger, it was once famous for using healthy wool fabrics and clothed explorer Ernest Shackleton on his mission to Antarctica in 1907.

But most will remember it from the 50s when it was worn by Monroe and Hepburn and designed by Jean Muir, who reinvented the label for a new generation that flocked to its Regent Street store to buy Young Jaeger.

Collapse: Jaeger was snapped up a little over a year ago after it fell into administration under its previous owners

In the 60s, Shrimpton, regarded as one of the worlds first supermodels, was photographed by David Bailey wearing a suede Jaeger coat for Vogue magazine.

They were always on the front foot, says Lambert.

But she says: I think with the acquisition, Jaeger had a blank sheet of paper to reinvent those strengths, but reinvent it for today.

Rather than ultra-formal, as Jaeger has leaned towards in its more recent past, the latest range is more about versatile dressing, she says.

People are not necessarily going to step straight into dressing head-to-toe in a suit again [after the pandemic].

So its about finding this hybrid way of dressing: people can be ready to go out, to travel, go to events.

But buying something you are only going to wear once, for one occasion, isnt sustainable any more, she says.

Among the trouser suits and long-line wool coats are other heavy hints of the brands past.

A logo in relief on one bright red top speaks to the old playful Jaeger while more relaxed 50s dresses feature old prints from the archive.

Despite Covid-related shipment delays, she has been 90 per cent there getting stock where it needs to be.

The range is strong enough that two or three pieces missing isnt going to hurt it.

She describes the opportunity as a dream job.

People [Jaeger customers] are trusting us with Jaeger.

That was why its important that we dont let go of its values  the quality.

They want to know that this is going to last.
The Moscow Stock Exchange partially reopened yesterday after being closed for nearly a month following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The bourse was shut on February 25 after the initial offensive sparked a wave of sanctions by Western countries that sent Russian equities into freefall and caused the value of the rouble to plunge.

The subsequent shutdown was the longest in Russias modern history.

Back in business: The Moscow Stock Exchange was shut on February 25 after Western sanctions sent Russian equities into freefall and caused the value of the rouble to plunge

But trading resumed yesterday, albeit under heavy restrictions with short selling banned and foreign investors barred from exiting the market under rules introduced by Vladimir Putins regime to stop money leaving the country.

Putin has also authorised Russias National Wealth Fund to spend up to 7.4billion to buy Russian shares in a bid to shore up the market.

Around 33 Russian stocks were authorised for trading, including oil and gas giants Gazprom and Lukoil, and state-backed lender Sberbank.

The two energy firms were among the best performers during the shortened session, while airline Aeroflot was one of the top losers after dropping over 15 per cent.

The Russian benchmark Moex index ended 4.4 per cent higher on the day, but it was still down sharply on pre-war levels.

White House Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh branded the move a charade.
Dozens of Cuban migrants were stopped from reaching the United States border after the Guatemalan navy intercepted two vessels smuggling them to shore.

The National Defense Navy was patrolling the region of Rio Dulce, a lake and river system on the Central American nations eastern coast, and spotted the group being transported on two boats on Monday night, the Guatemalan Institute of Migration said in a statement released Tuesday.

A total of 50 Cubans and two Honduran migrants were removed from the vessels.

Another eight Cuban migrants, part of the same group, were detained while traveling by land in the department of Izabal.

Guatemala's navy on Monday intercepted three boats with 50 Cuban migrants and two Hondurans who were being smuggled by sea off the coast of the department of Izabal and headed towards the United States border. An additional eight Cuban migrants were detained while they were traveling by land in Izabal. All 60 individuals were expelled to Guatemala

60 Cuban and Honduran migrants were expelled to Honduras after the Guatemalan navy frustrated their attempt to reach the United States border on Monday

All of the migrants were transported to an immigration station in the Izabal border town of Corinto.

They were processed and expelled to Honduras, where they had originally set out from.

The Guatemalan Institute of Migration called the attempted maritime passage 'a new trend in the region.'

Cuban nationals must present a visa to enter Guatemala. They must also present a valid passport and proof of a negative COVID-19 test or vaccine.

The neighboring Central American countries of Costa Rica and Panama, and Colombia in South America, now also require a visa to pass through their airports, frustrating waves of Cubans looking to flee the communist Caribbean country as its economy falters.

Guatemala's navy escorts a group of Cuban and Honduran migrants who were intercepted at sea from illegally migrating towards the United States border on Monday

According to migration data, 84 Cubans have been expelled so far this year and last year after trying to cross through Guatemala, part of the route to reach the United States.

The latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection report showed that the number of Cuban migrants encountered for illegally crossing the United States-Mexico border increased dramatically in February, with U.S. Border Patrol agents reporting 16,531 interdictions.

The encounters were the highest monthly figure on record.

The interdiction totals have increased steadily since October 1, 2021, the beginning of fiscal year 2022.

Data shows that 5,893 encounters with Cuban migrants were reported in October followed by 6,606 in November. December closed out the year with 7,983, and 9,720 unlawful border crossing incidents were registered in January.
A father suffering from an incurable nerve disease sent his family away on holiday and then took his own life, leaving behind a letter saying he would not have died in such a shocking fashion had assisted dying laws been in place.

Lawrie Daniel, 51, took his own life in 2016 after developing multiple sclerosis, a condition which left him confined to a bed for 20 hours a day and unable to use his arms or legs.

The father, from the Blue Mountains in NSW, arranged for his wife and two teenage children to holiday in Sydney before ended his life in his bedroom.

Bertie Daniel, now 21, said his father should have been able to die through euthanasia surrounded by his loved ones - rather than in a dark room by himself.

He is campaigning for assisted dying to be legalised in NSW, the only state in Australia where there is no such law in place.

The issue is the subject of an emotionally-charged debate. Advocates say assisted dying is about dignity in death, while opponents argue such laws place a value on what is a life worth living.

Lawrie Daniel, 51, sent his family on holiday before taking his own life after being diagnosed with the nerve disease multiple sclerosis. The father wanted to die via euthanasia but the practice is still illegal in NSW. He is pictured with his son Bertie (left) and daughter Darcie (right)

Mr Daniel, who now campaigns for assisted dying, told Daily Mail Australia: 'If we had assisted dying it wouldn't have been so sudden - we would have been able to say goodbye.

'Instead, (my father) had to die alone without any of his loved ones by his side.'

Mr Daniel said his dad had no option but to send his family away so they wouldn't be accused of being complicit in his death.

'We went into the city and had a really nice time. We woke up the next morning and were driving back home and got a phone call from police,' Mr Daniel said.

'To find out he did it to himself was a major surprise - we didn't have any kind of warning.'

The 51-year-old former carpenter left behind a final letter to his wife Rebecca, which apologised for the impact his suicide would have on her and their children.

We went into the city and had a really nice time. We woke up the next morning .... and got a phone call from police Son Bertie Daniel

'My dear Rebecca, if you are reading this it is probably because I have made an attempt at voluntary euthanasia and I sincerely hope I have been successful,' he wrote.

'I am so sorry for putting you and the children through this, but it has been nine years since my first physical MS symptom in 2007 and you know what I have been living with all the time and what will happen in the next horrifying stages of this disease.

'If we had a compassionate voluntary euthanasia process in this country, none of this would have had to happen in the way that it has.'

Lawrie Daniel in 2013, three years before his death. He is pictured centre with his son Bertie left and daughter Darcie right

FATHER'S LETTER TO HIS WIFE BEFORE TAKING HIS OWN LIFE My dear Rebecca, if you are reading this it is probably because I have made an attempt at voluntary euthanasia and I sincerely hope I have been successful. I am so sorry for putting you and the children through this, but it has been nine years since my first physical MS symptom in 2007 and you know what I have been living with all the time and what will happen in the next horrifying stages of this disease. If we had a compassionate voluntary euthanasia process in this country, none of this would have had to happen in the way that it has. I'm so sorry I had to do this, and that you are going to have to deal with the aftermath of me having to end my life and having to end it in this way. I hope you can forgive me and that you and the children won't see this as selfish, but as self-care and self-compassion in a country where I have no alternative but to turn to self-help. I have had no practically useful medical care - they can't even treat my pain and so the only bright spot in all these years has been your incredible dedication and compassionate understanding, every day, without fail, to try to help me in my efforts to stabilise or improve and to just make sure that all my needs were met anyway, with cheerfulness, patience and great love. You and our children have been magnificent in the face of the many difficulties my illness imposed. I love you, I love our children. I'm so sorry I have had to leave you all and end my life in this way, but I could see no other option available to me in the circumstances. I ask for everyone's compassionate understanding and I ask you all to please forgive me. You and our children helped me every day during nearly every decade of my life with this illness, with infinite loving kindness. Thank you for everything. Advertisement

Lawrie Daniel with his wife Rebecca. 'If we had assisted dying it wouldn't have been so sudden - we would have been able to say goodbye,' Mr Daniel's son Bertie, now 21, said

Assisted dying: For and against

Mr Daniel said his father's incurable disease took away his job, driving licence and beloved hobby making models and left him in severe pain.

'My dad was slowly losing function in his limbs and suffered from constant neuropathic pain,' he said.

'Touching things was agony and even when he kept his arms down by his side he was still in unending pain.'

The 21-year-old said his father had campaigned for assisted dying to be legalised in NSW in the years leading up to his death.

'I want to keep carrying the torch from him and get the law changed,' Mr Daniel said.

'I'm furious that we had to go through this and that other people have had to go through this for decades.

'All the other states have legalised it. I want NSW to realise they're prolonging the suffering of the terminally ill and the suffering of everyone close to them.'

Mr Daniel has lodged a petition to the NSW Parliament calling for an assisted dying bill to be passed into law 'without delay'.

Premier Dominic Perrottet last year split with many of his senior ministers and opposed such a bill.

Mr Perrottet warned it would 'open a door that no-one else can close' and would represent society 'crossing a line'.

Bertie Daniel pictured left with his father Lawrie. The 51-year-old was a carpenter before his health deteriorated

Pictured: Lawrie Daniel. He left behind a final letter to his wife Rebecca, which apologised for the impact his suicide would have on her and their children

Mr Perrottet said it was not an abstract debate to him, recalling how he had recently sat with his dying grandmother in hospital.

'I could tell she was in great pain and that she wanted it to be over,' he said.

'I got a sense, as much as anyone can have, why those in such pain would want to end it quickly.'

However, he said: 'Once we accept the principle of this bill, we cross a line and nothing will be the same, as we will have started to define the value of a life.'

Queensland in September became the fifth state to legalise assisted dying, although access to the scheme will not be available until January 1, 2023.

That state's bill allows those suffering a disease, illness or medical condition that is advanced, progressive and terminal to access to voluntary-assisted dying.

Their condition must be expected to cause death within a year, they must have decision-making capacity, and proceed without coercion.

The NSW assisted dying bill was debated by the state's Upper House this week.

For confidential crisis support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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The UK's Covid outbreak continued to grow today as official data showed daily cases and hospital admissions jumped by more than 10 per cent in a week and infection rates increased in all of England's local authorities.

Hospitalisations are already at their highest ever level in Scotland and rising quickly in England, which combined with the growing infections has led health chiefs and scientists to call for some people to isolate if they have cold-like symptoms.

Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, urged Britons to wear masks in enclosed spaces and socialise outdoors again  just weeks after the restrictions were downgraded from law.

Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King's College London, added: 'We need to be telling people to self-isolate with cold-like symptoms and get a test if they can.'

Government dashboard data shows another 98,204 Covid-positive tests were logged in the last 24 hours across the UK, up by 9.5 per cent in a week and more than a third higher than a fortnight ago.

Cases have been trending upwards across the UK for nearly a month, with experts blaming the more transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2, which is now dominant, and ditching Covid curbs. Meanwhile, 165 Britons died within 28 days of a positive test, climbing by a fifth in a the last seven days.

And 1,979 infected people were admitted to hospitals across the UK on Sunday, the latest date figures are available for, 11 per cent higher than one week earlier.

Separate data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) today showed Covid cases jumped in all of England's 149 local authorities in the week to March 20 for the third week in a row.

The figures show the worst-hit areas are concentrated in the South West, with around 1.5 per cent of people testing positive in North Somerset, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly and Torbay.

Scotland is currently treating 2,322 Covid patients, the highest figure ever recorded in the country, breaching the peak of 1,571 during the Omicron wave and 2,053 during the 2020 winter peak. But its daily admissions appear to have peaked at 223 last week, in a promising sign the outbreak is slowing down.

In England, there are now 13,602 patients with the disease in hospital, which is less than half of the peak in early 2021. But figures from NHS England show more than half are not primarily unwell with the virus, suggesting the rise is a reflection of higher infection rates in the community, rather than a surge in severe disease.

England's Covid wall of immunity revealed: How 99% of adults and up to 96% of children have antibodies against virus two years after country was plunged into first lockdown Official charts have revealed England's immense Covid wall of immunity exactly two years after the country was plunged into its first lockdown. The graphs, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show that 99 per cent of adults in England had detectable levels of the Covid-fighting antibodies by February 28. An estimated 96 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 also had the protective proteins last month, as did around 81 per cent of youngsters between eight and 11. Covid antibodies are produced by the immune system in response to either natural infection or vaccination and they indicate at least some level of immunity against the disease. The figures  based on blood samples from 75,000 people  come exactly two years after the UK went into the unprecedented first lockdown. Boris Johnson announced on the night of March 23 that the following day, Britons should not leave their home but for exceptional circumstances. At that point, there was virtually zero immunity to the novel virus. But now more than 85 per cent of Britons have been double-jabbed and 67 per cent have got three doses, according to official figures, while separate estimates suggest half of Britons have already caught Covid. Despite hospital admissions for Covid creeping up in recent weeks, the ONS data shows no sign of waning immunity in elderly groups. The ONS estimates 99 per cent of over-80s had the proteins last month, who are in line to get a fourth jab this month. Advertisement

On the back of data showing rising admissions and infections, Dr Hopkins said the figures are 'a reminder to us all that the pandemic is not over'.

She added: 'Hospital admissions and cases of Covid have continued to rise and we can expect to see further increases before we start to see a decline.

'Vaccination is the key to staying safe from serious illness and it's vital that everyone gets all of their recommended doses.

'Wearing a face covering in crowded or enclosed spaces, socialising outside where possible, and always observing good hand hygiene will also help to reduce the spread of Covid.

'Anyone with symptoms or a positive tests should limit their contact with others as much as possible.'

Her comments echoing pre-Freedom Day rhetoric come just one month exactly since restrictions were eased and public messaging on Covid was downgraded, with Brits encouraged to live with the virus and choose to follow protocols themselves where sensible.

And Professor Spector, who leads the ZOE Covid surveillance study  which is no longer followed by the Government amid warnings from experts about how reliable its data is  claimed Covid is now 'affecting more people than ever before' and many are 'isolating when they have symptoms'.

He urged Britons to self-isolate if they have cold-like symptoms and get a test 'if they can'.

Data from the ZOE study, which is based on swabs of more than 60,000 people and reports from 840,000 weekly contributors, today suggested there are 324,954 new symptomatic infections across the UK per day.

The figure, which is the highest ever recorded by the study, suggests one in 19 people across the four nations currently have symptomatic Covid.

Figures from the UKHSA shows 98,204 Britons tested positive overnight, up 9.5 per cent on the 89,717 cases detected last Thursday.

The vast majority of the cases, 79,373, were registered in England, while 2,743 were logged in Wales and 2,524 were detected in Northern Ireland. Another 13,564 people tested positive in Scotland.

Meanwhile, 1,979 infected people were admitted to hospitals across the UK on Sunday.

The figure is 11.4 per cent higher than one week earlier.

And 16,975 Covid-infected people were in hospitals across the UK by 8am yesterday, up 18.1 per cent in a week.

The figure is the highest recorded since January 24, when the Omicron winter wave was receding.

Another 165 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were registered today, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 164,282.

Data from the ZOE study, which is based on swabs of more than 60,000 people and reports from 840,000 weekly contributors, today suggested there are 324,954 new symptomatic infections across the UK per day. The figure, which is the highest ever recorded by the study, suggests one in 19 people across the four nations currently have symptomatic Covid

A third of Covid deaths now not primarily due to virus as number of Brits dying 'with' rather than 'from' infection continues to grow amid milder wave The proportion of Covid deaths where the virus is not the underlying cause has climbed to its highest ever level in England, official figures show. One in three victims who had the virus mentioned on their death certificate in February died 'with' rather than 'from' Covid, according to the Office for National Statistics. The ONS' monthly report showed a record 34 per cent of the 3,644 coronavirus deaths in England in February were not primarily due to the virus. For comparison, during the first wave of the virus in April 2020 before vaccines were available, the share of deaths where Covid was not the underlying killer was just five per cent. When the milder Omicron variant emerged in November, the figure stood at 15 per cent and has climbed every month since. The rise of Omicron and its off-shoot strain BA.2 has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where half of virus inpatients in England are not primarily needing treatment for the infection. Critics have warned that the rise in so-called 'incidental' cases, driven by the sheer prevalence of the now-dominant BA.2, is skewing the Government's daily coronavirus statistics. Advertisement

Separate data by the UKHSA shows the number of people testing positive increased in every local authority in England last week for the third time in a row.

Nine of the 10 worst-hit areas in the country are in the South West.

In North Somerset and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, 1.5 per cent of people tested positive in the week to March 24.

Confirmed cases also soared in Torbay and Dorset, where 1.4 per cent of the population tested positive, and Somerset, Isle of Wight and Wiltshire, where 1.3 per cent people had their infection confirmed.

In South Gloucestershire, Plymouth and Devon, 1.3 per cent of the population, or one in 77, also tested positive.

But the authorities with the biggest week-on-week rise in cases are mostly located in the North West, where the proportion of infected people jumped by up to 70 per cent.

Cases climbed 70 per cent in Darlington, 67 per cent in South Tyneside, 63 per cent in Gateshead and Stockton-on-Tees and 59 per cent in Sunderland.

Parts of Yorkshire and the Humber also saw the steepest climb, with Wakefield seeing cases jump 57 per cent week-on-week, while infections increased 56 per cent in Rotherham and 54 per cent in North East Lincolnshire and Redcar and Cleveland.

Tameside, in the North West, completed the top 10 places with the biggest weekly rise, with cases rising 53 per cent.

And data from Scotland today showed that the number of infected people in the country's hospitals hit 2,322  the highest figure ever recorded in the country, breaching the high of 1,571 during the Omicron wave and 2,053 during the 2020 winter peak.

The figure increased by 65 compared to the 2,257 reported yesterday. There are now 26 infected patients in intensive care in Scotland, up one in the last 24 hours.

Another 13,564 cases were posted on the Scottish Government website, while 50 virus deaths were confirmed.

And Covid hospitalisation data for England in the week to March 20 shows admission rates among the over-75s have jumped to their highest level in more than a year, when the second wave of the virus was at its peak.

The admission rate for over-85s stood at 178.3 per 100,000 people last week, up from 137.0 the previous week, while for people aged 75 to 84 it was 74.3, up from 59.8.

Rates among other age groups were lower, though all showed a week-on-week increase, according to the UKHSA.

Overall, the Covid admission rate in England stood at 17.9 per 100,000 people, up from 14.1 and the highest since the week to January 16 2022.

However, NHS England data shows more than half of Covid patients are not primarily in hospital because they are unwell with the virus.

Figures show just 5,409 of the 12,142 virus patients in hospital beds on Tuesday (45 per cent) were admitted because of their infection.

And data released today by the Office for National Statistics shows a third of Covid fatalities recorded in February were not primarily caused by the virus.
A federal judge has found sufficient evidence to name Sarah Lawrence 'cult leader' Larry Ray's daughter, Talia, as a co-conspirator along with his so-called lieutenant and co-accused Isabella Pollok, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Pollok is due to stand trial on multiple counts later this year. Talia, 29, remains unindicted and it will be for the government to decide whether to bring charges.

Judge Lewis Liman made his finding Thursday morning ahead of continued testimony from alleged cult member, Claudia Drury, 31.

Drury's testimony, which began last Friday, has been repeatedly interrupted due to both juror issues and an apparent seizure on the part of the defendant which saw court suspended Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.

Dressed in a pale blue shirt and navy pants Ray presented a robust figure in court and showed no signs of the illness that saw him stretchered out of court Tuesday and led to proceedings being suspended Wednesday.

Drury concluded her direct testimony detailing the life of prostitution into which she claims Ray forced her.

The trial of Sarah Lawrence 'sex cult leader' Larry Ray (pictured) resumed Thursday with a federal judge finding sufficient evidence to name Ray's daughter, Talia (pictured) as a co-conspirator

Talia (left) has been named as a co-conspirator along with Ray's so-called 'lieutenant' and co-accused Isabella Pollok, (right) DailyMail.com can reveal

She said on a very bad week she made $10,000 and on a good week $50,000 in proceeds that she handed over to Ray and Pollok.

Drury recalled an incident when Ray cuffed her to a hotel chair, suffocated her with a plastic bag, smothered her with a pillow and threatened to waterboard her when she had become too close to the client, whom she later credited with helping get out of the life.

She also told jurors that Ray had asked her to make a list of her clients which he planned to use as 'a threat' and 'leverage' and threatened to publish online.

Ironically, the Department of Justice did just that earlier this week when they put the list, a sealed exhibit, on a public portal before quickly taking it down.

Rising to cross examine Drury, defense attorney Marne Lenox attempted to make damaging inroads into her credibility.

She used Drury's own words against her and started with her admission that she told 'stories' and tall tales to win favor and impress friends.

That same flaw was, she implied, something that had escalated with her relationship with Ray and her struggle to transition from high school to college.

Lenox highlighted the fact that Drury had been untruthful with prosecutors when they first spoke with her in 2020 and that she had lied in housing court in a bid to help Ray avoid eviction.

On Thursday, Claudia Drury (pictured in a court sketch) concluded her testimony detailing the life of prostitution into which she claims Ray forced her

Over the course of three days, alleged victim Drury (left) told the court how Ray (rightt) allegedly forced her into a life of prostitution, abused her, and threatened to kill her after ingratiating himself with her and her friends when she was a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York

Drury insisted that she believed what she was saying at the time and her memory, so clear on direct, failed her more than once as she claimed not to recall emails and texts shown to her in court.

An audio recording played in court revealed her making up a story in vivid detail about three men, jumping from a white van and threatening her.

Lenox accused Drury of making 'Larry's villains' her own in a bid to curry favor and gain attention.

Testimony in the sex trafficking case resumed two days after the trial was abruptly halted due to Ray suffering a medical emergency in court.

An attorney for Ray called for a break in the middle of proceedings late Tuesday morning after his client shook and gasped behind his mask.

Judge Liman cleared the courtroom while court officers rushed in with a first aid kit and defibrillator and a medic followed on.

Ray was then stretchered out of Manhattan Federal Court and on to an ambulance waiting outside.

The former convict is on trial for allegedly sex trafficking his daughter's friends from a dorm room on the campus of the elite New York liberal arts college.

Tuesday's emergency marked the end of a morning during which jurors heard often-harrowing testimony from Drury as she chronicled in disturbing detail how Ray allegedly bullied and groomed her into a life of prostitution, convincing her she had to make amends for 'egregious wrongs' and repay debts of more than $100,000.

Ray's sex trafficking trial was halted Tuesday after the accused sex cult leader suffered another medical emergency in court

Drury, who worked as a prostitute from the beginning of 2015 to April 8, 2019, told jurors she made $10,000 on a 'bad week' and up to $50,000 on a 'good week'

Drury, pictured arriving at court Tuesday, finally finished testifying Thursday after repeated interruptions due to both juror issues and a medical emergency by Ray

Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon focused on the sexual grooming that, prosecutors claim, Ray used to funnel Drury into a life of prostitution from which he garnered more than $2.5million.

Drury told the court that Ray suggested she take part in a 'gang bang' telling her that sex with multiple partners was liberating and fun.

She told how he set her sexual challenges that she - already unravelling - took in a bid to win his favor and 'make repairs' for wrongs of which he accused her.

Ray is accused of 17 counts including sex-trafficking, extortion, money laundering, violent crime in aid of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy

The accusations were primarily of damage to property but escalated to an insistence that she had poisoned him and his daughter, Talia.

'He told me to take a cab ride and at the end of it instead of paying suggest I had sex with the driver instead,' Drury told the court.

'He also told me to pick up someone on the street and have sex with them in Central Park.'

Asked if she did these things Drury replied: 'Yes.'

On Ray's suggestion, the former college student claimed that she had taken work as an escort in a sex club.

There she detailed her introduction to BDSM (Bondage and Sado Masochism). She described some of it as 'quite severe' and said that she took the 'submissive' role with the sex club clients and one of its managers.

The court was shown graphic pictures of her bruised buttocks, images that, she said she had sent to Ray at his request.

She said that Ray, with whom she had fallen into a fractious relationship pattern of confrontation, allegation, punishment, 'confession' and reparation from her, was 'encouraging' of her actions and the pictures.

Ray ultimately ingratiated himself with his daughter Talia's friends at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, including Santos Rosario (pictured left with Talia) Daniel Levin, Felicia Rosario (right) and Isabella Pollok

PICTURED: Alleged cult victims Santos Rosario, (far left) Dan Levin (middle) and Claudia Drury, in evidence photos submitted to the court

Sarah Lawrence College is an elite liberal arts college in Bronxville, just north of New York City

She also said that, by this time, she had built up so much 'self-hate' having 'solidly taken on the role of sabotager' in the 'cult' that she found an outlet and relief in the pain of BDSM.

On some level she felt that she deserved the punishment for all the supposed 'wrongs of which, she said, Ray accused her across a sustained campaign of coercion.

Ray played on her fears, often speaking graphically about jail and what would happen to her there.

'He talked about it for years and years. He described in detail the size of a prison cell, made me walk the size of a prison cell,' she said.

'He told me graphic things about what people would do to me. Because I was smaller [he said] that women would make me their b***h and he described how they would use the restroom and defecate and use my face and tongue as toilet paper.

'He talked about it many times in many different ways.'

Drury said she worked as a prostitute from the beginning of 2015 to April 8, 2019.

At her most profitable she saw three or more clients a day charging $2,000 an hour, $2,400 for two hours with fees rising in increments from there.

She said she handed most of her money to Ray and Isabella Pollok  his co-accused and so-called 'lieutenant.'

The court heard how Ray's alleged campaign of control escalated during the summer of 2013, when Drury and several others travelled to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to help with yardwork at Ray's stepfather's property (pictured)

PICTURED: Larry Ray outside his stepfather's home in Pinehurst, North Carolina

On two occasions Ray told Drury and Pollok to be sexual with each other and others she said while he watched.

On other occasions Ray would use the props that he told her to buy for clients. Her voice dipping so that the judge had to remind her to speak up, Drury listed the props, 'Handcuffs, crops, floggers, leash, collar, ball-gag, dildos.'

The difference, she said, between clients using these and Ray was that when she told clients to stop, she knew that they would. With Ray, she said: 'I was scared.'

Drury is one of at least five cult members who were students at the elite liberal arts college in Bronxville, just north of Manhattan, when they met the accused sex trafficker.

Ray was introduced to the group in the fall of 2010 when he began living in his daughter Talia's on-campus dorm, where he persuaded her friends to stay the next summer at his city apartment.

Prosecutors say Ray coerced the students to join his 'family' as he accumulated power, sex and money, forcing one woman into a sex work enterprise so lucrative that she turned over more than $1million to him in a single year.

Jurors heard how his alleged campaign of control escalated during the summer of 2013, when the students travelled to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to help with yardwork at Ray's stepfather's property.

Talia Ray is seen with Larry Ray's stepfather Gordon at his Pinehurst property

At this point, Ray was controlling what students ate  forbidding carbohydrates  and forcing them to work sometimes until three or four in the morning to re-do mistakes that he found in their work, according to Drury.

Ray, who once served as the best man at a wedding of disgraced former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, has been incarcerated since his 2020 arrest.

He is a well-known New York scammer with a murky past. In addition to spending times behind bars for his role in a securities fraud scam, he has worked on Wall Street, owned nightclubs, been an FBI informant and inserted himself in into powerful networks by brokering meetings.

He had previously been sentenced to five years probation for his role in a securities fraud scam.

The allegations involving the latest case were laid out in a lengthy article by New York magazine's The Cut in 2019, that included accounts from some of the purported cult members.
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Tens of thousands of asylum seekers are expected to flood the US-Mexico border next month as Covid restrictions on immigration are set to be lifted.

Immigration experts warn that a 'bottleneck' of an estimated 170,000 refugees has built up over the last two years in Mexico after being turned away at the southern US border under a Trump-era policy known as Title 42.

The policy allows border patrol agents to deny entry to migrants without considering their asylum claims if they have been in a country where a communicable disease  such as Covid  is rife.

It has been used more than one million times during Donald Trump's and Joe Biden's presidencies.

Already deeply controversial, the policy was lambasted by top Democrats when it emerged Ukrainian refugees fleeing their war-torn country to Mexico were being turned away at the US southern border under Title 42, despite Biden's promise to welcome them 'with open arms'.

His administration is now reportedly planning to end the policy as soon as April 1.

But immigration experts told DailyMail.com that although Title 42 has left thousands of refugees in danger in Mexico, there is no plan for an effective and fair replacement system  meaning a pileup of tens of thousands of desperate asylum seekers at ports of entry is likely in border cities like Tijuana, south of California and Reynosa, across the border from Hidalgo, Texas.

An estimated 170,000 asylum seekers waiting to enter the US could flood the Mexico border next month after Trump-era Covid policy, Title 42, is expected to end. Pictured: armed Mexican law enforcement at the San Ysidro PedEast crossing point in Tijuana, Mexico

Title 42, which has been effect since 2020, allows border patrol agents to deny entry to migrants without considering their asylum claims in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19. Migrants are seen protesting against the policy at the border on Monday

The scene at San Ysidro vehicle crossing, near San Diego, one of the busiest ports of entry on the Mexican border

'If they lift Title 42 they're still not going to let everyone in at the bridges quickly, so there's going to be long waits, camps, people are going to choose to enter illegally over the walls etcetera,' said immigration attorney Taylor Levy.

'The government is worried lifting Title 42 will cause a lot of people to come. But the truth of the matter is Title 42 has been in effect for two years so there's a bottleneck of people at Mexican border cities who have been waiting in the shelters sometimes for a year or two to seek asylum 'the right way'.

'They have very real cases,' she added. 'We're going to see big numbers, but it's people already in border cities, not people in Nicaragua thinking "oh, now's the time to come".'

A report last month by the Strauss Center for International Security and Law estimated that there were 28,995 asylum seekers on waitlists in eight Mexican border cities  an increase of nine per cent since its last quarterly report in November.

However, the total number of refugees waiting to cross into the US is likely much higher, as some wait lists have been full for months. Tijuana's wait list of 9,600 closed to new additions in March 2020.

Intelligence officials reportedly told politics site Axios the true number waiting to apply for asylum is as high as 170,000.

Levy told DailyMail.com that although she believed Title 42 should be removed, the government has failed to put in place safer policies, meaning asylum processing could revert to the old system of 'metering', which she called 'extremely corrupt'.

The metering system consisted of informal lists of migrants' names compiled by the refugees themselves, and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) setting an arbitrary number of them to let into the US each day.

The Biden Administration has come under intense pressure from top Democrats to end the policy after it emerged Ukrainian refugees were being turned away at the US southern border despite the president's promise to welcome them 'with open arms'

A Ukrainian husband and wife show their passports to a border patrol officer and are allowed entry to the US Tuesday

A border officer inspects the passport of a single Ukrainian woman. Ukrainians and Russian refugees are choosing Mexico as an interim because it gives six-month tourist visas

Hundreds line up to cross the US pedestrian border in Tijuana, Mexico. CBP statistics say officers encountered Ukrainians 272 times at the southern border last month

'The US government wasn't running the list of who gets to cross. It was officially run by the migrants, but it wasn't actually, it was run by organized crime with migrant figureheads,' Levy said.

'In Tijuana the list was a literal spiral-bound notebook that people wrote their names in.

'There's a lot of corruption around crossing out names or paying money to get your name written higher in the list.

'I have no idea what the administration is thinking.'

Axios reported that a multi-agency unit had been formed to deal with the coming influx expected once Title 42 is revoked.

Officials from the Departments of State, Justice, Defense and Health and Human Services (HHS) are coming up with a 'Southwest Border Mass Irregular Migration Contingency Plan', the site said.

Plans could include using aircraft from the US Marshals Service to move migrants to less congested border crossings, use of air and ground transportation from the Department of Defense, and dozens of buses from the Bureau of Prisons as well as large tent bases to shelter up to 2,000 migrants each.

The effort is reportedly being led by Border Patrol National Deputy Chief Matthew Hudak at the Southwest Border Coordination Center, run out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s Washington DC campus.

Officials told Axios that they estimate 170,000 refugees are waiting to claim asylum once Title 42 is revoked.

Earlier this month, DHS officials made a U-turn, sending a memo to staff encouraging them to exempt the war refugees from the Trump-era policy

Russian citizens waiting in the same line, however, are still being denied entry under Title 42

The decision over when Title 42 ends actually lies with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The policy is set to end on March 30 unless it is renewed by the agency.

Neither the White House nor CDC answered DailyMail.com's questions about the policy's end.

The White House says it will 'continue to defer to the CDC on the use of Title 42 and how long it might remain in effect'.

The CDC told DailyMail.com to 'reach out to the White House for further information.'

Latin America expert Adam Isacson says the Biden administration is increasing the chances of a crisis at the border by failing to take advantage of immigration charities on the ground.

'Title 42's possible end could mean a mass arrival at the border of asylum seekers who've been bottled up,' tweeted Isacson, head of the Defense Oversight Program at think tank the Washington Office on Latin America.

'Border nonprofits stand ready to help, but they're not being included.'

Erika Pinherio, Policy and Litigation Director for migrant advocacy group Al Otro Lado, said they have contact details for more than 40,000 migrants and offered to coordinate with CBP, but have had 'no response'.

Al Otro Lado previously sued CBP over Title 42 and won, with a San Diego federal judge ruling the policy illegally denied due process rights in September 2021.

Ukrainian and Russian refugees set up a makeshift camp next to the San Ysidro Garita as they wait to cross into the US, but were cleared out at the weekend

Russian asylum seekers Artem, Nastya and their son Samuil sit outside the San Ysidro Port of Entry after not being allowed to cross into the United States to seek asylum

President Biden had already signed an executive order last February telling the Department of Homeland Security, HHS and the CDC to resume processing asylum applications at the border instead of turning them away, 'consistent with public health and safety and capacity constraints.'

Reports of Ukrainians turned away at the southern border caused an outcry earlier this month, leading to a U-turn by DHS officials who sent a memo to staff encouraging them to exempt the war refugees from the Trump-era policy.

However, Russians queuing in the same line are still being denied entry under Title 42, despite their claims to have fled their homeland after being arrested or targeted over their opposition to President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Two Russian men waiting near the pedestrian border crossing in Tijuana on Monday told DailyMail.com they fled their home after being arrested for attending an anti-war demonstration.

The men, who asked not to be named, said they were scared to try to cross into America, in case they were arrested and sent to a Mexican jail, and instead decided to wait it out with other migrants in the crime-ridden border city until Title 42 is lifted.

At the same time, several Ukrainian families, couples and single women were waved through the border crossing by CBP. Immigration advocates observing at the barbed-wire entrance said dozens were crossing each day.

Ukrainians and Russians are choosing Mexico as an interim because it gives six-month tourist visas. From there, migrants attempt to enter the US at a land border and make an asylum claim  unless they are expelled under Title 42 before they get the chance.

CBP statistics say officers encountered Ukrainians 272 times at the southern border last month, up from the 248 encounters in January. Encounters with Russians decreased from 1,030 to 769.

Asylum seekers walk back after been rejected at the border, during a protest against Title 42 policy on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro crossing port in Tijuana Monday

Human rights organizations have campaigned for years to ban fast-tracked expulsions of asylum seekers at the southern border, arguing that it leaves refugees at risk in Mexico.

A report published this month by charity Human Rights First tracked 'at least 9,886 kidnappings, torture, rape, and other violent attacks on people blocked in or expelled to Mexico due to the Title 42 policy under the Biden administration.'

The charity called the figures 'a new record of suffering'.

Included in the report were cases of asylum seekers from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela who told a survey conducted by Al Otro Lado that they had been attacked in Mexican cities after being turned away at the US border under Title 42.

The report said kidnappers 'abducted and tortured a pregnant Nicaraguan woman, Claudia Castro Andino, and her husband' the day they were to attempt to enter the United States in late February.

The savage attack caused Andino to miscarry.

According to a report by Spanish language news site Despacho 505, an audio recording was sent to her husband's family by the kidnappers with a $15,000 ransom demand, in which he pleaded: 'If we don't pay, they're going to kill us Mommy, don't let me die.'
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No fewer than 45 streets and statues have either been renamed or removed - or are in the process of being cancelled - over historic slavery links in London.

Councils and authorities across the capital have acted or are reviewing road names dedicated to figures, who are now retrospectively condemned in modern times.

They include Sir Henry Tulse, slave-owning couple Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, third Baron Holland of Foxley and his wife Elizabeth Webster.

Other figures in the slave trade, like John Cass and Robert Geffrye are also subject of the street names in dispute.

Labour controlled Hackney and Lambeth councils are the most prolific - with the latter considering changing the name of the entire district of Tulse Hill.

London's streets and areas are under review or have been changed already due to their names being linked to slavery

Tulse Hill could soon be renamed if residents object to its namesake's links to slavery in a new consultation sent to voters

Statues of Robert Milligan (right) and William Beckford (left) are being targeted. Milligan was an 18th century Scottish merchant who owned 526 slaves at his Jamaican sugar plantation. Beckford was twice Lord Mayor of London and owned 3,000 slaves in Jamaica

But the cost of altering the identities of areas is not without its own price - with the taxpayer expected to fund it.

Haringey Council's renaming of Black Boy Lane, was estimated to be costed in the region of 186,000.

It proposed paying ever resident on the street 300 compensation for the hassle of changing their addresses on all of their documents.

Meanwhile Camden Council spent 12,000 on renaming Cecil Rhodes House to Park View House.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan offered 25,000 to local authorities to 'decolonise' their street names.

He announced a 1million fund that will be shared out among community groups including those wishing to campaign to change 'offensive' road names.

Last month Mr Khan confirmed the biggest increase in his share of council tax since becoming mayor.

The average London household will pay him almost 400 a year as the Greater London Authority 'precept' increases by 8.8 per cent next month.

Lambeth council is the most recent to announce a consultation on street names and its areas.

A statue of Robert Milligan being removed by workers outside the Museum of London Docklands near Canary Wharf in 2020

A street sign for Black Boy Lane in north London which has been changed by Haringey Council at an estimate cost of 180,000

Tulse Hill was named in honour of 17th century merchant Sir Henry Tulse, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1684 and whose family's wealth was largely drawn from the slave trade.

Now the Council has asked residents for their views of the names of certain areas

The survey asks residents if the area should be renamed, whether it should have an information stand about its history or if an education programme should be launched in local schools.

Another option was to take no action whatsoever.

It adds: 'The review of statues, memorials and place names was announced in October 2020, following the appalling killing of George Floyd in the USA and the mobilisation of the 2020 Black Lives Matter campaign.

'As a proudly diverse borough which has previously taken a lead on commemorating Black leaders in the late 20th century, we have committed to reviewing existing troubling or historic links and assess whether we can legally suggest new names or commemorations to mark the lives and contributions to key people who have made Lambeth the place we know today.'

Street names in Lambeth under review and public consultation by the council because of links to slavery figures

It is the latest conflict in Britain's culture wars, which has seen statues toppled and reputations 'cancelled' as a new generation of activists reassesses the past.

Other problematic street names mentioned in the survey are those named after slave-owning couple Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, third Baron Holland of Foxley, and his wife Elizabeth Webster, including Vassall Street, Holland Grove and Foxley Road.

Lambeth Archives carried out an audit to identify the locations linked with the slave trade.

It said: 'This is a community conversation, together we will develop proposals on how to deal with this difficult aspect of our history, and find ways to celebrate the people who made Lambeth the diverse and inclusive borough that it is today. '

The council has also released a list of names it could look at again.

Burgoyne Road, Cromwell Road, Dundas Road and Nelson's Row are not currently under threat but could if 'the local community express a strong desire to educate and inform people about their possible origins'.

Tulse Hill (pictured) was named in honour of 17th century merchant Sir Henry Tulse, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1684 and whose family's wealth was largely drawn from the slave trade

Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden criticised Lambeth Council for spending public money on what he called 'a vanity project'.

He said: 'While people worry about the cost of living, Labour councils are wasting their cash on vanity projects like this.

'No wonder Conservative councils deliver more and cost less.'

Other street names which may bite the dust include Rhodesia Road  named after the former British colony of what is now Zimbabwe  and Juxon Street, which got its name from Archbishop William Juxon, who family was involved in the slave trade.

A spokesman from Lambeth Council said the authority had worked closely with local communities following the 2020 Black Lives matter protests, in order to stamp out racism.

He added: 'Lambeth is a richly diverse borough and the council has been a pioneer since the 1980s for naming new places to reflect local people.

'This latest piece of work required no extra spending and has taken government legislation on the issue fully into account.'

Camden and Haringey councils did not respond to a request to comment on costs.
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Naomi Irion, 18, has been missing since March 12 when she was abducted from a Walmart parking lot in her car

Missing Nevada teenager Naomi Irion went on a date with an unknown man the day before she vanished and had complained about being sexually harassed at work, DailyMail.com can reveal as her family desperately searches for answers that may lead to her whereabouts.

Naomi, 18, has now been missing for 12 days.

She was abducted in her blue sedan from the Walmart parking lot in Fernley, Nevada, at 5.25am on March 12, while she waited for the shuttle bus to take her to her job at a Panasonic factory in Reno, where she had complained about being sexually harassed.

Panasonic knew about the harassment and had handled it 'internally', according to Naomi's brother.

The hooded kidnapper who took Naomi remains unidentified.

Her brother says he does not think it was someone that she knew, but had to have been someone who knew her morning routine.

Chilling surveillance footage from the parking lot shows an unidentified man approach her car, open the door of the drivers seat and then say something to force Naomi to freeze and move over.

The pair then drove out of the lot with the man behind the wheel. Her abandoned car was found less than a mile away on March 15 but there has been no sign of Naomi since then.

Now, her distraught family has revealed to DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that she was exploring life as a free, young American woman after growing up in sheltered communities in Russia, Germany and South Africa as a result of her fathers job in the State Department.

She moved to America last year to live with her older brother Casey Valley, an Apple employee who served in the Navy as a nuclear machinist from 2009 to 2016. She wanted to learn how to drive, get a job, go on dates and attend community college. Fernley, where she was living with her brother, is a safe area where the residents are stunned by what has happened.

The day before she vanished, Naomi went on a date with a man who has not been named in Reno. It's likely they met on a dating app but her family do not know which one. She had accounts on Tinder, Hinge and Bumble.

Her family do not think he is involved in her disappearance but say law enforcement is aware of him. Before she was taken, Naomi was enjoying living in America after years of being sheltered, they said.

'She really wanted to experience life in America being an American kid. Most kids get to learn how to drive a car and go on dates and get some freedom but in the diplomatic community overseas you cant have that. You cant learn how to drive a car. You cant really go on dates safely.

Naomi's mother Diana and her brother Casey Valley spoke with DailyMail.com about their ongoing search for the teenager. She was living with her brother, a former Navy machinist who now works for Apple, and his girlfriend when she went missing. Her mother lives in South Africa but is now in Nevada to help with the search for her

Distraught: Naomi's mother Diana sobbed with worry, describing her as an 'extraordinary' woman who was excited about her life

Naomi was living with her brother in Fernley, Nevada. She was working at the Panasonic factory in Reno and took a bus to her job every day from the Walmart parking lot. On March 12, she left her brother's home shortly before 5am. She stopped at a garage to buy snacks, then parked at Walmart where the suspect was filmed approaching her vehicle and getting in then driving away with her in the passenger seat

Naomi's father Herve Irion works for the State Department. When she was around 13, the family moved to Moscow, then they went to Frankfurt and finally settled in South Africa. She graduated high school there last year but moved to the US to learn how to drive and get a job. Her family says she wanted to explore freedom as a young woman and was exploring dating with men and women

'You have to be secure and theres a lot of security that keeps us safe. She hadnt experienced life without that yet.

'She really wanted to explore herself as a free American young woman and what that looked like for her.

'She was so excited to move back to America,' her mother, Diana, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday after flying in to Nevada from South Africa, where she still lives with her husband and their three younger sons.

Diana's husband, Naomi's father Herve Irion works for the foreign service and has held posts in Moscow, Frankfurt and Pretoria. He is now in Nevada with his wife Diana and their three Ukrainian-born adopted sons to join the search for Naomi.

Until this year, Naomi had never driven nor gone on dates freely. She was meeting people 'online' and at work, just like other teenagers and adults, her family said.

'I saw her the night before. She had gone on a date on Friday afternoon. She was going to bed early because she had to work in the morning. During that date, they'd hung out in Reno and gone to thrift stores. She seemed fine Naomi's brother Casey Valley

She was excited about having a car, a job in the Panasonic factory in Reno, where she was making friends. She moved to Fernley to live with her older brother Casey Valley and his long-term girlfriend Nikki last year after graduating from the American school in South Africa.

Her plan was to use her brothers safe home as a launchpad for her own life, saving up enough money from her job at Panasonic to afford her own place, and enrolling in community college.

In the six months that she worked there, she reported being sexually harassed to management. Casey said it was handled 'internally' but he did not elaborate.

A spokesman for Panasonic did not comment on the sexual harassment claims, but told DailyMail.com: 'Our team is devastated about the disappearance of Naomi.

'We are cooperating with the proper authorities and working to support her family and co-workers during this time.'

On Friday March 11, Naomi returned from her date in Reno and went to bed early. She was getting up the next morning in time to drive to the Walmart parking lot at around 5.10am, then catch the bus to work at 5.30am.

'I saw her the night before. She had gone on a date on Friday afternoon. She was going to bed early because she had to work in the morning. During that date, they'd hung out in Reno and gone to thrift stores. She seemed fine.

'Im not sure [if theyd been out before]. I think it was a relatively new person. It was a man. They spent some time in Reno. I saw her afterwards I have no reason to believe that this person was involved.

'She definitely didnt talk to me about all that stuff but my girlfriend Nikki and her were very close they had girl talk,' Casey, Naomi's older brother, told DailyMail.com.

This is the man police are looking for. He was filmed approaching Naomi's car in the Walmart parking lot after circling the area

Naomi Irion's abductor is shown in another still image taken from the surveillance footage that her brother says made his blood run cold

SUSPECT'S VEHICLE - 2021-2022 BLUE CHEVROLET WITH CHROME DOOR HANDLES DailyMail.com can reveal new details about the specific model of car the suspect is believed to be driving. 'The car police believe the suspect is driving is a 2021-2022 Chevrolet Silverado High Country Trim model, 2500 or 3500, it is a single rear wheel truck. 'It is a crew cab short-bed truck with chrome door handles and a sliding back window. All of these details are very important to me to get out. It's a little bit more than has been officially released. I'm saying it now because it's what has been relayed to me and I think it's very important. We think it's a 2021-2022 - the only reason we don't think it's a 2020 is because the front bumper is power matched with the color of the truck which they started doing in 2021.' Anyone who has seen the car is urged to contact police on 775 322 4900 (anonymous tip line) or 775 577 5206 (general tip line) Advertisement

At approximately 5.00am, she left her brother's home. She was filmed at the Chevron garage at 5.03am, buying snacks, then was filmed entering the Walmart parking lot at 5.09am. She spent the next 15 minutes on social media, speaking with friends in different time zones, as was her habit.

At 5.24am, the man approaches her car and says something to her after opening the driver's door. Whatever he said, it was enough to make her move over.

Her brother says he does not believe she knows her attacker, but that they may have been watching her for days to study her pattern. It was normal for her to drive to the Walmart early and spend 20 minutes or so on the phone, speaking with friends and family in various international time zones, before boarding the Panasonic bus to Reno at 5.30am.

She would usually return from work at 8.30pm. On March 12, her brother went to bed earlier than that after a long work day of his own.

'We saw the abduction happen. It was just... it was surreal. It was a deep, sinking feeling. My blood ran cold immediately.'

He assumed Naomi came home that night and left again the next day for work. By 9pm on Sunday March 13, there was still no sign of her.

He reported her missing that night but says he wasn't taken seriously.

The next day, he and his family - who have access to her bank accounts - checked when she last used her card. It was in the gas station at 5.03am on Saturday March 12, 20 minutes before she was abducted.

Casey then went to the Walmart where he knew she parked her car to speak to security. That is when he saw the surveillance footage of her being abducted.

My blood just ran cold. I could tell from my sisters body language she gets kind of jittery when she is nervous.

'He told her something or threatened her in a way that made her move over. I could tell this was not something she was consenting to or had planned or was expecting, he said.

Naomi had also complained in some form about sexual harassment at work, though investigators have not commented on that strain of the investigation.

Her brother was reticent to discuss it and instead wanted to focus on bringing her home but said the sexual harassment claims had been brought to Panasonic and were handled internally.

The key to the investigation now is the car the suspect is believed to have been driving. DailyMail.com can reveal more details about it today.

Naomi's family say she is 'just a kid' and was going about life somewhat naively. They are begging her kidnapper to take her to safety and say they will not go looking for them once she is returned to them

Naomi's family say she had accounts on Hinge, Bumble and Tinder. She had been meeting people online and at work, and was a 'member of the LGBTQ community', her family said

The vehicle is a 2021-2022 Chevrolet Silverado High-country truck with chrome door handles. The front bumper is color matched, which leads police and car experts to believe it was built some time after 2021.

Police will not say why they think that is the suspects vehicle.

Naomis sedan was found less than a mile from the parking lot where she vanished but there was nothing inside.

Police have not yet recovered her cell phone, AirPods or purse. Where the car is found is near a homeless encampment which is where the suspect was originally reported to have walked from the morning she vanished.

'The best case scenario is that this kidnapper, this monster, who took Naomi feels so much pressure because the situation is so much bigger than he thought that he's going to go to some place and drop her off in an area where she can be found alive and well,' Naomi's mother Diana

It led to confusion that he was homeless which is now not a certainty.

The wheels of Naomis car were pointing in the direction of the road that the suspect walked along to get to her at Walmart.

Her brother says its likely the man knew the area, where other vehicles are regularly parked. The road her car was found on is in between a Sherman Williams factory and a Polyglass factory. It leads on to a freeway heading north.

Cell phone tower pings show that Naomis phone was active in the area for around ten minutes after she was taken. She is not thought to have made any phone calls or alerted anyone to what was happening.

Her family believes it is someone that she did not know.

They are begging someone to come forward with information and say they will not pursue prosecution if they drop Naomi off unscathed somewhere where she can find help.

'The best case scenario is that this kidnapper, this monster, who took Naomi feels so much pressure because the situation is so much bigger than he thought that he's going to go to some place and drop her off in an area where she can be found alive and well,' her mother said.

'I won't stop. We will not stop until we get there. I don't care about prosecution, I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about Naomi.

'This community, all of us, every private organization I can get in contact with, every volunteer... we will leave no stone unturned until we get Naomi but as soon as that happens I'm backing off.'

'Whatever they are doing to her... we have to cocoon her with love and healing. That is going to be our focus when we get her back,' her mother said.

'We'll stop looking for these people once we have her. We just want Naomi.'

Anyone with information is urged to call police in Nevada on 775 322 4900 (anonymous tip line) or 775 577 5206 (general tip line). An unspecified reward is being offered for anonymous tips that lead to Naomi




President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile threats, his spokesperson said Thursday.







Kim Eun-hye did not give the exact date due to diplomatic protocol but claimed it was unprecedented for Xi to speak with a foreign leader before they took office.







"I understand the need for a phone call was conceived in accordance with our close cooperation with China on Asia-Pacific and Korean Peninsula issues, and the new South Korea-China relations to be realized by the Yoon government at a time when North Korea is raising military tensions by threatening to lift its moratorium on nuclear weapons and ICBM tests," she said.







"North Korea has already launched missiles 10 times this year," she added.







China is North Korea's main ally and economic benefactor, and its cooperation is key to getting Pyongyang to dismantle its missile and nuclear weapons programs.







Xi sent a congratulatory message to Yoon upon his election, saying South Korea is a "close neighbor and important cooperation partner."







Yoon has voiced hope for deeper ties with China but strongly suggested he will not bow to Beijing's wishes if they do not serve the national interest.







Since his election, Yoon has spoken with U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.







His choice of foreign leaders for phone calls sparked speculation that he was signaling his intention to align with Washington in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing. (Yonhap)


Two climate protesters who blocked roads in and out of Sydney's biggest port have had their visas cancelled and will be kicked out of Australia.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke used his powers to revoke the visas on 'good order grounds' after they caused traffic chaos this week.

Protesters who block major roads in Australia will be jailed for up to two years under new laws introduced by the government.

Sydney's south was brought to a halt for the third-consecutive day on Thursday after Blockade Australia demonstrators suspended themselves along railway lines and a busy bridge that heads into Port Botany.

Under tough new legislation, people who shut down critical thoroughfares including bridges and tunnels could cop $22,000 fines and spend two years behind bars, as the NSW Government cracks down on protests creating traffic disruptions.

A Blockade Australia activist posted live footage of himself suspended over a bridge at Port Botany on Wednesday

Under tough new legislation, people who shut down critical thoroughfares including bridges and tunnels could cop $22,000 fines and spend two years behind bars

Currently the rules are only in place for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but officials are looking widen the penalty for other major roads.

Two brothers aged 21 and 23 were arrested in Port Botany this week after staging protests at the entry point to Port Botany as part of Blockade Australia's attempts to create awareness over the world's growing climate emergency.

The two German students are believed to be the pair whose visas were cancelled.

Mr Hawke used the same powers he used to boot tennis champion Novak Djokovic out of Australia in January when he arrived without being vaccinated against Covid.

'Today I exercised my power... to cancel the visas held by two non-citizen protesters on good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so,' he said.

'In making this decision, I carefully considered information provided to me by the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Border Force.

'Families going about their business, driving to school or work, do not deserve to be disrupted by the attention-seeking stunts of unlawful protesters.

'Australians expect guests in our country to comply with our laws. Under the Morrison Government, non-citizens who violate our laws will be considered for visa cancellation.'

He also asked Border Force to alert him to any other illegal activity by non-citizen protesters that could warrant visa cancellation.

The Banksmeadow protest has blocked vehicles from entering and exiting the busy Hutchinson terminal at Port Botany

Currently the harsh rules are only in place for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but officials are looking widen the penalty for other major roads

Mr Hawke's decision came after NSW Police Minister Paul Toole approached the federal government about sending them home.

'I want them deported,' he said.

'They have no place here in NSW to be hosting these protests and to be putting people's lives and their businesses at risk.

'They're not studying clearly to me. They're more interested in protesting and causing huge disruptions here in the state.'

Two women were also arrested on Wednesday afternoon after blocking another road with trucks that enters the port, with a 71-year-old chaining herself to the vehicle with a bike lock.

Both were charged with encouraging the carrying on of an operation for the commission of crime, not obeying police directions and willfully preventing free passage of a person, vehicle or vessel.

The delays are expected to cost millions of dollars due to supply chain and productivity issues.

Officers were on hand in the port again on Thursday but were unable to stop the group from causing further delays.

Climate protests have been increasing in Australia and throughout the world with governments refusing to acknowledge the crisis the planet is facing

'The penalties currently in place have clearly not deterred protesters who continue to block roads across Sydney,' Mr Toole said.

'It can't keep happening. Unauthorised protests have no place in our state and these tighter laws and tougher penalties we're introducing prove we have zero tolerance for this selfish, disruptive and unruly behaviour.'

Mr Toole said protest groups like Blockade Australia were 'a lot smarter than ever before' in their efforts to cause havoc for the causes.

'They've got legal teams that are actually doing work for them to actually work out what the penalties might be,' he said.

'We've had enough. We're not going to tolerate this any longer.'

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman agreed the penalties needed to be beefed up because they groups were causing so much disruption.

'That's not enough of a deterrent to economic vandals. It's almost a small license fee to pay to cause millions of dollars of havoc so that needs to be increased,' he said.

Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward said the new laws would ensure there were severe penalties for future protestors looking to block bridges and tunnels across Sydney.

'Protestors who stop daily commuters getting to work in the morning and home in the afternoon put themselves and drivers at risk and have no place on NSW roads,' she said.

'Under these changes, protestors who block major routes including the Spit Bridge and the Western Distributor will now face harsher penalties, aligned to the disruption they create across the road network.'

Labor leader Chris Minns said the climate change activists were 'idiotic' and supported implementing severe punishments for those participating.

'Blockade Australia have flagged they have big plans for more action later this year, so the Police Minister needs to make sure they actually have the resources in place to deal with it,' he said.
A 22-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly running over a spectator while doing dangerous 'donuts' stunts in his car on a street in Manhattan.

Tyler Greer, of New Jersey, was charged with assault, reckless driving and reckless endangerment in connection to the incident that left 23-year-old Christopher Brito badly injured.

Disturbing surveillance video of the early Sunday morning hours shows Brito accidentally trip and hit the ground directly in the path of the red two-door Infiniti police alleges Greer was driving.

Brito, who was trying to get a closer angle of Greer's circular maneuvers with his cellphone camera, has had operations on both arms but still needs reconstructive surgery for his face.

After the dangerous stunt at the intersection of Vandam and Greenwich Streets in Hudson Square, police said Greer fled the scene, leaving a bloodied Brito laying on the floor.

Christopher suffered a fractured skull, a brain injury, two broken hips and severe trauma to the body after the impact, officials said. He was quickly taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Tyler Greer, of New Jersey, arrested after allegedly running over an spectator while he was doing dangerous 'donuts' whit his Infiniti car on a street in Manhattan

He was also charged with fleeing the scene of an accident. His lawyer argues that Greer hadn't realize he had hit Brito when he fled the scene

The vehicle prosecutors allege Greer was driving, a red two-door Infiniti, was branded with the words 'Tyler Spec' in yellow font

Horrifying surveillance video shows Christopher Brito accidentally tripping and hitting the ground, directly in the path of the vehicle's front wheels

Greer turned himself at the 1st Precinct station house on Wednesday and was accompanied by his family and girlfriend, the New York Daily News reported.

Pictures obtained the DailyMail.com show Greer being escorted into Manhattan Central Booking.

He was also charged with fleeing the scene of an accident. His lawyer argues that Greer hadn't realize he had hit Brito when he fled the scene.

'He had no idea the kid was even on the floor,' Nicholas Ramcharitar, Greer's lawyer, told the Daily News.

'He [was] concentrating on keeping the car in the circle. He didn't know [that he had hit Brito] until after the fact.'

'Everyone told him to leave, get out of here.'

Greer, a car enthusiast, often shared on Facebook his hobby, posting pictures of himself posing next to different cars.

According to his description on the social media website, he formerly worked as an automotive service technician at a national chain mechanic shop.

Christopher Brito, 23, was filming a driver's dangerous stunt at the intersection of Vandam and Greenwich Streets in Hudson Square just after midnight on Saturday. He was left with a fractured skull, a brain injury, two broken hips and severe trauma to the body after the impact

According to his description on the social media website, he formerly worked as an automotive service technician at a national chain mechanic shop

Greer, a car enthusiast, often shared on Facebook his hobby, posting pictures of himself posing next to different cars

Meanwhile, Brito's mother, Jacqueline, said his 'skull was cracked and his arms, ribs, nose and pelvis are broken.'

'It's horrible,' she told the New York Post. 'His forehead is broken and his nose is broken too.'

In a GoFundMe page that has now raised over $15,000, she described her son as 'outgoing, kind, smart, hardworking, respectful, motivated and dedicated especially when it comes to his sneakers.'

She says his condition is slowly improving after he was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

'If I tell him to shake his head, he starts shaking it ''Yes,''' she told the Post. 'He can also move his finger.'

The horrifying hit-and-run comes as the city is reeling from a crime wave last month that saw a nearly 60 percent spike in incidents over last year, according to statistics released Thursday

Tyler Greer is escorted into Manhattan Central Booking after he was arrested

Brito's mother claimed police told her that Greer had a fake license plate

Police said Greer sped off and fled the scene in his car, branded with the words 'Tyler Spec' in yellow lettering, after the harrowing incident.

'His friend told me they dont even know (Greer),' Jacqueline said before Greer turned himself in on Wednesday.

She claimed police told her that Greer had a fake license plate.

'I don't even know why they do that stuff. They do that in the street,' she added.

A GoFundMe fundraising page for Christopher says he 'can not walk, talk, move or eat at the moment.

'He will be having major surgeries, needs medical supplies, and as of right now doctors said he would be recovering in the Intensive Care Unit over the next several weeks, possibly months.

'Those of you that know Christopher know he is outgoing, kind, smart, hardworking, respectful, motivated and dedicated especially when it comes to his sneakers.

'I can tell as his mother he has a great support system of friends and acquaintances outside of his family support.

'His dad and I would greatly appreciate the donations and if you can please keep my son in your prayers. Thank you!'

A GoFundMe set up for Brito has raised more than $15,000 so far. Above, a description

The horrifying hit-and-run comes as the city is reeling from a crime wave last month that saw a nearly 60 percent spike in incidents over last year, according to statistics released Thursday.

The city's latest crime figures show 9,138 incidents in February, as opposed to 5,759 during the same period in 2021  with double-digit surges in nearly every major category.

There were 32 murders in February - three more than the same month last year.

Multiple other categories saw shocking jumps, including car theft, which soared by nearly 105 percent; grand larceny, which jumped nearly 80 percent over the previous year; robberies, which surged 56 percent; a 44 percent bump in burglaries and a 22 percent spike in assaults. Rapes also saw a terrifying 35 percent rise in February.

Overall crime in NYC is up by over 45 percent compared to this time last year, according to the latest statistics from the NYPD.

Residents have also reacted with horror to a string of high-profile incidents, including the vicious battering of a woman with a hammer by a homeless man in Queens and the smearing of feces on another woman in the Bronx - after which the alleged perpetrator, a violent criminal with a history of 44 arrests, was released without bail.
As the world braces for a potential WWIII, the U.S. Army is lowering its fitness standards to be 'more inclusive'.

The Army is changing several of its fitness test exercises - including the dreaded leg tucks - in favor of planks because about half of all female soldiers were unable to complete the exercise.

The new Army Combat Fitness Test, ACFT, which is comprised of six exercises, also slashes the number of push-ups from 30 to 10, reduces the power throw distance by two-thirds and gives more time to finish the two-mile run.

The Army has been considering a new physical test to replace the 1983 United States Army Physical Fitness Test since combat jobs including the infantry and cavalry were opened to women in 2015.

Under Donald Trump, a tough gender-neutral ACFT test was suggested but a trial found 70 per cent of women failed, compared to 16 percent of men.

The most difficult part of the exam was the leg tuck event, which saw a staggering 72 percent of women fail. In some cases, women have been required to perform the move just six months after giving birth.

The tougher test was due to be introduced in 2020 but was eventually abandoned to be more inclusive to women.

The revamped ACF will be introduced in April and rolled out as mandatory for record for active-duty soldiers and full-time Guardsmen and Reservists on October 1.

Active duty soldier will take two tests per year and recruits must pass the ACFT to complete their initial military training.

Knee lifts, which test upper body strength and grip, were found to be too difficult for female soldiers

The new test will become mandatory on October 1, 2020

Trump's tough gender neutral Army Combat Fitness Test Looking at rules for ages 22-26 Deadlift - Men and women had to lift a minimum of 120 pounds three times. Standing power throw - throwing a 10-pound medicine ball behind the soldier's head at least 12 meters. Sprint, drag and carry; 50m sprint; a backward 50m drag of a 90-pound sled; a 50m sideways movement; 50m carrying two 40-pound kettle bells; and a final 50-meter sprint. Women have 3mins 15 seconds to complete it. Men have 2.5mins. 30 push-ups Leg tuck - 30 for men, and 15 for women Two-mile run - Men have 21 minutes to complete the course, women have 22 minutes Advertisement

The easier more inclusive Army Combat Fitness Test Looking at rules for ages 22-26 Deadlift - Women must lift a minimum of 120 pounds three times. Men must lift at least 140 pounds. Standing power throw - throwing 10-pound medicine ball a minimum of 6.3 meters for men and four meters for women of the same group. Sprint, drag and carry; exactly the same Ten push-ups Planks - Men and women must hold the position for 1min 20 seconds Two-mile run - Men have 22 minutes to complete the course, women have 23 minutes

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Current and former Army soldiers scoffed at the new requirements.

'The dumbest thing is that, as anybody could tell, the ACFT doesnt even measure combat readiness. There are too many factors that go into ones ability to do their job beyond throw ball backward really far. So it really says nothing about womens ability to do the job,' Army veteran Michael James Brew tweeted.

Female army vet, who goes by the Twitter handle Baddie Maddie said the standards insult woman.

'The ACFT changed to have gender and age differences. However, some of the changes are too much. Like 23 minutes for a female to run? Thats more than enough time. But go off big army,' she tweeted.

Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, the first woman to lead the armed forces branch, said during her confirmation hearing that she planned to revamp the fitness test with an eye to closing the gender gap.

'I have concerns on the implications of the test for our ability to continue to retain women,' said Wormuth.

The leg tuck, which women struggled with, relies on upper body strength. The solider must hang perpendicular from a pull-up bar then bring their knees up to their elbows and drop them back down and repeat. It tests mostly upper body and grip strength.

'The leg tuck's lack of support is especially problematic given that many women are unable to complete a single repetition,' Chaitra M. Hardison, a behavioral scientist and lead author of the report found. Though both exercises were found wanting by the report.

The plank, on the other hand, is an exercise in which the solider supports themselves on their elbows and their toes with their body outstretched. It is supposed to test core strength.

Neither exercise, however, provided a proper measure for battlefield readiness.

'The leg tuck and plank, for example, are not well-supported for use in predicting performance on combat tasks,' Hardison said in the report.

The revamped ACFT, also now accounts for differences physical ability depending on gender and age.

Under the new ACFT women between 17 and 21 have to deadlift between 120 to 210 lbs., but men the same age must lift between 140 and 340 lbs.

G.I. Janes must run two miles between 23:22 and 15:29, depending on age and men must cover the same distance within 22 minutes to 13:22 minutes, again with the younger the solider the faster the requirement.

More soldiers failed the run than any other exercise in the test, so the Army stretched the time for both sexes by a minute.

The time, weight and number of repetitions will depend on the soldier's gender and age.

In some cases, soldiers will be able to do a two and half mile walk to pass the test.

The test will be phased in beginning April 1 and become a requirement by October 2022.
Parts of Australia's east coast will be drenched by a rain bomb over the next week with 100mm forecast to fall around NSW.

Sydney, the Central Coast, Mid North Coast and Upper Hunter are set to be hit with the massive deluge in just four days, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.

Just mere weeks after parts of the state were devastated by floods, the wet conditions have prompted the Bureau to issue more flood warnings for the north.

'This (rainfall) combined with recent flooding does mean flash flooding and river rises are more likely than usual,' Meteorologist Johnathan How said.

The rainfall will not be as severe as what was seen in northern parts of NSW and south-east Queensland earlier this month but because catchments are already saturated, flash flooding could quickly develop.

Parts of Australia's east coast will be drenched by a major downpour of rain over the next week with 100mm forecast to fall around NSW

On Thursday alone up to 50mm of rain has been forecast for NSW's east coast - including the recently flood-ravaged Northern Rivers.

Thunderstorms are also likely for the state's north-east.

The BoM has said floodwaters from Queensland may cause major flooding along the Narran River and minor to moderate flooding along the Culgoa, Birrie and Bokhara Rivers in northern parts of NSW.

Mr How said the miserable conditions were due to the combination of two troughs over NSW's east coast.

Parts of northern NSW and south-east Queensland will be drenched with rain over the weekend

Sydney, the Central Coast, Mid North Coast and Upper Hunter are set to be hit with a massive deluge of rain in just four days, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.

'As these two systems combine they will cause quite unsettled conditions to persist in the east and the north of the state not just for the remainder of the week but also in the weekend,' he said.

'Over the next four to five days, parts of the Central Coast, mid-north coast and Hunter may see 100mm of rain.'

The meteorologist said the rainy weather was likely to stick around until the second half of next week.

'At least for the next seven days through the east we will see a return to this unsettled weather and persistent showers which does bring the chance of flash flooding and river rises,' he added.

Sydney's heaviest rain is set to fall on Friday with 25mm forecast.

The state's soggy summer has given away to a wet beginning to autumn, with Sydney recording 409mm of rain this month already, making it the fourth-wettest March on record.

Some areas around the Hunter region, mid-North Coast and up towards the Northern Rivers could see more than 200mm of rainfall.

Flood-devastated Lismore residents are forecast to receive over 20mm of rain Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

A map showing the cumulative rainfall for the next nine days according to three weather forecast models (pictured)

The rain will slowly move its way up north to Queensland from Friday with the south-east set to see a wet weekend with potential thunderstorms.

A flood watch warning has been issued for the Upper Macintyre River.

'Everyone is acutely aware of the floods over the past couple of weeks, but we are really encouraging people not to be fatigued with it,' Bureau Meteorologist Jackson Brown said on Tuesday.

'Stay across the messaging, as we know La Nina will be around for at least another month.'

Meanwhile on the other side of the country the severe Tropical Cyclone Charlotte off Western Australia's north-west coast is set to weaken later on Thursday.

Charlotte has escalated to a category-four system earlier this week.

More bad weather is on the way just weeks after parts of NSW and Queensland were devastated by floods (pictured in Lismore, NSW)

As a result there will be heavy rainfall and galeforce winds over the state's west over the weekend with between 20 to 40mm of rain forecast for an area south of Shark Bay.

Those in Melbourne will be lucky enough to escape the rain over the next week with a dry and sunny weekend forecast with tops of 28C on Sunday.

Canberra has a slight chance of showers for the end of the week and temperatures will remain in the low 20s.

Those in Tasmania's capital will also have a dry and sunny weekend while temperatures will soar in Adelaide to 28C on Saturday and 30C on Sunday.

Perth will welcome a sweltering hot weekend with tops of 35C and 31C forecast for Friday and Saturday.

Darwin will be lashed by storms for the next week with still another month to go of the wet season.
An American living in Australia has shared the 'cute' values written in an official permanent residency document.

Britt, from America's mid-west, moved to Australia in December and recently shared her process of adjusting to the new culture on social media, including an Australian values document released by the Federal Government.

Britt applied for permanent residency and received a 'Life in Australia' document as part of the process.

Scroll down for the video.

Britt (above) shared her favourite principles from the 'Life in Australia' permanent residency document

@ivereachedanewlow Australians are so cute I love them all  original sound - Brit

'When you apply for permanent residency in Australia you have to read this Australian values and principles statement and this is a few of my favourite things from it,' she told her followers.

'The first one is compassion for those in need. It's cute that Australians value mateship. I find that so adorable,' she said.

'It says we help each other in times of need. For example, taking a meal to an elderly neighbour, driving your friend to a medical appointment, or visiting someone who is sick or frail or lonely.'

Britt then said she appreciates the value because she's found Aussies actually stick to it.

'What's cute is that it's actually true, they do value mateship,' she said.

Another value Britt liked was Australia's 'fair go for all'.

'This one I just think is adorable because they say "a fair go for all",' she said.

Britt moved to Australia from America mid-west in December and noted Australia's mateship and equality values are 'so true'

'It just means equality but everyone gets a "fair go", everyone gets a fair try. I love it here.'

However several pessimistic Australians responded, saying that the nation's politicians don't practise the values she'd mentioned.

'I really hope this is sarcasm and you know that both of those aren't valued by our government whatsoever,' one person wrote.

'They believe in mateship so the govt doesnt have to do anything (like helping with the floods!)' another said.

'I think Scomo needs to read this sometime,' a third chimed in.

'You're so sweet, I love you love this and we love you but not the government,' another person said.

Luckily others were there to reassure her she'd made a good choice moving to Australia.

'Dont listen to the comments, theyre just being political and making a statement. Australia is one of the best countries in the world to live!' one person wrote.

'I moved here 6 years ago and just got my citizenship. Best country on earth. Welcome!' another said.

AUSTRALIA'S OFFICIAL VALUES Respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual

Freedom of religion

Freedom of speech

Freedom of association

Commitment to the Rule of Law

Parliamentary democracy

Equality of opportunity for all people

A fair go for all

Mutual Respect and tolerance for others

Compassion for those in need

English as the national language From Life in Australia - Australian Values and Principles, released by the Department of Home Affairs Advertisement

The official document from the Department of Home Affairs follows controversy in 2019 when the Australian Citizenship test came under fire for being 'too hard' after a survey found several thousand people fail every year.

The Australian Government says passing the test shows you have:

a basic knowledge of the English language

an understanding of what it means to become an Australian citizen

an adequate knowledge of Australia and the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship

an understanding and commitment to Australian values based on freedom, respect and equality.

The Australian Citizenship test came under fire in 2019 for being 'too hard' after a survey found several thousand people fail every year

A person sitting the test has 45 minutes to answer 20 multiple choice questions, correctly answer all five questions about Australian values, and receive a mark of at least 75 per cent to pass.

Between 2020 and 2021 over 140,000 people became Australian citizens.

The top five countries of nationality to to be granted citizenship were:

India - 24,205

United Kingdom - 17,368

Philippines - 8,788

Mainland China - 7,383

New Zealand - 5,643
Assistant Defence Minister and former SAS troop commander Andrew Hastie is giving evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation case against Nine newspapers

Assistant Defence Minister and former SAS officer Andrew Hastie has described encountering Ben Roberts-Smith after an engagement with insurgents in Afghanistan when he was still 'naive'.

Mr Hastie told the Federal Court on Thursday he had arrived at a compound after a number of Afghan prisoners had been taken and were being questioned by Mr Roberts-Smith.

The young captain had later heard a report of shots fired over the radio and said that Mr Roberts-Smith had walked past him.

'He looked me in the eye and said, "Just a couple more dead c***s",' Mr Hastie said.

Mr Hastie, a former SAS troop commander, has been called by Nine newspapers in its defamation case against Mr Roberts-Smith.

Nine has accused Mr Roberts-Smith of committing or being complicit in the murder of six Afghan prisoners, which he has denied.

Mr Hastie, who served in the SAS from 2005 to 2010, said he had been aware of Mr Roberts-Smith by reputation before he went to Afghanistan.

'There was always in the background people who had a strong view of Mr Roberts-Smith and the way he conducted himself with other members of the regiment,' Mr Hastie said.

Assistant Defence Minister and former SAS officer Andrew Hastie has described encountering Ben Roberts-Smith after an engagement with insurgents in Afghanistan when he was still 'naive'. 'He looked me in the eye and said, "Just a couple more dead c***s",' Mr Hastie said

Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie has been called to give evidence he saw a soldier looking 'anxious and uncomfortable' after Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly ordered him to kill an Afghan insurgent. Mr Hastie, a former SAS captain, is pictured in Afghanistan

Mr Hastie said he learnt Mr Roberts-Smith's attitude towards officers while having a meal in the mess in Afghanistan.

'He told me words to the effect that officers shouldn't be on the ground with the soldiers and that they should be in an elevated position away from where the action takes place,' he said.

'Words to the effect, "Officers just get in the way".'

Mr Hastie was asked about a mission to catch and kill an Afghan target on or about October 18 to 20, 2012 in an area called Syahchow.

Also on the mission was SAS soldier Person 66 who at that point had never killed an enemy insurgent.

Mr Hastie said he had seen Person 66, who he knew, before leaving the SAS base for the mission.

'He seemed a thousand miles away and quite nervous or anxious,' he said. 'He didn't really meet my eyes when I said g'day.'

Mr Roberts-Smith and his squad had flown into Syahchow with his patrol and Mr Hastie had gone in with the second flight of helicopters, or 'turn'.

When he reached a compound he saw that Mr Roberts-Smith and other soldiers were 'tactically questioning' ten to 15 Afghan prisoners.

Mr Hastie said he later saw Person 66 and he did not seem to be his usual self. 'I just met his eyes his eyes briefly and I just thought that's not the person I know, happy-go-lucky, kind of classic, country Aussie.'

During his fifth tour of duty in Afghanistan, Mr Roberts-Smith (pictured) drew enemy fire away from pinned-down members of his patrol, stormed two enemy machine-gun posts and silenced them. He was awarded a Victoria Cross for his heroism. This picture was taken about an hour and a half after the battle

Mr Hastie said he heard a report of gunfire on the radio but did not hear the shots himself. Mr Roberts-Smith then walked past him and made the 'dead c***s' comment.

At a debriefing after the mission Mr Roberts-Smith described an insurgent being killed when he reached for a grenade, which Mr Hastie had not witnessed.

'I was thinking to myself, geez, I missed out coming on the second turn - you sort of obviously want to get amongst it,' he said.

'And I thought, OK, I still haven't worked out that it was an alternate universe we were on.

'I was still proud of Mr Roberts-Smith's achievements and reputation and at that point in time I was probably still naive.'

The court has previously heard Mr Hastie would describe seeing a soldier looking 'anxious and uncomfortable' after Mr Roberts-Smith allegedly ordered him to kill an Afghan insurgent.

Nine alleges that during the mission Mr Roberts-Smith directed Person 66 to come into a compound where detainees referred to as Afghan Males 7 and 8 were being held.

The newspapers claim Mr Roberts-Smith and Person 66 removed the two detainees from the compound and took them to a nearby field where Mr Roberts Smith stood behind Person 66 and ordered him to shoot one of them.

Mr Hastie, who served in the SAS from 2005 to 2010, said he had been aware of Mr Roberts-Smith by reputation before he went to Afghanistan. 'There was always in the background people who had a strong view of Mr Roberts-Smith,' he said. Mr Hastie is pictured

Person 66 shot and killed the prisoner, according to Nine.

'After the incident [Mr Roberts-Smith] said in substance that he had blooded Person 66,' Nine's defence states.

Mr Roberts-Smith has told the court that incident simply never took place and denied he had ever used such words such as 'blooding the rookie'.

His barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, said last year that Nine had not spoken to Person 66 and there was little detail about exactly where and when the alleged murder occurred.

'The only other evidence - and I use that word with quotation marks - that may be before the court is from Mr Hastie, a member of the House of Representatives,' Mr McClintock had told the court.

'Mr Hastie has long been a commentator for [Nine] and anti-my client, if I could put it like that.'

Ben Roberts-Smith (second from left) pictured with his SAS regiment in Afghanistan where he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroism in a battle in Tizak, Kandahar Province

Mr Hastie has previously said a toxic 'warrior' culture prevailed among special forces soldiers when he served with the SAS at the tail end of Australia's longest war.

The Liberal MP had been quoted in Nine articles that are the subject of the defamation action and in other publications about the war in Afghanistan.

'His outline offers nothing probative, except that when the mission was over, he saw Person 66 looking anxious and uncomfortable,' Mr McClintock said.

'There might be many reasons, after combat, why someone looked anxious and uncomfortable, Your Honour.'

Mr Hastie also said he been told Mr Roberts-Smith bullied a soldier called Person 1, who he described as 'a very bright person, confident and very competent'.

'I recall over the period of my five and half years service in SASR if I was to summarise it Person 1 was the victim of bulling at the hands of Mr Roberts-Smith,' he said.

Ben Roberts-Smith's Victoria Cross made him the most famous soldier in Australia but also allegedly led to jealousy among some of his colleagues. The Queen is pictured shaking hands with him during an audience at Buckingham Palace in November 2011

Mr Hastie recalled an occasion at the SAS training facility at Bindoon in Western Australia when soldiers including a Person 68 were watching Sunrise over breakfast.

Mr Roberts-Smith was on the screen in full dress uniform being interviewed about mental health problems among veterans.

'Person 68 stopped for a second and said loudly, "RS gave Person 1 depression now he's going to help him fight it" and everyone laughed.'

Mr Roberts-Smith was asked about his memory of the Syahchow mission in June last year.

He recalled assaulting and clearing compounds after being inserted into a village and crossing through a wooded area when another patrol engaged insurgents.

When the shooting stopped Mr Roberts-Smith threw a grenade into where he believed the insurgents had been hiding and his patrol located two bodies in the vegetation.

He was aware then Captain Hastie took part in the mission as the incoming troop commander for the next SAS rotation.

Mr Roberts-Smith has taken leave as general manager of Seven West Media's Queensland operations for the duration of the defamation trial. His is pictured in London in 2012, the year before he left the army

'He came on the mission, but I believe he came out as part of either the second lift or the first turn of the extraction or something like that,' Mr Roberts-Smith said.

Mr Hastie's appearance at the Federal Court trial will attract the attention of the defence and veteran communities, particularly in Western Australia.

He is the member for Canning, which covers the state's Peel region, south of the capital. The SAS is based at Swanbourne, a coastal suburb of Perth.

Mr Hastie won Canning in 2015, was re-elected in 2016 and 2019 and holds the seat with a margin of 11.6 per cent.

The 39-year-old has been a supporter of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force's (IGADF) inquiry into war crimes allegedly committed by Australians in Afghanistan.

He also chaired the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence from 2017 to 2020.

The IGADF's Brereton Report found evidence of 39 murders of civilians and prisoners by, or at the behest of, members of the Australian special forces.

The report, authored by NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton, stated 25 Australian personnel were involved in the killings, most of which allegedly occurred in 2012 and 2013.
This is the moment a passenger on a New Mexico bus refused to move for disabled three-time combat veteran, 96, and screamed at him for trying get past in his wheelchair before attacking another commuter.

The video, captured by a fellow passenger, comes from Monday morning on the city of Albuquerque's ART bus - which is piloting 'free fares' - when it turned ugly at a stop.

The passenger, John Benavidez, said that he saw the elderly man in his wheelchair asking the woman to briefly move aside so he could turn the chair.

'He asked the woman on the other side if she could move for a second so he could turn around his wheelchair and she refused to do so,' Benavidez told KRQE News.

The woman snarled back: 'Leave me alone. My space. It's my space. I know my rights. Everybody's watching you. Leave me alone. Leave me alone.'

Watch video below.

This is the moment a passenger on a New Mexico bus refused to move for disabled three-time combat veteran, 96, and screamed at him for trying get past

Video taken by a passenger on an Albuquerque bus showed a woman getting into a shouting match

Video shows the woman saying: 'You guys are disgusting!' before another passenger becomes irate with the woman and she throws punches at him, before eventually leaving

Benavidez said that the bus driver finally got up and attempted to reason with the passenger and ask her to move.

'All you got to do is get up for 30 seconds,' the driver said.

This is when the elderly man began to bargain with the woman, saying: 'Young lady, I'm a combat veteran of three wars. Three wars! I'm going to be 97 next month and you are trying to hinder me.'

Finally, the driver ordered the woman off the bus.

'Alright, ma'am. I need you to hop off the bus now since you're refusing to comply. Alright I guess we'll get security,' he said.

Video shows the woman saying: 'You guys are disgusting!' before another passenger becomes irate with the woman and she throws punches at him, before eventually leaving.

Benavidez said that he's seen behavior on the buses devolve recently.

'It's been a problem for the past few months. People refusing to wear masks, not obeying commands of the driver, twice in the last month I've witnessed two people doing drugs on the bus.'

His solution is that the city should enhance security.

ABQ RIDE, which runs the city's transit, released a statement in response to the incident.

'ABQ RIDE continues to monitor and gather data of incidents onboard our buses to assist in generating policy that will keep our passengers and drivers safe. Safety is a top priority for ABQ RIDE in ensuring passengers, drivers and motorists get where they need to be without issue. We sincerely ask that passengers be respectful of one another and our drivers,' said Lorena Sanchez, spokesperson for Albuquerque Transit.

It is unclear if the woman is facing any charges.

Do you know this veteran? If so, e-mail Stephen.Lepore@mailonline.com
Fake $50 notes are reportedly in circulation with one man warning they look just like the real thing.

A video uploaded to TikTok on Wednesday shows an unidentified man holding what appears to be an Australian $50 bill.

At first glance the note appears legitimate, complete with a seven-pointed star as well as a transparent window.

The bill even passes 'the scrunch test', a method used to identify counterfeit money, as real notes are made out of plastic and will spring back to shape when scrunched.

Upon closer inspection, however, the bill's yellow coating has peeled off, a clear indicator the note is a fake.

It is unclear what state the video was filmed in and how the man came to be in possession of the bill.

A video uploaded to TikTok on Wednesday shows an identified man holding what appears to be a well-made counterfeit $50 note

Upon closer inspection the bill's yellow coating has peeled off, a clear indicator the note is a fake

Genuine $50 first polymer series notes feature a seven-pointed star and the Australian Coat of Arms as well as a clear window, which is part of the banknote.

Edith Cowan, the first woman to serve as a member in an Australian parliament, and David Unaipon, a renowned Indigenous author and inventor, are the two faces seen on the notes.

In 2016 the Reserve Bank of Australia began releasing new bank notes with upgraded security features to reduce the capacity of counterfeiters to make copies.

Since the inception of the new bank notes the counterfeiting rate per million has more than halved.

Australia's level of counterfeiting is low by international standards, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

A legitimate $50 note has an array of identifiable security features (pictured)
Three real estate agents are among six people charged by police for allegedly using people's names without their knowledge to gain Covid rent relief payments while using the properties as hydroponic drug labs.

From July to August last year, police dismantled several drug labs used to cultivate cannabis at homes in the Fairfield area in Sydney's south-west. Police seized drugs worth a combined estimated street value of $2million.

It was soon discovered the drug labs were connected to a broader crime syndicate.

Officers linked to Fairfield Police Area Command established Strike Force Delbo to investigate the syndicate involved with the cultivation of cannabis in different homes.

Three real estate agents are among six people charged by police for allegedly using people's names to gain Covid relief payments for properties in the Fairfield area they were using as hydroponic drug labs. Pictured: One of the men arrested by police

Investigators eventually found real estate agents involved in the syndicate had used their positions in the property industry to sub-lease homes to unsuspecting members of the public to fraudulently gain Covid rental relief payments.

During the investigation, police identified several large-scale fraudulent applications submitted under the NSW Government's Covid Residential Tenancy Support Package scheme.

'We will be alleging these people used their position as trusted insiders in the real estate industry to defraud their own clientele and public money meant for those who need it most,' said Fairfield City Police Area Command Crime Manager Detective Inspector Luke Scott in a statement.

'The properties that were allegedly utilised by this syndicate to grow cannabis were subleased to members of the public who had no idea their name was on the lease agreement, as was the case when it came to the fraudulently obtained rental relief and bond payments.

'The nature of this fraud is particularly scandalous and predatory; the community won't tolerate it, and those involved now have our court system to answer to,' he added.

On Wednesday, officers arrested and charged six men that were part of the syndicate.

Investigators eventually found real estate agents involved in the syndicate had used their positions in the property industry to sub-lease homes to unsuspecting members of the public to fraudulently gain Covid rental relief payments. Pictured: An investigator during an arrest

On Wednesday, officers arrested and charged six men that were part of the syndicate. Pictured: Money seized at one of the arrests

One of the men charged with numerous offences and taken into custody. He will appear in Fairfield Local Court on Thursday among four others from the syndicate who were arrested and charged on the same day

One of those arrested was 52-year-old Fairfield real estate agent and alleged ringleader Nasser Kalache during a vehicle stop in Cecil Hills.

Kalache was charged with a range of offences including knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group, cultivating prohibited plants, dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Claudyous Isaac, 44, was arrested soon after Kalache at a home in Bonnyrigg before police executed a search warrant at a house in Cecil Hills and seized several items.

Later that day, fellow real estate agents Antonio Fedele, 35, and Sabrina Losciano, 37, were arrested at Fairfield Police Station and charged with numerous offences including making a false document to obtain financial gain.

Muhammad Al-Nasiri, 35, from Smithfield and 23-year-old Habeb Tomka were taken into custody and charged. Tomka was arrested by police in Marrickville.

Isaac, Al-Nasiri and Tomka were charged with cultivating a prohibited plant and participating in a criminal group.

Kalache, Isaac, Fedele, Losciano and Al-Nasiri were refused bail and will face Fairfield Local Court on Thursday.

Tomka faced Newtown Local Court on Wednesday and was granted strict conditional bail. He will reappear in Fairfield Local Court in late May.
A former care worker from Britain who became a Marine in the Ukranian military has released two videos from the outskirts of the besieged city of Mariupol begging Western politicians to do more to aid the stricken city.

Aiden Aslin, 28, moved to Ukraine in 2018 after falling in love with a woman from Mykolaiv, another Black Sea port close to Odessa.

He is now in his fourth year with the Ukranian armed forces and was due to get married this Spring and complete his service in September.

But the war has put paid to any plans.

When Russia invaded he was stationed in the Donbass region where Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian armed forces have been fighting a low level war since 2014.

In the video messages, he revealed how he and his comrades have been pushed steadily back to the outskirts of Mariupol by the Russian advance.

Dressed in his military gear, he said of Mariupol: We still control the city. Ukrainians are fighting day and night. The will is tremendously strong and they are not going to be submitted by Russian imperialism.

We were pushed back from our defensive front lines on the Donbass sector. Gradually day by day we were pushed back to Mariupol and since weve come to Mariupol we are on the outskirts defending it, just on the very outer districts.

And he claimed that instead of going for military targets such as his company, the Russians were deliberately targeting the civilian population.

He said: Russian forces have continued to target the civilian areas where we are not located. I know this first hand because Ive watched it.

'Ive watched multiple grad vehicles launch their rockets into the civilian areas behind us and this is the Russian military so if theyre as professional as they say they are then they know who they are targeting.

Aiden Aslin, 28, moved to Ukraine in 2018 after falling in love with a woman from Mykolaiv , another Black Sea port close to Odessa. He is now in his fourth year with the Ukranian armed forces and was due to get married this Spring and complete his service in September

Aiden Aslin is a former carer who previously fought against Isis in Syria. Now he is prepared to fight against a Russian invasion of Ukraine

He made clear the consequences of such tactics: Multiple dead. Casualties every day. I really do feel for them because there is nothing they can do. They are not part of this war. There is no need to target them.

You saw in the news the Mariupol theatre where people were hiding where they thought it was safe refuge. That was targeted by an air strike. That entire building is now levelled.

I dont know how much people care about what I say but if there are Americans or British that f***ing care about the s**t that is going on here then pressure your politicians to do whatever else they can do because the air strikes are the biggest problem at the moment.

'Not because they are targeting us (the army), its because they are targeting civilians indiscriminately so I dont know what else to say. Hopefully youll see another video from me in the future.

Aiden from Newark in Nottinghamshire, was a 22-year-old care worker with some experience of security work when, in 2015, he was so outraged by the Islamic States takeover of Syria that he left the UK and joined the Kurdish YPG.

Aslin's partner - whom he moved to Ukraine for - was from Mykolaiv, which has come under heavy attack from Russian forces trying to reach Odessa. Pictured: A Ukrainian serviceman keeps guard near a building hit in a military strike, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, March 21, 2022

Aiden from Newark in Nottinghamshire, was a 22-year-old care worker with some experience of security work when, in 2015, he was so outraged by the Islamic States takeover of Syria that he left the UK and joined the Kurdish YPG. Pictured: Aiden appears on Good Morning Britain

He was arrested on suspicion of terror offences when he returned to the UK but was never charged and eventually went travelling when his passport was returned.

It was during those travels that he met the woman who is now his fiancee and he moved to the Ukraine.

He said that she had escaped to Hungary after Russian forces tried to take her home town of Mykolaiv and then shelled the area where she lived.

I last saw her in January, he added.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping / AFP-Yonhap, Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-guen



By Jung Da-min



President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will have a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, becoming the first president-elect to have phone talks with a Chinese leader, according to Yoon's spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye, Wednesday.



Although Kim did not specify the exact date, it is highly likely to be held Friday afternoon, according to media reports.



"It will be the first time for a president-elect to hold a phone conversation with Xi," Kim told reporters during a press briefing at the Korea Banking Institute in Seoul's Jongno District.



According to the spokeswoman, it is unprecedented for a Chinese leader to have a phone conversation with a foreign president-elect before the latter is officially sworn in as head of state.



Kim said that the two sides seem to have shared the need to jumpstart cooperation, considering the grave security circumstances facing the Korean Peninsula and East Asian region following the escalating tensions caused by North Korea's test-firing of missiles.



Yoon's phone conversation with Xi was set amid rampant speculation that South Korea-China relations may be put to the test once Yoon is sworn in on May 10. Such speculation came as Yoon played hardball on China all throughout the presidential campaign period.



Yoon made it clear that the policy priority will be on strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance, although he recognized China as the nation's largest trade partner.



When asked to name which leaders he would meet in order if elected, Yoon said he would meet the U.S. president first, then the Japanese leader, followed by Chinese and North Korean leaders.



Under his leadership, Yoon pledged South Korea will push for membership in the U.S.-led security partnership for the Indian-Pacific region, called Quad Plus.



The U.S. government reacted favorably to Yoon after he won the presidential election.



On March 10, just hours after Yoon was elected as the next president of South Korea, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden held a phone conversation, which was widely seen as a signal for the incoming Yoon administration to put more focus on strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance.



While Yoon has pledged to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance further, there have been subtle tensions between Yoon's election camp and the Chinese government, as Yoon has pledged to strengthen the extended deterrence provided by the U.S. in favor of additional deployments of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) here in response to North Korea's growing missile threat.



China has strongly opposed South Korea's deployment of the U.S. missile shield, but Yoon had said in a JoongAng Ilbo interview in mid-July last year that China, if it wants to insist on the withdrawal of the THAAD system, then it should first withdraw the long-range radars deployed near its border.



Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming immediately sent a contribution piece to the same paper to refute Yoon's statements, by saying the South Korea-U.S. alliance should not harm China's interests despite China's respect for Korea's foreign policy. This has led to controversy over whether China tried to intervene in the South Korean presidential election.


A jury in Texas on Wednesday found Boeing's former top pilot not guilty of deceiving federal regulators evaluating the company's 737 MAX jet which led to two crashes, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Northern Texas said.

A federal district court jury in Fort Worth deliberated less than two hours before finding Mark Forkner, 49, not guilty on four counts of wire fraud.

Prosecutors accused Forkner of misleading Federal Aviation Administration regulators about the amount of training pilots would need to fly the Max.

The FAA required only brief computer-based training for pilots instead of more extensive practice in simulators that could have cost Boeing up to $1million per plane.

Defense lawyers said Boeing engineers did not tell Forkner about changes to the flight software, known by its acronym, MCAS.

Mark Forkner (pictured center) was found not guilty Wednesday of deceiving federal regulators evaluating the company's 737 MAX jet which led to two crashes, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Northern Texas said

Mark Forkner (left), Boeing's former chief technical pilot for the MAX, was charged with two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce and four counts of wire fraud after deceiving safety regulators and giving incomplete information about flight-control system that caused two deadly 737 Boeing MAX crashes. Forkner's lawyer David Gerger (right) said his client was being made a 'scapegoat'

The lawyers said Forkner was a scapegoat for Boeing and FAA officials who sought to avoid blame after the Max crashes, which killed 346 people.

'We are very grateful that this jury and judge were so smart, so fair, so independent, that they saw through it,' defense attorney David Gerger - who had previously called his client a 'scapegoat' in the 'search for truth' - said after the verdict.

Justice Department spokesman Joshua Stueve said the department stands by its investigation and prosecution of the case.

'While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury's verdict,' he said.

Testimony in the trial lasted less than three days, after jury selection and opening statements by lawyers Friday evening. Forkner did not testify.

Judge Reed O'Connor had instructed the jurors not to consider his silence as a sign of guilt or innocence.

The defense called only one witness, a current Boeing pilot, who testified for about one hour.

Forkner was Boeing's chief technical pilot for the 737 Max, giving him a key role in determining pilot-training requirements.

Prosecutors tried to use Forkner's internal messages to colleagues against him, particularly one in which he said he unknowingly misled regulators.

Defense lawyers said Forkner's message was a complaint about a flight simulator, not MCAS.

The families of 737 MAX crash victims have said the U.S. Justice Department violated their rights when it struck a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing in January. Pictured: Family members hold photos of Ethiopian 302 victims during a Congressional hearing

People walk past a part of the wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 10, 2019

An FAA official who worked with Forkner, Stacey Klein, testified that Forkner lied to her that MCAS would never activate during normal airline use, only in certain high-speed situations that pilots would never encounter.

Forkner's lawyers said Boeing engineers did not tell him that the scope of the system had been expanded, and that he told Klein what he knew.

Prosecutors based the charges of wire fraud on communications that Forkner had with the FAA and with two big Boeing customers, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Each count carried a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Most pilots familiar with older models of the 737 did not know about MCAS when airlines began receiving Max jets - the system was not in previous Boeing 737s.

Prosecutors accused Forkner of downplaying the importance and power of the software, and it was not mentioned in aircraft manuals and pilot-training material.

Investigators with the U.S. National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) look over debris at the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 on March 12, 2019 in Bishoftu, Ethiopia

Wreckage is piled at the crash scene of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 near Bishoftu, Ethiopia

In the two crashes - in Indonesia in 2018 and in Ethiopia in 2019 - MCAS automatically pointed the nose of the plane down based on faulty sensor readings, and pilots were unable to regain control.

Forkner, who worked at the FAA before joining Boeing, left the aircraft manufacturer in 2018, months before the first crash, then briefly worked at Southwest Airlines.

Nadia Milleron, whose daughter was killed in the Ethiopian crash in March 2019, said back in October: 'Forkner is just a fall guy. He and Boeing are responsible for the deaths of everyone who died in the Max crashes.

'The executives and board of directors of Boeing need to go to jail.'

Milleron is among relatives suing the company in federal court in Chicago, where Boeing is based.

Forkner was Boeing's 737 MAX chief technical pilot during plane's development

A United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX airliner is pictured at its Renton factory in April of last year. The pane resumed service last year after being grounded for 20 months following the two fatal crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019

The flight-control system automatically pushed down the noses of 737 Max jets that crashed in 2018 in Indonesia, and in 2019 in Ethiopia.

On October 29, 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers and crew.

It was the first major accident involving the new Boeing 737 MAX series of aircraft, introduced in 2017, and the highest death toll of any accident or incident involving the entire Boeing 737 series.

Five months later, on March 10, 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which operated Ethiopian flight 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, Ethiopia, six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. It is Ethiopian Airlines' deadliest accident to date.

'He deprived airlines and pilots from knowing crucial information about an important part of the airplane's flight controls,' Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. said in a statement.

Forkner left Boeing in 2018 to work for Southwest Airlines, where he worked until 2020.

Early in 2020, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in fines and settle a criminal charge over claims they defrauded regulators overseeing the 737 MAX. Soon after the two crashes in 2019, the plane manufacturing company fired its chief executive at the time, Dennis Muilenburg.

The settlement attempted to pin the blame on a handful of rogue employees, stating that the misconduct was 'neither pervasive across the organization, nor undertaken by a large number of employees, nor facilitated by senior management.'

Then in May Boeing also agreed to pay a $17million fine and improve its supply chain and production practices after installing unapproved equipment on hundreds of planes.

Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft were only cleared to return to the skies in late 2020, and the firm has also suffered from the collapse of the travel industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Russia moved on Wednesday to expel a number of American diplomats from Moscow, in the latest round of tit-for-tat maneuvers amid intense hostility over Ukraine.

Last month Washington announced it had expelled 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations for spying.

Russian media reported on Wednesday that the Kremlin gave the U.S. embassy a list of people who had to leave in retaliation for those expulsions just as President Joe Biden was flying to Europe on a mission to warn President Vladimir Putin that his country faced further isolation for its war in Ukraine.

'We can confirm that the U.S. Embassy received a list of diplomats declared "persona non grata" from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 23,' said a State Department spokesman.

'This is Russia's latest unhelpful and unproductive step in our bilateral relationship.

'We call on the Russia government to end its unjustified expulsions of U.S. diplomats and staff.

'Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments.'

Russia on Wednesday said it was expelling an unspecified number of U.S. diplomats from Moscow in response to Washington's decision to expel 12 Russian diplomats last month

Vladimir Putin's government is increasingly isolated as Biden and U.S. partners around the world punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine

Biden was greeted by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo after arriving at Brussels National Airport. World leaders are expected to unveil fresh Russian sanctions on Thursday

President Joe Biden's schedule for his three-day trip to Europe President Biden left for Brussels on Wednesday morning THURSDAY: President Biden is in Brussels for the N.A.T.O summit, a Group of Seven meeting and a session with heads of state from the European Union. FRIDAY: Biden heads to Poland to meet with U.S. troops stationed there as part of N.A.T.O. SATURDAY: Biden is in Poland where he will discuss the Ukrainian refugee situation and meet with President Andrzej Duda. He leaves for Washington D.C. in the evening. Advertisement

It comes almost a month after 12 Russians were ordered to leave the U.S. by March 3.

At the time, the Russian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia called it 'another hostile action' by the U.S.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki 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.

Since then Russia has continued its invasion of Ukraine, bombarding cities with artillery and air strikes.

It is under intense pressure from Washington and its allies who have used sanctions to target President Vladimir Putin's supporters and choke off funding for his war machine.

Wednesday brought a string of diplomatic moves.

Poland said it was expelling dozens of Russian diplomats for spying.

'Poland has expelled 45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats,' said Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski on Twitter.

'We are dismantling the Russian special services network in our country.'

And Belarus also announced it was expelling Ukrainian diplomats.

Pictured: Activists and young Ukrainians demonstrate with a giant peace sign and 'Stop Putin's oil' in front of the Jusutus Lispsius; the EU Council building and the Berlaymont, the EU Commission building on March 22, 2022

A shopping mall lies in ruins after a missile strike of the Russian troops in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv, capital of Ukraine, March 22, 2022

At the same time the Russian Interfax news agency said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had presented the U.S. embassy with a list of people who had to leave 'in response to Washington's expulsion of diplomats from the permanent U.N. mission in New York.'

The report did not say how many people were affected.

'The American side was told very firmly that any hostile U.S. actions against Russia would provoke a decisive and comparable response,' the agency said.

Soon after the United States government officially announced that it believed members of Russia's armed forces have committed war crimes in its invasion of Ukraine.

'Our assessment is based on a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources,' said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

'As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases.'

The announcement was issued as he traveled with President Joe Biden to Europe for a N.A.T.O summit.
Anthony Albanese refused to tell Kyle Sandilands how many people he's slept with in a wide-ranging and at times cringeworthy interview on morning radio.

In his first appearance on Sydney's Kiis FM, the upbeat Labor leader was quizzed about his music taste, climate change, marijuana and trans rights.

Sandilands asked the father of one, who has been dating union official Jodie Haydon for two years, how many sexual partners he's had.

Mr Albanese laughed and replied 'I'm not going to give that up... I'll plead the fifth', prompting Sandilands to taunt 'are they single digits? Albo they're single digits'.

Anthony Albanese (pictured with partner Jodie Haydon) refused to tell Kyle Sandilands how many people he's slept with in a wide-ranging and at times cringeworthy interview on morning radio

Sandilands - a keen marijuana user - also asked Mr Albanese if he would legalise the drug for recreational use.

But the Labor leader told him to speak to NSW premier Dominic Perrottet because the states set the rules. The ACT became to first state or territory to decriminalise the drug in 2020.

Sandilands and co-host Jackie O previously said they plan to vote for Scott Morrison - but by the end of the 39-minute chat Sandilands told Mr Albanese 'I like you as a man' and Jackie said she was now considering backing him.

Sandilands also invited the Labor leader, a notorious music fan, to DJ at his wedding to Tegan Kynaston.

Labor is a massive ten points ahead of the Coalition according to the latest Newspoll. If that result is replicated on election day, Mr Albanese will cruise into power.

The 59 year old split from his ex-wife Carmel Tebbutt in 2019 after 19 years of marriage and 30 years together.

He said he was still 'emotionally bruised' from the sudden split which involved no third parties but came as a shock.

The Labor leader met Ms Haydon in early 2020 at a conference in Melbourne where he was speaking and they later went for drinks near his home in western Sydney.

Ms Haydon, who has never been married or had children, said she wasn't looking for a relationship but realised she had fallen in love with Mr Albanese when he had a car crash in January 2021.

His Toyota was rammed by a Range Rover and he was rushed to hospital for X-rays but escaped serious injury.
Tuberculosis is considered a disease of the past by many, but before Covid-19 it was the biggest infectious disease killer in the world - and is set to reclaim that title.

Health experts have warned Australia needs to do more to combat the disease, with drug-resistant forms appearing very close to the country's borders.

In 2020 there were 9.9million cases of TB worldwide, with 1.5million of them deadly, up from 1.4million in 2019 and breaking a decade long trend of declining deaths.

The Australian government has been urged to double the investment in fighting the disease, with more than two-thirds of the world's cases appearing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tuberculosis is considered by many a disease of the past but it is one of the most common infectious diseases (stock image)

Professor Brendan Crabb (pictured) has urged the government to increase funding to fight TB

Dangerous drug-resistant variants are also more common in this region with Daru, and island of Papua New Guinea just off the tip of Cape York, having one of the highest rates in the world.

Professor Brendan Crabb, director of the Burnet Institute and chair of Pacific Friends of Global Health, said the Australian government should intensify efforts in the fight against TB.

'It's a bacteria that we struggle to find solutions to, medicines that work, vaccines that work, and so on,' Professor Crabb told Radio National on Thursday morning.

'PNG is just super struggling from a health system point-of-view, and tuberculosis is a complex technical problem,' he said.

'It's hard to deliver the medicines that we have, and also the social determinants to decent housing and decent nutrition, impact incredibly on TB.'

Professor Crabb and global aid non-profit Results International are calling on the Australian government to double the investment in fighting the disease to $450million.

'Tuberculosis is probably PNG's biggest health problem  biggest problem full stop [and] it's very much in Australia's wheelhouse to try to do something about it.'

Vaccines for tuberculosis exist but getting them to developing countries where they are needed on a large scale is challenging (file image)

The government previously allocated $242million in 2019 but Professor Crabb said the increase would give the region a 'fighting chance' at controlling the disease.

Vaccines and other treatments exist but getting them to where they are needed on a large scale, especially in developing countries, is challenging.

Results was responsible for handling more than three-quarters of the global funding pledged to fight TB in 2020.

In countries where they have focused deaths had been reduced by a third - with almost 5million people treated and an 85 per cent success rate.

Professor Crabb said investing more in fighting TB now would prevent the problem surging and the cost blowing out into the trillions.

'We've been set back ten years... that's a trillion-dollar problem, $3trillion problem if it's set back 15 years. We just can't afford the health and economic impact of that.'
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is still Australia's richest person with her wealth growing to $32.64 billion as resource prices rise.

Ms Rinehart once again beat out every male billionaire to top The Australian's The List: Australia's Richest Top 250.

Most of the top 10 came from the mining and tech industries, including Fortescue Metals boss Andrew Forrest who just fell short of number one with $31.77 billion.

Other high-flyers included Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar worth $26.20 billion and $25.99 billion respectively.

Gina Rinehart has once again been crowned Australia's richest woman with the mining magnate now worth an eye-watering $32.64billion

Politician and businessman Clive Palmer came in at seventh place on Australia's richest 250

AUSTRALIA'S TOP 10 RICHEST 1. Gina Rinehart - $32.64 billion 2. Andrew Forrest - $31.77 billion 3. Anthony Pratt & Family - $27.77 billion 4. Mike Cannon-Brookes - $26.20 billion 5. Scott Farquhar - $25.99 billion 6. Harry Triguboff - $20.81 billion 7. Clive Palmer - $18.35 billion 8. Cliff Obrecht - $15.89 billion 9. Melanie Perkins - $15.89 billion 10. Ivan Glasenberg - $9.10 billion Advertisement

Controversial politician and businessman Clive Palmer came in at number seven, after doubling his wealth from the previous year to $18.35 billion.

In the two spots below were Canva's husband and wife co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins, both worth $15.89 billion for their graphic design platform.

This combined wealth from this year's richest 250 Australians was $520.2 billion - about $50 billion more than what it was in 2021.

The number of women on the rich list also jumped by three but is still low with just 30 females breaking into the 250.

Ms Perkins, Australia's second richest woman, vowed to give away her fortune earned from her business, which is now worth $55 billion.

She and her husband's company's stunning growth, which saw Canva bring in nearly $1 billion revenue before Christmas, was fuelled by the Covid work from home boom that gave it 60 million customers in 190 countries.

After humble beginnings, the ultra-ambitious Ms Perkins, just 34, came to be regarded in tech circles as a friendly but 'intense' visionary obsessed with everyone using her website, the AFR reported.

Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins is officially Australia's second richest woman

Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht and wife Melanie Perkins are both worth $15.89billion for their graphic design platform

'We want every single person on the planet to use Canva,' she told a video call to the company's 2,500 staff in December.

She also told staff the company was soon to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. It is already worth more than Telstra and is nearing Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group in value.

Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht signed up to Bill Gates' the Giving Pledge in December, committing to donating most of their fortunes during their lifetimes.

Its mission is to eliminate extreme poverty.

'We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world's problems,' their pledge letter read.

'We feel like it's not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility, and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.'

'Who needs all that money? Personally?' Ms Perkins said.

Property was the most common industry those dubbed Australia's richest 250 made their money off, followed by technology and investment.

Retail was also a common industry, coming off the back of Covid lockdowns where online shopping boomed.

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes is seen with his wife Annie. He ranked fourth on the rich list

This allowed new names to make the list including Mecca cosmetics owners Jo Horgan and Peter Wetenhall at 188 and 189 and combined wealth of $674 million.

Behind them were Tania Austin, who owns Decjuba fashion brand and is worth $640 million, Culture Kings duo Simon and Tahnee Beard at 247 and 248 with a combined value of $503 million.

The youngest person on the list is 32-year-old Nick Molnar, while the oldest are Len Ainsworth and Marc Besen, both 98. The average age is 65.

As wealth surged, a record 29 new names made the list for the first time.

The highest ranked debutant at 112 is Sam Prince with his Mexican themed takeaway business Zambrero pushing his wealth to $1.18 billion.

NSW was home to 98 of the country's wealthiest, while 71 were from Victoria, Queensland had 32, Western Australia 21, South Australia five, Northern Territory two and Tasmania and the ACT one each.

By far the top suburb for billionaires was 20 from Melbourne's Toorak, followed by Point Piper with 12, Vaucluse with 11, and Mosman Park in Perth with six.

The full list will be available in The Australian on Friday.
The same teenagers who relentlessly bullied a 15-year-old until she took her own life mocked her suicide in the days after her death, the victim's family have revealed in a powerful essay posted online.

Matilda 'Tilly' Rosewarne was found dead by her father near her old cubby house at the family's home in Bathurst, in the central west of NSW, on the morning of February 16.

In an emotional essay, Tilly's uncle Sam Mason detailed how some of her classmates made disgusting jokes about the teenager's death. At the same time, he shared the grim reality of Tilly's death - and how her little sister saw her body in the backyard.

In an article published to LinkedIn on Wednesday night, Mr Mason said Tilly was the target of seven years of harassment by school bullies and was the victim of 'fake porn' being spread on Snapchat.

After taking her own life, Mr Mason said that those who tormented Tilly apparently found her death amusing.

'Within a day or so the jokes were already getting posted online in Snapchat and other social networks.

'The same kids that persecuted her quite literally to death thought it was funny - only days earlier Matilda had been told that she hadn't previously tried hard enough (to take her own life),' he wrote.

''Don't care LOL" posted one,' he recalled.

The teenagers who abused Matilda Rosewarne (pictured) so relentlessly she took her own life mocked her suicide in the days following the 15-year-old's tragic death

Mr Mason said Tilly had woken up at 3am of the morning of her death 'determined to look pretty', before dressing up and applying makeup 'one last time'.

She then climbed out of her bedroom window and into the backyard, before walking down to the family's play house.

'Finding her way in the dark was easy as she had played with her sisters and cousins there all her short life,' her uncle wrote.

Mr Mason revealed Tilly had removed the pin number from her mobile phone, cleared all notifications and left a short note for her family saying she 'loved them'.

'She was exhausted, tired, broken - she just couldn't fight anymore,' he said.

Mr Mason said the kids knew they were 'untouchable' and 'revelled' in tormenting Tilly, with one girl even 'threatening to kill her'

Her father Murray found her a few hours later when he went to wake his daughters up for school.

'In the next few minutes - somehow - her 13 year old sister went down the back yard and saw her,' her uncle revealed.

'That traumatic vision will haunt her the rest of her life and is something nobody should ever have to witness at any age.

'When her little sister found her, she fell to her knees and beseeched her big sister's body - "You promised me. You promised me you would keep fighting".

'And she did fight - for a bloody long time.'

Tilly was farewelled by family and friends last month, with her uncle Sam saying the family's pain 'will never truly end'

Mr Mason said while Tilly's pain was finally over, the family's 'has only just begun and will never truly end'.

'Matilda - our brave shattered little girl. At the end, you did look pretty, baby.'

Mr Mason has called on the government to overhaul the education system to prevent children harnessing social media to bully classmates and prevent future tragedies.

He said girls at Tilly's school had easily shared links showing 'fake nudes' from a European porn site through Snapchat.

The fake porn had left the 15-year-old 'desperately upset and tried so hard to clear her name,' he said.

Mr Mason said the kids knew they were 'untouchable' and 'revelled' in tormenting her, with one girl even 'threatening to kill her'.

'Terrified and shaking she looked to the school for support and found none. Despite dozens of witnesses, nothing was done.

'The 'alleged' perpetrator came from a 'good family' and of course the parents flatly denied it even happened,' he wrote.

'If a strong woman like Charlotte Dawson broke under the load - how can we expect our most vulnerable to manage it?'

Television personality Charlotte Dawson took her own life in 2014 after being harassed by trolls online.

In an article published to LinkedIn on Wednesday night, Tilly's uncle Sam Mason (pictured) said she was the target of seven years of harassment by school bullies

Mr Mason, who has worked in IT for 25 years and now works in artificial intelligence, said the police were 'ill-equipped' to deal with cyberbullying in schools and said while the education system had 'abandoned Matilda', blaming schools was also not the answer.

'They only have our children for about 20% of each week whereas bullying is a 24 hour, 7 day a week problem,' her uncle posted.

'They will continue to hide behind a 'Zero Tolerance' policy and hope it goes away - because the elephant in the room that nobody wants to admit, is that they actually can't stop this.'

He called on parents to ensure they are regularly checking in with their children, are educated in how to use the applications their children use and review their usage of these apps 'because no one else is going to do it'.

'Try something - anything - we beg you. It is no longer acceptable to abdicate responsibility,' Mr Mason pleaded.

'Yes its a lot of work and yes it totally sucks that we have to do this while the tech companies both ignore and profit from the collective misery of our most precious resource.'

You can read Mr Mason's full piece on his LinkedIn profile.

For confidential crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14

Beyond Blue 1300 224 636

Parents of a teenage suicide victim BEG people to consider three things before posting online - as they reveal the horrific bullying their daughter, 15, was exposed to which 'cut into her soul and destroyed her'

The parents of a 15-year-old who took her own life following years of bullying have issued a dire warning to young people - asking them to consider whether something is 'true, kind or necessary' before posting it online.



Matilda 'Tilly' Rosewarne died on February 16 after enduring more than seven years' of relentless abuse at the hands of children and teenagers in Bathurst, west of Sydney.

At her farewell at Bathurst Harness Racing Club, the schoolgirl's parents Murray and Emma Mason told friends and family that their daughter decided to end her life as a result of catastrophic events that 'cut into Tilly's soul'.

'Every post you write, every image you share, every word you say has an impact,' they wrote in her funeral booklet.

Matilda 'Tilly' Rosewarne (pictured) was 15 when she took her own life on February 16

'We beg you, before you post, share or speak - ask yourself, is it true? Is it kind? It is necessary?'

'If the answer is 'no' to any of these questions, do not post, do not share, do not speak.'

The parents explained that the father of one of their daughter's classmates died when she was eight years' old, but her classmates responded by holding a vote and deciding that Tilly's father should have died instead.

When she wasn't invited to birthday parties with the rest of her grade, her peers would call and text her all night to tease her because she wasn't there.

Her classmates would also use Snapchat and a European porn site to spread 'fake nudes', which her cousin later explained on Facebook sparked an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

Ms Mason told the Daily Telegraph that they lodged a complaint with police, but there were difficulties identifying the person who owned the Snapchat account and the investigation was dropped.

By that point, Tilly was so unwell that she didn't want to do more police interviews.

Tilly went to meet up with 'friends' at shopping centres, 'only to have them harass and abuse her on public,' her parents said.

Her parents said she loved to dance and was a star debater at school, but that she developed depression after being bullied

Her parents explained that they do not believe educational institutions manage bullying properly, and that some bullies are excused because 'they come from a good family'.

'We share these examples not to cast blame at any one person, or any one school, but to plead with all our educators and parents that something has to change,' the family said.

'If anything can come from the loss of Tilly, we wish that our education system moves past the security of having a policy, or observing 'R U OK' day to ensuring that real, hard conversations are had and that bullying behaviour is stopped.'

They remembered the schoolgirl as someone who loved to dance and paint, and was a great debater, but bullying led her to develop depression, anxiety and symptoms of borderline personality disorder - a condition that affects self-image and creates a pattern of unstable relationships.

Tilly's best friend Grace told Daily Mail Australia that the schoolgirl would send her messages when she was in extreme distress.

Tilly's parents Emma and Murray Mason wrote a tribute to their daughter and detailed some of the things she endured (pictured)

'There were so many times Tilly messaged me and called me because she was scared other people would hurt her,' she said.

'She would be so upset and in tears because she thought she was going to die being beaten up.'

'I just hope she's not in pain anymore.'

In a Facebook post, a cousin who attended the funeral said 'no amount of police intervention could stop the bullies'.

'No amount of family support or assistance from psychologists and psychiatrists who were involved in her treatment could prevent Tilly from choosing for herself - the only way out she knew would give her peace.'

She encouraged parents to have 'real, hard conversations' with their children and schools to 'help them understand the impact of words and actions'.

'My family and I wont get to see Tilly grow any older now,' the woman wrote.

'She will live on in our hearts forever but it just didn't have to be this way. If only people were kind.'

Police will conduct an investigation into Tilly's death on behalf of the Coroner.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Beyond Blue 1300 224 636
Victorian Shadow Treasurer David Davis has confessed to drinking too much at a gala dinner event before being forced to leave the function.

The Liberal frontbencher was among several politicians and community leaders who attended a Victorian Multicultural Commission dinner on Saturday, where witnesses alleged he got intoxicated and began to inappropriately touch and hug guests at the function.

Davis, 59, reportedly refused to leave the event when initially asked before fellow Liberal colleagues removed him from the Convention Centre venue.

Victorian shadow treasurer David Davis (pictured) has confessed to drinking too much at a gala dinner event before being forced to leave

The Liberal frontbencher (pictured third from right) was among several politicians who attended a Victorian Multicultural Commission dinner on Saturday, where he allegedly got intoxicated and inappropriately touched guests

The senior politician issued a statement on Wednesday night apologising for his behaviour.

'I acknowledge I had too much to drink at a public function,' he said.

'That was a mistake. It is not behaviour that is acceptable to me, my colleagues, or the public.

'I am deeply remorseful and apologise unreservedly.'

After making his statement on Wednesday night, Davis elaborated on his actions on Thursday and relayed Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy's 'disappointment' over the matter.

'I've apologised very clearly to Matthew [Guy] and he's expressed his disappointment and I'm intending to push forward and work on my tasks on behalf of the people of Victoria,' Davis said.

'It's clear I did the wrong thing on Saturday night and I've apologised for that. I'm quite remorseful and I understand I did the wrong thing and it was a mistake.'

Davis did not dispute accounts from four witnesses who alleged he inappropriately hugged and touched guests at the venue and stood uncomfortably close to them.

Davis, 59, reportedly refused to leave the event when initially asked before fellow Liberal colleagues removed him from the venue. He later issued an apology for his behaviour on Wednesday night

Davis did not dispute accounts from four witnesses who alleged he inappropriately hugged and touched guests at the venue and stood uncomfortably close to them

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy (pictured) said he would not take further action against Mr Davis

The Opposition Leader, who was one of the attendees at the gala event, said he would not take further action against Mr Davis.

'At a work event like this, I expect people to have the highest standards and that wouldn't be behaving in anyway (that is) intoxicated or getting drunk at a function like it,' he said.

'He's apologised for it and I think that's enough.'

Guy added: 'He wouldn't be the first politician to commit this sin. I'm sure he's not the last one to commit this sin.'

'I've expressed my disappointment to him about it as you'd expect him to, and I'd consider the matter being complete.'

The incident comes five months after Liberal MP Tim Smith (pictured) resigned from his position after a drink-driving car crash

Mr Smith had crashed his car in Melbourne's inner east while under the influence of alcohol. Pictured: Mr Smith's car embedded in a metal fence

Liberal sources told the Herald Sun that complaints filed against Davis were unlikely to lead to any sanctions or punishment.

One source told the publication they 'didn't blink' because Davis gets 'a bit wasted at every function'.

Victorian Labor MPs have since blasted Opposition Leader Matthew Guy for refusing to take further action against Mr Davis.

The incident comes five months after fellow senior Liberal MP Tim Smith resigned from his position as Shadow Attorney-General and the cabinet after crashing his car while under the influence of alcohol.
A Labor Party hopeful has slammed Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese for wanting to run a 'white, millionaire man from the eastern suburbs' as a western Sydney candidate.

Economist and company boss Dr Andrew Charlton, who lives in a $16 million Bellevue Hill mansion overlooking Sydney Harbour, is being touted as Labor's captain's pick candidate for Parramatta at the upcoming election.

The managing director of economics consultancy Accenture was previously an adviser to former prime minister Kevin Rudd during the Global Financial Crisis before going into business.

He then made a fortune when his strategy and analytics company AlphaBeta was sold to Accenture, and he stayed on as a director.

Mr Charlton is Mr Albanese's preferred candidate to replace retiring federal Labor member Julie Owens in Parramatta at the May election only weeks away.

This is despite him living more than 30km away in a mansion he bought in 2020 from Mamamia co-founders Mia Freedman and Jason Lavigne.

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Economist Dr Andrew Charlton, who lives in a $16million Bellevue Hill mansion overlooking Sydney Harbour, is being touted as Labor's captain's pick candidate for Parramatta at the upcoming election.

The managing director of economics consultancy AlphaBeta is reportedly Mr Albanese's preferred candidate to replace retiring federal Labor member Julie Owens in Parramatta despite living more than 30km away in a mansion (pictured) he bought in 2019 from Mamamia co-founders Mia Freedman and Jason Lavigne

Abha Devasia, a hard-left Labor preselection hopeful and Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union legal co-ordinator, suggested Dr Charlton's wealth and skin colour made him unsuitable to run in an electorate with a higher proportion of migrants.

'I desperately want Labor to win but selecting a white, millionaire man from the eastern suburbs to run for Parramatta would be a tone-deaf choice and willfully disrespectful to our community,' she told the ABC.

Ms Owens, from Labor's soft left sub-faction who has held Parramatta since 2004, told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Devasia - an ethnic Indian Malayalee woman who grew up in Ethiopia - expressed 'a rather simplistic view, actually'.

'Across the board, parliament has an issue that it doesn't necessarily reflect who we are as a nation at this point,' she said.

'Parliament generally needs to swing but no particular electorate should be this or that - if we get this right, we'll run a candidate of colour, of different cultural backgrounds in the Shire or in a regional seat.

'When it does reflect who we are, you won't be saying this electorate has 30 per cent Chinese so therefore we run a Chinese candidate.'

Ms Owens also took issue with Ms Devasia bringing up Dr Charlton's skin colour in a bid to make parliament more ethnically diverse.

'The cultural background won't be a hindrance anywhere and nor, by the way, will being a white, successful man be a hindrance,' she said.

A hard-left Labor preselection hopeful, Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union legal co-ordinator Abha Devasia, has suggested Dr Charlton's wealth and skin colour made him unsuitable to run in an electorate with a higher proportion of migrants

'It's a naive position to think that only cultural diverse electorates should have culturally-diverse members - "You can't run a white man in a culturally diverse electorate".'

Ms Devasia lives 3km outside the Parramatta electorate at West Pennant Hills, in Sydney's north. Daily Mail Australia has sought a right of reply.

Mr Charlton went to an elite upper north shore private school, Knox Grammar, that also produced former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam and newspaper commentator Peter FitzSimons.

Parramatta's previous right-wing Liberal member Ross Cameron, who held the seat from 1996 to 2004, also went to Knox Grammar.

The stoush over the Parramatta preselection is occurring only months after Labor parachuted Senator Kristina Keneally into the south-west Sydney seat of Fowler, covering Cabramatta, even though she lived 44km away on Scotland Island on the northern beaches.

Julie Owens, from Labor's soft left sub-faction who has held Parramatta since 2004, told Daily Mail Australia Ms Devasia - an ethnic Indian Malayalee woman who grew up in Ethiopia - had expressed 'a rather simplistic view, actually'

Mr Charlton went to an elite upper north shore private school, Knox Grammar, that also produced former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam and newspaper commentator Peter FitzSimons. Parramatta's previous right-wing Liberal member Ross Cameron, who held the seat from 1996 to 2004, also went to Knox Grammar

Retiring member Chris Hayes endorsed local Tu Le, a lawyer of Vietnamese heritage, as his preferred candidate in the ultra-safe Labor seat.

Ms Owens said she would prefer a Labor rank-and-file preselection in marginal seat Parramatta, but added she regarded Dr Charlton as a great candidate.

'If you're looking at the overall makeup of the Parliament, you see people with the skill and calibre of Kristina Keneally or with the capacity of Andrew Charlton, it's natural to try and find a place for them,' she said.

Mr Rudd said he hoped Dr Charlton would go into politics but declined to say if he was the best candidate for Parramatta.

'Again, I plead the distance of 10,000km from Washington DC where I am now, and Sydney,' he told 7.30 host Leigh Sales.

The managing director of economics consultancy AlphaBeta was previously an adviser to former prime minister Kevin Rudd during the Global Financial Crisis (he is pictured with his former boss in April 2010 shortly before Julia Gillard overthrew him as Labor prime minister)

'Look, Andrew Charlton, I know well. He is a highly talented individual, brilliant economist, helped me navigate Australia's way through the global financial crisis, and remember we saved a quarter of a million working family jobs in Australia as a result and helped me, by the way, get Australia a permanent seat on the G20.

'But whatever Andrew does in the future, whether it's in politics or something else, I think we wish him well.

'We should be, as a nation, in whatever capacity harnessing the talents of people like this rather than just pushing him to one side.'

When Mr Rudd was PM again, Dr Charlton was touted in 2013 as a possible Labor candidate for the Central Coast seat of Dobell where disgraced former union official Craig Thomson was the local MP.
A 'gentle giant' who died alongside a stranger in a suspected social media suicide pact posted eerie images online of skulls, bullets, the grim reaper, and women holding cocked guns.

Barry Houston, 52, and Sonja Kovacevic, 48, were found dead with gunshot wounds in a backyard in Caloundra West, on the Sunshine Coast, about 6.30pm on Monday.

Police believe the pair, both contemplating suicide, connected on social media before Mr Houston travelled from his home in Browns Plains, south of Brisbane, to meet Ms Kovacevic and carry out a well-orchestrated plan to end their lives.

As detectives work to piece together the intricacies of the unusual case, Daily Mail Australia can reveal Mr Houston was keen a outdoorsman from south Brisbane.

A close friend told Daily Mail Australia Mr Houston was a 'gentle giant' with a big heart who was often 'misunderstood' due to his tall stature, standing at over six foot.

He said he was a loyal friend, a loving son, and all round 'great guy'.

Barry Houston, 52, (pictured) has been remembered by friends as a 'gentle giant' after he tragically died in a suspected murder-suicide in Caloundra West on Monday

A friend said Mr Houston owned several rifles but was not a 'mad gunman', but used them as he was a hunting enthusiast

'A lot of people were unsure of how to take him. He was a big guy. But he would always put others before himself,' he said.

Mr Houston was a childless divorcee who was no longer working due to a disability, and described himself online as a lover of 'hunting, shooting, camping, fishing ,rain forests, cars, and bourbon!'.

He owned several rifles, the friend said, and while he was a keen hunter, he was not a 'mad gunman' who just shot things for the sake of killing them.

He often posted photos of his interests over his multiple Facebook accounts, including images of guns, wild animals like bears and wolves, and scenic shots of forests.

Police believe Mr Houston and Sonja Kovacevic, 48, met on social media before carrying out a murder-suicide pact at the Caloundra West home (pictured)

Mr Houston often shared photos (one pictured) online of his interests, including the wilderness and guns

However, some graphics posted over the past few years paint a glimpse into Mr Houston's possible dark state of mind.

One image posted in 2019 shows a woman reminiscent of comic book character Harley Quinn sitting on a couch surrounded by bullets holding a gun, with 'you wanna play with me' smeared on a wall in blood behind her.

Another shows a skull biting on a bullet while a third features a grim reaper pointing towards the viewer, with #Whataboutus overlaid over the image, in reference to the hit song by Pink.

The friend said Mr Houston used chatrooms where he spoke to women in the past, but he wasn't sure if he still was.

He said Mr Houston also had issues with women in the past, and that the circumstances surrounding his death 'seem off and don't add up'.

The shocking tragedy has Mr Houston's friendship circle reeling, with his mates all still 'trying to process what happened'.

'There is a hole that will never be filled,' his longtime friend said.

One eerie post featured a woman with a cocked gun, surrounded by bullets, with blood smeared on the wall behind her

'He always had my back. We went everywhere together - fishing, camping. He was my best mate.

'This is a guy who couldn't swim but would go in to get your $5 lure if it got stuck, because he knew it was getting you fish.'

Mr Houston once worked at a flower farm in Park Ridge but left about 20 years ago after suffering health issues due to the chemicals involved. He had been on a disability pension ever since.

He was understood to be living with family at the time of his death.

The twin deaths rattled the sleepy coastal town, with seasoned detectives describing the case as the most baffling scene in three decades.

Police said the deaths were so meticulously planned they seemed 'clinical', with evidence showing items were packed into boxes before the shootings.

Ms Kovacevic phoned police before the shootings, telling officers she planned to take her own life.

Police believe Mr Houston then shot her with a high-powered rifle before taking his own life.

One image posted on Mr Houston's page featured a skull biting down on a bullet

The Teal Street home where the pair were found was only occupied by the tenants for six months after being putup for rent in August.

Ms Kovacevic is understood to have been living at the home, but it remains unclear whether there were any other occupants.

Detective Acting Inspector John Mahony said police were trying to establish how long the pair were communicating through analysis of their devices.

'Investigations thus far suggest the 52-year-old male person has ended the life of the 48-year-old woman and then a very short time later has ended his own life,' Inspector Mahony said.

Ms Kovacevic, who was involved in a Family Court matter at the time of her death, is understood to have been known to police for non-criminal matters.

Neighbours said Ms Kovacevic appeared melancholy in recent weeks, with one saying she hoped the woman was now in a 'better place' and sending condolences to her family.

Other residents said they were shocked by the deaths in a typically quiet suburb after hearing loud bangs on Monday night.

The pair were found dead with gunshot wounds in the backyard of the Teal Street property (pictured)

The three bedroom property had only been occupied for the past six months after being put on the rental market in August

Detective Acting Inspector John Mahony (pictured) said it appeared Mr Houston shot Ms Kovacevic before taking his own life

Caloundra, the southernmost town on the Sunshine Coast, is a well-known holiday hotspot, with a population of about 51,000.

Their deaths were weeks after the suspected murder-suicide of a mother and two children in Perth.

Abiyah, 10, and Aiden Selvan, eight, died in a car fire alongside their mother Selvamma Doreswamy, 40, at John Graham Reserve, Coogee, on March 14.

The deaths of the 'normal', 'happy' family rocked the tight-knit community of Canning Vale, in the city's south, where a memorial has emerged outside the children's school, Providence Christian College.

The children's father Selvan Govindhan Vairavan received the heartbreaking news on the first day of a US trip to visit a sick relative.

He has since returned home as he prepares to farewell his wife and two young children.

For confidential support in Australia, contact Lifeline: 13 11 14, Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636, or Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467.
Britain remembered its Covid dead yesterday two years after the first lockdown, as officials restricted access to free rapid tests.

Boris Johnson led the National Day of Reflection, saying Covid victims will never be out of our hearts and minds.

Events were held across the country, including a concert at St Pauls Cathedral, which will be home to the national memorial for Covid victims funded by generous Daily Mail readers.

Bereaved families tied yellow ribbons to Westminster Bridge beside Parliament

Near to Westminster Bridge was a memorial wall for pandemic victims emblazoned with painted hearts

A minutes silence was held at midday and people were encouraged to shine a light or display flowers in their window from 8pm.

Bereaved families tied yellow ribbons to Westminster Bridge beside Parliament, near a memorial wall for pandemic victims emblazoned with painted hearts.

The Prime Minister first announced lockdown on March 23, 2020. The final Covid restrictions in England were only dropped at the end of February this year.

Official data show 164,123 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test since the start of the crisis.

The day was marked by more than 400 organisations, with landmarks including the Gherkin in the City of London, the Senedd in Cardiff and Belfast City Hall being lit up in yellow.

Infections are increasing but the Government has tightened access to free lateral flow tests as people scramble to stock up while they are still available.

Free kits will no longer be available to the public in England from April 1.

People ordering online are being asked to declare that they will not sell tests for profit amid fears the move could fuel a black market trade.
This photo shows the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building on the left. Newsis





By Kang Seung-woo







The foreign and industry ministries are engaged in a tug of war over which institution will have the authority to promote trade under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is seeking to recover its original responsibility over trade matters, while the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is arguing for trade authority on the basis of its recent successes in the field.







When Korea's first presidential administration was launched in 1948, trade affairs were initially under the jurisdiction of the foreign ministry, which was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1998 during the Kim Dae-jung administration.







In 2013, the Park Geun-hye administration transferred the trade functions to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which was reorganized as the current Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. President Moon Jae-in tried to return authority over trade affairs to the foreign ministry in 2017, but the effort fell through.






Low-paid workers will suffer a stealth hit to pension pots as a consequence of the lower income tax rate.

Although the cut in the basic rate from 20p in the pound to 19p by 2024 will reduce the tax paid by millions of Britons, it will also reduce the value of many retirement funds.

This is because savers get tax relief on their private pension contributions equivalent to the level of income tax rate they pay.

Workers on low wages may find themselves negatively impacted by the lowering of income tax in 2024, as it will lower the tax relief on their private pension contributions (file photo)

Rob Morgan (pictured), of wealth managers Charles Stanley, said lower earners are going to have to put more money aside to make up the difference

While those on low salaries currently benefit from 20 per cent relief on their annual contributions, after the income tax cut is introduced they will only get 19 per cent.

The new lower rate could cut 28,243 from the pension of someone who saved 1,000 a month over the course of their 50-year career, according to analysis by the Telegraph.

Rob Morgan, of wealth managers Charles Stanley, said the pension rules meant the income tax rate was a double-edged sword for those on lower incomes.

The Government top-ups make a really big difference at the margin as they add up over time, he said.

If lower earners want to reach the same retirement goal, they have to put aside more money... to make up the difference.

The looming change will also widen the gap between rich and poor, as the 40 per cent pension tax relief enjoyed by those on high incomes will remain unchanged.

Kate Smith, of wealth management firm Aegon, said basic rate taxpayers should consider investing more into pensions now if able to do so  before the lower relief comes into effect.
Britain will sanction China if it supports Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a Cabinet minister warned last night.

Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan urged Beijing not to send arms or financial aid to Russia after the US claimed it requested China's support, which both countries deny.

Joe Biden last week warned Chinese president Xi Jinping there will be 'consequences' if he backs the invasion.

Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan urged Beijing not to send arms or financial aid to Russia

The White House said sanctions are 'certainly one tool in the tool box'. Mrs Trevelyan said the British Government would take similarly robust action.

'We've sanctioned Belarus right alongside Russia precisely because they basically said 'feel free to park your tanks on our lawn'. That is just not acceptable,' she added.

China previously abstained on UN votes censuring Russia.

Mrs Trevelyan said: China are clearly sitting and considering and watching I would think economics is always going to be critically important to him (President Xi) and his balance of trade with the U.S. and with Europe is critical to him.

'So I would hope very much that he wouldnt think that arming the Russians was the right solution.

Relations between China and Britain have become increasingly strained as they have clashed over coronavirus, Hong Kong, human rights and Huawei.

But Mrs Trevelyan said she still believed there was still a chance to increase exports and imports.

There are those who say that we shouldn't trade with China in a general sense. I think that's the wrong way around, she continued.

The US has told Chinese president Xi Jinping there will be 'consequences' if he backs Vladmir Putin's invasion of Ukraine (Left - Vladmir Putin. Right Xi Jinping)

I think they're an important trading partner and we want the opportunity to have more trade with China for non-strategic areas of business, which we can continue to grow.

So, I hope that Xi is listening and that he values the economic relationship that he has with the major economies the world, of which we are one.

The U.S. last week warned Nato allies that China had signalled its willingness to provide military and economic aid to Russia to support its war in Ukraine.

The message, sent in a diplomatic cable noted China was expected to deny those plans.

Both Beijing and Moscow have dismissed claims there have been requests for assistance.

China has been one of few countries to avoid criticising the Russians for its invasion of Ukraine. President Xi hosted Putin for the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, just three weeks before Russia invaded. During Putin's visit, the two leaders issued a 5,000-word statement declaring limitless friendship.

The Chinese abstained on U.N. votes censuring Russia and has criticised economic sanctions against Moscow. It has expressed its support for peace talks and offered its services as a mediator, despite questions about its neutrality and limited experience mediating international conflict.
Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the 'GIF', died earlier this month at the age of 74 after battling COVID-19.

The innovative computer scientist died on March 14, his wife Kathaleen confirmed on Wednesday.

He is survived by a son, four stepchildren, 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren, according to his obituary.

Wilhite started his glittering career at the online service provider CompuServe, where he developed the Graphic Interchange Format in 1987 - which would later become an internet phenomenon in the early 2010s known as the GIF.

'He invented GIF all by himself - he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it,' Kathleen told The Verge.

'He would figure out everything privately in his head and the go to town programming it on the computer.'

According to Kathleen, the GIF was the thing Wilhite was most proud of.

In 2012 as the invention become largely popular with Millennials sharing their reactions in the form of GIFs, it was named word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary.

Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the 'GIF', died earlier this month at the age of 74 after battling COVID-19

According to his wife, the GIF was the thing Wilhite was most proud of

Wilhitetold the New York Times in 2013 that his favorite GIF was the dancing baby meme, which 'went viral before going viral' was a thing

Once just a part of the jargon of hardcore computer enthusiasts, how to properly say GIF has been debated since it was invented in 1987 as a means of neatly compressing images.

In 2013, Wilhite settled once and for all the long debate over the right pronunciation of the word, saying the G 'was soft,' and the word sounded like the peanut butter brand.

'The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,' Wilhite said in an email interview with the New York Times . 'They are wrong.'

Wilhite also told the New York Times that his favorite GIF was the dancing baby meme, which 'went viral before going viral' was a thing.

GIPHY tweeted a tribute to Wilhite, prompting users of the internet reaction to remember fondly the creator

As expected, GIF users shared their favorites to honor Wilhite

'In honor, here's the first ever gif! (at least i'm 99 percent sure this is the one),' another user tweeted along with a plane GIF.

An user shared a GIF of Mike Myers playing Dr Evil in one of the Austin Powers movies

An user called for the word GIF to be pronounced as Wilhite intended

'I think we should stop arguing and let the man rest. He is with Jod now,' someone replied, making light of the situation

Wilhite's invention won him much praise over the last 35 years and even more in the last ten or so as meme culture has embraced the file as a means of quickly and easily moving messages motivated by everything from comedy to politics across the Web.

GIPHY tweeted a tribute to Wilhite, prompting users of the internet reaction to remember fondly the creator.

'The GIPHY team is sad to hear of the passing of Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the GIF file format. GIPHY was built on a sincere love for the GIF  and we are indebted to the creativity and vision of Mr. Wilhite.'

As expected, GIF users shared their favorites to honor Wilhite.

'His work lives on. Anyone who uses a GIF owes it to him. Sad to say he died from #COVID complications,' Barbara Malment tweeted.

An user called for the word GIF to be pronounced as Wilhite intended.

'I think we should stop arguing and let the man rest. He is with Jod now,' someone replied, making light of the situation.

'In honor, here's the first ever gif! (at least i'm 99 percent sure this is the one),' another user tweeted along with a plane GIF.

Another user shared a GIF of Mike Myers playing Dr Evil in one of the Austin Powers movies.

Wilhite was honored in 2013 with a Lifetime Achievement Webby Award in recognition of inventing the file format

Even after retiring, Wihite kept the wheels inside his brain turning, often taking trips with his wife, camping and building his model train set

Wilhite was honored in 2013 with a Lifetime Achievement Webby Award in recognition of inventing the file format.

In the words of the official Webby website:

'The proliferation of the GIF within today's meme-powered, Tumblr-driven pop culture, proves it a lasting format still among the most celebrated on the Web (despite the hotly contested controversy over its correct pronunciation).

'With 2012 being the 25th anniversary of the GIF we think the 17th Annual Webby Awards is a most fitting event to honor and celebrate Steve Wilhite and this historical achievement.'

Wilhite went on to work at America Online before retiring in the early 2000s.

Even after retiring, Wihite kept the wheels inside his brain turning, often taking trips with his wife, camping and building his model train set.

'When we had the house built we actually had a whole section in the basement for his train room. He always did the design and electric work for the layout,' Kathleen told The Verge.

'Even with all his accomplishments, he remained a very humble, kind, and good man,' his obituary reads.
Rishi Sunak rejected calls from the Foreign Secretary and other Conservative colleagues to increase the defence budget in yesterdays statement.

The Chancellor had been under pressure from Liz Truss and leading Tory backbenchers to allocate extra funding in the light of increasing Russian aggression.

Mr Sunak has repeatedly defended the Governments current levels of defence investment.

In his statement, he mentioned security eight times and boasted about UK military aid to help Ukraine defend its borders as well as 400million in economic and humanitarian aid.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak speaks at a statement on the economic update session, at the House of Commons in London, Britain March 23

However, there was nothing when it came to the UKs own military budget.

Miss Truss was reported to be pushing for defence spending to double from 2.4 per cent of GDP to 5 per cent.

At the weekend, she said: In the immediate post-Cold War period we said there was a peace dividend, we diverted money away from defence. That has proved to be a mistake in retrospect.

Her predecessor Jeremy Hunt also called for 4 per cent of GDP to be spent on the military.

Other senior Tories such as Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence committee, urged the Chancellor earlier this week to recognise the urgency for us to increase defence spending.

However, Mr Sunak has insisted that the UK is already a major power and that the Ministry of Defence  which has reportedly not made a formal request for extra funds  should make use of current budget instead.
Billionaire Clive Palmer claims he was only five hours away from dying before the intervention of US specialists and use of controversial drugs saw him beat Covid and pneumonia, after refusing hospital advice to go on a ventilator.

The unvaccinated mining magnate and United Australia Party founder was rushed to Pindara Private Hospital on the Gold Coast with breathing difficulties on February 27 after contracting the Delta variant of Covid.

He was also diagnosed with double pneumonia, but refused to go onto a ventilator as advised by doctors there and instead returned to his mansion on Sovereign Island where he called US specialists by Zoom.

They fast-tracked him onto a US trial of experimental drugs - like those used by ex-President Donald Trump - which also included controversial hydroxychloroquine.

Neither that drug or the anti-parasitical treatment Ivermectin was authorised by Australian or US authorities as a Covid treatment, but many high-profile opponents of vaccination mandates had used and endorsed them, including podcaster Joe Rogan.

Billionaire Clive Palmer says he cheated death with a cocktail of anti-viral drugs including Ivermectin to beat Covid after he fled hospital

US specialists fast-tracked him onto a trial of experimental drugs - like those used by ex-President Donald Trump - which included controversial ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine

'I would have died otherwise, without doubt,' Mr Palmer, 67, told Sky News Australia.

'I've been told that without the anti-viral intervention on that Sunday night I would likely have been dead within five hours.

'The US specialists, a couple of whom treated (Donald) Trump for Covid, were very strong about not going onto a ventilator.

'I had faith in the US doctors. I'm not being critical of the Pindara people at all. They believed ventilation was necessary but I had alternative advice and I stuck with that.

'I said that won't be happening and I went home.'

His senior management staff contacted American gastroenterologist and Ivermectin advocate Professor Thomas Borody who brought in the team of US specialists.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer (pictured here with wife Anna) was rushed to Pindara Private Hospital on the Gold Coast with breathing difficulties on February 27

He discharged himself from Pindara Prive Hospital when medics tried to put him on a ventilator on ICU, he said

They liaised with four Australian doctors who monitored the billionaire's progress and treatment at home, while an ambulance waited on standby close to his mansion in case he needed to be rushed back to hospital.

Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are not approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for the treatment of Covid in Australia, and their sale is tightly restricted to their original uses.

Dr Timothy Geary, one of the world's foremost experts on Ivermectin, said the drug does not have any effectiveness fighting viruses in humans.

In more serious cases, a person could overdose and suffer severe damage to their central nervous system, and potentially even die.

Clive Palmer was treated at his Sovereign Island home over Zoom by the US specialists while an ambulance waited on standby nearby if he needed to be rushed back to hospital

Clive Palmer claims he was within five hours of dying, but the cocktail of drugs prescribed by the US specialists had him feeling better within just 10 hours

The billionaire imported 39 million doses of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for the fight against Covid at the start of the pandemic in the expectation it would be approved for use.

When it was not, more than ton of the drug had to eventually sent for destruction in late 2020.

Mr Palmer - who was in a high Covid risk category because of his age, weight, and being unvaccinated - was also treated with the powerful steroid dexamethasone to keep his lungs functioning.

'I started to come good within 10 hours,' he said. 'I'm still not a 100 per cent.

'I get tired pretty easily but I'm not getting any younger I suppose.'

He revealed that, despite official advice for the population to be vaccinated against the disease, he still has no plans to get jabbed.

He added: 'I'm pro choice.'
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to change tactics and focus his firepower on the east of Ukraine, according to Western officials, abandoning plans to seize vase swathes of his neighbouring country.

When Russia unleashed its multi-pronged invasion on February 24, a swift toppling of Ukraine and it democratically elected government seemed likely.

But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Russia is bogged down in a grinding military campaign, and is being pushed back in some regions.

The slow Russian progression has seemingly taken the Kremlin by surprise, and Western officials have said that Moscow made a 'catastrophic miscalculation'.

As such, it is expected that Russia will change its military tactics in Ukraine and instead consolidate its supplies and logistical efforts in the eastern Donbas region.

Speaking to The Times, one western official said Ukraine's intelligent resistance had 'derailed' Russia's flawed plans, which had at the heart of them the assumption that Ukrainians would allow Russia to roll into their country without much of a fight.

A tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict is seen in front of a residential building, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine March 23, 2022

'I think what's clear is that the original Russian plan of being able to have three separate axis of manoeuvre, operate them all simultaneously, and achieve their objectives quickly has been frustrated,' the official told the newspaper.

They went on to say that they expect Russia to continue its medieval bombardment of Ukraine's cities, and focus its efforts in the east - rather than trying to push further across the country.

In an apparent demonstration of this, a video reportedly showed Russian helicopters being towed by military trucks 25 miles south-east of Kherson, a Ukrainian town found in the south of the country near the border with the Crimean peninsula.

At the time, commentators were unsure what to make of the video, but as Ukrainian forces are not only defending, but now mounting counterattacks against Russian forces in key battlegrounds, it appears the helicopters may have been retreating.

Kherson was the only major city to have been seized by Putin's forces since the start of the invasion on February 24.

But satellite images of a Kherson airfield - held by Russia since early march and which five days ago was hosting four helicopters - showed it free of any of Moscow's aircraft, according to The Daily Telegraph.

A senior UK defence official said Wednesday that Russia was now waging a war of 'attrition' in Ukraine, after numerous setbacks meant Moscow had 'failed to achieve its original objectives'.

Chief of Defence Intelligence Jim Hockenhull said Moscow had been surprised by both the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance, while Russian forces had been 'bedevilled with problems of its own making'.

'Russian operations have changed,' he told reporters at a briefing, adding the Kremlin was 'now pursuing a strategy of attrition'.

'This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower (and) result in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis,' Hockenhull warned.

Western intelligence officials believe claims that Ukrainian forces have killed as many as 10,000 Russian troops are credible, and assess that six senior Russian officers have died in the conflict.

Hockenhull noted President Vladimir Putin has reinforced his control over Russia's domestic media to 'control the narrative' and hide both operational problems and the high casualty numbers from the Russian people.

With the Russian advance stalled, Ukrainian forces have begun counterattacking in some parts of the country

A Western official meanwhile told reporters Moscow was mobilising some reserve forces to mitigate the losses, but they were likely to be poorly equipped and suffer from lower morale compared to the professional units first dispatched to Ukraine.

The official said Putin's previously stated belief that Russian troops would welcomed in Ukraine as liberators was a 'catastrophic miscalculation' that had 'fundamentally flawed their ability to succeed'.

'You've got this fatal flaw at the heart of the Russian plan which has led to all of these things coming together in the situation that we see the Russian forces in today,' the official said.

Meanwhile in the north of the country, a senior Pentagon official said The Russian army has retreated more than 18 miles east of Kyiv in the past 24 hours and has begun to establish defensive positions on several fronts.

'The Ukrainians have managed to push the Russians back 55 kilometers east and northeast of Kiev,' the senior official, who requested anonymity, told reporters on Wednesday. 'That is a change from yesterday.'

On Tuesday the Pentagon had estimated that Russian forces were around 20 kilometers from the centre of the capital.

To the northwest, 'they're basically digging in and they are establishing defensive positions,' the official added. 'So it's not that they're not advancing. They're actually not trying to advance right now.'

Moscow's indiscriminate attacks have devastated several Ukrainian cities since it sent tens of thousands of troops into its eastern European neighbour, with the civilian toll soaring and more than ten million people fleeing their homes.

Many analysts still see no clear path out of the conflict.

Even so, Ukraine's resistance - backed by millions in Western military aid - has been unexpectedly fierce.

Russian forces also remain blocked 6 miles from the centre of Chernihiv, northeast of Kiev, according to Pentagon estimates.

They are 'stalled' and in some places 'they are ceding ground, they are actually moving in the opposite direction, but not by much,' the official noted.

Pictured: Footage from earlier this month released by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence purports to show fireball caused by a Russian helicopter being shot down by Ukrainian troops

While in Kharkiv in the east, where fighting remains intense, Russian forces are still 10 to 12 miles from the city centre and face 'very, very stiff resistance' from the Ukrainians, according to the official.

The Russians appear to be focusing on the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east.

The official said the Pentagon believes Moscow is 'at least to some degree trying to fix Ukrainian forces' in that area 'so that they can't be used elsewhere.'

To the south, however, the Russian Navy is using the port of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov for refuelling.

Finally, the Pentagon has seen no change around the city of Odessa, on the Black Sea. While several missiles were fired in the direction of Odessa from Russian ships earlier this week, this did not happen on Tuesday or Wednesday, the official said.

The comments come a day after Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the Ukrainians are 'in places and at times going on an offensive,' and are 'going after Russians and pushing them out of places.'

Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going 'strictly in accordance' with plans.

Wreckage and debris outside a damaged shopping centre in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv by Russian air strikes, amid Russian invasion, in Kyiv, Ukraine, 21 March 2022

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NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where ferocious fighting by the country's fast-moving defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.

By way of comparison, Moscow lost about 15,000 soldiers in Afghanistan over 10 years.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian officials, what Russia has released - intentionally or not - and intelligence gathered from open sources.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

The most recent figure for Ukraine's military losses came from Zelenskyy on March 12, when he said that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in action.

The NATO official said 30,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded.

Russia has released very little information on its casualties, saying March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

The figures from NATO represent the alliance's first public estimate of Russian casualties since the war began. The U.S. government has largely declined to provide public estimates of Russian or Ukrainian casualties, saying available information is of questionable reliability.

With casualties mounting and quick victory no longer in sight, Russia is having to work to suppress dissent and shore up morale.

It has arrested thousands of antiwar protesters and cracked down on the media. Also, under a law passed Wednesday, troops in Ukraine will get the same benefits as veterans of previous wars, including tax breaks, discounts on utilities and preferential access to medical treatment.

Still, Russia's far stronger, bigger military has many Western military experts warning against overconfidence in Ukraine's long-term odds.

The Kremlin's practice in past wars has been to grind down resistance with strikes that flattened cities, killing countless civilians and sending millions fleeing.

Addressing Japan's parliament on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said four weeks of war have killed thousands of his people, including at least 121 children.

'Our people cannot even adequately bury their murdered relatives, friends and neighbors. They have to be buried right in the yards of destroyed buildings, next to the roads,' he said.

ro-Russian separatists patrol with tank in the pro-Russian separatists-controlled Donetsk, Ukraine on March 11, 2022

Still, major Russian objectives remain unfulfilled. The capital, Kyiv, has been shelled repeatedly but is not even encircled.

Near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday, with plumes of black smoke rising from the western outskirts, where the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed in the capital since war broke out.

In the south, the port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, under weeks of siege and bombardment.

But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Zelensky said 100,000 civilians remain in a city that had 430,000 people. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

Zelensky accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Russians were holding captive 11 bus drivers and four rescue workers along with their vehicles.

It is not clear how much of Mariupol is still under Ukrainian control. Fleeing residents say fighting continues street by street.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher. Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theater and an art school where civilians were sheltering.
The Government is planning to increase the production of North Sea oil and gas to counter rapidly increasing energy prices, a Cabinet Minister has claimed.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke told BBC's Newsnight that more oil and gas will form part of the government's strategic energy strategy which is due to be released next week.

Mr Clarke said officials were examining proposals to approve additional oil and gas fields in order to wean Britain off Russian fossil fuels.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke, pictured, has indicated the government is planning to increase the production of North Sea Oil and Gas to mitigate against the current energy crisis and spiralling bills

Chancellor Rishi Sunak reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by 5p yesterday, but that has not countered the dramatic increases in the price of fuel over the past three months

He said: 'We need to get that production going to the maximum extent that we can. It simply would not be right to support Putin's war in Ukraine by buying Russian oil and gas, but there are costs to that. We are very candid about that.

'The government will be setting out our wider energy security strategy in the coming weeks. But in essence it means doing more of all of the things that we know we need to do. So it means more new renewables, it means more new nuclear, and it means more oil and gas from the North Sea. And its all of those things in tandem.'

When questioned about the possibility of increasing production in the North Sea, Mr Clarke said: 'I was at a summit with the Prime Minister and Business Secretary just last week, meeting with the sector.

'We are determined to unlock more production in the North Sea. I can't commit to specific fields, but certainly it is our intention to unlock more production capacity in the North Sea.'

There are currently about 4.4 billion barrels of oil under UK waters according to the North Sea Transition Authority with the possibility of more than 10 billion in unproven reserves which could improve the country's energy security, but will have little impact upon price as these are agreed internationally.

Part of the Government's strategy could be to open up new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, file photo

If other countries ramp up production this could have a much greater impact on prices.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is estimated to be able to increase oil production by around four million barrels a day, something that would significantly impact on prices.

The UK could also get more gas from the US and the Gulf countries. The Grain liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Kent can in theory bring in enough gas to supply 25 per cent of UK demand.

But in reality this can only happen if enough ships dock there. In a record set last April the terminal supplied 15 per cent of demand.

This means there is plenty of capacity to ramp up how much comes in through the UK's LNG terminals, which in turn could also be exported to Europe.

Oil giant Shell paused work on the Cambo oil field off the west coast of Shetland in December after admitting the economic case for the investment was 'not strong enough'.

Industry body Offshore Energies UK  formerly Oil and Gas UK  has previously said blocking long-planned energy projects such as Cambo would risk leaving the UK at the mercy of global energy shortages.

But Greenpeace warned the proposed development would not tackle high bills or improve energy security and urged the Government to throw its weight behind renewables, insulation and heat pumps to get the UK off oil and gas.

Shell's decision to pull out was announced just weeks after the UK hosted the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, where countries pledged to try to limit global warming to 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of an overheating planet.

The International Energy Agency has said that no new oil and gas exploration projects should go ahead if the world is to meet the 1.5C goal.

In November, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Cambo project should not go ahead, following months of pressure from opposition parties and campaigners for the Scottish Government to make its position on Cambo clear.

And the advisory Climate Change Committee has said high prices are driven by global markets and increasing UK fossil fuel extraction would have virtually no impact on bills, urging efforts to cut oil and gas demand instead.

Philip Evans, oil and gas transition campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said the Cambo project would produce heavy crude oil, for which the UK has very little refining capacity, and it would 'do nothing to tackle high bills or shore up energy security'.

He said: 'Shell wasn't interested in pursuing this project when it was a bad look for them, but now they stand to gain billions in the midst of wartime price hikes, they're interested again.

'Meanwhile our bills soar, and offshore workers are trapped in a volatile industry.

'The UK and North Sea communities deserve better.

'With the spring statement and a new energy strategy coming up, the Government must throw its weight behind British renewables, a proper home insulation scheme and heat pump rollout, or our energy policy will be disrupted by the whims of fossil fuel giants for decades.'
A political insider has revealed why senior Labor figures shut out Kimberley Kitching before she died of a suspected heart attack on March 10.

Niki Savva, a former high-level Howard Government staffer and regular panelist on ABC's Insiders, said that Kitching had lost the trust of many in her own party.

'She was suspected of leaking and undermining colleagues, not only by briefing media... but Coalition MPs, former Liberal Party officials and even senior staff in the Prime Minister's office,' Ms Savva wrote in a column for The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.

While politicians leaking information or forming friendships with opposing party members is nothing new, Ms Savva said the 'the breadth and depth of hers fed the distrust'.

Journalist and former Howard Government advisor Niki Savva (pictured) said Ms Kitching, who died earlier in March, had leaked false information to former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds

Ms Kitching (pictured) reportedly told a workplace consultant and the vice-president of the Liberal Party she felt bullied and ostracised by some of her Labor colleagues

She added the 'crunch' came when former Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds spoke at a Senate Estimates hearing in late 2021.

Ms Reynolds claimed she had been warned by a Labor senator that the party's Senate tactics committee would question her over the Brittany Higgins scandal.

Former staffer Ms Higgins was allegedly raped by a colleague in Ms Reynold's parliamentary office.

She later showed senior Labor figures Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong and Kristy Gallagher video footage from the senate chamber of Ms Kitching approaching her in February 2021, Ms Savva said.

Ms Reynolds also produced texts sent to her which appeared to back up her claim that Ms Kitching warned her Labor planned to go on the attack about Ms Higgins.

However, Ms Reynolds later accepted this was never discussed by Senate tactics and Ms Kitching was unceremoniously dropped from the committee.

Ms Saava claims this was the catalyst for senior Labor figures freezing her out - fearing further leaks to the media or political opponents.

Ms Kitching later reportedly told a workplace consultant and the vice-president of the Liberal Party she felt bullied and ostracised by some colleagues.

Ms Keneally, Ms Wong, and Ms Gallagher have all flatly denied claims the had bullied or isolated Ms Kitching.

Speaking on Thursday Labor leader Anthony Albanese confirmed Ms Kitching was suspended from the tactics committee but painted this as routine political maneuvering.

He also insisted neither he nor his staff were aware Kitching felt bullied.

Ms Kitching (left) with political commentator Andrew Bolt (centre) and Ms Savva (right)

'There were no complaints put forward through the processes that have been established that were agreed to unanimously,' Mr Albanese said.

He also downplayed talk of an inquiry into Labor's culture.

'If people think that you can have an inquiry into someone, whether someone's on the tactics committee or not, it just seems to me to be quite an extraordinary suggestion.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously accused Mr Albanese of being 'gutless' for refusing calls for an inquiry into the alleged bullying.

On Thursday he backed up his position.

'He (Mr Albanese) is happy to throw stones... but clearly not happy to hold himself to the standard he wishes to impose on others and that's called hypocrisy,' Mr Morrison said.
Australia has announced a landmark shift in immigration policy with New Zealand agreeing to resettle 150 refugees each year for three years.

It comes after years of Australian politicians expressing concerns a resettlement deal with New Zealand would create a 'back door' for refugees to enter Australia.

The arrangement will initially be for refugees who are in Nauru or temporarily in Australia under regional processing arrangements and meet New Zealand's refugee program requirements.

New Zealand will resettle 150 refugees from Australia each year for three years. Pictured: Protests in Sydney on Sunday

They must not be in other resettlement pathways, such as Australia's resettlement arrangement with the United States.

The program will also extend to refugees referred to New Zealand by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews reiterated that no one who travelled to Australia via boat would be resettled.

'This arrangement does not apply to anyone who attempts an illegal maritime journey to Australia in the future. Australia remains firm - illegal maritime arrivals will not settle here permanently,' she said.

'Anyone who attempts to breach our borders will be turned back or sent to Nauru.'

Labor said Scott Morrison has made a 'humiliating backflip' after refusing New Zealand's offer for nine years.

'This is a humiliating backflip for Scott Morrison who claimed as recently as 2018 that New Zealand's generous offer to resettle refugees would see people smugglers restart their evil trade,' Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally said.

'Peter Dutton foolishly backed in Mr Morrison, saying New Zealand is being ''marketed and pitched'' as a destination by people-smugglers.

'That was not true then, and is not true now  as the Morrison Government has been forced to admit today.'

New Zealand's Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi says the arrangement reflects the country's proud history and strong commitment to resettling refugees.

'This arrangement is another example of how we are fulfilling our humanitarian international commitment,' he said.

'We are pleased to be able to provide resettlement outcomes for refugees who would otherwise have continued to face uncertain futures.'
Scott Morrison responded to allegations his 'mate' Brian Houston harassed two women in the church by claiming he hadn't been to Hillsong in '15 years' - despite being the guest of honour at an event in 2019.

Houston resigned at 4am on Wednesday after allegations of 'indiscretions' against two women over 10 years were made public.

The prime minister was asked about the controversial church's founder on Thursday morning.

Mr Morrison expressed his 'disappointment' before attempting to separate himself from the organisation he had previously been to 'many, many times'.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed on Thursday he hadn't been to Hillsong in '15 years' - despite being the guest of honour at an event for the church in 2019 (pictured with wife Jenny)

'I must admit we were very disappointed and shocked to hear the news,' Mr Morrison said.

'My first thoughts were with the victims, as they've been rightly described and so I was very concerned. And the actions that have been taken are entirely appropriate.'

The PM was asked about his current association with the church, confirming he now attends Pentecostal church ShireLive closer to his home in city's south rather than Hillsong.

'I haven't been at Hillsong now for about 15 years, I go to a local church,' Mr Morrison said.

However Morrison still made a well documented trip to Hillsong as a guest of honour in July 2019, taking to the stage and making a speech to the thousands in attendance before praying onstage with Houston.

'I haven't been at Hillsong now for about 15 years, I go to a local church,' Mr Morrison said on Thursday - but that is untrue as he attended a celebration in July 2019

Mr Morrison attended the celebration fresh off his shock victory in the election, walking out to a rapturous response from the Hillsong attendees alongside wife Jenny.

'Here we are, we love Jesus,' he said. 'Anyone else feel that way? I thought so.

'I remember coming here many years ago, we've been here many, many times. My job is to love God and love each other.'

He then asked Houston if he could lead a 'prayer for Australia', before the crowd bowed their heads and Mr Morrison spoke for people with 'mental health' and in 'indigenous communities'.

Houston put a hand on the PM's shoulder as he asked for an 'avalanche of love', before the Hillsong founder joked Mr Morrison should 'pray for me'.

Mr Morrison speaks alongside his close friend Brian Houston at Hillsong in 2019

Houston then asked a series of questions, including how the guest of honour would celebrate, before he replied 'I'm going to go and watch the Sharks play'.

Jenny then took the microphone, saying the two had attended Hillong for a 'very long time' and said they used to attend the congregation in Waterloo in Sydney's inner suburbs.

'I didn't choose this, Scott chose this, and I chose Scott, so here I am,' she said as the crowd applauded.

The Morrisons spent about 15 minutes on stage before leaving to a standing ovation.

The Morrisons spent 15 minutes onstage at Hillsong in 2019, saying repeatedly how often they attend the church's congregations

The church's acting senior pastor Phil Dooley announced the resignation of Houston to the second staff meeting in a week on Wednesday.

He said it was a time of 'humble reflection' for the church, which was founded in Sydney's west and has since spread around the world.

Houston submitted his resignation at 4am on Wednesday morning before a scheduled board meeting, Crikey reported.

The church had been investigating 'two complaints made against Pastor Brian' over the past 10 years.

Hillsong founder Brian Houston stepped down in January from his role as the organisation's international leader (pictured with wife Bobbi)

'We would like to advise you that Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as global senior pastor of Hillsong Church and the board has accepted his resignation,' Dooley said in a statement.

'We understand there will be much emotion at this news and we all share these feelings.

'We ask that you continue to pray for them and the entire Houston family during this challenging time.'

One complaint was made after a church employee claimed to have been sent 'inappropriate' texts, and the second was Mr Houston going into a woman's hotel room in 2019 at a conference.

Dooley had addressed the situation in a service streamed online on Sunday.

'I want to say we are sorry for anyone who has been a victim of any form of harassment,' he said.

'Some of us here... understand the pain because you have experienced it yourselves, and others of us are doing our best to empathise with you.

'Where you've been hurt, we pray for healing, strength and courage to move forward in your life.'

The Hillsong Global Board said the two complaints were treated 'extremely seriously'.

It added that previous statements, including when Houston temporarily stepped down in January, had not been made out of confidentiality for both him and the two women while the matters were investigated.

Mr Houston (pictured with wife Bobbi) sent inappropriate texts to a former employee and entered the hotel room of a guest after the 2019 Hillsong Conference, the board said

'The first issue was approximately a decade ago and involved inappropriate text messages from Pastor Brian to a member of staff, which subsequently resulted in the staff member resigning,' the board said.

The board explained Houston was 'under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence' when he sent the texts.

Houston immediately apologised and sought professional help to end his dependency on the medication, the church claimed.

'To this former staff member, we again apologise and would welcome the opportunity to provide further assistance if this is needed,' the board said.

The second incident was when Houston knocked on the hotel door of a female guest following the 2019 Hillsong Conference and came inside.

'An in-depth investigation found that Pastor Brian became disoriented... following the consumption of anti-anxiety medication beyond the prescribed dose, mixed with alcohol,' it said.

Dooley previously said Houston was in the room for 40 minutes and no allegations of assault were made by the woman.

'The board found that Brian had breached the Hillsong Pastor's Code of Conduct,' he said.

Hillsong's interim global leader Phil Dooley (pictured) apologised in an online service as the church's board issued an apology statement

'The board also met a request for a refund of money donated to the church by this person... Pastor Brian was extremely remorseful and insisted on repaying the church for this.'

The board said after the most recent investigation, Mr Houston took 'specific action, including stepping down from leadership for a period'.

'However unfortunately he failed to take all of the agreed steps which resulted in further action being taken by the board in late 2021.

'We apologise unreservedly to the people affected by Pastor Brian's actions and commit to being available for any further assistance we can provide.'

Houston's daughter Laura Toggs, 35, vowed to stand by her father despite the controversy, but admitted she had 'a battered heart'.

And in a series of posts on Instagram, Ms Toggs poured out her hurt while insisting she would try to rise above it.

Laura Toggs, the daughter of Hillsong founder Brian Houston, (pictured) has revealed her 'anguish, humiliation and crushing pain' over her father's scandalous indiscretions

Daughter Laura Toggs, 35, has now vowed to stand by her father despite the controversy rocking the Sydney megachurch - but admits she has 'a battered heart'

'I choose to text my beloved dad 'I love you' a thousand times again - and I choose my bravest of brave mum,' she wrote just before the resignation was confirmed.

'When you have a platform, people grow from your suffering, because with a platform, you suffer out loud. When you grieve, you grieve in front of everybody.

'When you hurt, you hurt in front of everybody. And there is no place to hide and everyone inspects your wounds.

'When you LOVE much, you grieve much, and there is no simple way around it.

'If we can be constantly humiliated publicly, then I am tempted to express my crushing pain publicly.

Laura Togg's father Brian Houston confirmed his resignation in the early hours of Wednesday morning after details were revealed by the church last Friday

in a series of posts on Instagram, Laura Toggs poured out her hurt while insisting she would try to rise above it

'But today, yet again, I choose to lay my deep anguish at the feet of Jesus...and I choose coffee.

'And as exhausting as it may be, I choose once again to take a higher road and keep my heart with utmost gentleness and humility and grace.'

After her father's exit from the church he founded was confirmed, she reposted a poignant old Instagram post that vowed: 'I won't revel in the fall of others, I won't laugh with the unkind...

'Instead I'll clear a path for mercy. I'll stand for what is true. I'll grace the earth with meekness. Til we're all made whole, made new.'

She captioned the Instagram story, posted late at night: 'I wrote this well, well, well before this same grace would need to be extended to my most beloveds.

'I'm going to bed with a battered heart.'

Hillsong was founded in 1983 in the Hills district of Sydney and has expanded to an international organisation with more then 100 churches and a global weekly attendance of 150,000.
Officials are busy at the Gyeonggi provincial election commission in Suwon, Wednesday, as local elections for gubernatorial and mayoral posts, regional council members and educational superintendents are 70 days away. Yonhap



Race for Gyeonggi governor heats up



By Kang Seung-woo



With the presidential election now in the rearview mirror, political parties are gearing up for upcoming local elections, in which 17 mayoral and gubernatorial seats as well as posts for numerous local council members and education chiefs are up for grabs.



Following the victory in the presidential election, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) has set its sights on a repeat in the quadrennial elections, scheduled for June 1, while the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is seeking to end its unsuccessful election run of late. The ruling party also lost last year's mayoral by-elections in Seoul and Busan.



"Shifting the focus on the local elections as soon as possible, we will try to win to support the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration," PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok said during a party meeting, Monday. Lee has tapped Rep. Chung Jin-suk, a five-term lawmaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, to head the party's committee in charge of candidate nomination.



On the other hand, the DPK is seeking to regain public support by pledging to ease property-related tax burdens on owners of a single home. Plenty of people, unhappy about the Moon Jae-in administration's failed real estate policy, turned away from the party in the presidential election.



"Issues regarding real estate-related taxes can exert influence on the local elections more than on the presidential election," a DPK official said. "We should make voters feel eased tax burdens."



Traditionally, who will become the next mayor of Seoul was a main talking point of the local elections. But this time, the race for the Gyeonggi governorship has taken center stage, with the post seen as a potential springboard to the presidency.



Along with Lee Jae-myung, who lost to Yoon by a slight margin, the Gyeonggi governor's predecessors, including Rhee In-je, Sohn Hak-kyu, Kim Moon-soo and Nam Kyung-pil, were under discussion for presidential candidacy while in office.



In that respect, a number of political heavyweights are speculated to run in the race, a post that each party seeks to take advantage of under the new administration.



The DPK candidate lost the presidential election by just 0.73 percentage point, so the party has high hopes of retaining the gubernatorial seat.



According to political circles, the DPK's five-term lawmakers  Rep. An Min-suk and Rep. Cho Jeong-sik  have heralded their declaration for candidacy, while former Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young has officially announced his bid for the gubernatorial post. In addition, Choi Jae-sung, a former senior presidential secretary for political affairs, is said to be considering a run for governor.



In addition, Kim Dong-yeon, a former finance minister who dropped out of the presidential race to endorse the DPK candidate, is also considering declaring his candidacy. Before serving as the Moon administration's inaugural finance minister, he was the president of Ajou University in Gyeonggi Province.



"It is true that many people recommend that I run for governor," Kim said in a radio interview. "I served as Ajou University president and lived in Gyeonggi Province for nearly 30 years, so such speculation is arising."



Given that Kim and Lee agreed on a policy pact during the presidential election campaign, there is speculation that the DPK may strategically nominate Kim as its candidate for the Gyeonggi governorship.





Yoo Seong-min, left, and Kim Dong-yeon / Korea Times photo
Beachgoers have been left stumped after images emerged of a large, unidentified blob on an Australian beach.

The object was spotted west of Bremer Bay on the southern coastline of Western Australia last weekend.

The saggy, colourless sack washed up on the picturesque shoreline.

The unknown object (pictured) had many stumped and others just plain grossed out as they guessed what it was

After a picture of the blob was posted online, locals were divided speculating on its texture and solidity, some suggesting it would jiggle if they touched it while others claimed it appeared to be composed of a denser, harder substance like ambergris.

Others with a more tongue-in-check approach thought it might be what happens 'if Clive Palmer fell off his superyacht' while he was 'sneaking over the border'.

Comments on the ABC Facebook post where the picture was posted ranged from the hilarious to the gross.

The strange find was made on the south coast of Western Australia where the glob had washed up on Bremer Bay Beach

'Most likely a whale placenta,' someone commented, while another thought that 'a whale got Covid and coughed it up'.

The Western Australian Museum told Daily Mail Australia that it's not uncommon for whales to wash ashore.

'We cant say for sure, but its likely a decomposed whale.'

A marine biologist commenting online agreed, writing that the lump is a 'rather well decomposed' whale carcass.

Another seafarer agreed, commenting thatthe stringy appearance on the outside of the blob is 'characteristic of blubber decomposition'.
A Victorian Liberal MP has been slammed over remarks she made about social housing, claiming low-income families should not be housed in affluent suburbs as their children 'cannot mix' with other children.

Shadow Housing Minister Wendy Lovell made the comments during a debate in Victoria's upper house over a Greens bill aimed at ending homelessness by 2030.

Lovell was heavily criticised for the remarks by several members from the Andrews government, as Liberal Opposition Leader Matthew Guy defended his colleague.

Victorian Liberal MP Wendy Lovell (pictured) has been slammed over remarks she made about social housing, claiming that low-income families should not be housed in affluent suburbs as their children 'cannot mix' with other children

On Wednesday night, Lovell spoke in Victoria's Upper House during a debate over a public housing bill put forward by the Greens.

'We also need to make sure that we put those properties in areas where families are accepted and where families can flourish,' she said.

'There is no point putting a very low income, probably welfare-dependent family in the best street in Brighton where the children cannot mix with others or go to the school with other children or where they do not have the same ability to have the latest in sneakers and iPhones et cetera.'

She then added: 'We have got to make sure that people can actually fit into a neighbourhood, that they have a good life and that people are not stigmatising them because of their circumstances.'

The comments instantly drew a strong reaction from members of the government and several crossbenchers, with many audibly calling out Lovell in the chamber.

Social media also erupted over the comments, with many expressing outrage.

'Karen!! Of the worst kind. Does she know she is actually speaking out loud?' one person asked on Twitter.

'I am beyond words,' another wrote.

'Wow! 2022 and we have these visionless dinosaurs representing us,' wrote another.

Lovell said in her statement: 'There is no point putting a very low income, probably welfare-dependent family in the best street in Brighton where the children cannot mix with others or go to the school with other children or where they do not have the same ability to have the latest in sneakers and iPhones et cetera.' Pictured: Residents in Brighton, Victoria

Shadow Housing Minister Wendy Lovell made the comments during a debate in Victoria's upper house over a Greens bill aimed at ending homelessness by 2030

Labor MP Mark Gepp, who grew up in public housing in the 1960s, slammed Lovell's statement in his own speech.

'Go back and read the transcript. If you want to know what you said, go back and read the transcript, because everybody in this place heard it loudly and clearly,' he said.

'Because those people are different. Yes, they are different. They do not wear the right shoes. 'Oh, we don't want the kids to be teased because they have got a Samsung phone instead of an iPhone.'

'Well, bollocks to that, because your position on the socio-economic ladder should never determine your participation in this society under any circumstances. Shame on you for suggesting that it should,' Gepp added.

Labor MP Mark Gepp (pictured), who grew up in public housing, criticised Lovell in his speech, saying, 'your position on the socio-economic ladder should never determine your participation in this society under any circumstances. Shame on you for suggesting that it should'

Victorian position Leader Matthew Guy (pictured) supported Lovell, believing her remarks were well-intentioned but poorly phrased

Ms Lovell was asked outside parliament on Thursday morning whether she considered her comments to be insensitive.

She responded: 'I think that public housing should be for those that need it and it should be in areas where people actually get a good opportunity.'

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy supported Ms Lovell, believing her remarks were well-intentioned but poorly phrased.

'I think Wendy means well and made some exceptionally clumsy remarks in talking about stigmatisation, and they are exceptionally clumsy,' he said.

'Social housing in my view should be available to people who need it and that's the be all and end all, postcode doesn't matter.'

Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured) weighed into the controversy, rejecting the views made in the statement before lambasting the opposition

Premier Daniel Andrews weighed into the controversy, rejecting Ms Lovell's views before lambasting the opposition.

'I reject in the clearest terms the Liberal Party's view that poor people should be kept poor, and that poor people should be kept away,' he said.

'That is wrong. That is fundamentally wrong. These comments are just shameful.'

The Premier labelled Matthew Guy's efforts to defend Ms Lovell comments and claim they were well-intentioned were 'pathetic attempts' to 'explain this away'.

'She doesn't mean well at all. You can't say those things and then double down on it again today if you mean well.'

'The notion that the wealth of a suburb should determine whether you are allowed to go there is just nonsense. We don't run our schools like that, we don't run our communities like that and it's a good thing we don't,' Andrews continued.

Ms Lovell was further blasted by several Labor and Greens MPs.

Housing Minister Richard Wynne stated the comments were 'an appalling example of the Liberal Party's postcode snobbery'.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy's defence over his colleague's comments comes after he issued an apology over the conduct of Liberal MP David Davis (pictured) last weekend

The Liberal frontbencher (pictured third from right) was among several politicians who attended a Victorian Multicultural Commission dinner on Saturday, where he allegedly got intoxicated and inappropriately touched guests

Mr Guy's defence over his colleague's comments comes after he issued an apology over the conduct of another Liberal MP, David Davis, last weekend.

Davis was among several politicians and community leaders who attended a Victorian Multicultural Commission dinner on Saturday, where witnesses alleged he got intoxicated and began to inappropriately touch and hug guests at the function.

The Shadow Treasurer reportedly refused to leave the event when initially asked before fellow Liberal colleagues removed him from the Convention Centre venue.

The senior politician later issued a statement on Wednesday night apologising for his behaviour.

He did not dispute accounts from four witnesses who alleged he inappropriately hugged and touched guests at the venue and stood uncomfortably close to them.

The Opposition Leader, who was one of the attendees at the gala event, said he would not take further action against Mr Davis.

'At a work event like this, I expect people to have the highest standards and that wouldn't be behaving in anyway (that is) intoxicated or getting drunk at a function like it,' he said.

'He's apologised for it and I think that's enough.'
The wife of Hillsong founder Brian Houston has vowed to stand by her man after he resigned over the scandalous behaviour towards women.

The Pentecostal church said Houston went into a women's hotel room after drinking at a conference in 2019, and sent 'inappropriate' texts to another woman.

Houston, 68, quit as the worldwide leader of the megachurch on Wednesday days after the church admitted he 'broke its moral code', but is yet to make any comment.

But on Thursday, wife Bobbie, 65, broke her silence on her Instagram with a reply to an earlier post made before his resignation was announced.

Ms Houston defiantly backed her husband, insisting she knew the real man better than anyone after 45 years together.

Bobbie, Houston, wife of Hillsong founder Brian Houston, has vowed to stand by her man after he resigned over the scandalous allegations against him

The Pentecostal church claimed Houston went into a women's hotel room after drinking at a conference in 2019, and alleged he sent 'inappropriate' texts to another woman

'Thank you for lovely comments and love. It's seen. And felt. And appreciated,' she wrote.

'I'm okay. It's been a very cruel week - but I will forever stand alongside the man I have loved and walked with for 45 years.

'I know his nature and character and integrity more than ANYONE.'

Houston's wife Bobbie, 65, broke her silence on her Instagram with a reply to an earlier post made before his resignation was announced

The Kiwi-born mother-of-three signed off the comment with hugs and kisses and emojis of a dove of peace, a heart, and an eagle.

Her vow of allegiance to the disgraced pastor echoes their daughter Laura Toggs, 35, who pledged her support on Instagram earlier.

She admitted she was suffering from 'anguish, humiliation and crushing pain' over the alleged indiscretions which had given her 'a battered heart'.

But in a series of posts Ms Toggs insisted she would try to rise above it.

Laura Toggs, the daughter of Hillsong founder Brian Houston, (pictured) has revealed her 'anguish, humiliation and crushing pain' over her father's scandalous indiscretions

Daughter Laura Toggs, 35, has now vowed to stand by her father despite the controversy rocking the Sydney megachurch - but admits she has 'a battered heart'

'I choose to text my beloved dad 'I love you' a thousand times again - and I choose my bravest of brave mum,' she wrote just before the resignation was confirmed.

'When you have a platform, people grow from your suffering, because with a platform, you suffer out loud. When you grieve, you grieve in front of everybody.

'When you hurt, you hurt in front of everybody. And there is no place to hide and everyone inspects your wounds.

'When you LOVE much, you grieve much, and there is no simple way around it.

'If we can be constantly humiliated publicly, then I am tempted to express my crushing pain publicly.

Laura Togg's father Brian Houston confirmed his resignation in the early hours of Wednesday morning after details were revealed by the church last Friday

in a series of posts on Instagram, Laura Toggs poured out her hurt while insisting she would try to rise above it

'But today, yet again, I choose to lay my deep anguish at the feet of Jesus...and I choose coffee.

'And as exhausting as it may be, I choose once again to take a higher road and keep my heart with utmost gentleness and humility and grace.'

After her father's exit from the church he founded was confirmed, she reposted a poignant old Instagram post that vowed: 'I won't revel in the fall of others, I won't laugh with the unkind...

'Instead I'll clear a path for mercy. I'll stand for what is true. I'll grace the earth with meekness. Til we're all made whole, made new.'

She captioned the Instagram story, posted late at night: 'I wrote this well, well, well before this same grace would need to be extended to my most beloveds.

'I'm going to bed with a battered heart.'

After her father's exit from the church he founded was confirmed, she reposted a poignant old Instagram post

The church's acting senior pastor Phil Dooley announced Houston's resignation to the second emergency staff meeting in a week on Wednesday.

He said it was a time of 'humble reflection' for the church, which was founded in Sydney's west and spread around the world.

Houston submitted his resignation at 4am on Wednesday before a scheduled board meeting, Crikey reported.

The church had been investigating 'two complaints made against Pastor Brian' over the past 10 years.

'We would like to advise you that Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as global senior pastor of Hillsong Church and the board has accepted his resignation,' Mr Dooley said in a statement.

'We understand there will be much emotion at this news and we all share these feelings.

'We ask that you continue to pray for them and the entire Houston family during this challenging time.'

Hillsong founder Brian Houston stepped down in January from his role as the organisation's international leader (pictured with wife Bobbi)

One complaint was made after a church employee claimed to have been sent 'inappropriate' texts, and the second was Mr Houston going into a woman's hotel room in 2019 at a conference.

Mr Dooley addressed the situation in a service streamed online on Sunday.

'I want to say we are sorry for anyone who has been a victim of any form of harassment,' he said.

'Some of us here... understand the pain because you have experienced it yourselves, and others of us are doing our best to empathise with you.

'Where you've been hurt, we pray for healing, strength and courage to move forward in your life.'

The Hillsong Global Board said the two complaints were treated 'extremely seriously'.

It added that previous statements, including when Mr Houston temporarily stepped down in January, had not been made out of confidentiality for both him and the two women while the matters were investigated.

Mr Houston (pictured with wife Bobbi) sent inappropriate texts to a former employee and entered the hotel room of a guest after the 2019 Hillsong Conference, the board said

'The first issue was approximately a decade ago and involved inappropriate text messages from Pastor Brian to a member of staff, which subsequently resulted in the staff member resigning,' the board said.

The board explained Mr Houston was 'under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence' when he sent the texts.

Mr Houston immediately apologised and sought professional help to end his dependency on the medication, the church claimed.

'To this former staff member, we again apologise and would welcome the opportunity to provide further assistance if this is needed,' the board said.

The second incident was when Mr Houston knocked on the hotel door of a female guest following the 2019 Hillsong Conference and came inside.

'An in-depth investigation found that Pastor Brian became disoriented... following the consumption of anti-anxiety medication beyond the prescribed dose, mixed with alcohol,' it said.

Mr Dooley previously said Mr Houston was in the room for 40 minutes and no allegations of assault were made by the woman.

'The board found that Brian had breached the Hillsong Pastor's Code of Conduct,' he said.

Hillsong's interim global leader Phil Dooley (pictured) apologised in an online service as the church's board issued an apology statement

'The board also met a request for a refund of money donated to the church by this person... Pastor Brian was extremely remorseful and insisted on repaying the church for this.'

The board said after the most recent investigation, Mr Houston took 'specific action, including stepping down from leadership for a period'.

'However unfortunately he failed to take all of the agreed steps which resulted in further action being taken by the board in late 2021.

'We apologise unreservedly to the people affected by Pastor Brian's actions and commit to being available for any further assistance we can provide.'

The board said Hillsong was reviewing its governance to ensure higher levels of transparency and accountability.

Hillsong was founded in 1983 in the Hills district of Sydney and has expanded to an international organisation with more then 100 churches and a global weekly attendance of 150,000.
South Australian children could finish their schooling term early amid rising Covid cases among students and staff absences.

The Australian Education Union, which represents state public school teachers, called for term one to finish a week early as large teacher and student absences are 'not sustainable.'

Education Department chief executive Rick Persse admitted there was 'the possibility of having student free days towards the end of the term'.

The SA Education Department already buckled to teacher pressure and announced whole classes would be sent home if 10 children caught the virus.

The union surveyed SA public schools and found 14 per cent of education facilities had at least 11 teachers away each day and the rest between one and 10.

The Australian Education Union is calling for term 1 to finish a week early as Covid cases continue to rise in South Australia

More than half of the teachers who responded were working into the night covering for other staff and had almost no time to assess students' work, write reports, and prepare for lessons.

Union SA branch president Andrew Gohl praised the 'heroic' effort made by the state's teachers to maintain classes.

'However, this is not sustainable,' he told The Advertiser.

Schools were previously kept open regardless of case numbers - an approach the union said was detrimental to the physical and mental health of educators.

'The AEU recognises that [the Education Department] has finally responded to the union's persistent calls to implement 'circuit breakers' by suspending classes and age cohorts,' the union said.

The union requested all four days of week 11, term one be declared pupil free, giving educators a much-needed break in preparation for term two.

Mr Persse is set to discuss the pressure on state schools with new Education Minister, Blair Boyer.

The discussion will focus on balancing children's learning needs with safety and staff's ability to deliver educational programs.

If there are five cases of Covid in a classroom every child would be required to get a PCR test, and if a further five tested positive the entire class would be sent home

The Education Department had roughly 4,000 temporary relief teachers earlier this year, however many had since started permanent roles.

Mr Persse said finding relief teachers for regional areas was particularly difficult.

'If we have a need to fill a specialised teacher in Whyalla it's not possible to deploy a primary teacher from the city to do that,' he told ABC Radio.

Mr Persse said safety and staff would be prioritised and whole school closures were an option where necessary.

The department that if there were five cases in a classroom, every child was required to get a PCR test. If another five tested positive the entire class would be sent home.

The department reported 740 staff members and school services officers as absent on Tuesday due to Covid infections or isolation requirements.
Grace Tame has taken another swipe at Scott Morrison after his mentor Brian Houston resigned from Hillsong Church over inappropriate behaviour towards two women.

Tame shared an image of Mr Morrison and Houston at the 2019 Hillsong Conference, and photoshopped herself into the photo, using the now infamous image of her tense meeting with the Prime Minister at Parliament House in February.

She captioned it: 'He said we were going to see Hilltop Hoods'.

Grace Tame has shared a photoshopped image of her with Prime Minister Scott Morrison (centre) and his mentor Brian Houston (right). Houston resigned from Hillsong Church on Thursday

Tame captioned the photoshopped Twitter photo jokingly: 'He said we were going to see Hilltop Hoods'

Tame wrote: 'If youre prepared to use something to leverage your image, you also have to be prepared for when that thing blows up in your face,' referring to Morrison's appearance at the annual Hillsong conference.

Houston resigned from the Pentecostal megachurch on Thursday over allegations of 'indiscretions' toward two women.

The church's acting senior pastor Phil Dooley announced the resignation to the second staff meeting in a week on Wednesday.

He said it was a time of 'humble reflection' for the church, which was founded in Sydney's west and has since spread around the world.

One complaint was made after a church employee claimed to have been sent 'inappropriate' texts, and the second was Houston going into a woman's hotel room in 2019 at a conference.

Tame has repeatedly criticised the prime minister since she was named Australian of the Year in January 2021.

Earlier this month, she joked about the infamous 'side-eye' photo on Twitter after Mr Morrison posted a photo of himself with his cat on social media.

Grace Tasme's mocking tweet about Scott Morrison's weekend post on Facebook in which she jokes that she has shape shifted' into being the PM's cat

The tweet, in which Tame comments, 'Pardon my Twitter absence, I've just been shape shifting', alludes to the now famous image of herself with the PM before Australia Day in which she is giving him a 'side eye' look.

Tame's Twitter comment about Mr Morrison comes after her revelation on Sunday she was hospitalised just days ago for mental health issues after 'losing control' and having 'stepped too deep into the shame spiral'.

The 2021 Australian of the Year made the admission at the 'Protecting the Outspoken' event at the Sydney Opera House, detailing her heartbreaking call to doctors saying, 'I'm thinking about killing myself'.

The Prime Minister posted the image of him and cat Charlie, writing that the pet had been part of the Morrison family for almost a decade and was 'definitely in charge'

Tame's joking tweet alluded to the now famous image of herself with the PM (above) before Australia Day in which she is giving him a 'side eye' look.

Scott Morrison's wrote alongside his Facebook photo with his cat, 'You've met Buddy before, but this is Charlie. He's been part of our family for almost ten years. And he's definitely in charge.'

Tame's tweet with the PM's Facebook post drew some criticism but most responses were supportive of her and contained further criticism of Mr Morrison.

One person tweeted, 'Photo of the year and it isn't even April yet. This confirms that Scott Morrison is a walking, talking meme of himself. #auspol #ScottyTheCompletePsycho'

Another commented, 'Richard Nixon saved his political career with a famous speech about his dog "Checkers". I have news for you Scott. You could reference an entire menagerie of pets, including the gold fish, and it still will not save you. The Women of Australia will see to that.'Two different people commented , 'The cat has a pretty decent side eye' and 'I actually laughed out loud. I cant remember the last time I did that. You are brilliant'.

However, one person commented in response to Tame, 'Mmmm.....am I the only one that thinks maybe your energies should be focused on making a difference rather than belittling others ..... just saying'.

And another said, 'That was more important than any comment on the recent bullying accusations in the Victorian and federal ALP was it?'

A woman tweeted, 'Have you considered whether this is a form of bullying? If you want to see a change in the world, you need to be that change.'

Ms Tame, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault following her own abuse as a schoolgirl at the hands of a male teacher, has endured a stream of public scrutiny since being appointed Australian of the Year.
Thousands of Australians are rushing to get tested for Covid when they actually have a new 'super cold' breaking out across Australia.

Health experts warned more respiratory illnesses would infect Australians as the country re-opened after two years of on-and-off isolation.

The super cold first appeared in the UK in November, with victims suffering flu-like or Coronavirus-like symptoms, but repeatedly tested negative to Covid.

The symptoms are similar to flu and Covid, and can be difficult to tell apart.

A 'super cold' is breaking out in Australia after two years of Covid isolation left the nation vulnerable to a host of new diseases as the country re-opens

'Super-cold' v Covid: What's the difference? The 'super-cold' can be difficult to differentiate from the Omicron strain of Covid-19. The main difference is the flu-like 'super cold' should not result in a loss of taste or smell. Those are Covid-only symptoms. The 'super-cold' usually involves an extreme sore throat, a hacking cough and migraines. The similarities with Covid are aches, pains, fever and fatigue. Rapid antigen or PCR test results are the best way of identifying Covid. Advertisement

'We are seeing more of these upper respiratory tract infections,' Sydney GP Dr Charlotte Hespe told Daily Mail Australia.

'A cold is a classic viral upper respiratory tract infection - irritable sneezing nose, lots of fluid from your nose, cough, sore throat, runny, sticky eyes.

'You may also get a sort of raspy cough but that's it by and large. You should recover within five to seven days.'

Tell-tale signs such as a loss of taste and smell are often Covid-only symptoms which can differentiate it from flu. Rapid antigen or PCR test results still remain the best way of identifying Covid.

One Sydney woman had just recovered from Covid two weeks ago before contracting the new super-cold on the weekend.

'I really believed I'd caught Covid again, but all the tests have come back negative,' the Northern Beaches yoga instructor old Daily Mail Australia.

'At first I thought it was just tonsillitis, but then it got worse and worse. I started taking the rapid antigen tests to make sure it wasn't Covid.

'I just feel awful - it might even be worse than Covid.'

Australia is ripe for a flu outbreak, warn doctors, and it is much harder to tell the difference between flu and the Omicron Covid strain with its milder symptoms

Sydney GP Dr Charlotte Hespe warns symptoms are similar to flu and Covid, and can be difficult to tell apart, but doctors says even super colds should not be as severe as flu

Dr Hespe warned Australia was also ripe for a flu outbreak - and it is much harder to tell the difference between flu and the Omicron Covid strain with its milder symptoms.

'We will see the flu emerging more,' she said.

'The flu is very unpleasant.

'It's similar to the symptoms of Covid; you get headache, aches, pains and a fever.

'To diagnose flu, you need a fever and headache as well as some respiratory symptoms such as the sore throat or nose and cough - but you might not get those.

'It's predominantly often those more systemic symptoms of being unwell with fever, headache, aches and pains and feeling miserable. Recovery is 10-14 days.'

But GPs are now warning that Australia has never been more susceptible to colds and flus than it is right now after being cut off from the rest of the world for so long.

Travel bans during the pandemic combined with lockdown measures and mask mandates have dramatically reduced our immunity to normal flus and colds.

Travel bans during the pandemic combined with lockdown measures and mask mandates have dramatically reduced our immunity to normal flus and colds

'People who we've been protected against from for the last two years are travelling again,' Dr Hespe added.

'They're bringing with them viruses that are rampant in the winter countries that aren't rampant here.'

There are even fears the flu may kill more people than Covid this year.

'We have less immunity against the flu now because we've skipped two flu seasons,' epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett warned.

'You might see fewer coronavirus deaths in winter because vulnerable people are actually more vulnerable to flu.'

Health chiefs have a flu shot campaign set to rollout within weeks but medics are worried vaccine fatigue will stop many from getting the jabs.

Health chiefs have a flu shot campaign set to rollout within weeks but medics are worried vaccine fatigue will stop many from getting the vital jabs to protect them

'We do have a vaccine and it is highly effective,' Dr Hespe said.

'But I'm hearing a lot of people saying, 'For goodness sake, I've had enough of this...' Please don't think that - it really does provide you with really good protection.'

'I am sure we going to have a particularly bad cold and flu season this year.

'I recommend everybody continues to wear face masks when you're in crowded situations - and particularly when you're around anybody who may not be well.

'And if you've got symptoms, stay at home and don't go and spread it to somebody else.'
Seven Virginia children, including a one-year-old were hospitalized for overdoses, after a 'seven-year-old gave them sleeping pills.'

Paramedics responded to the emergency at a home on 100 South and 16th Street in Hopewell after the mother of some of the children called 911 around 5.30pm on Wednesday.

They found four children, ages one, two, and three, unresponsive and three other under the age of eight who were lethargic but awake.

The minors were immediately rushed to John Randolph Hospital, and two of the younger kids in serious condition were then transported to another facility.

'They were left unsupervised for a short period of time and one of the kids that have prescription medication got into it and shared with the other children here,' Lt. Cheyenne Casale said.

Authorities said a seven-year-old child gave the other children his sleeping pills, which did not have a label, when the mother momentarily left the house to go to a nearby store.

When she returned, she noticed that the children 'weren't acting right' and called EMS and the fire department.

After transporting the children to the hospital, Hopewell fire department contacted police.

Child protective services and the District Attorney's office are also part of the investigation.

'[To] find out who are we going to hold accountable and get these kids in a safe environment, that's our number one goal,' Casale said.

Three young children overdosed and four others were hospitalized after they took sleeping pills when left unattended at 100 South and 16th Street

After transporting the children to the hospital, Hopewell fire contacted police

Paramedics found four children, ages one, two, and three, unresponsive and three other kids who were lethargic but awake

Melissa Baldwin, who was dropping off her mother in the area, told CBS she was heartbroken when a neighbor told her what had happened.

'As soon as we pulled around the corner, all I could see was police everywhere. And I'm like, oh my god, what happened?,' Baldwin told the outlet.

'We didn't see them taking anybody in the ambulance, we missed that part, but a close neighbor basically was telling us how even the police officers were helping bringing out the children and running them to the ambulances and such.'

Authorities said some of the children had been dropped off by a woman so another woman she knew who lives at the residence could babysit them.

The minors were immediately rushed to John Randolph Hospital, and two of the younger kids in serious condition were then transported to another facility

The woman babysitting then briefly left the house to go to a store around the corner, and upon returning some of the children eventually became unresponsive, ABC reported.

'I don't know the details of their treatment but some are being transported to other hospitals for further treatment,' Casale said.

After speaking with one of the children and doctors who treated them, authorities found that it contained sleeping pills.

'They are expected to recover, but because they don't know exactly how much of the prescription medication they ingested so they are having a harder time processing and metabolizing [the drug].' Hopewell police said.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson broke down in tears during the evening session of the third day of hearings of her Supreme Court nomination on Wednesday after Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker gushed over her appointment.

Jackson had been sitting silently listening to Booker when suddenly the pressure of the moment appeared break through. It was the first time in three solid days of questioning from senators that she had showed such raw emotion.

Jackson reached for a tissue and wiped away tears that had begun to stream down her cheeks.

But Republicans had little time for her tears, noting the glee Democrats took when GOP-nominees Brett Kavanaugh was left sobbing during his hearing.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz pointed out that Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett faced a much tougher grilling under questioning during the Trump administration.

'You played clips of the Democrats slamming Republican nominees, going personal, going into the gutter, going after their character,' Cruz said to Fox News. 'If you look at the hearing the last two days, the questions that Republicans focused on were her record and in particular, her judicial record.'

Tears roll down the cheek of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as she becomes emotional during an impassioned speech by Senator Cory Booker during her Senate hearing

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes emotional on Wednesday evening

A tear rolls down Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's cheek during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, who is white, called Booker's speech an 'epic Senate moment and also a moral reset after some truly poisonous, cynical behavior that trolled through the absolute bottom of what the Senate has done in dark times past.'

But during Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings in 2018, Whitehouse decided to ask the now Supreme Court Judge about a 'ralphing' contest at a beach party.

Cruz, who plans to oppose her confirmation also defended the tough line of questioning that Jackson has had to deal with over the last few days noting that she simply needed to defend her record.

'If you look at her record as a federal judge in criminal cases and particularly cases concerning child pornography over and over and over again, she gives incredibly lenient sentences,' Cruz said. 'In every single case where she had discretion a child pornography case, she gave dramatically lower sentences than the sentencing guidelines provide for, and that the prosecutor asked for.'

'And the Democrats just kept getting upset, saying, "How dare you focus on her actual record?" You know, I think the American people are concerned whether we'll have a Supreme Court justice that's going to follow the law, or we're going to have a Supreme Court justice that is looking for loopholes to let violent criminals out of jail,' he said.

Senator Ted Cruz took another stab Wednesday at trying to get Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to define 'woman'

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wipes away tears during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing

The pressure suddenly appeared to become too much and tears broke forth

A very different style of questioning occurred when Democrats were questioning GOP-nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett during their respective hearings

Sen. Cory Booker speaks during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington

Earlier in the hearing on Wednesday, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, pictured, tore into Jackson as he lambasted the nominee for thinking 'supervision' was an adequate deterrent for child pornography distributors and viewers

'And I've got to say, her answers and her record in this regard were really concerning,' Cruz said.

Earlier in the hearing on Wednesday, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham tore into Jackson as he lambasted the nominee for thinking 'supervision' was an adequate deterrent for child pornography distributors and viewers.

Graham suggested that the only punishment should be putting their 'a** in jail.'

Jackson pushed back against the South Carolina senator's claim that she believes the number of images viewed or distributed shouldn't be considered in child porn cases' sentencing. She insisted instead that her judicial record does show that she imposed 'substantial' internet supervision on violators.

'Wait, you think it is a bigger deterrent to take somebody who is on a computer, looking at sexual images of children in the most disgusting way, is to supervise their computer habit versus putting them in jail?' Graham questioned, raising his voice and showing visual disgust.

'No, I didn't say versus,' Jackson tried to clarify but was interrupted by Graham's irate line of questioning.

'That's exactly what you said,' the Republican lawmaker asserted.

'I think the best way to deter people from getting on a computer and viewing thousands and hundred  and over time maybe millions, the population as a whole  of children being exploited and abused every time somebody clicks on is to put their a** in jail,' he offered. 'Not supervise their computer usage.'

Graham had time to ask Jackson about a host of other issues, including on whether an illegal immigrant should be allowed to vote or if a 20-week-old fetus can feel pain, to which she said she did not know.

Senator Booker's emotional outburst after he said he could no longer hold back his emotion over how Jackson had conducted herself in the face of combative questioning about her handling of child pornography cases, her representation of accused terrorists and her views on anti-racism teaching in schools.

'You faced insults here that were shocking to me,' Booker said, speaking directly to Jackson, who is nominated to become the first black woman on the high court.

'Nobody's taking this away from me,' Booker continued 'Don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. And how do I know that? Because you're here, and I know what it's taken for you to sit in that seat.

During the recess, a line of people, including Jackson's father, Johnny Brown, approached Booker and hugged him, several wiping away tears

'I want to tell you, when I look at you, this is why I get emotional, I'm sorry, you're a person that is so much more than your race and gender. You're a Christian. You're a mom. It's hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom. I see my ancestors and yours,' Booker said.

'You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American,' he added.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, recessed immediately after Booker's remarks for a short break. Jackson left the room quickly, accompanied by her husband.

During the recess, a line of people, including Jackson's father, approached Booker and hugged him, several wiping away tears.

Since the beginning of Jackson's hearings Monday, Democratic and Republican senators have saluted the nominee's history-making appointment, praised her pedigree, and noted her pleasant temperament and empathetic approach to the law.

Jackson still didn't give a straight answer, replying: 'I know that I am a woman, I know that Senator Blackburn is a woman. And the woman who I admire most in the world is in the room today  my mother'

Jackson tried to defend herself again on Wednesday, claiming that in the age of the internet it's a lot harder to differentiate between severity of child porn offenders. She claimed before the time of the web, you could easily distinguish sentencing of someone who had received one image versus one thousand.

'In comes the internet,' she explained of the changing landscape of the child pornography industry. 'With one click you can receive, you can distribute tens of thousands.'

'You can be doing this for 15 minutes and all of a sudden, you are looking at 30, 40, 50 years in prison,' she said.

'Good! Good! Absolutely, good! I hope you are!' Graham shouted back.

'I hope you go to jail for 50 years if you're on the internet trolling for images of children and sexual exploitation,' he said.

Also in the midst of Graham's re-questioning period Wednesday he asked Jackson about abortion.

'Can an unborn child feel pain at 20 weeks in the birthing process?' Graham asked.

'Senator, I don't know,' she replied.

He explained that anesthesia is administered to an unborn fetus if there is an operation to save their life at this period in a pregnancy because they 'can, in facet, feel pain.'

She said she was also unaware of that.

Graham said that these types of issues may 'come before you one day' and asked that she 'keep an open mind' when it comes to the issue.

In another highlight of questioning, Senator Cruz tried to get Jackson to define the word 'woman' following her exchange with Senator Marsha Blackburn on Tuesday where she conceded she couldn't define it because she isn't a biologist.

Cruz took it a step further and pressed Jackson on how she would decide if an individual was a woman if it came to gender discrimination cases.

'Yesterday under questioning from Senator Blackburn, you told her that you couldn't define what a woman is, that you are not a biologist, which I think you are the only Supreme Court nominee in history who has been unable to answer the question, 'What is a woman?'' Cruz asked Jackson.

'I know that I am a woman, I know that Senator Blackburn is a woman,' Jackson said said as she managed to skirt the question.

'And the woman who I admire most in the world is in the room today  my mother,' still not giving a definition of the word 'woman.'
More than half of Americans think Joe Biden has been too lenient in his response to Russia's invading Ukraine, a new poll revealed Thursday as the president met with allies in Brussels on the continuing attack.

Of the 1,082 American adults surveyed, 56 percent say Biden's response to Russia's invasion hasn't been 'tough enough' and 36 percent say it has been 'about right'  the remainder felt the response was 'too tough'.

A quarter for Republicans than Democrats feel the response has been too soft.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Tuesday shows 68 percent of Republicans polled want Biden to be tougher on Russia while 43 percent of Democrats feel the same.

President Biden is in Brussels this week meeting with key allies in order to coordinate a stronger response to Russia's monthlong assault on Ukraine, but the poll shows Americans have yet to rally around his leadership during this war in Eastern Europe.

Concern about Russia has swelled and support for a major U.S. role in the conflict strengthened in the last month, but Biden's negative approval rating has not budged, according to the poll with only 43 percent of Americans approving of Biden's job as president overall.

Few Americans are very confident that he can handle a crisis, and a majority thinks he lacks toughness in dealing with Russia.

Both overall approval and favorability of his handling of Russia are slightly different from an AP-NORC poll conducted days before the February 24 invasion.

A new AP-NORC poll shows 56% of Americans think Biden's response to Russia invading Ukraine is 'not tough enough'  and even 43% of Democrats feel that way

Poll comes as President Biden visits Brussels and meets with key allies to coordinate a stronger response to the monthlong assault on Ukraine. Pictured: Biden walks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, March 24, 2022

The U.S., along with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, have tried to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle with sanctions, including freezing foreign assets of Russia's central bank and cutting off its supply to essential war materiel.

But Russia has continued for a month to batter cities in Ukraine with air strikes and artillery, despite a stalled ground invasion.

Over the next three days, the Biden administration aims to work with key European allies on a united strategy to aid Ukraine militarily, increase sanctions on Russia and wrestle with the worsening humanitarian crisis, according to Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Biden's visit comes on shaky ground with the American public.

Only about a quarter are very confident that the president has the ability to handle a crisis, promote U.S. standing in the world or effectively manage the U.S. military, though most have at least some confidence.

Even among members of his own party, Biden faces pressure to do more.

The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, shows Democrats are closely divided over the president's response, with 53 percent saying it's 'about right' and 10 per cent less saying he hasn't been harsh enough.

Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine for a month  initially invading on February 24. Pictured: A shopping center reduced to rubble from Russian attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on Thursday March 24, 2022

'I understand he's between a rock and a hard place,' said Rachel Collins, a 41-year-old Democrat from Chicago. 'It just feels like Putin's not going to stop at Ukraine.'

Collins, an elementary school teacher, said she feels like she's watching history unfolding yet again.

'How many years are we gonna watch this happen and then have to step in anyway?' she added. 'It just feels inevitable and, in the meantime, we're just watching all these people suffer.'

While support for a major U.S. role has grown since last month, from 26 percent to 40 percent, Biden faces a tightrope walk to avoid war and to curb the impact on the American people. The poll shows close to half of Americans are 'extremely' or 'very' concerned about being drawn into war with Russia.

Biden has repeatedly said that he will not send American troops to Ukraine, though some have been deployed to neighboring NATO countries.

'I think that he's doing the right thing and being cautious, but it's really hard when you're watching and reading about these stories day to day,' Collins said. 'More aggressive at where we are means putting troops on the ground, and I don't necessarily know if that's the answer either.'

'Then, you know, there'll be people saying `why are we putting troops in there,' she added.

While Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support the U.S. having a major role in Russia's war, most also say they think Biden's response has not been tough enough.

'He's scared,' said David Stoddard, a retired border patrol agent in Sierra Vista, Arizona. 'He's scared of Putin. He's scared of (China's) Xi (Jinping). He's scared of everything.'

Stoddard, 76, would prefer somebody like former President Donald Trump over Biden to tell Putin 'that Putin may have a red button but the United States red button is bigger,' he said.

Stoddard thinks there's more Biden could be doing to strengthen sanctions and support Ukraine militarily, including transferring Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine from a NATO air base in Germany, which the Pentagon declined to do earlier in March. The administration has said it is determined to avoid further action that could be seen as escalatory by Putin.

Majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike said they approve of economic sanctions imposed on Russia in general and on the ban on Russian oil in particular, according to the poll. But while 77 percent of Democrats approve of how Biden is handling the relationship with Russia, just 12 percent of Republicans do.

While some Democrats acknowledged thinking that Biden could be doing more, many are confident in him to do what's best for the country.

'I'm sure there's more that he could do,' said Chris Hollander, a research assistant in Denver. 'But as far as being tough, he's not a pushover.'

Listening to the intelligence community and getting NATO countries to work together reflect Biden's 'behind the scenes' leadership, Hollander, 33, said. 'I think he's threading a needle.'
A decorated Naval doctor described rescuing Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was wounded by Russian forces in the fighting outside Kyiv and trapped in the combat zone in need of medical care.

Bronze Star recipient Dr. Richard Jadick, 56, the most decorated combat doctor from the war in Iraq, told Fox News that he was teaching a course in Tennessee when he was called by combat rescue organization 'Save Our Allies' that they needed his help evacuating Americans.

'I got the call, headed home. Got myself packed, got on an airplane and let my family know where I was going,' Jadick told Fox host Martha MacCallum. 'It was later on in the week that we got the call to move to Kyiv, that we had to evacuate a critically wounded patient.'

Bronze Star recipient Dr. Richard Jadick, 56, the most decorated combat doctor from the war in Iraq described rescuing Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was wounded by Russian forces in the fighting outside Kyiv and trapped in the combat zone in need of medical care

Wounded FOX News reporter Benjamin Hall is now out of Ukraine and being treated by doctors. It's unclear where exactly he is but the network said on Wednesday he is in 'good spirits'

That patient turned out to be Hall, who was injured in an attack by Russians that killed Fox cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleskandra Kurshynova.

'I was there at the right place and at the right time,' Jadick said humbly.

Jadick first flew in to Poland, but when he heard that the Fox newsman needed his help he didn't hesitate to parachute into the combat zone.

He arrived at the hospital where Hall was being treated and introduced himself.

'I saw Ben and I looked at him I said 'Ben, you don't know me, my name is Rich Jadick, I'm a surgeon, I'm here to get you out of here.'

Hall was all to eager to cooperate.

'When do you want to go,' Jadick said the newsman replied.

'I said we're going to go in about 20 minutes, we're going to get you packaged up and we're going to find a way to get you out of here,' he said.

In 2004, he rescued soldiers in the Second Battle of Fallujah

Jadick said he was struck by the resolve of the Ukrainian people, especially an orthopedic surgeon who guarded the hospital with an AK-47 at night and operated on the wounded during the day.

'I really can't say enough about this orthopedic surgeon,' he said.

'We were going to do some cases the next day,' Jadick said, but things got hot and they had to evacuate immediately. 'We got the word that we had to get out that night, so I said 'Ben, we're moving.'

Irish cameraman Pierre Zakrewski died along with producer Oleksandra Kurshynova in the attack. They were working with Hall

Benjamin Hall, 39, has been reporting for Fox News from Ukraine on the Russian invasion

Dr. Richard Jadick received the Bronze Star for his heroism after treating 30 Marines in the Second Battle of Fallujah

Jadick was a Naval medical officer stationed in North Carolina when he volunteered for duty in Iraq at the age of 38 when his wife was nine months pregnant.

He developed battlefield emergency measures that helped save 30 Marines in the Second Battle of Fallujah. During the 11-day battle, only one man who he treated did not survive his wounds.

Using his battle-tested experience from Iraq, Jadick said he evaluated Hall and determined that he could be moved under the right circumstances.

'Ben had some critical injuries that required a lot of attention,' Jadick told Fox. 'One of the hallmarks of evacuating a patient is patients get worse under rough conditions getting out of a bad situation. And the bad situation could have been made worse just by getting in the wrong kind of evacuation situation, so we worked hard at putting together the right scenario to get him out safely,' he told MacCallum.

Assisting Jadick was an unnamed 'special operations and intelligence veteran' who was working with Save Our Allies, which in turn coordinated with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian and Polish armies.

'I want to put my hats off to the guys that I was with who put that all together. 'Save Our Allies' are the ones who had us in the right position to be able to do for Ben what he needed, which is a safe, easy recovery,' Jadick said.

Hall, who is originally, from London, was flown back to the United States where he was reunited with his wife and three daughters in Washington, DC where the family lives.

He covers the US State Department for Fox News and attended the 38,000-a-year Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire before studying at Duke University in North Carolina, Richmond University in London and University of the Arts London.

Hall is a dual citizen of Britain and the US, and wrote a book in 2015 about the history of Islamic State called 'Inside ISIS: The Brutal Rise of a Terrorist Army'.

The journalist has also worked for the BBC, ITN and Channel 4 and written for The Times, The Sunday Times, The New York Times and Agence France Presse.

Hall has three daughters with his wife Alicia Meller, an Australian fashion businesswoman

Hall has three young daughters with his wife Alicia Meller, an Australian fashion businesswoman whom he married in 2015. Other staff from Fox News remain in Ukraine to report on the war which began on February 24.

Fox News Media chief executive Suzanne Scott told Fox News staff in an email: 'Our correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine.

'We have a minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds.

'The safety of our entire our entire team of journalists in Ukraine and the surrounding regions is our top priority and of the utmost importance.

'This is a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from a war zone. We will update everyone as we know more. Please keep Ben and his family in your prayers.'

The State Department Correspondents' Association said in a statement that it was 'horrified to learn that our fellow correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured as he covered the Ukraine war.'

'We know Ben for his warmth, good humor and utmost professionalism,' it said. 'We wish Ben a quick recovery and call for utmost efforts to protect journalists who are providing an invaluable service through their coverage in Ukraine.'
President Moon Jae-in, left, and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae





President Moon Jae-in called Thursday for an unconditional meeting with President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, urging Yoon to make a decision on his own without listening to other people as pre-meeting discussions between their aides have stalled.







"I am an outgoing president and President-elect Yoon is an incoming president. What negotiations are needed in order for the two of us to exchange greetings and words of advice. It's not like we're negotiating," Moon was quoted as saying by Park Soo-hyun, his senior secretary for public communication.







"I've never heard that conditions are necessary for a president-elect to pay a visit to the president," Moon said. "I hope the president-elect will make a decision on his own without listening to other people."







A planned meeting between Moon and Yoon last week was called off at the last minute after the sides reportedly clashed over who would make the nominations and whether to pardon imprisoned former President Lee Myung-bak.







Moon's opposition to Yoon's plan to relocate the presidential office to the defense ministry compound has further complicated prospects for the meeting, which would be their first since Yoon's election March 9. (Yonhap)






The nation's leading vaccine advisory group is set to hand down advice on whether a fourth Covid-19 jab will be needed for some Australians.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is expected to give its formal advice to the Minister for Health Greg Hunt on Thursday on a potential fourth jab before a forecast winter surge in infections.

The fourth dose would probably be for Australians over 65, as well as for immunocompromised individuals.

Mr Hunt said the government would follow the health advice that was presented.

An announcement about a fourth dose of a Covid vaccine is imminent. Pictured is a woman getting a vaccine shot

'I'm expecting to get the advice over the course of (Thursday) and will consider it and have more to say probably in the next 48 hours,' he said.

It comes amid concerns Covid cases could rise even further during the upcoming winter, combined with flu cases, which have been largely absent in Australia since the start of the pandemic.

Australia has seen a spike in Covid infections in recent days due to the Omicron sub-variant BA.2.

However, Mr Hunt said he was confident the country's health system would be able to withstand any additional surges of cases.

'We're now on yesterday's numbers at 26 Australians who are on ventilation. We have a 7,500-person capacity, and with Covid, there are 26,' he said.

'Vaccinations, the treatments that are available, the capacity of our hospital systems, all of those things have come together, and that's one of the elements which has contributed to one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world.'

It comes as the government announced a multi-billion dollar agreement with pharmaceutical giant Moderna for an mRNA vaccine hub.

The research and development hub will be based in Victoria at a location yet to be decided, and serve as the headquarters for the company's operations in Australia, south-east Asia and Oceania.

The hub will be the first of its type in the southern hemisphere, with construction to begin by the end of the year.

The government has announced a multi-billion dollar agreement with pharmaceutical giant Moderna for an mRNA vaccine hub. Pictured are Moderna vaccine vials

Production at the site is expected to start from 2024.

While the facility will manufacture Covid-19 vaccines, it will also focus on other respiratory illnesses, including seasonal flu and respiratory syncytial virus.

The manufacturing hub is expected to produce about 100 million mRNA vaccines annually.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the facility a 'shot in the arm' to help protect Australians from future pandemics.

'What we're announcing today is absolutely essential for future pandemic preparedness, and we're already ranked number two in the world on pandemic preparedness,' he told reporters in Melbourne.

Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt (pictured) has welcomed Moderna's announcement it will set up a vaccine manufacturing plant in Australia

Mr Hunt said the facility could potentially produce a combined Covid-19 and flu vaccine.

'Moderna has looked around the world and they partnered with Australia, and we have partnered with them,' he said.

'mRNA isn't just about Covid, it isn't just about vaccines, it's also about the precision medicines of the future so we can literally tailor the treatments for individuals over the course of the next decade.'

In Queensland, chief health officer ruled out introducing more coronavirus restrictions despite the emergence of BA.2.

Queensland's chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard (pictured) ruled out introducing more coronavirus restrictions despite the emergence of BA.2

Dr John Gerrard said state infections jumped by 15 per cent in the past week, with more than half the cases in the past fortnight identified as BA.2.

He said since BA.2 was first discovered by Queensland Health in December it has spread to more than 90 countries.

'In the last two weeks we have seen 58 per cent of the virus sequenced in Queensland identified as BA.2,' he said.

'It will be by far and away the dominant strain virus in Australia within weeks.'

However Dr Gerrard is not considering reintroducing any mandates, at least not yet.

'A legal restriction from the chief health officer is a very serious thing to undertake,' he said.
A graying former mob enforcer pleaded guilty in a New Jersey court Thursday after being implicated as one of two hitmen hired by a Democratic political consultant to kill his rival in a bizarre plot.

Career criminal George Bratsenis, 73, was present for Thursdays in-court hearing involving the death of Michael Galdieri, a Jersey City political consultant who was found stabbed to death in his torched Jersey City home in 2014.

Galdieris colleague, fellow Democratic political consultant Sean Caddle, 44, pleaded guilty in January to federal charges that he hired two people to whack Gladieri, the son of the late New Jersey state Sen. James Galdieri.

Caddle admitted to paying Bratsenis thousands of dollars to kill Galdieri, with whom he had once worked, but federal prosecutors havent provided a motive in open court for why Caddle wanted Galdieri dead.

Bomani Africa, who had served time with Bratsenis, pleaded guilty shortly thereafter to being one of the hit men. The other killer, Africa said in court, was Bratsensis, who had also been his partner in a Connecticut bank robbery, according to the Associated Press.

Thursday's hearing lasted barely more than a half-hour and shed no new information on Caddle's motive for the murder.

Career criminal George Bratsenis, 73, is shown in mugshot from the mid-1980s, when he was involved in the murder of drug courier David Avnayim, whose body was found in the trunk of a car in Redding, west of New Haven

Michael Galdieri, 52, was murdered after Sean Caddle paid thousands of dollars to two hitmen

Sean Caddle, 44, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit murder for hire for ordering the deadly stabbing of Galdieri

George Bratsenis, a Marine turned mob enforcer who has spent half his life in prison Born around 1949 in Connecticut, Bratsenis grew up in Stamford along with five sisters. He started drinking, and doing hard drugs, such as heroin, LSD and cocaine as a teen, before obtaining his High School Diploma in 1966. He has been married twice before going through two divorces, and is the father of four children. Bratsenis was also a Marine from 1968 to 1974. He was honorably discharged before starting a life of crime. From 1974 to 1985, Brasentis collected ten convictions, including felonies such as burglary, armed robbery and, conspiracy to commit murder. He committed most of his crimes in Connecticut, particularly in Stamford. But he has also been searched for in Florida - where he was charged with grand theft; Canada, in Nova Scotia - where he robbed $700 from a bowling alley at gunpoint; and now New Jersey. One of the most serious crimes that Bratsenis went to court for was for the murder of drug courier David Avnayim, who was called 'the Turk', in 1980. He conspired with former Stamford police lieutenant Larry Hogan and two other men In 1983, Brasentis was arrested and charged with robbing a jewelry store in Little Falls in New Jersey. By the late 2000s, Bratsenis was in Northern State Prison in Newark, New Jersey, having spent more than 25 years behind bars. It was there, authorities in Connecticut alleged in court filings, that he became friends with Bomani Africa and the two began planning to rob banks when they were paroled. Bratsenis was paroled in 2010 and joined up with Africa to rob two banks in Connecticut in 2014, including one weeks before Galdieris killing. Source: New York Times, Associated Press and Philadelphia Inquirer Advertisement

Caddle has been allowed to remain under house arrest  in an extremely unusual move  while he awaits sentencing in the murder conspiracy case.

Bratsenis is currently being held at a federal detention center in New York City.

He is scheduled to be sentenced August 2 and faces life in prison.

Last month, the tall, white-haired Bratsenis shuffled into court in Newark in a prison uniform and wearing shackles - but the proceeding ended abruptly with no explanation given after attorneys met in the judge's chambers.

If Bratsensis has been charged in the case, such as in a sealed indictment, that hasnt been made public either. He appeared once in federal court in Newark last month in a short proceeding that was adjourned with no explanation.

The U.S. attorneys office in Newark didnt return DailyMail.com's call on Thursday.

Africa and Bratsenis, former cellmates in New Jersey in the early 2000s, currently are jailed awaiting sentencing for a bank robbery they committed in Connecticut in 2014. Bratsenis is scheduled to be sentenced for that crime next month in Connecticut.

Bratsenis, who grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, served in the Marines from 1968 to 1974, before beginning his life of crime. He started racking up convictions in Connecticut and New Jersey while working for the Gambino and Genovese crime families fighting over control of the illegal rackets.

Bratsenis 'would link up with organized crime associates and do their bidding  robberies, burglaries, selling drugs,' said Capt. Richard Conklin of the Stamford police, according to the New York Times.

'Subcontractors,' Michael Docimo, a retired Stamford officer, told The Times. 'Theyd do anything for hire.'

In the summer of 1980, Bratsenis conspired with a notorious Stamford police lieutenant and two other men to murder a reputed drug courier, David Avnayim, whose body was found in the trunk of a car in Redding, west of New Haven, according to local authorities in Connecticut.

Bratsenis wasn't charged until four years later, but eventually pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy. The police lieutenant, Lawrence Hogan, was later convicted of conspiring to buy two pounds of heroin from an undercover agent but had the conviction reversed on appeal and then died not long afterward, of natural causes.

Private investigator Vito Colucci, who as a Stamford police officer in the late 1970s wore a wire to help expose rampant corruption in the city's police department, remembered Bratsenis and the people he ran with at the time as being 'the kind of guys who would walk down the street and if someone offered them $1,500 to beat someone up, they'd say "OK!" and go do it.'

By the time he was charged with Avnayim's murder, Bratsenis was already behind bars, the result of a conviction for robbing a jewelry store in Little Falls, New Jersey, in 1983.

While jailed in New Jersey, he plotted an escape attempt in which he planned to hide a bag of drugs in his rectum and explode it during an appearance in court, forcing authorities to take him to a hospital - where gunmen hired by his sister would spring him, according to published reports at the time.

Galdieri was found stabbed to death at his apartment at 158 Mallory Avenue in Jersey City (above) after it was set on fire

The plot was foiled by an informant and Bratsenis eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy. His sister was handed three years of probation, according to court records.

By the late 2000s, Bratsenis was in Northern State Prison in Newark, New Jersey, having spent more than 25 years behind bars.

It was there, authorities in Connecticut alleged in court filings, that he befriended Africa, and the two began planning to rob banks when they were paroled.

Also housed at the prison during that time period was James Caddle, Sean Caddle's brother, although it is not known whether he knew Bratsenis or Africa. James Caddle died in 2016, according to an obituary posted online.

After being released from prison, Africa and Bratsenis robbed two banks in Connecticut in 2014, including one weeks before Galdieri's killing.

No motive related to Galdieri's murder has been found, and Caddle (above) was even released on $1 million unsecured bond and confined to his home before trial

Bratsenis was arrested after one of the robberies and has been jailed ever since. Both men have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, with Bratsenis's scheduled for next month.

In court papers in the bank robbery case, Bratsenis's attorney has argued for a sentence of time served, noting that his client has been diagnosed with cancer and a respiratory disease.

'His time incarcerated, his cancer diagnosis, and his age have all caused Mr. Bratsenis to reflect on his long and difficult life, the mistakes he has made, and how he would like to live out the rest of it,' attorney Charles Kurmay wrote.

The lawyer didn't mention the pending murder investigation in New Jersey.
Police are growing increasingly concerned about a four-year-old girl who disappeared from her mother's backyard in remote Tasmania.

Shayla Phillips vanished from her mother's backyard in Stormlea, southeast of Hobart, while playing with a neighbour's two dogs at 2.30pm on Wednesday.

Tasmanian Police have since launched an extensive search for the little girl however no trace of the 'healthy, happy' child has been found in more than 24 hours.

'As we enter day two of the search for Shayla, increasing concerns are held for her welfare,' said Inspector Gavin Hallett told reporters on Thursday.

Police have entered the second day of a frantic search for Shayla Phillips, 4, (pictured) who disappeared from her mother's backyard in remote Tasmania on Wednesday afternoon

Sniffer dogs, specialised divers and police personnel have been combing the nearby bushland for clues ever since Shayla's frantic mother reported her missing.

A new image of Shayla has been circulated on social media in hopes she may be recognised, picturing the missing child grinning in a two-piece pink tracksuit.

It comes as locals reported temperatures of 10C on Wednesday night, as concerns grow for the four-year-old due to her young age and the dense terrain.

Police Inspector Gavin Hallett revealed Shayla's last known movements.

'She was playing outside with some dogs from the neighbouring residence, that's not an uncommon thing, Shayla knows the dogs well and is very fond of them.'

When Shayla's mother, Bianca, went to check on her daughter after 30 minutes she found the girl and the dogs had disappeared.

Shayla Phillips was wearing a cream top and gumboots when she was last seen on Wednesday

She called Tasmania Police at 3pm after frantically searching the property herself.

Insp Hallett said Shayla was 'a very healthy, happy young child', and described her mother as 'stoic and strong'.

'She's very positive and hopeful that we'll find Shayla today,' he said.

He said the little girl was known to go missing for up to 15 minutes at a time during games of hide and seek but had failed to return on this occasion.

Insp Hallett confirmed the two dogs Shayla had been playing with had been found 'quite a distance away' from their original location.

'That's an indicator to us, that if there had been some untoward activity the dogs wouldn't have been gone, they would have been here,' he said on Thursday.

At this stage authorities don't believe any other parties were involved in the child's disappearance.

Inspector Gavin Hallett (pictured) says Tasmania Police's top resources have been employed in the search for Shayla Phillips

The four-year-old went missing from her backyard in Tasmania's remote southeastern peninsula

Shayla was wearing pink leggings, a cream top and gumboots when she was last seen.

Inspector Hallett said all police resources are on hand, searching the difficult terrain for signs of the missing girl.

'The area around here is very undulating pastureland but its also very dense woodland,' he said.

'In all we've had close to 100 emergency service personnel assisting in the search.

'Because of the isolation, terrain and age of Shayla the rescue helicopter was deployed immediately.'

The search to find Shayla involves Tasmania Police, SES, the Police Drone Unit, specialist dogs and a Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Rescue teams continued the search overnight as temperatures dropped in the isolated area

The dive squad had also been called in.

'I've called in the dive squad last night. There are a number of dams on the property, there's four in close proximity and they've been cleared overnight,' Mr Hallett said.

'Our drone capacity has a thermal sensor that can be used to detect movement in heavily wooded area.'

Police have requested no further assistance from the public in the search due to the isolation of the area.

'To ensure a coordinated and safe search, police advise that sufficient resources are currently deployed to the area and further assistance is not sought at this time.'
Pyongyang says missile, which can carry nuclear warhead, able to strike anywhere in continental US

First full North Korean ICMB test since 2017 in stark threat to President Biden

North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, militaries in South Korea and Japan said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

The missile, which landed in Japan's economic exclusion zone (EEZ), was condemned as an "unacceptable act of violence" by Fumio Kishida, the Japanese Prime Minister.

In response to the North Korean ICBM launch South Korea test fired a number of ballistic and tactical missiles.

The first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, represents a major escalation in the North's development of weapons potentially able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

The North's return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for US President Joe Biden as he responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Korea's incoming conservative administration.

North Korea has conducted its first full intercontinental ballistic missile launch since 2017

People in Seoul, South Korea, watch archive footage of a North Korean missile launch on March 24

Japanese authorities said the launch appeared to be a 'new type' of intercontinental ballistic missile that flew for about 71 minutes to a range of 684 miles from its launch site.

It landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 106 miles west of the northern prefecture of Aomori, at 06:44 GMT.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected the launch of an 'unidentified projectile' from North Korea, without elaborating.

It said the launch was assumed to be a long-range missile, possibly an ICBM fired on a 'lofted' trajectory high into space, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff over Pyongyang, South Korea's military said, amid reports that the nuclear-armed North was seeking to test-fire its largest missile yet.

Hwasong-14 - one of North Korea's most advanced ballistic missiles - being test fired in 2017

North Korea claims sovereignty over its southern neighbour - the two fought a war from 1950 to 1953

The United States and South Korea have recently warned that the North may be preparing to test-fire an ICBM at full range for the first time since 2017.

U.S. officials said at least two recent tests, on February 27 and March 5, featured the North's largest ICBM system yet, the Hwasong-17.

'The purpose of these tests, which did not demonstrate ICBM range, was likely to evaluate this new system before conducting a test at full range in the future, potentially disguised as a space launch,' a U.S. official said at the time.

Pyongyang did not identify the missile system used in those launches, but said they were testing components for a reconnaissance satellite system.

This month, leader Kim Jong Un said North Korea would soon launch multiple satellites to monitor military movements by the United States and its allies.

Thursday's launch would be at least the 13th ballistic missile test fired by North Korea this year, an unprecedented frequency that has drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

North Korea has been ruled as a communist dictatorship since its founding in 1948

North Korea has nearly 1.3 million active military personnel making it the worlds fourth largest military

NEW ICBM?

North Korea last held a full ICBM test on Nov. 29, 2017, saying it had successfully launched a new type of ICBM, called Hwasong-15, that could reach all of the U.S. mainland. That missile flew for 53 minutes.

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, Kim declared a self-imposed moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but has since suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearisation talks.

That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who held several historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never managed to sign a concrete pact to limit the North's nuclear or missile arsenals.

On Jan. 19, North Korea said it would bolster its defences against the United States and consider resuming "all temporally suspended activities", according to state news agency KCNA, an apparent reference to the self-imposed moratorium.

Analysts say the Hwasong-17 is "considerably larger" than the Hwasong-15, and was first unveiled in Oct 2020 and then displayed a second time in Oct 2021.

The missile, which has been shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the world's largest road-mobile ICBMs when operational.

Its diameter is estimated between 2.4 metres and 2.5 meters, with its total mass, when fully fuelled, probably ranging from 80,000 kg to 110,000 kg, says 38 North, a U.S.-based programme that monitors North Korea. (Reporting by Josh Smith, Hyonhee Shin, and Ju-min Park in Seoul, and Sakura Murakami in Tokyo; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Clarence Fernandez)
Scotland Yard has admitted that just two of the five Metropolitan Police officers who strip-searched a black schoolgirl on her period after she was wrongly suspected of smelling of cannabis have been removed from frontline duties.

The forces admission at a community meeting in Hackney attended by more than 250 people last night leaves open the question of what has happened to the three others who searched the girl, known only as Child Q.

The police panel, led by Hackneys Basic Unit commander Marcus Barnett, said that the Met has a problem with officers viewing inner London children as adults, adding that what happened to Child Q would probably not have happened to a child living in the Cotswolds.

The meeting also revealed that Mr Barnett knew about the girl being strip-searched in January 2021  a month after the incident took place at the childs school.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is currently investigating the shocking case.

Lawyers representing the schoolgirls family in proceedings against Scotland Yard, said Child Q has launched legal action to hold the institution accountable to ensure this never happens again to any other child.

The familys lawyers accused Scotland Yard of institutional racism and institutional sexism and called on Home Secretary Priti Patel and London Mayor Sadiq Khan to appoint someone to replace Cressida Dick who will tackle its culture.

Protesters take part in a solidarity rally for Child Q outside Hackney Town Hall

A black schoolgirl who was strip-searched by police while on her period after she was wrongly suspected of smelling of cannabis has launched legal action against Scotland Yard

What did the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review find? Finding 1: The school was fully compliant with expected practice standards when responding to its concerns about Child Q smelling of cannabis and its subsequent search of Child Qs coat, bag, scarf and shoes. This demonstrated good curiosity by involved staff and an alertness to potential indicators of risk. Finding 2: The decision to strip search Child Q was insufficiently attuned to her best interests or right to privacy. Finding 3: School staff deferred to the authority of the police on their arrival at school. They should have been more challenging to the police, seeking clarity about the actions they intended to take. All practitioners need to be mindful of their duties to uphold the best interests of children. Finding 4: School staff had an insufficient focus on the safeguarding needs of Child Q when responding to concerns about suspected drug use. Finding 5: The application of the law and policy governing the strip searching of children can be variable and open to interpretation. Finding 6: The absence of any specific requirement to seek parental consent when strip searching children undermines the principles of parental responsibility and partnership working with parents to safeguard children. Finding 7: The Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time appeared to have frustrated effective communication between school staff and the Safer Schools Officer. Finding 8: Having considered the context of the incident, the views of those engaged in the review and the impact felt by Child Q and her family, racism (whether deliberate or not) was likely to have been an influencing factor in the decision to undertake a strip search. Advertisement

The traumatic and disproportionate search by police took place at Child Qs school without another adult present, and in the knowledge that she was menstruating, a safeguarding review found.

It concluded that the strip-search was unjustified and that racism was likely to have been an influencing factor.

According to the report, the impact on the secondary school pupil was profound and the repercussions obvious and ongoing. Family members described her as changing from a happy-go-lucky girl to a timid recluse that hardly speaks, who now self-harms and needs therapy.

Mr Khan described the case as shocking and deeply disturbing in a series of tweets last week, adding that he would be following the outcome [of an investigation into the case] closely.

Scotland Yard has apologised and said that the incident should never have happened.

In a statement issued through her lawyers, Child Q said: I want to thank the thousands of people across the world of all backgrounds who have offered me support  both publicly and through messages conveyed to my legal team  following everything Ive been through. I know I am not alone.

Child Qs mother said: We now look to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to make sure there is an effective investigation into the officers involved so they are individually held to account and face real consequences for what they have done.

We expect the school to reflect on the findings of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership report and take necessary action against all members of staff involved.

Chanel Dolcy, a solicitor specialising in police misconduct and claims against public authorities at Bhatt Murphy, said: Child Q has launched civil proceedings against the Metropolitan Police and relevant school.

She seeks to hold both institutions to account including through cast iron commitments to ensure this never happens again to any other child.

The Metropolitan Police has seemed incapable of reform for generations, and it is difficult to say that will ever change. Nevertheless, this is a pivotal time for the Metropolitan Police as it awaits the appointment of a new Commissioner and so the family are calling on the Home Secretary and Mayor of London to ensure that only someone willing to declare publicly the persistence of institutional racism and institutional sexism in the Metropolitan Police is appointed.

The family expect the new Commissioner to include affected communities in designing a plan to rid the force of these diseases and to affect that plan as a priority.

Florence Cole, an Education & Community Care solicitor at Just for Kids Law, added: From the education aspect, there is still ongoing correspondence with the school following the initial complaint launched by Child Q and her mother in 2020; in which they seek to hold the school to account and to ensure this never happens again to any other child.

No child should be subjected to such an ordeal, and it is hoped that the school will reflect and consider the detrimental effects and negative impact that adultification, disproportionate sanctioning and the over policing of black children has on their emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing, particularly in light of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership report and its findings.

All children should feel safe in schools and parents should feel reassured that their children will be kept safe; and that the correct policies, practice, and procedures are followed.

This is an appalling, shocking case which illustrates wider problems in schools and communities about the treatment of black children which unfortunately is systemic; and the lack of safeguarding and the failure to recognise the ripple effects of trauma that follows, long after such an ordeal.

Protesters take part in a solidarity rally for Child Q outside Hackney Town Hall

Sadiq Khan described the case as shocking and deeply disturbing in a series of tweets, adding that he would be following the outcome [of an investigation into the case] closely

As the Government sets guidance for schools, we strongly urge it to learn from the failings in this case.

The Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review, published in March, was conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP) following the incident at the end of 2020.

It said police arrived at the school after being called by teachers, who said they were concerned that the teenager had drugs in her possession because she smelt of cannabis.

She was taken to the medical room and strip searched by two female officers, while teachers remained outside.

During the ordeal her intimate body parts were exposed and she was asked to take off her sanitary towel, according to the review. No drugs were found. She was then sent home by taxi, later sharing her distress with her mother.

The review found that her experiences are unlikely to have been the same had she not been black.

It said it is highly likely that adultification bias was a factor  where adults perceive black children as being older than they are because they see them as more streetwise.

It reads: The disproportionate decision to strip search Child Q is unlikely to have been disconnected from her ethnicity and her background as a child growing up on an estate in Hackney.

Councillor Anntoinette Bramble, deputy mayor and cabinet member for Hackney Council's Children's Services, and the mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, said they were appalled by all aspects of the review.

The police must stop inexcusable behaviours and mindsets in order to properly serve all our diverse communities, they added.

They have asked for a report in six to nine months on progress made regarding the reviews eight findings and 14 recommendations.

These include calls for the Department for Education to make more explicit reference to safeguarding in its guidance on searching, screening and confiscation, and for police guidance on strip searching children to clearly outline the need for a focus on safeguarding.

The Metropolitan Police said the IOPC was investigating, following a complaint in May 2021.

Detective Superintendent Dan Rutland of the Mets Central East Command said: We recognise that the findings of the safeguarding review reflect this incident should never have happened.

It is truly regrettable and on behalf of the Met Police I would like to apologise to the child concerned, her family and the wider community.
The wife of disgraced Hillsong founder Brian Houston previously boasted about her 'great marriage' and offered women tips and tricks to keep their husbands satisfied in bed.

Bobbie Houston, 65, claimed in a bizarre 2003 tape that being fit and healthy was essential to maintain regular bedroom antics.

'If I carry weight, I feel like a retard, how are you going to do anything to surprise your man when you need a hydraulic crane just to turn over in bed?' she said in an unearthed audio book.

Mr Houston, 68, quit as the worldwide leader of the megachurch after it was revealed he went into a women's hotel room after drinking at a conference in 2019, and sent 'inappropriate' texts to another woman.

Mrs Houston has vowed to stand by her man despite his scandalous behaviour towards women.

Bobbie Houston (left), 63, revealed in an audio book that she keeps fit and healthy to ensure she and her pastor husband Brian (right) keep up a healthy sex life

Hillsong Church was founded by Brian and Bobbie Houston in 1983 in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia

In the Kingdom Women Love And Value their Sexuality audio book Mrs Houston urged women to keep up their pelvic floor exercises to ensure their 'plumbing bits' were in perfect working order and even recommended plastic surgery.

'Have plastic surgery if it makes you feel better and it is for the right reasons, and girls, pelvic floor exercise  can you believe I am saying this? You know, I have heard that orgasm is not as strong if you are really sloppy in that area.'

Mrs Houston also shed light on her energetic sex life and encouraged fellow females to hone 'good' skills in the bedroom.

'We need to be good at sex ourselves so that if the world happens to come knocking we can tell the story of God in our lives,' she said.

'Without being lurid or untruthful; I have a great marriage and a great sex life.'

She was quick to clarify that she was only referring to sex 'within the confines of marriage'.

Mrs Houston, who co-founded the now global Christian organisation, also said 'When it comes to personal hygiene and maintenance works, for example, get your teeth fixed, a mouth is supposed to be very desirable,' she said.

Bobbie Houston (pictured right) said in an audio book that she has 'a great marriage and a great sex life' with her husband Brian Houston (pictured left)

'Minimise the negative of ageing, ageing does strange things to us. It discolours your teeth. Things sag when you get older.

'Old people's habits, don't go there before you have to. Who cares if you have a face lift, but do it for the right reason.'

Mrs Houston said even as she ages, she will continue pampering herself and prioritising her looks.

She explained that others don't need to have a lot of excess cash to ensure they stay youthful, and to buy products within their budget.

Bobbie Houston (pictured left) has revealed that she is standing by her husband, the disgrace Hillsong founder Brian Houston (pictured right)

She and her husband opened their first church in 1983 in western Sydney.

Now Hillsong has churches in 28 countries around the world and has an average global attendance of 150,000 weekly.

On Thursday, Mrs Houston broke her silence on her Instagram with a reply to an earlier post made before her husband's resignation was announced.

She defiantly backed her husband, insisting she knew the real man better than anyone after 45 years together.

'Thank you for lovely comments and love. It's seen. And felt. And appreciated,' she wrote.

'I'm okay. It's been a very cruel week - but I will forever stand alongside the man I have loved and walked with for 45 years.

Brian Houston (pictured) quit as the worldwide leader of Hillsong after it was revealed he went into a women's hotel room after drinking at a conference in 2019, and sent 'inappropriate' texts to another woman

'I know his nature and character and integrity more than ANYONE,' she said.

The New Zealand-born mother-of-three signed off the comment with hugs and kisses and emojis of a dove of peace, a heart and an eagle.

Her vow of allegiance to the disgraced pastor echoes their daughter Laura Toggs, 35, who pledged her support on Instagram earlier.

She admitted she was suffering from 'anguish, humiliation and crushing pain' over the alleged indiscretions which had given her 'a battered heart'.

But in a series of posts Ms Toggs insisted she would try to rise above it.

'I choose to text my beloved dad "I love you" a thousand times again - and I choose my bravest of brave mum,' she wrote just before the resignation was confirmed.

'When you have a platform, people grow from your suffering, because with a platform, you suffer out loud. When you grieve, you grieve in front of everybody.

Laura Toggs (pictured left) is standing by her father, disgraced Hillsong church founder Brian Houston (pictured right)

'When you hurt, you hurt in front of everybody. And there is no place to hide and everyone inspects your wounds.

'When you LOVE much, you grieve much, and there is no simple way around it.

'If we can be constantly humiliated publicly, then I am tempted to express my crushing pain publicly.

'But today, yet again, I choose to lay my deep anguish at the feet of Jesus...and I choose coffee.

'And as exhausting as it may be, I choose once again to take a higher road and keep my heart with utmost gentleness and humility and grace,' Ms Toggs wrote.

Bobbie Houston (pictured left) offered an insight into her sex life with her husband Brian (pictured right)

The church's acting senior pastor Phil Dooley announced Houston's resignation to the second emergency staff meeting in a week on Wednesday.

He said it was a time of 'humble reflection' for the church.

The church had been investigating 'two complaints made against Pastor Brian' over the past 10 years.

'We would like to advise you that Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as global senior pastor of Hillsong Church and the board has accepted his resignation,' Mr Dooley said in a statement.

'We understand there will be much emotion at this news and we all share these feelings.

'We ask that you continue to pray for them and the entire Houston family during this challenging time.'
The details of a top-secret deal struck between Jacqui Lambie and Scott Morrison to free over 400 refugees from offshore detention centres has finally been revealed.

The agreement was that the government would get hundreds of asylum seekers off Manus Island in exchange for the Tasmanian senator's vote to repeal the laws allowing doctors to decide when sick refugees could be medevaced to Australia.

Senator Lambie told news.com.au the Prime Minister warned she would risk jail time if she prematurely exposed their agreement reached back in 2018.

However, with New Zealand's recent announcement that it would begin accepting up to 150 refugees a year, the independent MP is finally free to speak.

Ms Lambie revealed she stoically kept their secret agreement that was detailed a written document kept in a 'secret safe' in Parliament House.

The details of a top-secret deal struck between Jacqui Lambie (left) and Scott Morrison (right) to free over 400 refugees from Manus Island has finally been revealed

New Zealand will resettle 150 refugees from Australia each year for three years. Pictured: Asylum seekers behind a fence at the Manus Island detention centre

'He wouldn't give it to me, so I couldn't present anything if I came out and spoke about it,' the senator said.

'If I spoke about it, no one was getting off the island,' she explained. 'If I had come out and spoke about it I could have ended up in jail.'

Ms Lambie said of jail time was delivered 'over the table' from Mr Morrison during discussions of their agreement.

'I felt really annoyed about that. I thought that (was) quite threatening,' she said.

The agreement included the prime minister's word he would accept New Zealand's offer to welcome refugees in an Australian offshore detention facilities on Nauru as well as those in regional processing centres.

Some of the refugees in detention have been incarcerated for up to nine years with 150 asylum seekers to be resettled each year, for three years.

In return, Ms Lambie abandoned laws that would allow doctors, rather than the government, to decide when sick refugees could be evacuated to Australia.

The secret agreement included the prime minister's word he would accept New Zealand's offer to welcome refugees in an Australian offshore detention facilities on Nauru as well as those in regional processing centres (pictured, refugee supporters at a protest in Sydney)

Some of the refugees in detention have been incarcerated for up to nine years with 150 asylum seekers now to be resettled each year, for three years (pictured, refugees on Manus Island)

The tearful senator voted with One Nation for these powers to remain with the government after it was originally passed by independents in 2018.

At the time, Ms Lambie lamented it had been a 'really hard decision' to support the repeal but said a certain 'outcome' relied upon her backflip.

She said the secret outcome, which was criticised by Labor's Kristina Keneally, would improve medical treatment for those held in offshore detention.

Ms Keneally questioned the secret deal at the time, and said the Australian public had a right to know what had been agreed upon.

'There's been a deal between the Morrison government and Senator Lambie to drive a stake through the heart of Medevac, and they're keeping it secret from this parliament and from the Australian public,' she told the Senate.

Ms Lambie (pictured) lamented it had been a 'really hard decision' to support the repeal of the Medevac laws in 2018 but said a certain 'outcome' relied upon her move

Mr Morrison remained tight-lipped when asked about Ms Lambie's support of the Medevac deal by reporters in 2018.

'It means she is happy with the government's policies and the bill that was presented to the Senate, and she voted for it,' he said.

Ms Lambie took to Twitter to defend herself on Thursday evening after Australians said she should have spoken up earlier about Mr Morrison's threat of jail time.

'I did. Have a look,' she replied, in reference to an interview with 7:30 in which she threatened to reveal the nature of the deal following years of government inaction.

'It wasnt the prison threat keeping me quiet. It was the fact that the deal would be torn up if I said anything,' she continued.

'I got close anyway, let me tell you. But in the end I just knew if I was one of them and knew what was at stake, Id want Lambie to hold the line.'

Ms Lambie took to Twitter to defend herself on Thursday evening (pictured) after Australians said she should have spoken up earlier about Mr Morrison's threat of jail time

The landmark shift in immigration policy comes after years of Australian politicians expressing concerns a resettlement deal with New Zealand would create a 'back door' for refugees to enter Australia.

The arrangement will initially be for refugees who are in Nauru or temporarily in Australia under regional processing arrangements and meet New Zealand's refugee program requirements.

They must not be in other resettlement pathways, such as Australia's resettlement arrangement with the United States.

The program will also extend to refugees referred to New Zealand by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The landmark shift in immigration policy will see 150 refugees in offshore detention centres resettled in New Zealand every year, for three years (pictured, Manus Island in 2018)

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews reiterated that no one who travelled to Australia via boat would be resettled.

'This arrangement does not apply to anyone who attempts an illegal maritime journey to Australia in the future. Australia remains firm - illegal maritime arrivals will not settle here permanently,' she said.

'Anyone who attempts to breach our borders will be turned back or sent to Nauru.'

Labor said Scott Morrison has made a 'humiliating backflip' after refusing New Zealand's offer for nine years.

'This is a humiliating backflip for Scott Morrison who claimed as recently as 2018 that New Zealand's generous offer to resettle refugees would see people smugglers restart their evil trade,' Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally said.
Former Liberal MP Gareth Ward has been suspended from the NSW Parliament after he was charged with the sexual assault of a teenage boy and a man.

Police allege Mr Ward indecently assaulted a 17-year-old boy at Meroo Meadow in February 2013, and sexually abused a 27-year-old man in Sydney in September 2015.

Acting Premier Paul Toole on Thursday moved the motion to suspend the Kiama MP from parliament until the outcome of criminal proceedings.

Gareth Ward has been charged over allegations of sexual violence against a 17-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man

Mr Toole noted the now independent MP 'had been charged with five criminal offences'.

The motion received bipartisan support in parliament and was passed despite criticism from the Labor opposition.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Toole said the government had been waiting on legal advice over suspending Mr Ward without pay, but would move ahead with a motion to suspend him.

'The actions we've taken this week as a government have been decisive,' he told reporters.

'We will continue to take ... action on his salary, his remuneration and his entitlements.

'These sexual charges that have been made are quite serious.

'This is also about protecting those victims so they can have their day in court as well.'

Mr Ward, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, said he'd been suspended 'based on allegations that I completely deny and that have yet to be tested in a court of law'.

Detectives from the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad in May established Strike Force Condello to investigate the historic allegations against Mr Ward

'I am extremely disappointed with that decision,' he said in a statement on Thursday.

'The effect of the decision is that I am unable to speak and vote in parliament.

'I will, however, continue to represent and lobby for my local community as its democratically elected member of parliament.

'As challenging a time as this is for me personally, I have an important job to do and I intend to get on with it.'

Thursday's vote came after NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet called for Mr Ward to resign or be expelled.

However, the government instead moved to suspend him after receiving legal advice his expulsion could jeopardise any trial.
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Ukraine has destroyed a huge Russian ship just days after state media filmed it unloading reinforcements at a captured port, as Putin's army continues to suffer punishing losses at the hands of Kyiv's men.

The Ukrainian navy said early Thursday that it had scored a direct hit on the Orsk, a 370ft Russian Alligator-class tank carrier, as it was sitting at anchor in the captured port of Berdyansk, in the south of Ukraine.

Multiple photos and videos showed thick black smoke rising from the port as one ship sat at the harbour in flames, while another two sailed away - one of which also appeared to be damaged.

Just three days before the strike, Russian state media had filmed the Orsk at the port unloading armoured vehicles which it said would reinforce troops in nearby Mariupol - prompting speculation that Ukraine could use the video to target the vessel.

H I Sutton, a respected naval analyst, later said it is 'beyond reasonable doubt' that an Alligator-class ship had exploded at the port. It marks the largest ship that Ukrainian forces have managed to strike so-far and represents another embarrassing loss for Vladimir Putin's beleaguered army.

It comes after NATO said Russia has lost up to 40,000 men either killed, wounded or captured in just over a month of fighting - or a quarter of the150,000 troops assembled ahead of the invasion. It means the force that remains is at risk of becoming combat ineffective, making it vulnerable to Ukrainian counter-attacks.

The Ukrainian navy has destroyed an Alligator-class Russian landing ship and damaged two others which were unloading reinforcements and supplies at the captured port of Berdyansk, in the south of Ukraine

One vessel was shown consumed by fire (left) as two other boats fled (centre), at least one of which also appeared to be on fire though was able to escape the port

Flames and smoke are seen rising from what appears to be a Russian Alligator-class landing ship docked at the port of Berdyansk, in southern Ukraine, after Kyiv's navy claimed to have destroyed a vessel called Orsk

Smoke and flames rise over the port of Berdyansk, located in the south of Ukraine and occupied by Russian forces, as Kyiv's navy claimed to have hit the Orsk - a huge Russian tank-carrier

Images show an explosion at the port with a Russian Alligator-class transport ship visible at the dock. It was not immediately clear from the images whether the port or the ship had been struck

A fireball rises into the air over the port of Berdyansk, a Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov which has been captured by Russian forces and was being used to ferry reinforcements to shore before it was struck

Counter-attacks appeared to be well underway on Wednesday, with Ukraine claiming to have recaptured territory to the west of Kyiv - leaving Russian forces at Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel at risk of being surrounded.

Should those men get cut-off from the rest of the Russian army - leaving them without food, ammunition and fuel - it could spark mass surrender and deal one of the most-crushing defeats of the war to date.

After days of conflicting reports about the situation near Kyiv, Britain's Ministry of Defence said late Tuesday: 'Ukrainian forces are carrying out successful counter attacks against Russian positions in towns on the outskirts of the capital, and have probably retaken Makariv and Moschun [to the west and north-west].

'There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin.'

A further update on Thursday morning added that 'Russian forces have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties' and that Vladimir Putin is looking to reinforce using private military companies - such as the Wagner Group - and foreign mercenaries, likely from Syria.

But, it added, it is unclear how these forces would be integrated into the regular Russian army and how effective they would prove to be in combat.

As Putin's invasion continues to falter, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.

'Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,' Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. 'Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.'

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely. But a month into the fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition after meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance.

If the Orsk is confirmed as destroyed it would mark the largest vessel Ukraine has hit and another embarrassing loss for Vladimir Putin's army

Ukraine's navy reported Thursday that it had sunk the Russian ship Orsk in the Sea of Asov near the port city of Berdyansk. It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim.

Russia has been in possession of the port since Feb. 27, and the Orsk had debarked armored vehicles there on Monday for use in Moscow's offensive, the Zvezda TV channel of the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier this week. According to the report, the Orsk was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk, which is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west along the coast from the besieged city of Mariupol.

To keep up the pressure on Russia, Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provide 'effective and unrestricted' support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs.

Biden was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to coordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with NATO members, and then talk with leaders of the G7 industrialized nations and the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.

On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

Heading in to the talks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters the alliance had already stepped up military support but needed to invest more to make good on pledged commitments.

'The meeting today will demonstrate the importance of North America and Europe standing together facing this crisis,' he said.

In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 of its soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed - the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released - intentionally or not - and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritizing the fight in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said. The U.S. also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going 'strictly in accordance' with plans.

Footage posted online late Wednesday showed what appears to be a Russian tank exploding into a ball of flame after being struck by a Ukrainian guided missile, as Putin's forces continue to suffer punishing losses

Ukraine says Russia has lost more than 500 tanks and thousands of vehicles during its invasion, with video uploaded Wednesday showing a tank getting destroyed in a Ukrainian attack

Freshly-dug graves to bury the victims of Russia's invasion are seen in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine which has been shelled by Russian forces in recent days

A woman wounded by Russian artillery strikes near Kyiv, Ukraine, is loaded into the back of a makeshift ambulance

A destroyed house is seen on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, after being struck by a Russian artillery shell on Wednesday

A burned-out car sits next to a badly-damaged house after Russian shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

'The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,' said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities. He noted in his televised remarks that Moscow's nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials long have warned that Russia's military doctrine envisages an 'escalate to deescalate' option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin, known for his bluster, did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin. Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.

Zelenskyy noted in his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

'It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth,' he said.

In Kyiv, where near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday as the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed since the war broke out. The independent Russian news outlet The Insider said Russian journalist Oksana Baulina had been killed by shelling in a Kyiv neighborhood on Wednesday.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting. But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher. Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theater and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Kateryna Mytkevich, 39, who arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she said the city is without gas, electricity or running water, and entire neighborhoods have been destroyed.

'I don't understand why we have such a curse,' she said.

A woman in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, which is under threat of Russian attack, is trained how to use a Kalashnikov rifle

Civilians in the city of Odesa, which fears coming under attack by Russia, are trained how to use rifles by Ukrainian troops
Vladimir Putin has the right to launch nukes if he is provoked by NATO over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, a Russian ambassador to the UN has claimed.

Just hours after another Kremlin spokesman warned of possible atomic war, Dmitry Polyanskiy sparked further fears by hinting there would be a seismic response a to any direct involvement in the conflict from the West.

'If Russia is provoked by NATO, if Russia is attacked by NATO we are a nuclear power, why not?' he told Sky News at the UN in New York.

'I don't think it's the right thing to be saying. But it's not the right thing to threaten Russia, and to try to interfere. So when you're dealing with a nuclear power, of course, you have to calculate all the possible outcomes of your behaviour.'

The top diplomat also continued to dismiss claims that Kremlin forces have carried out war crimes, and suggested evidence of Ukrainian cities being destroyed by Russian missiles was 'fake news'.

'We said from the very beginning, that our military is not a threat for the civilian population Ukraine,' he added.

As concerns continue to grow, France has raised its alert level, and has taken the unprecedented step of deploying three nuclear submarines at sea, according to FranceInter.

As the only European superpower other than the UK, Paris believes it has the means to issue a devastating counter-attack if necessary, 'coming from anywhere', as the subs are able to blend into the ocean floor for months.

It comes after Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday also refused to rule out using nuclear weapons, claiming Russian doctrine allows the President to use such force to see off 'existential threat'.

Vladimir Putin has the right to launch nukes if he is provoked by NATO over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, a Russian ambassador to the UN has claimed (pictured, a Russian missile test in February)

Just hours after another Kremlin spokesman warned of possible atomic war, Dmitry Polyanskiy sparked further fears by hinting there would be a seismic response a to any direct involvement in the conflict from the West

A man and a woman walk through rubble on the premises of a shopping mall ruined as a result of a missile strike carried out by the Russian troops in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv

Peskov was asked three times on CNN whether he could definitively rule out the possibility of the Russian leader pushing the button - and three times refused to give a straight answer.

John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, slammed Peskov's rhetoric as 'dangerous' saying it is 'not the way a responsible nuclear power should act'.

Kirby added that the US is keeping Russia's nuclear arsenal - believed to be the world's largest at 6,500 warheads - under constant surveillance and has not yet seen any indication that it is preparing to use the weapons.

But that will do little to reassure jittery world leaders, particularly in the West, after Putin used a fire-and-brimstone speech as he declared war on Ukraine to make a thinly-veiled nuclear threat.

Ordering the start of his 'special military operation' on February 24, Putin issued a warning to anyone 'who might be tempted to meddle in the ongoing events: whoever tries to stand in our way or create threats for our country.'

He said: 'People should know Russia's response will be immediate and lead you to consequences you have never encountered in your history.'

Just three days later, on February 27, Putin then ordered his nuclear forces to be put on a 'special alert' in what he said was a response to 'aggressive statements' made by the NATO alliance - specifically threatening the West.

America later said that it had not observed any significant changes in Russian nuclear posturing in response to the order, but still cancelled a test-launch of one of its own weapons the following week as a precaution.

There are also fears that Russia could be considering using a low-yield 'tactical' nuclear weapon against Ukraine itself in order to turn the tide of the war, which has so-far gone against Moscow's troops.

Leon Panetta, former US defence secretary, said Peskov's remarks show Russia is 'looking for a possible excuse for the use of low-yield nuclear weapons.'

President Putin has raised the threat of using nuclear weapons  and his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out their use, in an interview with me tonight. pic.twitter.com/uxQqncLGYN  Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) March 22, 2022

Putin made a thinly-veiled nuclear threat to 'whoever tries to stand in our way' as he declared war in Ukraine, warning of 'consequences you have never encountered in your history'

Russia's offensive has now stalled on all fronts amid reports that Ukraine has started launching counter-attacks to push Putin's forces back

I think that presents a real concern that Russia at least is considering that possibility,' he added. 'I don't see how you can see it any other way but as dangerous.'

Using the weapons would be based on 'a very false premise that somehow Russia is being threatened,' he said.

'I don't know that it's going to happen. I still think that Putin has to worry about how the US would respond and he has to worry about his own survival.'

Western leaders and intelligence agencies have been warning for days that Putin may resort to desperate measures as the war in Ukraine goes against him.

On Sunday, Joe Biden repeated warnings that the Kremlin looks to be developing a pre-text to use biological or chemical weapons by falsely accusing Ukraine of possessing them - saying Putin's 'back is against the wall'.

It also comes after Ukraine warned that Russia appears to be manufacturing man-made catastrophes at either Chernobyl or Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants - both of which are in the hands of the Kremlin's men.

Russian soldiers have disconnected Zaporizhzhia's six reactors and the defunct reactor at Chernobyl from international monitoring systems, and have disconnected Chernobyl from the power grid.

That means water pumps at Chernobyl which keep spent nuclear fuel submerged in water to cool them will not automatically run, meaning the water will eventually evaporate if not topped up manually.

Should that happen the fuel could catch on fire - pumping a cloud of radioactive ash into the air which would cause fallout over wide areas of Europe.

Russian forces have been fought to a standstill across Ukraine as the initial phase of Putin's invasion spectacularly failed.

Ukrainian forces remain in control of all major cities across the country except for the regional capital of Kherson, where counter-attacks are now underway in an effort to recapture it.

Counter-attacks are also underway to the west of the capital Kyiv, in Voznesensk in the south, and around Izyum in the north-east.

Ukraine's generals believe Russian forces only have enough supplies to last three more days in the field, while Western experts have said Putin's men will soon need to switch on to the defensive as their stockpiles run low.

It means Putin's troops will be vulnerable to counter-attacks, pushing up Russia's already-high casualty toll even further.

Reliable casualty figures for either side are hard to come by, but it is thought Russia has seen around 10,000 troops killed after a typically pro-Kremlin tabloid published the figure on Monday night and credited it to the Defence Ministry.

The same article said another 16,000 men had been wounded, accounting for around a fifth of the total force Putin arrayed before the start of the war.

The figure was quickly deleted and blamed on a hack, but is compelling because it sits between low-ball US estimates of Russian deaths - around 7,000 - and optimistic Ukrainian tolls - around 15,000.

Ukraine's death-toll is even more opaque. Preisdent Zelensky has said around 1,300 troops have died in fighting, but that is viewed as an under-estimate and has not been regularly updated.

Kyiv's forces are thought to have suffered their heaviest losses fighting in the south and east, where Russian offensives have managed to push the furthest and threaten to surround soldiers dug in along the old frontline with pro-Moscow rebels.

Few expected Ukraine's defences to hold for more than a few weeks in the face of attack by what was supposed to be the world's 'second military' after the US, but the war is now entering its second month with no sign of a break-through for Russia.

Observers will now watch for signs that Ukraine's military - which has proved dogged in defence - can now successfully counter-attack, which would raise the possibility of the unlikeliest of victories of Kyiv.

However, it could also mean Russia doubling down on its battlefield brutality, raising the civilian death toll and threat of extreme acts.
People participate in candlelit rallies calling for former President Park Geun-hye to step down at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Nov. 12, 2016. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul





By Lee Hae-rin







Located within earshot of Cheong Wa Dae, the spacious area of Gwanghwamun Square is one of the most popular venues for protesters to gather and call for change. Its location near the presidential office makes it easier for them to make their voices heard. Partly because of this reason, there are protests there almost every day, from one-person rallies to large-scale demonstrations, as seen during the candlelit rallies in 2016 and 2017, which led to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. Some have even installed makeshift facilities to stay there for longer-term protests.







"The main reason to hold a protest in Gwanghwamun Square is its proximity to Cheong Wa Dae. It's where a large number of people can gather and maximize the effect of collective action," Oh Ho-suck, the co-representative of the national emergency association of small businesses against COVID-19, told The Korea Times, Monday.







"It is also easily accessible by public transport, which makes it easier for participants to join rallies," Oh said, recalling the mass assembly he led there in February.







As Oh said, the square is geographically suitable for mass gatherings, with a 100-meter wide boulevard connecting with City Hall and linking with seven stations on four metro lines within a one kilometer radius. Several demonstrations that marked the country's recent timeline, including the candlelit rallies in 2016 and the #MeToo protests in 2018, have taken place there.







Following President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's announcement to relocate the presidential office into Yongsan, however, Gwanghwamun Square might lose its luster as an iconic space for mass rallies. Yoon said the aim of the relocation is to communicate more closely with the people, a step largely welcomed by protesters including Oh who have been disappointed by previous administrations.







"The location (of the presidential office) shouldn't matter to us, the protesters. What matters the most is a leader's attitude and willingness to listen," said a member of the COVID-19 vaccine victims' family union. He said the group delivered a letter to the President after parading through Gwanghwamun last Saturday and haven't received a response yet.







Unlike the group's wishes, the new location could hinder them from making their voices heard to the government due to its geographic conditions and existing law on assembly.







Seen is the Ministry of National Defense headquarters in Seoul's Yongsan District, which President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said will be used as his presidential office. Yonhap





"Traffic jams here have always been an issue. There is no doubt that it will get worse if tens of thousands of protesters come here regularly to make themselves heard to the President," said a food truck owner who has been running the business in the neighborhood for decades.







When compared to the Gwanghwamun area, Yongsan lacks a relatively large open public space to hold rallies and only has three metro stations from three lines within its one-kilometer radius.







The most prominent candidate protest locations here are at Hangang and Noksapyeong boulevards, estimated to be large enough to hold 100,000 and 50,000 people, respectively. But these are major roads and large rallies there could be restricted or forbidden due to public security, under the current Assembly and Demonstrations Act, according to the district's police.







The law requires protesters to pre-register for a specific time and venue with the district's police and receive authorization in advance. Police may not authorize protests under certain conditions, one of which is if the event could go against the public interest. If unauthorized, the protest is illegal.







In the face of these difficulties, the activists named the park that Yoon promised to build by the new office as their last resort. "We could make ourselves heard there (at the park) by the War Memorial Museum once it opens. I heard it'll be some millions of square meters large," Oh said.







Unfortunately, the park's future availability for protesters also remains unclear, as the leader of Yoon's relocation taskforce said Sunday that "the park will be a rest area for the people and could have some restrictions in regards to holding demonstrations."







In response, some alternative methods to hold demonstrations have surfaced.







Yong Hye-in of the minor Basic Income Party proposed an amendment to the relevant regulation to invite public opinion.







"Under the current law, the highly dense residential and commercial area near Samgakji Station is the only option left for protests," Yong said at a press conference, Monday.







The law restricts assemblies and demonstrations within 100 meters of government properties including the National Assembly, Constitutional Court, embassies and presidential residence, although it has been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court several times. Due to the restriction, protests have been moved away from Cheong Wa Dae and have been the source of complaints from nearby residents.







Seen is an online queer parade participated by over 12,000 people on Instagram in June 2020. The offline event was canceled under the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Screenshot from Instagram





Others suggest seeking creative alternatives to replace physical gatherings. "It is now a digital-centered era, in which there are several effective ways to deliver a message online. Offline protest may not be the only democratic method anymore," Sungkyunkwan University sociology professor Koo Jeong-woo said.







The online parade campaigns by the LGBTQ community have proven a success during the last two years amid the coronavirus pandemic. The digital initiative went viral on social media and earned positive reviews among some local news outlets and the digital-savvy young generation, but garnered less attention than the usual physical gatherings.







While Yoon's transition committee made vague promises to arrange a place for communication, experts point out the importance of an open square in a democracy and highlight the need for more rational restrictions on protest authorization.







"The rights to assembly and demonstration are fundamental in a democratic society like Korea and should not be infringed upon under any circumstances," Korea University sociology professor Kim Yoon-tae said.







Koo added, "We need to gather people's opinions and reach a consensus to build reasonable and rational regulations according to the changes in the circumstances for protests  People will find a way to make themselves heard, anyway."


He was just hours away from wrapping up one of the most hectic and complex days in the Chancellor's calendar.

But Rishi Sunak appeared to fall at the final hurdle yesterday - filling up a tank of petrol and paying for it.

The millionaire minister was mocked for posing for publicity shots pumping gas into a Kia Rio - worth about 12,000 - outside a Sainsbury's.

And he was later ridiculed for bungling his contactless payment, by pressing the card to a barcode scanner.

But this morning he appeared to claw back some dignity by correctly telling reporters the price of a loaf of bread.

It came after a busy day for the Chancellor as he read out his Spring Statement in the House of Commons.

Mr Sunak slashed fuel duty by 5p and demanded retailers pass on the reduction to hard-pressed motorists.

The millionaire minister was mocked for posing for publicity shots pumping gas into a Kia Rio - worth about 12,000 - outside a Sainsbury's

Rishi Sunak, dubbed the 'Maharajah of the Yorkshire Dales', and his billionaire-heiress wife Chancellor Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murthy (pictured together at their wedding in 2009) has shares in her family's tech business worth 430million, making her richer than the Queen Rishi Sunak, a GP's son who married an Indian tech billionaire's daughter and built a multi million-pound fortune that saw him dubbed the 'Maharaja of the Dales', enjoyed a meteoric rise to become Chancellor at the age of just 39. A graduate of 42,000-per-year Winchester College and Oxford University, where he studied PPE, he is believed to be one of the richest members of Parliament, and lives with his family in a magnificent Georgian manor house in the small village of Kirby Sigston, just outside Northallerton in North Yorkshire. His Instagram account depicts a sport-loving family man who dotes on the two daughters he shares with his wife, Akshata Murthy, whose father NR Narayana Murthy is India's sixth-wealthiest man thanks to his ownership of multinational business technology giant Infosys. A multi-millionaire in his own right thanks to his investment career, Mr Sunak was known to be close to his former boss Sajid Javid, with the pair joining each other on nights out and sharing Star Wars jokes on Twitter. Mr Sunak has experienced a dizzying rise since taking William Hague's Yorkshire seat of Richmond at the 2015 general election, which is when he first acquired his 'Maharaja of the Dales' moniker. Ms Murthy and her relatives hold a multimillion pound portfolio of shareholdings which have come to light amid questions over the Chancellor, who met his future wife while studying at Stanford University, California, failing to declare them in the register of ministers' interests. The assets make Indian-born Akshata richer than the Queen, who is estimated to be worth 350million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. She is the daughter of one of the richest men in India - billionaire NR Narayana Murthy - who has been described as the father of the Indian IT sector and 'one of the 12 greatest businessmen of all time'. Advertisement

To celebrate the cut he posed for the photographs with the Kia Rio outside New Cross Sainsbury's in south east London.

Still wearing the suit he delivered the Spring Statement in, the Chancellor rolled up his sleeves and plonked the tap into the hatchback as the sun beamed down on him.

He tweeted: 'It's 6pm - the biggest cut to all fuel duty rates ever has just come into effect. #SpringStatement2022.'

HM Treasury's Twitter account added: 'Following today's #SpringStatement2022 Chancellor @RishiSunak visited New Cross @Sainsburys and petrol station to talk to shoppers about how they'll be helped by the tax cuts we introduced today.'

But it all appeared to unravel when he headed inside to pay for the gas and a full fat can of Coke, which he has previously admitted to being addicted to.

The cashier held up the bar scanner to register the price of the drink, but the Chancellor tried to tap his contactless card while he was being recorded on live TV.

Social media users ruthlessly mocked him for the publicity shots - which he has become well known for - as well as mishap when paying.

Fergus Craig said: 'Yeah, just filling up my Kia Rio and then it's back home for a bottle of Blossom Hill in front of Eastenders on our DFS sofa.'

Marcio Delgado put: 'The most astonishing news of the week, so far, isn't the weak #SpringStatement at all.'

He added: 'It is millionaire Rishi Sunak pretending to shop at Sainsburys and to drive a Kia Rio.'

Peter Smith wrote: 'Waking up to photos of a very wealthy man filling up a Kia Rio trying to persuade us he understands the financial pain that lies ahead. He hasn't a clue and, equally importantly, a care.'

One man posted: 'Did Sunak empathise by telling her about the time he was told by his official photographer to pretend to put fuel in a Kia Rio?'

Neil Holloway put: 'Which of these is actually plausible? Rishi goes to Sainsburys Rishi fills up his own car Rishi drives KIA Rio.'

Barry Fogarty said: 'Hurrah! I've won a lottery and become super rich!! The first thing I'm buying?...... A Kia Rio.'

Mick Birchall wrote: 'Don't know what's worse, the insulting attempt to lower prices or the fact he's filling up some random Kia Rio just for a photo.'

Another man put: 'Rushi Sunak does not drive a Kia Rio. His state car is a jag XF and he's often photographed with Range Rovers.'

One account posted: 'Geezer worth 200 mil fills up his Kia Rio at local Sainsbury's thanks to the 5p a litre price drop. What a time to be alive.'

Another said online: 'Man of the people Rishi Sunak, just out filling up his Kia Rio with petrol.'

Columnist Allison Pearson put: 'Perhaps instead of filling up a Kia Rio(14,100) Rishi might fill up a BMW.

'Full tank (almost) cost me 91 at the weekend. Probably 100 by now. But, hey, 5p off a litre!'

Martin Brown wrote: 'Richest man to ever take a seat in the HoC drives a Kia Rio, apparently.'

TV critic Toby Earle said: 'Just hilarious the thought of multi-multi-multi-multi millionaire Rishi Sunak driving a Kia Rio and even noticing for a second how much it costs to fill it up.'

Richard Rose asked: 'I wonder whose car it is? Can't see Rishi driving a 3rd-gen Kia Rio (model discontinued in 2017) myself.'

Tory MPs fear Rishi Sunak's 15bn of cuts won't be enough for struggling families Rishi Sunak faced pressure to move faster on tax cuts last night. In a set of new forecasts, the OBR warned even with the tax cuts the next 12 months will bring the biggest fall in living standards since the mid-1950s. Senior Tories urged the Chancellor to move further in cutting taxes for working families to help them cope with cost-of-living pressures. Advertisement

On the clip of him paying, Claudia Wood wrote: 'I watched it about 12 times on loop just in case it looked bad, but actually wasn't. But it really was that bad.

'He tried to scan his card on the bar code reader. He doesn't grasp the sequence required to purchase an item. He's *never been in a shop*.'

One man also wrote on Twitter: 'He thought contactless was getting your aides to buy stuff for you.'

A woman posted: 'Have you done this before Rishi? you sure you need a dummy run before we start filming? Nah I'll be fine, how hard can it be?'

Andrew Norman wrote: 'First time in a shop for the multi millionaire former hedge fund manager.'

He added on Twitter: 'Coca Cola is the only product he recognised - he's not going to drink it'

Pippa Musgrave posted: 'But he doesn't normally use petrol, his car usually runs on 40 year old reserve single malt.'

And one man added: 'I wonder whether he knows how to put money on a gas or electricity card. I suspect it may also be outside his realm of experience.'

In a saving grace for the Chancellor, he managed to remember how much his family loaf of bread costs during TV interviews this morning.

A BBC reporter asked him: 'Finally Chancellor, when going to the supermarket what is the one item you've noticed going up in price?'

He said: 'It's probably, I mean I think bread probably, is the thing...' The journalist asked: 'Go on, how much has that gone up?'

He replied: 'The one that we buy I'm sure is now about 1.20 and it was about 1 from memory.'

Asked what he eats, he went on: 'It's a Hovis kind of seeded thing... we have a whole range of different breads in my house.'

Mr Sunak added: 'There's a degree of healthiness between my wife, myself and my kids.'

The price of an 800g loaf of Hovis seed sensations seven seeds medium sliced seeded bread in Sainsbury's is 1.25.

The price of an 800g loaf of Hovis seed sensations seven seeds medium sliced seeded bread in Sainsbury's is 1.25

Millionaire Rishi Sunak is confronted by worried single mother A visibly uncomfortable Rishi Sunak struggled to calm the fears of a single mother who can't afford to heat her home and has had to take on two extra jobs as the millionaire Chancellor comes under fire for failing to cushion the public from the biggest fall in living standards since the 1950s. Mr Sunak was challenged on LBC Radio last night by Hzul, a single mother who said she had a good salary 'on paper' but is finding that rising costs have put 'an intense strain' on her ability to provide for her children and has cut her grocery bill to 15 per week. She told the Chancellor that she had reduced her grocery bill to 15 a week, and sometimes goes without food so her children can eat. Telling Mr Sunak that she's resorted to keeping the boiler and every light possible off, and wearing coats and jumpers to keep warm, she said measures to help on energy bills 'isn't going to cut it', and asked: 'Please tell me what else I can be doing!'. In response, the Chancellor said he 'cannot imagine how difficult' her job was, and paid tribute to her for 'working your socks off'. He pointed to the energy bill rebate and higher National Insurance threshold that will give a tax cut in July  though it will only offset a tax rise due in April. Mr Sunak's wife Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Indian IT mogul Narayana Murthy, has shares in her family's tech firm that are worth 430million  making her one of Britain's wealthiest women, with 80million more cash than the Queen. Her father is worth an estimated 2.3billion. Advertisement

Yesterday the Chancellor cut 5p from fuel duty and demanded retailers pass on the reduction to hard-pressed motorists.

Mr Sunak used his Spring Statement to announce what is only the second reduction of the duty in 20 years.

The 5p cut  a response to record pump prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine  came into force at 6pm last night and will remain in place until March 2023.

Asda and Sainsbury's became the first major retailers to cut prices yesterday, announcing a 6p per litre reduction in the price of petrol and diesel.

But motoring organisations including the AA and the RAC warned that some retailers may refuse to pass it on to drivers.

They have already been accused of failing to pass on a reduction in wholesale costs earlier this month.

Last night, Mr Sunak and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wrote to retailers, trade bodies and the supply chain to demand the reduction be passed on in full.

They said: 'I know you will agree that it is vital that these savings are delivered to consumers as soon as possible, to deal with the increased pressures that the unprecedented global circumstances are bringing to the cost of living in the UK.

'The public will rightly expect to see this historic cut reflected quickly in the prices shown on the forecourt.'

Mr Kwarteng will meet retailers tomorrow to press home the point. Supply fears triggered by the invasion of Ukraine led to an increase in the cost of oil and the soaring fuel prices.

Figures from the data firm Experian Catalist show the average forecourt price of a litre of petrol on Tuesday was 167.3p, while diesel was 179.7p. This is an increase of 18p per litre for petrol and 27p for diesel over the past month.

The Chancellor said the Government wanted people to know it would 'stand by them' in dealing with rising living costs.

But critics will point out that government measures in France and Ireland have cut prices by at least 15 cents a litre.

He told MPs: 'Today I can announce that for only the second time in 20 years, fuel duty will be cut. Not by one, not even by two, but by 5p per litre.

'The biggest cut to all fuel duty rates  ever. While some have called for the cut to last until August, I have decided it will be in place until March next year  a full 12 months.'

The duty has been frozen at 57.95p a litre for petrol and diesel since March 2011. AA president Edmund King said: 'We are concerned that the benefit will be lost unless retailers pass it on.

'The Chancellor has ridden to the rescue of UK families and businesses who use their vehicles, not for pleasure, but to function in their daily lives.'

But Nicholas Lyes, of the RAC, said the cut will 'only take prices back to where they were just over a week ago'.

He added: 'There's also a very real risk retailers could just absorb some or all of the cut.'
Dozens of Ukrainian orphans clapped and cheered as their plane touched down in the UK last night.

The 54 children, including a one-year-old and a two-year-old, along with seven legal guardians, landed at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday before being taken to Scotland where they will be temporarily accommodated.

The operation, which was a combined effort from charities Magen David Adom UK, Save A Child and Dnipro Kids, saw children rescued from five orphanages in an evacuation dubbed 'Project Light'.

The group left Warsaw in Poland on Wednesday afternoon on a Virgin Atlantic flight after they were evacuated from Ukraine over a week ago.

The group left Warsaw in Poland on Wednesday afternoon on a Virgin Atlantic flight after they were evacuated from Ukraine over a week ago

The operation, which was a combined effort from charities Magen David Adom UK, Save A Child and Dnipro Kids, saw children rescued from five orphanages in an evacuation dubbed 'Project Light'

Ukrainian orphans wait for a flight to the United Kingdom at Chopin airport, in Warsaw, Poland

Sally Becker, founder of Save A Child, was on the plane and described on the moment it touched down in London.

She said: 'Well, everybody was clapping. First of all they looked out the windows and they could see the lights.

'And I was saying 'It's London' It's London!' And they were just looking completely amazed because of course they've never flown before, and it really did look like jewels in the night.

'And as it touched down they all started to clap. But not like people clap on an ordinary flight which sometimes happens, this was 61 of them all clapping and cheering, and they were so happy.'

Ms Becker added: 'The main thing is they're here, they have sanctuary, temporary sanctuary and they're safe.

'But thousands more left behind, I don't just mean necessarily orphans, although there are orphans, but ordinary children, children who are being shelled, who are being shot at, and I just hope that we'll be able to help a lot more children.'

Ms Becker said the group of 54 includes two young women - a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old - who are connected to one of the orphanages.

'Two girls came out as well, who belong to the orphanage, but they weren't able to come under the banner... they weren't able to come because one is 19 and one is 21.

'And you can't be officially part of an orphanage once you reach 18. But for all intents and purposes, those girls see them all as their brothers and sisters.

'And the mother of the orphanage, the guardian, she calls mother, and they were going to be left behind.

'So we managed quickly last night to find a sponsor in Scotland who was connected to Dnipro Kids who said 'You can use me as the sponsor' and then we asked the British Embassy, the Home Office, to do their best to absolutely pull out all the stops to expedite the visas.

A Ukrainian orphan girl waves as her flight from Warsaw touches down at Heathrow last night

'They said, 'we don't know if we can do it in time for the flight',' she said.

Ms Becker said the visas were indeed sorted on time, adding: 'I don't know how the British Embassy did it but they did.'

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted a message of welcome to the children, writing: 'A warm welcome to Scotland @DniproKids - I know you'd all rather be at home in Ukraine but you'll find love, care and support here for as long as you need it.'

Speaking about the arrival in London, Magen David Adom UK chief executive Daniel Burger said there was 'total jubilation, celebration' and described it as a 'wonderful uplifting experience'.

He said: 'It's great. It was a really surreal, fabulous experience which I'm privileged to have been able to play a small part in today.'

Mr Burger said the children were given stuffed toys and goodie bags.

'Save a Child and a number of other parties have made the most unbelievable effort in getting these children to safety.

'When the call came in to try and help facilitate bringing them to the UK, we wanted to do whatever it took.

'This mammoth operation has only been possible thanks to so many people's generosity,' he said.

Shai Weiss, chief executive at Virgin Atlantic, said: 'All of us at Virgin Atlantic will do whatever we can to support the innocent victims of war in Ukraine.

'We commend our partners, MDA UK and Save A Child, for the incredible work they've undertaken in bringing these children to safety.

Ukrainian orphans wait for a flight to the United Kingdom at Chopin airport, in Warsaw

An air hostess waves a Ukrainian flag as orphans enter a plane bound to the United Kingdom at Chopin airport, in Warsaw

'We will continue to look for ways to use the power of our people and planes to support the humanitarian relief effort in Ukraine and stand ready to act as opportunities arise.'

The fuel for the Virgin Atlantic flight was donated free of charge by Esso Petroleum, and the outward bound leg of the flight contained five tonnes of aid from Convoy of Hope.

Permission for the group to fly was granted by the Ukrainian and Polish governments.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted about the group's arrival, thanking her team at the Home Office, the Ukrainian and Polish authorities, the Scottish Government and Virgin Atlantic.

'The care they will receive will go some way to heal their suffering,' she said.

SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford MP said: 'This is a deeply emotional moment for everyone involved as the Dnipro Kids finally arrive in Scotland, where they will be safe, secure and well looked-after.

'As delighted as I am to see them reach sanctuary in Scotland, we all hope that this will be a temporary stay, and that peace will soon come to Ukraine so they can safely return as they wish.'
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Thursday there would be a serious risk to Europe if Vladimir Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine as President Joe Biden formed a 'Tiger Team' to deal with fears Russia could get more aggressive in its attack.

Both Stoltenberg and Biden have ratcheted up their warnings in recent days about Russia's potential use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

'It will be a catastrophe for the people of Ukraine and we could see the spread of chemical agents into NATO territory,' Stoltenberg told reporters on Thursday when he arrived at NATO headquarters ahead of his meeting with Biden.

Stoltenberg said 'any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It would be a blatant violation of international law, and it will have widespread and severe consequences.'

He vowed NATO would be ready to respond.

'I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect and to react to any type of attack on a NATO-allied country,' he said.

His warning comes amid a report the Biden administration has formed a 'Tiger Team' of national security officials to sketch out scenarios of how the United States and its allies should respond if Putin unleashes his chemical, biological or nuclear arsenal.

The team is considering a variety of scenarios, the New York Times reported, including one if Putin stretches into NATO territory to attack convoys bringing weapons and aid to Ukraine.

They are also considering what would be the line in the sand that would require an American military response in Ukraine, which Biden has made clear he does not want, saying it could lead to World War III.

President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg arrive for Thursday's NATO meeting in Brussels

NATO leaders at the 'family photo' ahead of their meeting

President Joe Biden, left, French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speak at the family photo session

The United States and Western allies are concerned that as Putin's invasion of the Ukraine reaches a stalemate, the Russian president could up the ante and unleash his more aggressive stock of weapons.

That will be a main topic of conversation when the 30-nation alliance meets in Brussels on Thursday morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is expected to address the NATO summit by video, said late Wednesday that he wants the alliance to 'declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war' by supplying any weapons necessary.

In the meeting, the world leaders are likely to agree to send equipment to help Ukraine protect against the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

They're also likely to endorse a plan to set up four new multinational battlegroups in eastern Europe to deter Russia from attacking any NATO members.

NATO has sharply increased its presence on the eastern borders of the alliance, with some 40,000 troops spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Stoltenberg said the leaders would discuss deploying four new combat units in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.

'I expect leaders will agree to strengthen NATO's posture in all domains, with major increases in the eastern part of the alliance. On land, in the air and at sea,' he told a news conference on Wednesday ahead of the summit.

Biden on Wednesday, before leaving for Brussels, acknowledged it was a 'real threat' that Putin might use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

American officials have expressed concern that Putin could use chemical weapons after the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine could make such a move, in what U.S. officials say could be a false flag operation to justify any moves by Moscow.

Leaders will agree at Thursday's summit in Brussels on deploying troops to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. Pictured: A French army tank is seen at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base near Constanta, Romania, on March 3

Officials are worried as his invasion of Ukraine reaches stalemate, Russian President Vladimir Putin could unleash his chemical, nuclear or biological weapons arsenal

The Kremlin has refused to rule out using nuclear weapons.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, was asked three times on CNN whether he could definitively rule out the possibility of the Russian leader pushing the button - and three times refused to give a straight answer.

Instead, Peskov said only that Russian doctrine allows Putin to use nukes to see off 'existential threats' - raising fears he could justify using the weapons over Ukraine, having previously said the country poses a direct threat to the security of Russia.

John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, slammed Peskov's rhetoric as 'dangerous,' saying it is 'not the way a responsible nuclear power should act.'

Kirby added that the US is keeping Russia's nuclear arsenal - believed to be the world's largest at 6,500 warheads - under constant surveillance and has not yet seen any indication that it is preparing to use the weapons.

Russia has wielded chemical weapons in the past.

Moscow used the deadly Novichok poison in 2018 in an attempt to assassinate a defector living in Salisbury, England. And it is suspected of using a similar poison against opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.

Russia also offered diplomatic cover to Syrian use of chemical agents. It accused the West of being behind the 2017 attack on Khan Shaykhun with Sarin or similar nerve agent.
Cases of tuberculosis rose in England last year for only the second time in a decade, figures revealed today.

A total of 4,430 patients were treated for the deadly lung infection in 2021, up 7.4 per cent compared to in 2020.

Cases of TB had been declining sharply since 2011, when there were more than 8,000 cases, but the trend was reversed in 2019.

There has also been a worrying rise in the spread of antibiotic resistant TB, with 11.6 per cent of the strains recorded in England found to be resistant to all medication.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has urged anyone with a persistent cough or fever not to dismiss the symptoms as Covid.

TB is still one of the world's biggest killers, claiming 1.5million lives globally in 2020, mostly in developing countries.

The infection is spread by the coughs and sneezes of patients and most often affects the lungs, although it can get into other parts of the body.

The warning to get checked for TB come amid sky-high rates of Covid in the UK which could mean many will potentially have new persistent coughs or fevers in the coming weeks.

Yesterday Britain's daily Covid cases breached 100,000 for the second time this month today after rising 12 per cent in a week.

UKHSA data shows the number of TB cases in England rose in 2021 only the second time it has done so since 2010. A total of 4,430 people were found to have TB in England in 2021 up 7.4 per cent compared to the year prior. The rise has prompted health authorities to urge people not to dismiss symptoms like a persistent cough or fever as Covid

Most cases of TB in England were recorded in London, with over 1,500 by the end of 2021

WHAT IS TUBERCULOSIS? Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection spread between people by coughing and sneezing. The infection usually affects the lungs but the bacteria can cause problems in any part of the body, including the abdomen, glands, bones and the nervous system. In healthy people the bacteria are often killed by the immune system or at least prevented from spreading, but in some cases the bacteria can take hold and cause a more serious infection. TB infection causes symptoms like fever, coughing, night sweats, weight loss, tiredness and fatigue, a loss of appetite and swellings in the neck. If the immune system fails to contain TB bacteria the infection can take weeks or months to take hold and produce symptoms, and if it is left untreated it can be fatal. TB is a common cause of death among people with HIV, because it is particularly dangerous for people with weakened immune systems  people with HIV are thought to be up to 27 times more likely to get the disease. With treatment, TB can almost always be cured with antibiotics and people tend to stop being contagious after about three weeks of therapy. TB is most common in less developed countries in sub-Saharan and west Africa, southeast Asia, Russia, China and South America. Source: NHS Advertisement

The infection causes coughs, fevers, night sweats and weight loss, and it can kill by destroying the organs from the inside, causing them to bleed and fill with liquid.

It is particularly dangerous for immunocompromised people, like those with HIV or undergoing chemotherapy, and those without access to good medical care.

But in England the infection can usually be cured with antibiotics.

With the rise in cases, UKHSA chief executive Dr Jenny Harries urged people not to dismiss the signs of TB like a persistent cough or fever as just being Covid.

'It is important to remember that not every persistent cough, along with a fever, is Covid,' she said.

'A cough that usually has mucus and lasts longer than three weeks can be caused by a range of other issues, including tuberculosis.

'Tuberculosis develops slowly, and it may take several weeks, months or even years after you were infected before you notice you're unwell.'

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the rise in the TB was concerning and urged people with symptoms to contact their GP.

'If you have a persistent cough that lasts more than three weeks along with a fever, please contact your GP as soon as possible to get tested,' he said.

The warning comes as Covid resurgences in the UK.

Government dashboard statistics show there were 102,483 new infections on Wednesday, compared to the 91,345 last week.

It is the second time in just eight days that daily cases have risen above the six-figure threshold, after the Omicron wave collapsed in late January.

Hospitalisations also rose 30 per cent in a week, according to the latest UK-wide data for March 19, with 2,011 new admissions.

Deaths have also ticked upwards with 194 Covid fatalities were reported yesterday, up 27 per cent on a week ago.

The rising statistics have been attributed to the loosening of restrictions across the UK and the rise of the more infectious BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

These charts show the number of TB cases in the rest of England's regions in 2021. Cases were highest in the West Midlands and South East

And were lowest in the South West and North East

Drug resistant TB which is more difficult to treat has also been on the rise with a record 58 cases in 2020, compared to 53 in 2019

On a regional basis, London recorded the highest number of TB cases of England's regions in 2021 with 1,568, around 100 more than the year prior.

Nearly all of England' regions also experienced increases with only the East of England, the South West and the North West seeing declines but these were all in the single digits.

In terms of drug resistant TB a record 58 cases were recorded in 2020, compared to 53 in 2019.

Provisional data for 2021 found 48 people in England had drug resistant TB.

But UKHSA warned the final tally could increase as results for samples collected late in the year are tested.

As in other years the vast majority of TB cases in England in 2021 were in people born outside the UK.

This is due to the infection being more prevalent in some countries and the disease sometimes taking years to start displaying symptoms.

TB had a global mortality rate of 17 deaths per 100,000 people without HIV in 2020 according to data from the World health Organization.
An explosive leaked document has revealed there could soon be a Chinese military presence in the Solomon Islands.

The Australian government is clamouring for answers after the draft document was posted online on Thursday suggesting Beijing could deploy troops to 'protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands'.

Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews said Australia would view any expansion of Chinese military activity in the Pacific as concerning.

'That is our backyard. This is our neighbourhood and we are very concerned of any activity that is taking place in the Pacific Islands.'

Soldiers of Chinese People's Liberation Army (pictured) fire a mortar during a live-fire military exercise in 2021. A leaked document suggests Chinese soldiers could soon be deployed to Solomon Islands

The leaked document says Solomon Islands, east of Papua New Guinea, could 'request China to send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces' to the country.

It further states China may 'make ship visits, to carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands'.

The ABC reported it has verified the document, thought to have been recently drawn up but not yet formally signed, is genuine.

It was first published online by an adviser to a regional premier in the country.

Malaita provincial government premier Daniel Suidani has previously criticised his country for breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Australia is concerned about increased security cooperation between China and Solomon Islands, where Australian police have been deployed to help maintain peace.

However, recently a contingent of Chinese police officers was deployed to Solomon Islands to work with local authorities after last year's deadly anti-government riots.

An explosive leaked document (pictured) has revealed that Solomon Islands could soon have a Chinese military presence in the Pacific nation

Australia has long been the main security aid to Solomon Islands and does not want that role taken over by China.

Last November, federal police and ADF personnel were deployed there to restore calm following a request from the prime minister Manasseh Sogavare.

'We will continue to support the Solomon Islands. We know the difficult circumstances that they are in,' Ms Andrews said.

'Our Pacific Island friends know that we are there to support them.'

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi shakes hands with Solomon Islands foreign minister Jeremiah Manele during a ceremony to mark the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations on September 21, 2019

Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College in Canberra, said the leaked paper is deeply troubling for Australia and other nations in the region.

'This is news of serious security concern to Australia, New Zealand and our Pacific friends - an open door from Honiara for Chinese armed forces to operate in Solomon Islands,' he told ABC.

He said it could provide proof to previously sceptical observers of China's alleged intent to establish a military presence in the South Pacific.
Russia is believed to be plotting a wave of attacks on its own cities in a false flag operation led by the FSB that it will blame on Ukraine to justify a general mobilisation of troops, an exiled Russian politician has warned.

Ilya Ponomarev, 46, claimed the Russian security service is preparing to target chemical plants in Russia in attacks that will see thousands of civilians die.

The terrorist-style operations will be blamed on Ukrainian saboteurs, claimed Ponomarev, who eight years go was the only Russian politician to vote against Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea.

Ponomarev said the plot, which had been leaked by a security source, will be used to justify a general mobilisation in order to compensate for crippling losses for the Russian troops during their barbaric invasion of Ukraine.

A senior NATO military officer yesterday said the alliance estimates that Russia has suffered between 30,000 and 40,000 battlefield casualties in Ukraine through the first month of the war, including between 7,000 and 15,000 killed.

Ilya Ponomarev, 46, claimed the Russian security service is preparing to target chemical plants in Russia in attacks that will see hundreds of civilians die

The politician claimed the FSB is planning to target chemical and oil plants in the false-flag attacks, with the Voskresensk Mineral Fertilisers chemical plant (pictured) - Europe's largest producer of phosphate-based fertilisers - among the priority targets

Despite mobilising a force of between 150,000 and 200,000 Russian troops, Moscow failed to anticipate anything other than weak resistance by the Ukrainian forces - likely owing to Russian intelligence failures.

'After the failure of the blitzkrieg in Ukraine, Moscow faced the problem of an acute shortage of personnel to compensate for the losses incurred,' Ponomarev said.

'At the same time, the state leadership has repeatedly insisted that a general mobilisation will not be introduced.

'In order to play back on this issue, a very weighty pretext is needed: the deaths of thousands of civilians, which can be blamed on Ukraine.'

It was an echo of the alleged bombing of Russian homes apartment blocks in 1999 triggering the Second Chechen War, and also ushering Putin into the Kremlin.

The politician claimed the FSB is planning to target chemical and oil plants in the false-flag attacks, with the Voskresensk Mineral Fertilisers chemical plant - Europe's largest producer of phosphate-based fertilisers - and the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya among the priority targets.

Despite mobilising a force of between 150,000 and 200,000 Russian troops, Moscow failed to anticipate anything other than weak resistance by the Ukrainian forces - likely owing to Russian intelligence failures. Pictured: A charred Russian tank on the front line in the Kyiv region on March 20

Ponomarev said: 'A source close to the Russian law enforcement agencies told Utra February [Russian anti-war group] that the Federal Security Service [FSB] is preparing an explosion at a chemical or oil refinery near Moscow or another large Russian city in such a way that the wind carries toxic substances to residential areas.

'As a result, hundreds, and possibly thousands of people should die.

'It is planned to blame Ukrainian saboteurs for this.'

He claimed: 'More than 20 enterprises are considered as sabotage [targets], but the Voskresensk Mineral Fertilisers chemical plant and Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya are the priority ones.

'Explosions at these enterprises, which are located in residential areas, could lead to numerous casualties.

'In addition, both of these sites are located southeast of the centre of the Russian capital, and with a southeast wind, a poisonous cloud could cover the entire city.'

FSB is planning to target chemical and oil plants in the false-flag attacks, with the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya believed to be among the targets

He warned: 'Explosions are also possible in public places, in particular, in the underground train network.

'Various options are in the works, and Muscovites will not necessarily be the victims of the planned terrorist attack.

Pomomarev said: 'If you live in a large Russian city or near potentially dangerous sites, and you have the opportunity to leave, for example, to a village, we strongly recommend that you do just that.

'We also do not recommend using the metro during rush hours or visiting crowded places.

'Remember, Putin and his entourage will do anything to stay in power.'

The ex-MP left Russia for exile in Ukraine after his solo vote against the annexation of Crimea in the Russian parliament, an act which won widespread admiration in the West.

A technology entrepreneur, he remains in exile, and is a campaigner against the war in Ukraine.

His mother was an assistant to Roman Abramovich when he was an MP.

He was a former vice-president of Yukos oil company.
Police have commended a woman for her bravery after she bit an intruder's penis as he repeatedly raped her during a break-in at her home.

The victim, 60, clamped her teeth around 36-year old Brian Brough's person as he forced her into a sex act at her home near Salford.

The father-of-three freed himself but then beat the woman in fit of rage and raped her again, leaving her with multiple bone fractures to her face.

He then ran off with two mobile phones, bank cards, chocolates, a Fitbit, tobacco and alcohol.

Brian Brough, 36, has been jailed for 18 years, after being convicted of raping and attacking a woman in her Manchester home last year

The woman fled to a neighbour's house and was rushed to hospital where she was treated for a fractured jaw, black eyes, a broken nose and internal injuries.

When police asked former male escort Brough to account for his movements on the night of the rape, he told them: 'I haven't got a clue  ask my brain.'

He has a 15-year history of knife-related violence and was previously acquitted of rape in 2019.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Brough of Breightmet, near Bolton was jailed for was jailed for 18 years with an extended licence period of four years.

He will serve two thirds of his sentence in prison before being considered for release by the parole board.

He was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, two charges of rape, attempted rape and burglary.

The attack in Little Hulton, near Salford occurred late at night on March 19 last year.

Brough knocked on the victim's front door claiming to be a friend of her neighbour.

Mr Mark Kellet prosecuting said: 'She had gone to bed for the night, putting her dogs in their cage and she was wearing a nightie and her pyjama bottoms.

'Although she had never met the defendant before, as her neighbour's name matched what he said, she opened the door and he came into the house asking to use the toilet.

'She went into the front room but was followed by the defendant and as she sat on the sofa he sat next to her and put his arm around her.

'He told her that he was a male escort and took his penis out, saying, 'look, this is what I do.'

'She told him that she was not interested, but he grabbed her head and forced it onto him.

'In response, she bit the defendant's penis which prompted him to hit her in the face.'

Mr Kellet said: 'She was then dragged into the bedroom by the hair and thrown onto the bed.

'She described trying to fight him off and push him away but he kept punching her and she recalls passing out and coming round.

Brough has a 15-year history of knife-related violence and was previously acquitted of rape in 2019

Mr Kellet said the victim screamed and tried to stop him raping her, but he punched her, causing her to black-out again.

'When she came round, he had gone,' he said. 'While she was semi-conscious, she could hear him rummaging around, and she also heard one of her dogs yelping, she assumed from being kicked by the defendant.

'The next morning, she found that one of the dogs was missing.

'A neighbour returned the dog to her house but when she answered the door, he was shocked to see the state that she was in.'

He called the police after seeing her covered in blood with black eyes and a broken jaw.

Mr Kellet said that the victim waited at another neighbour's house for officers to arrive. She later provided an account of being beaten and sexually assaulted.

The victim was taken to the Trauma Assessment Unit at Salford Royal Hospital where a senior doctor noted multiple bruises and swelling to her head.

She suffered fractures to her upper and lower jaw, facial lacerations and missing teeth.

She was then taken to a rape crisis centre at St Mary's Hospital where doctors found a sample of Brough's DNA.

Tests showed that there was a billion-to-one chance the attacker might be somebody else.

As police searched for Brough, he arrived at the home of a friend with the victim's two Samsung mobile phones and with blood on his hands. He was later arrested at Wigan market.

At his rape trial last November, Brough denied wrongdoing, declined legal representation and refused to attend. He said nothing in his defence at the sentencing hearing

In response, Brough said: 'I didn't do it  I don't do things like that. I cannot recall doing anything like that at all. If I did, I would have been sat here with my head in my hands. I could go on a lie detector and still pass it.'

Brought has 50 previous offences on his record including possession of knives, robbery and possession of an offensive weapon.

He was jailed for 32 months in 2007 then jailed for further 54 months the following year for robbery and possession of a bladed article after threatening a shop security guard with a knife.

In 2015 he was jailed for 22 months after he led police on a 120mph car chase in a Peugeot 407 he stole from a neighbour who had invited him and his family round for drinks.

In 2020 he was jailed again for six weeks after he poured a can of beer over a woman's head and damaged her front door during an argument.

At his rape trial last November, Brough denied wrongdoing, declined legal representation and refused to attend.

He attended his sentencing hearing but said nothing in his defence.

He will have to serve a minimum of 12 years and once released, will be on licence until 2044, under the terms of an extended sentence.

He will be on the Sex Offender Register for life.

Sentencing Judge John Edwards told him: 'This was an extremely remorseless and violent rape.

'It was on any level an horrific ordeal for her. I have no doubt you pose a significant risk of harm to others.'

He added: 'I hope that she is able to draw a line under this, in the knowledge that this man will not be released probably in her lifetime.'

After the case, Detective Constable Leanne Jackson of Greater Manchester Police, described the attack as 'horrific and sustained'

She said that no one should be made to feel unsafe or at risk in their own home.

'Brough would not accept any responsibility for his sadistic and vile actions, forcing his victim to go through the horrendous ordeal in court,' she said.

'He did not even have the decency to attend his trial and face up to his actions and instead refused to come out of his prison cell with the trial having to be heard in his absence.

'His lack of remorse perfectly sums up who he is as a human being and thankfully we've now been able to remove him from the streets for 22 years and stop him causing any further harm to any more women.

'I want to thank the woman's neighbours who quickly alerted police and got her to hospital for the urgent medical treatment she needed.

'I also want to commend her bravery and strength throughout the investigation and trial as her determination to see this through has ensured we were able to secure a significant conviction.'
Russia has said Poland will be 'smashed' if it tries to intervene in its war on Ukraine.

In a chilling message, State Duma Deputy General Vladimir Shamanov said: 'The time has come for the country's leadership to say specifically there are borders, and just try, Poles, to poke your head here even 10 meters.'

Shamanov, who is the former commander of the Russian Airborne Troops, added that the final stages of the war would 'take place near the Ukraine-Poland border' and that Poles would receive a response 'under the full scheme', which would include hypersonic missiles.

The warning comes following a Polish proposal to send a UN Peacekeeping force to Ukraine.

According to a Polish Ministry of Defence plan leaked to the onet.pl news website, the peacekeeping mission envisions up to 10,000 troops being sent to Ukraine.

Russia's Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov said the move would lead to 'direct clashes' with NATO.

In a chilling message, State Duma Deputy General Vladimir Shamanov said: 'The time has come for the country's leadership to say specifically there are borders, and just try, Poles, to poke your head here even 10 meters'

Kremlin mouthpieces on Russia's state TV have also warned that Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Poland and the Baltic states and that Warsaw would be destroyed 'after two seconds'

Putin 'has the right to launch nukes if he is provoked by NATO', says ambassador Vladimir Putin has the right to launch nukes if he is provoked by NATO over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, a Russian ambassador to the UN has claimed. Just hours after another Kremlin spokesman warned of possible atomic war, Dmitry Polyanskiy sparked further fears by hinting there would be a seismic response a to any direct involvement in the conflict from the West. 'If Russia is provoked by NATO, if Russia is attacked by NATO we are a nuclear power, why not?' he told Sky News at the UN in New York. 'I don't think it's the right thing to be saying. But it's not the right thing to threaten Russia, and to try to interfere. So when you're dealing with a nuclear power, of course, you have to calculate all the possible outcomes of your behaviour.' The top diplomat also continued to dismiss claims that Kremlin forces have carried out war crimes, and suggested evidence of Ukrainian cities being destroyed by Russian missiles was 'fake news'. 'We said from the very beginning, that our military is not a threat for the civilian population Ukraine,' he added. As concerns continue to grow, France has raised its alert level, and has taken the unprecedented step of deploying three nuclear submarines at sea, according to FranceInter. Advertisement

In a blistering social media response, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called Poland's leadership 'political imbeciles' who were spreading 'vulgar' propaganda about Russia.

Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and a leader of the liberal Holos party said Medvedev's rant was 'a direct assault on Poland'.

Kremlin mouthpieces on Russia's state TV have also warned that Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Poland and the Baltic states and that Warsaw would be destroyed 'after two seconds'.

Alina Polyakova, head of the Centre for European Policy Analysis said the threats should be 'taken seriously'.

As tensions between the two countries deepen, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops have been put on a state of heightened alert.

Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said that there were 100,000 US troops in Europe and 40,000 forces under direct NATO command.

He added that these are backed by major air and sea power, including five carrier strike groups in the north and in the Mediterranean.

US President Biden, who is set to visit Poland on Friday after meeting with European leaders in Brussels, has vowed to defend 'every inch' of NATO territory.

Ahead of his meeting with Biden, Polish president Andrzej Duda yesterday called for a strengthening of NATO's eastern flank.

Following a meeting with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis, Duda said NATO should change its profile to be a 'defensive permanent presence of North Atlantic Alliance forces on our soil.'

Iohannis added: 'We urgently need a significant consolidation of the eastern flank, a forward presence, united and strengthened.'

It comes as a Russian ambassador to the the UN has claimed Vladimir Putin has the right to launch nukes if he is provoked by NATO over its invasion of Ukraine.

The broadcast also included the threat: 'If you are going to create a NATO peacekeeping mission, if you want to let it intervene and so on, yes, it will be a nuclear war'

Just hours after another Kremlin spokesman warned of possible atomic war, Dmitry Polyanskiy sparked further fears by hinting there would be a seismic response a to any direct involvement in the conflict from the West.

'If Russia is provoked by NATO, if Russia is attacked by NATO we are a nuclear power, why not?' he told Sky News at the UN in New York.

'I don't think it's the right thing to be saying. But it's not the right thing to threaten Russia, and to try to interfere. So when you're dealing with a nuclear power, of course, you have to calculate all the possible outcomes of your behaviour.'

The top diplomat also continued to dismiss claims that Kremlin forces have carried out war crimes, and suggested evidence of Ukrainian cities being destroyed by Russian missiles was 'fake news'.

'We said from the very beginning, that our military is not a threat for the civilian population Ukraine,' he added.

As concerns continue to grow, France has raised its alert level, and has taken the unprecedented step of deploying three nuclear submarines at sea, according to FranceInter.
London Aquatics Centre remains closed today as a probe was launched into a chemical gas leak that left 29 people in hospital, with some forced to stay in overnight.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the centre in London's Olympic Park yesterday morning after a delivery is thought to have led to deadly Chlorine gas being pumped out into the air.

A total of 29 people were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties after the gas, which is used to disinfect swimming pool water, leaked out as a result of a 'chemical reaction'.

Those affected, which included at least five children, were taken to Homerton Hospital, The Royal London Hospital (RLH) and Newham Hospital, with some being kept in overnight.

Dozens more people were treated at the scene by paramedics, while police and firefighters shut access to the site for hours while the evacuation took place.

In a statement London Legacy Development Corporation, which runs Queen Elizabeth Park where the centre is based, said police remain in control of part of the building.

'The incident has been reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the building will remain closed until Environmental Health Officers from the London Borough of Newham have carried out their investigation,' she said.

'Safety of our customers and staff is a priority and we will be working closely with those investigating so we fully understand the cause of the incident.'

The HSE said it was informed of the incident, but did not attend the scene as the council did so as the enforcing authority.

In response to yesterday's incident, the centre wrote on Twitter: '@noordinarypark is open as usual this morning, however @AquaticsCentre will be closed today following yesterday's incident.

'Our thoughts are with those affected and our thanks go to the emergency services for their prompt action.'

Dramatic video and photos from the scene on Wednesday morning show dozens of ambulances, as well as firefighters and police helping people leave the venue.

A person is treated by paramedics as emergency services evacuate the London Aquatics Centre at London's Olympic Park

A lorry carrying a tank of hydrochloric acid, parked outside the Aquatics Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, following a gas-related incident sparked by a chemical reaction

One person was treated on a paramedic's gurney while multiple swimmers, still in their trunks and goggles, were seen being cared wrapped in foil blankets to keep them warm.

Witnesses near the scene said they could smell chlorine which rapidly diffused once it was pumped into the atmosphere.

London Fire Brigade said a 'high quantity of chlorine gas' was released inside the Aquatics Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London due to a 'chemical reaction'.

In a statement on Twitter, the London Aquatics Centre said the leak had happened when its plant room took a delivery of chemicals.

'At approximately 10am this morning we took the decision to evacuate the London Aquatics Centre,' it said.

'This was due to a release of gas that occurred when the facilities management company that operates the plant room took delivery of pool chemicals.

'We are awaiting guidance on when the Centre will be able to reopen.'

A statement on the aquatic centre's website added: 'To ensure the safety of everyone in our community, London Aquatics Centre will remain closed on Thursday 24th March following a chemical gas leak incident on the morning of Wednesday 23rd March.

22 ambulances and several fire engines at the London 2012 Aquatics Centre (right of picture) after people became ill after a release of Chlorine gas

A major incident has been declared in the capital after the chemical reaction caused chlorine gas to be released

A swimmer is taken away still wearing his goggles as deadly gas was released following a chemical reaction in London

'If you had a booking at London Aquatics Centre for Wednesday 23rd March or Thursday 24th March, your booking has been cancelled and your account will automatically be credited.

'Thank you for your understanding as we await further guidance on when we can re-open. Please return to this website for further updates on when we can welcome you back.'

A spokesperson for Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Homerton Hospital, said it had received patients who required treatment for 'respiratory problems' following the incident.

The London Aquatics Centre has announced it will remain closed today, although the surrounding area has reopened

Swimmers, personal trainers and pool staff had to be evacuated from the building following the delivery error

Emergency vehicles are pictured outside the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

A total of 18 people had been brought in to the hospital from the scene by paramedics, five of whom were children.

The spokesperson said: 'We were put on alert by London Ambulance Service at around 10.30am. The first (patients) came in an hour and a half later. We were stood down at about 2.50pm.

'The majority of people who were affected were treated at the scene by paramedics.'

He added 'a couple of people' had been kept in overnight as a precautionary measure.

A spokesperson for Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs RLH and Newham Hospital, said: 'We are treating patients at Newham Hospital and The Royal London Hospital who were evacuated from the Queen Elizabeth Park aquatics centre following an incident.'

They added the trust had not declared major incidents at New Hospital or The Royal London Hospital.

Ambulances arrive as emergency services evacuate people from the London Aquatics Centre on March 23, 2022

Emergency services near the Aquatics Centre, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, following a gas-related incident at the London Aquatics Centre

A team of firefighters make plans to enter the London 2012 Aquatics Centre, which is being ventilated due to the release of a deadly gas

There was a mass evacuation of buildings and building sites in the area as the emergency services declared a major incident

Pictures from the scene showed a blue lorry with tanks of hydrochloric acid abandoned outside shortly after the incident. It is not known what happened next, but for safety reasons, experts recommend that hydrochloric acid and pool chlorine should never be stored together - and should absolutely never, ever be mixed, under any circumstances - because they can cause the release of chlorine gas.

Chlorine gas, a substance so deadly it has been used as a weapon of war, can be fatal if breathed in. It also causes shortness of breath, blurred vision, burning pain in the nose, eyes and throat and and blisters on the skin.

Darren Farmer, London Ambulance Service gold commander, said yesterday: 'This morning we responded to a major incident at the London Aquatic Centre in Stratford, alongside colleagues from the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police.

'We sent a significant number of resources including 13 ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, two medics in fast response cars, two incident response officers, a medical incident adviser and members of our hazardous area response team (HART).

'We also dispatched medics from London's Air Ambulance. Our crews took 29 patients to hospital and assessed a further 48 patients at the scene. The majority of patients were reporting minor breathing difficulties'.

LAS said it stood down its response shortly after 3pm.

Footage from the sky showed people being treated in the car park on coloured mats

The building, close to West Ham United's London Stadium (pictured right), has been evacuated and the Mayor of London has urged people to avoid the area

How chlorine used to kill bacteria in swimming pools can be deadly is released in as a gas Chlorine is the 17th element in the periodic table and forms the basis for many everyday household bleaches. It is also known for its use in swimming pools, where it reacts with the water to form hypochlorous acid that kills bacteria to give sanitary conditions. But it has a darker history from its use in warfare, with its first appearance being during the First World War at Ypres in April 1915. The Germans used it against the French and killed 100 men, before more gas attacks were carried out by both sides as the war continued. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 banned the use of chemical weapons in war, but they were still used in the 1930s by Italy against Ethiopia, and Japan against China. Improved defences such as gas masks, clothing and detectors made chemical warfare innefectual by the Second World War - although they were used in the Yemeni conflict of 1966-67 and the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. But they have since remerged as a weapon during the Syrian civil war, with more than 80 people killed in a recent suspected chemical attack. Advertisement

A builder told The Standard he saw a group of children evacuated from the building along with several older people.

He said: 'The children looked ok but the group of elderly people looked worse off.'

The Aquatics Centre was ventilated for most of the day and the Mayor of London urged people to avoid the area.

'Due to a chemical reaction a high quantity of chlorine gas was released. London Ambulance Service are treating a number of patients', a London Fire Brigade spokesman said.

He added: 'Around 200 people were evacuated from the centre. While we ventilate the premises we would ask those residents in the immediate vicinity to close doors and windows'.

The London Ambulance Service were called the the Olympic Park in east London at just before 10am after a noxious substance leaked into the building containing the swimming pool and diving area.

People described suffering headaches and struggling to breathe because of the fumes. Some were seen lying on their backs on the pavement.

A spokesman for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park tweeted: 'There has been an incident @AquaticsCentre this morning involving the release of a gas.

'The area has been cordoned off and evacuated. We're working with emergency services on site. There are a number of casualties with breathing difficulties being treated by @Ldn_Ambulance'.

Pictures from the scene showed more than 20 ambulances and three fire engines outside the sealed off building being supported by police. Footage filmed from helicopter showed paramedics treating people in the car park outside.

Police evacuated the swimming pool and cordoned off the surrounding area in Stratford, East London at around 10am.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Officers were alerted by London Fire Brigade at 9.53am on Wednesday to a leak of noxious fumes at the Aquatics Centre, Queen Elizabeth Park, E20.

'Officers and London Ambulance Service have also attended the scene. A number of people have been evacuated from the premises.'

The London Aquatics Centre - with its distinctive sloped roof - is a well known landmark in the Olympic Park
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The proportion of Covid deaths where the virus is not the underlying cause has climbed to its highest ever level in England, official figures show.

One in three victims who had the virus mentioned on their death certificate in February died 'with' rather than 'from' Covid, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS' monthly report showed a record 34 per cent of the 3,644 coronavirus deaths in England in February were not primarily due to the virus.

For comparison, during the first wave of the virus in April 2020 before vaccines were available, the share of deaths where Covid was not the underlying killer was just five per cent.

When the milder Omicron variant emerged in November, the figure stood at 15 per cent and has climbed every month since.

The rise of Omicron and its off-shoot strain BA.2 has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where half of virus inpatients in England are not primarily needing treatment for the infection.

Critics have warned that the rise in so-called 'incidental' cases, driven by the sheer prevalence of the now-dominant BA.2, is skewing the Government's daily coronavirus statistics.

Separate data released by the ONS today highlights how immunity in the population is also likely contributing to a rise in incidentals.

It estimated that 99 per cent of adults and up to 96 per cent of children in England had Covid-fighting antibodies by February 28, based on blood samples taken from 75,000 Britons.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that of the 34 per cent of Covid deaths  which include all fatalities where Covid is written on the death certificate  were not primarily caused by the virus. The figure is the highest recorded since the pandemic began

The graph shows the mortality rate in February for men and women in England and Wales. The rate was significantly lower in February 2022 compared to February 2021

The graph shows the proportion of fatalities that had Covid mentioned on the death certificate where the virus was the underlying cause. Figures are given for England and Wales. The proportion for England was at the lowest level ever recorded in February

The ONS data shows the Covid mortality rate in England and Wales each month. The figure is trending downwards, falling to 55.3 deaths per 100,000 people in England last month, compared to 79.3 in January. The rate fell in Wales from 81 per 100,000 at the start of the year to 45.7 in February

The ONS' monthly mortality report also shows there were 43,081 deaths from all causes registered in England in February, while 2,730 were logged in Wales. Both numbers are lower than the five-year average.

Covid was the third leading cause of death in England and sixth most deadly cause in Wales, accounting for around one in 20 fatalities in each nation last month.

Doctors certifying deaths can list all the causes, including pre-existing conditions, that led to a fatality. The ONS uses this information to determine the underlying cause of death.

From the beginning of the pandemic to February, the ONS found the virus has been the underlying cause of 87.5 per cent of fatalities where the virus has been mentioned on a death certificate  meaning 12.5 per cent have been due to other conditions.

But the rate has varied from month to month. The statisticians found that last month, just 66 per cent of Covid deaths were caused by the virus, meaning 34 per cent were due to other reasons  the highest proportion ever recorded.

Last May, when Covid deaths were at one of their lowest rates, was previously the month with the highest proportion of Covid deaths where the virus deaths were not the underlying cause  31.2 per cent.

In November, the month Omicron was first detected, 15.1 per cent of Covid deaths were not primarily caused by the virus.

Since then, the figure has risen every month, reaching 16.2 per cent in December, 26.3 per cent in January and 34 per cent in February.

Hospital staff absences in England due to Covid-19 jump 31% week-on-week Staff absences at NHS hospitals in England due to Covid have jumped more than 30 per cent week-on-week, the biggest increase since the start of the year, new figures show. An average of 23,127 staff at hospital trusts in England  2 per cent of the total workforce  were absent each day last week, either because they were sick with Covid or were self-isolating. This is up 31 per cent on the week to March 13, and is the largest percentage rise since the seven days to January 2 during the peak of the Omicron wave when NHS staff Covid absences rose by 41 per cent. But it is still below the level reached at the peak of the Omicron wave in early January, when absences due to Covid averaged nearly 46,000. All regions have seen a week-on-week increase in Covid absences, with south-west England recording the biggest rise (44 per cent), followed by south-east England (40 per cent) and the North East and Yorkshire (34 per cent). The Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) director for England Patricia Marquis said the new figures showed that the pressure on nursing staff in every region was not easing off. Advertisement

The ONS said the difference in rates 'generally correspond' to periods with low or high Covid deaths.

'However, February 2022 has not followed this pattern as deaths involving Covid still accounted for 8.5 per cent of all deaths in England in February 2022,' it said.

The rise of the milder strain has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where just 44.5 per cent of patients are being primarily treated for the virus, according to NHS England data up to March 22.

The ONS said that Covid was involved in 3,644 deaths logged in England last month, but just 2,405 were due to the virus.

The figure means the proportion of deaths caused by the virus fell from 7.6 per cent in January to 5.6 per cent in February.

In Wales, 4.4 per cent (121) of the 2,730 fatalities registered were due to Covid, a smaller figure than the 7.3 per cent rate from one month earlier.

Despite the pandemic, overall deaths were 2.2 per cent lower in England last month than expected, when compared to the five-year average from 2015 to 2019  before the Covid crisis.

Using the same measure, fatalities in February were 7.1 per cent lower in Wales than expected.

High rates of immunity in the population has provided a wall of defence against the virus, with the ONS estimating 99 per cent of adults have antibodies against the virus from vaccination or infection.

More than nine in 10 people aged 12 and over in the UK are triple-jabbed, while No10's modellers estimate 52 per cent of England's population have been infected.

The Covid death mortality rate is also trending downwards, falling to 55.3 deaths per 100,000 people in England last month, compared to 79.3 in January. The rate fell in Wales from 81 per 100,000 at the start of the year to 45.7 in February.

In England, Alzheimer's and dementia continued to be the leading cause of death, causing 4,991 fatalities. Heart disease, Covid and cerebrovascular diseases were also among the leading causes of death.

In Wales, heart disease was the leading cause of death, behind 296 fatalities, followed by dementia and Alzheimer's and cerebrovascular diseases.

The figures come as the UK's daily Covid cases yesterday breached 100,000 for the second time this month, while hospitalisations and deaths also ticked upwards.

Government dashboard statistics show 102,483 new infections were logged, compared to the 91,345 last Wednesday.

It is the second time in just eight days that daily cases have risen above the six-figure threshold, after the Omicron wave collapsed in late January.

Another 194 Covid fatalities were reported yesterday, up 27 per cent on one week earlier. Hospitalisations also rose 30 per cent in a week, according to the latest UK-wide data for March 19, with 2,011 new admissions.

The rising statistics have been attributed to the loosening of restrictions across the UK and the rise of the more infectious BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

The graph shows the leading causes of death in England in February. Alzheimer's and dementia continued to be the leading cause of death, causing 4,991 fatalities. Heart disease, Covid and cerebrovascular diseases were also among the leading causes of death

The graph shows the leading causes of death in Wales in February. Heart disease was the leading cause of death, behind 296 fatalities, followed by dementia and Alzheimer's and cerebrovascular diseases

The extremely transmissible sub-strain is still causing milder illness than previous variants.

However, in a downbeat assessment of how the next phase of the pandemic will pan out, Professor Chris Whitty yesterday said he expects virus hospitalisations to keep rising for 'at least' the next two weeks, warning there is still 'pressure on the NHS'.

It comes as official NHS England figures today showed staff absences due to Covid have jumped more than 30 per cent week-on-week, the biggest increase since the start of the year.

An average of 23,127 staff at hospital trusts in England  2 per cent of the total workforce  were absent each day last week, either because they were sick with Covid or were self-isolating.

This is up 31 per cent on the week to March 13, and is the largest percentage rise since the seven days to January 2 during the peak of the Omicron wave when NHS staff Covid absences rose by 41 per cent.

But it is still below the level reached at the peak of the Omicron wave in early January, when absences due to Covid averaged nearly 46,000.

The Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) director for England Patricia Marquis said the new figures showed that the pressure on nursing staff in every region was not easing off.

She added: 'With a significantly depleted workforce undermining their attempts to provide safe and effective care, these absences are the last thing nursing staff need.

The above chart lays bare England's mammoth wall of immunity against Covid. Based on random tests on 75,000 people in England a week, it shows around 99 per cent of all over-18s have Covid-fighting antibodies. Among eight to 15-year-olds up to 96 per cent would test positive for the virus-fighting proteins, they estimated

Modelling from Cambridge University scientists suggests 51.8 per cent of people in England had caught the virus by February 23, two years into the pandemic

The above chart shows that around 85 per cent of people in Britain have already had two doses of the vaccine, while 67 per cent have also got their booster shot

The UK Government is offering scant comfort  yesterday's spring statement did nothing to address the tens of thousands of vacant nursing posts in the long term.

'Cases are rising and more uncertainty looms with free community testing set to end this month. Employers must ensure nursing staff have continued access to testing and high-quality PPE.'

Rich school children were more likely to test positive for Covid than poor school children Wealthy school children were more likely to test positive for Covid than their peers last term, official statistics revealed today. About 20 per cent of primary and 27 per cent of secondary school pupils in the least deprived group had the virus in autumn 2021, an Office for National Statistics report found. For comparison, among the most deprived it was nine and 15 per cent respectively among children that fell into the most deprived category. The ONS report analysed testing data from 6.5million children aged four to 15 years old at state schools in England. At this time pupils were required to test themselves twice a week for the virus. The ONS did not suggest why more wealthy pupils were testing positive than their poorer peers. Previous studies have suggested Covid is more prevalent in poorer areas, which has been linked to lower vaccination rates and where adults are more likely to work in face-to-face roles. Advertisement

Meanwhile, ONS data shows 99 per cent of adults in England were estimated to have Covid-fighting antibodies by February 28  exactly two years since the country was plunged into its first lockdown.

An estimated 96 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 had the protective proteins and around 81 per cent of youngsters between eight and 11.

Covid antibodies are produced by the immune system in response to either natural infection or vaccination and they indicate at least some level of immunity against the disease.

The figures  based on blood samples from 75,000 people  come exactly two years after the UK went into the unprecedented first lockdown.

Boris Johnson announced on the night of March 23 that the following day, Britons should not leave their home but for exceptional circumstances. At that point, there was virtually zero immunity to the novel virus.

But now more than 85 per cent of Britons have been double-jabbed and 67 per cent have got three doses, according to official figures, while separate estimates suggest half of Britons have already caught Covid.

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, hailed the wall of immunity, claiming we were 'not in the situation we were in two years or even a year ago'.

He told MailOnline: 'We are better off than I anticipated we would be back then. The vaccines came along quicker than I anticipated they would.'

Antibodies do not provide total immunity against infection, but the ONS said they were 'strong enough to provide some protection' against the virus.

The ONS report suggested there were similarly high levels among adults in Scotland (99 per cent), Wales (98.9 per cent) and Northern Ireland (98.8 per cent). Among children up to 97 per cent had the virus-fighting proteins.

Britain's vaccination drive was launched in December 2020, about a year after the first Covid cases appeared in Wuhan, China. It prioritised the elderly and extremely vulnerable before being expanded down the age groups in 2021.

This winter third doses were also offered to all over-18s amid concerns over waning antibody levels and the more infectious Omicron variant.

Fourth doses are being offered to over-75s, care home residents and the vulnerable this spring.

Ministers are also already gearing up to dish out fifth doses to this group in the autumn, the Health Secretary has suggested, as well as fourth doses to over-50s. This would bring Covid jabs into line with the flu vaccine, which is rolled out every year to the age groups.

Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, previously told MailOnline that the variant gave a perfect opportunity to boost natural immunity levels without overwhelming the NHS because it was so mild.
Former President Park Geun-hye walks out of Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul, Thursday, nearly three months after she was hospitalized there on Dec. 31. She served almost five years in prison after being convicted on 16 out of 18 charges of corruption before being pardoned late last year. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



Park Geun-hye welcomed by hometown supporters



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Conservative former President Park Geun-hye headed to her new home in the southeastern city of Daegu after being released from Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul, Thursday, nearly four months after she was hospitalized there on Dec. 31 for declining health.



She had suffered from chronic shoulder and back pain since she was pardoned on Dec. 24 and released from jail on Dec. 31 of last year after serving almost five years of a 20-year sentence for corruption while president.



Walking out of the hospital with her lawyer, former lawmaker Yoo Young-ha, early Thursday morning, the healthy-looking former president beamed as nearly two hundred supporters gathered there and chanted her name.



Wearing a navy blue coat and beige face mask, Park expressed her gratitude toward the dedicated medical staff who had taken care of her since her release from prison at the end of last year, saying she was feeling great.



"I stand here before my fellow citizens after five years," she said. She said she felt very well and fully recovered from her illness, thanks to the unwavering public support.



After the brief speech, she got into her vehicle and left the hospital without answering questions from reporters about her future plans.



On her way home in Daegu, the former president dropped by the National Cemetery in Seoul to pay her tribute to her late father, President Park Chung-hee, who was buried there after being assassinated by the director of the KCIA in October 1979. She found a new place in her hometown following the seizure and auctioning off of her former residence in southern Seoul last year due to her failure to pay 21.5 billion won ($17.6 million) in financial penalities ordered by the Supreme Court in its final ruling on her corruption case.



After being impeached following months of Candlelight demonstrations, the younger Park was found guilty of 16 out of 18 charges of bribery and the abuse of power, and was put in prison on March 31, 2017.



On Thursday, some of her supporters who gathered at the Samsung Medical Center criticized President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, calling him a "criminal." They also criticized unspecified politicians for having cooperated with the prosecution for putting her in jail, saying they are "traitors" and "rubbish."



Several politicians, including former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, former lawmaker Min Kyung-wook, who served as the former president's spokesman, and Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, were also there.





Seen behind is Park's residence in Dalseong County, Daegu City. Yonhap



Park received the warmest of welcomes from supporters in Dalseong. Thousands of people gathered in front of her residence in the rustic county to welcome the former president.



She delivered a prepared speech before the crowd at the entrance of her residence.



"In retrospect, the past five years (in prison) were really difficult for me to endure.

Whenever things got tough, I dreamed of the day when I could go back to my political hometown of Dalseong, and then I came to find the energy to continue on," she said.



Her speech abruptly halted as a glass bottle that was thrown at her from the crowd smashed on the ground near her. Her bodyguards surrounded her immediately.



She resumed her speech with a smile a few minutes later.



"I couldn't live up to my commitment and disappointed you greatly but people in this county always gave me a warm welcome. After the announcement that I was pardoned, I read a news article which said people in Dalseong were ready to help me live the rest of my life here peacefully. I was touched," she said.



She became emotional as she recalled her political debut as a lawmaker through a by-election in Dalseong back in 1998 and her rise to becoming the country's president.



President-elect Yoon was in charge of the Central Prosecutors' Office when the investigation of President Park was underway and his involvement in the investigation has put him in an awkward relationship with the ex-president since he ran in the presidential election on the conservative People Power Party's ticket.



During a debate hosted by broadcast journalists in December last year, Yoon said he wished the ex-president a fast recovery from her illness. When asked if he had any plans to meet her in person, Yoon said her recovery was the priority and didn't think him visiting her would be appropriate.



On Thursday, President-elect Yoon said that it was good to hear that President Park has fully recovered and is able to go to her home in Daegu. "I plan to visit provincial cities from next week and pay a visit to her in person. I heard that she moved to a new residence in Daegu, so will check with her if I can visit her. If she says yes, I will do it," he told reporters at a tent set up at the presidential transition committee building in Seoul as the press room was not available.



President Moon Jae-in congratulated Park on her release from the hospital. He sent a potted orchid to commemorate her fresh start in her new home in Daegu through his political affairs secretary, with the message, "Be healthy." Park delivered her gratitude to Moon through her spokesperson, Yoo, wishing him luck on finishing his presidential term smoothly and to be well.




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Britain has sanctioned the stepdaughter of Putins lapdog Sergei Lavrov as part of a new raft of sanctions on a string of Russian oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs.

Also among the targets of the new measures announced today are The Wagner Group mercenaries  known as Putins private army and accused of trying to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian politicians.

UK unveils latest wave of sanctions ALFA-BANK JSC (Alfa-Bank) The largest private bank in Russia. Separate from Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) which has not been sanctioned. Alrosa The world's largest diamond mining company, based in Mirny, Russia and with a market cap estimated at 4.69billion. Eugene Markovich Shvidler A billionaire businessman with close business links to Roman Abramovich. His net worth is reportedly 1.2billion. Oleg Tinkov Founder of Tinkoff Bank. His net worth is estimated at 3.4billion. Herman Gref Chief Executive Officer of Sberbank, the largest Russian bank. A former minister under Putin who worked with him in the St Petersburg Government in the 1990s. Oleg E Aksyutin The Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at Gazprom PJSC, the Russian multinational energy corporation. Didier Casimiro First Vice President of Rosneft, the Russian State oil company. Zeljko Runje Deputy Chairman of the Management Board and First Vice President for Oil, Gas, and Offshore Business Development of Rosneft Galina Danilchenko Installed as 'mayor' of Melitopol by Russian authorities. This first individual sanctioned for collaborating with the Russian military in Ukraine. Polina Kovaleva Stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. She reportedly owns a 4million property in London. Advertisement

The new sanctions cover individuals including billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, founder of Tinkoff bank Oleg Tinkov, Herman Gref, and Polina Kovaleva, Foreign Minister Lavrovs stepdaughter.

NATO leaders are gathering in Brussels today to discuss the Ukraine War, while Putins advance appears to be increasingly stalled after Russia invaded 26 days ago.

Arriving at the summit this morning, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: Weve got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today, as we are, sanctioning the Wagner Group, looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves, and also doing more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.

The most prominent target of the sanctions is Imperial College graduate Polina Kovaleva, a glamorous 26-year-old who lives in a 4million home in Kensington.

Polina went to a private boarding school in Bristol before gaining a first-class degree in economics with politics at Loughborough University and later completing a masters in economics and strategy for business at Imperial College London.

She went on to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, where she helped with mergers and acquisitions and later worked at Glencore, the mining company. Before buying her own home, she lived in Holland Park, west London, in an apartment in a townhouse that is owned by the Russian embassy.

Records show that the nearby Ukrainian embassy alleged Russia had wrongly claimed ownership of the property.

Polina now lives in an apartment, which Land Registry documents state she purchased for 4.4million with no mortgage in 2016, when she was 21, in a block just off Kensington High Street. It is still unknown who paid for Polinas flat. She shares the apartment with a man, believed to be her partner, who also has a 10 per cent stake in the investment company she now runs.

The property is part of an award-winning development offering a swimming pool, gym, spa, cinema, golf simulator, games room and views across Kensington and Holland Park.

Polinas mother is reported to be Svetlana Polyakova, 51, a powerful member of the Russian Foreign Ministry who accompanies Lavrov on every foreign trip and has had a relationship since the early 2000s. It is rumoured that she is Lavrovs unofficial wife.

Britains Foreign Office has claimed that targeting Polina sends a strong signal that those benefiting from association of those responsible for Russian aggression are in scope of our sanctions.

In practice, the sanctions will prevent UK nationals and businesses from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by Polina. They will also prevent money being provided to Polina, or being provided for her benefit.

In a statement, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price. Putin should be under no illusions  we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up.

All those sanctioned today will have their assets in the UK frozen which means no UK citizen or company can do business with them, and individuals subject to travel bans are also prohibited from travelling to or from the UK.

Todays sanctions will bring the total global asset value of the banks the UK has sanctioned since the invasion to 500billion and the net worth of the oligarchs and family members in excess of 150billion.

Britain has sanctioned the stepdaughter of Putins lapdog Sergei Lavrov, Imperial College graduate Polina Kovaleva

She went on to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, where she helped with mergers and acquisitions and later worked at Glencore, the mining company

Land Registry documents show Polina purchased an apartment (pictured above) in Kensington, west London, for 4.4million with no mortgage in 2016, when she was aged just 21

Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson deep in conversation at the NATO summit today

NATO heads of states stand together for a family picture at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, March 24, 2022

Polinas mother is reported to be Svetlana Polyakova, 51, with whom Lavrov has had a relationship since the early 2000s and is said to be his unofficial wife

The global crimes of the notorious Wagner Group used by Putin for 'dirty' missions The notorious Wagner Group, a private military company, was also sanctioned by the UK today. Founded by a former soldier and Putin-ally known as 'Putin's chef' it has committed war crimes across the globe. They have now allegedly been tasked with assassinating Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian politicians. In December, the EU accused Wagner of 'serious human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mozambique'. So what are some of the crimes the group has committed? The Wagner group (file picture) and Chechen special forces have allegedly been trying to kill the Ukrainian president since Russian troops launched a savage invasion of Ukraine on February 24 Donbas, Ukraine: The Wagner group first appeared in 2014, to help Russia destabilise the Donbas region. Hundreds of members assassinated Donbas separist leaders who were not following Kremlin orders, with the killings blamed on Ukraine. Syria: Wagner was operating in Syria in 2015, where the Russians wanted to bolster the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad. In 2017, Wagner employees tortured a deserter from the Syrian army. Sickening footage showed how they broke his legs with a sledgehammer and then crushed his chest, before cutting off his hands, his head and finally setting his corpse alight. The conduct of Wagner in Syria eventually became so bad that the Russian government refused to pay them, viewing them as dangerous cowboys. Wagner's founder and leader is Dmitry Utkin, a shaven-headed former lieutenant colonel in Spetsnaz  Russia's special forces. He is described as a neo-Nazi with 'an appreciation of the aesthetic of the Third Reich'. Utkin was sanctioned by the EU for ordering Bouta's killing. Central African Republic: Wagner mercenaries arrived in CAR to support President Faustin-Archange Touadera against rebels in 2017. Wagner employees were accused by the UN and France of carrying out human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings of suspected rebels. There were also accusations of rape, robbery and torture against unarmed civilians. The United Nations is probing an alleged massacre during a joint operation by government forces and Wagner fighters. One military source told AFP that more than 50 people died, some in 'summary executions' In 2018, three Russian journalists reporting on Wagner's activities in CAR were ambushed and shot dead. Another Russian journalist investigating the group 'fell' to his death from his fifth floor flat. Sudan: Wagner mercenaries are believed to have trained government forces. The group also 'spreads disinformation on social media and engages in illicit activities connected to gold mining'. Mozambique: Wagner has supported the army in its fight against the Islamist militant insurgency in the north. They have been accused of burning down villages, terrorising civilians and killing women and children. However, the group retreated in the face of jihadists after around a dozen men were killed in gruesome attacks by ISIS terrorists. They were believed to have been killed in ambushes and botched operations. Mali: The Mali government employed 1,000 Wagner operatives in December. Russian operatives are believed to have helped train coup plotters who took over last year. Advertisement

The provisions brought in by the Economic Crime Act have streamlined the previous legislation so the UK can respond even more swiftly and effectively to the current crisis. The government will continue to tighten the screw and use sanctions to degrade the Russian economy on a scale that the Kremlin, or any major economy, has never seen before.

The UK has led the international sanctions effort, cutting off whole sectors of the Russian economy by targeting its defence companies, its trade and transport sector, and working with allies to exclude Russia from the SWIFT financial system.

The sanctions also targeted Russian Railways, and defence company Kronshtadt, the main producer of Russian drones. Private military contractor Wagner Group has also been sanctioned.

They were among 59 individuals and entities added to the sanctions list which has been used to target Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Gazprombank is one of main channels for payments for Russian oil and gas. Alfa-Bank is one of Russias top private lenders, controlled by Mikhail Fridman, who was sanctioned by Britain earlier this month, and his partners.

Among the individuals sanctioned were oil tycoon Evgeny Shvidler, founder of Tinkoff bank Oleg Tinkov and German Gref, the CEO of Russias largest bank Sberbank, the Foreign Office said.

Maria Pevchikh, the head of investigations at Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that Lavrov and Polyakova had been together for around two decades.

Questioning where Polina got the money to buy her apartment, Pevchikh said: Polinas biological dad isnt superrich. She doesnt have an oligarch husband. Yet aged 21, she bought a prestigious apartment on Kensington High Street for 4.4 million, and her lifestyle is like a non-stop holiday.

Polinas mother also enjoys substantial assets that a Foreign Ministry apparatchik would almost certainly not be able to afford.

Property records show that she and her family own real estate in Russia and Great Britain worth about 1 billion rubles.

At the time this was worth $13.6million, although the ruble has since collapsed due to the debilitating war in Ukraine.

Lavrov is married to philologist wife Maria, and the couple have a daughter Ekaterina, 40, who was raised mainly in the US where he was posted as a diplomat. Despite this, Lavrov has been seen on foreign trips accompanied by Polyakova, who sometimes uses the female form of his surname, Lavrova.

Pevchikh said Polyakova and her daughter should have their assets frozen along with oligarchs such as Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska. Her calls were backed by Labour MP Chris Bryant.

MPs had questioned why the Governments list was still dwarfed by the hundreds of individuals and entities sanctioned by the EU and the US.

Layla Moran MP, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for foreign affairs and international development, told the Daily Telegraph: The Government is still way behind the EU and the US. The legislation hasnt passed yet, so if they can act against Abramovich now, why not the others?.

Moran called for action against 35 named key enablers of Putin in the Commons last month, many of whom have been sanctioned in the EU or US but not in the UK.

This includes Viktor Zolotov, the head of Russias national guard whose family is one of the richest in Russia in the real estate sector; Anton Vaino, Putins chief of staff; and Mikhail Mishustin, the Russian prime minister.

Moran said that officials should also look at the family and friends of Putin's associates, as one of the ways that they get around sanctions is to transfer funds and assets to family members.

They should be included in the list and ideally it should be automatic, she said.

Speaking to broadcasters after landing in Brussels, Johnson said: Vladimir Putin is plainly determined to double down on his path of violence and aggression.

Describing Putins treatment of Ukrainians as absolutely brutal, he added: Weve got to step up. Weve got to increase our support.

Weve got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today, as we are, sanctioning the Wagner Group, looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves, and also doing more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.

Western officials had expected to be supporting a Ukrainian insurgency at this point in the war, rather than the nations army, which is holding up.

Johnson said: Were moving, really, from a programme of supporting resistance to supporting the Ukrainian defence of their own country.

Praising him as one of the most extraordinary war leaders of recent times, Johnson said Zelensky wants tighter sanctions on Putins regime and very specific defensive military support for his armed forces. And that, were determined to provide.

He also hit out at Moscows bid to host Euro 2028, saying Russia should withdraw its forces and the football tournament should be handed to Ukraine.

The Wagner group (file picture) and Chechen special forces have allegedly been trying to kill the Ukrainian president since Russian troops launched a savage invasion of Ukraine on February 24

Vladimir Putin's risk of being deposed by a Russian security-service led coup is growing every week, a whistleblower has claimed today. Pictured: Putin (second left) at a a gala even in November 2018 along-side senior Russian military figures

Destroyed buildings and a military vehicle are seen as civilians being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on March 21, 2022

Pictured: A shopping mall lies in ruins after a Russian missile strike of the Russian troops in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv on March 23, 2022

The idea of Russia holding any kind of football tournament or any kind of cultural event right now is beyond satire, he said. The best thing possible would be for the entire Russian armed forces to retire forthwith from Ukraine and to hand it to them, of course.

However, those remarks came just a day after the UK and Ireland football associations submitted their joint formal interest in staging the tournament.

Ahead of the summit getting under way, Russian hoaxers, suspected of working for the Kremlin, released a full version of their video call with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. The MoD has warned the footage being trickled out, in which Mr Wallace thought he was talking to Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal, is doctored and propaganda.

Speaking to the imposter, Wallace says: Ive just been looking at our new anti-air missiles that were sending you, which is better than Stinger, itll work at night, its a very, very fast missile and it will help close the skys to Russian aircraft.

NATO has refused Ukrainian demands for a no-fly zone to be imposed over the nation out of fears it would drag the West into a direct conflict with Russia.

The hoaxers warned that a prank call with Home Secretary Priti Patel will follow soon.

Ukraine destroys Russian landing ship after state media revealed its location with propaganda footage: Huge fireball rises over port that had been taken by Putin's forces

Ukraine claims to have destroyed a huge Russian ship just days after state media filmed it unloading reinforcements at a captured port, as Putin's army continues to suffer punishing losses at the hands of Kyiv's men.

The Ukrainian navy said early Thursday that it had scored a direct hit on the Orsk, a 370ft Russian Alligator-class tank carrier, as it was sitting at anchor in the captured port of Berdyansk, in the south of Ukraine.

Multiple photos and videos showed flames and thick black smoke towering over the port. Just three days before the strike, Russian state media had filmed the Orsk at the port unloading armoured vehicles which it said would reinforce troops in nearby Mariupol - prompting speculation that Ukraine could use the video to target the vessel.

H I Sutton, a respected naval analyst, later said it is 'beyond reasonable doubt' that an Alligator-class ship had exploded at the port. It marks the largest ship that Ukrainian forces have managed to strike so-far and represents another embarrassing loss for Vladimir Putin's beleaguered army.

It comes after NATO said Russia has lost up to 40,000 men either killed, wounded or captured in just over a month of fighting - or a quarter of the150,000 troops assembled ahead of the invasion. It means the force that remains is at risk of becoming combat ineffective, making it vulnerable to Ukrainian counter-attacks.

Flames and smoke are seen rising from what appears to be a Russian Alligator-class landing ship docked at the port of Berdyansk, in southern Ukraine, after Kyiv's navy claimed to have destroyed a vessel called Orsk

Smoke and flames rise over the port of Berdyansk, located in the south of Ukraine and occupied by Russian forces, as Kyiv's navy claimed to have hit the Orsk - a huge Russian tank-carrier

Images show an explosion at the port with a Russian Alligator-class transport ship visible at the dock. It was not immediately clear from the images whether the port or the ship had been struck

A fireball rises into the air over the port of Berdyansk, a Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov which has been captured by Russian forces and was being used to ferry reinforcements to shore before it was struck

Counter-attacks appeared to be well underway on Wednesday, with Ukraine claiming to have recaptured territory to the west of Kyiv - leaving Russian forces at Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel at risk of being surrounded.

Should those men get cut-off from the rest of the Russian army - leaving them without food, ammunition and fuel - it could spark mass surrender and deal one of the most-crushing defeats of the war to date.

After days of conflicting reports about the situation near Kyiv, Britain's Ministry of Defence said late Tuesday: 'Ukrainian forces are carrying out successful counter attacks against Russian positions in towns on the outskirts of the capital, and have probably retaken Makariv and Moschun [to the west and north-west].

'There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin.'

A further update on Thursday morning added that 'Russian forces have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties' and that Vladimir Putin is looking to reinforce using private military companies - such as the Wagner Group - and foreign mercenaries, likely from Syria.

But, it added, it is unclear how these forces would be integrated into the regular Russian army and how effective they would prove to be in combat.

As Putin's invasion continues to falter, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.

'Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,' Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. 'Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.'

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely. But a month into the fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition after meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance.

If the Orsk is confirmed as destroyed it would mark the largest vessel Ukraine has hit and another embarrassing loss for Vladimir Putin's army

Ukraine's navy reported Thursday that it had sunk the Russian ship Orsk in the Sea of Asov near the port city of Berdyansk. It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim.

Russia has been in possession of the port since Feb. 27, and the Orsk had debarked armored vehicles there on Monday for use in Moscow's offensive, the Zvezda TV channel of the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier this week. According to the report, the Orsk was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk, which is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west along the coast from the besieged city of Mariupol.

To keep up the pressure on Russia, Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provide 'effective and unrestricted' support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs.

Biden was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to coordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with NATO members, and then talk with leaders of the G7 industrialized nations and the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.

On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

Heading in to the talks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters the alliance had already stepped up military support but needed to invest more to make good on pledged commitments.

'The meeting today will demonstrate the importance of North America and Europe standing together facing this crisis,' he said.

In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 of its soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed - the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released - intentionally or not - and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritizing the fight in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said. The U.S. also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going 'strictly in accordance' with plans.

Footage posted online late Wednesday showed what appears to be a Russian tank exploding into a ball of flame after being struck by a Ukrainian guided missile, as Putin's forces continue to suffer punishing losses

Ukraine says Russia has lost more than 500 tanks and thousands of vehicles during its invasion, with video uploaded Wednesday showing a tank getting destroyed in a Ukrainian attack

Freshly-dug graves to bury the victims of Russia's invasion are seen in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine which has been shelled by Russian forces in recent days

A woman wounded by Russian artillery strikes near Kyiv, Ukraine, is loaded into the back of a makeshift ambulance

A destroyed house is seen on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, after being struck by a Russian artillery shell on Wednesday

A burned-out car sits next to a badly-damaged house after Russian shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

'The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,' said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities. He noted in his televised remarks that Moscow's nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials long have warned that Russia's military doctrine envisages an 'escalate to deescalate' option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin, known for his bluster, did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin. Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.

Zelenskyy noted in his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

'It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth,' he said.

In Kyiv, where near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday as the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed since the war broke out. The independent Russian news outlet The Insider said Russian journalist Oksana Baulina had been killed by shelling in a Kyiv neighborhood on Wednesday.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting. But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher. Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theater and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Kateryna Mytkevich, 39, who arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she said the city is without gas, electricity or running water, and entire neighborhoods have been destroyed.
Advertisement

Official charts have revealed England's immense Covid wall of immunity exactly two years after the country was plunged into its first lockdown.

The graphs, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show that 99 per cent of adults in England had detectable levels of the Covid-fighting antibodies by February 28.

An estimated 96 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 also had the protective proteins last month, as did around 81 per cent of youngsters between eight and 11.

Covid antibodies are produced by the immune system in response to either natural infection or vaccination and they indicate at least some level of immunity against the disease.

The figures  based on blood samples from 75,000 people  come exactly two years after the UK went into the unprecedented first lockdown.

Boris Johnson announced on the night of March 23 that the following day, Britons should not leave their home but for exceptional circumstances. At that point, there was virtually zero immunity to the novel virus.

But now more than 85 per cent of Britons have been double-jabbed and 67 per cent have got three doses, according to official figures, while separate estimates suggest half of Britons have already caught Covid.

Despite hospital admissions for Covid creeping up in recent weeks, the ONS data shows no sign of waning immunity in elderly groups. The ONS estimates 99 per cent of over-80s had the proteins last month, who are in line to get a fourth jab this month.

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, hailed the wall of immunity, claiming we were 'not in the situation we were in two years or even a year ago'.

He told MailOnline: 'We are better off than I anticipated we would be back then. The vaccines came along quicker than I anticipated they would.'

Antibodies do not provide total immunity against infection, but the ONS said they were 'strong enough to provide some protection' against the virus.

The above chart lays bare England's mammoth wall of immunity against Covid. Based on random tests on 75,000 people in England a week, it shows around 99 per cent of all over-18s have Covid-fighting antibodies. Among eight to 15-year-olds up to 96 per cent would test positive for the virus-fighting proteins, they estimated

Modelling from Cambridge University scientists suggests 51.8 per cent of people in England had caught the virus by February 23, two years into the pandemic

The above chart shows that around 85 per cent of people in Britain have already had two doses of the vaccine, while 67 per cent have also got their booster shot

Astonishing restrictions on daily life: The Daily Mail's front page on the morning after Boris Johnson's historic lockdown speech

The ONS report  published every fortnight  also estimates the levels of Covid-fighting antibodies in the devolved nations.

It suggested there were similarly high levels among adults in Scotland (99 per cent), Wales (98.9 per cent) and Northern Ireland (98.8 per cent). Among children up to 97 per cent had the virus-fighting proteins.

Rich school children were more likely to test positive for Covid than poor school children Wealthy school children were more likely to test positive for Covid than their peers last term, official statistics revealed today. About 20 per cent of primary and 27 per cent of secondary school pupils in the least deprived group had the virus over the autumn term, an Office for National Statistics report found. For comparison, among the most deprived it was nine and 15 per cent respectively among children that fell into the most deprived category. The ONS report analysed testing data from 6.5million children aged four to 15 years old at state schools in England. At this time pupils were required to test themselves twice a week for the virus. The ONS did not suggest why more wealthy pupils were testing positive than their poorer peers. Previous studies have suggested Covid is more prevalent in poorer areas, which has been linked to lower vaccination rates and more people working in face-to-face roles. Advertisement

Britain's vaccination drive was launched in December 2020, about a year after the first Covid cases appeared in Wuhan, China. It prioritised the elderly and extremely vulnerable before being expanded down the age groups in 2021.

This winter third doses were also offered to all over-18s amid concerns over waning antibody levels and the more infectious Omicron variant.

Fourth doses are being offered to over-75s, care home residents and the vulnerable this spring.

Ministers are also already gearing up to dish out fifth doses to this group in the autumn, the Health Secretary has suggested, as well as fourth doses to over-50s. This would bring Covid jabs into line with the flu vaccine, which is rolled out every year to the age groups.

Antibodies are tiny proteins produced by the body to provide protection against a disease. They work by latching on to the virus spike protein  which it uses to invade the cell  limiting the pathogen from multiplying in the body.

They are a proxy for immunity levels against Covid, although experts point out other harder to measure areas of the immune system  such as white blood cells called T cells  also play a vital role.

Rising immunity levels have been driven both by Covid vaccinations and by infections, in particular the Omicron wave.

Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, previously told MailOnline that the variant gave a perfect opportunity to boost natural immunity levels without overwhelming the NHS because it was so mild.

He said: 'Natural infection gives longer-lasting protection than any vaccine and the now-predominant Omicron variant generally gives a mild infection.

'Consequently, the more low-risk people who're infected the better. It will be a strong wall of immunity that cements our move from pandemic to endemic.'

In the ONS survey, someone was considered to have detectable Covid-antibodies if they had levels above the World Health Organization recommended threshold of 179nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml).

This day two years ago was the first day of the UK's initial lockdown aimed at thwarting the Covid virus, after it arrived in the country from China.

All non-essential shops were required to close and public gatherings of more than two people were banned, with the police given new powers to enforce the lockdown with fines.

At the time, there were a little over 1,000 deaths from the virus. Today, more than 186,000 British lives have been lost to the disease.

But after two long years the Prime Minister finally looks set to deliver on his promise to beat Covid, with the UK currently transitioning towards living with the virus.

All legally-binding Covid curbs have already been scrapped in England and the final measure  free testing  is to be abolished next week.

Northern Ireland has also ditched its Covid laws and moved to Government advice, while Scotland and Wales continue to take a more cautious approach.

Nationally, Covid infections have risen for the last three weeks driven by the more infectious version of Omicron and the easing of the final Covid restrictions in England.

Yesterday the country recorded 102,483 new infections, marking the second time this month that cases have broken into six figures.

Hospitalisations are also rising with 16,000 Covid patients currently in hospital  although about half of these are 'incidental' cases, when someone is admitted for another illness such as a fall and then tests positive for Covid. It is 40 per cent of the 39,000 patients at the peak of the wave last January.

Some experts have predicted that the current wave of infections will start to fall before the end of this month, as the virus runs out of people to infect.

Britain's Covid pandemic: The pivotal moments

2020

23 March  In an historic televised address, Boris Johnson announces a nationwide lockdown coming into effect on 26 March. All non-essential shops are required to close and public gatherings of more than two people are banned. Police are given new powers to enforce lockdown with fine.

26 March  The first 'Clap for Carers' event takes place across the UK at 18.00, applauding the NHS for their work during the pandemic.

27 March  Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock both test positive for Covid-19 as the virus rips through Westminster. Chris Whitty also starts self-isolating after suffering from Covid symptoms.

5 April  The Prime Minister is admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London for 'precautionary' tests after his symptoms persisted for 10 days. Queen Elizabeth II makes a rare televised broadcast to the UK and the wider Commonwealth, thanking people for following the government's new Covid rules and telling the nation: 'If we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it'.

6 April  Boris Johnson moved to intensive care after his condition dramatically worsens. First Secretary of State Dominic Raab stands in as deputy.

16 April - 99-year-old war veteran Captain Tom Moore finishes walking 100 laps of his garden, eventually raising almost 33 million for NHS Charities Together. Dominic Raab announces a three-week extension of the nationwide lockdown.

29 April  The Daily Mail's new charity, Mail Force, flies in vital PPE worth over 1million for frontline hospital staff in dire need of equipment.

23 May - Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's chief political adviser, is revealed to have travelled 260 miles from London to Durham to self-isolate during lockdown.

26 May  In an extraordinary press conference in the Downing Street Rose Garden Dominic Cummings says he doesn't regret his lockdown-breaking journey to Durham amid calls for him to resign.

15 June  All non-essential retail opens in the UK, and places of worship open for private worship. Face coverings become mandatory on public transport.

4 July  Pubs, restaurants, hairdressers reopen as lockdown measures continue to ease in the UK.

14 September  Social gatherings of more than six are banned as Covid cases begin to rise across the country.

22 September  In a televised address Boris Johnson warns the nation 'the fight against Covid is by no means over' as he unveiled new restrictions including a 10pm curfew for pubs and 200 fines for those flouting rules.

14 October  A new three-tiered system of lockdowns comes into effect in the UK, rating areas in the country medium, high or very high.

31 October - Boris Johnson announces a second national lockdown for England to prevent a 'medical and moral disaster', lasting from 5 November to 2 December.

9 November - The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine is reported to be 90 per cent successful in preventing COVID-19.

23 November  The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is revealed to be 70 per cent effective. Boris Johnson confirms the previous three-tier system of COVID regulations will return once lockdown finishes on 2 December.

3 December  Britain becomes the first country in the world to approve a Covid vaccine, with the Pfizer/BioNTech arriving the following week. But Boris Johnson warns the public should not get 'carried away with over optimism'.

8 December - Margaret Keenan, 90, becomes the first person to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as the UK jab rollout begins.

14 December - Matt Hancock announces the discovery of a new variant of Covid that is spreading faster in some areas of the country.

19 December - Boris Johnson announces that London, the South East and East of England will go into new Tier 4 restrictions and Christmas bubbles will be scrapped in Tier 4 areas, effectively cancelling Christmas for millions of families.

2021

4 January  The country is plunged into a third national lockdown from 5 January, shutting all non-essential retail and schools. Brian Pinker, 82, becomes the first person to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID vaccine.

2 February - Captain Sir Tom Moore dies aged 100 after testing positive for COVID-19. A study, suggests that a single dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could lead to a 'substantial' fall in the spread of COVID, and is 76% effective in the 12 weeks before the second dose is given.

22 February  Boris Johnson reveals his roadmap out of the third national lockdown in England, with schools opening on 8 March and non-essential retail and outdoor hospitality opening from 12 April.

8 March  Step one of the unlocking sees schools allowed to reopen and people allowed to meet one other person outside once a day. The stay at home order remains in place.

29 March  The second part of step one allows people to leave their homes when they wish but they are advised to 'stay local'. Up to two people can meet indoors and up to six outdoors, including in private gardens. Open air sports facilities can reopen.

12 April  Non-essential shops are reopened and restaurants and pubs are allowed to offer outdoor service as part of step two of the unlocking. Many other outdoor venues also reopen, including zoos and theme parks. Self-contained holidays are permitted.

17 May  Step three of unlocking takes place. Social mixing rules are expanded to allow the rule of six indoors and up to 30 people to meet outdoors. Indoor venues can reopen, including cinemas, restaurants and pubs. Outdoor stadiums can seat up to 10,000 spectators.

14 June  Boris delays 'freedom day' by more than a month after a surge in cases of the Delta variant. The new date for the final unlocking is scheduled for July 19, which the PM says will buy the country time to vaccinate more people.

19 July  The final part of the roadmap out of lockdown sees most legal limits on social contact lifted, including the rule of six. Nightclubs are also able to open their doors for the first time in months. People are asked to 'gradually' to return to their desks as the WFH advice is softened. The 'one metre plus' rule on social distancing is lifted except in specific circumstances such as at the border and legal requirements to wear face coverings are ditched.

4 November  UK becomes first country to approve an antiviral that can slash the risk of severe Covid. Nearly half a million doses of molnupiravir, a pill that can be taken twice daily at home, are due for delivery from mid-November.

16 November  NHS begins Covid booster vaccine rollout campaign after approval from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Data shows protection from two doses starts to wane after six months. Elderly care-home residents are offered jabs first, moving down through the age cohorts to over-50s. Frontline health and social care workers and younger adults with underlying health conditions are also included in the rollout.

23 November: UK scientist sounds the alarm about 'horrific' new variant with 32 mutations on its spike protein - which is later named Omicron. The strain causes an explosion of cases in South Africa where it was first detected.

27 November  The first two cases of Omicron are announced in the UK as ministers impose a ban on swathes of southern Africa in an attempt to limit the importation of cases.

30 November  The booster vaccine rollout is expanded to all adults aged 18 and over to tackle Omicron.

8 December  Boris moves England to 'plan B' restrictions for winter as the Omicron variant is projected to send case rates to astronomical levels. Face masks become mandatory in most public indoor venues and NHS Covid Passes must be used to gain access to specific settings. People are asked to work from home when possible.

2022

January 27  The Omicron wave begins to settle a tidal wave of infections sent daily cases to more than 200,000 per day. Hospital pressure does not reach levels projected by expert advisers, with the booster rollout credited. England moves to 'plan A' which sees face coverings and NHS Covid passes scrapped.

February 24  The Government's 'Living with Covid' is enacted, with all remaining restrictions ending. People who catch the virus no longer have to self-isolate, although they will still be advised to avoid others for five days.

A third of Covid deaths now not primarily due to virus as number of Brits dying 'with' rather than 'from' infection continues to grow amid milder wave

By Emily Craig for MailOnline

The proportion of Covid deaths where the virus is not the underlying cause has climbed to its highest ever level in England, official figures show.

One in three victims who had the virus mentioned on their death certificate in February died 'with' rather than 'from' Covid, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS' monthly report showed a record 34 per cent of the 3,644 coronavirus deaths in England in February were not primarily due to the virus.

For comparison, during the first wave of the virus in April 2020, before vaccines were available, the share of deaths where Covid was not the underlying killer was just five per cent.

When the milder Omicron variant emerged in November, the figure stood at 15 per cent and has climbed every month since.

The rise of Omicron and its off-shoot strain BA.2 has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where half of virus inpatients in England are not primarily needing treatment for the infection.

Critics have warned that the rise in so-called 'incidental' cases, driven by the sheer prevalence of the now-dominant BA.2, is skewing the Government's daily coronavirus statistics.

Separate data released by the ONS today highlights how immunity in the population is also likely contributing to a rise in incidentals admissions and deaths.

It estimated that 99 per cent of adults and up to 96 per cent of children in England had Covid-fighting antibodies by February 28, based on blood samples taken from 75,000 Britons.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that of the 34 per cent of Covid deaths  which include all fatalities where Covid is written on the death certificate  were not primarily caused by the virus. The figure is the highest recorded since the pandemic began

The graph shows the mortality rate in February for men and women in England and Wales. The rate was significantly lower in February 2022 compared to February 2021

The graph shows the proportion of fatalities that had Covid mentioned on the death certificate where the virus was the underlying cause. Figures are given for England and Wales. The proportion for England was at the lowest level ever recorded in February

The ONS data shows the Covid mortality rate in England and Wales each month. The figure is trending downwards, falling to 55.3 deaths per 100,000 people in England last month, compared to 79.3 in January. The rate fell in Wales from 81 per 100,000 at the start of the year to 45.7 in February

The ONS' monthly mortality report also shows there were 43,081 deaths from all causes registered in England in February, while 2,730 were logged in Wales. Both numbers are lower than the five-year average.

Covid was the third leading cause of death in England and sixth most deadly cause in Wales, accounting for around one in 20 fatalities in each nation last month.

Doctors certifying deaths can list all the causes, including pre-existing conditions, that led to a fatality. The ONS uses this information to determine the underlying cause of death.

From the beginning of the pandemic to February, the ONS found the virus has been the underlying cause of 87.5 per cent of fatalities where the virus has been mentioned on a death certificate  meaning 12.5 per cent have been due to other conditions.

But the rate has varied from month to month. The statisticians found that last month, just 66 per cent of Covid deaths were caused by the virus, meaning 34 per cent were due to other reasons  the highest proportion ever recorded.

Last May was previously the month with the highest proportion of Covid deaths where the virus deaths were not the underlying cause  31.2 per cent.

In November, the month Omicron was first detected, 15.1 per cent of Covid deaths were not primarily caused by the virus.

Since then, the figure has risen every month, reaching 16.2 per cent in December, 26.3 per cent in January and 34 per cent in February.

Hospital staff absences in England due to Covid-19 jump 31% week-on-week Staff absences at NHS hospitals in England due to Covid have jumped more than 30 per cent week-on-week, the biggest increase since the start of the year, new figures show. An average of 23,127 staff at hospital trusts in England  2 per cent of the total workforce  were absent each day last week, either because they were sick with Covid or were self-isolating. This is up 31 per cent on the week to March 13, and is the largest percentage rise since the seven days to January 2 during the peak of the Omicron wave when NHS staff Covid absences rose by 41 per cent. But it is still below the level reached at the peak of the Omicron wave in early January, when absences due to Covid averaged nearly 46,000. All regions have seen a week-on-week increase in Covid absences, with south-west England recording the biggest rise (44 per cent), followed by south-east England (40 per cent) and the North East and Yorkshire (34 per cent). The Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) director for England Patricia Marquis said the new figures showed that the pressure on nursing staff in every region was not easing off. Advertisement

The ONS said the difference in rates 'generally correspond' to periods with low or high Covid deaths.

'However, February 2022 has not followed this pattern as deaths involving Covid still accounted for 8.5 per cent of all deaths in England in February 2022,' it said.

The rise of the milder strain has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where just 44.5 per cent of patients are being primarily treated for the virus, according to NHS England data up to March 22.

The ONS said that Covid was involved in 3,644 deaths logged in England last month, but just 2,405 were due to the virus.

The figure means the proportion of deaths caused by the virus fell from 7.6 per cent in January to 5.6 per cent in February.

In Wales, 4.4 per cent (121) of the 2,730 fatalities registered were due to Covid, a smaller figure than the 7.3 per cent rate from one month earlier.

Despite the pandemic, overall deaths were 2.2 per cent lower in England last month than expected, when compared to the five-year average from 2015 to 2019  before the Covid crisis.

Using the same measure, fatalities in February were 7.1 per cent lower in Wales than expected.

High rates of immunity in the population has provided a wall of defence against the virus, with the ONS estimating 99 per cent of adults have antibodies against the virus from vaccination or infection.

More than nine in 10 people aged 12 and over in the UK are triple-jabbed, while No10's modellers estimate 52 per cent of England's population have been infected.

The Covid death mortality rate is also trending downwards, falling to 55.3 deaths per 100,000 people in England last month, compared to 79.3 in January. The rate fell in Wales from 81 per 100,000 at the start of the year to 45.7 in February.

In England, Alzheimer's and dementia continued to be the leading cause of death, causing 4,991 fatalities. Heart disease, Covid and cerebrovascular diseases were also among the leading causes of death.

In Wales, heart disease was the leading cause of death, behind 296 fatalities, followed by dementia and Alzheimer's and cerebrovascular diseases.

The figures come as the UK's daily Covid cases yesterday breached 100,000 for the second time this month, while hospitalisations and deaths also ticked upwards.

Government dashboard statistics show 102,483 new infections were logged, compared to the 91,345 last Wednesday.

It is the second time in just eight days that daily cases have risen above the six-figure threshold, after the Omicron wave collapsed in late January.

Another 194 Covid fatalities were reported yesterday, up 27 per cent on one week earlier. Hospitalisations also rose 30 per cent in a week, according to the latest UK-wide data for March 19, with 2,011 new admissions.

The rising statistics have been attributed to the loosening of restrictions across the UK and the rise of the more infectious BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

The graph shows the leading causes of death in England in February. Alzheimer's and dementia continued to be the leading cause of death, causing 4,991 fatalities. Heart disease, Covid and cerebrovascular diseases were also among the leading causes of death

The graph shows the leading causes of death in Wales in February. Heart disease was the leading cause of death, behind 296 fatalities, followed by dementia and Alzheimer's and cerebrovascular diseases

The extremely transmissible sub-strain is still causing milder illness than previous variants, however, and around half of patients in hospital with Covid currently are not primarily ill with the virus, separate data suggests.

However, in a downbeat assessment of how the next phase of the pandemic will pan out, Professor Chris Whitty yesterday said he expects virus hospitalisations to keep rising for 'at least' the next two weeks, warning there is still 'pressure on the NHS'.

It comes as official NHS England figures today showed staff absences due to Covid have jumped more than 30 per cent week-on-week, the biggest increase since the start of the year.

An average of 23,127 staff at hospital trusts in England  2 per cent of the total workforce  were absent each day last week, either because they were sick with Covid or were self-isolating.

This is up 31 per cent on the week to March 13, and is the largest percentage rise since the seven days to January 2 during the peak of the Omicron wave when NHS staff Covid absences rose by 41 per cent.

But it is still below the level reached at the peak of the Omicron wave in early January, when absences due to Covid averaged nearly 46,000.

The Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) director for England Patricia Marquis said the new figures showed that the pressure on nursing staff in every region was not easing off.

She added: 'With a significantly depleted workforce undermining their attempts to provide safe and effective care, these absences are the last thing nursing staff need.

The UK Government is offering scant comfort  yesterday's spring statement did nothing to address the tens of thousands of vacant nursing posts in the long term.

'Cases are rising and more uncertainty looms with free community testing set to end this month. Employers must ensure nursing staff have continued access to testing and high-quality PPE.'
An airline has banned a violent passenger for life after she turned aggressive over crying babies and tried to open a door mid-flight.

Jet2.com also fined mother-of-one Catherine Bush, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, 5,000 after she yelled at cabin crew and allegedly slapped passengers.

Shocking footage showed her grow unruly around halfway through the trip from Manchester to Antalya in Turkey on Monday.

She squared up to staff and witnesses claimed she slapped other customers, forcing the plane to be diverted via Vienna so she could be kicked off.

A source told MailOnline Ms Bush had been on her way to get 20 zirconium veneers costing 3,000.

The friend said: 'I was with Catherine in the pub at the weekend. She told me she was excited about going to Turkey.

'She said that she had scraped together 3,000 from her savings for cosmetic surgery on her teeth. She was going to have them whitened.'

Jet2.com fined Catherine Bush, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, 5,000 after she yelled at cabin crew and allegedly slapped passengers

Shocking footage showed her grow unruly around halfway through the trip from Manchester to Antalya in Turkey on Monday

Managing Director of Jet2.com Phil Ward said: 'Ms Bush displayed a continued pattern of appalling behaviour on the flight and she must now face up to the consequences of her actions.

'We have always made it abundantly clear that, as a family friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour and that we will vigorously pursue any costs incurred as a result of such an incident.

'Although such incidents are very rare, it is unacceptable that our customers and crew should have to experience it.

'We would like to apologise to anyone who had to experience this behaviour and we would like to commend our highly-trained crew for their exceptional handling of this difficult situation.' Jet2.com said it would fully support any investigation.

She squared up to staff and witnesses claimed she slapped other customers, forcing the plane to be diverted via Vienna so she could be kicked off

The row was said to have been sparked by the noise of children crying and people allegedly looking at Ms Bush funny an hour and a half after leaving Manchester

The row was said to have been sparked by the noise of children crying and people allegedly looking at Ms Bush funny an hour and a half after leaving Manchester.

She is believed to have walked to the front of the plane to confront other passengers before launching a verbal attack on the cabin crew.

Witness Samantha Fearon, from Littleborough, Greater Manchester, said Ms Bush then tried to get off the plane mid-flight.

She told Yorkshire Live: 'She was ragging at the door, saying 'get me off this f***ing plane - let me off now'. It was just so shocking.'

Ms Feardon said she was worried and feared for her own life when the passenger took such drastic action.

She added: 'My first thought was why did I pick the seat at the front - I am going to go out of the door first. That did worry me.'

Another passenger said Ms Bush became disruptive 'about an hour and 20 minutes' into the flight.

She told the MeN: 'There was lots of noise. Then she came to the front of the plane. She was really angry towards Jet2 staff and wouldn't calm down.

'Her voice was getting louder and more aggressive - she was shouting in people's faces.

'People were saying she was kicking off at the airport before she even got on the plane. Then some people said it was over babies crying on the flight.

'A customer said something and she slapped him in the face. Then a man got up to try and calm the situation before taking her to the back of the plane.'

The rowdy passenger was seen on camera and had reportedly been slapping others on the flight

The flight had to be diverted to the Austrian capital so the woman could be removed, arriving at 11.40am.

As the plane landed, the woman was said to have slapped another passenger as she was getting off.

A witness said: 'This is the first time we have had to land because of someone on a flight.

'Jet2 staff handled the whole situation very well. Nobody could help the out-of-control woman once she slapped the passenger.'

Jet2 sent a text message to passengers onboard the flight just before 12pm, apologising for the incident.

It said: 'Hello, we are sorry that due to the disruptive behaviour of a fellow passenger, your flight has been diverted to Vienna.'

The message added: 'We are working on a situation to get you on your way as soon as possible.'

The flight left Vienna at 1pm before arriving at Antalya just after 3pm - an hour and 15 minutes later than scheduled.

Jet2 said: 'We can confirm that flight LS895 from Manchester to Antalya diverted to Vienna earlier today so that a disruptive passenger could be offloaded.

'As a family friendly airline, we take a zero tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour.' Manchester Airport declined to comment.
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The lavish interiors of a 500 million superyacht suspected of belonging to despot Vladimir Putin have been revealed.

The luxury 460ft vessel is currently docked and undergoing repairs at the Italian port of Marina di Carrara, north of Pisa, in Tusancy.

Remarkable photos showcase the obscene wealth of goods and furniture the Scheherazade has been decked out with for the Russian President's enjoyment.

Items include a gold-plated toilet paper holder, glitzy chandeliers, a pool table, a sitting room complete with piano, as well as a tiled dancefloor, which lowers to turn into a swimming pool.

Personal touches to Putin also appear to be evident, as the yacht boasts a judo gym, including framed pictures of black belts.

A five-metre aquarium and a huge TV, stretching nearly five metres across an entire wall are other examples of indulgences seen on board.

The President could hardly feel safer when he does climb aboard, as the vessel is also equipped with landing spots for 16ft military helicopters and a four-radar security system said to be capable of shooting down drones.

A worker who helped build the floating palace told the Sun: 'Every surface is marble or gold. There are countless swimming pools, a spa, a sauna, a theatre, ballrooms, a gym, two helipads. It's like a mini city.

'There is even a hospital which makes sense when you hear rumours of Putin being terminally ill. It is hard to swallow the fact that the most incredible ship in the world is owned by a man intent on bombing civilians in Ukraine.

'And it is an unimaginable amount of wealth when the average Russian's salary is 5,000 a year, and people there are struggling to eat.'

A gold-plated toilet roll holder is among the luxury goods on board the Scheherszade, Putin's superyacht which is currently docked in Tuscany

One of the most staggering examples of indulgence on board is a dance floor that lowers to reveal a swimming pool

A long dining table, capable of seating more than a dozen guests, sits beneath luxurious lights in this spacious area of the boat

Glitzy chandeliers also appear throughout the yacht, which Italian authorities are probing amid possible further sanctions for Russia's invasion of Ukraine

The lavish seating area is kitted out with sprawling sofas and luxurious lamps, while a piano also appears in the background

A pool table is among the luxury goods on board the Scheherszade, Putin's superyacht which is currently docked in Tuscany

Personal touches to Putin also appear to be evident, as the yacht boasts a judo gym, including framed pictures of black belts

As well as the swimming pool, the yacht also has a jacuzzi area for guests to enjoy while aboard the floating palace

The seating area on deck seems an ideal place for guests on the yacht to put a bottle of champagne on ice and relax

The luxury 460ft vessel is currently docked and undergoing repairs at the Italian port of Marina di Carrara, north of Pisa, in Tusancy

The dance floor, which features a swimming pool underneath, is one of the more unique aspects to the superyacht

The President could hardly feel safer when he does climb aboard, as the vessel is also equipped with landing spots for 16ft military helicopters and a four-radar security system said to be capable of shooting down drones

Another fascinating image reveals a peek behind a screen on the Scheherszade, which arrived at the port at the end of last summer under the steerage of British captain Guy Bennett-Pearce

The entire Russian crew onboard a 500 million superyacht suspected of belonging to despot Vladimir Putin have disappeared and been replaced by a British one

The yacht arrived at the port at the end of last summer under the steerage of British captain Guy Bennett-Pearce.

It comes after it emerged yesterday that the entire Russian crew onboard have disappeared and been replaced by a British one.

Officials said more than two dozen officers and deckhands were all spirited away from The Scheherazade within the last week after it was placed in the spotlight due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Earlier this week it was reported that all 40 of the crew were members of the Russian intelligence branches of the FSB and FSO and had sworn their loyalty to Putin.

But since the six-deck yacht came under the eye of investigators probing possible sanctions a veil of secrecy has come down  despite Captain Bennett-Pearce denying Putin owns it or has even been on board.

Paolo Gozzani, of the local CGIL Union, told MailOnline: 'From what I have heard the Russian crew were all replaced during the last few days and now they are all British onboard.

'It was all a few days, the word from inside is that they were called back to report for military service and now there are armed guards surrounding it as well.

'You can't get anywhere near her and the level of security is unbelievable.'

A source at the marina said:' You could spot the Russians a mile off they were in the local bars most night, drinking vodka and beer.

'They were big looking guys and then one day they all just disappeared. To be honest for me they didn't look like a yacht crew they looked like a small army or security detail.'

The Italian Sea Group which owns the yard where The Scheherazade is docked has denied Putin is the owner but is expected to come under scrutiny on Thursday when it presents its consolidated financial results.

Officials said more than two dozen officers and deckhands were all spirited away from The Scheherazade within the last week after it was placed in the spotlight due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. The entire Russian crew has been replaced by a British one

It is currently undergoing repairs at the Italian part of Marina di Carrara, north of Pisa, having arrived there at the end of last summer under the steerage of British captain Guy Bennett-Pearce

The Scheherazade, currently docked for repairs at the Italian Sea Group shipyard in Marina di Carrara, Italy, is one of the largest and most expensive superyachts in the world, and since its launch in 2020, its true ownership has been cloaked in absolute secrecy

For more than a year, workers at the shipyard have speculated that the ship belongs to Putin himself, a source there told MailOnline on March 8. 'All the whispers were it belonged to Putin,' the person said. However, the ship's British captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, has denied that Putin owns the Scheherazade or has ever been on board

Putin's 'other yacht' - a smaller, older vessel named GRACEFUL Vladimir Putin claims that he is only moderately-wealthy, but is suspected of secretly harboring a $100 billion fortune. A smaller, older vessel, the Graceful, has long been suspected of belonging to Putin. Alone among the world's superyachts, the Graceful's hull was laid at a Russian naval shipyard, before being finished in Germany, an industry source told DailyMail.com. The Graceful left port in Germany about two weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and is currently docked at Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, safely out of the reach of Western sanctions. The Scheherazade, however, is stuck in drydock in Italy undergoing repairs, and a person familiar with the matter said that it would be impossible for it to sail before the end of March. A smaller, older vessel, the Graceful (seen leaving Hamburg last month), has long been suspected of belonging to Putin The Graceful left port in Germany on February 7 (above), about two weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and is currently docked at Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, safely out of the reach of Western sanctions Advertisement

The six-deck Scheherazade is one of the largest - with space equivalent to two apartment blocks - and most expensive superyachts in the world. The yacht has room for 18 guests in nine luxury cabins in addition to a crew of 40, residing in 20 cabins and boasts two helipads, a royal suite, a swimming pool, a spa and a beauty salon.

But since its launch in 2020, the yacht's true ownership has been cloaked in absolute secrecy.

Currently docked for repairs at the Italian Sea Group shipyard in Marina di Carrara, Italy, the Scheherazade is protected by measures that are extreme even by the ultra-private standards of the superyacht world, with covers hiding its nameplate and a metal barrier erected to partially block the vessel from public view.

For more than a year, workers at the shipyard have speculated that the ship belongs to Putin himself, a source there told MailOnline on March 8. 'All the whispers were it belonged to Putin,' the person said.

The source said that the Scheherazade's crew appear to be Russian, and that a team of Germans working on repairs to the vessel were recalled by their home office after the EU announced its sanctions in early March.

Allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny yesterday told Italian authorities that they should seize the Scheherazade because they can prove it belongs to Putin. A sensational video shared on Navalny's YouTube channel claims that though the captain is British, the rest of the crew are allegedly from the FSO and FSB - two Russian secret services.

However, Captain Guy Bennett-Pearce denied has that Putin owns the Scheherazade or has ever been on board, telling the New York Times: 'I have never seen him. I have never met him.'

The ship's name, Scheherazade, is the female protagonist from the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the One Thousand and One Nights. It is also the title of a symphonic suite by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that is based on the tales.

The ship reportedly features personal touches for the Russian strongman including a judo gym with framed pictures of Putin's black belts.

And the Scheherazade carries books The Atlas of Beauty by Mihaela Noroc, Fashion History from the Kyoto Costume Institute and Photo Icons by Hans-Michael Koetzle.

A worker involved in the yacht's construction told the Sun: 'Every surface is marble or gold. There are countless swimming pools, a spa, a sauna, a theatre, ballrooms, a gym, two helipads. It's like a mini city.

'There is even a hospital which makes sense when you hear rumours of Putin being terminally ill. It is hard to swallow the fact that the most incredible ship in the world is owned by a man intent on bombing civilians in Ukraine.

'And it is an unimaginable amount of wealth when the average Russian's salary is 5,000 a year, and people there are struggling to eat.'

Italian authorities are currently probing whether the opulent vessel should be seized under sanctions against Russia, following the speculation that it could belong to Putin.

Bennett-Pearce declined to identify the Scheherazade's owner, citing a strict non-disclosure agreement, and would not rule out that the owner is Russian. He did however insist that the owner is not on any sanctions list.

The captain said that Italian investigators had come aboard on March 4 and examined some of the ship's certification documents, and that he planned to hand over documents identifying the true owner on Tuesday, telling the Times that he had 'no choice.'

'I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this will clear the vessel of all negative rumors and speculations,' Bennett-Pearce told the outlet.

Last night his mother Debbie told The Daily Telegraph: 'I don't think for one second that Guy would work for that  whatever you want to call himmurderer.'

But locals in Marina de Carrara have said that most are convinced the superyacht belongs to Putin. Giorgio Petri, 72, told the paper: 'There's nothing official, of course, but all the locals say that it is Putin's. Just look at it.'

The Italian investigation into the ownership of the Scheherazade comes as authorities across Europe have raced to identify and seize yachts tied to Russian oligarchs named in new sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

In early March, French authorities seized the superyacht Amore Vero in the Mediterranean resort town of La Ciotat.

The 289-foot boat is believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the US sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

The French Finance Ministry said in a statement that customs authorities boarded the Amore Vero and discovered its crew was preparing for an urgent departure, even though planned repair work was not finished.

The $700 million yacht, Scheherazade (seen in drydock), is one of the largest and most expensive superyachts in the world, and since its launch in 2020, its true ownership has been cloaked in absolute secrecy

Currently docked for repairs (above) at the Italian Sea Group shipyard in Marina di Carrara, Italy, the Scheherazade is protected by measures that are extreme even by the ultra-private standards of the superyacht world

The Italian investigation into the ownership of the Scheherazade comes as authorities across Europe have raced to identify and seize yachts tied to Russian oligarchs named in new sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine

Sanctioned steel baron Alexei Mordashov's 213-foot Lady M was seized by Italian authorities on March 4 while it was moored in the Riviera port town of Imperia.

And in Sanremo, Italy, authorities seized the Lena, a yacht belonging to Putin ally and oil billionaire Gennady Timchenko.

The 511-foot Dilbar, which is likely the largest superyacht in the world, is currently under orders to remain in port at Hamburg as officials there try to determine its ownership.

Russian oligarchs account for a significant portion of the global superyacht market. Of all the superyacht projects over 164 feet that are in build or on order, Russians make up 17 per cent of all owners, according to Boat International.

It has fueled speculation about the Scheherazade, whose ownership remains one of the biggest mysteries in the yachting world.

The industry website SuperYachtFan, which estimates the boat's cost at $700 million, believes that the Scheherazade has room for a crew of about 40 and around 18 passengers.

The Scheherazade was constructed by the German firm Lurssen under the management of Imperial Yachts, a company based in Monaco.

Imperial Yachts also manages the Amore Vero, the seized yacht belonging to Sechin, according to Reuters. An industry source told MailOnline that 'ninety percent of the Russians have Imperial manage their boats.'

In early March, French authorities seized the superyacht Amore Vero (pictured in La Ciotat Port, France) in the Mediterranean resort town of La Ciotat. The 289-foot boat is believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the US sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014

Sanctioned steel baron Alexei Mordashov's 213-foot Lady M was seized by Italian authorities on March 4 while it was moored in the Riviera port town of Imperia

The 511-foot Dilbar, which is likely the largest superyacht in the world, is currently under orders to remain in port at Hamburg as officials there try to determine its ownership

A spokesman for Imperial said that the company is not operationally responsible for the Scheherazade, but only supervised construction.

'As a company we comply with all applicable relevant law and regulation in all jurisdictions in which the company operates,' the spokesman said in a statement.

Imperial, led by CEO Evgeniy Kochman, is believed to have four other projects underway at the Italian Sea Group shipyard. The owners of those projects were not immediately clear.

Officially, the Scheherazade's registered owner is Bielor Assets Ltd, a company registered in the Marshall Islands, and the boat is flagged in the Cayman Islands.

Speculation about a connection between the vessel and Putin has run rampant in Marina di Carrara since the boat first docked there last winter, a source said.

The person said that workers at the shipyard believed the initial owner was Middle Eastern, but that at some point the boat was sold to Putin or another wealthy Russian.

The SuperYachtFan site has also speculated that the owner of the boat could be a Middle Eastern billionaire.

Officially, Putin has a declared net worth of about $150,000 and very few assets. But the Russian leader's true wealth, thought by some to be as much as $100 billion, though it has never been confirmed.

Forbes recently called it 'the most elusive riddle in wealth hunting.'

Nevertheless, Putin's fondness for luxury yachts is well established. He has previously been photographed on yachts from the Black Sea in the south the Russia's northern regions. Last May, he took a yacht cruise with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
A furious 80-year-old comrade of a Northern Ireland veteran accused of murdering two people on Bloody Sunday has branded it a 'disgrace' that he could yet face prosecution after judges yesterday overruled a decision to drop all charges.

Belfast's High Court yesterday struck down a ruling by prosecutors in Northern Ireland to end proceedings against a veteran known as Soldier F over the deaths of James Wray and William McKinney 50 years ago.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan ordered the Public Prosecution Service to reconsider, which may pave the way for the case against the veteran, now in his 70s, to go to trial after all.

A comrade of Soldier F  who can be identified only as 'Sergeant O'  told the Telegraph: 'That's incredible to hear the decision not to prosecute him has been overturned. It is very upsetting. It's a disgrace.

'These are events that happened 50 years ago. ''Soldier F'' was a young man at the time and has had to live with Bloody Sunday all his life. But he is a strong man and he will fight this.'

Soldier F was accused of murdering James Wray (left) and William McKinney (right) on January 30, 1972

Paul Young, of the Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans campaign group, reacted with fury last night. He said: 'This is not in the public interest in reopening this case. It is politically rather than judicially motivated.

'You shouldn't be able to keep going on reopening cases just because you didn't like the verdict. That's not justice, that's revenge. It is a misuse of public money that is going into a system that is not fit to deal with Northern Ireland's legacy.'

British Government plans for an amnesty on all Troubles-era prosecutions have stalled amid a lack of support from all political parties in Northern Ireland. Boris Johnson pledged to end vexatious prosecutions of Troubles troops as part of his 2019 manifesto.

Millions of pounds of public money have been spent on inquiries into the January 1972 shootings in which soldiers killed 13 civil rights protesters.

Prosecutors in Northern Ireland announced last year that they would drop criminal proceedings into Soldier F, who was also charged with five counts of attempted murder.

It followed the collapse of the trial of two elderly paratroopers accused of the murder of Official IRA leader Joe McCann in Belfast in April 1972.

The family of William McKinney: John (second left) and Mickey (second right), walk in with solicitors, brothers, Fearghal and Ciaran Shiels, as they arrive at the City Hotel in Londonderry, for a meeting with the Public Prosecution Service last year

Bloody Sunday saw British troops open fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Derry, killing 13 people. Pictured: A confrontation between soldiers and protesters earlier in the day

Given similarities in the cases, prosecutors also dropped charges against Soldier F, saying there was no longer a 'realistic prospect of conviction'.

But Michael McKinney, whose brother William was allegedly shot dead by Soldier F, launched a judicial review.

Delivering her verdict, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan said the PPS's decision to drop the prosecution 'simply does not add up'. She added: 'This is a rare occasion where we consider the decision should be quashed and reconsidered.' She recommended the PPS ask a district judge to make a ruling on the admissibility of evidence.

Judicial reviews to challenge decisions by the PPS not to prosecute five other veterans allegedly responsible for five deaths during Bloody Sunday were dismissed by the High Court.

Yesterday Mr McKinney said: 'I hope this is a step closer to justice. This thing has been dragged out for so many years, it is just ridiculous. Hopefully things will start moving now and we will get him into court and get justice.'
Pyongyang says missile, which can carry nuclear warhead, can strike anywhere in continental US

First full North Korean ICMB test since 2017 in stark threat to President Biden

Earlier in the day, the White House condemned North Korea's launch, calling it a security threat to region

They were spotted walking the halls of NATO headquarters together ahead of a meeting of G7 leaders

Two men discussed North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, with both condemning the action

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Brussels

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Brussels on Thursday to condemn North Korea's launch of a long-range ballistic missile - a major security risk to the Pacific region.

The two men were spotted walking the halls of NATO headquarters together ahead of a planned formal photo of the leaders of the G7. Kishida traveled to Brussels for the G7 meeting, where leaders were set to discuss additional financial sanctions on Russia for its invasion of the Ukraine.

But he and Biden also discussed Kim Jong Un's missile launch, which both men condemned. The U.S. president called it a security threat and Kishida said accused Pyonyang of an 'unacceptable act of violence.'

'The two Leaders discussed DPRKs launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which both Leaders strongly condemned, stressed the need for diplomacy, and agreed to continue working together to hold the DPRK accountable,' a White House official said of the meeting.

'President Biden conveyed to Prime Minister Kishida our rock solid commitment to the security of Japan and the Republic of Korea, thanked Prime Minister Kishida for Japans robust response to Putins war of choice in Ukraine, and agreed on the need for continued unity going forward,' the official noted.

Earlier Thursday the White House condemned the launch of the missile - one that traveled higher than any missile before and could reach any part of the United States - calling it a security violation of the region.

'The United States strongly condemns the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its test of a long-range ballistic missile,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

President Biden 's administration called on Kim Jong Un to 'immediately cease' such actions and vowed to support South Korea, Japan and its other Pacific allies.

'The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions. The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies,' Psaki said.

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Brussels on Thursday to condemn North Korea's launch of a long-range ballistic missile

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were spotted walking together in the halls of NATO headquarters ahead of the G7 meeting

Biden and Kishida met ahead of a meeting of the G7 leaders on the Ukraine - above the G7 family photo with, from left, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, France's President Emmanuel Macron, and Italy's Prime Minister Mario Dragh

The test, reportedly the country's largest ever, saw the launch of a new, more dangerous type of missile, military officials in South Korea and Japan said, in the country's first long-range weapons test since 2017.

Footage shared by the Japan's Ministry of Defense Thursday, filmed by a Japanese F-15, shows what is reported to be the missile in flight thousands of miles over the Sea of Japan.

Defense officials said the missile came from the vicinity of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula

The F-15 confirmed in the air that the missile was related to the ballistic missile launched from North Korea.

The move by the Kim Jong Un-led country comes as the US has been largely preoccupied with the escalating conflict in Ukraine, suggesting the country has taken advantage of the distraction to ramp up its missile testing - similar to recent actions by China and Iran.

Japanese officials estimated the missile flew to a previously unseen altitude of 3,850 miles - 3,600 miles higher than the International Space Station - and to a distance of 684 miles, before it fell in Japanese waters near the northern island of Hokkaido early Thursday after flying for 71 minutes.

The missile's flight path was 1,000 miles higher and almost 20 minutes longer than the country's previous ICBM test, the November 2020 launch of the the Hwasong-15, a missile that was capable of reaching any part of the continental United States.

The Thursday missile's altitude and steep trajectory suggests it is a 'new type of ICBM,' Japan's Vice Defense Minister Makoto Oniki told reporters Thursday - one markedly more powerful than the Hwasong-15.

The launch comes a little over a year after North Korea unveiled The Hwasong-17, its largest known ICBM, during a military parade in October 2020.

Analysts have called the 330,000-lb behemoth - one of the largest ever seen - a 'monster missile.'

North Korea on Thursday launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017, one capable of hitting any part of the continental United States, while its Western rival has been focused on rising tensions with Russia amid the war in Ukraine

The 'new' missile is believed to be the Hwasong-17, pictured here being unveiled at a military parade in Pyongyang in October 2020, the country's largest and most destructive weapon

Prior to the Thursday test, US and South Korea officials had warned that North Korea might test its new missile under the guise of a satellite launch.

The test also marks an end to the country's self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing reached during Donald Trump's presidency, and comes as Western leaders gather in Brussels for a security summit.

North Korea fired the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the sea off its east coast early Thursday, militaries in South Korea and Japan said.

According to South Korean military officials, it was launched from Pyongyangs Sunan district, from a site previously connected with ICBM tests.

'This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,' Psaki said Thursday.

'This action demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people.'

North Korea has conducted its first full intercontinental ballistic missile launch since 2017

The Hwasong-17: North Korea's largest - and deadliest - ICBM Potential altitude: 3,850 miles Potential range: At least 8,100 miles Warhead: Up to four nuclear weapons Warhead weight: Up to 7,700 lbs. Missile weight: Up to 330,000 lbs. Missile length: 85 feet Diameter: 9.5 feet Advertisement

'We urge all countries to hold the DPRK accountable for such violations and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations,' the White House spokesperson added, referring to the dictator-led country by its official acronym.

Kishida condemned the launch as an 'unacceptable act of violence' against his country.

According to the South Korean military the ICBM launch was immediately followed by the test firing of other ballistic and tactical missiles.

The first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, represents a major escalation in the North's development of weapons potentially able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

The North's return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for President Biden as he responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Korea's incoming conservative administration.

Japanese authorities said the launch appeared to be a 'new type' of intercontinental ballistic missile that flew for about 71 minutes to a range of 684 miles from its launch site.

President Joe Biden's White House condemned North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, calling it a security threat to region

It landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 106 miles west of the northern prefecture of Aomori, at 06:44 GMT.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected the launch of an 'unidentified projectile' from North Korea, without elaborating.

It said the launch was assumed to be a long-range missile, possibly an ICBM fired on a 'lofted' trajectory high into space, Yonhap news agency reported.

On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff over Pyongyang, South Korea's military said, amid reports that the nuclear-armed North was seeking to test-fire its largest missile yet.

Hwasong-14 - one of North Korea's most advanced ballistic missiles - being test fired in 2017

The United States and South Korea have recently warned that the North may be preparing to test-fire an ICBM at full range for the first time since 2017.

U.S. officials said at least two recent tests, on February 27 and March 5, featured the North's largest ICBM system yet, the Hwasong-17.

'The purpose of these tests, which did not demonstrate ICBM range, was likely to evaluate this new system before conducting a test at full range in the future, potentially disguised as a space launch,' a U.S. official said at the time.

Pyongyang did not identify the missile system used in those launches, but said they were testing components for a reconnaissance satellite system.

This month, leader Kim Jong Un said North Korea would soon launch multiple satellites to monitor military movements by the United States and its allies.

Thursday's launch would be at least the 13th ballistic missile test fired by North Korea this year, an unprecedented frequency that has drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

North Korea has been ruled as a communist dictatorship since its founding in 1948

NEW ICBM?

North Korea last held a full ICBM test on November 29 2017, saying it had successfully launched a new type of ICBM, called the Hwasong-15, that could reach all of the U.S. mainland. That missile flew for 53 minutes.

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, Kim declared a self-imposed moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but has since suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearization talks.

That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former US President Donald Trump, who held several historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never managed to sign a concrete pact to limit the North's nuclear or missile arsenals.

On January 19, North Korea said it would bolster its defenses against the United States and consider resuming 'all temporally suspended activities', according to state news agency KCNA, an apparent reference to the self-imposed moratorium.

Analysts say the Hwasong-17 is 'considerably larger' than the Hwasong-15, and was first unveiled in Oct 2020 and then displayed a second time in Oct 2021.

The missile, which has been shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the world's largest road-mobile ICBMs when operational.
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Russian troops trying to surround the city of Kyiv are now at risk of getting surrounded themselves after Ukrainian forces went on the counter-attack, with footage showing a tank getting blown to smithereens and rocket artillery raining down on Putin's troops.

Heavy fighting is going on to both the west and east of Kyiv as Ukrainian troops - who have suffered through a month of dogged defending under heavy bombardment - are attempting to retake the initiative from Russian invaders by launching attacks of their own.

Makariv and Moschun, two cities to the west of the capital, have 'probably' been re-taken by Kyiv's troops - the British Ministry of Defence said overnight - meaning there is now a 'realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are able to encircle Russian units at Bucha and Irpin'.

If those units - which include part of a 40-mile convoy spied near the Ukrainian capital in the early days of the war - do get surrounded, then they will be unable to reinforce or resupply themselves and may end up surrendering, inflicting one of the largest defeats on the Russian military of the entire war.

Ukraine has also forced back Russian troops to the east of the city, according to the Pentagon, driving them between 15 and 20 miles down the main highway in the direction of Chernihiv. Counter-attacks are also known to be underway at Mykolaiv and Kherson, in the south, and Izyum, in the north-east.

And on Thursday morning, Ukraine destroyed a Russian tank-carrier ship docked in the captured port city of Berdyansk - scoring a direct hit on the vessel which subsequently exploded. It marks the largest Russian ship lost so-far, and an embarrassing error for Putin because it was Russian state media that revealed its location.

The turret of a Russian tank is seen soaring into the sky after it was destroyed by a Ukrainian Stugna missile, with Putin's forces continuing to suffer punishing losses

The tank suffers a catastrophic hit which causes it to explode, showing the nearby countryside with pieces of burning wreckage. It is not clear precisely where or when the video was taken

At least 1,800 Russian vehicles have been destroyed in the invasion, according to independent monitoring groups, though Ukraine puts the figure far higher - more than 3,000, including cars and trucks

Ukrainian forces are counter-attacking to the west of Kyiv where Russian troops at Irpin and Bucha are in danger of getting surrounded, possibly forcing a mass-surrender, while attacks are also going on to the east of the city

Footage taken from a Turkish-made Bayraktar drone shows Ukrainian rockets raining down on Russian artillery units positioned somewhere in fields in Ukraine

Russian artillery guns are struck by Ukrainian rockets, causing heavy damage as heavy losses are inflicted on Putin's forces

A Bayraktar drone rains death down upon Russian forces occupying Ukraine, as the war drags into its second month

NATO now estimates that Putin has lost up to 40,000 men during his invasion - killed, wounded and captured - representing more than a quarter of the total force he arrayed before giving the order to attack.

Observers and experts have been warning that losses that severe risk making parts of his army combat ineffective, meaning they will struggle to operate on the battlefield and will be vulnerable to Ukrainian counter-attack.

Russian offensives have been stalled on almost all fronts for days now, with the Pentagon saying earlier this week that Ukraine's generals - who have been skilled in defence - are now switching to offence, and are 'able and willing to take back territory' captured by Russia.

Ukraine's armed forces reported 250 aircraft flights in the last 24 hours, a marked increase from the day before.

There were also fierce exchanges of artillery fire in Irpin even as Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said 'the small city of Makariv and almost all of Irpin is already under the control of Ukrainian soldiers'.

What is clear is that Ukrainian civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.

'There's going to have to be a further, massive scaling up of assistance within Ukraine in the coming weeks,' said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.

'I have never, myself, seen such complex needs, and so quickly in a crisis that has developed so fast,' he said. 'We have reached maybe, for once, an appropriate level of horror at what's happening in Ukraine.'

Ukraine's president made an impassioned plea for global street protests against Russia's bloody month-old invasion and for democratic leaders amassed in Brussels for emergency summits on Thursday to send more advanced weaponry.

In a late-night television address from the emptied streets of the besieged capital Kyiv, a defiant but visibly tired Volodymyr Zelensky appealed in English for the world to help ensure his nation's survival.

'The world must stop the war,' he said. 'Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life.'

Addressing leaders of the G7, NATO and the European Union meeting in the Belgian capital, he called for a step-shift in weapons deliveries, including more advanced fighter jets, missile defence systems, tanks, armoured vehicles and anti-ship missiles.

Ukrainian doctor Oleg Andriiovich Storchak works at a hospital for civilian victims of the Russian bombings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 24 March 2022

Ukrainian forces have managed to largely halt the Russian advance around the capital, but shelling and air strikes persist, driving up civilian and military casualties caused by Russia's large-scale invasion

Viktoria, who was injured with shelling debris, rests in a bed in a hospital on March 24, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine

Anatoliy Vereshinsky, aged 51, who was wounded in the chest from an assault rifle, rests in a hospital ward on March 24, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukrainian counter-attacks are also underway in the south around Mykolaiv and Kherson, and in the north-east towards Izyum. The port in Berdyansk, which had been captured by Russian troops and was being used to unload reinforcements, has also been hit - destroying a landing ship

Flames and smoke are seen rising from what appears to be a Russian Alligator-class landing ship docked at the port of Berdyansk, in southern Ukraine, after Kyiv's navy claimed to have destroyed a vessel called Orsk

Smoke and flames rise over the port of Berdyansk, located in the south of Ukraine and occupied by Russian forces, as Kyiv's navy claimed to have hit the Orsk - a huge Russian tank-carrier

A destroyed tank likely belonging to Russia or pro-Russian forces lies amidst rubble in the north of the ruined city of Mariupol

A tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict is seen in front of a residential building, in the port city of Mariupol

People walks past a tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol

A man looks at a burned-out car as he walks past a destroyed apartment building during shelling on the city of Kharkiv

'Freedom must be armed,' he said bluntly, as a heavily armed guard kept watch close by - a stark reminder that Zelensky's own life, and the life of his nation, are in acute peril.

Zelensky admitted the last month had been 'long' and left him heartbroken, but he hailed Ukrainians' willingness to fight. 'This is a war for independence and we must win,' he said, flitting between Ukrainian, English and his native Russian. 'We will rebuild every city, we will bring the invaders to justice for every crime,' he said. 'All our people will live in a free Ukraine.'

His appeal came exactly one month after Russian tanks rolled over the border, bringing a conflict that has already killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians, and thousands more soldiers on both sides.

More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, as cities have faced sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air.

In the southern port city of Mariupol alone, 100,000 people are trapped without food, water or power and enduring fierce shelling by Russian forces.

In the city's hospital, local officials said staff have evacuated patients to the basement, where they are treated by candlelight beside 600 to 700 other residents seeking what little safety they can.

Experts say Russia's once-vaunted military has been bogged down by dogged resistance and has turned to long-range bombardment in the hope of breaking Ukrainian resolve.

Washington said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's bombing campaign amounted to war crimes, escalating a confrontation between Moscow and the West that has rivalled the worst crises of the Cold War.

'We've seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities,' US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

'Based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.'

So far the conflict has not spilt over into direct military conflagration between Russia and NATO, but Ukraine's allies fear that Moscow may up the ante with a chemical, biological or even tactical nuclear attack.

Freshly-dug graves to bury the victims of Russia's invasion are seen in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine which has been shelled by Russian forces in recent days

A woman wounded by Russian artillery strikes near Kyiv, Ukraine, is loaded into the back of a makeshift ambulance

A destroyed house is seen on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, after being struck by a Russian artillery shell on Wednesday

A burned-out car sits next to a badly-damaged house after Russian shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine

Facing mounting diplomatic and economic pressure, Putin's regime has responded by warning Russia could use nuclear weapons if it faces an 'existential threat'.

In the back-to-back Brussels summits, US President Joe Biden and other leaders are expected to bring pledges of more lethal weapons to Ukraine and more punishing sanctions for Russia's already crisis-wracked economy.

But they will also have to weigh how to deter further Russian escalation, without risking an all-out war with Russia.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said the summit will see leaders agree to 'major increases of forces' on the alliance's eastern borders, including four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

NATO officials believe that - armed with an arsenal of Western anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons - Ukrainian forces may have already killed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers and wounded perhaps 30,000 to 40,000.

Putin's regime officially puts the number of Russian fallen at under 500, and has introduced draconian censorship laws to prevent independently verified news about what it calls a 'special military operation.'

Recent days have brought claims of Ukrainian forces not only repelling attacks from the much larger and much better armed Russian military, but launching counteroffensives and winning back territory around Kyiv.

To blunt the damage done by sanctions, Putin said Wednesday that Russia will only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to 'unfriendly countries', which include all European Union members.

The manoeuver sharpened growing debate in Europe - which is heavily dependent on Russian energy imports - about possible bans on Russian oil and gas.

Moscow has warned an embargo would prompt a 'collapse' of the global energy market.

While Europe has appeared fractured on the question of an oil embargo, there are also signs of fissures within Putin's regime.

Moscow confirmed that Anatoly Chubais - a former Kremlin chief of staff who oversaw liberal economic reforms in the 1990s - quit his post as a Putin advisor. He has reportedly fled the country in protest at the war.

Russia still has a vital friend in China, which dismissed suggestions that Moscow should be expelled from the G20 group of countries.

But Scott Morrison, prime minister of G20 member Australia, said he believed that Putin attending a leaders' summit in Indonesia later this year would be 'a step too far.'

Nearly a month into the invasion, peace talks have agreed on daily humanitarian corridors for refugees, and Ukraine says it is willing to countenance some Russian demands subject to a national referendum.

But it has refused to bow to demands to disarm and renounce its pro-Western ambitions.

Ukraine's lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said the peace talks were encountering 'significant difficulties.' Moscow accused the United States of undermining the process.
Sex traffickers are targeting Ukrainian women and children who have fled Vladimir Putin's bombs at Polish refugee camps, charities have warned.

The criminals are offering unaccompanied female refugees promises of safe accommodation and free transport, posing as good Samaritans to lure them away from the safety of official checkpoints.

Charity workers on the Polish-Ukrainian border have warned that the sex traffickers are working alone or in gangs to target the women and children who are an 'easy target'.

More than 3.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland. Most of those fleeing are women and children, as Ukrainian men from age 18 to 60 have been banned from leaving the country to stay and fight.

'We've registered the first cases of [suspected] pimps preying on Ukrainian women near refugee shelter points in Lublin; accosting them, sometimes aggressively, under the guise of offering transport, work or accommodation,' Karolina Wierzbinska, a coordinator at the human rights organisation Homo Faber in the Polish city of Lublin, told the Guardian.

'These are not only men,' she said. 'There are also women attempting to procure female refugees at bus stations.'

Sex traffickers are targeting Ukrainian women and children who have fled Vladimir Putin's bombs at Polish refugee camps, charities have warned. Pictured: Women with children are seen outside the train station Przemysl, southeastern Poland, near the Polish-Ukrainian border, on Thursday

Ukrainian refugees at the Humanitarian Aid Center at the Ptak Warsaw Expo in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday

Wierzbinska said she has seen teams of people working together, or multiple couples, travelling to the Polish border and pretending to offer them rides in an effort to lure them into cars.

'[We see teams] waiting for people arriving from Ukraine and pretending to offer rides or lodging to women distressed and exhausted from their journey,' she said.

'We're also seeing multiple couples, typically a male and a female, having travelled to the border by car, attempting to lure women using similar tactics. We intervene in such cases by approaching the person acting suspiciously and asking them to register in our volunteer directory  in response to which they typically run away.'

Millions of Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Poland since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, leaving many Polish towns and cities on the border overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving and needing shelter, food, and medicines.

The Polish army, firefighters and police have been in the Polish border town of Medyka, where refugees have been coming since the start of the invasion, to help assist the civilians.

Some groups of men have arrived in the town wearing military uniform, claiming they are there to protect women and children refugees after human rights organisations raised fears that the refugee crisis would see a 'disturbing spike in human trafficking'.

Refugees from Ukraine queue as they wait for further transport at the Medyka border crossing, after crossing at the Ukrainian-Polish border, southeastern Poland, on March 23

A girl sits next to a stuffed bear as refugees from Ukraine wait in the main railway station in Przemysl, southeastern Poland, near the Polish-Ukrainian border on Thursday

One such group, seen unloading aid donations from vehicles in Medyka, identifed themselves to the Guardian as veterans of the French Foreign Legion and said they had travelled to Poland to protect the Ukrainian refugees.

'I couldn't even focus, because that could have been my sister, my daughter,' said one man who is part of the vigilante group.

'I think nothing's being controlled,' he said. 'I've seen women who are scared, and kids are showing up at the border and no one knows where the parents are. It's such an easy target.'

Though the Medyka authorities had prepared some facilities in advance for the arrival of refugees, the town was still overwhelmed with the thousands of people arriving at the same time and needing shelter, food, medicines and most of all, warmth and comfort.

Police in the town are able to stop some cars who have offered lifts to Ukrainian refugees, but many cars pass without being inspected.

'The issue with human trafficking is that most of the transports that happen are not organised,' a Polish Red Cross volunteer told the newspaper.

'They are volunteers who arrive from all kinds of places in their private cars. So at all the reception points, you have different organisations trying to set up a system of tracing and tracking.'

Unicef said vigilante groups acting separately from the Polish authorities were concerning.

'I can't speak for the authorities in Poland  [but] security is effectively their domain,' said Joe English, a Unicef spokesperson. 'I think any kind of vigilantism is an unnerving development.'

Missing Children Europe told the Guardian that unaccompanied minors were continuing to disappear at the borders.

'There are so many children [] that we lost track of,' said Aagje Ieven, secretary general of Missing Children Europe. 'This is a huge problem, not just because it means they easily go missing, and are difficult to find, but also because it makes trafficking so easy.'

To ease the strain on the countries accepting refugees, the European Union announced moves Wednesday to help its member states assist the millions of refugees in accessing schools for their children, health care, accommodation and work.

The measures also aim to help facilitate the movement of refugees between countries that can house them in the EU and other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, which already have large Ukrainian communities.

Mostly women and children - Ukrainian men from age 18 to 60 have been banned from leaving the country and stay to fight - the refugees have sought to rebuild their lives in neighboring countries, seek jobs and start schools. Some have moved on other nations where they have relatives.
Parts of some documents in the Duke of Sussex's claim against the Home Office will be kept secret, a High Court judge ruled as he criticised Harry's legal team for an 'entirely unacceptable' breach of court rules.

Harry is bringing a claim against the department after being told he would no longer be given the 'same degree' of personal protective security when visiting from the US, despite offering to pay for it himself.

The duke wants to bring his children to visit from the US, but he and his family are 'unable to return to his home' because it is too dangerous, a representative previously said.

He is challenging the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures - known as Ravec - which has delegated powers from the Home Secretary.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured together in Brixton, south London in 2018

At a preliminary hearing last month, the High Court in London heard an application by both sides for some parts of the court documents in the case to be kept private.

In a judgment today, Mr Justice Swift said the bid to withhold or redact documents - including a confidential witness statement made by Harry - was allowed.

The judge said: 'Some of the information relied on concerns security arrangements put in place either for the claimant or for other public figures in the United Kingdom. For obvious reasons information on such matters usually remains confidential.'

Mr Justice Swift said that some parts of his reasons for the decision would have to remain confidential as well.

He added that editing out information from court documents would 'avoid the risk that putting information into the public domain concerning security arrangements made on past occasions, and the general approach to whether and if so what arrangements should be made, may impair the effectiveness of arrangements in place now, or which may be put in place in the future'.

'Information about these matters would self-evidently be of interest to anyone wishing to harm a person within the scope of the security arrangements and would assist them to piece together previous practice with a view to anticipating present or future security provision,' he continued.

The Duke of Sussex wants to bring his children to visit from the US, but claims they are 'unable to return to his home' because it is too dangerous, his lawyer has said

Harry and Meghan (pictured in New Zealand in 2018) lost their taxpayer-funded police protection in the aftermath of quitting as senior working royals in early 2020

Today's ruling only covers the redaction of documents and does not decide the merits of duke's claim against the Home Office, or if it can go to a full hearing.

After the judgment was made public, Mr Justice Swift criticised Harry's legal team for breaking the embargo on the document.

High Court judgments are typically provided to lawyers in the case under embargo in a draft form ahead of being made public.

However, Mr Justice Swift said that a copy of today's ruling had been emailed to someone who was not a lawyer, against court rules, calling this 'entirely unacceptable'.

Shaheed Fatima QC, for the duke, said she and her team were unsure about whether sending the draft judgment last week was a breach, but had decided to report it to the judge on Wednesday.

However, the senior judge said it was a 'clear breach' and questioned why it had not been raised immediately.

Ahead of Prince Philip's funeral, Harry travelled to Britain with his private security team, but was met on the tarmac at Heathrow by Scotland Yard protection officers. It is understood that was not the case when he returned to the UK for the unveiling of a statue of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace with his brother William in July (above)

Mr Justice Swift continued: 'It should have been obvious that what happened was a breach. At the very least, it should have been obvious that it needed to be reported to the judge, me, at as soon as possible.'

'It is also unacceptable that you come without an apology to the court,' he later said.

Ms Fatima said she took full responsibility and apologised 'for the fact that I didn't think fully before the emails were sent'.

At a hearing last month, Ms Fatima told the court that Harry considers the UK 'is and always will be his home'.

A representative for Harry previously said the duke wants to fund the security himself, rather than ask taxpayers to foot the bill.

However, Robert Palmer QC, for the Home Office, previously told the court the duke's offer of private funding was 'irrelevant'.

In written submissions, he said: 'Personal protective security by the police is not available on a privately financed basis, and Ravec does not make decisions on the provision of such security on the basis that any financial contribution could be sought or obtained to pay for it.'
Only spoke to confirm his name and date of birth and was remanded in custody

The boyfriend of a university student found dead in her halls of residence has appeared at the Old Bailey charged with her murder.

Maher Maroufe, 22, is accused of killing 19-year-old City University psychology undergraduate Sabita Thanwani at her accommodation in Clerkenwell, central London.

Tunisian national Maroufe is also charged with headbutting a police officer during his arrest when he was found in a shed near the scene.

The Old Bailey heard Maroufe and Ms Thanwani were in a relationship.

The boyfriend of Sabita Thanwani, a City University student who was found dead at her student accommodation in central London, has appeared in court charged with her murder

Ben Holt, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant was sent on March 22 from North London Magistrates' Court to this court for trial and for the decision to be made in relation to bail.

'The defendant is charged with the murder of Sabina Thanwani and assaulting an emergency worker.

'The incident took place on March 19 of this year in university accommodation. The defendant and the victim had been in a relationship prior to this incident.'

Mr Holt added: 'Officers made their way up to flat 518 and found bloodstains around the bed.

Maher Maroufe, wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit and assisted by an Arabic interpreter, only spoke to confirm his name and date of birth before he was remanded in custody ahead of a hearing scheduled for June 30

'Underneath the duvet and sheets, the body of the victim was found lying there. Ms Thanwani was pronounced extinct at 6am on 19 March.'

He told the court that Maroufe was arrested when he was found in a shed near the scene the following day.

Maroufe, wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit and assisted by an Arabic interpreter, only spoke to confirm his name and date of birth.

Judge Mark Lucroft, Recorder of London, said: 'The next hearing will be on June 30 at this court before me. Between now and that date you will be remanded in custody.'

Police on Sebastian Street after a teenager was found dead in student housing

A post-mortem on Ms Thanwani carried out at Whittington Hospital concluded the cause of death to be 'sharp force trauma to the neck'.

In a statement issued through the police, Miss Thanwani's described the 19-year-old as 'an angel' who 'was pure and did not see bad in anyone'.

Detectives from the Mets Specialist Crime Command are investigating and continue to provide support to Miss Thanwani's family.

The family said: 'Sabita Thanwani was our daughter. Our angel. Her life, that we hoped would be long, was cut tragically short. She was ripped away from those who loved her so very dearly; her mum, dad, brother, grandparents, extended family and friends.

'Sabita was the most caring and loving person we have ever known. She inspired us every day of her precious 19 years of life. Her mission was to help everyone.'
Development of China-Gambia ties serves both peoples' interests: Chinese FM

Xinhua) 08:32, March 24, 2022

ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Wednesday that sustained, stable and healthy development of the China-Gambia relations serves the long-term and fundamental interests of the two peoples.

Wang made the remarks while meeting with Mamadou Tangara, Gambian minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in the Pakistani capital.

Wang noted that China appreciates Gambia having adhered to the one-China policy to maintain the political foundation for bilateral relations since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations.

The two countries' mutual support in international affairs have showed that bilateral relations are at a high level, Wang added.

China will continue to support Gambia's efforts for national development and improving its people's well-being, he said.

During the meeting, the Chinese foreign minister also said that China is willing to work with Gambia to strengthen bilateral strategic communication and jointly safeguard the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs -- the basic norm governing international relations which is of crucial importance to the developing countries.

Wang said China has never engaged in proxy wars nor sought so-called spheres of influence. China opposes power politics and bloc confrontation, stands for equality among all countries regardless of their sizes, and advocates promoting greater democracy in international relations.

Wang congratulated Gambia on its hosting the upcoming OIC summit this year, saying that Gambia will continue to play an active role in the OIC, boosting the solidarity and advance of the Islamic world.

Tangara said the relations between his country and China have weathered changing circumstances and moved forward steadily, enjoying smooth progresses in their cooperation in every field as well as a reliable and strong partnership.

Tangara reaffirmed his country's adherence to the one-China policy. He said that like China, Gambia sticks to an independent foreign policy and firmly supports multilateralism.

The Gambian foreign minister also noted that China has played a leading role in promoting global development and made significant contributions to the world's joint fight against COVID-19.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul is seen March 23. Yonhap





President Moon Jae-in is set to preside over a National Security Council (NSC) meeting Thursday, following North Korea's apparent launch of a long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea, according to Cheong Wa Dae.







North Korea appeared to have launched the projectile at an elevated angle, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.







The North's move came four days after it launched four projectiles into the Yellow Sea, apparently using multiple launch rocket systems, from Sukchon, north of Pyongyang.







Thursday's launch was the North's 12th weapons test this year. (Yonhap)


A family of four are dead and a teenage boy is fighting for life in hospital after appearing to jump from their apartment building in the Swiss resort of Montreux on Lake Geneva, police said.

The French family were found at the bottom of a seven storey building in Montreux on Thursday and are believed to have jumped moments after police officers tried to execute an arrest warrant in connection with the home-schooling of a child.

The four victims, identified as a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister and the couple's eight-year-old daughter, died at the scene, police said.

The couple's 15-year-old son was seriously injured and has been hospitalised.

Alexandre Bisenz, a police spokesperson, told the 20 Minutes newspaper the family of five appeared to have jumped from their apartment, near the town's lakeside casino.

A witness at the scene said saw them lying on the ground without shoes before calling the police.

The four victims, identified as a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister and the couple's eight-year-old daughter, died at the scene, police said. The couple's 15-year-old son was seriously injured and has been hospitalised

The four victims were found dead at the foot of a seven-story building in Montreux

Police officers take samples on a balcony after five people appeared to have jumped from their apartment, in Montreux, Switzerland, on Thursday

Police said the incident occurred after two officers arrived at the building, across from Montreux's famous Casino, to execute a warrant for the father in connection with the home-schooling of one of the couple's children on Thursday.

The officers knocked on the door and heard a voice ask who they were. But when they answered, the apartment went quiet.

After failing to make contact, the officers left, but 'in the meantime, a witness called the police to say that people had fallen from an apartment balcony,' police said.

'We do not know yet whether they fell or if this drama was due to other circumstances,' police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel told the RTS public broadcaster.

While an investigation into the tragedy is ongoing, police have concluded no one else was in the apartment at the time.

The Vaud cantonal police said in a tweet earlier on Thursday morning: 'Five people were found at the foot of a building. One of the five victims has been hospitalised and is in serious condition. The four others are dead.'

Forensic teams are now taking samples from the balcony of the seventh-floor apartment.

Neighbours said the family was quiet and kept to themselves.

'We heard nothing from their home, the father never said hello in the hallway and ordered many packages almost daily,' neighbour Claude Rouiller told Swiss newspaper Le Temps.

Police officers talk near the scene, after five people appeared to have jumped from an apartment in Montreux, Switzerland, on Thursday

Rouiller said there had been the strong smell of incense coming from the family's apartment in the days leading up to the tragedy, while other neighbours claimed the family were part of a cult.

Another resident, who lives on the first floor of the apartment building, described hearing a 'thud' at around 7am on Thursday morning.

The neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said he went outside to investigate and saw five bodies.

'I thought it was a bad film - I couldn't fix the image for more than a few seconds,' he said.

Police officers take notes next to tents after five people appeared to have jumped from their apartment, in Montreux

A black hearse arrives at the scene after a French family appeared to jump from their apartment on Thursday

Police officers install a protection at the scene after five people appeared to have jumped from an apartment, in Montreux on Thursday

The five people 'would have visibly thrown themselves into the void from the apartment,' Bisenz told news agency Keystone-ATS, adding that the police were alerted to the incident by passersby.

Bisenz said that an investigation is underway and the five people were found at about 7 a.m. Thursday outside a building near the city's famed Casino Barriere. He declined to provide further details.

Around 30 police officers are at the scene and white forensic tents have been set up in front of the apartment building.

Montreux, a bucolic lakeside city, is best known as a tourist hot spot and in particular for its annual jazz festival.

Bisenz declined to indicate if the victims were Swiss nationals or foreigners.
Rare Tudor science books written by the man who invented the protractor are set to fetch 30,000 at auction  after they were found blocking a leaky thatch roof.

The sammelband  a collection of separately printed texts later bound together  contains ten rare scientific works and still has its contempered binding.

The 'very very' rare books were found under bird poo and straw-covered thatching in North Wiltshire, and may have been there for centuries.

The collection was sold on for five shillings in 1716, and is now estimated to go for 20,00 to 30,000 next month.

It was printed first in 1589, 42 years after the death of Henry VIII and 31 years into the reign of Elizabeth I.

The sammelband  a collection of separately printed texts later bound together  is estimated to go for 20,00 to 30,000 at an auction next month

The collection includes a book by Tudor author Thomas Blundeville, who invented the protractor. This alone may be worth 20,000, according to auctioneers

The science collection includes texts from Thomas Blundeville, Edward Wright and Leonard Digges. The books date back to the 16th century during Tudor rule in Britain

It includes a book by Tudor author Thomas Blundeville, who invented the protractor. This alone may be worth 20,000, according to auctioneers.

Chris Albury at Dominic Winter Auctioneers said that they seem to have been owned by a 'Viscount Campden'.

Likely one of the first three Viscounts, the find is surprising as none were known as particularly scientific or 'bookish' men, Mr Albury said.

The sammelband was sold on and still has the signatures of owners Robert Winkles (1716) and Thomas Banning (1817).

Who was Thomas Blundeville? Thomas Blundeville was an English mathematician and writer. He was born around 1522 in Norfolk and died in 1606 in Norwich. He has been credited with inventing the protractor, now a common tool in classrooms. He described it as a semicircular instrument for measuring angles. He also wrote about the art of riding horses, geography, travel, navigation, astronomy and translated works from Italian into English. Advertisement

There are two other 17th Century ink ownership signatures of Robert Hillary and V.W. on the title page of the first text.

Written by famous authors including Thomas Blundeville, Edward Wright and Leonard Digges. The books date back to the 16th century during Tudor rule in Britain.

One book by Blundeville; 'A Briefe Description of Universal Mappes and Cardes, and of Their Use: and also of the use of Ptholemey his Tables' may be worth 20,000 alone, according to auctioneers.

Mr Blundeville was a pioneering humanist writer and mathematician.

He is known for work on logic, astronomy and for inventing the protractor, an everyday classroom tool in most schools.

Mr Albury said: 'It's an incredible find in that it was discovered in the last few years under the thatch of an outbuilding under straw and bird poo and may have been there undisturbed for centuries.

'When I first suggested the auction estimate of 15,000 to 20,000 the owners were gobsmacked and over the moon.

'Each book is rare and some of them very, very rare.

The sammelband was sold on for five shillings in 1716 and had a history of owners, some, whose names are written inside

'I had to collate it carefully to see what was missing before coming up with a valuation and I was staggered to find how complete it is and how careful the binder had been.

'The binder has been sensitive enough to trim around these occasional larger page extensions and fold the edges into the text.

'I don't know if my estimate will turn out to be a massive underestimate but it's certainly very special.'

Another text in the collection, by Thomas Hill, explicitly rejects Copernicanism  the idea that the earth and other planets orbit the sun.

Mr Hill was one of only two 16th Century astronomers to do so.

He also includes descriptions of America and Peru, areas that were largely undiscovered by Europeans at this time.

Another, by Leonard Digges, supports the idea that the universe is infinite.

This text contains his full diagrams to explain his theories  which is missing from most surviving copies.

The books will go up for auction on Wednesday, April 6, as part of Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Early English and Continental Literature & Science action.

One text, by Mr Blundeville was last sold for more than 54,000 at a 2007 auction in New York.
More than half of all children in Ukraine have been displaced since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, according to the United Nations.

'One month of war in Ukraine has led to the displacement of 4.3 million children - more than half of the country's estimated 7.5 million child population,' the UN children's agency Unicef said.

Displaced children make up nearly half of the over 10 million people who have been forced to flee their homes since the invasion began one month ago today.

The Russian invasion has displaced 4.3 million children in Ukraine according to the United Nations

1.8 million Ukrainian children have left their country as refugees (Ukrainian families pictured in Przemysl, Poland)

More than 1.8 million children have fled Ukraine as refugees, while another 2.5 million are now displaced inside their war-ravaged country, the UN said.

'The war has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War II,' Unicef chief Catherine Russell said.

'This is a grim milestone that could have lasting consequences for generations to come,' she warned.

'Children's safety, wellbeing and access to essential services are all under threat from non-stop horrific violence.'

Russian tanks rolled over the border on February 24, triggering a conflict that has already killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians.

'The war has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War II'

Ukrainian children collect food as a distribution centre in Chisinau, Moldova

The UN human rights office has confirmed that 81 children have been killed in the conflict and 108 injured, but acknowledges that the true toll is likely far higher.

The World Health Organization has verified 64 attacks on health care, including on hospitals, clinics and ambulances, since the invasion began.

Separately, Ukraine's education ministry has reported damage to more than 500 schools and other education facilities, according to Unicef.

An estimated 1.4 million people now lack access to safe water, according to the UN children's agency, while 4.6 million people have limited access to water or are at risk of being cut-off.

'Over 450,000 children aged six to 23 months need complementary food support,' it said.

Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv (pictured) have been devastated by Russian shelling

Unicef also cautioned that it is already observing a reduction in vaccination coverage for routine and childhood immunisation, including for measles and polio.

"This could quickly lead to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases especially in overcrowded areas where people are sheltering from the violence," it said.

The UN agency reiterated its appeal for an immediate ceasefire and for the protection of children from harm.

It stressed that essential infrastructure that children depend on, like schools, hospitals and buildings sheltering civilians, 'must never come under attack.'

'In just a few weeks, the war has wrought such devastation for Ukraine's children,' Russell said.

'Children urgently need peace and protection. They need their rights.'
International hacking collective Anonymous claims to have exploited Russia's Central Bank - and is threatening to release 35,000 files which include 'secret agreements' in the next 48 hours.

The bank is responsible for protecting and ensuring the safety of the ruble, the Russian currency which has plummeted in value since the invasion of Ukraine began last month.

In a post on Twitter late last night by one of the group's accounts, Anonymous revealed its latest hack, though details were limited.

Alongside an image of a smiling mask - now synonymous with the group - it wrote: 'JUST IN: The #Anonymous collective has hacked the Central Bank of Russia. More than 35.000 files will be released within 48 hours with secret agreements. #OpRussia'.

International hacking collective Anonymous claims to have exploited Russia's Central Bank - and is threatening to release 35,000 files which include 'secret agreements' in the next 48 hours

It comes as speculation has mounted in recent days over the future of central bank head Elvira Nabiullina.

She was photographed looking dejected at a Kremlin meeting and posted a cryptic video, in which she acknowledged the Russian economy was in an 'extreme' situation and said, 'We all very much would have liked this not to have happened.'

But Vladimir Putin this week asked parliament to nominate her for another term, apparently scotching rumours she could resign in protest at the war.

There have been murmurs of concern from oligarchs who stand to lose massively from the invasion, such as the magnates Oleg Deripaska and Mikhail Fridman, who have both made cautious comments promoting peace.

On March 3, the board of Russia's largest privately-owned energy company, oil giant Lukoil, also called for an end to the conflict.

Noble added that many members of the elite were shocked by the invasion, as the vast majority 'had not been involved in the decision-making process' and believed Putin was planning brinkmanship rather than invasion.

'However, it's one thing to call for peace; it's quite another to criticise Putin directly,' he said.

Earlier this week, Anonymous warned Western companies continuing to operate in Russia that they must pull out or risk facing cyberattacks in light of the invasion of Ukraine.

The collective is responsible for several attacks of Russian state-controlled media and government websites in which it forcibly swapped Kremlin-directed programming for videos of the bloodshed on the ground in Ukraine and anti-war statements.

Anonymous has also conducted cyber raids on the likes of Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor and Russian intelligence and security service FSB, leaking thousands of classified documents to expose the details of Putin's plans to conquer Ukraine and undermine the Kremlin's domestic propaganda drive.

But now, the hacktivists are turning their attention to large corporations who have not yet suspended their operations in Russia amid the war.

Anonymous' official Twitter account posted yesterday that companies had 48 hours to 'pull out' of Russia or face becoming a target of further attacks.

The same account declared on Thursday that its #OpRussia cyber campaign was 'launching unprecedented attacks' on Russian government websites and would double the capacity of its attacks.

Anonymous is responsible for several attacks of Russian state-controlled media and government websites in which it forcibly swapped Kremlin-directed programming for videos of the bloodshed on the ground in Ukraine and anti-war statements

International hacking collective Anonymous has warned Western companies who are continuing to operate in Russia to pull out or risk facing cyberattacks in light of the invasion of Ukraine

'Press Release: We call on all companies that continue to operate in Russia by paying taxes to the budget of the Kremlin's criminal regime: Pull out of Russia!' the tweet read.

'We give you 48 hours to reflect and withdraw from Russia or else you will be under our target! #Anonymous #OpRussia.'

The announcement was accompanied by a picture displaying a variety of company logos ranging from oil field service corporation Halliburton to cloud computing service Citrix.

Both Halliburton and Citrix had already announced prior to Anonymous' tweet that they had suspended their operations in Russia, joining a long list of multinational corporations such as McDonalds and IKEA who have stopped offering their services.

Food giant Nestle however has doubled down on their Russian operations, announcing it will continue to sell products there despite being one of the primary targets of anti-war protests.

The world's largest food and beverage company was called out yesterday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who urged the Swiss giant to cease its Russian operations.

He singled out Nestle and their 'good food, good life' slogan.

'Business works in Russia even though our children are dying and our cities are being destroyed,' he said.

But the company argued that it was not making a profit from its operations in Russia, and was only delivering 'essential products' there while continuing to distribute food in some of the hardest-hit Ukrainian cities.

A spokeswoman for Nestle said yesterday: 'We have significantly scaled back our activities in Russia: we have stopped all imports and exports from Russia, except for essential products.

'The fact that we, like other food companies, supply the population with important food does not mean that we simply continue as before.'

The company also stressed that it is pumping money into humanitarian causes linked to the conflict.

'Our colleagues in Ukraine are doing everything they can to help the population with food donations.

'We are still one of the few active food companies in Ukraine and sometimes even manage to distribute food in Kharkiv.'

Food giant Nestle however has doubled down on their Russian operations despite Anonymous' threat, announcing it will continue to sell products there despite being one of the primary targets of anti-war protests

Banners against Swiss food giant Nestle are seen during a demonstration against the Russian invasion of Ukraine next to the Swiss House of Parliament in Bern, on March 19, 2022

Though Anonymous' promise to punish companies who are operating in the region has been widely praised on social media, some cybersecurity experts have expressed concern that soliciting help from freelancers who violate cyber norms could have dangerous escalatory consequences.

Others have raised concerns that multinationals' decisions to suspend their Russian operations will only serve to punish millions of innocent Russians whose livelihoods will be impacted.

In particular, the decision to block Russia from the SWIFT international banking system and the withdrawal or suspension of services from payment companies like PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and Google Pay means countless Russian businesses, entrepreneurs and workers have already seen their salaries evaporate.

Marina Ovsyannikova, the former television editor who launched a daring and heroic anti-war protest live on air during Russia's state-controlled evening news broadcast, warned of the impact of measures taken by Western governments and companies against normal Russian citizens.

'[The sanctions] the West is imposing on all of the people is probably a correct decision, but you must understand that not just the oligarchs and Putin's closest circle are suffering,' she told ABC on Sunday.

Ovsyannikova said her own 11-year-old daughter had been left starving at school in Russia after she was unable to buy her lunch when the credit card she used was blocked.

Meanwhile, owners of small Russian businesses told the BBC: 'This is a completely new kind of crisis which makes us all feel lost and bewildered. Not just in business but in our own lives. The loss of income, having to give up a whole way of life, reduced connections. There are a lot of things we have already lost and haven't yet fully understood.'

Moscow journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, 43, gave her first interview to American media on Sunday, speaking to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. Ovsyannikova said her own 11-year-old daughter had been left starving at school in Russia after she was unable to buy her lunch when the credit card she used was blocked

Top Ukrainian cyber security official Victor Zhora said he would not normally endorse Anonymous' vigilante-style cyberwarfare, but recognised that the war in Ukraine represented an extraordinary situation.

The deputy chair of Ukraine's state special communications service said earlier this month: 'We do not welcome any illegal activity in cyberspace. But the world order changed on the 24th of February' - the date that Russia invaded his country.

On March 15, Anonymous brought down several Russian state websites, including that of Russia's security and intelligence service (FSB).

Using the military term 'Tango down' in relation to the websites they had successfully compromised, the organisation announced via social media they had hacked into the websites of Moscow.ru, the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, and the FSB.

Anonymous also leaked private correspondence which they claimed to be between Vladimir Putin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, outlining plans to cut down Ukrainian forests and sell onwards.

The group of hacktivists took to Twitter on March 15 to announce the websites they had successfully brought down, including FSB, the Russian intelligence service. They also leaked private correspondence between Vladimir Putin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, outlining plans to cut down Ukrainian forests and sell onwards

The letter published Anonymous published on Twitter is allegedly from minister Shoigu, and reads: 'Dear Vladimir... In order to create fortifications to provide formations, military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation involved in a special military operation, felling is required on defence lands and other categories, followed by the use of the resulting wood by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.'

It went on to read that the funds will be used 'in the interests of defence'.

Earlier this month, Anonymous claimed to have hacked into Russia's media censorship agency and released 340,000 files from Roskomnadzor federal agency, stealing classified documents which they then passed on to transparency organisation Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), who published them online.

The trove of 820 gigabytes of emails and attachments showed how the Kremlin is censoring anything referring to their brutal invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow is instead calling a 'special military operation'.

The leader and cofounder of DDoSecrets is Emma Best, a US-based leaker who has previously targeted Russian government agencies and US police forces in the wake of George Floyd protests.

David Betz, professor of war in the modern world at King's College London, said: 'I think it's positive. Censors should be exposed.'

The latest alleged cyberattack by Anonymous on Russia has taken aim at printers.

A member of the collective whose Twitter handle is DepaixPorteur announced on Sunday evening: 'We are currently launching a printer attack on 156 Russian printers. copies so far'.

The user claimed that Anonymous was hacking unsecured Russian printers on various networks and printing off documents emblazoned with anti-war messages and instructions on how to download and install Tor, an open-source anonymous browsing software, to help Russians evade the Kremlin's media censors.

The same account tweeted later on Sunday: 'We have been printing anti-propoganda and tor installation instructions to printers all over #Russia for 2 hours, and printed 100,000+ copies so far. 15 people working on this op as we speak.'
Gordon Ramsay has been slammed for saying he 'can't stand' Cornish people as he reignited his war with neighbours surrounding his holiday home.

The TV chef was blasted for saying he did not like the locals but 'absolutely loves' the county in radio comments he said were a joke.

The 55-year-old was even accused of a hate crime due to Cornish people being recognised as a national minority.

It comes after he defended him and his family's relocation to the coastal bolthole during the pandemic, which also drew outrage from his neighbours.

Gordon Ramsay has been slammed for saying he 'can't stand' Cornish people as he reignited his war with neighbours surrounding his holiday home

Ramsay recently admitted he regrets not defending himself after his neighbours in Cornwall criticised him and his family for relocating to their seaside home (pictured) from London

Ramsay appeared on Zoe Ball's BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Tuesday, saying: 'Trust me, I absolutely love Cornwall, it's just the Cornish I can't stand.'

When quizzed on the remark by stand-in host Vernon Kay, he refused to apologise and doubled down, adding: 'I promise I did mean it.'

Livid locals took to social media to condemn his comments this morning and said he was free to leave whenever he wanted.

Jo Pearce, who lives on a farm in Feock, near Falmouth, said: 'Well the feeling is entirely mutual.'

She said: 'No question he's a good cook but his attitude absolutely stinks and I have to grit my teeth watching his cookery programs.

She continued: 'But listening to him talking in that breathy voice just aggravates me.

'I'm pretty sure that Cornwall and the Cornish wouldn't miss him for a nanosecond if he didn't live or visit here.'

Anothe rlocal, Linda Peters, postsaid: 'Never liked that man, he's so horrible. We don't want him in Cornwall ever.'

Angie Gillett said: 'In that case he doesn't qualify to ever be accepted here. How can he live here and not like the Cornish.

'If he cannot connect to this county and its true roots of Cornish people, then clear off to London as no-one will notice or miss him.'

She added: 'Aggressive in manners, full of himself so no wonder he cannot connect to the locals.'

Meanwhile the leader of Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow appeared to accuse Ramsay of a hate crime.

Dick Cole, said: 'I am really disappointed to hear Gordon Ramsay's divisive comments and his lack of respect for the Cornish people.

'It is shocking he deems it OK to make such a statement that he'd presumably not make about other national or ethnic groups. I sincerely hope he will reflect on his words and apologise.'

Mr Cole's comments reference the governments recognition that Cornish people are a national minority like the Irish, Scots or Welsh.

Boss of Visit Cornwall, Malcolm Bell, said: 'I absolutely love chefs but can't stand Gordon Ramsay. Cornwall is a wonderful place with wonderful people.'

Ramsay's spokesman said: 'Gordon has made these tongue-in-cheek comments many, many times.'

He added: 'Always, very clearly, said in good humour and seen that way by the majority.'

Ramsay even had a new pool installed at his Cornwall holiday home in Summer 2020, regularly showing off the incredible house on his Instagram account

Ramsay recently admitted he regrets not defending himself after his neighbours criticised him and his family for relocating to their seaside home from London.

The TV chef spent much of 2020 in his 4.4million holiday home with wife Tana and their five children Megan, 23, Holly and Jack, both 22, Tilly, 20, and Oscar, two.

But the family came under fire from locals who accused them of flouting government rules at the time and 'bringing the virus from London'.

In a new interview with Radio Times, Gordon said he is still baffled as to why they were criticised so heavily.

He said: 'God knows why we took so much s**t from the Cornish. We lived down there; we just hadn't been down there for a long time.'

'We didn't sneak down there at all. We got there at an appropriate time, and had an absolutely amazing time.'

The TV star added he relished the quality time with his family during lockdown, explaining: 'A time like that  we'll never get back again.

The TV star added he relished the quality time with his family during lockdown (pictured, December 2020), explaining: 'A time like that  we'll never get back again'

'When the kids started disappearing again, I didn't want it to end  as a dad, not a chef.'

Ramsay angered locals after relocating to his second home in Cornwall amid coronavirus despite the Government urging Britons not to travel.

Nearby villagers were reportedly furious with him after he fled to his holiday home with his family in order to isolate amid the ongoing pandemic.

Locals in the West Country called for tougher action to be taken on people fleeing to their holiday homes.

Villagers feared Ramsay may have brought the virus with him from London and wanted him 'the hell out of Cornwall' and even threatened to expose his address.

In messages seen by the Sun, livid locals took to the Facebook group You Shouldn't Be Here.

One user wrote: 'The big s*** should take himself and his family the hell out of Cornwall.'

Another said: 'Wealthy second homers think making a few quid means they are immune from the virus and any rules. They are arrogant at this best of times, this has shown how bad some of them are.'

One accused Ramsay of flouting government orders to stay in his primary location. They wrote: 'He's swanning around the shops as if nothing is wrong.'

But a friend told MailOnline: 'The family see Cornwall as their family home when the kids are back from uni and Gordon back from filming around the world it's where they spend all their family time together.

The chef spent much of 2020 in his 4.4million holiday home with wife Tana and their children Megan, 23, Holly and Jack, both 22, Tilly, 20, and Oscar, two

'They've been spending time there for 10 years and Jack actually lives in the house there full time too.

'Most of their neighbours are so welcoming and they love being part of the community.

'They've been following the government advice along with the rest of the country since they arrived on March 20th and the campaign against them is hurtful and unnecessary at a time when we should all be coming together and supporting each other.'

The star also came under fire after he was spotted a number of times taking long excursions when outings were still limited to an hour a day.

The Hell's Kitchen star landed in hot water with the coastguard, who were said to have issued an official warning to him over his apparent flouting of guidelines.

Sources indicated Ramsay was seen in Rock, Fowey, Port Isaac and Newquay  some distance from his 4million home in Trebetherick.

The warning was particularly troubling because Ramsay was the face of a 'Stayhome' initiative on YouTube which he had been plugging on his ten-minute cookery shows.
A mayor whose council preaches the virtues of travelling by train rather than plane has been slammed for flying 700 miles from his home in Oxford to France to attend a conference on climate change.

Mark Lygo, mayor of Oxford City Council, posted a photo of himself on Twitter boarding an EasyJet plane at Gatwick Airport captioned Off to our Twinning city Grenoble - France.

Mr Lygo's decision to fly rather than use sustainable means of transport was blasted as 'embarrassing' on social media.

Speaking to MailOnline mother-of-three Emily Kerr, 43, said: Flying for a climate conference is never a good look - especially when there are great train links between Oxford and Grenoble.

'When Mr Lygo's council is telling us to take trains over planes, then he should too.

Oxfordshire County Councillor Ian Middleton said: Whilst I'd accept that in some cases flying is the only option, this wasn't the case here.

Tweeting a picture of yourself standing in front of a huge jet seems like a very tone deaf move from someone who I know shares the concerns of many of us about climate change.

In November the council launched a social media campaign telling those living in Oxford to travel by train rather than plane.

Mark Lygo, pictured, mayor of Oxford City Council, posted a photo of himself on Twitter boarding an EasyJet plane at Gatwick Airport captioned Off to our Twinning city Grenoble - France

In November the council launched a social media campaign telling those living in Oxford to travel by train rather than plane. Pictured: The campaign

(Pictured) Mr Lygo's decision to fly rather than use sustainable means of transport was blasted as 'embarrassing' on social media

The councils Tweet told members of the public: Greenhouse gasses and other emissions from air travel are a growing cause of global warming.

Take fewer flights and opting for the train, wherever possible, will help reduce emissions.

The council has also introduced Britains first-ever Zero Emissions Zone meaning that only fully electric vehicles will be able to enter certain parts of Oxford for free - with all other polluting cars being charged a fee.

Responding to the criticism, the council defended its decision to send Mr Lygo to the conference by plane because its quick and the meeting was important.

A spokesman said he was travelling on official business to update its twinning French city on Oxfords leading work on decarbonisation and other initiatives and that it remained a low mileage council.

Mr Lygo, pictured with what he tweeted, and the council have been approached for comment

Critics said that the plane journey was unnecessary as the meeting could have taken place online using video conferencing software such as Zoom.

Others pointed out that the mayor could have travelled by train and worked on board.

Liam Walker, who is a councillor for Oxfordshire County Council, said the decision to fly to the conference was full of irony.

He said: This appears to be more do as I say, not as I do.

I also drive my car because it saves time but these same councillors are telling me to get on the bus whilst they get on a plane.

Mr Walker added that the mayor also sits on the county council that last week decided to only serve vegan food at council-led events in a bid to become greener.

The move was criticised by Oxfordshire farmers, whose members include Jeremy Clarkson, who said the decision was 'dictatorial'.

Mr Lygo and the council have been approached for comment
A group of Albanian men kidnapped, held prisoner and raped a woman who was on her first night out after the end of Covid restrictions, a jury has heard.

Vullnet Haka, 33, and Ibrahim Bezati, 36, both of Bedford, are charged with false imprisonment and four counts of rape against the 23-year-old victim.

Gemti Hyka, 31, faces the same charges as well as kidnapping.

Luton Crown Court heard yesterday the woman had been on a night out with her friend when they became separated while leaving Vogue night club in central Bedford in the early hours of September 4 last year.

The woman's friend told the jury that she walked right and the victim went left to avoid a group of men fighting in the street outside.

A group of Albanian men kidnapped, held prisoner and raped a woman who was on her first night out after the end of Covid restrictions, a jury has heard. Pictured: Vogue nightclub, where the woman had been with a friend

But the pair then lost each other and the women's friend, also 23, spent half an hour looking for her on her own.

Finally at around 7.30 in the morning the friend said she received a call from the woman, who had been crying.

She told the friend she was at Kempston police station and said: 'I need mum.'

It is alleged that she was kidnapped by defendant Hyka and taken to a property where she was held prisoner and raped by Hyka, Haka, and Bezati.

Questioned by Martin Mulgrew, prosecuting, the victim said: 'I have no memory of getting out of the club.'

She added that went into 'survival mode' while at a house where it is alleged she was raped.

Luton Crown Court (pictured) heard yesterday the woman had been on a night out with her friend when they became separated while leaving Vogue night club in central Bedford in the early hours of September 4 last year

'I begged them to let me go. I was confused and scared,' she told the court.

The woman said she would never agree to leave with someone she did not know and said she did not agree to have sex with anyone or sexual activity with anyone.

Her friend told the jury that they had gone for dinner in Zizzi in Bedford where they ate Pasta and drank two bottles of wine between them.

They went on to the Slug and Lettue where they had a cocktail, a glass of wine and a Tequila shot before going into Vogue nightclub.

She said it was their first night out after the lockdown. At one point she saw her friend receive a kiss from a man on the dance floor.

'I told him to leave her alone and he left,' she said.

On a scale of 1 to 10 she was asked how drunk her friend was. She replied '7 or 8.'

Gemti Hyka, 31, of Cambridge Road, Bedford denies kidnap, false imprisonment and four charges of rape of the woman.

Vullnet Haka, 33, and Ibrahim Bezati, 36, both of Bedford, deny false imprisonment and four charges of rape of the woman.

The defendants are aided in court by an Albanian interpreter.

The trial continues.
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The Queen held a virtual audience today and hopes to attend a thanksgiving service to remember her late husband Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey next Tuesday despite her recent health issues, a Buckingham Palace source revealed today.

Elizabeth II - currently in residence at Windsor Castle - appeared via a videolink during a virtual audience to receive the ambassador of Egypt to the UK, Nasser Kame and Mrs Heba Ismail at Buckingham Palace.

Today, Royal aides announced details of the service to 'give thanks for The Duke of Edinburgh's dedication to family, nation and Commonwealth and recognise the importance of his legacy in creating opportunities for young people, promoting environmental stewardship and conservation, and supporting the Armed Forces'.

The palace has yet to confirm whether the 95-year-old Queen will be present at the service, with a source saying that she still 'hopes to attend'. The event will be broadcast live on BBC One from 10.30am until 12.15pm.

The Queen and Philip's second son Prince Andrew is also planning to be present, despite him paying an estimated 12million earlier this month to settle out of court in a US civil sexual assault case with accuser Virginia Roberts.

But Prince Harry will not travel to the UK for the service amid ongoing legal action that he is taking against the Home Office over Metropolitan Police protection, which he believes he should still be entitled to when in the UK, despite quitting royal duties and moving to California. His spokesman said earlier this month that he 'plans to visit the Queen, his grandma, as soon as possible' but there has been no confirmation of when this might be.

Other Royal Family members expected to be in attendance next Tuesday include Prince Charles; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince William; Kate, Duchess of Cambridge; Prince Edward; and Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

Last week, the Queen missed the Commonwealth Day service which was also at Westminster Abbey - a decision understood to be related to her comfort rather than a specific illness. But she has continued with light duties including virtual audiences conducted via videolink and the occasional face-to-face audience at Windsor Castle.

Next Tuesday's service will 'in particular pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh's contribution to public life and steadfast support for the over 700 charitable organisations' with which he was associated throughout his life.

Those in attendance will include members of the British Royal Family and foreign royal families as well as Philip's wider family and friends. There will also be more than 500 representatives of Philip's patronages and charities, reflecting the causes and charitable interests he championed and as a tribute to those who continue his work.

The Queen - currently in residence at Windsor Castle - appears on a screen via videolink, during a virtual audience to receive the ambassador of Egypt to the UK, Nasser Kame and Mrs Heba Ismail at Buckingham Palace

A close-up of the Queen on the video call at at Buckingham Palace today. She has been suffering from health issues in recent weeks

As the monarch held a virtual audience, Royal aides announced details of the service to 'give thanks for The Duke of Edinburgh 's dedication to family, nation and Commonwealth

Queen Elizabeth II records her annual Christmas broadcast message at Windsor Castle last December. The photograph on her right shows the Queen and Prince Philip taken in 2007 at Broadlands to mark their Diamond wedding anniversary

A graphic shows the plan for the service to remember Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey which takes place next Tuesday

Prince William, Camilla, Prince Charles and Kate at Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Day Service on March 14

Other guests in the congregation will include representatives from UK Government, the Armed Forces and the devolved administrations, as well as high commissioners and representatives of overseas territories.

There will also be representatives from the Queen and Philip's royal household, representatives from Philip's regimental affiliations in the UK and the Commonwealth, and members of the clergy and other faiths.

Queen's up and down health in recent months October 20, 2021: The Queen is admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital in London for tests and kept in overnight 'for practical reasons', just hours after cancelling a visit to Northern Ireland. October 26: She pulls out of attending the following week's Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow. November 14: She has to miss leading the nation's remembrance of its war dead at the Cenotaph because of a back sprain. February 10, 2022: Prince Charles is diagnosed with Covid less than 48 hours after seeing his mother. February 17: The Queen says at an engagement that she is having trouble walking. February 20: She tests positive for Covid herself. She later cancels several virtual audiences. Sources said this was due to sounding rather hoarse as a result of the effects of the virus. She returns to hosting online events on March 1. March 7: Welcomes Canada's Justin Trudeau to Windsor with a broad smile. March 11: Pulls out of attending Commonwealth Day Service Advertisement

The palace said the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, founded by Philip in 1956, will feature 'prominently' in the service, with a tribute to be given by a gold award holder.

The Band of the Royal Marines will provide music before and after the service, while the Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal Choirs will provide music during the service.

It comes ahead of celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this summer. Among the events are a live concert featuring some of the world's biggest stars, a service of thanksgiving and a day at the races.

On Sunday June 5, the Platinum Jubilee Pageant will be staged in London and feature more than 5,000 people from across the UK and Commonwealth. It will take place against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace and surrounding streets, combining street arts, theatre, music and circus.

The Queen last attended a formal public engagement on October 19, when she held a reception at Windsor Castle for global business leaders.

The following morning she suddenly pulled out of a long-planned trip to Northern Ireland later that day on doctor's advice.

Later that day she was secretly admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital in London for what have only ever been described as 'preliminary investigations' and kept in overnight.

She was advised to undertake several weeks of rest by her medical household and even cancelled her 'inked in' appearance at the Remembrance Sunday service on November, sparking further fears for her health.

Recently she began to resume 'light duties', namely virtual audiences and paperwork, although on February 16 she was seen in a video telling two visitors at Windsor: 'Well as you can see, I can't move' and pointing to her leg.

However Buckingham Palace did say she hoped to personally attend three significant events in March - the annual Diplomatic Reception, which was cancelled as a result of the Ukraine war, the Commonwealth Day Service last week and the service for Philip.

The Queen and Prince Philip are pictured together arriving at Royal Ascot in June 2014. Philip died last year aged 99

The thanksgiving service for the life of Prince Philip will take place at Westminster Abbey (file picture) in London next Tuesday

It is understood that the Queen - who also contracted Covid last month - is still determined to attend Philip's memorial and may even have been 'pacing herself' in public so that she can.

There has been concern in royal circles about the Queen's deteriorating mobility, particularly when it comes to more physically demanding public appearances.

On March 7, she met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Windsor Castle, her first in-person meeting since recovering from Covid.

Both Mr Trudeau and other sources have since confirmed that she appeared in good health and was on 'typically excellent form' and not using her walking stick.

Another source who saw her at Sandringham last month also confirmed that the Queen appeared to be 'bright, alert and walking relatively unencumbered'.

But insiders acknowledge that, like any woman of her great age, the Queen has 'good days - and less good days, as you would expect'. One said: 'It's just worth stressing, again, that she is 95.'

HRH the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: A Service of Thanksgiving is on BBC One at 10.30am next Tuesday
Planned weekly industrial action on Sydney Trains has been averted after the transport minister and unions agreed to free fares for commuters.

It comes after a long-running dispute between the NSW government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union boiled over into a complete shutdown of the rail network last month.

The government shutdown of Sydney Trains on February 21 led to chaotic scenes and stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters.

Last week, calls from the union to implement Fare Free Fridays or face ongoing industrial action led Transport for NSW to warn commuters to expect at least two weeks of interruptions.

Further industrial action on Sydney Trains has been averted. The government shutdown on February 21 led to chaotic scenes and stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters

But NSW Minister for Transport David Elliott on Thursday said he had reached an agreement with the unions to stop industrial action, which had been due to begin on Friday.

'I will continue to work with the RTBU to activate a proposal that will benefit the people of NSW in the weeks ahead,' Mr Elliott said.

'The union and I are committed to offering Fare Free Days that see commuters, their families and small businesses get the most economic benefit from public events.

'The decision avoids any major disruption to services tomorrow.'

Some disruptions may still affect commuters including delays due to the recent weather events and staffing issues related to Covid-19.

Mr Elliott said he looks forward to working with the RTBU 'in good faith' over the next six weeks to negotiate new Enterprise Agreements.

It comes after the government issued an order to shut down all trains across Greater Sydney on February 21, amid a long-running dispute over the workplace agreement.

The decision affected hundreds of thousands across the city that day, leading the RTBU to call for free fares to compensate commuters after the days of interruptions on the network.

NSW transport minister David Elliott (pictured) said he looks forward to working with the RTBU 'in good faith' over the next six weeks to negotiate new Enterprise Agreements

'The people of NSW deserve a safe railway and some free travel as compensation for the mess the NSW Government put them in,' RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens said last week.

'The NSW Government has refused to deliver on basic safety asks as part of the current enterprise agreement negotiations.

'That's why rail workers have been forced to take protected industrial action in the first place.'
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Jurors have been shown the chilling moment police arrested a 'terrorist' in a church where he 'murdered' MP Sir David Amess - after the court earlier watched CCTV of the alleged killer on a 'reconnaissance' mission near Downing Street just a month before the death.

Ali Harbi Ali, 26, is seen moving slowly down Whitehall past past Downing Street and along the Carriage Gates entrance to the House of Commons, where he pauses to look past officers guarding the entrance.

The alleged terrorist targeted Sir David on October 15 by tricking his way into the Tory MP's constituency surgery on October 15 last year.

Dramatic CCTV shows Essex Police constables Scott James and Ryan Curtis ordering Ali Harbi Ali to drop a bloody, foot-long carving knife before charging at him and pinning him to the floor.

The university drop-out can be heard saying he was 'prepared to die', before asking the officers to put his glasses back on his face.

One of the officers - wearing an equipment harness over their clothes which had an extendable baton, CS spray and handcuffs but no Taser - replied: 'Mate, that's not our concern.'

Ali Harbi Ali was arrested by PCs Ryan Curtis and Scott James at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Ali told witnesses he wanted to be shot by police and die a 'hero'

Ali on a 'reconnaissance' mission around Westminster, where he paused briefly at the gates to the Houses of Parliament

Ali captured on CCTV walking around the gates of the Houses of Parliament on September 22 last year - around a month before the fatal stabbing of Sir David Amess in Essex

CCTV of Harbi Ali in Westminster on September 22 last year, which has been shown to the jury in the murder trial of MP Sir David Amess at the Old Bailey

Ali (circled) is captured on CCTV walking along a pavement in Westminster carrying a backpack over his shoulder during an alleged 'reconnaissance' mission

Ali (circled) went on a 'reconnaissance' around a month before the fatal stabbing took place in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in October last year

Ali denies stabbing the MP for Southend West during a constituency surgery in Essex

The stand-off happened within minutes of Conservative backbencher Sir David being knifed more than 20 times as he held a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea.

Pcs James and Curtis were in the area on October 15, 2021 trying to find an unrelated wanted suspect when they were called to Belfairs Methodist Church, where Sir David's meeting was being held, the Old Bailey heard.

The duo arrived to be told the 69-year-old politician had been 'stabbed several times'.

As they approached, Rebecca Hayton, Sir David's parliamentary assistant, met them saying: 'He's stabbed David. He's lying on the floor and he's been stabbed several times.'

PC James said: 'We've got Tasers two minutes away' and PC Curtis added: 'Get everyone out of there now.'

Ms Hayton told them: 'The man is still inside the church and he is brandishing a knife, waving it around. He will stab you if you go in, he will stab you.'

But Darren King, a constituent who had been inside and confronted Ali insisted: 'He'll allow you to go in.'

PC Curtis stood at the exit, telling his colleague: 'Scott, if he comes we'll kick the f**king hell out of him.'

Darren King said: 'Go inside. You can go and stand at the door' but PC James insisted: 'We need the Taser Unit, we need the Taser Unit here, we're TA' and PC Curtis told him: 'They say he's got a knife, he's just stabbed someone.'

King said: 'He has got a knife but he's allowing you to go inside and see David Amess on the floor.'

PC Curtis said: 'Mate we've got to stick to our instructions, we've got the Taser Unit one minute away, so we're going to go in and he's going to get Tasered mate, alright.'

King said: 'You can go and stand at the door, he's not right there.'

Ali walking along Whitehall, (left) and near to Portcullis House (right) on CCTV footage released by police

No medical treatment could have saved Sir David's life, the court heard

Curtis asked: 'Can you show us mate?'

King said: 'Yeah of course I can', and led the way in.

'Stay back yeah, 'Curtis said as the two officers entered the church, brandishing their CS spray cans.

PC James could be heard yelling: 'Mate drop the knife, drop that knife, drop that f***ing knife. Are you going to drop it? Listen to me drop the knife.'

Ali stepped forward asking: 'Is that a gun or a Taser?'

As they backed away, PC James told him: 'Listen to me listen to me, it is only going to go one way. Drop that knife. You don't want to do this.'

Ali asked again: 'Have you got a Taser?' before dropping the knife to the floor with a clatter.

PC James yelled at him: 'Yeah good man, on the floor now! Get him down. '

At the point a PC Main arrived yelling 'Taser, Taser' but PC Curtis said: 'We've got him, we've got him.'

Ali, by now lying face down, with an officer on top of him, said: 'I'm not moving.'

PC James told him: 'You are under arrest for murder' and read him his rights as Ali asked: 'I was prepared to die. Can you put my glasses on my face brother?'

'Mate, that's not our concern,' the officer said, as he kicked the knife away, then yelled: 'CPR, Dan, CPR. Get over the back, over the back.'

Ali (seen in a court sketch) told witnesses he wanted to be shot by police and die a 'hero' after stabbing the Tory MP for Southend West 21 times, the jury were told

PC Curtis said: 'I'll takes the cuffs mate, you pat him down' and PC James asked: 'Mate have you got any weapons on you?'

'Nothing, nothing,' Ali replied. Then he added: 'My phone's rung, it's the family.'

Speaking to his sister he added: 'Don't worry the police got me, they are not going to shoot. Can you hear me? I've been arrested.'

He spoke to the officers again: 'My glasses are going to fall off, can you put my glasses on my face please.'

He was asked: 'What's your name?' and was told: 'Ali.'

A face mask dropped to the floor as the officers searched his pockets and as they led him out they said to another officer: 'There's going to be a [crime] scene in there so only go in if you need to.'

On his arrival at Southend Police station, Ali was searched again in front of the police van and asked: 'Have you got anything else on you? We're going to get you out and search you again.'

Wearing a black and white patterned shirt, with short sleeves and collar and a green, hooded coat, he looked around with wide eyes.

A wallet and iPhone headphones were removed from his pocket and he was led to a small metal cell in the police station where he sat for a couple of minutes, taking a deep breath and staring straight ahead.

He was then taken to the custody officer who was told: 'He stabbed David Amess.'

The desk sergeant asked: 'Domestic or hate related?' and Ali chipped in: 'Terror.'

'On what basis?' the officer asked.

'Religious crime, yeah,' Ali said.

Ali denies murder and preparing acts of terrorism by targeting MPs Michael Gove and Mike Freer between May 1 2019 and September this year.

Emails exchanged between Ali and Sir David's office as he was in the process of setting up a meeting with him

Forensic pathologist Dr Matthew Cieka performed a postmortem examination on Sir David on October 16, the day after he was pronounced dead.

The examination found the cause of death to be 'multiple stab wounds to the chest'.

Mr Little read out the doctor's conclusions: 'There were 23 areas of sharp force injury.

'All of them consistent...with being caused by a knife or other similarly sharp weapon.

'In relation to the stab wounds themselves four of the stab wounds entered the chest cavity causing damage either to the lung and the superior vena cava and the left ventricle [of the heart].

'The stab wounds that entered the chest would have resulted in major bleeding and the collapse of the right lung which would have culminated in cardiac arrest.'

Dr Cieka estimated the degree of force as 'at or approaching severe'.

Mr Little asked: 'Is it your opinion that there simply would have been no prospect of medical treatment on Sir David Amess saving his life?'

'No there would not,' the pathologist replied.

Ali, of Kentish Town, denies murder and engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

The second charge alleges he engaged in reconnaissance of locations of targets to attack including addresses associated with members of Parliament and the Houses of Parliament; engaged in internet searches relating to the targets of attack.

The trial continues.

Ali said he had an 'interest in Christianity' and wanted to discuss the 'solutions' to declining church attendances, according to emails shown at the Old Bailey

A phone seized by investigating police officers

A second phone seized by investigating police officers
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during his visit to a press tent in front of his office in Tongui-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, Thursday. Joint Press Corps



By Nam Hyun-woo



President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday that he had invited President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to a meeting with no preconditions, but Yoon expressed enmity toward Moon's offer, aggravating the relationship between the incoming and outgoing administrations further.



"I am the outgoing President and Yoon will be the new President. I don't think we need any negotiations to exchange greetings and share advice," Moon was quoted as saying by Park Soo-hyun, the senior presidential secretary for public communication.



"I haven't heard of any precedent that preconditions and negotiations were required for a meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents. I hope the President-elect will decide for himself without listening to others."



The comments came amid a deadlock in arranging a meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents, which has not taken place although the presidential election ended two weeks ago.



Instead of showing a gesture of national unity to the public, the two sides are at loggerheads over almost every matter of state affairs, such as reforming the prosecution, nominating the heads of government institutions and relocating the presidential office and residence.



"Regarding the remark that Yoon should not listen to others' opinions, we assume that the President was referring to Yoon's chief of staff Chang Je-won, senior presidential secretary for political affairs Lee Cheol-hee and a number of other aides who have made various comments regarding the leaders' meeting," a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said.





Park Soo-hyun, the senior presidential secretary for public communication, enters the briefing room at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. Yonhap



However, Yoon's spokesperson, Rep. Kim Eun-hye of the main opposition People Power Party, expressed "deep regret" over Moon's remarks.



"Moon described Yoon as if he is unable to make his own decisions, which is very regretful," Kim said in a text message to reporters. "With the power transition underway amid the bumpy road due to COVID-19 and the economic crisis, Moon described the meeting as a chance to share cordial greetings, to which we disagree."





Justice Minister Park Beom-kye, center, listens to reporters' questions at the ministry's headquarters in the Government Complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. He refused to comment. Yonhap
NATO allies are set to provide new anti-ship weaponry to Ukraine  on a day when the Ukrainian Navy says it scored its first successful attack on a Russian ship off its coast.

President Joe Biden mentioned the assistance as he spoke to NATO allies about the U.S. and allied effort to support Ukraine in its fight to drive off the Russian invasion.

'We have started consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine,' a senior administration told reporters Thursday.

But the official cautioned: 'There may be some technical challenges with with making that happen,' adding that it 'is something that we are consulting with with allies and starting to work on.'

The announcement came hours after Ukraine's Navy announced that the Russian landing ship Orsk had been destroyed in Berdyansk.

Flames and smoke are seen rising from what appears to be a Russian Alligator-class landing ship docked at the port of Berdyansk, in southern Ukraine, after Kyiv's navy claimed to have destroyed a vessel called Orsk

It had been pictured just days ago offloading Russian attack vehicles in the Black Sea port.

The Russian navy has been firing missiles at Ukraine from its Black Sea fleet, stationed off the coast of Ukraine, but has held off a feared attack by sea on the port city of Odessa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an explicit plea for arms during his video address to the summit here, although a senior administration official characterized his remarks as not renewing his request for a no-fly zone.

'On February 24, I addressed you with a perfectly clear, logical request to help close our skies,' Zelensky told the group, according to remarks released by the Ukrainians.

'In any format. Protect our people from Russian bombs and missiles. We did not hear a clear answer. Ukraine does not have powerful anti-missile weapons, and has a much smaller aircraft fleet than Russia. Therefore, their advantage in the sky is like the use of weapons of mass destruction.'

Then he turned to other weapons.

'You can give us one percent of all your aircraft. One percent of all your tanks. One percent! We can't just buy it. Such a supply directly depends only on NATO's decisions, on political decisions, by the way.'

'MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) systems. Anti-ship weapons. Means of air defense. Is it possible to survive such a war without it?' Zelensky said.

'You can give us one percent of all your aircraft. One percent of all your tanks,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with NATO heads to provide more weaponry to counter Russia's invasion

NATO allies have begun consulting on 'on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine,,' according to a senior administration official. Here President Joe Biden (left), Emmanuel Macron (center) and Boris Johnson (right) speak at the start of the NATO summit Thursday

One vessel was shown consumed by fire (left) as two other boats fled (center), at least one of which also appeared to be on fire though was able to escape the port

The Russian Navy's large landing ship Orsk sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 24, 2022. Ukraine's navy said Thursday it had destroyed the vessel

The Orsk would be the largest ship taken out by the Ukrainians since Russia began its invasion last month. It had been anchored in Berdyansk

President Joe Biden pointed to the latest tranche of aid in a statement released by the White House.

'In the past few weeks, the United States has announced $1 billion in new security assistance to Ukraine  anti-aircraft systems, anti-armor weapons, drones, and millions of rounds of ammunition. I welcome the steps by many other Allies to provide defensive support to Ukraine and together, we are committed to identifying additional equipment, including air defense systems, to help Ukraine,' Biden said.

The Biden administration has resisted Ukraine's flees to facilitate transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets from NATO allies to Ukraine, for fear it could lead to further 'escalation' of the conflict.

But allies have been seeking myriad other ways to arm the Ukrainians with anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft systems, grenade launchers, machine guns, and small arms.

Ukraine's navy said it scored a direct hit on the Orsk, a 370ft Russian Alligator-class tank carrier, while it was at anchor.

Multiple photos and videos showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from the port as one ship sat at the harbor in flames, while another two sailed away - one of which also appeared to be damaged.

The attack, if confirmed, would be Ukraine's largest successful effort to take out an enemy ship.

'We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the start of the conference.

'We will discuss allied support to Ukraine. We will also address NATO's efforts to strengthen our defenses now and for the years to come,' he said.

The slate of sanctions are already taking a toll, with the administration pointing to independent analysis that Russia had wiped out 15 years of economic gains, with 400 private companies leaving and an estimated 200,000 people emigrating from Russia over a month.

'Russia will soon face an acute shortage of Ideas, talent and technology to compete in the 21st century. And Putin will be left with a strategic failure of his own making,' said the official.
Spain's former king Juan Carlos I does not have Crown Immunity and can be taken to court to face claims he sent Spanish agents to Britain to harass and threaten his former lover, a judge ruled today.

The 84-year-old former head of state's lawyers had argued at the High Court last December that English courts have no jurisdiction to hear a case brought by Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, a wealthy businesswoman based in London.

The Dane, 58, is seeking civil personal injury damages, alleging she was threatened, had her overseas properties broken into and was spied on after their relationship turned sour.

His lawyers in turn argued that he was immune from the jurisdiction of the English courts, and any allegations had to be brought before Spain's Supreme Court.

But judge Matthew Nicklin disagreed, stating that 'whatever special status the defendant retained under the law and constitution of Spain, he was no longer a 'sovereign' or 'head of state' so as to entitle him to personal immunity'.

The former King of Spain, Juan Carlos, has failed in his bid to plead Crown Immunity to evade explosive claims that he sent Spanish agents to Britain to harass and threaten a former lover, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (they are seen together in Barcelona in 2006)

Abu Dhabi-based Juan Carlos was also 'not a member of the ''household'' of his son, the current Spanish King Felipe VI, that would give him legal protection, he added.

'The effect of the court's decision is that the civil claim brought by the claimant will be allowed to proceed,' a summary of the judgment stated.

Lawyer Robin Rathmell, representing zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, said the ruling showed that Juan Carlos 'cannot hide behind position, power or privilege to avoid this claim'.

He was now 'answerable to an English court... as a private individual'.

Juan Carlos, listed in court documents by his full name - Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Maria De Borbon y Borbon - strenuously denies the allegations.

Submissions claimed the king, who ruled from 1975 until his abdication in 2014, was in an 'intimate romantic relationship' with zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn from 2004 to 2009.

Court papers accuse Juan Carlos of using spies to place her under surveillance, to hack her phones and internet, mount a campaign of smears and issue death threats.

The royal showered her with gifts, even after they broke up. But the situation soured when she declined to rekindle the relationship, leading him to pursue a 'pattern of conduct amounting to harassment', it was alleged.

As well as threats, break-ins and surveillance, Juan Carlos 'demanded the return of gifts', and, she claimed, she suffered 'trespass and criminal damage' at her home in rural central England.

Court papers accuse Juan Carlos of using spies to place Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein under surveillance, to hack her phones and internet, mount a campaign of smears and issue death threats. (She is pictured in Monaco in 2014, six months after Juan Carlos abdicated)

Gunshots were fired at and damaged security cameras at the front gate of the property, she alleged, accusing the former king of being angry at her refusals.

Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claims she suffered a bizarre night-time attack at her 6 million Chyknell Hall estate in Shropshire, where extensive security was breached and nothing was taken but a hole was drilled in her bedroom window.

On an earlier occasion, she received an anonymous phone call threatening that she would die in a car crash in a French tunnel  'between Monaco and Nice'  in the same manner as the late Princess Diana.

Papers allege that Juan Carlos and a senior Spanish general organised mercenary soldiers to occupy her apartment in Monaco in 2012, while she was living there.

Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein had conducted a five-year romance with the married Juan Carlos, from 2004 to 2009, but the court papers suggest the relationship ended when it became clear that he was sleeping with other women.

The couple's affair became public knowledge in 2012 when, with the relationship already over, it emerged that the two had been on safari to Botswana with Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's son.

The hunting trip scandalised Spain, especially as it was reported that the king had shot and killed an elephant.

Two years later, in June 2014, he stepped aside in favour of his son, Felipe VI, and took the unofficial title King Emeritus.

Twice divorced, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was formerly married to a German aristocrat.

In an earlier interview, she said: 'After eight years of abuse, which has also targeted my children, and given there is no end in sight, I reluctantly find myself with no other option but to pursue legal action.'
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Footage has emerged of civilians weaving their way through streets littered with dead bodies and piles of debris as they desperately attempt to escape from the decimated city of Mariupol.

The video, shot by a fleeing passenger in what appeared to be a small van, showed apocalyptic scenes from the port city, which has ultimately been reduced to rubble after weeks of brutal Russian bombing.

Several corpses were seen sprawled in the middle of the road as the van swerved around chunks of rock, twisted pieces of metal and abandoned cars along what is believed to be Budivelnykiv Avenue in western Mariupol.

The chilling video was taken in a part of the city which just one month ago was a flourishing cultural and educational centre.

Budivelnykiv Avenue runs alongside a swathe of lush green parkland home to Mariupol's State University, which prior to the war offered a variety of humanitarian and cultural programmes focused on training students for careers in international relations, as well as the Meotida Greek cultural centre and a host of burgeoning bars, restaurants and Freedom Square.

Now, all that remains are mounds of smouldering debris, destroyed businesses and dead civilians.

The chilling video comes as Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian troops are forcibly deporting Ukrainians en-masse from the city's ruins to 'filtration camps' and then into Russia, as they begged for humanitarian teams to be given access to the besieged city.

Up to 15,000 civilians have been forcibly deported from the Left Bank area of Mariupol since it was captured by Russian troops, local authorities said on Thursday, as they warned an estimated 100,000 people who remain face a desperate plight without food, water or electricity.

Ukraine's security services claimed to have identified one 'filtration camp' that had been established in the city of Dokuchaevsk, in the Donetsk region, and alleged Russian FSB officers were working to sort through the deported civilians to identify anyone with links to the Ukrainian emergency services or military.

Those picked out by the FSB are being send to remote regions in Russia - particularly Sakhalin, an island off the north coast of Japan - where they are forced to sign papers confining them to the region for at least the next two years, security services say.

Video released by Chechen special forces soldiers meanwhile claimed to show fierce fighting in the streets of Mariupol, where Ukrainian troops under siege for almost a month are desperately trying to hold the city.

Fresh images from on the ground have further revealed the scale of the devastation wrought on the city by Putin's indiscriminate bombardments.

Several corpses were seen sprawled out in the middle of the road as the van swerved around chunks of rock, twisted pieces of metal and abandoned cars along Budivelnykiv Avenue in western Mariupol

The video, shot by a fleeing passenger in what appeared to be a small van, showed truly apocalyptic scenes from the port city, which has for weeks endured brutal Russian bombing campaigns and has ultimately been reduced to rubble

A mother covers her son as they lay on a ground after hearing shelling during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine March 23, 2022

Buses used to block routes into the city of Mariupol stand ruined after the city was attacked by Russian forces surrounding it

A line of buses placed by Ukrainian Azov Battalion defenders to impede the advance of Russian troops are seen burned-out in front of a destroyed apartment building in Mariupol

Russian tanks marked with the 'Z' symbol are seen rolling into the outskirts of Mariupol from the occupied Donbass region, as the city continues to come under attack

A woman wipes away her tears as she tells of the trauma of the last few weeks outside her destroyed home in Mariupol

An unexploded hand grenade sits on the floor next to a burned-out infantry vehicle and a destroyed apartment block after weeks of heavy fighting in Mariupol

A naval mine probably set by the Azov Battalion as a trap for advancing Russian forces (front right) lies undetonated in front of the ruins of an apartment block in Mariupol

Though Russian attacks have met with limited success elsewhere, Mariupol was fully surrounded early on during the fighting and has been attempting to hold out ever since.

Russia is now thought to be focusing it efforts on capturing the city, which would provide it with a 'land corridor' between rebel-held areas of the eastern Donbass region and occupied Crimea - believed to be one of Putin's key strategic goals ahead of giving the order to invade.

In order to capture the city, Russian forces have been indiscriminately shelling it for weeks - leaving an estimated 90 per cent of buildings damaged despite hundreds of thousands of innocent people being trapped there.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told a video briefing today that Ukrainian authorities were continuing efforts to secure agreement from Russia to open a safe corridor to and from Mariupol, but said that Russia had been blocking the evacuation of civilians this morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address to Italy's parliament on Tuesday that there was 'nothing left' in Mariupol after weeks of Russian bombardment.

A Reuters team that reached a Russian-controlled part of Mariupol on Sunday described a wasteland of charred apartment blocks and bodies wrapped in blankets lying by a road.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian armies was needed before civilians could be evacuated properly from Ukraine.

'We think we are confronted with a very complex frontline at the present moment in Ukraine which sees a lot of people trapped and people caught people in between frontlines,' Red Cross chief Peter Maurer told a news conference after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

'It's not possible to think about access or evacuation, either in Mariupol or another place, if we don't have a solid and detailed agreement between the militaries on the ground.'

NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce resistance from the country's defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.

By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released - intentionally or not - and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but Zelensky said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed.

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.

Zelensky - who has riveted the world's attention with ad hoc videos and speeches to legislatures seeking military aid for his country - seized on the anniversary to plead for people around the world to gather in public Thursday to show support for Ukraine, saying the war breaks the heart of 'every free person on the planet.'

Dazed and covered in dried blood, a man stares at the camera as he walks out of the ruins of the city of Mariupol, Ukraine

Men emerge to procure supplies in their still burning neighbourhood in the city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine

With a cardboard sign reading 'Volodarsk', two young men attempt to hitchhike from the ruins of Mariupol to Russia

A family prepare to cook over an open fire outside their destroyed home in the embattled port city of Mariupol

'Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,' Zelensky said in English during an emotional video address to the nation, recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. 'Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.'

Speaking in Russian, Zelensky appealed to Russians 'to leave Russia so as not to give your tax money to the war.' Tens of thousands of Russians already have fled their country since the war began, fearing an intensifying crackdown on dissent that has included the arrest of thousands of antiwar protesters and suppression of the media.

Zelensky, who will speak to NATO members by video on Thursday, also said he is asking the alliance to provide 'effective and unrestricted' support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritizing the fight in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said. The U.S. also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, a senior Russian official said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

'The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,' Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, said in televised remarks. He noted that Moscow's nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. Roscosmos oversees missile-building facilities.

U.S. officials long have warned that Russia's military doctrine envisages an 'escalate to deescalate' option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin is known for his bluster, and he did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin. Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.

As U.S. President Joe Biden left for Europe to meet with key allies about new sanctions against Moscow and more military aid to Ukraine, he warned there is a 'real threat' Russia could use chemical weapons.

On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

A destroyed tank likely belonging to Russia or pro-Russian forces lies amidst rubble in the north of the ruined city of Mariupol

A tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict is seen in front of a residential building, in the port city of Mariupol

People walks past a tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol

A man looks at a burned-out car as he walks past a destroyed apartment building during shelling on the city of Kharkiv

Zelensky appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face of Russia's efforts to 'lobby its interests' with 'some partners' to bring them over to its side, and noted during his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

'It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth,' he said.

The U.S. has determined that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine, and it will work to prosecute the offenders, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. He cited evidence of indiscriminate or deliberate attacks against civilians and the destruction of apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, shopping centers and other sites.

Still, major Russian objectives remain unfulfilled, including in Kyiv, where near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday as the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed in the capital since the war broke out.

The shelling also claimed the life of another journalist Wednesday. The independent Russian news outlet The Insider said Russian journalist Oksana Baulina had been killed in a Kyiv neighborhood.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting. But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Zelensky said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had 430,000 people before the war. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

Zelensky accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Russians were holding captive 11 bus drivers and four rescue workers along with their vehicles.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher. Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theater and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Kateryna Mytkevich, who arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she spoke about what she had seen. The city is without gas, electricity or running water, said Mytkevich, 39, and entire neighborhoods have been destroyed.

'I don't understand why we have such a curse,' she said.

Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going 'strictly in accordance' with plans.

The NATO official said 30,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded. In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

The figures from NATO represent the alliance's first public estimate of Russian casualties since the war began. The U.S. government has largely declined to provide estimates of Russian or Ukrainian casualties, saying available information is of questionable reliability.
A Russian man accused of orchestrating an online marketplace where thousands of stolen login details and compromised accounts were sold has been indicted in Texas.

Igor Dekhtyarchuk, 23, stands accused of operating a cyber-criminal marketplace known as Marketplace A, which since 2018 has supported the sale of more than 48,000 compromised email accounts and more than 39,000 compromised online accounts according to the indictment.

Dekhtyarchuk's marketplace also sold authentication tools that 'allowed transnational organized crime and other cyber criminals to unlawfully access the online accounts of victims located around the world', according to the FBI.

Dekhtyarchuk, who operates under the hacking alias 'Floraby', began advertising the sale of compromised account data in Russian-language hacker forums in April 2018 and opened Marketplace A in May 2018, a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement said.

The Russian hacker was indicted on March 16 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, on charges of Wire Fraud, Access Device Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft, and a federal warrant was issued for his arrest last Thursday.

His current whereabouts are unknown, although the wanted poster issued by the FBI said Dekhtyarchuk was previously a student at Ural State University in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and was last known to reside in Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast.

The hacker is now on the FBI's Cyber Most Wanted List.

Igor Dekhtyarchuk, 23, stands accused of operating a cyber-criminal marketplace known as Marketplace A, which since 2018 supported the sale of more than 48,000 compromised email account and more than 39,000 compromised online accounts, according to his indictment

His current whereabouts are unknown, although the wanted poster issued by the FBI said Dekhtyarchuk was previously a student at Ural State University in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and was last known to reside in Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. The hacker is now on the FBI's Cyber Most Wanted list

Marketplace A specialized in the sale of unlawfully obtained access devices for compromised online payment platforms, retailers, and credit card accounts.

It also offered extensive personal data associated with the true owners of those accounts, such as names, home addresses, login credentials, and payment card data.

Marketplace A's business is known as a 'carding shop' in the cyber-criminal world, where the credit card information of unwitting victims is listed for criminals to buy.

The site received upwards of 5,000 daily visitors.

According to the DOJ's statement, Dekhtyarchuk was rumbled when the FBI - through an online covert employee (OCE) - made a series of purchases on Marketplace A from the Eastern District of Texas.

The OCE received the purchased access devices via link or Telegram messenger service shortly after completing each purchase.

The FBI said that Marketplace A operated just like a regular online retail store, with a variety of browsing and purchase options and price points associated with the value of the material on offer.

'This case exemplifies the need for all of us, right now, to take steps to protect our online identity, our personal data, and our monetary accounts,' said Eastern District of Texas US Attorney Brit Featherston.

Dekhtyarchuk, who operates under the hacking alias 'Floraby', began advertising the sale of compromised account data in Russian-language hacker forums in April 2018 and opened Marketplace A in May 2018, a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement said

If convicted, Dekhtyarckuk faces up to 20 years in federal prison

'Cyber-criminals are lurking behind the glow of computer screens and are harming Americans. These investigations require dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to stop thieves that steal from unknowing innocent people. To those who dedicate their lives to stopping cyber-criminals, we thank you.'

FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge of the case Jim Smith said: 'The cyber-criminal marketplace operated by Dekhtyarchuk promoted and facilitated the sale of compromised credentials, personally identifiable information (PII), and other sensitive financial information.

'Cyber-criminal actors behind these marketplaces go to great length to obfuscate their true identities and often utilize other sophisticated methods to further anonymize their activities. Success in these complex investigations is dependent on teamwork and collaboration between the FBI, our international partners, and our private sector partners.

If convicted, Dekhtyarckuk faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Dubai's billionaire ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum inflicted 'exorbitant' domestic abuse on his ex-wife Princess Haya, a senior British judge has concluded, as he awarded her sole responsibility for looking after their children.

The ruling caps the end of an extraordinary, bitter and hugely expensive three-year custody battle at the High Court in London between Mohammed and his former wife, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah.

In a judgment published today, senior judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said Sheikh Mohammed, 72, 'consistently displayed coercive and controlling behaviour with respect to those members of his family who he regards as behaving contrary to his will'.

Sir Andrew - the most senior family court judge in England and Wales - limited Sheikh Mohammed's parental responsibility for his daughter and son, Al Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 10.

Princess Haya will now have sole responsibility for their two children in regards to their medical care and schooling.

Sheikh Mohammed's relationship with the children will be limited to phone calls and messages after the sheikh himself decided not to pursue direct contact with them, Sir Andrew said.

The London court has previously ruled the Dubai ruler had made Haya fear for her life, had abducted and mistreated two of his daughters by another marriage, and had ordered the phones of Haya and her lawyers, one a British lawmaker, to be hacked using the state security software 'Pegasus'.

The ruling is expected to be the final significant decision in the court case between Sheikh Mohammed and his sixth wife Princess Haya, 47, who fled the United Arab Emirates in April 2019, having become 'terrified' of her then-husband.

She was previously awarded 554 million by the court in Britain's biggest ever divorce settlement.

Princess Haya will now have sole responsibility for their two children in regards to their medical care and schooling

Princess Haya bint Hussein will receive a lump sum payment of 251m as part of a 'clean break' from one of the world's richest men, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, the High Court announced today

'The decision to afford the mother sole responsibility for these important matters is justified by the need to reduce the potential for continuing harm to the children,' Sir Andrew ruled, finding the co-parenting relationship was 'entirely bankrupt'.

After the ruling, a statement on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed said: 'He loves his children and cherishes their love for him. He has always cared and provided for them, and always will.

'He maintains his denial of the allegations made in these contentious proceedings, and asks that the media respect the privacy of his children and do not intrude into their lives.'

After fleeing to the UK nearly three years ago, Princess Haya applied for the children to be made wards of court and asked the High Court to make a series of findings about Sheikh Mohammed.

This led to nearly 20 judgments - including two fact-finding rulings and a record-breaking financial award of around 550 million for Princess Haya's lifelong security costs and the children's care.

Sheikh Mohammed, the vice president and prime minister of the UAE, was previously found to have conducted a 'campaign of fear and intimidation' against Princess Haya, as well as hacking her phone and orchestrating the abduction of two of his adult daughters.

In another bombshell, the judgement revealed how Princess Haya alleged that she had paid out 7million to 'blackmailers' on her security staff to keep secret her affair with her British bodyguard, Russell Flowers, which led to the breakdown of her marriage.

The judgement revealed how Princess Haya had paid out 7million to 'blackmailers' on her security staff to keep secret her affair with her British bodyguard, Russell Flowers, (circled left). Haya (middle) is seen next to Sheikh Mohammed on the right. The image was taken at Ascot

At a previous court hearing, the billionaire Dubai ruler was found on the balance of probabilities to have abducted two of his adult daughters, Shamsa (left) and Latifa (right)

In Thursday's judgment, Sir Andrew found that Sheikh Mohammed's behaviour towards his ex-wife was domestic abuse 'conducted on a scale which is entirely outside the ordinary circumstances of cases heard in the family court in this jurisdiction'.

He added: 'Given his immense power and wealth, the potential for the father, and those in Dubai who do his bidding, to act remorselessly against the interests of the mother has been proved during these proceedings.'

The judge said that the 'sustained' abuse towards Princess Haya likely had 'a profound impact upon every aspect of her day-to-day life and her emotional wellbeing'.

Timeline of the legal battle between Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his wife Princess Haya bint Al Hussain Summer 2000 - During a visit to England, Princess Shamsa, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed and Huriah Ahmed al M'aashruns away from her family and seeks immigration advice to try and stay in the UK. August 2000 - Shamsa is taken from the streets of Cambridge by men working for her father. She is taken to her father's home in Newmarket, before being taken by helicopter to France and then to Dubai. She has not been seen in public since. March 2001 - A woman claiming to be Shamsa contacts Cambridgeshire Police, saying she has been taken from England to Dubai. April 2004 - Sheikh Mohammed and Princess Haya are married. December 2, 2007 - Their child Al Jalila is born. January 7, 2012 - Son Zayed is born. 2018: Princess Latifa, also the daughter of Huriah Ahmed al M'aash, was abducted at gunpoint from a yacht off the coast of India and drugged and brought back to Dubai where she spent weeks in prison. February 7, 2019 - Sheikh Mohammed divorces Princess Haya under sharia law without her knowledge. She says this date, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of her father's death, is deliberately chosen to 'maximise insult and upset to her'. April: Princess Haya flees the United Arab Emirates in April 2019, having become 'terrified' of Sheikh Mohammed. May 14 - Sheikh Mohammed issues proceedings at the High Court in London seeking the summary return of his two children with Princess Haya to Dubai. July 16 - On the eve of a 'scoping hearing' to consider media issues before Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division of the High Court, Princess Haya issues applications to make the children wards of court, for a forced marriage protection order and for a non-molestation order. July 30 - Sir Andrew allows the media to report that Sheikh Mohammed has applied for the summary return of the children to Dubai, and that Princess Haya has applied for the children to be made wards of court, for a non-molestation order and a forced marriage protection order. March 5, 2020 -All previous rulings are made public. The judge's conclusions are that Princess Haya was subjected to a sustained campaign of fear and intimidation by her former husband. He also finds that Shamsa and Latifa were abducted on their father's orders. December 2021: Princess Haya is awarded 554 million in Britain's biggest ever divorce settlement to protect her from ex. In another bombshell, the judgement revealed how Princess Haya alleged that she had paid out 7million to 'blackmailers' on her security staff to keep secret her affair with her British bodyguard, Russell Flowers, which led to the breakdown of her marriage. March 24, 2022: Senior judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said Sheikh Mohammed, 72, 'consistently displayed coercive and controlling behaviour with respect to those members of his family who he regards as behaving contrary to his will'. Sir Andrew - the most senior family court judge in England and Wales - limited Sheikh Mohammed's parental responsibility for his daughter and son, Al Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 10. Princess Haya will now have sole responsibility for their two children in regards to their medical care and schooling. Advertisement

He continued: 'It will have totally dominated her thoughts, taken away her peace of mind and removed from her any sense of autonomy.'

In an earlier ruling, Sheikh Mohammed was banned from buying a 30 million estate directly overlooking his ex-wife's home in Berkshire, with Sir Andrew finding the attempted purchase took place 'in secret'.

The High Court also previously heard that the multimillion-pound spyware Pegasus - which is only available to states - had been used on Princess Haya's phone with the ruler's 'express or implied authority'.

The phone hacking, which Sir Andrew described as an 'astonishingly intrusive and abusive action', also targeted members of Princess Haya's security and legal teams - including her solicitor and Conservative peer Baroness Shackleton.

In the most recent ruling, Sir Andrew said: 'The father has acted, in a wide manner of ways, over a period of years, in a wholly coercive and controlling manner towards the children's mother to a degree which can only be seen by her to be all consuming and all encompassing.

'His Highness' behaviour towards the mother, in each of its separate manifestations, whether by threats, poems, coordinating press reports, covertly arranging to purchase property immediately overlooking hers, phone-hacking or in the conduct of this litigation, has been abusive to a high, indeed exorbitant, degree.

'Despite the court's findings, in no respect has His Highness accepted that any of this behaviour has either taken place or that he has had any part in orchestrating it.'

The senior judge later praised Princess Haya for how she had cared for her two children in the circumstances.

He said: 'These children are most fortunate to have had a mother who has striven to protect them as much as possible from the very significant stress that she has been under, and to keep them physically safe, whilst meeting all of their needs for care, education, stimulation, love and humour to a very high degree.'

Sir Andrew later said he accepted that Sheikh Mohammed loved the two children, who loved him back.

However, the judge later said there was an 'absence of any acceptance of responsibility, expression of remorse or understanding of the impact of this behaviour on the mother' by Sheikh Mohammed.

'There has been not one word of apology to, or sympathy for, her,' Sir Andrew added.

Lawyers for the princess had argued the huge sum was needed to keep her and the children safe from her ex-husband who a previous court hearing found was likely to have forcibly abducted two of his daughters after they attempted to flee Dubai.

Princess Latifa was abducted from a yacht off the coast of India in 2017 and Princess Shamsa was abducted while in Cambridge and returned to Dubai in 2000.

Both princesses were Sheikh Mohammed's children with one of his other wives, Huriah Ahmed al M'aash.

Mr Justice Moor wrote in his judgment in December: 'There will remain a clear and present risk to HRH for the remainder of her life, whether it be from HH (her ex) or just the normal terrorist and other threats faced by the princess in her position.'

Sheikh Mohammed  a close friend of the Queen over their mutual love of horse racing  was also found to have had his agents 'hack' the phones of his ex-wife and her lawyers, including Baroness Fiona Shackleton.

Following the princess's affair, the sheikh had waged a campaign of intimidation forcing Haya to flee to London in fear of her life.

Giving evidence, the princess admitted she had taken money from one of her children's bank accounts to 'pay off' a total of 7m to her alleged 'blackmailers'.

Three former bodyguards who allegedly received the money were not named in court but identified as Mr A, B and C. Mr A was said to have been given 2.5m while Mr B and Mr C shared 4.45m.

The disclosure of the alleged payouts came as the princess was cross examined by her ex-husband's legal team over money taken from her daughter's account.

The court heard cash from the account had also been used to buy racehorses and another large sum sent to her brother to help fund his royal palace in Jordan.

Haya, 47, told the court it had been 'convenient' to use her daughter's funds and she had hoped to repay the money but had yet to do so.

Sheikh Mohammed  a close friend of the Queen over their mutual love of horse racing  was also found to have had his agents 'hack' the phones of his ex-wife and her lawyers, including Baroness Fiona Shackleton. They are pictured together at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2014

Sheikh Mohammed accompanying the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on a visit to the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi as part of their tour to the Gulf

The princess would spend time with Mr Flowers at the family's stunning 3,000-acre Suffolk home Dalham Hall (above)

Since fleeing to London, Princess Haya and her children have been living in a 100m mansion in Kensington (pictured) and country home near Egham in Surrey

'Those were the funds that I could get to make that payment quickly which were available to me,' she told the court.

After hearing about the alleged blackmail, the judge remarked: 'It sticks in the throat that these people have been able to get away with this and have not been charged.'

Sheikh 'abducted his daughters and forcibly returned them to Dubai' At a previous court hearing, the billionaire Dubai ruler was found on the balance of probabilities to have abducted two of his adult daughters and forcibly returned them to Dubai. In 2000 Princess Shamsa was snatched from a street in Cambridge and flown back to Dubai on a private jet after saying she wanted to leave the royal palace. And in 2018 Princess Latifa was abducted at gunpoint from a yacht off the coast of India and drugged and brought back to Dubai where she spent weeks in prison. Both princesses were Sheikh Mohammed's children with one of his other wives, Huriah Ahmed al M'aash. Latifa was taken back to Dubai where she was 'imprisoned' in a villa and guarded round the clock. The 36-year-old later managed to smuggle out a series of videos where she pleaded for help and said she was being held hostage Latifa had fled with her best friend Tiina Jauhiainen having paid former French spy Herve Jaubert to mastermind the escape. The pair met up with Jaubert on his yacht Nostromo and they sailed to to India where the plan was to fly to the US for a new life. But the yacht was tracked via its GPS and on the orders of Sheikh Maktoum boarded by Indian commandos. Latifa was taken back to Dubai where she was 'imprisoned' in a villa and guarded round the clock. The 36-year-old later managed to smuggle out a series of videos where she pleaded for help and said she was being held hostage. Following complaints by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and at the urging of a Free Latifa campaign headed by Jauhiainen, photos began to emerge of the princess out and about with her friends. Her cousin Marcus Essabi from Cardiff was able to visit her and she later issued a statement asking the Free Latifa campaign to stop all publicity. Latifa has also been allowed to leave Dubai and travel abroad to Iceland and Spain. The UAE said she was being cared for at home. Advertisement

In his judgment he said: 'This was clearly a most unsatisfactory episode. I realise I have not heard from the alleged blackmailers but nobody should be blackmailed and HRH must have been very frightened at this point. It would have been better if she had used her own allowance to fund all these payments.'

Mr Flowers, who served for five years in the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, started working for Haya full time in 2016 and accompanied her on many trips abroad.

MailOnline first revealed that he started an affair with Haya after he was assigned to her at the sheikh's 3,000 acre estate Dalham Hall in Suffolk.

Friends told MailOnline they would have adjoining rooms on overseas trips where he accompanied her.

Mr Flowers has refused to comment on the affair, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

The relationship ended the princess's 16-year marriage and led to her fleeing Dubai in fear of her life after a loaded gun was left in her bedroom and she was told a helicopter would land at the royal palace and take her to prison.

It is because of these threats that the bulk of the financial award will be used to pay for round the clock security when the family are at their London and country home and abroad.

In a 73-page ruling the judge produced a detailed schedule containing a breakdown of how he had arrived at the 554m sum that would give her a 'clean break' from her ex.

Subjects covered included holidays, staffing costs, house maintenance costs, leisure and security.

The award covers security costs up to the year 2068 when both the sheikh, 73, and his ex-wife will be dead.

Much of the security budget covers the princess and her family at their two homes  a 100m mansion alongside Kensington Palace in London and a 12-bedroom country home near Egham in Surrey.

Costs submitted to the court showed that wages for bodyguards will amount to 865,000 a year.

The security budget allows for six top of the range maximum security cars to be bought every two years to ferry the family around.

The court was told that the cost of transporting the vehicles abroad for family holidays will be 900,000 a year.

The four-day hearing gave a revealing window into what the princess's QC called a 'money no object' lifestyle she had enjoyed while married to the sheikh.

The sums of money discussed in the hearings always ran into the millions with 48,000 the smallest amount ever mentioned.

In the written judgment Mr Justice Moor said he had decided on a figure of 11m a year in child maintenance based on the money the children had received each year from their father.

While living in Dubai, the sheikh paid 18m a year into the bank accounts of the two children.

Princess Haya had a 9m a year allowance and a further 82m for household spending while running the royal palaces.

The judge said the princess had fled Dubai in 2019 leaving behind much of her jewellery and designer clothes.

Haya, who was the sheikh's sixth and youngest wife, said her jewellery collection could have filled a courtroom, and that one diamond set, including a necklace, ring and earrings, was worth 1m.

Included in the sum awarded to her as a lump sum was 20m for items that were left behind and unlikely to be retrieved.
Stunned fans of Conor McGregor cheered on their hero as the MMA star was pulled over by police for alleged dangerous driving in his 140,000 Bentley Continental in Dublin.

McGregor was filmed by fans, who were driving alongside the 33-year-old on the motorway, being chased by a police car on Tuesday night just moments before he was pulled over and arrested.

The video shows a clearly visible McGregor driving in his convertible Bentley and captures the moment the police sirens were turned on.

The fans can be heard cheering McGregor and screaming 'Up the Mac' at the Irish MMA fighter as they drove alongside him.

When police turned on the sirens of their car, the fans could be heard saying: 'Are they pulling him? They are pulling him. Oh my god.'

The Irish MMA star is understood to have been pulled over by the Gardai while travelling to the gym along the N4 between Lucan and Palmerstown.

Conor McGregor was filmed by fans, who were driving alongside the 33-year-old on the motorway, being chased by a police car on Tuesday night just moments before he was pulled over and arrested

When your looking a race of Conor mc Gregor n the Gards pull him in  Posted by Tommy Pyne on Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Conor McGregor (pictured in a file photo), 33, was arrested for alleged dangerous driving in his 140,000 Bentley on a motorway in Dublin

His supercar was seized but has since been handed back to him, reported the Irish Independent.

The 33-year-old was charged with dangerous driving and is due to appear at Blanchardstown District Court next month.

A spokeswoman for McGregor told MailOnline: 'Mr McGregor was driving to the gym when he was stopped by Gardai for alleged road traffic violations.

'He passed the drug and alcohol tests taken at the station.'

A Garda spokesman confirmed a man was arrested in relation to the incident and taken to Lucan Garda Station. He has since been released.

In a statement, the police service said: 'Gardai arrested a man aged in his 30s in relation to an incident of dangerous driving in the Palmerstown area yesterday evening, Tuesday 22nd March 2022.

'The man was taken to Lucan Garda Station where he was later charged.

'He has been released pending an appearance before Blanchardstown District Court at a later date.'

The Irish MMA star (file photo above) was charged with dangerous driving and is due to appear at Blanchardstown District Court next month

McGregor is on the comeback path and has not fought since losing against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, a fight which saw him break his leg in his third defeat in four matches.

'The Notorious', a two-weight world champion, is expected to return to the Octagon in July, and has vowed to fight again for a world title despite losing his last two bouts.

Although the date and opponent when he returns has not yet been confirmed, McGregor is reportedly keen to face the winner of the Justin Gaethje vs Charles Oliveira fight in May.
A senior British Army soldier sexually assaulted a female colleague by grinding against her bottom at a nightclub after drinking in Wetherspoons, a court martial heard.

Warrant Officer 2 Darren Holland allegedly pestered the soldier in a 'creepy' drunken pursuit, telling her 'I don't wear panties' and 'I'm going to s**g you' before assaulting her.

The court heard she was 'disgusted' by his sexualised comments and kept moving to different parts of the club to get away from him, but he followed and continued his drunken advances.

Warrant Officer 2 Darren Holland at Bulford Military Court (above). He denies sexually assaulting a female soldier in an Isle Of Wight nightclub

Bulford Military Court, Wilts, heard WO2 Holland was the woman's 'boss' during a trip to the Isle Of Wight, where they were taking part in an adventure training exercise.

Lieutenant Colonel Jim Carmichael, prosecuting, said WO2 Holland 'began to act towards her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable' during the trip.

The court heard the group went to a Wetherspoons pub on the first night.

After the female soldier had left, she received a WhatsApp message from WO2 Holland at 4am 'asking why she bugged out'.

Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael added: 'A couple of days later, after a day of adventure training activities, the group returned to the Wetherspoons and then went to Fever nightclub in Newport.

'WO2 Holland consumed a large amount of alcohol that night and, after being in the club a while, approached [the female soldier] and said 'I don't wear panties, I've got none on'.

'She considered this creepy, and humoured him before moving away.

'Later on he approached her again and said 'I'm hard and I don't know what to do with it'.

He repeated this and she shoved him away.

'She walked to another area of the club but he approached her again. He said to her on this occasion 'I'm going to s**g you'. He repeated this again.

'She felt disgusted by this and turned away. He then approached her from behind and thrust his erect penis behind his trousers against her bottom.

'She cringed and walked away. She tried to tell members of her party straight away but he was following her around the nightclub so she felt unable to.'

WO2 Holland messaged and called the female solider after she left the nightclub, the court martial heard. Above, outside the military court

WO2 Holland is said to have 'thrust his erect penis' at the female soldier's bottom, after pursuing around the Newport nightclub. The trial is being heard at Bulford Military Court (above)

Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael told the court how the female officer left the club early.

Other soldiers saw WO2 Holland 'noticeably intoxicated' and got into a fight with a civilian outside the club before having to be taken to bed.

The court heard the female officer received a WhatsApp message on her walk back to camp from WO2 Holland of a woman wearing underwear.

He also tried to call her twice that night, but she did not answer.

The following day, the court heard he sent her messages apologising for his behaviour.

Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael added that, in the days following the nightclub incident, WO2 Holland told another colleague that the female soldier had 'placed her hand in his crotch' while sat next to each other on a minibus earlier that week.

However, in his interviews with service police, WO2 Holland denied there had been any sexual contact between the pair.

WO2 Holland, of the 14 Regiment Royal Artillery, denies one charge of sexual assault by touching.

The trial continues.
The boyfriend of a city school board president in Michigan is defending her, claiming a woman 'put her finger' on the board leader's nose first, prompting her to 'punch and choke' the woman during a disagreement at a meeting about building new schools.

Flint Community School Board President Danielle Green was relieved of her duties after she allegedly attacked Treasurer Laura McIntyre at a Finance Committee meeting at 10am Wednesday.

Superintendent Kevelin Jones told MLive that the pair got into a disagreement over building new schools.

At an emergency meeting later that day, Green was removed, and McIntyre, sporting two black eyes, called the fight 'unprovoked' and said the 'only person fighting' was Green.

However, community activist and former mayoral candidate Arthur Woodson, who was confirmed by DailyMail.com to be Green's partner, said McIntyre put her finger on Green's nose before she attacked the Treasurer.

He streamed on Facebook Live, then later posted the video, showing Green at a basketball game while the emergency meeting was happening. He claimed the pair were at the charity 'Detroit Business Game', where 100 kids are invited to play basketball annually, and that was 'the only reason why Ms. Green wasnt at the board meeting.'

'What I'm saying, right, get the full story before you assume that things happened the way [Mrs.] McIntyre said,' he said on the video, which still was on his page Thursday afternoon. 'Because it didn't, man.'

He claimed that McIntyre 'put her finger on Danielle's nose' before the fight broke out.

He also accused some board members of having a 'personal agenda,' but he praised his partner, saying, 'Danielle is keeping it moving.'

Shes doing it for the kids, he said in the 25-minute Facebook Live. Danielle just looking out for the kids. She wanted to bring new schools  she wanted the kids, the scholars, to have new schools. Shes the only person. She couldnt even get a forum [with the board].'

Hey, that board, man, he continued, apparently referring to an upcoming meeting. 'Wait until y'all hear all the teachers, wait until y'all hear the paralegals, were going to fill that auditorium up at the next meeting.

'We're going to show support, were going to get those kids new schools. They arent going to be able to stop that.'

He also claimed McIntyre 'always goes after someone black' and claimed the self-described 'queer mother-of-three' has commented on Green's beauty and told Green she 'goes both ways,' according to Woodson.

Flint, Michigan, School Board Treasurer Laura McIntyre (pictured) filed a police report against former President Danielle Green. During the emergency meeting, where Green was voted out of her role as president 6-0, McIntyre spoke about the ordeal while sporting two black eyes (pictured)

Green (pictured) allegedly slammed McIntyre's head on the table, choked her, and repeatedly punched the woman in an unprovoked attack during the finance meeting on Wednesday

Green's boyfriend and local activist Arthur Woodson (pictured) claimed McIntyre didn't want new schools and that the board has an 'agenda'

Woodson is active in the Flint community and posts videos to his Facebook page daily, mostly about the school board and the city's water crisis.

He also has actively gone against McIntyre, who is white, on his social media, including on March 17 when he claimed she 'turns down everything that comes in here for our school,' implying that she favors schools with white predominantly white student bodies.

McIntyre said during the emergency meeting that before the fight, Green got up and 'towered' over her then started 'threatening me with her finger.'

'I stood up to back away at which point she grabbed my throat and then grabbed my hair, and slammed my head into the table and started punching me in the head,' she said. 'It was not warranted, uncalled for and completely inappropriate. It will not be tolerated and we are taking action tonight.

'In the moment, I was shocked and surprised. It had never crossed my mind that anything like this would ever escalate like this.

'There was no fight. There was no argument. This escalated out of nothing and very quickly it was an attack. It was an assault.

'I'm only here to make sure the truth comes out and justice is served.

Green, who is also a mother-of-three, said this incident doesn't 'define her or her record of service' and that she isn't 'proud' of the moment

'I was attacked out of nowhere, for no reason.'

McIntyre said she filed a police report and will be pressing charges. Green was not arrested by police when they were called to the meeting shortly after the attack. McIntyre also said she had to be taken to the hospital for her injuries and has a concussion, according to the Detroit News.

'At this point, I plan to pursue this to the full extent of the law and I'm looking at my other legal options as an individual,' McIntyre said at the meeting, according to ABC 12 News.

Although Green, also a mother of three, was removed from her role as president, she is still allowed to serve on the Board of Education, since she was elected.

The Board decided to have police at all future meetings until further notice, NBC 25 News reported.

Green told ABC 12 News that this 'is not one of my highlights of my anything, my life, my career, my position in the community.

'None of this am I proud of. Absolutely not. And this is one incident.

'Never in my life would I have thought something like this I will be involved in ever, ever. And I can say this, my record speaks for itself.'

Green was elected president in January and in the last six years has served as a trustee and a vice president. McIntyre was elected Treasurer around the same time Green became president.

McIntyre, who describes herself on Facebook a 'queer mother-of-three,' said she had to go to the hospital to be treated for her injuries after the attack and said she would pursue the 'full extent' of the law against Green

Although she will no longer serve as president of the school board, she will still be able to be on the board, as she was elected

She posted earlier this month she posted on Facebook: 'I just loves my board!!! PERIOD'. It is unclear what prompted the post

Earlier this month, Green, who has a master's in education, posted on Facebook: 'I just love my board!!! PERIOD.'

She will be replaced by Board Vice President Joyce Ellis-McNeal for the remainder of Green's term, which ends in January.

A board member said the fight was upsetting: 'It wasnt right. I didnt like it. And I did my best to restrain it and to stop it. It wasnt good enough (to stop the alleged attack). [McIntyre] did not deserve it,' said Trustee Allen Gilbert.

Jones released a statement on behalf of Flint Community Schools, stating he was 'aware' of the incident and is 'committed to the safety of all members of our school community.'

'I want to assure families that we will remain focused on our mission to provide a high-quality education to our scholars,' he wrote in a statement. 'We are focused on our families this school year and beyond.'

Green frequently posts photos showing her at various schools reading to children, including reading her own children's book. My Smart Girl is part of a seven-book series, although only two are published on Amazon that focuses on teachers helping young girls learn valuable life lessons.

Flint superintendent Kevelin Jones said he was 'aware' of the situation the school district still remained 'focused on our mission to provide a high-quality education to our scholars'

She is also the author of two other books, I Wish I Woulda Known Me Back Then, and Shoulda Coulda Woulda, which features a display of leggy girls in short skirts on the cover and is about her 'hood' Flint, Michigan, because 'all hoods have a story.'

She has dedicated her books to her three daughters, Tia, Alyssa, and Makala.

DailyMail.com has attempted to contact McIntyre, Green, the school board, and the Flint PD for comment.

The Flint School Board has been hitting waves for the past few years, as members have clashed on its mask policy, critical race theory and other topics. Two board members also quit in September, for reasons unknown.

The school board also has received $150million in federal COVID-19 relief money, and members said Wednesday that it would start strategizing how to spend the funds.

Green is also an author of a children's book series that focuses on teachers helping young girls learn valuable life lessons. Two books in the seven-book series are available on Amazon, Hey Pretty Girl and Hey Smart Girl

She frequently posts photos of her reading in classrooms

In addition to the children's books, Green also wrote two books about her 'hood' and what she wishes she had known when she was younger
Eddie Mair today announced he will retire from broadcasting aged just 56 amid claims his exit from LBC is linked to the arrival of Andrew Marr.

Mair has said he will step down from his role in August this year, on his four-year anniversary of joining LBC, causing shock at the talk radio station.

The Radio 4 star left the BBC in 2018 after refusing to take a drastic cut to his 350,000 salary in a move that opened the floodgates of top presenters quitting to earn even more money at commercial broadcasters.

Andrew Marr joined LBC earlier this year after quitting his 400,000-a-year Sunday TV show. Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis, who earned at least 235,000 and 325,000 respectively at the BBC, followed to make a new podcast with a significant pay rise.

One insider told MailOnline there was genuine shock at LBC over the decision - and Times Radio are said to be considering trying to bring him in despite Mair 'genuinely wanting to retire early'.

'Times Radio may have gone for Mair and made him a good offer which Global didn't match', the source said, adding: 'Will Maitlis and Sopel take over his LBC slot? Was that the plan all along?'

Before his exit was announced this morning, a friend told the Daily Mail's Richard Eden: 'He didn't like it at all when an hour of his show was sliced off to make way for Andrew Marr, who was suddenly the big new star from the BBC.'

Eddie Mair today announced he will retire from broadcasting aged just 56 amid claims his exit from LBC is linked to the arrival of Andrew Marr

But in a statement, Mr Mair has insisted he was retiring after 40 years in radio while Global's bosses said that he had planned to retire before but delayed it.

He said: 'My only regret about LBC is not joining sooner. I'm having a ball and all things being equal would probably carry on forever. They love radio at Global and support it.

'But the one thing I don't have on my side is time. Like many others, during Covid I had a rethink about life and in the summer of 2020 told my bosses and close friends and colleagues about my plans to leave.

'I've been at this for 40 years and I want to have a little time for me before I croak. So I will carry on as a devoted LBC listener but pass things on to someone new and I wish them all the best.'

The Scotsman began his career at Radio Tay, a local radio station in his home city of Dundee, where he hosted the breakfast show, weekly phone-ins and news programmes.

Mair joined the BBC in 1987 as a sub-editor for Radio Scotland and later joined Radio Five Live after its launch in 1994, presenting the Midday with Mair news show.

BBC veterans Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel are leaving the corporation to join Global, the owners of LBC, to front a new show and a podcast. Insiders pondered whether they will now take over drivetime from Mair

In 2003 he became the presenter of BBC Radio 4's evening news and current affairs programme PM, a role he held for 20 years.

He also occasionally presented Newsnight on BBC Two and Any Questions on Radio 4.

He left the BBC in August 2018 before joining LBC where he hosts the weekday afternoon show from 4-6pm.

Mair's defection after more than 30 years at the BBC caused shockwaves across the media.

The softly spoken Dundonian's decision to leave came days after the Corporation paid a six-figure sum to former China editor Carrie Gracie over a gender pay row.

The BBC settled the claim with the journalist, who quit after finding out that she was being paid tens of thousands less than her male counterparts.

Mair, 56, was thought to be the only top-earning male star who refused to take a pay drop to tackle the BBC's equal pay crisis.

Andrew Marr defected to LBC last month, with the BBC star declaring, 'I am keen to get my own voice back', after being silenced by BBC rules on impartiality.

His arrival meant that Mair's drivetime show was, however, cut to just two hours instead of three from Monday to Thursday, to make way for Tonight With Andrew Marr.

LBC's owner, Global Radio, welcomed Marr with great fanfare, gushing that it was 'honoured' to receive 'one of the finest and most respected broadcasters and journalists of our time.'[End opt cut]

Other BBC stars following Mair to LBC include Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis and former North America editor Jon Sopel.

Marr wouldn't be the first prominent BBC star to rub Mair up the wrong way. Robert Peston had a frosty relationship with the PM presenter for years. Although Peston did say he 'eventually' came to the conclusion that Mair's irritation towards him was an act.
The family of a well-known bare-knuckle boxer have hired security to protect his huge tombstone from a council that wants to demolish it.

Relatives of 'Traveller King' William Collins brought in the heavies to protect his 37-tonne, 200,000 memorial - thought to be the UK's largest grave - in Sheffield.

They vowed to fight the local authority's attempts to destroy it, claiming 'it would be a blatant matter of racism'.

Mr Collins, known as the 'King of Sheffield', was 49 when he collapsed and died while on holiday with his family in July 2020.

His family imported Carrara marble from Italy to sculpt the huge shrine to the father of nine, which sits in the Roman Catholic section of Shiregreen cemetery.

Sheffield City Council now want to tear it down because they claim it does not fit the plans originally proposed.

Relatives of 'Traveller King' William Collins brought in the heavies to protect his 37-tonne, 200,000 memorial - thought to be the UK's largest grave - in Sheffield

They vowed to fight the local authority's attempts to destroy it, claiming 'it would be a blatant matter of racism'

Mr Collins' daughter Mary told the Sun: 'I do not understand why they would take against this tribute to my father.

'Any attempt to have us take this down would be fought legally as it would be a blatant matter of racism. The Council knew what we were doing.

Mr Collins, known as the 'King of Sheffield', was 49 when he collapsed and died while on holiday with his family in July 2020

'They signed it off. The footings were down for months and it took the builders two weeks to construct the headstone so they had plenty of chances to raise objections.'

She claimed it was not even the tallest one in the cemetery, with one to the Bishop of Sheffield looming over it.

The family said they have hired a security firm to protect the site as well as erected CCTV cameras.

Mr Collins' huge headstone is decorated with two life sized statues of the fighter as well as four Irish tri-colours.

There are also four flagpoles, pictures of Jesus and scenes from the Bible, and a solar-powered jukebox bursting full of his favourite songs.

Mr Collins moved from Ireland to Sheffield in 1980 when he was a children and was raised in the Steel City.

He was one of 16 children and the head of the Collins household - with about 400 nieces and nephews.

His funeral saw 30 Rolls Royces joined by quad bikes, mopeds and horses line the road before driving to his plot where his gold-plated coffin was laid to rest.

Mourners who visit his final resting place can also connect to the speaker through Bluetooth to play their own songs

The gargantuan memorial is surrounded by Irish flags and features a statue of the Pieta, with Mary cradling Jesus

Willy died aged 49 after collapsing while on holiday with his family in Majorca in July 2020

Shiregreen cemetery also has a number of other members of his family buried there, with a paper globe at the entrance saying: 'Collins Way.'

Sheffield City Council said it wanted to talk to the family about differences between the plans and the structure.

Alison Teal said: 'Sheffield City Council approved plans for a memorial, however the plans which were submitted and approved differ from the memorial now in place.

'This was not fully appreciated until after the structure was fully unveiled.

'We have reached out to the family and intend to discuss changes which need to be made in order to satisfy the cemetery rules and take into consideration other cemetery users.

'It would not be appropriate to discuss the details further as this is a sensitive matter and we wish to speak with the family fully in the coming days.'


People at Seoul Station watch news of North Korea's firing of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile into East Sea, March 24. Yonhap



The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan strongly denounced North Korea's firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Thursday and vowed close coordination for "stern responses," Seoul's foreign ministry said.



Noh Kyu-duk, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, talked bilaterally with his American counterpart Sung Kim by phone and then Japan's Takehiro Funakoshi, hours after the North's launch of the missile into the East Sea.






A friend of two Arizona sisters who killed themselves at a Swiss suicide clinic has shared a text he received from their phone hours before their deaths he now fears was sent by someone else.

Dr. David Biglari, a long time friend of sisters Dr. Lila Ammouri, 54, and nurse Susan Frazier, 49, said he and others were worried when they had not heard from the duo for a week after they arrived in Basel, Switzerland on February 3.

Then on February 10, just a day before the sisters took their own lives at what is most likely Basel's Pegasos assisted suicide clinic, Biglari said one of the sisters' co-workers had gotten an odd message.

It read: 'Hey! Sorry you needed surgery. I hope you're (sic) pain is controlled. I'm currently in Europe on a little vacation.'

Bilgari, an associate program director of cardiology at the University of Arizona, told Fox 10 that the misspelled 'you're' was one of several messages that had he and his colleagues believe that the person on the other side of the phone was not actually one of the sisters.

'Some of the text communications they had, we are certain they were not from them,' Biglari said as he and others initially believed that the sisters were kidnapped when they failed to show up for work on February 15. 'They were most likely fabricated with someone else.'

A misspelled text message from sisters Dr. Lila Ammouri and nurse Susan Frazier tipped off friends and co-workers that something was wrong just a day before the women took their own lives on February 11 at an assisted suicide clinic in Basel, Switzerland

Suzan Frazier, left, and her sister Lili Ammouri, right, died by assisted suicide in Basel, Switzerland, with their deaths confirmed by the US Consulate on February 18

Dr. David Biglari, a long time friend of sisters, had believed that the sisters were kidnapped after colleagues said they received odd messages from the sisters that they believed were sent by someone else just hours before their deaths

Dr Biglari has not shared any of the other texts. DailyMail.com has contacted the medic for more information.

A Swiss government source told DailyMail.com Wednesday: 'The two American ladies died on February 11.

'It has been reported that they died later than this but this is not correct. It was the Friday in the Canton Basel-Landschaft by a legal assisted suicide.

'They died the same day and the timings were close, if not at the same time.' The sisters deaths were confirmed by the US consulate on February 18. Their brother Cal, 60, who lives in New York said he only learned of his siblings' passing when contacted by The Independent earlier this week.

Ammouri, a palliative care doctor and Frazier, a registered nurse, are believed to have died at Pegasos. It is a Basel-based assisted suicide clinic. Unlike its better-known Swiss rival Dignitas, Pegasos does not require patients to be terminally-ill, or suffer from a life-limiting illness.

Meanwhile, DailyMail.com has also discovered an unusual property maneuver made by Ammouri in the weeks leading up to her death.

She placed million dollar Cave Creek home in an intrafamily trust on January 25, 17 days before she and her sister killed themselves.

Ammouri had put her $1 million Cave Creek home in an intrafamily trust on January 25, less than two weeks before the sisters trip to Switzerland

The arrangement, also known as a living trust, allows family members, friends or even business partners to receive the property after her death without having to go through the legal process of probate to prove they're the rightful heirs to an estate.

The trust would have allowed Ammouri to specify who would receive the home, free of estate taxes, or split up the value of the property to multiple people. It remains unclear who was named as a recipient in the trust.

According to public records, Ammouri purchased the home in 2014 for $549,000. The single-family home features three bathrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a pool in a spacious backyard. It has doubled in value since she purchased it.

Ammouri's only known living relative, Cal, said he was torn apart after learning of his sisters death when contacted Tuesday.

'This is the most terrible thing that's ever happened to me,' Cal told DailyMail.com ' I'm an only child now. I don't understand any of it.'

The trust allows the home to be transferred to family without the conventional legal process of proving they're the heirs to the property

According to public records, Ammouri purchased the home in 2014 for $549,000. The single-family home features three bathrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

The home also has a large pool in a spacious backyard

Ammouri and Frazier traveled from Phoenix to Basel, Switzerland via Chicago on February 3.

The city is home to Pegasos, an assisted suicide facility which helps patients who aren't terminally-ill to take their own lives for an $11,000 fee.

A spokesman for the Basel-Landschaft Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed to The Independent that the sisters had died by suicide 'within the legal framework'.

It is unclear how or where the sisters' died. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, with Basel being home to a assisted suicide organization called Pegasos, which offers help with associated suicides to people who are not terminally-ill, as long as they are over the age of 18.

According to Pegasos, anyone who uses their services must have a third party who is known to the individual be able available to identify them to the authorities after they die.

If the sisters did use Pegasos service, it is unknow who would have been with them to identify them as Pegasos suggests patients who can't provide a third party join Exit International, another assisted suicide company that deals only with terminally-ill patients, to figured out how they can be identified after death.

Basel is home to an assisted suicide service called Pegasos, whose website is pictured. Unlike the more famous Dignitas clinic, patients do not have to be terminally-ill or severely disabled to end their lives there

Their brother Cal, who spoke shortly with his sisters before their trip, did not mention that they were traveling with anyone else.

Frazier's employer, Aetna Health in Phoenix, raised the alarm after she failed to return to work on February 15.

Cal says his siblings appeared healthy and happy, and has not given any indication as to whether they were suffering any illness that could have driven them to suicide.

The company says it accepts application for people all over the world and has no required waiting period for assisted suicide

Pegasos says it accepts applications from patients the world over, but insists it refers anyone who is suffering from depression to counselling services.

Its website states: 'Pegasos believes that for a person to be in the headspace of considering ending their lives, their quality of life must be qualitatively poor.

'Pegasos accepts that some people who are not technically 'sick' may want to apply for a VAD. But this does not mean the person is 'well'. (Assisted suicide patient) Professor David Goodall was one of these people.

'He was not sick but his eye sight was failing him, as was his mobility. Old age is rarely kind. The decision to end one's life is an intensely personal one. Pegasos makes every effort to understand fully the unique circumstances of everyone who makes contact with us.'

Dignitas is the most famous suicide clinic, but is based in a different Canton (county) to where the sisters took their lives. It only offers an $8,000 assisted suicide to people who are terminally-ill, or who live with a disability that severely limits their quality of life.

The US Consulate in Switzerland did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

The sisters were found dead in Basel, Switzerland, (pictured) on February 18, three days after they were due back to return to work in Arizona

It is currently unknown which assisted suicide service the sisters used, but Pegasos, a nonprofit in the field, has a facility in Basel (pictured)

Other clinics across Switzerland also offer similar services, with patients given a solution of barbiturates dissolved in water, which guarantees a painless death after being consumed.

Visitors to the clinics must undergo stringent checks before being allowed to avail of their services.

Pegasos, in particular, which has English speakers on staff, requires looking for assisted suicides to be members of the organizations and pay fees that exceed $11,000.

Pegasos has no required waiting period for assisted suicide but does require consultations and paperwork be completed first.

Patients are given the option of intravenous infusion or a small drink that provide a lethal overdose that will lull them to sleep and result in death.

Cal, of New York, said is unclear why his sisters chose to end their lives, and that U.S. consular services have kept him in the dark.

'This is the most terrible thing that's ever happened to me,' Cal told DailyMail.com ' I'm an only child now. I don't understand any of it.'

Suicide is legal at Switzerland's famous Dignitas clinic, with visitors required to undergo a series of checks before being allowed to end their lives.

According to Cal and long-time friends of the women, the sisters were do back at work at Aetna Health Insurance on February 15 but never showed up.

The grieving brother said that both sisters appeared happy, with Lila owning a home in Phoenix and enjoying her job helping patients with serious illnesses and pain and Susan recently getting a promotion.

'Why would you leave your jobs, your home, your loved ones, just abandon everything,' Cal asked. 'I just want some answers.'

Michael Lutz, a spokesperson for the Basel-Landschaft Public Prosecutor's Office, told The Independent that the sisters death did not immediately result in a criminal investigation since it was strictly performed through legal means.

The Phoenix Police Department, who were contacted by friends and family to investigate the incident, said they could not open a case since it was outside their jurisdiction.

The sister's death was confirmed by the U.S. Consulate in Switzerland on February 18, weeks after friends and loved ones took to the Internet to spread awareness over their disappearance.

Like Cal, Bilgari mentioned that both sisters were happy and it was not like them to suddenly go missing.

Bilgari did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
The United States will accept up 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in the Ukraine, the Biden administration announced on Thursday.

The announcement came during President Joe Biden's trip to Europe where he's meeting with leaders of NATO, the G7 and the European Union in three back-to-back emergency sessions to deal with Russia's invasion of the Ukraine.

It's meant to help ease the humantarian criss taking place in Eastern Europe, where nearly 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled their bombarded country in one of the biggest refugee crisises since World War II.

Refugees have flooded into Europe and some have even made their way to the southern border of the United States, trying to enter the country that way.

In addition to welcoming more of the displaced, the Biden administration also announced more than $1 billion in new funding toward humanitarian assistance.

The funding will provide food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance, according to the White House.

Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their homeland wait for an U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent before passing through a checkpoint to enter the United States in Tijuana, Mexico

Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion try to enter the U.S. through the southern border - the Biden administration announced it will accept 100,000 refugees

TIJUANA, MEXICO - MARCH 22: A Ukrainian family who fled Kyiv, Ukraine, wait with their luggage before being allowed to cross the San Ysidro Port of Entry into the United States to seek asylum

Ukrainians rest at an exhibition hall, turned into a refugee center in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw, Poland - nearly 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country

Refugees from Ukraine queue as they wait for further transport at the Medyka border crossing, after crossing at the Ukrainian-Polish border

President Biden will address the refugee situation on Saturday during his visit to Poland.

Poland, which shares an approximately 300-mile border with Ukraine, has taken the majority of refugees - around 2.1 million - but nearby countries Romania and Hungry have also taken in many Ukrainians.

Biden has been criticized for not doing more to help ease the crisis. He has vowed to help.

'I will welcome the Ukrainian refugees,' he said from the White House on March 11.

As for the refugees, a senior administration official said the U.S. will focus on Ukrainians who already have families in America and said they expect most Ukrainians will want to stay in Eastern Europe in the hopes they will be able to return to their homes.

'We're working in particular to expand and develop new programs with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the United States,' the official said in a briefing call with reporters.

'We still expect most displaced Ukrainians, citizens will want to stay in neighboring countries or elsewhere in the in the EU, where they may have family and where there are already large diaspora communities in the hope that they can return home soon,' the official added.

In order to get around the 125,000 refugee cap, the U.S. will go through the full range of legal pathways, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, others will come on family-based visas or another process known as humanitarian parole.

Precise details on how the refugees will be brought to the States - both legally and logistically - were not clear.

Efforts will also focus on especially vulnerable populations such as women, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons, and persons with disabilities, the administration said.

President Biden's administration will also pledge $1 billion in financial assistance for humanitarian needs

A person from Ukraine displays paperwork to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers before being allowed to cross into the U.S. border at Tijuana

A Ukrainian refugee boy plays at the Humanitarian Aid Center at the Ptak Warsaw Expo in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw

Additionally, President Biden will discuss food insecurity when he meets with the leaders in the European Union on Thursday afternoon.

Ukraine is a heavily agricultural country with winter wheat, spring barley, and corn as some of its main crops.

A senior administration said Russia's invasion 'jeopardizes global food security, particularly for vulnerable populations in the Middle East and Africa.'
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The LAPD is telling rich residents to leave their flashy jewelry at home to avoid making themselves 'targets' to criminals as the city's violent crime wave surges.

In the last year, violent robberies and smash-and-grab thefts have sky-rocketed in Los Angeles. Robberies are up 18% in the year-to-date compared to 2021, while those involving a firearm have surged by 44% in the same time period.

In some startling examples in Beverly Hills, people have had their watches and and jewelry snatched from their bodies by brazen thieves who approached them as they dined in restaurants and sidewalk cafes.

Now, the LAPD is telling residents not to wear their pricey jewelry.

'Over the last year there has been a marked increase of armed robberies involving victims wearing expensive jewelry while in public. If it is visible, it can be a target,' the LAPD statement said this week.

The warning was met with incredulity from some, who asked why the police force isn't doing more to round up thieves.

'So we're supposed to give up everything, because they allow these criminals to walk the streets, instead of putting them in prison, where they belong?' one critic said.

The LAPD issued this advice this week to residents warning them that wearing expensive jewelry makes them a target for criminals

There has been an uptick in violent robberies and brazen muggings all over L.A. in the last year. Some recent incidents are shown above

Shoppers on Rodeo Drive last year. The spate of attacks have happened all over L.A. but particularly in wealthy areas like Beverly Hills

'What's wrong with this picture?' another said.

L.A.'s woke D.A. George Gascon has been slammed for earlier telling residents how to lock their cars to avoid having them stolen.

In 2021, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported a total of 39,894 stolen vehicles compared to 34,003 in 2020- a staggering 17 percent surge

But critics say the crime spike is down to no-cash-bail policies that Gascon and other district attorneys around the country are implementing.

The policies send criminals back into the streets and are overwhelming local law enforcement.

Last week, a group of youngsters filmed a dangerous stunt at Baxter Street in which a Tesla driver soared at high speed through the air and crashed, landing on the nose of the car.

Gascon's PSA offered four tips- including always locking car doors, not leaving a spare key in vehicles, parking in well-lit areas and investing in anti-theft devices

A group of five is seen on video with what police say appeared to be sledgehammers, obliterating the front window of the store

Residents there say he could have killed someone. But the LAPD said it was not a 'priority' to find the driver because they would have been released back onto the street within hours anyway.

Earlier this week, thieves targeted Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills, smashing the windows to steal millions of dollars in merchandise in a 30-second hit.

In the city of LA, robberies are up 18% year-to-date compared to 2021. Robberies with a firearm are up 44% in the same time period across the city.

Wes Bunker, 30, from Dallas, waited for friends Wednesday in Hollywood's Melrose shopping district amid boutiques and vintage stores. He'd been in the city for two days but hadn't heard of the LAPD's warning.

'Seems safe here so far,' he told The Associated Press, wearing a gold chain around his neck.

Bunker said because he's from a major city, he won't take any extra precautions walking around LA during the day. But he said he might think twice at night.

'Like at the club, youve got to keep your eyes out,' he said.

In November, detectives from the police department's elite Robbery-Homicide Division formed a Follow-Home Task Force to investigate crimes where people are targeted by criminals and tailed home or to an isolated area. People were often followed from areas such as Melrose Avenue and the city's jewelry district, as well as high-end restaurants and nightclubs in Hollywood and Wilshire.

Scene of the crime: The incident took place in the parking lot behind The Oppenheim Group offices on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood (Pictured above)

'The victims were being targeted based on the high-end jewelry they were wearing or the high-end car they were driving,' police said in a statement in November announcing the task force's creation.

Brenda Nolan, 70, has lived her whole life in Los Angeles. On Wednesday in the Melrose area  wearing a gold ring, silver earrings and several necklaces  she said she had seen the video of the Beverly Hills smash-and-grab on TV but doesn't feel the need to take off or hide her jewelry in public.

'I can defend myself, even today at my age,' she said, noting she's taken karate and that she has good instincts from a lifetime in the city and stays aware of her surroundings.

In Culver City, police last week announced the arrests in connection with separate robberies  including one where the victims were targeted and followed home  earlier this month.

In one case, the armed thieves allegedly stole more than $3,600 worth of jewelry from a man at a mall parking garage. In the other incident, one victim was pistol-whipped and the other had their Rolex and phone stolen at gunpoint during a follow-home robbery.

Last March, a thief targeted the upscale eatery Il Pastaio and stole a $500,000 watch from a diner. Video shows a man tumbling out of a corner of the dining area

The victim is seen talking on her phone as paramedics wheel her away from Il Pastaio in Beverly Hills, where she was shot in the leg

A brazen robbery attempt was caught on video in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday, showing two thugs attacking the owner of a Ferrari

On Tuesday, masked robbers used sledgehammers to break the window of Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills, making off with $3 million to $5 million in merchandise before fleeing.

Owner Peter Sedghi said he was in his back office when he heard what sounded like gunshots.

'I yelled at my staff, Everyone get on the floor, get on the floor,' he told AP.

Sedghi said he hit the panic alarm, grabbed his gun and ran toward the front of the store but the thieves were already fleeing. The robbers arrived in a stolen car and abandoned it, leaving in another vehicle, police said.

'Were in the heart of Beverly Hills. Who thought this would happen in broad daylight?' he said Wednesday as his staff continued to inventory what had been stolen.

In the wake of high-profile robberies in the region  where people have been targeted for pieces such as Rolex watches and gold chains  Sedghi said some of his customers are afraid to wear their jewelry in public and are only donning it for events such as weddings and galas.

'Beverly Hills is supposed to be a safe area, you should be able to walk around wearing whatever jewelry you want,' he said.
Since the creation of the first ever GIF over 35 years ago, the internet has been home to millions of animated pictures, bringing reactions and funny moments to life.

Computer scientist Stephen Wilhite, the innovative creator of the GIF, died earlier this month aged 74 after battling Covid-19, and his wife Kathleen said it was the thing he was 'most proud of' in his lifetime.

In 2012, the invention became an online phenomenon and was even named word of the year by Oxford American Dictionary.

The first ever GIF made by Wilhite was of a black and white plane flying through blue cloudy moving skies behind it.

The pronunciation of the word GIF has been widely debated over the years, but founder Wilhite settled this by saying it is a soft 'g', spoken as 'JIF' instead of the hard G, 'GIF'.

He receieved a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Webby Awards in New York for the invention and contribution to internet culture in 2013, with a five-word speech: 'It's pronounced Jif not Gif'.

GIF stands for 'graphics interchange format', by Wilhite when he worked for internet service provider CompuServe - it is a series of still images strung together to make a graphic that loops to appear as though it is a short video clip.

It is widely shareable on various social media and messaging platforms nowadays, making it an go-to-tool for those who wanted an animation to express their reaction to something online, instead of text.

Wilhite also told the New York Times that his favorite GIF was the dancing baby meme, which 'went viral before going viral' was a thing.

'He invented GIF all by himself - he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it,' wife Kathleen told The Verge.

'He would figure out everything privately in his head and the go to town programming it on the computer.'

DailyMail.com has put together 50 of the best GIFS from the early noughties right up to the present day, with sites Influencer Marketing Hub and GIPHY having outlined the most popular animations over the years.

Some of the best ones used by millions of people across the globe include the dancing baby, Wilhite's favourite, Tyra Banks screaming at an America's Next Top Model candidate, or Lisa Simpson dancing in the living room.




















































Scott Morrison's wife Jenny has opened up about her 'excruciating' battle with endometriosis which saw doctors predict she would never have children.

Ms Morrison said her battle with the crippling disease caused her to suffer agonising symptoms including extreme cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Endometriosis is a disorder in which tissue that would normally line the uterus grows in other parts of the body and is the subject of a $58million Budget committment.

The condition affects one in nine women in Australia and leads to a higher risk of infertility, a reality Mrs Morrison was facing.

'I was told I wouldn't be able to have babies,' she told the Daily Telegraph.

Scott Morrison's wife Jenny (both pictured) revealed how her 'excruciating' battle with a disease saw doctors predict she would never have children with her high school sweetheart

Mrs Morrison was told after ten rounds of IVF treatments she should consider adoption. Pictured is the couple with their naturally conceived daughters Abigail and Lily

'There were times that I felt like giving up, times where I might have given up momentarily, but was encouraged [by friends and family] to keep trying.'

She was first diagnosed with the debilitating disease when she was 26, but had struggled with tell-tale symptoms since she was a teenager.

Mrs Morrison and her husband spent 14 years trying to naturally conceive a child before doctors told the hopeful mum, then in her 30s, to consider adoption.

The mother-of-two stood firm on her dream and got in touch with a specialist who recommended surgery after finding her endometriosis had spread.

She underwent a five-and-a-half hour operation in which a section of her bowel was removed as well as scar tissue from her fallopian tubes, liver and bowel.

The couple naturally conceived two daughters, Abigail and Lily, now 13 and 11.

Mrs Morrison spoke out about her experience as the federal government allocates $58million in the Coalition's 2022-23 Budget for better treatment and diagnosis.

She said she welcomes the spotlight the federal budget has put on the disorder, which will also include funds for a special public awareness campaign.

Mr Morrison (pictured on his wedding day) said he has witnessed first-hand how devastating endometriosis can be for women on a physical, emotional and psychological level

The federal government will spend $16.4million on rolling out specialised endometriosis and pelvic pain facilities in each state and territory.

The allocation will also include $25.2million to fund Medicare-funded MRI scans for women suffering so severely from the disorder their fertility has been compromised.

What is endometriosis? Endometriosis occurs when cells in the lining of the womb are found elsewhere in the body. Each month, these cells react in the same way as those in the womb; building up, breaking down and bleeding. Yet, the blood has no way to escape the body. Symptoms include pain, heavy periods and fatigue, as well as a higher risk of infertility, and bowel and bladder problems. Source: Endometriosis UK Advertisement

The budget will pledge $5.1million to develop management plans for doctors, $5.1million for research scholarships, $2million for living guidelines for sufferers, and $2million for a PR campaign.

Mr Morrison said he has witnessed first-hand how devastating endometriosis can be for women on a physical, emotional and psychological level.

'I have seen first-hand with Jen just how debilitating endometriosis can be for women, the mental and physical toll it takes, and it's so important we continue to fund new services and treatments for the hundreds of thousands of women who suffer from endometriosis,' he said.

'Our plan will improve the quality of life for women living with endometriosis, with record support, building on our National Action Plan for Endometriosis, so women of all ages can get diagnosed and be supported.'

In October 2019, Mrs Morrison spoke at an event hosted by the Australian Jewish Fertility Network where she revealed she had spent 14 years trying for a baby.

She said she knew her husband, her childhood sweetheart, was also desperate for children, but was trying to remain positive for her sake.

'I did feel at some points it was way more important to me than it was to him and he was so gorgeous, he said to me, ''You are plenty enough, we don't need the children'' but of course he wanted children,' Mrs Morrison told the audience.

Mrs Morrison said it was far harder for her to accept the prospect that she wouldn't ever be a mother and said the entire situation was 'isolating'.

Mr and Mrs Morrison are pictured alongside their two 'miracle daughters' supporting an Australian sporting event

Jenny Morrision has been dubbed Scott Morrision's 'secret weapon' (both pictured) in the lead-up to the next federal election

'Scott could cope with it far easier because he's just a really hard worker and he's obsessive about work  he could throw himself into that, still sad inside, but he could occupy himself far better,' she said.

'But for me, it was the holy grail. Everything for me revolved around wanting to have a baby and when you can't have that it's like a natural thing that everybody else can do but you are unable to.'

When the couple were desperately trying for a baby, Mr Morrison would tell his wife: 'You are enough... I don't need you to have children.'
Prince Andrew was granted a reprieve tonight after a council meeting to strip him of the Freedom of the City of York was cancelled at the 11th hour due to Covid-19 - triggering a major political row.

Council bosses were set to gather for an extraordinary meeting of the authority at 6pm to revoke the prince's Freedom of the City, bestowed on him in 1987.

But due to the number of members testing positive for Covid, and difficulty obtaining tests, the decision was made to move the meeting online.

The decision to strip the Duke of his freemanship was due to take just 45 minutes.

It was then expected that there would be an agreement to call on Buckingham Palace and the government to remove the Duke of York title.

However, with less than two hours to go before the crucial vote, Labour councillors torpedoed the ruling Liberal Democrat/Green Group's plans for a virtual debate and spared Prince Andrew from a fresh humiliation - for now.

Earlier today, Andrew was seen smiling on his way to visit the Queen ahead of the planned meeting. He is facing residents' fury over a civil case that the beleaguered Duke settled with Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre.

Following the settlement, the 62-year-old was stripped of his military roles and royal patronages and was told he would no longer be known as 'His Royal Highness'.

Now, the City of York Council is trying to distance themselves from him.

Prince Andrew, pictured today, smiling on his way to visit the Queen ahead of a decision to strip him of the Freedom of the City of York tonight. But the meeting, set to be held at 6pm, has now been cancelled because of a Covid outbreak, giving Andrew a temporary reprieve

York City Council was set to consider the motion: 'The Council resolves that, pursuant to Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972, the City of York Council withdraws the Honorary Freeman of the City status from the Duke of York which was conferred upon him in 1987.'

The decision to cancel the meeting has caused fury among councillors.

Labour Councillor Michael Pavlovic told senior council officers they had been 'held to ransom' by ruling parties.

Cllr Pavlovic, who chairs of the audit and governance committee, which scrutinises the governance of the council. argued the council was wrong to use emergency powers to move the meeting on line - because the situation did not warrant it.

Cllr Pavolic said: 'I feel that the actions of the past 24 hours bring disrepute to the city of York.

'I have never seen anything in my time as a councillor that is comparable.

'Such are my concerns about the conduct of those involved in this decision that I am compelled to write to the Secretary of State Michael Gove to ask for an urgent investigation into the governance of the City of York..'

York Council's Lib Dem Group said the vote would go ahead on the same motion in April 19 to 21st. The meeting was going to virtual but some opposition councillors objected and it was decided to defer the meeting.

The spokesman said: 'The votes taken remotely would have been seen as recommendations and would have had to go to the Chief Operating Officer to be confirmed as decisions.

'Virtual meetings took place during Covid when the COO agreed with all the recommendations. It is purely because the agenda item on this meeting was very, very political.

'It was felt it would be better to hold it safely and properly in person once members were ready and healthy enough to attend.

'Quite a few councillors had recently tested positive for Covid and the real concern was many of them were vulnerable.'

Facing residents fury over a civil case that the beleaguered Duke settled with Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre, the City of York Council is trying to distance themselves from Prince Andrew, who holds the title of Duke of York. Pictured: York Minster

At 6pm tonight the council will vote on withdrawing the 'Honorary Freeman of the City status from the Duke of York, pictured today, which was given to him in 1987.

Cllr Carol Runciman. for the Lib Dem Group, commented: 'Health, wellbeing and safety is absolutely paramount at this time, and whilst national restrictions have eased, we are seeing another covid infection spike sweep the country.

'Unfortunately, this latest wave of infections has also affected a number of councillors. Therefore, in order to protect many vulnerable colleagues, who are following public health guidance, council leaders and officers were looking into alternative arrangements to ensure the meeting could go ahead.

'Having been advised that holding the meeting remotely was the best alternative, arrangements to hold the meeting virtually were offered to councillors.

'Whilst the majority were content with this option, there were several objections received. Due to these representations, following consultation with officers, the Lord Mayor has made the decision to adjourn the meeting and hold it in late April.

'Whilst restrictions have been eased, in reality, Covid is still very much around us and directly impacting our NHS and the most vulnerable. It's disappointing that the Government has still not enabled councils to take full advantage of the safety and flexibility of remote meetings.

'The current lack of legislation compels councillors to consider breaking public health guidance in order to represent their residents; putting their colleagues, staff and members of the public in unnecessary danger.'

The Duke faces becoming the first VIP to be stripped of his freemanship since Jimmy Savile suffered the same fate from Scarborough Council in 2011.

Steven George, who had a sex change after being molested by Savile in Broadmoor as 17-year-old Alizon Pink, underlined the delay was only a temporary reprieve for Prince Andrew.

He said the outcome of the meeting would be a foregone conclusion it was a good thing that York Council was standing with victims of sexual abuse.

She said: 'We do not know the full facts yet, but I am not suggesting Prince Andrew is Mr Innocent because there seems to be an awful lot of evidence.

'I just think he was so stupid to befriend Epstein both before and after what happened with Epstein. It is like he has not a single thought in his head. He just does as he wants.

'People that knew him say he is rude and arrogant all the time and he just thinks he is some sort of special person and should be treated totally different to everyone else.

'From that point of view, he needs taking down a peg or two. But you might say that about other members of the royal family.

'I am not a Royalist by any means. But I do not wish them harm. I just don't agree with any human being lording it over another human being just because of their wealth.'

Ahead of the cancelled meeting, Darryl Smalley, a Liberal Democrat councillor for York City, told the Independent: 'York's unique connection to the crown and the monarch is an important part of our city's legacy and history.

Residents in York have today called on Prince Andrew (pictured in 2021) to be stripped of his Duke title after settling in his US sex assault lawsuit

Andrew at York Racecourse to open the new weighing room in May 2015

'However, as a council and city, we stand with victims of sexual abuse and are doing all we can to end violence against women and girls locally.

'As such, it is inappropriate that Prince Andrew retains his ambassadorial title that is intrinsically linked to our city.'

Mr Smalley has previously called on Prince Andrew to be stripped of his title.

A survey by York's daily newspaper The Press found that 88 per cent of its readers want to see the prince's Duke of York honours taken away from him.

Phil Pinder, a retailer in the famous cathedral city told The York Press in February: 'York deserves better.

'He has been stripped of his royal duties; he has done a settlement out of court ending the prospect of any kind of legal clearing of his name so the only option is for him to permanently step down as the Duke of York as well.

'York deserves another royal to represent it instead.'

He suggested the 'controversial' choice of Prince Harry, who lives in the US and holds the Duke of Sussex title.

There are also multiple petitions to remove the Duke of York honour from Prince Andrew.

One with over 1,000 signatories said: 'Not only has 'Prince' Andrew demonstrated a lack of morals, lack of humanity and lack of judgement by protracted fraternising with Jeffrey Epstein, his recent interview confirms he lacks the ability to reflect, show insight and learn.

'Most importantly, it reveals a total lack of caring for others.

'These are not Yorkshire values. Having him associated with such a proud, fair and straight talking county is contradictory and embarrassing. Remove the title.'

The prince pictured with his accuser Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty in 2021 of child sex trafficking

Prince Andrews' first public appearance since he withdrew from public life following his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty in 2021 of child sex trafficking will be service for his father Prince Philip.

Its claimed the Queen 'personally paid 2m to Virginia Roberts's charity' as part of Andrew's 12m settlement.

'Stipulation of Dismissal' documents were filed with a court on March 8, with lawyers on both sides calling for the legal action to be dismissed, indicating the settlement has been paid.

As the order was published, the Treasury confirmed no taxpayer funds were used for either the payment to Virginia Roberts or for the Duke of York's legal fees.

A freedom of information request asked whether any money from the Sovereign Grant to the Royal Family or any other government money was used. The Treasury insisted: 'No public money has been used to pay legal or settlement fees.'

The joint order filed with the New York court said each party would pay their own costs and fees.

Reports the Queen or even Prince Charles contributed to the settlement by paying it or loaned him the money until the sale goes through of a 17million Swiss ski chalet he owns with ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York.

Mrs Giuffre had sued Andrew for alleged sexual abuse. She claimed he had sex with her when she was 17 after he was trafficked by his friend, the late billionaire paedophile Epstein.

Demands for Buckingham Palace to reveal how Prince Andrew (L) will pay for his 12million sexual abuse lawsuit intensified last night after royal aides refused to say whether it will be partly funded by the Queen (R)

The duke will make a 'substantial donation' to a charity for sex abuse victims set up by Mrs Giuffre, now a 38-year-old mother-of-three. He said he now regrets his association with Epstein.

Andrew, who was forced to step down from royal duties and public life as a result of the scandal, previously claimed he had no recollection of meeting Mrs Giuffre and has always strongly denied her allegations.

But he agreed to the settlement last month.

The Queen, who still hopes to attend a thanksgiving service for her husband, wanted the congregation to include family, friends, dignitaries and representatives of the many organisations with which the Duke of Edinburgh was associated.

The Palace has yet to confirm whether the Queen will be able to be present, saying that she still hopes to attend.

Prince Harry will not travel to the UK for the service amid ongoing legal action that he is taking against the Home Office over Metropolitan Police protection, which he believes he should still be entitled to when in the UK, despite quitting royal duties and moving to California.
The ex-wife of Canoe Man John Darwin who faked his own death has been seen for the first time ahead of a major TV series about her part in the elaborate scam that shocked the world.

Anne Darwin was tracked down by MailOnline to a village near Middlesbrough where she lives quietly having re-built her life after a six-year prison sentence for fraud and money laundering.

The 70-year-old has reverted to her maiden name and lives where few of her neighbours are aware of her past or how she conspired with her husband to fake his own death.

Anne Darwin was tracked down by MailOnline to a village near Middlesbrough where she is trying to rebuild her life

She was jailed for more than six years for taking part in a plot to fake the death of her husband, John Darwin, in 2002

Anne had claimed that her former prison officer husband drowned in 2002 while out paddling in his canoe  when in reality he was living in a secret compartment in their home in Seaton Carew, Teesside.

The couple's elaborate plot wiped off their 700,000 debt and fooled insurers into paying out over 500,000 so that they could start a new life abroad.

But their plan came crashing down five years later in 2007 when a photo emerged of John and his wife smiling alongside an estate agent in Panama where they had moved to run an eco-resort.

The astounding scam is now being re-told in a four-part ITV series called The Thief, His Wife and a Canoe' and stars Eddie Marsan as John while BAFTA award winner Monica Dolan takes on the role of Anne.

An ITV drama about the plot, starring Eddie Marsan as John Darwin and Monica Dolan as Anne Darwin, is set to be released in April

The pair were caught out when a photo showing them smiling in Panama after John was supposed to have died was found on the internet

The drama will put a new spin on the fake death with Anne being portrayed as someone who was forced to go along with the plan by her narcissist husband.

The makers of the series say it will show her as a bullied wife who is emotionally blackmailed into taking part in the scam and left devastated after her sons disowned her.

Anne lives alone and looked in good health as she walked briskly from her home to village shops in the spring sunshine.

She returned carrying a bunch of daffodils and stood chatting to a neighbour.

The mother-of -two refused to comment when approached.

Asked if she had been given a preview of the TV drama, she replied: 'I have nothing to say'.

70-year-old Anne was seen talking to neighbours on the estate where she has moved in an effort to start afresh

When approached by our reporter she declined to comment, and responded 'I have nothing to say' when asked if she had seen the upcoming drama

Anne moved to the sheltered housing six months ago having previously lived in York where she had a part time 10 an hour job with the RSPCA.

One neighbour, unaware of her past, said: 'We simply know her as Anne. She is very quiet but friendly. She has never mentioned what she did, but then why should she.

I do remember the whole canoe story. Its quite amusing that she is living here, but I suppose it was a long time ago and she is just getting on with her life.

Former doctors receptionist Anne and her 71-year-old husband, who now lives in the Philippines having re-married, were facing bankruptcy due to financial problems with their buy to let property portfolio when John hatched his plan.

Anne reported him missing after she told police he had gone paddling in the sea in his canoe.

Despite an extensive search his body was never found, although the canoe washed ashore.

The following year he was declared dead but was living in a bedsit next door to his six-bedroom home.

For five years he hid in a secret room at the family home and would listen to conversations through a dividing wall as his two sons Mark and Anthony visited to comfort their mum.

Having successfully fooled everyone around them and pocketed the money, the couple successfully moved to Panama where they had seemingly got away with it.

But their scam imploded when in December 2007 Darwin was forced to return to London to re-new his Panamanian visa.

Her husband John was jailed for more than six years for fraud after the life insurance paid out on his 'death' was used to pay off the couple's debts

Feeling homesick  and tired of not seeing his sons  he walked into a police station in central London and claimed he was suffering from amnesia and believed he was a missing person.

Anne kept up the charade and expressed happiness that her husband had been found.

But the scam unravelled when a newspaper published a photo of John and Anne smiling together with an estate agent in Panama taken a year before he claimed to be a missing person.

John was arrested and Anne returned to Britain where she was charged with fraud and money laundering.

At their 2008 trial Annes defence of marital coercion was rejected by the jury.

She was given a harsher sentence than her husband as he pleaded guilty and was jailed for six years and three months.

Anne, who was described as a compulsive liar by the police, was given a sentence of six years and six months.

Both were released in 2011 with John moving to Manila in the Philippines where he married a mother of three called Mercy May.

Anne, pictured here outside court in 2007, has since divorced her husband and has reconnected with her two sons

Anne divorced her husband and was able to re-build her relationship with her sons and shunned all publicity.

She donated all proceeds from a book she wrote about the scam to the RSPCA and said her biggest regret was deceiving her sons.

In her book Out of my depth she spoke of her devastation that her sons refused to have anything to do with her and even gave evidence for the prosecution at her trial.

Anne said: They refused to see or talk to me. The first time I set eyes on them was at my trial when Mark was first to testify against me. After he left the witness, he only lifted his eyes fleetingly to meet mine.

I was totally shocked by how dark and full of anger they were. To see that was absolutely horrendous.

As a convicted criminal Anne cannot benefit financially from her crime and had no involvement with the new ITV series.

Her ex was also excluded from any involvement and has never spoken about his lies.

One of her sons was said to have watched filming of the ITV series which took place near their former home, in Hartlepool with Portugal doubling as Panama.

The TV series is written by Chris Lang who has penned the popular Unforgotten series.
A love-struck husband who tried to row from Thailand to India to see his wife has been rescued and arrested just 50 miles off the Thai coast after spending two weeks at sea.

Ho Hoang Hung, from Vietnam, set off from the Thai holiday island of Phuket in an inflatable rubber dinghy, equipped with water, instant noodles and no navigation system for the 1,240 mile journey across the Bay of Bengal.

A fishing boat found the 37-year-old on Wednesday near the Similan Islands, about 50 miles off the Thai mainland, and contacted the navy's maritime security unit, which rescued him.

Ho Hoang Hung was spotted by a fishing boat - then picked up by the Thai navy

Ho told officials he was trying to reach his wife, who works in Mumbai, after spending two years apart because of Covid travel restrictions, Captain Pichet Songtan of the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Centre said.

Pichet said the man was found with no map, compass, GPS or change of clothes, and only a limited amount of water.

He had initially flown to Bangkok but found that without a visa he could not travel on to India, and so took a bus to Phuket, where he acquired the dinghy.

Ho hoped to travel from Phucket in Thailand to India, where his wife is working in Mumbai

After setting off around March 5, Ho was apparently held up by headwinds, making limited progress in the two weeks before he was found.

Thai officials said Ho will be returned to Phuket for further questioning.

'We have contacted the Vietnamese and Indian embassy but have not had a reply yet,' Pichet said.
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U.S. and European allies are set to announce a new round of sanctions on Thursday meant to dramatically widen the circle of pain among Russian officials as the country's invasion of Ukraine hit its first month.

U.S. sanctions will hit 300 members of the Russian state Duma, its lower house, amid Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's call for allies to sanction Russian functionaries and others who enable Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Other sanctions will hit dozens of other Russian elites.

Forty Russian defense companies would also come under sanction, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

The new pressure comes as members of the G7 met in Brussels to try to reach agreement on new levers to try to end Russia's brutal war on Ukraine.

The pressure tactics were belied by members of the group, who smiled warmly as they gathered for a 'family photo,' with Biden smiling during a chat with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after holding a 'pull-aside' meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Those moves will 'align and strengthen our sanctions in close coordination in partnership' with the European allies and G7 group of industrialized nations,' said the administration.

A new initiative also will target countries or institutions that evade existing sanctions, as Russia seeks creative ways to avoid the squeeze of sanctions that have tanked Russia's economy and slammed the ruble.

The joint action comes days after Biden spoke about a 'new world order' during remarks to the Business Roundtable in Washington. The phrase is loaded with past historical associations that conspiracy theorists have also grabbed onto to raise fears about global conspiracies.

Members of the G7 huddled in Brussels as they sought new ways to pressure Russia with economic sanctions

New U.S. and European sanctions are targeting 300 members of Russia's State Duma

President Joe Biden (L) and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The group wants to counter efforts to evade new sanctions on Russia

'The G7and the EU will also continue to blunt the Central Bank of Russia's ability to deploy international reserves by making clear that any transaction involving gold related to the Central Bank of Russia is prohibited,' said a senior administration.

As of last June, gold made up 20 per cent of the reserves of Russia's Central Bank.

'And our purpose now is to fully disarm its war-chest by making sure its foreign reserves serve no purpose in propping up the Russian currency,' the official said.

Biden, French President Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson huddle as they arrive at the NATO summit

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (l), US President Joe Biden (C), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) pose during the G7 summit in Brussels on March 24, 2022. The economic powers are coordinating sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among the NATO leaders meeting in Brussels

President Joe Biden (R) fist bumps with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as they walk from a meeting to the G7 family photo at NATO Headquarters. The two men met on the sidelines of Thursday's meetings, and the White House issued a statement on North Korea's ballistic missile launch Thursday

Gold makes up 20 per cent of the reserves of Russia's central bank

Sanctions have tanked the ruble and driven down Russia's economy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been buying up gold in recent years, after facing numerous rounds of sanctions for U.S. election interference and Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

The country holds gold reserve worth between $100 billion and $240 billion, the administration estimates.

For its anti-evasion procedures, allies say they are 'closing down avenues for example for the Russian Central Bank to prop up the ruble,' as well as growing a coalition to deny cutting-edge technology to Russia, and 'preventing Russia from designating crony banks to do its business abroad,' said the official.

According to the administration, the sanctions have already knocked Russia off one pedestal.

'It's now looking at an economy half of the size that it was before this invasion. So it would fall out of the top 20 economies by ranking.'

Biden met with Kishida, who took office in September 2021, on the sidelines of the G7. The two men could be seen chatting as they walked toward a 'family photo' gathering.

'The two Leaders discussed DPRKs launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which both Leaders strongly condemned, stressed the need for diplomacy, and agreed to continue working together to hold the DPRK accountable,' according to a White House official. 'President Biden conveyed to Prime Minister Kishida our rock solid commitment to the security of Japan and the Republic of Korea, thanked Prime Minister Kishida for Japans robust response to Putins war of choice in Ukraine, and agreed on the need for continued unity going forward.'

The administration also announced an additional $1 billion in new funds for humanitarian assistance for those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

According to an administration fact sheet, the funds are for food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other assistance. The administration announced an additional $320 million in democracy and human rights funding for Ukraine and neighboring countries.
A British tourist has been killed in a base jumping accident in France.

The 34-year-old man, from Newnham, West Northamptonshire, was on holiday with three British friends, one of whom witnessed the horrific accident.

Police have launched an investigation into the tragedy in the Isere department and Auvergne Rhone-Alpes region.

It is not yet known whether the accident was a result of technical failure or human error, though initial findings suggested the accident was not the result of a technical fault with the man's base jumping equipment.

The accident happened shortly before 7pm on Tuesday, after one of the man's friends raised the alarm.

The victim was found on a ledge around 650 feet below where he had jumped.

It was dark and the mountainous terrain was difficult to reach for rescuers, and a member of the rescue team had to be winched down from a helicopter to reach the injured man.

Once he had been lowered to a more accessible position, medics fought to save him before transferring him in a helicopter to Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes.

He succumbed to his injuries several hours later, at 2am on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old man, from Newnham, West Northamptonshire, was on holiday with three British friends, one of whom witnessed the horrific accident. Pictured: Gorges de la Bourne where the tragedy unfolded

The group had been holidaying in Millau where they had been base jumping, an extreme adrenaline sport which entails launching from a high fixed point, such as a cliff or building, and going into free-fall before deploying a parachute to slow the descent and land.

Base jumpers carry only one parachute in contrast with skydivers who jump with a main and a reserve parachute.

On Tuesday the weather was clear and the group decided to base jump in the gorges de la Bourne in the picturesque town of Chatelus.

They launched themselves off the Bournillon cliff. One of the man's friends raised the alarm after seeing that his friend's parachute would not open.

A police spokesman said: 'We are investigating to find out the cause of this accident. It appears that the man had possibly opened his parachute and then crashed into a cliff. But at present we don't know exactly what happened.'

'We think he jumped from the cliff and we believe he opened the parachute but possibly it was a little too late.

'We found him on a rocky ledge about 200 metres down from where he had jumped. He had crashed into the rock and was caught on a tree.

'The rescue mission was difficult. The terrain was almost inaccessible and it was pitch black.

'Rescuers reached him about 30 minutes after the alarm was raised. A rescuer was winched down and the victim was found alive but unconscious. He had lost a lot of blood.

'He was helicoptered to hospital but died at around 2am the following day.'

The group had decided to base jump in the gorges de la Bourne in the picturesque town of Chatelus

The sport's name is derived from the acronym BASE, which stands for 'buildings', 'antenna', 'spans', and 'earth' - the four categories of precarious footing from which parachutists can jump.

The lack of a reserve parachute and the proximity of the jumper to dangerous obstacles mean that the extreme sport has become notorious for claiming the lives of adrenaline junkies.

A study of base jumping practices published in 2019 by the Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, revealed that 223 people died base jumping between 2007-2017, although the true number is likely to be much higher.

The death rate, which has increased considerable since 2007, can be attributed in part to the rising popularity of the sport, but also to the creation of wingsuit base jumping in which the jumper uses a specialised suit to glide through the air, simulating flight.

The aforementioned study found that the primary cause of death in 96 per cent of base jumping fatalities was impact and object strikes.
A news report on North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile is aired on a television at Seoul Station, Feb. 27. Yonhap



North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the East Sea on Thursday, South Korea's military said, a move sharply escalating tensions in the region.



Pyongyang's show of force, the 12th this year, means an end to its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and a long-range missile testing.



The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that it detected the launch from the Sunan airfield in Pyongyang at 2:34 p.m. and the missile flew some 1,080 kilometers at a top altitude of over 6,200 km.



The North appears to have launched the missile at a lofted angle, the JCS said. Another military official said it flew for at least 70 minutes.



"For other specifics on the missile, the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis," the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.



Shortly after the launch, JCS Chairman Gen. Won In-choul and Gen. Paul LaCamera, the commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, held a virtual meeting and reaffirmed the allies' "firm" defense posture, the JCS added.



In the demonstration of its own firepower and combat readiness, the South's military soon conducted a joint live-fire exercise involving some of its key missiles  a Hyunmoo-2 ground-to-ground missile and one Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile as well as a Haesung-II ship-to-ground missile and two JDAM air-to-surface missiles  according to the JCS.



"It has been confirmed that in case of North Korea's missile launch, (we) have the ability and posture to precisely strike the origin of the missile launch and command and support facilities at any time," it stated.



The JCS condemned the North's latest launch, calling it a serious challenge to the South Korean military as well as the Seoul-Washington alliance.



The White House strongly condemned the missile launch, calling on Pyongyang to "immediately cease its destabilizing actions."



"This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region," press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. "The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions."



In a separate statement, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command urged the North to refrain from further "destabilizing" actions.



"The United States remains prepared to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies," the command said in a press release. "The U.S. commitment to the defense of the ROK and Japan remains ironclad." ROK stands for South Korea's official name, Republic of Korea.



The Pyongyang airfield is where the North is presumed to have tested the Hwasong-17 ICBM on Feb. 27 and March 5.



Dubbed a "monster" missile for its size, the new ICBM is thought to carry multiple warheads and have a range exceeding 13,000 km.



The North's latest launch came four days after it fired four artillery shots into the Yellow Sea, apparently using multiple rocket launchers, from Sukchon, north of Pyongyang.



Last week, the North unsuccessfully fired an apparent long-range rocket system.



In January, Pyongyang made a veiled threat to lift its voluntary moratorium on strategic weapons tests that it declared in April 2018 amid nuclear diplomacy with Seoul and Washington. (Yonhap)


Dr. Mehmet Oz's Pennsylania Senate campaign put out an attack ad Wednesday hitting rival David McCormick for being a 'finance bro,' a carpetbagger and too cozy with China.

The ad did so by casting two vest-wearing, hard seltzer-drinking 'bros' named Tad and Chad, who called McCormick - a former hedge fund manager - their 'hero.'

'He's the wolf of Westport, Connecticut,' Chad says of McCormick, who was born in Pennsylvania, but has lived in the ritzy New York City exurb since 2009.

Dr. Mehmet Oz (left) launched a new attack ad against Pennsylvania Senate rival Dave McCormick (right) that calls him out for being a 'finance bro,' a carpetbagger and too cozy with China

The ad debuted Wednesday and featured two vest-wearing, hard seltzer-drinking 'bros' named Tad and Chad, who called McCormick - a former hedge fund manager - their 'hero'

'He's the wolf of Westport, Connecticut,' Chad says of McCormick, who was born in Pennsylvania, but has lived in the ritzy New York City exurb since 2009

TWINNING: Chad and Tad have a picture of Republican Pennsylvania Senate hopeful Dave McCormick next to them - and they're all wearing the same outfit

The ad uses imagery connecting Dave McCormick (left) with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right)

The 'bros' pound hard seltzer in the ad and ask if Dave McCormick is forced to drink Yuengling, a Pennsylvania-made beer

The ad wraps up with more images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Pennsylvania Senate hopeful Dave McCormick (right)

Chad laughs that McCormick is 'pitching the locals he's one of them,' while Tad chimes in that, 'Pennsylvanians are fools.'

'Do you think Dave McCormick actually has to drink Yuengling?' Chad asks, as the two guzzle down shots and hard seltzers.

Yuengling boasts that it's the oldest brewery in the United States and is based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

'China? Do you think they have hard seltzer there?' Tad asks.

The ad shows imagery of McCormick and Chinese President Xi Jinping - and the 'bros' running around with Chinese flags.

'Dave's more than another finance bro - he's China's bro,' Tad and Chad say as the ad concludes.

McCormick's record on China is being used against him in the race, where GOP candidates are trying to stay in line with former President Donald Trump's 'America First' policies.

In the past, McCormick talked up China's economic growth and said he saw opportunities for the U.S. to tap into China's market. He also backed bringing in high-skilled immigrants to the U.S. and was pro-free trade and globalization versus 'Buy USA' protectionism, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

More recently he expressed wariness about China's rise - and praised Trump's moves against the giant.

He's also pushed back against being labeled a carpetbagger - a candidate who runs for office in a place where he or she doesn't live.

Speaking to the Hartfort Courant - a Connecticut newspaper - in January, McCormick bristled at the idea that he's 'coming back' to Pennsylvania.

'Well, for me, Im not coming back,' the Republican hopeful said. 'Pennsylvanias been my home for more than half my life. My familys in Pennsylvania. Many of my friends are in Pennsylvania. Im a seventh generation Pennsylvanian, so I feel like Pennsylvania is my home. And Pennsylvanias the place where Ive had the most formative life experiences.'

McCormick purchased a home outside of Pittsburgh before officially joining the race.

Oz has also had to deal with the carpetbagger charge, as the celebrity doctor and television star has lived in a New Jersey mansion for more than three decades.

Oz says he's a Pennsylvanian now as he moved last year to the Montgomery County home owned by his wife's parents in suburban Philadelphia.

The latest Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary poll, conducted by Fox, has McCormick leading the pack with 24 per cent support, with Oz coming in second with 15 per cent.
The head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a chilling warning to the United States and Israel on Wednesday, telling them they have an 'expiration date' and could face missile threats.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami addressed troops in Dezful, southwestern Iran, with a message designed to build domestic defiance.

He issued a stark threat to what the Iranian Tasnim news outlet described as 'the Zionist regime' and outlined Tehran's approach to sanctions imposed by Washington.

He said Israel will have to 'endure the bitter taste of missiles if it is not careful,' according to the Jerusalem Post.

And he said Iran's enemies carried an 'expiration date.'

His angry comments come at a pivotal moment in U.S.-Iran relations.

After months of on-off talks, negotiators are close to finalizing a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which would curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami warned Israel and the U.S. that they have 'expiration dates' as he threatened missile strikes

Iran's domestically built missiles and satellite carriers are displayed in a permanent exhibition on the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, at a park, northern Tehran, Iran

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was classified as a terrorist organisation by the Trump administration in 2019 after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last month unveiled a new missile - the 'Khaibar-buster' - with a range of about 900 miles

As DailyMail.com reported recently, Washington is even considering dropping its terrorist designation for the Revolutionary Guards to get the deal done.

Supporters of the plan say it would make little material difference as the corps are already covered by a slew of sanctions making it hard for the group to do business.

Salami claimed that the U.S. 'strategy of strong, aggressive sanctions' had strengthened the I.R.G.C. 'in every way.'

'The enemies are gradually retreating and their policies are no longer effective,' he said.

The result was a new era, he continued.

'The sun has set on the evil powers,' he said, adding that the Islamic revolution has 'accelerated the erosion and decay of Western civilizations.'

And he used the example of the American assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani - killed by a drone strike in 2020 - to show how Iran would always fight back

'We do not only hold funerals for our martyrs but also exact immediate revenge for them,' he said.

Senior U.S. generals believe that Iran remains the biggest danger to the Middle East.

'Iran's ballistic missile threat has continued to advance and expand with greater ranges and accuracy,' said Gen. Frank McKenzie, the outgoing head of Central Command, last week.

The threat to American interests, were on display last weekend when its rockets smashed into a U.S. Army base and a Kurdish news channel office in Erbil, Northern Iraq.

Iran's arsenal was on display earlier this month when missiles slammed into a U.S. Army base and a Kurdish news channel office in Erbil, Northern Iraq in retaliation for an Israeli attack

Mourners gather to remember Gen. Qasem Soleimani at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, after he was killed in a US drone strike

Soleimani headed the Quds Force of the IRGC, and was considering the second most powerful man in Iran until he was killed during a visit to Baghdad, Iraq

Iran later claimed responsibility, saying it mounted the attack in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard last week.

No one was hurt in the attack on Erbil.

Last month, Iran unveiled the latest weapon in its arsenal.

The Khaibar-buster, a reference to a Jewish castle overrun by Muslim warriors led by Prophet Mohammed in the early days of Islam, has a range of 900 miles and runs on solid fuel, state media reported.

The IRGC was accused of being an 'active and enthusiastic participant in acts of terror,' when it was designated a terrorist group - including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 US personnel, and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 US Air Force service members.

Today it is accused of arming rebel groups or other terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

In December, two huge shipments of arms - including 171 surface-to-air missile and eight anti-tank missiles - were seized from vessels en route to supply Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The idea of lifting the terrorism designation has infuriated Washington's ally Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently said there remained a huge distance between the US and Iran in talks.
The Supreme Court has not yet given an update on Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, after he was hospitalized last week with an infection for 'flu-like symptoms'.

Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. on Friday, the Supreme Court said in a Sunday statement.

While the statement of the conservative justice's hospitalization did not provide an explanation for why it waited two days to disclose the situation, it did say Thomas was expected to be released in the next couple of days.

Six days after his admittance, however, there has been no update on his status and whether he has been released from the hospital.

The Supreme Court's Public Information Office did not respond to DailyMail.com for a request on the status of Thomas in the days following the statement.

When retiring Justice Stephen Breyer was caught outside of Cafe Milano, a popular watering hole in Washington, D.C., he told TMZ of Thomas: 'I think he's doing fine.'

He did not say, however, whether he knew the status of his colleague's hospitalization.

Despite the unknown status of Thomas, the conservative justice was the lone dissenter in a case Thursday, opposing his colleagues in a case where they sided with a death row inmate seeking to have his pastor be able to pray out loud and touch him during his execution.

Thomas claimed in his lone dissent that John Henry Ramirez engaged in repeated litigation tactics to delay his execution and said the current lawsuit 'is but the latest iteration in an 18-year pattern of evasion.'

No update has been provided yet on Justice Clarence Thomas after the Supreme Court announced Sunday that he had been been hospitalized with an infection on Friday

Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC is where Justice Thomas is currently being treated

Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas (center) and GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (right) while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation in October of 2021

'Justice Clarence Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., on Friday evening after experiencing flu-like symptoms,' the Sunday statement detailed. 'He underwent tests, was diagnosed with an infection, and is being treated with intravenous antibiotics.'

'His symptoms are abating, he is resting comfortably, and he expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two,' it adds. 'Justice Thomas will participate in the consideration and discussion of any cases for which he is not present on the basis of the briefs, transcripts, and audio of the oral arguments.'

The statement provided no additional details about the infection, but said Thomas is being treated with antibiotics and his symptoms are abating.

The illness is said to not be COVID-related. A court representative said earlier this year that all nine justices were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and had received booster doses.

The Supreme Court is meeting this week to hear arguments in four cases. Thomas plans to participate in the cases even if he misses the arguments.

The high court's longest-serving justice was nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of liberal justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice on the court.

The hospitalization announcement came the day before hearings began on Monday for federal appellate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee, to become the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Jackson faced opening statements Monday followed by two days of grueling questioning where she faced GOP criticism on her sentencing record for child pornography offenders and her unwillingness to define 'woman.'

Judge Clarence Thomas nominee for Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court is sworn in by Justice Bryon White on the White House South Lawn as his wife Virginia and President H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush look on

Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. Thomas is second from left in the front row

Thomas administers the oath of office to Judge Amy Coney Barrett to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on the South Lawn in 2020

Thomas was born just outside Savannah, Georgia, in 1948. Raised by a single mother, a fire left Thomas' family homeless before he went to live with his maternal grandparents.

He originally sought to become a Roman Catholic priest, but abandoned that dream after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.

Thomas received a law degree from Yale and passed the bar in Missouri in 1974.

His career received a huge boost from President Ronald Reagan, who appointed him chairman of the United States' Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In 1990, President Bush nominated Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the DC circuit before again putting him up for the top court the following year.

The hearings to confirm Thomas to the highest court in the land were some of the most dramatic in history, after former EEOC employee Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment.

The FBI investigated the accusation and returned with an inconclusive report. Hill eventually testified in front of the Senate, while Thomas denied the allegations.

The Senate confirmed Thomas by a 52-48 margin in October 1991, at that point the closest margin in a century.

Thomas shakes hands with then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden ahead of his 1991 confirmation hearings

Virginia Thomas - wife of now Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas - stands behind Thomas at the microphones during a short news conference under umbrellas during a rain shower to acknowledge the vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirming his nomination as Associate Judge to the Court

Anita Hill leveled charges against Thomas that he sexually harassed her while working for him during the 1980s

Thomas has been known on the court for rarely asking questions during hearings and being a strict originalist in terms of ruling to the original writings of the United States Constitution.

He once famously went seven years without speaking during court arguments, breaking that silence in 2013.

Thomas has said he thinks the justices spend too much time firing questions at the lawyers who come before them in oral arguments.

'I think it's an opportunity for the advocate, the lawyers, to fill in the blanks, to make their case,' Thomas said in a 2009 interview with C-SPAN for a series about life on the court.

'I think you should allow people to complete their answers and their thought, and to continue their conversation,' he continued. 'I find that coherence that you get from a conversation far more helpful than the rapid-fire questions.'
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Dozens of migrants have arrived in the UK by small boat this morning - as the total number of crossings for the year approaches 4,000.

UK authorities have intercepted or rescued 3,897 people in 126 boats so far this year, according to official Home Office figures.

The number of migrant arrivals is expected to continue rising as the warmer weather brings calm conditions at sea.

The first group of migrants arrived in Dover, Kent, around 10am on board HMC Seeker - one of the Border Force's larger vessels.

A second, smaller, group reached the UK around the same time on a black Border Force rib - carrying approximately seven people.

Shortly after 11am a third group of migrants were escorted into the Port of Dover on Border Force ship Hurricane. The latest arrivals could be seen sporting life jackets and blankets as they approached British soil.

Dozens of migrants have arrived in the UK by small boat this morning (pictured) - as the total number of crossings for the year approaches 4,000

UK authorities have intercepted or rescued 3,897 people in 126 boats so far this year (pictured today), according to official Home Office figures

The number of migrant arrivals is expected to continue rising as the warmer weather brings calm conditions at sea. Pictured: Migrants arriving in Kent today

The first group of migrants arrived in Dover, Kent, around 10am on board HMC Seeker - one of the Border Force's larger vessels

A second, smaller, group reached the UK around the same time on a black Border Force rib - carrying approximately seven people

Wednesday saw a relatively quiet day for migrant crossings, with just 59 people making the journey across the Channel on three boats.

One of those boats was a small green dinghy designed for children, which four men are believed to have rowed across the 21-mile Dover Strait.

It comes after 900 people attempted the treacherous trip on Tuesday. Border Force officials and RNLI volunteers intercepted or rescued 394 people in 11 boats - just 11 less people than the 405 record for a single day this year.

The total number of migrants to arrive in the UK so far this year was not hit until June 1 in 2021.

Shortly after 11am a third group of migrants were escorted into the Port of Dover on Border Force ship Hurricane. The latest arrivals could be seen sporting life jackets and blankets as they approached British soil

The total number of migrants to arrive in the UK so far this year was not hit until June 1 in 2021. Pictured: A group walking up the shore today

A migrant grins and holds out his arms as he makes it to the UK shore on Thursday morning

The huge group of migrants on the RNLI boat were greeted by staff as they arrived in Dungeness in Kent on Thursday morning

March has seen 2,413 migrants arrive in 75 boats - more than the total number of people who made the dangerous 21-mile journey in January, February, March and April combined last year, and almost triple the 831 who arrived in the entirety of March in 2021. Pictured: Migrants today

March has seen 2,413 migrants arrive in 75 boats - more than the total number of people who made the dangerous 21-mile journey in January, February, March and April combined last year, and almost triple the 831 who arrived in the entirety of March in 2021.

Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable.

'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough.

'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.'

Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable'
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New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other large cities lost the most residents during the pandemic city exodus last year as about 75 per cent of U.S. counties experienced a loss in population, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The agency revealed on Thursday that American's fled metropolitan areas between April 2020 to July 2021 in favor of the South West, with Dallas, Houston, Austin and Phoenix among those to see the largest growth last year.

The Census Bureau said: 'In 2021, fewer births, an aging population and increased mortality - intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic - contributed to a rise in natural [population] decrease' across the country,' but particular hitting big cities the hardest.'

That saw 75 per cent of all US counties record falling populations in 2021. The figure the year before was 55.5 per cent, and in 2019 it sat at 45.5 per cent. Much of the sharp increase has been blamed on COVID tearing through older populations most vulnerable to the illness, with more than 975,000 Americans confirmed to have died of it.

This map shows some of the cities which gained and lost large chunks of their populations between 2020 and 2021

Last year's trend generally saw residents of more liberal 'blue' cities and states move to conservative 'red' states, and could lead to traditionally Republican areas turning Democrat thanks to the influx of newcomers.

Those blue cities have also been in the headlines for the wrong reasons in recent years, thanks to soaring levels of violent crime blamed on progressive district attorneys and slashing of police budgets.

Anthony Giusti, of San Francisco, said he left California behind for Houston because the high cost of living in the Silicon Valley was something he could never afford even with two jobs.

'In Houston, I can be a blue-collar entrepreneur,' Giusti, who started the West Houston Painting Company, told the Los Angeles Times. 'Texas has a thing about it, a romantic thing, with cowboys, and there's the idea here of the Lone Star State.'

This US Census map shows how 75 per cent of counties across the countries saw populations decline last year - up from 45 per cent in 2019. Much of the drop was blamed on COVID tearing through elderly populations

When it comes to a drop in population, New York City was hit the hardest with four of its counties - also known as boroughs - estimated to have lost a total 328,000 residents, dropping from 8,308,443 in April 2020 to about 7,980,443 by July 2021.

Los Angeles County saw the second largest drop in population which went down from 10,014,009 to 9,829,544, a decrease of about 176,000. The City of Los Angeles also saw a sharp drop, losing 91,000 of its 3.9 million residents.

Illinois' Cook County, which encompasses Chicago, saw its population fall from 5,275,541 to 5,173,146, a drop of about 102,395. Chicago itself waved farewell to about 91,000 of its 2.71 million residents.

San Francisco witnesses a decline of about 55,000 residents, with San Francisco County reporting its population falling from 873,965 to 815,201.

All those cities have been in the headlines in recent months over draconian COVID lockdown measures, and soaring crime rates.

Texas has become the United States' newcomer capital. The city of Dallas saw its population spike by about 97,000 people, increasing from 7,637,387 to 7,759,615.

Houston grew by about 69,000 residents as it population went up from 7,122,240 to 7,206,841. Austin's population also went up from 2,283,371 to 2,352,426, an increase of about 53,300 residents.

Among the famous Californians fleeing to Austin are Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, who swapped the Golden State for the Lone Star State over Governor Gavin Newsom's punitive COVID rules, and higher taxes.

Phoenix, Arizona also saw a significant spike of 78,200 residents, increasing from 4,845,832 to 4,946,145.

New York City (residents pictured above) was hit the hardest with four of its counties (boroughs) estimated to have lost a total 328,000 residents, dropping from 8,308,443 in April 2020 to about 7,980,443 by July 2021

Los Angeles County saw the second largest drop in population which went down from 10,014,009 to 9,829,544, a decrease of about 176,000. Pictured, residents strolling in Santa Monica. The city of Los Angeles also witnessed a sharp drop, losing 91,000 of its 3.9 million residents

Anthony Giusti (pictured), of San Francisco, was among the 55,000 people to leave the city of 874,000 behind. Giusti has moved to Houston, which saw a spike of 69,000 new residents, where he started his own house painting company

Dr. Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections in the Census Bureau's Population Division, said the numbers indicate a new shift in how American's are moving.

'Even though over time we've seen a higher number of counties with natural decrease and net international migration continuing to decline, in the past year, the contribution of domestic migration counteracted these trends, so there were actually more counties growing than losing population.'

The Bureau's report complied population changes in 384 metropolitan areas, 543 mini-cities and 3,143 counties throughout the U.S.

Among the new trend in migration, the report found that the pandemic helped cause the smallest population increase in 100 years as most counties reported more deaths than births in 2021.

Kenneth M. Johnson, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of New Hampshire, said he was shocked to see how hard the population count was hit.

'I think one of the most important findings is the fact that almost 2,300 counties had more deaths than births in them, he told the Washington Post. 'That's unheard of in American history.'

Johnson said the pandemic, coupled with low birth rates and an increase in older American who lack access to health care created 'a perfect storm' for the population decline.

In 2020, only about 55 per cent of all counties reported a decrease in population, while 45 per cent reported a drop in 2019.

Although the decline in population in major metropolitan areas was partly attributed to a lack of international migration caused by the pandemic, experts believed it is a precursor of what's to come as more people opt to live in the South West.

'I think that's the bigger demographic pattern here,' William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the data, told the Post.

'It may be a blip, and I think it is, but it's certainly noteworthy.'
A highly respected jail administrator fell in love with the hitman for a notorious cartel and helped him break out of the same prison complex that Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman once escaped from, a Mexican official has revealed.

The 40-year-old woman, identified by authorities as Veronica 'R' (her complete last name was publicly withheld because of due process), was seduced by Jalisco New Cartel assassin, Jose Guadalupe Avila Guevara, 33, and helped him walk out of Puente Grande jail in El Salto, Jalisco on December 21, 2021, officials said.

Avila Guevara had been in prison since 2014 following his arrest in connection to the July 7, 2013, massacre of seven young men who were kidnapped, tortured and dumped into barrels filled with acid before their remains were found buried in Lagos de Moreno.

Veronica 'R', who had worked at the prison complex for 23 years, used her authoritative powers as a judicial director and 'out of love' forged a document for Avila Guevara's release from the Metropolitan Prison facility, said Jose Antonio Perez Juarez, director for the Jalisco state Prevention and Social Reintegration Directorate General.

Veronica 'R' was apprehended March 5 in Jalisco, Mexico, for using her power as the prison's judicial director to forge a document that allowed her jailed boyfriend, Jose Guadalupe Avila Guevara, to flee from the Puente Grande jail in El Salto, Jalisco, on December 21, 2021

Jose Guadalupe Avila Guevara was being held since 2014 at the Puente Grande prison, the same one El Chapo once escaped from

Authorities at the Puente Grande prison did not report Avila Guevara's escape until February 3 when he failed to show up at a hearing before a supervisory judge

His defense team later presented the fake release papers to Veronica 'R,' who was the only person with direct access to the document and signed off on her lover's early release.

'It's known that there was sentimental relationship between the escapee and [Veronica], there was even talk of a marriage certificate,' Perez Juarez said.

Officials didn't realize Abila Guevara had vanished until February 3, when a supervisory judge requested the killer's appearance at a hearing inside the maximum security prison for aggravated kidnapping and illegal abduction charges he was facing in connection to the 2013 massacre.

The couple was apprehended in the Jalisco town of Lagos de Moreno on March 5.

Veronica 'R', who was also a law professor at the University of Guadalajara, appeared in court March 14 and was formally charged with prisoner evasion and falsification of documents. A judge also ordered her held for six months in pretrial detention.

'There was a unilateral criminal act, made up with all the aggravating circumstances of premeditation, treachery and advantage,' Perez Juarez said.

Jose Guadalupe Avila Guevara (left) and his girlfriend, prison director Veronica 'R', were arrested March 5 in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico

The sordid love affair echoes the relationship involving an prison instructor who helped two convicted murderers break out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton, New York, in 2015.

Authorities spent 22 days searching for Richard Matt , 48, and David Sweat, 35, after their escape was aided by two jail workers, including Joyce Mitchell, 51, in a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale that was made into the hit miniseries Escape at Dannemora.

Mitchell, a tailor shop instructor, wrote love letters to Sweat and had consensual sex with Matt in the tailor shop, a report by the New York inspector general report later found.

She smuggled blades, chisels and other tools into the jail and passed them off to a jail guard who turned them over to the two detainees.

As part of the escape plan, Mitchell was going to meet Sweat and Matt after they escaped but she got cold feet and failed to show up.

Mitchell was arrested and served five years in prison for providing material support to the two men.

The manhunt ended when Matt was shot and killed by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent near the Canadian border. Sweat was wounded in a shooting and taken into custody.
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This is the face of the 'butcher of Mariupol' - the Russian general overseeing a siege which has deprived the city of food, water and power for a month during merciless bombardments that have killed thousands of civilians.

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, who has served as the Director of the Russian National Centre for Defence since 2014, was identified as the commander overseeing the operation earlier this week when he personally issued a demand for Ukrainian troops defending the port to surrender - which they rejected.

It means Mizintsev likely gave the order to bomb a maternity hospital in the city that killed a heavily pregnant woman and her unborn child; to bomb a theatre sheltering hundreds of children who were likely buried alive in the rubble; and to indiscriminately shell neighbourhoods in attacks that have left corpses rotting in the streets.

Olexander Scherba, Ukraine's ex-Austrian ambassador, this week branded Mizintsev the 'Butcher of Mariupol' while Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties, called on him to face war crime charges.

And it would not be the first time he has given such grim commands. In his role as defence chief, Mizintsev was also likely to have helped devise Russia's military strategy in Syria - including the bloody siege of Aleppo, which has chilling parallels with the horror being inflicted in Mariupol.

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, Director of the Russian National Centre for Defence, revealed as the man overseeing the siege of Mariupol after issuing a demand for Ukrainian forces to surrender earlier this week

Mizintsev was therefore likely to be the one who ordered Russian jets to bomb a maternity hospital earlier this month, leading to the death of a heavily pregnant woman and her unborn child (pictured above, shortly before she died)

The general is also likely to have ordered the bombing of a theatre being using to shelter children - which had the word written on the pavement outside - killing an unknown number of people, thought to be in the hundreds

Mariupol has now been under siege for almost a month and bombed near-continuously, leaving at least 2,000 civilians dead - though local officials say the true figure could be in the tens of thousands (pictured, civilians rolled into mass graves)

Civilian areas have been indiscriminately targeted by Russian artillery during the siege, with an estimated 90 per cent of the buildings in the city now damaged or totally destroyed

A mother covers her son as they lay on a ground after hearing shelling during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine March 23, 2022

Dazed and covered in dried blood, a man stares at the camera as he walks to a checkpoint leading out of the besieged city of Mariupol, after some areas were captured by Russian forces

Joining Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to re-take Syria from various rebel groups - some of them Western-backed - who had carved up the country between them during the civil war, Russian forces helped the dictator besiege and eventually recapture the north-western city of Aleppo from Free Syrian Army troops.

In total, the battle to re-take the city lasted for more than four years - but the most intense period came in late 2016, when Russian and Syrian forces surrounded the eastern half of the city while 270,000 civilians were still inside and bombed it for months before rolling in troops and tanks to capture it.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that at least 1,640 civilians were killed during this period, though exact tolls are hard to come by and could be higher. Observers who spoke to the LA Times said the siege was 'marked by a degree of unparalleled savagery and suffering' during the entire conflict.

Russian forces used cluster bombs, chemical weapons and incendiary bombs - all of which are banned under international charters - during the siege, often again civilian areas. Evidence emerged that hospitals had been systematically targeted, and were eventually completely destroyed in bombing raids.

Frequent ceasefires were declared, but often the breaks in the fighting were used by Russian and Syrian forces to re-arm and reposition before resuming the assault. Others were not observed at all, or used for propaganda purposes - with rebels accused of breaching them as a pre-text for doubling down with attacks.

Humanitarian corridors were eventually offered to civilians who wished to escape the fighting, and while thousands did manage to flee, others said they were arrested trying to get out - while some were reportedly executed or died along the supposedly 'safe' routes.

Observers documented over 100 summary executions during the siege, while the Syrian Network for Human Rights said that almost 2,500 people were arbitrarily detained - dozens of them children.

A similar fate is now being meted out to the people of Mariupol, though on a larger scale. Mariupol's population was more than 400,000 when the siege began almost a month ago, and at least 2,000 civilians have already died in the shelling - though local officials say the true toll could reach 20,000 when final tallies are made.

Serhii, father of teenager Iliya, cries on his son's lifeless body lying on a stretcher at a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward in Mariupol on March 2

Mariana Vishegirskaya evacuated from a maternity hospital in Mariupol with blood on her face after it was bombed by Russia

A man holds a baby during an evacuation from a maternity hospital damaged by Russian shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine

A woman walks outside a maternity hospital that was almost totally destroyed by Russian airstrikes in Mariupol

The aftermath of a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital, with officials saying there can be little doubt that Putin's forces knew what they were striking at the time

Hospitals in the city have also been targeted, with a maternity ward struck by Russian bombers on March 9 leaving a mother and her unborn child dead, while wounding other women who were in labour at the time.

Perhaps the worst attack came March 16, when a theatre with bomb shelters underneath it that was housing up to 1,300 civilians was directly hit by a Russian airstrike.

At least 130 people are known to have escaped the wreckage of the building, but it is feared that many others were trapped in the bomb shelters which were covered by rubble. Nobody has been able to get to the shelters since, because Russian forces continue to shell the area. Anyone trapped there will likely have died a slow and agnonising death. The final toll of the attack remains unknown.

Olexander Scherba, Ukraine's former Ambassador to Austria, branded Mizintsev the 'Butcher of Mariupol' as he shared an audio clip that purports to capture the general berating a junior officer after a private was caught not wearing his uniform properly.

'Why is his face not mutilated yet? Why hasn't anyone cut off his ears? Why isn't this moron limping yet,' Mizintsev can be heard saying - calling him 'scum of the highest order'.

'At night, when he walks out, unknown assailants jump him. Just jump him over and over, beating him in the face with a bottle and then pouring another litre into it.'

Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties, has called on Mizintsev to face war crime charges at The Hague.

'Remember him. This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol,' she tweeted on Wednesday.

'It was he who ordered the bombing of a children's hospital, the drama theatre, etc. He has huge experience of destroying cities in Syria.'

Around 100,000 people are thought to still be trapped inside Mariupol 'in inhumane conditions' and under constant attack, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky when he spoke earlier this week.

Mr Zelensky accused Russian forces of not only blocking a humanitarian convoy trying to take desperately needed aid to Mariupol but seizing what another Ukrainian official said were 15 of the bus drivers and rescue workers on the aid mission, along with their vehicles. He said the Russians had agreed to the route ahead of time.

Earlier today, footage emerged of civilians weaving their way through streets littered with dead bodies and piles of debris as they desperately attempt to escape from the decimated city of Mariupol.

The remains of a theatre being used to shelter up to 1,300 civilians - including children - that was bombed by Russia

The death toll from the attack is still unknown, with hundreds of people feared buried alive in the ruins of the theatre

A destroyed tank likely belonging to Russia or pro-Russian forces lies amidst rubble in the north of the ruined city of Mariupol

A man looks at a burned-out car as he walks past a destroyed apartment building during shelling on the city of Kharkiv

People walks past a tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol

The video, shot by a fleeing passenger in what appeared to be a small van, showed apocalyptic scenes from the port city, which has ultimately been reduced to rubble after weeks of brutal Russian bombing.

Several corpses were seen sprawled in the middle of the road as the van swerved around chunks of rock, twisted pieces of metal and abandoned cars along what is believed to be Budivelnykiv Avenue in western Mariupol.

The chilling video comes as Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian troops are forcibly deporting Ukrainians en-masse from the city's ruins to 'filtration camps' and then into Russia, as they begged for humanitarian teams to be given access to the besieged city.

Up to 15,000 civilians have been forcibly deported from the Left Bank area of Mariupol since it was captured by Russian troops, local authorities said on Thursday, as they warned an estimated 100,000 people who remain face a desperate plight without food, water or electricity.

Ukraine's security services claimed to have identified one 'filtration camp' that had been established in the city of Dokuchaevsk, in the Donetsk region, and alleged Russian FSB officers were working to sort through the deported civilians to identify anyone with links to the Ukrainian emergency services or military.

Those picked out by the FSB are being send to remote regions in Russia - particularly Sakhalin, an island off the north coast of Japan - where they are forced to sign papers confining them to the region for at least the next two years, security services say.

Though Russian attacks have met with limited success elsewhere, Mariupol was fully surrounded early on during the fighting and has been attempting to hold out ever since.

Russia is now thought to be focusing it efforts on capturing the city, which would provide it with a 'land corridor' between rebel-held areas of the eastern Donbass region and occupied Crimea - believed to be one of Putin's key strategic goals ahead of giving the order to invade.

In order to capture the city, Russian forces have been indiscriminately shelling it for weeks - leaving an estimated 90 per cent of buildings damaged despite hundreds of thousands of innocent people being trapped there.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told a video briefing today that Ukrainian authorities were continuing efforts to secure agreement from Russia to open a safe corridor to and from Mariupol, but said that Russia had been blocking the evacuation of civilians this morning.

Zelensky said in a video address to Italy's parliament on Tuesday that there was 'nothing left' in Mariupol after weeks of Russian bombardment.

A Reuters team that reached a Russian-controlled part of Mariupol on Sunday described a wasteland of charred apartment blocks and bodies wrapped in blankets lying by a road.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian armies was needed before civilians could be evacuated properly from Ukraine.

'We think we are confronted with a very complex frontline at the present moment in Ukraine which sees a lot of people trapped and people caught people in between frontlines,' Red Cross chief Peter Maurer told a news conference after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

'It's not possible to think about access or evacuation, either in Mariupol or another place, if we don't have a solid and detailed agreement between the militaries on the ground.'
Pope Francis today condemned the 'madness' of increased defence spending in the wake of the Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and said a new way must be found to balance world power.

Speaking to a coalition of women's groups, the pope said the conflict in Ukraine was a product of 'the old logic of power that still dominates so-called geopolitics'.

The real response was not more weapons and more sanctions, he said.

'I was embarrassed when I read that a group of states have committed to spending two percent...of GDP in acquiring weapons as a response to what is happening now. Madness,' Francis said.

Pope Francis today condemned the 'madness' of increased defence spending in the wake of the Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and said a new way must be found to balance world power

Germany announced last month it would sharply increase its defence spending to more than 2% of its GDP in a policy shift prompted by the Russian invasion. Pictured: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz walks next to Markus Beck, head of Bundeswehr Operations Command's press and information center

NATO has a target of 2% of a member state's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to spend on defence.

Many have fallen short in the past several years, to the annoyance of the United States.

But Germany announced last month it would sharply increase its defence spending to more than 2% of its GDP in a policy shift prompted by the Russian invasion.

France, one of Europe's biggest military powers, has said it will reach NATO's 2% spending goal sought by the United States this year.

Other European countries have also decided to raise spending by various degrees.

Italy is in the midst of a heated political debate over proposed increases.

Francis said that what was needed was 'a different way of governing the globalised world, not by showing your teeth, as is done now, but a different way to frame international relations.'

He did not make any suggestions as to how that might be done.

Since the war began the pope has implicitly criticised Moscow, condemning what he has called an 'unjustified aggression' and denouncing 'atrocities,' but he has not mentioned Russia by name.
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Prince William today quoted Bob Marley as he spoke at a military parade in Jamaica on day six of his Caribbean tour with Kate Middleton, saying: 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.'

The Duke of Cambridge wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamourous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat.

The couple attended at the inaugural Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on the island nation for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academy's officer training programme.

And William said: 'You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity.

'Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. "You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice". From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors.'

William also quoted the Queen, continuing: 'Good leadership is hard to define, but it's easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject.'

The Duke referred to her address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, in which she said: 'I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.'

Following today's parade, the Duke and Duchess travelled in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen in 1966 and again in 1994.

Later this afternoon, the couple - whose children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are at home in London - will fly to The Bahamas where they will be greeted by prime minister Philip Davis.

William and Kate have been visiting the Caribbean to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, but the trip has faced controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britain's historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an 'appalling atrocity' and a 'stain on our history' during an address last night.

Prince William and Kate Middleton attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ride in Jamaica a vintage Land Rover used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966 and again in 1994, as they leave a commissioning parade in Kingston on the sixth day of their Caribbean tour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge travel in an open-top Land Rover in Kingston, Jamaica, today for the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel, on what is day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today dazzled in white at a military parade in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge meets a newly commissioned officer as she attends the Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke of Cambridge speaks today at the Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today travelled in Jamaica in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen

The Queen and Prince Philip travel in a similar Range Rover in Jamaica in 1953 as they are greeted by schoolchildren

The duke denounced slavery as 'abhorrent', saying 'it should never have happened' as he addressed the issue following days of protests calling for reparations from the royal family.

William expressed his 'profound sorrow' at the forced transportation of millions of people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America  a trade which British monarchs either supported or profited from during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Speaking during his visit to Jamaica with Kate, he echoed the words of his father the Prince of Wales and went on to acknowledge Jamaica's 'pain'.

The Cambridges' tour of Belize, Jamaica and the forthcoming final leg in The Bahamas has prompted demonstrations and statements calling for an apology from the royal family. The future king did not say sorry, just as his father Charles had not during his trip to witness Barbados become a republic.

But he praised the Windrush generation of Caribbeans who arrived in the UK a few years after the Second World War to help rebuild the nation depleted by six years of conflict.

Prince William at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

Kate Middleton looked glamourous in a white dress and hat at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

The Duchess of Cambridge dazzled in all white at a Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Jamaica's prime minister Andrew Holness appeared to suggest his country may be the next country to break away from the monarchy, telling the Cambridges it was 'moving on' and intended to 'fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country'.

The Independent has reported the Jamaican government has already begun the process to transition to a republic, with an official appointed to oversee the work.

Speaking during a dinner hosted by the Queen's representative in Jamaica, Governor General Sir Patrick Linton Allen, the duke said: 'Anniversaries are also a moment for reflection, particularly this week with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.'

Commenting on the sentiment expressed by Charles when he attended the Barbados ceremony that saw it become a republic in November, he said: 'I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.'

'I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened.

'While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude. The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit.

Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

Prince William arrives to attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour

'It is this same spirit that spurred on the Windrush generation, who came to the United Kingdom to help rebuild after the Second World War.

'We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society.'

Elizabeth I was involved with one of Britain's first slave traders, John Hawkins, while Charles II encouraged the expansion of the industry and with his brother the Duke of York, later James II, invested their private funds in the Royal African Company, which transported Africans across the Atlantic.

As the slavery abolitionists campaigned they were opposed by the Duke of Clarence, George III's son, later to become William IV.

The royal and the rest of the pro-slavery lobby would eventually lose the battle when William Wilberforce and other abolitionists succeeded in passing the bill banning the slave trade in 1807.

William delivered his speech on Wednesday and for the second day the Cambridges' presence in Jamaica prompted protests, with around a dozen members of Jamaica's Rastafarian community demanding reparations from the royal family when the couple visited a military event near Montego Bay.

Ras Iyah V, a leading member of Jamaica's Rastafari Nyahbinghi community, said: 'We are here to protest against any British monarchy descendant coming to Jamaica without being prepared to apologise for slavery and colonialism.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge smiles as she attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Soldiers marching as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from in Jamaica today

'We can only forgive people who acknowledge that what they did was wrong and are willing to repair the breach of the wrongs they have committed.'

He added: 'And today the British monarchy has a lot of African artefacts in their possession  they still bathe in the wealth that was extracted out of the blood, sweat and tears and lives of our people and we have never been compensated for any form of enslavement.'

During his speech at the black tie event William affectionately paid tribute to the Queen, whose Platinum Jubilee is marked by the Cambridge's Caribbean tour: 'She may be my actual grandmother, but everyone counts her as their grandmother too.'

And he recognised the plight of Jamaicans caught up in the conflict in Ukraine: 'Catherine and I were deeply moved by the plight of the Jamaican students who have recently returned safely from Ukraine.

'Their experiences are a reminder of the terrifying toll and inequality of war and conflicts across the world, which we must never forget.'

Kate was dressed in a green gown by British designer Jenny Packham paired with earrings and a bracelet that were loaned by the Queen and wore the Royal Family Order and her Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order star.

Prince William's speech at military parade in Jamaica A speech by The Duke of Cambridge at the Inaugural Commissioning Parade of the Caribbean Military Academy Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief of Defence Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning. I am honoured to be here representing Her Majesty The Queen at the Caribbean Military Academys first Commissioning Parade for the Initial Officer Training Programme. Congratulations to everyone on parade today. I have stood to attention myself on many parades as you do now, proud of my accomplishments, yet also hoping that the Reviewing Officer keeps the speech short. This is all the more important today as we bask in the glorious Jamaican sunshine! You all stand before me as seventy-seven officer cadets: from Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and Uganda. However you are here today as one unit. You have formed friendships which will last a lifetime, and built a network of camaraderie and experience to call upon in the future. I know very well from my own time at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst what a formative experience this year will have been. Today you mark the successful completion of your training programme in the classrooms, on the parade squares and in the exercise areas. But remember, this is just the beginning. Because now the hard work really starts, as you join your units and assume command. You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity. Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice. From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors. Good leadership is hard to define, but its easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of The Queens Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, she said: I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together. I think thats a very good model to follow. Let me also pay tribute today to the instructors and staff here at the Caribbean Military Academy for running this Initial Officer Training Programme. Putting on this international course for the first time was never going to be easy. And then you had to deliver it in the middle of a global pandemic. You should all be incredibly proud of your achievement, and of the young officers turned out so smartly in front of us today. I know how pleased the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is to have helped you establish this course, and its great to see the Commandant here today. Your collective collaboration and success is a testament to the continuing excellent defence relationship between Jamaica and the United Kingdom. And finally, I know how special it is to have your families join this celebration of your achievement. So I would like to thank all the guests for travelling here today. Were it not for your support and guidance, particularly given the additional challenges imposed by the pandemic, these cadets would not be here. I know you are beaming with pride. Congratulations again everyone. Advertisement

My Fair Lady: Kate Middleton channels Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white as she wears a custom-made lace Alexander McQueen dress and Princess Diana's bracelet for final engagement in Jamaica

By Jessica Green For MailOnline

Kate Middleton has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

Kate looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

She completed her look with a sophisticated hat featuring floral details and matching white high heels.

Kate Middleton (pictured) has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured), 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

Kate wore Princess Diana's bracelet (pictured). This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, Kate donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 (pictured) for an engagement in Hong Kong

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, she donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Kate finished her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, including a deep blush and pink lips.

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.

Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Kate (pictured) looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot

The royal mother-of-three (pictured) teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch
A 14-year-old boy who fell to his death from a London tower block may have done so as he leaned off the balcony to look at the stars in the night sky, his heartbroken mother has said.

Marcel Bruchal, from Newham, had been in his grandparents flat on the seventh floor of Sleaford House, a 19-storey residential block in Bow, when he fell on Saturday night, March 19.

He sustained fatal injuries in the fall and died despite the best efforts of his distraught younger brother, grandparents and paramedics.

His mother, Karolina Bruchal, has paid tribute to her most caring, most intelligent son, and believes that tragically, his love of astronomy might have contributed to what happened.

Marcel Bruchal tragically died after falling from the seventh floor of a tower block in east London

He fell the 19-storey Sleaford House (pictured) on Saturday night, March 19, while spending the weekend with his grandparents

In a statement released after the incident, police said they were treating his death as unexplained but not suspicious.

Ms Bruchal, who works as a midwife at The Royal London Hospital, said Marcel and his 11-year-old brother, Vincent, had been visiting her parents for the weekend and had had a great day playing ping pong before the incident.

The 37-year-old said: They were singing in the car on the way back (to the flat). He wanted to do some karaoke in the evening.

They were chilling (in the living room). They wanted to have some ice cream. They were preparing this, he stayed in the living room for two minutes.

His little brother came back to ask what flavour ice cream he wanted and the balcony door was open and he wasnt there.

Floral tributes have been left at the base of the residential block, which is in Bow, east London

He looked down and he saw him (on the ground below). Thats when he started shouting.

Marcels grandparents rushed downstairs to help him and the emergency services were called.

They went downstairs and my dad tried to resuscitate him, she said.

They brought a little pillow and blanket so he was not cold and at some point the ambulance came.

Around 10pm (they called me), after they were sure he had passed away. Before then they were hoping they wouldnt have to tell us.

His mother, Karolina Bruchal, said he was the 'most caring, most intelligent' boy and that he wanted to be an astronomer when he grew up

Ms Bruchal said her family was beyond devastated at what seems to be a tragic accident.

He was the most caring, the most intelligent and smart and funny (boy), she said.

He loved his little brother so much, he was very smart. He wanted to be an astronomer. He was choosing his GCSEs and he wanted to study astronomy.

We think this is why it happened because it was a very clear night and he possibly went out to look at the stars. We believe it was a tragic accident, he leaned too far.

He was liked by everyone, he had lots of friends. We are still in disbelief, we are still hoping we are going to wake up.

We will all need support and counselling, but we are trying to cope. I cannot say that we are sad, we are not sad or devastated - that doesnt express how we feel. There are no words to express how we feel.

Floral tributes have been left to him, including this one which says: 'Such a huge loss - with my deepest sympathy. RIP young man'

Floral tributes have been left to Marcel outside the residential block, which is between Blackthorn Street and Fern Street in Bow, following the tragedy.

Among those placing tributes was Sharon Chambers, a colleague of Ms Bruchal at The Royal London Hospital, who said he was the most amazing boy.

She said: He was a really homely boy, family-oriented, he loved his brother, and they all did things together as a family like going for days out.

Theyre just the most amazing kids, and he was the most amazing boy. Its just devastated all of us. We all feel so numb. And theres just nothing we can do.

A GoFundMe page set up by colleagues of Ms Bruchal to help the family with funeral costs has already raised 2,230 as people try to rally round them in this awful time

In a statement released two days after his death, the Metropolitan Police said while it was treating his death as unexplained, it did not believe it to be suspicious.

Police say they are treating his death as 'unexplained'. but say they do not believe it is suspicious

The force said: 'Police were called at 9.20pm on Saturday, March 19 to Fern Street E3 after reports of a person having fallen from height from a residential block.

'Officers responded with LAS.

'A 14-year-old boy was found unresponsive; he was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin are aware.

'The death is being treated as unexplained but is not thought to be suspicious.'

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: 'We were called at 9.13pm on Saturday, March 19, to reports of a teenager falling from height in Fern Street, Bow.

'We sent two ambulance crews, a paramedic in a fast response car and an incident response car to the scene.

'We also dispatched an advanced trauma team from Londons Air Ambulance, which consisted of a doctor and a paramedic in a car.

'We took the patient to a major trauma centre as a priority.'


Let's not hand over empty funds to future generations



An analysis showed that babies born this year will have to pay 17 percent of their future monthly salary in insurance premiums from the age of 18  in 2040  to receive similar pensions to their parents. According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), this year's newborns must also pay a quarter of their income while in their 30s, one-third in their 40s, and 40 percent in their 50s and 60s, in order to receive the same pension as their parents.



There have long been warnings that if the current trend continues, the pension fund will be completely depleted in 2055 when people born in 1990 turn 65. That means the current generation will hand over an "empty pension fund" to their children, the first generation poorer than their parents. To make matters worse, Korea's tempo of population aging is the fastest, and its birthrate is the lowest worldwide. The share of the population aged 65 and older will rise to 37 percent in 2045 to exceed Japan.



Considering that the total fertility rate  the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime  remained at 0.81 last year, the pension fund's depletion may come earlier than expected. The Moon Jae-in administration considered raising premiums in the early days of its term, but backed off later, expecting possible resistance. Due to the incumbent government's dereliction of duty, people must pay an additional premium of at least 15 trillion won ($12.3 billion).



The slower the pension reform, the greater the disaster for future generations. The presidential transition team has decided to tackle the pension issue as an essential agenda item and the next government should waste no time in addressing the matter. The transition team sought to work out a reform road map on which all classes and generations could agree so as to persuade the public. As it stands though, the main principle of pension reform appears to be one of paying more to receive less. The National Assembly should also begin a bipartisan deliberation for future generations.




A married instructor has been cleared of sexually assaulting a female officer at Sandhurst after she accused him of thrusting his groin into her waist and kissing her while she played piano.

Staff Sergeant Dean Foster, 29, denied ever pressing his groin into the woman and claimed he rejected her offer of a 'not-innocent' hug while he was stationed at the famous academy.

He also suggested the cadet reported him to military police after he reported her to Sandhurst for breaching its Covid-19 rules by seeing her partner.

The cadet, who can't be named for legal reasons, said she felt the married instructor had 'pressured' her into drinking wine with him and claimed she 'froze' as he allegedly attacked her.

He was alleged to have thrust his groin into the waist of the trainee officer and kissed her face while she was playing the instrument at Sandhurst Military Academy, where Prince William and Harry both attended.

Following a three-day trial at Bulford Military Court, SSgt Foster was cleared of the piano sex assault.

Staff Sergeant Dean Foster, 29, pictured, denied ever pressing his groin into the woman and claimed he rejected her offer of a 'not-innocent' hug while at the famous academy

SSgt Foster admitted he made a 'mistake' by opening a bottle of wine and drinking with the cadet, which is against Sandhurst rules.

He had just had an argument with his six-month pregnant wife when he messaged the cadet to see if she wanted to meet in a social room at the Berkshire academy for a chat about her progress.

When she arrived at the ante room, where the piano was, she started to play when SSgt Foster entered the room and sat behind her on a sofa, the court was told.

He poured a glass of wine for her and set it down on the piano before she stopped playing and sat on a nearby sofa to have a conversation, during which the instructor allegedly became 'unhappy' and mentioned his pregnant wife.

But, SSgt Foster told Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire he inappropriately 'opened up' about his marital disputes' and added 'on reflection it was not the right decision'.

He denied assaulting the cadet as she sat on a chair - and in a bid to prove it couldn't have happened as alleged a chair was brought in from Sandhurst and he pressed his groin against it.

Following a three-day trial, SSgt Foster was cleared by Bulford Military Court, pictured, of the piano sex assault at Sandhurst Military Academy

The woman also told the court that SSgt Foster had made a 'creepy' comment to her about her younger sister, whose picture he had seen previously, being pretty.

She said: 'She is younger than I am and I just thought it is really creepy and I did not like it at all. He also said I look fit.'

After their conversation, the officer cadet went back to play the piano which is when she claimed SSgt Foster came up behind her and allegedly sexually assaulted her.

She told the court: 'I was still playing piano - I felt really uncomfortable and did not know what to do so I just ignored it and I carried on playing. I thought if I just ignore it, he will go away.

'Then he came round the back and went to the left-hand side and did the same on the left-hand side. I felt so uncomfortable - I did not want to acknowledge that he was doing it.

'Then he kissed me on the left side of my face and it lasted for a fair while.

'I was really scared, I did not want him to do it, I did not ask him to do it, I did not know why he did it. I felt so uncomfortable.'

The officer cadet told the court she originally did not complain to the Royal Military Police as she thought the issue was being dealt with internally at Sandhurst.

But she was left disappointed when she was told they were only going to discipline him for drinking alcohol, rather than for the alleged sexual assault.

The married soldier, whose wife was pregnant at the time, allegedly kissed the woman's cheek as she continued to play at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (pictured) in Berkshire

SSgt Foster said he 'regretted' drinking with the cadet and tried to leave quickly.

'As I stood up she stood at the same time and intercepted me', he said.

'She leaned in to hug me... It was a little bit awkward, I don't want to be hugging cadets. I took half a step back and said 'sorry, I can't'.

'I didn't think I left it awkward but looking back potentially it was awkward.'

SSgt Foster, of 29 Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, said the allegations she made against him were 'just lies'.

He added: 'I was a bit annoyed to be honest, it was fairly clear that she was just trying to get in there first and turn it around on me.'

The 29-year-old was adamant he had 'no attraction' to the cadet, who said she had 'trusted' him.

SSgt Foster, who joined the Army in 2006 and has served in Afghanistan, was cleared of sexual assault by a panel at Bulford Military Court in just under an hour.
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a Texas death row inmate seeking to have his pastor be allowed to pray out loud and touch him during his execution for murdering a convenience store worker nearly 20 years ago and robbing him $1.25.

The high court's 8-1 decision won't spare 37-year-old John Henry Ramirez from being executed by lethal injection after stabbing Corpus Christi convenience store worker Pablo Castro, 46, in the 2004 robbery.

However, the justices' vote rejected the Lone Star State's defense of its policy of allowing an inmate's spiritual adviser to be present in the death chamber, though, without speaking or touching the inmate.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion that Texas 'appears to have long allowed prison chaplains to pray with inmates in the execution chamber, deciding to prohibit such prayer only in the last several years.'

He also rejected concerns that allowing Ramirez to be touched could interfere with the IV lines that carry the drugs used to carry out the execution.

'Texas could allow touch on a part of the body away from IV lines, such as a prisoner's lower leg,' he wrote.

Henry Ramirez, 37, was set to be executed on September 8 for killing a convenience store clerk in a robbery that garnered $1.25 in 2004. At the time, he said he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, which had impaired his judgement

The Supreme Court (pictured) ruled in a 8-1 vote that Ramirez can have his pastor 'pray over' and touch him during his execution even though the state of Texas refused to consider the convict's request

Ramirez was found guilty for fatally stabbing Corpus Christi convenience store worker Pablo Castro (picture) 29 times

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone justice to dissent, writing that Ramirez has engaged in repeated litigation tactics to delay his execution and that his current lawsuit 'is but the latest iteration in an 18-year pattern of evasion.'

Lawyers for Ramirez, a former Marine and devout Protestant, filed a lawsuit back in August, asking them to let his spiritual advisor lay hands on him and say a prayer while he was being executed, just a month ahead of his execution.

Prison officials claimed that would pose a security risk and the vocal prayer could be disruptive. Ramirez countered that their denial violated his First Amendment right to freedom of religion

For Protestants, the laying of hands is a symbolic act in which a religious leader places their hands on a person to confer a spiritual blessing.

Ramirez's request was turned down by Texas prison officials, and a federal judge in Houston and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals also denied Ramirez's request to stay his execution over the issue.

However, the Supreme Court interfered at the eleventh hour and voted to halt the execution initially scheduled for September 8 so they can fully consider Ramirez's request.

Ramirez has already had two stays of execution - once in 2017 so he could get a new attorney and again last September because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ramirez's request is at the center of a debate between death row inmates and prison officials in Texas and other states over the presence of spiritual advisers in the death chamber. The state recorded three executions in 2021 and also in 2020, its lowest tally on both occasions since 2016, partially due to COVID-19 and the ongoing issue.

Ramirez was convicted for the murder of Castro, who was taking out the trash from his Corpus Christi convenience store 18 years ago.

Prosecutors say Ramirez stabbed Castro 29 times during a series of robberies in which he and two women sought money following a three-day drug binge.

The store clerk would have turned 62-years-old, had he been still alive. Prior to his death in 2004, Castro had nine kids (pictured with one of them)

Castro was brutally murdered in 2004 while taking out the trash and getting in an altercation with one of the two women that Ramirez was with

In a 2018 BBC interview from prison, Ramirez said he, Angela Rodriguez and Christina Chavez were smoking weed, taking cocaine, prescription pills and drinking vodka that night.

He told BBC that Rodriguez was fighting with a man, and he got involved in the altercation to try to separate them.

'I had stabbed him in the neck,' Ramirez said. 'There was like real aggressive gurgling sound. That's what kind of snapped me out of it, and I saw how hurt he was and he was bleeding everywhere. I was just like, "Oh man. I went too far."'

Growing up, Ramirez said he had an abusive father who stabbed his mother multiple times when he was younger. He said in the BBC interview that he was surrounded by gang activity, so he joined the Marines.

Ramirez claimed that during his drug-fueled blackout, the military training took over.

'They teach you to kill a person in the fastest way possible. They teach you kill shot. That's what we call it, which is a lot of places I ended up hitting Pablo,' Ramirez said.

'I hit him in the heart. I hit him in the neck. I hit him in the groin. I hit him in the lung.'

Ramirez fled to Mexico, only 170 miles from Corpus Christi, but was arrested three-and-a-half years later. He was set to be executed at Huntsville's state penitentiary in September.

In April of last year, the Texas prison system reversed a two-year ban on allowing spiritual advisors in the death chamber.

The ban came after the US Supreme Court in 2019 halted the execution of another Texas inmate who had argued his religious freedom was being violated because his Buddhist spiritual advisor wasn't allowed to accompany him.

Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the chamber, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics. The new policy allows an inmates approved spiritual advisor to be in the chamber but the two cannot have any contact and vocal prayers during the execution are not allowed.

Seth Kretzer, Ramirez's lawyer, has argued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is violating the death row inmate's First Amendment rights to practice his religion. He called the ban on vocal prayer a spiritual 'gag order.'

'It is hostile toward religion, denying religious exercise at the precise moment it is most needed: when someone is transitioning from this life to the next,' Kretzer said in court documents.

'He is paying for his crime,' Dana Moore, who has been Ramirez's pastor and spiritual advisor since 2006. 'I guess the question that would come up, is that not enough?'

Dana Moore, Ramirez's spiritual advisor since 2016, said the request is about letting the inmate practice his Christian faith and treating him 'with a certain amount of dignity.'

'John's sentence wasn't death and you can't have any meaningful contact,' said Moore, a pastor at Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. 'He is paying for his crime. I guess the question that would come up, is that not enough?'

But Mark Skurka, the lead prosecutor at Ramirez's 2008 trial, said while he believes a death row inmate should have a spiritual advisor at the time of execution, there have to be limitations based on security concerns.

'Pablo Castro didn't get to have somebody praying over him as this guy stabbed him 29 times. Pablo Castro didn't get afforded such niceties and things like to have a clergyman present,' said Skurka, now retired after later serving as Nueces County district attorney.

Castro, who had nine children, had worked at the convenience store for more than a decade when he was killed.

'He was a good guy. He would help people out in the neighborhood. Everybody liked him,' Skurka said.

Rodriguez and Chavez, the two women who took part in the robberies, were convicted on lesser charges remain in prison.

If Ramirez is executed, he would be the first inmate put to death this year in Texas and the fourth in the US.
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Multiple attempts by Washington's top military leaders to speak with their Russian counterparts have been rejected by Moscow, raising fears that a battlefield miscalculation could plunge Ukraine and the world further into crisis.

Ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have tried to reach Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov by phone.

But the Russians are not picking up, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

It leaves the world's two biggest nuclear powers in the dark about what the other is doing at a critical moment.

'We think that communication with the Russians is important particularly now - in fact now more than ever,' Kirby told Fox News, 'to communicate with our Russian counterparts and make sure that we can convey our continued concerns about the manner in which they are prosecuting this unprovoked war.

'We have tried on numerous occasions to connect Secretary Austin with his counterpart. Chairman Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also tried to connect with his counterpart.

'We've made multiple attempts here but they have not answered up.

'They have declined to take the calls.'

The attempted calls - first reported by the Washington Post - come as Russia conducts operations near Ukraine's borders with Poland and Romania, while N.A.T.O. planes police airspace over the Baltic Sea and ferry in weapons.

The Pentagon on Thursday said its attempts to set up calls between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (l) and Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (r) and their Russian counterparts had gone unanswered

Attempts to set up phone calls with Russian Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov (l) and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu have been ignored

A column of Russian tanks marked with the Z symbol stretches into the distance as they proceed northwards along the Mariupol-Donetsk highway. Elsewhere, Russian forces have suffered a series of setbacks in recent days

The turret of a Russian tank is seen soaring into the sky after it was destroyed by a Ukrainian Stugna missile, with Putin's forces continuing to suffer punishing losses

Ukrainian forces are counter-attacking to the west of Kyiv where Russian troops at Irpin and Bucha are in danger of getting surrounded, possibly forcing a mass-surrender, while attacks are also going on to the east of the city

Kirby said Moscow and Washington continue to maintain a deconfliction channel, and can communicate via each other's embassies.

But without contacts between high-ranking officials the potential for miscommunication or misunderstandings is high.

'We still have military to military communications with the Russians but at the senior level, where we think it's important right now, it is not happening because the Russians don't seem to be interested,' said Kirby.

Details emerged on day 29 of the conflict, as President Joe Biden met with N.A.T.O. leaders in Brussels and unveiled a fresh raft of sanctions designed to further isolate Vladimir Putin and his supporters.

Russia has become increasingly reliant on artillery and missile strikes while its ground advance has been stalled by fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Kirby said Ukraine's troops had not just stopped Russian troops from advancing, but in the past 24 hours had begun forcing them back.

Ukrainians are becoming more effective on the battlefield.

The Ukrainian navy has destroyed an Alligator-class Russian landing ship and damaged two others which were unloading reinforcements and supplies at the captured port of Berdyansk, in the south of Ukraine

They are starting in places ... moving just from defensive postures to offensive postures.

They have pushed the Russians ... kept them out of Kyiv.

We now have indications they have pushed Russian forces further to the east so the Russian forces that had advanced between 20 to 30 kilometres [12 to 19 miles] to the east of Kyiv, Ukrainians in the last 24 hours or so pushed them back to about 40 to 50 kilometres [25 to 21 miles] away.

'In the north of Kyiv we're seeing the Russians take a defensive posture.

'They are no longer trying to advance they are going back to defense.

Makariv and Moschun, two cities to the west of the capital, have 'probably' been re-taken by Kyiv's troops - the British Ministry of Defence said overnight - meaning there is now a 'realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are able to encircle Russian units at Bucha and Irpin'.

'Russia is likely now looking to mobilise its reservist and conscript manpower, as well as private military companies and foreign mercenaries, to replace these considerable losses,' it said.

A tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict is seen in front of a residential building, in the port city of Mariupol

NATO now estimates that Putin has lost up to 40,000 men during his invasion - killed, wounded and captured - representing more than a quarter of the total force he arrayed before giving the order to attack.

Observers and experts have been warning that losses that severe risk making parts of his army combat ineffective, meaning they will struggle to operate on the battlefield and will be vulnerable to Ukrainian counter-attack.

Russian offensives have been stalled on almost all fronts for days now, with the Pentagon saying earlier this week that Ukraine's generals - who have been skilled in defence - are now switching to offence, and are 'able and willing to take back territory' captured by Russia.

Ukraine's armed forces reported 250 aircraft flights in the last 24 hours, a marked increase from the day before.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is "defending our common values." U.S President Joe Biden, in Europe for a series of summits, gave assurances more aid is on its way.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's leaders agreed to send equipment to help protect Ukraine against chemical attack.
A convicted murderer wearing 'small-framed glasses' is still being hunted by police two weeks after he went missing as the public have been warned.

David Collier, 56, could be passing through Plymouth and has links to Truro, Camborne, London and Essex and 'should not be approached'.

Devon and Cornwall Police are hunting the former taxi driver who had his licence revoked and was recalled from prison on March 10.

He is thought to be wearing small-framed glasses, different to ones in the picture issued by police.

The force, who have made a number of enquiries to locate him, and confirmed to the MailOnline he pled guilty to the murder of Cassie Quin, who Collier used to take to a day centre, in 2003 when she was 82.

According to a BBC article in 2004, the post mortem said she was found with multiple injuries to her face and head, inflicted by a pair of her own scissors, at the widow's home.

A judge at Chelmsford Crown Court sentenced the taxi driver, the BBC said, to life with a minimum of 17 years in prison.

David Collier, pictured, could be passing through Plymouth and has links to Truro, Camborne, London and Essex and 'should not be approached'. He is thought to be wearing small-framed glasses, different to ones in the picture issued by police

Devon and Cornwall Police are hunting the convicted murderer who had his licence revoked and is wanted on recall to prison

Police say a number of enquiries have been made to locate him and members of the public are urged not to approach him.

In a statement the force said: 'Police have released a new image of 56-year-old David Collier, also known as Joshua Johnson or David Johnson, who is wanted on recall to prison.

'Collier, who was originally convicted for murder, has had his licence revoked. Numerous enquiries have been made to locate and arrest Collier, who as links to Truro, Camborne, London and Essex.

'He is thought to be wearing smaller framed glasses to the ones he has on in the image. Anyone who sees Collier is asked to not approach him and call police on 999 immediately quoting reference Log 0367 of 10/03/2022.'
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Tearful relatives have said a final farewell to a 96-year-old Ukrainian grandfather who survived the Holocaust only to be killed by one of Putin's rockets.

Boris Romantschenko endured the horrors of the Buchenwald, Mittelbau-Dora, Bergen-Belsen and Peenemunde Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War.

He died on Friday when a Russian rocket slammed into his apartment block in the second city of Kharkiv. Earlier this week his remains were collected from the destroyed building by a team of volunteers.

Today grieving family members, , including his son and granddaughter, Yulia, gathered for an intimate funeral to say their final farewells.

Some openly wept over the crimson covered coffin before it was gently lowered into a pre-dug grave, marked with an Orthodox cross. The burial took place at a church near Kharkiv, which continues to be bombed and shelled by Russian forces.

Such scenes have become all too common across Ukraine, since Putin launched his devastating invasion one month ago today.

Mr Romantschenko's extraordinary life included spells in four Nazi concentration camps, between 1943 and 1945, which began after a failed bid to escape from forced labour in Germany.

Boris Romantschenko's son and other mourners pay their final tributes to the Holocaust survivor

The coffin being lowered into its final place of rest - the 96-year-old was killed by a rocket on Friday in Kharkiv

An aged Romantschenko, dressed in the blue and white stripes of a concentration camp inmate, stood in front of the infamous phrase 'Jedem Das Seine' which adorns the gates at Buchenwald

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit out at Russian forces following the killing, arguing it makes a mockery of Putin's claim to be seeking the 'denazification' of Ukraine.

Referencing the deceased genocide survivor, in an emotional video message posted to social media, he said: 'Please think about how many things he has come through.

'He survived Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Peenemunde, and Bergen-Belsen, the conveyors of death created by Hitlerites.

'But he was killed by a Russian strike, which hit an ordinary Kharkiv multistory building.

'With each day of this war, it becomes more obvious what "denazification" means to them.'

The killing was first announced by the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, which maintains memorials to the Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau concentration camps.

In a statement the educational institute said: 'We are deeply saddened by the death of Romantschenko.

'We mourn the loss of a close friend. We wish his son and granddaughter, who brought us the sad news, a lot of strength in these difficult times.'

A picture posted on Twitter by the foundation showed an aged Romantschenko, dressed in the blue and white stripes of a concentration camp inmate, stood in front of the infamous phrase 'Jedem Das Seine' which adorns the gates at Buchenwald.

Translated as 'to each his own' or 'to each what he deserves', the phrase was used cynically by the Nazis in tandem with 'work sets you free' as they put millions of Jews to death.

Earlier this week his remains were collected from the destroyed building by a team of volunteers

An Orthodox Christian cross, with the Holocaust survivors name inscribed, was planted to mark the grave

A mourner weeps by Mr Romantschenko's grave - which has been partially covered by a floral tribute

Boris Romantschenko was born on January 20, 1926 in Bondari near the city of Sumy in Northeastern Ukraine.

Although he was not Jewish, he was taken by German soldiers when he was 16 years old and deported to the German city of Dortmund in 1942 to work as a forced labourer, as part of Nazi intimidation tactics against the Ukrainian population at the time.

A failed escape attempt in 1943 saw him arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, but he also spent time in the subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora, as well as Bergen Belsen and Peenemunde - where prisoners were forced to build V2 rockets for the Nazi war effort.

Despite the horrendous conditions, Romantschenko managed to survive three years of captivity at the hands of the Nazis.

During a 2012 anniversary celebration of the liberation of Buchenwald, the Holocaust survivor returned to the concentration camp square and declared in Russian: 'Our ideal is to build a new world of peace and freedom' - part of an oath taken by camp survivors.

Romantschenko had been the long-time Vice-President of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee in Ukraine, and regularly engaged in memorial and remembrance parades.

The hole for Mr Romantschenko coffin is dug in the graveyard whilst mourners look on

Ukrainian President Zelensky condemned the killing which he argued made a mockery of Putin's 'denazification' claims

Director of the Buchenwald-Dora foundation Jens-Christian Wagner confirmed Romantschenko's death and said the elderly Holocaust survivor had not strayed far from his apartment for months for fear of being infected with Covid prior to the Russian invasion.

Wagner in February warned that Ukrainian Holocaust survivors in the east of the country were at risk as Russia began its invasion.

He said the war is 'particularly tragic for the Ukrainian concentration camp survivors who suffered with the Russian prisoners in the camps and who are now sitting in the air raid shelter and are threatened with their lives by Russian bombs.'

Romantschenko was the long-time Vice-President of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee in Ukraine, and regularly engaged in memorial and remembrance parades.

Ten million Ukrainians have fled their homes since the Russian invasion started last month, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

This represents nearly a quarter of Ukraine's pre-war population, which had been estimated at 43 million by Worldometer in 2021 using UN data.

Kharkiv, the city of 1.4 million where Mr Romantschenko was kiled, has been under bombardment from Russian troops since their invasion began on February 24.

However the predominantly Russian speaking city has been resisting fiercely, with Putin's forces failing to make a breakthrough despite it being less than 25 miles from the Russian border.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said people in Washington, D.C. don't understand how she speaks because they live in a bubble.

'They are disconnected from real Americans, and that is their problem, not mine,' the Georgia Republican told The Washington Times in an interview published Wednesday. 'I believe and share the same thoughts and feelings of the people in our district.'

In her nearly 15 months in Congress, Greene has stood out because she's dabbled in conspiracy theories, gotten into arguments with her peers in the hallways and shouted down President Joe Biden during this month's State of the Union address.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said people in Washington, D.C. don't understand how she speaks because they live in a bubble

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (right) and Laruen Boebert (left) shouted at President Joe Biden during his March 1 State of the Union address

Her refusal to wear a face mask on the House floor during the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to her being charged more than $100,000 in fines - being taken out of her $174,000 annual salary.

She protested COVID-19 restrictions for months.

Greene told The Times that her constituents and other like-minded voters are 'offended' and 'upset' with 'Washington basically lecturing and looking down on the rest of America.'

'I believe our federal government is a complete failure,' she added.

This week Greene turned heads when she said the Ukrainian invasion was thanks to the country 'poking the bear, which is Russia.'

'And this is a hard truth to accept - there is no win for Ukraine here,' Greene told BKP Politics host Brian K. Pritchard in an interview posted online Tuesday.

While Greene swore she was no Putin sympathizer, she suggested Ukraine's ability to hold off Russian troops has been overestimated in the mainstream press.

'Russia is being very successful in their invasion, even though we hear different things on television,' she said. 'The things that we see and we know that are actually happening there - I don't see a way out for Ukraine.'

She also floated that Biden kept American troops sidelined because the destruction of Ukraine would also spell doom for any evidence of wrongdoing when it came to son Hunter Biden's business dealings in the country - which Republicans have also linked to the president.

'It's actually mind-blowing to watch with a war unfolding in Ukraine, which is so tragic for the Ukrainian people. The people are always the ones who suffer, but Joe Biden is completely staying out of the way,' Greene said.

'And it's only - it's the optimal situation for him because any type of evidence is going to be completely destroyed if it hasn't already in Ukraine as Putin and his Russian military invade and complete their takeover of Ukraine,' she added, calling Biden 'compromised.'

Biden has said no American troops would fight Russians in Ukraine because that would turn into 'World War III.'

Greene also pushed a narrative coming from the Kremlin - that Ukraine's forces are filled with Nazis.

'But the other thing that the media doesn't do and they're very complicit in doing is they don't tell the truth - they should be talking about the neo-Nazi militia groups that are very much intigrated in Ukraine's national guard and their military,' she said.

'This comes after Democrats have called Republicans Nazis for five to six years now and after they called Trump "Hitler,' which is the most insulting, horrific name you could ever give to anyone. And Republicans certainly aren't Nazis,' Greene continued.

'But it's shocking to me that Congress is so willing to funnel $14 billion in military equipment over and over again into Ukraine and you have to ask, is this money and is this United States military equipment falling in the hands of Nazis in Ukraine?' she mused.

Greene was likely speaking of the Azov, a military infantry group with far-right members active in Ukraine since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, but was also lending credence to Putin's narrative that Russia invaded Ukraine in an effort to 'denazify' the country.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.

Greene also told Pritchard 'there are bio-labs in Ukraine.'

Russia has also been pushing that the war was justified because the U.S. has laboratories all over Ukraine secretly developing biological weapons.

The Pentagon has said it invested $200 million in Ukraine since 2005 as part of its Biological Threat Reduction Program, to lock down unsecured biological materials after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Greene introduced a bill earlier this week that would ban funding for so-called 'bioweapons.'

Talking party politics, Greene said she often went after members of her own party, saying that they needed to 'have a plan in place that will save America and stop our country from rapidly descending into - I used to say socialism, now I call it communism,' she said.

She said even more 'terrifying' was the concept of 'globalism.'

'With Biden literally calling yesterday for a "New World Order," after the pandemic and the war that we're seeing potentially turn into World War III in Ukraine,' she noted.

Greene and several other right-wing lawmakers called out Biden for using the phrase Monday, as conspiracy theorists have used 'New World Order' for years to describe a plot by elites to form a massive global 'shadow government.'
Russia today blocked Google News, accusing it of providing 'false information' about the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

The decision was taken at the request of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office, according to a statement by the country's media regulator Roskomnadzor.

The online news service 'provided access to numerous publications and materials that contain false information... about the course of the special military operation on Ukrainian territory,' the statement said.

Google 'confirmed that some people are having difficulty accessing the Google News app and website in Russia and that this is not due to any technical issues on our end,' a company spokesperson said.

Russia today blocked Google News, accusing it of providing 'false information' about the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine

'We've worked hard to keep information services like News accessible to people in Russia for as long as possible,' the Google spokesperson added.

Since the start of the Russian intervention in Ukraine on February 24, the Russian government has considerably tightened its control over information on the internet, one of the last resources for free expression in the country.

Many Russian and foreign media, including the BBC, have had their online services restricted and the American social networks Facebook and Instagram have been declared 'extremist' by a Moscow court.

Access to Twitter has also been limited.

Last week, Roskomnadzor also accused the US giant Google and its video service YouTube of 'terrorist' activities, the first step towards a possible block.

At the same time, the authorities introduced two new criminal offences at the beginning of March: one for disseminating information 'discrediting' the Russian army and another for disseminating 'false' information about Russian troops.

The latter offence carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison and is of particular concern to the political opposition and independent media, who fear prosecution for any reporting of the Ukraine offensive.
A black man who was fatally shot by a white off-duty North Carolina sheriff's deputy earlier this year was struck by four bullets, one of which pierced his brain and another tore through his heart, liver and aorta, according to an autopsy released Thursday.

Jason Walker, 37, had wounds to his head, chest, back and thigh in the January 8 shooting in Fayetteville, the autopsy released by North Carolina's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed.

'The cause of death is listed as multiple gunshot wounds,' the report said.

The report noted that no alcohol or illegal drugs were found in his system. Toxicology tests detected only nicotine, caffeine and an allergy medication in Walker's body.

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An autopsy revealed that Jason Walker, 37 (left), a black pedestrian who was killed by white off-duty sheriff's deputy Jeffrey Hash (right), was struck by four bullets

The incident took place in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on January 8. Body camera video does not show the shooting or what led up to it

Two witnesses recorded on police body camera video, including one who identified himself as Walker's father, told officers that Walker, who was on foot, jumped onto the hood of a red pickup truck driven by off-duty Cumberland County Sheriffs Lt. Jeffrey Hash.

Walker's father also told officers that his son ripped off one of the truck's windshield wipers. The videos do not show the shooting or what led up to it.

Hash, who is white, told officers that he was driving down the road in Fayetteville when Walker ran into the street, and the cop stopped his vehicle, according to the previously released video. Hash told a 911 operator that Walker broke his windshield.

The cop said that his wife and daughter were in his vehicle, and that he feared for their safety.

The autopsy determined that Walker was shot four times with hollow-point bullets from a 9mm gun.

A hollow-point bullet is a type of bullet that expands on impact, causing a more lethal hit.

Anthony Walker (right), Jason Walker's father, said the 37-year-old ran out of their yard and into the street, jumping onto Hash's red pickup truck

One witness (right) backed Anthony Walker's claim about his son jumping on the hood of the car while the other (left) said Walker was already on the ground when Hash shot him

The bullet that struck Walker in the head traveled through his brain and into his neck before becoming lodged in his spinal cord.

The round that entered Walker's chest hit the right ventricle of his heart, traveled through his liver, stomach, pancreas and aorta, and then lodged in the left side of his back.

Walker was pronounced dead at the scene.

Accompanying the autopsy was an report on the circumstances of death, also released Thursday, which said that Walker charged at Hash after he got out of his truck to ask him why he ripped the wipers off.

The shooting prompted protests by demonstrators who questioned authorities' account of what happened.

An attorney for Walker's family, Ben Crump, has previously said a disagreement between a pedestrian and a sworn officer, who's trained to deescalate situations, shouldn't result in use of deadly force.

Attorney Ben Crump (L), alongside the family of Jason Walker, including his brother, mother Janice Walker (C), and father, Anthony Walker (R)

Pandora Harrington and other demonstrators march from the Cumberland County Law Enforcement Center to the Fayetteville Police Department and back during a 'Justice for Jason Walker' demonstration, on January 9

On Thursday, Crump issued a statement saying that the autopsy confirms that Walker was killed unjustly.

'A trained law enforcement officer knows that shooting someone that many times and in those parts of the body is shooting to kill. Jason should still be alive today,' said Crump, who has represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in high-profile cases.

The State Bureau of Investigation has been looking into the shooting, as is routine in cases involving officers.

Has has not been charged with any crime in connection with Walker's death.

His lawyer previously said that his client is 'devastated' by what had happened and claims self-defense.

'Hes devastated for the family of Mr. Walker. Hes devastated for his community and hes devastated for his own family,' Parrish Daughtry said.
The brother of a thug who kidnapped a 19-year-old girl and left her brain damaged has been mocking her in a series of sick messages.

Rhys Norris showed no remorse as he appeared to defend his evil brother Chay Bowskill.

Angel Lynn, 19, was forced into the van by Bowskill, 20, and his accomplice Rocco Sansome, also 20, in Rothley, Leicestershire, in September 2020 after an argument.

She then fell out of the vehicle, which was driven by Sansome, at around 10.45am as it travelled at 60mph, before she was found by horrified members of the public.

Messages uncovered by The Sun reportedly show Norris claiming his brother Bowskill did not do anything wrong.

He then mocks Angel with a series of cruel claims about her, before threatening to rob her family of the money they are raising to buy health equipment for her.

The ex-boyfriend of a teenager who was left paralysed after she fell out of a moving van that he had forced her into will now spend 16 years in prison after having his sentence more than doubled. Pictured: Angel Lynn in hospital

Angel Lynn (pictured), 19, suffered life-changing injuries after she fell from a van. She was found injured in the carriageway of the A6 near Loughborough on September 17, 2020

Chay Bowskill (pictured) and Sansome both denied kidnap but were found guilty after trial. Bowskill was jailed for seven-and-a-half years while Sansome was sentenced to 21 months in prison

It is understood that the messages were sent to social media user Jeremy Stoker, who said he asked Norris to change his Facebook profile picture from that of his brother out of respect to Angel.

He added: 'I don't know him or Angel or Chay but after hearing his mother give a warm defence of Chay - and feeling sorry for Angel - I came across Rhys.

'Far from saying nothing, [he] seemed to be 100 per cent behind his brother and proud of it.

'I didn't blame him for Chay's actions - or abuse him - I just asked he not so publicly support his vermin brother.'

Norris replied 'f*** off' followed by a series of profanities after being approached by the newspaper.

A spokesperson for Leicestershire Police confirmed the force is aware of the messages, and said they had not been reported to them.

In January, Bowskill was handed a seven-and-a-half-year sentence after being found guilty of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice, following a trial at Leicester Crown Court.

Sansome, of Birstall, Leicestershire, was also found guilty of kidnap and sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Both men had their sentences referred to the Court of Appeal by Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC, who argued they were 'unduly lenient'.

Yesterday, senior judges at the Court of Appeal have concluded his original term for the kidnap was not long enough and have handed him four-and-a-half more years.

Angel's mother Nikki had said last month that she was 'disgusted' with the initial term that was handed out.

Giving a summary of their decision, Dame Victoria Sharp said: 'We have concluded that the sentence passed on him for the kidnap was unduly lenient.'

Shocking CCTV footage (left and right) shows Angel Lynn, 19, being forced into a van by 20-year-old Chay Bowskill, her boyfriend at the time

In January, Bowskill (above) was handed a seven-and-a-half-year sentence after being found guilty of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice, following a trial at Leicester Crown Court

She said the original term 'failed to reflect the seriousness of the kidnap' and the harm caused to Ms Lynn as a result.

Members of Ms Lynn's family gasped as the judge told the court of the increased sentence.

Bowskill, who appeared over a video-link from prison wearing a grey sweatshirt, shook his head as he heard the result.

The judge said Sansome's sentence 'should have been longer' but that, in all the circumstances, including the fact he is close to being released, the court decided not to alter it.

Harrowing CCTV footage of Angel's kidnap showed Bowskill chasing her across a road after she walked off during an argument.

The video, taken in Mountsorrel, shows Bowskill grabbing Angel from behind and carrying her back across the road before bundling her into a van.

After Angel fell out, paramedics attended the scene and she was taken to hospital but despite intensive medical intervention, she was left with life-changing injuries.

Angel's mother Nikki had said last month that she was 'disgusted' with the initial term that was handed out (Pictured: Angel Lynn)

The kidnap happened after Angel, who was originally lawfully driving the van, picked up Bowskill and Sansome, before getting into the argument with Bowskill and walking off.

The court heard that moments before she walked off, Bowskill admitted telling Angel he 'hated' her and never wanted to see her again, Leicestershire Live reported.

Both men were later arrested.

Bowskill, of Syston, Leicestershire, was also convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour and perverting the course of justice.

He was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm after it became unclear how Angel had left the van.

The defence claimed that Angel jumped or accidentally fell on to the road, while the prosecution failed to prove that she was pushed or thrown.

Sansome, of Birstall, Leicestershire, admitted possession of cannabis and driving the van while unfit through cannabis use, according to Leicestershire Live.

Dame Victoria told the court Bowskill had been in a relationship with Ms Lynn for about a year before the incident, and he behaved in a coercive and controlling manner towards her throughout that time, threatening her with violence on a number of occasions.

The judge said he tried to intimidate his own mother into retracting a statement she gave to police about his behaviour towards Ms Lynn following the kidnap.

The family of 21-year-old Angel Lynn, who was left paralysed after she fell out of a van when she was kidnapped by her boyfriend, released pictures to the public

Angel's mother Ms Lynn (both pictured) told Sky News last month or her anger about the leniency of the sentences that were originally handed to Bowskill and Sansome

In a statement released after the sentencing hearing, Ms Lynn's family said: 'Angel was so full of life and had such a great future ahead of her. That future has sadly been taken away from her.

'The catastrophic injuries Angel suffered will mean life will never be the same for her or our family. Every day is not only a huge struggle for Angel but also a huge struggle for our family and friends.'

Dame Victoria said Bowskill must serve two thirds of his sentence behind bars before he can be released.

Angel's mother Ms Lynn told Sky News last month or her anger about the leniency of the sentences that were originally handed to Bowskill and Sansome.

She told Sky News: 'I am disgusted with the sentences. Seeing her like this kills me every day.

'I worry every day about not being here anymore, who is going to look out for her?'

Ms Lynn added: 'She was really bubbly, she loved going out for meals with her friends. She used to take pride in herself, she always looked nice.

'I miss everything about her, doing things together, running in and out of the house how she does, everything, cheekiness, she's just so funny, so kind. I miss her all together I'm just scared I won't get my Angel back.

'I think she might know me when I try and get her to give me a kiss, if I put my cheek out, she purses her lips but it takes all her energy, it's rare.'
Nicola Sturgeon was facing calls to apologise today for what critics said was an 'unacceptable and tasteless' attempt to use the Ukraine war to justify her push for Scottish independence.

The First Minister used a newspaper column to suggest that the Russian war of aggression against its smaller neighbour highlighted the importance of European Union membership.

Writing in the New Statesman she said that Vladimir Putin's invasion 'cast new light on the realities of Brexit and the particular challenges posed to Scotland and the rest of the UK by being taken out of the world's biggest single market.'

'Indeed, the events of recent weeks have underlined the importance of independent countries cooperating in supranational organisations such as the EU,' she wrote.

'And the Kremlin's senseless invasion, a standing threat to the values embodied by liberal democracies everywhere, has also underscored the need for democratic nations to pursue our domestic politics with as much passion and vigour as ever. This is a time to stand up for, and demonstrate, the power of vital, robust democracies.'

It comes after several SNP figures including Westminster leader Ian Blackford have refused to slow their plans for a new independence vote because of the war.

Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: 'It is unacceptable and tasteless for the First Minister to make any sort of link between the war in Ukraine and Scottish independence.

'It appears there is no issue that is beyond Nicola Sturgeon when it comes to pushing her endless obsession with breaking up the United Kingdom.

The First Minister used a newspaper column to suggest that the Russian war of aggression against its smaller neighbour highlighted the importance of European Union membership.

Writing in the New Statesman she said that Vladimir Putin's invasion (Kyiv pictured above, today) 'cast new light on the realities of Brexit and the particular challenges posed to Scotland and the rest of the UK by being taken out of the world's biggest single market.'

Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: 'It is unacceptable and tasteless for the First Minister to make any sort of link between the war in Ukraine and Scottish independence.

'It is astonishing that pushing the case for another referendum was at the forefront of the First Minister's mind when writing about the truly horrendous situation in Ukraine.

'The language used here by Nicola Sturgeon is wholly inappropriate and she needs to urgently apologise for this piece, given the continued tragic humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Ukraine.'

Earlier this week Mr Blackford said the war in Ukraine should not result in plans for a second Scottish independence referendum being delayed.

He said Putin did not control the timing of a fresh vote on breaking up the United Kingdom amid calls for it to be postponed.

A poll last week for the Scotsman newspaper showed a majority of Scots wanted the SNP's drive to hold a new vote - against the wishes of Westminster - postponed while war rages in eastern Europe.

But speaking on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show at the weekend, Mr Blackford said: 'Is anybody suggesting that Putin should determine the timeline for an independence referendum in Scotland?'

He added: 'We fought an election last year, which the SNP won, we now have an agreement with the Greens, there's a majority for independence.'

The SNP MP fought last year's Scottish Parliament election on a manifesto which included a commitment to holding a second vote on independence.

Last weekend Boris Johnson faced an international and domestic backlash after comparing Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion to the UK's Brexit vote.

Senior Tories and EU officials were among those who criticised the remarks made in a speech to the part faithful at the Conservative Spring Conference in Blackpool.

Addressing the event on Saturday the Prime Minister said it is the 'instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom', with the Brexit vote a 'famous recent example'.
Daewoo Engineering & Construction CEO Baek Jung-wan shakes hands with Iraqi Transport Minister Nasser Hussein Al-Shibli at Grand Hyatt Seoul Hotel in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Daewoo E&C



By Kim Jae-heun



Daewoo Engineering & Construction CEO Baek Jung-wan met with Iraqi Transport Minister Nasser Hussein al-Shibli to explain the current construction status of Al Faw Port in Iraq and promised him its successful completion, the company said, Thursday.



The Iraqi transport minister was invited to Korea for five days by Oceans and Fisheries Minister Moon Seong-hyeok, along with his companions Director General Farhan Muhaisen Ghadeab al-Fartooshi of General Company for Ports of Iraq and Iraqi Chief of Staff of the Naval Force Hameed Resan Allawi Behadili.



"I would like to thank Daewoo E&C for leading the construction of the Iraq port's infrastructure amid a difficult situation in the country. During this visit to Korea, I am happy to receive the know-how of Daewoo and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on their skills of constructing a Korean-style port and managing it. I expect Daewoo to play the role of a total solution provider," al-Shibli said.



The Iraq government has a master plan of investing 53 trillion won to develop Al Faw port in Basra, southern Iraq, into one of the world's top 12 largest ports by 2041. Daewoo E&C has won a total of nine construction projects worth about $3.78 billion in the Al Faw Port project starting with breakwaters in February 2014.



The Iraq government is also seeking cooperation from the Korean government. In particular, it plans to receive the know-how collected from operating Busan Port, an advanced export base here, through the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the local port operation consulting team. Daewoo E&C hope to lead government-level cooperation between the two countries and secure future business opportunities by gaining experience in operating the foreign port in Iraq.



"The visit of key Iraqi officials to Korea will further strengthen the trust and relationship between the Iraqi government and Daewoo E&C. We will actively participate in Iraq's infrastructure projects in the future too," a Daewoo E&C official said.


Donald Trump's lawyer argued before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday that the House Ways and Means Committee's quest for the ex-president's tax returns presented a 'constitutional minefield'

Donald Trump's lawyer on Thursday urged a federal court to block House Democrats from getting his tax returns, insisting lawmakers are seeking the ex-president's financial information for political reasons.

Attorney Cameron Thomas Norris is representing Trump in an appeal of a lower court's December 2021 decision that stated House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) has a right to obtain the returns.

'The key question in these cases is whether the committee has a legitimate legislative purpose,' Norris said, according to The Hill. 'If we didn't plausibly allege a non-legislative purpose here, then no one ever could.'

Conservative jurist David Sentelle, a senior judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals who was first nominated to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, seemed skeptical.

'You're pleading may not carry the ball for you because there may be a legislative actor who has two purposes. You allege they have one. And I'm asking you: why isn't it possible they have two?' Sentelle grilled.

Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson questioned on whether the case should be sent back to a lower court so a legal different framework could be applied -- a move that would further delay resolution of the case.

The committee has been fighting a legal battle to obtain the documents from the Internal Revenue Service since July 2019.

Norris claimed on Thursday that Democrats' real goal was not to investigate the ex-president's finances for legislative purposes but to 'to immediately publicly expose and release President Trumps tax returns.'

That would mean Trump's tax history would finally be publicized -- something he's resisted -- as the 2024 presidential election cycle looms.

The Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee, which includes Chair Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), has been trying to obtain Trump's tax returns from the IRS since July 2019

Trump was the first president in 40 years not to release his tax returns as he aimed to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his family company, the Trump Organization.

A federal law empowers the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to request any persons tax returns from the IRS.

Invoking that statute, the committee sued in to force Trump's Treasury Department to release the tax returns.

House Democrats have said they need Trump's tax returns to see if the IRS is properly auditing presidential returns and to assess whether new legislation is needed.

The Justice Department initially stood by the ex-president's arguments before President Joe Biden took office and his administration reversed course to side with Congress.

Trump is appealing a decision made by District Judge Trevor McFadden, who he appointed. McFadden sided with Congress in its right to obtain Trump's returns and said the ex-president was 'wrong on the law'

When Trump sued to block their release District Judge Trevor McFadden -- a jurist he appointed -- sided with the House committee late last year and ruled the Republican was 'wrong on the law.'

On Thursday Norris reportedly complained that Democrats' request was overbroad in relation to a president's status and presented a 'constitutional minefield.'

He said: 'We want Congress to adequately identify what it's doing with specificity and not use vague and loosely worded explanations.'

The Trump attorney was answering a line of questioning from Barack Obama-appointed Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, who grilled Norris on why the scope of the House Ways and Means Committee's constitutional duties would not involve oversight in addition to legislative work.

Last year the Supreme Court cleared the way for a Manhattan prosecutor to obtain Trump's tax returns from his accounting firm, but that ruling did not directly affect House Democrats' case.

A top attorney who recently resigned from that probe said Trump was 'guilty of numerous felony violations' on Thursday.

He added that it was 'a grave failure of justice' to not hold the ex-president accountable, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by the New York Times.

Mark F. Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor and private attorney, came out of retirement to join the Manhattan District Attorney's Office's criminal probe into Trump and his family business. His work on the probe was pro bono.

He resigned on the same day as Carey R. Dunne, another prominent lawyer leading the investigation.

That inquiry was running parallel to a civil investigation into the former president and Trump real estate empire that's being pursued by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump has on multiple occasions dismissed both probes as politically-motivated 'witch hunts.'
A pair of white teachers have been axed from the classroom over a secretly-recorded rant where one of them was filmed using the f and n-words while scolding students about behavior.

The 9-minute video, posted to Facebook by parent Cheri Allen after her daughter filmed the March 18 rant at Carrithers Middle School, shows a male and female teacher berating a classroom of seventh graders about their language and conduct, while themselves hurling vile slurs.

They are said to have erupted after a student tossed a book across the classroom, although that moment was not caught on camera.

The male teacher can be seen, while the woman remains out of shot.

Both unidentified teachers are now under investigation and have been reassigned to bus compounds, Jefferson County Public Schools spokesperson Carolyn Callahan told The Louisville Courier-Journal.

The nature of their work there remains unclear - including whether they work directly with children.

'I get cussed out 40 times a day, Im tired of this s*** too,' the man says.

'Like what if you all were us, and you had some bad a** little kids come up to you and say F*** you, b****?' he asked the students. 'Or, you get called a n***** or a cracker.'

The pair, both white, curse at the students throughout the clip, and the man uses the N-word at least twice

The teachers are said to have erupted after a student tossed a book across the classroom, although that moment was not caught on camera

'Dont turn around like its something new, its not - I get called a n***** every day,' he told the students, who seemed to express shock.

'Multiple times a day, with the hard R, too. You can tell your parents that, too. I am using it in context because thats the s*** that comes out of your alls mouths.'

At another point, he tells the students, 'If you want to act like a hot mess, do it at home. Do it in the streets. Not here.'

The female teacher told the students, some of whom were black, that she was tired of the 'excuse' that race plays a factor in how police officers treat people.

She was asking the students what would happen if they 'acted the way that some of your classmates act if they were stopped by the police.'

'Do you think a cop will be like "no problem, well give you another chance, go home to mommy"? No, theyll have you down on the ground, no matter what color you are,' she said.

'So lets not even use that as an excuse. Im tired about that. I dont care if youre yellow, purple, red, white, black, brown, tan. It has to do with your actions. Being a human is colorblind.'

'You don't get to group my child in with others and talk derogatory or belittle then because your day isn't going well,' Allen captioned the video. 'You as an educator, you chose this profession, so you need to figure out a better method of use a more professional vocabulary, but you don't get to introduce my child to inappropriate behavior and vulgarity'

The day after the incident, the school's principal sent an email to parents (pictured)

'Youve got to learn to filter your mouth - you cant just pop off everything that comes into your brain. In real life, its going to get you in trouble where there are for-real consequences.'

She also said she was tired of hearing the 'excuse' that students are misbehaving because of 'COVID and trauma.'

'No, you're all human beings, you know how to act.'

'I'm all for being nice and having fun but when you all starting treating me like s***, it's going to be the same way.'

DailyMail.com has contacted two people named as the teachers by parents online. The school district has not confirmed their identifies.

The Journal reviewed a video of the events preceding the posted video, and said that the tirade was spurred on by a student throwing a book in class.

The teachers appear to know they are being recorded, with the male teacher saying 'If you're recording me, I don't care because I'm tired of it.'

There are approximately 615 students enrolled at Carrithers Middle School this year, according to district data - 37 percent are black, 38 percent are white, 18 percent are Hispanic and 14 percent fall into another category

There are approximately 615 students enrolled at Carrithers Middle School this year, according to district data - 37 percent are black, 38 percent are white, 18 percent are Hispanic and 14 percent fall into another category.

Since the video was posted, it has been viewed more than 7,500 times.

'You don't get to group my child in with others and talk derogatory or belittle then because your day isn't going well,' Allen captioned the video. 'You as an educator, you chose this profession, so you need to figure out a better method of use a more professional vocabulary, but you don't get to introduce my child to inappropriate behavior and vulgarity.'

'My heart was broken because she hasnt experienced that level of aggression from no one or had anyone talk directly to her in that manner,' Allen told the Courier-Journal.

'It's wrong she was exposed to this from educators who she is supposed to trust and confide in when I'm not around.'

Allen also told the outlet that she thought the male teacher was 'indirectly calling [the students] N-words because the boy who caused the disruption was a black child.'

The day after the incident, the school's principal sent an email to parents:

'It came to our attention that an audio recording has surfaced involving two teachers at our school,' Principal Denise Franklin-Williams wrote.

'Its contents include teachers using inappropriate language and racially insensitive language. We are taking this matter seriously. I want to assure you that we will be reviewing this matter, and we will be following JCPS policies and procedures in that process.'
The US Air Force has sent it's 'Doomsday' plane to Europe as part of a fleet of jets to support President Joe Biden's four-day mission to bolster unity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The E4-B Nightwatch is designed to be a command and control centre in the event of nuclear war.

The US keeps at least one of the fleet of four on permanent standby for immediate launch in the event of a nuclear conflict.

The E4-B Nightwatch flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk from Edwards Air Force Base yesterday ahead of President Joe Biden's visit to Brussels to meet the leaders of NATO, the G7 and the European Council of Ministers

President Biden flew to Europe on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion to Ukraine to discuss with fellow world leaders the further measures necessary to counter Putin's aggression

Earlier this week, a senior Kremlin official warned that Moscow reserved the right to use nuclear weapons if there was an 'existential threat' against the country.

One of the jets - which are based on a Boeing 747 and first entered service in the 1980s - flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk yesterday, having refuelled midair while crossing the Atlantic.

The aircraft are designed to survive the electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear detonation and maintain contact with US military units across the globe to respond to a hostile attack.

The jets, which have been upgraded since their first deployment are able to pass orders from the president to US nuclear submarines and the country's ICBM silos.

As a result, they have been described as the 'Flying Pentagon'.

The doomsday jets look similar to the presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One - although the E4-B - contains highly specialised monitoring and communications equipment.

Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN that nuclear weapons could be used if there was 'an existential threat for our country'.

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin later warned: 'Russia is capable of anything.

'They don't respect any rules. They don't respect any international laws that they are actually committed to.'

NATO partners have agreed to supply Ukraine with equipment to protect against possible chemical attack.

General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels: 'This could include detection equipment, protection and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management.'

Biden is to visit Poland on Friday, where the energy and refugee issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Earlier today, NATO promised Kyiv new military support and assigned more troops to the alliance's eastern flank while London and Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow during a trio of summits on Thursday aimed at showing Western unity against Russia's war in Ukraine.

NATO leaders meeting in Brussels agreed to help Ukraine protect itself against any chemical, biological or nuclear attacks, and a U.S. official said Washington and allies were also working to provide Kyiv with anti-ship missiles.

President Biden, speaking after the meeting, said: 'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined.

'We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.'
Detectives have made a fresh appeal for information about a 40-year-old unsolved murder dubbed the 'nude in the nettles.'

Police found a woman's badly decomposed naked body in nettle bushes in August 1981 after receiving a tip-off from a well-spoken anonymous caller.

He said he could not be named for national security reasons, but told a constable they could find her 'among the willow herbs' at Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire.

A search team during the initial investigation. Detectives have made a fresh appeal for information about a 40-year-old unsolved murder dubbed the 'nude in the nettles.'

Experts concluded she was probably a married mother of two or three children, 5ft 4in, slim and aged about 40.

Now, a cold case investigation team, led by retired detective Adam Harland, are appealing to the public for new leads.

Mr Harland said: "This has been one of the most enduring mysteries I've worked on.

"It's highly unusual for someone who has died in these circumstances to remain unidentified for decades.

"Despite the passage of time, nobody deserves to be simply forgotten about - this was someone's mother. And it's likely she had friends who cared about her."

A wax model of the woman's face was sculpted in the 1980s, based on skeletal evidence, and investigators still believe this is a reasonably accurate depiction. Detectives have made a fresh appeal for information about a 40-year-old unsolved murder dubbed the 'nude in the nettles.'

It is believed she had been buried there since 1979 as her bones were found on top of a yoghurt pot dated 6 September that year.

For the first time ever in a police investigation, a wax model of her face was sculpted in the 1980s, based on skeletal evidence, to help try to identify the woman.

Investigators still believe this is a reasonably accurate depiction.

Police also found a black evening gown, bra and pants hanging from a tree about half a mile from where the body had been dumped.

But they could find no evidence could ever link the two findings together.

She wore size-four shoes with her toe-nails painted pink and had distinguishing features, including a mild upper spine malformation that could have made her hold her head at an unusual angle.

Police said she had several teeth missing indicating she was a heavy smoker and regular drinker.

Mr Harland added: 'Local knowledge may offer up this information. People's lives and allegiances move on, and time can tease out information that has been closely guarded in the past.

'Another possibility is someone who's researched their family tree might have found a gap, or discovered a relative who disappeared from official records around 1979 to 1981 without any clear explanation.'

The woman's body was buried in an unnamed grave in Malton since September 1983.

Her remains were exhumed in 2012 due to scientific advances in DNA evidence.

Mr Harland added: 'I'd rather 200 names were put to us and 199 were wrong than nothing to work from at all. That one piece of information could be all we need now to solve a decades-old mystery.'
President Joe Biden said new sanctions on Russia were about 'increasing the pain' on Russian President Vladimir Putin  whom he termed a 'brute' during a tense exchange with a reporter at a press conference in Brussels Thursday.

He also said that new sanctions on Russia, which have been increasing by the day, are here to stay, but insisted they were never meant to 'deter' Putin.

'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified,' Biden said when asked by a reporter who said the threat of sanctions had failed to deter Putin from invading Ukraine.

'Let's get one thing straight,' Biden said, when asked why he thinks Putin would change course. The reporter also told him that 'deterrence didn't work'  in a reference to an administration pressure campaign as Putin assembled tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border before his invasion.

'I did not say that sanctions would in fact deter him. Sanctions never deter,' Biden lectured. 'You keep talking about that.'

'The maintenance of sanctions, increasing the pain  is to be sure that after a month we will sustain what were doing  not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year,' he continued.

'You're playing a game with me,' Biden told a reporter who pressed him on Russia policy.

Biden's fierce statement that sanctions weren't meant to 'deter' was directly contradicted by comments Vice President Kamala Harris made on Feb. 20th, right before the invasion.

'The purpose of the sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence,' Harris said.

During the speech, before his testy back and forth with the reporter, Biden also said:

He would respond 'in kind' if Putin was to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Backed kicking Russia out of the G20.

Warned the global food shortage because of the invasion will be 'real'.

Said European leaders think he is 'up for the job' and would feel 'fortunate' if he were to run against Trump again in 2024.

Announced $1billion in additional aid to Ukraine and said the U.S. would welcome 300,000 Ukrainian refugees.

President Joe Biden tangled with a reporter as he defended U.S. and allied sanctions on Russia, but said sanctions were 'never' meant to deter Putin

Biden's bristling over sanctions came on a day when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for escalating pressure each week until Putin halts his invasion, while pleading with NATO allies to provide tanks and planes to help his country fight Russia's relentless bombing of Ukrainian cities and towns.

The U.S. and allies are under pressure to do everything they can to try to push Putin for his invasion amid an escalating toll on the Ukrainian people, with millions of refugees fleeing their homeland. But western leaders including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated their concerns about escalating a wider war, and said allies would not be sending their own troops to protect Ukraine.

Biden's comments on the goal and limitations of economic pressure also came after allies announced new sanctions on more than 300 members of the Russian Duma plus other Russian elites and companies in an effort to further punish Russia for its invasion.

He called for the 'maintenance of sanctions,' which have gone after Russian energy, oligarchs, banking, and people close to Putin and political leaders.

'That's what will stop him,' Biden said.

Biden spoke about the role of sanctions as the U.S. announced new measures against more than 300 members of the Russian Duma, plus measures meant to avoid evasion

White House officials say the new sanctions, which began a month ago after Russia's invasion, are crippling Russia's economy and tanking the ruble, with Russia even dropping out of the top 20 nations by Gross Domestic Product.

Biden snapped at CBS News reporter Christina Ruffini, who followed up her initial question on sanctions by asking: 'Do you believe the actions taken today will have an impact on making Russia change course in Ukraine?'

'That's not what I said. You're playing a game with me,' he responded.

'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified. And the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is, and all the innocent people's lives are being lost and ruined and what's going on. That's the important thing.'

'But, look, if you're Putin, and you think that Europe is going to crack in a month, six weeks, or two months, why not? They can take anything for another month.'

He called for staying 'fully, totally, thoroughly united.'

Biden announces more military aid to Ukraine and says he would back kicking Russia out of the G20

Biden said new military aid was now flowing to Ukraine to boost its effort to repel Russia's invasion  and said he favors kicking Russia out of the G20 in punishment for its 'brutal' actions.

'On the later point my answer is yes,' Biden said when asked whether Russia should be able to attend the next meeting of the world's leading economies when the G20 meets next in Indonesia in light its invasion. Then he hedged: 'That depends on the G20.'

Biden said the issue was 'raised today,' when leaders also met on boosting sanctions on Russia and aiding Ukraine.

If Russia does remain, 'We should in my view ask to have both Ukraine be able to attend the meetings as well,' Biden said.

Biden got asked how the U.S. would respond if Putin uses chemical weapons, as U.S. officials have warned he may be preparing to do.

'We would respond if he uses it,' Biden said. 'The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.'

Coming back at the issue later in his press conference, Biden said, 'It would trigger response in kind.'

'Whether or not - you're asking whether NATO would cross? We'd make that decision at the time,' he continued.

Putin was banking on NATO being split. It was clear to me he didnt think we could sustain this cohesion.

Putin is getting exactly the opposite of what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.

Biden warns food shortages are 'going to be real' across the globe because of Putin invading the world's 'breadbasket' Ukraine

Biden on Thursday said there will be food shortages around the globe because of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

'It's going to be real,' he said. 'Because both Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat, for example.'

Food security, along with general humanitarian assistance, was one of the main topics of conversation in Biden's trifecta of emergency meetings with NATO leaders, the European Union, and the G7. The summits were called to deal with the invasion of the Ukraine.

'We are in the process of working out with our European friends, what it would be what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages. We also talked about a significant major US investment among others in terms of providing for the need for humanitarian assistance, including food as we move forward,' he said.

Ukraine is a heavily agricultural country with winter wheat, spring barley, and corn as some of its main crops.

The United States, through the Feed the Future initiative, will provide over $11 billion over the next five years to address food security threats and malnutrition across the globe - with programming in many of the countries vulnerable to increases in food and fertilizer prices.

A senior administration told reporters in a briefing on Thursday that Russia's invasion 'jeopardizes global food security, particularly for vulnerable populations in the Middle East and Africa' as farms are being destroyed.

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) warned on Thursday the war in Ukraine is already resulting in rising food prices and a shortage of staple crops in parts of central Asia, the Middle East and north Africa.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has cut shipments from the two countries, which jointly account for around 25% of world wheat exports and 16% of world corn exports, leading to surging prices for the grains on international markets.

Russia is also one of the world's largest suppliers of fertiliser - prices of which had already spiked last year, contributing to a 30% increase in world food prices and a related increase in global hunger levels.

Biden and allies confirm sanctions on 300 members of Russia's puppet parliament the Duma and 40 defense firms

U.S. and European announced a new round of sanctions on Thursday meant to dramatically widen the circle of pain among Russian officials as the country's invasion of Ukraine hit its first month.

U.S. sanctions will hit 300 members of the Russian state Duma, its lower house, amid Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's call for allies to sanction Russian functionaries and others who enable Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Other sanctions will hit dozens of other Russian elites.

Forty Russian defense companies would also come under sanction, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

The new pressure comes as members of the G7 met in Brussels to try to reach agreement on new levers to try to end Russia's brutal war on Ukraine.

The pressure tactics were belied by members of the group, who smiled warmly as they gathered for a 'family photo,' with Biden smiling during a chat with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after holding a 'pull-aside' meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Those moves will 'align and strengthen our sanctions in close coordination in partnership' with the European allies and G7 group of industrialized nations,' said the administration.

A new initiative also will target countries or institutions that evade existing sanctions, as Russia seeks creative ways to avoid the squeeze of sanctions that have tanked Russia's economy and slammed the ruble.

The joint action comes days after Biden spoke about a 'new world order' during remarks to the Business Roundtable in Washington. The phrase is loaded with past historical associations that conspiracy theorists have also grabbed onto to raise fears about global conspiracies.

'The G7and the EU will also continue to blunt the Central Bank of Russia's ability to deploy international reserves by making clear that any transaction involving gold related to the Central Bank of Russia is prohibited,' said a senior administration.

As of last June, gold made up 20 per cent of the reserves of Russia's Central Bank.

'And our purpose now is to fully disarm its war-chest by making sure its foreign reserves serve no purpose in propping up the Russian currency,' the official said.

'Doomsday' Boeing 747 dubbed 'Flying Pentagon' that was designed in 70s for US military leaders in case of nuclear war is deployed to England during Biden's NATO summit in Brussels The US Air Force has sent it's 'Doomsday' plane to Europe as part of a fleet of jets to support President Joe Biden's four-day mission to bolster unity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The E4-B Nightwatch is designed to be a command and control centre in the event of nuclear war. The US keeps at least one of the fleet of four on permanent standby for immediate launch in the event of a nuclear conflict. The E4-B Nightwatch flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk from Edwards Air Force Base yesterday ahead of President Joe Biden's visit to Brussels to meet the leaders of NATO, the G7 and the European Council of Ministers Earlier this week, a senior Kremlin official warned that Moscow reserved the right to use nuclear weapons if there was an 'existential threat' against the country. One of the jets - which are based on a Boeing 747 and first entered service in the 1980s - flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk yesterday, having refuelled midair while crossing the Atlantic. The aircraft are designed to survive the electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear detonation and maintain contact with US military units across the globe to respond to a hostile attack. The jets, which have been upgraded since their first deployment are able to pass orders from the president to US nuclear submarines and the country's ICBM silos. As a result, they have been described as the 'Flying Pentagon'. The doomsday jets look similar to the presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One - although the E4-B - contains highly specialised monitoring and communications equipment. Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN that nuclear weapons could be used if there was 'an existential threat for our country'. Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin later warned: 'Russia is capable of anything. 'They don't respect any rules. They don't respect any international laws that they are actually committed to.' Advertisement

Members of the G7 huddled in Brussels as they sought new ways to pressure Russia with economic sanctions

New U.S. and European sanctions are targeting 300 members of Russia's State Duma

President Joe Biden (L) and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The group wants to counter efforts to evade new sanctions on Russia

Biden, French President Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson huddle as they arrive at the NATO summit

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (l), US President Joe Biden (C), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) pose during the G7 summit in Brussels on March 24, 2022. The economic powers are coordinating sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among the NATO leaders meeting in Brussels

President Joe Biden (R) fist bumps with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as they walk from a meeting to the G7 family photo at NATO Headquarters. The two men met on the sidelines of Thursday's meetings, and the White House issued a statement on North Korea's ballistic missile launch Thursday

Sanctions have tanked the ruble and driven down Russia's economy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been buying up gold in recent years, after facing numerous rounds of sanctions for U.S. election interference and Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

The country holds gold reserve worth between $100 billion and $240 billion, the administration estimates.

For its anti-evasion procedures, allies say they are 'closing down avenues for example for the Russian Central Bank to prop up the ruble,' as well as growing a coalition to deny cutting-edge technology to Russia, and 'preventing Russia from designating crony banks to do its business abroad,' said the official.

According to the administration, the sanctions have already knocked Russia off one pedestal.

'It's now looking at an economy half of the size that it was before this invasion. So it would fall out of the top 20 economies by ranking.'

Biden met with Kishida, who took office in September 2021, on the sidelines of the G7. The two men could be seen chatting as they walked toward a 'family photo' gathering.

'The two Leaders discussed DPRKs launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which both Leaders strongly condemned, stressed the need for diplomacy, and agreed to continue working together to hold the DPRK accountable,' according to a White House official. 'President Biden conveyed to Prime Minister Kishida our rock solid commitment to the security of Japan and the Republic of Korea, thanked Prime Minister Kishida for Japans robust response to Putins war of choice in Ukraine, and agreed on the need for continued unity going forward.'

The administration also announced an additional $1 billion in new funds for humanitarian assistance for those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

According to an administration fact sheet, the funds are for food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other assistance. The administration announced an additional $320 million in democracy and human rights funding for Ukraine and neighboring countries.
Commons Leader Mark Spencer has slammed the University of Nottingham for 'endorsing cancel culture' after it withdrew the offer of an honorary degree to the author of a controversial report on race disparity.

Of the decision, the minister said 'those sorts of actions prevent ethnic minorities from participating in public life'.

Dr Tony Sewell, chairman of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (Cred), was reportedly due to receive the honour.

But the institution changed its decision, citing its policy against awarding honorary degrees to subjects of 'political controversy'.

Commons Leader Mark Spencer (pictured arriving at Downing Street on Wednesday) has slammed Nottingham university for 'endorsing cancel culture' after it withdrew the offer of an honorary degree to the author of a controversial report on race disparity

The commission's report, published last year, said Britain is no longer a country where the 'system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities', while Dr Sewell said it found no evidence of 'institutional racism'.

The report's findings have proved controversial, with Labour saying it 'completely failed to identify or tackle the root causes of racial disparities'.

Speaking in the House of Commons at a session of business questions, Conservative MP for East Surrey, Claire Coutinho, said: 'The University of Nottingham recently decided to withdraw the honorary degree of Dr Tony Sewell, who spent decades of his career combatting racial inequality in this country, because they found his recent report on race - which was thoughtful, detailed and rooted in evidence and data - too controversial.

'Would my right honourable friend agree with me that free speech and the free exchange of ideas is the foundation of social progress in this country, and rather than penalise contributors to this important debate, universities should be encouraging them?'

Responding, Mr Spencer thanked Dr Sewell for his 'dedication to public service'.

He said: '(Ms Coutinho's) right to raise the issue. I was disappointed to see Nottingham University endorsing cancel culture, and those sorts of actions prevent ethnic minorities from participating in public life.'

The Cred was commissioned in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dr Tony Sewell, (pictured) chairman of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (Cred), was reportedly due to receive the honour. But the institution changed its decision, citing its policy against awarding honorary degrees to subjects of 'political controversy'

It later defended its report, saying: 'We have never said that racism does not exist in society or in institutions.

'We say the contrary: racism is real and we must do more to tackle it.'

The University of Nottingham defended the decision not to award the honorary degree because its criteria for the honours preclude it from awarding them to 'figures who become the subject of political controversy so that a day of celebration for our graduates does not attract such controversy', the BBC reported.

Mr Spencer's comments came after more than 40 Tory MPs wrote to the universitys vice-chancellor, Professor Shearer West, to demand a U-turn.

They said the extreme, hasty and regrettable decision was all the worse because Nottingham had given honorary degrees to Chinese diplomats who denied Uighur genocide.

And they argued that giving Dr Sewell, who was appointed chairman of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities by Boris Johnson in 2020, the honour would help to restore the good name of what was once a well-regarded institution.

The University of Nottingham (pictured, file photo) defended the decision not to award the honorary degree because its criteria for the honours preclude it from awarding them to 'figures who become the subject of political controversy so that a day of celebration for our graduates does not attract such controversy', the BBC reported

The letter was signed by 43 MPs  including Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Tory Common Sense group, and Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee  and five lords.

It stated: We are extremely alarmed at the decision of your university to withdraw Dr Sewells offer of an honorary degree, simply because he earned the ire of a few frustrated ideologues for his widely-welcomed work on the Governments Race and Ethnic Disparities Report.

The letter added: He is a distinguished civic champion for the life chances of some of Britains least well-off children.

The MPs said the universitys explanation that the award had been withdrawn because he had become the subject of political controversy was plainly absurd.

Other recipients of honorary degrees from the university include the former Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, who dismissed Uighur re-education internment camps as fake news, and Najib Razak, the ex-Malaysian PM who was jailed for 12 years for embezzlement.

Last week, Nottingham University said: These awards predate the introduction of criteria to preclude the award of honorary degrees to figures who have been the subject of political controversy.
President Joe Biden on Thursday emphasized he has the backing of Western allies ahead of the next presidential election and said he would be 'fortunate' to run against Donald Trump again in 2024.

'I don't think you'll find any European leader who thinks that I am not up to the job. And I mean that sincerely,' Biden said at a press conference where he was asked about his political future.

But, he noted, even European allies had doubts that he would the leader there were dealing with after the next presidential election.

Biden recounded how he told the leaders at G7 at his meeting earlier in the day that 'America is back.' And, he noted, one of his foreign counterparts replied to him: 'For how long for how long?'

President Joe Biden emphasized he has the backing of Western allies ahead of the next presidential election

Biden said he would be 'fortunate' to run against Donald Trump again

Trump has not said if he will make another presidential bid but has sought to play a kingmaker role in the 2022 midterm election, picking sides in Republican primaries and holding campaign-style rallies.

European allies have been skeptical about the stability of the American political system since Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2020. Trump took an isolationist style when it came to foreign policy and rallied against NATO allies, complaining they didn't do pay their fare share.

Biden, who beat Trump by four percentage points in the 2020 election popular vote, said he'd be 'fortunate' to face him again.

'The next election I'd be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me,' he said after he spent the day meeting with the leaders of NATO and the G7.

But, he noted, his current focus was on the upcoming midterm election, where Democrats are try to keep control of the House and Senate.

Later, in a meeting with new European Union President Charles Michel, Biden made another election joke.

'I came to congratulate a man who just got reelected without opposition. I dream about that someday,' he said.

At his press conference, Biden also said new sanctions on Russia were about 'increasing the pain' on Russian President Vladimir Putin  whom he termed a 'brute' during a tense exchange with a reporter at a press conference in Brussels Thursday.

He also said that new sanctions on Russia, which have been increasing by the day, are here to stay.

'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified,' Biden said when asked by a reporter who said the threat of sanctions had failed to deter Putin from invading Ukraine.

'Let's get one thing straight,' Biden said, when asked why he thinks Putin would change course.

'I did not say that sanctions would in fact deter him. Sanctions never deter,' Biden lectured. 'You keep talking about that.'

'The maintenance of sanctions, increasing the pain  is to be sure that after a month we will sustain what were doing  not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year,' he continued.

'You're playing a game with me,' Biden told a reporter who pressed him on Russia policy.

It came on a day when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for escalating pressure each week until Putin halts his invasion, while pleading with NATO allies to provide tanks and planes to help his country fight Russia's relentless bombing of Ukrainian cities and towns.

His comments on the goal and limitations of sanctions came after allies announced new sanctions on more than 300 members of the Russian Duma plus other Russian elites and companies in an effort to further punish Russia for its invasion.

He called for the 'maintenance of sanctions,' which have gone after Russian energy, oligarchs, banking, and people close to Putin and political leaders.

'That's what will stop him,' Biden said.

President Joe Biden called for maintaining sanctions on Russia and 'increasing the pain' in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Russia. He said they would remain in place for a year, as allies push to try to stop Putin's war against his neighbor

White House officials say the new sanctions, which began a month ago after Russia's invasion, are crippling Russia's economy and tanking the ruble.

Biden snapped at CBS News reporter Christina Ruffini, who followed up her initial question on sanctions by asking: 'Do you believe the actions taken today will have an impact on making Russia change course in Ukraine?'

'That's not what I said. You're playing a game with me,' he responded.

'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified. And the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is, and all the innocent people's lives are being lost and ruined and what's going on. That's the important thing.'

'That's not what I said. You're playing a game with me,' Biden told a reporter who asked him if he thought new sanctions would have an impact on Russia

'But, look, if you're Putin, and you think that Europe is going to crack in a month, six weeks, or two months, why not? They can take anything for another month.'

He called for staying 'fully, totally, thoroughly united.'

Biden said new military aid was now flowing to Ukraine to boost its effort to repel Russia's invasion  and said he favors kicking Russia out of the G20 in punishment for its 'brutal' actions.

'On the later point my answer is yes,' Biden said when asked whether Russia should be able to attend the next meeting of the world's leading economies when the G20 meets next in Indonesia in light its invasion. Then he hedged: 'That depends on the G20.'

Biden said the issue was 'raised today,' when leaders also met on boosting sanctions on Russia and aiding Ukraine.

If Russia does remain, 'We should in my view ask to have both Ukraine be able to attend the meetings as well,' Biden said.

Biden got asked how the U.S. would respond if Putin uses chemical weapons, as U.S. officials have warned he may be preparing to do.

'We would respond if he uses it,' Biden said. 'The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.'

Coming back at the issue later in his press conference, Biden said, 'It would trigger response in kind.'

'Whether or not - you're asking whether NATO would cross? We'd make that decision at the time,' he continued.

Putin was banking on NATO being split. It was clear to me he didnt think we could sustain this cohesion.

Putin is getting exactly the opp of what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine

U.S. and European announced a new round of sanctions on Thursday meant to dramatically widen the circle of pain among Russian officials as the country's invasion of Ukraine hit its first month.

U.S. sanctions will hit 300 members of the Russian state Duma, its lower house, amid Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's call for allies to sanction Russian functionaries and others who enable Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Other sanctions will hit dozens of other Russian elites.

Forty Russian defense companies would also come under sanction, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

The new pressure comes as members of the G7 met in Brussels to try to reach agreement on new levers to try to end Russia's brutal war on Ukraine.

The pressure tactics were belied by members of the group, who smiled warmly as they gathered for a 'family photo,' with Biden smiling during a chat with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after holding a 'pull-aside' meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Those moves will 'align and strengthen our sanctions in close coordination in partnership' with the European allies and G7 group of industrialized nations,' said the administration.

A new initiative also will target countries or institutions that evade existing sanctions, as Russia seeks creative ways to avoid the squeeze of sanctions that have tanked Russia's economy and slammed the ruble.

The joint action comes days after Biden spoke about a 'new world order' during remarks to the Business Roundtable in Washington. The phrase is loaded with past historical associations that conspiracy theorists have also grabbed onto to raise fears about global conspiracies.

Members of the G7 huddled in Brussels as they sought new ways to pressure Russia with economic sanctions

New U.S. and European sanctions are targeting 300 members of Russia's State Duma

President Joe Biden (L) and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The group wants to counter efforts to evade new sanctions on Russia

'The G7and the EU will also continue to blunt the Central Bank of Russia's ability to deploy international reserves by making clear that any transaction involving gold related to the Central Bank of Russia is prohibited,' said a senior administration.

As of last June, gold made up 20 per cent of the reserves of Russia's Central Bank.

'And our purpose now is to fully disarm its war-chest by making sure its foreign reserves serve no purpose in propping up the Russian currency,' the official said.

Biden, French President Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson huddle as they arrive at the NATO summit

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (l), US President Joe Biden (C), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) pose during the G7 summit in Brussels on March 24, 2022. The economic powers are coordinating sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among the NATO leaders meeting in Brussels

President Joe Biden (R) fist bumps with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as they walk from a meeting to the G7 family photo at NATO Headquarters. The two men met on the sidelines of Thursday's meetings, and the White House issued a statement on North Korea's ballistic missile launch Thursday

Gold makes up 20 per cent of the reserves of Russia's central bank

Sanctions have tanked the ruble and driven down Russia's economy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been buying up gold in recent years, after facing numerous rounds of sanctions for U.S. election interference and Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

The country holds gold reserve worth between $100 billion and $240 billion, the administration estimates.

For its anti-evasion procedures, allies say they are 'closing down avenues for example for the Russian Central Bank to prop up the ruble,' as well as growing a coalition to deny cutting-edge technology to Russia, and 'preventing Russia from designating crony banks to do its business abroad,' said the official.

According to the administration, the sanctions have already knocked Russia off one pedestal.

'It's now looking at an economy half of the size that it was before this invasion. So it would fall out of the top 20 economies by ranking.'

Biden met with Kishida, who took office in September 2021, on the sidelines of the G7. The two men could be seen chatting as they walked toward a 'family photo' gathering.

'The two Leaders discussed DPRKs launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which both Leaders strongly condemned, stressed the need for diplomacy, and agreed to continue working together to hold the DPRK accountable,' according to a White House official. 'President Biden conveyed to Prime Minister Kishida our rock solid commitment to the security of Japan and the Republic of Korea, thanked Prime Minister Kishida for Japans robust response to Putins war of choice in Ukraine, and agreed on the need for continued unity going forward.'

The administration also announced an additional $1 billion in new funds for humanitarian assistance for those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

According to an administration fact sheet, the funds are for food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other assistance. The administration announced an additional $320 million in democracy and human rights funding for Ukraine and neighboring countries.
Donald Trump on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and a hit list of his favorite targets, alleging they tried to rig the 2016 U.S. presidential election by tying his campaign to Russia.

Among the names are Christopher Steele, a former British spy who assembled a dossier of alleged links between Trump and Russia, James Comey, the then director of the FBI who investigated possible connections, and the Democratic National Committee.

'In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot  one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nations democracy,' reads the complaint.

'Acting in concert, the defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty.

'The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme  falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources  are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.'

Trump, who beat Democratic nominee Clinton in the 2016 election, alleges racketeering, the theft of trade secrets, and 'conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood,' among other crimes.

The suit demands an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

Former President Donald Trump launched a lawsuit on Thursday accusing Hillary Clinton, former British spy Christopher Steele, and indicted lawyer Michael Sussmann - among others - of conspiring against him to spread a false claim that his campaign was linked to Moscow

Also named in the case were former FBI Director James Comey, as well as agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, whose messages were seized on by Trump supporters to claim a plot

Trump's suit alleged that 'the defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty'

A federal investigation into Trump campaign's ties with Russia triggered a string of convictions when some of his associates were found to have lied about meeting with Russian officials.

And a 966-page report issued by a Republican-led U.S. Senate committee in August 2020 detailed how Russia used Trump ally Paul Manafort and the WikiLeaks website to try to power Trump to victory in the 2016 election.

But the episode has been used by Trump ever since to complain he was the victim of a witch hunt, providing with a cast of villains that have fuelled his rally addresses ever since.

Among the names is Jake Sullivan, who is now President Joe Biden's national security adviser. As well as FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, whose text messages were seized on by Trump and his supporter as evidence of a plot, Clinton's 2016 campaign manager Robbie Mook, and Charles Dolan, a PR consultant, who was connected to Steele's dossier.

The 108-page complaint turns his rhetoric into a lawsuit. It accuses Clinton and her allies of trying to create and leak false reports about ties between his campaign and Moscow.

Others named are President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Clinton's 2016 campaign manager Robbie Mook, and spin doctor Charles Dolan

Clinton lost the 2016 election to Trump, but the case alleges that it was just the start of attempts by her supporters to undermine him and his administration

When those reports were proved false, Clinton's allies took another course of action.

'On a separate front, [indicted lawyer Michael] Sussmann would commission the information technology company, Neustar, to brazenly hack servers from highly-sensitive locations  including Donald J. Trumps private residence, Trump Tower, and, most shockingly, the White House  to uncover proprietary data that could then be manipulated to give the impression that Trump was engaged in illegitimate business with a Russian bank, Alfa Bank,' alleges the complaint.

Those hacking allegations triggered a storm in conservative media circles earlier this year.

In a February court filing, John Durham, the special counsel appointed to probe the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, alleged that a tech executive 'exploited' access to White House data to locate damning information about Trump.

The former president seized on the document to claim he was right to say that he had been hacked during the 2016 election.

But factcheckers were quick to point out that Trump was not in the White House at the time and that the data in question were often passed to third parties in order to hunt down for fraudsters of bad actors.

Even so, the details have provided the former president with ammunition for his rally appearances and TV interviews, even as allies have quietly tried to nudge him away from trotting out historical grievances.

The case was brought by Florida attorney Peter Ticktin, center, who was Trump's platoon sergeant when they both attended New York Military Academy

The case, filed on Thursday, offers a who's who of grievances dating back to the 2016 election

The legal team who prepared the suit included a new name in the Trump team. Peter Ticktin, a courtroom litigator based an hour down the Florida coast from Mar-a-Lago, was Trump's platoon sergeant when they both attended New York Military Academy.

The suit, lodged in the Southern District of Florida, claims that the defendants efforts began in 2016 but continued after their defeat in an effort to discredit the Trump administration.

'In short, the defendants, blinded by political ambition, orchestrated a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hopes of destroying his life, his political career and rigging the 2016 presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton,' reads the complaint.

'When their gambit failed, and Donald J. Trump was elected, the Defendants efforts continued unabated, merely shifting their focus to undermining his presidential administration.'

Trump has faced a string of legal woes since leaving office.

A House committee is investigating the Jan. 6 violence, when Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol last year.

And his businesses have been under scrutiny in both civil and criminal investigations in New York.
A doctor has appeared in court to deny sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel room.

Jamie Rushton, 43, is charged with sexual assault and voyeurism against the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at The Runnymeade on Thames Hotel in Egham, Surrey, on June 25, 2017.

The doctor, of Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, is accused of secretly recording her doing a private act with the intention of obtaining sexual gratification without consent.

He is also accused of intentionally touching the woman, who is over 16, without consent.

Dr Rushton appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court wearing a navy blue shirt and glasses and confirmed his name, address and date of birth.

He pleaded not guilty to both charges and was granted unconditional bail.

Dr Jamie Rushton, 43, is pictured leaving Highbury Magistrates Court in North London today

The alleged attack took place at the Runnymeade on Thames Hotel in Egham, Surrey, on June 25, 2017

Defence lawyer, Lewis Power, QC did not make any requests on behalf of the defendant.

Dr Rushton is next due to appear at Wood Green Crown Court on April 25.

Chair of the Magistrates, Mrs Gibbon told the defendant: 'Your next appearance will be at Wood Green Crown Court on April 25 in the morning.

'In the meantime, well release you on unconditional bail where you will be free to go about business.

'If you commit an offence during bail, then it will be treated more severely and could be seen as committing a separate offence which is separately punished.'
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Prince William and Kate have bid a fond farewell to Jamaica on what is possibly the last Royal visit to the island as a Commonwealth realm as their tour to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee heads north to The Bahamas.

Ahead of departing for their final destination, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posted on their official Instagram account: 'What an amazing trip so far! Thank you Belize and Jamaica. Next stop, The Bahamas.'

Kate boarded the plane wearing an emerald dress made by London-based fashion designer Emilia Wickstead and a hummingbird brooch gifted to the Queen during her visit to Jamaica in 2002.

Flags were flown from the cockpit of a Royal Air Force plane while military personnel marched at a departure ceremony for the royal couple at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, on Thursday.

After saying their goodbyes to a group of dignitaries, the Cambridges waved from the top of the plane steps before heading inside the aircraft.

Earlier today, William quoted Bob Marley as he spoke at a military parade in Jamaica on day six of his Caribbean tour with Kate, saying: 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.'

The Duke wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamourous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat.

The couple attended at the inaugural Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on the island nation for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academy's officer training programme.

And William said: 'You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity.

'Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. "You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice". From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors.'

William also quoted the Queen, continuing: 'Good leadership is hard to define, but it's easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject.'

The Duke referred to her address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, in which she said: 'I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.'

Following today's parade, the Duke and Duchess travelled in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen in 1966 and again in 1994.

Later this afternoon, the couple - whose children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are at home in London - will be greeted by Philip Davis, the prime minister of The Bahamas.

William and Kate have been visiting the Caribbean to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, but the trip has faced controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britain's historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an 'appalling atrocity' and a 'stain on our history' during an address last night.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wave goodbye to Jamaica as they depart from the Norman Manley International Airport

Prince William and Kate pictured boarding the plane at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, on Thursday ahead of their flight to The Bahamas

The Duchess of Cambridge boarded the plane wearing an emerald dress made by London-based fashion designer Emilia Wickstead and paired it with a hummingbird brooch gifted to the Queen during her visit to Jamaica in 2002

The Duchess of Cambridge is seen ahead of her departure on an RAF Voyager with Prince William on day six of their tour

The royal couple wave on the steps of the plane as they depart Norman Manley International Airport in Jamaica on Thursday

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are seen walking towards the plane at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, today

Prince William and Kate walk towards a waiting aircraft as they depart Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston

William and Kate are seen leaving the airport in Kingston, Jamaica, and going to The Bahamas on the sixth day of their tour

The Duchess of Cambridge is seen interacting at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica, ahead of her departure to The Bahamas

The Duchess of Cambridge speaks to dignitaries ahead of her departure on RAF Voyager with Prince William on Thursday

The Duchess shakes hands as she and Prince William depart from Norman Manley International Airport on their royal tour

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William are seen departing for The Bahamas at Norman Manley International Airport

Prince William walks with the Chief of Defence Staff Rear Admiral Antoinette Wemyss Gorman as he departs Jamaica today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge climb the steps of the plan as they depart the airport in Jamaica's capital of Kingston

Prince William and Kate stand on the steps at the top of the plane as they prepare to depart the airport in Kingston, Jamaica

The Jamaican flag and the Royal Ensign are flown from the cockpit of a Royal Air Force plane during the departure ceremony

Military personnel are seen lining up for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's departure ceremony in Jamaica on Thursday

Ceremonial guards prepare for a farewell ceremony for Prince William and Kate on the sixth day of their Caribbean tour

Police security are seen ahead of the departure of Prince William and Kate from Norman Manley International Airport

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge tweeted a picture after their departure, captioned: 'Jamaica, it's been a pleasure!'

Prince William and Kate Middleton attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ride in Jamaica a vintage Land Rover used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966 and again in 1994, as they leave a commissioning parade in Kingston on the sixth day of their Caribbean tour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge travel in an open-top Land Rover in Kingston, Jamaica, today for the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel, on what is day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today dazzled in white at a military parade in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge meets a newly commissioned officer as she attends the Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke of Cambridge speaks today at the Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today travelled in Jamaica in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen

The Queen and Prince Philip travel in a similar Range Rover in Jamaica in 1953 as they are greeted by schoolchildren

The duke denounced slavery as 'abhorrent', saying 'it should never have happened' as he addressed the issue following days of protests calling for reparations from the royal family.

William expressed his 'profound sorrow' at the forced transportation of millions of people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America  a trade which British monarchs either supported or profited from during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Speaking during his visit to Jamaica with Kate, he echoed the words of his father the Prince of Wales and went on to acknowledge Jamaica's 'pain'.

The Cambridges' tour of Belize, Jamaica and the forthcoming final leg in The Bahamas has prompted demonstrations and statements calling for an apology from the royal family. The future king did not say sorry, just as his father Charles had not during his trip to witness Barbados become a republic.

But he praised the Windrush generation of Caribbeans who arrived in the UK a few years after the Second World War to help rebuild the nation depleted by six years of conflict.

Prince William at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

Kate Middleton looked glamourous in a white dress and hat at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

The Duchess of Cambridge dazzled in all white at a Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Jamaica's prime minister Andrew Holness appeared to suggest his country may be the next country to break away from the monarchy, telling the Cambridges it was 'moving on' and intended to 'fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country'.

The Independent has reported the Jamaican government has already begun the process to transition to a republic, with an official appointed to oversee the work.

Speaking during a dinner hosted by the Queen's representative in Jamaica, Governor General Sir Patrick Linton Allen, the duke said: 'Anniversaries are also a moment for reflection, particularly this week with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.'

Commenting on the sentiment expressed by Charles when he attended the Barbados ceremony that saw it become a republic in November, he said: 'I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.'

'I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened.

'While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude. The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit.

Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

Prince William arrives to attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour

'It is this same spirit that spurred on the Windrush generation, who came to the United Kingdom to help rebuild after the Second World War.

'We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society.'

Elizabeth I was involved with one of Britain's first slave traders, John Hawkins, while Charles II encouraged the expansion of the industry and with his brother the Duke of York, later James II, invested their private funds in the Royal African Company, which transported Africans across the Atlantic.

As the slavery abolitionists campaigned they were opposed by the Duke of Clarence, George III's son, later to become William IV.

The royal and the rest of the pro-slavery lobby would eventually lose the battle when William Wilberforce and other abolitionists succeeded in passing the bill banning the slave trade in 1807.

William delivered his speech on Wednesday and for the second day the Cambridges' presence in Jamaica prompted protests, with around a dozen members of Jamaica's Rastafarian community demanding reparations from the royal family when the couple visited a military event near Montego Bay.

Ras Iyah V, a leading member of Jamaica's Rastafari Nyahbinghi community, said: 'We are here to protest against any British monarchy descendant coming to Jamaica without being prepared to apologise for slavery and colonialism.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge smiles as she attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Soldiers marching as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from in Jamaica today

'We can only forgive people who acknowledge that what they did was wrong and are willing to repair the breach of the wrongs they have committed.'

He added: 'And today the British monarchy has a lot of African artefacts in their possession  they still bathe in the wealth that was extracted out of the blood, sweat and tears and lives of our people and we have never been compensated for any form of enslavement.'

During his speech at the black tie event William affectionately paid tribute to the Queen, whose Platinum Jubilee is marked by the Cambridge's Caribbean tour: 'She may be my actual grandmother, but everyone counts her as their grandmother too.'

And he recognised the plight of Jamaicans caught up in the conflict in Ukraine: 'Catherine and I were deeply moved by the plight of the Jamaican students who have recently returned safely from Ukraine.

'Their experiences are a reminder of the terrifying toll and inequality of war and conflicts across the world, which we must never forget.'

Kate was dressed in a green gown by British designer Jenny Packham paired with earrings and a bracelet that were loaned by the Queen and wore the Royal Family Order and her Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order star.

Prince William's speech at military parade in Jamaica A speech by The Duke of Cambridge at the Inaugural Commissioning Parade of the Caribbean Military Academy Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief of Defence Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning. I am honoured to be here representing Her Majesty The Queen at the Caribbean Military Academys first Commissioning Parade for the Initial Officer Training Programme. Congratulations to everyone on parade today. I have stood to attention myself on many parades as you do now, proud of my accomplishments, yet also hoping that the Reviewing Officer keeps the speech short. This is all the more important today as we bask in the glorious Jamaican sunshine! You all stand before me as seventy-seven officer cadets: from Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and Uganda. However you are here today as one unit. You have formed friendships which will last a lifetime, and built a network of camaraderie and experience to call upon in the future. I know very well from my own time at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst what a formative experience this year will have been. Today you mark the successful completion of your training programme in the classrooms, on the parade squares and in the exercise areas. But remember, this is just the beginning. Because now the hard work really starts, as you join your units and assume command. You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity. Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice. From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors. Good leadership is hard to define, but its easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of The Queens Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, she said: I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together. I think thats a very good model to follow. Let me also pay tribute today to the instructors and staff here at the Caribbean Military Academy for running this Initial Officer Training Programme. Putting on this international course for the first time was never going to be easy. And then you had to deliver it in the middle of a global pandemic. You should all be incredibly proud of your achievement, and of the young officers turned out so smartly in front of us today. I know how pleased the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is to have helped you establish this course, and its great to see the Commandant here today. Your collective collaboration and success is a testament to the continuing excellent defence relationship between Jamaica and the United Kingdom. And finally, I know how special it is to have your families join this celebration of your achievement. So I would like to thank all the guests for travelling here today. Were it not for your support and guidance, particularly given the additional challenges imposed by the pandemic, these cadets would not be here. I know you are beaming with pride. Congratulations again everyone. Advertisement

My Fair Lady: Kate Middleton channels Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white as she wears a custom-made lace Alexander McQueen dress and Princess Diana's bracelet for final engagement in Jamaica

By Jessica Green For MailOnline

Kate Middleton has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

Kate looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

She completed her look with a sophisticated hat featuring floral details and matching white high heels.

Kate Middleton (pictured) has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured), 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

Kate wore Princess Diana's bracelet (pictured). This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, Kate donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 (pictured) for an engagement in Hong Kong

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, she donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Kate finished her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, including a deep blush and pink lips.

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.

Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Kate (pictured) looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot

The royal mother-of-three (pictured) teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch
Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industries (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks to reporters about current economic issues to mark his first year in office at the KCCI building in Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of KCCI



SK chairman urges member firms to integrate ESG values more proactively



By Kim Hyun-bin



The incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration should work harder to promote public-private cooperation and reflect the voices of the business community in policymaking, the head of the country's largest business association said, Thursday.



Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won also said the organization will put more effort into lobbying the government to ease regulations and remove other obstacles for its member companies.



"In the past, the government set policies and collected opinions from the private sector midway, but now we need both sides to work together when setting related policies," Chey emphasized during a meeting with reporters marking the first-year anniversary of his KCCI leadership.



The comment comes amidst President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's promise to establish a public-private joint committee so that ideas from the two sectors are well reflected in the nation's core agenda.



"If the public and private sectors cooperate in regulatory reform, there will be no choice but to analyze the validity of various data," Chey said. "When it comes to regulatory reform, one should think that 'I will give you benefits if you do it well' works better than 'Don't do that.' For example, in the case of carbon neutrality, if you provide benefits to companies that voluntarily reduce carbon significantly, they are more likely to reduce carbon."



Chey stressed that regulatory reform will not work by just "persuading the government" but since regulations are related to the law, the National Assembly will need to be on the same page.



In regard to the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) movement, Chey said, "It seems that ESG is a name given to the idea that 'a company should not make money while undermining social value.' Making money while moving forward (with social value) should be the rising trend for companies."



He stressed the need for the government to set up a good ESG rating system, so that the market will then automatically choose companies that follow it and consumers will choose companies that have higher scores.



Strengthening the digital infrastructure is considered an important way for businesses to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic era and beyond.



"Places that had implemented digital infrastructure and digital apps properly did not suffer much amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, how Korea brings digital infrastructure into the industrial sector will be important," he said.



All eyes are on whether the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) will regain its status as the leading economic group in the incoming administration, after the Moon Jae-in administration sidelined the entity for five years due to its role in the corruption scandal that put former President Park Geun-hye behind bars, in which it collected funds from businesses for foundations controlled by Park's confidant, Choi Soon-sil.



"There is no concept of rivalry between the Federation of Korean Industries and the KCCI. Economic groups will need to work together," Chey said. "Since last year, we have been cooperating with all economic organizations including the FKI. Personally, I am close with FKI Chairman Huh Chang-soo."



Since its establishment in 1961, the FKI has played a major role in the business world representing conglomerates, but its status plummeted in 2016 when it was embroiled in the corruption case of former President Park, and it lost its leading status after the nation's top four conglomerates  Samsung, Hyundai, SK and LG  withdrew their memberships.
Facebook parent company Meta's top executives are set to snub their firm's return to the office and instead work remotely from an array of very exotic locales.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg will spend half his year in Hawaii, with other executives enjoying remote work from Cape Cod, New York, Israel, Madrid, NYC and the UK.

Meta is set to welcome some of its 60,000 staff to return to its Menlo Park HQ in California from March 28, with the same rule applied to its other US offices.

But a mandatory return is only expected of staff who work on hardware devices, or the company's data infrastructure. Others across all levels of the firm can work remotely for some, or all, of the time, and only return to the luxurious HQ if they so desire.

Among those taking full advantage is Zuckerberg.

He will split his year evenly between his $53 million compound in Hawaii and $37 million five-house estate in Palo Alto, the Wall Street Journal reported.

'The past few years have brought new possibilities around the ways we connect and work,' A Facebook spokesperson said. 'We believe that how people work is far more important than where they work from.'

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ( right) has been splitting his time between his remote $53 million compound in Hawaii and his $37 million five-house estate in Palo Alto as he and other top execs continue to embrace working from home

Zuckerberg's remote Hawaii compound cost $53 million in the island of Kauai

The tech billionaire also owns a sprawling $37 million five-house estate in Palo Alto

A Meta spokesperson said Zuckerberg will be working from home about half the year

The other half will be spent at Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, where the company has allowed employees to apply for their own work-from-home options

According to a company spokesperson, Meta's Head of Product, Naomi Gleit, has relocated to New York while Chief Marketing Officer Alex Schultz plans to move to the U.K.

Guy Rosen, Meta's vice president of integrity, also has plans to relocate to Israel.

Javier Olivan, the company's chief growth officer, will be spending more time abroad in his home country of Spain as he works to add 2,000 new staff members to the company's office in Madrid over the next five years, the spokesperson added.

While, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has no plans to permanently relocate, he has been travelling and working remotely from Hawaii, Los Angeles and Cape Cod, WSJ reported.

Meta heads (L-R clockwise): Chief Marketing Officer Alex Schultz, Vice president of Integrity Guy Rosen, Head of Product Naomi Gleit and Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan have also embraced working away from the San Francisco Bay office. Schultz and Rosen plan to move to the UK and Israel, respectively, with Gleit already relocating to New York and Olivan making plans to spend more time in his home country of Spain

Gleit was the first of the execs to leave California to move to a luxury Brooklyn townhouse (painted red in photo above)

While, Adam Mosseri (pictured), the head of Instagram, has no plans to move, he has been travelling and working remotely from Hawaii, Los Angeles and Cape Cod

Mosseri posted a photo of his work-from-home set up while in Cape Cod earlier this year

The fact that the heads are working all around the world indifferent time zones struck many as odd given that the company faces sinking stock prices that have gone down more than 32 per cent during the latest quarterly report in February.

David Heger, an analyst at Edward Jones, said the company needed to buckle down, not let loose.

'Considering the juncture that the company's at right at the moment, it may not be the ideal time to be experimenting with your top managers working remotely,' he told WSJ.

Last year, Facebook championed the work-from-home lifestyle amid the pandemic and, with Zuckerberg pitching his new Metaverse virtual reality as an alternative to working at a physical office.

It allowed employees to apply to work from home if their positions allowed it, and while workers are expected to return to their offices on March 28, the company has embraced a hybrid model where employees can freely choose to work from home.

Fellow tech giants Google and Twitter are also allowing employees to work from home at least two days out of the weekday after their offices opened up earlier this month.

Harvard Business School professor Bill George said he was wary about a permanent work-from-home model and said it would cut into the productivity of workers and executives meant to leading billion dollar companies.

'I've been to Hawaii, and I can tell you, you don't get a lot of work done over there,' . George told WSJ.

The hesitation to return to work in Silicon Valley comes as the San Francisco Bay Area continues to be plagued by rampant crime.

Larceny has seen a dramatic uptick in San Francisco, with police reporting 6,216 cases so far this year, a more than 26 per cent rise since the same period last year.

Assaults have also gone up by 7.6 per cent, with 482 cases reported so far compared to the 448 last year, and rape has also shot up by 7.5 per cent, with 43 cases reported.

Homicides remain around the same with at nine cases reported so far this year, one more than the same time last year, and robberies have seen a 9.5 per cent drop, with about 474 cases reported compared to last year's 524.

Overall violent crime in the Bay Area has gone up by 6.5 per cent.
A private school has threatened to charge parents $1 for every minute they are late to pick up their children and also dob them in to child services.

Shocked parents were warned of the drastic repercussions in a newsletter sent out by Divine Mercy College, in Perth's south.

The school will add the additional costs to the term fee and notify the Department for Child Protection of their 'neglectful' behaviour.

It is the second time the school has made headlines in as many years after it threatened to close down classes if teachers were forced to get the Covid vaccine.

A controversial private school has threatened to charge parents $1 for every minute they are late to pick up their children and dob them in to child services

Principal Adam Zydek told WAtoday he was sick of parents taking advantage of teachers and treating them like childcare workers

'It has been made clear in the first few weeks of term that a small number of parents are choosing to consistently either drop their children off extremely early  long before the arrival of staff  and leave their children at school for extended periods after the final bell,' the newsletter read.

Principal Adam Zydek told WAtoday he was sick of parents taking advantage of teachers and treating them like childcare workers.

He said a small group dropped their kids off at 7am - an hour and a half before the start of school - and picked them up at 4.30pm - an hour and a half after the end.

The school enrols students from Kindergarten to Year 12 and begins its first class at 8.25am and finishes its last class at 2.45pm.

'Divine Mercy College, unlike most schools, provides supervision 45 minutes after school and 55 minutes before school without charge, to provide safety and care to the students,' he said.

'Up until now, for 27 years, we have not charged a single dollar to any parent for the hours of additional supervision we have provided.

'The measure mentioned in the newsletter is intended only to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, who otherwise would be neglected.'

Parents will be spared the additional charges for their tardiness if they can provide a reasonable excuse - such as traffic jams or family emergencies.

Parents will be spared the additional charges for their tardiness if they can provide a reasonable excuse - such as traffic jams or family emergencies (stock image)

Mr Zydek and his wife Irene, a priest from Malta, started the Roman Catholic school in 1996.

The school was dragged into the public spotlight in 2021 when Mr Zydek condemned a vaccine mandate requiring essential workers, including teachers, to get the Covid jab.

Mr Zydek threatened to close down the school in solidarity with teachers who refused the get the vaccine.

He also promised to continue to pay their salary if they were not allowed to step foot in the school because they were unvaccinated.
A 700 million superyacht said to belong to Russian despot Vladimir Putin is technically free to sail, the CEO of the firm carrying out its refit has revealed.

The Scheherazade  which is listed as the 13th largest yacht in the world - has been at the centre of scrutiny for the last two weeks after reports claimed it was owned by Putin.

Currently undergoing a repairs at a dry dock in Marina di Carrara, near Pisa, she was boarded earlier this month by Italian financial police who are investigating its ultimate ownership.

Earlier this week allies of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny claimed it was Putins yacht and hours later Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky demanded it be seized when he addressed MPs in Rome.

But today speaking for the first time about the yacht, Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which is carrying out the refit revealed she was free to sail as no confiscation papers had been served.

Scheherazade, the world's 13th largest superyacht remain moored in a dry dock in Italy as rumours continue that it belongs to Vladimir Putin

He said: There is no order so the yacht can leave but technically as there is work being done it won t be happening, she is in dry dock.

The refit taking place will go on until the end of April and then there will have to be checks, mainly technical, so before it leaves the dry dock it will be June at the earliest.

When asked by a local newspaper if the yacht belonged to Putin, Mr Costantino replied: Ill be honest we just dont know.

What I will say is that we have handed over paperwork as requested by the authorities, and it has emerged that the owner is Russian.

However, his name is not Putin and the name we have is not on the list of oligarchs which are under investigation.

If there was anything untoward then the yacht would have been seized immediately but for the time being that just hasnt happened.

Today, The Scheherazade was under tight security with guards patrolling the perimeter fence where the top two decks could just be soon over a high wall.

Today, The Scheherazade was under tight security with guards patrolling the perimeter fence

The yacht boasts lavish fittings including tacky gold toilet roll holders, marble floors, a spa, a front and rear helicopter landing pad, a jacuzzi and swimming pool that converts into a dance floor.

There is also a self-levelling pool table, cryotherapy chamber and self-playing a grand piano that belts out Vladimir Putin Is A Fine Fellow.

Workers were seen carrying out maintenance on the yacht and calls to her British captain Guy Bennett-Pearce went unanswered.

A pal of his who asked not to be named but who worked with him in Australia said: I worked with Guy on a yacht around 15 years ago and we last spoke about ten years ago.

Hes a very able captain and hes a good sailor but at the same time he is very discreet and he will not say anything that will cause the owners any bad publicity.

The Russian crew who were onboard the yacht mysteriously left earlier this month and were replaced by a British one.

Mr Costantino added: The work onboard is going on 24/24, round the clock so its usual for these sort of changes to happen.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday urged Italy to seize a 500million superyacht thought to be owned by Vladimir Putin (pictured)

But the crew isnt entirely Russian, they are made up of various nationalities.

This evening, local union chief Paolo Gozzani held a meeting with port authorities in Marina di Carrara to find out the latest on the yacht.

Afterwards he told MailOnline: They are completely in dark as we all are. No-one seems to know whats happening with the yacht.

There was a rumour the police were going to impound her, but nothing has happened and so thats obviously not right.

What Im worried about is what will happen to the employees at the yard if she is seized because its my members livelihoods at stake.

The Italian investigation into the ownership of the Scheherazade comes as authorities across Europe have raced to identify and seize yachts tied to Russian oligarchs named in new sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine

The Scheherazade, currently docked for repairs at the Italian Sea Group shipyard in Marina di Carrara, Italy, is one of the largest and most expensive superyachts in the world, and since its launch in 2020, its true ownership has been cloaked in absolute secrecy

I asked about the captain and the crew but all they could tell me was the Russians were all taken away at night in minibuses and they were replaced by a British crew.

One shipyard worker who left told MailOnline:' We have been told to say nothing or else we will lose our jobs. The yard does a lot of yacht work and the clients are mainly Russian.

'I'm working elsewhere in the yard but a friend who is on what they say is Putin's boat says they are taking the floor up on all the decks and replacing it. She will be here a few months before she can leave.'

A spokesperson for the Italian Financial Police said: The investigations are ongoing and for the time being there is nothing to add, when there is we will make an announcement.
A Georgia parent was stopped from reading an excerpt from a book at a school board meeting last week because it was 'inappropriate,' even as the novel remains available to high school students in the district.

Michelle Brown attended a Cherokee County school board meeting last Thursday demanding answers about the inclusion of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi in the schools' libraries.

After explaining the complicated bureaucratic process for having a book removed from shelves, Brown began reading from the award-winning novel in a bid to illustrate why it should be banned from the 42,000-student district.

'Excited now, he pushed into her as she squeezed her eyes as tightly as she could,' she read.

'Her tongue circled her lips. He pushed harder, his breath heavy and labored. She scratched his back and he cried out. She bit his ear and pulled his hair,' she continued, adding, 'There's lot more to it. It's Fifty Shades of Grey in CCSD.'

Published in 2016, Homegoing tells the tale of two African half-sisters born in the mid-18th century who grow up to have vastly different lives as a consequence of the slave trade.

As Brown ranted about the book - which is not being used in classroom instruction - board member Patsy Jordan cut her off.

'Excuse me, excuse me, we have children at home. It's live streaming, and it's really not appropriate for you to read that,' Jordan said.

'Don't you find the irony in that?' Brown shouted, at one point smacking the lectern. 'You're exactly saying exactly what I'm telling you! You're giving it to our children! I would never give this to my children!'

Michelle Brown was stopped from reading an excerpt of a book at a school board meeting in Cherokee County, Georgia last week because it's 'inappropriate'

The parent read an excerpt of Homegoing, an award-winning novel by 33-year-old author Yaa Gyasi that describes how the lives of two sisters dovetailed during the transatlantic slave trade

'Excuse me, excuse me, we have children's at home. It's live streaming, and it's really not appropriate for you to read that,' said board member Patsy Jordan, bottom right

CSSD told DailyMail.com that Brown only has elementary school-aged children in the district, which is located about an hour north of Atlanta.

Another board member chimes in: 'I think we have gotten the gist of your information that you wanted to share with us this evening.'

'So you're cutting me off?' Brown asks at the March 17 meeting.

'So you have the last 30 seconds - our attorney has said "Out of order,"' the board member replies.

"I suggest that nobody submits any more books,' Brown adds. 'It's not our job, it's your job to be getting these books. All this happened under your watch.

'Maybe if you spent more time reading these books instead of calculating the statistical demographics of those submitting the books, you wouldn't be grooming our children.

Homegoing was written by Ghanaian-American novelist Yaa Gyasi, 33. Above, Gyasi receives the PEN/Hemingway Award for Homegoing at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on April 2, 2017

CCSD says the mother, who stormed off to applause, does not have any high school-aged children in the district

'You're saying that we're embarrassing you? Well, you're embarrassing us and our kids.

'It's not OK! You are supposed to be giving them a safe space in school. These books? If I can't email them to you, if I can't say them, they shouldn't be in the school!'

What is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi about? Homegoing was published in 2016 by Penguin Random House. The 320-page novel was written by Ghanaian-American novelist Yaa Gyasi, 33. It tells the tale of two half-sisters born in mid-18th century Ghana who grow up to have incredibly different lives. Effia marries a British governor of Cap Coast Castle and lives in luxury, while her sister Esi is captured during a raid on her village and held in a dungeon under Effia before she is put on a slave ship. The book follows the lives of the sisters' descendants as it charts how the legacy of slavery affects them in the present. The novel won the John Leonard Award by the National Book Critics Circle in 2016. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates selected it for the National Book Foundation's '5 under 25' award that same year. It was also chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey's 'Best Books of the Year. Writing for the New York Times, Isabel Wilkerson described the book as 'hypnotic' and called Gyasi a 'stirringly gifted young writer.' Vulture said: 'Rich. . . . Fascinating. . . . Each chapter is tightly plotted, and there are suspenseful, even spectacular climaxes.' Sources: Penguin Random House, Amazon, Goodreads Advertisement

Brown walked away to applause from the audience.

Homegoing was written by Ghanaian-American novelist Yaa Gyasi, 33, and published in 2016.

It tells the tale of two half-sisters born in Ghana in the mid-18th century who grow up to have incredibly different lives. Effia marries a British governor of Cap Coast Castle and lives in luxury, while her sister Esi is captured during a raid on her village and held in a dungeon under Effia before she is put on a slave ship.

The book then follows the lives of the two sisters' descendants as it charts how the legacy of slavery affects them in the present.

A description on Goodreads, where the book has 4.47 stars, states: 'Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.'

The novel won the John Leonard Award by the National Book Critics Circle in 2016. The prize is given to the best debut book in any genre.

Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates selected it for the National Book Foundation's '5 under 25' award that same year.

Writing for the New York Times, Isabel Wilkerson described the book as 'hypnotic' and called Gyasi a 'stirringly gifted young writer.'

During the meeting last week, Brown said the wait time for the district to review a book stretches out until November.

She also added that, as part of the removal process, anyone in the district's review committee can object to the book's removal, meaning that it stays on the shelves.

She claimed the instructions told parents to 'get over the shock' of students reading profanity, including the word 'see you next Tuesday.'

Brown said that an appeals committee for book removals includes a student who said Homegoing must stay in the libraries because it's in her AP class's reading list.

But CCSD says the removal process does not include a student. The College Board does, however, suggest that students read Homegoing in order to pass its AP English exams.

Brown spoke after a woman who identified herself as the parent of two children at CCSD. The woman spoke about her concerns about a 'recent increase in challenged books' in the district.

Brown said: 'If anyone in this room gave one of these books that she's talking about to a child, you would go to prison, why are you then putting them in our libraries?' the mother asked.

Homegoing is not being used for classroom instruction and is currently available in the media centers of four high schools, a Cherokee County School District spokeswoman told DailyMail.com.

The spokeswoman said that parents can restrict their children from checking out books.

'Additionally, the speaker  who is not a parent of CCSD high school students, previously had been repeatedly advised that she could file a challenge to potentially remove the book from CCSD high school media centers, but she has not filed such a challenge,' the spokeswoman said.

Homegoing is the latest book to have come under fire from conservative parents and school officials who are increasingly concerned about what their children are allowed to read in schools.

Earlier this year, a Tennessee school board voted unanimously to remove a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about Holocaust survivors from its eighth-grade curriculum, citing a drawing of a nude woman, eight swear words and its 'not wise or healthy' content.

The McMinn County school board in Tennessee voted 10-0 to remove 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman from the eighth grade curriculum over eight swear words and nudity

The graphic novel by Art Spiegelman (above) is inspired by the story of Art's parents

Board member Tony Allman (left) suggested the book should at least be censored. 'Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff, it is not wise or healthy,' he said

The McMinn County Board of Education voted 10-0 to remove 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman from the curriculum on January 10, despite educators arguing that the graphic novel is an 'anchor text' in eighth-grade English language arts instruction and the centerpiece of a months-long study of the Holocaust.

Published in 1991, Maus is inspired by the story of Spiegelman's parents, Vladek and Anja, who survived the Holocaust after being shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The graphic novel depicts Nazis as cats and Jewish people as mice.

The board heard from instructional supervisors and other school officials who defended the use of the book in class but were unanimously overruled.

'I went to school here 13 years. I learned math, English, reading and history. I never had a book with a naked picture in it, never had one with foul language. ... So, this idea that we have to have this kind of material in the class in order to teach history, I don't buy it,' said board member Mike Cochran.

Spiegelman, 73, called the ban 'Orwellian' in an interview with CNBC, saying that he learned about it a day before Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A desperate search continues for a missing four-year-old girl who was last seen in her mother's backyard in remote Tasmania three days ago.

Shayla Phillips vanished from her mother's backyard in Stormlea, southeast of Hobart, while playing with a neighbour's two dogs at 2.30pm on Wednesday.

Tasmanian Police have launched an extensive air and land search for the little girl however no trace of the 'healthy, happy' child has been found.

Police inspector Gavin Hallett said search and rescue teams were becoming 'increasingly concerned' for the welfare of the little girl.

'It's concerning  she's only four and any person who has to stay out in the elements, there is obviously concerns for their wellbeing,' inspector Hallett said.

Police have entered the second day of a frantic search for Shayla Phillips, 4, (pictured) who disappeared from her mother's backyard in remote Tasmania on Wednesday afternoon

Tasmanian Police have launched an extensive air and land search for the little girl however no trace of the 'healthy, happy' child has been found

Sniffer dogs, specialised divers and police personnel have been combing the nearby bushland for clues ever since Shayla's frantic mother reported her missing.

A new image of Shayla has been circulated on social media in hopes she may be recognised, picturing the missing child grinning in a two-piece pink tracksuit.

It comes as locals reported temperatures of 10C on Wednesday night, as concerns grow for the four-year-old due to her young age and the dense terrain.

Police Inspector Gavin Hallett revealed Shayla's last known movements.

'She was playing outside with some dogs from the neighbouring residence, that's not an uncommon thing, Shayla knows the dogs well and is very fond of them.'

When Shayla's mother, Bianca, went to check on her daughter after 30 minutes she found the girl and the dogs had disappeared.

Shayla Phillips was wearing a cream top and gumboots when she was last seen on Wednesday

She called Tasmania Police at 3pm after frantically searching the property herself.

Insp Hallett said Shayla was 'a very healthy, happy young child', and described her mother as 'stoic and strong'.

'She's very positive and hopeful that we'll find Shayla today,' he said.

He said the little girl was known to go missing for up to 15 minutes at a time during games of hide and seek but had failed to return on this occasion.

Insp Hallett confirmed the two dogs Shayla had been playing with had been found 'quite a distance away' from their original location.

'That's an indicator to us, that if there had been some untoward activity the dogs wouldn't have been gone, they would have been here,' he said on Thursday.

At this stage authorities don't believe any other parties were involved in the child's disappearance.

Inspector Gavin Hallett (pictured) says Tasmania Police's top resources have been employed in the search for Shayla Phillips

The four-year-old went missing from her backyard in Tasmania's remote southeastern peninsula

Shayla was wearing pink leggings, a cream top and gumboots when she was last seen.

Inspector Hallett said all police resources are on hand, searching the difficult terrain for signs of the missing girl.

'The area around here is very undulating pastureland but its also very dense woodland,' he said.

'In all we've had close to 100 emergency service personnel assisting in the search.

'Because of the isolation, terrain and age of Shayla the rescue helicopter was deployed immediately.'

The search to find Shayla involves Tasmania Police, SES, the Police Drone Unit, specialist dogs and a Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Rescue teams continued the search overnight as temperatures dropped in the isolated area

The dive squad had also been called in.

'I've called in the dive squad last night. There are a number of dams on the property, there's four in close proximity and they've been cleared overnight,' Mr Hallett said.

'Our drone capacity has a thermal sensor that can be used to detect movement in heavily wooded area.'

Police have requested no further assistance from the public in the search due to the isolation of the area.

'To ensure a coordinated and safe search, police advise that sufficient resources are currently deployed to the area and further assistance is not sought at this time.'
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President Joe Biden on Thursday said there will be food shortages around the globe because of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

'It's going to be real,' he said. 'Because both Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat, for example.'

Food security, along with general humanitarian assistance, was one of the main topics of conversation in Biden's trifecta of emergency meetings with NATO leaders, the European Union, and the G7. The summits were called to deal with the invasion of the Ukraine.

'We are in the process of working out with our European friends, what it would be what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages. We also talked about a significant major US investment among others in terms of providing for the need for humanitarian assistance, including food as we move forward,' he said.

Ukraine is a heavily agricultural country with winter wheat, spring barley, and corn as some of its main crops.

The United States, through the Feed the Future initiative, will provide over $11 billion over the next five years to address food security threats and malnutrition across the globe - with programming in many of the countries vulnerable to increases in food and fertilizer prices.

A senior administration told reporters in a briefing on Thursday that Russia's invasion 'jeopardizes global food security, particularly for vulnerable populations in the Middle East and Africa' as farms are being destroyed.

President Joe Biden said there will be food shortages around the globe because of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine

Grain silos reportedly hit by a Russian attack in Uman, Ukraine

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) warned on Thursday the war in Ukraine is already resulting in rising food prices and a shortage of staple crops in parts of central Asia, the Middle East and north Africa.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has cut shipments from the two countries, which jointly account for around 25% of world wheat exports and 16% of world corn exports, leading to surging prices for the grains on international markets.

Russia is also one of the world's largest suppliers of fertiliser - prices of which had already spiked last year, contributing to a 30% increase in world food prices and a related increase in global hunger levels.

The European Union on Wednesday proposed an aid package of $549 million to help food producers in the 27-nation bloc weather the economic impact of the war in Ukraine.

While the EU does not face an immediate food shortage, the region is a net importer of specific commodities, including feed crops from Ukraine. And European farmers are highly dependent on Russian fertilizers to grow their crops.

'This vulnerability, together with high input costs, such as fertilizers and fossil energy, is causing production challenges for farmers and risks driving up food prices,' the commission said in its proposal.

The food aid is part of larger humanitarian assistance plan the Biden administration proposed for fallout from the Ukraine invasion.

That includes that the United States will accept up 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in the Ukraine, the Biden administration announced on Thursday.

It's meant to help ease the humantarian criss taking place in Eastern Europe, where nearly 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled their bombarded country in one of the biggest refugee crisises since World War II.

Refugees have flooded into Europe and some have even made their way to the southern border of the United States, trying to enter the country that way.

In addition to welcoming more of the displaced, the Biden administration also announced more than $1 billion in new funding toward humanitarian assistance.

The funding will provide food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance, according to the White House.

Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their homeland wait for an U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent before passing through a checkpoint to enter the United States in Tijuana, Mexico

Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion try to enter the U.S. through the southern border - the Biden administration announced it will accept 100,000 refugees

TIJUANA, MEXICO - MARCH 22: A Ukrainian family who fled Kyiv, Ukraine, wait with their luggage before being allowed to cross the San Ysidro Port of Entry into the United States to seek asylum

Ukrainians rest at an exhibition hall, turned into a refugee center in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw, Poland - nearly 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country

Refugees from Ukraine queue as they wait for further transport at the Medyka border crossing, after crossing at the Ukrainian-Polish border

President Biden will address the refugee situation on Saturday during his visit to Poland.

Poland, which shares an approximately 300-mile border with Ukraine, has taken the majority of refugees - around 2.1 million - but nearby countries Romania and Hungry have also taken in many Ukrainians.

Biden has been criticized for not doing more to help ease the crisis. He has vowed to help.

'I will welcome the Ukrainian refugees,' he said from the White House on March 11.

As for the refugees, a senior administration official said the U.S. will focus on Ukrainians who already have families in America and said they expect most Ukrainians will want to stay in Eastern Europe in the hopes they will be able to return to their homes.

'We're working in particular to expand and develop new programs with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the United States,' the official said in a briefing call with reporters.

'We still expect most displaced Ukrainians, citizens will want to stay in neighboring countries or elsewhere in the in the EU, where they may have family and where there are already large diaspora communities in the hope that they can return home soon,' the official added.

In order to get around the 125,000 refugee cap, the U.S. will go through the full range of legal pathways, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, others will come on family-based visas or another process known as humanitarian parole.

Precise details on how the refugees will be brought to the States - both legally and logistically - were not clear.

Efforts will also focus on especially vulnerable populations such as women, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons, and persons with disabilities, the administration said.

President Biden's administration will also pledge $1 billion in financial assistance for humanitarian needs

A person from Ukraine displays paperwork to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers before being allowed to cross into the U.S. border at Tijuana
The bodies of a woman and two children have been found in a burned out car just off one of Melbourne's busiest highways.

Emergency services were called to the Western Port Highway at Cranbourne West shortly before 8pm on Thursday following reports from a passer-by of a car fire.

They arrived to find the car near the Hall Road intersection ablaze, which was brought under control in 15 minutes.

Three bodies were later found in the burnt-out sedan - a woman aged in her 30s and two little girls aged under six.

Victorian homicide detectives are among those investigating but police are 'not looking for anyone else at this time'.

Three people are dead after a car erupted into flames on the Western Port Highway on Thursday night. Pictured is the burnt-out car

Burnt char marks (pictured) remain at the scene of a fatal car fire in Cranbourne West

The trio are yet to be formally identified.

The cause of the blaze remains unclear.

Police and firefighters remained at the scene on Friday morning as they try to piece together what happened.

Emergency crews (pictured) arrived on scene on Thursday night to find the car fully ablaze

The car erupted into flames on a dirt road (pictured) off the Western Port Highway

A passer-by commented on Facebook that she saw the torched vehicle on a dirt road as she approached the scene.

'Just drove past it right when it had just happened and saw a burnt out car on a dirt road off the side,' she wrote.

Locals said the intersection had 'always been dangerous'.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A suspected Michigan school shooter aged 15 who is charged with killing four is set to receive a laptop and internet access to continue his education online.

Ethan Crumbley will receive the device and internet access to take online college courses offered by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic after he turns 16 next month.

He missed the deadline to enroll in a high school course after being incarcerated in the wake of the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School.

The matter was discussed in court on Thursday, when Crumbley appeared before a judge via Zoom from Oakland County Jail in Michigan pursuant to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, a law that requires his placement in an adult facility to be reviewed every 30 days.

For now, he will remain there to await trial for four counts of first-degree premeditated murder, seven counts of assault terrorism and 12 weapons offenses for the November 30 attack that left Hana St. Juliana, 14, Tate Myre, 16, Madisyn Baldwin, 17 and Justin Shilling, 17, dead.

Crumbley only spoke briefly to indicate to Judge Kwame Rowe that he was comfortable carrying out the hearing via Zoom. His court-appointed legal guardian Deborah McKelvy instead spoke on his behalf.

Crumbley's parents James and Jennifer Crumbley lost custody, and are jailed in the same facility on involuntary manslaughter charges for gifting their son the deadly weapon he used to kill as a Christmas present.

They are also are accused of failing to intervene when he showed signs of mental distress at home and at school.

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Ethan Crumbley, 15, appeared before a judge from Oakland County Jail in Michigan on Thursday, speaking briefly confirm that he was comfortable carrying out the hearing via Zoom

Crumbley's court-appointed guardian, Deborah McKelvy, brought up the matter of Crumbley's schooling - and said it was his jailer's responsibility, now that his parents are behind bars, too

Jennifer (left) and James Crumbley (right) are accused of making the gun Crumbley used to kill four accessible to him, and are being tried for involuntary manslaughter

The three have little to no contact with one another after the parents were ordered to stop communicating with one another in court.

She argued that prosecutors misstated the law regarding Crumbley's education when they asserted that his parents, although they are behind bars themselves, were responsible for ensuring the teen's continued access to education.

Crumbley, pictured, could have access to a laptop to take these courses - it is unclear what sort of supervision he would have

Now, she said, that responsibility falls on the state.

'The child's parent, guardian or other person in this state having control and charge of the child' must provide for his education, she said - and as of now, '[that] has been Oakland County Jail.'

'Even at our last hearing, there was testimony that everybody believed that it's the parents' responsibility and it's no longer the parents' responsibility,' she added.

McKelvy said she'd received an 'extensive email' of Crumbley's potential online course offerings on Tuesday that 'will either give him a high school equivalency diploma or GED,' and that she had spoken to Crumbley about the prospect upon visiting him in jail.

'He is thinking about what path he wants to proceed with,' McKelvy said.

'Miss George indicated that she has talked with Captain Vita about being able to provide him [with] his own laptop.'

Because classes have already begun, Crumbley can't enter a certain high school equivalency program until September of this year. In the meantime, she said, he could take courses offered by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, which he can enroll in once he turns 16.

Crumbley may even have access to college-level courses, she said.

The decision, McKelvy told the judge, must be made before the teen's 16th birthday at the end of April.

McKelvy said the jail indicated Crumbley could have access to a laptop to take these courses - it is unclear what sort of supervision he would have.

Both Judge Kwame Rowe (pictured and one of the prosecutors on the Zoom call said they were pleased that progress was being made as to Crumbley's educational prospects

Crumbley, 15, has been detained at the Oakland County Jail, an adult prison facility, since he was arrested on November 30

Both Judge Rowe and one of the prosecutors on the Zoom call said they were pleased that progress was being made as to Crumbley's educational prospects.

Previously, prosecutors argued heavily against Crumbley's placement in a juvenile facility - but at this hearing, prosecutors referred to written briefs on the matter, and Rowe said he saw no reason for Crumbley to be transferred.

Paulette Loftin, one of Crumbley's defense attorneys, said at the circuit court session that the teen's mental health evaluation will be available in 45 days. She and co-counsel Amy Hopp filed intent to mount an insanity defense for Crumbley.

On the same day, another judge refused school officials' requests to freeze a civil lawsuit for $100 million that alleges Oxford staff members were negligent and failed to prevent Crumbley's shooting rampage.

Officials had asked Judge Mark Goldsmith to halt the lawsuit pending the outcome of criminal proceedings against Crumbley and his parents - however, Goldsmith said she was not aware of any risk that the civil suit would interfere with the criminal cases.

Among those who died in the shooting were Justin Shilling, left, who succumbed to his wounds at a local hospital, and Tate Myre, who died at the school while trying to protect others

Madisyn Baldwin, 17, (left) and Hana St Juliana, 14, (right) also died in the shooting rampage at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit

The suit against the school was filed on December 9 on behalf of Riley, 17, and Bella, 14, Franz, sisters who survived the shooting at Oxford High, according to The Detroit News.

Their attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, alleges that Riley was shot in the neck while Bella was by her side as they exited a restroom during the rampage.

Crumbley is scheduled to return to court on April 21 for a combined pretrial hearing and 30-day status check - he will likely appear over Zoom again.

In the meantime, Crumbley will stay in at the county jail - where prosecutors heard at his last hearing that he allegedly boasts about prison life, in marked contrast to claims being incarcerated had driven the teen killer to the verge of suicide.

Previously, prosecutors successfully argued that, due to the severity of his accused crimes, the alleged killer does not belong in a juvenile facility, where he would be able to intermingle with other youths in an education-like setting - similar to the conditions under which he allegedly carried out the shooting at Oxford High School.

Prosecutors argued Crumbley would be a 'menace' to the other juveniles at the Children's Village, pointing to a text between Crumbley and one of his friends in which he 'outlined a plan to stalk, rape, torture and ultimately kill a female classmate.

'He expressed delight in torturing a family of baby birds, and he wrote about the joy he received in listening to them squeal as he killed them,' assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame L. Rowe felt that Crumbley's current living situation - in solitary confinement at the adult prison, where he gets mail and has access to television - was appropriate for at least another month.

Crumbley is accused of opening fire on November 30 at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, and killing four people while injuring seven others

Parents were pictured walking home with their children following the shooting

Rowe explained in a previous 12-page decision that Crumbley has been receiving letters from supporters all over the world since his arrest, including one on January 16 when Crumbley said 'I got a cell to myself, three meals a day, a TV to watch and the guards are pretty nice,' according to the Detroit Free Press.

In another letter, Crumbley reportedly tells a supporter that their mail 'brightens' his day, and that the 'photos of New York are what he imagined.

'There is nothing in the email exchanges that causes this court concern regarding Ethan's current mental health,' Rowe wrote. 'He is eating, reading books, playing video games and talking to others.'

'He spoke of his admiration of Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer specifically stating: "When you die you need to be remembered for a long time, doing something that will make people think of you until the time ends."'

'To place this defendant with other at-risk juveniles who are presumably the same age as his victim would be contradictory to the rehabilitation of those at Children's Village and pose a potential risk of harm to their safety,' he argued.

Inmate caseworker Christine Belling also testified that she visited Crumbley for five to 10 minutes a day to assess his mental health concerns, and found none.

She said she continues to see Crumbley twice a week, brought him Harry Potter books to read, and makes sure he has access to a psychiatrist, according to the Detroit News.
Boris Johnson has insisted Ukraine 'can win' the war against Russia despite a NATO rift emerging today over calls to supply tanks and jets.

The PM said Kyiv can do more than merely delay Vladimir Putin's victory after Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a summit of the military alliance by video-link.

Mr Zelensky pleaded for the leaders - including Joe Biden - to send '1 per cent of all your planes, 1 per cent of all your tanks'.

Mr Johnson said Britain wanted to help, while conceding there were 'logistical problems' involved.

But Emmanuel Macron flatly ruled out the idea, saying it was a 'red line' amid fears NATO could be dragged into direct conflict with Russia.

Putin last month ordered Russia's nuclear forces to be put on high alert, and threatened the West with 'consequences greater than any you have faced in history' should they directly intervene in Ukraine.

The apparent split came as NATO leaders met to discuss its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The organisation, which has already beefed up its eastern flank to 40,000 troops spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea, agreed to set up new combat units in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.

But NATO turned down pleas by Kyiv to defend Ukraine's skies by imposing a no-fly zone and said again it will not send troops to Ukraine for fear of being dragged into a full-on military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.

NATO leaders said in a joint statement they were 'united and resolute in our determination to oppose Russia's aggression, aid the government and the people of Ukraine, and defend the security of all allies.'

Mr Biden called for the expulsion of Russia from the G20 group, while America agreed to take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.

A NATO rift emerged overnight as Emmanuel Macron said supplying tanks and jets to Ukraine would cross a 'red line', after Boris Johnson called on allies to do so. Pictured: The pair speak prior to a NATO meeting to discuss the invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, March 24

Pictured: Destroyed Russian tanks are seen, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in the Sumy region, Ukraine, March 7, 2022

Mr Johnson had arrived pledging extra missiles to Kyiv and troops to NATO's eastern borders, and slammed Vladimir Putin for trying to 'Groznify' Ukraine's cities.

At a press conference wrapping up the gathering, the PM acknowledged Zelensky's call for tanks, saying the president believed they could 'relieve Mariupol and help thousands of Ukrainian fighters in the city.

'To that end, he does need armour as he sees it. We're looking at what we can do but I've got to tell you, logistically at the moment it looks very difficult with both armour and jets,' Mr Johnson conceded.

Instead, he said, 'at the moment we're looking at the equipment we think is more immediately valuable', including the new package of 6,000 more missiles.

He also accused Vladimir Putin of not taking Ukraine peace talks seriously and of crossing a 'red line' with his 'barbaric' invasion of the country.

In an interview with BBC Newsnight later, Mr Johnson painted a bleak picture of the Russian despot's intentions, saying he wants to 'double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine' - a reference to the capital of Chechnya that was razed by Moscow's forces in the 90s.

But he also struck an optimistic tone, saying that he was confident Ukraine could ultimately win the war and that further Western supplies of military equipment would strengthen 'the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine as to make it in future indigestible to the Russian invaders.'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tonight pledged to send extra missiles to Kyiv and British troops to NATO's eastern flank during a summit of the alliance's leaders

Addressing the NATO summit via video-link on Thursday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for '1% of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks'

In this photo taken in February 2000, Russian soldiers rest at Minutka square, in Grozny, Chechnya. Mr Johnson painted a bleak picture of the Russian despot's intentions, saying he wants to 'double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine' - a reference to the capital of Chechnya that was razed by Moscow's forces in the 90s

Pictured: The site of a rocket explosion where a shopping mall used to be on March 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The rocket hit the shopping mall on March 20, 2022

'Everybody wants peace, including the United Kingdom. If this could be solved It would be fantastic,' The Prime Minister - who was today effectively labelled enemy number one among western leaders by the Kremlin - told the BBC.

'I've got to tell you that I'm not optimistic that Vladimir Putin really wants that. I think that he's decided to double down and to try to Groznyfy the great cities of Ukraine.

'We need to do more as the West, which involves intensifying the sanctions, sending more missiles as we announced today, 6,000 more missiles, toughening up our sanctions doing more to stop leakage of Russian gold, all the ways in which we can tighten the screw on him,' he said in the interview.

The strength of Ukraine's resistance has taken politicians and military experts around the world by surprise. As Thursday marked four weeks since Putin launched his invasion, Ukrainian forces showed sighs of pushing Moscow's armies back.

A NATO official on Wednesday estimated that up to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine so far and a total of up to 40,000 have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner or are missing.

On Ukraine's chances of repelling Putin's forces, Mr Johnson said: 'I think Ukraine can certainly win. I don't think it's going to be easy, I think that the situation for the Ukrainians is grim, miserable.

'I don't think that we've seen anything like it for 80 years in Europe and what (Vladimir) Putin is doing is unconscionable.

'But there's a sense in which Putin has already failed or lost because I think that he had literally no idea that the Ukrainians were going to mount the resistance that they are and he totally misunderstood what Ukraine is.

'And far from extinguishing Ukraine as a nation he is solidifying it.'

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and military representative to NATO Ben Bathurst leave NATO Headquarters following a summit on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Brussels, Belgium March 24, 2022

Joe Biden shook hands with Boris Johnson during the 'family photo' - despite a clip showing him being 'snubbed'

President Joe Biden (left), Emmanuel Macron (center) and Boris Johnson (right) speak at the start of the NATO summit Thursday

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, U.S. President Joe Biden, France's President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stand next to each other during a NATO family photo

One of the demands Russia is insisting on in order for it to withdraw from Ukraine is for the possibility of its neighbour joining NATO to be ruled out.

But even if Ukraine never joins NATO, Mr Johnson said it is up to the West to create a deterrent to ensure Russia does not invade again in the future.

'Our job is to do whatever we can to give them the tools to protect themselves,' he said in the interview. 'Over time, you can imagine that even if you can't have an Article five guarantee for Ukraine - I mean, full membership of NATO, [...] you can imagine that Western sympathisers of Ukraine will provide so much by way of equipment, training, intelligence as to create a kind of deterrence.

'What I'm talking about is so fortifying, so strengthening the quills of the Ukrainian porcupine as to make it in future indigestible to the Russian invaders,' he added.

However, speaking earlier today, Mr Johnson conceded it would be a challenge to give his Ukrainian counterpart the tanks he has demanded to help repel the Russian invasion of his country.

The Prime Minister also hit back at the Kremlin after it effectively labelled him enemy number one among western leaders, having earlier warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had already crossed a 'red line' in his 'barbaric' invasion.

Speaking to LBC ahead of today's NATO summit, Mr Johnson suggested that the UK could next target Putin's gold reserves, accused the Kremlin of 'war crimes' and said that the Russian despot should appear before the International Criminal Court.

Pictured: Fire and smoke lights up the night sky, east of Kharkiv, March 24

Climbers drape and cover with wooden shields the sculptural monument of Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, who baptized Kievan Rus, to protect the oldest monument and symbol of the Ukrainian capital from Russian shelling, in Kyiv, on March 24, 2022

Civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on March 24, 2022

Refugees from conflict zones in the east of the Country wait in front of the Dnipro station to be able to access the train in order to leave for the west in Dnipro, Ukraine on March 24, 2022

Awkward! PM is briefly left looking for company at NATO summit group family photo Boris Johnson was briefly left looking for company before the NATO family photo this morning at the summit to discuss the alliance's response to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The Prime Minister, who had earlier called for NATO to act 'harder' against Russia as he arrived in Brussels ahead of the meeting, appeared to be left standing alone with his hands in his pocket. A clip widely shared on social media seemed to show leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, greeting each other enthusiastically while ignoring Mr Johnson. Critics were quick to claim the PM had been snubbed by Mr Macron and described the situation as 'embarrassing'. However, a fuller version of the video shows the PM being embraced by Mr Macron before his brief moment alone. Boris Johnson was briefly pictured looking around for company ahead of today's Nato photo Advertisement

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the state-owned RIA news agency as saying Mr Johnson is 'the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian'.

Speaking at the press conference in Brussels, the Prime Minister said: 'Absolutely not, least of all me. I think I'm probably the only Prime Minister in UK history to be called Boris, I think I have that distinction, and I'm not remotely anti-Russian.

'But I think what we all agree is that what Vladimir Putin is doing, the way he's leading Russia at the moment, is utterly catastrophic, that his invasion of Ukraine is inhuman and barbaric.

'And the conduct of that invasion is now moving into the type of behaviour that, as I said before, we haven't seen in the continent of Europe for 80 years, and it's horrific.

'So you can be sympathetic towards ordinary Russians, who are being so badly led, but you can be deeply hostile to the decisions of Vladimir Putin.'

Mr Johnson warned the Russian president that he would be hit with 'very, very severe' consequences if he used chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine as allies fear.

'You have to have a bit of ambiguity about your response but I think it would be catastrophic for him if he were to do that,' the Prime Minister said.

After the meeting, US President Joe Biden said the use of chemical weapons would be met with a 'response in kind' depending on the 'nature of the use'.

A western official said that the use of such weapons would mark a 'fundamental change' in the Ukrainian conflict but said it was 'highly unlikely' it would be met with Nato troops in Ukraine.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg announced an agreement to provide assistance in the cyber-security sphere and equipment to protect against biological, chemical and nuclear threats.

And leaders approved the deployment of new Nato battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia to shore up the defence alliance's eastern flank.

'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined,' Biden told a news conference, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.'

The United States promised to supply the EU with 15 billion cubic metres more of liquefied natural gas this year than had been planned before, sources told Reuters, as the European bloc seeks to quickly curb its reliance on Russian fossil fuels.

However, support pledges by leaders from countries representing more than half of the world's GDP fell short of satisfying Ukraine's pleas for much more arms and tighter sanctions, including an embargo on Russian energy.

Russia supplies 40% of the EU's gas needs and more than a quarter of its oil imports. Those most dependent on this supply - in particular Germany - are reluctant to take a step that would have a major economic impact.

Mr Johnson urged a targeting of Mr Putin's gold reserves to prevent him trying to get around sanctions as he announced a fresh wave of travel bans and asset freezes.

Among those targeted were the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organisation accused of plotting to assassinate Mr Zelensky.

The Foreign Office said a total of 1,000 fresh sanctions have been handed out since the invasion began, with 65 more announced after Mr Johnson arrived in Belgium.

They included Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler and Galina Danilchenko, who was installed by Moscow as the mayor of occupied Melitopol in south-east Ukraine.

Banks, a diamond producer and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, were also among the newly targeted.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, including next-generation light anti-tank weapons systems (Nlaws) and Javelin missiles.

It is also supplying and training Ukrainian troops in the use of Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles as well as providing body armour, helmets and combat boots.

The Government will provide an additional 4.1 million to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and Ukraine as well as new support for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Pictured: NATO leaders pose for a family photo. FIRST ROW (from right): Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama, Albania's President Ilir Meta -- SECOND ROW (from right): Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Germany's ambassador to NATO Ruediger Koenig, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Czech Republic's Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Croatia's President Zoran Milanovic, Canada's President Justin Trudeau -- THIRD ROW (from right): Hungary's Prime Minister Victor Orban, Iceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Latvia's President Egils Levits, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, President of Montenegro Milo ukanovic, The Netherlands's Prime Minister Mark Rutte -- FOURTH ROW (from right): Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Slovenia 's Prime Minister Janez Jansa, President of Slovakia Zuzana Caputova, President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa, President of Poland Andrzej Duda, Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevsk

The month-long land, sea and air assault has hit residential areas, schools and hospitals in Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and the beseiged port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Britain on Thursday imposed sanctions on another wave of Russia's lenders including Gazprombank and Alfa Bank, as well as a woman London said was the stepdaughter of Sergei Lavrov, Putin's veteran foreign minister.

'People talk about new red lines for chemical or biological, tactical nuclear weapons or whatever,' Mr Johnson said on LBC radio ahead of the NATO summit.

'For me, the red line already has been crossed. He's bombing indiscriminately civilian centres, he's causing huge numbers of causalities in wholly innocent populations.

The prime minister continued: 'I think it is certainly true  as Joe Biden has said  that the Russian war machine is already guilty of war crimes, and it is right Russia should now be before the International Court of Justice.

'President Putin should appear before the International Criminal Court. There is no question is what they are doing are war crimes.'

He added: 'The harder our sanctions ... the more we can do to help Ukraine ... the faster this thing can be over.'

Johnson said that one option was to see if more can be done to prevent the Russian president from accessing his gold reserves, which could stop people buying Russian gold to convert it into hard currency.

The resolve to punish Moscow with massive sanctions was underlined by an emergency meeting of the G7 advanced economies, which brought Japan into the room with six NATO members, also in Brussels on Thursday.

NATO as a whole promised Kyiv new military support and assigned more troops to the alliance's eastern flank during a trio of summits on Thursday aimed at showing Western unity against Russia's war in Ukraine.

NATO leaders meeting in Brussels agreed to help Ukraine protect itself against any chemical, biological or nuclear attacks, and a U.S. official said Washington and allies were also working to provide Kyiv with anti-ship missiles.

'The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined,' U.S. President Joe Biden told a news conference in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.'

However, the support pledges by leaders from countries that represent more than half of the world's GDP fell short of satisfying Ukraine's pleas for tighter sanctions, including an embargo on Russian energy.

Pictured: Maps showing the latest situation on the ground in Ukraine and Kyiv

Russia supplies 40% of the EU's collective gas needs and more than a quarter of its oil imports, and countries most dependent on this supply - in particular Germany - are reluctant to take a step that would have a major economic impact.

In a move that made Europe's dilemma worse, Putin said on Wednesday that 'unfriendly' countries must start paying in roubles for oil and gas, which would mean paying Russia hard currency to buy the roubles.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told reporters that 'nobody will pay in roubles,' while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rejected what she called blackmail.

Ukraine is a former Soviet republic whose aspirations to join the EU and NATO drew Moscow's ire.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what Putin calls a 'special military operation' aimed at destroying Ukraine's military capabilities and 'denazifying' it.

The invasion has killed thousands and driven a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people from their homes.

The bombardment has hit residential areas, schools and hospitals in Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and the besieged port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.

However, NATO again turned down pleas by Kyiv to defend Ukraine's skies by imposing a no-fly zone and said it will not send troops to Ukraine for fear of being dragged into a full-on military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.

'Allies do what they can to support Ukraine with weapons so Ukraine can defend itself,' NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said when asked about Ukraine's demands for more help, adding that the level of support was already 'unprecedented.'

NATO leaders said in a joint statement that they were 'united and resolute in our determination to oppose Russia's aggression, aid the government and the people of Ukraine, and defend the security of all allies.'

French President Emmanuel Macron said that the world faced an 'unprecedented food crisis' that will be even worse in 12 to 18 months as Ukraine, a major grower of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower, will not be able to sow crops.

Western powers were ready to ramp up sanctions against Russia if necessary as they continue to isolate Moscow and force a ceasefire in Ukraine, Macron said.

The United States announced that it was targeting dozens of Russian defence companies and members of the ruling class with sanctions.

The 27-nation EU has rolled out four waves of sanctions against Moscow over the past month, but energy flows are the biggest loophole in measures that have otherwise largely frozen Russia out of world commerce.

EU leaders are expected, however, to agree at their summit to jointly buy gas and agree a deal with U.S. President Joe Biden to secure additional U.S. liquefied natural gas supplies.

NATO, which has already beefed up its eastern flanks to 40,000 troops spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea, agreed to set up new combat units in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.

The alliance also warned that China should 'abstain from supporting Russia's war effort in any way, and to refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions.'

Biden said that China understood its economic future was more closely tied to the West than to Russia, after warning Beijing it could face consequences for aiding Moscow's war in Ukraine.

The U.S. official said the G7 and the EU - which will hold a summit with China on April 1 - would make clear any transactions involving Russian gold reserves are covered by sanctions, in a move aimed at stopping Russia from evading the penalties.
Ten years, two years, three months?

Those are the widely varied figures at the center of a case Republicans are hammering Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over, U.S. v. Hawkins, a case involving an 18-year-old convicted of sharing child pornography online.

Jackson sentenced the young adult to three months in federal prison, though federal sentencing guidelines recommended 10 years and prosecutors had sought two. Sens. Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and others have all repeatedly posed the question, why?

Wesley Hawkins, six years later, has not given up on his sick infatuation with children, according to records shared with the Washington Post.

In 2019, Jackson ordered Hawkins to serve the last six months of his six-year supervision period in a halfway house, after he was found to be seeking out 'sexually arousing, non-pornographic material.'

In 2012, Hawkins, then a senior in high school, started downloading pornographic material from the internet, and according to his lawyer, 'felt confusion and shock rather than arousal.'

He later uploaded five videos of pornographic content involving children from his computer to YouTube, which is what tipped off the police. An undercover officer emailed him, suggesting the two had 'similar interests.' Hawkins then emailed the cop two videos, and wrote that he was interested in males age 11 to 17.

Republicans are hammering Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over, U.S. v. Hawkins, a case involving an 18-year-old convicted of sharing child pornography online

Sens. Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and others have all repeatedly posed the question, why she sentenced a child porn offender to only three months

Then, he uploaded 36 images and videos of child porn to his iCloud account, when police executed a search on his apartment. There were videos of 11 and 12 year olds committing sexual acts, a video of an 11-year-old being raped by an adult male, a video of an eight-year-old committing a sexual act, to name a few. Police found 17 videos and 16 images of boys on his computer and phone, many of them violent. The teen later pleaded guilty.

Though federal sentencing guidelines called for 10 years, prosecutors only asked for two, given Hawkins' young age and lack of a criminal record. According to documents given to senators and seen by the Washington Post, the probation office asked for a year and a half.

Hawkins' defense attorney asked for far less: one day in jail, home detention and five years' supervision. They argued that he was just a gay boy from a deeply religious family who disapproved of homosexuality, and he was not intrinsically attracted to young children.

It is common for judges to inflict a sentence below federal sentencing guidelines, even Trump appointees have done it repeatedly.

The White House has argued that in five of the seven cases, Jackson's sentences were the same as or greater than what the probation office recommended. Probation offices analyze the offender's background and other factors to recommend increasing or decreasing sentences. But in this case, Jackson gave a sentence far less than even the probation office asked for, prompting the Republican ire.

In 2019, Jackson ordered Hawkins to serve the last six months of his six-year supervision period in a halfway house, after he was found to be seeking out 'sexually arousing, non-pornographic material'

Hawley said the three-month prison sentence amounted to a 'slap on the wrist' and repeatedly pressed Jackson to say whether she regretted it

Hawkins's lawyer, Jonathan Jeffress, submitted an evaluation by a psychologist determining that Hawkins did not 'demonstrate sexual deviation' but rather he was driven to the child porn as 'a way for him to explore his curiosity about homosexual activity and connect with his emotional peers.'

Hawkins later wrote a letter to Judge Jackson, telling he hoped his crime would not 'end my life before it starts.'

'I have disappointed everyone in my family and everyone who has ever cared about me,' he wrote. 'I hope that I can make up my mistakes and that this will not end my life before it starts. I swear that I will never do this again or any crime ever in my life.'

Jackson sentenced Hawkins to three months' prison and six years' supervision.

Jackson at the time said that she felt federal sentencing guidelines, written by Congress, were 'outdated.'

Hawkins wrote a letter to Judge Jackson, telling he hoped his crime would not 'end my life before it starts'

'I don't feel that it is appropriate necessarily to increase the penalty on the basis of your use of a computer, or the number of images, or prepubescent victims. As the guidelines require because these circumstances exist in many cases, if not most, and don't signal, an especially heinous or egregious child pornography offense.'

'I just have to tell you, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. We're talking about eight-year-olds and nine-year-olds and 11-year-olds and 12-year-olds,' Hawley told the judge of her remarks.

Jackson said that she did find the crimes both heinous and egregious, but 'a judge has to do is determine how to sentence defendants proportionately.'

She noted that Hawkins was a collector of the images, but like other 'lookers' she'd sentenced, 'they're not involved, say the defendants. They're not focused on you know, what is actually happening to the children.'

And Jackson at the time was pursuaded by some of the defense arguments. 'You were only involved in this for a few months,' she told Hawkins. She told the teen she hoped he could learn from the experience and become a productive member of society, noting that he had just graduated from high school and had been accepted to college.

She said that the 18-year-old was viewing images of people 'not much younger' than himself, and the children involved in the images and videos 'essentially your peers.'

'Most child pornography offenders are middle-aged adults who are deviants drawn to pictures of vulnerable children  This case is different because the children in the photos and videos you collected were not much younger than you. This seems to be a situation in which you were fascinated by sexual images involving what were essentially your peers.'

'These kids are eight!' Hawley exclaimed at the hearing Wednesday. 'I don't see in what sense their peers I've got a nine year old, a seven year old and a 16 month old at home. And I live in fear that they will be exposed to let alone exploited in this kind of material.'

Hawley said the three-month prison sentence amounted to a 'slap on the wrist' and repeatedly pressed Jackson to say whether she regretted it.

'What I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court, we have spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences,' Jackson shot back. Pressed further, she refused to say whether she regretted it or not.

She noted that in some cases she had sentenced those involved in child pornography to 25 years.

Of Jackson's 100 sentencings over eight years as a trial judge, Republicans focused in on seven child porn cases where they viewed her sentences to be too lenient.

Hawley also asked her why she told the teen 'there is no reason to think you are a pedophile' and apologized to him and his family for the 'collateral consequences of his conviction.'

Sen. Tom Cotton on Thursday cited a 2019 court order from Jackson requiring Hawkins to enter a halfway house for the last six months of his six-year supervision. The order, signed by Jackson, reiterated that his computer and other property were subject to search at any time, but added the stipulation that he have a computer monitoring software installed on his devices.

The request for Jackson's 2019 order is sealed, typical of such probation office applications.

Cotton asked whether Hawkins had committed additional sex crimes. 'What did Wesley Hawkins do in 2019, judge?' Cotton asked.

'I don't remember,' Jackson replied.

'You've been asked about it probably more than any other case you've had,' he said. ''Do you really expect this committee to believe that you don't remember what happened in this Hawkins case?'

'Yes, Senator, I do expect you to believe. That's my testimony,' the judge shot back.

'I don't find it credible, Judge,' said Cotton.

The sealed request demonstrated that Hawkins did not commit any sexual crime or violation of his conditions, but, 'despite being in treatment for more than five years,' Hawkins 'continues to seek out sexually arousing, non-pornographic material and images of males 13 to 16-years-old.'




By Kim Hyun-bin







POSCO Holdings held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new brine lithium plant in Argentina, becoming the first company capable of full cycle procurement of lithium hydroxide for batteries, including the acquisition of mining rights, exploration, construction and operation of a production plant.







The ceremony was attended by POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, POSCO Holdings Eco-friendly Future Materials Team leader Yoo Byeong-og, POSCO Argentina head Kim Kwang-bok, Governor of Salta Province Gustavo Saenz and Governor of Catamarca Province Raul Jalil, as well as Korean ambassador to Argentina Jang Myung- soo.







The brine lithium plant is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024 with an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide. The total investment is about $839 million. The construction and operation of the lithium plant and financing will be carried out by POSCO Argentina, a wholly-owned subsidiary of POSCO Holdings.







In addition to the lithium business, POSCO Group plans to increase total output at the plant from 50,000 tons at the end of 2024 to 100,000 tons by 2028.







The 25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide that POSCO Group will produce annually, with the start of operations, is sufficient to power around 600,000 electric vehicles (EV). When production is expanded to a maximum of 100,000 tons, the volume can power 2.4 million EVs.







POSCO Group took over a salt lake in Argentina in 2018 in response to the prospect of a global lithium supply shortage due to strong demand for electric vehicles.







Choi met with Argentinean President Alberto Angel Fernandez, Minister of Industry of Argentina in the Federal Government Matias Kulfas, and Deputy Minister of Mining Fernanda Avila at the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires, Monday, where they discussed cooperation between POSCO Group and the government of Argentina in regards to the battery material business.







POSCO Group and the Argentine government signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance business cooperation in the proposed lithium plant expansion.


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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were welcomed to The Bahamas on the final stop of their Caribbean tour to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee after the country's Prime Minister gifted them a portrait and said their visit to the island was 'long overdue'.

Prince William and Kate were met by members of the military and eight-year-old local resident Aniah Moss, who presented the couple with a bouquet of flowers in front of the Royal Air Force Voyager plane, as they touched down at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, New Providence to begin the final leg of their tour.

The royal couple also had an official meeting with the country's Prime Minister, Philip Davis, who passed on his best wishes to The Queen and said 'it's great to have you both here.'

They were welcomed to the Prime Minister's office by Mr Davis who introduced his wife Ann Marie, who told Kate 'delighted to meet you'.

The Duke and Duchess were introduced to a line up of dignitaries Myles Laroda, the minister of state and Leon Lundy, the parliamentary secretary in the office of the PM.

William and Kate then posed in front of a sign reading 'Office of the Prime Minister' before being led into a side room to have a private meeting.

Mr Davis told William: 'We have been looking forward to your arrival. It's long overdue. We are delighted you are here.'

William replied: 'Yes very much, excited to be here.'

Mr Davis said: 'And our best wishes are sent to the Queen, and congratulations on her Platinum Jubilee.

'I do not think we will see the same again', to which William nodded.

During the meeting, Mr Davis and his wife gifted the couple a hand painted portrait by local artist Jamaal Rolle.

The Prime Minister also posted a tweet welcoming William and Kate to The Bahamas.

He wrote: 'The Bahamas welcomes The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the occasion of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee as they partake in a series of events within the country spanning the next three days.'

Kate wore a stunning aquamarine Emilia Wickstead dress to echo the Bahamian flag with a matching clutch bag, whilst William wore a suave blue suit, black lace-up shoes, and a white shirt.

It comes as the Bahamas National Reparations Committee called for millions to be paid in reparations for the British monarchy's role in slavery in a strongly-worded open letter revealed ahead of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit.

The Duchess of Cambridge has wooed The Bahamas by wearing aquamarine - a prominent colour of the country's flag - as she and Prince William continued their Caribbean tour to mark the Queen 's Platinum Jubilee after departing Jamaica earlier today

Prince William and Kate were met by members of the military and eight-year-old local resident Aniah Moss, who presented the couple with a bouquet of flowers, as they touched down at Lynden Pindling International Airport in The Bahamas to begin the final leg of their tour

Pictured: The Duke and Duchess arrive at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas on the next leg of their Caribbean Tour, Nassau, Bahamas

The Duke and Duchess shake hands with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis, before their official meeting in Nassau

Pictured: Prince William and Kate attend a meeting with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis on March 24th, 2022 at his office in Nassau, The Bahamas

Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving in The Bahamas on day six of their Royal Tour of the Caribbean

Prince William attends a ceremonial welcome on the sixth day of his and Kate's tour of the Caribbean at Lynden Pindling International Airport

Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving in The Bahamas on day six of their Royal Tour of the Caribbean

Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving in The Bahamas on day six of their Royal Tour of the Caribbean

The Duchess of Cambridge was pictured laughing with the PM and her husband Prince William as they sat down for a meeting

The Duke and Duchess pose for a photograph with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis and his wife Ann-Marie during a meeting in March 24 at his office in Nassau, The Bahamas

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are visiting Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee. The 8 day tour takes place between Saturday 19th March and Saturday 26th March and is their first joint official overseas tour since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020

The duchess kept her hair in a simple updo and wore a pair of Sezane Turquoise Taylor drop earrings

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are visiting Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee

The letter read: 'We, the children of those victims, owe it to our ancestors to remember. We owe it to our ancestors to demand a reckoning and to demand accountability, healing, and justice.

'The Duke and Duchess may not be compelled to make such a declaration during their visit to our shores. They may not be able at this time to speak on behalf of the Queen and their government. However, they can no longer ignore the devastation of their heritage.

'They and their family of royals and their government must acknowledge that their diverse economy was built on the backs of our ancestors. And then, they must pay.'

The committee added: 'We, the members of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee (BNRC), recognise that the people of the Bahamas have been left holding the bag for much of the cost of this extravagant trip.

'Why are we footing the bill for the benefit of a regime whose rise to greatness was fuelled by the extinction, enslavement, colonisation, and degradation of the people of this land? Why are we being made to pay again?'

The couple earlier bid a fond farewell to Jamaica on what is possibly the last Royal visit to the island as a Commonwealth realm as their tour to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee headed north to The Bahamas.

Ahead of departing for their final destination, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posted on their official Instagram account: 'What an amazing trip so far! Thank you Belize and Jamaica. Next stop, The Bahamas'.

Kate boarded the plane wearing an emerald dress made by London-based fashion designer Emilia Wickstead and a hummingbird brooch gifted to the Queen during her visit to Jamaica in 2002.

Flags were flown from the cockpit of a Royal Air Force plane while military personnel marched at a departure ceremony for the royal couple at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, on Thursday.

Earlier today, William quoted Bob Marley as he spoke at a military parade in Jamaica on day six of his Caribbean tour with Kate, saying: 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.'

The Duke wore his white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals in Kingston, while the Duchess looked glamourous in a white McQueen dress and Philip Treacy hat.

William and Kate attend a meeting with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis on March 24

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are visiting Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee

Pictured: William and Kate on the sixth day of their tour of the Caribbean at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, The Bahamas

Prince William and Kate were met by members of the military and eight-year-old local resident Aniah Moss, who presented the couple with a bouquet of flowers in front of the Royal Air Force Voyager plane

The Duke and Duchess pose for a photograph with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis and his wife Ann-Marie during a meeting in March 24 at his office in Nassau, The Bahamas

The couple speak to eight-year-old local resident Aniah Moss who gifted them with a bouquet of flowers after they got off the plane

Earlier today, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, posted a tweet earlier today welcoming the couple to the country. He wrote: 'The Bahamas welcomes The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the occasion of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee as they partake in a series of events within the country spanning the next three days'

Pictured: Prince William and Kate exiting the plane during the official arrival at Lynden Pindling International Airport

The Duke and Duchess were introduced to a line up of dignitaries Myles Laroda, the minister of state and Leon Lundy, the parliamentary secretary in the office of the PM

William and Kate then posed in front of a sign reading 'Office of the Prime Minister' before being led into a side room to have a private meetingMr Davis told William: 'We have been looking forward to your arrival. It's long overdue. We are delighted you are here.' William replied: 'Yes very much, excited to be here

Mr Davis told William: 'We have been looking forward to your arrival. It's long overdue. We are delighted you are here.' William replied: 'Yes very much, excited to be here'

The duchess wore an aquamarine Emilia Wickstead dress to echo the Bahamian flag, whilst William wore a suave blue suit and white shirt

The couple attended at the inaugural Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on the island nation for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academy's officer training programme.

And William said: 'You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity.

'Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice'. From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors.'

William also quoted the Queen, continuing: 'Good leadership is hard to define, but it's easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject.'

The Duke referred to her address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, in which she said: 'I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.'

Following today's parade, the Duke and Duchess travelled in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen in 1966 and again in 1994.

Later this afternoon, the couple - whose children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are at home in London - will be greeted by Philip Davis, the prime minister of The Bahamas.

William and Kate have been visiting the Caribbean to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, but the trip has faced controversy and reignited republican calls in Jamaica for independence.

Jamaican government insiders criticised William for failing to apologise for Britain's historic role in the slave trade  despite calling the evil practice an 'appalling atrocity' and a 'stain on our history' during an address last night.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wave goodbye to Jamaica as they depart from the Norman Manley International Airport

Prince William and Kate pictured boarding the plane at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, on Thursday ahead of their flight to The Bahamas

The Duchess of Cambridge boarded the plane wearing an emerald dress made by London-based fashion designer Emilia Wickstead and paired it with a hummingbird brooch gifted to the Queen during her visit to Jamaica in 2002

The Duchess of Cambridge is seen ahead of her departure on an RAF Voyager with Prince William on day six of their tour

The royal couple wave on the steps of the plane as they depart Norman Manley International Airport in Jamaica on Thursday

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are seen walking towards the plane at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, today

Prince William and Kate walk towards a waiting aircraft as they depart Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston

William and Kate are seen leaving the airport in Kingston, Jamaica, and going to The Bahamas on the sixth day of their tour

The Duchess of Cambridge is seen interacting at the airport in Kingston, Jamaica, ahead of her departure to The Bahamas

The Duchess of Cambridge speaks to dignitaries ahead of her departure on RAF Voyager with Prince William on Thursday

The Duchess shakes hands as she and Prince William depart from Norman Manley International Airport on their royal tour

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William are seen departing for The Bahamas at Norman Manley International Airport

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge climb the steps of the plan as they depart the airport in Jamaica's capital of Kingston

Prince William and Kate stand on the steps at the top of the plane as they prepare to depart the airport in Kingston, Jamaica

The Jamaican flag and the Royal Ensign are flown from the cockpit of a Royal Air Force plane during the departure ceremony

Military personnel are seen lining up for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's departure ceremony in Jamaica on Thursday

Ceremonial guards prepare for a farewell ceremony for Prince William and Kate on the sixth day of their Caribbean tour

Police security are seen ahead of the departure of Prince William and Kate from Norman Manley International Airport

Prince William and Kate Middleton attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ride in Jamaica a vintage Land Rover used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966 and again in 1994, as they leave a commissioning parade in Kingston on the sixth day of their Caribbean tour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge travel in an open-top Land Rover in Kingston, Jamaica, today for the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel, on what is day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today dazzled in white at a military parade in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge meets a newly commissioned officer as she attends the Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke of Cambridge speaks today at the Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today travelled in Jamaica in the same open-top Land Rover that transported the Queen

The Queen and Prince Philip travel in a similar Range Rover in Jamaica in 1953 as they are greeted by schoolchildren

The duke denounced slavery as 'abhorrent', saying 'it should never have happened' as he addressed the issue following days of protests calling for reparations from the royal family.

William expressed his 'profound sorrow' at the forced transportation of millions of people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America  a trade which British monarchs either supported or profited from during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Speaking during his visit to Jamaica with Kate, he echoed the words of his father the Prince of Wales and went on to acknowledge Jamaica's 'pain'.

The Cambridges' tour of Belize, Jamaica and the forthcoming final leg in The Bahamas has prompted demonstrations and statements calling for an apology from the royal family. The future king did not say sorry, just as his father Charles had not during his trip to witness Barbados become a republic.

But he praised the Windrush generation of Caribbeans who arrived in the UK a few years after the Second World War to help rebuild the nation depleted by six years of conflict.

Prince William at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

Kate Middleton looked glamourous in a white dress and hat at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour today

The Duchess of Cambridge dazzled in all white at a Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

Prince William and Kate Middleton bow their heads at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade today

Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Jamaica's prime minister Andrew Holness appeared to suggest his country may be the next country to break away from the monarchy, telling the Cambridges it was 'moving on' and intended to 'fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country'.

The Independent has reported the Jamaican government has already begun the process to transition to a republic, with an official appointed to oversee the work.

Speaking during a dinner hosted by the Queen's representative in Jamaica, Governor General Sir Patrick Linton Allen, the duke said: 'Anniversaries are also a moment for reflection, particularly this week with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.'

Commenting on the sentiment expressed by Charles when he attended the Barbados ceremony that saw it become a republic in November, he said: 'I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.'

'I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened.

'While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude. The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit.

Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean

Prince William arrives to attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel completing the Caribbean Military Academy's Officer Training Programme

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their royal tour

'It is this same spirit that spurred on the Windrush generation, who came to the United Kingdom to help rebuild after the Second World War.

'We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society.'

Elizabeth I was involved with one of Britain's first slave traders, John Hawkins, while Charles II encouraged the expansion of the industry and with his brother the Duke of York, later James II, invested their private funds in the Royal African Company, which transported Africans across the Atlantic.

As the slavery abolitionists campaigned they were opposed by the Duke of Clarence, George III's son, later to become William IV.

The royal and the rest of the pro-slavery lobby would eventually lose the battle when William Wilberforce and other abolitionists succeeded in passing the bill banning the slave trade in 1807.

William delivered his speech on Wednesday and for the second day the Cambridges' presence in Jamaica prompted protests, with around a dozen members of Jamaica's Rastafarian community demanding reparations from the royal family when the couple visited a military event near Montego Bay.

Ras Iyah V, a leading member of Jamaica's Rastafari Nyahbinghi community, said: 'We are here to protest against any British monarchy descendant coming to Jamaica without being prepared to apologise for slavery and colonialism.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge smiles as she attends the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Soldiers marching as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade in Jamaica today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

Kate Middleton at a Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of the royal tour of the Caribbean today

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from in Jamaica today

'We can only forgive people who acknowledge that what they did was wrong and are willing to repair the breach of the wrongs they have committed.'

He added: 'And today the British monarchy has a lot of African artefacts in their possession  they still bathe in the wealth that was extracted out of the blood, sweat and tears and lives of our people and we have never been compensated for any form of enslavement.'

During his speech at the black tie event William affectionately paid tribute to the Queen, whose Platinum Jubilee is marked by the Cambridge's Caribbean tour: 'She may be my actual grandmother, but everyone counts her as their grandmother too.'

And he recognised the plight of Jamaicans caught up in the conflict in Ukraine: 'Catherine and I were deeply moved by the plight of the Jamaican students who have recently returned safely from Ukraine.

'Their experiences are a reminder of the terrifying toll and inequality of war and conflicts across the world, which we must never forget.'

Kate was dressed in a green gown by British designer Jenny Packham paired with earrings and a bracelet that were loaned by the Queen and wore the Royal Family Order and her Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order star.

Prince William's speech at military parade in Jamaica A speech by The Duke of Cambridge at the Inaugural Commissioning Parade of the Caribbean Military Academy Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief of Defence Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning. I am honoured to be here representing Her Majesty The Queen at the Caribbean Military Academy's first Commissioning Parade for the Initial Officer Training Programme. Congratulations to everyone on parade today. I have stood to attention myself on many parades as you do now, proud of my accomplishments, yet also hoping that the Reviewing Officer keeps the speech short. This is all the more important today as we bask in the glorious Jamaican sunshine! You all stand before me as seventy-seven officer cadets: from Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and Uganda. However you are here today as one unit. You have formed friendships which will last a lifetime, and built a network of camaraderie and experience to call upon in the future. I know very well from my own time at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst what a formative experience this year will have been. Today you mark the successful completion of your training programme in the classrooms, on the parade squares and in the exercise areas. But remember, this is just the beginning. Because now the hard work really starts, as you join your units and assume command. You are graduating today as officers into an uncertain world. In your service ahead you will have to contend with climatic, geological, criminal and wider state and non-state threats to our collective safety, security and prosperity. Being asked to lead men and women through uncertainty and danger is daunting. 'You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice'. From here the onus is on you to grow into the leaders you have been taught about in textbooks, watched on your screens and witnessed in your instructors. Good leadership is hard to define, but it's easy to recognise in others. As Catherine and I visit Jamaica in celebration of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I thought I might quote my grandmother on the subject. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, she said: 'I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.' I think that's a very good model to follow. Let me also pay tribute today to the instructors and staff here at the Caribbean Military Academy for running this Initial Officer Training Programme. Putting on this international course for the first time was never going to be easy. And then you had to deliver it in the middle of a global pandemic. You should all be incredibly proud of your achievement, and of the young officers turned out so smartly in front of us today. I know how pleased the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is to have helped you establish this course, and it's great to see the Commandant here today. Your collective collaboration and success is a testament to the continuing excellent defence relationship between Jamaica and the United Kingdom. And finally, I know how special it is to have your families join this celebration of your achievement. So I would like to thank all the guests for travelling here today. Were it not for your support and guidance, particularly given the additional challenges imposed by the pandemic, these cadets would not be here. I know you are beaming with pride. Congratulations again everyone. Advertisement

My Fair Lady: Kate Middleton channels Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white as she wears a custom-made lace Alexander McQueen dress and Princess Diana's bracelet for final engagement in Jamaica

By Jessica Green For MailOnline

Kate Middleton has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a custom lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean.

Kate looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot.

The royal mother-of-three teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch.

She completed her look with a sophisticated hat featuring floral details and matching white high heels.

Kate Middleton (pictured) has channelled My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle in head-to-toe white for her final engagement in Jamaica

The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured), 40, appeared effortlessly elegant in a lace Alexander McQueen dress as she joined Prince William at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade on day six of their tour of the Caribbean

Kate wore Princess Diana's bracelet (pictured). This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, Kate donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 (pictured) for an engagement in Hong Kong

Adding even more glitz to her ensemble, she donned a pair of dainty pear earrings to match the bracelet that the late Princess Diana wore in 1989 for an engagement in Hong Kong.

This isn't the first time the Duchess has opted to wear the piece, having worn it at a summer reception in Germany in 2017 and a G7 summit reception in June 2021.

Kate, with her hair pulled back, oozed elegance thanks to her radiant dress, which featured a cinched waist thanks to a white belt and a square neckline.

With statement shoulders, the midi-length dress boasted stunning lace detailing along the skirt and top.

Kate finished her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, including a deep blush and pink lips.

Looking equally sophisticated for the military parade, Prince William wore his Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals and proudly displayed his military medals.

Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Jamaica Defence Force Commissioning Parade

Kate (pictured) looked every bit My Fair Lady in the ensemble, which was reminiscent of the frilly white gown sported by Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle  played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1965 Hollywood musical - as she accompanies Professor Henry Higgins to Ascot

The royal mother-of-three (pictured) teamed her ensemble today with a stunning pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana, while carrying her essentials in a 395 Anya Hindmarch pearl-embellished satin clutch
The U.S. expressed its outrage on Thursday after Iran was allowed to run a stand hawking missile systems and naval vessels at an arms fair in Qatar, where commanders of its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were spotted drinking tea and nibbling dates.

The I.R.G.C. is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Yet officers rubbed shoulders with defense officials from other nations, including the entourage of the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

And the event was held in Doha, Qatar, the Gulf Arab State that is home to the biggest U.S. military base in the region.

'We are deeply disappointed and troubled by the presence of Iranian military officials and reportedly Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers at the Doha Defense Show in Qatar,' said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

'We utterly reject their presence at the show and its maritime defense exhibit, as it is Iran that is biggest threat to maritime stability in the Gulf region.

'Transactions related to Iranian weapons are generally sanctionable under multiple U.S. authorities, including sanctions related to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.'

Iran showed off its air defense systems and other weapons at the Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference. Among its delegation were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the U.S.

Models of Iranian missiles are seen at a stand at the DIMDEX exhibition in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Iran, under sweeping economic sanctions, was hawking weapons on Wednesday at a Qatari defense exhibit, a surprising sight at the major conference also showcasing American companies and fighter jets.

Iran also exhibited models of its military vessels on its IRGC booth

Their presence was particularly striking when other Sunni Muslim Gulf states and Israel have expressed alarm at the prospect of the United States removing its terrorist designation of the IRGC as part of efforts to revive a nuclear pact with Iran.

The Iran booth was organised by Iran's Ministry of Defence and the commanders were part of a broader Iranian delegation.

A Qatari official said in a statement that no invitation had been sent to the IRGC.

'The participation in the event and pavilion was by the Iranian Ministry of Defence and there were no invitations sent to Iran's Revolutionary Guard,' it said.

The IRGC, which answers directly to Iran's supreme leader, has expanded in the region via Shia Muslim proxies including in Yemen, where the Houthi movement last weekend launched a barrage of strikes on Saudi oil facilities.

Riyadh accuses Iran of arming the Houthis and has blamed Tehran for a 2019 assault on Saudi Arabia's energy heartland and tanker attacks in Gulf waters.

Iran denies the charges.

Qatari armed forces chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Salem al-Nabet, left, visits Iran's pavilion during the exhibition

Iran's arsenal was on display this month when missiles slammed into a U.S. Army base and a Kurdish news channel office in Erbil, Northern Iraq in retaliation for an Israeli attack

Washington is considering removing the group from a terrorist organisation blacklist in return for Iranian assurances about reining in the elite force, which controls a business empire.

Sources say this is among the last issues in indirect talks to revive the 2015 nuclear pact.

At the same time as officers were in Doha, the group's commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami issued a chilling warning to the United States and Israel telling them they have an 'expiration date' and could face missile threats.

In an angry speech to troops in Dezful, southwestern Iran he said Israel will have to 'endure the bitter taste of missiles if it is not careful,' according to the Jerusalem Post.

Senior U.S. military commanders continue to warn that Iran remains the biggest threat to the region.

'Iran's ballistic missile threat has continued to advance and expand with greater ranges and accuracy,' said Gen. Frank McKenzie, the outgoing head of Central Command, last week.

The threat to American interests, were on display last weekend when its rockets smashed into a U.S. Army base and a Kurdish news channel office in Erbil, Northern Iraq.

And the Iranian display in Doha featured models of rockets.

IRGC officers at the show declined to speak to Reuters reporters. While some huddled in meetings at the booth, which featured a giant poster of a fast boat filled with commandos, others explored the trade floor.

They snapped cellphone photos of an Italian armoured personnel carrier and handled Turkish machine guns.

In a booth adjacent to Iran's, U.S. firm General Atomics showcased its MQ-9B predator drone, which is engineered to conduct anti-surface warfare, including maritime surveillance and precision-guided munitions.

The U.S. State Department has authorised the company to sell 18 of the unmanned aircraft to the United Arab Emirates in a deal worth as much as $2.9 billion.

Qatar's DIMDEX exhibition drew international defence firms hoping to boost sales to wealthy Gulf states that are moving to expand the military capabilities of the energy-producing region.

Qatar has good ties with Iran, with which it shares a giant gas field. In contrast, Qatar's neighbour Saudi Arabia is locked in several proxy conflicts with Tehran in a struggle for regional dominance.
The girlfriend of a man who was charged over disappearance of his seven-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, has been found dead in a New Hampshire hotel room.

Kelsey Smalls, 27, was found dead in Manchester on March 13 but news of her death has only just been made public.

No further details surrounding her death have released although her it is not believed to be suspicious.

Smalls was known to be the girlfriend of Adam Montgomery who was arrested in January in connection with the disappearance of his seven-year-old daughter, Harmony.

Goffstown police records that show Small was arrested outside a sober home where she was living and charged with DUI, a second offense.

Adam Montgomery's girlfriend, Kelsey Smalls, pictured has been found dead in a hotel room in New Hampshire

Police in Manchester, New Hampshire have been searching for seven-year-old Harmony Montgomery, who is blind in one eye, after learning she hasn't been seen since 2019

In January, Smalls was living in a car with Harmony's father, Adam, whose seven-year-old daughter, Harmony went missing in October 2019

Adam Montgomery, 31, father of missing Harmony Montgomery, faces multiple charges related to her the girl's disappearance

She was released on personal recognizance bail and was due in court next week.

Five days later, she was found dead in a hotel room according to News 9.

In January, Smalls was living in a car with Harmony's father, Adam.

Police tracked him down in order to ask questions about his daughter's whereabouts.

Montgomery was subsequently arrested after he gave conflicting responses to the police.

He was charged with felony second-degree assault for a 2019 incident involving Harmony, one misdemeanor charge of interference with custody and two misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly hitting his daughter.

Smalls was never charged in connection to Harmony's disappearance but her death ends any hope that she might be able to share any information she might have about what happened to Harmony.

Small's cousin released a statement to WMUR through a spokesperson.

'She was so much more than that, and I hate that one of her last connections here on Earth was to him,' the statement read.

Smalls was known to be the girlfriend of Adam Montgomery who was arrested in January in connection with the disappearance of his seven-year-old daughter, Harmony

Crystal Sorey had lost custody of Harmony in 2018 because of her drug addiction

Harmony was last seen in October 2019. She was known to be under the care of Montgomery after her birth mother, Crystal Sorey, lost custody in 2018 due to substance abuse.

Adam Montgomery's brother, Michael, accused his brother of being 'physically abusive' both towards Harmony and his uncle, Kevin.

Michael informed police that he hd seen Harmony with a black eye and that he had told officers that he had 'bashed her around this house' after an incident with her younger brother.

Kevin Montgomery also gave concerning details to police including witnessing Adam spank Harmony, forcing her to scrub the toilet with a toothbrush and left her standing in the corner for hours.

He told police he'd seen Adam spank Harmony, force her to scrub the toilet with her toothbrush and leave her standing in the corner for hours, according to the affidavit.
Scott Morrison has suffered a huge fall in popularity among key support groups who powered him to victory at the election, apparently due to the growing cost of living.

Analysis of the past three months of Newspolls for The Australian shows only 29 per cent of 35 to 49-year-olds back the Coalition, a drop of seven points.

The Government's support among households with incomes above $150,000 has also dropped by 12 points since December to just 33 per cent.

Scott Morrison (pictured on Thursday) has suffered a huge fall in popularity among 35 to 49-year-olds and families earning more than $150,000

The poll is good news for Labor, with leader Anthony Albanese (pictured with his son and partner Jodie) coming second behind Senator Wong in the trust ranking

These are two key groups that helped Mr Morrison deliver his 'miracle' win against Bill Shorten in 2019.

Experts say the increasing cost of living is turning voters towards Labor which has outlined policies for cheaper childcare and wage growth.

The Coalition is only more popular than Labor among Australians over 65 and Christians.

Inflation is running at 3.5 per cent but wages are only growing at 2.3 per cent.

The latest Newspoll put Labor a huge 10 points ahead of the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis.

That would result in a landslide victory for Mr Albanese - if repeated on election day in May.

It comes after a Roy Morgan survey of 1,409 Australians found Mr Morrison is the least trusted politician in the nation.

He was closely followed by Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson in the 'distrust' rankings.

The poll is good news for Labor, with leader Anthony Albanese coming second behind Senator Penny Wong in the trust ranking.

Frontbencher Tanya Plibersek, WA leader Mark McGowan and independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie followed with high trust ratings.

Senator Kristina Keneally - who along with Senator Wong has denied bullying Senator Kitching before her fatal heart attack on March 10 - did not feature in the rankings.

Roy Morgan said the top five reasons why Senator Wong was rated number one were because she is considered 'ethical, focussed on the needs of the electorate, fair, honest and transparent with no hidden agendas'.

The Roy Morgan survey of 1,409 Australians found Scott Morrison (pictured on Tuesday) is the least trusted politician in the nation

One respondent said of Senator Wong: 'Generally she stands for what she believes in, presents with honesty, even though I might not agree totally with her. She shows a degree of integrity.'

Another wrote: 'She has integrity, she is clear about what she stands for and she does what she thinks is right, without much regard for politics and impact to her career. She is open to new ideas and genuinely interested in debate.

'She is not two faced. She has genuinely improved Australia through her focus and dedication to doing good work. A rarity in this country.'

The poll was taken between February 28 and March 1. Thousands of Australians over 14 received text messages asking them to list which government leaders they trusted and distrusted and why.

Roy Morgan says its sample is representative across geography, gender and age and has been weighted to neutralise any potential bias.

The research group believes the results are bad for the Coalition because the party in power usually cops negative feedback.

But CEO Michele Levine said repeated blunders by Mr Morrison such as his holiday to Hawaii during fatal bushfires have damaged his standing.
Jurors at the Sarah Lawrence 'sex cult' trial heard graphic excerpts from an alleged cult member's journal in which she boasts of using a strap-on sex toy on a male police officer, saying it was 'really, really cool.

She also described sex work as 'awesome.'

Claudia Drury, 31, has been on the stand since Friday when she began testifying as one of the prosecution's key witnesses, telling the court how she unraveled mentally and was coerced into a life of prostitution by defendant Larry Ray.

She claimed that the so-called 'cult leader' convinced her that she needed to make amends for 'egregious wrongs' to which she had confessed and repay more than $100,000 in debt that she owed for destruction to his property.

But today, under cross-examination, defense attorney Marne Lenox tried to paint a very different picture.

Lead defense attorney Marne Lenox cross-examined Claudia Drury about her graphic journal entries Wednesday

Over the course of three days, alleged victim Drury (left) told the court how Ray (right) allegedly forced her into a life of prostitution, abused her, and threatened to kill her after ingratiating himself with her and her friends when she was a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York

Far from being a sexual ingenue forced into a life of sexual drudgery Drury was, the court heard, an experienced sexual adventuress and willing participant who took it upon herself to go to sex clubs and push her sexual boundaries.

Her motivation for going into prostitution was, Lenox suggested, far more prosaic than the mind control and confusion attributed by the government to their client.

Drury was not working, could not afford her rent and tuition and, instead of moving to Connecticut with her mother, Lenox said, she turned to prostitution as a way to earn money.

Again and again in the cross-examination Drury's own words  both written and spoken  were used against her.

In notes written by Drury and displayed in court she was revealed to have stated, 'I love what I do and believe I am doing something good for myself and my clients.'

She described sex work as 'awesome' and said that the incident with the male police officer had unlocked a piece of her own sexuality and prompted her to want to buy a strap-on.

The extent to which she approached her escorting as a business was highlighted with notes that she had made regarding characters she could play to target certain demographics in adverts that she herself wrote and posted on the now defunct Backpage website.

'GND' stood for Girl Next Door she told the court. NSA stood for No Strings Attached.

In a bullet-pointed memo she annotated the 'fundamentals' of escorting: 'Charging for time and company or asking for consideration  euphemisms for sex and payment she told the court  hygiene, cancellations, extended time and overnights.

The jury was shown excerpts of Drury's journal in which she boasted of having 'f***ed a policeman 'with a strap-on'

A scan of Claudia Drury's composition book journal entered as evidence by the defense

And she used multiple aliases  Lauren Avery, Jessica Avery, Alexa, Lexa, Elle  depending on the character she was playing.

As the afternoon progressed Drury pushed back at Lenox's questions and suffered a series of memory blanks that no amount of refreshing with audio and visual exhibits appeared to help.

At one point Drury snapped at Lenox when she pronounced another alleged member of the 'sex cult' Felicia Rosario's name, 'Felisha.'

'It's Feli-c-ia,' Drury corrected, in a moment that heightened an increasingly strained and combative exchange.

The government had laid Drury's problems  mental health issues, false confessions in which she claimed she had poisoned Ray and others, violent thoughts towards her parents and her ultimate slide into prostitution  squarely at Ray's feet.

Thursday the defense bit back with Lenox revealing that Drury had told psychiatrists that she had violent thoughts about harming her friends and displayed mental health issues that saw her hospitalized when she was 16, long before she met Ray.

Records showed that she had been diagnosed with Personality Disorder with Narcissistic Traits. Yet Drury said she did not recollect it.

In direct testimony Drury had admitted that she had told stories and tall tales when she was younger, embellishing things to impress friends or gain attention.

Now, Lenox suggested that Drury's relationship with the truth had never been close and presented her instead as a serial fabricator who made up her confessions to get Ray's attention and whose account could not be trusted now.

Drury, pictured arriving at court Tuesday, finally finished testifying Thursday after repeated interruptions due to both juror issues and a medical emergency by Ray

The trial of Sarah Lawrence 'sex cult leader' Larry Ray (pictured) resumed Thursday with a federal judge finding sufficient evidence to name Ray's daughter, Talia (pictured) as a co-conspirator

Ray's sex trafficking trial was halted Tuesday after the accused sex cult leader suffered another medical emergency in court

She had, Lenox pointed out, failed to mention several key aspects of her testimony to the government across two years of talks.

Specifically, Lenox said, she never told them she had tried to run away from the North Carolina property belonging to Ray's stepfather Gordon, at which she claims she was forced to do hard labor.

Lenox said, 'In fact you told them you did not try to run away.'

In direct testimony Drury told the court she felt 'overwhelmed' and trapped and saw no way to escape.

Under cross examination Lenox drew out the fact that Drury had her phone, wallet, ID and laptop, that she had bought her own train ticket, traveled there alone and googled local cab companies to take her to the property when Ray's daughter Talia was delayed picking her up from the station.

Drury, the defense maintained, was an adult whose choices were her own and whose problems predated her relationship with Ray.

The cross examination will continue Friday morning.

Earlier, Judge Lewis Liman ruled that there is sufficient evidence to name Ray's daughter, Talia, as a co-conspirator along with his so-called lieutenant and co-accused Isabella Pollok, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Pollok is due to stand trial on multiple counts later this year. Talia, 29, remains unindicted and it will be for the government to decide whether to bring charges.

The day began with Drury back on the stand, following drama on Tuesday when Ray was stretchered out of court after suffering an apparent seizure. The court was suspended completely on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.

Dressed in a pale blue shirt and navy pants, Ray on Thursday presented a robust figure in court and showed no signs of the illness.

Talia (left) has been named as a co-conspirator along with Ray's so-called 'lieutenant' and co-accused Isabella Pollok, (right) DailyMail.com can reveal

On Thursday, Claudia Drury (pictured in a court sketch) concluded her testimony detailing the life of prostitution into which she claims Ray forced her

Drury concluded her direct testimony detailing the life of prostitution into which she claims Ray forced her.

She said on a very bad week she made $10,000 and on a good week $50,000 in proceeds that she handed over to Ray and Pollok.

Drury recalled an incident when Ray cuffed her to a hotel chair, suffocated her with a plastic bag, smothered her with a pillow and threatened to waterboard her when she had become too close to the client, whom she later credited with helping get out of the life.

She also told jurors that Ray had asked her to make a list of her clients which he planned to use as 'a threat' and 'leverage' and threatened to publish online.

Ironically, the Department of Justice did just that earlier this week when they put the list, a sealed exhibit, on a public portal before quickly taking it down.

Rising to cross examine Drury, defense attorney Marne Lenox attempted to make damaging inroads into her credibility.

She used Drury's own words against her and started with her admission that she told 'stories' and tall tales to win favor and impress friends.

That same flaw was, she implied, something that had escalated with her relationship with Ray and her struggle to transition from high school to college.

Lenox highlighted the fact that Drury had been untruthful with prosecutors when they first spoke with her in 2020 and that she had lied in housing court in a bid to help Ray avoid eviction.

Drury insisted that she believed what she was saying at the time and her memory, so clear on direct, failed her more than once as she claimed not to recall emails and texts shown to her in court.

An audio recording played in court revealed her making up a story in vivid detail about three men, jumping from a white van and threatening her.

Lenox accused Drury of making 'Larry's villains' her own in a bid to curry favor and gain attention.

Drury, who worked as a prostitute from the beginning of 2015 to April 8, 2019, told jurors she made $10,000 on a 'bad week' and up to $50,000 on a 'good week'

Testimony in the sex trafficking case resumed two days after the trial was abruptly halted due to Ray suffering a medical emergency in court.

An attorney for Ray called for a break in the middle of proceedings late Tuesday morning after his client shook and gasped behind his mask.

Judge Liman cleared the courtroom while court officers rushed in with a first aid kit and defibrillator and a medic followed on.

Ray was then stretchered out of Manhattan Federal Court and on to an ambulance waiting outside.

The former convict is on trial for allegedly sex trafficking his daughter's friends from a dorm room on the campus of the elite New York liberal arts college.

Tuesday's emergency marked the end of a morning during which jurors heard often-harrowing testimony from Drury as she chronicled in disturbing detail how Ray allegedly bullied and groomed her into a life of prostitution, convincing her she had to make amends for 'egregious wrongs' and repay debts of more than $100,000.

Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon focused on the sexual grooming that, prosecutors claim, Ray used to funnel Drury into a life of prostitution from which he garnered more than $2.5million.

Drury told the court that Ray suggested she take part in a 'gang bang' telling her that sex with multiple partners was liberating and fun.

She told how he set her sexual challenges that she - already unravelling - took in a bid to win his favor and 'make repairs' for wrongs of which he accused her.

Ray is accused of 17 counts including sex-trafficking, extortion, money laundering, violent crime in aid of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy

The accusations were primarily of damage to property but escalated to an insistence that she had poisoned him and his daughter, Talia.

'He told me to take a cab ride and at the end of it instead of paying suggest I had sex with the driver instead,' Drury told the court.

'He also told me to pick up someone on the street and have sex with them in Central Park.'

Asked if she did these things Drury replied: 'Yes.'

On Ray's suggestion, the former college student claimed that she had taken work as an escort in a sex club.

There she detailed her introduction to BDSM (Bondage and Sadomasochism). She described some of it as 'quite severe' and said that she took the 'submissive' role with the sex club clients and one of its managers.

The court was shown graphic pictures of her bruised buttocks, images that, she said she had sent to Ray at his request.

She said that Ray, with whom she had fallen into a fractious relationship pattern of confrontation, allegation, punishment, 'confession' and reparation from her, was 'encouraging' of her actions and the pictures.

Ray ultimately ingratiated himself with his daughter Talia's friends at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, including Santos Rosario (pictured left with Talia) Daniel Levin, Felicia Rosario (right) and Isabella Pollok

PICTURED: Alleged cult victims Santos Rosario, (far left) Dan Levin (middle) and Claudia Drury, in evidence photos submitted to the court

Sarah Lawrence College is an elite liberal arts college in Bronxville, just north of New York City

She also said that, by this time, she had built up so much 'self-hate' having 'solidly taken on the role of sabotager' in the 'cult' that she found an outlet and relief in the pain of BDSM.

On some level she felt that she deserved the punishment for all the supposed 'wrongs of which, she said, Ray accused her across a sustained campaign of coercion.

Ray played on her fears, often speaking graphically about jail and what would happen to her there.

'He talked about it for years and years. He described in detail the size of a prison cell, made me walk the size of a prison cell,' she said.

'He told me graphic things about what people would do to me. Because I was smaller [he said] that women would make me their b***h and he described how they would use the restroom and defecate and use my face and tongue as toilet paper.

'He talked about it many times in many different ways.'

Drury said she worked as a prostitute from the beginning of 2015 to April 8, 2019.

At her most profitable she saw three or more clients a day charging $2,000 an hour, $2,400 for two hours with fees rising in increments from there.

She said she handed most of her money to Ray and Isabella Pollok  his co-accused and so-called 'lieutenant.'

The court heard how Ray's alleged campaign of control escalated during the summer of 2013, when Drury and several others travelled to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to help with yardwork at Ray's stepfather's property (pictured)

PICTURED: Larry Ray outside his stepfather's home in Pinehurst, North Carolina

On two occasions Ray told Drury and Pollok to be sexual with each other and others she said while he watched.

On other occasions Ray would use the props that he told her to buy for clients. Her voice dipping so that the judge had to remind her to speak up, Drury listed the props, 'Handcuffs, crops, floggers, leash, collar, ball-gag, dildos.'

The difference, she said, between clients using these and Ray was that when she told clients to stop, she knew that they would. With Ray, she said: 'I was scared.'

Drury is one of at least five cult members who were students at the elite liberal arts college in Bronxville, just north of Manhattan, when they met the accused sex trafficker.

Ray was introduced to the group in the fall of 2010 when he began living in his daughter Talia's on-campus dorm, where he persuaded her friends to stay the next summer at his city apartment.

Prosecutors say Ray coerced the students to join his 'family' as he accumulated power, sex and money, forcing one woman into a sex work enterprise so lucrative that she turned over more than $1million to him in a single year.

Jurors heard how his alleged campaign of control escalated during the summer of 2013, when the students travelled to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to help with yardwork at Ray's stepfather's property.

Talia Ray is seen with Larry Ray's stepfather Gordon at his Pinehurst property

At this point, Ray was controlling what students ate  forbidding carbohydrates  and forcing them to work sometimes until three or four in the morning to re-do mistakes that he found in their work, according to Drury.

Ray, who once served as the best man at a wedding of disgraced former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, has been incarcerated since his 2020 arrest.

He is a well-known New York scammer with a murky past. In addition to spending times behind bars for his role in a securities fraud scam, he has worked on Wall Street, owned nightclubs, been an FBI informant and inserted himself in into powerful networks by brokering meetings.

He had previously been sentenced to five years probation for his role in a securities fraud scam.

The allegations involving the latest case were laid out in a lengthy article by New York magazine's The Cut in 2019, that included accounts from some of the purported cult members.
Reunited in safety, a family who escaped the bombardment in Ukraine has told of their journey to reach Poland  where they can shelter with help from Mail readers.

The Red Cross operation, partly funded by Mail Force donations, is providing clothes, food and blankets.

Nataliia Zalezynska, one of her great-aunts, Olexandra, 75, her aunt Svetlana, 39, and Svetlanas son Danilo, 12, all met up after fleeing from different parts of Ukraine.

Nataliia, 30, told her four-year-old daughter Zarina that they were leaving their hometown of Zhytomyr, west of the capital, to go on holiday.

We heard the planes flying over our houses, attacking our city from the air, said Nataliia in flawless English, still visibly shaken by being forced to leave her homeland because of the fighting.

Nataliia Zalezynska, one of her great-aunts, Olexandra, 75, her aunt Svetlana, 39, and Svetlanas son Danilo, 12, all met up after fleeing from different parts of Ukraine

Home is best, but we had to leave for the sake of my daughter. We dont want our children to become children of war.

I told Zarina that we were going on a trip to Poland. She is already asking when we will be going back home to Ukraine.

The final leg of their journey was arduous, taking more than 12 hours as they negotiated Ukrainian military checkpoints and queues at the crossing close to the Polish border town of Zosin.

Now safe in the Polish capital Warsaw, where Zarina is starting at a new pre-school, Nataliia told the Mail yesterday she had been impressed by the generosity of the Red Cross volunteers in Poland.

In the Red Cross office, people work daily to sort items bought with money donated by people from all over the world, including Mail readers, as well as deliveries that come from all over Europe, including Britain.

The final leg of their journey was arduous, taking more than 12 hours as they negotiated Ukrainian military checkpoints and queues at the crossing close to the Polish border town of Zosin. The Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces are seen above in the north of the country

Maria Skzwarczynska, a 65-year-old retired tax adviser, said she had decided to sign up for the daily eight-hour shifts to take her mind off the horrors unfolding in neighbouring Ukraine.

Her son is a war photojournalist currently covering the conflict and she said she lies awake at night fearing what could happen to him.

I decided to come here to take away the stress from worrying that he could die, said Maria.

She volunteers with her 71-year-old husband Jerzy helping Ukrainian refugees.

The most important thing we try to do is make the people who come here smile, make them feel loved, the Warsaw native said.

Her son is a war photojournalist currently covering the conflict and she said she lies awake at night fearing what could happen to him

Although most of the Red Cross volunteers are from the surrounding countries, some have come from further afield.

One man decided to join the Red Crosss relief efforts in Poland from the other side of the globe.

Stephen Harte, a 61-year-old from Victoria in Australia, quit his job as an accountant to book a one-way ticket via Dubai for Warsaw so he could volunteer with the Red Cross.

Doing the books for some local company didnt really add value, Mr Harte said as he helped sort donations of nappies.

Just sitting there watching all this happening in Ukraine wasnt enough. Mr Harte, who has three grown up children, was four years off retirement but said his stint with the Red Cross team has been really fulfilling.

Ill be here for as long as they need me, he said. Ill hopefully pick something up when I get back.

At the request of Lord and Lady Rothermere, the Mails parent company DMGT has donated 500,000 to the Mail Force Ukraine Appeal.
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pushed 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories in dozens of text messages with ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, reports revealed on Thursday.

Conservative activist Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas urged Donald Trump's former aide to make controversial lawyer Sidney Powell the face of the ex-president's legal defense and appeared to frequently promote QAnon beliefs in texts obtained by the Washington Post.

The 29 messages are reportedly part of the vast tranche of documents Meadows handed over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.

'Mark (dont want to wake you) ... Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud. Make a plan. Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down,' a message Thomas supposedly sent to Meadows on November 19 reads.

'Release the Kraken' is a phrase that was popularized by Powell referring to the alleged uncovering of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It's commonly used among the far-right fringe of Trump supporters.

The texts suggest Thomas even had a hand in crafting Powell's message -- and that she pushed that message to more members of the Trump White House than just Meadows.

'Just forwarded to yr gmail an email I sent Jared this am. Sidney Powell & improved coordination now will help the cavalry come and Fraud exposed and America saved,' Thomas reportedly wrote to Meadows on November 13.

'Jared' could potentially be referred to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a senior adviser in his administration.

Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas echoed QAnon conspiracy theories and tore into GOP lawmakers who did not support Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in at least 29 text messages to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a new report reveals

Powell had been one of the first lawyers on the forefront of promoting Trump's election fraud theories. However her wild claims and insistence on repeating them made her a polarizing figure that even led ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to distance himself.

Thomas has long played a role in conservative politics, having had a hand in scouting people for potential roles in George W. Bush's administration when she worked at the Heritage Foundation.

At the time her husband, Clarence Thomas, was presiding over the landmark Bush v. Gore case that would see the contested 2000 election won by the Republican.

But the Thursday messages indicate that the Supreme Court justice spouse's beliefs went further than the traditional realms of right-wing politics and that she's even promoted the work of a Sandy Hook shooting denier to the upper echelons of the White House.

Two days after the November election, Thomas reportedly sent Meadows a YouTube video titled 'TRUMP STING w CIA Director Steve Pieczenik, The Biggest Election Story in History, QFS-BLOCKCHAIN.'

'I hope this is true; never heard anything like this before, or even a hint of it. Possible???' she wrote along with the video.

Pieczenik is a former State Department official who said the 2012 slaughter of 26 people including 20 young children in Connecticut was a 'false flag.'

Thomas' conservative activism has at times earned ethical scrutiny for her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Thomas then appeared to push a QAnon theory that Trump had somehow added watermarks to mail-in ballots to track fraud.

'Watermarked ballots in over 12 states have been part of a huge Trump & military white hat sting operation in 12 key battleground states,' Thomas wrote to Meadows.

She also said: 'Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.'

On November 6, Thomas added: 'Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.'

She asked Meadows to 'Help This Great President stand firm' on November 10 and mentioned 'the greatest Heist of our History.'

It was three days after Joe Biden was declared president.

The next message reportedly urged Meadows to listen to the opinions of conservative talk radio hosts Dan Bongino, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Steyn.

It was revealed earlier this month that Virginia Thomas was present at Donald Trump's Stop the Steal rally outside of the White House on January 6, 2021 -- hours before the Capitol riot. However she said she had left before Trump took the stage

Meadows replied: 'I will stand firm. We will fight until there is no fight left. Our country is too precious to give up on. Thanks for all you do.'

The pair are reportedly longtime friends. Before joining the Trump White House, Meadows was a Republican House representative from North Carolina and a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Thomas, apparently touched, told Meadows: 'Tearing up and praying for you guys!!!!! So proud to know you!!'

She also took aim at Republican lawmakers who refused to support Trump, as evidenced by a message seemingly referencing GOP Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Paul A. Gosar of Arizona and Chip Roy of Texas.

'House and Senate guys are pathetic too... only 4 GOP House members seen out in street rallies with grassroots... Gohmert, Jordan, Gosar, and Roy,' Thomas allegedly wrote.

'Where the heck are all those who benefited by Presidents coattails?!!!' she added that same day.

In a November 24 message, Meadows apparently uses a Biblical reference of a battle between 'good versus evil' to describe Trump's battle to overturn Biden's electoral victory.

'Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it,' Meadows wrote.

Thomas replied: 'Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!'

The Post's report notes that it's not clear who the 'best friend' Thomas mentions is.

It was revealed earlier this month that Thomas had attended Trump's Stop The Steal rally on January 6 last year. However she told the Washington Free Beacon that she grew cold and left before the ex-president took the stage.

Thomas' outspoken activism has more than once turned ethical scrutiny on her husband, Clarence Thomas, known by many legal experts as the most conservative member of the Supreme Court.

The Thomases privately dined with the Trumps when they were still in the White House.

After that Virginia Thomas reportedly got to coordinate a meeting between Trump and her allies in Washington.

Clarence Thomas was hospitalized late last week, the Supreme Court announced on Sunday.

The high court said his 'infection' was not COVID-19-related, but so far no more has been revealed about the 73-year-old justice's condition.
Around 15,000 civilians from Mariupol have been illegally deported to Russia amid fears they could be used as hostages.

Officials said residents trapped in the southern port are being stripped of their passports before being taken to camps and then to remote parts of Russia against their will.

Last night there were unverified claims that Mariupol had finally fallen after Kremlin supporters released images purporting to show Russian-backed separatist leader Denis Pushilin arriving in the city along with Russian politicians Andrey Turchak and Dmitry Sablin.

Other pictures showed Russian Z tanks rolling through the streets as invasion force soldiers manned checkpoints in and out.

Mariupol council yesterday warned: Residents of the Left Bank district are beginning to be deported en masse to Russia.

'In total, about 15,000 Mariupol residents have been subjected to illegal deportation.

A column of tanks marked with the Z symbol stretches into the distance as they proceed northwards along the Mariupol-Donetsk highway on Wednesday

A mother covers her son as they lay on a ground after hearing shelling in Mariupol on Wednesday

A Russian army soldier stands next to local residents who queue for humanitarian aid in Mariupol

Service members of pro-Russian troops drive armoured vehicles past local residents in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol on Thursday

People stand in a long queue during the distribution of humanitarian aid near a damaged store of wholesaler in Mariupol on Thursday

Those deported were said to be first taken to a filtration camp before being forced on to buses. City mayor Vadym Boichenko said the tactic had echoes of the Nazis during the Second World War.

Kyivs foreign ministry added: Russia moves to the next level of terror. 6,000 Ukrainians already now in Russian camps where they may be used as hostages.

The Kremlin has boasted of rescuing thousands from the city of their own free will.

Meanwhile, 100,000-plus residents are still stranded in desperate conditions with no food supply, water, power or medicine amid indiscriminate Russian shelling.

Ukraine said its attempts to evacuate citizens have been repeatedly blocked by Russian forces who were said to have stopped 40 buses reaching those in need last night.
For a woman about to become second-in-command of the worlds most powerful country it seemed rather trivial, but the cover photo on the forthcoming edition of U.S. Vogue was enough to wipe the perpetual grin off Kamala Harriss face.

It was two weeks before the presidential inauguration in January 2021, but Joe Bidens running mate was mortified that the fashion bible had chosen to illustrate her interview with a photo in which she was wearing skinny jeans and Converse trainers.

She was wounded and felt belittled, asking aides: Would Vogue depict another world leader this way?

When her PR complained to Vogue boss Anna Wintour, she countered that shed chosen the picture herself because she thought it made Harris relatable.

Harris clearly didnt want relatable, she wanted formidable, according to the authors of a new book that is causing major ructions in Washington.

Vogue subsequently used another photo  of Harris in a power jacket, arms folded  for its online edition and even put out a limited-edition print run with the approved image on the front.

Kamala Harris, 57, was Californias attorney general before becoming the second black female senator

However, when Harriss chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, passed on her bosss deep upset to a senior figure in Bidens campaign team, Flournoy and Harris were basically told to grow up.

Rioters had only just stormed the U.S. Capitol, the economy was in dire straits and the pandemic was laying waste to the population. Tina, the adviser replied witheringly, these are First World problems.

That clash, say journalists Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns in a forthcoming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden And The Battle For Americas Future, was an early indication of a widening rift between the U.S. President and Vice President.

A rift, many believe, that could doom Democrat hopes for the next election and return Donald Trump to the White House.

For how can the increasingly doddery-looking Uncle Joe hand over the reins  as has always looked like the plan  to a successor whose political decline (to quote a Senate friend cited in the book) is a slow-rolling Greek tragedy?

While Bidens approval ratings dropped to a new low of 40 per cent this week (continuing a collapse that started with the bungled U.S.

The cover of Vogue (right) of Harris wearing sneakers and skinny jeans reportedly didn't please her team, who are said to have requested the replacement image in a power suit (left)

Afghanistan withdrawal and rising Covid deaths last August), Harriss has already sunk as low as 28 per cent, making her the least popular vice president in some 50 years.

And that was before she had a giggling fit before answering a question at a press conference in Poland about the fate of Ukrainian refugees earlier this month.

Donald Trump must be rubbing his small hands with glee. No matter how many Americans shudder at the prospect of him winning a second term (something he has vowed to aim for), his dreams could become reality if the opposition cannot steady their floundering ship and find a viable opponent for 2024.

The new book, which is out in May (though excerpts have been leaked to the website Politico) is twisting the knife by alleging that the widespread public perception of Harris as imperious, insecure and out of her depth is shared even in the White House.

According to Martin and Burns, who work for the Left-wing New York Times, the relationship between the Biden and Harris camps is getting worse and is now characterised by anger, mutual contempt and turf wars.

A senator close to her told them Harriss frustration is up in the stratosphere and shes told White House aides in frank terms that she doesnt want her remit to be restricted to a few issues mainly associated with women and black Americans.

The book claims that Biden staff have grown tired of complaints by the VP and her cheerleaders that shes been set up to fail

Biden insiders, meanwhile, prefer a different explanation: the Vice President is simply not up to the job. Harris has gone so far as to complain that White House staff were not standing up when she entered a room.

Some of Harriss advisers believed the Presidents almost entirely white inner circle did not show the VP the respect she deserved, the book says.

'Harris worried that Bidens staff looked down on her; she fixated on real and perceived snubs in ways the West Wing found tedious.

Harris also clashed with the Presidents office over her foreign policy role, the authors claim. Her team had wanted her to oversee Americas relationship with Scandinavian countries  an obviously fairly easy job.

But as Barack Obamas VP, Biden had taken on Central America  a far bigger challenge, as it includes the problem of illegal immigration across the Mexican border.

The Biden camp felt it only reasonable that Harris did the same, alongside overseeing voting reform  another tricky responsibility, albeit one shed asked for.

The book  whose allegations the administration has done little to dispute beyond noting they are unattributed  claims that Biden staff have grown tired of complaints by the VP and her cheerleaders that shes been set up to fail (although why Biden would want to do that appears less clear).

Insiders fear the alleged rift between Harris and Biden could doom the Democrats in 2024 and see the return of Donald Trump in the Whitehouse

Months of whingeing reportedly culminated in an exasperated Kate Bedingfield, Bidens communications director, privately totting up the number of times Harris had failed  notably during her fiasco of a 2020 presidential run and her messy record as a senator  and concluding she had fallen short of sky-high expectations throughout her political career.

Responding to these claims, Bedingfield told Politico: Vice President Harris is a force in this administration and I have the utmost respect for the work she does every day to move the country forward.

And this was the running mate whom a year ago Biden gushingly called the last voice in the room whenever he needed honest counsel.

Their weekly lunches, a key part of the Biden-Obama years, lack personal and political intimacy, the book claims.

Some always warned that the Biden-Harris double act  no matter how many boxes it ticked for Democrat campaign chiefs  was a marriage of convenience that would end in divorce. They appear to have included the First Lady, Jill Biden.

According to the book, when her husband picked Harris as his running mate on August 11, 2020, Mrs Biden wasnt impressed.

There are millions of people in the United States, she complained privately. Why do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe?

She was presumably referring to Harriss vicious swipes during the Democrat primaries, such as when she said she believed the women who accused him of inappropriate touching.

Although the genial Biden has always only had warm words publicly for Harris, it was hardly the ideal basis for a partnership.

The office of Vice President has been derided as a non-job for centuries, as fans of the TV comedy Veep will know. However, Harris was supposed to have been different.

Given Biden will be pushing 82 by the 2024 election, Democrat insiders said Harris would effectively become a co-president, gradually assuming some of his responsibilities before smoothly replacing him as the Democrat nominee ahead of the election.

The 57-year-old was Californias attorney general before becoming the second black female senator.

The media started calling her the female Obama, which reportedly annoyed her  although one imagines she'd jump at the comparison now.

Facing an endless trail of negative headlines, she is a victim of sexism and racism, her defenders say. But its hard to argue that something isnt badly wrong given the flood of staff departures. .

Last week, Sabrina Singh, her deputy press secretary, became the ninth member of the team to throw in the towel since last summer. Harris is accused of being a dysfunctional boss.

Some 18 people connected to the VP told the Washington Post she was a bully who inflicted soul-destroying criticism on her underlings and routinely refused to review briefing materials, blaming aides when she appeared underprepared.

Its not surprising that Democrats are peering around anxiously for an alternative 2024 candidate.

Transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and Hillary Clinton both look keen, but nobody fancies their chances against Trump.

Michelle Obama would have a good shot but doesnt seem interested.

As for Harris, she might like to explain why anyone silly enough to let Vogue photograph them in jeans and trainers deserves to be given the chance to make more pressing decisions.
The idea of a drone superhighway may sound like a concept from the latest science fiction blockbuster.

But it could soon become a reality in England, with the submission of plans to build a network across the Midlands and the Southeast.

A consortium led by software provider Altitude Angel has submitted plans for a 165-mile-long superhighway network dubbed Project Skyway, connecting airspace above cities including Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby.

If approved, the network could potentially then be extended to Southampton on the south coast and Ipswich on the east coast.

The group hopes the superhighway will 'unlock the huge potential offered by unmanned aerial vehicles,' with a decision from the government on whether to green light the project expected in the coming weeks.

A consortium led by software provider Altitude Angel has submitted plans for a 165-mile-long superhighway network dubbed Project Skyway, connecting airspace above cities including Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby

The group hopes the superhighway will 'unlock the huge potential offered by unmanned aerial vehicles,' with a decision on whether to green light the project expected in the coming weeks

Detect and avoid technology The drone superhighway will use Altitude Angel's detect and avoid (DAA) technology to prevent collisions between the flying vehicles. This technology was developed back in 2020 in a five-mile flight corridor just south of Reading. It feeds automated instructions to the unmanned drones to keep them away from others or change path if they're in danger of crashing. DAA only requires basic technical integrations and does not require specialist hardware on-board the drone, meaning it an be utilised by a range of businesses. Advertisement

'This is the most ambitious transport project proposed for the country since the advent of the railway network in the 18th century,' said Richard Parker, CEO and founder of Altitude Angel.

'Britain is at the forefront of a second transport revolution.

'Drones have the potential to transport goods in a way our ancestors could never have imagined but would have surely understood.

'Britain can lead the world in these innovative and life-saving technologies, we have the skills and ambition to open our skies to safe and secure drone and air-taxi flights.'

To cover the 165 miles of superhighway, Altitude Angel will need 29 Arrow Towers  the technology which allows the flights to operate safe and securely in unrestricted airspace.

Existing infrastructure, such as phone masts, will be utilised where possible, a spokesperson told MailOnline.

The drone superhighway will use Altitude Angel's detect and avoid (DAA) technology to prevent collisions between the flying vehicles.

This technology was developed back in 2020 and tested in a five-mile flight corridor just south of Reading.

To cover the 165 miles of superhighway, Altitude Angel willl need 29 Arrow Towers  the technology which allows the flights to operate safely and securely in unrestricted airspace

It feeds automated instructions to the unmanned drones to keep them away from others or change path if they're in danger of crashing.

According to Altitude Angel, DAA only requires basic technical integrations and does not require specialist hardware on-board the drone, meaning it can be utilised by a range of businesses.

When, or if, the project is approved by the government, the first superhighway will be set up across the Midlands and Southeast.

The drone superhighway will use Altitude Angel's detect and avoid (DAA) technology to prevent collisions between the flying vehicles. It feeds automated instructions to the unmanned drones to keep them away from others or change path if they're in danger of crashing

If that proves a success, Altitude Angel says it will make the technology available to allow other towns and cities around the world to set up their own drone superhighways.

'With the government's support, using this technology as its foundation, we can create networks spanning the length and breadth of Britain, a super-highway-network-in-the-sky, providing a critical digital infrastructure which will, in-turn, enable the world's first truly national drone economy,' Mr Parker added.

It remains unclear how much the network will cost to be set up, should it be approved.
By Baek Byung-yeul





Kwon Oh-gap, chairman and CEO of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings
It's one of the most recognised archaeological sites in the world and a lasting symbol of the Inca Empire.

But according to a new paper, the ancient citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru has gone by the wrong name ever since its 'rediscovery' more than a century ago.

The historic site, high in the Peruvian Andes, was built in the 15th century and later abandoned before being found by American explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911.

Researchers reviewed Bingham's original field notes, early 20th century maps of the region, and centuries-old land documents from different archives.

Their findings suggest that the Incas originally called it 'Huayna Picchu', for the rocky summit that lies nearest to the site, slightly further north, and not 'Machu Picchu', which is the name of the highest mountain near the ancient city, in the south.

Pictured, a tourist sits at Machu Picchu, the name of the highest mountain near the ancient city, in the south, looking towards the anicent citadel (known for the last 110 years as Machu Picchu) and Huayna Picchu, the rocky summit that lies nearest to the site, further north

The new findings suggest that the Incas originally called the ancient citadel 'Huayna Picchu', for the rocky summit that lies nearest to the site, slightly further north, and not 'Machu Picchu', which is the name of the highest mountain near the ancient city, in the south. Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti, who according to historical records rose to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located

WHAT DO WE KNOW OF MACHU PICCHU? Machu Picchu is a 15th century Incan citadel, believed to have been built for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (143872). It is located in modern-day Peru's Cusco region, on a 7,970 feet (2,430 metre) -long mountain ridge. It was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. The site was abandoned during the time of the Spanish conquest, but was not discovered by the invading forces. Geological analysis has suggested that the citadel's location above a network of intersecting tectonic faults was deliberately chosen. These would have provided an abundance of easy-to-work rock as well as a source of water and drainage. Advertisement

The new paper has been authored by historian Donato Amado Gonzales from the Ministry of Culture of Peru and archaeologist Brian Bauer from the University of Illinois Chicago.

'We began with the uncertainty of the name of the ruins when Bingham first visited them and then reviewed several maps and atlases printed before Bingham's visit to the ruins,' said Professor Bauer.

'There is significant data which suggest that the Inca city actually was called Picchu or more likely, Huayna Picchu.'

For the new paper, the authors examined three data sources  the field notes of Hiram Bingham, names on 19th century maps and information recorded in 17th century documents.

The researchers found that the ruins of an Inca town called Huayna Picchu is mentioned in a 1904 atlas that was published seven years before Bingham arrived in Peru.

Additionally, they show that Bingham was told in 1911 of ruins called Huayna Picchu along the Urubamba River before he left Cusco to search for the remains.

A landowner's son later told Bingham in 1912 that the ruins were called Huayna Picchu, but still the erroneous name stuck.

The results 'uniformly' suggest that the Inca city was originally called Picchu, or more likely Huayna Picchu, and that the name Machu Picchu became associated with the ruins starting in 1911 with Bingham's publications.

Pictured is Hiram Bingham (1875-1956), American archaeologist and politician who in 1911 discovered Machu Picchu in a remote part of the Peruvian Andes. His work was a catalyst for archaeological study in the Andes and in other parts of South America

Photograph of Machu Picchu taken by Hiram Bingham in 1912 after major clearing work had been undertaken

MACHU PICCHU IS 20 YEARS OLDER THAN WE THOUGHT: STUDY Machu Picchu is several decades older than previously thought, archaeologists said in 2021. Carbon dating of human remains suggests that it was in use in 1420 - more than 20 years earlier than scientists expected. Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti, who according to historical records rose to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located. This led experts to believe it was built after 1440, and maybe as late as 1450. Advertisement

According to Professor Bauer, the most definitive connections to the original name of the Inca city are preserved within accounts written by Spaniards relatively soon after the region came under their control in the late 16th century.

'We end with a stunning, late 16th-century account when the indigenous people of the region were considering returning to reoccupy the site which they called Huayna Picchu,' he said.

Built in the 15th century, before the arrival of the Spanish invaders, Machu Picchu is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World.

It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, 50 miles (80km) north-west of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows.

Most archeologists believe that the citadel was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438-1472).

Unfortunately, most cities built by the Inca civilization were destroyed by the Spanish conquest.

However, Machu Picchu was in a hidden location high up in the mountains, invisible from below, so it was not discovered by the invading forces.

When Bingham first visited the ruins in 1911, they were little known even among those who lived in Peru's Cusco region.

The ancient citadel (pictured with the mountain of Huayna Picchu in the background) was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983

Though Bingham was not the first to visit the ruins, he was considered the scientific discoverer who brought Machu Picchu to international attention.

Bingham organised another expedition in 1912 to undertake major clearing and excavation.

His book 'Lost City of the Incas' became a bestseller upon its publication in 1948. Bingham himself has been cited as a possible inspiration for the character Indiana Jones.

The paper has been published in Nawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology.
Despite being a good source of vitamins and fibre, many of us are put off eating okra due to the weird 'slime' that oozes from the vegetable when we cut into it.

Now, scientists say okra slime could be put to good use, as a way to filter water of microplastics  tiny pieces of plastic less than 0.2 of an inch (5mm) in diameter.

Goo from okra, as well as plants including aloe and cactus, contain chemicals that are called 'flocculants'  meaning they clump up, taking microplastics with them.

Such a method offers an alternative to using potentially dangerous chemicals for filtering water intended for human consumption, the scientists say.

They want to commercialise a new, plant-based water filtering method so microplastics can be removed from water on an industrial scale  enabling cleaner and safer water for everyone to drink.

Okra (pictured) puts a lot of foodies off due to the sticky slime that oozes out of it. Now, researchers have demonstrated that combinations of these food-grade plant extracts can remove microplastics from wastewater

Researchers tested extracts from fenugreek, cactus, aloe vera, okra, tamarind and psyllium as flocculants to capture microplastics. They tested compounds from the individual plants as well as in different combinations

WHY IS OKRA SLIMY? If youve ever sliced into okra, youll have found a sticky goo that sticks to the knife. This goo is called mucilage, which plays a role in water storage and food for the plant. Okra pods have a high concentration of mucilage. Mucilage is also found in the leaf of the okra plant (Abelmoschus esculentus). Mucilage is not only produced by okra but nearly all plants including aloe, cactus and psyllium. Advertisement

Rajani Srinivasan, a researcher at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, is the principal investigator for the project.

'We think that microplastics by themselves may not be much of a health hazard, but anything that they get into or any type of toxic substance that gets attached to these plastics could go inside our bodies and cause problems,' she said.

The health effects of ingesting microplastics  tiny pieces of plastic 5 mm (0.19-inch) or smaller  are currently unclear.

Studies suggest that people unintentionally consume tens of thousands of these particles every year.

Microplastics also enter enter a variety of water sources, such as ocean water, estuary water, freshwater and groundwater, or even wastewater, possibly because they've been ingested by humans before being secreted.

Different water types, including wastewater, can be treated so that the water can be reused for a variety of purposes, such as irrigation, flushing toilets or even replenishing drinkable water supplies.

In the typical wastewater treatment process, microplastics are removed from water in two steps.

First, plastic particles that float are simply skimmed off the top of the water; however, this step only removes a fraction of the total microplastics that are present.

The rest must be removed by adding 'flocculants'  sticky chemicals that promote the clumping of particles.

These flocculants attract microplastics and form large clumps, which then sink to the bottom of the water and can be separated from it.

Okra pods have a high concentration of mucilage. Mucilage is also found in the leaf of the okra plant (Abelmoschus esculentus, pictured)

However, some substances currently used to remove contaminants are potentially harmful.

MICROPLASTICS FOUND IN HUMAN ORGANS Microplastic pollution has been found in human organs  with scientists fearing the tiny particles could increase the risk of infertility and cancer  a study has reported. Experts from the Arizona State University are the first to show that the tiny plastic particles  which form when larger plastics break down  can enter our tissues. Microplastics are typically less than 0.2 inches (5 mm) across, but so-called nanoplastic particles can be as small as a fiftieth of the width of a human hair. Previous studies had established that the particles can be ingested by humans and animals  such as via drinking water  and pass through the gastrointestinal tract. The latest findings, however, are the first to show that they can also accumulate within human organs including the kidneys, liver and lungs. Although the health impacts of this build-up in humans is unknown, experts have linked microplastic pollution to inflammation, infertility and cancer in animals. Advertisement

For example, one common flocculant, polyacrylamide, can break down into toxic chemicals under certain conditions.

So the team turned their attention towards food-grade plant extracts as non-toxic flocculants  most notably okra.

In many cuisines, okra serves as a master thickener of stews and soups due to its characteristic slime, called mucilage.

Mucilage is a thick, gluey substance produced not only by okra but nearly all plants including aloe, cactus and psyllium.

The team specifically focused on polysaccharides in the goo extracts, because these biopolymers can attract and capture pollutants like dyes or even bacteria.

They tested polysaccharide extracts from fenugreek, cactus, aloe vera, okra, tamarind and psyllium  all of which are food-grade materials  as flocculants to capture microplastics.

They tested compounds from the individual plants, as well as in different combinations. To do this, they added these extracts to various microplastic-containing water sources.

Then, they examined microscope images of the flocculant clumps before and after treatment and counted the microplastics to determine how many particles had been removed.

Polysaccharides from okra paired with those from fenugreek could best remove microplastics from ocean water, they found, whereas polysaccharides from okra paired with those from tamarind worked best for freshwater samples.

Overall, the plant-based polysaccharides worked better than, or as well as, the traditional flocculant polyacrylamide, depending on the combination of extracts and water source.

Importantly, the plant-based flocculants could potentially be implemented in existing water treatment processes, the team claim.

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic less than 0.2 of an inch (5mm) in diameter - some so small that they're not even visible to the naked eye (file photo)

'The whole treatment method with the non-toxic materials uses the same infrastructure,' said Srinivasan.

'We don't have to build something new to incorporate these materials for water treatment purposes.'

Looking forward, she and her team will tweak the ratios and combinations of plant-based flocculants to best remove microplastic from multiple water types.

They also plan to scale up their non-toxic microplastics removal process in field studies outside of the lab.

The researchers are presenting their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, which is being held virtually and in-person from March 20-24.
NASA is on the hunt for a second lunar lander - to be used as an alternative to SpaceX Starship - as the agency steps up its plans for longer-term exploration of the moon.

The agency said it will send the first woman and first person of color to the surface of the moon in a SpaceX vehicle, but added that future missions will be split between the Elon Musk-owned firm and whoever wins the bid to build the alternative.

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin has already confirmed it will enter the race to build the second lander, although it is unclear how well that will be received at NASA. Bezos previously took the agency to court, and lost, over its decision to only award one lander contract - to SpaceX - in the initial round.

Any new lander will have to be able to dock with the lunar Gateway space station, increase crew capacity, and take scientific payloads to the surface of the moon, NASA said.

The first crewed landing is expected to happen by 2026, and will involve the astronauts reaching the moon in an Orion capsule and docking with the Starship Human Landing System - eventually using that module to put two people on the moon's surface.

Future missions are likely to involve a combination of the Starship and the winner of the new contract. The agency said it plans to operate one crewed mission per year until the mid-2030s.

It is unclear how much the new lander will cost. The SpaceX Starship system cost NASA $2.9 billion, but during the last round of procurement other bids were much higher, with Blue Origin saying its Blue Moon lander would come in at $5.9 billion.

NASA is on the hunt for a second lunar lander, that will be an alternative to SpaceX Starship, as the agency steps up plans for longer-term exploration of the moon

NASA is asking US companies to propose lander concepts capable of ferrying astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface for missions beyond Artemis III.

SpaceX had already been awarded one crewed (Artemis III) and one uncrewed landing on the surface of the moon, as part of its contract.

The new agreement will see it operate at least one more crewed and uncrewed landing - with the other operator getting a similar number.

As the deal runs for a decade, it is likely future landings will be agreed after these have operated successfully - similar to trips to the ISS with commercial launch.

Artemis landings are designed to work in three stages - first the massive Space Launch System rocket sends the crew into space in an Orion capsule. This spacecraft takes them to lunar orbit, where the Starship lander takes them down.

The winning bid will be a spacecraft that can carry both crew and science experiments down to the surface of the moon, but also dock with the Lunar Gateway space station, currently in development, and increase its crew capacity.

The first woman and first person of color will land on the surface of the moon in the SpaceX vehicle, but future missions will be split between the Elon Musk-owned firm and whoever wins the bid to build the alternative. Pictured is the Starship lander proposal

NASA'S SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM ROCKET IS THE LARGEST EVER MADE AND WILL LET HUMANS EXPLORE THE SOLAR SYSTEM Space Launch System, or SLS, is a launch vehicle that NASA hopes will take its astronauts back to the moon and beyond. The rocket will have an initial lift configuration, set to launch in the early-2020's, followed by an upgraded 'evolved lift capability' that can carry heavier payloads. Space Launch System Initial Lift Capability - Maiden flight: Mid-2020's - Height: 311 feet (98 metres) - Lift: 70 metric tons - Weight: 2.5 million kilograms (5.5 million lbs) Space Launch System Evolved Lift Capability - Maiden flight: Unknown - Height: 384 feet (117 metres) - Lift: 130 metric tons - Weight: 2.9 million kilograms (6.5 million lbs) Advertisement

'Under Artemis, NASA will carry out a series of groundbreaking missions on and around the moon to prepare for the next giant leap for humanity: a crewed mission to Mars,' said Administrator Bill Nelson.

'Competition is critical to our success on the lunar surface and beyond, ensuring we have the capability to carry out a cadence of missions over the next decade. '

Nelson says the Biden Administration and Congress have pledges support for the new lander, that will 'ultimately strengthen and increase flexibility for Artemis.'

NASA's plans call for long-term lunar exploration and include landing the first woman and first person of color on the moon as part of future Artemis missions.

This will involve further work on the $2.9 billion SpaceX Starship lander, being developed independently of the larger Starship project, as well as the development of a new lander - although no budget has been revealed for that project.

When the last round of bidding was open, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics were the finalists - each given a share of $1 billion for preliminary design work.

SpaceX was the cheapest bid, with Blue Origin coming in at $5.9 billion, although Jeff Bezos offered a $2 billion discount when he found out NASA awarded the sole contract to SpaceX. He then lost in a bid to sue NASA over the contract.

Blue Origin said of the new bidding process that it is 'thrilled that NASA is creating competition by procuring a second human lunar landing system,' adding it 'is ready to compete and remains deeply committed to the success of Artemis.'

Dynetics is also expected to put in a bid, saying 'We look forward to reviewing the upcoming RFP and the opportunity to participate in the Artemis campaign.'

Boeing and Vivace Corp were the other bidders when NASA first announced the Human Lander contract in 2019, but it is unclear if either will bid this time. SpaceX is not eligible to bid for the second contract, in addition to the one it already has.

Boeing is having its own problems when it comes to providing NASA with commercial spaceflight services. It was the second bidder to be awarded the contract to ferry astronauts to the ISS, but has so far failed to launch successfully.

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin has already confirmed it will enter the race to build the second lander, although it is unclear how well that will be received at NASA, as Bezos previously took the agency to court, and lost, over it only awarding one lander contract in the initial round - giving it to SpaceX. Pictured is hte Blue Moon lander proposed by Blue Origin

Any new lander will have to be able to dock with the lunar Gateway space station, increase crew capacity, and take scientific payloads to the surface of the moon

The first crewed landing is expected to happen by 2026, and will involve the astronauts reaching the moon in the Orion capsule (pictured), docking with the Starship Human Landing System, and using that to put two members on the surface

When the last round of bidding was open, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics were the finalists - each given a share of $1 billion for preliminary design work. Pictured is the Dynetics lander proposal

So it is currently unclear whether they intend to bid to build the lander, which would have to be launched from Earth, and wait in orbit around the moon for the Lockheed Martin-built, but NASA operated Orion spacecraft.

The end goal of the Artemis mission has always been a landing on Mars, so each of these missions to the moon will be training for a future trip to the Red Planet.

The latest decision by NASA, assuming it gets funding from Congress, will be to send one crewed mission to the surface, likely from the Gateway space station, every year up to the mid-2030s, as well as other uncrewed landings.

'The agency is pursuing two parallel paths for continuing lunar lander development and demonstration, one that calls for additional work under an existing contract with SpaceX, and another open to all other U.S. companies to provide a new landing demonstration mission from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon,' said NASA.

The ability to add another lander was still available to NASA, under the original agreement, and includes changing the requirements of the SpaceX lander.

It is unclear how much the new lander will cost. The SpaceX Starship system cost NASA $2.9 billion, but during the last round, other bids were much higher, with Blue Origin saying its Blue Moon lander would come in at $5.9 billion.

'Pursuing more development work under the original contract maximizes NASA's investment and partnership with SpaceX,' said NASA.

The exact requirements of the new lander, and changes to Starship, won't be known for a few weeks, when a 'draft solicitation' document will be issued.

'This strategy expedites progress toward a long-term, sustaining lander capability as early as the 2026 or 2027 timeframe,' said Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

'We expect to have two companies safely carry astronauts in their landers to the surface of the Moon under NASA's guidance before we ask for services, which could result in multiple experienced providers in the market.'

Artemis 1, the first in NASA's new generation of moon missions, won't launch until at least the end of May, and could slip into June, according to the space agency

After the new draft solicitation is published, NASA will host a virtual industry day.

Once comments and questions from the draft solicitation process have been reviewed, the agency plans by to issue the formal request for proposals this summer.

'Astronaut Moon landers are a vital part of NASA's deep space exploration plans, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, ground systems, and Gateway,' the agency explained in a press release.

'NASA is committed to using a commercial astronaut lunar lander to carry the astronauts to the surface of the Moon, expanding exploration and preparing humanity for the next giant leap, human exploration of Mars.'
Dolphins whistle to each other as part of a male bonding ritual and rely on 'wingmen' to vie for the affection of potential mates, new research has found.

Experts at the University of Bristol said bottlenose dolphins can become more popular simply through vocal exchanges, helping them to maintain weaker but vital social relationships.

Not only this, but a separate study using the same data found that the more popular a dolphin is with other males, the more successful it is when it comes to producing calves.

This research was led by the University of Zurich.

It found that groups of male bottlenose dolphins will work together to compete with rival groups over access to females, with the most popular males in the group having the best mating success.

Dolphins whistle to each other as part of a male bonding ritual and rely on 'wingmen' to vie for the affection of potential mates, new research has found

The Bristol study found that male dolphins are able to stay popular by using high-pitched vocal exchanges (pictured) with other males as a low-cost way to maintain their alliances

How do dolphins use 'signature whistles'? Signature whistles are sounds made by dolphins, used to identify different individuals. Dolphin calves will eventually make their own individual whistle, but in the first stages of life, they use their mother's. In a previous study, researchers observed a dolphin mother at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California, who gave birth to a dolphin baby called Mira in 2014. They recorded 80 hours of sounds from the mother, baby, and other dolphins in the enclosure, during the two months before birth, and two months after birth. The recordings showed that the mother dolphin began increasing her signature whistle two weeks before birth, and continued to do so for two weeks after birth, before tapering off. In contrast, the other dolphins in the enclosure did not produce their own signature whistle at very high rates during this time. Advertisement

The Bristol study, meanwhile, discovered that male dolphins are able to stay popular by using high-pitched vocal exchanges with other males as a low-cost way to maintain their alliances, rather than through other physical bonding activities.

Experts say this is an important interaction to maintain when groups become larger and competition over resources increases.

Lead author Emma Chereskin, a student at the University of Bristol, said: 'Many animals, including humans, use tactile contact, touch, to strengthen and reaffirm important relationships.

'But as the number of close social relationships increases, so too do the demands on the time and space available for relationship maintenance through physical contact.

'Male bottlenose dolphins form strategic, multi-level alliances, and we wanted to know how they maintained multiple alliance relationships in large groups.'

While male dolphins are known to use physical contact such as gentle petting to connect with strongly bonded allies, the University of Bristol research shows they rely on less time-demanding vocal exchanges to remain connected with weaker allies.

Scientists used nine years of acoustic and behavioural data from a dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia, which helped them assess how male dolphins bonded with each other.

Bottlenose dolphins team up to hunt or protect themselves from predators. Adult males live mostly alone or in groups of two to three and join pods for short periods of time.

These usually number around 10 to 30 members, although 'superpods' of more than 1,000 have been recorded.

Senior author Dr Stephanie King, also from Bristol, said: 'We found within the core dolphin alliances, strongly bonded allies engaged in more affiliative contact behaviour, such as petting and rubbing, while weakly bonded allies engaged in more whistle exchanges.

'This illustrates these weaker but still key social relationships can be maintained with vocal exchanges.'

Scientists used nine years of acoustic and behavioural data from a dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia, which helped them assess how male dolphins bonded with each other

Male dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia live in complex social groups in which they form long-lasting bonds to cooperate with other males

It backs British anthropologist Professor Robin Dunbar's theory that vocalisations and language evolved to replace grooming.

Increasingly large group sizes placed impossible demands on the time available for physical contact.

Ms Chereskin said: 'Our findings provide new evidence that vocal exchanges can serve a bonding function.

'But more importantly and in line with the social bonding hypothesis, vocal exchanges can function as a replacement of physical bonding, allowing allied male dolphins to 'bond-at-a-distance'.

'This evidence in support of the social bonding hypothesis outside of the primate lineage raises exciting new questions on the origins and evolution of language across taxa.'

Male dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia live in complex social groups in which they form long-lasting bonds to cooperate with other males.

To do this, they join in large, stable alliances.

Within these alliances, males form smaller, less stable groups of two to three to mate with females, steal them from other alliances or defend against attacks, according to researchers led by the University of Zurich.

Within these alliances, males form smaller, less stable groups of two to three to mate with females, steal them from other alliances or defend against attacks, according to researchers led by the University of Zurich

'This kind of male cooperation for the purpose of reproduction is highly unusual in the animal kingdom,' said Livia Gerber, a former PhD student at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Zurich.

'It's only been observed in a much less complex form in some other primates.'

Together with an international team led by UZH professor Michael Krutzen, she wanted to find out whether the dolphins' complex social life affected the reproductive success of males, or whether, as in most other species, stronger or more experienced males are more likely to sire offspring.

Researchers analysed 30 years of behavioural data from 85 male dolphins and used genetic data to conduct paternity analyses for more than 400 dolphins.

The study showed that well-integrated 'popular' males with strong social bonds to many alliance partners produce the most offspring.

Gerber said: 'Well-integrated males might be in a better position to harness the benefits of cooperation and access crucial resources such as food or mates.

'They may also be more resilient to partner loss compared to those with few, but closer partners.'

Bottlenose dolphins inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide, being found everywhere except around the Arctic and Antarctic.

They are renowned for their intelligence, using marine sponges as tools to reach food that would normally be inaccessible, and communicate through pulsed sounds, clicks and body language.

The two studies have been published in the journal Current Biology.
In humans, the later stages of pregnancy can be difficult because the foetus presses against a woman's diaphragm and makes it hard to breathe.

But some snakes have the same problem every time they eat.

That's because those that constrict their prey before swallowing it have to overcome the challenges of breathing while their lungs are restricted.

'With no diaphragm, they rely entirely on motions of their ribs,' said John Capano, of Brown University in the US.

He said snakes like boa constrictors adjust which region of the ribcage they use to inhale, depending on whether they are resting, throttling an animal or digesting.

Snakes like boa constrictors (pictured) adjust which region of the ribcage they use to inhale, depending on whether they are resting, throttling an animal or digesting

BOA CONSTRICTORS: THE KEY FACTS The boa constrictor can grow up to a whopping 13ft (4m) in length and live for up to 30 years. It has no venom, but uses small, hook-shaped teeth to bite and hold prey while wrapping its coils around it. Boas will go for a variety of different sized prey. Rodents feature most on the menu, but the snakes have also been known to take monkeys and wild pigs. Like most snakes the boa has a specialised, 'flexibly attached' lower jaw enabling them to swallow prey whole. Advertisement

Researchers tested this theory by securing a blood pressure cuff around the ribs of boa constrictors to restrict their movements.

They discovered that the hind section of the snake's lung works like a bellows, pulling air into it when the ribs further forward can no longer move because they are squeezing prey to death.

Capano attached minute metal markers to two ribs in each reptile  one a third of the way down the snake's body and another halfway along  to visualise how the ribs moved using X-rays.

'Either the animals did not mind the cuff or became defensive and hissed to try to get the researcher to leave,' said Capano, who added that it 'was an opportunity to measure some of the biggest breathes snakes take.'

By reconstructing the boa constrictors' rib movements, it was clear that the snakes were able to control the movements of ribs in different portions of the rib cage independently.

When they were gripped by the blood pressure cuff a third of the way along the body, the animals breathed using the ribs further back, swinging the ribs backward while tipping them up to draw air into the lungs.

However, when the ribs toward the rear of the lung were constricted, the snakes breathed using the ribs closer to the head.

In fact, the ribs at the far end of the lung only moved when the forward ribs were gripped, drawing air deep into the region, even though it has a poor blood supply and does not provide the body with oxygen, the researchers said.

Researchers discovered that the hind section of the snake's lung works like a bellows, pulling air into it when the ribs further forward can no longer move because they are squeezing prey to death

They added that the far end of the lung was behaving like a bellows, pulling air through the front section of the lung when it could no longer breathe for itself.

Capano and his team recorded the nerve signals controlling the rib muscles when constricted by the blood pressure cuff, while also filming a snake with a GoPro as it dined, revealing that the ribs were not simply being held immobile.

There were no nerve signals in the constricted muscles, the researchers said, and the snakes had shifted to breathing by activating a different set of ribs further along the body.

As subduing and digesting a victim is one of the most energetic things these snakes can do, it was probably essential that they evolved the ability to adjust where they breathe before adopting their new rib-hindering lifestyle, to ensure that they didn't suffocate themselves.

'It would have been difficult for snakes to evolve those behaviours without the ability to breathe', Capano said.

The research has been published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
The Solar Orbiter space probe has captured the most detailed ever image of the sun's explosive lower atmosphere, revealing volatile, dynamic eruptions.

A joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), the Solar Orbiter was 46 million miles from the surface of the sun when it took the images.

A team involving researchers from University College London (UCL) used data sent back by the orbiter to create the highest resolution image yet of the low solar atmosphere, a volatile region of the Sun whose eruptions can cause hazardous space weather around Earth.

The image is a mosaic of 25 individual pictures taken by the spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on March 7, when it was crossing between the Earth and Sun.

They were taken one after another over four hours, at a distance of 46 million miles from the sun, which is halfway between the Earth and our star.

In total, the final image contains more than 83 million pixels, in a resolution that is ten times better than what a 4K TV screen can display.

The Solar Orbiter space probe has captured the most detailed ever image of the sun's explosive lower atmosphere, revealing volatile, dynamic eruptions

The image has helped astronomers learn more about the low solar atmosphere, seeing the dynamic activity in 'unprecedented detail'.

'This is the bit in between the outer atmosphere, or outer corona, and the inner region of the Sun, the photosphere,' explained Dr David Long from UCL, co-principal investigator of the EUI instrument.

'This is where cooler plasma held in place by magnetic fields can become unstable and erupt. By studying this region, we can work out what drives these eruptions, helping us to predict space weather better.

'The Sun's photosphere is more stable, while if we look at the outer corona we see eruptions that have already started.

A joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), the Solar Orbiter was 46 million miles from the surface of the sun when it took the images

SUN: THE BASICS The sun is the star at the heart of the Solar System, a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, radiating energy. It has a diameter of 1.39 million km, and is 330,000 times the mass of the Earth. Three quarters of the star is made of hydrogen, followed by helium, oxygen, carbon, neon and iron. It is a G-type main sequence star and is sometimes called a yellow dwarf. The Sun formed from the gravitational collapse of matter in a large molecular cloud that gathered in the centre. The rest flattened into an orbiting disc that formed everything else. Facts and Figures Name: Sun Known planets: Eight Spectral type: G2 Distance to Earth: 150 million km Distance from galactic center: 25,800 light-years Mass: 1.988510^30 kg Radius: 696,342 km Luminosity: 3.82810^26 W Temperature: 9,929 F Age: 4.6 billion years Advertisement

'The low solar atmosphere, on the other hand, is where the really interesting physics is happening, and it's a region that we can only see from space, not with telescopes on Earth.'

The EUI takes images of the Sun at a wavelength of 17 nanometres, in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This reveals the Sun's whole upper atmosphere, the corona, which has a temperature of around a million degrees Celsius (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit).

At the 2 o'clock and the 8 o'clock positions on the edges of the Sun, dark filaments can be seen projecting away from the surface.

These 'prominences' are prone to erupt, throwing huge quantities of coronal gas into space and creating 'space weather' storms.

As they were taken when Solar Orbiter crossed the Sun-Earth line, these images can be used in future as a comparison, to calibrate with Earth-based observatories.

Another image taken on the same day by a separate instrument, the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE), represents the first ever full Sun image taken at the Lyman-beta wavelength of ultraviolet light, emitted by hydrogen gas.

SPICE is designed to trace the layers in the Sun's atmosphere from the corona, down to a layer known as the chromosphere, getting closer to the surface.

The instrument does this by looking at the different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that come from different atoms.

In the SPICE sequence of images purple corresponds to hydrogen gas at a temperature of 18,000F, blue to carbon at 57,000F, green to oxygen at 576,000F, yellow to neon at 1,134,000F.

The image has helped astronomers learn more about the low solar atmosphere, seeing the dynamic activity in 'unprecedented detail'

A team from University College London (UCL) used data sent back by the orbiter to create the highest resolution image yet of the low solar atmosphere, a volatile region of the Sun whose eruptions can cause hazardous space weather around Earth

This will allow solar physicists to trace the extraordinarily powerful eruptions that take place in the corona down through the lower atmospheric layers.

It will also allow them to study one of the most puzzling observations about the Sun: how the temperature is rising through the ascending atmospheric layers.

Usually the temperature drops as you move away from a hot object. But above the Sun, the corona reaches a 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit whereas the surface is only about 9,000F.

Investigating this mystery is one of the key scientific objectives of Solar Orbiter.

The images are released at the Solar Orbiter is about to reach a major mission milestone, its first close orbit of the sun - happening on Saturday, March 26.

The image is a mosaic of 25 individual pictures taken by the spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on March 7, when it was crossing between the Earth and Sun

They were taken one after another over four hours, at a distance of 46 million miles from the sun, which is halfway between the Earth and our star

The spacecraft is now inside the orbit of Mercury, the inner planet, taking the highest resolution images of the Sun it can take.

Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at UK Space Agency, said: 'This is an exciting landmark for Solar Orbiter, which is now even closer to the Sun than Mercury and capturing breath-takingly clear images and data about the solar atmosphere.

'Observing the Sun in such detail will allow scientists to find the origins of powerful eruptions and other events on the Sun's surface and in its atmosphere, to better understand how they contribute to space weather.

'The UK has played a leading role in designing and building Solar Orbiter, and in developing the science instruments capturing these high-definition images and data.

'We look forward to many more exciting moments as the spacecraft continues to pass the Sun over the coming years and orientates itself to observe our star's poles for the very first time.'
While millennials often get a bad rep, a new study suggests that when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, it's baby boomers who are the 'bad guys'.

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have revealed that people over 60 are now responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and are likely at the top of the emissions ladder.

'Older people used to be thrifty. The generation that experienced World War II was careful about how they used resources. The "new elderly" are different,' said Professor Edgar Hertwich, an author of the study.

While millennials often get a bad rep, a new study suggests that when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, it's baby boomers who are the 'bad guys' (stock image)

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have revealed that people over 60 (represented by red in the graph) now contribute more than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and are likely at the top of the emissions ladder

Western European countries with the highest emissions from over-60s Luxembourg UK Finland Ireland Norway Belgium Germany Netherland Austria Denmark France Italy Sweden Portugal Spain Advertisement

In the study, the researchers analysed greenhouse gas emissions in 27 EU countries, Norway, the UK, the US, Australia and Japan, categorising them by age in 2005, 2010 and 2015.

They found that in 2005, over-60s accounted for lower emissions than the 30 to 44 and 45 to 59 age groups.

However, by 2015, over-60s had surpassed the 30 to 44-year-olds levels and were at the same level as the 45 to 59-year-olds.

And in the seven years since 2015, the researchers believe it's likely the over-60s group has surpassed the 45 to 59-year-olds to become the top of the emissions ladder.

'The post-war "baby boomer" generation are the new elderly,' said Dr Hertwich.

'They have different consumption patterns than the "quiet generation" that was born in the period 19281945.

'Today's seniors spend more money on houses, energy consumption and food.'

In all 32 countries studied, the study found that over-60s are responsible for an increasing share of emissions  with seniors in Japan now accounting for a whopping 51 per cent of emissions.

According to the researchers, emissions that the elderly account for tend to be more local, while younger groups consume more imported goods, which lead to emissions in other countries.

'Income shrinks in retirement, but seniors in developed countries have accumulated value, primarily in housing,' Dr Zheng said.

'A lot of them have seen a large increase in the value of their property.

'The elderly are able to maintain their high consumption through their wealth. This happens especially in carbon-intensive areas like energy.

An increasing proportion of over-60s now live alone, according to the researchers (stock image)

London produces a THIRD more methane than estimates suggest London produces up to a third more methane than estimates suggest, a new study has warned. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouses gases, with more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Researchers from Imperial College London have performed new measurements to quantify the amount of methane released in London. They found that the UK capital produces 30-35 per cent more methane than previously thought, primarily from natural gas leaks. Read more here Advertisement

'An increasing proportion of this age group live alone. This isn't the case in all countries, but it reflects the overall picture.'

In terms of specific countries, the study found that the elderly in Australia and the US are the worst emitters, contributing an average of 21 metric tons each in 2015.

Over in Europe, over-60s in Luxembourg were found to be the highest emitters, with an average of 19 metric tons per person, while seniors in the UK, Norway, Finland and Ireland were also high emitters.

At the other end of the spectrum, elderly people in Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Croatia and Estonia accounted for the fewest emissions per person.

While emissions are rising among the elderly, they're decreasing among the young, according to the study.

People under the age of 30 cut their annual emission by 3.7 metric tons from 2005 to 2015, while 30-44-year-olds reduced their emissions by 2.7 metric tons during this time.

The researchers highlight that with life expectancy increasing around the world, the elderly population is set to double between 2019 and 2050.

They hope their findings will highlight the need of anticipating mitigation strategies for an ageing society in the future.

People under the age of 30 cut their annual emission by 3.7 metric tons from 2005 to 2015, while 30-44-year-olds reduced their emissions by 2.7 metric tons during this time (stock image)

Dr Heran Zheng, co-author of the study, said: 'The consumption habits of seniors are more rigid.

'For example, it would be an advantage if more people moved to smaller homes once the kids moved out.

'Hopefully more senior-friendly housing communities, transport systems and infrastructure can be built.'

The study was published in Nature Climate Change.
High-frequency waves swirling on the sun have left scientists confused, as the unexpected bursts of energy are moving at speeds that defy explanation.

A team from New York University's Abu Dhabi Center for Space Science analyzed 25 years of space and ground-based observations of energy waves from our host star.

They discovered a new set of waves moving in the opposite direction of the sun's rotation, inexplicably travelling faster than was theoretically possible.

These waves appear as a pattern of vortices, in a swirling motion, on the surface of the sun and move at three times the speed of other types of waves on the star.

Known as high-frequency retrograde (HFR) waves, they provide unprecedented insight into the inner workings of a star, and could one day lead to new types of physics, as follow up studies try to explain how they can be so fast.

High-frequency waves hurtling out of the sun have left scientists confused, as the unexpected bursts of energy are moving at speeds that defy explanation

A team from New York University's Abu Dhabi Center for Space Science analyzed 25 years of space and ground-based observations of our host star

The interior of the sun, like other stars of its type, cannot be imaged by conventional astronomy, whether it be optical, x-ray or infrared techniques.

This means scientists have to rely on interpreting the surface signatures of a variety of waves of light, in order to understand what is happening deep inside.

These new High-Frequency Retrograde waves, named because of their counter-direction, may yet be an important puzzle piece in our understanding of stars.

Complex interactions between other well known waves and magnetism, gravity or convection could drive the HFR waves at the unexpected speed, the team predict.

They discovered a new set of waves moving in the opposite direction of the sun's rotation, inexplicably travelling faster than was theoretically possible

'If the HFR waves could be attributed to any of these three processes, then the finding would have answered some open questions we still have about the sun,' said research associate and study author, Chris Hanson from NYU.

'However, these new waves don't appear to be a result of these processes, and that's exciting because it leads to a whole new set of questions.'

By studying the sun's interior dynamics - through the use of waves - scientists can better appreciate its potential impact on the Earth and other planets.

'The very existence of HFR modes and their origin is a true mystery and may allude to exciting physics at play,' said Shravan Hanasoge, a co-author of the paper. 'It has the potential to shed insight on the otherwise unobservable interior of the sun.'

SUN: THE BASICS The sun is the star at the heart of the Solar System, a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, radiating energy. It has a diameter of 1.39 million km, and is 330,000 times the mass of the Earth. Three quarters of the star is made of hydrogen, followed by helium, oxygen, carbon, neon and iron. It is a G-type main sequence star and is sometimes called a yellow dwarf. The Sun formed from the gravitational collapse of matter in a large molecular cloud that gathered in the centre. The rest flattened into an orbiting disc that formed everything else. Facts and Figures Name: Sun Known planets: Eight Spectral type: G2 Distance to Earth: 150 million km Distance from galactic center: 25,800 light-years Mass: 1.988510^30 kg Radius: 696,342 km Luminosity: 3.82810^26 W Temperature: 9,929 F Age: 4.6 billion years Advertisement

It comes under a relatively niche area of astronomy, known as helioseismology, which relies on the study of acoustic waves seen in the sun.

This is similar to the study of waves on Earth, that can predict Earthquakes.

With the sun, studying these waves has been used to understand more about its interior rotation and structure - which would be impossible using direct observation techniques.

However, acoustic waves are insensitive to things like magnetic fields, entropy and convection - which are critical to theories of solar dynamics.

To bridge the gap, the new team used helioseismic and correlation-tracking analyses of ground- and space-based observations, to look at other wave types within the star.

'We were able to detect equatorially antisymmetric vorticity waves, propagating retrograde at three times the phase speeds of RossbyHaurwitz waves of the same wavenumber,' the authors wrote.

This is referring to a new type of wave that swirls in the opposite direction to the rotation of the sun, and moving three times faster than other wave types.

This can't be explained by standard hydrodynamic mechanisms, the team explained, suggesting new physics might be at play in the rarified, intense interior of stars like our sun.

They first assumed that the waves are being excited by Coriolis force, and then modified by internal magnetic fields, gravity and compressibility - which is how compressed it can be at any given time, based on the conditions in the area.

'Through observational evidence and theoretical arguments, however, we exclude these coupling mechanisms. The as-yet undetermined nature of these waves promises novel physics and fresh insight into solar dynamics.'

The team say it has proved difficult to work out where HFR fit within the wider context of solar dynamics, as they are unlikely to belong to the set of features that commonly arise in standard theories.

The sun isn't the only place these types of waves have been spotted, as a study 30 years ago found as yet unexplained high-frequency waves in Earth's ocean.

This phenomenon continues to puzzle atmospheric scientists three decades on, despite a major effort to explain them.

Known as Oceanic Rossby waves, they were found above tropical latitudes, and were seen to exhibit high phase speeds, up to four times greater than expected in theory.

'It is interesting to note the similarity with the Sun, in that the fluid motions associated with HFR modes are seen just off the equator,' the team said.

'Drawing from the atmospheric literature may thus help us better understand the physics driving HFR waves,' but understanding the physics driving them, they said, would require 'careful, thorough and detailed theoretical and numerical studies.'

The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy.
The next SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to take NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts to the ISS has been named 'Freedom' by its crew.

Known as the Crew-4 mission, it will carry NASA's Kjell N. Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and ESA's Samantha Cristoforetti to the ISS no earlier than April 19.

The Expedition 67 astronauts named the spacecraft in honor of Alan Shepard, the first American in space - named for his spacecraft Freedom 7, flying on May 5, 1961.

SpaceX Crew Dragon 'Freedom' is the company's fourth to be named by its crew, with the others given the titles Endeavour, Resilience, and Endurance, in order of launch.

The next SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to take NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts to the ISS has been named Freedom by the crew. From left to right: Jessica Watkins, Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Samantha Cristoforetti

'FREEDOM!! Crew-4 will fly to the International Space Station in a new Dragon capsule named 'Freedom,' said mission commander Lindgren.

'The name celebrates a fundamental human right, and the industry and innovation that emanate from the unencumbered human spirit.'

This will be the fifth crewed spaceflight SpaceX has operated for NASA - after test flight Demo-2 and the three operational missions to the ISS in a Crew Dragon.

Overall, this will be the sixth Crew Dragon flight, with the other taking the fully private Inspiration4 crew into orbit for just short of three days last year.

SpaceX and NASA say the flight is on track to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 19.

'Through the Commercial Crew Program, NASA and SpaceX have restored a national capability and we honor the ingenuity and hard work of those involved.

From left to right: Jessica Watkins, Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Samantha Cristoforetti

'Alan Shepard flew on Freedom 7 at the dawn of human spaceflight. We are honored to bring Freedom to a new generation!' said Lindgren.

Alan Shepard was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, and was the first American in space - launching on May 5, 1961.

He selected Freedom as his spacecraft name in light of the Cold War space race between the US and Soviet Union.

Crew Dragon Freedom is the second to draw inspiration from NASA's past for a title, with the first given to the Demo-2 capsule - called Endeavour after the Shuttle.

'Alan Shepard flew on Freedom 7 at the dawn of human spaceflight. We are honored to bring Freedom to a new generation!' said Lindgren

'We both had our first flights on shuttle Endeavour, and it just meant so much to us to carry on that name. So that is what we decided to go with,' said Doug Hurley, who travelled to space with Demo-2 in May 2020.

Crew Dragon 'Freedom' was assembled at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, arriving at the Kennedy Space Center this month.

'My whole career, 'The Sound of Freedom' was defined by jet noise. Starting April 19, it's going to be even better,' said Hines, Crew-4 pilot,

'We have named our spacecraft Freedom, in honor of the freedoms we hold so dear. Tune in on April 19th to listen to the Sound of Freedom as Crew-4 launches to ISS!'
Manchester United have been told to make a sensational move for Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino this summer to bolster their ailing forward line.

United are set to lose Edinson Cavani, while question marks remain over the futures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Anthony Martial.

Firmino, whose contract at Anfield expires in just over 12 months, has found himself in and out of Jurgen Klopp's side of late.

Kleberson believes Roberto Firmino (pictured) would be a 'good fit' at Old Trafford

The Brazilian has told his former club to launch an audacious move for the Liverpool forward

And former United midfielder Kleberson, who was unveiled on the same day as a certain Cristiano Ronaldo back in 2003, believes his fellow Brazilian has all the tools to succeed at Old Trafford.

'Roberto Firmino's style would suit Manchester United, especially the way he plays for Liverpool,' Kleberson told Paddy Power.

'For the Brazil national team, he plays higher up, but for Liverpool he's a bit deeper.

'If Manchester United wanted to make a change, he's a good player that can help, especially with Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho on the wings. Firmino can help those players create space when they're on the attack.

'That's the type of player Manchester United should be looking at. A player with Firmino's quality can help release the team. He's a great player and he'd be a good fit, and a good signing for Manchester United.'

It is rare for players to move from Anfield to Old Trafford - or vice versa - given the deep-rooted rivalry between Britain's two most successful clubs.

Firmino has struggled to nail down a place in Jurgen Klopp's starting 11 in recent weeks

Firmino has scored nine goals for Liverpool this season but has been overlooked in favour of Diogo Jota and January signing Lucas Diaz for the third slot alongside Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah in Klopp's front three.

The 30-year-old has won five trophies at Anfield and scored 96 goals in 318 appearances since joining from Hoffenheim in a 29million deal in 2015.

Firmino could still play a key role for Liverpool this season as they target an unprecedented quadruple.

They are second in the Premier League, a point behind Manchester City, have reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the quarter-finals of the Champions League, having lifted the Carabao Cup last month.

United have endured a torrid season and are battling to finish fourth, while their last chance of silverware was ended by Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League last week.




The transition committee for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol in session in Jongno, Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times file



By Lee Kyung-min



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs taking over the trade function of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will significantly undermine Korea's national competitiveness by compromising the efficiency of coordinated responses between the public and private sectors in the event of external uncertainties, business representatives and economists here said Thursday.



Korea's manufacturing-driven and export-reliant economy will face serious obstacles, if key trade directives are determined by the foreign ministry, governed almost exclusively by diplomatic interests, they say. In many cases, the country's export growth will be subsequently undercut due to a lack of both predictability and influence on the international stage.



Further supporting the view is the escalating disruption in the global value chain, the single most critical risk factor for Korea's exporters monitored and countered by the industry ministry. Policy responses will not be as synchronized or effective, unless backed by the industry ministry's import and export data analysis of raw materials and semi-finished goods.



'Manufacturing and trade inseparable'






Achraf Hakimi has had enough of life at Paris Saint-Germain and is already looking to leave the club less than 12 months after joining.

The 23-year-old wing-back put pen to paper on a five-year deal in the French capital after joining in a 60million deal from Inter Milan in July 2021.

But Hakimi has failed to replicate last season's form - in which he netted seven goals and recorded 11 assists - and has therefore come in for criticism for scoring just three goals and four assists in 32 appearances.

Achraf Hakimi is already looking to leave PSG less than a year after joining the French club

The Moroccan has failed to replicate last year's form with just four assists this term

 @DanielRiolo "Hakimi est en train de peter un plomb. A tel point que les Sud-Americains ne lui adressent plus parole. Il veut se barrer" pic.twitter.com/I9GNvC0SyZ  After Foot RMC (@AfterRMC) March 22, 2022

And speaking to the After Foot show on French outlet RMC, journalist Daniel Riolo has claimed the Morocco international is tired of life at the Parc des Princes and does not interact with any of the club's South American stars, including Lionel Messi and Neymar.

'Hakimi is going crazy, the South Americans don't talk to him anymore,' he said.

'He already wants to leave Paris, he is fed up. In this team his qualities have never exploded, so maybe you have to give him up.

'I criticised Hakimi for his fluctuating form, but it must be said that in this team he struggles to express his qualities.

A RMC journalist claims the Moroccan is fed up with life with Mauricio Pochettino's men

'He is angry and that's normal, he can't take it anymore.'

It comes following reports the dressing room has divided into two distinct cliques following their recent run of poor results.

The Ligue 1 giants have endured a difficult month which has seen their season all-but collapse following their shock elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid.

According to RMC Sport, two camps have materialised inside the squad - one including all South American stars and another including those that speak French.

Quotes attributed to someone close to the squad suggested that the tension between the two factions 'blew up a bit' as a result of their chastening defeat against Monaco.

He claims their South American players - including Lionel Messi (L) and Neymar (R) - do not speak to him

According to the report, not one player attempted to start an inquisition into the heavy defeat at the Stade Louis II, with silence prevailing in the changing room and on the trip back to the French capital.

One issue picked up on to illustrate the lack of unity within the squad was the difference in attitude shown by players when certain individuals are fouled on the pitch.

The difference on Sunday between the reaction of team-mates when Neymar was fouled - an action that resulted in several players surrounding the officials - compared to when, for example, Hakimi was fouled, was notable.

PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe also fuelled further speculation regarding his future after footage has been leaked of him confessing he's 'fed up' to Paul Pogba as he arrived for France international duty.

Manchester United midfielder Pogba, who himself will be available on a free this summer, asked his compatriot how things were going at club level to which Mbappe replied: 'I'm a little fed up' - as seen on a video captured by FFF TV.
Manchester United are close to tying down talisman Bruno Fernandes to a new contract, according to reports in Portugal, with the playmaker set for a pay rise.

Fernandes quickly became one of the club's most important players after arriving from Sporting Lisbon in 2020, and he has scored 49 goals in 117 appearances.

As a result, the Red Devils have moved to tie down the attacking midfielder to fresh terms, with the new deal set to see his wages increased to match his crucial status.

Bruno Fernandes is closing in on a new five-year contract at Manchester United, reports claim

Surprisingly, Fernandes was not one of United's highest earners after his 68million transfer was agreed, with his contract said to be worth around 100,000-a-week.

But, as claimed by O Jojo, he is close to putting pen to paper on a five-year extension that will run until 2027 and see him earn a similar amount to Paul Pogba.

If the report proves to be correct, Fernandes would therefore bank just over 12million-a-year, a hefty increase from his starting salary at Old Trafford.

Playmaker Fernandes has been a revelation at Old Trafford since arriving from Sporting Lisbon

Currently, his deal is set to run down in 2015, although he is widely expected to stay.

The same outlet has added that Miguel Pinho, Fernandes' agent, has been in regular contact with United over the contract, with talks 'intensifying' in recent weeks.

It is also believed that the club are keen to make the 27-year-old a 'reference' ahead of next season, as they get set to try and challenge for the biggest trophies again.

Fernandes is yet to taste glory in England, with United having fallen short in the Europa League final and several semi-finals in other competitions since his arrival.

His lucrative new terms will reportedly see him earn a similar yearly amount to Paul Pogba (R)

Despite this, though, he is understood to remain fully committed to the project.

This season has been testing for one of United's main men, and Fernandes' below-par performances have even led Ralf Rangnick to bench him on occasion.

In his 37 appearances so far, he has scored nine goals and recorded 14 assists.
Chelsea have been given a financial lifeline by the Treasury after they were told the club's parent company can inject 30million to resolve immediate cash flow problems.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich saw his assets frozen over his ties to the Kremlin and Chelsea were effectively prohibited from trading.

But amendments to the club's special licence were made on Wednesday, including allowing fans to buy tickets for away matches in the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

Chelsea have been given a financial boost with a cash injection of 30m allowed to be paid

Supporters can now buy tickets to watch the Blues in away games across all competitions

It also permits parent company Fordstam to inject funds to pay player salaries and other outgoings ahead of their expected sale.

Chelsea's monthly wage bill is thought to be around 28m, so this buys them a month's grace.

Significantly, fans will now be able to buy FA Cup semi-final and Champions League tickets, with revenue either going to the organisers of those tournaments or to Ukraine charities.
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When a region has its own slang word to describe its devotion to taking things easy, its a pretty good indication that holidays there will be super-relaxing. So why not indulge in a bit of liming  the Caribbean art of simply hanging around. After all, its the promise of liming beside turquoise seas in the shade of a coconut palm that brings holidaymakers repeatedly back to these islands.

Of all the isles, none is more welcoming than Barbados to the post-pandemic British visitor. Indeed, the UK accounts for a third of this former colonys visitors, with Virgin Atlantic alone operating up to 18 flights each week.

Until now, the big draw has been the genteel west coast, where platinum sands meet with blinding-blue shallows above which rise luxury hotels such as Sandy Lane, where overnight stays can set you back more than 1,000 a night.

James Litston explores Barbados's 'livelier' south coast with the O2 Beach Club & Spa (pictured) as his base

'It feels far more casual than at the west coasts traditional luxury hotels,' says James of the O2 Beach Club & Spa

Yet all eyes are now on the livelier south coast, which has been quietly reinventing itself in recent years, winning acclaim for its beaches and the arrival of more affordable luxury.

That luxury comes in the shape of just-opened O2 Beach Club & Spa (o2beachclubbarbados.com). This former condominium resort on a swathe of beach has expanded, upgraded and emerged from the pandemic as a five-star boutique all-inclusive with four restaurants, a spa and extra rooms in an all-new beachfront tower.

It feels far more casual than at the west coasts traditional luxury hotels. O2 Beach Clubs service is clearly five-star but more relaxed, with staff personalities shining through. Theres a great choice of restaurants, from themed buffets to fine dining, and the bars serve quality drinks including Bajan rum, rose from Provence and Italian prosecco  all included in the price.

Limers paradise: The pool bar at the O2 Beach Club & Spa. The resort also features four restaurants, a spa and extra rooms in an all-new beachfront tower

One of the rooms at the O2 Beach Club & Spa. 'Days here can be spent poolside, watching hummingbirds flit between tropical blooms, or stretched out on the beach,' says James

As for the rooms, my sea-facing suite in the adults-only wing was huge. Stylishly dressed in marble, pale wood, rattan and tactile fabrics, it had an oversized bathroom with walk-in shower and free-standing tub, and a generous balcony overlooking the beach below. Liming was easy in this private space, lulled by a gentle soundtrack of waves on the shore and the rustle of poolside palms complemented at dusk by a chorus of pings made by unseen, amorous frogs.

Days here can be spent poolside, watching hummingbirds flit between tropical blooms, or stretched out on the beach. The only downside is the swell: while the waves are fun to play in, they could intimidate less confident swimmers. More sheltered shores lie a two-minute walk away at Dover Beach, whose sweep of sand fronts a gentle bay of invitingly aquamarine waters.

Things get calmer still at Worthing, the next beach along beyond St Lawrence Gaps restaurants, bars and stalls selling beach wraps, jewellery and bird-feeders crafted from coconut husks. Worthings white, palm-dotted sands are sheltered by an offshore reef, so the shallow water offers ideal swimming conditions. And its not just wave-wary beachgoers who appreciate these calm waters: this is also a fantastic place to snorkel, with plenty of green sea turtles.

The sweep of sand at Dover Beach, pictured, fronts a gentle bay of 'invitingly aquamarine waters'

Above is Worthing Beach, where the shallow water offers ideal swimming conditions - and is also a fantastic place to snorkel

James set off on a half-day catamaran cruise with Cool Runnings from Bridgetown (pictured)

A turtle off the coast of Carlisle Bay. One surfaced close enough to James that he could 'hear it exhale'

All that swimming and liming will leave you hungry, so head one street back from the beach to Worthing Square, where 20-odd food trucks spread out beneath trees. Locals come here to lime with friends and family. Among the delights are Bajan macaroni pie, Jamaican jerk and roti stuffed with curried goat, island-brewed beer and cocktails made with Mount Gay rum.

A reggae backdrop sets the tone on a half-day catamaran cruise with Cool Runnings (74pp, coolrunnings barbados.com), which sails from Bridgetown to nearby Carlisle Bay Marine Park.

Here we snorkelled over shipwrecks teeming with marine life, from clouds of sergeant major fish (so called for their vertical stripes) to angelfish and trumpet fish, all schooling in profusion. Turtles swam about below and surfaced to breathe, one close enough that I could hear it exhale.

On a jeep tour of Barbados's east coast, James stopped at the fishing village of Bathsheba (pictured) and watched the waves roll in from the Atlantic

Things got even wilder on a jeep tour to the less-developed east coast (80pp islandsafari.bb).

We drove through coconut and banana plantations and passed bright-painted cottages and black-bellied sheep before stopping at Bathsheba, whose sandy strand is battered by waves rolling in from the Atlantic. From there, we followed the East Coast Road, pausing at one of the Caribbeans last working windmills.

There may be lots more to experience in Barbados but itll have to wait until next time. After all, one shouldnt pack too much in when theres liming to be done
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In the right hands, smartphones are capable of awe-inspiring photography - as these images show.

They are all pictures taken on mobiles and tablets that wowed the judges in the 2022 Mobile Photography Awards (MPA).

Now in its 11th year, the competition received a staggering 5,500 photo submissions from more than 90 countries around the world.

Six expert judges have now revealed the champion pictures, selecting winners from a shortlisted line-up across 12 different categories including Landscape, Black and White, and Silhouette.

Scooping the top spot was Shanghai-based amateur photographer Liu KunKun, whose portfolio - captured on an Apple iPhone12 ProMax - earned him the title of the MPA Photographer of the Year. Judge Rodrigo Rivas said of his work: 'He has a great mastery of geometry and perspective and taken together with colour and minimalism he transmits a photographic, personal style into his own voice.'

Scroll on to see our favourites from the judges' line-up, from fog-shrouded castles in Germany to vivid rainbows in the Arizona desert. A shot from the grand-prize-winning portfolio is at the very bottom...

'The Mystical World of Kamchatka' is a fitting title for this jaw-dropping photo, taken by Rina Gromova and shortlisted in the Landscape and Wildlife category. It captures the dominating peak of Klyuchevskaya volcano in the icy Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, garlanded by a lenticular 'UFO' cloud

Photographer Wendy Bauer took this mesmerising shot during a flight over Kimberly Coast in western Australia. Shortlisted in the Landscape and Wildlife category, the picture gives a bird's eye view of the coastline's winding rivers, hidden coves and unspoilt wilderness

LEFT: This daring figure perched on the edge of a rock face was captured beautifully by Carlos Martinez. The moody snap, shortlisted in the Silhouette category, is named 'The End of the Earth.' RIGHT: Photographer Martinez secured a second shortlisted photo, this time in the Travel and Transportation category, for this dreamy picture, titled 'The Door to Autumn'

Shrouded by fog, Lichtenstein Castle in Germany and its neo-Gothic architecture is the subject of Germany-based photographer Mariko Klug's iPhone photo. The bewitching snap was shortlisted in the Travel and Transportation category

Colorado-based photographer Kelley Dallas took this stunning photo on her iPhone during a hike at the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. 'My iPhone was the perfect tool to capture this... the curve of the dunes, the clouds hugging the mountains,' she said, describing the Landscape category-shortlisted picture

This vivid rainbow was captured by Arizona-based photographer Joseph Cyr and shortlisted in the Landscape and Wildlife category. The impressive photo was taken in the Sonoran Desert, the only place in the world where the saguaro cacti (pictured) grow wild

In another favourite of ours by Cyr, 'Sentinels in the Snow' was taken in Saguaro National Park, Arizona, and was shortlisted in the Landscape and Wildlife category. Turning the idea of the scorching desert on its head, photographer Cyr shows that cacti are just as majestic in snowy weather

In this shot, Garrine Tsang offers a stunning view of Yosemite National Park. Here, the Canada-based photographer captures natural light streaming over the valley, a perspective that saw the photo shortlisted in the Black and White category

In this picture by photographer Zhengjie Wu, titled 'Metropolis', the sprawling city threatens to overwhelm the viewer. The image was shortlisted in the Architecture / Design / Still Life category

Mount Yarla Shampo plays an important role in Tibetan mythology, and China-based photographer Chen Ma has captured it here in all its mystical glory. This stunning picture was shortlisted in the Black and White category

Twinkling rays of light pierce leafy branches in this stunning Landscape and Wildlife-shortlisted picture by Leonardo Prenol, which is titled 'Fog and Sunbeams'

Irina Tsernjak wowed judges with this feel-good photo titled 'Beauty and Power', which was shortlisted in the Landscape and Wildlife category

LEFT: In this Travel and Transportation shortlisted entry by Emma Mullan, an intrepid cyclist emerges from the mouth of Ballyvoyle Tunnel in Ireland. Built in 1878, the former railway tunnel is the architectural jewel of the 28.5-mile (46km) cycle route from Waterford to Dungarvan. RIGHT: California-based photographer John Nieto took this perfectly-timed shot amongst the rooftops of San Francisco. Named 'Destination Moon Ring', the photo was shortlisted in the Black and White category

A stunning winter shot of Niagara Falls, shortlisted in the Landscape and Wildlife category and taken by Anndrea Lewis during a 'Journey Behind the Falls' tour

Julio Lucas took this snap of the lush wilderness while hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Titled 'Happy Place', Lucas said that it's a location he 'would go back to in a heartbeat'

One lone tree makes an impact in this stark image by Viki Murray, called 'The Road Home'. It undoubtedly left an impression on the judges, who shortlisted the phone snap in the Black and White category
Former Real Housewife of New York Carole Radziwill exclusively sat down with DailyMailTV to discuss her important recent work with Ukrainian refugee relief.

Roughly a week after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Radziwill traveled to Korczowa, Poland and spent two days at the border documenting her experience there with the thousands of refugees pouring into the country.

Carole, an INTERSOS ambassador, worked with the global humanitarian organization as it set up centers for those seeking shelter and safety from Russian shelling, as well as 'triage at the border.'

Stepping up: Former Real Housewife of New York Carole Radziwill exclusively sat down with DailyMailTV to discuss her important recent work with Ukrainian refugee relief

Radziwill had been on a luxury vacation in Paris, France, with family and friends when Russian forces forces first breached the border in Ukraine.

'Like everyone around the world watching the news, I'm praying and I just felt like it was strange to be in Paris and feeling completely helpless,' she recalled.

Carole had already been partnered with INTERSOS so she hopped on a plane to Krakow, got a car and a translator and headed to Korczowa, just three miles from the border with Ukraine where 6,000 refugees were coming per day.

'They are small, so they're very nimble so they can get into areas quickly and set up,' she said of the non-profit. 'They go in and they have a whole organization, they set up the clinic in the refugee processing center.'

'To witness that and be there and be able to tell that story when I came back and on my social platform was what was important for me,' she said. 'It was important as I move forward with working with INTERSOS, that I was able to sort of get a feel of how they work, how quick they work, how they integrate with local monitoring groups on the ground.'

'They are small, so they're very nimble so they can get into areas quickly and set up,' she said of the non-profit. 'They go in and they have a whole organization, they set up the clinic in the refugee processing center.'

'What can I do to help? Other than to amplify it on my social media platforms, to talk about what's going on there, to keep the conversation going.'

Carole described the scene on the border as 'organized chaos' with aid groups leaping into action to quickly manage the flood of refugees seeking assistance.

'To witness that and be there and be able to tell that story when I came back and on my social platform was what was important for me,' she said. 'It was important as I move forward with working with INTERSOS, that I was able to sort of get a feel of how they work, how quick they work, how they integrate with local monitoring groups on the ground.'

Radziwill was there as INTERSOS swiftly transformed a local strip mall into a center for refugees right on the border at the first transit point.

Aid org: Carole, an INTERSOS ambassador, worked with the global humanitarian organization as it set up centers for those seeking shelter and safety from Russian shelling, as well as 'triage at the border'

'They turned [the strip mall] around into what looked like a really huge refugee processing center,' she described adding that the work was 'extraordinary.'

'They turned [the strip mall] around into what looked like a really huge refugee processing center,' she described adding that the work was 'extraordinary.'

'You can't imagine when you walk into these places where every bit of the floor is lined with beds - cots that are mainly set that up in a day,' Carole continued.

She said that many refugees needed immediate medical attention for things like 'dehydration, stress, fatigue, hypothermia' as well as chronic illnesses.

'People would come across the border who had missed a lot of their cancer treatments, so they were immediately transported to local hospitals or people who were diabetics with insulin. So it's like triage at the border,' she said.

'You can't imagine when you walk into these places where every bit of the floor is lined with beds - cots that are mainly set that up in a day,' Carole said

Assisting the vulnerable; many refugees needed immediate medical attention for things like 'dehydration, stress, fatigue, hypothermia' as well as chronic illnesses

'It was a constant movement of people and donations coming in clothing, medical supplies, blankets, anything. You know, you look around and you just can't even imagine,' Carole said.

Carole originally partnered with the NGO after deciding she wanted to return to her roots as a news journalist but didn't necessarily want to go back to reporting like she did in the 1990s and 2000s for ABC News. She went on to join the Real Housewives of New York in 2011 for seasons 5-10 departing the show in 2018.

During her time as a reporter and producer, Carole earned three Emmy Awards and a Peabody, covering various war and conflict zones as well as refugee camps on the Cambodian border.

She is now working to elevate INTERSOS, whose teams are currently supporting refugees in Poland and Moldova, by aiding with shelter and medical care.

'People would come across the border who had missed a lot of their cancer treatments, so they were immediately transported to local hospitals or people who were diabetics with insulin. So it's like triage at the border,' she said

'It was a constant movement of people and donations coming in clothing, medical supplies, blankets, anything. You know, you look around and you just can't even imagine,' Carole said

The humanitarian organization is global, on the front-lines of conflicts and disasters in nearly 20 different countries.

While Carole was able to get to the border in person, she stressed to DailyMailTV the impact of donations, particularly small ones.

'When I do a call up for donations, it's not $500, $1,000, it's like $50 donations. We got so many donations in that were $25, $50 and it really adds up and it really, really helps.

'Some people think that just donating a little bit of money here and there is not enough, but it actually is because tens of thousands of people are doing it,' she explained, imploring people to do what they can.

For more on INTERSOS' work in Ukraine and to donate, click HERE
It looks like it's all over for one of Married At First Sight's most popular couples.

Al Perkins appeared to confirm that Selina Chhaur and Cody Bromley have called it quits during an interview on the Kyle and Jackie O show on Thursday.

The slip occurred when Al said he called Selina, 32, to check up and see how she was doing following her disastrous final date with Cody.

Whoops! Married At First Sight groom Al Perkins, 25, (pictured) appeared accidentally reveal that one of the show's most popular couples don't last the distance

'I watched her final dates with Cody, and I always call I love calling people like every few days and just checking in on them,' he said.

'And yeah, just checking in on her and see how she's been, and yeah obviously like she took it [the fight] good - she's doing good.'

'Not together?' Kyle, 50, asked, before Al attempted to backtrack on his words.

Oh no! Speaking on KIIS 106.5's Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday, Al let slip that Cody Bromley [L] and Selina Chhaur [R] have ended their relationship

'Ohh! You made an error. You told us,' Kyle laughed.

'No no,' Al said, before adding that some participants were finding it hard to relive some of their 'marriages' back on television.

During Tuesday's episode, Selina ripped into Cody and accused him of 'gaslighting' her after he was unable to give her a clear indication on how he felt about her.

Trouble in paradise: During Tuesday's episode, Selina ripped into Cody and accused him of 'gaslighting' her after he was unable to give her a clear indication on how he felt about her

Hard truth: 'Do you feel me going out of this [the experiment] like in your future?' she asked. 'Yeah, like obviously the bigger issue is that you've still got concern,' he replied

'Do you feel me going out of this [the experiment] like in your future?' she asked.

'Yeah, like obviously the bigger issue is that you've still got concern,' he replied.

'I know you're curious as to where I visualise this going in the future but I am more curious to know how you are going now and what you're sort of thinking.'

An unimpressed Selina hit back at Cody saying that she feels like he was deflecting.

'Do you see me in your future?' she then nervously laughed.

'The fact that I am constantly wondering that's what scares me the most, because I probably shouldn't be wondering that this far into the experiment and on our last date,' she explained.

Done: 'I'm done with this, f**k this,' she then abruptly yelled before she got up and stormed off from the lunch

Cody replied, saying, 'I guess, but I am not one hundred percent sure what's going through your head either.'

'Are you for real?' Selina quickly hit back. 'It takes five seconds for people to look at us and for people to see that I am all about you.'

'I'm so into you, I see a future with you. I wouldn't be here otherwise,' she continued.

Are you okay? After a few moments Cody walked over to ask how she was going

'You're gaslighting me,' she said, to which he replied: 'I'm not gaslighting you, Selina'

Over it: Selina explained that she was fed up with Cody not explaining how he was feeling towards her

Selina later explained to producers that she was frustrated that Cody was putting minimal effort into making their relationship work.

'I'm done with this, f**k this,' she then abruptly yelled before she got up and stormed off from the lunch.

After a few moments Cody walked over to ask how she was going.

'What do you want from me?' a frustrated Selina shouted

'You're gaslighting me,' she said. 'I'm not gaslighting you, Selina,' he quickly replied.

Selina explained that she was fed up with Cody not explaining how he was feeling towards her.

'What do you want from me?' a frustrated Selina shouted.

'Well, let's just leave now then. I'll pack my bags and I'll go back home.'

Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Channel Nine
Jono Castano is ready for a sea change following his split from wife Amy.

In an Instagram Q&A this week, the celebrity trainer admitted that he was excited to relocate to Los Angeles this year.

'I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm looking forward to obviously moving over to the US,' the 31-year-old told a fan.

Moving on: Jono Castano (pictured) is ready for a sea change following his split from wife Amy. The celebrity trainer admitted that he was excited to relocate to Los Angeles this year

He then offered a cryptic response when asked if he was 'all good' with the 'single life', rolling his eyes cheekily before cracking a wry smile.

Jono is best known as the personal trainer behind stars like Rita Ora, Matty Johnson and many more.

And now he's ready to hit Hollywood 'in the middle of this year' after cutting many of his Australian ties, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

After splitting with his wife Amy early last year, the 31-year-old has 'quietly signed with Camille Thioulouse, the founder of digital talent agency The Societe,' the newspaper recently reported.

Star power: Jono is best known as the personal trainer behind stars like Rita Ora, Matty Johnson and many more

Jono and Amy's split was revealed in January, with a source close to the couple telling Daily Mail Australia they broke up early last year, then kept up appearances for several months.

They were last spotted going for dinner together at Mimi's restaurant in Sydney in November, shortly after their three-year wedding anniversary.

While they are no longer together, the insider said they remain friends and continue to operate their fitness empire together.

The couple first met on MySpace 13 years ago, before later running into one another at a nightclub and falling in love.

It's over: Jono and Amy's split was revealed in January, with a source close to the couple telling Daily Mail Australia they broke up early last year, then kept up appearances for several months

Jono proposed in Maui, Hawaii, on Amy's birthday, and she described the proposal as romantic and luxurious.

She told Husskie magazine: 'The concierge took me to the beach, the sun was setting, and I walked down these stairs and there was Jono surrounded by candles and rose petals everywhere!

'He worked with the chef at Four Seasons Maui and created a menu of all of my favourite foods for the night. It was absolutely magical.

'I was so surprised! Jono and I discuss everything, but he designed my ring and organised all of this without me knowing.'
Jackie 'O' Henderson struggled to keep her breakfast down during her live KIIS FM breakfast show on Thursday.

The 47-year-old radio star almost vomited after Al Perkins forced her to do a shoey using Kyle Sandilands' brand new Yeezy sneakers.

The Married at First Sight star, 25, pulled Kyle's shoe off and poured a bottle of beer into it.

Not impressed: Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) almost vomited after Married At First Sight's Al Perkins forced her to do a SHOEY using Kyle Sandilands' brand new Yeezy sneakers

'Not my shoe! Not my f**king shoe. It's a brand new Yeezy,' a frustrated Kyle yelled as Al took the shoe off.

He then sipped on the alcohol from his shoe before Al ran towards Jackie O.

'I can't drink out of Kyle's shoe! I can't,' she yelled while holding the shoe close to her face before she started heaving.

'Not my shoe!' The Married At First Sight star, 25, pulled Kyle's shoe off and poured a bottle of beer into it

It comes after Kyle and Jackie O revealed they will be voting for Prime Minister Scott Morrison when polls open for the 2022 federal election.

The KIIS FM radio presenters threw their support behind the Liberal leader after interviewing him last week on the Kyle and Jackie O Show.

'I feel safe with him. I didn't even like him at first... now I feel very safe with him,' Sandilands, who counts Morrison as a friend, declared after speaking to the PM about Australia's involvement in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Challenge: Kyle then sipped on the alcohol from his shoe before Al ran towards Jackie O

'Like, when the world's in s**t, I like to keep with experienced people that actually know what's going on,' the right-leaning radio announcer added.

Henderson replied: 'That's why when it comes to elections, Kyle, politicians don't mind the idea of a possible war breaking out because [voters] do like to stay with the one in charge.'

When asked who she plans to vote for in the next election, Jackie promptly replied: 'I'll be voting for Scott.'

'Me too. I'm voting for ScoMo,' Sandilands responded, adding that he'll still invite opposition leader Anthony Albanese on the show as a guest.
Apprentice finalist Kathryn Burn is selling her 39 jaguar-print pyjamas for almost double the price of other online retailers selling near identical nightwear.

The businesswoman, 29, has marketed the product on her website My Everyday Pyjamas at more than double the likes of ASOS and Missguided, which both sell a very similar pair for 22.

The Swindon-born entrepreneur was previously challenged on the remarkably similar designes during the semi-final, before making it through to Thursday's final.

Rip off? Apprentice finalist Kathryn Burn is selling her 39 jaguar-print pyjamas for almost double the price of other online retailers selling near identical nightwear

What's going on? The Swindon-born entrepreneur was previously challenged on the remarkably similar designes during the semi-final, before making it through to Thursday's final

Kathryn set up her business a year before she applied for the show and had already shifted an impressive 80,000 pieces on her own, after importing stock from China.

Despite previously insisted on her business plan that she had created the designs herself, Kathryn was forced to back down when pressed by interviewer Linda Plant.

Pulling out a pair of near-identical pyjamas, Linda said: 'Did you design the prints?' and Kathryn replied: 'I didn't design the prints, no.'

Wow! The businesswoman, 29, has marketed the product on her website My Everyday Pyjamas at more than double the likes of ASOS (pictured) and Missguided, which both sell a very similar pair for 22

Linda pushed: 'In your business plan you say you designed the prints. But actually this was bought from a high street store, and I would say it is pretty identical.

'So let's be honest, have you designed anything? Just give me a 'yes' or 'no' answer, did you design anything?'

Kathryn said: 'No.'

Later reflecting on the chat, she said: 'I'm in shock. She got out the same print, basically my pyjamas, and put them on the table. And she said 'well you're not unique. That was savage.'

A spokesperson for My Everyday Pyjamas told The Sun: 'As a small business we pride ourselves on offering high quality, ethically-sourced, matching pyjama sets for customers at a competitive price.'

Awkward! Despite previously insisted on her business plan that she had created the designs herself, Kathryn was forced to back down when pressed by interviewer Linda Plant (pictured)

My Everyday Pyjamas! Kathryn set up her business a year before she applied for the show and had already shifted an impressive 80,000 pieces on her own

39: Kathryn's brand sells a near identical pair for 39 (pictured)

My Everyday Pyjamas provides matching pyjama sets for children and dogs.

Kathryn has helped make Apprentice history, after she made it into the first-ever all female semi-final, before finding her way to this week's final where she will battle it out against Harpreet Kaur for a 250,000 investment.

Kathryn and Harpreet, 30, made it to the final of the business reality show's 16th series after Brittany Carter and Stephanie Affleck were fired by Lord Sugar.

Hired or fired? Kathryn has helped make Apprentice history, after she made it into the first-ever all female semi-final, before finding her way to this week's final where she will battle it out against Harpreet Kaur for a 250,000 investment

Harpreet and Kathryn described how they became close friends during the process and always hoped they would end up in the final together.

Kathryn, who owns an online pyjama shop, said: 'My closest friend in the whole process, and from really early on, was Harpreet, which is really weird now, that we were roommates (on the show).

'And as the process was going on, we were becoming closer and closer. So it's so weird now that we're in competition but we're actually such, such good friends as well.'

Smashed it! Kathryn and Harpreet, 30, made it to the final of the business reality show's 16th series after Brittany Carter and Stephanie Affleck were fired by Lord Sugar

Despite ending up as rivals, the two women said they have been supporting each other during Lord Sugar's hunt for his next business partner.

Harpreet, who runs a dessert parlour and sweet treat delivery company, said: 'We were moving through the process hoping to be in the final, we wanted that, so it's worked out.

'We 100 per cent support each other and will be happy for each other because we know how hard we've worked to get to this point, and I'm sure there'll be success for both of us no matter what, whoever wins.'

The women also expressed their delight at the success of the female candidates in the series.

Pals: Harpreet and Kathryn described how they became close friends during the process and always hoped they would end up in the final together

Harpreet said: 'I'm all about girl power. I always have been. I'm a proper girls' girl.

'So for me, we're really diverse as well, the four of us that got through to the interviews, we all have such different personalities and styles and it just proves that you should just authentically be yourself.

'Even in daily life I always find that women seem to spin a lot more plates and seem to absolutely boss it, so I'm so glad that has also come across on this show.

'Not that the guys didn't work hard but the girls had something special about them.'

Boss: Kathryn also spoke about working with Lord Sugar, revealing that he is not as scary as people may think

Kathryn also spoke about working with Lord Sugar, revealing that he is not as scary as people may think: 'I don't think he's that scary even on TV. He's just direct, but a lot of businessmen and women are, you've got to be straight to the point and he is.

'He's not rude, he's just direct and he's like that in real life.'

Harpreet credited her success to being a 'tough cookie', and suggested future contestants should avoid the show if they are intimated by Lord Sugar.

She said: 'If you're a sensitive person you might be offended but if you're a tough cookie, and you can just take on board the feedback, you're going to be absolutely fine.

'At the end of the day, don't apply for the process if you're going to be intimidated by someone like that, because you're applying to go into investment with this person.

'So if you're scared you're not really going to get anywhere.'

The Apprentice final airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on March 24 at 9pm.
China going own way on Ukraine issue: scholar

Xinhua) 08:45, March 24, 2022

BERLIN, March 23 (Xinhua) -- While dealing with the Ukraine crisis, China will neither follow the West nor Russia, said Zheng Yongnian, a scholar with the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), in a recent interview with German weekly newspaper Die Zeit.

China is going its own way, said Zheng, director of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies of the university. He noted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is damaging the entire global economy and thus also China, and China definitely wants the conflict to end as soon as possible.

China needs a stable world order for its further modernization and is genuinely concerned about the conflict, but understands Russia's security concerns, Zheng said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a product of the Cold War, was created as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, Zheng said, adding that the U.S.-led military alliance continues to exist after the Soviet Union's disintegration, and that is the reason why Russia regards NATO's eastward expansion as a threat.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Moon Sung-wook, right, poses with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, during their meeting at the latter's office in Washington, D.C. in this November 2021 file photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy



UK, EU, Japanese rivals enhance price competitiveness



By Park Jae-hyuk



Korean steelmakers are facing growing concerns that they are lagging behind their British, Japanese and European rivals in the U.S. market as Seoul repeatedly fails to convince Washington to lower its trade barriers, according to industry watchers Thursday.



Under the presidency of Joe Biden, the U.S. reached agreements with the U.K., Japan and the EU to abolish the former Donald Trump administration's Section 232 tariffs on their steel and aluminum products and introduce a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) which allows a lower tariff rate on imports within a specified quantity, while requiring a higher tariff rate on imports exceeding that quantity.



When Trump had imposed the Section 232 tariffs to protect the American steel industry, Korea was able to avoid excessively high tariffs as it accepted a quota that limits its steel exports to 70 percent of the average between 2015 and 2017. As a result, Korea's annual steel exports to the U.S. dropped to 2 million tons from 3.83 million tons.






While COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are drastically going down across the country, the pandemic isn't completely over yet, as Hulu's untitled Chippendales series starring Kumail Nanjiani recently found out.

The currently-untitled Hulu series (formerly known as Immigrant) has paused production due to a positive COVID-19 test, according to Deadline.

The positive test came within the show's Zone 1, which includes the cast members and those directly interacting with them, though it wasn't revealed who tested positive.

New show: While COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are drastically going down across the country, the pandemic isn't completely over yet, as Hulu's untitled Chippendales series starring Kumail Nanjiani recently found out

Paused: The currently-untitled Hulu series (formerly known as Immigrant) has paused production due to a positive COVID-19 test, according to Deadline

Filming is said to be shut down for the rest of the week, with production resuming as normal next week.

The news comes just days after Belfast director Kenneth Branagh announced he tested positive for COVID-19, along with Hillary Clinton and White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

The person who contracted COVID-19 on the series was not identified, and it's currently unclear if the virus has spread throughout the set or not.

Shut down: Filming is said to be shut down for the rest of the week, with production resuming as normal next week

The untitled series hails from Pam & Tommy creator Robert Siegel, which tells the true story of Indian-American entrepreneur Somen Steve Banerjee (Nanjiani).

The show will show how Banerjee created Chippendales in 1979, the first all-male stripping troupe in America.

The series will explore the, 'insane, darkly comedic, crime-ridden story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon.'

Somen: The untitled series hails from Pam & Tommy creator Robert Siegel, which tells the true story of Indian-American entrepreneur Somen Steve Banerjee (Nanjiani)

First: The show will show how Banerjee created Chippendales in 1979, the first all-male stripping troupe in America

The untitled show also stars Murray Bartlett, Juliette Lewis and Annaleigh Ashford, with Nanjiani also executive producing the series with his wife Emily V. Gordon.

Banerjee bought a failing Los Angeles bar called Destiny II in 1979 and turned it into a nightclub called Chippendales, which featured the first all-male stripper troupe in the country.

He would later open more Chippendales bars in New York, Dallas and Denver, but as more competing companies started sprouting up... Banerjee's dark side emerged.

First: Banerjee bought a failing Los Angeles bar called Destiny II in 1979 and turned it into a nightclub called Chippendales, which featured the first all-male stripper troupe in the country

Competition: He would later open more Chippendales bars in New York, Dallas and Denver, but as more competing companies started sprouting up... Banerjee's dark side emerged

He attempted to burn down at least three competing strip clubs, and he enlisted Ray Colon, a former Palm Springs cop and male entertainer, to carry out the murders of his producer Nick De Noia in 1987 and other former Chippendales dancers in 1990 and 1991.

Banerjee plead guilty to attempted arson, racketeering, and murder for hire and copped a plea deal that would have lead to a 26-year prison sentence and the loss of his Chippendales company.

The day he was to be sentenced in October 1994, Banerjee committed suicide in his cell by hanging himself, passing away at just 48 years of age.
Craig Revel Horwood has revealed he hopes Anton Du Beke will return as a judge on next year's Strictly Come Dancing - replacing show stalwart Bruno Tonioli.

Twinkle-toed star Anton, 55, who was previously a professional dancer on the programme, appeared as a panellist in the 2020 and 2021 series after pandemic travel restrictions prevented Bruno, 66, from flying back from the US.

And Craig, 57, is ecstatic Anton was made a permanent judge last year, telling Thursday's edition of The Sun he hopes to see him return: 'I am so pleased now that he is a judge, finally.

Honest: Craig Revel Horwood has revealed he hopes Anton Du Beke will return as a judge on next year's Strictly Come Dancing - replacing show stalwart Bruno Tonioli

'There are only so many years you can be front-row dancing, then the second row, then the third and fourth. Then the only place left, darling, is a dancers sheer death  in the wings.

'I was pleased they got him off the dancefloor and then put him where he belongs. I hope he comes back next year. I loved it, absolutely.'

Bruno is also a judge on Dancing With the Stars, the American version of Strictly, and he flew between the States and the UK to take part in both shows in pre-pandemic times.

Showman: Anton, 55 (pictured) appeared as a panellist in the 2020 and 2021 series after pandemic travel restrictions prevented Bruno, 66, from flying back from the US

Star power: Brino (left), who was on the Strictly panel since the show launched in 2004, was a judge on the show's tour alongside Craig (pictured 2015)

However, The Sun claims Bruno could stay put in the US for future series.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Strictly, Bruno and Anton for comment.

Craig previously branded Anton a 'great addition' to the Strictly judging panel as the pair admitted that they love playing 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' on the show.

Delighted: And Craig is ecstatic Anton (pictured last year) was made a permanent judge last year, telling Thursday's edition of The Sun he hopes to see him return

The stalwart judge cheered: 'long may it continue' of Anton being on the panel, after it was revealed that BBC bosses were split in December over whether to dump the newcomer and bring back Bruno in 2022.

Speaking to Best magazine, Craig said: 'Anton's a great addition, he knows the process of working with celebrities inside-out, he's been there.

'Particularly with celebs that haven't been 'gifted', he's had to manoeuvre them around that dancefloor  and he's been with great dancers, where he could show off his talents!

'Armed with all that information, he's showing great empathy for the celebs  he's more lenient than me. And he's funny. Long may it continue, he's a good egg, Anton.

'We're topping and tailing the ladies on the panel, poor things  except we're about five metres apart, plus there are Perspex screens! We have to lean forward to chat to each other, but that just adds to the fun.

'You can say, "Sorry, Anton, I didn't hear a word you said, darling..." We do love to play Good Cop, Bad Cop.'

It was previously claimed sources at the BBC said that Bruno's decision to choose the role in the States, which is understood to pay him in the region of 800,000 rather than the 250,000 he was getting for his Strictly duties, means that some chiefs think their loyalty should lie with Du Beke.

They also fear that Anton might quit the show, which he has appeared on as a professional dancer since its inception, if he is axed from the judging panel.

Bruno, who was on the Strictly panel since the show launched in 2004, was a judge on the show's tour alongside Craig Revel Horwood and head judge Shirley Ballas which took place earlier this year.

Some suggest that the move could be a 'sweetener' for Bruno so they don't have to invite him back and ditch Du Beke, but others think it is a way of lining up his return.
Deaf actor Troy Kotsur was allegedly involved in a 'mid-air altercation' after boarding a flight from London to Los Angeles without his sign-language translator.

The 53-year-old CODA star, who won a BAFTA earlier this month, reportedly had an 'increasingly heated discussion with his wife' Deanne Bray, 50, after having 'sunk about 10 small bottles of vodka' during the American Airlines flight.

Kotsur's rep insisted that the incident in February was just a 'major misunderstanding' after the actor and his wife missed the flight which caused them to fly with no interpreter.

Someone on board the flight revealed that Kotsur and wife Deanne were communicating when it 'suddenly all kicked off, and he was gesticulating wildly as bits of food and cutlery were flying around'.

According to The Sun, an unnamed source on board the flight revealed that Kotsur and wife Deanne were communicating when it 'suddenly all kicked off, and he was gesticulating wildly as bits of food and cutlery were flying around'.

DailyMail.com has approached American Airlines for a comment.

The latest: A rep for CODA star Troy Kotsur, 53, denied the actor was involved in what was described as 'a drunken mid-air altercation' during an American Airlines flight from London to Los Angeles in February, chalking it up to a 'misunderstanding'

The 53-year-old CODA star, who won a BAFTA earlier this month, appeared to have an 'increasingly heated discussion with his wife' Deanne Bray, 50, after having 'sunk about 10 small bottles of vodka' during the American Airlines flight

They told The Sun that the deaf actor, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscar's this weekend as Frank Rossi in the film CODA, allegedly knocked a fork while gesticulating which struck a nearby passenger, who 'burst into tears' after being hit.

As things got heated, the cabin crew, who struggled to communicate with Kotsur as they were unable to use sign language, allegedly had to write a note to say police would escort him off the flight once grounded, The Sun reported.

Kotsur's rep told Dailymail.com that 'ASL is an entire language, not "gesticulation,"' and that 'it is a completely visual language that is communicated through expressive, physical movement of the hands, arms, and facial expressions.

They confirmed that the actor 'and his wife missed a flight, which caused them to fly without an interpreter,' which 'lead to a misunderstanding which was immediately cleared up when someone was contacted to interpret upon landing.'

'In 2022, no airline attendant will serve a passenger 10 vodkas, nor any number of drinks even close to that amount,' the rep continued.

Kotsur's rep insisted that the incident in February was just a 'major misunderstanding' after the actor and his wife missed the flight which caused them to fly with no interpreter. Pictured, Kotsur and Bray at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar in February

'Other than Troy and his wife, there was no other person on that plane that spoke ASL. It is not uncommon when speaking in ASL during meals in small quarters, for cups, food, or silverware to be accidentally hit or knocked over.'

Kotsur's rep told Dailymail.com that 'airlines as a whole, generally do not have sign language support for Deaf passengers.'

A rep for the actor told The U.K. Sun that 'once there was someone able to interpret over FaceTime, everyone shook hands and walked away.'

Kotsur 'is a nervous flier anyway, and was stressed because he didn't have his translator with him,' his rep told the outlet. Kotsur 'was signing expansively which can be uncomfortable for hearing people,' and 'obviously, it was a complete accident anyone got hit,' as 'his elbow knocked something off his tray.'

Kotsur has had a successful run this award season with wins for best supporting actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the British Academy Film Awards and the Critics' Choice Movies Awards for his performance in Apple TV+'s CODA. He was snapped in London earlier this month

Kotsur has had a successful run this award season with wins for best supporting actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the British Academy Film Awards and the Critics' Choice Movies Awards for his performance in Apple TV+'s CODA.

In an interview with NBC News published Tuesday, the actor opened up on the possibility he could become the first Deaf man to win an Oscar for acting. (His CODA co-star Marlee Matlin won the Best Actress Oscar in 1987 for Children of a Lesser God.)

'If that happens, I would be thrilled,' Kotsur said through an American Sign Language interpreter.

'But its really important for young Deaf kids out there to feel inspired and have hope, not only as actors but directors, writers, producers, in front of or behind the camera. I dont want them to feel limited.

Acclaimed performance: Troy plays Frank in the critically lauded movie CODA, and has gathered a string of nominations for his role

'With the technology that we have these days, life is getting better for Deaf people. Like how were communicating right now, with an interpreter ... its been an amazing transformation for Deaf people. I feel like Im Generation X and Im ready to pass it on to the next generation.'

CODA is an English-language remake of the French feature La Famille Belier, which was released in 2014.

The movie is centered on the only hearing member of a deaf family who attempts to balance her concern for her family's well-being with her personal aspirations.

In addition to Kotsur, the movie stars performers such as Marlee Matlin, Eugenio Derbez and Daniel Durant, among others.

CODA premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and it was later given a wide release on theaters and on the Apple TV+ streaming service.
Gordon Ramsay has been accused of a hate crime following his comments about how he 'can't stand' Cornish people after reigniting a war with his neighbours.

The TV chef, 55, who owns a properly on the Cornish coast, has angered locals with his off-the-cuff comment, including the leader of Cornish nationalist party who said he was 'disappointed' with the remark.

Gordon made the comment during an appearance on Zoe Ball's BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Tuesday, saying: 'Trust me, I absolutely love Cornwall, it's just the Cornish I can't stand.'

Remarks: Gordon Ramsay has been accused of a hate crime following his comments about how he 'can't stand' Cornish people after reigniting a war with his neighbours

When quizzed on the remark by stand-in host Vernon Kay, Gordon refused to apologise and instead doubled down, adding: 'I promise I did mean it.'

After hearing of Gordon's comment, the leader of Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow, Dick Cole, said: 'I am really disappointed to hear Gordon Ramsay's divisive comments and his lack of respect for the Cornish people.

'It is shocking he deems it OK to make such a statement that he'd presumably not make about other national or ethnic groups. I sincerely hope he will reflect on his words and apologise.'

Mr Cole's comments reference the governments recognition that Cornish people are a national minority like the Irish, Scots or Welsh.

Boss of Visit Cornwall, Malcolm Bell, said: 'I absolutely love chefs but can't stand Gordon Ramsay. Cornwall is a wonderful place with wonderful people.'

A spokesman for Gordon told the Sun: 'Gordon has made these tongue-in-cheek comments many, many times. Always, very clearly, said in good humour and seen that way by the majority.'

By the coast: Gordon recently admitted he regrets not defending himself after his neighbours in Cornwall criticised him and his family for relocating to their seaside home (pictured) from London during the first COVID lockdown in 2020

Gordon recently admitted he regrets not defending himself after his neighbours in Cornwall criticised him and his family for relocating to their seaside home from London during the first COVID lockdown in 2020.

The TV chef spent much of 2020 in his 4.4 million holiday home with wife Tana and their five children Megan, 23, Holly and Jack, both 22, Tilly, 20, and Oscar, two.

But the family came under fire from locals who accused them of flouting government rules at the time and 'bringing the virus from London'.

In a new interview with Radio Times, Gordon said he is still baffled as to why they were criticised so heavily, saying: 'God knows why we took so much s**t from the Cornish. We lived down there; we just hadn't been down there for a long time.'

'We didn't sneak down there at all. We got there at an appropriate time, and had an absolutely amazing time.'

The TV star added that he relished the quality time with his family during lockdown, explaining: 'A time like that  we'll never get back again. When the kids started disappearing again, I didn't want it to end  as a dad, not a chef.'

Gordon angered locals after relocating to his second home in Cornwall during the coronavirus crisis despite the Government urging Britons not to travel.

Nice digs: The chef spent much of 2020 in his 4.4 million holiday home with wife Tana and their children Megan, 23, Holly and Jack, both 22, Tilly, 20, and Oscar, two but came under fire from locals who accused them of flouting government rules

Nearby villagers were reportedly furious with Gordon after he fled to his holiday home with his family in order to isolate amid the ongoing pandemic.

Locals in the West Country called for tougher action to be taken on people fleeing to their holiday homes as second home owners were even accused of sneaking into the area in the dead of night.

According to The Sun, at the time villagers were worried Gordon may have brought the virus with him from London and wanted him 'the hell out of Cornwall' and even threatened to expose his address if he didn't leave.

In messages seen by the newspaper, nearby residents vented their frustration in a Facebook group called You Shouldn't Be Here. One user wrote: 'The big s*** should take himself and his family the hell out of Cornwall.'

Another said: 'Wealthy second homers think making a few quid means they are immune from the virus and any rules. They are arrogant at this best of times, this has shown how bad some of them are.'

Upset: In a new interview with Radio Times , Gordon said he is still baffled as to why they were critcised so heavily, saying: 'God knows why we took so much s**t from the Cornish' (pictured with his family in December 2020)

Not happy: According to The Sun , at the time villagers were worried Gordon may have brought the virus with him from London and wanted him 'the hell out of Cornwall' and even threatened to expose his address if he didn't leave

One local accused Gordon of flouting government orders to stay in his primary location. They wrote: 'He's swanning around the shops as if nothing is wrong.'

Yet a friend told MailOnline at the time of the reports: 'The family see Cornwall as their family home when the kids are back from uni and Gordon back from filming around the world it's where they spend all their family time together.

'They've been spending time there for 10 years and Jack actually lives in the house there full time too. Most of their neighbours are so welcoming and they love being part of the community.

'They've been following the government advice along with the rest of the country since they arrived on March 20th and the campaign against them is hurtful and unnecessary at a time when we should all be coming together and supporting each other.'

Wow: Gordon even had a new pool installed at his Cornwall holiday home in Summer 2020, regularly showing off the incredible house on his Instagram account

The star also came under fire after he was spotted a number of times taking long excursions when outings were still limited to an hour a day including a beachside stroll with his entire family.

The Hell's Kitchen star also landed in hot water with the local coastguard, who were said to have issued an official warning to him over his apparent flouting of lockdown guidelines.

Sources indicated that Gordon was seen in Rock, Fowey, Port Isaac and Newquay  some distance from his 4 million home in Trebetherick.

The warning was particularly troubling because Ramsay was the face of a 'Stayhome' initiative on YouTube which he had been plugging on his ten-minute cookery shows, filmed in isolation in his Cornwall kitchen.
AFL WAG Rebecca Judd showed off her hair transformation on Thursday.

The 39-year-old dyed her hair a richer honey colour and chopped off her locks in favour of a long bob.

Bec shared a picture of her fresh cut and colour on Thursday with fans.

Hair today, gone tomorrow! Rebecca Judd showed off her chic new look on Thursday after chopping off her locks and going for a brighter honey hue (R)

The mother-of-four posed up a storm, showing off her new highlights with a soft curl in her hair.

'Fresh colour and cut by Hair By Keely Patrick at UVA Salon,' Bec wrote.

For months, Bec has been rocking darker and longer locks with blonde highlights.

Out with the old: For months, Bec has been rocking darker and longer locks with blonde highlights

Bec often shares her beauty tips and tricks with fans and previously said she relies on a $365 skincare routine for glowing skin.

Bec, who is an ambassador for brand The Skincare Company, uses products including a a gentle daily cleanser priced at $55, an AHA/BHA facial scrub, a soothing dual peptide mask and a hydration serum which retails at $125 alone.

She also previously revealed she washes her hair twice a week and uses dry shampoo to get by.

How she does it: Bec often shares her beauty tips and tricks with fans and previously said she relies on a $365 skincare routine for glowing skin

'Before that I'd always been an oilier hair type and would have to wash my hair every two days, especially if I exercised, but the Klorane dry shampoo just pushes me through,' Bec told Gritty Pretty.

If her hair needs some extra nourishment, she'll turn to the Mango Butter Mask ($24.95) by the same brand, as it's 'super luxurious and smells insane'.

In the past, Bec has shared her other beauty secrets, including drinking green tea - which is a well-known skin aid.
Georgia Harrison put on a busty display as she stepped out on Wednesday evening for dinner and drinks in London.

The former Love Island star, 27, showcased her sensational figure in a revealing bodysuit and matching wide leg trousers as she head to Amazonico in Mayfair to catch up with friends.

Reality personality Georgia stunned in a pair of green strappy heels as she showed off her pretty red pedicure.

Wow! Georgia Harrison put on a busty display as she stepped out on Wednesday evening for dinner and drinks in London

Georgia flaunted her tan as she opted for a bronzed makeup palette and her signature nude lip.

The influencer posed up a storm outside the restaurant, while her blonde tresses fell to her shoulder in loose beach waves as she wore it in a half-up half-down style.

She accessorised with two small clips in her hair, along with dainty necklace and watch.

Incredible: She showcased her sensational figure in a revealing bodysuit and matching wide leg trousers as she head to Amazonico in Mayfair to catch up with friends

Looking good: The influencer posed up a storm outside the restaurant, while her blonde tresses fell to her shoulder in loose beach waves as she wore it in a half-up half-down style

Earlier in the day, Georgia shared a slew of sizzling selfies to Instagram, hinting she had more work done on her face after previously undergoing a 6000 nose job and having her lip fillers dissolved.

The TV personality gave her 1.1 million fans a closer look at her facial features and shared where she went to get the treatment done.

Georgia penned: 'Feeling fresh @vogueaestheticsx thanks for the treatments you guys are amazing'

Steamy snaps: Georgia shared a slew of sizzling selfies to Instagram, hinting she had work done on her face

Work it: The TV personality gave her 1.1 million fans a closer look at her facial features and shared where she got it done

Georgia recently left her fans gushing over her incredibly youthful looking mother Nicola.

She took to her Instagram account to share the stunning snap of her lookalike mum as the pair enjoyed a drink after being pampered in a beauty salon earlier that day.

Georgia even joked her age-defying mum looked younger than she did.

Posting to her social media, she said: 'WARNING taking your mum too @modebeautytherapy could result in her looking younger than you. I took @nicolaharrison465 for an early mothers day facial!'

Wow: Georgia Harrison left fans gushing over her incredibly youthful looking mother Nicola in an Instagram post on Thursday

Within moments, fans and friends flocked to Georgia's post to share their admiration for Nicola who looked radiant in a green satin halter neck and tailored trousers.

Taylor Ward penned: 'She's beautiful.'

Georgia's Love Island co-stars went on to applaud the gorgeous photo with Chloe Crowhurst posting: 'Beautiful mumma' and Dubai based Laura Anderson said: 'Unreal.'

While Hayley Hughes and Tyne-Lexy Clarsson posted some adoring emojis.

Beauty: Nicola looked radiant in a green satin halter neck and tailored trousers
Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum said on Wednesday's episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden that they first met each other when they were each called into the principal's office because their preschool aged children were fighting.

'We have two very, very strong-willed little girls that, you know, at that very young age were very much butting heads,' said Channing, 41, who stars with Sandra in the new movie The Lost City.

'We'd get calls and I'd be please let it be Everly [Channing's daughter],' said Sandra, 57, who wore a black pants suit with cut out shoulders and a crystal seam.

Children fighting: Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock during a talk show appearance on Wednesday revealed they first met because their young children were fighting at school

'Please let it be Laila [ Sandra's daughter],' Channing said. 'Of all the people to fight with their daughter.'

James asked them if they both really got called into the principal's office together.

'Yeah, they just wanted to know how we can work this out,' Sandra said. 'Do you remember there was a day they had an altercation and I said ''Do I need to call Channing or Jenna [Dewan], what do I need to do'' and they said ''No we are just going to give them a task, a challenge'' and the challenge was who can be the nicest to the other one. So they were bringing each other little Dixie cups of water.'

'I don't know where they would have learned this competitiveness at all,' Channing said.

Principal calls: 'We'd get calls and I'd be please let it be Everly [Channing's daughter],' said Sandra, 57, who wore a black pants suit with cut out shoulders and a crystal seam

'Really?' James said. 'Sandra, you said that you think that you and Channing were separated at birth. What do you mean by this?'

'It's hard,' Sandra said. 'It's a chemical brain thing where you, there is just a level of stupidity that we feel comfortable with.'

'It's complicated,' Channing said. 'If I said something incredibly dumb and then we both sort of locked eyes and were like, I know, right. We are both very stupid.'

Brain thing: 'It's hard,' Sandra said. 'It's a chemical brain thing where you, there is just a level of stupidity that we feel comfortable with'

Sandra and Channing both laughed.

'We go to the lowest common denominator and we feel right at home there,' Sandra said.

James asked them if they had met before the principal's office or did they both pretend to not be huge movie stars.

The host: English comedian James Corden welcomed Sandra and Channing as guests on this CBS talk show

Channing said he thought that he had seen Sandra one time in passing at the Academy Awards.

'I was like ''Oh my God, oh my God there's Sandra Bullock'',' Channing said.

'And I saw him in Magic Mike,' Sandra said.

Oscars sighting: Channing said he thought that he had seen Sandra one time in passing at the Academy Awards

'You didn't go ''Oh my God, oh my God?''.' Channing asked.

'Oh I went ''Oh my God'' but it was in a different way,' Sandra said.

Channing covered his eyes with his hand and laughed.

Different way: 'Oh I went ''Oh my God'' but it was in a different way,' Sandra said about seeing Channing in Magic Mike

Sandra reenacted how she had to twist in her seat when she saw him in the male stripper movie.

'The ladies know, you sort of twist on your seat and you're like no stop,' Sandra said. 'Because it's just too much coming at you all at once.'

James said they were looking at peak 'Tatum physique.'

Peak physique: James said they were looking at peak 'Tatum physique'

'We embraced backstage and I felt like I was hugging a tree,' James said.

James asked him what he had been doing.

'I'm in heavy rehearsals for Magic Mike 3 right now,' Channing said. 'I'm basically just moving around a small body all day. My choreographer Alison Faulk. She's tiny but she is mighty and I'm basically just holding her and carrying her around as training.'

Heavy rehearsals: 'I'm in heavy rehearsals for Magic Mike 3 right now,' Channing said. 'I'm basically just moving around a small body all day. My choreographer Alison Faulk. She's tiny but she is mighty and I'm basically just holding her and carrying her around as training'

'He's really disciplined,' Sandra said. 'He did the same thing for our film. He has incredible will power.'

'That's just fear and ego because you have to be butt naked on screen,' Channing said.

'I don't have to be butt naked on screen,' Sandra said.

Disciplined actor: 'He's really disciplined,' Sandra said of Channing. 'He did the same thing for our film. He has incredible will power'

'But that's because you produced and wrote this thing,' Channing said.

'That's correct,' Sandra said.

James said he heard that Channing had an interesting nickname and asked him if he would share it with the group.

'Yes, my Mom called me Chanimal,' Channing said. 'Chanimal kind of became it because I kind of tore everything up, climbed everything and ate everything.'

'Do you need me to be here?' Sandra asked. 'Because there is an intense gaze that's happening.'

Interesting nickname: 'Yes, my Mom called me Chanimal,' Channing said. 'Chanimal kind of became it because I kind of tore everything up, climbed everything and ate everything'

Sandra then switched seats with Channing so he and James could gaze at each other up close. Channing then adjusted James' tie and told him that he looked beautiful.

'I'm so used to this,' Sandra said. 'This so doesn't bother me.'

'Can you hear a weird noise,' James asked Channing.

Close up: Sandra then switched seats with Channing so he and James could gaze at each other

James asked them to switch back their seats and for Sandra to explain to the audience the plot of their new movie The Lost City. Sandra said that it was a film about two polar opposites who are thrown together on an action adventure.

'It's about falling in love with your life again even if it's a chapter in starting over,' Sandra said.

James said the film was originally called 'The Lost City of D' and then asked what happened to the 'D.'

Adventure film: 'It's about falling in love with your life again even if it's a chapter in starting over,' Sandra said of their new film The Lost City

'I have no problem with D,' Sandra said.

'So why did we get rid of the D' James asked.

'I personally signed up to do 'The Lost City of D' and when they lost it I was upset,' Channing said.

Signed up: 'I personally signed up to do 'The Lost City of D' and when they lost it I was upset,' Channing said

'I mean it's not gone, it's in the movie,' Sandra said.

'There is plenty of D in the movie, that's a fact,' James said. 'The movie is just D,D,D, D.'

James asked about them filming together and how they bonded.

Working relationship: James asked about them filming together and how they bonded

'I had to walk in on the second day to a brand new cast and say ''Hi, my name is Channing and I'll be getting naked today'',' Channing said.

Channing said he got out of the water on the second day of filming and had a massive amount of leeches on this buttock.

'Which she has to remove because they are drinking my butt like a Jamba Juice,' Channing said.

Cast introduction: 'I had to walk in on the second day to a brand new cast and say ''Hi, my name is Channing and I'll be getting naked today'',' Channing said

James then played a clip from the movie. He then asked Channing how he was feeling about being back in his Magic Mike character.

'It's a little scary because I didn't plan on making a third one,' Channing said. 'We went and made these live shows and just kind of reinvented what it can be. We learned a ton and then ultimately we were like ''already let's strap it up one more time.''

Channing said they decided if they were going to do it that it would be really big and 'leave it all out there.'

James asked Sandra if she had been to a Magic Mike show.

Another sequel: 'It's a little scary because I didn't plan on making a third one,' Channing said of Magic Mike 3. 'We went and made these live shows and just kind of reinvented what it can be. We learned a ton and then ultimately we were like ''already let's strap it up one more time.''

'No but I found a Thunder Down Under in Japan,' Sandra said. 'We were doing a press tour, Hugh Grant said we are going to go out and see a show and it ended up being like a fully nude men's strip show for men. And I didn't know it and I was upset so I said well I'm going to get him back. I happened to find a Thunder Down Under in Japan. I took him and I thought they would be all about me but they didn't care that I was there either. It was all about Hugh Grant.'

Sandra told James that she had seen the Magic Mike's movies and had a signed poster from Channing in her office.

'That is so not true,' Channing said.

James asked Channing when he knew he was a really good dancer.

Big fan: Sandra told James that she had seen the Magic Mike's movies and had a signed poster from Channing in her office

'It was survival,' Channing said. 'I was a tall skinny white kid from Florida and I couldn't dance with any of the Spanish girls at the quinceaneras.'

James asked him if he ever felt pressure about dancing.

'When I did 'Step Up' that was absolutely the case,' Channing said.

'If you play 'Maria Maria' watch what happens,' Sandra said.

The band started playing the Santana song and then Channing grabbed Sandra to dance. When she wouldn't get up, he gave her an impromptu lap dance instead.

James asked Sandra what her go-to dance move was. She said she was shy unless she had a couple tequilas and it was dark and then said she 'backed it up.'
Baby Grace Warrior is celebrating her first birthday on Friday.

And in the lead-up to her milestone soiree at Australia Zoo, the tot finally got to meet her father Chandler's American family.

The extended clan visited a local beach in Queensland and her mother Bindi Irwin, 23, captioned a sweet video of herself pulling her daughter up the sand in a cart.

Family day out: Bindi Irwin shared a sweet video of herself pulling baby Grace Warrior in a cart at the beach as the tiny tot finally got to meet her father Chandler Powell's family for the first time

Cute! 'Beach Day with Chandlers wonderful parents and Grace is riding in style,' she captioned the video

'Beach Day with Chandlers wonderful parents and Grace is riding in style,' she captioned the video.

Many Irwin fans noted how special it was to see the tot meet her grandparents in real life.

'Awww they finally got to meet her in person. So happy for you all!' one wrote.

'That is really awesome they got to finally see Grace!' a second chimed in.

'So glad you get to be with Chandlers family again!!!' another added.

Special day: Many Irwin fans noted how special it was to see the tot meet her grandparents in real life

Uncle duties! It appears Bindi's side of the family also enjoyed the beach day, as her brother Robert, 18, also popped up in the footage

First meeting: Chandler's dad finally got to spend time with his granddaughter Grace

It appears Bindi's side of the family also enjoyed the beach day, as her brother Robert, 18, also popped up in the footage.

The big outing comes after Bindi shared her plans for her daughter's upcoming party.

'Can't believe our beautiful Grace Warrior is almost ONE! Join us this Friday March 25 for all the celebrations,' the DWTS champ wrote on Instagram on Monday.

Parents: Bindi (pictured with husband Chandler) revealed on Monday she plans to celebrate her daughter Grace's first birthday with a party at Australia Zoo

She then let fans know that kids under 14 would get free entry into the park along with the grand opening of Camp Grace.

Birthday cupcakes will be on offer as well as the chance to meet Bluey and Bingo along with live performances.

'You are going to love sharing beautiful Grace Warrior's birthday. Friday March 25. See you for all the awesome free activities and shows.'

Bindi spoke to Stellar magazine about parenting earlier this month letting fans know that Grace already knows the words 'Mama' and 'Dada'.

'At nearly one, Grace has reached that stage where she's crawling like it's an Olympic sport and almost walking,' she added.

Aww! Speaking to Stellar Magazine this month , the 23-year-old said that Grace already knows the words 'Mama' and 'Dada'

The Wildlife Warrior said that her husband encourages her to 'enjoy every moment' with their little girl.

Bindi and Chandler, a former professional wakeboarder, welcomed their daughter on March 25, 2021, which coincidentally was their one-year wedding anniversary.

The couple have been married since March 2020, after an intimate ceremony at Australia Zoo.
Sydney Sweeney was the picture of bliss on Wednesday afternoon while indulging in a spa day with her fiance Jonathan Davino in Los Angeles.

The actress, 24, was noticeably makeup-free and bundled up in a white robe, while her restaurateur beau, 37, donned a comfy tank top and Nike shorts.

The longtime couple's engagement was confirmed earlier this month, just days after Sydney was photographed donning a giant sparkler on her left ring finger.

Rest and relaxation: Sydney Sweeney was the picture of bliss on Wednesday afternoon while indulging in a spa day with her fiance Jonathan Davino in Los Angeles

For Wednesday's relaxing outing, Sydney and Jonathan were joined by the Euphoria star's beloved dog.

She wore her blonde hair down and appeared to have a mud mask spread across her flawless face.

Sydney and Jonathan stepped outside of the spa together to enjoy the view, as well as for the actress to take an impromptu phone call.

She flashed a big beaming smile towards the admiring photographer as she chatted for a few minutes.

Natural beauty: The actress, 24, was noticeably makeup-free and bundled up in a white robe, while her restaurateur beau, 37, donned a comfy tank top and Nike shorts

Chatty: Sydney and Jonathan stepped outside of the spa together to enjoy the view, as well as for the actress to take an impromptu phone call

PEOPLE reported in early March that Sydney and her longtime partner had gotten engaged after nearly four years of dating.

The couple have been romantically linked since 2018 but Sydney has never commented publicly on the relationship.

Sydney and Jonathan were first photographed together in October 2018 as they attended the InStyle and Kate Spade dinner at Spring Place in Los Angeles.

Though the relationship has remained ultra private, the engaged pair have been captured out and about on numerous occasions.

Engaged! PEOPLE reported in early March that Sydney and her longtime partner had gotten engaged after nearly four years of dating

Private: The couple have been romantically linked since 2018 but Sydney has never commented publicly on the relationship; Sydney and Jonathan pictured in February

'Jonathan's is based in Chicago, Illinois and his family owns the Italian restaurant Pompei, according to PEOPLE. They also own a device technology and packaging company.

Sydney sparked engagement rumors earlier that week when she was seen wearing a huge diamond ring on her wedding finger while out in Encino, California.

Along with a flourishing personal life, Sydney has become a household name over the past several years due to her standout roles in the hit HBO series Euphoria (2019-present) and The White Lotus (2021).

It was recently announced that she has been cast in the upcoming Sony Marvel film Madame Web, alongside Dakota Johnson.

Killing it: Along with a flourishing personal life, Sydney has become a household name over the past several years due to her standout roles in the hit HBO series Euphoria (2019-present) and The White Lotus (2021)

So far, there's no word on what character Sydney will be playing but Deadline is reporting that it will be directed by S.J. Clarkson with a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

Most recently, the actress has been shooting the film National Anthem, in New Mexico.

It also stars Halsey, Paul Walter Hauser, Simon Rex, Toby Huss, Gavin Maddox Bergman, Harriet Sansom Harris and newcomer Derek Hinkey.

Sweeney first tasted mainstream success in the Netflix comedy-drama series Everything Sucks! (2018), but she is best known for playing Cassie Howard in Euphoria, which stars Zendaya in the lead role.
She's the self-proclaimed 'human Barbie doll' who has spent over $200,000 on cosmetic procedures in the past.

And on Wednesday, Australian nurse Tara Jayne, 33, turned heads when she flaunted her surgically enhanced physique in a G-string bikini at the beach in Port Melbourne.

The Instagram model - whose past procedures include five breast augmentations, six nose jobs and endless rounds of Botox and filler - commanded attention in the barely there two-piece while her mother Linda stood nearby.

Plastic and proud: Tara Jayne, 33, turned heads as she flaunted her surgically enhanced physique in a tiny G-string bikini at the beach in Port Melbourne, Victoria on Wednesday

The skimpy bikini bottoms drew focus to Tara's pert derriere - which has been enhanced with butt implants - while the floral string bikini top was barely able to contain her ample cleavage.

The ensemble also showed off Tara's extremely tiny waistline and naval piercing.

Tara, who found fame last year after appearing on E! reality show Botched, opted for an ultra glam makeup look for the beach outing.

This included lashings of blush and bronzer, thick black lashes and bold smokey eyeliner.

Cheeky: The skimpy bikini bottoms emphasised Tara's pert derriere - enhanced by butt implants - and tiny waist

Peek-a-boob: Meanwhile, her string bikini top was barely able to contain her ample assets

Makeup: She also opted for a matte lip colour on her incredible plump lips, and drew her eyebrows on thick

She also opted for a matte peach lip colour on her incredibly plump pout, and drew her eyebrows in a thick, dramatic fashion.

Tara wore her long hair in a casual beach wave, which gently cascaded down her back as she wandered across the sands with her little dog Kaya.

Despite there being barely any sunshine, Tara lapped up any rays she could grab as she lay on a leopard print towel in the sands while reading a book.

Tara weighs just 45kg (99lbs or 7st), and is banned from getting any more surgery in Australia due to her extreme look.

Diva: Tara, who found fame last year after appearing on E! reality show Botched, opted for an ultra glam makeup look for the beach outing

Odd: Tara has admitted to spending $200,000 on cosmetic procedures. Pictured right before her surgery

New career: Tara recently joined adult subscription website OnlyFans to help fund her lifestyle and future cosmetic work during the Covid pandemic

Fair deal: She charges $25 for a monthly subscription, and previously boasted of making $10,000 in her first three days on the platform

Family: Tara was joined on the outing by her mother Linda (left)

In August, she appeared on Todd Sampson's headline-making documentary series Mirror Mirror, which followed a group of Australians obsessed with going under the knife.

In the show, Tara described herself as an 'upgraded limited-edition Barbie doll', while also bemoaning the inadequacy of her E-cup breasts.

'I think I want to get my boobs bigger,' she said.

She had previously featured on E! reality show Botched in the hope of convincing Drs Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow to give her bigger implants.

Eye-catching: Her makeup look included lashings of blush and bronzer, thick black lashes and a smokey eye

Cute: Tara wore her long hair in a casual beach wave, which gently cascaded down her back as she wandered across the sands with her little dog Kaya

'Everything is tiny on me except for my tatas... I'm on a quest for a bigger chest!' she told producers.

'I currently have 540 CCs [of breast implant silicone], and I'm just not happy with them at all,' she said.

Tara said she'd noticed a 'rippling effect' on the skin on her breasts and hoped 'filling out the space more' would fix the issue.

But she was left disappointed when the doctors said her weight was 'dangerously low' at 45kg, making her far too slim to carry larger implants.

Summer breeze! Tara shielded her face from the wind as her mother packed a bag behind her

Extreme: Tara weighs just 45kg (99lbs or 7st), and is banned from getting any more surgery in Australia due to her extreme look

'I'm really concerned about Tara's overall well being', Dr Nassif said.

'Not just as it relates to surgery, but she really needs to get both physically and mentally healthy.'

Tara said she'd stop at nothing to maintain and even enhance her 'knockout' 37-inch bust, 17-inch waist and 29-inch hips'.

'There is no limit for me when it comes to plastic surgery. It is incredibly addictive and I already want bigger breasts,' she added.

'As soon as travel is permitted, I have plans to go back overseas to visit my surgeon and get my breast size increased to 1500cc [from their current 1050ccc].'

Documentary: In August, Tara appeared on Todd Sampson's headline-making documentary Mirror Mirror, which followed a group of Australians obsessed with going under the knife

Change: In the show, Tara described herself as an 'upgraded limited-edition Barbie doll', while also bemoaning the inadequacy of her E-cup breasts

'I think I want to get my boobs bigger,' she said during the show

'I think in this day and age, it's very important for a woman to be able to express the way they feel and just express everything about beauty,' she told The Morning Show last year.

'Plastic surgery is how I do that and that's what makes me happy. It gives me the confidence to be the best version of myself.'

Tara recently joined adult subscription website OnlyFans to help fund her lifestyle and future cosmetic work during the Covid pandemic.

She charges $25 for a monthly subscription, and previously boasted of making $10,000 in her first three days on the platform.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in a video address from Kyiv, March 23. Reuters-Yonhap





Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged citizens around the world Wednesday to take to the streets to stop Russia's invasion of his country.







"Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life," Zelenskyy said in a video address in English. "Come to your squares, to your streets, make yourselves visible and heard."







In a passionate speech on the eve of the one-month anniversary of Russia's invasion, Zelenskyy urged people around the globe "to stand against the war starting from March 24... and after then" and speak up against Russia's bloody onslaught.







"Show your standing, come from your offices, your homes, your schools and your universities, come in the name of peace," Zelenskyy said.







"The world must stop the war."







Hundreds of civilians have been killed, hundreds more injured and over 3 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded its neighbor Feb. 24 with the goal of thwarting its pro-Western course. (AFP)


He has been getting fitted with costumes to perform in his popular Broadway show The Music Man for weeks.

But Hugh Jackman opted for something a little more comfortable as he headed to one of his matinee performances of the musical in New York City on Wednesday.

The Wolverine star, 53, showed off his super slim and fit physique in a pair of black tracksuits pants and a cosy grey hoodie.

It's showtime! Super slim Hugh Jackman wore a comfortable tracksuit before slipping into his costume for a matinee performance of The Music Man in New York City on Wednesday

Her strolled around in trendy camouflage sneakers and carried a bagful of items to the theatre.

The affable star flashed the peace symbol as he made his way to work.

In an interview with Vogue earlier this month, Hugh revealed his years-long dream to star in the hit Broadway musical.

'I woke up and was literally like, "Why haven't I done The Music Man?" And so I rang my agent, and he'd just had a call that day about it,' he recounted.

Peace out! The affable star flashed the peace symbol as he made his way to work

'And so it sort of felt as if it were meant to be Now, I'm a little mad at myself for putting it off so long.'

The Music Man follows Harold Hill, played by Hugh, a conman who sells musical instruments to naive locals with the promise of teaching them how to play.

He then makes plans to leave the town without delivering on his promise, but not before being caught out by a piano teacher named Marian.

Meanwhile, Hugh recently shared a family recipe his once-estranged mother Grace McNeil had passed down to him.

'On today's menu: chickpea burgers. Thank you Mum!' he wrote, adding a photo of a tray of chickpea patties in front of a handwritten recipe.

Healing old wounds: Hugh recently shared a family recipe his once-estranged mother Grace McNeil had passed down to him

In a second post, Hugh included a close-up photo of the recipe, which included parsley, spring onions, lemon zest and chilli.

The Wolverine star has spoken honestly about his at times strained relationship with his mother in the past.

In an interview with The Australian Women's Weekly in October 2012, Hugh revealed he was just eight years old when his British mother returned to England.

Sweet: 'On today's menu: chickpea burgers. Thank you Mum!' he wrote, adding a photo of a tray of chickpea patties in front of a handwritten recipe

Abandoned: In an interview with The Australian Women's Weekly in October 2012, Hugh revealed he was just eight years old when his British mother returned to England

She left him and his four siblings behind with their father, Christopher Jackman, in Sydney, and Hugh admitted it took him years to come to terms with it.

'At the time, it was difficult. One of the main things I remember is that horrible feeling that people were talking about you and looking at you because it was odd for the mother to leave,' he confessed.

'For many years, I thought it was not going to be forever, so I clung on to that. Up until about the age of 12 or 13, I thought Mum and Dad would get back together. Finally realising it wasn't going to happen was probably the toughest time to be honest.'

Despite walking out on their family, Hugh said he 'never felt that my mum didn't love me' and added that he'd 'spoken about it at length with her since'.

'I know she was struggling. She was in hospital after I was born suffering from post-natal depression,' he continued.

'And then you add five kids into the mix and the fact she had emigrated from England and there wasn't a support network for her here, plus the fact that Dad was at work all day - and you realise that as parents we make mistakes.'
Almost exactly 50 years after The Godfather was released in theaters, Paramount Plus has unveiled the new trailer for The Offer.

Miles Teller stars in the 10-episode series as legendary producer Albert S. Ruddy, who was tasked with bringing Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather to life.

While today The Godfather is considered one of the best movies of all-time, it faced an incredibly difficult journey to the big screen, which is outlined in this series.

New trailer: Almost exactly 50 years after The Godfather was released in theaters, Paramount Plus has unveiled the new trailer for The Offer

Adaptation: Miles Teller stars in the 10-episode series as legendary producer Albert S. Ruddy, who was tasked with bringing Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather to life

The trailer opens on the legendary Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood, with Barry Lapidus (Colin Hanks) - an executive at Paramount's parent company Gulf & Western - talking to Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) - the then-head of the studio.

'Listen here, Bob, Paramount is going to come crashing down. We need hits,' Barry tells Bob.

The trailer cuts to a meeting with Evans, who asks Ruddy if he's read The Godfather, to which he replies, 'The Godfather, sure, who hasn't?'

Paramount: The trailer opens on the legendary Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood, with Barry Lapidus (Colin Hanks) - an executive at Paramount's parent company Gulf & Western - talking to Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) - the then-head of the studio

Hits: 'Listen here, Bob, Paramount is going to come crashing down. We need hits,' Barry tells Bob

Read: The trailer cuts to a meeting with Evans, who asks Ruddy if he's read The Godfather, to which he replies, 'The Godfather, sure, who hasn't?'

Evans tells Ruddy that they've been, 'all over town and no one wants to make this movie, so I need you to produce it. Get going.'

Ruddy walks out of the meeting where he's met by his assistant Bettye McCartt (Juno Temple), who is holding a copy of the book.

'I can't believe you told him you read it. You better read fast on the plane,' while handing the book to Ruddy as he gets in the car and mentions, 'Oh yeah, that's big.'

Bob: Evans tells Ruddy that they've been, 'all over town and no one wants to make this movie, so I need you to produce it. Get going'

Assistant: Ruddy walks out of the meeting where he's met by his assistant Bettye McCartt (Juno Temple), who is holding a copy of the book

Another shot features a glimpse of the real-life mafia, with Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) being told that The Godfather, 'is bringing us too many problems,' as Colombo asks, 'You want me to take care of it?'

Lapidus is seen telling Ruddy that, 'gangster movies are dead,' but Ruddy counters with, 'This is not just some gangster film.'

He adds that they need, 'someone who understands Italians,' which leads to director Francis Ford Coppola (Dan Fogler) coming into the picture, who Ruddy says, 'Has a great vision.'

Joe: Another shot features a glimpse of the real-life mafia, with Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) being told that The Godfather, 'is bringing us too many problems,' as Colombo asks, 'You want me to take care of it?'

Gangster: Lapidus is seen telling Ruddy that, 'gangster movies are dead,' but Ruddy counters with, 'This is not just some gangster film'

Vision: He adds that they need, 'someone who understands Italians,' which leads to director Francis Ford Coppola (Dan Fogler) coming into the picture, who Ruddy says, 'Has a great vision'

Coppola has Ruddy and Bettye over to his house, saying they need to put this scene in the movie, as Ruddy asks, 'Gangsters arguing over sauce?'

'No, a scene about family arguing over sauce,' Coppola responds.

Another shot shows Ruddy saying he has 'no cast,' while Bettye wonders if Al Pacino is, 'actually a possibility.'

Sauce: Coppola has Ruddy and Bettye over to his house, saying they need to put this scene in the movie, as Ruddy asks, 'Gangsters arguing over sauce?'

Bettye: Another shot shows Ruddy saying he has 'no cast,' while Bettye wonders if Al Pacino is, 'actually a possibility'

Ruddy says that Marlon Brando is interested though Lapidus argues, 'he's a nutcase,' as Ruddy asks Bettye, 'can one thing go right with this picture?'

Ruddy is brought in to meet with Colombo, who tells him, 'You're gonna make a movie that's gonna make my people look like animals, and that ain't gonna happen.'

Ruddy counters, 'I respect what you're saying, and I think I have a solution to our problem,' as Colombo can't help but laugh.

Animals: Ruddy is brought in to meet with Colombo, who tells him, 'You're gonna make a movie that's gonna make my people look like animals, and that ain't gonna happen'

Solution: Ruddy counters, 'I respect what you're saying, and I think I have a solution to our problem,' as Colombo can't help but laugh

Chance: Another shot shows a Variety cover that indicates Evans is 'out' at Paramount, as he's heard yelling at Ruddy on the phone saying, 'I took a chance on you and you stabbed me in the back'

Not running: Ruddy then tells Bettye that he, 'won't judge you if you need to walk away from this,' but Bettye says, 'I'm not running either'

Paramount Plus: The Offer is a 10-episode series, with the first three episode available on Paramount Plus starting April 28

Bettye asks if he's still going to try and make this movie, with Ruddy answering, 'I've got no choice.'

Another shot shows a Variety cover that indicates Evans is 'out' at Paramount, as he's heard yelling at Ruddy on the phone saying:

'I took a chance on you and you stabbed me in the back.'

Real-life players: Miles Teller (left) as producer Albert S. Ruddy (Pictured in 1979)

Big wig: Matthew Goode (left) as Paramount studio executive Robert Evans (pictured right in 2012)

Ruddy then tells Bettye that he, 'won't judge you if you need to walk away from this,' but Bettye says, 'I'm not running either.'

The trailer winds down with a number of dramatic shots of the key players with the tagline, 'The epic story of the greatest movie almost never made.'

The Offer is a 10-episode series, with the first three episode available on Paramount Plus starting April 28.

Filmmaker: Dan Fogler (left) plays Francis Ford Coppola (right in 1979)
She the Married At First Sight bride who is no stranger to controversy.

And during a filming break in mid-November Domenica Calarco certainly proved that as she returned to her Sydney CBD apartment following a trip to the beach.

The 29-year-old ensured all eyes were on her as she showed off her pert derriere in a green g-string bikini underneath a see-through crochet dress.

Turning heads: Married At First Sight bride Domenica Calarco (pictured) left little to the imagination in a green g-string bikini on a Sydney street

She teamed up her look with a pair of Crocs, a Stussy bucket hat and oversized designer sunglasses.

She had her arms full, carrying a beach towel, drink bottle and pair of denim shorts.

Domenica was seen laughing and filming photographers as she walked through a busy city street.

Hello! The 29-year-old ensured that all eyes were on her as she showed off her pert derriere in a green g-string bikini set underneath a see-through crochet dress

Eclectic: She teamed up her look with a pair of Crocs, a Stussy bucket hat and oversized designer sunglasses

Arms full! She had her arms full carrying a beach towel, drink bottle and pair of denim shorts

Funny: Domenica was seen laughing and filming photographers as she walked through a busy city street

Down to Earth: At one stage she was seen Facetiming a friend

Her 'husband' Jack Millar was seen arriving back at their Skye Suites apartment just a few minutes later.

The 27-year-old appeared in good spirits and took the time to greet a passerby's dog.

The sighting comes it was revealed that NSW Police are investigating two incidents that occurred on the current season of Married at First Sight.

There he is! Her 'husband' Jack Millar was seen arriving back at their Skye Suites apartment just a few minutes later

Cute! The 27-year-old appeared in good spirits and took the time to greet a passerby's dog

A 'glass smashing' incident involving Domenica and a nude photo leak - featuring an image of the blonde which was shared to cast members by her rival, Olivia Frazer.

NSW Police told the publication that one complaint was lodged on February 24 in relation to the 'glass smashing' which occurred in Bargo, NSW in November 2021, and aired on the show earlier this month.

A NSW Police spokesperson said the investigations are currently ongoing.
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Cole Sprouse cut a dapper figure in a gray suit as he and his girlfriend Ari Fournier attended the premiere of his new movie Moonshot.

The actor, 29, and his better half, 22, were joined on the red carpet by his brother Dylan Sprouse, 28, and Dylan's longtime partner Barbara Palvin, 28.

The quartet posed together for a picture on the red carpet with the two brothers in the center and their lady loves on the wings.

Cute foursome: Cole Sprouse cut a dapper figure in a gray suit as he and Ari Fournier were joined by his brother Dylan and Dylan's partner Barbara Palvin at the Moonshot premiere

Cole wore a light gray suit over a white button-down shirt that was left unbuttoned to the middle of his chest.

He walked in a pair of sharp-looking black dress shoes and his dark brown hair was combed over to the right.

The Riverdale actor was quick to wrap an arm around his girlfriend who dazzled in a white off-the-shoulder gown slit down the side revealing almost the entirety of her shapely right leg.

The star pulled her in close for a couple pictures making the 22-year-old French-Canadian model giggle.

Moonshot is an HBO Max science-fiction romantic comedy written by Max Tate and directed by Winterbauer.

It centers on a future where Mars is habitable for humans and follows two students as they stowaway on a ship bound from Earth to Mars to see their significant others.

It stars Sprouse, Condor, Gooding, Emily Rudd and Zach Braff and is set for release on HBO Max on March 31.

Classic look: Cole wore a light gray suit over a white button-down shirt that was unbuttoned to the middle of his chest

Making hearts race: Fournier dazzled in a white off-the-shoulder gown slit down the side revealing almost the entirety of her shapely right leg

Getting close: Sprouse was quick to wrap an arm around his model girlfriend

Always one to support his brother, Dylan attended the event with his better half Barbara Palvin.

The Big Daddy actor also stepped out in a gray suit though his was significantly darker than his brother's. He wore a thick necklace that dangled just below his sternum.

Dylan's hair was cut short, and his beard was trimmed into a neat goatee that complimented his face well.

Family ties: Always one to support his brother, Dylan attended the event with his better half Barbara Palvin

Going a shade darker: The Big Daddy actor stepped out in a gray suit though his was significantly darker than his brother's

Clean cut vs a bit of scruff: While Cole attended clean shaven, Dylan's beard was trimmed into a neat goatee that complimented his face well

More couple pics: Just as Cole and Ari had to stand for a few photos, Dylan and Barbara posed together as well.

He and Palvin posed for a number of shots together including a funny one where he grabbed the model's leg and pulled it closer to her while she clutched the underside of her chest.

It also seemed Palvin had coordinated with Fournier on wearing opposite dresses that complimented one another.

The Hungarian native wore a black gown, as opposed to Fournier's white, that was slit down the left leg rather than the right.

The two leading ladies of the Sprouses' lives stood with one another and posed up a storm.

Opposite vibe? It also seemed Palvin had coordinated with Fournier on wearing opposite dresses that complimented one another

Totally different look: The two stars went in opposite directions for their gowns though they both dazzled on the red carpet

A pair of models: The two leading ladies of the Sprouses' lives stood with one another and had their pictures taken by the myriad photographers present

Cole stopped for a picture with his Moonshot co-star Lana Condor who decided to add a bit more color to the evening with her dress.

The actress, 24, stepped out in a beautiful backless yellow dress that was connected from torso to skirt by just a couple of thin pieces of fabric.

This allowed her tummy and sides to peek through the gown that continued all the way down to the floor.

Condor was joined on the red carpet by her future husband Anthony De La Torre, 28, to whom she became engaged in January.

The pair engaged in some passionate PDA as they leaned in for a heartfelt smooch.

Leads: Cole stopped for a picture with his Moonshot co-star Lana Condor

Livening things up: Condor decided to add a little bit of color to the event with a bright yellow dress

Soon to be husband and wife: Condor was joined on the red carpet by her longtime partner Anthony De La Torre

Proud parents: Condor's parents, Lana and Bob, also made it out to bask in their daughter's huge achievement. They adopted her a few months after she was born

Condor's parents, Lana and Bob, also made it out to bask in their daughter's huge achievement.

Meanwhile, Cole and Dylan were joined by their father Matthew and their little brother Ryder.

Mason Gooding of Love, Victor posed with his co-stars Sprouse and Condor in a smart-looking pinstripe suit over a white button-down shirt.

The actor, 25, accented the outfit nicely with a brown leather belt and pair of matching shoes.

Hanging with the fam: Meanwhile, Cole and Dylan were joined by their father Matthew and their little brother Ryder

Adding another one to the group: Mason Gooding of Love, Victor posed with his co-stars Sprouse and Condor in a smart-looking pinstripe suit over a white button-down shirt

A+ fashion sense: Gooding accented the outfit nicely with a brown leather belt and pair of matching shoes

The film's director Christopher Winterbauer kept in the theme of the series with a gray NASA jacket and a pair of blue jeans.

Game Shakers actress Madisyn Shipman, 19, brought the red to the carpet in a off the shoulder cocktail dress that was slit across the middle. .

The dress ended just above mid-thigh giving onlookers a great view of the actress' nearly endless legs.

When all of the stars finally ventured outside they ran into yet another superstar actress - Kathryn Newton of Big Little Lies fame.

Newton wore a black crop top that accentuated her toned stomach and a pair of high waisted black pants.

Her blonde hair was swept off to the left, and her vibrant red lipstick made her mouth pop.

Matching the series: Another Moonshot co-star, Christopher Winterbauer, kept in the theme of the series with a gray NASA jacket and a pair of blue jeans.

Lots of skin: Game Shakers actress Madisyn Shipman, 19, brought the red to the carpet in a skimpy cocktail dress that was slit across the middle and off her shoulders

When all of the stars finally ventured outside they ran into yet another superstar actress - Kathryn Newton of Big Little Lies fame
Maksim Chmerkovskiy is continuing to work on behalf of his native Ukraine from Poland as the Russia's military assault on the country enters its second month.

The professional dancer, 42, took to Instagram on Wednesday in a clip alongside businessman-humanitarian Michael Capponi, 49, whose Global Empowerment Mission is working to help people impacted by the invasion.

'I am really excited to partner with @globalempowermentmission to provide aid to those affected by the war in Ukraine,' Chmerkovskiy said on the social media site.

The latest: Maksim Chmerkovskiy, 42, is continuing to work on behalf of his native Ukraine from Poland as the Russia's military assault on the country enters its second month. He was seen in a clip alongside businessman-humanitarian Michael Capponi, 49, whose Global Empowerment Mission is working to help people impacted by the invasion

He said that he and Capponi were in Rzesow, Poland, where they were at one of three 'warehouses created to hold supplies and relief for those in Ukraine and refugees in neighboring countries.'

Chmerkovskiy thanked Bethenny Frankel and her BStrong foundation for involving him in the ongoing efforts.

'I am looking forward to establishing this partnership and using our resources together with [the charity organization Baranova 27] to help as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.'

Chmerkovskiy's wife Peta Murgatroyd, 35, spoke about the situation in an Instagram Stories Q&A Tuesday, as she was asked about her husband's trip to Poland amid the crisis in his native country.

The DWTS personality was seen at a warehouse in Rzesow, Poland amid ongoing efforts to aid Ukraine

Chmerkovskiy and wife Peta Murgatroyd were snapped in December in LA

'I feel ok. However there are so many 'things' going on,' said Murgatroyd, who is mother to five-year-old son Shai with Chmerkovskiy. 'At first I was nervous and unsure, and didn't want him to leave again. But I know he made the right decision.'

Murgatroyd, who wed Chmerkovskiy in July of 2017, added: 'There wasn't a way that he could stay and watch. I'm just proud. I have my anxious days though!'

Chmerkovskiy was in the Ukraine at the time of the invasion to work on the country's edition of Dancing with the Stars prior to making it back to the United States.

He told CNN's Anderson Cooper earlier this month that he had 'survivor's remorse' after leaving Ukraine and was 'working on an opportunity to go back' and help with the situation.

'Probably sometime next week I'm going to go back to Poland and join efforts on the ground - sort of want to justify my safe out that way,' he said.

Chmerkovskiy's wife Peta Murgatroyd, 35, spoke about the situation in an Instagram Stories Q&A Tuesday

Murgatroyd said in her social media chat that her spouse 'wasn't in a good place when he first arrived home'

She said Chmerkovskiy is 'doing great things over there' and that she is 'so proud of what he is doing'

Murgatroyd said in her social media chat that her spouse 'wasn't in a good place when he first arrived home,' as 'it took him two weeks to let go of some of the anxiety.'

She added: 'It hit him hard. He still has it. I think the experience is life changing. However seeing his family and being with Shai definitely helped him to decompress, be in the moment and put the phone down.'

Murgatroyd said she has stayed grounded amid the difficult days by focusing on her son and 'keeping Maks calm and in a place where he is still actively working on helping people but also spending time with family.'

She said Chmerkovskiy is 'doing great things over there' and that she is 'so proud of what he is doing.

'Of course, I miss him, and want him home with me, but the Ukrainian people need his help more!'
Channing Tatum was promoting his new movie The Lost City, which features a memorable cameo from Brad Pitt, as Tatum revealed how he wanted to look like the actor in his film Legends of the Fall.

The 41-year-old Tatum plays a romance novel cover model who goes on a wild mission to save the author (Sandra Bullock).

Tatum appeared on Thursday's episode of Ellen, where he spoke highly of Bullock, and Pitt as well.

Channing as Brad: Channing Tatum was promoting his new movie The Lost City, which features a memorable cameo from Brad Pitt, as Tatum revealed how he wanted to look like the actor in his film Legends of the Fall

Channing, Sandra and Brad: Tatum appeared on Thursday's episode of Ellen, where he spoke highly of Bullock, and Pitt as well

Tatum had known Bullock for awhile but this was the first time working with her, saying she was, 'everything you'd want her to be.'

'I think we all have our assumptions on how people are before you meet them, and you're kind of afraid to meet them because you don't want them to not be what you hope them to be, and she's just every bit as lovely as you want her to be,' Tatum said.

He added that he also met Brad Pitt once before working on the film, stating they 'rode motorcycles together,' and, like Sandra, 'he is everything you want him to be.'

Working: Tatum had known Bullock for awhile but this was the first time working with her, saying she was, 'everything you'd want her to be'

Heartthrob: For his role in The Lost City, Channing said he was hoping to channel Brad Pitt in his career-making role in Legends Of The Fall in 1994 (pictured)

'I actually gave the note - I have to wear a wig for my cover model look and I said I just want to look like Legends of the Fall Brad Pitt,' Tatum said. 'Can you please make me that?'

'He's so funny in this. I think people don't know how funny he is. I think he's done comedies but nothing this broad,' Tatum added.

The actor was discussing his new magazine spread while he added that he has been getting back into shape for the long-awaited sequel Magic Mike 3.

Notes: 'I actually gave the note - I have to wear a wig for my cover model look and I said I just want to look like Legends of the Fall Brad Pitt,' Tatum said. 'Can you please make me that?'

'I'm very sore, my body aches in rehearsal, it's very intense, but yes, we're deep in it,' Tatum told Ellen.

When asked what he's doing to get ready for the role, Tatum said, 'lots of no eating, lots more of no eating, and then on the bike, a lot,' adding, 'It takes a lot longer to get in shape now.'

'What's crazy about it is you can spend three months trying to get down to like zero percent body fat, and you just like walk by a cheeseburger at like too close of a radius and you feel like it just all goes away,' Tatum joked.

Rehersal: 'I'm very sore, my body aches in rehearsal, it's very intense, but yes, we're deep in it,' Tatum told Ellen

He admitted he can only train like that for another couple of years, 'then I'm just gonna try to hold on to it as long as I can.'

When asked about the story, Tatum said, 'It's kind of a fish-out-of-water story. I'm in London,' adding they're still, 'playing around with some cameos.'

They showed footage of Stephen 'tWitch' Boss getting waxed on Ellen years earlier, with Tatum admitting he's not getting waxed this time.

Train: He admitted he can only train like that for another couple of years, 'then I'm just gonna try to hold on to it as long as I can'

'I am not gonna do waxing this time. I think we're gonna change with the times,' Tatum added.

Aside from the movie sequel, the franchise is expanding with live shows all over the world now, a reality show and more, which Tatum never would have expected for a franchise based on his own time as a young stripper in Florida.

'If you would've come up to my 18 year old self when I was stripping and someone from the future went, "You're gonna own a strip club one day," I would have been like, "Yeah, that might be true if I'm successful." But if you would've told me the route in which I was gonna own strip clubs and all the things that would come before it and during it, I would have never in a million years (believed you),' Tatum said.
Ruby Rose was spotted with her rumoured ex-girlfriend Caity Lotz at the Paris Jackson concert in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old looked casual cool for the outing wearing a tight black singlet top along with tan-and-white patchwork pants.

The Orange Is The New Black star finished her outfit with a striped man's shirt, combat boots and a crossbody bag.

Too cool: Actor Ruby Rose, 36, (pictured) and rumoured ex-girlfriend Caity Lotz reunited at the Paris Jackson concert at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday

Meanwhile, Caity looked cool wearing a cropped white t-shirt which she paired with white track pants.

The Mad Men star finished her look with a matching jacket along with white zip-up combat boots.

Caity teased her brunette tresses and donned a glossy makeup palette for the outing.

Street style: Ruby was joined by Caity Lotz (pictured) who was dressed in a cropped white t-shirt which she paired with white track pants

Lotz and Rose first sparked dating speculation when they were spotted in each other's Instagram posts in December, 2020.

Lotz shared a photo of them both from Potato Chip Rock in Ramona, California.

They also celebrated Lotz's birthday together on December 30, with Rose stating, 'Happy birthday to one of the most precious people I know.'

Stylish: Caity finished her look with teased brunette tresses and a glossy makeup palette

They were both seen in a group photo shared by Lotz in late May, though they haven't been photographed together since.

Lotz shared a video from a 4th of July fireworks celebration where she was seen snuggled up next to actor Kyle Schmid.

Neither Lotz nor Rose have commented publicly on the relationship or their supposed split in the last two years.
EastEnders fans were blown away by Sharon Watt's new look as she returned to Albert Square after a couple of weeks away on Wednesday.

The character (played by Letitia Dean, 54) was more tanned than ever as many viewers said she looked years younger.

Sharon confirmed that she had given herself a makeover during the episode, saying: 'I've been pampered, polished and plucked'.

Wow: EastEnders fans were blown away by Sharon Watt's new look as she returned to Albert Square on Wednesday

One viewer took to Twitter and wrote: 'Can we all take a minute to appreciate how good Sharon Watts looks on #EastEnders?! Wow.'

Another viewer said: 'Sharon looks REFRESHED!' while another added: 'How great does Sharon look!

One fan branded Sharon a 'skinny queen' while another said: 'Sharon looks so beautiful today, she looks 19'.

Another wrote: 'Leticia Dean is always a true icon and looks absolutely flawless as Sharon in tonight's #EastEnders.'

Makeover: She character (played by Letitia Dean, 54) was more tanned than ever as many viewers said she looked years younger

Change: Sharon confirmed that she had given herself a makeover during the episode, saying: 'I've been pampered, polished and plucked'

History: Sharon is one of EastEnders original characters and appeared in the very first episode in February 1985

Speaking on EastEnders' spin-off show Secrets from the Square in 2020, Letitia spoke out on the cruel comments she had received over the years about her looks, revealing:

'I had quite a lot of horrible things said about me. 'She's too fat, the other actors complain they can't fit on the same set with her''.

Back in 2008 and 2009 during her six year break from EastEnders the actress decided to focus on her health, enlisting her EastEnders co-star Charlie Brooks and Natalie Cassidy's trainer to shed pounds.

Reaction: One viewer took to Twitter and wrote: 'Can we all take a minute to appreciate how good Sharon Watts looks on #EastEnders?! Wow'

'I just woke up one morning, and I'd had enough,' Letitia told the Daily Record in 2009.

'For years and years - as long as I can remember - my weight had yo-yoed up and down.

'I'd go on fad diets like Atkins or I'd only eat eggs. The effect was great, even if my breath did smell foul. I'd lose a stone in a couple of weeks, but gradually I'd slip back into my old ways and put it all on again.

Over a period of four months, she went from 10 stone 4lbs to 8 stone 3lbs, and in the process she also dropped four dress sizes.

Character: Sharon is one of EastEnders original characters and appeared in the very first episode in February 1985. She was introduced as the adopted daughter of Den and Angie Watts and later became the landlady of the Queen Victoria

Iconic: After winning the role as a teenager, her character featured in iconic storylines such as 'Sharongate', with Sharon's affair with husband Grant Mitchell's brother Phil being exposed (pictured with Ross Kemp in 1994)

Sharon is one of EastEnders original characters and appeared in the very first episode in February 1985.

She was introduced as the adopted daughter of Den and Angie Watts and later became the landlady of the Queen Victoria.

The actress previously admitted that she lied to get on to Albert Square as producers only wanted to cast real Cockneys but she was actually from Hertfordshire.

Letitia had grown up in a cosy cottage on the estate of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and knew she wouldn't have a chance at getting on the show if she told the truth.

Speaking on Secrets From The Square, Letitia revealed: 'We had to be born within the sound of Bow bells and I told a porky.

Fan favourite: The actress previously admitted that she lied to get on to Albert Square as producers only wanted to cast real Cockneys but she was actually from Hertfordshire (pictured with Tracy-Ann Oberman in 2005)

Wow: Back in 2008 and 2009 during her six year break from EastEnders the actress decided to focus on her health, dropping two stone and releasing a fitness DVD

'I said my parents had to go and work away, and I was staying with somebody in 'the sound of Bow bells', I do remember getting the job and getting the call. I remember that quite clearly. It was just so exciting.'

After winning the role as a teenager, her character featured in iconic storylines such as 'Sharongate', with Sharon's affair with husband Grant Mitchell's brother Phil being exposed. She ended up leaving the BBC soap in 1995.

Just six years later though and the fan favourite character was back and earning the big bucks as one of the highest paid stars of the soap.

She left once again in 2006, swapped the Square for the 2007 series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Sharon Horgan has reportedly been secretly dating Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess.

It is said that the Catastrophe actress, 51, was recently spotted kissing the musician, 54, by the side of a busy A-road, with the pair not 'caring' who saw them, reports The Sun.

The new romance follows on from Sharon's divorce from husband Jeremy Rainbird, whom she split from in 2019 after 14 years of marriage.

New romance? Catastrophe star Sharon Horgan has reportedly been secretly dating Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess (pictured ion the show)

The publication reports that Sharon has been a fan of Tim's since she was a teenager, after he came into prominence with the track The Only One I Know in 1990.

While they were said to have formed a bond after he tweeted about how much he loved her Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe, with Sharon going on to retweet his praise.

A source told The Sun: 'Sharon and Tim have kept their relationship low key but it didnt stop them having a kiss next to a busy road in London.

Kiss kiss: It is said that the Catastrophe actress, 51, was recently spotted kissing the musician, 54, by the side of a busy A-road, with the pair not 'caring' who saw them, reports The Sun (pictured in 2019)

'They seemed lost in each other and didnt appear to care who saw them.'

MailOnline have contacted representatives of Sharon and Tim for comment.

After connecting over Twitter, the pair's friendship was said to have grown over the years, with Irish beauty Sharon even singing backing vocals on the Charlatan's album Different Days in 2017.

While Tim was also taken on a set tour visit of comedy-drama Divorce, of which Sharon was the executive producer for.

Former husband: The new romance follows on from Sharon's divorce from husband Jeremy Rainbird, whom she split from in 2019 after 14 years of marriage (pictured in 2016)

Big fan: The publication reports that Sharon has been a fan of Tim's since she was a teenager, after he came into prominence with the track The Only One I Know in 1990 (pictured on stage in 2017)

High praise: While they were said to have formed a bond after he tweeted about how much he loved her Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe, with Sharon going on to retweet his praise (Sharon pictured with co-star Rob Delaney)

During an interview with the Evening Standard in 2017, Sharon and Tim opened up on how their bond grew after communicating on Twitter.

Sharon said of retweeting Tim's kind words: 'My cringe-level is too low - I dont know if thats an Irish thing. But Tims tweet was the only time Ive ever retweeted cause it was such a fan moment for me.'

While after she had come to see him at a gig in Manchester, Tim said of their growing friendship: 'Weve had a little journey of meeting up at music festivals, and Sharon came to see us play in New York, and then I got to go on the set of Divorce.'

Sharon shares daughter Amer, 13, and Sadhbh, 18, with former husband Tim, while Tim has a son with electronic artist Nik Colk Void.

A source said: 'Sharon and Tim have kept their relationship low key but it didnt stop them having a kiss next to a busy road in London' (pictured in 2020)

On Thursday, Apple TV+ unveiled the first look at Sharon's latest venture - a dark comedy titled Bad Sisters.

The highly anticipated 10 episode series will debut on the subscription streaming service later this year, with screenwriter Sharon, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene and Eve Hewson starring as the Garvey sisters.

The series follows the lives of the five sisters bound together by the premature death of their parents and a promise to always protect one another.
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The Academy Awards have returned home to Hollywood with preparations well underway outside the Dolby Theatre ahead of the 94th Oscars ceremony on Sunday.

A team of workers were seen rolling out the huge red carpet onto Hollywood Boulevard, ready for the hundreds of A-listers who will be posing in their designer gowns outside the famed theatre.

This year's ceremony marks a return to the Dolby Theatre, home to the Oscars since it opened in 2001. Last year the global pandemic meant the watered-down ceremony was held at a Union station in Downtown LA with just 170 guests.

Roll out the red carpet! The Academy Awards have returned home to Hollywood with preparations well underway outside the Dolby Theatre ahead of the 94th Oscars ceremony on Sunday

A year on from the panned pandemic ceremony, the Oscars are back to their full-scale best with workers also seen moving huge sculptures and hanging golden drapes outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday.

For the first time in three years the awards will have a host with Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes taking the stage for the 8pm ET ceremony. Producer Will Packer said each woman brings something different to the show.

Show producers will continue adding names throughout the week, but at the moment stars expected to hand out awards Oscar night include Bill Murray, Lady Gaga, Kevin Costner, Samuel L. Jackson, Zoe Kravitz, Anthony Hopkins, Lily James, Daniel Kaluuya, Mila Kunis, John Leguizamo, Simu Liu, Rami Malek, Lupita Nyongo and Rosie Perez.

On Wednesday the Academy squashed one pre-show controversy by confirming that West Side Story lead Rachel Zegler will be a presenter, a reversal that came after several days of uproar when the actor noted on social media she didn't have an Oscar invite despite her movie earning seven nominations including Best Picture.

Returning home: A team of workers have been seen making preparations at the Hollywood Boulevard theatre ahead of Sunday evening's ceremony

It's back: This year's ceremony marks a return to the Dolby Theatre, home to the Oscars since it opened in 2001. Last year though the global pandemic meant the watered-down ceremony was held at a Union station in Downtown LA

Competing against West Side Story in the night's biggest category of Best Picture are Belfast; CODA; Dont Look Up; Drive My Car; Dune; King Richard; Licorice Pizza; Nightmare Alley and The Power of the Dog.

The Power of the Dog is the presumed frontrunner for Best Picture and Best Director, for Jane Campion, but there is also the possibility that CODA will take the big prize, especially after it won at the Producer's Guild Awards. Either way, itll be the first time a streaming service has won best picture.

Organisers have promised that they will keep the broadcast to three hours.

Home: The Dolby Theatre has played host to the Academy Awards since it opened in 2001 - pictured the 2016 ceremony hosted by Chris Rock

Watered down: In contrast last year's ceremony took place at a LA train station with just 170 guests (mainly comprised of nominees) to abide by strict pandemic protocols

After the 2021 ceremony was criticised for being a 'three hour woke fest', producer Will Packer (whose films include crowd pleasers like Girls Trip) has promised the 2022 ceremony will be as entertaining as possible while still honoring the nominees and winners.

'The show will flow, not unlike a movie, in that there will be different themes and a different feel and different energy throughout the night,' Packer said in an interview with IndieWire.

'It will not feel or look or sound like one show for three hours. Its taking you through the course of this cinematic journey.'

There has already been some criticism surrounding the decision to present some of the 23 awards before the live broadcast begins and edit them into the show later.

Ready for the stars: The huge red carpet took a team of workers to roll out as organisers captured the big moment on camera

Hard at work: A year on from the panned pandemic ceremony, the Oscars are back to their full-scale best with workers also seen moving huge sculptures and hanging golden drapes outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday

Prep: 'Oscars' letters were seen parked on the stars of the famous Hollywood Boulevard as the red carpet arrivals area took shape outside the theatre

The eight categories are Best Documentary Short, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup/Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Animated Short, Best Live-Action Short and Best Sound.

These eight categories will instead be handed out at the Dolby Theatre one hour before the live telecast, and then be edited into the live broadcast, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This isn't the first time the Academy has toyed with removing some of its categories from the telecast.

The Academy announced in August 2018 that they would not broadcast some of the winners live, but the news was met with such immediate backlash it was quickly abandoned.

The main man: Head carpenter Gregg Strouth steadied a decorative panel showing the famous Oscar statuette

It's back: After the 2021 ceremony was criticised for being a 'three hour woke fest', producer Will Packer (whose films include crowd pleasers like Girls Trip) has promised the 2022 ceremony will be as entertaining as possible

Entertaining: 'The show will flow, not unlike a movie, in that there will be different themes and a different feel and different energy throughout the night,' Packer said in an interview with IndieWire

Both the canceled move in 2018 and this new shift in the broadcast was approved by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences leadership in the Awards Committee.

A letter sent to Academy members from Academy President David Rubin clarified, 'They will not be presented in the pre-show nor on the red carpet, as some have speculated. Instead, the in-person ceremony at the Dolby Theatre will begin one hour earlier to present eight awards categories before the live telecast starts.'

'Those presentations will then be edited by our creative and production teams and will be folded seamlessly into the live televised show,' the letter added.

The letter reiterated that, 'all the nominees in ALL awards categories will be identified on air and ALL winners' acceptance speeches will be featured on the live broadcast.'

Construction team: Pablo Cruz Moreno, Estuardo Marroquin, Ken Marroquin and Rudolfo Morales are seen rolling out the vast red carpet onto the sidewalk

Ready for the celebs: Competing against West Side Story in the night's biggest category of Best Picture are Belfast; CODA; Don't Look Up; Drive My Car; Dune; King Richard; Licorice Pizza; Nightmare Alley and The Power of the Dog

Major event: The Oscars have once again taken over the street outside the Dolby Theatre after a year away

'Every awarded filmmaker and artist in every category will still have the celebratory 'Oscar moment' they deserve on the stage of the Dolby, facing an enrapt audience,' the letter added.

The letter also claimed that, for the viewing audience at home, the show will, 'become tighter and more electric with this new cadence, and the live broadcast should end  yes, with the Best Picture category  at the three-hour mark.'

Rubin added the Academy's goal is, 'to find a balance in which nominees, winners, members, and viewing audience all have a rewarding show experience.'

The news didn't sit well with many fans on Twitter, with many fans bashing The Academy for not focusing on the actual movies they're rewarding.

Already attracting controversy: There has been some criticism surrounding the decision to present some of the 23 awards before the live broadcast begins and edit them into the show later

Sinking ratings: The ceremony changes come after the 93rd Academy Awards sunk to a new low with just 10.4 million viewers tuning in

'Amazing to me that @TheAcademy has such contempt for filmmakers who aren't actors or directors,' said Overhated podcast host Scott Weinberg.

@DRMovieNews1 added, 'Wouldn't it be nice if the Oscars cut out the hour of lame comedy sketches and musical performances and instead celebrated every single winner of AN ACADEMY AWARD equally and included more yearly film celebration/reels/tributes? ... and they wonder why their ratings are terrible.'

New York Times writer Kyle Buchanan shared an excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter piece about keeping the show at three hours, adding, 'The Oscars' obsessive pursuit of the 3-hour mark has never once made the show better.'

The ceremony changes come after the 93rd Academy Awards sunk to a new low with just 10.4 million viewers tuning in.

Time limit: New York Times writer Kyle Buchanan shared an excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter piece about keeping the show at three hours, adding, 'The Oscars' obsessive pursuit of the 3-hour mark has never once made the show better'

Getting political: The other big talking point is how or whether to address Russia's assault on Ukraine during the ceremony

That represented a 56% drop from the ratings in February 2020, when 23.6 million viewers tuned in, which was then also an all-time low.

The other big talking point is how or whether to address Russia's assault on Ukraine during the ceremony.

'It's all about the manner in which it's addressed,' said Scott Feinberg, awards columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. 'If it looks like it's just pandering or lecturing, that's not going to go over well. But if it's heartfelt and meaningful, then I think it will have a different result.'

On Hollywood's awards season circuit, references to the Ukraine crisis have been a constant theme since the invasion began, from expressions of solidarity with the nation's people to expletive-laden tirades against Vladimir Putin.

Just an idea: Host Amy Schumer said she had pitched the idea of inviting Ukraine's President Zelensky to 'satellite in, or make a tape or something, just because there are so many eyes on the Oscars.' While the Academy has not commented, the idea appears to have been nixed

Criticism: Eight categories will instead be handed out at the Dolby Theatre one hour before the live telecast, and then be edited into the live broadcast, according to The Hollywood Reporter

'We stand with the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war, both Ukrainians and other ethnicities and nationalities who are being denied safe harbor,' Oscar nominee Kristen Stewart said at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Host Amy Schumer said she had pitched the idea of inviting Ukraine's President Zelensky to 'satellite in, or make a tape or something, just because there are so many eyes on the Oscars.'

While the Academy has not commented, the idea appears to have been nixed, and Schumer conceded that 'there is definitely pressure in one way to be like, 'This is a vacation, let people forget -- we just want to have this night.''

For Feinberg, 'it seems like they realize that that's tone deaf.'

Busy: Crew members and show organisers were seen doing a walk through of the site on Wednesday

Hoping for a comeback: The number of people who tuned in to watch the 93rd Academy Awards was at an all-time low of 9.85 million viewers. It was a 58 percent drop compared to 2020's already record-low 23.64 million viewers

'I mean, he's dealing with life and death matters here. And yes, he's a former actor, but it just seems that could have really blown up in their faces,' he told AFP.

Organizers are 'thinking hard at the show about how to address it without making their show highly political or divisive,' he added.

While the Oscar producers may not end up addressing the issue at all, the night's winners are likely to do so anyway.

'If I were a betting man, I'd say almost every speech will mention Ukraine and the atrocities that are going on there,' said Variety film awards editor Clayton Davis.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, left, introduces Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a campaign stop at Rundlett Middle School in Concord, New Hampshire, Feb. 6, 2016. Reuters-Yonhap





Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Nazi- and then Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe who rose to become the first female secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died Wednesday of cancer, her family said. She was 84.







A lifelong Democrat who nonetheless worked to bring Republicans into her orbit, Albright was chosen in 1996 by President Bill Clinton to be America's top diplomat, elevating her from U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where she had been only the second woman to hold that job.







As secretary of state, Albright was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. She was not in the line of succession to the presidency, however, because she was born in what was then Czechoslovakia. Still, she was universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors.







"We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend," her family said in a statement.







President Joe Biden ordered flags at the White House and other federal buildings and grounds to be flown at half-staff until March 27.







Outpourings of condolences came quickly.







Biden said, "America had no more committed champion of democracy and human rights than Secretary Albright, who knew personally and wrote powerfully of the perils of autocracy."







"When I think of Madeleine," Biden added, "I will always remember her fervent faith that 'America is the indispensable nation."'







Clinton called her "one of the finest Secretaries of State, an outstanding U.N. Ambassador, a brilliant professor, and an extraordinary human being."







"Because she knew firsthand that America's policy decisions had the power to make a difference in people's lives around the world, she saw her jobs as both an obligation and an opportunity," Clinton wrote. "And through it all, even until our last conversation just two weeks ago, she never lost her great sense of humor or her determination to go out with her boots on, supporting Ukraine in its fight to preserve freedom and democracy."







Former President George W. Bush said Albright "lived out the American dream and helped others realize it. ... She served with distinction as a foreign-born foreign minister who understood firsthand the importance of free societies for peace in our world."







Members of the United Nations Security Council observe a moment of silence, March 23, in honor of Madeleine Albright, the first female US secretary of state, who died of cancer at age 84. AFP-Yonhap





Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. envoy to the United Nations, honored Albright as a "trailblazer and a luminary" in remarks on the General Assembly floor.







"The impact that she has had on this building is felt every single day and just about every single corridor," said State Department spokesman Ned Price, who once co-taught a class with Albright at his alma mater, Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where Albright was a professor for decades before and after her time in government.







In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Albright the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.







Albright remained outspoken through the years. After leaving office, she criticized Bush for using "the shock of force" rather than alliances to foster diplomacy and said Bush had driven away moderate Arab leaders and created potential for a dangerous rift with European allies.







As a refugee from Czechoslovakia who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove and she played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get militarily involved in the conflict in Kosovo.







She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the Cuban shooting down of a civilian plane was not "cojones" but rather "cowardice."







Albright advised women "to act in a more confident manner" and "to ask questions when they occur and don't wait to ask."







"It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent," she told HuffPost Living in 2010.







When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked her in January 2007 whether she approved of Bush's proposed "surge" in U.S. troops in bloodied Iraq, she responded: "I think we need a surge in diplomacy. We are viewed in the Middle East as a colonial power and our motives are suspect."







Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London. After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father, a Czech diplomat, brought his family to the United States.







As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevic's treatment of Bosnia and NATO's intervention in Kosovo, was eventually dubbed "Madeleine's War."







"My mindset is Munich," she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.







Albright helped win Senate ratification of NATO's expansion and a treaty imposing international restrictions on chemical weapons. She led a successful fight to keep Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali from a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations. He accused her of deception and posing as a friend.







And she once exclaimed to Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who would later succeed her as secretary of state: "What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?"







Powell, who died last year, recalled in a memoir that Albright's comment almost made him have an "aneurysm."







Despite her championing of diplomacy in the Middle East and a late Clinton-era foray to North Korea, which made her the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the Stalinist state, Albright drew criticism for her support of sanctions against Iraq that many blame for humanitarian suffering in the country under Saddam Hussein.







"I am an eternal optimist," Albright said in 1998, amid an effort as secretary of state to promote peace in the Middle East. But she said getting Israel to pull back on the West Bank and the Palestinians to rout terrorists posed serious problems.







Albright made limited progress at first in trying to expand the 1993 Oslo Accords that established the principle of self-rule for the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza. But in 1998, she played a leading role in formulating the Wye Accords that turned over control of about 40% of the West Bank to the Palestinians.







She also spearheaded an ill-fated effort to negotiate a 2000 peace deal between Israel and Syria under then-President Hafez al-Assad. She helped guide U.S. foreign policy during conflicts in the Balkans and the Hutu-Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.







As an outspoken Democrat in private life, Albright often joked that she had her "political instincts surgically removed" when she became secretary of state. True to that, she formed an unlikely friendship with arch-conservative North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms to increase funding for the State Department and U.S. diplomacy and oversaw a radical change in Washington's handling of Cold War-era messaging.







Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.







Albright later said that she became aware of her Jewish background after she became secretary of state. The family returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II but fled again, this time to the United States, in 1948, after the Communists rose to power.







They settled in Denver, where her father obtained a job at the University of Denver. One of Josef Korbel's best students, a young woman named Condoleezza Rice, would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state and was the first Black woman to hold that office.







Among current officials who worked closely with Albright are Biden's domestic policy adviser and former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, as well as Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and a host of others.







Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976.







She worked for the National Security Council during the Carter administration and advised Democrats on foreign policy before Clinton's election. He nominated her as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in 1993.







Following her service in the Clinton administration, she headed a global strategy firm, Albright Stonebridge, and was chair of an investment advisory company that focused on emerging markets.







She also wrote several books. Albright married journalist Joseph Albright, a descendant of Chicago's Medill-Patterson newspaper dynasty, in 1959. They had three daughters and divorced in 1983. (AP)


Georgia Love has made her first public appearance since she suffered intense backlash from her sponsored trip to Saudi Arabia.

The former Bachelorette star was all smiles as she posed on the red carpet of the Hamilton premiere in Melbourne on Thursday night.

Georgia, 33, opted to wear a taupe jumpsuit to the event at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Back: Georgia Love was all smiles as she donned a taupe jumpsuit at the Hamilton premiere in Melbourne - following her Saudi Arabia holiday drama with husband Lee Elliott

The globe trotting reality star finished the outfit with a pair of studded heels and glittering jewellery - including drop earrings, a bracelet and various rings.

The Melbourne star wore her brunette tresses down and slightly curled for the occasion and she opted for a glossy makeup palette to make her features pop.

At one point she posed with Channel 10's Candice Wyatt, who looked divine in red.

Glam: The globe trotting reality star finished the outfit with a pair of studded heels and glittering jewellery - including drop earrings, a bracelet and various rings. At one point she posed with Channel 10's Candice Wyatt, who looked divine in red

It comes after Georgia and husband Lee Elliott suffered intense backlash from fans following their trip to Saudi Arabia.

The couple were reportedly asked to delete their posts by Saudi tourism officials.

Georgia and Lee were recently given an all-expenses paid trip by Visit Saudi to help promote tourism in the nation.

Disappearing act: Georgia and Lee deleted all of their Instagram photos from their recent trip to Saudi Arabia after receiving backlash from fans

The couple were asked to share photos from their holiday on their respective social media pages in exchange for the free trip.

But their holiday attracted plenty of controversy, with many fans flagging the Middle Eastern country's horrific human rights record.

Shortly afterwards, both Georgia and Lee removed all of their social media posts, supposedly at the direction of Saudi tourism officials, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday,

Now you see it, now you don't: According to a report by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, the couple was asked to delete their posts by Saudi tourism officials

'She was told by the Saudi tourism people to remove all of the posts, they were fantastic with her,' Georgia's manager confirmed.

'They were quite upset that she was getting a lot of negative reaction and they said, "We don't want this to impede on your trip so please remove all those posts and don't do any more posting."

'They were very sympathetic to her situation and said, "Remove the posts, we don't require you to do any more posting for us."'

Working holiday: The 33-year-old former Bachelorette and her husband of a year were recently given an all-expenses paid trip by Visit Saudi to help promote tourism in the nation

After teasing the holiday, Georgia revealed that she and Lee had travelled to Saudi Arabia to promote tourism in the beleaguered nation.

'After only opening to tourists in 2019, we can't state how excited we are to be among the first Aussies to tour Saudi,' she wrote in a since-deleted post on Instagram.

'To us, it is important to see, experience and learn about all cultures around us and to see how much and how fast our world is changing. We can't wait to bring you along on this incredible experience with us.'

Promotion: Georgia and Lee, 40, were asked to share photos from their holiday on their respective social media pages in exchange for the free trip

One photo showed the couple arriving at the airport in Saudi Arabia, while another saw them sipping beverages out of coconuts.

Lee later addressed the backlash in a post on Instagram, explaining that he understood the anger their holiday had garnered.

'We thought long and hard about coming and we decided to come as the world is changing for the better and Saudi along with it,' he wrote.

Backlash: Their holiday attracted plenty of controversy, with many fans flagging the Middle Eastern country's horrific human rights record

'We strongly believe by Saudi opening up to the rest of the world and by tourists being here it has to be more accountable and hope this is a change for the better.

'Trust me, we looked into it before coming and believe many things have changed for the better in more recent times and hope they continue to do so.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to both Georgia and Lee for additional comment.
Russian dancer Pasha Kovalev has revealed he cannot 'comprehend' Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as he condemned the war, saying it 'shouldn't be happening'.

The former Strictly star, 42, said his Russian family's history has roots in Ukraine as he said he cannot understand why the two countries are at war.

Speaking on Lorraine on Thursday, he said: 'It was difficult to comprehend this whole situation, I have Russian roots but my family goes back to Ukraine long, long generations ago. I cannot even comprehend how those two nations can be in war.'

Condemning: Russian dancer Pasha Kovalev has revealed he cannot 'comprehend' Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as he said the war 'shouldn't be happening'

Russian president Vladimir Putin unleashed its multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine on February 24, accusing their neighbours of being a threat to their security and claiming his goal was to 'demilitarise' the country and rid them of 'Nazi' leaders.

But the world has been rocked by horrifying images and clips of the war following four full weeks of fighting, with hundreds of innocent Ukrainian civilians killed in sickening scenes that have led to an outpouring of support across the globe.

Speaking about the horrors of the invasion, Pasha - who migrated from his home country to the UK back in 2011 - said most Russian people are 'definitely' against the war as he condemned Putin's advance.

He added: 'Most Russian people I know they are definitely against war and war against Ukraine, it's not even a question. It shouldn't be happening.'

Family: The former Strictly star, who shares two children with Rachel Riley, said his Russian family has roots in Ukraine as he said he cannot understand why the two countries are at war

The Latin and ballroom dancer also spoke about his upcoming charity concert, Rise Up For The Arts, on March 27, which will see money donated to Save The Children, who he said are helping Ukrainian families 'in ways nobody else can'.

Pasha said he felt he couldn't not speak out and had to do something to help, so decided to donate funds from the concert to the charity, saying the concert was initially planned to raise money for theatre related charities.

Revealing that Adam Lambert will be performing at the show, he said: 'It's so important to use your talent and dancing and art, is something I've been doing all my life, to make a difference in the world.

'Especially when the Ukraine situation started, we thought we cannot pass it and not say anything.'

Pasha, who is married to Countdown star Rachel Riley, also revealed in the interview that he only speaks to his children - Maven, two, and newborn Noa - in Russian as he wants them to grow up bilingual.

Invasion: With the Russian advance stalled, Ukrainian forces have begun counterattacking in some parts of the country

Pasha was born in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, before moving to the United States in 2001. He moved to the UK in 2011 for his role on Strictly Come Dancing.

It is not the first time that Pasha has spoken out against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying earlier this month that the crisis hits 'too close to home'.

Speaking about the concert, he took to Instagram to encourage solidarity by telling fans to unite and make a difference through art.

Posting on behalf of himself and his Rise Up with the Arts co-star Anya Garnis, 39, Pasha wrote: 'The current situation in Ukraine hits too close to home for the both of us as Russian nationals.

'Our passport may say one thing but our hearts are with our family, friends and everyone still in Ukraine that are fighting for freedom and lives.

Speaking out: It is not the first time that Pasha has spoken out against the war in Ukraine, saying earlier this month that the crisis hits 'too close to home'

Tribute: And his wife Rachel, 36, also stood in solidarity with the women of Ukraine in an emotional International Women's Day post

'It only feels right that our show - Rise Up with the Arts, along with 3 charities that we are already supporting, will now focus on donating funds raised to the Save The Children charity that helps children and young people affected by this terrible conflict.

'They say it takes a village to raise a child but this time it will take the whole world to make the change happen and end this madness. Let's make art not war!'

His wife Rachel, 36, also stood in solidarity with the women of Ukraine in an emotional International Women's Day post.

The mathematician took to her Instagram account to share her sympathy for the women and girls who are caught up in the country's war against Russia - posing with her daughters and husband.

Sweet: Pasha also revealed in that he only speaks to his children - Maven, two, and newborn Noa - in Russian as he wants them to grow up bilingual

She captioned the heartfelt post: 'A sombre International Women's Day today.

'Big responsibility raising girls. Every time we pack up what feels like half our belongings take with us to Manchester to look after two little ones for 3 days filming, I'm thinking of the women who've had to pack up their lives into their car, or bags, say goodbye to their men, and leave everything for who knows how long.

'We're so lucky to be living in peace with our family intact.'

Rachel recently returned to Countdown following her maternity leave after welcoming baby daughter Noa to the world in November.
Carl Woods has shared his first social media posts following his court appearance on Wednesday.

Katie Price's fiance used his OnlyFans page to beg fans for help after sharing a photo of himself and his dog, with the caption 'loyalty looks like this'.

Carl, 33, appeared before Colchester Magistrates' Court on Wednesday after being charged with 'abusive and threatening behaviour' under section 4 of the Public Order Act.

'Loyalty': Carl Woods has shared his first social media posts following his court appearance on Wednesday, posting a selfie with his dog under a cryptic caption about 'loyalty'

Hours after the court appearance, where he was joined by Katie, Carl was back to business, posting a message on this subscription website OnlyFans to ask his followers if they knew of a good location for his car garage.

The car trader has been storing his second hand vehicles at Katie's house after previously running the business from his father's Essex home.

'Looking for a new car location... dm me and let me know,' Carl wrote.

He also shared a selfie on Instagram on Wednesday night, posting a photo alongside his dog and writing: 'Loyalty looks like this.'

Earlier: Carl, 33, appeared before Colchester Magistrates' Court on Wednesday after being charged with 'abusive and threatening behaviour', supported by Katie

Message: Under the selfie on Instagram on Wednesday night, he wrote: 'Loyalty looks like this.'

Help: Carl was also back to business, posting a message on the subscription website OnlyFans to ask his followers if they knew of a good location for his car garage

Early start: The car trader has been storing his second hand vehicles at Katie's house but is looking for a new location. He also shared a look at his early start on Thursday

Carl appeared in court on Wednesday to deny using 'threatening words and behaviour' following a row at his Essex home.

He had been charged under Section 4 of the Public Order Act following an incident at his home in Little Canfield, Essex last year.

Colchester Magistrates' Court was told the charge followed a row that spilled over into the street, disturbing neighbours.

At one stage Carl was seen trying to force open a door, the court heard.

The male model was seen arriving at court hand-in-hand with Katie after the pair recently returned from a holiday to Thailand.

Former glamour model Katie, wearing a sun visor, and Carl, dressed in a black t-shirt and sunglasses, were seen chatting to two police officers before heading inside.

Support: The male model was seen arriving at court hand-in-hand with Katie after the pair recently returned from a holiday to Thailand

Carl, who is engaged to the reality star, was arrested after Katie, 42, was allegedly punched in the face on August 22, 2021

She sat in the public gallery and watched her fiancee during the short session, with Carl smiling towards her from behind the re-enforced glass of courtroom four.

He spoke just to confirm his date of birth and address before answering 'not guilty' when asked to enter a plea to the public order charge.

Leigh Hart, prosecuting, told the court the incident happened at Woods' house in Little Canfield, near Dunmow.

She said: 'The incident occurred on the evening of 22nd August 2021 when this defendant ended up getting into an argument with his partner at his home address.

'The partner left his property and went to another property.

Charges: The court case is expected to bring to an end long-running and denied claims of Woods' 'threatening and abusive behaviour' towards Price. Pictured: Price wearing a sun visor shield outside court

'The allegation itself is the defendant attempted to force the door of that property whilst shouting outside in the street.

'This was overheard by neighbours and it is that part of the incident that forms the Section Four public order offence.'

Woods has denied a single count of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to cause 'that person' to believe that unlawful violence would be used against them.

Mark Davies, defending, said Woods' argument would be that the incident was 'nothing more than a squabble'.

The maximum sentence Woods' faces is up to six months.

Romance: Carl, who is engaged to the reality star, was arrested after Katie, 42, was allegedly punched in the face on August 22, 2021

Woods was granted unconditional bail and the case was adjourned for trial on June 16 at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.

The hearing comes just days after Woods was snapped with Katie as they kissed and cuddled in the sea in Thailand.

He was supposed to be brought before court on March 9 to answer a public order offence charge.

But his defence team successfully requested it be moved to March 23 as the couple jetted off on holiday.

News of the scheduling change looks sure to raise questions over why the hearing was moved for a holiday.

A source told MailOnline: 'The change of date was instigated by the defence side.

Holiday: It comes just two days after Woods was snapped embracing Price as they kissed and cuddled beside the sea while on holiday in Thailand

'They asked for the case to be moved for a couple of weeks on the basis of him being currently in Thailand looking after Katie's mental health.

'The holiday was organised as a much needed break from it all for her.'

A spokesman for Woods told MailOnline: 'I can confirm this holiday was pre-booked and my client Carl and his partner Katie both having such busy schedules and pre existing work commitments that when given the opportunity to travel together and their schedules allow it they need to take advantage of it.'

The court case is expected to bring to an end long-running and denied claims of Woods' 'threatening and abusive behaviour' towards Price.

He had earlier accused others of creating a 'storyline' - insisting they only had an argument in public.

Woods claim he 'didn't lay a finger' on Price and said he had 'black and white proof' to clear his name after he was charged with using threatening and abusive behaviour towards her in an incident at their house in Essex.
Denise Van Outen gushed about her new 'smooth' 35,000 car, after poking fun at her ex Eddie Boxshall for thinking her Hampstead flat belonged to him.

The TV personality, 47, has certainly proven herself to be an independent woman since her acrimonious split from the 'cheating' commodities trader.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday morning during the school run with her daughter Betsy, 11, the sunglass-clad star lauded the lavish vehicle.

Wow! Denise Van Outen gushed about her new 'smooth' 35,000 car, after poking fun at her ex Eddie Boxshall for thinking her Hampstead flat belonged to him

Sitting behind the wheel of her eye-popping orange 4x4 whip, she said: 'I have been wanting to go electric for a while. I've decided to take the plunge and give this Citroen a try and I am loving it.

'It's so smooth and comfortable and it's just such a nice car to drive that I'm loving it, it's brilliant.'

Her delighted offspring, who she shares with her ex husband Lee Mead said: 'Mummy's just picked me up from school and I love the new Citroen Electric.

Denise chimed in: 'It drives like a dream, it's really smooth, really quiet and what's the best thing about it, Bets?

Luxurious: She made sure to impress her followers with the eye-popping orange 4x4 whip

High spirits: The TV personality, 47, has certainly proven herself to be an independent woman since her acrimonious split from the 'cheating' commodities trader

Betsie replied, 'That is has a seat massage,' before her famous mum hilariously replied, 'No, it's good for the environment!'

In her caption, the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant wrote: 'I've been wanting to try an electric car for ages since seeing my friend @stephlunch rave about hers.

'I'm giving this fabulous motor (which is better for the environment) a spin and loving it! (Swipe for a review from Betsy)School run was a dream.'

Denise's ex Eddie moved out of her home following their shock split and is now thought to be staying with friends while he works on his career.

Beaming: She said: 'I have been wanting to go electric for a while. I've decided to take the plunge and give this Citroen a try and I am loving it'

Delighted: Her delighted offspring, who she shares with her ex husband Lee Mead said: 'Mummy's just picked me up from school and I love the new Citroen Electric'

Elated: In her caption, the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant wrote: 'I've been wanting to try an electric car for ages since seeing my friend @stephlunch rave about hers'

In an excerpt from her upcoming autobiography, she wrote about his alleged infidelities, which she discovered while using his phone.

The former West End star wrote: 'Her name was Tracy and she had apparently spoken to Eddie over FaceTime and text for a long period  often from our home and sometimes from my flat in Hampstead, which she seemed to think was his.'

Eddie has certainly been keeping busy on Instagram, giving fans an insight into his day as he hinted at returning to his career as a commodities trader.

He shared photos from his day in East London, including a snap of a street sign for Old Broad Street.

Split: Denise announced she had split from Eddie in January after discovering he had cheated on her during their seven year relationship (pictured February 2020)

One fan of his former love though added a critical comment to the post, telling Eddie that he cheated on 'the prettiest/charismatic/successful and LIKED ladies around,' prompting a strong response from him.

Eddie shared a series of photos under the caption: 'Old city boy meetings!!#bosh #greattobebackinthesmoke #bighandlittlehand #london #city #meetings #ec2 #lovelondon '

One photo showed the former trader making a fist for a mirror selfie before he hit Old Broad Street in London for a meeting.

A fan of Denise took umbrage at the post though, writing in the comments: '( B, In a position to cheat on One of The prettiest/charismic/successful/LIKED...Ladies around ... Ok!! eddie .. At least!!! Let it f**king drop now' [sic]

Eddie was quick to reply, telling the commenter he wasn't going to rise to her criticism: 'I'm not even going to block you! I want to hear the vile bile that comes from your mouth,' he wrote before deleting the original comment and his reply.

Moving on: Eddie has certainly been keeping himself busy on Instagram, giving fans an insight into his day as he hinted at returning to his career as a commodities trader

A dig? Denise's cheating ex shared photos from his day in East London, including a snap of a street sign for Old Broad Street

Message: Eddie also posted a snap of a British Transport Police poster on the tube which read 'we stand together against hate'

'Keep it coming please as it's people like you that need to get things off your chest. I can take it so I would rather you send it my way than to someone who is vulnerable and break them down to pieces.'

'I don't do hatred and I don't think any less of you as I don't know you personally so I won't make any negative comments Xxxxx.'

Prior to getting engaged to Denise in 2018, Eddie worked as a commodities trader but was sacked by SCB & Associates just weeks after he proposed to the TV star - for 'gross misconduct and material dishonesty', according to an employment tribunal hearing at the time.

Sticking up for Denise: One fan of his former love added a critical comment to the post, telling Eddie that he cheated on 'the prettiest/charismatic/successful and LIKED ladies around'

Reply: Eddie was quick to reply, telling the woman he wasn't going to rise to her criticism: 'I'm not even going to block you! I want to hear the vile bile that comes from your mouth'

He was accused of stealing customers and commercially sensitive information from his employers, where he held a 110,000 position, to set up his own rival business.

Eddie was hauled before a disciplinary panel after bosses discovered he had sent hundreds of emails containing clients' contact details and confidential information from his work account to a private account.

The firm said he then sought to 'cover his tracks' by deleting dozens of the highly sensitive emails. Eddie subsequently sued SCB for unfair dismissal, claiming he was a victim of a scheme concocted by his bosses to cut costs, but his claim failed.

Eddie moved out of Denise's home following their shock split and is now thought to be staying with friends while he works on his career.

Motto: Eddie also shared a snap of an art installation with the quote 'What's meant for you will find you even if you feel like it has already passed you'

On Monday night he was back on Instagram, sharing another scathing post about their relationship.

Eddie, 48, posted an expletive-filled message on his Instagram grid declaring: 'Unf**k yourself. Be who you were before all the stuff happened that dimmed your f**king shine.'

The post comes after Denise broke her silence on how she discovered Eddie had been cheating on her when messages flashed up on his iPad.

Message: On Monday night he was back on Instagram, sharing another scathing post about their relationship, declaring 'be who you were before all the stuff happened that dimmed your f**king shine'

Moving on: Eddie added the hashtags #don'tchange and #getyourshineback to the post

Eddie shared the post on Monday with the caption: 'Be who you were !! #dontchange #getyourshineback'.

Denise has detailed the extreme lengths Eddie went to in order to keep his affairs secret in her autobiography, A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway And Back, but the former commodities trader has since taken to Instagram to 'defend himself.'

On Sunday Eddie made a jibe at his ex-girlfriend with a thinly veiled Instagram post after she claimed he secretly stole her phone and blocked a women he had been sexting.

Hitting back: Denise has detailed the extreme lengths Eddie went to in order to keep his affairs secret in her autobiography, and he has since hit back with a series of Instagram posts

He posted a black-and-white image of Inspector Clouseau, who is described as an 'inept and incompetent police detective in the French Surete' - and the accompanying caption led many to believe he was alluding to his ex's detective skills.

It read: 'Inspector Clouseau. The 2nd worst detective in the world !!! [sic]'

'#2sides #holdinghandsup #butdefendingmyself #keepprivatelifeprivate #nolongerbeingcontrolled'.

Feeling good: On Monday morning Denise was pictured looking in great spirits as she arrived for work at the Steph's Packed Lunch studios in Leeds

Underneath, someone left the comment: 'Someone selling a book [sic]'.

Eddie's cryptic response - comprising a book and bag of money emoji - implied he believes Denise's book-writing venture is a ploy for cash.

Another penned: 'Don't listen to the noise. No one buys it, especially when someone's driven to sell books,', to which Eddie left a prayer emoji.

Despite Eddie's efforts to conceal his infidelities, Denise still found out when she was using his iPad and the messages came up, with Denise splitting from him in January after seven years together.

Denise wrote: 'There were also Instagram messages alluding to phone sex with a third woman. I quickly found the woman's profile by her screen name, only to discover I'd previously blocked her on my Instagram account - which struck me as odd.'

Hitting back: On Sunday Eddie made a jibe at his ex by posting a black-and-white image of Inspector Clouseau and the accompanying caption led many to believe he was alluding to his ex's detective skills

Interesting: Someone left the comment: 'Someone selling a book [sic]'. Eddie's cryptic response implied he believes Denise's book-writing venture is a ploy for cash

Fan support: Another penned: 'Don't listen to the noise. No one buys it, especially when someone's driven to sell books,', to which Eddie left a prayer emoji

She continued: 'This was a woman I didn't know, who'd clearly had an online connection with my boyfriend. Why would I have blocked her from my Instagram account. Straight away, I unblocked her and sent her a message saying how she knew Eddie.'

She added: 'She suggested that Eddie had probably gone into my phone and blocked her so she couldn't message me.

'She has apparently spoken to Eddie over FaceTime and text for a long period - often from our home and sometimes from my flat in Hampstead, which she seemed to think was his.

'They'd never met in person, but she said the conversations had become sexual in nature reasonably quickly - some of the stuff I found on the phone seemed to support that.

'However she was upset with Eddie because he'd apparently ghosted her.'

Despite her heartache, Denise has insisted there are 'no hard feelings' and that's she managed to move forward.

Speaking on a recent episode of Lorraine, she said: 'I'm feeling really good now because I wasn't in a good place, it was all a bit of a shock.

'These things happen. I'm not the first person it's happened to and I won't be the last, sadly. But it's life, isn't it, Lorraine?

'You just have to get on with it and there are no hard feelings on my side. It's happened and you just accept it. I can't change what's happened.'
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Matt Berry looked strikingly different as he shot scenes in Salisbury for the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations.

The comedy star, 47, looked worlds apart from his popular IT Crowd character Douglas Reynholm as he sported a full grey beard and luscious locks with silver flecks.

He cut a dapper figure in period attire, made up of smart grey trousers, a paisley patterned waistcoat with a coordinated purple jacket.

New look: Matt Berry looked strikingly different as he shot scenes for the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations

Matt completed his ensemble with a gold bow tie and a brown top hat as he was seen shooting scenes in Salisbury on Thursday.

He is starring as Mr Pumblechoock in the six-part series, where he will star alongside Olivia Colman, who will play the role of wealthy spinster Miss Havisham.

Other pictures taken on Wednesday showed young stars Tom Sweet and Chloe Lea dressed in period attire as they shot scenes alongside other co-stars.

Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of an orphan nicknamed Pip, who will be played by Fionn Whitehead in the upcoming adaptation.

Different: Matt he sported a full grey beard and luscious locks with silver flecks as he shot scenes

Venture: Matt completed his ensemble with a gold bow tie and a brown top hat as he was seen shooting scenes in Salisbury on Thursday

Co-stars: He is starring as Mr Pumblechoock in the six-part series, where he will star alongside Olivia Colman, who will play the role of wealthy spinster Miss Havisham

Charles Dickens first released it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860 before it was subsequently published as a novel.

The stellar cast will feature Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell and Trystan Gravelle.

Top Boy actor Ashley will take on the role of lawyer Jaggers while Johnny is set to play escaped convict and Pip's benefactor Magwitch.

Olivia Colman is taking on the role of Miss Havisham, who was previously played by Martita Hunt in the 1946 film version while Gillian Anderson took on the role in 2012.

Project: Other pictures taken on Wednesday showed young stars Tom Sweet and Chloe Lea dressed in period attire as they shot scenes

Dickens: Matt is playing Mr Pumblechoock, who is Joe Gargery's uncle. Joe is the husband of Mrs Joe, the main character Pip's mean sister

Getting ready: Matt was seen having his costume fixed by members of the crew, who wore face masks, during scenes in Salisbury

Shooting: Matt was seen talking with actor Tom Sweet as they filmed scenes

Tale: Charles Dickens first released it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860 before it was subsequently published as a novel

Break: Tom Sweet was seen having a packet of Quavers while still dressed in his period attire during filming

The hotly-anticipated series will also be executively produced by the team behind the BBC's 2019 adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Lucy Forbes, who previously worked on BBC series This Is Going to Hurt, will act as lead director with Mark Kinsella as producer.

A release date for Great Expectations has not yet been confirmed.

The broadcaster had previously produced a three-part drama titled of the same name which was written by Sarah Phelps in 2011.

It starred Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham and Douglas Booth as Pip with the miniseries being well received by viewers.

Exciting: The cast of Great Expectations were seen shooting scenes at a grand house in Salisbury on Wednesday

Stars: Tom Sweet and Chloe Lea were seen in scenes with Matt on Wednesday

Horse and carriage: The actors were seen filming outside a manor house in Salisbury

Stars: The stellar cast will feature Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell and Trystan Gravelle

Shooting: Tom Sweet was seen donning a brown outfit as he was surrounded by cast during scenes

Dickens' famous novel follows the story of orphan Pip, who lives with his sister Mrs Joe Gargery and her blacksmith husband Joe.

Escaped convict Magwitch scares Pip into stealing food and a metal file for him, but takes the blame when Pip is caught for the theft.

Later, Pip visits the eccentric Miss Havisham at Satis House and meets her adopted daughter Estella, who he falls in love with.

Miss Havisham is jilted after being left at the alter two decades ago and is raising Estella to break men's heart as she lashes out at her own treatment.

Pip later discovers he has a wealthy benefactor and becomes a gentleman, while Estella marries another man.
Alex Jones' husband Charlie Thompson whisked the star away for her 45th birthday for a surprise trip to Paris, where they passionately kissed in front of the Eiffel Tower.

The One Show presenter Alex took to Instagram on to share a slew of loved-up snaps from the trip, as they soaked up the sights of the French city.

One shot showed the couple - who wed on New Year's Eve in 2015 - locking lips in front of the famous Eiffel Tower.

'24 hours in Paris': The One Show's Alex Jones passionately kisses husband Charlie Thomson in rare PDA as he whisks her away to French capital for her 45th birthday

Surprise! Alex Jones' husband Charlie Thompson whisked the star away for her 45th birthday for a surprise trip to Paris

Grateful: Captioning the string of sweet photos, Alex thanked her husband for the trip, writing: '24 hours in Paris. 24 hours of laughing, exploring, wine drinking, hand holding and remembering why were a team'

Another showed the pair, who have three children together, beaming in the sunshine as they both hid their eyes behind sunglasses.

Captioning the string of sweet photos, Alex thanked her husband for the trip, writing: '24 hours in Paris. 24 hours of laughing, exploring, wine drinking, hand holding and remembering why were a team.

'Thank you Mr T for the best surprise.'

She also shared an adorable montage of the highlights of the trip for her 333,000 followers.

Adorable: The One Show presenter, 45, took to Instagram to share a slew of loved-up snaps from the trip

The video started off with them both at the airport, starting the holiday of with a glass of bubbly.

Alex then filmed the idyllic view from the airplane as they flew to the city of love to the song I Love Paris by Ella Fitzgerald.

She also couldn't resist showing off the gorgeous view from the room they were staying in, and all the delicious Parisian food.

The pair explored all the sites the French capital had on offer, visiting the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, as well as the love lock bridge.



Alex and New Zealand-born insurance broker Charlie met in 2011 at a party, before getting engaged in February 2015 and tying the knot on New Year's Eve the same year.

They welcomed their first child, baby Teddy, into the world on January 22, 2017 and Alex gave birth to her second child, a boy called Kit, on May 13, 2019.

On March 25, 2021, Alex revealed she was pregnant with her third baby and gave birth to daughter Annie on 21 August, 2021.
Caprice Bourret has blasted Boris Johnson for 'frustrating' lack of support over a charity initiative she is supporting to give Ukraine's refugees jobs in UK.

The 50-year-old model was speaking on Sky News on Wednesday about the crisis alongside celebrity chef Steven Saunders who wants to pair up Ukrainians who have experience in the hospitality industry with jobs in the UK with his Odessa Project.

But Caprice told how while they have the 'full support' of the Ukrainian embassy, they can't get the UK government to 'even talk to them about it'.

Having her say: Caprice Bourret has blasted Boris Johnson for 'frustrating' lack of support over a charity initiative she is supporting to give Ukraine's refugees jobs in UK

She said: 'It is very frustrating, we just need a green light. We have the full support from the Ukrainian Embassy.

'They have people ready to go and they have done police checks. We have an agency over here to do additional background checks too.

'They are a proud nation, they don't want charity, they want jobs and to integrate into society and we can provide this for them right now! We can't get the government to even talk to us about it. It is frustrating.'

Difficult: The model was speaking on Sky News on Wednesday about the crisis alongside celebrity chef Steven Saunders who wants to pair up Ukrainians who have experience in the hospitality industry with jobs in the UK with his Odessa Project (Boris is pictured today)

Caprice's added of her message to Home Secretary Priti Patel and PM Boris: 'Talk to us about it. We are ready to go! Green light this initiative. You can see the devastation on the front line. This is war for god sake, can we just be human beings!?

'The government should do their scheme as well. It is not a case of one is better or being in competition - let us work together and create a difference now! This is war and people are suffering'.

She went on to explain more about her efforts to help where she can: 'I have been very vocal, like a lot of people, about Putin's war. I have given money, supplies and I want to do more!

'When I read about Steven's initiative, I called him straight up and said, I want to help, how can I get involved? I want to do something - it is an amazing initiative.'

Hard: But Caprice told how while they have the 'full support' of the Ukrainian embassy, they can't get the UK government to 'even talk to them about it'

Speaking alongside Caprice, Steven said: 'We have support and accommodation. We have the whole package, to align them with jobs straight away here in the UK. But what we don't have is government support'.

Responding to what he says is the problem, he said: 'It is the UK government. I have spoken to them and they have their scheme, I am not dissing the scheme but it is about putting refugee families into bedrooms essentially without jobs. We are not doing that - we are providing jobs and salaries above the minimum pay.

'They are regular people who have had their lives turned upside down, they don't want to be put in someone's bedroom. The government have a great scheme with 300,000 people wanting to take refugee families in, but they do not have any refugee families wanting to go into that scheme.

Powerful: It comes after last week Caprice stripped naked and painted herself with a Stop The War slogan in support of Ukraine as the country continued to defend itself from Russian invasion

'The Ukrainian Embassy told me they didn't know of anyone who want to be aligned with it'.

It comes after last week Caprice stripped naked and painted herself with a Stop The War slogan in support of Ukraine as the country continued to defend itself from Russian invasion.

She took to Instagram to share a a handful of images in which she poses without clothing, the reactionary message 'F U WAR' daubed across her chest and back.

Using her arms to protect her modesty, she gazes proactively into the camera lens, while in another she gives it a contemptuous middle finger.

Nude: She took to Instagram to share a a handful of images in which she poses without clothing, the reactionary message 'F U WAR' daubed across her chest and back

Captioning the stirring images, she wrote: '#nowar' followed by a broken heart emoji.

It came after Caprice took to Instagram to urge her followers to help donate supplies to refugees fleeing Ukraine.

She shared photos of herself helping to hand out donations to those in need, and begged her fans for their help.

As well as getting involved in efforts to help with Ukraine, Caprice has also been vocal about the pandemic in the past, warning early at the start of the crisis that we should be wearing face masks.

In March 2020 she found herself at loggerheads with a medical expert during an appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show, as they discussed coronavirus.

'I need your help': It came after Caprice took to Instagram to urge her followers to help donate supplies to refugees fleeing Ukraine

The Dancing On Ice contestant was debating with Dr. Sarah Jarvis on how best to curtail the pandemic's growth when she insisted the UK should be following Taiwan and Singapore's model with a two-week shutdown.

As she shared her view, Caprice was told by Dr. Jarvis: 'No disrespect, but unless you have read every scientific paper and statistical modelling paper thats come out you cannot argue with me on that. You can have an opinion but its not a fact.'

Showing no signs of relenting, the star stood firm as she shot back: 'But I can, I have an opinion. Let me read you the facts: In Taiwan and Singapore early on everyone was wearing surgical masks'

'Which make no difference at all,' Dr. Jarvis boomed back at Caprice, who refused to back down as she said: 'Sorry, I let you so let me finish'

Host Jeremy then interjected as he explained to Caprice: 'Alright, but Sarah is the expert, but go on.'

While now we know she was correct at wanting early intervention, a large number of viewers were aghast at what they saw, taking to Twitter in droves to ask why Caprice was even invited to debate such a topic on the show.

For more information please visit: theodessaproject.com
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David Walliams has been pictured enjoying a dog walk and a pub lunch with his new girlfriend Rosie Ashley in London's Primrose Hill on Sunday.

The comedian, 50, was photographed strolling along in the spring sunshine with the strawberry blonde beauty, who is signed to a series of modelling agencies, while out and about with his pet pooch Ernie.

An insider revealed to MailOnline that David and his love interest Rosie have been 'dating for a while', as they duo looked at ease in each other's company while out and about together.

Loved-up? David Walliams has been pictured enjoying a dog walk and a pub lunch with his new girlfriend Rosie Ashley in London 's Primrose Hill on Sunday

Beauty: An insider revealed to MailOnline that David and his love interest Rosie have been 'dating for a while', as they duo looked at ease in each other's company while out on their sunshine stroll

Rosie's Instagram page features a series of sizzling fashion and swimwear shots and its easy to see how she caught the TV star's eye. Her page reveals that they currently follow each other on the photo-sharing app.

In recent years, the Little Britain star has been linked to a string of beauties including Natalie Imbruglia, 47, Keeley Hazell, 35, and Ashley James, 34. He was married to supermodel Lara Stone from 2010-2015 and they have a son called Alfred.

David wore black combats and white trainers for the outing, with a black bomber jacket layered over a light grey jumper.

Keeping it casual: David wore black combats and white trainers for the outing, with a black bomber jacket layered over a light grey jumper

Sunshine: The pair walked along side-by-side, with little Ernie nearby at all times

Wow! Rosie's Instagram page features a series of sizzling swimswear snaps from sun-soaked getaways

Glam! Her page also includes as series of edgy fashion shots

Rosie showcased her slim pins in skin-tight black leggings, which she teamed with white trainers and a black hoodie.

The stunner completed her look with a textured off-white coat and carried her belongings in a similarly coloured handbag, while shielding her eyes with mottled shades.

After their one and a half hour lunch at a local pub, the pair took David's dog Ernie for a walk to the top of Primrose Hill.

Athleisure: Rosie showcased her slim pins in skin-tight black leggings, which she teamed with white trainers and a black hoodie

Chic: The stunner completed her look with a textured off-white coat

Perfect Sunday: After their one and a half hour lunch at a local pub, the pair took David's dog Ernie for a walk to the top of Primrose Hill

Happy times: The couple clearly enjoyed spending time together

Social media friends! Rosie's account reveals that she and David follow each other on Instagram

While enjoying the view, a woman asked David if he could take her photograph before later realising who he was.

David's outing with Rosie comes after model Keeley Hazell shared a post for David's 50th birthday in August - seemingly confirming their relationship was strictly platonic.

The model took to Instagram Stories to share a slew of snaps from their friendship as she praised the 'thoughtful and generous' comedian.

Finishing touches: David's female companion carried her belongings in a white handbag, while shielding her eyes with mottled shades

Go on Ernie! David's little dog got his exercise in as he was walked up to the top of the hill

Catching up: The couple chatted as they strolled along together, while Ernie explored

Home time: They wandered back to the car park after spending the day in Primrose Hill

Up and down: David and Rosie certainly got their steps in during the outing

She wrote: 'HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING FRIEND @davidwalliams. You are the most thoughtful and generous person I know.

'You're always fun to be around. Thank you for being in my life for the last 16 years. Have the best day.'

The couple, who were regularly spotted together on the London social circuit towards the end of the Noughties, had appeared to make their relationship Instagram official after attending Ant McPartlin's wedding together last summer.

In July last year, it was reported David had moved former page 3 girl Keeley, into his London home for nine months after she returned from the U.S.

Although they reportedly share a 'special chemistry', it was previously claimed that pair are just close pals and share a long-standing friendship.

WHO ARE DAVID'S PAST HOT LOVES AND LINKS? Lara Stone, 38 The pair - who are parents to Alfred, eight - were married for five years. David filed for divorce in 2015, citing 'unreasonable behaviour'. Lara and David pictured in 2012 Natalie Imbruglia, 47 David and the Australian singer were romantically linked on and off in the past, but Natalie claimed in a 2009 interview the comedian was 'bad for her dating'. Natalie and David pictured 2019 Keeley Hazell, 35 In July last year, it was reported David had moved former page 3 girl Keeley into his London home for nine months after she returned from the US Although they reportedly share a 'special chemistry', it was previously claimed that pair are just close pals and share a long-standing friendship Keeley and David pictured in 2021 Lisa Snowdon, 50 In 2006, David Walliams confessed that his heart had been broken by a mystery woman, who he dubbed Miss X. Lisa revealed that she was the woman in question and explained she and David had dated briefly before she decided she just wanted to be friends. Lisa and David pictured in 2005 Geri Horner, 49 They dated a few weeks before news of their relationship broke in 2007. Their romance fizzled out six weeks later. Geri pictured in 2007 Ashley James, 34 David briefly started the Made In Chelsea star following his split from Lara. Ashley pictured in 2022 Lauren Budd, 31 David dated model Lauren for three months in 2009, when she was 18 and he was 37. Lauren and David pictured in 2009 Advertisement

Gorgeous: Rosie looked effortlessly glam with her strawberry blonde hair tied back

At ease: She checked her phone during their stroll, while David carried Ernie's lead

Oops: Ernie appeared to resist walking any further as he tugged on his lead

Close: The duo were close together as they walked around side-by-side

David's most high-profile relationship to date was with Dutch model Lara Stone, with whom he shares son Alfred, seven.

The former couple wed in May 2010 after just one year of dating, and split in October 2015.

Keeley recently enjoyed brief romance with actor Jason Sudeikis, 45, but it reportedly fizzled, according to E! news.

The former Page 3 model and Ted Lasso actor Jason were first linked in February following his split from wife Olivia Wilde, who is now in a relationship with Harry Styles.

Hilarious! While enjoying the view, a woman asked David if he could take her photograph before later realising who he was

Helping hand: David's female companion looked over his shoulder as he took the snap

Oh dear! The cyclist later tweeted about the encounter and shared David's photography

Handing it back: His mystery date handed the phone back to the cyclist

The outing comes after viewers were left hiding their eyes on Friday as Matt Lucas and David's newest sketch was branded 'excruciating'.

The Little Britain duo revived their Rock Profile sketch show, where they impersonate famous singers, for Comic Relief after its original run ended in 2002.

Vernon Kay took on the role of presenter, from original host Jamie Theakston, as he interviewed the pair who mimicked Miley Cyrus, Adele, Post Malone, Lewis Capaldi and Billie Eilish to name but a few.

However the much anticipated sketch didn't please many fans watching at home as they raced to twitter to air their opinion.

One fan commented: 'Erm, I used to remember Rock Profile being funny'.

While another added 'I can't watch this Rock Profile thing on Comic Relief it's excruciating'.

Car crash: Viewers were left hiding their eyes on Friday as Matt Lucas and David newest sketch was branded excruciating

Eek: Vernon Kay took on the role of presenter, from original host Jamie Theakston, as he interviewed the pair who mimicked Miley Cyrus, Adele, Post Malone, Lewis Capaldi and Billie Eilish to name but a few

Unimpressed: Fans were less than blown over by the duos impressions of Adele (left) and Gady Gaga (centre) pictured with host Vernon Kay

One fan commented: 'Erm, I used to remember Rock Profile being funny'

Oh no: While another added 'I can't watch this Rock Profile thing on Comic relief it's excruciating'

The sketch was introduced by Alesha Dixon and David Tennant as they egged up the excited crowd.

'Time now for something very exciting,' Alesha said as she beamed for the cameras.

'Back in 1999, my old friend David Walliams and Matt Lucas launched Rock Profile featuring stars such as Elton John, George Michael, Kylie Minogue and Tom Jones.'

Excited: The sketch was introduced by Alesha Dixon and David Tennant as they egged up the excited crowd

Back: Doctor who star David Tennant then said: 'And now, over 20 years later, they're back!

David then said: 'And now, over 20 years later, they're back! Here's the set-up: all the biggest music stars of today are getting together to record the new Comic Relief single, it's a brand new version of 'The Greatest Love of All'. Vernon Kay is backstage at the recording studio talking exclusively to all the stars'.

Viewers continued to take to Twitter to brand the duo past their prime, with one writing: 'Matt Lucas and David Walliams' Rock Profile sketching on Comic Relief was absolutely excruciating awful and outdated rubbish'.

Another agreed: Despite the Nan movie existing, the Rock Profile Comic Relief special has come in as a last minute contender for the 'Missed the by boat by a decade' award by making a Lady Gaga neat dress sketch in 2022'.
Alessandra Ambrosio cut an eye-catching figure while spending time in Mexico City in a set of snaps that were shared to her Instagram account on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old model was featured at an official event for insurance conglomerate GNP Seguros, for whom she serves as a public face, and appeared to be making the most of her time in front of the cameras.

The runway regular also shared a short clip of herself blowing a kiss to one of her fans as she attended the event.

Doing what she does best: Alessandra Ambrosio cut an eye-catching figure while spending time in Mexico City in a set of snaps that were shared to her Instagram account on Wednesday

Ambrosio wore a white short-sleeve button-up shirt that showed off much of her toned arms.

She also tucked her top into a black miniskirt that emphasized her sculpted legs and thighs.

The fashion industry figure rocked a pair of leather high-heeled shoes and carried a purse made of the same material at the event.

Her gorgeous brunette locks cascaded onto her shoulders and contrasted perfectly with the light tone of her top.

Staying comfortable: Ambrosio wore a white short-sleeve button-up shirt that showed off much of her toned arms

Contrasting colors: She also tucked her top into a black miniskirt that emphasized her sculpted legs and thighs

Ambrosio began her modeling career during her teenage years and quickly began working with high-name brands.

She later started walking in shows for Victoria's Secret, and her work for the brand skyrocketed her to the forefront of the fashion world.

The influencer was eventually named as one of the brand's Angels, although she stepped down from her role in 2017.

Putting in work: The influencer was eventually named as one of the brand's Angels, although she stepped down from her role in 2017; she is seen during that year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows

Ambrosio recently spoke about the changing face of the fashion industry during an interview with Harper's Bazaar Mexico, where she lauded the fact that companies were beginning to embrace models with natural looks.

'Today, fortunately, there is more openness towards showing yourself as you are and breaking stereotypes. We are in a time of greater inclusion and acceptance and that is really beautiful,' she said.

The supermodel expressed that she attempted to keep a level head while working on her various projects.

Taking notice: Ambrosio recently spoke about the changing face of the fashion industry during an interview with Harper's Bazaar Mexico, where she lauded the fact that companies were beginning to embrace models with natural looks; she is seen in 2021

'Sometimes I think I'm...on an eternal vacation, but I think it's my way of making the most of every moment. Although I am working, I try to feel relaxed,' she stated.

Ambrosio also remarked that she had come to highly value her personal well-being over her years as a model.

'My biggest luxury...goes beyond any possession or object. Luxury is something that makes you feel wonderful and comes from within your being,' she said.
Bridgerton's Adjoa Andoh has revealed that she wants her character Lady Danbury to have a love interest in future seasons of hit Netflix period drama.

The actress, 59, teased that just because the fierce duchess is over 50, it doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve some 'excitement' injected into her storyline.

Speaking on Loose Women on Thursday, Adjoa said she hoped that there will be a love interest for Lady Danbury 'to come' - hinting that the formidable woman doesn't have any entanglements in season two, which comes out tomorrow.

Sparks: Bridgerton's Adjoa Andoh has revealed that she wants her character Lady Danbury to have a love interest in future seasons of hit Netflix period drama

On the chat show, Katie Piper asked Adjoa: 'Will we see Lady Danbury have a love interest do you think this time?'

To which she replied: 'Oh my god I would love Lady Danbury to have a love interest, just because you're over 50, does not mean, that you don't still - you know, the blood still heats, there are juices flowing and we all want a bit of life and excitement.

'I would hope that that is still to come. Lady Danbury is certainly up for it.'

Speaking about love interests for other characters, Adjoa said that the love entanglements in the second series are more 'sensuous and forbidden' as she addressed the toned down sex scenes.

Love: The actress, 59, teased that just because the fierce duchess is over 50, it doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve some 'excitement' injected into her storyline

Fan theory: On the chat show, Katie Piper asked Adjoa: 'Will we see Lady Danbury have a love interest do you think this time?'

'Now listen, last season's nookie was architecturally graphic in many respects,' she said.

'It's differently sexy this season, I would say there's a lot more - it's sensuous and a lot more forbidden, so when you get the climax, you get the climax!'

In the upcoming second series, Lady Danbury takes in the Sharma family - sisters Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina (Charithra Chandran), and their mother Lady Mary (Shelley Conn) - who travel to London from India to take part in the social season.

Both sisters quickly fall for the charms of Lord Anthony Bridgerton, played by Jonathan Bailey.

Elsewhere on Loose Women, Adjoa also spoke about the trials of getting into Lady Danbury's wig during shooting, saying she has to have a 360 degrees wig because she has no hair normally.

New season: In the second series, Lady Danbury takes in the Sharma family - sisters Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina (Charithra Chandran), and their mother Lady Mary (Shelley Conn)

The Doctor Who star said the duchess's wig has to be a good 'disguise' because Lady Danbury always wears her hair up, a style choice that Adjoa said she chose.

She explained: 'As you can see, no hair! I have to have a 360 degree wig, at 4am I will be sitting in a make-up truck and we won't turn over until 8, and then we will keep going until 7pm.

'So by the end of the day, I am hanging. Because Lady Danbury has her hair up, my fault my choice, all the way around, the disguise has to be good so it goes over the ears. It's a beast to look normal.'

Adjoa also described Bridgerton as a show for everyone, no matter their race, sexuality or background, as she said the hotly-anticipated second series 'hits the ground running' following the success of the first season.

She said: 'There was something beautiful about going here's a show that's got a really a wide embrace - it doesn't matter if you're gay or you're straight, if you're a homemaker or a woman that wants to go out into the world and do marvelous non-domestic things, it doesn't matter what your race is.

Sexy: Speaking about love interests for other characters, Adjoa said that the romance between Kate and Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) is more 'sensuous and forbidden'

'It doesn't matter if you just want to watch a bit of will they wont they, oh there's a fancy castle and look at the fabulous frock!

'There was something for everybody and the embrace was wide.'

It comes after Adjoa said she wants the hit Netflix show to give black youngsters a sense of belonging.

She said she has felt touched by seeing black children dressing up as straight-talking Lady Danbury, adding that she hopes it makes them feel like they have a 'place'.

Role model: It comes after Adjoa said she wants the hit Netflix show to give black youngsters a sense of belonging

She told the Sunday Mirror: 'I get pictures from little girls and boys dressed as Lady Danbury, I think it's lovely.

'You kind of go, oh these children are going to grow up feeling like they have a place  not like they are being tolerated.'

Speaking about her own childhood growing up in a Gloucestershire farming community, Adjoa said she often felt singled out and that she wasn't 'seen'.

The Invictus star, who moved to the West Country from Leeds, said: 'Some people were like, "We can't have that coloured girl in here  what would the neighbours think!"'

Hit show: Based on a series of books of the same name by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton follows the eight siblings of the Bridgerton family as they attempt to find love in Regency-era England

She added that she and her family were 'enormously welcomed' by other people, as she compared her mother to her character Lady Danbury.

Based on a series of books of the same name by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton follows the eight siblings of the Bridgerton family as they attempt to find love in Regency-era England.

In the upcoming second series, Lady Danbury takes in the Sharma family - sisters Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina (Charithra Chandran), and their mother Lady Mary (Shelley Conn) - who travel to London from India to take part in the social season.

Both sisters quickly fall for the charms of Lord Anthony Bridgerton, played by Jonathan Bailey.

Popular: Bridgerton quickly gained the title of Netflix's most-watched series to date, garnering over 82 million views worldwide

Adapted from The Viscount Who Loved Me, the new season is set to centre on Anthony's search to find a wife.

But in true Bridgerton fashion, 'a considerable scandal' is promised to ensue when he gets caught up in a love triangle with the two sisters.

The new season of the show seems to be as racy as the last, with scenes of a naked Anthony covering his modesty in his bedroom and in wet clothing after falling in the river as the result of some flirtatious behaviour.

Bridgerton quickly gained the title of Netflix's most-watched series to date, garnering over 82 million views worldwide.

Series two airs on Netflix from March 25.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo / AP-Yonhap



The United States has no plans to renegotiate a quota agreement forged by Korea and the former Trump administration, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday, a day after agreeing to cut tariffs on British steel and aluminum.



"They kind of struck their own deal in the last administration, with a quota arrangement, so renegotiating that is not a high priority for us now," Raimondo told Reuters in an interview.



Korean officials have pushed for consultations with Washington after the United States struck deals with the European Union and Japan to roll back tariffs on steel and aluminum. On Wednesday, it struck a similar deal with Britain.



But in 2018, shortly after former President Donald Trump imposed the 'Section 232' tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel, his administration agreed to grant Seoul an annual duty-free annual steel quota of up to 2.68 million metric tons as part of a deal to revise the U.S.-Korean Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).






Caprice Bourret showcased her toned physique as she went for an outdoor workout in a West London park on Thursday.

The model, 50, blew off some steam after she blasted Boris Johnson for 'frustrating' lack of support over a charity initiative she is supporting to give Ukraine's refugees jobs in UK.

The TV personality looked sensational as she donned a brown long-sleeved crop top while exercising with a resistance band.

Looking good: Caprice Bourret showcased her toned physique as she went for an outdoor workout in a West London park on Thursday

Caprice also sported a pair of blue and pink tie-dye shorts along with a pair of white trainers.

Working out with a resistance band, the star let her platinum blonde locs fall loose down her shoulders.

Caprice spoke about her charity initiative on Sky News on Wednesday alongside celebrity chef Steven Saunders, who wants to pair up Ukrainians who have experience in the hospitality industry with jobs in the UK with his Odessa Project.

But Caprice told how while they have the 'full support' of the Ukrainian embassy, they can't get the UK government to 'even talk to them about it'.

Work out: The TV personality looked sensational as she donned a brown long-sleeved crop top and tie-dye shorts

She said: 'It is very frustrating, we just need a green light. We have the full support from the Ukrainian Embassy.

'They have people ready to go and they have done police checks. We have an agency over here to do additional background checks too.

'They are a proud nation, they don't want charity, they want jobs and to integrate into society and we can provide this for them right now! We can't get the government to even talk to us about it. It is frustrating.'

Having her say: The model blew off some steam after she blasted Boris Johnson for 'frustrating' lack of support over a charity initiative she is supporting to give Ukraine's refugees jobs in UK

Difficult: The model was speaking on Sky News on Wednesday about the crisis alongside celebrity chef Steven Saunders who wants to pair up Ukrainians who have experience in the hospitality industry with jobs in the UK with his Odessa Project (Boris is pictured today)

Caprice's added of her message to Home Secretary Priti Patel and PM Boris: 'Talk to us about it. We are ready to go! Green light this initiative. You can see the devastation on the front line. This is war for god sake, can we just be human beings!?

'The government should do their scheme as well. It is not a case of one is better or being in competition - let us work together and create a difference now! This is war and people are suffering'.

She went on to explain more about her efforts to help where she can: 'I have been very vocal, like a lot of people, about Putin's war. I have given money, supplies and I want to do more!

'When I read about Steven's initiative, I called him straight up and said, I want to help, how can I get involved? I want to do something - it is an amazing initiative.'

Hard: But Caprice told how while they have the 'full support' of the Ukrainian embassy, they can't get the UK government to 'even talk to them about it'

Speaking alongside Caprice, Steven said: 'We have support and accommodation. We have the whole package, to align them with jobs straight away here in the UK. But what we don't have is government support'.

Responding to what he says is the problem, he said: 'It is the UK government. I have spoken to them and they have their scheme, I am not dissing the scheme but it is about putting refugee families into bedrooms essentially without jobs. We are not doing that - we are providing jobs and salaries above the minimum pay.

'They are regular people who have had their lives turned upside down, they don't want to be put in someone's bedroom. The government have a great scheme with 300,000 people wanting to take refugee families in, but they do not have any refugee families wanting to go into that scheme.

Powerful: It comes after last week Caprice stripped naked and painted herself with a Stop The War slogan in support of Ukraine as the country continued to defend itself from Russian invasion

'The Ukrainian Embassy told me they didn't know of anyone who want to be aligned with it'.

It comes after last week Caprice stripped naked and painted herself with a Stop The War slogan in support of Ukraine as the country continued to defend itself from Russian invasion.

She took to Instagram to share a a handful of images in which she poses without clothing, the reactionary message 'F U WAR' daubed across her chest and back.

Using her arms to protect her modesty, she gazes proactively into the camera lens, while in another she gives it a contemptuous middle finger.

Nude: She took to Instagram to share a a handful of images in which she poses without clothing, the reactionary message 'F U WAR' daubed across her chest and back

Captioning the stirring images, she wrote: '#nowar' followed by a broken heart emoji.

It came after Caprice took to Instagram to urge her followers to help donate supplies to refugees fleeing Ukraine.

She shared photos of herself helping to hand out donations to those in need, and begged her fans for their help.

As well as getting involved in efforts to help with Ukraine, Caprice has also been vocal about the pandemic in the past, warning early at the start of the crisis that we should be wearing face masks.

In March 2020 she found herself at loggerheads with a medical expert during an appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show, as they discussed coronavirus.

'I need your help': It came after Caprice took to Instagram to urge her followers to help donate supplies to refugees fleeing Ukraine

The Dancing On Ice contestant was debating with Dr. Sarah Jarvis on how best to curtail the pandemic's growth when she insisted the UK should be following Taiwan and Singapore's model with a two-week shutdown.

As she shared her view, Caprice was told by Dr. Jarvis: 'No disrespect, but unless you have read every scientific paper and statistical modelling paper thats come out you cannot argue with me on that. You can have an opinion but its not a fact.'

Showing no signs of relenting, the star stood firm as she shot back: 'But I can, I have an opinion. Let me read you the facts: In Taiwan and Singapore early on everyone was wearing surgical masks'

'Which make no difference at all,' Dr. Jarvis boomed back at Caprice, who refused to back down as she said: 'Sorry, I let you so let me finish'

Host Jeremy then interjected as he explained to Caprice: 'Alright, but Sarah is the expert, but go on.'

While now we know she was correct at wanting early intervention, a large number of viewers were aghast at what they saw, taking to Twitter in droves to ask why Caprice was even invited to debate such a topic on the show.

For more information please visit: theodessaproject.com
She's bagged herself a 250,000 investment from Lord Sugar, having eclipsed 15 other hopefuls in the latest high-octane series of The Apprentice.

But despite Harpreet Kaur's assertiveness, decisiveness, and winning record standing out from the rest of the candidates, she claims to have been a 'quiet' child who didn't mind time alone.

Described by Karren Brady as 'bossy', the 30-year-old had her start working in her parents' convenience shop before juggling an Open University degree with a full-time job in a bank.

Winner, winner! Harpreet Kaur started out in her parents' convinience store before gaining an online degree while working as a bank manager

Believing she could be her own boss, Harpreet and her sister Gurvinder founded a dessert parlour, which she is convinced can be scaled up with the billionaire's help.

Harpreet grew up in a 'loud' Punjabi family in Birmingham, before her parents and siblings upped sticks to Yorkshire where they ran the corner store.

She said in special BBC programme The Apprentice: The Final Four, 'I had the shock of my life when I moved up from Birmingham. I completely felt out of my zone.

'Everything was new to me and because I was so shy at the time I found it really difficult. Having to work in the shop behind the till speaking to lots of different people probably did me the world of good.

Impressive! Harpreet gained an an Open University degree and graduated with a first class

Big plans! Believing she could be her own boss, Harpreet and her sister Gurvinder founded a dessert parlour, which she is convinced can be scaled up with the billionaire's help

'I don't think you could say I'm shy now. I've obviously come out of my shell.'

She had her first taste of work when she helped her mum Jasbir behind the counter and by the age of 18, she took on a full-time position at a high street bank while attending university.

Harpreet graduated with a first class degree and by the tender age of 22 she was managing the bank branch.

'My parents were so proud to finally say, "My daughter is a bank manager." It's pretty much the moment all Indian parents wait for.'

Victory! Harpreet was crowned as the winner of The Apprentice and took home Lord Sugar's 250,000 investment after a dramatic final showdown against Kathryn Burn

Background: Harpreet grew up in a 'loud' Punjabi family in Birmingham, before her parents and siblings upped sticks to Yorkshire where they ran the corner store

Changes: She said in special BBC programme The Apprentice: The Final Four, 'I had the shock of my life when I moved up from Birmingham. I completely felt out of my zone' (pictured with her family)

Then one day, she decided to break away and start her own business.

She explained: 'I was working so hard for somebody else but I knew I had the talent and the skill to be able to do it by myself and make some of my own money.'

Together with Gurvinder, Harpreet founded Barni's dessert parlour. It started in a shopping centre and is now a standalone restaurant in Huddersfield.

During the programme, she explained she hoped to grow her business with six new stores with the help of Lord Sugar's investment.

She said: 'We've got these two cafes now, I've perfected the model, it can be scaled up. It works.'

Childhood: She had her first taste of work when she helped her mum Jasbir behind the counter and b y the age of 18, she took on a full-time position at a high street bank while attending university

She also revealed she hoped to diversify into the savoury snack market, which the advisors warned her against.

Harpreet's go-getter attitude has shone through in The Apprentice. She has the joint best record in the process, including two wins as project manager.

Now she has her sights set on the future: 'I feel I've got my business to a fantastic level but I'm want to scale up, I want to level up. I want the pressure.

'I'm really confident Lord Sugar will see the opportunity in me and my business.'

Sister, sister! Harpreet opened her bakery business with her sister

Baroness Brady added: 'Harpreet has been a solid candidate throughout this process but now, none of that matters, it's all down to the business plan.'

However during the interviews, Harpreet's relationship with her sister was questioned by Claude - who accused her of being a liar for saying she was the 'founder and CEO of the business.

He said: 'It's not straight. You're not the owner...You make light of it, but Lord Sugar could have a problem. He's seen you and he hasn't seen your sister. It sounds like one of you is superfluous.'

While speaking to Lord Sugar later in the programme, Claude said: 'I was impressed with her, but who is leading the business?

All smiles: However during the interviews, Harpreet's relationship with her sister was questioned by Claude - who accused her of being a liar for saying she was the 'founder and CEO of the business

'But maybe the sister is the grafter? We don't know. That would need to be examined.'

But later Harpreet said the relationship wouldn't be a problem, saying: 'If it's a problem, she is prepared to step down.

'I've already had that conversation with her on a personal level, it wouldn't affect the business going forward.'

'If you don't want to invest in the business with the current structure, I've already had the conversation with her. You can invest in it 50 per cent and do it with myself.'

Business: Together with Gurvinder, Harpreet founded Barni's dessert parlour. It started in a shopping centre and is now a standalone restaurant in Huddersfield

'Dreams do come true!': She revealed plans to 'level up' her successful coffee and cakes business after her victory in a bid to become a leading UK brand

The Apprentice 2022: 'Dreams do come true!': Harpreet Kaur is crowned WINNER over Kathryn Burn and takes home Lord Sugar's 250k investment in dramatic final episode

Harpreet Kaur was crowned as the winner of The Apprentice and took home Lord Sugar's 250,000 investment after a dramatic final showdown against Kathryn Burn.

The dessert parlour owner, 30, said she plans to 'level up' her successful coffee and cakes business after her victory in a bid to become a leading brand in the UK.

Speaking about her victory, Harpreet, who also runs a sweet treat delivery company, gushed: 'I cannot believe Lord Sugar has chosen me to be his business partner!

Victory! Harpreet Kaur was crowned as the winner of The Apprentice and took home Lord Sugar's 250,000 investment after a dramatic final showdown against Kathryn Burn

'I have dreamed of this moment, and it just completely proves that if you work hard and you believe in yourself, dreams do come true.'

The dedicated businesswoman said she isn't in the business to 'make friends' but plans to 'make money' in her new partnership with business magnate Lord Sugar.

She said: 'I'm definitely not in business to make friends, I'm here to make money, and I'm pretty sure Lord Sugar isn't looking for a new mate.'

The explosive all-female final saw Harpreet and Kathryn go head-to-head to prove to Lord Sugar, 75, to prove why they deserved the 250,000 investment money.

Wow: Harpreet couldn't contain her delight as she won the 250k investment

'Dreams do come true!': The dessert parlour owner, 30, said she plans to 'level up' her successful coffee and cakes business after her victory in a bid to become a leading UK brand

In the final boardroom before Lord Sugar made his decision, Karren Brady and Tim Campbell described Harpreet as 'respected' but questioned whether her business venture would be 'scalable'.

Tim, 44, said: 'She's been a really good candidate. Lots of the other people in the process really respect her, they followed her and she's delivered several times.'

While Karren, 52, asked: 'The question you have to ask yourself is, is it scalable? What is unique that turns her from her two stores, to the 100 stores that she has the ambition to be?'

Speaking about Harpreet's opponent Kathryn, who owns an online pyjama shop, Karren said she considered herself an 'expert' when she was only just starting to build her business.

She added: 'She thinks she's an expert when she's really just beginning to build her business  when you questioned the jungle trend, she wasn't having it  the whole part of being your business partner is to take on board your advice.'

Head-to-head: The explosive all-female final saw Harpreet and Kathryn go head-to-head to prove to Lord Sugar, 75, to prove why they deserved the 250,000 investment money

Emotional: Harpreet was delighted as she won over Kathyrn (right)

No bad blood: The finalists embraced after Harpreet was selected as the winner

Back together: The fired candidates returned to help the finalists reach their goal of becoming The Apprentice

But Tim said: 'If she listens, takes the wise words, this could be one.'

After a last impassioned pitch from each finalist, Lord Sugar made his much-anticipated final decision, bringing to an end a jam-packed series.

He said: 'It is a very, very difficult situation for meHarpreet I'm not sure whether this business is scalable or whether you are trying to do too much and that's what I'm worried about at the moment.

'Kathryn, I'm concerned on the longevity of it, and the popularity of it, it's very hard, this is difficult for me

'A lot of the companies that I invest in are a start from scratch situation, basically what Kathryn is proposing, so ladies, I think that I've decided now Harpreet, you're going to be my business partner.'

They're back: The series finale also saw previously fired hopefuls (pictured: Harry Mahmood and Amy Anzel) return to the show while they were constantly at each other's throats throughout the episode

Oh dear: The pair plastered on some smiles as they filmed a commercial

Harpreet was deemed a worthy winner by viewers of the BBC one programme, as they took to Twitter to celebrate in her win after it was announced.

One person said: 'Was there ever a doubt! The winner of The Apprentice. I said from dot day she will win!'

Another person agreed, and said: 'The right person won The Apprentice - it will be scalable. The pyjamas business is a risky one, it's a start up.

'Whereas the winner already has an established business.'

A third said: 'Is it just me or did Alan Sugar make the quickest decision on who would win? I'm glad that Harpreet won!'

Another said: 'Sis deserved the win. But I wanna know what went down with the sister.'

Reaction: Harpreet was deemed a worthy winner by viewers of the BBC one programme, as they took to Twitter to celebrate in her win after it was announced'

A different person said: 'Worthy winner. Warmed to her as the series progressed.'

One other said: 'Well done Harpreet Kaur, you are an inspiration.'

While another said: 'Aw I knew she'd do it. Harpreet is hired. Thoroughly enjoyrd The Apprentice this year.'

One other person said: 'Really happer for the winner.'

One other person said: 'Really happer for the winner'

The series finale also saw previously fired hopefuls return to the show while they were constantly at each other's throats throughout the episode.

Lord Sugar summoned the two front-runners to the British Museum in central London to set them their final challenge - the chance to launch their own business over three days, and aided by some of the fired candidates.

The finalists had to create a new brand for their company, produce a digital billboard and direct and edit a television advert before pitching to Lord Sugar and a room full of industry experts at London's Pennington Street Warehouse.

But their fired teammates locked horns during the tasks - with first eliminated contestant Harry Mahmood, feuding with Amy Anzel while filming a billboard commercial, before making a dig at her brief stint as an actress.

Meanwhile, Navid Sole directs his wrath towards Nick Showering in the boardroom, while telling Lord Sugar he was feeling 'p****d off' with his co-star.

Throwing shade: Their fired teammates locked horns during the tasks - with first eliminated contestant Harry , feuding with Amy while filming a billboard commercial, before making a dig at her brief stint as an actress

When Amy recapped her group's events, the Amstrad founder quickly pulled her up, telling the embarrassed candidate: 'I only asked for a little summary.'

While Kathryn hoped to impress with her plan for a pyjama brand, Pyjamily, her contender attempted to draw on the sweet tooth of her customers with a dessert company, Oh So Yum.

The episode saw Navid star in an advert for Harpreet's brand, Oh So Yum, but he soon started rowing with Akshay Thakrar.

Akshay declared: 'Next one, next one, don't touch it yet,' as he bosses about Navid who pretends to eat the cakes.

He continued: 'OK, I don't like it. All you've got to do is pick that cake up, ready pick it up, show it to the camera, hold up, hold up, hold up. And now eat it. careful, wait, wait, wait, now eat it, yeah.

What a pair! Lord Sugar summoned the two front-runners to the British Museum in central London to set them their final challenge (Harpreet, left, Kathryn, right)

Rejects: They were given the chance to launch their own business over three days, and were aided by some of the fired candidates

Becoming irritated, he continued: 'Just, just, just in shot of you eating a cake, pick that brown one up. Pick it up! That doesn't work at all.

Afterwards he ranted to camera: 'All Navid had to do was show an expression, eat the cake, show it to the camera. I genuinely didn't think it was a hard thing to do.'

Nick took over and filmed it instead.

Meanwhile, Harry and Amy began feuding as they filmed an advert for Kathryn's brand, Pyjamily.

Pressure is on: The finalists had to create a new brand for their company, produce a digital billboard and direct and edit a television advert

Tasty: Harpreet attempted to draw on the sweet tooth of her customers with a dessert company

A bumbling Harry forgot to write out a note as a prop for the advert, with Amy crying out: 'Harry, did you write it? Can I write it? I just think I can do it in one second. No, Harry don't tell them to cut we didn't get the hug.

'You've got to let the whole thing happen and then we can cut it short in the edit. Let the whole thing happen.

Afterwards she said: 'Harry is more of a hindrance than helpful. Everything I've told him to do so far, he's either made a mess of it or it just didn't get it done. I could pretty much do it all myself, I don't really need him.'

Trendy: Kathryn hoped to impress with her plan for a pyjama brand

Designing: She named the line Pyjamily, and was criticised for her all-navy logo in market research

Harry said: 'I thought Amy was an actress' - drawing on the star's past as an thespian.

Amy performed in musicals such as the US Tour of Annie, the European Tour of Grease, Happy Days and a Cinderella panto with Jimmy Osmond.

She also appeared in the first season of US dating show The Bachelor in 2002.



The boardroom also saw Navid announce he's 'p****d off' with Nick over his micromanaging, leading to gasps from the room.

Navid told Lord Sugar: 'Literally at the last minute Akshay was like, 'Nick, you try it,' but obviously I was kinda p****d off with Akshay. I was like, 'You should have chosen me and not... you know all that hard work with bending down.''

Oh no: The episode saw Navid star in an advert for Harpreet's brand, Oh So Yum, but he soon started rowing with Akshay Thakrar

Feuding: Nick and Navid were also at loggerheads, with the former having to take over from his co-star to film the commercial

Amy added: 'We did get the job done and that was what was important and Katheryn was extremely happy, we were all so happy with the billboard and the commercial despite some of the interruptions...

While Alan chimed in: 'I only asked for a little summary'.

Amy was banned from its final celebration show after she complained about Lord Alan Sugar posting 'hurtful' tweets about her, it has been claimed.

The American entrepreneur was reportedly not invited to join the spin-off You're Hired, which will be aired straight after the much-anticipated final.

Eek! Meanwhile Harry (far right) and Amy started feuding as they filmed an advert for Kathryn's brand, Pyjamily

Angry: Afterwards she said: 'Harry is more of a hindrance than helpful. Everything I've told him to do so far, he's either made a mess of it or it just didn't get it done' (pictured with Akeem)

Amy was said to have been left devastated after Lord Sugar, 74, posted 'insulting' comments about her on Twitter and voiced her feelings to bosses in an email, according to The Sun.

In January, the business magnate tweeted: 'Amy didn't sell she was so slow. Slower than broad band Wi-Fi in Cornwall.'

When she was fired from the show just weeks later, he posted: 'I think if I came up with a task of the life and time of Amy Anzel she would still be sub team leader.'

Speaking about the tweets, Amy's friend told The Sun: 'When Lord Sugar posted his tweets, she thought they were nasty, hurtful and insulting and told them so in an email.'

Hands on: Kathryn knew what she wanted from her brand - but the logo was slammed by Sugar's aide Campbell

Nerve-wracking: The pair were tasked with pitching their businesses to Lord Sugar and a room full of industry experts at London's Pennington Street Warehouse

Stern: Karren Brady looked stony-faced as she watched on from the audience

The friend said the beauty brand owner didn't understand why she was fired, saying she felt they had used the fact that she hadn't taken on a project manager role as an 'excuse to get rid of her', claiming Amy volunteered for the job in the second week.

They also claimed Amy's calls and emails were 'ignored' by bosses when she reached out about the spin-off series, saying Amy got an email saying invitations were given at 'their discretion'.

'She knew the final taping was happening last Wednesday but they ignored her phone calls and emails again,' they added.

Gang: Harpreet's team enjoyed a group hug before heading into the dreaded boardroom

Ouch! Meanwhile, Navid Sole (top) directed his wrath towards Nick Showering in the boardroom, while telling Lord Sugar he was feeling 'p****d off' with his co-star

Her pal also claimed that Amy was left feeling 'humiliated' after having a Zoom call with production bosses at Naked TV, which makes the BBC series.

An Apprentice source told The Sun: 'Invitations to You're Hired are always discretionary and never guaranteed.'

A BBC spokesperson declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

MailOnline contacted Amy's representatives and Naked TV for comment at the time.

This comes as finalists Harpreet and Kathryn described how they became close friends during the process and always hoped they would end up in the final together.

Tense: The leading ladies nervously awaited Lord Sugar's verdict outside the boardroom

Kathryn, who owns an online pyjama shop, said: 'My closest friend in the whole process, and from really early on, was Harpreet, which is really weird now, that we were roommates (on the show).

'And as the process was going on, we were becoming closer and closer. So it's so weird now that we're in competition but we're actually such, such good friends as well.'

Despite ending up as rivals, the two women said they have been supporting each other during Lord Sugar's hunt for his next business partner.

Harpreet said: 'We were moving through the process hoping to be in the final, we wanted that, so it's worked out.

Who will win? The Apprentice final airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on March 24 at 9pm

'We 100 per cent support each other and will be happy for each other because we know how hard we've worked to get to this point, and I'm sure there'll be success for both of us no matter what, whoever wins.'

The women also expressed their delight at the success of the female candidates in the series.

Kathryn also spoke about working with Lord Sugar, revealing that he is not as scary as people may think: 'I don't think he's that scary even on TV. He's just direct, but a lot of businessmen and women are, you've got to be straight to the point and he is.

'He's not rude, he's just direct and he's like that in real life.'

Harpreet credited her success to being a 'tough cookie', and suggested future contestants should avoid the show if they are intimated by Lord Sugar.

She said: 'If you're a sensitive person you might be offended but if you're a tough cookie, and you can just take on board the feedback, you're going to be absolutely fine.

'At the end of the day, don't apply for the process if you're going to be intimidated by someone like that, because you're applying to go into investment with this person.

'So if you're scared you're not really going to get anywhere.'

Speaking after her victory, Harpreet said: 'Im a confident person and I gave 110% throughout the entire process and the final but at the end of the day you just dont know because Lord Sugar is going to invest in

'No, that was a bit of a panic in the interview stage, I do want to expand across the UK with lots of lots of stores, but Ive been working really hard to make sure my delivery brand Oh So Yum opens in time for the final. Ive been doing it over the past week with my existing brand but now Im rebranding to what Ive been doing on the show.

'I absolutely loved the whole element but from then onwards it was just fire, I believe in business you cant get far without strong supportive women around me, I have a really good support network so when we were in the process and we got to the final as a four, they were just so supportive, so nice and I didnt feel that we were against each other.

'We were presenting the best versions of ourselves and our business plans and we were almost like 4 friends and we couldnt believe we had made it this far, so I was really happy because Im all about girl power and I believe women are really really strong.

'But I dont think we got to the final because were female, or anything, I think its because all four of us had worked hard to get to that point.

'Do you know what as a woman you do get that little bit of a satisfaction beating the men, but to be honest man or woman I'm not fussed, gender doesnt come into it for me, its all about ability, you can be any gender, colour, race, when youre a team, everyone mucks in, so I think with my behaviour I dont really change if im a man or a woman so I actually really enjoyed working with the lads.

'Ive only just found out that Lord Sugars investing in my business, but I've been working behind the scenes non stop anyway because for me my business is my passion and my growth plans.

'I'm gonna make them happen regardless but now I've got the investment and I know im the winner of the show I can take it to the next level so I'm really looking forward to working with lord sugar and bringing the investment to reality. Thats gonna be really exciting, a dream come true.

Discussing working with Lord Sugar, she said: 'Weve been running the company for 6 years and weve got it to where it is today, together. At the end of the day, hes getting two for the price of one. Why would you not want that?

'he aint going anywhere and we make an amazing team so were gonna be a powerhouse with Lord Sugar on as well.

'Were an amazing dynamic duo, we have amazing personalities actually, we complement each others skills and thats what ensures were gonna have success in our business so its really gonna supercharge our growth, the two of us still involved, and yeah its gonna be brilliant.

She added: 'I applied thinking it would be easy and that I could smash it but when I got there, the exhaustion, the difficulty of the tasks, you dont know anyone around and you're trying to work as a team but youve never met them before, the intensity of the boardroom, the cameras, everything is full on more than you could imagine unless you're in it.

'I found it really difficult and because I took it so seriously I could not relax, I was like a machine running on exhaustion. But I did it and I believe that focus and determination and task got me through, its the hardest thing I've ever done by far.

'I just loved the final boardroom, when the candidates left after helping me and kathryn, I couldn't believe that moment, I honestly felt like i was watching it because I've genuinely dreamt of that moment. I will never forget that moment of I chased my dreams, I did it and I got there.'
She just launched SKIMS SWIM last week as she even attended pop-up events in Miami to promote the new range.

But Kim Kardashian certainly is making chess moves as she teased her next release while plugging her current one.

The 41-year-old mogul took to Instagram on Thursday morning to share some stunning snaps on a ocean-front balcony from her recent trip to Miami.

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Hot in pink: Kim Kardashian took to Instagram on Thursday morning to share some stunning snaps on a ocean-front balcony from her recent trip to Miami

In the gallery she proudly put her ripped abs on display in a bandeau top with matching clinging trousers combination which showed off her signature curves.

The outfit was completed with a pair of matching gloves and heels which appeared to be one solid piece with the bottoms.

Much of the ensemble will apparently be part of her upcoming SKIMS range as she captioned the image: 'spring summer 2022.'

The mother-of-four completed the look with a pair of sunglasses with mirrored lenses as she scintillatingly posed with her hands above her head.

Hello sunshine: In the gallery the 41-year-old mogul proudly put her ripped abs on display in a bandeau top with matching clinging trousers combination which showed off her signature curves

Out and about: The stunner also shared snaps of herself wearing the same outfit in the parking garage as she arrived for her SKIMS SWIM pop-up event in Miami over the weekend

Her raven-colored tresses were worn down into waves as they were given a bit of a 'wet' look and cascaded down her back.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star's make-up accentuated her looks as it was completed with nude lip and smokey eye.

The stunner also shared snaps of herself wearing the same outfit in the parking garage as she arrived for her SKIMS SWIM pop-up event in Miami over the weekend.

Strutting her stuff: The outfit was completed with a pair of matching gloves and heels which appeared to be one solid piece with the bottoms

Gorgeous: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star's make-up accentuated her looks as it was completed with nude lip and smokey eye

Pink seems to be Kim's color of the moment as she took to Instagram on Monday to share snaps of herself in a different hue of the same color.

She rocked a nearly entirely baby pink look including baring her toned midriff once again in a latex cropped top with a matching leather pants and heels combination.

The estranged wife of Kanye West also donned a baby pink Balenciaga jacket unbuttoned as she accessorized with a pair of large black designer shades.

Think pink: Pink seems to be Kim's color of the moment as she took to Instagram on Monday to share snaps of herself in a different hue of the same color

Fashionista: She rocked a nearly entirely baby pink look including baring her toned midriff once again in a latex cropped top with a matching leather pants and heels combination

Couture Kim: The estranged wife of Kanye West also donned a baby pink Balenciaga jacket unbuttoned as she accessorized with a pair of large black designer shades

Her raven colored locks were pulled back in a ponytail a she donned complementary make-up while laying across wooden stairs.

Kim has been spending plenty of time at her pop-up in Florida as she and her sister Khloe made quite the commotion with their sultry outfits while arriving there once again on Saturday night.

The reality TV stars looked incredible with Kim putting her hourglass curves on display in a minuscule metallic silver bra that showed off her ample cleavage, and a pair of matching skintight leggings.

Turning heads! Kim Kardashian made quite the commotion with her sultry outfit while arriving at the SKIMS pop up shop in Miami on Saturday night

Sister act: She was joined at the pop-up by her younger sister Khloe, 37

Security: The sisters were accompanied by a security guard as they approached the venue

Sizzling: The reality TV stars looked incredible as they made their way to the event, which saw a huge turnout with fans excited to meet them and get their hands on the latest SKIMS merchandise

Blonde bombshell: Meanwhile her younger sister, 37, opted for a plunging blue dress with mesh panels that showcased her long tan legs, and paired the look with clear heels

Meanwhile her younger sister, 37, opted for a plunging blue dress with mesh panels that showcased her long tan legs, and paired the look with clear heels.

The event saw a huge turnout with fans excited to meet the reality stars and get their hands on the latest SKIMS merchandise.

The SKIMS founder accessorized her look with a pair of clear heels and was later seen wearing her large Batman-reminiscent gold face mask.

Futuristic: The Kardashians star accessorized her look with a pair of clear heels and was later seen wearing her large Batman-reminiscent gold face mask

Raven-haired beauty: Kanye West's ex-wife wore her luscious raven black tresses parted in the middle and styled into gentle waves that cascaded down her back

Bronze: In terms of glam, she glowed with a lovely tan and opted for a strong bronze smokey eye look, adding a touch of blush to her cheeks and nude lipstick on her pout

The mother-of-four wore her luscious raven black tresses parted in the middle and styled into gentle waves that cascaded down her back.

In terms of glam, Kanye West's ex-wife glowed with a lovely tan and opted for a strong bronze smokey eye look, adding a touch of blush to her cheeks and nude lipstick on her pout.

Kim gave photographers plenty of angles to work with, showcasing her distinctive style in a variety of poses.

The entrepreneur's new swimwear collection dropped on Friday, March 18 and is available in sizes XXS-4X from $32 to $108.

Kim announced the launch of SKIMS SWIM last week, writing on social media: 'You've asked, we've listened (wave emoji) @SKIMS SWIM launches this Friday, March 18 at 9AM PT.'

'Insane': Kim's new swimwear collection dropped on Friday, March 18 and is available in sizes XXS-4X from $32 to $108

'I am so excited for you guys to see swim, it's so insane,' she said in her Story. 'I really wanted pieces for every single body.

'So if you wanted to cover up and use a sarong, if you want to cover your arms, you can, if you want a triangle top or to fully cover your chest, different kind of bottoms  you just pick and choose.

'It's like Lego pieces  You can hide the pieces you want to hide and accentuate the ones [you want to accentuate],' she added.

Kim announced the launch of SKIMS SWIM last week, writing on social media: 'You've asked, we've listened (wave emoji) @SKIMS SWIM launches this Friday, March 18 at 9AM PT'

The new drop comes amid a turbulent time in her relationship with estranged husband Kanye West.

Despite his relentless social media attacks, Kim says she is taking the 'high road' when it comes to co-parenting their four children.

The reality star discussed being 'protective' of her former partner for the sake of their children despite the constant drama during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday.

'I think that's just who I am, and I always saw such a good example in my mom and my dad in their relationship,' Kim said.

'So I'm always just hopeful and no matter what goes on, it's the father of my kids. I'll always be protective, I'll always be protective. I always want my kids to just see the best of the best.

'So, I just try to, as hard as it can be sometimes, I do try to ignore it and just try to do whatever's best for the kids.'

'Take the high road,' she added.
Naomi Watts was spotted in a crisp white suit in New York City on Thursday morning.

The 53-year-old performer was heading to Today to discuss playing experienced climber Pam Bales who saves a man in the film Infinite Storm which comes out Friday.

'I was just blown away by her,' said the blonde beauty who dates Billy Crudup. 'Her willingness and her strength and her discipline - she was able to put a man before her own needs.'

Enjoying the day: Naomi Watts was spotted in a crisp white suit in New York City on Thursday morning

'It's a good reminder what you get out there in the quiet of the mountains and the beauty of the nature,' she added.

The best friend of Nicole Kidman also said it was very cold in the mountain and at one point there was an electrical storm.

Watts wore a lovely white jacket over a cream-colored blouse as she enjoyed as she made her way to the morning show.

Impressed: 'I was just blown away by her,' said the blonde beauty who dates Billy Crudup. 'Her willingness and her strength and her discipline - she was able to put a man before her own needs'

Nature is a good thing: 'It's a good reminder what you get out there in the quiet of the mountains and the beauty of the nature,' she added

With the Today team: The best friend of Nicole Kidman also said it was very cold in the mountain and at one point there was an electrical storm

The Mulholland Drive star also rocked a pair of pants that matched her outerwear, as well as a set of high-heeled shoes.

The Academy Award-nominated performer accessorized with a set of earrings and a shining gold necklace.

Her beautiful blonde locks were cut short and contrasted perfectly with the light tone of her clothing.

Dressed to the nines: Watts wore a lovely white jacket on top of a cream-colored blouse as she enjoyed a bit of fresh air

Speaking her mind: The actress' stroll occurred after she discussed her role in the upcoming film Infinite Storm during an interview on Today

Development on Infinite Storm began in February of last year, when Watts signed on to star in the film.

The movie is based on Ty Gagne's article High Places: Footprints in the Snow Lead to an Emotional Rescue, which was released in 2018.

The feature is centered on the true-life story of Pam Bales, who rescued a suicidal stranger during an arduous solo trek in the mountains.

Billy Howle costars as John, while Sophie Okonedo, Parker Sawyers and Denis O'Hare round out the cast.

Heading to work; Development on Infinite Storm began in February of last year, when Watts signed on to star in the film

In addition to starring in the feature, Watts served as one of its producers during the filmmaking process.

Physical production took place last year, with various locations in Slovenia serving as shooting areas.

During her interview on Today, the movie's star spoke about what attracted her to Bales in the first place.

Watts noted that she greatly admired 'her willingness, you know, her strength and her discipline. She was able to put this man before her own needs, which were to survive. I just was blown away by her.'

The performer also expressed that the movie would showcase 'the power of nature and how it heals. It was such a good reminder of what you can get out there in the quiet of the mountains.'

Big fan: Watts noted that she greatly admired Bales' 'willingness, you know, her strength and her discipline. She was able to put this man before her own needs, which were to survive. I just was blown away by her'

The actress then remarked that, although the cast and crew of the film had to endure harsh conditions, they had trained professionals to take care of them.

She recalled experiencing 'below zero temperatures and extreme winds...we were well-equipped, we had mountaineers guiding us.'

Watts also recalled that, after being caught in a particularly fierce storm, 'it was a few hours and we were okay.'

Infinite Storm is currently scheduled to be released to the public on March 25.
Hollyoaks newcomer Ellie Henry will be at the heart of a horrifying storyline this week as her character Freya suffers life-changing injuries in a minibus crash.

A school trip ends in disaster when teacher John Paul (James Sutton) crashes the vehicle as a result of his alcohol dependency - and the Channel 4 soap has announced the consequences for Freya will be grave.

The young girl - Lexi (Nataline Anderson)'s daughter - will not make a full recovery from the injuries which will see her using a wheelchair for the foreseeable future.

Plot: Hollyoaks newcomer Ellie Henry is encapsulated in horrifying storyline as her character Freya suffers life-changing injuries in a minibus crash

Immediately after the crash, student Mason (Frank Kauer) realises that Freya is still in the van and tries to help her, but to no avail as she is stuck between the luggage and reveals she can't feel her legs.

When the paramedics arrive, Freya is rushed to hospital, whilst the police breathalyse John Paul.

Talking about joining the Channel 4 soap, Ellie said: 'To join the cast of Hollyoaks and be thrown straight into filming a stunt has been incredible, and unlike anything I could've imagined.

Accident: A school trip ends in disaster when teacher John Paul (James Sutton pictured facing) crashes the vehicle as a result of his alcohol dependency

Ordeal: The young girl - Lexi (Nataline Anderson)'s daughter - will not make a full recovery from the injuries which will see her using a wheelchair for the foreseeable future

Attempts: Immediately after the crash, student Mason (Frank Kauer pictured) realises that Freya is still in the van and tries to help her, but to no avail as she is stuck between the luggage

Unfolding: When the paramedics arrive, Freya is rushed to hospital, whilst the police breathalyse John Paul

'Freya has so much to come to terms with after the crash and, as a disabled actor, I feel privileged to be able to tell her story.

'I've had a wonderful time filming so far and have already learnt a great deal from other actors who I've been fortunate enough to work closely with. I am beyond excited for you all to see what we've been working on.'

Ellie's Instagram bio references 'visablepeople'. Louise Dyson at the helm, VisABLE People agency is the world's first to supply disabled actors, presenters and models to the advertising industry, television and film companies, radio and theatre.

Brave: Ellie said: 'Freya has so much to come to terms with after the crash and, as a disabled actor, I feel privileged to be able to tell her story'

Platform: The budding soap star often uses her online presence to raise awareness and speak out about disability in broad terms. She suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and epilepsy

In 1994, Louise began integrating disabled actors, presenters and models into mainstream advertising and media campaigns.

Budding soap star Ellie often uses her online presence to raise awareness and speak out about disability in broad terms.

She suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome - a group of conditions that cause very flexible joints and stretchy and fragile skin - and epilepsy, a common condition that affects the brain and causes frequent seizures.
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Kourtney Kardashian and her fiance Travis Barker were couples goals as they enjoyed a night out at Nobu Malibu on Wednesday evening.

The couple wore matching black leather as they arrived to the restaurant where Khloe Kardashian was throwing a party for her denim brand Good America.

The chemistry was off the charts as Kourtney, 42, and Travis, 46, arrived to the luxe destination holding hands and sharing a steamy kiss.

Match made in leather! Kourtney Kardashian and her fiance Travis Barker were couples goals as they enjoyed a night out at Nobu Malibu on Wednesday evening

Kourtney put on a head-turning display in a low-cut leopard print top which flashed a hint of cleavage.

The Poosh founder and her love looked the perfect pairing with their matching leather outfits.

Kourtney wore a black moto jacket and alligator print slacks while her man showcased his chest tattoos in an unbuttoned leather jumpsuit from Enfants Riches Deprimes.

The petite reality star also rocked a pair of high heels, yet her beau still towered over her.

Hugs and kisses! The couple shared a steamy kiss at one point

Couples goals! The duo were the perfect pairing as they arrived to the hot spot hand in hand

The smile that says I love you! Kourtney beamed with joy as she held hands with her beau

The look of love! Barker, who wore a leather jumpsuit from Enfants Riches Deprimes, gazed at his leading lady as they strode through the lot

She styled her short locks into a glossy 'do that bounced upon her shoulders in fun waves.

Travis embraced his edgy side as he accessorized the look with just a chain choker necklace.

The Blink-182 drummer gazed at Kourtney as she smiled brightly, occasionally wrapping her hand around his bicep.

At one point, the couple took their PDA to the next level as they shared a kiss.

Stunning: Kourtney flashed a hint of cleavage in her leopard print top

Hair today! The 42-year-old ran her hand through her short and glossy locks

Looks familiar! Travis' outfit bore a resemblance to the beige jumpsuit Kim Kardashian wore earlier this year in Milan

Kourtney tilted her head up as her beau pressed his lips to hers.

As fans have noticed, the couple have never shied away from expressing their affection for one another in public.

And the couple's love story will continue to play out on small screens in the upcoming Hulu series, The Kardashians.

A new trailer for the series showed Kourtney revealing plans for her fourth child as she visited a fertility doctor with Travis.

Back for more: The couple's love story will continue to play out on small screens in the upcoming Hulu series, The Kardashians

Lead the way! Travis held Kourtney's hand as they made their way towards the hotspot

Edgy: Travis accessorized the look with a chain choker necklace

Kourtney - who will be turning 43 next month - officially announced: 'Travis and I want to have a baby.'

When the couple were instructed to 'put the sample in this cup,' Kourtney laughed: 'We'll take our mics off so you don't get the audio.'

Kourtney previously confessed on Ellen DeGeneres' YouTube show Lady Parts that she was peer pressured into the freezing eggs procedure.

'I froze mine too. Hopefully they're sitting there okay. Just for... you never know. I really got talked into it. I was like, "Okay whatever, I'll do it one time since everyone else is doing it I might as well,"' Kourtney explained.

Ride or die! The engaged pair were spotted in the passenger seat of a luxurious Mercedes-Benz

On the go: Barker spoke with a suit-clad man as they meandered through the Malibu spot

'Everyone's doing it. I believe I was 39. Top notch, top tier. I think it gave me a feeling of, like, taking a deep breath. You know I was 39 and I was about to turn 40 and everyone was like, "If you're going to do it, you've gotta do it now."

'So I was like, "Okay everyone, stop rushing me. I don't even know if I want to have another kid or if that's like in the future or whatever." And having control over my body, it just gave me, like, peace of mind.'

Kourtney shares three children with her ex Scott Disick: son Mason, 12; daughter Penelope, nine; and son Reign, seven.

Travis also has three children with his ex-wife Shanna Moakler: daughter Alabama, 16; and son Landon, 18; and stepdaughter Atiana De La Hoya, 22.
Gabrielle Union has said that her character might get killed off in a Cheaper By The Dozen sequel, after she criticized Disney's inaction over Florida's so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill.

The 49-year-old actress doubled down on comments that she made at the Disney premiere last week and stated that she did not care of her character was scrapped in a potential sequel as a result of her criticism.

'I was very clear about my thoughts about Disney funding hate and oppression,' she said during the Wednesday episode of the Keep It! podcast.

Doubling down: Gabrielle Union stands by her opinion that Disney did not take a hard enough stance against Florida's s so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill, which has drawn wide criticism. Seen in March 2022

She continued, 'They might murder off my character, you know, in Cheaper by the Dozen.

'The sequel [might be] 'Zoey has died in a tragic accident.' The reality is, I don't know.

'I will never know how my name is spoken of in rooms due to me telling the truth, right? I have no idea.

Standing by her opinion: The 49-year-old actress doubled down on comments that she made at the premiere of her new movie Cheaper by the Dozen last week and stated that she did not care of her character was killed off in a potential sequel as a result of her criticism

Union's stepdaughter, Zaya Wade [L], came out as transgender in 2020: 'We need to own that if you truly are taking stands against hate and oppression, you should not fund hate and oppression. Period. The damage is done.'

'Luckily, there's enough other companies that are willing to hire me, knowing that I tell the truth and I will not be held back by fear.'

In the film, Union played the Baker family matriarch and wife of Paul (Zach Braff). The Walt Disney Pictures adaptation, which the LA's Finest star also executive produced, was a remake of the hit 20th Century Fox movie starring Steven Martin, Bonnie Hunt and Hilary Duff.

When speaking about the film's script at the premiere held on March 16 at the Hollywood El Capitan theater, Union told The Hollywood Reporter, 'I'm incredibly proud of this, especially right now, because we actually say gay.'

In an interview with Variety at the premiere, she also came out swinging against Disney, saying the 'damage is done now' and encouraged corporations and those in 'positions of power' to take a 'hard stance' against the bill.

Protest: On Tuesday, dozens of Disney employees marched out of the company's headquarters in Burbank, California, as part of a full day of walkouts across the company's theme parks and offices

'Somebody asked me, 'Are you disappointed?' I'm disappointed when my order isn't right at In-N-Out. I don't even think that's a word that you could use for something like this, where children's lives are literally hanging in the balance,' Union told Variety.

She added: 'We need to own that if you truly are taking stands against hate and oppression, you should not fund hate and oppression. Period. The damage is done.'

Gabrielle is stepmom to 14-year-old daughter Zaya Wade, whom she shares with husband Dwyane Wade. Zaya came out as transgender in 2020.

'There are so many states that are following suit [with Florida's legislation], because there is no pushback, because no one in positions of power [or] corporations are taking a hard stance,' Gabrielle told Variety.

'Luckily, there's enough other companies that are willing to hire me, knowing that I tell the truth and I will not be held back by fear,' Union said

Florida's Parents Rights in Education bill which has been dubbed the 'Don't Say Gay' bill prohibits 'classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity' from kindergarten through third grade.

'Let's look who's donating to what and let's call people out I think a lot of people like to confuse accountability and consequences for cancel culture,' she continued.

'And as long as you have a microphone and a stage that's not cancel culture, honey We have to campaign and fund for those people who stand for all of us.'

Disney workers opposing the bill claimed CEO Bob Chapek failed to act quickly to advocate against the bill as he admitted he 'missed the mark'.

On Tuesday, dozens of Disney employees marched out of the company's headquarters in Burbank, California, as part of a full day of walkouts across the company's theme parks and offices.

Taking action: On the Keep It! podcast, Union said that companies should not just express their solidarity with supportive posts on social media

Statements by Disney leadership over the Florida legislation 'have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation,' protest organizers said.

On the Keep It! podcast, Union said that companies should not just express their solidarity with supportive posts on social media.

She explained, 'If you're going to take a stand and be all about diversity and inclusion  and it's not just about black boxes after George Floyd died  you need to actually put your money where your mouth is.'

'You can't stand against hate and oppression and fund hate and oppression. That doesn't work.'

Calling them out: The Nebraska native also shared her thoughts on celebrities who do not use their massive platforms to amplify their support for others

The Nebraska native also shared her thoughts on celebrities who do not use their massive platforms to amplify their support for others.

Union said, 'You know, you have people who are untouchable in Hollywood and they have no problem speaking about the environment or animals and showed more concern when the gorilla in Cincinnati was, you know, murdered.

'But [they] are silent about their neighbors and their family members. I don't understand it, because they can't do anything to you.'

Union explained that she believed people who have achieved a certain level of success in their careers should use their positions for advocacy.

'We have this platform, and we are in a position to tell the truth,' the Bring It On performer explained.

'At some point, ya gotta say, "I think I have enough money or things or power that I can be honest."

Walkouts: Ahead of Tuesdays walkouts at Disney, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the U.S., announced that it will not be accepting any more funding from Disney without 'greater commitment to LGBTQ+ rights'

'I don't know what that line in the sand is or how many billions someone needs to just tell the truth, shame the devil. I don't know what that barometer is for everybody. But we hit that number a long time ago.'

The summer before Union's sophomore year at UCLA, Union was raped at gunpoint at the Payless store where she worked. The assailant was a former employee, who was eventually caught and agreed to a plea deal to serve 33 years in prison.

Union sued Payless for negligence as it failed to warn employees about the perpetrator despite him having being identified for robbing another store location. She ultimate won the lawsuit and agreed to a settlement with Payless.

On the podcast, Union explained that the experience motivated her to stand by her convictions.

She said, 'So, at 19, I made a decision about who I was going to be in this world, and what I would stand for and not stand for.

'Obviously, it was at the lowest, darkest moment of my life, most terrifying moment of my life, but then moving forward, I just wasnt as afraid of taking on bad faith actors, bad people.

'Im just not afraid. I almost died. Can I get any lower? Death is lower, but the only thing standing between me and death is losing my soul because Im afraid of losing my position or things or access or whatever? What is the point of living if I gotta live on my knees? And not in a good way.'

Not afraid to speak her mind: Union also executive-produced Disney's adaptation of Cheaper by the Dozen

Ahead of Tuesdays walkouts at Disney, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the U.S., announced that it will not be accepting any more funding from Disney without 'greater commitment to LGBTQ+ rights.'

'HRC is not going to take any funding from Disney until we see them take real action to defeat hateful legislation in Florida,' said Joni Madison, the HRC interim president.

Republican lawmakers pushing the legislation argue that parents, not teachers, should be the ones talking to their children about gender issues during their early formative years.

The bill prohibits 'classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity.'

Furious: Disney workers are planning walkouts during their breaks every day this week to protest CEO Bob Chapek's 'slow response' in publicly criticizing the Florida legislation

It also requires districts to 'adopt procedures for notifying a student's parent if there is a change in the student's services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being,' something LGBTQ advocates argue could lead to some students being outed to their parents without the student's knowledge or consent.

The legislation has been sent to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it.

Those leading the walkouts at Disney said that while walkouts during breaks are 'protected' actions, workers taking part in the larger March 22 walkout will not be protected from consequences.

'Take your own situation into account before choosing to participate,' their website noted.

As the state's largest private-sector employer - Walt Disney World outside Orlando had more than 75,000 workers before the coronavirus pandemic - Disney has contributed huge amounts of money to Floridas political parties and politicians and has wielded incredible influence on the states government.

Chapek said he had the backs of his LBGTQ employees but admitted that he 'missed the mark'
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He's taken on a variety of roles in his four decade long acting career.

Yet Nicholas Cage prepared for his biggest challenge to date as he transformed into Dracula for his leading role in the upcoming horror film Renfield.

The 58-year-old veteran actor was seen for the first time as legendary character Dracula on the New Orleans set on Monday.

Blood thirsty: Nicolas Cage was seen for the first time as legendary character Dracula on the New Orleans set of Renfield on Monday

Renfield is centered around Dracula's henchman and inmate who is confined to a lunatic asylum. Nicholas Hoult - who was also on set - will be playing the titular role.

Cage definitely looked the part as he sported a bright red velvet suit and his skin was made to look very pale with the magic of on-set make-up.

No detail was ignored as he also had sharp teeth and stiletto nails as his lips even had a bit of black pigmentation to give him more of an 'undead' feel.

Quite the transformation: Cage (pictured right in Austin, Texas on March 13)

Red-dy for his close-up: The 58-year-old veteran actor definitely looked the part as he sported a bright red velvet suit and his skin was made to look very pail with the magic of on-set make-up

Undead: His skin was made to look very pail with the magic of on-set make-up

He also sported a crimson colored dress shirt to match his suit along with a pair of deep burgundy zip up boots.

Cage accessorized with a necklace featuring a very large gold pendant and several rings on his fingers to add an extra bit of glamour to the ensemble.

His dark brown hair was slicked back and tucked behind his ears as he completed the look.

Spooky: He also sported a crimson colored dress shirt to match his suit along with a pair of deep burgundy zip up boots

On the prowl: His brown hair was slicked back and tucked behind his ears as he completed the look

Hoult, 32, was seen in much more casual wear than his co-star but did have quite a bit of make-up on his face as he had fake blood streaming down his face and even had stains across his chest and onto his jeans.

No doubt they were shooting was quite the viscous scene as Renfield is a mental patient who devours animals out of a vampiric desire to drain power from their blood.

Back in November it was revealed that Cage would be playing Dracula as Hoult would be playing the title character.

RM Renfield is out of the original 19th century Gothic novel Dracula by the Irish author Bram Stoker.

The movie takes a departure from Stokers original novel, set in the 19th century, and takes place in a contemporary setting instead.

Blinged out: Cage accessorized with a necklace featuring a very large gold pendant and several rings on his fingers

Good times: He was seen having a laugh before getting in front of the camera

He is introduced in a mental hospital being treated for 'zoophagous mania' which causes him to eat insects and then progressively larger animals.

As the novel goes on it emerges that he is in fact a burgeoning vampire whose condition can be traced back to other than Dracula himself.

In the book his doctor describes Renfield as being of 'Sanguine temperament' and 'great physical strength' but also being 'morbidly excitable' and experiencing 'periods of gloom, ending in some fixed idea which I cannot make out.'

Horrifying: Hoult, 32, was seen in much more casual wear than his co-star for his role as Dracula's henchman but did have quite a bit of make-up on his face as he had fake blood streaming down his face and even had stains across his chest

Getting into the role: No doubt they were shooting was quite the viscous scene as Renfield is a mental patient who devours animals out of a vampiric desire to drain power from their blood

For part of the novel Renfield is willing to go along with Dracula's machinations in order to obtain eternal life through the fulfillment of his bloodlust.

However his better nature eventually prevails and he throws in his lot with Van Helsing's vampire hunters to fight Dracula - with tragic results for himself.

The new Renfield picture is being directed by Chris McKay who has previously helmed such films as The Lego Batman Movie and The Tomorrow War.

Iconic: The first screen star to play Nicolas's new role was German actor Max Schreck, whose character in the 1922 film Nosferatu was an unauthorized takeoff on Dracula

Throwback: The luminaries who have played the count onscreen include Bela Lugosi who is pictured with Frances Dade in the 1931 film Dracula

Bloodcurdling: Christopher Lee took on the role in 1968 (pictured with co-star Veronica Carlson)

Iconic: George Hamilton (pictured with Susan Saint James) took on the role in 1979

Onetime Rick And Morty writer Ryan Ridley penned the screenplay from a story outline by Robert Kirkman who co-created the Walking Dead comic books.

Renfield is also set to feature Awkwafina, Adrian Martinez and Ben Schwartz.

Actors who have previously played Renfield range from Dwight Frye in the 1930s to Tom Waits in the 1990s to Mark Gatiss last year.

Meanwhile the luminaries who have played Dracula onscreen include Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella and Thomas Kretschmann.

Role: Gary Oldman starred as the Count (pictured) in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 vampire film

Spooky: Luke Evans took on the titular role in 2014's Dracula Untold

The first screen star to play Nicolas Cage's new role was German actor Max Schreck, whose character in the 1922 film Nosferatu was an unauthorized takeoff on Dracula.

Nosferatu set off a scandal when Bram Stoker's widow Florence successfully sued for copyright infringement and got almost all the prints of the film incinerated.

However a surviving print was circulated and copied until the movie went down in history as one of the reigning classics of the Silent Era.
Amy Anzel stood out from the crowd as she left the GB news studios in London after her appearance on Thursday.

The Apprentice star, 48, wowed in a blue plunging figure-hugging midi dress as she flashed her tanned legs just days after reports emerged she had been banned from the show's final celebrations.

The American entrepreneur beamed as she boosted her height in a pair of nude heels while strutting through the capital.

Wow! Amy Anzel stood out from the crowd as she left the GB news studios in London after her appearance on Thursday

Amy beamed as she left the TV stint while carrying a black coat over her arm and a large handbag over her shoulder.

The businesswoman fiery locks fell into brushed out waves, as she sported a full face of makeup.

She posed up a storm from all angles on the bridge as she enjoyed the sun after her morning interview.

Amy was axed from The Apprentice last month after Lord Sugar grew tired of her not putting herself up for project manager.

Stunning: The Apprentice star wowed in a blue plunging figure-hugging midi dress as she flashed her tanned legs just days after being banned from the show's final celebrations

Work it: The businesswoman's fiery locks fell into brushed out waves, as she sported a full face of makeup while posing from all angles

She was recently banned from its final celebration show after she complained about Lord Alan Sugar posting 'hurtful' tweets about her, it has been claimed.

She was reportedly not invited to join the spin-off You're Hired, which will be aired straight after the much-anticipated final.

Amy was said to have been left devastated after Lord Sugar, 74, posted 'insulting' comments about her on Twitter and voiced her feelings to bosses in an email, according to The Sun.

Banned: Amy Anzel, 48, was reportedly not invited to join the spin-off You're Hired, which will be aired straight after the much-anticipated final

In January, the business magnate tweeted: 'Amy didn't sell she was so slow. Slower than broad band Wi-Fi in Cornwall.'

When she was fired from the show just weeks later, he posted: 'I think if I came up with a task of the life and time of Amy Anzel she would still be sub team leader.'

Speaking about the tweets, Amy's friend told The Sun: 'When Lord Sugar posted his tweets, she thought they were nasty, hurtful and insulting and told them so in an email.'

The friend said the beauty brand owner didn't understand why she was fired, saying she felt they had used the fact that she hadn't taken on a project manager role as an 'excuse to get rid of her', claiming Amy volunteered for the job in the second week.

Ouch! Amy was said to have been left devastated after Lord Sugar, 74, posted 'insulting' comments about her on Twitter and told bosses in an email, according to reports

Fired: When she was fired from the show, Lord Sugar tweeted: 'I think if I came up with a task of the life and time of Amy Anzel she would still be sub team leader'

They also claimed Amy's calls and emails were 'ignored' by bosses when she reached out about the spin-off series, saying Amy got an email saying invitations were given at 'their discretion'.

'She knew the final taping was happening last Wednesday but they ignored her phone calls and emails again,' they added.

Her pal also claimed that Amy was left feeling 'humiliated' after having a Zoom call with production bosses at Naked TV, which makes the BBC series.

An Apprentice source told The Sun: 'Invitations to You're Hired are always discretionary and never guaranteed.'
Teresa Giudice is in the hospital after having an emergency medical procedure on Wednesday night.

The 49-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star 'is in recovery, currently resting, and she thanks everyone for their prayers and well-wishes,' a representative for the personality told Page Six.

Her firstborn daughter Gia, 21, took to Instagram on Thursday night to share a photo of her mom in a hospital bed as she called her 'a trooper.'

Health scare: Teresa Giudice is in the hospital after having an emergency medical procedure on Wednesday night

The outlet noted that Giudice will be released from the hospital within 24 hours and that the surgery was non-cosmetic.

Despite her condition, the reality star looked like her typically beautiful self with a fresh, makeup-free face underneath a disposable blue face mask.

Teresa - whose nickname is Tre - was covered in a white hospital blanket and a white wristband with black writing was visible in the corner of the photo frame.

Resting up: The 49-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star 'is in recovery, currently resting, and she thanks everyone for their prayers and well-wishes,' a representative for the personality told Page Six

Gia added, 'I love you' with a red heart emoji before writing, 'Pray for a speedy recovery. I love you @teresagiudice.'

In addition to Gia, Tre shares Gabriella, 17, Milania, 16, and Audriana, 12, with her ex-husband Joe Giudice, who she was married to from 1999-2020.

She's currently engaged to fiance Louie Ruedas, who proposed to the New Jersey native back in October.

Family: Teresa shares four daughters - Gia, Gabriella, Milania, and Audriana with ex-husband Joe Giudice

While appearing on Andy Cohen's late night talk show Watch What Happens Live last week, Teresa revealed that she did not ask her sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga, to stand by her side when she says 'I do' later this summer during a big wedding celebration.

When asked 'How many bridesmaids will you have?' the longtime Bravo star replied, 'Eight bridesmaids.'

'Any of the housewives and your castmates?' was a follow-up question and Giudice sternly responded 'No.'

Upon hearing that she wouldn't be a bridesmaid Gorga later said she wishes her sister-in-law 'nothing but happiness.'
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a government meeting via a video link in Moscow, March 23. AFP-Yonhap





President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that Russia will demand "unfriendly" countries pay for Russian natural gas imports only in rubles from now on.







Putin told a meeting with government officials that "a number of Western countries made illegitimate decisions on the so-called freezing of Russian assets, effectively drawing a line over reliability of their currencies, undermining the trust for those currencies."







"It makes no sense whatsoever," Putin added, "to supply our goods to the European Union, the United States and receive payment in dollars, euros and a number of other currencies."







As a result, he said he was announcing "measures" to switch to payments for "our natural gas, supplied to so-called unfriendly countries" in Russian rubles.







The Russian president didn't say when exactly the new policy will take effect. He instructed the country's central bank to work out a procedure for natural gas buyers to acquire rubles in Russia.







Economists said the move appeared designed to try to support the ruble, which has collapsed against other currencies since Putin invaded Ukraine, Feb. 24, and Western countries responded with far-reaching sanctions against Moscow. But some analysts expressed doubt that it would work.







"Demanding payment in rubles is a curious and probably ultimately ineffective approach to attempting an end run around Western financial sanctions," said Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University. "Rubles are certainly easier to come by now that the currency is collapsing. But exchanging other currencies for rubles will be quite difficult given the widespread financial sanctions imposed on Russia."







"The hope that demanding payment in rubles will increase demand for the currency and thereby prop up its value," Prasad added, "is also a false hope given all the downward pressures on the currency."







Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics, said: "It's not an obvious move to me, since the (Russian) economy needs a supply of foreign currency in order to pay for imports  and energy is one of the few sources left."







German Economy Minister Robert Habeck accused Putin of breaking contracts with the move, German news agency dpa reported. Habeck said Wednesday in Berlin that the German government would discuss the matter with its European partners.







Habeck said Putin's announcement shows once again that Russia is not a stable partner, dpa reported.







Despite severe Western sanctions, natural gas flows are still heading from Russia to Europe. The European Union is reliant on Russia for 40% of the natural gas it needs to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry  a key reason why the EU has not applied its sanctions to Russia's energy industry.







At the same time, across Europe, governments are slashing fuel taxes and doling out tens of billions to help consumers, truckers, farmers and others cope with spiking energy prices made worse by Russia's war on Ukraine.







Vinicius Romano, a senior analyst at Rystad Energy, suggested that Moscow's insistence on payments in rubles "may give buyers cause to reopen other aspects of their contracts  such as the duration  and simply speed up their exit from Russian gas altogether." (AP)


Charlotte Dawson showed off her incredible figure on Thursday as she enjoyed a romantic date with her fiance Matt Sarsfield in Cheshire.

The 29-year-old flashed her long legs for the cameras as she jokingly kicked out to display her scarlet crocodile skin boots.

The reality star wore a striking tiger-print playsuit for the evening, which clung to her fantastic figure following her 3st weight loss.

Date night: Charlotte Dawson, 29, showed off her incredible figure on Thursday as she enjoyed a romantic date with her fiance Matt Sarsfield in Cheshire

In gorgeous neutral colours, the chiffon ensemble matched gathered sleeves with a nipped waist and revealing shorts.

Charlotte, who is the daughter of later Comedian Les Dawson, chose a glamorous palette of make-up with porcelain eye shadow and a glossy rose lip.

With her blonde hair falling past her shoulders in relaxed curls, the star opted for a chic tan fedora.

Fun: Charlotte flashed her long legs for the cameras as she jokingly kicked out to display her scarlet crocodile skin boots

The blonde beauty decided against jewellery, letting her outfit do the talking,her long fingernails manicured to a square.

While Charlotte chose a glamorous look, fiance Matt, with whom she shares son Noah, 14-months, looked smart in a more casual outfit.

A black Prada sweater, over slate jeans with rip detail at the knee, matching with a pair of black and white trainers.

Fashion: The blonde beauty decided against jewellery, letting her outfit do the talking,her long fingernails manicured to a square

This comes after Charlotte shared a snap to Instagram on Monday revealing that she's no longer on the verge of Type 2 diabetes.

The Ex On The Beach star shared her joy at getting her body healthy again, noting: 'Im deffo gonna be around to see Noah grow up.'

Charlotte shared an image of her rocking a fuller figure pre-weight loss in an orange bikini alongside a sultry post-weight loss snap of her in an orange two-piece.

Changes: It comes after Charlotte shared another transformation snap on Instagram as she revealed that she's no longer on the verge of Type 2 diabetes

Writing alongside the images, Charlotte detailed her weight loss journey and how she's in better health, revealing she's no longer at risk of diabetes and will be around to see her 14-month-old son Noah grow up.

She penned: 'Some Monday Motivation from Chazza! I still canny believe that the belleh has been blasted SO much. What a chuffin journey - from health scare to healthy in 6 months.

'Over 3 Stone of timber gone and now a fitness platform that thousands of you beltin birds have been losing weight and having fun following honestly your messages are just everything, saying how much Ive changed your life, how happy & confident you feel in yourself & on the outside makes me feel so proud.'

She continued: 'Whod have ever thought that would happen?! Im never gonna be about po-faced posing though and saying Im perfect - Ive still got a load of tiger stripes round that belleh that are going nowhere.

'And Ive still got a bit of jelleh to keep my belleh warm on cold nights buttt Im not on the verge of Type 2 Diabetes and Im deffo gonna be around for my little fambo and to see Noah grow up and make me proud.'

That's my boy: The TV personality shared her joy at getting her body healthy again, noting: 'Im deffo gonna be around to see Noah grow up' (pictured earlier this month)
She has been forced to relieve her dramatic time on Married At First Sight over the last few weeks as her OnlyFans scandal has played out on the TV screens.

But controversial bride Domenica Calarco appears to be taking it all in her stride.

The 28-year-old makeup artist was in good spirits as she arrived at Sydney Airport with her mother on Wednesday.

Having the last laugh! Married At First Sight star Domenica Calarco carried two large shopping bags from Louis Vuitton and Gucci as she arrived at Sydney airport on Wednesday

The Italian beauty looked incredibly chic in a pair of jeans, white T-shirt and a smart black blazer.

She wore a pair of $880 Gucci platform slides on her feet and carried a designer bag.

The blonde bombshell showed off her natural beauty by going almost makeup free, and wore her blonde bob in a smooth style.

Casual chic: The Italian beauty looked incredibly chic in a pair of jeans, white T-shirt and a smart black blazer

Domenica appeared to have shopped up a storm while she was in town, as she carried two large shopping bags from Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Her mother also held a bag from Swiss fashion house, Bally.

It comes after Domenica's arch enemy Olivia dropped the bombshell fact that she was the one who told the rest of the cast about a naked photo and OnlyFans account belonging to Dom last week.

After a tense line of questioning from Dom's husband Jack Millar, the 27-year-old teaching student finally claimed 'her friends' had Googled her nemesis and uncovered her OnlyFans account online.

This immediately left viewers confused, as Olivia had seemingly confirmed she'd Googled Domenica herself and found the information, when she told Tamara Djordjevic: 'Someone smashes a wine glass in your face, you Google them.'

Olivia told Dom at the dinner party: 'I'll be honest, when we had our 'thing', my friends Googled you and they showed me that and I mentioned it to Selina [Chaurr].'

Daily Mail Australia has established the photo in question came from a public Twitter profile Dom used to promote her now-deactivated OnlyFans account.

Gorgeous: The blonde bombshell showed off her natural beauty by going almost makeup free, and wore her blonde locks in a smooth bob

Olivia admitted at a recent commitment ceremony she felt no empathy for Domenica after exposing her racy side hustle.

Sexologist Alessandra Rampolla scolded her: 'This situation was created by the decision, for whatever reason, that you had to grab your phone and show other people [the photo].'

'That decision that you took in that moment, changed the rest of everything that happened. And [the conflict] would have been avoided if you simply respected somebody else's privacy.'

Shocking: It comes after Domenica's arch enemy Olivia dropped the bombshell fact that she was the one who told the rest of the cast about a naked photo and OnlyFans account belonging to Dom last week

Olivia tried to justify her actions by saying, 'It just wasn't a big deal', but Alessandra was having none of it.

'Maybe there's a little room there for a little human empathy,' she said, to which Olivia responded: 'As far as empathy... I just don't have it.'

In psychology, empathy refers to the ability to understand the feelings of another person.

If you have empathy, you are able to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling in a given situation.

Earlier in the episode, fellow expert John Aiken lectured the group over the nude photo scandal, taking aim at every participant who saw and shared the image.

'A photo being circulated without the person knowing - does anyone see an issue with that?' he said.
After watching weeks of tricky tasks and boardroom bust-ups, there was no way the family of Harpreet Kaur were going to miss her battle it out in The Apprentice final.

And their decision to shut up shop early last night  complete with a scribbled note left in the window  proved a good one as she won the BBC competition.

The 30-year-old, from West Yorkshire, said she was 'over the moon' after winning a 250,000 investment in her dessert parlour business.

The entrepreneur will become Lord Sugar's latest business partner after beating runner-up Kathryn Burn who owns an online pyjama shop.

'Honestly this is exactly where I wanted to get to when I entered the process,' Miss Kaur told the Daily Mail. 'I was gunning for that win and I went and bagged it. I am so over the moon, it's exactly what I wanted.'

Tickled pink: Winner Harpreet Kaur, 30, from West Yorkshire, who said she was 'over the moon' after winning a 250,000 investment in her dessert parlour business

Apprentice contestant Kaur, with her parents Jas Kaur and Pete Singh at their off-licence called Waring Green Store in Brighouse near Halifax

Miss Kaur said she wants to use the money to open more stores and has launched a new website to deliver across the country.

However, despite investing in Miss Kaur's business, Lord Sugar admitted he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth and therefore won't be eating many of the desserts himself.

Born in Birmingham, Miss Kaur's family moved to Brighouse near Halifax when she was 11 years old.

Her parents, Jas Kaur and Pete Singh, opened an off-licence called Waring Green Store  which introduced her to the world of business from a young age.

'It showed us that if you really work hard you can change your financial future,' she said.

'From a really early age I was working in their business  simple things like serving customers and stacking shelves. But I believe that that earlier introduction and exposure to working has really set me up.'

At 18, Miss Kaur balanced working as a Barclays cashier with studying for her Leadership and Management degree at the Open University.

After graduating with first class honours, she became a branch manager of HSBC aged just 22. Two years later, she opened her own dessert business with her sister Gurvinder.

Their decision to shut up shop early last night  complete with a scribbled note left in the window  proved a good one as she won the BBC competition

Close-knit: Miss Kaur with her family. Born in Birmingham, Miss Kaur's family moved to Brighouse near Halifax when she was 11 years old

The pair started off with a stall in a shopping centre and now own two stores in Huddersfield and Leeds.

The business, which was originally called Barni's, has now been rebranded to Oh So Yum  a name she plans to keep going forward. 'I've been working really hard in the background since the show began because  regardless of whether I received the investment  I'm going to take this business big. I really believe in it and it's my passion,' she said.

'For me, the biggest thing from this is the scalability of my business and what's going to set me apart  and it's exactly that. The good news is, it's already out there.

'Hopefully me and Lord Sugar can sit down and plan other ways so we can get out there as the number one go-to dessert brand in the UK.'

On crowning Miss Kaur the winner, Lord Sugar joked: 'I don't really go for desserts  mainly because I eat too much dinner and don't have any space for [them]. I eat very few desserts and not too much sugar in them.'
Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell threw their daughter Grace Warrior a lavish party on Friday to celebrate her milestone first birthday.

The conservationist couple, who celebrated their second wedding anniversary on the same day, organised a celebration at Australia Zoo with their family and friends.

The party was complete with elaborate blush decorations, a two-tiered pink cake and animals, and there was even a sweet tribute to Bindi's late father Steve Irwin.

Too cute! Bindi Irwin (left) and Chandler Powell (right) threw their daughter Grace Warrior (centre) a lavish party at Australia Zoo on Friday to celebrate her milestone first birthday

Bindi and Chandler shared pictures from the special day on Instagram.

They celebrated with Bindi's family, including mother Terri and brother Robert, as well as Chandler's parents, Shannan and Chris, who had flown over from Florida.

Grace looked cute in a pink tutu as she posed for pictures with her parents and the birthday cake.

Several animals, including small turtles, an echidna and a cockatoo, mingled among guests in true Australia Zoo style.

Family affair: They celebrated with Bindi's family, including mother Terri and brother Robert, as well as Chandler's parents, Shannan and Chris, who had flown over from Florida

Her girl: Bindi said it was the 'greatest blessing' to be Grace's mother in a heartwarming tribute

Tribute: In a special nod to Steve Irwin, who never got to meet his granddaughter, there was a photo of the late Crocodile Hunter on display at the party

In a special nod to Steve Irwin, who never got to meet his granddaughter, there was a photo of the late Crocodile Hunter on display at the party.

Steve died in September 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming a documentary on the Batt Reef in Queensland.

Bindi said it was the 'greatest blessing' to be Grace's mum in a heartwarming tribute.

'Happy Birthday to my graceful warrior,' she wrote on Instagram.

'One year of watching your beautiful heart bloom into the most extraordinary person. Grace, you have been an old soul from the very beginning. It is the greatest blessing to be your mama. I love you eternally, unconditionally and infinitely.'

Proud dad: Chandler also shared a tribute to Grace, writing: 'It's been one year since you came into our lives and yet it feels like you've been with us forever'

Chandler also shared a tribute to Grace, writing: 'It's been one year since you came into our lives and yet it feels like you've been with us forever.

'I never knew I had so much love to give. Happy first birthday, sweetheart.'

Bindi and Chandler, a former professional wakeboarder, welcomed their daughter on March 25, 2021, which coincidentally was their one-year wedding anniversary.

Apple of their eye! Bindi and Chandler, a former professional wakeboarder, welcomed their daughter on March 25, 2021, which coincidentally was their one-year wedding anniversary

The couple married in March 2020 at an intimate ceremony at Australia Zoo, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Bindi spoke to Stellar magazine about parenting earlier this month, and let fans know Grace already knows the words 'Mama' and 'Dada'.

'At nearly one, Grace has reached that stage where she's crawling like it's an Olympic sport and almost walking,' she added.
First row from right, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and leaders of the US-led military alliance, pose for a family photo at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, March 24. AP-Yonhap



U.S. President Joe Biden and world leaders opened a trio of emergency summits on Thursday with a sober warning from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that the alliance must boost its defenses to counter Russia's invasion of Ukraine and "respond to a new security reality in Europe."



Stoltenberg commented as he called to order a NATO summit focused on increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the assault on Ukraine while tending to the economic and security fallout spreading across Europe and the world.



"We gather at a critical time for our security," Stolenberg said, addressing the leaders seated at a large round table. "We are united in condemning the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."



He said the alliance is "determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war."



Over the course of Thursday, the European diplomatic capital is hosting the emergency NATO summit, a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the European Union. Biden will attend all three meetings and hold a news conference afterward.



The schedule left Brussels interlaced with multiple police checkpoints and road closures to help motorcades crisscross the city as the leaders go from one meeting to the next.



Biden arrived late Wednesday with the hopes of nudging allies to enact new sanctions on Russia, which has seen its economy crippled by several weeks of bans, boycotts and penalties.



While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there's wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.



The bolstering of forces along NATO's eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will also put pressure on national budgets.



"We need to do more, and therefore we need to invest more. There is a new sense of urgency and I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments in defense," Stoltenberg said before the summit.



Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the U.S. wants to hear "that the resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes."



The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek U.S. help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.



"To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession," Scholz said Wednesday.






Scott Hapgood will likely take the stand to tell his story if the lawsuit he filed against the Anguillan resort where he has been accused of killing a hotel worker goes to trial, his attorney told a California civil court judge on Wednesday.

My expectation is that Mr. Hapgood will testify, said attorney Thomas Watson, representing Hapgood and his family in the lawsuit filed against Auberge Resorts. He has repeatedly maintained that he is completely innocent of all allegations.

The Anguillan manslaughter charge against Hapgood has not moved forward even though a magistrate has ruled there is enough evidence for the case to proceed, Watson told Marin County civil court Judge James Chou during a brief status conference on the lawsuit against Auberge, which is based in California.

There have been no further updates nor have any documents been released to the public, Watson said.

Hapgood is charged by Anguillan authorities with manslaughter in the 2019 death of Kenny Mitchel, an employee of the Malliouhana Resort owned by Auberge Resorts.

Anguillan Attorney General Dwight Horsford has not said how he plans to proceed following the magistrates ruling.

Hapgood is considered a fugitive from justice after he failed to return to the Caribbean island for a court date in November 2019.

The federal wrongful death lawsuit filed against Hapgood by Mitchels estate is also temporarily stalled after a judge issued a stay last month, Watson said.

Even with the lack of documentation in the criminal case, Watson told Chou he wanted to move forward with depositions with an eye toward scheduling a trial for the end of the year.

But staging a trial that soon is likely not feasible, according to attorney Michael Cooper, who is representing Auberge in the lawsuit Hapgood filed against the company. Witnesses in Anguilla may be reluctant to talk during a deposition if there continues to be a gag order in the criminal case, Cooper said.

Were having a lot of problems getting documents as you know from the criminal proceedings, Cooper told Chou. I dont know how were going to set a trial date. I dont think well get through them (the documents) by the end of this year.

But Watson said he wanted to take the Auberge case to trial before the criminal proceedings play out in Anguilla.

However, Chou said he was reluctant to set a trial date. He explained that while the federal wrongful death lawsuit will not affect the Auberge complaint, the criminal proceedings against Hapgood would have an impact.

Chou asked for both sides to consider mediation and provide an update to him on the status of depositions and the criminal case on June 8.

Hapgood and his family were on vacation on the Caribbean island in April 2019 when Mitchel showed up at their hotel room to fix a sink that had not been reported broken, according to documents filed in the Auberge lawsuit.

After Hapgood allowed Mitchel inside the room, the hotel worker allegedly pulled out a knife, demanded money and then physically attacked the Darien resident as his two young daughters were nearby, the lawsuit claims.

Hapgood fought the younger man who was biting, clawing and hitting during the attack, his attorneys said.

Hapgood was able to restrain Mitchel but hotel employees who were summoned by his daughters initially did not try to intervene and did not call police or an ambulance until nearly 40 minutes had elapsed, the lawsuit stated. Hotel security eventually took over restraining Mitchel until police arrived, the lawsuit stated.

Mitchels family claimed in their wrongful death lawsuit that Hapgood kept his arm on Mitchels neck, cutting off his airway for an extended period of time, which caused his death. However, Hapgoods lawsuit claims Mitchel's cause of death was attributed to a cocaine overdose based on an Anguillan toxicology report.
U.S. President Joe Biden walks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, March 24, 2022. AP-Yonhap



As President Joe Biden meets with key allies in Brussels to coordinate a stronger response to Russia's month-long assault on Ukraine, a new poll shows Americans have yet to rally around his leadership.



Concern about Russia has swelled and support for a major U.S. role in the conflict strengthened in the last month, but Biden's negative approval rating has not budged, according to the poll Thursday from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Few are very confident that he can handle a crisis, and a majority thinks he lacks toughness in dealing with Russia.



Only 43 percent of Americans approve of Biden and a similar percentage approve of his handling of the relationship with Russia. Both measures are little different from an AP-NORC poll conducted days before the Feb. 24 invasion.



The U.S., along with NATO allies, have tried to isolate Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin with sanctions, including freezing foreign assets of Russia's central bank and cutting off its supply to essential war materiel. But Russia has continued for a month to batter cities in Ukraine with air strikes and artillery, despite a stalled ground invasion.



Over the next three days, the Biden administration aims to work with key European allies on a united strategy to aid Ukraine militarily, increase sanctions on Russia and wrestle with the worsening humanitarian crisis, according to Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser.



Biden does so on shaky ground with the American public. Only about a quarter are very confident that the president has the ability to handle a crisis, promote U.S. standing in the world or effectively manage the U.S. military, though most have at least some confidence.



Fifty-six percent of Americans think Biden has not been tough enough on Russia, while 36% say his approach has been ''about right.''



Even among members of his own party, Biden faces pressure to do more. The poll shows Democrats are closely divided over the president's response, with 43 percent saying he hasn't been tough enough. Somewhat more, 53 percent, say it's been ''about right.''



''I understand he's between a rock and a hard place,'' said Rachel Collins, a 41-year-old Democrat from Chicago. ''It just feels like Putin's not going to stop at Ukraine.''



Collins, an elementary school teacher, said she feels like she's watching history unfolding yet again.






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New Delhi: India early on Thursday morning (IST) abstained from voting on a draft resolution tabled by its time-tested friend Russia on the humanitarian crisis arising from the Ukraine conflict at the UN Security Council (UNSC). According to news agency reports from New York, India joined the United States, UK, France and the non-permanent members in abstaining during voting on the resolution, with the United States questioning the audacity of Russia in tabling such a draft resolution when it had launched the military offensive against Ukraine in the first place. China was the only country that backed Russia and voted in favour of the draft resolution. The draft resolution fell, as it could not muster the minimum nine votes needed in the 15-member UNSC that comprises five permanent and 10 non-permanent members including India, with 13 nations abstaining, according to reports. This comes at a time when foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla is currently visiting New York.

Ukrainian ambassador to India Igor Polikha told a TV channel on Thursday that he appreciated the stand taken by India. Although the Indian UN mission in New York did not make any public explanation of why India abstained during voting, the Indian abstention is being seen as indication of New Delhis concern and dismay at the prolonged conflict triggered by the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, particularly since New Delhi has for the past four weeks been appealing for an immediate cessation of hostilities but to no avail. India has also, in a balancing act, previously abstained from draft resolutions critical of Russia and has also so far refused to condemn Moscow publicly because of its time-tested ties spanning decades.

According to news agency reports, Russia had called for a vote in the UNSC on its draft resolution that had demanded that civilians, including humanitarian personnel and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children are fully protected, calls for negotiated ceasefire for enabling safe, rapid, voluntary and unhindered evacuation of civilians, and underscores the need for the parties concerned to agree on humanitarian pauses to this end.

According to these reports, the Russian-tabled draft resolution, which had made no reference to its invasion of Ukraine, called upon all parties concerned to allow safe and unhindered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine, including to foreign nationals without discrimination, and facilitate safe and unhindered access of humanitarian assistance to those in need in and around Ukraine, taking into account the particular needs of women, girls, men and boys, older persons and persons with disabilities.
BJP leaders are evolving strategies to counter the TRS and its agitation on the paddy issue. (Representational Image/ PTI)

Adilabad: TRS is activating its cadre and farmers to organise agitations on the paddy issue by targeting the central government, followed by passing of passing resolutions in farmers bodies and GP, mandal, ZP parishad levels against the Centre.

TRSs Rythu bodies would play an active role in mobilising farmers in the fight against the Modi-led BJP government. The party leaders are sensitising the party cadre on the paddy issue by holding a series of meetings in Assembly constituencies from Wednesday.

The MLAs, keen on a re-election, are keen on mobilising more of the cadre for the agitational programme in order to please the top TRS leadership in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

On the other hand, minister for forest and endowment Indrakaran Reddy held a meeting with the MLAs of erstwhile Adilabad district and chalked out plans for the agitational programme. TRS MLAs and ZP chairmen sent a message to the party cadre and second-rung leaders asking them to aggressively fight against the BJP-led central government demanding purchase of the entire paddy produced in Telangana.

Mindful of this, BJP leaders are evolving strategies to counter the TRS and its agitation on the paddy issue. They would raise the farmers issues that the TRS government failed to attend to, and highlight the welfare measures taken by the Modi government in the last eight years.

The TRS party is planning its agitation in such a way that farmers take the side of the TRS party. They are the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes initiated by the KCR government, the TRS stresses.

In specific, TRS leaders are telling the farmers how the welfare schemes such as Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, the 24-hour free power, irrigation water and projects helped the farmers improve their condition in the state in the last seven years of the TRS rule.
The eyeballs are all concentrated on the missiles, rockets and shells landing on Ukraines cities. Tanks continue to remain lined up away from those cities and Russian infantrymen are so far desisting from approaching the major built-up areas to assault and capture them. This war, launched by President Vladimir Putin a month ago, on February 24, is proving to be quite different. Its not classically conventional and is veering towards combinations: hybrid, conventional and grey zone, all rolled in one.

There are a couple of domains which appear to be characterising the war, now that its seen to be going beyond the conventional mode. The Russians, beset with demographic problems which prevent them from accepting too many fatal casualties, are looking at the employment of foreign fighters or simply paid fighters to overcome this problem. A figure of 18,000 Syrian fighters was recently mentioned; probably a quid pro quo for Russias assistance from 2015 till the defeat of ISIS. In addition, there are Chechen fighters who are not regulars in the Russian Army. These elements bring shades of disorder in what would have been conventional operations with military order of battle. The fighting norms are also different in the context of the ratios of troops employed, while ruthlessness is also of a higher order. Humanitarian considerations are much lower in priority as the rules of war-fighting seldom apply. The longer this war prolongs, the more the reliance on such elements will increase.

On Ukraines side, there are reports that US contractual elements have been training the army and a constant supply of anti-tank weapons and shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles have been making their way to the arena for fairly long; with the success gained by small teams using them effectively at the periphery of urban areas, and many more missiles are said to be in the pipeline.

These personnel may not fit the classic definition of mercenaries but they are deeply involved in training, organising, maintenance of equipment and even logistics; and interior lines available to the Ukrainians are being fully exploited.

Electronic intelligence gathered by these elements with sophisticated equipment has probably helped in homing fire on to command locations of Russian formation commanders; six of whom have reportedly been killed.

Companies like Mosaic and Blackwater are known for their capability in organising resistance, evacuating people from battle zones, with other tasks ranging from armed missions such as convoy protection to feeding and housing troops at military bases. Much of the success being achieved in Ukraines fierce resistance and ability to counter the Russian troops ground movement has been ascribed to the organisation and leadership brought to the ground by these elements.

So, if the war prolongs with Vladimir Putin unable to gracefully accept the inability of the Russian Army to make headway, it could well turn out to be a war between irregulars. A taste of this existed in Bosnia over 25 years ago. A proxy war with a relatively unique model is likely to emerge, with the potential of this going fairly out of control, with unpredictable consequences. With relatively low levels of control over the irregular elements, especially if some Middle East extremist groups sneak into the conflict zone, it will be difficult to prevent the flow of these into Europe. Post-conflict turbulence is almost certainly guaranteed.

We are also witnessing a high-profile information war blitz by Nato to help Ukraine. Eyeballs across the world are being captured by narratives put on the print and electronic media, that is then further spread via the social media. With special emphasis on humanitarian issues involving displacement of populations, destruction of homes, maternity hospitals under attack and a constant motivational barrage by Ukraines leaders to resist and not give in, the information domain is being successfully pursued by Nato and Ukraine.

Unfortunately, little efforts have been shown or any urging projected to put an end to hostilities; the peace cause at present is relatively far behind in priority, with resistance and strikes being the priority. With 142 nations at the UN backing Ukraine and condemning Russias invasion, the information domain clearly lies in favour of Nato. Their intent of targeting Russias military and civil population through the social media may not have yet penetrated, but sooner than later technologies will probably facilitate the piercing of the iron curtain that has been created once again by Russia to promote opaqueness. Russia has imposed a ban on Facebook and Instagram. It does not have equivalent instruments which can carry its messages internationally. More Russians are now using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to get around governmental restrictions on the social media. The demand for VPNs in Russia was much higher on March 14 than before the fighting began. Over 15,000 Russian protesters have been arrested in the past three weeks as new laws have criminalised public statements about Ukraine that do not align with the Kremlin's official view of what it calls the "special military operation. How far and fast can Nato and the Ukrainian information war reach the Russian public, especially with the main tools absent, will also contribute to the pressure which will be generated internally on the Russian leadership.

Theoretically Russia, as one of the worlds most militarised powers, should face no problems regarding reserves of munitions. However, the organisation for the delivery of this and other logistics appears to be reasonably inefficient. The wars prolongation will see the employment of Special Forces by both sides to reduce each others war-fighting stamina. Ukraine has lost a fair quantum of reserves but the supply chain is open as weapons and equipment are pumped in through the bordering Nato countries. Russia has so far concentrated only on the blockade from the Black Sea, while the western routes are all open. Focusing on these to prevent the ingress of wherewithal will adversely affect efforts around cities, although Russia could comfortably employ its Air Force and leave the neutralising of the cities to gun, missile and rocket units. It may not wish to up the ante any more than what already exists.

Finally, political and military objectives at such a stage get obfuscated and need to be reworked from the original. Russia may seek a face-saver through the eventual capture of one or two cities, retain full control over entire Donbass and execute the Black Sea blockade more rigorously. Regime change may no longer remain an objective. None of this may, however, achieve conflict termination; a proxy war for some time seems to be almost guaranteed.
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KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an impassioned plea Thursday for citizens worldwide to pour onto streets and squares in global protest against Russia's bloody month-old invasion.

In a late-night television address from the emptied streets of his nation's besieged capital Kyiv, a defiant but visibly tired Zelensky appealed in English for worldwide solidarity.

"The world must stop the war," he said. "Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life."

His appeal came one month after Russian tanks rolled over the border, bringing a conflict that has killed untold thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides.

More than ten million Ukrainians have already fled homes and cities under sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air.

There is growing evidence that Russia's once-vaunted military has become badly bogged down, and has been forced to turn to long-range bombardment to break Ukrainian resolve.

In the southern port city of Mariupol alone, 100,000 people are trapped without food, water or power and enduring fierce shelling by Russian forces.

In the city's hospital, local officials said staff have evacuated patients to the basement, where they are treated by candlelight beside 600-700 other local residents seeking what little safety they can.

The US government on Wednesday said the Kremlin's bombing campaign amounted to war crimes, further escalating a confrontation between Moscow and the West that has rivalled the worst crises of the Cold War.

"We've seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine."

So far the conflict has not spilt over into direct military conflagration between Russia and NATO, but there are growing fears Russia may up the ante with a chemical, biological or even tactical nuclear attack.

US President Joe Biden is in Brussels for back-to-back emergency NATO, G7, and European Union summits from Thursday that will bring pledges of more lethal weapons for Ukraine, more punishing sanctions on Russia's already crisis-wracked economy and warnings about further escalation.

Ukrainian resistance

NATO officials believe that -- armed with an arsenal of Western anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons -- Ukrainian forces may have already killed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers and wounded perhaps 30,000-40,000.

Putin's regime officially puts the number of Russian fallen at under 500, and has introduced draconian censorship laws to prevent independently verified news about what it calls a "special military operation."

But Ukrainian civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.

Zelensky admitted the last month had been "long" but hailed Ukrainian resistance that has been much more ferocious than Russia expected and would endure for as long as it takes.

"This is a war for independence and we must win," he said in the late-night address, flitting between Ukrainian and his native Russian.

"We will rebuild every city, we will bring the invaders to justice for every crime," he said. "All our people will live in a free Ukraine."

Recent days have brought claims of Ukrainian forces not only repelling attacks from the much larger and much better armed Russian military, but launching counteroffensives and winning back territory around Kyiv.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that "the small city of Makariv and almost all of Irpin is already under the control of Ukrainian soldiers".

AFP journalists reported fierce exchanges of artillery fire in Irpin.

British military intelligence said Ukraine had "probably retaken Makariv and Moschun" to the northwest of the capital and "there is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin."

Putin responds

Facing mounting diplomatic and economic pressure, Putin's regime has responded by warning Russia could use nuclear weapons if it faces an "existential threat", and launched tit-for-tat retaliation against the West.

Moscow moved to expel US diplomats in retaliation for Washington's move earlier this month to remove 12 of Moscow's US-based representatives to the United Nations.

In an effort to blunt the damage done by sanctions to the national currency, Putin said Wednesday that Russia will only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to "unfriendly countries", which include all EU members.

The manoeuver sharpened growing debate in Europe -- which is heavily dependent on Russian energy imports -- about possible bans on Russian oil and gas.

Moscow has warned an embargo would prompt a "collapse" of the global energy market.

While Europe has appeared fractured on the question of an oil embargo, there are also signs of fissures within Putin's regime.

Moscow recently confirmed that Anatoly Chubais -- a former Kremlin chief of staff who oversaw liberal economic reforms in the 1990s -- quit his post as a Putin advisor. He has reportedly fled the country in protest at the war.

Russia still has a vital friend in China, which pushed back against suggestions that Moscow should be expelled from the G20 group of countries.

But Scott Morrison, prime minister of G20 member Australia, said he believed that Putin attending the summit would be "a step too far."

NATO reinforces

In the latest sign that the war has reinvigorated NATO, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg announced it would send more reinforcements to guard against Russia expanding its campaign.

The leaders at Thursday's summit will agree to "major increases of forces" including four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The allies will also offer "additional support" to Kyiv against nuclear and chemical threats, he said.

But NATO members, while maintaining a steady supply of anti-tank and short-range anti-aircraft missiles, have refused Zelensky's demands for a no-fly zone over Ukraine or shipment of warplanes to the Ukrainian air force, fearing all-out war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Nearly a month into the invasion, peace talks have agreed on daily humanitarian corridors for refugees, and Ukraine says it is willing to countenance some Russian demands subject to a national referendum.

But it has refused to bow to demands to disarm and renounce its pro-Western ambitions.

Ukraine's lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said the peace talks were encountering "significant difficulties." Moscow accused the United States of undermining the process.

'Tip of an iceberg'

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that the humanitarian disaster in Ukraine was only getting worse.

"The problems we face so far... are really the tip of an iceberg of need," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said.

"And there's going to have to be a further, massive scaling up of assistance within Ukraine in the coming weeks, because I have never, myself, seen such complex needs, and so quickly in a crisis that has developed so fast."

"We have reached maybe, for once, an appropriate level of horror at what's happening in Ukraine," he said.
OPEC officials believe a possible European Union ban on oil from its partner Russia over the invasion of Ukraine would hurt consumers and the group has conveyed its concerns to Brussels, OPEC sources said.

Major OPEC members, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have tried to navigate a neutral course between the West and Moscow, while OPEC+, a grouping that includes Russia, has steered clear of the Ukraine issue in its policy meetings.

Also Read | Moscow warns of market 'collapse' without Russian oil and gas

The EU, which relies heavily on Russian crude, has already imposed tough sanctions on Russia, including freezing its central bank's assets. The bloc has been discussing whether and how to put sanctions on Russia's energy industry.

OPEC officials including Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo met EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson on March 16 to discuss the "extraordinary times" for the energy market, Simson said on Twitter.

One of the OPEC sources said the group's concerns were made clear to the EU. "They are very well informed," said the source, declining to be identified.

Follow live updates of Russia-Ukraine crisis here

Asked for comment on the March 16 meeting, an EU official said: "OPEC presented their analysis of the oil market situation and informed us of their plans in terms of oil production."

"As we have consistently said, nothing is off the table in terms of future sanctions," the EU official said.

OPEC's headquarters in Vienna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Five Films For Freedom, an online short film program supporting LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) rights, is returning for its eighth year between March 16-27.

Like every year, BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival and the British Council continue their collaboration to make five LGBTIQ+ themed short films available online to audiences across the world for free, over 11 days each year.

This year, the Indian short film 'Sunday' by Mumbai filmmaker Arun Fulara is part of the #FiveFilmsForFreedom selection with films from China, India, Croatia, Panama, and the UK.

"I didn't expect The British Council to choose it at such a late stage of the film's festival journey. It's a complete surprise; it's a bonus. I am so grateful to be a part of it as it validates so much of the entire team's thoughts. Through #FiveFilmsForFreedom, 'Sunday' can be viewed worldwide, even in countries where LGBTQI+ content is banned or censored," said Arun Fulara to DH.

The film, which has already traveled to more than 50 world festivals, explores the desire and loneliness of a middle-aged man Kamble (Shrikant Yadav). On his weekly visit to the neighborhood barbershop, Kamble gets a shave and an opportunity to be touched by Jaan (Prakash Joshi), the new barber-boy on whom he has a crush. It's the only highlight in the otherwise dull life of a married man in a society that resists homosexuality.

"Most of our cinema is focused on younger people while there are a lot of stories left untold about people from other age brackets," said Fulara on being asked why he picked a middle-aged man as his protagonist.

"In the last few years, there has been a growing number of stories about queer people, but earlier there was no representation of the community in the larger society. It was difficult for people like the protagonist to come out. So, while he accepts his heterosexual relationship, he acknowledges his sexual leaning and starts being open about his true feelings and desires. A middle-aged protagonist made more sense, who didn't have a role model like queer people do today."

In India, British Council has partnered with The Queer Muslim Project, South Asia's largest virtual network of Queer, Muslim, and allied individuals, to amplify the films.

The films will not just be shown online but screened in cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kharagpur, Kolkata, and Guwahati. The offline screenings will be in association with LGBTQIA+ student-led groups across three Indian universities, Queer creators and youth media platforms, Yuvaa, We The Young India, and Gaysi Family.

"We wanted to take the film beyond festivals, to more colleges and institutions where audiences do not typically attend festivals. That's where we would meet and face people who are not completely in sync with the LGBTQI+ movement," said Fulara.

"The film can generate some thought or dialogue in these communities. It would be interesting to listen to their point of view--from my parents, parents of the crew to the slightly older generation and people from conservative communities," he added.

Ever since Five Films For Freedom launched in 2015, over 17 million people from more than 200 countries have viewed the program. People have watched it online in countries where homosexuality can be prosecuted and, in some cases, punishable by death.

British-Nigerian director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor's short film "For Love," Croatian comic artist and director Marko Djeska's animated film "All Those Sensations In My Belly," Panamanian Director Judith Corro's first film as scriptwriter and director, "Birthday Boy (Vuelta al Sol)," and Chinese Director Hao Zhou's "Frozen Out" are the other films in the list.

(Gurpreet Kaur is a journalist who writes about lifestyle, entertainment, and culture)

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US President Joe Biden landed in Brussels on Wednesday in the middle of a dispute with European allies over whether to impose further energy sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia supplies about 40 per cent of the natural gas Europe uses, making it difficult for several European nations to ban Russian energy imports as the United States has.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia will seek payment in roubles for gas sales to "unfriendly" countries, a move that sent European gas prices soaring on concerns it would exacerbate the region's energy crunch.

Moscow's list of unfriendly countries corresponds to those that imposed sanctions and include the United States, European Union members, Britain and Japan, among others.

Reducing Europe's reliance on Russian energy has been a "substantial" topic and the subject of "intense back and forth" in recent days, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on an Air Force One flight to Brussels.

Also read: Russia's military hit by high-ranking losses in Ukraine

Sullivan said Biden would have some news to announce on the topic on Friday with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.

On Thursday, Biden will attend an emergency NATO summit, meet with G7 leaders and address the 27 leaders of the European Union at a session of the European Council.

Biden will later visit Warsaw for consultations with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Sullivan said G7 leaders will also agree on Thursday to coordinate on sanctions enforcement and plan to issue a statement.

A French presidency official noted that the European Union collectively trades more with Russia than the United States does and is more sensitive to sanctions against Russia.

"Americans have sanctioned Russian gas and oil, which is easier for them since they are producers. We will see what President Biden proposes tomorrow as extra effort," the official told Reuters.

Sullivan said Biden will announce a US package of Russia-related sanctions on political figures and oligarchs on Thursday.

Sources say some of the sanctions are expected to be targeted against members of the Russian lower house of parliament, the Duma.

The leaders will also discuss China. Biden had warned Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday not to provide material support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Sullivan said the United States has yet to see evidence of Beijing sending aid to Moscow.

Also Read | Nine humanitarian corridors agreed for March 24: Ukraine

"But it's something we're watching every day," he said.

Western leaders have grown increasingly concerned that Putin will use chemical weapons or otherwise escalate tactics four weeks into an invasion where his troops have failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city.

Leaving the White House on Wednesday, Biden said Russia's use of chemical weapons in Ukraine is a "real threat."

Sullivan said Biden will coordinate on the next phase of military assistance to Ukraine.

Sullivan also said Biden will discuss with allies in Brussels "how to deal with the rhetoric and commentary on potential use of nuclear weapons" by Russia. The United States has not changed its nuclear posture, he said.

In recent days, Russia and Western governments have traded accusations over the possibility of a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine without producing evidence to back their concerns.

Biden has vowed not to engage in direct conflict with Russia but has pledged the United States will defend all NATO territory. He has ordered more US troops to NATO's eastern flank to reassure edgy allies.

During his visit to Poland, a NATO member, Biden will visit US troops and meet with experts involved in the humanitarian response to helping hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have fled their country and those who remain.

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A Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not mention Moscow's role in the crisis failed at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.

"If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and end their siege tactics. But they haven't," Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council after the vote. Russia denies attacking civilians.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted. Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused those who abstained on Wednesday of doing so "for political reasons."

Also read: India, 12 others abstain in UNSC on vote on Russian-led draft resolution on Ukraine

Explaining China's yes vote, Ambassador Zhang Jun said Beijing had a "strong expectation" that there should be an immediate ceasefire, but that while pushing for a halt to the fighting, the council should "also respond to the humanitarian crisis in a positive, pragmatic and constructive manner."

China abstained last month in a Security Council vote on a draft resolution that would have deplored Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, a move Western countries viewed as a win for showing Russia's isolation. Russia vetoed the resolution.

Moscow had scrapped a planned council vote on the draft aid resolution last Friday after accusing Western countries of an "unprecedented pressure" campaign against the measure. The United States rejected Russia's allegation.

"Russia alone is to blame for the war in Ukraine," US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council on Wednesday. "Russia's disingenuous efforts to deny the truth of its actions will continue to fail."

A diplomatic tit-for-tat has been escalating since Russia launched what it calls a "special military operation" that is says aims to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure. UN chief Antonio Guterres has blasted Russia's "absurd war."

Accountability

Russia proposed the Security Council text after France and Mexico withdrew their own push for a council resolution on Ukraine's humanitarian situation because they said it would have been vetoed by Moscow. That draft would have criticized Russia for its role in creating the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Ukraine and its allies are instead planning to put a similar draft resolution to a vote this week in the 193-member General Assembly where no country wields a veto. General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.

Also read: US says Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine

Thomas-Greenfield told the General Assembly earlier on Wednesday: "An abstention in the face of Russia's atrocities is unacceptable. Russia must be held accountable for the humanitarian crisis it is creating."

South Africa has put forward a rival draft text in the General Assembly on the same issue that does not mention Russia.

The Ukraine-led draft currently has 88 co-sponsors and South Africa's draft has about six, including China, diplomats said.

Nebenzia accused Ukraine and its allies on Wednesday of "another political anti-Russian show" in the General Assembly, urging countries to vote for the South African draft, saying it would "send a signal to Ukraine's peaceful population that the United Nations is aware of their situation and wants to help."

Ukraine's UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya appealed to the UN General Assembly: "We ask all those who stand against the war to vote with us."

Ukraine and its allies are looking to improve on the 141 yes votes cast to adopt a March 2 General Assembly resolution that deplored Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine and demanded it withdraw. Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria voted no, while 35 states - including China - abstained.
Russia held a funeral service for the deputy commander of its Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea on Wednesday, the latest in what Ukraine says is a string of high-ranking Russian military casualties since Moscow invaded on Feb. 24.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Sunday named six Russian generals who he said had been killed in Ukraine along with dozens of colonels and other officers.

Russia's Defence Ministry has not confirmed any of those casualties. It has not revised its troop casualties since March 2, a week into the war, when it said that 498 of its soldiers had died. Ukraine puts the figure at 15,600.

Reuters could not independently verify most of Ukraine's claims, but some have been confirmed from Russian sources.

Also Read | Putin intends to participate in G20 Summit: Russian ambassador

Local Russian government in the southern port of Novorossiysk confirmed the death on Feb. 28 of Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky in a statement on its website. It said he had served in Syria, the North Caucasus and Abkhazia.

On Wednesday, hundreds converged in the Crimean city of Sevastopol to attend a funeral service with a gun salute for Andrei Paliy, a first rank captain and the deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Konrad Muzyka, director of the Poland-based Rochan consultancy, said the Ukrainian estimates of Russian high-ranking casualties were plausible, but they were difficult to verify and the actual figure was probably smaller.

"Even if we are talking about two generals, that's a big deal," he said. "We're not only talking about generals, we're also talking about colonels who are of course also really high in the organisation."

He said such casualties suggested Russia didn't have a good understanding of Ukrainian artillery positions and Ukraine was having success in pinpointing the location of senior Russian officers, possibly via their mobile phone signals.

Also Read | Nine humanitarian corridors agreed for March 24: Ukraine

'Too many colonels, too few corporals'

A senior foreign diplomat in Moscow told Reuters: "For me what is important is the reported heavy casualties at colonel and above, the backbone of the Russian army, not just generals,"

The diplomat said the Russian army was heavily centralised and hierarchical, and lacking in empowered Western-style junior officers. "There are too many colonels, too few corporals. So what happens is tasks requiring resolution, which in the West would be resolved at much lower levels, get passed up the chain for decision," the source said.

The diplomat said that the hierarchical structure drew senior officers to the front to sort out problems or revitalise the effort, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

"Centralisation of command and control, lack of dispersal, and paucity of secure communication also puts them in locations where they can be identified and picked off by Ukrainian UAVs," the diplomat said, referring to unmanned drones.

Also Read | India developed close ties with Russia because US was not ready then, says US spokesperson

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced nearly 10 million and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States.

Russia says its "special military operation" was necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend against the "genocide" of Russian speakers by Ukraine. Ukraine has dismisses those claims.

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The United States on Wednesday said it has assessed that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, adding that Washington's conclusion was based on a 'careful review' of available information from public and intelligence sources.

In a statement, Blinken said the United States will continue to track reports of war crimes and will share information it gathers with allies, international institutions and added that a court of law would be ultimately responsible in determining any alleged crime.

"We are committed to pursuing accountability using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions," Blinken said.

President Joe Biden last week said Russian President Vladimir Putin "is a war criminal" for attacking Ukraine.

Moscow has yet to capture any of Ukraine's biggest cities following its invasion that began on Feb. 24, the largest assault on a European state since World War Two, raising fears of wider conflict in the West.

Putin calls his offensive a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" the country. The civilian casualties are thought to be in thousands while the United Nations estimates more than 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion.

Blinken said there had been "numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities" by Russias forces in Ukraine, mentioning attacks in the besieged city of Mariupol.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has wed his fiancee at a small ceremony in the London prison where he is held.

Assange, 50, has been held in the high security Belmarsh prison in southeast London since 2019 on a series of charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of a huge trove of classified documents more than a decade ago.

Supporters said Assange and Stella Moris were allowed four guests and two witnesses in attendance for Wednesday's ceremony.

Moris posed for photos with her and Assange's two young sons as they arrived outside the prison. She wore a wedding dress and veil embroidered with messages from friends and family. The dress was designed by British designer Vivienne Westwood, who is among Assange's more vocal and high-profile supporters.

Westwood also designed a tartan kilt for Assange, who was not pictured.

Every part of this private event is being intensely policed, from our guest list to the wedding picture, Moris wrote in the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday ahead of the wedding.

This is not a prison wedding, it is a declaration of love and resilience in spite of the prison walls, in spite of the political persecution, in spite of the arbitrary detention, in spite of the harm and harassment inflicted on Julian and our family, she wrote.

Last week Britain's Supreme Court refused Assange's appeal against a High Court decision to extradite him to the US to face spying charges.

That development narrows Assange's options, but his defense team may still seek to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights or challenge the original judge's other findings. They could write to the British Home Secretary in the coming weeks before she makes a decision on his extradition.

Assange denies wrongdoing and his supporters, including Amnesty International, argue that his extradition is politically motivated. They maintain he was entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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China's foreign minister made a surprise stop in Kabul on Thursday to meet Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, even as the international community fumes over the hardline movement's broken promise a day earlier to open schools to girls beyond Grade 6.

The official Bakhtar News Agency announced Wang Yi will meet with Taliban leaders to discuss various issues including the extension of political relations, economic, and transit cooperation.

The Taliban, who swept to power last August with the chaotic end to 20 years of war by a US and NATO coalition, have been seeking international recognition in order to open up their economy, which has been in free fall since their arrival.

China has not shown any inclination to recognise the Taliban government but it has avoided criticizing the new rulers, despite their repressive rules directed particularly at women, denying them unhindered access to work and school.

China has, however, kept its Embassy in Kabul open and offered limited emergency assistance.

The US-led coalition unseated the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America. They returned to power and installed an all-male Taliban-only interim government. The international community has been urging them to open up the government to ethnic minorities, non -Taliban and women.

Wang is one of the highest level visitors to Afghanistan since the Taliban's return. China, while refusing to offer recognition, has been engaging with the Taliban since their takeover. China has economic and mining interests in Afghanistan and Afghans familiar with past talks between the Taliban and Chinese officials say Beijing wants Taliban commitments to prevent China's Uighur opponents from setting up operations in Afghanistan.

Last July, however, Wang hosted a delegation from the group led by top Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in the Chinese city of Tianjin, shortly before the group seized power from Afghanistan's elected government.

At that meeting, Wang sought assurances the Taliban would not allow anti-China groups to operate under their rule and referred to the group as a pivotal military and political force in Afghanistan.

He said they are expected to play an important role in the process of peace, reconciliation and reconstruction.

There have been reports that militants from among the Turkic Muslim Uyghur minority native to China's northwestern region of Xinjiang have found shelter in Afghanistan. China has carried out a campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, including locking a million or more away in political re-education camps.

The overseas East Turkistan Islamic Movement has for years fought a low-level insurgency against Chinese rule.

It has been aligned with the Islamic State affiliate known as Islamic State in Khorazan Province, an enemy of the Taliban, but its current operational status is not know.

Despite consistent and documented reports of Beijing's crackdown the Uighurs, Wang was welcomed as a special guest this week at a summit in neighboring Pakistan of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

There Wang called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. None of the OIC participants or host Pakistan, who has been particularly vocal about growing Islamophobia, mentioned China's crackdown on its minority Muslims. That has included the destruction of mosques and punishment for those Uighurs who participate in religious edicts.

China also has interest in stability in Afghanistan, as it has been used as a base for insurgent attacks against its nationals in neighboring Pakistan. It also has a multi-billion dollar road project in Pakistan linking the Arabian Sea Port of Gwadar with China in the northwest.

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The death toll from twin attacks in central Somalia on Wednesday night has climbed above 30, the Beledweyne district police chief told AFP on Thursday, with the Al-Shabaab insurgent group saying it was targeting politicians ahead of elections.

The first attack in Beledweyne district was carried out by a suicide bomber and killed two local lawmakers including Amina Mohamed Abdi and several of her guards as she campaigned for re-election.

Minutes later, a car bomb exploded outside Beledweyne's main hospital where the injured were being taken for treatment, killing dozens and leaving vehicles in charred, twisted ruins.

"The terrorists carried out the first attack using a suicide bomber and readied a car loaded with explosives in front of a hospital to cause more casualties," said Colonel Isak Ali Abdulle.

"We are still trying to establish the overall number of casualties, but so far we have confirmed that more than 30 people were killed in the second blast alone," he said.

"These were devastating simultaneous attacks which damaged property as well as causing mass civilian casualties."

The bombings occurred the same day as three people were killed in a separate attack near Mogadishu's airport that was also claimed by Al-Shabaab.

The Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently target civilian, military, and government targets in Somalia's capital and outside.

Witnesses described carnage outside the hospital in Beledweyne.

"The second blast was very huge, it occurred in front of the hospital and my brother and one of our neighbours were among the dead," said Mahad Yare, a Beledweyne resident.

Al-Shabaab said it carried out the attacks to target politicians contesting ongoing elections.

The British ambassador to Somalia, Katie Foster, shared her condolences on Twitter, saying: "We strongly condemn the use of violence to intimidate and disrupt the elections."

The European Union's ambassador to the country, Tiina Intelmann, also offered condolences, writing on Twitter: "Violence is not a way forward for #Somalia. #EU condemns terrorism and politically motivated killings."

Earlier on Wednesday, security forces shot dead two gunmen who attempted to storm a heavily fortified area of the Somali capital Mogadishu near the city's main airport.

The airport complex houses the United Nations, aid agencies, foreign missions and contractors, and the headquarters of the African Union military mission, AMISOM.

Three people were killed in that attack -- a policeman, an AMISOM soldier, and a civilian.

Al-Shabaab has been seeking to overthrow the country's fragile government for over a decade.

The Horn of Africa nation has seen a spate of attacks in recent weeks as it hobbles through a long-delayed election process.

Somalia's key foreign backer, the United States, has already imposed travel sanctions on key political figures for undermining the electoral process.

The lower house election is now due to be completed on March 31, paving the way for lawmakers to pick a president.

Somalia's international backers have warned the election delays to distract from the fight against Al-Shabaab.

The jihadists controlled Mogadishu until 2011 when they were pushed out by AMISOM troops, but still hold territory in the countryside.

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North Korea fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, Tokyo and Seoul said as they voiced outrage at Pyongyang's most powerful launch since 2017.

South Korea's military said it had fired missiles from ground, sea and air in response.

Pyongyang has launched nearly a dozen weapon tests this year in an unprecedented spree in defiance of UN sanctions.

But long-range and nuclear tests such as the one conducted on Thursday have been paused since leader Kim Jong Un met then-US president Donald Trump for a bout of doomed diplomacy, which collapsed in 2019.

Thursday's launch was a "breach of the suspension of intercontinental ballistic missile launches promised by Chairman Kim Jong Un to the international community," South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said in a statement.

Read | Suspected North Korean ICBM lands in Japan's EEZ

"It poses a serious threat to the Korean peninsula, the region and the international community," Moon said, adding that it was a "clear violation" of UN Security Council resolutions.

The missile was fired on Thursday afternoon from Sunan -- likely the same site as a failed test last week -- and had a range of 6,200 kilometers (3,850 miles), Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The missile flew for 71 minutes and landed in Japan's territorial waters, according to the Japanese government.

"This is such an outrageous, unforgivable act," Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in Brussels where he was due to meet with members of the Group of Seven.

North Korea was threatening "the peace and safety of Japan, the region and the international community," he added.

"This cannot be accepted."

Nuclear-armed North Korea has long coveted an ICBM that can carry multiple warheads and, the US and South Korea say, has been testing the Hwasong-17, a giant ICBM first unveiled in October 2020.

Despite biting international sanctions over its weapons programs, Pyongyang has doubled-down on Kim's drive to modernise the military, and last week test-fired what analysts said was likely the Hwasong-17.

That launch ended in failure, exploding mid-air in the skies above the capital.

"Pyongyang attempted to fire an ICBM at the Sunan airport last week but failed," said Go Myong-hyun, senior researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

"So it carried out today's launch to make up for that failure and because it has to complete the ICBM technology right away," he told AFP.

The moratorium was "virtually scrapped" anyway, Go said, when North Korea conducted two tests for what it called a "reconnaissance satellite".

"What is also key is whether Pyongyang will make today's launch official," he added.

Analysts say that North Korea uses ostensibly peaceful satellite development as a fig leaf for full-range ICBM development as there is significant overlap in technology.

The United States and South Korea had this month warned that Pyongyang was preparing to test-fire an ICBM at full range, after what they called a spate of tests disguised as space launches.

Seoul and Washington said these were likely tests of components of the Hwasong-17.

North Korea will mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung on April 15, and analysts predict Pyongyang will conduct an ICBM or satellite launch as part of the celebrations.

"Kim Jong Un feels it's very important to prove his leadership's competency before the 110th birthday anniversary of Kim Il Sung, especially to his own people in North Korea," said Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute.

The North has carried out three ICBM tests, the last in November 2017, of a Hwasong-15 -- deemed powerful enough to reach the continental United States.

"Kim Jong Un wants to ultimately establish himself as a leader who has successfully developed both nuclear weapons and ICBMs," Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean studies scholar, told AFP.

North Korea is also taking advantage of Washington's deteriorating relationships with China and Russia, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, he said.

"Kim probably feels this is the perfect time to develop ICBMs while repeatedly reminding the world that the North, unlike Ukraine, is a nuclear-armed country."

South Korea is also going through a presidential transition, with Moon set to hand power to successor Yoon Suk-yeol in May, which creates foreign policy confusion, Hong Min, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

"Everything is very disorganised and all over the place," he said.

"For the incoming administration, it is highly likely that they are not yet prepared," he added.

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North Korea fired what may be at least one ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast on Thursday, militaries in South Korea and Japan said, the first apparent test launch since a missile reportedly exploded in mid-air last week.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch of an "unidentified projectile" from North Korea.

Japan's government also reported the launch, and said it could be a ballistic missile.

On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff in the skies over Pyongyang, South Korea's military said, amid reports that the nuclear-armed North was seeking to test-fire its largest missile yet.

The United States and South Korea have warned that North Korea may be preparing to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at full range for the first time since 2017, in violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

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North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, militaries in South Korea and Japan said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in the North's development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

The North's return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for US President Joe Biden as he responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Korea's incoming conservative administration.

Japanese authorities said the launch appeared to be a "new type" of ICBM that flew for about 71 minutes to an altitude of about 6,000km (3,728 miles) and a range of 1,100km (684 miles) from its launch site.

It landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 170 km (106 miles) west of the northern prefecture of Aomori, at 3:44 pm (0644 GMT), the coast guard said.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff put the missile's maximum altitude at 6,200 km and its range at 1,080 km.

That is further and longer than North Korea's last ICBM test in 2017, when it launched a Hwasong-15 missile that flew for 53 minutes to an altitude of about 4,475km and range of 950km.

Thursday's ICBM launch prompted South Korea to test fire a volley of its own, smaller ballistic and air-to-ground missiles to demonstrate it has the "capability and readiness" to precisely strike missile launch sites, command and support facilities, and other targets in North Korea if necessary, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

South Korean deputy national security advisor Suh Choo-suk condemned the launch as "a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and a reversal of the moratorium on ICBM launches, which North Korea had promised to the international community."

South Korea's JCS said the latest missile was launched from near Sunan, where Pyongyang's international airport is located. On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile from that airport that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff, South Korea's military said.

New ICBM?

US and South Korean officials have warned recently that North Korea had been preparing to test fire its largest ICBM yet, the Hwasong-17.

US officials said at least two recent tests, on February 27 and March 5, featured the Hwasong-17 system, but did not demonstrate full ICBM range or capability.

Pyongyang did not identify the missile system used in those launches, but said they were testing components for a reconnaissance satellite system.

This month, leader Kim Jong Un said North Korea would soon launch multiple satellites to monitor military movements by the United States and its allies.

Thursday's launch would be at least the 11th North Korean missile test this year, an unprecedented frequency that has drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Analysts say the Hwasong-17 is "considerably larger" than the Hwasong-15. It was first unveiled in October 2020 and displayed a second time in October 2021.

The missile, which has been shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the world's largest road-mobile ICBMs.

'Serious progress'

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, Kim declared a self-imposed moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearisation talks.

That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former US President Donald Trump, who held several historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never gained a concrete pact to limit the North's nuclear or missile arsenals.

On January 19, North Korea said it would bolster its defences against the United States and consider resuming "all temporally suspended activities", according to state news agency KCNA, an apparent reference to the self-imposed moratorium.

New construction has also been spotted at North Korea's only known nuclear test site, which was shuttered in 2018.

The looming prospect of possible nuclear tests, more joint US-South Korea military drills, and the new conservative South Korean president mean "all conditions are present for a tit-for-tat chain reaction of escalatory steps," said Chad O'Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.

"Though Biden would prefer to focus exclusively on the Ukraine crisis, it's likely he will soon face crisis-level tensions between the Koreas," he said.

With the sanctions regime at an impasse at the U.N. Security Council and North Korea opposed to talks on denuclearisation for the foreseeable future, Pyongyang is now likely capable of making serious progress on its weapons development programme with little risk of substantive punishment, O'Carroll added.

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Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking thousands of civilians from the shattered port city of Mariupol to Russia so that they can be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

A month into the invasion, meanwhile, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraine's navy said it sank a large landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to supply Russian forces with armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defence systems and other weapons, saying his country is defending our common values. US President Joe Biden, in Europe for a series of summits, gave assurances more aid is on its way.

Also Read | Zelenskyy says 'real' threat Russia will use chemical weapons in Ukraine

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's leaders agreed to send equipment to help protect Ukraine against chemical attacks. Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders appear to have fought Moscow's ground troops to a stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry charged that Russian forces have taken 6,000 Mariupol residents to camps against their will. Russian troops are confiscating identity documents from an additional 15,000 people in a section of Mariupol under Russian control, the ministry said.

Ukrainian military intelligence said Ukrainian civilians are being sent through a camp in Russian-controlled territory, then onward through southern regions of Russia to economically depressed parts of the country.

Also Read | 'The world must stop the war': Zelenskyy calls for worldwide protests against Russia's invasion

Some could be sent as far as the Pacific Ocean island of Sakhalin, Ukrainian intelligence said, and are being offered jobs on condition they don't leave for two years.

The claims could not be independently verified. Russia has said it is evacuating thousands of civilians of their own free will.

Photos and video after the naval attack in Berdyansk showed fire and thick plumes of smoke. Russian TV reported earlier this week that the vessel the Ukrainians claimed to have sunk, Orsk, was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk. The port was going to be used to deliver military equipment for the Russians, the report said.

Ukraine claimed two more ships were damaged and a 3,000-ton fuel tank was destroyed when the Orsk was sunk, causing a fire that spread to nearby ammunition supplies.

Also Read  Vladimir Putin made 'big mistake' invading Ukraine, says NATO chief Jens Stolenberg

Sending a signal that Western sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market but allowed only limited trading to prevent mass sell-offs. Foreigners were barred from selling, and traders were prohibited from short selling, or betting prices would fall.

Millions of people in Ukraine have made their way out of the country, some pushed to the limit after trying to stay and cope.

At the central station in the western city of Lviv, a teenage girl stood in the doorway of a waiting train, a white pet rabbit shivering in her arms. She was on her way to join her mother and then go on to Poland or Germany. She had been travelling alone, leaving other family members behind in Dnipro.

At the beginning, I didn't want to leave, she said. Now I'm scared for my life.

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The United States and its NATO allies are discussing sending anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, a senior US official said Thursday, after Russian vessels attacked Kyiv's Black Sea ports.

"We have started consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine," the official told reporters as a NATO summit got under way in Brussels.

"There may be some technical challenges with making that happen, but that is something that we are consulting with allies and starting to work on."

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The United States will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the country's parliament and the central bank's gold reserves, the White House announced Thursday.

At the same time, Washington will increase its humanitarian assistance by welcoming 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and providing an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

The White House announced the initiatives as US President Joe Biden and world leaders gathered in Brussels for a trio of summits in response to the Russian invasion, seeking new ways to limit the economic and security fallout from the conflict.

Also Read | Ukrainian refugees speak of bombs, half-empty cities, hunger

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the day's first meeting, an emergency NATO summit, where he called for military assistance without limitations".

He pleaded for anti-air and anti-ship weapons, asking is it possible to survive in such a war without this?

It feels like we're in a grey area, between the West and Russia, defending our common values, Zelenskyy said during the video address. This is the scariest thing during a war  not to have clear answers to requests for help!

A US official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations are discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.

Also Read  Russia curbs Instagram over 'death to invaders' posting rule

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg opened the closed-door summit with a sober warning that the alliance must boost its defences and respond to a new security reality in Europe.

We gather at a critical time for our security, he said, addressing the leaders seated at a large round table. We are united in condemning the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Stoltenberg said the alliance is determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war.

In addition to the NATO summit, Brussels is also hosting separate summits of the Group of Seven industrialised nations and if the European Union. Biden is attending all three meetings and will hold a news conference afterward.

Also read: Walls, dreams and genocide: Zelenskyy invokes history to rally support

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there's wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.

The bolstering of forces along NATO's eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will also put pressure on national budgets.

We need to do more, and therefore we need to invest more. There is a new sense of urgency and I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments in defense, Stoltenberg said before the summit.

Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the US wants to hear "that the resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.

Also Read | Why isn't the US accepting more Ukrainian refugees?

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek US help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession," Scholz said Wednesday.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be looking for clarity on how the United States and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiralling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Also Read  Peace talks more 'realistic', says Ukraine president; Biden to visit NATO

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where both issues are expected to be at the centre of talks with President Andrzej Duda. Another significant moment could come shortly before Biden returns to Washington on Saturday.

The White House said he plans to deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.

Sullivan said Biden and fellow leaders would aim to set out a longer-term game plan for what forces and capabilities are going to be required for the alliance's eastern flank countries.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Also Read | Deadly blasts rattle Kyiv; talks with Russia to resume

All the while, national security officials from Washington to Warsaw are increasingly worried that Putin might deploy chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry. Sullivan said the allies would consult on how to respond to potential contingencies of that sort.

Biden said this week that the possibility of chemical weapons use by Russia was a real threat.

Stoltenberg declined Thursday to discuss whether such a strike is a red line that would draw the alliance into war with Russia. I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect and to react to any type of attack on a NATO-allied country, he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a CNN interview this week said that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there was an existential threat for our country.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive arm, said before Biden's visit that she wants to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc for the next two winters.

Also Read | Over 1.7 million Ukraine refugees in Poland, says UN

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.

Sullivan said the United States was looking for ways to surge LNG supplies to Europe to help.

One new sanctions option that Biden is weighing is to target members of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The new sanctions would be rolled out in coordination with Western allies.

Biden arrived in Brussels with Americans increasingly accepting of the need for the US to help stop Putin, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.

But even as a concern among Americans has swelled and support for a major US role in the conflict strengthened in the last month, Biden's negative approval rating has not budged, the AP-NORC poll found. Few are very confident that he can handle a crisis, and a majority thinks he lacks toughness in dealing with Russia.

Biden promised voters that he had the experience to navigate a complicated international emergency like the one unfolding in Europe and his trip will be the latest test of that proposition.

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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making a "big mistake" by invading Ukraine, as leaders gathered to discuss overhauling the alliance's eastern defences.

"President Putin has made a big mistake and that is to launch a war against an independent sovereign nation. He has underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, the bravery of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces," Stoltenberg said ahead of the start of a summit in Brussels.

Stoltenberg said the leaders of the US-led military alliance would "address the need for a reset of our deterrence and defence in the longer term", starting with agreeing new deployments to eastern members Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

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Speaking on the eve of the NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the alliance to provide effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.

We ask that the alliance declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war, clear our territory of the invaders and restore peace in Ukraine, he said late Wednesday during his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy will speak to the NATO summit by video, the president's office said.

He appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face what he says are Russia's efforts to lobby its interests with some partners to bring them over to its side.

We will see who is a friend, who is a partner and who has sold out and betrayed us, he said in an emotional speech.

Also read: Russia's military hit by high-ranking losses in Ukraine

Together we should not allow Russia to break anyone in NATO, the EU or G-7, to break them and drag them to the side of war.

Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainian skies are still not closed to Russian aircraft and missiles and that Ukraine hasn't received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth, he said. We have lasted six times longer than the enemy had planned  but the Russian troops are destroying our cities, killing civilians indiscriminately, raping women, kidnapping children, shooting refugees, capturing aid columns and looting.

Switching to Russian, Zelenskyy appealed to Russians to leave Russia so as not to give your tax money to the war. Tens of thousands of Russians already have fled Russia since the war began, fearing the intensifying crackdown at home.

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An 80-year-old wheelchair-bound woman from Nagaland was on Thursday allegedly strip-searched during the security check at the airport here, while the authorities said she was asked to go through a mandatory screening as a metal plate was attached to her hip bone.

The elderly woman's daughter Dolly Kikon said that her mother who had undergone hip replacement surgery last year was on her way to Delhi from here and was accompanied by her granddaughter.

After metal detectors triggered an alarm, a security woman of the CISF at Lokopriyo Gopinath International Airport allegedly asked the elderly woman to take off her clothes, including her undergarments, even after the lady repeatedly said that she had a hip implant.

Dolly claimed that her niece who was accompanying the octogenarian had filled up a complaint form but the CISF personnel took it away, claiming that it was not allowed.

A spokesperson of the Guwahati airport told PTI that the passenger with reduced mobility was requested to go through the mandatory security screening but as she had a metal plate attached to her hip bone, the CISF team asked her to go for further checks.

"The authorities politely explained to the passenger about the mandatory security protocol and the matter was sorted out. The octogenarian passenger was initially irritated but later she understood the matter and left for her destination in a happy mood," she said.

"We place the safety and security of all our passengers as a topmost priority", the spokesperson added.

Repeated calls by PTI to the CISF commandant posted at the airport were not answered.

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In the Upper House, Jaishankar clarifies India's stand on Ukraine war. "India stands for peace," he said in Rajya Sabha. He added that the PM is keeping a close on Ukraine developments. Lok Sabha passed demands for grants for 2022-23 after applying guillotine.
Some of the best years of my life  I miss those people.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi late in the evening on Thursdaya day after the Government of India reacted strongly to a comment he made in Islamabad to endorse the stand of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in support of the secessionist movement in Jammu and Kashmir.

With the soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army still engaged in a stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh, Wang received a rather cold welcome on his arrival in New Delhi. He flew in from Kabul after a meeting with Amir Khan Muttaqi, his counterpart in the regime the Taliban set up after returning to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi maintained silence on the Chinese Foreign Minister's visit to Indiathe first by any senior Chinese Government official after the stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) started in April-May 2020. Contrary to the usual practice, no official photograph of him being received by the officials of the Government of India at the airport was released by the MEA, which also did not issue the routine media advisory about his engagements in New Delhi.

A source in New Delhi, however, said that he would have a meeting with his counterpart External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday. He would also have a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Wang and Doval are the special representatives of the governments of India and China for negotiations to resolve the dispute over the boundary between the two nations. The negotiations, however, remained suspended since the stand-off started along the LAC and the violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020, resulted in the death of 20 Indian Army personnel and at least four Chinese PLA soldiers.

Though the Embassy of China in New Delhi has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has not yet been confirmed.

Wang on Wednesday attended a meeting of the OIC hosted by the Government of Pakistan. He made a remark endorsing the OIC's support for the movement for right to self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi strongly reacted to his statement, with the MEA spokesperson underlining that matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were entirely the internal affairs of India and China or any other countries had no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India.

India also reminded China that it refrained from public judgement of internal issues of other nations.

Wang's visit to New Delhi is apparently intended to restore some degree of normalcy in bilateral relations so that Beijing could invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China later this year to attend the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit to be hosted by the communist country's president Xi Jinping.

New Delhi, however, has been persistently maintaining that it could not be business as usual in India-China relations as long as the Chinese PLA would not withdraw front-line troops from the remaining face-off points along the LAC and start a discussion with India for de-escalation from border areas.

Protracted negotiations between India and China had resulted in deals for disengagement of troops from Galwan Valley in June 2020, from both banks of Pangong Tso in February 2021 and from Gogra Post in August 2021. The stand-off, however, could not be resolved in other places along the LAC. The 15th round of negotiations between the military commanders of the two nations earlier this month failed to yield the much-expected deal for mutual withdrawal of troops from Hot Springs or Patrol Point 15 in eastern Ladakh.

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Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Thursday paid tributes to former Chief Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, who died at a hospital on Wednesday evening. He was 81-year-old.

Before the start of the proceedings, the Chief Justice said, "His passing away is a jolt to the entire legal fraternity. Justice Lahoti will always be remembered as a fearless and independent judge."

Justice Ramana said he extends his deepest condolences to the family and friends on behalf of his brother and sister judges in this hour. He said that a full court reference will be held later.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave also expressed his condolences on behalf of the Bar. Dave said Justice Lahoti was one of the finest Chief Justices. The Chief Justice courtroom observed a minute's silence as a sign of respect to Justice Lahoti.

Justice Lahoti was born on November 1, 1940 at Guna in Madhya Pradesh. He was enrolled as a lawyer in 1962. In April, 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar and appointed as a district and sessions judge in Madhya Pradesh.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court on December 9, 1998 and took over as the Chief Justice of India on June 1, 2004 and retired in November 2005.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condoled the death of Justice Lahoti. "Anguished by the passing away of former CJI Shri R C Lahoti Ji. He will be remembered for his contributions to the judiciary and emphasis on ensuring speedy justice to the underprivileged. Condolences to his family and well-wishers," he tweeted.

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju also paid tribute to Justice Lahoti. He tweeted, "Saddened to hear the passing away of Shri R C Lahoti, former Chief Justice of India. He rose from a humble background and reached the highest position of our country's judiciary because of his ability, knowledge and wisdom. I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family".
As the fuel prices rose for the second consecutive day, the Opposition on Wednesday stepped up their protest inside and outside Parliament against the decision with the Congress holding a protest near Gandhi Statue in Parliament House complex.

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Assam government on Thursday said that it would soon move the Supreme Court seeking a directive to the Centre to offer Aadhaar cards to over 27 lakh residents in the state whose biometrics were collected during the process to update the NRC.

Biometric details of over 27 lakh people were collected during claims and objections period of the NRC exercise in 2019, as per an SoP approved by the Supreme Court but they have not been given the Aadhaar cards yet as their names have not been included in the NRC list.

Also Read | No decision yet on countrywide NRC, says Union Minister Nityanand Rai in Lok Sabha

"Today we held a meeting with representatives of 27 organisations, who helped during the NRC exercise. All of them expressed concern over the non-issuance of the Aadhaar cards to such a large number of people and the problems they are facing in availing benefits of various government schemes due to the lack of Aadhaar cards. They suggested that since the Aadhaar card is not a citizenship document, these people should be provided with the Aadhaar cards. So the government will soon submit an affidavit to the Supreme Court seeking a directive in this regard," senior minister in Assam government, Atul Bora told reporters in Guwahati after the meeting on Thursday.

The state government on March 21 told the State Assembly that since the Register General of India (RGI) has not yet published the final list of the NRC, the process to provide Aadhaar cards to those left out of the draft NRC remained on hold as per the SoP approved by the Supreme Court. So a clearance of the Supreme Court is required for issuing cards to these people.

Also Read | Assam: Aadhaar card eludes NRC rejects more than two years after biometric collection

DH in December last year highlighted how much people were suffering due to lack of Aadhar card as Aadhaar cards has been made mandatory even in opening a bank account, ration card or applying for a house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Over 19.06 lakh applicants in Assam were left out of the updated list of the NRC, which was prepared under the Supreme Court's monitoring in order to solve Assam's long foreigner problem.

March 24, 1971, was the cut-off date for the NRC exercise. The process to clear their names is on hold since the updated list of the NRC was published by the RGI in August 2019.

The BJP-led government in Assam moved the Supreme Court seeking re-verification of 20% applications in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in the rest of the districts. It argued that the final list of the NRC was not properly done and many foreigners made it to the list while genuine citizens were left out. The government has said that the process to clear the names of those left out of the NRC list would depend on the Supreme Court's further order.

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The shocking violence in West Bengal's Birbhum district, which resulted in the deaths of eight people, has stirred a political pot in the state between the BJP and the ruling TMC government.

As the three parties engage in mudslinging over the conflict, here are 10 things to know about the violence:

1. Eight people were burnt alive by a mob at a village in Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday in what was believed to be retaliation to the murder of an up-pradhan (deputy chief) of a Trinamool-regulated panchayat in a West Bengal village in Rampurhat, located over 200 km from Kolkata. The blaze killed eight people including three women and two children.

2. Blaming criminals allegedly affiliated to the ruling TMC in West Bengal for the deaths, the BJP has demanded a CBI probe into the matter and a delegation of its state leaders also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention.

3. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asked the West Bengal government to ensure the safety and security of the common people, and it has sought a report on the matter, officials in the ministry said.

4. At least 20 people have been arrested so far in connection with the violence, a senior police officer said. The West Bengal government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director General (CID) Gyanwant Singh, to probe the incident.

5. Prime Minister Narendra described the killings as heinous, and said the culprits should not be forgiven. Speaking at a virtual event to inaugurate a gallery dedicated to freedom fighters at the Victoria Memorial, Modi said the central government is willing to help the state in any way required in bringing perpetrators to justice.

6. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar fired salvos at CM Mamata Banerjee over the Birbhum killings as he shot off yet another letter to her, claiming that the state governments actions in the matter smack of "political overtones" and an attempt to shield the guilty.

7. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be going to violence-hit Birbhum district on Thursday to take stock of the situation. She said she postponed her visit as "other political parties were huddling there". A five-member BJP committee constituted by BJP president J P Nadda, which includes four MPs, will also visit the village on Thursday.

8. The Calcutta High Court has directed CFSL Delhi to immediately collect necessary materials for forensic examination at Bogtui village in Birbhum. The court asked the state government to file a report in the case before it by 2 pm on Thursday when the matter will be taken up for hearing again.

9. The Opposition BJP on Wednesday demanded Mamata Banerjees resignation over the incident, alleging that attempts were being made to shield the culprits.

10. Meanwhile, the state government has removed the officer-in-charge of the local police station, a Sub-Divisional Police chief, a senior officer of the detective department as well as a district information officer of Birbhum besides 12 civic volunteers.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe into all cases lodged against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh by the Maharashtra Police to "bring out the truth" following a "murky churning in battle royale" between him and then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

In a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray after his transfer, Singh alleged Deshmukh had indulged in "malpractices" and asked for suspended Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month.

Deshmukh is currently in jail in cases lodged by the Enforcement Directorate and Singh faced a number of criminal cases, besides disciplinary action.

Also Read | SC calls Param Bir Singh-Maharashtra legal battle 'messy state of affairs, very unfortunate'

Acting on a plea by the 1988-batch IPS officer, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh said the CBI must hold an impartial probe in all the aspects of the matter and examine whether the allegations in the FIRs have any truth or not.

The top court directed the Maharashtra Police to hand over the cases including five FIRs and two preliminary enquiries, to the CBI within a week and render all assistance to the central agency in its probe into the cases against Singh.

Calling the legal clash between Singh and Deshmukh a "battle royale", the bench said an impartial probe into the matter was required.

However, the court clarified that it is not revoking Singh's suspension. It also said, if there were any FIRs registered against Singh in future, then that will also be transferred to the CBI.

"We are not saying the appellant is a whistle-blower or anyone involved in this case is washed with milk," the bench said.

Also read: ACB records Param Bir Singh's statement in open enquiry case

"The objective is to gain people's confidence into the police and this is not a reflection on Maharashtra Police. The troubling situation arising at the higher echelons has been presented before us," the bench added.

Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing the Maharashtra government, vehemently argued that cases should not be transferred to the CBI, as it will be very demoralising for the state police.

During the hearing, the bench said, "The murky churning from battle royale between then Home Minister and the then Police Commissioner has given rise to these unfortunate proceedings."

Senior advocate Puneet Bali, appearing for Singh, submitted that CBI should probe all the cases registered against his client, and not the state police on which he does not have faith, even though he headed it once.

Singh had approached the top court against the Bombay High Court judgment passed on September 16, 2021, dismissing his plea challenging the two inquiries ordered by the Home Ministry for allegedly violating service rules and corruption charges, as non-maintainable.

The court had earlier on November 22, 2021, granted protection from arrest to Singh in the cases.

He alleged cases were lodged against him by "extortionists and bookies" who faced action by him in 2015, and 2016.

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India on Thursday dismissed criticism from the United States and the United Kingdom for continuing to buy crude oil from Russia, pointing out that many other nations kept on importing hydrocarbon from President Vladimir Putin's country in much larger quantities than it did.

Though the US and several other western nations imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its military operations in Ukraine, India is exploring options to continue its trade with the former Soviet Union nation, bypassing restrictions on payment.

I would like to take this opportunity to inform the House that we import very little oil from Russia. It is less than 1 per cent of our imports, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha, adding: Many other countries import 10, 15 to 20 times the amount of oil that we do import (from Russia).

Also Read | Petroleum Minister defends govt in Lok Sabha over fuel price hike

Jaishankar was replying to supplementary queries from the Rajya Sabha members after replying to a question from India's position in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

So, I share the honourable member's observation on this matter, the External Affairs Minister said when Naresh Gujral of the Shiromani Akali Dal accused the western nations of 'playing a double game'. Entire Europe is importing petroleum from there (Russia) and they lecture us that we should not trade with them (Russia).

Because of the emerging problems in dealing with Russia (due to sanctions imposed by the US and other western nations), (the) Government is examining various aspects including the payment aspect, the External Affairs Minister said.

There is a group within the Government composed of (representatives of) different ministries. It is led by (the) finance ministry to examine these matters," he added.

New Delhi and Moscow are exploring payment in national currencies, Rupee and Ruble, to continue bilateral trade, as the sanctions by the US and other western nations made it difficult to make transactions.

For latest updates on Parliament proceedings, click here

India still relies heavily on Russia for its military hardware, including ammunition, given the long-standing defence cooperation between the two nations.

"Our position is not that, this is not our problem. Our position is that we are for peace. When the Prime Minister spoke to Presidents (of Russia and Ukraine), the intent obviously at that time was the evacuation of students..but there was a larger conversation on what we could do which lead to the cessation of hostilities and return of dialogue and diplomacy. I think today that sentiment is widely shared by many countries. We have articulated it very strongly".

With Moscow offering crude oil to New Delhi at a discounted price, India has already planned to buy about 15 million barrels of crude oil from sanctions-hit Russia at a discounted price over the next few weeks, notwithstanding criticism in the US and the UK. The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) already made a move to buy as much as 3 million barrels of crude oil from Russia immediately.

New Delhi took note of the fact that Russia was exporting oil and gas to various countries across the world, particularly Europe. It noted that 75 per cent of Russias total natural gas exports was to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Europe (like Germany, Italy, France). The European countries like the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Romania were also large importers of Russian crude oil.

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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday met the kin of those who were killed in Bagtui village, Rampurhat, in the Birbhum district.

"You have lost a family member, but I am heart-broken," Mamata told the kin of Rampurhat carnage victims.

She handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of those killed in the violence. She said that financial aid of Rs 2 lakh will be given for reconstructing of affected houses.

"Families of the 10 people who died in fire will be given a job and Rs 5 lakh," she added.

Also Read  Birbhum victims badly beaten up before being burnt alive: Autopsy report

Meanwhile, Congress delegates including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury enroute violence-hit Bagtui village in the Birbhum district were stopped at Santiniketan, according to ANI.

Congress delegates including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stopped at Santiniketan in Birbhum district West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee will visit the area in view of violence that killed about 8 people. pic.twitter.com/Gs1GQiwazg  ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2022

Eight people, including three women and two children, were burnt alive in Bogtui village in West Bengal's Birbhum district. Their post-mortem examination has revealed that they were badly beaten up before the carnage.

As per preliminary findings of the forensic experts, who conducted the tests on the charred bodies found inside the houses that were allegedly set on fire by unidentified people early on Tuesday, the victims were first badly beaten up and then burnt alive, an official told PTI from Rampurhat hospital.

At least 20 people have been arrested so far in connection with the incident, suspected to have been triggered by the killing of a local TMC leader on Monday evening, and several police personnel and civic volunteers removed on grounds of negligence.

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Washington benefits from Ukraines misfortune

By Global Times editorial (Global Times) 08:54, March 24, 2022

Milking the crisis Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

By March 24, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has lasted one month. All peace-loving people in the world hope that this bloody conflict, which could have been avoided, could end soon. However, the US and NATO, which hold the key to resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have made no practical moves to end the war. Instead, they are still intensifying contradictions and escalating confrontation, creating obstacles for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden left for Europe on Wednesday, where he will attend the NATO summit, the G7 summit and the European Council meeting. According to media reports, Biden will work with European allies to coordinate next-stage military assistance to Ukraine and will announce a new round of sanctions against Russia. On the one-month mark of the conflict, Biden carried out his intensive diplomatic offensive in Europe, yet nothing on his agenda is not about adding fuel to the fire.

When touching upon Biden's European trip, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that there will be hard days ahead in Ukraine as "this war will not end easily or rapidly." This is not so much a "judgment" by the US, but a carefully guided direction by Washington. Washington wishes the war will not end, so it can maximize the use of the conflict to gain geopolitical value from it. In other words, it is seeking to benefit from Ukraine's misfortune.

Because of this, the US and Europe may seem to appear close, but their substantive differences are deepening. While Washington is obsessed with delaying Russia-Ukraine negotiations, Europe wants security and stability. There are emerging anti-war voices in Europe, and these voices include disapproval toward Washington's arms delivery to Ukraine. More and more Europeans realize that blindly sending arms to Ukraine is heading toward the opposite direction of the security goals they pursue. In addition, the result of long-term extreme sanctions must be that the US gets rich, Europe pays the bill and Ukraine bleeds. Washington can't hide these petty ideas.

Also because of this, Biden has to "stabilize" Europe when it has wavering intentions. It is not difficult to imagine that Washington will pull out the "transatlantic friendship," "democratic alliance," and other small cards from its pockets and distribute them to friends as passes to the world VIP club, using the illusory "honor" to extract high "dues." Washington also exerts strong pressure on neutral countries that "don't join the club," criticizing India for being "shaky" on one hand and sensationalizing China's "threat" to peace on the other. Isn't this a typical mafia approach?

As the saying goes, "It is up to the doer to undo the knot." The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the result of the intensification of the conflict between the US and Russia, and the key to the problem lies in the hands of the US. If Washington really wants the "hard days" of the Ukrainian people not to continue, then why did it choose to "coordinate" with Europe to send weapons to Ukraine and sanction Russia, and refused to talk directly with Russia? The answer is clear: the US does not want real peace talks. That's why one can see such an absurd scenario: despite knowing where the way out is for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Washington is still desperately wiping the sign which says "No Thoroughfare" at the end of a blind alley.

Washington has been good at putting on the show - promoting hegemony under the guise of "democracy," and making a fortune from war in the name of "peace." Yet it does not mean such an approach will never be outdated. Over time, people will eventually see through it. The evolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will prove Washington's nature as a warmonger.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Over three million people have now fled Ukraine since Russias invasion on 24 February, with the UN declaring the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. There has been an outpouring of sympathy for those fleeing war from millions of people. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have even offered to open up their homes to those displaced. But the generosity of the governments of the West reeks of hypocrisy.

The EU border force, Frontex, drew an iron ring around the EU in recent years, allowing thousands of refugees fleeing imperialist wars in the Middle East to drown in the Mediterranean. They have paid Erdogan to stuff refugees into squalid camps, and have fired tear gas to repulse African refugees trying to enter the Spanish territory of Ceuta. Meanwhile, the Biden administration still routinely separates children from their parents at the Mexican border. The relatively accommodating approach to Ukrainian refugees we see today is not based on humanitarianism. It is a cynical move to shore up public opinion behind western imperialism, against Russia.

Moreover, the treatment of Ukrainian refugees has been not nearly as generous as the western ruling classes would have us believe. While some countries have taken in large numbers, others have accepted a bare handful, despite these imperialist reptiles being chiefly responsible for the Ukraine war to begin with. We reject their crocodile tears and say: down with borders, down with war, down with imperialism, down with capitalism!

Hypocrisy

The EU says it is prepared to grant Ukranians a blanket right to stay, study and work throughout its 27 nations for up to three years. Obviously, Marxists believe all refugees (not only from Ukraine, but everywhere ravaged by capitalist crisis and war) should receive the maximum level of solidarity and support. But it is galling when such provisions arise from the same Fortress Europe that spent millions over the past decade on brutally repelling refugees from its borders.

By making border crossings as difficult and dangerous as possible, the EUs border policies have led to thousands of deaths. As recently as 2020, a 91 million contract was awarded to an arms company to build drones which feed back to the HQ of the EUs border force, Frontex. The drones focus on the Libyan search and rescue zone, allowing coastguards to perform violent push-backs against boats trying to cross the Mediterranean, blocking refugees from Europes shores. Meanwhile, anyone who succeeds in making the journey can be assured of facing poverty, unemployment and legal persecution on arrival.

By making border crossings as difficult and dangerous as possible, the EUs border policies have led to thousands of deaths / Image: Sandor Csudai

The vast majority of Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Poland (about 1.7 million), although many have also travelled to Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova, Germany, France, Ireland and elsewhere. The Polish government pledged to set up an 8bn zoty (1.34bn) fund for people fleeing the war, including a one-off payment of 300 zoty (50) for each refugee. But only a matter of months ago, the country was locked in a geopolitical spat with Belarusian President Lukashenko, with thousands of desperate refugees from Iraq, Syria and Africa trapped in the middle.

These huddled masses were directed to the Poland-Belarus and Lithuania-Belarus borders by Lukashenko in retaliation against EU sanctions. Unable to return to Belarus, they were repulsed by troops at the EUs border. With nowhere else to go, at least 19 refugees died in the freezing forests of no-mans land. Far from seeing these refugees as human beings who needed assistance, the Lithuanian Prime Minister described them as weapons in a hybrid attack against their country.

Poland has since escalated its border control measures, approving a 300 million wall with thermal cameras and motion sensors, blocking aid groups, and deploying troops to repulse refugees. The British government, which now cries crocodile tears for the fate of Ukrainian refugees, even sent members of the army over to help Poland reinforce its border.

We saw a similar volte-face from Greece, which acted quickly to send blankets, tents and face-masks for Ukrainian refugees. Up until now, the right-wing New Democracy of Greece government served as a loyal gendarme of Europes borders. A report published just last week by the UN exposed the violent human rights abuses that refugees face along the Greek land and sea border: with men, women and children being forced into the water, or stripped and pushed back in harsh weather conditions.

The European Commission has poured 700 million into constructing refugee camps (effectively prisons) on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Then there was the EU-Turkey agreement concerning refugees in 2016, in which the EU paid the reactionary Erdogan regime 6 billion to ensure that refugees arriving in Greece were returned to Turkey. There, they were subject to brutal treatment and kept in camps in conditions of squalor.

And this month, literally at the same time as the Spanish government was issuing welcoming words to Ukrainian refugees, a video emerged of migrants from North Africa being brutally beaten by Spanish border guards. In response to these images, the Spanish government said that Spains armed forces acted within a legal framework and with a criteria of appropriateness and proportionality.

Meanwhile in Europe's southern border Spanish police brutally beats up refugees trying to cross over pic.twitter.com/wJJYqhIuTI  Jorge Martin (@marxistJorge) March 6, 2022

Stirring up racism

The ruling classes of Europe have never shied from stirring up reactionary, anti-refugee rhetoric in the past, to distract the working class from the real criminals at home. Refugees were accused of driving down wages, draining public finances, taking up hospital beds and housing, etc. Consider French President Emmanuel Macron, who referred to refugees fleeing from the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan last year as potential illegal threats, adding that France would only welcome refugees who share our values.

Of course, the hypocritical double-standards of the European ruling classes in Europe by no means suggests that they are going to cease whipping up racism against refugees in the future. As Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, put it: These are not the refugees we are used to these people are Europeans. 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

These racist attitudes, which proved politically convenient in the past, also extend to non-European migrants from Ukraine! Many black and Arab people have reported being actively pushed back from borders, with videos on social media under the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine showing refugees being prevented from boarding trains out of the country, and told that only Ukranians are allowed on board.

Dont imagine that this is just a few racist train guards. As the Ukrainian ambassador, Vadym Prystaiko, made clear when attempting to justify racial segregation at the countrys borders, this is a government policy with overt racist overtones:

Problems arise when young foreigners are prioritised over women and children of Ukrainian citizenship who are trying to get on the same trains. Maybe we will put all foreigners in some other place so they wont be visible and there wont be conflict with Ukrainians trying to flee in the same direction. This is something that has to be taken care of and we will be doing it.

Despite the glowing coverage in the West, this is the real character of Zelenskeys government.

Not even the pretence of generosity

Meanwhile, some western governments are barely maintaining a pretence of generosity. The USA, for example, despite being chiefly to blame for provoking this conflict, has accepted only a few hundred Ukrainian refugees so far. But nobody can compete with the British ruling class repulsive two-facedness. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has claimed, I want to send a very strong message that the United Kingdom welcomes refugees. Yet this strong message is a pathetic sham.

The ruling Conservative government has consistently strived to whip up a hostile environment of discrimination and harrassment towards refugees. And now, it is not even meeting the hypocritical standards met by their European counterparts. Thousands of Ukrainians have been sent away from the border barrier in Calais, or are stuck at visa centres across Europe. The only way for Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK is through sponsorship by an individual or business, or a Ukraine Family Scheme, where refugees with passports can apply for visas if they have settled family in the UK.

1/2 The UK government told Ukrainian refugees to board a Eurostar train from Calais to Lille where their visa application would be processed (the surged team at Calais only give out ready salted crisps). Small detail is ... that train does NOT exist. And that's not the worst ... pic.twitter.com/5HTjevHYnj  Jorge Martin (@marxistJorge) March 10, 2022

The latest concession is a second visa scheme called Homes for Ukraine, where the Tories will pay individuals or charities 350 per month to host Ukrainian refugees. What this means in practice is the government is cutting corners for housing refugees by shunting the responsibility to ordinary citizens, announcing: if people want to welcome [them] into their own homes, they can do so.

And how do refugees obtain these visas in the first place? Through the UKs bespoke humanitarian routes to UK visa centres in Europe, of which there are only one or two in each EU country. These centres  run privately by TSLContact  do not offer free appointments. Instead, they offer a range of additional services such as 90 for document scanning and 60 for a flexible appointment.

The CEO of TSLContacts parent company made the nauseating boast that they had hit new growth records in 2021, with a 25 percent increase in revenue to 7.1 billion. In other words, they are profiting from the exploitation of migrants, who in desperation to flee a destructive war, are forced to fork out extortionate fees for a visa. Yet this is business as usual for former Home Secretary Priti Patel, who has made clear her priority is not to provide a safe haven to refugees and waive all visa requirements, but to protect the security of the United Kingdom precisely by expanding these offshore hubs for visa processing.

The Byzantine nature of the visa application process means that, despite over 100,000 British households offering to provide shelter to refugees, only a fraction are likely to be approved to stay. The Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer has called for uncapped numbers of refugees, yet in practice it is throwing its weight behind the ruling class, demanding emergency protection visas which can be given en route to the sanctuary of Great Britain. In other words, leaving thousands of refugees to fend for themselves at the mercy of exploitative visa processing hubs, in just the manner the Tories propose. So, while British imperialism has tried to score cheap points, it hasnt even met the low bar of its European counterparts.

Only a matter of months ago, when thousands were fleeing wars launched by western imperialism, the ruling class said their countries were full. Now millions of Ukrainians have been displaced by a Russian invasion, hey presto! It turns out the means exist to welcome them.

This latest refugee crisis  like crises that preceded it and others that are ongoing but less well publicised  is yet another product of imperialism. Millions of Ukrainians are fleeing an inter-imperialist war provoked in the last instance by the constant eastward advancement of NATO, and the policies of the western-backed, reactionary Maidan regime, as well as by Russian imperialism. At the same time, these governments are funnelling huge quantities of weapons to Ukraine as part of their proxy war with Russia, in their efforts to draw out the bloodshed. While the ruling class might like to present themselves as saviours to Ukrainian refugees, they are actually part of the reason these people were forced to flee to begin with. It is their bloody system that is to blame for the catastrophes that are wreaking havoc across the world.

As night follows day, the ruling classes of Europe will throw Ukrainian migrants under the bus when their purpose has been served. After all, we saw how the ruling class in Germany welcomed refugees in 2015  in part reflecting the pressure of ordinary Germans to show solidarity with those fleeing war; and in part as a source of cheap labour  and how the same ruling class has whipped up anti-refugee sentiment to suit its political needs since then.

We must denounce the hypocrisy of the ruling classes of Europe and demand the same treatment for all refugees fleeing poverty and wars caused by imperialism. Human beings forced to leave their homes should be given accommodation, jobs and security. They will tell us there are not enough homes for all, not enough jobs for all, that theres no money to fund such programmes. But when it comes to funding wars, to investing in the Army, to bailing out capitalists, then money is quickly found. Weapons companies are profiting from the war, their shares skyrocketing in the stock exchange. We say, expropriate the arms industry, seize the profits of the capitalists so that we can provide decent jobs and housing for all.

If we are serious about showing solidarity with refugees, and in ending the reason refugees are forced to flee their homes, then we must carry through an international struggle against capitalism and for socialism.

Only by overthrowing this rotten capitalist system can we solve this crisis. It is only through building a socialist society without borders, war and imperialism that people will be able to move around the world peacefully and freely according to their need.

We must emblazon on our banner the words of the Communist Manifesto: workers of the world unite!
India, along with 12 other UN Security Council members, abstained from a resolution by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

The draft resolution by Russia was cosponsored by Syria, North Korea and Belarus. It failed to get adopted in the Council on Wednesday as it did not get the required nine yes votes to pass.

Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution while there were no countries voting against. India and the remaining Security Council members abstained.

Permanent and veto-welding Council member Russia had called for a vote in the 15-nation Security Council on its draft resolution that demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children are fully protected, calls for negotiated ceasefire for enabling safe, rapid, voluntary and unhindered evacuation of civilians, and underscores the need for the parties concerned to agree on humanitarian pauses to this end.

Also read: Russia's military hit by high-ranking losses in Ukraine

The Russian resolution, which makes no reference to its invasion of Ukraine, calls upon all parties concerned to allow safe and unhindered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine, including to foreign nationals without discrimination, and facilitate safe and unhindered access of humanitarian assistance to those in need in and around Ukraine, taking into account the particular needs of women, girls, men and boys, older persons and persons with disabilities.

While other Council members made statements after the vote on the resolution, India did not make any statement. India had previously abstained on two occasions in the Security Council and once in the General Assembly on resolutions on Russias invasion of Ukraine.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield tweeted that in a unified protest vote, 13 members of the Security Council abstained from Russias farcical resolution deflecting blame for the humanitarian crisis it has created in Ukraine.

In the Explanation of Vote, Thomas-Greenfield said it really is "unconscionable" that Russia would have the audacity to put forward a resolution asking the international community to solve a humanitarian crisis that Russia alone created.

"The United States intends to abstain on this text because, to state the obvious, Russia does not care about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, or the millions of lives and dreams the war has shattered. If they cared, they would stop fighting.

"Russia is the aggressor, the attacker, the invader - the sole party in Ukraine engaged in a campaign of brutality against the people of Ukraine - and they want us to pass a resolution that does not acknowledge their culpability, she said.

UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that her country will not vote for any resolution, either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, that does not recognise that Russia is the sole cause of this unfolding humanitarian catastrophe - and therefore key to ending it.

"Russias draft called for all parties to respect international humanitarian law. It ignored that Russia is committing war crimes. Russias draft called for the protection of civilians, including women and children. But it omitted that Russia is bombing maternity hospitals, schools and homes, Woodward said.

Also Read | Nine humanitarian corridors agreed for March 24: Ukraine

The Russian resolution in the Security Council was one of the three resolutions on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine that were put up before the UN General Assembly and the Security Council Wednesday.

The UN General Assembly resumed its 11th Emergency Special Session on Ukraine Wednesday and had two resolutions for consideration before it. The 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on the resolutions Thursday.

One UNGA resolution by Ukraine and its western allies on the Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by Russia against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects. It also demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel, journalists and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children, be fully protected.

It demands that the parties comply with their obligation to ensure the safe and unhindered humanitarian access of humanitarian personnel as well as their means of transport, supplies and equipment to those in need in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries.

The other rival resolution proposed by South Africa Humanitarian situation emanating out of the conflict in Ukraine makes no mention of Russia. It calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties in the conflict, and encourages political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means aimed at achieving lasting peace.

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India on Thursday said references made to it at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad were based on "falsehoods and misrepresentation".

The strong reaction by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came a day after the OIC at its foreign ministerial meeting in Pakistan criticised India for its policy on Kashmir.

"The statements and resolutions adopted at the meeting demonstrate both the irrelevance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation as a body and the role of Pakistan as its manipulator," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

Our response to media queries on references to India in the statements and resolutions adopted in the meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Pakistan:https://t.co/fnvdLYgLa5 pic.twitter.com/i4r3bIxWyh  Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) March 24, 2022

He was referring to media queries on references made to India in the resolutions adopted at the OIC meeting.

"References have been made to India that are based on falsehoods and misrepresentation. The absurdity of this body commenting on the treatment of minorities, that too at the instance of a serial violator of human rights like Pakistan, is so evident," Bagchi said.

"Nations and governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation," he said.

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India's position on the Ukraine conflict has been "steadfast and consistent" as it has been seeking immediate cessation of violence and calling for ending the crisis through talks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday.

In the context of the unfolding developments in Ukraine, India has been emphasising that the global order is anchored on international law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, he said.

Jaishankar was replying to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"India's position on the Ukraine conflict has been steadfast and consistent. We have expressed deep concern at the worsening situation and called for an immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities," he said.

Jaishankar's comments came in the backdrop of increasing disquiet in the West over India not criticising Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and abstaining from the votes at the UN Security Council to condemn the Russian aggression.

"In our conversations with global leaders at the highest levels, we have emphasised to all member States of the UN that the global order is anchored on international law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states," he said.

"Our position on the situation in Ukraine in various international fora and bodies reflects this reasoning," Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister said India, at the UN Security Council, has called for an urgent ceasefire and ensuring safe passage for stranded civilians.

"As conveyed in our statements at the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, we have urged an urgent ceasefire and ensuring safe passage for stranded civilians," Jaishankar said.

Also read: Centre says US, Russia ties 'stand on their own merit' despite Ukraine war

"We have also highlighted the humanitarian assistance extended by India to Ukraine and its neighbours at this hour of crisis," he added.

Jaishankar also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken with the leadership of Russia, Ukraine, and its neighbours as well other major world leaders since the unfolding of the crisis.

"He conveyed our considered view to all parties concerned that there is no other choice but the path of diplomacy and dialogue," Jaishankar said.

Modi spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 26 and again on March 7.

"In these conversations, the prime minister expressed deep concern about the ongoing conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis. The prime minister reiterated his call for immediate cessation of violence and noted that India has always stood for peaceful resolution of issues and direct dialogue between the two parties," Jaishankar said.

He said Modi also thanked the Ukrainian authorities for their facilitation in enabling more than 22,000 Indian citizens to return from Ukraine.

The external affairs minister also referred to Modi's phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, March 2 and March 7.

"President Putin briefed the prime minister on the status of negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian teams. The prime minister welcomed the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and expressed hope that they would lead to cessation of the conflict," Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister said Modi suggested that a direct conversation between President Putin and President Zelenskyy may greatly assist the ongoing peace efforts.

Jaishankar said the safety and security of Indians in Ukraine was the top priority for the government.

"Even before the hostilities began, the safety of Indian nationals in Ukraine was our top priority. Accordingly, the evacuation of Indian nationals was undertaken on a mission mode," he said.

"We were able to safely bring home 22,500 Indian citizens, including 147 foreign nationals belonging to 18 countries, from Ukraine since February," he added.

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The National Investigating Agency (NIA) will probe the murder of Harsh, a Bajrang Dal worker, in Shivamogga.

The NIA registered an FIR on Wednesday after the case was handed over by the Karnataka Police, sources in the government told DH.

Harsha Nagaraj alias Harsha Hindu (27), was hacked to death by a local gang with whose members he allegedly had a rivalry over local and religious issues. Ten people were arrested by the Shivamogga police in connection with the case.

Also Read | Karnataka govt announces Rs 25 lakh compensation to kin of slain Bajrang Dal activist

Karnataka Police had invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 against arrested persons.

Earlier, Union Minister for State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on February 22 sought a probe by the NIA.

Harsha was involved in organising support for the ban on hijab at colleges in Shivamogga district, police had said earlier.

Several BJP leaders also demanded an NIA probe alleging that there was a suspicion of a larger conspiracy behind the murder than a localized rivalry.

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Even as political opponents - the BJP, the Left and the Congress  continue to question the law and order situation in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday visited Bogtui village in Birbhum district, where eight people were allegedly burnt to death as retaliation to the killing of a Trinamool up-pradhan on Monday evening.

Mamata asked police to take strong and exemplary action, as she announced financial support for the members of affected families.

As a special investigation team probes, its being alleged that around eight houses were set on fire in retaliation to a Trinamool functionarys murder on Monday evening in a bombing.

Mamata termed the incident sad and instructed police officials to take stringent action, demanding punishment against those who failed to perform their duty - in the administration and the police. The state government also suspended Rampurhat SDPO Sayan Ahmad.

Also Read  Birbhum victims badly beaten up before being burnt alive: Autopsy report

The CM condemned the two incidents - the killing, and the subsequent fire. She asked for vigilant police picketing in the affected area and instructed that statewide searches be initiated for uncovering illegal arms. She ordered police to immediately arrest the local Trinamool block president (who was later arrested), unless he surrenders, as he didnt react to appeals of the locals who had asked for police help after the murder on the night of the incident.

Mamata announced financial aid for the affected families, and for re-building burnt houses. Cheques worth Rs 5 lakh were handed over to families who lost a member in the violence. An amount of Rs 2 lakh was offered for rebuilding the houses lost to fire. Besides, she also offered jobs to the members of the affected families.

Also Read | Birbhum killings reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps, Mamata is 'nirmam': BJP

Mamata added that police will probe all angles, whether the incident had involvement of locals or were their people who came from outside. The CM later visited the hospital at Rampurhat to see the injured undergoing treatment. Mamata had on Wednesday said that she had deferred her visit by a day, like other delegations (of the Left, and the BJP) were visiting.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress MP and state president, however, was obstructed on the way to the village. Congress representatives sat and protested. Adhir, on Wednesday, had written to President Ram Nath Kovind requesting him to invoke Article 355 in West Bengal. A BJP fact-finding team was also obstructed on the way to the site.

In New Delhi, a Trinamool delegation met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Trinamool has demanded that Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar be removed from his current office, questioning his performance. The party has claimed that the incident is not a political confrontation and the government will take strong action against the guilty.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh summons to TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, asking him to appear before it for questioning on March 29 in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal, officials said on Thursday.

The agency will continue to record the statement of Banerjee (34) in the case lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were questioned by ED officials for about eight hours here on Monday (March 21).

Also Read | BJP using central agencies to pursue vendetta politics, says TMC after ED grills Abhishek for 8 hrs

That was the second time he was questioned in the case. He was first grilled by ED officials in September last year.

Banerjee's role and links with the other accused in the case are being investigated, ED officials had said.

While leaving the ED office on Monday, the TMC leader told reporters that he was a "law-abiding citizen" and hence, had "cooperated" in the investigation.

He alleged that probe agencies such as the ED, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax department are being used by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to "scare the opposition and its political personalities".

Also read: ED questions Abhishek Banerjee in PMLA case

The last ED summons against Banerjee and his wife Rujira was issued after the Delhi High Court, on March 11, dismissed a plea moved by the couple, challenging the notices asking them to appear before the agency in Delhi instead of Kolkata.

Rujira was asked to appear before the agency here on Tuesday (March 22), but she did not turn up.

Banerjee had said his wife had to take care of their two-and-a-half-year-old kid and hence, was unable to travel to Delhi.

However, the ED can question her in Kolkata and she is "willing" to cooperate, he had said.

Also Read | TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, wife move SC against ED summons

The TMC leader also filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court on Monday, challenging the ED summonses asking the couple to appear before the agency in Delhi.

The ED lodged the case on the basis of a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore-rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.

Local coal operator Anup Majhi alias Lala is the prime suspect in the case.

The ED had claimed that Banerjee was a beneficiary of the funds obtained from this illegal trade.

The agency has so far made two arrests in the case. One of the arrested accused is Vikas Mishra, the brother of TMC's youth wing leader Vinay Mishra who is stated to have left the country and renounced his Indian citizenship.

The other arrested accused is former inspector in-charge of the Bankura police station Ashok Kumar Mishra.

The agency had claimed that documents seized by it show that "Majhi assisted in transferring substantial funds derived from the proceeds of crime to Abhishek Banerjee's close relatives (wife and sister-in-law) at London and Thailand".

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Social activist Medha Patkar on Thursday said that it is shocking that the Left Front, which has always stood for people's rights, is going ahead with the rail project that affects hundreds of people and threatens the ecology.

Addressing a protest meeting against the rail project in Thiruvananthapuram, Medha accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of not listening to people's woes. Mass struggles would resist any such anti-national projects, she said.

She also said that the development model of Kerala needs a change in the wake of the floods and natural calamities in recent years. Projects that affect the ecology and lead to natural resource exploitation should be avoided.

Also Read | Motive behind Pinarayi's K-Rail project is commission, alleges Congress

She added that the proposed 530-kilometre rail line would not be a viable project, as it aimed to benefit only the elite class and would do a disservice to the weaker sections.

She added that the Left Front government is going ahead with the project without looking into the economic, social, and democratic issues.

She said even as the Union railway minister recently stated that the Centre's nod for the project would be subject to economic feasibility studies, the Kerala chief minister was calling on Prime Minister Modi with the hope of getting a green signal as the Centre favours such major projects.

She also flayed that the Centre was not talking with the MPs from Kerala over the project.

Meanwhile, stiff protests against laying demarcation stones continued on Thursday in various parts of the state.

'CM house demarked'

The BJP has claimed that they had laid a demarcation stone at the chief minister's official residence in Thiruvananthapuram. The BJP also released video footage in this regard.

However, the police maintained that attempt to lay stone was made on the premises of an unoccupied house on the Cliff House compound where the chief minister and many ministers reside. Five BJP workers were arrested in this connection. Police higher-ups were looking into the matter as it involved a security breach.

As per the video footage, five-party workers could be seen scaling a compound wall, trying to lay a demarcation stone. The incident occurred when the chief minister held talks with the prime minister in Delhi.

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Continuing her deliberations within the party following the electoral debacle in five states, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of party General Secretaries and state and department in-charges on Saturday to discuss special membership drive, organisational elections and agitational programmes.

Separately, top party leader Rahul Gandhi will meet leaders from Haryana on Friday to discuss organisational issues, days after he met former state Chief Minister and a prominent G-23 leader Bhupinder Hooda. This is in continuation of Sonia's meetings with Himachal Pradesh leaders and those with MPs from various states.

Sonia's meeting with General Secretaries and in-charges comes as the party is heading for organisational elections and the membership drive ending on March 31.

Sources said Sonia will review the progress of the membership drive so far as well as re-starting nationwide agitations after a pause in the past three months due to Assembly elections to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

.@INCIndia president Sonia Gandhi to meet General Secretaries and party in-charges at AICC Headquarters on Mar 26 at 11 AM. The meeting to discuss special membership drive, organisational elections as well as planning agitational programmes @DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/AuFLJLs7Ku  Shemin (@shemin_joy) March 24, 2022

She had earlier constituted a committee under senior leader Digvijaya Singh to chalk out agitation plans and its first programme was a one-month long protest on price rise. The panel had then proposed a month-long agitation programme from January-end on unemployment but it could not take-off as leaders were busy with the elections.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of a demoralising electoral performance by the party and discontent within the party over the course it is taking. G-23 or change-seekers held a meeting after a Congress Working Committee deliberations and are understood to have sought an overhaul of the organisational structure.

Sonia has been holding a series of meetings since March 13, including discussions with G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari among others besides her meetings with MPs from various states, including Punjab where Congress lost power.

She also removed state presidents of the five states and set in motion an organisation revamp in those places by appointing five senior leaders to assess the results and suggest organisational changes, in what is interpreted as Sonia asserting her authority after a group of leaders attempted to rise in revolt.

Amid calls for overhauling the party, sources said Sonia has told G-23 leaders that she cannot go ahead with a complete overhaul as the organisation election is on the wings and the schedule has been announced. She is learnt to have given a patient hearing to the change-seekers on their worries about the terminal decline of the party and the reasons behind it.

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Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the BJP MLAs demanding 'The Kashmir Files' be made tax-free in Delhi should upload the movie on YouTube and make it free for all.

During his address in the Assembly, Kejriwal also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the movie for political gains.

Hitting back, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said that Kejriwal, by his remarks over the issue, has crossed all limits of political decency.

Also Read | Not just Kashmiri Pandits, Muslims, Sikhs also suffered in Kashmir: Yechury

The movie, based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley due to terrorism, has kicked up a political storm. It is being actively pushed by BJP-ruled states by either offering tax concessions or giving government employees special leave to watch it.

The Opposition has, however, termed the film one-sided and too violent.

Kejriwal said the BJP leaders were demanding to make 'The Kashmir Files' movie tax-free when Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal was speaking in the House on Wednesday.

"They (BJP) are demanding that the movie be declared tax-free in Delhi. Upload it on YouTube, the movie will become free and everyone will be able to watch it," he said in the Assembly.

Also Read | Kashmiri Pandit activist alleges harassment over remarks on 'The Kashmir Files'

Kejriwal slammed Prime Minister Modi, alleging that even after ruling the country for eight years he has to take the help of the movie for political gains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to the response to 'The Kashmir Files', had said the film has rattled the "entire ecosystem" which claims to be the torchbearer of freedom of expression but does not want the truth to be told.

Kejriwal, who is also the AAP national convener, further alleged that the entire BJP machinery was busy sticking posters of the movie across the country.

"Some people are earning crores in the name of Kashmiri Pandits and you (BJP) have been sticking posters of the film," he said in the House.

Also Read | Nation needs development files: KCR hits out at BJP's support for 'The Kashmir Files'

"Even Hitler gave jobs to his lackeys. What did he (Modi) give you? Kejriwal works even for you. If someone in your family is ill, Kejriwal provides you medicines, not Modi. Open your eyes, leave BJP and join AAP."

Reacting to Kejriwal's response to the BJP MLAs' demand, the party's Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta said that Kejriwal's response showed his insensitivity towards the pain of Kashmiri Pandits.

"The AAP had in the past supported the demand for a plebiscite by Kashmiri separatists. "So, appreciation fo 'The Kashmir Files' movie cannot be expected from him (Kejriwal)," he said.

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An aide of gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was shot dead in a suspected case of gang-war in the KN Katju area in Delhi's Rohini, police said.

A senior police official said that they got a call about the incident at around 10 p.m.

Initial inquiry revealed that the victim, identified as Shekhar Rana alias Sannata, a resident of Khera Village, was alone in his car when he was attacked by armed men on Wednesday night.

The assailants opened fire indiscriminately at his vehicle and fled the scene.

"Apparently two rounds have hit the victim as seen on the body. One wound is on the right rib and the other on the inner part of left thigh," the official added.

"The victim was rushed to BSA Hospital and later on referred to MAX Hospital Pitampura, where he succumbed to his injuries," the police official said.

A case has been lodged and manhunt is on to nab the assailants.

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Uttar Pradesh chief minister-designate Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday met BJP president J P Nadda to discuss the formation of government in the state.

The BJP, which stormed back to power in the crucial state, is scheduled to elect its legislative party leader on Thursday.

Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been appointed as the party's observer for government formation in the state.

It is certain that Adityanath will be retained as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh while the party has to take a call on the names of deputy chief ministers, sources said.

Several names have come up during discussions, including former chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who lost the assembly elections, Dinesh Sharma, Baby Rani Maurya, Brijesh Pathak, Swatantar Dev Singh and AK Sharma, they said.

Also read: Making Manipur drugs free, corruption free among '100 tasks in 100 days' plan of new BJP government

However, the sources suggested that the BJP may continue with Maurya as deputy chief minister.

Many in the party believe that the BJP will renominate Shrikant Sharma as minister while newly-elected MLA and former Enforcement Directorate officer Rajeshwar Singh may also be given a chance.

The oath taking ceremony of the Adityanath-led government will be held on Friday in a mega event at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ikana stadium in Lucknow.

It is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with several cabinet ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.

Personalities from different walks of life are also expected to be in attendance at the grand ceremony.

The BJP with its allies won 274 seats out of 403, becoming the first party in over three decades to form a government for a second consecutive time in the state.

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The imposition of stricter penalties did not deter vehicle users from breaking traffic rules as the number of road rage and rash driving cases increased in the country in 2021 compared to 2019.

The central government brought an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act in August 2019 to improve road safety and tighten traffic regulations such as issuance of driving licences and impose stricter penalties for violations. The new law came into force in September 2019 across the country.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari informed Lok Sabha that the total number of road rage and rash driving cases was 1.55 lakh in 2019 and it jumped to 1.83 lakh cases in 2020. In 2021 the number of cases increased to 2.15 lakh.

Also Read | Not more than one toll plaza within 60 kms: Gadkari

Gadkari said as per the government's centralised database documents, authorities have issued over 1.98 crore challans and Rs 1,898.73 crore fine collected from them for traffic violations across the country in the 2021 calendar year.

In 2019, a total of 1.36 lakh crore challans issued Rs 1531 crore fine collected from vehicle users.

Authorities have issued over 40 lakh challans and Rs 417 crore fine collected for traffic violations across the country between January 1 to March 15, 2022.

Gadkari said his ministry has formulated a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue of road safety, based on education, engineering (both of roads and vehicles), enforcement and emergency care.

The Minister also said that to create effective public awareness about road safety, the Road Transport Ministry undertakes various publicity measures and awareness campaigns on road safety through social media, electronic media, and print media. Further, the Ministry implements a road safety advocacy scheme to provide financial assistance to various agencies for administering Road Safety Advocacy.

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Undertaking his first foreign visit after assuming office, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday left for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to participate in the Dubai Expo and invite industrialists in Gulf country to invest more in the southern state.

Stalin, accompanied by a high-level delegation consisting of Industries Minister Thangam Thenarasu, Industries Secretary S Krishnan, and Guidance CEO Pooja Kulkarni, will inaugurate the Tamil Nadu pavilion at the Dubai Expo on March 25.

This is the first time Stalin is visiting a foreign country after assuming office as Chief Minister on May 7, 2021  his predecessor Edappadi K Palaniswami had undertaken a fortnight-long trip to the UK and US to garner investments to the state in 2019.

Officials said the Chief Minister will meet representatives from the industry and government in Dubai Abu Dhabi and invite them to Tamil Nadu. The chief minister has set an ambitious target of achieving a $1 trillion economy by 2030. This is the first such visit by him to personally meet potential investors and tell them about the benefits of investing in the state, a senior government official told DH.

The official said the state has received nearly 75,000 crores worth of investment after the DMK came to power last year and that the government was trying to get maximum investments from across the globe.

The state, apart from the traditional manufacturing sector, has identified electric vehicles and semiconductors as sunrise sectors. On semiconductors, Tamil Nadu wants to go big and has invited Samsung, Tata, and Foxconn to set up their fab manufacturing units in the state.

While there is no clarity on whether fresh agreements for investments will be signed, the official said Stalin will also meet the Tamil diaspora in the UAE during his visit.

An official statement from the government said Tamil Nadu week will be observed at the state pavilion from March 25 to March 31. The pavilion will also have an exhibition about tourism, art, culture, handloom, textiles, Tamil development, information technology, and food processing industries in the state.

Vehicles and automobile parts manufactured in the state, electric vehicles and auxiliary products, and other products that are manufactured in Tamil Nadu will be showcased at the pavilion. In short, if one comes to the pavilion, they will be able to witness the specialties of Tamil Nadu, the statement added.

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Is it the Union of India or the Central government? Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and MK Stalin, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, appears to have got support for their argument from a Parliamentary panel headed by senior BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi which favours Union of India.

The remarks of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice came in its report on Demands for Grants for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions tabled in the Parliament on Thursday.

Referring to how employees of the Centre should be identified, the multi-party panel's report said that it has in its previous reports maintained that it was "inappropriate" to use the term 'central government' to those serving the executive wing alone.

Also read: M K Stalin wants Constitution to be amended to grant 'more powers' to states

The committee had said that the term central government should be "substituted" by "Union of India and the officials of the three organs -- executive, legislature and judiciary -- be referred to as "officials of the Union of India". In its response, the Ministry "categorically" told the panel that it may be outside its purview.

Not taking the response lightly, the committee said that it was "conscious of its own mandate as well as the mandate of the Ministry" and that its recommendation was "well within the boundaries" of the Constitution and the panel's mandate.

It went on to say that it was "dissatisfied with the response given by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

"The Committee is unhappy with this disrespectful and inconsiderate response of the Ministry. At this juncture, the Committee would like to draw the attention of the Ministry to Part V of the Constitution of India, entitled, 'THE UNION', which includes the Union Executive, the Union Legislature and the Union Judiciary. It is clear that the founding fathers of our Constitution treated these three wings as constituents of the UNION," it said.

"Since the Ministry is the nodal agency for policy matters relating to personnel management as per the Allocation of Business Rules, the Committee desires the Ministry to enlighten it whether the term 'Central Government' or 'Union Government' was used at the time of framing of the Constitution," the report added.

In his speech during the Debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's speech, top Congress leader Rahul referred to India as 'Union of India', while the Tamil Nadu government has been using the term since DMK's Stalin assumed power in the state. This was objected by the BJP, which said states are just administrative units and India has a central government.

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Responding to complaints that the fish are dying in Ramsar status candidate Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS), Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has asked the State Environment Department to probe into it and take action.

Green groups earlier complained to the government about a drastic fall in the water quality as shown in laboratory test and floating dead fish in the creek.

Thackeray has marked the mail to Principal Secretary Environment, Manisha Patankar-Mhaiskar, NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar said.

He expressed the hope that the government will take appropriate action to correct the situation as the water has to be uncontaminated since the state is gunning for international recognition.

Raising their concern on the occasion of World Water Day on Tuesday, environmental groups have pointed out that the biological oxygen demand or BOD level in a sample tested by a reputed laboratory showed a reading of 78. This is considered to be very high as compared to revised acceptable norms of 30, said Nandakumar Pawar, head of Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan.

BOD represents the quantity of oxygen required to break the organic matter in water. Higher the density of pollution, the larger the quantity of oxygen required.

Pawar, who hails from the fishing community, said there are hardly any fish left in the Bhandup-Kanjurmarg stretch as there is hardly any oxygen in the water. The water samples collected at Bhandup and Kanjurmarg sewer water treatment plant outlets are bad, he said.

NatConnect Foundation has called for a high-level scientific probe and immediate corrective measures to restore the quality of water in the creek. Kumar tweeted to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray describing the situation as serious since the fishing community is being deprived of their source of income.

Both Pawar and Kumar also sent separate mails to the CM and the High Court-appointed Wetland Committee

The Vashi-Thane stretch of the creek was a highly prosperous and fertile area for fishing. Now the situation is totally hopeless, Pawar said. Several villages such as Bhandup village, Nahur, Mulund, Kanjurmarg, Vikhroli, Kopri, Diva, Airoli and Vitava depend on fishing.

The garbage dumps at Deonar, Bhandup and Kanjurmarg overflow into the creek and onto the mangroves, the CRZ1 status areas and the discharge of untreated urban as well as industrial wastewater is also killing the creek and marine life, Pawar pointed out.

We have been pointing this out to the authorities ever since 2008, yet there is no action. But now the situation is quite serious," he said.

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While Prime Minister Narendra Modis back-to-back summits with leaders of Japan and Australia were successful in taking forward Indias bilateral relationships with these two countries, differences over the Ukraine crisis appear to be casting their shadow over their cooperation as partners in the Quad. During his visit to Delhi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged $42 billion in investment in India over the coming five years, a substantial increase over the $35 billion that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised in 2014. The two sides also signed agreements on cybersecurity, urban development and a clean energy partnership. During their virtual summit, Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison set up a mechanism for an annual summit, which should pave the way for more regular and sustained engagement at the highest level between the two countries, and a new centre for bilateral relations that will focus on policy dialogue, building Australian business literacy, etc. The two sides also reaffirmed commitment to concluding a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement by the end of the year.

Indian officials have claimed that Japan and Australia understand Indias position on the Ukraine crisis. However, joint statements and statements made by the leaders of the two countries tell a different story. The India-Japan joint statement made no mention of Russia. At a joint media interaction after the summit, while Kishida slammed the Russian attack on Ukraine for having shaken the roots of the international order, Modi did not refer to the Ukraine crisis at all, only noting that geopolitical events are presenting new challenges. Morrison too deplored Russias unlawful invasion of Ukraine. On Monday, US President Joe Biden referred to Indias shaky response to the Russian invasion. Contrary to Delhis claims, Indias Quad partners neither understand nor seem to accept Indias stance as they continue to pressure Delhi to join them in condemning and acting against Russia.

There are small changes in Indias position on the crisis. If in the past it was unwilling to draw parallels between Russian aggression in Ukraine and Chinese belligerence in the Indo-Pacific, it has come around to exploring the broader implications of the Ukraine conflict for the Indo-Pacific region. Will this manifest in a shift in Indias position on the Ukraine crisis? That will become evident when the UN General Assembly votes soon on two resolutions on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, one put forward by France and Mexico and the other by Russia. South Africa is expected to propose another resolution that avoids naming Russia as the aggressor. All eyes, especially those of Indias Quad partners, will be on Indias vote. Indias neutral position on the Ukraine crisis is being tested.
Imtiaz Jaleel, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Lok Sabha MP from Aurangabad, must be laughing. An offer he made when a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister came to his house to offer condolences for his mother's death has all parties in Maharashtra in a tizzy. Tired of being called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s B team, the AIMIM, said Jaleel, was willing to become the fourth wheel in the three-wheeler Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to help defeat the BJP.

The angry reactions from the Shiv Sena, the NCP, and the Congress, which make up the MVA, and even from the Samajwadi Party that supports the government from outside, shows that they took Jaleel's offer seriously. But did the Aurangabad MP make the offer seriously?

Imagine for a moment that Asaduddin Owaisi's party joins the MVA coalition. What then will the AIMIM leader say in his election rallies? Will he direct all his fire at the BJP alone?

Owaisi has attacked Narendra Modi ever since the latter took over as prime minister. But so have all other parties. What sets Owaisi apart is his concentrated onslaught on so-called secular parties. Since October 2014, when he entered Maharashtra to fight his first Assembly election outside his home state, Owaisi has had one plank: Exposing the secular claims of the Congress and other non-BJP parties. He last did this just weeks ago in UP, where the Samajwadi Party was his target.

The AIMIM's electoral victories have harmed mainly these parties, not the ruling Hindutva party. In Maharashtra, for instance, his candidates in 2014 cost the Congress two seats. In the 2019 general elections, his tie-up with Prakash Ambedkar cost the Congress-NCP alliance seven seats (the alliance won a miserable five seats). The most powerful political orator in the country is at his best not when attacking the most powerful man in the country, who should be his main target, but when railing against parties currently down and out.

The reason for this seeming anomaly is simple: Owaisi wants the Muslim votes these parties get. How better to appeal to those Muslim voters than by pointing out to them how they have been cheated by the so-called secular parties for whom they've always voted? That's when he can wax eloquent about Muslim sufferings since Independence, which have indeed been too many.

Now, if the AIMIM chief were to ally with these very parties whose governments have been responsible for these sufferings, what plank would he be left with?

It's not as though parties don't ally with old rivals whom they may have bitterly opposed, to get to power. But for Owaisi, the stakes are far too high for him to play this cynical game. His USP is his claim to be the only leader since Independence, who can give the country's largest minority the place it deserves in legislative bodies, and hence in State policy. He makes this claim on the basis of being the supremo of a Muslim party that's slowly spreading its wings beyond its base in Hyderabad. Lending strength to this claim is his unabashed assertion of Muslim identity at a time when this identity is under threat from the ruling party.

For his claim to be taken seriously, Owaisi must fight till all "secular" parties are rejected by Muslims, leaving him as the sole Muslim voice. Given this goal, how is it even conceivable for the AIMIM chief to ally with these very "secular" parties? Even more absurd is the idea of the AIMIM allying with a coalition headed by the Shiv Sena, the original Hindutva party which still proclaims its allegiance to "true Hindutva".

The same question applies in reverse. How can any of the MVA parties ally with Owaisi? For the Sena to do so is out of the question. And both the Congress and the NCP depend on votes from all communities. Will they be able to get these votes once they ally with a leader whose main plank is religious identity?

Why then was the offer made? Because Jaleel knew it would be rejected. Now Owaisi can taunt "secular" parties even more forcefully than before, projecting their rejection as their "fear of a strong Muslim leadership emerging among them."

Will this interpretation get him Muslim support in Maharashtra? Is that why the offer was made on the eve of Mumbai's municipal elections? Unlikely. In the October 2019 Assembly polls, with Modi back as PM and Muslims desperate to get rid of the BJP-Sena government, the AIMIM could win only two of the 44 seats it contested. Today, the MVA has managed to keep the BJP out; Muslims know for them, there's no better option.

(Jyoti Punwani is a journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
After a hiatus of two long years and three seasons of digital shows, fashion capital Delhi is finally hosting the FDCI x Lakme Fashion Week 2022. The fashion event is spread across five days from March 23 to 27 and is being held at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

Day one saw plenty of sequins, studs, and crystals as if to make up for the dreariness that had enveloped our lives in the last couple of years. The day also had celebrities like Soha Ali Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Masoom Minawala and Mrunal Thakur gracing the ramp with their presence.

Among the day's shows, Alpana Neeraj's exhibit had sequinned, shimmery dresses, jumpsuits and gowns in organza and tulle. The designers stylised the outfits using delicate bow ties, ruffles, long trails, soft drapes, voluminous falls, and puffed sleeves. Soft pastels, nudes, silvers, whites and blacks were also present in this collection.

Designer Samant Chauhan's "Winter Rain" collection on Day 1 featured metal embroidery, feathers and chain detailing, crystal patchwork, embroidered panels, and studded necklines and sleeves. The designer used Chanderi silk with cotton and organza fabrics for his dresses, gowns, pants, blousons, and suits. The colour palette was predominantly black, off-white, and grey. His showstopper, actor Manoj Bajpayee was also spotted in a silver-grey suit with sequined floral embroidery on the side panels.

Varun Bahal's "Quintessential" was quite an extravagant showcase that juxtaposed heritage and modernity. The collection boasted patchwork, embroidery, mirrors, lace, sequins, and crystals.

The designer combined handcrafted ethnic wear like lehengas, capes, and gowns with sequin detailing and embroidery. The collection came together with a rose pink and red sequined ensemble worn by show stopper Masoom Minawala.

Shantnu Nikhil's stand-out 'Nomad' collection offered a break from the shine and shimmer. The line had heavy motifs, fringes, fur, rope knit detailing, and puffed silhouettes giving out a powerful, bohemian grunge vibe. The show had a vintage, tribal flavour with leopard print jackets and gowns, fisher hats, leather brassieres, knuckled belts, and fringed pants.

Actor Mrunal Thakur closed Day 1 of the FDCI X Lakme Fashion Week by walking for designer JJ Valaya. Valaya's collection was light and breezy without heavy embroidery. Titled "'RumeliThe Summer Story," it was a sustainable, eco-conscious collection made using the TENCEL Luxe filament yarn. An eco-friendly, vegan, and natural alternative to silk, the yarn is made from renewable wood sources .

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Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) regional secretary K Govardhan Rao on Thursday said that the "mentality" of some Muslims regarding the hijab row is the reason for the issue of non-Hindu traders not being reportedly allowed to set up shops on the premises of some Hindu temples during the 'Jatras'.

He stated that this trend is going to happen, increase, and would continue everywhere if such Muslims "do not change their mindset" against the nation and Constitution.

"They called for a bandh even after the High Court gave its judgement. Do they not have faith in the judiciary or Constitution? Therefore, all are worried," he said.

"We are not responsible for this as we told our boys to remain silent. This is going to happen everywhere and increase if they continue to display such mentality against the nation. They would face problem if they continue to try to divide the society," he added.

Call for Hindu girls

"We are trying to create awareness among the Hindu community about the ill-effects of 'Love Jihad' and conversion if a Hindu girl marries a boy of another religion. Hindu girls should be alert as some Muslim youth have a fundamental 'jihadi' mentality. A Hindu girl marrying a boy of another religion is not good," he said.

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Former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) on Wednesday urged the BJP government to create a conducive academic atmosphere in the state even as he claimed that the agitating Muslim girls fighting for hijab are being remote-controlled.

Kumaraswamy was speaking in the Assembly on communal harmony in the education sector in the wake of the hijab controversy.

The [Muslim] students have said they will boycott exams if hijab isnt allowed. This is not their feeling; theyre being remote-controlled. You need to hit those remote controls, Kumaraswamy told the government.

Also read | Hijab row: Students remain absent for preparatory examinations

Some girls have been misled. There was no problem like this in educational institutions. The hearts of students are unadulterated as milk. But, some have tried to poison their hearts, Kumaraswamy said.

Kumaraswamy claimed that MLAs from his own party, including his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy (Ramanagara MLA), asked him not to raise the hijab issue given its sensitivity.

Karnataka was seen as the Kashi for education. But, where are we going with our politics? Kids are boycotting classes...what do the kids know? All of us have our agendas and standing, but the government has the responsibility of creating a good environment in schools and colleges, Kumaraswamy said, urging the government to hold talks with religious leaders.

Kumaraswamys speech saw several interruptions as MLAs rose to narrate instances of communal harmony in Karnataka.

In my constituency, theres Murugamalla that has the Ammajan-Bawajan dargah. During the annual Urus every household, irrespective of Hindu or Muslim, offer prayers, Chintamani JD(S) MLA Krishna Reddy said.

Bagalkot BJP MLA Veeranna Charantimath said more Hindus than Muslims celebrate Muharram in his constituency. But, the problem is polarisation for the sake of vote bank, he said.

Arguing that narratives on the Hindu-Muslim unity are skewed, Revenue Minister R Ashoka said tolerance has to be a two-way street. We go to the Ajmer Dargah. We also participate in Bakrid, he said.

The point is, when a Maharashtra Congress MLA gives a cash reward to the Mandya girl for shouting slogans, isnt that provocation? To ask just one side to be tolerant isnt fair. Both have to follow it, he said.

Ashoka was referring to Muskan, the Mandya student who shouted Allah-hu-Akbar when she was heckled by Hindu students with Jai Shri Ram chants. The Rs 5 lakh compensation...we shouldnt encourage that. There was no threat to her life. They built up a story.

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The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Tamil Nadus opposition to the Mekedatu project and that pressure should be mounted on the Centre to accord necessary approvals.

The resolution also proclaimed that Karnataka will not give its concurrence to the linking of the Krishna-Pennar-Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar rivers unless the states share of water is decided and until all aspects of the detailed project report (DPR) are agreeable.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai piloted the two-page resolution, which counters the Tamil Nadu Assemblys resolution damning Karnatakas Mekedatu project.

Also Read | Bommai condemns Tamil Nadu resolution against dam project

According to the resolution, the Mekedatu project will not harm Tamil Nadu. The project will stabilise the Supreme Courts allocation of 24 tmc (4.75 tmc consumptive use) for the Bengaluru metropolitan region and generate hydropower by constructing a balancing reservoir.

Tamil Nadu wants Karnataka to take its approval for the Mekedatu project. But, at the same time and without seeking Karnatakas approval, Tamil Nadu is taking up projects illegally and unilaterally, thereby showing its double standards, the resolution stated.

Before Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri could put the resolution for adoption, former water resources minister HK Patil raised an objection to the way the resolution was drafted. Specifically, he had a problem with the resolution mentioning the peninsular river development (linkage of rivers).

Also Read | Siddaramaiah accuses Modi govt of 'committing injustice' to Karnataka on Mekedatu project

By stating that the peninsular river development scheme of diverting excess water from the Godavari to Krishna-Pennar-Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar linking project should not be decided until the states share is finalized, are we in effect giving our approval to the project? Shouldnt we first know what our share will be before adopting a resolution like this? If we accept this, then were bound to allow water to go from Almatti to Tungabhadra, which will affect north Karnataka, Patil explained.

He also asked Bommai why the resolution was not confined to Mekedatu.

Siding with Patil, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said Bommai should have drafted the resolution in consultation with other parties.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu Assembly passes resolution against Mekedatu project; condemns Karnataka

Allaying Patils fears, Bommai modified the resolution to say that Karnataka all aspects of the DPR on linking of rivers should be agreeable to the state.

Weve always been defensive. Now, were going on the offensive and were telling Tamil Nadu that it needs to stop its projects that are being taken up without consulting Karnataka, Bommai said.

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Disconnection is a very last resort, is the message from Firmus Energy's Interim Managing Director, Niall Martindale, to Derry households struggling to pay their gas bills.

Firmus Energy has faced criticism over the last 10 months with gas bills rocketing up by a total 194 per cent over that period  increases that have hit a number of homes in Derry hard with some having to make difficult choices on whether to use what little money they have on heating or to have food on the table to eat.

Choices that have led to local Foyle politicians speaking out and people travelling all the way to Antrim to protest outside of Firmus' headquarters against the price rises.

With no sign that the latest increase will be the last, many are worrying that they could be cut off and left with no heat, no hot water to wash in and no gas to cook food with.

However, Martindale insisted that such a measure is a last resort and advised customers who are finding it hard to pay their bills get in touch to see what can be done.

He said: The first thing I will say to customers is that if you are struggling to pay, get in touch. Don't leave it  get in touch.

We have formed very strong relationships and partnerships with organisations who are more 'specialist-placed' in terms of offering support to customers when it comes to specific needs and requirements and helping us at the 'coalface level' understand the challenges around customers such as getting into debt and so forth.

One thing we make sure of is that our customer service is up to speed, cognisant-aware and trained in these matters. From the customer's point of view, we encourage the customer to get in contact with us in the first instance.

Anything we can do, and I can assure you and any customer who phones, we will do it. Whether it's a payment plan or something more specific in terms of a particular vulnerability  be it financial or something else  we have partnerships with organisations and we will actively and considerately sign-post customers towards their direction.

I can assure you that disconnection is a very last resort.

But why are prices going up so steeply? Firmus has been accused of doing this out of greed but their most recent accounts filed to Companies House show no dividends have been paid out to their directors. So why have they done it?

Martindale explains: The very first thing to say there is that the drivers behind our tariff increases are absolutely out with our control. They are primarily and fully driven by the commodity markets for natural gas.

It is traded in the UK and we trade there with all the other suppliers in Northern Ireland on what is known as the NBP  National Balancing Point  as a trading forum in the UK. That is the key driver to all the price increases that we have unfortunately had to put through in the last number of months.

Back in the summer of 2020, gas was trading as low as ten pence per therm. Today, that's heading up towards the 3 mark.

From that point in 2020, what we saw happening in Asia (the slowing down of economic growth) and the breakdown of hydro-power in South America. You might think 'my goodness this is miles away' but it has a real impact on global markets.

So what happened through 2021 was a lot of the demand for gas came if the form of liquified natural gas from the big tankers on the sea. That was primarily redirected towards Asia and that ensured prices were really, really high on the global markets.

We then saw tensions in Russia and Ukraine creep into the markets and that sent prices to a different place. You had this 'almost perfect storm' brewing across Europe driven as far away from Asia and its post-Covid recovery and South America  particularly Brazil where they had problems with hydro-power.

So demand was driven away from Europe and drove prices higher.

Interim Managing Director of Firmus Energy, Niall Martindale

However, the gas and energy markets of Asian and South America seems a world away to Joe and Jane Public of Derry whose combined household income cannot budget for the sky-high rises to their gas bills.

Martindale continues: Derry has been super-important to us as a location and the customer base we have there. In our ten towns market, Derry covers a third of that. We've worked really hard with our customer base in the last fifteen years and developing that market.

One of the frustrations we feel is that so much of this is out with our control. We want to bring customers  and support them  on the journey that we are all going through at the minute. As you can imagine, Firmus Energy is not a quiet place to work at the minute. We're in the eye of a storm and we're trying to bring customers through that with us.

One of the things we would typically get is the fact that we're the only supplier of natural gas in the Derry area. What we are finding difficult is imparting to customers the complete story and that is, we're regulated. So the market in Derry has been open to competition since 2015. The market has been there for any other supplier to come into but with the money that can be made off that market would suggest that nobody else wants to come into it.

It is a very tight market for us to operate. We are doing our damndest as we see it to support customers through what is a really challenging time.

I hear of the 'heat or eat' situations and it's not just Derry where its happening either. We are conscious of it.

Currently, Firmus are the only game in town regarding gas but if, in the near future, a rival firm moves in and offers a lower tariff, doesn't Firmus run the risk that people have long memories and will remember how badly their pockets were stung with the price rises over the last 10 months?

Martindale said: We absolutely accept that if a rival firm does move into the Derry market, we could lose customers who not only might like any special offers the new firm may offer but because they remember the prices rises they had when they were with us.

What's happening is very frustrating for us. Maybe I'm stating the obvious but we don't want to put our prices up  it would be a much easier place for us to put our prices down.

We've demonstrated that in the past. As soon as prices come down, we've been the first to react to those movements in prices  that will not stop. We will not be backwards in doing so.

But where we are at the minute, I will say it again, we are subject to the global prices on the markets and our tariffs are reflecting that. They are constantly kept under review

It is complex and our sympathies are with all our customers right across our ten towns  particularly in Derry. We are a regulated business and the regulator ensures transparency of price. For every increase we do in the ten towns, we are subject to scrutiny from the DfE (Department for the Economy) and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland. You've got them assuring people that the increases are market and cost-reflective. So our hands are tied in that respect.

The Department for Communities recently unveiled its Emergency Payment Scheme  administered by the Bryson Charitable Group  where those in need and fit the eligibility criteria would receive 200 to help them with their energy bills.

Firmus in particular drew attention to themselves making a contribution to the Scheme.

But how much is that contribution and wouldn't they have been better advised to skip the middleman  the Department for Communities  and pass this contribution directly to their own customers themselves?

Martindale continues: There are eleven companies that contributed to that scheme. I'm not going to disclose the figure that we contributed but what I would say is that we contributed higher than what is our market share.

If you took the eleven companies and divvied up their number of customers in Northern Ireland, we significantly punched higher than our weight in terms of what we contributed.

The reason the Government and the DfE are keen for Bryson to be involved, is because of their ability to access information that we ourselves don't have access to  such as which households have people on benefits and so forth.

No supplier would have that information and therefore, it would provide a layer of challenge that would make that scheme (for the suppliers) much more difficult to administer. Bryson has the tools to access a customer's legitimacy for the scheme. So that works.

Over and above the monetary contribution, we have had two and a half people every week, since that scheme was announced, monetarising vouchers. We have a customer service set up of approximately eight people and we have had to dedicate twenty per cent of those people strictly to administer the vouchers.

What Bryson brings to the party is an ability to better get the money to where it is believed it is better best used.

An election for the Assembly in Stormont is coming. Some that are campaigning to get elected, such as Derry Councillor Shaun Harkin of People Before Profit, say they will  assuming the DUP don't throw their toys out of the pram again  be pushing for the Executive to introduce a Hardship Fund to help people in need.

Would Firmus decide to work with the Executive if a Hardship Fund is proposed and put into place?

There would be no deciding, insisted Martindale. We would be party to any conversation that supports customers  full stop.

What we're going through at the minute is absolutely unprecedented. We've never seen anything like the challenges we've seen within the business right now. That's not at all to dismiss the impact that all of this is having on customers  we are fully cognisant of that.

We are fully prepared to work with anybody to support customers and help them get through to the other side of all of this.

We would be happy to talk to anybody and we would be fully engaged in those conversations.

Also, if the Government were to drop VAT from energy bills, that would help. Any help is good help quite frankly.

The last set of accounts (for up to December 31, 2020) filed to Companies House by Firmus had a passage about their financial projections for June 2022 which read: (Projections to June 2022) show that the Company continues to be cash generative.

Given what has happened since those accounts were filed, is the company still on course to meet that projection?

Martindale said: Our initial projections for June 2022 has had to be amended significantly. The third increment of increases was done with a lot of pain because we didn't want to do that.

But, and to be frank, we couldn't afford not to. The level of prices on the commodity market was such that, to be perfectly blunt, we were burning through cash at a rate of knots that wasn't sustainable.

We are a strong business in a strong place but we want to keep it that way.

If you are a Firmus Energy customer and are currently struggling with your bills, Firmus advise you to contact them as soon as possible on: 0330 024 9000.

Also, the following organistations offer advice and support:

Advice NI  visit: adviceni.net. Email: advice@adviceni.net

The Consumer Council  freephone: 0800 121 6022. Visit: consumercouncil.org.uk. Email: contact@consumercouncil.org.uk

Age NI at Advice & Advocacy  freephone: 0800 808 7575. Visit: ageuk.org.uk/northern-ireland

Christians Against Poverty  telephone: 01159 659570. Email: contact@maps.org.uk

NI Energy Advice Line  freephone 0800 111 4455
Causeway Coast and Glens Policing and Community Safety Partnership say they are taking steps to address a recent spate of anti-social behaviour in Limavady.

The PCSP is working closely with the PSNI and other stakeholders to address the problem, which has developed in recent weeks.

PCSP Chairperson Councillor Darryl Wilson said: It is disappointing for residents and businesses in Limavady that a minority in the town are intent on causing damage and fear.

The PCSP is taking the concerns that have been shared with us very seriously. We have recently targeted our resources to remove graffiti from public spaces and we are liaising with the PSNI as part of an ongoing multi-agency approach.

Later this month, a planned PCSP Public Meeting will take place in Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre and it will provide all of us with a timely opportunity to discuss anti-social behaviour and any other matters related to policing and community safety.

By working together, we can address the issues which are detracting from all of our efforts to ensure Limavady and the wider Borough remains a safe and welcoming place for everyone.

PSNI Neighbour Inspector Colin Shaw added: We have seen an increase in reports of anti-social behaviour in Limavady, including graffiti and criminal damage to property.

We are focusing our patrolling to provide reassurance to the local community and working with our partners to prevent further incidents.

"The vast majority of young people recognise the importance of having respect for others and their property however we would ask parents and guardians to make sure their son or daughter isnt involved in this type of behaviour.

The PCSP public meeting will take place in Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Limavady on Wednesday, March 30 at 7pm (tea and coffee available from 6.30pm). The main theme of the meeting is drugs and policing.

There will be an opportunity to put forward questions on the night, or alternatively you can submit a written question in advance by emailing pcsp@causeway coastandglens.gov.uk.

For further information about Causeway Coast and Glens Policing and Community Safety Partnership go to the website or follow Causeway Coast and Glens PCSP on Facebook.
By Albert Jeng, PUFSecurity

The Tale of TPM

The rising security threats endangering our connected world, from the chip to the cloud, are among the biggest challenges facing us today. Microsoft recently addressed some of these concerns by mandating the inclusion of TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) in all devices running its latest Windows 11 operating system. Its a significant step towards standardizing chip-level protection and recentering the semiconductor industry to make security integral to the chip-design process.

TPM is an international standard for secure crypto coprocessors that store and protect encryption keys, passwords, and other sensitive data such as digital certificates. Since 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has required all newly procured computer assets to include a TPM. The International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) standardized TPM in 2009, and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) maintains improvements of the standard.

Implementation of a TPM remains optional for device manufacturers and can range from software emulation or firmware to discrete chips. However, for security operations requiring the use of keys, most agree that a discrete TPM chip provides the highest level of security. This is particularly so for protecting critical system applications against sophisticated hacking attacks [1].

Even when TPM is implemented in hardware, a dedicated microcontroller without proper protection, for instance, can still be prone to various attacks. These tampering techniques can include side-channel attacks and exploitation of weak key generation vulnerabilities, among others. [2, 3]

Advances in TPM 2.0

While this new version makes several advances, all of us who manufacture or use online devices expect TPM to prevent critical system failures that may seriously impact safety or security. In summary, TPM1.2 and TPM 2.0 include the following functionalities [4, 5]:

Secure storage of keys (especially endorsement keys) and attack-resistant certificates. Secure generation of Identifiers (IDs) and keys A high-quality hardware random number generator (RNG) in order to fulfill 1. Public-key cryptographic algorithms capable of generating and verifying digital certificates Symmetric key cryptographic algorithms for data encryption and decryption Key management all the way from endorsement key (EK) and storage root key (SRK) to session key uses. Secure attestation service for device management.

It is important to note that the EKs very existence allows TPM to authenticate hardware devices. An EK programmed into a TPM chip during production is unique to each device. As such, with a solid unique identifier (UID), the TPM chip becomes a gatekeeper for platform authentication.

With TPM 2.0, upgrades have enhanced both security and flexibility. In addition, it fixes the one-size-fits-all ideology of TPM 1.2 by allowing platform-specific options. Notable changes include:

A more up-to-date list of approved algorithms. For example, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and (Secure Hash Algorithm) SHA-2 256 are included. Vendors can add TCG-approved (Trusted Computing Group) algorithms according to regional regulations, e.g., SM2, SM3, and SM4. Improved key management features from key generation to storage.

While the added crypto algorithms improve security in terms of computational difficulty, their addition does not mean that data, keys, or credentials are safe. Hackers may use several types of attacks to extract keys and sabotage devices protected by TPM. Therefore, hardware implementations of TPM 2.0 should be designed, built, and evaluated for the highest level of security against tampering attacks.

PUFcc to the Rescue

PUFcc, an intellectual property suite from PUFsecurity, is a new high-security crypto coprocessor that offers a TPM 2.0-ready security solution for critical system applications. It comes with an identification code generated by a physical unclonable function (PUF) as well as a robust, secure boundary based on the physical separation of hardware and cryptographic algorithms.

PUFcc provides the following functionalities required by TPM:

Secure one-time programmable (OTP) memory for data and key storage with complete anti-tampering design (e.g. against invasive, semi-invasive, and non-invasive attacks). Inborn and unique ID plus self-generated keys inside a chip for security services. A NIST SP 800-90B compliant PUF-based true random number generator (TRNG) allowing high-quality dynamic entropies. A complete set of NIST CAVP-certified algorithms, hardware accelerator, and OSCCA / RFC standard algorithms as well. Firmware and application programmers interface (API) support for secure boot, transport layer security (TLS), and other key management operations.

Figure.1: The design architecture of PUFcc

The PUFcc crypto coprocessor perfectly fits the upgraded TPM 2.0 standard. Furthermore, it is flexible by design, as the crypto algorithms are customizable to accommodate regional standards such as those created by the Office of State Commercial Cryptography Administration (OSCCA) in China.

Adding PUF to the Mix

As mentioned earlier, TPM standards dont have specifications regarding functions such as secure storage. While most TPM implementations incorporate OTP memory storage as their root of trust, the PUF technology in PUFcc simplifies product deployment while also achieving an outstanding security level.

Before products with TPM can operate in the field, a crucial and costly step is to inject an EK. The EK in a TPM may well decide the security of the entire product. In one case, a chip designer must adopt onerous key-injection procedures requiring personnel and environments that have security clearance. With PUF, a chip has a unique ID and keys, eliminating the need for certified personnel and work environments to inject EKs in chips.

The uniqueness of a PUF helps simplify the early stage of a product lifecycle and safeguards the product moving forward. The key generation and certificate/key storage required by TPM (e.g., EK and root key) may benefit from such characteristics. While it is already common to store critical security parameters in OTP, PUFcc takes it up a notch by introducing chip-unique PUF-based storage protection. This makes PUFcc an excellent root of trust suitable for TPM2.0, based on the parameters.

PUF is also utilized as another layer of protection that enables many anti-tampering techniques. That is why the OTP/PUF root of trust combination serves as a firm foundation for PUFcc. First and foremost, secure storage should withstand probes by electron microscopes, focused ion beams, and other reverse engineering measures.

PUFcc is also protected against other techniques like voltage contrast, voltage glitch, power analysis, or fault injections aimed at compromising the devices security unit. Access to sensitive data or keys is strictly controlled in case of unintended information leaks. The PUFcc OTP/PUF macro takes into account all of the above by applying the randomness of inborn PUF and PUF-based TRNG, significantly raising the bar for malicious hackers.

Recommendations

PUFsecurity provides PUFcc as an affordable, powerful, and flexible crypto coprocessor with an extensive secure boundary thats easily designed into a discrete TPM 2.0 chip.

PUFcc enables the creation, storage, management, and secure usage of cryptographic keys. Furthermore, it supports TPM 2.0 cryptographic algorithms (NIST, OSCCA, RFC) that are compliant with modern hardware and includes comprehensive anti-tampering designs. PUFcc is the perfect fit in a critical system for safety or security of the highest level  TPM 2.0.

References

Footnotes

SM2, SM3, and SM4:

https://www.oscca.gov.cn/sca/xxgk/2012-03/21/content_1002392.shtml NIST SP 800-90B

https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-90b/final NIST CAVP

https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/cryptographic-algorithm-validation-program OSCCA

https://www.oscca.gov.cn/sca/xxgk/2012-03/21/content_1002392.shtml RFC

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7539






Statement by Minister Coveney on the passing of former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright

Statement

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney T.D. said:

I am saddened to hear of the passing of former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

A central figure of the Clinton Administration, she made an indelible impact while serving as US Ambassador to the United Nations, before becoming the first female Secretary of State in US history.

We in Ireland recall with particular appreciation her unstinting support for the peace process on this island, during her tenure as US Secretary of State.

She was a champion of human rights and democracy, which together with her own life experience as a refugee, gave her a unique perspective to make a positive impact on conflicts around the world.

Her contribution to the establishment of the UN war crimes tribunal has left a lasting legacy.

I know that she was also a mentor to many and will be remembered as a trailblazer who followed her convictions with courage.

Her family and loved ones are in my thoughts at this sad time.

ENDS

Press Office

23 March 2022

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Formerly the law school for the University of Puget Sound, a three-building complex in downtown Tacoma was rebranded in 2001 as Tacoma Rhodes Center. The complex was once home to Rhodes department store.

The state bought the three buildings in 1996 and, in a previously unreported December 2020 deal, sold them for over $19.5 million to Rhodes Center Partners and Astute Properties. Those Portland LLCs are associated with investors Jeff Mincheff and Garry Vallaster, of Vallaster & Corl Architects.





. . .
Canon Europe announced the launch of its annual photojournalism grants, in search for standout professional photographers and filmmakers. Championing the very best in storytelling, the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant celebrates an outstanding photographer in recognition of her contribution to photojournalism; whilst the Canon Video Grant acknowledges those wanting to magnify a social, cultural or economic issue in documentary form.

Run in conjunction with Visa pour limage, one of the worlds leading photojournalism festivals, both grants give recipients the funding to pursue their project alongside a platform to be seen and heard. The winners will be officially presented at this years festival, which takes place during September in Perpignan, France, with their work showcased the following year.

Canons Video Grant

For the third year, Canons Video Grant celebrates creative documentary making, recognising the best emerging filmmaking talent. The winner will be selected by a jury of professional figures in the world of photography in June and awarded a grant of 8,000 plus the loan of Canon kit to support the production of a short-film documentary. Entries will be judged on the presentation, relevance and originality of their project.

Last years recipient  Camille Millerand  used the funding to work on his project The Invisibles, focusing on illegal workers who are an essential part of Frances economic activity. He also received the loan of pioneering Canon professional video equipment to support the project. His documentary will be screened at the 2022 festival.

The very best of female photojournalism

For the twenty-second year in a row, Canon and Images Evidence will be presenting the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant to an outstanding photographer in recognition of her contribution to photojournalism  8,000 will be awarded, supporting the winning photographer with her year-long project ahead of their exhibition the following year.

The 2021 recipient, Acacia Johnson, received the grant money to carry out her project in Alaska  To Know The Earth from Above: The Bush Pilots Connecting Rural Alaska. Currently, only 20 per cent of Alaska is accessible by road, and dozens of its remote settlements, largely Alaskan Native communities, rely on bush aircraft for essential services, including food, medical care, and emergency transport. Starting in her hometown of Anchorage, the grant allowed Johnson to put this community into light through large-format portraits of pilots with their aircraft and aerial photographs of aircraft in flight in the Alaskan landscape. Johnson will be showcasing their body of work at Visa pour limage 2022.

Past recipients of the grant have received funding, support and exposure, as well becoming a source of inspiration for other female photographers in the industry. Acacia Johnson, winner of the 2021 grant, says:

I was honored to be awarded the 2021 Canon Female Photojournalist Grant. The grant money has allowed me to spend time, energy and creativity on a slower, more in-depth project, with the hope that it will be a lasting contribution to my home community. If you are thinking about applying, I encourage you to  the grant could be career-changing. It has allowed me to undertake a longtime dream project.

Entries to both grants are now open, with submissions closing on 17th May 2021

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Le ministre du Developpement Industriel a pris part pendant la journee du 23 mars 2022 au lancement du National Policy Dialogue on Manufacturing Sector avec la collaboration du United Nations Economic Office of Africa (UNECA).

I am deeply honoured to be in your midst this evening on the occasion of the launching of the Industrial Finance Corporation of Mauritius (IFCM) Ltd which will replace the Investment Support Programme (ISP) Ltd. I wish to congratulate all the officers and public and private sector organisations that have toiled so hard to make this important budget proposal a reality.

The economic prosperity of our country hinges heavily on the plight of our economic sectors and their operators. If the performance of our sectors are negatively affected, this will reflect on our growth figures. For the past few years, it was observed that funding for enterprises in important economic sectors like manufacturing, agro-industry and light engineering were facing some operational constraints which were barring enterprises to have access to the existing funds and to the schemes available on the market. The IFCM comes as a salutary step to bridge the gap between the enterprises that are in need of funds and the actual availability of those funds.

Ms Isatou Gaye, UNECA Chief Sub-Regional office for Southern Africa

Mrs. Bibi Fatwma Abdool Raman Ahmed, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives (Industrial Development Division)

Distinguished Delegates,

Captains of Industry

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning

I am glad to be present this morning to address this august gathering on the occasion of the Opening Ceremony of the National Policy Dialogue. This event is a joint initiative between the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and my Ministry.

A special welcome to Mrs Eunice Kamwendo, Director of UNECA Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) and her team to Mauritius. I hope during your short stay you will get some time to visit our beautiful island.

I would like to seize this opportunity to convey my profound gratitude to UNECA and especially Ms. Bineswaree Boolaky for partnering with us to make this Policy Dialogue another successful milestone in our collaboration. Thank you UNECA.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Todays event comes at an opportune time when the whole world economy has been severely crippled by the unprecedented onslaught of the Covid-19. The pandemic has had its ramifications on all aspects of life and poses serious challenges to countries all over the world. Since many of the changes brought by the pandemic are transient, it has provoked more intense dialogue between various stakeholders and policy makers. This in a bid to bundle common efforts and see the problems from each others perspective, find common grounds and reach consensus if possible on policy solutions for the construction of the Next Normal and a prosperous future that the world is looking at after the crisis. However, what is undisputed is that, this pandemic crisis and the war between Russia and Ukraine mark a critical juncture. Critical because this would lead to a decisive change in influencing government policy to fuel not only economic recovery, but also identifying new challenges and opportunities that could trigger growth in the manufacturing sector.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today the manufacturing sector is one of the most important pillar of the economy contributing to 13.3% of GVA and employing some 90,400 workers. It is important that we sit down to reflect on the plight of our manufacturing sector, gauge the effectiveness of our policy measures and identify new challenges that could bring the sector to new pedestals of growth.

I personally view that the organisation of this Policy Dialogue at this stage is crucial for the future development of the sector. There is no time for complacency. We need to reassess the current context in which the manufacturing sector is evolving in a bid to come up with a transformed business ecosystem for a new impetus and greater resilience of our manufacturing enterprises. It will help us together to probe deeply into our respective roles and functions as business operators and Government agencies. I am confident that your active participation will unpack many new insights and inspire us to move forward together along a successful pathway.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an undeniable fact that the manufacturing sector has for the past 50 years continued to be an important pillar of the economy.

However, at several instances of its history because of major global threats like the liberalisation of trade in textile and clothing with the dismantling of the Multi Fibre Agreement in 2004, the Financial Crisis of 2007, Brexit and lately the advent of Covid 19, as well as the emergence of important economic sectors like ICT and Financial Services in the Mauritian economy, many people questioned the destiny of the manufacturing sector. Fortunately, this gloomy stance on the sector was overturned by the outstanding resilience displayed by operators and the unflinching support provided by the Government to assist the business community.

It is good to underline that the manufacturing sector has during these years undergone substantial transformation, It has graduated successfully from being a low-cost producer of basic products to higher value-added and more sophisticated products. The sector now revolves around innovation, creativity and value creation through specialised and high-tech activities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You will agree with me that when the Covid-19 pandemic was striking the island and most of our economic activities came to a halt, the Export Oriented Enterprises (EOE) sector became the main, if not the sole generator of foreign exchange earnings of the country. This crisis also opened the door for our local manufacturing enterprises to engage in import substitution activities. They resorted to the production of essential commodities like oil, flour, canned food and noodles to ensure food security for the population. I also wish to underline that our enterprises spared no efforts in catering the sanitary needs of the country by shifting their production line to manufacture important items such as Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs), masks, sanitisers and shields.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is high time that we acknowledge the real contribution of the manufacturing sector to the economy. By doing so, we will become aware of the fact that any activity in the manufacturing sector will have an impact on many other sectors.

The figures I have cited on the share of the manufacturing sector to the national GVA depicts its direct impact on the economy. I consider, however, that the impact of the manufacturing sector goes beyond these figures. Indeed, it is viewed that the activities of the sector have a multiplier effect on the economy and has given a boost to other sectors including transportation, financial services and retail trade. The manufacturing sector has also generated a livelihood for many families, particularly those engaged in SMEs. Allow me to illustrate this observation with two examples.

The activities of the manufacturing sector have an indirect impact on the transportation sector which contributes to around 5 % of the national wealth creation. It includes the transportation of thousands of workers every day to their workplace, transportation of manufactured products to our port and airport for export and finally the transportation of these products to different foreign markets by air or by sea.

Another indirect contribution of the manufacturing sector is in the financial services sector which accounts for 12.3 % of the economy. I am sure that our operators will agree with me that the number of banking operations, leasing activities and insurance coverages generated by the manufacturing sector is enormous.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One of the objectives of this Policy Dialogue is to assess our achievements, especially after the publication of our Industrial Policy & Strategic Plan (IPSP) which aimed at giving a new impulse and orientation to the manufacturing sector. This document was prepared after extensive consultations with all our stakeholders and it revolves around important areas of the manufacturing sector. The implementation of the recommendations of the IPSP is well underway and I have set up an Industrial Policy Executive Oversight Committee and subsequently eight Sub-Committees at the level of my Ministry to ensure the timely operationalisation of the Strategic Plan, especially amidst the geopolitical tensions occurring at present.

I am given to understand that around 55 % of the recommendations are at the implementation stage and that some major projects emanating from the IPSP are forthcoming.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would also like to reassure all our stakeholders that I am personally ensuring that My Ministry is following up the implementation of recommendations made in the workshop on Mapping Manufacturing Skills for the Future organised in November last year. I consider Skills Development as a critical enabler in the transformation process of the manufacturing sector.

This is why I believe this Policy Dialogue will be the perfect platform to keep our stakeholders abreast of all information, achievements and new developments taking place in the sector.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When we talk about the Manufacturing sector in Mauritius, it would be incomplete if we do not give the Textile and Clothing Sector its lettres de noblesse, given its instrumental role in spearheading the outstanding performance of the EOE sector in the country for the five past decades. The sector has struggled hard to continue to remain the main sub-sector of the EOE and has nurtured successfully our competitive advantage in exporting our clothing items. We therefore need to devote some deep reflection on this sector. In this line, a whole day is being dedicated tomorrow to ponder on our achievements in this sector and to define the future course of action together will all our stakeholders. Here, I count again on your active participation to make this Policy Dialogue on the Textile & Clothing sector a success.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is also the aim of this Policy Dialogue to assess the impact of the various schemes, budget measures and special packages of incentives offered to the sector. Our stakeholders will have the opportunity to reflect on these incentives, assess their impact and come up with new suggestions that could be considered as proposals for the forthcoming budget. I am sure also that our operators will also take the opportunity to highlight any constraints they are facing.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Throughout my tenure of this Ministry, I have always maintained a constant line of communication with our business operators to make sure that they operate in a hassle-free environment and allow their enterprise to flourish. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our close collaboration has resulted in a positive performance. It is gratifying to note that all our export sectors in 2021 have registered positive growth. We are leaving no stone unturned to address the local constraints in terms of availability of skilled labour, adoption of new technologies and access to finance to enhance the competitiveness of our enterprises.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have no doubt that this Policy Dialogue will provide a forum for candid discussions to exchange views on the policies and strategies implemented in the manufacturing sector and serve as an excellent opportunity to move along the various pathways identified. This event will surely help enterprises to achieve the desired objective, tackling the hardships of the pandemic and building resilience for the future challenges of the manufacturing sector through the creation of an enabling environment for sustainable industrial growth.

I wish to reiterate my thanks to UNECA for its collaboration and my team from the Ministry for the successful organisation of this Policy Dialogue.

I wish you all fruitful deliberations.

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Entrance test mandatory for admission to all central universities from 2022-23

All central universities will have to admit students to undergraduate courses based on the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and not Class 12 marks, the University Grants Commission (UGC) said Monday. This rule will come into force from the upcoming academic year (2022-23).

UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said it will be mandatory for the 45 central universities to adopt CUET for admission to their undergraduate courses. However, for postgraduate admissions, universities will have the flexibility to use CUET scores as of now.

The National Test Agency (NTA) will conduct the Common University Entrance Test for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the first week of July.

Jagadesh Kumar said the decision will provide equal opportunities to students from the Northeast and rural India. In addition to this, it will help parents of poor students as they will not have to pay for appearing for several entrance exams, Kumar said in an online interaction with mediapersons.

However, he said that some skill-based courses will have practical components. The course for CUET will be basic concepts from the Class 12 CBSE syllabus. The guidelines for the exam will be shared with universities, he said.

CUET, a computerised test, will be conducted in 13 languages: English, Hindi, Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

UGC, however, has exempted international students from CUET. For post-graduate programmes, some varsities have joined the initiative, Kumar said, adding that he hoped that all universities will ultimately make use of the test.

Reservations, if any, for local or internal students, may continue if the universities choose to, Kumar said.

The only difference is that these students will also have to come through CUET, like students to be admitted to general seats. The reservation policies and ordinances of the universities will remain unchanged, Kumar said.

For Ph.D. courses, he said, National Entrance Test (NET) scores can be used by universities. However, those varsities that do not have NET can decide to either conduct their own entrance exam or hold interviews.

For skill-based and professional UG courses like theatre and music, universities will have to hold practical exams and include them as a part of the students final CUET score.

Explaining the structure of the exam, Kumar said it will be three-and-a-half hours long, and will be conducted in two phases. Candidates will be given multiple choices in every section to offer greater flexibility.

All the questions in the entrance paper will be from Class 12 CBSE textbooks so students need to focus on the NCERT syllabus. Though there are different ways in which different boards explain similar concepts, therefore students will be given a choice on what they want, Kumar said.

In Section 1, there will be 13 language subjects from which students can appear for any one language. In other sections, there will be 27 domain-specific subjects from which students can choose up to six. These include agriculture, anthropology, accounting, book-keeping, performing arts and Sanskrit, among others.

Model Public Universities

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, inter-alia, envisions setting up of Model Public Universities for holistic and multidisciplinary education, at par with IITs, IIMs, etc, called MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities), which will aim to attain the highest global standards in quality education. NEP further states that all programmes, courses, curricula, and pedagogy across subjects, including those in-class, online, and in ODL modes as well as student support, will aim at achieving global standards of quality, minister of state for education, Subhas Sarkar informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The NEP-2020 also envisions setting up of a Higher Education Commission of India as an umbrella body with four independent verticals to perform distinct functions of regulation, accreditation, funding, and academic standard setting. Accordingly, the ministry is in the process of drafting a Higher Education Commission of India Bill, the minister stated.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has informed that it has notified the UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020 on 4 September 2020 and further amendment on 1 July 2021. These regulations lay down the minimum standards of instruction for the grant of degrees through Open and Distance Learning mode and online mode.

The UGC has further informed that in view of the recommendation of National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education, including vocational education, from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035 and to further promote Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and online education, the UGC has constituted an Expert Committee to review existing ODL and Online regulatory framework while ensuring quality, driven by simplified recognition system and processes, he added.
Consumer Protection Authority orders halt to misleading 'Sensodyne' product ads

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has passed order against misleading advertisements of Sensodyne products, which make false claims like Recommended by dentists worldwide and Worlds No 1 sensitivity toothpaste.

CCPA, headed by Nidhi Khare, had, on 9 February 2022, passed an order directing discontinuation of advertisement of Sensodyne products, which show endorsement by foreign dentists.

The Authority had initiated suo-moto action against advertisement of Sensodyne products on various platforms, including Television, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, showing dentists practicing outside India (practicing in the United Kingdom) endorsing the use of Sensodyne products, namely Sensodyne Rapid Relief and Sensodyne Fresh Gel, for protection against teeth sensitivity and making claims that Sensodyne is Recommended by dentists worldwide, Worlds No 1 sensitivity toothpaste and clinically proven relief, works in 60 seconds.

After examination of the response submitted by the company, CCPA observed that the two market surveys submitted by the company in support of its claims Recommended by dentists worldwide and Worlds No 1 sensitivity toothpaste made in the advertisements were conducted only with dentists in India. The company did not submit any cogent study or material to substantiate the claims made in the advertisements or indicate any worldwide prominence of Sensodyne products. Thus, the claims were observed to be bereft of any reason or justification.

With respect to the claim of clinically proven relief, works in 60 seconds, CCPA had written to the Drugs Controller General of India, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to furnish its comments on the correctness of the claims made by the company. CDSCO has directed the Assistant Drug Controller, Licensing Authority, Silvassa to investigate the claims made by the company since the product in question is manufactured under cosmetic licence granted by State Licensing Authority, Silvassa. The Assistant Drug Controller has written to CCPA stating that the claims made by the company are under investigation and further action will be initiated after the hearing process. In view of the communication received from CDSCO and Assistant Drug Controller, Licensing Authority, Silvassa as regards the claim of clinically proven relief, works in 60 seconds", the matter now rests with Assistant Drug Controller, State Licensing Authority, Silvassa.

Therefore, CCPA has ordered discontinuation of advertisements of Sensodyne products which make the claims Recommended by dentists worldwide and Worlds No 1 sensitivity toothpaste within seven days and directed payment of penalty of Rs10,00,000. Also, advertisements which show endorsements by foreign dentists have been ordered to be discontinued as per the earlier order passed by CCPA.

In the wake of consumer sensitivity around Covid-19 pandemic, CCPA took stringent action against misleading advertisements whereby 13 companies withdrew their advertisements and 3 companies made corrective advertisements.

Further, to safeguard consumer interest against misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices, CCPA has also issued two advisories. The first advisory was issued on 20 January 2021 calling industry stakeholders to cease making misleading claims that take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic situation and are not supported by any competent and reliable scientific evidence. The second advisory, issued on 1 October 2021 highlighted compliance of the provisions of Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules, 2020, which require every marketplace e-commerce entity to prominently display all information provided to it by seller under Rule 6(5) including name, designation and contact information of the grievance officer of the seller.

CCPA has also issued two Safety Notices under Section 18(2)(j) of the Act alerting consumers against buying goods which do not hold without valid ISI Mark and violate the BIS standards directed for compulsory use by the Central Government. While the first Safety Notice was issued on 6 December 2021 in reference to Helmets, Pressure Cookers and Cooking gas cylinders, the second Safety Notice was issued on 16 December 2021 in reference to household goods, including electric immersion water heaters, sewing machines, microwave ovens, domestic gas stoves with LPG etc.
Back in the day when Ballyshannon had 14 arches on its old bridge that crossed the river Erne, it was one of the greatest salmon fisheries in all of Europe.

And fly tiers, Michael Rogan and family, were located at what is now the site of the Ballyshannon Credit Union. They were famous throughout the world, as fly tyers and fly dressers, with amazing skills and dexterity. There is not a fly fisher in the world who has any knowledge of history of fly fishing, who would not know of the Rogan's.

But now thankfully, traditional Irish salmon flies from Donegal and across Ireland, commissioned one hundred and twenty years ago for the Cork International Exhibition in 1902, are to feature in a new historical picture book from Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Fly tying involves the dressing of a fishing hook to create an artificial fly, which is then used by anglers at the end of a rod and line to catch fish.

Its a little-known part of Irelands heritage but many angling shops in Ireland in the late 1800s and early 1900s employed fly dressers.

Some were considered masters of their craft, thanks to their skills, creativity and the traditional methods that they used.

In recognition of the cultural importance of the craft and to record examples, a collection of traditional fly dressings was commissioned in 1902, with specific sets of flies collected for each of the twenty fishery districts throughout the country, including Donegal.

The current custodians of this important collection, Inland Fisheries Ireland, has published the picture book online recently, making it freely available to new generations around the world

LETTERKENNY (Fiery Brown fly) from Michael Rogan

For the 1902 Exhibition, the salmon flies for the Ballyshannon and Letterkenny districts were tied by the famous fly dresser Michael Rogan from Ballyshannon.

A total of 20 flies for the Ballyshannon district and eight flies for the Letterkenny district were tied by the late Mr. Rogan and are now included in the new online book titled The 1902 Cork Collection of Salmon Flies.

One of the most renowned salmon flies in Ireland is the Fiery Brown. The fly is famous for the particular hue of the materials used by Rogan, which were dyed a reddish brown colour known as Fiery Brown. Many other fly-tyers tried to imitate this colour, and there has been much debate and intrigue over the years as to how he achieved this particular hue.

Shane OReilly of Inland Fisheries Ireland said: This new book offers a unique glimpse into Irelands past, putting a spotlight on traditional salmon angling in Ballyshannon, Letterkenny and the other fishery districts of the era.

Each of the flies showcases the detail and beauty of traditional Irish salmon flies and the wide range of materials and techniques used by Irish fly dressers at the time.

Many of those fly dressers are now revered around the world for the quality of their craft, so this collection is of significant cultural importance too, and is now available for the next generation to discover.

BALLYSHANNON (Yellow Jay Fly) from Michael Rogan

Over a hundred years after the Cork International Exhibition took place, interest in the collection was re-ignited by angling author, the late E.J. Ted Malone, who described the collection as a long lost treasure of Irish Angling.

Malone worked alongside Peter Kealey and Peter Dunne, all fly tying experts, to meticulously examine, photograph and record the various fly dressings. Sadly, Ted Malone passed away in 2017 and the book is dedicated to his memory.

Patterns and descriptions of over 380 individual flies can be found in the book.

These include the Fiery Brown, Yellow Jay and Deadly Bobber, all of which were tied for fisheries such as the River Erne, River Bundrowes, Lough Melvin, River Glen, River Eske, River Eany, and the River Bunduff, in the Ballyshannon district.

Once again, Mr. Rogans Fiery Brown is amongst the best-known flies in the Letterkenny district, which also includes the Golden Olive and the Olive & Claret. These flies were tied for use on the River Owenea, River Gweedore, River Crolly, and the River Lennan.

Inland Fisheries Ireland is exploring ways of putting the original collection on display once more and members of the public are being encouraged to contact the state agency with any suggestions they may have.

The 1902 Cork Collection of Salmon Flies, including the Donegal flies, is available to view from the Inland Fisheries Ireland website at www.fisheriesireland.ie and from the Fishing in Ireland website at www.fishinginireland.info
Trade union Forsa has accepted improved pay and conditions for grant-funded school secretaries across Ireland.

The Department of Education's offer received overwhelming endorsement by secretaries, 95% of whom voted in favour of the changes.

It comes following engagement between the Department, school management bodies and Forsa.

Minister for Education Norma Foley and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath commented yesterday (March 23) on the new measures, with Minister Foley calling secretaries "an integral part of school communities".

She said, "Resolving this issue has been a priority for me since my appointment and todays ballot result is an overwhelming endorsement by school secretaries of the package offered by the department. I am pleased that todays ballot will provide further recognition of the excellent work carried out by school secretaries on a daily basis."

School secretaries pay rates will now move to a scale aligned with the Clerical Officer Grade III pay scale on a pro-rata basis, in accordance with a secretarys current working pattern.

Ministers @NormaFoleyTD1 and @mmcgrathtd welcome acceptance by Forsa of offer of improved pay and conditions - https://t.co/V7SoDga9af  Department of Education (@Education_Ire) March 23, 2022

These pay increases will be backdated to September 1 2021, with lower-paid but longer serving secretaries to be placed higher up the salary scale.

Secretaries will no longer need to apply to the Department of Social Protection for payment of benefits for periods they are not working (such as school holidays), and an allocation of 22 days annual leave has also been proposed.

Minister McGrath said he was "pleased" secretaries voted in favour of the agreement.

He said, "I have been supportive of seeing a resolution to the issue for some time, particularly due to the vital services being provided by secretaries throughout the country and supporting the day to day activities of schools."
(The Center Square)  Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against Hillary Clinton, her campaign and the Democratic party over their claims that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian operatives to win the 2016 presidential election.

The lawsuit was filed in a Florida court and levels a range of allegations against the defendants, including hacking, deceiving law enforcement, and creating fake evidence.

In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot  one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nations democracy, the complaint says. Acting in concert, the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty.

Thursday's lawsuit is the latest in a long-contested political fight over the Russian collusion allegations and how they arose.

In the lawsuit, Trump asks for punitive damages and compensation for his legal fees, which he says surpassed $24 million.

The scheme was conceived, coordinated and carried out by top-level officials at the Clinton Campaign and the DNC  including the candidate herself  who attempted to shield her involvement behind a wall of third parties, the lawsuit alleges. To start, the Clinton Campaign and the DNC enlisted the assistance of their shared counsel, Perkins Coie, a law firm with deep Democrat ties, in the hopes of obscuring their actions under the veil of attorney-client privilege. Perkins Coie was tasked with spearheading the scheme to find  or fabricate  proof of a sinister link between Donald J. Trump and Russia.

To do so, Perkins Coie launched parallel operations: on one front, Perkins Coie partner Marc Elias led an effort to produce spurious opposition research claiming to reveal illicit ties between the Trump Campaign and Russian operatives; on a separate front, Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann headed a campaign to develop misleading evidence of a bogus back channel connection between e-mail servers at Trump Tower and a Russian-owned bank, the lawsuit adds.

Trumps lawsuit comes after John Durham, special counsel for the Department of Justice, alleged in February court filings that the Clinton campaigns legal team paid a tech firm which was mining White House servers to dig up dirt on then President Donald Trump.

"Tech Executive-1s employer, Internet Company-1, had come to access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the [Executive Office of the President], the filing reads. "Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOPs DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump."

That report gave fresh wind to Trumps argument.

Michael Sussmann, one of the Clinton campaigns lawyers, was indicted by a grand jury last year for allegedly lying to the FBI. He has pleaded not guilty.

The FBI said Sussmann lied when he gave them "data files allegedly containing evidence" of a back-channel communication link between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Sussmann lied about the capacity in which he was providing the allegations to the FBI, the indictment said. Specifically, Sussmann stated falsely that he was not doing his work on the aforementioned allegations for any client, which led the FBI General Counsel to understand that Sussmann was acting as a good citizen merely passing along information, not as a paid advocate or political operative. In fact, and as alleged in further detail below, this statement was intentionally false and misleading because, in assembling and conveying these allegations, Sussmann acted on behalf of specific clients, namely, (i) a U.S. technology industry executive (Tech Executive-I) at a U.S. Internet company (Internet Company-I), and (ii) the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign (the Clinton Campaign).
Jasper, IN (47546)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. High 67F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Thunder possible. Low near 60F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
ADA [ndash] Memorials services for Clifford Brent Hall, 63, of Ada are 10:00 A.M. Thursday, May 5, 2022 at Trinity Baptist Church, Doug Brewer will officiate. Mr. Hall passed away Monday, April 25, 2022 at a local nursing home surrounded by family. He was born August 8, 1958 in Shawnee, OK t
The Lehigh Valleys housing market is hotter than a Phoenix summer, and it will take longer than anyone wants to correct some of the challenges this creates for individuals and families, communities, lenders, realtors, developers and elected officials. While Im apt to quote notorious 1980s commercial icon Crazy Eddie, because housing prices are insane, its important to understand what is causing what the regions housing market is experiencing and what this means.

Becky Bradley (Contributed )

To unravel this complex market, we need to move beyond the shock and awe, and instead understand what is being done and what more we can do. While entertaining, Crazy Eddie is no substitute for where we really need to work, and thats on patience, because much is being done.

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Instead, lets opt for philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who theorized over 275 years ago, patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. Translation: Pain before the gain.

Pain is a good way to describe what anyone trying to buy a home is going through right now.

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Desperate buyers, most making the biggest investment of their lives are waiving inspections, paying cash and bidding tens of thousands of dollars over asking prices for homes that are sometimes selling within hours of hitting the market.

Crazy.

But the LVPCs latest BuildLV Development Report shows that help is on the way. Its just going to take patience. A lot of it, because backfilling this historic housing shortage is going to take years.

Within the nearly 500 development reviews we performed last year, 2,248 new homes were approved. Its the most since 2007 and in those numbers is a lot of reason for optimism. Theres far more diversity in what developers are building these days, with a greater percentage being twins, townhomes and apartments. The 1,264 apartments approved in 2021 are the most weve seen in more than two decades. Single-family detached homes remain a staple for Lehigh Valley homebuyers, but they no longer dominate the regional market, and this new diversity and changing home preferences are saving space.

For example, the 811 single-family detached homes approved in 2021 will use about 450 acres of land. Compare that to 2007, when 866 such homes were built on nearly 1,300 acres of mostly farmland and open space  you know, the kind of land were all working hard to preserve.

The apartments were approved last year at roughly 22 units per acre and most of those will be built on already-developed urban and suburban lots.

Thats the good news. The bad news is that even at this intense rate of building, climbing out of our housing shortage is going to take years and these skyrocketing housing prices are likely to continue in the Lehigh Valley longer than the rest of the nation.

Consider that the analysis LVPC housing expert Jill Seitz did last year showed the Lehigh Valley was short about 10,000 available homes from having a healthy, balanced housing market. As more homes are built each year, pressure will gradually be relieved, but it doesnt take high math to deduce that even the increased number of homes were seeing approved arent going to fill the void anytime soon.

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Again, years. And consider that all those homes approved in 2021 still have to be built and are likely at least two to three years from hitting the market.

But why will this insanity period last longer than most regions? Because despite all weve said about this frenzied market, and despite a median homes sales price thats increased 46% in just two years, according to Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors data, this region is still a relatively affordable place to live.

The median home price nationwide is now $350,300. Thats actually a 3% reduction from a year ago. When you compare that to the Lehigh Valley median price of $269,950, it makes this region a pretty attractive place for people looking to relocate in this new world economy in which some employers have gone to hybrid or fully remote work. And why not? Were a beautiful region with lots of culture, history, open space and a unique character all our own, and were within an easy drive to world class destinations and the Atlantic Ocean.

Thats why many of these cash bids coming in are from workers relocating from outside the region, and outside investors seizing opportunity in a region that Barrons Magazine, as recently as 2016, listed as the countrys most undervalued market.

But being affordable compared to the national average, or even to nearby regions in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut, doesnt mean were affordable to people who live here.

Therein lies the biggest problem with all of this. These spiking housing prices are making it difficult for a lot of Lehigh Valley residents to move within their own communities, or even stay in the rental property they already occupy. Jills analysis last year showed that more than half of all Valley renters and a quarter of homeowners are paying more than 30% of their gross income for housing  a condition known as being cost-burdened that leaves families vulnerable to financial instability.

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The answer is more for sale and rental housing at all price points of the market, because huge inventory shortages at the top and bottom of the market  homes priced above $350,000 and below $80,000 (or rent of $800 per month)  are forcing high earners to buy down, and lower earners to buy up, creating compression that has everyone searching for homes in the middle. Prices for all types of units go up and everyone needing or wanting housing is squeezed.

The answer is a lot more of what I like to call workforce housing  housing thats appropriately priced to match the incomes of people who live and work in a given area, whether they be low, medium or high income. Other tools such as zoning, code and design regulation changes that would increase development flexibility and incentivize a greater mix of housing types will be needed to achieve such a balance.

But that brings us back to where we started  patience. It is said to be a virtue, but if youre trying to buy in this market, it may be bitter. As Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors CEO Justin Porembo says, if youre selling a home, you have a 100% chance of success right now. But if youre bidding on one, your success rate is about 1 in 30.

Patience isnt much fun, but its something were all going to have to deal with because this housing shortage will continue to test our resolve for the foreseeable future.

However, the development and lending communities, and even local and county governments are responding at a level unlike the region has seen in over a decade.

Housing is coming. Well just have to wait for it.

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Becky Bradley is executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
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After a three year gap due to Covid restrictions, Celebration of Culture Day returned at Dundalk Grammar School, turning the school into a sea of colour as students embraced the spirit of the Day.

Students swapped their uniforms for their chosen cultural attire, as they determined to make up for lost time to celebrate a day that has evolved into a special event in the hearts and minds of the school population.

Given all that has come upon us over the past few years, the day took on an even greater celebratory mood, and the positivity of the atmosphere was tangible.

This was the third Culture Day to be held in the school.

The first one was held in March 2018, the second in March 2019.

Two years ago in March 2020 the event had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour as it coincided with school closures that signalled the beginning of Covid restrictions on March 12 of that year.

So the feeling last Wednesday March 16 was one of great to be back.

With over 50 cultures among the student body in the school, the diversity in cultural attire was inspiring to behold. The day started with a morning assembly where the organising team of students spoke to the student body, and a video they had produced on what culture meant to students in the school was shown.

A ceremony to raise the Irish Flag to officially launch the day followed, with a rendition of the national anthem played by members of the school orchestra. Stalls, music and food was the order of the day, and the event took on a life of its own.

What makes the day is that it very much comes from the students. The day is for every student to participate in and embrace in his or her own way, as everyone has a culture.

It was a day to learn and share, respect and be respected, understand and acknowledge, and to celebrate the world of cultural diversity in which we live today. We as humans are different throughout the world, and yet in many ways we are similar. Hence the theme of Culture Day: United in Diversity.
The Special Criminal Court has ruled that there is sufficient evidence for it to consider whether former soldier Lisa Smith was a member of Isis and if she funded the terrorist organisation.

Ms Smith's lawyers had applied to the court to direct not-guilty verdicts on the grounds that there is no evidence to support the prosecution case and that to even consider a verdict would be unfair and could lead to a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt today, Thursday March 24th, said that he can see no basis as to how it would be unfair to ask the court to assess the evidence and consider verdicts.

He said the prosecution case, taken at it highest, could support a conviction without necessarily leading to a miscarriage of justice.

The weight to be given to the prosecution evidence, he said, is a matter for consideration during deliberations.

Referring to previous legal judgements, Mr Justice Hunt said that withdrawing a case at this stage in a trial should only be an "exceptional measure to avoid the manifest risk of wrongful conviction".

In relation to the funding terrorism charge, he said that there is sufficient evidence for the court to consider the intent or knowledge of the accused when she sent e800 to a man who the prosecution allege was, at the time, a member of Isis.

Following the ruling Michael O'Higgins SC, for Ms Smith, said he intends to call one witness, an expert on "caliphates" - states where Islamic law is imposed.

The witness will be available on Monday.

Counsel for the prosecution, Sean Gillane SC, is expected to deliver his closing speech to the court on Tuesday before Mr O'Higgins delivers his closing address.

Ms Smith (40), from Dundalk, Co Louth, an Islamic convert and former Irish soldier, travelled to Syria in 2015 after terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on all Muslims to travel to the Islamic State.

She has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State, between October 28th, 2015 and December 1st, 2019.

She has also pleaded not guilty to financing terrorism by sending 800 in assistance, via a Western Union money transfer, to a named man on May 6th, 2015.
Ireland is open to more sanctions against Russia, the Taoiseach has said as he attends a key European Council meeting in Brussels.

European leaders and US president Joe Biden gathered in Brussels on Thursday, March 24 for discussions on the latest response to the war in Ukraine.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who tested negative for Covid-19 after several days of isolating in Washington last week, joined other leaders for the summit.

He told reporters he was feeling very good and praised the benefits of vaccination.

The EU meeting comes alongside Nato and G7 gatherings, as Western leaders try to remain united in the face of Russian aggression.

Mr Martin said that Ireland would back further measures against Russia, but stressed the importance of unity of purpose among EU states.

He accused Vladimir Putin of creating an appalling humanitarian crisis.

This is a long haul, were very clear on this.

We support the Commissions focus on the longer haul energy implications in terms of reducing dependency on Russian oil and gas.

Critically, looking at the energy security and energy supply issue for the autumn.

On sanctions, Mr Martin said that Ireland supported the widest and strongest set of sanctions.

Obviously, there are implications for other member states in terms of energy

He said that there had to be a balance between hurting Russia and not leaving the EU exposed.

Ireland is open to more sanctions and also that we enforce the sanctions we have now put in place, he told reporters.

We are very open to more sanctions, but we want to ensure that the existing sanctions are not circumvented.

Namechecking India in particular, he said that certain countries need to get off the fence.

People cannot stand on the sidelines here, in the face of this barbaric war.

Ireland has already taken in over 10,000 Ukrainian refugees since the war began.

This is an appalling displacement of so many people, and migration from a war zone, and therefore we have to do everything we possibly can to facilitate and respond to all those fleeing Ukraine, Mr Martin said.

Mr Martin also raised again the possibility that Ireland might hold a citizens assembly as part of a nationwide debate on what he called broader issues of European Union security.

Ireland is a militarily neutral nation and has been sending non-lethal aid to the Ukrainian army.

Irish European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne said ahead of the meeting that he expected a broadening of sanctions.

Ireland certainly will be working towards that, in supporting that, he said.

The difficulty of course is that you want to make sure that Russia feels the pinch very, very seriously.

But that we dont end up feeling a greater pinch than Russia.

The punishment has to be to Russia, not to anybody else.

However, he said it is important EU leaders remain unanimous over any possible measures.

He said while it is possible the EU could take more drastic action on Russian oil and gas imports, he acknowledged such a proposal has different levels of support in European capitals.

Youll have heard some other leaders cast some doubt on that, Mr Byrne told RTE radio.

Anything that happens at the European Council has to happen in a unanimous way.

Discussion can take a different turn. And thats certainly possible today.

This is democracy. Its complicated.

Twenty-seven countries, and indeed parliaments in some cases, have to mandate leaders getting together.
It begins when the weather gets nice outside.

Clusters of dirt bike and all-terrain vehicle riders flock to Allentown streets. They pop wheelies, they weave in and out of traffic, they blow through stop signs.

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To many Allentonians, its a quality of life issue, a major nuisance that has plagued the city for some time and can become dangerous when riders are reckless. But to some youth advocates, its how the citys young population blows off steam, and an indication more resources should be provided.

Its also why Allentown officials announced Wednesday the creation of a regional task force dedicated to solving those quality of life issues caused by packs of riders on city streets.

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Mayor Matt Tuerk will be part of the regional task force, which will also include police Chief Charles Roca, police chiefs and mayors in Bethlehem, South Whitehall, Whitehall and Salisbury, two Lehigh County directors and state Sen. Pat Browne and state Reps. Mike Schlossberg and Peter Schweyer.

The purpose of the task force, Tuerk said, is to tackle the issues created by dirt bike and ATV use through education, enforcement and legislation.

We need to address the quality of life issues caused by dirt bikes and ATVs but also engage in an ongoing conversation with state legislators to address these issues statewide, Tuerk said. Illegal dirt bike and ATV riding is dangerous and has a serious negative impact on our residents.

Tuerk said the task force will produce an action plan with specific solutions, but did not provide a timeline. The group has its first meeting April 4.

ATVs and some dirt bikes are illegal to ride on Allentown streets. Legal dirt bikes, based on the size of their engine, must be registered and insured.

Roca said the department has fielded 140 calls complaining about illegal dirt bikes and ATVs in 2022. He hopes to see city or state legislation that could increase penalties for illegal riding, and encouraged the public to contact police if they see illegal riders or know where illegal vehicles are stored.

Ive heard dirt bike riders say, This is how we blow off steam, were not hurting anybody, but one of the things I want to bring to the forefront is that you are hurting the quality of life of the community. Think of your parents. Think of your kids. Lets find activities that are good, Roca said.

The city is also forming an internal task force on dirt bikes and ATVs consisting of Tuerk; Roca; City Council member Daryl Hendricks, a former Allentown police officer; and others from the citys traffic and recreation departments.

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The announcement comes the day after the city announced a crackdown on illegal riding: Police arrested two drivers and seized four vehicles over the weekend. To some, the announcement is a welcome indication that the city is taking action on the issue, while others hope the city will integrate riders into the solution, too.

Michael Pulieri, who owns a used car dealership on Fourth Street in south Allentown, said groups of bikers ride up and down the street starting around 3 p.m. nearly every day during the warmer months. Its noisy, obnoxious and creates a dangerous traffic situation for himself and his customers, he said.

They just cause recklessness, Pulieri said. They bump into stuff. Its like a mob. They just dont follow traffic laws, they do whatever they want.

Pulieri said he usually doesnt call the cops when riders are disturbing the area because he has a neighbor who calls enough for all [of the neighborhood] put together. But even though his neighbor calls frequently, the issue hasnt subsided.

Stopping illegal riders is a challenge for police. The departments policy is not to chase illegal dirt bikes just for driving in the city because of the dangers of high-speed chases. That leaves officers with few options when riders flee when police are nearby, Roca said.

Jeani Garcia, an Allentown native and program manager with Promise Neighborhoods Lehigh Valley, a grassroots nonprofit that works with area youth, said she grew up riding bikes throughout the city. She worries about riders safety and the safety of drivers, but doesnt want to see young riders being dehumanized either.

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Listen, I drive in the city, so my concern is always Oh my God, one of them is going to pull out in front of the car,  Garcia said. But that doesnt give me the right to say, Ugh, theyre a nuisance, theyre savages, I hope one of them gets hit. I would never speak like that and never would have that mindset.

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Michael Frassetto directed the documentary #Bikelife_610 about Allentown residents who formed a biking group as a way to avoid drugs and gangs in the city. He thinks a lack of communication between city authorities and the citys young people is the root of the problem.

Yes, there are some safety issues with them going in and out of the streets, riding on the wrong side, but I think thats where part of the disconnect comes from with the city authorities and younger adults, Frassetto said in an interview. If there was a compromise or some dialogue between them, police, authorities within the city, I think that some sort of compromise could be come to.

Allentown is not the only city experiencing this problem. Philadelphia and New York also have major biker subcultures and see riders frequenting the city streets. Philadelphia City Council, fielding complaints from numerous residents, recently floated measures like closing streets to traffic during certain hours and finding a site for riders to use as a dirt bike park.

The latter is something advocates have proposed in Allentown. The city has more than 40 parks, and could designate at least one for riders, Garcia said.

Who in the community or in the city or the police department has pulled somebody over and got them off a dirt bike that wasnt registered and said, What can we do to help you? What can the city do to help you?  Garcia said. Where would you like to see a bike park? Has the city ever asked someone that?

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Tuerk said a designated space for safe riding could be a part of the solution, but perhaps not in Allentown if the city does not have the right patch of land to develop a park. He said that partnering with Lehigh County representatives could yield a suitable park location elsewhere in the region.

Morning Call reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at 610-820-6681 and liweber@mcall.com.
Adrian Shanker, founder and former executive director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, speaks during the centers annual Gala & LGBTQ+ Community Leadership Awards on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, at Homewood Suites by Hilton in Center Valley. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

For Adrian Shanker, his work in the Lehigh Valley had come full circle.

More than 300 people gathered Wednesday night at the Homewood Suites in Center Valley to attend an annual gala, celebrating and raising money for the center he founded, Allentowns Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center.

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From our start at this event in 2014 all the way to this gala, tonight is a bookend, Shanker said. Tonight is my final night in Pennsylvania after 17 years of activism and advocacy andseven and a half years since founding this organization. I may be departing this organization but I have so much confidence in its future. Lets dream up the future we want.

The Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Centers annual Gala & LGBTQ+ Community Leadership Awards was bittersweet as supporters, elected officials, staff and business leaders said goodbye to Shanker, who is stepping down from his role as executive director.

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The centers board introduced Shankers interim replacement, Bill McGlinn, a former top Muhlenberg College official and Lehigh Valley LGBTQ community leader. The centers board will continue its search for a permanent replacement.

There is a word that speaks to my ongoing support and involvement in the center and that is purpose, McGlinn said. Purpose is defined as the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists, the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center is the living definition of the word. I look forward to being a part of ushering in the next chapter of the center.

McGlinn previously served as director of corporate, foundation, and government relations at Muhlenberg College and as director of development and community relations at Da Vinci Science Center. He holds degrees from Yale University (M.F.A., Theatre), New York University (M.P.A., Nonprofit Management), and Notre Dame (B.A., Theatre/English). After his retirement from Muhlenberg College, McGlinn became a key volunteer leader at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, where he has served as chair of the gala committee and the Campaign for Equity, a capital campaign that eliminated the centers mortgage.

McGlinn has some big shoes to fill. Shanker has spent nearly 17 years in the Lehigh Valley doing LGBTQ advocacy. He founded the center in June 2014 and led the fundraising, property acquisition and program development from the startup phase to its current annual budget of $1.6 million with two dozen employees.

Named in honor of Pennsylvania Diversity Network founders Liz Bradbury and Patricia Sullivan, the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center at 522 W. Maple St. opened in April 2016. At the time, it was the sixth center of its kind in the state.

Under his leadership the center gained a statewide reputation for promoting LGBTQ health. He created the biannual Pennsylvania LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment, which is one of the largest and most consequential state-level LGBTQ health data collections in the country.

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The center collaborated with Valley Youth House to form Project Silk, a program aimed at giving LGBT youth a place to belong and be introduced to services and resources that provide emotional and physical support.

In 2017, Shanker navigated a merger with Pride of the Greater Lehigh Valley that led to significant growth of the regions annual Pride festival. Under his leadership, the center also successfully sued the Trump administration to block three anti-LGBTQ rules from going into effect.

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And last year, the organization served more than 10,000 community members through supportive services, arts and culture programs and youth programs.

Shanker is also the author of Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health and the forthcoming Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic.

He will be moving to California where he will work at the Spahr Center, a LGBTQ resource and HIV care and prevention hub.

As he took to the stage for the final time, the galas attendees gave him a standing ovation.

This work will continue, Shanker said of Bradbury-Sullivan. I literally cant wait to see how this organization continues to thrive with new vision and new ideas.
Just after his first week of official practice, new transfer Jesse Miritello persuaded sever
A former elected official in the Slate Belt pleaded guilty this week to shooting a romantic rival in the head, murdering him in his Carbon County home, court records show.

John A. Martocci, 68, of Roseto pleaded guilty Monday in Carbon County Court to third-degree murder in the April 6, 2020, death of Kenneth Knibiehly at his home in Penn Forest Township. Martocci is scheduled to be sentenced June 2, according to court documents. Martocci is a former Roseto councilmember. His lawyer Robert Eyer of Easton did not return a call Thursday.

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Carbon County District Attorney Michael Greek said the plea agreement was offered with the consent of the victims family and state police and spares the family the trauma of a trial. Greek said Knibiehly was also armed and there was evidence the shooting could have been provoked. Third-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

His life is effectively taken away regardless of the plea, Greek said.

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According to state police, Knibiehlys girlfriend Donna Swanson called troopers to his home at 12 Van Doren Mews about 8:15 p.m. to report a shooting.

She told a 911 dispatcher that the couple was at home watching television when they heard their dogs barking outside, alerting them that someone was possibly outside. Knibiehly went downstairs to answer the door and returned to the second floor to get his phone. He told Swanson that a stranger had broken down and he needed to call for assistance.

Knibiehly returned downstairs and had a conversation with the person for a short time before a shot rang out. Swanson went downstairs and found Knibiehly on the floor by the entry door with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

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Swanson told state police that she had an off-and-on relationship with Knibiehly for many years and that before getting back together with him about three months before the shooting, she had been in a relationship with Martocci, who was married.

She also told police that about two years before, Knibiehly had attempted to ruin Martoccis marriage by following Swanson and taking pictures of her with Martocci and presenting evidence of their relationship to Martoccis wife. Swanson told police that Martocci had a hard time with her being in a relationship with Knibiehly but the two still spoke.

On April 7, the morning after Knibiehlys homicide, Swanson said she received a call from Martocci, who told her he received a call from a man named Ken. Martocci told her then that he knew what happened to Knibiehly, and then without prompting, said he had nothing to do with it and had been in Roseto all night. Police also said Swansons sister described a conversation with Martocci when he called to speak with Swanson in which he became nervous and excited when he learned a neighbors security system had captured video of the incident.

Investigators found messages on Swansons cellphone from Martocci in which he proclaimed his love for her and said that he was upset she was with Knibiehly. Swanson also told investigators about a letter Martocci hand-delivered to her in which he said he was mad and jealous and sad and depressed, and declared that he would love her always and never leave her.

State police said the neighbors security camera video showed a dark-colored SUV in front of Knibiehlys house at the time of the shooting. They also obtained a warrant for Martoccis cellphone records, which showed he was near Knibiehlys house at the time of the shooting.

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Martocci, who ran in 2013 as the Republican candidate for mayor in Roseto, was arrested three days after the shooting and has been held in Carbon County jail without bail.

Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.
EBRD Vice President to meet Egyptian authorities and business community

Visit to discuss COP27 and launch EBRDs country strategy for Egypt

Focus on boosting a green, sustainable and inclusive recovery

The EBRDs Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, Mark Bowman, will be visiting Egypt from 1 to 7 March for high-level meetings with government officials and the business community to discuss COP27, the Banks new country strategy and the recovery from the pandemic.

During his stay, Mr Bowman will meet Minister of International Cooperation and EBRD Governor for Egypt Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla, Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad and Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El Said.

He will visit the Suez Canal Economic Zone and meet its Chairman, Yehia Zaki. While there, he will also meet the Governor of Alexandria, Mohamed Taher El Sherif, the business community and EBRD clients.

The EBRD delegation includes Heike Harmgart, EBRD Managing Director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, Harry Boyd-Carpenter, Managing Director, Green Economy and Climate Action, Sue Barrett, Director, Infrastructure for SEMED and Turkey, Barbara Rambousek, Director, Gender and Economic Inclusion, and Khalid Hamza, Director, EBRD Head of Egypt.

Ahead of the visit, Mr Bowman said: The EBRD is committed to helping Egypt overcome the economic impact of the pandemic and to continuing to deliver reforms that secure a sound, sustainable and inclusive recovery. We are also working with the Egyptian authorities and the private sector to meet their green goals in the run-up to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh.

Egypt is a founding member of the EBRD. Since the start of its operations there in 2012, the Bank has invested more than 8.6 billion in 144 projects in the country.
A CORK TD has welcomed the announcement that a badly needed new special school is set to be established in the city.

This week it was announced that a special school will be established during the 2022/23 school year in Rochestown which will provide for the enrolment of children and young people with autism and complex learning needs up to 18 years of age.

It was also announced that additional places are also being provided in existing special schools in Cork.

Sinn Fein spokesperson for Education and Cork South-Central TD, Donnchadh O Laoghaire welcomed the announcement.

It is very badly needed; it is all too common every year that parents across Cork City are left with no school place for their child with special educational needs.

These parents have showed great strength and resilience in their campaigning for appropriate school places for their children, and should be commended for their achievement in getting to this announcement today, he said.

In this announcement, the minister appeared to suggest that the premises in Rochestown would not be ready until early 2023, indeed that the school places may not be available until then either.

It is key that the minister finds temporary school places and/or temporary accommodation for the 30 children who will attend Rochestown Special School.

These children cannot be left in limbo between September and early 2023; a temporary solution must be found until the premises are ready to ensure they can continue with their education, Mr O Laoghaire continued.

His party colleague, Cork North-Central TD, Thomas Gould, said that while additional capacity in special education is welcome, increased capacity is particularly needed on Corks northside.

What we have today is another announcement of a new special school in Cork but once again this wont be located on the northside, he said. The reality is that special schools on the northside are beyond capacity and children are already travelling across the city every morning to get to school.
Hospitals are under serious pressure as staff treat a high volume of Covid-19 patients, health officials have warned.

It comes as senior politicians insisted there will not be a return to any restrictions, despite a spike in cases.

HSE chief operations officer Anne OConnor said on Thursday that hospitals are bearing the brunt of the rise in cases.

Cases in hospital are up 29% in the last week.

According to the latest HSE figures, there were 89 Covid-19 positive patients at Cork University Hospital and 27 Covid-positive patients at the Mercy University Hospital yesterday.

Nationally, there were 1,395 Covid-positive patients in hospital, with 55 in intensive care.

Ms OConnor said around half of those patients are in hospital because they had become sick after contracting the virus.

She added: In one way, that doesnt really matter to us. If they are infectious with Covid, they need to be on a Covid ward, in isolation.

She named Sligo, Kerry and Limerick as places where staff are under particular pressure.

But she added: We are seeing huge pressures all around the country.

This is not just unique to hospitals. It is across the board.

More than 5,200 staff are currently absent due to Covid-19, she confirmed.

If you go to Limerick yesterday, they had serious problems with some specialties, where they had a consultant and some of their team out with Covid.

If they are gone, and their team is gone with Covid, we cant provide that service.

Ms OConnor said some hospitals and services are being forced to cancel elective surgery, even if they are endeavouring to still provide urgent or critical care.

I know far more people with Covid than I ever have at the minute, she told RTE radio.

She said the health service has to get through the coming weeks and hope that case numbers and hospital figures start to drop.

The only lever in a hospital, unfortunately, is to cancel planned work, she said.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party on Wednesday night that the chief medical officer does not see the need for further Covid restrictions.

He expressed his concern about rising numbers but stressed the Omicron variant of coronavirus is less severe, adding that the population is highly vaccinated and economic and social restrictions are not imposed for a bad flu season.
Ivana Bacik is the new leader of the Labour Party.

The leadership contest came following the sudden resignation of Alan Kelly earlier this month.

No other candidate came forward to contest the position, and it had been widely expected that Ms Bacik would take over.

I am honoured, excited, and I confess quite overwhelmed, she said on Thursday, to applause.

She said that she grateful for the support of party members and paid tribute to her predecessor Alan Kelly, calling him her friend and comrade.

The pair embraced after her election was announced.

I know the ambition you have for our future and for how our party can shape our future for the better, she told the audience in Ringsend, a traditionally working-class area of Dublin.

I sincerely hope that I can repay the trust you have placed in me.

The Labour TD for Dublin Bay South was elected to the Dail last summer in a byelection after more than a decade as a senator.

Her fellow TDs Duncan Smith and Aodhan O Riordain, seen as possible contenders, quickly ruled themselves out of any contest.

The resignation of Mr Kelly, while unexpected even in some Labour Party circles, came after months of static poll ratings.

Ms Bacik will be charged with uniting the party and convincing voters to once again back Labour, which is still struggling with the legacy of its time in the Fine Gael-led coalition Government, which oversaw harsh austerity measures in the aftermath of the financial crash.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Bacik spoke of her feminist credentials and her history of activism dating back to her student days.

She also referenced John and Pat Hume, speaking about the impotence of a state that works for the unity of the people of Ireland.

I didnt become a political activist because I had all the answers  and I still dont.

Addressing an audience that included her mother, Ms Bacik said: For me, politics is about building a better future.

Its not contrived shouting matches or tearing people apart to score a political point.

She said that her politics was constructive.

Its about positive change.
IF you are going to engage in these conversations around mens violence, be aware that for many of us it is not a headline that is up for debate, says Molly Sterling.

She is the founder of The Reclaim Project - an empowering community space for women and gender minorities who have experiences of power abuse within the arts.

For many of us, it is a lived experience and, therefore, holding empathy at the centre of these conversations is vital.

And allowing people to exit the conversation at any time is also so important.

Domestic violence service, Womens Aid, has recorded that more than 245 women have died in Ireland because of mens violence since 1996.

To highlight the extent of this violence and to remember and honour the murdered women behind the headlines, Molly and The Reclaim Project recently collaborated on a public art project called We Remember with a group from MTUs Creativity & Change, including Helen OKeeffe, Claire Coughlan, Maria Murray, and Richard Scriven, as well as the Cork Sexual Violence Centre.

Molly Twomey poet, reading at the Cork Sexual Violence Centre who hosted an event with MTU Creativity and Change recently. Picture: Eddie O'Hare.

Creativity & Change is a Crawford College of Art & Design educational programme consisting of a post-graduate course and shorter events, which promote the power of the arts in addressing global justice.

For this ongoing project, members of the Cork public are invited to contribute to the creation of a mural in Cork city centre.

Each participant will be given a stencil with one of the womens names to paint on the wall and, as they do so, are invited to reflect on how to do their part to change the culture of gender-based violence, which can be anything from small personal actions to speaking out, says Helen OKeeffe.

Molly hopes that this mural will serve as a space for the people of Cork to grieve and commemorate the deaths of these 245 women  as they should have been commemorated at the time of their death.

"I really hope it can also serve as a space for reflection, particularly for men, says Molly.

Seeing all these womens names on a wall together will highlight the magnitude of the issue of mens violence against women and will encourage people to take daily actions to prevent violence and to make the women in their life feel safer.

And these are only 245 names, only recorded from 1996. So, the magnitude really goes far beyond what will be seen on the mural.

The project also recognises and honours the unrecorded deaths of women by male violence around the world.

We realise this is a hugely sensitive topic for people, and we would love to extend a particular welcome to any family members or friends of the victims to get involved in the project, says Helen.

The project is hoping to further necessary conversations about male violence against women.

There has been a massive social change on violence against women, says Mary Crilly, Director of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre.

Molly says: I grew sick and tired of seeing violence affecting the women around me, and no action being taken by the men in my community.

I was frustrated that there was nothing being done about all the women who have died by mens violence.

I was sick and tired of passive reporting and passive language that continues to keep men on the outskirts of the conversation.

We need to bring them in. We need to come together and speak about the entire spectrum of violence perpetrated by men. We need to deconstruct it together. But we cant do that without the participation of men.

Musician Molly Sterling, performing at the centre. Picture: Eddie O'Hare.

The idea of bringing more men to the table to discuss male violence is something Molly feels adamant about.

I am by no means an expert, but I think what would make a huge difference in the prevention of mens violence against women is if more men decided to take the issue on in their communities; to examine their behaviours, to talk to each other about violence and aggression, and what the alternative options to that looks like for them.

Molly cites initiatives like What Does He Need? and The Shona Project as being game-changers in showing young people how they can engage with themselves and others in a healthier way.

What Does He Need? explores how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world they live in. It aims to create significant public dialogue about the current state of masculinity.

The Shona Project visits schools all over Ireland to meet and talk to girls about the importance of being kind to themselves and others, as well as how to find their own place and identity.

Their website gives Irish girls a platform to share their own stories, and a chance to feel less alone by engaging with a like-minded and caring community.

Creativity & Change are presently piloting a youth-workers training programme that uses spoken word poetry to address gender-based violence themes with young people.

All three initiatives are instrumental is creating questioning dialogue that is essential to healing the damage caused by male violence against women.

We need to not be afraid to speak about mens violence - which is easier said than done, says Molly. We want to live in an Irish society that says no more to violence against women and girls.

We Remember will host an exhibition and further events at The Gallery, 46 Grand Parade during April.

To take part in the We Remember mural, go to: https://cutt.ly/we_remember

To find out more about The Reclaim Project, follow @thereclaimprojectirl on Instagram.

For more information on Creativity & Change, go to: www.creativityandchange.ie
In 2014, the city of Toledo, Ohio had to go without drinking water for three days. The culprit? The toxic algae that turns Lake Erie green in the summers had contaminated a water plant.

Now, a new film considers the problem of toxic algae on Lake Erie and what is, and isnt, being done about it. Today, the producers of The Erie Situation announced that the film is premiering at the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) April 3.

Were thrilled to be having our world premiere at such a prestigious festival and to be doing so in the largest city on Lake Erie, director David J. Ruck said in a press release emailed to EcoWatch. But its important to note that this is more than just a Lake Erie or Midwest issue. Toxic algal blooms are a global issue negatively affecting communities worldwide. We should all be asking whether enough is being done to pull Lake Erie, and hundreds of other waterways, back from the brink.

In Lake Erie, the main cause of the toxic algae is agricultural runoff from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, otherwise known as factory farms. While some farmers are making an effort to adapt more environmentally friendly practices, many operations are continuing with business as usual and avoiding regulations.

The film follows people like Ken Sabin, a Point Place, Ohio boat builder who had to stop spending so much time on the lake when he developed respiratory issues, he believes from the algae.

As somebody who grew up on the Great Lakes, I knew I had to make this film, Ruck said in a statement in 2021. The health of these ecosystems and of those that inhabit them is an important and compelling story to tell. Its a story of big interests being allowed to go unchecked with practices that are harming many of us. My hope is that our film makes a difference by helping audiences to better understand these complex issues that very directly impact them and their communities.

The film is co-produced by Great Lakes Outreach Media and Plastic Oceans International, the nonprofit behind the Trees & Seas Festival.

Its been incredible working with David to bring the important global issue of water security to the forefront, Plastic Oceans International CEO Julie Andersen said in a statement. The project not only expands our efforts to use the power of film and story to educate and influence change, but to also further explore the deeper causes of plastic pollution linked to water security, human health and community impact.

If you are in Cleveland April 3, the film will screen at 7:25 p.m. Eastern Time at the Allen Theatre. Another screening will take place the next day at 4:50 p.m. It will also be available for streaming in the U.S. from Sunday, April 10 at 11:00 a.m. to April 17 at 11:59 p.m. You can purchase tickets on the festival website.

CIFF is thrilled to have The Erie Situation in the upcoming festival  a timely documentary that highlights key players, factors, and figures in a holistic, informational, yet engaging way, CIFF artistic director Mallory Martin said in the press release. As clean water issues are unfortunately universal, this film is essential viewing for all, and especially those who call any of the Great Lakes home.
Effingham, IL (62401)

Today

Cloudy. Some light rain will fall throughout the day. High 58F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
Are the people who ride dirt bikes and ATVs through Allentowns streets criminals? Or, are some just young people blowing off steam with an activity they consider to be fun and harmless?

The answer is both. Thats what makes the problem difficult to address.

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By riding vehicles that are prohibited from use on public roads, they are breaking the law.

If they zip through red lights and stop signs and go against traffic on one-way streets, they are a threat to public safety.

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Ive previously lauded Allentowns efforts to confiscate the bikes. I continue to support tough enforcement. Id love to see more riders in handcuffs, and facing stiffer punishment.

Wednesday, Allentown officials announced they are partnering with surrounding communities to create a task force to address the problem.

I usually roll my eyes when I hear about government officials creating a task force.

They often result in more talk and more paperwork than results. The creation of a task force sounds tough and gets publicity, though, which gets the public off officials backs for a while.

But give city officials credit for recognizing that Allentown isnt the only place where these bikers are a nuisance and a danger. Collaboration always is helpful. So I will hope this task force is fruitful.

At Wednesdays news conference, police Chief Charles Roca invited riders to meet with police to talk through the issue.

Id be surprised if any take him up on that offer, considering how some riders have deliberately taunted officers. A few years ago, one popped a wheelie right in front of an officer and nearly ran into a police car before crashing into a fence near Ritter Elementary School.

But, it never hurts to talk.

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If even a few riders would sit down with the chief, maybe they would see it from the other side.

What they consider to be joy riding or a way to express themselves is dangerous. Even if no one gets hurt, there are victims.

They include pedestrians and motorists who must take action to stay out of the way. And everyone in their path who has to endure the noise.

When I hear the term that there are no victims in this, there are victims, Roca said. Its the people and the residents that work hard each day.

Or go to one of the many restaurants in Lehigh County or Northampton County wanting to just kind of have a good time with their family, meanwhile, you have a pack of dirt bike riders come through.

Roca would like riders to know that authorities are trying to look out for them, too, as they can be hurt if they crash.

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Dont make the mistake of assuming that all riders are young and too immature to recognize the problem they are creating. Police said they have arrested people well into their 20s recently. Roca told me Wednesday that some riders are in their 50s.

They certainly should know better.

If you havent experienced what Mayor Matt Tuerk described Wednesday as a dirt bike rodeo, ABC 6 in Philadelphia has video of a recent large ride. Bikes went on sidewalks, through red lights and even up the steps of Phillys fabled art museum.

Some people want police to be more aggressive. Theyd prefer to see officers chasing bikes all over town, maybe even knocking them to the ground. Tuerk is right; thats not the proper response because its dangerous.

Were not going to endanger the lives of our residents, Tuerk said.

He and Roca said officers can be more effective by working with the community to get information about where the bikes are stored and when riders gather to use them. I hope the public is angry enough about the threat and the annoyance that these bikers pose to call police if they know something.

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[ Allentown forms task force to tackle dirt bike and ATV riders causing quality of life issues on Lehigh Valley city streets ]

All of that said, I think it would be wrong to label every rider as someone who intends to cause trouble or endanger the community.

Teenagers and young adults dont always consider how their actions affect others, especially if there are no obvious impacts such as someone getting injured.

Though they are breaking traffic laws, that doesnt mean they all have a criminal mindset.

Its not much different than people who drive cars at high speeds and weave in and out of traffic without turn signals. They put people at risk, too. They are breaking laws. But are they hardened criminals?

No. But that doesnt mean their actions deserve to go unpunished. The same goes for dirt bike riders.

Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at 610-820-6582 or paul.muschick@mcall.com
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Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson shakes hands with Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., right, as she departs following her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Manx nurses reject pay offer

Nurses have rejected for a four per cent pay offer from Manx Care.

A ballot by the Royal College of Nursing took place between the 1st and 17th of March.

It saw 77 per cent of those choose to reject the deal from the Island's health service operator.

The RCN said Manx Care's offer fell well short of the Union's demand for a 15 per cent consolidated pay increase plus a one-off payment.

The Union has confirmed that separate talks over pay for 2022 to 2023 have begun.
Isle of Man TT 2022: Registration opens to become TT marshal

Registration to become a marshall at this year's Isle of Man TT will open today at 5pm.

Anyone that is interested in Marshalling at this years event will be able to register online via the TTMA website.

Once an individual has registered online, they will then be able to complete the two required online training modules.

Jane Corlett, Company Director, TTMA Ltd: Its wonderful to be able to announce that registrations are now open. Its a real milestone moment in the build-up for the Isle of Man TT Races.

The TTMA welcomes individuals of all levels of experience to come forward and sign up. Marshalling is a truly unique way to experience the event and a great way to support the Isle of Man TT Races. Choosing to marshal also gives the opportunity to learn new skills alongside a community of like-minded individuals.

For more information on being a Marshal at the 2022 Isle of Man TT Races and to register your interest, visit the TTMA website: https://www.iomttmarshals.com/
Hong Kong's economic growth has positive momentum in the long run

Xinhua) 09:05, March 24, 2022

HONG KONG, March 23 (Xinhua) -- With the Chinese mainland's steadily growing economy, Hong Kong will gradually regain its economic growth momentum as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government implements multiple economic relief measures, experts have said.

Hong Kong has recently seen underperformance in export, employment and some other aspects. Observers believe that multiple internal and external factors have led to a slowdown in Hong Kong's momentum of economic recovery.

Data released by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council showed that Hong Kong's export index for the first quarter of 2022 was 24.7, down 12.5 points from the previous quarter, recording a downward trend for the third consecutive quarter.

Hong Hao, managing director and chief strategist of the Bank of Communications (International), said the extent of Hong Kong's economic slowdown will depend largely on the development of its epidemic situation.

Liang Haiming, a Hong Kong economist and chairman of China Silk Road iValley Research Institute, said the recent economic slowdown is due to volatility in the peripheral markets and mounting geopolitical tensions coupled with the epidemic situation in Hong Kong, which resulted in continued damage to the Hong Kong economy.

In order to lower the rising unemployment rate under the epidemic, the HKSAR government launched a new round of Employment Support Scheme, which is expected to involve 26 billion to 31 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 3.3 billion to 3.96 billion U.S. dollars) to benefit 1.1 million to 1.3 million employees in Hong Kong.

A new round of the Consumption Voucher Scheme is also launched, with 5,000-Hong Kong-dollar (about 640 U.S. dollars) vouchers of Phase I to be disbursed in April, valued at over 30 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 3.8 billion U.S. dollars).

"It is hoped that the scheme will relieve the public's pressure in the face of the epidemic and will help the business of small and medium-sized enterprises," said Paul Chan, financial secretary of the HKSAR government.

Liang noted that as personal consumption accounts for more than 60 percent of Hong Kong's GDP, the new round of the Consumption Voucher Scheme will help stimulate the retail market and support Hong Kong's economy.

With the full support of the central government and concerted efforts of all sectors of the Hong Kong community in the fight against the epidemic, Hong Kong's economy will gradually recover, Liang said.

Observers believe that the epidemic has the short-term impact. Hong Kong's economy will be able to overcome the challenges with its own unique advantages and resilience. They are still confident in Hong Kong's competitiveness in the long run.

"As long as the epidemic situation is under control, Hong Kong will still have its attractiveness and a good economic outlook when traveling between places is resumed," Paul Chan told a recent press conference.

An assessment report released by the International Monetary Fund earlier this month reaffirmed Hong Kong's status as a major international financial center and agreed that Hong Kong's financial sector continued to expand and develop even during the epidemic.

Yang Yuchuan, a professor with the Hong Kong Financial Services Institute, believes that once the epidemic is controled and exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland resume, Hong Kong's economy is expected to achieve an even better development.

Liang said that the mainland's economy maintains steady growth and is the firm backup for Hong Kong. With the full support of the central government, Hong Kong's economy will regain growth momentum when the epidemic is contained. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.8 HK dollars)

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
As a career national park advocate and Pennsylvania outdoorswoman, I feel compelled to speak out about the the proposed River Pointe Logistics Center.

Construction of an industrial park in an environmentally sensitive area would have notable impacts on the visitor experience at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Scenic Trail, both national park sites.

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Our parks deserve nothing less than the highest degree of protection afforded by federal law, and thus deserve to be considered in this process.

The National Parks Conservation Association is a private nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to strengthen and protect Americas favorite places. With 1 million members and supporters, including over 61,000 in Pennsylvania, we work to protect 420 landscapes, seashores, cultural and historic places, by lobbying local, state and federal officials.

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The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, including the separately designated Middle Delaware National Scenic River, is a unique and valuable ecological and economic resource for the surrounding communities.

It is the 15th most visited national park in the United States, with 4.3 million visitors in 2021. Visitor spending contributes an estimated $200 million to local economies within 60 miles of the park.

Sharon J. Davis (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

A view from the Columbia-Portland Pedestrian Bridge, seen here in 2018. The bridge, connecting Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is one of the attractions of the area that would be disrupted by the proposed 725-acre River Pointe Industrial Park, the writer asserts. (APRIL GAMIZ/The Morning Call) (April Gamiz)

The National Parks Conservation Association coordinates the Scenic Wild Delaware River Geotourism Program. Our program, endorsed by National Geographic, encourages visitors to shop and stay at locally owned businesses, and natural and cultural sites.

Less than a mile from the proposed 725-acre industrial park is the Portland-Columbia pedestrian bridge, which offers the most iconic view of the water gap found anywhere in the region.

Some of the buildings in the River Pointe proposal will tower over the rivers adjacent landscape and destroy the viewshed.

Before making final decisions on the industrial park we ask local officials to suggest scaled-down structures that will not destroy this one-of-a-kind view, as well as assess viewshed impacts by requiring renderings of the project from a variety of highly valuable viewpoints including:

 From the proposed development looking towards the Delaware River

 From the New Jersey side of the Delaware River looking toward the development

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 From the Delaware River directly in front of the proposed development looking up

 From the Delaware River at locations both north and south of the proposed development

 From the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge looking toward the proposed development

 From the Appalachian National Scenic Trail as it passes across Mount Minsi, looking toward the proposed development

 From the Portland-Columbia Pedestrian Bridge looking toward the proposed development

The proposed development is an area containing sensitive natural features including wetlands, riparian buffers, steep slopes and woodlands.

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The retirement and removal of the coal-fired power plant in Upper Mount Bethel Township, which polluted the air and water along the Delaware River and nearby communities, now provides an opportunity for remediation and low-impact development to strengthen the health of the river.

Allowing the development of industrial buildings so close to the Delaware River could result in devastating impacts. Impervious surfaces will increase, leading to stormwater runoff and sedimentation flowing into the Delaware River.

The loss of green space will remove critical habitat for plants and wildlife. Further study is necessary to assess impacts to air and water quality before approving the proposed industrial park.

Requiring substantial supplemental landscaping along the river would create additional buffering, vital to slowing down and filtering stormwater runoff before it enters the Delaware River. We are calling on local officials to limit the amount of tree and vegetation removal along the river and throughout the proposed development, to help control flooding.

It is also important to consider the impacts of increased pervious cover, tree removal and soil along the steep sloping portions of the development and ensure the development will not affect water quality during construction and during future operations.

Finally, we urge Upper Mount Bethel Township to consult with the National Park Service, stewards and caretakers of these amazing lands, on impacts to viewshed and water quality.

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Any development along the Delaware River which necessitates Clean Water Act permitting would require consultation with the National Park Service for water resource project review under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Any part of the proposed project involving other types of federal assistance might involve park service consultation, should the project affect critical viewsheds or otherwise affect wildlife or recreation.

We are concerned the proposed River Pointe Logistics Center will irrevocably alter a nationally significant viewshed, destroy sensitive ecological features, potentially harm the Delaware River and create air pollution from increased truck idling and congestion. This outcome is not guaranteed; but it is unacceptable.

Our local leaders must work together to protect this remarkable resource, which is the heart of our communities and the lifeblood of our local economy.

Sharon J. Davis, a Bangor resident, is the Middle and Upper Delaware River program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.
Athens, AL (35611)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 85F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
A hacking group calling itself Lapsus$ recently made waves by releasing sources codes it claimed to have stolen from Microsoft and Okta. Now, cybersecurity researchers investigating the attacks have traced them to a 16-year-old living with his mother near Oxford, England, according to Bloomberg. While the researchers have identified seven accounts associated with the hacking group  including one traced to another teenager in Brazil  they believe the teenager from England is the mastermind and is behind some of the major Lapsus$ hacks. However, they weren't able to connect the teen to all the attacks the group carried out.

The researchers looked at forensic evidence from the hacks, as well as public information to determine that the teen was indeed involved. Apparently, rival hackers posted the teenager's details online, including his address and information about his parents. Bloomberg didn't release the teen's personal information and only mentioned that he goes by the aliases "White" and "breachbase." White is reportedly so skilled at hacking and so fast at what he does that researchers previously thought the attacks were automated.

Some cybersecurity researchers believe that the group is motivated by not just money, but also notoriety, seeing as the actor doesn't cover its tracks. As Microsoft detailed in its investigation of the Lapsus$ attacks, the group even announces its hacks on social media and publicly posts calls for employees willing to sell their company logins. The bad actor also joins targets' communications channels, such as their Zoom calls, to taunt the people responding to their attacks.

Microsoft said the group started by targeting organizations in United Kingdom and South America, but that it has since expanded to target entities around the world, including government agencies, telecoms, and companies in the health sector. Both Microsoft and Okta admitted that they suffered a security breach, but both claim limited impact from the attacks.
Following a large-scale virtual health study, Google has submitted Fitbit's passive heart rate monitoring algorithm for review by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The study, which went live in May 2020, was open to all US Fitbit users over the age of 22, and it was designed to test how accurately the device could detect atrial fibrillation, or irregular heart rhythm. The system uses photoplethysmography to passively track the blood flow in a user's wrist and determine if there are any concerning irregularities. Google said its algorithm correctly identified undiagnosed AFib 98 percent of the time in this study, and the company presented its results to the American Heart Association at its most recent meeting.

Fitbit's Sense Smartwatch was approved by the FDA in 2020 for its ability to assess AFib using built-in electrocardiogram technology. This method requires active input from the user, while the PPG system heading to the FDA today runs in the background.

In addition to the Fitbit FDA news, Google is rolling out a few other healthcare-related tools. Google Search in the US will soon show available appointment slots with local doctors and clinics when looking for care, with an emphasis on the CVS MinuteClinic.

"While were still in the early stages of rolling this feature out, were working with partners, including MinuteClinic at CVS and other scheduling solution providers," Google chief health officer Dr. Karen DeSalvo said. "We hope to expand features, functionality and our network of partners so we can make it easier for people to get the care they need."

Google is also rolling out "health source information panels" and "health content shelves" on YouTube videos in Japan, Brazil and India this week, in an effort to highlight credible information from legitimate sources.
Meghan Markle hasn't wasted much time setting expectations for her first Spotify podcast. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Spotify has revealed that the Duchess of Sussex's initial series is Archetypes, an exploration of the "labels that try to hold women back." The teaser indicates Markle will hold "uncensored" discussions with historians and other experts as they explore the origins of stereotypes and define female lives.

Spotify had already announced that Archewell Audio, the production company founded by Markle and Prince Harry, would release their first full podcast series in the summer. Until now, the duo had only released a one-episode holiday special.

The announcement helps wind down a tense chapter for Spotify. The streaming service landed a deal with Harry and Meghan in December 2020, but the two quickly grew concerned about Spotify's apparent tolerance of COVID-19 misinformation. The couple said they'd raised issues starting in April 2021, and those worries only became more prominent when Neil Young and other creators started pulling or pausing content in protest to Spotify's apparent comfort with Joe Rogan allowing false medical claims on his show. Harry and Meghan had a change of heart after they met with Spotify to discuss and shape its anti-misinformation strategy.

This doesn't end the complaints about Spotify's approach to bogus claims. Even one of its own podcasts, Science VS, fought the service by fact-checking misinformation from other productions. However, it does give Spotify a chance to focus more on promoting exclusives and less on damage control.
Back in April 2021, NASA chose SpaceX to develop a lunar lander that will take astronauts to the moon for its future Artemis missions. SpaceX's vehicle won't be the only one flying astronauts to the surface of the Moon, though: NASA has announced that it's welcoming proposals from American companies for landers that can take human spacefarers from the Gateway station in the lunar orbit to the Moon itself. By having that capability, the lander design can be used for missions beyond Artemis III, which will be the first crewed landing on the Moon since Apollo 17.

In its announcement, the agency said it's also exercising an option under its existing contract with SpaceX and is asking the company to change the landing system it proposed to meet the new requirement. "Pursuing more development work under the original contract maximizes NASAs investment and partnership with SpaceX," the agency said. Having a second lunar lander "provides redundancy in services" and can help ensure reliable transportation for astronauts that will be part of future lunar missions.

While the call for a second lunar lander is new, the plan to have more than one company working on the project isn't. NASA was originally supposed to choose more than one lunar lander provider for Artemis, but the agency didn't receive enough funding from Congress, prompting it to go with SpaceX alone.

Blue Origin, one of the finalists for the contract, filed a complaint with the US Court of Federal Claims, calling the decision "fundamentally unfair." The Jeff Bezos-owned space corporation argued that NASA allowed SpaceX to modify its bid and wasn't given the same chance to do so. To note, the contract SpaceX won was worth $2.9 billion, while Blue Origin's bid was almost twice that at $5.9 billion. NASA believed Blue Origin bid high on purpose on the assumption that NASA would haggle and that it would receive more funding than it did. While the court dismissed Blue Origin's lawsuit in November, SpaceX had to pause work on the lander twice, losing months in the process. When NASA pushed back the Artemis III mission to 2025, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Blue Origin's lawsuit was partly to blame.

NASA will issue a draft solicitation for the second lunar lander in the coming weeks before issuing a formal request for proposals this summer.

Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA's Human Landing System Program manager, said:
Google News is the latest major service to be blocked in Russia. The countrys telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked Google News, according to Reuters, which cited a report from state media outlet Interfax.

The regulator said it was blocking the news service because it provided access to numerous publications and materials containing inauthentic and publicly important information about the course of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, according to Interfax.

Russia has already blocked Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in recent weeks.

"Weve confirmed that some people are having difficulty accessing the Google News app and website in Russia and that this is not due to any technical issues on our end," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "Weve worked hard to keep information services like News accessible to people in Russia for as long as possible."

Updated with a statement from Google.
From the Ukraine war to the ISIS suicide bomber who struck a Shiite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers in Peshawar, Pakistan on March 4, killing about 63 people and wounding nearly 200. From the mass execution of 81 men including 40 Shiite Muslims on March 12 by Saudi Arabia, to the war in Ethiopia, the oppression is nonstop across the globe.

Some events are heavily broadcast, some barely or not at all. Nonetheless, all have a common attribute  perpetrator(s) and victim(s).

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Discord around the world such as the latest attacks by Saudi-led forces against Yemen, the bombings against Somalia, the attacks on Syria are all intertwined with political agendas and disputes and all make victims of innocent men, women and children.

Conflicts were once fought solely between rivals; now caught in the clashes are the blameless victims.

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Wherever one turns, from one corner of the world to the next, the general populations are the targets. Innocent lives are used as leverage.

The fights are no longer on battlegrounds; they are in the schools, marketplace and houses of worship. The cities are the frontlines.

We as a people must recognize this phenomenon, rise against it and move global organizations to protest.

We mustnt select only certain regions or nations to rally for; rather every part of the global community should be looked after. Otherwise, more deaths and mass migrations will continue, displacing thousands from their homes.

Homelessness and refugees will mount to the millions. Other nations will need to bear the stress of accommodating migrants.

This will happen regardless of whether there is media coverage. For those whose plight is publicized by the media, more relief may become available. And for those who are not, they will suffer in silence.

It is the humanity in each person to overlook differences of nationality, race and religion and reach out to those who are in need or oppressed solely because they are human beings. Period.

People gather at the site of a Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen. (Hani Mohammed/AP)

So next time there is a conflict in another part of the world where innocent people are caught in the middle and none would know about it because no national interests exist in the region to make headlines, let us in our means make noise.

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Contact representatives in Congress to let them know your concerns about the oppression that is ensuing and seek their support and aid.

Also, donate money to reputable relief organizations to assist the people who are suffering and who may become refugees.

Fight misinformation and do not spread it. Learn the facts about the conflict.

Also, participate in public shows of support and peaceful protests.

These tactics can help change the situation. It also illustrates to the persecuted that there are people in the world who care.

Emily Channell-Justice, director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at Harvard University remarked, This may not seem important, but Ukrainians have messaged me to say its very heartening to see big crowds across the world come out in their name.

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The opposite can also be felt.

A Yemeni father of four, Ahmed Tamri, was asked about the outpouring of international support and media coverage for one nation and the lack of a similar reaction to the war in Yemen.

Were brutally bombed every day, he said. So, why doesnt the Western world care like it does about Ukraine?

While admirable, the outrage over the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not being matched by any outcry over the damage being done daily in Yemen.

Fighting between government and rebel forces there has been going for over six years and is still one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, according to International Rescue Committees economic recovery and development manager Ebtihal Ghanem.

In Afghanistan, while nationwide combat has come to an end, 55% of the population is expected to be in crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity through March 2022, according to the International Rescue Committee.

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A time must come when the good of the people is gauged over the interests of the powerful, greedy and malicious few.

Fatima Kermalli, a freelance writer, holds a masters in Islamic Studies, is a Sunday School teacher and member of the Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of Pennsylvania in Allentown.
Weather Alert

...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...Portions of central Oklahoma, east central Oklahoma, northern Oklahoma, southeast Oklahoma, southern Oklahoma and southwest Oklahoma, including the following counties, in central Oklahoma, Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Logan, McClain, Oklahoma, Payne and Pottawatomie. In east central Oklahoma, Pontotoc and Seminole. In northern Oklahoma, Garfield, Grant, Kay and Noble. In southeast Oklahoma, Atoka, Bryan, Coal, Hughes, Johnston and Marshall. In southern Oklahoma, Carter, Garvin, Murray and Stephens. In southwest Oklahoma, Comanche. * WHEN...Through this evening. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks. Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas. Low-water crossings may be flooded. Extensive street flooding and flooding of creeks and rivers are possible. Area creeks and streams are running high and could flood with more heavy rain. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Showers and thunderstorm chances will continue through Thursday early this evening, with an additional 1 to 2 inches of rainfall expected in the watch area. Rainfall totals across the watch area have already exceeded 4 inches for some locations near the I-44 and I-40 corridors across central and eastern Oklahoma. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood
Yesterday, Hellboy actor Ron Perlman posted a short 49-second video on his Twitter railing against Texas senator Ted Cruz. A divisive figure, Cruz was criticized by the actor for appealing to the "real lowest form of humanity here in the United States."

Sitting outside on his porch, an outraged Perlman says in his video:

"Hi Ted, Ron here. Listen, I know how tempting it is to appeal to the real lowest form of humanity here in the United States, the bottom feeders, people who pride themselves on hatred and uneducation and inability to read and inability to understand the difference between true patriotism and the bullshit you're selling. I know how tempting it is to play to those people. Because at least you have a base, but Jesus Christ Ted, for somebody with a really, really small d-, you get to be a bigger prick every f-in day. Go f- yourself."

In an article on The Wrap, it was speculated that the basis for Perlman's rage was Cruz's misguided questioning of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing.

During his questioning, Cruz pressed Jackson on her opinion on critical race theory and whether she thought babies could be racist. Despite the degrading questions, Jackson kept her cool and truthfully answered with, "I've never studied critical race theory, and I've never used it. It doesn't come up in the work that I do as a judge."

As we continue to keep an eye on Jackson's bid for the Supreme Court, it's interesting to see celebrity reactions to political happenings. While we shouldn't rely on celebrities for political guidance, it's one way to engage with politics and see how your political views could be further informed or challenged.

For more celebrity news and commentary, please follow Enstarz! We bring you the latest on your favorite celebrities, TV shows, and films.
For too long, the European Union has ignored many of the potential opportunities and threats created by artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies. In contrast, Russia and China have spent decades investing in technological development and production. The spread of disinformation, the dark web, cyber-attacks, mass hacks, and autonomous weapons systems has given Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarians a new arsenal of weapons that they often use with one goal in mind  destabilizing the West. As Russia intensifies its war on Ukraine and escalates its aggression towards the West, Europeans potential vulnerabilities to technological threats are being laid bare. History teaches that the race to replace key technologies  swords with guns, cannons with machine guns, horses with tanks  can be decisive. If the Axis powers had developed nuclear weapons before the Allies, the second world war would have ended very differently.

In the modern era, there have long been warning signs of Europeans technological vulnerabilities. Car manufacturers have delayed and halted production due to a lack of computer chips. Countries that export commodities vital to the production of advanced technologies are under the heavy influence of Chinese and Russian investment. Government institutions in Europe have repeatedly been hacked and disabled. And too many voters now believe the planted, promoted, and manipulated half-truths they read on social media. While digital progress has brought unimaginable achievements and opportunities, it has also brought the potential for darkness. If the EU and the United States lose the race to gain the economic, security, and social benefits of AI and other advanced technologies, there will be a fundamental shift in the global order. Quantum computers would outpace the greatest minds, semiconductor supply chains would collapse, cyber-attacks would paralyze states and control enemy satellites  it would be a brave new world. However, with enough political support for European innovators, it will not be too late to avoid this fate.

To this end, Europeans should immediately take the following actions. Firstly, they should become world leaders not only on issues such as data protection but also on those such as digital security and digital innovation. Europes digital agenda should transcend individual laws and agreements to permeate all policy areas. Europeans need to talk frankly about digital sovereignty and why it matters. Digital sovereignty was never meant to be about building a wall around Europes digital services or creating a Europe Wide Web. Instead, it is about Europeans taking their digital destiny into their own hands. Global cooperation does not have to mean global dependency. Semiconductors and cloud computing should not become the new Russian oil.

Secondly, the EU needs an AI Act that reflects its digital ambitions and values. In my draft report on the AI Act, I stress that there is a need to balance innovation and the effort to win the most important technological battle in history with the protection of European values and beliefs. It would be counterproductive for the EU to stifle Europeans capacity to innovate through overregulation. If the union allows AI development to run wild, this could create a monster that is impossible to control. Europe needs to support technological innovation by start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises. And it should find better ways to include them in the development of the AI sector  through, for instance, their input in creating an AI Code of Conduct or developing standards. The inclusion of regulatory sandboxes in this act is welcome, but the EU needs to take a more ambitious and cohesive approach to AI that has clear, practical benefits for start-ups.

The AI Act should set robust but realistic standards for high-risk activities, encourage the uptake of AI systems, and be future-proofed through improved links to developments in technology, industry, and the power of technology. The EU should seek to align its definition of AI with that of institutions such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and should build on platforms such as the Trade and Technology Council to engage in deeper cooperation with its democratic allies. Such an approach would build up confidence in the sector, attract inward investment, and allow the union to make up ground on its rivals.

Finally, Europeans need to look carefully at what is already on the negotiating table. This means the swift adoption of the second EU Directive on the Security of Networks and Information Systems, which will replace its poorly implemented predecessor. Europeans should strengthen, and increase the resources available to, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity and Europols Cybercrime Centre. They should expand on the founding principles of the Council of Europes Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. And the European Commission needs to comprehensively map out all proposals in the EU Digital Strategy. Rather than take a piecemeal approach to implementation, the EU needs to provide significant support to ensure that businesses and public administrations fully grasp how to follow and optimize these regulatory requirements.

Russias all-out war on Ukraine has led to some of the most radical shifts in decades in the policies of the EU and its member states. The process needs to extend to the digital sphere. This political moment should generate not a fleeting act of unity during a crisis but a mission statement and a long-term vision for Europe. Europeans can only secure their own future if they help protect the future of others. The EU should not become a digital fortress of regulation. Instead, it should become a global technological leader among democratic powers  one that protects Europeans future security and prosperity.

The Fight for Europes Digital Future  Opinion by Eva Maydell  European Council on Foreign Relations / ECFR.

The Opinion can be downloaded here
Putin wants 'unfriendly' countries to pay for Russian gas in roubles

Russia will seek payment in roubles for gas sales from "unfriendly" countries, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, sending European gas prices soaring on concerns the move would exacerbate the region's energy crunch.
Commentary From Crisis Management Expert Edward Segal, Author of the Award- Winning Book "Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies " (Nicholas Brealey)

When it comes to avoiding cyberattacks, bigger is apparently better. At least that's according to a new report that shows small businesses are three times more likely to be targeted by cybercriminals than larger companies.

Between January 2021 and December 2021, researchers at cloud security company Barracuda Networks analyzed millions of emails across thousands of companies. They found that, on average, an employee of a small business with less than 100 employees will experience 350% more social engineering attacks than an employee of a larger enterprise.

CEOs And CFOs Are Attractive Targets

Some people who work at small businesses are more at risk of being attacked than others.

According to the report, "Hackers target high-value accounts for takeover. Accounts of CEOs and CFOs are almost twice as likely to be taken over compared to average employees. Once they have access, cybercriminals use these high-value accounts to gather intelligence or launch attacks within an organization.

"Executive assistants are also a popular target as they often have access to executive accounts and calendars and usually can send messages out on behalf of executive teams."

A Surprising Survey Result

Barracuda Networks said their report examined current trends in "spear-phishing, which businesses are most likely to be targeted, the new tricks attackers are using to sneak past victims' defenses, and the number of accounts that are being compromised successfully."

Mike Flouton, the company's vice president of product management, said the most surprising survey finding was that one in five organizations have had at least one account compromised in 2021.

"Breaking this down further, this translates into almost half a million Microsoft 365 accounts [that weere]compromisedthat's a lot of real estate for hackers to launch their attacks and spread laterally within organizations," he observed.

"This also highlights how many organizations can be vulnerable without a right set of protection tools. Once inside, it can be especially difficult to detect an intruder until it's too late and they have already acted," Flouton said.

Advice For Business Leaders

Review

Flouton counseled, "Above anything else, organizations need to review how they protect their emails and their users.

Supplement Technology

"Hackers no longer rely solely on 'traditional' threats such as spam or malware, therefore traditional email filtering technology is no longer sufficient to prevent modern-day attacks. It needs to be supplemented with machine learning security to protect against all email threat types," he said.

Flouton recommended that, "In addition to having threat prevention capabilities, it must also have the ability to detect and respond to threats post-delivery."

This includes detecting the takeover of accounts, training end-users to recognize and report suspicious messages, "and the ability to automate response to these threats so they can be eliminated before they can cause damage," he concluded.

Challenges And Realities

To put the cyberattacks on small businesses in perspective, it is important to remember the challenges and realities they are dealing with..

A Spike In Cyberattacks

In February, Tech Republic noted that the Covid pandemic has led to a spike in the number of cyberattacks from hacker groups. "According to BlackBerry, there was a 600% increase in cybercrimes due to the pandemic, and a whopping 667 million new malware detections were discovered worldwide during 2020.

"The report estimates that four million additional cybersecurity experts are needed globally to help mitigate the large number of digital attacks, and one million daily security alerts are seen in 25% of security operations centers."

Fewer Resources

"Small businesses often have fewer resources and lack security expertise, which leaves them more vulnerable to spear-phishing attacks, and cybercriminals are taking advantage," said Don MacLennan, Barracuda's senior vice president of engineering and product management email protection.

"That's why it's important for businesses of all sizes not to overlook investing in security, both technology and user education. The damage caused by a breach or a compromised account can be even more costly," he observed.

Exposure To New Ransomware Attacks

USA Today warned that, "As Russian military forces escalate attacks in Ukraine, the United States is bracing for another kind of invasion closer to home.'

"Small businesses are most vulnerable to the expected wave of ransomware attacks. Cybersecurity professionals are urging them to take immediate steps to defend themselves."

"Most small businesses are the perfect target for ransomware hackers," said Corey White, CEO of security firm Cyvatar.

Weak Points

Inc. reported in January that a study from cybersecurity platform provider CyberCatch found that "more than 30% of U.S. small businesses have weak points that bad actors can exploit. Moreover, fraudsters tend to set their sights on small businesses since smaller companies usually have weaker security safeguards in place compared with those at larger companies."

###
: linke005 (), : WaterWorld

 : The scoundrel listened to the slanderous rumor that he wanted to be a scoundrel to the end and decla

: BBS  (Wed Mar 23 22:28:08 2022, )



In the past few days, the huge fine surrounding Guo Wengui has kept him in a

state of high stress, even using sleeping pills that have "no side effects"

. After all, Guo Wengui himself has never been one to respond positively to

such negative news, but today, Mr. Tang Han's tweet shows that Guo Wengui

did not pay the fine, but chose to find ways to continue to bypass it, and

even chose to file for bankruptcy for this reason, listening to the

slanderous words of ants treat the U.S. law as a child's play?

The company has been banned from leaving the United States because of

various lawsuits, as Guo Wengui revealed in his live broadcast that he could

not travel to the United Kingdom and Japan, which "invited him". In the

past few days, there has been controversy over whether or not Guo Wengui

will pay the fine. 134 million dollars is by no means a small amount for Guo

Wengui, who has just returned 480 million dollars in GTV fraud and paid

more than 30 million dollars in fines, with H-coin not being able to

replenish the huge deficit, and when the news was announced on the 9th, Guo

Wengui had said on air that he would "sue the court" because the regulations

invoked by the court and the resulting sentence violate the law, the yacht

does not belong to them, so the court cannot require them to pay the fine

for the yacht. Such an operation looks very exciting, only to have no effect

on the injunction that has been issued, the fine that should be paid will

not be less than one point.

The yacht, which originally belonged to Guo Wengui, was transferred to

another person's name, proving how hypocritical Guo Wengui is, and according

to Mr. Tang Han's documents, Guo Wengui is even more hypocritical by

claiming to the court that he is bankrupt and has a monthly income of nearly

$20,000, which comes from gifts from family, relatives and friends. Let's

not talk about how many relatives and friends Guo Wengui has left, but just

looking at Guo Wengui's claim of "no income", we can see that he is a

complete hypocrite. After all, Guo Wengui is a self-proclaimed tycoon and

uses this identity to go out and cheat, giving ants the illusion that he

is not short of money on the one hand, and the illusion that he can make

money and has good projects on the other. The bankruptcy list submitted by

Guo Wengui, about the compensation of Cheng Shuiyan, Guo Baosheng and others

, as well as some of the lawsuits of the awakened little ants, Guo Wengui

asked for a write-off, such a ridiculous request, I am afraid that only this

madman on the verge of pressure will come up with.

It can be seen that since the experience of GTV refund, Guo Wengui can be

said to be a penny do not want to pay out, and even used a "personal

bankruptcy" such bullshit reason to avoid punishment. You know, the first

step to personal bankruptcy is to auction personal property to liquidate

debts, Guo Wengui is trying to use the characteristics of his own name no

property to escape debt. But one thing he didn't learn from the GTV

investigation and yacht seizure is that the American judiciary doesn't look

at personal property, but at the ultimate beneficiary.GTV made Guo Wengui

rich, and even though he let others act as legal persons through layers of

proxy, he was the boss, but the SEC's investigation still lifted the fog and

caught him as the "boss behind the scenes". "Lady may, a yacht wholly

purchased by Guo Wengui, was transferred to someone else's name afterwards,

but Guo Wengui has been enjoying his life on it, which is why the New York

court ruled that it was Guo Wengui's property and forced it to be frozen as

an offsetting property. After so many examples, Guo Wengui still did not

learn a lesson, because his heart "criminal thinking", think that as long as

the law does not matter, they can exploit the idea, to avoid punishment and

get away with it. For this criminal, I only hope that this time the New

York federal court can give him a good lesson, with the means of jail to let

this crook completely understand that crime is to pay the price.

But the price should be paid by Guo Wengui himself, not by the ants who

were cheated and kept in the dark. Now Guo Wengui is taking the money from

the ants and seeking more benefits for his selfish self, transferring

the money to his family trust and trying to continue to "live in luxury"

after he is released from prison, which is extremely unfair to the ants

who have worked hard all their lives and have been cheated for a while.

Therefore, I hope that the court, while speeding up the case, will freeze

Guo Wengui's existing property as much as possible, and use legal means to

force Guo Wengui to return the fraudulent money while trying his series of

fraud cases, especially the recent H-coin case, so that the ants will

not suffer greater losses. As for this fraudster, I just hope he spends the

rest of his life in prison and never comes out to harm people again!

--

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 2a0b:89c0::cc:1]


Germano Jim and Veva Hasslocher wrote a stern letter to their five adult children in 2002, laying out a complex succession plan for the San Antonio restaurant empire they had spent more than a half-century building.

The couple said they had imposed severe protections to preserve the assets  which included the Jims Restaurants chain and Magic Time Machine restaurants  after threats and ugly behavior by some of their offspring.

The plan remained largely in place at the time of their deaths. Veva, who suffered from Alzheimers disease, died at 84 in 2009, and Jim died at 93 in 2015.

/Courtesy photo /Courtesy photo Germano Jim Hasslocher and his first wife Veva set up a complex succession plan for ownership and control of the restaurant empire they built. The business is now subject of a battle involving three of his children in probate court. He died at 93 in 2015.; Veva Hasslocher married Germano Jim Hasslocher in 1947, the year he started Frontier Drive-In. She died at age 84 in 2009. Courtesy photos

Despite the couples best-laid plans, they couldnt head off a years-long feud in Jims probate case, which pits daughters Caryn and Susan Hasslocher against their brother Jimmy Hasslocher, a former five-term San Antonio city councilman who keeps a tight rein on the family business.

Caryn and Susan, who say they havent received any distributions from their parents estates, have leveled a slew of allegations in a lawsuit against their brother. Among them: improperly using company assets to enrich himself; misusing millions of dollars in pandemic relief aid received from the federal government; and failing to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans from the company.

Jimmy moved for the suits dismissal, calling it in court papers a hodgepodge of alleged activities devoid of any details. Hes accused his sisters of pursuing litigation for the express purpose of wresting control of the family business from him and in defiance of their parents wishes.

And this is what this case is about: ownership and control of the assets left by Mr. and Mrs. Hasslocher to their children, Marvin Pipkin, an attorney representing various Hasslocher businesses, said during a February 2021 Bexar County Probate Court hearing. Almost 20 years ago, they could see this train coming down the track.

Pipkin added, This is a long, unfortunate relationship  a long, unfortunately bad relationship that has come to pass here. The parents saw it coming, did their best to stop it. But they set up a plan, and we are asking for the plan to be followed.

Jim and Veva included in their plan a no-contest provision that revokes the benefits of anyone who challenges it. Caryn and Susan should forfeit their benefits, including their ownership interests in the family business, for bringing the litigation, Jimmy has said.

The sisters counter that their beef is not about their parents wishes but with how their brother has allegedly breached his duties as executor of their fathers estate and as trustee of various Hasslocher entities. In court filings, they argue they shouldnt have to forfeit the benefits they are entitled to.

They want the case to go to trial, while Jimmy wants it resolved out of court through arbitration. They await a ruling from Judge Veronica Vasquez.

None of the Hasslochers agreed to an interview.

The Hasslocher family holdings include 13 Jims Restaurants in San Antonio and three in Austin, the Magic Time Machine restaurants in San Antonio and Dallas, Frontier Burger in San Antonio and La Fonda Alamo Heights. The restaurants generated about $47 million in sales in their fiscal 2019, before the pandemic upended the restaurant business.

At its peak in the mid-1980s, the enterprise operated about 30 restaurants  including atop the 750-foot Tower of the Americas and on a Corpus Christi riverboat.

Just how much the entire privately held enterprise is worth today hasnt been publicly disclosed. But a 2016 inventory of assets in Jims probate case valued his 21.1 percent interest in a family partnership, which owns parent company Hasslocher Enterprise Inc., at almost $6.5 million. That would mean the entire partnership was worth more than $30 million.

Humble beginnings

Jim built the family fortune from next to nothing.

Born in 1922 in Shreveport, La., Germano Hasslocher eventually adopted the nickname Jim.

Courtesy /Hasslocher Enterprises Courtesy /Hasslocher Enterprises Inc. Courtesy photo /Hasslocher Enterprises Inc. Germano Jim Hasslocher appeared on the cover of the trade publication Restaurant Business outside the Magic Time Machine in 1974, one year after he opened the restaurant; As a young man, Germano Jim Hasslocher, manned a bicycle rental stand by Brackenridge Park. He went on to start Frontier Drive-In, Jims Restaurants and the Magic Time Machine restaurants; Jims Coffee Shop, before the name was changed to Jims Restaurant. Courtesy photos

Hasslocher attended Allen Military Academy in Bryan and served four years during World War II in an army engineering unit. He then followed his mother to San Antonio by hitchhiking here with 37 cents in his pocket.

In 1946, Hasslocher manned his uncles bicycle rental stand near Brackenridge Park. He started selling watermelon slices to park visitors and later offered hamburgers.

He opened his first Frontier Drive-In at 3175 Broadway, near the present-day Witte Museum, in 1947. The restaurant sold burgers cooked over a charcoal fire and served on toasted buns, along with fries, onion rings, chicken, steaks, malts and shakes.

That same year, he wed Veva. Hed met her a year earlier when she and a friend rented bicycles from him. After a three-day honeymoon, Veva took over the company payroll.

During the 1950s and 60s, the Frontier chain expanded throughout San Antonio and into Austin.

The drive-ins provided the seed money for the Hasslochers to launch another venture. They opened the first Jims Coffee Shop, offering drive-in and dine-in service, in 1963. As the chain grew, the name was changed to Jims Restaurants, becoming an old standby for generations of San Antonio diners.

In 1973, the Hasslochers unveiled a whimsical dining concept  a restaurant and discotheque known as the Magic Time Machine. They expanded the concept to Dallas and Austin. (The Magic Time Machine in Austin has since closed.)

Courtesy photo /Hasslocher Enterprises Inc. UTSA Special Collections Servers line up in uniforms in front of one of the Frontier Drive-In restaurants; Frontier Burger, the predecessor to Jim's Restaurant, is seen on Fredericksburg Road in an undated photo. Courtesy of Hasslocher Enterprises Inc.; UTSA Special Collections

Their company hit some rough patches over the years. The floating Corpus Christi restaurant, the Wayward Lady, ceased operating within about four years of its 1984 debut because of continuing losses. The eight Frontier Drive-Ins disappeared from San Antonios landscape by the early 1990s, the victim of national fast-food chains speedier drive-thrus.

And a Hasslocher company lost the contract to operate the Tower of the Americas restaurant to Houston-based Landrys Restaurants in 2004, ending a 35-year run.

He made mistakes, Jimmy said of his fathers business decisions during an April deposition. He also made a lot of good choices, which provided for paychecks for all of his children throughout their youth, their middle life, and as they got older in years, including divorces, houses, cars, education, etc.

Family affair

The challenges of overseeing a fledgling restaurant business didnt preclude Jim and Veva Hasslocher from starting a family.

Their first child, Susan, 73, was born in 1948  the year after the Frontier Drive-In opened. Caryn, 72, followed in 1949, while twins Jimmy and Bobby, 70, arrived in 1951. Daughter Julie Stirman, 63, was born in 1958.

Over the years, all of the Hasslocher children worked in the family business.

In a 2015 interview, Jimmy recalled joining the business Easter weekend in 1959, standing on wooden Coke crates, selling raspas and cotton candy. I was 8 years old, and I needed the crates to see over the counter.

Jim turned over the reins to daughter Susan in 2002, though without the title of president that she had previously held. She had overseen the restaurants in Austin, where she resided for 40 years.

My dad was reluctant to give me that same title again, Susan recalled in a 2019 deposition. He wasnt one to give away any type of control.

Her stint as chief operating officer didnt last much more than a year or so. Questioned about the corporation sustaining large losses during her time in charge, Susan recounted how the business was saddled with eight Shoneys restaurants that it bought in 1998 and converted to Jims Restaurants. She said she advised her father against making the deal.

Susan said she believed Malcolm Hartman, the family partnerships longtime general counsel, and Patrick Richardson, a vice president of operations at the time, convinced her father to replace her with Richardson.

In 2006, Jimmy took over as CEO and president of Hasslocher Enterprises, which does business as Frontier Enterprises.

The 2002 letters

Less than four months after Susan had taken the helm, Jim and Veva outlined for their children in the 2002 letter on company letterhead how they had been working on establishing a structure and mechanism for ownership and control of Hasslocher Enterprises.

The couple sought to ensure stability in the leadership and management of the corporation for our lifetimes and after we are gone and protect our most important asset from claims by outsiders, and hopefully save taxes.

File photo

Over the previous decade, the pair had created various trusts for themselves individually and each of their children to hold ownership interests in the family partnership. The childrens trusts held equal interests, about 12 percent, though the voting power remained with their parents and the trusts they each controlled.

Jim and Veva also noted that some of their children were very unhappy and displeased with changes in the management of the corporation and other matters.

We truly believe that we have set up a plan that will ultimately benefit each of you and all of you; and it is our desire that each of you honor our wishes and not undertake to challenge or otherwise alter our plans, they wrote.

The couple detailed the no-contest provision, warning their children it could turn into a costly endeavor if they chose to challenge the plan.

Jim and Veva also sent letters to each of their offspring. In the dispatch to Susan, included in the probate case, the couple sought to put to a stop to problems confronting the company. The couple cited the random withdrawal of funds by family members that have been shown as a receivable on the books of the corporation that never is paid and the company assuming certain liabilities and obligations of family members.

Sibling rivals

During a 2019 deposition, Caryn said Julie received a long-term payout in exchange for her ownership in the family partnership. Julies interest was supposed to have been divided equally among her siblings, Caryn said, adding that evidently didnt happen. Julie isnt involved in the ongoing dispute.

Later in 2011, Jim married Lilia Flynn. She is 87 and lives in the Houston home they shared.

Mike Sutter /Staff file photo

Jim died Nov. 19, 2015.

His estate was valued at almost $9 million, which included his ownership interest in the family partnership, real estate and jewelry.

In 2017, more than eight years after Vevas death, Caryn filed a court motion demanding an accounting of her mothers estate. She later alleged her father, executor of Vevas estate, had transferred her assets to himself personally instead of distributing them to the children or their trusts.

Caryns motion surprised a lawyer for Jimmy.

Not only is this unusual, it is rare because most families decline to spread their dirty linen in open court, attorney Arthur H. Bayern wrote in a letter to Caryns lawyers.

The next year, Caryn filed another motion with a host of demands, including requiring the return of all assets that her father allegedly seized from Vevas estate. Vevas 18.5 percent interest in the family partnership, for example, was her own property and did not belong to Jim, Caryn said in the filing.

She also asked the court to make her, Susan, Jimmy and Bobby limited partners in the family partnership with voting rights in proportion to their ownership interests. Susan subsequently joined her sister in the dispute.

Jimmy accused his sisters of using court motions to assert various causes of action against him  in addition to their father.

The sisters later filed an actual lawsuit, amended multiple times, asking at one point for the court to distribute their parents estates according to their wills.

In the latest version of the complaint, filed in July, Caryn and Susan accused Jimmy, company general counsel Hartman and its now-former chief financial officer of conspiring to breach their fiduciary duties and of unjust enrichment.

The various allegations drew a rebuke from Barry Snell, an attorney for Hartman, during a 2020 court hearing. The sisters counsel gets a big bowl of spaghetti and mixes it up real well and throws it all on the wall hoping something somehow will stick, Snell said.

File photo

2016 agreement

In 2016, a year after their fathers death, Susan, Caryn, Jimmy and Bobby came to an agreement to divvy up their fathers $530,000 salary among themselves. As a result, Susan and Caryns annual salary increased to $300,000, while Jimmys rose to $450,000 and Bobbys climbed to $350,000, a court filing shows.

In March 2020, around the time Gov. Greg Abbott closed all restaurants in Texas amid the coronavirus pandemics onslaught, Caryn and Susan say Jimmy stopped paying them their salaries and discontinued their insurance benefits. They say the action came in retaliation for their lawsuit.

Around the same time, Jimmy sent letters to the restaurants roughly 1,000 employees informing them that they had been furloughed.

Hasslocher Enterprises later received loan of more than $4.8 million from the Paycheck Protection Program, a lifeline for struggling businesses during the outset of the pandemic. Such loans were intended to cover payroll and other costs such as mortgage interest, rent and utilities.

The company got a second PPP loan for $2 million the next February. It also received a $150,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan.

Jimmy has failed to account for and has misused the government loans, the sisters alleged. The loans have been forgiven.

File photo

The sisters hired San Antonio private investigator Gary Ploetz, a former IRS agent in the criminal investigations division, to dig into Hasslocher Enterprises finances. He reviewed general ledgers from 2008 to 2019.

Hasslocher Enterprises paid millions of dollars of personal expenses for various Hasslocher family members, Ploetz wrote in a 2020 report. The company was owed $4.2 million by Jims estate and more than $700,000 from Jimmy and $457,000 from Bobby as of June 30, 2017. The payments should have been treated as constructive dividends and reported as taxable income, the investigator said.

By claiming the payments are some type of loan, the family members are allowed to receive the benefits without claiming it as taxable income, Ploetz said. The tax-free money was siphoned out of the company, he added.

Starting in 2010, Hasslocher Enterprises made regular mortgage payments on Jimmys roughly $1 million Texas coastal property, Ploetz said. Bobby, who had publicly remained on the sidelines in the dispute, on Friday filed court papers expressing his desire that the litigation go to trial rather than arbitration.

This dispute has been ongoing for years, and the Hasslocher family is unlikely to heal unless and until this matter is resolved, Bobby said.

Ronald Shaw, an attorney representing Caryn and Susan, asked Jimmy during Aprils deposition when he planned to repay the money he allegedly owed the company.

I dont agree with everything thats on here, and you need to ask your clients the same thing  when are they going to pay their receivables? Jimmy replied, according to a transcript. Ploetzs report didnt say whether Caryn or Susan owe the company any money.

Jimmy then referenced how, unlike him, his sisters didnt actually do anything for the family business.

I mean, you want to come after me about my receivable? he said. Im the only doing the actual work, Mr. Shaw. Your clients have been getting mailbox money for years, and a lot of it. Mailbox money is considered passive income generated by little or no effort.

Fiefdom

Jimmy has made the family business his own fiefdom, Caryn said in her 2019 deposition.

As for the outcome Caryn hoped to achieve from the litigation, she said, That the company will be managed by  the four rightful owners, and that would be myself, Bobby, Susan and Jimmy.

Asked what other outcome she hoped for, she said, To keep the company from  continuing to decline as we have seen.

Giving his sisters the right to share equally in controlling the business would be a surefire recipe for the very disaster that Germano and Veva so carefully attempted to prevent, Jimmy said.

The litigation has not only been a distraction but a financial drain, he said.

Mike Sutter /Staff file photo

Legal bills have eaten up most of the money that was left in the estate, so Hasslocher Enterprises has had to step in and pay more than $1.1 million in fees, Jimmy said.

Meanwhile, the restaurants have struggled to rebound from the pandemic. The Jims at Northwest Loop 410 and Blanco shuttered, while the most of the remaining 16 Jims no longer operate around the clock, like they did before the pandemic.

We cant find cooks, we cant find bussers, we cant find food servers to staff so we can go back to 24 hours a day, Jimmy said.

In a 2019 counterclaim, Jimmy said he wants a ruling that Caryn and Susan have forfeited any benefits from their parents trusts and Vevas will as a result of bringing their litigation.

He also wants them to pay his legal fees.

pdanner@express-news.net
Where is the best place to swirl, sniff and sip wine in the United States? If you guessed Napa Valley, you havent been paying attention.

The popular Northern California destination did not make the top 10 in the 2021 USA Today 10 Best Readers Choice awards for best wine regions, but the Texas Hill Country did.

Washington States Walla Walla Valley claimed the No. 1 spot followed by Finger Lakes, New York. Temecula Valley, California, and Valle de Guadalupe in Mexicos Baja California earned the fourth and fifth spot, respectively.

Coming in at No. 3 is the Hill Country, which is home to more than 50 wineries. It finished ahead of other finalists chosen by a panel of experts from among 250 U.S. wine regions.

William Chris Vineyards

A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote.

The Hill Country, which reaches into the far northern portions of San Antonio and the western portions of Austin, is the second-largest American Viticultural area in the country. The Hill Country varietals include Viognier, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Marlot, Chenin Blanc, Agianico, Sangiovese and Mouredre.

"The Hill Country is such a special place to us all and we are thrilled to share it with the world thanks to all of the Texas wine lovers who voted for the region this year," said January Wiese, executive director of Texas Hill Country Wineries, a nonprofit trade group that promotes the region.

In April, the Express-News compiled a guide to the best of Texas wine country. The newspaper suggested checking out the tasting rooms along the 55-mile stretch of U.S. 290 between Dripping Springs and Fredericksburg.

Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net.
Alex Jones failed to show up for a deposition scheduled Wednesday morning in Austin, Texas as part of settlement proceedings in defamation lawsuits filed by the families of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Attorneys representing the families said Jones defense counsel, Norman Pattis, arrived at the in-person questioning, scheduled for 9 a.m. local time, and told them Jones would not be showing up  despite broadcasting his Infowars show from a studio outside his house the day before, according to his attorneys.

Pattis said in a statement that Jones was at a medical appointment.

A Connecticut Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that a physicians note submitted only for the judges viewing did not provide enough evidence on its claim the Jones was confined to his home as a result of medical conditions making it impossible for him to sit for the scheduled, in-person deposition.

In her ruling, Judge Barbara Bellis questioned Attorney Kevin Smith, representing Jones, over his clients doctors note suggesting he was confined to his home under a physicians supervision.

As the hearing took place Tuesday, Jones, a noted conspiracy-theorist radio and internet personality billing himself as a journalist, appeared to be broadcasting on his live daily show.

The issue of whether todays broadcast was from Mr. Jones studio or at his home can more easily be determined by Mr. Smith, who may have unknowingly misled the court into believe that Mr. Jones has been confining himself to his home, Bellis wrote in her order to deny the motion.

Bellis ordered Smith to file a notice to clarify the location of Jones broadcasts this week.

In a notice filed Wednesday morning, Smith confirmed his client conducted his broadcast during the Tuesday hearing, and that it took place at, Mr. Jones usual and customary studio in Austin Texas, and clarified, the studio is not located in Mr. Jones home.

The notice offered to provide Jones studio address if requested but would only ...do so under seal because his studio location has been subject of harassment in the past.

The deposition that was scheduled for this morning is part of the settlement proceedings as a result of two successful lawsuits brought against Jones by families of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, and one FBI agent who responded to the scene.

Jury selection for a trial to award damages is scheduled to begin in the middle of July.

In addition to the Connecticut defamation suits, families won three others filed in Texas. All five legal wins came by default after Jones refused to comply with court orders demanding documents and financial information.

A report from the Associated Press was used in this story.
The Texas oyster fishermen plan to come from coastal cities by the busload, traveling to Austin before sunrise to do all they can to fight for jobs they argue the state is wrongly taking away.

State officials have temporarily closed nearly all public oyster harvest areas, saying they had to do that so fishermen have a chance at harvesting oysters in the future. On Thursday, they may add salt to the wound when Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioners decide whether to close some spots permanently.

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In ways, the debate signals the impossible choices ahead as the environment changes: The fishermen rely on harvesting oysters to pay their bills. Theyve done it for decades. But advocates and state regulators say the reefs must be closed to be protected.

Its a difficult one, a commissioner acknowledged during a workshop session at the agency headquarters on Wednesday. No doubt about it.

Gulf oysters are a restaurant staple and, for these men and women, a way of life. And though the fishermen love it, theyre up against quite a lot. Hurricanes bury oysters in sediment. Heavy rains flow into balanced bays. Droughts make the bays too salty.

The fishermen argue they can handle it and make the reefs healthier. Its in their best interests to keep the reefs healthy, they say. They know how to care for the reefs properly, they argue. Why would they over-harvest them? Why cant the state back off?

By the states estimation, too few adult oysters remain in the areas theyve temporarily closed. Heavy rains last year disturbed the waters saltiness, said Zachary Olsen, the agencys Aransas Bay ecosystem leader. Lots of harvesting added more stress.

Environmental advocates agree that regulators have no choice but to shut down reefs in hopes that good weather will give the bivalves a break to recover. These reefs, after all, are about more than a fun happy hour. They provide important habitat for other marine life and protect shorelines.

This is the right move, said Amanda Fuller, director of the coast and water program from the National Wildlife Federation, of the reef closures. But I think that theres still a very large and looming question about the overall sustainability of the oyster fishery in Texas and Gulf-wide.

Galveston Bay in the 1990s was the premiere oystering spot in the country, said Mona Hochman, a senior research association at Texas A&M Galveston. Then so many environmental disasters  Tropical Storm Allison, Hurricanes Ike and Harvey  kept harming the oyster population.

There was also a period of drought, and consistent demand for the beloved food.

Oysters have really pinballed from bad to worse, said Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation. All of this together leaves a pretty dire situation for oysters in Texas right now.

Building back reefs, reducing the number of people fishing them and farming oysters are other options the state has explored. But the pressing dilemma remains: How many jobs will it cost to protect the existing oysters that fishermen say dont need state protection?

So the fishermen  bringing their tears, knowledge and anger  arent letting go easy.

Theyre preparing.

Theyd come by buses Wednesday to protest. It didnt escape Johny Jurisich that the commissioners walked by without so much as a handshake. A number of them planned to speak publicly Thursday, trying to say in three minutes what this career meant to their lifetimes.

Fifty-three year old Gigi Cruz, from Port Lavaca, pushed back tears when she thought about how much this mattered. She was very worried, she said. She wanted the commissioners to listen: Let us work she said.

Seated next to her, 54-year-old Alex Gutierrez explained how they were still trying to have hope  hope the commissioners would show common sense. Have a little mercy for the fishermen, he said.

Said Curtis Miller, 60: Were not the bad guys.

There would be one question on their minds if the officials did vote Thursday to close the reef: What next?

Would all the reefs eventually be closed?

emily.foxhall@chron.com
A federal jury has awarded a University of Texas at Austin engineering professor $3 million after finding the school discriminated against her based on her sex and the fact she was pregnant prior to being considered for tenure.

Evdokia Nikolova, who still works at the university as an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, was awarded $1 million for past pain and suffering and $2 million in future damages, plus $50,000 in back pay and benefits by a federal jury in Austin. The judge in the case must still approve the verdict.

Nikolova applied for tenure during the 2018-2019 academic year after working nearly five years at UT-Austin and two years at Texas A&M University. In her lawsuit, she stated she had been told that her teaching experience at Texas A&M could be counted toward her total time as a professor, which is not UT-Austin policy.

Despite Nikolova being unanimously approved for tenure by the Cockrell School of Engineering, Sharon Wood  the current UT-Austin provost and former dean of the engineering school  denied the tenure request arguing that Nikolova did not have requisite years of teaching to be considered for it.

Tenure requests typically occur after a professor has taught for seven years. Wood pointed out that Nikolova had taken a probationary extension and modified instructional duty for pregnancy and childbirth during the 2015-2016 year and therefore was making the request too early.

Probationary extensions allow male and female assistant professors who have a new child an additional year during tenure review period. Professors who have a new child or adopt a child can take modified instructional duty, which allows them to not teach for a semester.

If this were an up-or-out case, I would likely agree with the recommendation of the Promotion and Tenure committee. However, Dr. Nikolova is being considered for promotion at UT Austin two years early.

An up-and-out policy, with specifics that can vary by institution, is when a person is required to be considered for tenure and it is either awarded the distinction or the professor is removed.

Nikolova filed the suit against UT-Austin in 2019.

Bob Schmidt, a lawyer for Nikolova, said he is pleased the jury sided with his client.

Discrimination against women and mothers is still real in our society in general, Schmidt said. If discrimination goes unchecked, if its just allowed to be looked over at UT-Austin  which is one of our state's most powerful, big institutions and universities  then it can happen anywhere.

UT-Austin did not respond to the Texas Tribunes request for comment.

In a statement to the publication Inside Higher Ed, the university said it will continue to examine ways to improve our processes and will implement any required steps to comply with the verdict. In court documents, the university denied it treated Nikolova unfairly.

It is not clear if UT-Austin will appeal the decision.

Nikolovas suit pointed out that in the period since she first interviewed at the university, nine male professors had received tenure while both women, including her, who went up for tenure in the same time period were denied.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of the Texas Tribune. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Maria chased a wounded bird through the thick brush in South Texas and then disappeared from her owners sight.

The owner didnt see his hunting dog again until he found her trapped 50 feet below in an abandoned grain silo that now acts as a well in Jim Hogg County, about 30 minutes from the Texas-Mexico border.
Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott on Wednesday donated $20 million to a San Antonio-based nonprofit that helps military families across the country.

Scott, who divorced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, has donated $3.8 billion to 465 non-profit organizations since June. According to The New York Times, Scott has donated $12 billion to more than 1,200 organizations since 2020.

Her latest round of donations will benefit Operation Homefront, a local organization that has helped over 49,000 military families across the country with housing, support programs and nearly $33 million in critical financial assistance. The donation was announced on the 20th anniversary of the nonprofit.

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John Pray, the organization's president and CEO, told the Express-News that the $20 million gift is the largest single donation it has received. Scott's donation will allow the nonprofit to support thousands of more families and hire more staff, including in San Antonio, Pray said.

According to a July 2020 Express-News story, Operation Homefront helped a local family that fell behind on their bills and mortgage during the early days of the pandemic. The nonprofit sent more than $3,000 to the family's various creditors.

"We feel good about the confidence (Scott) has in us to put these dollars to good use," he said. "Strong military families add to their local communities, which then, in turn, will make us a stronger America. It benefits all of us to help them."

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Organizations go through a rigorous vetting process before they are selected by Scott, according to Pray. In her announcement Wednesday, Scott said she chooses organizations that help support the "ability of all people to participate in solutions."

Scott has given to organizations that help incarcerated people, veterans, refugees and other underrepresented groups, as well as to those supporting affordable housing, job training and healthcare.

Operation Homefront is not the only San Antonio organization to have received money from Scott. In February, she gifted $7 million to Communities in Schools of San Antonio, which works within schools to help connect underserved students with resources on and off campus.

Courtesy of Operation Homefront

She has also donated to multiple chapters of the Boys & Girls Clubs, including the Central Texas chapter.

Among the donations Scott announced on Wednesday was $275 million to Planned Parenthood, the largest gift from a single donor in the organization's history.

Scott has an estimated net worth of over $55 billion.

Malak.Silmi@express-news.net
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A police officer who was indefinitely suspended for punching a pregnant woman in the face is fighting for reinstatement with back pay and benefits.

An arbitration hearing for Elizabeth Montoya, formerly with the San Antonio Police Department, began Wednesday at the San Antonio International Center downtown and is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Montoya was suspended indefinitely, tantamount to being fired, in January 2019 for inhumane treatment of a suspect during an arrest she made the night of July 5, 2018.

Montoyas attorney, Robert Leonard, said evidence will show that Montoyas firing was unjust and inappropriate, asking the arbitrator to overturn Chief William McManus decision and to issue other discipline if necessary.

Regardless of the citys position that the incident captured on video looks bad, when you peel back the layers and look at the underlying facts and circumstances in this case, you will see that  she was acting within training. She was acting within policy.

Robin Jerstad /Contributor

City Attorney Michael Urbis presented two witnesses, including San Antonio police Lt. Matthew Murray, who moved the complaint through internal affairs after reviewing body and police vehicle camera video footage that captured the incident.

On the day of the incident, Montoya and several officers were alerted to the 1200 block of San Luis Street for a disturbance in which the woman and at least one other suspect were accused of burglarizing a home, according to the footage.

The footage shown started with the moment tensions began to flare as Montoya was searching the woman for contraband.

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When the woman confirmed to Montoya that she was pregnant, Montoya scolded her, saying, Six months pregnant and youre out here doing this?

The woman began complaining about the search as Montoya discovered a Xanax pill in her bra.

When Montoya needed to search between the womans legs, she complained that she was in pain from her pregnancy and did not want Montoya to do so.

Robin Jerstad /Contributor

Youre hurting my back, the woman cried as another officer lifted her arms so Montoya could perform her search.

Are you going to stop? Montoya asked.

The woman replied no and then screamed and kicked Montoya.

If you kick me again, I will break your arm, Montoya said.

Officers then attempted to place the woman in the back of a police vehicle, but she kicked Montoya a second time.

Montoya then began punching the woman in her face. Another officer could be seen stopping Montoyas assault.

In her initial report, Montoya wrote that she struck the woman four times, which Murray found to be inaccurate.

As the woman screamed and yelled Im pregnant dude. Why did you hit me like that? in video footage, Montoya told other officers that she was faking her response.

Stop acting like youre worried about your [expletive] baby, she said. Youre not worried about your baby if youre taking drugs while youre pregnant.

You deserve it, Montoya said.

Later, Montoya said, I only hit you a couple of times. Ill do it again too.

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The woman complained of pain to her stomach, and another officer called to have her taken to an area hospital. She was booked into jail, and later, charges against her of assault on a public servant and prior warrants for burglary were dismissed.

During Murrays cross-examination, Leonard there were no visible injuries to the woman.

The arbitrator also heard testimony from Officer Annie Salinas, an instructor at the police academy who teaches use of force.

Salinas said the language used by Montoya during the incident is not taught in the academy, is inconsistent with trying to deescalate, and can make a person more combative. She also said she did not see anything in the footage that warranted Montoya punching the woman.

jbeltran@express-news.net
Riley Leon was heading home from a job interview at Whataburger when his 2.5-ton Chevrolet Silverado was swept up in a tornado earlier this week.

A storm chaser on the other side of the rural highway in Elgin, a city about 40 minutes from Austin, caught the scene on video. Leons truck spun upside down in a circle before the wind flipped it upright. Leon, 16, could then be seen in the viral video speeding off away from the storm like nothing happened.

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Leon told several television stations that the tornado appeared to come out of nowhere.

I wasnt scared that much, but it was a shocking moment for me, Leon told KVUE in Austin.

Leon is an Austin native and is a junior in high school. Ahead of his job interview, Leon told Fox 7 he was warned by family and friends that the weather would be bad. At the time, he didnt think anything of the empty road and the rain. He said he drove into the tornados path by accident.

After the tornado set the truck on its wheels, Leon said: I just drove off  and I was like should I drive home or should I not?

Leon has told several television stations that, other than a few minor cuts, he is uninjured. His family found out about the incident over social media. They recognized the red pickup truck, which had been in the family for years.

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They saw the truck and they thought it was my dad, cause hes the one that mostly drives it, Leon said. Until he told them it was actually me in the truck. Thats when they (said) Thank God hes safe.

While Leon was able to drive the truck home, he implied that it was no longer working and that it was at a friends house in Egin for repairs.

Leon urged others not to take a similar risk during extreme weather events.

I dont want this to happen to nobody, he said. Wouldnt recommend it at all. Stay home. Dont risk your life.

At least Leon got the job at Whataburger. He told KVUE that he starts next week.

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
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A Bexar County forensic science expert testified Thursday that DNA from a man accused of a 1987 rape and killing in San Antonio could not be excluded from a sample collected from the victim after the crime.

Larry Leroy Moore, 69, of Prescott, Ariz., is on trial here, charged with capital murder in the sexual assault and strangulation of Dianna Dee Dee Lowery, 25, on Jan. 29, 1987. Across its 35 years, the case has been opened, closed, revisited and re-indicted.

Testimony in the trial established that Lowery lived with her boyfriend, Dale Andrew Martin, in a duplex in the 400 block of Bailey on the Southeast Side. Moore owned the two-unit home, lived on the other side and had keys to both residences.

Martin found Lowery dead in the bathtub when he got home from work. She was wearing her bathrobe and socks and had abrasions on her face.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Garon Foster, a forensics expert at the Bexar County Crime Lab, told jurors that although DNA evidence was not studied in the 1980s, the method of collecting genetic samples in rape kits has stayed largely the same, and today individual chromosomes  X for women and Y for men  can be separated and tested from those samples.

Our techniques are more sensitive, we are able to see more today, he told the court under questioning by prosecutor Talia Triesch.

Foster was the last of the states witnesses before prosecutors Triesch and Kristen Mulliner rested their case Thursday.

Defense attorneys Mark McKay and Daniel De La Garza presented no witnesses. Closing arguments are expected Friday.

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Foster began working in the Bexar County crime lab in 1994. He first conducted DNA analysis in Lowerys case in 2004.

Enough of what crime scene investigators collected from Lowerys body the day of the killing was still suitable for serologists to gather samples of DNA and compare it to samples taken from at least four men authorities interviewed then, including Martin and Moore.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

The samples from the rape kit were tested at least three times, Foster said, and Moore was not excluded as a donor of the Y chromosome that was present.

On ExpressNews.com: Smelled like death: Trial begins for Arizona man accused of killing San Antonio woman 35 years ago

When Triesch asked Foster what that meant for the layperson, Foster said, It means the Y chromosome type from Moore does match DNA found in Lowerys rape kit.

The defense lawyers attempted to discredit Foster and a witness before him, Robert Bux, a retired coroner for El Paso County, Colo., who also worked as a Bexar County medical examiner at the time of Lowerys death and performed her autopsy. They pressed both on chain of custody protocols for the evidence, which the witnesses admitted could degrade over time.

When Triesch asked Foster if he felt confident that Moores DNA matched the male DNA on the rape kit, he answered yes.

Bux walked the jury through photographs only showed to the panel that depicted rectangular adhesive marks around Lowerys mouth, and injury patterns around her wrists and ankles where she had been bound.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Moore was questioned by police after the slaying, but it was not until July 2005 that cold case investigators linked him to the scene with DNA evidence.

A Bexar County grand jury indicted Moore in September 2005, but in 2007 a prosecutor asked a judge to dismiss the case for further investigation, according to online court records.

The case saw no movement until January 2018 when a Lowery relative called the District Attorneys Office, which reviewed the evidence and determined it had enough to prosecute Moore.

Moore was indicted again that year by a Bexar County grand jury on a capital murder charge, according to online court records.

The DAs Office is not seeking the death penalty. The case is being heard in the 175th District Court, visiting Senior District Judge Maria Teresa Herr presiding. If convicted, Moore could face life in prison.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
NEW DELHI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 Indian fishermen were apprehended and their two trawlers seized by the Sri Lankan navy for allegedly fishing in their waters, local Indian media reported on Thursday.

The fishermen were arrested Wednesday night during two separate patrols.

Indian media reports said 12 fishermen were arrested while fishing near Katchatheevu and four from Gulf of Mannar. However Sri Lankan officials said the arrests were made in their waters northwest of the islands of Delft in Jaffna and Iranativu in Mannar.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan navy has also confirmed the arrests.

"Sri Lanka navy seized two Indian trawlers with 16 Indian fishermen while poaching in Sri Lankan waters, during separate patrols carried out on the night of March 23, 2022," said a statement issued by the Sri Lankan navy.

Fishermen of the two countries are often jailed for accidentally crossing into each other's territorial waters as most fishing boats lack technologies to locate exact positions. 
During the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a reporter went live on Britains ITV network to describe what was happening in neighboring Poland.

Exhausted Ukrainians were crossing the border carrying their children, pets and most vital belongings, their elderly relatives in tow.

Reporter Lucy Watsons voice quavered. Now the unthinkable has happened to them, she told viewers in an urgent tone, and this is not a developing, third world nation. This is Europe!

CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie DAgata was similarly emotional about the plight of Ukrainian refugees. He knew he was treading close to the edge, and he went over anyway.

Ukraine isnt a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, he said, reporting live from Kyiv. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European  I have to choose those words carefully, too  city.

Such reports illustrate a double standard in the Wests treatment of refugees. Whereas non-white people displaced by war or disasters are often demonized and detained, Ukrainians have been greeted with an outpouring of warmth and support.

Borders have been opened, millions in charitable aid has been raised, and strollers have been left in Polish train stations for arriving Ukrainian families.

It has been moving  and a stark contrast to the treatment often afforded Black, brown and Muslim refugees. The world picks and chooses which strangers deserve a welcome and which do not.

Over the last month, weve seen humanity at its best and worst.

Weve seen how governments, reporters and ordinary people decide one refugee is human and worthy of welcome while another is not.

In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Nikolai Ingistov-Garcia, a lecturer in Latin American studies at the University of California-Riverside, wrote about the intense pain he felt watching TV news reports on the Russian invasion. He identifies as Chicano, but his fathers family is from Odesa.

My Chicano-Mexican-Russian-Ukrainian border-crossing identity hurts as I watch Putins war unfold while more waves of Latin American and, very recently, Ukrainian refugees arrive at the Tijuana-U.S. border, he wrote. My hope is that out of this tragedy, future refugees that come to the Mexican border, whether they are from Honduras or Ukraine, are treated with equal dignity  which all of them deserve.

This contradiction isnt new, and we need not look back centuries to see how selective Europeans have been in their humanitarianism when it comes to non-white, non-Christian refugees.

In 2020, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban called non-European refugees Muslim invaders.

The Global Detention Project, a Geneva-based nonprofit that promotes human rights for those detained for non-citizen status, zeroed in on the racist double standard.

There are no calls from Brussels today to detain refugees fleeing Ukraine for up to 18 months. Why? Because, as Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said recently about people from Ukraine: These people are Europeans.... These people are intelligent.

This week, CNNs Anderson Cooper seemed to hold back tears of sympathy as he interviewed a Ukrainian mother while her infant wriggled in her arms.

Im not sure journalists have been equally moved by Central Americans in similar circumstances.

Even Ukraine has treated non-Ukrainians differently. Nationals from Africa, Asia and the Middle East living or working in Ukraine have been prevented from leaving the country.

Only immigration advocates have been consistent in their humanitarianism, supporting equally all those who seek safety from war, violence, poverty and other dangers. In the United States, theyre asking the Biden administration to help Central Americans and Haitians as well as Ukrainians.

Yet in the face of blatant racism, some remain oblivious, unable or unwilling to acknowledge it.

A piece in The Conversation, a nonprofit news site that publishes the work of academic experts, offered some insight, citing Jamaican philosopher Sylvia Wynter on what it means to be human.

She explains that since the rise of Renaissance Humanism and the spread of colonialism, western origin stories have used a binary opposition between an ideal human and a dysselected other, where the other is Black, indigenous or racialized.

Some humans are seen as not really human because they lack rationality.

These are the attitudes that rationalized slavery, lynching and taking land from savages.

Its what rationalizes voting restrictions and hatred toward LGBTQ people. Its what emboldens a group of Republican senators to badger, interrupt and disrespect a highly qualified, Black woman judge nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And its why we extend kindness and humanity to some refugees and withhold it from others.

eayala@express-news.net
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In his latest attack on LGBTQ+ people, our states attorney general is threatening a school program that focuses on making students of all backgrounds feel included.

On Tuesday, indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the Austin Independent School District accusing it of breaking the law and indoctrinating students by cynically pushing sex ed curriculum that constitutes human sexuality instruction because it didnt get parental consent.

But Austin ISDs Pride Week, running this week, aims to create a safe, supportive and inclusive environment. It is not sex ed. An inspiration guide for elementary teachers that includes a link to a teacher newsletter the district also shared with me focuses on the districts core value, respect for every individual. It encourages campuses to plan activities that celebrate, inform, and inspire. The age-appropriate guide links to its district Pride website that includes themes and its impressive local board policy.

Austin ISD doesnt even teach human sexuality. The district has been working for years to develop curriculum that meets Texas strict parameters, including a State Board of Education overhaul of the standards in 2020.

On Tuesday, Stephanie S. Elizalde, the superintendent of Austin ISD, tweeted the attorney generals letter with her own bold statement: I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks.

In Texas, those are fighting words  and shes on the right side of humanity.

Elizaldes district bio online describes her as a native Texan and the districts first Latina superintendent, a lifelong educator committed to equity and excellence in education for every student.

Paxtons track record would be a punchline if it werent the sad truth. Who can trust an attorney general who is indicted? Indicted in 2015 on securities fraud charges, Paxton also is subject of an FBI bribery investigation. He is well-known for his anti-transgender views and actions, most recently defining gender-affirming care as child abuse and weaponizing Child Protective Services against parents with children who are transgender.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Paxton undermines the legal system he represents

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Abbott policy on trans kids inhumane  and for what?

But Christian religious liberties? Oh, he champions those.

In 2015, Paxton joined 15 other states in opposing an atheist groups lawsuit to stop school board officials from praying before public meetings, according to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post also reported that Paxton called the Obama administrations 2016 directive to schools to make accommodations for transgender students a gun to the head that threatens the independence of school districts.

In 2017, Paxton was so troubled by a Muslim prayer student group in a Frisco high school that he sued, asserting it raised concerns about the First Amendments protection of religious liberty, according to his news release.

According to a 2017 statement from Paxton , he asked school officials to ensure that Liberty High Schools prayer room was accessible to students of all religious denominations, consistent with the First Amendments protection of religious liberty. But the superintendent said the classroom was available to students of all faiths and called Paxtons letter and news release a publicity stunt by the OAG to politicize a non-issue, according to the Dallas Observer.

Anything outside the bubble of Paxton and the conservative culture war is game for attacks; anything inside the bubble, Paxton defends  with taxpayer funds.

In 2016, Paxton sent a letter to Killeen ISD, strongly urging it to reverse its decision to remove a school nurses aides handmade Christmas decoration that depicted a Bible verse in a scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas, according to his news release. Paxton intervened in the case and won.

The school nurses aide had the right to display her decorations, the Muslim student prayer group  and students of all faiths  had the right to pray, and Austin ISDs Pride Week should happen. All students have rights, but Paxton appears to be only motivated by those his base holds dearly.

How fortunate Austin ISD students are to have Elizalde as an ally. Their superintendent not only says she values people of all backgrounds, but she acts on it.

All students  of every background  must be protected. Maybe if Paxton had learned to accept and value people of all backgrounds, he wouldnt be leading our states culture wars.

Im rooting for Elizalde.

Nancy.Preyor-Johnson@express-news.net
Im all for shattering glass ceilings, but lets remember women have had to overcome adversity just to be acknowledged. Theyve had to tailor how they dress, temper what they say, and think long and hard before taking action.

Enter Sarah Stogner, who so deeply wants to redefine the ineffective Railroad Commission of Texas that she did something no woman  or man  has done in Lone Star State politics: She posted a five-second campaign video of herself, nearly nude, sitting on a pump jack, cowboy hat in the air.

The song Apache by the Sugarhill Gang played. The tone was wild. The response was mixed.

They said I needed money (smiley face emoji). I have other assets, she wrote in her caption.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas candidate Sarah Stogners semi-nude ad pushes boundaries of guerilla-style marketing in politics

In her campaign, Stogner has revealed uncomfortable truths about Texas oil and gas  and Texas politics and women. She gambled that the attention from her video would translate to votes, and it did. Was it worth it?

Stogner calls herself the Legal Unicorn, and she does have a mythical quality. She is a mom who works as an oil and gas attorney and speaks with expertise. She is a Republican who understands and acknowledges the implications of man-made climate change; a woman who is comfortable in her skin; a political novice who made the runoff by expertly using social media to share short videos explaining and showing contaminated groundwater, and taking on misogyny in the oil and gas industry.

The Express-News Editorial Board was the only major Texas newspaper to recommend her in the Republican primary. We rescinded that recommendation after the video. In her response posted to LinkedIn, she said the Editorial Board was trying to slut shame a bold woman willing to call out the actual evil.

On the contrary, we call out good and bad in all its nuanced forms  and Stogners video, although successful, was a misstep. Yet I understand why she did it.

It was difficult to see past the provocative pump jack video, or how it cast aside norms or disrupted womens progress. In her comments online and to the Editorial Board in our second meeting, held this month, Stogner said she recorded the video clip for fun and even considered announcing her campaign with it, but realized this would be a distraction. She said she first wanted to establish her credentials as a credible and serious candidate.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: After misguided Sarah Stogner video, Dawayne Tipton for railroad commissioner

While the widely shared video was surprising, the responses online were not. They ranged from disbelief and anger to raunchy and crass remarks, with plenty of you go, girl, sprinkled in.

A man who goes by Tim Kenner148 posted on another Stogner video that included the same footage over Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus: Seems that some people just dont like honesty these days. What I see is you using the same tools that women have used for a 100,000 years  And doing it honestly.

Gross. The value of women  mothers, professionals and leaders  has always been more than their sexual appeal. Women can do anything men can do  sometimes better.

Someone with the handle trashpanda296 replied: From a female working in oil & gas: you just knocked women in this industry down yet another notch. I wanted to vote for you. YOU need to do better. (angry face emoji)

Stogner replied: Im sorry  I understand the feeling but trust me with this ... its not about gender or sex.

But the video is about gender and sex  and the pursuit of votes. And thats why it felt like a step back for women. But shes raised powerful questions about challenging the boundaries of accepted political discourse.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: For railroad commission, Stogner best despite hoopla

When Stogner told the Editorial Board during our second meeting that she objectified her body on her own terms, she definitely gave me something to think about.

Aside from a paid app she used to edit videos, she paid zero dollars for the video. Impressive marketing, but its disheartening that she deemed it necessary. Yes, Texas politics is still very much a good ol boy space  but plenty of women from both sides have broken through without taking off their clothes, and Stogner is strong enough to have done that, too.

Stogners strongest assets are her ideas (she says regulations on the books are adequate but not enforced), education (she graduated magna cum laude from Louisiana State Universitys law school, according to her LinkedIn) and expertise (watch her other TikTok videos and check out her 14 years of experience helping energy-related businesses understand, mitigate, allocate and manage risk).

The Railroad Commission of Texas is misunderstood, and if Stogner is elected, she will undoubtedly help Texans understand its about oil and gas, not trains, and changes are needed for employee safety and our climate. She has no qualms about keeping active on TikTok. My goal is to bring transparency, she said.

And she should bring all of it, without the sideshow.

Nancy.Preyor-Johnson@express-news.net
March is National Womens History Month, the annual celebration of womens accomplishments in our society. The month puts a spotlight on high-profile women, those who are known nationwide for their work. Without question, they have earned the recognition.

The theme for this years celebration is Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope. A handful of women  high achievers all  come to mind.

But as I thought about this years theme, I realized I know more than 500 women who deserve to be recognized and honored as well. By some measure, they are everyday people. But through their generosity, they are heroes.

They are the women who contribute selflessly to Impact San Antonio, a womens nonprofit, that uses a collective giving model to make significant grants to nonprofit organizations serving the greater San Antonio area. We are one of the largest collective-giving, grant-making organizations in the nation. We are women, empowered to join together to achieve meaningful change.

On ExpressNews.com: Preyor-Johnson: Womens history month is about the future

Impact SA began in 2004, with the goal of members donating to a collective fund to help nonprofits. The objective was to make gifts of $100,000 to agencies implementing impactful projects. Since our founding, we have awarded more than $4.8 million to area nonprofits like the Carver Community Cultural Center, City Year San Antonio, Family Violence Prevention Services, Friends of Government Canyon, Roy Maas Youth Alternatives, San Antonio Clubhouse, Sunshine Cottage, Woodlawn Theatre and many other organizations.

While some may find it unusual for women to be giving so generously to organizations in need, according to the Womens Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, women are more likely to give to charity and give more on average than men across nearly every income level.

A recent report from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy found that giving circles tripled in number from 2007 to 2017, to 1,500, and have donated as much as $1.29 billion in that time. The vast majority of giving circle members are women.

Who better to honor than the more than 500 women who annually donate $1,000 or more to join Impact SA, enabling the organization to continue to support our communitys incredible nonprofit organizations. If giving $1,000 is too big a stretch individually, people can join with up to four friends for a shared membership.

On ExpressNews.com: Column: Womens History Month provides lessons

Impact SA is a melting pot of women of different ages, with different experiences and perspectives. We come together to cultivate and grow a more vibrant community. We see the power in our giving circle to celebrate and support the many remarkable agencies that are helping so many in our community.

I moved to San Antonio in 2005 and knew little about the city. Thanks to Impact SA, I have been able to learn about our community and its needs. The organization enabled me to meet wonderful women who I likely would have never met otherwise. It also allowed me to see how you get so much more back by giving than by receiving.

I invite you to learn more about Impact SA and join our giving circle so we can help even more nonprofits help people in need. To learn more, visit our website at impactsanantonio.org.

Angelle St. Germain is president of Impact SA. She is the executive director of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for Valero Energy Corp.
How many Texans know what the Railroad Commission of Texas does? How do you make people care about an important election for an agency with a funny, misleading name in which the incumbent, Wayne Christian, claims to be the only Christian on the ballot?

These are the questions I asked myself in February, in the face of a crowded Republican primary race for the Texas Railroad Commission. So I posted a five-second TikTok Super Bowl ad, in which I took my clothes (mostly) off and climbed on top of a pump jack.

And it worked. While it cost me this newspapers initial recommendation, I firmly believe its the sole reason there is a runoff.

Now that I have all my clothes on, can we have an honest conversation about the challenges facing the oil and gas industry, and the incumbents lack of qualifications?

On ExpressNews.com: Christian: Keep oil and gas regulation light, prices low, nation safe

The Texas Railroad Commission regulates oil and gas wells, intrastate pipelines and surface mining. Despite its confusing name, it is one of the most powerful regulatory agencies in the world. It oversees the oil and gas industry in Texas, which, if it were its own nation, would be the fourth-largest oil producer in the world.

Three commissioners serve staggered, six-year terms. Like other statewide races in Texas, these commissioners are truly chosen in the Republican primary, receiving minimal media attention or scrutiny. Most campaign contributions come from the oil and gas firms they regulate, which, at best, creates a large potential for conflict of interest.

The RRC makes daily decisions that impact state, national and global economies, as well as the health and safety of ordinary Texans. When an oil well blows out and contaminates the only drinking water for rural citizens, the RRC has exclusive regulatory authority. I moved onto a West Texas cattle ranch last summer and personally witnessed the RRC tell the landowner she was not allowed to contact commission staff  that all communications must be made through attorneys.

I thought state attorneys were only adversarial to Texans in criminal cases. The RRCs leadership is openly hostile to everyday Texans. What happens to the 99 percent of Texans who cannot afford a massive legal battle when their groundwater is contaminated by grossly negligent oil companies? Who do they call when state regulators are complicit?

This brings me back to my semi-nude pump-jack publicity stunt.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas candidate Sarah Stogners semi-nude ad pushes boundaries of guerilla-style marketing in politics

I have been an oil and gas attorney for 14 years. I have represented primarily oil and gas operators in contract negotiations and litigation. And for years I have been calling attention to the problems facing this industry: earthquakes caused by the disposal of water produced in fracking, casing integrity and groundwater contamination, orphaned wells and the ever-present threat of federal intervention.

I have no long-term political aspirations. I want to get into office, bring transparency, competency and trust back to the RRC, and then go back to my life as a mom and attorney.

Meanwhile, my opponent is a career politician who has never worked in the oil industry and fell into a commissioners seat when he was redistricted out of a Texas House seat. Recent news stories have reported how he accepted a campaign contribution after approving a permit application against the advice of Texas Railroad Commission in-house experts.

I am an experienced oil and gas attorney with actual field experience. I am supervisor well control certified, and I understand the operational realities of exploring for and producing hydrocarbons. My supporters are out there getting their hands dirty every day in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin drilling and completing wells. My opponents top supporters come from the high-rise offices of the oil and gas industry, including California-based Chevron.

The naked truth can be uncomfortable, but we are at a crossroads in this country and need leaders willing to step up, speak out and stand up for what is right  especially when its difficult.

Sarah Stogner, a Republican, is an oil and gas attorney running for Texas railroad commissioner.
When United Farm Workers of America co-founder Cesar Chavez ended a 25-day, water-only fast on March 10, 1968, in Delano, Calif., U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was there to break bread with him.

Chavez had undertaken the fast to recommit the union to nonviolence in its fight to raise the pay and improve the working conditions of farmworkers.

Joining 6,000 to 10,000 people, mostly Mexican American migrant workers, Kennedy called Chavez one of the heroic figures of our time, adding, When your children and grandchildren take their place in America going to high school and college, and taking good jobs at good pay, when you look at them, you will say, I did this. I was there, at the point of difficulty and danger. And though you may be old and bent from many years of labor, no man will stand taller than you when you say, I marched with Cesar.

Saturday, after a two-year hiatus because of COVID, thousands of San Antonians will return to the streets of downtown San Antonio to march with the spirit of Chavez and in celebration of his life and the work of he and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta.

26th Annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice When: Saturday at 10 a.m. Where: 2 miles through downtown San Antonio, from the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center toward Hemisfair How: March attendees can park for free at the Alamodome and get a free, round-trip bus ride to and from the march, .8 a.m. to 3 p.m. See More Collapse

On ExpressNews.com: Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice returns March 26 after 2-year in-person COVID hiatus

The 26th Annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice was started by local labor organizer Jaime Martinez. Its always around the birthday of Chavez, who died in 1993. Thursday will mark his 95th birthday.

In March 1966, he emerged as a heroic and iconic leader when he led fewer than 100 Mexican American and Filipino farmworkers on a 280-mile march from Delano to Sacramento. The march sought to draw national attention to the exploitation of people who put food on the nations tables but worked in dehumanizing conditions.

By the time they reached the capital of California, the ranks of the marchers had swelled to the thousands and a new movement demanding economic justice, dignity and that America do better by all its people was taking shape.

It was a movement of marches, strikes and boycotts that led to a collective bargaining agreement with major grape growers. This agreement improved farmworkers living conditions, raised their pay and provided the right to unionize.

Kin Man Hui /San Antonio Express-News

It was also a movement that raised awareness of the dangers of pesticides to farmworkers and their children and to millions of American consumers.

Just as its wrong to confine Martin Luther King Jr. to being a great African American leader, Chavez should not be narrowly defined as a great Mexican American leader. He was a great American leader with international appeal who, like King, was passionately devoted to nonviolence. With the armor of nonviolence and his Catholic faith, Chavez forsook comfort for what he called la causa of improving the lives of farmworkers.

In a 1984 speech, Chavez said, Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.

You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read, he said. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: Fighting for cause Chavez championed

Our opponents must understand that its not just a union we have built. Unions, like other institutions, can come and go.

But were more than an institution. For nearly 20 years, our union has been on the cutting edge of a peoples cause  and you cannot do away with an entire people; you cannot stamp out a peoples cause.

People continue to march for this cause  and will do so again Saturday.
Bexar County Republican leaders are opposing San Antonios 2022 bond program, saying it effectively raises taxes during a time of high inflation  a point one advocate for the bonds passage called ridiculous.

The party held training last week to fight the $1.2 billion bond  the largest in the citys history  that will appear on the May 7 ballot. It also is opposed to the $992 million bond on the ballot for Northside Independent School District.

Many people vote for the bonds without realizing that the resulting property tax increase affects not only every property owner, but renters as well, and raises the cost of doing business in Bexar County, party chairman John Austin wrote in a recent Bexar GOP newsletter.

San Antonio officials have said the bond will not increase the citys property tax rate. Revenues at the current rate will be enough to repay the bonds, according to an information guide for the bond program.

San Antonio seeks bond money every five years to pay for projects such as street, drainage and park upgrades, and voters largely have supported past city bonds. In 2017, an $850 million bond received overwhelming support  most propositions passed with between 70 percent and 79 percent of the votes.

Were going to be countering misinformation from any source, said James Aldrete, a consultant with the political action committee advocating for the bonds passage. The fact is it does not raise any new taxes.

The PAC is working to get out a positive message about the bond with information people can verify themselves, Aldrete said. The plan involves community outreach, neighborhood meetings and working with chambers of commerce.

Were going to run an aggressive campaign, he said.

Austin, who faces a runoff election May 24, doesnt think officials are telling the full truth.

Theyre lying, I guess. I dont trust them, Austin said.

They may not be planning to raise our taxes quote-unquote, but thats the effect, he added. Somebodys gotta pay for it; nothing is free in the end. It may not be our property tax rising, but its something.

Gary Teal, executive director of the Bexar GOP, believes city officials when they say the tax rate wont rise. Still, he finds the statement misleading because the opposite is true  the city would have to decrease its property tax rate if voters dont pass the bond.

They are banking on the idea that the tax rate is all that you and I care about, Teal said. The tax rate wont go up.

But that billion dollars will be paid for on the backs of renters and average homeowners in San Antonio. It has to be paid for, Teal said. Its debt.

He also pointed to data from the state comptrollers office showing San Antonios debt per capita sits at $6,873, more than other large Texas cities except Austin.

San Antonios property tax rate consists of two parts: One portion pays for regular city maintenance and operations, and the other pays off debt. Teal said the city would have to lower the debt service portion of the property tax rate if it had less debt to pay back.

Ben Gorzell, the citys chief financial officer, confirmed the debt service part of the property tax rate would eventually decrease if the 2022 bond did not pass, as long as the city did not add much new debt. In that scenario, the debt service tax rate would decline gradually as the city paid off existing debt.

In the FAQ guide to the bond, the city addressed why it doesnt cut property taxes instead of adding projects.

If the city does not construct these projects, taxpayers will pay for increased maintenance costs and the improvements may not be completed, the guide reads. For example, it is more cost-effective to reconstruct a major thoroughfare rather than making patchwork repairs year after year.

The bond is conservative in that it does not come close to covering all of San Antonios infrastructure needs and was designed to maintain the citys credit rating, Aldrete said.

He reiterated theres no planned change to the citys property tax rate because of the bond.

Its all projection to say this will increase peoples property taxes, Aldrete said. This is addressing quality of life in San Antonio.

He said property values are increasing now because of housing market pressures in the wake of the pandemic. Leaders already expect that they may have to cut San Antonios property tax rate soon because of the booming housing market. State law prevents the city from collecting more than 3.5 percent in property tax revenue over the previous year without voter approval.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio may cut city property tax rate next year because of the soaring housing market

In February, the City Council voted unanimously to send the proposed bond package to voters. It will appear on the May 7 ballot as six propositions: streets, bridges and sidewalks; drainage and flood control; parks and recreation; library and cultural facilities; public safety facilities; and affordable housing. If voters pass all six, the bond will fund 183 projects and include money for affordable housing for the first time.

Some of the larger initiatives include greenway trail expansion, a new police substation on the South Side and Hemisfairs Civic Park.

The projects were decided upon after five committees, made up of residents appointed by council members, held public meetings last fall to recommend projects.

The mayor and the tri-chairs are very aware theres some level of economic insecurity right now, and people are watching their pocketbooks, Aldrete said. I think thats why its so critical this was a citizen-led effort.

At the end of the day, Teal said, he will accept the bond program if voters approve and have learned more about it.

I would like to see whatever the people want. If they vote for this bond, Ill say they voted for it, and it wasnt imposed on them, Teal said. They just have to pay it if it passes.

megan.stringer@express-news.net
More than 80 members of the Texas House have joined those calling for clemency or a retrial in the case of Melissa Lucio, who was sentenced to death in 2008 for the killing of her young daughter.

Lucio and her supporters say police coerced her confession, made mistakes throughout the investigation and trial, and disregarded evidence that complicated the narrative of the killing. Lucios supporters are trying to get Gov. Greg Abbott or the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to intervene before April 27, when her execution is scheduled. She would be the first Latina to be executed in Texas in the modern era.

Paramedics arrived at Lucios house in Harlingen in 2007 to help her young daughter, Mariah, who was unresponsive. She died at a hospital that night. Lucio said her daughter had slipped and fallen down a flight of stairs two days earlier, leading to the injuries. Prosecutors maintained that her death was the result of child abuse.

Lucio, who was pregnant at the time with twins, was interrogated by police for more than five hours, eventually saying: I guess I did it. Im responsible, leading to her conviction.

Lucios lawyers and supporters are asking the parole board for a commutation of her sentence from death to life imprisonment and if not that, then a delay in the scheduled execution or a new trial. They were joined Thursday by six House members  three Democrats and three Republicans  at the state Capitol to express support for Lucio and call on action from the board.

This case is especially troublesome, maybe the most questionable and concerning death penalty case Texas has seen in some time, said Rep. Lacey Hull, a Houston Republican. The facts simply do not support any conclusion that Ms. Lucio committed capital murder and is deserving of the ultimate punishment from the state of Texas.

EVIDENCE OF INNOCENCE: Lucios lawyers file petition with new evidence they say exonerates her

Several made appeals based on faith and the worthiness of every person for redemption. Some Republicans said that if their caucus prides itself on being pro-life, it must apply that ideology from the womb to the tomb.

Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat, said the parole board should consider victim impact statements from Lucios 11 children, who have said their mothers execution for the crime would only traumatize them further.

Rep. Jeff Leach said he and other lawmakers have been in touch with Abbotts office to advocate for Lucio and that a letter signed by more than 80 House members would be delivered to the board. Under state law, Abbott cannot offer clemency or a pardon without a recommendation from the board.

When we ensure that we do everything we can to ensure that an innocent Texan is not put to death by the state, or even a potentially innocent Texan  we are strengthening our criminal justice system and we are ensuring justice for Mariah and the Lucio family, said Leach, a Plano Republican.

Lucios lawyer Vanessa Potkin said the clemency request also contains new evidence supporting Lucios innocence, including a more detailed analysis of autopsy and medical records that werent considered in the initial trial. She said the causes of death were never fully explored because by the time the autopsy had began, officials already had tunnel vision and had decided that this was a murder and Melissa was responsible.

In about a quarter of cases in which women who are charged with crimes are later exonerated, the women provided false confessions to the crimes, Potkin said. And in 72 percent of female exoneree cases, most frequently child abuse, the alleged crime was either an accident or didnt happen, she said.

Texas and other states have struggled over the years to ensure fair and exhaustive child abuse investigations. Abbott signed a bill into law last year enshrining a right to second medical opinions for abuse cases after reporting from Hearst Newspapers and NBC News found several cases in which parents had been accused based on questionable medical analyses.

As recently as this year, a Dallas couple were separated from their three young children because of mistaken suspicion of abuse, costing them nearly $300,000 and months of time with their kids.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
Sterling, VA (20165)

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Above, Lilly's website displays a compassion that ex-workers say wasn't evident when they resisted its vaccine mandate on scientific, religious or other grounds. They lost their jobs.

By Clayton Fox, RealClearInvestigations

March 23, 2022

Mandy Van Gorp was confident that her employer of 18 years, Eli Lilly and Company, would treat her fairly when she objected to its company-wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The pharmaceutical giant had promised to exempt employees with valid health or religious objections to the policy and she believed she had had both.

Despite presenting a doctors note in support of her exemption, citing an auto-immune disease, the company denied her request for a medical exemption. To add injury to the insult she felt, she tested positive for COVID-19 the day after receiving her rejection letter. She then appealed for a six-month deferral on grounds of the positive test. Lilly also denied that request. When she then raised her religious concerns, Lilly said she had missed the application deadline  a deadline that had lapsed several weeks before Lilly replied to her initial accommodation request.

The toughest night was when we were sitting at the dinner table and my 12-year-old was sobbing, hysterically begging me to get the vaccine so I could keep my job, recalled Van Gorp, a 42-year-old sales representative and mother of three. I had to explain that my choice was not about money and that I felt God was leading me not to follow a mandate. Its hard to explain that to a 12-year-old.

Van Gorps experience was echoed by more than a dozen other former Lilly employees who recounted to RealClearInvestigations how the companys vaccine mandate and its strict enforcement pushed them out.

Not only did they lose their jobs and health insurance, but some lost out on stock options and severance packages. Others struggled to collect unemployment, claiming Lilly misrepresented their dismissals to state offices. Salespeople who won exemptions said they too were effectively dismissed as the company pushed them toward roles in which they wouldn't have direct contact with the public -- jobs for which they often had little or no training and which would require them to relocate in some instances. When presented with a series of questions regarding its vaccine mandate policy and many of these claims, Lilly responded with a statement in support of vaccination as "guided by science."

Lilly is just one of many major corporations that have publicly announced vaccine mandates for their employees. But specific policies have been imposed in private. The accounts of the former Lilly employees, including their never-before-disclosed allegations of unfair treatment, open a window on a largely secretive process that has roiled the American economy.

The objections of some also illuminate a trend seen across the healthcare industry: resistance to vaccines rooted in science and professional training, beyond objections solely based on religion or ideas of personal liberty. In this instance, those affected were in the business of manufacturing and selling drugs, including monoclonal antibodies used to treat COVID-19.

Lilly announced its vaccine mandate in August 2021, declaring that those who do not meet this requirement or do not have an approved religious or medical accommodation in place by November 15th will be separated from the company. The company had told its salespeople, who had worked remotely throughout the pandemic and then were allowed back in the field by March 2021, that those who received an exemption would remain secure in their jobs. They were instructed to follow the direction of the customer and/or healthcare facility they are visiting, which could require mandatory vaccinations, masking, negative test, etc. after Nov. 15th, as they had been doing since March.

While some employees approved of the mandate, others immediately pushed back. In a company-wide online forum discussion, the text of which RCI obtained, objectors raised various concerns ranging from the ethical  What happened to individual liberty?  to the scientific.

Even though Im vaccinated, prefaced one participant, I think that as a company who makes medicine and is fully aware of the amount of time it generally takes to get even non life-saving drugs tested and approved, this move makes no sense and goes against the safety and quality commitment Lilly tries to instill in its employees.

Another employee questioned why the policy ignored evidence of protection provided by previous infection, writing: The science of immunity from natural infection is being ignored, which is super disappointing considering we are a science-based company who developed an antibody treatment from those recovered.

The employee was referring to the fact that Lilly had produced multiple monoclonal antibody treatments, which aim to neutralize active infections of COVID-19, as opposed to COVID-19 vaccines, which aim to protect patients from infection and severe illness.

Robin Clark, a former Lilly process engineer, was one employee who sought an exemption from Lilly. RCI reached Clark through a Telegram group of 85 ex-employees who have bonded over their shared outrage at how Lilly let them go. Unlike Clark, most members had been sales representatives. RCIs investigation indicates the company may have subjected them to more onerous requirements in pursuing accommodations than non-customer-facing personnel.

Clark claims her opposition to vaccination was based on a sincere and long-held religious objection  one she did not want to disclose to her employer because theres a lot of discrimination against people who hold my beliefs.

But Clark also had a pre-existing autoimmune disorder, so this was the basis on which she filed her initial exemption request.

In that request, she noted she had not received any vaccines since she was diagnosed with her condition in 1986, and quoted the Centers for Disease Controls website, noting: People with autoimmune conditions may receive a COVID-19 vaccine. However, they should be aware that no data are currently available on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people with autoimmune conditions.

Clark also appended a letter from her doctor, provided to RCI, stating, My medical professional assessment of this patient is that she not be immunized with the COVID-19 vaccine, as the risk of harm and medical injury to the patient outweigh the benefits.

She also indicated she had contracted COVID-19 in November 2020 and that she still had antibodies, confirmed by a test conducted internally by Lilly for a study it was running on the previously infected.

The companys HR department denied Clarks request, while informing her that there were many ways for her to receive vaccination should she so decide.

In the rejection email sent to Clark, Lilly noted: This decision was made utilizing the most up to date CDC definition of true medical contraindications to COVID vaccination  with this evidence-based guidance, there are very few scenarios that meet the criteria for medical accommodation.

Several ex-employees told RCI they had heard Lilly granted few if any medical accommodation requests. Lilly did not respond to questions from RCI aimed at verifying this claim, nor any other questions concerning accommodations.

Like Mandy Van Gorp, Clark said Lilly denied her subsequent request for a religious exemption on the ground that she had missed the application deadline. Internal documents provided to RCI do not reference any appeals process for those seeking leniency from the mandate, and they say nothing about whether an employee could have applied for both a medical and religious accommodation up front.

With her requests rejected, and having refused to get vaccinated, Clark was fired for "misconduct  insubordination."

Salespeople seeking an exemption from Lilly faced other challenges. Scott, a nearly 20-year Lilly veteran in his mid-50s who asked that his last name not be used because he is looking for a new job, sought a religious exemption based on his long-time opposition to abortion and the fact that cells believed to be from aborted fetuses were used in the testing or development of the COVID-19 vaccines. He wrote a six-page letter detailing his objection, and included a letter from his pastor. He also provided proof that he had COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection.

To Scotts surprise, and to the surprise of colleagues who received the same demand, Lilly asked him to send proof that fetal cells had been used in vaccine development, including documentation of which fetal cell lines were used. The company also asked other follow-up questions to which several employees with whom RCI spoke objected.

One such email from Lilly HR obtained by RCI required self-identified Catholics to explain why they opposed official Church policy.

If Catholic, please ensure the documentation addresses the determination of the Vaticans doctrinal office (the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) that it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

Ohio native Amy Schultz, a sales rep whose religious exemption from getting vaccinated was approved, says that there was another issue at play. She claims the accommodation process itself wasnt handled consistently, noting that some people were asked for a letter from their pastor. I wasnt.

Scott was granted a temporary religious accommodation. Then Lilly threw him several curve balls. First, Lilly HR told him in an email that due to the in-person nature of sales, management ...

... has determined this accommodation creates an undue hardship for the company and the customers we serve. At this point, you may choose to post for a remote-based role  If you are unable to secure a different non-customer facing position or should you choose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by November 15th, you will be terminated from the company.

The non-customer-facing roles to which Lilly directed Scott were for scientists, engineers, and office staff, and many of those, he claims, were based at corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, far from his home out west. Despite having worked at the company for nearly 20 years, he would be treated like any other job applicant. Scott said he applied for six positions  four of which would require him to report to headquarters, and all of which would have resulted in significant pay cuts  and failed to receive an interview for any of them.

Lilly further pressured him by strictly enforcing the terms of a relocation agreement to which Scott had become party two years before. It stipulated that Scott remain employed by Lilly through November 18, 2021 or else be liable for $43,000 in costs the company had incurred to move him and his family. Due to his vaccine-related circumstance, Scott would be terminated two days shy of that date and therefore be on the hook for those moving costs.

Lilly HR offered a solution, but one that Scott felt left him little choice: Accept the severance plan offered to people like him who couldnt find an acceptable alternative job at Lilly, and the company would waive his repayment obligations. With three kids in college, and the $43,000 bill coming his way, Scott signed the severance agreement and applied for unemployment as he sought a new job.

But Lilly was not done with Scott. The state unemployment office rejected his claim for benefits, asserting, You were discharged from this [Lilly] employment for violation of company policy. Scott appealed and received another letter stating he was ineligible because he had quit the company. He appealed again, provided all relevant severance documentation, and explained in a hearing before an unemployment court exactly what had transpired. He asked the Department of Labor representative, What did Lilly specifically tell you about my employment? Scott claims that the representative grew dead quiet, then said, They checked the box that you quit. Ultimately, the Labor Department approved his benefits.

Other former Lilly sales representatives also reported problems in obtaining unemployment compensation. Two residing in the same state provided letters to RCI from its unemployment office indicating that they were initially denied benefits due to voluntary leaving  what they saw as clearly an inaccurate account of their separation from Lilly. One of the two ultimately received benefits, the other did not.

Several former employees left the company over its mandate citing safety concerns with the vaccine rooted in their professional experience. One expressed concern over adverse events. By late 2021, he said, he had been observing the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System co-managed by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration and watching and noticing the staggering amount of AEs [adverse events] reported from seizures, death, myocarditis. I told my manager, If this was our product and I was seeing these kind of reports, wed be pulled off the shelves immediately.

As of Aug. 12, 2021, the date of the Lilly mandate announcement, the vaccine reporting system had collected over half a million reports. It presents users accessing the data with a disclaimer noting its limitations, including that adverse events may not be attributable to vaccines; that the reports themselves may be incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise flawed; and that since they are voluntary, they could be subject to biases.

The former salesperson was particularly sensitive to this issue given his position as a pharmaceutical rep, a role in which he says he was obligated to report any and all adverse events encountered in connection with any Lilly drug.

Schultz added: Where there is a risk, there should be a choice and clearly there is a lot of risk here with this thing and Lilly didnt care, [about] any of our personal beliefs, it didnt matter. Its all about money. Its all about control.

Several other sales representatives expressed reservations about taking a vaccine they felt had been hastily brought to market. Van Gorp said, Its kind of an oxymoron to be fired for not taking a vaccine that doesnt have enough information and enough safety data for me to take it myself and give it to my children.

Another former rep, Amber Nikolai, a military veteran, made a similar point:

Being new to pharma I only knew the training that they had put me through and they put us through so much training that is saturated in understanding the clinical trials  we really had to understand every in and out of the clinical trial and the product info sheet and we had to make sure we could answer every question to be able to help that doc to identify appropriate patients for that medication and to feel good that it had been thoroughly tested and [to] gain their confidence  When this [Lilly imposing its mandate] started happening I thought this is exact opposite of what you teach us. An experimental therapy?

Those interviewed who expressed concerns over risks associated with the vaccines, and their rapid development and launch, cited varying reasons for their caution: Some referenced growing adverse-event figures. Others noted Israeli studies on waning vaccine efficacy. Still others leaned on anecdotal evidence from friends and family they claim had suffered adverse reactions to the jabs. How those issues should be weighed against a once-in-a-century pandemic went unstated.

Lilly, in a Q&A document obtained by RCI that was delivered to employees in conjunction with its Aug. 12 vaccine mandate announcement, noted:

From a safety standpoint, more than 4 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide. In the U.S. alone, more than 347 million doses have been administered. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the largest vaccine adverse event tracking system in history for the COVID-19 vaccines. Since the vaccines became available, reported severe side effects have been uncommon. As a science-based company, we have thoroughly reviewed all the data and options available to us. We believe this decision helps keep our employees, families and customers safe and healthy, and ensures we can continue making life-saving medicines for people around the world.

Lilly also referenced a sense of urgency to get employees vaccinated, rooted in science: Were making this decision ahead of the anticipated full approval of the vaccines by the FDA, which is imminent, because we believe every day counts. Science tells us that the current vaccines are effective in slowing transmission and reducing severe illness and deaths.

For the salespeople who left the company, another twist awaited them: The day the mandate went into effect, Lilly reported to employees that a small portion of unvaccinated customer-facing employees would be given permission to work virtually, acknowledging that experts now believe that fully vaccinated individuals with COVID can transmit the virus at the same rate as those who are not vaccinated.

On that date, Lilly HR reported in an email to employees that 99% of U.S. employees met the vaccination requirement or have an approved medical or religious accommodation in place.

Today, COVID-19 restrictions are easing across the country, and some employers are following suit. United Airlines, for example, is allowing unvaccinated employees who had been out on approved accommodation requests to return to the office.

For his part, Scott said he would not go back to Lilly if given the opportunity. He wrote a letter to his colleagues on his final day: An employer that thinks they have the right to tell you what to put in your body with no liability is not a company that I want to work for.

Nikolai, who was granted a religious accommodation but did not pursue a non-customer-facing role and was separated from Lilly, turned down a severance agreement. For me, my religion cant be bought. My freedom cant be bought. There have to be some people that are willing to stand.

She is now pursuing legal action against the company.

Am I going to win against a multibillion dollar pharma company who is insulated five ways from Sunday? No, their pockets are deep. But someones gotta stand and say this is wrong, if we dont try, where does it end?
A volunteer cuts hair for an elderly man at an elderly care center in Chongqing, southwest China, March 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

CHONGQING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- In a vast swathe of fields embellished with blossoms, a red motorcycle sped along, adding brightness and vigor to the dazzling spring scenery.

Li Jiuquan, the 54-year-old motorcyclist, was on the way to visit an elder and provide a set of services.

As a member of a service group that takes care of rural disadvantaged elderly who mostly don't have offspring and lack financial gains, Li's main job is to visit each elder once a month and help them with haircuts and mani-pedis, or just chat.

Living alone in Yongle Village, Qijiang District, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Xu Wenzhi, 62, is always happy when he sees Li coming.

"Without him, I need to walk miles to the barber's shop which is exhausting. He makes things easier, and I also have someone to talk to," said Xu, who suffers from lung disease and has no children.

As disadvantaged elders can receive a monthly subsidy of over 800 yuan (about 125.7 U.S. dollars) and have no worries about food and clothes, the rural eldercare service needs to shift its focus from material needs to psychological ones, said Chen Li, vice director of Qijiang Civil Affairs Bureau.

Hence, the service group was established in January 2021 under the guidance of the bureau to give companionship to the elderly who chose to live on their own rather than go to government-funded nursing homes.

After 40 minutes, Li clocked in on an app and documented his services. Although there are 18 categories of services, Li normally does more for over 100 elders he has tended to, such as celebrating their birthdays and helping them buy daily necessities.

Li does not consider the job troublesome but feels more than happy to help. Unlike previous jobs he has undertaken in big cities, rural eldercare service allows him to work in his hometown and "find a sense of belonging and fulfillment."

"I feel more emotionally bonded with my hometown and I found a balance between work and family," said Li. His monthly salary is over 3,000 yuan and the job provides him with welfare as well.

There are more than 80 staff in the service group now. All of them are local residents, and some are even couples or siblings. Their cooperation makes the services more efficient.

Chen found another benefit of this service group. "During service, elders are willing to share life difficulties with service staff. Therefore, the service can be a good window for the government to address elders' concerns."

From January 2021 to February 2022, Qijiang District has provided 57,000 times of services for more than 5,000 rural disadvantaged elders, according to data released by the bureau. 
To question the legitimacy and fairness of recent U.S. elections is to be attacked as a probable Russian asset out to undermine democracy or, at best, a kook. But many voters notice something strange happening. Scholars who study elections have noticed a peculiar trend developing in the last couple of decades: Late-arriving and late-counted ballots skew Democrat blue. As Election Night drags on, the pace of Republican votes slows and in the wee hours Democratic votes gain momentum. Political scientists call it the Big Blue Shift.

In the contentious aftermath of the last presidential election, Deen Freelon, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, dismissed the concerns of Trump voters as falling for the kinds of claims that trade on peoples lack of familiarity with the vote-counting process. He said, Things that are perfectly normal and happen in every election may look like, to the uninitiated viewer, as something irregular or problematic.

Does that argue for leaving such matters to experts, or should it call into question why perfectly normal voting practices look problematic? Edward B. Foley, a professor at Moritz Law School at Ohio State University who coined the concept Blue Shift, recognizes that an election that appears unfair can be as damaging to democracy as a ballot box that has actually been stuffed.

Foley, together with MIT political science professor Charles Stewart III, authored a recent academic journal article titled, Explaining the Blue Shift in Election Canvassing.

The notion of candidates harvesting extra votes during the canvass is unpalatable to begin with, Foley and Stewart write, but it becomes especially problematic if this harvesting process is perceived as systematically one-sided. What if every ballot counted is legitimate and there is no fraud? The perception problem doesnt go away. If there is the appearance that overtime ballots disproportionately add to one partys total, it may start to look as if, when an election goes into extra innings, one of the two teams is given extra at-bats.

The perception problem persists in new election laws, however well-intended, whether meant to expand the number of people voting or improve election security. Beyond being perceived by the respective opposing side as opportunities to game the next election, such measures can result in consequences as far reaching and worrisome as they are unintended.

A case in point was the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, of 2002. The legislation passed after the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election, which turned on a few hundred contested ballots in Florida. The 2002 law required, among other things, that states upgrade voting equipment and maintain databases of registered voters. But another provision has proved to be problematic  the requirement that people who show up to vote, but who are not on the official list of eligible voters registered for that jurisdiction, be allowed to cast provisional ballots. According to Foley and Stewart, those new rules have systematically benefited Democrats in the days after elections, what Foley and Stewart call overtime.

They insist, however, that this benefit for Democrats is not evidence of a nationwide conspiracy in favor of the Democratic Party, perpetuated by state and local election officials. Instead, it is an unanticipated result of expanding the practice, not just of mail-in voting, but of accepting provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots arent counted until after they have been adjudicated, which may not happen for days after an election. Stewart tells RealClearInvestigations that provisional ballots are cast disproportionately by Democrats. One reason is that Democrats are less likely than Republicans to be living in the same house or apartment as during the previous election. Democrats are more residentially mobile, says Stewart. Younger and less affluent than Republicans, Democrats are more likely to rent their abodes. Renting doesnt lock one into a given address the way a mortgage does. And so, Democrats move more often than Republicans, which means they are more likely to show up on election day to find they havent updated their addresses in the voting database. Those voters use provisional ballots, which are often not counted until election day has come and gone.

This is one reason, according to Stewart, that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to see their vote count go up in overtime. There are other reasons. For example, voters with lower education (who also tend to vote Democratic) may be more likely to make errors on their registration forms, Foley and Stewart write. More errors mean more provisional ballots, which mean delays. Rural counties tend to be Republican. Because they are sparsely populated, there are often only one or two precincts to count, and Stewart says that can be done more quickly than the count in the urban places where Democrats live, which tend to process centrally, which makes for delays."

Foley and Stewart worry that a growing gap skewed in one direction will lead Republicans to regard the vote count as rigged. But John Curiel disagrees. A research scientist at the MIT Election Data + Science Lab, Curiel tells RealClearInvestigations that the Blue Shift isnt the cause of distrust. Its just that it can be used that way. He blames the rhetoric of partisan elites.

Lonna Atkeson, Director of the LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University, attributes much of the Big Blue Shift to delays in counting votes cast by mail. Voting by mail went from favoring Republicans several decades ago, to being equally used, to favoring Democrats in the last 20 years. Voting by mail can create what seems like an endless overtime: California accepts ballots that arrive a week after election day. Its a horrible idea, says Atkeson. When is the election over? She makes the case that mail-in ballots stretch out the election overtime and feed the perception that election tallies are being manipulated. Perception is not irrelevant to the success of a democracy, she says.

Donald Trump has been pilloried for making unproven claims that the results in battleground states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania were rigged. But blue shifts can be seen as having a significant role in creating the impression that the vote count wasnt being played according to Hoyle, the famed 18th century British rules maven.

In the first hours after polls closed in Georgia, Joe Biden didnt just trail, he fell further behind. At 11 p.m. election night, Biden had only 45% of the two-party vote. Which is when the blue shift kicked in. By 3 a.m., Biden had 48.9% of the vote. According to an analysis by Curiel and Stewart, that meant that after winning only 45% of the first 3.3 million votes counted, Biden won 57% of the next 1.4 million. From that point forward, Bidens vote share slowly climbed, Curiel and Stewart write, until he eventually received a bare majority of the two-party vote in the certified results.

Biden also eked out a win in Pennsylvania, after late-counted votes went disproportionately for the Democrat. Is it explained by the Big Blue Shift? In one regard it is exactly the sort of outcome predicted by the blue-shift theory: Democrats overwhelmingly voted using mail-in ballots. Those took longer to count than ballots cast in person, and so votes for the Democrat were added to the count later than GOP votes.

And yet another peculiarity of the election should have muted the Big Blue Shift. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, lavished millions of dollars in donations to state and local governments to facilitate voting and the counting of votes. For example, Pennsylvanias Chester County received a grant of $2.5 million but still was counting votes the Friday after Election Day. The Zuck bucks were supposed to make the count smoother and quicker. Why didnt the extra millions for tallying and election administration blunt the blue shift?

Political professionals may recognize this as the Big Blue Shift in action, with votes from Democratic precincts being reliable latecomers. But it doesnt take deranged conspiracy-mongering for the average Republican voter to wonder and worry about the repeated experience of going to bed comfortably ahead only to find that just enough votes were cast for the Democrat to tip the scales at the very end.

Atkeson thinks the Big Blue Shift may be muted in Novembers elections. I dont expect the same sort of magnitude of mail-in voting in 2022 and 2024, Atkeson says. The good news is that over the last year fewer people have been voting by mail in special elections and city elections.

Confusingly complex ballots in which multiple precincts cut across the same counties, ill-trained or underperforming poll workers, and peripatetic voters all contribute to the Blue Shift, but thats not all there is behind the hyperactive legal challenges to votes and voting that have become a standard part of election day  if not election week or election month, given how long the overtime canvass lasts. A stealth provision slipped in to the infamous 2014 Cromnibus spending bill encourages a maximum of election litigation, creating the appearance that the winning candidate is the one with the best lawyers, not necessarily the one with the most votes.

The law in question earned its nickname by combining a Continuing Resolution, or CR, with an omnibus spending bill. It was two massive appropriations in one. The legislation not only dealt with federal spending, it became a Christmas tree, hung with a dense assortment of unrelated provisions. For example, the Cromnibus made significant changes to campaign finance law, changes that have done much to turn election overtimes into fiercely litigated contests.

It allowed individuals to contribute up to 300 percent of the amount otherwise applicable under this subparagraph." The subparagraph in question was in 52 U.S.C. 30116, which deals with certain limits on contributions to political parties. The new provision quietly tripled what could be donated to parties for holding conventions, for buying and improving party headquarters, and for lawyers fees in litigating elections (or as it is put in legalese, expenses incurred with respect to the preparation for and the conduct of election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings.)

This has brought in millions of dollars a year for campaign lawyers of both parties. It may come as no surprise that contributing to the legislative language leading to this windfall was the Democrats top election lawyer, Marc Elias. (Though he built his reputation challenging election laws and litigating recounts, he is now better known for his role in passing Democratic Party monies to Fusion GPS to pay for the Steele Dossier.) RealClearInvestigations reached out to Elias to ask about the role of the Cromnibus provisions in raising money for election challenges, but he did not respond.

It is a measure of the Democrats focus on litigating elections that from January through June of last year, the Democratic National Committee collected $17,046,537 for its recount fund. The Republican National Committee, over the same period, raised only $4,412,362.

One lawyer who regularly litigates election issues attributes the GOP shortfall to the many lawyers without election-law expertise who brought  and lost  scores of lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 contest. It is hard to raise money for an effort that has just failed so miserably, the attorney tells RealClearInvestigations. That said, another conservative election lawyer expects the money gap to close: I think the RNC is well aware that they are behind, he says.

In any case, a flush DNC can be expected to field a host of litigators to challenge vote totals and to demand the counting of questionable, late-arriving ballots. So if there is a Big Blue Shift in vote tabulation in the 2022 congressional contest or the 2024 presidential election, that prepaid and prepositioned army of Democratic lawyers would help explain it.

That presents the specter of elections being decided by lawyers, not voters. And even though it might be perfectly legal, it would create a destructive perception indeed.
(The Center Square)  Montanas favorable ranking for low taxes doesnt mean that property owners arent concerned with taxes, according to the head of the Montana Taxpayers Association.

WalletHub recently ranked Montana third after Alaska and Delaware in its report on States with the Highest and Lowest Tax Rates. The state has a 7.11% median tax rate, which includes state and local taxes, according to the personal finance website.

We're highly dependent on income and property taxes. The property taxes are a concern to a lot of people, Bob Story, executive director of the Montana Taxpayers Association, told The Center Square.

The nonpartisan group researches tax and government spending, and works with the public and private sectors to develop fair, equitable and predictable tax policies, according to its website.

The state has a corporate income tax. Businesses to some extent that are invested heavily in property and equipment as opposed to those mainly invested in personnel would be affected by the tax rates WalletHub measured, Story said.

I don't know how many businesses are really greatly concerned about income taxes in the state, as long as they're not extremely out of the line, Story said.

Businesses generally move more for aesthetic reasons unless they are involved in something like mining or heavy manufacturing that requires them to be in a specific location, he said.

People moving to Montana are driving home prices, Story added.

People moving to Montana have a significantly higher income than the average in Montana, according to a recent report by the Montana Legislative Fiscal Division.

They're buying houses as a sight-unseen case deal, and they're just getting out of, getting away from wherever they were, and getting into a more rural area, Story said.

Thes report said the growth of Montanas population accelerated in calendar year (CY) 2020 and especially 2021.

With these new individuals comes an increasing tax base, and if trends continue with those seen in CY 2019 and CY 2020, these new taxpayers will bring incomes typically larger than existing Montana residents, especially for those aged over 65, according to the report.

A lot of people who moved to Montana keep their job because they can work over the internet and don't have to be at their original location, Story said, noting thats a big change in the economy that has an effect on the tax systems.
Its the letter of the law and a spiritual reflection of Montana. Its prescient. Others dont have it.

That is how the Montana Constitution was described at an event held by Montana State University and the Montana Free Press Tuesday commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Montana Constitutional Convention.

The main attraction was a panel  moderated by author Sarah Vowell and Montana Free Press founder and editor-in-chief John Adams  featuring former Senator and U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus, former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, longtime Montana political journalist Chuck Johnson, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and constitutional convention delegate Mae Nan Ellingson.

The panel covered key events leading to the need for a new constitution, major provisions in the document and how the document relates to the present day.

The convention a half-century ago was no small feat. One hundred delegates from across the state came together, sat alphabetically  putting aside differences and party allegiances  to create the document.

Im so proud of so many things in our constitution, most namely being that we believed in government and representative democracy, Ellingson said.

There were quite a few contributing factors as to why people wanted a new constitution, Baucus said. For example, people had grown tired of the 1889 constitution because the state was controlled by the Anaconda Mining Company.

Ellingson added that the president of the 1889 Constitutional Convention was William Andrews Clark, one of the Butte Copper Kings.

Baucus, who worked with the conventions chairman Leo Graybill, said that a big advantage at the 1972 Constitutional Convention was that Montanas a small state, small enough for people to know one another and know what others need.

We know each other, that helps us do something thats right for our kids and our grandkids, Baucus said.

One aspect the panel touched upon was the constitutions inclusion of a guarantee for Native American cultural education in Montana schools.

Tyerra Roan, a student at MSU, read the testimony of two high school students from Fort Peck, Mavis Scott and Diana Leuppe, that was given at the convention.

Scott and Leuppes testimony advocated for what would eventually become the provision in the constitution guaranteeing Native American cultural education in the constitution.

We would like, very simply, our history, our culture and our identity, Roan said, reading from the testimony.

Juneau thanked Roan for her reading of Scotts testimony.

I think it shows the power of advocacy, and how representation matters, and how people want to see themselves reflected in the founding documents, Juneau said.

Though the education article of the constitution included a provision to recognize and include Native American cultural education in Montana schools, it was not until 1999 when Juneaus mother, former state Rep. Carol Juneau, introduced the Indian Education for All act, that the state began progress on the matter.

Juneau said that the education initiative began to gain momentum when the legislature began funding Indian Education for All thanks to a 2005 Montana Supreme Court Decision.

It was a renaissance in 2005 when things became more defined for Indian Education for All, Juneau said.

Before the 1972 Constitutional Convention, important meetings in the legislature were closed to the public and the press, longtime political journalist Chuck Johnson said.

Johnson covered the convention for the Associated Press while still enrolled at the University of Montana.

That all changed with the Right to Know provision in the Montana Bill of Right  a provision that Bozeman delegate Dorothy Eck played a key role in creating, Johnson said.

But it was not a perfect solution by any means, Johnson added.

He referred to legal challenges to the Right to Know provision, including a February decision by the Montana Supreme Court that allows legislators to meet in closed meetings once again, only if those meetings are below the quorum level.

I would argue that it is a critical part of the constitution, Johnson said. People need to know what their government is doing to know if they support the government or dont support the government.

Former Gov. Marc Racicot weighed in on the meaning of the oath of office created by the constitution.

The oath is a commitment to the letter of the law, but also to the spirit of the document, he said. Its not a party that the oath is sworn to, but to the people.

Remember that this form of government that we choose, we can walk away from, Racicot said. Its our choice to make, but its incredibly delicate, because it depends on each and every one of us every single day making that commitment.

Racicot said that the country is in a significant moment of turmoil, that there is a feeling that things are fraying at the edges and being torn at the seams.

Baucus added that if a convention were held today, a completely different document would be produced.

Constitutional convention delegate Mae Nan Ellingson helped to write the constitutions preamble, and recited it toward the close of the panels discussion.

I think that the republic is at risk as a result of our inability to read those words in the preamble and to weave them in every facet of our lives, Racicot said.
The Australia free trade deal risks the displacement of UK food production, the Farmers' Union of Wales has warned a parliamentary committee.

The union repeated concerns about the Australia trade deal and its impacts on UK agriculture when giving evidence to the Welsh Senedds Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee.

Speaking at the session, FUW senior policy officer Gareth Parry said there was a 'natural concern' that the full liberalisation of the trading of agri goods "risks the displacement of UK food production".

Although the impact assessment implies an estimated loss of gross output for Wales' beef and sheep sectors of 29m, Mr Parry said this needed to be considered in the context that the UK-Australia deal was likely to set a precedent for future deals.

He said: The cumulative effect that we would expect from trade deals with countries such as New Zealand and others within the CPTPP means that that 29m then becomes much greater, in the longer term at least.

The union further highlighted that there's also the potential for trade deals to impose further barriers on UK exports to the EU, particularly when considering the differences in production standards between the UK and Australia.

Although a number of UK products enter niche and specialist high-end markets, we need to be realistic and consider how important mainstream commodity markets are," Mr Parry added.

"Even for those producers who aim for such high-end markets, there will always be a proportion of those products or carcases that enter mainstream markets, such as our red meat export market in the EU.

Mr Parry said that inherent to an increase in food imports as a result of this deal would also be a reduction in the UKs food security.

This would occur either through the displacement of UK production or through an increased reliance on food produced thousands of miles away, and that the governments own figures confirmed this was likely.

Drawing attention to the timescale of potential impacts, Mr Parry stressed that: If we look over the last ten years, we've seen much lower prices for beef and sheep in Australia, and that's been evident in how much Australia has filled their quotas in the past.

"Australia is currently relying heavily on the Chinese market, and there's always the potential for that market to close overnight," he explained.

"Although we may not see these potential impacts in the near future, there is of course the likelihood of those impacts being harder felt in the long term.

Mr Parry added that: There's been a big focus and a lot of effort going into signing trade deals such as this one with Australia since we left the EU, rather than improving and making the current UK-EU trade deal more efficient.

We have seen a 25% reduction in our sheep meat exports to the EU since the introduction of post-Brexit checks and bureaucracy at borders.

"There are obviously improvements to be made in terms of our current trading arrangements with the EU, which we mustn't forget is our biggest export market for UK red meat.

Mr Parry stressed that the government needed to postpone the introduction of any additional red tape that could further undermine the agricultural industry at home.

Additional red tape in any form, whether its livestock transport regulations, the NVZ regulations, or anything else that would put our producers at a further disadvantage compared to our competitors."
Advice from dairy farmers who are looking to reduce the storage needs for their slurry, while making the most of its nutrient content, is being sought for the latest phase of a major research project.

Dairy farmers' advice will contribute to a wider feasibility study on slurry management as part of research by Harper Adams University.

It is one of a series of studies funded by Innovate UK, the UKs innovation agency, in partnership with Defra, directed at transforming farm-based UK food production.

The project, in collaboration industry partners Elentec Ltd, the technology providers, and Merigan Ltd who are leading the farmer engagement element, will test the ability of a novel technology to remove and recover phosphorus from cattle slurry at pilot-plant scale.

The technology works via filtration and electrocoagulation, a treatment technology that adds an electrical charge to water as a way of removing suspended solids.

The filtration and electrocoagulation technology could be provided as a service-based offering or as a permanent on-farm installation.

The technology can be visualised as an additional process that can valorise farm slurry to recover fertiliser nutrients and reduce the costs and complexity associated with slurry management.

Mike Theodorou, project manager for the consortium at Merigan Ltd said: The treatment results in a carbon-rich solids fraction for soil bioremediation and a phosphorous-rich concentrated sludge for spreading according to your crop needs.

"Water is removed during the process, increasing your slurry storage capacity as an additional bonus.

Advice from farmers is needed to help gather information about current slurry management procedures on-farm, and also to help develop the most suitable business model or models to roll-out the technology.

The research team need to understand different farming situations and how the technology could be integrated into slurry management processes.

The information will allow the team to tailor business models that fit with the day-to-day concerns of farmers and that help compliance with current and future regulations around slurry management.

Volunteers should be available for a virtual 30-45 minute interview, which will take place before the end of May this year.

Farmers interested in finding out more should contact Sue Crosthwaite (sue@meriganltd.co.uk) at Merigan Ltd who is leading this aspect of the project with Harper Adams.
NFU Cymru's judicial review of the Welsh governments decision to introduce new water quality regulations across the whole of Wales has been dismissed.

Judge Sir Wynn Williams found that the government had not acted unlawfully in making the rules, having heard the parties' arguments during a hearing over three days towards the end of last year.

In particular, Sir Wynn concluded that farmers did not have a "legitimate expectation" that an 80% grassland derogation which applies in England and Northern Ireland would be available to them under the regulations.

NFU Cymru said it was an "incredibly disappointing" result for farmers as it meant that the regulations, which came into force across Wales on 1 April 2021, would remain in place in their current form.

The union had launched a legal challenge in spring last year, having persistently raised concerns about the lawfulness of the Welsh government's decision.

The regulations, which make the whole of Wales a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ), were criticised as being "unworkable," posing a "significant threat to the economic viability of Welsh farming".

NVZs are areas within Wales that contain surface water or groundwater susceptible to nitrate pollution from agricultural activities.

They are designed to improve water quality in rivers and lakes, but it means tougher restrictions on fertiliser and manure spreading.

NFU Cymru President Aled Jones said: This case was not about seeking to ignore agricultural pollution incidents or trying to reduce environmental protection.

"It was about ensuring that when the government makes decisions which impact the Welsh farming industry, it does so based on a proper assessment and understanding of those impacts.

"I hope that the arguments raised during this case will have made government take notice of the impact these regulations will have on farmers, and we will continue to look for opportunities to find ways to reduce the burden on farmers."

Farming groups have called on the Welsh government to increase the support offered to farmers in order to be able to comply with the regulations.

According to NFU Cymru farmers face having to find up-front costs of 360m and ongoing yearly costs of 14m a year to meet the requirement of the rules.

Mr Jones highlighted that some farming families had left the industry as a "direct consequence" of the water quality regulations.

"The package of support to farmers to make these drastic changes is, in our view, woefully inadequate," he added.

"I hope that Welsh government will increase the existing funding available to support farmers in complying with the regulations."
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MOGADISHU, March 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 people were killed and an unknown number of others injured in two explosions in the central Somali town of Beledweyne Wednesday night, the police said.

Local police officers told a state-owned television station that among the dead were Amina Mohamed Abdi, an outspoken lawmaker, former lawmaker Hassan Dhuhulow and soldiers.

A suicide bomber wearing explosive vests wrapped around his waist detonated explosives in front of a heavily secured Lamagalaay base, killing the two lawmakers who were candidates for the Lower House seats.

According to the police, the second blast took place at a security checkpoint, targeting vehicles for rushing the injured to the hospitals but no casualties were reported.

Witnesses said Amina, a fierce critic of President Mohamed Farmaajo who was in Beledweyne to campaign for re-election, appeared to have been targeted inside the Lamagalaay base where polls have been taking place over the past weeks.

President Mohamed Farmaajo and Prime Minister Mohamed Roble have separately condemned the terror incident and sent their condolences to the family and relatives of the deceased.

Farmaajo described the attack as a coward one by the militant group which he said bears the hallmarks of the terror outfit's main focus of killing innocent people.

Roble said the deceased lawmaker is known for her role in the struggle for justice for the late female intelligence agent Ikran Tahliil who was killed in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, last year. "Lawmaker Amina, who is known for her role in the struggle for justice for the late Tahliil, and a few days ago an attempt was made to make her lose her seat, was assassinated in an attempt to defeat justice."

Early this month, Amina had complained of attempts by security agents to block her from seeking reelection due to her strong condemnation over the murder of a female intelligence officer.

Roble assured the Somalis that despite increased terrorist attacks across the country, the ongoing elections will proceed as scheduled and called on the citizens to remain vigilant and support the ongoing elections.

The prime minister has ordered a thorough investigation into the killing of the lawmakers and vowed to defeat terrorism.

The attack comes only hours after al-Shabab attacked Mogadishu's heavily guarded airport Wednesday in which six people were killed. 
The purpose of the legislative session is for priority bills to become law. Thousands of bills are introduced; this year, 293 bills became law. Its hard to keep up with them all, so heres a brief rundown of major bills that became lawand bills that did not.
The 2022 multiple award-winner The Power of the Dog was shot at striking locations across New Zealand



Jane Campions The Power of the Dog won her Best Director at the Oscars this year. Written and directed by the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, the film has been lauded as mermerising, astonishing, little short of a masterpiece. It has a unique storyline, great acting and stunning locations.



And, ah, those locations! Although the movie is set in the open spaces of rural Montana in the USA in 1925, The Power of the Dog was filmed entirely on locations across New Zealand  including Central Otago, Lindis Valley, Dunedin, Oamaru and Queenstown.



Jane Campion (above) had initially thought she would shoot in Montana, or somewhere similar in the USA or Canada, but she was encouraged to consider New Zealand, her home country, known for its experienced filming crew as well as a diversity of landscapes. On the second day of sniffing around the South Island, which I know well, I was taken to a property near the Hawkdun Ranges area in Central Otago, recalls the director. I fell in love with it. Its so remote and its 360 degrees empty with an amazing hill range behind it that feels very atmospheric. Ultimately, shooting in New Zealand wasnt a compromise, it was the best choice for us.



The Power of the Dog filming included 27 South Island shoot days, the building of 15 key locations sets, and 27 actors from New Zealand, making up 62% of the cast.



Put these places where key scenes and sites in the movie were picturised on your itinerary to visit when New Zealand fully opens out to the world.



The Herndon Railway Station & Salt Lake City Hotel Exterior

Shot at Dunedin Railway Station, Dunedin

The scene where George picks up his parents at the train station was filmed at the magnificent Dunedin Railway Station. Opened in 1906, this ornate Flemish-Renaissance style building is one of the South Islands most prominent architectural landmarks.







Herndon, Montana

Shot in Oamaru

The scenes in the fictional town of Herndon, Montana, were filmed on the Tyne and Harbour Streets of Oamarus Victorian Precinct. This neighbourhood in Oamarus harbour has preserved many 19th-century buildings constructed in local white limestone and is famed for the local Steampunk community.



The Snow Picnic

Shot on Queenstown Hill, Queenstown

In The Power of the Dog, not long after they get married, Rose and George are alone on a hillside where she teaches him a few dance steps. This filming location is Queenstown Hill, located overlooking the city of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, with Cecil Peak as a backdrop.







Bannockburn Sluicings

Shot at Cromwell, Central Otago

The Bannockburn Sluicings are a spectacular landscape of cliffs and pinnacles that remain from large-scale water blasting during the 19th-century search for gold. The scene in The Power of the Dog where Peter goes on a solo ride and comes across a diseased cattle carcass was filmed here, near the town of Cromwell.



Burbank Ranch

Shot at Home Hills, Oturehua, Central Otago

A rural property below the Hawkdun Ranges in Central Otago was used as the set for Burbank Ranch. The property backs onto the Oteake Conservation Park and is complete with vast, soulful plains, craggy, tussock-clad hills and sturdy mountain ranges as a backdrop. There is no wonder this scenery appealed to Campion as the country western setting for The Power of the Dog.



Images: Shutterstock



Also see: More reasons to bite into the Big Apple  New York City
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I have always been a Madhuri Dixit fanboy ever since her Tezaab days. She looked believable even in the most commercial of films. You couldn't take your eyes off her. Filmmakers knew that and started writing meaty roles for her. Her male actors felt vulnerable doing films with her as they knew theyll have to up their game in every frame to match her histrionics. Her dance numbers werent just cherry on the cake. Sometimes, they were the whole cake. People used to leave the theatre after the songs got over. Madhuri made a name for herself in the art circuit as well, shining in non-glam roles as effortlessly as she did in mass cinema. After now, through The Fame Game, she has conquered the OTT space as well. The series has offered her a chance to explore nuances of her character much more in depth than movies and the audience is in love with what shes done. Excerpts from candid chat with the lovely actress who is always fun to talk to...

If you were to meet your character, Anamika Anand, from The Fame Game what would you tell her?

I would tell her that things will work out. Dont worry. Anamika is shown to have all the problems possible because the series is in that genre where you have to create that mysterious atmosphere. Yet at the base, its all family drama and relationships.

How close are our movies, and the life you have led in the movies to what is shown in The Fame Game?

I am not saying that in our private lives everything is always hunky-dory. Of course, there are hiccups, but that happens in everybodys life. Shes trying to survive that fame game which is very important to her because thats the life she has led and thats where the mother always pushes her saying to be famous you always have to be in the limelight. Honestly, I could never imagine my mom saying that to me. I am very secure with who I am, I am very comfortable in my skin. But she is not. Anamika Anand is a very insecure person.

Did you ever feel oh I have gone through something like this' when doing some scenes?

Yes. The scene where I give Manav Kaul a piece of my mind because hes late on the set. Remember earlier we used to do two to three shifts a day, and at times wait endlessly on the sets for a costar to turn up because he would be shooting on another set. That scene with Manav reminded me of that.

Any family portions in the film you relate to?

If tomorrow my son wants to work in films I would be a little apprehensive, explaining to him that he would have to work very, very hard. What can go wrong and what can go right and so forth. Id give him the same advice I gave Amara in the series. You have to have focus, you have to go about it relentlessly and not care about anything else. And go through the ups and downs with a level head.

When you came from the US you said your kids were completely unaware of your popularity as an actor. When did they understand that part of the fame game?

When we moved to India my sons were very young - six and eight. When we moved here there were paparazzi everywhere. They were a little confused and wondered what was happening but slowly started realising the fame game as you call it. They are more comfortable now. They take it in their stride and are chilled about it.

What are your sons interests? What do they comment on when they watch your movies?

They dont watch my movies. My elder son, Arin, is interested in music. Hes a very good musician and produces his own music. He plays the piano, the tabla, the guitar, and drums. At the same time, he is interested in physics, maths and computers. Arin had high-level maths and physics and also drama which is a very strange combination. Hes done a few plays and hes quite good on stage. My younger son, Ryan, is more into science and technology. Hes also into music. When he watches something he can read between the lines and tell you exactly whats going on. When he saw the teaser of The Fame Game he said mom shes saying my life is so beautiful but she sounds sad. He got the gist by watching a few seconds of the teaser.

What kind of a mom are you?

Im a protective mom but not overprotective. Im not a worrier but I dont want my kids to have any bad experiences in life and want their life to be smooth. But I think life teaches you a lot and I want them to learn from life.

The LGBTQ community loves you because you have empathy for them. How much empathy is required as an actor when doing a scene where your son in the series reveals the truth about his sexuality?

For me, that scene where my son Avi talks about his sexuality was so beautiful. I wanted to be sure that what was being touched upon was pure and real and exactly how it should be. Then I had such a good actor in Lakshvir Saran, who plays my son. We wanted to make sure it did not sound false even for a second. On a personal level, I think your sexuality should not define you. You should be free to love who you like. All that was in my mind when I did that scene.

Can you talk about a real-life incident when a friend or someone has confided in you about their sexuality or their demons?

When I was in Denver there were people who talked to me about different things in their lives. Like how hard it is hard for people to understand what they are going through. After the series was released some fans wrote to me about the mother-son scene saying they cried because that is exactly what they said to their mothers when they came out. There was someone who said she wished her mother had reacted the way Anamika did. It brought tears to my eyes.

You also address the issue of body shaming beautifully with your daughter Amara in the series.

I had faced it when I started out as an actor. People used to think I was too skinny to be a heroine because at that time the ladies were so buxom. And here I was a Maharashtrian youngster, petite and small. People used to say isko mota karo. But my mom stood by me like a rock. She used to say you are what you are, you just do your work, and the day you become famous they will forget this and say everyone should look like Madhuri . And thats the attitude I had with Amara when she says that she doesnt feel beautiful or she hates herself. That scene shook me. After the director said cut I couldnt stop crying because it really hit me. Maybe thats what I went through when people were criticising me and I felt there should be something different about me.

Have there been moments at the peak of your career where you have felt vulnerable like Anamika and you have bounced back?

Sometimes your success brings that vulnerability. After Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! became a success, it was like, now what? This film was so successful. What else can she do now? And then Raja came on the heels of Hum Aapkeand also became a big hit. After that when Dil To Pagal Hai happened people stopped saying anything. Also, there was a time when people said she should get married. And I would think why should that be the end of everyones achievement? Thankfully girls dont have to face that today.

At one time you would just have one or two people around you but now you have an army of people.

Initially when we did film promotions there used to be a few film magazines and newspapers for which we did interviews. Then they used to release the trailers and some songs and that was it. But today because of social media there are so many departments. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, digital magazines. You need people to manage those different things.

What else has changed and how have you reinvented yourself?

One has to keep thinking forward. I want to do roles where I can sink my teeth, show my craft. When Sri Rao came to me with this subject I thought it was a very good combination. of director and producers.

Do you think there was a strain of Smita Patils film Bhumika in the series, especially the relationship between you and your mom Suhasini Mulay?

You hear about overbearing mothers from different directors. There was a time when parents used to be very overbearing because the children used to be the only earners in the family. So thats what we did with the whole relationship between Suhasiniji and me. She played it so well. What I like about Anamika is that despite all that she doesnt disrespect her mother. She would even tell her off but in a very respectful tone.

Whats the best and worst piece of advice that you have got?

When I wanted to do Mrityudand a lot of people advised me against doing it saying I was from commercial cinema and Mrityudand was a very artistic film. But I wanted to do it because I loved the script. It was a good woman empowerment kind of thing and the actors were brilliant - from Shabanaji to Mohan Joshi to everyone. I did it and even today people talk about Mrityudand when they talk about my filmography.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - March 23, 2022) - Centaurus Energy Inc. (TSXV: CTA) (OTCQB: CTARF) ("Centaurus" or the "Company") announces that, through its subsidiary in Argentina, Madalena Energy Argentina S.R.L. ("MEA"), it has closed the previously announced agreement to sell its remaining working interest in the Coiron Amargo Sur Este petroleum block, located in the Province of Neuquen, Argentina ("CASE") to Pan American Energy, S.L., Argentine Branch ("PAE"), the operator of CASE.

As previously announced, pursuant to the transaction with PAE, Centaurus has sold its remaining working interest (29%) in the CASE block (the Company previously sold 6% of its interest to PAE, see below), with an effective date of January 1, 2021, in return for consideration with a reference value of more than US$49 million, including:

satisfaction and discharge of all amounts owed by the Company under the Loan Agreement between PAE and Centaurus, dated December 7, 2016 (the " Loan Agreement "), and termination of the Loan Agreement,

"), and termination of the Loan Agreement, payment of US$6,000,000 to the Province of Neuquen to settle MEA liabilities related to the Curamhuele hydrocarbons area, located in the Province of Neuquen (" Curamhuele "), and

"), and payment to Centaurus, over time, of 1.25% to 2.5% Overriding Royalty Interest (the "ORRI") over the net proceeds corresponding to the 29% interest being assigned to PAE which shall be payable by PAE in semi-annual installments, and other considerations totaling US$16.83 million.

Upon closing, PAE shall pay to the Company approximately US$165,000 for the ORRI proceeds attributable to 2021. The next ORRI payment will be received after the close of the first half of 2022.

Board Changes

Ruben Etcheverry, a member of the Company's Board of Directors, has relinquished his position.

About Centaurus Energy

Centaurus is an independent upstream oil and gas company with both conventional and unconventional oil and gas operations in Argentina. The Company's shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol CTA and on the OTCQB under the symbol CTARF.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

David Tawil, Interim Chief Executive Officer

email: info@ctaurus.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117924
SANTA ANA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 23, 2022 / Allied Universal, the world's top corporate security services company, continues its strategic growth as G4S Secure Solutions UK, an Allied Universal company, has announced the acquisition of T.S.S. (Total Security Services). This purchase strengthens the company's position as a major UK provider of security services, with industry leading talent, expertise and market coverage.

TSS, a family-owned business with over 6,500 front line staff providing service to some of the UK's largest retailers, has more than $170 million in revenue.

"In the past 25 years, Allied Universal has grown from a $12 million company to a $20 billion company, becoming the global leader in security services," said Steve Jones, Global Chairman and CEO at Allied Universal. "TSS is the first major inorganic investment in our international business. Our team is reviewing additional opportunities in the US and internationally, and we look forward to continuing our acquisition growth strategy."

Ashley Almanza, Executive Chairman, Allied Universal International commented "We are delighted to welcome TSS to the Allied Universal family. Allied Universal and TSS have compatible cultures and a common focus on innovation, technology and service excellence for our customers. We are confident that the combination of our UK security businesses will deliver tangible benefits for customers and employees and we look forward to working with the TSS leadership team to realize these benefits."

About Allied Universal

Allied Universal, a leading security and facility services company, provides proactive security services and cutting-edge smart technology to deliver tailored, integrated security solutions that allow clients to focus on their core business. Through our vast global network of more than 800,000 employees, we leverage best practices in communities all over the world. With revenues at approximately $20 billion, we are supported by efficient processes and systems that can only come with scale to help deliver our promise locally: keeping people safe so our communities can thrive. We believe there is no greater purpose than serving and safeguarding customers, communities, and people in today's world. Allied Universal is There for you. For more information, please visit www.aus.com.

Media Contacts:

Sherita Coffelt, Allied Universal Vice President, Communications - North America

Phone: 714-943-8872

Email: Sherita.coffelt@aus.com

Nancy Thompson, Vorticom, Inc.

Phone: 212-532-2208

Email: nancyt@vorticom.com

SOURCE: Allied Universal

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694451/Allied-UniversalR-Launches-Global-Acquisition-Growth-Strategy-With-First-International-Purchase-Since-G4S-Acquires-UK-Based-TSS-CEO-Says-More-Acquisitions-and-Financial-News-To-Come-As-Allied-Universal-Continues-Strategic-Growth-Across-the-Globe
TOKYO, Mar 24, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & CEO: Koichiro Tanaka), which operates the TANAKA Precious Metals manufacturing business, announced today that TANAKA has developed gold shell nanoparticles[1] that can be prepared in high concentrations using high dispersion stability.This product is designed to cover the particle surface - such as that of silica - with an extremely thin gold shell that has a thickness of approximately 10 nm. It exhibits strong surface plasmon resonance[2]. Additionally, by using the high dispersion stability in water and polar solvents, it is possible to prepare dispersion liquids with high concentrations that are 100 to 1,000 times that of gold nanoparticles currently being sold on the market.The overall size of gold shell nanoparticles can be controlled within a range of 80 nm to 250 nm, allowing them to be given a wide variety of optical characteristics. This is especially true for colloids with particle diameters several hundred nm prepared in high concentrations. They are easier to integrate or structure three-dimensionally, such as into colloid crystals, and can be expected to be applied to various optical materials.Image 1: http://www.acnnewswire.com/docs/Multimedia/TANAKA2022031.jpgFeatures of this product- Gold nanoshell with a thickness of 10 nmThe surface plasmon resonance exhibited by gold shell nanoparticles becomes more efficient in absorbing incident light, the thinner the shell. Compared to existing products on the market, this product achieves an extremely thin shell thickness of less than 10 nm. This allows the energy of incident light to be absorbed efficiently and also contributes toward dispersion stability as the relative mass of the overall particles becomes lighter.Image 2: http://www.acnnewswire.com/docs/Multimedia/TANAKA2022032.jpg- Stable dispersion in water and organic solventsNormally, gold nanoparticles with diameters of several hundred nm tend to autoagglutinate and precipitate as the particle concentration increases. This product can be dispersed stably in water and polar organic solvents, such as alcohol, as the particle surface is appropriately protected by a protective agent. Particles protected by the protective agent can be prepared with a weight ratio of 20% or higher, allowing use in processes that require highly-concentrated particle dispersion liquids. In addition, gold nanoshell dispersion liquids dispersed in organic solvents have excellent quick-drying properties and can also be coated on materials of various shapes.Image 3: http://www.acnnewswire.com/docs/Multimedia/TANAKA2022033.jpg- Can produce SERS substrate by simply drying highly-concentrated gold nanoshell dispersion liquidSurface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)[3] exhibited by precious metal nanoparticles is particularly strong at the gaps between particles when precious metal nanoparticles are integrated. The locations where SERS is strongly manifested are called hotspots; being able to form hotspots with good reproducibility is important when producing SERS substrate. Traditionally, precious metal substrates with minute irregularities on the surface are used, but there were issues, such as low reproducibility.This time, TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo has designed gold shell nanoparticles with surface plasmon resonance close to the wavelength of SERS excitation light, confirming that it is possible to produce SERS substrates with dense hotspots by simply drying highly-concentrated dispersion liquids.Image 4: http://www.acnnewswire.com/docs/Multimedia/TANAKA2022034.jpgDue to the aforementioned characteristics, this product can be expected to be used as an optical material that responds to light from visible to near-infrared regions, including colloid crystals, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and photothermal conversion materials. Applications to optical devices are also expected, including optical displays and optical sensing that require high resolutions using liquid crystals, plasmonic nanoantennas, and biosensors, such as those used in cancer tests.TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo plans to sequentially respond individually to requests for samples of this product.[1] Gold shell nanoparticle: This is a particle that forms a gold shell with a thickness in the order of nanometers on the surface of a core particle, which can be a colloid of inorganic materials, metals, or polymers. Various optical responses, different from pure gold nanoparticles, are exhibited depending on the shell thickness, core size, and core material.[2] Surface plasmon resonance: This is a phenomenon where the vibrations of free electrons in metals on the surface of metal nanoparticles resonate with incident light. The brilliant colors shown by gold shell nanoparticles are due to this phenomenon.[3] Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS): When light is shone on a material, a wavelength different from the incident light is scattered by the material. This scattered light with a wavelength different from the incident light is called Raman scattered light, and every material exhibits its own unique Raman scattering spectrum. Therefore, it is possible to obtain information about the types of materials present by measuring the Raman scattering spectrum. However, to detect minute amounts of materials, it is necessary to enhance the Raman scattered light.Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a phenomenon where the intensity of Raman scattered light is amplified when materials are absorbed at locations such as irregularities on surfaces of precious metals and in the gaps of precious metal colloids. As it is possible to detect even fewer molecules by designing precious metal surfaces that are suitable for enhancing Raman scattering, applications in fields such as drug detection and cancer diagnosis can be expected.About TANAKA Precious MetalsSince its foundation in 1885, TANAKA Precious Metals has built a portfolio of products to support a diversified range of business uses focused on precious metals. TANAKA is a leader in Japan regarding the volumes of precious metals handled. Over the course of many years, TANAKA has not only manufactured and sold precious metal products for industry but also provided precious metals in such forms as jewelry and assets. As precious metals specialists, all Group companies in Japan and around the world collaborate and cooperate on manufacturing, sales, and technology development to offer a range of products and services. With 5,193 employees, the group's consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, was 1,425.6 billion yen.Global industrial business websitehttps://tanaka-preciousmetals.comProduct inquiriesTANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.https://tanaka-preciousmetals.com/en/inquiries-on-industrial-products/Press inquiriesTANAKA Holdings Co., Ltd.https://tanaka-preciousmetals.com/en/inquiries-for-media/Source: Tanaka Holdings Co., Ltd.Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.


Image of the joint research

TOKYO, Mar 24, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu, Toyo University Incorporated Educational Institution (Toyo University), and Amagasaki City(1) announced the launch of Japan's first joint research project leveraging converging technologies(2) that combine AI techniques and psychological research into the emotional state of victims of phone fraud and other scams. The objective of the joint research will be the development of an AI model capable of detecting various types of phone fraud(3), contributing to the prevention of scams that target senior citizens and other vulnerable populations.In Amagasaki City alone, damages from phone fraud in 2021 amounted to approximately 97 million yen (about 830,000 USD). To alleviate this problem and design new tools to combat fraud, from March 30 to March 31, 2022 the three parties will conduct simulations of realistic fraud scenarios in field trials with senior citizens from Amagasaki City, leveraging Fujitsu's human sensing technology to detect changes in human emotions in tandem with a methodology to measure and scale human emotions developed by Toyo University.Professor Masayuki Kiriu, Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University comments, "the field trials will focus on the relationship between perpetrators and victims of phone scams and offer more concrete and effective fraud prevention measures. This project focuses specifically on the emotional and physical changes of victims, which is a field where research has not made much progress to date, with the goal of realizing an AI technology that can intervene to prevent phone fraud. We can call this an unprecedented and empathetic approach to dealing with phone fraud that places special emphasis on the feelings of victims."Based on data and insights gained during these initial trials, the three parties will conduct further verification trials in the first half of fiscal 2022 to determine the accuracy of Fujitsu's AI model for phone fraud detection.Innovation through converging technologies to combat a growing social problemAccording to the Japanese National Police Agency, senior citizens aged 65 or older accounted for 88.2% of reported phone fraud cases in Japan in 2021, highlighting the vulnerability of this age group to phone frauds. While special fraud-prevention campaigns to deepen collaboration between anti-crime organizations and the police to strengthen patrols at ATMs, etc., the damage caused by phone fraud in Amagasaki City alone in 2021 amounted to approx. 97 million yen (approx. 831,000 USD) for 102 reported cases that year(4).Amidst the growing number of people over 65 in Japan and many parts of the world this problem represents an increasingly urgent priority. To address this, Fujitsu, Toyo University and Amagasaki City started joint research toward the development of an AI model that detects phone fraud with high accuracy, leveraging technologies that combine Fujitsu's AI based sensing technology and Toyo University's research results on psychology and the emotional state of victims of criminal incidents.Overview of the joint research1. Research period:February 17, 2022 to March 31, 20232. Research contents of the joint research- Preparation phase: Development of test scenariosFujitsu and Toyo University analyzed keywords and patterns specific to phone fraud based on voice recordings of actual cases provided by the Hyogo Prefectural Police to create realistic phone fraud scenarios for use in the field trials.- Field trials: Measurement data from senior citizensThe three parties will conduct field trials at the Amagasaki City Hall on March 30 and 31, 2022 with approx. twenty senior citizen volunteers from Amagasaki City as participants. Based on the phone fraud scenario created in advance, a phone call with a pre-recorded voice is made to the individual participants to simulate phone calls by a phone fraud group.Fujitsu will leverage its "Actlyzer" AI technology for video-based behavioral analysis(5), its AI technology for facial expression recognition to detect changes in human emotions and its AI technology for real time pulse estimation based on facial images to measure and record data (including facial expressions and pulse data) of the participants.After the phone calls, the participants will further reply to a questionnaire to measure their emotional state during the phone calls.- Evaluation phase: Analysis of results and development of AI model for detection of phone fraudToyo University will analyze the actual data from participants measured during the trials and compare it to individual questionnaire results to identify the relationship between participants' physical and emotional state. Fujitsu will use this analysis to create an AI model to detect possible instances of phone fraud based on characteristics of participants that were (assumed to be) deceived during the simulations. The three parties will conduct a second field trial using this AI model in the first half of fiscal 2022 to confirm its accuracy in detecting phone fraud. Fujitsu aims to develop an AI model that can detect a range of different types of phone scams with high accuracy by the end of FY 2022.3. Roles and responsibilitiesFujitsu:- Development of test scenarios for the field trials- Exploration and implementation of test methods, data collection- Design and development of AI models for detection of phone fraudToyo University:- Development of test scenarios for the field trials- Psychological analysis of trial results, data collection- Design of an AI model for detection of phone fraudAmagasaki City:- Providing participants and environment (test site) for the field trialsFuture PlansFocusing on the needs and challenges of a rapidly ageing society, the three parties aim to develop an AI model that is able to protect possible victims from increasingly complex and sophisticated phone scams and ultimately contribute to a safer society.Comment from Daiki Masumoto, Fellow, SVP, Head of Advanced Converging Technologies Laboratories, Fujitsu Research, Fujitsu Limited"We were impressed by the advanced initiatives of Amagasaki City to protect senior citizens from phone fraud, as well as Professor Kiriu's long history of activities to prevent such frauds. This is one reason why we are researching converging technologies that combine knowledge from different fields. Using this research as a starting point, we aim to realize a sustainable society where elderly people can live safely and securely."Comment from Mayor Kazumi Inamura of Amagasaki City"Since fiscal 2018, Amagasaki City has been tackling phone fraud in cooperation with the Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters and other organizations. We hope that this joint research will lead to the prevention of phone frauds not only in this city, but also all over Japan."(1) Amagasaki City :Location: Hyogo Prefecture, Japan; Mayor: Kazumi Inamura(2) Converging technologies :Advanced technologies that combine computer sciences and knowledge from the humanities and social sciences, aiming to solve diverse and complex issues. The joint research will focus on the research and development of converging technologies that combine AI and criminal psychology, in order to eradicate the increasing complexity and sophistication of phone frauds.(3) Developing an AI model capable of detecting various types of phone fraud :Fujitsu respects the privacy of involved parties and takes appropriate measures when handling personal data.(4) Number of reported cases of phone fraud in Japan in 2021 :Japanese Police Agency press release "Report on phone fraud in 2021 (reported numbers and arrests)." bit.ly/3uqqzCz (in Japanese)(5) "Actlyzer" AI technology for video-based behavioral analysis :"Fujitsu Develops New 'Actlyzer' AI Technology for Video-Based Behavioral Analysis" (press release, November 25, 2019).This technology has been commercialized as an AI image analysis solution "FUJITSU Technical Computing Solution GREENAGES Citywide Surveillance".About FujitsuFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 126,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$34 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com.About Toyo UniversityToyo University is one of Japan's comprehensive universities with many specialized academic fields, and more than 30,000 students enrolled now. In 2014, the university was selected as a university under the Top Global University Project carried out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and is accelerating the development of global human resources who will play active roles in the international arena. For more information, please see www.toyo.ac.jp.Public Relations Section:Toyo University Incorporated Educational InstitutionPhone: +81-3-3945-7571E-mail: mlkoho@toyo.jpSource: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Quest Diagnostics (DGX) said that it has received a contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC to perform testing and provide laboratory data analysis to help identify patterns in SARS-COV-2 seroprevalence on a multistate basis. The total contract value with all options is valued at up to about $19.5 million. The goal is to aid the CDC in assessing the proportion of the population that has been infected by or vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The company noted that it will employ its comprehensive menu of COVID-19 antibody test and data analytics services to support population health research across 45 states and Puerto Rico. The new agreement extends and broadens the scope of the company's contributions to the CDC's seroprevalence research, which includes participating in the SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology and Surveillance (SPHERES) consortium. Quest noted that it will utilize serum specimen remnants from clinical testing for a range of non-COVID-19 conditions to identify immune response to SARS-CoV-2 using its comprehensive menu of COVID-19 serological tests. The company's serological tests are authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use and aid in identifying antibodies produced in response to recent or prior infection and/or vaccination. Quest will provide the data analysis to the CDC in a HIPAA-compliant manner to support public health analysis and reporting. 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.
SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - LG Energy Solution said that it will invest 1.7 trillion Korean won for the construction of a new cylindrical battery factory in Queen Creek, Arizona. The new plant will be the first ever cylindrical-type battery manufacturing plant in North America, solely invested by the Korean battery manufacturer. The construction of the 11GWh capacity site is set to begin in the second quarter of this year, with plans for mass production slated in the second half of 2024. The company noted that it will supply batteries produced from Arizona plant to EV manufacturers including prominent startups and electric tool companies based in North America. The cutting-edge Arizona plant aims to establish LGES's presence in North America cylindrical battery market while actively considering additional production in the future. 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.
Reinet Investments SCA / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

REINET INVESTMENTS S.C.A. ANNOUNCES SHARE BUYBACK PROGRAMME



24-March-2022 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Reinet Investments S.C.A. (the 'Company') announces today the commencement of a fifth share buyback programme (the 'programme'). Under the programme, commencing on 28 March 2022, the Company intends to purchase its shares at market price for an aggregate maximum amount of  50 million subject to a maximum of 2.5 million shares over a period ending 3 June 2022 at the latest. The purpose of the programme is to return value to the shareholders of the Company. Shares repurchased under the programme may be used for any legitimate purpose, such as consideration for acquisitions. The programme will be executed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange by an intermediary. The Company will not at any time have the right to instruct the intermediary to amend the parameters of the programme allowing the intermediary to execute share repurchases in the market during both open and closed periods. The programme will be executed within the limits of the existing authority granted by the Company's shareholders at the annual general meeting held on 30 August 2021, including but not limited to the current limitation that the repurchase price must be at a price no more than an amount equal to 110% of the reference price of the ordinary shares on the relevant exchange; the reference price being the weighted average price of such ordinary shares during the five days of trading immediately prior to the acquisition of such shares. In addition, buybacks will not be at a price higher than the higher of the price of the last independent trade and the highest current independent bid on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Purchases under the programme shall not on any trading day on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange ('trading days') exceed 25% of the average daily volume of the shares traded during the 20 trading days preceding the date of purchase. Concurrently, the Rupert family has declared its intention not to sell any of the Company's shares during the duration of this programme. The Company will publish regular updates relating to the programme and a further announcement on completion or expiration of the programme, all of which will also be available at www.reinet.com/investor-relations/share-buyback-programme.html Reinet Investments Manager S.A. for and on behalf of Reinet Investments S.C.A. Website: www.reinet.com/investor-relations/share-buyback-programme.html Reinet Investments S.C.A. (the 'Company') is a partnership limited by shares incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and having its registered office at 35, boulevard Prince Henri, L-1724 Luxembourg. It is governed by the Luxembourg law on securitisation and in this capacity allows its shareholders to participate indirectly in the portfolio of assets held by its wholly-owned subsidiary Reinet Fund S.C.A., F.I.S. ('Reinet Fund'), a specialised investment fund also incorporated in Luxembourg. The Company's ordinary shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Euronext Amsterdam and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; the listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is a secondary listing. The Company's ordinary shares are included in the 'LuxX' index of the principal shares traded on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The Company and Reinet Fund together with Reinet Fund's subsidiaries are referred to as 'Reinet'. Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements This document contains forward-looking statements which reflect the current views and beliefs of Reinet Investments S.C.A. (the 'Company'), as well as assumptions made by the Company and information currently available. Words such as 'may', 'should', 'estimate', 'project', 'plan', 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'intend', 'potential', 'goal', 'strategy', 'target', 'will', 'seek' and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Such forward- looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside Reinet's control. The Company does not undertake to update, nor does it have any obligation to provide updates or to revise, any forward-looking statements. Reinet Investments S.C.A.

R.C.S. Luxembourg B 16 576

Legal Entity Identifier: 222100830RQTFVV22S80

Registered office: 35, boulevard Prince Henri, L-1724 Luxembourg, Tel. (+352) 22 42 10, Fax (+352) 22 72 53

Email: info@reinet.com, website: www.reinet.com

End of ad hoc announcement
CONVENING OF THE ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETINGS OF SHAREHOLDERS

OF 29 APRIL 2022

The shareholders are invited to attend the ordinary and extraordinary general meeting, which will take place on Wednesday 29th of April 2022, respectively, at 11:00AM and 12:00AM at the registered seat in 1070 Brussels (Anderlecht), Allee de la Recherche 60.

Due to the uncertainty related to the sanitary situation and the measures that could be taken by the public authorities, the board of directors recommends that shareholders who wish to participate in the ordinary general meeting to express their vote by proxy by giving a mandate to the person independent mentioned in the form of proxy attached to this notice and specifying their voting instructions.

The board of directors has decided not to organize a remote general meeting in accordance with article 7: 137, 1 of the Companies and Associations Code.

However, the board has decided to broadcast the meeting through Teams. Shareholders wishing to attend are requested to provide their email address in the notice of attendance attached to this notice. Remote electronic voting will not be possible.

AGENDA OF THE ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF 29 APRIL 2022

1. Report of the board of directors on the financial year ended 31 December 2021





Commentary : the board report discusses all the items referred to in article 3:6 of the Company and Associations code.

2. Remunerations report on the financial year ended 31 December 2021





Proposed decision : approve the remunerations report on the financial year ended 31 December 2021.

3. Statutory auditor's report on the annual accounts as at 31 December 2021





Commentary : this report has been prepared in accordance with the articles 3:74 and 3:75 of the Company and Associations code.

4. Annual accounts as at 31 December 2021 - Result appropriation





Proposed decision : approve the annual accounts as at 31 December 2021, including the distribution of a gross dividend of  0,75 per share.

5. EU-IFRS financial statements as at 31 December 2021





Commentary : to provide a useful and complete set of information to the market, the Company prepares, in addition to the annul accounts in accordance with the Company code and Belgian accounting law (BE GAAP), financial statements in accordance with international financial reporting standards as adopted by the European Union (EU-IFRS), with equity accounting of UCB.

6. Discharge of the directors for the financial year ended 31 December 2021





Proposed decision : by special vote, discharge each of the directors for the execution of their respective mandate during the financial year ended 31 December 2021

7. Discharge of the statutory auditor for the financial year ended 31 December 2021





Proposed decision : discharge the statutory auditor for the execution of his mandate during the financial year ended 31 December 2021

8. Board of Directors - Renewal - Resignation - Appointment

a) Proposed decision : renew the term of office of Cynthia Favre d'Echallens for a period of four years ending at the end of the ordinary general meeting to be held in 2026;

b) Proposed decision : approve the appointment of Biofina SRL duly represented by its permanent representativeMrsFiona de Hemptinne as a director for a period of four years ending at the end of the ordinary general meeting to be held in 2026;

c) Proposed decision : approve the appointment of Eric Cornut as a director for a period of four years ending at the end of the ordinary general meeting to be held in 2026;

d) Proposed decision: register the resignation of Mr Edouard Janssen as a director with effect from the date of this meeting;

e) P roposed decision : approve the appointment of EJ Management SRLduly represented by its permanent representativeMr Edouard Janssen as a director for a period of four years ending at the end of the ordinary general meeting to be held in 2026;

AGENDA OF THE EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF 29 APRIL 2022

1. Amendment of the Articles of Association: Renewal of the authorisation given to the board of directors to purchase and dispose of own shares





Proposed decision : replace article 10, paragraphs 7 and 8, by the following text:

 L'autorisation de l'assemblee generale n'est, de plus, pas requise lorsque l'acquisition d'actions propres est necessaire pour eviter a la societe un dommage grave et imminent. Cette habilitation statutaire n'est valable que pour une periode de trois ans a dater de la publication de l'assemblee generale ayant, pour la derniere fois modifie les statuts en ce sens, et peut etre prorogee pour des termes identiques conformement aux dispositions du Code des societes.

L'assemblee generale du 29 avril 2022 a octroye au conseil d'administration l'autorisation d'acquerir et d'aliener des actions de la societe afin d'eviter un dommage grave et imminent, pour une duree de trois ans a dater de la publication de la modification des presents statuts decidee par l'assemblee precitee.

2. Assign the powers to execute the above-mentioned decisions:





Proposed decision : assign powers, with possibility of sub-delegation, to the board of directors for the execution of the above-mentioned decisions, and to Madame Stephanie Ernaelsteen and Madame Anne-Catherine Guiot, from Van Halteren Notary office, each acting separately, to prepare the consolidated text of the Articles of Association.

Formalities to attend the general meeting

To attend or be represented at the general meeting and exercise her/his voting right, a shareholder must have carried out the accounting registration of his/her shares on the fourteenth day before the general meeting at 24:00h Belgian time (being Friday 15 April 2022, the "Registration Date"), either by registering them in the Company's register of nominative shares, or by registering them in the accounts of a licensed account holder or a settlement institution, the number of shares held on the day of the meetings being disregarded.

The shareholder must also inform the Company of her/his desire to attend the general meeting. A holder of nominative shares should send to the Company the duly signed attendance notice, this form being appended to the invitation to attend. A holder of dematerialized shares should send to the Company the attestations issued by the licensed account holder or by the settlement institution, certifying the number of shares that are registered in the accounts of the account holder or settlement institution on the name of the shareholder at the Registration Date and for which the shareholder has declared he/she wants to participate in the general meeting. The attendance notices or the attestations should reach the Company, at the e-mail address eric.nys@financiere-tubize.be, no later than six days before the date of the general meeting (being Saturday 23 April 2022).

A Teams invitation to attend the general meeting will be communicated to the email address provided by the shareholder in the notice of attendance.

Voting by proxy

The board of directors encourages shareholders to be represented by a proxy, in accordance with the provisions of articles 7: 142 to 7: 145 of the Companies and Associations Code

The proxies must be executed in writing on the basis of the form drawn up by the board of directors and must be signed by the shareholder. For the nominative shareholders, the form is appended to their invitation to attend. Holders of dematerialized shares can retrieve the form from the Company's website www.financiere-tubize.be. The proxy must reach the Company, at the e-mail address eric.nys@financiere-tubize.be, no later than six days before the date of the meeting (being Saturday 23 April 2022).

Adding items to the agenda and submitting proposed decisions

One or more shareholders collectively holding at least 3% of the share capital may request that items be added to the agenda of the meetings and submit proposed decisions concerning original and/or added matters on the agenda.

Requests should be made in writing and include the text of items to be added with corresponding proposed decisions or of proposed decisions relating to original agenda items. They should state the e-mail address to which the Company can send an acknowledgement of receipt within 48 hours. Requests should reach the Company no later than twenty-two days before the date of the general meeting.

Shareholders intending to exercise this right should prove, on the date of their request, that they hold at least 3 % of the share capital, either through a certificate stating that the corresponding shares are registered in the Company's register of nominative shares, or through a certificate drawn up by a licensed account holder or settlement institution certifying the number of corresponding dematerialised shares registered in accounts on the name of the shareholders. They should also perform the accounting registration for at least 3 % of the capital.

If shareholders exercise this right, the Company shall publish a supplemented agenda for the general meetings according to the same terms as the original agenda and no later than fifteen days before the date of the general meetings (being Thursday 14 April 2022). Simultaneously, the Company will make amended forms for voting by proxy available to its shareholders through its website.

Right to ask questions to the directors and the auditor

Each shareholder who has satisfied the formalities for admission to the meeting has the right, as from the publication of the invitation to attend, to ask questions in writing about the directors' and the statutory auditor's reports, as well as about any other items indicated on the agenda of the general meeting, to which will be responded, as the case may be, by the directors or the statutory auditor, as long as the disclosure of data or facts does not harm the Company's commercial interests and does not violate the confidentiality agreements binding the Company, its directors or the statutory auditor. These questions should be sent electronically to eric.nys@financiere-tubize.be, no later than the sixth day before the date of the meeting (being Saturday 23 April 2022).

Information on the website

The following information can be consulted on the Company's website www.financiere-tubize.be.:

Present convening

Proxy form

Total number of shares and voting rights at the date of the present convening

All documents intended to be presented to the ordinary general meeting Annual accounts EU-IFRS accounts Management report of the board of directors Remuneration report Statutory auditor's report on the annual accounts Auditor's report on the EU-IFRS accounts Annual financial report Draft remuneration policy Profile of the proposed new directors and profile of the directors whose term of office is proposed.







Holders of nominative shares receive a copy of all documents together with the invitation to attend. Other shareholders may obtain a free copy of the documents by sending a request to eric.nys@financiere-tubize.be.

On the day of the assemblies, share owners and proxy holders will have to prove their identity and representatives of corporations will have to evidence their power. Therefore, it is highly recommended to register at 10:00AM.

The board of directors
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, INCLUDING THE APPENDIX, AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED, AND IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION, RELEASE OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH ITSUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL TO DO SO.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, INCLUDING THE APPENDIX TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT ITSELF CONSTITUTE AN OFFER FOR SALE OR SUBSCRIPTION OF ANY SECURITIES IN THE COMPANY. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE APPENDIX DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR CONTAIN ANY INVITATION, SOLICITATION, RECOMMENDATION, OFFER OR ADVICE TO ANY PERSON TO SUBSCRIBE FOR, OTHERWISE ACQUIRE OR DISPOSE OF ANY SECURITIES OF BLUEJAY MINING PLC IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH ANY SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS DEFINED IN EU REGULATION NO. 596/2014 (AS IT FORMS PART OF RETAINED EU LAW AS DEFINED IN THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018) AND IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COMPANY'S OBLIGATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 7 OF THAT REGULATION.

Placing of 76,857,134 New Ordinary Shares to raise $7million (5.3 million)

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Bluejay, the AIM and FSE listed, and OCTQB traded, exploration and development company with projects in Greenland and Finland, is delighted to announce that it has today raised $7 million (5.38 million) before expenses from a placing of 76,857,134 new ordinary shares of 0.01 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Placing Shares") at a placing price of 7 pence per Placing Share (the "Placing Price") (altogether the "Placing"). The funds raised will enable Bluejay to complete the necessary feasibility study required for the Dundas Ilmenite Project in Greenland ("Dundas"), as it continues to progress the project into production.

Highlights:

Total fundraising of $7 million (5.38 million) at 7 pence per share

Continued strong support from existing institutional investors, including the Company's two largest shareholders

Increased support from Greenlandic and Danish Government-backed institutions

Fundraising will see a major UK institution as a new shareholder

Bluejay Directors and officers subscribed for 120,000 worth of Placing Shares

The proceeds will be sufficient to complete the feasibility study to the level required for financial sign-off by a lending syndicate, enabling construction and production at Dundas

Bluejay CEO, Bo Stensgaard, said:

"Being a multi-project Company, Bluejay offers investors diversification across critical commodities needed for the green energy revolution in low-risk jurisdictions. We are hugely excited about the forthcoming work programme at the Disko-Nuussuaq Nickel-Copper-Cobalt-Platinum Group Metals Project, with our partner KoBold Metals.

"For our fully permitted Dundas Ilmenite Project, this transaction marks an important step towards construction and commercial production. It will secure the completion of the bankable feasibility study, ensuring that Dundas is as robust and as profitable as possible. Completion of the feasibility study will allow authorisation of the funding from a lending syndicate led by our recently appointed premier European Investment Bank. Having the lead-arranger involved in the preparation of these studies should allow for fast-tracked decision making once complete.

"The Company has undertaken an extensive optimisation process to maximise project economics, and identify lower cost options for infrastructure, mine and processing solutions. The Company will commence works at Dundas this forthcoming field-season to complete the necessary engineering, geo-technical and planning activities, including evaluation of an optimised mine schedule for production. The completed study is expected to result in a more resilient project with more attractive economics and a lower capital cost requirement for project implementation than previously advised in the pre-feasibility study.

"Today's announced investment in the Company was supported by all of our existing institutional shareholders, including the governmental-backed institutions from Greenland and Denmark, and a new highly-regarded UK based institution. Both Greenland and Finland will play an increasingly important role in the future secure supply of metals necessary for the electrification, battery and green energy transition. The Company is focussed on achieving production at Dundas as well as the exciting opportunities offered by two of the Company's strategic assets, at Disko and Enonkoski, making this year the most significant yet for the Company".

The Company will use the net proceeds of the equity fund raising for:

Finalisation of the Dundas optimisation and the necessary feasibility study for funding authorisation. General Corporate purposes and working capital, including the addition of key-staff for Dundas and the Company.

Details of the Placing

Application has been made for 76,857,134 Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange plc ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will occur on or around 29 March 2022. The Placing Shares will be credited as fully paid and rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares of 0.01 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares").

SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP ("SP Angel") acted as broker and placing agent for Bluejay in connection with the Placing.

Director and PDMR Participation

The following Directors and PDMRs participated in the Placing at the Placing Price:

Name of Director / PDMR Number of Placing Shares subscribed for in the Placing Number of ordinary shares held immediately following Admission % interest in ordinary shares immediately following Admission Bo Mller Stensgaard 71,428 206,428 0.02 Roderick McIllree 1,142,857 75,820,635 7.22 Michael Hutchinson 142,857 142,857 0.01 Peter Waugh 71,428 211,652 0.02 Hans Jensen 71,428 571,428 0.05 Thomas Levin 71,428 446,428 0.04 Kevin Sheil 142,857 2,112,857 0.20

Related Party Transaction

The Placing participation from Sandgrove Capital Management LLP and M&G Investment Management Limited is considered a related party transaction for the purposes of AIM Rule 13 of the AIM Rules for Companies. The Directors independent of the Placing consider, having consulted with SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP, the Company's Nominated Adviser, that the Placing participation is fair and reasonable in so far as Bluejay's shareholders are concerned.

Total voting rights

Following the issue of the Placing Shares, the total issued share capital of the Company will consist of 1,049,714,747 Ordinary Shares. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. Therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 1,049,714,747 and this figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit http://www.bluejaymining.com or contact:

Kevin Sheil Bluejay Mining plc enquiry@bluejaymining.com Ewan Leggat /

Adam Cowl SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP

(Bluejay Mining Nominated Adviser) +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 Andrew Chubb Hannam & Partners

(Bluejay Mining Advisory) LLP +44 (0) 20 7907 8500 Michael Bennet Hill Dickinson (Bluejay Mining Legal Adviser) Michael.Bennett@hilldickinson.com Tim Blythe /

Megan Ray BlytheRay

(Bluejay Mining Press Contact) +44 (0) 20 7138 3205

Notes

Bluejay is listed on the London AIM market and Frankfurt Stock Exchange and its shares also trade on the OTCQB Market in the US. With multiple projects in Greenland and Finland, Bluejay has now secured three globally respected entities as partner, customer, and co-investor on three of its projects, giving the Company and its shareholders both portfolio and commodity diversification in high quality jurisdictions.

Bluejay has signed a definitive joint venture agreement with KoBold Metals to guide exploration for new deposits rich in the critical materials for electric vehicles (The Disko-Nuussuaq Project). Principal investors in KoBold include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate & technology fund, overseen by Bill Gates, and whose investors include Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, and Ray Dalio. Other investors in KoBold include Andreessen Horowitz, the premier Silicon Valley venture capital fund and Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company.

Bluejay's most advanced project is the Dundas Ilmenite Project in Greenland, which is fully permitted and being developed towards production in the near term, with preparatory activities scheduled to commence in 2022. Dundas has a Mineral Resource reported in accordance with the JORC Code of 117Mt at 6.1% ilmenite and a maiden offshore Exploration Target of between 300Mt and 530Mt of ilmenite at an average expected grade range of 0.4 - 4.8% ilmenite in-situ. The Company has agreed a Master Distribution Agreement with a major Asian conglomerate for up-to 340ktpa of its anticipated 440ktpa annual output. The Company's strategy is focused on securing financing ahead of commencing commercial production at Dundas and has appointed a Global Investment Bank as the lead arranger. This strategy will create a company capable of self-funding exploration on its current and future projects.

Bluejay holds two additional projects in Greenland - the 692sq km Kangerluarsuk zinc-lead- silver project ('Kangerluarsuk'), where historical work has recovered grades of 41% zinc, 9.3% lead and 596 g/t silver and identified four large-scale drill ready targets; and the 2,025 sq. km Thunderstone project which has the potential to host large-scale base metal and gold deposits. Bluejay also has a joint-venture agreement with a mining major at Enonkoski in Finland and has recently signed a binding agreement for a partial divestment in a fourth Finnish project.

Dealings by Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibilities

1 Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated a) Name Bo Mller Stensgaard Roderick McIllree Peter Waugh Michael Hutchinson Hans Jensen Thomas Levin Kevin Sheil 2 Reason for the notification a) Position/status Chief Executive Officer Executive Chairman Non Executive Director Non Executive Director Managing Director Dundas Titanium A/S Chief Operating Officer (Finland) Corporate Development and Strategy b) Initial notification /Amendment Initial Notification 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Bluejay Mining plc b) LEI 213800E9AEFEHFLOVJ19 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument Ordinary shares of 0.01 pence each Identification code ISIN: GB00BLFJ1613 b) Nature of the transaction Participation in Placing c) Price(s) and volume(s) Director/PDMR Price Volume Bo Mller Stensgaard 7 pence 71,428 Rod McIllree 7 pence 1,142,857 Peter Waugh 7 pence 71,428 Michael Hutchinson 7 pence 142,857 Hans Jensen 7 pence 71,428 Thomas Levin 7 pence 71,428 Kevin Sheil 7 pence 142,857 d) Aggregated information - Aggregated volume 1,714,283 - Price 7 pence e) Date of the transaction 23 March 2022 f) Place of the transaction Outside a trading venue

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Bluejay Mining PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694478/Bluejay-Mining-PLC-Announces-Placing
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Horizonte Minerals Plc, (AIM:HZM)(TSX:HZM) the nickel company focused on Brazil is pleased to announce the appointment to the Board of Gillian Davidson as independent non-executive director and Vincent Benoit as non-executive director with immediate effect.

Gillian Davidson

Gillian Davidson, an industry leader in sustainability, has over 25 years of experience in the extractives and natural resources sectors. She is an independent sustainability advisor and currently serves as a non-executive director on the boards of AIM quoted Central Asia Metals plc and TSX listed Lundin Gold and New Gold Inc. Gillian Davidson is a founding member and Chair of the Global Battery Alliance, an initiative created to drive a sustainable battery value chain. Gillian Davidson is also Chair of International Women in Mining.

Gillian Davidson was, until 2017, Head of Mining & Metals at the World Economic Forum, leading global and regional initiatives for responsible and sustainable development. Prior to this, she was Director of Social Responsibility at Teck Resources Limited.

She holds a MA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Glasgow, a PhD in Development Economics and Economic Geography from the University of Liverpool and is an alumnus of the Governor General of Canada's Leadership Conference.

Vincent Benoit

Vincent Benoit has over 30 years of corporate finance, business development and M&A experience in the mining, telecom, and energy sectors. Vincent identified the opportunity to buy La Mancha and joined the company as Head of Strategy & Business Development in 2012, before leading La Mancha's portfolio restructuring and contributing to the enhancement of its mines performance in Australia and Africa then identifying and executing the combinations with Evolution and Endeavour, which positioned La Mancha as a leading private investor in the gold mining sector. From 2016 to 2019, Vincent was CFO and EVP Corporate Development at Endeavour where he reshaped the strategy, improved the mine portfolio quality, and enhanced the balance sheet to fund the organic growth. Endeavour's market capitalization was quadrupled by the time he left at the end of 2019. In early 2020, he re-joined La Mancha to oversee investments and fund raising.

Previously, Vincent was at Orange (2006-2012) where he served as EVP M&A. He led the development of the group's footprint in Africa and Europe and formed strategic partnerships with key European telecoms players. Prior to this, Vincent held various finance positions including with Orano (ex-Areva), Bull Information Systems and PwC. Vincent holds a MSc from Kedge Business School and is a Chartered Accountant.

Horizonte CEO, Jeremy Martin commented: "We are delighted to welcome two industry leaders to the Board of Horizonte. Gillian and Vincent both bring new expertise to the Horizonte senior team, particularly in the areas of sustainability, corporate finance and project oversight. Their experience will be invaluable in helping the Company achieve its objective of becoming the next major, low-cost, sustainable nickel producer, through the development of Araguaia and Vermelho.

The appointment of Gillian and Vincent is the first phase of the Board's evolution to better reflect our new shareholder register and the skillset required to successfully deliver two tier one nickel projects through to production."

Regulatory

The following information is disclosed in accordance with Rule 17 and paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies:

Full name and age: Dr Gillian Davidson (aged 50) Current directorships: Cobalt Institute Global Battery Alliance International Women in Mining C.I.C. Lundin Gold Inc. New Gold Inc. Wild Mountain Consulting Limited Former Directorships (previous five years): Lydian International Limited

Full name and age: Mr Vincent Marie Michel Touzery-Benoit (aged 54) Current directorships: La Mancha Capital Advisory Limited Liability Partnership La Mancha Services UK Ltd SC Amare SCI A.B. Gestion Former Directorships (previous five years): Dailymotion SA Euronews SA Evolution Mining Limited Generale de Telephone SA Innovacom Gestion SAS Orange Business Services Participations SA Orange Capital Investment SA Orange Capital SA Societe des mines d'Ity Transatel SA

Gillian Davidson and Vincent Benoit do not hold any ordinary shares nor options over ordinary shares in the Company. Vincent Benoit is a Partner and Chief Investment Officer of La Mancha Capital Advisory LLP, which holds 759,128,764 shares in the Company.

There is no further information which is required to be disclosed under Schedule Two, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in respect of Gillian Davidson and Vincent Marie Michel Touzery-Benoit.

For further information, visit www.horizonteminerals.com or contact:

Horizonte Minerals plc Jeremy Martin (CEO) Anna Legge (Corporate Communications) info@horizonteminerals.com +44 (0) 203 356 2901 Peel Hunt (NOMAD & Joint Broker) Ross Allister David McKeown +44 (0)20 7418 8900 BMO (Joint Broker) Thomas Rider Pascal Lussier Duquette Andrew Cameron +44 (0) 20 7236 1010

About Horizonte Minerals:

Horizonte Minerals plc (AIM & TSX: HZM) is developing two 100% owned, tier one projects in Para state, Brazil - the Araguaia Nickel Project and the Vermelho Nickel-Cobalt Project. Both projects are large scale, high-grade, low-cost, low-carbon and scalable. Araguaia is fully funded and in construction. The project will produce 29,000 tonnes of nickel per year to supply the stainless steel market. Vermelho is at feasibility study stage and will produce 25,000 tonnes of nickel and 1,250 tonnes of cobalt to supply the EV battery market. Horizonte's combined near-term production profile of over 50,000 tonnes of nickel per year positions the Company as a globally significant nickel producer. Horizonte is developing a new nickel district in Brazil that will benefit from established infrastructure, including hydroelectric power available in the Carajas Mining District.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Horizonte Minerals PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694465/Horizonte-Minerals-PLC-Announces-Appointment-of-Non-Executive-Directors
MND (Euronext Growth - FR00140050Q2 - ALMND), a French industrial group specialised in ropeway mobility, snowmaking systems, mountain safety and sensational leisure infrastructures, has confirmed its position as a major ropeway transport player. The MND Group's ropeway transport business line, created in 1989, is aiming for strong growth in FY 2022/23.

Recent contracts in Huy and La Reunion in the urban cable transport market show the Group's ability to successfully meet market expectations. In Belgium, the city of Huy has chosen MND to build its replacement cable car. Work has begun and is scheduled for completion in 2023. In La Reunion, MND, representing the Payenke consortium, has been chosen by CINOR (Communaute Intercommunale du Nord de La Reunion) to design, build and maintain the second line of the Saint-Denis cable car network.

Since July 1, 2021, MND's teams have been providing long-term assistance to Brest cable car operator as requested by the city of Brest. In Dubai, MND signed a MoU with the Dubai Transport Authority (RTA) in 2021 to explore developing new innovative autonomous urban ropeway.

In its traditional mountain market, MND is going to build three new detachable systems in the ski area of Saint-Lary (Hautes-Pyrenees). As part of the investment programme and future restructuring of the domain, the operating company Altiservice has chosen MND to build a 10-person gondola and two 6-person chairlifts. In Oz-en-Oisans (Isere), MND is building an inclined elevator that will complete the new generation valley lift to the Grand Domaine de l'Alpe d'Huez. In Waterville in the United-States, a renowned ski resort on the East Coast, MND is establishing itself in North America with the Group's first detachable 6-seater chairlift, which enters the assembly phase on site this Spring.

All of these urban, tourist and mountain installations are delivered on a turnkey basis by MND, which designs, project manages, assembles, installs, commissions and trains the operators.

Lastly, following on from the last two seasons, even though they were heavily affected by Covid-19, the Group also plans to deliver three 4-seat chairlifts, eight surface lifts and around twenty ski conveyor belts next season, once again proving the suitability of its wide range of equipment to meet a variety of operational needs.

Since 2018, MND and BARTHOLET have been working together in various markets to propose joint offers and since 2020 have been linked by an industrial and commercial agreement on detachable teleport technology, running until December 2023. This collaboration is bearing fruit on both sides with many projects commissioned in France and abroad. Over the past three years, MND has thus strengthened its 30 years of experience in the ropeway market to add new references as well as numerous technical and industrial skills.

MND recently noted that the Italian group HTI had acquired a majority stake in the BARTHOLET Group. This change in BARTHOLET's majority shareholder has no impact on the orders already signed or future projects under this partnership. Services and spare parts supply are handled by MND teams who guarantee, in accordance with the collaboration agreement, all services associated with the equipment installed or currently being installed with its customers. Both companies will provide continuity of services to support infrastructure operators throughout their lifecycle.

As in all the other sectors in which it operates (snowmaking systems, mountain safety and leisure infrastructures), MND aims to be a major and self-sufficient industrial ropeway mobility player. In keeping with the Succeed Together 2024 strategic plan begun in 2020, the industrial site expansion project, which starts this Spring, aims to increase production capacity in France and the manufacturing and assembly areas dedicated to the ropeway business line. The Group will thus have an overall site of 5 hectares to improve the workspaces of over 200 employees on the site serving clients. Furthermore, by reinforcing the Services department and stepping up its training, the Group will have additional resources to meet the long-term support needs of its customers in a rapidly growing installed base. This industrial expansion is scheduled for completion in 2023.

MND will be exhibiting at the Mountain Planet show in Grenoble from April 26-28, 2022. MND and its teams will be delighted to meet customers at its stand and industrial site to share its latest innovations, projects and successes throughout the event.

About MND

MND is a French industrial group specialised in ropeway mobility, snowmaking systems, mountain safety and thrill-making leisure facilities. With over 3,000 customers in 49 countries, MND contributes every day through its four core businesses to mobility, leisure activities and the safety of all, while offering proven and lasting solutions based on its experience in mountain activities. Based in Savoie, MND is staffed by 300 employees and relies on

10 international locations and 28 distributors to develop its business activities around the world. MND is listed on the Euronext Growth market in Paris (FR00140050Q2 - ALMND).

Contacts

Press Relations

Alexandre Berard

+33 (0)6 45 42 95 46 - alex@alternativemedia.fr Financial Press Relations

Serena Boni

+33 (0)4 72 1804 92 - sboni@actus.fr Investor Relations

Mathieu Omnes

+33 (0)1 53 67 36 92 - momnes@actus.fr

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HELSINKI, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Newspapers in Finland may be forced to stop printing within a few weeks due to a serious shortage of paper, the Finnish Media Association said on Wednesday.

The situation has arisen due to an ongoing strike in the only Finnish paper plant producing newsprint, as well as the discontinuation of paper imports from Russia.

"The printing of newspapers could be challenged within a few weeks," Jukka Holmberg, CEO of the Finnish Media Association, told national broadcaster Yle on Wednesday.

PRINT MEDIA VS. DIGITAL MEDIA

Finnish paper industries, traditionally a source of newsprint for the rest of Europe, have been reducing their output in recent years.

Currently, only the Jamsankoski plant of United Paper Mills (UPM) produces newsprint, but it has been closed since January due to a strike by the Paper Workers Union.

The publication of printed newspapers is particularly important in times of crisis, Tero Koskinen, head of preparedness in media resilience at Mediapooli, told the Journalist Union newspaper Journalisti this week.

Mediapooli serves as a network of Finnish media companies that supports other media organizations in preparing technically and otherwise for various threats.

"Digital media supply connections are vulnerable. If we think of a situation where digital services do not function, it would be important to get printed papers delivered," Koskinen said.

Given the current global situation, it is particularly important that the printing of newspapers should continue as normal, he added.

THREAT TO SUPPLY OF PRINTING PLATES

As a first indication of the current challenging circumstances, Helsingin Sanomat, the largest newspaper in Finland, has reduced the size of its weekend editions.

Besides the paper shortage, the printing industry also fears that problems could arise in the supply of printing plates. The principal component of contemporary printing plates is aluminum, of which Russia is the third-largest producer globally.

Juha Laakkonen, CEO of the Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva, told Journalisti this week that they have a supply of plates until the summer. However, the situation after that time is uncertain.

CHALLENGE TO PAPER SUPPLY

Paper supply problems in Europe had already begun before imports from Russia were reduced.

However, the shortage of paper in Europe has been described by Intergraf, the advocacy organization for European printing industries, as "unprecedented."

Intergraf said on March 10 that paper prices have increased by 45 percent on average in the last six months, even up to 80 percent for newsprint.

With digitization expected to continually reduce demand for newsprint, European manufacturers have been closing paper plants.

In Finland, the last major plant producing newsprint closed in the summer of 2020, and it was thought that newsprint production in the country would cease entirely.

However, the plant's owners United Paper Mills subsequently converted a smaller plant so it could produce newsprint. However, this plant has been affected by the Paper Workers Union strike, which is set to continue until at least mid-April. 
RECORD HIGH 2021 RESULTS

ROBUST CASH GENERATION AND A VERY SOUND BALANCE SHEET

Strong growth in revenue to 334.0m (+26%)

Surge in current EBITDA to 65.2m (+30%)

EBITDA margin close to 20%

Net profit Group share: 18.7m (+88%)

Sharp increase in operating cash flow: 83.3m (+38% vs. end-2020)

Positive net cash[1]position (excluding IFRS16 lease liabilities): 67.6m (vs. 25.0m at end-2020)

Proposed dividend: 1/share (double the 2020 level)

Paris, 24 March 2022 - ROCHE BOBOIS SA (ISIN: FR0013344173 - Ticker symbol: RBO), a global benchmark on the high-end furniture market and the name behind the French Art de vivre, today publishes its full-year 2021 results. The financial statements, approved by the Executive on 21 March 2022, have been audited and the reports are currently being prepared.

Despite the disruption caused by store closures at the start of the year in some countries (Germany, Canada, France, and Switzerland especially), Roche Bobois SA reports record high earnings for 2021 as illustrated by the 25.5% surge in revenue and EBITDA margin of almost 20%, an unprecedented level for the Group. Parallel to this, the Company posted a significant increase in cash generation from operations of 38.2% vs. end-2020, with a net cash[1] position of 67.6m at year-end. Strengthened by these excellent results, the Company will propose a dividend of 1/share to the General Meeting of Shareholders.

IFRS (m)

audited

2019 2020 2021 Chg. %

2021/2020 Sales of goods 242.1 235.8 293.0 +24.3% Royalties and other services 32.6 30.2 41.0 +35.6% Revenue 274.7 266.0 334.0 +25.5% Gross margin on sales of goods 59.2% 59.0% 59.6% +0.6 pts Current EBITDA[2] 45.9 50.2 65.2 +29.9% Current EBITDA margin 16.7% 18.9% 19.5% +0.6 pts EBIT before non-recurring items 16.7 17.5 28.2 +61.3% EBIT 15.8 17.1 28.2 +65.1% Net financial income/(expense) (2.1) (3.3) (1.8) - Income tax (4.2) (3.7) (7.6) - Net profit/(loss) 9.6 10.1 18.8 +86.1% Net profit/(loss) Group share 9.3 10.0 18.7 +87.8%

At the end of the 2021 financial year, Group revenue stood at 334.0m vs. 266.0m at end-December 2020, up 25.5% (+26.5% at constant exchange rates). This excellent performance was visible across all regions, particularly France and the United States.

Group gross margin widened to 59.6% (vs. 59.0% on 31 December 2020), gaining 35.6m in value terms on the back of a volume effect and the geographical mix (surge in volumes in North America).

External expenses returned to the more normative level of 75.4m compared with the 2020 financial year (58.7m), which were adversely affected by the health crisis (with lower expenses for local advertising, travel and exhibitions, rents, and shipping). External expenses were down in relative terms to 22.6% of 2021 revenue vs. 25.7% of 2019 revenue, representing 70.5m, thereby illustrating excellent cost control.

Staff costs were up at 73.3m on 31 December 2021 vs. 55.2m on 31 December 2020, primarily due to higher commission payments related to the surge in order intake and to a lesser extent, the reduction in short-time working measures and related subsidies (positive impact of 4m in 2020). Note that staff costs also included a bonus share plan expense of 3.4m over the financial year (vs. 0.8m in 2020).

Current EBITDA[3] totalled 65.2m on 31 December 2021 vs. 50.2m on 31 December 2020, reflecting strong growth of 29.9% (+30.8% at constant exchange rates). North America posted the highest EBITDA growth of the financial year (+45.6%), with the Other Europe and France regions increasing their EBITDA by 22.5% and 17.1% respectively. Note also that EBITDA from the Cuir Center brand was up 30.1% over the financial year.

EBITDA margin therefore totalled 19.5% (vs. 18.9% on 31 December 2020).

After deducting depreciation and amortisation of 33.3m, EBIT was up a substantial 65.1% from 17.1m on 31 December 2020 to 28.2m on 31 December 2021.

After financial expenses of 1.8m and income tax of 7.6m, net profit Group share amounted to 18.7m, a considerable increase of 87.8% vs. 10.0m on 31 December 2020.

Sharp increase in cash flow - Surge in cash flow from operations

Shareholders' equity totalled 83.4m on 31 December 2021 vs. 66.6m on 31 December 2020.

Cash flow before cost of net financial debt significantly increased to 64.1m on 31 December 2021, vs. 50.0m on 31 December 2020. Given the high level of sales growth, change in WCR was positive at 27.1m, driven by the sharp increase in the order backlog (customer advance payments up 34.1m vs. 31 December 2020).

Cash flow from operations surged to 83.3m (from 60.3m in 2020). This high amount easily covers investments related to store openings and renovations (10.2m), minority buyouts (1.2m) and dividends paid to shareholders (4.9m). Note also that the Group paid off 31.1m in net bank debts over the period (including a 25m state-backed loan).

On 31 December 2021, the Group had cash and cash equivalents of 84.3m (vs. 73.3m on 31 December 2020). Excluding lease liabilities of 140.1m (related to application of IFRS16), Roche Bobois had positive net cash[4] of 67.6m (vs. 25.0m on 31 December 2020).

Proposed dividend of 1 per share

In view of the excellent results in 2021, the Group will propose a dividend pay-out of 52% of 2021 net profit to General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for 15 June 2022, representing 1 per share and double the amount of last year's dividend.

Roche Bobois joins the Gaia 2021 ranking

Roche Bobois SA was ranked in the latest index published by Gaia Research, a subsidiary of EthiFinance, specialised in ESG ratings for listed companies on European markets. An assessment of the Group's CSR approach was undertaken during the Gaia Research 2021 campaign, covering a selection of 400 listed companies.

Following the 2021 campaign, Roche Bobois SA obtained an overall score of 66/100 after analysis of its performances on the four selected pillars: Environmental, Social, Governance and External Stakeholders (ESG-PPE). As of this first year, the Group's rating outperforms the national benchmark (58/100) including the 400 companies covered by Gaia Research, as well as the sector benchmark (59/100), made up of 60 companies in the "consumer discretionary" sector, and the category benchmark (61/100) made up of 85 stocks with revenue of between 150m and 500m.

Further roll-out of stores in France and overseas

Factoring in the international context, Roche Bobois SA specifies to start with that it has very little business in Russia and Ukraine, where the Group is only present through five franchised sales outlets, three stores in Russia (Moscow and Yekaterinburg) and two in Ukraine in Kiev. These stores accounted for 0.6% of total retail sales in 2021 and have virtually no impact on the consolidated financial statements. The Group indicates that the stores in Ukraine were closed as soon as the conflict broke out and that Roche Bobois activity has been suspended in Russia.

At end-December 2021, Roche Bobois SA had 338 stores including 258 Roche Bobois stores (of which 107 directly-operated and owned and 151 franchises) and 80 Cuir Center stores (including 21 directly-operated and owned and 59 franchises).

In the 2022 financial year, Roche Bobois SA is planning to open two directly-operated and owned stores in the United States in Q1 in Sarasota (Florida) and Palm Desert (California), where construction work is currently underway, and one directly-operated and owned store in Lugano (Switzerland) in summer 2022. Over the year, two to three additional directly-operated and owned stores are likely to open in North America and Europe.

Lastly, the Company plans to relocate three stores to premium locations in Milan (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and Boston (United States), the two latter having already taken place, and expects 5-10 franchise store openings.

Sales activity still robust in early 2022

The first months of the 2022 financial year have also been robust with total retail sales of 128.6m at end-February 2022, up 9.2% vs. the year-earlier period and 37.9% vs. end-February 2019. Retail sales from directly-operated and owned stores came out to 71.6m (+25.1% vs. end-February 2021 and +49.2% vs. end-February 2019), with particularly buoyant business in North America (24.9m or +51.3% vs. end-February 2021) and the Other Europe region (13.2m, or +81.1% vs. end-February 2021).

The Group also points out that the order backlog as of 31 December 2021 totalled 159m, up considerably by 53.6% versus the level at end-2020. This backlog adds to shippings and thus revenue for H1 2022 and will contribute significantly to growth during the period.

In view of the healthy level of sales and orders already in the backlog, the Group confirms further revenue growth for the first half of 2022.

Next event:

Q1 revenue: Thursday 28 April 2022 (after the market closes)

ABOUT ROCHE BOBOIS SA

ROCHE BOBOIS SA is a French family business founded in 1960. The Group operates in 56 countries and has a network of 338 owned stores and franchises (at 31 December 2021) marketing its two brands: Roche Bobois, a high-end furniture brand with a strong international presence, and Cuir Center, positioned in the mid-range market segment with an essentially French customer base. Through its Roche Bobois brand, the Group embodies the French Art de Vivre whose presence can now be felt on the world stage, with original and bold creations from talented designers (Bruno Moinard, Jean Nouvel, Ora Ito, Sacha Lakic, Christophe Delcourt, Stephen Burks, Kenzo Takada, Bina Baitel...) and partnerships with fashion and haute couture houses. Roche Bobois is also a committed partner in the world of culture and the arts. Including franchises, these two brands posted 2021 retail sales of 639.5 million excluding VAT, to which Roche Bobois contributed 532.4 million and Cuir Center 107.1 million. Roche Bobois SA consolidated revenues came to 334 million in 2021.

For more information please visit www.finance-roche-bobois.com

CONTACT

Actus Finance - Anne-Pauline Petureaux

Investor Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 72 apetureaux@actus.fr

Actus Finance - Serena BONI

Press Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)4 72 18 04 92 / sboni@actus.fr

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements do not constitute guarantees regarding the future performance of ROCHE BOBOIS. This forward-looking information covers the future outlook, growth and commercial strategy of ROCHE BOBOIS and is based on the analysis of future result forecasts and estimates of amounts that cannot yet be determined. By nature, forward-looking information involves risks and uncertainties, as it relates to events and depends on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. ROCHE BOBOIS draws your attention to the fact that forward-looking statements provide no guarantee of future performance and that its actual financial position, results and cash flow, as well as changes in the sector in which ROCHE BOBOIS operates, may differ significantly from those proposed or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this document. Moreover, even if ROCHE BOBOIS' financial position, results, cash flow and changes in the sector in which ROCHE BOBOIS operates were to be in accordance with the forward-looking information contained in this document, these results or changes may not be a reliable indicator of ROCHE BOBOIS' future results or developments. A description of events that could have a material adverse impact on ROCHE BOBOIS' business, financial position or results, or on its ability to achieve its targets, is given in Chapter 4 "Risk Factors" of the Base Document.

GLOSSARY

Current EBITDA: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation. It designates the Group's pre-tax profit before interest, depreciation and amortisation of fixed assets (but after depreciation of stocks and receivables), store opening costs, expenses for payments in shares, including the associated social charges.

[1] Available cash - current and non-current financial debts.

[2] Current EBITDA after adjusting for store openings and before bonus share plans.

[3] Current EBITDA after adjusting for store openings and before bonus share plans.

[4] Available cash - current and non-current financial debts.

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Firm recognised by Great Place to Work for cultivating a positive workplace culture



DUBLIN, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fisher Investments Ireland Ltd.-a subsidiary of US-based Fisher Investments-earned the 2022 Best Workplaces recognition from Great Place to Work Ireland for creating a positive employee work environment.

To determine the 2022 Best WorkplacesIreland list, Great Place to Work analysed anonymous survey feedback from employees describing the extent to which their organisation creates a positive work environment. The survey measured several factors including compensation, manager quality, overall workplace atmosphere and the pride that employees feel working for their organisations.

"We are honoured to be recognised again by Great Place to Work," said Damian Ornani, Fisher Investments' CEO, adding, "Cultivating a rewarding work environment is critical in our mission to help more clients globally plan brighter financial futures."

"We're proud to receive the Best Workplaces Ireland recognition based on our employees' feedback," said Carrianne Coffey, Fisher Investments' Sr. Executive Vice President and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Fisher Investments Europe Ltd. "Fisher Investments is committed to creating a work environment where employees can thrive and build rewarding, lifelong careers across the Fisher organisation."

Fisher Investments is hiring for a variety of roles globally. Visit FisherCareers.com to learn more about career opportunities. For more details on the Great Place to Work Certification process, please visit https://www.greatplacetowork.ie/about-us/our-methodology/.

About Fisher Investments Ireland

Fisher Investments Ireland Limited is a private limited company incorporated in Ireland (Company Number 623847) and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Fisher Investments Ireland's registered address is 1st Floor, 2 George's Dock, International Financial Services Centre, Dublin 1, D01 H2T6 Ireland. Fisher Asset Management, LLC, trading under the name "Fisher Investments" is the parent company of Fisher Investments Ireland Limited and is established in the USA (Delaware Secretary of State number 3936233) and regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC# 801-29362). For more information on Fisher Investments Ireland Limited, please visit https://www.fisherinvestments.com/en-ie.

About Fisher Investments



Fisher Investments is an independent, fee-only investment adviser. As of 31/12/2021, Fisher Investments and its subsidiaries manage over 183 billion in assets globally-over 143 billion for private investors, 37 billion for institutional investors and 2 billion for US small to mid-sized business retirement plans. Fisher Investments maintains four principal business groups: US Private Client, Institutional, Private Client International and 401(k) Solutions, which serve a global client base of diverse investors. Founder and Executive Chairman Ken Fisher wrote the Forbes "Portfolio Strategy" column from 1984 through 2016, making him the longest continuously running columnist in the magazine's history. In recent years, Ken's columns have run consistently in major media outlets across almost every Western European country as well as material Asian countries, spanning more countries and more volume than any other columnist of any type in history. Ken has also authored 11 books, including four New York Times bestsellers on finance and investing. For more information on Fisher Investments, please visit www.fisherinvestments.com.

Media Contacts

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TAIPEI, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2022 World System Integrator Conference (WSIC), organized by Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), was held as a hybrid event on March 23rd. More than 200 companies and organizations in system integration participated in the event online or in-person at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.

At WSIC 2022, six Taiwanese companies signed MOUs with their overseas partners to implement their solutions in foreign regions:

Taiwan company Quadlink and Evvo IoT from Singapore will promote smart aquaculture in Singapore .

company Quadlink and Evvo IoT from will promote smart aquaculture in . Airtree, Leian Japan and Welfare Okinawa agreed to collaborate on implementing an innovative IoT farming method in Japan .

. YajanTech and a Singaporean company, iBosses, are going to expand on their successful experiences with AR tourism in Singapore .

. Lndata and a Vietnamese company, Mekong One, discussed the development of big data and digital marketing in Vietnam .

. Big x Reality would collaborate with Malaysian XR Associates (XRA) to implement an XR Training Simulator in Malaysia .

. Tatung System Technologies from Taiwan and Syslink Thailand discussed providing smart solutions to public toilets in Thailand .

This year's conference focused on the topic of "Being Part of the International SI Ecosystem" and emphasized three actions: developing a sustainable business model, increasing capital investment, and collaborating with foreign partners to satisfy demand of overseas markets. The Director of Information Technology Industries Division of IDB, MOEA, Jiunn-Shiow Lin, and the winners of Taiwan's 2022 System Integration Award responded to these actions at the conference.

Jiunn-Shiow Lin said, "as cities grow faster, system integration and the development of smart cities have become important issues. With three years of collaborative experiences, we are confident that we can realize an international ecosystem for system integration by forging partnerships with local players, developing overseas business models, and operating solutions abroad.

Through the successful cases from the winners of Taiwan's 2022 System Integration Award and the six MOUs with international partners, this conference shows our ability to provide digital service to global markets and also proves the influence of WSIC as a platform to facilitate international collaboration."

Additionally, representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) shared their insights on regional development and investment trends of system integration. Speakers from the Philippines, India, Malaysia, and the United States also shared local implementation opportunities and their experiences in smart energy, smart city, 5G, and digital transformation.

WSIC, a cooperation platform established in 2019 with the vision of advancing Taiwan as a world-trusted exporting hub of system integration, has been devoted to sharing our technology and experience with system integration and promoting quality solutions from Taiwan to overcome challenges with local partners worldwide.

All are welcome to visit the website at https://www.sipa.org.tw/Default.aspx and SI Super Hub https://gis.cier.edu.tw/SIPA/casesI.php for more details about the System Integration Promotion Alliance Project (SIPA).

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1772965/WSIC.jpg
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.
LONDON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PharmaVentures is pleased to announce that it acted as transaction advisor to Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and EPFL in Switzerland on their commercial terms related to the collaboration and licensing of their highly potent SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies to the newly founded biopharmaceutical company Aerium Therapeutics, based in Boston, MA, USA and Lausanne, Switzerland.

Aerium Therapeutics is focused on discovering and developing novel monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and antiviral treatments against SARS-CoV-2. Its initial efforts are focused on two monoclonal antibodies that, in preclinical testing, have shown potent neutralisation of important COVID-19 Variants of Concern (VOCs), including Delta, Omicron and the recent Omicron subvariants BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, and is thus markedly more potent than all authorised or clinically advanced anti-SARS-CoV-2 mAbs.

The company has recently emerged with substantial Series A financial backing by the founding investor Omega Funds with the participation of F-Prime Capital. Aerium was seeded and incubated by Omega Funds in 2021 and started in collaboration with its two scientific founders, Dr. Giuseppe Pantaleo (CHUV) and Dr. Didier Trono (EPFL) in Switzerland. Both scientists are applying their substantial expertise and research capabilities to discover new mAbs against SARS-CoV-2.

This follows the recent announcement that this novel antibody is one of the most powerful identified so far against all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. In addition to its antiviral properties, the antibody has been designed to provide protection to those patients most vulnerable.

Fintan Walton, Founder and CEO of PharmaVentures, said, "We are delighted to have advised CHUV and EPFL on their commercial terms for this break-through research that has significant potential to protect those who are left as most vulnerable to COVID-19."

Dr. Giuseppe Pantaleo, Professor of Medicine at the CHUV, Head of Immunology and Allergy Division said, "Our collaboration with Aerium Therapeutics will be key in delivering these antibodies to the clinical stage, where they have the potential to play an important role in the control and the prevention of COVID-19, particularly in all those who are not protected by vaccination."

For further information contact:

Lisa Holloway

Senior Marketing Manager

PharmaVentures Ltd

+44 (0) 1865 332 700

enquiries@pharmaventures.com

About PharmaVentures

PharmaVentures is a premier transaction advisory firm and a leading international company in partnering, M&A deals and strategic alliances. For over 30 years, PharmaVentures has acted as advisor on over 900 deal related projects covering licensing, mergers, acquisitions, divestments, and joint venture activities for companies world-wide.

PharmaVentures' deep bank of specialist experience, deal analytics and network of contacts among innovators and large pharma makes it uniquely placed to support business in all aspects of deal making and strategic planning. PharmaVentures is well known for its deep insight into deal structures and its success for generating partnering interest.

PharmaVentures' services include:

M&A (divestments, mergers, acquisitions, and strategic transactions)

(divestments, mergers, acquisitions, and strategic transactions) Licensing (in and out licensing)

(in and out licensing) Fundraising Support

Strategy (commercialisation, deal strategy, due diligence, market entry)

(commercialisation, deal strategy, due diligence, market entry) Valuation and Positioning (licensing, M&A, and fundraising)

PharmaVentures is based in Oxford, UK, and employs over 20 professionals and has associates in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

PharmaVentures Capital Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of PharmaVentures Ltd. All regulated activities are delivered through PharmaVentures Capital Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (741356).

For more details, visit https://www.pharmaventures.com

About CHUV

Lausanne University Hospital is one of the five university hospitals in Switzerland, with Geneva, Bern, Basel and Zurich. With its 16 clinical and medico-technical departments and their numerous services, the CHUV is renowned for its academic achievements in health care, research, and teaching.

The CHUV is also a well-known center of medical education and research thanks to its collaboration with the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Together, these institutions form a vast campus in the Lake Geneva region.

About EPFL

EPFL (www.epfl.ch), one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, based in Lausanne, is Europe's most cosmopolitan technical university with students, professors and staff from over 120 nations. A dynamic environment, open to Switzerland and the world, EPFL is centered on its three missions: teaching, research and technology transfer. EPFL works together with an extensive network of partners including other universities and institutes of technology, developing and emerging countries, secondary schools and colleges, industry and economy, political circles and the general public, to bring about real impact for society.
ESG Data Convergence Project metrics for the Private Equity market launch on ESG Book

- Launch of ESG Data Convergence Project metrics on ESG Book enables private equity GPs and LPs worldwide to access meaningful, performance-based, comparable sustainability data from private companies.

- Supported by over 100 leading private equity firms representing $8.7 trillion USD in AUM and more than 1,400 private companies, the ESG Data Convergence Project standardises ESG reporting for private markets.

- Through ESG Book, private companies can disclose information against the ESG Data Convergence Project's reporting template as well as on a range of sustainability frameworks globally.

- Delivered through cloud technology, ESG Book enables companies to be custodians of their data through a secure digital platform, provides framework-neutral ESG information in real-time, and promotes transparency.

LONDON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ESG Book, the central source for accessible and digital corporate sustainability data, today announced that private companies can now disclose sustainability data on the platform through a new set of metrics designed to standardise ESG reporting for private markets.

The launch of ESG Data Convergence Project metrics on ESG Book enables private equity general partners (GPs) and limited partners (LPs) worldwide to access meaningful, performance-based, comparable sustainability data from private companies.

Supported by over 100 leading private equity firms representing $8.7 trillion USD in AUM and more than 1,400 private companies, the ESG Data Convergence Project was unveiled in September 2021 as a solution to the private market's historically fragmented approach to collecting and reporting ESG data. Through ESG Book, private companies are able to disclose information against the Project's reporting template, as well as on a wide range of sustainability frameworks globally.

Delivered through cutting-edge cloud technology, ESG Book makes sustainability data more widely available and comparable for all stakeholders, allows companies to be custodians of their own data through a secure digital platform, provides framework-neutral ESG information in real-time, and promotes transparency. The platform is supported by international organisations including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and runs according to principles from the UN Global Compact, which encourages companies to adopt sustainable policies.

Dr Daniel Klier, CEO of ESG Book, said: "The lack of a comparable, consistent ESG data collection and reporting framework has long been an issue for the private equity industry in assessing the sustainability progress of portfolio companies. The ESG Data Convergence Project is a vitally important initiative to help address this problem, and through ESG Book, we are now able to offer a market-leading solution that makes it easier for private companies to securely disclose their sustainability data against meaningful performance metrics. In doing so, this will increase transparency across private markets, reduce data gaps, and drive material ESG improvements."

On ESG Book, private companies can map their data against the Private Equity ESG Data Convergence Project's key metrics, alongside other frameworks including the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). This will accelerate data comparability across companies, including publicly listed corporations, with a suite of analytics and benchmarking tools allowing GPs and LPs, together with portfolio companies, to measure progress on ESG performance.

Today's announcement comes as capital flows towards ESG strategies across private markets continues to rapidly grow, with an estimated $3.1trillion1 of sustainable investments - one-third of private capital under management - now committed worldwide.

1) 'ESG in Alternatives Report 2021', Preqin

Notes to Editors

ESG Book is the new central source for digital corporate sustainability data, and is supported by a global alliance of leading organisations including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Global Reporting Initiative, Bridgewater Associates, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, HKEX, Allianz and Swiss Re. ESG Book was developed by Arabesque, a technology company supporting the financial industry in sustainability and artificial intelligence. It counts many of the world's leading financial organisations among its clients, which collectively manage over $120 trillion in assets.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1700358/ESG_Book_Logo.jpg
LONDON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tej Kohli (left) and Dr Sanduk Ruit (right) among the 333 patients who were cured of cataract blindness and severe visual impairment at a three-day surgical outreach camp in Doramba, Nepal, in March 2022.

Since launching in March 2021 the London-headquartered Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation has screened 115,578 patients and cured 11,462 of cataract blindness at 45 outreach camps located in poor and underserved communities within low-income countries.

Last week the charity marked its one-year milestone by staging a three-day microsurgical outreach camp in the remote hills of Nepal after screening 3,251 patients in sixteen localities. 333 of the patients who were identified as blind or severely visually impaired then received a free surgical intervention to cure them of cataracts after being transported by the foundation to its temporary operating theatre at a school in the Dorambah region.

The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation is an alliance between philanthropist Tej Kohli and pre-eminent ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit. Together in 2022 they plan to undertake a minimum of 60,000 interventions to cure blindness in poor and underserved communities in Asia and Africa as part of a multi-year mission to cure more than 500,000.

A study published by The Lancet has shown that the socioeconomic effect of cataract surgery is substantial, because it allows people to increase their economic productivity by up to 1,500% of the cost of surgery during the first postoperative year.

Tej Kohli, co-founder of the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, said:

"Making large-scale interventions to cure blindness is a means to an end, and that end is extreme poverty reduction. 90% of the world's blind live in low-income countries where untreated blindness and extreme poverty perpetuate each other in an ever-declining cycle. Interventions like ours can act as a circuit breaker and turbo-charge economic development."

Dr Sanduk Ruit, co-founder of the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, said:

"My hope is that we can show the world how large-scale high-volume treatment interventions to cure blindness at the grassroots level can have a major impact in helping to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including the SGD1 goal to 'end poverty everywhere'."

The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation is a restricted fund operating under the auspices of Prism The Gift Fund, registered UK charity number 1099682.

Contact: info@tejkohliruit.com

Website: www.tejkohliruit.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tejkohliruit/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tej-kohli-ruit-foundation/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/tejkohliruitfoundation

Medium: https://tejkohliruitfoundation.medium.com/

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CARGOTEC CORPORATION, PRESS RELEASE, 24 MARCH 2022 AT 10 AM EET



MacGregor, part of Cargotec, has been selected to supply comprehensive packages of RoRo equipment for four Aurora class Pure Car and Truck Carriers (PCTCs) to be built by China Merchant Heavy Industries (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd for the Norwegian owner, Hoegh Autoliners.



The order, with a value of more than US$15 million, was booked into Cargotec's 2022 first quarter order intake. The first two vessels will be delivered during the second half of 2024 and the next two in the first half of 2025. Hoegh Autoliners also has options for a further four plus four vessels.



Designed by the China Merchants Industries owned ship designer, Deltamarin, the Aurora class can transport up to 9,100 cars and will be the world's largest and most sustainable car carriers. The class will have DNV's ammonia and methanol ready notation.



MacGregor's scope of supply encompasses design, supply and installation support for a large stern quarter ramp and door, side ramp and door, and liftable car decks.



The vessels' strengthened decks and internal ramp systems will enable electric vehicles to be carried on all decks, with the MacGregor patented Load Monitoring System boosting the load capacity of the ramp and providing more flexibility for heavier project cargo.

"We are very pleased to have supported Hoegh Autoliners from the early stages of the Aurora class project, building on the previous Horizon class vessels and our long-standing relationship with Hoegh Autoliners," says Magnus Sjoberg, Senior Vice President, Merchant Solutions, MacGregor."Close collaboration with the owner, designer and builder is essential for a project such as the Aurora class to be successful, and we look forward to continuing our work together towards delivery of the first two vessels in 2024," he added."We are pleased to continue the relationship with MacGregor to build our Aurora class vessels. MacGregor's world leading technology and expertise will ensure our vessels are built to the highest standards. The Aurora class represents the future of our business. It will further strengthen our service offering, accelerate our path to zero emissions and put us in the forefront of sustainable shipping." says Andreas Enger, CEO of Hoegh Autoliners.Magnus Sjoberg, Senior Vice President, Merchant Solutions Division, MacGregorTel. +46 31 850 919, magnus.sjoberg@macgregor.comOrRobin Thuillier, Communications Director, MacGregorTel. +65 9730 4301, robin.thuillier@macgregor.comMacGregor is a leader in sustainable maritime cargo and load handling with a strong portfolio of products, services and solutions, all designed to perform with the sea.Shipbuilders, shipowners and operators are able to optimise the lifetime profitability, safety, reliability and environmental sustainability of their operations by working in close cooperation with MacGregor. www.macgregor.comMacGregor is part of Cargotec. Cargotec's

Attachments
DURHAM, NC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Baebies announced today it has received CE Mark for its FINDER SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care test, which performs RT-PCR testing to detect SARS-CoV-2 on the FINDER 1.5 Instrument. The CE Mark confirms that the FINDER SARS-CoV-2 test meets the requirements of the European Medical Devices Directive, which now allows Baebies to commercialize the test across the European Union and other CE Mark geographies.

The FINDER SARS-CoV-2 testing platform leverages Baebies' core digital microfluidics (DMF) technology to streamline and miniaturize the conventional RT-PCR process, enabling lab-quality results directly at the point of care. The test provides qualitative detection of RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in nasopharyngeal and nasal swab specimens with RT-PCR performed in 17 minutes or less. Conventional RT-PCR testing results are typically reported after 24 hours. The testing platform features a compact, toaster-sized instrument with a mini tablet for user interface and each test is run on a single-use disposable cartridge.

"CE Mark is an important regulatory milestone for Baebies to expand the reach of our FINDER SARS-CoV-2 test and introduce the power of digital microfluidics to new markets across the world," said Richard West, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Baebies. "Our technology unlocks access to rapid, accurate testing at the point of care so communities can manage the threat of COVID-19 now and into the future."

As COVID-19 restrictions lift, testing remains essential to reduce the spread of the virus. The FINDER 1.5 Instrument helps laboratories, hospitals, and other point-of-care settings meet the demand for fast and accurate testing today, delivering the speed of a rapid antigen test and the accuracy of an RT-PCR lab test. It also provides flexibility for future expansion with additional panels currently under development using the same cartridge format and instrument.

For more information about FINDER 1.5, contact Baebies.

About Baebies

Baebies is a growth-stage medical device company developing innovative products to enable early disease detection and multifunctional diagnostics for syndromic testing for children and adults. Guided by the vision that "everyone deserves a healthy start," we deliver millions of tests globally every year to save lives and make lives better. Baebies is a pioneer in digital microfluidics, which maximizes diagnostic yield from low-volume samples. Baebies' digital microfluidics technology is a recipient of multiple awards, including the coveted Disruptive Technology Award from AACC in their 'search for the next innovative testing solution that will transform patient care.' Baebies is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, and our products are used in central laboratories and point-of-care around the world.

Visit baebies.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Contact: marketing@baebies.com

Related links

https://baebies.com/detection-of-omicron-variant-on-finder-sars-cov-2-test/

https://baebies.com/rapid-rt-pcr-testing-for-sars-cov-2-with-digital-microfluidics-webinar/

https://baebies.com/baebies-announces-fda-eun-finder-sars-cov-2-test/

SOURCE: Baebies

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694368/Baebies-Earns-CE-Mark-for-FINDER-SARS-CoV-2-Point-of-Care-Testing-Platform
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Power Nickel Inc. (the "Company" or "Power Nickel") (TSXV:PNPN)(OTCBB:CMETF)(FRA:IVVI) is pleased to announce that a follow-up drill program has been authorized to take place as quickly as permits and a diamond drill rig can be obtained with the expectation that a 5000-meter program can commence later in Q2 after breakup.

Power Nickel CEO Terry Lynch commented, "The results we have obtained from our current round as identified in the table below when combined with the historical NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate are very encouraging. In a world that has woken up to a serious shortage of High-Grade Nickel Sulphate projects we are confident the Nisk project has great potential to play a significant role in providing Class 1 Nickel in the most Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") friendly way to Battery makers in North America and beyond."

To fund the additional drilling Power Nickel will use existing capital on hand and will also accelerate the expiry of the September 2020 $0.15 warrants. Pursuant to the terms of those warrants, the Company may call the warrants at any time after January 31, 2021, in the event that the closing price per Common Share is more than $0.30 per Common Share for more than 10 consecutive trading days, the Company shall be entitled to accelerate the Warrant Expiry Date to the date that is a minimum of 20 working days following the date on which the Company announces the accelerated Warrant Expiry Date by press release. With this acceleration notice, the company has determined the warrants will expire on April 29, 2022.

"We had traded over this level last year (February 24, 2021, to March 19, 2021) and activated our ability to accelerate the exercise of the warrants. However, we had indicated we would first execute our drill program and report initial results before we exercised our rights. Now we have delivered the goods and feel it is in the best interest of all shareholders that we use this funding at this time. There are approximately 8 million warrants with about 40% owned by insiders and close associates. We expect full redemption.

"I would have thought our shares would have responded in a more positive way and they were trending nicely last week but the problem that led me to start the advocacy group Save Canadian Mining reared its ugly head. We simply can't let predatory short sellers dictate financial terms to our Company. While they wait forlornly for us to go weakly to market to serve them an immediate profit and savage our real shareholders, we have chosen another path.

"These warrants will fund the next drill program and enable us to prepare an NI 43-101 technical report and Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") in order to further quantify and extend our drilling success at Nisk. While this is ongoing the Company has opened up discussions with numerous strategic investors on the sale of a 10% stake in the Company. The Nickel Industry, Battery and Automotive Manufacturers, and sophisticated Mining Investors are looking to enter the Nickel market and are not constrained by short-term market prices but rather their own view as to value and opportunity.

"There are many ways to finance our Company's growth and we will use all of the tools available to provide capital to the Company to grow in a way that best serves its shareholders. We are very excited about Nisk's future and for what it can mean to Power Nickel shareholders," commented Power Nickel CEO and Save Canadian Mining Founder Terry Lynch.

Hole ID UTM E* UTM N* Length (m) Azimuth () Dip () From (m) To (m) Length** (m) Ni (%) Cu (%) Co (%) Pd (g/t) Pt (g/t) PN-21-001 459784 5728538 264.00 170 -65 Pending PN-21-002 459626 5728600 396.00 160 -70 352.10 363.00 10.90 1.16 0.32 0.08 0.94 0.35 Including 354.60 363.00 8.40 1.45 0.40 0.10 1.21 0.45 PN-21-003A 459691 5728576 333.00 161 -70 269.90 297.30 27.40 0.94 0.63 0.06 0.72 0.10 Including 269.90 281.40 11.50 1.47 0.87 0.10 1.07 0.15 PN-21-004 459913 5728703 360.00 163 -63 Pending PN-21-005 459998 5728721 325.50 164 -63 272.80 292.70 19.90 0.70 0.61 0.04 0.81 0.39 PN-21-006 460100 5728782 399.00 160 -69 374.30 384.00 9.70 0.77 0.38 0.04 0.79 0.06 PN-21-007 460216 5728802 318.00 161 -63 294.20 312.00 17.80 0.36 0.10 0.02 0.38 0.08 Including 296.90 302.30 5.40 0.57 0.17 0.03 0.80 0.06

*UTM NAD83, Zone 18N

**True widths are estimated to be 70 to 90% of core length

The illustration below details the location of drill holes covered in the previous press release dated March 15, 2022, and also the remaining pending drill hole assays which are expected to be announced in the coming days.

The existing resource estimates at the Nisk project are of historic nature and the Company's geology team has not completed sufficient work to confirm an NI 43-101 mineral resource. Therefore, caution is appropriate since these historic estimates cannot, and should not be relied on. For merely informational purposes see Table 1.

Table -1: Historical Resource Estimate figures for respective confidence categories at the NISK-1 deposit, After RSW Inc 2009: Resource Estimate for the NISK-1 Deposit, Lac Levac Property, Nemiscau, Quebec.

The information regarding the NISK-1 deposit was derived from the technical report titled "Resource Estimate for the NISK-1 Deposit, Lac Levac Property, Nemiscau, Quebec" dated December 2009. The key assumptions, parameters, and methods used to prepare the mineral resource estimates described above are set out in the technical report.

The 3D geological model developed by 3DGeo Solution Inc. ("3DGS") identified a prospective set of targets that the Company feels will give the best potential to expand the Nisk historical deposit. The image below is a view of the mineralization projected to surface at the area we refer to as Nisk Main.

"Nisk has four distinct target areas covering over 7 Kilometres of strike length. Our focus this round was on the Nisk Main target. Historically, we know globally these types of deposits typically have multiple pods. We are encouraged by what we see on Nisk Main and feel we can continue to build potential commercial tonnage there but we are also looking forward to exploring Nisk West, as well as the two wildcat targets in subsequent drilling in Q2", commented Power Nickel's CEO Terry Lynch.

Analysis and QAQC Procedures

All samples were submitted to and analyzed at ALS Global ("ALS"), an independent commercial laboratory located in Val-d'Or, Quebec for both the sample preparation and assaying. ALS is a commercial laboratory independent of Power Nickel with no interest in the Project. ALS is an ISO 9001 and 17025 certified and accredited laboratory. Samples submitted through ALS are run through standard preparation methods and analyzed using ME-ICP61a (33 element Suite; 0.4g sample; Intermediate Level Four Acid Digestion) and PGM-ICP27 (Pt, Pd, and Au; 30g fire assay and ICP-AES Finish) methods. ALS also undertake its own internal coarse and pulp duplicate analysis to ensure proper sample preparation and equipment calibration.

Power Nickel's QA/QC program includes the regular insertion of CRM standards, duplicates, and blanks into the sample stream with a stringent review of all results. Historic holes were assayed by various accredited laboratories.

ABOUT NISK

Nisk is located south of James Bay as illustrated in the area map below. This region is the site of a number of mining projects and improving infrastructure.

Nisk has historically had some very high-grade Nickel intercepts as shown below. The Grade-Thickness iso-contours are representative of the nickel distribution only.

About Power Nickel Inc.

Power Nickel is a Canadian junior exploration company focused on developing the High-Grade "NISK" Nickel Sulphate project near James Bay Quebec.

On February 1, 2021, Power Nickel (then called Chilean Metals) completed the acquisition of its option to acquire up to 80% of the Nisk project from Critical Elements Lithium Corp. (TSX-V:CRE)

The NISK property comprises a large land position (20 kilometers of strike length) with numerous high-grade intercepts. Power Nickel, formerly Chilean Metals is focused on confirming and expanding its current high-grade nickel-copper PGE mineralization historical resource by preparing a new Mineral Resource Estimate in accordance with NI 43-101, identifying additional high-grade mineralization, and developing a process to potentially produce nickel sulphates responsibly for batteries to be used in the electric vehicles industry.

In addition to Nisk, Power Nickel owns several Gold and Copper Exploration projects in Canada and Chile. Power Nickel has stated subject to shareholder and regulatory approval that it plans to use a Plan of Arrangement to establish Consolidated Gold and Copper as a separate Public Company owned by Power Nickel and Power Nickel shareholders in 2022.

Power Nickel (then called Chilean Metals) announced on June 8th, 2021 that an agreement has been made to complete the 100% acquisition of its Golden Ivan project in the heart of the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle has reported mineral resources (past production and current resources) in a total of 67 million ounces of gold, 569 million ounces of silver, and 27 billion pounds of copper. This property hosts two known mineral showings (gold ore and magee), and a portion of the past-producing Silverado mine, which was reportedly exploited between 1921 and 1939. These mineral showings are described to be Polymetallic veins that contain quantities of silver, lead, zinc, plus/minus gold, and plus/minus copper.

Power Nickel is the 100-per-cent owner of five properties comprising over 50,000 acres strategically located in the prolific iron-oxide-copper-gold belt of northern Chile. It also owns a 3-per-cent NSR royalty interest on any future production from the Copaquire copper-molybdenum deposit, recently sold to a subsidiary of Teck resources Inc. Under the terms of the sale agreement, Teck has the right to acquire one-third of the 3-per-cent NSR for $3-million at any time. The Copaquire property borders Teck's producing Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile's first region.

For further information on Power Nickel Inc., please contact:

Mr. Terry Lynch, CEO

647-448-8044

terry@powernickel.com

For further information, readers are encouraged to contact:

Power Nickel Inc.

The Canadian Venture Building

82 Richmond St East, Suite 202

Toronto, ON

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Terry Lynch & CEO terry@powernickel.com

Qualified Person

Kenneth Williamson, Geo (OGQ #1490), M.Sc., Senior Consulting Geologist, and Matthew DeGasperis, Geo (OGQ #2261), B.Sc., Consulting Geologist, from 3DGeo Solution Inc. are the independent qualified persons pursuant to the requirements of NI 43-101, and have reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement

This news release may contain certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that PNPN expects to occur, including details related to the proposed spin-out transactions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this document include statements regarding current and future exploration programs, activities, and results. Although PNPN believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration success, continued availability of capital and financing, inability to obtain required regulatory or governmental approvals and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Power Nickel Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694441/Power-Nickel-Follows-Up-High-Grade-Results-at-Nisk-with-New-Fully-Funded-5000-M-Drill-Program
URUMQI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has signed more than 460 investment projects so far this year, worth more than 190 billion yuan (about 30 billion U.S. dollars), according to the regional department of commerce.

Hou Mingping, an official with the bureau of commerce of Aksu Prefecture, said the prefecture sent 38 teams across the country to attract investment at the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, some places in Xinjiang have carried out online investment promotion due to the current epidemic situation, according to Hou.

In order to stimulate the vitality of market entities, Xinjiang has taken measures to optimize the business environment this year, continued to increase tax support and boosted the confidence of enterprises, said the department. 
Justice in favor of Mr. Pascal Beveraggi in case OCTAVIA vs ASTALIA, for ownership of NB Mining Africa at the honorable Congolese Court.

The long running public feud and court case between renowned businessman Mr. Pascal Beveraggi and Moise Katumbi, known as OCTAVIA vs ASTALIA, regarding the ownership of NB MINING AFRICA has finally concluded via the honorable Congolese Court. Just as he won his case against Moise Katumbi in the Kinshasa/Gombe Court of Appeals in December 2020, Mr. Beveraggi once again emerges victorious with the Court's final decision in his favor.

The smear campaign lead by Moise Katumbi's camp ultimately proved unsuccessful. The honorable Congolese Court have spoken. NB MINING AFRICA, the disputed company, which was unlawfully seized, is now back in the hands of its rightful owner Mr. Beveraggi, as ruled by the Gombe Court of Appeals on March 16th, 2022.

Mr. Pascal Beveraggi, the French businessman who operates multiple business interests on several continents and is the former President of FC Saint-Eloi Lupopo, went through a tremendous ordeal with business and personal character attacks throughout the case, making this Court ruling an incredible relief. The fact that the honorable Congolese Court have ordered Katumbi to return ownership of the NB MINING AFRICA company, all assets and funds taken unlawfully, to the rightful and legal owner, is a complete vindication for Mr. Beveraggi and his team.

It comes as no surprise that Katumbi's camp has disputed the honorable Court's decision. Nonetheless, he is expected by all parties to adhere to the Rule of Law and return to Mr. Pascal Beveraggi the NB MINING AFRICA company along with assets etc. mentioned in the ruling.

Ref. case no: R.C.A. 37.748/37.377

Link to Ruling: www.nb-mining.com/files/ruling-37748-37377.pdf

*Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005401/en/

Contacts:

Karen Fernandez

info@nb-mining.com
CogX Festival 2022 ( June 13th-15th ) will bring together 35,000 attendees and 1,000 thought leaders to speak across 20 topic tracks and over 100 side events to address the question "How do we get the next 10 years right?"

) will bring together 35,000 attendees and 1,000 thought leaders to speak across 20 topic tracks and over 100 side events to address the question 1st drop of 200 unique Founder Patron Tokens released today as first part of 10,000 NFT collection that will fund the event in perpetuity

released today as first part of 10,000 NFT collection that will fund the event in perpetuity 10% of all sales, including the first 250k, will be donated to The UN Refugee Agency, Choose Love and UNICEF to assist the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

LONDON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, for the 6th Edition of its annual leadership and technology Festival, CogX is announcing the launch of its pioneering Patron Programme and associated Patron Tokens (NFT).

The CogX Festival and its Leadership Summit is the largest and most inclusive platform for CEOs, Entrepreneurs, Academics, Artists, Activists & Policy Makers discussing the biggest transformational opportunities and challenges of our time, and addressing the question "How do we get the next 10 years right?".

CogX has always prioritised editorial content and value for its community over profit. The sale of this collection of 10,000 Patron Tokens enables CogX to fund the Festival in perpetuity, allowing the team the freedom to fully focus on this goal.

Tokens will be available to individuals and organisations. Each Token owner will receive a unique personalised artwork and rights including a Gold Festival Pass every year and year-round access to exclusive events and online community. They will also have the ability to propose and vote on changes to the Festival's agenda, format and direction for years to come. Additionally, 10% of all sales, including the first 250k, will be donated to The UN Refugee Agency, Choose Love and UNICEF to assist the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

The first drop of 200 Founder Patron Tokens - which will have the highest level of owner benefits - are available to purchase today, constituting the first part of a 10,000 NFT collection. Even though the Token provides the owner a lifetime of Gold Passes and multiple other benefits, this limited drop will be offered at the price of a single Gold Pass of 2,495. Like other NFTs, owners will be able to resell their Patron Token on the open market.

Charlie Muirhead, Co-Founder & CEO of CogX Festival said:

"After 5 years of exponential growth we are excited to be taking this pioneering step of launching our Patron Token. My co-founder, Tabitha Goldstaub, and I have always put our editorial content, community and impact first, focusing on the critical question: "How do we get the next ten years right?" This innovative new model of funding events will enable us to do that for the long term. Even better, the community will have a definitive say in the agenda, format and roadmap for years to come. Then to align everyone's interests, our vision is to take a further step by transitioning CogX to be the first community owned leadership and technology event in the world."

Richard Muirhead, Managing Partner, Fabric Ventures, said:

"After working closely with the CogX team curating the Blockchain and open web track for 4 editions we are excited to see them announce this innovative use of NFTs to more than engage the community, actually putting it in the driving seat."

The Festival started in 2017 with 1,300 attendees, 200 speakers with a focus on the impact of AI on industry, government and society. Having grown exponentially, in 2021 CogX reached an audience of over 840,000 viewers online. For 2022, the CogX Festival will bring together 35,000 attendees, over 1,000 speakers across 20 topic tracks and 11 stages set in the heart of London's Knowledge Quarter from June 13th to 15th. CogX is inviting 100s of partners to co-host side events in over 30 incredible affiliated restaurants and bars in Kings Cross. The 2022 event will combine the magic of these intimate in-person experiences with the broadcast scale and reach of 5 million viewers between live and catchup.

This will be the 3rd CogX Global Leadership Summit which, with tragic events unfolding in Ukraine, will have a focus this year on the themes of Global Stability, Digital Transformation and the Future of Work.

This year's topics include: the Cutting Edge, Metaverse, Ethics & Society, Leadership, Climate, the Future of the Customer Experience and the Blockchain and the Open Web among many others.

CogX Patron Token allows owners to:

Attend the annual Festival with a Gold Pass

Gift a second Gold Pass to a charity

Shape the agenda, format and future direction of the event

Join an exclusive year-round online community and in-person events

Founder Patrons will also be able to attend this year's Speakers Dinner

Propose the charities that together receive 10% of the annual budget

Limited edition Founder Patron Tokens are available to purchase for 2,495.00.

https://www.cogxfestival.com/patron-token .

Press Contact:

Richard Smith ( richard.smith@franses.co )

www.CogXFestival.com
Leading audit, risk, and compliance platform continues rapid growth with new operations in the UK and Europe

AuditBoard, the leading cloud-based platform transforming audit, risk, and compliance management, today announced the grand opening of its new European headquarters in London as the company brings its innovative, award-winning solutions to enterprises based in the United Kingdom and Europe. Located in London's 'Tech City,' the new headquarters will also provide regional support for a fast-growing user base of nearly 10,000 users across 12 European countries and the UK who already leverage AuditBoard's award-winning solutions today.

AuditBoard's running start in Europe is due in part to the rapid success the company has had in attracting some of the world's biggest brands to its modern connected risk platform for managing corporate audit, risk, and compliance programs. More than 30% of the Fortune 500 use AuditBoard today, and the firm has been growing at a rate of more than 60% annually. Escalating corporate risks in cybersecurity, the supply chain, and regulatory compliance continue to drive new customers to AuditBoard as they seek to take on the challenge of navigating today's dynamic risk environment and the complexity of ever-changing regulatory requirements.

"We're excited to extend our mission of elevating internal audit and risk professionals with innovative, transformative technology to the European market," explained Scott Arnold, President and CEO of AuditBoard. "The challenges that internal audit, risk, and compliance teams face are increasingly global in nature, and AuditBoard's purpose-built platform empowers them to meet these challenges."

AuditBoard's geographic expansion marks another milestone in its trajectory of rapid and continuous growth. The company recently surpassed the $100 million annual recurring revenue mark and has earned a spot among the top 200 fastest-growing technology companies in North America for three consecutive years, according to Deloitte.

Along with driving impressive growth, AuditBoard's customer-centric approach has earned it numerous plaudits and awards. AuditBoard was recognised as the top-rated audit management and GRC solution in G2's Winter Grid Reports; its connected audit, risk, and compliance platform is top-rated by customers on Gartner Peer Insights; and the platform was recognised in February by the International Cloud Awards as Best SaaS for the Enterprise. Over 1,400 organisations now leverage the power of AuditBoard's platform to elevate their audit, risk, and compliance teams, and company performance.

About AuditBoard

AuditBoard is the leading cloud-based platform transforming audit, risk, and compliance management. More than 30% of the Fortune 500 leverage AuditBoard to move their businesses forward with greater clarity and agility. AuditBoard is top-rated by customers on G2 and Gartner Peer Insights, and was recently ranked for the third year in a row as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte. To learn more, visit: AuditBoard.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005085/en/

Contacts:

Alex Brooks

Alex.brooks@tuvapartners.com
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has acquired Alfa Consulting, a consultancy that specializes in operations strategy in capital intensive industries. The acquisition reinforces Accenture's capabilities for helping clients in Spain, Portugal and Mexico transform their supply chains to be more resilient, responsive and sustainable. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005081/en/

Accenture has acquired Alfa Consulting (Photo: Business Wire)

Headquartered in Barcelona with offices in Madrid and Mexico, Alfa Consulting has extensive expertise in leveraging analytics to design and implement new operational models for clients across industries such as utilities, high tech, energy and industrial goods, among others. The company's 52 highly specialized consultants will join Accenture's Supply Chain Operations function, which helps clients with end-to-end supply network visibility, customer-centered supply chain segmentation, sourcing and procurement transformation, operational agility, resilience stress testing and sustainable and responsible supply chain strategies.

"Supply chains, especially in capital intensive industries, need to be flexible and responsive, while also maintaining the transparency that makes them trustworthy," said Kris Timmermans, head of Accenture's Supply Chain Operations function. "Alfa Beyond Consulting's deep experience and proprietary tools complement our vision for helping clients build resilient and sustainable supply chains that can meet today's demands and tomorrow's opportunities."

Alfa Consulting has deep knowledge and market-recognized assets in analytical methodologies, workforce planning, value-based maintenance and contractor management practices. The company also has experience in renewable energies and helping clients with energy transition plans.

Joaquin Escoda, Alfa Consulting Chairman said "We are excited with all the possibilities that joining Accenture will offer to our clients and employees. On one hand, the capability to offer a complete range of services and products, complementing our competencies with best-in-class solutions and technological platforms and on the other, the great variety of opportunities and resources for our employees' and partners' professional careers."

"Alfa Consulting brings differentiated expertise in sectors with extensive industrial footprints and distributed assets. With Alfa Consulting as part of Accenture, we will further enhance our ability to help clients in these industries build future-ready intelligent supply chains that create change and drive value," added Domingo Miron, Accenture's Iberia Market Unit lead.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services all powered by the world's largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 699,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at accenture.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "positioned," "outlook" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Many of the following risks, uncertainties and other factors identified below may be amplified by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the sanctions (including their duration), and other measures being imposed in response to this conflict, as well as any escalation or expansion of economic disruption or the conflict's current scope. These risks include, without limitation, risks that: the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture's results of operations have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company's clients' businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture faces legal, reputational and financial risks from any failure to protect client and/or company data from security incidents or cyberattacks; Accenture's business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company's services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially affect the company's results of operations; if Accenture is unable to match people and skills with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company's business, the utilization rate of the company's professionals and the company's results of operations may be materially adversely affected; the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Accenture's business and operations, and the extent to which it will continue to do so and its impact on the company's future financial results are uncertain; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; Accenture's ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key alliance partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company's results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture's profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies or fail to satisfy certain agreed-upon targets or specific service levels; changes in Accenture's level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company's effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture's results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; Accenture might be unable to access additional capital on favorable terms or at all and if the company raises equity capital, it may dilute its shareholders' ownership interest in the company; as a result of Accenture's geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue to expand in its key markets around the world, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; Accenture's business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture's global operations expose the company to numerous and sometimes conflicting legal and regulatory requirements; Accenture's work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to protect or enforce its intellectual property rights or if Accenture's services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; Accenture's results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in Accenture plc's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations.

Copyright 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture and its logo are trademarks of Accenture.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005081/en/

Contacts:

Jose Luis Sanchez

Accenture

+34 609 04 71 38

jose.l.sanchez@accenture.com

Berta Diaz

Accenture

+34 691 33 88 89

berta.diaz.olivas@accenture.com
C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute (C3.ai DTI) today announced the third round of C3.ai DTI funded advanced research awards, focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) to harden information security and secure critical infrastructure.

The Institute awarded a total of $6.5 million in cash awards to leading research scientists at University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, University of Chicago, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and MIT.

"Cybersecurity is an immediate existential issue," said Thomas M. Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 AI, a leading enterprise AI software provider. "We are equipping top scientists with the means to advance technology to help secure critical infrastructure."

Twenty-four projects were awarded $100,000 to $700,000 each, for an initial period of one year:

AI Resilience: Techniques and methods to enable the development of AI algorithms that are resilient to adversarial attacks

"High Performance Provably Robust AI Methods for Cybersecurity Tasks on Critical Infrastructure," (Zico Kolter, Carnegie Mellon University)

"Scalable, Secure Machine Learning in the Presence of Adversaries," (John Kubiatowicz, University of California, Berkeley)

"REFL: Resilient Distributed Cybersecurity Learning System," (Bo Li, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

"Fundamental Limits on the Robustness of Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms," (Ben Zhao, University of Chicago)

Anomaly Detection: AI techniques, including supervised and unsupervised learning, to provide early detection of system and/or network anomalies that might be indicative of unauthorized access, denial of service, or data exfiltration

"Continuously and Automatically Discovering and Remediating Internet-Facing Security Vulnerabilities," (Nick Feamster, University of Chicago)

"AI Techniques for Power Systems Under Cyberattacks," (Javad Lavaei, University of California, Berkeley)

"Physics-aware AI-based Approach for Cyber Intrusion Detection in Substation Automation Systems," (Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, University of California, Berkeley)

Advanced Persistent Threats: AI techniques to detect the presence of advanced persistent threats

"Deep-Learning Detection Algorithms for Advanced Persistent Attacks in Mixed-Autonomy Traffic: Design and Experimental Validation," (Alex Bayen, University of California, Berkeley)

"AI Support for Cybersecurity," (David Wagner, University of California, Berkeley)

Securing Critical Cyber-Physical Infrastructure: AI techniques to secure critical infrastructure against cyber threats

"Cyber Safety Cage for Networks," (Cyrille Valentin Artho, KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

"Security for Large-Scale Infrastructure using Probabilistic Programming," (Nikita Borisov, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

"A Compositional Neural Certificate Framework for Securing Critical Networked Infrastructure," (Chuchu Fan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

"Democratizing AI-Driven Security Workflows for Critical Energy Infrastructure," (Vyas Sekar, Carnegie Mellon University)

"Semantic Adversarial Analysis for Secure Critical Infrastructure," (Sanjit Seshia, University of California, Berkeley)

Forensics: AI forensics and attribution techniques to identify sources of attacks

"Causal Reasoning for Real-Time Attack Identification in Cyber-Physical Systems," (Gyorgy Dan, KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

"Statistical Learning Theory and Graph Neural Networks for Identifying Attack Sources," (H. Vincent Poor, Princeton University)

"Robust and Scalable Forensics for Deep Neural Networks," (Ben Zhao, University of Chicago)

Securing Emerging Financial Infrastructure: AI techniques to identify attacks on emerging decentralized financial and business infrastructure

"An Intelligence Platform for Better Security in Decentralized Finance," (Dawn Song, University of California, Berkeley)

"Blockchain Forensics," (Pramod Viswanath, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Vulnerability Identification: AI techniques to identify previously unknown malware, ransomware, and zero-day vulnerabilities, enabling isolation and neutralization

"GAN-Aided Automatic Test Case Generation," (Giulia Fanti, Carnegie Mellon University)

"Machine Learning for JavaScript Vulnerability Detection," (Corina Pasareanu, Carnegie Mellon University)

Insider Threats: Change management techniques to prevent the weaponization of innocent and malicious insiders

"Protecting Critical Infrastructures Against Evolving Insider Threats," (Carl Gunter, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

"Multi-Facet Rare Event Modeling of Adaptive Insider Threats," (Jingrui He, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

"AI-Supported Nudging for Cyber-Hygiene," (Cedric Langbort, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Award Criteria

C3.ai DTI selects research proposals that inspire cooperative research and advance machine learning and other AI subdisciplines. Projects are peer-reviewed on scientific merit, prior accomplishments of the principal investigator and co-principal investigators, the use of AI, machine learning, data analytics, and cloud computing in the research project, and the suitability for testing the methods at scale. Visit C3DTI.ai to learn more about the Institute's programs, award opportunities, and selected research proposals.

About C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute

Established in March 2020 by C3 AI, Microsoft, and leading universities, the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute is a research consortium dedicated to accelerating the benefits of artificial intelligence for business, government, and society. The Institute engages the world's leading scientists to conduct research and train practitioners in the new Science of Digital Transformation operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, internet of things, big data analytics, organizational behavior, public policy, and ethics.

The 10 C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute consortium member universities and laboratories are: University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Center for Supercomputing Applications at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Princeton University, Stanford University, and University of Chicago. Additional industry partners include AstraZeneca, Baker Hughes, and Shell.

To support the Institute, C3 AI is providing the Institute $57,250,000 in cash contributions over the initial five years of operation. In addition to cash awards, C3.ai DTI provides researchers with cloud computing, supercomputing, data, and software resources, including free, unlimited use of the C3 AI Application Platform, up to $2 million in Azure Cloud computing resources, and access to High Performance Computing (HPC) resources at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).

About C3.ai, Inc.

C3 AI is the Enterprise AI application software company. C3 AI delivers a family of fully integrated products including the C3 AI Application Platform, an end-to-end platform for developing, deploying, and operating enterprise AI applications and C3 AI Applications, a portfolio of industry-specific SaaS enterprise AI applications that enable the digital transformation of organizations globally. Learn more at: www.c3.ai.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005202/en/

Contacts:

C3.ai DTI Contact:

Kap Stann

Communications Manager, C3.ai DTI Berkeley

510-295-9685

kstann@berkeley.edu

C3 AI Public Relations:

Edelman

Lisa Kennedy

415-914-8336

pr@c3.ai



C3 AI Investor Relations

ir@c3.ai


24 March 2022

Clean Invest Africa Plc

Group Update

Clean Invest Africa plc (AQUIS: CIA) is pleased to provide an investor update.

At a corporate level the Company has been busy raising finance for current and new projects. The Company has recently welcomed a new strategic investor who is attracted to the potential of CIA and its subsidiaries, particularly now with significantly renewed interest and opportunities across a number of geographies given worldwide energy demands. Further discussions with potential investors are underway and may result in improved financing prospects of the Company.

The CIA chairman, Shaikh Mohamed Abdulla Khalifa AlKhalifa welcomed the recent strategic investment and said "The future potential of the CoalTech technology is very exciting and we are seeing substantial renewed and active interest from across the globe. The Company is working hard with its partners to secure its first project with major prospects in India, Columbia and South Africa, showing specific short term potential."

In addition shareholders should note that the final step in the 2019 Acquisition was obtaining the necessary approvals from the South African Reserve Bank ("SARB") for the acquisition of Coal Agglomeration South Africa (Pty) Ltd. It was expected that SARB approval would be granted after around 12 months, and in 2020. This has been delayed by Covid. A further announcement will be made in due course as it is expected the transaction will complete by approximately Q3 2022. Pursuant to the Acquisition there are still a further 13,291,745 Ordinary Shares to be issued to the SA Resident Vendors once the necessary approvals from SARB have been granted.

Trading Update Regarding its current holding in the CoalTech Group of Companies.

CoalTech has advanced significantly in its project development in India, Columbia and South Africa and has developed prospects in Indonesia, Greece and Australia. The strategy of CoalTech is to secure long-term, large-scale customer relationships with whom it will develop one or more full scale plants each with long term offtake arrangements. Securing any one of these projects will be transformative, with any such project likely to have a project value in tens of millions of USD and involving the processing of large-scale fines or tailings, typically over 1 million tonnes and operational over an extended period of a decade or more.

The CoalTech technology originally was only believed to be applied to coal fines or coal waste. As previously announced, it has been adapted by CoalTech to pelletise other, higher value and more in demand, materials, such as high-grade ores, precious metals, minerals and solid based natural resources. CoalTech is continuing to evaluate opportunities for pelletised Ilmenite, chrome, iron ore, manganese, as well as other base, ferrous and precious metals and biomass. An advanced ilmenite project is described below and a live chrome trial is about to get underway. Together these are indicators of far greater and longer-term potential for the Company's investment, beyond coal, than previously considered.

The initial stages of most CoalTech commercial discussions, whether for coal or other materials, typically involve CoalTech running test batches. These batches often start small, for example 10's of kilos and then increase to sample production size batches of, typically, 10's of tonnes. Once batches are completed, the outputs are exhaustively tested by CoalTech and by the potential client. This process is a considerable proportion of the CoalTech overhead and consumes the majority of the available production of the Bulpan production facility. Test batches are run with raw material shipped from a specific mine somewhere in the world and the output shipped back to the mine. The entire process takes time and funding, and we are delighted to announce that we have now advanced several of the testing phase projects and are proceeding to commercial negotiation and discussion on the final phase of business model, plant construction and rollout.

Three Key Commercial Opportunities in India, Columbia and South Africa.

INDIA

Large Scale Multi-plant Coal fines pelletizing project: Together with its local partner Exagogi, CoalTech has received a Purchase Order from Tata Steel for carrying out a commercial testing programme with Tata coal fines to be carried out at the Bulpan Plant in South Africa. The successful outcome of the testing programme will pave the way for the commercial negotiation with Tata on a project comprising the development of possibly 3 coal fines pelletising plants at their sites in India with a capacity of 28,000 tonnes per month each. Each 28,000 tonnes per month plant shows the following estimated financial key performance indicators: Total investment cost of approx. USD 16,000,000 with Net Margin ratio around 39%, ROE: 56% and Payback time: 1.87 years and a discounted cash flow value (DCF) of 51 million USD over a 10-year period. The total project would therefore indicate a DCF of 153m USD over a decade.

COLOMBIA

Mindesa - Thermal coal project : A trial project has reached completion. Commercial negotiations are underway. An Off-take agreement is under discussion and terms are expected to be finalized shortly, likely by 2nd half of April 2022. Project scope is for a 3,000-5,000 tonnes per month plant (final capacity will be determined during the design stage) to be developed at the Mindesa site, with the following estimated financial key performance indicators: Total investment cost of approx. USD 6,000,000), with Net Margin ratio around 41%, ROE: 26% and Payback time: 3.67 years and a discounted cash flow value (DCF) of 6 million USD over 10 year period.

SOUTH AFRICA

Ilmenite project: Ilmenite is a higher value resource than coal. Testing work has restarted at CoalTech's Bulpan plant, on a 10,000 tonnes trial project over the next 2-3 months (completion expected circa June 2022). This phase will include the development of a project plan for a dedicated 3,000-5,000 tonnes per month pelletising plant at Richards Bay in South Africa. The final project scale will be determined during the design stage and initial parameters include the following estimated financial key performance indicators. Total project investment cost of approx. USD 6,500,000, with Net Margin ratio around 35%, ROE: 23% and Payback time: 4.3 years and a discounted cash flow value (DCF) of 6,000,000 USD over 10-year period.

Final numbers for each project will be adjusted to include project funding costs once parameters and inputs are agreed. The Company is confident given the structure of the deals with offtake in place before commencement, that it can raise the majority of the project costs through project financing.

Other early-stage commercial opportunities are ongoing.

Further projects are underway at various stages of progress including for example in South Africa where a chrome test project is underway. Should tests be successful, negotiations should commence on a 20,000 tonnes trial project. Further successful advances into the precious metals markets could be highly lucrative. In addition, CoalTech is engaged in small scale testwork on low grade coal "(LGC") with a client, of circa 100kg of upgraded fines. Success here could be significant as a successful trial outcome would open access to a substantial volume of coal fines, currently not utilized due to low grade calorific value. Current dialogue with client is for a dedicated 28,000 tonne per month plant, with an offtake for twenty years. Also in South Africa in the past weeks CoalTech has bid for production of a minimum of 30,0000 tonnes of pellets over 6-7 months based on an RFP for a potential future client.

In addition to South Africa, projects elsewhere include a large scale prospect in India, a mining operation transaction in East Africa, a further project in Columbia for metallurgical coal, a recent lignite project in Greece and a long term at scale fines recovery prospect in Australia. CoalTech has also recently submitted a budgetary proposal for the development of a 500 tonnes per month mobile testing unit for a prospective client in Asia. These testing units are relatively cost effective and can be shipped anywhere in the world in a small number of shipping containers.

Finally, CoalTech has seen a renewed interest in its offering, in Europe, following the geopolitical events of the past months and including the announcement by the German and Italian governments to re-open coal fired power plants due to potential energy supply shortages as a result of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. CoalTech has commenced steps to withdraw from its Russian joint venture, this has no material impact on the overall CoalTech pipeline above.

CIA Chief Executive Officer Filippo Fantechi remarked that "this trading update indicates the scale and scope of the promising lucrative future horizon for CoalTech."

The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

ENQUIRIES :

Clean Invest Africa plc

Filippo Fantechi - Chief Executive Officer: +973 3 9696273

Peterhouse Capital Limited

Guy Miller: +44 20 7469 0930
New report by independent research and advisory firm identifies Nintex as a market leading software provider of advanced Digital Transaction Management (DTM) solutions

LONDON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nintex, the global standard for process intelligence and automation, today announced it has been named a leader in The Aragon Research Globe for Digital Transaction Management, 2022 based on a review of 20 major providers in the market by the independent research and advisory firm.

To download the report, visit https://www.nintex.com/resources/the-aragon-research-globe-for-digital-transaction-management-2022/

In the report, Aragon recognises the increasingly important role of digital transaction management in helping enterprises successfully navigate the COVID era. With many employees still working remotely, the firm says, "Paperless transactions are the way that business gets done, and DTM providers have been a key reason for enterprise success during this time."

"Meeting the digital demands of customers and employees to transform the way people work is just as critical today as it was at the start of the pandemic," said Nintex CEO Eric Johnson. "Nintex is honoured to be named a Leader for the second consecutive year, and our ongoing commitment is to help the global Nintex community of customers and partners turn paper-based and repetitive processes into fully digital experiences with our easy-to-use, intelligent automation platform."

Within the report, Aragon Research examines the complete capabilities of the Nintex Process Platform to eliminate paper and automate end-to-end processes. With Nintex's acquisition of DTM market leader AssureSign in June 2021-now integrated into next-generation Nintex Workflow Cloud and leveraging advanced document automation capabilities in Nintex Drawloop DocGen for Salesforce-customers can automate the assembly and digital distribution of documents across various industries and use cases.

"As a leader in The Aragon Research Globe for Digital Transaction Management 2022, Nintex is well positioned to sustain its growth trajectory," said Aragon Research Lead Analyst, Jim Lundy. "Now with nearly $300 million in annual revenue, Nintex continues to add solutions and capabilities into its suite of process intelligence and automation tools that Center of Excellence (COE) groups need to consider."

Nintex's most recent acquisition in February 2022 of process discovery innovator and RPA leader Kryon will further Nintex's position in the intelligent process automation market and as the process system of record for commercial enterprises and government agencies.

Industry leaders like Zoom, AstraZeneca, and Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC, as well as government agencies and municipalities like the City and County of Denver and the City of Garland, Texas, all report significant results and customer/stakeholder satisfaction leveraging Nintex to easily manage, automate and optimise simple to complex business processes and workflows.

To re-imagine your own business processes and put automation to work - from workflow to document or robotic process automation (RPA) - within your organisation, request a Nintex demo at www.nintex.com/request-demo.

Media Contact

Laetitia Smith

Nintex

laetitia.smith@nintex.com

+64 21 154 7114

About Nintex

Nintex is the global standard for process intelligence and automation. Today more than 10,000 public and private sector organisations across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Process Platform to accelerate progress on their digital transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing, automating and optimising business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA).

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Aragon Disclaimer

Aragon Research does not endorse vendors, or their products or services that are referenced in its research publications, and does not advise users to select those vendors that are rated the highest. Aragon Research publications consist of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Aragon Research provides its research publications and the information contained in them "AS IS," without warranty of any kind.

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(Oslo/Holla, March 24 2022) Norwegian power producer Statkraft and German chemical company WACKER have signed agreements to secure that around 40 per cent of the electricity needs at the silicon metal production site at Holla in Norway will be met by green electricity from hydropower in the future.



Statkraft will supply a total of 2.35 TWh of certified Norwegian hydropower to WACKER's Holla site between January 2022 and December 2027. Around 525 GWh of this will come from the Svean hydropower plant under a green power purchase agreement (PPA).

The agreement plays into WACKER's strategy of meeting more of its electricity needs from renewable sources.

At its Holla site WACKER produces silicon metal in an energy-intensive process. Silicon metal is one of WACKER's most important raw materials. It is needed for producing silicones and hyperpure polysilicon.

"Switching to green power in our production is an important lever for achieving our sustainability goals. The Holla site is the first step. In the short to medium term, we intend to steadily expand our green power portfolio with further purchases in Norway and Europe," says WACKER CEO Christian Hartel.

"We're happy to contribute to WACKER meeting their goals for electricity use and greenhouse gas reductions, and at the same time ensure stability both for Statkraft and the power-intensive industries, says EVP Market & IT, Hallvard Granheim.

Statkraft is working closely with the power-intensive industry in Norway and the Nordics to offer short and long-term contracts hedging their electricity consumption. In recent years Statkraft has signed new contracts with several industrial companies, some lasting until 2039.

About Statkraft:

Statkraft is a leading company in hydropower internationally and Europe's largest generator of renewable energy. The Group produces hydropower, wind power, solar power, gas-fired power and supplies district heating. Statkraft is a global company in energy market operations. Statkraft has 4,800 employees in 19 countries.

About Wacker:

WACKER is a globally active chemical company with some 14,400 employees and annual sales of around 6.21 billion (2021). WACKER has a global network of 26 production sites, 23 technical competence centers and 52 sales offices.

For further information, please contact:

Statkraft AS

Lars Magnus Gunther, press spokesperson

Tel: +47 91241636

lars.gunther@statkraft.com

www.statkraft.com

Wacker Chemie AG

Media Relations & Information

Manuela Dollinger

Tel. +49 89 6279-1629

manuela.dollinger@wacker.com

www.wacker.com




NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Mawson Gold Limited ("Mawson" or the "Company") (TSX:MAW)(Frankfurt:MXR)(PINKSHEETS:MWSNF) is pleased to announce that its Australian subsidiary, Southern Cross Gold Ltd ("SXG") has lodged a prospectus dated 17 March 2022 (the "Prospectus") with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission ("ASIC").

Highlights: Prospectus lodged with ASIC to raise between A$8,000,000 and A$10,000,000;

Contract signed to acquire 300 acres of freehold land at the Sunday Creek Project;

A$70k investment into Nagambie Resources to maintain Southern Cross Gold's strategic 10% holding

Michael Hudson, Executive Chairman of Mawson and MD-elect for Southern Cross, states: "Our plan to create value for Mawson shareholders through the demerger of SXG is one very important step closer with the lodgment of the SXG Prospectus. Confidence in the asset base is growing daily as evidenced in the freehold purchase and the top-up of Nagambie shares - both complimentary strategic efforts to secure SXG's future as a potential gold miner in the region."

Prospectus

The "Equity Offer" under the Prospectus consists of between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 SXG Shares at A$0.20 per SXG Share to raise between A$8,000,000 and A$10,000,000 before costs. The dual Lead Brokers are Baker Young Limited and Pulse Markets, and the Equity Offer is anticipated to open, subject to ASIC review, eight days after the date of the Prospectus and remain open for 4 weeks, unless it closes early. The initial public offering of SXG (the "IPO") is anticipated to be finalized in 6-8 weeks following lodgment of the Prospectus.

Mawson's holding in SXG is anticipated to dilute to approximately 58% based on SXG's then issued capital post IPO (A$10m assumed). Under ASX listing rules, Mawson's shareholding in SXG will be classified as 'restricted shares', and thus escrowed for 24 months following the completion of the IPO.

Purchase of Freehold and Nagambie Shares

SXG (via its wholly owned subsidiary Clonbinane Goldfield Pty Ltd) has signed a contract with a landholder to acquire 300 acres of freehold land that includes the entire drilled area of the Sunday Creek Project. SXG views that owning the freehold land better secures future surface access. SXG may also in the future consider other uses for the freehold land, such as renewable energy options, livestock grazing or agistment to help maintain the property (although there are no current plans for such additional uses). The land acquisition is conditional only upon satisfying the requirements of Australia's Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (Cth) (no objection being received from the Foreign Investment Review Board).

Mawson is also pleased to announce that SXG has subscribed for 1,321,377 Nagambie Resources Ltd (ASX:NAG) ("Nagambie") ordinary shares at A$0.053 per share, to maintain SXG's strategic 10% holding of Nagambie, pursuant to Nagambie's fund raising as announced by Nagambie on March 15, 2022. SXG now owns 51,321,377 fully paid ordinary shares in Nagambie. Nagambie is exploring under the old Nagambie oxide mine (Figure 1) and is also constructing a CIL gold processing plant in joint venture with Golden Camel Mining Pty Ltd. The major shareholding provides potential access to a central process facility, all within one hour distance by truck, from SXG's exploration projects. SXG's strategic 10% holding in Nagambie also grants it a Right of First Refusal over a 3,300 square kilometre tenement package held by Nagambie in Victoria.

The securities offered by SXG have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the SXG Shares in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

About Southern Cross Gold Ltd

The Southern Cross corporate branding embodies important characteristics of the new entity. The blue lettering acknowledges the state colour of Victoria as well as Mawson which incubated the business, and the gold colour recognizes the Victorian goldfields. The Southern Cross is a constellation also represented on the Australian flag which provides a strong cultural significance to all Australians, and helps differentiate the Southern Hemisphere and Nordic operations. The main 7-pointed star represents the unity of the six states and the territories of the Commonwealth of Australia and the addition of a miner's pickaxe within the body of the star reflects the central place that mineral exploration has in Australia and, of course, to Southern Cross.

SXG holds the 100%-owned Sunday Creek project in Victoria and Mt Isa project in Queensland, the Redcastle and Whroo joint ventures in Victoria, Australia, and a strategic 10% holding in the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX" or "ASX Limited") listed Nagambie Resources Limited (ASX:NAG) ("Nagambie") which grants it a Right of First Refusal over a 3,300 square kilometre tenement package held by Nagambie in Victoria. Mawson currently owns 84.6% of Southern Cross.

The Southern Cross Gold corporate presentation can be downloaded here. Interviews with the lead brokers can be access here (Baker Young) and here (Pulse Markets).

About Mawson Gold Limited (TSX:MAW, FRANKFURT:MXR, OTCPINK:MWSNF)

Mawson Gold Limited is an exploration and development company with its flagship Rajapalot gold-cobalt project in Finland now entering technical de-risking stages. Alongside ongoing exploration at Rajapalot, Mawson holds an option to earn up to 85% in the Skelleftea Gold Project in Sweden. Mawson also has a significant majority interest in the ownership or joint venture into three high-grade, historic epizonal goldfields covering 470 km in Victoria, Australia, through Southern Cross Gold Ltd, which is in the process of listing on the ASX.

On behalf of the Board,

"Michael Hudson"

Michael Hudson, Executive Chairman

Further Information

www.mawsongold.com

1305 - 1090 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6E 3V7

Mariana Bermudez (Canada), Corporate Secretary, +1 (604) 685 9316 info@mawsongold.com

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although Mawson believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate, and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Mawson cautions investors that any forward-looking statements 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, including, but not limited to, timing and successful completion of Southern Cross Gold's IPO and listing of Southern Cross Gold's common shares on ASX, Mawson's expectations regarding its ownership interest in Southern Cross Gold, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates, changes in world metal markets, changes in equity markets, the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the current pandemic known as COVID-19 on the Company's business, risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; planned drill programs and results varying from expectations, delays in obtaining results, equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions, local community relations, dealings with non-governmental organizations, delays in operations due to permit grants, environmental and safety risks, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mawson's most recent Annual Information Form filed on www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Mawson disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Figure 1: Plan location of the Southern Cross Gold's Permit Areas in Victoria

SOURCE: Mawson Gold Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694434/Mawson-Demerger-Update-Southern-Cross-Gold-Lodges-Prospectus-in-Australia
Kiribati Minister of Health and Medical Services Tinte Itinteang speaks during a handover ceremony of the second batch of anti-epidemic supplies provided by China to Kiribati in Tarawa, Kiribati, March 24, 2022. The second batch of anti-epidemic supplies provided by China were shipped to Kiribati on Thursday. The supplies, including masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitizers and tents, came after the first batch of materials that arrived in the south Pacific island country in late February this year. (Chinese Embassy in Kiribati/Handout via Xinhua)

SYDNEY, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The second batch of anti-epidemic supplies provided by China were shipped to Kiribati on Thursday.

The supplies, including masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitizers and tents, came after the first batch of materials that arrived in the south Pacific island country in late February this year.

A ceremony was held in the capital city of Tarawa on Thursday to mark the handing over of the supplies to the Kiribati government.

Chinese Ambassador to Kiribati Tang Songgen said China provides the supplies in consideration of Kiribati's urgent and long-term needs. The supplies also conveyed the care and support of the Chinese people to the Kiribati people.

Tang said China, which has always been a trustworthy friend for South Pacific countries, will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with Kiribati on the basis of mutual respect and trust, to bring more benefits for the two peoples.

Kiribati Minister of Health and Medical Services Tinte Itinteang thanked the Chinese government and people for providing the supplies, which showcased the ever-deepening friendship between the two countries.

He called on the two countries to continue to strengthen cooperation, cope with the COVID-19 pandemic in joint hands, and further promote the development of bilateral ties. 

Chinese Ambassador to Kiribati Tang Songgen (3rd R) and Kiribati Minister of Health and Medical Services Tinte Itinteang (3rd L) attend a handover ceremony of the second batch of anti-epidemic supplies provided by China to Kiribati in Tarawa, Kiribati, March 24, 2022. The second batch of anti-epidemic supplies provided by China were shipped to Kiribati on Thursday. The supplies, including masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitizers and tents, came after the first batch of materials that arrived in the south Pacific island country in late February this year. (Chinese Embassy in Kiribati/Handout via Xinhua)
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks were steady on Thursday as U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for meetings of the NATO alliance, G7 and European Union. With Europe depending heavily on Russian gas for heating and power generation, the European Union is split on whether to sanction Russia's energy sector. The pan European Stoxx 600 was marginally higher at 454.18 after declining 1 percent in the previous session. The German DAX traded flat with a positive bias, France's CAC 40 index rose 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.3 percent. Clariant AG advanced 1.1 percent. The Swiss specialty chemical company said that it has joined the Renewable Carbon Initiative to prevent climate change. Krones AG fell 1.7 percent. After making a strong start to fiscal 2022 with a very large order backlog, the packing and bottling machine manufacturer noted that the various uncertainties mean that the business environment remains challenging. SGL Carbon jumped 3.6 percent. The carbon and graphite product manufacturer turned to profit in FY21 from a loss last year. Daimler Truck Holding surged 8.2 percent. The company achieved its financial targets for 2021 despite significant supply chain headwinds. Valneva, a specialty vaccine firm, declined 1.2 percent after its FY21 net loss widened from last year. Renault SA edged up half a percent, reversing an early slide after saying it would suspend operations at its plant in Moscow. Next Plc shares fell nearly 3 percent. The fashion retailer cut it profits and sales forecasts for 2022/23, citing the ongoing war in Ukraine and slowing growth. Playtech rallied 2.3 percent. The gambling software development company reported that its fiscal 2021 post-tax profit was 686.7 million euros, compared to last year's loss of 73.1 million euros. Private equity firm 3i Group was moving lower. The company reported that its largest portfolio company Action generated fiscal 2021 net sales of 6.83 billion euros, up 23 percent from last year. 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.
- Selected for five consecutive years since 2018, recognized for product quality, technological competitiveness, and on-time delivery.

- Aggressively pushed forward business, based on mutual trust to find opportunities to supply core parts.

- Obtained TISAX certification for its 12 business locations as a proactive response to requirements from EU automakers.

SEOUL, South Korea, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Mobis (KRX: 012330) announced that it has been named the Supplier of the Year by GM, the largest automaker in North America. This is its fifth time since it was first crowned by GM as the Supplier of the Year in 2018 and it shows that the quality of the company's products and technology have been widely recognized in the global market.

GM selects the Supplier of the Year after conducting a comprehensive evaluation of around 3,000 primary suppliers for their product quality, development capability, innovation, and on-time delivery across 10 categories including chassis, powertrain, interior design, and electronic devices.

One of the core parts that Hyundai Mobis supplies to GM is the ICS (Integrated Center Stack), which is an electronic device that controls the multimedia and air conditioning system. Following its first supply to GM in 2010, the company has since continued to supply ICS for the top vehicle models of GM from small passenger cars to large SUVs. Furthermore, Hyundai Mobis supplies DIH (Drum in Hat) to GM.

Based on the mutual trust that has been built for over 10 years, Hyundai Mobis plans to strengthen its business activity and to find opportunities to supply GM with other core parts including HUD (Heads-Up Display) and lamp.

Hyundai Mobis is also actively working to obtain international certifications to target other global automakers. As part of the effort, it has obtained TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) for its 12 business locations from 2020. TISAX is an international information security standard developed by the ENX Association to ensure an appropriate level of information security.

As the importance of information security for new vehicles is growing, Hyundai Mobis began preparing for TISAX in 2020 and as a result, obtained its first information protection certification for HQ and R&D Headquarter in Korea (Yongin) the same year and for 10 business locations in Korea and abroad, for both last year and this year. In particular, Hyundai Mobis' Technical Center in Europe (Germany) obtained information protection certification as well as Prototype Parts & Vehicles and Test Vehicles certification.

Hyundai Mobis plans to build organic partnerships with global automakers through the diversification of its product portfolio and achieve USD 3.7 billion in orders from overseas this year. It will expand its Key Account Management (KAM) group in four main regions: Europe, North America, China and India in an effort to quickly meet the requirements of its clients around the world and provide customized services throughout the process of product development.

About Hyundai MOBIS

Hyundai Mobis is the global no.7 global automotive supplier, with annual sales of nearly $30 billion USD. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Seoul, Korea.

Hyundai Mobis aims to become a lifelong technology partner for vehicles and people. The company has outstanding expertise in sensors, sensor fusion in ECUs and software development for safety control. The company's products also include various components for electrification, brakes, chassis and suspension, steering, airbags, lighting and automotive electronics.

Hyundai Mobis currently employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. With the R&D headquarter in Korea, Mobis operates 4 technology centers in Germany, China, India and the United States.

For more information http://mobis.co.kr/

Media Contact

Jihyun Han: jihyun.han@mobis.co.kr

Choon Kee Hwang: ckhwang@mobis.co.kr

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Second Orphan Drug Designation Supports Azafaros' Strategy to Develop AZ-3102 as a Disease Modifying Treatment in a Range of Severe Rare Inherited Metabolic Disorders

Azafaros B.V. today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for AZ-3102, a novel small molecule with a unique dual mode of action, in Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C). The designation was based on promising preclinical data of AZ-3120 in a NP-C mouse model, recently presented at the 18th Annual WORLDSymposium. AZ-3102, Azafaros' lead program, is currently in clinical development as a potential treatment for the rare lysosomal storage diseases GM1 and GM2 Gangliosidoses and has completed a successful first-in-human clinical study in healthy subjects showing positive safety, tolerability, and pharmacodynamics data. The compound already received ODD from the FDA for GM2 Gangliosidosis including both Sandhoff and Tay-Sachs diseases. Based on its mode of action, AZ-3102 has broad applicability in addressing these inherited metabolic disorders.

"As we explore the broad potential of AZ-3102 as a promising new treatment option for rare disease patients, we are excited to achieve this further validation from the FDA," said Stefano Portolano, Chief Executive Officer of Azafaros. "Our orally available azasugar is designed to selectively inhibit two enzymes involved in glycolipid metabolism with the goal of reducing toxic glycolipid accumulation and ameliorate impaired lysosomal function. We appreciate this acknowledgement of our mechanism of action and the urgency to support the rare inherited metabolic disorder patient community with safe and effective therapies."

NP-C is caused by mutations in the NPC1 gene (NPC type 1C) or the NPC2 gene (NPC type 2C) and is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. NP-C is a fatal genetic lysosomal storage disorder due to the abnormal function of proteins which regulate the transport of cholesterol from the lysosome to cytoplasm of the cells in numerous organs, including the liver, the spleen, the lungs and the brain. In the brain, the intracellular accumulation of cholesterol contributes to the accumulation of glycosphingolipids, similar to GM2 Gangliosidosis.

The preclinical data supporting the grant of the ODD showed sustained exposure of AZ-3102 and evident pharmacodynamic effect. In addition, in the animal group treated with AZ-3102, tremor levels were reduced, and cerebellar Purkinje cells, which are normally depleted in untreated NP-C animals, were significantly spared.

Orphan Drug Designation by the US FDA provides drug developers with special status and incentives to facilitate the development of therapeutics for rare diseases affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US. The designation provides seven years of market exclusivity if the drug candidate receives regulatory approval together with exemptions from certain FDA application fees, advice on clinical trial design and tax credits for qualified clinical trial costs.

About AZ-3102

Azafaros' proprietary clinical azasugar, AZ-3102, is an orally available, small molecule designed to be a potent and selective inhibitor of two target enzymes involved in glycolipid metabolism, originally based on discoveries1 from Leiden University and Amsterdam University Medical Center. It is designed to selectively inhibit two enzymes involved in glycolipid metabolism, called glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) and non-lysosomal neutral glucosylceramidase (GbA2). This dual mode of action aims to reduce toxic glycolipid accumulation. Azafaros completed a first-in-human clinical trial with AZ-3102 in healthy volunteers in 2021 and received Orphan Drug Designation in GM2 Gangliosidosis from the FDA in February 2022.

About Azafaros

Founded in 2018 with a deep understanding of rare genetic disease mechanisms and led by a team of highly experienced industry experts, Azafaros aims to build a pipeline of disease-modifying therapeutics to offer patients and their families new treatment options. The company's lead clinical-staged program is AZ-3102, a highly differentiated, orally available, small molecule with the potential to treat GM1 and GM2 Gangliosidoses and other metabolic disorders. By applying its know-how, network, and courage, the Azafaros team challenges traditional development pathways to rapidly bring new drugs to the rare disease patients who need them. Azafaros is supported by a syndicate of leading Dutch and Swiss investors including Forbion, BioGeneration Ventures, BioMedPartners and Schroder Adveq.

___

1 Ghisadoobe et al., 2014, J Med Chem, doi: 10.1021/jm501181z

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005489/en/

Contacts:

Azafaros B.V.

Email: info@azafaros.com

www.azafaros.com



For media inquiries:

Trophic Communications

Eva Mulder and Marie-Theresa Weickert

Email: azafaros@trophic.eu

Phone: +49 (0) 175 222 57 56
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices gave up early gains to turn lower on Thursday after Iran hinted that it may be close to getting a new nuclear deal with the U.S.S via negotiations in Europe. Investors also assessed the potential for new supply as the war in Ukraine enters its second month. Brent futures for May delivery were little changed at $121.60 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 0.3 percent at $114.63. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday the United States and its allies have made progress in Iran nuclear talks, but issues remain, and it is unclear if they will be resolved. The allies are trying to use diplomacy to put Iran's nuclear program 'back in a box,' Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Joe Biden flew to Brussels. Analysts say that a lifting of Iranian export restrictions would help ease currenty supply tightness. U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to attend an emergency NATO summit today. He is also set to meet G-7 leaders and address EU leaders at a meeting of the European Council. With Europe depending heavily on Russian gas for heating and power generation, the European Union is split on whether to sanction Russia's energy sector. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Legend Power Systems (TSXV:LPS) and (OTCQB:LPSIF), a global leader in commercial electrical system solutions, announces that it has completed initial installation of SmartGATE Insights units at a large building complex in Puerto Rico. This is the Company's first Insights engagement outside of the continental U.S. and Canada and is part of a larger sustainability and resiliency sourcing effort for the customer, which is one of the largest facility owner / operators in the world.

"This building complex has over 50% of its power supplied by variable renewable sources, which are inherently less stable than traditional power generation, causing significant reliability issues for buildings' electrical systems", said Mike Cioce, Legend Powers' VP of Sales and Marketing. "We believe that SmartGATE Insights is the best tool available to diagnose these issues, allowing a unique opportunity to show to the facility owner how our SmartGATE platform can mitigate these frustrating power challenges. This is a key use case, since the US likely will achieve over 35% wind / solar by the year 2030, and we believe Legend is uniquely positioned as a first mover with our active power management solutions."

This Insights engagement will identify the source of and resulting operational and financial impacts of source power on buildings at the complex, as well as a turnkey solution for the customer based on Legend's SmartGATE Platform technology. This Insights engagement will focus on electrical systems performance issues related to onsite wind and solar power generation programs, which are suspected to be negatively impacting electrical stability.

About SmartGATE

SmartGATE is an industry-leading, turnkey solution which identifies and fixes underperformance and waste in the electrical system of a commercial building. These performance issues often impact key areas of commercial real estate metrics including occupant safety and satisfaction as well as financial performance. This waste can also lead to higher operating costs, lower net operating income and other potential financial risks to the building owner, including adverse tenant experiences.

About Legend Power Systems Inc.

Legend Power Systems Inc. (www.legendpower.com) provides an intelligent energy management platform that analyzes and improves building energy challenges, significantly impacting asset management and corporate performance. Legend's proven solutions support proactive executive decision-making in a complex and volatile business and energy environment.

For further information, please contact:

Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations

+ 1 647 503 1054

sean@sophiccapital.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Press Release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks, uncertainties and factors are described in the periodic filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including the Company's quarterly and annual Management's Discussion & Analysis, which may be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements other than as may be required by applicable law.

SOURCE: Legend Power Systems Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694446/Legend-Power-Chosen-by-Global-Property-Owner-Operator-for-SmartGATE-Insights-Engagement-at-70-Building-Complex
CATANIA, Italy, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Errors are very common in e-cigarette research, resulting in misinformation and distortion of scientific truth. What are the most common flaws in e-cigarette research?

Under the leadership of CoEHAR, a team of international researchers, examined the 24 most frequently cited vaping studies published in medical journals. The findings are shocking: almost all of these studies were found to be methodologically flawed; they lacked a clear hypothesis, used inadequate methodology, failed to collect data relevant to the study objectives, and did not correct for obvious confounding factors.

LINK: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11739-022-02967-1

Scientific research findings must be methodologically valid and sound in order for public health policies to be implemented. Current e-cigarette and heated tobacco product research is widely acknowledged to be poorly designed, conducted, and interpreted. As a result, it is impossible to generate balanced and accurate information for the adoption of more effective tobacco control policies and healthier lifestyles. The dissemination of inaccurate information about combustion-free alternatives in the news media contributes to public skepticism and uncertainty, particularly among smokers. Many smokers may be discouraged from switching to less harmful nicotine delivery products as a result of this.

A group of international experts collaborated with scientists from CoEHAR, the Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction at the University of Catania, to publish an in-depth critical evaluation of the most widely quoted e-cigarette research studies. The research paper titled "Analysis of common methodological flaws in e-cigarette epidemiology research," published in Internal and Emergency Medicine today, exposes the most common errors researchers have made when looking into the health impact of combustion-free nicotine delivery products.

Under the guidance of Dr. Cother Hajat of the United Arab Emirates University and prof. Riccardo Polosa, founder of the CoEHAR, the study's researchers analyzed the 24 most popular vaping studies published in highly authoritative medical journals. The researchers noted a plethora of fatal flaws in these studies; they identified, categorized, and accurately analyzed each mistake.

The authors conclude that the most influential research on e-cigarette is of inadequate quality and insufficient to guide public health decision and they offer practical recommendation for improving research in this field.

"Most of the included studies utilized inappropriate study design and did not address the research question that they set out to answer. In our paper we offer practical recommendations that can massively improve the quality and rigor future research in the field of tobacco harm reduction." explains Dr. Hajat

According to Prof. Polosa: "Systematic reiteration of the same errors that result in uninformative science is the new pandemic! I'm astounded that such low-quality studies have made it through editorial review in prestigious scientific journals. The credibility of tobacco control scientists and their research is on the line."

This investigator initiated study was sponsored by ECLAT srl, a spin-off of the University of Catania, with the help of a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Inc.

Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction

CoEHAR at University of Catania is the first multi-disciplinary academic center in the world to address harm reduction. CoEHAR mission is to accelerate efforts to study and reduce health impacts and deaths from smoking at global level through use of pharmacological approaches as well as innovative technologies.
Amara's organic plant-based baby food is now available in select Sobeys and IGA locations across Canada, adding to an already robust eCommerce and brick and mortar distribution network

Eat Well Investment Group Inc. the "Company" or "Eat Well Group" or "EWG") (CN:EWG) (US:EWGFF) (FRA:6BC0) is pleased to announce that its majority-owned portfolio company, Amara Organic Foods ("Amara"), one of the fastest-growing baby food brands in America, is now available in select Sobeys Inc. ("Sobeys") and IGA stores in Canada.

Sobeys has more than 111 years of experience in the food retail business. As one of only two national grocery retailers in Canada, Sobeys serves the food shopping needs of Canadians with approximately 1,500 stores in all 10 provinces under retail banners that include Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods and Lawtons Drugs, as well as more than 350 retail fuel locations.

"Amara adds premier distribution points in both Sobeys and IGA stores, some of North America's most well-known and established grocery retailers," stated Marc Aneed, Director and CEO of Eat Well Group. "The demand for plant-based infant nutrition continues to be strong as we accelerate growth across Eat Well Group's CPG sector. We congratulate the Amara team for ongoing success," continued Aneed.

Distribution to both Sobeys and IGA locations across Canada adds to Amara's strong retail footprint with distribution to many of North America's leading big-box retailers, including; Walmart Canada, Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmer's Market, HEB, Loblaws and more. Amara is focused on accelerating its omnichannel sales distribution strategy and continued growth across natural health food stores and traditional big-box retailers, in addition to ecommerce.

Eat Well Group's management believes Amara's growth can be attributed to the global trend of consumers seeking nutritious plant-based foods to add into their everyday lifestyles, and Amara's delicious toddler snacks and baby foods being 100% organic with excellent taste. The infant nutrition market is estimated to reach over $109 billion globally by 20271, and Amara is poised to be a leader in the plant-based segment.

For 15% off and free shipping on Amara products valid until April 30, 2022 visit www.amaraorganicfoods.com and enter the code: TASTETHEDIFFERENCE15

To learn more, join Eat Well Group's mailing list for important updates.

ABOUT EAT WELL GROUP

Eat Well Group is a publicly-traded investment Company primarily focused on high-growth companies in the agribusiness, food tech, plant-based and ESG (environmental, social and governance) sectors. Eat Well Group's management team has an extensive record of sourcing, financing and building successful companies across a broad range of industries and maintains a current investment mandate on the health/wellness industry. The team has financed and invested in early-stage venture companies for greater than 25 years, resulting in unparalleled access to deal flow and the ability to construct a portfolio of opportunistic investments intended to generate superior risk-adjusted returns.

Disclaimer for Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "likely" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may," "will," "should," "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes future anticipated business developments for the companies in which Eat Well Group invests. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect, including but not limited to a continued increase in demand within the infant nutrition market and the ability of the Company or its portfolio companies to execute their business plans. The Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable in the circumstances. However, forward-looking information is subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Such risks include, without limitation: the failure to negotiate and execute additional investments in target industries, the ability of the Company to complete investments in a timely manner or at all; the receipt of requisite approvals to complete the additional investments; the ability of the Company to realize the expected benefits and synergies of investments; unexpected disruptions to the operations and businesses of the Company and investee entities as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic or other disease outbreaks including a resurgence in the cases of COVID-19; the ability of the Company to comply with applicable government regulations in a regulated industry; any change in accounting practices or treatment affecting the consolidation of financial results adverse market conditions; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; costs of inputs; crop failures; litigation; currency fluctuations; competition; availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms; industry consolidation; loss of key management and/or employees; and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. For more information on the Company and the risks and challenges of their businesses, investors should review their annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

_____________________________________________

1https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/05/26/2236117/0/en/Global-infant-nutrition-market-size-to-register-10-6-CAGR-by-2027.html

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005341/en/

Contacts:

Eat Well Investment Group Inc.

Marc Aneed, CEO

ir@eatwellgroup.com

www.eatwellgroup.com
NEW YORK, March 24, 2022, a global leader in genomics and precision medicine, announces the establishment of the first of its Medical Genomics Boards, strengthening the Company's mission and research activity in this new frontier of healthcare, using genomics to promote prevention and treatment.



The Medical Genomics Board is made up of world leaders in genomics with multidisciplinary expertise with scientists and qualified genomics professionals, including geneticists, molecular biochemists and clinical experts in pharmacogenomics, nutrigenomics and oncogenomics, prenatal, neonatal and pediatric rare diseases.

"The goal is to pursue the path of personalized therapeutic maps through the organization of a clear reporting system despite the great complexity of the data deriving from the whole genome sequencing in NGS," said Andrea Riposati, CEO of Dante Labs. "It is Dante's intention to establish more of these regional Medical Genomics Boards around the world to bring genomics to the forefront of precision medicine in healthcare, taking into account the regional and cultural considerations of each area."

The first round table of the newly formed Committee was held on March 10th, 2022 in Castel Gandolfo. The establishment of the Board was made official at that time. The role of Scientific Director has been entrusted to prof. Giuseppe Novelli, a scholar of multifactorial genetic diseases, who will coordinate the activities of the board and will be a technical-scientific consultant.

The members of the Board all come from medical and academia backgrounds, including doctors, pharmacists and biologists. These experts in Omic sciences were chosen to cover all therapeutic areas, from oncogenomics to pharmacogenomics. Specifically, they include Professor in dermatology at the Sapienza University of Rome, Giovanni Pellacani; Professor Laura di Renzo, from the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome where she deals with nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics; Professor in clinical biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Tor Vergata, Sergio Bernardini; Professor Antonio Novelli, who deals with genomics in prenatal diagnosis at the Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome; Professor in Internal Medicine at the Sapienza University of Rome, Salvatore Minisola. Dr. Camilla Nero, expert on oncogenomics from the Catholic University of Rome.

About Dante Labs

Dante Labs is a global genomic data company building and commercializing a new class of transformative health and longevity applications based on whole genome sequencing and AI. Our assets include one of the largest private genome databases with research consent, a proprietary software platform designed to unleash the power of genomic data at scale and proprietary processes which enable an industrial approach to genomic sequencing.

Contact:
TAIPEI (dpa-AFX) - Taiwan's unemployment rate declined slightly in February, the Directorate General of Budget Accounting & Statistics showed in Thursday. The unemployment rate fell a seasonally adjusted 3.67 percent in February from 3.70 percent in January. In the same period last year, the jobless rate was 3.73 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the jobless rate rose to 3.65 percent in February from 3.61 percent a month ago. The number of unemployed persons increased by 4,000 to 434,000 in February from 430,000 the previous month. The total employment decreased by 16,000 persons from the previous month to 11.458 million in February. 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.
Interview: China's achievements at home boost China-Africa cooperation

Xinhua) 09:08, March 24, 2022

BRAZZAVILLE, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China's achievements at home will give a stronger boost to the already fruitful and mutually beneficial China-Africa cooperation, said an expert from the Republic of the Congo in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"Thanks to China, numerous African countries were able to get their heads out of the water," said Alphonse Ndongo, a political and economic analyst based in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, noting that Africa and China have maintained for decades a "win-win cooperation."

Referring to the "mutually beneficial" China-Africa cooperation, especially in the fields of infrastructure, trade and agriculture, Ndongo said China's "convincing" achievements at home have been a stronger impetus to China-Africa cooperation.

"We hope that China continuously yields convincing results of its development, as China has once again shown its commitment to African countries, especially in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

As for China-Africa cooperation, Ndongo said the fact that China has managed to donate COVID-19 vaccines and medical materials to almost all African countries has helped strengthen Africa's resilience against the disease despite "negative prognosis from some analysts."

Despite the pandemic, the Republic of the Congo and China have not stopped their win-win cooperation relations, reassured Ndongo, a journalist who claimed to keep fond memories of his travels in China, recalling that China is the first partner to come to the rescue of the Congolese government shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis in the country.

Noting that the pandemic "has slowed trade between Africa and their friendly partner (China)," Ndongo hoped the world would win its battle against the pandemic so that global trade can one day return to normal.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
by Xinhua writer Wang Xinyi

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Sanctions-addicted Washington is again slapping "penalties" on other countries, targeting Beijing recently with a repeatedly trumped-up charge of human rights violations.

Its ideologically-driven move involving visa restrictions on Chinese officials is yet another malicious trick to contain Beijing by trying to stir up trouble and inflict turmoil on Chinese territory with unwarranted "human rights" allegations.

In fact, the United States has long abused the concepts of "human rights" as a pretext to trample upon international norms and clamor for pressure on other countries including China and as a fig leaf to disguise its despicable history and morbid obsession with supremacy.

It has been peddling completely fabricated lies about Xinjiang such as the so-called "genocide" and "forced labor," based on which it went on to ban imports from there, pressure allies to take sides and politicize the Beijing Winter Olympics.

But lies cannot bear scrutiny. The Uygur population in Xinjiang has doubled to more than 12 million over the past 40 years, while the gross domestic product there has surged by more than 200 times in the past six-plus decades. Absolute poverty has been eliminated. Jobs in the cotton industry pay well and are competitive.

Any sober mind can tell that the more Washington seeks to attack others as a self-proclaimed human rights "preacher," the more it exposes itself as a de facto human rights violator at home and abroad.

In its short history, the United States physically slaughtered, geographically expelled and culturally assimilated Native Americans, and conducted systemic ethnic cleansing against Native Americans over more than a century after the country was founded.

During the period between 1887 and 1933, Native Americans lost about 90 million acres of land. From the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the Indian population nosedived from 5 million to 250,000 -- a real genocide.

There are approximately 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States, and up to 100,000 people were trafficked into the country for forced labor annually over the past five years, studies showed.

Meanwhile, behind a lucrative private prison business is a significant number of U.S. prisoners who have been forced to work for nearly nothing.

In a new poll jointly conducted with NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the Associated Press found that black Americans, many of whom held hope in Democrats' promises on racial justice initiatives in 2020, are especially pessimistic about future progress in achieving racial equality in policing.

Instead of waking up to its bleak reality at home of rampant gun violence, a widening wealth gap, a botched COVID-19 response leading to the death of over 970,000 Americans and deeply entrenched racial divisions stifling people like George Floyd, Washington has chosen to find fault with the human rights records of other countries.

Human rights are "now being used as a cudgel, as a pretext" for the West, especially the United States to "dominate the globe," Daniel Kovalik, human rights expert and lawyer at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, has warned.

Washington's latest decision to divert billions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets to the families of 9/11 victims is rubbing salt into the wounds of millions of suffering Afghan people. By robbing the Afghan people of their life-saving money, it has aggravated the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

To salvage itself from a credit bust, Washington is faced with two choices: to quit using human rights as weapons to destabilize and smear other countries and focus instead on rectifying its own human rights abuses, or perhaps, to sanction itself first so as to disprove the "double standard" charges often leveled at it by people across the world. 
CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSX-V:MYLK)(FRA:J94) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is pleased to announce that, following the acquisition of RightRice product lines, Planting Hope has successfully integrated and scaled the RightRice brand by adding 664 Total Distribution Points ("TDP") at key food retailers and by introducing their two new RightRice flavors, Mediterranean and Roasted Garlic Risotto, to 21 distribution centers ("DCs"). In the United States today, the RightRice brand is at more than 42,000 TDP and is found in over 35 DCs.

"Our first business acquisition, RightRice, has been integrated successfully into The Planting Hope Company in a short period of time," said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-founder of Planting Hope. "We have effectively closed and fulfilled new opportunities for the brand, including launching two new SKUs and adding triple-digit new TDP in key retailers. Our team has integrated these product lines seamlessly by leveraging our synergistic portfolio-driven operating efficiencies, and we are continuing to scale to meet growing consumer and retailer demand across our RightRice products."

In early March 2022, the two new flavors, Mediterranean and Roasted Garlic Risotto, were made available to all retailers already purchasing RightRice products from the 21 DCs across the United States, consisting of eight KeHE DCs and 13 UNFI DCs.

Five RightRice (Original, Garlic Herb, Spanish, Cilantro Lime, and Mediterranean) and five RightRice Risotto (Basil Pesto, Creamy Cracked Pepper, Creamy Parmesan, Roasted Garlic, and Wild Mushroom) stock keeping units ("SKUs") account for 116 and 548 of the newly added TDP, respectively. A breakdown of the new sales placements representing the additional 664 TDP includes the following:

Lunardi's - four RightRice Risotto SKUs across eight stores for an additional 32 TDP

Zanotto's - four RightRice Risotto SKUs across four stores for an additional 16 TDP

Festival Foods - two RightRice Risotto SKUs across 39 stores for an additional 78 TDP

Mother's Market & Kitchen - four RightRice and two RightRice Risotto SKUs across 11 stores for an additional 66 TDP

Plum Market - one RightRice and one RightRice Risotto SKU across four stores for an additional eight TDP

National Co+op Grocers (NCG) - up to three RightRice Risotto SKUs across 95 stores for an additional 271 TDP

Independent Natural Food Retailers Association (INFRA) - up to four RightRice Risotto SKUs across 35 stores for an additional 125 TDP

Sendik's - four RightRice SKUs across 17 stores for an additional 68 TDP

The TDP is calculated as the number of retail doors multiplied by the number of SKUs.

Planting Hope Announces Full Repayment of US$2 Million Unsecured Promissory Note

Planting Hope has fully repaid the initial US$2 million unsecured promissory note (the "Initial Note") issued in connection with the acquisition of certain RightRice operating assets on January 17, 2022. The Initial Note bore interest at 5% per annum, and was set to mature, at the latest, on March 31, 2022.

A second US$1 million unsecured promissory note (the "Second Note") issued by Planting Hope in connection with the acquisition of certain RightRice operating assets on January 17, 2022, remains outstanding. The Second Note bears interest at 5% per annum and is set to mature, at the latest, on January 14, 2023.

About RightRice

RightRice redefines a household staple with a delicious vegetable-based rice grain that's packed with the power of vegetables and complete plant-based protein. RightRice is the first-of-its-kind: a shelf-stable vegetable grain that's a blend of over 90 percent vegetables, including lentils, chickpeas, green peas, and rice, and delivers on both taste and nutrition. With 10g of complete protein and 5g of fiber per serving, RightRice delivers more than double the protein, five times the fiber and around 40 percent fewer net carbohydrates than traditional white rice, plus it can be prepared in 10 minutes. RightRice is now available in a range of pre-seasoned flavors, plus multiple flavors of RightRice Medley and RightRice Risotto. RightRice products are currently sold in more than 7,000 doors in leading retailers across North America, including Whole Foods Market, Wegman's, Kroger, Sprouts, Albertsons/Safeway, HEB, Ahold, Meijer, as well as online through Amazon, Thrive Market, Hive and RightRice.com. All RightRice products are made using real herbs and spices, and are plant-based, non-GMO verified, gluten-free certified, and kosher certified. RightRice Risotto was awarded Best Sauce/Store Cupboard Product in FoodBev's 2021 World Plant-Based Taste Awards and received the 2021 Eco Excellence Award for Best Gluten Free Product, in addition to being chosen as a 2021 Editors' Pick for Best New Product by Progressive Grocer. For more information visit: www.rightrice.com.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.

Planting Hope develops, launches, and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's award-winning and cutting-edge products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. The Planting Hope brand family includes Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk and Sesamilk creamers, RightRice Veggie Rice, Mozaics Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia Veggie Snacks. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and woman-led company focused on nutrition, sustainability, and diversity. For more information visit: www.plantinghopecompany.com.

CONTACT:

Company Contact:

Julia Stamberger

CEO and Co-founder

(773) 492-2243

julia@plantinghopecompany.com

Media Contact:

Rachel Kay Public Relations

Becca Stonebraker

(818) 383-3929

becca@rkpr.net

Investor Relations Contact:

Caroline Sawamoto

Investor Relations

(773) 492-2243

ir@plantinghopecompany.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including statements about the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. In some cases, forward looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company's product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management's projections, that the Company's current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company's annual information form dated January 6, 2022, and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: The Planting Hope Company Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694469/Planting-Hope-Provides-Sales-Update-for-Recently-Acquired-Alternative-Rice-Brand-RightRiceR
SUZHOU, China, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. ("GCL SI" or "the Company") (Shenzhen:002506), a leading photovoltaics (PV) company in China, will launch a project, dubbed Casa Blanca, in Bahia, Brazil in cooperation with Atlas Renewable Energy, a global renewable energy generator, with an expected full capacity of 250MW once construction is completed. GCL SI will supply 71MW solar modules for this project.

Set to be fully constructed by the end of this year, the Casa Blanca project has adopted the Company's 182mm Bifacial modules. The project - a collaboration between GCL SI and Atlas Renewable Energy - is expected to generate 630 million kWh of electricity a year, enough to serve 100,000 local households with power generated from clean energy.

"We're pleased to continue working with Atlas," said Lin He, General Manager of GCL SI America. "Since 2018, we've built large solar power plants together in a number of countries, including Brazil and Mexico, and we've had our projects successfully connect to the local power grid while ensuring the projects' quality, power generation volume and returns."

To boost the strategic development of its PV business, GCL SI will continue to advance the distribution of its high-efficiency products. Another key area is developing more system applications, through which the Company enables the modules to be used for a wider variety of situations.

Meanwhile, in a bid to provide more stable services, GCL SI has also been making efforts to offer quality products such as large-formats modules through intelligent manufacturing.

With that said, the Company has a robust plan in place to drive its output. GCL SI is further stepping it up a notch with its module factory in Hefei, the capital city of East China's Anhui Province. Phase 1 of Hefei gigafactory, with a capacity of 5GW has been successfully commissioned. By the end of this year, the production capacity of GCL SI is set to reach 20GW, further supporting a steady offering of its product lineups to fulfill the growing global demand for the Company's high-efficiency modules.

About GCL SI

GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (002506.SZ) (GCL SI), is part of the GOLDEN CONCORD Group (GCL). GCL SI delivers a one-stop, cutting-edge, integrated energy system and is committed to becoming the world's leading solar energy company.
Join executives from EDF Energy, Renewable Energy Institute and Societe Generale as Europe's energy sector gears up for critical transformation

LONDON/HOUSTON/SINGAPORE, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This year looks set to define the European power and renewables sector: an energy market that faces dangerously volatile energy prices, fears of 'greenflation' and rising geopolitical risks.



As European and national energy regulators, utilities, solar and wind developers and institutional and private investors determine how the renewables sector can evolve over the next decade to meet ambitious emission reduction targets, Wood Mackenzie will host European energy industry leaders at its European Power & Renewables Conference on April 25-26.

The hybrid in-person and virtual conference will bring together CEOs, policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and regulators to take stock of the dynamic and critical changes in green energy across Europe and the implications these will have on the renewables sector.

As well as exclusive presentations from Wood Mackenzie experts and a top-tier speaker line-up, including representatives from EDF Energy, Renewable Energy Institute and Societe Generale, the European Power & Renewables Conference offers the opportunity to connect with leading developers and utilities. Delegates will also connect with transmission operators, national and European energy regulatory bodies, investment entities and technology providers.

Each day will include a breakout session enabling delegates to connect directly with other attendees, Wood Mackenzie analysts and exhibitors.

Key themes on the agenda include:

The Perfect Storm: Why 2022 Will be a Pivotal Year for European Power and Renewables

Can 'Fit for 55' and the European Green Deal Deliver: Modelling a Net Zero Economy

Green Grids and European Cross-Border Transmission: Where is the Opportunity over the Next 10 Years?

New Roadmap for 2030: What are the Signs Indicating the Need for a European Energy Financing Market Redesign?

Renewable Capture Prices: Commercial Innovation, Merchant Projects and Key Ways to De-risk the Market

Focus on Technology Trends in Key Areas of P&R Development in Europe

New Economics of Offshore Wind: How the Offshore Wind Industry Transitions in the Energy Transition Era

The Role of Natural Gas in The Energy Transition: Risk, Pricing Dynamics and Opportunity

Mapping Out the Future for Solar in the European Landscape





The European Power & Renewables Conference will hear from leading experts from across the industry including:

Matt Black, Chief Operating Officer, Solivus

Rosalind Smith-Maxwell, Vice President, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners

Stephane Tetot, Investment Director, BlackRock Infrastructure

Tomas Kaberger, Chair of Executive Board, Renewable Energy Institute

Thomas Fureder, Managing Director, Barclays Investment Bank

Anthony Doherty, Chief Investment Officer, NTR plc

Jordi Francesch, Head of Asset Management, Director, Glennmont Partners

Allan Baker, MD, Global Head of Power Advisory & Project Finance, Societe Generale

Jakob Thoma, Managing Director, 2 Investing Initiative

Joe Rippon, Sizewell C Financing Programme Manager, EDF Energy

David Papp, Head of Sustainable Finance Policy Division, Central Bank of Hungary

Simon Monk, Principal - Structured & Asset Origination, EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG

Michael Lippert, Director Innovation and Solutions for Energy, SaftBatteries

Patrick Clerens, Secretary General, The European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE)

Santiago Banales, Managing Director of Innovation Middle East (ME), Iberdrola





To reserve your place at Wood Mackenzie's European Power & Renewables Conference, or for further information, please click on this link.

ENDS



Wood Mackenzie Event Health & Safety Guidelines/Policies

Wood Mackenzie is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for all event participants. Our decisions and preventive measures will be guided by the requirements and recommendations of the local health authorities. We are working with the event venue on implementing preventive measures to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 at the event. Preventive measures include:

Masks must be worn by all event participants at all times

Enhanced sanitizing of meeting and exhibit spaces

Extra venue space to allow for social distancing in meeting space

Hand sanitizing stations throughout the meeting and exhibit spaces

All Wood Mackenzie policies are subject to change. If changes be made, a notification will be sent to all registered attendees.

About Wood Mackenzie

Wood Mackenzie, a Verisk Analytics business, is a trusted source of commercial intelligence for the world's natural resources sector. We empower clients to make better strategic decisions, providing objective analysis and advice on assets, companies and markets. For more information, visit: www.woodmac.comor follow us on Twitter @WoodMackenzie

WOOD MACKENZIE is a trademark of Wood Mackenzie Limited and is the subject of trademark registrations and/or applications in the European Community, the USA and other countries around the world.

About Verisk

Verisk) provides predictive analytics and decision support solutions to customers in the insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services industries. More than 70 percent of the FORTUNE 100 relies on the company's advanced technologies to manage risks, make better decisions and improve operating efficiency. The company's analytic solutions address insurance underwriting and claims, fraud, regulatory compliance, natural resources, catastrophes, economic forecasting, geopolitical risks, as well as environmental, social and governancewhere all team members feel they belong. With more than 100 offices in nearly 35 countries, Verisk consistently earns certification by Great Place to Work.

For more: Verisk.com, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebookand YouTube.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / EQ Inc. (TSXV:EQ) ("EQ Works" or the "Company"), a leader in geospatial data and artificial intelligence driven software, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Tapad, the global leader in digital identity resolution, to create the largest, privacy forward, device identity graph in Canada.

Combining Tapad's graph with EQ Works' LOCUS platform provides our Canadian partners more robust identity resolution, helping advertisers identify customers or related households across multiple devices. This new graph will enable customers of EQ Works to leverage identity resolution at scale to tap into cross-device insights for a variety of use cases including audience strategies, activation, and measurement, all while using data that is privacy-safe. The solution allows for significantly improved accuracy in programmatic targeting, media measurement and attribution with EQ Works seeing over 30% increase in addressable device ID's.

As IDFA's (Identifier for Advertisers) and MAID's (Mobile Ad ID's) are increasingly unavailable to advertisers, incorporating the Tapad Graph, with ID agnostic identity solutions, into a new blended solution with EQ Works, will provide a vehicle for insights to help clients understand the effectiveness and efficiencies of targeting. This agreement has an immediate beneficial impact to EQ Works' clients as it provides even more robust privacy-compliant data and data driven marketing.

"Tapad and EQ Works have formed a relationship that will bring together two incredibly powerful players in the identity space." Says Dilshan Kathriarachchi, CTO of EQ Works. "As the identity landscape for digital enters a more dynamic phase, the continued collaboration between Tapad and EQ Works would ensure stable and reliable access to data driven capabilities for many Canadian businesses."

"We are excited to team with EQ Works to deliver this identity data in Canada." says Chris Feo, Chief Revenue Officer, at Tapad. "Bringing together our identity graph with EQ Works datasets and AI/ML Platforms, offers the highest quality, and scale of data for their customers."

ABOUT EQ

EQ Works (www.eqworks.com) enables businesses to understand, predict, and influence customer behaviour. Using unique data sets, advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, EQ Works creates actionable intelligence for businesses to attract, retain, and grow the customers that matter most. The Company's proprietary SaaS platform mines insights from movement and geospatial data, enabling businesses to close the loop between digital and real-world consumer actions.

ABOUT Tapad

Founded in 2010, Tapad cracked the code on cross-device marketing technology, creating not only the first but the most robust global cross-device digital identity graph on the market. Ten years later, The Tapad Graph enables marketers to maximize their digital marketing investment for years to come. In November 2020, Experian acquired Tapad, which furthers Experian's strong commitment to digital identity, activation, and connected TV.

ABOUT Experian

Experian is the world's leading global information services company. During life's big moments - from buying a home or a car, to sending a child to college, to growing a business by connecting with new customers - we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly and organizations to prevent identity fraud and crime.

We have 20,000 people operating across 44 countries and every day we're investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximize every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Learn more at www.experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group.

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Corporation is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein should material facts change due to new information, future events or otherwise.

EQ Inc.

Peter Kanniah, Chief Financial Officer

1235 Bay Street, Suite 401| Toronto, Ontario |M5R 3K4

press@eqworks.com

www.eqworks.com

SOURCE: EQ Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694428/EQ-Works-and-Tapad-Initiative-Creates-Canadas-Largest-Device-Identity-Graph
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX:SKE)(NYSE:SKE) ("Skeena" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has received approximately C$30.4 million from the exercise of 2,812,500 warrants (the "Warrants") held by Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick"). The Warrants were originally issued to Barrick with an exercise price of C$10.80 on October 5, 2020 in connection with Skeena acquiring 100% of the Eskay Creek gold-silver project ("Eskay Creek" or the "Project") located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, Canada.

Proceeds from the exercise of these Warrants will be used by the Company to fund 60,000 metres of exploration drilling planned for Eskay Creek in 2022. A skid-based drilling program is expected to commence on the Project in April, followed by a helicopter supported drilling program consisting of eight diamond drill rigs in June. The fully funded exploration program will focus on supplementing the existing mine plan with additional near surface mineralization amenable to open-pit mining methods and will be paralleled by exploratory drill testing of the deep Mudstone extensions north of the former Eskay Creek mine. Allocation of meterage will remain results driven. Expansion and delineation drilling will also occur in the new 21A West Zone as well as the recently discovered 23 Zone.

About Skeena

Skeena Resources Limited is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on revitalizing the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine located in Tahltan Territory in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company released a Prefeasibility Study for Eskay Creek in July 2021 which highlights an open-pit average grade of 4.57 g/t AuEq, an after-tax NPV5% of C$1.4B, 56% IRR, and a 1.4-year payback at US$1,550/oz Au. Skeena is currently completing both infill and exploration drilling to advance Eskay Creek to a full Feasibility Study in 2022.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited,

Walter Coles Jr.

President & CEO

Contact Information

Investor Inquiries: info@skeenaresources.com

Office Phone: +1 604 684 8725

Company Website: www.skeenaresources.com

Qualified Persons

Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek Project are administered on site by the Company's Exploration Managers, Raegan Markel, P.Geo., John Tyler and Director of Exploration, Adrian Newton P.Geo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration and Resource Development, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting the exploration activities on its projects.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

Certain statements and information contained or incorporated by reference in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These statements relate to future events or our future performance. The use of words such as "anticipates", "believes", "proposes", "contemplates", "generates", "targets", "is projected", "is planned", "considers", "estimates", "expects", "is expected", "potential" and similar expressions, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "might", "will", "could", or "would" be taken, achieved, or occur, may identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Specific forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the results of the PFS, completion of a feasibility study, processing capacity of the mine, anticipated mine life, probable reserves, estimated project capital and operating costs, sustaining costs, results of test work and studies, planned environmental assessments, the future price of metals, metal concentrate, and future exploration and development. Such forward-looking statements are based on material factors and/or assumptions which include, but are not limited to, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and the assumptions set forth herein and in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the Company's Annual Information Form ("AIF") dated March 25, 2021. Such forward-looking statements represent the Company's management expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances on the date the statements are made, and are necessarily based on several estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date hereof, are not guarantees of future performance. Actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein, and are subject to significant operational, business, economic, and regulatory risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others: the inherent risks involved in exploration and development of mineral properties, including permitting and other government approvals; changes in economic conditions, including changes in the price of gold and other key variables; changes in mine plans and other factors, including accidents, equipment breakdown, bad weather and other project execution delays, many of which are beyond the control of the Company; environmental risks and unanticipated reclamation expenses; and other risk factors identified in the Company's 2020 MD&A and AIF, and in the Company's other periodic filings with securities and regulatory authorities in Canada and the United States that are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligations to update and/or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Skeena Resources Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694438/Skeena-Announces-Proceeds-of-C304-Million-from-Warrant-Exercise
Royal Greens Delivery Service Expands Company's Distribution Reach

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / FinCanna Capital Corp. ("FinCanna") ("the Company") (CSE:CALI)(OTCQB:FNNZF) an investment company focused on the U.S. licensed cannabis industry, is pleased to announce that its investee company, QVI Inc., operating as West County Brands, has added Royal Greens , an Oakland California based licensed delivery service to its distribution team.

Royal Greens has joined FinCanna's sales & marketing partner Petalfast and industry-leading distributor Calyx Brands, to further expand West County Brands distribution footprint in support of its product rollout of its MYTHC Life brand and its joint venture with Cherry Kola Farms , an award-winning producer of premium cannabis products. Delivery service is an essential component of the Company's brand development and retail sales strategy as it is another avenue of meeting consumer demand and increasing sales. Additionally, delivery is increasingly important as there are significant areas of the California market currently underserved by retail dispensaries due to the restrictive nature of certain local regulations regarding dispensary license approvals. Licensed home delivery services like Royal Greens are positioned to reach these underserved markets.

Royal Greens serves an area within a 100-mile radius from the city of Oakland and has a client base of more than 20,000 active consumers. Royal Greens is firmly positioned to expand sales of West County Brands' high quality and disruptively priced products, seeing them as an excellent fit for their growing customer base.

Annie Holman, Co-Founder, and CEO of QVI, said, "Royal Greens is a strong addition to our distribution team. Getting our big-league brands MYTHC Life, GOTHIC Life, and Huckleberry, as well as our joint venture partner Cherry Kola Farms' products to California customers is imperative. As the demand for our brands continues to grow, our first-class service with Royal Greens will be instrumental in ensuring this happens."

Andriyko Herchak, CEO of FinCanna l, said, "I'm thrilled to see the ongoing development of West County Brands on a week-to-week basis. From producing great in-demand products to the expansion of our distribution footprint with the highly regarded delivery service, Royal Greens, Annie Holman, Larry Shaeffer, and their team at West County Brands continue to excel. Scaling our business and driving increased revenues are dependent on superior distribution coverage across California, and the addition of Royal Greens and their impressive customer base supports this initiative."

To review FinCanna Capital's recent investor presentation click here .

The legal U.S. cannabis market is expected to reach more than US$41 billion in annual sales by 2025, with California, the single largest market in North America, representing an estimated 20% market share or US$8.2 billion and edibles comprising over $900m of the overall California Market (New Frontier Data).

About FinCanna Capital Corp.

FinCanna is an investment company that provides growth capital to rapidly emerging private companies operating in the licensed U.S cannabis industry. FinCanna is focused on delivering high-impact returns to its shareholders by way of a strategically diversified investment portfolio.

For additional information visit www.fincannacapital.com and FinCanna's profile at www.sedar.com

About QVI Inc.

QVI, which stands for Quality, Value, and Integrity, is located in Sonoma County, California. Their purpose-built facility, previously known as The Galley and now West County Brands, is differentiated from other manufacturers by its proven automated capabilities to produce virtually all high-value cannabis products at large volumes under one roof. The facility is built to FDA and CDPH standards and focuses on high demand areas of production; Edibles, Live Rosins, Topicals, Tinctures, Chocolates, Hard Candies, Gummies, Beverages, Vapes, Pre-Rolls, and Flower Packaging.

QVI's immediate goal is to become the premier manufacturer in California, the largest single market in North America, and upon success, to license products nationally and globally.

FinCanna Capital Corp.

Andriyko Herchak, CEO & Director

info@fincannacapital.com

1.833.346.2266

Forward-Looking Information

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements herein include" without limitation, statements about anticipated benefits of the joint venture agreement with Cherry Kola Farms (CKF); the launch (and timing thereof), implementation and anticipated benefits of the new "manufacturer to retail" revenue model and strategy, including anticipated superior margins, better pricing and implied profitability; the $2 million in private placement financing; and future plans and strategies of the Company. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the 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, among others, risks that the joint venture with CKF and the new "manufacturer to retail" model and strategy may not result in the anticipated benefits to the Company, or at all; the Company may not be able to raise $2 million in private placement financing, or any funds at all; the Company may not receive approval for the $2 million financing; and the risks identified in the CSE listing statement available at www.SEDAR.com and other reports and filings with the applicable Canadian securities regulators. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the respective companies undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: FinCanna Capital Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694473/FinCannas-West-County-Brands-Adds-Key-Delivery-Service-to-Product-Rollout
Symphony RetailAI today announced that it is Great Place to Work-Certified in all nine of the countries in which it was eligible for certification. Certification has been awarded to Symphony RetailAI in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Germany, India, Slovenia, Thailand and the Netherlands.

Certification is a significant achievement. Using validated employee feedback gathered with Great Place to Work's rigorous, data-driven methodology, Certification confirms that at least 65% of employees have a consistently positive experience at Symphony RetailAI. In Symphony RetailAI's case, eight out of nine countries achieved at least 72%, with three of the countries scoring 80% and above. Eighty-one percent of respondents agreed to the statement, "Taking everything into account, this is a Great Place to Work." The achievement follows recognition for Symphony RetailAI's sister company, SymphonyAI, as a Great Place to Work-certified organization in India in February.

Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue and increased innovation.

"We couldn't be happier with being Great Place to Work-Certified in nine countries," says Sam Sheriff, Chief People Officer at Symphony RetailAI. "We've been measuring engagement since 2015, but most importantly continually acting on the feedback we receive from our employees. This is reflected in the 2022 results and how people feel about working here. Ninety percent of employees responded to the survey, and this in itself demonstrates how much people care about the company and their experience of working at Symphony RetailAI."

"Our whole team is proud of achieving the certification and this is cause for collective celebration," says Chris Koziol, Chief Executive Officer at Symphony RetailAI. "We have focused on creating the best employee experience to enable us to attract and retain the best talent in our industry. I am looking forward to continuing the journey of ensuring our culture is respectful, inclusive and overall a Great Place to Work for everyone. The people at Symphony RetailAI, who deliver innovation and excellence for our customers every day, show up in a way that is truly awe-inspiring, making a difference in everything they do and driving strong results for the company and our customers. This only happens in organizations where people have high trust in the company and our results reflect that fact."

"We congratulate Symphony RetailAI, on achieving their Certification," said Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work UK. "Organizations which put the employee experience at the heart of their business gain their employees' trust and, in turn, are truly able to build a great workplace culture that delivers outstanding business results. For Symphony RetailAI, their commitment to their people is evident in the achievement of certification in all nine eligible countries."

About Symphony RetailAI

Symphony RetailAI is a leading global provider of role-specific, AI-powered revenue growth management solutions and customer-centric insights for retailers and CPG manufacturers across the entire value chain. Our proven, industry-leading, AI-enabled software, coupled with the industry's only conversational natural-language AI interface, CINDE, provides key users with proven prescriptive and preemptive recommendations that make it easy to identify end-to-end growth opportunities, activate plans, and realize measurable profit and revenue growth. Our solutions are specific to key decision-maker roles focused on profitable growth across the retail value chain from source to consumer. With our strong global partner ecosystem, we serve more than 1,200 organizations worldwide, including 15 of the top 25 global grocery retailers, 25 of the top 25 global CPG manufacturers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains. Symphony RetailAI is a SymphonyAI company. More at Symphony RetailAI.

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed over 100 million employees around the world and have used those deep insights to define what element makes a great workplace: Trust. Great Place to Work UK helps organisations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognise Great Place to Work-Certified organisations, as well as the acclaimed UK's Best Workplaces, UK's Best Workplaces for Women and UK's Best Workplaces in Tech lists. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organisation become a truly 'great place to work'.

To learn more, visit www.greatplacetowork.co.uk or email uk_info@greatplacetowork.co.uk. Join the community on LinkedIn and Twitter, or sign up to their mailing list.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005262/en/

Contacts:

Adrienne Newcomb

Ketner Group Communications (for Symphony RetailAI)

adrienne@ketnergroup.com
EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals is pleased to announce the appointment of Stefan Petursson as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), starting 1 April 2022. EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing a therapeutic pipeline for the treatment of inflammatory disorders involving the epithelium, addressing underlying causal pathways of disease. Mr. Petursson is taking over the role of CFO from Finnur Einarsson who will now focus on his role as Chief Operations Officer (COO).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005496/en/

High resolution photo of Stefan Petursson available on request (Photo: Business Wire)

"I am delighted to welcome Stefan to EpiEndo as CFO," commented Maria Bech, CEO of EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals. "Stefan brings vast experience and knowledge from the financial and banking world, which will be invaluable for us as we continue to grow and develop the Company. I would also like to thank Finnur for his important contribution to the Company's development in his combined CFO/COO role. I look forward to continuing to work with him as COO".

Stefan Petursson added: "It is very exciting to be joining the EpiEndo team. The Company is doing ground-breaking biopharmaceutical work that has the potential to improve the well-being of millions of patients. EpiEndo has already made substantial progress and I hope to be able to assist the Company in reaching critical milestones going forward."

Mr. Stefan Petursson has a Cand. Oecon degree from the University of Iceland and an MBA from Babson College in Boston. During his 20+ years as CFO at Landsvirkjun and Arion banks, he helped the companies grow and develop and while at Arion Bank successfully completed an IPO in both Sweden and Iceland. In addition to his work as CFO at EpiEndo, Mr. Petursson will continue to serve on the Board of Directors at several entities.

About EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals (www.epiendo.com

EpiEndo is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a unique approach to inflammatory disorders that focuses on enhancement of epithelial barrier integrity as a critical pathophysiological factor underlying the etiology of a number of major diseases. Epithelial cells are a key component of the barrier that makes up human lung tissue and other organs such as the gut and skin. Compromised integrity of this barrier is implicated in the progression and non-resolution of several chronic inflammatory diseases.

EpiEndo is developing a proprietary portfolio of orally available macrolide drugs with promise as first-in-class disease-modifying therapeutics, to address the huge global burden of chronic diseases of the lung and other organs where there is other significant unmet medical need. EpiEndo's lead drug candidate, EP395, aims to be the first on-market oral, non-antibiotic, barrier strengthening and anti-inflammatory macrolide for the treatment of COPD.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of the Company. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this presentation. The information in this presentation is subject to updating, completion, revision, further verification, and amendment without notice and the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005496/en/

Contacts:

EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals:

Maria Bech, CEO

E-mail: maria.bech@epiendo.com

Tel: +354 454 0090

Instinctif Partners (media relations):

Rozi Morris Katie Duffell

Tel: +44 20 7457 2020
The event marks a milestone for the company with an upgraded business approach: more than just robots, Pudu Robotics steps forward to provide comprehensive solutions for the hospitality industry

SHENZHEN, China, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pudu Robotics, the global leader in commercial service robots, held its spring new product launch on March 24 in Shenzhen, the modern metropolis in southern China. With the theme of "3+X", the company released four new robots, including three delivery robots, SwiftBot, PUDU A1, PUDU D1, and one cleaning robot, PUDU SH1.

"We are not only releasing a few new standalone products, but also hope to bring new solutions to the industry," said Felix Zhang, founder and CEO of Pudu Robotics. "The comprehensive upgrade of our products and technology in 2022 also marks the beginning of the Pudu Robot 2.0 era. In addition to the existing delivery robots, we will carry on expanding the product line of cleaning robots. We will also keep on refining new products in line with industry best practices across different service scenarios, to promote the in-depth integration and innovation of AI in commercial service robots."

SwiftBot is a versatile delivery robot that reduces human-robot road congestion by 50% and increases machine running speed by 30% in restaurants. PUDU A1, the first composite robot in the restaurant business, and PUDU D1, the first quadruped delivery robot, open up new possibilities of robot applications across various restaurants and commercial environments.

PUDU SH1 is another foray for Pudu Robotics into the cleaning field after the official release of its first cleaning robot CC1 in mid-November 2021. PUDU SH1 is a professional small-size digital commercial floor scrubber, dedicated to attaining efficient cleaning, convenient operation, and easy management, boosting the cleaning industry's digital upgrading.

This event of Spring New Product Launch marks a new milestone for Pudu Robotics. As the company enters the Pudu Robot 2.0 era and expands its product application areas gradually from catering to buildings, healthcare, cleaning, and other fields, Pudu Robotics has set a larger goal of providing overall delivery, cleaning, marketing, and other comprehensive solutions to more sectors, continuing its mission of using robots to improve the efficiency of human production and living.

For more information on Pudu Robotics, please visit www.pudurobotics.com

Or follow us on social media:

Facebook / YouTube / LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram

About Pudu Robotics

Shenzhen-based and founded in 2016, Pudu Robotics is a world-leading tech-focused enterprise dedicated to the design, R&D, production and sales of commercial service robots, which aims to use robots to improve the efficiency of human production and living. Pudu Robotics has been rapidly growing in recent years to become a "leader" in the global market with coverage of over 60 countries and regions worldwide.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1773111/Product_Launch.jpg
STOCKHOLM, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tobii, the global leader in eye tracking and pioneer of attention computing, announced today the integration of Tobii Aware software into the new MSI Summit and Prestige Series laptops. Tobii Aware takes users' privacy, security, productivity, and wellbeing to the next level. Through attention computing, the software senses the users' presence and intent and adapts to their needs. This is Tobii's first deal with MSI in their line of commercial laptops, which brings the smart software to an additional group of users.

Tobii Aware allows users to safely work in any environment by improving the devices' security and privacy. With Continuous ID authentication, the contents on the screen are blurred when the user looks or steps away and refocuses only when the correct user is active. The device dims and locks automatically shortly after the user leaves as well. The "peeker" detection also uses subtle visual clues to tell the user when another person is looking at the screen. It can then automatically blur the screen if desired, protecting the information shown on the device in scenarios requiring a high level of privacy.

"By integrating Tobii Aware software solution into our latest MSI Summit and Prestige Evo Series laptops, we are providing new innovations to our users by enhancing their security, privacy and also taking care of their wellbeing," said Clark Peng, MSI Notebook Division Vice President of Product Management. "MSI's Summit and Prestige Evo Series laptops take the next step by bringing new innovations to reinforce the importance of security and privacy."

The software also improves productivity and digital wellbeing with various interactive features and provides insights into screen time, user position, distance to the screen, and computer usage. For example, with the "stay awake" feature, the computer will not dim or lock as long as the user is present, increasing focus and productivity.

"Attention computing is becoming the standard in all PCs, and this partnership with MSI demonstrates we are moving in that direction," said Ulrica Wikstrom, VP of PC at Tobii. "Users and businesses want computers that proactively work to keep their information secure while also helping with their wellbeing and productivity. This is exactly what Tobii Aware brings when paired with MSI's new line of laptops."

On a stand-alone basis, this collaboration is not expected to be material for Tobii's revenue in 2022.1

For more information about Tobii Aware, please visit https://tech.tobii.com/products/aware/

For more information about the new MSI Summit Series and Prestige Laptops, please visit https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity

1Tobii defines material impact as more than 10% of total company revenue.

Contact

Lina Perdius, Head of Communications, Tobii AB, phone: +46 (0)70 018 78 75, email: lina.perdius@tobii.com

Henrik Mawby, Head of Investor Relations, Tobii AB, phone: +46 (0)72 219 82 15, email: henrik.mawby@tobii.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

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BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Prices of capital goods monitored by the Chinese government stayed mixed in mid-March, official data showed.

Of the 50 major goods monitored by the government, including seamless steel tubes, gasoline, coal, fertilizer, and some chemicals, 24 reported rising prices during the period, 24 registered lower prices, and two saw prices unchanged, compared with that in early March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Hog prices declined 3.3 percent in mid-March compared with that in early March.

The readings, released every 10 days, are based on a survey of nearly 2,000 wholesalers and distributors in 31 provincial-level regions. 
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - Antler Gold Inc. (TSXV: ANTL) ("Antler" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement ("Agreement") dated March 22, 2022 with Sherpa Resource Holdings Ltd ("Sherpa"), to form a new corporation (the "Project Generator") for the purposes of generating exploration opportunities and projects in Africa. Remote Exploration Services (Pty) Ltd ("RES") is also party to the Agreement as it has agreed to provide consulting services to the Project Generator on terms agreed to and set out in the Agreement. Both Sherpa and RES are arm's length parties to Antler.

Under the Agreement, Antler and Sherpa agreed to jointly target, evaluate and advance new project opportunities in Africa. Projects generated from this initiative will be held by Project Generator to be established by Antler. Project Generator will be owned 87.5% by Antler, with the remaining 12.5% to be held by Sherpa. The majority of the Board of Directors of Project Generator will be appointed by Antler and the parties will enter into a shareholders' agreement to govern their respective rights as shareholders of Project Generator. Antler will be appointed as the manager with the overall responsibility to manage and carry out the mineral exploration operations of Project Generator.

Antler and Sherpa have the right to purchase each other's interest in the Project Generator under specified terms and times. Sherpa may earn a further 2.5% interest at the project level if it is involved or technically responsible for making an economically significant discovery on a property held by Project Generator. The term of the Agreement is for an initial three year period and can be extended if mutually agreed. The Agreement has also been carefully drafted to preserve RES client confidentiality and to avoid conflicts of interest.

Targeted commodities for generative properties to be held in Project Generator will include primarily rare earth elements, green metals and gold. Antler is currently assessing several opportunities to be included in Project Generator.

Daniel Whittaker, President and CEO of Antler commented, "We are excited to enter into this Agreement with Sherpa and RES both of which bring a capacity to work with large data sets and apply a mineral systems approach to target generation deemed key to unlocking new opportunities. We are currently reviewing several and are impressed with the background work performed by RES in evaluating these for potential inclusion in Project Generator."

Brett van Coller, Managing Director of RES stated, "We look forward to continuing the successful relationship we've enjoyed with Antler to date. The Agreement provides an excellent opportunity to identify and advance a number of exploration targets across Africa where we have extensive operational and technical background."

About Antler Gold Inc.

Antler Gold Inc. (TSXV: ANTL) is a Canadian company, focused on the acquisition and exploration of gold projects in Namibia, Zambia and Africa. Antler's Erongo Gold Project covers areas of the Navachab-Damara Belt, which shares geological similarities to the areas containing the known Namibian Gold mines (QKR's Navachab and B2 Golds' Otjikoto) as well as Osino's recent Twin Hills discovery. Namibia is recognized as one of Africa's most politically stable jurisdictions, with an extremely well-established national infrastructure.

The Company continues to assess new opportunities to expand its African portfolio. Further details are available on the Company's website at www.antlergold.com.

About Sherpa and RES

RES is a long standing independent geological services contractor in Africa and has been operating for over 20 years. RES's clients include both major mining companies and junior explorers. RES has the ability to evaluate early stage projects and advance them from concept through the exploration cycle. Further details are available on RES's website at www.res.co.za

Sherpa is a company setup to hold the interests of the project generation team in Project Generator and is a related party to RES.

Cautionary Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information, such as statements regarding future plans and objectives of Antler, including the acquisition of new projects in Africa. This information is based on current expectations and assumptions (including assumptions in connection with the continuance of the applicable company as a going concern and general economic and market conditions) that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, including risks relating to the ability to satisfy the conditions to completion of exploration programmes and fund acquisitions in Africa. Actual results may differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking information. Antler assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information in this release, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information unless and until required by applicable securities laws. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings made by Antler with Canadian securities regulators, copies of which are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact Daniel Whittaker, President and CEO of Antler Gold Inc., at (902) 488-4700 or Chris Drysdale, VP at +264 81 220 2439.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117975
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Taura Gold Inc. (TSXV:TORA) (the "Company" or "Taura") is pleased to provide an exploration update at the Shabu Project located in the Birch-Uchi greenstone belt, approximately 80 km northeast of Red Lake. The Company is in advanced stages of planning a summer 2022 work program to investigate multiple target areas at the property. The 2022 work program will include prospecting, geological mapping and sampling. Additional details of the upcoming work program will be provided as it is finalized.

Recent work at the property includes a soil sampling campaign completed in 2020 by Taura Gold, along with an airborne VLF-EM survey completed in 2020. and a high-resolution helicopter magnetic survey completed in 2019 (Figures 1 & 2). The recent exploration data has been used in conjunction with historically defined gold mineralization to identify multiple areas of interest at the property which will be investigated in the 2022 program.

Figure 1. Total magnetic intensity derived from helicopter magnetic survey at the Shabu property.

Figure 2. First vertical derivative derived from helicopter magnetic survey at the Shabu property.

About the Shabu Project

The Shabu property is located in the Birch-Uchi greenstone belt, approximately 80 km northeast of Red Lake, Ontario. The road accessible property is made up of 32 mining claims that cover an area of 720 ha. Historic work on the property has defined gold mineralization at surface through trenching and diamond drilling. Gold mineralization at the property occurs in quartz-carbonate veins with 2-3% pyrite hosted in shear zones associated with contacts of the granodiorite and porphyritic dykes.

About Taura Gold

Taura Gold is focused on gold exploration in Canada. It is currently actively exploring the Shabu Project in the Red Lake District of Northwestern Ontario. The Company is also active in assessing acquisition and joint venture opportunities in various jurisdictions from time to time.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Karly Oliver, P. Geo., Director of Taura Gold Inc., and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF TAURA GOLD INC.

Dominic Verdejo

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please call 604-678-5308 or email info@tauragold.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Taura Gold

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694470/Taura-Gold-Provides-Exploration-Update-at-the-Shabu-Project
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Annual General Meeting of Aktiebolaget SKF, parent company of the SKF Group, was held on Thursday, 24 March 2022.

Due to Covid-19, the general meeting was held without physical presence by shareholders exercising their voting rights only by postal voting.

The income statements and the balance sheets were adopted, together with the Board's proposal for distribution of dividend. A dividend of SEK 7.00 per share was approved. To be entitled to receive the dividend, shareholders must be recorded in the share register on 28 March 2022.

The Meeting resolved that the Board's fee for 2022 is to be in accordance with the following:

a. an allotment of SEK 2,530,000 to the Chairman of the Board, and SEK 825,000 to each of the other Board members; and

b. an allotment for committee work of SEK?285,000 to the Chairman of the Audit Committee, with SEK 210,000 to each of the other members of the Audit Committee, with SEK 165,000 to the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and with SEK 130,000 to each of the other members of the Remuneration Committee.

A prerequisite for obtaining an allotment is that the Board member is elected by the General Meeting and is not employed by the company.

The following Board members were re-elected: Mr. Hans Straberg, Mr. Hock Goh, Ms. Colleen Repplier, Mr. Geert Follens, Mr. Hakan Buskhe, Ms. Susanna Schneeberger and Mr. Rickard Gustafson.

Mr. Hans Straberg was elected Chairman of the Board.

The Meeting approved the Board's proposal for revised principles of executive remuneration, the Board's remuneration report and the Board's proposal for a resolution on SKF's Performance Share Programme 2022.

Aktiebolaget SKF

(publ)

CONTACT:

For further information, please contact:

PRESS: Carl Bjernstam, Group Communication

tel: 46 31-337 2517; mobile: 46 722-201 893; e-mail: carl.bjernstam@skf.com

INVESTOR RELATIONS: Patrik Stenberg, Head of Investor Relations

tel: 46 31-337 2104; mobile: 46 705-472 104; patrik.stenberg@skf.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/skf/r/annual-general-meeting-of-ab-skf,c3531884

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Nordea Bank Abp / Key word(s): AGMEGM

Nordea Bank Abp: Decisions of Nordea's Annual General Meeting 2022



24.03.2022 / 14:30



Decisions of Nordea's Annual General Meeting 2022 Nordea Bank Abp

Stock exchange release - Decisions of general meeting

24 March 2022 at 14.30 EET The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Nordea Bank Abp was held today at the headquarters of Nordea in Helsinki by applying extraordinary meeting procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to ensure the health and safety of Nordea's shareholders, employees and other stakeholders and to organise the meeting in a predictable manner allowing equal means for shareholders to participate in the meeting, it was not possible to attend the meeting in person. A separate webcast for shareholders will be arranged today at 16.00 EET where the shareholders will be able to follow the presentations of the Chair of the Board of Directors and the President and Group CEO, and have the opportunity to ask questions from senior management followed by an interview with the future Chair of the Board, Stephen Hester. A total of 3,421 shareholders representing 2,362,889,221 shares and votes, corresponding to approximately 60.7% of the total number of shares and votes in Nordea, were represented at the AGM. The AGM supported all the proposals by the Board of Directors and the Shareholders' Nomination Board by at least 84.7% of the votes cast. Annual accounts and discharge of liability The AGM adopted the annual accounts and discharged the members of the Board of Directors, President and Group CEO and Deputy Managing Director from liability for the financial period ending 31?December 2021. Dividend The AGM authorised the Board of Directors to decide on a dividend payment, in one or several instalments, of a maximum of EUR 2,681,667,380 in the aggregate based on the balance sheet adopted for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. The authorisation will remain in force and effect until the beginning of the next AGM. It is intended that the Board of Directors decides on a dividend payment in a single instalment based on the authorisation immediately after the AGM. The intended record date for such dividend payment would be 28 March 2022 whereby the earliest dividend payment date would be 4 April 2022 or as soon as possible after that day. The dividend shall be paid to shareholders who on the applicable record date for the dividend payment are recorded in Nordea's shareholders' register maintained by Euroclear Finland Oy in Finland, Euroclear Sweden AB in Sweden and VP Securities A/S in Denmark. Dividend will not be paid to shares held by Nordea on the dividend record date. Decisions of the Board's statutory meeting will be published separately. Election of the Board members and the Chair of the Board The number of members of the Board of Directors to be elected by the AGM was set at ten. Torbjorn Magnusson, Petra van Hoeken, Robin Lawther, John Maltby, Birger Steen and Jonas Synnergren were re-elected as board members and Stephen Hester, Lene Skole, Arja Talma and Kjersti Wiklund were elected as new board members for the period until the end of the next AGM. Torbjorn Magnusson was re-elected as Chair of the Board of Directors for a term until 30 September 2022, and Stephen Hester was elected as Chair of the Board of Directors for a term from 1 October 2022 until the end of the 2023 Annual General Meeting. Further, the Board of Directors has three ordinary members and one deputy member appointed by the employees of the Nordea Group. For the period until the end of the next AGM, the employees have appointed Dorrit Groth Brandt, Hans Christian Riise and Joanna Koskinen as ordinary members of the Board of Directors and Gerhard Olsson as a deputy member of the Board of Directors. Remuneration Report for Governing Bodies The AGM decided to adopt, through an advisory resolution, the Remuneration Report for the Governing Bodies for 2021. Remuneration of the Board members The AGM decided on annual remuneration to board members amounting to EUR 340,000 for the Chair, EUR 160,000 for the Vice Chair and EUR 102,000 for the other members. The remuneration paid to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Board will be paid in proportion to the term served in the respective positions during the Board of Directors' mandate period. In addition, annual remuneration will be paid for the work on the Board Audit Committee, Board Risk Committee and Board Operations and Sustainability Committee amounting to EUR 65,000 for the committee Chair and EUR 32,500 for the other committee members, and for work on the Board Remuneration and People Committee amounting to EUR 48,000 for the committee Chair and EUR 28,000 for the other committee members. No remuneration is paid to the board members employed by the Nordea Group. The AGM further decided that the company will cover or reimburse the members of the Board of Directors all costs and expenses related to or arising from the Board membership, including travel, logistics and accommodation as well as consultative, legal and administrative costs. The legal costs can e.g. include required legal defence costs related to claims made against Board members in cases where Board members are not found liable or guilty of any wrongdoing or grossly negligent behaviour. Election and remuneration of the auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy was re-elected as the auditor for the period until the end of the next AGM. Authorised public accountant Jukka Paunonen will act as the responsible auditor. The AGM decided that the remuneration of the auditor is to be paid according to the invoice approved by the company. Approval of the revised Charter of the Shareholders' Nomination Board The AGM decided to approve the revised Charter of the Shareholders' Nomination Board. The Charter was revised to effect the transfer of the statutory duty to evaluate the selection criteria and selection process for senior management from the Shareholders' Nomination Board to the Board Remuneration and People Committee. Authorisation for the Board of Directors to decide on the issuance of special rights entitling to shares (convertibles) To facilitate a flexible and efficient adjustment of the company's capital structure to the capital requirements, the Board of Directors was authorised to decide, on one or several occasions, on the issuance of special rights entitling to either new shares or treasury shares in the company, against payment (convertibles) in accordance with or in deviation from the shareholder's pre-emptive subscription rights. The maximum number of shares that may be issued based on the authorisation is 350,000,000 shares, which corresponds to approximately 8.99% of all the shares in the company on the date of the notice to the Annual General Meeting. The Board of Directors was authorised to decide on all other matters relating to the issuance of convertibles. The issuance of convertibles by virtue of this authorisation shall be made on market terms and principally be issued in the international capital markets. The authorisation shall remain in force and effect until the earlier of (i) the end of the next AGM or (ii) 18 months from the AGM decision. Repurchase and transfer of own shares in the securities trading business The AGM decided that Nordea, before the end of the next AGM, may repurchase its own shares on an ongoing basis in order to facilitate its securities trading business. The company's shares may be repurchased otherwise than in proportion to the shareholdings of the company's shareholders (directed repurchases). The maximum number of own shares to be repurchased shall not exceed 175,000,000 shares, which corresponds to approximately 4.50% of all the shares in the company on the date of the notice to the Annual General Meeting. Further, the AGM decided that the company, before the end of the next AGM, may, in order to facilitate its securities trading business, transfer its own shares in the ordinary course of its securities trading business in deviation from the shareholders' pre-emptive subscription rights by way of directed share issuances. The maximum number of own shares to be transferred shall not exceed 175,000,000 shares, which corresponds to approximately 4.50% of all the shares in the company on the date of the notice to the Annual General Meeting. The AGM decided to approve all subscriptions that will be made in accordance with the terms and conditions of the directed issuance. Authorisation for the Board of Directors to decide on the repurchase of own shares The Board of Directors was authorised to decide, on one or several occasions, on the repurchase of an aggregate of not more than 350,000,000 shares in the company, which corresponds to approximately 8.99% of all the shares in the company on the date of the notice to the Annual General Meeting, subject to the condition that the number of own shares held by the company together with its subsidiaries at any given time may not exceed 10% of all the shares in the company. Not more than 350,000,000 shares may be repurchased to distribute excess capital in order to optimise the capital structure of the company and not more than 8,000,000 shares may be repurchased to be used in the company's variable pay plans in accordance with regulatory requirements and/or as required for new variable pay plans for executive officers, senior management, other material risk takers and other employees, as appropriate. Own shares may only be repurchased using the unrestricted equity of the company, and may be repurchased either through an offer to all shareholders on equal terms or through other means and otherwise than in proportion to the existing shareholdings of the company's shareholders (directed repurchases). The highest purchase price per share shall be no more than the higher of (i) the highest price paid for the company's shares in public trading on the day of repurchase or alternatively (ii) the average of the share prices (volume weighted average price on the regulated markets where the company's share is admitted to trading) during the five trading days preceding the repurchase or the offer to repurchase own shares, and the lowest purchase price per share shall be the price that is 20% lower than the lower of (i) the lowest price paid for the company's shares in public trading on the day of repurchase or alternatively (ii) the average of the share prices (volume weighted average price on the regulated markets where the company's share is admitted to trading) during the five trading days preceding the repurchase or the offer to repurchase own shares. Furthermore, in connection with the repurchases of its own shares, the company may enter into derivative, share lending or other similar arrangements. The Board of Directors was authorised to decide on all other terms relating to the repurchase. The authorisation shall remain in force and effect until 18 months from the AGM decision. The authorisation does not revoke the authorisation to decide on the repurchase of own shares granted to the Board of Directors by the AGM held on 24 March 2021 which, in accordance with that authorisation, will remain in effect until 24 September 2022. Any decision by the Board of Directors to repurchase shares based on the authorisation is subject to the condition that the company has obtained the necessary regulatory permissions from the European Central Bank. Authorisation for the Board of Directors to decide on share issuances or transfers of own shares The Board of Directors was authorised, on one or several occasions, to decide on the issuance of new shares or the transfer of own shares of not more than 30,000,000 shares in the company, which corresponds to approximately 0.77% of all the shares in the company on the date of the notice to the Annual General Meeting. The shares may be issued or transferred in proportion to the company's shareholders' existing shareholdings in the company or in deviation from the shareholders' pre-emptive subscription right by way of a directed issuance. The shares to be issued or transferred in this way may be used to implement variable pay plans in accordance with regulatory requirements and/or as required for new variable pay plans for executive officers, senior management, other material risk takers and other employees, as appropriate, or as payment in connection with corporate acquisitions. The Board of Directors was authorised to decide on all other terms relating to the issuance of new shares or transfers of own shares. The authorisation shall remain in force and effect until the earlier of (i) the end of the next AGM or (ii) 18 months from the AGM decision. Statutory meeting of the Board of Directors and Presentations of the Chair of the Board of Directors and the President and Group CEO, webcast for shareholders and minutes of the AGM The statutory meeting of Nordea's Board of Directors is held immediately after the AGM and the relevant decisions made in the meeting will be published separately. The pre-recorded presentations by the Chair of the Board of Directors, Torbjorn Magnusson, and the President and Group CEO, Frank Vang-Jensen, will be available today on Nordea's website at www.nordea.com/agm. A webcast for shareholders will be arranged today at 16.00 EET where the shareholders will be able to follow the presentations of the Chair of the Board of Directors and the President and Group CEO. Further, the shareholders will have the opportunity to ask questions from senior management followed by an interview with the future Chair of the Board, Stephen Hester. A recording of the webcast will be available on Nordea's website at www.nordea.com/agm after the webcast. The minutes of the Annual General Meeting will be available on Nordea's website at www.nordea.com/agm as of 7 April 2022 at the latest. For further information: Matti Ahokas, Head of Investor Relations, +358 9 5300 8011 The information provided in this stock exchange release was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 14.30 EET on 24 March 2022. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

End of Media Release


The 8.4 metre pegmatite dike averaged 0.95% Li2O with grades hitting a high of 1.76% Li2O

Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX) ("Benton") and Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC) (OTCQB: SICNF) ("Sokoman") together, ("the Alliance") are pleased to report the first assay results from the 1,025 m reconnaissance drilling program, that tested the recently discovered Kraken pegmatite field on the Golden Hope Joint Venture Property in southwestern Newfoundland. The samples were cut from an 8.40 m wide (drilled thickness), spodumene-bearing, pegmatite dike that returned the following assays:

Widths reported are believed to be 90% of true thickness



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Assay values ranged from 0.08% to 1.76% Li2O reflecting variations of spodumene content, and the presence of occasional barren wall rock or quartz vein inclusions, averaging 0.95% Li2O over 8.40 m from 47.8 to 56.2 m. Other pegmatite dikes ranging from 0.40 m to 2.30 m with variable spodumene content were also intersected in hole GH-22-01 with assays pending. Gold analysis results from the host sericite schist units carrying variable pyrite are also pending. All samples submitted, 1,165 including blanks and standards, for the remainder of GH-22-01 as well as for holes GH-22-02 to 06 are pending.

Golden Hope Project - Kraken Pegmatite Swarm Drilling/Sampling Update

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3657/117981_map1.png

The 1,025 m program focused on a 100 m by 150 m area in the vicinity of the initial discovery (see map), which included more than 100 float and outcrop grab samples and composite chip samples, that returned lithium values ranging from 0.05% to 2.37% Li2O. Multiple mineralized, spodumene-bearing dikes were intersected in all drill holes ranging from less than 1.0 m to 8.40 m in drilled thickness (true thicknesses believed to be 90% of drilled thickness), from surface to approximately 50 m vertically below surface. The Kraken pegmatite field has been sampled over a strike length of 2,200 metres and an apparent width of 1,200 metres, and historical assessment work reports pegmatite dikes exposed up to 6 kilometres along trend.

All samples have been shipped to Activation Laboratories in Ancaster, Ontario for multi-element analysis including lithium, tantalum, cesium and other rare/critical metals by Sodium Peroxide Fusion ICPOES + ICPMS. Gold will be analyzed by fire assay.

The property lies along the Bay d'Est fault system, a gold prospective fault structure in southern Newfoundland that extends through the Sokoman/Benton licences. The Alliance continues to evaluate historical data for significant gold and lithium mineralization and will restart ground prospecting and follow-up exploration once weather conditions permit.

Benton's President and CEO Stephen Stares, states: "The first drill hole drilled for lithium on the Island of Newfoundland has confirmed good grades of lithium comparable to other lithium pegmatite systems worldwide. We've barely scratched the surface of this extensive system and we're anxious to get back on the ground, prosecting, sampling, mapping and drilling and completing more regional exploration in general. Both companies are very well financed to execute our upcoming field season plans. I'm confident that this summer will unveil excellent value for our shareholders."

Sokoman's President and CEO Tim Froude, comments: "The Alliance is pleased with the first assays from our recon drilling program at the Kraken pegmatite field. Our objectives for the program were to establish significant lithium values to depth and to better understand the distribution and orientation of the dikes - the results have confirmed our objectives, with grades reported comparing favourably to many global lithium projects currently known. We wish to emphasize that we have just scratched the surface with the exploration to date, and that we have extensive work ahead of us to establish the limits of the dike swarm given that previous workers have reported pegmatites at least six kilometres on trend from the area just drilled. The Alliance is purchasing a camp to facilitate a larger drill program that will be put in place once we receive all required permits. In the meantime, as soon as conditions allow, we will be prospecting and sampling the many reported dike occurrences beyond the area already sampled to establish the true extent of the lithium-enriched dike swarm."

The Alliance has created a short video for this announcement. Investors can watch it HERE.

QP

This news release has been reviewed and approved by Timothy Froude, P. Geo., President and CEO of Sokoman Minerals Corp. a 'Qualified Person' under National Instrument 43-101.

COVID-19 Protocols

To ensure a working environment that protects the health and safety of the staff and contractors, Benton and Sokoman will continue to use best practices in the course of performing our work programs and will follow any future federal or provincially mandated or recommended COVID-19 guidelines.

About Benton Resources Inc.

Benton Resources Inc. is a well-funded mineral exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BEX. Following a project generation business model, Benton has a diversified, highly prospective property portfolio in Gold, Silver, Nickel, Copper, Lithium, and Platinum Group Elements and currently holds large equity positions in other mining companies that are advancing high-quality assets. Whenever possible, BEX retains Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalties for potential long-term cash flow. In 2021, Benton entered into a 50/50 strategic alliance with Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC) through three large-scale joint-venture properties including Grey River Gold, Golden Hope and Kepenkeck in Newfoundland that are now being explored.

About Sokoman Minerals Corp.

Sokoman Minerals Corp. is a discovery-oriented company with projects in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The company's primary focus is its portfolio of gold projects: flagship, 100%-owned Moosehead, Crippleback Lake (optioned to Trans Canada Gold Corp.) and East Alder (optioned to Canterra Minerals Corporation) along the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt, and the district-scale Fleur de Lys project in northwestern Newfoundland, that is targeting Dalradian-type orogenic gold mineralization similar to the Curraghinalt and Cavanacaw deposits in Northern Ireland, and Cononish in Scotland. The company has also entered into a strategic alliance (the Alliance) with Benton Resources Inc. through three large-scale joint-venture properties including Grey River Gold, Golden Hope and Kepenkeck on the island of Newfoundland. Sokoman now controls independently and through the Alliance over 150,000 hectares (>6,000 claims - 1,500 sq. km), making it one of the largest landholders in Newfoundland, Canada's newest and rapidly-emerging gold district. Sokoman also retains an interest in an early-stage antimony/gold project (Startrek) in Newfoundland, optioned to White Metal Resources Inc., and in Labrador, the company has a 100% interest in the Iron Horse (Fe) project that has Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) potential.

For further information, please contact:

CHF Capital Markets

Cathy Hume, CEO

Phone: 416-868-1079 x 251

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Benton Resources Inc.

Stephen Stares, President & CEO

Phone: 807-475-7474

Email: sstares@bentonresources.ca

Sokoman Minerals Corp.

Timothy Froude, P. Geo., President & CEO

Phone: 709-765-1726

Email: tim@sokomanmineralscorp.com

Website: www.bentonresources.ca, www.sokomanmineralscorp.com

Twitter: @BentonResources, @SokomanMinerals

Facebook: @BentonResourcesBEX, @SokomanMinerals

LinkedIn: @BentonResources, @SokomanMinerals

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements."

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Alliance's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Alliance's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Alliance's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Alliance does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Alliance's expectations or projections.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117981


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With orders for transportation equipment pulling back sharply, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods tumbled by much more than expected in the month of February.



The Commerce Department said durable goods orders slumped by 2.2 percent in February after jumping by 1.6 percent in January. Economists had expected durable goods orders to dip by 0.5 percent.



The much bigger than expected decrease in durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment plunged by 5.6 percent in February after surging by 3.2 percent in January.



Orders for non-defense aircraft and parts led the way lower, plummeting by 30.4 percent in February after soaring by 10.9 percent in January.



Excluding the steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders fell by 0.6 percent in February after climbing by 0.8 percent in January. The decrease surprised economists, who had expected ex-transportation orders to rise by 0.6 percent.



The unexpected drop in ex-transportation orders reflected notable declines in orders for machinery, computer and electronic products and primary metals.



The report also showed orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a key indicator of business spending, dipped by 0.3 percent in February after jumping by 1.3 percent in January.



Meanwhile, shipments in the same category, which is the source data for equipment investment in GDP, rose by 0.5 percent in February after spiking by 2.1 percent in the previous month.



'We expect durable goods activity to regain their footing in the months ahead, owing to a still-solid domestic backdrop,' said Oren Klachkin, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. 'Businesses may be more vigilant as recent events exacerbate logistics constraints and add upward pressure to prices, but they're unlikely to pull back significantly on investment.



'The overarching backdrop of healthy domestic demand backdrop will keep U.S. businesses spending,' he added. 'In fact, greater supply chain strains will force U.S. businesses to operate more adeptly and may encourage more investment.'







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Atalaya Mining Plc. ("Atalaya" or the "Company") Directorate Change

NICOSIA, CYPRUS / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / Atalaya Mining Plc (AIM:ATYM, TSX:AYM) announces that Mr. Harry Liu has stepped down as a Non-Executive Director of the Company with immediate effect.

Mr. Liu was appointed Director of the Company on 1 October 2012. In accordance with the terms of the Subscription Agreement between Yanggu Xiangguang Copper Co. Ltd ("XGC") and the Company dated 7 July 2012.

XGC continue to have the right to appoint a Non-Executive Director to the Company while its shareholding in Atalaya is above 10% of the total issued shares carrying voting rights as a result of an agreement dated 28 May 2015 between the Company and XGC.

Alberto Lavandeira, CEO, commented:

"I would like to thank Mr. Liu for his contribution to the Company. His unconditional and long standing support as a Director and as a representative of XGC has been key for the development of Proyecto Riotinto in the recent history of the Company."

This announcement contains information which, prior to its publication constituted inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

Contacts:

SEC Newgate UK Elisabeth Cowell / Axaule Shukanayeva / Max Richardson + 44 20 3757 6882 4C Communications Carina Corbett +44 20 3170 7973 Canaccord Genuity

(NOMAD and Joint Broker) Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / James Asensio +44 20 7523 8000 BMO Capital Markets

(Joint Broker) Tom Rider / Andrew Cameron +44 20 7236 1010 Peel Hunt LLP

(Joint Broker) Ross Allister / David McKeown +44 20 7418 8900

About Atalaya Mining Plc

Atalaya is an AIM and TSX-listed mining and development group which produces copper concentrates and silver by-product at its wholly owned Proyecto Riotinto site in southwest Spain. Atalaya's current operations include the Cerro Colorado open pit mine and a modern 15 Mtpa processing plant, which has the potential to become a centralised processing hub for ore sourced from its wholly owned regional projects around Riotinto that include Proyecto Masa Valverde and Proyecto Riotinto East. In addition, the Group has a phased, earn-in agreement for up to 80% ownership of Proyecto Touro, a brownfield copper project in the northwest of Spain. For further information, visit www.atalayamining.com

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Atalaya Mining Plc

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694536/Atalaya-Mining-PLC-Announces-Directorate-Change
Salzburg (ots) -This season's winners of the European Publishing Awards have been announced. "Beobachter", a magazine published by Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland, will be awarded as European Magazine of the Year. This year's competition saw some 300 entries from 16 markets all across Europe. The trophies will be consigned during the European Publishing Congress 2022 on June 19th/20th in Vienna"Beobachter" owns some 200,000 subscribers. Long before the rise of the internet, the Swiss magazine understood itself as a community model. Founded 57 years ago, Beobachter offers journalism as well as practical guidance, also on the phone and on-line. Books are published under the brand umbrella, and the aid organization SOS Beobachter supports people in misery. The magazine connects these activities and formats and publishes both consumer information and investigative editorial.Newcomer of the Year in the magazine sector is "Kissed" from UNA GlitzaStein (Berlin). The award for the Digital Publishing Platform of the Year goes to the OECD COVID Digital Hub published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.The European Publishing Awards, anually conducted by Salzburg-based Medienfachverlag Oberauer, honor the best digital media, magazines and newspapers of Europe's various media industries. The international jury consists of publishing experts from markets across Europe. More details, all winners and the program of the European Publishing Congress on June 19/20th in Viennna can be found at https://www.publishing-congress.com/awards/?lang=enPressekontakt:Medienfachverlag Oberauerevents@oberauer.comOriginal-Content von: Medienfachverlag Oberauer GmbH, ubermittelt durch news aktuellOriginalmeldung: https://www.presseportal.de/pm/66148/5179793




Thursday, March 24, 2022

Dear Shareholders and Investors,



We are pleased to inform you that Ms. Jenny Chu will be suggested to be elected as a Board Member of NAT. This is the first time a female will join the NAT Board. NAT was stocklisted in 1995.



She is expected to join the NAT Board at the end of April 2022.



Enclosed please find her Curriculum Vitae (CV).



She is an American citizen domiciled in Los Angeles. Her competence is impressive, which you will see in the enclosed CV.

Her comprehensive experience is reflected in the attachment.



For contacts, please see at the end of this message. www.nat.bm



CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.

The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and worldwide oil consumption and storage, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our reports on Form 6-K.

NAT is a Bermuda based company.

Contacts:

Gary J. Wolfe

Seward & Kissel LLP

New York, USA

Tel: +1 212 574 1223

Bjrn Giver, CFO

Nordic American Tankers Ltd

Tel: +1 888 755 8391 or +47 91 35 00 91

Herbjrn Hansson, Founder, Chairman & CEO

Nordic American Tankers Ltd

Tel: +1 866 805 9504

Attachment
TABULA ICAV



5 George's Dock

IFSC

Dublin 1

This circular (the "Circular") has not been reviewed by the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") and it is possible that changes thereto may be necessary to meet the Central Bank's requirements. The Directors accept responsibility for the information contained in this Circular.



This Circular is important and requires your immediate attention. If you are in doubt as to the action you should take you should seek advice from your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent financial adviser. If you have sold or transferred all of your shares in the Fund referred to below, please pass this Circular at once to the purchaser or transferee or to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was effected for transmission to the purchaser or transferee as soon as possible.



Dear Shareholder,

We refer to EUR Accumulation and EUR Distribution Shares of Tabula European IG Performance Credit UCITS ETF with ISIN number IE00BG0J8M66 & IE00BG0J8L59 (the "Shares").

Further to our Circular dated 22/02/2022 concerning the closure of these share classes on 14/03/2022, we write to inform you that the payment date will be 25/03/22, with a final Net Asset Value per share of 107.24072447 & 99.48766921.



Yours sincerely,





For and on behalf of

Tabula ICAV


BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The United States should give a convincing account of its biological military activities in Ukraine and around the world as soon as possible, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily press briefing that the international community has major concerns about the purpose of the U.S. research in the biological laboratories in Ukraine and about whether the country conducted dangerous research prohibited in the United States in its overseas facilities.

He noted that the U.S. side cannot remain silent or simply prevaricate by alleging that relevant reports are "disinformation."

The best way for the U.S. side to prove its innocence is to open its doors and allow examination by the international community, Wang said, urging the United States to be forthright about its biological military activities in Ukraine and the rest of the world, and stop blocking the building of the Biological Weapons Convention verification protocol. 
CHARLESTON, SC, / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / The Kempton of Charleston was officially declared open by Mayor John Tecklenburg, Liberty Senior leadership and MUSC officials at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the community located at 194 Spring St. The Kempton of Charleston is the first community in downtown Charleston to provide a variety of healthcare accommodations including Assisted Living, Memory Support, Skilled Nursing and Rehab.

Will Purvis, President of Liberty Senior Living says, "We are excited to have a presence in downtown Charleston. We look forward to not only introducing a unique and beautiful community for residents to call home but also in forming strong bonds and relationships with those that live and work within downtown Charleston."

The Kempton of Charleston, in affiliation with MUSC, will offer cardiac rehabilitation specialties as well as physician services to residents in the community. The community consists of fifty (50) assisted living apartments, twenty-one (21) memory care apartments, and a physical rehabilitation unit for short-term rehabilitation if needed following a hospital stay.

"The Kempton of Charleston lives like a luxury hotel but was designed specifically for seniors. The community offers several upscale restaurants, a beauty salon, a theater and many outdoor spaces including multiple roof-top terraces and so much more." says, Executive Director, Lindsay French.

The new community will be managed by Liberty Senior Living, LLC, a division of Liberty Healthcare Management. Based in North Carolina and established in 1875, Liberty Healthcare Management is an experienced, family-owned company that has been assisting people to manage their healthcare and residential needs for over 145 years. Liberty Senior Living owns and manages a variety of senior living communities in the Southeast region of the United States.

For additional information about Liberty Senior Living contact Dean Dellaria, Corporate Director of Marketing and Sales, Liberty Senior Living, 910-726-0868 or visit libertyseniorliving.com

Contact:

Lindsay French

lfrench@libertyseniorliving.com

(315) 576-7526

SOURCE: Liberty Senior Living

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694399/Liberty-Senior-Living-Announces-Charleston-Peninsulas-First-Assisted-Living-Memory-Care-Skilled-Nursing-and-Rehabilitation-Community-Open--Kempton-of-Charleston
STOCKHOLM, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MARAD (United States Maritime Administration) has signed a contract for the purchase of two vessels. Crowley serves as vessel acquisition manager (responsible for contract implementation), and Stena RoRo is part of Crowley's project team on the shipping and logistics company's behalf for MARAD. Stena RoRo is participating as market experts and brokers, as well as providing support in contract drafting.

MARAD is purchasing two vessels from the American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group (ARC). The vessels will be part of the RRF fleet. More vessel purchases are expected to follow as the fleet is in need of rejuvenation.



Stena RoRo is part of the project team that Crowley created for the MARAD contract. Stena RoRo assists in the process of finding and selecting new vessels, serves as a broker and supports the parties in drawing up contracts in connection with the purchase of vessels.



Stena RoRo has extensive experience and knowledge of the global markets relevant to MARAD's very specific requirements.



"We are delighted to be assisting MARAD in strengthening the RRF fleet, and looking forward to participating in more vessel purchases within the framework of this collaborative arrangement," says Ambjorn Frojd, Commercial Project Manager, Stena RoRo.



The vessels that MARAD has agreed to purchase from ARC are the M/V Freedom and the M/V Honor. The RRF is part of MARAD and already has some 40 vessels.



For more information, please contact

Per Westling, Managing Director, Stena RoRo AB

Tel: +46 31 855154; +46 704 85 51 54

Email: per.westling@stena.com



Since 1977, Stena RoRo has led the development of new marine RoRo, cargo and passenger concepts. We provide custom-built vessels, as well as standardized RoRo and RoPax vessels. The company leases about fifteen vessels to operators worldwide, both other Stena companies and third parties. Stena RoRo specializes above all in applying its technical expertise to the design and production of new vessels and the conversion of existing vessels for providing tailored transport solutions to its customers. We call this "Stenability". Since 2013, we have been responsible for the design and completion of Mercy Ships' new hospital vessel the Global Mercy - the world's largest civilian hospital ship which was delivered in 2021. www.stenaroro.com



More information about:

Crowley's Government Solutions: Crowley Government Solutions

MSP: Maritime Security Program (MSP) | MARAD (dot.gov).

ARC Shipping : American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (arcshipping.com)



Foto: M/V Honor, at lay-by berth in Norfolk

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/stena-roro/r/stena-roro-assisting-marad-in-purchase-of-two-vessels-for-ready-reserve-force--rrf-,c3532030

The following files are available for download:
-- First Limited NFT Distributed to Live Participants at the Avalanche Summit Held in Barcelona --

BridgeTower Capital, an innovator in connecting blockchain markets globally, announced a partnership with Artemundi, a leading global art fund, to release a series of NFTs featuring the work of acclaimed Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The announcement was made at the Avalanche Summit this week in Barcelona, where all live attendees received the NFT of Goya's Caprice No. 6 titled, "No One Knows Each Other."

"Francisco Goya is frequently recognized for his ability to portray the human condition and we believe this series of NFTs are a unique opportunity to bring the work of this Spanish Master to an entirely new audience for appreciation," said Artemundi Chief Executive Officer Javier Lumbreras. "Goya's work transcends time. This piece Caprice No. 6 shines light on our ability to effectively connect with each other. This has never been more relevant today and is at the core of our society within the expanding Metaverse."

Caprice No. 6 is the first of a series of Goya NFTs that will be released over the next year and will be selected from 80 Caprices owned by Artemundi. Each will include an introduction about Goya, a description and translation title for all countries and a short, formal description of the symbolism of the piece. The NFTs will reside in the BridgeTower Permissioned Market, that investors can enter by creating a Securitize iD for a seamless KYC process that can be carried out in minutes. Securitize is a global leader in compliant issuance of digital assets and securities.

"It is an honor for BridgeTower to participate in this partnership with Artemundi celebrating the work of Francisco Goya," said BridgeTower CEO Cory Pugh. "The BridgeTower Permissioned Market is a perfect place for these NFTs to reside and to create through smart contracts within the Market the proper asset ownership and authority for the investor."

One of the most important elements of the Goya NFT collection will be the opportunities created for new and deeper interactions with a community of appreciation for Goya's work. Discussion Forums will be built to discuss 21st Century interpretation of the Caprices, discussion of artistic expression, language, qualitative and subjective value of the Caprice. Additionally, a "how to see and appreciate your Goya Caprice" will be excerpted from the book The Art of Collecting Art, written by Javier Lumbreras.

The 21st Century relevance of the Goya masterpieces offer compelling themes that could be taken from today's headlines. In addition to the Metaverse, upcoming Goya NFTs will feature themes including gender inequality, demagogue/fake news, freedom and the events in Ukraine.

"NFTs are just an incredible opportunity to participate in art in the 21st century," continued Lumbreras. "It truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we're thrilled to be a part of this partnership between Artemundi and BridgeTower Capital."

About BridgeTower Capital

BridgeTower Capital has developed a global platform to uniquely bring products to its own permissioned markets to seamlessly enable an institutional gateway to staking, DeFi, NFT and Web 3.0 entities. BridgeTower operates more than 5,000 of its own staking nodes and owns servers utilizing 100 percent renewable energy. Significant portions of returns from these products are reinvested to continually grow BridgeTower's infrastructure and assets. BridgeTower is a global company based in Singapore with operating entities in Switzerland and the United States allowing it to compliantly address many of the most important jurisdictions in the global economy.

Learn more at http://www.bridgetowercapital.com.

About Artemundi

Artemundi was born out of a rebellious idea and a principled objective: to help their clients build and diversify their art investments without the excessive fees associated with traditional brick-and-mortar art companies while adhering to transparent business practices. Since its foundation in 1989, Artemundi has evolved into an industry-leading art investment company with thousands of successful transactions and over a billion dollars managed in art.

Learn more at https://artemundi.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005766/en/

Contacts:

Media Contacts

BridgeTower: Todd Wolfenbarger, todd@bridgetowercapital.com

Artemundi: Daniel Fabris, Daniel.fabris@artemundi.com
Start of commercial production in Pomacle

First batches manufactured in March 2022

Commercial launch at In-Cosmetics in Paris

Scale-up trajectory accelerated

Paris, 24 March 2022 - Global Bioenergies announces the start of production at its Pomacle unit. Pomacle is at the heart of a new and fully French renewable isododecane production chain. Its commercial launch will take place under the "Isonaturane 12" brand at In-Cosmetics in Paris in early April. The Company is accelerating its scale-up trajectory and reaffirming its ambitions in aviation biofuels.

Start of commercial production in Pomacle

The Company's first commercial unit, located on the ARD site in Pomacle-Bazancourt, near Reims, has begun production on schedule. The first batches of biosourced isobutene have been manufactured at this unit in March 2022.

This new and fully French production chain, using raw materials sourced locally, was established thanks to developments in the manufacturing process, which now relies on subcontractors both upstream (industrial fermentation) and downstream (green chemistry).

Participation in the In-Cosmetics trade show

To promote this emerging sector, Global Bioenergies is to exhibit its flagship ingredient at In-Cosmetics from 5 to 7 April. In-Cosmetics is the world's leading trade show for cosmetic ingredients. Isonaturane 12 will be marketed to the big names in cosmetics and major manufacturers in the field.

Daphne Galvez, Global Bioenergies Head of Sales, said: "In-Cosmetics is a great place to showcase innovations and the ideal venue to launch a new ingredient on the market. It will represent a new milestone for Global Bioenergies: Isonaturane 12 has cleared all the regulatory hurdles. It has been validated at market scale with our LAST make-up brand, the first in the world to combine longwear, waterproof and no transfer properties with natural origin. Our aim is now to distribute this innovative ingredient to players in the field, in order to help them convert their make-up ranges to naturalness without any compromise on performance. The start-up of the new unit will enable us to respond to sampling requests from numerous prospects, and complete referencing procedures prior to the commercial delivery of material in the second half of 2022."

Accelerated scale-up prospects

The success of the unit's start-up without any major difficulties means that the scale-up schedule can be accelerated: the Company now expects to reach full capacity by the end of 2022, rather than over 18 months as initially projected. That will take the unit's isobutene annual production capacity to 100 tonnes. The isobutene will then be converted into isododecane for the make-up ingredients market.

The scale-up to 1,000 tonnes, planned for late 2024 or early 2025, is starting to look like a realistic prospect. The aim will be to target the broader dermo-cosmetics and hair care markets. That will put Global Bioenergies in a strong position to target the much larger aviation biofuels market by 2026 or 2027. Using the ingredient in this sector will bring a significant environmental impact (CO 2 reductions), while at the same time helping reduce Europe's energy dependency.

Marc Delcourt, Chief Executive Officer of Global Bioenergies, said: "The fight against global warming and the quest to achieve Europe's strategic challenges have become central concerns across the board, and remind us of the relevance of the Company's strategy and investments since its creation in 2008. Our target markets, cosmetic ingredients in the short term and aviation biofuels in the medium term, are booming: the number of potential customers is increasing rapidly, as are the potential competitors for our Company. We can now state that our process, patiently developed over more than 10 years, is unique and offers specific and decisive advantages that will enable us to compete in the cosmetic ingredients market. In the aviation biofuels market, it will be necessary to improve performance further, but we believe that to be achievable within 12 to 24 months. We will then boast the best fermentation process in the world to decarbonise air transport."

About GLOBAL BIOENERGIES

Global Bioenergies has developed a process to convert plant-derived resources into a family of compounds used in the cosmetics industry as well as the energy and materials sectors. In 2021, the Group entered the market with the launch of LAST, its own make-up brand with formulas based on a key ingredient produced via its technology. The Company is constantly seeking to enhance the performance of its process while gradually ramping up production capacities in order to supply ingredients to major cosmetics manufacturers, thereby promoting naturalness in the industry whilst improving its carbon footprint. Some of these compounds can also be used to produce renewable plastics, rubbers and paints. Lastly, Global Bioenergies is also aiming to reduce CO 2 emissions in the aviation sector and thereby curb global warming. Global Bioenergies is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (FR0011052257 - ALGBE).

Receive information about Global Bioenergies directly by subscribing to our news feed on www.global-bioenergies.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GlobalBioenergi

Contacts

GLOBAL BIOENERGIES

Let's meet at In-Cosmetics:

Stand S40

Daphne Galvez

Head of Sales

Phone: 33 7 87 04 51 03

BOOK (https://calendly.com/gbe-in-cosmetics/30min?month=2022-04) A MEETING







invest@global-bioenergies.com (mailto:invest@global-bioenergies.com)



PRESS RELATIONS







Iva Baytcheva

ibaytcheva@ulysse-communication.com (mailto:ibaytcheva@ulysse-communication.com)











Nicolas Daniels

ndaniels@ulysse-communication.com (mailto:ndaniels@ulysse-communication.com)





Attachment
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - While reporting its results for the full year 2021 on Thursday, Daimler Truck (DDAIF.PK) said it expects the North American market to be between 255,000 and 295,000 units and the European market to be between 240,000 and 280,000 units. For its industrial business Daimler Truck anticipates an increase in unit sales to a range between 500,000 and 520,000 units in 2022. The company expects revenue on group level in 2022 to increase to between 45.5 and 47.5 billion. The company expects significant increase in adjusted EBIT, while EBIT is expected slight decrease. 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.
BlackRock Throgmorton Trust plc

(LEI: 5493003B7ETS1JEDPF59)

Result of AGM

BlackRock Throgmorton Trust plc announces that, at the Annual General Meeting held today, all 17 resolutions were duly passed on a poll.

The full text of the resolutions can be found in the Notice of Annual General Meeting set out in the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 November 2021, which has previously been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism.



Under listing rule 9.6.2 a copy of the resolutions has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism, and will shortly be made available for inspection at:



https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism



Proxy votes received in respect of the resolutions were as follows:

Votes

For

% Votes

Against

% Votes

Total % of Available

Voting Rights* Votes

Withheld Resolution 1 44,471,259 99.99 5,969 0.01 44,477,228 43.09 2,967 Resolution 2 44,374,703 99.80 87,777 0.20 44,462,480 43.08 17,715 Resolution 3 44,482,128 100.00 725 0.00 44,482,853 43.10 2,967 Resolution 4 42,580,615 95.74 1,892,641 4.26 44,473,256 43.09 12,564 Resolution 5 44,153,321 99.28 319,935 0.72 44,473,256 43.09 12,564 Resolution 6 44,163,518 99.32 301,697 0.68 44,465,215 43.08 20,605 Resolution 7 44,173,492 99.33 299,823 0.67 44,473,315 43.09 12,505 Resolution 8 44,174,580 99.33 299,823 0.67 44,474,403 43.09 11,417 Resolution 9 44,165,959 99.32 301,946 0.68 44,467,905 43.09 11,358 Resolution 10 41,778,504 93.96 2,687,809 6.04 44,466,313 43.08 19,507 Resolution 11 44,456,325 99.96 18,396 0.04 44,474,721 43.09 11,099 Resolution 12 44,296,289 99.65 154,874 0.35 44,451,163 43.07 34,657 Resolution 13 44,413,264 99.87 58,445 0.13 44,471,709 43.09 14,111 Resolution 14 44,393,561 99.82 79,214 0.18 44,472,775 43.09 13,045 Resolution 15 43,672,056 98.21 795,625 1.79 44,467,681 43.08 18,139 Resolution 16 40,767,892 91.68 3,701,298 8.32 44,469,190 43.09 16,630 Resolution 17 44,459,020 99.95 22,157 0.05 44,481,177 43.10 4,643

*Available Voting Rights equals 103,209,864

24 March 2022
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

24 March 2022

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 25,000 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 815.80p per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 9 February 2022.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 1,460,421; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 223,530,882.

The figure of 223,530,882 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
Paris, March 24, 2022 - 17:45 CET

GROSS PROFIT UP 27% AT 49.0 MILLION (62% MARGIN VS 55% IN 2020)

EBITDA OF 6.4 MILLION AND NET PROFIT OF 1.1 MILLION, ABOVE EXPECTATIONS

ALL FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES CONFIRMED



Paris, March 24, 2022 - Ateme (ISIN: FR0011992700) has published Full Year 2021 Results, as approved by its Board of Directors on 23 March 2022. The consolidated financial statements have been audited in full. The auditors' report will be published once the due diligence procedures required for the publication of the annual financial report have been completed.

Consolidated data (in  million) FY 2020 FY 2020 FYI 2021 Change IFRS restated * 2021 vs 2020 restated Revenue 70.7 70.1 78.8 +12% Gross profit 38.9 38.5 49.0 +27% Gross margin (%) 55.0% 55.0% 62.1% Operating profit 1.2 1.2 1.1 -9% Operating margin (%) 1.7% 1.7% 1.4% Financial profit / loss -1.4 -1.4 0.5 Tax income -0.1 -0.1 0.2 Group net profit of continued activities -0.3 -0.2 1.8 Net margin -0.4% -0.4% 2.3% Group net profit -0.3 -0.3 1.1 Net margin -0.4% -0.4% 1.4%

(*) Following the disposal of the Enterprise business, financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions of IFRS 5 relating to discontinued operations.



Market share gains

As reported on January 27th, total Revenues amounted 81.1 million for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2021. Restated for the divestment of the former Anevia Enterprise activity and Flamingo product line in November 2021, Revenues stood at 78.8 million.

As anticipated, the Second Half confirmed the improvement in the product mix with an attendant increase in the gross margin, which stood above 62% on a full year basis, vs 55% in 2020.

This confirms the long-term trend of margin enhancement, which is amplified by the success of the transition to cloud-based applications and the transition towards a recurring revenue business model.

The gross margin stood at 49.0 million up 27%. Together with the 31% increase in Monthly Recurring Revenue (1.96 million in January 2022), this performance more accurately reflects the rate at which the company is gaining stable market share than mere topline growth.



Further growth investments in 2021

Ateme continued to invest in its future growth in 2021. The OPEX 31% rise to 47.9 million essentially reflected the consolidation with Anevia from November 2020 as well as further growth in the total headcount, from 450 to 490 in 2021. This investment was equally shared between R&D and sales/marketing, including:

The acceleration of the NEA roadmap (the ex-Anevia product line) which includes OTT delivery technologies such as cloud DVR and Content Delivery Networks.

The creation of global expert teams to support all regions in positioning, selling, and deploying the range of Ateme solutions, adapting to the growing complexity of end-to-end OTT delivery solutions, from the video head-end to the CDN.

The optimization of our streaming solutions, enabling servers and storage savings for our customers and helping them meet their carbon footprint reduction objectives.

The development of new products, solutions, and services to be launched in 2022 and in 2023.



All P&L metrics exceed expectations

Operating profit and stood at 1.1 million, while the net profit of continued activities (excluding the Enterprise activity divested in 2021) totaled 1.8 million (2.3% of the topline) integrating a positive financial result and tax income.

The EBITDA[1] stood at 6.4 million, in line with guidance published January 2021, and above the cautious reforecast of January 2022.



Sound financial structure

Shareholders' equity stood at 39.6 million at 31 December 2021 up from 35.6 million a year earlier.

Liquidity stood at 11.4 million vs 17.1 million a year earlier. Cash outflow from investing activities amounted to 7.1 million, of which  3.7 million to finalize Anevia acquisition.

At 31 December 2021, net debt amounted to 10.3 million vs 3.7 million. The Group has contracted new "PGE" state-guaranteed loans for a total of 3 million during 2021.



Geopolitical situation

Ateme has limited exposure to the current geopolitical situation involving Russia and Ukraine:

Revenues in Russia and Belarus are limited (c.1 million in 2021); shipments to these countries have been suspended since 24 th February.

February. Ateme has no dependence of a supply chain, R&D or financial nature on the affected countries, nor does it have any customer past dues in these markets.



Looking ahead

The general operating context remains challenging due to ongoing global supply-chain issues and more recently the situation in Ukraine. The global supply chain is not expected to return to normal before 2023 and will continue to delay the delivery of certain projects where a hardware component is involved.

Nevertheless Ateme continues to innovate and invest to keep winning market share.

As previously stated, 2022 is expected to demonstrate more significant synergies from the Anevia acquisition, notably with a significant ramp up in NEA sales.

All financial objectives are confirmed, including revenue growth of 10-15%, and EBITDA of 5-10 million in full years 2022 and 2023, together with the ongoing development of Monthly Recurring Revenues, with an objective of 3 million in 2024.

Michel Artieres, Chairman and CEO of Ateme, commented: "Full Year 2021 has seen a strong performance despite the Covid crisis and attendant supply chain issues. Ateme continues to innovate and win market share, as demonstrated by the 26% rise in our gross profit and the 31% increase in Monthly Recurring Revenues.

The Ateme/Anevia integration has been extremely successful as testified by the rapid return to profitability of the combined entity. We look forward with confidence to 2022 and anticipate the acceleration of the ramp-up of the synergies of the Ateme/Anevia consolidation."

Upcoming events:

May 5th, 2022: First Quarter 2022 Revenues

About Ateme: Ateme is a global leader of video compression and delivery solutions helping Tier-1 Content Providers, Service Providers and Streaming Platforms to boost their viewership and subscription engagement.

Leveraging a unique R&D task force in the video industry, Ateme's solutions power green sustainable TV services, improve end-users' quality of experience, optimize the total cost of ownership of TV/VOD services and generate new revenue streams based on personalization and ad insertion. Beyond the technology agility, Ateme's value proposition is to partner with his customers by offering a great flexibility in the engagement and business models matching their financial priorities. A consequence is a rapid shift to Recurring Revenues, boosting the company resilience and creating long term value for the shareholders.

Founded in 1991, Ateme has 490 employees spread over its headquarters in France and 20 offices around the world including the USA, Brazil, Argentina, UK, Spain, Germany, the UAE, Singapore, China, Korea, and Australia.

Ateme has been listed on the Paris Euronext market since 2014 and in November 2020 it made the acquisition of Anevia, a provider of OTT and IPTV software solutions. . In 2021, Ateme served close to 1,000 customers worldwide with revenues of 79 million, of which 93% outside its home market.

Find out more: www.ateme.com.



Name: ATEME - ISIN Code: FR0011992700 - Ticker: ATEME - Compartment: C

Ateme INVESTOR RELATIONS PRESS RELATIONS Michel Artieres

President and CEO Olivier Lambert

Tel: +33 (0)4 72 18 04 91

ateme@actus.fr Anne-Catherine Bonjour

Tel: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 93

acbonjour@actus.fr



DISCLAIMER

This press release does not constitute or form part of and should not be construed as any offer for sale of or solicitation of any offer to buy any securities of Ateme, nor should it, or any part of it, form the basis of or be relied on in connection with any contract or commitment whatsoever concerning Ateme's assets, activities or shares.

All statements other than historical facts included in this presentation, including without limitations, those regarding Atemes' position, business strategy, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements included herein are for illustrative purposes only and are based on management's current views and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks. For illustrative purposes only, such risks include but are not limited to impact of external events on customers and suppliers; the effects of competing technologies competition generally in main markets; profitability of the expansion strategy; litigation; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in major businesses; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments.

Ateme expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any projections, forecasts or estimates contained in this presentation to reflect any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statements are based, unless so required by applicable law. These materials are supplied to you solely for your information and may not be copied or distributed to any other person (whether in or outside your organization) or published, in whole or in part, for any purpose.

[1] EBITDA = earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Underlying EBITDA equals Group pre-tax profit before deduction of interest, depreciation, amortisation and impairment charges on non-current assets, and staff share-based payments, but after impairment of inventories and trade receivables. It shows profit generated by business activities regardless of financing conditions, tax constraints and the upgrading of operating assets. Non-recurring expenses (one-off, unusual or infrequent items) are excluded

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Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-73685-pr_ateme_full_year_2021_results_eng-def.pdf
Improvement of reverse cholesterol transport

Reduction of inflammatory markers and cytokines

A treatment option for patients with COVID-19

Regulatory News:

ABIONYX Pharma (FR0012616852 ABNX PEA PME eligible) (Paris:ABNX), a new generation biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative therapies for patients, announced today the publication in Biomedecines of the first clinical data demonstrating that CER-001 limits inflammation effects in acute inflammatory conditions such as COVID-19.

COVID-19 is associated with respiratory symptoms characterized by acute lung injury, rapidly progressing to acute respiratory distress syndrome. The pulmonary dysfunction is rapidly accompanied by a major "cytokine storm" in which inflammatory cytokines are abundantly released into the bloodstream leading to host tissue damage.

Decreased levels of total cholesterol, LDL and HDL have been observed in patients with COVID-19 infections. Patients with low HDL levels at hospital admission have an increased risk of developing severe disease compared with patients with high HDL levels. With recovery from COVID-19 infections, serum lipid levels return to pre-infection levels

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) in addition to their reverse cholesterol transport function, exhibit pleiotropic properties, including antiinflammatory, anti-apoptotic, anti-thrombotic, and antioxidant functions.

CER-001 is an HDL mimetic previously tested in various pathological conditions, but never in COVID-19 before a compassionate access authorization (CAA) granted by the ANSM for bio-HDL (CER-001) in COVID-19 in January 2021.

The Biomedecines publication reports on the first clinical administration of recombinant HDL particles, CER-001, in a patient with severe COVID-19 infection in an intensive care unit.

Shotgun proteomics were performed on HDL before and after CER-001 infusions and serve to identify the type of proteins contained in HDL. These analyses demonstrated that apoA-I increased after injections while most pro-inflammatory proteins decreased following injections.

Measurement of serum amyloid A-1, inflammatory markers, and cytokines showed a significant decrease in most of them during CER-001 treatment. The results suggest recombinant HDL infusions are a potential therapeutic strategy to be explored in COVID-19 patients.

The publication shows for the first time that intravenous HDL supplementation (through CER-001 infusion for instance) is feasible in acute inflammatory conditions such as COVID-19, with a tendency to limit inflammation. HDLs have been shown to reduce inflammation in models of bacterial sepsis in part via their ability to bind and remove circulating endotoxins. However, in viral sepsis, HDL infusion may be also beneficial, particularly by reducing inflammationvia a still unknown mechanism. This case report encourages the conduct of a randomized placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the contribution of rHDL in severe ICU COVID-19 patients.

This scientific publication, entitled "First Recombinant High-Density Lipoprotein Particles Administration in a Severe ICU COVID-19 Patient, a Multi-Omics Exploriatory Investigation," is available online in the journal Biomedecines: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/4/754/htm

ABIONYX Pharma is awaiting further results from ongoing clinical studies in inflammatory conditions.

Next financial press release: Annual Results, April 28th 2022

About ABIONYX Pharma

ABIONYX Pharma is a new generation biotech company that aims to contribute to health through innovative therapies in indications where there is no effective or existing treatment, even the rarest ones. Thanks to its partners in research, medicine, biopharmaceuticals and shareholding, the company innovates on a daily basis to propose drugs for the treatment of renal and ophthalmological diseases, or new HDL vectors used for targeted drug delivery.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005869/en/

Contacts:

NewCap

Investor relations

Louis-Victor Delouvrier

abionyx@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 98 53

NewCap

Media relations

Nicolas Merigeau

abionyx@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
Regulatory News:

Following the 17 May 2021 announcement of the proposed merger between the TF1 and M6 groups (Paris:MMT), the France Televisions group expressed its wish, if the merger is completed, to divest its equity interest in Salto (the subscription video on demand service launched in October 2020 and owned in equal shares by France Televisions, TF1 and M6).

Under the terms of an agreement signed today, the TF1 and M6 groups have undertaken that if the merger is completed, they would buy out the 33.33% equity interest held by France Televisions at a definitive value of 45 million. The new group would then own 100% of Salto, enabling it to develop a streaming project.

Because the agreement is conditional on completion of the merger between the M6 and TF1 groups, Salto will remain under the joint control of its three shareholders throughout 2022 to facilitate the ongoing development of the platform, in line with undertakings made in connection with French Competition Authority decision no. 19-DCC-157.

Neuilly sur Seine, 24 March 2022

About the TF1 group

The TF1 group is a major player in the production, publication and distribution of content. Our ambition is to use our content to positively inspire society. Our operations comprise:

Broadcast ,with 5 free-to-air channels (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Series Films, LCI), 4 theme channels (Ushuaia TV, Histoire TV, TV Breizh, Serie Club), 3 on-demand content platforms (MYTF1, TFOU MAX and Salto), and the TF1 PUB advertising airtime sales house.

Digital, via our web natives activities and high-powered digital communities including Aufeminin, Marmiton, Doctissimo and My Little Paris.

Music, via music production/publishing and live shows.

Production, via Newen home to more than 40 labels in France and around the world.

The TF1 group has operations in 20 countries and nearly 3,700 employees.

In 2021, the Group generated revenue of 2,427.1m (Euronext Paris, compartment A: ISIN FR0000054900).

For more information go to: groupe-tf1.fr

About France Televisions

France Televisions is the no.1 French broadcaster in terms of audiences (29.1% share of individuals aged 4+ in 2021), and is home to:

1 video platform (france.tv), and a full range of special-interest online offerings (news, kids, sport, culture, education, overseas).

4 national TV channels: France 2, France 3, France 4/Culturebox, France 5.

1 global rolling news media brand available on all devices (France info).

2 networks: 24 regional TV channels in Metropolitan France (France 3), and 9 global tv/radio/web media outlets in overseas territories (no.1).

France Televisions is a dominant player in French broadcasting: 4 out of 5 French people watch France Televisions every week, across all screens.

Click here for France Televisions in pictures| For more information go to: francetelevisions.fr

About the M6 group

Founded in 1987 on the basis the M6 TV channel, the M6 group is a multimedia group offering a wide range of programmes, products and services: TV (13 channels, including M6, France's second largest private channel) radio (3 stations, including RTL, France's leading private radio station) alongside production, digital, e-commerce, cinema, music, shows, etc. Building on strong brands and content, M6 group has gradually expanded its activities through targeted diversifications and innovative offerings, such as 6play, a digital platform launched in 2013 (more than 28 million active users) and Salto, launched in 2020. Its objective: to extend the complementary of its brands in order to meet the expectations of its various audiences in their new consumption patterns.

For more information go to: groupem6.fr

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005884/en/

Contacts:

TF1 GROUPE

VP COMMUNICATION BRANDS Maylis CARCABAL mcarcabal@tf1.fr +33 (0)6 6 59 87 05

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION Coline PECHERE cpechere@tf1.fr +33 (0)6 26 07 68 52

INVESTOR RELATIONS comfi@tf1.fr

@GroupeTF1

FRANCE TELEVISIONS GROUP

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION Muriel ATTAL muriel.attal@francetv.fr +33(6) 6 14 61 07 32

@FranceTele

M6 GROUP

VP COMMUNICATION Benjamin BOIRON benjamin.boiron@m6.fr +33 (0)1 41 92 24 02

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION Paul MENNESSON paul.mennesson@m6.fr +33 (0)6 79 07 60 45

INVESTOR RELATIONS Guillaume COUTURIE guillaume.couturie@m6.fr +33 (0)1 41 92 28 03

@M6Groupe
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - David H. Brett, President and CEO, Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: PBM) ("Pacific Bay" or the "Company") reports that Pacific Bay has signed a Letter Agreement (the "Agreement") with Brixton Metals Corp. ("Brixton") to acquire an option to purchase up to a 100% interest in the Atlin Goldfields Project (the "Property"), located in Northwest British Columbia. The Agreement is subject to the completion of a definitive option agreement, the completion by PBM of a $500,000 financing, and the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Atlin Goldfield Highlights:

Underexplored, district-scale gold property with 59,154 hectares of mineral tenures.

Prospective for high grade orogenic gold deposit systems including the Yellowjacket high grade gold deposit.

200 ton-per-day mining permit (Yellowjacket Mine) and exploration permits already in place

Top-tier mining jurisdiction

"Atlin Goldfields is located in a district known for its prolific placer gold found in the majority of its drainages, which include Spruce Creek, home of the largest gold nugget in British Columbia," said Pacific Bay VP of Exploration Sebastien Ah Fat, P.Geo. "Historical drilling has found that the source of the placer gold is in close proximity to the creek drainages. We believe Atlin Goldfields has the potential to host extensive mesothermal gold mineralization within the shear zone corridors identified by past geochemical and geophysical surveys. We are looking forward to extensively exploring this property."

"Atlin is one of BC's most famous gold districts," said Pacific Bay President & CEO David Brett. "Brixton has done an excellent job of consolidating and exploring the Property, including compiling a vast database that we look forward to leveraging."

Atlin Goldfields Property Overview:

The Property is situated in Northwest British Columbia, east of the town of Atlin, consisting of a district scale 59,154 hectares of mineral tenures in addition to a Mines Act permit over the Yellowjacket zone authorizing a for 200 tons per day operation. The surrounding infrastructure offers excellent access to the project through its local airstrip, year-round Provincially maintained highway between the town of Atlin and the Property, and gravel roads to the majority of showings on the claim. The property is approximately 175 km by government-maintained highway southeast of Whitehorse, Yukon, which offers daily flights from Vancouver, BC and Calgary, AB; and 249 km east of the Skagway Port.





Figure 01: Atlin Goldfield's location in Northwest BC, highlights the mineral tenures and surrounding claims.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3362/117954_223baf5db4cf39b6_002full.jpg

The Atlin gold camp is the second largest gold placer producer in British Columbia with over 600,000 troy ounces of gold produced between 1898 and 1945, predominantly in Pine, Spruce, and Otter creeks. For decades, the source of the placer gold was not fully understood. In the late 1980's, Homestake Mineral Developments, conducted ground magnetic geophysical surveys over the Yellowjacket zone that outlined a possible fault zone associated with the boundary of the Cache Creek ultramafic complex, which was located directly underneath the placer operations. Subsequently, diamond drilling discovered an orogenic sheared hosted mesothermal gold zone. This type of mineralization often displays nugget-like gold within quartz-filled shear zones similar to mines such as Bralorne, Cassiar, and Sheep Creek in British Columbia and the Motherlode mine in California. Since then, several exploration companies have explored the area, particularly the Yellowjacket zone, where extensive drilling has taken place. Brixton initially acquired the property in 2016 and over the years consolidated the mineral tenures into one land package while also completing over 5,000 surface and soil samples, property wide high resolution airborne magnetic survey, and 1,599 metres of diamond drilling in 22 holes. Overall, the Property hosts 24 mineral occurrences of which 17 are associated with gold.

Historical drilling at Yellowjacket totals 25,767 metres distributed over 319 holes with several holes yielding excellent gold results. Select historic drill holes are shown in the table below.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (gpt) Y87-23 12.50 112.00 99.50 20.81 including 54.00 59.00 5.00 412.05 YJ03-01 11.28 74.07 62.79 49.80 including 13.94 15.62 1.68 1671.54 including 35.66 44.50 8.84 20.12 YJ04-01 92.00 93.50 1.50 43.23 YJ04-07 20.00 60.96 40.96 6.48 including 53.40 54.45 1.05 221.13 YJ04-20 9.75 146.00 136.25 1.36 including 140.00 141.00 1.00 142.40 YJ04-22 8.69 125.58 116.89 0.94 YJ04-29 67.20 70.50 3.30 18.35 YJ04-35 104.25 109.30 5.05 12.21 YJ04-37 109.00 110.50 1.50 8.08 TW05-02 (twinned Y03-01) 10.67 71.32 60.65 14.25 including 10.67 12.79 2.12 288.22 including 37.50 38.50 1.00 86.83

Table 01 : Summary of historical drilling at the Yellowjacket mine.

In 2010, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. and Prize Mining Corp., completed a resource estimate for the Yellowjacket mine, information regarding the resource is found in the report titled "Technical Report Yellowjacket Gold Project ' prepared by Linda Dandy and B.J. Price Geological Consultants Inc., dated January 27, 2010.

2010 Historic Mineral Resource Estimate - Yellowjacket Mine Class Tonnage Gold (g/t) Ounces Cut-off Grade (g/t) Inferred 133,000 5.8 24,000 1.5

Table 02: Summary of historical mineral resource estimate at the Yellowjacket Mine from 2010.

A qualified person representing Pacific Bay has not done sufficient work to classify the historic estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. As such the issuer, Pacific Bay, is not treating this historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.





Figure 02: Yellowjacket 3D model displaying grade gold shells.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3362/117954_223baf5db4cf39b6_003full.jpg

Pacific Bay's Vision for Atlin Goldfields:

From the Company's VP Operations, Antonio Vespa, "The Atlin Goldfields Option is the culmination of a lengthy search for a transformational asset to add to Pacific Bay's portfolio. The significant exploration potential at Atlin provides us with the unique opportunity to build shareholder value, and a notable resource upon which we can further enhance the prospects of the Company towards being a gold producer in the medium term. There is considerable bullish market sentiment around gold, and we believe the timing is right to take on this robust project."





Figure 03: 4 Designated Exploration Areas - 4 Brownfield Areas (highlighted in yellow), 5 Greenfield Areas (highlighted in green).

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3362/117954_223baf5db4cf39b6_004full.jpg

Terms of the Agreement:

Under the terms of the Letter Agreement, Pacific Bay may acquire up to a 100% interest in the Atlin Goldfields project, by completing the following:

Pacific Bay can earn a 51% interest in the Property by completing $3,500,000 in Exploration Expenditures, paying $1,725,000 cash, and issuing 5,000,000 Pacific Bay Shares, on or before the 4th anniversary of the closing of the Agreement. If the 51% interest earn-in has been completed, Pacific Bay may earn an additional 49% interest in the Property by completing an additional $3,500,000 in Exploration Expenditures, paying $1,500,000 cash, and issuing 5,000,000 Pacific Bay Shares, on or before the 7th anniversary of the closing of the Agreement.

If Pacific Bay exercises the 51% earn-in and elects to not exercise the additional 49% earn-in, Pacific Bay and Brixton will enter into a joint venture whereby the interest in the property will revert to 49% in favor of Pacific Bay and 51% in favor of Brixton, with each party then participating in programs and budgets according to their pro-rata interests.

If Pacific Bay completes the option and acquires 100% of the Property, Brixton will retain at 2% Net Smelter Return Royalty (NSR), with 1% of the NSR purchasable at any time by Pacific Bay for $2,500,000. The Property is subject to a number of additional underlying royalties in favour of other vendors.

All values in Canadian dollars.

Event Cash Shares Exploration Expenditures Upon Signing LOI $25,000



Completion of Definitive Option Agreement $100,000 750,000

1st Anniversary $200,000 1,000,000 $500,000 2nd Anniversary $250,000 1,000,000 $1,000,000 3rd Anniversary $500,000 1,000,000 $1,000,000 4th Anniversary* $650,000 1,250,000 $1,000,000 5th Anniversary $500,000 1,000,000 $1,000,000 6th Anniversary $500,000 2,000,000 $1,000,000 7th Anniversary** $500,000 2,000,000 $1,500,000 TOTALS





*51% Earned $1,725,000 5,000,000 $3,500,000 **100% Earned $3,225,000 10,000,000 $7,000,000

Note: The Anniversary date is based on the Completion of the Definitive Option Agreement.

Private Placement

In connection with the Agreement, the Company also announces a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of up to 5,000,000 units ("Units") at $0.10 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $500,000. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one common share purchase warrant of the Company (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase on common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.15 per common share for a period of one year from the date of issuance.

Pacific Bay Minerals confirms that, in addition to available prospectus exemptions for accredited investors, friends, family and business associates, existing shareholders who might not otherwise qualify may participate in this private placement through the "Existing Security Holder Exemption" under BC Instrument 45-534 - Exemption from prospectus requirement for certain trades to existing security holders.

The Existing Security Holder Exemption enables shareholders of a qualifying company at the "Record Date" who are residents of Canada to acquire up to $15,000 worth of securities in that company in any 12-month period. The Record Date for the Pacific Bay offering is March 23, 2022. In connection with the Offering, the Company may issue finders warrants, cash commission, or any combination thereof to certain eligible finders.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering towards expenditures required under the Agreement and to be undertaken in order to exercise the option on the Property, as will be further described in the definitive option agreement.

Both the Agreement and the financing are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

All drill intercepts reported in this news release are core lengths only, as the true width of the structures has not been determined.

Sebastien Ah Fat, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration for Pacific Bay and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

David Brett, CEO

dbrett@pacificbayminerals.com

(604) 682-2421

Helder Carvalho, Vice President, Corporate Development

hcarvalho@pacificbayminerals.com

pacificbayminerals.com / Twitter / LinkedIn

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: the expected size and use of proceeds of the Offering, the timing for and expected completion of a definitive option agreement, plans relating to exploration of the Property, the magnitude and quality of the Property, spending commitments, and regulatory approvals (including approvals of the TSXV). Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Pacific Bay will operate in the future. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition, results of exploration activities and development of the Property, risks associated with the completion of a definitive option agreement for the Property or that any such agreement may be terminated or the option not exercised, risks relating to regulatory approvals, and the ability of the Company to complete the Offering as contemplated or at all. Although Pacific Bay has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Pacific Bay does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117954
Regulatory News:

At its meeting of 24 March 2022 under Marie Cheval, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, the Board of Directors of Carmila (Paris:CARM) resolved to convene the Ordinary and Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting on:

Thursday, 12 May 2022 at 9:30 a.m.

at Onepoint, 29 rue des Sablons, 75116 Paris

The notice of meeting will be published in the French legal gazette (Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires), together with the proposed agenda and resolutions, and will also be made available on the Company's website.

Dividend

The Board of Directors of Carmila SA has decided to submit for the approval of the Annual General Meeting of 12 May 2022, a dividend of 1 per share in respect of 2021, to be paid entirely in cash.

The ex-dividend date will be 23 May 2022 and the dividend will be paid on 25 May 2022.

Governance

On the recommendation of the Nomination and Compensation Committee, the Board of Directors is deciding to seek authorisation from the Annual General Meeting to re-appoint Maria Garrido as Director for a term of four years, i.e., until the Annual General Meeting called in 2026 to approve the financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2025.

Say on climate

Following the announcements at Carmila's Capital Markets Day on 7 December 2021, the Board has decided to present a resolution to hold an advisory vote among shareholders on the Company's ambition and objectives in the fight against climate change. Through this advisory vote, the Board of Directors hopes to give shareholders the opportunity to express their opinion on Carmila's strategy for achieving net-zero carbon emissions (Scopes 1 2) by 2030.

INVESTOR AGENDA

21 April 2022 (after trading): First-quarter 2022 Financial Information

12 May 2022: Annual General Meeting

ABOUT CARMILA

As the third-largest listed owner of commercial property in continental Europe, Carmila was founded by Carrefour and large institutional investors in order to transform and enhance the value of shopping centres adjoining Carrefour hypermarkets in France, Spain and Italy. At 31 December 2021, its portfolio was valued at 6.21 billion, comprising 214 shopping centres, all leaders in their catchment areas.

Carmila is listed on Euronext-Paris Compartment A under the symbol CARM. It benefits from the tax regime for French real estate investment trusts ("SIIC").

Important notice

Some of the statements contained in this document are not historical facts but rather statements of future expectations, estimates and other forward-looking statements based on management's beliefs. These statements reflect such views and assumptions prevailing as of the date of the statements and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause future results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Please refer to the most recent Universal Registration Document filed in French by Carmila with the Autorite des marches financiers for additional information in relation to such factors, risks and uncertainties. Carmila has no intention and is under no obligation to update or review the forward-looking statements referred to above. Consequently, Carmila accepts no liability for any consequences arising from the use of any of the above statements.

Visit our website at www.carmila.com LinkedIn Twitter

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005905/en/

Contacts:

INVESTORS AND ANALYSTS

Jonathan Kirk Head of Investor Relations

jonathan_kirk@carmila.com

+33 6 31 71 83 98

PRESS

Morgan Lavielle Communications Director

morgan_lavielle@carmila.com

+33 6 87 77 48 80


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the advance seen in the previous session, the price of gold showed another notable move to the upside during trading on Thursday.



Gold for April delivery jumped $24.90 or 1.3 percent to $1,962.20 an ounce after climbing $15.80 or 0.8 percent to $1,937.30 an ounce.



The precious metal continued to benefit from its appeal as a safe haven amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.



Traders kept an eye on any developments out of Europe, where President Joe Biden is meeting with U.S. allies in Brussels.



The Biden administration has imposed additional sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, targeting dozens of Russian defense companies, 328 members of the Russian State Duma, and the head of Russia's largest financial institution.



With Europe depending heavily on Russian gas for heating and power generation, the European Union is split on whether to sanction Russia's energy sector.



In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in over 50 years in the week ended March 19th.



The report showed initial jobless claims slid to 187,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level of 215,000.



Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 212,000 from the 214,000 originally reported for the previous week.



With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 182,000 in September 1969.



Meanwhile, a separate report from the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods tumbled by much more than expected in the month of February amid a sharp pullback in orders for transportation equipment.



The Commerce Department said durable goods orders slumped by 2.2 percent in February after jumping by 1.6 percent in January. Economists had expected durable goods orders to dip by 0.5 percent.



Excluding the steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders fell by 0.6 percent in February after climbing by 0.8 percent in January. The decrease surprised economists, who had expected ex-transportation orders to rise by 0.6 percent.







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Signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Mindanao Development Authority, the Zamboanga Sibugay Provincial Government, a group of municipalities on the island of Olutanga and the Zamboanga del Sur II Electric Cooperative for the development of Renewstable  power plants;

power plants; Strengthening of the Asia pipeline with projects in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Bordeaux, 21 March 2022 - HDF Energy ("Hydrogene de France" or the "Company") - Euronext Paris: HDF - today announces the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Mindanao Development Authority, the Zamboanga Sibugay Provincial Government, a group of municipalities on the island of Olutanga and the Zamboanga del Sur II Electric Cooperative (Zamboanga Sibugay Province) in the Philippines for the study and development of Renewstable power plant projects.

Fully focused on enhancing its project portfolio, HDF Energy is expanding its footprint in Asia, one of its five priority regions. The signing of this agreement in the online presence of the French ambassador to the Philippines formalises HDF's first partnership with local authorities, illustrating the development model implemented by the Company in close cooperation with local stakeholders. Renewstable power plants contribute greatly towards promoting responsible economic development in the region.

Invented and developed by HDF Energy, Renewstable multi-megawatt power plants produce entirely renewable, stable and controllable electricity 24/7 with zero greenhouse gas emissions. They combine intermittent renewable energies (solar or wind) with massive long-term storage of electricity in the form of hydrogen and short-term battery storage to provide clean, stable and continuous energy, day and night.

This agreement reinforces HDF Energy's strategic presence in Asia, where the Company last year formed a subsidiary, staffed by a local team, that has already made significant progress in power plant development with projects underway in Indonesia. HDF is continuing its expansion in the region by setting up operations in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Damien Havard, Chairman and CEO of HDF Energy, said: "We are immensely proud to be partnering with authorities in the Southern Philippines for the development of virtuous economic projects that today meet demand from the huge market for non-intermittent renewable energy. We are fully prepared to invest, develop and operate Renewstable power plants. This project, the result of meticulous local work by our developers, strengthens our pipeline in Asia, where other major infrastructure projects are currently under development, as well as our global leadership in hydrogen power."

ABOUT HDF ENERGY (HYDROGENE DE FRANCE)

HDF Energy is a global pioneer in hydrogen energy. HDF Energy develops high-capacity Hydrogen-Power plants and is active, through dedicated project companies, in their operation. These plants will provide continuous or on-demand electricity from renewable energy sources (wind or solar), combined with high power fuel cells supplied by HDF Energy.

HDF Energy develops two types of Hydrogen-Power plants:

Renewstable  (POWER TO POWER): Multi-megawatt power plants, producing stable electricity 24h/day, composed of an intermittent renewable source and on-site hydrogen energy storage.

Multi-megawatt power plants, producing stable electricity 24h/day, composed of an intermittent renewable source and on-site hydrogen energy storage. HyPower (GAS TO POWER): Multi-megawatt power plants producing electricity on demand from green hydrogen from gas transportation networks.

HDF Energy has integrated key fuel-cell know-how under a memorandum of understanding with Ballard (seven-year exclusive licence agreement) and has developed the world's first mass production plant for high-power fuel cells for energy, which will be commissioned in France (Bordeaux Metropole) in 2023. Through this activity, HDF Energy will also serve the maritime and data center markets.

HDF Energy has positioned itself as a powerful accelerator of the energy transition by offering non-intermittent, grid-friendly and on-demand renewable power.

HDF shares have been listed on the regulated market of Euronext Paris compartment B since 24 June 2021.

Contacts

Investor Relations Press Relations Olivier LAMBERT

+ 33 (0)1 53 67 36 33

hdf-energy@actus.fr Serena BONI

+33 (0)4 72 18 04 92

sboni@actus.fr

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Second Large Distribution Deal Signed As Poko Ships Orders throughout the British Isles and Europe

Company Is Currently in Discussions with a Third UK Distributor

Poko Group Expects to Reach An Additional 1,500+ Retailers in 2022

LONDON, ENGLAND and BELFAST, IRELAND / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2022 / (Poko:CSE) - Poko Innovations, Inc., an award-winning UK-based collection of CBD-focused companies that bring innovative, inspiring solutions to the CBD industry through the company's leading platforms which, when working together, form a complete ecosystem, is pleased to announce its fully-owned subsidiary, Poko Group UK Ltd., has agreed a distribution arrangement with JM Wholesale of Leicester, UK, and will start onboarding its products beginning this week.

One of the UK's largest wholesalers for vaping, CBD and smoking products, JM Wholesale holds the largest range of CBD products in the world - its network comprises more than 1,500 retail shops. The company was founded in 2017, after its principals realized there was a huge gap in the market for high-quality, affordable vaping and CBD products. The last two years have been particularly busy for JM Wholesale after they launched their international website, JM Distro , in November 2018 to cater to businesses worldwide. In 2019, JM Wholesale was recognized as the and Best CBD Wholesaler and Best Drop Shipping Service.

"We only stock products that have been fully tested and that comply with all current guidelines. We provide major retailers, pharmacies and the healthcare industry with all of their CBD requirements and are incredibly strict about the products we stock at JM Wholesale. The Novel Foods UK license application of Poko Group under RP296, which is in the final stages, was a major reason we are able to onboard them".

JM Wholesale

Poko Group will fulfill JM's initial order of Poko Skincare and Canndid products the week ending 27 March 2022: this order will comprise 20 units of each of Poko's skin care units, as well as 20 units of each of its 8 Canndid Pouch flavors and 20 of its Canndid trio Gift Sets. This initial order will be followed by Poko's new and improved Canndid Gummies, which will be shipped in 20 packs of 250mg, and Poko's new and improved Soft Gel Capsules, available in 750mg and 1250mg CBD packs.

"Our relationship with JM Wholesale, one of the world's largest distributors of high-quality CBD products, is core to our goal of getting Poko into at least 1500 retailers in the British Isles and Europe in 2022," said David Hughes, CEO of Poko Group. "We've already started working closely with the JM Wholesale team to share marketing assets and aid them in promoting Poko in every way possible to ensure a successful listing with them, and I look forward to seeing this partnership grow."

"Our vision is to see Poko in thousands of brick-and-mortar stores and on hundreds of ecommerce sites, both in the British Isles and Europe and, eventually, worldwide," added Mr. Hughes," and JM Wholesale and Blazed are the start of this reality - we are working closely with them to heavily promote Poko products across their extensive networks."

JM Wholesale has taken a share option with Poko as part of an incentive offering to align the interests of both companies; from April 2022 Poko products will be onboarded fully and will be promoted through joint initiatives across JM's platform and channels.

Growing Poko's Distribution Network

The JM Wholesale agreement follows a listing with Blazed Wholesale earlier this year - the listing went live this month (March 2022). Blazed Wholesale is a UK corporation and markets to a wide range of independent retailers, franchises and the booming online CBD retail industry, with direct distribution to ecommerce sites worldwide.

Poko Group has already seen interest in its Canndid range from the Blazed network, with an initial order of 200 units of teas and coffees already sold out and a priority order placed to restock supply. Poko continues to work on a mass marketing campaign with Blazed across the Blazed network.

Third UK Distributor

Poko Group is in the final stages of paperwork with a third large distribution group in the UK; the marketing and onboarding process should be completed over the coming weeks. This distribution network is of particular interest to Poko as it distributes to some of the larger pharmacy chains across the UK.

EU Interest

Poko continues to see a steady increase in interest in Ireland in its skincare line, with several of the larger distribution networks seeking to add these products to their offering. There has also been interest in Canndid in Europe, with the first French order delivered the week ended 27 March 2022 and Canndid CBD pouches soon available in Slovakia - Poko has received an initial order and is in negotiations with the distributor, which is based in Slovakia, regarding exclusivity. The distributor will pay for the promotion of the CBD pouches from its own marketing budget.

E-Commerce Updates

Poko has launched its pokobeauty.com website to allow the company to advertise its skincare range on social media platforms from which it had previously been restricted. The company has also launched its Rob Kearney and Jess Redden social media campaign, which will be monitored closely over the coming weeks, ahead of the launch of Poko's Daily SPF50 Moisturizer, with Rob Kearney, in April.

"Poko is continuing to put marketing and the visibility of our brands at the forefront of our endeavors, having just launched our new POS items in all of our existing stockist locations with our Rob Kearney and Jess Redden collaboration," said Justine O'Hanlon, COO of Poko Group. "Since this campaign has gone live we have successfully entered discussions with a number of new stockists and distribution partners, and we can't wait to see what comes of these discussions. We have already invested large amounts of time in our marketing packs and support -for our distributors so we can provide them with ready-to go assets on demand, making it easier for them to push our brand ahead of our competitors."

The Poko Story

Since the closing of its private placement , Poko Innovations, Inc. has planned and implemented its marketing strategies and has expanded its distribution channels to scale its business assets in 2022. Poko is an award-winning international UK-based integrated company with a robust portfolio of CBD brands, a financial services platform, LumiPay, a range of consumer brands and a roster of marketing and media sites. Poko Group comprises four independent units that work together to leverage their individual strengths:

Consumer Brands

Poko is the group's flagship award winning skincare brand, www.pokocbd.co.uk

Canndid brings fun, affordable and easy to use CBD products to the markets www.canndid.co.uk

Poko is the group's flagship award winning skincare brand, Canndid brings fun, affordable and easy to use CBD products to the markets Fintech Platform

Lumipay is an easily integrated payment platform gateway service www.lumi-pay.com

Lumipay is an easily integrated payment platform gateway service News and Media Sites:

The Extract is a B2B news and media sites www.theextract.co.uk

Candid Magazine, a B2C culture magazine www.candidmagazine.com

The Extract is a B2B news and media sites Candid Magazine, a B2C culture magazine www.candidmagazine.com White Labelling Service

Cannmed Products brings together several vetted, compliant CBD manufacturing companies www.cannmedproducts.com

About The Poko Group, Ltd

The Poko Group is a collection of CBD focused companies that bring innovative, inspiring solutions to the CBD industry through the company's leading platforms which, when working together, form a complete ecosystem. An award-winning company, Poko has developed a unique business model comprising complete "turnkey solutions," including fintech payment processing and white label opportunities. Poko is exporting its signature products to the EU and plans to expand the sale of its products to the USA and worldwide. For more information, please visit https://www.pokogroup.com/ .

Forward-Looking Statements

With the exception of the historical information contained in this news release, the matters described herein, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements preceded by, followed by, or that otherwise, include the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "projects," "estimates," "plans" and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "should," "would," "may" and "could", are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts, although not all forward-looking statements include the foregoing. These statements, involve unknown risks and uncertainties that may individually or materially impact the matters discussed, herein for a variety of reasons that are outside the control of the company, including, but not limited to, the company's ability to raise sufficient financing to implement its business plan, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company's business, operations and the economy in general, and the Company's ability to successfully develop and commercialize its proprietary products and technologies. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward- looking statements, as actual results could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements contained herein. Readers are urged to read the risk factors set forth in the company's filings with the SEC, which are available at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update, or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Relations

Michael J. Porter, President

Porter, LeVay & Rose, Inc.

T: (973) 865-9357

E: mike@plrinvest.com

LinkedIn

@PlRinvest

SOURCE: Poko Innovations Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/694590/Poko-Group-UK-Ltd-Enters-Distribution-Deal-With-JM-Wholesale-Of-Leicester-UK
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - SPARQ Corp. (TSXV: SPRQ) (formerly MJ Innovation Capital Corp.) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, SPARQ Systems Inc. ("SPARQ"), has entered into a memorandum of understanding dated March 23, 2022 (the "MOU"), with Ti-Lane Precision Electronic Company Limited ("Ti-Lane") for the high-volume manufacturing of inverters. Ti-Lane is a global leader in providing connector and cable assembly products for communications, computer, medical, automotive and clean energy applications.

The terms of the MOU contemplate that Ti-Lane will construct, at its own cost, a manufacturing facility in GuangDong Province, China. The facility is expected to be completed by July 2022, and producing for the Company 5,000 to 10,000 units per month on a cost-effective basis by Q4 2022. The facility's initial capacity is expected to be 200 MW per annum with expansion potential to 1 GW as demand grows.

The additional capacity to be provided by Ti-Lane is expected to be a critical supplement to the Company's existing manufacturing capacity in Canada, which has been impacted by an acute chip shortage. As the Company's current manufacturing partner in Canada will not be able to produce inverters for the Company in sufficient quantities for this fiscal year, the Company does not foresee the generation of any material revenue until 2023.

Praveen Jain, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The partnership with Ti-Lane is key to significantly increase our manufacturing capacity and we look forward to enjoying a long-lasting relationship together. As a major supplier of balance-of-system photovoltaic ("PV") components and strong supply chain management, Ti-Lane will manage the entire supply-chain for products manufactured for us, which will help us overcoming current challenges of semiconductor chips shortage."

Robbie Luo, the President of Ti-Lane and a director of the Company, commented, "We are excited to strengthen our alliance with the SPARQ team and grow our collective businesses. We strongly believe in SPARQ's technology and ability to become a major player in the PV solar renewable energy market."

The MOU contemplates that the parties shall negotiate a formal binding manufacturing agreement within 90 days of the MOU. The MOU constitutes a "related party transaction", as such term is defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") as Robbie Luo is an officer and shareholder of Ti-Lane and a director of the Company. The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under MI 61-101.

ABOUT SPARQ

SPARQ's head office is located at 945 Princess Street, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 0E9. SPARQ originated from the advanced research conducted at ePOWER, the Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. SPARQ was founded at Queen's University in 2009 by Canada Research Chair in Power Electronics, Dr. Praveen Jain, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Royal Society of Canada.

SPARQ designs and manufactures next generation single-phase microinverters for residential and commercial solar electric applications. SPARQ has developed a proprietary PV solution called the Quad; the Quad inverter optimizes four PV modules with a single microinverter, simplifying design and installation, and lowering cost for solar power installations when compared to existing market offerings.

Cautionary Note

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the expected completion of Ti-Lane's manufacturing facility, the quantity of units to be manufactured for SPARQ on a monthly basis, and technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, future financial position and results of operations, strategy, proposed acquisitions, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements.

Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially include, but are not limited to the risk factors discussed in the Company's filing statement dated December 23, 2021. Management provides forward-looking statements because it believes they provide useful information to investors when considering their investment objectives and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law.

Neither the TSXV nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information, please contact:

SPARQ Corp.

Dr. Praveen Jain

Chief Executive Officer

Email: pjain@sparqsys.com

Tel: 343.477.1158

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/118060
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - American Aires Inc. (CSE: WIFI) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the second tranche of a non-brokered private placement to the Company through the issuance of 1,750,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.10 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $175,000 (the "Offering"). The net proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Company for working capital and for other general and administrative costs.

Each Unit consists of one common share (each a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.10 per Common Share for a period of thirty-six (36) months from the closing of the Offering (the "Warrant Term"), provided, however, should the closing price at which the Common Shares trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange (or any such other stock exchange in Canada as the Common Shares may trade at the applicable time) exceed CDN$0.30 for 10 consecutive trading days at any time following the date of issuance, the Company may accelerate the Warrant Term (the "Reduced Warrant Term") such that the Warrants shall expire on the date which is 30 business days following the date a press release is issued by the Company announcing the Reduced Warrant Term.

In connection with the Offering, the Company paid certain eligible persons (the "Finders") aggregate cash commissions of $14,000 and issued an aggregate of 140,000 broker warrants ("Broker Warrants"). Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Unit at an exercise price of $0.10 for a period of thirty-six (36) months from the closing of the Offering and subject to the acceleration provision noted above.

All securities issued under the Offering are subject to a four month hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws.

About American Aires Inc.

American Aires Inc. is Canadian-based nanotechnology company which has developed proprietary silicon-based microprocessors that reduce the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). The technology was developed by a team of highly credited scientists and confirmed by independent third-party validation including peer reviewed studies and publications in scientific journals. Aires' Lifetune products specifically target EMR emitted by consumer electronic devices such as cellphones, computers, baby monitors, Wi-Fi radiation, including the rapidly expanding next-generation high-speed 5G networks. Aires is listed on the CSE under ticker 'WIFI'. Learn more at www.airestech.com .

On behalf of the board of directors

Company Contact:

Dimitry Serov, CEO

Email: dimitry@airestech.com

Telephone: (905) 482-4667

Website: www.airestech.com

For further information please contact:

5 Quarters Investor Relations, Inc.

Cindy Gray, CEO & Managing Director

Email: wifi@airestech.com

Telephone: (403) 705.5076

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Common Shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. We seek safe harbour.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Not intended for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States Securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117986
Revenues increased by 126%

EBITDA multiplied by 5

EBITDA margin objective reached ahead of the announced schedule

Strengthened financial structure and confirmed growth opportunities

Regulatory News:

FDE (Euronext: FDE ISIN: FR0013030152), a carbon negative energy producer, confirms its growth and profitability trajectory during this first half of FY 2022. The strong improvement in most of the financial aggregates resulted in a 126% increase in revenues, a strong increase in EBITDA that reached 5.6 million, a 62% margin, and an operating profit multiplied by 15 to 4.8 million over this semester. These figures do confirm the Group's economic model and profitability, as well as its proven ability to carry on its development.

Consolidated accounts

In Euro Thousands (k) H1 2021/2022 H1 2020/2021 Revenues 9 103 4 020 EBITDA 5 673 907 % of revenues 62% 23% Operating Income 4 793 287 % of revenues 53% 7% Financial Result (1 278) (383) Taxes (936) 168 Net Income Group share 2 607 102 % of revenues 29% 3% Minority interests1 (27) (30) Net Income 2 580 72

Growth of all the Group's activities and continuous operating costs control

H1 2022 is marked by strong revenues growth, driven by the development of the Group's activities and the increase in gas and electricity production (+30% and +31% respectively), as well as by the rise in gas price in France (average sale price of 37.43/MWh, compared to 11.07/MWh as of December 31st, 2020) and electricity price in Belgium (86.94/MWh on average over the semester, compared to 37.63/MWh as of December 31st, 2020).

These excellent operational achievements enabled the Group to record a revenue of 9.1 million over H1 2022, up by 126% compared to H1 2021.

This remarkable performance is supported by continuous improvement of operating costs, confirmed again over this semester with the cost of goods and services per MWh down by more than 3% to 12.84/MWh. These levels confirm FDE's ability to develop its business while controlling its cost structure.

EBITDA was therefore multiplied by 5 and reached 5.7 million in H1 2022 (compared to 907k in H1 2021) and includes a provision reversal of 1.2 million following revised dismantling costs estimates by third parties. The EBITDA margin increased to 62%, beyond the Group's margin objectives at the end of 2022.

The Operating Income recorded a spectacular growth, rising from 287k in H1 2021 to 4.8 million over this semester.

Despite increased financial charges following the signing of new loans to support FDE's growth, the net income Group share amounted to 2.6 million in H1 2022, compared to 102k in December 31st, 2020.

FDE anticipates this very good business momentum to continue throughout the second half of FY 2022, with the contribution of 15 operational cogeneration units and the continued increase in gas and electricity prices.

Solid financial structure to support the Group's developments

FDE confirms its ability to generate strong positive operating cash flow of 4.9 million before change in WCR in H1 2022.

The Group continued its sustained investment policy during the semester, strengthening its unique positioning thanks to the deployment of low-carbon local energy solutions in France and Belgium, in particular with the installation of 5 new cogeneration units on the Avion (3 MW) and Anderlues (4.5 MW) sites and the start of construction of the 15 MW photovoltaic plant in the East of France.

This continuous active investment momentum was also supported by the signing of additional financings including 2.5 million crowdfunding for the 15 MW photovoltaic project and 25 million green bond for the development of the FDE low-carbon energy portfolio, granted by Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM) in September 2021.

The effective implementation of this financings proves the relevance of FDE's model based on sustainable energy solutions with strong environmental, economic and social impacts on its territories, while allowing the Group to preserve its equity and significantly reduce the cost of its capital.

As of December 31st, 2021, the Group therefore recorded a cash balance of 23.1 million (+16.2 million compared to June 30th, 2021) and a net debt to equity ratio of 44%, a conservative level allowing nevertheless FDE to steadily finance its development.

A growing positive impact of the activity on the environment

The current activity allows the Group to avoid more than 1 million tonnes of CO2eq annually, confirming the leading role of FDE in the European ecological transition.

In addition, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, by accentuating tensions on the energy market, highlights the need for France for greater energy independence. Thanks to its large certified gas reserves, FDE offers concrete energy solutions, which can be deployed quickly once the various administrative authorizations have been obtained.

Therefore, with the development of its cogeneration units portfolio in France and Belgium to an installed capacity of 49.5 MW and the valorisation of its gas reserves in Lorraine through gas, electricity and/or carbon-free hydrogen, FDE will significantly strengthen its contribution to the energy independence of the territories, while contributing to the reduction of their carbon footprint.

FDE confirms its objective of achieving annualized revenue of 35 million and an EBITDA margin of over 45% by the end of 2022.

Next announcement:

Q3 2022 sales April 26th 2022

Reuters code: FDE.PA Bloomberg code: FDE.FP

About FDE

FDE is a carbon negative energy producer, setting up decentralized energy production sites and energy solutions. FDE supplies gas, electricity and heat to regional players, thus replacing imported energy with local, cleaner energy. FDE has strong development potential and aims to become a leading independent player in the energy sector in Europe. The company benefits from the innovative company label awarded by Bpifrance.

More information available on www.francaisedelenergie.fr

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward looking statements and estimates concerning FDE's financial condition, operating results, strategy, projects and future performance and the markets in which it operates. Such forward-looking statements and estimates may be identified by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "can," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "is designed to," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "objective," "should," or the negative of these and similar expressions. They incorporate all topics that are not historical facts. Forward looking statements, forecasts and estimates are based on management's current assumptions and assessment of risks, uncertainties and other factors, known and unknown, which were deemed to be reasonable at the time they were made but which may turn out to be incorrect. Events and outcomes are difficult to predict and depend on factors beyond the company's control. Consequently, the actual results, financial condition, performances and/or achievements of FDE or of the industry may turn out to differ materially from the future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by these statements, forecasts and estimates. Owing to these uncertainties, no representation is made as to the correctness or fairness of these forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates speak only as of the date on which they are made, and FDE undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

_______________________

1 Results of the companies Cellcius dedicated to the operation of the Creutzwald thermal solar plant (51% owned by FDE and 49% by Enes) and FalkenSun dedicated to the construction and operation of the photovoltaic solar plant of FalkenSun (75% owned by FDE and 25% by Mercury Advisors)

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005974/en/

Contacts:

Press

contact@francaisedelenergie.fr

+ 33 3 87 04 34 51



Investor Relations

ir@francaisedelenergie.fr

+ 33 3 87 04 34 51
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Southwest Airlines Inc. (LUV) on Thursday announced a new fare class- a second cheapest option, which is expected to bring in more customers, who are ready to pay for more flexible options. Called the 'Wanna Get Away Plus' fare, it is placed just above the 'Wanna Get Away' fare and just below its 'Anytime' fare. This new fare class will let passengers make same-day changes to their tickets without paying up the fare difference as required by the lowest tier. Customers who choose the new fare, or classes above the new fare will get more frequent flyer miles than the lowest tier and they will be able to transfer their flight credits to another RapidRewards member. This is an added new feature. Passengers can continue checking in two bags for free. The new fare type is the latest effort by an airline to increase revenue after being severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Airlines like Delta, American and United have in recent time introduced no-frills basic economy tickets, excluding ideas like free seat selection. Southwest will make the new fare schedule operation in the second quarter The Dallas-based airline had announced last year that it would launch a new type of fare but had not gone into the details. Higher air travel, particularly for domestic leisure trips, and higher fuel prices are already pushing the fares up. Airlines report the maximum revenue during the second and third quarters, when vacation season keeps up the sales. In February, bookings by both number and value on US airline websites were higher than pre-Covid levels for the first time in the pandemic, said reports. 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.
HARBIN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese soybean grower Du Zhentao is buying soybean seeds and planning to double his soybean planting area.

Du in his 50s lives in Hailun, known as China's major growing area of quality soybean, in Heilongjiang Province. He plans to grow more than 20,000 mu (about 1,333 hectares) of soybean this year.

Heilongjiang, the country's leading soybean production base, has set the target of adding 10 million mu of soybean plantation area this year to boost the output. The province's soybean planting area accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's total.

Last week, the National Development and Reform Commission detailed tasks to boost agricultural production, urging vigorous efforts to expand the planting of soybean and oilseed crops to effectively stabilize and increase grain self-sufficiency rates.

Yuan Zhiquan, a farmer from Suiling County in Heilongjiang, is frequenting seed stores to select soybean seeds for spring planting these days.

"Soybean growers that I know are all planning to expand production this spring, as they are optimistic about the crop," Yuan said.

Seed companies have reported robust sales.

"Sales of soybean seeds have increased sharply this year," said Zhang Zhiting, general manager of Heilongjiang Shengfeng Seed Co., Ltd., a seed wholesaler.

The company has sold over 15,000 tonnes of soybean seeds so far this spring, already exceeding the total sales volume of last spring, and the end of the seed sales season is still more than a month away.

The city of Hailun plans to add 120,000 mu of soybean planting area this year, as farmers can benefit from the country's policies supporting the expansion of soybean planting, and profit from an expected price surge of soybean, according to Yao Hongwei, head of the Hailun municipal department of agriculture and rural affairs.

China has also launched pilots to transform paddy fields into dry land in Heilongjiang in order to divert rice to soybean planting, particularly in areas where farmers excessively rely on exploiting underground water for agricultural irrigation.

"My rice field is relatively low-lying. I pumped underground water for irrigating, and the rice output was not good. I transformed the paddy field into dry land last autumn to get it ready for growing soybean this year," said Yin Tiezhu, a farmer from Yuquan Village, Hailun, who grew 120 mu of rice last year.

Apart from the northeast part of the country, the central government has also mobilized to expand the plantation of corn and soybeans in its east, northwest and southwest regions, in efforts to ensure domestic self-sufficiency of soybean supply for making edible soybean products.

Meanwhile, efforts have been made to beef up soybean breeding to boost yield, quality, and disease resistance of the crop. Agricultural authorities in Heilongjiang have recommended 23 new soybean varieties for breeders this spring.

It is necessary for China, as the world's largest importer and consumer of soybeans, to boost farmers' enthusiasm to plant soybeans and increase soybean production capacity, which will help increase the country's self-sufficiency level for the crop and better guarantee food security, said Li Guoxiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - Further to its news release dated March 9, 2022, Silver Sands Resources Corp. (CSE: SAND) (the "Company" or "Silver Sands") is pleased to announce that it has closed its over-subscribed, non-brokered private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of C$1,345,000 (the "Private Placement") through the issuance of up to 13,450,000 units of the Company (each a "Unit") at a price of C$0.10 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each a "Share") and one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one share at a price of C$0.15 per share for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance. The Warrants are subject to an acceleration right that allows the Company to give notice of an earlier expiry date if the Company's share price on the CSE (or such other stock exchange the Shares may be trading on) is equal to or greater than C$0.30 for a period of 10 consecutive trading days.

The Company has paid 8% Cash Finders' fees totaling $45,600 and issued 456,000 Finder's Warrants which have the same terms as the subscribers' warrants described above.

Proceeds of the Private Placement will be used for exploration expenditures on the Project, for accounts payable and ongoing general working capital requirements.

The securities issued in connection with the Private Placement are subject to a four month hold period as required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About Silver Sands Resources Corp.

Silver Sands is a well-financed, Canada-based company engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in mining-friendly jurisdictions. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit. Its key asset is the Virginia silver project, located in the mining-friendly Santa Cruz state of Argentina.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director

For further information, please contact:

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director (604) 786-7774

SILVER SANDS RESOURCES CORP.

Suite 830 - 1100 Melville Street

Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 4A6

www.silversandscorp.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain disclosure in this release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable. However, the forward-looking statements in this release, including without limitation, statements pertaining to the Company's exploration programs, the Company's mineral property acquisition plans and the use of funds raised in the Private Placement, are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and risks include, without limitation, financing risks, delays in obtaining or inability to obtain required regulatory approvals, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political or competitive developments, exploration and operational difficulties, the timing of future business expenditures, the potential of the Company's mineral properties and changes in economic conditions or financial markets. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/118088
If you have always wanted to start a business and live the American Dream, the EB5 visa can seem like the golden ticket to your dream life. And, for investors with the right resources, it is! But when it comes down to navigating the logistics of investing abroad and fulfilling the requirements needed to obtain a green card, the process gets all the more complicated.

Before you even know it, youll find yourself making one of the most decisive choices of the entire process: choosing between a direct and a regional center investment. While there is no simple answer to your dilemma, here are some advantages of direct EB5 investments worth considering.

How to Find an EB-5 Visa Project to Invest In

The EB5 visa  or the Fifth Employment-Based Preference  is an optimal pathway for investors, and their immediate family, to get a green card and become lawful permanent residents of the US.

Brand new legislation just earlier in March, 2022 for the EB-5 Program specifies that future investors are required to invest up to $800,000 for Targeted Employment Areas, or $1,050,000.

While it all sounds straightforward, in practice, the process can be lengthy and challenging. And, the first hurdle youll need to overcome is finding the right project to invest in. There are two main options for investors:

EB5 regional centers investment  Today, there are 632 investor regional centers across the nation, which are USCIS-designated entities with the aim to sponsor EB5 projects. Investing in a regional center means investing in a commercial enterprise associated with these entities.

 Today, there are 632 investor regional centers across the nation, which are USCIS-designated entities with the aim to sponsor EB5 projects. Investing in a regional center means investing in a commercial enterprise associated with these entities. Direct investment  making a direct EB-5 investment means bypassing the regional centers and starting a new business, purchasing an existing company, or buying equity in an enterprise.

Direct investments give you the operative and creative freedom to bring to life your own venture and invest in a real, operating business. However, eligibility requirements are more stringent, and you will be directly responsible for creating and maintaining 10 full-time jobs for qualified employees  not counting your family members!

Here are some of the unmissable benefits of this choice.

You Can Retain Better Control Over Your Business Venture  But You Can Choose to Passively Manage It

When investing in a regional center, you will have very limited control over your businesss operations. In some cases, your managerial power will be limited to sharing your vote in major decisions.

For investors who wish to have little involvement with the project while still securing a green card, this is the perfect option. However, if you are looking to be more involved with your businesss venture and use a hands-on approach towards its operations, making a direct investment could be the only way to retain control.

(Pro tip  with an EB5 direct investment, you can be as involved as you wish to be. If you are looking to passively manage a business while enjoying the benefits that come with a direct investment, you might consider buying equity in an existing business.)

A Direct Investment Can Help You Lower Your Administrative Fees

When investing in a regional center, you will need to budget for the fees associated with managing your project. These include legal fees, project administration fees, and filing fees, which can amount to $50,000  $70,000.

According to USCIS guidelines, when such fees are requested by the job-creating and managing entity, they cannot be part of the amount invested, but be in addition to it.

When opting for direct investments, youll be able to keep overhead costs low, save on administrative costs, and dedicate your entire allocated capital to launching your business venture.

You Can Enjoy Shorter Timelines and a More Straightforward Process

There certainly are advantages to investing in a regional center  including the fact that you wont have to worry about creating 10 full-time jobs and can count on a predictable exit strategy.

However, this ease of investment comes at a major bureaucratic cost.

From dealing with unobtainable project preapprovals to undergoing lengthy applications, submitting rigorous economic reports, and meeting strict eligibility requirements, regional center EB5 projects can take between 7 and 12 months to kick off.

Oppositely, EB5 direct investments allow investors to start developing, marketing, and seeking external funding virtually immediately.

Youll Face an Equal Level of Investment Risk

Whether launching a start-up or establishing a large chain business, calculating the risk involved with the investment is a top priority for investors.

So, it is normal for first-time funders to seek administrative and operational support. But, despite the perceived safety of regional center investments, they dont reduce or minimize investor risk.

On the other hand, direct investments will offer you full control over your businesss operations, which could be a significant advantage for experienced and successful entrepreneurs.

EB5 Direct Equity Investments Can Increase Your Earning Potential and Returns

While approved regional centers are a suitable  and somewhat safer  alternative for inexperienced investors, their sponsored projects provide minimal returns.

At the same time, the high initial investment required for an EB5 visa, when used wisely, can lead to significant returns.

Ultimately, it all depends on your risk tolerance, business vision, and experience  but opting for direct EB5 investment is the only way to remove any earning caps associated with working with a regional center.
Many of us have flirted with the idea of investing in iGaming. The industry is in the news a lot, and you may have heard some big success stories of companies in the market, but could 2022 be the time to invest if you havent already done so?

The companies surrounding the industry show just how much growth has been achieved, with iGaming supporting innovative casino platforms as well as marketing agencies, software developers and more. Some of the big companies are turning over billions every year and making huge profits at the same time. Does this represent a good investment opportunity?

Growing iGaming

The iGaming industry is growing in multiple ways. In addition to there being more ways to play, and more success in existing markets, there are also many brand-new markets being explored. Areas where gambling may have previously been illegal or strictly regulated are changing to become more lenient or to introduce whole new gambling markets.

For instance, many states in the US are well on their way to legalizing gambling, both on sportsbook markets and iGaming, which paves the way for growth in the industry.

iGaming is growing anyway. In some countries, there is roughly one active account for every two people in the country, with places such as the UK continuing to be major players in the world of gambling.

More opportunities to invest

There are plenty of places in which to invest if you feel iGaming is going to continue to grow. Of course, capital is at risk when you do invest, but if you make some smart moves, it could make all the difference to your future.

For example, some VR gaming companies are currently receiving huge investment. Do you feel like this area is one which is going to see a lot of growth in iGaming? There are opportunities to invest within this sub niche.

While a lot of people will look to invest in the larger gambling companies, and these may be safer investments overall, there is the opportunity to find and back a big winner and get in at just the right time.

Other opportunities to invest include software developers, which are constantly looking for new ways to grow and therefore seeking investment. There are a huge number of online casinos that are licensing new games almost daily, and this means that there are many opportunities for developers in the industry.

If crypto booms, so could iGaming

iGaming companies tend to be pretty forward-thinking, and a lot of them are embracing cryptocurrencies, allowing people to gamble and play games using crypto. This means that if the cryptocurrencies do well, it is a fair bet that a lot of the iGaming companies will follow.

Cryptocurrencies are definitely one of the hot topics in investing. While volatile, if you think that these are a wise bet, they could reinforce some of the reasons why you might choose to invest in iGaming.

The industry doesnt rely on crypto, so if it should fail or popularity drop off, it is still likely that iGaming will be going strong nonetheless.

Its not as simple as investing in the industry

Of course, it is all well and good to say that this is the year to back the industry, but as with any industry, there will be winners and there will be losers.

The key is to do your research, and to consider exactly what the trends in the industry will be and how you may be able to take advantage of these. A shrewd investment portfolio will usually contain a mixture of safer investments and some smaller risks that have the chance to pay off.

Do your research

To spot the best opportunities, it is a good idea to do your research and keep on top of the companies that are growing and look like they could make a huge difference in the future.

2022 is likely to be a year for certain iGaming companies to blow up, as we see more technology put to use and an even more competitive market, with more and more regions legalizing gambling.

In the UK, iGaming is already extremely popular, but many other countries are starting to relax their restrictions, which could lead to growth for some existing big players as well as new companies.

Its vital that you think carefully before any investment, but iGaming is definitely worth considering and researching in 2022.
MedaSystems Expanded Access platform connects physicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers to help patients gain access to investigational therapies.

MedaSystems, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based digital health software company, raised $1.5m in pre-seed funding.

The round was led by nina capital in conjunction with a group of strategic angel investors.

Led by Fiona Smythe, CEO, MedaSystems has developed a networked platform where pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers can collaborate on Expanded Access (also known as Managed Access or Compassionate Use) requests.

Expanded Access allows patients with a serious or life-threatening condition, who have exhausted the standard of care and are not eligible to participate in clinical trials, to request access to investigational therapies that have not yet gained authorization from local regulatory authorities. Expanded Accesses played an essential role in developing novel treatments during the Covid-19 pandemic and historically has been a vital pathway for patients with conditions such as cancer, ALS, Alzheimers disease, and thousands of rare diseases.

The platform enables pharmaceutical companies to respond to Expanded Access requests faster and more efficiently, design more effective clinical trials, enhance pre-approval regulatory submissions and capture real-world data.

FinSMEs

23/03/2022
MixMode, a Santa Barbara, Calif.- based provider of self-learning solutions to detect cyberattacks in real time, raised $45m in Series B funding round.

The round was led by PSG, with participation from existing investor Entrada Ventures.

The company plans to use the capital to further expand its AI capabilities, build out its sales presence and grow its channel reach.

Led by John Keister, CEO, MixMode delivers a self-learning platform that allows enterprises and agencies to detect and protect their networks against the most advanced cyberattacks. This automated, AI-driven solution is purpose-built to detect both known attacks and novel attacks with the optionality to be applied to both public cloud and on-premise corporate environments at Fortune 500 scale.

MixMode serves large enterprises with big data environments across a variety of industries and works with channel partners closely to service and grow the use cases for its customers.

FinSMEs

23/03/2022
Stellic, a San Francisco, CA-based student-built degree progression platform, raised $11m in funding.

The round was led by Reach Capital, along with 15 edtech founder-investors like John Katzman (2U/Noodle), David Blake (Degreed), Matt Pittinsky (Blackboard), and Dan Carroll (Clever).

The company plans to dedicate the new funds to grow to team and community of institutional partners, as well as to enhance the student-centric capabilities in the platform.

Founded in 2016 by Sabih Bin Wasi, Rukhsar Neyaz, and Musab Popatia, Stellic provides a centralized degree progression platform for students to overcome the challenges of the modern university experience. Its advising, degree audit, degree planning, and analytics tools can be utilized by students, advisors, and administrators to ensure students stay on track and receive the personalized educational experience they deserve.

More than 45 colleges and universities now use Stellic to promote student agency over the individual college experience and return precious time to administrators in order to better scale personalized support systems.

FinSMEs

23/03/2022
Trammell Venture Partners, an Austin, Texas-based venture capital firm, closed its venture industrys first fund in a new series dedicated specifically to backing founders building on the Bitcoin/Lightning Network protocol stack.

TVP Bitcoin Venture Fund Is capital was formed entirely from investors aligned on Bitcoins value proposition, values, and mission. This is inclusive of limited partners and an array of TVP advisors also investing in the fund, including: Ryan Gentry, Robert Breedlove, Mark Moss, Stephen Cole, Lyle Pratt, Cory Klippsten, Yan Pritzker, Louis Liu, Karthik Srinivasan, Allan Stevo, and Will Cole.

Founded in 2016 and led by Christopher Calicott, TVP managing director and founding partner, and Dustin D. Trammell, TVP founding partner, Trammell Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in highly technical companies in three core areas including Bitcoin-native technologies, security and privacy tech, and applied AI. Since 2020, TVP has focused on backing founders building on the layers of the Bitcoin protocol stack via the venture capital industrys first dedicated Bitcoin-native mandated VC fund series: The TVP Bitcoin Venture Fund series of funds.

With this fund, TVP launched the industrys first institutional feeder fund that will allow investors to use bitcoin as base collateral in order to access alternative asset classes like venture capital.

The team also includes Stephen Cole, who joined TVP as a venture partner to source select fund deals, and Matthew Snow, who joined TVP as senior analyst.

FinSMEs

23/03/2022
Triple Whale, a Columbus, Ohio  based operating system for Shopify brands, raised $27.7M in an extended Series A funding.

Triple Whales latest funding round consists of a $24M investment led by Elephant VC, alongside a previously undisclosed $2.7M seed round led by NFX, and an additional $1M raised with notable participation from individual investor Shaan Puri.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its development team and integrate additional components into its platform.

Led by Aj Orbach (CEO), Maxx Blank (COO) and Ivan Chernykh (CTO), Triple Whale provides an analytics platform for key stakeholders of Shopify brands looking to scale their businesses. The platform combines centralization, visualization, and attribution in a dashboard which presents and illustrates KPIs in an actionable way, making insights into advertising performance accessible for any Shopify retailer.

Triple Whale provides brands with a transparent view into metrics that matter, integrating merchants data from Shopify, Facebook, Google, TikTok, and other popular apps.

FinSMEs

24/03/2022
A former Floyd County resident has pleaded guilty in connection with a fatal 2018 hit-and-run case that left a Teaberry man dead.

Kyle Collins, 26, of Berea, entered the plea in connection with a July 1, 2017 incident in which 60-year-old Larry Hinkle was walking along Ky. 979 and was struck by the vehicle Collins was driving, according to Floyd Commonwealths Attorney Brent Turner.

Collins then fled the scene, Turner said, which hindered authorities from naming a suspect in the case for months. The following year, police discovered a vehicle that had been intentionally pushed over an embankment in a remote area of Mud Creek in an apparent attempt to conceal the crime, Turner said. The car had been covered with brush and the VIN number had been removed.

Kentucky State Police were able to locate the VIN number on another part of the vehicle, and KSP were then able to trace it back to Collins, who had been driving the car the day of the accident, Turner said. Collins later admitted to hitting the man and leaving the scene of an accident.

The case was scheduled to begin trial on March 21, but the parties reached a resolution at a criminal mediation conducted on March 9.

The agreement reached between Turners office, the victim's family, Collins calls for a five-year prison sentence for Collins which will begin when he is sentenced in June. In exchange for the five-year recommended sentence, Collins has pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident with a fatality. This is the maximum sentence available on that charge.

According Floyd County Commonwealths Attorney Brent Turner, the ordeal has been tough for Hinkles family.

The victim's family has suffered a terrible loss and no amount of prison time can change that. But they were satisfied with this resolution and felt the defendant had to be punished for leaving the victim at the scene and not telling what happened for so many months, Turner said. It was very difficult for the family to lose their loved one and then be forced to endure such a long period of time without knowing what happened and who did it. The trial was delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and the family was very patient in seeing this case through to a conviction. They are a very strong family and I'm thankful for their patience and perseverance. I am pleased that we could get a good result for them and reward their trust in our office.

Turner also praised the officers who worked diligently on the case.

We are also very grateful for the hard work of Kentucky state police detectives Chris Phillips and Michael Coleman. They did a great job with the investigation. Without them, the case would never have been solved and no one would have been charged, said Turner.
PAINTSVILLE  When they first started their roadside produce stand five years ago, there's no way the tight-knit family that makes up Griffith Family Farms could have possibly imagined how that business would look only half a decade later.

Chester Griffith, who runs the business alongside wife Melissa and daughters Emma, Ella and Eliza, said he cant believe where the family farm has ended up and the only reason further expansion hasnt happened is because he believes the family has reached a comfortable place with the amount of work they are able to handle.

Chester called the life they are living now "amazing," and said it is a product of he and Melissa's inability to cope with a life of taking kids to daycares or schools and going off to other jobs and spending the vast majority of their time apart  making the "family" part of the farm's name likely the key component to their success and their drive to make their dream lifestyle a reality.

"What drove us, me and my wife both, and I admire people that do it, I don't know how they do, we weren't able to do it, but people that go to that job every morning at 7:30 or 8 o'clock and before then, they have to get their kids ready and take them to a daycare, and we did that with my oldest daughter for a while, but then you have to work all day and then go get them, but that was part of the reason, we just wanted our family to be together," Chester said. "It just amazes me how it's all worked out so that we're able to do that. The people that do that, I admire them so much, because we weren't able to do it."

Looking back on his own upbringing, Chester said it "blew his mind" that they were able to do what they've done. He watched his father work at a business for 10 years and retire with little to show for it.

"A lot of it, too, when we transitioned, I worked for the state for 10 years and Melissa was a teacher at Johnson County Schools. When we transitioned from the roadside market to being on the farm here, you know, I watched my dad work at a business and he paid that rent on a building out every month, and at the end of 10 years, you didn't have anything," Chester said. "So, I told my wife, we're going to build our own building here at the farm, and if people come, they come, and if they don't, we'll have a nice building.

"Since we've opened, we've just been incredibly blessed and very fortunate and it blows my mind, even Saturday, when there was 8 inches of snow, we were busy all day," Chester continued. "I said, 'We are so blessed to be able to be on the farm and have people come to us.'"

That family touch adds to the farm and helps secure a strong and loyal customer base, Chester said, but the importance of providing a quality product cannot be understated.

"Being good to people  that's it. Helping people when you can help them, and in turn, by shopping here, they help us. That's it, that's what we've lost and we lose it when we don't have that personal interaction. I tell my customers this  You're not going to drive this far out here for a subpar product at a high price,' people just aren't going to do it. We have to have a better product than you're going to find anywhere else at a competitive price," Chet said, adding that the personal touch they provide is a sort of built-in accountability.

"It's harder for us to sell you something that's not good than it is for any of the box stores, because we've got to look you right in the eye when we check you out and, when they come back in the next time, we'll see them and they'll let us know, he said. If you're selling a subpar product at a store and the person isn't working, or you don't know what shift they're working and they don't know that customer, what does it matter. There's no accountability  with us, I mean, the majority of the time, it's our family or people that work here that are like family, that you deal with. We stand behind everything we sell and we mess up, like anybody messes up, and we'll make it right. It's just what you've got to do."

Griffith Family Farms stands as a testament to the influx of the emerging generations of Appalachians, who are interested in the outdoors, fitness and natural foods, who cross-section at the store with the old-school Appalachia that is such an integral part, Chet said, of what the family-owned farm, Chet said.

"Our dynamic is so interesting, because we have the emerging people in Appalachia, the emerging generations that are at the gym and the health club and they all shop here and then you have the old-school Appalachians that still shop here, too, because they love the bacon and the sausage and the burger," Chet said. "It's just a blessing to be able to serve everybody. You know, I was raised old-school, and you just love to be able to serve everybody that you can.

"I love Jennies Creek, I love these mountains and that's the land grant, or the deed to my family in 1849," Chet continued, pointing to a framed copy of the original deed to the property, now more than 170 years old. "My girls will be the eighth or ninth generation of my family to work the land, it's a lot. We not only want to make a living here, we want to build something to where, if they're wanting to stay on the farm when they get older and, hopefully, appreciate the lifestyle that we live, and would want to come back to it."

Chet laughed, adding that "none of them probably will."

"You know, none of them probably will, they may want to say, Im done farming dad, I'm out of here, Chet added.

The farm and family aspects were something that has always been built in to the establishment, but the influx of community support and other local farmers, on top of the support of adventure tourists, trail riders, RV travelers, alongside the cooperative home school setup at the farm, thanks to Brandy Lemaster, made the farm a community destination, Chet said, that he could never have forseen. That inclusion of the youth, from their own daughters, community members, children from the family's church and school attendees have all worked at the store and on the farm and made a decent wage and been happy to help.

"We actually have a homeschool cooperative, and all of the kids work here in the store and they make a good wage while they work and they want to work, and all of the kids are together, so it's fun while they work. You know, that's the way families did it for hundreds of years, you raised your own labor and the communities raised their own labor," Chet said. "Through COVID and all of this, we've not really had any issues on labor, because of the youth through our church and our school that have been willing to work here, we've made it."

That old-school mentality helped with both retaining local clientele and building a tourism draw, Chet said.

"That's been an unexpected part of it and we never anticipated that, the whole tourism thing, it's just like, 'Wow,' because, for a long time, I thought the main thing was you needed to produce a product," Chet said. "It's not just our family that our customers are supporting ... we've been fortunate that our best friends are Amish and they own a butcher shop, and they've helped us out so much."

According to Chet, when the prospect of putting in a trail was first announced, they were fervently opposed to the prospect, but now they supply bicycles for free use for those who want to make use of the Dawkins Line Rail Trail.

"It's just pretty amazing how it's all worked out ... we have bicycles but we don't rent them, we originally started out we were going to rent them, but we just stay so busy in the store, we just let people use them. I know we had several families here from Paintsville on Friday, who used the trail and used the bikes," Chet said, adding that their attitude toward the trail and what it brought to the area had done a total 180-degree turn from their original attitude toward it. "I see the trail is not going to do anything but grow  it's kind of figuring out what it's going to do in this stage right here, but I think ... it'll take off in the next year or two. I really do. We're all about supporting that, we're horse riders and ride on the trail all the time and we're just supporting that anyway we can and we want to, because as it grows, it'll help not only us, but the whole community.

"What's ironic, is we were one of the most avid people against it when it came out, and now, I think it's essential that we support it, because we're the only thing situated on the trail, as a business," Chet said, adding that after seeing the reality of the trail's existence versus what their expectation of it was, they were surprised at how little issues it had presented, especially when it came to its regulation and patrolling. "We never felt they did a good job of explaining how it would be set up ... we thought there would be a lot more issue with four-wheelers and people on it, and really, between local law enforcement and Fish and Wildlife that patrol it, I won't say there haven't been any issues, but there haven't been many. It's a great tool for, not only a property owner, as far as property values, but we're all about a healthier product and trying to live a healthier life and that fits right in with everything we're trying to do. It's just kind of ironic, because we thought it would be a constant headache all of the time, and, really, it's been great."

In addition to trail riders, people traveling in RVs have been patronizing the business and that word of mouth has been explosive for the family business' growth.

"With the trail, we've actually become a Harvest Host destination, I don't know if you're familiar with what that is, but if you have a camper or an RV, and you're traveling across the nation, instead of parking in a Walmart parking lot, we've joined Harvest Host, well, actually they contacted us, but you can call and make a reservation or they can pull in and park and they can stay the night or two nights, and there's no charge for it, but the deal is, they patron your business at about what it would cost to rent a site at twenty or thirty dollars a night," Chet said. "We've had hundreds of people stay, from Washington to California, to Maine, I mean, all corners of the United States. You know, you had a lot of people that were traveling through COVID, they said, 'Well, times are crazy, we're going to put the family in the RV and we're going to see the country,' so we've got to meet so many fantastic people through that and now we're having repeats as well as new people, and everybody's coming back because they've enjoyed it here.

"That's what we want, we want people to enjoy the farm as much as we enjoy it, because they're the ones who allow us to be here," Chet added. "Just being good to people. You can help people and in turn, they help us by shopping here."

Expanding the business or acquiring more clientele is almost a scary prospect to Chet, but that's a good problem to have, and, looking back on where they've come from, it just makes him thankful.

"We started out with that roadside market, almost to the day, about five years ago, and we had about two or three chocolate pies and a table full of fresh greens, just hardly nothing really, and we just saw the demand there," Chet said, adding that the family is already at a point where they're making a living and living comfortably from the farm. "That's kind of where we were at, we've always just wanted to make a living and we're very fortunate, that all of our family works here ... really, we're as busy as we can possibly handle, so we've not really advertised because of that. Different levels bring different devils and we're kind of dialed in where we're at, and like where we're at and we're still growing, though. We're gradually growing and still sometimes, it's overwhelming, but we just do the best that we can do."

Griffith Family Farm is located at 8055 Ky. Rt. 825 in Paintsville and can be reached by phone at, (606) 297-3239. For more information, search for "Griffith Family Farm" on Facebook.
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China will step up efforts this year to stabilize employment of people who have been lifted out of poverty, as part of the work to consolidate the achievements made in poverty alleviation, according to a circular.

China will ensure that no less than 30 million people who have shaken off poverty are employed this year, preventing a large-scale return to impoverishment, said the circular co-released by five government organs, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Measures to be unveiled include boosting labor-service cooperation between eastern and western regions and creating job opportunities near homes of the people concerned, according to the circular.

In 2021, some 31.45 million people lifted out of poverty found jobs, 1.26 million higher than the level in 2020, according to the National Rural Revitalization Administration. 
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Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) holds talks with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, acting deputy prime minister of the Afghan Taliban's caretaker government, in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 24, 2022. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here Thursday with Mullah Abul Ghani Baradar, acting deputy prime minister of the Afghan Taliban's caretaker government, with both sides pledging to conduct orderly and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

During the meeting, Baradar said Afghanistan is an independent country and is willing to establish friendly relations with all countries in the world.

The Afghan Taliban's caretaker government is a responsible government, Baradar said, adding that Afghanistan attaches great importance to China's security concern and will take pragmatic and firm actions to ensure security across the country so as to contribute to safeguarding regional security.

Afghanistan cherishes China's friendship and appreciates China's help, especially in offering anti-pandemic support and providing the most needed humanitarian assistance during the most difficult times of the Afghan people, the acting deputy prime minister said.

He hoped that more Afghan commodities could be exported to the Chinese market in the future, and welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in his country.

Afghanistan is willing to give play to its unique geographical advantage and fully participate in the building of the Belt and Road so as to become a bridge for regional interconnectivity, he added.

For his part, Wang said that the friendship between China and Afghanistan enjoys a long history. China does not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs, nor does it seek self-interest or a sphere of influence in Afghanistan.

China is ready to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two sides, and develop normal and neighborly relations with Afghanistan on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, he said.

The Chinese side has noted that the Afghan caretaker government is committed to peaceful reconstruction and has taken a series of positive measures to address concerns of the international community, Wang said.

The Chinese side hopes that the Afghan side will continue to establish an inclusive political structure, implement prudent policies, better safeguard the rights and interests of women and children, and demonstrate the tolerance and friendliness of Muslims, he said.

Wang said that on the premise of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, China is ready to carry out mutually beneficial cooperation with Afghanistan in an orderly manner with a focus on improving people's livelihood and enhancing Afghanistan's capacity for independent development, so as to help Afghanistan turn its resource advantage into development advantage.

China appreciates and welcomes Afghanistan's active participation in the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and stands ready to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan, replicate more successful experiences, and make Afghanistan, with the geographical strength as the "Heart of Asia", a bridge for regional connectivity, Wang said.

China appreciates Afghanistan's clear declaration and solemn commitment of not allowing any external forces to use the Afghan territory to oppose its neighboring countries or harm the security of other countries, and hopes that Afghanistan will firmly and resolutely fulfill this commitment, he added. 
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianwen-1 orbiter has beamed back high-resolution images of Mars, showing dust storms on the surface of the planet.

Released by the China National Space Administration on Thursday, the new pictures with a resolution of 0.5 meters were captured by a camera on the probe, which has been operating in orbit for 609 days at a distance of 277 million km from Earth.

Track marks left by Mars rover Zhurong can be seen in the pictures. With its 306 Martian days of service, the rover has traveled a total of 1,784 meters on the planet.

Zhurong also snapped selfies from Mars. Compared with the images taken shortly after it landed on the planet, the new photos showed a layer of dust accumulated on its surface.

Dust can reduce rovers' power supply. Chinese scientists have specially designed the rover's solar wing to offset the efficiency decline caused by dust coverage.

The rover now has sufficient energy to continue its exploration on Mars, the Chinese space administration said in a statement.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter has monitored dust activities in the northern hemisphere of Mars since late January and sent back pictures of regional dust storms in February. No obvious dusty weather has been observed in the Zhurong rover's inspection area, according to the administration. 
The blue-red Burgerville logo has become the latest sign of softening coronavirus restrictions after the Vancouver, Washington-based fast-casual food chain reopened its Albany and Corvallis stores to indoor dining.

Burgerville announced on March 17 it had reopened lobbies at 16 restaurants in Oregon and Washington, including Albany. The Corvallis store was among five more stores that had opened by Wednesday, March 23, according to a news release.

The retailer planned to open the remaining 19 of its 40 restaurants by the end of April, Burgerville officials stated in the release.

The retailer closed dining rooms for about two years, selling food through takeout and drive-thru windows while Oregon enacted, then lifted indoor dining bans throughout one of the deadliest pandemics in U.S. history. COVID-19 so far has killed just over 7,000 in the state.

Indoor dining was banned for a week in Linn county, that ban lifting in early May 2021 as hospitalizations statewide surged then slowed.

Advocacy and lobbying organization Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association claimed around the same time that more than 1,000 restaurants had closed under pandemic-related recession and restrictions.

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State officials appeared to balk at further indoor dining restrictions but required businesses to enforce masking until lifting its mandate March 12 in line with California and Washington as hospitalizations fell to 261.

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Albany's Riverfront Community Center reopened its doors Thursday morning, March 24, for locals looking for face-to-face fun after years of pandemic restrictions.

The 10,000-square-foot center was among the institutions that closed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This week, it's up and running again with amenities that include a new coffee shop.

The Riverfront Community Center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, serving all ages, including seniors. The older set got the first peek Thursday.

According to the center's event coordinator, Lynne Smith, staff wanted to spruce up the facility to make it as inviting for new and returning visitors. That meant some new furniture, window coverings and a colorful ambience.

"We wanted to to bring as many people in here as possible," Smith said. "To us, that meant making it look more modern."

Smith said the center is otherwise the same as it's been and includes space for weddings, birthday parties, movie viewings and business meetings.

Mercedes and Willy Rodriguez are among Riverfront's returning visitors and said the building's facelift is just what it needed.

"It definitely looks more modern," Mercedes Rodriguez said. "They did a good job."

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Originally from New York City, the couple moved to Oregon to be closer to their daughter who attended Oregon State University in Corvallis.

The Rodriguezes  Mercedes Rodriguez worked in an attorney's office and Willy Rodriguez was a clerk at the United Nations  are enjoying their sunset years and consider the Riverfront Community Center a fun destination.

The two both enjoy long walks around the waterfront, watching movies and attending classes at the center, especially ones about navigating the DMV.

The Riverfront Community Center is intended to be a community space for visitors of all ages and it boasts everything from science classes for kindergarten students to Tai Chi and yoga classes for seniors.

Linn-Benton Community College is also offering noncredit classes as part of its extended learning program at the center. Most offer both in-person and virtual options, the latter of which the college has pursued in earnest during the pandemic.

Ryan Kinnett, a community education coordinator at Linn-Benton Community College, said the pandemic has encouraged the college to keep its learning options open.

"We have instructors come up to us, saying, 'I want to teach this,'" Kinnett said. "We're always learning about what we can offer."

For Willy Rodriguez, learning is a lifelong journey he enjoys as much as a long walk in the park.

"I like learning a lot of things," he said. "I don't want that to change."

Tim Gruver covers the city of Albany and Linn County. He can be contacted at 541-812-6114 or Tim.Gruver@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter via @T_TimeForce.

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Two former governors have endorsed state Treasurer Tobias Read among the 17 Democrats seeking their party's nomination for governor in the May 17 primary.

They are John Kitzhaber, a Democrat who was governor from 1995 to 2003, and again from 2011 to 2015, and Barbara Roberts, a Democrat who was governor from 1991 to 1995.

In statements released by Read's campaign, each had a unique commentary.

Kitzhaber's statement came on Tuesday, March 22:

"What Oregon lacks today is a vision of where we want our state to be a decade from now, the steps it will take to get there and an honest conversation about the difficult choices involved with securing that future. Tobias Read has the courage and the integrity to lead us in that conversation and beyond the polarization and divisiveness that is shredding the fabric of our community.

"Bold, outcomes-based leadership, unfettered by the status quo, is what Oregon needs and what Tobias brings to this race. I am proud to support him."

Roberts' statement was issued March 3:

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"Oregon needs a governor with a statewide record of tackling tough issues, delivering results, and fighting for Oregonians living in every corner of this great state.

"Tobias has shown he can bring people together, and he will continue his work to build economic opportunity and a better future for all. That's why I'm supporting Tobias. Oregon needs his proven and steady leadership."

Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who is barred by term limits from running again after serving almost two full terms, is not endorsing anyone. Neither is former Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat who served from 2003 to 2011, although he said Wednesday he may do so in the future. Former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt withdrew from public life in 2004 after news disclosures that he had had sex with a teenage babysitter while mayor of Portland in the 1970s.

Read has been elected twice as state treasurer  he cannot seek a third consecutive term in 2024  and was a state representative from Beaverton for 10 years beforehand.

He has raised less so far this year than his main rival for the nomination, former House Speaker Tina Kotek  about $337,000 to $608,000  but Read has begun airing TV commercials. As of Wednesday, Read reported $761,000 cash on hand; Kotek about $1 million.

Though neither mentioned it in their endorsement statements, Kitzhaber and Roberts have had past issues with Kotek, who led that chamber for a record nine years.

In February 2015, Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney called on Kitzhaber to resign amid an ethics scandal primarily involving Cylvia Hayes, his fiancee. Kitzhaber finally did so just 38 days into his fourth term and was succeeded by Brown, who was next in line as secretary of state.

Roberts, the first woman to be Oregon's governor, said last year that Kotek and Courtney had been the Legislature's presiding officers for too long. She said their long tenures concentrated too much authority in a few hands.

Courtney, a Democrat from Salem, is retiring after a record 38 years in the Legislature and 20 years as Senate president. Kotek stepped down Jan. 22 as speaker and from her north/northeast Portland House seat, which she held for 15 years, to focus on her current campaign.

Although there is no official limit for presiding officers  who appoint the leaders and members of legislative committees, assign bills to them and otherwise control the flow of legislation  the informal limit was four years, until Jason Boe won a third term as Senate president in 1977. Boe did so despite opposition from a group of Democratic senators, including Frank Roberts of Portland, who was Barbara Roberts' husband. Boe ended up being president eight years, until he lost a primary bid for state treasurer in 1980.

The only other recent Oregon legislators to break four years as presiding officers were Kitzhaber, who was Senate president from 1985 to 1993, and Vera Katz, who was House speaker from 1985 to 1991. Kitzhaber was elected governor in 1994, after he challenged Roberts' re-election bid and she dropped out for family reasons. (Frank Roberts had died of cancer the previous year.) Katz, who lost the speakership when Republicans became the majority party but remained in her House seat, was elected in 1992 to the first of three terms as mayor of Portland.

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BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes the United States' generalization of the concept of national security and its abuse of state power to unreasonably suppress Chinese enterprises in the absence of facts, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry made the statement after China's Pacific Networks Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, ComNet (USA) LLC, on Wednesday formally received an order from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which revoked its authorization for the two companies to provide telecom services in the United States.

The move seriously damaged the U.S. business environment and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and global consumers, including U.S. users, it said.

Pacific Networks Corp. and ComNet (USA) LLC have been operating in the United States for years. They have always abided by U.S. laws, regulations and regulatory requirements, and provided high-quality services to many users in the United States in accordance with commercial principles, the ministry said.

The ministry urged the FCC to withdraw its unfair decision and stop the wrongful practice of generalizing the concept of national security and politicizing economic issues, as well as provide a fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment for Chinese companies that invest and operate in the United States.

China will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, it said. 
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Ancient Iran, historically known as Persia, was the dominant nation of western Asia for over a millennium (about 550 BCAD 650), with three native dynasties controlling an empire of unprecedented size and complexity. This exhibition, part of the Getty Museums program The Classical World in Context, explores the artistic and cultural connections between the rival powers of Iran, Greece, and Rome. Works on view include royal sculpture, spectacular luxury objects, religious images, and historical documents assembled from major museums in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

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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.

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Photo taken on April 16, 2021 shows the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in Moscow. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)



The U.S. side was told that any hostile actions against Russia will receive a decisive and adequate response.



MOSCOW, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia said Wednesday that it is expelling U.S. diplomats in response to Washington's recent expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United Nations (UN).

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it summoned a senior diplomat of the U.S. embassy in Moscow on Wednesday and declared a list of American diplomats "persona non grata."

The U.S. side was told that any hostile actions against Russia will receive a decisive and adequate response, it said.

The ministry did not disclose how many U.S. diplomats are targeted and the deadline of their departure.

The United States on Feb. 28 announced the expulsion of 12 staff members of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and a Russian national working with the UN Secretariat. 
Gettysburg, PA (17325)

Today

Considerable cloudiness. High near 70F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Bonnie and Ed Hickman want to open their Mesa home to refugees of war-torn Ukraine. (David Minton/GSN Staff Photographer)
Palestinian officials condemn U.S. for lying on Xinjiang

Xinhua) 09:08, March 24, 2022

URUMQI, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian officials on Tuesday denounced the U.S. government and its followers who fabricated lies about China's Xinjiang.

Ahmad Majdalani, the Palestinian minister of social development, and Ali Mashal, head of the department of China of the Central Committee's Relations with China and the Arab World Commission of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), made the remarks via a video conference held by the government of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The U.S. double standards on anti-terrorism are not to protect Muslims in China, but to contain China's development, according to the Palestinian officials.

The United States has claimed itself as a champion of human rights, but the truth is it is the most ineligible country to talk about the human rights of Muslims, as racism is rampant in the United States and Muslim is the biggest group of victims, said Ahmad Majdalani.

The United States' ignorance of China's efforts in anti-terrorism and behaviors of fabricating lies about Xinjiang is not to protect Muslims in China, but have sent dangerous signals to international terrorist organizations, he said.

"Using the human rights as a pretext, the United States seeks to undermine the prosperity and stability in Xinjiang. Its purpose is to contain China's progress and development," said Ali Mashal.

Ahmad Majdalani called on the U.S. administration and its followers to stop provoking religious conflicts and inciting Muslims. "In the face of irrefutable facts, Western countries and groups should give up their double standards and show respect to the truth," he added.

"We condemn any attempts by the United States to smear China's image and undermine its stability and prosperity. We urge the United States to stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs and abide by the basic norms governing international relations as defined by the Charter of the United Nations," said Ali Mashal.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- "Strict implementation of laws leads to order while lax implementation of laws leads to disorder," President Xi Jinping once quoted a Chinese political commentator from close to two millennia ago to illustrate the importance of law enforcement.

This argument from a compilation of political commentaries of Wang Fu, who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), pointed out that how the laws are executed is deeply related to a country's order and development.

By quoting Wang, Xi called for efforts to strengthen and improve the implementation of laws at a meeting in 2014, a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

"The vitality and authority of the law lie in its implementation," he further stressed.

Wang's thoughts drew wisdom and were developed from Legalism, a traditional Chinese intellectual school active in the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.).

Xi has required administrative, judicial, and procuratorial organs at all levels, as important actors in the implementation of laws, to fulfill their duties in implementing laws.

"They must put an end to situations in which laws go ignored, enforcement is lax, and violations go unpunished," he said, adding that they must take resolute action against officials who abuse power for personal gain, place their power above the authority of the law, or bend the law to suit their own ends; and strictly prohibit infringement of the legitimate rights and interests of the people. 
Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PayByPhone initially launched in Italy back in 2018 with availability only in Italy. With this month's launch, the global PayByPhone app will provide Italian users access to locations outside of Italy, and PayByPhones more than 50 million global users will now have access to park in Italy. PayByPhone's simplified, cashless parking experience is available with more than 1,300 clients across the globe, including the cities of Paris, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Geneva - and now 90 cities in Italy, including Verona, Torino, Bologna, and Napoli.

PayByPhones goal was always to create one global app, on one global platform, servicing the world. Bringing Italy on board is the next step along this journey, with plans to launch Germany onto our global app later this year said Andy Gruber, Global CEO. As people start venturing out on more trips and holidays this year, we want to deliver them a seamless parking experience and a simplified journey. Bringing Italy onto our global app brings them one step closer to that.

PayByPhones growth has been strong, despite the global pandemic. Client growth was up 20% in 2021 alone and global parking transactions grew by 60%.

PayByPhone also made it even easier for Italian users to park by launching Apple Pay, which has proven to be hugely popular in other markets. In North America, for example, just 500,000 PayByPhone users were using Apple Pay a year ago. Today, that number has doubled to over a million. There are also plans to launch PayPal in Italy this Spring.

One of our core values is to continually improve the services we offer our customers, said Gruber. Were on a constant outlook to simplify peoples journeys, and frequent innovations to our global app and global platform will make their lives easier. The launch of Apple Pay in more and more markets is just one of those improvements, offering parkers more choice and more convenience with globally trusted payment options.

For more information, visit paybyphone.com

About PayByPhone

PayByPhones aim is simple: simplify your journey so you can focus on what matters most. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, they are one of the fastest growing mobile payments companies in the world, processing more than $550 million in payments and over 5 million downloads per year. Available in more than 1,000 cities across the globe, PayByPhone helps millions of consumers easily and safely pay for parking without the hassles of coins, lines or fines. Their smart, intuitive technology is at the center of their user-first approach, delivered to make everything as simple as possible. For more information, please visit www.paybyphone.com.
ROCKVILLE, Md., March 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a recently published Fact.MR report, the global Light Tower market is projected to grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 5% between 2021 and 2031. The market is expected to reach US$ 2 Bn by the end of 2031.



The demand for Light Tower is expected to rise over the forecast period and the market was valued US$ 1.2 Bn in 2020.

Historically, between 2016 and 2020, light towers market registered a revenue of around US$ 1.2 Bn in 2020, expanding at a CAGR of approximately 4%. Changing landscapes of workplaces, innovations in light towers and the durability of light towers are expected to influence the light towers industry positively. While prospects dipped significantly in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, relaxation of lockdowns in the latter half helped buoy the market through the recessionary trends.

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By lamp or light type, the LED light segment is expected to gain major traction in the upcoming period. LED lights have become popular as they do not emit toxins and provide a noise less environment. Likewise, manufacturers are emphasizing on introducing other similar sustainable light sources to power light towers, prompting a flurry of product launches and innovations.

How are Solar Light Towers Propelling Growth?

The global light tower market is set to witness mounting growth in the coming years, as a result of increasing popularity of solar-equipped light towers. These towers require a one-time set-up cost and are environmentally friendly. Furthermore, the increasing number of oil inventories and processing plants will drive demand for light towers in the years to come.

As most developing and developed economies are focusing on the development of better infrastructure to support numerous activities such as transportation, energy generation, the market for light towers is expected to experience soaring demand.

To learn more about Light Tower Market, you can get in touch with our Analyst at https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=2477

Key Segments Covered in the Light Tower Industry Survey

Lamp

Halides

LEDs

Power Source

Battery Powered Light Towers

Diesel Powered Light Towers

Solar Powered Light Towers



End Use Industry

Light Towers for Construction

Light Towers for Mining

Light Towers for Oil & Gas

Light Towers for Commercial & Other End Use Industries

Competitive Landscape

Key manufacturers are observed to be involved in material optimization, manufacturing technological automation, and productivity enhancement.

For instance, in 2018, Wacker Neuson SE and MHE-Demag entered into an agreement to pursue growth opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Likewise, in August 2021, Generac Power Systems announced the expansion of its corporate operations into the Village of Pewaukee with the purchase of a new building. The new site will serve as the company Customer Contact Centre and help cater to queries regarding light tower products.

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Key players in the Light Tower Market

United Rental

Generac Holding

Wacker Neuson

Doosan Portable Power

Terex Corporation

Atlas Copco

Key Takeaways from the Market Study

Global market for light towers to add 1.6x the value by 2031 compared to 2021

By lamp, LED based light towers to yield revenue worth 52% of the global market through 2031

By power source, solar powered light towers is poised to expand at a CAGR of 4.7%

Diesel powered light towers to hold a dominant market share, capturing more than half of the total market

By end use industry, construction to generate opportunity worth US$ 195 Mn by 2031

The U.S is expected to register a CAGR of 5% in the forecast period, creating an absolute opportunity worth US$ 190 Mn.

China is expected to surpass a CAGR of 8% in the forecast period.



Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Industrial Goods Domain 

Excavator Drill Market Analysis- In the coming years, the excavator drill industry has a lot of promise. Excavator drill demand has risen as a result of advancements in mining and drilling for numerous industrial applications. Mining, micro piling and construction foundations, geotechnical studies, rock drilling, earthing, and coring are just a few of the tasks where an excavator drill is in high demand, serving sectors such as oil and gas, construction, mining, and agriculture. Excavator drills have tremendous demand and market growth potential across industries due to their benefit of mobility to small spaces with limited headroom, remote locations, and size over conventional drilling equipment or rigs.

Excavator Augers Market Forecast- Excavator Augers are a type of heavy equipment that is used to dig a hole in the ground. The expanding infrastructure is a major driver of excavator auger market growth. Excavator augers have a wide range of uses during construction. Excavator augers have various advantages, including being incredibly efficient and employing a simple approach for digging holes. When compared to the traditional method of digging, it saves a significant amount of time and labor. Excavator augers are being adopted at a faster rate in both small and large-scale construction, which will increase demand for excavator augers in the coming years.

Forestry Excavators Market Growth- Forestry excavator sales are significantly driven by the rising demand for wood and wood related products across the world. To lop forest trees, the shift to mechanized processes has upheld demand for forestry excavators and is expected to continue the same during the projected period. Increasing focus on forest management activities across the world will result in a rise in demand for forestry machinery, driving market growth. As farming activity is increasing all over the world, market players are expected to have variety of opportunities in this market.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. (Sabina) or (the Company) (SBB  TSX) reports the financial results for the year ended December 31, 2021.



2021 was a year of continued de-risking at the Back River Project, said Bruce McLeod, the Companys President & CEO. We were able to complete approximately 40% of the projects civil works in preparation for a construction decision. Ongoing work completed at the Goose Site included advancement of the all-weather road network, significant progress of the plant, fuel storage and camp laydown areas and advancement on the underground exploration ramp. Additionally, significant commitments for equipment and supply purchases continued to be made. All of this work, along with completion of detailed engineering with costs well identified, a lump sum bid on plant construction, and Project financing under our belt, puts us in a position to be truly shovel ready. Camps continue to operate and we look forward to announcing the first results of our drilling and reporting on our progress in the coming months.

2021 Highlights:

The Company ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $25.6 million.



Subsequent to year end, on February 8, 2022, the Company announced the completion of a construction financing package totaling approximately US$520 million in aggregate (the Financing). The Financing will fund construction and development of the Goose Mine at Sabinas 100% owned Back River Project.



The Financing is comprised of:

US$225 million senior secured debt facility with Orion Mine Finance (Orion);

US$75 million gold prepay facility with Orion;

US$125 million gold stream arrangement with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (Wheaton); and

US$95 million private placement of Sabina common shares with both Orion and Wheaton to be subscribed over three tranches.



Zhaojin International Mining Co. Ltd (Zhaojin) elected to participate to maintain its 9.9% as per their shareholder agreement and subscribed for an approximate US$10 million private placement of Sabina common shares to close over two tranches.



The last tranche of the equity financings referred to above will close pursuant to shareholder approval on May 25, 2022.

Subsequent to year end, on March 21, 2022, the Company announced an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets for a bought deal financing of 71,000,000 common shares at a price of $1.55 per common share for gross proceeds of approximately $110 million (the Offering). The Company has granted the Underwriters an option, exercisable at the offering price for a period of 30 days following the closing of the Offering, to purchase up to an additional 15% of Common Shares issued to cover over-allotments, if any. The Offering is expected to close on or about March 30, 2022 and is subject to Sabina receiving all necessary regulatory approvals.



Completed equity financings for total gross proceeds of $54.0 million, including:

Bought deal prospectus financing of 18,000,000 common shares at a price of $1.95 per common share for gross proceeds of $35.1 million. The Company completed a concurrent private placement financing of 2,117,640 common shares at $1.95 per share with Zhaojin for proceeds of $4.1 million.

Private placement financing of 7,200,821 flow-through common shares at a price of $1.87 per flow-through common share for gross proceeds of $13.5 million. The Company completed a concurrent private placement financing of 892,903 common shares at $1.50 per share with Zhaojin or gross proceeds of $1.3 million.



The Company also engaged in the following activities in 2021:

Completed an updated mineral resource estimate for the Project. Resources now total 6.32 million ounces (33,452,000 tonnes at 5.88 g/t) in the Measured and Indicated (M&I) categories and an additional 2.86 million ounces (13,794,000 tonnes at 6.44 g/t) in the Inferred category. The Company increased the mineral reserve estimate in all categories on the Goose Project from 2.5 million ounces to 3.5 million ounces.

Announced the results of its updated feasibility study (UFS), increasing total gold production by 1.0 million ounces. The UFS indicates the Project generates a post-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 27.7% and net present value (5%), (NPV5%) of C$1.1B (US$860M) with a rapid pay back of 2.3 years using a gold price of US$1,600/oz and an exchange rate of 1.31 $C/$US.

Acquired a variety of mobile equipment through equipment financing loans with two suppliers, which included the phase 1 open pit mining fleet and certain underground equipment required to develop the underground exploration ramp.

Advanced underground development of the exploration ramp, following the successful collaring of the 5 meter x 5 meter portal in Q2 2021. The ramp is driving toward the Umwelt underground to provide an underground platform from which to further explore and expand the Umwelt deposit.



Completed detailed engineering and received issued-for-construction drawings for the process plant, as well as completed detailed engineering on the Goose fuel farm design.



Received multiple sealifts from Sabinas eastern shipping corridor (via carrier Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping Inc.) and western shipping corridor (via carrier Marine Transportation Services) at the Port Facility, with all cargo offloaded safely to the laydown area. These shipments included critical path procurement items that were acquired in 2021. Additionally, the Company received its first shipment of bulk diesel, with 2 million litres transferred without incident from the shoreline pad up to the new 10 million litre bulk storage tank at the Port Facility.

Completed a spring drill program of 4,482 meters over 18 holes, targeting an equal mix of early-stage exploration areas and the Hook zone.

Executed a summer field exploration program at the George site, located 50km north of the Goose site, with field work consisting of mapping and rock sampling for evaluation and modeling of drill targets outside of the current George resource areas.



For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company reported a net loss of $8.0 million or $0.02 per share.

For the Year End 2021 financial statements and Managements Discussion and Analysis, please see the Company website at www.sabinagoldsilver.com or on SEDAR.

SABINA GOLD & SILVER CORP

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. is an emerging gold mining that 100% owns the district scale, advanced, high grade Back River Gold District in Nunavut, Canada.

Sabina recently filed an Updated Feasibility Study (the UFS) on its first mine on the district, the Goose Mine, which presents a project that will produce ~223,000 ounces of gold a year (first five years average of 287,000 ounces a year with peak production of 312,000 ounces in year three) for ~15 years with a rapid payback of 2.3 years, with a post-tax IRR of ~28% and NPV 5% of C$1.1B. See National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Technical Report  2021 Updated Feasibility Study for the Goose Project at the Back River Gold District, Nunavut, Canada dated March 3, 2021.

Since the UFS, completion of detailed geotechnical test work on the tailings samples and the inclusion of a high-capacity tailings thickener, the tailings storage capacity of the Echo open pit has increased sufficiently to enable the decision to construct the mill at a 4,000 tpd capacity at the outset. This, in addition to optimized equipment selection and detailed engineering has reduced the cost of the expansion from C$17m to C$10m when compared to the UFS.

The Project received its final major authorization on June 25, 2020 and is now in receipt of all major permits and authorizations for construction and operations.

The Company is also very committed to its Inuit stakeholders, with Inuit employment and opportunities a focus. The Company has signed a 20-year renewable land use agreement with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and has committed to various sustainability initiatives under the agreement.

In February 2022, the Company announced it had completed a comprehensive project financing package for US$520 million comprised of:

A US$225 million senior secured debt facility with Orion Mine Finance;

A US$75 million gold prepay facility with Orion Mine Finance;

A US$125 million gold stream arrangement with Wheaton Precious Metals; and

A US$95 million private placement of Sabina Common shares subscribed to by both Orion and Wheaton Precious Metals.

In addition to Back River, Sabina also owns a significant silver royalty on Glencores Hackett River Project. The silver royalty on Hackett Rivers silver production is comprised of 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces produced and 12.5% of all silver produced thereafter.

For further information please contact: Nicole Hoeller, Vice-President, Communications: 1 888 648-4218 nhoeller@sabinagoldsilver.com

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (the forward-looking statements), including, but not limited to, statements related to the expected use of proceeds of the Offering and the projections and assumptions of the results of the UFS. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and assumptions include, among others, the uncertainty of production, development plans and costs estimates for the Back River Gold Project; discrepancies between actual and estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, between actual and estimated development and operating costs; the interpretation of drill, metallurgical testing and other exploration results; the ability of the Company to retain its key management employees and skilled and experienced personnel; exploration, development and mining risks and the inherently dangerous nature of the mining industry, and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks and other risks and uncertainties; property and mineral title risks including defective title to mineral claims or property; the effects of general economic conditions, commodity prices, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government and regulatory authorities; and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking statements. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with exploration and project development; the need for additional financing; the calculation of mineral resources and reserves; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; government regulation; obtaining and renewing necessary licenses and permits; environmental liability and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain of our officers or directors; the absence of dividends; currency fluctuations; labour disputes; competition; dilution; the volatility of the our common share price and volume; future sales of shares by existing shareholders; and other risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Back River Project and general risks associated with the mineral exploration and development industry described in our Annual Information Form, financial statements and MD&A for the fiscal period ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as 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 such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immutable Holdings Inc. (NEO:HOLD) (Immutable Holdings or the Company), a publicly-traded blockchain holding company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jeanna Liu as Chief Operating Officer, effective March 23, 2022. She will report to Chief Executive Officer Jordan Fried, and will oversee both product strategy and business operations. Founding COO Kyle Armour will be transitioning to a new role as Vice President of Tactical Operations. Jeannas contract with the Company includes stock options, under the Companys employee compensation plan, amounting to 2% of the Companys present outstanding, as-converted subordinate voting shares, vesting over a four-year period.



We are thrilled to have Jeanna on board, said Fried, she brings obvious talent and an impressive background, but most importantly she shares our teams passion and excitement for Immutable Holdings core mission.

Lius focus will be on the launch of NFT.com, expected early next quarter. The team is laser-focused on building a platform that puts users in charge, she said, and where incentives are properly aligned to promote the creator economy.

Change of Transfer Agent

The Company is also pleased to report that Odyssey Trust Company has been appointed registrar and transfer agent of both the Companys subordinate voting and multiple voting shares, replacing National Securities Administrators Ltd. Shareholders need not take action in respect to the change in transfer agent and registrar. However, please find below Odyssey Trust Companys contact information:

Odyssey Trust Company

350-409 Granville Street

Vancouver, BC, V6C 1T2

corptrust@odysseytrust.com

1-888-290-1175 (toll-free)

www.odysseytrust.com

All inquiries and correspondence relating to shareholder records, transfer of shares, lost certificates and/or changes of address, as well as warrant inquiries and exercise instructions, should now and into the future be directed to the above. Any further questions can be sent to info@immutableholdings.com.

About Immutable Holdings Inc.

Immutable Holdings Inc. (NEO:HOLD) is on a mission to democratize access to Web3 and blockchain-based products and services. Founded by Jordan Fried, a founding team member of the $11B Hedera Hashgraph network, Immutable Holdings already boasts tens of millions (USD) under management and a portfolio of businesses and brands built on the blockchain ecosystem: 1800Bitcoin.com, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC.com), HBAR Labs, Immutable Advisory, Immutable Asset Management and NFT.com. To learn more, visit https://immutableholdings.com/.

For media inquiries and further information, contact:

info@immutableholdings.com

This news release contains certain statements which constitute forward-looking statements or information under applicable Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the Companys control, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include changes to applicable laws or the regulatory sphere in which the Company operates, general economic and capital markets conditions and stock market volatility. Although the Company believes that the forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, they are based on factors and assumptions, based on currently available information, concerning future events, which may prove to be inaccurate. As such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, as no assurance can be provided as to future plans, operations, results, levels of activity or achievements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Pune, India, March 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The India agricultural pheromones market size stood at USD 3.54 million in 2021. The market is anticipated to surge from USD 4.05 million in 2022 to USD 11.03 million by 2029 at a 15.40% CAGR during the forecast period. Fortune Business Insights has deep-dived into these insights in its latest research report titled, India Agricultural Pheromones Market, 2022-2029.

According to the study, the domestic market will exhibit profound traction for sustainable methods over the next few years. The agrarian region is expected to be the hub for research and development activities on pheromones. Farmers are expected to seek sustainable crop production, auguring well for the industry outlook.

COVID-19 Impact

Mixed Impact from the Pandemic Triggered Supply Chain Disruption

The onslaught of the coronavirus outbreak had a compelling impact on food and agriculture sectors across India. Despite most agricultural inputs coming under the ambit of essential products, supply chain disruptions were pronounced. Meanwhile, an increased focus on digitized supply chain models could boost the regions growth.

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Segments

Type, Function, and Crop are Studied

In terms of type, the market is segmented into aggregation pheromones, sex pheromones, and others.

Based on function, the industry is segregated into mass trapping, detection & monitoring, and mating disruption.

With respect to crop, the market is fragmented into orchard crops, field crops, vegetables, and others.

Report Coverage

The report has been prepared through quantitative and qualitative analysis to offer a comprehensive view of the market. Prominently, a host of primary interviews has been conducted with major stakeholders and suppliers. Primary data has been collected through emails, telephonic conversations, and questionnaires. Besides, the report also includes secondary sources, including press releases, SEC filings, and government websites. The report also includes an executive summary, drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends that could reshape the market dynamics.

Drivers and Restraints

Expanding Footfall of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to Boost Market Growth

Governments, enterprises, and other stakeholders envisage integrated pest management practices to fuel the trend for pheromones. Agricultural pheromones have emerged as an efficient solution to contain crop damage, thereby fostering the India agricultural pheromones market share. To illustrate, the Government of India introduced pheromone technology in Ladakh between 2012-2018, which reportedly reduced fruit damage by around 55%. Moreover, heightened demand for fruits and vegetables has brought a paradigm shift. Horticulture production surged by 2.93% in 2020-21 compared to the preceding year to reach around 329.86 million tons, according to Indias Ministry of Agriculture. Amidst escalating food security concerns, the demand for environment-friendly crop protection methods will underpin the business outlook.

Meanwhile, soaring production and maintenance costs of pheromones may challenge leading companies vying to expand their market presence across untapped areas.

Major Players Profiled in the Market Report:



Barrix Agro Sciences Pvt. Ltd. (Bangalore, India)

Russell IPM (Deeside, U.K.)

Pheromone Chemicals (Hyderabad, India)

ATGC Biotech Pvt. Ltd. (ISCA Global) (Hyderabad, India)

Agri Phero Solutionz (Hyderabad, India)

Jaydev Chemical Industries (Mumbai, India)

Green Revolutions (Kolhapur, India)

Gaiagen Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Mumbai, India)

Rentokil PCI (Mumbai, India)

Provivi Inc. (Santa Monica, U.S.)

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Regional Insights

Sustainability Trend and Flourishing Digitization to Boost Market Position

Stakeholders are poised to bank on the trend for sustainability, spurred by the adoption of IPM principles. In the midst of health and environmental concerns, sustainable farming could be the go-to trend. The India agricultural pheromones market growth will witness an appreciable gain during the forecast period, largely due to the growth of the horticulture sector.

Prominently, sex pheromones will be highly sought-after on the back of their use in IPM practices. Non-toxic nature may add impetus to the growth of agricultural pheromones during the forecast period.

Stakeholders Prioritize Product Portfolio Expansion Gain Prominence

Leading players are expected to invest in research and development activities, product rollouts, partnerships, and mergers & acquisitions. Industry players are likely to emphasize technological advancements to gain traction during the forecast period.

Key Industry Developments

March 2021: Natco Pharma Ltd. announced plans to roll out its first Green Label Pheromone product to manage pink bollworm attacks on cotton crops.

Natco Pharma Ltd. announced plans to roll out its first Green Label Pheromone product to manage pink bollworm attacks on cotton crops. March 2020: Scientists and researchers from JNCAR and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) introduced a matrix-powder-like substance fueled with nano-enabled control release of pheromones.

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Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Emerging Trends

Key Insights Overview on the Parent/Related Market Analysis on Agrochemical Use Trend Supply Chain & Regulatory Analysis Recent Industry Developments - Policies, Mergers & Acquisitions, and New Product Launches Market Analysis and Insights (in Relation with COVID-19) Impact of COVID-19 on the Market Supply Chain Challenges due to the Pandemic Potential Opportunities to Support the Market during the Crisis

India Agricultural Pheromones Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Type (Value) Sex Pheromones Aggregation Pheromones Others By Function (Value) Mating Disruption Detection & Monitoring Mass Trapping By Crop (Value) Field Crops Orchard Crops Vegetables



TOC Continued!

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Have a Look at Related Research Insights:

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Herbicides, Insecticides, Fungicides, and Others), By Source (Synthetic Chemicals and Biologicals), By Mode of Application (Foliar Spray, Soil Treatment, Seed Treatment, and Others), By Crop Type, and Regional Forecast, 2021-2028

Agricultural Pheromones Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Sex Pheromones, Aggregation Pheromones, and Others), Function (Mating Disruption, Detection & Monitoring, and Mass Trapping), Application (Dispensers, Traps, and Spray Method), Crop Type (Field Crops, Orchard Crops, Vegetables, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020  2027

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A general view shows the city's skyline in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Jianhua)

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- How to best handle the relationship between the "visible hand" of the government and the "invisible hand" of the market is a challenge facing policymakers in China and beyond.

When the "invisible hand" fails to move the economy forward, as observed in some Western countries, China has adopted a "two-hands" approach to drive growth.

The economic philosophy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, widely known as "Xiconomics," emphasizes the market's decisive role in allocating resources; at the same time, Xiconomics allows the government to perform its functions better.

Guided by Xiconomics, China has promoted the sound interaction between an efficient market and a capable government, offering inspiration to economies worldwide struggling to improve governance.

Photo taken on Nov. 9, 2021 shows a view of the south square of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue for the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo)

"THE INVISIBLE HAND"

When chairing a symposium with entrepreneurs on July 21, 2020, Xi urged efforts to spur the vitality of market entities and promote entrepreneurship and called for more efforts to enable enterprises to play a bigger role and achieve greater development.

Under the guidance of Xi's economic philosophy, China's business environment has continued to improve, and the country has become an increasingly popular global investment destination.

In 2021, China's actual use of foreign capital exceeded 1.1 trillion yuan (about 173.31 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 14.9 percent. High-tech industries and the service sector saw inflows of foreign direct investment jump 17.1 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Bambang Suryono, chairman of the Indonesian think tank Asia Innovation Study Center, said policy support and other advantages make China the world's most suitable country for innovative business investments and development, which offers inspiration to other developing countries.

From advancing the construction of 21 pilot free trade zones and implementing the Foreign Investment Law, to shortening the negative list for foreign investment and facilitating the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China has laid out favorable policies to make its market more promising.

Mao Xuxin, principal economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a London-based economic think tank, said China has provided a favorable investment environment by adopting market opening-up measures.

The open, inclusive and diversified Chinese market will further increase its attractiveness to foreign investment, said Mao.

Women work at a poverty relief workshop of a relocation site in Fugong County of Lisu Autonomous Prefecture of Nujiang, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)

"THE VISIBLE HAND"

Over the past few decades, some Western countries have failed to strike a balance between the functions of the government and the role of the market and slipped into economic and financial crises that dragged down the global economy.

Xi's insights offer some clues on how economies could allow the "visible hand" to perform its functions better.

"To ensure that the government better performs its functions, we should transform government functions, further the reform of the administrative system, use new administrative methods, improve the macro-control system and enhance the monitoring of market activities," the Chinese president said at a collective study of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2014.

"We should strengthen and improve public services, and promote social fairness, justice and stability, as well as common prosperity," Xi added.

China has been stepping up efforts to push forward supply-side structural reforms; carry out fiscal, taxation and financial reforms; enhance property rights protection; and improve anti-monopoly regulations.

With such measures, the country has continuously promoted the high-quality development of its socialist market economy, which creates a sound environment for businesses and effectively prevents disorder and failure of the market.

As observed by Director of Brazil's Lula Institute Marcio Pochmann, China leads economic development through national planning and policy commitments.

In 2020, the global population in extreme poverty grew for the first time in more than 20 years as disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the impact of climate disasters.

However, in the same year, China met the poverty reduction target set by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

For a developing country with a large population and a vast territory, the ability to overcome various impacts and difficulties in a limited period and accomplish the goal of eliminating absolute poverty on schedule is ultimately due to having a government that governs efficiently, Suryono in Indonesia said.

Robotic arms assemble engines on an assembly line at a workshop of the Weichai Power Co., Ltd. in Weifang City, east China's Shandong Province, April 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

THE CHINESE INSPIRATION

In 2020, China was the only major economy that registered positive growth, with its gross domestic product crossing the 100-trillion-yuan (about 15.75 trillion dollars) threshold. In 2021, China's economic growth rate continued to rank among the top of the world's major economies.

As the Chinese president has expounded, a key factor for the great success of China's economic development is the skilled fusion of both market economy strengths with the advantages of a socialist system.

According to overseas observers, despite the uncertainty troubling the global economy, China's economy has been growing steadily because China gives full play to the strengths of its socialist system and allows the "invisible hand" and the "visible hand" to play their respective roles to energize growth.

Unlike the economics of the West that places one-sided emphasis on market mechanisms, Xi's economic philosophy is based on China's national conditions and has greatly enriched the Marxist political economy, said Yu Hong, senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, adding that the governance wisdom it contains is globally inspiring.

China's economic practices have withstood the fallout from the pandemic. The country has successfully contained the pandemic and maintained production simultaneously, demonstrating the advantages of its system and the effectiveness of its governance.

China's experience has proved that in a socialist market economy, it is possible to coordinate the efficiency of economic development and social governance, which is needed for global economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, said Alexander Petrov, a professor of St. Petersburg State University.

By integrating the basic socialist economic system with the market economy, China has created a synergy between the "invisible hand" and the "visible hand." China's unique economic philosophy and practice have broadened humanity's understanding of economic laws and offered guidance for countries worldwide to bolster sustainable growth. 
English Dutch

Papendrecht, 24 March 2022

Boskalis has been awarded the contract for the protection and replenishment of more than 40 kilometers of coastline stretching from the eastern coastline of Togo to the western coastline of Benin in West Africa. The coastal protection project is part of the West African Coastal Areas Management (WACA) program. The award was made by the governments of Togo and Benin with the financing made available by the World Bank. The contract carries a value of approximately EUR 55 million.

The current coastline has suffered from significant erosion, resulting in coastal retreat that serves as a threat to vital infrastructure and the livelihoods of the local population. Under the project, fifteen new groins will be constructed and six existing groins will be refurbished. A beach replenishment program will also take place using more than one million cubic meters of sand. Furthermore, on the Benin side of the border, a 6.4 million cubic meter sand engine will be constructed. The sand engine concept was co-developed by Boskalis and has been successfully applied in the Netherlands over the past decade. A large volume of sand will be deposited at a strategic location and, over time, the natural motion of wind, waves and currents will spread it eastwards along the coastline. This principle of building with nature will reinforce the coastline in a robust and natural way. The project will start immediately and is expected to be completed late 2023.

The WACA program was developed in partnership with West African communities who live on the coast and depend on it for their livelihoods, nutrition, food security, and prosperity. The program supports several countries efforts to improve the management of their shared coastal resources and reduce the natural and man-made risks affecting coastal areas.

Along the west coast of Africa average rates of coastal retreat are between one and two meters per year. However, more serious rates of more than ten meters per year have been observed locally. Coastal erosion has devastating effects, inducing the loss of infrastructure such as roads. It also threatens local populations, who can no longer live close to the coastline which is often linked to their source of income. These challenges are expected to increase due to climate change and sea level rise.

Boskalis strategy is aimed at leveraging on the key macro-economic drivers that are fueling global demand in our selected markets: global trade, increasing energy consumption, expanding population pressures and the challenges of changing climate conditions. This coastal protection project is driven by population growth and climate change.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Investor relations:

Martijn L.D. Schuttevaer

ir@boskalis.com

Press:

Arno Schikker

press@boskalis.com

T +31 786969310



Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a leading global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world. With core activities such as coastal defense, riverbank protection and land reclamation Boskalis is able to provide adaptive and mitigating solutions to combat the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels, as well as delivering solutions for the increasing need for space in coastal and delta regions across the world. The company facilitates the development of offshore energy infrastructure, including renewable wind energy. Boskalis is furthermore active in the construction and maintenance of ports, waterways, access channels and civil infrastructure, thus helping to facilitate trade flows and regional socio-economic development. In addition, Boskalis is a global marine salvage expert and has a number of strategic partnerships in harbor towage and terminal services (Keppel Smit Towage and Smit Lamnalco). With a versatile fleet of over 600 vessels and floating equipment and more than 10,000 employees, including associates, Boskalis is creating new horizons around the world.

This press release can also be found on our website www.boskalis.com .

Attachments
PHILADELPHIA, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USI Affinity today announced that its travel insurance division, USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services, has been named to Forbes Advisors annual list of the Best Travel Insurance Companies for the third year in a row. USI Affinity received a top ranking on this years list based on policy benefits and available coverage options most important to travelers. In its evaluation, Forbes Advisor scored 46 policies to identify the best travel insurance plans using data provided by Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison provider.



The 2022 rankings were based on each plans score for benefits and average prices for various trips and traveler profiles. The benefits that were scored included medical expenses, medical evacuation, Covid coverage, pre-existing condition exclusion waivers, cancel for any reason coverage, trip interruption, travel delay time requirements, baggage delay time requirements, baggage reimbursement, hurricane and weather coverage requirements, and financial default of a travel supplier.



USI Affinity is proud to once again be recognized by Forbes Advisor this year. During the last two years, the travel insurance industry has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, like so many other industries, stated USI Affinitys Travel Insurance Division Leader, Daria Porreca. Throughout this time, we have worked diligently to adapt and respond to changing regulations while meeting the evolving needs of travelers. In addition, our longstanding relationships with our carrier partners have allowed us to develop a suite of products that can benefit a variety of different traveler profiles. We look forward to continued growth, strong partnerships and opportunities to serve both our loyal and new customers as travel continues to rebound in 2022.



USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services also had plans featured on four other 2022 Best-Of lists by Forbes Advisor: Best Covid-19 Travel Insurance, Best Cancel for Any Reason Travel Insurance, Best Senior Travel Insurance and Best Cruise Insurance.



Forbes Advisor is a trusted destination for unbiased money and business advice, news and reviews, dedicated to helping consumers make smart decisions and choose the right products with ease. To view Forbes Advisors complete list of the Best Travel Insurance Companies of 2022, visit their rankings page.



About USI Affinity

For over 75 years, USI Affinity has developed, marketed and administered programs to deliver unique advantages in insurance coverage, price and service. USI Affinity markets and administers insurance programs for over 440 organizations nationwide, representing more than 22 million association, union and alumni members. USI Affinity is a division of USI Insurance Services. For more information about USI Affinity, please visit www.usiaffinity.com.

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Dublin, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Disease By Syndrome, Plex, Place and by Country. With COVID-19 Impact & Forecasting/Analysis, and Executive Guides and Customization" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



COVID-19 Drives a surge in demand but what is the long term impact? The microbiology lab may disappear while multiplex takes center stage.



The Molecular Diagnostics - Infectious Disease sector of the clinical diagnostics industry is poised for record growth. A market that just keeps on growing but is spiking as an enormous C19Dx demand sweeps over the globe. Find out what the numbers are in this informative report. And find out about the exciting developments in multiplex assays which threaten to change diagnosis and treatment while limiting the threat of anti microbial drug resistance.



Infectious disease testing directly benefits from the explosion in biotechnology, especially genomics. Learn all about it in this report. A range of dynamic trends are pushing market growth and company valuations.



Trends like:

Multiplex testing

Pathogen evolution and pandemics

Biotechnology advances in genetics

Climate change

Globalization

The rise of rapid testing

Exciting technical developments especially in the seesaw between nucleic acid testing and immunoassay, hold the promise of a dynamic, growing and evolving world market that holds the promise of diagnostics taking the lead in infectious disease eradication.



The report has hundreds of pages of information including a complete list of Current United States Medicare Fee Payment Schedules to help sharpen your pricing. Again, assistance in using the information is normally provided without additional charges.

The report includes detailed breakouts for 15 Countries and 4 Regions. A detailed breakout for any country in the world is available to purchasers of the report.

Molecular Dx - Infectious Disease Recent Developments

Home Test Company Prenetics to go Public

Roche to Acquire TIB Molbiol to Expand Infectious Disease Portfolio

Lucira Health Posts Revenue Growth on OTC C19 Test

BforCure Preparing Multiple Panels for Point-of-Care qPCR Platform

Talis Biomedical Discusses Point-of-Care

Roche to Acquire GenMark Diagnostics for $1.8B

Pandemic Pushes Handheld qPCR Devices Closer to Commercialization

Hologic to Acquire Mobidiag

Lucira Health Focuses on User Friendly Approach to Home Testing

Infectious Disease Dx Firm Talis Biomedical Raises $254M in IPO

Fluidigm Plans 'Durable' Diagnostics, Clinical Business

Thermo Fisher Scientific to Acquire Mesa Biotech for Up to $550M

Mammoth Biosciences Developing Pathogen Detection Tech

Illumina, IDbyDNA Developing Sequencing-Based Respiratory Tests

Scanogen Developing 90 Minute Infection Test

Malaria Assays Use CRISPR for Point-of-Care Multispecies Detection

FDA Provides Self Testing SARS-CoV-2 EAU Guidance

Mammoth Biosciences Announces Rapid, CRISPR-Based COVID-19 Diagnostic

Genetic Signatures Gets CE Mark for Coronavirus Molecular Test

Qiagen Respiratory Panel with Coronavirus Receives CE Mark

Lumos Diagnostics Closes $15M Series A Funding

Fusion Genomics to Assess NGS-Based Respiratory Tract Infection Assay

New Genomic Tests Diagnose Deadly Infections Faster

Biotia Raises $2.4M Seed Round

STDs resurge in US

Ares Genetics signs R&D agreement with leading global IVD corporation

Cell-Free DNA Used for Infectious Disease Testing

One BioMed Raises $5M

Market Trends

Factors Driving Growth

New Genotypes Creating New Markets

Aging Population a Boon for All Diagnostics

Developing World Driving ID Dx Growth

Point of Care - Why Centralization is Losing Steam

Self Testing

The Need for Speed

The COVID Pandemic

Factors Limiting Growth

Lower Costs

Infectious Disease is Declining

Wellness Hurts

Economic Growth improves Living Standards

Instrumentation and Automation

Instruments Key to Market Share

The Shrinking Machine

Multiplex, Point of Care and The Speed Factor

Diagnostic Technology Development

The Sepsis Testing Market - A New Direction?

POCT/Self Testing as a Disruptive Force

The Genetics Play - One Test for All Known Infections

Antibiotic Resistance Genes - Simplifying Diagnostics

Profiles of Key MDx Companies

Abacus Diagnostica

Abbott Diagnostics

Accelerate Diagnostics

Ador Diagnostics

Akonni Biosystems

Alveo Technologies

Applied BioCode

Aus Diagnostics

Beckman Coulter Diagnostics

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Binx Health

Biocartis

bioMerieux Diagnostics

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc

Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH

Cepheid (now Danaher)

Chembio

Co Diagnostics

Credo Diagnostics Biomedical

Cue Health

Curetis N.V. / Curetis GmbH

Diagenode Diagnostics

Diascopic

Diasorin S.p.A.

Eiken Chemical

Enzo Life Sciences, Inc.

Eurofins Scientific

Fluxergy

Fulgent Genetics

Fusion Genomics.

Genedrive

Genetic Signatures

GenMark Dx

Grifols

Hibergene Diagnostics

Hologic

Illumina

Immunexpress

Inflammatix

Invetech

Janssen Diagnostics

Karius

Lexagene

LightDeck Diagnostics

Luminex Corp

Lumos Diagnostics

Mammoth Biosciences

Maxim Biomedical

Meridian Bioscience

Mesa Biotech

Millipore Sigma

Mindray

Mobidiag

Nanomix

Operon

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Panagene

Perkin Elmer

Primerdesign

Prominex

Qiagen Gmbh

Quantumdx

Quidel

Roche Molecular Diagnostics

Saw Diagnostics

Seegene

Siemens Healthineers

Sona Nanotech

SpeeDx

T2 Biosystems

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Veramarx

Veredus Laboratories

Vir

XCR Diagnostics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rfl500
Accra, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- During a Ministerial Dialogue in Accra, hosted by Ghanas Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Environment (MESTI), the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) announced the findings of Ghanas first National Assessment to explore how best to enhance the resilience of its national infrastructure.

Ghana: Roadmap for Resilient Infrastructure in a Changing Climate, was initiated by GCA and developed under the leadership of MESTI in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

As a result of climate change, Ghana is expected to experience more acute climate hazards such as flooding, as well as more frequent and intense droughts. This has the potential to threaten the socio-economic development gains which made Ghana a middle-income country. The National Assessment focused on the energy, transport and water sectors to assess climate hazards to infrastructure assets and to prioritize adaptation investments to address those risks.

Key findings from Ghana: Roadmap for Resilient Infrastructure in a Changing Climate include:

Energy Future energy availability for about a quarter of a million people in rural parts of Ghana is threatened by drought given their reliance on wood fuel for household energy generation. Equally, climate risks threaten major components of the electricity generation and transmission due to exposure to drought and flooding.

Water supply infrastructure  54% of dams assessed are exposed to floods and 23% to droughts under a high-hazard by 2050; the Weija dam, supplying 80% of the drinkable water for Accras metropolitan area, was found to be particularly exposed to flooding.

Transport  in a likely 2050 flooding scenario, analysis revealed the potential of $3.9 billion in damages to roads and highways - triple the estimated $1.3 billion Ghana invested in transport infrastructure in 2019.

GCA contributed to the National Assessment as part of its Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), a joint initiative with the African Development Bank to mobilize USD25 billion of investments in climate adaptation and resilience in Africa.

Speaking during the Ministerial Dialogue, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of Global Center on Adaptation remarked I dont need to remind you that Ghana will become hotter, wetter, and drier. Given how we know the climate crisis is evolving, these are very alarming statistics. But, this is not the full story. For us at the Global Center on Adaptation, the real story on climate adaptation in Africa is a story of resilience, of responsibility, of solidarity, of opportunities for a safer, greener, more prosperous continent. It is this story that is captured in the roadmap we are launching today.

His Excellency Dr Kwaku Afiyie, Ghanas Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation said:

Extreme weather and rapid changes to Ghanas climate present a profound risk to key sectors of Ghanas socio-economic development. Infrastructure in these sectors are the bedrock of the countrys economic growth and development. Ghana, through MESTI in July 2020, received support from the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) through UN Office for Project Services (UNOPs) under the enhancing the resilience of Ghanas National Infrastructure Systems to the impact of climate change project [] the implementation of the resilience road map will now require additional financial resources from both Government and Development Partner institutions.

The National Assessment proposes 35 adaptation options for funders and investors to invest in Ghanas future, offering impactful, evidence-based adaptation projects and enabling environment interventions backed by robust research and analysis.

GCA, in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), through AAAP, is already working to implement the Scaling Renewable Energy Mini grid and Net Metering Program which seeks to support Ghana in the electrification of island communities and move closer moving closer to identified development objectives such as Sustainable Energy for All by 2030. GCA is working with the AfDB conduct climate risk assessments on potential climate hazards in the districts that will benefit from the electrification program.

Through its Technical Assistance Program (TAP) to access and leverage climate finance, GCA is also providing technical support to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) as part of its application to become a Direct Access Entity to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to enable Ghana to be able to take greater ownership of the implementation of climate finance.

Notes to Editors

About the Global Center on Adaptation

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization which works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector, to ensure we learn from each other and work together for a climate resilient future. Founded in 2018, GCA is hosted by the Netherlands, working from its headquarters in Rotterdam with a knowledge and research hub based in Groningen. GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Beijing, China. Through this evolving network of offices and global and regional GCA teams, the organization engages in high-level policy activities, new research contributions, communications, and technical assistance to governments and the private sector.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mirasol Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: MRZ) (OTCPK: MRZLF) (the Company or Mirasol) is pleased to announce that its partner Golden Arrow Resources Corporation (Golden Arrow) has initiated a maiden diamond drilling program at the Libanesa silver-gold project (Libanesa) in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Up to 2,000m of drilling will be completed in eighteen holes ranging from 75 to 250m in depth to test the Cerro Redondo, Lagunita and Lagunita West prospects.



Mirasols President Tim Heenan commented: We are pleased by the fast progress from our partner at Libanesa. Their surface work has confirmed and refined the drill targets previously delineated by Mirasol as well as identifying new prospective targets.

Libanesa is a 14,500-hectare silver-gold (lead) project located at the northeastern margin of the Deseado Massif Gold-Silver metallogenic province, approximately 40 km northwest of the Cerro Moro Mine operated by Yamana Gold and 100 km northeast of the Don Nicolas mine operated by Cerrado Gold. Golden Arrow may earn a 75 percent interest in Libanesa over six years by spending US$4 million on exploration; completing a minimum 2,000m drill program; and making payments to Mirasol totalling US$1 million. Mirasol would retain a 25 percent participating interest in the project (news release October 12, 2021).

Following the execution of the definitive agreement, Golden Arrow, as operator, conducted a detailed surface work program to refine the previously defined targets and evaluate additional areas within the property. To date, they have collected 274 channel and rock chip samples by opening 20 trenches.

Figure 1: Libanesa project and planned drill holes

Target Highlights:

This summary is based on the information provided by Golden Arrow and discussed in their News Release dated March 24, 2022. It was reviewed by Mirasols Qualified Person.

The Cerro Redondo prospect area includes a sub-circular geomorphic feature, approximately 1 km in diameter, that hosts multiple gold-silver-lead anomalies inside and at its margins. There are several additional targets within approx. 500m of this feature. Cerro Plomo is the principal target in this prospect and is characterized by a well-mineralized gold-silver hydrothermal breccia that is exposed at surface. This target is also supported by both chargeability and resistivity geophysical anomalies at depth. The hydrothermal breccia is approximately 50m in diameter and is hosted in lapilli and crystal tuffs and pyroclastic breccias. Mineralization is mainly hosted in the matrix of the breccia with rock chip samples grading up to 2.55 g/t Au and 2,802 g/t Ag. Channel samples also returned up to 11m at 1.21 g/t Au and 13.5 g/t Ag (see news release June 1, 2021 for details on previous work completed by Mirasol). Recent detailed channel sampling completed by Golden Arrow confirmed disseminated mineralization in the crystal tuffs outside the main hydrothermal breccia with up to 0.32 g/t Au and 15 g/t Ag. Thirteen drill holes are planned at Cerro Redondo.

Approximately 5.5 km north of Cerro Redondo, the Lagunita target includes typical low sulfidation type epithermal veins and breccias. Intermittent vein occurrences, outcropping/sub-cropping through post mineral cover, were mapped by Mirasol over a strike length of approx. 2.3 km. Golden Arrows surface work program has identified a second target, Lagunita West, where silicified tuffs with quartz veinlets and disseminated pyrite define a different epithermal system that includes high gold and low silver. Twelve rock chip samples collected by Golden Arrow over 400m at Lagunita West returned four anomalous values of 2.4 g/t Au, 0.31 g/t Au, 0.17 g/t Au and 0.15 g/t Au, coincident with a northwest striking magnetic low. Five drill holes are planned for these two targets.

About Mirasol Resources Ltd.

Mirasol is a well-funded exploration company focused in Chile and Argentina. Mirasol has seven partner-funded projects, with Newcrest Mining Ltd (Chile), First Quantum Minerals (Chile), Mine Discovery Fund (Chile), Mineria Activa (Chile), Silver Sands Resources (Argentina), Patagonia Gold (Argentina) and Golden Arrow (Argentina). Mirasol is currently self-funding exploration at Sobek (Chile), Inca Gold (Chile) and at a number of early-stage prospects.

For further information, contact:

Tim Heenan, President

or

Jonathan Rosset, VP Corporate Development

Tel: +1 (604) 602-9989

Email: contact@mirasolresources.com

Website: www.mirasolresources.com

Qualified Person Statement: Mirasols disclosure of technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Tim Heenan (MAIG), the President for the Company, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

QAQC: Golden Arrow is the operator for the Libanesa project, and Mirasol relies on their internal quality control and quality assurance protocols, which have been reviewed and considered adequate by the Qualified Person. See Golden Arrows News Release dated March 24, 2022 for more details on their QAQC procedures.

Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry and to policies linked to pandemics, social and environmental related matters. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Mirasol disclaims any obligations to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Dublin, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Methanol Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Derivative End-User Industry" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The methanol market is projected to reach US$ 41,974.76 million by 2028 from US$ 28,114.27 million in 2021; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2021 to 2028.



Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, is the simplest from the long series of alcohols, prepared by directly combining carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. Methanol is used in fabricating different products such as adhesives, paints and coatings, carpet underlay, wood panels, methanol, fuel system, components, brake pads, paper towels, cosmetics, carpeting, furniture, and cabinets.



Based on derivative, the global methanol market is segmented into formaldehyde, acetic acid, methanol-to-olefins (MTO) / methanol-to-propylene (MTP), methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), methyl methacrylate (MMA), biodiesel (gasoline blending), dimethyl ether (DME), and others. The formaldehyde segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Formaldehyde is a colorless poisonous gas synthesized through methanol oxidation. It is used as an antiseptic, disinfectant, and general-purpose chemical reagent in laboratory applications. Formaldehyde is also widely used in the pharmaceuticals industry in the production of vaccines, anti-infective drugs, and hard-gel capsules. Moreover, formaldehyde finds applications as a preservative in food, medicines, and cosmetics.



Based on geography, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South and Central America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2020, Asia Pacific accounted for the largest share of the market. Asia-Pacific is one of the major consumers of methanol due to the rise in petrochemicals production in the region. China is the global leader in methanol consumption owing to a sharp rise in the use of methanol in fuel products. The compound is used in the large-scale production of petrochemicals, and the rise in petrochemicals demand is propelling the methanol market growth in this region. Moreover, the use of petrochemicals in end-user industries, such as construction and automotive, is the primary factor driving the methanol market.



The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the growth of the methanol market owing to disruptions in construction activities and halt in expansion or new construction of plants and factories. Also, industries such as construction, paints and coating, electronics, and packaging have been affected by sudden disruptions in operational efficiencies and value chains due to the sudden shutdown of national and international boundaries for travel and trade. However, the growing demand for methanol products in the pharmaceuticals industry is anticipated to drive market growth in the coming years.



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 methanol 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. Methanol Market Landscape

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.3 Ecosystem Analysis

4.4 Expert Opinion



5. Methanol Market - Key Market Dynamics

5.1 Market Drivers

5.1.1 Increasing use of Methanol as Feedstock in Various Applications

5.1.2 Rising Application of Methanol in Construction Activities

5.2 Market Restraints

5.2.1 Detrimental Effect of Methanol on Human Health

5.3 Market Opportunities

5.3.1 Growing Adoption of Methanol as Blended Fuel in Transportation Industry

5.4 Future Trends

5.4.1 Rising Trend of Green Methanol

5.5 Impact Analysis



6. Methanol - Global Market Analysis

6.1 Methanol Market Overview

6.2 Methanol Market -Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Mn)

6.3 Market Positioning - Methanol Market Players



7. Methanol Market Analysis - By Derivative

7.1 Overview

7.2 Methanol Market, By Derivative (2020 and 2028)

7.3 Formaldehyde:

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Formaldehyde: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.4 Acetic Acid

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 Acetic Acid: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.5 Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO)/Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP)

7.5.1 overview

7.5.2 Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO)/Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP): Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.6 Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE)

7.6.1 Overview

7.6.2 Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE): Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.7 Methyl methacrylate (MMA)

7.7.1 Overview

7.7.2 Methyl methacrylate (MMA): Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.8 Biodiesel (Gasoline Blending)

7.8.1 Overview

7.8.2 Biodiesel (Gasoline Blending) : Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.9 Dimethyl Ether (DME)

7.9.1 Overview

7.9.2 Dimethyl ether (DME):Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)

7.10 Methyl methacrylate (MMA)

7.10.1 Overview

7.10.2 Others: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (USD Mn)



8. Methanol Market Analysis - By End-Use

8.1 Overview

8.2 Automotive

8.2.1 Overview

8.2.2 Automotive: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

8.3 Construction

8.3.1 Overview

8.3.2 Construction: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.4 Electronics

8.4.1 Overview

8.4.2 Electronics: Market - Revenue, and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

8.5 Packaging

8.5.1 Overview

8.5.2 Packaging: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.6 Pharmaceuticals

8.6.1 Overview

8.6.2 Pharmaceuticals: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.6.3 Paints and Coatings

8.6.4 Overview

8.6.5 Paints and Coatings: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)

8.7 Others

8.7.1 Overview

8.7.2 Others: Methanol Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million)



9. Methanol Market - Geographic Analysis



10. Impact of COVID-19

10.1 Overview - Impact of COVID-19

10.2 Impact of COVID-19 on Methanol Market

10.3 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.4 Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.5 Asia Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.6 Middle East and Africa: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.7 South America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic



11. Industry Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Market Initiative

11.3 New Product Development

11.4 Merger and Acquisition



12. COMPANY PROFILES

12.1 Methanex Corporation

12.1.1 Key Facts

12.1.2 Business Description

12.1.3 Products and Services

12.1.4 Financial Overview

12.1.5 SWOT Analysis

12.2 OCI N.V.

12.3 BASF SE

12.4 SABIC

12.5 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co.

12.6 HELM AG

12.7 Celanese Corporation

12.8 Zagros Petrochemical co.

12.9 Mitsui and co. ltd.

12.10 LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V.



13. Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1rp6qg

Attachment
Pune, India, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system market size stood at USD 142.72 billion in 2021. The market is estimated to rise from USD 149.80 billion in 2022 to USD 215.23 billion by 2029 at a 5.3% CAGR during the forecast period. Fortune Business Insights has deep-dived into these insights in its latest research report, titled,  Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) System Market , 2022-2029.

According to the analysis, stakeholders have exhibited increased traction for hybrid heating and cooling systems. Besides, a surge in construction activities could add fillip to the industry growth over the next few years. Leading companies are poised to inject funds into the food and beverage and telecom industries, auguring well for the business outlook.

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COVID-19 Impact

Moderate Demand for Air Filters to Foster Trend for HVAC

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, prominent players have upped investments in air filter equipment. Health governing bodies are expected to encourage the adoption of industrial equipment to help contain the spread of coronavirus. However, the potential economic impact of the pandemic across end-use industries could have a compelling effect on the industry outlook.

Report Coverage

The HVAC System Market report has been prepared meticulously through quantitative and qualitative assessments to offer a comprehensive market view. Notably, many primary interviews have been conducted with major stakeholders and suppliers. Primary data has been collected through questionnaires, telephonic conversations and emails. Moreover, the report also includes secondary sources, such as government websites, SEC filings and press releases. The report also gives an in-depth view of market size, share, revenue, volume and delves into SWOT analysis.

Segmentation

In terms of type, the market is segmented into variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems, single split systems, chillers and others.

Based on application, the industry is segmented into commercial, residential and industrial.

On the basis of region, the market is segregated into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa and Latin America.

To get to know more about the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this HVAC System Market,

Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/heating-ventilation-and-cooling-hvac-system-market-102664

Drivers and Restraints

Energy Efficiency Trend to Usher in Innovations

At the time when stakeholders, including governments and NGOs have been advocating for energy-efficient equipment, heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system market growth could be pronounced. The trend for green-labeled products has become noticeable following the rise in environmental awareness across emerging and developed economies. For instance, major players, such as Daikin Industries, Ltd., and Lennox International Inc., have upped investments in air conditioners made from solar energy and natural gas. Not to mention, the penetration of smart sensors and thermostats has become trendier, boding well for the global outlook.

Meanwhile, a possible shortage of skilled labor could deter the growth prospect during the forecast period.

Regional Insights

Asia Pacific to Gain Ground with Rising Presence of Leading Players

The prevailing trends suggest key players could further their investments across China, India, Japan and Australia, partly due to growing purchasing power. To illustrate, India has become a happy hunting ground on the back of implementing FDI policies. Moreover, the penetration of single split systems could be pronounced across the region on the back of rising demand for commercial heating.

North America heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system market share will observe a notable gain against the backdrop of the adoption of advanced technologies. The U.S. has emerged as a lucrative region to expand the footfall of smart HVAC systems that could enhance energy efficiency. Furthermore, residential and commercial sectors will continue to infuse funds into the landscape.

Well-established and emerging players are likely to bank on the robust Latin America market forecast. Prominently, VRF systems and multi-split systems have gained considerable traction across Brazil and Mexico. Equipment demand could be noticeable across industrial, residential and commercial sectors.

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Competitive Landscape

Prominent Companies Emphasize Product Portfolio Expansion to Gain Ground

Key players are likely to invest in product launches, technological advancements, collaborations and mergers & acquisitions. Major companies could further inject funds into research and development activities to gain a competitive edge.

Key Industry Development

December 2021: Carrier Malaysia rolled out a new VRF cooling system XCT7 for commercial spaces.

Major Players Profiled in the HVAC System Market Report:

Johnson Controls (Ireland) DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, Ltd. (Japan) Lennox International Inc. (U.S.) Carrier (U.S.) Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan) Nortek Global HVAC LLC (U.S.) LG Electronics (South Korea) Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.) Trane (Ireland) SAMSUNG (South Korea)



Buy Now - HVAC System Market: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102664

Major Table of Content:

Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Methodology/Approach Data Sources

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Trends Impact of COVID-19 Short-term Impact Long-term Impact

Competition Landscape Business Strategies Adopted by Key Players Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players Global Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) System Key Players Market Share Insights and Analysis, 2021

Global Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) System Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029 Key Findings By Type (USD) Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) By Application (USD) Commercial Residential Industrial By Region (USD) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America

North America Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) System Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029 Key Findings By Type (USD) Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) By Application (USD) Commercial Residential Industrial By Country (USD) U.S. By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) Canada By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.)

Europe Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) System Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029 Key Findings By Type (USD) Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) By Application (USD) Commercial Residential Industrial By Country (USD) U.K. By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) Germany By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) France By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) Italy By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) Spain By Type Single Split Systems Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Chillers Others (Multi-split Systems, and others.) Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) System Market Size Estimates and Forecasts (Quantitative Data), By Segments, 2018-2029

TOC Continued!

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TORONTO, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JOURDAN RESOURCES INC. (TSXV: JOR; OTCQB: JORFF) (Jourdan or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has expanded its winter 2022 drilling campaign after all of its first eight drillholes intersected the newly identified spodumene-bearing pegmatite swarm on its Vallee property. For more information on Jourdans drill program, please see the Companys press release dated March 7, 2022, which is available under the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com



Jourdan has expanded its drilling campaign by adding another already permitted line of eight drillholes of 200m each for a total of an additional 1,600m to the 1,608m already completed in 2022, extending the lines 3, 4 and 5 to the north, south, and east (see Fig. 1).

Figure 1 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dcccd619-9a05-4f57-803f-afe5f8b7ee9c

Drillhole* Description** VAL22-3-5 17 interceptions of 1 to 3m spodumene bearing pegmatite dyke. VAL22-4-5 8 interceptions of 1 to 2m spodumene bearing pegmatite dyke. VAL22-4-4 8 interceptions of 1 to 2m spodumene bearing pegmatite dyke. VAL22-4-3 9 interceptions of 1 to 4m spodumene dyke including 1 interception of a 16m spodumene bearing pegmatite dyke.

*Please see the Companys press release dated March 7, 2022, for information about Jourdans other four drillholes, being VAL22-2-6, VAL22-2-7, VAL22-3-6, and VAL22-4-6.

** drill core width only, does not represent true width.

Figure 2 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8e0a1ffd-3e6c-4b14-9bcd-7c0be1755672

Figure 3 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1591ce6c-e308-4246-8739-1faeade59081

The Companys 3,200m diamond drilling program is intended to follow up on the results of a bulk sample collected in 2018 and the fence line drilled in 2011 and 2021 along the western side of the Companys Vallee property, which borders the North American Lithium mine. This drilling campaign is roughly laid out on a 100m x 100m grid and aims at completing the northern extension of the drilled fence line previously started during Q3 2021. The drill program is anticipated to substantially extend the known deposit at the Companys Vallee property eastwards. Since February 2022, 16 holes of approximately 200m depth each are now being drilled aiming at the pegmatite swarm identified by the trenching of the bulk sample collected on the Vallee property in 2018. The assay results from the bulk sample revealed high Li 2 O grades (for more information, please see the Companys press release dated April 29, 2021, which is available under the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com), which have encouraged the Company to continue exploration and exploratory drilling along the strike and depth extents of its Vallee property.

Jourdan is significantly enlarging its database by adding more drillholes since the start of the exploration work in 2011. The 2011 drilling comprised 21 drillholes (4,256m), the 2021 campaign consisted of eight drillholes (1,680m) and with the planned 3,208m round of drilling in 2022, Jourdan is on track to having more than 9,200m (45) of core that the Company intends to use in the future to establish a preliminary mineral resource estimate.

Rene Bharti, CEO of Jourdan, stated, These new intersections are extremely important for the success of Jourdan. They show that the size of our deposit is potentially much larger than we initially hoped, as we continue to find new mineralization in new zones we explore. Indeed, with a substantial amount of flow-through cash to work with, we believe a more aggressive drill program will ultimately lead us to the preliminary mineral resource estimate that we have been working towards.

Jourdans Executive Chairman, Dr. Andreas Rompel, stated, The known size and strike of the various pegmatites on our properties keeps growing the more we drill, and this last thick intersection deeply encourages us to continue drilling the northerly and easterly extent of the Li-bearing pegmatite swarm, in particular the newly discovered thick vein which is not exposed in the neighbouring mine. This pegmatite represents a significant addition to the known deposit size.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained herein has been reviewed and approved by Alexandr Beloborodov, P.Geo., an independent consultant that is a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Jourdan

Jourdan Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior mining exploration company trading under the symbol JOR on the TSX Venture Exchange and 2JR1 on the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. The Company is focused on the acquisition, exploration, production, and development of mining properties. The Companys properties are in Quebec, Canada, primarily in the spodumene-bearing pegmatites of the La Corne Batholith, around North American Lithiums producing Quebec Lithium Mine.

For more information:

www.jourdaninc.com

Rene Bharti, Chief Executive Officer and President

Email: info@jourdaninc.com

Phone: (416) 861-5800

Cautionary statements

The content and grades of any mineral deposits at the Companys properties are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on the property and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in any target being delineated as a mineral resource.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Companys winter 2022 drill program, including its scope and the Companys expectation that it will continue to extend the known deposit at its Vallee property, future drill programs of the Company, and the ability of the Company to establish a preliminary mineral resource estimate at its properties and to execute its business plan. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Jourdan to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future mineral prices and market demand; accidents, labour disputes and shortages and other risks of the mining industry. Although Jourdan has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Jourdan does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
CHICAGO and DENVER, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DAT Freight & Analytics, North Americas largest marketplace for truckload freight, and FourKites, the leading real-time supply chain visibility platform, today announced the next step in their strategic partnership that will bring real-time, end-to-end supply chain visibility to the DAT network. Integrating FourKites visibility into the DAT One Freight Management System will enable carriers on FourKites platform to make themselves instantly identifiable to 3PLs and brokers on the DAT network, creating the largest pool of trackable capacity on the spot market. Together, FourKites and DAT are streamlining visibility workflows that will eliminate countless hours of manual tracking and data collection calls that continue to plague the industry.

We have seen the demand for real-time visibility and order status updates to consumers  from all those operating within the truckload freight industry  grow at an unprecedented rate, said Claude Pumilia, DAT President and CEO. Legacy visibility tools require extensive manual processes for carrier connectivity and do not provide the level of transparency into shipment status that todays consumers both need and demand. By working together with carriers who are already part of FourKites, the worlds largest visibility platform, we are breaking down barriers to data-sharing and collaboration.

Together, DAT and FourKites are providing an innovative solution to simplify delivery of automated tracking and carrier connectivity for brokers and shippers through the DAT One Freight Management System. Brokers and shippers will be able to request, initiate and monitor highly accurate load tracking from carriers directly in DAT One. To streamline visibility workflows, carriers can connect their electronic logging or GPS device to the FourKites platform to provide their customers with highly secure shipment tracking, leveraging FourKites Dynamic ETA technology, which provides the markets most accurate estimated times of arrival. The end result is stronger communication, improved appointment adherence and reduced truck dwell time.

Supply chain visibility has swept the market over the last few years, said Chad Boblett, Owner of Boblett Brothers Trucking. Visibility is now absolutely critical to maintaining customer loyalty and winning new business. The faster both brokers and carriers adopt this technology, the better we can perform on each load from start to finish, including avoiding unexpected calls, delivering within highly accurate ETAs, communicating with customers and more.

Many LSPs are spending large amounts of resources to manually track for their customers, which is highly inefficient and prone to error, said Mathew Elenjickal, FourKites founder and CEO. Together with DAT, we are creating the largest network of tracked trucks in the industry, which will provide full visibility into North American brokered freight, empowering brokers and carriers to better meet rising customer demands. Armed with high-quality visibility data, they will be able to streamline operations, increase productivity and run a scalable and sustainable freight network.

To learn more about the FourKites-DAT partnership, visit DAT at Booth #65216 in the West Wing of the Expo Center, or FourKites at Booth #64208 at the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS), in Louisville, Kentucky, from March 24-26.



About DAT Freight & Analytics

DAT Freight & Analytics operates the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America. Transportation brokers, carriers, shippers, news organizations and industry analysts rely on DAT for market trends and data insights derived from 249 million freight matches in 2020, and a database of $116 billion of market transactions. Related services include a comprehensive directory of companies with business history, credit, safety, insurance and company reviews; broker transportation management software; and carrier onboarding.

Founded in 1978, DAT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Roper Technologies (NYSE:ROP), a diversified technology company and constituent of the S&P 500, Fortune 500 and Russell 1000 indices.

About FourKites

FourKites is the #1 supply chain visibility platform in the world, extending visibility beyond transportation into yards, warehouses, stores and beyond. Tracking more than 2.5 million shipments daily across road, rail, ocean, air, parcel and courier, and reaching more than 185 countries, FourKites combines real-time data and powerful machine learning to help companies digitize their end-to-end supply chains. More than 1,000 of the worlds most recognized brands  including 9 of the top-10 CPG and 18 of the top-20 food and beverage companies  trust FourKites to transform their business and create more agile, efficient and sustainable supply chains. To learn more, visit https://www.fourkites.com/.

Media Contacts

Annabel Reeves | Corporate Communications | annabel.reeves@dat.com | (503) 501-0143

Marianna Vyridi | Big Valley Marketing for FourKites | mvyridi@bigvalley.co | (650) 468-3263

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5c3f6be2-2d08-464b-9825-c19ce57cc3ac
Charlotte, North Carolina, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XCPCNL Business Services Corporation (OTC Pink: XCPL), a venture development business that leverages knowledge, skill, and experience in the consumer products industry, is pleased to announce that Green Star Products Inc. (OTC Pink: GSPI), a 29-year-old company, involved in enhancing the quality of life for the masses via green technologies, has partnered with XCPCNL to develop and execute a Strategic Sales and Marketing Program for its Viro Spectrum Shield and Montana Biotic brands that are relevant and impactful to potential customers and evaluate potential merger opportunities.

Kristy Hunt, President of GSPI, stated: We have been searching for a premier partner to elevate our branding so that we may position GSPIs product lines into the proper focus. We are happy to have found XCPNL to help us reach the natural next level. Timing is everything, and this is the moment to execute effective strategies and branding for our expanding product line.

The Programs will drive Awareness, Consideration and Informed Trial for the Brands Proposition and Offerings. XCPCNL will develop a 3-4 month Strategic Sales and Marketing program to meaningfully connect with potential customers to grow, share and cultivate the long-term health and sustainability of the two Brands with a focus on:

Developing a brand platform (new logo, packaging, tagline, manifesto, look and feel, tone of voice)

Articulating audience and positioning by leveraging Market Fingerprint and Centiment IO Technology

Establishing a differentiating position for Viro Spectrum Shield and Montana Biotic

Creating sample communication materials

Launching Go-to-market Strategy for online and offline sales

Evaluate additional Green Star Product Portfolio brands, including Graphene, MNG Technology and other fast-moving CPGs under development to create different revenue streams

XCPCNL will leverage the Centiment Capital IO Technology to predict human thoughts and develop programmatic media campaigns that will allow us to strategically and pragmatically approach the GSPI programming. We will also ensure that we remain true to the brand while tailoring messaging and consumer experiences to increase credibility and relevance with diverse prime prospect consumer subsegments, which will lead to incremental sales.

The partnership is anticipated to be a 7-figure generator.

"We are incredibly excited to work with GSPI in assisting them in developing their iconic Brands. To effectively engage today's diverse consumers, brands must have the dexterity to communicate brand attributes and convey brand essence in a relevant manner to the end-user. Creating and growing awareness among consumer segments for our clients brands is XCPCNL's sweet spot. We look forward to introducing the GSPI Brand portfolio with a faster speed to market and a practical approach into multiple online and offline channels and discussing potential merger opportunities, said CEO Tim Matthews.

XCPCNL Business Services Corporation (OTC Pink: XCPL) encourages shareholders to visit their corporate Twitter account at https://twitter.com/RealXCPCNL .

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer:

This press release may include, and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may have, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements regarding possible business combinations and the financing thereof and related matters, as well as all other statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions, as they relate to our management team or us, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Company's management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors detailed in the Company's filing with the Over-the-Counter Market ("OTC"). All subsequent written or forward-looking oral statements attributable to persons or us acting on our behalf are qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.

About XCPCNL

Charlotte, NC-based XCPCNL Business Services is a venture development business that leverages its knowledge, skills, and experience in the consumer products industry. Our primary mission is to provide marketing, technology, and other business services to fast-growing consumer product companies and big-box retailers. XCPCNL is a minority-owned and controlled firm. To learn more about our businesses, services, and opportunities, please contact info@xcpcnl.com .

To learn more about XPCNL, visit www.xcpcnl.com .

About Green Star Products

Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC PINK: GSPI) is an environmentally friendly Public Company creating innovative and cost-effective products to improve the quality of life and the environment. For more information, please visit their Website, https://gspiusa.com/ .

About Centiment Capital Holdings

Centiment Capital is the world's first neurotech-enabled, for-profit, anti-bias-driven machine learning company. Centiment is built on understanding neuro-data-driven problems in artificial intelligence and utilizing neuroscience-driven tools, technology and apparatus to solve them. For more information about Centiment Capital Holdings, please visit https://www.centiment.capital/ .
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here on Wednesday with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, saying China will continue to stand firmly together with the Palestinian people.

They had an in-depth exchange of views on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in the Pakistani capital.

Wang said China fully agreed to the calls made at the OIC meeting on the Palestinian issue, noting that the issue should not be marginalized nor forgotten, and the injustice lasting over 50 years should not continue.

Wang called on the international community to disapprove of the long-term indifference by Western countries to the Palestinian issue, while stressing that China will continue to stand firmly with the Palestinians.

China will not cease its support for the just cause of the Palestinian people until the Palestinian issue is resolved, he noted.

Wang said that China will stick to the four-point proposal it has made on resolving the Palestinian issue, and reiterated the specific approaches China has put forward to the issue.

China believes that the authority of the Palestinian National Authority should be enhanced, and that the Palestinian factions should be supported for greater unity, whereby they can achieve a real internal reconciliation, Wang said.

China also considers it necessary to hold an extensive, authoritative and influential international peace conference with the participation by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and all stakeholders in the Middle East peace process in seeking an effective way to find a political solution of the Palestinian issue, Wang said.

China will continue to call on the international community to increase its attention and input, and play a constructive role for the fundamental settlement of the Palestinian issue, he said.

China is ready to continue to provide anti-epidemic and humanitarian assistance to Palestine and help its refugees outside Palestine through the UN channels, Wang added.

Al-Maliki highly appreciated China's four-point proposal on the Palestinian issue.

The Palestinian foreign minister thanked China for always upholding fairness and justice on the Palestinian issue and supporting Palestine in alleviating its humanitarian plight.

He looked forward to China's continued support for a fundamental solution of the Palestinian issue and the achievement of lasting peace in the Middle East.

The Palestinian side fully endorses the convening of an international peace conference and hopes that the upgraded conference will be held at an early date, said Al-Maliki.

Wang arrived here on Monday to attend the OIC foreign ministers' meeting and for a visit to Pakistan. 
New York, NY, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The team at Rolaz Group is pleased to announce to the financial community that it has set aside a date for its token IEO and listing on P2PB2B and Coinsbit. The IEO will kick-start from April 1 at 00.00 GMT and run until May 31 with a 30% discount on P2PB2B. The token listing will take place on June 1 on P2PB2B and COINSBIT exchanges. Rolaz Group is the world's leading asset management firm that uses digital technologies to create immersive experiences for traders and investors.







About Rolaz Group

Rolaz Group is an international holding company and asset management firm thats well established in Europe, the United States, and South America. They are known for leveraging the latest digital and Defi technologies to find the best available investment opportunities for maximizing returns on all stakeholder's investmentsthis is the key behind their success.

The Rolaz Hedge Fund

In a nutshell, the Rolaz Hedge fund is the first tokenized hedge fund that will be powered by its own blockchain decentralized investment protocol. It has introduced a tokenized product, Rolaz Gold (rGLD), which has each token backed by actual gold. This revolutionary step is expected to disrupt a trillion-dollar industry thanks to what it brings and its one-of-a-kind secure, 360 financial ecosystem.

rGLD aims to help users facilitate their access into the hedge fund industry. With the rGLD token, users can get early access to projects high on potential.

The Rolaz business model and protocol

The Rolaz business model is centered around a pretty simple idea: To introduce Defi technology to the world hedge funds to improve the performance rate for all involved investors.

As for their protocol, its called the Rolaz Decentralized Investment Protocol . It is currently under development and the Rolaz team plans to have it fully functional by the end of this year. This protocol will be essential for everything that works within the Rolaz Ecosystem. It will be designed and developed in a way that will allow it to orderly tokenize different investment assets to allow investors to navigate through different investment markets, including the gold market, real estate, fintech, and more.

The Rolaz project was born based on the idea to create an ecosystem that can protect the assets of the users. To help get the technological wheels rolling in the hedge fund industry, Rolaz introduced the revolutionary rGLDthe first asset issued by the Rolaz hedge fund, tokenizing the already operational gold mining projects.

The Rolaz Gold (rGLD) Token

rGLD is a token that's used to power the Rolaz Group ecosystem. This asset-backed token was developed in September 2021 to deepen Rolaz Group.

Gold NFT Marketplace

The team at Rolaz is also working towards the development of a Gold NFT Marketplace, it will be the FIRST of its kind and will open up various opportunities for the users.

The features of rGLD token

The Rolaz Group token comes with the following features:

ROI From Different Investments

Stakers, those who commit their tokens to a liquidity pool for a specific period, will generate revenue from multiple investments. rGLD offers several staking opportunities, including the ability to tailor their portfolios based on their risk appetite.

CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/rolaz-gold/



IEO

P2PB2B: https://p2pb2b.com/token-sale/392



Listing

P2PB2B: https://p2pb2b.com



COINSBIT: https://coinsbit.io



Social links
CALABASAS, Calif., March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Resonate Blends, Inc. (OTCQB:KOAN), a Wellness Lifestyle cannabis holding company (Resonate or the Company), is pleased to announce they have expanded their retail network in California to include Cornerstone Wellness , Atrium and Canni Delivery. Resonate has strategically targeted leading retail outlets which serve intentional, wellness-focused customers. The new Cordial retail outlets are well known, respected and high-traffic dispensaries in the greater Los Angeles area and are demonstrative of Resonates Koan product strategy.

Cornerstone Wellness opened in 2007 as the first evidence-based medical dispensary in California and as a safe haven for cannabis consumer empowerment. By illuminating the health benefits through scientific findings in conjunction with providing high quality, lab tested, and unique product selection, Cornerstone provides comprehensive one-on-one personalized counseling and safe access to carefully crafted cannabis and curated natural product offerings.

Atrium is a premiere cannabis dispensary serving the Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Canoga Park, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Thousand Oaks and Malibu communities. The store offers a wide range of the worlds finest cannabis products. Atrium provides support that helps customers make educated decisions about their cannabis purchases.

Canni Delivery is an online cannabis store and Resonates first non-brick-and-mortar dispensary partner. Canni Delivery was founded with the vision to destigmatize cannabis by offering an accessible and welcoming shopping environment because a world where cannabis is legal and regulated is safer, healthier and happier. They provide high-quality products to all, with education, curation and transparency.

Bringing in these three sales partners is an indication that we are gaining traction with our refocused sales and product strategy, said Geoff Selzer Resonates CEO. Sales for the current form factor of the Cordials are targeted at the highest end, quality dispensaries and delivery services that serve our core demographic supplemented by our own Direct-to-Consumer efforts. We also have an expanded events initiative which builds on our marketing efforts to create a viral buzz around our products. Resonate provides a mixologist who creates custom drinks which complement the seven Koan Cordial blends: Calm, Balance, Create, Delight, Love, Play and Wonder. The reaction to our brand and the Cordials at these events is off the charts.

Education is critical for Koan products and for the evolution of the industry as it becomes normalized on a local and national basis. Resonate is partnering with LEAF.VIP (LEAF) to provide Koan retailers with professional and motivational budtender training. LEAF is a free-to-use app that drives sales, lowers costs and improves employee retention. LEAF provides engaging product information that allows dispensary staff to earn extra cash and to build positive relationships with brands. The LEAF app links budtenders directly to the Koan team which allows for real-time interaction and support.

In addition to providing exceptional retail channel support, Resonates previously announced upcoming products are being very well received by channel partners and beta testers alike. The cost saving multi-serve bottle and single packages will provide additional serving size options, and the Companys uniquely, experience-targeted edible product line is expected to expand the Koan market by driving additional partnerships and sales into the established and fastest growing segments of the industry.

Resonate Blends, Inc. (OTCQB:KOAN)

Resonate Blends is a Calabasas, CA-based portfolio of Cannabis Wellness and Lifestyle brands. The company created the Resonate Systema comprehensive system of interconnected experience targets to personalize consumers relationship with Cannabis through its products. The Koan Cordials were awarded the Best New Brand at the Luxury Meets Cannabis Conference (LMCC) in 2021 and a Bronze award for Brand Design from the 2021 Clio Cannabis Awards. www.resonateblends.com

Safe Harbor Provision:

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding: guidance relating to net income; anticipated customer onboardings; and expected operating results, such as revenue growth and earnings. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set out in the Company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Corporate Contact

David Thielen

Chief Investment Officer/Director

Resonate Blends, Inc.

david@resonateblends.com

571-888-0009

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8e5407c1-3755-40a6-b509-f31ff226ddfb
Atlanta, Georgia, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stryten Energy will be showcasing an extended line of GNB Industrial Power branded energy storage solutions and tools for the material handling industry at MODEX 2022. The companys advanced lead and lithium batteries combined with its intelligent chargers and energy performance management software provide an end-to-end solution to help support the transition to sustainable energy models.

At MODEX, Stryten Energy will unveil the GNB Fury X-7 charger 208-240 line voltages for areas with lower power infrastructure  such as those with a lot of historical buildings  including the Northeast U.S., Florida, Mexico, and South America. Available now, these new chargers have the same popular features of the GNB Fury X-7 480 volt chargers but can operate on 208VAC - 240VAC 3 phase power.

The Stryten Energy and GNB Booth #6832 will feature the following:

Advanced Lead and Lithium Batteries: Lithium solutions: The LiFTFORCE LPX 2.0 delivers faster charging, greater efficiency and increased cycle life, all in a maintenance-free package. A key benefit is lower operational costs compared to traditional power sources. Advanced lead solutions: The Tubular LMX allows up to 90 days between watering intervals for increased uptime and reduced maintenance costs.

Intelligent Chargers: The new Fury X-7 charger 208-240 volt line described above will make its debut. The Fury X-7 2-bay (7-15 kW) and 4-bay (7-30 kW) chargers can handle the toughest fleet demands cost-effectively and can be configured for standard, opportunity or fast charging. They include built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for integration with GNB Cloud.

Energy Performance Management Software: GNB Cloud is a suite of IoT-enabled decision support software that makes it easy to design and deploy web-connected battery and charger solutions.



Beyond the booth, Stryten Energys Bret Aker, Vice President of Software Solutions, and Andrea Vasquez, Fleet Energy Data Specialist, will be presenting at a seminar on Monday, March 28 from 12 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Theater F in a session called You Have 10,000 Batteries Talking to the Web What Now? Discover How Advanced IoT Software Can Make Your Life Easier.

Come meet the Stryten Energy and GNB team and see our latest technologies in action at Booth #6832 at MODEX.

About Stryten Energy

Stryten Energy helps solve the worlds most pressing energy challenges with a broad range of energy storage solutions across the Essential Power, Motive Power, Transportation, Military and Government sectors. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, we partner with some of the worlds most recognized companies to meet the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy storage capacity. Stryten powers everything from submarines to subcompacts, microgrids, warehouses, distribution centers, cars, trains and trucks. Our stored energy technologies include advanced lead, lithium and vanadium redox flow batteries, intelligent chargers and energy performance management software that keep people on the move and supply chains running. An industry leader backed by more than a century of expertise, Stryten has The Energy to Challenge the status quo and deliver top-performing energy solutions for today and tomorrow. Learn more at stryten.com.

Attachment
OKLAHOMA CITY, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, leading consumer products manufacturer Jasco Products announces a $500,000 donation to directly help those affected by the war in Ukraine. The company is splitting the donation evenly between charities Samaritans Purse and Convoy of Hope.



The Heart of Jasco is with the people in Ukraine. The stories of families torn being apart and innocent lives put in danger have compelled us to act as quickly as possible. We turned to our charity partners to see where we could make a difference, said Jasco CEO Jason Trice. Gods people are suffering, and it is our mission to help the causes making a direct impact in Ukraine.

Samaritans Purse has opened up an emergency field hospital on the outskirts of Lviv, along with an emergency clinic at the train station, where there are thousands of women and children fleeing the country each day. The organization has 140 disaster relief specialists on the ground in Ukraine and surrounding countries.

"Samaritan's Purse has disaster response teams in Poland and Moldova working alongside their church network to provide food, water, and hygiene kits to refugee families, said Regional Director Jack Rothwell. They are also operating a mobile medical unit in Moldova to provide immediate medical care for refugees, directly distributing 20 tons of food rations in Ukraine and have opened an emergency field hospital in western Ukraine at the request of government authorities. We are grateful to have Jasco join us in these efforts."

Convoy of Hope has a team on the ground in Poland and is working in 8 countries, including Ukraine, to provide aid. They are supplying people with food, water, shelter, baby supplies, hygiene kits, medical supplies, sleeping mats, and more. According to the United Nations, there are an estimated 2.5 million refugees fleeing Ukraine. The crisis has led to a humanitarian crisis in the region.

"The scenes in and around Ukraine are truly heartbreaking. The people of Ukraine need our help, said Ethan Forhetz, VP Public Engagement and National Spokesperson. Convoy of Hope is incredibly grateful to Jasco for its generosity in partnering with us to get much-needed relief supplies to refugees, as well as those still in the country."

Jasco regularly donates 50% of net profits from its brands to causes that matter: food, water, shelter and disaster relief. The company partners with more than 175 nonprofits worldwide, including the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and Water4. In April 2020, the company donated $1 million toward COVID-19 relief, split among ten local, national and international organizations.

Through Jascos unique Give Your Way program, customers are able to directly choose their favorite cause when purchasing items from Jascos website, byjasco.com. To learn more, visit: https://byjasco.com//heart-of-jasco.

About Jasco

Jasco designs and develops innovative products to simplify your life and connect your home. Jasco leads the market in lighting fixtures, lighting controls, consumer electronics, power protection and charging products. Jasco markets its products under some of the worlds most recognizable brand names and distributes them through virtually every major retailer. Jasco utilizes the power of every purchase to change lives and help those in need by donating 50% of net profits from Jasco's brands to causes that matter around the world. To learn more, visit www.byjasco.com and follow Jasco on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the blog for more information. Jasco brands include Enbrighten, myTouchSmart, Jasco, Cordinate, UltraPro, Power Gear, EcoSurvivor, Projectables, Lights by Night, Titan, Uber.

About Samaritans Purse

Samaritan's Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. For more information about Samaritan's Purse and the work they are doing in Ukraine, please visit their website at www.samaritanspurse.org.

About Convoy of Hope

Convoy of Hope is a faith-based organization with a driving passion to feed the world. With a long history as an early responder in times of natural disasters, Convoy of Hope has been a Four Star Charity as recognized by Charity Navigator since 2002. Convoy of Hope has served more than 193 million people since it was founded in 1994. For more information, please visit convoyofhope.org.

Media Contact

Alyssa Cohen

Uproar PR for Jasco

(321) 236-0102

acohen@uproarpr.com



Company Contact

Kearsten Chapman

pr@byjasco.com
LAS VEGAS, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alkame Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: ALKM), a publicly traded health and wellness holding company, is pleased to announce today that it has reduced an additional $500,000 of company debt.



The company continues to reduce and eliminate company debt liabilities from its balance sheet, with $1,000,000 in liabilities in less than 8 months.

Robert Eakle, Alkame CEO states, We actively continue to reduce debt and position our company for further growth. Stay tuned, many good things to announce very soon.

About West Coast Co Packer, Inc.

West Coast Co Packer, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alkame Holdings, Inc. and is a specialty liquid and single-serve manufacturer, co-packer, private labeler, and contract manufacturer, and is expected to immediately complement and seamlessly integrate with Alkames other subsidiaries including Bell Food and Beverage, Inc. Bell Food and Beverage, Inc. is a specialty natural, organic liquid-based hot and cold fill food & beverage manufacturer in glass and PET bottles and jars. To learn more about West Coast Copacker visit www.westcoastcopacker.com.

About Alkame Holdings, Inc.

Alkame Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded health and wellness technology holding company, with a focus on patentable, innovative, and eco-friendly consumer products. The Company's wholly owned subsidiaries manufacture products with enhanced water utilizing a proprietary technology to create products with several unique properties. The organization is diligently building a strong foundation through the launch and acquisition of appropriate business assets, and by pursuing multiple applications by placement into several emerging business sectors, such as consumer bottled water and RTD products, household pet products, horticulture and agriculture applications, hand sanitizers, and many other various water-based treatment solutions to both new and existing business platforms.

For more information, visit www.alkameholdingsinc.com.

Alkame Holdings, Inc. Investor Relations

Website: www.alkameholdingsinc.com

Email: info@alkameholdingsinc.com

Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that Alkame will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the Company's contracts, the Company's liquidity position, the Company's ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The CanadianSME National Business Awards 2021 is an outstanding event to appreciate and celebrate the success of businesses in Canada. The awards will be held virtually on April 29 from 5 pm to 7 pm EST. The event will also be live-streamed on CanadianSME Facebook and YouTube channels. Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. While the COVID-19 pandemic presented obstacles, it also left positive effects. Canadian SMEs became more resilient by adopting innovation, digitalization, and new market strategies. The awards aim to acknowledge the innovation and resiliency of Canadian entrepreneurs who are the building blocks of our economy.

The CanadianSME Awards acknowledge the hard work of leading SMEs. A group of proficient judges will assess them. They will be recognized for their diligence and ability to overcome challenges in their business. The awards will also allow entrepreneurs to grow their network and meet fellow business leaders from coast to coast.

CanadianSME National Business Awards 2021 are organized by CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. This magazine provides crucial support to Canadian businesses, and this event aims to recognize Canadian small businesses across the country. The CanadianSME National Business Awards 2021 are representative of merit, distinction, and brilliance in the business world.

About sponsors

The CanadianSME National Business Awards 2021 is an opportunity for corporations to celebrate small businesses. Thus, these awards are sponsored by various sponsors to recognize entrepreneurs in several different categories. For example, the Small Business of the year award of up to 10 employees is sponsored by RBC, and up to 50 employees, are sponsored by UPS. This award will be given to the small businesses that have demonstrated innovation, business planning, and leadership and increased profits throughout the year.

The Nerds On Site is sponsoring the Business Women of the Year Award for the third time. Alexio is a sponsor for Excellence in Data Privacy & Security awards. Mitacs is a Sponsor for the Best Business Innovation award. GoDaddy is the sponsor of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award category. HP is the sponsor of Black Entrepreneur of the Year, KPMG Enterprise is the sponsor of Entrepreneur of the Year, Zoho is sponsoring the Digital & E-commerce Business of the Year Award. Xero is the sponsor of the Technopreneur of the Year Award.

Lastly, The CanadianSME Business magazine will sponsor the Editors choice award.

Over the last year, weve heard countless stories of entrepreneurs and business owners who have turned a challenge into an opportunity and led fearlessly through times of change, says Don Ludlow, Vice-President of Small Business, Partnerships & Strategy, RBC. These stories are a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit that runs stronger than ever in our communities. Were proud to join CanadianSME in recognizing these unstoppable entrepreneurs and small businesses through the National Business Awards 2021.

We are honoured to be supporting this important event, said Paul Gaspar, director, small business for UPS Canada. While UPS has its part to play in the success of todays and future business leaders, we too continue to learn much from entrepreneurs like the ones we are celebrating with the CanadianSME Business Awards. Congratulations to all the nominees.

"At KPMG Enterprise, we are proud to celebrate entrepreneurs and small businesses across Canada and showcase the energy, skills and determination that have made them so successful in the world of business. We are inspired by their passion, hard work and agility, in what has been a challenging year for businesses and communities across the country. The future of entrepreneurship in Canada is bright, and we are honoured to collaborate with entrepreneurs on their growth journey. Mary Jo Fedy, National Enterprise Leader, KPMG Enterprise

"As the daughter of small business owners, I have a deeply personal understanding of the many challenges entrepreneurs face. While the pandemic has amplified these challenges, it has also enabled small businesses to demonstrate their resilience and innovate. Xero is honoured to sponsor the CanadianSME National Business Awards and recognize the vital role entrepreneurs play in our economy." Faye Pang, Country Manager, Canada at Xero

Young entrepreneurs are the next generation of small business owners and will be the cornerstone of our society, said Anne De Aragon, Vice President and Country Manager of GoDaddy Canada. GoDaddy is proud to support young entrepreneurs as they solve new problems, advance our society and conquer their dreams. We are here to cheer them on every step of the way and provide valuable online tools to help their business flourish.

The CanadianSME National Business Awards highlight the excellence of this countrys entrepreneurs, and Zoho is proud to participate as the sponsor of the Digital and E-Commerce Business of the Year Award, said Chandrashekar LSP, Evangelist at Zoho Canada. As a provider of 50-plus apps in every major business category, Zoho helps entrepreneurs and their teams succeed every day. We look forward to seeing them recognized for their hard work."

It is a great pleasure to be joining the Canadian SME National Business Awards for 2021, in order to honour and celebrate all of these entrepreneurs who have shown resilience during such tough times. Canada's small businesses are an important part that has helped keep our country running smoothly despite what happened with the COVID-19 pandemic which only makes their importance more relevant now than ever before! I look forward to seeing you all there and presenting the award for Nerds On Site Business Woman of the Year" Award. Charlie Regan, CEO at Nerds On Site

Canadas small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the Canadian economy, employing more than 10 million people across the country. As provinces and territories continue to reopen, SMEs will be critical to ensuring the success of Canadas economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. At Mitacs, we are here, ready to support Canadian SMES as they innovate and grow for a prosperous future.  John Hepburn, CEO, Mitacs.

The CanadianSME Small Business Magazine is grateful to all the sponsors for their generous and genuine support for the CanadianSME National Business Awards 2021 in celebrating business success in Canada.

Learn more about CanadianSME at https://www.smeawards.ca

CanadianSME National Business Awards 2021 will be live-streamed on:

https://www.facebook.com/canadiansme

https://twitter.com/canadian_sme

https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadiansme-business-magazine

About CanadianSME

A national publication with a big vision. CanadianSME signifies the empowerment of Canadian SMEs and aims to pursue this mission with the launch of CanadianSME Business Magazine to equip SMEs with expert knowledge and insights from industry leaders. CanadianSME Business Magazine incorporates compelling content and provides shelter to the business needs of small and medium scale enterprises.

CanadianSME Business Magazine was created through the passion and admiration for entrepreneurs. With SMEs playing such a crucial role in Canadas business industry and contributing greatly to the economy, CanadianSME was built to provide a much-needed support system for hard-working business owners.

For more information, visit https://www.canadiansme.ca

For more information;

Maheen Bari

info@canadiansme.ca

416 655 0205

905 206 0055

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/20de421f-8117-4b38-981b-94a47157f27a
Fast Start Program Enables Learners to Earn Free College Credit

High school students and current NSU enrollees can save thousands of dollars on college tuition

Students who complete four Modern States courses and exams will receive admission to Norfolk State

The partnership is part of Modern States ongoing commitment to HBCUs across the county





NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Modern States, a philanthropy dedicated to making a college degree more affordable and accessible to everyone, today announced the launch of its Fast Start program with Norfolk State University (NSU). The program is designed to help high school students in Virginia and current NSU students earn up to a year of college credit at no cost. The partnership between the two organizations is the latest in Modern States commitment to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Modern States forms strategic alliances at the local, state and university levels to design programs that meet a communitys specific needs. This targeted approach is helping provide additional college readiness tools to students and the ability to earn free college credit, while also providing universities with a new recruiting tool.

Norfolk State University is proud to partner with the Modern States initiative as we both work to expand access and affordability to higher education for all students, said NSU President Javaune Adams-Gaston, Ph.D. This program is a gem. It provides a direct cost savings for prospective Spartans and allows for them to earn their degree early so they can begin their careers.

NSU will offer admission to Virginia high school students who pass four Modern States courses and pass the corresponding credit-bearing exams. The four courses and exams can save students nearly $7,000. Fast Start can move students toward early graduation and entry into the workforce.

The NSU Fast Start program will mirror similar Fast Start initiatives launched by Modern States at Morgan State University and Purdue University. Through its commitment to HBCUs, Modern States will provide free online college courses and cover the cost of at least 10,000 credit-bearing exams to prospective students, ultimately saving over $10 million in tuition and expenses for HBCU students across the country.

Modern States is fully funding the Fast Start initiative, with a special gift from the family of Steven and Maureen Klinsky.

Im happy to have Modern States launch a Fast Start program at Norfolk State University, said Steven Klinsky, the founder and CEO of Modern States. Programs like this can play a pivotal role in attracting talented students to schools like NSU. I am confident the partnership between Norfolk State and Modern States will help ensure more Virginians have the opportunity to pursue a college degree without the fear of student debt.

Modern States is the largest free college program in the country, with over 315,000 students since it launched in 2017. Along with the Klinsky family, Modern States has received funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Starr Foundation and the Heckscher Foundation, among others.

The philanthropy has partnerships with many states including Michigan, New York and New Jersey, as well as universities throughout the country, including the State of Texas University System and the State University of New York (SUNY).

ModernStates.org offers 33 top-quality college courses (in the areas of English, History, Math, Chemistry, Biology, Accounting, Spanish and others), all taught by leading university professors. Like a digital public library, the Modern States free online courses are available 24/7 and are self-paced, allowing students full flexibility and convenience. They can be taken from any device with an Internet connection, including a cell phone.

The courses prepare students to pass College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams from the College Board. CLEP has been in place for over 50 years. A passing score on a CLEP exam is accepted for credit at NSU and more than 2,900 colleges and universities, including virtually all HBCUs.

For more information on the NSU Fast Start program, visit https://www.nsu.edu/testingservices or contact Gladys M. Bennett, directing of testing services, at gmbennett@nsu.edu or 757-823-8611.

HBCUs that want to explore partnering with Modern States can contact David Vise, executive director, at David@ModernStates.org or 202-439-0318.

About Norfolk State University

Norfolk State University is a comprehensive urban public institution that is committed to transforming students lives through exemplary teaching, research, and service. Offering a supportive academic and culturally diverse environment for all, the University empowers its students to turn their aspirations into reality and achieve their full potential as well rounded, resourceful citizens and leaders for the 21st century. NSU plays a vital economic and social role in the City of Norfolk, the Hampton Roads region, and across Virginia.

About Modern States

Modern States is a NYC-based philanthropy dedicated to making a college degree more affordable and accessible for everyone. Its first initiative is Freshman Year for Free: more than 30 online college courses available tuition-free for credit, from top university professors available to anyone with an Internet connection. Students can use these courses to earn college credits by preparing for and taking credit-bearing CLEP exams, as offered by the College Board, and accepted by more than 2,900 colleges, including most HBCUs. Learn more at ModernStates.org.

About the Klinsky Family

Modern States and the NSU "Fast Start" program were initially funded by charitable gifts from the family of Steven and Maureen Klinsky. Steven Klinsky is a New York-based businessman and philanthropist, and a leader in the private equity industry. Maureen Sherry Klinsky is an author and novelist. They have previously funded a professor of leadership at Harvard Law School, medical clinics in Africa, after-school centers and other causes, chiefly in the fields of education and children's health.

Media contacts:

Jennifer Leckstrom

RoseComm for Modern States

jleckstrom@rosecomm.com

215-681-0770

Stan Donaldson Jr.

Director of Media Relations, NSU

smdonaldson@nsu.edu

Phone: (757) 823-2119
MIAMI, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Boditech Med, a global leader in point-of-care testing with more than 90 biomarker products, announced today the formation of a U.S.-based advisory board and its first member, Zachariah P. Zachariah, M.D.

The board will support the publicly traded company's expansion into the U.S. and Canada, beginning with a new manufacturing site in Miami, Florida. Boditech plans to hire hundreds of Americans to help bring faster, lower-cost diagnostic testing to North America.

Boditech tests cover many critical areas of medicine, from cardiac health to cancer. The company also produces COVID-19 antibodies and over-the-counter rapid antigen tests.

"In the U.S., it can take up to three days to get diagnostic test results  an unacceptable wait that leaves patients in limbo as costs mount," said Eui-Yul Choi, PhD, Boditech's co-founder and CEO. "The COVID pandemic has brought this problem into perspective for millions of Americans, but delayed test results plague many branches of medicine. Boditech's point-of-care tests deliver results in 12 to 15 minutes. We are excited to be bringing this technology to North America with support from Dr. Zachariah, one of the world's finest cardiologists and a proven leader with connections across Florida and around the globe."

Dr. Zachariah is a clinical faculty member of the University of Miami and Medical Director of UHealth Cardiology, Fort Lauderdale. He has performed more than 30,000 heart catheterizations and interventional procedures in Broward County and participated in numerous clinical trials.

A longtime member and former chair of the Florida Board of Medicine, Dr. Zachariah also serves on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and several other boards. He has spent decades lending his expertise to organizations around the world, including serving in the 1990s on the U.S. delegation to the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Three governors have declared five days in his honor, observed throughout Florida.

"For clinicians and patients, timely information is paramount," said Dr. Zachariah. "I believe Boditech testing is poised to be a game-changer, and I'm eager to get to work assisting that mission."

Founded in South Korea in 1998, Boditech Med markets and sells more than 90 biomarker products in 120 countries.

About Boditech Med

Boditech Med is a global leader in point-of-care testing with a decades-long track record of improving health and quality of life through innovative in-vitro diagnostic solutions. Since its launch in 1998, Boditech has developed 90 biomarkers, which support capillary blood, venous blood, and plasma testing, to meet customers' evolving needs. Listed as a public company on the KOSDAQ, Boditech's products aid patients and clinicians in 120 countries.

Learn more about Boditech Med and how its in-vitro diagnostic are improving health worldwide: https://www.boditech.co.kr/en

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Image 1: Zachariah P. Zachariah, M.D.





Zachariah P. Zachariah, M.D. headshot.









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SAN ANTONIO, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- It's fajitas like you've never seen them beforeunless, that is, you've been to Houston, Dallas, or Austin recently.

Fajita Pete's, the fresh-off-the-grill fajita delivery concept, has more or less flown under the radar as a fan favorite in Houston and Dallas for the past decade.

"They call us a cult classic," laughs founder and namesake Pedro "Pete" Mora. "That's what they say when no one has heard of you yet."

But in the last two years, Fajita Pete's quietly began nabbing national awards including a spot on QSR Magazine's Hottest Startup Fast Casuals, QSR's Best Franchise Deals, and FastCasual's Top 100 Movers and Shakers of 2022.

Fajita Pete's also caught the attention of four QSR veterans: Keith Fontana and Michael Humphrey of Sonic and Qdoba, and Vishal Gajjar and Abhishek Doctor of Marco's Pizza. The two franchising duos were recently awarded a total of 13 Fajita Pete's restaurants across Texas.

"Fajita Pete's drew me in because it's Texas-born and offers a real vehicle for growth," says Fontana.

"For a lot of other concepts, the markets are saturated," Humphrey adds. "People have seen it all and tried it all. But fresh fajitas and margaritas brought to your door? There are a lot of people that have never experienced anything like Fajita Pete's. There is almost unlimited potential to grow."

Fontana says the pair looked at countless opportunities over a span of several years before selecting Fajita Pete's.

"We have years of experience with established nationwide brands," shares Humphrey, who began as a Sonic carhop and worked his way up to franchising over more than two decades. "It's a rare opportunity to be part of something that is on the verge of exploding nationwide."

Why Fajita Pete's?

The growing buzz amongst franchisees around the Fajita Pete's delivery and catering model seems to be matched only by the buzz around its menu.

"People are used to only being able to have fajitas in a sit-down setting where you might wait 45 minutes to sit down and another 45 minutes to eat," notes Gajjar. "But at Fajita Pete's, you get the exact same quality fajitas, plus convenience."

"You can't find food like this, in such a convenient model, anywhere near this price point," agrees Fontana.

"Most restaurants today are trying to adapt to delivery," Humphrey points out. "Fajita Pete's is designed for delivery. We are ready to come out swinging."

Community involvement

While each Fajita Pete's restaurant creates its own unique impression on the surrounding community, the brand has become known as embodying what it means to "give back."

"When we started Fajita Pete's, we focused on a menu that brought people together," Mora recalls. "We are proud to honor this community spirit by giving back whenever we can."

All four franchisees have already begun drafting plans to get involved with community organizations.

"We love the idea of bringing a great idea like Fajita Pete's to great communities," declares Fontana. "When I think of West Texas, I think of good-hearted people who take care of their neighbors, who take the time to say hello. That's the kind of relationship we want each of our restaurants to have with its customers."

About Fajita Pete's

Unapologetically designed for off-premise dining, Fajita Pete's is a natural category disrupter amongst Tex-Mex and takeout alike. This streamlined fan-favorite fajita concept has an open and awarded pipeline of over 100 units across Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas and Arizona. For press inquiries, contact marketing@fajitapetes.com or learn more at franchisefajitapetes.com.

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Image 1: Fajita Catering





Fajita Pete's serves fresh fajitas, catered and delivered.









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ELKHART, Ind., March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- THOR Industries, Inc. (NYSE: THO) today announced that it has donated, through its subsidiary Erwin Hymer Group, the temporary use of EHGs recently acquired facility in Poland to the Lubuskie branch of the Polish Red Cross. The facility, located in Nowa Sol, Poland, will be utilized by the Polish Red Cross as a staging and distribution center for items of relief including food, clothing, cosmetic products, baby food, and medical supplies. Additionally, THOR announced that it has pledged funds to further support the relief effort out of its facility in Nowa Sol.



The World has watched in horror the brutality of Russias invasion of Ukraine. We have all seen the images of families torn apart, maternity hospitals bombed, and community shelters being targeted. Peoples lives are being devastated. The compulsion to provide relief and some form of comfort to those who have been so terribly affected is basic to who THOR is as a company. Our facility in Poland will become a center of relief to many victims of the war who have sought refuge in Poland. Im proud to be a part of our fully united team as we proclaim that we stand firmly with the people of Ukraine who are suffering from this terrible war, explained Bob Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer of THOR Industries, Inc.

About THOR Industries, Inc.

THOR Industries is the sole owner of operating companies which, combined, represent the worlds largest manufacturer of recreational vehicles.

For more information on the Company and its products, please go to www.thorindustries.com .

CONTACTS

Mark Trinske, Vice President of Investor Relations

mtrinske@thorindustries.com

(574) 970-7912

Mike Cieslak, CFA, Investor Relations Manager

mcieslak@thorindustries.com

(574) 294-7724

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7922f349-2edf-48ed-8cad-918ac1643537

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6b14854e-036e-4bc8-b050-31226c431dea
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, makes an inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and chairs a symposium, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed the importance of spring farming in guaranteeing the country's grain security and stabilizing economic and social development.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a symposium during an inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Wednesday.

Facing complicated and grim international circumstances, sharp price rises, and increasing volatility in the agricultural product market, China's development and agricultural production face new challenges, said Li.

China has sufficient inventories and supplies of grain and important agricultural products. Yet ensuring China's grain security based on the country's own efforts should be kept firmly in mind, said Li, calling for guaranteeing stable domestic production and supply to cope with uncertainties in the external environment.

He urged efforts to advance spring farming to ensure that China's grain output for 2022 stays above 650 billion kg.

Noting price rises of farming supplies such as fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel oil, Li underscored support for enterprises' efforts in increasing production by reducing tax and fees and supplying raw materials.

To protect grain planters from rising prices of farming supplies, China has also provided another 20 billion yuan (about 3.14 billion U.S. dollars) worth of subsidies to grain producers.

Efforts should also be made to continuously promote modernization of the agricultural sector, consolidate poverty alleviation achievements, promote rural revitalization, and develop high-standard farmland, said Li. 

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, makes an inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and chairs a symposium, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, makes an inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and chairs a symposium, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, makes an inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and chairs a symposium, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)
SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prophet, the global growth consultancy, announced that Cara Capretta has joined the firm as its new chief people officer. In her role, she will lead the global people team, providing the strategic vision to develop and implement a new and innovative talent strategy for the high-growth firm. Capretta will also serve as a member of the executive committee where she will help build an employer value proposition that drives the firms ability to attract, engage, develop and retain the highest quality talent in addition to championing the firms culture. Capretta replaces Kevin ODonnell who retired after 22 years at Prophet.



Capretta has more than 30 years of experience in the people and talent space. Most recently, she spent a decade in Oracles Human Capital Transformation practice, helping a wide range of companies and their chief human resource officers build more modern, business-oriented HR organizations supported by cloud-based technologies and workflow. Previously, Capretta was president and COO at Lominger, which was a pioneer in competency-based HR tools including 360 feedback, leadership development tips, behavioral interview guides and organizational assessment tools. The business was subsequently sold to Korn Ferry, one of the largest executive search firms, where she remained to lead the global deployment and adoption of these capabilities.

From leadership development and succession planning to talent strategy and tech-enabled process scaling, Caras expertise is particularly relevant to the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead for Prophet, said Michael Dunn, Prophets chairman and CEO. She has so much for the firm to learn from and build upon, and she brings engaging, empathetic and positive energy to the role. Cara will be an asset to Prophet as we think about how to lead through this time of growth.

Cara has a wealth of experience which will help build a more inclusive culture that enhances our global talent strategy and fuels our growth, said Chiaki Nishino, president. I look forward to working with her closely to continue to drive that inclusive environment and elevating the voices of all our team members throughout all the levels of the firm.

Capretta said, Prophet is a rare organization that practices what it preaches. Prophet advises its clients with talent, growth and organizational culture strategies and uses those same ideas internally to create an organization that can attract and retain the best and brightest in their respective fields. I look forward to helping the firm excel in its next phase of growth.

She is based out of Columbus, Ohio and will be affiliated with the Chicago office.

Media contact:

Eliese Haerle

e_haerle@prophet.com
SAN DIEGO, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Johnson Fistel, LLP is investigating potential breaches of fiduciary duty/or violations of federal and/or state law on behalf of Oak Street Health, Inc. (NYSE: OSH) against certain of its officers and directors.



Recently there was a class action filed against Oak Street. The Oak Street Health class action lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that: (i) Oak Street Health maintained relationships with third-party marketing agents likely to provoke law enforcement scrutiny; (ii) Oak Street Health was providing free transportation to federal health care beneficiaries in a manner that would provoke law enforcement scrutiny; (iii) these activities may be violations of the False Claims Act; (iv) as such, Oak Street Health was at heightened risk of investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and/or other federal law enforcement agencies; (v) as a result, Oak Street Health was subject to adverse impacts related to defense and settlement costs and diversion of management resources; and (vi) consequently, defendants positive statements about Oak Street Healths business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

If you are a current, long-term shareholder of Oak Street holding shares before August 6, 2020, you may have standing to hold Oak Street harmless from the alleged harm caused by the Company's officers and directors by making them personally responsible. You may also be able to assist in reforming the Company's corporate governance to prevent future wrongdoing.

To join this action, you can click or copy and paste the link below: https://www.cognitoforms.com/JohnsonFistel/OakStreetHealthInc2

Follow us on Twitter: Here

About Johnson Fistel, LLP:

Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. Johnson Fistel seeks to recover losses incurred due to violations of federal securities laws. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Contact:

Johnson Fistel, LLP

Jim Baker, 619-814-4471

jimb@johnsonfistel.com
Arlington, Va., March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Institutes for Research (AIR) has welcomed four nationally renowned experts as AIR Fellows to collaborate across the institution on mission-focused projects and initiatives.

The new Fellows are:

Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa, an economist and professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who studies poverty, health and human development, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa;

Robert (Bob) Kim, an expert in education law and policy, who previously served the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights as deputy assistant secretary;

Karen Pittman, a sociologist and expert in youth development, who co-founded the Forum for Youth Investment, and served as its president and CEO; and,

Rashawn Ray, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, who has conducted extensive research on social inequity, including police-civilian relations.

The new Fellows will advise on specific areas of AIRs work and will help build its capacity to conduct effective research and technical assistance. This will include supporting the work of the AIR Equity Initiative, a five-year, $100+ million investment in behavioral and social science research and technical assistance to address the underlying causes of systemic inequities and to increase opportunities for people and communities.

When we launched the AIR Equity Initiative, we made it clear that we would leverage a broad array of expertise and experience to address some of the most challenging issues facing the U.S. and the world, said Kimberly DuMont, AIR vice president and managing director of the Initiative. These Fellows will inform, shape and support the mission-focused work we are doing to find solutions that will create a better, more equitable world.



About the Fellows

Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa is a professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an economist working on poverty, health and human development in sub-Saharan Africa. He is the co-principal investigator of The Transfer Project, which seeks to understand the broad effects of government-sponsored cash transfer programs in sub-Saharan Africa, and also studies the long-term effects of cash transfers in Zambia and Malawi. He previously served as chief of social and economic policy at UNICEF's Office of Research-Innocenti, where he led the Innocenti Report Card Series, UNICEF's flagship publication on the well-being of children in wealthy countries. Handa will consult on AIRs commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; mentor staff in AIRs International Development Division; and work with the AIR Equity Initiative.

Robert (Bob) Kim is a civil rights attorney and a leading expert and consultant on education law and policy in the U.S. He served as deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama administration in the Office for Civil Rights. He was previously the William T. Grant Distinguished Fellow at Rutgers University, where he conducted research on the use of evidence about school finance and education equity in U.S. public schools. He is the co-author of Education and the Law, 5th Ed., and Legal Issues in Education: Rights and Responsibilities in U.S. Public Schools Today. His most recent publication is Elevating Equity and Justice: Ten U.S. Supreme Court Cases Every Teacher Should Know. He will provide expertise and strategic insight into the AIR Equity Initiatives work around educational equity.

Karen Pittman is the co-founder and former president and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment, which provides leadership and on-the-ground action to prepare students for success. She worked with the Urban Institute, the Childrens Defense Fund, and Academy for Educational Development, before serving as director of the President's Crime Prevention Council during the Clinton administration. She also worked with Gen. Colin Powell to create the Americas Promise Alliance before launching the Forum for Youth Investment in 1998. She is an author of three books and many articles on youth issues and serves on several boards and panels focused on education and youth development. Pittman will advise projects in AIRs Human Services Division focused on work around youth, family and community development, and also will provide insights and expertise to the AIR Equity Initiative.

Rashawn Ray is a professor of sociology and executive director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations Health Policy Research Scholars Program. His research addresses the mechanisms that manufacture and maintain racial and social inequality, with a particular focus on police-civilian relations and mens treatment of women. He has published several books and articles and has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and other high-profile publications. He will advise and consult with the AIR Equity Initiatives work around justice and community-police interactions.

About AIR

Established in 1946, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of education, health and the workforce. AIR's work is driven by its mission to generate and use rigorous evidence that contributes to a better, more equitable world. With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, AIR has offices across the U.S. and abroad. For more information, visit www.air.org.

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Las Vegas, NV, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Hemp, Inc. (OTC PINK: HEMP), one of the global leaders that has been on the forefront of the industrial hemp industry, announced today the release of its second powerhouse product from its innovative, highly potent CBD/CBG portfolio - the power-packed capsule for pain reduction, improved sleep and anti-anxiety. This new CBD/CBG blended super capsule is designed and formulated with the same potency as the Companys new CBD/CBG tincture that was unveiled earlier this week. For those who want to amplify their health and wellness routines, todays release of Hemp, Inc.s CBD/CBG power-packed capsule provides a convenient, more traditional form to effectively absorb the rich benefits CBD and CBG provide.



Driven by passion to keep innovating and offering exceptional wellness products for a perfect balance of mind, body and soul, Hemp, Inc.s new proprietary formula helps with reducing pain, improving sleep, and alleviating anxiety. The highly potent capsule for pain reduction is formulated with 250mg of CBD and 100mg of CBG and the equally potent capsule for improved sleep and anti-anxiety is formulated with 150mg of CBD, 50mg of CBG and 25mg of CBN.

We are just as excited about our CBD/CBG high potency blend in capsule form as we are about the new super tincture we unveiled earlier this week, said Hemp, Inc. COO Jed Perlowin. While we ramp up production, Hemp, Inc. is offering free sample packs to the first 100 customers who order it from the King of Hemp website . This is for a limited time only and includes 3 servings of CBD/CBG capsules for pain; 3 servings of CBD/CBG/CBN capsules for anxiety and sleep; and, 3 servings of our CBD/CBG tincture. Its limited to one pack per person due to the current limited supply. The sample pack is free but you do pay for shipping and handling which is $7.95, said Perlowin.

With all the buzz and overwhelmingly positive feedback the new products have gotten, the Company expects the free sample packs to go fast. Loyal customers and shareholders can prioritize their wellbeing and take advantage of the limited-time opportunity to test our products out, if they havent already, and see what all the hype has been about. The goal has been to make wellness more accessible, convenient and affordable across the board.

The premium power-packed capsules also promote enhanced mood and clarity with rejuvenating properties. Some users have reported feeling rejuvenated, stress-free and tension-free. All of the King of Hemp products, including the capsules, are independently tested by a third-party lab and manufactured in the USA at Hemp, Inc.s manufacturing facility in Nevada. Our products are 100% sustainably sourced, offers premium vegan grade, gluten-free, non-psychoactive and have been through proven compliant testing for microbials, heavy metals, pesticides, and dangerous chemicals.

Clean and green. Hemp, Inc. continues to push the boundaries with every product. Going above and beyond to exceed our customers expectations is one thing we pride ourselves on through the King of Hemp brand.

For more information on the free sample pack offer, with $7.95 shipping and handling, visit the King of Hemp website Kingofhempusa.com. Retailers and distributors interested in the product line should email sales@kingofhempusa.com. Shareholders and consumers who want to purchase products can click here .

As the Companys COO, Perlowin plans on keeping the Companys shareholders up to date on all pertinent material events, product releases, production plans, and inventory availability. This announcement is the second powerhouse product that was unveiled this week. He says the Company is set to unveil its third product early next week.

Hemp, Inc.s sales & marketing team is currently working on large-scale orders for the companys CBDA and CBGA products. Those interested is distributing on a large-scale basis should email sales@hempinc.com or call 877-436-7564 for more information. The entire product line may include water, tinctures, gummies, capsules, and edibles and will come in a variety of sizes, potencies, flavors and formulas that executives foresee being in high demand.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER AND DISCLOSURES

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires issuers to provide adequate current information. Financials for Hemp, Inc. are listed on the OTC Exchange. More information can also be found out the Hemp, Inc. website by visiting www.hempinc.com/hemp-financial-disclosures/ . Material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties.

Contact:

Hemp, Inc.

Investor Relations: 855-436-7688

Sales: 877-436-7564
Denver, CO, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) and the University of Colorado Boulder forged a new partnership to streamline the transfer process for engineering students, expanding pathway options within the Systems Associate of Engineering Science (AES) degree path program. Through the partnership, CCCS and CU Boulder will offer the first Civil Engineering transfer program in the state, and CU Boulder will be the third university to sign onto CCCSs Mechanical Engineering AES transfer track.

The agreement, signed in February, allows Colorado community college students who have earned an AES to transfer credits and complete their bachelors degree in civil or mechanical engineering at CU Boulder. CCCS also has mechanical engineering transfer agreements with the Colorado School of Mines and Colorado State University.

We are thrilled to have CU Boulder signing on as another transfer destination for our engineering students, said Dr. Landon Pirius, CCCS Vice Chancellor. Colorado is a hub for engineering companies, and we are focused on providing more education and training options to grow our states pipeline. Through this partnership, students have a clear path to an advanced degree while saving money along the way.

CU Boulder joins the program as demand for trained engineers increases. Mechanical and civil engineering jobs are projected to grow by 25% and 27%, respectively, over the next decade, according to data included in the 2021 Talent Pipeline Report.

As the flagship public university in the State of Colorado, we embrace our responsibility and are deeply committed to serving the students of our state, said Chris Anderson, CU Boulder Director of Academic Success and Transfer Pathways. CCCS is an integral and respected partner in helping us achieve our mission of access and inclusion for all students who aspire to be engineers and applied scientists, and we are honored to have the opportunity to continue building more streamlined pathways that allow students to pursue their highest academic goals in the most efficient way possible.

To apply, prospective students should indicate their intention to pursue an AES on their application to a participating CCCS college; current community college students can talk to their advisor to switch to the AES track. All students should work closely with their community college advisor to ensure they meet university program requirements and transfer successfully.

For more information, visit the CCCS website.

###

About CCCS

The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is the states largest system of higher education and workforce development, delivering thousands of programs to over 125,000 students annually through 13 colleges and 35 locations across Colorado. The Systems open-access mission ensures all Coloradans who aspire to enrich their lives have access to high-quality, affordable higher education opportunities. The System Office provides leadership, advocacy, and support to the colleges under the direction of the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education (SBCCOE). Join us in changing the way Colorado goes to college www.cccs.edu.

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San Diego, CA, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The arts bring humanity to healing, a process that is often frightening and full of unknowns. Research presented by the World Health Organization has shown that the arts can make a profound impact on patient experiences in hospitals, elder and hospice care, or those living at home with chronic diseases like cancer or Parkinsons. Despite this, many health institutions do not have programs incorporating the arts. The National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) is committed to expanding awareness and acceptance of the arts as a vital component for healing, public health and wellbeing. As part of this commitment, NOAH has published the Core Curriculum for Arts in Health Professionals, which acts as the building block for professionalizing artists and arts managers who work in hospitals, public health, and other health-related settings.

Through no fault of their own, there has been a lack of standardized practice for artists working in healthcare. Artists may be qualified in their respective fields, however, the knowledge necessary to work in medical settings can be inadequate due to the lack of standardized educational resources available. NOAHs Core Curriculum seeks to bridge these gaps in medical understanding and serve as a source of foundational, prerequisite, and essential knowledge required for all those working in arts in health.

We created the Core Curriculum with over four dozen esteemed experts from across the country to provide guidelines for incorporating the arts into aspects of healthcare, says President of NOAH, Barbara Steinhaus. I hope this resource will create significant progress in diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion when it comes to incorporating the arts into medical treatment, medical education, prevention, and public health and wellbeing.

NOAHs Core Curriculum for Arts in Health Professionals outlines the research and resources for implementing and successfully operating and evaluating arts in health programs. Implementing arts programs into the healthcare environment allows patients to heal holistically; body, mind, and soul. Increasingly, hospitals are embracing design, visual arts, and performing arts strategies to improve the patient experience, mitigate staff burnout and increase financial efficiencies.

Through the Core Curriculum, NOAH aims to provide confidence to healthcare organizations that the artistic professionals they are seeking to hire are qualified to work in a medical setting. Creating such standardization ensures artists can properly provide care, which is integral to patients health, wellbeing, and safety. Healthcare institutions that have integrated the arts find they have shorter patient stays, lower patient use of medications, improved patient satisfaction scores, and enhanced staff morale.

The National Organization of Arts in Health prides itself on the publication of the Core Curriculum and works further to professionalize the field through organization-wide resources. These resources range from annual conferences, newsletters, blogs, job opportunities, a networked map of the field where members can connect to others dedicated to this work, and memberships that offer additional professional opportunities. For more information about the National Organization for Arts in Health head to its website: https://thenoah.net/ and stay up to date via LinkedIn.

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Established in 2016, The National Organization for Arts and Health roots go back to 1989 with the first gathering of hospital arts administrators in Durham, North Carolina. Since its founding, NOAH has been dedicated to uniting, advancing, and serving the field of arts in health and firmly believes arts in health are an integral component to health and wellbeing. NOAHs members include artists, creative and expressive arts therapists, architects and designers, representatives of creative and cultural agencies, educators, administrators, doctors, nurses, and others working in medical care, medical education, and public health.

NOAH is committed to better defining, articulating, and sharing practices and research that foster diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion within all aspects of arts in health. NOAH aims to shape a reality where the arts are accepted and fully incorporated into medical treatment, medical education, prevention, and public health and wellbeing.

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Newton, Massachusetts, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- William James College, a leading college for the education of psychology, leadership, and behavioral health professionals, has announced the launch of a new institution-wide teaching faculty fellowship program for recent graduates with doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology, Counseling, Organizational and Leadership Psychology, and School Psychology. The program will equip teaching faculty fellows with the ability to navigate momentous changes occurring in academe, to engage in innovative inclusive teaching practices, and allow them to gain competence needed to respond to the complex needs of an increasingly heterogeneous student body.

The primary aim of the fellowship is to develop a critical mass of exceptionally talented and well-trained faculty members from communities historically underrepresented in academic settings, said Dr. Stacey Lambert, vice president for academic affairs at William James. The program will prepare fellows to use their skills, experiences, and expertise to engage in paradigm shifting inclusive teaching, advising, and research practices as well as in administrative and leadership positions in academia.

The William James College Teaching Faculty Fellowship program invites recent doctoral recipients (those whose doctoral degrees were conferred in the past three years, including those who will complete graduate studies by August 2022) to pursue academic careers where their training and expertise, along with their identity and lived experience, can help shape a new generation of behavioral health professionals. This fellowship seeks individuals who identify with groups that are not considered majority identities or that have historically been less visible in academia, including individuals with disabilities, LGBTQIA+, ethnic and racial minorities, military and veteran populations, and religious and linguistic minorities.

Studies show that client outcomes improve when behavioral health professionals demonstrate multicultural competence and when treatment plans align with a clients culture. However, with a workforce that is 90 percent non-Latino Caucasian, it is extremely difficult for clients seeking such providers to find care. Additionally, faculty diversity enhances cognitive development and critical thinking skills among students, thereby increasing their academic achievements, and both students sense of belonging and student retention are fostered when faculty members are more representative of the U.S. population.

The number of providers who possess the knowledge and skills to meet the needs of individuals and families from historically marginalized backgrounds is incredibly small, said Dr. Natalie Cort, director of the Fellowship program. By recruiting and supporting early-career faculty members who, themselves, identify as belonging to these communities, we have an opportunity to create training pathways that reshape the behavioral health landscape.

Dr. Cort is also an associate professor of Clinical Psychology at William James College, co-director of the Colleges Center for Multicultural & Global Mental Health, associate director of the HRSA-funded Specialized Training & Academic Retention Fellowship, and director of the Colleges Black Mental Health Graduate Academy.

According to Dr. Cort, a critical function of the Fellowship is to provide transformational leadership, support, and vision in the development and promotion of faculty excellence in diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Fellowship is intended to prepare Fellows for future Core Faculty positions at WJC and in other academic settings. Ultimately, these future Core Faculty members will drive ground-breaking and creative solutions to effect systemic changes at the organization level and improve behavioral health outcomes among historically marginalized groups and underserved communities.

Candidates with a strong interest in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, along with a demonstrated commitment to serving underserved communities are encouraged to apply. Priority will be given to applicants with a backgroundor interest in developing expertisein consultation, family and systems theory, personality and cognitive assessment, neuropsychology, program development and evaluation, substance use disorders, or psychodynamic theory, research, and practice.

Fellows will receive teaching, advising, and mentorship opportunities; didactic training in inclusive teaching and learning designs, strengths-based pedagogical approaches, and culturally empowering instructional strategies; professional development, research, and program evaluation experiences; a highly competitive salary; and opportunities for career advancement at the College.

The Teaching Faculty Fellowship is a collaboration between the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Center for Workforce Development, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Application materials should be submitted online via the Colleges website. Applicants must be able to assume employment in the U.S. without College sponsorship. Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to apply by Friday, April 8th, 2022. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.

For more information, interested candidates are invited to contact Dr. Natalie Cort at natalie_cort@williamjames.edu or the William James College Human Resources team at HR@williamjames.edu. Media Inquiries should be directed to anne_wilson@williamjames.edu.

About William James College

Founded in 1974, William James College is an independent, non-profit institution and a leader in educating the next generation of mental health professionals to support the growing and diverse needs of the mental health workforce. Integrating field work with academics, the College prepares students for careers as organizational leaders and behavioral health professionals who are committed to helping the underserved, multicultural populations, children and families, and veterans. William James College alumni can be found making an impact in a variety of settings, including schools, the courts, clinical care facilities, hospitals, the community, and the workplace. To learn more about the College, please visit williamjames.edu.

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MINNEAPOLIS, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Women in eDiscovery (WiE), an organization that brings together women interested in technology related to the legal profession, announced today that Raquel Tamez will deliver the keynote address, entitled Transition, Transformation and Transcendence: Conquering your Second Mountain, at its upcoming conference. The conference will be held at Paradise Point, San Diegos Island Resort, May 24, 2022.



Throughout her career, Tamez has made it her mission to bring greater diversity, equity and inclusion to traditionally male-dominated industries. Her leadership philosophy centers on the Three Ts: transition, transformation and transcendence. Tamez will discuss these concepts in greater detail, along with what we as women leaders can do to empower one anotherand the next generation of female talent.

Tamez is currently the chief inclusion and engagement officer at Charles River Associates, a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial and strategic expertise to major law firms, corporations, accounting firms and governments around the world.

Im deeply honored to have the opportunity to connect with such a dynamic and trailblazing group of women professionals, says Tamez. Having led eDiscovery and information governance efforts as corporate counsel at a tech company, its interesting to see how much the industry has evolved in terms of innovation. But when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, we still have work to do. Convenings like these are critical to ensuring that we continue to move onward and upward in this ever-important field.

Tamezs keynote address is scheduled at 1pm, Monday, May 2, and will be followed by a fireside chat with Beth Finkle, executive director of Women in eDiscovery.

The conference theme is Knowledge, Network and Revive. The core elements will include educational sessions, many network and relationship-building opportunities and ways to revive the passion for professional and personal wellness.

The conference will be in person only at Paradise Point, a resort hotel in San Diego on a 44-acre island tucked away in gentle Mission Bay. It is minutes from the heart of downtown but has the atmosphere of a secluded island escape with all the comforts and top amenities, including a spa, pools and recreational activities on the property.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact Executive Director Jackie Rosborough at jackie.rosborough@womeninediscovery.org.

Conference details and the agenda are available on the WiE website. More information will be added as it becomes available. This conference is expected to sell out from both an attendee and sponsorship perspective, so members are encouraged to register as soon as possible.

To register for the conference, visit https://www.womeninediscovery.org/Conference-Register. Get the most current conference news by following Women in eDiscovery on Twitter, and be sure to tag your tweets with #WIECON22 to stay included in the discussion.

Women in eDiscovery members are women who work within the legal industry, including general counsel, law firm partners and associates, chief operating officers, paralegals, litigation support and eDiscovery professionals. Membership is free, and its executive board, regional directors and local chapter boards operate on a volunteer basis.

Local chapters typically hold an educational session, some CLE accredited, each month, and the leadership board organizes larger events around major legal technology trade shows and association meetings throughout the year.

About Women in eDiscovery

Women in eDiscovery (www.womeninediscovery.org) is an organization that brings together women around the world who are interested in technology related to the legal industry. Its goal is to provide opportunities for businesswomen to grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support and recognition.

Contact:

Vicki LaBrosse

Director of Marketing and Public Relations

Women in eDiscovery

pr@womeninediscovery.org

651.552.7753

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/571b5a71-dbe0-4eca-82ff-d1cdf8e5ff33
GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta., March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), spanning five years and including $250,000 in new funding commitments. The new MOU will provide the framework for both organizations to work together to demonstrate a long-term commitment to support wetland and waterfowl stewardship throughout Weyerhaeusers Canadian operating areas located in the temperate and boreal forest regions of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

This conservation agreement marks the continuation of a long and collaborative relationship between Weyerhaeuser and DUC. The MOU will involve several projects over a five-year period, including the continued development of best management practices designed to help protect natural habitat in this important working landscape, an inventory of carbon storage in wetlands for effective carbon accounting, and the creation of a Wetland Stewardship Report which will identify areas for future collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

This partnership reflects the shared values that both DUC and Weyerhaeuser hold, ensuring that conservation is top of mind and that important habitat is conserved throughout our Canadian landscape, said Larry Kaumeyer, DUCs Chief Executive Officer. Weyerhaeuser embraces the use of best management practices, conservation leadership and knowledge-sharing supporting our common interests, as well as the integrity of the land. We are delighted to enter this agreement with them.

DUCs mission is to conserve, restore and manage wetlands and associated habitats for the benefit of North Americas waterfowl, wildlife and people. Canadas boreal region is a high priority for DUCs conservation efforts, as more than 85 per cent of the nations wetlands are found in the boreal forest. These wetlands filter millions of litres of water, support hundreds of wildlife species and store vast amounts of carbon. To date, DUC has influenced more than 121 million acres throughout the boreal region thanks to the support of many partners such as Weyerhaeuser.

DUCs conservation work closely aligns with Weyerhaeusers corporate mission to promote the involvement of local communities and stakeholders in sustainable forest use, planning and forestry operations, and to harvest and regenerate natural forested landscapes in a manner that supports wildlife habitat and minimizes impacts to forest biodiversity.

"Weyerhaeuser is excited to build on our long-time partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada, said David Graham, President of Weyerhaeuser Company Limited, Weyerhaeusers Canadian subsidiary. DUC is a proven and committed partner, and our collaboration will provide invaluable science-based data and information for our foresters to use in enhancing our sustainable forest management practices and help to maintain the habitats we steward across Canadas great forests.

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The National Boreal Program of Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) has over 20 years of experience working with governments, Indigenous Peoples, and industry to develop comprehensive, science-based solutions for conserving boreal wetlands. DUC is a registered charity and the leader in wetland conservation.

Established in 1900, Weyerhaeuser Company is one of the worlds largest private owners of timberlands, and one of the largest manufacturers of Wood Products in North America. Weyerhaeuser manages timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada on a fully sustainable basis in compliance with internationally recognized forestry standards.
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A healthcare worker administers a dose of vaccine to a woman at the Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki, Finland, May 31, 2021. (Photo by Matti Matikainen/Xinhua)

Some 300,000 people in Finland will now be eligible for the fourth dose, which so far has been given to people with seriously weakened immune systems.



HELSINKI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Finland on Thursday recommended a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose for people over 80 and those living in care homes.

Hanna Nohynek, an executive physician at the Institute for Health and Welfare, told a press conference that the threshold of 80 had been chosen as the third dose "the third dose "was established to give enough protection against severe illness from that age down."

Some 300,000 people will now be eligible for the fourth dose, which so far has been given to people with seriously weakened immune systems.

People wait to be vaccinated at the Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki, Finland, May 31, 2021. (Photo by Matti Matikainen/Xinhua)

Taneli Puumalainen, a director at the Ministry for Health and Welfare, described the number of COVID-19 infections in Finland as "alarming." The health care system is over-burdened, he said, adding: "We appeal to people to protect themselves and others."

The reinfection rate in Finland has exceeded 1.0, and is now hovering between 0.90-1.05. This rate has increased from a previous level of 0.80-0.95.

Liisa-Maria Voipio Pulkki, a senior expert at the Ministry, said the share of positive results in clinical tests had increased from 34 percent at the end of January to 44 percent in mid-March. However, she explained that this does not reflect true levels of positive cases, as home tests are not registered, and the availability of clinical testing has been reduced.

The weekly number of deaths from COVID-19 in Finland has recently been the highest since the start of the epidemic. Early this week, the two-week total was 378, while two weeks earlier, the number stood at 209.

A healthcare worker prepares to administer a dose of vaccine to a woman at the Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki, Finland, May 31, 2021. (Photo by Matti Matikainen/Xinhua)
Carmel, IN, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Community Association Services of Indiana (CASI), an Associa company, will host Community Associations 101, a free virtual board training on April 5, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. ET.

CASI director of management services Tarsis Santos will discuss association basics, including governance, role responsibilities, and best practices for success. Mr. Santos has been with Associa for more than five years, managing a portfolio of clients and leading a team of community managers. He works closely with client board members to help them better understand the operations of their communities and guide them to success.

Who: Associas Community Association Services of Indiana

What: Go-To Webinar

When: April 5, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. ET

Where: RSVP by April 1, 2022 by emailing Robyn King at rking@cas-indiana.com.

About Associa

With more than 200 branch offices across North America, Associa is building the future of community for nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 10,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise, and trailblazing innovation. For more than 43 years, Associa has brought positive impact and meaningful value to communities. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com.

Stay Connected:

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/associa

Subscribe to the Blog: https://hub.associaonline.com/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/associa

Join us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/associa

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Velocity Minerals Ltd. (TSX.V: VLC) (Velocity or the Company) announces the appointment of Chris Batalha to its board of directors (the Board), as the nominee of Artemis Gold Inc. under the January 16, 2019 strategic investment agreement between the parties, replacing Steven Dean. Mr. Dean has resigned as a director of Velocity effective March 23, 2022, but will remain an advisor to the Board.



Chris Batalha

Chris Batalha is a Certified Professional Accountant with over a decade of experience in accounting, finance, corporate governance, tax, budgeting and M&A with a number of mining exploration and development companies in the gold and iron ore space. Currently, Mr. Batalha is the CFO of Artemis Gold Inc., owner of the Blackwater Gold Project in Central British Columbia, as well as the CFO of Oceanic Iron Ore Corp.

From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Batalha was the CFO of Atlantic Gold Corporation, focused on gold exploration, development and production in Nova Scotia, until its sale to St. Barbara Limited in 2019 for $802 million, after building its Moose River Consolidated Mine on time and on budget and operating at the lowest decile cost profile in the gold sector. Mr. Batalha previously spent over five years with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the audit and assurance group.

Mr. Batalha holds CPA and CA designations and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of British Columbia.

About Velocity Minerals Ltd.

Velocity is an exploration and development company focused on southeastern Bulgaria. Velocitys strategy is to develop a low cost centralized Hub and Spoke operation whereby multiple projects within this emerging district produce concentrates for trucking to a central processing plant for production of dore. Velocity has a 70% interest in the Tintyava property, which includes the Rozino project, a 70% interest in the Momchil property, which includes the Obichnik project, a 70% interest in the Nadezhda property, which includes the Makedontsi project, and a 100% interest in the Iglika property. Velocitys management and board includes mining industry professionals with combined experience spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas as employees of major mining companies as well as founders and senior executives of junior to mid-tier public companies. The teams experience includes all aspects of mineral exploration, resource definition, feasibility, finance, mine construction and mine operation as well as a track record in managing publicly listed companies.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Keith Henderson

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Keith Henderson

Phone: +1-604-484-1233

E-mail: info@velocityminerals.com

Web: www.velocityminerals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the TSX Venture Exchange), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID19, including the impact of COVID19 on the Companys business, financial condition and results of operations, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and risks related to joint venture operations, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Companys continuous disclosure documents. All of the Companys Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.
Chicago, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest research report on Arizton, the U.S. hyperscale data center market will grow at a CAGR of 3.4% during 2022-2027. Several operators are involved in land acquisition for future development, which is contributing to strong market growth. Facebook is expected to invest in the development of 12 data center facilities by adding an area of around 5 million sq. ft. In October 2021, DataBank acquired 34 acres of land in New York for the development of a data center. Yondr, one of the new entrants in the market, acquired 270 acres of land to develop a data center campus in Northern Virginia.



U.S. Hyperscale Data Center Market Report Scope

REPORT ATTRIBUTES DETAILS MARKET SIZE 2027 (REVENUE) $63 Billion MARKET SIZE 2027 (AREA) 16 Million Sq.Ft. MARKET SIZE 2027 (POWER CAPACITY) 2,507 MW CAGR (2022-2027) 3.41% BASE YEAR 2021 FORECAST YEAR 2022-2026 MARKET SEGMENTS Infrastructure, IT infrastructure, Electrical Infrastructure, Mechanical Infrastructure, Cooling Systems, Cooling Technique, General Construction and Geography GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS U.S. REGION COVERED Western US, Southeastern US, Midwestern US, Southwestern US, and Northeastern US

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

IOT & BIG DATA BOOSTING DEMAND

Major factors driving the hyperscale data center market in the US are adoption of advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, IoT, and big data, increased cloud computing, and increased coverage of 5G services across the country.

IoT and Big Data have fueled the demand for data center development across the US over the past few years. During COVID-19 big data simplified the tracking of cases in countries, states, and cities. The rise in big data will add new business requirements and allow greater use of data center facilities. The US is one of the major hubs for IoT and big data, where more data will be generated. As a result, to keep the data secured, hyperscale development were witnessed in the country. The trend of adopting IoT-based devices in industries such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, lifestyle, and others is increasing rapidly.

INVESTMENT ANALYSIS IN THE US HYPERSCALE DATA CENTER MARKET

Western US added over 31% of the capacity installed in 2021, followed by Southeastern and Midwestern US. States such as North Virginia, California, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Texas, and New York are some of the major growth hotspots in the US. The Western US is expected to dominate the market with an investment of over $5 billion. However, the Southeastern and Midwestern US will compete with the Western US in terms of investments and number of projects during the forecast period.

Moreover, hyperscale data center operators are investing heavily across the US due to the surge in digitization initiatives, adoption of 5G, and change in consumption patterns due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In addition, the data center market in the US encourages acquisitions of data centers by real estate and investment firms. This acquisition is followed by expansion, leading to strong growth of the market. Investment and sales tax incentives are introduced by many state and local governments to boost hyperscale deployment. For instance, North Carolina offers incentives for operators that invest a minimum of $250 million in internet data centers and $150 to $225 million for enterprise data centers spread over five years.

VENDORS INSIGHTS

In 2021, hyperscale operators, including Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and AWS accounted for over 60% of the overall investment in the region. Major colocation operators in the region include Equinix, Digital Realty, CyrusOne, STACK INFRASTRUCTURE, and QTS Realty Trust, among others.

There is an increase in land acquisitions in the US by hyperscale operators. For instance, In September 2021, AWS acquired a 42-acre plot of land in Warrenton, Northern Virginia, by investing around $40 million, for a future data center project.

Hyperscale operators such as Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google, and AWS are major investors in renewable energy. For instance, In October 2021, Facebook signed a 160 MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) to power its data centers in Virginia with renewable energy.

Vendors have integrated 25 GbE, 50 GbE, 200 GbE, and 400 GbE switches into their portfolios and are experiencing strong demand for these ports compared to 10/40 GbE switch ports.

Partnerships with local service providers and resellers along with modular data center solution providers will enhance revenues for vendors in the market.



Key IT Infrastructure Providers

Arista Networks

Atos

Broadcom

Cisco Systems

Data Direct Network

Dell Technologies

Extreme Networks

Fujitsu

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Hitachi Vantara

Huawei Technologies

IBM

Intel Technologies

Infortrend technology

Inspur

Juniper Networks

Lenovo

MiTAC Holdings

Micron technology

NetApp

Nimbus Data

Pivot3

QNAP Systems

Quanta Cloud Technology

Supermicro

Synology

Violin (Storcentric)

Western Digital

Wiwynn (Wistron Corporation)



Prominent Support Infrastructure Providers

ABB

Airedale International Air Conditioning

Asetek

Bloom Energy

Caterpillar

Condair Group

Cormant

Cummins

Cyber Power Systems

Data Aire

Eaton

FNT Software

Generac Power Systems

Green Revolution Cooling (GRC)

HITEC Power Protection

KOHLER

Legrand

Mitsubishi Electric

Natron Energy

Nlyte Software

Rolls-Royce Power Systems

Schneider Electric

STULZ

Rittal

Toshiba

Trane (Ingersoll Rand)

Tripp Lite

Vertiv Group

Yanmar

ZincFive

Prominent Construction Contractors

AECOM

Arup

Balfour Beatty US

BlueScope Construction

Corgan

Clune Construction

DPR Construction

Fortis Construction

Gensler

Gilbane Building Company

Fluor Corporation

HDR

Holder Construction Group

HITT Contracting

Hoffman Construction

Jacobs

JE Dunn Construction

Linesight

M+W Group

Morrison Hershfield

Mortenson

Rogers-OBrien Construction

STO Building Group

Syska Hennessy Group

The Walsh Group

Turner Construction

Prominent Data Center Investors

Aligned Data Centers

Apple

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Compass Datacenters

CyrusOne

COPT Data Center Solutions

CoreSite

CloudHQ

Cologix

Cirrus Data Services

DataBank

Digital Realty

EdgeCore Internet Real Estate

Equinix

Facebook (META)

Flexential

Google

Microsoft

Novva

NTT Global Data Centers

Iron Mountain

QTS Realty Trust

Switch

STACK INFRASTRUCTURE

Vantage Data Centers



New Entrants

Quantum Loophole

Yondr

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Click Here to Contact Us

Call: +1-312-235-2040

+1 302 469 0707
Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stryker (NYSE:SYK) announced its 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is scheduled as follows:



Wednesday, May 4, 2022  9:30 a.m. Eastern Time

The Meeting will be held virtually via the internet. Information about the webcast, which will include both the audio and the slide presentation from the meeting, is available on the Investor Relations page of our website at www.investorevents.stryker.com . To listen to the meeting as a guest dial (877) 328-2502 (U.S.) or (412) 317-5419 (International) and request the "Stryker Corporation Annual Meeting" when greeted by the operator.

A recording of the annual meeting will also be available from 10:30 a.m., Eastern Time, on Thursday, May 5, 2022 at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/SYK202 2 until the definitive proxy statement for our 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stryker is one of the worlds leading medical technology companies and, together with its customers, is driven to make healthcare better. The company offers innovative products and services in Medical and Surgical, Neurotechnology, Orthopaedics and Spine that help improve patient and hospital outcomes. More information is available at www.stryker.com .

Contacts

For investor inquiries please contact:

Preston Wells, Vice President, Investor Relations at 269-385-2600 or preston.wells@stryker.com
Potsdam, NY, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Clarkson University Board of Trustees has appointed Marc P. Christensen, PhD, PE to serve as the 17th President of Clarkson University, effective July 1, 2022. Dr. Christensen is currently the dean of the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, and a well-regarded leader in photonics research and technology development.

Dr. Christensen will succeed Dr. Anthony G. Collins, who is stepping down as Clarksons President at the conclusion of the 2021-22 academic year, following 19 years of extraordinary leadership of the institution.

Clarksons Board of Trustees is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Marc P. Christensen as our next president, said Thomas L. Kassouf 74, Chair of the Board of Trustees. Marcs passion for innovative teaching, collaborative multidisciplinary research, proven entrepreneurship, successful fundraising and community outreach is an excellent fit for Clarkson. We look forward to welcoming him and his wife, Seema Christensen, to the Clarkson community this summer.

We are excited about the selection of Dr. Christensen to lead Clarkson, noted co-chairs of the Presidential Search Committee, trustees Georgia Keresty 83 and Sanjeev R. Kulkarni 84. The collaborative effort by faculty, student, staff and trustee members of the Search Committee, broadly augmented by inputs from our many constituent communities, has identified a next president well prepared to ensure Clarkson continues to excel beyond its 125 anniversary celebrated this academic year.

I am humbled to be selected as the next President of Clarkson University. Clarkson has a long-held reputation for producing some of the sharpest analytic minds in our nations history. This storied legacy, combined with the Universitys achievements in advancing social mobility and the career trajectories for alumni, affirms Clarksons position as a bold leader among higher education institutions. Clarkson knows who it is and why it matters, said President-Elect Christensen. Over the coming weeks and months, I look forward to connecting with the incredible students, faculty, and staff to listen to their stories and develop an even deeper understanding of what makes Clarkson the remarkable community it is.

A widely published expert in photonics research that focuses on using light to transmit, process and sense information, Dr. Christensen has coauthored over 100 journal and conference papers and was identified by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a rising star in microsystems research. He began his professional career as a technical leader in BDMs Sensors and Photonics Group, now part of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. In 1997, he cofounded Applied Photonics, a free-space optical interconnection module company that provided hardware demonstrations for multiple DARPA programs. He currently holds 10 U.S. patents.

Dr. Christensen received his bachelors degree in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1993, his masters degree in electrical engineering from George Mason University in 1998 and his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from George Mason University in 2001. He also participated in the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education Management Development Program.

After earning his PhD, he joined the SMU faculty in 2002, where he was recognized for innovative teaching and outstanding research. He rose through the faculty ranks at SMU and, in 2010, he was selected as the inaugural Bobby B. Lyle Professor of Engineering Innovation. He went on to serve as the Department Chair of Electrical Engineering and has been the Dean of SMUs Lyle School of Engineering for the past nine years.

Clarkson President Tony Collins said, In addition to his experiences in industry, with federal agencies and as an entrepreneur, Marc Christensens 20-year commitment to SMU bodes well for the greater Clarkson community. It is very evident that he values relationships and rallying strategic partnerships to build long-term impact on the issues that matter to university stakeholders. Clarkson will have a dynamic future ahead under Dr. Christensens leadership.

The University community looks forward to fully welcoming the next President and his wife, Seema, to the Clarkson community later this summer, when they will take up residence in Foster House. With industry experience in engineering, Seema is now a ceramics artist looking forward to opening a new studio. They are also the proud parents of Asha Christensen, a senior in college majoring in economics and philosophy at the University of Toronto, and Priya Christensen, also a graduate of the University of Toronto, who is now pursuing graduate studies in molecular and cell biology at the University of Texas at Dallas.

For more information about President-Elect Christensen and the search for the 17th president, go to: http://www.clarkson.edu/presidential-search.

As a private, national research university, Clarkson is a leader in technological education and sustainable economic development through teaching, scholarship, research and innovation. We ignite personal connections across academic fields and industries to create the entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and intellectual curiosity needed to innovate world-relevant solutions and cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. With its main campus located in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region, Beacon, and New York City, Clarkson educates 4,600+ students across 90+ rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, the arts, education, sciences and health professions. Our alumni earn salaries that are among the top 2% in the nation and realize accelerated career growth. One in five already leads as a CEO, senior executive or owner of a company.

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TORONTO, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: DGS, GDV, GDV.PR.A, LBS, LBS.PR.A, LCS, OSP.PR.A, PWI, PWI.PR.A, SBC, SBC.PR.A)  Brompton Funds announces distributions payable on April 14, 2022 to class A shareholders of record at the close of business on March 31, 2022 for each of the following funds:



Fund Name Ticker Amount Per Share Dividend Growth Split Corp DGS $ 0.10 Global Dividend Growth Split Corp. GDV $ 0.10 Life & Banc Split Corp. LBS $ 0.10 Brompton Lifeco Split Corp. LCS $ 0.075 Sustainable Power & Infrastructure Split Corp. PWI $ 0.06667 Brompton Split Banc Corp. SBC $ 0.10

Brompton Funds also announces distributions payable on April 14, 2022 to preferred shareholders of record at the close of business on March 31, 2022 for the following funds:

Fund Name Ticker Amount Per Share Global Dividend Growth Split Corp. GDV.PR.A $ 0.1250 Life & Banc Split Corp. LBS.PR.A $ 0.13625 Brompton Oil Split Corp. OSP.PR.A $ 0.1625 Sustainable Power & Infrastructure Split Corp. PWI.PR.A $ 0.1250 Brompton Split Banc Corp. SBC.PR.A $ 0.1250

The funds noted above offer distribution reinvestment plans (DRIP) for class A shareholders which provide class A shareholders with the ability to automatically reinvest distributions, commission free, and realize the benefits of compound growth. Class A shareholders can enroll in a DRIP program by contacting their investment advisor.

About Brompton Funds

Founded in 2000, Brompton is an experienced investment fund manager with income focused investment solutions including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other TSX traded investment funds. For further information, please contact your investment advisor, call Bromptons investor relations line at 416-642-6000 (toll-free at 1-866-642-6001), email info@bromptongroup.com or visit our website at www.bromptongroup.com.

You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell shares of the investment funds on the Toronto Stock Exchange or other alternative Canadian trading system (an exchange). If the shares are purchased or sold on an exchange, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying shares of the investment fund and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them.

There are ongoing fees and expenses associated with owning shares of an investment fund. An investment fund must prepare disclosure documents that contain key information about the funds. You can find more detailed information about the funds in the public filings available at www.sedar.com. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

Certain statements contained in this document constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to matters disclosed in this document and to other matters identified in public filings relating to the funds, to the future outlook of the funds and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the future financial performance of the funds. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terms such as may, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, intend, estimate, predict, potential, continue or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.




Rockville, MD, USA, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prominent officials from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Swiss, Austrian and UK national health authorities, and several notified bodies will speak at the upcoming RAPS Euro Convergence from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). The annual three-day conference devoted to European healthcare product regulations and regulatory issues will take place, 1012 May in Amsterdam.

More than 120 expert speakers will provide updates and insights on important European regulatory topics. More than 30 represent health authorities, including FDA, EMA, Swissmedic, the Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, the UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), or notified bodies, BSI, TUV SUD and Dekra. For more information about Euro Convergence, visit www.raps.org/europe-2022 or see the full conference agenda.

RAPS Euro Convergence will give the European regulatory community a long-awaited opportunity to gather in person again and to hear directly from regulators and other experts, said conference committee co-chair, Alex Laan, principal medical research manager, NAMSA. The regulatory landscape in Europe is still in the midst of undergoing substantial changes. This conference is critical for continued dialogue among health authorities, notified bodies and regulated industry.

Euro Convergence 2022 will include nearly 50 education sessions, with 21 covering medical devices, 10 devoted to IVDs, and 12 pertaining to pharmaceutical regulations. Sessions on regulatory business, posters, sponsored presentations and preconference workshops are also on the agenda.

"I can't think of a more critical moment for public health, not only in Europe, but across the globe," said conference committee co-chair, Siegfried Schmitt, vice president, technical, PAREXEL. "Europe is the second largest healthcare product market in the world and one of the world's most important centers of medical research and innovation. What happens in Europe affects the world."

Reporters, bloggers and other members of the media who wish to cover all or part of RAPS Euro Convergence should contact Zachary Brousseau, senior manager, communications, RAPS, at zbrousseau@raps.org.

About RAPS

The Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS) is the largest global organization of and for those involved with the regulation of healthcare and related products, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biologics and nutritional products. Founded in 1976, RAPS helped establish the regulatory profession and continues to actively support the professional and lead the profession as a neutral, non-lobbying nonprofit organization. RAPS offers education and training, professional standards, publications, research, knowledge sharing, networking, career development opportunities and other valuable resources, including Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC), the only post-academic professional credential to recognize regulatory excellence. RAPS is headquartered in suburban Washington, DC, with chapters and affiliates worldwide. www.RAPS.org

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Los Angeles, CA, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mount Saint Marys University Los Angeles today released its 11th annual Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California. This years report, Progress, Regress: Womens Health Amidst a Pandemic, assesses the progress, or lack thereof, that California has made in advancing womens health since we last focused on this topic in 2017.

The Report was developed by MSMUs Center for the Advancement of Women and is the most comprehensive study focusing on the issues and trends affecting the nearly 20 million women and girls who call California home. Its findings were announced today during a virtual event that gathered leaders from various industries to discuss the toll the pandemic took on womens health, from chronic conditions and psychological health to preventive care.

As we continue to emerge from the wake of COVID-19, well need a resilient community of women and men committed to creative and equitable opportunities for everyone, said Ann McElaney-Johnson, PhD, president of Mount Saint Marys. It is our clarion call to prioritize the health of all Californians and to leverage the lessons learned during the pandemic to ensure a better future for women and girls.

After a presentation of some of this years key findings, Jennifer Moss, award-winning journalist, author and international public speaker, shared insights on how to prevent burnout in the future of work. In order to continue to thrive and flourish, we need to give ourselves more self-compassion and change the way we look at success, so we can incrementally create more opportunities for future generations of women and girls, said Moss. We can leverage this crisis to think about the opportunities to make a positive change in our lives, and this involves organizational change in the workplace, she added.

An expert panel featuring Deborah Allen (deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health), Paula Helu-Brown (MSMU assistant professor of psychology), Nzinga Graham (physician at Kaiser Permanente) and Shaista Malik (executive director of the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute) dived deeper into the data and discussed the intersectionality between health, race, and socioeconomic status. The panelists shared actionable recommendations on how to optimize the wellness of women in the future.

It is crucial to create systemic change at the policy and workplace level that allows women to actually take care of their physical and emotional wellbeing, said Helu-Brown.

Some key findings from this years research reveal that:

Emotional well-being of women has decreased. In 2019, 19% of California women reported having been diagnosed with depression. In 2020, 70% of women reported experiencing mild to severe symptoms of anxiety, and more than half reported symptoms of mild to severe depression. The percentage of women and girls who experienced serious psychological distress during the past year was highest among young women ages 13 to 24. One in three young women ages 13 to 24 experienced serious psychological distress.

In 2019, 19% of California women reported having been diagnosed with depression. In 2020, 70% of women reported experiencing mild to severe symptoms of anxiety, and more than half reported symptoms of mild to severe depression. The percentage of women and girls who experienced serious psychological distress during the past year was highest among young women ages 13 to 24. One in three young women ages 13 to 24 experienced serious psychological distress. Racial disparities in mortality rates persist. African American women are still more likely to die from breast or cervical cancers than Latinas, white or Asian American women. The same is true for pregnancy-related deaths; for example, African American women are roughly six times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related issue than white women.

African American women are still more likely to die from breast or cervical cancers than Latinas, white or Asian American women. The same is true for pregnancy-related deaths; for example, African American women are roughly six times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related issue than white women. Preventive care screenings plummeted, then rebounded. In year one of the pandemic, preventive screenings were down across the board. For instance, cervical cancer screening rates in California decreased by 80%. While rates have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, a greater proportion of women have now resumed their preventive care screenings.

A copy of the 2022 Report can be accessed here.

For media inquiries, contact Eva Diaz, Associate Director Media, Communications and Marketing, 424.394.3731 or emdiaz@msmu.edu

ABOUT MOUNT SAINT MARYS UNIVERSITY

Mount Saint Marys is the only womens university in Los Angeles and one of the most diverse in the nation. The University is known nationally for its research on gender equality, its innovative health and science programs, and its commitment to community service.

As a leading liberal arts institution, Mount Saint Marys provides year-round, flexible, and online programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. Weekend, evening, and graduate programs are offered to both women and men. Mount alums are engaged, active global citizens who use their knowledge and skills to better themselves, their communities and the world.

msmu.edu

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

The Center for the Advancement of Women at Mount Saint Marys University is a hub for gender equity research, advocacy and leadership development. Its vision is to find solutions to persistent gender inequities and work with partners to eradicate those inequities in our lifetime. That goal includes eliminating obstacles that women face in the workplace, in their communities, in the media and beyond to make a positive difference in the lives of women and girls in California and our nation. The Center also creates public programming, research guides and training opportunities to engage more partners in its work.

Center for the Advancement of Women
Chicago, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest research report, the data center construction market to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% during 2021-2027. $350+ billion will be cumulatively spent on data center construction and its associated infrastructures worldwide during 2022-2027, with hyperscale self-built data centers contributing to around 30%.



Data Center Construction Market Report Scope

REPORT ATTRIBUTES DETAILS MARKET SIZE (2022) $51 billion MARKET SIZE (POWER CAPACITY) 9,719 MW (2027) CAGR 5.9% BASE YEAR 2021 FORECAST YEAR 2022-2027 GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, and APAC MARKET PARTICIPANT COVERAGE Key Company Profiles - 38  Support Infrastructure Providers, 38  Construction Contractors, 59  Data Center Investors, 59  New Investors

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

Rising Adoption of Hyperscale Self-Built Data Centers

Hyperscale data centers are large mission critical facilities designed to support robust, scalable applications, and they are often associated with big data-producing companies efficiently and effectively. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, and Apple are the major hyperscale companies involved in development and operations of these data centers. Hyperscale data centers require high investments, which vary from region to region. Regular investments or expansion projects by hyperscale service providers are likely to boost the market.

Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, and Facebook are the leading investors contributing to the hyperscale development in the US. These operators invested in around 19 facilities collectively in 2021. In 2021, several hyperscale operators announced the expansion or development or acquisitions of additional lands for future data center growth.

Important Facts to Know!

In 2021-2022, prominent data center destinations would include the Americas (Mexico, Chile, & Colombia), EMEA (Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kenya, & Nigeria), and APAC (Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, & New Zealand).

APAC data center investments will cross $100 billion from 2022-to 2027. China, India, Australia, Singapore, & Japan will contribute to 70% of the investments.

In 2022, key data center trends will be the procurement of renewable energy, the design of data centers to support the installation of liquid immersion and direct-to-chip cooling, and edge data center deployments in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities worldwide.

In 2022, the data center market to witness a strong rise in mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and Joint Venture activities. The due diligence process in identifying the target location of data center development will increase.

Efficient infrastructure procurement will increase with an increased focus on modern technologies and a modular-design approach during the forecast period.



For free sample report click: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3308

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 20212027

Market Dynamics  Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis by facility type, infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, cooling systems, cooling technique, general construction, tier standards, and region

Competitive Landscape  9 key support infrastructure vendors, 30 other prominent support infrastructure vendors, 8 key construction contractors, 30 other prominent construction contractors, 11 key data center investors, 48 other prominent data center investors, and 13 new data center investors

Data Center Construction Market Vendors Analysis

Key Support Infrastructure Vendors

ABB

Caterpillar

Cummins

Eaton

Legrand

Rittal

Schneider Electric

STULZ

Vertiv



Other Prominent Support Infrastructure Vendors

Airedale International Air Conditioning

Alfa Laval

Asetek

Assa Abloy

Carrier

Condair

Daikin Applied

Data Aire

Delta Electronics

EAE

Generac Power Systems

Green Revolution Cooling (GRC)

HITEC Power Protection

Honeywell International

Johnson Controls

KOHLER

KyotoCooling

Mitsubishi Electric

Munters

Nlyte Software

Panduit

Piller Power Systems

RIELLO ELETTRONICA (RIELLO UPS)

Rolls-Royce

Siemens

Trane (Ingersoll Rand)

Yanmar

ZincFive

3M



Key Construction Contractors

AECOM

DPR Construction

Holder Construction

Jacobs

M+W Group

Bouygues Construction

Turner Construction

Mercury-based

Other Prominent Construction Contractors

Arup

Aurecon Group

BENTHEM CROUWEL ARCHITECTS

Cap Ingelec

Corgan

Dar Group

Deerns

DSCO Group

Edarat Group

Faithful+Gould

Fluor Corporation

Fortis Construction

Gensler

Gilbane Building Company

HDR

ISG

Kirby Group Engineering

Laing ORourke

Larsen & Toubro (L&T)

Linesight

Mace

Morrison Hershfield

Mortenson

NTT Facilities

Red

Royal Haskoning

Sterling and Wilson

Structure Tone

Syska Hennessy Group

Winthrop Engineering and Contracting

Key Data Center Investors

Apple

Key News

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

CyrusOne

Digital Realty

Equinix

Facebook (Meta)

GDS Holdings

Google

NTT Communications

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres

Vantage Data Centers

Other Prominent Data Center Investors

21Vianet Group

Africa Data Centres

AIMS Data Centre

Airtel

AirTrunk Operating

Aligned

AtNorth

Beyond.pl

Big Data Exchange

Canberra Data Centers

Chayora

Chindata

CloudHQ

ClusterPower

Cologix

Compass Datacenters

COPT Data Center Solutions

CoreSite Realty

DataBank

DATA4

DigiPlex (IPI Partners)

EdgeConneX

Etisalat Group

Flexential

Global Switch

Green Mountain

Gulf Data Hub

HostDime

InterNexa

Iron Mountain

IXcellerate

Keppel Data Centres

Moro Hub

NEXTDC

ODATA

Ooredoo

Orange Business Services

QTS Realty Trust

Rostelecom Data Centers (RTK-DC)

Scala Data Centers

Sify Technologies

Shanghai Atrium (AtHub)

STACK INFRASTRUCTURE

SUNeVison

Tenglong Holdings Group

Turkcell

Yondr

Yotta Infrastructure Solutions

New Data Center Investors

Adani Group

Cirrus Data Services

Data Center First

ESR Cayman

Global Technical Realty

Hickory

Infinity

IXAfrica

Novva

Open Access Data Centres (OADC)

Quantum Loophole

Stratus DC Management

Quantum Switch Tamasuk (QST)



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BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese military spokesperson Thursday denounced the claim that China had prior knowledge of Russia's military operation in Ukraine as disinformation.

The spread of such disinformation by the United States is intended to shirk responsibility and smear China, said Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense.

"We believe that to resolve the current crisis, we must uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and respect and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," said Wu.

It is crucial to adhere to the principle of indivisible security and accommodate the legitimate security concerns of the parties involved, Wu added.

He stressed the need to settle disputes by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation, and keep in mind the long-term peace and stability of the region and put in place a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture.

"What China has done is in stark contrast to that of the United States, which has created and shifted crisis to others, and reaped gains from it," Wu said. 
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese military spokesperson on Thursday said the claim that China sent military aid to Russia is nothing but pure fabrication.

Both Chinese and Russian sides have clarified the issue. The rumor repeatedly spread by the United States against China exposed its sinister intention, said Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense.

"We urge the U.S. side to immediately stop this despicable smearing and do some deep reflections on its disgraceful role in the evolving Ukraine crisis," Wu said, adding that the United States should take concrete actions to push for the de-escalation of the Ukraine situation. 
Red Bull Racing has found the problem that caused Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen to crash out at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Helmut Marko explains the problem at F1insider.com.

The Bahrain GP ended in a deception for Red Bull Racing. Ferrari seemed to get away with most of the points, but Red Bull could have done good business with a second and fourth place. Verstappen crashed out a few laps before the end and Perez spun due to the same problem on the very last lap. As a result, the Austrian formation finished without points.

Bad luck for Red Bull

''Very simply put, it was a vacuum in the fuel supply that caused our engine to run out of fuel. I think we can solve the problem in Saudi Arabia,'' said Red Bull's top man. Where Verstappen was still able to roll out to the pits, the Mexican's engine really seized up because of the problem.

Since the fuel pump is not Red Bull's own, but a standard part in F1 supplied by Italy's Magneti Marelli. So the problem does not lie with Honda. Marko also rejects a shortage of fuel as a reason. ''Without giving you the exact figures, I can tell you that there was still enough fuel in both cars,'' the Austrian concludes.
The FIA has announced another new format for the press conference of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen will join the third session this week, with Lewis Hamilton joining the second.

As we saw in Bahrain, this season the press conference takes place on the Friday to shorten the race weekend. As a result, the drivers will again be put together in larger groups, as we were used to before the corona pandemic. In groups of five, the drivers will speak to the media.

Verstappen will take his seat on Friday alongside Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz and Mick Schumacher. The first session will start at 08:30 UK time, with Hamilton joining the second session at 11:00. During the first session, Valtteri Bottas will take his seat alongside his replacement George Russell.

The Aston Martin driver who will take his place in the final session has yet to be announced. This is because it is not yet certain whether Sebastian Vettel will be able to race this coming weekend after his corona infection. Sergio Perez will take his place in this session next to Charles Leclerc.

No Horner and Wolff

On Saturday, the press conference with the team bosses will then take place. Toto Wolff and Christian Horner are not in attendance this time, but Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto, among others, will take a seat along with McLaren's Andreas Seidl after the double podium in Bahrain.

#F1 pressers this weekend. Which is your favourite group? pic.twitter.com/IgulnJsRNZ  Jennie Gow (@JennieGow) March 24, 2022
Max Verstappen fought it out with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 as to which driver would take the world title. This season, Charles Leclerc seems to be in this fight as well, as he showed in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Jolyon Palmer enjoyed the fight both men had, he writes on Formula1.com.

Leclerc started the race on pole position. Right after the first pit stop Verstappen tried to overtake his competitor up to three times, but each time the Monegasque proved that he was not going to be beaten easily by reclaiming his spot. It provided a nice spectacle for the spectators and Formula 1 viewers.

Verstappen and Leclerc make impression in Bahrain

At the end of the race Verstappen and Sergio Perez had to drop out unexpectedly, but that doesn't mean Palmer forgot the battle between Leclerc and Verstappen. Looking at the qualities of the drivers and cars, the racing driver is convinced that the fight was not an incident.

"With the Red Bulls running into trouble at the death, the reality is this battle didnt count for much. But it does nonetheless set a stall out for what could be a terrific fight between these old adversaries this season, in cars that give them a chance to duke it out in a spectacular manner," Palmer said.
Max Verstappen showed some excellent racing during the Bahrain Grand Prix along with Charles Leclerc. Both drivers did not begrudge each other the victory, although the Dutchman had to allow his competitor to be the winner of the day. Verstappen nevertheless has a lot of respect for Leclerc, as he let the Associated Press.

Both drivers know each other well from their teenage years, so Verstappen and Leclerc know what the other is capable of. Where Verstappen showed with his world title in 2021 that he is a top driver, the reigning world champion is sure that Leclerc will also achieve great performances in his career.

"I think Charles is one of the most talented drivers in Formula One and he will win many more races," Verstappen stressed in the interview. "I think we are just good competitors and we like racing, I think you saw that when we were battling hard and it was all good."

Ferrari keeps an eye on Red Bull

At the same time, Ferrari seems to be taking into account an even stronger Red Bull for the GP of Saudi Arabia. Earlier this week Leclerc let it be known that although Ferrari was the better team in Bahrain, this does not have to mean that this will also be the case this weekend.
Photo taken on March 23, 2022 shows damaged cars in Mariupol, Ukraine. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)

-- "The top priority now is for the parties concerned to maintain maximum restraints, avoid more civilian casualties, and reach a negotiated ceasefire as soon as possible, especially to prevent a larger-scale humanitarian crisis," a Chinese envoy said.

-- "Developing countries, which make up the majority of the world, are not parties to this conflict. They should not be drawn into the issue and forced to suffer the consequences of geopolitical conflicts and major power rivalry."

-- "In the face of complex situations, all countries have the right to independently and autonomously decide their own foreign policies. Relevant countries should not adopt a simplistic approach of either friend or foe, black or white, and should not force any country to pick a side."

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes any initiative and measure that can help alleviate and resolve the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, a Chinese envoy said Thursday.

"China's fundamental starting point is to promote the international community and the UN to attach great importance to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine," China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun told the UN General Assembly Special Emergency Session on Ukraine.

Zhang added that China calls on the parties concerned to strengthen coordination on the humanitarian issue, effectively protect the safety of civilians, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children, and facilitate the personnel evacuation and humanitarian relief operations.

"Based on the current situation, when dealing with the humanitarian issue of Ukraine, the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality established by General Assembly resolution 46/182 should be strictly observed to prevent the politicization of humanitarian issues," said the ambassador.

Zhang Jun (C, front), China's permanent representative to the United Nations, makes his explanatory remarks after the vote on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, on March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E)

On the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the envoy said that "it is heart-wrenching to see the continued deterioration of humanitarian situation in Ukraine, as well as the civilian casualties and massive displacement of people caused by the conflict."

"The top priority now is for the parties concerned to maintain maximum restraints, avoid more civilian casualties, and reach a negotiated ceasefire as soon as possible, especially to prevent a larger-scale humanitarian crisis," he said.

Referring to the draft resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine put forward by France, Mexico and others, which was adopted at the General Assembly, the ambassador said that "China recognizes the purpose of the draft resolution, and appreciates the efforts made by France, Mexico and relevant countries in promoting consensus."

However, he pointed out that "it is clear that some elements of the draft resolution go beyond the humanitarian context and some issues are so complex that can only be solved through political negotiations between the parties concerned."

Local residents queue up to receive humanitarian aid in Volnovakha of Donetsk, March 15, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)

"The draft resolution proposed by South Africa focuses on the humanitarian issue, and addresses the important aspects of the current situation in Ukraine, while emphasizing that the cessation of hostilities is a key first step towards improving the humanitarian situation," he said, adding that "we believe that, under the current conditions, the draft resolution proposed by South Africa is more conducive to promoting the unity of the UN membership and to opening the door for further dialogue and negotiation and a diplomatic solution."

"Therefore, China has co-sponsored the draft resolution proposed by South Africa," the ambassador noted.

On the impact of the Ukraine crisis, Zhang underscored that "the spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis have further brought about global impacts."

"The world is yet to emerge from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ever-escalating implementation of sweeping, non-discriminatory sanctions have caused and will further cause a huge impact on global economy, trade, finance, energy, food and industrial and supply chains, seriously affecting the normal lives of people in all countries, and making the already difficult world economy even worse," he said.

"Developing countries, which make up the majority of the world, are not parties to this conflict. They should not be drawn into the issue and forced to suffer the consequences of geopolitical conflicts and major power rivalry," he said.

A man takes his belongings from his house in Kharkov, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. (Photo by Diego Herrera/Xinhua)

The ambassador stressed that in addressing international and regional hotspot issues, there cannot be only two options, namely the use of force and sanctions. "In the face of complex situations, all countries have the right to independently and autonomously decide their own foreign policies. Relevant countries should not adopt a simplistic approach of either friend or foe, black or white, and should not force any country to pick a side."

"Respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries is a basic norm governing international relations that applies to all countries and all situations. There should be no exceptions, still less double standards," he added.

Zhang underlined the importance of dialogue and negotiation, noting that is "the only way out for the Ukraine crisis."

"China strongly calls on the international community to remain rational, strengthen unity and make unremitting efforts for ceasefire and peace. China will continue its constructive role in facilitating peace talks," said the ambassador. 
MAPUTO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican health authorities started Thursday a vaccination campaign against polio in the country's northern and central provinces, covering all children under five years of age.

The campaign, led by the United Nations Children's Fund, was considered as a response to the recent outbreaks in which one case of wild poliovirus was detected in the neighboring country Malawi and two cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus were identified in the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado, according to some local media reports.

The campaign will be organized in four rounds, through door-to-door visits, fixed posts, and administration in places with high population concentration, said the Minister of Health Armindo Tiago while addressing the official launch in Sofala province.

"The identification of the wild form of the poliovirus is a concern and because it is a public health emergency that requires a coordinated response among all countries in the region. Rapid vaccination of all children under five is the most effective public health measure and aims to cut or block the possibility of transmission of the virus," said Tiago.

In Mozambique, which has already been declared by the World Health Organizations as being free of polio, there are official records of 11 cases of the disease since 2011 in three provinces in the north of the country.

The action is the result of ongoing surveillance globally against this and many other diseases, said Tiago, urging all parents to get their children vaccinated to protect them from the poliovirus. 
General Motors has begun retail production of the 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ (earlier post) at GMs Spring Hill, Tennessee, assembly plant. GM announced a commitment to invest $2 billion in Spring Hill Assembly in October 2020. An additional $2.3 billion is being invested in an all-new battery cell manufacturing plant at Spring Hill, by Ultium Cells LLC, the joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution.





The launch accelerated ahead of schedule, while the team continued to assemble the Cadillac XT5, Cadillac XT6 and GMC Acadia.

Reservations for the 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ Debut Edition sold out in just over 10 minutes late last summer, and demand continues to grow. Cadillac will begin taking additional orders for the 2023 LYRIQ on 19 May.

The Cadillac LYRIQ, the brands first all-electric vehicle, is built on GMs Ultium Platform, the core of the companys EV strategy. The Ultium Platform encompasses a common electric vehicle architecture and propulsion components like battery cells, modules, packs, Ultium Drive units, EV motors and integrated power electronics.

At launch, LYRIQs 12-module, 100 kWh battery pack (NCMA cathode, blended graphite anode) and a rear-wheel-drive Ultium Platform deliver a Cadillac-estimated 340 horsepower and 440 Nm of torqueand a Cadillac-estimated more than 300 miles of range with a full charge.

LYRIQ also offers high-speed DC fast charging for public stations at 190 kW, enabling customers to add an estimated 76 miles of range in about 10 minutes of charging time. For home charging, LYRIQ offers a segment-leading 19.2 kW charging module, which can add up to 52 miles of range per hour of charge.

Through the Ultium Platform, GM will realize a strategic value chain shift across its network of vehicle assembly plants as the company commonizes and streamlines machinery, tooling and assembly processes. This flexibility enables lower capital investments and greater efficiencies as additional assembly plant transformations occur.





GMs Spring Hill manufacturing complex, which consists of a vehicle assembly plant, metal stamping plant and an engine plant, is the largest GM facility in North America. The complex opened in 1990 and has built more than 4.5 million vehicles. The vehicle assembly plant and engine plant sit on 2,100 acres with 700 of those acres dedicated to farming. An additional 100 acres are dedicated to a wildlife habitat, wetlands and native grasses. Spring Hills wildlife area has received Gold recognition and certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council.
VIENTIANE, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Lao Ministry of Health reported 2,819 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily number since the outbreak of the disease in the country.

The previous record was 2,625 cases reported on Wednesday.

Deputy Director General of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology under the Ministry of Health Bouaphan Khamphaphongphan told a press conference in the capital Vientiane that the country reported 2,819 new infections over the past 24 hours, raising the total caseload to 161,866.

The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control said the cases included 2,776 locally transmitted cases and 43 imported cases.

Bouaphan said the capital Vientiane logged the highest number of infections at 1,086.

In light of the Omicron outbreak and the spiraling number of infections, the Ministry of Health is considering canceling Lao New Year festivities which fall in April.

As of Thursday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Laos reached 161,866 with 652 deaths.

Laos reported its first two confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 24, 2020. 
The Board of Directors of Renault Group has decided to suspend Renault Group activities in its manufacturing plant in Moscow as of 23 March. Regarding its stake in AVTOVAZ, Renault Group said that it is assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia.

Renault Group already implements the necessary measures to comply with international sanctions.

As a result of the suspension, Renault Group has to revise its 2022 financial outlook with:

A Group operating margin of around 3% (vs  4% previously);

A positive automotive operating free cash flow (vs  1 billion previously).

A non-cash adjustment charge amounting to the accounting value of the consolidated intangible assets, property, plant and equipment and goodwill should be recorded at the time of the 2022 first half results. As of 31 December 2021, this value amounted to 2.195 billion.

Renault was the first company to start assembling foreign-make vehicles in Russia; the Russian company was created in partnership with the Moscow government in 1998. Renault and AVTOVAZ entered a strategic partnership in 2008, in which Renault invested US$1 billion for 25% + 1 share of AVTOVAZs shares.
Stellantis N.V. and LG Energy Solution (LGES) have executed binding, definitive agreements to establish the first large-scale, domestic, electric-vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Canada. The resulting joint venture company will produce lithium-ion battery cells and modules to meet a significant portion of Stellantis vehicle production requirements in North America.

The joint venture company will invest more than $5 billion CAD ($4.0 billion USD) to establish operations, which will include an all-new battery manufacturing plant located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Plant construction activities are scheduled to begin later this year, with production operations planned to launch in the first quarter of 2024.

The plant aims to have an annual production capacity in excess of 45 gigawatt hours (GWh) and will create an estimated 2,500 new jobs in Windsor and the surrounding areas. Each of the municipal, provincial and federal levels of the Canadian government have agreed to support fully the successful operation of the joint venture company.

With the battery manufacturing plant located in Windsor, Ontario, home to Canadas largest automotive cluster, Stellantis and LGES expect the plant to serve as a catalyst for the establishment of a strong battery supply chain in the region. Canada is committed to establishing a broad, local battery ecosystem by leveraging, among other things, its leadership in the generation of electricity from renewable sources.

As part of its Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, Stellantis announced plans to have global annual battery-electric vehicle sales of 5 million vehicles by 2030, reaching 100% of passenger car BEV sales mix in Europe and 50% passenger car and light-duty truck BEV sales mix in North America. Stellantis also increased planned battery capacity by 140 GWh to approximately 400 GWh, to be supported by five battery manufacturing plants together with additional supply contracts.

LG Energy Solution, with this latest announcement, has now solidly secured production capacity of more than 200 GWh in North America annually, translating into production of 2.5 million high-performance electric vehicles. The battery manufacturer has previously announced plans to invest approximately $4.6 billion (USD) into battery facilities in North America. Globally, LGES is on course to expand its international production network in multiple continents, including countries such as Canada, US, Poland, Indonesia, China and South Korea.

The closing is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
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The Community Announcements calendar publishes twice weekly on Thursday and Saturday. The submission deadline for Thursday announcements is noon on the previous Tuesday. The submission deadline for Saturday is noon on the previous Wednesday.
Weather normal during time of plane crash: official

Xinhua) 09:09, March 24, 2022

Rescuers search for the black boxes at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

NANNING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The weather was normal and there were no hazardous weather conditions when a passenger plane with 132 people aboard crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, an official told a news briefing on Wednesday.

According to the air/ground communication records between the aircrew and air traffic controllers, they had maintained normal communication since the plane took off from Kunming until it suddenly dropped altitude en route to its destination, said Mao Yanfeng, head of the aviation accident investigation center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from the provincial capital of Yunnan and was bound for southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, crashed into a mountainous area in Tengxian County in Guangxi at 2:38 p.m. Monday.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
BERLIN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Germany's environment minister Steffi Lemke on Thursday presented an immediate action program to help municipalities to better adapt to the consequences of climate change.

The package of measures was designed to "quickly put initial steps and measures into practice," according to the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

The program focuses on supporting municipalities by expanding funding programs and building up expertise, providing tailored on-site advice and better training for local experts, as well as raising awareness and informing citizens, according to the BMUV.

"The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change relentlessly describes the effects of the climate crisis," Lemke said. The need for adaptation and precautionary measures would become "more acute in the future with every tenth of a degree of global warming."

"Municipalities are particularly affected by the impacts of heat, storms, heavy rain or other extreme weather events," Lemke said.

Back in July 2021, devastating floods caused immense economic damage and claimed around 190 lives in Germany. Around 30 billion euros (33 billion U.S. dollars) have been provided for the reconstruction fund. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars) 
MEDELLIN, Colombia - Even before the pandemic, Jimy Alejandro Carmona was going hungry.

Having left school after the sixth grade, the young man found occasional work cleaning up trash on the streets of his neighborhood overlooking Colombia's second-biggest city. But it was barely enough to feed his mother, his sister and himself and pay their $117 rent. Some days - many days, during the peak of the country's coronavirus crisis - they hardly ate anything.

His desperation led him to join the thousands of Colombians last year who protested a government they said had made life even harder for the poor in one of the most unequal countries in the world. That desperation had now led him to a metro station in Medellin to hand out campaign newspapers for a man he says could lift him out of hopelessness: Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter-turned-politician who has his best chance yet of becoming the first leftist president in Colombia's history.

At the very least, Carmona would make $9 a day in the process.

As Colombians prepare to vote in the presidential election in May, scores of young, struggling people are backing Petro, a former mayor of Bogota and third-time presidential candidate. The 61-year-old senator, who was a member of the 19th of April Movement, or M-19, in the 1980s, gained more than twice as many votes in this month's primary elections as the leader of the right-wing coalition and six times as many as the leading centrist candidate.

Governments are shifting to the left across Latin America, a region hit hard by the pandemic's economic assault, where widening inequality is fueling discontent. Chile this month swore in 36-year-old former student activist Gabriel Boric as president, following wins by leftist candidates in Bolivia, Peru and Honduras. Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the favorite to win the October election in Latin America's largest country.

Petro told The Washington Post he envisions a progressive "axis" between Chile, Colombia and Brazil. He said he aims to usher in a new Latin American left, built not on extracting natural resources like governments past but on protecting the environment and advancing industrialization.

"We will propose to Latin America a new path," Petro said.

That path, if Petro were to win, would include ending new oil exploration to move the country toward renewable energy. It would mean boosting the local agriculture industry by renegotiating trade agreements with the United States. It would mean taxing the 4,000 wealthiest Colombians. On Wednesday, he announced that Francia Marquez, an Afro Colombian human rights and environmental activist, would be his running mate.

In a country that has never been led by a true leftist, Petro's lead in the polls is generating panic elsewhere on the political spectrum. A phenomenon known as the "Petro clause" has appeared in contracts, stating they'll take effect only if he loses.

Petro has been careful to distance himself from the socialist governments of Cuba and Venezuela, but conservatives fear the relationships he might build with their leaders. He told The Post that better relations with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would help the countries revive trade and regain control of a border taken over by drug trafficking groups.

In the May vote, he'll probably face the most opposition here, in the traditionally conservative department of Antioquia, the cradle of the country's right-wing parties and the birthplace of former president Alvaro Uribe, one of the country's most powerful and polarizing politicians. The two key candidates competing against Petro are both former mayors of Medellin: the conservative Federico Gutierrez, 47, and the centrist Sergio Fajardo, 65. Petro won twice as many primary votes as Fajardo in his own department, but Gutierrez was the clear winner in Antioquia, bringing in three times as many votes as Petro.

Still, Petro's young campaign volunteers here are convinced the city is changing. Four years ago, the second time Petro ran for president, he hardly campaigned in Antioquia. This time, his rallies have packed public plazas across the department.

Carmona, at the metro station, wrapped the Colombian flag around his back as he handed a woman a campaign newspaper with Petro's face on the cover.

"If Antioquia changes," the headline read, "Colombia changes."

Changing the system

Each time Petro has run for president, his candidacy has galvanized an opposition fearful he'd turn Colombia into Venezuela. But the prospect of "Castro-Chavismo" is no longer as powerful a boogeyman for Colombians, Sergio Guzman said.

"People are so fed up with the status quo that becoming Venezuela is not what frightens them the most," said Guzman, director of the consulting firm Colombia Risk Analysis. "What frightens them the most is staying the way we are."

For the first time in nearly two decades, Uribe is no longer seen as strong enough to sway an election. The security hard-liner is celebrated for his hardhanded approach against armed rebel groups and despised for presiding over repeated alleged human rights violations. But he is now best-known for handpicking the deeply unpopular current president, Ivan Duque, who critics say has done little to improve the country's security or economic well-being.

About 1.6 million Colombians fell out of the middle class during the pandemic. Violence in many parts of the country has increased, as have the killings of social leaders and environmental activists. Frustration over a proposed tax revision and broader discontent over inequality fueled months of protests last year. In a recent Ipsos survey, 84 percent of Colombians said their country was moving in the wrong direction, the second-highest rate among 28 countries surveyed.

Petro's crowd-rousing speeches have often focused on what he says many of these problems come down to: hunger.

"Decreasing hunger requires change, change to an economic system that has reached its end," Petro told a large crowd in Medellin this month. "Change to a social system that has produced a society that is profoundly unjust."

What would it take to change the system? The primaries brought big wins for Petro's leftist coalition in Congress, but not enough to win a majority. Petro would have to work with a divided legislature to pass his agenda. But he's already announced he would declare an economic state of emergency to combat hunger if elected, a proposal criticized by some constitutional law experts.

"This proposal is part of a tendency of a certain Latin American left that the only way to make profound social changes is through a strong president who does not agree or seek consensus with political forces through Congress, but uses mechanisms of executive orders instead," said law professor Rodrigo Uprimny, who sat temporarily on the country's constitutional court.

Some U.S. critics worry a Petro presidency would strain relations with Washington. The candidate has suggested changing the extradition treaty between the two countries. A former U.S. official in Colombia said a Petro victory could complicate the long-running partnership in combating drug trafficking.

Petro argues that counterdrug policies over the last several decades have been a failure and that aerial eradication of coca has done nothing to reduce the flow of cocaine to the United States. He would focus instead on crop substitution.

"The main concern is whether he's committed to work within the system to promote change," said Michael Shifter, president of the D.C.-based Inter-American Dialogue, "or whether he's willing to destroy the system."

If no candidate wins a majority in May, the two top will go to a runoff in June. Petro and his rivals have alleged voting fraud in the country's electoral system. On Monday, Petro announced he would no longer participate in debates until "voting transparency" is guaranteed.

Resistance builds

Carmona was agitated as he arrived at the metro station. He had been passing out Petro's newspapers on a street nearby, he said, when a police officer called him a "guerrilla fighter."

Fellow campaign worker Valentina Alvarez saw just how much opposition Petro would have to overcome to win over Medellin voters. She'd been insulted, sworn at, approached by a man who yelled in her ear: "I'm not voting for him."

A man to whom she tried to pass a newspaper made the sign of the cross and kept walking. One woman said, "I'll take one because it's your job" and then tossed it in the trash.

Across Medellin and Colombia, an anti-Petro resistance is once again gaining force. Conservative politicians and the traditional establishment are rallying behind Gutierrez. Several civic groups in Antioquia have organized "to help citizens understand the importance of Colombia's economic model," according to a Medellin business executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss political matters.

"If Petro comes to power, he's going to install communism in the country," the executive said.

Petro called such claims "unfounded."

"It's logical, because Colombia has had such a democratic deficit that only a few families have governed for two centuries," he said. "When the possibility arises that this history will change . . . it scares them because they see it as abnormal, when it should be normal in any democratic country on earth."

He added: "Any entrepreneur should not be afraid of a government program that seeks to increase national production."

Gutierrez has frequently criticized Petro's "populist projects." He recently blasted a Petro proposal to use pensions to fund social programs, calling it "dangerous."

"He wants to spend money that does not belong to him and wants to expropriate it, just as he wants to do with lands and private property," Gutierrez said. Petro has denied the accusation.

Petro has begun creating alliances with people who might seem counterintuitive, such as a Christian leader with thousands of followers on the Caribbean coast. But he's drawn criticism from liberals for ties to a conservative former Medellin mayor and a local politician accused of domestic violence.

Aides from his time as mayor of Bogota have accused him of refusing to listen to advisers and displaying authoritarian tendencies.

"The way he does politics, his alliances, his decisions, not opposing gender-based violence . . . those types of things lose him points," said Sara Tufano, a feminist and sociologist who once campaigned for him. "He's not an easy person to work with. He's not a conciliatory person."

Petro called such criticism "fake news."

Carmona has a tattoo on his right arm of a crown. Below it is the name "Sandra," his mother.

The day before, he said, "she didn't have a bite to eat all day long." He wept.

"We're tired of being robbed. We're tired of putting up with hunger. We're tired of walking around looking for jobs and not finding any," Carmona said. "Where are the opportunities? I don't see any."
Xiaomi posted its financial results for the previous calendar year, and the numbers look outstanding. The Beijing-based company recorded CNY328 billion revenue, a 33.5% increase over the previous year, while the net profit was CNY22 billion, a whopping 69.5% growth, compared with 2020.

The smartphone segment did impressively - 190.3 million devices were pushed around the world, which is 30% more than 2020. Of them, 24 million were in the premium segment, which is a 160% improvement YoY.



Xiaomi financial results

The total revenue of the smartphone sales was CNY 208.9 billion. The absolute number reveals growth of 37.2%, but in reality, it is an average of CNY 1,097 per phone, which is the cost of one Chinese Redmi Note 11. The premium shipments consist of all phones that cost over CNY3,000 at the domestic market or over 300 overseas.

Xiaomi keeps expanding its global presence. The financial report revealed almost half of the total revenue came from overseas markets - CNY163.6 billion, a 33.7% increase in monetary value from 2020.



Xiaomi financial results

Xiaomis popularity worldwide is demonstrated by its presence in the Top 5 makers in 62 markets globally, in 14 of which it is the best-selling smartphone manufacturer.

The company is trying to expand its portfolio with AI products, and results for 2021 revealed revenue from other smart devices increased over 26% yearly to reach CNY 85 billion. In the business with air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines, the YoY growth was 60%.

Global monthly active users of MIUI were 509 million in 2021, which is 28.4% more than in 2020. Xiaomi also earns from advertising within its user interface, and revenue jumped 42.3% in this segment to CNY18.1 billion.

Source
Hike with Guam Boonie Stompers Inc. and see the beautiful greenery that spring is bringing next month! The groups April hikes range from medium to very very difficult, but they will not be without their rewards.

Hikers should provide their own transportation and children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Note that weather conditions can make the hikes more difficult than described.

No reservations are required. To join, meet at 9 a.m. in the parking lot behind Chamorro Village in Hagatna.

The cost is $5 for hikers over 17. If you complete 10 hikes, you get a free Boonie Stomp T-shirt.

For more information, go to facebook.com/GuamBoonieStompersInc or call 671-787-4238.

April 2: Nimitz Hill Caves, medium, 4 hours for 3 miles

Explore the caves that were used by the Japanese during World War II, the hospital cave and the corkscrew cave.

Hikers should bring 2 quarts water, flashlight, gloves, insect repellent, swim suit, lunch and a camera.

Special conditions: Climbing and crawling in narrow muddy cave passages.

April 9: Togcha to First Beach, difficult, 4 hours for 4 miles

Explore the eastern side of Guam as we see the beautiful beaches and multiple World War II Japanese bunkers and snorkeling along the way.

Hikers should bring 3 quarts water, clothing and hiking shoes that can get wet, snorkeling gear, gloves, insect repellent, sunscreen, lunch and a camera.

Special conditions: No shade, walking in sand and a long hike.

April 16: Mount LamLam/Jumulong-Manglo, medium, 4 hours for 3 miles

Hike up to the large cross on top of Jumulong-Manglo to see amazing views and then head to the tallest peak on Guam.

Hikers should bring 2 quarts water, gloves, sunscreen, insect repellent, lunch and a camera.

Special conditions: Sword grass, rough rocks, steep slopes and a little shade.

April 23: Humatak to Toguan Bay, medium, 3 hours for 1.5 miles

This is our Earth Day cleanup hike. Enjoy the scenic coastal walk while cleaning up the coastline. At Toguan Bay, we can go snorkeling. This hike is free of charge.

Hikers should bring 2 liters water, hiking shoes and clothes that can get wet, snorkeling gear, sunscreen, sunglasses, insect repellent, lunch and a camera.

Special conditions: Little shade, picking up trash, rough rocks and walking in sand.

April 30: Cross Island Hike, very very difficult, 6 hours for 6 miles

Enjoy one of Guams best waterfalls as we start at Tarzan Falls and then head to Lower Sigua Falls. We enjoy the beauty of these falls and jump from the midsection of the waterfall.

Hikers should bring 4 quarts water, hiking shoes and clothes that can get wet, gloves, sunscreen, insect repellent, lunch and a camera.

Special conditions: Sword grass, long steep slopes, walking in water, little shade and a very long hike.
WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Going to shelters can be more dangerous for the homeless in the United States, NBC News has reported.

At least five people sleeping on the streets of Washington D.C. and New York were shot by a gunman over the last two weeks, with one killed in each city.

However, "people told the homeless to go to shelters after D.C., NYC attacks. But they can be worse," the report said.

Entering the shelters system can be very dangerous for many, as they may be faced with being stabbed or raped, it added.

More than 50,000 people move directly from prison into a shelter every year, said the report, citing figures released by Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2017.

People incarcerated more than once are 13 times more likely to end up in the shelter than the general public, according to a report by the Prison Policy Initiative.

More people chose to sleep on streets due to the unsafe shelters, NBC News reported. 
PDN Lifestyle reporter Madison Scott takes us behind the scenes of Breaking Wave Theatre Company's "Much Ado About Nothing," which she also co-directed, at the University of Guam on May 3. The play runs May 5-8.
There is limited space left for workshop participants in Selebra Kutuurata yan I Hinanaota (Celebrate our Culture and our Journey), the Mes CHamoru wrap-up celebration on March 31 at the Guam Museum.

There are two workshops being offered, courtesy of Valley of the Latte: weaving with coconut leaves and making coconut candy and oil. The two-hour workshops are limited to 25 people and cost $10, with part of the proceeds donated to Guam Museum. Registration can be competed online at guammuseumfoundation.org.

Vendors interested in selling their artisan products are also encouraged to submit applications online to participate.

The event will also include tours of Guam Museum exhibits, live music and food.

Event schedule

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Guam Museum is providing tours of the Hinanao-ta exhibit, with curated artifacts and displays across seven galleries.

There will also be a special exhibit in the rotating gallery: Fanohge CHamoru Put I Tano-ta (Charting Our Collective Future).

Only 25 people will be admitted per tour time slot. You must register in advance. General admission is $3, $1 for students, and free for kids 5 years and younger as well as manamko 55 years and older.

The museum will strictly adhere to social distancing and capacity restrictions applied to indoor activities. Face masks must be worn in all museum areas and visitors must undergo a temperature check upon arrival. Visitors with temperatures above 100.3 wont be permitted to enter.

From 2 to 4 p.m. the cultural workshops will take place.

From 4 to 9 p.m., vendors will be selling artisan crafts and products at Skinner Plaza, where food trucks also will offer dinner options.

Free cultural performances by Para i Probechun i Taotao-Ta and music from the Guam Territorial Band, among others. Take home memories of Mes CHamoru and purchase artisan crafts and products from local vendors. Get dinner for the family from the amazing food trucks surrounding the park.

The event is sponsored by the Guam Department of CHamoru Affairs, Guam Museum, Guam Museum Foundation Inc., Valley of the Latte, Para i Probechun i Taotao-Ta and the Pacific Daily News.
You can help restore the forest, learn an ancient skill or simply enjoy some good food at upcoming Mes CHamoru events.

Tree planting

Volunteers are invited to join the Department of Agriculture for conservation activities like tree planting, tree maintenance, firebreak installation, soil erosion prevention and invasive species removal from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday.

The goal is to plant at least 20 trees at the Cotal Conservation Preserve on the border of Yona, Talofofo and Santa Rita-Sumai.

The entrance to the preserve is on Cross Island Road near the Tarzan Falls hike entrance, and participants are required to bring water, sunscreen and closed-toe shoes.

Interested volunteers can call 671-300-7977/7975 or email patrick.keeler@bsp.guam.gov.

Haanen Litekyan

The Guam National Wildlife and Refuge is hosting Haanen Litekyan, a free public event to celebrate Mes CHamoru from 9:30 am-12:30 pm Saturday at the Ritidian Unit. Attendees will have a chance to enjoy a youth fishing clinic and demo, wildlife viewing, a scavenger hunt and other activities.

The fishing clinic is limited to 40 participants ages 7 to 17. For more information call 671-355-5096 or email marybellequinata@fws.gov.

Weaving workshop

Learn to weave with coconut leaves 11 a.m. Saturday at Sagan Kotturan CHamoru Guma Lima (House 5). A donation of $10 is suggested. Participants are also encouraged to bring coconut leaves and a mat for seating.

Hotnu baking

Learn how to bake using a traditional oven with Tony Mantonona 11 a.m. Sunday at Sagan Kotturan CHamoru at Guma Hugua (House 2). A donation of $10 is suggested.

Celebration at the Museum

Selebra Kutuurata yan I Hinanaota (Celebrate our Culture and our Journey), will be held March 31 at the Guam Museum.

Valley of the Latte will offer workshops from 2-4 p.m. on weaving with coconut leaves and making coconut candy and oil. The two-hour workshops are limited to 25 people and cost $10, with part of the proceeds donated to Guam Museum. Registration can be competed online at guammuseumfoundation.org.

Vendors interested in selling their artisan products are also encouraged to submit applications online to participate.

The event will also include tours of Guam Museum exhibits, live music and food.

Tours of the Hinanao-ta exhibit, with curated artifacts and displays across seven galleries, will be offered from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. There will also be a special exhibit in the rotating gallery: Fanohge CHamoru Put I Tano-ta (Charting Our Collective Future).

Only 25 people will be admitted per tour time slot. You must register in advance. General admission is $3, $1 for students, and free for kids 5 years and younger as well as manamko 55 years and older.

From 4-9 p.m., vendors will be selling artisan crafts and products at Skinner Plaza, where food trucks also will offer dinner options.

Free cultural performances by Para i Probechun i Taotao-Ta and music from the Guam Territorial Band and others will be featured. Take home memories of Mes CHamoru and purchase artisan crafts and products from local vendors. Get dinner for the family from the amazing food trucks surrounding the park.

The event is sponsored by the Guam Department of CHamoru Affairs, Guam Museum, Guam Museum Foundation Inc., Valley of the Latte, Para i Probechun i Taotao-Ta and the Pacific Daily News.

Si Sirena

The Si Sirena exhibit is on display from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. through March 31 at the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency gallery in Hagatna.
If You Go

The Chamber Business Women's Network Pop-Up Shop 10 a.m.  2 p.m. March 26 at the Guam Chamber Office in Hagatna.
The School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Guam hosted an opportunity for international research collaboration among 17 universities in Japan, Taiwan, and China last Thursday and Friday at the 16th annual International Conference on Business, Economics & Information Technology, known as ICBEIT.
Former Gov. Eddie Calvo wasnt the first in his family tree to lead the island, but then neither was his father, former Gov. Paul Calvo.

The first actual elected governor, by the citizens of Guam, was my great, great, great grandfather Felix Noriega Calvo, said Eddie Calvo, who spoke about the Calvo family history at the Rotary Club of Guam meeting on Thursday as part of Mes CHamoru.

Felix Noriega Calvo, originally from Spain, served as interim governor for about five months in 1848, before the governor appointed by the Spanish Crown arrived to take his place. Born in the late 1790s, Felix Calvo also was the first of the Calvo line to come to Guam. After a stint with the military of the Spanish Crown from 1820-1837, which stationed him in Manila, he retired to Guam with his wife Maria Olivarez Calvo and their children and served as the administrador de Hacienda, the treasury administrator for the Spanish government.

We all consider ourselves CHamoru but anyone who's visited Guam knows that CHamoru  there's a lot of other stuff mixed in there," Eddie Calvo said.

His line continued with his great, great grandfather Jacinto Olivarez Calvo, eldest son of Felix, who was born in the Philippines. He moved to Guam when he was 37 and married Ana Castro Anderson. Their son, Tomas Anderson Calvo, great grandfather to Eddie Calvo, sometimes remembered as Tomas Calvo Anderson because of the Spanish naming system, was a member of the first Guam Congress formed in 1917.

According to Eddie Calvo, his grandfather, born Eduardo Calvo in 1909, was the patriarch of the modern Calvo family business. Eduardo was employed with the Bank of Guam prior to World War II when it was still operated by the U.S. government. After a chance encounter with a representative from the American International Underwriters, he became the general agent for the corporation and began selling health insurance out of his living room in 1938.

They were selling these policies to whoever would buy them on Guam in the late 30s, Eddie Calvo said. With my grandfather and with our family, everything ended in December 8, 1941.

They spent most of World War II at the Calvo family Ranch in Mongmong-Toto-Maite, where former Gov. Paul Calvo worked after he was beaten at a Japanese school for not taking off his shoes.

After the war, insurance sales took off, Eddie Calvo said, and his father and uncles managed to keep the family business going after Eduardo Calvo died, despite beliefs that the business would collapse.

Along with his mother Rose Baza Calvo, his father gave him and his siblings a normal life instilled with the values of hard work, Eddie Calvo said. Now that he and his father have both retired from public office, he takes every chance he can to spend time with his parents, he said.

My Dad always wants to drive to Hagatna, and he goes 'this is where my house was where I was born, this is where my dad lived ' its always about that beautiful time before World War II, when we were very innocent.
SOUTH AFRICA-BASED Zimbabwean anti-sanctions campaigner, Rutendo Matinyarare, has lifted the lid on how controversial Kudakwashe Tagwirei took risks to build his business empire from his retrenchment package in the arly 2000s.

Matinyarare, chairperson of the Zimbabweans Unite Against US War Sanctions (ZUAUWS), which is lobbying for the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe, said the growth of Tagwireyis vast business empire could also be credited to his wife, Sandra, a former top bank executive.

Sandra and Kuda combined their names to name their company Sakunda.

Tagwirei and his Sakunda company have attracted a lot of attention with critics accusing the businessman of capitalising on his proximity to the Zanu PF elite to build his business empire. Tagwirei has been placed on the US and UK sanctions lists because of his alleged links with the Presidium.

Matinyarare claimed that Tagwireis business-life story started in early 2000 after his retrenchment and at a time when the country was facing its worst fuel crisis.

After Kuda got his retrenchment package, he combined with his wife to create Sakunda which is a neologism of Sandra and Kuda. They then went on to apply for a fuel trading licence and sadly, that year (2002), only 149 fuel licences were issued by the government and Sakunda missed out, Matinyarare said in a long thread about Tagwireis business background.

Instead of despairing, Sandra and Kuda leased a fuel licence from one of the connected people who had been licensed. In their first six months, they got a contract to supply US$500 000 worth of fuel per month to some entity, but they didnt have the money.

They subsequently approached Sandras former boss, John Mangudya (then commercial head at a leading bank), and were advised to mortgage their house for the loan. They did just that, and after getting the loan, they began pushing half a million dollars worth of fuel every month.

Mangudya is the current central bank governor.

According to Matinyarare, Sakunda started pushing 20 million litres of fuel per month into the market, becoming the largest fuel supplier by 2012, attracting the attention of the government.

After some background checks by the intelligence, the government approached Sakunda and offered it a share of the Beira pipeline because the government had no money or capacity to carry the 60 million litres of fuel it was contracted to carry, thus it was losing money in fees for unused pipeline capacity, he said.

Sandra and Kuda took a gamble by investing in sending fuel down a pipeline, even though they had dozens of trucks. This drastically reduced their fuel costs and increased their margins exponentially over competitors.

By innovating, learning, creating global relationships, taking risks, outsmarting the competition, keeping cash-in-hand to integrate (vertically and horizontally) the value chain, being willing to invest their money in projects like the pipeline and reinvesting their profits in the same country for years without splashing out on luxuries; Sandra and Kuda made lots of money and grew wealthy.

He added: And now that they have made more money than most, by remaining in Zimbabwe and consolidating the market, they are demonised and called a monopoly for being smart, patriotic and innovative.

In 2021, Britain imposed sanctions on Tagwirei, saying the payments his company Sakunda received for Command Agriculture had undermined Zimbabwes economy. The US Treasury has also added him to its own list of sanctioned Zimbabweans. Newsday
The Supreme Court of Guam has upheld the conviction and 24-year prison sentence of a man involved in a 2019 machete attack in Mangilao.

Emanuel Reselap was 19 on June 4, 2019, when he and his brother drank at the beach and then returned home. Reselap, who was on pre-trial felony release at the time, got into a fight with his girlfriend, which led to a confrontation with a cousin. Reselap ended up slicing his cousin in the stomach, sending him to the hospital, according to court documents.

After the fight, Reselap and his brother began attacking cars at an intersection, using machetes to break lights and damage the bodies of cars, court documents stated.

A jury found Reselap guilty of aggravated assault, terrorizing, criminal mischief and family violence with special enhancements to the underlying felony charges for using a machete to cause serious injury and harm to multiple victims and damage cars.

On appeal, Reselap argued that portions of his sentence violated the prohibition against double jeopardy and there was not sufficient evidence to support his convictions.

The Supreme Court opinion rejected those arguments and affirmed the convictions and sentence.

The court did, however, find that the trial court did not hold an evidentiary hearing on the defendants ability to pay the fine and restitution.
Rudy Quinatas former girlfriend testified that she tried to help him file an order of protection against Joyner Sked months before the April 2021 murder of former Humatak Mayor Daniel Quinata Sanchez.

Anna Austin said Sked was abusive toward Quinata, and despite being physically larger than his co-defendant, he was afraid of her.

Austin, who has a child with Quinata, said Quinata and Skeds relationship was up and down, many bad times.

Quinata is on trial in the murder of Sanchez. Sked was tried separately and was convicted last month.

In her testimony for the defense, Austin said she had assisted the couple with whatever they needed, including food, money and car rides.

She said she purchased phones for Quinata, as well as a car for him to drive to work. But Sked destroyed the phones and crashed the car.

Austin said Quinata would call from his sisters home, because he needed to be picked up or was afraid to go to his home when Sked was there.

Quinata cared for their daughter when Austin was at work, she said. Defense attorney Peter Santos asked about Skeds relationship with the child.

Austin said Sked would be playful, but it all depended on her sobriety.

Protection

In October or November 2020, Quinata came to Austin asking for help filing an order of protection against Sked.

He was afraid to be at his place. I helped to make phone calls to get an order of protection, she said.

The Public Defenders Office and Guam Legal Services Corp. couldnt help because of conflicts of interest, she said.

Quinata and Austin began the paperwork themselves, but never finished, she said.

Quinata stayed at Austins residence until January 2021.

In February or March of last year, Austin suspected Quinata and Sked were back together. She asked Quinata if they could meet to finish up paperwork for their daughter to travel off-island, and he said he would have to make arrangements with Sked.

I knew again there was communication with Joyner, and then he had told us that it was OK for my daughter and I to come down. We needed to bring food for the animals. I know I heard her in the house, Austin said.

However, she didnt know the two were living together until later on.

Some conflict

When asked if there were issues with Quinata seeing his daughter, Austin assumed that there might have been some conflict.

We heard her upset on the phone, Why is Anna calling all the time? when its actually my daughter calling. I dont have a reason to call Rudy, my daughter does.

However, when prosecuting attorney Leonardo Rapadas asked if she had ever called the police on Sked, she responded, No.
Guam has gone from high to medium risk level for COVID-19, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention community guidelines, the Office of the Governor confirmed.

Although the CDC doesnt recommend indoor masks for everyone at the medium risk level, Guams mask mandate will remain in place.

As (the) governor forecasted earlier this week when she increased the indoor social gathering limit, Guam is now in CDCs medium risk level. Again, the communitys collective efforts have resulted in this progress, Gov. Lou Leon Guerreros spokesperson Krystal Paco-San Agustin said.

As of Thursday, the mask mandate was one of the few COVID-19 restrictions still in place, besides the indoor gathering limit of 250 people. The governor has said she is open to lifting masks in certain settings as the situation improves.

There were 67 new cases of COVID-19 from 626 specimens reported Thursday, including 12 from the Department of Defense. There were 16 people in the hospital, with two in intensive care and one on a ventilator.

In medium-risk communities, the CDC recommends people who are vulnerable to severe illness from the virus ask their doctor about whether they need a mask. With the risk level dropping, Guam residents join the roughly 98% of the U.S. population who, according to the CDC, were in medium and low level areas.

Mask recommendations will not change for people who are positive for COVID-19 or experiencing symptoms, or those riding public transportation.

The new CDC risk levels are determined by the rate of new cases in the community, the percentage of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the number of new hospital admissions in an area. The levels are tailored to identify the risk of a locations hospitals being overwhelmed.

Former chair of the governors Physicians Advisory Group, Dr. Hoa Nguyen, said that Guam was ready to lift remaining restrictions.

Gatherings should be unlimited at this point, thats indoor, outdoor. Now the masks should already be an option, Nguyen said.

And it should be up to the businesses to decide, Hey, if youre going to come to my business, youre required to wear a mask in my building.

Most in the medical community felt that clinics, hospitals and other health care centers should continue requiring masks, he added. People could also continue to mask up if they felt comfortable doing so.

Endemic

But with hospitalizations for COVID-19 regularly below 20 per day, the island was ready to return to normal, Nguyen said. He believed that at some point in the last two weeks, the virus had transitioned from a pandemic to an endemic stage, meaning it was already regularly found in the community and most people have developed immunity to it.

I think that if you drove around our island, in the past few weeks, you saw everyone back to large gatherings, but you didnt see the positivity going up, and you can see that the hospital admissions have continued to decrease, Nguyen said.

For the time being, there did not seem to be a new virus variant of concern on the horizon that could drive up case rates again.

But those with comorbidities who had already been infected should take special care of their health, according to Nguyen, as they were at elevated risk for heart attack and stroke for up to one year after coming down with COVID-19. That means check in with your physician, control your risk factors and keep a healthy lifestyle.

The key we learned from this pandemic is we really need to stay healthy, Nguyen said.
No danger to Guam as North Korea fires missile into the sea
Local residents who did not qualify for the first cycle of Homeowners Assistance Program funds will have another opportunity to apply for up to $15,000 in assistance during the upcoming cycle, according to an announcement made during the Interagency Council for Coordinating Homelessness Programs meeting on Thursday.

The Department of Administrations Homeowners Assistance Program will be accepting applications from April 11-22, said Audrey Topasna, program director for the Homeowners Assistance Fund at the Department of Administration.

Topasna said the second cycle is an opportunity for homeowners who did not qualify during the first cycle, which closed in February. Residents who were not experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 during the first cycle are now eligible to apply.

Qualified applicants must provide proof of financial hardship, which could be job loss, increased costs for health care, a reduction in household income or other hardships caused directly or indirectly by the pandemic.

The program is designed to help homeowners who, because of the pandemic, are struggling to make mortgage, utility or property tax payments.

The Homeowners Assistance Program is made possible through American Rescue Plan funds.

According to the Department of Administration website, applicant household incomes must be equal to or below:

$79,900 for a single person household.

$81,850 for a two-person household.

$92,100 for a four-person household.

$110,500 for a five-person household.

$118,700 for a six-person household.

Water assistance

Also announced during the meeting is a new Department of Administration Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program for homeowners and renters. Applications for this program also will be accepted from April 11-22.

This will provide eligible households up to $1,000 of their past due water service bill, or for those in jeopardy of being disconnected, said Topasna.

About $206,000 in grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be available to assist up to 200 households. Payments will be made directly to Guam Waterworks Authority.

Those who are under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income programs are automatically eligible to apply, according to Bernie Gines, deputy director of the agency.

Gines said the department is still working on the applications but that documents such as a social security card will be required.
The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Springfield has shifted its homeport from Hawaii to Guam as part of the Navys strategic plan for the Indo-Pacific Region, according to an announcement from the Navy.

The plan calls for five Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarines homeported in Guam by the end of 2022.

USS Springfield moved to Naval Base Guam from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving at its new home on Monday.

Springfield is Americas submarine  sharing our name with dozens of cities across the country, said Cmdr. Andy Domina, Springfields commanding officer. Many of my sailors tell me they joined the Navy to see the world  and that is exactly what they are getting to do. I am excited to bring 150 of the finest sailors to Guam, and my crew is eager to enjoy everything that Guam has to offer.

The security environment in the Indo-Pacific requires that the Navy station the most capable ships forward, according to the announcement. This allows rapid responses for maritime and joint forces, and brings the most capable ships and submarines with the greatest amount of striking power and operational capability in the timeliest manner.

It is my pleasure to personally welcome the sailors and families of our newest resident USS Springfield, said Commander Joint Region Marianas Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson. Homeporting this front-line submarine here increases mission capabilities based in Guam and reaffirms our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The submarines ability to support a multitude of missions, including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike warfare makes Springfield one of the most capable submarines in the world, the Navy announcement stated.

The crew could not have responded better to the news that we were shifting our homeport from Hawaii to Guam, said Domina. Given only eight months to plan and execute the homeport shift, the crew really came together to get all of the families mentally prepared for another homeport shift. I could not be more proud of our crew and our families.

Commissioned March 21, 1986, Springfield is the fourth Navy ship to bear the name.

Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarines make up most of the submarine force, with nearly 40 still in commission. Springfield returned from its last deployment in the Western Pacific July 24.

Springfield is one of multiple Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarines assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron 15, which is located at Polaris Point, Naval Base Guam.

The squadron staff is responsible for providing training, material and personnel readiness support to these commands. Also based out of Naval Base Guam are submarine tenders USS Frank Cable and USS Emory S. Land.
Officers and investigators with the Guam Police Department secure the premises of the Shell gas station in Dededo after a man was killed in an officer-involved shooting on the evening of March 9, 2022.
Michael Lujan Bevacqua is an author, artist, activist and the curator for The Guam Museum.
THE Harare hotel where a naked woman was recorded while being chased down the corridors by another woman, has summoned parties involved in the drama for a hearing.

It has been revealed the hotel management invited the man, who is at the centre of the drama, and the other parties, to discuss the matter, whose video has gone viral on social media.

The incident has caught social media by storm. H Metro also got to know the details of how the drama unfolded.

The case has also seen NASH Paints marketing and communications manager, Tarisai Milner Makumbirofa, being mistakenly identified as the naked woman who was being chased in the video.

There was relief for her yesterday after cameras at the hotel proved she was nowhere near the premises on the day of the fracas.

The cameras at the hotel have proved that its not me in the video, she told H-Metro.

So, I asked if they could give a statement to clear my name and they said they have to sit down and talk with the public relations manager. But, they confirmed knowledge of the case.

A Facebook page, owned by Queen Cronje, also apologised for posting Taries pictures and claiming she was the one in the video.

I deeply regret posting your pictures yesterday Tarie Milner Bolts hausiriwe mukadzi akamhanya asina kupfeka, said the administrator of the page.

I have taken it off but some people must have read it already. I sincerely apologise for this, I know its hurtful to you and irresponsible on my part to do so.

I am sorry.

Initially the page had posted: Ndivo vekumhanyiswa paCresta Lodge vasina kupfeka apa she is married, Tarie Bolts, and ndi marketing and communication manager kuNash Paints.

H-Metro was also briefed about how the drama unfolded.

It is reported that they followed the husband, who was with his girlfriend, to the hotel, a source told H-Metro.

The woman went with her friends to the premises and, upon arriving at the reception, they lied that they were with the man (name withheld) and they wanted some keys, which he had in his room.

So, they were given the room number and, on arrival at the door, they pretended to be room service providers.

The woman in the video opened the door, while she was wrapped in a towel.

An altercation ensued and the ladies wanted to record a video of the woman, while she was still in the room.

So, she noticed the move and quickly forced her way out before one of the friends took off her towel, prompting her to run naked.

The one chasing and the one taking the video are friends to the wife, (name withheld).

The woman remained in the room where she was confronting her husband. The woman in the video is alleged to have been invited by her lover to Zimbabwe from Zambia.

Another source narrated how the woman got to know about her husbands shenanigans.

The wifes little sister ndiyo yakafonera the wife kuti huya aona mota yabamukuru parked at the hotel. H Metro




Haiti - Voodoo : The Mambo Euvonie Georges Auguste died (rain of reactions)





On Wednesday March 23, 2022 in the morning, Mambo (priestess) Euvonie Georges Auguste (65), Grand Servant of the "Konfederasyon Nasyonal Vodouyizan Ayisyen" (KNVA), died at her home in Delmas, following cancer.



"I was born Catholic, I grew up Protestant. At 23, I became a non-believer. I wandered, wandered a lot, I was constantly looking for myself, without knowing how to find myself. Finally at 28, I went back home, drank from the source and met Bodje. I married him and am still today a Hounsi," wrote Euvonie on her Facebook page in October 2021



Euvonie Georges Auguste was appointed in October 2015 by the KNVA, Acting Supreme Head of Haitian Voodoo, replacing Augustin Saint Clou who also held this position on an interim basis https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-15411-icihaiti-voodoo-the-mambo-euvonie-georges-auguste-replaces-augustin-st-clou.html



Rain of reactions :



Minister of Culture :

"It is with dismay that Emmelie Prophet Milce Minister of Culture learned of this sad news.



Euvonie Georges Auguste contributed to the promotion of the rights of voodoo practitioners, which earned him a remarkable reputation within the great family of voodoo in particular and society in general.



Social worker, civil servant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Mrs. Euvonie Georges Auguste, mother of 5 children (3 girls and 2 boys) and grandmother of 5 grandchildren, leaves a great void in the voodoo sector.



I extend my most sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the famous deceased and in particular the KNVA, of which she was one of the best known leaders."



Prime Minister Ariel Henry :

"I learned with emotion of the death of Euvonie Georges Auguste. I salute the memory of this figurehead, committed and devoted to the defense and promotion of voodoo. I send my sincere condolences to his family, loved ones and members of the KNVA."



Former Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe :

"I learned with sorrow the news of the death of Mrs. Euvonie G. Auguste, voodoo priestess and committed citizen. His departure is a huge loss for the voodoo sector. I offer my heartfelt sympathies to his family, to the ATI Carl-henry Desmornes and to the KNVA in this ordeal. Woukoukou Mapou !"



Senator Joseph Lambert :

"The Senate mourns the departure of Ms. Euvonie Georges, an activist committed to democracy, an emblematic figure of the voodoo sector in Haiti and a model of leadership. Sympathies to his family and to the voodoo sector."



Carl-Henry Desmorne Supreme Leader of Haitian Voodoo :

Euvonia's death is a great loss. A whole section of the KNVA is leaving. It will be very difficult to fight and to honor his work [...] If we can now talk about the KNVA, it is mainly thanks to Euvonie, it was present since its foundation, it was a workhorse."



General Secretary of Religions for Peace :

For Pastor Clement Joseph, Secretary General of Religions for Peace, "Euvonie is a very rare model in Haiti. It is a vital resource in the fight for peace in Haiti. It represents the expression of claim of human rights. She fought not only for the respect of women's rights, but also for the respect of freedom of expression, thought and belief."



Msgr. Pierre Andre Dumas :

"What sad and appalling news Euvo is dead ! I wish her good crossing ! We are very upset and touched by this early departure of this worthy, solid woman who has always put her feminine genius at the service of Haiti ! My condolences to the members of his sector and to his large family ! May his beautiful soul rest in peace."



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-15411-icihaiti-voodoo-the-mambo-euvonie-georges-auguste-replaces-augustin-st-clou.html



S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Ganthier : The Diaspora has a project for an industrial park in a free zone and a residential and tourist village





Frantz Elbe the Acting Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) met earlier this week with Reginald Abraham and Marina Gourgue, respectively Founder and President of the "Haitian Diaspora Resources World Wide", around a project development of an industrial park in a free zone and the construction of a residential and tourist village in Ganthier (West dept., district of Croix-des-Bouquets) as part of a public-private partnership.



During this meeting, a presentation of the "Integrated Village Sans Souci" of Ganthier was presented to Frantz ELBE who was accompanied by Inspector General Caneus Joany of the Central Administrative Police Department (DCPA) and Divisional Commissioner Clivens Cetoute of the West Departmental Directorate (DDO II).



Reginald Abraham, also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Haitian Real Estate Development Company SHADI S.A.M. (Societe Anonyme Mixte), took the opportunity to seek the accompaniment and support of the PNH in the implementation of the Project.



At the end of this meeting, Frantz ELBE promised his interlocutors that the police institution was ready to play its part in the execution of this project, particularly in terms of security.



to be continued...



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Diaspora Covid-19 : Daily Bulletin #734





GLOBAL SITUATION 2019-2022:

Epidemiological situation:



Thursday March 24, 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 476,591,381 cases (+1,825,040 in 24 hours ), the day before (+2,046,566)



Number of infected countries: 224



*Healings: 411,940,408 people have been cured of Covid-19 worldwide (+1,418,328), the day before (+1,579,447)

*Deaths: 6,128,932 people have died of Covid-19 worldwide since the start of the pandemic (+5,946 in 24 hours), the day before (+16,719)

*Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries) in the world is currently 58,522,041 cases (+400,766 in 24 hours), the day before (-450,400)



Average cure rate in the world: 86.43% (-)



Average mortality rate in the world: 1.28% (=)



World: Number of daily confirmed cases:





(Day-1)



Vaccination: 11.18 billion doses of vaccine injected (+30 million doses injected in 24 hours. Updated March 23, 2022 (latest data available).



HAITI:

Warning: The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) did not make available after March 18, 2022 daily data on the Covid-19 situation in Haiti. Accordingly, the data below on the situation in Haiti are the latest available.



According to the Ministry of Public Health, +15 new cases of Covid-19 and its variants have been confirmed in Haiti as of March 18, 2022 (latest partial data available ) for a total of 30,509 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 (+16 cases as of March 16, 2022).



Healings: 27,492 (+155)



Cure rate: 90.11% (+)



Deaths: 827 deaths (+0) ()



Death rate: 2.71% (=)



5th Wave (Omicron Dominant):

Total of the 5th wave (starting December 27, 2021) 4,515 confirmed cases and 61 deaths



Haiti: Active Cases Trend: (less recoveries and deaths)







Screening since the start of the pandemic: 185,288 tests (+850 in 3 days) 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: 738 (+0); Petion-ville 618 (+0); Port-au-Prince 406 (+0); Tabarre 287 (+1); Croix-des-Bouquets 237 (+0)



Confirmed cases by department (2022 / 2021 / 2020):

West: 2022: 2,542 cases; (2021: 9.890); (2020: 6,945 cases)

North: 2022: 265 cases; (2021: 664); (2020: 677 cases)

Center: 2022: 225 cases; (2021: 1.001); (2020: 508 cases)

Artibonitis: 2022: 178 cases; (2021: 855); (2020: 593 cases)

Northeast: 2022: 148 cases; (2021: 404); (2020: 314 cases)

Southeast: 2022: 252 cases; (2021: 768); (2020: 274 cases)

South: 2022: 214 cases; (2021: 891); (2020: 262 cases)

North West: 2022: 249 cases; (2021: 383); (2020: 229 cases)

Grand'Anse: 2022: 172 cases; (2021: 861); (2020: 176 cases)

Nippes: 2022: 39 cases; (2021: 249) (2020: 149 cases)



Cumulative deaths by department (2022-2021):

West: 293 deaths (2020: 104 deaths)

North: 54 deaths (2020: 34 deaths)

Center: 78 deaths (2020: 13 deaths)

Artibonite: 40 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: 31 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: 137 deaths



Vaccination:

161,164 Haitians (1.4% of the population) +1,844 in 6 days have received a 1st dose of vaccine since July 16, 2021, date of the first injection through 149 open vaccination centers and 110,329 Haitians are fully vaccinated (2 doses, 0.95% of the population) +1.879 in 6 days. Update March 16, 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): 81,527,329 cases (+51,060 in 24 hours), the day before (+27,867)

*Healings: 63,623,166 healings (+172,540), the day before (+195,708)

National Cure Rate: 78.03% (+)

*Deaths: 1,001,175 deaths (+1,383), the day before (+952)

National death rate: 1.22% (=)

*Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries): 16,902,988 (-122,863), yesterday (-168,793)



USA: Trend active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths)





(Day-1)



Vaccination: 558.96 million doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection in the United States (+150,000 doses in 24 hours). Updated March 23, 2022 (latest data available).



DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

Confirmed cases since March 1, 2020: 577,476 cases (+122 in 24 hours) the day before (+16 in 24 hours). First case (March 1, 2020)

Healings: 572,674 healings (+33 in 24 hours), the day before (+207)

National Cure Rate: 99.16% (-)

Deaths: 4,375 deaths (+0), previous (+0)

Death rate: 0.75% (=)

Positivity rate over 4 epidemiological weeks: 1.15% (-)

Active cases: (excluding deaths and recoveries) 427 cases (+89 in 24 hours) the day before (-191)



Dominican Republic: Number of daily confirmed cases:





(Day-1)



TOP 5 Provinces with the most new cases in the last 24 hours:

La Altagracia: +27 new cases in 24 hours (+)

Santiago: +26 new cases in 24 hours (+)

National District: +15 new cases (+)

Santo Domingo: +14 new cases in 24 hours (+)

Puerto Plata: +7 new cases in 24 hours ()



Vaccination: 15.44 million doses of vaccine injected since February 16, 2021, date of the first injection in the Dominican Republic (+10,000 doses injected in 24 hours). Updated March 23, 2022 (latest data available).



QUEBEC:

Confirmed cases since the first case (February 27, 2020): 949,000 (+2,111 in 24 hours), previous (+1,383)

Healings: 919,992 people (+700 in 24 hours) previous (+1,015)

Cure rate: 96.94% (-)

Deaths: 14,274 (+2 in 24h) previous (+7)

Death rate: 1.50% (=)

Active cases: (excluding death and recovery) 14,734 cases (+1,409 in 24 hours), previous (+361)



Quebec: Trend of daily confirmed cases:





(average weekly trend)



Vaccination: 18,578,620 doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection (+3,496 doses in 24 hours), latest available data - MSSS dated March 23, 2022)



FRANCE:

*Confirmed cases since the first case (January 24, 2020): 24,487,676 cases (+145,560 cases in 24 hours), previous (+180,777)

*Healings: 22,817,001 healings (+117,913), previous (+57,564)

National Cure Rate: 92.69% (-)

Deaths: 141,319 (+101 in 24h), previous (+133)

Death rate: 0.57% (-)

Active Cases: 1,529,356 (+27,546), previous (+123,080)



France: Trend of active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths)





(day-1)



Vaccination: 141.48 million doses of vaccine injected since December 27, 2020, date of the first injection in France (+40,000 doses injected in 24 hours. Update March 23, 2022 (latest data available)



Previous bulletin : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36249-haiti-diaspora-covid-19-daily-bulletin-733.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


















Published on 2022/03/23 | Source

Expectations are high on whether actress Moon Ga-young will meet Yoo Yeon-seok in JTBC's new drama "Understanding of Love".

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On March 22nd, Moon Ga-young's agency, KEYEAST, told News N that "JTBC "Understanding of Love" is in positive consideration".

"Understanding of Love" is a work depicting the romance of Ha Sang-soo, Ahn Soo-yeong, Park Mi-kyeong, and Jeong Jong-hyeon, who are dating in-house, against the backdrop of Nara Bank Yeongpo branch, which marks the 99th anniversary of its foundation. Moon Ga-young is known to have been offered the role of Ahn Soo-yeong, the fourth-year head teller at Nara Bank Yeongpo branch.

Actor Yoo Yeon-seok has been proposed to play the male protagonist Ha Sang-soo and is under consideration.

Moon Ga-young was loved a lot for playing the female lead in the tvN drama "True Beauty" in which she worked with Cha Eun-woo.

Moon Ga-young is currently filming tvN's "Link: Eat, Love, Kill". Attention is focusing on whether she will continue her hard work with "Understanding of Love".
Published on 2022/03/23 | Source

New stills added for the Korean drama "Kill Heel" (2022).

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Directed by Noh Do-cheol

Written by Lee Choon-woo, Sin Kwang-ho

Network: tvN

With Kim Ha-neul, Lee Hye-young-I, Kim Sung-ryung, Kim Jae-chul, Kim Jin-woo, Jeon No-min,...

16 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:30

Synopsis

The story of the three women's intense desire to achieve success against the backdrop of the home shopping industry and the heated debate about human nature amid competition.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2022/03/09


OPPOSITION Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday demanded neutrality and fairness from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in tomorrows by-elections.

Addressing thousands of supporters in Epworth, Chamisa said the by-elections were a test of Zecs capacity to conduct a credible election.

Zec, we are watching you, where we are going it is a test. We want to see if you are serious, if there is any rigging. We have a right as citizens to demand that Zec must be disbanded. Players have a right to say this referee is not fair and cant referee us, so Zec if you continue playing like this, I warn you Justice (Priscilla) Chigumba, we will fire you, Chamisa said.

Zec does not mean Zanu PF electoral commission or Zanu PF electoral committee, Zec means Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Zanu PF is just a denominator just like CCC, the common denominator is Zimbabwe, be fair and allow people to be defeated. Zec must not be an extension of Zanu PF because Zanu PF is an outgoing political party.

Zec has been under fire after data analysts recently exposed a number of discrepancies in the voters roll.

Meanwhile, Zanu PF yesterday claimed that it had closed rank with the former First Family, claiming Chamisa wanted to abuse the vulnerability of the latter following the death of former President Robert Mugabe.

Party spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa made the statement at a post-politburo briefing in the capital yesterday a day after Mugabes son, Robert Junior, made a surprise appearance at a Zanu PF rally addressed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Chitungwiza.

The CCC wanted to take advantage of the former First Family. We are happy that we had Robert Mugabe Jnr yesterday (Wednesday) affirming the position of the family. It is not only Robert, I have been interacting with Bona, Mutsvangwa said.

The Mugabes were seemingly at loggerheads with the ruling party after the ouster of the late long-time ruler who had thrown his weight behind Chamisa ahead of the 2018 general elections.

The Mugabe family clashed with Zanu PF over where Mugabe was supposed to be buried, with the family insisting on his rural home and not National Heroes Acre.

Mutsvangwa said Zanu PF was a tsunami that would grab seats once held by the opposition beginning with tomorrows by-elections.

By the time we reach in 2023, we will be a tsunami sweeping MDC strongholds. We will let Zec work autonomously. If we knew that we would be rigging we would be sleeping knowing that we would win. We hope our detractors will see the amount of effort we used, he said.

In another development, Mnangagwa has urged party supporters to brace for an elective congress in October this year. Newsday
Published on 2022/03/24 | Source

New stills added for the upcoming Korean movie "Yaksha: Ruthless Operations" (2022)

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Directed by Nah Hyeon

With Sol Kyung-gu, Park Hae-soo, Yang Dong-geun, Lee El, Song Jae-rim, Jinyoung,...

Synopsis

"Yaksha: Ruthless Operations" is a story about the leader of a spy agency's secret operation team in Shenyang, China, and the prosecutor who was demoted to the spy agency as he searched for a missing high-ranking North Korean official.

Release date in Korea : 2022/04/08
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U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., would welcome the U.S. Supreme Court rescinding its 1967 ruling that legalized interracial marriage nationwide in favor of allowing each of the 50 states to decide such issues on its own.

Speaking Tuesday on a conference call with Indiana reporters, the Hoosier senator unambiguously declared his belief that many of the high court's key civil rights decisions of the past 70 years were wrongly decided and an improper usurpation of states' rights.

Braun initially limited his claim to the national right to abortion established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision he hopes the current, more conservative, Supreme Court will overturn in coming months when it rules in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

But, when asked by The Times, Braun admitted there are many Supreme Court decisions he believes improperly established federal rights that would be better handled on a state-by-state basis, including Loving v. Virginia that legalized interracial marriage, and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) establishing a right to privacy concerning contraceptive use.

"You can list a whole host of issues," Braun said. "When it comes down to whatever they are, I'm going to say they're not going to all make you happy within a given state. But we're better off having states manifest their points of view, rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did."

Specifically concerning interracial marriage, Braun rejected the reasoning of a unanimous Supreme Court that the freedom to marry is a fundamental constitutional right and states depriving Americans of it on an arbitrary basis, such as race, is unconstitutional.

He acknowledged leaving such a question to states is likely to lead to situations where a marriage may be recognized in one state and not in another, but he shrugged it off as "the beauty of the system."

"This should be something where the expression of individual states are able to weigh-in on these issues through their own legislation, through their own court systems. Quit trying to put the federal government in charge," Braun said.

To that end, Braun pointed to the widespread adoption of state laws legalizing individual use of medicinal and recreational marijuana, notwithstanding the fact cannabis remains an illegal controlled substance under federal law.

"That's part of the way that we navigate through issues that are generally going to be divisive, that are generally very vitriolic, and you solve that by not trying to nationalize it," Braun said. "One side of the aisle, out here, wants to do more of that all the time, and I think we've gone far enough there into a variety of issues.

"I think if you're not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you're not going to be able to have your cake and eat it, too. I think that's hypocritical."

Braun later walked back his comments by claiming he misunderstood the question, despite the question being asked multiple times in different ways to ensure Braun meant and understood what he said concerning interracial marriage.

"Let me be clear on that issue  there is no question the Constitution prohibits discrimination of any kind based on race, that is not something that is even up for debate, and I condemn racism in any form, at all levels and by any states, entities or individuals," Braun said.

Braun's original statement was condemned by the Indiana Democratic Party as "not only un-American, but beneath any respectable person wishing to hold public office."

"The United States Supreme Court has affirmed many times that marriage equality in our country extends to any committed couple regardless of sex, race, orientation, or religious affiliation, and to question that legitimacy questions the very fabric of America and its people," said Mike Schmuhl, Indiana Democratic chairman.

"Democrats implore all Hoosiers to ask themselves if they want to be associated with someone as embarrassing as Mike Braun and a form of partisanship that endorses white nationalist views  because these are the same views that led to the insurrection against our nation on January 6, 2021. If Mike Braun wants to question the legitimacy of anything, it should be his own standing as a United States senator."

As for the current judicial vacancy on the high court, Braun said he hasn't yet decided whether he will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and make her the first black woman to serve alongside the eight other Supreme Court justices.

Braun said he wants to see what Jackson says under questioning this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee and then he plans to carefully review her past rulings to see if they conform to his expectations for federal judges.

"She seems well-qualified. But whenever I vote for a Supreme Court justice it's going to be, basically, how are you going to interpret the law," Braun said. "If your record shows that you're going to be kind of an activist there, I don't think that's good, and I don't think the Founders intended it that way."
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#PublicSchoolProud | By Nicole Blomberg Our school's focus on social and emotional learning will have a positive ripple effect for many years to come. Having empathy, practicing compassion and developing emotional regulation is another measure of success we can celebrate.



(Pictured to the left) Administrators and counselors were slimed by students who were the top donors for our Kids Heart Challenge community service project. It was messy but well worth the excitement and joy the kids felt! Our school's focus on social and emotional learning will have a positive ripple effect for many years to come. Having empathy, practicing compassion and developing emotional regulation is another measure of success we can celebrate.(Pictured to the left) Administrators and counselors were slimed by students who were the top donors for our Kids Heart Challenge community service project. It was messy but well worth the excitement and joy the kids felt!  Nicole Blomberg is a graduate of Mililani High School. She has been working at Pohakea Elementary School in Ewa Beach as a school counselor since 2006. In February, she was named 2022's Hawaii School Counselor of the Year by the American School Counselor Association. Her family is #PublicSchoolProud  her husband works at a HIDOE school and her two daughters attend public schools. Question of the Week Q: The Departments recently updated COVID health and safety guidelines still includes indoor masking as a requirement for all students and staff. Why is this still a requirement when the states mandate expires after March 25? A:



The Departments goal is to always prioritize in-person learning, and this will help to minimize disruptions to students in-person learning due to quarantine requirements. The Department is cautiously adjusting guidance to ensure as many students as possible can continue to stay in the classroom. The state Department of Health (DOH) still recommends indoor masking in schools, especially given the recent changes to guidance regarding individual case investigations and close contact quarantine requirements in a K-12 school setting. With the updated guidance that took effect in HIDOE schools on March 21, individual close contact identification, notification and quarantine of exposures is no longer required if universal indoor masking is implemented.The Departments goal is to always prioritize in-person learning, and this will help to minimize disruptions to students in-person learning due to quarantine requirements. The Department is cautiously adjusting guidance to ensure as many students as possible can continue to stay in the classroom. HIDOE Case Counts

During spring break, a total of one confirmed or probable case was reported across Hawaiis 257 public schools from March 14-18 for a daily average of 0.2 cases (as of March 20). This total is artificially low due to the week-long school break. For the latest case count information, visit bit.ly/HIDOECOVID-19Updates March 14-18 News Feed | #HI4PublicEd A roundup of announcements, resources and shoutouts.  In an effort to meet the goals of Act 175, which aims to have at least 30% of the food served in public schools be locally sourced by 2030, next week the Department will begin supplying Honolulu and Windward district schools with lettuce grown at Kunia Country Farms.  The Roberts Hawaii school transportation system was awarded $200,000 by the national Environmental Protection Agencys Diesel Emissions Reduction Act to replace outdated diesel school buses with new, energy efficient models. Read more about the grant in this article from Maui News.  Students at Lokelani Intermediate School will be debuting Wave Mart, an on-campus store run by students, on March 27. Wave Marts inventory will feature such items as student-designed T-shirts and stickers, with profits going toward school activities. Photo credit: Sarah Ruppenthal, Maui News. HAWAII STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Keith Hayashi Interim Superintendent Phyllis Unebasami

Deputy Superintendent ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENTS Heidi Armstrong Student Support Services Sean Bacon Interim Talent Management Brian Hallett Fiscal Services Randall Tanaka Facilities and Operations Christine Shaw Interim Information Technology Services Cara Tanimura Interim Strategy, Innovation and Performance Teri Ushijima Interim Curriculum and Instructional Design Hoohaaheo PUBLIC SCHOOL PROUD Nanea Kalani Executive Editor Chanel Honda Managing Editor Sara Miyazono

Creative Director Derek Inoshita Contributing Writer Krislyn Yano Contributing Writer Cara Phillips

Contributing Writer CONNECT WITH US  HawaiiPublicSchools.org 1390 Miller St. Honolulu, HI 96813 | Phone: (808) 784-6200 | Fax: (808) 586-3234

Email: newsletter@k12.hi.us What makes you #PublicSchoolProud? This email was sent to all HIDOE staff.


Officials with Liberty Utilities have shared more on the companys purchase of Kentucky Power and how it plans to lower rates for customers, while maintaining operations in Eastern Kentucky.

Liberty Utilities announced on March 18 that it has negotiated with AEP to purchase Kentucky Power and maintain its operations in Eastern Kentucky. Liberty Utilities is a subsidiary of Algonquin Power & Utilities. Pending approval from the Public Service Commission, Liberty will become the regions electric utility provider.

Libertys purchase of Kentucky Power represents the best path forward for securing a strong future of reliable and cost-effective electric service for the region, while preserving critical jobs and creating new ones to grow our local presence and ensure customer satisfaction, officials said in a statement.

Liberty South Region President David Swain said in a statement that customers rates will not increase because of this transaction. He said that Liberty included in its testimony, which was filed with the Public Service Commission, that customers rates will decrease for two reasons.

The first reason, he said, is that Liberty will create the Eastern Kentucky Fuel Relief Fund, which is a $40 million fund to help offset volatile fuel rates. Secondly, Liberty is providing a rate holiday on the collection of the Big Sandy decommissioning rider for three years. These two initiatives, he said, could lead to a 14-16 percent reduction in residential customer rates. Liberty has committed to honor the current rate freeze in place through 2023.

Also, Swain explained what customers can expect from Liberty in terms of ensuring reliability and a seamless transition.

We are pleased that the same great employees who provide service today in Kentucky will continue to do so. In addition, we are bringing back many of the functions currently provided out of state to within the service territory (adding over 100 jobs) so that our local employees can focus on enhancing reliability and ensuring customers needs are met, Swain said. Liberty has significant experience providing reliable electric service in rugged terrains and will share this expertise to complement and enhance the significant experience of the local team.

Libertys North American distribution operations include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and Texas in the United States, and New Brunswick in Canada.

Liberty is committed to providing safe and reliable natural gas, water and electricity distribution services to over one million customer connections, according to company officials. With a customer-centric approach to management, Liberty seeks to provide a superior customer experience through local management of walk-in centers, conservation and energy efficiency initiatives, and programs for businesses and residential customers. We measure our performance in terms of service reliability, customer satisfaction and public and workplace safety.

For more information, visit, www.LibertyKentuckyPower.com.
Public health officials issued a dire warning on Wednesday that the U.S. will be unable to effectively fight the COVID crisis if Congress does not immediately approve billions in new funding.

With a new aid package stalled on Capitol Hill, pandemic experts said Americans will not be able to count on free vaccines, additional booster shots or life-saving treatments as variants spark fears of a resurgence in cases.

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With every day that passes, we risk not being able to fight this pandemic, said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus task force chief. The virus is not waiting for Congress to act.

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients (left) speaks alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a press briefing at the White House, Tuesday, April 13, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Further Congressional inaction will cost more lives, he added.

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Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, called on lawmakers to step up and do what is necessary to continue fighting the deadly virus.

Our resources are depleted, Becerra said. Were prepared to execute (President Bidens) plan. We need Congress to help.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is interviewed by the Associated Press on Thursday, March 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

With COVID coffers running bare, the feds have already had to slash orders for life-saving monoclonal antibody treatments and stop reimbursing health providers for treating uninsured COVID patients.

The following cuts will affect orders for vaccines and booster shots.

There are enough shots on hand for now. But vaccines would run out later in the year, especially if a second booster shot is recommended for most or all Americans, as Dr. Anthony Fauci warned may be the case.

Free masks, tests and other community health programs could also be shut down if there is no more money, leaving the nation vulnerable to a new pandemic wave or a new and virulent variant.

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 warnings came after Congress failed to include another round of COVID funding in the recently passed stop-gap funding bill amid a dispute between Democrats and Republicans over past spending.

Bipartisan talks are now underway for a standalone bill. Still, many Republicans want to put the pandemic behind them and are reluctant to spend billions more on vaccines and preventive measures that many of their supporters oppose.

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The funding crisis comes as COVID caseloads, hospitalizations and deaths mostly continue to decline across the nation as the omicron wave continues to subside.

Still, a new sub-variant of omicron called BA 2 is making up an increasing share of cases and is driving small increases in caseloads in some areas.

New Yorks seven-day average remained just below 2% at 1.94% on Wednesday as hospitalizations hovered just above 900. According to state health officials, another seven New Yorkers died from the virus.

Gov. Hochul said officials are closely watching caseloads and hospital capacity, but said the best way to combat another spike is for New Yorkers to stay vigilant.

Get tested if you are experiencing symptoms and stay home to avoid spreading the virus, she said. The vaccine and booster are the most effective way to prevent serious infection - get vaccinated if you havent yet, boosted if you have, and encourage your friends and loved ones to do the same.
Keith Morvant and Noe Gutierrez enjoyed their time as two of the 25 volunteers on hand for the Knights of Columbus Lenten Friday Fish Fry held last week.
Deutsche Version dieses Artikels: Wie die ukrainische Top Level Domain .ua in Zeiten des Kriegs funktioniert

Dmitry Kohmanyuk has been working for the Ukrainian ccTLD .ua since its foundation. In recent years he worked as the national ccLTDs strategist, working on the monitoring and introduction of new technology, like for example DNSSEC. Caught outside of his country on February 24, Kohmanyuk cooperates with his colleagues at home to keep the registry for half a million .ua sites running.

Dmitry Kohmanyuk has been working for the Ukrainian ccTLD .ua since its foundation. (Bild: Dmitry Kohmanyuk)

The company is also operating the gov.ua TLD, a much sought for and much attacked zone. Kohmanyuk connects with international partners and he tries to assure the .ua team dispersed over the Ukraine and beyond. Being "like a mum" to those trapped in Kiev felt strange and difficult, as he wanted to cry himself, he said in a chat with heise online. For now, the registry still has about 50 percent of their infrastructure in the Ukraine. But the .ua itself could become a refugee, operated from the outside.

heise online: Dmitry, how are you?

Dmitry Kohmanyuk: I try not to think about myself too much. But I am fine. I am 51 years old. I have lived my life. I left Soviet-Union Ukraine for some years to live in California for some time. After that, I went back to Ukraine. I am happy, I have seen some parts of the world. I am very pessimistic about the situation now. Some damage is reparable. We can move some things around. We can very easily move data around. But we can hardly move people around. History, especially, we cannot move around. There are things you cant repair, there is damage that cannot be undone. All of the so called Russian-Ukrainian friendship is gone. It will never come back. Or perhaps it can come back, in a century. It will be similar to the Holocaust. People dont forget the Holocaust. I am thinking about this a lot. I still try to be polite when i speak to people from Russia. In fact a Russian friend has invited me to stay with him, i had visited him when the war broke out.

heise online: Where are you?

Dmitry Kohmanyuk: Lets just say I am in Eurasia. We arrived here the 14th and the plan was to go back 21. But we extended our stay for another week and then the war started. Now I am a refugee. I have no home to go back. I do have my salary from Ukraine. I hope I can be paid next week. I can survive on my savings from a few months. I am ok.

Did you consider going back?

No, I do not intend to go back now.

Did you expect the war?

I was denying it, but friends in the US and the US embassy told me that it would happen. Still I was in denial, like when you are told that somebody has cancer. You deny that he will die.

How is the .ua team?

The ccTLD team, my team, are 20 people. I have to admit, we were not ready. We were not planning for an attack and did not have a lot of backup systems in place. We had to make do and it is all right. We did the necessary things. We basically evacuated the production computers to the cloud. I will not tell you names. But we found a number of international companies. I relied on connections from international meetings like ICANN and RIPE. I started messaging people. And some got back really immediately. I decided to go to the guys in the blue suits and that did work out, better perhaps that turning to the crowd. The truth remains we were not prepared. President Zelensky said publicly that we would not be attacked. But in the end we did have enough resources, people and computing, too, to make it work.

What is the most important?

A, making the domains work, B, making the domain registration work. This is our job, it is what is most important. We are the registry that records who owns which domains. We have registars, they sell domains inside and also outside the country.

Do you still see new registrations come in at this moment?

Of course.

What are people registering during these times?

I am not tracking this and I should not tell. That is private. I am just the mechanic. So the registry works, but we just had to move that away from Ukraine. Then we have the public facing part, our website and our email system. We kept that in Ukraine for the moment. For our communication we changed at messengers anyway, as the phone system is down due to outages. We also operate the zone of the gov.ua. That part we also had to move abroad, but luckily as we already had DNS servers abroad, that was easy. Now we have a distribution of 50 percent abroad and 50 percent in Ukraine. But because I knew everything in Ukraine was at a risk. I asked for additional secondaries in the cloud. So we had the A systems, the systems that were in place. Then we built the B systems, new systems in different places. And then there are the C systems, that is what we rented  or got it for free. We ended up renting quite some in the cloud. I should not mention company names, but I want to mention Cloudflare because they reached out to us proactively and offered help. We took their help and we relied on them immensely and I really want to express my gratitude to the leadership and the team there. They know who they are. All worked a lot. It started by the way when there was a denial of services on the government websites just a few days before the start of the war. And from there we had that direct link to the management there. We still have a lot of stuff in Ukraine, for sure. There are also things like accounting papers. First and foremost, we have our people there. And the people, they cannot easily relocate. Some people dont have money, cash or cars to relocate. Also, it is only women who can go. The men cannot just leave the country or relocate. They are not allowed. When they move they have to notify the authorities.

But the technical operators can still do the work?

Still the state can draft any person of our company to the war. We have no exclusive status at all. The do not draft lots of people. We do not have a single person in the company that has been in the military, except our director who has been to the armed services. Certainly I went to school in Ukraine, during the time still part of the Soviet Union. We were shown how to fire a Kalashnikov, but there was just one Kalashnikov for the whole class, so it was a rather theoretical exercise during which we had to pretend how we would fight. Later I had a military camp in Kherson for 2 weeks. That is about all of the military training, I have.

Can you describe your workday? How do you coordinate with the team back in Kiev?

They are not all in Kiev. Some are, others not. And some people have moved around. I do not want to disclose how they are dispersed.

How many staff members left Ukraine?

Two women currently are working from outside of Ukraine.

It could be good to have some staff members outside the Ukraine, could it not?

I agree. But there is the difficulty of money transfers out of the country. It is currently prohibited.

For organizing our work we use email, we use Signal chat a lot. We are getting rid of Telegram, which we used before the war a lot for chatting, basically for security reasons. Beside the crypto we like it that nothing is archived. We have been cooperating and working online and remote since the war started.

For now the .ua registry is operative. Our bank works. We can sell our service. Getting free stuff as a donation from the outside was nice. The team helps out in some instances. When our boss had to move some servers somewhere, he used his own credit card and called it his contribution to the company. I did the same and paid for a few things. It is not long-term strategy. We are just surviving.

There has been an announcement that the Ukrainian government wants to move more of its IT infrastructure out of country, can you confirm that and how does it affect the ccTLD?

We don't take computers and move them around. We rent. We go abroad and rent servers there. For example we rent 10 servers in the EU and then turn off five at home. Except, we have not turned any of our servers off in Ukraine so far. All are still running. We just copy files and set up mirrors of our systems. Moving around hardware under this threat, would not work.

What is the biggest threat to registry?

The biggest threat to the registry is the threat to Ukraine. The military threat. The bombing, the nuclear threat. The biggest threat is the collapse of the economy and the country. And there is another thing. People are exhausted, they are tired, they are hungry. People are having mental breakdowns, i have a lot of calls and try to calm them. I feel I suddenly have to be like a mum, only i am not good at calming people. And I am a kid to my partner her at my sanctuary. I am grateful she is here.

What could help to keep the registry up?

We have solved that for the time being, I think. Our ccTLD is small. Its half a million domains currently. We can run things light-weight.

The help we need is the help to our country. Ukraine needs humanitarian aid, military aid, political aid. We need strict sanctions from businesses. Of course, you cannot win a war by not selling a PlayStation. But you know, people do what they can. I should say I am thankful for the German government for military aid, sanctions and the help to refugees.

You said, you were critical about the notion of neutrality of infrastructure? Should The ICANN and Ripe have followed the appeal from Ukraine and cut Russia from IP resources and thrown their ccTLD .ru out of the authoritative root zone?

You know, I dont know what they should do. I know what they should not do. They should not ignore the call. I understand that they allocated 1 million to keep the Internet running in Ukraine. I do not know how that money will be allocated, but I see the effort. I personally think they could sanction their Russian partners, like other US companies have done. Apart from what US laws say, every company can decide for itself to not serve some customers. They can decide to not do business with, lets say North Korea. They could add Russia to that list.

Should the Internet community start to use BGP filters or filter specific domains?

I put my name to a letter which asks the community to consider a list of highly targeted sanctions. Bill Woodcock distributed it. And while I was not involved in the drafting as I felt I am partial, I did approved it. The letter explains how sanctions should be done in the internet age. I think it is a good start. It might not be the final thing possible. Some things might still be found inadequate. It is a mild letter, there are no threats in there. It has no negative language. And it also talks about the humanitarian aspect of sanctions. For me, the world exists because of trade, so stopping trade hurts people. Like when Ukraine stops producing wheat, people starve. We risk economic collapse with disruption of trade, that is clear.

What about hacking attacks?

I think as long at it targets the military or the government, it is ok. Remember changing a website does not hurt. If the website of the Kremlin says the truth about the war in Ukraine, that is not criminal. I myself do not intend to involve myself in hacking attacks. I grew up with an Internet philosophy that is peaceful and non-miliatary.

Did you see attacks on .ua?

Every day and we have had an outage for a few hours just yesterday. Even Cloudflares systems who are resilient are not built to withstand war attacks.

You met with Russian colleagues over the years at many operator meetings. What do you say to your Russian colleagues now?

I am still not be angry at them. Most of my Russian friends from the RIPE community are still my friends. Some are not. But a lot of friends that are Russian are living abroad. What do I want to say to them? Do the right thing. And they know what that is. For the Russian and Belarussian military there are three options. They can die in battle. They can go back to their countries, that might mean they go to jail. Or they can surrender. If they surrender, they will live. So surrendering looks to be the best option  and not bombing the cities. If you pilot an airplane you still have to press that button to bomb a city. Dont do it. Refuse orders. Surrender.

Could the .ua registry be exiled completely, could it become a refugee itself?

Yes. We continue operating no matter what. We would never disband. We do what ever it takes. We will never surrender. I just hope we win. There is no plan B.

(bme)
A WOMAN from Henley has set up an online hub to support refugees arriving from Ukraine and the families who will be taking them in.

Gemma Birch launched the website Mother Sister Daughter last week and so far about 40 families have signed up to host people fleeing the war-torn country.

The hub is designed to offer a localised support network for hosts and their guests and has pooled the resources available to help them settle here.

This includes information on the UK visa application process, how to apply for benefits, find employment, and learn English as well as listing the charities to contact for additional support.

Ms Birch said: I created the website in the darkest hours, thinking about all the Ukrainian people having to flee their homes and how long the processing is taking to get them to a place where they can breathe again and think about their next steps.

Humanitarian centres are mandatory but two million people and counting are not going to get processed that quickly. I understand that the governments of all the countries helping are doing what they can but the process is simply too slow.

Those children need to sleep in beds and feel safe again. Their mothers need to rest and breathe again and they all need to feel clean sheets and clothes on their backs.

They need time to think about their families and a way to contact their fathers, brothers and sons, to know theyre safe.

I cant stop crying at the plight of all of these people and I wanted to do something.

I am a mother so I couldnt get into a van and drive to the border of Ukraine, which I would have done in a previous life. I just felt I could pull a website together and my idea was simply to create a place where we can build a database that hopefully means we can start to place people in safe homes.

It is about facilitating those people who want to be hosts in our community and help with the management of it.

This is not exclusive to Ukrainian refugees long- term but for the short term it is focused on them only.

A free information event will also be held at the d:two centre on Wednesday at 5.30pm to help current and prospective host families and those who would like to volunteer in other ways.

It has been organised by fellow Henley residents Maggie and Ed Atkinson, Liz Ledaca and Sara

Kandiah.

They will share details of the work that Mother Sister Daughter has done so far and plans for the future.

There will be guest speakers, including:

Dr Krish Kandiah, who is founder of Sanctuary Foundation, which is a partnership of charities, churches and other

agencies.

 Sarah Lane, a project worker at the Nomad youth and community project in Henley.

 Town councillor David Eggleton, who has been collecting supplies to transport to Ukraine.

Laura Reineke, founder of Henley Music School, who organised the Play for Peace concert in Market Place earlier this month.

Ms Birch said: The aim is that this will evolve and we can also use the space to help refugees obtain jobs, for us to be able to connect children with schools and so on but, most importantly, in a legal, safe, controlled and managed way, so that no one falls through the gaps.

The priority is the women and children. From what I know, I think there are a couple of people arriving imminently but it is still a bit of a logistical nightmare getting people here.

It is a huge ask for people to open up their homes but it will only work if we have everything working together. I started the website and it has grown through local networks and word of mouth and connecting up with charities.

We have had a lot of local people registering as hosts and communicating with friends of friends of friends in Ukraine so we are trying to match them up in line with Government policies.

The forms are complicated so there is a lot of hand-holding through the application process and help with the language barriers.

It has really taken off in the last few days. Id say there are about 40 families in Henley who have come forward to host, which is incredible.

Some are saying that they have two rooms or a self-contained flat or they have a top floor available. People have been amazing.

But it is not just about offering space in your home, it is about having the headspace and the time to support the new arrivals.

Ms Reineke, who was one of the first people to sign up to host a displaced family, has agreed to welcome a Ukrainian woman and her 13-year-old daughter into her home. After performing at a Play for Peace event in London, she was contacted through a fellow musician by the woman, who had fled Kyiv and was staying with her daughter in Bled, Slovenia, which is twinned with Henley.

Ms Reineke said: I couldnt just sit back and hear the horrific stories coming out of Ukraine. I have two spare rooms and after a conversation with my family we decided wed love to help.

We completed the visa application on Saturday and we are now waiting for the all-clear to book them on a flight from Slovenia. They are desperate and the daughter cant wait to go to school and get back to some normality.

Ive managed to home quite a few families now and I think everyone is waiting on visas.

To attend the information event at the town hall, sign up at https://welcome2

henley.eventbrite.co.uk

For more information and to apply to be a host family, visit www.mothersister

daughter.org.uk
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs decision not to seek an indictment against Donald Trump was misguided and completely contrary to the public interest, said a prosecutor who probed the ex-president for almost three years.

Mark Pomerantz made the stunning declaration in his resignation letter to Bragg on Feb. 23 that was published Wednesday by the New York Times.

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I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition, Pomerantz wrote Bragg.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

The Penal Law is New Yorks state criminal code.

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His [Trumps] financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people, the letter said.

The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes  he did.

The DAs office doesnt comment on active investigations but said Pomerantzs departure did not signal the end of the probe.

The investigation continues. A team of experienced prosecutors is working every day to follow the facts and the law, said Danielle Filson, Braggs chief spokeswoman.

There is nothing we can or should say at this juncture about an ongoing investigation.

Mark Pomerantz (DAVID KARP/AP)

Bragg took office Jan. 1. His predecessor, Cyrus Vance, Jr., hired Pomerantz to head the probe into Trump and his real estate business as a special assistant district attorney in early 2021.

Pomerantz said Vance was intimately involved in the probe and had concluded before leaving office that the facts warranted prosecution.

Pomerantz, a veteran white-collar criminal lawyer, resigned in February, as did Carey Dunne, another special assistant district attorney working on the Trump case.

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Pomerantz said he and Dunne decided to quit when Bragg made clear he saw the case differently than Vance.

The investigation has been suspended indefinitely. Of course, that is your decision to make. I do not question your authority to make it, and I accept that you have made it sincerely, Pomerantz wrote Bragg.

However, a decision made in good faith may nevertheless be wrong. I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest. I therefore cannot continue in my current position.

Donald Trump (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Pomerantz spent hundreds of hours questioning Trumps former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, whos testified 15 times before the grand jury hearing evidence against Trump.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

Pomerantzs letter describes Bragg as doubting the strength of the case, contending that failing to prosecute Trump would threaten the publics confidence in the justice system and doom the prospect of Trump ever being held accountable for his alleged crimes.

I have worked too hard as a lawyer, and for too long, now to become a passive participant in what I believe to be a grave failure of justice, wrote Pomerantz.

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Cohen started cooperating with the DA while serving a three-year sentence on campaign finance violation charges at the Otisville Correctional Institution.

Cohen told the Daily News he felt extremely disappointed that Bragg halted an indictment against Trump.

I stated before the world during my House Oversight Committee hearing  I did more than just affirm the belief  I provided irrefutable, documentary evidence on the topic, Cohen said.

Had they put me on the stand, it is a belief of Pomerantz, Dunne, and myself that he would have been convicted.

Pomerantz, Dunne, and Vance did not immediately respond to The News request for comment.
David Wayne Tarrant, 63, of Mesquite, passed away Wednesday, April 20, 2022. David was born in Greenville, to Wendell and Joyce Tarrant on August 12, 1958. He married his love Sharon Brown on March 10, 1978. He dedicated 44 years to the Excavation business where he was very well respected. H
Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Periods of rain. High near 60F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low near 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
The leader of a Sarah Lawrence College sex cult tortured a victim who was working for him as a prostitute, repeatedly suffocating her with a plastic bag, the victim testified Thursday.

Claudia Drury, 31, described the night of vicious abuse in October 2018 when Lawrence Ray, 62, handcuffed her naked to a chair over a perceived betrayal. The cult leader subjected Drury to as much as eight hours of interrogation in a room at the Gregory Hotel in Manhattan, she said.

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He told me to strip naked. I did, she testified. He ended up binding me to a chair. A desk chair in the room and suffocating me with a plastic bag.

Ray was furious that Drury had shared with one of her sex work clients a blackmail website Ray had created under her name. The site included the names of some of Drurys regular customers, she testified in Manhattan Federal Court.

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Lawrence Ray (Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York)

He had never done anything like that to me before, Drury said. But then he did ... I was suffocating. I was terrified. I was trembling.

Over the course of the night, Ray poured cold water over Drury and put her in front of an air conditioner on full blast, smothered her with a pillow, choked her with a collar and leash and even cut her hair, Drury testified.

He threatened to waterboard me, Drury said.

Ray took a break at one point that night with his second-in-command Isabella Pollok  who is also charged in the case  to order burgers from the Starlight Diner that were delivered to the hotel room, Drury recalled.

Do you think Im going to kill you? I am going to kill you, Ray said in an audio recording played for jurors as he allegedly choked her.

Lawrence Ray was wheeled out of court into an ambulance on Tuesday. (Noah Goldberg/New York Daily News)

The chilling account came on Drurys fifth day of testimony.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

Ray is accused for 17 racketeering counts alleging he physically and sexually abused a group of wayward youngsters from Sarah Lawrence he met through his daughter between 2010 and 2020. Ray tortured his followers in what he called The Ray Family, according to testimony, allegedly hitting one acolyte, Santos Rosario, in the legs with a hammer and tightening a tinfoil noose around another victims genitals. Much of Rays abuse came under the guise of therapy, witnesses have testified.

Drurys testimony was delayed over the last two weeks as Ray was twice removed from the courtroom due to alleged medical emergencies. He was wheeled out the front door of Manhattan Federal Court on a stretcher and placed into an ambulance both times.

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Meanwhile, prosecutors on Monday accidentally released a list of names of Drurys client list of 121 regulars to reporters.

Lawrence Ray (HONS/AP)

Ray forced many of his victims to give false confessions that they were in on a scheme with former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik to poison him, witnesses have testified. Testimony has revealed Ray was obsessed with Kerik, who was once his close friend.

Drury was so convinced she had wronged Ray that she worked for four years as a prostitute at his behest, turning over about $2.5 million in proceeds to Ray from her sex work, she said. She charged $2,000 per hour.

It was not until April 2019 that one of her clients convinced Drury to get out of the situation, paying for her to get on a train to Philadelphia. She said she never spoke to Ray again.

I left. I got on a train to Philly ... I turned off my phone, she said.
ST. JOSEPH  A woman told a Berrien County judge Wednesday that while a local restaurant co-owner did not physically force her to perform a sex act on him, she feared for her job if she did not comply.

The woman, testifying in the preliminary hearing for Raffaele Santaniello, told the judge she eventually quit her job as a server and bartender at Santaniellos Restaurant.

Santaniello, who owned the Stevensville restaurant with his sister, is charged with six counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion, one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion and one count of kidnapping. He faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged.

The hearing for Santaniello, 50, got underway Wednesday before Berrien County Trial Court Judge Angela Pasula and will continue at 3 p.m. April 4. The hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause to send the case to trial.

Berrien Assistant Prosecutor and Chief Trial Attorney Cortney OMalley is prosecuting the case and Santaniello is represented by a lawyer from Ohio, Eric Zagrans, assisted by St. Joseph lawyer Trevor Maveal.

Three women testified Wednesday about alleged sexual assaults by Santaniello. The Herald-Palladium does not identify victims of sexual assault.

One former employee testified she was working as a server at Santaniellos Restaurant when, at the end of the night of April 16, 2021, Santaniello invited her to his house to hang out. She said her previous conversations and interactions with him had been OK, and she knew his wife and sister, so she went to his house. She said he invited her to join him in his hot tub, and she did. She said she was wearing a bathing suit, and he was wearing swim trunks and a T-shirt.

She said their conversation was normal at first, then turned sexual.

He said, You have great boobs, let me touch them, and started to fondle me. I said, I dont think so, and I couldnt get out (of the hot tub) because he was blocking the stairs, the witness testified. I didnt know what to do. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to sit between his legs. My back was to him. He reached over and touched my breasts, through my bathing suit. I wanted to go home.

The woman, now 19, said she quit her job two days later.

In cross examination, Zagrans asked the woman whether she knew Santaniellos wife and family were out of town when she went to his house and she responded, Yes.

He asked her why she waited three weeks to go to the police, and she said she was friends with Santaniellos sister and, I realized this wasnt right. I told her about it and she said it couldnt get out because it would ruin her livelihood.

She said she then told another friend, who convinced her to go to the police.

Another woman, who said she worked at the restaurant from the fall of 2013 to August 2017 as a server and bartender, said Santaniello treated staff not very pleasant, and would talk in the restaurant about sexual matters. She said he made comments to her about her body parts very often, almost daily.

She said various staff members witnessed him making sexual comments and advances toward others. She said one night in 2016 at the end of her shift, he said he wanted to talk to her about an incident with a customer two days prior.

She said they were alone in the dining room when, I sat down and he was standing. He exposed himself, he touched the back of my head and made the motion for me to do it.

She testified that it was clear what he wanted her to do. OMalley asked the witness what she thought would happen if she didnt comply.

I felt as if my job would be threatened. I knew other employees had been threatened. Hes a big guy, and I didnt feel comfortable telling him no, she responded. She said Santaniello had made it known that he was untouchable because hes someone powerful in the community.

She said he made sexual comments and advances in front of other workers, family members and customers and, No one ever tried to stop it.

Zagrans, in cross examination, asked the woman what, specifically, Santaniello had ever said to indicate he was untouchable, and she said she could not recall specifically.

The woman said she went to police in 2021, five years after the incident, after seeing a social media post from someone else about Santaniello.

Another woman testified she knew Santaniello and his family through their sons, and her daughter began working at the restaurant in 2019. She said she and her husband would often go to the restaurant.

One night in 2019, I was standing at the end of the bar. He was drinking. He hugged me, he like bear hugs you, then he holds you there, she said. Then he reached with his hand and grabbed and squeezed my butt.

She said she told him, Please dont do that.

Further, the woman testified, There were very few times I spent in his presence that a sexual comment was not made.

In cross examination, Zagrans asked the woman, Did you tell anyone?

The woman responded, Yes. I told my husband, his wife, my daughter and my friends.

Asked by the defense lawyer whether she ever initiated any physical or sexual contact with Santaniello, the woman responded, No.
(JTA) - Feeling the sand between her toes was Teva Goldstein's favorite part of her December 2021 bat mitzvah on the island of Maui. She and her family all wore white, accessorized with purple leis.

The beach in Hawaii was nearly 4,000 miles from her home in Dallas, another thousand miles from where she had lived for most of her life in Maryland. Yet her family had chosen it to mark her bat mitzvah, the moment when she would symbolically assume adulthood among the Jewish people.

The path to the beach was long and winding due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pitted with setbacks and anxiety. But it...
Marina Furman was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her entire family was wiped out years ago in the Ukrainian Holocaust site, Babi Yar, and her mother was the only survivor. Being surrounded by antisemitism was simply part of everyday life. At the age of 19, Furman became a Refusenik  a Soviet citizen (and especially a Jew) who was refused permission to emigrate  and spent 10 years fighting the Soviet dictatorship to allow freedom of immigration and religious expression, nearly losing her life in the battle.

On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, Furman, Jewish National Fund-USAs executiv...
(JTA)  When it comes to antisemitism on social media, the algorithms governing the major platforms shoulder some of the blame for their reach. But the Anti-Defamation League hopes to fight the spread  by creating an algorithm of its own.

The Jewish civil rights group announced Tuesday that it has built a system called the Online Hate Index, describing it as the first tool ever developed to measure antisemitism on social media platforms. The program can sift through millions of posts quickly to detect antisemitic comments and aid in their removal.

This system uses an algorithm informed...
WASHINGTON (JTA)  An Amnesty International official said that the organization is opposed to Israel continuing to exist as a Jewish state.

We are opposed to the idea  and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate  that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people, Paul OBrien, the human rights monitors U.S. director, said in a luncheon this week with the Womens National Democratic Club in Washington D.C.

Jewish Insider first reported the remarks.

OBrien said late Friday on Twitter that his remarks had been removed from context, although he...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA)  Jewish parents at P.S. 145, the only public school in Manhattan with a Russian dual-language program, are speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

PTA co-president Sasha Stashwick said that it was important the school makes it clear that its families do not stand for this war. We all stand together as a Russian-speaking community, Stashwick told The New York Jewish Week. Whats happening in Ukraine, its not acceptable.

She added that while Ukrainian people are the victims, its important to recognize that Russian-Americans should n...
(JNS)  The Knesset, which was to vote to revamp rules regarding Jewish conversion, has delayed the bill until the start of its summer session in May due to the political sensitivity of the issue. The delayed vote represents the latest in a series of efforts to resolve religious disputes through political meansmost recently, an attempt to establish prayer sections for different streams of Judaism at the Western Wall (Kotel) and to introduce competition to kosher certification, currently a monopoly of Israels Chief Rabbinate.

Of the three hot-button issuesconversion, the Kotel and...
A man tried to abduct a 13-year-old girl off a Brooklyn street in broad daylight by insisting he knew her mother, police and sources said Wednesday.

The young teen was pushing a laundry cart on Pitkin Ave. near Ashford St. in East New York about 2:20 p.m. Sunday when a dark-colored SUV began following her, police said.

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The driver pulled the SUV over on the avenue and tried to grab the youngsters laundry cart, cops said.

NYPD released video of a man trying to abduct a young teenage girl in Brooklyn. (DCPI)

The creep urged the girl come with him  deviously assuring the youngster that hed spoken with her mom and it was OK she get in his car, sources said.

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The youngster cleverly caught on to the lame lie and refused to go with the stranger.

She was not injured in the incident, police said.

The would-be kidnapper quickly retreated to his car, depicted on surveillance video as a Nissan, and fled west on Pitkin Ave.

Police were still searching for him Wednesday night.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
Yishai Fleisher, international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, gives former Vice President Mike Pence a tour of the city on March 9, 2022.

(JNS) - As part of a two-and-a-half-day trip to Israel, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Hebron's Jewish community on Wednesday, becoming the most senior international leader to visit the city since it was retaken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Hebron, where 1,000 Jews live surrounded by 200,000 Arabs, is most notable for the Machpelah,the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, revered by Jews as the place Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place for his wife, Sarah. Buried at the site together with Abraham and his wife are the biblical figures Isaac, Jac...
A hopeful and dominant topic of conversation at this weeks National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville has been the re-opening of tourism to Israel for all, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. Two years ago, at the same event and location, the early impact of the COVID virus started to be felt with early reports of Israels national airline laying off the first 1000 employees. Ultimately, nearly all tourism would be shut down leading to millions of cancelations, tens of thousands of Israelis in tourism and tourism related industries losing their jobs, and deep economic hard...
(JTA)  Barbara Goldberg Goldman, a lay leader in Democratic Party, resigned as deputy treasurer of the Maryland Democratic Party after questioning the viability of Black candidates for governor.

Goldberg Goldman apologized for an email she sent in December, revealed over the weekend by Axios.

Consider this: Three African-American males have run statewide for governor and have lost, she wrote to other party leaders in the email. This is a fact we must not ignore.

Goldberg Goldman was strategizing over how best to defeat Kelly Schulz, the states Republican secretary of comme...
(JNS) - Famed Jewish dissident, human-rights activist and former Knesset member Natan Sharansky provided his opinion on the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday, analyzing what could be Russian President Vladimir Putin's motivations for the invasion into Ukraine, as well as the moral obligation Israel and the West have to support Ukraine.

In a Zoom session hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and moderated by JINSA president and CEO Mike Makovsky, Sharansky said that he believed that Putin is looking to recreate the Russian Empire, rather than the Soviet Union since Pu...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA)  The New York State Education Department released long-awaited guidelines Thursday on teaching secular subjects in parochial schools. They were met with immediate pushback from Orthodox Jewish leaders.

The new proposals offer several options for schools to prove their instruction is substantially equivalent to public schools, and will take into account different religious and cultural methods for teaching.

The proposal offers schools options if they do not want to be reviewed by their local public school authorities. One option is for schools to test...
The flags of Ukraine and Russia are screened on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on March 13, 2022.

(JNS) - As Russia pushes further into Ukraine and threatens its capital Kyiv - and as Russian President Vladimir Putin appears unfazed and undeterred by Western nations willing to sanction Russia through economic means, but afraid to fight militarily to save innocent Ukrainian civilians - the question arises: What could the world have done to deter Putin? And what does this mean for the State of Israel?

John Hardie, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that the biggest reason Putin has not been deterred "is that he reached a point where he was simply det...
Russia bans access to two Israeli Russian-speaking websites for its citizens

(JNS)  Russia blocked off access for its citizens to 30 websites worldwide, including two Russian-language Israeli websites, Maariv reported on Wednesday.

The two Israeli websites are Channel 9, a Russian-speaking Israeli television station, and Vesti, a Russian-language news website that belongs to the Yediot Achronot group.

The decision was taken on the day of Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 but only implemented on Wednesday, according to the report.

Russia passed a law that bans Russian media...
(JNS)  The news coming out of Russia these days sounds taken from a particularly gloomy dystopian novel, or perhaps from the Soviet era. The state  far from a model of democracy to begin with  has deteriorated in a matter of weeks into a genuine dictatorship, punishing citizens not just for their actions, but for their thoughts.

Employees who refuse to support the invasion of Ukraine are fired. Students who do not support Putins special operation are expelled. Border control agents check the phones of Russians heading overseas for text messages expressing subversive opinio...
(JTA)  After decades of fearing that we would forget the horrors of our recent past, I am starting to fear the opposite possibility: that we Jews remember our history all too well but feel powerless to act on its lessons.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine invites analogies to our traumatic past. History begs us to learn from what came before. These analogies to the past are never perfect. Seeing analogies between past and present does not mean we think that anything that happened in the past would be identical to anything happening in the present.

For comparisons to be useful, however,...
(JNS)  The title immediately engaged my interest. To Whom Was the Promised Land Promised? by Abraham A. Sion focuses on the legal right of Jews under international law to the territory of Palestine and the British betrayal that thwarted it for three decades.

The story began with the Balfour Declaration (1917). It called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, geographically defined by the League of Nations after World War I as the land east and west of the Jordan River.

The postwar Mandate for Palestine, granted to Great Brit...
A 30-year-old man fatally shot on a Brooklyn street got into a fender-bender with his killer, who angrily chased the victim down the street before gunning him down, startling surveillance video released by cops Thursday reveals.

Jose Flores was shot to death after leaving a party in Brownsville around 4:30 a.m. March 13. Police were initially uncertain of the circumstances of the killing.

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The cops didnt tell us anything, Joses brother Jewinson Flores, 27, told the Daily News a day after the senseless slaying. We have no idea.

But investigators have now uncovered surveillance video showing Flores was behind the wheel of a white Nissan Rogue SUV when he got into a crash with a gray Infiniti Q50 luxury sedan moments before the shooting.

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The video, released by the NYPD Thursday, shows the Infiniti trying to speed past the left side of Flores SUV, resulting in the minor collision at the corner of Tapscott St. and Blake Ave.

Surveillance video shows the Brooklyn fender-bender ending in a fatal shooting. (NYPD)

After both motorists got out of their vehicles, the Infiniti driver pulled a gun and chased Flores down the street before shooting him, the video shows.

Flores was was found sprawled out on the sidewalk down the block from his abandoned SUV.

His killer ran back to the Infiniti and sped off in it, the video shows. He was last seen zipping down Howard Ave. onto Eastern Parkway toward Atlantic Ave., cops said.

A white Nissan Rogue SUV was left abandoned near the scene and was being investigated by police on March 13. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Flores, the father of a young boy, was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital but could not be saved. His SUV was found abandoned at the scene.

I dont want to see any video, the victims dad Carlos Flores told the Daily News Thursday as he was heading to his sons funeral. I want to hold him, keep my sons memory.

Nobody respects life, he added, breaking down. I try to [stay] strong, but it is impossible.

The victim had just left the party on Tapscott St. near Blake Ave. in Brownsville when shots rang out about 4:30 a.m. on March 13, cops said. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Flores was a construction worker who helped put up buildings all over the city, his brother said.

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He was a hardworking man, always smiling. Never had problems with nobody, Jewinson Flores said. Wrong time at the wrong place . . . Its hard.

Cops are asking the publics help identifying and tracking down the shooter and his vehicle. His SUV had rear-end and passenger side damage from the crash.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
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Pakistan, China ready to strengthen ties, expand cooperation

Xinhua) 09:11, March 24, 2022

Pakistani President Arif Alvi (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Jiang Chao)

ISLAMABAD, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and China are ready to strengthen bilateral relations and boost cooperation in the emerging fields such as information technology, e-commerce and digital economy.

In a meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday, Pakistani President Arif Alvi said that Pakistan and China have enjoyed friendly relations in the past decades featured with solid unity, mutual support and mutual assistance, with bilateral cooperation increasingly enhanced in all fields.

Pakistan will, as always, unswervingly pursue the one-China policy, support China's positions on its core interests in the issues of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the president stressed.

Pakistan and China have identical views on international and regional issues, and Pakistan opposes any attempt of all external forces to contain China's development, he said.

The building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has yielded fruitful results which have significantly improved the livelihood of the Pakistani people, the president noted.

For his part, Wang said that the China-Pakistan friendship has withstood the test of evolving international landscape and is rock-solid, noting that mutual trust and mutual support are the most distinctive features of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan.

Stressing that China has always been a long-term and most reliable strategic partner of Pakistan, Wang said the Chinese side firmly supports Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and national dignity.

Wang added that China also staunchly supports Pakistan's development, revitalization and prosperity, and firmly supports Pakistan in playing a more important role in the international and regional arena.

China stands ready to work with Pakistan to advance cooperation in traditional fields, expand cooperation in emerging fields such as information technology, e-commerce and digital economy, increase investment in social and livelihood projects in Pakistan, and carry out more "small but beautiful" cooperation projects, he said.

China is willing to encourage more qualified Chinese enterprises to invest and start businesses in Pakistan as well as help Pakistan improve its capacity for independent development so that Pakistan can embark on a development path that suits its national conditions, Wang said.

Wang stressed that due to the centennial changes, the once-in-a-century pandemic and constant spillover of the Ukraine crisis, peace and development in today's world are faced with more insecure and instable factors.

China is ready to strengthen strategic communication, unity and coordination with developing countries including Pakistan and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation so as to inject more stability into the region and the world, and make more contributions to world peace, security and development, he added.

Appreciating China for upholding justice and fairness in the international arena for a long time, the Pakistani president expressed willingness to work with the Chinese side to safeguard the basic norms of international relations such as mutual respect, non-interference in internal affairs and good neighborliness.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
A daredevil driver who critically injured a bystander filming him doing donuts in lower Manhattan wont be burning rubber again anytime soon.

A judge on Thursday suspended Tyler Greers license during the suspects arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

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Greer, 22, who lives in Piscataway, N.J., also offered through his lawyer to surrender his prized Infiniti to prosecutors. He was ordered held on $10,000 bond for the crash but held without bail for violating probation on a New Jersey case.

Greer turned himself in at the 1st Precinct stationhouse on Wednesday for the Saturday night stunt show that saw him recklessly doing donuts at Vandam and Greenwich Sts. near the Holland Tunnel.

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Tyler Greer, 22, turned himself in at the 1st Precinct stationhouse on Wednesday for the Saturday night stunt show where he was seen doing donuts at Vandam and Greenwich Sts. in Hudson Square. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News)

Among a large group of onlookers who flocked to the meetup promoted on Instagram was Christopher Brito, 23. Seeking to capture dramatic footage on his phone, Brito stepped in the way of the skidding Infiniti and tripped, video shows.

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He was run over by the cars front wheels, horrifying onlookers.

Greer drove away, police said. The words Tyler Spec were emblazoned on the red two-door Infiniti. He surrendered to police four days later.

Brito was hospitalized in critical condition with a skull fracture, two punctured lungs and a lacerated spleen. Hes already undergone several surgeries and more are scheduled in the coming weeks, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Caroline Edgar said.

The victim has been in critical condition and may still not survive, said Edgar. If the victim dies, the defendant will likely face additional charges.

Christopher Brito was run over by a car he was filming doing donuts at an illegal street event in Hudson Square, Manhattan, around midnight on Saturday, March 19.

Defense attorney Nicholas Ramcharitar said Greer tried to stay on scene as long as possible.

Ramcharitar said Greer is educated, has a good job and recently started his own business. He lost his dad and aunt to COVID, prompting him to move in with his mom, a nurse, in New Jersey. He has family in the Air Force and the NYPD, according to the lawyer.

Obviously, Your Honor, this is a terrible, terrible tragedy and accident, Ramcharitar told the judge. Being a young man, he may not [have known] how to handle this situation appropriately.
A parolee who did two stints in prison was charged Thursday with stomping and attempting to rape a woman on a Harlem street, leaving the victim in critical condition.

A hush fell over the Manhattan courtroom as a prosecutor read out the disturbing allegations against Rasheen Davis, 39.

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The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect walking down the street pulling on a pair of blue surgical gloves. (NYPD/DCPI)

While wearing a full ski mask, the defendant followed a woman walking down the street, put on surgical gloves, and proceeded to attack her, Assistant District Attorney Marcella Lupski said.

Davis allegedly attacked the 43-year-old stranger on March 18 on W. 123rd St. near Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, punching and kicking the victim just down the block from her home at about 11:30 p.m. Davis, wearing the ski mask, was caught on camera donning a pair of blue surgical gloves moments before the attack, authorities say.

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He robbed the woman before leaving her covered with garbage and clinging to life, prosecutors revealed Thursday.

Davis is charged with attempted murder, attempted rape, robbery and sex abuse. He was arraigned on Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was remanded without bail.

The victim was just down the block from her home when Davis, 39, sporting a ski mask, allegedly socked her in the head.

Davis repeatedly kicked and stomped the woman while she was down, then dragged her between two parked cars and tried to disrobe her, according to cops.

Surveillance video captured Davis over and over again, masturbating over the victim, stomping on her head, the prosecutor said.

Footage also shows him forcing the unconscious womans head on to his lap, the prosecutor said.

Davis eventually fled with the victims jacket, leaving her unconscious, naked, beaten and bruised next to a pile of trash. According to a criminal complaint, the suspect placed bags of garbage on the victim.

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The victim suffered severe head trauma and was taken to Harlem Hospital, where she remains in critical condition. She was sedated for many days because of her severe injuries, and brain damage, prosecutors said.

Davis, wearing Timberland boots, camouflaged pants, a black bomber jacket, and handcuffs, stared straight ahead saying nothing as the disturbing details were read in court. He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, rape and other related charges.

Prosecutors said Davis has three felony convictions and four misdemeanor convictions. He is on parole and has previously been rearrested on parole.

The prosecutor said Davis identified himself and the victim to detectives in surveillance images and admitted to the brutal beating.

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When he was taken into custody for the attempted rape he was also charged with robbery for allegedly slashing a 32-year-old man in the forehead on W. 116th St. on March 12 before running off with his victims cash, according to a criminal complaint. He was charged with assault and robbery in that case.

Davis has a criminal record stretching back to 1999.

Davis did two stints in prison, records show. He was sentenced to four years after being convicted of robbery and attempted robbery in 2001 and served 12 years behind bars for a first-degree robbery conviction in 2008. He was paroled in February 2020, state officials said.

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Before his latest arrest, his parole was scheduled to end in 2026.

Were glad they caught him, said a family member who asked not to be named. Its terrible what happened. Were still trying to process it. We just want her to get better.

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The victim is a longtime resident of a Harlem assisted living facility, which began primarily housing seniors after she moved in, neighbors said.

The super at the building said he was shocked.

Its unbelievable that anybody would do that to her, he said. She doesnt bother anybody. She stays to herself. She minds her own business and for someone to come out and do that to her, its just uncalled for.

Its disturbing that this happened right near her home, a neighbor added. Its crazy. This block is quiet and everybody knows each other. Its a family block. Everybody was shocked.

With Nicholas Williams
A retired NYPD cop fired a shot at a man who punched him in an apparently unprovoked attack in a Brooklyn garage early Thursday, cops said.

The 57-year-old retirees bullet didnt hit its target but pierced a parked car during the 5:45 a.m. clash in the underground garage on 101st St. near Fourth Ave. in Bay Ridge.

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A retired NYPD cop fired a shot at a man who punched him in an apparently unprovoked attack inside a Brooklyn garage early Thursday at 101st St. near Fourth Ave. in Bay Ridge. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

The retired cop entered the garage of a residential building when a 54-year-old man began yelling at him, police were told.

After a brief argument, the younger man lunged at the retired cop, punching him in the face, according to cops.

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A retired NYPD cop fired a shot at a man who punched him in an apparently unprovoked attack inside a Brooklyn garage early Thursday at 101st St. near Fourth Ave. in Bay Ridge. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

The retiree pulled out his weapon and fired off a round but the shot went wild. Cops called to the scene took the puncher into custody for questioning. No charges were immediately filed.

The former cop, who retired from the NYPD in 2007, suffered a smattering of bruises and was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn.

Cops were trying to determine if the men knew each other prior to the brawl, a police source said.
A suspected gunman has been arrested in the shooting death of a father of three who was trying to break up a fight outside a Bronx warehouse party, police said Wednesday.

Shamel Amos, 33, was fatally shot after a fight inside the venue on E. 139 St. near the Bruckner Expressway spilled out to the street Jan. 22.

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Shamel Amos, 33 (Obtained by Daily News)

Amos was shot in the stomach and both legs. After the gunfire, two men fled the scene in a dark-colored Honda CRV with Florida license plates.

Amos was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he died.

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Arrested in the bloodshed is Daniel Colon, 23, of Crotona. He was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.

Amos, who lived in Mott Haven with his wife and children, wasnt involved in the dispute inside the venue, his grieving wife said at the time of his death.

This was not his beef, Nickema Amos, 36, said. He was breaking up something, like he always does. Hes always trying to save somebody. Hes always been a peacemaker.

Amos said her husband worked as a party promoter, a videographer with a film company and owned a clothing line. His three children were aged 15, 13 and 10 at the time of his death.

He was a family man, he loved his children, he loved me, he was detail-oriented, he always had an idea, Nickema Amos said. He was smart, he was ambitious. He had dreams. He touched a lot of people.

Colons arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Wednesday night.

Police are still searching for another man involved in the shooting.
Oakwoodcements its leadership position among the world's top serviced apartment brands with sustained expansion in South Korea. The signing of a management agreement for Oakwood Hotel Cheongju, in the capital of North Chungcheong province, will increase the brand's footprint in South Korea to three properties, joining Oakwood Premier Coex Center Seoul in the capital and Oakwood Premier Incheon.

In partnership with A&D Partners Limited, Oakwood will manage the 250-key property comprising 150 hotel rooms and 100 apartments at the city's new Cheongju Millennium Town landmark, scheduled for opening in 2026.

The expansion to Cheongju "represents a strategic advancement for Oakwood in an emerging market for global hospitality brands", noted Mr Schreiber. The region's importance as an economic powerhouse is reinforced by the development of Cheongju Industrial Complex for the semiconductor, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, as well as the Cheongju Aeropolis aerospace cluster and traditional agriculture and tobacco industries.

Served by Cheongju International Airport, with direct links to China, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, the city is also a famous hub for academic institutions and universities, along with the Korea Air Force Academy and Korea National University of Education.

Tourist attractions in the vicinity include the ancient Sangdang Mountain Fortress on the slopes of Mount Uam, Cheongju National Museum, Heungdeoksa Temple, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and historic Chojeong Haenggung palace. Amid lush forests and mountains, the region is also a hub for outdoor adventure with numerous hiking, trail racing and mountain biking routes.

Hotel website
Following the multi-award-winning success of Hotel Brooklyn, Manchester which launched in 2020, the super-friendly Brooklyn brand is expanding to Leicester - set to open its second property this June 2022. Adjacent to the Welford Road Stadium, home of the famous Leicester Tigers rugby team, the 191-room hotel will again be inspired by the New York Borough, with an industrial aesthetic, impressive atrium and exposed brickwork.

Like its sister property in Manchester, the hotel interior and its accessible rooms have been overseen by SquidInc, with specific features also designed by Motionspot, the UK's leading accessible design company. Public spaces - including a working space, a Grandstand for watching films or live sport, a restaurant and bar - will all be significantly more expansive than the Manchester hotel. There will be a number of skyline suites, rooms with hot-tub terraces and executive suites with free-standing baths, dog-friendly rooms and quirky, modern lead-in rooms as well as spaces for sophisticated and fun corporate hospitality.

Bedrooms & Suites

Like Hotel Brooklyn Manchester, the aesthetic of the 191 bedrooms have been inspired by Brooklyn's loft spaces, peppered with immaculate features that favour quality and high-spec finishes, offering an atmosphere of irresistible familiarity. Beds have been upholstered in Burgundy leather, desk chairs are upholstered in soft fabrics and all rooms exhibit a feature wall inspired by the Graphic artist M.C. Escher: a mix of mathematical order and texture.

The Lair

The Lair will be the hub of the hotel with an open plan bar, restaurant and vibrant living / working space that will provide a flexible, social environment. Whilst the bar will be at the centre of the open plan space, it will be the stepped seating area - The Grandstand - that provides the signature Brookyn uniqueness: an area for social movies and acoustic nights, for small gatherings and even laptop working. Surrounding this, big comfy sofas and rich patterned armchairs will offer guests opportunities to lie back, read, enjoy a record from the in-house collection or similar catch-up with friends day or night.

Linked with the central bar the restaurant provides a comfortable, unassuming space for up to 120 guests, with a theatre style Kitchen & Servery creating an unpretentious, interactive guest experience between the kitchen and diners.

The Atrium

Guests arriving in the reception space at Hotel Brooklyn, Leicester, will enter a dynamic atrium space, an indoor street with all the familiarity of a Brooklyn neighbourhood. Flooded with light from vast glass frontage, this lively multi-functioning area will feature red brick, 'Ghost' signage and exposed steel gantries providing the perfect urban backdrop for the 'Pop Up Runyons' Bar.

Accessibility

True to the Brooklyn brand, superb design and access for all and careful thought to anyone needing special care will be at the centre of the hotel's philosophy. Hotel Brooklyn Leicester will push the boundaries for what a hotel should be offering as 'the norm' across all of its facilities. The hotel features 10 fully-accessible and 6 ambulant-accessible bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms in the style of Hotel Brooklyn Manchester featuring matt black brassware, grab rails and shower seats. All designed by Motionspot, we anticipate that these accessible rooms will soon become as well known and loved as they are in Manchester. All accessible rooms have adjoining rooms for carers if needed and back-of-house accessible changing and shower facilities ensure that the Brooklyn team can continue to be as diverse as its guests.

Event Room Concept

A versatile space that can be divided into 3 multi-functional rooms (Guys, Dolls and Curveballs) capable of accommodating all manner of events from meetings, celebrations, weddings and even screenings, with its state-of-the-art audio visual equipment and lighting.

Hotel website
Singapore  CapitaLand Investments (CLI) wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott) is investing in two properties in Ningbo, China and Amsterdam, the Netherlands for approximately S$190 million through Ascott Serviced Residence Global Fund (ASRGF)1, Ascotts private equity fund with Qatar Investment Authority. When fully deployed, the acquisitions will boost Ascotts total funds under management (FUM)2to S$9 billion.

In Ningbo, ASRGF has acquired two residential towers on a turnkey basis and the project will open as the 206-unit Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo in 2025. The serviced residence is located in Ningbos Hangzhou Bay New Town at the geographic centre of the Yangtze River Delta, Chinas economic powerhouse. Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo is also adjacent to the districts advanced manufacturing industrial zone where many Fortune 500 companies have established their facilities, generating corporate demand for the serviced residence.

The acquisition in Amsterdam is a rare freehold asset which will be refurbished and unveiled as Citadines Canal Amsterdam in 2023. The 93-unit serviced residence is strategically located in the citys Canal District, a renowned UNESCO World Heritage site. The property is also close to several regional offices of multinational corporations.

With the acquisitions of the two assets, there will be 10 properties with close to 2,000 units held under ASRGF. The fund has five operational properties  Ascott Sudirman Jakarta, La Clef Champs-Elysees Paris, Citadines Islington London, lyf Funan Singapore and Quest NewQuay Docklands Melbourne. Properties under development include lyf Gambetta Paris, Ascotts first lyf-branded coliving property in Europe, and Somerset Metropolitan West Hanoi. Both properties were acquired in June 2021 and are expected to open in 2024. Citadines Walker North Sydney is slated to launch in December 2022.

Mr Kevin Goh, CLIs Chief Executive Officer for Lodging, said: Ascotts key differentiator is our unique position as a vertically-integrated global lodging business with a strong foothold in Asia. We have expertise across the full value chain, from deal sourcing, investment, asset and fund management, as well as award-winning hospitality operations to generate the required returns for our capital partners. We will continue to work with our capital partners to grow our FUM through investment vehicles such as ASRGF and our newly established Student Accommodation Development Venture (SAVE), adding to the fee income stream from our asset management and property management capabilities.

Mr Mak Hoe Kit, Ascotts Managing Director for Lodging Funds and Head of Business Development & Investment Asset Management, said: The acquisitions of the two prime assets through ASRGF are a testament of our proven track record in deal sourcing and origination. The operational properties held under ASRGF have remained resilient amid COVID-19, supported by their excellent location and robust base of long-stay corporate guests and a strong domestic leisure travel market. The first property that was divested outperformed our expected underwriting. As we near the full deployment of ASRGF, we are exploring new opportunities to establish more lodging funds. Leveraging Ascotts global presence and experience across different types of lodging assets, we are focused on creating the right fund to meet the needs of our wide network of partners.

Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo, an asset in a fast-growing economic hub supported by transport infrastructure development

Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo () is within walking distance to commercial centres, schools and shopping malls. The property is also next to an upcoming transport hub that will be completed in 2026, driving further demand for accommodation in the vicinity. A cross-sea railway line connecting Hangzhou Bay New Town to Shanghai is slated for completion in 2026, enabling guests to commute between the two destinations via a 35-minute train ride. The serviced residence will also offer a mix of two- and three-bedroom apartments as well as facilities including a gymnasium, meeting rooms, a kids area and a residents lounge.

Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo will also be green-certified, designed and developed to achieve the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies)3certification.

Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo is in the heart of Ningbos Hangzhou Bay New Town, a key hub within the Zhejiang province. From the town, it is a two-hour drive to the economic centres of Hangzhou, Shanghai and Suzhou. Guests can also easily reach four international airports, including Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, as well as two international harbours, Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan and Port of Shanghai. Foreign direct investments in Ningbo increased by 32.7% in 20214. The positive investment momentum is expected to generate strong corporate demand for Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo.

Citadines Canal Amsterdam, a freehold asset in a prime location amid strong market fundamentals Located in the bustling and picturesque Canal District, Citadines Canal Amsterdam is a three minute walk to Vijzelgracht Metro Station. The station is a few stops to the Amsterdam Central Station and the citys Zuidas business district. The serviced residence is also within walking distance to popular attractions such as Heineken Experience, Albert Cuyp Market, Museum Square and the Royal Concert Hall. It is also near to several cultural, art, fashion and nightlife destinations.

Citadines Canal Amsterdam is expected to perform well with limited upcoming supply in the immediate vicinity.

Ideal for business and leisure guests, Citadines Canal Amsterdam will offer 93 studios and one bedroom apartments. Facilities at the serviced residence include a bar, a breakfast room and parking. Citadines Canal Amsterdam, which will be EDGE-certified, will also have sustainable features including double-glazed windows for thermal insulation as well as energy-efficient air handling units and heating system.

Ascotts presence in China and the Netherlands

Somerset Hangzhou Bay Ningbo adds to Ascotts footprint in China that comprises more than 37,000 units in 180 properties across more than 40 cities. These include tier one cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Ascott currently has over 800 units across four properties in Ningbo including Ascott Huaishu Road Ningbo and Citadines OCT Harbour Ningbo.

In the Netherlands, Citadines Canal Amsterdam will be Ascotts second property in the country. Ascott entered the Netherlands in 2019 with the opening of Citadines Sloterdijk Station Amsterdam.

1 Ascott set up the US$600 million Ascott Serviced Residence Global Fund in July 2015 through a 50:50 joint venture with Qatar Investment Authority 2 Refers to the share of total assets under listed and unlisted funds [private funds and/or investment vehicles (including but not limited to programmes, joint ventures and co-investments) 3 The EDGEs green building certification is an internationally-recognised green certification system created by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. In 2018, Ascott signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IFC to pioneer a green building certification for serviced residences, as part of IFCs EDGE system 4 Ningbo Municipal Statistics Bureau

About The Ascott Limited

The Ascott Limited (Ascott) is a Singapore company that has grown to be one of the leading international lodging owner-operators. Ascott's portfolio spans more than 200 cities across over 30 countries in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the USA.

Ascott has more than 78,000 operating units and over 57,000 units under development, making a total of more than 135,000 units in over 800 properties.

The company's serviced apartment, coliving and hotel brands include Ascott The Residence, The Crest Collection, Somerset, Quest, Citadines, lyf, Preference, Vertu, Harris, Citadines Connect, Fox, Yello, Fox Lite and POP!.

Ascott's loyalty programme, Ascott Star Rewards, offers exclusive benefits to its members when they book directly with Ascott for their stays at its participating properties.

Ascott, a wholly owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Investment Limited, pioneered Asia Pacific's first international-class serviced apartment with the opening of The Ascott Singapore in 1984. Today, the company boasts over 30 years of industry track record and award-winning brands that enjoy recognition worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.discoverasr.com.

About CapitaLand Investment Limited

Headquartered and listed in Singapore, CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) is a leading global real estate investment manager (REIM) with a strong Asia foothold. As at 31 December 2021, CLI had about S$122.9 billion of real estate assets under management, and about S$86.2 billion of real estate funds under management (FUM) held via six listed real estate investment trusts and business trusts, and 29 private funds across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and USA. Its diversified real estate asset classes cover integrated developments, retail, office, lodging, business parks, industrial, logistics and data centres.

CLI aims to scale its FUM and fee-related earnings through its full stack of investment management and operating capabilities. As the listed investment management business arm of the CapitaLand Group, CLI has access to the development capabilities of and pipeline investment opportunities from CapitaLand's development arm. Being a part of the well-established CapitaLand ecosystem differentiates CLI from other REIMs.

As part of the CapitaLand Group, CLI places sustainability at the core of what it does. As a responsible real estate company, CLI contributes to the environmental and social well-being of the communities where it operates, as it delivers long-term economic value to its stakeholders.

Visit http://www.capitalandinvest.com/ for more information.

Joan Tan

Assistant Vice President, Corporate Communications

+65 6713 2864

The Ascott Limited
Tempe, Arizona  Best Western Hotels & Resorts (BWHR) today announces the relaunch of its urban, upscale boutique brand, Vib, debuting a new prototype with the opening of Vib Tempe in Tempe, Arizona. The Tempe hotel joins the global Vib portfolio as a shining example of the newly relaunched brand, serving as a model for future Vib properties through its thoughtfully designed spaces that invite collaboration and socialization while still offering flexible function with a stylish flair.

The new Vib prototype is designed for urban and dense suburban areas, delivering the upscale vibrance and modern amenities that todays younger and more remote workforce are seeking such as unique Food & Beverage offerings in every hotel, said Ron Pohl, Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. Vib Tempe is the perfect example of what our Vib brand can offer to todays travelers and the next generation of hotel developers, and we are thrilled to welcome this property to our portfolio as our first corporate owned and managed property.

Best Westerns global headquarters have been part of the thriving Phoenix area for more than six decades. The opening of our Vib Tempe hotel not only represents a relaunch of this exciting boutique brand, but it also reflects our companys appreciation of this remarkable community and our commitment to grow our presence in the Valley of the Sun, said Larry Cuculic, President and Chief Executive Officer.

A reflection of the inter-connected modern world, Vib can be found at the heart of the fastest-moving cities around the globe. This successful new brand boasts 10 properties in its global pipeline including destinations like Cape Town, South Africa; Denver, Colorado; and the Greek island of Crete, joining hotels already open in Bangkok, Thailand; Antalya, Turkey; and Springfield, Missouri. The brand has garnered significant interest among developers who appreciate Vibs new, bold product offering which is also supported by BWHRs powerhouse brand. Every Vib hotel is given unparalleled systems and support and is on-boarded with access to BWHRs award-winning website, global partnerships and sales team, and state-of-the-art revenue management system. Hoteliers benefit from BWHRs reputation for providing superior guest service and gain access to the award-winning Best Western Rewards program, which boasts over 48 million members worldwide.

Vib not only appeals to the modern traveler with a truly engaging stay experience, but it also presents a tremendous investment opportunity for developers. To ensure developers are able to capitalize this exciting new prototype, we are excited to offer financial incentives associated with opportunities that line up the right market and the right operator. said Brad LeBlanc, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer.

Vib Tempe features a modern lobby designed for collaborating with peers, using as a workspace for the day, or socializing after a local sporting event. The versatile public space can also flex to provide an extended lobby with flexible furnishings suitable for large events and functions. Its Food & Beverage offerings include being the home to Arizonas first Cousins Maine Lobster restaurant bringing Maine lobster to the heart of downtown Tempe. The lobby bar provides the perfect hangout spot to indulge in crafted cocktails, light dining, and espresso beverages. The hotel also features a signature rooftop lounge offering guests breathtaking views of the valley.

"The investment by Best Western Hotels & Resorts in Tempe is proof that the tourism and hospitality industry in our community is of growing regional importance," said Tempe Mayor Corey Woods. "For those who attend special events like the Tempe Festival of the Arts or work for corporate offices in the new building at 100 Mill, the Vib will become a hotel of choice.

Developers across the globe have recognized the vast potential of this upscale brand, said Pohl. Vib balances tech-infused amenities that keep guests connected to the pulse of downtown culture, with contemporary comforts that create a relaxing escape from the hustle  and Vib Tempe is certainly no exception.

For more information on the Vib brand, please visit BestWesternDevelopers.com and Vib.BestWestern.com.

About BWH Hotel Group

BWH Hotel Group is a leading, global hospitality network comprised of three hotel companies, including WorldHotels Collection, Best Western Hotels & Resorts and SureStay Hotel Group. The global network boasts approximately 4,500 hotels in over 100 countries and territories worldwide*. With 18 brands across every chain scale segment, from economy to luxury, BWH Hotel Group suits the needs of developers and guests in every market.

* Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.

* Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.

**All Best Western, WorldHotels and SureStay branded hotels are independently owned and operated.
The Hague is delighted to announce the appointment of Roeland Vos as a member of the Board of Trustees effective 1st April 2022. Vos complements the Board with his extensive experience in the hotel industry and relevant network. His expertise will assist Hotelschool The Hague in the development of the curriculum and the expansion of the research programmes. In January 2023, Vos will succeed our current Chairman Wolfgang M. Neumann, who will step down after having served nine years on the board.

WOLFGANG NEUMANN: "We are delighted to welcome Roeland Vos to the Board of Trustees of Hotelschool The Hague. He is a recognised industry leader with an impressive track record. No doubt, he will further strengthen the close relationship with the hospitality industry and support the Management Team and Board of Directors in positioning Hotelschool The Hague as one of the leading hotel schools worldwide."

Roeland Vos has decades of experience in various leadership positions within the hospitality industry. Having lived and worked in nine different countries, he brings an extensive international network and fluently speaks multiple languages. For many years he served as president of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Vos is currently CEO of Belmond Ltd., a global hospitality company that operates 46 luxury hotels, train services, and river cruises. Mr. Vos also holds several supervisory positions, including at the Dutch catering company Albron.

ROELAND VOS: "I am honoured to have the opportunity to join the Board of Trustees of Hotelschool The Hague and look forward to supporting the continued growth and reputation of this wonderful institution. Coming back to my Alma Mater and being able to contribute to the development of the future leaders of this industry makes this a very exciting role to fulfill.

REGINE VON STIEGLITZ, PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS: "It is a great privilege to welcome Roeland Vos to the Board of Trustees of Hotelschool The Hague. With his extensive knowledge and experience of our industry, we want to continue to build together on developing the curriculum and expanding various Hotelschool The Hague research programmes."

About Hotelschool The Hague

Hotelschool The Hague was founded in 1929 and is one of the oldest independent hotel schools in the world. The school has been renowned for its education and innovative research. It has two campuses, one in The Hague and one in Amsterdam, with more than 2.850 students and 250 employees. Hotelschool The Hague has been voted the best public hotel school in the Netherlands since 2014 and ranks among the top hospitality management schools worldwide according to QS World University Rankings. Furthermore, according to Keuzegids, the school has had the best Master in Business Administration since 2019. Graduates of Hotelschool The Hague hold management positions in the hospitality industry worldwide. www.hotelschool.nl

Nina de Graaf

Marketing & Communication Specialist

+31 88 028 1800

Hotelschool The Hague

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The peak around New Years Eve is a time for libationary holiday parties (albeit downsized this year due to Omicron), resolutions that are rarely kept and listicles that are merely skimmed. Our hope is that the brief words here will nudge you away from that last habit, helping you realize that one of the best goals you can set for 2022 is to devote more attention to fully comprehending each article to derive the grander trends with specific applications.

First, though, lets look back in time a bit. In case you havent read Daniel Kahnemans groundbreaking 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow, this was indeed the inspiration for the title of this article because there are many trends currently affecting hospitality that jive with the authors overall thesis. After the immediate upgrades and changes in methodology were implemented to combat the spread of COVID-19, the prolonged spasticity of this pandemic has since led many hoteliers to go to ground by doubling down on ingrained, antecovidian principles about how to run a hotel such as having an ever-scrupulous eye for cost savings and precise yielding to maximize occupancy.

Short-Term Virus, Long-Term Data

As we look ahead to a year that we all hope will see the final cessation of Greek-alphabet-styled variants and a full-fledged return of international travel, the battle is far from over. In fact, its only just begun.

The pandemic has accelerated the technological conquest of the world and the natural formation of data-oriented, winner-take-all industries. Things are changing so fast that unless you adapt quickly and instill new habits that allow for rapid adjustments to processes as future events occur  that is, convert conscious experiments and new activities at all levels of operations into updated patterns of automaticity  you, and perhaps entire companies, will be left behind in the ongoing Great Tech Reset.

Your first thought may be that this is yet another ominous warning against the continued loss of market share to Airbnb and the rest of the home sharing cohort. It is that, yes, but much more. It isnt just that these Silicon Valley upstarts have converted nearly every millennial and centennial to think Airbnb first, hotel second, its the pace at which theyve accomplished this change (under a decade, more or less) as well as the way these organizations are structured for exponential growth.

Airbnb has a leaner team than most other hospitality companies, excellent branding, better technology, more granular data on its customers and a larger network effect to scale faster than any traditional hospitality organization. While this company has expanded the total number of worldwide travelers, whos to say that another voracious entrant doesnt soon adopt the core practices of Airbnb and blindside our industry?

As boomers die off (sorry for the gloom, but this is an inevitability over the next three decades, longevity clinics notwithstanding), you have to start planting the seeds for the next two generations of travelers who are highly intelligent bargain hunters, exceedingly tech-savvy, obnoxiously impatient as a consequence of being glued to their phones all day and largely apathetic to most non-luxury, non-experiential hotel brands.

What to Do in 2022

This hellfire and brimstone stated, there are still many short-term trends for the year ahead that are relatively painless to incorporate into your operations and can build upon your already well-honed skills (fast thinking).

Lets list them off with only passing descriptions so as to not interrupt the headline scanners among us:

Minimize labor costs via automation. Lean teams are the new modus operandi for hotels to maintain some semblance of healthy margins in an erratic travel landscape. Outsource where you can to limit variable labor costs. With fewer managers, supervisors and frontline staff, theres also a lot of repetitive work that is ripe for bots to commandeer. Management platforms must be integrated with each other or mapped to external channels so that manual data transfer is no longer needed, while setting up AI-based tools like smart voice technologies, chatbots or intelligent yielding programs are set to greatly enhance team responsiveness and occupancy respectively. Stayover cleaning opt-in as the new normal. Again, housekeeping costs must be kept low, not only to drive NOI but also because were still in a very tight labor market. To our advantage, though, a guest expectation thats here to stay from the pandemic is that mid-stay cleans are no longer necessarily wanted (except perhaps for the luxury segment). Housekeeping opt-out was in vogue before COVID-19, yet now opt-in is fashionable, and you can deploy technology to render this a possibility while also saving on labor costs or perhaps making this an upsell. Continuing professional development. Employee churn or turnover is a death knell to progress because it costs too much to recruit and onboard new hires to the point where they are able to take on the complex work that will actually advance the organizations strategic goals. Moreover, you cant just keep offering higher salaries as thats a surefire way to land in the red on any income statement. Rather, the solution is CPD; design programs that motivate your teams through the prospects of higher education, personal development and self-actualization. Garnering great reviews. We list this as a low hanging fruit because often the difference between a two-star and a five-star review is a combination of fixing that maintenance issue in Room 237 and having an exceptionally attentive team to compensate for any shortcomings with genuine compassion. As many great hoteliers have said at various points in their careers, something as simple as greeting a guest by name goes a long way. Just as the pandemic has reset our behaviors in numerous other ways, as guests start to rediscover their travel options, they are also more intensely scrutinizing recent hotel reviews to see that properties service levels have likewise reset or even improved since 2019.

Thinking Beyond Next Year

Now for the long-term trends that hoteliers must be cognizant of, for which all will require deep ruminations (slow thinking), numerous discussions and, ultimately, actions. What we advise here is to pay attention to the overarching cultural narratives  the zeitgeist if you will  and not fight each as they take hold of the terrain. Of course, like a rower moving against the flow of a river, you can buck these trends, but youll be sweating buckets by the end of it and likely incur a lower back injury. The path of least resistance is to find ways to embrace these changes with bonus points for early adoption.

Given this, heres whats ahead over the next decade and what you will inevitably have to address:

Technological and data consolidation. Hotel tech stacks are complex, with many prominent vendors now overlapping in features and capabilities. This will only progress even further until the point where all a hotel will need is a PMS with a holistic operations management system that sits on top of it as well as a customer data platform (CDP) to amalgamate everything CRM-related and all other disparate touchpoints in the value chain. Now is the time to start mapping out how to get to as simple a tech stack as possible so as to make these systems easier to use for managers, have better data on your guests and to reduce SaaS expenses. Experiential hotels. Heads in beds is a recipe for commoditization which unavoidably leads to more price elasticity and reduced rates all round as guests have fewer emotional reasons to select your brand over the nearest low-balling competitor. A prominent solution is to give guests an immutable justification for choosing your property over any other. What elevates your branding and property theme? What makes your hotels onsite experience irreplaceable? The tactics toward this are manifold such as having fantastic facilities, unique guestroom amenities or creating the best social atmosphere around. Climate change and sustainability. As weird weather and natural disasters increase around the world at a regular chip, companies in every industry will be called upon to do their part. While this may be easy to dismiss right now  unless youre operating a hotel in, say, New Orleans where youre living on borrowed time before the levees break again  there will come a time when your tax bill goes up precipitously due to new carbon offset inclusions. Moreover, guests (particularly the more socially conscious ones in younger generations) are becoming increasingly sensitive to this issue and are voting with their wallets for businesses that show that they care. Blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Theres a lot of hype here and perhaps a huge economic bubble waiting to burst, but that doesnt mean this technology wont have enduring utilities over the long run. Will guests expect to be able to pay for their stays in bitcoin or ether within the next few years? Probably not, but maybe by 2030. Either way, this space is snowballing, so at the very least you must learn about how blockchains work as well as some of their most common applications such as smart contracts, nonfungible tokens or for the buzzy metaverse.

All the long-term trends for your organization cant be solved in a day and thus require discipline and due process. To close, our advice is to, in a word, leapfrog the competition. Right now, there are those trends that are hot for 2022 but  besides those that are compulsory such as those related to COVID-19 safety measures  you should already be looking ahead to 2023 or 2024.

If you have a visionary outlook (slow, deliberate thinking) that isnt merely a weathervane to the trends of the week and a reversion to your preformed habits (fast, ingrained thinking), then you are going to get ahead of the next big thing rather than continually chase and play catchup. The next few years will see ongoing, rapid changes and we hope that you are able to take advantage of them and usher in a new era of success for your company. All the best for 2022!

Larry Mogelonsky

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited

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Gulf Coast Commercial Group, a Houston-based firm specializing in retail development, management and leasing, relocated from the Westchase District to a new office on the second floor of Town & Country Village at 788 W. Sam Houston Parkway North. Kara Williams of Houston-based MakrDesign updated the nearly 5,000-square-foot former Stewart Title office with a modern color palette and lighting, glass conference room and contemporary furniture in the lobby. Town & Country Village was represented by Moody Rambin. The convenience of being in a low-rise structure with shops and restaurants withing walking distance factored into the relocation, said Gulf Coast Commercial Group President Tom Lile. The company has overseen more than eight million square feet in retail developments in 12 states since 1999.

SPB Hospitality, a national operator and franchiser of steakhouses, brewery and craft-beer focused restaurants, leased 42,290 square feet on the fifth floor of The Offices at Greenhouse at 19219 Katy Freeway near Greenhouse Road in the Energy Corridor for its headquarters. Built in 2014, the five-story, 203,284 square-foot office building is owned by KBS Growth & Income Real Estate Investment Trust. Brad Fricks of Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord. Jon Silberman and Pierce Beyer of NAI Partners represented the tenant. The building, which has an outdoor courtyard and a large conference center, is near restaurants, daycare centers and shopping centers.
A one-time Colombo crime family street boss violent life of crime could end with his death behind bars.

A Brooklyn federal judge rejected the latest appeal from cancer-stricken mobster Thomas Tommy Shots Gioeli for a compassionate release from prison, declaring the inmates murderous Mafia career outweighed any arguments for his freedom.

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The unfortunate fact in this case is that the defendants crimes were so heinous and the nature of his leadership role so dangerous that release would not be appropriate, wrote Judge Brian M. Cogan in the Wednesday decision. The motion is therefore denied.

Thomas Tommy Shots Gioeli, alleged acting head of the Colombo crime family, is escorted by FBI agents from Federal Plaza in Manhattan. (Hermann, Marc, A./for New York Daily News)

Cogan previously shot down a May 2020 appeal for Gioelis freedom based on the ailing gangsters fears of contracting COVID-19. The judge, in his latest ruling, acknowledged Gioelis health woes but declined to set him free.

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I find the defendants medical status has deteriorated to the point where he has satisfied his burden of showing extraordinary and compelling reasons (for release) under the statute, he wrote in the seven-page decision.

However, the assessment of the sentencing factors has not changed and that assessment precludes release.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Gioeli, 70, was convicted at a 2012 federal racketeering trial for conspiring to killer supporters of then-family boss Little Vic Orena during a lethal war for control of the Colombo family. He was sentenced to 18 years behind bars.

The family capo, heading a faction loyal to imprisoned head Carmine Junior Persico, was bumped up to street boss during the bloody battle where 13 victims were killed  including a teen bagel shop worker gunned down in a case of mistaken identity.

Cogan, in his decision, noted Gioeli and his crew committed multiple murders that I know of from the evidence at trial ... The evidence of these murders was again detailed, grisly and left me with no doubt as to the defendants involvement.

According to court papers, Gioeli was diagnosed last year with a recurrence of bladder cancer followed by surgery and now receives weekly injections of hormones to battle the illness. The cancers return followed an 18-month stretch where Gioeli received no follow-up medical treatment behind bars, court papers said.

We will never know if his bladder cancer could have been caught earlier, and perhaps treated more effectively, wrote Cogan.

Gioeli famously collected a $250,000 settlement after an August 2013 slip and fall during a prison ping-pong game left him with a fractured kneecap. The mobster needed surgery and spent a month in the hospital after the accident.

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But Cogan, in a November 2019, ruled the financial windfall should go for restitution to a fur store and a bank robbed by the gangster and his crew back in the 90s.
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TEXAS HILL COUNTRY  Its a breezy, sunny Friday in Comfort, population 3,717.

The grapevines at Bending Branch Winery near the lazy Bruins Creek have dried up in the cold January air, and winery technician Melvin Mendez is still out pruning them, getting ready for the July-through-October harvest season.

Despite the chill in the air, at noon the tasting room is expecting visitors. Theyll come to try the winerys signature Estate Tannat red wine as they sit on the outdoor, shaded patio overlooking the rolling hills that gave the Hill Country its name.

From that vantage point, its not hard to imagine why Bending Branch  along with hundreds of other wineries, breweries and distilleries  came to call the Hill Country home over the past two decades.

Were one of the fastest-growing winery tourism regions in the country, says Jennifer McInnis, the general manager of Bending Branch Winery. I think people come here for soil and elevation, but also just the fact that there are already wineries here and the whole Hill Country wine region between San Antonio and Austin means there are millions of people nearby.

In fact, over the past decade, the winery, brewery and distillery industry in the 25 counties that make up the Hill Country has seen explosive growth.

Josie Norris /Staff photographer Melvin Mendez secures hose lines in the vineyard while Erin Shields opens a bottle for tasting at the Bending Branch Winery in Comfort. (Josie Norris /Staff Photographer) Melvin Mendez secures hose lines in the vineyard while Erin Shields opens a bottle for tasting at the Bending Branch Winery in Comfort. (Josie Norris /Staff Photographer)

According to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the state agency that regulates the Texas alcohol industry, 35 winery permits were active in the Hill Country in December 2011. Ten years later, in December 2021, there were 254. Thats an increase of 625 percent.

And although wineries are the most popular type of alcohol producer in the Hill Country by far, permits for breweries and distilleries also have seen sharp increases, according to TABC data.

In December 2011, there were five active distillery permits in the 25 Hill Country counties, compared with 71 in December 2021  more than a thirteenfold increase. The number of active brewer permits grew from five to 49 over the same period  a nearly ninefold increase.

TEXAS' PREMIER WINE REGION: Here's your guide to Texas Hill Country wineries

So, why the sudden and sharp growth?

It partly has to do with elevation, soil and views, of course. But theres also a solid if you build it, they will come mentality in the Hill Country, said January Weise, the executive director of Texas Hill County Wineries, a nonprofit trade association that organizes and promotes the regions wineries.

The notoriety is here. The opportunity is here. The wine infrastructure is here, Weise said. Its great to have a large group of wineries in a single area because that draws people in.

The wine economy

The Hill Countrys characteristic rolling terrain, wide open spaces and ample land for planting, growing and producing all types of alcohol, as well as its abundant population growth and economic incentives, have helped draw companies.

A 2017 study from Texas Tech University found that the Texas wine industry had a $13.1 billion economic impact, and the Hill Country saw about 1.7 million tourists each year. No comprehensive industry studies have been done looking at the Hill Country in particular since then, but anecdotally, Weise said, the growth and impact have been astronomical.

There are more wineries, more guests, more visitors. Everyones telling their friends and neighbors about this area, she said. Wineries are entering competitions and gaining notoriety. The industry and the nation are taking notice of the Texas Hill Country, and thats having a huge, positive impact.

Photos by Josie Norris /Staff photographer

Economically and population-wise, the Hill Country shows no sign of slowing down, and wine country tourism is expected to continue to rise in the coming years.

The wineries have provided more jobs and opportunities for Hays County residents, especially in the bigger areas, Weise said. In places like Dripping Springs, you cant drive a mile without seeing a sign for another brewery or distillery.

Out-of-state business

The Hill Countrys wine scene is becoming so popular that its drawing not just local, Texas-bred winemakers but out-of-state enthusiasts and businesspeople as well.

Sarah and Brice Garrett call themselves millennial winemakers. They got their start in Paso Robles, Calif., in 2015. Their winery, Serrano Wine, quickly took off in the California wine scene, attracting a younger generation of wine enthusiasts and building a healthy brand in the countrys most famous wine region.

But in 2021, the couple decided they wanted to move their operation to a region that had more room for growth. After a search that included properties in New York, Washington state and Oregon, the Garretts found their patch of dream land in Hye, a small, unincorporated community in western Blanco County.

Josie Norris /Staff photographer

We saw this region as brimming with opportunity, and I think it can surpass Napa as the most visited wine region in the country, Sarah Garrett said. We thought, This is a place that can grow, just like us.

A big selling point for the Garretts was how business-friendly Texas laws are compared to Californias.

The advantage is welcome, given that we dont have Texas oil money or California tech money; we dont even have employees, she said. Were really doing this all on our own.

The Garretts moved to the 10-acre Hye property in late 2021. Theyre building a full winery and tasting room, as well as planting 4 acres of vines.

Theyve spent their first few months as Texas residents visiting other wineries and building a rapport with fellow winemakers.

Weise said the more wineries that come to the Hill Country, the better.

Usually you dont want competitors right down the street, but in this case it can really benefit these businesses, because it makes the entire region a destination, she said.

The regions hilly terrain makes it ideal for grape-growing, and Serrano Wine will be one of a handful of Hill Country wineries to grow their own grapes. About 80 percent of the regions winemaking grapes currently come from the Texas High Plains region, which has 8,000 acres in production.

While the Hill Country encompasses about 9 million total acres, not all that land is amenable to grape growing. But on land that is suitable, more acres are devoted to grape growing. While the region had about 450 acres of vines 10 years ago, it has about 1,500 acres now.

Josie Norris /Staff photographer

Because the Hill Country region is so vast, theres real diversity in the types of grapes it can grow, as different varietals grow well in different areas.

The soil and climate isnt going to be the same across the entire Hill Country region, Weise said. The man who owns Driftwood Estates Winery (in Driftwood) says that chardonnay does fantastic at his place, but over near Johnson City, they say chardonnay doesnt grow well over there.

Bending Branchs 56-acre property slopes north to south and is ideal for grape-growing and winemaking, though it also sources grapes from California, where it has a sister vineyard, and from the High Plains. The winery produces about 25,000 cases of wine each year; that comes out to 1.5 million glasses, in case you dont drink wine by the case.

The elevation is higher here, the drainage is good, and the soil is good for growing grapes, said Bob Young, the owner of Bending Branch. Plus, its beautiful.

Josie Norris /Staff photographer

Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. annie.blanks@express-news.net.
Like other restaurants, barbecue joints are facing increasing operational costs. For the most part, diners have taken the associated menu price increases in stride, though you will see occasional grumbles on various online foodie groups.

For a diner scratching their head about price increases, the most important thing to remember is that the additional money isnt going into the owners pocket. The owners are increasing prices to cover the rising costs of raw ingredients.

Consider a pound of prime brisket at your local barbecue joint. Several years ago, the per-pound price was $20-$24. Today it is $28-$34.

Why the increase? The full explanation could fill a book, but for our purposes, lets say its an imbalance of supply and demand. There is currently a huge demand for beef in general, related to the reopening of the economy after the pandemic. And there is an extraordinary demand for brisket, due in part to the nationwide popularity of Texas-style barbecue.

On the other side of the economic coin, beef supply has been limited. Depending on who you ask, this is due to supply chain disruptions (according to beef packers) or the monopolization of the beef packing industry (according to cattlemen and consumer rights organizations).

The Brisket House 3301 Cypress Creek Parkway; 832-286-1487 See More Collapse

In any case, when you combine high demand with low supply, prices go up.

How does this translate to your local barbecue joint menu? Lets go back to that pound of prime brisket.

Like all businesses, restaurants want to make a profit; that is, take in more income than they pay in expenses.

Very generally, restaurant expenses can be classified into three categories: food, labor and operations (rent and utilities, also called overhead). Ideally, when you pay for food at a restaurant, 30 percent of that goes to food cost, 30 percent to labor cost, 30 percent to operating cost, with 10 percent as a profit to the owner.

Now lets translate that formula to a pound of brisket that costs $30, which is a typical price around Houston nowadays.

Nine dollars goes to the cost of the meat and spices, $9 goes the employees who cooked and served it, and $9 goes to overhead. In a perfect world, $3 would go to the owner as profit.

Alas, beef prices are far from perfect nowadays, and the cost to produce a pound of brisket is closer to $12, which translates to a 40 percent food cost. That extra $3 is essentially transferred from the owners profit. When it comes to a pound of brisket, many barbecue joints are now selling it at cost, or even taking a small loss.

How is that sustainable? By promoting other less expensive meats like pulled pork and turkey. Emphasizing menu items with lower food costs in the range of 20-25 percent, they can make up for the 40 percent food cost of the brisket.

The slight offset that brings food cost down a few points is the mix of sausage, pulled pork, turkey and chicken, according to Wayne Kammerl, owner of The Brisket House restaurants.

In addition to the constant shuffling of menu prices, barbecue joints are implementing other techniques to lower costs and increase income. They are turning brisket trimmings into sellable menu items such as sausage and hamburgers. And some are adding new revenue streams  think bars where beer and cocktails have more favorable cost percentages.

jcreid@jcreidtx.com

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On this day in 1950, the staff of the Daily Cougar on the University of Houston campus set up a dawn-to-dusk observation post to keep an eye out for flying saucers.

It came after multiple reports earlier in the month that UFOs had been spotted over Harris County. Some of the witnesses said they were asked to detail their encounter by someone claiming to represent the Air Force, though the folks at Ellington Air Force Base denied its personnel were doing such interviews.
Authorities responded Wednesday to a north Harris County bank where the FBI said there was an attempted robbery of an armored car and an exchange of gunfire.

Three armed suspects fired at an armored car guard around 1:32 p.m. at the Comerica Bank at 855 FM 1960 after getting out of a black Mercedes, according to the FBI. The guard, who had been servicing an ATM machine there, fired back, per the FBI.
An adult novelty store has sued Missouri City officials for withholding a permit last December shortly before the store was scheduled to open.

An attorney representing Cindie's, a retail store with lingerie and adult products, on Wednesday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas asking a judge to order the city to provide a permit that would allow the store to open for business.

In the lawsuit, the store asks the court to declare that Cindie's is not an adult novelty store as defined by a Missouri City ordinance.

It alleges that the city's ordinance is "unconstitutionally vague," allowing for unequal interpretation and enforcement of the code that defines and regulates sexually oriented businesses.

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Cindie's has 30 stores in Texas and Louisiana, including more than a dozen locations in the Houston metropolitan area.

The company planned to open a new location last December at a Missouri City strip mall off Texas 6 near a liquor store, grocer and handful of restaurants.

The company leased space, received the necessary building permits from the city and passed inspections, according to the lawsuit.

The store was "completely transparent about the nature of its business and was advised by (Missouri City) officials that they could proceed with their lease and build-out," according to the lawsuit.

However, city officials denied the store an occupancy permit "at the last minute" after determining that it was a sexually oriented business not permitted to operate in the retail zone, the lawsuit alleges.

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In the lawsuit, the attorney representing the store argues that Cindie's is an "ordinary retail store."

The store carries items like intimate apparel, gag gifts for bachelor and bachelorette parties and adults toys, according to the lawsuit, but these make up less than a quarter of the inventory.

The attorney argues that traditional retailers in Missouri City like Wal-mart, Target and CVS sell similar adult products, including vibrators, condoms and body lotions.

"There is no justification to treat (Cindie's) differently from all other retail stores which sell comparable products in comparable locations," the lawsuit says.

City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

anna.bauman@chron.com
A woman repeatedly punched in an unprovoked attack on a Brooklyn train believes her attackers followed her from a subway station in Manhattan, the victim told the Daily News on Thursday.

The 28-year-old Department of Transportation employee was waiting for an A train at the Fulton St. Station in Manhattan after a shift March 2.

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NYPD released photos of two men who repeatedly punched a woman in the face on a Brooklyn train and then punched a straphanger who jumped in to help. (DCPI)

The assailants randomly approached her and two of her coworkers on the platform and began hurling insults, she recounted.

Those guys were looking for trouble at Fulton Street, said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous. I was ignoring them. They were being aggressive on the platform, calling me names, acting rude and threatening me.

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The woman and her colleagues retreated upstairs and waited for the strangers to move along.

About 10 minutes later, her coworkers left to catch a train uptown and she made her way back to the platform heading for downtown Brooklyn.

The woman took a seat on the crowded train but to her dismay, spotted one of the harassers, who snarled at her: What did you say now?

I didnt even know they were on the train. They were definitely stalking me, she said.

As the train thundered toward the Jay St.-MetroTech station in downtown Brooklyn, the men randomly attacked the 5-foot, 2-inch. woman, punching her in the face multiple times.

A 29-year-old passenger seated next to the woman jumped in to break up the fight.

They busted his mouth open. It couldve been worse for him and he was just helping me. He didnt deserve that, she lamented.

When the train stopped, the men hopped off and fled. They were still being sought Thursday, police said.

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The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

The woman, a Brooklyn native, was taken to NYU Langone Health  Cobble Hill in stable condition. She suffered headaches and bruising to her nose and hand for several days following the attack.

The good Samaritan who stepped in refused medical attention at the scene, cops said.

It was a really traumatic experience, she told The News. You dont have to do anything to get attacked on the train nowadays. I was doing nothing. I was scared for my life.

The victim called upon Mayor Adams to tackle crime in the citys transit system.

Its too dangerous to ride the train? Its ridiculous, the victim scoffed. The mayor needs to do something about this.

Last month, police investigated 182 crimes in transit, a 73% uptick compared to the 105 incidents in the same month last year.

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My advice to women in this city is to be alert, the woman warned. Dont be on your phone and carry something that can protect you. Have your head up and keep alert. No one is going to help you. Trust me, everybodys going to mind their business.
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DALLAS  A group dedicated to finishing the work of World War IIs Monuments Men who protected cultural treasures is betting on a deck of playing cards  and reward money  to help find missing works of art taken by the Nazis.

Inspired by the U.S. militarys history of creating playing cards related to missions, the Dallas-based Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art on Wednesday announced the creation of the deck focusing on works  including paintings, sculptures and reliquaries  they believe still exist.

What is needed is to raise awareness about what is missing, said Anna Bottinelli, the foundations president. Because you might know of a friend who has a beautiful painting on the wall and you dont even question that that painting belongs to someone else.

The group, which is offering rewards of up to $25,000 for information leading to the recovery of each cultural object featured in the deck, will highlight a few of the cards each week on their social media.

Bottinelli said the foundation worked with museums, law enforcement and owners of lost art as they narrowed down which works to feature, which include those by Vincent van Gogh, Caravaggio and Claude Monet.

Many of these have resurfaced in the recent past  even as late as 2008  in auctions, Bottinelli said.

The deck, being sold through the foundation and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, is a nod to a U.S. military tradition that includes a deck featuring the most-wanted fugitives from the Iraq War and one from WWII designed to help soldiers identify aircraft, Bottinelli said.

FBI Special Agent Christopher McKeogh, a New York-based member of the agencys Art Crime Team, said he thinks theres a misconception that because its been nearly 80 years since the end of the war, that most of the missing art has been found.

Theres still a lot of artwork to still be on the lookout for, McKeogh said, noting that the Nazis looting was on a scale that is really hard to comprehend.

McKeogh said that in some cases, people havent realized an artworks past until taking it to a gallery or an auction house.

In those cases, well take steps to seize it and hopefully repatriate the artwork, McKeogh said, adding that once such a history is uncovered, owners are usually very willing to have it returned.

We can never undo the atrocities of the war, but any little thing that we can do to reunite one of these works with the heirs, its an important thing, McKeogh said.

Robert Edsel, founder and chairman of the Monuments Men foundation, said that for those who do realize they own looted art, this is a chance for people to do the right thing, to come forward, to address the problem.

Edsel started the foundation in 2007 to honor the group of men and women from Allied countries, many with art expertise, who served during WWII to protect cultural treasures as battles waged, and after the war helped return artwork plundered by the Nazis to the rightful owners.

He has written several books on the Monuments Men, including one that the movie The Monuments Men, starring and directed by George Clooney, was based on.

The foundation gets frequent calls from people wondering about objects from the war, and has over the years helped return more than 30, including a 16th century tapestry taken by a U.S. officer from Adolf Hitlers Eagles Nest retreat near the end of the war. The officers family gave the tapestry to a German museum in 2016.

In addition to the 52 works of art in the deck, two cards  the jokers  each feature a set of Nazi photo albums of artwork which have missing volumes. Theres reason to hope someone might come across one: The foundation has already found five that had been brought home by U.S. soldiers after the war as souvenirs.

It has always been a joy for us to see how much gratitude there was on both parties: The party that was returning something and the party that was receiving, Bottinelli said.
Houstons premier art museum faced off with a Chilean family in federal court Thursday over allegations the museum improperly obtained an 18th-century painting a Jewish collector was forced to sell to the Nazis before World War II. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has documented its contention that the sale of the landscape work by Bernardo Bellotto occurred through proper channels and at the behest of the litigants ancestors.

The collectors family believe the sale was made through Adolf Hitlers art dealer under duress  amid antisemitic economic pressure that left many Jews suddenly bereft  and they want the painting to be returned. The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art has taken a rare stand in the case, weighing in on the familys behalf with the argument that MFAH has an urgent dutyto promptly return the Bellotto painting to its rightful heirs.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison heard argument in Houston on the question of whether the heirs case should proceed to trial. He indicated at the end of the hearing he would rule on the matter at a later date.

OTHER DISPUTED WORK: MFAH investigating claims it owns a painting looted by Nazis

Art once owned by wealthy Jewish families was confiscated by Hitlers troops and in some cases stashed away during the occupation. In other cases, Jews were cut off entirely from their money and stripped of their livelihood, according to Robert M. Edsel, author of The Monuments Men and founder and chair of the eponymous foundation. They sold whatever they could under extreme conditions, he said. In many cases, they were then shipped to concentration camps and death camps never to see their homes or belongings, let alone their loved ones, again, said Edsel, who also consulted on the George Clooney film based on his book.

In desperate circumstances there are all sorts of deals made because youve got to find a way to put food on the table, pay the rent, said Edsel, who traveled to Houston for the hearing. In horrific times people are moved to do business.

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CARDS FOR LOST ART: Texas group hopes playing card deck will help find art Nazis stole

Some prominent U.S. museums, including the Met in New York, settled claims for art looted by the Nazis or sold under duress around the time the United States endorsed the international Washington Principles, which called for just and fair solutions in assessing claims about looted art, according to the New York Times. The Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth also agreed to hand over a Joseph Mallord William Turner painting that belonged to a French family before it was seized by Nazis, according to Edsel. The family put the 1841 painting for auction at Christies and the Kimbell Museum bought it back for nearly $6.5 million, he said.

Discoveries in Austrian salt mine

A group of European and American curators, historians and librarians who came to be known as the Monuments Men discovered thousands of these purloined paintings in a salt mine in Austria  as well as others Nazis had stashed in about 1,500 locations including caves, castles and monasteries.

The grandchildren of one collector sued the Houston museum, saying they are rightful owners of a painting that was among those works unearthed by the Monuments Men in the salt mine.

The painting in question,The Marketplace at Pirna, stems from a commission for King Augustus III of Poland, who also held the title Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, according to a court document. The realistic urban landscape  of a city that now belongs to modern Germany  shows a bustling marketplace with the Sonnenstein Castle in the background. Bellotto painted several smaller autographed replicas of the original marketplace for other patrons, a common practice by artists in that time.

One of these replicas later belonged to Max James Emden, a German Jewish department store magnate and art collector whose heirs have pushed for restitution for the work they say was stolen from the collection Emden kept in Switzerland, where he lived on a private island on Lago Maggiore in the Alps.

The museum says in a backgrounder post on its website that before the war, Emden took steps to sell three Bellotto paintings through a Jewish gallery owner to Hitlers art dealer Karl Haberstock for a museum the fuhrer was planning. Many works destined for Hitlers museum were hidden during the war.

The Houston museums researcher found that after Berlin fell in May 1945 the three Emden Bellottos were brought to a central collecting point in Munich. Two of these works became property of the German government, because they were believed to have been acquired through a voluntary, uncoerced sale. In 2019, a German commission returned these paintings to the Emden heirs after determining Max Emden had sold all three paintings due to persecution. The commission believed at the time the third Bellotto was lost.

The third Bellotto Pirna

The third Bellotto of the Pirna marketplace, known as 1025 Pirna, is now believed to be the museums painting. That work was mistakenly returned by the Allies to the Dutch government in 1946, and then through official channels, the museum says, it made its way to Hugo Moser, an international art dealer with a gallery in New York, who sold it to Samuel Kress of New York. Kress gave the work as a gift to MFAH in 1961.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Stolen by Nazis, art with Houston ties returned to family

In another dispute with a family, MFAH contended in a foreign proceeding it was the rightful owner of the 20th-century pointillist painting Regatta in Venice by Henri Edmund Cross. The museum did not dispute that work had been confiscated by German forces, only what happened after the war.

The Chilean heirs who sued the Houston museum are the collectors grandchildren Juan Carlos, Michel and Nicolas Emden. They say the Monuments Men asked Dutch officials to return the work but their message came after it was in the hands of a German art dealer in New York City who created false documents of provenance before he sold it. The Monuments Men Foundation has documented through photographs how it believes dealer covered up proof that the works were not his. Edsel said his foundation asked to share these findings with MFAH but the museum declined to meet with him because he was not the authorized representative of the family.

Laurie Stein, a world renowned provenance researcher hired by MFAH, determined that Max Emdens 1938 sale of the three Bellottos to the German government was voluntary. Stein found Emden had sold the painting through his longtime dealer and he openly pursued and received his asking price.

On HoustonChronicle.com: MFAH files papers stating it rightfully owns Regatta in Venice

No new information has come to light that alters the voluntary character of the 1938 sale that Emden initiated, a museum spokesperson said Thursday. The museum has asked the judge to dismiss the case.

The Emden grandchildren say Max Emdens swift financial decline correlated directly with the Nazi persecution of Jews through laws meant to cut them off from the German economy and strip them of their assets. By April 1933, they say in court documents, the Nuremberg laws and Nazi governments financial restrictions on Jews like Emden intentionally caused them to lose assets. They said their grandfathers portfolio of securities deposited with Hamburg banks became frozen. He was also prevented from collecting rental income on his properties.

In addition to shipping them off to concentration camps and exterminating them, Nazis stripped Jews of their citizenship and forced them to surrender their businesses and enterprises, the suit says, and Emdens textile trading company was liquidated. He lived in Switzerland and could no longer transfer any of his income out of Germany.

The Houston museum notes in its backgrounder that the heirs dispute is late in coming. According to court documents, the museum says family members did not contest the ownership of the painting on multiple prior occasions when given the chance. The family says it only recently was able to document that the painting in the museum was their grandfathers.

For years, whether through choice or willful ignorance, the Museum obfuscated facts and dismissed evidence of the Emden 1025 Pirnas true provenance, refusing even to take reasonable steps common to major museums with such immense resources to confirm the correct provenance (and ownership) of the Emden 1025 Pirna including denying the Emden Heirs an opportunity to personally inspect the painting and its original frame for identifying marks, according to court records.

The Houston painting is believed to be among hundreds of thousands of missing art works the Nazis took that are worth billions of dollars, Edsel said.

gabrielle.banks@chron.com
AUSTIN  The Texas oyster fishermen came from coastal cities by bus, traveling before sunrise on Wednesday and again Thursday to fight for work they argue the state is wrongly taking away. They overcame nerves, tears and anger to tell the nine parks and wildlife commissioners what their pending decision this week would mean for fishermens lives.

State officials have temporarily closed nearly all public oyster harvest areas, saying that doing so will allow fishermen a chance at harvesting oysters in the future. The Texas commissioners on Thursday were set to decide whether to close some spots permanently  a choice overshadowed by the reality that the Gulf oysters that endured for generations might have a bleak future.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Out-of-work Texas oyster fishermen are protesting reef closures. Theyd rather be out on the water.

The dilemma was one of many impossible choices ahead as the environment shifts with climate change. The fishermen rely on the November through April oyster harvest to pay their bills. For some, its all they feel qualified to do. But sustainability advocates and state regulators say the reefs must be protected, or else the whole ecosystem will suffer.

The only way to protect the reefs immediately is to let the young oysters grow unimpeded, they say. But oysters need mild weather to survive and with climate change they might not get it. The coming years are expected to bring stronger hurricanes and heavier rains as well as potentially severe droughts. Hurricanes bury oysters in sediment. Heavy rains and droughts mess up the salinity of the bays.

Amid this, constant consumer demand means the oysters that do survive are plucked up by fishermen. Visitors from around the world want to try Gulf oysters, and the high end shellfish remain a restaurant staple for local diners.

The fishermen argue they can dredge the reefs to collect bigger oysters and improve them simultaneously. Like farmers tilling their land, they say, its in their best interest to keep the reefs healthy. Why would they over-harvest if oysters are their livelihood? Why cant the state back off?

From bad to worse

By the states estimation, too few adult oysters remain in the areas theyve temporarily closed up and down the coast. Heavy rains last year disturbed the waters saltiness, said Zachary Olsen, the agencys Aransas Bay ecosystem leader. Prolific harvesting added more stress.

The state and other oyster scientists categorically disagree with the fishermen that theyre helping revive the reefs when they drag dredges over them. The state permanently closed six other reefs in 2017. The fishermen want to see a study done to prove that the closure actually helped.

Closing the reefs is the right move, said Amanda Fuller, director of the coast and water program from the National Wildlife Federation. But I think that theres still a very large and looming question about the overall sustainability of the oyster fishery in Texas and Gulf-wide.

Galveston Bay in the 1990s was the premier oystering spot in the country, said Mona Hochman, a senior research association at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Then came environmental disasters. Tropical Storm Allison. Hurricanes Ike and Harvey. Drought. With all that, Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, explained oysters pinballed from bad to worse.

Texas has explored some other options to improve the population, such as building back reefs, reducing the number of people fishing them and farming oysters, meaning growing them in cages in the bay. Jennifer Pollack, who chairs the Coastal Conservation and Restoration group at the Harte Research Institute, suggested that the best solution might be building reefs that are never harvested, to create larvae to float off to other reefs where fisherman can go.

Getting this right matters: These reefs, after all, are about more than a fun happy hour. They provide important habitat for other marine life, improve water quality by filtering out pollutants and protect shorelines. But all these proposals require money and time.

As the state temporarily closes reefs when situations get dire, the pressing dilemma remains: How many jobs will it cost to protect the existing, wild oysters that fishermen say dont need state protection?

Not letting go easy

Three busloads of fishermen came first on Wednesday to protest while the commissioners heard from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department staff about the possible reef closures. Some went back home Wednesday afternoon. Johny Jurisich, from Texas City, and his friends and family stuck around in Austin. They squeezed into a booth at Texas Roadhouse that night. Jurisich was missing his wifes birthday.

Instead, they were still figuring out what exactly to say in testimony the next day before the commission. His sister-in-law, nervous, could hardly eat her heaping salad.

Around 75 oyster fishermen returned Thursday, at least one in rubber boots, to hold signs and shout yet again. Gigi Cruz, a 53-year-old from Port Lavaca, yelled so loudly she was losing her voice. Diane Wilson, an environmental advocate, commented among the crowd, Theyre fighting for their survival.

By that morning, the state had received 2,117 written comments in support of the permanent reef closures. The agency had 526 comments against them. The Texas Chapter of the Sierra Club and Coastal Conservation Association Texas supported closing the bays. Galveston County commissioners and the city of Seadrift opposed it. State Rep. Mayes Middleton and eight other legislators wrote to the commission asking them to hold off on making a decision.

The oyster men and women then filled an overflow room and waited amid the hum of vending machines for their turn to say in three minutes what their livelihood meant to them. Thirteen-year-old Yahel Martinez missed school to tell the commissioners his dad hadnt been able to work. Mihael Ivic, 72, wondered aloud if he made the wrong decision pursuing this career. Alex Gutierrez, 54, imagined aloud how hed tell his kids he couldnt send them to college.

On one hand workers spoke of the value of this work and how it contributed to their sense of self. On the other was the role the reefs play in the ecology. Fishermen spoke just as passionately about wanting to save the bays where they spent hours casting lines. J.T. Van Zandt described seeing the reefs scraped down into parking lots and worried kids wouldnt get to see the same beauty he had because the fish habitat wouldnt be there.

An unsustainable place

The testimony pushed past three hours  and then it fell to commissioners to decide. Toward the end, some of the speakers had begun to question: Why couldnt they work together to come up with solutions?

Commission chair Arch Beaver Aplin called for a break and a closed door discussion. The fishermen boarded their prescheduled buses to go home. That afternoon, Aplin announced that he wanted the agency to study the problem further. He suggested that a group of various stakeholders put together metrics for what success would look like if a bay were permanently closed. He also called for a wider-view assessment of how oysters could survive, beyond the three small bays they had considered permanently closing behind Matagorda Island.

Today were talking about these three bay systems, but we need to start also working on our bay system in its entirety, Aplin said. We heard from lots of fishermen today, and its how they make their livelihood, but I feel like with the weather that weve been thrown  and the demand for oysters, that were in an unsustainable place.

When the fishermen woke up the next morning, nothing would be different. Nothing would change for the oysters either. The reefs being considered for permanent closure are still temporarily closed, Aplin said. But maybe the trip to the capitol had sparked something everyone there desperately needed  a conversation about how this beloved seafood can thrive and remain on menus well into the future and continue to serve its vital role for the Texas bays and coast.

emily.foxhall@chron.com
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As bits of ash spread across the air Thursday morning, Christine Mansfield of the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center explained the impetus for a prescribed burn of the nature sanctuary meadows three acres of tall grass.

About 25 volunteers and firefighters gathered with her to conduct the burn in the wake of various wildfires around the country and the threat of a similar incident in Houston.

This is actually something that helps prevent that from happening, Mansfield, executive director of marketing and development, said. What we are doing here is by starting these small fires we are reducing the amount of fuel load so if we have drier conditions it is not as dangerous in this area.

Because of the accumulation of fuels in the meadow over the years  such as dried tall grass  the area has the increased potential to become a fire risk during times of drought, Mansfield added.

Not doing regular prescribed burns puts the city at risk of experiencing similar fires to those in California ,according to HFD Cpt. Beau Moreno

These areas need these big disturbances to keep the ecosystem suitable for us who live here, Moreno said.

The last controlled burn of the Arboretums meadow was in 1999 and the area is part of a fire dependent ecosystem, Mansfield said, meaning that naturally occurring fires every two to five years are necessary to sustain native plants and animals.

They need fire in a lot of ways to keep them healthier, Mansfield said, adding modern day settlement in the area has eliminated traditional grazers and factors that contribute to those natural fires.

Because these tall grass ecosystems have more biomass under the ground than above, the burn can bring more nutrients into the ground which oftentimes will have the area healthier than prior to the burn, she said.

Members of HFDs wildland firefighting group and emergency operations personnel were on hand to initially test the fire and preserve specific trees in the meadow before the official burn began, according to officials.

To control the fire, firefighters aimed to burn intentional fire breaks in advance to remove any potential fuel for the fire to jump and burn past, according to Moreno.

We look at whats already natural to make the fire breaks, Moreno said, adding tree lines and trails  like the Arboretum already has established  makes it easier to determine where those breaks will go.

Significant planning goes into a prescribed fire with various agencies taking part in the burn, according to both Mansfield and Moreno.

As one of the 42 members of HFDs Wildland team  the largest of its kind in the state  Moreno said firefighters in the unit receive additional training on top of their basic instruction before handling events like Thursdays.

We cant just decide and be like Were going to do a fire next week thats just not possible, he said. We have to go through the state and also through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality who like to monitor the air quality during these burns.

Going forward, data will be collected and documented by the Arboretum before, during and after burns in order to see the long term impacts these incidents have on various ecosystems over time, Mansfield said.

joel.umanzor@chron.com
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against former Houston Community College trustee Dave Wilson, finding that he didnt have an actionable First Amendment claim after suing his colleagues for verbally censuring him in 2018.

In a 9-0 vote, the justices firmly sided with the community college system, whose board members reprimanded their colleague after he allegedly violated board bylaws for months and incurred thousands of dollars in legal costs for the college. The then-District II trustee  known in Houston at the time for being an anti-gay rights activist  was usually the boards lone no-vote and frequently bit back at the administration.

Wilson continued to speak critically after his censure, making it difficult to prove that the action chilled his speech, the court ruled. And the boards decision fell under the trustees own First Amendment rights.

The First Amendment surely promises an elected representative like Mr. Wilson the right to speak freely on questions of government policy, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion. But just as surely, it cannot be used as a weapon to silence other representatives seeking to do the same.

Wilson on Thursday claimed the justices did not adequately respond to what he said was his main argument  that he faced penalties beyond a verbal denouncement. After the censure, trustees decided that Wilson was not eligible for travel-related expense reimbursements and would need board approval when requesting funding for community affairs programs for the 2017-2018 college year. They also determined he could not be elected for a board officer position in 2018, all of which Wilson said violated his rights, according to court documents.

It was poorly reasoned. The court didnt take on any of the arguments that we made in our briefs, he said. The court made up facts to decide the case that it wanted to see rather than the facts that were presented.

The high court took up the case after the Houston Community College System filed a petition in December 2020. A federal judge had dismissed Wilsons suit in March 2019, and Wilson later appealed in the 5th Circuit Court, which reversed the courts original judgment in July 2020.

While he agreed with much of the 5th Circuits decision, the former trustee challenged the courts view upholding nonverbal punishments as consistent with the First Amendment. The Supreme Court did not take up those arguments because Wilson failed to formally file a request to alter the 5th Circuits judgment on the issue, according to the court opinion.

Hours after reading the document for the first time, Wilson conceded that he understood why the court didnt take up the issue of nonverbal punishments. And he said he felt the loss at least affirmed his First Amendment rights in speaking out on the colleges underhanded dealings.

HCC responded to the unanimous ruling with the highest regard for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Charged with hearing the arguments and examining the law and the facts in this case, the Court has spoken, leaders said in a statement. HCC remains committed to exercising its responsibility to all those whom the institution serves.

The ruling

Gorsuch, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, focused solely on the verbal reprimand. He wrote that while verbal reprimands or censures could give rise to a valid First Amendment claim, Wilsons was not one of them.

First, the United States has a long history of verbal censures. Second, the verbal censure was in itself a form of speech from his colleagues  whose decision did not prevent him from doing his job, deny him the privilege of office or deter him from his right to speech, Gorsuch said. Wilson would have had to prove an adverse action resulting from the verbal censure to win his case.

Both of the courts reasonings would have appealed to justices from two schools of thought  those who tend to focus on the Constitutions original meaning and those who are swayed by interpretive methodologies, said Emily Berman, an associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

The case is so narrow that the Supreme Courts opinion likely wont become precedent for any larger First Amendment questions, she said.

Its hard to imagine that its going to apply to very many situations out there, said Berman, who teaches a course on Constitutional law. So (Wilson) got his very own Supreme Court opinion.

Wilson, who is white, gained national attention in 2013 when he won his election after leading voters in his predominately Black district to believe he was Black.

The trustee was censured after he lashed out at his colleagues and HCC administrators on issues ranging from the systems presence at an LGBT pride parade to the nursing school allegedly withholding diplomas from students. He passed along his attorney's contact information to a group of angry HCC nursing graduates, leading to them filing a lawsuit against the college.

Trustees said he created such a tumultuous environment that HCC's accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, noticed.

Over a six-month period, Wilson had paid an outside investigator to look into the colleges finances, accused a colleague of violating board rules by casting a vote remotely, and accused another colleague of not living in her district.

He had battled the systems administration before 2018, filing a complaint in 2015 with the Harris County District Attorney's Office saying college officials unlawfully overpaid in spending $8.5 million on a former Conn's HomePlus building. County investigators found no evidence of a crime in the case.

Wilson also clashed with other college leaders over who would pay roughly $50,000 in legal fees stemming from a dispute over his election. Other trustees did not want the college to be on the hook for Wilson's attorney, but in the end, the college's insurance covered the claim.

The nations highest court heard arguments in Wilsons case against the Houston Community College System in November 2021.

samantha.ketterer@chron.com
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Ronald Smith watched many of his friends leave Texas foster care system without accepting any of the help offered to them.

Without typical family support or a boost from the state, some of them couldnt overcome the barriers they inherited. But Smith avoided that fate, aging out at 19 and chasing his dream of higher education until he found the path to a career in cyber-networking security.

Smith, 24, is one of eight former foster youth now enrolled in the Cisco Networking Academy through a partnership with University of St. Thomas and St. Johns Methodist Church. The private Catholic university on Wednesday announced the free pilot program, which seeks to help young adults who have aged out of foster care gain credentials for technology jobs and avoid homelessness.

We thought that I would be a perfect fit for it, just to elevate my life to a better direction, he said. Ive been trying to find myself  Finding this program  or letting the program find me  it gave me a clue as to what I should pursue long term.

The academy offers several classes that prepare students for certification tests in multiple technological fields, including IT, cybersecurity and programming.

Melissa Phillip / Staff Photographer

The former foster youth participating in the program should complete courses over a one- to two-year period, also receiving housing vouchers and on-campus support as they pursue their academic goals, school officials said.

We really want to make sure that education is affordable, accessible and will meet the needs of the workforce in Houston, said Beena George, St. Thomas chief innovation officer.

On HoustonChronicle.com: University of St. Thomas first collegiate esports team seeks to redefine gamer

Many children who age out of the foster-care system have historically struggled to transition to adult living. Twenty percent of those who were in foster care become homeless when they turn 18. And half of the foster children who age out will have some form of gainful employment by the age of 24, according to the National Foster Youth Institute.

Melissa Phillip / Staff Photographer

The collaboration is among St. Thomas latest efforts to expand its reach beyond the traditional four-year student. St. Thomas offers associates degrees in six fields, some of which are also offered at a micro-campus in Conroe. And the school offers a year-long accelerated nursing program for students who already have a degree.

Through the partnership with the networking academy, St. Thomas is providing computer equipment and offering the students tutoring, mental health and career services. St. Johns United Methodist Church pastor Rudy Rasmus will recruit students for the program.

Each of the eight students who were selected had a passion for technology, George said. Future iterations of the partnership might expand to other at-risk or continuing education populations as well.

Melissa Phillip / Staff Photographer

Clint Abrams, business development manager at the academy, said most students can begin with little or no IT skills and leave the program equipped for entry-level jobs, some of them starting at $78,000 a year.

The curriculum that we have can completely turn your life around, he said.

David G. Daniels, a foster care advocate, said he wished the collaboration existed when he was in his early 20s. He spent years in foster care across Houston before running away and emancipating himself at 15, he said.

When youre in foster care, when youre going through things, sometimes we lose sight of our dreams, Daniels said. Do not lose your faith, do not lose your ability to dream big dreams.

samantha.ketterer@chron.com
Three years ago, climate change bankrupted Californias largest utility.

The states firefighting agency found that Pacific Gas & Electric was responsible for more than 1,500 fires across the state from 2014 through 2017. The utilitys aging power lines and equipment, combined with an unprecedented decade-long drought, had turned the state into a tinderbox. Facing an estimated $30 billion in liabilities and 750 lawsuits, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2019.

PG&Es fate was hardly unexpected. For decades, investors had been sounding the alarm about the potential for a climate-driven economic crisis. Extreme weather events have the potential to disrupt businesses, destroy assets, and force mass migration.

Our own state knows this only too well. Texas is battered annually by increasingly powerful hurricanes that cause billions of dollars in damages. Just last week, 178 wildfires torched more than 108,000 acres across the state. By 2060, scientists predict that sea levels in Galveston will rise up to 25 inches, causing losses for homeowners, diminished property values and enormous risks in mortgage portfolios.

With the threat of these disasters now an everyday reality, investors and asset managers have been clamoring for more information on how companies across the globe are assessing and managing these risks, and how much their own emissions are contributing to them. BlackRock, the worlds largest asset management company, and other financial firms, have urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to build a climate disclosure framework that would help investors better integrate climate risks and opportunities into their portfolios.

After months of deliberation, the SEC answered the call on Monday, announcing new requirements for publicly traded companies to report information on greenhouse-gas emissions and risks related to climate change. The SEC will solicit public comments for at least two months before it shapes the final rule.

Starting next fiscal year, companies would have to disclose their own direct emissions, as well as emissions from purchased electricity and other forms of energy. But they would also have to disclose downstream greenhouse gases generated by suppliers and partners if they are included in any emissions targets the company has set. If a company has publicly set climate-related targets  an estimated 622 publicly-traded companies have made Net Zero pledges to completely offset their emissions  it would be required to detail the scope of activities and emissions to meet those targets, define the timeline for doing so, and provide information about its carbon offsets.

Some commentators and oil and gas trade organizations immediately slammed the proposed rule. But requiring companies to disclose the climate-related impacts of their operations is neither an overreach nor a usurpation of congressional authority. Climate risk is investment risk, BlackRock said in comments filed with the SEC. It is our conviction that integrating assessment of climate-related considerations into our investment processes will result in better long-term risk-adjusted returns for our clients.

The SEC has crafted a rule that fits squarely within its mandate: to ensure that investors get the information they need, that capital markets can function efficiently and the public interest is protected. The proposal brings the United States in line with its international peers such as the European Union, Hong Kong and Australia, which have already set standardized regulations on climate reporting. Big companies, which would shoulder the heaviest reporting obligations, will have until 2024 to provide a basic suite of information on direct and indirect emissions, and until 2025 to report downstream emissions.

The new rule would codify what many publicly traded companies  including energy giants such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and BP  have already been doing. The SEC has urged companies since the 1970s to disclose material information about environmental factors that could affect profits. As climate concerns have grown more urgent, more companies have done so, but in a patchwork way that has been difficult to track. In 2020, 92 percent of the S&P 500 companies published a sustainability report.

We've got a lot of information in the marketplace right now, says Isabel Munilla, a director at Ceres, a nonprofit that advises investors on climate change. The problem is, it's not comparable, it's not consistent, and some of it is pretty low quality.

Theres another advantage to the rule: It will require companies to show how they are honoring their often fuzzy Net Zero pledges. A recent report published by the New Climate Institute and Carbon Market Watch, found that 25 of the worlds most valuable companies are misleading the public with their emissions accounting.

The proposal is no substitute for congressional action on climate change. Mandating disclosure doesnt equate to mandating a smaller carbon footprint. The world is still racing toward potential climate disaster if it cant slow the planets warming.

But you cant fix what you cant measure. Climate disclosures are an essential first step in quantifying the monumental task ahead of us. Having a clear inventory of emissions from large corporations will make the path to a cleaner economy that much clearer.
On Sept. 14, 2001, the House of Representatives passed what was understood to be a declaration of war against the perpetrators of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, by a vote of 420-1. The one dissenter was Barbara Lee, D-Calif. At the time, her protest vote seemed like embarrassing peacenik nonsense, an example of left-wing folly at a time of moral clarity and necessary war.

In recent days, since the invasion of Ukraine, the House has cast votes by similarly lopsided margins  426-3 for a resolution urging various kinds of support for Kyiv, 424-8 to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. The dissenters this time have been Republicans, a mixture of eccentric libertarians like Thomas Massie of Kentucky and crackpot populists like Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Just as I didnt agree with Lees worldview, I dont agree with the views that seem to be motivating todays dissenting votes  and not just in their most paranoid, Greene-ian expressions. As I wrote last week, the Ukraine War has exposed certain limits to populist thinking generally: Organized as it is around the internal failures of Western and American elites, the populist response to a clear external threat has been a kind of anticipatory opposition, a critique of elite mistakes not yet in evidence.

The shared populist assumption  on the anti-establishment right, the heterodox left and the new spaces where they intersect  seems to be that the Biden administration is destined to repeat the Bush administrations War on Terror and Iraq-era mistakes. But so far, this White House has taken a more cautious and controlled approach. Certain individual voices in the establishment have pushed for reckless escalation, but no equivalent of the hawkish uniparty of the early 2000s has yet reassembled.

Instead, President Joe Bidens team seems to be following a Cold War playbook of cautious proxy war rather than embracing sweeping Bushian ambitions. And for every would-be Curtis LeMay on cable television or in the White House press room, there are noted anti-populists like David French and Tom Nichols warning their readers about the dangers of escalation, the threat of nuclear war.

So Im not here to offer three cheers for Massie or Greene or any other dissenter from our effort to support Ukraine. But having lived through the last two decades of failed U.S. military efforts, and having watched as Lees lone vote in 2001 came to seem eventually like an admirable dissent rather than a far-left folly, I want to offer a single cheer, at least, for such dissent in present circumstances.

At the very least, it should be possible to disagree with the dissenters provisionally and to reject the kind of anti-anti-Putinism to which theyre often tempted, without pretending that all the reasons to doubt the wisdom of our foreign policy establishment have suddenly evaporated.

Three connected realities, in particular, should guarantee the dissenters a place in the discussion. The first is simply the recent track record of U.S. involvement in military struggles overseas. Since the Cold Wars end, whether weve put boots on the ground, dropped bombs or confined ourselves  as in Ukraine, so far  to arming combatants, our record of interventionism features numerous debacles, on the small scale of Somalia and Libya as well as the large scale of the Iraq War, and fewer unalloyed successes. If you made decisions retrospectively and reduced every case to a binary choice, intervene or stay out, the side saying stay out would generally have the better of the argument.

There are excellent reasons  starting with the performance of the Ukrainians themselves  to think that this time is different, that a limited effort in support of the Kyiv government is in the U.S.' national interest in the way our bombing campaign in Libya or our endless quest for the moderate rebels in Syria wasnt.

But this leads to the second point, which is that dissent can still be important in cases where the interventionists are initially correct. Our decision to topple the Taliban in 2001, for instance, remains the right and necessary call in hindsight, notwithstanding the debacles that followed. But that didnt make Lees dissenting vote any less important  because it anticipated the disaster of our nation-building effort, the overexpansive application of the authorization to use military force, the various abuses of presidential power in the War on Terror.

Likewise, in the current moment, theres no way to know for sure whether Massies libertarian warnings about the Houses measures  that theyre overly broad, escalatory and liable to presidential abuse  will be borne out by events. But its entirely possible for arming Ukraine to be good policy and for Massie to be right that some elements of the U.S. response to Russian aggression could go badly or disastrously astray.

Finally, dissent matters because the potential scale of a disastrous outcome in a conflict with Russia is so much greater than even the worst-case scenarios in other recent wars. Lets say, for the sake of argument, that because of the Biden administrations caution, theres only a 5 percent chance that our support for Ukraine leads to unexpected escalation, to the U.S. militarys direct involvement in the war. Whereas if you looked at the Bush administrations policy toward Iraq in late 2002, you would have said that the odds of a war for regime change in that case were well over 50 percent.

On that level, the Biden policy seems much safer for a cautious realist to support. But that hypothetical 5 percent risk carries with it some still-more-fractional risk of nuclear escalation, which is a much more existential danger than even the more disastrous scenarios for Iraq. That has to create its own distinctive set of calculations. Even if the Biden policy is the best course, you still need an unusual level of vigilance, a somewhat hyperactive caution, around the possibility of escalation. And here the anticipatory critique of elite failure that were getting from the populists becomes valuable  not because it will necessarily be vindicated, but because even a small risk of elite folly is worth worrying over when nuclear weapons are potentially involved.

Dissent, the Bush-era left often proclaimed, is the highest form of patriotism. That may be overly dramatic and self-flattering. But at the very least, we can say this much: In a context where elite mistakes and hawkish temptations could have atomic consequences, to read dissenters out of the debate makes the path to destruction much too wide and smooth for comfort.

Ross Douthat is a columnist for the New York Times.
A Las Vegas man who reportedly told police he is incredibly homophobic is accused of stabbing a man he believed was gay because he was going to get retaliation and kill a homosexual, authorities said.

Dontay Gray, who is on parole from California, is charged with attempted murder, battery, robbery and committing a hate crime.

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The 32-year-old suspect followed a man on Saturday night to a darkened area in downtown Las Vegas with the intent to stab and kill him, police said.

After he was arrested, authorities said that he provided a full confession to the stabbing, in which he used anti-LGBTQ slurs to describe the victim.

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Gray had purchased a knife one hour prior to the stabbing with the intent to stab and kill, Las Vegas police wrote in the report, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Dontay Gray (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept.)

Police say that two men noticed Gray as they were leaving a convenience store on Saturday night. The suspect kept staring at them in a manner that left them incredibly creeped out.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

One of the two men, whose name was redacted in the police report, returned to the store to purchase some items hed forgotten. After leaving the store one second time, he noticed Gray following him.

At one point, the man stopped and asked the suspect, Can I help you?

Thats when Gray removed his hand from his hoodies and stabbed the man.

Officers were called to the scene around 8 p.m. and found the victim, who had been stabbed in the stomach. The man was taken to a nearby hospital and survived.

Detectives said that Gray stated that he is incredibly homophobic and stated multiple times that he hates [LGBTQ people], using a slur to describe them, the reports said according to the Las Vegas Sun.

He also said that he was going to get retaliation and kill a homosexual, and that he was freed he would kill go kill other gay people, according to the report.

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Gray is currently being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. Hes expected back in court on April 5.
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While U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has triggered derision from Democrats and been lampooned on late-night talk shows for his questioning of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and confrontations with his peers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, hes getting exactly what he needs out of the four days of hearings to remain a key player for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

For days, Cruz has been the toast of conservative media, with multiple appearances on FOX News Channels biggest shows, and celebratory headlines on far-right outlets such as Breitbart and BlazeTV for pushing Jackson on her views about critical race theory and transgender issues  two of the hottest issues in Republican politics right now.

Ted Cruz knows how to do this, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He understands how this all works.

Cruz, a Houston Republican, knows the audience isnt the crowd in the room in Washington, D.C. or the journalists, Sabato said..

Republicans cant stop Jacksons confirmation, and they know it. But for those hoping to have a chance at running for president, a Supreme Court nomination fight in the U.S. Senates Judiciary Committee is political gold and a way to keep a candidate in the minds of hardcore Republican voters.

Cruz is doing exactly that with his actions, Sabato said.

Its the conservative right, he said. They are watching these hearings. This is what they live for.

Cruz has had several memorable exchanges with Jackson and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hes questioned if he could declare himself Asian, scoffed at Jacksons refusal to try to define what a woman is, and read segments of a childrens book that is taught at a private school where she was a member of the board of trustees.

Now Playing: Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back on accusations by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that is soft on crime and supported critical race theory as a board member of a private school in Washington, D.C. (March 22) Video: Associated Press

WEDNESDAY: Ted Cruz shouts in SCOTUS hearing, asks Ketanji Brown Jackson to define woman

The four days of hearings wrapped up on Thursday. On Monday the Judiciary Committee is expected to set up a vote that could send her nomination to the full U.S. Senate. Democrats in the Senate have been aiming to have her confirmed by the full Senate by mid-April.

Cruzs behavior  at one point he shouted at the committees chairman  has been roundly condemned on social media, in newspaper editorials and by late-night talk show hosts. Even his former law school professor, Alan Dershowitz, shamed Cruz over the series of absurd questions he asked Jackson, including: Im a Hispanic man. Could I decide I was an Asian man? Would I have the ability to be an Asian man and challenge Harvards discrimination because I made that decision?

Said Dershowitz: Theres certain things you can change, certain things you cant. We used to think that gender was one of them. It turns out its not! It turns out you can change gender and you can live a perfectly happy and good life.

But Sabato said the key audience for Cruz right now is potential primary voters.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has long been a prized post for Republicans and Democrats alike because Supreme Court confirmation hearings often get wide television coverage and can elevate a politicians national political standing. The 2018 hearings over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh helped raise the profiles of U.S. Sens Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris  both of whom ran for president in 2020.

Cruz hasnt shied away from expressing interest in running for president again in 2024 and continues to raise money like few others in the U.S. Senate. Cruz has already raised more than $27 million in his U.S. Senate re-election account  more than all but one other Republican in the U.S. Senate, according to Federal Election Commission records.

When asked directly if he was interested in running for president if Donald Trump doesnt run again, Cruz hasnt shied away.

I am certainly looking at it, Cruz, 51, said during an interview with conservative media outlet Newsmax in July. Ill tell you 2016 was the most fun Ive ever had in my life. We came incredibly close.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Cruz won 11 states, including defeating Trump in Iowa.

Sabato said other Republicans in the field in 2016, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, have faded off, but Cruz has been able to keep himself in the mix for 2024 by remaining relevant in national discussions.

While presidential ambitions may hover around Cruz, he made clear during his opening remarks on Monday how important he views the Senate Judiciary Committees role in vetting Supreme Court nominees.

The position to which you have been nominated is extraordinarily important, Cruz told Jackson. And that is why the Senate is given the responsibility for advice and consent under the Constitutionbecause the job matters immensely.

There are few issues better tailored for Cruz than a U.S. Supreme Court nomination fight. Cruz, a Harvard Law grad who was a classmate of Jackson, served as a clerk for former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and later argued cases before the High Court as the Solicitor General for Texas.

Cruz in 2020 published a book called One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History and runs a podcast called The Verdict.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com
Florida classrooms have become a site of regular battles in the culture wars. The most recent fight is over sexual orientation and gender identity.

State lawmakers approved a bill that would prohibit classroom instruction on these issues in kindergarten through third grade. HB 1557 awaits the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has stood up for the bill as it has come under criticism from Walt Disney World, LGBTQ activists, the Biden White House and "Saturday Night Live."

Supporters hailed the need for parents, and not teachers, to have control over such discussions, part of a broader push to control the content of classroom lessons. But critics nicknamed HB 1557 the "dont say gay" bill, warning it isnt necessary and makes some students feel unsafe by singling out LGBTQ material as dangerous and inappropriate.

In addition to barring instruction in elementary-age classrooms that touch on sexual orientation or gender identity, the bill will also prohibit schools from withholding information from parents regarding their childs mental, emotional or physical health. And the bill allows parents to file lawsuits against school districts they believe violated the legislation.

Much remains unclear about how school districts would implement this ban  matters that will likely be settled in court. Ambiguous language about classroom lessons means content in older grades could be affected, too.

PolitiFact looked at three claims about HB 1557 that have generated considerable discussion, correcting inaccuracies and adding context.

Unproven claims about social engineering and injecting transgenderism into kindergarten

Supporters said the measure is intended to push back on attempts to incorporate gender identity and sexual orientation into the education of young children.

In a campaign-style video shared by Fox News, DeSantis addressed criticism of the bill in front of a friendly crowd: "In the state of Florida, we are not going to allow them to inject transgenderism into kindergarten."

"First graders should not have woke gender ideology imposed in their curriculum, and that is what we are standing for," DeSantis said.

These statements echo remarks by state Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the bills Senate sponsor who said he was addressing "social engineering" that could result in more children identifying as gay or transgender.

Brandon Wolf, press secretary of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, said these tropes may further stigmatize LGBTQ students. "Suggesting that sexual orientation or gender identity is contagious is not based in fact."

Baxley did not respond to PolitiFacts request for evidence. When we asked DeSantis about his statement, press secretary Christina Pushaw said that DeSantis is trying to prevent indoctrination.

Angela Mann, associate professor of child psychology at the University of North Florida, said she was not aware of any research showing classroom lessons could alter sexual orientation or gender identity.

"I am not aware of any K-3 grade teacher that is campaigning or social engineering students to be LGBTQ such that it could be studied to tell whether or not such a campaign could be successful," Mann told PolitiFact.

Democratic lawmakers tried to amend the provision to prohibit classroom instruction intended to change a students sexual orientation or gender identity. They also tried to narrow the bill to specifically bar classroom instruction on "sexual activity." Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican from St. Petersburg, tried multiple times to amend the bill to bar instruction of "human sexuality," another effort to make the bill less about identity. None of these amendments passed.

The Florida Department of Education told PolitiFact that sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in the curriculum taught in the states kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.

Pushaw said that not including a topic in a curriculum does not mean it wont be brought up in classroom instruction, pointing to a guide used by Palm Beach County Schools intended to create a "safer place for all students."

The guidance includes definitions of terms related to sexual orientation and gender identity  including gay, lesbian and transgender  that teachers are encouraged to use when applicable. It says by "addressing LGBTQ+ issues in school, we are NOT talking about SEX with your children  we are talking about family, identity, and respect for others."

It is unclear whether the bill only affects grades K-3

Some people have suggested that critics of the bill are misinformed about how far-ranging it is  saying that it does not affect students in grade four or higher.

"The public was not made aware that the bill only prohibited discussions of sex and gender from KINDERGARTEN through THIRD GRADE," Drew Hastings, an American author and comedian, tweeted March 14. "Other than a predatory, grooming pedophile leftist, I cant think of anyone who would have a problem with that."

The text of the bill only mentions kindergarten through third grade, but the wording could be interpreted to apply to older students.

The bill states that classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity is barred "in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

Florida Rep. Joe Harding  the House bills sponsor  said at a Feb. 17 hearing that classroom instruction on such topics could be restricted beyond third grade if it is determined not to be age or developmentally appropriate.

"Anytime a law is vague theres going to be litigation," Jane Windsor, a Florida attorney who specializes in education law, told PolitiFact. "They did not draft it well, so it could be clearly understood past the third grade."

The bill does not define what is considered appropriate. Critics have said that this may leave school districts susceptible to legal action from parents with varying definitions of what they consider appropriate for their children.

But this argument ignores a provision included in the bill that instructs the Florida Department of Education to define what is appropriate.

Clay Calvert, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, told PolitiFact that the department could decide to impose more stringent limitations around classroom lessons.

"What age appropriate or developmentally appropriate really means remains to be seen," Calvert said. "It definitely is a possibility that they could go above the first part of the language which caps the restriction at third."

The word gay is not banned in Florida

People on Facebook and Twitter have said that Florida Republicans want to ban the word "gay" in school.

"GOP's 2022 platform: Ban books, Ban abortion, Ban Black history, Ban transgender teens, Ban saying gay and Ban voting," said Dean Obeidallah, a left-leaning radio host and comedian, on March 11. "But get this  the GOP tell us they are all about Freedom."

On SNLs "Weekend Update" segment, anchor Colin Jost told cast member Kate McKinnon, who is gay, that the bill "means that you can't acknowledge that 'gay' exists at all." McKinnon then slammed the legislation, saying, "I am deeply gay  sorry, deeply concerned. It just seems like this is going to make kids gay and trans  sorry, depressed and suicidal."

These claims can largely be attributed to the legislations "dont say gay" nickname, coined by Equality Florida. The moniker "became a way for the community to articulate the very real harms this legislation makes possible," Wolf told PolitiFact.

The legislation does not literally prohibit Floridians from saying the word "gay," but it does prohibit "classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity." The preamble of the bill goes further, saying it is meant to bar "classroom discussion" on those topics.

The bill does not define classroom instruction or discussion. The language could be interpreted to mean that an educator would not be allowed to read a book to students that recognizes a same-sex couple.

While Florida Republicans have said that children of LGBTQ parents would be able to discuss their familial structures in class, that language is not included in the bill.

Democratic opponents of the bill tried to exclude discussion related to family structures, historical events or bullying prevention, but their amendments failed.

"The issue would arise if a student were to raise a question during a lecture about sexual orientation or gender identity, even if the instruction itself was not about that," Calvert said.

Sources
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

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Rain showers early becoming a steady light rain overnight. Low 46F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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.
UFC star Jorge Masvidal turned himself in Wednesday night after allegedly punching a man outside a Miami steakhouse.

Masvidal, 37, has been charged with aggravated battery with bodily harm and criminal mischief and was released on $15,000 bond, according to online jail records.

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The Miami native allegedly accosted the victim as he left the Papi Steak restaurant in Miami Beach Monday night and punched him twice, once to the mouth and once to the left eye, leaving the man with a broken tooth, according to the arrest report.

Jorge Masvidal (Miami Beach Police Department)

You shouldnt have been talking about my kids, Masvidal said, the man told police.

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The victim alleged an estimated $15,000 of damage was done to his $90,000 Rolex watch.

The victims name was redacted by the Miami Beach Police Department, but Masvidal tagged rival Colby Covington in a since-deleted video on Twitter after the altercation.

You talk that s--t, you got to back it up, the two-time UFC welterweight title challenger said in the video. Thats how my city rolls, man.

Covington and Masvidal squared off in the ring at UFC 272 in Las Vegas on March 5, when Covington beat Masvidal in a five-round unanimous decision.
How Beach House used Spotify Marquee to get momentum for their new release

The Beach House team at Sub Pop Records used Spotifys Marquee  a paid recommendation of an artists new release  to promote their album and create a halo effect across their entire body of work.

A guest post from Spotify For Artists

Viral moments have a way of traveling far and wide, but the real win is turning that viral moment into a sustained success. Just ask Jon Strickland, VP of Sales at Sub Pop Records, and the team behind critically acclaimed indie band Beach House. After a surprise viral moment for the bands 2015 Space Song, Strickland had a unique opportunity to build momentum for the bands eighth studio album, Once Twice Melody.

In spring 2021, Space Song gained traction on social media as a way to show dramatic irony  emphasis on the dramatic. (I believe the first somebody who was crying, says Strickland. They spilled their milk while they were pouring cereal or something, and then they had this outsized reaction.) The newfound audience who sought out Beach House after hearing Space Song had an appetite for the bands surrealist sound. It was an astonishing thing, and obviously it was a lot of new fans, says Strickland. A lot of younger fans People heard the music and liked it, and wanted to know more about the band.

When it was time to roll out the bands latest album, Once Twice Melody, Strickland wanted to tap into that viral momentum to develop deeper fans of Beach Houses music  starting with their new release. The band chose a waterfall strategy for the new 18-track album, breaking it into four chapters rolled out over four months. The first chapter set the cinematic tone, much like the first scene of a film. Artists like Beach House and [fellow Sub Pop artist] Father John Misty they think in albums, explains Strickland. Rolling it out in chapters was a thematic thing that Beach House was attracted to.

encourage them to listen beyond the one song

With so many new tracks and an audience that was three times as big as their last record, Strickland said the Beach House team needed a way to focus on specific audiences and encourage them to listen beyond the one song. When Beach House started rolling out the new album, Strickland used Marquee on the first two chapters (8 tracks total) to drive active, intentional streams from listeners with the potential to become bigger fans.

They ran campaigns to reach two core audiences: 1) lapsed listeners who hadnt actively streamed Beach House in the last six months, and 2) casual listeners who had actively streamed their music in the last six months, but less than other listeners. With both audiences, they had the potential to reach some of the listeners who had streamed the band following the success of Space Song, which had gone viral more than six months earlier. A lot of [the strategy for Marquee] was connecting that one-song audience with the wider catalog and the new music, explains Strickland.

Beach House reactivated lapsed listeners with their new and old music in the U.S., and each lapsed listener who engaged with the Marquee averaged eight streams from the new release. 20% of the Marquee listeners also streamed from older releases, with an average of nine streams per listener.

In Canada, they targeted casual listeners, resulting in a 24% intent rate for the new release  meaning nearly one in four Marquee listeners saved or added a track to a personal playlist  and seven streams per listener on the bands older releases.

Its just the easiest way.

Its just the easiest way, says Strickland of reaching listeners with Marquee. Someone gets a ping on their phone  oh, its the new [Beach House]. Its so easy for them to act on that and discover the new music. I cant think of an equivalent of it, really. Then, to have that halo effect [on the artists catalogs]  which is really just an added bonus that were seeing with these campaigns  is just fantastic.

Following the success of the Beach House Marquee campaign, Strickland and the team at Sub Pop have decided to double down for their next artists new release  increasing their budgets as much as 500%. For Father John Misty, weve allocated a much bigger Marquee budget, says Strickland. Our first Marquee is planned around a radio single coming at the beginning of March, Goodbye Mr. Blue, and well Marquee that. And well probably Marquee the subsequent singles, up until the album. Weve got, by far and away, the biggest budget that Sub Pop has allocated for Marquee on the basis of what weve seen with Beach House.

The halo effect  where listeners who engage with a Marquee are 3x more likely to stream from your older releases  is of particular importance to Sub Pop. We take a lot of pride in our catalog, and when we have a new record by Beach House or Father John Misty, we want to get new fans for those bands, and we want to connect them with those classic albums, says Strickland. Thats really what Sub Pop is about  trying to build the audience for these artists.

Once Twice Melody is Beach Houses first No. 1 album on Billboards Top Album Sales chart, and has also gone on to reach No. 1 on their U.S. Top Rock and Alternative Albums chart.

Get Started with Marquee

Were excited to share more updates as we continue to expand Marquee, which is now available to all eligible artists on U.S. teams. You can learn more in our Getting Started with Marquee guide and watch for new updates on our site.

If youre interested in using Marquee to target audiences in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, or Monaco, submit your information here to book a campaign through a Spotify representative. If your team is based in the U.S., go to the Campaigns tab in your Spotify for Artists dashboard to use Marquee if you have an eligible new release. If your team is based in the U.S. but you dont see the Campaigns tab, set your billing country to the U.S. to get added to the beta.

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Massachusetts to Begin Distribution of Premium Payments to Low-Income Workers

BOSTON  Eligible low-income workers around the state should start seeing $500 checks in their mailboxes.

Approximately 500,000 people will be begin receiving payments over the next week through the COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay Program.

These payments were previously announced last month and represent the first round of a $460 million program passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker as part of a $4 billion spending plan for American Rescue Plan Act funds. Under this program created by the Legislature, the administration was provided flexibility to design the program and develop eligibility parameters to ensure this critical support is provided quickly to workers across the commonwealth.

Massachusetts residents will be eligible for first-round payments if, based on filed 2020 Massachusetts tax returns, their income from employment was at least $12,750  the equivalent to working 20 hours a week for 50 weeks at minimum wage as of 2020  and their total income put them below 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

The 2020 levels for households were $12,760 for one person; $17,240 for two; $21,720 for three, and $26,200 for four.

Individuals who received unemployment compensation in 2020 will not be eligible for the first round of payments, nor will commonwealth executive branch employees who received or will receive a one-time payment from the state as their employer. Eligible individuals will receive the payment in the form of a check mailed to them. Checks will be mailed in batches in the coming days.

The legislation creating the Premium Pay program included $500 million in total for low-income essential workers; this $460 million program comprises the majority of those funds, and $40 million was allocated to fund previous agreements with state employee unions. This first round of payments, worth $250 million, will be made based on 2020 returns. Following the 2021 tax filing season, the next round of payments will be made using information from 2021 returns.

Information on plans to disburse subsequent rounds of funds will be released in the future.
A New Hampshire state council unanimously rejected Pamela Smarts request to be released from prison early Wednesday.

Smart, now 54, was convicted in 1991 of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering in the death of her husband Greggory. According to prosecutors, Smart, a media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, N.H., enlisted her lover, 15-year-old student Billy Flynn, to kill Greggory by threatening to stop having sex with him.

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Flynn was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison; he was released on parole in 2015.

Three other teenagers who helped Flynn pull off the murder, including the getaway driver and Vince Lattime, who hid the gun at his house, were also convicted. All have since been released.

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Pamela Smart (AP)

I offer no excuses for my actions and behavior. Im to blame, Smart said in a recorded statement to the attorney generals office when she filed her request in December.

I regret that it took me so long to apologize to the Smart family, my own family, and everyone else. But I think that I wasnt at a place where I was willing to own that or face that, she said. I was young and selfish and I wasnt thinking about the consequences of what I was doing.

The state council voted 5-0 to reject her plea for a sentence reduction.

Smart has not proven she has has truly changed and fully acknowledged all the crimes she committed as an accomplice and conspirator in her husbands murder, and the perpetrator of witness tampering, Jeffery Strelzin, associate attorney general, wrote.

Decades of lies cannot be undone in an instant by newfound claims of remorse and a vague acceptance of responsibility, he said.

The murder and Smarts circus of a trial inspired many books and movies, including the 1995 To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix and Matt Dillon.
MCLA to Present Virtual Info Session on Continuing Education and Graduate Programs

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  MCLA's Division of Graduate and Continuing Education (DGCE) will hold a virtual information session at 5p.m. on March 29 for community members interested in the College's Master of Education (MEd) and teacher licensure programs, Master of Business Administration (MBA), Graduate Certificate in Business Administration, Master of Education program, Leadership Academy, and bachelor's degree completion programs.

This info session is free and open to the public and is tailored to community members interested in advancing their education at MCLA. An additional information session is planned at 5 p.m. on April 26.

To register, visit mcla.edu/infosession , or email DGCE at dgce@mcla.edu for more information.

Community members interested in pursuing a graduate degree, or finishing their bachelor's degree with evening classes at MCLA's location in Pittsfield, are encouraged to attend. Representatives from each program will answer questions related to academics, the application process, education timelines, and more.

About MCLA's MBA Program

The 45-credit MBA program offers a broad-based, multidisciplinary education that combines the strengths of the business faculty at the doctoral and master's levels with those of practicing managers actively involved in day-to-day decision making in the field. Courses include a blend of classroom experience and practical, hands-on fieldwork.

The Graduate Certificate in Business Administration is for those who have a bachelor's degree but did not major in business administration. This five-course certificate provides either standalone advanced certification in business administration or fulfills the first 15 credits toward a Master of Business Administration at MCLA.

For more information, visit mcla.edu/MBA

About MCLA's Master of Education Program

The Master of Education Program will prepare students to be able to assist children in all educational settings. Faculty, students, and alumni shape how children learn - in the region, the Commonwealth, and throughout the United States. These professionals are engaged with a wide array of educational challenges: from closing the achievement gap to making best use of classroom technology, and from educational ethics to assisting students with special needs.

About MCLA Leadership Academy

MCLA's Leadership Academy has existed since 1997, and during this time, over 2,000 school and district leaders have obtained administrative credentials while strengthening their commitment to equity and justice in their schools and all schools, expanding content knowledge, experiencing the influence of cultural venues on learning, and establishing lasting professional connections with faculty and peers. The MCLA Leadership Academy is sanctioned by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and is designed for educators who seek to advance professionally while working.

About MCLA's Degree Completion program

The MCLA Degree Completion Program is designed for the adult learner seeking an accelerated, non-traditional pathway to completing their bachelor's degree. Each program is conducted in a cohort-style learning format, in which students begin their course of study with a group of their peers and proceed through the program together. Classes are offered in the evening and online to help students balance work, family commitments, and their academic journey. Classes are offered one night a week at MCLA-Pittsfield, 66 Allen Street.

Students can earn a bachelor of science in business administration or a bachelor of arts in interdisciplinary studies. Students in the interdisciplinary program may focus on children, families, and society; leadership and business; health and human services; or may create an individualized plan of study with an advisor.
Clinton Church Restoration Celebrates Rev. Esther Dozier

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.  The late Rev. Esther Dozier, who initiated Great Barrington's annual W. E. B. Du Bois birthday celebrations more than 20 years ago, will be honored on April 2 with a birthday celebration of her own.

On what would have been her 80th birthday, the first female pastor at the historic Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, will be feted at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. The community is invited to join the 4 p.m. celebration, which will include music, tributes and refreshments.

"Rev. Dozier worked tirelessly to promote the legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois in Great Barrington," said Wray Gunn, Sr., president of Clinton Church Restoration, which is organizing the upcoming celebration. "She was just thrilled to find out that Du Bois was involved with our church. She made it her ambition to do as much for his legacy as she could."

Born in rural Alabama, Dozier was raised in poverty. As a young woman, she moved to the Berkshires with two of her sisters. Active in the Clinton Church for four decades, she served as its pastor for nearly nine years, the first woman (after 48 men) to hold the role since the church's founding in the 1860s.

In 2001, Dozier led the town's first annual Du Bois birthday celebration. "Honoring Our History: A Celebration of W. E. B. Du Bois" included a lecture by David Graham Du Bois and a program by students from the Jubilee School in Philadelphia.

Under Dozier's leadership, the Clinton Church  long a center of social activism  became a hub for activities related to the W. E. B. Du Bois Homesite and Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail. In the mid-2000s, Dozier collaborated closely with David Levinson on his book, Sewing Circles, Dime Suppers, and W. E. B. Du Bois: A History of the Clinton A. M. E. Zion Church (Berkshire Publishing, 2007) and began the nomination process that eventually led, in 2008, to the listing of the Clinton A. M. E. Zion Church on the National Register of Historic Places.

"My aunt was so much about the future," says Dozier's nephew Delano Burrowes, a Brooklyn-based artist who is helping to plan the upcoming celebration. "She planted seeds for a lot of the conversations we're having today. Her legacy prompts us to think of our own  what are we doing about the future? How can we live up to her ideals of hope, action and service to our communities?"

Burrowes is one of three family members who will speak at the event. Joining him will be Rev. Conway, who is co-pastor of the Macedonia Baptist Church, and Virginia Conway, Dozier's sister-in-law and a longtime Clinton Church member. Jubilee School founder Karen Falcon, who has brought students to Great Barrington to learn about Du Bois several times since 2001, will also speak.

Musical selections will be offered by the Price Memorial A. M. E. Zion Church Choir and Dr. MaryNell Morgan-Brown, both regular performers at Clinton Church and Du Bois-related events in Great Barrington.

There is no charge for this community event. Contributions to help restore the historic Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Church may be made in Rev. Dozier's memory at the event or online.




iciHaiti - PNH : Arrest of 2 members of the 400 Mawozo gang





Tuesday, March 22, 2022, Prizeme Claumer, an active member of the "400 Mawozo" Gang based in Croix-des-Bouquets, was arrested by the National Police of Haiti (PNH) on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in the vicinity of Place Saint- Pierre, in Petion-ville in possession of a firearm.



In addition, Cine Yonel (32), also a member of the "400 Mawozo" gang, was arrested in Mirebalais last weekend by the police as part of a routine check. Cine Yonel admitted to being part of this criminal organization.



The PNH says it is more than determined, through its various jurisdictions, to pursue and track down all the bandits who terrorize the population in order to impose their law.



IH/ iciHaiti


















Perhaps he was looking for some real political oppression.

A California man caught on video at the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol has been granted asylum in Belarus, according to the Eastern European countrys state media.

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Evan Neumann of Mill Valley, California, acknowledged in an interview with the Belarus 1 channel that he was at the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, Insurrection.

Evan Neumann, 49, applied for asylum in November 2021, months after he was accused of assaulting four police officers and using a fence as a battering ram at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Neumann faces 14 charges in connection with his actions at the riot. The feds said Neumann punched four officers during his day at the Capitol and that he struck other cops with the barricade.

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I dont think I have committed some kind of a crime, Neumann told Belarusian TV in November. One of the charges was very offensive; it alleges that I hit a police officer. It doesnt have any grounds to it.

Evan Neumann is pictured during a November interview with a TV station in Belarus.

According to the FBI, Neumann fled in February 2021, initially settled in Ukraine, and then moved to Belarus. In December 2021, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Belarusian leaders have trumped up Neumanns case as an example of political persecution in the U.S.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 100 After violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol today, a tactical team with ATF gathers in the Rotunda to provide security for the continuation of the joint session of the House and Senate to count the Electoral College votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Perhaps Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994, didnt appreciate international condemnation for brutally repressing protesters in 2020 and ordering the hijacking of a flight in May 2021. The flight was carrying a journalist who had criticized Lukashenkos government; the man was arrested at the airport.

Most recently, Lukashenko and others in the Belarusian elite have been hit with international sanctions for facilitating Russias invasion of Ukraine.
Commentary: Arbitrary sanctions expose U.S. as "worst human rights violator"

Xinhua) 09:13, March 24, 2022

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- It's uncanny and surreal to see "the worst human rights violator in the world" sanction others on unfounded grounds of human rights violations.

It's like a thief crying "stop thief."

The latest sanctions imposed by the United States against Chinese officials for so-called human rights violations are ideologically and politically driven. By maligning and smearing China, the U.S. move contravened international law and basic norms governing international relations and grossly interfered in China's internal affairs.

Arbitrary sanctions are one of the commonly used tools in the U.S. foreign policy arsenal. Such political and economic leverages, overused and abused, always backfire, bringing hostilities rather than solutions and even constituting a systemic violation of human rights.

The Chinese people can tell better than anyone else how the human rights conditions in China are. A country that has lifted millions out of absolute poverty and upheld a "life first" philosophy in battling the pandemic best knows what human rights are.

Regarding human rights, the United States is in no position to pass judgment. The country, which should repent for butchering the Native Americans and inflicting sufferings on people in countries that it aggressed, is itself in the position to reflect on its own human rights deficit.

Instead of trampling on human rights in other countries in the name of safeguarding human rights, the so-called "beacon of democracy" should address its own systemic and chronic issues. If the United States ceases being a lecturer of human rights, the situation in the world will improve.

The China-U.S. relationship, instead of getting out of the predicament created by the previous U.S. administration, has encountered a growing number of challenges. The direct cause for the current situation is that some people on the U.S. side have not followed through on the important common understanding reached by the two Presidents and have not acted on President Biden's positive statements.

The current arbitrary sanctions against the Chinese officials are the latest proof.

The U.S. move defies logic and common sense when Washington on the one hand repeatedly and publicly presses China to work with it on international hotspot issues while on the other hand damages the bilateral relations intentionally.

The United States should view China's human rights situation in an objective and just manner and immediately revoke its so-called sanctions. Otherwise, as China's Foreign Ministry has warned, the Chinese side shall take reciprocal countermeasures in response.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
The D.C. Department of Corrections has agreed to improve housing conditions of transgender inmates at the D.C. Jail as part of a lawsuit settlement.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia on behalf of Sunday Hinton, who was housed in a mens unit for over two weeks in May 2021.

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According to the lawsuit, Hinton was kept there despite informing DOC officials of her gender identity and requesting to be transferred to the womens unit  which was a clear violation of her rights under the Constitution and the D.C. Human Rights Act, the ACLU of D.C. said.

Sunday Hinton (ACLU District of Columbia)

Late Wednesday night, the department announced plans to implement new safeguards to ensure that transgender people will be housed in accordance with their gender identity, as it settled the lawsuit.

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The DOC will also limit the time inmates may be held in isolating protective custody status, and no longer shackle all protective custody residents, including transgender and gender nonbinary individuals, when transferring or moving them within the D.C. Jail.

No one should face what I had to face at the D.C. Jail. DOC put my safety and mental health at risk, and Im glad that other trans people at the Jail will be treated with more dignity, Hinton said in a statement.

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 ACLU of D.C. applauded the policy change but noted that affording basic human rights to transgender people should not have to be achieved as the result of a lawsuit.

Both the D.C. Jails practice of assigning transgender people to housing based on anatomy rather than identity and its decision to place trans residents in unnecessary full-body shackles in protective custody were discriminatory and profoundly harmful, Scott Michelman, the groups legal director, told the Daily News in an email.

It shouldnt take a lawsuit to gain recognition of transgender peoples basic humanity and dignity, but were pleased the Department of Corrections has agreed to change its unlawful policies, he added.

VICTORY! @DCCorrections agreed to improve its housing policies for trans people at the D.C. Jail as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU-DC and @pdsdc on behalf of Sunday Hinton, a transgender woman who was forced to live in the mens unit for over two weeks. pic.twitter.com/qodVNRdHce  ACLU of the District of Columbia (@ACLU_DC) March 24, 2022

The lawsuit, which was filed as a class action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argued that DOC discriminated against Hinton on the basis of her gender identity, in violation of her constitutional right to equal protection and the D.C. Human Rights Act.

Sunday Hintons courageous fight against discrimination has led to important changes not only for transgender individuals but for all protective custody jail residents, who until now were subjected to the degrading and unjustified practice of full-body shackling, said Rachel Cicurel, a staff attorney with the Public Defender Service for D.C.

Ms. Hintons case has exposed several kinds of inhumane treatment by DOC, she added.

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As part of the settlement, the department agreed to keep the Public Defender Service informed about the implementation of its new policies.
The parents of Danish Siddiqui, an Indian photojournalist killed in Afghanistan last year, have filed an official complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Taliban. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) expresses solidarity with Siddiquis parents search for justice and urges the ICC to expedite the investigation.

On March 22, the parents of Danish Siddiqui filed an official complaint with the ICC against Taliban leaders and high-level commanders, including Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the acting prime minister of Afghanistan, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, the countrys acting first deputy minister.

In a statement released by the Avi Singh, the familys lawyer, Siddiquis parents said they wanted the ICC to investigate the killing and bring those responsible to justice.

Danish [was] murdered by the Taliban for simply carrying out his journalistic duties. He was subjected to barbaric levels of torture and mutilation while in their custody, Siddiquis mother, Shahida Akhtar said in a statement.

Siddiqui was killed while covering a battle between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces in the Kandahar province on July 16, 2021. Siddiqui was a chief photographer for Reuters in India and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his images of the Myanmar Rohingya crisis.

In August 2021, Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied the groups involvement in the killing and argued that the news reports were false. In an online press conference held on March 22 however, the familys lawyer refuted this claim.

The Taliban targeted and killed Danish because he was a journalist and an Indian. That is an international crime. In the absence of rule of law in Afghanistan, the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate and try the perpetrators of Danishs murder, Singh said.

According to IFJs annual killed list , Afghanistan is the Asia Pacific regions most deadly nation for journalists and one of the least secure locations across the globe, with nine journalists being killed in line of the duty during 2021.

IFJ said: The IFJ expresses its solidarity with the campaign of Dannish Siddiquis family to seek justice for the photojournalists murder in Afghanistan. The International Criminal Court should take swift action to investigate and prosecute the alleged international crimes against Siddiqui.
Oksana Baulina, a Russian journalist with the investigative media outlet The Insider, was killed when Russian troops shelled a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, the media outlet said on Wednesday. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) once again condemn the Russian army's shelling of civilian targets.

Oksana Baulina, who previously also worked for Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's anti-corruption group, "died under fire in Kiev" while "filming the destruction" caused by Russian shelling, The Insider announced on its website. Another civilian was killed alongside Baulina in the attack and two other people were injured, it added.

Baulina had worked for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation until it was declared an extremist organisation last year. This led her to leave the country and continue reporting on corruption in Russia for The Insider, the media outlet said.

After Russia invaded Ukraine a month ago, Baulina published several reports in The Insider from Kyiv and Lviv in western Ukraine . "The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana's family and friends".

Baulina's colleagues have mourned her loss on social media:

Sergiy Tomilenko, head of the Ukrainian journalists' union, confirmed Baulina's death in a statement on Facebook, saying she was reporting on the aftermath of a shelling when she was hit by fresh gunfire. Earlier, Tomilenko's group said a cameraman from a local television station in the besieged southern city of Mariupol had also been killed.

At least five other media workers have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

Yevheniy Sakun, a Ukrainian cameraman for LIVE TV, killed on 1 March during a rocket attack on the Kiev TV tower;

Ukrainian journalist Viktor Dedov, killed on 11 March in Mariupol after his flat was bombed;

Brent Renaud, American journalist shot dead in Irpin on 13 March;

Pierre Zakrzewski, Fox News camera operator, and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova, killed on 14 March while reporting from Horenka.
A mid-sized fire broke out at the Denver Broncos stadium on Thursday.

Firefighters quickly contained the blaze in the 300 level of Empower Field at Mile High, the Denver Fire Department said in a series of tweets.

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A fire burns at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, home of the NFL's Denver Broncos, on Thursday. (Denver Fire Department via @Denver_Fire/Twitter)

The fire burned dozens of seats and multiple suites. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters said they were still working to determine the cause of the blaze, but it began in a construction area, according to the stadiums Twitter account.

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#DenverFireDepartment crews are extinguishing a fire at Mile high stadium, 1701 Bryant. Unknown cause at this time, but fire affected has affected the suite are and the third level seating area. pic.twitter.com/vjnLaQg55X  Denver Fire Department (@Denver_Fire) March 24, 2022

The stadiums sprinkler system was unable to contain the blaze, the fire department said.

The Broncos have not played since Jan. 8, when they hosted the Kansas City Chiefs for a 28-24 loss in Week 18.

They heated up the offseason by acquiring Russell Wilson from the Seahawks in a trade.
Le Van Dung, a freelance reporter, was sentenced to five years in prison for conducting propaganda against the ruling Socialist Republic of Vietnam on March 23. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls for the immediate release of Le Van Dung and an end to the ongoing persecution of journalists in Vietnam.

Le Van Dung was sentenced to five years in prison by the Peoples Court of Hanoi under Article 88 of the Vietnams Penal Code for allegedly circulating information against the ruling party.

The court argued that the journalist made and posted on the internet 12 clips with propaganda content against the State, defaming the government, [and] spreading fabricated news. The series of twelve videos, posted online to platforms YouTube and Facebook between March 2017 and September 2018, discussed political and social issues in Vietnam, including information on state legislation and fundamental rights.

Le Van Dungs sentence comes almost a year after the reporters initial arrest in June 2021.

In court, Mr. Dung's spirit was sober and calm. He stated that accusing him of violating Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 based on the expert conclusion of the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications has no legal basis, does not follow a standard, no rules and he thinks he's innocent, the reporters lawyer, Ha Huy Son, said in a statement.

According to Human Rights Watch, Le Van Dung is one of more than 60 people being persecuted and imprisoned for their critical reporting on Vietnams ruling party.

Vietnamese authorities persist in treating any sort of criticism of the government as a grave threat to be prosecuted with long prison terms. International donors and trade partners of Vietnam should press Hanoi to listen to its critics instead of persecuting them, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

The IFJ said: The rising number of attacks, arrests, and killings of media workers in Vietnam is deeply concerning and displays complete disregard for both freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The IFJ urges the Vietnamese authorities to immediately drop all charges against Le Van Dung and end its vilification of Vietnams media.
Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has launched a slew of new initiatives under Project AsiaForward (PAF) to fulfil its promises to bring learning and business opportunities for startups, developers and talents.

Alibaba Cloud has teamed up with regional accelerators, including Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) in Singapore, Handsprofit (Malaysia) and Sunwah Innovation Center (Vietnam), to provide mentorship, capital, and connections for startups with investors and business partners.

Talents have been an integral part of the project, and after seeing success of the companys training programs last year, PAF will roll out more learning opportunities for talents and startups including open office hour with venture capitalists (VC) to guide them on business issues, technology workshops to offer participants insights on digitalization tools, and business intelligence webinars to pass on the latest industry trends to attendees. Since its launch last year, more than 600,000 talents, 14,000 developers, and 850 startups has participated in the project. Many of them have leveraged PAF to showcase their business success, and gained exposure to interact with more potential customers and partners.

As APAC continues to transform through technology and digitalization, nurturing digital talent across the region is needed to create a sustainable ecosystem of innovation for the future. The growth of Project AsiaForward is testament to this need among practitioners and companies to accelerate their digital competencies and cultivate future-ready skills, said Selina Yuan, General Manager for International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. As a leading cloud service provider, we are committed to working together with our network of partners in APAC to empower talent and startups across different industries to reach their digital potential.

Under the project, Alibaba Cloud is also aiming to create a meeting place, gallery, club, and workspace via Inno8 in the Sandbox for developers to interact with Alibaba Cloud.

In the Philippines, Finantier, a tech company that promotes financial inclusion by facilitating access to those who were previously unable to obtain conventional financial services, was named the Asia Star in the Philippines Demo Day, demonstrating that they are a good fit for the Alibaba Cloud ecosystem. The company can receive USD60,000 (Php3.1 million) in Alibaba Cloud credits to further integrate cloud solutions into its operations.

In Singapore, AiTreat, a high-tech company that has built robots to administer physiotherapy treatments, is one of the top-ten finalists in the Singapore Demo Day. As a finalist, the company can receive Alibaba Cloud vouchers, technical support from Alibaba Cloud as well as exposure to regional VCs for potential investment.

In Hong Kong, Gridmarkets, a cloud-based platform for drug discovery simulation rendering, was named the Asia Star in Hong Kong Demo Day. The company exemplified the innovation that cloud technologies are enabling.

In Indonesia, HashMicro EVA, AI-powered recruitment software that automates and saves recruiters time to find the first-rate candidates, was a finalist in the second Indonesia Demo Day. The company is planning to leverage Alibaba Cloud's resource and technology know how to further expand its market share locally.

In Malaysia, ClicknCare is a startup that provides teleconsultation services connecting migrant workers with doctors. As a participant in PAF, they had the opportunity to network with developers and young professionals, expanding their exposure to new talent and resources.

In Thailand, Sati, a mental health support app with the mission to create an army of empathetic listeners who are available around the clock for their users is one of the finalists in the Thailand Demo Day.

Since the launch of PAF last year, Alibaba Cloud has committed an initial USD1 billion funding and resources to cultivate a million-strong digital talent pool, empower 100,000 developers and support the growth of 100,000 technology startups in Asia Pacific (APAC).
StackLeague is the largest year-round online programming league to ever exist in the Philippines with over 10,000 contestants, a Php 10 Million cash prize pool, free training, and opportunities to connect with the nations best developers.

StackLeague Season 1 was supported by some of the biggest tech companies: Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Accenture, Jobstreet, and over 20 tech communities. With over 30 tech events for players to participate in throughout the year, Season 2 is promised to be even bigger and better. StackLeague is open to developers at all levels.

10M Cash Prizes

StackLeague Season 2 officially launched on February 22, 2022, and opened the virtual coding arena to start the leagues official scoring. Players solve challenges to earn points and win weekly cash prizes and thousands of giveaways.

Nationwide Recognition

In addition, top players will be recognized as StackLeague Featured Programmers and receive nationwide media recognition through press releases. StackLeague is the best place to showcase your skills to the tech community and companies.

Upskilling Opportunities

With its goal to help the countrys programmers improve their skills and grow their careers, StackLeague organizes tech and career sessions throughout the year, in partnership with the industrys leading resource speakers. These webinars are free. Participants will be awarded certificates for joining and completing each session.

Inspiring the Nation into Coding

StackLeague players can also inspire the nation into coding by being StackLeague Ambassadors. StackLeague Ambassadors earn points by inviting more players to join the league and by sharing their competitive journey through blogs. Ambassadors of the Month get to enjoy Php3,000 cash and a StackLeague shirt, while the Ambassador of the Year would get Php20,000 cash and a StackLeague jacket.

Scaling Up the Competition

This year, StackLeague brings more opportunities to participants with the support of new industry partners including Deltek, Coding Chiefs, Recruit Day, Apper.ph, and more. Also working with StackLeague to reach more programmers and connect them with opportunities are media partners including SparkUp, Wazzup Pilipinas, APPSGADGET, Back End News, Blooing, Androidist, Corner Magazine PH, and Megabites.

Be a Part of StackLeague 2022

Challenge and level up your skills, get rewarded with cash prizes and giveaways, connect with the nations best coders, and access to thousands of tech job opportunities. Sign up at https://stackleague.com/.
Eluned Anderson received a rejection email for a job application. That part is normal. What isn't normal is why the hiring manager rejected her. The email contained this explanation:

It was decided that your strong Welsh accent, accompanied by your regional activities, would not suit the office environment.

This is a weird reason to reject someone, and if you're in the U.S., it could also be an illegal reason to reject someone. It could also be legal--so here's the difference for employers in the United States.

National origin discrimination is illegal

In the United States, you can't discriminate against someone on the basis of where they were born or their citizenship. As long as they are legal to work, you have to consider them like everyone else. (There are some exceptions for jobs with security clearances, but that's not the general rule.)

So, if their accent comes from being born outside of the U.S. or English is their second language, you could be breaking the law. Business attorney Josh Joel, counsel at Stanton Law, explains:

Refusing to hire someone on the basis of their accent can be dangerous territory. Federal law forbids making employment decisions on the basis of national origin, and a foreign accent is a clear reflection of national origin.

In Anderson's case, they rejected her because her Welsh accent was too strong. In the U.S. (understanding that Anderson is in the U.K. and under different rules), that could result in a strong national origin discrimination case.

That doesn't mean you have to hire someone you cannot understand (as long as speaking English is required for the job--plenty of jobs don't even require the ability to speak or understand English). Attorney Joel explains:

The only exception is if the candidate's accent is so difficult to understand that it will impede them from effectively performing the core functions of the job. Examples where this may apply include certain phone-based positions, such as telemarketers. But I strongly suggest that you speak to an employment lawyer before declining a job offer because of an employee's accent.

Regional accents are a different story

What if you don't want to hire someone who sounds like a New Yorker, a Southerner, or a Philadelphian? Jon Hyman, an employment attorney and partner at Wickens Herzer Panza and a native Philadelphian, says,

While I'd love to think that "Philly" is a protected class and that I can drink my glass of wooder without fear of discrimination, alas, it is not.

Weirdly, you can discriminate against a native Philadelphian for their accent but not against a native Brazilian. Regional accents don't have protection.

Of course, as long as you can understand someone, their accent shouldn't make any difference.

But keep in mind that accents are only part of why people speak the way they do. Hyman adds, "But a 'Black' accent or 'gay' affect ... different story." If you discriminate against someone because they sound like a protected class, you're doing so illegally.
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.
Media reports have confirmed that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be landing in New Delhi on Thursday evening (March 24). Wangs visit will be the first such senior level interaction since political relations turned frosty after PLA activity was recorded on the Indian border in April 2020. He is scheduled to meet his counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Geopolitical tensions have frozen India-China ties for two years and heavily impacted cross-border investments and India market access, but new developments in the extended neighborhood may force a change. Indias Ministry of External Affairs has not made public comments on the visit, whose agenda is still under discussion. In this article, we briefly run through some of the issues that could feature in talks.

Line of Actual Control (LAC), BRICS, war in Ukraine

Wang will reportedly meet with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday to discuss several matters relating to regional security. These include Chinas position on the LAC, dealing with the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, and continuing the BRICS diplomatic engagement. The visit comes after comments Wang made at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial meeting in Islamabad earlier this week about Jammu & Kashmir.

Whats at stake

LAC: India has previously required complete de-escalation and disengagement at the LAC as a precondition for talks. New Delhi is clear that resolution on LAC will be prioritized above all other topics of discussion. Beijings position appears to be seeking to put the border at the appropriate place and that the LAC issue does not dominate the bilateral relationship. This is expected to be repeated by Wang on his visit.

Recently, on March 11, India and China held their 15 th round of military talks that did not result in a breakthrough but were considered to be positive. The Hindu reports: India is hopeful of reaching an agreement to disengage at Patrolling Point (PP) 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area, which would leave only Demchok and Depsang as the remaining points of friction with disengagement already reached in the Galwan Valley in 2020 in the wake of the June 15, 2020 clash, in north and south banks of the Pangong Lake in February 2021 and from PP17A in the Gogra-Hot Springs area in August 2021.

India has previously required complete de-escalation and disengagement at the LAC as a precondition for talks. New Delhi is clear that resolution on LAC will be prioritized above all other topics of discussion. Beijings position appears to be seeking to put the border at the appropriate place and that the LAC issue does not dominate the bilateral relationship. This is expected to be repeated by Wang on his visit. Recently, on March 11, India and China held their 15 round of military talks that did not result in a breakthrough but were considered to be positive. The Hindu reports: India is hopeful of reaching an agreement to disengage at Patrolling Point (PP) 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area, which would leave only Demchok and Depsang as the remaining points of friction with disengagement already reached in the Galwan Valley in 2020 in the wake of the June 15, 2020 clash, in north and south banks of the Pangong Lake in February 2021 and from PP17A in the Gogra-Hot Springs area in August 2021. BRICS: China is keen to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the in-person BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China) summit that will be attended by President Vladimir Putin. China also holds the chair for the RIC (Russia-India-China) trilateral in 2022. Again, India has made clear it will not be business as usual with China without a clear resolution of its border standoff in Ladakh (statement by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on March 19 following an outreach from Beijing).

China is keen to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the in-person BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China) summit that will be attended by President Vladimir Putin. China also holds the chair for the RIC (Russia-India-China) trilateral in 2022. Again, India has made clear it will not be business as usual with China without a clear resolution of its border standoff in Ladakh (statement by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on March 19 following an outreach from Beijing). Russia and Ukraine: The war in Ukraine and involvement of Russia has pushed both India and China into walking a tight balancing rope on the international stage. While China has acknowledged Russias security concerns and offered to broach a ceasefire agreement, it has laid blame at the door of the United States  reflected in direct media statements and online propaganda. China and Russia have thus far been viewed as much closer political allies on the global stage and opposed to a western-influenced international order.

On its part, India has called for urgent diplomatic settlement but stopped short of outright condemnation. Russia is an important defense partner for India, interestingly in large part due to its problematic security relations with Beijing. Concerning Russia, the two sides appear to have similar views, as does Pakistan. This raises the prospect of a China-Russia pact being joined by India and Pakistan, which would be an important geopolitical bulkhead in Asia for Russian interests, raising the prospect of improved Sino-Indian relations.

The war in Ukraine and involvement of Russia has pushed both India and China into walking a tight balancing rope on the international stage. While China has acknowledged Russias security concerns and offered to broach a ceasefire agreement, it has laid blame at the door of the United States  reflected in direct media statements and online propaganda. China and Russia have thus far been viewed as much closer political allies on the global stage and opposed to a western-influenced international order. On its part, India has called for urgent diplomatic settlement but stopped short of outright condemnation. Russia is an important defense partner for India, interestingly in large part due to its problematic security relations with Beijing. Concerning Russia, the two sides appear to have similar views, as does Pakistan. This raises the prospect of a China-Russia pact being joined by India and Pakistan, which would be an important geopolitical bulkhead in Asia for Russian interests, raising the prospect of improved Sino-Indian relations. US sanctions: US-led international financial sanctions on Moscow over its position on Ukraine have not been outright supported by China and India. While two China-linked development banks (AIIB and NDB) froze new investments into Russia, Beijing has supported settlement of trade payments in RMB, RMB-ruble trade, UnionPay as an alternative to Visa and Mastercard, and Russia linking to Chinas CIPS system. India has continued trade with Russia, and is buying discounted crude oil at about 360,000 barrels a day in March  four times the 2021 average. Current shipment schedules, as tracked by commodities and data analytics firm Kpler, indicate Russia will export 203,000 barrels of oil per day to India for the month. India traditionally does not buy oil from Russia due to steep shipping costs but given how high its energy import bills are, the discounted sale has been advantageous. Russian Urals were being sold at US$25-30 a barrel with freights rates at US$3-4 per barrel, according to Frontline, a New York-listed tanker company.

Political differences continue to spoil scope for India-China detente

New Delhi has clear concerns over Chinas perceived transgressions on its bordering areas and Beijings foreign policy positions that confront Indias core interests on public forums.

As recently as yesterday, the Indian government rebuked Wang Yi over his remarks while referring to the state of Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the OIC in Islamabad. New Delhi sent a harsher than usual reminder to Beijing that as India refrains from public judgement of their [Chinese] internal issues, it would expect the same from China.

Investment blockages

India has taken various measures since the border standoff in April 2020, which include adding a layer of security vetting of foreign investments from its neighboring countries, thereby blocking several Chinese companies from doing business in India and impacting companies in India with exposure to Chinese funding. India has also taken steps to restrict Chinese investments in sectors it considers important for its national security. Every few months, regulators have taken down Chinese mobile apps citing cybersecurity concerns.

On March 16, India stated that it had approved 66 proposals worth US$1.79 billion in foreign investments from neighboring countries but did not name the countries or companies involved. In a written reply to parliament questions, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shri Som Parkash said India had received 347 proposals worth US$10 billion in investments from neighboring countries since April 2020. Some of these proposals were likely directed to industries benefiting from the production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes.

The government said that the approved proposals covered 19 industries, such as automobile, chemicals (not including fertilizers), computer software and hardware, drugs and pharmaceuticals, dye stuffs, education, electrical equipment and electronics, food processing, telecom, among others. 193 proposals had been rejected, closed, or withdrawn.

Previously, it was reported on March 6, that the Maharashtra state government had been seeking clearance from the central government on investment proposals worth over INR 50 billion from Chinese firms. As on June 15, 2020, Maharashtra had signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with three Chinese firms  Hengli (INR 2.5 billion), Great Wall Motors (INR 37.7 billion), and PMI Electro Mobility Solutions, a joint venture with Foton (INR 10 billion). Again, the central government has not specified if the 66 approved investments from neighboring countries involves any of these firms.

Trade and supply chains

Irrespective of the escalating political tensions, Indias bilateral trade with China grew 43.3 percent in 2021, observing a sharp uptick in both exports and imports, based on China government data. According to the China General Administration of Customs, Indias imports from China rose to US$97.5 billion in the calendar year 2021  up 46.1 percent from US$66.7 billion in 2020. Keeping in mind the pandemic outbreak in 2020, imports from China in 2021 were up 30.3 percent over 2019.

The data also recorded that Indias exports to China grew to US$28.1 billion in 2021, up 34.9 percent from US$20.9 billion in 2020. Exports to China in 2021 were 56.5 percent higher than in 2019, a record jump in the bilateral trade relationship. The export growth could be influenced by Indias ambitious push to grow its export trade to be worth over US$450-500 billion in the next fiscal year.

China will also be wanting to cooperate with India on the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), which facilitates Indian-Iranian supply chain movement from Mumbai via a maritime route to the Iranian ports at Bandar Abbas and Chabahar, then heads North through Iran via road (and from next year, rail) to Irans Caspian Ports at Anzali and Rasht. From there, goods can once again be shipped across the Caspian to ports in Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The latter provide access to Central Asia, while the Azerbaijani Port of Baku has recently gained in significance as it opens up a Russia-avoiding, southern route to EU markets via Georgia and Turkey. China and India will look to align planned investments so they do not duplicate projects. Again, this is likely to lead to greater cooperation between the two countries, at least in third-nation infrastructure developments, logistics, and transportation.

Economic crisis in Sri Lanka

India gave Sri Lanka a US$1 billion credit line late last week to help ease their foreign exchange crisis and facilitate purchase of food and medicines. In January this year, India extended a US$400 million currency swap and offered US$500 million credit to buy petroleum products. Meanwhile China has also extended a credit line to Colombo and allowed currency swap. Sri Lanka is also seeking US$2.5 billion in fresh assistance (a loan of US$1 billion and a credit line of US$1.5 billion) from Beijing to shore up its deteriorating finances.

The economic catastrophe is the latest of indictments on the countrys mismanagement under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. In April 2021, and to the dismay of its outsized agriculture sector, the Sri Lankan government announced an overnight total ban on chemical fertilizers  for health objectives  but more likely, to cut the countrys import bill. After the actual cost of the ban became obvious, it was rolled back.

Moreover, while the COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed Sri Lankas mainstay tourism industry, the war in Ukraine steeply pushed up oil prices, amplifying Colombos debt crisis. Cut to the present and a series of economic crises threaten to overwhelm the island economy. There are daily public protests over prolonged power cuts and extreme shortages of everything from food staples and medicines to fuel and cooking gas, and other necessary items.

Whats at stake

New Delhi and Beijing will be monitoring the situation closely. India does not want instability in a neighboring country it has strained to keep within its sphere of influence. Contending for that influence is China who has invested heavily in Sri Lankas infrastructure build.

In 2017, Sri Lanka leased the Hambantota Port to China for 99 years and subsequently converted its outstanding debt into equity. Most recently, China pumped US$1.4 billion into land reclamation work for the Port City of Colombo (PCC), a marquee Rajapaksa government project to rival ports in Singapore and Dubai in the future. In return, China was offered around 116 hectares of land on a 99-year lease. As per media reports, the PCC is a public-private-partnership (PPP) undertaking between the Sri Lankan government and CHEC Port City Colombo Pvt. Ltd, which is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), a state-run infrastructure company involved in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. Chinas dismay at Sri Lanka has been that the funding for the various infrastructure projects it has financed has not yet materialized into cash flow opportunities for its other SOEs in, for example, property development on reclaimed land and so on.

Besides courting China, the Rajapaksa brothers have also sought Indian investments. Earlier in March, Indias National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) and the Adani Group signed separate agreements to establish renewable energy projects in Sri Lankas north and east regions. While the Adani Group reached a rather clandestine agreement to set up two renewable energy projects in Mannar and Pooneryn, in Sri Lankas Northern Province, NTPC inked an estimated US$500 million investment deal to jointly develop a solar power plant in Sampur, in Sri Lankas eastern Trincomalee district with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

India and China are likely to coordinate additional assistance into Sri Lanka and will both probably wish to see some form of regime change. Again, this has the potential for the development of unusually mutual interests between China and India (as concerns Sri Lanka).

Following his India visit, Wang is scheduled to visit Nepal between March 25 and 27, as part of his South Asia tour.
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A Florida teen accused of fleeing from a group home with a friend, breaking into a nearby residence, and then shooting at responding deputies has been sentenced in connection with the June 2021 incident.

The 13-year-old, who was charged as juvenile, stood before a judge on Wednesday and entered a plea of no contest to counts of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, burglary of a dwelling while armed, and criminal mischief causing damage of $1,000 or more. As part of the deal, he will be placed in an undisclosed maximum risk commitment program, where he will likely remain until he turns 21, WFTV reported.

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On June 1, the teen boy ran away from the Florida United Methodist Childrens Home in Enterprise with Nicole Jackson-Maldonado, who was 14 at the time. Police said they made it to a nearby home and broke in, prompting a call to the Volusia County Sheriffs Office. When deputies arrived on the scene, both teens had armed themselves with firearms they found inside the residence and opened fire.

Defense attorney Jeff Deen praised the way deputies handled the violence, noting that they were horrified by the idea of returning fire on children. They initially held their fire, but eventually shot at the girl after she came out of the house armed with a weapon.

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One of the responding officers, Sgt. Don Maxwell, told the boy that he forgave him and encouraged to do better moving forward.

You have big heart, you have a long life ahead of you and know that I do forgive you, okay? I will say a prayer for you every day, Maxwell said.

Deen added that his client has long struggled with mental health issues. According to court documents obtained WFTV, he suffers from schizophrenia as well as attention deficit disorder. He also underwent a mental health evaluation under the states Baker Act in 2016.

Jackson-Maldonado, who has since turned 15, is also facing counts of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, burglary of a dwelling while armed, and criminal mischief causing damage of $1,000 or more. She has been charged as an adult in the case is currently being held at the Volusia County Jail.
A visit by India's income tax authorities to the offices of motorcycle maker Hero Motocorp Ltd and the home of its chief executive, Pawan Munjal, on Wednesday was part of a "routine inquiry", the company said.



Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is expected to sell stake via a bulk deal on March 24 to make a partial exit from Kotak Mahindra Bank. The Canadian pension fund will offload a 1.41% to 2.02% stake in the private lender at Rs 1,681.26-Rs 1,769.75 per share through the bulk deal. The deal size is 28 million shares, which would further include an additional 12 million shares  taking the total deal size to 40 million.



Ruchi Soya Industries has garnered Rs1,290 crore from anchor investors ahead of its further public offering (FPO) that opens for public subscription on Thursday.



Filatex India board on March 29 will consider the proposal for the buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the company.



The Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Pralay Mondal as interim Managing Director and CEO of CSB Bank. The appointment will be for a period of three months with effect from April 1, 2022, or till the appointment of a regular Managing Director & CEO in the bank, whichever is earlier.



GPT Infraprojects has bagged an order valued at Rs118 crore. This contract is a joint venture of which GPT's share is 51 percent.



Triveni Turbine subsidiary Triveni Turbines DMCC has signed an agreement for the acquisition of 70 percent equity shares of TSE Engineering Pty Ltd (TSE). TSE is registered under the laws of South Africa and is engaged in high precision engineering repairs and servicing of machinery in sugar and other industrial plants in the South African Development Community (SADC) region.



Nelco and Omnispace announced a strategic cooperation agreement to enable and distribute 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN), direct-to-device satellite services. The collaborative effort will expand the reach of 5G using satellite communication throughout India and South Asia.


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A young boy of Kickapoo heritage in the first grade had his long hair forcibly cut off by two other students while attending school at Del City Elementary in Oklahoma.

This happened on the last day of school before spring break. A snowstorm follo...
The Madhya Pradesh government will issue notice to IAS officer Niyaz Khan over his controversial tweets on Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files, said Home Minister Narottam Mishra. He is violating the limits that are set for government officials, he said.

Twitter

"I have seen Khan's tweets. This is a serious issue...he is crossing and violating the lakshman rekha (limit) set for (government) officials...the state government will issue a show-cause notice to him and seek his reply," Narottam Mishra was quoted as saying to reporters.

IAS            



                 pic.twitter.com/1g3jvIz5dT  Dr Narottam Mishra (@drnarottammisra) March 23, 2022

The tweets in question are from IAS officer Niyaz Khan, who is a deputy secretary with the MP Public Works Department (PWD). In his tweets, he said the profits of the movie should be donated for education and the construction of homes of Brahmin children in Kashmir.

He also urged the makers to make another film on "killings of a large number of Muslims across several states."

Thinking to write a book to show the massacre of Muslims on different occasions so that a movie like Kashmir Files could be produced by some producer, so that, the pain and suffering of minorities could be brought before Indians  Niyaz Khan (@saifasa) March 18, 2022

Kashmir File shows the pain of Brahmins. They should be allowed to live safely in Kashmir with all honour. The producer must also make a movie to show the killings of Large number of Muslims across several states. Muslims are not insects but human beings and citizens of country  Niyaz Khan (@saifasa) March 18, 2022

Niyaz Khan added that the members of this minority group are "not insects, but citizens of the country".



Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has responded to his viral tweets. He said sought an appointment with Khan for "exchanging ideas."

Sir Niyaz Khaan Sahab, Bhopal aa raha hoon 25th ko. Please give an appointment so we can meet and exchange ideas how we can help and how you can help with the royalty of your books and your power as an IAS officer. https://t.co/9P3oif8nfL  Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) March 20, 2022

Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files has kicked up a political storm since it was released in theatres on March 11. Following the release of The Kashmir Files, Vivek Agnihotri has been granted Y security. This move came weeks after Agnihotri claimed a threat to his life over the release of his film. The decision to provide Agnihotri with the fourth-highest category security in the country has been taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the sources said.

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While the film is being pushed by several BJP-ruled state governments by either offering tax concessions or giving government employees special leave to watch it, the Opposition has, however, termed the film one-sided and too violent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the film has rattled the "entire ecosystem" which claims to be the torchbearer of freedom of expression but does not want the truth to be told.

(For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment, and let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.)
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 3 million civilians have left Ukraine to bordering countries since the Russian invasion began, and the number is continuously increasing.

The UK government has launched the 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme, in which citizens across the country are asked to welcome Ukrainian migrants into their homes. The website for sponsors to enroll for the initiative, which opens visa applications on March 18, was unveiled by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

AFP/Getty

According to reports, the majority of the population who've already fled their homes and crossed Ukraine's borders have arrived in Poland, but as the UK's reaction to the refugee crisis expands, hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians are expected to end up in the UK.

Initially, Britains scheme relied on personal contacts. However, Ukrainian refugees without family ties in the United Kingdom who have found sponsors can now obtain a visa through the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

What is the 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme?

The Homes for Refugee initiative was set to ensure citizens who have been forced to flee their homes, lives, and loved ones in Ukraine due to the war to seek safety in the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to allow Ukrainians who are not eligible for a visa under the Ukraine Family Visa scheme to visit the United Kingdom if they have a specified sponsor.

Reuters

Individuals, charities, community groups, and enterprises of all nationalities in the UK can shelter displaced Ukrainians in their homes or in independent accommodation for six months to a year under the scheme. According to reports, over 150,000 citizens in the UK have registered to support Ukrainian refugees so far.

The Government has stated that people who have expressed an interest in sponsoring but do not have the name of a particular individual to accommodate will be matched with someone from Ukraine with the help of charities, faith groups, and universities.Since it is unclear how long the matching and vetting process will take, Ukrainians who come to the UK under the arrangement may be placed in transitional shelters until they can be rehomed with a host family.

What support will hosts receive?

In Cycle One of this initiative, the host can choose whom to assist, whether it is an individual, multiple people, or adults with children. Both the sponsors and the guests will be subjected to safety and security checks.

File Photo

While the UK government is anticipated to provide rent-free accommodation, it will also provide "an optional 'thank-you payment' of 350 pound per month," which can be extended for up to 12 months after sponsorship. Local governments will receive 10,000 pound to assist each Ukrainian refugee under this new scheme, in addition to cash to provide education to school children.

People who are sheltering refugees in numerous sites might claim multiple "thank you payments" because the payment is limited to one payment per residential address. The money will be given to sponsors in arrears for the entire time they sponsor anyone through the initiative, up to a year.

Hosts are not expected to pay the expense of food and living costs, although they may do so if they desire; nevertheless, they will not be repaid for their efforts.

What support will refugees from Ukraine receive?

According to reports, numerous benefits, employment assistance, education, and English language tuition will be available to everyone who enters the UK through the scheme. They will be able to work and receive healthcare as well.

The independent reports, many local communities are also coming together in order to provide additional assistance for Ukrainian refugees, with events ranging from coffee mornings to donation drives to help them meet new people in the region.

United Kingdoms refugee process in the past

Reports claim that even in the past, the United Kingdom has established historic refugee processes. The British government organised a nine-month rescue effort for Jewish children fleeing Nazi pogroms in 1938. The parents or relatives of the children had to pay a 50 pound bail to be "guaranteed of their final resettlement," and it was expected that they would be reunited with their families once the crisis was ended.

Reuters

The youngsters were given temporary travel documents and were transported by train to the Belgian or Dutch borders before being transported by ship to England. Most children, on the other hand, never saw their parents again.

According to the same report, after the death of Norwegian statesman and arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, the UK wore its working gloves again to support refugees over a year later, in 1939. From 1922 through 1938, the League of Nations produced Nansen passports, which were universally recognised as refugee travel credentials.

The Nansen International Office was also closed. With its headquarters in London, it was renamed the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. The composers Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rakhmaninov, as well as the dancer Anna Pavlova, were all Nansen passport holders.





For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.
On Wednesday, Police in Alwar, Rajasthan arrested seven men after the video of them making a Dalit man rub his nose on a temple floor went viral.

The victim, identified as Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, a bank employee was subjected to inhuman humiliation over a Facebook post.

Facebook post against Kashmir Files

Meghwal had posted on Facebook, criticizing the move to make Kashmir Files tax-free, while a film like Jai Bhim was not.

He also questioned if only atrocities were committed against Kashmiri Pandits and not Dalits.

He wrote that atrocities are happening with the poor daily and there is nothing in the name of their safety.

Screengrab

However, some of the people then started writing religious slogans like Jai Shree Ram and Jai Shree Krishna in response to Meghwal's post.

To this, Meghwal allegedly reacted with some derogatory remarks against gods which further provoked people.

Though he, later sought an apology for making the derogatory comments, on Tuesday Meghwal was forced to go to the local temple, where he was made to rub his nose on the floor.

The incident came to light after a video showing Meghwal rubbing his nose on the floor was shared on social media.

BCCL

Following Meghwal's complaint, eleven people have been booked and seven of them were arrested on Wednesday, said police.

Killed for having a moustache

This came just days after the death of Jitendra Pal Meghwal of Pali who was tortured and killed by two upper caste men for having a moustache.

Meghwal, a resident of Barwa village, was stabbed to death by the two men, on March 15, for having a moustache.

Twitter

The youth who was working as a COVID-19 health assistant working in a government hospital in Bali had posted several photos of him with a thick mustache, which the accused reportedly could not tolerate.

The two men, identified as Suraj Singh Rajpurohit and Ramesh Singh travelled 800 km on a two-wheeler to kill him.

Dalit woman gangraped at gunpoint

On the same day, a 26-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped at gunpoint in Dholpur district.

BCCL/Representational image

While the woman and her husband were returning from their field, six men from their village stopped them.

They attacked her husband and two of the six men raped her at gunpoint.

Dalit rape victim left to die

In February this year, a 35-year-old Dalit woman who was rescued in an unconscious state six days after allegedly being gang-raped and left at an isolated place in the Nagaur district had died.

The woman had gone missing on February 4 and her family filed a complaint two days later.

File Photo

She was allegedly gang-raped and left near a dry pond after being strangulated on the night of February 4. On February 10, she was found in an injured state just 3 km from her village.

According to the police, the accused had strangulated the woman and she fell unconscious. They took her to be dead and dumped her near the pond in Deedwana.

Youth lynched

In September 2021, a minor Dalit youth, Yogesh Jatav was lynched to death in Alwar after his bike hit a woman as he attempted to save himself from a pothole ahead.

AFP

Yogesh, after being beaten with sticks and rods, was rushed to a private hospital and later was sent to Jaipur-based SMS hospital where he succumbed to his injuries after battling for life for three days.

For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
He is Fezco no more.

A dog dumped at a shelter in North Carolina because his previous owners thought he was gay has found a new home  and a name.

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The pup previously known as Fezco was adopted by a gay couple in Indian Trail, just south of Charlotte, N.C. And hes now named Oscar, after the gay Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde.

The 5-year-old, four-legged friend was abandoned earlier this month at the Stanly County Animal Protective Services after his owners caught him humping a fellow male dog.

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On Tuesday, Oscar was officially adopted by Steve Nichols and his partner John Winn.

When Nichols and Winn heard the story, they saw the same homophobia they have felt for decades and decided to act.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

We looked at each other and said, We got to do something, Nichols told The Charlotte Observer.

We just thought it would make sense for the gay dog to be adopted by a loving gay family, Nichols told WCCB-TV.

Nichols and Winn have been together for over 30 years.

Weve been subject to that kind of bigotry and ignorance throughout our lives together, and we couldnt always do anything about it, he said.

Oscar, who apparently had never been to a veterinarian, according to Nichols, had heartworms and was also not neutered.

He is expected to be home soon after he receives heartworm treatment, where he will be welcomed by Harry, the couples Chihuahua-terrier mix.

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Hes been through an awful lot, Nichols said. But we have high hopes, and the vet is very confident that hell be able to pull through.
Even long before Covid-19 showed up, most people turned to Google in hopes of finding answers to their health woes. From slight pain in the back to life-threatening injuries, people recovering in their homes always knew Google would have a tip or two.

At Google Health's yearly "The Check Up" event, the company revealed a series of measures it is taking to help billions of people be healthier.

Teams from Google Search, YouTube, Fitbit, Care Studio, Health AI, Cloud and Advanced Technologies, and Project have worked together to curate health services that were highlighted at Google's second annual "The Check Up" event.

On YouTube

Google says that it wants to leverage the power of YouTube's reach to help people make "informed decisions about" their health. If one thing Covid-19 has made clear is that most health communication is now dependent on video.

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YouTube wants to become a platform that stirs "effective, engaging, and trusted" conversations about public health.

For starters, Google has partnered with health organisations like Mass General Brigham and the American Public Health Association to create content on YouTube. Through engaging and evidence-based videos like Stanford's Viral Facts Series, YouTube says it has already taken a giant leap in terms of making medical information accessible.

Now, the service has added two new features. The first one is a health source information panel that will appear on videos to help users verify information in clips. The second feature is being called "health content shelves" where by videos from trusted health sources are highlighted when users search for keywords on YouTube or on Google.

In addition, Google Search claims to have been helping people in "Brazil, India, and Japan discover local, authoritative health content on YouTube." Health Source Information Panels and Health Content Shelves are being rolled out in Japan, Brazil, and India at the moment.

Through Google Search

In the United States, Google's Search team has recently released features that help people find the best care. For starters, it helps people find healthcare providers who would accept their insurance.

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Search is also introducing a feature that displays the appointment availability for healthcare providers, allowing one to easy book appointments online. In the US, Google Search is working with partners like MinuteClinic at CVS to expand this feature. This feature is currently in its early stages, and Google claims that it can help people find doctors in new cities, and even find same-day care based on area.

Detecting diabetes through smartphone cameras

Google's earliest health AI projects - ARDA wants to screen users for diabetic retinopathy that causes blindness among patients if left untreated.

The company claims to be screening 350 patients daily - with 100,000 screened to date. Recently, Google partnered with Thailand's national screening programme to assess whether ARDA is accurate and capable of being deployed on a large scale.

Images of eyes taken through smartphone cameras can also reveal cardiovascular risk factors including high blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Of course, machine learning is key here.

Now, Google is working with EyePACS and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH) to check whether smartphone cameras can detect diabetes and non-diabetes diseases from external eye photos.

Recording heart sounds with smartphone mics

Google is also recording and translating heart sounds with smartphones. Built-in microphones in smartphones may be used on over 100 models of Android devices and on iOS to "give people insights into daily health and wellness."

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Built-in microphones in smartphones could record a participant's heart sounds when placed over the chest - akin to how auscultation using stethoscopes works. This could help doctors detect heart valve disorders like aortic stenosis early. Google's latest research is attempting to understand how smartphones may be used to detect heartbeats and murmurs.

Through Fitbit

We keep reading stories about how assistive devices like Fitbit have saved lives of people of warning them about issues with their vitals, especially when it comes to the heart. Fitbit now wants to create an even greater impact on people with chronic conditions like atrial fibrillation (AFib).

Reuters

In 2020, Fitbit launched the Fitbit Heart Study, wherein they tested PPG (Photoplethysmography) AFib algorithm on half a million people who use Fitbit. AFib essentially looks at heart rate data to warn people about signs of irregular heart rhythm.

Google, then, showed the data to American Heart Association meeting to highlight that it was able to identify undiagnosed AFib 98% of the time. Now, the algorithm is pending review with FDA.

Improving maternal health

Google is set to published "foundational, open-access research" that is focused on ultrasounds used during pregnancies. Ultrasound is a diagnostic imaging method used to see images of internal organs and fetuses. According to Google's numbers, over half of all parents in low-to-middle-income countries do not receive ultrasounds.

Unsplash/Representational image

Now, Google wants to use its expertise in artificial intelligence to help care providers "conduct ultrasounds and perform assessments." Google has partnered with Northwestern Medicine to develop and test the models, keeping in mind maternal and fetal health risks.

What do you think about Google's attempts at prioritising health through its services? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
Vitalik Buterin, who co-founded Ethereum in 2013, is sounding an alarm about the future of cryptocurrency. Considered to be one of the most influential voices in the crypto space, he said that he was worried about trends that he had observed.

He told Time Magazine, Crypto itself has a lot of dystopian potential if implemented wrong.

Worrying trends

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The 28-year-old said one example of these trends is the explosion in the value of NFTs, like the Bored Ape Yacht Club, adding that The peril is you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling.



Lately, Buterin has made efforts to ensure that Ethereum is still used for projects ranging from voting systems to urban planning, Time reported.

He also said If we dont exercise our voice, the only things that get built are the things that are immediately profitable. And those are often far from whats actually the best for the world.

For the uninitiated, Buterin came up with Ethereum, the blockchain that powers the cryptocurrency ether, in 2013, at the young age of just 19. It is now the second-largest cryptocurrency, with its $360.7 billion market cap second only to Bitcoins $808.8 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Unlike Bitcoin, which is often seen as a peer-to-peer payment system, Ethereum is capable of powering and building decentralized applications, like financial tools and social media platforms, along with NFTs, as per CNBC.

Also Read: Ukraines President Zelenskyy Signs Virtual Assets Bill To Legalize Crypto After Receiving Millions In Donations

Not his first warning

This is not the first time that Ethereum co-founder Buterin has gone public to voice his concerns about cryptocurrency. Back in 2018, Buterin had reportedly warned investors about the volatility of the crypto space, telling people that traditional assets were still a better place to put their life savings.

He had also said, Dont put in more money than you can afford to lose.

And even recently, amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Buterin has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine and voiced his concerns multiple times.

Here are some of his recent on Twitter where he has 3.5 million followers at present.

Reminder: Ethereum is neutral, but I am not.  vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 24, 2022

First priority is supporting Ukrainians. Second, and also really important, priority is supporting those Russians and Belarusians who refuse to let Putin's Z-ombie regime represent them and take action to oppose it. https://t.co/cxpf5oZUiw  vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 9, 2022

Ukrainians are far from the only ones suffering from war. Also people in Yemen, Ethiopia... just as human as Ukrainians and you are.



This is NOT a valid excuse to not care about Ukrainians today. But it does mean we should self-reflect and extend our compassion to others too.  vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 9, 2022

Also Read: Worlds First NFT Superyacht Sold For $12 Million, To Be Built In Canada Within 36 Months

For the latest financial news, keep reading Worth. Click here.
Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its US affiliates. This is the largest publicly disclosed donation from the billionaire philanthropist since she pledged in 2019 to give away the majority of her wealth, as per The Associated Press.



Scott had a net worth of about $49 billion as of yesterday, according to a Forbes wealth index.

Jonathan Reckford, Habitat for Humanity Internationals CEO, reportedly said We could not be more excited to get the gift at a time when, in some ways, the state of housing affordability is the worst that it has been in modern times.

splashnews

Also Read: Japanese Billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani Donates 1 Billion To War Hit Ukraine



How The Donation Will Be Utilized

The organizations CEO further said Habitat for Humanity will use Scotts donation of unrestricted funds to increase the supply of affordable housing, especially in communities of colour. Though they approach the problem in varying ways, most local affiliates will pursue projects in their communities, while the international group will focus on broader advocacy and efforts to build homes for working-class families, as per The Associated Press.



Habitat.org

MacKenzie Scott had also signed the Giving Pledge, through which many billionaires have promised to donate more than half their wealth.



Recent Donations By MacKenzie Scott

Besides an occasional blog post, Scott, an author and philanthropist, doesnt discuss her donations, which reportedly exceeded $8 billion in the past two years after her divorce from Jeff Bezos. As part of the divorce settlement, Scott had received 4% of Amazons shares.

In December 2021, Scott had reportedly declined to announce how much or to whom she donated money. She said she would prefer to let the recipients announce her gifts.

Last week, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America had reportedly announced that they and 62 local Boys & Girls Clubs had received $281 million from Scott. Whereas on Monday, the Fortune Society, a New York-based group that helps the formerly incarcerated re-enter society, had announced that Scott donated $10 million to them.

Also Read: Elon Musk Donates $5.7 Billion Worth Of Tesla Stock To Charity

For more of such latest financial news, keep reading Worth. Click here.
Today

Generally cloudy. High near 70F. Winds light and variable.

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.

Tomorrow

Light rain in the morning. Scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 67F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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The girlfriend of the New Hampshire man charged in the disappearance of his daughter, 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery, has been found dead.

Kelsey Smalls, 27, was found dead in a Manchester hotel room, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader, but no other details have been released, including a cause of death.

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Police reportedly do not believe her death was suspicious.

A spokesperson for the Manchester Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News Thursday.

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Harmony Montgomery (MANCHESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT)

Smalls was living out of a car with Adam Montgomery, Harmonys father, in early January when police tracked him down to question him about Harmonys whereabouts, according to officials.

Montgomery, who gave conflicting responses to police, was arrested and charged one charge of felony second-degree assault for a 2019 incident involving Harmony, one misdemeanor charge of interference with custody and two misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child, according to the New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office.

[ Father of missing 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery arrested ]

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Harmony was last seen in October 2019 after she was put in Montgomerys care when her mother, Crystal Sorey, lost custody because of substance abuse issues.

Smalls was never charged in connection to Harmonys disappearance.

Adam Montgomery (AP)

Montgomerys brother, Michael, accused Adam of being physically abusive toward Harmony and his uncle, Kevin, told police that he had seen Harmony with a black eye and claimed Adam had told him that he bashed her around this house after an incident with her younger brother, according to an arrest affidavit.

Kevin Montgomery also told police hed seen Adam spank Harmony, force her to scrub the toilet with her toothbrush and leave her standing in the corner for hours, according to the affidavit.

Montgomerys ex-wife Kayla, Harmonys stepmother, has also been arrested, charged with one count of theft by deception and two misdemeanor charges of welfare fraud for allegedly collecting more than $1,500 in food stamp benefits between December 2019 and June 2021, despite the fact that Harmony was no longer living with her and her husband, Adam Montgomery.

Harmony is listed at 4 feet tall, weighing about 50 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. She is blind in her right eye and should be wearing glasses.

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Anyone with information is asked to call the Manchester Police Department at 603-668-8711, Detective Jack Dunleavy at 603-792-5561 or the anonymous CrimeLine tip line at 603-624-4040.
From Freedoms Journal to the North Star to John Abbotts Chicago Defender, African American-owned newspapers have sparked fires for truth and equality that have burned with the passion of fighting for freedom throughout history. Wednesday, March 16, 2022, marked the 195th anniversary of the Black Press of America, whose global impact remains undeniable. It all began with Freedoms Journal.
Federal labor officials are seeking a restraining order to bar a North Providence doctor from retaliating against a former employee who complained that a co-worker with COVID-19 put her at risk while she was pregnant.

The Providence Journal reports that Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is seeking the restraining order against Dr. Anthony Farina Jr. and his sister, Brenda DelSignore, who manages his practices, from retaliating against the employee who was fired in January.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court states that the firing of a receptionist was a textbook adverse action in violation of federal OSHA laws, and accuses the defendants of refusing to provide a termination letter needed for public assistance and facilitating phone calls to harass her.

Farinas lawyer, Michael Lepizzera, said his clients categorically deny the allegations and expect the complaint to be dismissed after the former employee is questioned in court, if the case gets that far.

Separately, Farina was cited by federal labor officials in June for failing to take steps to protect his medical office staff from exposure to COVID-19 even after he and other employees contracted the virus. Farina was running four medical practices: North Providence Urgent Care Inc., North Providence Primary Care Associates Inc., Center of New England Urgent Care Inc. and Center of New England Primary Care Inc.

The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration said he willfully exposed his workers to the virus when he decided to continue working.

Farina was also accused of violating fair labor laws by failing to pay overtime to more than 100 employees. The newspaper reports that the new OSHA complaint comes as Farina and DelSignore are on the verge of agreeing to pay $225,000 to settle those allegations.

The state suspended Farinas medical license in 2021. His medical privileges were restored last month.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) acquired the business of the Dutch insurer Aegon in Hungary for 620 million ($682.6 million) after receiving approval from Hungarian regulatory authorities.

The deal, which closed on March 23, 2022, includes the purchase of two Dutch holding companies (Aegon Hungary Holding B.V., Aegon Hungary Holding II B.V.), which hold 100% of the shares in the Hungarian Aegon companies.

VIG now holds a 55% stake in these businesses, while the Hungarian state-owned holding company Corvinus will hold a 45% stake, in a separate acquisition that is scheduled to be completed on March 25. VIG had previously agreed to share the ownership of the businesses with Corvinus in order to salvage the deal, which the Hungarian government had blocked.

The VIG Group will retain a controlling majority and the operational management of the Hungarian company.

Market Leader

Together with the existing VIG insurance company UNION, VIG will become the market leader in Hungary with a market share of over 19%.

According to preliminary figures, the premium volume of the Hungarian Aegon insurance company amounted to 401 million ($441.5 million) and the profit before taxes was 51 million ($56.2 million) in 2021. Around 1,000 employees serve more than 1.5 million insurance customers.

With the closing in Hungary, we will achieve our target of being among the top three in the market by the end of 2025 already in 2022 and take over the market leadership in Hungary. We acquire very well positioned companies that enrich our broad diversification and offer us new opportunities in asset management and pension fund business. These are two business areas that we want to intensify and expand as part of our ongoing strategy programme VIG 25, explained CEO Elisabeth Stadler, in a statement.

On Nov. 29, 2020, Aegon agreed to sell its insurance, pension, and asset management businesses in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for VIG for 830 million ($913.7 million). VIG is waiting for local regulatory approvals before proceeding with the acquisition of Aegons remaining CEE business with companies in Poland, Romania and Turkey.

Aegon said the sale of its Hungarian businesses will result in a significant increase in its cash capital, while providing the company with the financial flexibility to reduce its debt, via a 375 million ($412.8 million) tender offer, and complete a 300 million ($330.3 million) share buyback.

The completion of the sales marks an important step in the transformation of Aegon as we narrow our strategic focus to select core and growth markets, and further strengthen our balance sheet, said Lard Friese, CEO of Aegon.
Insurer Generali said on Wednesday it had suspended Luciano Cirina, its head of Austria and CEE countries, who has been proposed by a leading shareholder for the role of chief executive in a challenge to incumbent Philippe Donnet.

The top Italian insurer is facing a power struggle over its board composition at a shareholder vote late next month.

Leading Generali Investor Proposes Insurers Austria Chief as New CEO Generali Proposes Candidates for New Board as Battle Rages On With Leading Investors

The outgoing board has put forward Donnet for a third term as CEO and nominated Andrea Sironi, a leading international expert in governance and risk management who has served as dean of Milans Bocconi University, as new chairman.

Those nominees are backed by Generalis major shareholder Mediobanca.

Italian tycoons Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and Leonardo Del Vecchio who are, respectively, Generalis second- and third-largest investors, are opposing Donnets reappointment as they challenge the influence of Mediobanca.

Caltagirone has submitted his own slate of nominees proposing Cirina as CEO, a role that Frenchman Donnet has held since 2016, and Claudio Costamagna, a former Goldman Sachs banker and former chairman of Italian state investor CDP, as chairman.

Cirina and Costamagna plan to hold a news conference on Friday in Milan.

Generali told Cirina that all obligations of his contract remain in force, including those related to the protection of confidential company information and compliance with internal policies regarding relations with the media, financial analysts, rating agencies, investors and authorities, it said.

The head of German unit Giovanni Liverani will take over as interim Austria and Central and Eastern Europe (ACEE) regional officer with immediate effect.

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia and Keith Weir)

Topics Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City has agreed to pay a former professor $625,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed after he said he was fired for blowing the whistle on a scandal involving UMKCs business school rankings .

The payment will settle a lawsuit against the school brought by former UMKC professor Richard Arend, the Kansas City Star reported March 22. The university also issued a statement with Arend giving him credit for bringing to light that the business school knowingly submitted false data to the Princeton Review, which then ranked UMKC higher than it deserved.

The scandal was first reported by the Star in 2014, with the help of Arend serving as a whistleblower. Arend was fired from UMKC in 2016 for misconduct, which Arend said amounted to retaliation for exposing the false rankings.

In 2015, auditors found that officials with the Henry W. Bloch School of Management used false data when applying for rankings. Days later, the Princeton Review stripped the schools Top 25 our rankings issued in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

As part of their settlement, UMKC and Arend agreed to make no comments beyond their joint statement. Arend is now a professor at the University of Southern Maine.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics K-12
State officials have euthanized 85,000 birds in hopes of containing an avian flu outbreak at two factory farms.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting reported Saturday that the outbreaks occurred at farms in Charles Minx County in the southeastern portion of the state. The disease was found in turkeys at the facilities although other poultry in close contact with the turkeys were euthanized as well.

Assistant State Veterinarian Mendell Miller said the state doesnt release the names of facilities experiencing outbreaks. Miller said two other sites are under investigation for possible avian flu. Those counties will be identified if tests come back positive.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been reporting avian flu in wild birds, commercial facilities and backyard coops in multiple states since January. The first case was reported in South Dakota on March 6.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Hes singing a new song.

Brian Houston, the co-founder and Global Senior Pastor of the Hillsong Church, resigned Wednesday after a church investigation determined he had inappropriate interactions with two women.

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Houston, 68, had temporarily stepped aside as the Australian-based churchs leader in January after Australian authorities said he covered up sexual abuse by his father, Frank, in the 1970s

Brian Houston speaks at the grand opening of a Hillsong church in Atlanta on June 6, 2021. (Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)

The church announced Wednesday that Houston would be stepping down entirely. Hillsong revealed a few details from the misconduct investigations on Friday.

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About 10 years ago, Houston sent a woman working for the church inappropriate text messages, Hillsong said in a statement. The woman resigned from the church.

Hillsong blamed the messages on Houston being under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence.

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In 2019, Houston went to a womans hotel room and spent an extended period of time there, according to the church. The woman was not involved in Hillsong.

The truth is we dont know what happened next, pastor Phil Dooley told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The woman has not said there was any sexual activity. Brian has said there was no sexual activity, but he was in the room for 40 minutes.

This incident was blamed on Houston consuming anti-anxiety medication beyond the prescribed dose, mixed with alcohol. Houston founded the megachurch along with his wife, Bobbie, in Sydney in 1983.

Following that investigation, Pastor Brian agreed to take specific action including stepping down from leadership for a period, the Hillsong Church Global Board said. However unfortunately he failed to take all of the agreed steps which resulted in further action being taken by the board in late 2021.

The church investigations that eventually led to Houstons downfall were unconnected to the Australian criminal investigation into Houstons alleged coverup of his fathers sexual abuse.

According to investigators, Frank Houston confessed to his son about the abuse in 1999, but Brian Houston never reported it to authorities. That probe led to Brian stepping down from the Hillsong board in September 2021.

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Many celebrities have attended at least one Hillsong Church service, including Justin Bieber, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kourtney Kardashian and Vanessa Hudgens. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison opened the churchs annual conference in 2019, though he is not a member.
In an extraordinary remedy of a judgment from a year ago, a federal court judge in Minnesota reversed a decision that Target Corp. was not entitled to insurance coverage from Chubb for costs the retailer incurred to replace payment cards following a late 2013 data breach.

In a new order, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright said the court erred in its prior judgment and vacated the prior order in favor of ACE insurance companies (now Chubb).

Federal Judge Sides with Chubb in Denial of Targets Data Breach Bank Claims

As a matter of policy, we do not comment on legal matters, said a Chubb spokesperson in an emailed statement.

According to court documents, Chubb is obligated to indemnify Target Corp. for settlement payments Target made to end class-action litigation brought on behalf of a banks to recoup the costs of replacing credit cards after the 2013 breach of tens of millions of customer payment cards and personal identifiable information.

Target settled with banks for about $138 million, including $20 million in attorneys fees and then sought coverage from it general liability policies with Chubb, which denied the claim. The retailer then filed a suit against Chubb, but the court ruled Target could not demonstrate its claim was related to the loss of use of tangible property that was not physically injured. Target then filed a motion to have the court alter or amend the judgment.

In its latest interpretation of policy language, the court said Target met all criteria for coverage  specifically that Target was not seeking compensation for missing electronic data, which is excluded by the insurance policies, but instead it was looking to be paid for the loss of use of physical property that was not damaged.

The policies cover loss of use but Target and Chubb disputed the meaning of the phrase, which is not defined in the policies and no case law could be found directly on point. But Target introduced a factually analogous loss involving an online company and its insurer. The companys spyware infected a consumers computer, which rendered it inoperable. An appeals court ruled the claims were within the scope of the policy language for loss of use of tangible property that is not physically damaged.

In this case, the court concluded cancellation of the payment cards following the Target breach rendered them inoperable and useless. The cards werent damaged but they could no longer serve their function just as the consumers computer in the case used as guidance.

Once the cards were established a tangible property and that they were not physically damaged, the remaining argument regarding electronic data fell. It is the use of the payment cards, not the use of electronic data, that was lost, and the parties do not dispute that the payment cards are tangible property that is not physically injured,' Wright wrote.

The court now grants Targets motion to alter or amend the judgement and corrects the error of law in its previous order. The amount of the covered loss is to be determined, the court said.

Topics Chubb
One person was killed and more than a dozen were injured when tornadoes tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma, damaging a school, homes and businesses, officials said. The same storm system was poised to move into Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, carrying the risk of dangerous tornadoes and powerful winds.

In Texas, several tornadoes were reported Monday along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin, and close to Dallas-Fort Worth. Two unconfirmed tornadoes caused damage in the Lake Texoma area of northern Texas and southern Oklahoma.

In Elgin, broken trees lined the rural roads and pieces of metal _ uprooted by strong winds hung from the branches. Residents stepped carefully to avoid downed power lines as they worked to clean the remnants of broken ceilings, torn down walls and damaged cars.

J.D. Harkins, 59, said he saw one tornado pass by his Elgin home, and that he hadnt seen a twister of this magnitude in the town since 1980.

There used to be a barn there, Harkins said, pointing to an empty plot on his uncles property covered with scattered debris. He said the building was empty when the tornado hit, and that his family is thankful nobody was hurt.

It was crystal clear, well defined, Harkins said, adding that the tornado was swiftly followed by a second one. And then one went up and another one came down.

The tornadoes came on a wild weather day in Texas _ wildfires burned in the west and a blizzard warning was issued for the Texas Panhandle, where up to 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow fell.

More than a dozen injuries have been reported in Texas, including 10 in Grayson County, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Dallas, the countys emergency management office said. A 73-year-old woman who lived in the community of Sherwood Shores died in the storm, but officials have not provided any details.

By Tuesday morning, the system was bringing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms to parts of Texas and Arkansas, said Jeremy Grams, lead forecaster with the Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, Oklahoma.

The storm already left misery in its wake in Texas. Damage to homes and businesses occurred in at least a dozen Texas counties, according to reports submitted to the Storm Prediction Center.

Officials reported damage throughout Jacksboro, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Fort Worth. There, photographs posted on social media showed a storm ripped the wall and roof from parts of Jacksboro High School, especially its gym.

It brought tears to my eyes, school principal Starla Sanders told WFAA-TV in Dallas.

Thirty miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Jacksboro, near Bowie, the damage was widespread. Four people suffered minor injuries, said Emergency Manager Kelly McNabb.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas Windstorm Oklahoma
Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and several other officials must testify in a civil trial involving engineering firms being sued over liability for lead-contaminated water connected to the Flint water crisis, a judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Judith Levy denied motions by Snyder, his former advisor, two former state-appointed emergency managers and an ex-Flint city official to quash subpoenas compelling them to testify.

Snyder, a Republican, faces misdemeanor charges in the water crisis. His attorney has said Snyder would invoke his right to remain silent if called as a witness in the ongoing civil trial in federal court in Ann Arbor.

The Associated Press left a voicemail Monday seeking comment from Snyders attorney, Brian Lennon.

Attorneys for four Flint children claim Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman were negligent in not doing more to get the city to properly treat water that was being pulled from the Flint River in 2014-15. Corrosive water caused lead to leach from service lines serving homes, a disastrous result in the majority Black community.

They were not part of a $626 million settlement between Flint residents and the state of Michigan, the city and two other parties.

Snyder and the other officials already have given detailed deposition testimony _ on-the-record interviews _ with lawyers in the lawsuit without appealing to their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Levy wrote in her opinion.

Each  voluntarily testified during the deposition phase of this case, and now wishes to invoke the privilege against self-incrimination on the same subject matter, Levy continued. They cannot do so.

A hearing will be held to determine how the court will address specific arguments during the trial where their answers could expose them to risk of self-incrimination.

There is no safe level of lead. It can harm a childs brain development and cause attention and behavior problems.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Michigan
A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, ripping down power lines and scattering debris in a part of the city that had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the New Orleans tornado. Other tornadoes spawned by the same storm system hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma, killing one person and causing multiple injuries and widespread damage.

A video taken by a local television station showed a large black funnel visible in the darkened sky looming among the buildings in the eastern part of New Orleans.

The tornado appeared to start in a New Orleans suburb and then move east across the Mississippi River into the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Bernard Parish _ both of which were badly damaged by Katrina _ before moving northeast.

Reggie Ford was nearby when the tornado struck. He drove from the area, only to return once it passed, to offer help to anyone who needed it. So far, he says, the streets are eerily quite, only filled with fresh devastation from the twister.

I see downed powerlines. A church is completely destroyed. Three businesses are completely destroyed. There are eight blocks of houses missing their rooves, the New Orleans resident said. Video he posted on Instagram shows debris cluttered streets and shredded buildings. A battered car lies on its roof.

In the New Orleans suburb of Arabi, there was a strong smell of natural gas in the air as residents and rescue personnel stood in the street and surveyed the damage. Some houses were destroyed while pieces of debris hung from electrical wires and trees. And the power was out to the entire neighborhood.

Michelle Malasovich lives in Arabi. Initially she had been worried about family that lives in areas north of Louisiana that were also getting hit by bad weather. She was texting with her family there when, she said, All of a sudden the lights started flickering.

She didnt hear the distinctive freight train sound that many people say comes with a tornado but it was extremely windy, and her husband yelled at her to get out of the bedroom. He was out on the porch and saw the tornado coming.

It just kept getting louder and louder, Malasovich said. After it passed they came out to survey the damage. Our neighbors house is in the middle of the street right now.

Malasovichs house fared relatively well, she said. Some columns were blown off the porch and the windows of her Jeep were blown out. Down the street a house was severely damaged, and parked vehicles had been moved around by the winds: This is serious for down here.

Guy McGinnis, president of St. Bernard Parish, told WWL-TV that the parish had widespread damage in parts of the parish that borders New Orleans to the east. Search and rescue teams were going through homes looking for people and responding to at least two calls from people who said they were trapped in their homes in their bathrooms.

As of right now no major injuries are reported, McGinnis said. Its going to be a long night.

It wasnt immediately known whether anyone was injured. While the metropolitan region is often struck by severe weather and heavy rains, its rare that a tornado moves through the city.

High winds uprooted trees in Ridgeland, Mississippi, as a possible tornado passed the Jackson-area city Tuesday afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of any injuries or serious damage to buildings. Campus police at Mississippi State University, in Starkville, shared a photo of a large hardwood tree lying across a street.

Many schools were closing early or canceling after-school activities Tuesday in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi to allow students to get home before the weather deteriorated. Shelters opened for residents who needed a place to stay while the storms traveled through.

High water posed a threat to motorists early Tuesday in Louisiana on several roads, including a stretch of Interstate 20 and several state highways after rains overnight, authorities said. Deputies in Caddo Parish, which includes Shreveport, rescued three drivers from high waters during the night, the sheriffs office tweeted before dawn.

The storms were expected to intensify throughout the day as temperatures rise, increasing the threat of tornadoes, hail and strong winds. Forecasters predicted intense tornadoes and damaging winds, some hurricane-force with speeds of 75 mph (120 kph) or greater, in much of Mississippi, southern and eastern Louisiana, and western Alabama. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, were among the cities at risk for bad weather.

The system dumped heavy rain, downed trees and prompted multiple tornado warnings as it moved into Alabama Tuesday evening. The roofs of several homes were damaged in Toxey, Alabama, after a storm preceded by tornado warnings passed through the area, the National Weather Service tweeted.

Louisianas federal and state authorities reminded thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan because the structures might not withstand the expected weather. More than 8,000 households live in such temporary quarters, officials said.

In Texas, several tornadoes were reported Monday along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin, as well as in northern and eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma.

In Elgin, broken trees lined the rural roads and pieces of metal _ uprooted by strong winds hung from the branches. Residents stepped carefully to avoid downed power lines as they worked to clean the remnants of broken ceilings, torn down walls and damaged cars.

J.D. Harkins, 59, said he saw two tornadoes pass by his Elgin home.

There used to be a barn there, Harkins said, pointing to an empty plot on his uncles property covered with scattered debris. He said the building was empty when the first tornado hit Monday, and that his family is thankful nobody was hurt.

It was crystal clear, well defined, Harkins said. And then one went up and another one came down.

The tornadoes came on a wild weather day in Texas _ wildfires burned in the west and a blizzard warning was issued for the Texas Panhandle, where up to 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow fell.

Theres absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in terms of what we saw yesterday and we see today, said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University, who studies severe storms. Its the time of year when tornadoes and storms are to be expected and there are usually more during years with a La Nina, a natural cooling of parts of the Pacific that alters weather across the globe, he said.

The biggest concern remains tornadoes that strike at night, Gensini said.

At news conferences in Jacksboro and Crockett, two communities severely damaged by tornadoes, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a disaster declaration for 16 hard-hit counties.

Abbott said 10 people were injured by storms in the Crockett area, while more than a dozen were reportedly hurt elsewhere.

The Grayson County Emergency Management Office said a 73-year-old woman was killed in the community of Sherwood Shores, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Dallas, but provided no details.

Homes and businesses in at least a dozen Texas counties were damaged, according to Storm Prediction Center reports.

Officials reported damage throughout Jacksboro, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Fort Worth. Photographs posted on social media showed a storm ripped the wall and roof from parts of Jacksboro High School, including its gym.

It brought tears to my eyes, school principal Starla Sanders told WFAA-TV in Dallas.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm
Six teenage students have been killed in a two-vehicle collision in southern Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said March 22.

The students were in a passenger vehicle that collided with a semi about 12:30 p.m. in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 located about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City, according to OHP spokesperson Sarah Stewart.

The girls were eastbound on Oklahoma 22 when their vehicle was struck by a rock hauler that was approaching from the east on U.S. 377, OHP Trooper Shelby Humphrey told KXII-TV of nearby Sherman, Texas.

Maps show the intersection is at the end of a 90-degree curve of U.S. 377 from east to south. The girls car was making a right turn when it collided with the truck, Humphrey said.

Stewart said she did not have the exact ages of the students, but all six victims were female. The condition of the semi driver was not immediately known.

Images from the scene of the crash showed a virtually destroyed black vehicle with what appeared to be a pink steering wheel among the rubble.

Tishomingo Public School Superintendent Bobby Waitman said in a Facebook post that the district had a great loss involving students from the districts high school.

Our hearts are broken, and we are grieving with our students and staff, said Waitman, who did not immediately return a phone call on Tuesday.

Waitman said counselors would be available at the high school throughout the night March 22 and that school would be open on March 23 with a focus on the emotional well-being of our students.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Oklahoma
A tornado that menaced New Orleans flipped a schoolbus, ripped off rooftops and deposited a house with a family inside onto the middle of Prosperity Street. Two people were killed as the storm front blew across the South.

Other tornadoes spawned by the same storm system caused so much damage in Texas that the governor declared a disaster in 16 counties, and shredded buildings in Alabama, where torrential rainfall was recorded.

Multiple people were injured. The dead included a woman north of Dallas, Texas, and a person in St. Bernard Parish, next to New Orleans. Authorities didnt immediately describe how they were killed.

The city of New Orleans escaped significant damage, Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted late Tuesday, but tornadoes touched down in Arabi, just east of the city, and further east in Lacombe, across Lake Pontchartrain, the National Weather Service said.

Television stations broadcast live images as the storm damaged an area about 2 miles long and a quarter-mile in Saint Bernard Parish.

Louisiana activated 300 National Guard personnel to clear roads and provide security and engineering support. They joined firefighters and others searching multiple structures to make sure no one had been left behind, said John Rahaim Jr., the parishs homeland security director.

Theyre searching everything, going door to door, Rahaimsaid.

Arabi, just east of the citys Lower 9th Ward, was wrecked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and hit hard again when Hurricane Ida swept through last year.

Stacey Mancusos family just completed repairs to their home in Arabi after Ida ripped off the roof and caused extensive water damage. As Tuesdays tornado tore through their street, she huddled in the laundry room with her husband; two children, ages 16 and 11; and dogs as part of their new roof blew away.

Were alive. Thats what I can say at this point. We still have four walls and part of a roof. I consider myself lucky, said Mancuso. Still, the twister was the third time theyve had major weather damage since Katrina.

Entergy reported that about 3,700 of its remained without electricity on Wednesday. A strong smell of natural gas was in the air and downed power lines forced emergency workers to walk slowly through the wreckage.

Michelle Malasovich was texting relatives from her home in Arabi when all of a sudden the lights started flickering. Her husband, out on the porch, saw the twister coming their way.

It just kept getting louder and louder, Malasovich said. After it passed, they came out to survey the damage _ some columns were blown off their porch and the windows of her Jeep were blown out. Others fared worse: Our neighbors house is in the middle of the street right now.

A family of three was in that home when it went airborne, and the couple emerged from the wreckage seeking help to rescue their daughter, still inside on a breathing machine, neighbors and authorities said.

We had one rescue  a home that was actually picked up and came down in the middle of the street. A young girl was on a ventilator, her father was looking for firefighters to come help, come help, St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis said. And they were already in there taking care of the young lady and shes doing fine.

Some houses were destroyed while pieces of debris hung from electrical wires and trees. An aluminum fishing boat was bent into the shape of a C with its motor across the street.

I wasnt mentally prepared to see what I was seeing, said Amy Sims, who jumped into her car when the tornado warning sounded and drove to the Arabi Heights area to check on her cousin Amanda Hotard and her family.

She said ambulance crews and emergency medics, some crying, were dodging live wires as they went door-to-door through shattered homes. Her cousins home and family were OK, but houses all around them were flattened, she said Wednesday.

A bomb looked like it had gone off, she said.

As the storm front moved eastward, an apparent twister shredded a metal building and shattered windows east of Mobile Bay in Baldwin County, Alabama. The weather service reported more than 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain fell in the central Alabama city of Sylacauga overnight, and the roofs of several homes were damaged in Toxey, Alabama, where tornado warnings were issued.

The wild weather waned as it moved into South Carolina early Wednesday, but the weather service warned that isolated tornadoes remained possible in southern Georgia.

The vicious weather hit Texas on Monday, with several tornadoes reported along the Interstate 35 corridor. In Elgin, broken trees lined the rural roads and pieces of metal uprooted by strong winds hung from the branches as residents stepped gingerly through the mess to clean remnants of broken ceilings, torn down walls and damaged cars.

J.D. Harkins, 59, said he saw two tornadoes pass by his Elgin home.

There used to be a barn there, Harkins said, pointing to an empty plot on his uncles property covered with scattered debris.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said 10 people were injured by storms in the Crockett area, while more than a dozen were reportedly hurt elsewhere. The Grayson County Emergency Management Office said a 73-year-old woman was killed in the community of Sherwood Shores, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Dallas, but provided no details.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas Louisiana Windstorm
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. directors said Wednesday they continue to worry about the state of the Florida insurance market, Citizens growth and its potential losses, despite $6.5 billion in surplus and an $81 million net gain for 2021.

We just want to be solvent so when a CAT event comes, we are not sticking Floridians with Citizens assessments across the state, Citizens Board Chairman Carlos Beruff said at the insurers quarterly board meeting. That is my mission.

The state-backed insurer of last resort, which has grown to be the largest property/casualty carrier in Florida, has posted underwriting losses since 2015, as have many other carriers. In 2021, Citizens saw underwriting losses of almost $166 million, company reports show. But thanks to its large surplus, the carrier has been able to offset the losses with significant investment income.

But other Florida insurers havent been so fortunate. Two were deemed insolvent this year, thanks in part to inadequate reserves. That means more jilted policyholders will turn to Citizens and its statutorily limited premium increases, despite a Citizens depopulation plan now underway. The insurer is expected to top 1 million policyholders by the end of the year, president Barry Gilway said at the meeting, giving it almost twice as many insureds as the next-largest carrier in the state.

Gilway gave a stark scenario of what so many policies-in-force could mean: In 2017, when Hurricane Irma hit parts of the state, Citizens held 400,000 policies and saw 78,000 claims. If another Irma-level hurricane, with winds as high as 185 mph were to hit this year, Citizens could have as many as 200,000 claims, he said.

The recent insolvencies are concerning but what really concerns me is the financial condition of the remaining companies, Gilway told the board.

His report showed that of the top 10 domestic carriers in Florida, all but two had posted net losses for 2021. Three showed losses of more than $100 million, outpacing 2020s red numbers when only one insurer posted a net loss of more than $100 million.

Overall, Florida domestic and foreign companies saw just over $1 billion in net losses for 2021, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Data, Gilway noted.

Citizens $6.5 billion in surplus may seem like a huge number, especially when compared to the other 52 Florida insurers, which have a combined surplus of $3.6 billion, Gilway said. But he warned that reducing the Citizens surplus would mean less money for investments, which has kept the insurer in the black.

Directors urged staff to continue to find ways to reduce costs and strengthen the bottom line in the midst of a worsening Florida market, high levels of claims litigation, and no rescue bills approved by the Florida Legislature so far this year. Staff reported that Citizens total workforce, 1,841, is about what it was in 2009, but is 17% higher than in 2015 when the insurer employed 1,571 people.

The big driver behind costs continues to be litigation, officials said. The carrier reported $343 million in loss adjustment expenses in December 2021, some $94 million more than in December 2020. Gilway said that in 2013, Citizens fielded 27,000 litigated claims. By last year, the number had climbed to about 100,000.

It clearly is the litigation, especially for water-related claims, one official said. This is our Alamo  water claims. The sinkhole (problem) got fixed, now theyve another loophole. We need to close that loophole.

Chart: Courtesy of Citizens. Homeowner insurers ranked by direct premiums written in 2021.

Topics Profit Loss Underwriting
Tennessee Hires New Captive Assistant Director

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Industry announced it has named Daniel Clements as assistant director of the Captive Insurance Section.

Clements is a licensed, certified public accountant and has done risk examinations in the public and private sector, TDCI said in a news release. He recently served as director for regulatory, audit, and internal controls for AIG/FortitudeRE, where he led regulatory efforts for a third-party administrator that oversaw 4.5 million insurance policies. He also worked as financial audit lead analyst for Cigna Health.

Tennessee is ranked as the sixth-largest captive domicile in the United States, with 149 captive insurance companies and 352 protected cells, with an annual gross written premium exceeding $1.7 billion, the agency said.

Franklin Street Names Allen President of Insurance Services

Franklin Street, a commercial real estate and insurance services firm, named Robert Allen president of its insurance division, based in Tampa.

Allen will oversee a national team that provides commercial insurance offerings, including program design, market placement, portfolio administration, lender compliance, risk management and claims advocacy, the firm said.

Allen began his career as an insurance broker in South Florida in 1988, with a company that would eventually become Marsh, one of the worlds largest insurance brokerage and risk management firms. He also spent 25 years with Willis, including years as managing partner of its Tampa office. In 2015, he was named president of Willis Towers Watsons Atlanta division.

In 2019, Mr. Allen joined USI, where he was a practice leader in the companys property and casualty division.

Topics Tennessee
Pinnacol Assurance is distributing general dividend checks to its customers totaling $50 million. Pinnacol has also lowered premium rates by an average of 11%.

This is the seventh consecutive year of general dividend distributions.

Nearly 95% of Pinnacols policyholders are eligible to receive a dividend, encompassing more than 51,000 employers in all counties throughout the state.

The average 2022 dividend check amount is $974. Checks will be mailed to employers beginning March 22.

Pinnacol operates as a mutual insurer, which customers eligible for an annual dividend based on Pinnacols financial performance. Eligibility is based on customers commitment to safety with timely claims reporting and investments in safety education, technology and equipment.

With this years declaration, Pinnacol has returned $370 million in total dividends to Colorados business community since 2015, which equals nearly 9% of premium.

Pinnacol is Colorados largest workers compensation insurance carrier.

Related:

Topics Colorado
If Congress ever gets around to legalizing cannabis, the process of revoking federal prohibition may not be so clear-cut  legalizing it could unleash the power of a somewhat obscure law that threatens dire consequences for the states and the markets they now regulate, according to a Vanderbilt Law professor.

The academic has recently begun the process of alerting Congress to the implications of the law. Whats more, hes proposing a fix that draws on another rarely discussed law, one that has everything to do with how the nations insurance industry operates.

The latest Insuring Cannabis Podcast features a discussion with Robert Mikos, the LaRoche Family Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School, about the aforementioned laws, and the alarms hes raising.

Following are takeaways from that conversation.

There are all sorts of obstacles that this industry is facing, many of which would go away if Congress legalizes cannabis. On the other hand, legalization would introduce a new concern for a lot of players in this industry.

Thats this obscure provision known as the Dormant Commerce Clause, Mikos said. The Dormant Commerce Clause could limit the states ability to regulate cannabis businesses, to impose all sorts of different regulations on them, to limit the residency of those companies and so on. It could complicate to a great degree doing business in this space. It might open up the interstate market for cannabis and subject a lot of these companies to out-of-state competition, something that they havent had to worry about so much in the past.

The DCC is a doctrine implied by the Constitutions grant of authority to Congress, to regulate commerce among the states.

In a nutshell, the Dormant Commerce Clause is, think of it like a free trade principle. It says that state governments cant impose barriers to interstate commerce, Mikos said. They cant ban, if you are in Tennessee, you cant ban the importation of crops grown in Kentucky. You cant impose tariffs on goods from other states. You basically cant erect trade barriers that would impede the free flow of goods and services across state lines. Thats the best way of understanding this Dormant Commerce Clause.



The problem is that states have been operating under the assumption that they dont need to be concerned about interstate commerce. But when interstate commerce is added into the mix  you cant keep out product from other states  s would, in the words of Mikos, create a lot of chaos.

For one thing, you could start challenging all of these quirky state laws that might impede you exporting your goods to another state, he said. If a state like Colorado has a quirky labeling requirement, thats different from what other states impose, well, if youre an out-of-state company and you dont want to change your goods, you just want to ship them directly to Colorado without complying with their idiosyncratic laws, you can challenge their regulations under the Dormant Commerce Clause.

Another problem could be created with states social equity programs.

If you inject interstate commerce into the mix, the fear is that youll get these really big companies out there that will dominate the market, Mikos said. They will drive out all these little businesses, especially these minority owned businesses, that are just now getting off the ground. Those businesses need a little bit more time to get up and running and become viable in the long term.

Some of these issues are outlined in an academic paper Mikos co-authored with another law professor, Scott Bloomberg, at the University of Maine.

They also outline a solution that has a great deal to do with how the insurance industry in the U.S. operates.

The McCarran Ferguson Act was passed by Congress 1946, and it essentially says the Dormant Commerce Clause, for the most part, doesnt apply to the insurance industry to preserve the states primary authority over insurance markets.

The professors argue that the same language from the McCarran Ferguson Act can be used to substitute in the business of cannabis for the business of insurance.

That would be Congresss way of turning off the Dormant Commerce Clause for the cannabis industry, Mikos said. Just as it turned off the Dormant Commerce Clause for the insurance industry.

Related:
ALBANY  Gov. Hochuls plan to shoehorn bail changes into the state budget is not going over well with top lawmakers.

Legislative leaders said Wednesday that there is little desire and limited time to negotiate the governors leaked public safety plan ahead of New Yorks April 1 fiscal deadline.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul delivers remarks at NYS Police Graduation Ceremony at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany on March 23, 2022. (Darren McGee/Darren McGee- Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), a staunch defender of the states current cashless bail system, warned that many lawmakers in his conference are wary of the tight timeframe and the politics surrounding the issue.

I know our opponents are going to say, You know, theyre being soft on crime. They dont care about victims. Thats all bulls--t, Heastie said. We care about having safe communities, and I hate when people try to politicize these things.

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Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) admitted she was initially caught off guard by Hochuls 10-point plan, leaked to the press last week, saying it took her by surprise.

While Senate Democrats are open to discussing some of Hochuls plan, addressing all 10 points would be hard to work out before the budget is due next week, Stewart-Cousins added.

She argued that lawyers spent years crafting the 2019 reforms that essentially did away with cash bail in New York. Those overhauls, meant to address racial and economic disparities in the justice system, were tweaked a year later but have still faced criticism from Republicans and police unions.

There were a lot of discussions before we did the original reforms, Stewart-Cousins said. And again, were always happy to look again, but were not going back to a place that we werent at before we even began the discussion on bail.

New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Critics, including Mayor Adams, have continuously drawn a link between bail reform and rising crime in New York but the data doesnt back that up.

A frustrated Heastie argued that the issue is more complex, noting that crime has increased nationwide during the COVID pandemic and that access to social services was disrupted over the past two years.

Members want to have the discussion and not feel rushed, he said, noting that there is some agreement on increasing funding for mental health services.

The rest of Hochuls plan includes measures making more crimes bail-eligible and granting judges more discretion in deciding if a person should be detained pretrial.

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The plan would also affect the states Raise the Age laws by allowing judges to keep a minors case in Criminal Court if gun possession is involved.

In an op-ed published in the Daily News, Hochul and Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin defended the proposals after avoiding reporters and refusing to discuss details for days.

New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins speaks during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP)

The pair admit that data dont support the idea that current bail reform laws are responsible for increased crime rates, but said they still want to give judges broader authority to set bail for repeat offenders and in all felony cases involving illegal guns.

Meanwhile, criminal justice advocates assailed the proposal as a step backward and accused Hochul of caving to political pressure as she gears up for the Democratic primary in June.

Hochuls plan to lock up more people in jail is not addressing public safety  its punting on public safety, said Nick Encalada-Malinowski, the civil rights campaigns director with VOCAL-NY. Its saying, We dont want to actually do the work to address these issues, so we are just going to throw some people in jail and say we did something.

Rodney Holcombe, FWD.us New York State director of criminal justice reform, said the rollback measures would unjustly expose tens of thousands more legally innocent New Yorkers to bail and pretrial jailing.

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This proposal is not a scalpel-like approach, but a proposal that would have a significant impact on the very poor, Black, and Brown communities that the original bail reform package was supposed to protect, he added.
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The epidemic and oil prices have a dual impact on the high density polypropylene price fluctuations in early 2022

The epidemic and oil prices have a dual impact on the high density polypropylene price fluctuations in early 2022

The impact of oil price fluctuations on the high density polypropylene

Throughout the recent period of the high density polypropylene in international oil prices, the market once made a stress response, various chemical varieties of the high density polypropylene , especially crude oil directly related varieties sharply pulled up and fell, the difficulty of long-short judgment suddenly increased.

Among many varieties, the high density polypropylene price should be focused on, it is worth mentioning that the high density polypropylene price recently showed a continuous upward trend, with crude oil rising force is obvious, and when the crash did not follow the trend back too much. In the follow-up, is there room for the high density polypropylene prices to rise? Follow-up market how to see it?

Demand is performing well and there are expected signals

From the perspective of the high density polypropylene downstream demand, the overall performance is worth looking at optimistically, and future market expectations are relatively optimistic. Specific view, the high density polypropylene terminal construction was improved in the recent period of time, the high density polypropylene enterprises have also appeared in turn in a good state, the enterprise is still bullish on related infrastructure demand this year, power in the field of infrastructure or become a big driver of the high density polypropylene , including recently for a period of time as its exports continued to be strong, It is fairly clear that global demand is strong. On the whole, the high density polypropylene demand is optimistic, and there is a certain continuous optimistic expectation in the future.

If you have any questions about the high density polypropylene or want to seek our help. Send an email to sales@polypvc.com ,please feel free to contact us.

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Price volatility is still likely to continue to rise

In the short term, due to the expected pulling effect of the high density polypropylene and demand links and the combined influence of crude oil and another cost end of the price, the high density polypropylene prices ushered in a wave of short-term pull-up market, it is expected that the follow-up market is still likely to continue to rise. But we should pay attention to the international oil price callback that may give birth to the downside risk of commodities, the high density polypropylene is expected to have an impact, followed by fluctuations.

The epidemic affects the price of the high density polypropylene paste resin

The price of PVC paste resin, an essential ingredient for disposable gloves used to fight COVID-19, peaked at 25,500 yuan per ton last year. However, with the stabilization of the epidemic situation, the demand for the high density polypropylene paste resin decreased, the inventory of manufacturers was high, and the price dropped significantly.

Longzhong information industry analyst Wang Yilin told financial union reporters that the current price of the high density polypropylene paste resin is not high, stable near 11,000 yuan. However, due to repeated outbreaks and the increased downstream demand, the current price should remain stable. If the manufacturer's inventory can be cleared quickly and the new demand brought by the epidemic continues to increase, the price of the high density polypropylene paste resin may rise in the future, but the impact of the epidemic is complicated, and the time period of price rise is difficult to determine.

But the high density polypropylene paste resin in the short term is likely to rise significantly? In this regard, Wang Yilin told financial Union reporters that the epidemic has spawned demand, but it has also brought difficulties to the sales and transportation of products. At present, downstream demand has not shown a trend of sharp rise. More importantly, at present, the inventory of relevant production enterprises is relatively high, destocking is the most important thing for enterprises at present, only when the inventory comes down and the demand continues to increase, the price of the high density polypropylene paste resin can rise significantly.

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The market application of the glass reinforced polyamide

Russia Ukraine formal war on the price of the product name

Development background of the glass reinforced polyamide polypropylene

With the rapid development of the glass reinforced polyamide, household appliances, logistics industry, electronic telecommunications industry, etc., combined with the development trend of new polypropylene products of multinational petrochemical companies in recent years, the market of "three high and two low" polypropylene will be larger and larger.

In the traditional sense, high crystalline polypropylene refers to polypropylene resin with high crystallinity, high crystallization temperature, high stiffness, and high heat resistance prepared by adding an efficient nucleating agent on the basis of the high structure and regularity of the glass reinforced polyamide. It is widely used in electrical components, home furnishing, and other occasions, and belongs to high-end products of polypropylene.

In recent years, major polyolefin companies, such as SK and LyondellBasell, are developing high crystal impact polypropylene technology. The BX3900, BX3920, 540V, and other products sold by them are widely recognized by users as soon as they hit the market, and their prices are more than 1000 yuan/ton higher than ordinary impact polypropylene. It can be predicted that high crystal impact polypropylene will replace existing high crystal polypropylene and impact polypropylene to a large extent, and become the leading brand of the glass reinforced polyamide in the future.

Will the price of the glass reinforced polyamide rise as Russia and Ukraine fight?

The fire, to Ukraine in the short term lead to the international crude oil, the natural gas market rose sharply, is a positive impact on the domestic refining production: in the high-end transformation of the glass reinforced polyamide, nylon, and other materials industry in China, prior to the completion of oil chemical raw materials rose sharply and domestic high-end brand capacity is limited, is bound to cause some refining and downstream device starts falling. Downstream end-consumer manufacturers are cautious about stockpiling after raw material price volatility in 2021.

Take polypropylene:

China began to study the process of polypropylene production in 1962. Since the 1980s, polypropylene has developed rapidly in China. In recent years, most new large refining, ethylene cogeneration, and coal olefin projects have been equipped with polypropylene units, so China's polypropylene capacity will increase significantly in the future.

If you have any questions about the glass reinforced polyamide or want to seek our help.Send an email to sales@polypvc.com ,please feel free to contact us.

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Market and application of "three high" the glass reinforced polyamide

At present, the demand for HCPP in China is 250,000-300,000 tons per year, and the growth rate is 10-15% per year, indicating a broad market prospect.

China's HCPP demand is dominated by imported products, accounting for about 70% of the total demand. There are SK, Hanwha Total, Daehan Oil chemical, LyondellBasell, Exxon, and so on. SK of South Korea alone exports about 60,000-80,000 tons of HCPP to the Chinese market every year, and its price is 2000-3000 yuan/ton higher than that of ordinary impact-resistant PP.

HCPP is mainly used in automobile parts, such as column, door panel, bumper, etc., home appliance modified products, large injection products, etc. With the development of China's automotive industry and the trend of lightweight vehicles, the demand for HCPP is increasing.

In recent years, with the development of the glass reinforced polyamide and technology, plastic products are increasingly large thin, lightweight, comfortable direction, some of the large automotive spare parts, using polypropylene injection molding can reduce body weight, this not only reduces the fuel consumption, and reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, to protect the environment is of great significance. At present, the proportion of the glass reinforced polyamide used in vehicles has reached more than 50%.

The demand for modified plastic materials in China's automotive sector has risen from 3.52 million tons in 2015 to 4.66 million tons in 2019. With the steady improvement of automobile production and sales and the development of automobiles to lightweight, it is expected that the demand for modified materials in the automobile field will maintain good upward momentum. The annual demand for high fluidity, high crystallization, and high impact polypropylene injection plastics in China is about 150-250,000 tons, and the annual growth rate is more than 10%. Lightweight, low cost, high mobility such materials have good processing performance, the short production cycle of finished products, while high crystallinity can improve the rigidity of materials, reduce the thickness of finished products, reduce the quality of materials. In addition, the high content of ethylene-propylene rubber can increase the strength of the finished product. The research shows that: in terms of fuel consumption, every 10% decrease in vehicle quality, fuel consumption will decrease by 6-8% and emissions will decrease by 4%; In terms of power economy, the power performance of 0-100km /h acceleration increases by 7% for every 100kg weight loss; In terms of the glass reinforced polyamide braking performance, for every 100kg weight loss, the braking distance is shortened by 2-7m at low speed and 1-2m at high speed for every 100kg weight loss. In terms of electric vehicle range, the range of electric vehicles increases 15-20km for every 100kg weight loss.

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Dema Import and Export Co, Ltd is to be service of international market,we have started our plastic business in China, so we have a long history from this point.FIBC bags and polymer resin have constitute Dema's major business.Thermoplastic is our speciality. Mainly products includes PE,PP, PVC,PET, ABS, and customized compounds for auto parts.Dema commit to create value for our clients, provide solutions of raw materials and FIBC bags, and help you occupied a competitive position in your market. You are welcome to contact us at any time, we will serve you wholeheartedly.

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Irish authorities need to learn from the mistakes in covert policing and the handling of informants in the North as they finalise blueprints for intelligence oversight structures here.

Human rights agencies said secretive policing operations had gone badly wrong in the past in Northern Ireland, damaging peoples trust in the criminal justice system.

But they said that the mistakes across the border could be avoided by the Government in its drafting of landmark laws establishing a central, and more powerful, oversight system of intelligence and organised crime legislation.

The plans for an independent examiner are contained in the General Scheme of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, published in April 2021.

The proposal to establish such a position, contained in the September 2018 report of the Commission on the Future of Policing (CoFP), is mirrored on similar watchdogs abroad, including Britain and Australia.

Speaking ahead of a day-long cross-border policing conference in Dublin on Thursday, Brian Gormally, director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), said:

Covert policing and informant handling have gone badly wrong in the past in Northern Ireland, damaging confidence in policing and the rule of law.

However, significant reform within the PSNI, increased accountability and the application of international human rights standards can bring useful learning for other police reform processes.

Covert policing and the handling of informants, known as Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) in An Garda Siochana, will come under the remit of the new independent examiner.

Ireland currently has a limited and scattered system of oversight of security and intelligence services with little public information available.

The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation in Britain boasts considerable independence and access to security documentation and personnel. It engages extensively with the public, publishes detailed reports, and appears before parliamentary committees and is active on social media.

Former British reviewer David Anderson QC is also due to speak at Thursdays conference, jointly organised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the CAJ.

Mr Anderson was an outspoken reviewer and was involved in several contentious investigations during his term, which involve serious conflicts with security agencies.

Resourced and empowered

He has previously said that independent examiners must be properly resourced and empowered and have full security clearance.

The barrister has urged that Ireland adopt the British/Australia model and the Government has indicated that this is the model is being adopted.

Observers will keep a close eye on the final legislation and subsequent funding and resourcing of the independent examiners office, given the experience with Gsoc after its establishment.

Operating protocols between the examiner and An Garda Siochana, as well as the Defence Forces, will also have to be discussed and laid down.

It is not yet clear what arrangements will be in place regarding appearing before the Oireachtas Justice Committee, or if a special intelligence committee will be established, as in Britain.

The draft legislation says the independent examiner will report annually to the Taoiseach and that the report will be laid before the Oireachtas.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee is giving the opening address at the conference, with the heads of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Gsoc, and the Policing Authority, as well as senior police, among the contributors.

On the back of strong concerns raised by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and senior Garda associations, Professor Donncha O'Connell, NUIG, and member of CoFP, said there was an undisputed need for effective oversight of policing generally.

This should not be lost in debates on details, concessions to vested interests or flights of fancy about supposed constitutional impediments.

The legislation to give effect to the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing is a major enabling step that will advance the implementation process significantly and should deliver clarity," he said.
The life and suspected crimes of Anthony Flynn continue to exercise a significant pull from beyond the grave.

Mr Flynn, who set up and ran the Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) agency in Dublin, took his own life last August when allegations of sexual assault against him surfaced. He was also a member of Dublin City Council, and division has now opened up on the council over the choice of candidate to take his seat.

On March 7, the choice of the Independent group on the council  and Mr Flynns family  was rejected by the council in a vote.

Geraldine Molloy was a close associate of Mr Flynns in ICHH, and has a record in community work in Dublins north inner city. There is no suggestion she knew anything of Mr Flynns conduct prior to the agencys board being made aware of it.

Anthony Flynn and Geraldine Molloy launching a publication titled 'Homelessness Survey Empowerment Rights' at Leinster House on Kildare Street, Dublin, last year. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

She has told the Irish Examiner her name will be put forward again by the Independent group, despite the defeated vote. Those who support Ms Molloy say this is about filling the vacant seat with a working-class woman who knows the community which Mr Flynn served. Those opposed are uneasy that anybody associated with ICHH should be appointed to the council before various inquiries into Mr Flynns conduct and the running of the agency are completed.

The vote on Ms Molloys co-option was 21 for and 26 against, with 13 abstentions. That was highly unusual. Ordinarily, such a proposal would have been expected to pass with near anonymity. Prior to the meeting, councillors also received a letter from Ms Molloys solicitor which refuted, with evidence, allegations that had been made by a homeless woman that Ms Molloy had made negative comments at a meeting in ICHH.

If that lady has any issues in going further, she should go to the gardai, said Ms Molloy.

I was cleared in every way and also by the gardai.

Proposing her for co-option, independent councillor Christy Burke said she had been subjected to unparalleled scrutiny, and that there were political assassins outside the chamber.

Independent councillor Christy Burke speaking to the media as he arrives at a North Inner City elected representatives meeting with An Taoiseach. Picture: RollingNews.ie

After the vote, Mr Burke and fellow independents Nial Ring, Ciaran Perry, and Noeleen Reilly stormed out of the meeting, saying something about the vote being undemocratic. Fellow Independent Mannix Flynn, who had voted against the proposal, said in their wake: That is democracy.

Noeleen Reilly later posted on Facebook: Independent councillors walked out of our monthly meeting tonight in protest at the political decision from the Green Party, Fianna Fail, and the Soc Dems to block a working-class inner-city woman from joining the council.

The following day, Ciaran Perry tweeted: Happy International Womans Day to women everywhereexcept the hypocrites on Dublin City Council who voted against a working-class community activist hoping to represent her community.

Thus, the attempt to have Ms Molloy co-opted was cast as an attempt to increase the respective under-represented cohorts of women and working-class activists. Ergo anybody who didnt go along with this must by default be in some way anti-women, anti-working class, or hypocrites.

Those who opposed the co-option saw things very differently. The Greens Janet Horners contribution at the meeting chimed with many others. She said that the north inner city had to be fully represented, but there were issues. We are conscious that there is a criminal investigation ongoing into ICHH activities," she said.

Our greatest responsibility as people and as representatives for the city is to the most vulnerable.

Fianna Fails Deirdre Heney said her party would not support the nomination. We are not casting aspersions, Ive already said that to Geraldine," she said. "Ive asked that this not be brought until the investigation by An Garda Siochana was completed so we could go about our business fully informed as to what happened.

Deirdre Heney of Fianna Fail, out canvass in Dublin Bay North in 2016. Picture: Fergal Phillips.

None of Sinn Feins eight councillors spoke on the motion, but all voted in favour. Fine Gaels Danny Byrne did speak, but only to say that his party would be abstaining.

In one respect, Ms Molloy is in an unenviable position. Nobody was suggesting that she had even been aware of Anthony Flynns conduct  which also included allegations of habitual cocaine use  but her perceived closeness to the deceased man and her involvement with ICHH were considered insurmountable stumbling blocks. Central to the objections were thoughts for Anthony Flynns alleged victims  all believed to be homeless men  and how they would view such a co-option.

Anthony Flynn during a protest by Inner City Helping Homeless where the charity displayed 56 black balloons in memory of the 56 homeless people who had died. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Ms Molloy told the Irish Examiner that she didnt want to comment on Mr Flynn, his alleged victims, or the ICHH.

The whole thing is crazy, as Christy [Burke] said, in 30 years he hadnt seen anybody having to produce what I did, she says.

It seems I have to prove that the community is backing me.

Ms Molloy isnt the only one caught up in the fallout from the issues around Mr Flynn.

David Hall was chairman of ICHH at the time the allegations surfaced, and he suspended Mr Flynn immediately. Ten days later, Mr Flynn took his own life. Mr Halls handling of the crisis attracted praise. He subsequently stepped down, citing threats to his personal safety.

Prior to the controversy blowing up, he says he was led to believe that he would be asked to serve on the Housing Commission, which was eventually formed earlier this year.

Geraldine has done good work  but when youre close to the bomb, you get shrapnel, says Mr Hall.

I was odds-on to be on the Housing Commission, but once there is a stink and youre close to it, youre going to get hit.

Every one of us has shrapnel, even anyone who did the right thing.

"Look at the report I wrote [into the matter]. I dont think anybody could criticise that, but nobody walks away from a controversy, especially of a sexual nature, even if they did the right thing.

The clash on the council touches on themes that have come to the fore in public and political life in recent years. The underrepresentation of women in politics has been acknowledged with gender quotas, and many parties now try desperately to get suitable women on election tickets. Working-class areas have long been underrepresented and there are ongoing attempts to rectify that.

A far greater shift in public attitudes in recent years has been the willingness, in general, to listen to victims of sexual violence and abuse. As a result, there is a heightened awareness about the sensitivities of these victims and the trauma they carry.

Anthony Flynns alleged victims  and their allegations will not now be tested in court  are young males existing on the margins of society. Whether that status is a factor in the ongoing row, and whether their plight would be viewed differently if they were drawn from mainstream society, is a matter of conjecture.
The last few weeks have seen the war in Ukraine and the supply of Russian fossil fuels added to the ongoing climate crisis. We have seen temperatures in the Artic and Antarctic spike by up to 30 to 40C and Irish household energy bills following, as the burning of non-renewable resources continues to send both temperatures and bills skyrocketing. The issue of where we get our energy from has never been so pressing, and requires dramatic changes to ensure that we move to renewable resources that dont make matters worse.

If you take the back road from Limerick city out to OBriensbridge, you will be rewarded by glimpses of Irelands greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. The Ardnacrusha power station was constructed during the first ten years of the Irish Free State, when it provided 80% of the power required by the nation. Still in operation today, it was recognised in 2002 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as an engineering milestone of the 20th century and remains the pride of both the ESB and Siemens, the company that constructed it.

Apart from the fact that our first foray into electrical generation was in the renewable area of water power, what does this power station have to do with our current predicament? The genesis of the Ardnacrusha power station is important, not just because it created the basis for our national grid and the ESB who have run it for nearly a century, but because of the scale and ambition of creating clean energy infrastructure in uncertain times.

Irish vision

In the early 1920s, a young Irish engineer, Thomas McLaughlin, was working for the German company Siemens on the electrification of Pomerania, which now spans the German-Polish border. McLaughlin was intrigued to see if his home country could benefit from electricity in a similar manner. He convinced Siemens to let him work up the calculations for the Shannon, and persuaded the Minister for Trade and Industry, Patrick McGilligan, that a power station generating electricity on the lower Shannon would make all the difference to the new nation.

This was particularly important because the majority of coal used in Ireland at that time was imported from Britain. While energy security wasnt a term used at the time, the idea of generating power locally was so attractive to McGilligan that he had few issues selling the project to the rest of the Government.

The Shannon Scheme began in 1925, after the Government had commissioned a report from a panel of European experts on hydro-electrical power and appointed Siemens for their engineering expertise.

For a country that was only a few years out of a punishing civil war, where both rural and urban poverty was an enormous issue and electricity unfamiliar, the Shannon Scheme must have seemed like a moonshot to many people

Indeed, thousands of visitors took guided tours of the construction site, taking photographs and buying postcards to record the occasion. Even a film crew from Fox Film Company departed in despair in 1929, because they thought that the size and scale of the project made it unfilmable.

Regardless, the employment situation in the country was dire enough that when the call went out for labourers to dig canals, men walked from as far away as Connemara to work on the project, with a few hundred skilled German workers joined by thousands of unskilled Irish workers. Both Limerick and Clare benefitted from this influx  Siemens built housing for a number of their more senior staff, but the majority of workers rented accommodation in the surrounding areas.

It wasnt an easy or straightforward project, as poor health and safety procedures killed many of the 37 workers who dies on the Scheme, and the initial proposal to pay the canal diggers as agricultural labourers sparked a strike

However, the Government of the time could see the long-term benefits of this energy infrastructure and committed the enormous amount of 20% of the entire national budget to the project, and set up the ESB in 1927 to manage the station and the development of the national grid.

This week Environment Minister Eamon Ryan compared the new Maritime Area Regulatory Authority wind farm initiative to Ardnacrusha to the power of 100, mentioning the investment needed to develop the required infrastructure in ports such as Shannon Foynes and Cork Harbour.

The aim is to have the first turbines at sea by 2026, but the question remains whether this will be ambitious enough to steer Ireland out of its energy dependency on imported fuel? The latest IPCC report says that we need immediate, rapid and large scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to limit global warming to even 2C.

Rather than responding to the energy crisis by stripping our irreplaceable bogs, we have an excellent example of a large scale renewable energy project on our doorstep, if only we can copy the ambition and vision of the Shannon Scheme.

Sorcha OBrien is an Irish design historian.
Prince William has denounced slavery as abhorrent, saying it should never have happened as he addressed the issue following days of protests calling for reparations from the royal family.

William expressed his profound sorrow at the forced transportation of millions of people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America  a trade which British monarchs either supported or profited from during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Speaking during his visit to Jamaica with Kate Middleton, he echoed the words of his father Prince Charles and described the slave trade as an appalling atrocity that stains our history and he went on to acknowledge Jamaicas pain.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (centre) talk with Jamaicas Prime Minister Andrew Holness (left) and the Governor General of Jamaica Patrick Allen (right) (Toby Melville/PA)

The Cambridges tour of Belize, Jamaica and the forthcoming final leg in the Bahamas has prompted demonstrations and statements calling for an apology from the royal family. The future king did not say sorry, just as his father Charles had not during his trip to witness Barbados become a republic.

But he praised the Windrush generation of Caribbeans who arrived in the UK a few years after the Second World War to help rebuild the nation depleted by six years of conflict.

Jamaicas prime minister Andrew Holness appeared to suggest his country may be the next country to break away from the monarchy, telling the Cambridges it was moving on and intended to fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.

The Independent has reported the Jamaican government has already begun the process to transition to a republic, with an official appointed to oversee the work.

Speaking during a dinner hosted by the Queens representative in Jamaica, Governor General Patrick Linton Allen, the duke said: Anniversaries are also a moment for reflection, particularly this week with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Kate wore a green dress by Jenny Packham to the dinner (Toby Melville/PA)

Commenting on the sentiment expressed by Charles when he attended the Barbados ceremony that saw it become a republic in November, he said: I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.

I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent.

And it should never have happened.

While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude.

The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit.

Kings House, Kingston, where the dinner was hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica (Jane Barlow/PA)

It is this same spirit that spurred on the Windrush generation, who came to the United Kingdom to help rebuild after the Second World War.

We are forever grateful for the immense contribution that this generation and their descendants have made to British life, which continues to enrich and improve our society.

Elizabeth I was involved with one of Britains first slave traders, John Hawkins, while Charles II encouraged the expansion of the industry and with his brother the Duke of York, later James II, invested their private funds in the Royal African Company, which transported Africans across the Atlantic.

As the slavery abolitionists campaigned they were opposed by the Duke of Clarence, George IIIs son, later to become William IV.

The royal and the rest of the pro-slavery lobby would eventually lose the battle when William Wilberforce and other abolitionists succeeded in passing the bill banning the slave trade in 1807.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (centre) pose with Sir Patrick Linton Allen, Governor General of Jamaica and his wife Patricia (Toby Melville/PA)

William delivered his speech on Wednesday and for the second day the Cambridges presence in Jamaica prompted protests, with around a dozen members of Jamaicas Rastafarian community demanding reparations from the royal family when the couple visited a military event near Montego Bay.

Ras Iyah V, a leading member of Jamaicas Rastafari Nyahbinghi community, said: We are here to protest against any British monarchy descendant coming to Jamaica without being prepared to apologise for slavery and colonialism.

We can only forgive people who acknowledge that what they did was wrong and are willing to repair the breach of the wrongs they have committed.

He added: And today the British monarchy has a lot of African artefacts in their possession  they still bathe in the wealth that was extracted out of the blood, sweat and tears and lives of our people and we have never been compensated for any form of enslavement.

During his speech at the black tie event William affectionately paid tribute to the Queen, whose Platinum Jubilee is marked by the Cambridges Caribbean tour: She may be my actual grandmother, but everyone counts her as their grandmother too.

And he recognised the plight of Jamaicans caught up in the conflict in Ukraine: Catherine and I were deeply moved by the plight of the Jamaican students who have recently returned safely from Ukraine.

Their experiences are a reminder of the terrifying toll and inequality of war and conflicts across the world, which we must never forget.

Kate was dressed in a green gown by British designer Jenny Packham paired with earrings and a bracelet that were loaned by the Queen and wore the Royal Family Order and her Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order star.

Later on Thursday, the couple will bid farewell to Jamaica after attending the inaugural commissioning parade for service personnel who have completed the Caribbean Military Academys officer training programme, then fly to the Bahamas where they will be greeted by prime minister Philip Davis.
Interview Myanmar Anti-Regime Leader: Freedom Does Not Come For Free

Karenni People's Defense Force members pay tribute to fallen heroes of the revolution on July 19, 2021. / Karenni Peoples Defense Force / Facebook

Tayzar San is one of the most prominent of Myanmars anti-regime protest leaders and a key member of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC)  a body that brings forces opposed to the military regime together. A coalition of elected lawmakers, ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and pro-democracy activists, the NUCC serves as a political consultative body to the parallel civilian National Unity Government (NUG), and is leading the efforts to lay the groundwork for the creation of a federal democratic union.

As one of the juntas most wanted people, Tayzar San has been on the run for many months. But while in hiding, he continues his mission to eliminate military dictatorship from his motherland.

Recently, the 33-year-old doctor turned activist talked to The Irrawaddy about the urgent need for funds for the revolution and called on the public to take the boycott and social punishment campaigns seriously.

You and other prominent opposition figures have talked about the importance of financing the revolution. How is the current funding situation?

The NUG talked about the defense budget in their six month report on the peoples defensive war. The NUG said that they have received nothing, neither cash nor any material support, from foreign counties for the revolution and depend only on public donations. In fact, finance is the essential need for the revolution and will determine its result. But the coup has plunged the country into political, social and economic turmoil. And so our people are facing hardship and their financial support for the revolution is limited.

But I want to say that to win this revolution quickly, we definitely need more funding. We have all heard and seen that our Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) comrades need arms and other material items. So we all need to push and contribute more. I want to say that this revolution is not for the NUG, NUCC and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CPRH  the NUGs parliamentary committee), but for all the people of Myanmar. If the revolution is successful, it will benefit all of us. Equally, if this revolution doesnt succeed, all of us including future generations will suffer.

In the NUGs six month report, the defense ministry said it has only received around US$30 million to fund the armed resistance. What do you think of that?

I was really surprised by that. I thought the amount would be more. Everyone knows that weapons and ammunition are expensive. At the same time, our enemy, the terrorist regime, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the military and has had 70 years to build up its infrastructure. Compared to that, spending US$30 million is like tossing sesame seeds into the mouth of an elephant. In a virtual discussion that I joined last year, one EAO leader said that, according to their calculations, if we could spend US$15 million a month on military expenses, we could bring down the regime in a short time. At least US$2-3 million is required to arm a battalion. So US$30 million is nothing. Thats not to be discouraging but to make people aware of the situation. Funding is the lifeline of the revolution, so we need to work together to push for more of it. If we can do that, we can reach our desired destination of a peaceful and flourishing country fast.

What can the NUG do to improve fundraising?

As far as I know, the NUG currently has two sources of revenue [for the resistance movement]. The first one is bond sales, which is well known. People who can afford it, buy bonds. But I think that they can organize a campaign to sell more bonds and reach the business community more. Another source of funds is the Peoples Revolution Supply Family (PRF) program. We rely on it a lot. Under it, all of our people can help supply PDFs for a minimum amount of US$20 each month. But so far people have very little knowledge about the PRF. Actually, the PRF program is a great source of fundraising for the PDF members who are risking their lives in our fight for freedom. But as theres little public awareness of the PRF, the amount of people participating is still very low. While we try to get donations from business people who can make big contributions, we should also try to do more to get the general public to contribute monthly to the PRF.

But the NUG shouldnt just rely on those two sources of funding. They need to find innovative ways to generate more revenue and also work on how to raise taxes as a legitimate government. For international aid, the world only bets on the winning horse. We need to work to let the international community know that our revolution is moving forward, and that we will definitely win.

What will happen to the revolution if the funding doesnt increase?

For me, the current situation is not satisfactory as there is a great need of funding but it is also not discouraging. Our [armed] resistance started with any available weapons and even under the current situation with insufficient weapons and ammunition, the PDFs can threaten the junta forces and have taken control of rural areas in Sagaing Region and Kayah State. Tactics will also play a role in battle, while the main difference between us and the terrorist regime is that our fight is spirit-based and has the full support of the people. For them [the military regime], regardless of how well-equipped they are, as soon as they leave their bases or camps, they are in enemy territory. It is certain that we will win this revolution and there is a lot of good potential. But it will depend on us to make that happen. So I would like to urge our people not to relax or be disrupted by events and dont be disunited.

In terms of public participation in the revolution, you have also recently reminded people of the boycott and social punishment campaigns. Why have you done that?

Because now more than a year after the coup, the terrorist military council members and some of their collaborators, supporters and opportunists are starting to publicly attempt to claim that normality is returning under the regime. They didnt dare do that before as the peoples campaign against them was quite strong. But now they are testing the water. This is a battle between Dharma and Adharma. We need to clarify clearly the line between our enemy and us and we shouldnt let them get into our society. They are the ones responsible for all the social and economic consequences since the coup. We need to strongly reject all of them. The boycott campaign against any businesses and services owned or affiliated with the military is also important. It needs to apply to anyone, any organization, any product affiliated with the military or supporting the military, because the money we use to buy their products or to use their services will turn into guns and bullets that kill our people and our PDF fighters. So not a single penny should reach the military. Our people already know that. But they might overlook the importance of the boycott campaign and social punishment for the revolution. And the terrorist regime and their collaborators will take advantage of that. We cant let them do as they want. If we do, we are stupid.

What else would you like to say?

I would like to say that the more people contribute, the faster the revolution will succeed. You shouldnt assume that the revolution will be over without you participating. There are several ways to participate. I am not asking you to do what the PDF youths are doing: fighting on the ground and risking their lives for the revolution. Lets push to meet the financial needs for the peoples defensive war. Lets be a support force [to the PDFs] by joining strikes, continuing to donate, continuing the Civil Disobedience Movement, boycott campaign and social punishment. Freedom does not come for free. We all have to make whatever contribution we can.

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Ukraine Vows No Capitulation at Talks; Putin Orders Nuclear Alert
President Biden said Thursday that Russia should be ejected from the G20, a political bloc of economic powerhouse nations, though he indicated that the punishment for President Vladimir Putins painful war was unlikely.

Biden, who has slapped escalating economic sanctions on the Kremlin over its bloody month-old invasion of Ukraine, said that Ukraine should be allowed to attend the G20s meetings if Russia is not removed. Ukraine is not a member.

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In an evening news conference at NATOs headquarters in Brussels, Biden said that the removal of Russia from the G20 had been discussed earlier in the day, which was packed with extraordinary diplomatic summits of Western powers.

My answer is yes, Biden told a reporter who asked about the G20 step. That depends on the G20. That was raised today. And I raised the possibility, if that cant be done  if Indonesia and others do not agree  then we should, in my view, ask to have Ukraine be able to attend the meetings.

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President Joe Biden takes his seat as he prepares for the G7 Summit with other leaders at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022. (DOUG MILLS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Indonesia is due to host a summit of G20 nations in October. Russia has said Putin intends to attend the gathering.

However unlikely, the removal of Russia from the G20 would represent a potent step toward cementing Russia as an outcast state in the eyes of the world. The G20 includes a hodgepodge of democracies and more authoritarian governments, like Saudi Arabia and China.

China opposes removing Russia from the G20, Reuters reported Wednesday. The Chinese government has avoided criticizing the Kremlin during the military conflict, Europes largest since World War II.

But Biden has pledged to turn Putin into a pariah over the war, which has killed thousands of people, decimated Ukraines cities and, according to the UN, sent more than 3.6 million refugees spilling out of the country.

Earlier Thursday, Biden and the leaders of NATOs 29 other member states issued a lengthy statement condemning Putin and pronouncing that the ruthless invasion has shattered peace in Europe and is causing enormous human suffering and destruction.

From left: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden and France's President Emmanuel Macron arrive for a G7 leaders meeting during a NATO summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022. (HENRY NICHOLLS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The statement said NATO is moving to bolster its longer-term deterrence and defense posture and will further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to maintain credible deterrence.

Some 40,000 NATO troops are stationed on the blocs eastern flank, according to the alliance.

Ukraine is not a part of NATO, a 72-year-old group of states bound to collective defense, and Putins assault appears to be intended, in part, to keep it that way.

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After meeting with NATO leaders in Belgium on Thursday, Biden was scheduled to travel to Warsaw on Friday. A neighbor of Ukraine and a NATO member, Poland has welcomed some 2.2 million refugees who have fled the war.

The U.S. has sent thousands of troops to Poland, hoping to shore up NATOs defenses and deter any further western advance from Russia. The Russian Army has found itself in a military slog in Ukraine, though, frozen on the ground and resorting to devastating air assaults on cities.

Russia appears surprised by how poorly its military has performed against inspired Ukrainian troops bravely defending their 30-year-old sovereign nation.

The war has not only united Ukrainians in defense of their beleaguered homeland, it has also created what many view as a high-water mark in post-World War II cohesion of Western alliances.

NATO has never  never  been more united than it is today, Biden said. Putin is getting exactly the opposite of what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.
Burma ASEAN Envoy Sees Little Hope of Breakthrough in Myanmar

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar, speaks during a press conference at Phnom Penh international airport on March 23, 2022. / AFP

PHNOM PENHCambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said Wednesday the Myanmar issue was complicated and would take a long time to solve, as the stakeholders were not ready to cooperate and still insist on fighting and eliminating one another.

Sokhonn visited Myanmar as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy for the country on March 21-23. He met with the countrys regime leader Min Aung Hlaing and some of his cabinet members, among others, but not with the countrys ousted democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Asked during a press conference on his arrival back in Cambodia on Wednesday whether he had requested to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Sokhonn said he did not make such a direct request because that issue was the reason his predecessor as special envoy failed to visit Myanmar. However, he said Min Aung Hlaing had hinted that it may be possible for him to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the future.

Myanmar has been in political turmoil since the military coup in February last year. More than one year on, the country, which is an ASEAN member, is on the brink of being a failed state as the junta still cannot run the country properly in the face of growing civilian armed resistance against military rule. The regime has killed more than 1,600 people, mainly for anti-junta activism.

Sokhonn became ASEANs special envoy for Myanmar after Cambodia took the rotating ASEAN chair this year. His appointment came after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited Myanmar to meet the coup leader in January to broker talks. The visit was criticized for legitimizing the regime.

Sokhonn said he had received information that so far there is no sign of negotiations aimed at achieving reconciliation, while many factions in the conflict are not ready to talk, but are committed to fighting and continuing their struggle.

I would like to clarify when I said, I ask for your utmost patience to stop the violence, Min Aung Hlaing expressed his concern that there is still violence among the ethnic armed force, the civil defense force, and the importation of weapons. This shows the complexity of Myanmar, he said.

We cant solve it during one chairmanship or the current chairmanship, he added.

Sokhonn said he urged Min Aung Hlaing to exercise the utmost restraint in using force, in order to reduce tensions as well as to release more political prisoners, including the Australian professor Sean Turnell. He said he regretted not having been able to meet former first lady Daw Su Su Lwin, as she was suffering from COVID-19. Daw Su Su Lwin has a close relationship with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

He said he asked the regime for its cooperation on organizing a consultation meeting on humanitarian aid for Myanmar that will take place in late April or early May, highlighting that the aid needs to be delivered safely and indiscriminately to those who need it the most, as well as on distributing COVID-19 vaccines wherever possible.

The special envoy said he understood the criticism that his visit to Myanmar would legitimize the junta.

I want to highlight that our visit does not legitimize the others side, he said, referring to the regime.

Thong Mengdavid, a research fellow at the Mekong Centre for Strategic Studies at the Asian Vision Institute, said Cambodia is currently trapped, as ASEAN had been taken hostage by the Myanmar crisis.

The root causes of the Myanmar crisis are the illegal power grab by the junta and the disparity of the ethnic groups, he said.

Mengdavid said Cambodia must retain the step-by-step conflict-solving model to gain trust from the junta while continuing to support the people of Myanmar through the ASEAN Way and humanitarian assistance.

The process will take time not only during the Cambodian chairmanship, but  will persist as a hot potato for Indonesia next year, he added.

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Burma Myanmar Junta-Appointed UEC to Decide NLD's Fate Later This Month

Anti-regime protesters in Yangon hold placards countering the juntas election fraud claims and calling for Daw Aung San Suu Kyis freedom in February 2021. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmars regime-appointed Union Election Commission will rule on the legality of the National League for Democracy (NLD) later this month for failing to comply with its order to submit financial accounts and expenses for inspection.

The NLD has refused to recognize the UEC, which was formed after last years coup and said all its announcements are illegal.

The NLD and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) refused to attend the UECs offices for inspection in mid-February. The SNLD has invited UEC inspectors to come to its office to inspect but refuses to attend the UEC office, saying it has done nothing wrong.

The regimes UEC says it has inspected 83 out of 92 registered political parties since August last year and warned that any party refusing an inspection would face legal action.

UEC members will hold a management meeting after [Sundays] Armed Forces Day and we will make a decision, UEC member U Khin Maung Oo told a press conference in Naypyitaw on Thursday.

These two parties did not come to be inspected on Feb. 14 so we told them to come before March 9, he said.

U Khin Maung Oo said the two parties were now in breach of the Political Parties Registration Law.

The law says parties can be suspended for three years and will only be allowed to do specific activities. Any breach could lead to disbandment.

Sai Kyaw Nyunt, the SNLDs joint secretary, on Thursday said: We didnt go to the UEC on March 9 and no one came to us. There has been no talk between us.

Any suspension or disbandment is their decision. Around 10 parties are in the same position. The UEC will have to think about the consequences of its decisions.

The UEC says the next general election will use proportional representation with a closed-list system.

Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing has promised an election by August next year.

The junta alleges that the NLD which won a large majority in the 2020 general election  took part in voters-list fraud, despite international and domestic observers being satisfied it was a free and fair election.

Party leaders, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, were arrested during the coup and have been in detention and face trials on numerous charges.

Myanmars junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told Thursdays press conference that free and fair voting will take place nationwide.

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Burma Myanmar Junta Detains Crony Over Failed Building Project on Military-Owned Land

U Khin Shwe / The Irrawaddy

One of Myanmars most notorious cronies, U Khin Shwe, was arrested and sent to Yangons Insein Prison on Tuesday along with his son U Zay Thiha, following a conflict over a failed building development on military-owned land in Yangon.

On Thursday, regime spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun confirmed that the junta is planning to take action against the pair.

The Myanmar military and U Khin Shwes company Zaykabar have been in dispute over the project since 2018, when Zaykabar Company contracted the China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd to build a US$500 million high-rise project on land in Yangons Bahan Township leased from the military.

The company planned to develop the site with 12 buildings ranging in height from 382 to 412 feet in the compound of the now-defunct Myayeik Nyo Hotel.

However, the military shut down the project in May 2018 after the developer breached the memorandum of understanding signed with the military.

Zaykabar Co was ordered to halt the development and leave the site by November 30, 2019, which it did.

The company appealed to the Ministry of Construction at the end of 2019 to continue implementation of the project, but the proposed development seems to have remained in limbo until this weeks detention of U Khin Shwe and his son.

The pair were arrested following a complaint filed by Lieutenant Colonel Aung Kyaw Moe of the Myanmar militarys Yangon Command over non-payment of rent for the land, for large-scale site preparation in partnership with a foreign company while a build-operate-transfer agreement had not yet been signed, and for the unauthorized demolition of four heritage buildings including a colonial-era mayors residence.

They have been charged under Section 24 of the Protection and Preservation of Ancient Monuments Law. If convicted, they each face five to ten years in jail. A family member declined to comment about their arrest when asked by The Irrawaddy.

U Khin Shwe was a prominent crony during the previous military regime led by the dictator Senior General Than Shwe, He was known to be close to General Khin Nyunt, the former head of military intelligence and was business partner to a number of generals. That resulted in him being sanctioned by the United States government until October 2016.

His daughter is married to the son of former general and parliament speaker Thura U Shwe Mann, now the chairman of the Union Betterment Party. U Khin Shwe was a lawmaker representing the militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party in parliaments upper house between 2011 and 2016.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact representatives of Zaykabar Co for comment.

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Burma Myanmar Junta Detains Yangon Commerce Minister and Mayor

Yangon Region commerce minister U Aung Than Oo.

Myanmars junta has detained Yangon Region commerce minister U Aung Than Oo and Yangon Mayor U Bo Htay on Wednesday over the granting of land permits in the commercial capital.

U Aung Than Oo was detained for granting land at Thamada Beach in Dala Township to former chief of the general staff Hla Htay Wins family, an officer in the Yangon Region government told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity.

I heard that there was a problem regarding granting of land to the retired general and his family, he said.

Mayor U Bo Htay was also detained as an accomplice along with the head of the land department from Yangon City Development Committee as U Aung Than Oo issued permits for U Hla Htay Wins family to use farmland at the beach for other purposes.

Offspring of military leaders and family members of the military proxys Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) own land at Thamada Beach after they bought farmland and applied to use the land for other purposes. U Aung Than Oo as the commerce minister of Yangon Region issued land grants.

U Hla Htay Win was the chief of the militarys Yangon Command under the previous military regime. He was appointed the chief of the general staff after junta chief Min Aung Hlaing became commander-in-chief. He was forced to step down in 2015 to join the USDP to contest that years general election. He was elected to the Lower House for Zeyarthiri Township in Naypyitaw.

A former military officer said the arrest was the result of conflicts of interest between current Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) chairman former Lieutenant General Nyo Saw and cronies of ex-General Hla Htay Win.

There has been a rivalry between Gen Nyo Saws group and the cronies of ex-Gen Hla Htay Win, the arrest of Ko Aung Than Oo and Ko Bo Htay means Gen Nyo Saws group has gained the upper hand, he said.

Former Lt-Gen Nyo Saw served as the commandant of the Defense Services Technological Academy and the Defense Services Academy and held the central and southern commands. Even after his retirement as the quartermaster general, he remains the chairman of military-owned MEC, as an aide of Min Aung Hlaing.

U Bo Htay, who is also a former military officer, was appointed the head of the engineering department in the YCDC under the previous military regime. The officer retired in 2015 after he reached pension age. He was appointed Yangon mayor following last years coup.

U Aung Than Oo is the chairman of the Myanmar Rice Merchants Association and is a USDP member. He is known to be close with party vice-chair U Khin Yi, the former police chief who is now the regimes immigration and population minister.

When U Khin Yi organized rallies targeting the Union Election Commission following its announcement of the National League for Democracy as the winner in the 2020 general election, U Aung Than Oo allegedly hired people to join the rallies, reportedly paying 5,000 kyats or more to each demonstrator.

U Aung Than Oo was elected for Thanlyin Township in Yangon at the 2010 general election but lost to NLD candidates in both 2015 and 2020.

He has had good ties with generals since the previous military regime. He is closer to U Khin Yi. U Aung Than Oo organized [pro-military] rallies on behalf of U Khin Yi. He is the godfather of Swan Arr Shin [military-backed vigilante group] and 5,000-kyat wage earners, a source told The Irrawaddy.

U Aung Than Oo also reportedly has close ties with generals from the former military regime, including former industry minister U Aung Thaung, ex-general U Myint Swe (who was vice-president under the NLD government and is now acting president) and former commerce minister and former chairman of Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry U Win Myint.

He runs Nine Sea Trading Co and Mya Shwe War Co, which exports rice. He is also the major rice supplier to the military, according to rice merchants.

When asked by The Irrawaddy about the pro-junta rallies that he reportedly organized on behalf of U Khin Yi, U Aung Than Oo said: I had nothing to do with that.

You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Junta Troops Kill Villagers; Hold Schoolkids Hostage

Myanmar Democracy Activists Hold Rallies in Support of Ukraine

Ukraine Vows No Capitulation at Talks; Putin Orders Nuclear Alert
As Jorge Brito walks through Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park to make sure it is intact, clean and visitors are having a good time, he is often greeted with compliments on the job he is doing as the new park manager.

We love the park, said Key Biscayne resident Jane Torres, who was riding her bike near the landmark lighthouse and Biscayne Bay.

Brito, 45, took over the position on March 5, replacing the much-loved Art Yerian, who died last month.

Previously, Brito was the assistant park manager and he learned the ropes from his mentor, Yerian, who himself became park manager in 2015.

Brito, who has been working for the park for 20 years, said becoming the new park manager is a dream realized but also a bittersweet moment.

It's sweet for me, but also bitter because the previous manager passed away, Brito said. I think it was a big accomplishment to manage the park.

Located at 1200 Crandon Boulevard, the park features over a mile of Atlantic shoreline, highlighted by the historic lighthouse, which is the oldest structure in Miami-Dade County.

People visit the park to hike, run, bike ride, swim, camping, canoeing and kayaking, scuba diving, or just enjoy a dose of nature and the environment.

The park was built in 1967 and named after the former editor of Miami News.

As we spoke with Brito on this particular day, the sun was shining bright, the water glowing, people enjoying the amenities, and the lighthouse was towering over a young couple sitting on a bench enjoying nature and nice weather.

Brito oversees a 17-member staff including park rangers, park service specialists and office personnel to help him manage the park.

He said his goal is to keep serving the public and support the mission of remaining one of Floridas top state parks. Now, Bill Baggs has one of the highest visitation rates in Florida for state parks, he said.

Brito, who calls himself an environmental advocate, said protecting the park's special natural habitat is a top priority.

He organizes beach clean-up and education programs with park specialists and school kids, and teaches kids how important it is to protect the environment.

I love the environment, he said. It's beautiful and peaceful. I want to protect the environment for people to visit and enjoy.

It is a challenge managing such a large, busy park, but Brito said his staff can handle it.

Brito, who has lived in Key Biscayne for 20 years, was born in Cuba and graduated from college there with a degree in hydraulic and hydrologic studies.

He subsequently moved to Northern California, where he worked at a state park for five years, first as a seasonal employee and then park ranger.

When he moved to Key Biscayne to be closer to family members, he eventually landed a park specialist job at Bill Bass Cape Florida State Park in 2002.

The difference between state parks in California and those in Florida is the amount of contact rangers have with FLorida park visitors.

In California, I didn't have any contact with the visitors, he said. My duties were up in the mountains, hiking and building walking and bike trails. In Florida, I have a lot of contact with the visitors here. I'm learning everything from the culture to things people love to do in the park.

Park visitor Torres, who has known Brito for 20 years as she uses the space to exercise her dog (she even attended her daughter's wedding in the park), said Brito is the best person for the manager's job.

Cape Florida State Park is in good hands again with Jorge Brito continuing to have a park to serve everyone, said Torres.


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Technology sector body the Tech Council of Australia (TCA) has welcomed the commitment by the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese and Labor to support the Councils goal of achieving 1.2 million people employed in tech jobs by 2030.

Tech Council of Australia Chair, Robyn Denholm, joined Albanese for the announcement.

We applaud the commitment made by Mr Albanese and Labor today, to support the goal of having 1.2 million people in tech jobs by 2030, Denholm said.

Tech jobs are a great deal for Australians. They are well-paid, secure and flexible. And there are plenty of them.

Jobs in tech are diverse, and include sales specialists, marketers, HR and legal specialists, software engineers, product managers and data scientists. This makes them a great choice for Australians, no matter what their passion, or where they live.

Setting this goal matters because it sends a clear signal to Australians that employers will sign-up to create these jobs, and there is a shared commitment to help Australians work in them, including through reskilling and training opportunities.

We want to be an industry that creates great jobs for Australians, and that partners with governments to make sure Australians can get into them.

The commitment by Labor follows the release of new research by the Tech Council that shows tech jobs are an important new source of opportunity for Australians around the country, with 860,000 people  or 1 in 16 working Australians  in tech jobs today, including Western Sydney which alone now has 100,000 Australians working in tech jobs.

The Tech Council says its research shows that tech jobs are some of the most flexible, employees in tech specific companies are 1.5x-2x more likely to work remotely than tech employees working in non-tech specific companies  and tech jobs are also more secure than other jobs, with the rate of people no longer working after 8 years 4.7 percentage points lower in tech than high paying industries, and 6.2 percentage points lower than other industries.

The research shows that the tech sector also provides good opportunities for those who are not university graduates  42% of workers in the tech industry do not have a university qualification. The pay gap between someone with a VET qualification and tertiary degree is just 2%. In other high-paying industries, it is 18%.

There is also a tremendous opportunity for women in the technology industry. While we know we dont have enough female representation, women looking to forge a career in the tech sector face a much smaller gender pay gap than other industries, Denholm said.

The research found that women entrants in the tech sector have a gender pay gap of around 9% compared to women entering comparable industries who face a pay gap of around 18%.

What we have in our industry is a trifecta, secure, well-paid, flexible jobs available to all people regardless of background or education. We want Australians to aspire to a job in our industry and we want to help them find the pathway into their career.
BRUSSELS (AP)  U.S. President Joe Biden and world leaders opened a trio of emergency summits on Thursday with a sober warning from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that the alliance must boost its defenses to counter Russias invasion of Ukraine and respond to a new security reality in Europe.

Stoltenberg commented as he called to order a NATO summit focused on increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the assault on Ukraine while tending to the economic and security fallout spreading across Europe and the world.

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From left: President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speak prior to a group photo during an extraordinary NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (Thibault Camus/AP)

We gather at a critical time for our security, Stoltenberg said, addressing the leaders seated at a large round table. We are united in condemning the Kremlins unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity.

He said the alliance is determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war.

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Over the course of Thursday, the European diplomatic capital is hosting the emergency NATO summit, a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the European Union. Biden will attend all three meetings and hold a news conference afterward.

The schedule left Brussels interlaced with multiple police checkpoints and road closures to help motorcades crisscross the city as the leaders go from one meeting to the next.

Biden arrived late Wednesday with the hopes of nudging allies to enact new sanctions on Russia, which has seen its economy crippled by several weeks of bans, boycotts and penalties.

President Joe Biden (left) walks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as he arrives for an extraordinary summit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022. (EVAN VUCCI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, theres wide acknowledgment that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.

The bolstering of forces along NATOs eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will also put pressure on national budgets.

We need to do more, and therefore we need to invest more. There is a new sense of urgency and I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments in defense, Stoltenberg said before the summit.

Bidens national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the U.S. wants to hear that the resolve and unity that weve seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek U.S. help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

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From right: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, France's President Emmanuel Macron and President Joe Biden talk as they arrive at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022. (JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his countrys economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession, Scholz said Wednesday.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be looking for clarity on how the United States and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiraling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where both issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda. Another significant moment could come shortly before Biden returns to Washington on Saturday. The White House said he plans to deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.

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)

Sullivan said Biden and fellow leaders would aim to set out a longer-term game plan for what forces and capabilities are going to be required for the alliances eastern flank countries.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is expected to address the NATO summit by video, said late Wednesday that he wants the alliance to declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war by supplying any weapons necessary.
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Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) Thursday posted an emotional video praising an anonymous Black woman who taught a young Ketanji Brown Jackson about the power of a people to lift one another up.

Reprising his poignant tribute to Judge Jackson, Booker said the unknown woman boosted the future Supreme Court nominee as she trudged cold and dejected through the campus of Harvard University more than 30 years ago.

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Persevere, the woman said to the bundled-up young stranger.

Booker said the woman unwittingly gave an invaluable leg up to a Black hero, who has remembered the single word of inspiration ever since.

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Wow, the power we have to encourage each other, to lift each other, to sustain ourselves through our struggles, Booker said. Never underestimate that.

In her hearing, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson told the story of how the kindness of one stranger at Harvard encouraged her to preserve no matter what. #CoryStories pic.twitter.com/pud6rrXgjI  Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 24, 2022

The New Jersey senator choked back emotion as he called the story a parable for African Americans who have hurdles to overcome in a white-dominated world.

For anyone who is going through that today, for anyone who is having challenges, I say to you: Persevere, Booker said.

A tear rolls down Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's cheek as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (Alex Brandon/AP)

Booker wore a tracksuit and appeared to have taken a break in his morning jog to issue the video.

But he sounded every bit the pastor on the pulpit as he recited a Bible verse to illustrate the connection between one anonymous womans small gesture and the historic nomination of the nations first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

Remember, it being said: Weeping may endure through the night, but joy, joy cometh in the morning, Booker said, reading the well-known verse from Psalms 30.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon/AP)

Hours earlier, Booker brought Jackson, and himself, to tears when he praised her Wednesday night at the end of an ugly day of partisan attacks by Republican senators.

He called her a credit to their African-American ancestors, especially for overcoming so many obstacles society placed in her path.

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Booker said Jacksons struggle to win admission to Harvard was familiar to him and other Black over-achievers who need to constantly outperform expectations and drive themselves to succeed in white-dominated settings.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson meets with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 8, 2022, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)

He suggested the persevere anecdote about Jacksons chance encounter with the woman, who almost certainly has no idea who she is, illustrates the ability of the entire Black community to lift people like himself or Jackson on its shoulders.

The kindness of one stranger at Harvard encouraged her to preserve no matter what, Booker said.
Johnson City, TN (37604)

Today

Partly cloudy. High 81F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Putin holds phone talks with Bennett, Scholz to discuss Ukraine crisis

Xinhua) 09:33, March 24, 2022

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues on Thursday as relevant parties are working to broker a peaceful solution. Following are the latest developments of the situation:

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday to discuss the Ukrainian situation.

Bennett voiced his assessments of the situation regarding Ukraine and the ongoing negotiation process between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, the Kremlin said in a brief statement.

Putin shared his views on the Moscow-Kiev peace talks and the development of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, it added.

Earlier in the day, Putin had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the same issue.

- - - -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday addressed the French National Assembly via video link, asking France to support Ukraine with military equipment and aircraft.

Zelensky thanked the French government for discussions and negotiations, and called on France to add sanctions against Russia.

- - - -

The 15-member United Nations Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Two members voted in favor of the text submitted by Russia, and 13 others abstained. A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.

- - - -

The United States would not like to see a rapid completion of the Moscow-Kiev peace talks but hopes that Russia is mired in prolonged hostilities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

"It is unprofitable for Americans that this (negotiation) process will be completed quickly. They want to continue to send weapons to Ukraine," Lavrov said during a meeting with students and teachers of Russia's MGIMO University.

"Apparently, they (Americans) want to keep us in a state of hostilities for as long as possible," he said.

- - - -

Ukrainian representatives are seeking to establish new humanitarian corridors in four regions in negotiations with Russia, the presidential press service said Wednesday.

Quoting Zelensky, the press service said that Ukraine seeks to establish new routes for evacuation of civilians in the Kiev region in central Ukraine, Kharkiv and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine and Zaporizhzhia in the southern part of the country.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
BRUSSELS  President Biden and Western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to Vladimir Putins assault on Ukraine, but their offers fell short of the more robust military assistance that the nations president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pleaded for in a pair of live-video appearances.

Biden also announced the U.S. would welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees  though he said many probably would prefer to stay closer to home  and provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

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The Western leaders spent Thursday crafting next steps to counter Russias monthold invasion  and huddling over how they might respond should Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon. They met in a trio of emergency summits that had them shuttling across Brussels for back-to-back-to-back meetings of NATO, the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the 27-member European Council.

Biden, in an early evening news conference after the meetings, warned that a chemical attack by Russia would trigger a response in kind.

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Youre asking whether NATO would cross. Wed make that decision at the time, Biden said.

A child watches from a train carriage, waiting to leave to western Ukraine at the railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. (Andriy Andriyenko/AP)

However, a White House official said later that did not imply any shift in the U.S. position against direct military action in Ukraine. Biden and NATO allies have stressed that the U.S. and NATO would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine.

The official was not authorized to comment publicly by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Zelenskyy, while thankful for the newly promised help, made clear to the Western allies he needed far more than theyre currently willing to give.

One percent of all your planes, one percent of all your tanks, Zelenskyy asked members of the NATO alliance. We cant just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.

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 said his top priority at Thursdays meetings was to make certain that the West stayed on the same page in its response to Russian aggression against Ukraine.

At the same time, Washington will expand its sanctions on Russia, targeting members of the countrys parliament along with defense contractors. The U.S. said it will also work with other Western nations to ensure gold reserves held by Russias central bank are subject to existing sanctions.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Missouri and Kansas... Elk River near Tiff City affecting McDonald County. Spring River at Carthage affecting Jasper County. Spring River above Baxter Springs affecting Cherokee County. Spring River near Waco affecting Jasper County. .Heavy rainfall received overnight and additional rainfall expected today will cause river levels to rise well above flood stage. For the Elk River Basin...including Tiff City...Minor flooding is forecast. For the Spring River Basin...including Baxter Springs, Waco, Carthage...Minor flooding is forecast. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Many flood deaths occur in vehicles. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov. Friday morning at 915 AM CDT. && ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL LATE SATURDAY EVENING... * WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Spring River at Carthage. * WHEN...Until late Saturday evening. * IMPACTS...At 14.0 feet, moderate flooding occurs at the gage site. The levee system closes due to flood waters affecting the north central industrial section of Carthage. Flood waters affect low lying areas and country roads north and west of Carthage along the river. Kellogg Lake Park floods and is closed. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 8:45 AM CDT Thursday the stage was 10.4 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise to a crest of 13.6 feet just after midnight tonight. It will then fall below flood stage early Saturday morning. - Flood stage is 10.0 feet. - Flood History...This crest compares to a previous crest of 13.7 feet on 02/25/2018. &&
Give Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee credit for playing a clever double game. First, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn, Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn and others looked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the eyes and said that, unlike the way nasty Democrats (including former Sen. Joe Biden) savagely vilified nominees of Republican presidents, they would treat her with decency and respect  dressing a partisan attack in the clothing of civility. Then, often in the next breath, GOP senators twisted facts with vicious dishonesty to portray Jackson as an ally of terrorists and child pornographers, and a critical race theory brainwasher of kids who denies the existence of biological differences between the sexes.

That Jackson withstood these poison-dipped arrows with aplomb is a tribute to her temperament. It helps that her record is as solid as they come, forcing all who wish to brand her as out of the mainstream to make fools of themselves.

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As for the most repeated charge, that she habitually went easy on sex offenders, the facts reveal that, as right-wing judicial analyst Andrew McCarthy put it in National Review, she has been an unremarkable sentencer in these cases, aligned with federal judges from across the ideological spectrum  including Trump appointees who Hawley and Cruz, the main inquisitors here, voted to confirm. For years, judges have been frustrated by guidelines that make few distinctions based on the severity of the offense in question. (All the cases at issue here are non-production cases, which means the criminal in question viewed or shared images but did not create them.)

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 40 U.S. President Joe Biden embraces Ketanji Brown Jackson moments after the U.S. Senate confirmed her to be the first Black woman to be a justice on the Supreme Court in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on April 7, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As to Jacksons alleged enthusiasm for playing footsie with enemies of America, she did her job as a federal defender by vigorously representing accused criminals assigned to her, including Guantanamo detainees. That deserves applause, not scorn. In 2005, she and a colleague argued that the torture to which defendants had been subjected amounted to war crimes. A former senator who never sat on the Judiciary Committee, John McCain, would surely concur.

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The accusations that Jackson is a closet advocate of radical anti-racist legal theories and believes male and female are meaningless categories  simply because the private day school on whose board of trustees she sits and which her daughter attends has at least one critical race theory-themed book and other anti-racist texts on the curriculum and is tolerant of children who declare their gender to be different than their sex at birth  is barely worth dignifying with a response. If this were a real court, the claims would be thrown out. In the court of public opinion, an eye roll is more appropriate.
A marker in remembrance of Hunter Muse and Alisha Shamburg marks the spot where the two lost their lives in January 2020. The driver at fault was convicted of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor in West Virginia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an impassioned plea Thursday for citizens worldwide to pour onto streets and squares in global protest against Russias bloody month-old invasion.

In a late-night television address from the emptied streets of his nations besieged capital Kyiv, a defiant but visibly tired Zelensky appealed in English for worldwide solidarity.

The world must stop the war, he said. Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life.

His appeal came one month after Russian tanks rolled over the border, bringing a conflict that has killed untold thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides.

More than ten million Ukrainians have already fled homes and cities under sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air.

There is growing evidence that Russias once-vaunted military has become badly bogged down, and has been forced to turn to long-range bombardment to break Ukrainian resolve.

In the southern port city of Mariupol alone, 100,000 people are trapped without food, water or power and enduring fierce shelling by Russian forces.

In the citys hospital, local officials said staff have evacuated patients to the basement, where they are treated by candlelight beside 600-700 other local residents seeking what little safety they can.

The US government on Wednesday said the Kremlins bombing campaign amounted to war crimes, further escalating a confrontation between Moscow and the West that has rivalled the worst crises of the Cold War.

Weve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russias forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

So far the conflict has not spilt over into direct military conflagration between Russia and NATO, but there are growing fears Russia may up the ante with a chemical, biological or even tactical nuclear attack.

US President Joe Biden is in Brussels for back-to-back emergency NATO, G7, and European Union summits from Thursday that will bring pledges of more lethal weapons for Ukraine, more punishing sanctions on Russias already crisis-wracked economy and warnings about further escalation.

 Ukrainian resistance 

NATO officials believe that  armed with an arsenal of Western anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons  Ukrainian forces may have already killed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers and wounded perhaps 30,000-40,000.

Putins regime officially puts the number of Russian fallen at under 500, and has introduced draconian censorship laws to prevent independently verified news about what it calls a special military operation.

But Ukrainian civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.

Zelensky admitted the last month had been long but hailed Ukrainian resistance that has been much more ferocious than Russia expected and would endure for as long as it takes.

This is a war for independence and we must win, he said in the late-night address, flitting between Ukrainian and his native Russian.

We will rebuild every city, we will bring the invaders to justice for every crime, he said. All our people will live in a free Ukraine.

Recent days have brought claims of Ukrainian forces not only repelling attacks from the much larger and much better armed Russian military, but launching counteroffensives and winning back territory around Kyiv.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that the small city of Makariv and almost all of Irpin is already under the control of Ukrainian soldiers.

AFP journalists reported fierce exchanges of artillery fire in Irpin.

British military intelligence said Ukraine had probably retaken Makariv and Moschun to the northwest of the capital and there is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin.

 Putin responds 

Facing mounting diplomatic and economic pressure, Putins regime has responded by warning Russia could use nuclear weapons if it faces an existential threat, and launched tit-for-tat retaliation against the West.

Moscow moved to expel US diplomats in retaliation for Washingtons move earlier this month to remove 12 of Moscows US-based representatives to the United Nations.

In an effort to blunt the damage done by sanctions to the national currency, Putin said Wednesday that Russia will only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to unfriendly countries, which include all EU members.

The manoeuver sharpened growing debate in Europe  which is heavily dependent on Russian energy imports  about possible bans on Russian oil and gas.

Moscow has warned an embargo would prompt a collapse of the global energy market.

While Europe has appeared fractured on the question of an oil embargo, there are also signs of fissures within Putins regime.

Moscow recently confirmed that Anatoly Chubais  a former Kremlin chief of staff who oversaw liberal economic reforms in the 1990s  quit his post as a Putin advisor. He has reportedly fled the country in protest at the war.

Russia still has a vital friend in China, which pushed back against suggestions that Moscow should be expelled from the G20 group of countries.

But Scott Morrison, prime minister of G20 member Australia, said he believed that Putin attending the summit would be a step too far.

 NATO reinforces 

In the latest sign that the war has reinvigorated NATO, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg announced it would send more reinforcements to guard against Russia expanding its campaign.

The leaders at Thursdays summit will agree to major increases of forces including four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The allies will also offer additional support to Kyiv against nuclear and chemical threats, he said.

But NATO members, while maintaining a steady supply of anti-tank and short-range anti-aircraft missiles, have refused Zelenskys demands for a no-fly zone over Ukraine or shipment of warplanes to the Ukrainian air force, fearing all-out war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Nearly a month into the invasion, peace talks have agreed on daily humanitarian corridors for refugees, and Ukraine says it is willing to countenance some Russian demands subject to a national referendum.

But it has refused to bow to demands to disarm and renounce its pro-Western ambitions.

Ukraines lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said the peace talks were encountering significant difficulties. Moscow accused the United States of undermining the process.

 Tip of an iceberg 

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that the humanitarian disaster in Ukraine was only getting worse.

The problems we face so far are really the tip of an iceberg of need, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said.

And theres going to have to be a further, massive scaling up of assistance within Ukraine in the coming weeks, because I have never, myself, seen such complex needs, and so quickly in a crisis that has developed so fast.

We have reached maybe, for once, an appropriate level of horror at whats happening in Ukraine, he said.

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Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Ethiopia to probe an airstrike on a school in the war-torn Tigray region that killed dozens as an apparent war crime.

The rights watchdog said three bombs were dropped on January 7 on a school sheltering displaced Tigrayans in the town of Dedebit killing at least 57 civilians and wounding more than 42 others.

The Ethiopian government should carry out a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation of the apparent war crime and appropriately prosecute those responsible, HRW said in a statement.

There were mainly elderly people, women and children sleeping in plastic tents there, it said, adding that there was no evidence of military targets at the site.

The conflict in northern Ethiopia began in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to disarm and detain the regions dissident leadership.

Based on debris recovered by survivors and aid workers and the extent of damage and injuries caused, HRW said a type of MAM-L guided bomb delivered by a Turkish-made drone and other light aircraft was likely responsible.

Using guided bombs without evidence of any military target indicates that this was an apparent war crime, said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director for HRW.

Abiy has accused the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) of orchestrating attacks on federal army camps in the region and promised a swift campaign to oust them.

But fighting dragged on and spread, displacing hundreds of thousands and fuelling a severe humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has claimed thousands of lives, and both sides have been repeatedly accused of human rights violations and atrocities.

In March, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet reported that at least 304 civilians were killed and 373 injured between late November and late February in aerial bombardments apparently carried out by the Ethiopian military.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who died yesterday at the age of 84, was a complicated figure in the global geopolitics of the late 20th century. History judges these efforts in different lights. Her support for NATO intervention in Kosovo saved many lives, and she championed an international response to climate change when this was still a quixotic quest. Albright was also instrumental in enacting Iraqi sanctions that the UN found led to the death of many children, later saying that the price is worth it. And she would correctly come to regret failing to intervene in the Rwandan genocide.

America let her in and she paid it back many-fold. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Here we focus on a defining personal characteristic: She was a refugee. She arrived in the United States when she was 11; her father, a diplomat for democratic Czechoslovakia, sought asylum here with his family when the Communists took over.

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That someone who the United States welcomed for humanitarian reasons went on to become the nations top diplomat does not just speak well of Albright. It should serve as a reminder: Accepting people who flee war and other catastrophes is one of the ways the United States betters itself and shows its true face to the world.

As political leaders now speak out about honoring her legacy, we must remind them that the preeminent way to do so is observe her wish to see this country as a haven for the desperate, whether from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Central America or anywhere else.
It was almost thirty years ago when nine men from Ogoniland in the southeast of Nigeria were hanged for their alleged responsibility for the murders of four leaders from their own community. They became known as the Ogoni 9. Among them was Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Their case became a world symbol of the brutal dictatorship of Nigerias military leader Sani Abacha, and of the environmental destruction and disregard for local communities by the multinational petroleum industry, among them Royal Dutch Shell.

The 1995 trial was seen by observers at the time as flawed  the mens lawyers quit part way through in protest at what they considered a rigged process. In 2017 the reverberations of this original trial made their way to a court in The Netherlands. The case at the district court of The Hague was brought by Esther Kiobel, widow of Barinem Kiobel, one of the Ogoni 9, alongside three of the other widows. They have been supported by human rights pressure group Amnesty International over many years in efforts to have Shell be held responsible for what happened to their husbands. However, on March 23 judges decided that shaky witness recollections made it impossible to hold the oil company Shell liable for the mens deaths.

Witness testimonies, 30 years later

When Saro-Wiwa was put on trial in May 1994, it was headline news. He had made a name campaigning against the pollution of his homeland by oil production. He targeted the biggest company operating in Nigeria, Shell, which had a local subsidiary SPDC. He allied with environmental movements worldwide to call attention to the devastation oil had brought his community in the Niger Delta. Patches of oil soaked into the ground destroying traditional agriculture. Gas flares from the pipelines lit the night skies right next to villages. People lacked access to health facilities, roads, schools. Saro-Wiwas Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) gathered the pent-up anger of the youth and gave them hope their conditions would change. Some in the community, especially those who had benefited from close relations with the oil companies and with the authorities objected. At the trial in Port Harcourt there were conflicting accounts of how the local leaders had died and whether MOSOP, Saro-Wiwa, or any of the other men on trial bore responsibility for the deaths.

There was international outrage after the Ogoni 9 were found guilty and hanged. Shell caught much of the flack; to do business in Nigeria they had to be close to the military authorities, but precisely how dirty their hands were was hotly debated.

Writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was tried and hanged by the Nigerian military junta in 1995.

At the court in The Hague, judges have tried to pick their way through closed-door testimonies of people who had said they believed Shell had been involved  via bribery  in fixing the testimony against Saro-Wiwa and the others. This is the core of the issue, says Lucas Roorda of Utrecht University. Its something that happened 30 years ago in a very opaque situation. Relying on witness statements would be difficult one year later and is exponentially more difficult 30 years after the facts.

Imbalanced access to information

The judges concluded that the recollections were too unclear for them to be sure and decided that Esther Kiobel and her fellow widows could not prove their case that Shell should be held responsible for the human rights abuses they had suffered. They didnt even get to that question, says Roorda, it was all about content of the witness statements.

In 2019 the judges had already rejected a range of claims from the plaintiffs, while saying the case could go ahead. Again, this time the judges turned down the repeated arguments from the widows lawyers that Shell failed to use its influence  publicly or otherwise  to urge the Nigerian government to hold a fair trial and show clemency to the Ogoni 9, saying this accusation lacks any factual basis. Nor did the court accept evidence that Shell had promised to intervene in the trial on the condition that MOSOP would cease its resistance.

Roorda says you need to read these decisions together because in that first decision, the judges already boxed and dismissed much of the case by rejecting the claimants disclosure requests for more evidence from Shells records. Theres a big imbalance in the information situation between claimants and companies, thats what this case points to most of all, he says. While we knew it, this result really makes it clear.

The limits of a civil case

Speaking to journalists after the hearing on March 23 Esther Kiobel said, what matters is that our voice has been heard. Her lawyers said they would consider appealing and would want to reassess the 2019 wrong decision to exclude some evidence.

There are some good chances they can appeal, says Roorda. I think there are ample grounds to do it. He particularly points to the way the judges assessed the evidence that seemed to make it very hard for the claimants to prove their case. The judges did not make the standard they used explicit, he notes, but the way the judgment reads is as if they used beyond reasonable doubt as their yardstick; it reads is like a criminal investigation, he says, rather than the balance of probabilities that would usually be seen in a civil case.

Seun Bakare from Amnesty International was disappointed by the verdict especially by how long the victims have had to wait. Human memory is feeble. Even victims cannot preserve evidence as they want. Courts should not delay.

What happened was that the widows had previously tried for many years to press their suit against Shell through the US courts, but that was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2013, because there was not sufficient linkage to the US. It was only after that they turned to the Netherlands as the home country of Shell.

Roorda stresses its important to realise that civil courts do not conduct investigations and are dependent on what parties bring to them. In this case it was difficult to assess how the court dealt with the evidence because so much was confidential, he says. Normally this kind of court deals with car crashes, he notes. Could the court do more? Maybe. But what can you reasonably expect?
The EU judicial agency on Thursday announced it will set up an investigating team to collect evidence of possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.

The announcement comes after a meeting of EU justice ministers to discuss the role of the Eurojust agency, based in The Hague.

The ministers decided to mobilise Eurojust in collecting evidence within the framework of the probe launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC) after Russias invasion on February 24.

Several EU Member States have launched national investigations, and the first joint investigation team focusing on war crimes and crimes against humanity is about to be set up with the support of Eurojust, said Eurojust president, Ladislav Hamran.

It is our role to coordinate criminal investigations in the European Union and beyond and make sure that we all act in unison, Hamran added in a statement.

Eurojust will serve as a bridge between the investigations of EU member states and the independent and impartial investigation of the ICC, he said.

The Hague-based ICCs chief prosecutor opened an active probe into possible war crimes in Ukraine on March 3 after obtaining the backing of more than 40 states that are party to the court.

We have every reason to believe that crimes have been committed in Ukraine, French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said.

We need justice to be served. The first step is the collection of evidence, Eurojust will have a decisive role, he told AFP.
French anti-terror prosecutors have opened a preliminary inquiry into torture and acts of barbarism allegedly committed by Emirati General Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi who in November became head of Interpol, judicial sources said on Thursday.

The probe follows a legal complaint by an NGO which accused Raisi of torturing an opposition figure when he worked as a top official at the United Arab Emirates interior ministry.

The Gulf Centre for Human rights (GCHR), believing Raisi was one of the people responsible for the torturing of Ahmed Mansoor, an opponent of the Emirati government, lodged its complaint in January with the anti-terror prosecutors unit whose brief includes handling crimes against humanity.

Allegations of torture had already been levelled at Raisi by human rights organisations when he ran for president of Interpol  an international agency for the fight against crime  saying they feared the agency would be at risk of exploitation by repressive regimes.

He was nevertheless voted in as president in November following generous funding from the UAE for the Lyon, France-based body.

There were also accusations that Abu Dhabi had abused Interpols system of so-called red notices for wanted suspects to persecute political dissidents.
The World Health Organization said the number of new coronavirus cases globally rose 7% last week, largely due to rising infections in the Western Pacific, despite a drop in reported deaths from COVID-19.

There were more than 12 million new cases each week and fewer than 33,000 deaths, a 23 percent drop in the death rate, according to the U.N. health agencys report on the pandemic late Tuesday.

Confirmed virus cases globally have been falling steadily since January, but rose again last week due to the more contagious omicron variant and its sub-variant BA.2 and the suspension of COVID-19 protocols in many countries in Europe, North America and other places.

Health officials have repeatedly said that omicron causes less disease than previous versions of the coronavirus, and that vaccinations, including boosters, appear to be highly protective against severe disease.

The Western Pacific remains the only region in the world to see a rise in coronavirus cases, reporting a 21% increase last week and continuing the increase for several weeks. According to data from last week, the number of new infections in Europe has remained stable and is declining elsewhere.

The WHO has warned that many infections could be missed as many countries abandon broad testing programmes, and new case numbers should be interpreted with caution.

Not a Modern Healthcare subscriber? Register today.

At a news conference on Wednesday, WHO emergencies director Dr Michael Ryan said that while some countries are seeing exponential spread of COVID-19, caused by the more contagious omicron sub-variant BA.2, the fact that It proved to be less destructive than previous waves of viruses.

Countries with high rates of vaccinating vulnerable populations are weathering transmission storms, ??he said. Were not seeing this translate into pressure on health systems or higher rates of hospitalization and mortality.

Many countries, including the UK, France, Italy and Germany, have eased many public health measures against COVID-19 in recent weeks, although numbers continue to edge up. The World Health Organization said that more than 85 percent of the viral sequences shared with one of the worlds largest platforms belonged to the BA.2 sub-variant of omicron.

Last week, UK Health Minister Sajid Javid said UK residents should prepare for a surge in COVID-19 infections, but the country was still very well-positioned due to high levels of vaccination.

Meanwhile, Chinese health authorities this week reported their first coronavirus death in more than a year, as the country battles its worst outbreak since the virus was discovered in Wuhan in late 2019.

read more: Powered by invisible omicron, China battles multiple outbreaks

The semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong has also been caught up in a deadly wave of COVID-19, with the city of 7 million recording more deaths than mainland China during the pandemic.

Hong Kongs chief executive, Carrie Lam, said this week that authorities would consider relaxing some strict epidemic measures as cases began to fall as weeks of rising cases overwhelmed hospitals and cemeteries.
Weather Alert

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 5 PM CDT THIS AFTERNOON... * WHAT...South winds 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph expected. * WHERE...Portions of central, south central and southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas. * WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 5 PM CDT this afternoon. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects. &&
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Emily Lang presents testimony to the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee on March 8. Christa Dubill, seated behind Lang on the right, also provided testimony.
University of Kansas Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer said the University is using a new approach to fill the position, by adding the word executive to the job title.
Some pundits and policymakers are still blaming New Yorks bail reform legislation for recent rises in violent crime. But what we know so far does not support this claim. Indeed, new data suggests that our states enactment of bail reform did not drive the increases in violent crime. Rather than rehashing the bail reform debate, its time for Albany to look for effective, community-led solutions to violent crime.

When bail reform went into effect in New York in 2020, it brought long-overdue justice to a system that had jailed New Yorkers charged with low-level offenses simply because they couldnt afford bail. Freedom was available, but for a price that only wealthier defendants could afford. The law ended the use of cash bail in most cases involving misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. In these cases, judges are now required to release people or impose certain conditions, like pretrial supervision, to ensure their return to court. Bail remains an option for most violent felonies, and in some cases involving alleged repeat offenders.

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Almost immediately after bail reform went into effect, leaders in law enforcement and government began linking it to rising crime.

Crime was in fact going up. Murders in New York City rose from 319 in 2019 to more than 450 in 2020. Shooting incidents in the city roughly doubled during the same period. The states murder rate also increased from 2.9 to 4.2 killings per 100,000 people. We should not minimize rising crime or its impact on our communities. These are serious increases, and understandably cause for concern. But it doesnt follow that bail reform caused them.

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The best available information so far suggests that bail reform did not significantly contribute to 2020s increase in violence. One recent analysis, by the Times Union of Albany, identified 100,000 cases where bail reform affected how or whether someone was released. Just 2% of those releases resulted in a re-arrest for a violent felony. Another dataset, posted by the nonprofit New York Criminal Justice Agency, shows that a specific metric  the percentage of people awaiting trial in the community in a given month and rearrested that month  has changed little since 2019. City Comptroller Brad Lander cited this data in his own analysis, which also argued against revisiting bail reform. And the NYPDs own statistics revealed that, between January and late June 2020, just one person released under the statewide bail reform laws had been charged with a shooting.

Its also noteworthy that crime increased nationwide in 2020  in jurisdictions that implemented bail reform policies along with those that didnt.

So what did cause crime to increase? Some contributing factors, like gun violence, are already snapping into view. Guns were sold, carried and recovered at crime scenes at much higher rates than previous years. The pandemic also thrust many communities into economic insecurity. Lockdowns disrupted important neighborhood institutions. For example, violence interrupters, who aim to identify and defuse situations before they become dangerous, could no longer do their important work face-to-face. Behavioral therapy programs also became difficult, or next to impossible, amidst social distancing rules.

Rolling back bail reform wont solve these problems. Thankfully, we know what could work. Community violence intervention programs, whether centered on meeting neighborhood needs or identifying and preventing potential conflicts, are one promising solution. New York City already boasts a strong network of these initiatives, and recently secured a major federal grant for gun violence prevention and research. The city should continue to support these programs, and the state should consider how to implement them, with comparable buy-in from local government, beyond the five boroughs.

Other strategies should focus on neighborhood investment. Summer youth employment can provide safe places for young people, potentially reducing opportunities for conflict. Mental health and addiction counseling can reach people in crisis and avert tragedies. Lastly, funding and support for pretrial services agencies may help bail reform work even better. These agencies supervise people who have been released pending trial, remind them of upcoming court dates, and offer services, like drug treatment. They help provide a middle ground between release and jail detention. But their work became difficult during the pandemic. Lawmakers should ask these agencies what they need to accomplish their goals, and then commit to providing it. To her credit, Gov. Hochul proposed increased funding for pretrial services outside of New York City in her executive budget.

Such services and reforms deserve our lawmakers full attention if we are to address crime in New York. Bail reform is not the problem, and rolling it back is not the solution.

Grawert is senior counsel in the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law and a former assistant district attorney in the Appeals Bureau of the Nassau County District Attorneys Office.
Denise Andrea Campbell, executive director of social development, finance and administration for the City of Toronto poses for a photograph at City Hall in Toronto on Thursday, March 10, 2022. Campbell is leading the City of Toronto's new Community Crisis Support Service, which will be geographically-based, operating in four areas of Toronto where apprehensions under the Mental Health Act and 911 calls for people in crisis are the highest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The death of my brother Kalief Browder sparked an international outcry  not just because of the terrible injustices he faced, but because he defied the odds, refused to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit, and demanded fairness. In honor of his fight, I have been demanding fairness, too, through the Kalief Browder Foundation. Now is a moment we must all rise up to stop a new plan by Gov. Hochul that could lead to countless more tragedies like the one my family suffered.

You may be familiar with the story: As a child of 16, Kalief was falsely accused of stealing a backpack and arrested. Even though the accusation involved no alleged violence, prosecutors charged him with a violent felony in adult criminal court. They also sought  and the judge set  unaffordable bail. While Kalief languished on Rikers for three years, despite the constitutional right to a speedy trial, including two years in solitary confinement, prosecutors withheld key discovery material, or evidence. Though beaten and abused by jail officers, Kalief fought to clear his name.

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That last part made his case unique. Prosecutors had offered a deal. He could have pled guilty in exchange for his release. Nearly everyone  tens of thousands of people across the state every year  in that situation submits, including those who are innocent but railroaded. But Kalief refused.

Finally, after three years at Rikers, prosecutors turned over discovery, admitting they had no case, and it was dismissed. But it was too late for my brother. The emotional scars were permanent. Two years later, just a week after his birthday, he died by suicide.

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New York States old policies on bail, discovery and the age of criminal responsibility killed my brother. You only know his name because he refused to capitulate to the enormous power of the state using those very laws to coerce guilty pleas.

The outcry over Kaliefs death led lawmakers to make modest but impactful  though often misrepresented and maligned  reforms. Among the reforms enacted in his name were a Raise the Age law ensuring that most 16 and 17 year-olds accused of crimes are sent to Family Court rather than prosecuted as adults, in line with widely accepted neuroscience about adolescent brain development. This reform had already been implemented across the country. Likewise, lawmakers reformed our discovery law, aligning New York with nearly every other state and ensuring everyone accused of a crime has prompt access to all the evidence in their case. Finally, lawmakers passed a common-sense bail reform law that established protections against pre-trial jailing in many cases while providing judges with more tools and discretion to ensure people return to court, and even to address their underlying challenges.

And law enforcement data is clear the reforms havent caused the recent uptick in shootings.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

But rather than continuing to make progress toward justice, the governor has proposed a mass jailing plan that will gut those reforms and send more people, including children, to deadly jails. If enacted, these policies will surely take more lives, like my brothers. Worse, she is attempting to sneak it into the budget without any public input.

This is bad policy and bad process.

I know gun violence in our neighborhoods is intolerable. Im raising a son in the Bronx and theres nothing more important to me than keeping him safe. But I also know that jails destabilize people and cause violence, and that the safest communities have the greatest resources, not the highest incarceration rates.

It is an affront to Kalief, to me and to my family that Hochul would undo even these very modest gains made in my brothers name, especially because her efforts are purely political, a result of fearmongering and outright lies by the NYPD, prosecutors and politicians. And its just plain disgraceful at this time of the dire humanitarian crisis of New York Citys jails and jails across the state. Sixteen people died in 2021 in New York Citys jails alone, and three more people have already died in 2022.

Lets be honest: A system that condemns a 16-year-old kid to Rikers Island based on a false allegation of stealing a backpack needs a complete overhaul. With deaths piling up, we need urgent decarceration. Our so-called leaders are blatantly ignoring the crisis and instead trying to send more people to deadly jails solely for political gain. Thats beyond the pale.

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New Yorkers galvanized across this state to end mass incarceration and in the past few years our efforts started coming to fruition. Now New Yorkers are beginning to see some lawmakers flip flop and revert to the failed policies of the past. Instead, legislators must demand resources that we know will deliver real safety for my child, for your child, and for everyone in New York State.

Browder is the founder of the Kalief Browder Foundation.
Hopkinsville, KY (42240)

Today

Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

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Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Members of Journey Church in Lviv, Ukraine, gather around Zhenya after her baptism. She had completed the church's discipleship course and desired to be baptized before she fled the country. Screen capture
Gov. Hochul is right to push for a budget amendment to increase funding for mental health treatment, pretrial and employment programs, and alternatives to incarceration and diversion services as part of her 10-point public safety plan.

The governors leadership and commitment to increased funding for these services and emergency and supportive housing is long overdue and desperately needed. It seems we may finally have a governor willing to play hardball on behalf of the most forgotten, the ones we barely notice and even step over or try to ignore, at least until they push someone off a subway platform or rub feces in a womans face.

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This governor not only acknowledges the problem but is willing to put her money where her mouth is, by prioritizing the needs of those living with untreated serious mental illness. In so doing, she is making us all safer.

Many legislators on both sides of the aisle, representing upstate and downstate, seem ready to partner on these issues, which is why those portions of her plan must and should go forward on April 1. The rest of her package should wait.

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Rolling back bail reform, reversing Raise the Age, changing discovery rules or giving judges more discretion are unlikely to fix the problems most troubling the average New Yorker, and may make the problems worse.

Three concerns seem at the root of public fear about crime and safety. First, cases involving injury or death to subway riders by people in mental health crisis have been highly publicized and are on the rise. Second, homelessness and encounters with people suffering from exposure, neglect and mental illness have increased, making residents in some neighborhoods feel unsafe. Third, gun violence is up, and people are dying.

Without question, more must be done to address these concerns and help people who are homeless or unsheltered, living with untreated mental illness or dying from gun violence, but bail reform is neither the cause of these ills, nor the solution. Yet it has become a potent cudgel for Hochuls gubernatorial challengers or would-be challengers and their funders, in their efforts to outflank New Yorks first female governor. Understanding that fear can motivate voters, her detractors have tried to portray Hochul as weak. She is not.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

This governor has said time and again that she governs based on data, not politics. Bravo. Her commitment to substance over one-liners is exactly why the rest of her proposal should wait, because while there is no question that certain crimes have increased, such as crimes involving guns, the data simply does not support what some are peddling, that bail reform is at the heart of rising crime.

According to a Brennan Center report published this week, there is no evidence that bail reform has driven the increase in crime. That makes the case for further revisions to the bail statute significantly weaker and indicates that policymakers should instead look for other ways to address crime. Indeed, other policy interventions that support communities, rather than relying on incarceration, have the potential to build enduring public safety in the city and state.

If included in this years budget, more programs like the kinds referenced by the Brennan Center could be funded through the governors spending package and help address the publics desire to move people with mental illness out of the transit system and into treatment and supportive housing. These programs would also help relieve the publics concerns over homelessness by amplifying the benefits of millions of dollars already directed by the governor to housing, including construction or preservation of 100,000 affordable housing units and a $17.3 million investment in emergency and permanent supportive housing.

As for rising homicide numbers and gun violence, the fact is, this is a problem in cities across the nation, including many where bail reform is not at play. Further, New York City still has a lower homicide rate than many other cities, including six of the next most populous ones. There is also evidence that shootings may be slowing down as the city slowly comes to life after two years of major social disruptions due to the pandemic. Of course, even one life lost to gun violence is one too many. This is why we need to focus on the strategies and programs that are most likely to reduce violence.

Perhaps more telling, the same study found that 54% of all gun-related deaths were suicides (24,292), while 43% were murders (19,384), which means underneath rising gun deaths is a failed mental health system.

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Instead of pushing for all or nothing, the governor should stay the course and make policy decisions based on data, instead of politics, which means moving forward quickly with what we know works and taking a little more time to study what might not.

Roberts is executive director of the Greenburger Center.
Soon after her nomination, it was reported that as a law student in 1996, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a Harvard Law Review note analyzing the constitutionality of sex offense registries and that during her judicial career she did not always give the maximum sentence in child pornography cases. Unsurprisingly, she was immediately accused by Sen. Josh Hawley of endangering our children and not protecting the most vulnerable.

These entirely meritless allegations show the extreme risks of speaking the truth about our disastrous and cruel sex offense legal regime. While even conservatives defended her moderate and even mainstream child pornography sentencing history, calling the attack a smear that appears meritless to the point of demagoguery, others said its fair to criticize her for giving too little weight to the public interest in protecting children from sexual predators because of her early writing analyzing registries.

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While its political par for the course for judges who dont dole out the harshest imaginable prison terms to face allegations they are soft on crime, theres a profound and substantive difference in kind when facing the toxic charge of being soft on child predators and not caring about children.

Hawley has long fought for increasingly harsh sex offense laws because he understands the politics of fear and the power of these claims. Even as evidence mounts that Jacksons rulings on child pornography possession are unexceptional, Hawley and others have doubled down and continue to argue Jacksons sentencing is too lenient  even claiming her decisions could harm his own children.

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Child pornography elicits extreme disgust, for good reason, but the wildly excessive sentencing guidelines now on the books are rooted in emotion and junk science. Judges have routinely questioned these sentencing recommendations, with critics on both sides of the political aisle arguing correctly that sentencing should be individualized, proportionate and based on the specific facts and nuances of each case.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

In 2008, Federal Judge Robert Pratt noted that sentencing guidelines in these cases do not appear to be based on any sort of [science] and the court has been unable to locate any particular rationale for them beyond the general revulsion that is associated with child exploitation-related offenses. In 2010, Brooklyn Judge Jack Weinstein told the New York Times that the mandatory sentences for viewers of child pornography (as opposed to those who produce the pornography) are misapplied and were destroying lives unnecessarily.

And though Jacksons law school note questioning registries has elicited less public support, that shouldnt be the case. Decades of research have debunked the idea that those who commit sex offenses, including those who consume child pornography, cant stop and wont stop and therefore any punishment is justified.

In 1996, when Jackson wrote her critique, she was one of the few who foresaw that a new web of laws banishing sex offenders from society would create a banished class of nearly one million, forced to regularly register with police and have their personal information publicly posted for decades and often life. Thats something for which she should get credit, not scorn.

These post-release consequences have been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court on the erroneous grounds that sex offenders have a frightening and high recidivism rate. In 2015, legal scholar Ira Ellman found the court relied on a comment from a treatment provider in Psychology Today as their sole source for this assertion. Notwithstanding these shallow underpinnings, those branded sex offenders  including all those Jackson sentenced to supposedly too little prison time  are subject to a lifetime of endless regulations and public shaming that makes it nearly impossible to get jobs, find housing or support their families and re-integrate into society. These consequences never end, and are not considered punishment but merely administrative, civil regulations to protect the public because of the myth of high recidivism.

Those on registries are even largely excluded from the growing opportunities available to other formerly incarcerated populations. New Yorks pending Clean Slate bill seals and expunges conviction records after a certain period of time for those whove paid their debt to society; it summarily excludes those on sex offender registries, probably based on the political judgment that giving this population a shot at rebuilding their lives is a bridge too far.

Jacksons willingness to write and rule based on reason and principle demonstrates both courage and foresight, and shows the extraordinary personal and professional risks of asking that our legal system treat sex crime in an objective, just and rational manner consistent with basic constitutional and legal principles. Instead of lobbing the lazy trope that she doesnt care about children, we should embrace her commitment to justice even when its hard.

Horowitz is professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College and author of Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us and From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts, Not Fear.
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has outlined rules for Ukrainian refugees bringing their pets to Ireland.

Ireland has so far accepted 10,000 refugees fleeing Russia's war in Ukraine, with an estimated 40,000 expected by the end of April.

In the midst of the exodus, the Department of Agriculture has acknowledged animals play a "hugely important role" in people's lives, particularly for wellbeing in times of need.

It is because of this and the exceptional circumstances created by the invasion of Ukraine that temporary arrangements have been put in place to allow Ukrainians to come to Ireland with their pets, even if the pets are not in compliance with EU Travel Regulations.

In cases where they are noncompliant with EU regulations, the Department will take steps to bring the animals into compliance.

This includes identifying animals and providing a rabies vaccination and tapeworm treatment upon arrival.

The pets will then be placed in strict home quarantine and owners will receive instructions on what is needed to ensure compliance.

According to Department advice, arrangements will be put in place to financially support veterinary practitioners who provide services to bring Ukrainian animals into compliance.

However, other veterinary treatments for Ukrainian animals will not be supported financially.

More information can be found here.
Mason City police said Friday that the investigation that caused extensive damage to businesses in the northeast part of town is continuing.
An employee at the concert hall where Bob Saget performed ahead of his death said the comedian said he was feeling sick before taking the stage, according to audio released by officials.

Saget spoke about having a sore throat and said his hearing was off before his Jan. 8 stand-up set at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall in Florida but ultimately seemed OK, Rosalie Cocci told the Orange County Sheriffs Office.

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I did hear him say, I dont feel good but Im ready to do the show. He said, This is what I do this for. Its kind of like he was talking himself up, Cocci, who handles errands for the theater, said in an interview with the sheriffs office.

Bob Saget (Rachel Murray/Getty Images for the Scleroderma)

Saget was found dead at age 65 on Jan. 9 inside his room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando. Last month, a Florida medical examiner said Saget likely suffered injuries in an unwitnessed fall, while his family said officials determined the actor died of head trauma.

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In her interview, Cocci said Saget spoke about experiencing long COVID and that it was taking him a long time for his body to get over it.

She said Saget had also described feeling sick the night before that Jan. 8 performance.

He said that his hearing had been off, and that was the case for that evening, Cocci said. He was asking the sound guys to turn everything up.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 27 Bob Saget, beloved actor, host and stand-up comic, was found dead on Jan. 9, 2022. He was 65. Take a look back at life and career to remember America's funniest and sweetest sitcom dad. Pictured, Bob Saget performs at the "Boys Night Out" comedy benefit at The Laugh Factory hosted by talk radio host Tom Leykis on Oct. 11, 2001, in Hollywood, Calif. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the September 11 relief efforts. (Jason Kirk/Getty Images)

The Orange County Sheriffs Office also released photos this week that show the hotel room where Saget was found dead, as well as body camera footage from the authorities who responded to the scene. That video cuts off before they enter the room.

Saget is not pictured in any of the newly released images or footage. A Florida judge permanently sealed Sagets autopsy report last week. His family requested that details from Sagets death investigation, such as photos and recordings, be kept private.

The actor famously starred as beloved family patriarch Danny Tanner on the popular sitcom Full House, as well as on Netflixs Fuller House spinoff series.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge seemed quite at home in shark infested waters.

During a tour of Belize, Prince William and wife Kate Middleton became one with the Caribbean Sea while swimming with the fishes.

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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, travel to Hopkins, a small village on the coast which is considered the cultural centre of the Garifuna community in Belize. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

A video shared on the royal couples official social media accounts on Tuesday shows them jumping in off the side of a boat, and undertaking an underwater escape with colorful fish, aquatic life and at least one shark.

The caption noted that the Caribbean country is home to the second-largest barrier reef in the world.

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While the effects of climate change are evident, the Government of Belize and communities across the country deserve huge recognition for their efforts to restore this incredible marine environment - with a commitment to protect 30% of it by 2030, the caption continued.

Sundays scuba diving adventure was a better moment for the members of the British monarchy.

The couple canceled a planned visit to Indian Creek, Belize, over a dispute about where their helicopter would land on Friday.

On Tuesday, they said farewell to the Caribbean paradise to continue their eight-day tour of the Caribbean with a stop in Jamaica.

That same day, protesters gathered at the British High Commission in Kingston, Jamaica, where they handed over an open letter addressed to William and Kate calling for reparations for slavery.
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Kokomo, IN (46901)

Today

Rain likely. High 57F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 53F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
The new omicron subvariant, BA.2, is causing COVID cases to rise in several European countries, and many experts believe the United States  and Florida  will see a rise in cases in the coming weeks.

As of Wednesday, BA.2 accounts for one in three cases in the U.S. and about one in four in the Southeast, which includes Florida. Europe typically is a month ahead of the U.S. in its COVID outbreaks.

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In Florida, where positivity rates are low, many people are taking off their masks and returning to indoor spaces such as restaurants and theaters. In addition, Spring Break is drawing crowds of people to local beaches, restaurants, and nightclubs, often from areas where omicron transmission is higher.

BA.2 has caused concern because it is about 50% more transmissible than the original omicron strain.

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So, what does the pandemic trajectory look like in Florida and how do residents stay safe this spring and summer? The South Florida Sun Sentinel asked health experts to offer guidance.

Is Florida going to get another omicron surge?

Florida is at a near-historic low in terms of new COVID cases, emerging from its largest peak in January. While the subvariant has been in Florida since January, virus samples sequenced by Helix show BA.2 has become an increasingly larger percentage of COVID cases in the state in the past two weeks.

Dr. Ira Longini, a professor of biostatistics who has created COVID-19 forecast models at the University of Florida, believes even if another omicron wave arrives in Florida, it will be a steady uptick in cases that lasts a while, rather than a sharp rise that peaks and then drops like the recent omicron wave in January.

Florida had an enormous wave, and we still have cross-protection, Longini said. I dont know how fast that protection will wane but I dont think we are going to get a massive, explosive wave. I think it will be flatter, but it could last a long time as immunity wanes.

[ RELATED: Whats our new normal as COVID recedes? The many ways South Floridians are moving on with their lives. ]

If I was infected with omicron, can I get the subvariant, BA.2?

In Florida about 1 million people had COVID during the omicron surge.

Experts believe for the most part, people who were previously infected with omicron have protection against being reinfected with BA.2. A preprint study from Denmark found only a minuscule fraction of people were reinfected with BA.2 who had been infected with the original omicron strain  47 people out of more than 1.8 million recent cases of COVID-19.

While its unlikely, Dr. Eric Topol, founder of The Scripps Research Institute, said there is no guarantee against reinfection: We dont have adequate data to be certain. He also notes that it is unclear how long immunity from the original omicron strain will last.

The subvariant is more contagious but is it more severe?

The World Health Organization has considered all the data available from around the globe and concluded there is no major difference in disease severity between the original omicron strain and BA.2 Omicron is considered a milder variant than previous strains such as delta.

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In its original strain, omicron has appeared as an upper respiratory-type infection with cold-like symptoms, rather than the lower respiratory infections that can lead toward pneumonia which had been common with delta. Cough, congestion, runny nose and fatigue are reported as the prominent symptoms with omicron.

If I had a booster shot more than six months ago, am I still protected?

Researchers are studying BA.2 in real-time, learning who is protected and who might be at risk.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member, thinks most people who got a booster will be well protected in the months ahead.

If were in a low-prevalent environment, as were likely to be this summer, I think most Americans who had three doses of vaccine will have sufficient protection going through the summer, Dr. Gottlieb told CBS News.

Meanwhile, Pfizer and Moderna have asked the FDA to allow adults in the U.S. to get fourth-dose boosters. So far, their requests have not been approved.

Infectious disease doctors note that current Pfizer and Moderna boosters are not tailored to the COVID-19 variants currently circulating, like omicron, and its subvariant, BA.2.

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However, Pfizer is studying an omicron-specific vaccine and a hybrid shot that would target omicron along with earlier variants and is expected to report its findings in April.

Topol says if the level of circulating virus continues to drop as it has in March, then people can wait on boosters until the first sign of a new variant other than omicron. However, if there is a new BA.2 wave, the recommendation would be for people over age 60 or 65 to get a second booster.

In Florida, 95% of seniors are vaccinated, but only a quarter of all 21 million residents are boosted.

Topol says people over 65 without booster shots should be concerned since their protection is substantially lower for hospitalizations and deaths compared with seniors who are boosted.

[ RELATED: As COVID-19 vaccine demand falls, Florida has 9.6 million stockpiled doses  and they have expiration dates ]

What about if I never got a booster shot, just the two vaccine doses, do I still have good protection?

Two shots provide protection against severe outcomes from COVID. Three shots provide even more protection. A recent CDC study suggested that vaccine effectiveness against severe outcomes during the omicron wave in January was 88% with two shots, and 94% with three.

Experts say its prudent to be prepared for a possible increase in coronavirus transmission by getting up-to-date on vaccinations and boosters. Anyone who got the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shot can get a booster five months after completing the primary two-dose COVID-19 vaccination series. Those who got the Johnson & Johnson can get a booster two months later.

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What are the COVID therapies that are thought to work against the omicron subvariant?

Doctors are prescribing oral antiviral pills such as Pfizers Paxlovid tablets or Mercks Molnupiravir to treat COVID-19 in its early stages. Paxlovid is very potent and practical to use, but the supply is very limited and the block of COVID funds will make this situation much worse if/when another case surge begins, Topol said.

Certain monoclonal antibodies do not work for omicron but there are some that do. For example, bebtelovimab and sotrovimab are being given as early treatment and Evusheld is being given to protect who are not infected but are immunocompromised.

[ RELATED: COVID-19 antiviral pills: How to enroll in South Florida study and whos eligible ]

Scientists have said its inevitable that almost everyone will get COVID. If I havent had it yet, should I stop worrying and live my life?

Yes and no.

The Health Report Weekly A weekly update on health news in Florida. >

Even people who have had mild cases of COVID are developing symptoms that surface weeks later, doctors report.

Every wave just increases the spike in the number of outpatient visits related to symptoms that are thought to be associated with COVID, Shibani Mukerji, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, told the Harvard Gazette.

Yet, even top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says its time for the U.S. to start inching back to normal.

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In Florida, many are adapting their behaviors to the new normal as case levels drop.

Longini at UF says Floridians should monitor for rising cases in their communities.

If there is an increase, wear a mask indoors and follow protocol about avoiding indoor crowds. Its all a matter of taking reasonable precautions and going about our daily lives.

Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com or Twitter @cindykgoodman.
Scouts participate in reconnaissance ability assessment

China Military Online) 10:51, March 24, 2022

Scouts assigned to a reconnaissance detachment of a brigade under the PLA Xizang Military Command run through the valley with full gears during a reconnaissance ability assessment on March 11, 2022. The assessment was aimed at verifying the troops' combat capability. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Yang Kai)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
One beer to rule them all? For my companion, it was Deadwords' Steel Cups. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

This story includes resurrection amid what I would deem an immaculate conception. Theres also a conversion. And yeah, I think all the sacred overtones work.

Because for many people, beer is like religion.

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I, however, went to Deadwords Brewing for the pizza. Sort of.

Pizza is food and I am a food writer. But I really enjoy going to breweries. Why?

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Flights.

Beer is filling. Investing in a towering pint of the unknown is daunting. Plus, trying different beers is really fun, even if you dont like them all. This is how we learn.

My most regular dining companion is not a beer guy. But he is most definitely a pizza guy. Hes like the pizza guy. And I had heard good things about the pizza at Deadwords.

They call the Cuban sandwich-inspired pie an "Abomination," but really it's anything but. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

I hadnt heard anything about the beer, but that was incidental.

The pizza looked good. And theyd been slinging it in Orlandos Parramore neighborhood since December (quite the crafty little beer hub developing over there). I figured that if they had any game, itd be together by now. So, we went.

And this became the story of how I converted someone to the beer side.

Well, perhaps I was more an unwitting evangelist. Its really the mystical work of Deadwords founder, David Satterfield.

Satterfield, a beer guy, is an attorney. But his very first jobs were in the restaurant and bar industry, with which he never fell entirely out of love. Its why he left a Tampa-area private practice for a gig doing in-house litigation for Darden Restaurants for nearly a decade.

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It was a perfect fit, says Satterfield, whose work with Darden touched just about every aspect of the food business and helped him fine-tune several aspects of the passion project that would become Deadwords.

Easy vibe. Great playlist. And the vintage-style split-flap sign is charming. Amen for no blaring TV (but plans are in place for a retractable screen on the expansive shaded patio for games). (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

His job took him all across the country and amid those travels, he explored the beer scenes of other cities.

I started seeing a lot of things I liked and wanted to bring it here, he told me.

The Darden association also proved fruitful when a chat with an employee at Yard House led him to Alexander Sarames. Now Deadwords head brewer, his resume includes time at Bend, Oregons acclaimed Crux Fermentation Project and Silver Moon Brewing operations.

Over time spent in Satterfields pool house, a simple, 20-gallon brew system was the impetus for several of Deadwords creations, conjuring into reality the brewpub hed always imagined, where guests didnt have to navigate without a map.

Breweries often just throw the beers theyre brewing up on a board, says Satterfield, who on a visit to Against the Grain in Louisville, Kentucky, saw the offerings presented in a customer friendly way. Categories! As a consumer, I walk in and think, Do I want something dark and smoky? Something light and crisp? It was an idea I wanted to bring over.

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Deadwords beers fall beneath four headers.

There really is a beer for everyone. Deadwords proved this theory on our visit. (Note the abandoned chard bottle!) And I enjoyed everything on this flight, from sour sangriale to stout. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

Resurrection does just that for long-forgotten recipes. Tradition gives the beer people crafty, quality classics. Evolution showcases the trends driving the art. And Abomination, figuratively speaking, is for those who want chocolate cake and churros in their beer and arent going to apologize for it.

Ive had a few beers like this at other breweries and while fun, can read like molasses or mocha Frappuccino on the palate. Most go unfinished.

Deadwords Run, Forrest imperial double stout (10.4% ABV) was neither. Lightly sweet with dominant roastiness that kept all that chocolatey stuff in check. I drained the pour, but in telling you, have given away dessert first.

Dialing it back, Deadwords set the stage for unexpected when we walked in.

Mellow hair metal greeted us. A fuzz-headed toddler snuggled with mom and dad on a chair in a corner library, warm contrast to the gleaming tanks visible through a soaring glass wall.

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The music was easily audible, but not loud enough to overcome the charming chitter of a vintage-style split-flap sign over the bar, which tells the story of the brewery and its menu in the style of a grand, old train station. There was no TV.

On face, this place was already our jam.

The previous day theyd been slammed (concert at Amway, game at the stadium) and were out of cider and all but one wine. I winced a little for the non-beer guy, jutting an optimistic thumb in the direction of the Morello Forni oven.

He ordered a chardonnay. I got a flight. A big fat Bavarian pretzel showed up with a nice mustard and housemade porter beer cheese on the side ($12). Things were good.

Chewy pretzel with housemade beer cheese. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

Then I sipped the Steel Cups and they got better.

This ones from the Resurrection menu. A Finnish sahti (9.5% ABV), the style originated in farmhouses and was flavored in part via filtration through juniper. At Deadwords, they threw a whole tree in the mash tun to mimic the process. Its got gorgeous color to match its flavor, a balance of nutty and herbal notes, but with a malty sweetness that to me was evocative of classic mead.

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You need to try this, I said. Its like if mead were beer.

Non-beer guy is definitely a mead guy. But I withheld the glass for a minute. Time to manage expectations.

Remember, I instructed. Its still beer.

Suspense built, for on the heels of his sip, the server returned with news that simultaneously disappointed and brightened me. The care that goes into Deadwords pizza became evident in that they wouldnt make us one.

The dough isnt ready, our server told us.

Like the beer, the pizza menu has those same fun headers. The Resurrection ($13)  made with Roman yeasted spelt flour dough with sesame seeds, Feta and honey is billed as ancient. Though disappointed Id miss out, it pleased me that it mattered enough not to toss just anything in that $40k+ oven and fire it, so we headed straight for the Abomination ($16).

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Essentially a Cuban sandwich story told through pizza, its laden with prosciutto, smoked sausage, Swiss and house-pickled cukes and onions, then drizzled with pale ale mustard.

And before she absconded, a jaw-dropper: My companion ordered a beer. Something that in all the years Ive known him, I have never seen him do. Later on, he ordered another of same  this time, an even larger pour.

You telling me that is an absolute dream come true, says Satterfield. His happy makes me happy. And festive. I wished I had a beer. (Many are available for take home. Next time, I will plan ahead.)

This is precisely what we were trying to create, what we wanted to execute Its always been our goal to help people find a beer they like. There really is a beer for everyone.

Part of the magic may be Deadwords RO water. That stands for reverse osmosis.

We invested in a system that will take the city water down to zero parts per million. It becomes a blank slate. And then, for every single beer style we brew, we build it back up, researching so we can get the water profile from Dortmund, Germany. Or the Adriatic coast of Italy. You take that crisp, clean water and build the profile and it makes a difference foundationally.

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Foundation makes a difference with pizza dough, too. Deadwords is flavorful. It proofs briefly at room temp, then cools overnight. Its crust explodes with gorgeous bubbles wherever it is permitted. Hand-tossing would allow for such gloriousness everywhere, but for now the pizza here is pressed.

Choose your own adventure topping-wise or go with the presets. (Amy Drew Thompson / Orlando Sentinel)

Its the only thing even remotely abominable about that Cuban-style abomination  or the build-your-own pie we chose in lieu of the Resurrection: that it could be better with the tiny tweak of the toss.

Skilled labor is hard to find these days, Satterfield told me when I mentioned this. And I know its true a hundredfold. His intent is to transition to hand-tossing  and it will be a great one when it happens. For an oven this nice, and really well done dough to put in it, a consultant would be a worthy investment.

The press, however, wont preclude us from going back to Deadwords.

The pizza is half an inch from top-notch. The beer is over and above. As is everything else about the place, from friendly staff to spacious and super-chill confines where the beats may come courtesy of Levon Helm or Lars Ulrich, a playlist that like the bar sign, the beautiful oven, the soaring ceiling and the looming tanks inspire conversation thats fuel-injected with reanimated Viking beer.

All of it an experience that borders on spiritual.

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More info: 23 N. Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando; 407-930-3300; deadwords.com

Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Lets Eat, Orlando Facebook group or follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Above is an installation view of artist Yang Hae-gue's solo exhibition, "Double Soul," currently held at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. "Sonic Intermediates  Double Soul," the two-part sculpture displayed in front, is inspired by two figures of art history: Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, left, and Pia Arke. / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery



By Park Han-sol



Yang Hae-gue, also stylized as Haegue Yang, is a globetrotting artist whose years-long "nomadic" life spent alternately in Berlin and Seoul, as well as other major cities where she holds her shows, has led to her distinct preoccupation with exile, transnationality and decolonization.





Artist Yang Hae-gue, also stylized as Haegue Yang / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery

Then, it is perhaps only natural that Yang's works often contemplate on the modern history of marginalization and formation of identities within different regions she visits across the world.



At her first-ever large-scale solo exhibition, titled "Haegue Yang: Double Soul," at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark, her latest two-part sculpture on display ("Sonic Intermediates  Double Soul") portrays the tangled relationship between Denmark and Greenland, fraught with history of colonization and forced relocation of the indigenous Inuit population.



"Sonic Intermediates  Six-Fingered Wayfarer after Arke," which forms one part of the double sculpture, achieves this by focusing on the life and work of artist Pia Arke (1958-2007).



Arke was a Greenlandic-Danish artist, who dedicated her works to exploring the asymmetrical power relations between the two countries in the wake of colonization and addressing the limited historical representation of the Arctic Indigenous population.



Born between a Greenlandic Inuit mother and Danish father, she never had a chance to speak her native language growing up and eventually moved to Denmark, where she was trained as an artist. Defining herself as the "mongrel," she focused on tracing and redefining the previously written colonial history of Greenland.



"Although she was faced with the fate of having to study the culture of her motherland with the language of the enemy, so to speak, she never avoided or denied it. She instead made it the critical starting point of her archaeological investigation," Yang said at a press conference held at the Kukje Gallery on Monday.



She came across Arke's notable work, "Legend I-V," made up of collages of family photos placed on scientific maps of Eastern Greenland published in the 1970s. Arke peppered rice, sugar and other goods on these maps as evidence of Danish colonization, thus visualizing how an allegedly "objective" representation of the Arctic island nation, in fact, carries distortion of the indigenous culture and history.



"I felt that Arke's works offer an alternative way to view and map our world," the 51-year-old said. "That was my personal re-interpretation  that her understanding of the world is otherworldly and different from 'the given,' almost like a shaman."



As a nod to Arke's map of Greenland, Yang's "Sonic Intermediates  Six-Fingered Wayfarer after Arke" is made up of five gigantic hands carrying a globe with two alternative world maps. One depicts a hypothetical scenario of continental drift, where all continents are grouped together into one single landmass. Another is a circular world map created in Korea during the 17th century, called "Cheonhado," or the "complete atlas of all beneath the heavens."



"What I found to be the most interesting feature of Cheonhado was that it reflected both the scientific knowledge of mapping newly introduced from Europe and mythical places appearing in the ancient Chinese book, called Shan Hai Jing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas")," she said. "It calls attention to a worldview that refuses to distinguish clearly between objective reality and imagination."



The artist added that the Danish museum was initially hesitant to touch on the subject of Arke due to the obvious problematic history between the two countries and the possibility of its inclusion backfiring. But she persuaded the institution to refrain from unnecessary self-censorship and instead examine the figure under the proper context as a way to provide a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the modern history of Denmark.



"Arke's life can be defined as non-mainstream and marginalized. But what's most important is that she never made compromises when faced with those situations," Yang said, noting that the Greenlandic-Danish artist became "a harbor where my works could anchor."





"Planetary Chain Signal Formation  Mesmerizing Mesh #31" (2021) by Yang Hae-gue / Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva Tor, March 24. Yonhap





President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol met with the top Israeli envoy to Seoul, Thursday, and assured him that a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two nations will be ratified.







"I believe the FTA passage will be done well in a bipartisan manner, because it helps our national interest," Yoon said during the meeting with Ambassador Akiva Tor after the envoy said Israel ratified the pact last week.







The pact was signed last year, making South Korea the first Asian country to have an FTA with Israel.







During the meeting, Tor gave Yoon a congratulatory letter from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in which he expressed hope for deeper bilateral relations in every field.







The President-elect then expressed his gratitude for Herzog's letter.







Tor also said Herzog is looking forward to seeing Yoon make a state visit to Israel, to which the latter responded he would try to make it happen as soon as possible. (Yonhap)






Nabeel Munir, ambassador of Pakistan to Korea, speaks during a ceremony commemorating Pakistan Day at a hotel in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of Embassy of Pakistan in Korea



By Kwon Mee-yoo



The Embassy of Pakistan in Korea held a ceremony commemorating the country's national day  Pakistan Day  at a hotel in Seoul, Wednesday.



Nabeel Munir, the newly-designated ambassador of Pakistan to Korea, noted that the event will be the beginning of a series of celebrations to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Pakistan this year.



"It was on the historic day of March 23, that Muslims of South Asia, in 1940, adopted a Resolution calling for a separate homeland. This struggle culminated in the creation of Pakistan in 1947," ambassador Munir said.



"On this day, we pay tribute to our great leader Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah under whose dynamic, principled and inspiring leadership, Pakistan was created. Today, we also pay tribute to the struggle and sacrifices of our founding fathers, and pledge to live up to their ideals."



Pakistan is a country located at the crossroads of Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East and has a growing relationship with Korea through various exchanges including human resources.



"While diplomatic relations between Pakistan and the Republic of Korea were only established in 1983, contacts between the two peoples date back more than 18 centuries. Buddhism was brought to the ancient Kingdom of Backs by Monk Maranantha in 384 AD," the ambassador said.



"Over the years, Pakistan-Korea relations have grown from strength-to-strength in all fields  politics, defense, trade and investment, education, science, climate change and the list goes on."



Pakistan also assisted Korea in evacuating Afghan collaborators from Afghanistan, through "Operation Miracle," when Kabul, the Afghan capital, fell under Taliban control last year.



"Korean companies are actively engaged in investment in automotive, power and energy, chemicals and consumer goods sectors in Pakistan. New bilateral initiatives are being taken to further enhance collaboration in tourism, small and medium enterprises and human development," the ambassador added.



Lee Sang-ryol, director-general for Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea, welcomed the new ambassador beginning his assignment here with a grand celebration.



"We have steadily strengthened our bilateral relations in various fields. Most notable is cooperation in the economic field. Korea's investment in Pakistan recently reached over $500 million, with many Korean companies contributing to Pakistan's socio-economic development in the areas of infrastructure building and chemical industry and so forth," Lee said, mentioning the M-2 Motorway connecting Lahore and Islamabad by a Korean construction company, which was the first highway built in South Asia.



Rep. Lee Hack-young of the Democratic Party of Korea, who serves as president of the Korea-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Group, showed hopes for more cooperation between the two countries in the future as the guest of honor of the event.



"Based on trust we have built over decades, we must pursue greater exchange and cooperation in all fields, both private and public. As Korea and Pakistan, and indeed the entire world, moves closer to the end of COVID-19, we must move forward especially when the stakes are high," Lee Hack-young said.


By Donald Kirk





Images of the Russian army strangling the cruelly crushed Ukrainian city of Mariupol pull at heartstrings around the world, evoking indignant cries of "stop it" and "do something" to rescue the survivors, drive out the invaders and save what's left of a shattered community of more than 400,000 souls, many now dead or dying.



You cannot help but admire the bravery of ordinary people holding out in Mariupol even as Russian tanks rumble through empty streets littered with the wreckage of buildings and lives lost in a desperate struggle against overwhelming odds. You wonder, though, what's the rest of the world doing besides wringing hands, offering help that will never be enough and cringing at pleas for the kind of aid that might stop the fearsome Russians dead in their tracks.



In a battle between David and Goliath, David is supposed to win, but in the real world the biblical story is a fantasy that's a nightmare for Mariupol and much of the rest of the country. Yes, aid is pouring into Ukraine, and foreign volunteers are rushing to join the Ukrainian forces staving off the Russians as they advance from all sides on the capital of Kyiv and other beleaguered cities, but no one really advocates what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says is absolutely necessary, the creation of a "no fly zone" enforced by foreign air forces against Russian planes responsible for much of the death and destruction.



You can appreciate the urgency of Zelenskyy's plea and the reluctance of all the NATO countries, led by President Joe Biden, to escalate to the point of actually waging war, however limited, against the Russians. No way would Russia's President Vladimir Putin order his planes to stay out of the way just because the U.S and some of its NATO allies were telling them. Nor would the Russians suddenly decide, now's the time to agree to a conference at which we might have to make concessions, even agree to a ceasefire.



You have to ask, though, would there be any other way to stop the Russians from taking over the country other than to challenge them at least in the air and maybe strike Russian air bases on the other side of the border, perhaps deep in Russia? Would the world then plunge into World War III in which China, on the other side of the Eurasian land mass, would not only side with Russia but swing its weight ever more dangerously around Asia.



It's not difficult to imagine China's President Xi Jinping, a leader disturbingly similar to Putin in his grasp on power in his own country and his vision of expanding borders, deciding the time was ripe finally to recover the lost province of Taiwan, which was last under Beijing's thumb in 1895. That was when the Japanese took over the island, about 100 miles from the Chinese mainland, after defeating the forces of China's last dynasty in the Sino-Japanese War. Should the U.S. and its Northeast Asia allies, South Korea and Japan, all go to war for Taiwan?



The question of when and how to exert retaliatory force is relevant in the case of North Korea too. It's plain to everyone that Kim Jong-un is not going to give up his nukes. In fact, Kim gives every impression of wanting to improve his nuclear capabilities, fabricating ever more warheads while developing intercontinental ballistic missiles for carrying them to targets anywhere. In response, there's talk of South Korea developing its own nuclear capability along with more and better missiles. Also, some are asking, how about the U.S. and the ROK jointly attacking North Korea's nuclear complexes and missile launch sites?



Actually, these notions are madness. Just as enforcement of a "no fly zone" over Ukraine could escalate into a full-scale war, NATO versus Russia, so an assault on North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities risks more than just another Korean War. It's easy to imagine China, Russia too, jumping in to defend their old Korean War ally. Korean War II could spread over Asia as easily as World War III could flare in Europe.



Such cold, rational reasoning, though, does nothing to relieve the suffering of Mariupol or the rest of Ukraine any more than it helps the thousands of North Koreans suffering in the North's gulag system. We're left to watch in anguish as the people of Mariupol, those who haven't left or died, face a ruthless foe that's hellbent on conquering a democratic neighbor.





Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, has been covering conflict, mostly in Asia, for decades.




By Sandip Kumar Mishra





With the victory of Yoon Suk-yeol in the March 9 presidential election, it is being speculated that South Korea may decide to formally join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).



After getting elected, Yoon had a telephone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison after his talks with U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.



It gave the impression that Yoon is placing priority on Australia. The move was read by many political pundits as his intent to join the Quad. He also spoke on the telephone with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



During his campaigns, Yoon expressed on multiple occasions that he would place the highest priority on the South Korean alliance with the U.S. and would also try to reach out to Japan before looking at China.



It would be an important shift in South Korea's foreign policy from the Moon Jae-in administration. Moon tried to keep South Korea non-committal to the Quad although it agreed with the goals of the Indo-Pacific strategy.



South Korea has so far tried to convince the U.S. that it would work for the goals of the Indo-Pacific strategy through its New Southern Policy.



The Quad is an informal network among the U.S., Japan, Australia and India to contain China in the Indo-Pacific though it does not officially name China and rather claims that its goal is a "free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific."



In the two summit meetings of the Quad leaders in May 2021 and September 2021, South Korea kept itself away even though there were reports that the U.S. wanted otherwise. South Korea's position to avoid the Quad appears to be part of its well-thought-out policy.



For South Korea, the Quad is a security dialogue and the South joining it would lead to repercussions. More specifically, China would be unhappy with such move and which would lead to economic consequences for Seoul.



It's important to note that almost 60-70 percent of South Korea's GDP consists of external trade in which China's share is almost 20-25 percent. China is also important for South Korea in dealing with North Korea.



Contrary to the Quad formation, South Korea is an eager participant in the Quad+ mechanism which focuses on dealing with the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Actually, it is interesting to note that the joint statements issued after the Quad summit meetings talk more about infrastructure, climate, cybersecurity, technology, health, vaccines and supply chains than security issues.



It means that the Quad and the Quad+ are getting closer to each other. Thus, South Korea is right in its approach to wait and watch rather than jumping the gun.



South Korea is also aware that the Quad is a work in progress. Even among the four main players of the Quad, multilateral security content is very thin so far. Furthermore, all of these countries have been inconsistent in their approach toward China in the last few years.



For example, Japan, which was one of the main proponents of an Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China, has dropped the word "strategy" and has instead used the word "vision" in recent years.



Similarly, India, which was one of the reluctant players in the Quad, has become more overt and active in its participation after its border clash with China since mid-2020. In such a context, South Korea has rightly decided to wait and watch and postpone joining the Quad



The Indo-Pacific strategies of the Quad countries are gradually interacting and adjusting with the initiatives of other players in the region. The U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy documents talk about "ASEAN centrality," the ASEAN framework for Indo-Pacific and few European countries' approaches toward the Indo-Pacific have been intersecting with one another.



Thus, South Korea is also right in saying that it would prefers to pursue its similar goal in the region through its New Southern Policy.



Another important aspect of the Quad is that until now, quadrilateral security understanding and agreement among the four countries are still largely nonexistent. Rather, these four countries have been trying to substantially increase their bilateral security and strategic cooperation.



For example, India has signed a military intelligence sharing agreement, logistic exchanges and communication compatibility agreements with the U.S. South Korea also has similar agreements with the U.S., and other Quad countries and it may have more of these agreements in the future without formally being part of the Quad.



Last but not the least, it must be stressed that South Korea is a security ally of the U.S. and in any dire situation, it would have entry into the Quad calculus via the U.S.



South Korea's decision to work for the goals of the Indo-Pacific strategy through its New Southern Policy, bilateral security agreements with the Quad countries and its security alliance with the U.S. appears to be a wise strategy in comparison to formally joining the Quad and annoying China.



If the Yoon administration decides after coming to power to formally join the Quad, it needs to first evaluate the cost of the policy change and whether South Korea is ready to pay it.



The new administration must keep in mind that clarity and consistency of foreign policy may be lauded by people, but they are not necessarily good for the national interests of the country.





The author (sandipmishra10@gmail.com) is associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.




By James M. Dorsey





The Ukraine crisis may constitute a more impactful, historic watershed than the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall in the mind of Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.



Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "perhaps even a bigger moment than the fall of the Berlin Wall," Balakrishnan said. "We believe we are at an inflection point," he added. "Little Singapore is standing up for principles and expressing a hope for the rules of engagement for this new era."



In a break with diplomatic tradition, Singapore joined Western nations in sanctioning Russia, the first Southeast Asian nation to do so in the absence of a United Nations Security Council resolution.



Balakrishnan may well be right even if the Berlin wall sparked the end of communism as an ideology rather than a power-driven political system, while Ukraine is likely to take Russia out of the race for global power in an emerging bi- or multipolar world order.



Despite the characterization of the Ukraine crisis as one that pits democracy against autocracy and the fact that the vast majority of nations that have taken action against Russia happen to be democracies, the stakes in the crisis are really about adherence to international law irrespective of a country's political system.



That is evident in the diddling of countries like China, India, and the United Arab Emirates that have tried to straddle a middle ground. So have Israel and Turkey, exploiting their attempts to mediate an end to the Ukraine crisis.



China has struggled to uphold its long-standing principle of rejection of the interference in the affairs of others with its close partnership with Russia that was further cemented during a visit to Beijing in early February by Russian President Vladimir Putin.



UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed told Putin in a March 1 phone call, on the back of Emirati interference in multiple countries, including Libya and Yemen, that "Russia has a right to ensure national security." Bin Zayed was referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.



Short of the war, the destruction, and the massive loss of life, Ukraine is in many ways similar to the Gulf crisis in which the UAE, together with Saudi Arabia, led a 3.5-year-long economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar that, like the Russian invasion, was designed to hollow out the sovereignty of a neighboring state.



Russia's invasion constitutes the third time in a decade after the 2017-21 Gulf crisis and the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea that autocratic states have sought to ignore international law and brutally impose their will on a neighbor.



In that sense, Balakrishnan's equation of the invasion with the Berlin wall hits the nail on the head. It also suggests that failure to act immediately to stop violations of international law opens the door to ever more egregious trespassings, including massive violations of human rights.



The analogies between the Ukraine and Gulf crises are most evident in the demands put forward in both incidents.



Like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Russia has put maximalist demands on the table that would subject Ukraine to its foreign, defense, and domestic policies and bend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to its will.



At the time, the UAE and Saudi Arabia demanded that Qatar cut its ties to Islamists, shutter the free-wheeling Al Jazeera television network, expel Turkish troops, and effectively break relations with Iran.



Similarly, Russia demands that NATO withdraw from member states on Russia's borders and that Ukraine halt its resistance to the invasion, alter its constitution to ensure that Ukraine cannot become a member of the European Union and/or NATO, and recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea and the Russia-supported breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.



Qatari resilience in rejecting the UAE-Saudi demands and its ability to compensate for the fallout of the boycott ultimately persuaded the two states to drop their demands and lift the embargo in January 2021.



In what appears to be a maneuver similar to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's recognition that Ukraine is unlikely to become a NATO member and may not want to do so given NATO's refusal to impose a no-fly zone, Qatar at the time quietly made concessions that fell far short of Emirati-Saudi demands and did not fundamentally alter the Gulf state's policies.



Islamists, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, were asked to relocate to Istanbul and London while Al Jazeera toned down its more critical coverage of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.



Virtually absent in this week's Al Jazeera newscasts was any reporting of the execution of 81 people in the kingdom, many of them Shiite activists. However, the Al Jazeera English website did report the executions. They are believed to have prompted Iran's suspension of Iraqi-sponsored talks with Saudi Arabia designed to reduce tensions between the two regional rivals.



The failure of the Saudi-UAE-led boycott may have shown the limits of their power, but ending it without the ability to claim success did not threaten the survival of the two countries' rulers. However, finding a face-saving solution to the Ukraine crisis that ultimately does not endanger the position of Putin could prove a lot more complicated.



The international community and Qatar were willing to give Bin Zayed and his Saudi counterpart, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a pass. That luxury is unlikely to be accorded to Putin.





Dr. James M. Dorsey (jamesmdorsey@substack.com) is an award-winning journalist and scholar, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute and adjunct senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.






By Kim Sang-woo





On March 9, Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party was elected as the next president of South Korea in the closest race ever. Yoon beat Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea with a razor-thin margin of 0.73 percent or roughly 247,000 votes.



Nevertheless, as soon as Yoon appeared to be the winner, Lee conceded, and President Moon Jae-in congratulated his victory, making way for a peaceful transfer of power. It was indeed a triumph for Korean democracy when global democratic backsliding was prevalent.



Yoon, a political novice, faces the Herculean task of reuniting a polarized society disillusioned by corruption, sky-high housing prices, income and gender inequalities, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as numerous diplomatic challenges that need to be addressed.



But the fact that nearly half of the electorate voted for his DPK opponent, and that the opposition party will still maintain the majority in the National Assembly, at least until the April 2024 general election, could make it difficult for the president-elect to mobilize the support needed to implement key campaign pledges.



The unconventional president-elect could be the person to correct the vicious cycle of retribution politics, transform decision making processes with greater transparency, and devolve power to the cabinet and other agencies and become the first president of South Korea to break away from the imperial presidency which ended in the tragic demise of previous presidents.



Yoon wants to reduce the president's staff by 30 percent and abolish the senior secretaries, who ran all the ministries. This will be a fundamental change in the right direction.



The President-elect has no prior foreign policy experience, but he will be surrounded by seasoned veterans and experts.



His foreign policy platform emphasizes closer alignment with the United States through a "comprehensive strategic alliance."



Yoon will continue to implement the agenda of the Biden-Moon May 2021 summit with cooperation across multiple sectors.



He will also actively support President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific Strategy to pivot to a more comprehensive alliance with the U.S. and subsequently join the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. He also supports the Quad, comprising major Asia-Pacific countries, and will seek eventual membership, but first start cooperating in the working groups.



In his Feb. 8 Foreign Affairs article, Yoon said that it was time to expand South Korea's role in the international community by "championing freedom, peace, and liberal democratic values in Asia and beyond."



Yoon has been critical of the conciliatory approach of the Moon government toward North Korea, instead advocating a policy that emphasizes deterrence and "peace through strength."



Yoon and his advisers, therefore, have argued for the reinforcement of U.S. extended deterrence against North Korea through joint military exercises, the updating of military operation plans, and increased deployment of U.S. military assets.



Having said that, Yoon has made it clear that he is open to dialogue and negotiations with North Korea. He would like to open a trilateral communication channel between Seoul, Washington, and Pyongyang.



He promised unconditional humanitarian assistance to the North and vowed to support a peace treaty if Pyongyang takes clear steps to reverse its nuclear program.



The President-elect has been critical of Moon's hedging, "balanced diplomacy" (or strategic ambiguity) approach to Beijing.



In 2017, when the THAAD missile defense system was deployed in South Korea, China retaliated with a barrage of sanctions which cost South Korean companies billions of dollars.



As a result, the Moon administration pledged the so called "Three No's" referring to "no additional THAAD batteries", "no South Korean integration into the U.S. regional missile defense system" and "no trilateral alliance with the US and Japan."



Yoon criticized the Moon administration's Three No's, which, in his view, undermined South Korea's sovereign right to defend itself against the North Korean nuclear threat. National security comes first, Yoon believes, and South Korea should never be bullied to choose between China and the U.S.



Yoon even contemplates additional THAAD interceptors if North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities continue to grow.



Chinese bullying resulted in anti-Chinese opinion among the South Korean people to rise to more than 80 percent. Hence, Yoon will have public support in assuming a more principled approach towards China.



But China is South Korea's most important trading partner, and Yoon is aware of that. He declared to initiate a "new era of mutual respect and cooperation with China" based on a regular high level strategic dialogue.



The president-elect consistently conveyed his desire to improve relations with Japan during the election, which offers an opportunity for Tokyo to reach out to the new president. Yoon said that the second leader he will meet after Biden is Prime Minister Kishida of Japan.



Yoon's views, particularly on North Korea, but also on the Indo-Pacific, are closer to Tokyo's, which allow for deeper functional cooperation.



Yoon may be more willing to downplay historical issues for the sake of improving bilateral as well as U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral relations, therefore, less likely to disrupt the relationship for domestic political gain.



His challenge will be getting public support to improve relations with Tokyo, which is still unpopular.



The top priority of the new government, however, will be overcoming political polarization in the country.



Yoon will have to convince the Korean people that he is devoted to national interest rather than to party or personal interests. And successfully work with the National Assembly controlled by the rival DPK.



At the end of the day, South Korean domestic politics will largely determine the success or failure of the Yoon government's policy initiatives, because despite his efforts for change, both external and domestic constraints could prevent Yoon from a radical departure from politics as usual of the past.



The president-elect should be constantly reminded that, "all's well that ends well."





Kim Sang-woo (swkim54@hotmail.com) is a former lawmaker and is currently chairman of the East Asia Cultural Project. He is also a member of the board of directors at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.




Central Florida law enforcement are arresting more young people for participating in the Orbeez Challenge, which encourages people to fire Orbeez beads at strangers with air guns. (Volusia County Sheriff's Office)

A 17-year-old Volusia student is facing charges of battery against a school employee after shooting them with Orbeez water beads as part of an online challenge, according to authorities.

Around 3:20 p.m. Monday, Volusia County Sheriffs Office received a call from a New Smyrna Beach High School regarding a campus adviser who was shot with pellets while locking a gate near the faculty parking lot, according to VCSO.

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The victim was hit in the face several times and blew one of the pellets out of her nose but was not injured, VCSO said.

Deputies found the student and interviewed him the next day. He told them he was horse playing with the blaster gun he got during spring break and recorded a Snapchat video of the shooting.

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Recently, the Orbeez Challenge has been trending on TikTok and features participants using air-powered guns to fire Orbeez water beads at strangers.

Last week, VCSO announced several arrests made associated with the challenge. First, deputies arrested 19-year-old Sean McMullen, of Enterprise, on March 9 and suspected him of shooting an Amazon delivery driver in Deltona, hitting him in his glasses and neck while driving his route. Second, VCSO arrested 18-year-old Diego Medina Vega and two 17-year-olds after receiving reports of two Deltona residents being hit by pellets fired from a van that took off after the shooting.

Deputies found the van and arrested the teenagers, who each face a battery charge, VCSO said. Vega was additionally charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. High 56F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 49F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
From March 7 to March 21, Idol Champ, the official idol voting app of MBC's "Show Champion," held a poll to know the K-Pop idols who are the most popular in Thailand.

The survey is part of a special global project held every month by Idol Champ, with the winner of this poll receiving a CM board advertisement at a subway station for a certain period of time, along with the phrase "Thailand fans cheer for [K-Pop idol]" at the bottom.

Keep on reading to see which idols made it in the top ranks!

BTS Jungkook is the Most Popular K-Pop in Thailand

Snagging first place as the K-Pop idol who is the most popular in Thailand according to Idol Champ, is none other than BTS' youngest member, Jungkook!

According to the poll, the BTS member had garnered a whopping 1,163,670 of the votes, which is 38.68 percent of the total votes submitted by fans, and earning Jungkook a CM board advertisement at a subway station for a period of time.

Jungkook topping the list isn't surprising, as the idol is well-loved by many fans for not only his amazing and stable vocals, impeccable dance skills, but also for being an all-around performer and entertainer - which earned him the title of "Golden Maknae."

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Why Did BTS Jungkook Change His Instagram Username? Idol Reveals Real Reason

In particular, Jungkook has been continuously gaining recognition from not only BTS fans, known as ARMYs, but also also from non-K-Pop fans and music experts.

As both BTS and Jungkook continue to dominate music charts, and basically the music industry around the world, it is no wonder that the "Euphoria" hitmaker has come out as the top idol for this poll.

Top 15 Most Popular K-Pop Idols in Thailand

Following closely behind Jungkook is Thai native and GOT7 member, Bambam, who garnered 38.21 percent of the votes to become the second most popular K-Pop idol in Thailand.

At third place is AB6IX member, Lee Daehwi, who took 12.85 percent of the votes.

Coming in at fourth place is another Thai native and worldwide sensation, BLACKPINK's Lisa, who showed a significant gap from Lee Daehwi with 2.44 percent of the votes.

At fifth place is EXO's leader, Suho, who has 2.28 percent of the votes.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Is GOT7 Comeback Really Happening Soon? Mark Reacts to BamBam Spoiling Group's Potential Return

Other idols who also made it within the Top 15 are NCT Ten, 2PM Nickhun, former NU'EST Aron, SEVENTEEN Jeonghan, TXT Beomgyu, Stray Kids Hyunjin, Ong Seungwu, ASTRO Sanha, (G)I-DLE Minnie, and GHOST9 Prince.

Meanwhile, Idol Champ is currently holding other polls, such as K-Pop idols who look best in glasses, idols with the best facial expression, best all-rounder idol, and more, through their mobile app.

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Robyn Joan
In an interview with a fashion magazine, the Kep1er members revealed the thoughts they had when their names were called in "Girls Planet 999" Top 9.

Kep1er Members Reveal What They Thought When They Were Called in 'Girls Planet 999' Top 9

On March 22, Marie Claire released the pictorial shots featuring Kep1er for its April 2022 issue. They accompanied it with the interview they had with the new girl group.

During the interview, a few of the questions given to Kep1er were related to the 2021 survival show "Girls Planet 999," where the band was formed.

At the beginning of the talk, the fashion magazine said, "Last October, the nine members of your group were chosen through the survival audition program 'Girls Planet 999' and Kep1er was the result. The time went by so fast but I think you still vividly remember the moment you became a Kep1er member."

Kang Yeseo responded, "At first, I thought 'Wow!' I became emotional. I even cried because I was beyond happy. It was a feeling that is hard to explain through words."

Kep1er Ezaki Hikaru shared, "For me, I feel like everything came to an end, like my trainee period and the audition program. I can't believe it."

Seo Youngeun stated, "When they revealed the name 'Kep1er,' I don't why but I was overwhelmed."

About the moment she was announced to be in the "Girls Planet 999" Top 9, Youngeun said "The fact that I am no longer trainee Seo Youngeun, but Kep1er Seo Youngeun doesn't feel real. I was fascinated."

Sakamoto Mashiro told Marie Claire, "I trained for five years. Besides me, my whole family was also desperate for my debut. That's why when I made it, I wanted to tell them as soon as possible."

She continued, "The moment the broadcast ended, I felt like I need to tell my mom that 'We went through so much until now and finally I have reached my dream."

Kep1er Members Reveal If They Expected to Be Part of the Project Girl Group

As the interview continued, Marie Claire asked the Kep1er members if they expect that they will become part of the group.

Kim Chaehyun replied that after their final stage, she thought that even though she won't be able to debut, at least she was able to show everything she could. She continued that she was surprised when her name was called in "Girls Planet 999" Top 9.

As for Mashiro, she revealed that she wasn't expecting anything at all. "I joined the program to prove to everyone that someone like me exists."

When asked to compare Kep1er with a thing, Mashiro responded, "Happiness." She explained that whenever all the members are together, their happiness is at its highest level.

Kim Chaehyun said that their group is like a rainbow as the members seem to represent the colors, which although they differ from each other, are beautiful together. She continued, "It's just like how rainbow appears after the rain, it's the same with all nine of us who reached our dreams after sweating and crying."

Finally, Seo Youngeun compared Kep1er to an amusement park. "There are various rides, right? That's why it's fun. And, you will feel energetic when you're there," she explained.

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Mhaliya Scott
Rose is drawing attention after she was spotted using this item during her recent travels.

Keep on reading to know more.

BLACKPINK Rose Draws Attention After Being Spotted Using Wired Earphones

Recently on March 20, BLACKPINK member Rose was spotted at Incheon International Airport to board a flight heading to Los Angeles in the United States. This also marks Rose's first travel outside of South Korea after contracting and recovering from COVID-19 back on March 6.

Rose's appearance at the airport caused a stir among fans, known as BLINKs, on several social media platforms. The fans were mesmerized not only for her stunning fashion sense, but also for her beauty.

However, what caught netizens' attention during Rose's departure was a certain item that she was spotted using - wired earphones!

Through the years, technology has constantly been improving and becoming more high-tech. And in the past years, wireless earphones, like Apple's Airpods, have become a staple among the tech-savvy generation. This slowly drowned out the use of wired earphones.

And with Rose being spotted using wired earphones, along with the latest model of iPhone, many were surprised that the idol has decided to use such.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: BLACKPINK Rose Spotted on a Date With Another K-pop Idol - Is It a Guy?

In fact, wired earphones have received divided opinions, with some saying it is inconvenient and cumbersome, while others find it better than the wireless.

Over on the online community forum Nate Pann, many netizens also expressed their preference for wired earphones. They understood why Rose was using the item instead, despite it being labeled "outdated."

According to netizens, they prefer wired earphones like Rose as it does not run out of battery and ensures stable connection to their device. It also reduces the chance of them losing an earphone.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: #OurRockstarROSeDay: BLACKPINK Rose Drops 'Viva La Vida' Cover in Celebration of Her Birthday

Some comments from netizens read, "But these earphones are actually better in sound quality. In short, the sound quality is better than the Airpods Pro for my ears."

"Aren't wired earphones more convenient than bluetooth earphones when you're on a plane during long flights? It takes almost 10 hours to get to Los Angeles."

"The sound quality is indeed better. But nowadays, not a lot of people use them because they are quite inconvenient," and similar others.

Were you surprised Rose still uses wired earphones?

Tiffany & Co. Shares BLACKPINK Rose's Latest Short Film

In other news, Tiffany & Co.'s global ambassador Rose starred in the brand's latest short film for their "Tiffany HardWear" line.

In the film, Rose radiates her classy and luxurious aura in an all-black ensemble, accompanied by gold jewelry from the brand.

Meanwhile, the BLACKPINK member was appointed as a Tiffany & Co. ambassador back in August 2021.

Check out the video here:

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Robyn Joan
South and Central Floridas most urban counties lost residents during the pandemic, while the states suburban areas and retirement havens grew, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.

Orange Countys population shrank by 7,162 from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021.

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Miami-Dade and Broward counties saw a similar trend, losing a combined 52,382 residents.

[ RELATED: A population boom is coming to Apopka. Long timers worry about losing community | Special Report ]

Stefan Rayer, a researcher at the University of Florida, attributed the decline in part to a slowdown in immigration during the pandemic, which historically has offset people leaving Miami and Orlando for the suburbs.

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Florida as a whole, though, continued to grow, despite the pandemic sending deaths much higher.

It [growth] was somewhat lower than it was in the past decade, but it is still a rapidly growing state, said Rayer, director of the population program at the state Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Deaths outpaced births in Florida, resulting in a natural population decline of about 58,200. But an influx of new residents meant the Sunshine States population still grew by nearly 243,000, an increase of about 1%.

Only Texas added more residents than Florida from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021, according to Census population estimates released in December.

The Orlando metro areas population stood at 2.7 million on July 1, 2021, a 0.7% increase from 15 months ago. Lake and Osceola counties both saw population increases, while Seminole recorded a slight decrease.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area recorded a 0.8% dip with a population of nearly 6.1 million. Palm Beach County, though, saw its population grow, adding nearly 5,800 people.

Meanwhile, Osceola, Polk, St. Lucie and Sumter ranked among the fastest-growing counties in the state.

Four of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country are in Florida: Punta Gorda at No. 4; The Villages at No. 5; Lakeland-Winter Haven at No. 7; and Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 9.

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UFs estimates are higher than the Census Bureaus, showing net population growth in Miami-Dade, Broward and Orange counties during the pandemic, Rayer said.

UF researchers use a different methodology, relying on utility hookups and building permits to compile their estimates.

Floridas fastest-growing counties from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021

St. Johns: 7%

Walton: 6.3%

Flagler: 4.8%

Sumter: 4.5%

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St. Lucie: 4.4%

Other Central and South Florida counties

Polk: 3.9%

Osceola: 3.8%

Lake: 3.1%

Volusia: 2%

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

Brevard: 1.7%

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Palm Beach: 0.4%

Seminole: -0.2%

Orange: -0.5%

Broward: -0.7%

Miami-Dade: -1.4%

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau
Rep. Ray Garofalo, Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, right, and others recite the Pledge of Allegiance on opening day of the 2022 General Session of the Louisiana Legislature, Monday, March 14, 2022, in Baton Rouge, La. (Photo by Travis Spradling, The Advocate)
Press release from Billings Clinic:

BILLINGS, Mont. - Billings Clinic is announcing today that it is pursuing Level I Trauma Center designation, a distinction that will elevate lifesaving care in the region, create better patient outcomes and ensure 24/7 trauma care is available through a multidisciplinary team.

This is a transformational effort that will increase the level of lifesaving trauma care for patients and families across Montana and Wyoming, said Billings Clinic CEO Scott Ellner, DO, FACS. Level I is the gold standard for trauma care and aligns with Billings Clinics commitment to innovation in quality care, safety, education, and health care research. We already provide outstanding trauma services, and this will lead to even better outcomes for trauma patients. It will help rural facilities treat more patients locally, and, most importantly, it will keep people closer to home to receive this excellent standard care when they need it.

In support of achieving this monumental investment in trauma care for the region, Billings Clinic Foundation is kicking off a $30 million capital campaign, the largest in Billings Clinics history. The Foundation has already secured $13 million in pledges from three generous supporters to start the fundraising campaign. This includes a gift of $7 million from the Philip N. Fortin Foundation, a $1 million gift from Tim and Carmen Sheehy and an anonymous $5 million gift.

We are excited about what this means for the future of Billings and the surrounding region in helping to provide this critical trauma need while enhancing care, said Danielle Moore, Vice President of the Fortin Foundation of Florida. Philip would be pleased to know we are continuing his good work and taking care of Montanans through this commitment. Philip N. Fortin was a member of the Billings Clinic (then Deaconess Medical Center) governing board in the 1970s and was a strong community advocate and leader.

Level I Trauma is a designation from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) that is given to comprehensive care facilities with a large patient capacity and the ability to treat trauma patients with greater degrees of injury severity, while providing the highest level of trauma care to critically ill or injured patients. There currently are no ACS verified Level I Trauma Centers in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho or South Dakota. The closest Level I centers to Billings are in Salt Lake City, UT (548 miles); Denver, CO (555 miles); and Seattle, WA (819 miles).

Billings Clinic was designated as Montanas first Level II Trauma Center in 1992 and already has many of the required pieces in place to become a Level I center. This includes dedicated trauma services, 24/7 multispecialty care services, immediately available operating rooms, fellowship-trained orthopedic trauma surgeons, other 24/7 surgical services, emergency heart surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass, neurosurgery for traumatic brain and spine injuries, state-of-the-art 24/7 interventional radiology for adjunct hemorrhage control in trauma, a broad affiliate network throughout a multistate region and a strong relationship with rural hospitals.

Billings Clinic already offers the most comprehensive and highest level of trauma care in the region, said Michael Englehart, MD, FACS, general and trauma surgeon and Billings Clinic Medical Director of Trauma Services. Achieving Level I means that we will provide leading-edge care. The research it requires will support and enhance our ability to provide immediate evidence-based medicine. The comprehensive care it entails includes 24/7 in-house coverage, from admission to discharge, and from injury to recovery. The unique geography and demographics we serve mean that we have unique needs and challenges in treating trauma patients, and the infrastructure and resources of a Level I Trauma Center will help meet those needs for our entire region.

When a serious accident happens, having the best care available no matter where you are is critical. In Montana, Wyoming and the western Dakotas, where the miles between people and the right resources can stretch into the hundreds, that can save lives. Billings Clinic currently is the busiest trauma center in Montana and Wyoming  and offers the highest level of care available in the region, but the need for trauma services continues to grow.

Montana has the second worst survival ranking in the nation for trauma.

Billings Clinic has taken the lead on treating trauma patients across a multi-state region, experiencing a 55% increase since 2010.

Seriously injured patients have a 25% greater survival rate if treated at a Level I Trauma Center.

To meet the requirements of designation as a Level I Trauma Center, Billings Clinic is hosting surgical residents and recently announced Montanas first rural surgical residency track in collaboration with the University of Arizona. The first surgical resident arrives in June. Trauma research is an essential component of a Level I Trauma Center, and internal research scientists are working with the Billings Clinic trauma team to complete and publish trauma research.

As a Level I Trauma Center, Billings Clinic will provide the care and resources to treat every type of injury, no matter how serious, at any time. It means a community-focused, integrated system of care will be available to all in need. The Trauma network will link health care facilities across the region to ensure that every step in a trauma patients care journey is connected. Additional benefits of Level I include:

Provides leadership in prevention, training and public education to surrounding communities.

Provides continuing education for the trauma team members and others throughout the organization.

Regional care coordination.

Incorporates a comprehensive quality assessment program.

Operates an organized teaching and research effort to help direct new innovations in trauma care.

In order to meet the needs of residents and visitors to the region, Billings Clinic Foundations capital campaign will provide funding to expand operating rooms, build a new state-of-the-art transfer center to reduce transport delays, build a dedicated Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) and expand the Emergency Department.

Advancing to Level I is a goal that will serve people across our vast multi-state region. Donors will have the opportunity to join us in helping Billings Clinic continue a proud history of raising the level of expert care like they have for decades, said Jim Duncan, Billings Clinic Foundation President. We are so grateful to the three donors that stepped up first with $13 million to kick off this important campaign.

To learn more or to support Billings Clinic as it advances to becoming a Level I Trauma Center, visit www.billingsclinic.com/trauma. To support Billings Clinics Level I designation work, visit www.billingsclinicfoundation.com.
Dawn Coulliette, owner of Mia Bella Salon & Spa in Fruitland Park, is pictured at her business on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. So far, shes purchased a military drone and is about to buy nine sets of body armor for the Ukrainian military. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

A thermal imaging drone used by Ukrainian forces trying to expel invading Russian troops from their borders was purchased by the clients of a salon in a small Lake County city just outside of The Villages.

Soon, nine sets of body armor will be purchased for troops there as well, with money collected at the Mia Bella Salon & Spa in Fruitland Park, population 8,000 or so.

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In all, about $10,000 has been collected in roughly three weeks by the salon, which offers services from hair highlights to massages, said Dawn Coulliette, who owns the business with her daughter.

Mia Bella Salon & Spa in Fruitland Park is pictured on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. A sign outside invites customers to "Ask how you can help support Ukraine." (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

Coulliette sends the money weekly to her brother Glenn Anderson, a former Orange County Public Schools teacher. Anderson taught history at Apopka and Winter Park high schools for 27 years before joining the Peace Corps.

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Now teaching English at a university in Lviv, Ukraine, Anderson orchestrated the purchases based on what is needed on the ground.

Right now, this is where I feel like I can do the best, said Anderson over a video call Tuesday. He said air raid sirens had sounded earlier throughout the city, as they do most days.

When Russia started its invasion of Ukraine Feb. 24, Anderson decided to stick around. Millions of Ukrainians left, as troops invaded and bombarded cities with missile strikes and artillery fire.

President Joe Biden on Feb. 11 warned Americans to leave Ukraine since no military evacuations were planned.

When the war broke out I had to make that decision, Anderson said. I dont know if its a smart move or not a smart move. Of course, Im an American but this has become a second home and I felt like I couldnt abandon my friends. I wasnt ready to leave.

As thousands of Ukrainians took up arms, Anderson said he found other ways to help his adopted home.

He went to the Lviv train station, where thousands of people were arriving and departing to escape the shelling across the country, many on the way to Poland. There, he helped load supplies onto trains, but the station had more than enough volunteers.

Glenn Anderson in Lviv, Ukraine, after the invasion of Ukraine began, below a sign that reads "Fight, you will prevail." - Original Credit: Glenn Anderson - Original Source: Glenn Anderson (Glenn Anderson / Courtesy photo)

So then he helped out at a warehouse, unloading and packing supplies to be distributed elsewhere in Ukraine, but that effort also had enough volunteers. He also helped make camouflage military nets.

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But in recent weeks, hes instead been coordinating the purchase of the drone and routing relief supplies sent from his family and friends in America. He said hes expecting shipments of dozens of boxes of supplies, which will be distributed by a nonprofit throughout the country.

He found Ukrainians in Finland to purchase the drone and also has found a person to buy bulletproof vests, which will be given to soldiers, he said.

I could buy food, but people are sending food. Id really like to do something for the Ukrainian military, he said.

Anderson left his job at Winter Park High School after 27 years teaching in Central Florida, disillusioned with the direction of public education in Florida, he said. As a teen, he had a dream of joining the Peace Corps, but a recruiter encouraged him to go to college and learn some skills before joining.

Decades later, he sold his home and signed up to go to Ukraine, arriving in 2016. Hes not currently a Corps volunteer.

In 2020, as COVID-19 rapidly spread, the Corps evacuated all of its volunteers around the world, and Anderson returned to Central Florida, where he lived with Coulliette in Leesburg. But he continued paying rent in Ukraine, with the intention of returning.

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Months later, a university in Lviv offered him a job as a visiting professor teaching English. Classes started back up Monday and six students attended, he said. Last week, his English speaking club at a cafe in town had a dozen show up, where the war dominated the conversation.

Famous statues around the city of about 700,000 people have been wrapped in padding and frames of wood and aluminum, windows of renowned cathedrals are covered in metal and government buildings are blocked off with concrete barriers and chains, Anderson said.

Despite regular air raid sirens, Lviv hasnt been subject to the regular shelling as numerous other Ukrainian population centers have been, though a missile struck the airport several miles from Andersons home in the middle of the night.

Anderson, 61, talks to his sister Dawn several times a week and was able to send photos of the drone when it arrived, to show her clients who helped buy it. He also sent photos it captured at night, which, he said, the military can use to help root out attacks.

She said the donors were thrilled with the purchase.

Coulliette, a massage therapist, said shes talked to her clients for years about her family and specifically her brother in Ukraine.

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For months, tens of thousands of Russian troops amassed on the border of Ukraine before invading on Feb. 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he intended to denazify Ukraine, once part of the Soviet Union, and eradicate its pro-Western government in the capital city, Kyiv.

As tensions escalated, Coulliette said clients would ask about Anderson, and when the war started, texts and phone calls poured in.

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Then came cash, checks and Venmo payments to help Ukraine.

Immediately the clients I started talking to started handing me money before I could even get the jar put out and get ready to advertise that thats what I was doing, she said.

Coulliette said she felt a connection to the conflict in Ukraine because of her familys ties there. Besides Anderson living there, her mom and stepfather have visited over the past three decades on mission trips with the First Baptist Church in Mount Dora, and later a thrift store called Orphans Rock Thrift Store, and adopted her step-sister from an orphanage there.

On a recent day outside of the salon just west of U.S. Highway 27, an A-frame sign with script lettering stood that reads Ask how you can help support Ukraine.

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Inside, Coulliette, 58, who owns the business with her daughter Danielle Daugherty, wears a pin that reads, I stand with Ukraine.

Whatever it is they need, thats what well buy, she said. We might be only one ant in this whole thing, but an ant can carry a lot.

rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com
(The Center Square)  The high cost of crude oil isnt just costing drivers filling up at the pump more, its also impacting the availability of everyday goods. Manufacturers are looking for solutions.

Illinois Manufacturers Association President and CEO Mark Denzler said the U.S. has plenty of resources to tap into.

We have to use our domestic supplies, Denzler told WMAY. We shouldn't have to go rushing to OPEC, which is what the Biden administration has done to ask them to increase output. We have these resources right here at home.

Denzler said its not just crude oil thats needed. Manufacturers use other fossil fuels in producing all kinds of consumer goods.

Natural gas is the feed stock in a lot of things, plastics, and chemicals and fertilizer, Denzler said. So again, its very important that we dont turn off these resources and stop using them.

Greg Kozera with the nonprofit economic research group Shale Crescent USA agreed that theres plenty of resources domestically and restrictions need to be lifted.

Theres natural gas, natural gas liquids and oils, that we dont need to be paying these kinds of gasoline prices because we can fuel ourselves, Kozera told The Center Square. We just need to be able to drill more wells and expand production.

Some farmers have said there could be relief found by fostering more biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. But Kozera said that would take away from feed for livestock and humans, and it require lots more energy to produce such ethanol and biodiesel.

You gotta grow something and when we look at the amount, the large volumes of diesel and gasoline that we use in this country, its really not feasible, Kozera said.

IMA and others are pushing for passage of a House resolution urging the president of the United States to resume consistent, credible federal lease sales and the construction of natural gas and new oil and gas pipelines. The resolution is in an Illinois House committee.
The Northern New England Red Cross is installing smoke detectors this weekend. Do you have a fire evacuation plan for your home? How about when you are traveling?
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to the Supreme Court, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the third day of her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times)

Legal experts praised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in her final day of Senate hearings on Thursday, with a top lawyers group saying its review found she has a sterling reputation, exceptional competence and is well qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

The testimony from the American Bar Association and other experts came after two days of questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and wrapped up about 30 hours of hearings on Jacksons nomination. In the days of questioning, Republicans asked Jackson about her record as a federal judge, including her sentencing of criminal defendants, as she seeks to become the first Black woman on the nations highest court.

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Outstanding, excellent, superior, superb, testified Ann Claire Williams, chair of the American Bar Association committee that makes recommendations on federal judges. Those are the comments from virtually everyone we interviewed.

Williams said the group spoke to more than 250 judges and lawyers about Jackson. The question we kept asking ourselves: How does one human being do so much so extraordinary well?

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Democrats are hoping to win bipartisan votes for President Joe Bidens historic nominee, but Republicans have portrayed Jackson as soft on crime in her nine years on the federal bench. Jackson, supported by committee Democrats, pushed back on that GOP narrative in more than 22 hours of questioning, explaining the sentencing process in detail and telling them: nothing could be further from the truth.

The final, four-hour hearing Thursday featured not only legal experts but government officials and civil rights groups who supported Jackson and conservative advocates who opposed her.

Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall, a witness invited by the minority, echoed the Republicans concerns. Marshall said Jacksons supporters cite her as a voice for the vulnerable, but we should be interested in exploring whether her zeal is equally fervent for another class of our most vulnerable  victims of violent crime.

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the committee chairman, noted that some Republican senators argued that Jackson was out of the mainstream when it comes to sentencing. Durbin asked the ABA whether such a concern would have surfaced in their interviews with the judges and lawyers who worked with her.

It never came up in any of these interviews, Williams said.

Joseph Drayton, another member of the ABA committee, said Jacksons reputation is stellar.

Democrats tried to portray Marshall himself as out of the mainstream, asking about his efforts to overturn Bidens 2020 presidential victory. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked Marshall whether Biden was the duly elected president. Marshall, who had supported a lawsuit to overturn Donald Trumps defeat  would only say that Biden was president. The Supreme Court dismissed that suit.

The Senate committee is expected to vote on Jacksons nomination by April 4. Democrats are hoping to hold a final confirmation vote by Easter in mid-April, when the Senate leaves Washington for a two-week break.

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The GOP criticism was met by effusive praise from Democrats, and by reflections on the historic nature of her nomination. The most riveting came from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who used his time not to ask questions but to tearfully speak and draw tears from Jackson as well.

Booker, who is Black, said that he sees my ancestors and yours when he looks at her. I know what its taken for you to sit here in this seat, he said. You have earned this spot.

Jackson, whose family was seated behind her, was silent as Booker talked, but tears rolled down her face.

Jackson was in tears a second time after similar praise from Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and she responded that she hopes to be an inspiration because I love this country, because I love the law.

GOP senators aggressively questioned Jackson on the sentences she has handed down to child pornography offenders in her nine years as a federal judge, her legal advocacy on behalf of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, her thoughts on critical race theory and her religious views.

The focus on sentencing was part of a larger effort by the committees Republicans  several of whom are potential presidential candidates  to characterize Jacksons record, and her judicial philosophy, as too empathetic and soft on criminals who commit the worst offenses. It was also reflective of an emerging emphasis on crime in GOP midterm election campaigns.

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Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Jackson she seemed like a very kind person  but theres at least a level of empathy that enters into your treatment of a defendant that some could view as maybe beyond what some of us would be comfortable with, with respect to administering justice.

Jackson said she bases sentences on many factors, not just federal guidelines. Sentencing is not a numbers game, she said, noting that there are no mandatory sentences for sex offenders and that there has been significant debate on the subject.

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Some of the cases have given her nightmares, she said, and were among the worst that I have seen.

Durbin began Thursdays hearing by thanking most Republicans on the committee, but he also said some of the attacks on the judge were unfair, unrelenting and beneath the dignity of the United States Senate.

The sustained focus on her record suggested that, contrary to Democratic hopes, Jacksons confirmation vote in the full Senate is unlikely to garner much, if any, Republican support. Still, several Republicans acknowledged that she is likely to be on the court. Democrats can confirm her without any bipartisan support in the 50-50 Senate as Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tiebreaking vote.

Biden chose Jackson in February, fulfilling a campaign pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. She would take the seat of Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced in January that he would retire this summer after 28 years.

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Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman. Her confirmation would maintain the current 6-3 conservative majority on the court.

She would also be the first former public defender on the court, and the first justice with experience representing indigent criminal defendants since Marshall.

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Jessica Gresko, Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Colleen Long in Washington and Aaron Morrison in New York contributed to this report.
A 31-year-old woman is facing five charges stemming from an incident involving drugs, forgery, fraud and identity theft.

Valerie A. Kehl, of East Troy, was reportedly attempting to acquire a prescription illegally at a pharmacy in Lake Geneva.

An officer from the Lake Geneva Police Department was dispatched to a Walgreens Pharmacy in Lake Geneva for a fraud complaint. Upon arrival, he received notice that a woman pulled up to the drive-thru with a piece of paper claiming to have an Adderall prescription.

Handwritten on a piece of paper was a prescription for 30mg, total of 360 pills, with the initials of a doctor in Irvine, California. A call to the doctor revealed the defendant had not had an appointment with them in three years.

The officer made contact with the defendant, who handed over her prescription. She said the prescription was for Adderall and it was likely written by her doctor. She claimed that she had telehealth appointments and receives the prescriptions by mail. But when asked if she had an envelope with a return address, she was unable to provide that information.

The doctor also told police that all of his prescriptions are done electronically.

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Even boosting the temperature by a few degrees for one night can be the difference between a good crop and devastation, as fruit growers know all too well.
Hollywood star Nicolas Cage has expressed disagreement towards his uncle Francis Ford Coppola when it comes to superhero movies like the Marvel films. According to Variety, recently, while speaking to a magazine, the actor defended the genre against various criticisms made by top filmmakers including Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Renfield: First Look of Nicolas Cage As Dracula and Nicholas Hoult As His Henchman Renfield Unveiled! (View Pics).

In 2019, Cappola had been quoted calling Marvel movies "despicable" while supporting Scorsese's critical beliefs about comic book films hurting the film industry. The filmmaker later clarified that he wasn't referring to Marvel films specifically, rather he meant that it's "despicable" how the film industry now values commerce over art. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness: Nicolas Cage Responds to Possible Ghost Rider Cameo in Benedict Cumberbatchs Marvel Movie.

Scorsese and Coppola's primary criticism is that Marvel and comic book films have reshaped exhibition so that only one type of movie now gets produced and distributed at the theatrical level. "There used to be studio films. Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different," Coppola had himself explained in an interview earlier this year.

Defending these films, Cage stated, "I don't understand the conflict. I don't agree with them on that perception or opinion. I think that the movies that I make, like 'Pig' or 'Joe,' are not in any kind of conflict with Marvel movies."

He continued, "I don't think the Marvel movie had anything to do with the end of the tweener. By tweener, I mean the USD 30 to USD 50 million budget movie. I think movies are in good shape. If you look at 'Power of the Dog,' or if you look at 'Spencer,' or any of Megan Ellison's movies. I think that there's still Paul Thomas Anderson."

"Marvel has done a really excellent job of entertaining the whole family. They put a lot of thought into it. I mean, it's definitely had a big progression from when I was doing the first two 'Ghost Rider' movies. Kevin Feige, or whoever is behind that machine, has found a masterful way of weaving the stories together and interconnecting all the characters," the actor added.

He further said, "I just, I don't see what the issue is."

As per Variety, there have been rumours that in the upcoming 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness', Cage might be reprising his 'Ghost Ride' role. However, during the interview, the actor dismissed this by saying "I'd love to work with Cumberbatch, but I don't think that's happening."

(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, March 24: A 29-year-old man in Rohini was shot dead by unidentified persons on Wednesday night near the KN Katju Marg Police Station here in North West Delhi's Rohini, the police said.

The deceased, identified as Shekhar Rana, was found injured in his car. After the incident, Delhi Police rushed to the spot. Delhi: 85-Year-Old Man Killed By Teenager in Najafgarh Area.

The victim was admitted to Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College (BSA Hospital) and later shifted to MAX Hospital, Pitampura where he succumbed to his bullet injuries.

Further investigation into the matter is underway.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Louis Torres drives back and forth on State Road 414 and Maitland Boulevard nearly every day as part of his commute between his Lake County home and jobs in Orange County for his home repair business.

The worst part of the drive, Torres said, is during rush hour, especially along the stretch of S.R. 414 between U.S. Highway 441 in Apopka and Interstate 4 in Maitland.

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Its a nightmare. Its terrible, he said, waving his hand as he filled his vans gas tank this week in that area. Cars are backed up at each of the lights.

Torres was pleased to hear the Central Florida Expressway Authority is moving forward with plans to extend S.R. 414  also known as the John Land Apopka Expressway  by adding nearly 2.8 miles of elevated toll lanes between U.S. 441 and State Road 434.

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This is exciting to even think about, said Commissioner Amy Lockhart this week during a presentation before the Seminole commission. Because, as someone who has used that corridor more than a few times, thats always the part of the trip [between U.S. 441 and S.R. 434] that someone goes, ugh. So, it will be nice to not have to bemoan that part of the trip.

Between State Road 429 and U.S. 441, S.R. 414 is a toll road and drivers generally pay about $1.50 to travel the six-mile stretch.

Between U.S. 441 and I-4, S.R. 414 is a free road, also known as Maitland Boulevard, that is maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. It then continues eastward from I-4 as a free road about 2 miles to U.S. Highway 17-92 in Fern Park.

The four-lane extension will have cars and trucks zooming along 45 feet above Maitland Boulevard, giving drivers a more direct route from S.R. 429 in Apopka to I-4 in Maitland, officials said. Toll rates have yet to be determined.

A map provided by the Central Florida Expressway Authority shows a proposed extension of State Road 414 from U.S. Highway 441 to State Road 434. (Courtesy of Central Florida Expressway Authority.)

Transportation officials will unveil details of the $365-million S.R. 414 extension project at a public meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., March 31, at Wekiva High School, 2501 Hiawassee Road, Apopka. Information about the project can be viewed at cfxway.com.

Expressway Authority officials hope the new extension  paid for with toll revenues  would be completed and open to motorists by 2027.

Thats the goal, said Brian Hutchings, an authority spokesman. We understand that there is a tremendous need in that area to relieve traffic congestion and to provide some relief to that current bottleneck on Maitland Boulevard. Weve heard loud and clear from people that drive on that section about traffic congestion.

As part of the project, Maitland Boulevard will be widened to add sidewalks and bike lanes. And the three signaled intersections will remain for local traffic, according to plans.

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Motorists will only be able to enter and exit the tolled elevated lanes of S.R. 414 at the S.R. 434 and U.S. 441 overpasses, which could alleviate traffic on Maitland Boulevard.

Doing this would allow through traffic on 414 to bypass four intersections and three [traffic] signals and provide a regional direct connection to I-4 and vice versa, said Will Hawthorne, director of engineering at the Expressway Authority. And it will greatly reduce the traffic volume [on Maitland Boulevard] for the locals and thus improve traffic operations throughout the corridor.

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About 40,000 vehicles use Maitland Boulevard daily. But as more growth is expected in west Orange and east Lake counties, Maitland Boulevard is expected to become more congested as motorists seek a connection from Apopka to I-4.

I would like to note, and its very important, that a no-build alternative  if you just dont do anything  it would eventually result in adding two more lanes or six-laning Maitland Boulevard, Hawthorne said. And that would result in higher noise impacts to the nearby homes.

Cars head east on State Road 414, also known as the John Land Apopka Expressway, at the Orange Blossom Trail intersection. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

Opened to motorists in 2009, S.R. 414 was supposed to be a road free to drivers built by the FDOT. But before construction started, state officials in 2004 said they did not have the money to pay for it.

The expressway authority then decided to take over S.R. 414 and built it as a toll road.

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Seminole Commissioner Jay Zembower said extending S.R. 414 will benefit motorists across the region  including in Seminole and Orange counties, and in the cities of Altamonte Springs, Maitland and Apopka.

This is what is the missing [transportation] link for this area, he said.

mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
Visuals of Army personnel from India and Uzbekistan at the joint training exercise(Photo credit twitter@adgpi)

New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): The third edition of India-Uzbekistan Joint Military Exercise- 'Dustlik' commenced with an impressive opening ceremony at Yangiarik, Uzbekistan.

The ceremony was marked by the unfurling of national flags of both the participant countries followed by their national anthems.

Also Read | Apple Introduces Driver's License Feature on iPhone in Arizona: Report.

Indian Army contingent arrived at Yangiarik, Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

The joint exercise would focus on Counter-Terrorism operations in semi-urban terrain under a United Nations Mandate. The training schedule will focus primarily on sharing tactical level drills and learning best practices from each other. The exercise aims at enhancing understanding, cooperation and interoperability between two armies.

Also Read | Money Laundering Case: BJP MLAs Continue to Protest Outside Maharashtra Assembly Seeking Nawab Maliks Resignation.

The third edition of the exercise will contiwould be conducted at Yangiarik, Uzbekistan from March 22 to March 31. (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/Guwahati, Mar 24 (PTI) The CISF has suspended a woman constable after it received a complaint that an 80-year-old wheel-chair bound woman passenger, who had undergone a hip implant, was allegedly strip-searched at the Guwahati airport during security checks on Thursday.

The woman was accompanied by her granddaughter at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, and they had a flight to Delhi.

Also Read | Coal Scam: TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee Summoned Again By ED on March 29.

The paramilitary force that guards the Guwahati airport and 64 other civil airports in the country issued an official Tweet saying, "Security and dignity of needy pax (passenger) go hand in hand. CISF has already started enquiry in connection with the unfortunate incident at Guwahati airport."

"The concerned personnel has been suspended. DIG CISF has spoken with the passenger," it said.

Also Read | World TB Day 2022: Delhi Tops With Highest Pulmonary Tuberculosis Prevalence Per Lakh Population, Says Report.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also responded to the complainant over Twitter saying, he is also "looking into this".

The force tagged the daughter of the woman, Dolly Kikon, on the post who had raised the complaint over Twitter and tagged the handles of the force and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma among others.

"@CISFHQrs My 80 year old disabled mom was made to strip at the CISF security check at Guwahati airport. The security personnel wanted proof of her titanium hip implant and forced her to undress. @himantabiswa @guwahatiplus @GuwahatiAirport. Is that how we treat seniors," Kikon posted.

In another Tweet, she sai, "It is disgusting! My 80 year old disabled mother was forced to pull down her undergarment and get naked. Why? Why?"

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials said the personnel concerned had asked the woman to pull down her lower body garments as the detector beeped, indicating metal on a person's body.

"As per preliminary inputs, the CISF personnel on duty followed the standard operating procedure laid down in such circumstances.

"As there was a metal piece indicator on, she asked the lady passenger to undergo physical checking and show her the hip implant area so that she can corroborate the passenger's version of having undergone surgery," a senior officer said.

However, a probe is being conducted to find if the personnel did not treat the passenger with respect or was there any other lapse, he added.

Officials said the CISF control room reviewed the CCTV footage of the airport and found that the passenger left the woman frisking booth in less than two minutes.

The woman's daughter also claimed in her social media post that her niece who was accompanying the octogenarian had filled up a complaint form but the CISF personnel took it away, claiming that it was not allowed.

A spokesperson of the Guwahati airport told PTI that the passenger with reduced mobility was requested to go through the mandatory security screening but as she had a metal plate attached to her hip bone, the CISF team asked her to go for further checks.

"The authorities politely explained to the passenger about the mandatory security protocol and the matter was sorted out. The octogenarian passenger was initially irritated but later she understood the matter and left for her destination in a happy mood," the spokesperson said.

In a similar incident in November last year, noted dancer and actor Sudhaa Chandran had issued a video statement saying she felt "humiliated" when she was asked by a CISF personnel at the Mumbai airport to remove her artificial limb.

The CISF had then issued an apology to Chandran over social media saying, "As per protocol, prosthetics are to be removed for security checks only under exceptional circumstances."

"We assure Ms. Sudhaa Chandran that all our personnel will be sensitised again on the protocols so that no inconvenience is caused to travelling passengers," the CISF had said.

The force later said it will create a committee of all stakeholders at all civil airports under its work and these panels will work to address travel-related issues of differently-abled passengers even as there will be an "increased focus" on sensitising security personnel for handling such category of travellers.

(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], March 24 (ANI): Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Thursday expressed condolences to the family of Former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti, who passed away yesterday.

As the bench headed by CJI Ramana assembled today morning, the Chief Justice remembered former CJI Lahoti as a fearless independent judge.

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"The entire legal fraternity has suffered a great loss with passing of Justice Lahoti. He will always be remembered as a fearless independent judge," CJI Ramana said and expressed condolences to his family and friends.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave said that on behalf of the bar, they expressed deepest condolences and remembered him as one of the finest judge.

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Thereafter the bench observed one-minute silence to pay respect to Justice Lahoti.

Justice Lahoti was appointed as the Chief Justice of India on June 1, 2004, and retired on November 1, 2005.

Born on November 1, 1940, Lahoti joined the Bar in District Guna in 1960 and enrolled as an Advocate in 1962. In April 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a District and Sessions Judge.

After functioning as a District and Sessions Judge for a year, he resigned in May 1978 and reverted to the Bar for practice mainly in the High Court.

He was later appointed as the Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 3, 1988, and was made permanent a Judge on August 4, 1989.

He was transferred to Delhi High Court on February 7, 1994, and thereafter he was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on December 9, 1998. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): BSNL Employees Union on Wednesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "drop proposal to merge MTNL with BSNL".

The employees union of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) also suggested the government to take over Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited's (MTNL) Rs 26,000 crore debt and provide financial assistance to BSNL.

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"We wish to express our serious concern regarding the merger of BSNL and MTNL. The BSNL employees are genuinely concerned that, the merger of MTNL with BSNL will certainly ruin the financial condition of the latter. Due to this reason, right from the beginning, the employees of BSNL have been firmly opposing the merger of BSNL and MTNL," the union said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

The union quoted a senior BSNL official as saying that "MTNL is in the ICU and any day it can be declared dead" and "a catastrophe is waiting to happen in MTNL".

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"We fervently appeal to you to kindly drop the proposal to merge MTNL with BSNL. Alternatively, the government should take over MTNL's debt of Rs 26,000 crore. In addition to this, the government should also provide sufficient financial assistance to BSNL, for the rehabilitation of the networks of MTNL. This demand is being raised because, both the mobile as well as landline networks of MTNL are in a dilapidated condition. Hence, we earnestly urge upon you to kindly look into this issue and to kindly take appropriate action to safeguard the interests of BSNL," the union said. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): Ministry of Education (MoE) will be conducting a 'foundational learning study' in order to draw a first-hand understanding of the learning levels of the students at the foundational learning stage at the end of Grade 3. The study is first of its kind in the world as it aims to set up benchmarks for reading with comprehension in 22 Indian languages.

"The Foundational Learning Study will be conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in all States and Union Territories (UTs) over a window of four days i.e., from March 23 to March 26, 2022, in the sampled schools," the education ministry said in a statement.

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Education Ministry further added, "Approximately, 10,000 schools and one lakh students are expected to participate in this study with the objective to conduct a large-scale assessment of the foundational learning of grade 3 students to establish a baseline for the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat mission."

To establish reading proficiency benchmarks for fluency with comprehension for each of the languages being assessed under the study and provide the data for sustainable development goals (SDG 4.1.1.), covering aspects of foundational literacy and numeracy.

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The National Education Policy 2020 highlights that "the ability to read and write, and perform basic operations with numbers, is a necessary foundation and an indispensable prerequisite for all future schooling and lifelong learning".

Focusing on 'learning achievement' in the foundational years is pertinent in order to provide the learners with capabilities to make their subsequent learning experiences more meaningful and absorbing.

While the dimensions of learning can be manifold, the basic ability to read with comprehension, writing and an understanding of the basic numeracy concepts (such as numbers, patterns, etc.) relate to core learning goals at the foundational stage.

The MoE has launched NIPUN- BHARAT mission to provide the roadmap for strengthening the domain of foundational learning at the national level.

The Foundational Learning study will enable to establish benchmarks in reading with comprehension in different Indian languages for children at Grade 3 level. It will assess the ability to read age-appropriate known as well as unknown text at a certain pace, accurately, and with comprehension and also the foundational numeracy skills and form a baseline for the NIPUN Bharat Goals. (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, Mar 24 (PTI) The phone of Syed Faisal, a 30-year-old from Srinagar, hasn't stopped buzzing since a video of him being denied accommodation at a Delhi hotel went viral. He said the incident has left him disturbed.

As the clip went viral on social media, hospitality firm OYO took off from its platform the hotel located in north Delhi's Jahangirpuri.

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According to police, an FIR has been registered against the owner of the hotel.

Faizal, who works in multi national company as an auditor, said it is for the first time he has faced such kind of "discrimination".

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In the video, a woman staffer of the hotel can be seen not allowing him to check-in as he was from Jammu & Kashmir.

"It was really disturbing. How could they do this to me just because I am a native of Jammu and Kashmir. I showed them my passport and my Aadhar card and still they did not allow me in," he told PTI.

Ever since the video has gone viral, Faizal said he has received over 1,000 calls from relatives and media persons.

"My family is worried whether I am fine or not. Every known person is calling me as they want to know what happened," he said.

Reacting to the incident on Twitter, OYO said, "We are appalled that this happened. We have taken the hotel off from our platform immediately."

The company further said, "Our rooms and our hearts are open for everyone, always. This is not something that we will compromise on, ever. We will definitely check what compelled the hotel to deny check-in."

The hotel has not responded to calls and text messages.

"The incident took place on March 22, I was in Jahangirpuri due to some work. At around 4 pm, I reached the hotel and the lady at the desk asked for my ID proofs and when I showed them to her, she noticed my address and said police have directed them to not allow people from Jammu and Kashmir," Faizal said.

In the video, Faizal can be heard repeatedly asking the staffer the reason behind the refusal.

"I asked her multiple time why they are not allowing me in. She did not reply. My job demands travelling but this is the first time that such treatment has been meted out to me," he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said a complaint was received at Mahendra Park Police Station stating that some people from Jammu and Kashmir were denied accommodation in a hotel in the area.

A case under section 153-B(1)b (any member of a religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community denied of rights) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered and investigation is in progress, the DCP said.

In the video, the reason for refusal to allot a room was cited as directions from police but I would like to clarify again that no such direction has been given by the local police, she added.

On Wednesday too, the Delhi Police had clarified that it had not issued any direction against giving accommodation in hotels to those from Jammu and Kashmir.

"A purported video has gone viral on social media wherein a person is being denied hotel reservation due to his J&K ID. The reason for cancellation is being given as direction from police. It is clarified that no such direction has been given by Delhi Police," it said in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

(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], March 24 (ANI): The Centre on Thursday assured the Rajya Sabha that all aspects linked to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including impact on trade, are being examined by a group of different Ministries led by the Union Finance Ministry.

"...Because of the emerging problems in dealing with Russia, our government is examining various aspects, including the payment aspect. There is a group within the government composed of different ministries. It is led by Finance Ministry to examine these matters," said Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while replying to a supplementary question asked by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral during Question Hour.

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Gujral mentioned that India has been facing a day-to-day problem when it comes to trade with Russia and said that the West is playing a double game as they continue to import petroleum from Russia while lecturing us (India) not to trade with them.

"For many years India had a policy and we used to do rupee trade with Russia. Is the government thinking on those lines so that our exports are not hurt and we continue to import from Russia?" Gujral asked.

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Jaishankar then clarified that India imports very little oil from Russia.

"It is less than one per cent of our imports. And many other countries import 10, 15, 20 times..." Jaishankar said.

Replying to another supplementary query of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha, the Minister said that India is very clear on its policy "which is very much guided by our belief that the international border must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state."

"At the same time, what is happening in our neighbourhood is obviously it is in our attention. There is a lot of development taking place and we are monitoring them very carefully," said Jaishankar.

Noting that India had a robust policy from 1947 onwards whenever territorial integrity or sovereignty is violated anywhere in the world, Jha had asked "Are we in sync with the same kind of policy as far as our statement is concerned on the Ukraine-Russia issue? Are we (India) watching realignment in our immediate neighbourhood?"

On another supplementary question asked by BJP leader Swapan Das Gupta, Jaishankar said "our (India's) position is for peace".

"When the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) spoke to (Russian) President Putin three times and he spoke to (Ukraine) President Zelensky two times, the intent at that time was to evacuate Indian students as it was a very big issue. But there was also a larger conversation about what we could do to lead to encourage a secession of hostilities and return to diplomacy and dialogue. Today, that sentiment is widely shared by many countries in the world," the External Affairs Minister said.

Pointing at increasing polarization, Gupta had asked "Is this going to have any negative impact on some of our (India's) closest allies?" (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, March 24: India has logged 1,938 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health informed on Thursday.

With this, the active cases in the country have witnessed a dip; at 0.05 per cent, total active COVID infections in India stand at 22,427.

Yesterday, the active COVID cases were 23,087. Presently, with 5,918 cases, Kerala has the highest number of active COVID infections, followed by Maharashtra (5,089), and Karnataka (1,844).

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In the last 24 hours, as many as 2,531 recoveries from the virus and 67 COVID deaths were also reported by the Ministry in a press release.

The death toll has now climbed to 5,16,672, while the total recoveries have mounted to 4,24,75,588.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.29 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was at 0.35 per cent, the health ministry said.

A total of 6,61,954 COVID-19 tests were conducted in India in the last 24 hours. India has so far conducted over 78.49 crore cumulative tests.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive have exceeded 182.23 crore (1,82,23,30,356). 31,81,809 COVID vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years began on March 16, 2022.

So far, 72,17,166 COVID vaccine doses have been administered for the group, of which 18,84,945 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the last 24 hours.

In the drive for the 'precaution doses' to the healthcare workers, frontline workers and 60 plus individuals with comorbidities which commenced on January 10 this year, as many as 2,21,21,816 beneficiaries have been vaccinated.

(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, Mar 24 (PTI) India on Thursday said references made to it at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad were based on "falsehoods and misrepresentation".

The strong reaction by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came a day after the OIC at its foreign ministerial meeting in Pakistan criticised India for its policy on Kashmir.

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"The statements and resolutions adopted at the meeting demonstrate both the irrelevance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation as a body and the role of Pakistan as its manipulator," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

He was referring to media queries on references made to India in the resolutions adopted at the OIC meeting.

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"References have been made to India that are based on falsehoods and misrepresentation. The absurdity of this body commenting on the treatment of minorities, that too at the instance of a serial violator of human rights like Pakistan, is so evident," Bagchi said.

"Nations and governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation," he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kochi (Kerala) [India], March 24 (ANI): In a swiftly coordinated medical evacuation undertaken by Indian Coast Guards (Kerala and Mahe), an ailing mariner was rescued on Wednesday off Kochi.

According to the Naval press release, a 61-year-old mariner John A Jimenez of the ro-ro motor vessel Grand Neptune off Kochi coast was evacuated at 3.30 pm on Wednesday after a vessel raised medical distress at 8.30 am.

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The patient was critical, requiring immediate hospitalisation, the Maritime Rescue Sub Centre (MRSC) in Kochi was informed.

"Considering the gravity of the situation and fulfilling the Coast Guard mandate of providing assistance to distressed mariner at Sea, MRSC (Kochi) initiated the evacuation operation. Meanwhile, MV Grand Neptune was directed to approach Kochi harbour to reduce response time," the release added.

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MRSC (Kochi) liaised with agencies such as Customs, Immigration, Health Department and port control for necessary clearance.

The note further read, "At 4.30 pm the vessel reached off Kochi harbour anchorage and adhering to all COVID-19 Protocol and safety standards, the patient was safely transferred to vessel Tug Ocean Pioneer."

The patient was later shifted to Renai Medicity Hospital in Kochi. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Special interests have many friends at the Florida Supreme Court. The people have one  Justice Jorge Labarga.

The courts stridently right-wing future was foretold when Gov. Ron DeSantis packed it with Federalist Society ideologues. The court made that reality brutally clear with a 6-1 decision to insulate the tobacco industry from potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for Floridians it sickened and killed.

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Indian volunteers dressed as demons stand beside a replica of human skeleton smoking cigarette as part of India's 2019 observance of "World No-Tobacco Day." (Photo by ARUN SANKAR / AFP) (ARUN SANKAR/Getty)

Twelve years ago, in the nations most closely-watched class action against Big Tobacco, the court overturned a $145 billion punitive damage award and said some 8,000 plaintiffs would need to sue individually for their illnesses or the deaths of loved ones. It also held that they would not have to prove what the big trial already had: that cigarette smoking causes many kinds of heart and lung diseases and cancer and that the industry had misled people to believe smoking was safe.

The intent was to make the individual trials simpler, swifter, and less susceptible to costly delaying tactics. On balance, it was a major victory for the public interest, but those justices are all long gone. Now, in Prentice v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the court essentially took it back. The new fiercely conservative bloc of six justices held that each of the Engle progeny plaintiffs must prove that they relied on specific tobacco ads that misrepresented smoking as safe. That is impossible for the dead, and virtually impossible for the living.

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As Labarga wrote in a dissent, By requiring reliance on a specific statement, the majority has removed all permissible inferences of fact concerning the causal relationship between the tobacco industrys advertisement campaigns and the smoking decisions of Engle progeny plaintiffs.

Why governors matter

The majority ruling exemplifies what DeSantis and his predecessor, former Gov. Rick Scott, intended with their appointments to the appellate bench. Its what the tobacco industry hoped to achieve with nearly $12 million in Florida political contributions over the past decade.

A Reynolds subsidiary accounted for much of it, including nearly $2 million to the Republican Party of Florida and its campaign arms since 2017. The minority Democrats got just under $400,000.

DeSantis Supreme Court appointees are Justices John Couriel, Jamie Grosshans and Carlos Muniz, who wrote the tobacco opinion. They have formed a bloc with holdover Justices Charles Canady, Ricky Polston and Alan Lawson, and precedents are falling like hunted ducks. The six barely acknowledge Labargas frequent emphatic dissents.

The tobacco ruling upheld a decision of the far-right First District Court of Appeal that was at odds with how the other four district courts had ruled in similar cases.

There are ominous consequences beyond the injustice to smoking victims. The outcome bodes poorly for how the high court will rule on the Legislatures batch of new laws of dubious constitutionality and on the congressional redistricting snarl that will likely call for a court to draw new maps.

It also confirms that the courts dominant member is Muniz, the justice with by far the most partisan resume.

A chief concern

Jaws dropped in law offices statewide when the court announced that Muniz will rotate into the chief justices office on July 1 instead of Justice Alan Lawson. Traditionally (though not always), the next turn has gone to the most senior justice who had not been chief. Thats Lawson.

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Lawson has voted as conservatively as Muniz, but with one obvious difference: Lawson was appointed by Scott and Muniz by DeSantis, whos no friend of Scott.

Muniz, 52, has the least experience as a judge, consisting only of his three years on the high court. Lawson has worn robes for 20 years, including three as a trial judge, 11 on the Fifth District Court of Appeal and six on the Supreme Court.

(Florida Supreme Court)

The chief justice has only one vote in how the court decides a case, but has influence over the judges of lower courts and the Florida Bar and its committees. The chief also supervises the entire judicial system and can temporarily assign a replacement for a justice who is ill or has stepped aside from a case for ethical reasons. Whos chosen can determine how a close case is decided.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

Canady, the departing chief, flexed his powers to censor a diversity training program for new judges and got the court to overturn a Bar rule requiring diverse panels in continuing education courses.

[ RELATED: Diversity finds another enemy: the Florida Supreme Court | Editorial ]

Since 2012, the rules have said the chief justice should be chosen on managerial, administrative, and leadership abilities, without regard to seniority only. That makes the elevation of Muniz to chief justice even more conspicuous.

Interspersed with stints at the politically-connected law firm of GrayRobinson, which has a high-profile lobbying presence and often represents the House of Representatives, Muniz served as a deputy general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush (2001-2003); general counsel to Bushs Department of Financial Services (2005-06); deputy chief of staff and counsel to House Speaker Marco Rubio (2007-09); former Attorney General Pam Bondis deputy and chief of staff (2011-14); and general counsel to the U.S. Department of Education under President Trump (2018).

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From December 2006 until Rubio hired him seven months later, Muniz was policy director for the Republican Party of Florida. On his application to the Florida Supreme Court, Muniz said he had never tried any case to verdict or judgment.

Lawson declined to discuss the situation with the Sun Sentinel.

Four of the seven justices face statewide retention votes this year if they want new six-year terms. They are Canady, Polston, Grosshans and Labarga. Voters should remember in November.

The Prlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick and El Sentinel Editor Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Anderson. To contact us, email at insight@orlandosentinel.com.
Anantnag (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 24 (ANI): Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday inaugurated 42 power transmission and distribution projects executed by the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (JKPDD) aimed to improve power supply in all the 10 districts of Kashmir Division.

"Jammu and Kashmir administration is trying to enhance developmental works in the Union Territory and everyone should benefit from this. Around 180 crores of rupees have been invested in the projects which will benefit all 10 districts of Kashmir valley," said Sinha in his speech after inaugurating the power transmission projects.

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"During winters people used to face problems but this year we tried to provide power supply round the clock. These augmented facilities will address the important need of the growing economy," he said further.

A local Bharatiya Janata Party leader of Anantnag also lauded the step taken by the J-K administration and hailed the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for showing great interest in Jammu Kashmir and making efforts for its development. (ANI)

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(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Amaravati, March 24 (PTI): The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Thursday said the "judiciary crossed its limits" on the three capitals issues but vowed to safeguard its "sovereign authority" against any transgression (by other organs).

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Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Speaker T Seetaram, Legislative Affairs Minister Buggana Rajendranath and several other members attacked the High Court over the March 3 verdict even as they proclaimed "great respect" for the judiciary.

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The Assembly took up a short discussion on "decentralisation of governance," based on a letter written by senior legislator Dharmana Prasada Rao to the Chief Minister over the High Court verdict, wherein the state was ordered to "construct and develop Amaravati capital city and capital region within six months time."

The discussion centred mainly around the High Court ruling that "the state Legislature lacked competence to make any legislation for shifting, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital," with the members asking what was the Assembly for if not to make laws.

Dharmana Prasada Rao and Buggana Rajendranath, in particular, referred to various judgements of the Supreme Court to buttress their charge that the High Court sought to transgress into the legislative domain.

Speaking towards the end of the discussion, the Chief Minister said the "judiciary crossed its limits" and went against the federal spirit in issuing an impractical order.

He asserted that his government would go ahead with the decentralisation plan (by establishing three different capitals for the state) as there was no alternative to it. "Decentralisation is our policy. Decision on capitals is our right and responsibility," Jagan Mohan Reddy maintained.

The High Court verdict, delivered by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, was "like questioning not only the Constitution but also the powers of the legislature." It was against the federal spirit and the legislative powers, the Chief Minister observed.

"Will the judiciary make laws? The legislature will then have no meaning. The judiciary has crossed its limits, which is unwarranted and uncalled for," he said.

"We are not conducting this House to insult the High Court. We have great respect for the High Court. At the same time, the Legislature has the responsibility to safeguard the honour and powers of the Assembly," the Chief Minister remarked.

Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed out that even the Centre categorically told Parliament and the High Court that selection of the capital was the state government's prerogative.

Referring to the HC order that the state government and the AP Capital Region Development Authority complete infrastructure development like roads, drinking water, drainage, electricity in the Amaravati Capital City and Region within one month, the Chief Minister asked if that would be in any way possible.

The court also directed the state to construct and develop Amaravati capital city and capital region within six months time.

"The HC verdict is contrary to the Supreme Court's orders that courts should not deliver verdicts that cannot be implemented. The HC judgement (of March 3) cannot be implemented," Jagan Mohan Reddy stressed.

He said it would take at least 40 years to build the capital city.

"They (the existing capital cities) are what they are because of decades, if not centuries, of hard work. Even to create basic infrastructure here, we require at least Rs 1.09 lakh crore," he said.

He announced that there was no going back on decentralisation.

"That (decentralisation) is the right path, even if it is full of hurdles. Decentralisation means development of all regions. It is everyone's self-respect. Decentralisation has no alternative," the Chief Minister said.

He said the government was seeking legal counsel on the way forward and exploring alternatives in tune with the Constitution.

Winding up, Speaker Seetaram observed that there should be "harmony and mutual respect" among all three constitutional organs.

"There should not be any encroachment into other's domain. Legislature, executive and judiciary must confine to their domain and not cross the thin lines of separation of powers," the Speaker noted.

The AP High Court had earlier ruled that the state Legislature "lacked competence" to make any legislation for shifting, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital.

(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], March 24 (ANI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss various aspects of the SilverLine project in detail.

Briefing reporters here Kerala Chief Minister described it as a good meeting and that the Prime Minister assured him that he will discuss the project with the Railway Minister.

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The Chief Minister also expressed hope that approvals from the Centre for the semi-high-speed rail project will come faster.

"Called on the @PMOIndia Shri Narendra Modi ji today. Discussed various aspects of the SilverLine project in detail. Informed him that the project was essential for Kerala's progress. He offered all possible support. Thank you Prime Minister," CM Vijayan tweeted.

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"The state government will bear Rs 13,700 crore rupees that is required to aquire land and will also take the responsibility for the repayment of loan. Clarifications sought related to DPR has been provided. The project will be implemented after taking into consideration all environmental concerns. SilverLine will not go through ecologically sensitive areas," the Kerala CM said.

Vijayan earlier this month said that Left Democratic Front (LDF) led Kerala government will implement the SilverLine project while assuring that the state government would pay four times the prevailing market prices as compensation for acquiring land.

"The LDF government will implement the SilverLine project. There are attempts to mislead people. It is natural that people whose land is being acquired for the project will be disappointed. But I want to tell you that the government will pay four times the market price as compensation," said Vijayan.

The 529-km SilverLine railway project will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in north Kerala, covering 11 districts through 11 stations. The journey between two stations is expected to take four hours, whereas it currently takes 12 hours to reach from one end to another.

The project is also being opposed by Congress-led UDF, which has been alleging that the project is "unscientific and impractical" and will put a huge financial burden on the state. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): A scuffle breaks out between Delhi Police personnel and Kerala Congress MPs on Thursday while the latter were protesting at Vijay Chowk against SilverLine project.

There was a chaotic situation outside the Parliament when all the Congress MPs from Kerala were stopped by Delhi Police during a protest march.

Also Read | Delhi: 85-Year-Old Man Killed By Teenager in Najafgarh Area.

MPs claimed that they were taking out a protest march from Vijay Chowk to Parliament against Silver Line Rail Project when they were stopped by police. They also alleged that they were beaten up by the Delhi Police.

Kodukunnil Suresh, Dean Kuriakose and VK Sreekandan claimed that they were manhandled by the police.

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A police officer handling the situation at the spot told that there was some confusion over the identity of the people trying to cross over the police barrier.

The police staff on duty stopped them but later they were allowed to go. There was some confusion that was immediately addressed and resolved.

However, Delhi Police denied the manhandling charge. The police said that MPs first raised slogans near Vijay Chowk and then started moving towards Parliament.

"Because of the protest, they were stopped and when they told their identity we let them go. No manhandling was done," the police said.

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be together in this project and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give consent.

"We are seeking the PM to see the concern of the people of Kerala and to try to stop the CM of Kerala. There's a feeling that CPI(M) and BJP will be together in this project and that the PM will give consent," said Venugopal.

The Congress leader further said that the K-Silver line project proposed by the Kerala government is anti-people.

"Most people are in fear of eviction. Kerala is an economically fragile state... This is not an economically viable project. Now Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is going to meet the PM to get a sanction," he added.

The SilverLine project was initiated by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in 2019. The expected cost of the project is around Rs 65,000 crore.

The 529-km SilverLine railway project will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in north Kerala, covering 11 districts through 11 stations. The journey between two stations is expected to take four hours, whereas it currently takes 12 hours to reach from one end to another. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jammu, Mar 24 (PTI) Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday unveiled Rs 34,829 crore potential linked credit plan of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the union territory, officials said.

Sinha said that credit plan will meet aspirations of the ural population, bridge gaps in rural infrastructure and strengthen co-operative credit systems to transform agricultural economy.

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The credit plan was announced at seminar organized by NABARD in Jammu for presenting the focus paper 2022-23 for J&K, covering physical and financial potential under agriculture & allied activities and other priority sectors including the off-farm sector activities in the union territory.

Speaking on the occasion, the LG underlined the need to focus on the development of rural economy for unlocking its full potential by filling the gaps vis-a-vis infrastructure, human resources and financing.

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NABARD has been a vital driver of the rural economy by meeting the basic needs of infrastructure under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, where 4,178 projects have been completed in the last 26 years at a cost of Rs 8,457 crores, focusing mainly on irrigation and rural connectivity, the officials said.

Highlighting that Agriculture & Allied sector sustains over 70 per cent of population, the Lt Governor also announced that NABARD and J&K's Agriculture Department have jointly planned a development package of Rs 25,991 crore to improve agricultural inputs, farmers' income through easy availability of credit, technical up-gradation of agriculture and entire agriculture & horticulture production chain.

The Lt Governor noted that this comprehensive plan was in line with the vision of the Prime Minister to double the farmers' income.

"In J&K, 36 Farmer Producer Organizations have been formed by NABARD which are benefiting about 6,000 farmers and 26 more such organizations will be formed in this financial year, decisively advancing the development of a strong base of modern agriculture and horticulture in the UT," he added.

The Lt Governor expressed hope that NABARD will work closely with the UT administration in bringing self-reliance and efficiency in the Agriculture & allied sector.

He noted that this year, the UT's Agriculture department is distributing new high yield variety of seeds to about 9 lakh farmers, besides targeting to link more than 33,000 farmers with farm mechanization.

(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, Mar 24 (PTI) The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Demands for Grants and Appropriation Bill 2022, authorising the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working as well as implementation of programmes and schemes for the fiscal beginning April 1.

This completes two-thirds of the budgetary exercise by the Lok Sabha.

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The Appropriation Bill authorising payment and appropriation of specified sums from the Consolidated Fund of India for 2022-23 was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The bill was later approved by voice vote after rejecting several cut motions moved by opposition members.

Also Read | K-Rail SilverLine Project: BJP Workers Plant K-Rail Marking Stone at Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayans Residence.

The Lok Sabha earlier discussed demands for grants of different ministries, including railways, road transport and highways, civil aviation, commerce and industry and port, shipping and waterways.

Speaker Om Birla later applied the guillotine, after which all the outstanding demands for grants, whether discussed or not, were put to vote at once and passed.

After that, the Appropriation Bill was taken into consideration and passed by the lower house of Parliament.

The Lok Sabha will now discuss the Finance Bill, which essentially contains the government's tax proposals. The budget exercise will complete with the passage of the Finance Bill.

Both appropriation and finance bills are classified as money bills which do not require the explicit consent of the Rajya Sabha. The upper house only discusses them and returns the bills.

After the passage, the Finance Bill enters the statute as the Finance Act and the final Budget gets approved.

While guillotine literally is a large, weighted blade used for executing a condemned person, in legislative parlance, to ''guillotine'' means to bunch together and fast-track the passage of financial business.

It is a fairly common procedural exercise in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session.

After the Budget is presented, Parliament goes into recess for about three weeks, during which the House Standing Committees examine demands for grants for various ministries, and prepare reports. After Parliament reassembles, time is allotted for discussions on the demands for grants of some ministries.

(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, Mar 24 (PTI) The Supreme Court Thursday suggested to Tamil Nadu and Kerala that issues regarding structural safety of the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam can be left to be dealt with by the supervisory committee which can be strengthened.

The apex court observed that issue raised by Kerala, which has said that process for setting up a new dam in the downstream reaches of the existing dam should start, can be debated, discussed and resolved by the supervisory committee which can make its recommendation on this.

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While hearing arguments on the pleas raising issues pertaining to Mullaperiyar dam, which was built in 1895 on the Periyar river in Idukki district of Kerala, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said a holistic approach should be adopted and a comprehensive measure should be there to strengthen the system.

Now, the experience shows that there is still difference of opinion, there is still miscommunication between the parties and there is apprehension about the safety issue everywhere. So, why not have this supervisory committee itself doing the work of what you are expected to do, said the bench, also comprising Justices A S Oka and C T Ravikumar.

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It is something like outsourcing it to supervisory committee so that the supervisory committee is finally accountable for all this what is required to be done, the top court said.

Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said the purpose of the supervisory committee was to ensure that all necessary steps are taken and he would take instructions on this issue as these are sensitive matters.

He said the state of Tamil Nadu is interested in retaining the dam.

The bench observed that the issue is affecting both the states and they can work out a mechanism so that interest of both the sides is secured and nobody blames each other.

All this can be left to the supervisory committee. If the directions issued by the supervisory committee are not carried out, we will say time line will be provided. The supervisory committee can itself do that instrumentation work because the grievance is that instrumentation has not been done, it observed.

It said the activities relating to structural safety should be the responsibility of the supervisory committee which can issue directions to both the states to do what is required to be done.

The accountability has to be there. It has to be fastened otherwise the consequences may be disastrous, the bench observed.

Regarding Kerala's submission about construction of a new dam, the bench said, If the supervisory committee so feels that stability issue can be addressed better by having one more dam, like baby dam has been created, that recommendation the supervisory committee can make and that will be binding on both the states.

An advocate, appearing for the supervisory committee, told the bench that she is being led by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati in the matter.

The lawyer said the recommendations passed by the supervisory committee after discussion with both the states are not being followed and the directions passed are not implemented.

The bench said it can have some accountability on the chief secretaries of the states.

The communication can be sent by the supervisory committee to the concerned department and the chief secretaries of the states so that the chief secretary will be made accountable for non-compliance and it will be treated as contempt of court, The bench observed.

Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for Kerala, continued his arguments in the matter and referred to the rule curve and safety issues.

The bench said the structural safety issue has to be gone into by the experts.

It said the supervisory committee can be strengthened and time lines for every activity, every direction given by the panel and someone accountable if it is not implemented, has to be there.

The bench posted the matter for March 29 and asked both the parties to give a road map which can be accepted and made part of the court order.

When an advocate, appearing for one of the petitioners, argued about functioning of the supervisory committee, the bench said, We cannot permit you to question the supervisory committee constituted by this court.

Whether it is safe or unsafe, it is for the experts to define that, it said, adding, Don't create a situation that it becomes unresolvable.

The counsel appearing for Kerala had on Wednesday told the bench that the process for setting up a new dam in the downstream reaches of the existing dam should start and the upper rule level of Mullaperiyar dam should be 140 feet and not 142 feet.

The Kerala government had earlier told the apex court that "no amount of rejuvenation" can perpetuate the dam and there is a limit to the number of years one can keep dams in service through maintenance and strengthening measures.

In its response to the affidavit filed by Kerala, the state of Tamil Nadu had earlier said that repeated assertion of Kerala and petitioners from there in the pleas filed from time to time seek to decommission of the existing dam and construction of a new dam, which is wholly impermissible in the light of the apex court verdict on the safety of the dam.

"The dam has been found to be hydrologically, structurally, and seismically safe, Tamil Nadu 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)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): Special CBI court of Delhi on Thursday dismissed the bail petition of Anand Subramanian in connection with the NSE co-location case.

Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and ex-advisor to former MD of National Stock Exchange (NSE), was the first person arrested by the CBI in the case last month.

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Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal refused to grant the bail to Subramanian.

The court recently had kept the order reserved after hearing the arguments of both sides.

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Earlier, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, who appeared for Subramanian, argued that as far as the allegations contained in the FIR are concerned, the applicant has been wrongly implicated in the case, since he is not connected in any manner with the allegations so levelled. No offence is made out even from a reading of the FIR.

"In fact, the FIR pertains to the applicant's alleged role in the unfair access to Co-location facilities to one Sanjay Gupta and his company OPG Security Pvt Ltd. It has been stated that Sanjay Gupta with help from unknown persons, managed the data centre staff of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who passed on information regarding switching on time of NSE exchange servers, which gave him an unfair advantage," submitted Singh.

Advocates Vishnu Mohan and Aakashi Lodha also appeared for Arvind Subramanian in the case.

The CBI counsel while opposing the bail plea submitted that 832 GB of data was recovered.

"We recovered it from the archive. We have written to Microsoft to give us the complete data. He was not cooperating with us. He even deleted material and certain emails. Anand is very influential and there is every possibility that he might flee," said the CBI lawyer.

CBI further submitted that this person was known to Chitra Ramkrishna prior to joining the NSE.

"There are several emails of this person influencing Chitra. The emails that have been extracted suggests that sensitive information has been leaked," it said.

Earlier, the CBI submitted that they are seriously looking at all the aspects of the investigation and a special team of 30 officials consisting of senior officials has been formed to probe the case.

"We are also probing the role of SEBI officials in the matter. We have also recently questioned Ravi Narain, former MD of NSE," the CBI said.

The court recently sent former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case in Judicial remand.

The CBI, while producing Chitra Ramkrishna after arrest, also apprised the court that Chitra did not recognize Anand Subramanian in the first meeting.

According to the CBI investigation, group operating officer Anand Subramanian's appointment was influenced by NSE chairman and MD Chitra Ramakrishnan.

The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers.

Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) penalized the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former CEOs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.

Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

The market regulatorv observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhubaneswar, Mar 24 (PTI) Polling began at 8 am on Thursday in 109 urban local bodies of Odisha, including three municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur, amid tight security, State Election Commission officials said.

Voting will continue till 5 pm across 47 municipalities, 59 NACs (Notified Area Councils) and three municipal corporations.

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Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cast his vote at Aerodrome Upper Primary School in ward number 53 of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area.

Long queues of voters, mostly women, were seen outside polling booths in the morning hours to avoid the scorching sun and heat wave conditions prevailing in the state capital, neighbouring Cuttack and Berhampur.

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Over 40.55 lakh people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the general elections to the ULBs. Counting of votes will take place on March 26.

A total of 22,000 polling officials are engaged in the voting process, while 205 platoons (1 platoon comprises 30 personnel) of police force have been deployed to maintain tight security.

Direct elections to the posts of mayors in municipal corporations, and chairpersons of municipalities and NACs are being held for the first time, the SEC officials said.

The commission has also introduced the NOTA option in urban polls.

As many as 6,411 candidates are in the fray -- 569 nominees for chairperson/mayor posts and 5,842 contestants for councillor/corporator seats.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jaipur, March 24: The Rajasthan Assembly on Thursday passed by voice vote a Bill providing imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine of Rs 10 crore for offences like paper leak and cheating in recruitment exams. A provision of attachment and confiscation of property has also been made in the Bill.

Replying to a debate in the Assembly, Higher Education Minister Rajendra Yadav said the Bill aimed at checking instances of paper leak and use of unfair means in recruitment exams for posts under the state government, including autonomous bodies, boards and corporations. Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria got emotional while sharing the pain of the aspirants who hope to get a government job.

"You have sold all government jobs to those who hold money. I am speaking a bitter truth. Get the post-mortem done of all people who got the job in last eight years, half of them would come out to be bogus," Kataria said as tears rolled down his eyes.

As per the provisions, any person taking unauthorised help in a public examination from any person, group or from any material, may face a jail term of up to three years and a fine not less than Rs 1 lakh. Maharashtra Assembly, Council Pass Bill to Set Up Special Courts for Speedy Trial of Cases of Crime Against Women & Children.

If any person impersonates or leak, attempt to leak or conspires to leak question paper, procures or attempts to possess question paper in an unauthorised manner or solves/attempts to solve/seek assistance to solve question paper in an unauthorised manner or assist the examinee in unauthorised manner, the imprisonment will be from five to 10 years and fine from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 10 crore.

An examinee convicted under the provisions shall be debarred from taking any public examination for a period of two years. If investigating officer has reasons to believe that any property represents proceeds of any offence under the proposed act, then he can seize such movable or immovable property with prior approval of the state government, according to the Bill.

Where it is not practicable to seize such property, the investigating officer can make an order of attachment, directing that such property shall not be transferred.

If anyone from the management or institution has been found guilty of the offence, then they shall be liable to pay all cost and expenditure related to the examination, determined by the designated court and shall be banned forever.

All offences specified under the act shall be cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.

"In matter of recruitment to the posts under the state government, the leak of question papers not only betrays the trust of the general public but the state too suffers substantial administrative cost when examinations have to be called off," a statement said.

"A fair and reasonable process of selection to posts, subject to the norm of equality of opportunity under Article 16 (1) of the Constitution of India, is a constitutional requirement. A fair and reasonable recruitment process is a fundamental requirement of Article 14 as well," according to the statement of objectives and reasons.

It said the state government enacted the Rajasthan Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1992 to curb irregularities and the use of unfair means in public examinations.

As more than three decades have passed since the inception of the enactment, the issue has assumed dimension of organised crime and involves huge pecuniary advantages to nefarious persons, it said. Haryana Assembly Passes Anti-conversion Bill Amid Congress Walkout.

"Since the Act of 1992 is not serving the purpose of tackling this menace, the state government has decided to bring a new law to prevent use of unfair means in public examinations conducted for purpose of recruitment and to limit the scope of the Act of 1992 to public examinations conducted for the purpose of award degrees, certificates etc," the statement said.

In February, the state government had cancelled the REET level-two examination, held in September 2021, due to paper leak. Looking at the seriousness of the matter, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had also announced to bring a Bill to curb cheating in examinations.

The opposition BJP has been demanding a CBI probe into the REET paper leak case, which at present is being investigated by the Special Operation Group of the Rajasthan Police.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Spring Break is that time of year that college students really look forward to. Its the time to take a mental break and enjoy days off before finishing the semester strong. Some choose to spend their break at home, some spend their break by the beach, and some spend their break doing service for others. At Rollins College, we call this Alternative Spring Break.

As a co-adviser for this program, it always amazes me when students choose service over a vacation with friends or family. Through these encounters, students gain a better understanding of social issues and they learn to connect with others who may have a different life experience. When the week is over and its time to return to campus, most students have changed. They often feel a greater sense of urgency to be an advocate for the social issue they were immersed in.

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Victoria Teske is an assistant director in the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement at Rollins College.

Recently, Rollins students chose from three service-learning experiences.

One was on Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota working with the non-profit organization Global Volunteers. Rosebud is home to Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation. Students had the opportunity to live on-site and learn more about The Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For many, this was the first time that they had ever stepped foot on a reservation. Through this exposure, they were able to meet and engage with residents of the reservation. They participated in traditional ceremonies and tried foods that are eaten daily on the reservation. Participants learned firsthand about what its like to live in Native American communities.

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A second group spent time in Boston working with three nonprofit organizations centered around youth development with a focus on the arts. These nonprofits all provide spaces for young people to express, learn and grow within themselves through art. As one participant reflected, Art can be elitist and not easily accessible to everyone  art isnt financially feasible for low-income families. In the future, I hope to teach others the power of art and find ways to donate art supplies to those in need.

Our third and final engagement was learning about food accessibility within the greater area of Atlanta. This experience included working with two organizations, FoodWell Alliance, and the Atlanta Food Bank. This is an area of our country where 1 in 8 people are considered food insecure  that encompasses 715,000 people. It is estimated that tonight, 1 in 7 children there will go to bed hungry. Our students learned about all aspects of food accessibility including the financial burden of purchasing healthier options.

These are the exact reflections that we hope our students will have as they are departing their host organization and concluding their trip. We expect that they will walk away with a greater sense of understanding for the community they spent the week engaging with and that they have learned to be more active citizens.

Spring break is a time for many things  but it is only one week out of the entire calendar year. My wish is that more people, of any age, would learn more about nonprofit causes within their own community and choose one day out of the week to volunteer. You will feel good, have a greater appreciation for those around you and understand the world you live in just a little better. Be thoughtful, be compassionate, and take time to serve others.

Victoria Teske is an assistant director in the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement at Rollins College.
Guwahati (Assam) [India], March 24 (ANI): The contractual TET qualified teachers of Assam on Thursday staged a protest in Guwahati, demanding to regularize their jobs with pay protection.

Thousands of TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) qualified contractual teachers from different parts of the state gathered and staged a protest in front of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) office and Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), Assam office at Kahilipara in Guwahati, demanding to regularize their jobs and to give them the facilities which are being given to other government employees.

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Pranjal Pratim Changmai, a TET qualified teacher said, "Thousands of TET qualified teachers from across the state are protesting today. Our demand is to be made permanent employees instead of the current contractual jobs. We also want the government to give us all the benefits that a government employee gets."

The protest has been organized by All Assam Lower Primary School TET Qualified Contractual Teachers Association.

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Nearly 40,000 TET qualified contractual teachers are working in different Lower Primary schools across the state. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Payal Mehta

New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party's leaders from Rajasthan led by former chief minister Vasundhara Raje met senior party leaders in Parliament premises on Thursday to discuss the organisational and other issues as part of preparations for the assembly polls in the state next year.

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Raje, who was accompanied by a few MLAs from the state, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, BJP Rajasthan in-charge Arun Singh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Sources told ANI that Vasundhra Raje had 15-20 minute one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister. The meeting with Nadda also lasted about 20 minutes. The sources said that discussion with party leaders was held on the organisational issues and matters concerning the state.

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The BJP lost the last election in Rajasthan and is keen to oust the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state. The Congress in Rajasthan had earlier witnessed turmoil following differences between the Chief Minister and party leader Sachin Pilot.

Rajasthan will face assembly polls towards the end of next year.

Vasundhara Raje, who is also BJP vice president, is scheduled to travel to Lucknow to take part in the oath-taking ceremony of Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for a second term. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): Bihar BJP President and Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Jaiswal on Thursday slammed Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani for the language used by him for central BJP leaders saying that "he is no more with NDA" in Bihar.

VIP is part of the BJP-Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar.

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In an exclusive interview with ANI, Jaiswal said that all three VIP MLAs who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party were given seats from the VIP party in the 2020 Assembly election in Bihar and if any MLA of NDA speaks like this, it is not acceptable to BJP.

The three MLAs who quit the VIP and joined the BJP are Raju Singh, Mishri Lal Yadav, and Swarna Singh.

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These remarks came after VIP chief Mukesh Sahani accused Bihar BJP leader and said that there was a conspiracy to break him from the very beginning. The VIP president also said that Sanjay Jaiswal had no knowledge of the VIP-BJP alliance and has lied a lot.

"The languages VIP chief speaks against our top leadership is against coalition dharma. Efforts were made to convince him but the kind of language he used did not belong to NDA ally," Bihar BJP chief said.

Further, the Lok Sabha MP from Bettiah constituency, Sanjay Jaiswal said that the conversation between VIP and Bihar BJP chief had already ended when the VIP filed nomination against the BJP candidate in bypolls for Bochaha Assembly seat.

Recently, BJP also announced to field its candidate from the Bochaha assembly seat in the by-election to be held next month. The seat fell vacant after the serving legislator Musafir Paswan's death last year.

It is obvious that you will not remain in NDA and will fight against us as well. He has become a victim of RJD's conspiracy. His son had already decided to go to RJD," he added.

When asked that BJP demanded his resignation from the Bihar cabinet, Jaiswal stated that this is Chief Minister's prerogative and he has no role in the matter.

"Such a person who has lost the election twice, despite that he made a minister in Bihar NDA govt. As soon as the VIP party filed the nomination against our candidate, I received a call from several MLAs. They expressed their desires and they quit the party," he said.

Earlier in the day, Sahani refused to resign from the post of Bihar cabinet minister stating that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has to take a decision on it and he will abide by his orders. (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, Mar 24 (PTI) Buoyed by the government's PLI scheme, exports of mobile phones from India are expected to cross Rs 43,500 crore during the current financial year ending March 31, 2022, according to the industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association.

ICEA said exports of mobile phones from India have already jumped about 75 per cent in one year to USD 5.5 billion (about Rs 42,000 crore) early this month from USD 3.16 billion (about Rs 24,000 crore) at the end of 2020-21.

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"We will very safely cross USD 5.7 billion of exports when we complete this financial year," ICEA chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said.

The performance of the mobile phone sector comes against the backdrop of three devastating Covid waves, loss of workforce, lockdowns and the worst ever crisis on the supply chain, including acute scarcity of chips and semiconductors.

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The export of mobile phones from India is driven by Apple and Samsung.

"The unprecedented increase in smartphone exports is a tribute to government-industry partnership under the most trying circumstances. Government led with its vision and trust in the mobile industry. The industry, in turn, has redefined Atmanirbhar Bharat as Make in India for the World. We are just getting started," Mohindroo said.

In the past, mobile phones from India were primarily exported to South Asia, Africa and parts of Middle East and Eastern Europe but now companies are targeting some of the most competitive and advanced markets in Europe and developed Asia.

"These markets demand the highest levels of quality, and manufacturing units located in India are up to the task," ICEA said.

ICEA said that the flagship PLI scheme's objectives of shifting global value chains to India and increasing share in global exports has been fully achieved.

"After an uncertain start in 2020, owing to multiple Covid waves, the industry stabilized operations in 2021 and has delivered results that exceed expectations. Increase in mobile phone exports also marks an important shift in the export basket which is gradually transforming from primary commodities to more value-added, high-end products driven by technology industries," ICEA said.

The mobile phone PLI saw participation from five global companies  Samsung, Foxconn Hon Hai, Rising Star, Wistron and Pegatron  and Indian champions, including Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics.

During a 5-year period, the approved companies under the PLI scheme are expected to lead to total production of over Rs 10.5 lakh crores, of which nearly 60 per cent has to come from exports accounting for around Rs 6.5 lakh crores.

Under the Smartphone PLI Scheme, the government has allocated Rs 40,951 crore between 2020-21 and 2025-26, where participating companies are allowed to choose any 5 years out of the 6 years for meeting their production targets.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Port-Au-Prince, Mar 24 (AP) An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 struck in Haiti on Wednesday close to an area still struggling to recover from a deadly tremor that hit last year.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries. Frankel Maginaire, a reporter for Radio Caraibes in Jeremie, told The Associated Press that some minor injuries happened as people panicked and started running. Some people also said walls that were damaged in the 2021 quake collapsed.

Also Read | India Sends 5th Consignment of 2,000 Metric Tonnes of Wheat to Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for Haiti's Civil Protection Agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

The quake was centered 11 miles (18 kilometers) north of Jeremie at a shallow depth of six miles (10 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Jeremie is at the tip of Haiti's southern region.

Also Read | China Investing Over $400 Billion in 54 Muslim Countries, Says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

A magnitude 7.2 quake that struck southern Haiti in August 2021 killed more than 2,000 people and destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes. Dozens still remain in temporary shelters and aid has been scarce because gangs continue to control the main road that leads from the capital of Port-au-Prince to Haiti's southern region. (AP)

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Ankara [Turkey], March 24 (ANI/Xinhua): At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported.

The explosion occurred at a workplace in the third industrial estate, located on the central Kayapinar district, along the Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa highway route.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: G7 Restricting Russian Central Banks Use of Gold in Transactions.

The agency reported that an oxygen cylinder at the workplace might have caused the explosion.

Many police and medical teams were dispatched to the scene. The injured were taken to hospital, some with serious wounds, according to the DHA. (ANI/Xinhua)

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Appeals to NATO for More Weapons.

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Canberra [Australia], March 24 (ANI/Sputnik): While Australia understands the importance of diplomatic contacts with Russia, it does not rule out the expulsion of Russian diplomats in the wake of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday.

"The option of expelling diplomats is something is available to government, but at the same time it is potentially useful to have direct lines of communication with, in this case, the Russian government, but that does not mean the government has excluded the option," Payne said in an interview with ABC Radio when asked about the expulsion of the Russian ambassador.

Also Read | Early Elections Are a Possibility in Pakistan, Says Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

The minister observed that other countries have asked Russian diplomatic staff to leave, but "not in every case their ambassador," adding that Australia's government is working with partners to "determine the best approach in these circumstances."

Payne also said she is "not going to speculate on Australia's approach" concerning the withdraw of Russia's diplomats, stressing that the option still remains.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: G7 Health Ministers Condemn Attacks on Health Facilities in Ukraine.

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. In response to Russia's operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow. (ANI/Sputnik)

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London, Mar 24 (AP) Britain will send thousands more missiles to Ukraine's government as Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Western allies to boost the supply of military aid to Ukraine.

Johnson is travelling to Brussels on Thursday for talks with NATO and leaders of the Group of Seven. He is expected to provide further details of the new British aid during the visit, including the donation of 6,000 more missiles comprising anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry.

Also Read | India Sends 5th Consignment of 2,000 Metric Tonnes of Wheat to Afghanistan.

The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight, Johnson said.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.

Also Read | China Investing Over $400 Billion in 54 Muslim Countries, Says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The U.K. government also says it is providing some 4 million pounds ($5.3 million) in emergency funding to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and Ukraine. (AP)

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Seoul, Mar 24 (AP) North Korea test-fired possibly its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile toward the sea Thursday, according to its neighbours, raising the ante in a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the United States and other rivals to accept it as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions.

The launch, which extended North Korea's barrage of weapons tests this year, came after the US and South Korean militaries said the country was preparing a flight of a new large ICBM first unveiled in October 2020.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: UNGA Adopts Resolution on Humanitarian Situation in Ukraine, 140 Countries Vote in Favour While India Abstains.

South Korea's military responded with live-fire drills of its own missiles launched from land, a fighter jet and a ship, underscoring a revival of tensions as nuclear negotiations remain frozen. It said it confirmed readiness to execute precision strikes against North Korea's missile launch points as well as command and support facilities.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters the United States requested an open Security Council meeting on the launch and looks forward to having it on Friday.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: G7 Restricting Russian Central Banks Use of Gold in Transactions.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North's ICBM fired from the Sunan area near the capital Pyongyang travelled 1,080 km (670 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of over 6,200 km (3,850 miles). The missile was apparently fired on high angle to avoid reaching the territorial waters of Japan.

Japan's Deputy Defence Minister Makoto Oniki said flight details suggested a new type of ICBM.

It's an unforgivable recklessness. We resolutely condemn the act, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after arriving in Belgium for the Group of Seven meetings.

The missile flew 71 minutes before possibly landing near Japanese territorial waters off the island of Hokkaido, said Tokyo's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. Japan may search for debris inside its exclusive economic zone to analyze the North's technology, he said.

Japan's coast guard issued a warning to vessels in nearby waters, but there were no immediate reports of damage to boats or aircraft. A Japanese fisheries organizations released a statement denouncing the launch as a barbaric act that puts fishermen's lives and livelihoods at risk.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in during an emergency National Security Council meeting criticised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for breaking a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM tests and posing a serious threat to the region and the broader international community.

The United States strongly condemns the North's launch, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, calling it a brazen violation of UN Security Council resolutions that risks destabilising the region's security.

The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilising actions. The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies, she said, referring to South Korea's formal name.

In Brussels, Kishida and President Joe Biden discussed the North's launch on the sidelines of the G-7 summit, stressed the need for diplomacy and agreed to continue working together to hold Pyongyang responsible, the White House said.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said flight details suggest the missile could reach targets 15,000 km (9,320 miles) away when fired on normal trajectory with a warhead weighing less than a ton. That would place the entire US mainland within striking distance.

Following a highly provocative streak in nuclear explosive and ICBM tests in 2017, Kim Jong Un suspended such testing in 2018 ahead of his first meeting with then-US President Donald Trump.

North Korea's resumption of nuclear brinkmanship reflects a determination to cement its status as a nuclear power and wrest badly needed economic concessions from Washington and others from a position of strength, analysts say.

Kim may also feel a need to trumpet his military accomplishments to his domestic audience as he grapples with a broken economy worsened by pandemic border closures.

Despite economic challenges and technical setbacks, the Kim regime is determined to advance its missile capabilities, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul's Ewha Womans University. It would be a mistake for international policymakers to think the North Korean missile threat can be put on the back burner while the world deals with the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration's passive handling of North Korea so far, while it focuses on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and an intensifying rivalry with China, is allowing more room for the North to dial up its testing activity, some experts say.

The administration's actions on North Korea have so far been limited to largely symbolic sanctions imposed over its recent tests and offers of open-ended talks that were rejected by Pyongyang.

It was North Korea's 12th round of weapons launches this year and came after it fired suspected artillery pieces into the sea on Sunday.

The North has also tested a variety of new missiles, including a purported hypersonic weapon and its first launch since 2017 of an intermediate range missile with a potential of reaching Guam, a key US military hub in the Pacific.

It also conducted two medium-range tests in recent weeks from Sunan, home to the country's main airport, that the US and South Korean militaries assessed to have involved components of the North's largest ICBM. The allies had said the missile, which the North calls Hwasong-17, could be tested at full range soon.

Those tests were followed by another launch from Sunan last week. But South Korea's military said the missile likely exploded shortly after liftoff.

North Korea's official media insisted that the two successful tests were aimed at developing cameras and other systems for a spy satellite. Analysts say the North is attempting to simultaneously advance its ICBMs and acquire some level of space-based reconnaissance capability under the pretense of a space launch to reduce international backlash to those moves.

That launch may possibly come around a major political anniversary in April, the birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current leader Kim.

The North's previous ICBMs demonstrated potential range to reach the American homeland during three flight tests in 2017. The development of the larger Hwasong-17, which was first revealed in a military parade in October 2020, possibly indicates an aim to arm it with multiple warheads to overwhelm missile defences.

In North Korea's last test of an ICBM in November 2017, the Hwasong-15 flew about 1,000 km (600 miles) for about 50 minutes at a maximum altitude of 4,000 km (2,400 miles). It wasn't immediately clear whether the missile from the latest test was the Hwasong-17.

Denuclearisation talks with the US have been stalled since 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim presided over a ruling Workers' Party meeting on Jan 19, where Politburo members issued a veiled threat to end his moratorium on ICBM and nuclear tests, citing US hostility.

South Korea's military has also detected signs that North Korea was possibly restoring some of the tunnels at its nuclear testing ground that were detonated in May 2018, weeks ahead of Kim's first meeting with Trump. (AP)

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Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UNHQs in New York (Photo Credit - Twitter:@MEAIndia)

New York [US], March 24 (ANI): Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the United Nations Headquarters (UNHQs) in New York and discussed issues on UN Security Council's agenda including Afghanistan and Myanmar.

"Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla met UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres at the UNHQs, New York. Discussed issues on UN Security Council's agenda, including Ukraine, Afghanistan and Myanmar," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a Tweet.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: G7 Health Ministers Condemn Attacks on Health Facilities in Ukraine.

Foreign Secretary reaches New York to participate in the United Nations Security Council meeting on cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States (LAS).

On Wednesday, he met UAE Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Almarar on the sidelines of the UNSC meeting.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Calls for Global Protests as Russian Invasion Completes One Month.

Shringla congratulated Almarar on the UAE's successful Presidency of the UNSC and the adoption of the Presidential Statement by UNSC on UN-LAS cooperation, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

"(They) also held excellent discussions on further strengthening bilateral ties between India and the UAE," Bagchi said.

The Foreign Secretary also met Dr Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General Department of Operational Support of the United Nations on the occasion.

"As one of the largest troop-contributing countries to UN Peacekeeping Operations, reaffirmed India's steadfast commitment to UN Peacekeeping," the MEA spokesperson said. (ANI)

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BOISE, Idaho  Running for governor as a disciple of Donald Trump, Janice McGeachin has done almost everything short of surgically attach herself to the former president.

Its not just that Trump is omnipresent in her advertising, or that McGeachin mimics his flame-throwing rhetoric. Shes also modeled Trumps flamboyantly defiant behavior, challenging Gov. Brad Little, a fellow Republican, in the upcoming primary and, as lieutenant governor, acting to overturn his policies when he left Idaho.

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The reward for McGeachins performance is Trumps Complete and Total Endorsement, which followed her pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and makes Little one of only two Republican governors in the country seeking reelection to be openly opposed by the ex-president.

Mark Z. Barabak is a political columnist for the Los Angeles Times. - Original Credit: Courtesy photo (Courtesy photo)

Not that the endorsement  make that Total Endorsement  seems to be doing much good. Less than two months before the May 17 primary, McGeachin is fighting for credibility and traction in a race that polls show her losing badly.

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She is not alone in facing those difficult straits.

Trump coaxed former Georgia Sen. David Perdue into the Republican primary against Brian Kemp after the governor committed the heresy of refusing to overturn Joe Bidens victory in the state. But Perdue is also struggling ahead of the May 24 GOP primary, as are candidates Trump endorsed in Senate primaries in North Carolina and Alabama.

All of which suggests Trumps sway over Republican voters  and, by extension, the Republican Party  is diminishing the further he gets from the White House.

A presidents endorsement is going to carry more weight than an ex-presidents endorsement, said Q. Whitfield Ayres, a GOP strategist with extensive experience in congressional and gubernatorial races nationwide. Especially an ex-president without access to Twitter and social media.

Polls reflect the waning of Trumps influence.

A January survey by NBC News found that more than half  56%  of Republicans interviewed described themselves as more supportive of the GOP than Trump personally, while 36% saw themselves as more supportive of Trump than the Republican Party.

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Of course, much could change before Republicans vote in May. But if Idaho  a state Trump won by nearly 2-to-1 over Joe Biden  is any indication, it will take more than a blessing from the former president to boost his preferred candidates into office.

Issues matter and so, most especially, does the quality of each candidate.

Little, 68, an affable third-generation rancher and former head of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, is a living embodiment of the business-oriented pragmatic conservatism that has long held sway here.

As governor, hes cut taxes and regulations and kept a light hand during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed businesses to stay open during the worst outbreaks but pitched the healthcare system into crisis for several months.

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For her part, McGeachin, 59, was a mainstream conservative during a decade in the Legislature before transforming herself  like many seeking opportunity and advancement in the Trump era  into an acolyte of the man she calls the greatest president of our lifetime.

Her campaign has consisted largely of attention-seeking stunts, with COVID-19 the wedge shes used to break from Little. (The two were elected separately, not as running mates.)

On two occasions when the governor left the state, McGeachin used her temporary authority to issue executive orders prohibiting localities from enforcing mask mandates and testing and vaccine requirements. Little immediately reversed her actions.

Lately, McGeachins candidacy has further degenerated. She has been defending her decision to address a white supremacist gathering in Florida  which put her in the company of extremist GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar.

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There remains a significant portion of Idahos Republican Party that prefers a more practical and achievement-oriented approach.

Theres still an old-fashioned sense of propriety, said Shea Andersen, a Boise communications strategist whos backing Littles reelection. Competence matters and dignity and behavior matter.

During Trumps presidency it was common to hear supporters say they liked his policies even if they didnt much care for his personality or provocations.

A primary victory by Little would suggest that given the chance to have one without the other  the accomplishments without the antics  a majority of Republican voters will take it.

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That could have implications not just in 2022, but if Trump seeks the GOP nomination again in 2024.

Mark Z. Barabak is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
Kathmandu [Nepal], March 24 (ANI): Former Nepali Ambassador to Denmark, Vijay Kant Karna, rebuked China for interfering in Nepal's internal matters, encroaching over its land and said that Nepal should be extremely cautious while accepting loans from China referring to Sri Lanka's economic crisis.

"Most importantly, the activities and role played by China in influencing the ratification of the US grant, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), should be understood as interference in Nepal's internal affairs by using Nepali political parties," said he.

Also Read | India Sends 5th Consignment of 2,000 Metric Tonnes of Wheat to Afghanistan.

Notably, 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.

Karna is currently a professor at the Tribhuvan University in Nepal and in a conversation with Khabarhub over the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Nepal, he said that the Minister must assure Nepal to not interfere in the internal matters of the country.

Also Read | China Investing Over $400 Billion in 54 Muslim Countries, Says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Amid a growing discontent in Nepal against Chinese investments and interference, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi will arrive on a three-day visit to the Himalayan country starting March 25.

"Over the years, China has also encroached upon some places in our northern border, particularly in Dolakha and Humla," he added.

While talking about Nepal's 2017 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) agreement with China in which no project has seen the light of day till now, Professor asserted, "I have heard that Nepal and China are making a framework agreement to implement some projects. Therefore, while negotiating the loan agreement, it is important for Nepal to analyze the condition of Sri Lanka, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and other African countries," reported Khabar Hub.

"We need to be extremely cautious while accepting loans from China since it would be disastrous if we cannot repay them," he added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York, March 24: The UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine on Thursday, with 140 countries voting in favour and five against. A total of 38 countries including India abstained. Meanwhile, Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria voted against it.

"The General Assembly adopted a resolution that calls out Russia's assault on Ukraine for creating a dire humanitarian situation, pushes for a humanitarian corridor, and demands that fighting stops. In favour: 140 Against: 5 Abstained: 38," the UN News tweeted. Russia-Ukraine War: G7 Restricting Russian Central Banks Use of Gold in Transactions.

The resolution deplores the "humanitarian consequences" of Russia's actions. Earlier this, India had abstained from voting on a similar resolution against Russia at UNGA. The UNGA had overwhelmingly voted to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

(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, March 24: Terming the legal clash between former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh as "battle royale", the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe into all cases lodged against Singh by the Maharashtra Police.

Emphasising that an impartial probe into the matter is required, it clarified that it is not revoking Singh's suspension, and also, if there were any FIRs registered against Singh in future, then these will also be transferred to the CBI.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh said the CBI must hold an impartial probe in all the aspects of the matter and examine whether the allegations in the FIRs have any truth or not.

"What is the truth, who is at fault... How does such a scenario come to prevail is something which investigation must get into. CBI must hold an impartial inquiry into all these aspects," it said. It directed the Maharashtra Police to hand over all the cases, which includes 5 FIRs and two PEs, to the CBI within a week and render all assistance to the central agency in its probe into the cases against Singh.

Justice Kaul observed that a very murky affair is going on amid echelons of power on who should investigate the matter. "The exigencies in the advancement of principles of justice require the investigation to be transferred to CBI... We are not saying the appellant is a whistle-blower or anyone involved in this case is washed with milk," the bench noted.

It also stressed that the objective is to embolden and gain people's confidence in the police and this is not a reflection on Maharashtra Police. "The troubling situation arising at the higher echelons has been presented before us," said the bench. Agitating Farmers Made No Submissions Before Supreme Court Panel on Farm Laws, Says Report.

Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing the Maharashtra government, vehemently argued that cases should not be transferred to the CBI, as it will be very demoralising for the state police. During the hearing, the bench observed: "The murky churning from the battle royale between then Home Minister and the then Police Commissioner has given rise to these unfortunate proceedings on which we have commented before."

Senior advocate Puneet Bali, representing Singh, submitted that CBI should probe all the cases registered against his client, and not the state police on which he does not have faith, even though he headed the same.

The bench noted, "We are of the view that the state itself should have allowed CBI to carry the investigation." It clarified that the court was commenting on the merits of the allegations, as it does not want to influence the investigation.

"The high court (Bombay) has treated this as a service dispute which it is not and thus, we set aside the HC verdict." Singh is facing multiple cases of extortion, corruption, and misconduct, and was removed from the post of Mumbai Police chief over his alleged mishandling of the Antilia bomb scare case. The bench was hearing a plea by Singh against the Bombay High Court judgment passed in September last year, dismissing his plea challenging the two inquiries ordered by the Home Ministry for allegedly violating service rules and corruption charges, as non-maintainable. Maharashtra Assembly: Supreme Court Cancels Suspension Of 12 BJP MLAs, Calls It Illegal.

In November, last year, the apex court granted protection from arrest to Singh in criminal cases lodged against him. Singh had claimed that inquiries were initiated against him after he accused Deshmukh of ordering (now arrested) police officer Sachin Vaze to collect money from bars and restaurants to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

Singh claimed the Home Department resorted to a witch hunt after he refused to withdraw his letter (written last year) to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, where he had made the corruption allegations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 24, 2022 06:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Delhi High Court issues notice to Election Commission of India, Delhi State Election commission on a plea moved by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seeking direction to conduct upcoming MCD poll with EVMs which are compatible with VVPAT. pic.twitter.com/LAIKKq1kQa ANI (@ANI) March 24, 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.)
Redmi 10 smartphone is all set to go on sale today in India. The device was launched in the country last week, and today, it will be available for purchase for the first time via Flipkart, Mi India website, Mi Home and select offline retail stores. Customers purchasing the device will get an instant discount of up to Rs 1,000 via HDFC Bank cards or EMI transactions, 5 percent unlimited cashback on Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card, free 6 months Gaana Plus, Google Pixel Buds A-Series and more. Redmi 10 With 50MP Dual Rear Camera Setup Launched in India at Rs 10,999.

In terms of specifications, Redmi 10 gets a 6.7-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SoC coupled with up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage. For photography, the handset features a 50MP main camera and a 2MP portrait lens. Upfront, there is a 5MP camera for clicking selfies and attending video calls.

Redmi 10 Smartphone (Photo Credits: Xiaomi)

The power of Snapdragon 680 has been unleashed with #Redmi10 on @Flipkart. Launching on 24.03.2022 at just 9,999*.  https://t.co/cw3MdauYdo pic.twitter.com/eb2aQFzYWx  Redmi India (@RedmiIndia) March 23, 2022

Redmi 10 packs a 6,000mAh battery with an 18W fast charging support. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a rear fingerprint sensor. Coming to the pricing, Redmi 10 is priced at Rs 10,999 for the 4GB + 64GB model, whereas the 6GB + 128GB variant costs Rs 12,999. It will be offered in midnight black, pacific blue and caribbean green colours.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 24, 2022 09:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Nicaragua's Organization of American States (OAS) ambassador, Arturo McFields, on Wednesday commented on the dictatorship evident in his country while announcing his resignation.

McFields announced that he stepped down from his office, on a video posted by the OAS on their Twitter account, according to Al Jazeera.

Remarks by the Ambassador of #Nicaragua Arturo McFields Yescas to the Permanent Council of the #OAS pic.twitter.com/TtJv72oqSd  OAS (@OAS_official) March 23, 2022

The ambassador also slammed President Daniel Ortega's government, claiming that the administration repressed the political opposition, cracked down the freedom of speech in the country and that it committed human rights abuses, per Reuters.

The ambassador further noted that nongovernmental organizations in Nicaragua, as well as the media, are being curtailed by the government. He also noted that elections in his country were "not credible." McFields went on to comment on the dictatorship that occurs in his country.

"Denouncing the dictatorship of my country is not easy... But to continue remaining silent and defending the indefensible, is impossible," McFields noted, per Al Jazeera. In the video, the ambassador also claimed that he is speaking on behalf of the political prisoners and over 300 individuals who died in Nicaragua since the protests against Ortega broke out in 2018.

McFields also shared that he tried to get at least 20 elderly political prisoners out of jail, but claimed that nobody speaks and nobody listens in the government.

"I want to tell you that people inside and outside are tired, tired of the dictatorship and its actions, and more and more people are going to say 'enough,'" McFields underscored.

READ NEXT: Nicaragua: Ex-Rebel Leader and Former Presidential Hopeful Hugo Torres Dies After Imprisonment

Nicaragua's OAS Ambassador Lauded After Comments on Government

The ambassador was lauded by several officials after he gave his comments in the video.

We commend Ambassador Arturo McFields for his courage in resigning his position as #Nicaraguas ambassador to @OAS_official in a speech denouncing the Ortega-Murillo dictatorships human rights record, stating he could no longer support the regime. pic.twitter.com/UjVi438JCg  Bradley Freden (@USAmbOAS) March 23, 2022

U.S. interim representative to the OAS, Bradley Freden, commended McFields' courage for his resignation and speaking up about the dictatorship present in Nicaragua's regime. Meanwhile, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro also hopped in to express his thoughts about what McField has done.

Valoramos el coraje del Embajador de #Nicaragua Arturo McFields Yescas y su compromiso con los valores de a @OEA_oficial. Esta es la posicion eticamente correcta. https://t.co/H5vb2WuDQ2  Luis Almagro (@Almagro_OEA2015) March 23, 2022

"We appreciate the courage of #Nicaragua Ambassador Arturo McFields Yescas and his commitment to the values of a @OEA_oficial," Almagro highlighted. The secretary-general also pointed out that what the ambassador did was "ethically correct."

Nicaragua Presidential Hopeful Cristiana Chamorro Sentenced

McField's resignation came days after another Nicaraguan presidential hopeful, Cristiana Chamorro, was slammed with an eight-year sentence, BBC reported.

Chamorro was found guilty of money laundering. She was also one of the presidential hopefuls in Nicaragua detained ahead of the poll.

Chamorro was also accused of "abusive management [and] ideological falsehood" during her time in a media foundation she led until early 2021. The accusation was reportedly made after Chamorro announced that she would run for Nicaragua's president, per BBC.

Chamorro's brother, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, also received a nine-year sentence after he was convicted of various financial crimes.

The two were known to be the children of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, a candidate who defeated Daniel Ortega during the 1990 Nicaragua elections, Al Jazeera reported.

READ NEXT: Florida: Hank Williams Jr.'s Wife Dies at 58, Cause of Death Revealed

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Nicaraguan Police Raid Home of Opposition Presidential Hopeful - From Al Jazeera English
The U.S. government has officially described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as war crimes with Secretary of State Antony Blinken making the announcement.

The U.S. government has also called for the prosecution of Russia for its war crimes in Ukraine, according to a CNBC report.

Blinken has raised in a statement that the "brutality" in the city of Mariupol, Ukraine, likening it to Russian campaigns against Grozny in the Second Chechen War and Aleppo during the Syrian civil war.

He noted that Russia's forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, and ambulances. Blinken said that Russia has left thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded.

The state secretary said that the question of Russia's guilt or innocence would ultimately be left in the hands of a court of law.

READ MORE: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thanks Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis After Couple Fundraised Ukraine Aid

U.S. Government: Russia Committed War Crimes

Blinken made the announcement based on the information currently available, noting that the U.S. government has assessed that members of Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, according to The Guardian report.

He added that the U.S. would continue its efforts to gather evidence and share it with international agencies concerned.

Blinken said that the U.S. is committed to pursuing accountability through "every tool available," which includes criminal prosecutions.

U.S. President Joe Biden has remarked earlier that he considered Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

Biden's statement has been decried by Kremlin, warning that the comment could cause a breach in bilateral relations.

A newly confirmed ambassador at large for global criminal justice, Beth Van Schaack, was asked if the state department was pertaining specifically to Putin.

Van Schaack said that it would be up to the courts to decide that. However, she noted that there are doctrines under international law and domestic law that are able to reach "all the way up the chain of command."

The state department did not cite any specific attacks and incidents that the agency considered to be war crimes; but Van Schaack said that the Mariupol hospital shelling seemed to have been a "direct attack" on civilians.

She added that she would support making U.S. evidence possible whenever possible.

Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Meanwhile, a Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not cite Moscow's role in the crisis has failed at the United Nations Security Council.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council after the vote that if Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, "it would stop bombing children" and end their siege.

Woodward said that Russia has not stopped doing those, according to a Sky News report.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the vote was turned down due to "political reasons."

Thirteen members abstained in the vote, while only Russia and China voted in favor of the resolution drafted by Russia.

The city of Mariupol is "almost totally destroyed," with around 100,000 people living in its ashes trapped and trying to stay alive.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 100,000 citizens are trapped in the city without any access to food or water.

READ MORE: Russia-Ukraine Crisis: WHO Advises Ukraine to Destroy Health Lab Pathogens to Curb Spread of Disease

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: State Department Declares Russians Have Committed War crimes In Ukraine - from MSNBC






UFC superstar Conor McGregor reportedly had a trip to a jail in Ireland after being arrested by the officials, claiming that the athlete engaged in dangerous driving.

According to TMZ Sports, McGregor was reportedly arrested on Tuesday, and his car was also seized from him upon the arrest. However, the Irish Independent noted that his luxury car was since returned to him. The Daily Mail noted that McGregor's luxury car costs around 140,000.

TMZ noted that the car that was temporarily confiscated from the UFC superstar was a Bentley Continental GT. Officials explained that the car was seized over "multiple traffic offenses."

McGregor was then released from the custody of the authorities, after he was brought to the Lucan Garda Station, per Irish Independent.

However, the UFC superstar has a pending appearance before the Blanchardstown District Court, according to The Daily Mail.

The specific date of the UFC Star's appearance before the court was unclear, but reports pointed out that McGregor will go to court next month.

READ NEXT: Nicaragua OAS Ambassador Arturo McFields Comments on His Country's Dictatorship After Resignation

UFC Star Came Connor McGregor Arrested on His Way to the Gym - Rep

McGregors' representative, Karen Kessler, explained that the UFC Star was on his way to the gym when he was arrested, per TMZ Sports.

The representative further noted that McGregor was stopped by the authorities due to alleged traffic violations. Kessler also said that the UFC superstar passed the alcohol and drug tests held in the station.

Authorities also noted that McGregor, whom they described as a man in his 30s, was arrested in the Palmerstown area on Tuesday evening, according to Irish Independent.

The outlet also stressed that McGregor was charged with dangerous driving after he was arrested and brought to the police station.

Reports noted that dangerous driving in Ireland has a maximum punishment of up to six months jail time and a fine of up to 5,000 Euros.

Irish Independent said that McGregor is reportedly spending more time in Ireland's capital and he has been training for a planned return in the UFC later this year.

UFC Superstar Conor McGregor's Previous Arrests

It was not Conor McGregor's first trip to the police station.

According to SB Nation, the UFC superstar's license was suspended for at least six months in 2017, after he teared up streets of Dublin.

In 2019, McGregor was also fined 1,000 Euros but avoided a custodial sentence after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in the Marble Arch pub.

In the athlete's 2019 hearing, the court also revealed that the UFC superstar had 18 previous convictions. The said convictions were mostly composed of road traffic offenses. However, there is one for assault causing harm and public order offenses.

Conor McGregor and his associates were also accused by a woman from Dublin over an incident she alleged occurred in 2018. The said claims of the woman were investigated by An Garda Siochana. However, authorities decided that no criminal charges will be brought against the UFC star in connection to the woman's claims.

READ NEXT: Florida: Hank Williams Jr.'s Wife Dies at 58, Cause of Death Revealed

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Conor McGregor Arrested on the Way to Gym - From TheBestofMMA
Chile's tourism industry lost 60 percent of its revenue in 2019-2020 due to the social outburst protests and 95 percent in the 2020-2021 period due to the pandemic.

Before Chile's tourism sector was hurled with challenges, it was widely known for its hiking trails, culture, city life, and wildlife.

Chile also has its own quirks, such as being one of the few countries that have an officially funded and recognized UFO research bureau, according to Cascada Travel.

Chile designated the UFO research bureau as part of the Air Force, with a role of monitoring unusual aircraft activity.

The South American country is affectionately referred to by Chileans as the "pais del poetas" or the "country of poets," being home to two of the most well-known literary figures, namely Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda. Mistral and Neruda have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

READ NEXT: Chile Starts Fourth Dose of COVID Vaccine As Omicron Variant Drives Increase of Cases

Chile Travel Safety Guidelines

The U.S. Department of State has issued an Alert Level 4 travel advisory for Chile, which means "do not travel" to the South American country.

Chile has been seeing large-scale demonstrations that periodically happen in Santiago and other cities in Chile. The State Department noted that demonstrations could happen with little or no notice, which can often result in disruptions to transportation, including service on public buses and the Santiago Metro.

If you decide to travel to Chile, the State Department advised travelers to follow the instructions of local authorities, including movement restrictions, and to obey all curfews.

The agency urged tourists to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate them in an emergency.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Chile due to a very high level of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The CDC recommends that travelers get a vaccine to better protect themselves against COVID-19 while traveling to Chile.

Chile's Tourist Attractions

Torres del Paine National Park is among Chile's widely popular destinations. The national park is located more than 100 kilometers north of the city of Puerto Natales in southern Patagonia, featuring mountains, glaciers, lakes, and rivers.

Tourists can hike in the park, but hiring professional guides for more than a day's hiking is recommended. In some areas, professional guides are mandatory, according to Planet Ware.

The Atacama Desert, the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, can be found in Chile. According to Live Science, scientists noted that the desert's inner core has been hyperarid for around 15 million years due to the combination of geologic and atmospheric conditions in the area.

The Atacama Desert contains many cavers, with evidence of pictographs created by an early man and where some of the world's oldest mummies were found.

If culture and city life is more of your game, Chile's capital Santiago can cater to your needs. It is home to the best museums and galleries, with shopping, dining, and hotel options.

Santiago has the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, the cultural center occupying part of the Palacio de la Moneda.

The Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts is also located in Santiago, featuring Chilean artists and priding itself on an extensive permanent collection of paintings, sculptures, and photos.

READ MORE: Chile Police Dismantle Crime Ring Smuggling Haitian Children in U.S., Mexico

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: 10 Best Places to Visit in Chile - Travel Video - From touropia






Brian Laundrie reportedly thought about turning himself in after he murdered his fiancee Gabby Petito.

Aside from turning himself in, a source close to the family told The Sun that Laundrie also contemplated fleeing the country or committing suicide before he disappeared into the swamp.

"I'm sure he was contemplating everything... I'm sure he told his parents would turn himself in and fight the case. But that whole day was awful," the source said, referring to September 13, when Laundrie told his parents that he was going for a hike in Carlton Reserve near his parents' home at North Port, Florida.

According to the source, the moment that prompted Laundrie to leave home was when he found out that his mom was apparently in danger of being arrested.

"The police were talking to Steven (Bertolino, the Laundries' lawyer), and all the media frenzy stuff started. Brian found out that they might arrest his mom. That's when he left," the insider told The Sun.

According to the source, Laundrie's parents did not help their son evade arrest. The insider noted that his father, Chris Laundrie, even tried to stop his son from leaving since he was upset.

"But Brian said he needed to get fresh air and clear his head, which wasn't unusual for him," the source said.

READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Protests Prompt Florida to Advance Bill That Would Make Demonstrations Outside Homes Illegal

Gabby Petito's Family Sues Brian Laundrie's Parents

Gabby Petito's family filed a civil lawsuit against Brian Laundrie's parents on March 10. Petito's father, Joseph Petito, and mother, Nichole Schmidt, accused Chris and Roberta Laundrie of knowing their son murdered Petito.

They also alleged that the elder Laundries were trying to help their son leave the country, WFLA reported. According to the court documents, Petito's parents believed that their daughter died on August 27 at the hands of Laundrie, who allegedly told his parents about what happened "on or about" August 28.

The lawsuit noted that Christ and Roberta knew of the mental suffering and anguish that the Petito family was experiencing but still refused to respond to questions from Petito's family and law enforcement.

It added that the couple also refused to disclose their son's whereabouts. The lawsuit continued to say that Chris and Roberta acted with "malice or great indifference" to the rights of Petito's parents.

The lawsuit noted that Laundrie's parents exhibited "extreme and outrageous conduct," which goes "beyond all possible bounds of decency and is regarded as shocking, atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community."

Court records showed that the Petito family is seeking damages of at least $100,000 for the "pain and mental anguish" they experienced as a result of the "willfulness and maliciousness" of Laundrie's parents.

The case is reportedly set for a preliminary hearing on June 30 in Sarasota County, Florida, where the lawsuit was filed.

Meanwhile, the source also told The Sun that Gabby Petito's family was likely using the "frivolous lawsuit to torment" Laundrie's parents while "avoiding the public scrutiny of doing it."

"I know for a fact that they thought it would come out in a public record request from the media that Roberta did this. When the record request was denied, and the media wouldn't publish an allegation like that without proof, they filed," the insider said.

The source added that "the bottom line is the Petitos filed this lawsuit knowing that if his mom did do anything that she could be blaming herself and is living with the consequences."

Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito's Death

Last January, the FBI revealed that Brian Laundrie confessed to killing Gabby Petito in a message left in his notebook.

In its final report on the case, the FBI said a review of the notebook revealed written statements by Laundrie claiming responsibility for Petito's death.

The FBI noted that its investigation has concluded that Laundrie was the only person responsible for Petito's "tragic death."

Apart from the notebook, the FBI confirmed that they also found a "backpack" and a "revolver" upon further search of the area, where Laundrie's remains were found.

Gabby Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19. A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.

On the other hand, Brian Laundrie's skeletal remains were discovered at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida on October 20. His autopsy report showed that he died of a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of death was suicide.

READ MORE: Gabby Petito Killing Sparks Move to Change Yellowstone's Zone of Death: Full Details

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Gabby Petito: Timeline of Fateful Cross-Country Trip - From Eyewitness News ABC7NY
The names of donors to a nonprofit at the center of Floridas ghost candidate scandal will be redacted from bank records released to the public, the judge overseeing the criminal case against former state Sen. Frank Artiles has ruled.

The public wont find out who contributed to Lets Preserve the American Dream, a nonprofit organization that provided funding used for ads promoting Artiles friend, Alex Rodriguez, and two other candidates who ran as independents for highly contested Florida Senate seats in 2020 but did no campaigning of their own.

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Artiles, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with bribing Rodriguez to run for a Miami-area state Senate seat in an apparent scheme to siphon votes from the Democrat in the race, who had the same last name.

Lets Preserve the American Dream is a Tallahassee-based nonprofit with close ties to Associated Industries of Florida, the states largest business lobbying group, whose donors include Florida Power & Light and Florida Crystals.

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The organization was recently informed that it is being investigated for potential violations of elections and campaign finance laws, according to court records in the Artiles case.

The bank records, obtained by the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office, typically would become public, as state law requires when prosecutors provide evidence to a defendants attorneys during a criminal case.

But attorneys for the dark-money group asked Circuit Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan to block their release. Attorneys representing the Orlando Sentinel and other media organizations have argued the records should be made public.

Fajardo Orshan said during a hearing on Thursday the bank records will be released, but the contributors names will be redacted. She described the records as a whos who of names, prominent names in our community.

She compared the evidence collected in the case, which also includes contacts and files on Artiles laptops, phone, iPad and other devices, to an octopus, with tentacles reaching beyond those accused of crimes.

Theres a lot of innocent people that are caught up in this and a lot of third parties, Fajardo Orshan said.

Fajardo Orshan is yet to rule on requests for privacy submitted by roughly two-dozen people and entities whose communications with Artiles were found on devices seized by prosecutors.

Those records, which the state obtained during its investigation and have been given to Artiles defense through the discovery process, also typically would be released. But Artiles attorneys objected to their dissemination, saying the communications arent related to the states case and would violate the privacy rights of people Artiles interacted with personally and professionally.

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Fajardo Orshan agreed in January that people whose messages and personal information were found on Artiles computers should have the chance to object to the public release of those files, setting a March 1 deadline for requests to be submitted.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

The names of most who objected were redacted prior to being turned over to attorneys for the Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations. The requests generally provided little detail about their relationship to Artiles.

Fajardo Orshan plans to rule on those requests during hearing scheduled for next month.

Artiles has been accused of paying Rodriguez nearly $45,000 to file as an independent candidate in a South Florida Senate race two years ago. Though Rodriguez did no campaigning, he received more than 6,000 votes, while Republican Ileana Garcia defeated Jose Javier Rodriguez by 32 votes.

The South Florida election was one of three key state Senate races that year  including one in Central Florida won by Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford  in which so-called ghost candidates filed to run as independents but did no campaigning.

Two political committees that received all of their funding from a dark money nonprofit called Grow United sent ads promoting the independent candidates, portraying them as progressives in an apparent attempt to undermine the Democrats in those races. Lets Preserve the American Dream gave $600,000 to Grow United that was used to pay for the ads.

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Ryan Tyson, the organizations executive director, told investigators during an interview last September that he didnt know the money that Lets Preserve the American Dream gave to Grow United would be used to pay for ads intended to siphon away votes from other candidates.

anmartin@orlandosentinel.com
The Research Group at Look Ahead America (LAA) has released model legislation to fight corporate censorship at the state level.

The goal of the model legislation is to prevent businesses that censor legal speech or deplatform those who are engaged in legal businesses from benefiting from government contracts.

READ NEXT: LAA Holds Justice for J6 Candlelight Vigil in New York

Matt Braynard, Executive Director of Look Ahead America, Made the Following Statement:

Social media networks, technology companies, and financial institutions are increasingly serving as agents of Cultural Marxism by censoring and deplatforming patriots engaged in legal speech.

While they are free to do that, they are not entitled to enrich themselves with government business and contracts funded by same taxpayers they are unpersoning. This model legislation will force these corporations to make a choice: either stop censoring legal speech and deplatforming legal businesses or no more government business.

In the event corporations decide to forgo government contracts in order to continue censoring legal speech, it will create opportunities for new startups that do not censor and deplatform to pursue those contracts. By deciding to censor patriotic Americans, these corporations will create a funding sourcefor new competitors to enter the market and eat their lunch.

Ian Camacho, Look Ahead America's Director of Research, Stated:

Corporate apologists use the refrain, "they're a private company, they can do whatever they want." These corporations play both sides claiming to be both a private publisher and neutral platform, all the while taking taxpayer dollars.

It's time that we held them accountable and make them feel pain for abusing the system. It is my hope that the citizens of every state get their legislators onboard to restrict these out of control companies that are censoring patriotic Americans.

To read the full details of the bill, check out the project page on fighting corporate censorship at https://lookaheadamerica.org/speech/.

READ MORE: Look Ahead America Announces Pro-America School Board Resolution Project to Fight CRT, Anti-Americanism in Classrooms
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UWEC-BC professor emeritus celebrates 50 years of service

Contributed Photo The UW-Eau Claire  Barron County Foundation will honor Professor Emeritus Mary Hoeft for 50 years of service on April 8 at the university campus.

RICE LAKE  After 50 years of passionate, unwavering service, UW-Eau Claire  Barron County Professor Emeritus Mary Hoeft has retired from her beloved post, making way for new educators to follow in her footsteps.

Hoeft, a professor of French and communication arts, always knew she wanted to be an educator. After receiving her Bachelors degree at Oshkosh, her Masters at Eau Claire, a diploma in France and other advanced coursework at Madison, Hoeft took her first and only teaching job in 1971.

When I was in college there were two things that I loved, Hoeft said during a phone interview. One was French, and the other was public speaking and communication arts. I loved those two things, so I said, Im going to major in speech and minor in French. And my advisor said, Well, plan on never getting a job, because if youre going to major in speech, you want to minor in English. If youre going to take French, youll need to accompany that with Spanish. And I said, Ill tell you what: Im going to do the two things I love.

Hoeft pointed to this decision as the reason she got hired. At the time, UW-Eau Claire  Barron County was called Stout State University  Barron County Campus. The university was looking for a professor who could teach both French and communications, and Hoeft was a perfect fit.

Following my passion got me exactly what I wanted, she said. And for five decades, Hoeft continued teaching in both departments up until her retirement.

Hoeft is the longest-serving faculty member in the history of the two-year University of Wisconsin campuses. She taught her final class with the university in December 2021.

During her career, Hoeft was named a Wisconsin Teaching Scholar, she had received The Chancellors Career Award from former UW System President Ray Cross, and she has authored several papers, articles and books. Hoeft is the recipient of two Kaplan Awards for innovative teaching and has received an Exceptional Service Award for six years of campus leadership as Steering Chair.

Loving the challenge

Despite the challenges faced by many educators over the years, Hoeft remained steadfast in her love for shaping young minds and igniting new passions in her students. And even when she thought she might be ready for something more  like teaching at a larger university, for example  Hoeft said she always found herself drawn back to UW-Eau Claire  Barron County.

I think about the wonderful, wonderful gem of a campus in Rice Lake, Hoeft said. Its gone through multiple transformations, many names, but it has never stopped having the best educators. What a place for young people to get their start at a university  I have taught some of the most outstanding students that I could ever imagine.

One of the bigger changes undergone by the university came in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced university educators to reformat their classes.

Hoeft addressed the new challenge head-on, recording 26 lectures and learning how to grade audio submissions of student speeches.

This old dog learned a lot of new tricks during COVID. Each semester, I was faced with a new challenge and I loved it, Hoeft said. I guess after so many years I enjoyed something new. Technology is not my best friend, but as it turned out, it wasnt an enemy. We worked really well together.

As Hoeft looks back on a career full of changes, she said her biggest takeaway from teaching at the university for 50 years is that she is just incredibly lucky to love what she does. She said she couldnt wait to teach her classes each morning, and it has always been a thrill to see her students grow from year to year.

Students benefit the most from teachers who are passionate about what they teach, Hoeft said.

I think we are in the best of professions where we can inspire young minds, where we can help young people to find their focus, and I hope that (young educators) find joy in it, Hoeft said.

And if they dont, I urge them to find a new career. Because wouldnt it be nice if the only people that were still involved in teaching were those who felt joy?

Time for change

Walking into her final class in December of last year, Hoeft called the moment bittersweet.

In part, Hoefts decision to retire came with the hiring of a new professor at UW-Eau Claire  Barron County. Hoeft said she wanted to ensure that the new tenure-track professor had enough classes to teach.

Enrollment is a challenge, and I wanted to make sure that his classes were full. And I had 50 years of wonderful opportunities, Hoeft explained. I hated stepping away from something I love so much, but I think it was time for me to explore new things.

Since retiring, Hoeft has turned her attention toward finding new outlets for teaching. In recent months, she started volunteering with a class of second graders twice a week. Hoeft said she also hopes to eventually teach for a time in Japan.

Aside from teaching, Hoeft said another passion of hers is restorative justice. In 2020, Hoeft released a book about Barron Countys restorative justice programs. She said she would like to spend more time promoting her book and advocating for juvenile offenders and victims of crime.

Recognition of service

The UW-Eau Claire  Barron County Foundation will recognize and celebrate Hoefts 50 years of service from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 8, in the university Commons, 1800 College Drive.

Hoefts friends, family, former colleagues and students are all invited to attend, share stories and memories of Hoefts time at the university, and enjoy hors doeuvres, cake and a cash bar.

I taught with Mary for over 30 years, said Professor Emeritus Linda Tollefsrud. Every semester that I can remember, Mary Hoeft announced that this was her best group of students ever! I think that pretty much summarizes her persistent enthusiasm for teaching. When individuals struggled, Mary was always there as an advocate for the underdog. 

Additionally, the Foundation has created the Professor Mary Hoeft Scholarship, which will be awarded to UW-Eau Claire  Barron County students who demonstrate a commitment to learning, determination to succeed and financial need. Donations in Hoefts honor will be accepted at the event or by mail at UWECBC Foundation, 1200 College Drive, Rice Lake, WI 54868, or online at https://connect.uwec.edu/barron-county (include #6070 Hoeft Fund in the notation).

Im just one of those very, very, very few lucky people who thought I would love teaching, got into the profession and loved every moment of it, Hoeft said. Im one of those people who would say, I would do this for nothing. Right now, in retirement, I am doing it for nothing  I love it, and Im doing it for nothing.
US biolabs need exposure and investigation: US scholar

(Global Times) 11:11, March 24, 2022

Jeffrey Kaye Photo: Courtesy of Kaye

Editor's Note:

There have been an increasing number of doubts and questions over the US Fort Detrick and the more than 300 overseas biolabs. Jeffrey Kaye (Kaye), a former clinical psychologist in San Francisco who spent years researching US biological warfare during the Korean War, called upon the US to provide the documentation and publicize what's really being done. Kaye said that we need "more open records, exposure, and a true and believable investigation." The following is a full transcript of the interview between Kaye and Global Times (GT) reporter Yu Jincui.

GT: After you reviewed documents declassified by CIA, what have you found? Is there enough evidence to prove that the US conducted germ warfare during the Korean War?

Kaye: Instinctively, I am 100 percent sure the US engaged in germ warfare during the Korean War. Viewed from the angle of basic evidentiary standards, I'd say based on the evidence from hundreds of eyewitnesses given to different investigators over the years, the uncensored portions of Defense Department documents available from the US, and now the two dozen descriptions in CIA documents of communications intercepted during the Korean War from units of the Korean People's Army and Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and the contemporary statements of US Air Force and Marine Corps officers about the operations of the germ war, that the preponderance of the evidence, that is, over 50 percent of the evidence points to the truth of the germ warfare allegations. Some US academics have claimed they unearthed documents that show the Korean War evidence was a "hoax" perpetrated by Russia, China and North Korea. But those documents have never been seen in their original, and the claims within the documents are easily disconfirmed, as I've demonstrated on a number of occasions.

GT: The Japanese Unit 731's biological warfare research program is infamous to China as the majority of the victims were Chinese. The US also used biological weapons during the Korean War. But why, until recent years, was the US use of bioweapons in the Korean War confirmed by documents declassified by the CIA?

Kaye: The CIA in 2010, the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, decided to declassify hundreds of different communications intelligence reports, and other materials that it had in its archives. These were very highly top-secret documents. I found approximately two dozen that referenced the use of biological warfare. There are a lot of complaints by CIA analysts about propaganda from the Soviet Union or China or North Korea. But what finally struck my eye was the declassification of reports that were referenced in the radio intercepts and decoded by cryptanalysts working for the United States Army. It's something called the Armed Forces Security Agency, which later became the NSA which we know of today as the National Security Agency.

There are numerous instances which I've taken from those documents and published online for people to read, in which military units reported to their commanders they'd been attacked by bacteriological weapons, they needed DDT to help kill the insects that were infected, and their supply chain was all screwed up because they couldn't move because of biological weapons attacks, and so on. So these people weren't faking it. They didn't know that they were being overheard by US Army people listening in. This was real evidence that, in fact, the attacks were taking place. And the evidence was taken in real-time.

Why did it take so long to release them? Because so much of the materials during the Korean War period were classified and still remain classified. The US is a very secretive government.

GT: According to documents declassified by the CIA, the US applied Unit 731-inspired bioweapons during the Korean War. You suggested that the international community should establish an international commission to investigate, but why is it so hard to push an investigationWhat are the obstacles?

Kaye: The materials used by the United States when they used biological weapons were very similar to those used by Unit 731. I don't know whether they were exactly the same. Unfortunately, there are some dots there that I can't connect because the documents are classified. But it's obvious to anybody who knows the history of it that's most likely what occurred.

For instance, an internal document from the US Army's Chemical Corps in 1953 referenced the "limited war" in Korea and temporary measures involving bioweapons. I believe these were the Unit 731-type weapons, like the feather bomb, the US used in their germ war campaign, weapons utilizing insects and biowar sabotage, such as used by Unit 731 against China in World War II. These were "stop-gap" because more sophisticated weapons the US Army and Air Force were working on were not ready for use by 1951, 1952. It was essentially a kind of large-scale field testing or experiment using methods they had inherited from their agreement with Unit 731 and Shiro Ishii after World War II.

How come it's so hard to get the investigation? Or how hard is it to get people interested? Part of that is the legacy of the cold war, which continues the hostility of the US government and other Western governments to anyone who would expose their crimes. One can look to see what happened to Julian Assange, who did that in Iraq and today still sits in a British prison fighting extradition.

I don't know how to explain it to people. It's quite shocking. It's almost like a totalitarian kind of government that has penetrated the academic community to a large extent and they control the media.

People are afraid that their careers will be spoiled if they push this material. So instead, they don't say anything. Behind the scenes, I've seen that numerous times it's just that people are afraid to act on it. It's quite sad.

GT: There have been lots of doubts and questions over the US Fort Detrick and overseas biolabs around the world, especially in the commonwealth of independent countries around Russia. The US has 336 biolabs in 30 countries. What has the US done in those labs? Does it act in compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention? Are you concerned about it?

Kaye: There are a number of people who are concerned that the Biological Weapons Convention is being violated by the United States and possibly by other countries as well. A lot of secrecy goes into these labs - the destruction of the documents of the Ukraine labs which are taken away or removed or destroyed. No one can read them now, because they're not there.

I know that they say that they are mostly there to work with countries in determining surveillance of existing biological threats, not from other countries per se, but just in nature, but also perhaps from biological weapons attacks from other countries, they claim. But in fact, everyone who's ever looked very deeply or even a little bit into the biological weapons program of the US and other countries recognizes that there's an extremely thin line between what's done for defensive purposes, such as the surveillance of biological pathogens out in the world, and actually using such methods for offensive purposes.

And in fact, I found when I was researching about the Korean War, more than one instance in which there were admissions made that they were hiding biological weapons research behind the so-called defensive biological weapons. As early as 1948, the Chairman of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Advisory Board told the board that the work on offensive use of insect vectors to deliver biological agents was being hidden behind defensive work on "insect control."

So we can't know as we can't see, but we do know what the United States has been fighting against. The US for a long time has been fighting against the establishment of a verification mechanism for the Biological Warfare Convention so that there are no actual teeth to that treaty: If you're a bad actor, you can do whatever you want. You're not going to get called out on it. It's at least a good thing that this is finally coming out into the open, because there's a lot that people don't know about this, and we need to have investigations.

GT: White House officials are giving confusing information over the US biolabs in Ukraine. Based on your experience and observation, what purposes do you think the US biolabs in Ukraine are for? In order to convince the world, what does the US need to do?

Kaye: The US needs to open up to provide the documentation and open up to what's really being done in those labs. But the problem is, they're not going to do that. I think they need to open up about the whole truth of the biological warfare program that the US has had going back 70, 80 years now, because you can't understand what's happening in the labs unless you understand the history of the US biological warfare program, its secrecy, its connections with the CIA, and its connections with academia. Instead, what you hear in the US press is a lot of bad-mouthing of Russia because they accused the US of using birds to possibly spread biological pathogens.

The US has long had programs, particularly in the 1960s and 70s, researching bird migration patterns and pathogens and reporting to Fort Detrick as part of the biological warfare program. That's history. But if you don't know the history, you wouldn't know that they were lying. So what does the US need to do? It needs to open up all its archives. And we need to declassify the records going back all the way to the end of WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and so on. so that we can see what are they doing in these hundreds of biolabs.

GT: Why has the US repeatedly refused requests by the international community for access to its biolabs overseas, including the ones in Ukraine? What are they worried about or afraid of?

Kaye: I think what they're afraid of is that it will be shown that they're in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, and that a covert biological warfare program is, in fact, underway and has been underway for some time.

It was back in the late 1940s that the US government decided that it would make highly secret all the research that was being done about biological weapons, and that secrecy is maintained today. It's very difficult to get so many important documents that are classified and go back 70 years or more. What are they hiding? As I've looked into the biolabs a little bit, it seems possibly they're hiding the use of biological weapons. I'm still trying to gather the information, but my take is that there's a covert program going on.

GT: Let's talk about the Fort Detrick. You once mentioned in an interview that Fort Detrick was and still is at the center of US biological warfare research. Why did US public keep silent over this?

Kaye: The US public, I think, keeps silent because they don't really know everything that's going on there, and they've been told lies, or they just don't want to know. It's basic human psychology that people want to believe that their own government is good, or at least ok and not doing evil or terrible crimes.

There's a certain passivity. And the culture of the US is that it encourages that passivity. Fort Detrick has been, for many years, the heart of US biological warfare research. There are other areas and other places like Dugway Proving Ground in Utah that are associated with the US biological work program.

And there are also these biolabs now, which may or may not be associated with that program. Fort Detrick is the center and everything there is kept secret. It's been a culture of secrecy that goes back now three or four generations. So you get a sense. It's hard to break something like that when the whole political culture acts to reinforce it.

GT: Evidence has proven the US use of bioweapons during the Korean War. With such a bad record, what are your suggestions for the international community to organize investigations into the US biolabs and biological activities around the world?

Kaye: First, we need exposure. People don't have the information. They're not going to act or put pressure on their own governments until the information is out there. And I've been trying to do it, but I'm just one person. I'm a retired psychologist who's trying to publicize this material and get it out into the public realm.

There's no reason to hold anything secret, to hold back on things that happened decades ago, unless it is embarrassment over the exposure of war crimes. Release everything from the Korean War, release everything from the Vietnam War, period. Japan, in particular, has probably been the worst. They're in a state of denial over their use of biological weapons in their Unit 731. The United States is almost as bad. They certainly deny that they use bio-weaponry and for many years helped to cover up their alliance with the Japanese biological warfare unit. So exposure is, what I would have to say, first. The world is in a difficult place. We need some kind of investigation of these war crimes.

When China was looking for someone to investigate the US bacterial warfare in China in 1952, they helped form an international scientific commission, which included representatives from other countries around the world. They weren't associated with any other international organization like the UN and they went and included reputable scientists from around the world, led by a very famous British scientist, Joseph Needham, who later became a historian of Chinese science.

And we need that level of authority so that the world can trust what they find. And then we need to open up and expose this. So that's what we need, more open records, exposure, and then a true and believable investigation.

GT: As a historian, how do you define the differences between biological weapons, chemical weapons and nuclear weapons? The US is the only country to have used all three weapons (chemical weapons in the Vietnam War, biological weapons in the Korean War, and nuclear weapons in World War II). How should we define such actions by the US?

Kaye: The use of some kind of biological weaponry and disease or poisoning wells and things like this goes way back in history. But in modern times, the first known use was by Germany in World War 1. At that time, Germany used glanders and pathogens to attack enemy livestock, such as horses and sheep. The first large-scale use of BW against humans was by Japan, which used bacteria as weapons from the late 1930s into the 1940s through Unit 731 and associated military units. And then later, the US government did it during the Korean War. The US has also been charged with using biological weapons against Cuba and East Germany.

Obviously, these were criminal uses, whether we're talking about the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, or the use of biological weapons against Korea, China, Cuba, East Germany, among others. We know about the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

They're all terrible weapons. Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous because they can end life as we know it on this planet. The other weapons are also terrible. Even though the bulk of my work is about pointing out the crimes around biological warfare, all of them are dangerous. The United States has shown a dangerous propensity to use these weapons. It's very frightening. I think many people in the world are scared today that they'll do it again.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
GAINESVILLE  Florida fined its largest Medicaid payment vendor nearly $9.1 million over software problems that delayed payments for nearly three months for tens of thousands of health-care claims for the states sickest and neediest children, the states health regulator said Wednesday.

The billing problems were described in an investigative report last month by Fresh Take Florida, a news service at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The states letter informing Sunshine State about the fine was dated March 17  one day before a reporters latest inquiries asking whether the company would be fined  but was not released publicly until Wednesday.

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In a letter to the CEO of Sunshine State Health Plan Inc. of Tampa, the Agency for Health Care Administration also demanded detailed explanations for how the problems occurred and how the company responded. It also required it to demonstrate within 30 days that future claims were being paid promptly and asked for weekly updates in phone calls with the CEO, Nathan Landsbaum, or another senior executive.

The payment problems stranded families in Florida with critically ill children who relied on Medicaid-paid health providers. They affected children receiving care under the companys Sunshine Health Medicaid program and the Childrens Medical Services Health Plan it operates on behalf of the Florida Department of Health, for patients under 21 who are eligible for Medicaid and who have serious, chronic conditions.

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A spokeswoman for Sunshine State did not respond to a phone message or emails asking whether the company intended to pay the large fine of $9,092,025 or planned to appeal. The state said the fine was calculated as $75 for each failed payment claim.

The states health care regulator also revealed that the number of affected claims  121,227  was far higher than Sunshine State had previously acknowledged. The company had previously said the problems affected 0.5% of its 9.2 million total payment claims it processed during the period, or about 46,000 claims. The state identified problems that included denials for invalid diagnosis codes, incorrect age restrictions, claims processed under incorrect benefit packages and more.

Sunshine State previously said the glitches stemmed from the companys merger on Oct. 1 with the second-largest payment vendor, WellCare of Florida Inc. Combined, Sunshine and Wellcare have multi-year contracts worth $31.6 billion with the state, according to figures from Floridas chief financial officer.

Before then, the payment problems drew almost no public attention. Sunshine acknowledged payment issues in a press release it published on its website Jan. 20, blaming it on an unspecified information-technology problem and not hinting at the scale or seriousness of the issue.

The payment problems were among the most serious technology meltdowns  affecting one of the most vulnerable populations  under the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis since unemployment claims overwhelmed Floridas Department of Economic Opportunity early in the pandemic.

The Agency for Health Care Administration in its letter acknowledged that Sunshine States billing problems were non-willful. The letter, signed by Floridas assistant deputy secretary for Medicaid operations, Brian Meyer, also provided the company with instructions on how to dispute the fine, which would have to take place within 21 days.

The company said last month the improperly rejected payments were all re-processed by Jan. 31, but new interviews with health care providers demonstrated payment problems have been continuing. In at least one case, a company in Orlando was asked to stay quiet before Sunshine State would agree to pay part of the money it already owed the provider, an executive said.

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Brendan Ramirez, a mental health advocate and CEO of Pan American Behavioral Health Services LLC in Orlando, said he had spent months trying to recover payments he was owed from Sunshine State.

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Ramirez said that during negotiations over the payments, Sunshine States parent company, Centene Corp., asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement before he could receive $234,225.90 of what he said he was owed. He provided a copy of the agreement, which he declined to sign. Ramirez said the amount Centene offered was less than the total he should have been paid.

They said, Before we wire money into your account, we want you to sign this document, Ramirez said.

The agreement would have prohibited Ramirez from publicly disclosing terms of his settlement with Centene for the payment. It did not include any provision that would have prevented Ramirez from criticizing the company or talking to journalists.

I called them back and I said, Im not signing this. Im not comfortable with signing this. Its almost like a document from litigation, and were not in litigation. Im just trying to get money that you guys owe me, he said.

Ramirez said the company eventually paid him without a signed copy of the agreement. He said he is still owed as much as $80,000 by the company. He said it also has improperly denied about $100,000 more worth of claims submitted by his company.

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at kristin.bausch@freshtakeflorida.com.
A Laois Bord na Mona peat processing plant is reopening with five jobs returning to it.

Cul na Mona in Togher, Portlaoise, is reopening under lease to an international company called ICL.

While industrial harvesting of peat from bogs has ended due to its environmental impact, ICL will use the piles of peat that were already already cut to make horticultural compost.

The plant at Togher beside Junction 17 of the M7 has been lying idle for a number of years.

The reopening has been welcomed by Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley.

The agreement sees ICL lease the plant from BNM initially for a three-year period and using the peat stockpiles that are already harvested on the adjacent bogs as a component for the horticulture compost. The company have also developed an advanced wood fibre technology solution in terms of the components for the new compost product.

As a former employee, I very much welcome this development. I have been consistently raising the need to utilise the plant with the management of BNM for the last five years.

Under the agreement reached by the two companies, the existing peat stocks from the local bogs will be ring fenced solely for the Irish market and Irish growers. This will help solve an immediate problem as horticulture compost is in short supply at the moment in the country with some parts of the horticulture industry having reached crisis point due to supply shortages.

Initially the number of jobs at the plant will be five and there is a possibility for this to grow further.

Overall, this is good news from a sustainable development point of view and good news for the local economy in Laois, Dep Stanley said.
Frontline staff are caring for patients who need intensive care after falling critically ill with Covid-19, according the latest HSE report.

Disease monitoring figures for Laois also reveal the incidence rate has spiked again in the county as the virus surges again in the wake of the lifting of restrictions and St Patrick's Day festivities.

The latest Covid-19 Daily Operations Update from the HSE's Acute Hospitals Performance Management and Improvement Unit outlines figures at 8pm on Tuesday, March 22.

It shows that there there were nine patients in the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise with Covid-19. Of these, two were being treated in the hospitals Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Laois hospital staff had one general bed and one ICU bed at their disposal at 10.30am on Tuesday morning.

Portlaoise's sister hospitals in Kildare and Offaly are under more pressure with the new surge in Covid-19 infections.

There were 36 people with the virus in the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore on Tuesday night though none were critically ill. Staff had no general beds available but there were three vacant ICU beds.

Meanwhile, there were 19 patients with Covid-19 in Naas General on Tuesday. None were in ICU. Staff had the Kildare hospital had no available ICU or general beds.

Latest infection rates for Laois based on PCR test results show that there were 179 cases of Covid-19 reported in Laois on Tuesday, March 2022.

This number is approximately 2.54% of all cases across all counties for the same day.

There have been 1,545 cases of COVID-19 in County Laois over the two weeks to March 22. The rate of COVID-19 per 100,000 people in Laois over the past 14 days is 1,824.1. This is more than double the rate of infection recorded on March 9 when it was 871.3 per 100 k.

The rate of infection per population peaked during the Omicron Phase at a massive 4,700 per 100k on January 31. It has been falling since until March 9 when cases began to rise again rapidly.

The total official number of cases in Laois up to March 22 is 23,752.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre was notified of 7,038 PCR-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on March 23. In addition, on Tuesday, March 22 14,060 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.

As of 8am Wednesday, 1,395 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of whom 55 are in ICU.

The World Health Organisation has said Ireland's latest surge could be linked to restrictions being lifted "brutally".
An aspiring Laois public representative wants the Government to ban all gambling advertising.

Eoin Barry of the Labour party called for the government to fasttrack a his party's Bill that will ban all gambling advertisements. He said the Labours Gambling (Prohibition of Advertising) Bill 2021, aims to regulate the advertising and sponsorship of gambling.

He highlighted the extensive ad campaigns during the Cheltenham racing festival.

The huge and incessant bombardment of gambling advertisements during Cheltenham has reiterated the clear and present need for a full ban on ads to protect people from falling into a life of problem gambling and addiction in Laois.

Unfortunately, we know from recently published research from the Health Research Board (HRB) that there is over 12,000 problem gamblers in Ireland and a further 125,000 people who are at-risk gamblers.

We need to see real intervention from government on this. I am calling on government to fast track Labours bill to ban the ads that target those at-risk gamblers and have the potential to ruin lives, devastate their families and communities and leave the person suffering from addiction feeling hopeless.

As well as the ads on the tv, young people are bombarded with gambling ads on their phones through ads on social media channels and the sheer volume of these ads is having a huge impact on vulnerable people. Labours bill would take swift action to protect those at risk of developing addiction.

There have been multiple reports on gambling addiction over recent years. Indeed, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland indicated a dramatic rise in gambling disorder referrals since Covid the lockdowns. Coupled with the HRB report, its clear that we need to act fast and put controls in place now to protect those who are vulnerable to behaviour addiction.

The level of addiction and affliction in communities up and down this country demands serious action. Its time to see real action from government now, he said.
Met Eireann reassures us that the early summer weather will continue through this weekend but says it will be chilly at night.

In its national outlook for the coming days, Met Eireann says it will be mainly dry with sunny spells with daytime temperatures continuing well above the March average. However, it cautions that it will be rather cold at night with a touch of grass frost possible.

Met Eireann's weather station at the Phoenix Park in Dublin recorded the highest temperature so far this year on Wednesday, March 23. It reached a high of 18.5 C. High sunshine hours were also recorded countrywide on the same day.

It says the settled conditions with plenty of sunshine will result in higher than average sunshine totals once again. It says the past week has been much sunnier than normal for all areas, with sunshine totals highest at 62.7 hours in Dublin Airport.

The forecaster expects temperatures to reach 18 C on Friday and hitting up to 17 C over the weekend. However temperatures could hit zero over the weekend after dark.

Met Eireann does not expect the fabulous spell to last however as conditions are expected to be colder in the final days of March.

The forecaster adds that rain will likely be less than half the average for much of the country over the week with less than 10mm expected.

NATIONAL FORECAST issued at 5.15 pm on March 24.

FRIDAY: Any mist and fog patches will clear tomorrow morning and while it will be quite cloudy in some parts for a time, it will become sunnier as the day progresses. It will be largely dry, however the odd shower may break out, mainly in parts of Leinster and Ulster. There's a slight chance that a little bit of sea fog may encroach onto some coastal parts at times. Highest temperatures generally of 14 to 18 degrees, a little lower though in coastal parts of the east and north, in a light variable or easterly breeze.

SATURDAY: Mist and fog will clear from most areas on Saturday morning but may linger along some coasts. It will be a dry day with sunny spells and a light easterly breeze. Highest temperatures of 13 to 17 degrees, coolest near southern and eastern coasts.

At night there will be dry with clear spells and light easterly breezes. Mist and fog will develop in the north and east. Lowest temperatures of 0 to 5 degrees.

SUNDAY: Mist and fog will clear from most areas on Sunday morning but may persist along parts of the north and east coast. It will be dry with sunny spells and light east to southeast or variable winds. Highest temperatures of 13 to 17 degrees.

Continuing dry on Sunday night with clear spells and mist and fog will form in the north and east in light and variable breezes. Lowest temperatures of 1 to 6 degrees.

MONDAY: Sunny spells and well scattered showers. Highest temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees, warmest in the west, with light easterly or variable winds.

FURTHER OUTLOOK: Current indications suggest it will turn colder towards mid-week with the increased possibility of showers and chance of some frost by night.
A preparatory multi-agency meeting has taken place in Laois ahead of a possible major influx of Ukrainians fleeing Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of their homeland.

Laois County Council has facilitated the meeting of different State and non-State organisations in Laois to consider what steps will be need to be taken and structures put in place to respond to the needs the arrivals are likely to put on services and the community.

While there is no official role for the council at this point as the refugee response is being managed by and through central Government, it was felt prudent to convene a meeting in the likelihood that the Government and State agencies may delegate responsibilities for some services to agencies on the ground in Laois and other counties.

At present, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) are the lead Department on the Ukrainian accommodation response and particularly acting through its International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS).

In turn, IPAS are using the facility of the Irish Red Cross to accept pledges of accommodation from the public.

Laois County Council hosted a meeting of locally based agencies to facilitate exchange of information and updates on any locally emerging issues between those agencies. As is normal in such situations, it is expected that such meetings would reconvene if and as required.

Among the agencies to attend were Laois Partnership and the Laois Volunteer Centre.

A small number of Ukrainian refugees have already arrived in Laois but there is an expectation that significantly more could arrive in the county as they flee the Russian onslaught.

Numerous collections have taken place in Laois for Ukraine with two big shipments leaving Portlaoise and Rosenallis during March.
The famous Newbridge Silverware Sale has returned and offers shoppers the opportunity to pick up some beautiful pieces of jewellery, homeware and gifts at a snip of their original cost.

The annual sale is hugely popular with savvy shoppers, hardly surprising with some items discounted by as much as 40%!

The famous Irish lifestyle brand is also offering 20% off EPNS canteens and loose items and 20% off the Diamond Collection.

The Newbridge Silverware Sale starts online and in-store until March 30.

A spokesperson for Newbridge Silverware said, Savvy shoppers use the sale to forward plan and purchase gifts for weddings, special occasions, or birthdays.

"We havent had an instore sale for a few years due to the pandemic and we know people are really looking forward to browsing the collections in person and finding great bargains.

There are some stunning pieces of jewellery on sale and we will have 20% off our Diamond Collection which is really attractive for anyone getting engaged this year.

Due to the great value to be found the sale is very popular, and we would advise people to shop early to avoid disappointment.

Shoppers can also enjoy breakfast or lunch at Domos Emporium or enter the Museum of Style Icons - home to garments, costumes and memorabilia once worn by some of the worlds most famous fashion icons including Audrey Hepburn, Princess

Diana, The Beatles and Marilyn Monroe among many others.

For more information and to shop the sale now see www.newbridgesilverware.com
Seventy-one Florida law professors and legal scholars, more than half of them from state-run universities, have sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jacksons historic nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

They touted her experience and Florida upbringing in the two-page letter, while at the same time urging senators to not let the confirmation process devolve into a polarized partisan affair, as it regrettably has in the past.

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The letter went out the second day of confirmation hearings for the Miami-raised Jackson, nominated by President Joe Biden to replace outgoing Justice Stephen Breyer. A similar letter from close to 300 lawyers in Florida was sent to the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, too.

Jackson deserves the same bipartisan support Breyer received in 1994, when the Senate voted 87-9 to confirm his nomination, the Florida law professors said.

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Jackson should be evaluated on the basis of her impressive experience as a lawyer and a judge, and confirm her to the U.S. Supreme Court by a wide margin, just as the Senate confirmed Justice Breyer 27 years ago, they said.

Republicans had aggressively questioned Jackson about several cases shed already been asked about the previous day, interrupting her as she attempted to answer their questions.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

She also was grilled over child pornography sentencing guidelines and her stance on immigration, while Sen. Lindsay Graham accused her of being a judicial activist.

To see what this highly qualified, remarkable woman had to face is a shame on those who try to declare themselves as senators, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont said after Wednesdays hearing according to CNN. Its beneath this body. Its beneath the U.S. Supreme Court and it is beneath our great country.

If confirmed she would be the first Black woman justice, the fourth of color and the sixth woman.

Floridas two senators, Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, have expressed reservations about Jackson and are not expected to vote in favor of her confirmation.

The letter, which is also signed by deans from the University of Florida, Florida International University and NOVA Southeastern University, noted that Jackson has received bipartisan support from the Senate three times during her career, most recently for her confirmation to the Washington D.C. Circuit seat she currently holds.

Graham was one of the three Republicans who voted for her confirmation last year, while the other two are not on the Senate Judiciary Committee this year, CNN reported.

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The letter from the Florida law professors comes two months after a federal judge ruled unconstitutional a University of Florida policy that prevented faculty from testifying as expert witnesses in politically sensitive court cases that challenge the governor and other state officials.
Ivana Bacik is the new leader of the Irish Labour Party.

The leadership contest came following the sudden resignation of Alan Kelly earlier this month.

No other candidate came forward to contest the position and it had been widely expected that Ms Bacik would take over.

I am honoured, excited and I confess quite overwhelmed, she said on Thursday, to applause.

She said that she was grateful for the support of party members and paid tribute to her predecessor Alan Kelly, calling him her friend and comrade.

The pair embraced after her election was announced.

I know the ambition you have for our future and for how our party can shape our future for the better, she told the audience in Ringsend, a traditionally working-class area of Dublin.

I sincerely hope that I can repay the trust you have placed in me.

The Labour TD for Dublin Bay South was elected to the Dail last summer in a by-election after more than a decade as a senator.

Her fellow TDs Duncan Smith and Aodhan O Riordain, seen as possible contenders, quickly ruled themselves out of any contest.

The resignation of Mr Kelly, while unexpected even in some Labour Party circles, came after months of static poll ratings.

Ms Bacik will be charged with uniting the party and convincing voters to once again back Labour, which is still struggling with the legacy of its time in the Fine Gael-led coalition Government, which oversaw harsh austerity measures in the aftermath of the financial crash.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Bacik spoke of her feminist credentials and her history of activism dating back to her student days.

She also referenced John and Pat Hume, speaking about the impotence of a state that works for the unity of the people of Ireland.

I didnt become a political activist because I had all the answers  and I still dont.

Addressing an audience that included her mother, Ms Bacik said: For me, politics is about building a better future.

Its not contrived shouting matches or tearing people apart to score a political point.

She said that her politics was constructive.

Its about positive change.
The Taoiseach is joining European leaders and the US president in Brussels to discuss the latest response to the war in Ukraine.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who tested negative for Covid-19 after several days of isolating in Washington last week, will join other leaders for a European Council summit.

The meeting will also be attended by US President Joe Biden.

The EU meeting comes alongside Nato and G7 gatherings, as Western leaders try to remain united in the face of Russian aggression.

It remains to be seen if the EU will agree today (Thursday March 24) to impose fresh sanctions on Russia.

Irish European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne said ahead of the meeting that he expects a broadening of sanctions.

Ireland certainly will be working towards that, in supporting that, he said.

The difficulty of course is that you want to make sure that Russia feels the pinch very, very seriously. But that we dont end up feeling a greater pinch than Russia.

The punishment has to be to Russia, not to anybody else.

However, he said it is important EU leaders remain unanimous over any possible measures.

He said while it is possible the EU could take more drastic action on Russian oil and gas imports, he acknowledged such a proposal has different levels of support in European capitals.

Youll have heard some other leaders cast some doubt on that, Mr Byrne told RTE radio.

Anything that happens at the European Council has to happen in a unanimous way.

Discussion can take a different turn. And thats certainly possible today.

This is democracy. Its complicated. Twenty-seven countries, and indeed parliaments in some cases, have to mandate leaders getting together.
SHANNON Group has confirmed to the Limerick Leader that it has been informed by Padraig O Ceidigh of his decision to resign as chair of the board of Shannon Group.

Mr O Ceidigh assumed the role of chair on his appointment by the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan on September 28, 2021.

Commenting on the announcement, Mary Considine, CEO, Shannon Group said: "I would like to thank Padraig for his contribution to the Group as we continue to rebuild our business in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. I would like to wish him well in his future endeavours."

Mr O Ceidigh, aged 65, is a former Independent politician and businessman who served as a senator from 2016 to 2020. The Galway man is the former owner of Irish airline Aer Arann Islands.

Its understood that in Mr O Ceidighs resignation letter to Minister Ryan, he cited other work commitments as the main reason for his resignation.

His goals were to restore air traffic and passenger numbers at Shannon Airport to what they were before Covid decimated the industry.

In the clip below, Deputy Michael McNamara asked Mr O Ceidigh about his plans for the future development of Shannon Airport.

The questions included 'fifth freedom flights', the Aer Lingus Heathrow slots, the use of antigen testing and his part-time position.

Thoughts will now turn to finding a new chair of Shannon Group. Prior to Mr O'Ceidigh, Rose Hynes held the position.
A LIMERICK man who stabbed a new drinking pal to death during cocaine-fuelled bender was convicted of murder after the jury were wrongly advised about the issue of self-defence by the trial judge, his lawyers have claimed.

Mark Crawford, aged 44, formerly of Quarry Road, Thomondgate had only known Patrick Pa OConnor (24) for one day when he stabbed him six times at Fitzgeralds Bar on Sexton Street North.

He later pleaded not guilty to Mr OConnors murder on July 7 or 8, 2018, claiming that he had been acting in self-defence at the time.

The jury at the Central Criminal Court, however, did not accept his defence and he was unanimously convicted of the murder charge following a trial in September 2020.

Sentencing Crawford to a mandatory life term, Ms Justice Tara Burns described the fatal attack as an act of madness fuelled by drink and drugs.

Crawford has appealed the conviction on the grounds that Ms Justice Burns did not adequately instruct the jury on how they should consider his accounts of events on the night in question and that the guilty verdict was therefore unsafe and unsatisfactory.

It has been further submitted that the judge in her charge had failed to instruct the jury that it was incumbent on the prosecution to prove that the appellant did not honestly believe that it was necessary to use reasonable force to defend himself from a perceived threat or attack.

It may or may not be the strongest self-defence case but it was a self-defence case from the start, Patrick McGrath SC, for Crawford, told the three-judge court at this Thursday's hearing.

Responding to the defences submissions, John Fitzgerald SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), said the issues raised by Mr McGrath had been fully opened and canvassed in front of Judge Burns.

This really is a situation where the dog didnt bark, Mr Fitzgerald said.

The test [of self-defence] is well established and understood and the jury was charged unimpeachably, counsel continued.

This was a confrontation in a pub, where the parties had been together and Mr Crawford produced a knife. Mr Crawford had been by the door and could have left.

Judgment has been reserved.

During the orginal trial, which last a number of weeks, it emerged Crawford and Mr OConnor had been taking cocaine together before the pair began to argue over drugs in Fitzgeralds Bar.

Barman Cyril O'Connor told the court that he saw Mr O'Connor and the accused "arguing but in a whispered tone" and he heard 50 being mentioned.

He said the atmosphere was "edgy" in the bar that evening.

Describing the attack, he said: "All I heard was a chair move, there wasn't a word, a shout or a scream. As I looked to the left I could see the accused striking Patrick in the neck area."

The barman said the defendant was leaning into Mr O'Connor and used his right hand to hit him as Mr O'Connor sat in the chair.

Patrick McGrath SC, defending, put it to the barman that he was mistaken about Mr O'Connor sitting in the chair and suggested that both men had "stood up to each other" before his client had stabbed the deceased a number of times as he had felt under threat.

The witness denied this was the case saying: "It's a photograph in my head of the accused holding Mr O'Connor and striking him."

Crawfords wife, Karen Crawford, said she had collected her husband from outside Fitzgeralds that night.

She said blood was dripping from his hands and he was crying.

"I kept asking what happened and he said something bad," she told the court.

Mrs Crawford said her husband told her what had happened the following day.

He was really upset and said 'what am I after doing to that boy as he was my friend'," she said.

She told him that he needed "to hand himself in" but he said he "needed to get his head straight".

Crawford later told gardai that he thought he was going "to get jumped" and he "got the fear" when the argument with Mr Crawford started.

"I didn't think I'd kill him. I did it more so he wouldn't come back on top of me. I thought he was going to kill me, beat me or stab me, he said.
ALMOST 90 Ukrainian women, men and children, fleeing their war-torn country, are now being given refuge in the historic Cahermoyle House, outside Ardagh.

The first group of 48 people, mainly women and children, arrived late on Saturday night, just hours after local organisations were contacted, while a further 40 arrived on Sunday evening.

At least two adults are being accommodated with a local family.

The call which galvanised local volunteers came just before 5pm on Saturday evening, David Woulfe, chairman of the St Kierans GAA club, explained.

It came from Limerick City and County Council informing them that a group of 48 was expected in Cahermoyle later that evening.

Club members swung rapidly into action, along with volunteers and community employment workers from the Ardagh Development Association, and their first task was to get rooms ready and make up the beds .

They have lovely rooms, new mattresses, new bed linen. It is a lovely setting and they have come into a great community, said Deirdre Ambrose, Childrens Officer with St Kierans GAA who quickly became the de facto liaison at Cahermoyle House.

On Sunday morning, following an appeal, donations began to flood into Ardagh Community Centre, piling up throughout the day and still continuing on Monday and Tuesday.

Childrens clothes, toys and equipment such as buggies were donated while nappies and toiletries poured in. Brand new cooking utensils arrived in car boots and money for a new washing machine and tumble dryer was donated.

Food too was donated and a call went out for additional freezers.

By Monday afternoon, the local volunteers were taking stock and trying to work out exactly what was now needed. They were still accepting donations of new clothes but had enough of other items, at least for the meantime.

As Mr Woulfe explained, the situation was very fluid and it was all about being flexible.

Money is the concern now, he said, adding that, to date, about 2,500 had been donated. Two people had come forward and paid for a round of heating fuel but money for further fuel would be needed, he said.

Meanwhile, the big priority in Cahermoyle House itself has been to help the Ukrainians feel safe and secure and to rest after their ordeal. Some of the refugees, Mr Woulfe explained, had driven through Europe for up to ten days. All were shattered. All were traumatised.

A Community Nurse was assigned to assess what further medical attention was needed.

And the media was requested to stay away to allow the refugees time and privacy to come to terms with all that has happened to them.

Meanwhile, job offers have already come in for the refugees with some expected to start working within the next few weeks. Two teachers, who were among the arrivals in Ardagh began Zoom classes for children still in Ukraine on Monday morning.

The governments aid package for Ukrainian refugees includes acquiring a PPS number, a letter of permission to stay and work as well as access to health and education services.

The issue of school places for the children in Cahermoyle is still being worked out.

Anybody wishing to help should contact Deirdre Ambrose 087 9509218; David Woulfe 086 2205572; Moira O'Donovan 086 8255473 or John Aherne 087 2155019.

Ironically, Cahermoyle was home to a man who also knew about exile. Limerick MP, William Smith OBrien who inherited the house, was sentenced to death for his part in the Young Irelanders rising of 1848 but the sentence was commuted and he was transported to Van Diemens land, now Tasmania. He was later pardoned and returned to Ireland and to Cahermoyle in 1856.

Meanwhile, in a separate move, work has been taking place in Rathkeale to prepare an apartment for an Ukrainian woman and her two young sons.
PRINCE Charles cordially turned down an invite from the Castle Oaks House Hotel in Castleconnell to repeat a secret trip to the picturesque Limerick village.

Hotel management sent a letter to Clarence House in London asking the future King if he would like to stay in their riverside location  just like he did 30 years.

The 73-year-old is visiting Ireland this week as part of the global spring tour by members of the British royal family.

Prince Charles visited Castleconnell for a spot of fishing, a pursuit it has been renowned for centuries, in 1992. Theresa OKeeffe, deputy general manager of the Castle Oaks, said the visit must have been hush hush.

I couldnt find anything out about it so it must have been kept very quiet. Unfortunately, we dont have any staff that were working in the hotel then, said Theresa. However, there is photographic evidence of the prince fishing on the footbridge (pictured).

Theresa said the Royal enjoyed fishing on the river Shannon with another famous English visitor to Castleconnell  Jack Charlton.

2022 marks 30 years since the picture was taken and when we heard that Prince Charles was making a visit to County Tipperary we decided to invite him to take a trip down memory lane and replicate the photograph which we have hanging up in the hotel. Conor, our sales executive, sent an invite to Clarence House along with a copy of the photograph. We were not expecting a response. It was lovely that they replied. Who knows, maybe next time! said Theresa.

The response, signed by Prince Charles, says he was very grateful for the invitation.

However, after considering the possibilities, I regret that this is not something he will be able to take on. I am sure you will understand that the pressures on his diary mean it is not possible to include all the engagements he would like to undertake, reads the letter.

It went on to say that Prince Charles was very grateful for sending a photo of his last visit and passed on his warmest best wishes.
A LIMERICK man pretended he was on his phone while he walked out of a shop with sausage rolls.

James McDonagh, aged 25, of Ballyart, Brittas pleaded guilty at Kilmallock Court to stealing the savoury goods from the Centra store in Kilfinane.

Inspector Pat Brennan said gardai were called by the stores management on November 20, 2020.

They said a person went to the deli counter and ordered 5 worth of sausage rolls. He walked out of the shop as if he was on his mobile phone. He made no attempt to pay for them, said Insp Brennan, who added that Mr McDonagh has 25 previous convictions including for road traffic, thefts and intoxication.

Con Barry, solicitor for Mr McDonagh, said his client was in custody with a release date of March 22.

He asked Judge Patricia Harney if she would consider a fine to be paid forthwith. It was 5 worth of sausage rolls.

Judge Harney said: Obviously he has a serious problem with alcohol.

Mr Barry said Mr McDonagh has been working with Ana Liffey while in prison and will continue with them once he gets out.

Its more sad and pathetic than anything else, said Judge Harney, who convicted and fined Mr McDonagh 100.
LIMERICK City and County Council has declined to comment further on fraud allegations made against a former employee who is the subject of a ongoing garda investigation.

In October 2020, the Limerick Leader revealed that the employee had been dismissed and last night the further details of the alleged 1.8m fraud featured in an RTE Investigates broadcast.

The Limerick story highlighted on #RTEInvestigates tonight from back when it was first reported in @Limerick_Leader in October, 2020https://t.co/YzwQIeqH4v  Donal O'Regan (@DonalORegan1) March 23, 2022

While members of the local authority were informed, by email, that the employee had been dismissed following a "detailed investigation process" no other information was disclosed publicly at the time.

According to the RTE Investigates programme, which was presented by reporter Conor Ryan, the former employee authorised works to be undertaken on behalf of the council and later for Irish Water under a Service Level Agreement between the two organisations.

Some of the allegations, now under garda investigation, relate to payments of 860,000, which were made by the council, to a small Limerick-based service company over a five-year period between 2012 and 2016.

While Limerick City and County Council did not release certain documents and records to RTE, the national broadcaster says it has identified alleged patterns "whereby a sizeable number of relatively small-value purchases were made on the same day for works that were, most often, described as minor."

Records released by Irish Water to RTE Investigates show the same individual, who cannot be named for legal reasons, authorised payments of 984,000 to be paid by the utility to the same Limerick-based company.

When contacted by the Limerick Leader following the RTE Investigates broadcast, a spokesperson for the local authority said: Limerick City and County Council had referred this incident to the gardai following its own internal investigation and is co-operating fully with the investigation currently being undertaken by An Garda Siochana. The Council will not be commenting further.

A spokesperson for Irish Water stated: "Irish Water is currently liaising with An Garda Siochana in respect of this matter and is therefore not in a position to comment."

Allegations of fraud and other questionable practices at several councils across the country also featured in Wednesday's RTE Investigates programme.
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This is an illustration provided by SpaceX shows the SpaceX Starship human lander design that will carry the first NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis program. Jeff Bezos has lost his appeal of NASA's contract with Elon Musk's SpaceX to build its new moon lander. The Government Accountability Office Friday, July 30, 2021 ruled that NASA's award of the $2.9 billion contract to just SpaceX was legal and proper.(SpaceX/NASA via AP) (AP)

Several members of Congress cried foul when NASA chose just SpaceX as its lone contractor for the lunar lander planned to be used on the Artemis III mission to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Ahead of that April 2021 decision, NASA had requested funds to support two but ended up going with just SpaceX based on what was in the available budget. When President Joe Biden puts out his fiscal year 2023 budget request next week, it will include funding requests to open up a new competition for a second U.S. company to build a lunar lander for missions beyond Artemis III, according to a NASA announcement Wednesday.

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Todays announcement is what I said to Congress. I promised competition. So here it is, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Nelson wouldnt reveal what the requested budget will be, but SpaceX won the Artemis III fixed-price contract with a bid of $2.9 billion to use a version of its Starship spacecraft for an uncrewed test landing on the moon followed by the crewed landing that aims to send two astronauts including the first woman to the lunar surface.

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The new contract wont be open to SpaceX, and its not exactly the same parameters as the Artemis III mission contract, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk will be able to pursue more Starship landings in the Artemis program as an expansion of the existing contract. The undetermined second company will pursue building a lander under the new agreement.

Dubbed the Sustaining Lunar Development contract, it calls for a Human Landing System that can interact with both the Orion spacecraft and the planned Gateway lunar space station and also be able to transport more cargo and science experiments to the surface, Nelson said.

NASA will meet with interested companies in the coming weeks and will issue a final solicitation for proposals this summer.

In 2021, SpaceX had beat out two other companies, one dubbed the National Team from a group led by Jeff Bezos Blue Origin that also included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. The other lander that lost out on Artemis III was proposed by Dynetics, a subsidiary of aerospace and scientific research company Leidos.

All three teams had been given nearly $1 billion to prove out their lunar lander plans having beaten out other companies including Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp.

With the new contract, U.S. companies are back in the mix with NASAs goal of having two capable lunar landers for missions starting in the 2026-2027 window, Nelson said, which would follow the goal of landing Artemis III no earlier than 2025.

Go For Launch - Space News Weekly Fix your telescope on all space-related news, from rocket launches to space-industry advancements. >

SpaceX and our teams are making good progress on the demonstration HLS award which will land the first Americans on the moon in over half a century, Nelson said, saying everything with Starship remains on schedule. That landing will be the first, and from there we expect approximately one human landing per year over a decade or so.

Having two landers will allow the Artemis program to ensure keeping its long-term goal of sending human missions to Mars in the late 2030s or 2040, Nelson said.

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Now all of this boils down to that we think, and so does the Congress, that competition leads to better, more reliable outcomes, Nelson said. It benefits everybody. It benefits NASA. It benefits the American people. It is obvious the benefits of competition.

The first Artemis mission is slated to launch from Kennedy Space Center later this year. The Space Launch System rocket with Orion capsule was rolled out to KSCs Launch Pad 39-B for the first time last week for a planned wet dress rehearsal.

Nelson said the likely earliest launch window would be in June, although a May opportunity could still be possible depending on the results of the pad tests.

That flight will be an uncrewed mission to the moon while an Artemis II flight with crew would take astronauts in orbit around the moon without landing no earlier than May 2024.

These are not isolated missions. Each is going to build on the past progress (allowing for) the discovery and the understanding that we are seeking and what it takes to live in deep space, Nelson said. All of that is of course in preparation for us then to have the first human mission to Mars.
Chief executives of major passenger and cargo airlines pressed President Biden on Wednesday to do away with the requirement that passengers wear masks on planes and in airports.

Top executives at airlines including American Airlines Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. wrote in a letter to Mr. Biden that mandatory masking and another requirement that passengers test negative for Covid-19 before flying to the U.S. from abroad are no longer necessary now that cases and hospitalizations are on the decline.

Travelers and commuters in the U.S. have been required to wear masks covering their mouths and noses on nearly all forms of public transportation and inside transportation hubs since early last year. The federal requirement was recently extended until mid-April, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eased masking guidance for many other indoor settings.

The executives said air travel will still be safe even if not everyone is masked, citing air filtration systems in plane cabins and the availability of high quality masks for people who still want to wear them.

It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks," the executives wrote.

Many airlines began requiring their passengers to mask up in 2020, before the government mandated it, but they and other travel industry groups have become more vocal in questioning the mask requirement recently. In February, the industry urged the administration to either end the mandate by mid-March or develop a clear road map for doing so.

One source of frustration for airlines has been the strain on flight attendants and other employees who are tasked with making sure passengers are wearing their masks. The Federal Aviation Administration has logged a surge in reports of bad passenger behavior over the past year, with many incidents related to people refusing to wear masks.

This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being," the executives wrote.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
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Jana McKinnon, Markella Kavenagh and Yerin Ha have joined the cast of Australian TV series Bad Behaviour.

Filming of the four-part show, which is adapted from the acclaimed book of the same name by writer Rebecca Starford, has now completed in Victoria, Australia. It is expected to play on Australian streaming platform Stan later this year.

McKinnon (We Children of Bahnhof Zoo) stars as scholarship student, who arrives at Silver Creek for a year of character building at the wilderness campus of an exclusive girls boarding school. Instead, she finds herself in a dormitory of the most volatile and the most vulnerable.

Kavenagh has recent roles in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, while Ha has credits including Halo. Other newly-announced additions to the cast are: Tuuli Narkle (Mystery Road), Dan Spielman (Stateless), Diana Glenn (Harrow), Mantshologane Maile (The PMs Daughter), Erana James (The Wilds) and newcomers Melissa Kahraman, Daya Czepanski, Abbey Morgan, Bronte Locke, Malaynee Hayden and Jessica Lu.

The show plays out across past and present time lines and explores the intensity of female friendships, ritualistic rites, emerging sexuality and a ruthless struggle for power. The series reveals that even ten years on from this formative year away at camp, no one has escaped unscathed  and most are scarred for life.

Led by an all-female creative team, the series is written by Pip Karmel (Total Control, New Gold Mountain) and Magda Wozniak (Mustangs FC, The Heights), produced by Amanda Higgs (The Secret Life of Us, Seven Types of Ambiguity) and is directed by Corrie Chen (New Gold Mountain, Homecoming Queens).

The series is produced by Matchbox Pictures, part of Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group. Major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Stan, with development and production support from VicScreen. Rights distribution is handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.

 Bad Behaviour questions who we really are when we dare to look at ourselves through the eyes of others. Its starting point is the intense intimacy of female teen friendship at an age where approval becomes our obsession. Where the excruciating ambiguity of what lies between good and bad behavior can undo us all, said Higgs.

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At a time when journalists are under attack in many parts of the world and the odious term fake news has become part of the global lexicon, Spains Mediacrest presents the topical drama series Fake at a key event in France-based Series Mania, the invitation-only Spain Pitching Breakfast, on Thursday.

Leading the charge is industry vet-producer Gustavo Ferrada (Klaus, Nobody Knows Anybody), Mediacrests executive director of fiction, who joined the fast-rising Spanish production company in January.

Fake is one of five selected projects from leading Spanish production companies seeking European partners, comprising Fedent Espana, Friki Films, Onza, Vertice 360 and Mediacrest.

Created in-house by Mediacrests deputy head of fiction, Carlos Molinero and senior scriptwriter Nicolas Romero, the Strasbourg-based series of six 52-minute episodes follows a high-powered couple as their once idyllic relationship turns toxic. Shes a prominent journalist at an influential Spanish newspaper and he works in the European parliament. Pillow talk leads to him occasionally sharing confidential information with her, which she publishes, until one night, he passes on bogus information. She is immediately fired and in her new incarnation, she becomes a popular figure in the digital media world. All the media noise results in the death of his son, victim of a public lynching, and inadvertently turns him into the new great promise of the party.

When I came to Mediacrest, I found some pretty powerful projects, of which Fake was particularly interesting: It questioned the value of truth and lies in a world where passion, power, ambition and revenge do not necessarily benefit from the truth, Ferrada told Variety, who adds that the project has already piqued the interest of a number of international distributors and potential co-production partners.

This is a story of passion between a journalist and a politician, but in this case, the lies are not an exclusive behavior of the politician, but rather a story of revenge where both manipulate truths and lies to attack one another, he mused.

In the world of alternative facts perhaps the important thing is not how truthful the news is, but how useful it can be. If, in addition, we are seeing all this through the information that arises in a murder trial, the tension and interest of the project are multiplied, he added.

The Barcelona-based company has forged a number of partnerships in recent years, among them a strategic alliance with A Contracorriente that will have the latter distribute Mediacrest films and series as well as co-produce a selection of titles with it.

Mediacrest is also co-producing submarine-set Nautilus with Colombias Narcos producer Dynamo for TelevisaUnivisions recently launched streaming platform, ViX. In addition, Mediacrest teamed up with Wanda Vision, one of Spains top arthouse distributors-producers, on docu-filmmaker Gerardo Olivares project, Lonely Man.

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Paramount is the latest studio to plant its flag in the ground at French TV drama festival Series Mania, where international CEO Raffaele Annecchino broke down the companys international distribution and SVOD strategy.

In a keynote moderated by Varietys Italy and West Asia correspondent Nick Vivarelli, Annecchino detailed plans to focus internationally on premium SVOD service Paramount Plus and FAST offering Pluto TV, which has more than 64 million monthly users. Also in the mix to compete with our ecosystem, according to Annecchino, is Paramounts JV with Comcast, SkyShowtime, which is launching in 20 European markets where Paramount Plus wont be available.

By the end of 2022, both Paramount Plus and SkyShowtime will be in more than 60 markets in Europe. Paramount Plus will also expand into South Korea later this year in partnership with CJ ENM, and in other Asian markets as well as Africa and West Asia (the region formerly known as the Middle East) in 2023.

Rather than one sweeping international launch, Annecchino said the company is opting for a market-by-market approach that allows us to expand into new markets quickly and economically, with enormous potential. For countries like France, U.K., Italy and Germany, the business will provide a hard bundle model with Paramount Plus, while SkyShowtime allows Paramount to enter other European markets at a lower cost.

Unlike WarnerMedias HBO Max team, which appears to be aggressively courting European drama producers at Series Mania, Annecchino didnt reveal any sort of content strategy or wish list for Paramount Plus.

The exec highlighted premium shows like Halo and The First Lady as flagship titles heading to the platform. (The latter Showtime series starring Viola Davis, Gillian Anderson and Michelle Pfeiffer will premiere internationally on the platform in two weeks.) He also reiterated plans to launch 50 Paramount Plus international scripted originals in 2022. As revealed by Variety, these include A Gentleman in Moscow and a Sexy Beast prequel series, as well as NCIS Sydney, Misan Harrimans Protests & Progress and docuseries Not a Bride.

Paramount has also just struck a deal with French studio powerhouse Gaumont, with a number of titles announced as part of the three-year partnership.

Asked how the service differs from its competitors, Annecchino underlined the companys breadth of content; a broader streaming model that spans a well-established FAST offering in Pluto TV as well as the new SVOD service; a global portfolio of linear networks like Channel 5 in the U.K., Network 10 in Australia and Telefe in Latin America; and teams in 30 markets around the world as well as 12 international studios.

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As the U.S. streamers become a bigger part of the European industry landscape, production companies are starting to intensify collaborations across EU borders to make high-end shows, which is vital to keeping the ecosystem healthy.

That was the main takeaway of a Series Mania panel on collaborating across borders that also looked at the ongoing battle between European TV producers and the streaming giants over terms of trade that is prompting more co-productions as an alternative model.

Jens Richter, Fremantles international CEO, pointed out that the streamers coming to Europe is a threat on the one hand  because they tend to impose a Hollywood studio model where they get perpetual rights in return for full-financing plus a fee, leaving no IP with the producer  and also its a huge opportunity.

On the positive side Richter cited how streamers are allowing European dramas to make major inroads into the U.S., even when they are not in English, citing Fremantles Danish drama The Investigation, which plays on HBO. That would not have been possible a few years ago, he said.

But clearly with budgets going up, there is more need for collaboration, he noted.

As Moritz von Kruedener, managing director of German powerhouse Beta Film, put it, historically in Europe collaborations  in the form of co-productions  came out of necessity and the need to find the financing for productions which were impossible to finance out of a single market.

And co-productions, today turn out to be the European producers best weapon, he added.

Teaming up across borders today gives [us] the possibility to create content that is much more appealing to an international audience on the one hand, the Beta exec said, and on the other, its a perfect reaction to the growing intent of international streamers and fully integrated players to control creative talent, he added.

Von Kruedener said he is convinced that co-productions will be much more appealing for the creative talents than ending up just serving someone [the streamers] who is taking all the rights, and also making all the creative decisions, he noted.

The perfect example for him is Beta-produced ecological thriller The Swarm, a five-way European co-prod creatively led by American show runner Frank Doelger with cast from France and Germany, produced in Italy and Belgium.

Von Kruedener and Richter both pointed out that while initially there was huge desire on the part of European producers to make shows for Netflix, this is coming to an end when they experience the reality of not retaining rights.

Bruno Patino, who is CEO of Arte France, noted that they have always operated on a collaborative model and that European co-productions have been our battle for a long time.

But Patino also underlined that Artes collaboration with Netflix on Le monde de demain, a show premiering at Series Mania about the birth of Frances hip-hop movement in the 1980s that will soon launch on Arte in France and Netflix globally went very nicely and very smoothly.

I believe the streamers are going to open up when it comes to collaborating, said Von Kruedener. I dont know if its going to be out of free will, or just a natural development. But I think its impossible to control creativity in Europe, he added.

Gina Nieri, who is a board member of top Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset, which is being rebranded as MediaForEurope (MFE) as it launches its plan to gain scale in Europe, said that cross country consolidation fulfills our goal of scaling up in terms of revenue and risk, noting that investments in co-productions will become more strategic for them.

Whats clear is that in Europe the industry feels that viable alternatives to the streaming giants are necessary. And the best way to stand up to the streamers is for European production companies and broadcasters to find ways to join forces.

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The City of Laredo Health Department will celebrate World Health Day and National Public Health Week on April 7, 2022, by hosting our first-ever Mobile Health Clinic Village. We invite community partners to promote awareness and provide healthcare access to our community.

The goal of the Mobile Health Clinic Village is to provide the community with access to all of the excellent healthcare services in Laredo. The City of Laredo Health Department acquired a mobile health clinic to provide healthcare accessibility. We have seen the need for mobile clinic availability throughout our community, which has led us to this initiative.
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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced her support for incumbent Laredo Rep. Henry Cuellar during a press conference on March 23, according to the Texas Tribune. Cellular is currently facing a runoff election against progressive Democrat Jessica Cisneros.

I support my incumbents, said Pelosi, according to Texas Tribune reporting. I support every one of them, from right to left. That is what I do.
The Minnie Van service was introduced at Walt Disney World in 2017. (David Roark / Walt Disney Co.)

The Minnie Vans service is on its way back to Walt Disney World, according to a post on the official TikTok account for Disney Parks.

The 13-second video shows one of the polka-dot vehicles being activated. Rolling back in this summer appears on the screen.

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No other details have been shared by the company. Disney Worlds official website still lists the service as temporarily unavailable.

The Minnie Vans, a partnership with the Lyft ride-share company, have not been in operation since the resorts four-month pandemic shutdown began in March 2020. They were introduced in 2017.

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The six-passenger vehicles, driven by a Disney employee, could be used to travel to points on Walt Disney World property and to Orlando International Airport. An airport trip from Disney World was priced at $155, one way, on the website.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theme park news? Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters or the Theme Park Rangers podcast at orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/theme-park-rangers-podcast
The Sames Auto Group officially held the grand opening event of its new two-franchise location Wednesday. The event made last year's announcement official after they took over the Laredo Chevrolet and Nissan franchises on Dec. 9, 2021 that used to be part of the Paul Young Dealership -- their fiercest competitor for years.

The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for Sames Laredo Chevrolet began with a mariachi singing several songs for the attendees, a prayer recital by Father Paul Fry from Christ Church Episcopal and various guest speakers who spoke about the importance of the opening of the new location.

Evelyn Sames, the owner and chief operations officer of the group, said that they were glad that they have the complete support of the communities like Laredo in efforts to continue developing and growing as well as helping others locally have their individual successes.

"Laredo is our home, and it is a growing and thriving city," Sames said. "It is a wonderful place to live, work, raise a family and operate a business, and we are just grateful to have the opportunity to continue to invest in Laredo and to partner with Chevrolet and Nissan to expand our services.

"Today, is an exciting day for me, our extended size family and our community as we welcome Sames Laredo Chevrolet and Sames Laredo Nissan to our group. When I began my career 17 years ago, I couldn't have dreamed of this day as Paul Young was our competitor. He was a good competitor and he made my job tough and fun, so this is a long-awaited occasion and I couldn't be happier to share it with all of you.

Sames father, Hank -- the president of the Sames Auto Group organization -- was also at the event where he spoke on how remarkable it was to get the acquisition from Paul Young as they opened their new location.

"We are really pleased to have purchased the Paul Young Dealership, or dealerships as it is really two dealerships. I felt very blessed that they reached out to us and asked if we were interested, and we are as we are looking to expand our business, especially in our home market," Hank Sames said. Some people might say you already own Chevrolet and Ford, now it's not going to be that competitive, but I hate to tell you that we are going to be very competitive as the guys here, they want to be No. 1. The guys at the Ford and Honda dealership want to be No. 1, so the competition is on."

Hank Sames also spoke about how the dealership continues to expand and grow but also give back to the community while also announcing his donation of $10,000 to Laredo College during his speech.

Gabriela Morales, the CEO and president of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce, was at the event and provided some insight about what the opening of the new dealership means to the city.

As the President and CEO of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce, I appreciate Sames giving back to our community economically and socially, Morales said. The Sames brand has stood strong for over 110 years, and now that they have scaled, they will be able to contribute much more as a healthy source of good paying jobs, as an economic driver in this city and as a Laredo staple that dates back to a 1910 downtown shop.

The Laredo Chamber of Commerce is the oldest and strongest business organization in the community, and we are here to support the dealership industry, enhance their reach and promote them properly to obtain the clients from Laredo and beyond. The chamber thanks the Sames family for their dedication to our community."

The general manager of the new dealership also spoke briefly about how he felt about the grand opening and the big community event expected for later in the weekend.

"We are excited to be a part of such a great organization, and we invite you all to join us this Saturday to celebrate," said Trent Stricker, the general manager of Sames Laredo Chevrolet and Sames Laredo Nissan. "All the employees are glad the Sames Group decided to purchase the dealerships and keep them locally owned and operated. And we all look forward to moving into the future with Texas' oldest dealership."

IBC Bank Senior Vice President Wilfredo Martinez was present for the event. He spoke about the honor of opening the new location.

"It's an honor for me on behalf of the International Bank of Commerce, its executives and our CEO Mr. Dennis Nixon to be part of this, and to helping the family continue to grow," Martinez said.

Sames said that it is thankful for the support of the community that the company and organization continues to thrive in the area and beyond.

"We are so fortunate to have the support of our communities," Sames said. "(It's) the reason we are here and growing today."

Stricker said that the secret sauce to success is having the local community behind everything they do in the effort of continuing to grow and thrive in the area.

Sames Auto Group is officially recognized as the oldest dealership in Texas, as the organization has been continuously owned by the Sames family through five generations dating back to 1910. The group is compromised of 16 new and pre-owned vehicle locations in South and Central Texas that include franchise holdings such as Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Honda, Mazda, Kia and Nissan.

The company is also said to employ more than 700 people across the state at their various locations.

Although the official grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday, the grand opening celebration truly begins for the general public on Saturday, March 26 at 11 a.m. The Saturday celebration festivities will include refreshments, a build your own ice cream sundae bar for children, prize drawings that will be held every half hour of the event and even the chance for locals to win a brand new car.

The official grand opening celebration will be held at 3701 E. Saunders Street. More information about the Sames Auto Group and other events can be found by visiting their website at samesauto.com.
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U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a wanted migrant and a gang member while entering the country illegally in separate enforcement actions.

The first case unfolded during the early morning of March 17, when Laredo West Station agents apprehended a group of migrants in an area northwest of the city.

One individual was identified as Tomas Lopez-Lopez, a 40-year-old Mexican citizen. A records check revealed he had an active warrant out of Austin. Agents turned Lopez-Lopez over to the Webb County Sheriffs Office for extradition.

Later that morning, Laredo South Station agents apprehended eight migrants near the Rio Grande in west Laredo. Among the group was Miguel Angel Guel-Palacios, a 37-year-old Mexican citizen. He is a self-admitted member of the notorious Surenos gang.

Guel-Palacios was turned over to the U.S. Marshals to be prosecuted for his immigration violation.

Despite the ongoing international COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Border Patrol agents of the Laredo Sector will continue to safeguard the nation and our communities by preventing dangerous criminals from entering the United States, Border Patrol said in a statement.

To report suspicious activity such as human or drug smuggling, contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free at 1-800-343-1994.
Fire crews have solidified the time and date for a prescribed burn in Houston and are urging the public to not be alarmed if they see smoke rising near Memorial Park on Thursday.

Crews from the Houston Fire Department, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center initially set a window for the burn any time between now and April 21. On Wednesday, they finally announced that the burn will take place this Thursday morning after conferring with meteorologists with the National Weather Service.

Jay R. Jordan / Chron staff

Thursday's weather will be perfect for starting fires. There's a slight breeze forecast for the Bayou City but the skies will otherwise be clear and temperatures will rise to the 70s by the afternoon. The prescribed burn is part of a two-fold effort to reduce the risk of urban wildfires and preserve the native grasslands inside the facility.

"This proactive approach is the most practical way to reduce dangerous accumulation of combustible fuels and protect our community by reducing the risk of unwanted wildfires in the future," said Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena. "Our wildland firefighting group and emergency operations personnel, in collaboration with our safety partners, will ensure a professional controlled burn operation."

Here's what the burn looked like in 2021:

The fire will take place in the arboretum's grasslands area, a three-part section on the east side of the center.

The nature center provides sanctuary for both plant and animal species in each ecosystem and education about the region's natural lands before they were paved and developed into what we know today. In centuries past, nature would take care of the lands. But with modern development, there's a need to mimic some of the natural cycles that keep the ecosystems healthyespecially with fire.

"These prairie and grassland ecosystems evolved with fire," said Christine Mansfield, marketing and development manager at the arboretum. "As humans removed that largely, along with (the lack of) large grazers, this is an attempt to bring back a little bit of the natural tools that would keep these ecosystems healthy. Without them, succession happens and things naturally move from grassland states to savannah states to woodland states."

Firefighters are canvassing nearby neighborhoods to let residents and businesses know of the planned fire. They're urging anyone who sees smoke to not call 9-1-1 and clog up emergency lines.

Check the Houston Arboretum's website for more information.
New York, US (PANA) - The UN The Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has strongly condemned Wednesday's deadly attacks on compounds located inside the Aden Adde International Airport area in Mogadishu
WHAT THE TECH? How Americans can prepare for a cyber-attack as tensions with Russia escalate
Backstage Theatre Group is returning to the stage at long last and, their first post- pandemic performance promises to be a night of laugh-out-loud comedy with Plaza Suite.

We chose this play because we felt that after all the doom and gloom the past few years have brought, our audiences would be in need of a good laugh, explained Christine OBrien who is directing the upcoming performance.

The original play is in three acts and we picked it because each act is a separate story so if we needed to drop an act, we could.

Due to the high covid numbers over Christmas we couldnt get started as early as we hoped so we dropped the first act and that left us with plenty of time to work on the two acts we are doing. Each act is 35 or 40 mins in length; the pieces are short and snappy and full of fun.

Plaza Suite, by Neil Simon is a light-hearted comedy set in the late sixties. Two separate stories take place in the same suite in the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Muriel (Niamh Hanley) and Jesse (David Flaherty) are former high school sweethearts who seem destined for an extended stay. And Norma (Maureen Dunne) and Roy (Tom Lyons) are the mother and father of the bride (Georgina Hourican) ready to celebrate their daughters nuptials  if only they can get her out of the bathroom.

I think that people will really enjoy this production, Christine enthused.

The actors have been working so hard (including online when covid struck a couple of times!) and are so well suited to their individual roles. The crew have also been putting in a huge effort to create a lavish set, which we hope will impress, and finding the perfect costumes to set off the piece.

Its set in the 1960s so we have a few nice 60s tunes thrown in to set the tone.

Backstage Theatre Group are thrilled to be returning to the stage following a two year hiatus thanks to the pandemic.

It is such a good feeling to be able to bring live theatre to our audiences again, there is nothing quite like it, said Christine.

For the actors, there is the joy of performing and for the group as a whole, there is the satisfaction of providing a fulfilling theatrical experience for our audiences to enjoy.

But, despite all the setbacks, Christine feels the pandemic wasnt quite a death knell for the arts, but a renewal for creativity in the industry - something which was bolstered by an increased appreciation for music, reading and performance, while people were in lockdown.

I think that although the arts suffered terribly as a result of the pandemic in that all theatres had to close for so long, which was so tough; but there was also a surge in creativity and finding new ways to reach your audience - online shows, outdoor productions, play writing programmes, drama workshops etc., she said.

The show must go on surely proved to be the case. I would hope that people would appreciate more what they maybe took for granted before.

We are so lucky to have a fabulous theatre like Backstage in Longford, we need to support it as best we can by making the effort to get out and see the many great shows that are on offer, both local and professional, there are so many really great theatrical experiences to choose from.

Plaza Suite will be staged on March 31 and April 1 and 2 at the Backstage Theatre. Tickets are available at backstage.ie or 0433347888.

Its the ideal opportunity to have a good Longford night out. Why not go for an early bird meal beforehand and we will be finished up nice and early for people to go for a drink after and hopefully rave about how much they enjoyed the show, Christine suggested.

We also have a special Welcome Back offer on opening night, all tickets 10.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in this production, it is a huge team effort and we hope that people will come out and support it, we really want to make this comeback a memorable one!
The field on which Sundays County Longford Ploughing competition is being held once belonged to the Glennon Family and the second field belonged to the Gaffney Family one of who emigrated to the United States and founded the town of Gaffney in South Carolina.

John Kiernans late father was awarded an honorary citizenship of the town of Gaffney in 1982.

Near the farmyard there is a section of the historical boundary of Ulster known as the Valley of the Black Pig. This section of the boundary runs from Lough Kinale near Abbeylara to Lough Gowna. The entire dyke was constructed in the 4th century and ran from Newry to the sea at Bundoran.

The road alongside the site of where the competition is held was built during the famine and has been known locally as the new line since.

John Kiernan explained, The ballad of the Rocks of Bawn is very dear to all our hearts as it is the birthplace of our late mother; Roseanne. The townland of Bawn is situated in the neighbouring parish of Mullahoran.

The Rocks of Bawn

Come all ye loyal heroes a warning take from me

Never hire with any master till you know what your work will be

He will rise you in the morning before the break of dawn

I m afraid you will never be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

Now rise up gallant Sweeney and give your horse some hay

And give to him a feed of oats before you go away

Dont feed him on soft turnips, put him out on your green lawn

And then you might be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

Now my sock is getting worn and my coulter is getting thin

My heart is always trembling, afraid I might give in

My heart is nearly broken from the clear daylight till dawn

Im afraid I wont be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

My curse upon ye Sweeney, you have me nearly robbed.

For youre sitting by the fireside with your dudgeen in your gob

Youre sitting in the fireside from the clear daylight till dawn

Im afraid you wont be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

Well Sweeney, gallant Sweeney for you I have great moan

For the wind and rain beats upon your face among the rocks and stones

The wind and rain beats on your face from the clear daylight till dawn

I m afraid you wont be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn

Oh, I wish the Queen of England would send for me in time

And place me in some regiment while in my youth and prime

Id fight for Irelands glory from the clear daylight till dawn

And I never would return again to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

Composed by:- John Sweeney Glan, Mullahoran Cavan born 1840s.

Sung by James Dunne Cloncovit born 1886.

Written down by Tommy Kiernan Granard, husband of Rosanne Cooke Kiernan of Bawn Mullahoran Roseanne was Great granddaughter of 'The Widow Bawn'
Longford community groups and projects are being called upon to submit their entries for the .IE Digital Town Awards, an initiative of .IE, the managers of Irelands trusted online .ie address as the application date is extended for an additional week.

The awards, which have a total prize fund of 100,000 across 14 categories, opened for entries on February 21 and will now accept applications until Friday, April 1 at 5pm.

This decision was made to facilitate the high demand of interest in this years awards programme, according to Oonagh McCutcheon, National Director of the .IE Digital Town Programme.

The .IE Digital Town Awards were created to honour local towns and people who, through digital projects and innovation, have contributed to the betterment of areas such as e-health, digital tourism, community, education, and digital business, said McCutcheon.

Since opening the application process, we have been pleased to see such strong interest in applying for the Awards this year. In response, we have made the decision to extend the deadline by an additional week to ensure that all groups and projects have a chance to get their entries in.

To date, we have received submissions from a broad spectrum of towns and community leaders from across the country and we would like to take this opportunity to encourage any other local town or project who are considering taking part, to ensure that their application is submitted before the new deadline.

For those seeking inspiration, we have a number of previous winners profiled on our website www.weare.ie to give people a flavour of the type of projects that won at last years award ceremony. We have also compiled a full FAQ section to answer any questions that potential applicants might have.

For groups and individuals who have already started an application, the online portal will remain open for any last-minute changes or additions that they might like to make to their submission until 5pm on April 1.

We are delighted to welcome our category sponsors Western Development Commission, Connected Hubs, Vodafone and AIB Merchant Services.

The .IE Digital Town Awards Categories

Ten of the awards will be for digital projects in the areas of education, tourism, health, business, and community, with a further four special awards recognising a Digital Changemaker, Digital Rising Star, Digital Local Hero, and an Overall Winner, which will be decided on by an independent judging panel.

The judging panel for this years special awards categories will be looking for digital leaders who show a genuine passion and ambition for their town or community, are self-motivated, and who apply digital thinking to problem solve with creative solutions and innovative ideas that disrupt and enhance towns and communities for everyones benefit.

Finally, the Digital Local Hero award will recognise the unsung heroes nominated by their peers for their tireless work on community-focused and digitally led initiatives that make a town or a group in the town better.

The winners and runners up will be announced at a virtual gala awards ceremony on 8 June 2022.

The .IE Digital Town Awards is part of a 1 million investment announced by .IE in 2021 and to be delivered over four years, with a particular focus on digital enhancement and adoption in Irelands towns as part of its overall .IE Digital Town programme.

Learn more about applying for the .IE Digital Town Awards.
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has issued a strong warning about the worsening food crisis looming in Sudan because of a combination of reasons including continuation of conflicts, economic hardship, failed agricultural seasons and the Ukraine and Russia clash
If you are planning on running in the 2024 Local Elections or want to find out more about what is involved, then a free online revision course from See Her Elected aimed at women in rural Ireland will help equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge.

The revision workshop takes place online on Saturday, April 9 from 9.30-12.30pm and is free of charge to women from all over rural Ireland by simply emailing info@seeherelected.ie to register.

Project Manager with See Her Elected, Dr Michelle Maher explained that this is a great opportunity to catch up on the Foundation Series of workshops and advance to the Strategy workshops in the Autumn.

If you are getting real about the 2024 local elections, this revision workshop offers a high level of very practical support to women in monthly workshops with See Her Elected.

We are running two series of workshops to go with our recently published book The See Her Elected Guide to Running in the 2024 Local Elections, namely the SHE Foundation Series and the SHE Strategy Series. The foundation series began in November 2021 and runs to May 2022. The revision workshop on April 9th is an opportunity to catch-up so that you can join in on the remaining workshops and advance to the strategy workshops in the autumn, said Dr Maher.

If you can see yourself as a candidate in the 2024 local elections or would like to know a bit more about what is involved in running for election or indeed even if you dont see yourself as a candidate but would love to be involved in an election campaign to help a woman in your county get elected, then this revision workshop is for you.

By the end of the morning every women participating will: be clear for themselves and be able to articulate to others, why they are running for election, why they would be a campaign manager or team member; know how to powerfully and clearly state the issues they, or their candidate, is running on; understand what it means to be a County Councillor and the difference women can make; have assessed their own electoral area, with perspective of a candidate or a campaign manager to understand what happened at the last local election, the opportunities and barriers to winning a seat, and beginning to see what a campaign might look like, explained Dr Maher.

By taking part in this forthcoming revision course on April 9, participants will then be fully up to date to join in the remaining workshops in the SHE Foundation Series of Workshops which are held at 4 different times of the day and on 4 different days of the week.

The remaining workshops in the SHE Foundation Series will be about identifying and taking an action to raise your profile in your local electoral area and about putting your campaign team together. The foundation series of workshops will be repeated in their entirety in the autumn.

Participants who have completed the SHE Foundation Series will be invited to continue their preparation as campaign team members and potential 2024 local election candidates with the strategy series of workshops.

The strategy series will run from September 2022 until May 2023 meaning that a year out from the local elections women will have all the knowledge and skills in place, have spent two years or more working on their profile and will have well thought out communications, canvassing, campaign and social media strategies underway, said Dr Maher.

Currently women hold almost 26%, or 244 council seats, while the remainder, 705 are held by men. The 2019 local elections reveal a notable urban-rural divide in the likelihood of women being selected and elected for the council. Women accounted for 35 per cent of candidates contesting for seats in urban areas but just 23 per cent of candidates in more rural areas, according to research by the National Womens Council of Ireland (NWCI).

See Her Elected is a grassroots organisation built on the ethos of women learning and supporting each other with a specific focus on rural Ireland. SHE is a collaboration between Longford Womens Link and 5050North West and the programme is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Contact Dr Michelle Maher at info@seeherelected.ie to find out more and to register to join the FREE and online revision workshop on Saturday, April 9 from 9.30-12.30.
Irish hospitals are under serious pressure as staff treat a high volume of Covid-19 patients, health officials have warned.

It comes as senior politicians insisted there will not be a return to any restrictions despite a spike in cases.

HSE chief operations officer Anne OConnor said today (Thursday March 24) that hospitals are bearing the brunt of the rise in cases.

Cases in hospital are up 29% in the last week.

As of yesterday (Wednesday March 23), there were 1,395 Covid-positive patients in hospital, with 55 in intensive care.

Ms OConnor said around half of those patients are in hospital because they had become sick after contracting the virus.

She added: In one way, that doesnt really matter to us. If they are infectious with Covid, they need to be on a Covid ward, in isolation.

She named Sligo, Kerry and Limerick as places where staff are under particular pressure.

But she added: We are seeing huge pressures all around the country.

This is not just unique to hospitals. It is across the board.

More than 5,200 staff are currently absent due to Covid-19, she confirmed.

If you go to Limerick yesterday, they had serious problems with some specialties, where they had a consultant and some of their team out with Covid.

If they are gone, and their team is gone with Covid, we cant provide that service.

Ms OConnor said some hospitals and services are being forced to cancel elective surgery, even if they are endeavouring to still provide urgent or critical care.

Here are today's walk-in #COVIDVaccine clinics. We're operating walk-in clinics for dose 1 and 2 for children aged 5 to 11, dose 1 and 2 for people aged 12 and older, and booster vaccine clinics. Find the full list of clinics here: https://t.co/MiP6ZCt7TM#ForUsAll pic.twitter.com/TgtzfMPpnu  HSE Ireland (@HSELive) March 24, 2022

I know far more people with Covid than I ever have at the minute, she told RTE radio.

She said the health service has to get through the coming weeks and hope that case numbers and hospital figures start to drop.

The only lever in a hospital, unfortunately, is to cancel planned work, she said.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party last night that the chief medical officer does not see the need for further Covid restrictions.

He expressed his concern about rising numbers but stressed the Omicron variant of coronavirus is less severe, adding that the population is highly vaccinated and economic and social restrictions are not imposed for a bad flu season.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: March 24 2022

"We will install a traffic light on the corner of Edwards Avenue and Peninsula Blvd in Woodmere," said County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has announced a new traffic signal will be installed at the intersection of Edward Avenue and Peninsula Blvd in Woodmere. He also announced an increase of police enforcement in the area.

"After conducting an exhaustive traffic safety study and hearing from many members of the community, I have directed the County's Department of Public Works to install a traffic light on the corner of Edwards Avenue and Peninsula Blvd in Woodmere," said County Executive Bruce Blakeman. "I have also asked the Nassau County Police Department to increase enforcement in the area. With an increase in truck and vehicle traffic, this stoplight along with increased enforcement will improve safety conditions on this very busy roadway."

Blakeman said increased police enforcement of speeding and other dangerous driving violations will begin immediately. The traffic signal will begin to be installed soon and is expected to be completed later this spring.

"This traffic light is something that the community has been requesting for quite some time. Said Deputy Presiding Officer Howard Kopel "Too many people have lost their lives at this dangerous intersection, and I am thankful to the County Executive and his team for their prompt and welcome response to this critical situation."

"This highly-trafficked thoroughfare has long posed a hazard to pedestrians," said Legislator Denise Ford. "I thank County Executive Blakeman for joining in our support and calling for these much-needed improvements which will enhance safety for our Five Towns residents."
Ensure you get a print copy of the Loudoun Times-Mirror delivered weekly to your home or business!

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Author: Rebecca Lowe Format: Hardback Release Date: 24/03/2022

This is a brilliant travel adventure that scratches so far beneath the surface it might have struck oil. Rebecca Lowes rich knowledge of the Middle East is fascinating enough in itself to keep the pages turning, but add to that a rookie cyclist going for a risk-filled 11,000km ride to Iran and the results are not only culturally enlightening but hilarious. The author has a wickedly witty style that weaves effortlessly between her day to day travails and the people, mosques and historical sites that she seeks out to bring Islamic history to life. A talented journalist, Lowe is equipped to cut through the media image of the region that we have lazily settled for, and her description of why the bicycle is the best way to uncover what somewhere is truly like is the best I have read. Her observations in places once held under Ottoman rule, or in cities such as Venice where Muslim commerce made such an impression, turn the dial from negative towards positive in measuring the impact the Muslim world has had on western heritage and economies. There is an ingenious arc to this book from an early conversation with Muslim outsiders in France to her own experience as an outsider in Tehran where western journalists are met with suspicion. Ultimately The Slow Road to Tehran follows a path full of human kindness, bravery and compassion through a world unnecessarily divided.
eve Sleep PLC - London-based sleep wellness brand - Widens pretax loss in 2021 to GBP3.4 million from a loss of GBP2.4 million the previous year. Revenue rises 5.4% to GBP26.6 million from GBP25.2 million year-on-year. Company says this is its second consecutive year of revenue growth. Revenue growth was led by the UK and Ireland market, which achieved its third consecutive year of improvement. Revenue in its French business declines 13% in 2021. Calls the first quarter of 2021 its "strongest" and as a result says trading in January and February has been softer than last year, but 6% up on 2020.

Current stock price: 1.99 pence

12-month change: down 61%

By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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
(Alliance News) - Lloyd's of London on Thursday said it made a big swing back into profit last year, but the insurance market warned that the conflict in Ukraine "will be a major claim to the market in 2022".

Lloyd's said it swung to an overall profit of GBP2.3 billion in 2021 from a GBP900 million loss in 2020, as an 11% rise in premium rates lifted underwriting profitability.

The market's combined ratio improved to 93.5% last year from 110.3% in 2020. A ratio below 100% indicates profitable underwriting, so the lower the better. Lloyd's noted that its combined ratio in 2020 was 97.0% excluding Covid-19 pandemic claims.

The insurance market said it is speaking with partners to understand exposures to the war in Ukraine. It said business underwritten in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus represents less than 1% of its global footprint.

"Direct and indirect claims are expected to fall within manageable tolerances and will not create solvency challenges," Lloyd's said.

Lloyd's said its capital and solvency position is "very strong" and continues to build. Net resources increased to GBP36.6 billion, up 8.0% from GBP33.9 billion from a year before. It reported central and market solvency ratios of 388% and 177%, respectively, up from 209% and 147% a year ago.

"In a world buffeted by increasingly complex and connected risks - from the pandemic to a geopolitical conflict - the Lloyd's market is standing by its customers and supporting their recovery when things go wrong," said Chief Executive Officer John Neal.

Lloyd's said it paid out GBP19.9 billion in gross claims in 2021. It also has paid GBP2.9 billion to customers hurt by Covid-19.

By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Hydrogen Utopia International PLC - London-based company specialising in turning non-recyclable mixed waste plastic into carbon-free fuels - Says it believes that building new waste plastic to energy plants could be "significant" in allowing local communities across Europe to lessen the impacts of the gas and energy supply crisis and the anticipated market changes brought about by ongoing sanctions against Russia and the reluctance to rely upon it as an energy supplier in the future.

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ValiRx PLC - Nuneaton, England-based drug development company - Reports it is progressing towards the completion of its proposed sub-licence of VAL201 to TheoremRx Inc. VAL201's primary indication is for prostate cancer, with potential further research & development in breast and ovarian cancer. Company says TheoremRx continues to make good progress with its financing but notes that current global macro-economic events have impacted the timelines. First payments to ValiRx are expected on or before the end of June.

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Arecor Therapeutics PLC - Essex, England-based biopharmaceutical company - Wins patent grant from US Patent & Trademark Office protecting novel formulations of the group's insulin products, AT247 and AT278. Chief Scientific Officer Jan Jezek says: "This recently granted US patent, the first within the group's comprehensive insulin IP strategy, is a significant milestone, and we will continue to strengthen our IP portfolio with additional patent applications already in progress."

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GENinCode PLC - Manchester-based genetic testing company - Collaborates with Indiana University School of Medicine on a study using its Cardio inCode-SCORE for the risk assessment of patients for onset of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

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88 Energy Ltd - oil exploration company focused on Alaska - Reaches total depth of 7,334 feet at Merlin-2 well and ceases drilling. Company says all three target reservoirs at the well were penetrated with elevated gas readings. Adds observations of cutting samples have revealed oil shows over all targets. Wireline logging is due to commence shortly.

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i(x) Net Zero PLC - Jersey-based investment company focused on sustainability - Says portfolio company Context Labs has secures a multi-year partnership with energy company Williams Co Inc. Partnership for the deployment of its Immutably-based Decarbonization as a Service platform. The deployment of the enterprise data fabric solution will facilitate Williams' energy transition, i(x) explains.

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All Star Minerals PLC - Haywards Heath, England-based mining services investor - Appoints Jason Brewer as chief executive officer. Current CEO Ian Harebottle reverts to the position of non-executive director with immediate effect. Says restructuring has been driven by "recent developments in Europe".

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Panther Metals PLC - mineral exploration company focused on Canada - Notes announcement of Panther Metals Ltd, in which it has 37% holding, detailing "significant" reverse circulation drilling sample assay results. Results from the Coglia nickel cobalt project in Western Australia include: 21 metres at 1.34% nickel from 72 metres and 10 metres at 1.3% nickel from 62 metres. 18 of the 26 holes assayed return results above 0.5% nickel and 500 parts per million of copper. Once drilling is complete at Coglia the drill rig will move to the Eight Foot Well gold prospect, the company adds.

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Cohort PLC - Reading, England-based technology company - Says its German subsidiary ELAC Sonar has been awarded a contract to supply hydroacoustic equipment by Fassmer Shipyard, on behalf of the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support. Contract is worth EUR4 million and is expected to complete in the final quarter of 2023.

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Tern PLC - London-based investor focused on the internet of things - Notes that Wyld Networks AB has received a purchase order for its Wyld Connect internet of things module from an unnamed Brazilian company in the forestry sector. Tern holds 59% of Wyld Networks.

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Capital Metals PLC - London-based mineral sands explorer - Says IHC Mining is nearing the completion of the development study for the Eastern Minerals project in Sri Lanka. Capital Metals expects the final report by mid-April. Adds that drill samples from the project are continuing to be assayed by an independent laboratory but warns of backlogs. Company working with Sri Lankan government to secure industrial mining license but says timeline is beyond their control. Discussion regarding offtake and strategic party agreements continue.

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By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Thursday for the world to prevent Russia using its gold reserves, ahead of a NATO summit on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"We need to do more and so we need to do more economically," Johnson told LBC radio a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his devastating invasion of Ukraine.

"Can we do more to stop him using his gold reserves, for instance, in addition to his cash reserves? What can we do more to sanction SWIFT?" he said, referring to the international bank transfer system.

Johnson said that as well as increasing military support to Ukraine, "we've got to go further" economically.

"My message today in NATO will be that there are ways in which the world can continue to intensify the pressure on Putin," he said.

"The more we do that now, the more pressure we apply now, particularly on things like gold, ... I believe the more we can shorten the war, shorten the slaughter in Ukraine," he said.

source: AFP

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - XP Power Ltd on Thursday said that a US lawsuit brought by Comet AG has ended with the jury finding in favour of Comet.

Shares in the Singapore-based maker of power controllers were down 3.1% at 3,491.56 pence on Thursday in London.

Comet is a Wunnewil-Flamatt, Switzerland-based x-ray and radio frequency components maker. Back in September, Comet filed a lawsuit in the US against XP Power, alleging trade secret misappropriation relating to radio frequency match and generator technology.

A jury trial began on Monday last week, and on Wednesday the jury found in favour of Comet, awarding USD40 million in damages against XP Power.

XP Power said it is disappointed by the decision but respects it and will consider the judgement in detail before deciding on the next steps.

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

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...The Flood Warning is extended for the following rivers in Louisiana... Mississippi River At Red River Landing affecting West Feliciana, East Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee Parishes. For the Lower Mississippi River...including Red River Landing, Baton Rouge, Donaldsonville, Reserve, New Orleans...Minor flooding is forecast. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Caution is urged when walking near riverbanks. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov/lix. Click on the Rivers and Lakes menu for forecasts and observations. The next statement will be issued when updates are needed. && ...FLOOD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL TUESDAY, MAY 24... * WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Mississippi River At Red River Landing. * WHEN...Until Tuesday, May 24. * IMPACTS...At 51.0 feet, All river islands along the reach from Red River Landing to Baton Rouge will be inundated. Recreational camps and river bottom farm land will be under water. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 11:00 AM CDT Thursday the stage was 49.2 feet. - Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours ending at 11:00 AM CDT Thursday was 49.3 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage early Wednesday afternoon to a crest of 49.8 feet Thursday, May 19. It will then fall below flood stage Tuesday, May 24. - Flood stage is 48.0 feet. - Flood History...This crest compares to a previous crest of 48.8 feet on 04/22/2014. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
By offering a free haircut to the homeless, Caleb is able to sit them down and have a korero with them about their lives, which he says is his way of giving back to the community.

"I begun to get involved with community initiatives and giving back once I started working here. Giving back is a big part of what is fostered here at Kirkwoods Barbers" said Caleb.

"I sat down with my mentor and discussed how I could impact the community more, hes taught me to be big on giving in abundance and using the skills I have to impact communities."

The team at Kirkwoods Barbers are no strangers to this kind of kaupapa, as Caleb states they have been offering their free professional services to the homeless for two years.
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Amid tensions between the United States and Russia during the Ukraine invasion, any type of meeting between officials from both countries is fundamental for peace. In a recent face-to-face meeting between officials that doesn't happen often, there is a written report that CNN uncovered where something dangerous happened. During the meeting with a Russian general Yevgeny Ilyin, there was a small moment that completely broke the meeting as he stormed out of the room. The reason will surprise more than one as it paints a picture of how much real control president Vladimir Putin has over his top officials and how many chances there are of a coup.

In the meeting, general Ilyin got casually asked about the family he still has in Ukraine and about his Ukrainian heritage. The stoic that he tends to be, Ilyin suddenly changed his demeanor and became angry at the question. He confirmed he is deeply disturbed by what's happening and he also revealed he feels drepressed about the entire situation. Afterwards, he simply stood up from the meeting and abruptly left the room. This is a huge development not only into where can the relations between both countries lead to, but also about the type of relationship president Putin has with his aides. It's pretty evident many of them don't agree with what's happening in Ukraine.

Can Putin expect a betrayal?

Judging on this and many different cases that are taking place in the Russian government, there is a high risk for president Vladimir Putin as he increasingly gets more violent and more erratic with his decisions. Invading Ukraine was supposed to be a military operation that lasted less than a week, we are deep into a full month and no favorable results for Russia yet. Thousands of buildings destroyed in the neighbouring country and hundreds of Ukrainian civilians' lives taken after this time. It's safe to say Vladimir Putin's plan os definitely not going according to plan. A betrayal from one of his top aides doesn't sound so crazy anymore.
President Vladimir Putin can't seem to stop lying to his own people as reports of the so-called 'Ghost Buses' started coming from the Ukraine. In a video that went viral, there are several buses leaving the country with Russian insignias on them and covered windows. Those buses contained thousands of dead soldiers who are hidden from the media and from the people of Russia. There are many stories of mothers from that country who are convinced their children have perished in this invasion thinking they were just going to Ukraine for a military exercise. While the Russian state media is reporting only a low number of casualties to their own people, the rest of the world is delivering far more devastating data.

Those buses depict the reality of what's going on in a country that is currently controlled by an authoritatian regime that is sending their young soldiers to slaughter. The numbers reported by NATO officials are far scarier than the ones that Russia is offering to their own citizens. Putin recently organized a rally that is very reminiscent to the same rallies Donald Trump does in the United States where he kept lying to his own people. Although many of those constituents are also on board with the massacre he is conducting in Ukraine. Truth of the matter is that the Russian president is taking advantage of the overwhelming control he has over every aspect of life inside the country. All those killed soldiers will be forgotten due to the lies of an entire government.

How many casualties does Russia truly have?

According to numbers from NATO officials, Russia has over 40,000 Russian soldiers who have either died, been wounded, taken as prisoners of war or simply gone missing in action. Confirmed deaths are between 7,000 and 15,000 so far. If this is true, these numbers are twice as high as the average monthly casualties the Allied forces against the nazis reported during World War II. Even though the Russian military is still vast and great in numbers, they are still taking a massive hit from a relatively small adversary.
Khabib Nurmagomedov has defended UFC star Jorge Masvidal after he was arrested on suspicion of allegedly assaulting fellow fighter Colby Covington.

Masvidal was arrested on Wednesday evening for allegedly attacking Covington on Monday outside a Miami hotspot, and he now faces two charges.

He faces one count of aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm, and he also faces one count of criminal mischief.

Nurmagomedov has come to Masvidal's defence via a statement issued on Twitter, in which he criticised Covington for going to the police.

"If you are stronger than someone inside the octagon, it does not mean you can insult his children," he said.

"No one has the right to insult someone's family.

"Once you have gone down that path, then be ready to back up your words. You were attacked by professional fighter, the same as you are, your own size, and you go press charges against him to the police?"

Khabib's message to other UFC fighters

He went on to call for Covington to be blacklisted by fellow UFC fighters as a result.

"I think all welterweights should refuse to fight Colby [Covington], just don't accept fights with him," Khabib added.

"Let him sit without a fight, it will probably significantly affect him and all fighters who even think of insulting families, who is provoking the fighters to look for someone in restaurants to deal with him."

The alleged incident came 16 days after Covington defeated Masvidal via a unanimous decision in the UFC 272 main event.

In the build-up to the fight, Covington had launched a series of personal insults at Masvidal, such as calling him a "deadbeat dad".
Weather Alert

...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING... * 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...Until 7 PM CDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Significant and potentially life threatening flash flooding is ongoing just south of I-44 across Okfuskee and Okmulgee counties. Numerous main-stem rivers will are above flood stage with some major flooding expected, especially along the Illinois River Basin. Extensive low land flooding will be likely, especially where the heavier rain has already occurred. Many low-water crossings will likely become flooded. Area creeks and streams are already running high. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Significant flooding is ongoing across Eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas from heavy rainfall overnight. More scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue throughout the day and could result in more flash flooding and mainstem river flooding across the area. Continue to monitor any road closings and flood warnings. - 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. &&
A North Adams native and two-term North Adams mayor who served from 2018-2021, Tom Bernard has a deep and longstanding connection and commitment to North Adams, and especially to MCLA. Bernard is a former MCLA administrator who worked as Executive Assistant to the President and Clerk of the MCLA Board of Trustees, as well as in roles with the Administration & Finance and Advancement teams. After MCLA, Bernard served as director of special projects at Smith College. He previously was a development officer at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and served in various volunteer roles in North Adams and at the regional and state levels. In his current role as President and CEO of Berkshire United Way, Bernard leads an organization passionately committed to philanthropy and service; to engaging individuals and organizations in the shared mission of building and strengthening community; and to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as an organizational commitment and as a charge central to BUWs role as a community partner and convener. The son of North Adams Public Schools teachers each of whom was educated at MCLA/NASC, Bernard is a graduate of Drury High School, Williams College, and Westfield State University.





Susan Gold

Former MCLA Board of Trustees

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters






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Chinese FM meets Pakistani chief of army staff on ties, int'l issues

Xinhua) 13:14, March 24, 2022

ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and the two had friendly and in-depth discussions on the relations between China and Pakistan as well as the regional and international issues.

During the meeting, the Pakistani chief of army staff spoke highly of the high-level strategic cooperation between Pakistan and China.

Bajwa praised and expressed support for China's foreign policy, saying China has pursued a balanced and steady foreign policy, been committed to world peace and development and fulfilled its role as a responsible major country in international hotspot issues.

Wang said China appreciates the Pakistani military for its proactive effort and significant contribution over the years in consolidating and strengthening the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, safeguarding the security and smooth progress of the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and ensuring the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan.

Wang also said that the Pakistani military has played a role of stabilizer and ballast in building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.

On the Afghanistan issue, Wang called for wisdom of the East to promote dialogue and communication to solve it, instead of resorting to pressure or sanctions.

Both China and Pakistan have encouraged the ruling authorities of Afghanistan to actively build an open and inclusive political framework, implement moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies and resolutely fight all forms of terrorism, he said.

Noting that Afghanistan enjoys favorable geographical advantages, resources endowment and development potential, Wang said the international community should support Afghanistan in finding the right path of economic development, livelihood improvement and self-reliance.

Bajwa said that Pakistan is highly concerned about the spillover effect of the Ukraine crisis, appreciates China's stance of upholding justice and balance and promoting peace talks, and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China in this regard.

Noting that the Ukraine crisis has taught the world that conflicts are to occur when one pursues exclusive or absolute security and seeks one's own security over others' insecurity, Wang said that in the 21st century, military blocs and clan rivalries have long lost people's support and are doomed to fail.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai is without a doubt one of the most beautiful women in the world.



I mean, just the fact that two really big actors, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi reportedly fought over her, seems to say a lot.

Aishwarya, is of course, happily married into the Bachchan family, to Junior B AKA Abhishek Bachchan.

 Aishwarya Rai

However, did you know that Aishwarya has a lot of big fans in Hollywood as well? Yep! That's right.



According to reports, a legendary Hollywood actor publicly admitted to wanting to work with her in a movie. The actor was very popular in the West for his kick-ass action flicks, which even now are looked like one of the best action movies to date.

The actor is none other than Bloodsport star Jean-Claude Van Damme!

 Prime Video

For people who may not be well versed with Van Damme's work, the superfit actor worked in films like Cyborg (1989), Kickboxer (1989), Lionheart (1990), and Demise Warrant (1990).



Now, while the actor made his presence in Hollywood in the 80s and the 90s, it turns out that he's also a fan of Bollywood.

As reported by Hindustan Occasions back in 2012, Van Damme spoke on Bollywood and was full of praise for it.

 Reuters

There are such a lot of good films(in Bollywood). One movie I keep in mind watching is Devdas. I actually wish to go to India and make a movie there. Lets examine if one thing works out. he said.



When asked about the one actress he's seen in Bollywood, the actor went on to reveal Aishwarya as someone he finds really attractive

Sure, that woman from Devdas? Is she Aishwarya Rai? It needs to be Aishwarya (Rai). She is totally attractive, he said.

As you'd already know, Aishwarya herself isn't new to Hollywood, having worked in a few western films like Bride and Prejudice, Mistress of Spices, and The Pink Panther 2.

 Prime Video

It was also revealed once that Hollywood sexual predator Harvey Weinstein tried to get Aishwarya alone through her Hollywood agent, however, was unable to do so.



We're honestly very thankful that Aishwarya was safely escorted from the place!

Source: Time Of Hindustan
Emraan Hashmi is collaborating with Akshay Kumar for the first time in Karan Johars upcoming film Selfiee directed by Good Newwz director Raj Mehta.

However, theres another factor that connects the two actors and that is the role of underworld don Shoaib in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai film franchise.

 Balaji Telefilms

In the first part, Emraan Hashmi played the iconic role and immortalised it. Three years later, Akshay replaced Emraan and played an older version of the character in Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara.



This isnt all. Emraan Hashmi also revealed in his book, which he wrote after his son Ayaans recovery from cancer, The Kiss Of Life - How A Superhero & My Son Defeated Cancer that he met Akshay for the first time at an Eid party right before the release of Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara.

 Balaji Telefilms

Emraan wrote in his book how Akshay had told him that whoever hes met they have stated that both the actors are quite alike in nature, discipline and the way they lead their life. At this point, Emraan also joked that they also have another thing in common, the character of Shoaib.



Emraan further revealed that a year after their first meeting, when his son Ayaan was recovering post this first surgery, Akshay was of great help. He revealed how he received a text message from Akshay that read, Hi, this is Akshay Kumar. Please call when you're free.

Emraan immediately called him and Akshay asked softly, "Hi Emraan, is it true what I read about your son?, Yes. We have gotten the tumour removed successfully. Couldn't save the kidney so that was extracted as well, replied Emraan.

How long are you going to be there at the hospital? I'll come there, Akshay then asked. To which, a touched Emraan replied, No sir, it's okay. Things are under control. Besides, you must be tied up with work.

Akshay then obliged and added, If you need anything, I am a phone call away, okay? I know some good doctors and facilities. Kuch bhi chahiye bata de.

 Emraan Hashmi Instagram

Emraan wrote in his book that after the aforementioned phone call, Akshay used to call him every day to check on his sons recovery from cancer. And once, Emraans son Ayaan was brought back home, Akshay insisted on visiting him.



He reached Emraans house within an hour of their phone call and tiptoed to Ayaans room while he was asleep.

Emraan further describes in the book how Akshay sat there quietly caressing his head and was left teary-eyed when he saw a poster on the wall featuring Ayaan in a Bat-Suit.

Akshay then asked Ayaans age, to which Emraan replied he is going to be four soon. He gave the child another look and walked out of the room quietly.

At this point, the Shanghai actor mentions in the book that he didnt realise Akshay had lost his father to cancer and perhaps that was the reason he empathised with Emraan.

Akshay also suggested to Emraan that he should consider taking his son to Canada for treatment stating he could arrange for amenities and other facilities in the country easily.

Interestingly, Akshay wrote the foreword of Emraans book and a part of its reads, When I heard of Ayaans diagnosis, I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. I remember I was driving at that time. I pulled over, found Emraans number and called him immediately because I know what its like to have someone you love deeply fall prey to this disease.

The two actors are currently busy filming for their upcoming film Selfiee and recently celebrated Emraans birthday on-set.

.@emraanhashmis birthday celebrations are in full swing on the sets of #Selfiee! This frame is everyones favourite!#HappyBirthdayEmraanHashmi pic.twitter.com/M54qk44LOE  Dharma Productions (@DharmaMovies) March 24, 2022

Selfiee also stars Nushrratt Bharuccha and Diana Penty. The release date of the film is not out yet.
There's a reason why so many people want to become actors in Bollywood! Not only does it guarantee worldwide fame but you are also paid handsomely well and you can buy the fanciest of cars and houses, and live a life that turns others green with envy.

Now, Bollywood superstars like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Akshay Kumar earn incredible well for films. But did you know that there are a few super actresses in Bollywood who earn more than their male co-stars?

Here are some of them.

1. Deepika Padukone

 Deepika Padukone

While her latest film Gehraiyaan still continues to divide fans, what can not be doubted is that Deepika is paid wonderfully well in films.



In fact, she is one of the best-paid actresses in Bollywood, having delivered hits back to back over the years.

According to reports, Deepika, who usually charges Rs 26 crore per film, was actually paid Rs 12 crore for Padmaavat while her husband and co-actor Ranveer Singh received Rs 7-8 crore.

2. Alia Bhatt

 Instagram/Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt was yet again absolutely sensational in her latest film Gangubai Kathiawadi, and it shows exactly why she is paid so much for her work.



As per reports, while the actor charges a sum of Rs 22 crores for a film, she was actually paid a sum of Rs 10 crores in Raazi, while her co-star Vicky Kaushal was paid around Rs 3-4 crore.

3. Kareena Kapoor Khan

 Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan and her husband Saif Ali Khan have an empire together, and this is aside from the fact that Kareena earns tremendously well in Bollywood.



Over the last two decades, Kareena has proved her mettle in the industry having done films like Jab We Met and others.

As per reports, Kareena was actually paid the most in films like Veere Di Wedding and in In Ki & Ka.

4. Kangana Ranaut

 Instagram/Kangana Ranaut

Bollywood's Kangana Ranaut is a very talented actress and for that, she earns a lot of money.



The actress reportedly charges Rs 27 crores per film and has also invested them well in her properties across the country.

But did you know that she was paid more than star actor Rajkumar Rao in Judgementall Hai Kya?

Not only that, according to reports, Kangana was the best paid amongst Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan in Rangoon as well.

5. Shraddha Kapoor

 Instagram/Shraddha Kapoor

Shraddha Kapoor is another name who's done so well for herself in Bollywood.



As per reports, she charges around Rs 23 crores for a film and in the hit comedy-horror film Stree, was paid even more than her co-star Rajkumar Rao.
This was not the first time that a movie has irked the sentiments of people by showing something that a section of society didnt approve of. In fact, most people out there, rather than agreeing to disagree with a movie or its plot, would choose to throw a shit-fit or a full-blown riot, dissing a film and demanding it to be taken down.

But not the students of JNU, for even if they didnt side with the depiction of their institute in the film The Kashmir Files, they stand strong on the belief that JNU still plays an important role as the building block of the nation.

    



Nowhere in the movie JNU is mentioned ...https://t.co/cEbR8grMBB  Dr Shobha (@DrShobha) March 20, 2022

Just watched #KashmirFiles



This film is a tight slap in the face of all the so-called JNU "students", "poets" and "intellectuals".@vivekagnihotri @AnupamPKher pic.twitter.com/YMuNFoBI4l  Gouranga Nath (@krishna_servant) March 23, 2022

The character of Radhika Menon in The Kashmir Files movie, performed by Pallavi Joshi, is inspired by the JNU Professor Nivedita Menon, a well-known political scientist and author of the book Seeing Like a Feminist. Menon is a professor at the JNU. pic.twitter.com/FCk0FVzFRK  Anoop Menon (@anoopmenon_108) March 20, 2022

Upset with how JNU was portrayed in the film The Kashmir Files where a professor from the Delhi University was supporting the Kashmiri separatists, students from JNU think that it was not everyones take on the Kashmiri Pandit matter, yet, they understand why the ideologies of such people need to be exposed.

It is really strange that Indias 2nd ranked university JNU is targeted in Kashmir Files movie from where we have got bright leaders like Nirmala Sitharaman & Jaishankar. Strange!  Sunderdeep - Volklub (@volklub) March 23, 2022

The movie "The Kashmir Files" talks about the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits during their so-called "exodus" on & from 19 January, 1990.



But this movie also tries to misrepresent some true facts, defame JNU, blame some selective politicians and so on.#TheKashmiriFiles  Saptadip Chakraborty (@SapChak2003) March 16, 2022

Siddhant, a student pursuing his PhD from JNU says, Most of the students and faculty members at JNU, do not hold views that are opposed to national interests. Neither are they involved, in any way, with such divisive things." But when it comes to exploding people like Professor Menon, he thinks it's absolutely necessary to do so.

Another student Deepanshu from the university shared, I have seen the film and such films should continue to be made. People of all communities should know how the Kashmiri pandits suffered in the Valley. We all feel that making such films has become even more important when the government has not taken adequate steps against the criminals."

To everyone alarmed at #KashmirFiles scenes where Pallavi Joshis character yells that India will be in tukde tukde, let me assure you that in my time at JNU not a single prof. ended or started or even mentioned anything about tukde tukde bits of India.  Vasundhara Sirnate (@vsirnate) March 18, 2022

#IslamophobiaInIndia

1 . KNOW ABOUT #HinduHatredness



Nivedita Menon, the #JNU professor whose role is portrayed by #PallaviJoshi as Prof Radhika Menon in The Kashmir Files. This video is from a JNU gathering in February 2016 where Nivedita Menon is brainwashing pic.twitter.com/I6PQZDzl1G  Apsara (@Indigen_Apsara) March 16, 2022

He went on to say, This is not an issue with this institution alone. JNU also gives back a lot to the country. We are everywhere in the country supporting and contributing towards nation-building. There is immense scope for positive debate among students studying here. Students have the freedom to speak, learn, understand and have a platform to voice their opinions."

Coming to the defence of the university was yet another student Sabarish who said, JNU is just like any other university. There are obviously students and staff members with different views. But their controversial statements are only used to highlight this place as the citadel of divisiveness by filmmakers and journalists. The university has also been imparting quality education for decades now. It is one of the top universities in the country."

Source: Times Now
Indians are hailing airman Darshan Shah who is serving as an aerospace medical technician in the US Air Force for pursuing a religious waiver to allow him to wear tilak while in uniform.

The waiver was approved after two years wait and the Hindu community in the US and India are expressing their gratitude towards the US military officials.

 Twitter

Shah is assigned to the 90th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron and has been seeking a waiver since he joined the military. He has been wearing the tilak chandlo (a red dot inside a U-shaped marking) on his forehead since he was in third grade and considers it as his identity.



 Darshan Shah

I feel like thats a part of who I am, said Shah who is a follower of Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottan Swaminarayan Sanstha or BAPS. Ive been through a lot, and I feel like my religion is helping me through a lot as well in life. When I wear this uniform, thats an identity as well. But I feel like I have my full identity when I have the Tilak Chandlo on my forehead, he added.



 India Today

Through an official communication of the 90th Missile Wing Chaplain Corps, he thanked the US Air Force for letting him wear the tilak. He said, We live in a country where were allowed to practise and have faith in what we want. Thats what makes this such a great country. Were not persecuted for what we follow or believe. If it wasnt for the first amendment, I wouldnt be able to do this at all. I wouldnt be able to be who I am while being a military member or even a citizen.



Shah plans to become a commissioned officer and serve as a doctor once he completes his degree. He plans to serve in the Air Force for at least the next 20 years.

 Airman 1st Class Charles Munoz

Religious faith and sentiments can often conflict with the rules and regulations of an institution that requires people to be viewed equally and without discrimination.



A very fresh incident happened in India where female Muslim students in Karnataka were asked to remove hijab since it was not a part of the uniform. This created a political and religious row and protests on the streets.

 Indian Express

A lot of people on social media couldnt help but relate this incident to the Hijab row. They called out the irony about religious bias in secular India and hypocrisy of people who are showing gratitude but wont support or worse oppose the hijab protest.



The same NRI uncles will oppose hijab in schools in India, hypocrisy.  Abhijith (@twelverabhi) March 24, 2022

So what is the issue with wearing hijab in Indian Universities? Pls explain. This right is justified but that right isn't?  SAhmed (@SA_Humanitarian) March 22, 2022

Thank Ishwar Shah lives in a country which allows him so , In Hidustan he might be thrown out at school level for wearing Tilak.  Stoic (@SachinS56500785) March 23, 2022

You all want freedom to practice Hinduism in America where you just settled a generation ago. But here in India muslims are outsider after centuries of living.  Tara khan (@TaraKhanS) March 23, 2022

How is it different? Both religious displays are a choice, both arent conventionally a part of the uniform and both incidents happened in secular and democratic countries.

Maybe we can learn something from the US Air Force, along with thanking them for making a religious waiver for an Indian-origin Hindu.
How many times has it happened, that youre with your partner, getting down and dirty as the vibe gets hot and risque? The mood is right, as is the music and all thats left to do is to take that plunge, but before that can happen, youre interrupted (either by your own self-conscience or your partners) getting urged to use protection.

Not that there is anything to hate about using a condom during sex, considering it is what is keeping us from having a quarter-life crisis where we dont have to worry about unsolicited pregnancies, but a lot of times, the timing can take your little soldier from attention to at ease.

However, there might just be a way around it (one that doesnt involve women taking the emergency contraceptive pill), for researchers at the University of Minnesota have come up with a non-hormonal male contraceptive pill that is being said to be 99% effective in mice, with no apparent side effects.

The research team shared that mice who were given the compound, called GPHR-529, for four weeks showed a significant drop in semen, rendering them sterile, which is perhaps how the contraceptive would work with these pills.

Male contraceptive pill found 99% effective in male mice  *awaits clown show to arrive* https://t.co/F7hhOjDDXW  KANG (@RaspyRawls) March 23, 2022

A team of scientists said Wednesday they had developed an oral male contraceptive that is 99% effective in mice without causing side effects, and could enter human trials by the end of this year

@IssamAhmedhttps://t.co/sc915Wc8X2  AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 23, 2022

However, when the treatment was stopped, the mice returned to normal levels of virility within four to six weeks. Which confirmed that the effects of the male contraceptive werent long-term and thereby reversible.

The study that is being led by Md Abdullah Al Noman, a PhD candidate at the school, is now being sought for human trials. Noman shared, Safety is very important for birth control pills because people are not taking it for a disease, so they are less tolerant of side effects.

"We wanted to develop a non-hormonal male contraceptive to avoid these side effects,"



No one gave a shit that women went literally insane on the pill no? wow. https://t.co/7E9DGii2y9  Kristle Rawlinson (@DeviGib) March 23, 2022

Noman and his colleagues have licensed their drug to a private company, YourChoice Therapeutics as of now, and the human trials might commence by the end of this year.

Any man that is blindly complaining about the male contraceptive pill needs to check themselves. Pregnancy is not just a womans responsibility  Jess (@ic_ca) March 24, 2022

RE the male contraceptive pill. So all that shit is fine for women, but heaven forbid men experience weight gain and depression. pic.twitter.com/WO1YuwWNp8  Ingrid (@ingvb) March 23, 2022

At the same time, men who are averse to the idea of popping a pill due to side effects are being slammed on social media, keeping in mind the fact that women were put in a position to take the emergency contraceptive pill for years despite the side effects, most often urged by their male partners.

It took decades to develop a male contraceptive pill because they didnt want men to go through side effects such as: depression, weight gain, etc. Hmm, very interesting https://t.co/g5aXgMqeVN  shenice. (@SheniceGeneva_) March 23, 2022

Meanwhile, Richard Anderson from the University of Edinburgh, UK has suggested, If you were developing a drug thats targeting a completely novel pathway, I think it would be appropriate to be cautious about safety when there isnt a track record in that field.

Relying on dudes to take this is a bad idea https://t.co/M2zKjO06xo  Erblin Idrizi (@ErblinIdrizi) March 24, 2022

He went on to say, It seems to me inherently unlikely that a compound with such activity would be free of side effects.

Whether or not this drug could be made with zero side effects, is yet to be known, but irrespective of that, it is a breakthrough for men who up till now only had the option of either wearing a condom or going for a vasectomy.

Source: New Scientist
Plan aims to end bias in home appraisals

Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan Wednesday intended to end racial and ethnic discrimination in the appraisal of home values, part of a broader federal effort to address a wealth gap that systemic inequality has perpetuated.

The plan contains 21 steps to improve oversight and accountability, including a legislative proposal to modernize the governance structure of the appraisal industry. Appraisers help to determine the value of a home so that buyers can receive a mortgage.

Black and Latino people often have to pay more for their mortgage, receive less when they sell the home and are less able to access home equity lines of credit, Harris said at the White House.

6 students killed in Oklahoma crash were in car that seats 4

OKLAHOMA CITY  Six teenage girls on a high school lunch break were killed when their small car with only four seats collided with a large truck hauling rocks, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Wednesday.

The crash occurred shortly after noon Tuesday in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 located about 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, the patrol said. Those killed included the 16-year-old driver, three 15-year-olds, and two 17-year-old passengers, according to the patrol.

While what led to the crash is unknown, it highlighted concerns of teenagers carrying other

young passengers.

Just adding a single passenger under age 21 increases the risk of crashing by 44% when the driver is a teen, said William Van Tassel with AAAs national office.

Trump rescinds Brooks endorsement in Senate race in Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala.  Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday rescinded his endorsement of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabamas Republican primary for Senate, dealing a major blow to the congressmans campaign.

In a statement, Trump cited Brooks languishing performance in the race and his attempt to move Republicans beyond Trumps false 2020 election fraud claims. The former president said he will make another endorsement in the near future.

Very sad but, since he decided to go in another direction, so have I, and I am hereby withdrawing my Endorsement of Mo Brooks for the Senate, Trump said.

Brooks responded that he had not changed at all, and he accused Trump of dropping him for rebuffing the former presidents entreaties  coming as recently as last week  to help overturn the 2020 election.

He wanted the election rescinded and a do-over, Brooks told reporters in Alabama. But theres no legal way to do it.

Trump has been frustrated for months as Brooks has failed to gain traction in the May 24 primary and has trailed in polling. By withdrawing the endorsement, Trump sought to stave off the embarrassment of backing a losing candidate in a high-profile race. Trump, who often brags about his endorsement record, sees it as a reflection of his power in the Republican Party as he mulls another presidential run in 2024.

Trumps picks have struggled in other races, too.

The Senate candidate he originally endorsed in Pennsylvania, Sean Parnell, dropped out amid allegations of abuse from his ex-wife. In North Carolina, Trumps Senate pick, Rep. Ted Budd, has failed to make a splash. In Georgia, former Sen. David Perdue is trailing Gov. Brian Kemp, one of Trumps top 2022 targets, in the gubernatorial primary campaign.

Trump first endorsed Brooks last April, more than a year before the Alabama primary, rewarding the conservative firebrand who whipped up a crowd of Trump supporters at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

Brooks has since found himself in a tough race with two formidable opponents: Katie Britt, the former head of a state business group, and Mike Durant, a businessman best known as the helicopter pilot shot down and held prisoner in the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident.

The GOP primary in the conservative state will likely decide who succeeds GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, whos retiring. Britt previously served as Shelbys chief of staff.

Brooks, who voted against certifying President Joe Bidens victory, said in a statement that he knew he might lose Trumps endorsement by saying the 2020 election could not be overturned.

President Trump has asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. As a lawyer, I have repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the United States Constitution nor the United States code permit what President Trump asks. Period, Brooks said Wednesday at a town hall in a diner in Hueytown, Alabama.

Ive told President Trump the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement. But I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the United States Constitution. I honor my oath, he said, drawing applause from the roughly two dozen people gathered.

He told reporters that Trump had talked about getting the election rescinded in conversations with him as recently as last week, when the two last spoke.

At the Stop the Steal rally before the storming of the Capitol, Brooks had spoken in incendiary language, telling the crowd that Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.

Trump on Wednesday accused Brooks, one of the most conservative members of Congress, of going woke for saying at an August rally that it was time to move on from the 2020 presidential race and focus on upcoming elections.

When I heard his statement, I said, Mo, you just blew the Election, and theres nothing you can do about it,  Trump said.

The six-term congressman laughed at the characterization.

Anybody with a brain the size of a pea or larger in the state of Alabama knows that Mo Brooks may be a lot of things, but woke or liberal aint them, he said.

Trump hadnt told him in advance that he would be pulling the endorsement, Brooks said.

If itd been me, I would have called someone to give them a heads-up. I think thats the gentlemanly thing to do. But thats me, he said.

Trump had told the Washington Examiner last week that he was disappointed in Brooks performance and was mulling backing another candidate because, he claimed, Brooks had changed.

Its a very tight race between the three of them right now, and Im not particularly happy, he told the newspaper.

Trump invited Britt and her husband, Wesley Britt, a former lineman for the New England Patriots, to meet with him at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate last month, according to a person who was familiar with the visit but not authorized to speak about it publicly. Trump also met with Durant on Monday in Florida, according to another person who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the private meeting.

Both Britt and Durant have a cash advantage over Brooks. Britt has raised nearly $5 million. Durant has loaned his campaign $4 million, while Brooks has reported $2.1 million in contributions.

Brooks has leaned heavily on his Trump connection throughout the race. His campaign signs refer to him as MAGA Mo in reference to the former presidents Make America Great Again slogan. He appeared with a life-size poster of him and Trump at one recent campaign stop.

On Wednesday, however, the poster was gone.

While Trumps endorsement withdrawal is a major loss to the Brooks campaign, the former presidents backing hasnt always guaranteed success in Alabama.

In 2017, Trump endorsed Luther Strange in the GOP primary for Jeff Sessions Senate seat, but Strange lost to Roy Moore. In the general election, Trump backed Moore, who was contesting sexual misconduct allegations and lost to Democrat Doug Jones.

Mark S. Lemsky, a 66-year-old retiree who attended Brooks town hall on Wednesday, said he was sticking with the congressman despite Trumps rescinded endorsement.

Ill vote for Trump when its his time (for me) to get to pull the lever, and Ill vote for Mo come May 24th, he said, explaining that, of all the candidates, Democrats seemed most opposed to Brooks.

If the enemy hates that guy, theres my guy, said Lemsky, of Oak Grove.

As for Trumps decision? I thought Trump was wrong when he fired Jeff Sessions. I thought he was wrong when he took his endorsement away from Mo, he said. But Ill still vote for Trump if he runs again.



Colvin reported from New York.
The Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau will receive $90,202 for marketing and promotion, Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday.

The money is part of $5.3 million in funding the governor announced for 103 tourism marketing organizations in 88 counties.

Beshear said the investment is to ensure the tourism industry is positioned to thrive in a post-pandemic economy.

Mark Calitiri, president of the CVB, said, We lost more revenue that that during COVID, but this money isnt to reimburse us. Its for marketing and promotion in the future.

He said the amount was about what he was expecting.

Calitri said hes hoping that the Kentucky General Assembly will keep the CVB in mind when it earmarks American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Four area tourism agencies will also get state funds.

The governors announcement said the Central City Tourist & Convention Commission will receive $8,600; the Ohio County Tourism Commission will receive $7,615; the Muhlenberg County Tourism Commission will receive $4,300; and the City of Greenville Tourism Commission will receive $4,300.

Calitri said, The tourism industry has faced incredible challenges over the last two years, and these marketing funds are required to be used to help tourism stakeholders recover and create an economic impact.

There are strict rules and guidance with this funding and how it is to be deployed. It is required to align with the current matching funds program through the Kentucky Department of Tourism. It must be deployed strictly in marketing and promotional efforts.

Calitri said the CVB will be looking to deploy these funds over the next two years to help tourism organizations recover.

Beshear said tourism brings more than 67 million people to Kentucky each year and that number is set to grow even more.

Wednesdays announcement said Louisville will receive $1.4 million; northern Kentucky will receive $883,155; Lexington will receive $544,959; Bowling Green will receive $164,155; Paducah will receive $114,446; and Elizabethtown will receive $89,364.

The announcement said an additional $678,624 will be allocated to the nine tourism regions to support regional marketing and promotion.

Of that, $251,821 will go to the Bluegrass, Blues and BBQ Region, which includes Owensboro.

State Sen. Matt Castlen, an Owensboro Republican, said in a news release, Tourism is a major economic engine in my district, and I am grateful that the commonwealth has made this investment in the tourism industry. This additional funding support will play an important role in our efforts to attract more visitors to western Kentucky.

The announcement said that the amount counties will receive is based on their share of the 2019 Economic Impact Report.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com.
Grae Greer, director of marketing and education at the RiverPark Center, stressed the importance of having a vibrant arts community while speaking Wednesday at the Owensboro Rotary Club luncheon in Rogers Hall at Kentucky Wesleyan College.

Greer is an Owensboro native and graduate of Marshall University. Her career began when she received a contract with the Titan Theatre Company in Queens, New York.

She was one of the nine members in the company. Her primary involvement was working with touring childrens shows and events in the city, such as bringing the works of William Shakespeare into the schools and community centers.

Greer said she was teaching at The Metropolitan Museum of Art when she had a thought about how she could make a bigger difference.

The impact that I could be making would be greater anywhere else other than New York City, she said.

From there, Greer made her way back to Owensboro, with plans to stick around for a few months before heading back to the Big Apple.

After speaking to some parents about auditions for a local production of Annie, where only 50 out of 200 children were cast, leaving a large majority of kids without the opportunity to experience theatre, Greer extended her stay in Owensboro to help put on one show to give kids a chance to be showcased.

That absolutely broke my heart, said Greer of the children who were going to be left out.

Eventually one show turned into more, and Greer never moved back to New York City.

After that moment, I realized that our community is so large when it comes to our arts opportunities, Greer said. But that also means that our patron base is growing.

Greer founded Bluegrass Childrens Theatre, which was originally based out of Century Christian Church, in 2018 after seeing a large group of childrens needs were not being met. She wanted to provide the chance for them to perform in smaller group productions.

The organization eventually became Bluegrass Community Theatre after Greer realized there was still a need for quality arts education and performance opportunities for everyone, while also providing private lessons and theatre classes, along with public performances.

Greer said theatre can be costly and is keen on if you cant come to us, we come to you, noting an experience where a small family couldnt attend a show, and the cast made a trip to perform in the familys living room.

They also work with those that are planning to pursue a career in theatre by helping them with audition pieces to prospective colleges, assisting with resumes and even getting a demo reel of their work together in collaboration with Kevin Brown Media.

People are able to help sponsor a child through a $50 donation, which helps families with gas money to travel to rehearsals, printing out scripts and even raising funds to make costumes for future shows.

What I love about BCT is not just that we are giving these kids the opportunities, but we are giving the community accessible theatre, Greer said. I do believe in making sure that everyone has the ability to let go and enjoy a show, for even just 45 minutes.

Greer hopes that all of the arts organizations are able to come together to put on at least one show a year, and even a downtown festival where we celebrate all of the arts.

The arts also fill a need regarding mental health and wellness, especially for the younger ones, Greer said.

(Theatre) is a place where they feel welcomed, she said. I know its a place for kids who are able to communicate how theyre feeling, they are able to collaborate with each other. Its a place for them to grow into beautiful, emphatic and passionate human beings.

Greers request for others to help BCT and the arts community is simple.

Go see a show, Greer said. Even if its not BCT, support these kids, (and) support our adults.
I turned 75 yesterday.

Three quarters of a century.

Ive been blessed with good health.

But I think of so many friends who didnt make it this far and those who are dealing with so many health problems.

I remember Wayne and Jimmy, the only kids in my neighborhood close to my age way back when.

They barely made it to 50.

I was 3 back in 1950 when my parents built the home theyd worked years for.

Wayne was 5.

He lived just down the highway on the other side of Kentucky 286.

We were the only kids in the neighborhood.

So we spent every waking hour together.

There were trees to climb.

Grapevines to swing on.

Creeks to dam.

Roads to build for our cars.

Wars to be fought.

A West to be tamed.

A widow woman about five blocks up the highway  if wed had blocks  got the first TV in the neighborhood.

And shed let us come watch it with her at night.

But wed have to run home through a pitch-dark night after watching murder and mayhem that seemed way too real.

One summer, we found a stray dog at the store down the road.

Wayne helped me carry her home.

She became part of our family for another decade.

The first night I spent away from home was at Waynes house.

He taught me to smoke  and chew  the summer I was 9.

We went to the store down the road, got us two cigars and a plug of tobacco and went out into the middle of his uncles tobacco patch to sample some worldly pleasures.

I gave up smoking and chewing that day.

As far as I know, Wayne did too.

He told me about Santa Claus and sex.

But I didnt believe him.

Especially about sex.

Surely, people wouldnt do things like that.

Well, he did have some things mixed up.

We went to our first adult movie together when I was about 12.

Heck, they show Elmer Gantry uncut on TV these days.

But it was heady stuff back then.

Jimmy moved in next door to Wayne about that time.

They were the same age.

When I was 14, they got their drivers licenses.

And we hit the road.

Wed drive 30 miles to Mayfield and cruise the streets, looking for girls.

Trouble was, we never knew what to do if we saw one.

But it didnt matter.

We had wheels.

It wasnt long after that that life began pulling us apart.

They were dating girls.

And there was no time to ride around and fantasize.

After high school, Jimmy moved away.

Wayne got married and had a little girl.

They built a house in the tobacco patch across from my parents house.

And I saw my first color TV in that living room.

Then I left for college, got married and went to the Army for two years.

Waynes parents died, and he became a steelworker and moved away

Jimmy had a flower shop for awhile, and then he followed the Lord down a long gospel road, singing and speaking for God across the country.

Wayne died first.

I guess he was 52.

There was no visitation. No funeral. No choir to sing. No flowers.

Just a simple graveside service.

And not long after that, I heard that Jimmy was gone too.

They both went way too young.

And Im the only one left to remember those days.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com.
Last Monday saw the opening of another new business to grace the city of Calhoun.

Mi Pueblito, a Mexican restaurant located at the former home of The Farmhouse at 220 Kentucky Highway 81 N, held its grand opening on March 14 with immediate outpour from the community.

We are really thankful for everybody coming out and supporting us, said part-owner Sulie Villanueva. Were doing good, and weve gotten great compliments and support from everybody; so were really thankful.

Villanueva, who owns the restaurant with her husband Edilmar Villanueva, along with his nephew Yeiri and his wife Sandra, said that they found the space about a month ago and were keen on moving things along rather quickly.

They were helped by the facilitys layout and appliances that were already inside, making the transition rather easy.

It was kind of (like) the Lord opened the doors and we didnt say no, Villanueva said. (We) added a few things (but) a lot of things they already had here but of course we didnt need all the equipment and all of the things we had, so that helped a lot. It was already set up so we put our touch on it a little bit.

Villanueva said that she and her husband have another restaurant, Los Nopales Mexican Grill in Lewisport, which opened last October. They are also part owners of El Molcajete Mexican Cuisine in Owensboro.

Villanueva said she has personal ties to McLean County, with Villanuevas late grandmother being originally from Rumsey.

Im very familiar. I always drove through, Villanueva said. I wish that she could still be here to come and eat .

Family is also an integral part of the business.

(In) this family, everybody knows how to cook and they all have the talent for it, Villanueva said. Everybodys family. Everybodys helping to pitch in. Im really thankful that my husband would have the interest and want to bless them to be able to be more successful and help, because not everybody will give people opportunities.

While the menu includes familiar Mexican favorites from burritos, chimichangas and fried ice cream, Villanueva highlights a taco with their specialized family recipe Villanueva meat, or seasoned brisket is what sets them apart from competitors.

They also have their own taco truck Taqueria La Bendicion De Dios that is planned to be up and running once the grand opening fever calms down.

While carry out has been popular, Villanueva has observed more people coming to dine in-person.

When opening day arrived, Villanueva admitted that they did not expect a large amount of people to come out as they did, but the support has kept them excited and thankful for their new venture.

We just love to give a family atmosphere and a nice place to come and enjoy, Villanueva said. I really like that its a small town and everybody knows each other. Its nice to be able to be together and recognize people. Its a nice knit community.

Mi Pueblito is open 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, contact Mi Pueblito at 270-499-5008.
Lora Wimsatt is headed for her second and, she hopes, final retirement.

Wimsatt, spokeswoman for the Daviess County Public Schools district, will be leaving her post at the end of June after 20 years of service to the school system as its public information officer.

Before working for DCPS, Wimsatt worked for the Messenger-Inquirer for 27 years, doing various jobs before being named editor of the Community news section. She also has been writing a weekly column for the newspaper since 1988.

Working for DCPS has been incredibly rewarding, she said, because of having the chance to work with staff members across the district to share news of all the great things going on in schools. She said she loves putting kids and staff in the spotlight through partnerships with local media.

I always think about how excited little kids are to see their picture or read their names in the newspaper, she said. I especially appreciate opportunities to celebrate kids who demonstrate examples of outstanding character.

Its her philosophy as district spokesperson to work behind the scenes, encouraging and empowering others to share their knowledge, she said.

We trust them to do the work; we can certainly trust them to talk about it, she said. My role is to give them confidence in telling their own stories.

The job does have some challenges, she said, especially when it comes to unfortunate or difficult situations that occur and its important and necessary for students, their families and the public to know what is happening in a school, especially during a crisis event.

Wimsatt said its a responsibility she takes seriously.

I feel very blessed and fortunate to work for a superintendent and other leaders who believe in transparency and integrity, she said.

Matt Robbins, DCPS superintendent, said he and Wimsatt have worked together for more than 20 years, but have grown closer since he became the districts leader in 2017. He said she has been the most dependable, reliable and professional person he has had the chance to work with.

He also said she is a great writer, and he considers her the district wordsmith.

Without question, we will miss her, Robbins said. I will miss her on a personal and professional level. I know many of my colleagues feel the exact same way.

This week, Wimsatt received the OV Jones Memorial Award, presented by the Kentucky School Public Relations Association during its annual spring conference. Its the top award for school public relations in the state and is named for OV Jones, former superintendent of Grant County Schools and the first superintendent to join the KYSPRA.

Wimsatt was nominated for the award by several KYSPRA members and was presented the award at her last KYSPRA conference by the associations president, Jared Revlett, spokesman for Owensboro Public Schools.

Revlett said Wimsatt has been a valuable asset to DCPS, but also an incredible mentor to those in other districts, helping them get acclimated to their new positions and providing guidance when needed.

She has helped grow the membership of our organization throughout western Kentucky and has always been someone to rely on for advice or support when needed, Revlett said. She will be dearly missed by our organization, but we wish her all the best in her retirement.

When she retires  for good this time  Wimsatt said she plans to read as much as she can, host learning camps for her beloved grandkids and go on many adventures.

I have a long list of things I hope to accomplish after retirement, she said. I love to travel, and I love adventure. I want to load up my dog and my backpack into my pickup truck and just take off for parts unknown, with no deadline for return. I want to visit the Statue of Liberty, Savannah, Gettysburg, Ireland and Hobart, Indiana.

She also has aspirations of hosting Find a Grave events and working on her family tree research project, as well as making contributions through community service opportunities.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315
Imported billet prices increased during the week, however, after a deal was heard from Turkey.

Rebar producers in Egypt have been offering rebar at prices ranging from E15,750 to...
With less than four months until the primary election, Congressman Charlie Crist stressed a need for party unity among the Democratic gubernatorial candidates this past weekend, and rightly so.
The Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of Anand Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer (GOO) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Chief Strategic Advisor to ex-CMD Chitra Ramkrishna.

Earlier on March 11, Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal had reserved the order on the bail application of Subramanian.

The CBI opposed the plea and said that Subramanian did not deserve bail. It said that Subramanian should not be released on bail as it could affect the ongoing probe.

"He is an influential person. They think that they will hide after impersonating as the Himalayan Yogi, but we have caught them. They can hamper the investigation," the CBI said while opposing the bail plea.

Subramanian was arrested by the CBI on February 24. The CBI got his custody till March 9 after which he was sent to judicial custody.

The FIR in the case was registered in the year 2018 under sec. 204 (destruction of document or electronic evidence) and 120B (conspiracy) of IPC and under the Information Technology Act and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had on Sunday (March 6) arrested Chitra Ramkrishna, the former MD and CEO of NSE in a case of bourse manipulation. She was produced before the court on Monday (March 7) which remanded her to seven days police custody.

The matter is still being probed by the CBI.
March is National Reading Month. While information and inspiration are two of the many benefits of reading, its also fun! Follow your passions to find a new book at the Manistee County Library where new titles and authors are regularly added and favorites are also available. These titles and others are available by visiting the links on our website, manisteelibrary.org.

Juvenile

 A Bakers Guide to Robber Pie by Caitlin Sangster follows a young girl as she pursues adventure in the dark forest outside of town. Instead of finding magical creatures that can help her, she discovers a band of robbers and must be hidden away for her own safety. But the trouble cannot be contained.

 Using a disguise to scare people away from the dangerous swamps that surround the town, Copper is confused when a little girl spreads the story that she and her father were attacked by the ghoul. Copper knows it wasnt him. Is there a real ghoul? Copper is determined to get to the bottom of things in The Ghoul of Windydown Vale by Jake Burt.

 Animal Knowledge Genius!: A Quiz Encyclopedia to Boost Your Brain by D.K. Publishing introduces the animal world with color illustrations and a wide range of facts. After reading up on a topic, a child can quiz themselves or their family.

Submitted photo/Manistee County Library

 Read the history that took place on any given day with On This Day: A History of the World in 366 Days by D.K. Publishing. Using historical photographs and illustrations, this book covers ancient history to modern times.

 Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the story of a Japanese American family living in an internment camp during World War II. Based on the authors grandparents' experiences, a couple finds solace and happiness in the tiny library in the camp.

 Using the power of positive thinking, a young girl demonstrates how a thought becomes an action in I am Thinking My Life by Allysun Atwater.

 A visit to the other side of the island where he lives shows Lou there is more to life than his sheltered existence. He accepts the challenge to see what he can do in Lovebird Lou by Tammi Sauer.

Young adult

 At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp looks at a group of teens in a treatment center. Realizing that no one is coming to work that day, the group strike out on their own, only to discover that a pandemic has changed the outside world. Survival is paramount as supplies become scarce and their own members become infected with the plague.

 The Ivory Key by Akshaya Ramen is the story of Vira, who wishes to prove herself as a queen of Ashoka. With the magic protection about to run out, her only recourse is to locate the legendary ivory key and find another source of magic. She must work with her siblings, each with their own reasons for finding the key, to keep their country safe.

Adult

 Follow the achievements of Josephine Leary, a former slave who taught herself the real estate business in the late 1800s. Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander is her story. Exceeding expectations, Josephine refused to give up her dream of being a businesswoman while raising a family.

 Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh tells the timely story of an urban clinic, besieged by anti-abortion protesters. Claudia spends her days counseling patients and her evenings with her friend, Timmy, a pot dealer. Anthony also spends time at Timmys, chatting online with an enigmatic personality who calls himself Excelsior11. His real name is Victor and hes ready to risk everything to take down the Mercy Street Clinic.

 In The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, January is a former agent who suffers from timeline radiation. This may be whats causing her to see a corpse in the hotel she manages. Unfortunately, shes the only one who can see it, and only sometimes. In a hotel filled with people registered for time-travel adventures and a conference to determine who will control the technology, January must solve the mystery before she loses her mind.

Submitted photo/Manistee County Library

 Nell was born covered in birthmarks, making her a curiosity in her hometown. When her father sells her to the circus, she is devastated. But as she becomes the star attraction, she begins to think of it as a good thing. As her recognition grows, it threatens to obliterate all the good things in her life in Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal.

 The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation '' by Rosemary Sullivan follows a former FBI agent as he and his team investigate Amsterdam during wartime, how the Frank family managed to hide for two years and how they were finally discovered. Using a trail of documents and interviews with descendants, the team reconstructs the events leading up to that fateful day.

 Lenny Kaye looks at the defining moments in each decade of the 20th century, highlighting the bands, the cities and the generations that made the music in Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll.
BIG RAPIDS  Expansion of the runway at the Roben-Hood airport in Big Rapids may finally get underway with money coming from the federal infrastructure bill.

Airport manager Steve Schroeder told the Big Rapids city commission during its meeting this week that the Roben-Hood Airport project had been approved for federal funding through the community project portion of the infrastructure bill.

We have been trying for an airport expansion for several years and made a run at a justification study, which is the normal process for getting funding for a runway extension, Schroeder said. "In 2015, our justification was rejected, and in 2018 the Michigan Department of Transportation agreed to let us resubmit, which is still in progress.

We heard last year that the community project funding was an opportunity to apply directly to our representatives for funding, so we submitted that application," he continued. Last year it made through the House, but not the Senate. I was informed that it had been resubmitted under the current spending bill and passed both the House and Senate and has been signed by the president. I called (Rep. John) Moolenaar, who confirmed that it did make it through, and we will have $1.827 million set aside for the runway extension.

Schroeder added there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding the funding, including the timeline for funding, what the local match requirement will be and how the funds will be awarded, but the project can now move forward.

Big Rapids mayor Fred Guenther said that although he is very pleased to hear that the project will be funded, his concern is that the cost will increase significantly before the work can be started.

My only worry is that it wont cost $1.8 million, but that this year it (costs) will double, and we will have to come up with about $370,000 match or tell them we are not interested in the $1.8 million, Guenther said. That would be a terrible scenario.

Stephanie Ward, manager of aviation planning with Mead and Hunt, said increased costs was a concern, but getting the project underway sooner, rather than later, would be better.

The longer it takes, the more we are concerned about the costs increasing, Ward said. However, we put the cost estimate together in spring of last year so we are fairly comfortable that we had some additional funding built in that would give us some flexibility.

Schroeder added that there may be additional funding sources available once they have time to dig into what those might be.

Some of the unknowns is where some of that additional funding may come from, he said. We do have the block grant program of roughly $150,000 we get every year and under the new infrastructure bill, those will double and could be used to offset those increased costs.

Plans for the airport expansion include extending the 4,300-foot runway to 5,000 feet with a full parallel taxiway, high intensity runway lighting, a precision approach and a segmented circle, according to information provide by Schroeder.

The airport has been receiving requests from corporate users to extend the runway due to larger jets being utilized, Schroeder said. Local business owners and Ferris State University personnel currently use the Gerald R. Ford Airport for their general aviation and charter flights due to the runway length. If the runway were extended, these groups have noted that they would immediately begin operations at Roben-Hood Airport to save time and money in their travel.

Lengthening the runway would benefit existing and future users by providing a safer operating environment and would allow for a wider range of aircraft to use the airport, he said, which would be a significant economic impact to the local community.

Commissioner Jennifer Cochran said she commended the airport personnel for their work in procuring the airport runway extension funding.

I appreciate the perseverance of you and your staff, she said. I think this (the airport) is something we can really promote as the city begins to draw more tourism and as we get other projects developed.

A timeline for the construction has not yet been determined.

UPGRADES TO PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING

In other business, the board accepted a bid from Central Michigan Mechanical in the amount of $28,120 for the replacement of four furnace units and five air conditioners at the Department of Public Safety building.

Schroeder, who is the citys fire chief, told the board that the building is just over 20 years old, and due to the age of the structure, there are mechanical items that need to be replaced.

Half of the furnace and air conditioning units have been replaced in the building, as they were failing, Schroeder said. The other half of the units have begun experiencing issues and are becoming less dependable. In 2021, a request was made through the C.I.P. process to replace the additional units.

While reviewing the bids, it was noted that Central Michigan Mechanical only bid three of the units, he continued. Upon clarification and being familiar with the building, they noted that one of the units scheduled for replacement is only 2 years old.

He said Central Michigan Mechanical is familiar with the HVAC system in place at the public safety building and came in as the low bidder, so staff was comfortable in awarding them the bid.

It is the intention, during the replacement process, to review the 2-year-old unit to see if replacement is needed, Schroeder said. The recommendation of staff would be to award the bid to Central Michigan Mechanical for four units and allow staff and the contractor to determine the state of the single unit.

Funding for this project is available in the current budget.
A new state task force has started meeting this month to help prospective parents in the LGBTQ community navigate the foster care and adoption process.

The Department of Health and Human Services formed the Michigan Family Advancement and Leadership for LGBTQ+ Youth and Families Task Force to support families that identify as a member of the LGBTQ community. The department plans to have the task force run for six months with its recommendations to continue long after its run has concluded. It will meet at least once monthly to get their recommendations and implement or expand on them in the system.

There are currently 820 active members on the task force that represent child welfare, private agencies, foster and adoptive parents. Members are selected from recommendations from co-chairs or other members within the department.

The department created the task force after reporting that they had received many concerns about this community facing discrimination in this field. The move follows a settlement with a private west Michigan agency that allows them to deny adoption to LGBTQ parents.

The purpose is for us to affirm, design supports, and develop strategies that specifically are geared towards ensuring that we have safe and stable support for members of the LGBTQ plus community that are for both our foster care and our adoptive parents, as well as the youth that we serve, said Rachel Willis, director for the MDHHS Division of Child Welfare Licensing.

Anything that can be done to place children with loving parents is a step in the right direction said Delois Leapheart, the founder of Adoption Option Inc in Midland.

I know that whenever you're outside the norm, you face greater challenges, Leapheart said. It is in all of our contracts that we don't discriminate.

According to Leapheart, LGBTQ+ youth are three-to-five times more likely to have attempted suicide than other children.

The task force will be co-led by Peter Spatter, a member of the Lansing City Council, and Dr. Stacy Gibson. Both leaders are members of the LGBTQ community themselves and the department has asked contributions from volunteers to include their expertise in the field of child welfare and community.

Willis said the task force has been in the works for quite some time but really gained traction over the last few months near the end of 2021.

Theres no telling how long this work will continue to go, Willis said. I can say that the department is committed to having support for this community indefinitely.
Stephanie is a foster mother.

She recently has been spending her time traveling around Mid-Michigan to speak with people about the rewarding nature of serving as a foster parent. She tells them of the great need that exists in our state, particularly for teens, and works to dispel myths surrounding foster care.

Two of the biggest myths are that many foster parents do it for the money or that kids need foster homes because they are "troublemakers," said Stephanie, who asked that her last name not be used to protect the child in her care.

"These are false narratives," she said.

It's a subject thats near and dear to her heart. She was a foster child herself.

Earlier this week, Stephanie spent part of her afternoon at the Bad Axe District Library to share her message and hopefully inspire others to take foster children into their homes. She works as a recruiter and retention specialist for Ennis Center for Childrens Flint office.

The Ennis Center, which reports to the Department of Health and Human Services, has offices throughout Michigan and works with the state to provide services to children in need of a foster home.

By The Numbers The number of foster children currently in the United States: More than 400,000 State of Michigan: About 10,500 Huron County: 42 See More Collapse

Katie Lipka, supervisor for the Ennis Centers Foster Care Regional Resource Team BSC-2, said there are currently 42 children in foster care in Huron County and a total of about 10,500 in the state, and the need for foster homes for teenagers is urgent.

The most common reason kids need foster care is because of neglect, Lipka said, adding that encompasses a wide range of issues and usually is the result of a combination of factors. In a small number of cases, children are placed in foster care due to physical or sexual abuse. All foster children do have one thing in common, she said.

"It's never their fault," Lipka said. "They suffer the most."

Another myth she wanted to dispel is that only married couples can serve as foster parents. Single people or those with partners can take in foster kids, too, she said. Whats important is that foster parents have a strong, extended support system they can call on in a time of need, she added, whether it's family, fellow church members or neighbors.

"(That support system) could look different for everyone," she said.

Once a potential foster parent is paired with an agency, whether a DHHS office or a private organization, they would schedule an orientation, usually a one-on-one meeting in which they will go over policies and procedures as well as the steps required to become a licensed foster parent, Lipka said, with one main goal in mind.

"Our goal with foster care is to reunify the family," she said.

Social workers partner with foster families with whatever services a child and its biological family needs to become whole again. That's not always possible, Lipka said, so that's when the goal becomes to find a child a permanent home. Currently, the state of Michigan has about 300 children waiting to be adopted, Lipka said.

Some foster parents have the goal of adoption from the start, but as in Stephanie's case, she takes in children who will eventually be reunited with their biological families and is under no obligation to adopt.

All foster children have health insurance through the state, and parents are reimbursed for the cost of caring for a child depending on the level of the child's needs. Usually, that's about $17 a day, she said, which is proof that the notion people take in foster children for the money is false.

Lipka urged anyone who may be considering taking in a foster child to call 1-855-MICHKIDS, the hotline for Michigan's Foster Care Navigator Program. Their calls will be answered by foster and adoptive parents who can answer questions and get them started on the path to caring for foster children.

On Thursday, April 14, the Foster Care Regional Resource Team will host the REMOVED: Huron County Foster Care/Child Abuse Awareness Event, an online informational session with short films highlighting foster care and how child abuse impacts the community.




Small town secrets keep detective Shana Merchant on her toes as she tries to solve a wind farm homicide and track down a serial killer who she cant seem to escape in Tessa Wegerts latest mystery.

Wegert said her fascination with small town secrets and knowing that you really dont know what happens behind closed doors inspired her new book.

Dariens Wegert is three for three as she publishes the third installment of her Shana Merchant series during the pandemic. Luckily for Wegert, with the easing of restrictions, shes going to be having some in-person as well as virtual events while she promotes her upcoming release, Dead Wind.

In the world before COVID most new authors are discovered in the bookstore as readers are browsing and come across a cool cover and thats how many debuts find their initial readers, Wegert said, adding that her debut Death in the Family was published a few weeks prior to the pandemic shutdown in 2020.

Wegert said she will be celebrating the publication of Dead Wind with an in-person event at Barrett Bookstore in Darien on April 5 and will get the chance to meet up with readers. She also said that despite not being able to promote her book in a traditional climate that she has been able to find her readers, and said that a book club from the Thousand Islands in New York, where her series is set, even made a trip down to Connecticut to meet with her. Wegert will also have a virtual event with Stamford author Wendy Walker and Lynn Constantine (part of the Liv Constantine writing duo) at the Fairfield University Bookstore on April 26.

Wegert said befriending other authors during the pandemic has been a lifeline for her. Without authors helping authors it's very difficult to find and maintain an audienceauthors don't really see themselves as competitors, there are plenty of readers to go around and everybody wants to work together to build up an engaged community of readers, she said. To be able to connect with people who really understand it [publishing] and have seen it from different perspectives has been really invaluable to me as a fairly new author.

In the first book, readers learn that Shana is dealing with PTSD after narrowly escaping serial killer Blake Bram. In the second book the serial killer resurfaces and wreaks havoc in Shanas new life. Wegert promises that in the third book readers will find out more about Shana and Blakes backstory. You find out a lot more about her relationship with Blake Bram and the personal history she has with him while youre also plunged into this new murder, this homicide case in her own hometown and get to know the cast of colorful characters that she is starting to meet in the town she now calls home, she said.

Without giving away any spoilers, some readers might worry that Dead Wind is the last in the series, given the dramatic ending of the new book. However, Wegert said she is already penning the fourth installment of the series. I think if readers look closely to the end of the book that quite a lot is unresolved so that will all be explored in the next book, she said.

Wegert said she doesnt know how many books she will write before the series is truly finished given the tricky landscape of publishing.

I want readers to continue to be excited about what Im writing about and Shanas journey and meeting these new characters so as long as they continue to be interested in the series and engaged in the story then I feel like Ive done my job, she said.

For more information about the series or Wegerts events visit tessawegert.com.
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MIDDLETOWN  Altrusa International of Central CT members and volunteers took part in a local humanitarian project last weekend to supply expectant mothers and newborns with sorely needed supplies in war-torn Ukraine.

They spearheaded a recent effort in Middletown to aid those who remain in Ukraine by collecting diapers, handmade and other afghans, personal hygiene items and other goods, according to member Patti Nettis Deegan.

The event was dubbed Lets Help Children and Their Moms.

We are focusing efforts on the moms who are about to deliver babies, Deegan said in a news release. Can you imagine being born in a war zone? the statement said. How can you prepare formula without running water?

They chartered a flight from the United States to Poland and will be delivering diapers, formula, clothing for all ages, and other much-needed supplies and equipment to refugees, Deegan said.

It is truly amazing to see the generosity of our local community and our family and friends [who are] not local, Deegan said.

Ukrainian Olena Stetskiv, who organized the drive, is part of a grassroots effort to provide aid, Deegan said. Some of her family members are still in Ukraine, including a doctor who works in a maternity hospital in her hometown.

Stetskiv attended school in the United States to learn English as a second language, became a dental assistant, got married, bought a condo and had two children in the United States, Deegan said. Shes giving back to her homeland, which is in dire need.

Items were collected at the Arborview Dental Office in Middletown and Company N Temp Dance Studio in Cromwell.

As volunteers prepared boxes for infants and children Saturday and Sunday, the room was full of activity, as seen in a video Deegan provided. When they were done, boxes were plastic wrapped in large pallets, ready to go.

Donations arrived from many other states, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Florida, California, New York, Maine, Virginia, Oregon, Minnesota, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maine, Wisconsin and Georgia, Deegan said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met the BJP MPs from Gujarat at his official residence here.

Sources said that all the BJP MPs from both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were present in the meeting with Prime Minister Modi.It is learnt that Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is a Lok Sabha member from Gujarat, was also present in the meeting.

The meeting lasted for around half an hour, sources said. A BJP MP from Gujarat said that Prime Minister Modi interacted with the BJP MPs from the state and asked about their work in the parliamentary constituency.

"It was a routine meeting which the Prime Minister holds during a Parliament session with MPs of different states. Today, he invited the MPs from Gujarat and discussed issues related to the state and asked about the work we are doing in our area. He advised us to work for the people," he said.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi had met the BJP MPs from Jharkhand and Bihar and discussed issues concerning both the states.

Prime Minister Modi regularly meets BJP MPs during the Parliament sessions. Sometimes, he meets the BJP MPs on a region wise or state wise basis.

"In these meetings the Prime Minister listens to the concerns of the MPs and addresses them. He also guides them to improve their functioning," a BJP leader said.
HARTFORD  Farmers who have been hard-hit by rising costs to the point they are wondering whether they can stay in business, found support from Republicans and at least a few legislative Democrats on Wednesday in attempt to curb Connecticuts planned highway use tax.

But Speaker of the House Matt Ritter and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas immediately dismissed the idea of repealing all or part of the tax, scheduled to start in 2023, and aimed at heavy trucks from out-of-state.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said it was an unintended consequence of the June, 2021 legislation that the law would place even heavier burdens on companies like Hillandale Farms of Lebanon and Franklin, a multi-state operation with 20 million egg-laying chickens, 20 percent of which are in Connecticut, along with 350 employees.

Ed Hoffman, vice president of Hillandale Farms, told reporters that between 2016 and 2021, the company - the fourth-largest in the nation - invested $120 million to create cage-free environments for the hens, as required by a statewide referendum in Massachusetts, one of the farms major markets. The tractor trailers that collect the eggs several times a week would create another major cost to an already-stressed company, he said.

This is something we consider to be jobs-sustaining, Osten said, stressing the goal of exempting state farmers after the tax takes effect next January. The per-mile tax rate will be based the on the weight of trucks, ranging from 2.5 cents per mile for vehicles weighing up to 28,000 pounds, to 17.5 cents per mile for vehicles more than 80,000 pounds.

Hoffman and Osten were joined by other farmers, lawmakers including Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury and Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, co-chairman of the legislative Environment Committee, as well as representatives of the 2,500-member Connecticut Farm Bureau Association.

Immediately after that news conference, in the historic Hall of the Flags in the State Capitols first floor, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora and Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, recalled that last year, they proposed exempting trucks from carrying food from the HUT bill, which is estimated to raise $90 million a year.

Our farmers need our help, said Kelly, R-Stratford. I think this is a no-brainer. We should never have had the HUT. Candelora, R-North Branford, said the use tax was pushed through the legislature by a reckless Democratic majority.

The use tax on agricultural vehicles would raise $25 million a year, but Joseph Sculley, executive director of the Connecticut Motor Transport Association representing state truckers, said it will be very difficult to actually assess the HUT on trucks. We need a full repeal, Scully said.

A few minutes later, during a news conference prior to the days activities in the House, where legislation to suspend the states 25-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax until the end of June was scheduled, Ritter, Rojas and Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the Finance, Review and Bonding Committee, said the highway tax is more about the next five years, rather than next year, while the state has the luxury of robust surpluses.

I have no interest in a repeal, said Ritter, D-Hartford.

Comparatively to what other states are doing, it costs $125 for a truck to cross the George Washington Bridge one way, Scanlon said. Most people who pay this highway user fee to drive across the entire length of the state of Connecticut would pay about 25 cents. What we believe is that this highway user fee is a very affordable way, compared to what every state is doing around us, which is a toll, to collect revenue from out-of-state truck drivers without over-burdening that industry.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
HARTFORD  The state Senate on Wednesday put the finishing touches on legislation to allow restaurants to continue outdoor operations until the end of April 2023.

Current pandemic-related rules on outdoor dining and drinking were set to expire after March 31, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed that Connecticuts restaurant industry was rocked worse than most other businesses, when the state shut down for indoor activity two years ago.

The bill, which passed the House last week, won unanimous approval in the Senate after an hour-long debate. It is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont.

It is one of the industries that has probably been hit the hardest, not only in Connecticut, but across the country, said state Sen. Steve Cassano, D-Manchester, co-chairman of the legislative Planning and Development Committee, who introduced the legislation. Nationally over 110,00 restaurants have closed; 2.5 million jobs lost; and $240 billion were lost in revenue.

Under the law, restaurants have to apply for local zoning review of their plans for odor control, waste management, light pollution and environmental impacts. Cities and towns will have the right to ask for more information, as well.

Cassano said that the bill includes provisions for compliance with the federal Americans with Disability Act, in particular allowing enough room on the sidewalk, which was the subjects of complaints during the pandemic. Whats most-significant is that the town or the city or the municipality still controls how these things will be run and all of the restaurants will have to be run in compliance with local standards, Cassano said.

The entire restaurant industry is holding on by their fingertips, said Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex. We absolutely need to do this now.

Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, a top Republican on the Public Health Committee, said he had concerns, including septic and sewer capacity, as well as alcohol laws. The governors executive order crafted in an emergency time the allowability of alcohol consumption outside of a licensed premise, he said. This bill continues that and my hope is that we will work with the Department of Consumer Protection to be able to establish a protocol to make sure that alcohol consumption is in a contained area.

Our industry is grateful that the General Assembly has acted on this bill in a bipartisan manner, and we look forward to the Governors signature as he has been a strong advocate for expanded outdoor dining in Connecticut, said Scott Dolch, president and CEO of the Connecticut Restaurant Association. This is a timely and much-needed measure that will help Connecticuts restaurant industry as it continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, our state and its elected leaders are showing that we must continue to rally around our states many local restaurants, the vast majority of which are small businesses.

Sen. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield, said he was concerned about the differences between orders and suggestions in the bill as the pandemic wanes. Whats at-stake today is not what was at-stake back when the executive order was first signed, Miner said. Its not to me whether or not we shouldnt be trying to help them, its really what are we giving up in an effort to do that?

He said that there are many properties that predate zoning rules in Litchfield. My concern about the legislation is that at a very different time, what are we doing to the neighbors? Miner said. What are we doing to the clothing store that might be right next to the restaurant? Or to the bookshop right next to the restaurant?

Miner, who is not running for reelection, warned that state lawmakers will have to closely watch the ramifications of the outdoor dining extension, particularly the effects on local parkings

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
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MERIDEN  Police have released the name of a city woman found dead in the driveway of a local condo complex over the weekend

She was identified as 37-year-old Dominique Curtis.
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MILFORD  Lynx LaCroixs foray into the world of small business brings with it a new world of exotic liquors to the city.

LaCroix recently opened the doors to Asian Spirits, located at 171 Cherry St., which hes proud to say is a liquor store that offers a large selection of alcohol from Asia that is only available in his store.

This is very new to me, but I couldnt say enough good things about it, LaCroix said about opening his new business. All the wonderful people Ive met and all the education Im getting from people in the business to consumers coming in. I think I picked the right business for me.

LaCroix said a major demographic shift was what led him to focus on Asian alcohol offerings.

Heretofore really hasnt been a lot of Asian alcohol offerings available for consumers, said LaCroix. Theres a huge demographic shift going on. People are leaving the city, the Chinatowns in lower Manhattan and also in Queens. People are shifting out of those into the suburbs, and Connecticut is attracting a lot of them.

LaCroix said Milford, in particular, is attracting many people who are relocating. He believes Asian Spirits is the first Asian-focused liquor store in the state.

There is a huge explosion of Asian businesses, and Im one of them, he said. We are covering everything from the Phillipines, China and Japan. We are also trying to get some Indonesian things. The whole wide range of East Asia over to India as well. We are trying to fill every part in between.

It has been a challenge for LaCroix to get alcohol from every region. Many alcohols he is getting are being registered with the state for the first time.

The most consumed alcohol in the world is baijiu (a clear, distilled Chinese liquor), he said. No one really knows about it outside the Asian community, but we are introducing it to the Connecticut population who isnt Asian.

He said his story is not just geared toward the Asian market.

We are introducing these wonderful beverages, whether it be Japanese whiskey, craft beer or Chinese white alcohol to a wide variety of Connecticut consumer base, LaCroix added.

LaCroix said he has extensive knowledge of all the liquor in the store, and there will be more new spirits arriving regularly.

I lived in China for a little while and traveled to every province in China, and I got to know the very wide diverse range of alcohol there, he said.

Other than living in China, LaCroix said he traveled to South Korea and other parts of Asia and saw some of their alcohol options.

To build off that, its consumers tell me what is the best or the highest-quality version of any subcategory and then me going out there and getting it, he said. Whether that is going to the country of origin, reaching out the distillery and working the supply chain backward to get that into Connecticut.

One of the business components LaCroix is implementing at Asian Spirits is giving potential customers a small taste before purchasing their alcohol because it is a new experience to many of them.

When you import things, the price can be very high, so we want people to feel very comfortable, especially if its a category that they havent experienced before. We want to make sure when they buy a bottle they dont hate it, he said.

If LaCroix could have opened earlier, he would have, but the biggest reason he had to wait was to get the supply in from the different places.

Getting the supply in was the biggest thing and also getting the product registered in the United States, he said. It was a fundamental hold-up.

After all the hurdles are done, LaCroix expects to have 38 to 48 different baijiu varieties.

Things like Japanese alcohol I have dozens and dozens of brands from reasonable price points of $30 to almost $400, he said. That was easier to get in just because it is an understandable category to people, and Im also expanding in Japanese beer.
The Army announced its new fitness test Wednesday, reverting back to gendered scoring standards, like its nearly 40-year-old predecessor test, after alarming data showed nearly half the women in the force were failing during a trial period for the new standards.

But eight women who talked to Military.com balked at the idea that the gender neutral approach used in the trial was a fair measure, given the test relies on soldiers lifting heavy weights and most women are smaller than their male counterparts and would have to work significantly harder than men just for mediocre scores.

"It was disheartening on a PT (Physical Training) test that I was just trying to meet the standard and not be able to exceed it," a female non-commissioned officer told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "The Army was saying this was neutral, and repeating that so much. It can't be neutral when one person can wake up and take the test, and the other has to lift weights every day for months just to catch up."

Read Next: This Retired Cavalry Scout Says He's Been Vetting - and Helping - Recruits for Ukraine's Foreign Legion

The fallback to grading soldiers based on their gender is a major reversal over the original intention of the Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT, to measure fitness based on either military occupation or a totally neutral fitness assessment -- the idea being that combat doesn't discriminate and all soldiers need to be held to the same fitness standards.

That move for a gender neutral test coincided with combat arms jobs, such as the infantry, opening up to women after nearly two decades of the U.S. waging wars in the Middle East and Africa in which there were no traditional frontlines and women's footprint in the force significantly grew.

The Army was stuck having to choose between keeping a fitness test that would lead to a significant number of women being unqualified for the service, or reintroduce gendered scoring. The latter could create a situation in which high scores some women earn could be dismissed by males due to the lower requirements during a critical period for the force as the Army aims to create a more inclusive environment.

Now that the standards have shifted for women, achieving high scores has become possible, according to female soldiers.

"I'd have to work twice as hard as a man to just hit the minimum, and that's frustrating. I don't want to just get by on the promotion side, I want to do well," a junior enlisted woman told Military.com. "It was demoralizing to see my score will just be OK. But this is an opportunity to work my butt off and do really well. Now I have a chance to max. I still have to work hard, but now I know that it is possible and that's really motivating."

Army leaders agreed that the previous test, the Army Physical Fitness Test, or APFT, was a poor measure of fitness. That three-event test, consisting of push-ups, sit-ups and a two-mile run, only measured endurance. Critics argued it took minimal physical effort to pass or even perform well on that test, which was introduced in 1983. The ACFT is built to be a more comprehensive test to measure endurance, strength and agility.

Army planners started crafting its replacement, the ACFT, when CrossFit's popularity was skyrocketing in the U.S. Some soldiers, particularly women interviewed by Military.com, saw the Army as going too far in its perceived ambitions by replacing its decades-old test with a fitness assessment more akin to a CrossFit routine, for example requiring women to deadlift 340 lbs. to get a perfect score. Now the maximum deadlift for women between 17 and 21-years-old is 210 lbs.

The shocking data of high failure rates among women was compounded by findings that women who did pass struggled to achieve high scores. This spurred Congress to delay the test and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth to express concerns about the recruitment and retention of women, who make up roughly 16% of the Army.

"The six-event test, now with plank, will be gender & age normed in a fair manner that enhances our recruiting & retention across the Total Army," Wormuth said in a statement Wednesday coinciding with the release of the updated standards for the new test.

The new ACFT goes into effect on April 1. But scores will not impact an active duty soldier's records until Oct. 1. National Guard and Reserve soldiers have until April 2023 before taking a test for their records.

But some see returning to gendered standards as a step back for women, especially in combat arms, where the culture has been slow to adapt and women are just starting to become integrated.

"I get what the Army had to do here, and those standards were insane. I'm 120 lbs, I'd have to work so much harder than a man just to hit the minimums," a non-commissioned officer woman told Military.com. "But this also sucks because it just gives men more ammo for reasons they think we shouldn't be here."

Meanwhile, some women argued that regardless of the standards, some men will continue thinking women don't belong or that anything they achieve is because of grading on a curve.

"Women are always going to face, 'Oh, you're weaker,'' another female non-commissioned officer said. "People always suspect the standards were lowered. It's always going to be like that."

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: Gendered Scoring, No More Leg Tucks: Army Unveils New Fitness Test. Here's What You Need to Know.
Eric Benson, a former Army officer who suffered a head injury in Iraq, managed the first 30 minutes of a required Department of Veterans Affairs' interview before he unraveled.

According to his wife Caira, Benson can sustain cognitive activity" for about a half-hour. At the 30-minute mark of the lengthy interview, he "doubled over and began drooling on himself from exhaustion."

The session was an eligibility assessment for the VA's family caregiver program, an initiative launched in 2011 to provide financial support for family members who support veterans suffering from varying degrees of disability.

Read Next: Increase to Maximum Life Insurance Payout for Service Members, Veterans Clears Senate

"The program should have been a blessing. However, the program has become unpredictable, stressful and, frankly, dehumanizing," Caira Benson said during a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C. "The assessments are demoralizing."

A member of the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers off and on since 2017, the family was recently downgraded to the lowest tier of assistance, even though three doctors have recommended that Eric never be left alone.

They, like many others, don't plan to appeal.

"The appeals processes exist for a reason. ... In droves, folks are not appealing because they're exhausted," said Steve Schwab, CEO of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, during the hearing.

Reassessments of 19,000 program participants that began in October have resulted in a significant number of veterans being discharged or downgraded to a lower level of compensation.

Just how many is unknown outside of the VA. VA Secretary Denis McDonough said Tuesday that assessments of cases like the Bensons to determine whether they meet new eligibility criteria have resulted in a "much higher number" of veterans being discharged from the program than the roughly 6,000 people officials had anticipated.

VA officials have not released the exact number who have been kicked out of the program despite repeated requests from Military.com.

What is known, however, is that the figure was significant enough for the VA to order a pause in the discharge process while it launches a review of the new eligibility criteria its been using. Also known is that just 13% of those who appeal their decisions win.

"The process is broken. It's not working. It's not how anybody intended it to be. You got to go back to the drawing board and figure out how we do this together," said Jim Marszalek, national service director for Disabled American Veterans, also at the hearing.

The level of assistance needed by the veteran determines the amount of compensation a caregiver receives -- between roughly $1,750 a month to just more than $3,000.

Caregivers in the program also receive health care coverage and support services.

Scheduled reassessments of participants who were in the program prior to Oct. 1, 2021, will continue, since they were set to conclude by the end of this month, but no discharges will occur while the VA completes the program evaluation, according to Colleen Richardson, executive director of the VAs Caregiver Support Program.

Before the VA announced the suspension Tuesday, participants who previously received notifications that they had been discharged or their benefits downgraded were set to receive stipends at their current levels through March 2023.

Now, the VA plans to contact all legacy participants to explain the pause and let them know their discharges are on hold, pending the review.

"Rest assured ... we'll make sure that it's equitable and fair to all veterans as we move forward in this process. So, more to come," Richardson said during the hearing Wednesday.

As a result of the 2018 VA Mission Act, eligibility for the family caregiver program was expanded to include severely injured or disabled combat veterans from previous eras, beginning last October with veterans from World War II through the Vietnam War and this October for vets who served after May 1975 through Sept. 11, 2001.

At the same time, the VA published stricter eligibility criteria that focus on whether the veteran needs assistance with certain activities, such as eating, grooming and moving, or needs continuous supervision or instruction.

As a result of those changes, the VA initiated a review of post-9/11 veteran participant cases. However, advocates say the assessments have been inconsistent, with reviewers seemingly pursuing "how do we get to a 'no' versus how to get to a 'yes,'" according to Schwab.

"The inconsistency on the experience that caregivers have faced across the country is unbelievable," Schwab said.

Inconsistency was cited in two previous suspensions of program dismissals -- in 2017, which resulted in a series of program changes, including a directive for medical centers to fix inconsistencies, and in 2018, over similar concerns.

Beth Taylor, the VAs chief nursing officer and assistant under secretary for Health, Patient Care Services, testified that changes have resulted in consistency and standardization across the system with just "three facilities that are outliers."

But advocacy groups are seeing a very different picture.

There are far too many stories  that point to some real root issues, and we think its because there are 160 facilities that are executing this program in different ways, Schwab said

In addition to those discharged from the program, changes to eligibility could potentially affect thousands of veterans who applied for the program but were denied. During the hearing, Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, who chairs the committee, asked whether those vets would need to reapply if new criteria are established.

Richardson said that, given that the discharge suspension and review was just announced the day before the hearing, there's "more to come."

"We haven't figured out exactly the path that we want to go in with yesterday's announcement," Richardson said.

Speaking to the committee, Sarah Verardo, CEO of the Independence Fund and a caregiver for her husband, Mike, an amputee who sustained burns over 30% of his body, said her family recently learned that they would be dropped down a tier in the program and receive the lowest level of stipend.

She begged lawmakers for help -- not only for veterans to remain at their previous levels, but for relief from the hours-long assessments that force patients to rehash intimate details of their injuries and incapacity, even though those are documented in medical files.

"My husband had his arm and leg blown off. He's burned over more than 30% of his body. He's had 120 surgeries  and VA is forcing us to relive why he is on catheter care, bowel and bladder care," Verardo said. "[He] just got dropped a level. My first thought was, 'I don't have the fight in me anymore. I just can't do it. I have been fighting to keep him alive and to advocate for more than a decade. They won. VA won."

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciankime.

Related: They Spent Years Caring for Their Veterans. Now They Are Losing a Lifeline


Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met the family of eight people killed in violence in Birbhum district this week and announced 5 lakh compensation to each. She also announced an additional 50,000 for families who lost children - two of the eight who died were children - and said an extra 2 lakh would be given to each household to rebuild homes burnt down in the incident. One member of each family will also get a job, she said.




An F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet piloted by the son of a candidate to be the Oklahoma attorney general crashed in rural Louisiana on Wednesday during a training exercise.

Gentner Drummond, a former Air Force captain and Republican seeking the top law office in the Sooner State, said in a Facebook post that the plane was flown by his son, Alexander, a captain in the Oklahoma Air National Guard who ejected prior to the crash.

"I am thankful today that God was watching over my son," Drummond wrote. "Some of you may recall that Alexander is a fighter pilot, just like I was as a young man. This morning, he had to do something I never did: eject from his F-16 before it crashed."

Read Next: Increase to Maximum Life Insurance Payout for Service Members, Veterans Clears Senate

The F-16 belonged to the Tulsa Vipers, part of the Oklahoma Air National Guard's 138th Fighter Wing.

A statement from the Oklahoma Air National Guard said the pilot was taking part in a routine training mission out of Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Texas.

Around 11:15 a.m. local time, Louisiana State Police in Beauregard Parish received reports that a plane had crashed in a wooded area about 150 miles from the Texas base.

Derek Senegal, with Louisiana State Police Troop D, said the pilot was safe and had been retrieved by military personnel from Fort Polk, Louisiana, a nearby Army base.

"The pilot was able to eject but was transported back to Fort Polk for medical evaluation," Senegal told Military.com.

Senegal added that there was no smoke and no fire when the plane crashed.

Lt. Col. Geoffrey J. Legler, a spokesman with the Oklahoma Military Department, said in a statement there were no civilian casualties on the ground.

"Air Force and civilian emergency first responders immediately responded to the scene of the crash and have no reported injuries at this time," Legler said in the statement.

Drummond said his son is receiving medical care and is expected to make a full recovery.

"When you serve in the military, you put your life on the line day-in and day-out -- whether our country is at war or not," Drummond wrote. "As an American, I thank my son for his service and his commitment to fighting for our freedom."

Wednesday's crash is the latest training incident involving a fighter jet on U.S. soil.

Last month, a Mirage F1 fighter jet from Luke Air Force Base in Arizona crashed in the desert not far from a retirement community.

Earlier this month, a Marine F-18 Hornet crashed and exploded at a former South Carolina governor's family plantation.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Related: F-18 Crashes and Explodes at Former South Carolina Gov's Family Plantation; Pilots Eject Safely
A Hindu airman at Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, who had been waiting nearly two years was granted approval in February to wear the Tilak Chandlo religious symbol -- a red dot on the forehead -- while in uniform.

Senior Airman Darshan Shah, an aerospace medical technician assigned to the 90th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron, first applied for the waiver during basic training in June 2020 and was ecstatic to find out it had finally been granted.

"Wearing the Tilak Chandlo every day to work is amazing, to say it in one word," Shah said in a press release issued by the base. "People around my workplace are giving me handshakes, high-fives and congratulating me, because they know how hard I've tried to get this religious accommodation approved."

Read Next: Air Force Special Operations Approves First Beard, Turban Waiver for Sikh Airman

It is the first religious accommodation of its kind at Warren and would appear to be one of the first in the entire Air Force.

A service spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment clarifying past requests to wear Tilak Chandlo in the ranks.

During basic training, Shah was told to wait until tech school to apply for a waiver and was later told to wait until he reached his first duty station. It was a difficult ask from his superiors.

Shah said he's been wearing a Tilak Chandlo since he was a boy, and it was a major part of his identity. The Eden Prairie, Minnesota, native moved to live with his grandparents in Gujarat, India, when he was three years old where he grew in the Hindu faith until he moved back to America at the age of five, according to Warren Air Force Base. He regularly attended temple.

Shah told his friends about receiving the waiver and soon word spread to newspapers in Europe and India.

"My friends from Texas, California, New Jersey and New York are messaging me and my parents that they are very happy something like this happened in the Air Force," Shah said in the press release. "It's something new. It's something they've never heard of before or even thought was possible, but it happened."

Shah's accommodation was praised by religious liberty advocates such as Michael Berry, director of Military Affairs and senior counsel for the Texas-based nonprofit First Liberty Institute.

Berry said he was surprised the approval took so long to grant, but is glad nonetheless that the Air Force didn't believe Shah's religious liberty was at odds with his military service.

"When our military finds a way to accommodate sincerely held beliefs, that's good for the Constitution," Berry told Military.com. "I think it boosts morale and esprit de corps, which I think makes us a stronger military."

Hinduism is broken down into several religious sects. Shah practices Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, which is represented by a red dot on the forehead, known as a Chandlo, and it's surrounded by an orange U-shaped symbol, known as a Tilak.

The primary leader of the sect, Guruhari Mahant Swami Maharaj, celebrated the news with Shah during a phone call.

"He was very happy," Shah said. "He said that what I did was never seen before, and he gave me blessings."

News of Shah's approval follows several reforms by the Air Force in recent years to accommodate a wide range of religious traditions in uniform.

In February 2020, the service updated its dress and appearance policy, creating a comprehensive process for airmen to request waivers for religious apparel such as hijabs and turbans or facial hair worn for religious reasons.

Several months later, Air Force Special Operations Command granted a religious accommodation waiver to a Sikh airman so he could wear a turban and beard in uniform.

More recently, most of the discussion around religious accommodations in the Air Force has been related to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Last month, the service began its first wave of religious waivers. As of Tuesday, the Air Force has granted 21 requests; two were originally denied and later granted accommodations after an appeal process.

Also last month, a federal judge in Georgia blocked the Air Force from requiring an officer to get the COVID-19 vaccine, marking the first case in which a court successfully blocked the mandate for an airman.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Related: Gendered Scoring, No More Leg Tucks: Army Unveils New Fitness Test. Here's What You Need to Know.
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New York City mayor Eric Adams will announce tomorrow that the municipalitys COVID-19 vaccination requirement for professional athletes will be lifted, according to a report from Sally Goldenberg of Politico. The news means that unvaccinated players on the Yankees and Mets  who were previously prohibited from playing in home games  will no longer be blocked from playing at Yankee Stadium or Citi Field, write Adrian Wojnarowski and Jeff Passan of ESPN.

ESPN writes that MLB officials had been in contact with the mayors office in recent days about the possibility of the Yankees and Mets being down some players for home games. League officials had maintained optimism the situation would eventually be resolved, but Wojnarowski and Passan report that the MLB Players Association had recently sent a memo to agents who represent players on those teams about the possible consequences theyd face for missing games on account of vaccination status.

As part of the new collective bargaining agreement, that includes lost service time and pay. That now only figures to be relevant in Toronto, as the Canadian government is preventing unvaccinated players from entering the country. That wont have any impact on the Mets, but the Yankees are slated to play ten road games against the Blue Jays this season. Unvaccinated players are still prohibited from participating in those games and will be placed on the restricted list for those contests.
Ghanaian Hiplife artiste, Nii Addo Quaynor popularly known as Tinny has revealed how his nuclear family contributed money to finance his first-ever studio album, Makola Kwake.

In an interview with Konkonsa Kester on Y FM, he stated that his family members who were then in the UK made the contribution.

After school, my nuclear family contributed funds and sent them to me here in Ghana to record my first album. They were in the United Kingdom then and I was here with some members, he stated.

He disclosed that after the contributions were made, he became a record producer.

I had to find a producer whom I knew was the best at his game and that was Hammer. I felt like working with him because I realized singing on his records would be best for me and indeed, he was best, he added.

Tinny started his music career in 1994 when he was performing at Fun  World at the National Theatre in Accra.

He has five studio albums to his credit.
The Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFSC), Professor Vladimir Antwi-Danso has said land administration in the country should be looked at.

His comment follows the demolition of a facility on the premises of the Bulgarian embassy in Accra.

Speaking on the Sunrise show on 3FM Monday, March 21, he said Land administration in the country should be looked at. We dont allow institutions to work for justice to be served.

He added, This one is just too bad and I think the commission must unravel the mission behind that demolition.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has distanced itself from the development saying, the demolition was carried out by a private developer.

A Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, said at a press conference on Wednesday that Government has got no hand in whatever the developer is doing.

The Ministry wishes to seize this opportunity to set the records straight on the property in question and the circumstances of the demolition.

The Bulgarian Embassy leased the subject property from the late Theophilus Kofi Leighton in 1st February 1979, which lease was extended from 1983 for fifty (50) years for which an amount of One Million Old Ghana Cedis was paid by the Embassy with the option of renewal for another fifty (50) years. The lease expires in 2033.

Upon the demise of the landlord, the Administrator of the Estate of the late Kofi Leighton attempted to forcefully repossess the property over alleged non-payment of rent arrears by the Bulgaria Embassy notwithstanding the latter's full payment for the lease to the late Leighton.

Mindful of its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 concerning host states' obligation to the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions, the Ministry summoned the parties to a meeting for an amicable settlement of the matter.

Dissatisfied with the conciliatory approach of the Ministry at resolving the issue, the Administrator of the Estate of the late Leighton went to the High Court with a writ for declaration of title to the property housing the Bulgarian Embassy; payment of accumulated rent arrears; and order for ejection and recovery of possession of the property. Part of those reliefs was granted by the High Court. However, upon appeal, the Court of Appeal reversed the High Court's decision.

The case traveled all the way to the Supreme Court. In its judgment, the Apex Court reaffirmed the holdings of the Appeal Court, dated 21st July 2011, which overturned the decision of the High Court and affirmed the right of the Bulgarian Embassy in the leased property.

The above judgment of the Supreme Court notwithstanding, the Successor of the late Leighton sold the leased property to a private developer, who later encroached on it.

Still committed to its obligations under public international law, the Ministry, upon being informed of the encroachment of the Bulgarian Embassy, invited the parties and their lawyers to a series of meetings in January this year which were aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

At those meetings, the Ministry referred the trespasser to the ruling of the Supreme Court, which reaffirmed the right of the Embassy in the unexpired residue of its lease. The parties were also encouraged to reach a mutually agreed settlement on the reimbursement of the amount of the residue of lease due to the Bulgarian Mission.

The Ministry has also formally notified the Minister for Justice and Attorney General to take appropriate action on the encroachment on the subject property.

---3news.com
Stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector have been urged to adopt strategic measures that will ensure the safety and security of water bodies in the country.

Mrs Caroline Raes, Head of Programmes at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), who made the call, also underscored the need for various stakeholders to institute measures to guarantee the safety and adequate supply of potable water in the country.

She was addressing a ceremony organised in Tamale by CRS and partners to commemorate this years World Water Day on the theme: "Groundwater - Making the Invisible Visible".

Key stakeholders from various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region amongst other agencies took part in the event to deliberate on the need to improve on the quality of water provision in the region.

The World Water Day, commemorated in March every year, has been instituted by United Nations to celebrate gains in water service delivery, raise awareness of the global water crises and to stimulate discussions and collective action to provide the needed solutions.

Mrs Raes expressed need for stakeholders to take the needed steps to harness the prospects of groundwater to minimise the incidence of water scarcity in the country.

She noted that an estimated 41 per cent of the countrys population depended on groundwater sources for their domestic and industrial use hence the need to prioritise its safety for consumption.

She lamented that the geological formation of Tamale and its environs were not favourable for groundwater exploration and abstraction compelling residents to depend largely on the White Volta River.

She said "Considering the socioeconomic importance of the White Volta River, which is the only fresh water source for Tamale and its environs, there is the urgent need to address the environmental issues along the river basin, especially at Nawuni, where abstraction and treatment take place."

Mr Nicholas Hene Ampong Okyere, Northern Regional Production Manager of Ghana Water Company Limited lamented the deficit in water supply in the region saying "The water demand for Tamale is about 90,000m3. However, the Dalun Headworks currently has installed capacity of 45,000m3 per day but can only produce a daily average of 32, 000m3 of water to Tamale Metropolis and its environs."

He called for the permanent relocation of the sand miners away from the water treatment plant to ensure the sustainability of the Dalun Water Treatment Plant.

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister called on communities to acknowledge water security and environmental degradation as a shared responsibility to join efforts to address the situation.

Mr Osman Mumuni, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist at the Tamale Field Office of the United Nations Children Fund called on government and other stakeholders to invest in groundwater to enhance water safety and security in the region.
Malcom Bernab Paho, director and journalist of the Cameroonian newspaper Midi Libre Hebdo, was arrested on February 22, following a criminal defamation complaint made against him. Paho

23.03.2022 LISTEN

Cameroonian authorities should drop the prosecution of journalist Malcom Bernabe Paho and decriminalize journalism in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On February 22, the national gendarmerie arrested Paho, director of the newspaper Midi Libre Hebdo; opened a criminal defamation case against him; and detained him for two days in the capital Yaounde, following a complaint filed by Boba Denis, a pastor who heads the Africa Life World Mission church, an international religious organization, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Denis filed the complaint on January 27, after Midi Libre Hebdo published an article on November 29, 2021, alleging that Denis had sexual relations with church members, according to a letter to Paho from Cameroons National Communication Council (CNC), the countrys communications regulator, and the article, both of which CPJ reviewed. Denis claimed the article contained unfounded statements likely to damage his image, according to the CNC letter.

Cameroonian authorities should drop their prosecution of journalist Malcolm Barnabe Paho and reform the countrys laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program director, from New York. Cameroon should focus on ensuring that there are no journalists in jail, not look to add more.

On February 24, Paho was released on bail after paying 100,000 CFA francs (US$167), Pahos lawyer, Soumele Jatsa Augustin, told CPJ by phone. In Cameroon, defamation is punishable with up to six months in prison and a fine of 2 million CFA francs (US$3,350), according to Article 305 of the penal code.

Paho is expected to appear in court on April 14, he told CPJ.

Denis told CPJ by phone that he filed separate defamation complaints with Cameroons gendarmerie, to hold Paho criminally liable, and the CNC, which can impose sanctions on media outlets and journalists. I blame him (Paho) for everything he said in the newspaper without consulting me and making sure that what he said was true. What he wrote is extremely serious. It puts my life in danger, Denis said.

The CNC reviewed and ultimately rejected Denis complaint against the journalist, Paho told CPJ. Jean Tobie Ho, the secretary general of the CNC told CPJ by phone that the complaint was rejected over a technical issue.

CPJs calls and questions sent via messaging app to Florent Ntyam-Nkoto, Cameroons Public Prosecutor at the Court of Yaounde Administrative Center, went unanswered.

There are at least four journalists currently jailed in connection with their work in Cameroon, according to CPJ research; two have been released since December 1, 2021, when CPJ conducted its last census of journalists behind bars for their work around the world.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for protests across the world on Thursday as Russia's ongoing invasion of Kiev completes a month since it started on February 24.

"The war of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine. Its meaning is much wider... Russia started the war against freedom... This is only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land," Zelensky said in his nightly video message which he addressed in English for the first time.

"Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe. Of all the people in the world.

"It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters. It tries to show that people do not matter... That's the reason we must all stop Russia, the world must stop Russia. The world must stop the war.

"One month already. That long. It breaks my heart, the hearts of all Ukrainians and every free person on the planet.

"That's why I ask you to stand against the war... Show your standing, come from your offices, your homes, your schools and your universities, come in peace... Come in the name of Ukraine, with Ukrainian symbols to support freedom, to support life.

"Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard. Say that people matter, freedom matters, peace matters. Ukraine matters," he added.

Since the war began on February 24, Zelensky has been posting the nightly video messages on various social media platforms.

Russia has continued its hostilities by bombarding major cities across Ukraine in order to advance towards Kiev.

Forces have are continued to bombard and blockade the southern port city of Mariupol, where residents have run out of water and food and an estimated 90 per cent of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed, said the BBC.

Russian shelling also continue in Kiev, Chernihiv and Kharkiv

Meanwhile in Irpin, located about 40 km from Kiev which has seen fierce fighting in recent weeks, is back in Ukrainian hands, according to authorities in the capital.
The Ghana Police Service has said it has commenced Investigations into a viral video in which a suspect was assaulted while in handcuff.

The service has directed the Police Professional Standards Bureau to probe and report its findings to the police administration for any disciplinary actions to be taken against anybody found culpable.

According to the service, such actions are atrocious, and warned personnel against abuse of fundamental human rights of all persons and act in accordance with the law.

A video on social media shows a young man being tortured as he sits handcuffed on the floor.

The swollen-faced 30-year-old suspect is reported to have conspired with another person in an attempt to kill his father.

This allegation seems to have infuriated the police officers who were seen slapping the suspect, Stephen Gyedu.

When attempting to explain how the incident ensued, the alleged officers landed slaps on his face and mouth intermittently while forcing answers out of him.

The voices of a male and female are the loudest amid the group torturing the suspect.

Over the past 24 hours, this video has raised concerns on social media about the treatment of persons in police custody.

It is however unclear which police station the incident occured.

citinewsroom
A 34-year-old ex-convict who slashed his elder brother's thigh and shoulder with a cutlass over their mother's estate at Teshie has been jailed five years by an Accra Circuit Court.

Anthony Kwabena Yeboah Twumasi was further ordered to pay compensation of GHS5,000 to his brother, Simon Nikoi Kotei, who is the complainant in the case.

Twumasi, an ex-convict, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing harm.

The Court presided over by Mrs Christina Cann however found Twumasi guilty at the end of the trial and convicted Twumasi accordingly.

The trial judge said the sentencing of Twumasi was to serve as a deterrent to like-minded persons.

Prosecuting Chief Inspector Kofi Atimbire narrated earlier that Twumasi and Kotei resided at different locations at Teshie near Accra.

Prosecution said there had been a misunderstanding between Twumasi and Kotei in relation to the renting of a room in their mother's house.

The prosecutor said the situation had persisted and on December 1, 2021, late afternoon, the complainant went to the said mother's house with a mason to renovate a vacant room.

It said while the renovation was ongoing, Twumasi returned from town furious, demanding the key to the room which was being renovated.

Prosecution said in the process, Twumasi inflicted cutlass wounds on the complainant's thigh and shoulder.

Prosecution said the complainant, who bled profusely, was rushed to the LEKMA Hospital where he was admitted.

Prosecution said a report was made to the Police and a Police medical form was issued to the victim. Twumasi was arrested later.

GNA
The Head of Corporate Affairs of the National Identification Authority, Abudu Abdul Ganiyu, has assured concerned persons in Zongo communities that its personnel are not discriminated against them during the Ghana Card registration.

Nothing will be done to deny anyone's rightful citizenship, and that is the fact, he said on Eyewitness News.

Mr. Ganiyu was responding to a group called the Concerned Zongo Citizens of Ghana, which said some ethnic groups in Zongo communities are being denied these national identification documents.

He explained that the questions that may have been perceived as discriminatory were merely due process for all applicants.

Mr. Ganiyu noted, for example, that questions on ethnicity are part of the records that have to be kept about you.

For NIA officials, we have standard questions which are asked to each one. It doesn't matter your name, it doesnt matter where you come from.

When these questions are asked, no one should take offence. It is just a collection of question that must lead to whether we are able to accept right there and then that somebody is a Ghanaian, or some more investigations have to take place.

He further said the NIA was open to engaging further on the matter.

Our doors are open, and Im there to engage them, to start with, Mr. Ganiyu said.

citinewsroom
An NDC lawyer, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, has suggested that prosecuting the Assin North MP on charges of deceit of public officer, forgery, among others, is evidence of political mischief.

Making his case on The Point of View, Mr. Tamakloe rubbished assertions that the MP, James Quayson, was guilty of these charges brought on because of contentions over his dual citizenship status ahead of the 2020 elections.

He argued that the suit against the MP was initiated by a citizen and not the Electoral Commission.

How come the Electoral Commission is not the complainant if they were indeed deceived, Mr. Tamakloe asked.

The lawyer also noted the challenges the New Patriotic Party side in Parliament was facing because of limited numbers.

In addition to the suit challenging the election, the State is also going after him on charges of deceit of public officer contrary to section 251 (b) of the Criminal offences Act, 1960, Act 29; forgery of passport or travel certificate, contrary to section 15 (1)(b) of Passports and Travel Certificates Act, 1967 (NLCD 155); and, knowingly making a false statutory declaration in contravention of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1971, Act 389.

This is an Executive arm which is challenged in Parliament, and part of the tools available to the Executive is prosecution.

We all know the prosecutorial powers of the Attorney General can be weaponised for political mischief purposes, he added.

Also on the show, a New Patriotic Party lawyer, Gary Nimako, insisted that the Attorney General was doing a good job and that the legal challenges against Mr. Quayson would be pursued to the end.

Let us allow the Supreme Court to deal with this matter as he has taken it there One way or the other, we will see whether they are right or we are right, he said. Background

The Cape Coast High Court in the Central Region had declared the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency as null and void because Mr. Quayson breached the provisions of the constitution with regard to dual citizenship.

Mr. Quayson subsequently appealed the judgment, at the Court of Appeal in Cape Coast.

Article 94 (2) says a person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.

Michael Ankomah-Nimfa, a resident of Assin Bereku in the Central Region, filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to annul the declaration of Mr. Quayson as the MP Assin North.

In November 2020, a group calling itself 'Concerned Citizens of Assin North petitioned the Electoral Commission in the Central Region to withdraw the candidature of Mr. Quayson, arguing that he owes allegiance to Canada.

citinewsroom
ASA Savings and Loans Limited on Wednesday, March 24, 2022, made a donation to support the Super Kids School Complex in the Central Region.

The donation was done by the ASA Savings and Loans Anomabo Business Centre, Central Division.

The gesture follows a visit to the school to find out what they need to improve the academic performance of students and the effective running of the school.

The items donated to the Super Kids School Complex include 20 bags of cement, textbooks, paint, chalk, white marker boards, toiletries, and some animated placards

The items were presented by Mr. Dennis Amofa Adarkwa (Area Manager Petrol).

According to ASA Savings and Loans, the donation which is dear to the company forms parts of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

This donation is just one of many already carried out by ASA Savings and Loans in its quest to give back to society.

Earlier this week, the Amanfro business center made a massive donation of food items to the Saviour Children Foundation Home located at Amanfro Kings Town, Kasoa.

In February, the company also donated some items to the Dzorwulu Special School in Accra.

A few weeks earlier, ASA Savings and Loans had also made similar donations to the victims of the Appiatse explosion and Christ Faith Foster Home.

The donations are all part of the companys CSR activities across other operational areas in the country.
Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase Constituency, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak has justified Minority rejection of the proposed salary cut for MPs.

Speaking to TV3, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP said already, his colleagues are struggling to put body and soul together in the midst of the current economic crisis.

Arguing that the NPP MPs refused a pay cut when the NDC was in power, he said the Minority will also not agree to give parts of its salary to the ruling NPP government.

When we were in government and our ministers and members were taking parts of their salaries to build CHPS compounds, our colleagues never participated.

Why do they want to do their thing and they want us to participate? It is not in our interest to do that, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak shared.

The Asawase MP continued, Why am I saying that? if you continue to see the kind of waste, there is more they can cut as many ministers and governments functionaries but not the meagre salaries of MPs who are struggling to put body and soul together.

Speaking in an interview on the Good Evening Ghana programme on Metro TV on Tuesday, Ofoase-Ayirebi MP Kojo Oppong Nkrumah disclosed that he is willing to move a motion to call on lawmakers to accept a pay cut to cushion government efforts to address the economic challenges.

Since then, several Minority MPs including Tamale Central MP Ibrahim Murtala Muhammad who have commented on the issue have stressed that they will not accept any pay cut.
24.03.2022 LISTEN

Some chiefs of Mampong Akuapem have indicated their intentions to support Sammi Awuku should he decide to contest for the Akuapem North Parliamentary seat on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to the Chiefs, although Sammi Awuku who is currently the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) has not personally declared his intention to run to become MP for the area, the Chiefs and People of Akuapem Mampong stand ready to support his bid if he decides to run.

In an interview with the media, the Apesemakahene of Mampong Akuapem Nana Yirenkyi l, said for now, we are not aware of anything but if he wants it we will help him.

According to him, Sammi Awuku has done a lot for Akuapem, and all the chiefs and the people have accepted him as one of their own.

Any day our son will tell us he wants to be an MP, expect all the chiefs to campaign for him. Apesemakahene of Mampong Akuapem Nana Yirenkyi l further added.

Nana Yirenkyi l explained that the reason behind the traditional councils decision to support Sammi Awuku is borne out of the latters benevolence to residents after he got actively involved in national politics, adding that he has always helped in addressing some of the challenges residents in the Akuapem North constituency were faced with.

Earlier this year in January, the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority, Sammi Awuku urged a youth group within Akuapem North to pull down a billboard they independently sponsored and erected to honour him.

According to the NLA boss, the timing not right and sent a wrong signal.

By Citi Newsroom
The Ashanti Region Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Kwabena Senkyire, has described the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) as the most useless government entity.

The NADMO boss while speaking on Akoma FMs current affairs and political show GhanAkoma Wednesday, March 23 on the back of the incessant road carnage swiped at NRSA for what he described as inaction on the part of the [National] Road Safety Authority because you dont even see them working at night on our roads and its part of their mandate to ensure safety on our roads so if the opposite is happening then I will say they are useless.

The Ashanti Region NADMO boss, who doubles as the First Vice Chair of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Region, further quizzed host of the show Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin, Kofi, when was the last time you saw personnel of the NRSA patrolling and checking drivers to instill discipline on our roads to reduce the heightening road accidents? I will call on them to up their game because the rate at which road accidents are claiming lives is alarming.

The Ghana Police Service reported that over 400 persons were killed in road accidents with over 4,363 vehicles involved in January and February alone.

The latest accident occurred at a spot between Beposo and Asemassa in the Shama District of the Western Region where 14 passengers aboard a Ford mini bus were burnt to death after the car collided head-on with a heavy-duty truck, carrying construction boulders Tuesday, March 22.

3news.com
From recessions to deep recession, businesses and consumers have always faced tough economic times most of them unpredictable. And again now Ghanaians find themselves coping with the uncertainty and fall out of the coronavirus, COVID-19. At this stage, no one knows what will happen. And in the UK, USA etc. where less developed countries get support from are also faced with same difficulties with daily update and changes. What is more, the Russia and Ukraine war is seriously impacting negatively on the Ghanaian economy and the world economy at large in the construction, crude oil just to mention a few sectors.

In times like this, it is understandable that companies review their brands, marketing plans and spending. But what is the best approach to take? Should companies cut advertising or even stop spending right now? Or is it wise to keep spending, albeit with a different strategy and messaging?

To help Ghanaian companies scrutinize their position, the author has collated research on advertising during economic uncertainty and tough financial times, and the outcome for businesses taking different positions on marketing during them. Here is what the author learned:

1.0 Companies who advertise during economic uncertainty see sales growth

A Market study during 1989-91 in United State of America recession concluded that brands who increased their advertising saw significant sales growth. Examples include Jif Peanut Butter and Kraft Salad Dressing which experienced sales growth of 57% and 70% respectively.

Coors Light and Bud Light saw sales jump 15% and 16% respectively after increasing their ad spend, and Pizza Hut sales rose 61% and Taco Bells 40% through advertising.

Further research by McGraw-Hill of 600 B2B companies learned that the sales of businesses who maintained or increased their advertising grew 275% more than those who did not, both during and after the recession.

The above studies support the author's claim that companies who advertise during economic uncertainties see sales growth.

2.0 Companies who reduce advertising in tough financial times DIMINISH

In 1923 during the USA recession, Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies and found that the companies who advertised during the economic downturn were 20% ahead of where they had been before it started.

The companies who reduced advertising however were 7% below their 1920 levels. It is evident from the above that companies in Ghana who will advertise in this economic downturn will be ahead of those companies who will reduce advertising.

3.0 Companies who advertised after Covid 19 saw their market share rise

More recently, during the tough financial period that followed Covid 19 in 2021, the 25% of all companies who boosted their ad spending in Ghana saw their market share rise more than twice as fast as it typically rises during a normal economy, according to Advertisers market report 2001.

4.0 Buyers feel better about brands who advertise in a difficult times

Advertising in tough times also increases loyalty to your brand.

A survey into companies who advertise during tough times by the author discovered that 66% of people  feel better about their commitment to products and services. 66% also said these companies were front of mind when the time came to make purchasing decisions.

5.0 The right messaging is important  and how we can help

Companies rolling out their pre  coronavirus marketing plan should not behave they are not sensitive to the plight of customers. It does not also mean companies should not roll out their plans. The plans must be rolled carefully if not, it will be a disaster.

While it is judicious to keep advertising in difficult times, companies messaging and marketing plan needs to be carefully considered. It needs to be sensitive to the market, and how people are currently feeling and acting. And their offers appropriate.

In conclusion, Ghanaian companies are advised to sensitively advertise their products and services, and protect (and even grow) their market share in difficult times like we are experiencing through intelligent advertising.

Author

Dr Alfred Owusu

Dean Business School

Kumasi Technical University

Kumasi
Members of the Kusaug Traditional Council in the Upper East Region, have moved to reconcile residents of the Traditional Area and the Security agencies after gunfire exchange at Buabula, a suburb of Bawku.

The gunfire led to the death of three residents and three soldiers sustaining various degrees of injury.

All six MPs of the Traditional Council who engaged the various stakeholders including the Upper East Regional Security Council, Bawku Municipal Security Council and the Bawku Traditional Council to find a lasting solution to the impasse, also commiserated with residents of Buabula.

Apart from apologising on behalf of the residents to the Military command at Bawku whose three officers were injured and currently receiving treatment in Accra, they also apologised to Naba Tambiis-baaluk- kunwiak Ibrahim Aguuri I, Paramount Chief of Pusiga Traditional Area whose Palace was ransacked by Security officers in a search operation.

The MPs were Mr Cletus Avoka, MP for Zebilla, Mr Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku, Mr Abdulai Abanga, MP for Binduri, Madam Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, MP for Tempane, Madam Laadi Ayii Ayamba, MP for Pusiga and Mr Albert Akuka Alalzuuga, MP for Garu.

They were on a fact finding mission to ascertain the cause of the conflict between the residents and security agencies which was linked to the renewed Bawku Chieftaincy conflict and work to reconcile the two parties, to build confidence to ensure cooperation and peaceful coexistence.

The MPs who visited the scene observed that apart from the three civilians including a 13 year old girl who was shot and killed in her room by the alleged security officers, several houses, and properties including food items, motorbikes, and money were burnt to ashes.

Mr Ayariga assured the residents that their concerns would be prioritised to ensure that the arrested people were not only given bail but that a petition on the operation would be laid before the Human Rights and Administrative Justice for investigation.

He said apart from laying the findings before the Ministers of National Security, Defence and the Interior, the MPs would meet with President Akufo-Addo in April and the findings would be laid before him for appropriate actions to be taken.

Mr Avoka who led the caucus commended the security agencies for the keeping peace in the area in the wake of the conflict but noted that they needed to be more professional in dealing with residents of the area.

He said the MPs aimed to restore the trust between the residents and the security agencies to help end the Chieftaincy conflict which re-emerged in November 2021, leading to the death of many while several others sustained injuries.

Mr Paul Musah, the Assemblyman for Missiga Electoral Area who spoke on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Zoogo and Missiga Traditional Area, accused the security agencies particularly the military of foul play and asked government to bring the perpetrators to book.

He demanded the 11 residents who were arrested be released to them and compensation paid to the families who lost their relatives and properties and examine the current leadership of the military in the area

The conflict was due to disagreement over the performance of the funeral of a Chief who died more than 41 years ago which would pave way for the enskinment of another Chief

Apart from the curfew, which is still enforced, the ban on wearing of smock and riding of motorbikes were still in place.

Meanwhile, government has urged factions in the conflict to respect the decision of the Supreme Court ruling which confirmed Zugraan Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, the current Paramount Chief as the rightful Overlord and embrace peace to promote development.

GNA
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce on Thursday that his country will provide 6,000 additional missiles to Ukraine as Russia's ongoing war has completed a month.

Johnson is set to make the announcement at the NATO ' title=' NATO '>NATO and G7 leaders' meetings in Brussels, the BBC reported.

Besides the extra missiles, Johnson will also unveil 25 million pounds ($33 million) of funding to help pay Ukrainian soldiers and pilots.

"The UK will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight," the BBC quoted the Prime Minister as saying

"One month into this crisis, the international community faces a choice. We can keep the flame of freedom alive in Ukraine, or risk it being snuffed out across Europe and the world."

According to authorities, the new package will come on top of around 4,000 missiles already provided by the UK to Ukrainian forces.

The latest funding is in addition to the 400 million pounds already committed in humanitarian and economic aid, the authorities added.
Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah

24.03.2022 LISTEN

A former United Nations (UN) senior governance advisor, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah has advised the government to desist from the opulence lifestyle to help in addressing the current economic challenges.

As a result of the economic challenges facing the country, the government is exploring ways including salary cuts as one of the avenues to tackle the woes.

Speaking to Asaase Radio on Thursday, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah said while salary cuts could be said to be commendable, it would not be adequate.

He said instead, the government should avoid the extravagant lifestyle and show the Ghanaian people that it is ready to make good use of scarce resources in these hard times.

As I said earlier they are not adequate. I heard that Parliament has been called upon to make the same move because it cannot be imposed on them and I have heard some discordant voices from that institution, those who said no, and those who said we may upon certain conditions, so it is going to be tough.

But I think ultimately it depends on the government itself, that is why in addition to the salary reductions there must be other visible tangible measures that will impress on people, one of them, for instance, is simply for government to begin to avoid opulence lifestyle and be more frugal in how it serves the public, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah advised.

He said for starters, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should reduce the number of cars he moves around with knowing that fuel prices in the country are now very expensive.

And this can be seen in whether the president for instance is going to continue to move around with 40 or 50 cars. When you know that fuel prices have hit the roof and you are going to line up 40 cars just to take you to a place. So, if the president will say in view of the austerity measures I am going to use 10 cars, that will be dramatic for the public, Prof. Agyeman-Duah noted.
Iddi Mohammed, the brother of slain social media activist Kaaka, has been granted a GHS100,000 bail with two sureties by the Kumasi High Court.

Mr Mohammed, per the conditions of his bail, is to report himself to the regional office of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service on Mondays.

He is also expected to make himself available to the Asokwa District Court anytime the substantive matter is heard.

His relatives were excited about the bail.

Kaakas brother was arrested in June 2021 after his brother was lynched.

Another of Kaakas brothers, Nafiu Mohammed, who speaks for the family, told journalists: We are grateful and happy today that bail has been granted to our brother. We will see to it that all the process and bail condition is satisfied so that our brothers liberty will be given to him. We are still interested to see the end of the case to ensure that justice is served to Kaaka.

Mr Mohammed has been in state custody over the murder of his brother at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

Two weeks ago, two other accused persons being prosecuted for the same crime were also granted bail.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Some 12 commercial sex workers arrested in Ho, the Volta regional capital over the weekend have all been deported to their home country, Nigeria.

DAILY GUIDE understands that upon further interrogation, all 12 aged between 20 and 35 years were found to be Nigerians and not 11 as initially stated. They all did not have any documentation to justify their stay in Ghana, hence their deportation.

They are Flourish Sampson, 25; Gifty Blessing, 26; Gloria John, 25; Blessing Sunday, 23; Chiamaka Okulen, 23 and Sonia Asare, 24.

The others are Tosin Deli Ada, 35; Rachael Francis, 24; Grace Paul, 28; Annabel John, 20; Juliet Chiamaka, 25 and Joy Tin, 20.

The Public Relations Officer of the Volta Regional Police Command, DSP Efia Tenge, who confirmed the report, explained that upon their arrest last Saturday, March 19, 2022, all 12 were screened.

11 of them were preliminarily found to be of Nigerian nationality while the remaining one who gave her name as Sonia Asare claimed to be Ghanaian. Her claim was in doubt due to her inability to prove her Ghanaian nationality.

All 12 were handed over to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) for further investigation and verification of their documentation and other protocols.

Assistant Inspector (AII) Felix Klu-Adjei, Public Relations Officer of the GIS in the Volta Region, explained that when the 12 were received by his outfit, they were profiled and interrogated per laid down procedure after which they were deported.

Daily Guide
24.03.2022 LISTEN

The 26-year-old Immigration officer, Michael Otoo, who was shot dead by unknown assailants has been promoted posthumously from AICO1 to ICO.

This was announced by the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) when it visited the bereaved family. The promotion is to honour the late Michael Otoo, who died in the line of duty.

The officer is suspected to have been attacked and killed by smugglers at Kokoligu, a village between Nandom and Hamile in the Upper West Region.

Crime scene experts of the Ghana Police service, Defence Intelligence operatives, and other security personnel have been deployed to the Upper West Region to investigate the circumstances under which AICO Michael Otoo was shot dead.

Speaking during a visit to the family house of the deceased, the Head of Public Affairs of GIS, Superintendent Michael Amoako Atta assured that the criminals will be arrested.

The Comptroller General has directed that because the officer died in active service while protecting the country, this is a great recognition to honor the deceased. Police crime experts, the Bureau of National Investigations, and other security agencies are in the community to find the perpetrators of the crime, so they face the law. The leadership of the Immigration Service will ensure that justice is served.

The Nandom Command of the Immigration Service after the incident said the body of the officer which had bullet holes, was hidden by his assailants under a bridge whilst his motorbike and helmet were found some 100 meters away from the remains.

Police investigations have already commenced into the crime.

In the meantime, the Service has called for calm amongst its officers whilst the police and other security agencies investigate the matter.

I am devastated by my son's killing. He was all I had and the only person I relied on. I adored him, mother of the deceased, Elizabeth Otoo eulogized.
Government has with immediate effect banned foreign travels for all public officers except pre-approved critical and statutory travels.

This has been announced by the Minister in charge of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta during a press briefing on Thursday, March 24, 2022.

...with immediate effect Government has imposed a moratorium on all foreign travels, except pre-approved critical/statutory travels, the Finance Minister emphasised.

This is part of expenditure-cutting measures taken by the government to ensure the achievement of the fiscal deficit target of 7.4% of GDP for 2022.

Government has resolved to cut the free fuel coupon allocations to all political appointees by 50% to address the current economic challenges facing the country.

These times call for very efficient use of energy resources. In line with this, there will be a 50% cut in fuel coupon allocations for all political appointees and Heads of government institutions, including SOEs, effective 1st April 2022, Ken Ofori-Atta told the press.

In addition, government has with immediate effect imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year.

"This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives. We will ensure that the overall effect is to reduce total vehicle purchases by the public sector by at least 50 percent for the period."

The government as part of the economic measures has also decided to prioritise ongoing public projects over new projects.

This is to enhance the efficient use of limited public funds over the period by finishing ongoing or stalled but approved projects.
The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, wants the first Deputy Speaker of Parliament to issue definite instructions to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta over his failure to appear before Parliament to answer serious questions.

The Minister has been programmed to answer over ten questions on different subject matters on Thursday, March 24, 2022, but did not show up.

Raising concerns on the floor of the House, Muntaka said the Minister has consistently failed to honour parliaments invitation to answer the questions, some of which have been pending for a long time.

I find this to be very unacceptable because the Finance Minister can go around the country and do town hall meetings, yet he doesn't want to come here to answer to the reps of the people. All the 13 questions have been outstanding for a very long time. Today we are told he is holding a press conference to address the country. My worry is that, if we keep accommodating his excuses, this question will never be answered. We should give a definite instruction to the Finance Minister to come and answer the questions, he said.

Other minority members described the ministers posture as disrespectful.

---citinewsroom
Government says all its flagship programs including the ambitious Free Senior High School (SHS) policy will continue to run regardless of the challenges confronting the countrys economy.

This is contrary to earlier suggestions by the Minister responsible for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah that all 16 flagship programs of the government including the Free SHS were up for possible review after a recent cabinet meeting to proffer solutions to the economic hardships.

But speaking at a press briefing today, Thursday, March 24, Finance does not intend to suspend any of its policies.

Let me say that President Akufo-Addo has no absolute intention to roll back any major policy like the Free SHS. He sees education as the best and enabling force for sustainable economic growth, transformation, and social mobility, and we will do more to improve on it for it to serve more and better our children.

Pressure is mounting on the Akufo-Addo government to review the policy.

Stakeholders as well as the opposition NDC, have urged the government to take another look at the Free SHS program and take expenditure cuts among others to save the country money.

Other civil society organizations have also called for a review of the programme including suggestions that the programme be limited to persons who are genuinely poor and unable to fund their secondary education.

For instance, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Prof. Stephen Adei. Prof. Stephen Adei explains that the GH7.6 billion expenditure on the programme over the past five years is taking a toll on Ghana's economy.

What did Information Minister say?

In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show with Bernard Avle, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said no program will be left out of the review.

All the 16 flagship programs are up to be looked at. The President has directed that the flagship programs should be protected and fully implemented to ensure that the impact is achieved. However, he wants it done within the constraints of item number 2 which is the fiscal framework we are working with. If based on the caps that we are working with we will have to rescope a particular flagship program, we will do it and see how much we can achieve.

All the 16 are up for discussion, none is off-limit. Only that the President has laid down the red line that we will not compromise on the fiscal consolidation agenda because our real problem over the years has been a year-on-year deficit going out of hand.

Consequences

The Ministry of Education has also brushed away calls for a review or scraping of the programme.

Its Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, told Citi News that the overall cost of not implementing the programme far outweighs the cost of implementing it.

He argued that the country risks having hundreds of thousands of its young people staying without secondary education without the flagship programme.

The cost in not implementing Free SHS in the long term has very dire consequences on us as a nation because it means that every year we will be having about 100,000 students that will not have access to education up to the secondary level and that will be dangerous for the socio-economic transformation that we seek to achieve. As compared to the current cost that we incur as a people, we should have the conversation within the proper context, he said.

---Citinewsroom
24.03.2022 LISTEN

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has blamed the minority in parliament for partly contributing to the current economic woes.

He said the minoritys lack of support for the E-levy scared investors and triggered the downgrade of Ghanas economy by various international rating agencies.

Addressing the public on the decisions taken by the government towards reviving the economy, the Minister said the government did not anticipate the decision of the minority and so their decision not to support the levy threw its plans off-balance.

[We didnt expect] that parliament would approve governments 2022 budget statement, appropriation, and its expenditure plans and then turn around to vote against one of the key revenue generation measures that were being introduced, the E-levy. The unyielding stance of the minority in parliament against the levy gravely affected investor confidence in our capacity to implement our programs and settle our debts, triggering the downgrading by credit agencies and now leaving the cedi vulnerable as we cannot access the international capital market, he said.

The Minister also said the war between Ukraine and Russia also disturbed its plans of recovery of the economy as it among other things led to an exponential increase in the cost of crude and food produce including wheat.

He insisted that the government had put in place a detailed plan for reviving the economy after the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He however indicated that in view of the current situation, the government has introduced new measures that will ensure that it stays afloat.

Among the new measures is a 50% cut in fuel coupons issued to state officials including state agencies and a further 10% cut in government expenditure.

Also, the government has placed a moratorium on the importation of vehicles and a moratorium on all foreign travels except preapproved statutory levels.

---citinewsroom
Five people have been killed in an attack by armed rebels on an army base in the Central African Republic (CAR), regional officials said on Thursday.

Three of those who died in the four-hour attack on Tuesday were civilians -- two women and a boy, deputy prefect Jean Ulrich Semberkpanga said.

The attack occurred in Nzakoungou near the borders with Chad and Cameroon, he said.

Martin Kossi, the prefect of the Ouham-Pende region, said two soldiers from the CAR's armed forces had also died.

Authorities have implicated rebels of the Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation (3R) faction, one of the region's most powerful armed groups, presenting itself as a Fulani self-defence militia.

A civil war in the CAR that began in 2013, pitting myriad militias against a state on the verge of collapse, had eased considerably in recent years.

But about a year ago, fighting resumed abruptly when rebels launched an offensive to overthrow President Faustin Archange Touadera.

Long-promised national reconciliation talks began this week but no rebel groups are invited and the opposition has decided to boycott them.
Mr. Stephen Turreh, a Pharmacist at Ashaiman Polyclinic, has appealed to hospital administrators to ensure that health workers suffering from any ailment, referred to their facilities, are given preferential treatment.

He said health care providers must not be made to join long queues when seeking treatment at facilities other than where they worked so that they could quickly return to hospitals and clinics to continue with their duties.

Mr. Turreh made the call when a delegation of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) visited the Ashaiman Polyclinic to show support for some of the staff who have been sick for some time.

He said health care providers must not go through the same the process as every other patient when they needed treatment.

He commended the GRNMA for supporting one of their Staff, Madam Shine Addo who is indisposed with an amount of GHC30,000.00 to undergo surgery.

GNA
An international team of researchers has described two new species of the frog genus Hyalinobatrachium from the Ecuadorian Andes.

The glassfrogs, or glass frogs, are members of the amphibian family Centrolenidae, with more than 150 species.

These frogs are found in the Neotropics, from southern Mexico, through Central America, into the northern half of South America, and along the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil and the extreme northeastern margin of Argentina.

Their diversity is concentrated in the northern Andes, which hosts more than half (83 taxa) of the species in the family.

The glassfrogs are generally small, ranging from 2-7.5 cm (0.8-3 inches) in length. While the general background coloration of most glassfrogs is primarily green, the abdominal skin of some species is translucent.

Within Centrolenidae, species of the genus Hyalinobatrachium are particularly charismatic due to their peculiar morphological and behavioral traits.

All Hyalinobatrachium have ventral transparency and extended paternal care  a derived trait that has evolved at least twice in the family.

The two new species in the genus live in relatively unexplored and isolated localities of the Ecuadorian Andes.

One of them, named the Mashpi glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium mashpi), is only known from the following localities in the Mashpi river basin, Pichincha province.

The second, named the Nouns glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium nouns), is known from Rio Manduriacu Reserve and Bosque Protector Los Cedros at elevations of 1,177-1,420 m (3,862-4,659 feet) above sea level.

Both species are distinguished from other glassfrogs mainly by their dorsal coloration (i.e., dorsum lime green with small light yellow spots, head usually with interorbital bar) and transparent pericardium (i.e., the heart is visible through the ventral skin), said lead author Dr. Juan Guayasamin, a researcher with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his colleagues.

They exhibit a high morphological similarity (i.e., cryptic) and occur within relatively close geographical proximity (closest aerial distance = 18.9 km, or 11.7 miles).

The scientists recommend that both new species be listed as Endangered, following IUCN criteria.

These new species provide another example of cryptic diversity in the Andes  further evidence that the region fosters much more biodiversity than we have the resources to catalog, they said.

Threatened by mining and other exploitative industries, these glassfrogs and many other yet-to-be-discovered Andean species highlight the dire need for effective conservation measures, especially in northwestern Ecuador.

The teams paper was published in the journal PeerJ.

_____

J.M. Guayasamin et al. 2022. Two new glassfrogs (Centrolenidae: Hyalinobatrachium) from Ecuador, with comments on the endangered biodiversity of the Andes. PeerJ 10: e13109; doi: 10.7717/peerj.13109
A seven-member board of the newly established National Fertilizer Council has been inaugurated.

The board, chaired by Ms Nana Serwah Bonsu Amoako, Special Advisor, Ghana Fertilizer Expansion Programme at the Office of the President, has Mr Bentsil Quaye, the Acting Director, Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) and Mr Seth Osei-Akoto, the Director, Directorate of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, as members.

The rest are; Dr Edward Yeboah, the Director-General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research  Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), Mr Danquah Addo-Yobo, Representative from Yara Ghana, Fertilizer Manufacturers and Importers, Mr John Awuku Dziwornu from National Farmers' Association and Mr Ebenezer Appah-Sampong from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Swearing in the members of the board in, Accra, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) tasked them to initiate medium term measures to mitigate the plight of farmers brought by fertilizer shortage on the world market.

Prices of fertilizer on the global market have been at a record high since the turn of the year.

Russia which accounts for around 14 per cent of global fertilizer exports, has temporarily suspended outgoing trade since its invasion of Ukraine in early February this year, exacerbating the situation.

Dr Akoto said, government's effort in terms of transforming the country's agriculture depended largely on the use of fertilizer and improved seed.

He said, since it assumed office in 2017, Government had increased the average fertilizer application by Ghanaian farmers to about 25kg per hectare from an 8kg per hectare in 2016.

Despite this, Dr Akoto said, more needed to be done if the country was to achieve the ECOWAS' target of 50kg per hectare, as well as the world average of 130kg per hectare.

So although we have made a lot of efforts in bringing up the average application of fertilizer, we are still very far away from either the West African target of 50kg per hectare. We are only half of that, he said.

Dr Akoto said the current volatility of fertilizer on the world market made it the more important for Ghana to have a fertilizer manufacturing plant to reduce its over-reliance on global supply and ensure food security.

He said, the Ministry was working with relevant agencies and private companies to fast track the construction of the fertilizer manufacturing plant for the country.

We have done that in collaboration with OCP, which is the fertilizer company of Morocco. We've had a whole series of meetings and workshops and a lot of interactions and we have been talking to private companies, banks and so on.

We should be able to attract the right investment to start the construction of a fertilizer plant in Ghana, he said.

He urged the board of the Fertilizer Council to expedite processes towards the realisation of this goal to find a long-term solution to the problem.

Nana Amoako, Chairperson of the board, assured that plans were far advance for the construction of a fertilizer plant to mitigate any future global fertilizer shortage.

She said as the Special Advisor of the Ghana Fertilizer Expanded Programme, she and other members of the board were not oblivious to the current challenges in the fertilizer sector.

The steep rise in global fertilizer price and global shortage of fertilizers have certainly had a knock-on effect in fertilizer distribution and availability under the National Subsidy Programme, she said.

The task of this council will, therefore, be to work with the Honorable Minister to find medium to long term sustainable solutions to help our farmers, she said, adding that: We will first work with the Ministry to implement its strategy to mitigate the current fertilizer crisis by promoting the use of organic fertilizers, including local poultry manure, which is cheaper and of equal quality.

In the long term, she said the board would continue to forge to begin the construction of home-grown world scale fertilizer manufacturing plant, to alleviate the burden of succumbing to global fertilizer price shocks.

Our local fertilizer manufacturing plant will ensure the availability of high quality affordable and accessible fertilizers to our local farmers; thereby ensuring long term food security. We will also continue to promote sustainable production and use of organic fertilizers.

She urged the members to work together to realise the board's targets.

GNA
The death toll from twin attacks in central Somalia has climbed to 48, the leader of Hirshabelle state said Thursday, with Al-Shabaab insurgents claiming they were targeting politicians ahead of elections.

The first attack in Hirshabelle's Beledweyne district was carried out on Wednesday night by a suicide bomber, and killed two local lawmakers including Amina Mohamed Abdi and several of her guards as she campaigned for re-election.

Minutes later, a car bomb exploded outside Beledweyne's main hospital where the injured were being taken for treatment, killing dozens, causing buildings to collapse and leaving vehicles in charred, twisted ruins.

"As far as we can confirm, 48 people were killed and 108 others injured in the twin blasts," said Ali Gudlawe Hussein, leader of Hirshabelle state, adding that emergency workers had found bodies buried under debris.

"We are urging (citizens) to be very vigilant, we are ordering all security agencies to beef up security," he said.

Earlier Thursday, the Beledweyne district police chief told AFP that the attacks had killed over 30 people.

"The terrorists carried out the first attack using a suicide bomber and readied a car loaded with explosives in front of a hospital to cause more casualties," said Colonel Isak Ali Abdulle.

"These were devastating simultaneous attacks which damaged property as well as causing mass civilian casualties."

The bombings occurred the same day as three people were killed in a separate attack near Mogadishu's airport that was also claimed by Al-Shabaab.

Map of Somalia showing Beledweyne. By AFP

The Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently target civilian, military and government targets in Somalia's capital and outside.

Targeting politicians

Witnesses described carnage outside the hospital in Beledweyne.

"The second blast was very huge, it occurred in front of the hospital and my brother and one of our neighbours were among the dead," said Mahad Yare, a Beledweyne resident.

Al-Shabaab said it carried out the attacks to target politicians contesting ongoing elections.

The British ambassador to Somalia, Katie Foster, shared her condolences on Twitter, saying: "We strongly condemn the use of violence to intimidate and disrupt the elections."

The European Union's ambassador to the country, Tiina Intelmann, also offered condolences, writing on Twitter: "Violence is not a way forward for #Somalia. #EU condemns terrorism and politically motivated killings."

Earlier on Wednesday, security forces shot dead two gunmen who attempted to storm a heavily fortified area of the Somali capital Mogadishu near the city's main airport.

The airport complex houses the United Nations, aid agencies, foreign missions and contractors, and the headquarters of the African Union military mission, AMISOM.

Three people were killed in that attack -- a policeman, an AMISOM soldier and a civilian.

Election delays

Al-Shabaab has been seeking to overthrow the country's fragile government for over a decade.

The Horn of Africa nation has seen a spate of attacks in recent weeks as it hobbles through a long-delayed election process.

Somalia's key foreign backer, the United States, has already imposed travel sanctions on key political figures for undermining the electoral process.

The lower house election is now due to be completed on March 31, paving the way for lawmakers to pick a president.

Somalia's international backers have warned the election delays distract from the fight against Al-Shabaab.

The jihadists controlled Mogadishu until 2011 when they were pushed out by AMISOM troops, but still hold territory in the countryside.
Sudanese security forces shot dead a protester in the southeastern city of Wad Madani on Thursday during anti-coup rallies held across the African country, medics said.

Angry demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum and several other cities demanding a return to civilian rule after the military grabbed power last year.

Waving the Sudanese flag, the protesters chanted "No, no to military rule" and "Go back to the barracks" at the biggest turnout in Khartoum.

Anti-coup demonstrators have remained undeterred despite a crackdown by the security forces that has now claimed the lives of 90 people.

The latest fatality was a 28-year-old man who was hit at close range by a blast of birdshot fired by security forces in Wad Madani, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the capital, medics said.

Military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power in Sudan on October 25, triggering international condemnation and punitive measures.

The coup upended a transition to civilian rule after the 2019 ouster of autocratic president Omar al-Bashir, following mass protests against his iron-fisted three decades in power.

Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, has been reeling from a plunging economy due to decades of international isolation and mismanagement under Bashir.

Since the coup, the northeast African country has suffered from international aid cuts and economic turmoil.

Its currency, the pound, has plummeted in value and prices of food and fuel have skyrocketed.

"This is the third time for me to take to the streets after economic conditions worsened," Iman Babiker said at a protest in North Khartoum.

"It has become unbearable."

Demonstrators have over the past two days set up barricades of bricks, tree branches and burning car tyres on the main streets of the capital.

Sudan has yet to appoint a prime minister since the January resignation of premier Abdalla Hamdok, who remained under house arrest for weeks before he was reinstated.

In an interview published on Wednesday in Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Burhan said he hoped a new prime minister would be nominated after the agreement of political factions in Sudan.
A West African court ordered Thursday the suspension of sanctions imposed on Mali over delayed elections, in a rare diplomatic win for the country's ruling junta.

The court of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) issued the ruling on the eve of a regional summit on Mali, which is under pressure to restore democracy rule after a military coup in 2020.

After the junta proposed staying in power for up to five years, UEMOA and the West Africa bloc ECOWAS slapped economic and diplomatic sanctions on the Sahel state in January.

The eight-nation UEMOA said it endorsed measures taken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which included the freezing of financial assets and sanctioning leading junta members.

It also announced that it would back any subsequent measures taken by the 15-nation ECOWAS bloc -- of which all UEMOA countries are members.

ECOWAS leaders then announced border closures with Mali and imposed a trade embargo on the nation of 21 million people.

It was unclear if the UEMOA court's suspension ruling would lead to the immediate lifting of the sanctions.

Mali's junta views the sanctions as illegal and vowed in January to challenge them in international courts.

According to the court ruling seen by AFP, Malian government lawyers petitioned the UEMOA court to cancel what they argued are illegal sanctions. Separately, they also asked the court to suspend the sanctions.

The court ruled in favour of suspension, citing "well founded" legal arguments as well as the damaging economic impact of the sanctions.

Extraordinary summit

One of the world's poorest countries, Mali has over the past decade been wracked by a jihadist insurgency.

Vast swathes of the country are in thrall to myriad rebel groups and militias, and thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict.

In August 2020, rebel military officers deposed elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, after angry protests at the failure to stem jihadist attacks and clamp down on corruption.

The junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, sparked international anger after reneging on a promise to stage elections in February this year.

The move contributed to the regional sanctions and also sent relations with former colonial power France into a nosedive.

Paris intervened militarily in Mali in 2013, but announced a troop withdrawal last month.

The decision of the UEMOA court comes as ECOWAS leaders are due to gather in Ghana's capital, Accra, on Friday for an extraordinary summit focusing on Mali.

ECOWAS is pushing the junta to stage elections within 12 to 16 months.
24.03.2022 LISTEN

March 3, 2022 - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes new report, published on Monday February 28, once again confirms that the climate crisis disproportionately affects African countries. It further demonstrates that climate impacts will worsen sooner than previously predicted and that worldwide action is more urgent than previously assessed. And yet Africa is host to a growing number of oil, gas and coal projects. New research published today by BankTrack, Milieudefensie, Oil Change International and 19 African partners (1), including 350Africa, Alliance for Empowering Rural Communities (AERC) from Ghana, and WEP Nigeria, reveals the billions of dollars in finance, the majority from European, Asian and North American financial institutions, that are putting the continent in danger of becoming locked into fossil fuels, despite its massive potential for renewable energy. As a result, Africa runs the risk of not being able to make the necessary leap to sustainable energy in time.

Billions of overseas fossil fuel money

Between 2016, following the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, and June 2021, public and private financial institutions poured at least $132 billion in lending and underwriting into 964 gas, oil and coal projects in West, East, Central and Southern Africa. The vast majority of this finance came from financial institutions based outside Africa, both commercial banks and public institutions such as development banks and Export Credit Agencies.

Of the top 15 financial institutions behind this sum, 10 are commercial banks and five are public finance institutions.

The majority of the largest fossil fuel financiers are from North America and Europe , in particular from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. JPMorgan Chase, Standard Chartered, and Barclays are all in the top 5.

, in particular from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. are all in the top 5. The largest single financier of fossil fuel projects and companies in Africa in this period is the China Development Bank.

Those based in North America, Europe and Australia together provided $73 billion in financial support, 55% of the total. Asia-based financial institutions, mostly from China and Japan, provided $42 billion of the total amount, which equals 32%. In contrast, Africa-based financial institutions provided just $15 billion, or 11% of the finance.

The Development Myth

The fossil fuel industry as well as financiers often claim that fossil fuel projects contribute to Africa's economic and social development, however the evidence of the projects highlighted in this study, including Mozambique LNG and Offshore Cape Three Points in Ghana, indicate that this is a myth. Despite the many fossil fuel developments, Africa remains the continent with most people living in energy poverty. Poor contract terms, debt traps, and disproportionate ownership by foreign multinationals means the industry mainly serves the interests of companies and nations outside of Africa, with African people and African governments bearing the risks. Instead of bringing development, fossil fuel projects often have severe impacts on local communities and the environment. New fossil fuel projects also risk locking countries into fossil fuel dependency. Stranded assets combined with growing national debt and government deficits, could generate a dangerous ripple effect leading to massive unemployment and rising poverty, locking countries into a vicious cycle of poverty for decades to come.

Risks For The Financial Sector

For financial institutions, providing financial support to oil, gas and coal projects is also increasingly becoming a risk. With the energy transition accelerating and the production costs of renewable energy rapidly dropping compared to fossils, these projects are increasingly at risk of ending up as stranded assets. Meanwhile, climate change litigation around the world is forcing companies to reduce their emissions output. And the risk of reputational damage has been heightened in recent years by the lack of transparency, corruption, illicit financial flows and serious environmental and human rights violations that characterise this sector in Africa. Further, a failure to limit global warming will present a systemic threat to the whole global financial system.

A Just Transition for Africa

The African partners of this report, as well as recent publications by African networks and civil society organisations, emphasise that the injustices that have plagued the African continent for so long will persist without a Just Transition approach to renewable energy - an approach rooted in environmental, social, political, economic and gender justice. As such, the report puts forward eight Principles for a transformative Just Transition approach to renewables.

In a Just Transition there is eventually no room for fossil fuels. Public and private financial institutions must immediately stop financial support for new oil, gas and coal projects and phase out the existing support for fossil fuels. Instead, finance should be redirected to renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. A Just Transition furthermore requires a shift of ownership of these renewable energy sources from large multinationals to African communities.

National and International Legislation

Such a major turnaround requires strict legislation from governments worldwide on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence to make sure the mistakes of the fossil fuel era will not be repeated, giving African countries the prospect of a green, resilient and sustainable future.

Landry Ninteretse, 350Africa.org Regional Director: Africans are experiencing severe climate impacts driven by high emissions from the biggest polluters in the developed world. Wealthy countries of Europe, North America, East Asia and Australia, historically big emitters, have not only the responsibility to fund the Just Transition and energy transition plans that African countries are committing to implement, but also to halt any new investments in the fossil fuel industry. Its time for governments and financial institutions to starve fossil fuels and redirect funding towards this transition to sustainable, clean energy, instead of locking African nations into fossil fuel dependency.

Henrieke Butijn, Climate campaigner and researcher at BankTrack and lead author of the report: Commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase and Standard Chartered can make all the Net-Zero pledges they want but these pledges will not automatically lead to the much-needed short-term steps in ending fossil fuel financing and much less to a true Just Transition. Banks need to start thinking beyond fossil fuel divestment and renewable energy as the new business-as-usual opportunity and focus on what truly benefits African countries and communities now and in the long-term.

Isabelle Geuskens, Senior Program Officer Just Transition at Milieudefensie and lead author of the report: Africa is the continent with the most renewable energy potential. But it has not been able to tap into it and build towards the more resilient and sustainable future it urgently needs, given the many climate challenges it is and will be facing. Meanwhile our financial institutions and industries continue fuelling the fossil fuel development myth and pour billions of dollars into new fossil fuel projects, locking the continent into fossil fuel dependency and a stranded future. A Just Transition for Africa means stopping fossil fuel finance and contributing to a renewable energy future that benefits African people first and foremost.

Anabela Lemos, Director JA! Justica Ambiental/FoE Mozambique: Mozambique and its people are in the tragic situation of being devastated by both the causes and effects of the climate change crisis. One of the major causes of the climate crisis is the extractive industry, and right now the gas rush in Mozambique is causing land grabs, destroyed livelihoods, human rights abuses, militarization and conflict. At the same time, Mozambique is one of the countries most affected by the impacts of climate change, with increasing floods, cyclones and droughts that have already killed, displaced and affected hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable and poorest people. We must break this cycle of injustice and inhumanity, by stopping the gas projects in Mozambique and around the world.

Aly Marie Sagne, Director and founder of Lumiere Synergie pour le Developpement (LSD): Africa is experiencing the severe impacts of the climate crisis while at the same time, African leaders like Senegalese President Sall are championing a false solution about an energy transition taking into account oil and gas investments. In the meantime, the African Development Bank, the major Development Finance Institution of the continent, is navigating between green and dirty energy financing options. LSD believes that each degree of additional CO2 emission counts and a just energy transition in Africa should therefore be moving away from fossil fuels. LSD is pushing the AfDB to increase the proportion of renewable energy projects in its portfolio to 70% by 2025!

Bronwen Tucker, Public Finance Campaign Co-Manager at Oil Change International: The resources and profits from fossil fuel projects in Africa have overwhelmingly flowed out of the continent rather than providing energy access or public goods. Now, wealthy countries are locking in a risky and unequal future on the continent by continuing to finance four times as much fossil fuels as renewables with their public finance institutions. These governments must get out of the way of a just transition in Africa by ending their fossil fuel finance and dramatically scaling up their climate finance and debt cancellation instead.

Note for editors

The African partners are: 350Africa.org, AFIEGO from Uganda, Africa Coal Network, Alerte Congolaise pour lEnvironnement et les Droits de lHomme (ACEDH) from the DRC, Alliance for Empowering Rural Communities (AERC) from Ghana, Centre for Alternative Development from Zimbabwe, Environment Governance Institute (EGI) from Uganda, Friends of the Earth Ghana, Friends of the Earth Togo, Innovation for the Development and Protection of the Environment (IDPE) from the DRC, Justica Ambiental!/Friends of the Earth Mozambique, Laudato Si' Movement, Lumiere Synergie pour le Developpement (LSD) from Senegal, Save Okavango (SOUL), Solidarite pour la Reflexion et Appui au Developpement Communautaire (SORADEC) from the DRC, Synergie de Jeunes pour le Developpement et les Droits Humains (SJDDH) from the DRC, Women Environmental Programme Nigeria, WoMin and Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA).

Contact:

Henrieke Butijn, Climate campaigner and researcher at BankTrack: [email protected], +31 649229622. Based in the Netherlands.

Lynda Belaidi, press officer Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands): +31 6 386 14 206. Based in the Netherlands.

Richard Matey, Executive Coordinator at Alliance for Empowering Rural Commmunities: [email protected] , +233241582873. Based in Ghana.
24.03.2022 LISTEN

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refuses to cut off oil and gas supply from Russia arguing that it would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. He promotes the building of LNG ports and increases the funding for alternative energy. Russia uses our Euros to finance the war in Ukraine. German forces in Afghanistan were frustrated not having the mandate of destroying the poppy fields the Taliban only the Americans. Instead of destroying them, they allowed the drug deals to flourish, the Taliban to pay from the profit for the buying of arms to kill Germans among others.

The shelf-life of a democratically elected politician is the time in the office or the waiting position of it, for a King his designated life-span and a Dictator the time he serves his people for good or bad.

While Democracies engage in long-lasting processes to address issues bothering the nation in Kingdoms, Absolutism and Dictatorship results can occur at rapid speed with no precious time wasted. Democratically elected leaders see their nations beyond their once elected time with few outlooks for the time beyond their power. They know the blame for not having fulfilled their promises can always easily be put on not favourable circumstances, occurrences crossing the timelines unexpectedly or internal party enemies mounting up to be nominated the future leader.

The comfort of the blame game is never at the disposal of a King, an absolute reigning leader or a Dictator. Their positive or negative achievements are entirely connected to their names. This is the reason why mostly it is them having visions, good or bad, to lead their nations into the future. Democratically elected politicians think based on what can be seen in the shortest possible time to find the next election just four years later down the line and win the race. Leaving an unsolved problem abandoned becomes the source of the blame game to hunt down the new government.

Visions for unborn generations are connected to mostly moral values of the highest standards. So the change of systems people don't regard as fit for purpose. The fact most Dictators or Absolute ruling leaders have failed their mandate stands in contrast to success stories of such personalities. History makes national borders, political systems and the balance of world power constantly shift and be on the move. The comfort or discomfort we live in today sees constant differences tomorrow.

History taught humans no political system is the only solution to all problems or superior to others. The toolbox of politics is full of instruments that must be used at certain times and certain places to serve a nation-best ready to be put back into the toolbox once it has served the purpose for another tool to make the next round.

Life in a democratic jurisdiction is far more complex than in other forms of governance. Moral standards are many and many to taste as the next election is always on the horizon. Less inclusive forms of governance are more straightforward based on simple values understandable to many.

Democracy as the most likely best but never perfect form of governance at the end of the day is always a death trap for moral values except the fundamental human rights facing a wide range of interpretations.
A monitoring report by the Northern Regional Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Committee has revealed gaps at the ECCD level, which affect quality education delivery for children.

The report identified congestion in classrooms, lack of child-friendly washrooms, insufficient furniture leaving some children to lie on the floor, no attendant attached to the schools, no playground and no playing materials.

These gaps are common in public schools compared to private schools.

The report, compiled in November, last year, was presented at the Regional ECCD Committee meeting in Tamale.

Schools monitored for the report were Sakasaka Block B Kindergarten, in the Sagnarigu Municipality, Kukuo Zion Kindergarten, and Good Shepherd International in the Tamale Metropolis.

The Regional ECCD Committee is made up of the Regional Coordinating Director, Regional Directors of Health, Education, Departments of Children, Social Welfare and Community Development, representatives of NGOs working for children at the regional level, a representative of ECCD service providers and media practitioners.

Members present during the meeting lamented about the poor state of ECCD education in the region saying the situation did not help in building a strong foundation for children towards academic excellence.

Others said the ECCD stage was supposed to be fun to make the child to always want to be at school but the situation at the schools in the region rather discouraged children from going to school leading to the high number of out-of-school children in the area.

Amongst the measures outlined to address the situation was to undertake community dialogues and sensitisation for all especially parents to see the need to invest in ECCD by providing the basic needs for their children at this stage of education to ensure strong foundation for them.

They also planned to engage the Regional Minister on the issue to learn about governments plans to address the situation.

They argued that a strong ECCD level would translate to improved educational outcome at all levels of education expressing the need for the government to invest in the ECCD level to address the challenges.

Madam Linda Amoah, Regional Girl-Child Education Officer observed that the challenges at the ECCD level were enormously urging all stakeholders to draw attention to them at various fora to elicit the needed response from duty-bearers.

Mr William Anim-Dankwa, Communications Manager of Children Believe said Children Believe valued the ECCD stage hence its Centre of Excellence for ECCD to amongst others drive the advocacy to improve ECCD education for children.
24.03.2022 LISTEN

One person has reportedly died in an accident at the Kwahu Akwaboa junction on the Kumasi-Accra road.

The accident, which occurred on Thursday, 24 March 2022, involved 3 vehicles; an STC bus, a trailer and a Toyota Vitz.

According to eyewitnesses, the Driver of the STC, heading towards Kumasi from Accra, attempted to overtake the Trailer which was stuck on a hill, due to a fault.

The driver of the Toyota Vitz, which was heading towards Accra from Kumasi, in a bid to swerve the STC, while the latter was trying to overtake the Trailer, got stuck in the middle of the 2 vehicles.

The Toyota Vitz was completely mangled, while the driver died on the spot.

His head was crashed beyond recognition.

The driver of the STC and some passengers who were seated close to the driver, got injured and were rushed to the Nkawkaw Government hospital.

Source: classfmonline.com
24.03.2022 LISTEN

The Northern Electricity Company (NEDCo) and the Volta River Authority for the past 18 days have cut power supply to residents of Kublemahagu, Kpawumo and other areas in Tamale following a misunderstanding between a customer and some staff of the company.

Some personnel from the Electricity Company last three weeks met tough resistance in their attempt to disconnect a customer for an alleged illegal connection.

As a result of the disagreement, the angry staff who were in the Kublemahagu community later plunged the entire community into darkness till date.

At the time of report today Thursday 24th, 2022, power has not been restored in the community.

Failure to restore power to the affected areas especially the Kublemahagu Community is heightening tension in Tamale.

Under the current harsh weather in the Northern Region, babies and the aged are all being punished in the community for a mistake committed by an individual who has since relocated to another area to enjoy electricity.

Request by opinion leaders in Tamale for the company to restore power to the community has been thrown to the dogs.

A resident told this reporter in Tamale that, the men use by the company to undertake the exercise take advantage of the situation to intimidate and use vague words against customers.

According to them, their approach to issues is disheartening and inhuman, hence their continued attack during exercise.

He further questioned why a misunderstanding between a customer and a company should affect the entire community.
The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has conferred honorary Doctorate degrees on four distinguished Ghanaian personalities who have contributed to the country's development.

They are Professor Stephen Adei, former Rector of GIMPA, Mr Ernest Bediako Sampong, Founder of Ernest Chemists Limited, Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, a Statesman in Residence at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, USA and Mrs Grace Amey-Obeng, Medical Aesthetician and Founder of FC Beauty Group Limited.

Prof Adei's citation read your leadership impacted and produced great societal benefits. Between 2000 and 2008, you transformed GIMPA from an ordinary institution to a world-class and the University of choice in Ghana.

By virtue of the authority vested in me, Mr Kofi Darko Asante, the Chairman, Governing Council of GIMPA by the Act 676 (2004), I am pleased to confer on you, honoris causa, the degree of Doctor of Letters, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto, here and elsewhere.

Mr Sampong's citation read a distinguished GIMPA Alumnus, a productive entrepreneur with international repute who has made enormous contributions to humanity in Pharmaceutics.

By the virtue of the authority vested in me, Mr Kofi Darko Asante, the Chairman, Governing Council of GIMPA by the Act 676 (2004), I am pleased to confer on you, honoris causa, the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto, here and elsewhere.

Dr Adjei-Barwuah's citation read An accomplished Diplomat and a one-time Ambassador to one of the world's most powerful nations, your diplomatic acumen is marched in full measure by your civic sensibility.

By the virtue of the authority vested in me, Mr Kofi Darko Asante, the Chairman, Governing Council of GIMPA by the Act 676 (2004), I am pleased to confer on you, honoris causa, the degree of Doctor of Law, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto, here and elsewhere.

Mrs Amey-Obeng's citation reads Yours is a life of business achievement, philanthropic achievement, and commitment to the improvement of the human conditions, especially the girl child.

By the virtue of the authority vested in me, Mr Kofi Darko Asante, the Chairman, Governing Council of GIMPA by the Act 676 (2004), I am pleased to confer on you, honoris causa, the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto, here, and elsewhere.

Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, King of Akwamu Traditional Area, Guest of Honour at the special congregation, commended GIMPA for contributing to world-class excellence in training, consultancy and research in leadership, management, and administration.

Odeneho Akoto III commended the Honorands for their selfless commitment and dedication in their respective fields of disciplines for nation-building and urged others to emulate their gestures for the holistic growth of the country.

He suggested to GIMPA to institute annual awards of excellence for Ghanaians who have immensely contributed their quota to national development.

The Chairman Governing Council of GIMPA said it was worthwhile to celebrate the illustrious personalities to appreciate their unflinching support to the country's growth.

Mrs Amey-Obeng, on behalf of the Honorands, commended GIMPA for the honour done them and pledged to continue to work hard to create more job opportunities for the teeming youth for sustained socio-economic development.

GNA
China supports Security Council's role in Ukraine's humanitarian issue

Xinhua) 13:14, March 24, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China's permanent representative to the UN Zhang Jun on Wednesday expressed his hope that the UN Security Council would play a meaningful role in handling the humanitarian situation in Ukraine after the council failed to adopt a resolution submitted by Russia.

The 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Two members -- Russia and China -- voted in favor of the text submitted by Russia while 13 others abstained.

"We advocate that the Security Council should fulfill its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and play its due role in the humanitarian issue of Ukraine," Zhang said in his explanatory remarks after the vote.

China's vote "was based on our call for the international community to attach high importance to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, and for the parties concerned to strengthen coordination on humanitarian issues, so as to effectively protect the safety of civilians, especially women, children and other vulnerable groups, and to facilitate the personnel evacuation and humanitarian relief operations," Zhang said.

Over the past few weeks, the council has had repeated consultations on the draft resolutions proposed by France, Mexico as well as Russia, and China has actively participated in the consultations, and has always called on all parties to focus on the humanitarian issue, transcend political differences and do their best to seek consensus, he said.

"We welcome the coordinating role of the UN in humanitarian assistance," said Zhang.

It is "heart-wrenching" to see the reports of increased civilian casualties, rising numbers of refugees and serious shortfalls in humanitarian reliefs in Ukraine, he said.

According to the ambassador, China has put forward a six-point initiative on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and provided humanitarian relief supplies to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, and welcomes any initiative that can help alleviate and resolve the humanitarian crisis.

The envoy stressed that China adheres to an independent foreign policy, and has always determined its position on issues in a responsible manner based on the merits of the matter itself.

"On Ukraine, China has always insisted that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected, that the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be upheld, that the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously, and that all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the crisis should be supported," he said.

"The long-term solution lies in abandoning the Cold-War mentality, refraining from bloc confrontations, and gradually putting in place a balanced, effective and sustainable global and regional security architecture. China will continue to promote talks for peace, speak out for peace, and do its best for peace," Zhang said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
NZME Limited (NZX: NZM , ASX: NZM) (NZME) announces that it has signed a letter of intent with Google setting out the key terms for the proposed supply by NZME of news content for Googles News Showcase and for other news products and projects pursuant to final agreements.

NZME and Google will now enter into a period of negotiation of up to 90 days with a view to finalising agreements based on the key terms set out in the Google Letter of Intent. The final agreements are intended to be for a minimum term of five years.

NZME is currently in commercial discussions with Meta with regards to them supporting a number of digital transformation projects over the next year.

NZMEs outlook statement at the time of announcing its full year results on 23 February 2022 included an expectation that EBITDA for 2022 would be more than that of 2021, despite the loss of the GrabOne contribution from 2021. Based on the key terms of the Google Letter of Intent, if NZME and Google ultimately enter into the final agreements at the end of the period of negotiation, and having regard to the current trading performance and other anticipated commercial arrangements, NZME expects that EBITDA for 2022 financial year would be in the range of $67  72 million.

NZME Chief Executive Michael Boggs says todays announcement further demonstrates NZMEs commitment to growing and evolving its digital platforms.

We are pleased to have reached a point with Google where we can partner with them to further enable digital growth across NZMEs business, boosting digital revenue for NZME and increasing our audience reach.

We look forward to reaching final agreement with Google that will see NZMEs news content supplied and shared through Google programmes, continuing to support the future of high quality, trusted journalism in Aotearoa, he says.

Caroline Rainsford, Google New Zealand Country Director says Google is proud to continue to support original, trusted, and quality journalism.

We are pleased to build on years of partnership with NZME as a major New Zealand publishing partner. Weve helped support the local news industry for two decades and we look forward to continuing to build on this important work to support the future of journalism in Aotearoa, she says.

A further announcement will be made in relation to the outcome of the negotiation of the final agreements with Google and the commercial discussions with Meta.

As a consequence of signing the Google Letter of Intent, NZME has notified the News Publishers Association of New Zealand Inc. and the New Zealand Commerce Commission that it will not be participating in any collective bargaining with Google unless the parties fail to execute binding agreements on the terms set out in the Google Letter of Intent.

NZME expects to be in a position to provide an update on the commencement of the on-market share buyback next week.

ENDS

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Houston, Texas: I watched U.S Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, in the early evening of March 23, 2022, speak like a soulful and inspired evangelist, manifestly awash in a spiritual effervesence.

His full-throated appreciation of this ebony beauty woman of grace and intellect that he called My Sister! reverberated with his vibrant personality. With his bulging, piercing eye balls, history-rich mind and prayers and blessings, Brother Booker brought Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson (KBJ) to tears.

Senator Bookers impassioned speech also highlighted the plight of Black Americans especially Black women.

He connected the efforts of their forebears and parents which made it possible for him, the 4th Black man elected Senator in the U.S, and Judge Jackson to sit together in the same Senate hearing room.

Its hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom. Not to see my cousins, one of them who had to come here and sit behind you. She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours, Booker soared.

But dont worry, my sister. Dont worry. God has got you. And how do I know that? Youre here, and I know what its taken for you to sit in that seat. You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American.

The young Senator Booker, born April 27, 1969, dug deep into our African/African-American history to recall the names of a couple of distinguished Blacks on whose shoulders and examples Judge Jackson, Booker and many others have risen! Especially, the slave abolitionist Harriet Tubman who fought for her own freedom and freed many slaves: I thought about her. And how she looked up, she kept looking up no matter what they did to her she never stopped looking up. And that star was a harbinger of hope. Today, youre my star. You are my harbinger of hope. This countrys getting better and better and better. And when that final vote happens, and you ascend on to the highest court in the land, Im going to rejoice.

Many in the room were moved to tears. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions who watched on television, were touched deeply by Bookers authentic, honest, emotional, heartfelt comments about KBJ. He held up Our Sister beyond the choking malice and pettifogging by 5 or 6 Republican Senators.

The truth is that Senator Bookers spirit-filled oratory and rendering of the unfolding waves of history and the power of the momentous movement of history via KBJ made me tear up, too.

Oratory is good only if it has the qualities of fitness for the occasion, propriety of style, and originality of treatment. Those fitting words and contextualization of speech and oratorical flourish were said by Isocrates (not Socrates). He was one of ancient Greeces top rhetorician.

Senator Booker seemed to have listened to the wise words of Isocrates! For almost 13 minutes of his comments, he took KBJ away from the wiles and hypocrisy of the Republican, ideological distortion artists. He transported almost everyone to what seemed like a celestial ordination of a deserving queen. For those endless 13 minutes, Booker who was elected since 2013 to the Senate, cut through the racially insulting antics and disrepect of the Judge by some of those Republicans who insinuate shes the god-mother of those who view and distribute teen and pre-teen pornography.

Recklessly, the implication of their argument is that Judge Jackson (mother of two teenage daughters) should have created her own sentencing guidelines in order to put away the criminal scumbags and evil doers up to 100 years in jail!

I believe that in a couple of weeks, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will make history, deservedly, as the first Black woman appointed and confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States of America!

 *Dr. Chido Nwangwu, the author of the forthcoming 2022 book, MLK, Mandela & Achebe: Power, Leadership and Identity, serves as Founder & Publisher of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com, and established USAfrica in 1992 in Houston. He has appeared as an analyst on CNN, SKYnews, VOA, BET news, SABC, and served as an adviser on Africa business to Houstons former Mayor Lee Brown. @Chido247
24.03.2022 LISTEN

My attention has been drawn to a Memo being circulated on Social Media that the Majority Leader/Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu (MP, Suame) has been paid an amount totaling Seven Thousand, Five Hundred and Forty-Three US Dollars ($7543.00usd) to undergo Medical Review in Dubai.

As indicated on the memo, the allowances paid were for 4 items officially due the Majority Leader per that travel and not payment for his medical review bill. The Majority Leader has already publicly confirmed that he went to Dubai for a second opinion after the initial diagnosis here in Ghana. So this is no news.

My Eagle-eyed investigations point the source of this revelation to some 'Squatters' in the Speakers Office with the intention to neutralize Ghanaians legitimate request for immediate cessation of wanton dissipation of Parliament's funds by Speaker Bagbin through Medical Reviews abroad.

This, they believe, was hinted by Majority Leader on radio that since December 2021, some MPs have filed questions about the health status of the Speaker and how much Parliament has spent on him, which he the Leader doesn't think should be made public.

Now, with the so-called exposition by the goons of Bagbin, the Majority Leader should cause the opening up of the expenditure on Bagbin immediately. At least, it will present the nation with clarity on who has Ghana at heart.

It seems people have no shame to have drawn a straight line between Speaker's profligacy and the rather infinitesimal expenditure on Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu. We agree it is legitimate for the state to spend on public servants when they are indisposed. For instance, my checks have it that, a staff in the Speaker's Office recently underwent eye treatment in South Africa at a cost of over US$20,000. That is legitimate, so the hirelings of Bagbin don't reveal it. A Deputy Clerk in Parliament, Alhaji Gombia, underwent medical treatment in UK at a total cost of over 80,000. The two expenditures are surely lower than the amount spent on Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu. I guess!! That is why the nephew of Bagbin, also called Bagbin, who Speaker Bagbin has caused to be employed at the Accounts Department of Parliament, and who Bagbin is using to churn out the mischief, is not worrying himself about those.

Ghanaians agree that the state must legitimately take care of its own. It is, however, appalling to syphon such colossal amounts from Parliament and pretend at the same time to be requesting monies to advance the cause of Parliament as Speaker Bagbin is doing.

Bagbin's 5 travels outside the shores of Ghana for Medical Review has cost Parliament a whopping $1.1million USD. This looks unsustainably scary. Doesnt it?. It is surprising that this issue is not on the front burner given our current economic circumstances.

Comparing this $1.1million usd to a paltry $7,543usd, in apparent attempt to seek justification for daytime attack on Parliament's finances, only makes mockery of the Speaker Bagbin.

My checks have also indicated that Majority Leader's Allowance is not even comparative to the $18,500usd paid your Carer. The Speaker's Carer travels First class and is paid $18,500usd per travel. She, the Speakers wife, is not sick! In any event, by Parliamentary Service Act, a Carer can only travel Economy class!! Is this not outrageous that whilst the Minority calls the President to travel by Commercial flights, the Speaker's Carer travels First Class for a duty that is by no measure comparable to that of the President?

Fellow Ghanaians, be assured that the Majority Leader/Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu (Hon MP), remains focused and is soldering on as Leader of Government Business to help mother Ghana overcome challenges being posed by global catastrophes on us. He is not sick by Gods grace as his detractors desire and suggest and has no intention to milk the State for personal gains.

Thank you.

Agyemang Richard

(Concerned Patriot, Suame)
The Minority in Parliament is asking the Minister of Finance, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta to provide clarity on his press briefing on Thursday, March 24, 2022 where he announced measures being taken by government to address the economic woes facing the country.

The Finance Minister, among many other measures, noted that government has resolved to also cut certain margins to bring down the high cost of fuel in the country.

Reacting to the press conference, the Minority in Parliament has stressed that the proposed measures are inadequate.

According to Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu who addressed that press, the Finance Minister must give specifics on how much government is looking to cut from its budget.

We do not find his proposed measures adequate enough. We need certainty and clarity. If you had an expenditure approval of GH145 billion, we expect that you tell us that I want to cut GH45 billion out of the GH145 [billion] and we know that this is your commitment.

Twenty percent of this, 10% of that, we are still not certain how much expenditure cut he intends to undertake. More importantly, hes announced a number of revenue measures, Haruna Iddrisu told the media.

On his part, the Ranking Member on Finance, Dr. Casiel Ato Forson has punched holes into the fiscal measures announced by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta today.

According to him, the expenditure cut measures are cosmetic, empty, and nothing to write home about.
The 20th Ordinary Session of the African Union Commission on International Law (AUCIL) kicked off at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a hope to contribute to resolving some of the legal challenges Africa is currently facing.

Judge Ismael Hersi, AUCIL Deputy Chairperson, who opened the meeting stressed the need for Africa to fully participates in the construction and structuring of the new world order, as the AU with its 55 Member States, is the largest regional grouping within the United Nations.

Considering the collective work within our body and the individual expertise of each of the members, I would like to call for more increasing visibility of the AUCIL as a consultative body within the AU, and to the increase in the number of issues that should be submitted to our body for legal advice by political bodies, Judge Hersi added.

Judge Hersi stated in an AUCIL document made available to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

Ambassador Tesfaye Yilma, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union, noted that as a continent, Africa has managed to develop consensus on various issues through the adopted regional instruments and, in turn, these instruments have made a positive contribution to international law.

He added that the AUCIL, as an advisory body to the policy organs of the Union, has a unique opportunity to study various issues in the context of existing legal frameworks and accordingly advise the union.

Drawing on the AU Continental Reflection Forum on Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa, held in Accra recently Ambassador Yilma recalled that One of the key messages of the Forum was the need to clarify AU principles such as the principle of complementarity and the principle of subsidiarity between the AU and RECs/RMS in their response to Unconstitutional Changes of Government.

The AUCIL Session will deliberate on different items on its agenda including: Election of the Bureau, presentation, and discussion of the Inter-Sessional Activities of the Bureau and Members, and the ongoing African Union Institutional Reform.

The Session will also consider and discuss a number of ongoing legal studies on political, economic, and social issues in Africa.

It includes the African convention against slavery, the prohibition on intervention in international law, the development of an African convention on judicial cooperation and mutual assistance, continental convention on avoiding double taxation, immunities under international law, maritime piracy, the digest of African states practice in international law.

The Session will consider draft model law for the domestication of the African charter on the rights and welfare of the child study and codification of comparative mineral and petroleum law in Africa, international environmental law and domestication of the protocol to the African charter on human and peoples rights on the right of women in Africa.

The AU Commission on International Law was created in 2009 as an independent advisory organ to the AU in accordance with article 5(2) of the AU Constitutive Act.

The Commissions main task is to advise the Union on matters of international law, undertake activities relating to codification and progressive development of international law in Africa with particular attention to the laws of the AU.

Source: CDA Consult
Dr Chris Kpodar, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Solomon Investments Ghana Limited has called on the Government to enter into a joint venture with reputable international oil companies to help revamp the Tema Oil Refinery.

Dr Kpodar, who is also a Chief Technical Advisor for the Centre for Greater Impact Africa (CGIA), said, to sustain the viability of TOR, which is the only refinery in Ghana, there is the need for government to look for one of the best oil refinery companies in the world and strike a win-win joint venture with them.

Dr Kpodar who served as Consultant for Africa and the Middle East, advising governments and companies on investments was answering a question on Ghana's crude oil and the viability of the TOR, at a forum organized by the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office.

The forum was on the topic: Artificial Intelligence and sustainable development.

The forum was attended by Reverend Dr Samuel Worlanyo Mensah, an economist, and CGIA Executive Director; Mr Mohammed Malik, CGIA Technical Advisor and an Indian Investor; Mr Percy Opata, CGIA Corporate Secretary; Mr Samuel Akoetey, the CGIA Head of Business Development; and Mr Frank Ofoe Zotorvi, CGIA Head of Legal Affairs.

Dr Kpodar said there is the need to harness the modern technologies and ideas such as international industries especially those in the south possessed to be applied to the refining of Ghana's crude oil instead of exporting it and importing already refined products into the country.

He added that by so doing, there would be a transfer of skills and knowledge from such experts to the local workers, while each would make the needed profit.

Dr Kpodar, who was formerly with the United Nations, indicated that artificial intelligence could then be applied to the skills and knowledge to ensure that modern technologies would be recommended by such intelligence over the period, even after the end of the venture.

Elaborating on the use of artificial intelligence to solve the various economic, environmental, and social issues of humans Dr Kpodar who worked with most French major multinationals said it harnessed human senses of touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, and speaking through a computer programme.

Dr Kpodar who was also among the top consultants to help set up the Ghana Association of Consultants added that Artificial Intelligence brought improvement to all aspects of life.

He said Ghana and other African countries must have the will to catch up with the world on the use of artificial intelligence as according to him, it had the solution to most of the problems they faced.

He indicated that if people do not learn the skills of artificial intelligence in Africa it would be difficult to catch up as no one knows what will happen to about 80 per cent of the jobs on the market in the next ten years.

Dr Kpodar said it could be applied to the management of the economy, agricultural practices, tourism, leisure, and industrialization, among others, and therefore called on the government to invest in it to derive the full benefit of it for the development of the country.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, GNA Tema Regional Manager emphasized the need for journalists to develop the capacity to understand the dynamics of artificial intelligence to lead the change process.

GNA
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central, Hon. Isaac Adongo has accused the ruling government of peddling lies over plans to cut down on expenditure.

He said the posture by the Akufo-Addo government gives the indication that it wants to continue borrowing.

Early in the afternoon, the Minister for Finance, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta addressed the press to announce measures taken by the government to address the current economic challenges.

In addition to salary cuts for public officials, the Finance Minister disclosed that the government has resolved to cut the fuel coupon allocations to all political appointees by 50%.

While the salary cuts of officials are to save Ghana GHS3.5 billion according to Ken Ofori-Atta, Isaac Adongo says it is just falsehood.

Giving his preliminary reaction to the Finance Ministers address, the Bolgatanga Central MP said the government is basically going to allow the economy to manage itself.

The economy will be on autopilot from now because the measures that he has announced are just cosmetic, Hon. Isaac Adongo told Citi News.

The MP alleged that the government is so addicted to borrowing to the extent that instead of the cuts it is propagating, it will rather continue borrowing more money to spend.

You find the Minister for Finance, cabinet, go and waste taxpayers money for three-four days at Peduase and deliver nothing other than misery. Everybody has told you that your biggest problem is debt service. You are borrowing too much so your debt to GDP is way wire, you dont even have the fiscal space in the budget because you are paying too much on debt service. That is what you need to cut.

This government is addicted to the abuse of borrowing they now have a withdrawal problem. Even when they are coming to tell us something that we think will reduce the debt they are adding the debt including unapproved borrowing, Isaac Adongo shared.

The Minority's general view on the measures taken by the government to address the economic challenges is that it is cosmetic.

According to Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, the Finance Minister must give specifics on how much the government is looking to cut from its budget.

We do not find his proposed measures adequate enough. We need certainty and clarity. If you had an expenditure approval of GH145 billion, we expect that you tell us that I want to cut GH45 billion out of the GH145 [billion] and we know that this is your commitment.

Twenty percent of this, 10% of that, we are still not certain how much expenditure cut he intends to undertake. More importantly, hes announced a number of revenue measures, Haruna Iddrisu told the media after the Minister's briefing.
Extractive Industry Workers Union Ghana (EIWUG) has expressed fret over alleged ill-treatment meted out to Senior Staff Employees of Newmont Ghana by Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) for their decision to exit the union.

They have accused GMWU of mistreating Newmont Ghana workers following their resignation from the union to join EIWUG by passing a resolution and endorsing individual forms due to the poor service offered by GMWU.

Executive Director of EIWUG Mr. Victor Asare Gyapong who was addressing the media on Thursday, March 24 maintained that the action by GMWU violates the fundamental human rights (freedom of association) of the Newmont Ghana workers as enshrined in Ghanas Constitution and the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.

He has indicated that about 500 junior staff employees in Akyem and Ahafo have resigned from GMWU for the past 8 months yet they are still been held as members of GMWU whilst dues are deducted from their salary every month against their will.

Mr. Asare Gyapong has thus condemned the leadership of GMWU for putting the Newmont Ghana workers in servitude.

He has described the manner in which GMWU is abusing the right and freedom of Newmont Ghana staff as cruel, despicable and revolting and has urged the trade union fraternity including All Global Union and ILO to call GMWU to order.

Below is the full statement issued by EIWUG:

PRESS CONFERENCE HELD BY EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY WORKERS UNION GHANA (EIWUG)

ON THURSDAY 24TH MARCH, 2022 AT ELLKING HOTEL  ACCRA

Abuse of the rights of the senior staff employees of Newmont Ghana by GMWU of TUC

Ladies and gentlemen of the press good morning and thank you for coming.

We are Extractive Industry Workers Union Ghana (EIWUG) duly registered with the registrar general and certified as a trade union by the Chief Labor Officer. We mobilize and organize workers in the extractive industry and its allied Service Companies in Ghana.

EIWUGthe union of Choice.

In our young journey as a union we have been battered by an organization that should have had the responsibility to protect rights of workers and do everything to ensure the realization of the constitutional provision on freedom of association.

To the contrary, the GMWU of TUC has done everything to perpetuate a clear violation of the rights of the senior staff employees of Newmont Ghana.

The following are the litany of issues that illustrate the abuse:

- In 2019 some employees of Newmont Ghana who were members of GMWU resigned to join the EIWUG by passing a resolution and endorsing individual forms due to the poor service that GMWU was offering at the time.

- Notice was served to Newmont, GMWU and the Chief Labour Officer in line with the labour act and in fulfilment of the internal union constitution.

- The GMWU attempted to hold many meetings with the workers to convince them to return to GMWU and even involved the Secretary General of TUC but to no avail.

- The GMWU clandestinely printed a new internal constitution to change the notice period of resignation from three months to six months and also changed some of the conditions.

- This forged internal constitution was quickly sent to the Chief Labour Officer by which time our resignation notice had reached the CLO.

- They followed this covert act with a letter to Newmont indicating that we had to serve six months bondage before we could leave their union to which we vehemently wrote to oppose and insisted that we were to satisfy only three months notice period.

- Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, please note that the GMWU also undertook many measures including blackmail and instigated the arrest of the leadership of EIWUG by the police, precisely the Anti Robbery and Fraud Unit at the National Police Headquarters.

- Newmont, uncertain of which party to satisfy, wrote to the Labour Commission to help determine whether or not employees were to serve three or six months before exiting the GMWU.

- The GMWU rejected the facilitation process set up by the Labour Commission and called for straight arbitration by the commission.

- Whilst going through the Labour Commission process the six months elapsed and the same was indicated to Newmont by EIWUG.

- EIWUG also applied to the Chief Labour Officer for the Collective Bargaining Certificate on behalf of the employees who resigned to join them in line with the Labour Act.

- The EIWUG and GMWU were invited into meetings by the CLO as part of the process of determining which of the two unions should hold the CBC on behalf of the senior staff employees.

- The GMWU realizing that their certificate will be revoked, immediately filed a lawsuit with suit No. IL0034/2021 against EIWUG, some of its members and the CLO as defendants, asking the court to stop the CLO from issuing out a CBC to EIWUG and also for a declaration that the members of the interested party did not successfully exit the applicants union.

- The suit was dismissed by the High Court (Labour Court I) for want of reasonable cause of action and for being plagued with vexations and abusing the courts process.

- The ruling paved the way for the CLO to continue with the verification exercise which led to a revocation of the CBC of the GMWU and issuing of a new CBC to EIWUG as a union with the majority members.

- Unsatisfied with the outcome of the process, the GMWU petitioned the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations who directed a second verification exercise to be conducted.

- The second verification report which was submitted by the CLO through the Chief Director to the Minister, also affirmed the first decision.

- Again, the GMWU issued another writ with suit No. IL/0098/2021 for the High Court to review the decision of the CLO and further filed an injunction to prevent EIWUG from using the CBC.

- We would not like to bore you with the gymnastics that the GMWU adopted using the legal procedures from filing to appeal, arrest of judgment, amongst others which denied EIWUG from negotiating for employees in 2021.

- The High Court on Thursday 17th March, 2022 again delivered its ruling and dismissed the writ in its entirety.

- We have seen on social media platforms another motion to the Court of Appeal seeking to appeal the High Court decision and a further application for stay of execution dated Friday 18th March, 2022.

- We would like to also bring to your attention that about 500 junior staff employees in Akyem and Ahafo have resigned for the last eight months but are still being held as members of the GMWU and dues deducted from their pay every month against their will.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, are these noble employees in servitude?

Should they be punished for freely joining an association and deciding to exit?

Is it not mind boggling that a union which is supposed to prevent human rights abuse is rather preventing people from enjoying a fundamental human rights (freedom of association) enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the ILO conventions?

The irony is that the GMWU exists to operate as a union based on the fundamental human right of freedom of association granted by the 1992 Constitution, yet they are depriving others from exercising the same.

Should exit clauses (of six to one year) in the unions constitution be used as a tool to prevent union members from enjoying their fundamental human rights of freedom association?

The question which again beg for answer is, what is the motivation for all these deliberate impediments by GMWU to prevent EIWUG from operating and the intimidation to its leadership including the use of the police.

- A critical look through the issues point us to greed and self-centeredness of the leadership of the GMWU.

- We know the GMWU General Secretary will kill to protect these juicy package including a basic pay of $10,000, free Accommodation, free electricity, free water, free postpaid phone use, a V8 land cruiser official vehicle, free fuel, fully sponsored trips to abroad, and earmarked ex-gratia of GHC 700,000.00 every four year term, plus other benefits.

- For these reasons they must do everything to enslave us to continue to line their pockets by using the same dues to frustrate workers who want to leave their union.

- They have become monsters, cheats and milkmen. They have left their core mandate to only care for themselves to the neglect of defending the rights of workers. All their decisions are focused on satisfying their selfishness but nothing else.

We are calling on the trade union fraternity including Industrial ALL Global Union and ILO to call GMWU to order if the TUC is complacent in this conduct.

We are also calling on all civil societies including human rights advocates to call GMWU in order to respect the constitutional rights of Newmont employees.

Thank you for your attention.

Long live EIWUG

Long live the union fraternity

Long live Ghana

May God bless us all

EIWUGthe union of choice.
As part of the governments creative initiative to promote made in Ghana products and services through the; 'See Ghana, Wear Ghana, Eat Ghana' campaign, prolific broadcaster and business mogul Bola Ray, has commended, the management of Emirate Aviation College to consider serving Ghanaian dishes.

The EIB boss in a snippet video of the upcoming episode of the Revealed with Bola Ray featured the Emirate Aviation College, in a conversation with one of the executives urged that a Ghanaian meal like Waakye and Kelewele should be appropriate to be served on the flight.

He said, I am hoping for a day where we can have a Ghanaian dish on board from Ghana down to Dubai.

He suggested that foods like Waakye which is made from rice and beans done very well in a way and also there is Kelewele, which is a fried plantain highly sauced can be considered to the food served on the flight.

The rep from Emirate Aviation College also responded, "Maybe soon it will happen. In Emirate we love being personal. You never know.

The full episode of the conversation with Emirate Aviation College will be aired on GHOne TV on Friday, March 25 at 9 PM.
The First African Summit of Heads of State and Government on Cybersecurity officially began its work Wednesday in Lome.

The opening ceremony of the summit was presided over by Togo's President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, under the auspices of the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Dr. Vera Songwe, as well as several members of the government of Togo and other countries of the continent.

Organized by the Government of Togo through its Ministry in charge of Digital Economy and the ECA, this meeting takes place in the form of exchanges structured in panels, networking and demonstrations that will allow to assess the state of cybersecurity and cooperation in Africa from the point of view of several constituent elements, and to propose policy recommendations to African leaders.

President Gnassingbe, said "It is about developing synergies to fight crime in the digital transition, a revolution of our time that opens remarkable opportunities for humanity."

The Togo Head of State also urged other African countries to ratify the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection adopted in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on June 27, 2014.

"The ratification of the Malabo Convention, which makes Togo only the 11th country to have deposited the instruments of ratification of this text, will allow it to benefit from the cooperation with other states of the African Union regarding the protection of personal and state data," added the Togo Head of State.

Dr. Vera Songwe, believes that "Africa offers a wealth of economic opportunities in virtually every sector. And the digital economy represents a key asset to unlock these opportunities by accelerating development outcomes through Africa's demographic dividend.

"According to the International Finance Corporation and Google, Africa's internet economy is expected to contribute $180 billion to the continent's overall economy by 2025, rising to $712 billion by 2050," Dr. Vera Songwe said.

Highlighting the worrying nature of cybersecurity and especially cybercrime and the inadequacy of the legal/regulatory framework on cybersecurity and data protection in Africa, the UN Under-Secretary-General and ECA Executive Secretary recommends that "each African nation creates its own National Cybersecurity Programme.

"Of the 54 African countries, 28 have data protection legislation (52%), and 6 are in the process of drafting legislation (11%)," Dr. Vera Songwe said.

Minister of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation of Togo, Ms. Cina Lawson said that her country aims to become a major digital hub in Africa.

"This aspiration is reflected in the implementation of reforms and legal and regulatory policy frameworks conducive to investment," explained Cina Lawson.

"Making Togo a business pool of digital finance and innovations can only become a reality if it is carried e by a trained, dynamic and creative human capital. To do this Togo spares no effort to invest in training and education of young people and if necessary, attract the best expertise and ensure a transfer of skills," reassured the Minister of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation of Togo.

During the official opening ceremony of the first African Summit of Heads of State and Government on Cybersecurity, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the ECA, Dr. Vera Songwe, presented the award of the African Champion of Cybersecurity to the President of the Republic of Togo, H.E. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe.

"I receive with great humility this award, because it is rare to receive a prize before the beginning of the mission. I assure you of the achievement of the mission assigned to me," promised the Togo Head of State who said that this distinction reinforces the position of Togo in the fight against cybercrime.

This ceremony was also an opportunity for the Ministers gathered at the Summit to make a declaration called the 'Lome Declaration on Cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime' to commit to signing and ratifying the "Malabo Convention" and strengthening African cooperation in cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime.

Approximately 700 participants including private sector and civil society leaders are taking part in the Summit.
Three partners from Morrison & Foersters Asia Investigations practice are recognized in the Who's Who Legal  Investigations 2022 guide. This is the fourth consecutive year that the trio has achieved this recognition.

In the 2022 guide, Hong Kong managing partner Timothy Blakely and Singapore partner Daniel Levison, who heads up the firms Global Ethics + Compliance practice in Asia, are highly recommended as Leading Lawyers for Investigations. Hong Kong partner Chen Zhu is named as a Future Leader. Clients are enthused about Tim being a well-established name in corporate investigations who takes a thorough and strategic approach to complex proceedings. Dan is recommended as a mastermind at investigations and asset tracing who is highly sought after for FCPA matters. Sources also applaud Chen for being a strong and highly sought after lawyer and an up-and-coming star in the market for high profile investigations.

This recognition in the Whos Who Legal  Investigations 2022 guide reinforces the strength of Morrison & Foersters Asia Investigations practice. With over 50 disputes and investigations specialists in five Asia offices (Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo), we have one of the largest multilingual investigations practices in the region. Our lawyers are experienced in handling government and internal investigations, cross-border enforcement, U.S. economic sanctions, and anti-money laundering, FCPA/anti-corruption, and compliance issues for clients across the Asia Pacific region.

Whos Who Legal  Investigations research, conducted with its sister publication Global Investigations Review, is based solely on feedback and recommendations from leading private practitioners in the investigations arena as well as from the firms clients. For more details, please visit Whos Who Legals website.
We also hear Russian troops battle and be blighted by frostbite in icy Ukrainian freeze, asobservers noticed in Makariv, a strategically important town west of Kyiv.

by Victor Cherubim

As progress slows on the ground, we are told Russia is turning to the sky using precision and hypersonic aerial weapons to eliminate key Ukrainian military infrastructure. This, perhaps, opens up other non-ground forms of attack.

But spare a thought what may look like a chemical attack, may well be a Ukrainian chemical leak from the nuclear plants at Chernobyl or at Zaporizhzia?

Ukraine according to some Western observers is on the brink of winning the ground war. Was it because people over estimated Russias war power and under estimated Ukrainian ability to hit back at Moscow, or even underestimated the strength capability or the will of not just the Ukrainian army, but the Ukrainian people.

Yes, there is no doubt serious pressure on the Russian economy, but Russia is not down and out as it is made out to be by some reports to boost up the morale of both the Ukraine and the West?

Yes, there is a resistance, God willing, or rather Kyiv willing to be able to take back its own territory?

Yes, the West wants to prolong its supply of weapons to Ukraine, especially now that it is winning its propaganda war at the expense of Russia?

Yes, holding back Russia seizing Kyiv and toppling President VolodymyrZelinsky, strategists believe may be possible, but for how long?

On the other side, we are told that Ukrainian hunters are using their knowledge of local forestry and tracking skills to hunt the unaccustomed Russian youth army of invaders?

We also hear Russian troops battle and be blighted by frostbite in icy Ukrainian freeze, asobservers noticed in Makariv, a strategically important town west of Kyiv.

What is not mentioned?

Amid the chaos of war, it is impossible to say exactly how many women and children may have fallen victim to criminal gangs, within and outside Ukraine.

Of the 10 million Ukrainians who have fled Ukraine, no one has a count of the women and children who have been sold as hostages. Human Trafficking in Ukraine is a huge risk?

European Unions Home Affairs Commissioner. Yiva Johansson has recently warned in Estonia, of the tragedy of war in Ukraine is that there must be a lot of Orphan children who have been left behind, perhaps, being born to die, while other vulnerable children being trafficked or being victim of forced adoption.

Traffickers have been seen prowling train stations taking advantage of the war situation.

I appeal to the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the President of Poland, and the Governments around the world to help these vulnerable children with all necessary humanitarian assistance.
Charge is an intimation of the accusation for which the accused person would face trial and be liable to defend themself. However, the definition of charge as given in Section 2(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is quite ambiguous.

When is a charge framed?

The procedure of framing of charge arrives after the filing of the charge sheet, as noted in the previous part. The trial court, on reading the contents of the police report/charge sheet or the complaint, as the case may be, applies its judicial mind to arrive at a conclusion to decide the exact nature of accusation which constitutes the offence against the accused person, and thereafter intimates the accused of the details of such accusation in such a manner that the accused person would understand what they would be facing trial for.

The document through which this intimation is given to the accused is known as the charge. Charge forms the essence and basis of a criminal trial before a court.

The previous parts dealt with the powers and duties of the police to conduct an investigation. However, after completion of investigation and filing of the police report, also known as charge sheet, or complaint, as the case may be, the case then comes within the realm and powers of the trial court.

Who can frame charge?

Charge is framed by the court which conducts the trial for that particular offence. Such a court, in common parlance, is known as a trial court. The trial court can either be the Court of Magistrate or the Sessions Court, depending upon the nature of offence. There is a specific categorization of offences as rriable by Magistrate, and those which are exclusively triable by a Sessions Court. The same can be seen from the First Schedule annexed to the CrPC, which gives a detailed account of offences which are bailable or non-bailable, and whether triable by Magistrate or Sessions Court.

Every accused, irrespective of the nature of the offence. is produced for the first time after arrest before the Court of Magistrate (except for offences under special statutes like, for instance, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [PMLA]). Thereafter, depending upon the accusation and the nature of the offence, if the Court of Magistrate finds the same to be exclusively triable by a Sessions Court, the matter is committed to the Sessions Court of Sessions under Section 193 read with Section 209 of the CrPC. Committed in this context means to transfer the case from the Court of Magistrate to the Court of Sessions. Section 209 enables the Court of Magistrate to commit the case to the Court of Sessions, and section 193 bars the Court of Sessions from taking cognizance of any offence as a court of original jurisdiction unless it is committed from the Court of Magistrate (except when otherwise provided under a special law, such as under the PMLA).

For instance, Maharashtra government minister and politician Nawab Malik, facing allegations for committing offences under the PMLA, was directly produced before the Court of Sessions instead of Court of Magistrate, since the Statute provided so.

Therefore, in any event of committal to the Sessions Court or in the case of an offence triable by Magistrate, after filing of the Chargesheet or the complaint, as the case may be, the respective court shall then frame charges after reading the accusation as raised by the prosecution and applying its own judicial mind to arrive at a conclusion as to what offences, if any, are prima facie made out against the accused person. Charge forms a separate chapter under the CrPC, spanning across Sections 211-224

Form of charge

The document, that is, charge. needs to state the exact name and/or section of the offence for which the accused shall be facing a trial. The purpose of framing a charge is to give notice to the accused of the exact nature of accusation against him so as to enable them to properly set up their defense.

The law and the particular section of the law against which the offence is alleged to have been committed shall be mentioned in the charge; when there are more than one offences committed under one or more than one law, the names of every such law and the sections thereunder shall be mentioned in the charge.

For instance, if the allegation against the accused person is that they were found in possession of a contraband drug and also a revolver without a valid license, the charge shall read for commission of an offence punishable under the relevant section of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and for commission of an offence punishable under the Arms Act, 1959.

Previous conviction

Further, if the accused person has been convicted for any offence previously which makes them liable for an enhanced punishment or a different kind of punishment for a subsequent conviction, the charge for the subsequent case shall mention the date and place of previous conviction, along with the nature of the offence for which the accused was previously convicted.

However, if there is an error of omission of such statement of previous conviction to be included in the charge during framing of charge, the trial court is empowered to include such statement at any time before the final order, judgment or the sentence is passed, which marks the conclusion of trial.

As provided in Section 212 of the CrPC, the charge must contain details of the time and place of the alleged offence and the name of the person against whom, or the thing against which, such offence has been alleged to have been committed. Every such detail shall be mentioned in such a way so as to be reasonably sufficient to give notice to the accused of the nature of accusation and the matter with which they are charged.

It must be noted that there shall be a separate charge for a distinct offence, and every such charge shall be tried separately. However, an accused may move an application for all such charges to be tried together at the same trial by the trial court, and the trial court, upon considering the same, if it deems fit that no prejudice shall be caused to the accused, allow for the same.

More than one offence of similar kind

When an accused person has allegedly committed offences of the same kind more than once, up to three times within a span of 12 months starting from the first offence till the last, such an accused person may be charged with and tried at the same trial. However, the said number of offences tried at the same trial will not be more than three

Offences of same kind in the context of Section 219 of the CrPC connote offences punishable with same punishment under the same section of the Indian Penal Code [IPC] or any other special or local law.

Such offences as referred above of similar kind may or may not be committed in respect of the same person or thing.

Series of acts constituting offences

When a series of acts is allegedly committed by the accused person, which are so closely connected to one another as to form a part of single transaction, such an accused person may be charged with and tried at the same trial for every such offence.

However, when such acts independently constitute separate offences, but when combined together, constitute a single different offence, then in such a case charge can be framed against the accused for such different offence constituted by combining the alleged acts and also for offences constituted by the individual acts.

One act constituting offences under more than one law

When one act alleged against an accused person constitutes two or more offences under different laws, a charge against the accused person can be framed and tried in one single trial for both the offences under every such different law.

Take the example of an allegation for committing the offence of rape on a minor. Such an act constitutes an offence punishable under Section 376 of the IPC as well as an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences [POCSO] Act. In such a case, charge will be framed under both the IPC and the POCSO Act.

If there arises any doubt with regards to an act or a series of acts alleged against an accused person as to exactly which of the several possible offences have been made out, then charge can be framed for all of such offences or any one of them. If at the conclusion of trial in which the accused is charged only for one of such several offences, but evidence led at the trial suggests the commission of one or more of such other possible offences for which the accused person might have been charged, then the accused person shall be convicted for such other offences, even though not specifically charged therefor.

For example, if the facts of the case suggest an offence of cheating, criminal breach of trust and theft have been committed but the trial court frames charge only for theft, at the conclusion of the trial, if the trial court arrives at a conclusion on the basis of the evidence led that the offence of criminal breach of trust is made out, the accused person shall be convicted for criminal breach of trust, even though specific charge for the same was not framed.

Several acts constituting several offences

When the charge is framed for several offences containing several particulars and a specific combination of some particulars constitute a minor offence, if such a combination is proved during evidence but the rest of the particulars are not proved, then the accused shall be convicted for such combination which constituted the minor offence without being specifically charged for the same.

Joinder of charge

The CrPC has divided the chapter of charge into two parts. The first part (sections 211-217) deals with the form and contents of charge, and the second (sections 218-224), with the joinder of charge.

Section 223 of the CrPC makes a provision for two or more persons to be charged and tried jointly in a single trial.

The categorization of such persons as referred above are persons who are accused of:

Committing the same offence in the same transaction.

Committing different offences in the same transaction.

Committing more than one offence of the same kind, jointly within a period of 12 months (as provided under section 219 of the CrPC)

Committing the offence and abetment of that offence.

Theft, extortion, cheating or criminal breach of trust, and receiving, retaining or assisting in disposing stolen property.

Persons charged with separate offences and falling under none of the aforesaid categories, on an application preferred in writing before the Court of Magistrate or Sessions Court, when such application is allowed in the interest of justice and on the ground that no prejudice would be caused to the accused.

Withdrawal of charges

When a Charge is framed for one or more offences, and the evidence led at the trial leads to conviction of the accused for one or more of such offences but not all of the offences charged for, the prosecutor conducting the prosecution, or the complainant, as the case may be, with the consent of the trial court, or the Trial Court suo motu, may stay the inquiry into, or trial of, such charge or charges. Such withdrawal shall have the effect of an acquittal on such charge or charges.

However, if the conviction so awarded is set aside by the appellate court, then subject to the order of the appellate court setting aside the order of conviction, the trial court may proceed with the inquiry into, or trial of, the charge or charges so withdrawn.

Errors in framing of charge

Unless any prejudice has been caused to the accused person which has occasioned injustice, no error or omission in mentioning the particulars required to be stated in the charge shall be considered as material, and the trial court has the power to correct or even alter a charge at any time before pronouncement of judgment.

For instance, consider A being charged with murdering B on January 20, and C, who tried to arrest him for that murder, on January 21. When charged for the murder of B, A was tried for the murder of C. The witnesses present in his defence were witnesses in the case of Bs murder. The court may infer from this that A was misled, and that the error was material.

Alteration/addition of charge:

The trial court can alter/add charges at any time before pronouncement of judgment; however, every such altered/added charge must be read and explained to the cccused person.

If such alteration or addition of charge will cause prejudice to the prosecution or the accused to proceed with the trial immediately, then the trial court can direct for a new trial or grant an adjournment for such sufficient period of time as it deems fit. However, if such alteration or addition of charge, in the opinion of the trial court, would not cause any prejudice either to the prosecution or to the accused person, the trial court shall proceed with the trial as if such altered charge was originally framed.

If the alteration of charges changes the nature of the offence such that a previous sanction to prosecute the accused is mandatory, then the trial court shall not proceed with the trial until and unless such sanction from such authority is obtained.

Recalling of witnesses

When an alteration or addition of charge is made after the trial has commenced, the prosecution and accused both are at liberty to apply to the trial court for re-issuing summons or re-calling of witnesses for the purpose of examining them in respect of the altered or added charge only. The trial court has the power to reject such application for re-calling or re-issuing summons to such witness if, in the opinion of the trial court, such an application is moved solely for the purpose of causing a delay in the trial.

The prosecution and accused can make an application to call such other witness apart from the one examined earlier which the trial court thinks material in view of the altered or added charge.



Discharge

Before framing of charge, the accused can apply for discharge on the basis of the material produced by the prosecution in its final report, also known as chargesheet, if on perusal of the chargesheet, no offence prima facie seems to have been made out against the accused.

Discharge shall be dealt with in detail in the next part.
The exercise of monetising land assets, announced by the finance minister (FM) in Budget 2021-22 could provide a unique opportunity to reimagine our cities and, if framed differently, has the potential to be the solution to solve many problems at one stroke, in a rapidly urbanising country.

The idea goes back almost a decade. In 2012, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government set up a three-member committee to devise a fiscal consolidation roadmap, headed by former finance secretary and 13th Finance Commission Chairman, Vijay L Kelkar. One of the key recommendations of the committee was to set up a group to monetise government land resources. It had also recommended that the resources mobilised through land monetisation could finance urban infrastructure. A decade later, FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the department of public enterprises (DPE) to monetise non-core assets such as land and buildings.

The 'liveable city' quotient is dependent on the pentad of affordability (housing and healthcare), robust neighbourhoods (sports, education, culture), accessibility (transport), a vibrant local economy, and adequate public spaces with a green cover. Our cities rank in the bottom 20% of the 140 member list of liveable cities in the world.

To look at just one metric, open spaces, the World Health Organization (WHO) stipulates a minimum of nine square meters (sqm) of open space per capita in urban areas. The UN recommends 30sqm per capita. Mumbai has 1.24sqm per capita of accessible open space. Chennai fares worse at 0.81sqm. Compare this with a densely packed New York city that still offers 26.4sqm of accessible open space per capita.

Let us, for a moment, look at land monetisation as a national land re-purposing corporation. The corporation could be tasked with the primary objective of improving the urban quality of life. It could be a vehicle to tackle the paucity of affordable housing, inadequate open spaces and of providing good healthcare and education facilities.

The monetisation of land assets will be the tool to accomplish this end. Achievement of this primary objective will reap further financial gains for the government. The monetisation project should be seen through the dual lens of upfront revenue generation and the creation of long-term revenue sources.

The announcement of the formation of a land monetisation corporation has signalled the end of land scarcity, the bogey used by land sharks and land bank hoarders to raise land prices continually. A likely fallout of the release (or announcement of an impending release) of so much land by the government could be a steep drop in land prices and, consequently cheaper housing.

As per data available, the demand for housing units between 2016-2020 in India's top-8 urban centres was about 4mn (million) houses, almost 50% of which was for the low-income group or affordable housing. The available housing in this category was barely able to meet 5% of this demand. Despite this huge shortage, there is a large stock of unsold housing, as there is no match between the price expectation of buyers and sellers.

In Indian metros, the sale price ratio to the actual cost of construction (excluding land price) can be anywhere between three and 10 times. This ratio indicates the high cost of real estate land in big cities. The cities with the highest demand for housing are at the higher end of this ratio spectrum.

The projected housing demand (including the current shortage) in the next five years due to increased urbanisation is 35mn housing units, most of which is in the affordable housing segment. Considering an average housing unit of 50 sqm area, the projected demand for housing is 1.75bn (billion) sqm.

On the supply side, total land under government ownership and government entities is about 13,500sqkm (square kilometres) accounting for land under 41 of the 51 union ministries. Considering this surplus land at a conservative 10%, the land available for monetisation would be a staggering 1,350sqkm or 1.35bn sqm mostly spread across urban centres of India.

Assuming a global floor space index (FSI) of 1.0 (the global FSI versus plot FSI is a discussion for another time), the potential housing on government-owned land is about 1.35bn sqm. It is fairly apparent that there may not be an adequate demand for all the surplus land.

There is an opportunity to restrict ground coverage for new development on the surplus land to 25% to 30% and, consequently, earmark 50% of the surplus land to be available for open spaces, green cover, roads and other public facilities such as schools and hospitals.

For example, providing affordable housing to healthcare workers and educators adjacent to their workplace would attract excellent professionals and ensure good health and education infrastructure.

These are some of the long-term revenue streams and capital build-up that need to be accounted for, rather than a simple monetisation exercise of mechanically selling crown jewels to developers, who offer the highest prices and make our cities even more unliveable and more unattainable to people who desperately need the housing. The maximum percentage of land that may be sold to the private sector should be capped. A large portion of affordable housing could be on a rental basis with rental rates accounting for maintenance and the construction cost amortised over 20 years.

The Indian government, in its conception of the National Land Monetisation Corporation, has been inspired by the model of the Canada Lands Company, which has had a very successful run in monetising surplus government land. In the Canada model, surplus land in possession of the government is sold to the Canada Lands Company at a reasonable market value, who in turn develop, manage, or sell the property. The company is self-financed and is highly profitable, paying rich dividends to the government of Canada, its sole shareholder.

The modus operandi of the company is to work with the community and the local government to generate projects that create value and are financially viable. Canada Lands Company claims to have been "developing innovative communities, shaping neighbourhoods from coast to coast and enhancing the places where Canadians live, work, learn and play" for over two decades. It would be interesting to see how the Canadian model is scalable and adaptable in the Indian context.

If properly implemented, the project of land monetisation could well be the beginning of a new urban India. It should be underpinned by sound urban planning principles based on the tenets of equity and fairness and maximisation of long-term value from these lands through all means and not just upfront sale consideration.

The finance ministry should be tasked with making the land monetisation project a win-win deal. It is possible to do so, as the Canada model appears to have proven.

In the post-COVID scenario, all governments are hungry for any additional sources of finances and there will be a temptation to choose options that give the highest revenue upfront. This, however, will not solve other problems like affordable housing, education, health, culture etc. Hence, this project should be implemented with a long-term vision so that cities are not left worse than before.

Evolved measurement of benefits and costs over the long term will harmonise any gap in understanding between 'sell at the highest price' advocates and those who advocate inclusive solutions for all stakeholders.

Care should be taken that such a once in a century project is executed with deep insight of who we are and where we need to go, to make our cities better places for the people and climb dramatically up the list of liveable cities in the world.

(Alpa Sheth is a structural engineer and managing director of VMS Consultant Pvt Ltd, a structural engineering consultancy. She advises various high-level government organisations on seismic safety issues and has conducted research studies of various earthquake events in India to suggest disaster mitigation measures.)
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in New Delhi on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Anand Subramanian, former group operating officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE), in the co-location (Colo) case. CBI is probing the alleged abuse of the Exchange's server architecture for granting preferential access of market data to a stockbroker ahead of others.

Earlier this month, the special court has reserved its order. CBI had opposed the bail plea at that time, saying that Mr Subramanian did not deserve bail. It contended that the NSE's former group operating officer should not be released on bail as it could affect the ongoing probe.

Mr Subramanian was arrested by CBI on 24 February 2022. CBI got his custody till 9th March after which he was sent to judicial custody.

On 14th March, the special court sent Chitra Ramkrishna, former managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of NSE, to 14 days of judicial custody. She is lodged at Tihar Jail.

A CBI court also refused to give VIP treatment to Ms Ramkrishna. "Every Person is the same. She cannot be a VIP prisoner because of what she had been. Rules cannot be changed," observed the judge.

However, the court permitted her to carry four books, including a copy of Hanuman Chalisa and Bhagwad Gita, for prayers.

Ms Ramkrishna was arrested on 7th March, a day after the special court in Delhi dismissed her petition for a pre-arrest bail plea and pulled up the CBI for inaction and being 'lackadaisical' in the probe against her over the past four years.

While rejecting her counsel's request for home-cooked food in jail, special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal also asked Ms Ramkrishna to be physically produced before the court on 28th March, "I've also had it... It's good," the judge remarked.

The court also turned down the lawyer's plea to allow her to carry masks.

The CBI in its submission told the special court that Anand Subramanian was well-connected with Ms Ramkrishna prior to his engagement as her chief strategic adviser at NSE. His wife Sunitha Subramanian also served as the regional head of NSE at Chennai from April 2011, the agency says.

As reported by Moneylife, the enforcement directorate (ED) has stepped in to examine a possible money laundering angle in the NSE Colo scam.

Over the past few days, CBI has taken statements from all the senior NSE officials who had been named in the show-cause notices issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) over the past seven years.

Many senior officials from NSE, having recorded their statements, have been made to confront Ms Ramkrishna, the former MD and CEO who quit the Exchange in 2016. However, Ms Ramkrishna, say sources, has steadfastly denied all responsibility for the Colo scam and claimed that only the technology team would have answers to issues like preferential access.

We learn that the CBI team has done extensive work on the scam and seems up-to-date with all developments. However, it is not clear if they are correctly focused on who are the beneficiaries of the crooked system, which was facilitated by a porous and easy-to-manipulate access system.

Read: Moneylife Exclusive: Enforcement Directorate Steps in to Probe Money Laundering Angle in NSE Colo Scam ) It is also unclear if the focus is on Ms Ramkrishna or Ravi Narain, former MD and CEO of NSE. After all, Colo and high-frequency trading (HFT), including scandals, had happened long before NSE began trading (Michael Lewis's book Flash Boys is all about it). Hence, it is hard to believe that the Exchange forgot to put in place a process that ensured a level playing field for very large investors, who put through millions of trades in seconds. (

The Colo case dates to 2015 when Moneylife published a letter by a whistle-blower going by the name Ken Fong in June 2015 . The whistle-blower alleged that NSE officials were selectively allowing a few brokers to reap massive profits through preferential access to its Colo servers in the form of early log-in or access to servers with low trading loads.

In February last year, SEBI's adjudication officer imposed a penalty of Rs1 crore on NSE for its failure to ensure a level playing field for trading members subscribing to its tick-by-tick (TBT) data feed. NSE's former MD and CEO Mr Narain and Ms Ramkrishna were penalised with a fine of Rs25 lakh each.

Before that in April 2019, SEBI had ordered disgorgement of profits from NSE and salaries of former MDs, Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna. The regulator has also asked the Exchange to disgorge an amount of Rs624.89 crore along with interest calculated at the rate of 12% per annum to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF).
Christine Sullivan is from Arlington, Washington State, graduating from Arlington High in 2010, where her journey to journalism began, leading her to Bellevue College, where she studied mass communications and creative writing from 2012-2014.

During her studies at Bellevue College, she started writing as a staff reporter for The Watchdog, the student-organized newspaper and worked her way up the ranks as the new arts and features editor, landing her big break role at the Editor-in-Chief.

Christine moved on studying at Washington State University, writing as a reporter and op/ed editor for The Daily Evergreen. Her first broadcast experience was working as an intern in 2013, with KING-5 NEWS, for their Evening show. From there, she got her feet wet in magazine editorial, interning for South Sound Magazine and 425 Business.

In 2017, she traveled to the U.K. getting an externship with The Times, in London, making her way back to the Seattle area in 2018, where she wrote for The Everett Herald. In 2019, she made her way east, to Helena, Montana landing her first broadcast gig with KTVH/KXLH and went back to college, to finish her degree in Political Science from Carroll College, graduating in May as class of '22.

During the pandemic in 2021, she freelanced remotely from Helena, writing for The Journal of the San Juan's. Christine became part of the ABC-FOX KFBB family in January of 2022 and hopes to one day become a renowned novelist and investigative journalist.
HELENA, Mont. - Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, pursuant to the proclamation of President Joe Biden, has ordered flags flown in Montana to be flown at half staff to honor the life and legacy of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

All flags flown in Montana are to be flown at half staff through Sunday, March 27.
The stories told in this years LUNAFEST film festival feature a variety of perspectives that champion women and gender-nonconforming individuals, highlighting their aspirations, resilience and sense of connection.
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March 24, 2022 Open Thread 2022-33 (Not Ukraine) News and views NOT related to Ukraine ... Posted by b on March 24, 2022 at 12:39 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
March 24, 2022 Ukraine Open Thread 2022-34 Only news & views related to the Ukraine conflict ... Posted by b on March 24, 2022 at 12:40 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8387aaf20)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e8386fcc68)', '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(0x55e8387aaf20)') 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(0x55e8386fcc68)') 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(0x55e8387b1678)') 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(0x55e8386fcc68)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e8386fcc68)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82d419020)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e83880d7b8)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e83880d7b8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Colquitt Regional recently cut the ribbon on the newly named Hufstetler Building. The building is named in recognition of Steve and Teresa Hufstetler for their generous contribution to the hospital through the Georgia HEART rural hospital tax credit program. Pictured are Steve and Teresa Hufstetler (center) with Colquitt Regional President and CEO Jim Matney and Ukpong Cardiology Services staff member, along with family and friends of the Hufstetler Family.
Heather Bryant of Moultrie poses with Mark Lott of Douglas, Ga., as they prepare for a transplant surgery. Bryant gave one of her kidneys to Lott in January, even though she had never met him before his wife's Facebook post caught her eye.
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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8387f9448)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838834d60)', '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(0x55e8387f9448)') 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(0x55e838834d60)') 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(0x55e8387e6b50)') 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(0x55e838834d60)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838834d60)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82d416888)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838922a00)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838922a00)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
The director of Utilities for the city of Midland believes produced water could be a game-changer for West Texas.

Carl Craigo told the Reporter-Telegram it is still a long shot but that there are millions of barrels of produced water going into the saltwater disposal wells that could be used for other purposes. The Reporter-Telegram has previously reported that roughly 4 barrels of water are used for every barrel of oil produced.

Craigo will have a chance to be part of a solution as he has accepted the role of co-chair of the Standards subcommittee of the newly formed Texas Produced Water Consortium, hosted by Texas Tech University. This committee will develop recommendations for water quality specifications as well as any associated permitting and testing standards necessary to beneficially reuse produced water.

Craigo estimated that around 10 percent of produced water is currently recycled. He says that it is expensive, but the oil industry and others want to increase that percentage. There is too much water that could be used for irrigation, drinking or aquifer recharging, he said.

Introducing that water would fill lakes if you can figure out how to do it, Craigo said.

The Texas Produced Water Consortium was created in 2021 through Senate Bill 601 of the 87th Texas Legislative session to bring together information resources to study the economics of, technology related to and environmental and public health considerations for beneficial uses of produced water from oil and gas operations, according to a city press release.

Craigo noted there are currently pilot studies taking place and that the industry is investigating options on what else could be done with produced water other than forcing it down a disposal well. He said the Colorado School of Mines, West Texas A&M and Texas Tech University are all studying the issue.

The rush is on how to do it economically, where people can afford to do it, Craigo said.

Last week, Midland Mayor Patrick Payton mentioned how the city of Midland  in partnership with private business  is on the cusp of historical achievements when it comes to the handling of produced water.

If some things happen that we think might happen, it will literally make history when it comes to water, Payton said during his reelection campaign announcement. Theres some amazing things that can happen when our water resources are good for the next 75 to 100 years, but some things are happening related to the oil field that will be historical for the globe.

Craigo also said it is staggering how much water is coming out of the ground that cant be used but that even if it takes another decade, it would be worth the effort.

One day of produced water is about half a year of water in the city of Midland, maybe two days (of produced water), Craigo said.
Sun Valley, ID (83353)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning giving way to a few showers late. High around 60F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Showers early with some clearing overnight. Low 38F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e83884df18)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83872a098)', '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(0x55e83884df18)') 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(0x55e83872a098)') 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(0x55e83886be60)') 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(0x55e83872a098)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83872a098)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82d416828)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838727708)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838727708)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Muskogee, OK (74401)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. High 67F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 51F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
Amateur radio in Belfast in the 1920's The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has published an article about Eric Megaw 6MU (GI6MU), a radio amateur in Belfast in the 1920's



Eric's radio achievements featured in the newspapers of the time. When aged only 15 he hit the headlines in the local press, under the title of Belfast, Ireland  Boy Spans Ocean (December 12 1923). In October 1924 the Belfast Telegraph carried the story Belfast Boy Receives 12,000 Mile Signal.

On August 15, 1925, the Irish Telegraph published a picture of Eric and his amateur station and in 1926 under the title, Belfast Talks to India: Amateurs Fine Performance, it was reported:

On Wednesday evening a Belfast radio amateur, Mr Eric Megaw (GI6MU), who has for some time been experimenting with low power telephony on short waves, established telephone communication with Mr H. Beck (Radio Y-HBK) at Kohat, India. Mr Beck, who was using Morse code signals, reported speech quite OK, fairly strong, with no distortion. This is understood to be the first time words spoken in Ireland have been heard in India, and, as Mr Megaw was using an input of only 30 watts (about half the power used by an ordinary electric light) and a single 20 watt Mullard transmitting valve, the transmission is probably a record for low power and simple apparatus.



In the 1930's he worked at the General Electric Company Research Laboratories at Wembley where he was involved in the development of high power magnetrons.



Read the IET article at

https://ietarchivesblog.org/2019/02/06/eric-megaw-and-amateur-wireless-transmissions-of-the-1920s/



In the 1920's the prefixes used for overseas contacts by amateur stations in the British Isles were:

GI - Northern Ireland

GW - Irish Free State

GC - Scotland

G - used for both England and Wales (and possibly the Crown Dependencies?) In the 1930's he worked at the General Electric Company Research Laboratories at Wembley where he was involved in the development of high power magnetrons.Read the IET article atIn the 1920's the prefixes used for overseas contacts by amateur stations in the British Isles were:GI - Northern IrelandGW - Irish Free StateGC - ScotlandG - used for both England and Wales (and possibly the Crown Dependencies?)
U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright reacts to a journalist's question during a press briefing in Beijing, China in this file photo.
In the photo is Mount Carmel School junior and the floor leader for the CNMI's 18th Youth Congress Yurihana DLG Sasamoto. For more information about Mount Carmel Schools Early Bird Special, call 234-6184 or visit www.mountcarmelsaipan.com
U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Roxanne Cabral provided a seed funding grant to the newly established Pacific Media Institute in Majuro. With her from left: Daniel Kramer, Giff Johnson and Fred Pedro.
Editor

Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the Best Editorial Writer Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the CNMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com
OPINION | Covenant Day marks 46 years of a strong relationship between the NMI and the US
Lauren Arthur is a Missouri state senator for District 17, which includes much of the Clay County including Liberty and Gladstone.
Navy improve facilities on Island every year. This time they erected wooden lamp posts and electrical cables were rigged this time by Navy and this permanent rigging will remain there even after the feast, so generators brought by Landing Craft can fixed into.

by Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne

(Retired from Sri Lanka Navy and Former Chief of Defence Staff )

The St Antony feast at Kachchativu was celebrated on 10th and 11th March 2022. As usual I prepared for this annual pilgrimage. I travelled to Jaffna, stayed at Fort Hammenhiel, a Dutch Fort in a small islet in Karinagar which was used by Navy as a detention centre and now converted in to four-bedroom luxurious hotel. On that evening, I am alone on Fort Gun turret enjoyed beautiful sunset with two Sundowner cocktails, unique cocktail ( Rum based) prepared by Navy Bar steward. Next day by 0500 hrs I am up and headed to Fort Hammenhiel jetty for angling with my rod. Its only a sport now! Fort Hammenhiel jetty is ideal place to catch 2-3 Kg Paraws (trevaillies) before Sun rise. All fish were caught, weighed, photographed and released back to water before it dies. So, this is the new trend of angling and protecting them.

Sunset as seen from Fort Hammenhiel

Next day ( 10th March) , after lunch I headed to Kachchativu on board an Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC) with Commander Northern Area, Rear Admiral Priyantha Perera. Priyantha is a deep diver a person who has canoed his boat, a small canoe ( small rowing boat) around Sri Lanka. He was a former Commanding officer of Navys elite Special Boats Squadron (SBS).

Early morning catch at Karinagar

- fish catch, weigh, photo and

released back to sea. - new trend

of Angling in Sri Lanka

Sea was Mirror calm and indigenously built IPC moved at the speed of 32 knots ( 32 nautical miles per hour). We reached Kachchativu in around one hour and forty minutes.

Island was very busy with preparations for the feast. However, due to health authority restrictions, only one hundred devotees from each country allowed for the feast.

South Indian Catholics had already arrived in their fishing trawlers and Navy provided all the requirements of fresh water and food. They were happy with excellent arrangements by our Navy. Whether the number of devotees 100 or 10,000 - the Navy has to do all preparations - bringing fresh water, generators, tents, cooking utensils, victuals and fuel from main land in their Landing craft(s) and IPCs. Only ease they will have is number for which they cooked has reduced. The Northern Naval Command under Priyantha had done an excellent job. The coordinator on ground was LCdr Peiris, who spent last one month in this remote island, coordinating logistics. Commander H A C Fernando was the Commanding officer of SLNS Wasaba in Delft Island, was overall in charge of Kachchativu operation and safety and security of all devotees. This decorated senior naval officer, an devoted Catholic, carried out his task diligently.

At night, the new church looked beautiful.

Old Church

New church was a symbolic icon of Navys devotion to St Antoney, the saint who looked after seafarers and fishermen. The new church was built within four months in 2016, on request of Jaffna Bishop Rt Rev Dr Justin Bernard Gnanapragasam and Navy handed over the church to Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna on 23rd December 2016. Total cost to built this beautiful St Antoney church was 7.7 million rupees. It was a collective contribution from officers and sailors of the Navy in 2016 : almost all contributed were Buddhists.

New Church a seen from sea

Navy improve facilities on Island every year. This time they erected wooden lamp posts and electrical cables were rigged this time by Navy and this permanent rigging will remain there even after the feast, so generators brought by Landing Craft can fixed into. There are large number of Catholic devotees who contributed for these work silently. The wooden lamp posts which required for electricity distribution in island was purchased for Rs 50,000/- and provided to Navy by a lady working in Delft AGA office who do not wish to disclose her details. They were the true Devotees of St Anthony.

Vicar General Rt Rev father

Jebaratham performing the Mass

Indian delegation of fishermen led by trawler owners were present and they want Indo-Sri Lanka fisheries issues to be resolved early. I always say if our two neighboring countries has any irritant, its only the issue of Indian bottom trawlers poaching in our waters. The trawler owners met Northern Naval Commander and honored him.

The Mass was led by Rt Rev Father Pathinatar Josephthas Jabarathnam, the Vicar General of Jaffna as Jaffna Bishop was not available ( on pilgrimage to India) wished all present the blessings of St Antoney. The devotees from two countries embraced each other and showed no boundaries to ones faith. Well done Navy for excellent work ! I had only small request to St Antoney.

I requested St Antoney to give me strength to visit next year also to this tiny Island.
Rendering of the proposed two-tower Raintree Riverwalk Residences in the Tarpon River neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale near the New River. (Joe Palma + Partners/Courtesy)

Fort Lauderdale  Not every modern high-rise envisioned by a developer sparks a public outcry.

This one did, mainly because a century-old rain tree long cherished by the neighborhood stood in the way.

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But developer Asi Cymbal says he has a plan to save the prized tree and make it a celebrated focal point of his $500 million project on the south bank of the New River.

The latest version of his $500 million project, Raintree Riverwalk Residences, won final approval from Fort Lauderdales Planning and Zoning Board on March 16.

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Cymbal plans to break ground this summer on a mixed-use development expected to bring drama to the downtown skyline and crowds to the once-sleepy Tarpon River neighborhood.

Two sleek towers with 677 luxury apartments and a parking garage with 1,075 spaces will rise on the south side of the river in the 400 block of Southwest Fourth Avenue. Restaurants, bars and boutique shops will line the ground floor.

The East Tower will have 29 floors, and the West Tower will have 28. One tower will open in spring 2024 and the other in winter 2024.

A project with heart and soul

Were not here to slap up a building, sell it, squeeze every dime out of it and run to our next project, Cymbal told the planning board. Were putting our heart and soul into creating this community.

As part of the project, Cymbal has promised to complete the crucial links that are currently missing along Fort Lauderdales famed Riverwalk, a popular brick-paved walkway overlooking the river.

This is the world-class community that Fort Lauderdale deserves, Cymbal told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. We are emphasizing design, original art, technology, wellness and landscaping. We will extend and ultimately complete the Riverwalk, preserve our beautiful rain tree in a park that is finally accessible to the public and highlight Fort Lauderdales place as the boating capital of the world.

[ RELATED: Fort Lauderdales iconic rain tree will be moved to make way for twin towers ]

Cymbal, who says he first set sight on the riverfront parcel a dozen years ago, says his latest vision has been years in the making.

In 2013, he proposed a large and bold project with three towers and nearly 1,000 apartments. Dubbed Marina Lofts, the project won approval but never broke ground.

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Its going to be beautiful

In late 2020, Cymbal returned with a new plan that would have let the rain tree stay in place. That project called for two towers  one 35 stories and the other 32  with 784 apartments that would have been built around the tree.

He has since tweaked and revised the plan to come up with one he hopes the neighborhood will embrace.

This is exciting for Tarpon River, said Commissioner Ben Sorensen, who represents the neighborhood. This will reinvigorate the Riverwalk on the south side of the river. The Riverwalk is a defining feature of downtown and our city is going to further shine with this project. Its going to be beautiful.

This rain tree in downtown Fort Lauderdale is no ordinary tree. In 1987, the city granted it extra protection, saying it can't be moved or cut down without commission approval. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Rain tree in the spotlight

The majestic rain tree, the largest of its kind in the continental U.S., will be moved closer to the river. The tree, with a sprawling 130-foot-wide canopy, stands 100 feet high and weighs nearly 1 million pounds.

Stephanie Toothaker, attorney for the project, says the new design plan puts a well-deserved spotlight on the rain tree.

The tree has been sitting behind a fence for a very long period of time, Toothaker said. And now its an opportunity to bring that out to the Riverwalk and really celebrate it, make it part of the Riverwalk and make it part of the project. You can walk down the Riverwalk and enjoy it. You can come by in a boat and enjoy it. You can sit across the river and enjoy the beautiful architecture. And you have a celebration of the tree.

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The tree will be relocated under the supervision of a world-renowned tree preservationist and an expert arborist, Cymbal told the planning board.

If the tree dies within five years of being moved, Cymbal will have to pay the city $1 million.

[ RELATED: Regal rain tree is priceless. But if old giant dies in move, developer owes city $1 million. ]

Fort Lauderdale granted the tree special protection in 1987, requiring commission approval before it can be moved or cut down.

In January, city commissioners approved the developers request to move the tree closer to the river.

In 2013, a previous commission approved Cymbals request to move the tree to a spot near a marina at Southwest Third Avenue and Southwest Fifth Street. The approval was given despite years of protest from fans of the tree who feared it would die if moved.

Last week, Cymbal assured the planning board he was going to great lengths to make sure the tree survives the move.

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We will be moving the rain tree to the Riverwalk where it can be better appreciated, he said. We spent a lot of time and resources to protect our beautiful rain tree. We hired the best tree preservationist in the world and the best arborist. And I even put up $1 million of my own money as security for the move.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan
Myrtle Beach police on Thursday announced the arrest of a man in connection to the Jan. 5 murder of 42-year-old Bilal Harris.

Jocory Hytower, 23, of Myrtle Beach, was arrested with the help of a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force in Georgia, police said in a news release. Hes charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.

Two other men, Ryan Harrell, 24, and Patrick Brave, 28, have also been charged with murder in connection to the homicide. All three men reside in Myrtle Beach.

MyHorryNews previously reported that Brave drove himself and co-defendants to a residence in the 900 block of Grey Street in Myrtle Beach, where Brave entered without consent, according to police records.

Brave then armed himself with a weapon believed to have belonged to Harris and an altercation occurred between Brave and Harris, police said. After the altercation, Harris was shot multiple times and Brave fled the area, officials said at the time.

An arrest warrant for Hytower wasnt immediately available.
Ukraine is a lot like Conway!

Thats the pronouncement of an Horry County man who spent three years in Ukraine as part of his job with the U.S. Department of State.

Kevin Lee describes the Ukrainian people as loving and down to earth.

If you tripped and fell outside their house, theyd help you upI get a cross between sadness and anger with whats going on there now. They didnt deserve it, he said this past week during a brief visit to Horry County to see his mother, Eulean, who lives in the Pawley Swamp area.

Lee, who has worked in the information office with the State Department for about twenty years now, has traveled all over the world making sure that the U.S. Government gets the information it needs about his assigned countries.

His list of assignments includes Brazil, Mauritius, (an island off the coast of Africa, that he declares to be one of the most beautiful places in the world), Peru, Iraq, Washington, D.C., Ukraine, Nicaragua, Russia, Paraguay, and at the present, Belize.

Lee compares Ukrainians to Russians with the Ukrainians coming out on top of his popularity contest, but he doesnt necessarily blame the Russian citizens.

He says he stayed busy in Russia, where he didnt have much interaction with the people.

He blames that on having lived in government-owned apartments in Russia, and because the Russians knew if they were to get into a deeper relationship with him theyd be watched closer than they wanted to be.

Still good people there, but they were distant. In Ukraine, it was the opposite, he said.

His daughters attended Christian school there and still have Ukrainian friends, but they havent been able to contact them recently.

Lee doesnt know if thats because they arent still there or if they just dont have electricity.

His youngest daughter, Alexa, was with him recently on a chilly day in Conway wearing shorts.

Lee smiles as he remembers how cold it was in Ukraine and pointed out that Alexa spent her first three years there.
With several candidates announcing a bid for the 7th Congressional seat, U.S. Rep. Tom Rice will enter a crowded Republican primary field for the first time since the district was established a decade ago.

The unusual competition follows his controversial vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump a week after the Capitol riot, which drew fierce backlash from constituents and a formal censure from the S.C. Republican Party.

I dont have any members who are supporting Tom Rice, Shannon Grady, president of the Horry County Womens Republican Club, said of the five-term incumbent.

Horry County Republican Party Executive Committee Members Chad Caton and Audrey Hudson reported similar sentiments, as did former HCGOP Chairwoman Dreama Perdue, who said, To be honest, I think the reason theyre running is the one thing that Tom Rice did when he impeached the president.

The race has attracted national attention for its political and economic implications: the deep-red district, which carried for Trump in 2016 and 2020, will not only serve as a testing ground for congressional Republicans who supported impeachment  Rice was one of 10  it will select the Washington representative for South Carolinas fastest growing region and one of its key tourist destinations.

Since receiving Trumps coveted endorsement in February, state Rep. Russell Fry has widely been considered the most viable challenger.

Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina, the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left, and who actually voted against me on Impeachment Hoax #2, must be thrown out of office ASAP  and we have just the man to do it (sic), Trump wrote in a statement. America First Champion Russell Fry has been a leading fighter on Election Integrity, is pro-life, pro-God, pro-Gun and, very importantly, pro-LOW Taxes.

Fry was also in attendance at state Rep. Heather Ammons Crawfords re-election announcement in February, which included Gov. Henry McMaster, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas. Rice did not attend.
The small town of Tabor City, N.C. has produced not one, but two American Idol performers and now the pair have teamed up to knock on the doors of the Nashville country music scene.

Sixteen-year-old Ryleigh Madison recently wowed the judges on American Idol who gave her a Golden Ticket to Hollywood after some good-natured ribbing about her Southern accent.

It didnt bother me at all, I hear that all the time, laughed Madison, who told the judges she was from Whiteville, N.C. because that was the closest city people might know.

The segment, aired on ABC, was filmed in December and Madison did travel to Hollywood. She cant reveal any more because of a confidentially agreement and she must wait like everyone else for more news.

It is very nerve wracking, she said. I have to watch what I say and it is hard to keep a secret.

However, its no secret that she and her uncle, Dustin Chapman are turning heads in the country music world.

The duo recently released their newest single, Family Things, that is receiving airtime across the United States. It has already been viewed more than 20,000 times on YouTube.

Meanwhile, they continue to perform together at venues in North Myrtle Beach to packed houses.

Amazingly, Chapman also earned a Golden ticket to Hollywood last year when he sang a song he wrote called Slow Dance. He didnt make it past the first round, but he made important contacts while in Hollywood.

I knew last year when I was in Hollywood that Ryleigh would thrive in this environment, said Chapman. I made a lot of connections while I was there and I sent the producers some video of Ryleigh and they set up a Zoom call. Ryleigh sang and played piano. They had her sing a good catalogue of six songs and I was just super proud of her.

Madison, a sophomore at South Columbus High School, said she has been amazed by the support people have given her since her return from Hollywood.
An ongoing contract dispute between a major health insurance company and a large health care provider in Springfield is drawing the attention of state lawmakers.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois has been under scrutiny since July after it failed to reach an agreement with Springfield Clinic to be part of the insurance companys network. As a result, policy holders who receive care at that clinic have been forced to change providers or pay higher out-of-network co-payments.

Springfield Clinic is a private, independent, for-profit health care provider that serves people in central Illinois. About 55,000 of those are Blue Cross members, according to Blue Cross.

On Monday, the Illinois Department of Insurance fined BCBSs parent company, Health Care Service Corp., $339,000 for failing to notify the agency of a material change in its network, the first such fine the agency has issued since Illinois enacted the states Network Adequacy and Transparency Act in 2017.

Under that law, insurers are required to report to the agency any material change to an approved network plan within 15 days after the change occurs.

The official break between BCBS and Springfield Clinic took effect July 1 for its Health Maintenance Organization plans, and Nov. 17 for its Preferred Provider Organization plans. The company, however, did not formally notify the department of that change until earlier this month, resulting in a $1,000 fine for each day the filings were late.

For its part, BCBS has said the contract dispute centers on reimbursement rates. It says Springfield Clinic was seeking a 75% increase in its rates, which the insurance company says already are above average for the region and the state.

A spokesman for Springfield Clinic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, BCBS senior vice president Krishna Ramachandran characterized the late filings as a misunderstanding.

Though we had a reasonable and well-informed opinion that Springfield Clinics decision to leave our network did not trigger any network change filing, when the department requested one within the past few weeks, we promptly complied, he said. As we evaluate the departments decision, we will continue to work collaboratively and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations while ensuring access, affordability and quality in health care for the more than 8 million Illinoisans we cover.

The fine itself has proved to be controversial as well because while the 2017 law authorizes the Insurance Department to levy fines for noncompliance, the agency has never adopted formal administrative rules spelling out how the fines would be calculated and assessed.

That was the subject of discussion Tuesday at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, a legislative committee that exercises oversight of the administrative rulemaking process, where Republicans questioned why it has taken so long to promulgate rules.

Insurance Department general counsel Joanna Coll explained that the agency is responsible for enforcing both state and federal network adequacy standards. The federal standards apply to policies sold through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

But she said previous administrations at both the state and federal levels showed little interest in regulatory enforcement.

So the federal (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) initially under the previous administration, they did not want to engage in network adequacy at all and had actually forced the feds to backtrack on the situation, she said. Under President Biden there has been a renewed interest in federal regulations on this topic. So, we have been very actively trying to dance to keep up with the updating federal regulations and make sure that they are enforced in full under the Illinois law that you all worked so hard to pass.

Meanwhile, both BCBS and Springfield Clinic were scheduled to appear Tuesday before the House Insurance Committee. But that meeting was canceled because regular floor action in the House was delayed that day due to an extended closed-door Democratic caucus meeting that lasted more than three hours.

A spokeswoman for the House Democrats said in an email that the hearing would be rescheduled but that an exact time and day has not been arranged between all the parties.
HOLLYWOOD  The driver of a speeding 2007 black Dodge Charger that crashed into another car, killing its passenger and pushing the car into an empty beauty salon, was arrested Wednesday, Hollywood Police said.

Connor Ivan Tyson, of Miami, faces charges including vehicular homicide, aggravated fleeing causing serious injury or death, reckless driving causing serious bodily injury, two counts of reckless driving causing personal injury or property damage and driving with a suspended license. Tyson was arrested in Port St. Lucie by police and the U.S. Marshals.

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A friend was driving Brittney Hemmings, 20, of Lauderhill, home from work just after midnight on Sept. 17, 2021, when the Charger collided with the passenger side of the car where Hemmings was sitting, her father, Gregory Hemmings, previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

[ RELATED: Passenger dies when cars crash, sending one into wall of building ]

A Hollywood Police officer saw Tysons Charger heading south on South 56th Avenue and approaching the intersection at Washington Street, an incident report says. Tyson did not stop at the flashing red light when he approached the intersection.

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The officer tried to pull Tyson over, the report says, and turned his lights on as they approached Funston Street. But Tyson kept speeding in the 30 mph zone and did not pull over.

At Pembroke Road, Tyson ran through a red light, T-boning the car traveling west in the center lane on Pembroke Road. The impact from the collision sent the car into the nearby Purple Palace Barber & Beauty Salons building, the report says.

Authorities arrested Connor Tyson, of Miami, in Port Saint Lucie on Wednesday on several charges, including vehicular homicide, stemming from a September crash in Hollywood that killed a woman. (Hollywood Police Department)

The severity of the crash crushed the passenger side of the car, police said. Hollywood fire rescue crews had to use special equipment to pull Hemmings out of the car where she was trapped.

Hemmings father told the Sun Sentinel that the driver of the car was hospitalized with injuries to her spine and liver and had internal bleeding. The driver later told police she was blindsided by the oncoming Charger.

Tyson had a bloody nose after the Charger came to a rest in the southwest intersection against a concrete pole, the report says.

Investigators, using surveillance video, determined Tyson was driving at over two times the speed limit by the time he ran the red light, the report says. Data from the Charger showed Tyson was driving at 73 mph two seconds before hitting the other car and at 75 mph one second before.

Officers arrested Tyson at the scene of the crash that morning for driving with a suspended license. He posted bond a few days later and was released.

On March 8, police finished their investigation, leading to a judge issuing a warrant for Tysons arrest on March 15, according to Hollywood Police.

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Sun Sentinel staff writer Chris Perkins contributed to this report.
Proclamations from the Missouri House and Senate on display during the cocktail hour at the Arnold 50th anniversary gala on March 18.
Sonora, CA  The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has tapped millions in funding to improve water delivery to the communities of Ponderosa Hills and the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians.

The Tuolumne Utilities Districts (TUD) Mt. Provo Water Transmission and Intertie to Benefit the Communities of

Ponderosa Hills and the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians project was one of 62 projects to get the DWR funds for projects that tackle drought impacts on human health and safety, protect fish and wildlife resources, and support other public benefits, such as ecosystem improvements. On Monday, TUD was awarded $2,840,282 for the project, which focuses on water consolidation and reliability by installing around 14,000 lineal feet of 8-inch water main pipeline and two strategically located pressure-reducing stations on Mt. Provo Road in the Ponderosa Hills.

This project is just another step towards water system consolidation and will allow the District to deliver reliable, high-quality water to the Ponderosa system from the Upper Basin system in Twain Harte, remarked Don Perkins, General Manager.

Fire and climate resiliency will also be addressed with the installation of ten new fire hydrants in areas of high fire danger and increasing available water storage for seasonal or extended periods of drought. TUD added that a consolidation of the Ponderosa water treatment plant that includes four tanks and five booster stations will lower future costs associated with operation and maintenance. TUD noted that this interconnection will serve as one of the main arteries of the Districts water transmission system from the future Sierra Pines Regional Water Treatment and Storage Facility in Twain Harte. The Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians communitys main water supply is the Ponderosa water system.

This project supports the Tribes current resilience, growth, and development goals and will continue to be important for generations to come, stated Andrea Reich, Tribal Chairperson for the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians.

This is the second phase of DWR funding through the Urban and Multibenefit Drought Relief Grant program. TUD expects construction on the project to begin in July.
California State Capitol Building View Photo

Sacramento, CA  Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled an $11-billion plan to give rebates up to $800 to households ($400 per vehicle) as a way to offset rising gas prices.

Click here to view the earlier story. It also includes funding for those without cars to help cover the costs of public transportation.

Republicans in Sacramento are arguing that a better approach is to temporarily eliminate the excise tax on gasoline, and to permanently reduce the states income taxes.

The GOP Vice Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, Vince Fong, says, Californians are overtaxed, and the cost of everything is on the rise. Lets provide immediate relief by suspending the states gas tax, expand domestic energy supplies and permanently reduce income taxes on everyday Californians. These common-sense solutions require the Governor to have the political will.

The Governors plan also includes $500-million for active transportation projects that support things like walking and biking projects. It would also spend $1.75-billion on building electric vehicle charging stations.

Newsoms version is likely to pass as Democrats control both houses of the legislature.
Chinese Wisdom in Xi's Words: "Strict implementation of laws leads to order"

Xinhua) 13:20, March 24, 2022

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- "Strict implementation of laws leads to order while lax implementation of laws leads to disorder," President Xi Jinping once quoted a Chinese political commentator from close to two millennia ago to illustrate the importance of law enforcement.

This argument from a compilation of political commentaries of Wang Fu, who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), pointed out that how the laws are executed is deeply related to a country's order and development.

By quoting Wang, Xi called for efforts to strengthen and improve the implementation of laws at a meeting in 2014, a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

"The vitality and authority of the law lie in its implementation," he further stressed.

Wang's thoughts drew wisdom and were developed from Legalism, a traditional Chinese intellectual school active in the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.).

Xi has required administrative, judicial, and procuratorial organs at all levels, as important actors in the implementation of laws, to fulfill their duties in implementing laws.

"They must put an end to situations in which laws go ignored, enforcement is lax, and violations go unpunished," he said, adding that they must take resolute action against officials who abuse power for personal gain, place their power above the authority of the law, or bend the law to suit their own ends; and strictly prohibit infringement of the legitimate rights and interests of the people.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Avoid bringing your dog to dog parks or other places where there might be multiple dogs, Miami-Dade County Animal Services is warning.

The reason? A highly contagious respiratory disease called Complex Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex is spreading fast.

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A disease that is caused by multiple viruses and bacteria that pretty much infect the respiratory tract of dogs and can cause pretty severe infection including pneumonia, Miami-Dade County Animal Services Chief Veterinarian Dr. Maria Serrano said to WSVN-Ch. 7.

Recently there have been many cases of CIRDC reported throughout South FL. We urge dog owners to help protect their pets from the spread of the virus by visiting their veterinarian, keeping their dogs current on routine vaccines, & avoiding settings with multiple dogs. pic.twitter.com/7tTUlaxTwn  Miami-Dade County Animal Services (@AdoptMiamiPets) March 22, 2022

Also referred to as kennel cough or canine cough, the disease is common and the symptoms include coughing, sneezing, discharge from the eyes or nose, and fever in mild cases and pneumonia in severe cases, according to The Ohio State Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine.

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Outbreaks can occur as disease spreads rapidly from dog-to-dog, according to the university. This is a particular concern for dogs in group settings (e.g. dog shows, boarding, doggie daycare, dog parks), which have high dog-to-dog contact.

All dogs, regardless of age or breed, can be affected.

Because of the diseases spread, Miami-Dade County Animal Services is suspending several of its dog services, including its wellness clinic, the receiving of owner-surrendered dogs, and offsite pet adoption events.
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

A few hundred jobs are about to bring a boost to the San Antonio economy. After years of development and construction, Navistar unveiled its 900,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to city officials on Wednesday, March 23.

Executives with the international commercial truck maker based in Lisle, Illinois, took city officials on a tour of the facility. They showcased the body shop, paint shop, general assembly shop, and logistics centers. The project has been in the works since 2019.
John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

The machines are growing in numbers. A video posted to Twitter shows a robot waiter delivering food to tables at an Austin Chick-fil-A. The video tweeted Thursday, March 24, by CBS Austin station KEYE reporter Bettie Cross, shows a Pudu brand robot with bags of Chick-fil-A food zooming around the restaurant delivering orders to tables.

At one point, the PuduBot says: "Food is on the way. Wait a minute, please."
BOCA RATON  Since 2018, a Port St. Lucie man who attended Florida Atlantic University coerced at least nine girls while they were minors to send videos of child pornography to him, often threatening them if they didnt comply with his demands, according to court records.

Shawn Anthony Jackson Outler, 22, was arrested in early March and has been charged with attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity and receipt of child pornography, court records show.

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The investigation began in January 2021 when two victims who live in another state complained to FAU police about Outlers messages on separate dates. The schools police department called in the FBI in April 2021 since the messages the victims reported were sent prior to Outler attending FAU, records say.

Between July 2018 and August 2021, Outler frequently messaged the minor girls on Instagram and Snapchat accounts associated with him, records say. At the time, Outler was in his twenties and the girls ranged in age from as young as 11 to 17.

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One victim told investigators she began talking to Outler when she was 16 years old and he about 19 or 20. By the time she was 17, the relationship became sexual in nature, court records say, where Outler asked her to send sexually explicit videos and photos.

If she did not listen, Outler expressed extreme anger and used knowledge of her past trauma to guilt her into complying. He urged her to stop taking prescribed medications for anxiety and depression and to harm herself, records say.

Outler knew that some of the victims had histories of mental illness, had previously engaged in self-harm and were sexually abused, records say. He threatened to post their sexually explicit content.

Another victim was 15 years old when she sent Outler the child pornography, who was 19 at the time. In December 2019, while Outler was visiting New York near where the victim lived, he attempted to meet up with her for sex, records say, while she was 16.

A high school student who was one of Outlers victims told investigators she was afraid of him because he knew where she went to school. He also asked her to send images showing self-harm, court records say.

She, too, was asked to meet up with Outler, then 19, when the 16-year-old girl visited family in South Florida.

Keep anything and everything weve done to yourself, Outler told another victim. He threatened to post some of the videos she sent and verbally abused her, records show.

IP addresses tied to Outlers social media accounts show he communicated with the victims at his home in Port St. Lucie and later on FAUs campus. Search warrants for the accounts showed some of the child pornography Outler had received, court records say.

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In exchange for one victim watching him shower and sending him child pornography, Outler offered to pay for her premium account on an online video gamed called Roblox, records say.

Some of the messages Outler sent had IP addresses that showed they were sent from FAUs campus, where he lived in a dorm, records say.

Despite two victims reporting Outler to law enforcement officials, he still asked a 14-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit media, records say.

A U.S. District judge denied releasing Outler on bond, records say. If convicted, Outler could receive a minimum of 10 years to life in prison for the attempted enticement charge and up to 20 years in prison for the child pornography charge.
Modernas COVID-19 vaccine works in babies, toddlers and preschoolers, the company announced Wednesday -- and if regulators agree it could mean a chance to finally start vaccinating the littlest kids by summer.

Moderna said in the coming weeks it would ask regulators in the U.S. and Europe to authorize two small-dose shots for youngsters under 6. The company also is seeking to have larger doses cleared for older children and teens in the U.S.

Early results from the study found that tots developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies from shots containing a quarter of the dose given to adults  although just like with all ages, the vaccine was less effective against the super-contagious omicron mutant.

The vaccine provides the same level of protection against COVID in young kids as it does in adults. We think that's good news, Dr. Stephen Hoge, Moderna's president, told The Associated Press.

The nations 18 million children under 5 are the only age group not yet eligible for vaccination. Competitor Pfizer currently offers kid-sized doses for school-age children and full-strength shots for those 12 and older.

Outside experts caution that Moderna has revealed only limited data, and the Food and Drug Administration will have to determine if those high antibody levels translate into what's most important for vaccination  protection against severe illness  for tots like they do for adults.

"Not a home run" but the shots still could be helpful for the youngest children, said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief.

Parents have anxiously awaited protection for younger tots, disappointed by setbacks and confusion over which shots might work and when. Pfizer is testing even smaller doses for children under 5 but had to add a third shot to its study when two didn't prove strong enough. Those results are expected by early April.

Vaccinating the littlest has been somewhat of a moving target over the last couple of months, Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, who is helping study Moderna's pediatric doses, said in an interview before the company released its findings. Theres still, I think, a lingering urgency to try to get that done as soon as possible.

The younger the child, the smaller the dose being tested. Moderna enrolled about 6,900 kids under 6  including babies as young as 6 months  in a study of the 25-microgram doses. They developed levels of antibodies just as strong as young adults who get full-strength shots, the company said.

COVID-19 vaccines in general dont prevent infection with the omicron mutant as well as they fended off earlier variants -- although they do still offer strong protection against severe illness.

Moderna's study in tots was conducted during the omicron surge and found the same trend: While there were no severe illnesses, the vaccine proved about 44% effective at preventing milder infections in babies up to age 2, and nearly 38% effective in the preschoolers.

Still, the kids' high antibody levels should translate into higher efficacy against severe infections, Goodman said.

While the study wasn't large enough to detect very rare side effects, Moderna said the small doses were safe and that mild fevers, like those associated with other common pediatric vaccines, were the main reaction.

Booster doses have proved crucial for adults to fight omicron and Moderna currently is testing them doses for children, either a third shot of the original vaccine or an extra dose that combines protection against the original virus and the omicron variant.

The FDA will determine whether to authorize emergency use of little-kid shots once Moderna submits its full data. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would recommend who should get them  and Goodman said there may be debate about shots for higher-risk children or everyone.

While COVID-19 generally isnt as dangerous to youngsters as to adults, some do become severely ill. The CDC says about 400 children younger than 5 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemics start. The omicron variant hit children especially hard, with those under 5 hospitalized at higher rates than at the peak of the previous delta surge.

Parents may find it confusing that Moderna is seeking to vaccinate the youngest children before it's cleared to vaccinate teens. While other countries already have allowed Modernas shots to be used in children as young as 6, the U.S. has limited its vaccine to adults. A Moderna request to expand its shots to 12- to 17-year-olds has been stalled for months.

The company said Wednesday that, armed with additional evidence, it is updating its FDA application for teen shots and requesting a green light for 6- to 11-year-olds, too.

Hoge said hes optimistic the company will be able to offer its vaccine across all age groups in the United States by the summer.

Moderna says its original adult dose -- two 100-microgram shots -- is safe and effective in 12- to 17-year-olds. For elementary-age kids, its using half the adult dose.

But the FDA never ruled on Modernas application for teen shots because of concern about a very rare side effect. Heart inflammation sometimes occurs in teens and young adults, mostly males, after receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Moderna is getting extra scrutiny because its shots are a far higher dose than Pfizer's.

About 1.5 million adolescents have used the Moderna vaccine in other countries, and so far we've seen very reassuring safety from that experience," Hoge said.

The heart risk also seems linked to puberty, and regulators in Canada, Europe and elsewhere recently expanded Moderna vaccinations to kids as young as 6.

That concern has not been seen in the younger children, said Northwesterns Muller.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Jessica Chastain, Ariana DeBose and Kristen Stewart each have, in their own stylish right, delivered fashion moments to remember this awards season. Whether or not they take home a golden statuette on Oscar night, this trio of talented trailblazers has already won us over with a bold and beautiful red carpet style.

Jessica Chastain

Alexander McQueen at TIFF Pre-Reception for The Eyes of Tammy Faye

This look is so interesting because its couture-level embroidery on a T-shirt! says Chastains stylist, Elizabeth Stewart, of the asymmetric embroidered top. Jessica loves a clever twist like that and she loves pants.

Miu Miu at the San Sebastian Film Festival

The back of this dress was just extraordinary and the fit was impeccable, says Stewart of the revealing, crystal-embellished showstopper. A sultry departure for her, The Eyes of Tammy Faye star pulled it off with aplomb.

Gucci at the Rome Film Festival

We just loved the interesting color combination and the jeweled neckline of this unique dress by Alessandro Michele, says Stewart of the Gucci designer who created the striking two-tone look.

Dior Couture at the SAG Awards

Jessica was feeling suit-y, says Stewart of the simple and pristine two-piece Chastain wore at the SAG Awards (where she won). The deep plunge in front added the glamour, adds the stylist of the fashion-forward look accented with DeBeer diamonds.

Ariana DeBose

Michael Kors at the West Side Story New York premiere

The West Side Story star says she felt bold, bright and beautiful in this shimmery white strapless top and skirt combo. The supporting actress nominee accessorized the semi-sheer, custom look with Chopard jewelry.

Giorgio Armani at the West Side Story L.A. premiere

I wanted to be a walking flame, DeBose says of the fiery red custom tuxedo that more than delivered. The illusion of red dripping crystals on the bodice make the look everything I couldve anticipated for such a red carpet moment.

Valentino Haute Couture at the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award nominations

Its [Pier Paolo Piccioli]s world and I am honored to live in it, BAFTA nominee DeBose says of the Valentino designer who created the vivacious ensemble she wore fresh off the runway.

Valentino at the SAG Awards

Pink may prove to be DeBoses lucky color. She took home the SAG Award in another vivid pink Valentino that she says made her a modern day Marilyn Monroe. DeBose also thanked her stylists, Zadrian Smith and Sarah Edmiston, for allowing her to shine through their artistry.

Kristen Stewart

Chanel Haute Couture at the Venice Film Festival

We loved the laissez-faire attitude of it, says the lead actress nominees longtime stylist Tara Swennen of the very light and airy lingerie-inspired look that evoked a young Diana Spencer.

Chanel at a Spencer photocall in Venice

Kristen immediately fell in love with it, says Swennen of the daring romper that looked both chic and cool. Its a really fun play on a Chanel jacket with a twist, says Swennen. It was comfortable, believe it or not, so it hit all the boxes.

Chanel at the Spencer London premiere

For the films debut in the late princess hometown, the Spencer star opted for simplicity. It was so classically elegant for the ages, says Swennen of the silver column with intricate beading and embroidery. We wanted it to be beautiful and special.

Custom Chanel at the Spencer L.A. premiere

This edgy, custom-created twopiece was inspired by a Victorian corsetry piece Stewart wore under a ballgown in the movie. She loved the idea of a peekaboo, underpinning type feel to the skirt, almost like an ode to the costume design of the film, Swennen says.

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Former San Antonio mayor and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro is adding professor to his resume. A son of San Antonio's Westside, Castro will pull from his experiences on the local and federal level to teach a Harvard Law School course on leadership and urban America.

Harvard announced Castro as the appointee for the Steven and Maureen Klinsky Professorship of Practice for Leadership and Progress in a Monday, March 21 announcement. Castro's new role takes him back to his law school alma mater. He graduated from Harvard Law in 2000, after earning his bachelor's degree in political science and communications from Stanford in 1996.

Castro's fall semester class, called "From Crisis to Opportunity: Leadership in Post-Pandemic Urban America," will look at the the challenges cities have faced, potential for growth, and how communities are changing in response to the pandemic.

Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Harvard Law School Professor John F. Manning spoke of Castro's preparedness for a role in higher education in a statement for the announcement.

Secretary Castro has been a thoughtful and impactful public servant at both the local and federal levels, and we are delighted that he will share with our students the deep insights and experience he has gained relating to cities and housing in the 21st century, Manning, a 1985 Harvard graduate, said. Im thrilled to welcome him back to HLS.

Castro could not immediately be reached for comment, but shared his excitement on social media and in a statement for the announcement.

Theres no better place to engage students in thoughtful conversations about issues of law and public policy than Harvard Law School, Castro said. My studies at HLS sparked my interest in entering public service and provided me with an invaluable framework for thinking through issues as an urban policy maker. Todays HLS students will shape their own local communities in myriad ways. I look forward to sparking that same passion in them.

Castro's enthusiasm continued on social media, where he said he was "thrilled" to return to Harvard.

"I look forward to engaging with students on the leadership challenges and opportunities communities face in a post-pandemic America," he said online.

The professorship funded by Steven and Maureen Klinsky was created in 2013 as a way for the university to invite visiting leaders from fields outside of law to teach, serve as an inspiration, and offer new perspectives to the curriculum. Most of the appointees who have been invited to teach at Harvard under the professorship before Castro are also graduates of the school.

Castro will also participate in two speaking events hosted by Harvard. On Thursday, March 24, the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School will host Castro for a conversation which focuses on his experience as a 2020 presidential candidate, the state of politics, and the future of the progressive movement. The discussion will be held in-person for the Harvard community, but speaking events hosted by the school are also streamed online.

He will mark his appointment to the professorship in spring 2023 with a lecture on the future of cities.
Mike Sutter /Staff

It seems heirs to San Antonio-founded restaurants are out to protect their right to family fortunes this week. The children of Jim's Restaurants founders are filing suit against one of their own. Caryn and Susan Hasslocher, daughters of the late Germano Jim and Veva Hasslocher  founders of Jim's Restuarants  are suing their brother and CEO of Frontier Enterprises Inc., Jimmy Hasslocher, the Express-News reports.

Frontier Enterprises Inc. oversees 13 Jims in San Antonio and three in Austin. It also oversees Frontier Burger in San Antonio, La Fonda in Alamo Heights, and the Magic Time Machine restaurants in San Antonio and Dallas.
Steven Santana | MySA

The granddaughter of Felix Stehling, the late founder of Taco Cabana, is suing her grandfather's former financial adviser. Here's what you need to know.

Tammy Jo Ford has accused the former financial adviser, James Worth, of placing his financial interests ahead of the trust set up in 1996 by her grandparents Felix and Billie Jo Stehling, the Express-News reports.
MediaNews Group/Boston Herald vi/MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Since Monday, March 21, he has been an anonymous social media phenomenon. A viral video hit timelines showing a tornado spinning a truck in Elgin "like paper," before the driver sped off. Viewers questioned who the fearless driver was and if they were OK. We now have an answer.

Sixteen-year-old Riley Leon spoke to Fox 7, an Austin news station, about his experience. Leon, an Austin native, is a junior in high school and was leaving an interview at Whataburger when he drove into the path of the tornado by accident. Leon told the news station that he's still in shock, but is generally doing OK and was able to go home with a few minor cuts.
On Tuesday, Tesla announced its grand opening soiree, a festivus for the 15,000 of us lucky (?) enough to get the invite to check out Elon Musks' $1.1 billion facility on April 7. There will be food, alcohol, and  you guessed it  live music for attendees.

But the Willy Wonka of Travis County has not yet informed the public who is on the guest list, at least not yet (though the celebration has already raised concerns from neighbors). With that in mind, I took a stab at figuring out who will  or at least should  be at the event.

Here are the seven types of Austin guys people who are probably, definitely on the list:

Rick Kern/WireImage

The Guy Who is the Mayor of the City

This is what Austin Mayor Steve Adler had to say back in October when Tesla moved to Austin, acknowledging first that housing costs were skyrocketing:

Our hope is that players like Tesla are going to help us bring in the housing as part of their movement into the city. And I think that if we use the power we have right now to attract the kind of companies that are coming in, that also gives us the potential and hope to be able to better deal with the challenges that we have.

Im not a housing expert, but I dont know exactly how folks from California buying all the remaining inventory can bring in housing rather than take it away. Its not much of a surprise  the economic development folks in Bastrop essentially feel the same way about our new electric car overlords.

Twitter

Whether or not Adler agrees with anything Musk believes in, Austin is the  sigh  technology city inside the business state, so, Tesla will get the red carpet treatment. Theres literally zero chance someone as high-profile as Adler isnt there at the unveiling.

The Tesla Realtor

Its right there in the name. This guy, made famous in a big NYT Magazine piece last fall about the out-of-control real estate market, particularly in Austin, is an original Tesla Guy. Matt Holm not only founded the Tesla Owners Club of Austin in 2013, way before the electric vehicles were clogging I-35 in both directions, but he has branded himself in the companys name.

Holm takes transplants around in his Tesla and shows them how to buy properties and turn them into rental investments. Id love to tell you more about him, but he wont return my requests for an interview. Alas, Holm will have a legitimate gripe with Musk if he doesnt get a golden ticket.

Christian Vierig/Getty Images

Floppy Hat People

Call them what you will  Travis Heights Libertarians, Tri-Coastal Elites  they all wear the same hat. Its tan, its floppy, and it is an indicator of a few things that make me believe they will converge upon this event.

First off, people like this love events of any type because it allows them to wear this hat around other people in the same hat. They will chat about gas prices  not anymore, if Elon has anything to say about it, am I right, folks?  charter schools, and how much South Congress has changed in the last four months.

But mainly, the hat means youre moneyed, and rich people simply love Teslas, the kind of car that affirms both economic and social status. It doesnt get much better than that. Im setting the over/under on floppy hats at 38.5.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

The Cybertruck

Appear, you coward.

Random Elon Musk Stans

Elon Musk reads his mentions and probably name-searches on Twitter. Thats because the oft-criticized proponent of small government has an army of weird, intense defenders.

To make this look like a populist event, a summit for The People, Tesla will undoubtedly find a melange of individuals (dudes, if Im being honest) who cape for Musk. Theres a lot of em out there, especially after the so-called California Texodus. I mean, who do you think bought your neighbors house for double what it went for in 2017 and turned it into an Airbnb? That person will be at this event.

Evil MoPac

The citys foremost proponent of traffic indicators so chaotic that theyre verging on purple on Google Maps, this enigmatic Twitter user is transportation in Austin. What if Tesla invited the account-holder and the actual highway showed up. Think about it.

The Press

Musk has long had issues with the failing news media, so this might come as a surprise that hed waste any of his 15,000 spots on a "fake news" reporter.

Ill come to this event, though. DMs are open, Elon.
Yves here. While most of you were distracted by the war in Ukraine (or alternatively, minimizing engagement with the Internet to preserve your sanity), we have some very very bad climate developments in the Arctic and Antarctic, even by the standards of bad climate news having become normalized. This post recaps what happened and explains why.

By Bob Henson. Originally published at Yale Climate Connections

The bloodless term anomaly doesnt do justice to the stupendous temperature departures seen across parts of both the Antarctic and Arctic in mid-March 2022. With the initial shock now behind them, scientists are taking stock of exactly what happened and what it might portend.

The observations from both polar regions  especially the Antarctic  would be almost laughable if they werent so unsettling. Even as some of the scientists working in these remote areas shared humorous takes on the bizarre warm-ups, one could find plenty of angst, as temperatures in the Antarctic soared to levels that were in some cases virtually unthinkable just a few days beforehand.

The Arctics warm spell was impressive in its own right. An atmospheric river (or AR, a narrow plume of warmth and moisture that typically pushes toward higher latitudes) surged from the North Atlantic well into the Arctic Ocean on a track running just east of Greenland. The AR was associated with a powerful mid-latitude cyclone that produced the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded in Greenland: 934.1 mb at Ikermiuarsuk, beating a value of 936.2 mb set at two locations in 1986 and 1988.

As the AR pushed north, temperatures rose close to the freezing point near the North Pole. Several stations in Svalbard, Norway  an archipelago that includes one of the worlds northernmost cities, Svalbard  set all-time records for March, with readings as high as 42F.

Not far from Svalbard, heavy rain was observed atop sea ice by an ongoing field project called HALO-(AC) designed to investigate such warm intrusions along with cold air outbreaks.

Im just finishing a couple of weeks of fieldwork at 78 degrees N, in Svalbard. This was my 6th trip, and the 2nd when I was here for a record high temperature. 33% seems like a kind of high ratio, is all Im saying. pic.twitter.com/UHQR4PSIP4  Drew Steen (@drdrewsteen) March 18, 2022

Very sharp drop in #Arctic sea ice area (red line) around Svalbard this month  e.g., in response to conditions from the anomalous warm air advection event [Graphics available from https://t.co/xJOV1kldhl] pic.twitter.com/F1mw4DT2OA  Zack Labe (@ZLabe) March 21, 2022

When Its 60 Degrees Above Average

Even more impressive was the freakish warming at Earths South Pole. An atmospheric river originating near southeast Australia surged across much of the vast, barren landscape of East Antarctica, the coldest large plateau on the planet.

This Antarctic heat wave definitely changes what we thought was possible for Antarctic weather, tweeted Jonathan Wille (Universite Grenoble Alpes).

Winds and temperature at 850 hPa, 18 UTC 17 March 2022, showing intrusion of unusually warm air over Antarctica. animatinoo from https://t.co/1HnaYW59zf pic.twitter.com/g1W7Ws2xL8  Dr. Mathew Barlow (@MathewABarlow) March 21, 2022

East Antarctica doesnt get gradual springs and autumns, to put it mildly. Instead, months of winter darkness switch abruptly into summers with near-constant sunshine and temperatures still frigid but far warmer than in winter. The winter cool-down arrives only a few weeks later.

In the case of March 2022, just days before the southern autumn equinox of March 20a time when temperatures have normally plunged close to winter levelsthe atmospheric river spread warmth-trapping clouds and moisture well inland across East Antarctica.

As a result, temperatures soared to levels as much as 50F or more above average over broad areas on March 18 and remained far above average for several days.

At Vostok, a Russian weather station launched in 1957, the high of 17.7C (0.1F) on March 18 smashed the record for any March by 26.8F and came in roughly 63Fabove the average daily high. The 26.8F represents the largest margin in world history for breaking a monthly record at any site with at least 40 years of data, according to Maximiliano Herrera, an expert on international weather records. Its also the only time Vostok has gotten above zero Fahrenheit outside of December or January, never mind mid-March. Vostoks all-time high is 14C (6.8F).

About 350 miles away, on terrain and elevation roughly similar to Vostok, the French-Italian research site Concordia Station (staffed year-round, as is the case for Vostok) set its all-time record high of 11.8C (10.8F) on March 18. Data has been collected year round at this site only since 2007, a period too brief for an all-time record to carry too much weight. However, the reading was a mind-blowing 67F above the daily average high of around 49C (56F).

The high temperature at Concordia Station, Antarctica, on March 18, 2022, soared above any temperature on record, even from midsummer, in data going back to 2013. (Image credit: Eric Lagadec, via ASTEP)

Pete Akers, a postdoctoral researcher at Frances Institut des Geosciences de lEnvironnement, spent weeks at Concordia Station as part of a research expedition in the summer of 2019-20. Akers recounted his experiences in a series of guest posts for Category 6 (the predecessor of this blog).

I think the biggest thing that people may not realize is just how hard it is to get really warm on the plateau outside of the 45 to 60 days surrounding the solstice [in late December], Akers said. The snow is so reflective that it doesnt hold any heat, and theres no rock for thousands of kilometers in any direction.

Moreover, he added, Concordia is 10,000 feet up and about 700 miles inland, so its rarely impacted by [storms] from the coast. The end result is generally a very consistent and stable temperature regime on a seasonal and day-to-day basis.

By mid-March, when darkness is fast returning, temperatures are typically almost at the winter minimum, not just halfway between summer and winter. So a proper comparison wouldnt just be somewhere like Washington, D.C., breaking its all-time heat record in Septemberitd be like breaking it in early November.

Compared to the average -45 C, this is beach weather for the winter-over crew at Concordia https://t.co/LD8JsSxJYe  Dr. Jonathan Wille (@JonathanWille) March 21, 2022

Not all of Antarctica was basking in relative warmth. The atmospheric river didnt extend as far inland as South Pole Station, where readings remained much closer to seasonal averages. Temperatures dipped below -60C at the South Pole on March 21 even as highs at Vostok and Concordia rose above 26C, readings that would have set monthly highs had they occurred at the start of the warm spell instead of well into it.

In an ironic twist, the not-so-cold wave brought massive amounts of snow to parts of East Antarctica. The atmospheric river squeezed out the snow from the unusually mild air, which was packing more than 0.50 of precipitable water (the amount of moisture in a vertical column of air), as the air was forced onshore and upslope against the high plateau.

The regions snow cycle is driven largely by light accumulations balanced by sublimation (evaporation of snow into dry air), so this months heavy snow was a noteworthy infusion, countered only slightly by pockets of heavy rain and ice melt near the coast.

Based on model reconstructions, Xavier Fettweiss (University of Liege) estimated that March 17 was the Antarctic Ice Sheets fourth wettest day overall since 1980.

Moisture intrusion events and atmospheric rivers  they do happen, but this is just to a different degree of intensity, Wille told the Washington Posts Capital Weather Gang.

Meanwhile, the sea ice that expands and contracts around the continent each year reached its lowest level in 43 years of satellite monitoring on February 25. Unlike the Arctic, the Antarctic had had no sustained decrease in sea ice extent for decades, actually setting consecutive record highs in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

A profound shift then followed, with 2017, 2018, and 2019 placing first, second, and third in sea ice extent minima until this year beat out 2017.

Wow, its certainly been a month of extreme events in the #Antarctic  exceptional warmth over the last few days from the atmospheric river (left) and setting an all-time record low sea ice extent (right) pic.twitter.com/K8LDkQ2WSc  Zack Labe (@ZLabe) March 22, 2022

A Complex Climate-Change Fingerprint

While the March warm blast in the Arctic was highly consistent with regional and global warming, the trends in Antarctica have been less straightforward.

Western Antarctica, and especially the peninsula extending north toward South America, have warmed dramatically since the mid-20th century, outpacing the rate of worldwide warming. By contrast, the South Pole and East Antarctica havent seen marked temperature rises in recent decades. One reason is the ozone hole. In the Antarctic stratosphere, human-caused ozone depletion (which is now gradually waning as a result of controls on ozone-depleting emissions) has led to an intensified polar vortex, which has helped to keep cold air pooled over the continent.

Although the atmospheric river of March 2022 was a historically extreme example, its not the only time such an amplified weather pattern has pushed warm air well inland across East Antarctica, according to veteran researcher John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey. Turner is lead author of an analysis published in February of an extreme warm-up fostered by an atmospheric river hitting the East Antarctic coast, together with warming induced by downslope flow, that occurred in the first week of December 1989 (just prior to the summer solstice).

Incursions of warm air seem to be regular if not frequent occurrences, Turner wrote in an email. Why such high temperatures occurred [this month] across such a large area needs investigating once all the data have been brought together.

Climate models are really cool, example #9754: We can use large ensembles to get a better sense of the odds of the types of temperature extremes that we saw in Antarctica this week. https://t.co/50tIbITarX  Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath) March 22, 2022

Theres no obvious reason, other than the backdrop of general global warming, why the Arctic and Antarctic would happen to set such eye-popping warmth records within days of each other. The hemispheric climate regimes of north and south are largely distinct. Phenomena centered on the equator, such as El Nino and La Nina or the Madden-Julian Oscillation, can have impacts extending to both northern and southern latitudes. But scientists havent yet identified any single culprit that would be expected to cause such dramatic warm extremes near both poles at nearly the same time.

In fact, La Nina events, such as the one thats been in place most of the time since 2020, tend to produce colder-than-normal seasonal averages in Antarctica, according to David Schneider, a National Center for Atmospheric Research expert on factors that shape Antarctic weather and climate.

Only a few months ago, the South Pole had its coldest average winter temperature(April-September) in 65 years of record keeping, with a six-month average of -78F (-61C).

Over the longer term, though, early-winter readings below -50C at the South Pole have become significantly less frequent over the last couple of decades, according to a paper published in February and led by Linda Keller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Big Takeaway: Dont Be Too Surprised

Above all, what the twin polar warmings reinforce is that, more than ever, we can expect the unexpected in a warming atmosphere. Wille likened the extremity of the Antarctic warm-up to the similarly out-of-bounds heat observed in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia in the summer of 2021, with both occurrences seemingly implausible until they happened.

For me, its hard to feel surprised by events like this anymore, Schneider wrote in an email. He pointed out that studies of past climate indicate that, at times when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were similar to their current values of around 420 parts per million, the Antarctic Ice Sheet was significantly smaller.

How exactly [the ice sheet] loses mass, and how quickly it happens, are fascinating scientific questions, Schneider wrote.

Speaking on a personal level, he added: The question of Will humanity do anything meaningful to slow down self-imposed rapid climate change? is a question that I grapple with daily.
After spending more than 100 days alone at sea and traveling 4,500 miles, Jack Jarvis finally hit dry land in Palm Beach County in an attempt to set a world record.

A former British solider, Jarvis arrived at Riviera Beach Marina on Thursday afternoon after rowing solo from Portugal.

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Jarvis, 28, was greeted by family members as he finished his 110-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Jarvis is the first person to row 4,500 miles solo and unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean, according to his website, which has chronicled the journey.

Soldier Jack Jarvis arrives at Riviera Beach Marina on Thursday, March 24, 2022, after a 4,500-mile, 110-day journey from Europe. Jarvis' rowing journey started on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in Portugal when he set out on 'Budgie', a boat named after his grandfather, to complete an average 50 nautical miles a day totally unsupported. (Carline Jean / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Next time Ill fly, Jarvis said with a laugh after landing in Riviera Beach.

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Jarvis was rowing to raise money for the charity Braintrust, which supports patients suffering from brain tumors. His grandfather, Jack, passed away due to a brain tumor. Jarvis named his boat Budgie in honor of his late grandfathers nickname.

Whether he set the world record still needs to be determined, which can take up to 12 weeks, according to the Guinness World Records website.
Yves here. It might seem easy to dismiss the child-warehousing-masquerading-as-education perpetrated by Accel Schools as a charter school outlier. But as this article explains, Accel embodies a new trend to profit-maximization and asset stripping in this arena.

By Jeff Bryant, a writing fellow and chief correspondent for Our Schools. He is a communications consultant, freelance writer, advocacy journalist, and director of the Education Opportunity Network, a strategy and messaging center for progressive education policy. His award-winning commentary and reporting routinely appear in prominent online news outlets, and he speaks frequently at national events about public education policy. Follow him on Twitter @jeffbcdm. Produced by Our Schools

It didnt take long for Tasha Stiles to realize there was something very wrong with the school where she had just started teaching.

First, there was her rushed orientation to the school, Toledo Preparatory Academy, an early kindergarten through eighth grade charter school in Toledo, Ohio, operated by for-profit charter chain Accel Schools. She told Our Schools that her training during orientation in August 2020 consisted mostly of one workshop on basics, which included how to record attendance and enter grades. There was no school handbook or written guidelines about student discipline practices or instructional protocols.

She said that the school had the appearance of a bare-bones operation, with very little decoration on the walls, empty classroom shelves with no books or instructional materials, heavily worn flooring and furniture, a rickety staircase that students and staff had to use daily, and drafty classrooms with insufficient radiator heating, which, on cold days, kept students shivering even in their coats.

Although Stiles had mostly taught social studies in her career, she told Our Schools that at Toledo Prep, she was told to teach math in grades five through eight. To help with lesson planning, she was given binders that contained the Ohio math standards and some student math workbooks, for which there was no teachers edition for grade eight.

She was told that students were expected to spend most of their instructional time on their Chromebooks, which the school supplied for in-school use only, and that students needed to be working on i-Ready, a digital software program for reading and mathematics, for at least 30 minutes per class period. The school didnt seem to have any other curriculum materials available.

Administrative staff made promises of books and supplies that never arrived or, if they came, were never dispersed to classrooms. Stiles eventually resorted to using online learning tools like Khan Academy videos, which were free online, but school administrators disapproved of her using them.

I had eighth graders who were reading at kindergarten level, she told Our Schools. She also observed that there were students at Toledo Prep who struggled with English but had no consistent help from specialized support staff. What few support staff there were came from outside agencies that provided services, such as counseling and mental health, mostly online. A lone special education teacher with responsibility for all exceptional students in the building was stretched very thin, Stiles said.

The most reliable support staff in the building proved to be the tech support service from a company called Pansophic Learning, which happens to be the parent company of Accel Schools.

There was no school nurse, Stiles recalled, adding that, as COVID-19 raged across Ohio, students generally didnt wear masks, and the school did no contact tracing when students or staff got sick with the virus. One day, a student came to her with bloodied knuckles, and Stiles went in search of the schools first-aid kit, which turned out to be empty. The next day, Stiles came to school with Band-Aids that shed purchased with her own money. Word about this got around, and students would come to her whenever they needed Band-Aids.

The few student clubs and after-school activities the charter school offered were all canceled after a student, following a TikTok trend, damaged a bathroom.

Students were frequently suspended by the schools administrative staff, often for reasons that werent clear to her. Rules were made up on the fly, she said. One week she counted and realized that 20 students had been suspended by the school staff.

The school also enforced a rigid student ranking system, placing students in hierarchies based on their academic performance and discipline issues. Students at the top of the hierarchy were called eagles, students in the next rank below were labeled doves, and students called larks included those who were struggling with learning or behavioral issues. Students in the bottom rank, who were currently serving in-school suspensions, were called turkeys, until complaints by parents of students prompted the school to change the label to phoenix.

What substituted for a rich academic program at the charter school was its near-constant emphasis on test prep. Everything was focused on testing, Stiles said. I had never taught in a school where there was so much emphasis on testing. While I was there, there were three whole days devoted to nothing but mock testing.

Stiles quit after working only three months at the school, but the experience left her very frustrated and deeply concerned about the students. I cant pretend to not see what I saw there, she said.

What Stiles didnt know when she took the job at Toledo Prep was that she had stepped into a school that emulates what has become a growing practice in the charter school industry.

As an ongoing investigation by Our Schools has revealed, a substantial sector of charter schools, particularly those operated by for-profit operators like Accel Schools, are at the forefront of a wave of charter operations that follow an investor-driven business model borrowed from retail, health care, and manufacturing sectors.

In the charter school application of this business model, struggling schools are cycled through a series of private entities that, in turn, strip the schools of resources, run them at bare-bones costs, and reap whatever assets that remain before handing the schools off to the next private operator, or shutting them down completely.

In business and investment circles, the model is often defended as an important economic function to either revive struggling enterprises, or reallocate resources that have been invested in failed enterprises to more productive endeavors.

But in the case of Toledo Prep, and other charter schools practicing this business model, although the business consequences might be fine for the charter operators and their investors, the children caught up in this investor-driven enterprise often have their education significantly disrupted, or even permanently impaired, perhaps with lifelong impact.

Portfolios of Failed Charters

Stiles, who earned her masters degree in education at the University of Kentucky, had been teaching since 1998, mostly at schools outside the United States. When she returned to the United States in 2020, she started looking for work in Ohio.

She was attracted to charter schools because she wanted the challenge of teaching academically challenged students, and Ohio state law generally guides charters to locate in urban or challenged districts.

Stiles, who identifies as white, had previously taught mostly in private Islamic schoolsshe practices the Islamic faith and wears a hijabwhere students were often more affluent and better supported than most of their peers. She believed she could have a bigger impact on students who were more disadvantaged.

What Stiles only later came to learn is that Toledo Prep had a previous life, with a different name, a different operator, and a different authorizing agency that held the permit allowing the school to operatewhich, in Ohio, is called a sponsor.

According to two leading business registration services, the building at the address now occupied by Toledo Preparatory Academy824 6th St. in Toledo, Ohio 43605had previously been occupied by Aurora Academy, a charter school sponsored by, according to state records, the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation (BCHF), an Ohio nonprofit that has long sponsored a number of charter schools in the state.

Its not clear who operated Aurora Academy before it became Toledo Prep, but according to a 2018 report by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the school was acquired by Accel Schools around the same time Accel was buying up charter schools that had previously been operated by White Hat Management, a for-profit charter management organization (often called a CMO).

White Hat was one of a number of CMOs, according to a 2013 analysis by Policy Matters Ohio (PMO), that had a history of using a loophole in state charter school laws to open new charter schools in the same locations where a previous charter had been closed due to poor academic results. A case study that was part of the analysis by PMO showed that White Hat opened a new charter school, Southside Academy in Youngstown, within days of a school at the same street address being closed due to poor academic performance.

Both BCHF and White Hat had earned high ratings in the Ohio Department of Educations 2015 evaluation of charter school sponsors and management firms, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. However, the article also noted that the Cleveland Transformation Alliance, an alliance of local businesses and organizations that advocate for high-quality schools in Cleveland, wasnt convinced with those ratings, finding flaws with BCHFs school quality issues and the track record of its associated management companies, which included White Hat.

Whether or not BCHF took this criticism to heart is difficult to assess, but it certainly made a turnabout in its performance evaluation of Aurora Academy.

In its 2016-2017 annual report, the foundation rated Aurora Academy as meeting or exceeding performance levels in all its evaluation categories but oneacademic. However, the foundations performance report for 2018-2019 lists the school as falling short of the foundations acceptable academic and fiscal performance levels, and the report indicated the school was among five of its charter schools that would be closed at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.

As the Akron Beacon Journal reported in 2018, White Hat Management started closing its schools, beginning in 2014, as families of students opted for other schools for their children as a result of years of low test scores and soaring high school dropout rates. Charter schools run by White Hat Management, the report further noted, were among the lowest performers in the state and were plagued from the start with allegations of padded enrollment and skirting accountability.

Although the exact date that Accel bought Aurora Academy is unclear, a state registry of charter schools (which are called community schools in Ohio) in 2017 indicates Aurora Academy was being operated by Accel Schools, with BCHF continuing as the schools sponsor.

But by 2019, state documents indicate that Accel had changed the name of the school where Aurora Academy had been located to Kenmore Preparatory Academy dba (doing business as) Toledo Preparatory Academy. The schools new sponsor was the St. Aloysius Orphanage.

Toledo Prep is not the only Accel school thats been similarly rebranded to cover up its troubled past.

Worse Than I Expected

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, reported in the Washington Post that Accel and Pansophic Learning also bought the holdings of Cambridge Education Group, another defunct for-profit charter operator. Those acquisitions included Buckeye Preparatory Academy in Columbus, Ohio, which was also sponsored by BCHF.

Like the rebranding of its school in Toledo, Accel changed the name of Buckeye Preparatory Academy to Capital Collegiate Preparatory Academy, and the St. Aloysius Orphanage became the schools new sponsor.

Also, like Toledo Prep, Capital Collegiates academic program appears to be makeshift at best.

There was no curriculum, Tisha Brady, a former teacher and board member at Capital Collegiate, told Our Schools. Much like Accels Toledo school, teachers at Capital Collegiate generally relied on the i-Ready software platform as their only instructional resource, which was loaded onto the students Chromebooks.

Students got very little to no direct or group instruction, Brady said. A set of textbooks she found sequestered in the library had to be returned to the library after each use. New resources that were promised by the schools administrators often never materialized or turned out to be not what was promised, including smartboards that turned out not to be smartboards, she said, but were, instead, whiteboards, which are a fraction of the cost and have much less usefulness for teachers.

Teachers at Capital Collegiate got few, if any, instructional guidelines, Brady recalled, and very few of the schools rules were written down.

Also, just like in Toledo Prep, teachers were encouraged to be harsh disciplinarians, and testing was a virtually nonstop activity in the school. Weekly assessments were called street races, said Brady, and more intensive evaluations, called rallies, were held every three weeks. Students were given incentives, such as pizza parties, to do well on the tests.

The specialist who worked with the schools exceptional children was brand-new, Brady said, and struggled in the position. There was no effort to inform parents of their childrens special needs at the beginning of the school year, she said. Many of the children with learning disabilities who should have had a [federally required] Individualized Education Program did not get one until April, leaving these students special education needs unaddressed for nearly the whole school year.

Brady, who is also an adjunct professor at Columbus State Community College, taught third grade at Capital Collegiate from August 2019 to April 2020. When she left her teaching position, she was hired by the schools board as a compliance officer to observe how well Accels management practices aligned with state guidelines.

Her assessment of Accels management was, It was worse than I expected. Board meeting announcements, agendas, and minutes were never [publicly] posted. No [meeting] notices or minutes ever went out to the media or [were posted] on social media.

According to Ohios Sunshine Law, public school boards are required to post notices of when board meetings will occur, provide agendas to the public, and keep and distribute meeting minutes. Although Ohio charter schools are exempt from scores of state regulations related to public schools, the states Sunshine Law is not among the exemptions, according to an analysis by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission and the Ohio General Assembly.

Also, Brady said that whenever she made inquiries with Accel personnel regarding her concerns about how students were being educated, Accel personnel frequently said, Well get back to you, but they never did.

Another Capital Collegiate former board member who spoke to Our Schools was Rhonda Whitfield. Whitfield, who works as a fraud prevention representative at Discover Financial Services, was on the board from January 2019 to November 2021 and also served as the schools treasurer.

Whitfield told Our Schools that board meetings with the schools administrative staff and, occasionally, the Accel regional manager were generally uninformative, and that Accel officials repeatedly failed to hand over documents related to the financials or the academic goals of the school.

Although board members asked for documentation of learning plans and achievement trends, the only achievement data they ever received were from the student scores on assessments taken through i-Ready. Accel staff tended to respond to board members inquiries with verbal assurances that were hard to pin down, according to Whitfield.

Whitfield said she also expressed her concerns to Accel officials about the lack of curriculum resources and instructional materials in the school, and that, as treasurer, she frequently processed bills for curriculum supplies and textbooks but rarely saw those supplies being used in classrooms.

While the schools website has pictures of colorful classrooms with shelves stocked with books and learning materials, Whitfield shared with Our Schools photographs taken in the school that show bare-bones classroomswith empty shelves, while newly purchased materials, some still in their shipping containers, can be seen stacked in storage.

It was chaos, was how she summed up her recollections of how the school was run. When she left the board, the school was $48,000 in debt, she told Our Schools.

Profit by Chaos

Every school in the Accel network claims on its website that the school is accredited by Cognia for meeting the highest standards of education in ongoing third-party review.

Cognia, formerly AdvancED, is one of the largest regional K-12 accrediting associations in the U.S. and also provides student assessment and teacher professional development services. Although the nonprofit has been around for more than 120 years, [m]uch of how Cognia works and the people behind the nonprofit are a mystery to the general public, and it is without government oversight, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which looked into two school districts in Georgia that were being subjected to a review by Cognia.

Also, theres really no definitive proof that Cognia accreditation is a guarantee of high quality. Back in 2011 when Cognias accreditation services were branded as AdvancED, the nonprofit gave accreditation to a chain of 17 Life Skills charter high schools operated by White Hat Managementschools that graduated only 5.2 percentof their students. These schools were eventually closed or were sold to other charter management companies, the Associated Press reported in 2018.

In writing this report, Our Schools left an inquiry on Pansophic Learnings website asking for the company to comment on criticisms made by its former employees and board members. As of this writing, theres been no reply. But in the companys defense (and to the nations shame), there are likely many public schools that are as chaotic and bereft of resources as these Accel schools are.

Public school teachers have been known to vent their frustrations over the conditions in their schools by posting snapshots on social media of tattered old textbooks and broken furniture in their schools. And stories of schools functioning under chaotic conditions abound, especially during the pandemic.

However, in the case of public schools, no one is profiting off a poorly resourced, chaotic school, while Accel Schools and Pansophic Learning are no doubt planning on a big financial haul.

Accels growth has been fast-paced, Carol Burris reported in her Washington Post article. It now manages 73 charter schools (brick and mortar or online) in Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington, and it is attempting to open schools in West Virginia.

Furthermore, while problems with under-resourced and badly managed public schools can be blamed on school or government officials, whove been either irresponsible or inept, the pattern at schools managed by Pansophic Learning and Accel are following what appears to be a clearly intentional and well-thought-out business plan.

That, at least, is the conclusion Tisha Brady has reached. For the types of schools Accel purchased, she observedstruggling schools like Aurora Academy and Buckeye Preparatory Academythey knew the kind of problems they were going to face. For them not to have detailed academic or behavioral plans is unconscionable.

She suspects that Accels management of its schools is entirely intentional. She expects that the schools, should they continue to show poor performance, may get into trouble, and the state smacks down. But even so, new board members will be brought in, most of the teachers will be gone, [and] maybe the schools [will] get a new sponsor and new names. And the process starts all over again.
Yves here. I imagine that many readers will be bothered by this article, since it reveals the degree to which officials and corporate executives see the public as lab rats who just need to be better manipulated with the right nudges so as to produce the right outcomes.as opposed to taking more basic actions, like paying higher wages or producing better products or policies.

This article only barely and indirectly acknowledges how changing, confused, contradictory and downright insulting messaging undermined the credibility of official guidance. Only occasionally can that be excused by scientists and medical experts getting a better understanding of Covid transmission. But even then, the failure was in not course correcting and giving clear explanations as to why. Recall how the public was first discouraged from using masks and not told that the reason was to preserve supplies for medical professionals. Why not instead encourage large-scale at-home mask production? How about the later, repeated Biden Administration demonization of masks, first with its May 2021 depiction of masklessness as a reward for the virtuous vaccinated, and more recently, the CDCs Rochelle Walensky appallingly depicted wearing a mask as a scarlet letter, a warning to the community that the wearer has committed a mortal sin.

And then we have Lamberts favorite Covid cause, aerosols and ventilation. Why even now are simple expedients like Corsi-Rosenthal boxes not in widespread use? Well, in part because we are over Covid by edict. Too bad the virus doesnt respond to nudges like that.

By Bryony Lau is a freelance writer and researcher from Canada. Originally published at Undark

In the early 1990s, the renovations manager at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport decided to decorate each bathroom urinal with a realistic image of a fly, placed just above the drain. For decades, urinal designers had sought a way to curb the unpleasant spillage around urinals, and it turned out that by giving men something to aim at  in this case, a humble insect  spillage dramatically reduced.

This airport innovation went on to become one of the most well-known examples of a nudge: a subtle prompt that can alter human behavior. The formal concept of nudging was first popularized by economist Richard H. Thaler and legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein, who co-authored the best-selling 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. The book defines a nudge as something that alters peoples behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. The authors framed nudging as a bipartisan technocratic fix that could solve tricky policy problems while preserving individual freedom. Governments didnt need to tell people what to do; they needed to nudge them.

Following the books publication, nudges were embraced by both the U.S. and U.K. governments, and Thaler went on to win the Nobel Prize in economics. But two years after Covid-19 was first detected in Wuhan, China, nudges have lost some of their luster. To curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, governments and businesses have resorted to harsher measures, such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates, which nudges were purported to help policymakers avoid. For skeptics, a reassessment of nudges was overdue. We shouldnt fool ourselves into thinking that nudges are going to magically fix our larger systemic issues, said Neil Lewis, Jr., a behavioral scientist and assistant professor at Cornell University. Theyre not.

Nudging draws on insights from psychology, primarily the work of Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002, and Amos Tversky. These two Israeli psychologists pioneered the study of mental shortcuts that humans rely on to make decisions, known as heuristics. They presented initial findings in a 1974 paper, Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Their work had clear implications for economics, which assumes that people make rational decisions in pursuit of their interests. Kahneman and Tversky showed that that isnt how the human mind usually works. Beginning in the late 1970s, Thaler partnered with Kahneman and Tversky to apply their findings to his field, creating behavioral economics.

In Nudge, Sunstein and Thaler brought behavioral science to the masses, with intuitive and simple examples, such as placing carrot sticks at eye level in school cafeterias to encourage healthier eating. Governments quickly caught on. Sunstein went to Washington, D.C., to work for the White House in 2009. Six years later, then-President Barack Obama issued an executive order to encourage the use of behavioral science in federal policymaking. In 2010, the U.K. Prime Minister set up the Behavioral Insights Team within the governments Cabinet Office; the team was spun off as a private company in 2014 and now has offices around the world. Globally, there are now more than 200 teams, or nudge units, that specialize in applying behavioral science to everyday life.

Nudge units had important successes. In the U.K., the Behavioral Insights Team sent letters to clinics whose family doctors were overprescribing antibiotics. The effort yielded a 3 percent decrease in prescriptions. Another initiative demonstrated the power of tweaking a message: Taxpayers who paid their income tax late received letters telling them they were in a minority, as nine out of 10 people pay on time. That gentle admonition appears to have resulted in an additional 120,000 people paying about $6.5 million into U.K. government coffers. And behavioral science notched another win when governments and companies made enrollment in retirement savings plans a default option, helping people save more.

But as with any trend, there are skeptics. Some commentators decrynudges as government overreach or as an infringement on individual autonomy. But there are also people who say the opposite: that nudges result in governments not doing enough. In 2011, the U.K. House of Lords issued a report that questioned why nudges were being favored over more traditional policy tools, like regulation. In theory, behavioral science doesnt skew left or right, but in the hands of politicians dubious of big government nudges can become a way to sidestep more muscular interventions.

Behavioral science had a rough start during the pandemic. When Boris Johnson decided not to impose a U.K. lockdown in March 2020, rumors swirled that the head of the Behavioral Insights Team, David Halpern, was advising against stricter measures. Hundreds of behavioral scientists then signed an open letter demanding the government explain the evidence supporting its decision. A subsequent inquiry by the Parliament found that senior officials had opted initially for softer measures assuming, incorrectly, that the public wouldnt comply with a lockdown.

The pandemic revived a debate that has swirled around behavioral science for the past decade: What can nudges achieve? And what can they not?

As Covid-19 infections grew exponentially in 2020, behavioral scientists wanted to help. Nudges presented a possible route to controlling the virus, particularly in the absence of vaccines and evidence-based treatments, said Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology at New York University. That April, Van Bavel and 41 other researchers  among them, Sunstein  published a paper that outlined how the social and behavioral sciences could contribute, from boosting trust in government policies to fighting conspiracy theories. The authors were circumspect, though; the findings they summarized were far from settled and pre-dated the Covid-19 crisis.

Research on the social dimensions of the pandemic soon began in earnest. The National Science Foundation launched a rapid response program, which could provide up to $200,000 per grant. According to Arthur Lupia, who recently completed his term as leader of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, the directorate processed the same number of grants over a six-week period that spring as it normally does in six months. The nonprofit Social Science Research Council also put out a call for proposals and was overwhelmed by the response: Out of 1,300 applications, they could only fund 62.

As scientists learned more about how the coronavirus spread through the air, the science in support of social distancing and masks became clearer. Governments knew what they wanted their citizens to do, but they still had to think carefully about how to encourage people to change their behavior. Thats where nudges could help.

Researchers didnt know if nudges would work under the extreme conditions of a pandemic. Nudges are usually tested for the routine tasks most citizens undertake, such as submitting a tax return, not in crisis situations when both the environment and peoples choices are anything but routine, wrote four academics who ran a survey on peoples intentions to adhere to the U.K.s first stay-at-home order. The paper looked at whether public health messages could nudge behavior. Were people more likely to comply if they were told everyone else was abiding by the rules? Or was it better to stress how social distancing would benefit someone specific, like grandparents?

The results were discouraging: Behavior change only occurred when people were asked to take an extra step of writing about how they intended to reduce the spread while reflecting on someone more likely to be vulnerable or to be exposed to the virus. But the impact faded within two weeks.

A similar experiment in Italy, conducted in mid-March and published on the preprint server medRxiv, showed that such nudges mattered little because most people already knew what they needed to do and were following orders. More information, however formulated, didnt matter. Other early studies that used surveys to measure the impact of public health messaging in Western countries similarly showed mixed results.

Even so, there were findings that were more encouraging, such as an experiment in West Bengal that used video clips of Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee explaining Covid-19 public health guidance; researchers found reporting of symptoms to community health workers doubled among those who watched the videos. A similar survey-based study among low-income Americans showed that video messages from physicians increased knowledge of Covid-19 and encouraged people to seek more information. But Lupia of the NSF, which funded the studies, interpreted the findings cautiously. Do we know if they generalize? he asked, reflecting on whether the videos, or something similar to them, would have been so effective elsewhere. Im not sure.

Not everyone jumped into Covid-19 research. Lewis, the behavioral scientist at Cornell, was nervous about the sudden pivot. In September 2020, he wrote an article in FiveThirtyEight pointing out that in fewer than seven months, 541 studies on Covid-19 had been released as preprints  a version of a paper that has yet to be peer reviewed  on PsyArXiv, the main repository for preprints in psychology. A lot of that research wasnt ready to be applied to real-world settings, said Lewis. In October 2020, he and other likeminded psychologists expressed their misgivings in a paper titled Use Caution When Applying Behavioral Science to Policy.

Sibyl Anthierens, a sociologist and co-lead of the social science studies team of the European Union-funded Covid-19 research initiative RECOVER, said that pandemic researchers were able to produce studies that offered a rich description of a particular situation, such as how some families prevented infections from spreading within the household. But applying such findings to an ever-evolving pandemic proved tricky. Sometimes, by the time a study was finished, the context might have already been changed completely, she said. For example, studies done on handwashing in the first wave were no longer as relevant by the second, as the focus shifted to mask-wearing. Tailoring research to context was crucial, but difficult.

The pandemic also magnified a weakness of nudges: The effects captured by researchers could be lost when a nudge was scaled up and used to influence behavior beyond the confines of a laboratory. One meta-study, which was based on 126 randomized controlled trials  long considered the gold standard of scientific evidence  showed that where academic studies had influenced behavior on average 8.7 percent of the time, nudge units only had an impact of 1.4 percent.

As research ramped up during Covid-19, the gap between what experts thought they knew about nudges and how they function in practice widened. As Varun Gauri, a senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and former head of the World Banks behavioral science unit, said, the pandemic left behavioral scientists and others kind of scratching our heads saying, what do we do?

Once vaccines began rolling out in 2021, behavioral scientists turned to getting shots in arms. Dena Gromet, executive director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, had co-authored a study that showed sending texts to more than 47,000 patients before their primary care visit increased flu vaccinations by 5 percent in fall 2020. The same tactic might work with the Covid-19 vaccine, she hypothesized, and, initially, it did. A study from California in the winter of 2021 used text messages to boost appointments by 6 percent and actual vaccinations by 3.6 percent.

As winter turned to spring and summer, though, vaccinations lagged. Policymakers began offering incentives. In May, Ohio announced its Vax-a-Million lottery: Ohioans who were vaccinated could win up to $1 million in a weekly draw that would be held over five weeks. Severalother states launched similar initiatives. Gromet was cautiously optimistic. Lotteries had successfully changed behavior before, such as by motivating adults to exercise. Other experts also thought that the chances were good. If you need something quick and off the shelf during a crisis, I would have thought the lotteries would have been it, said Gauri, noting that lotteries are relatively easy to implement.

Gromet and her colleagues approached Philadelphias officials with a proposal: They would run three sweepstakes of $50,000 each to test the impact of a lottery on vaccination rates. There was a modest increase of 11 percent in the first draw, but overall the lottery had had little effect. (The results were published on the preprint server SSRN.)

Thats why governments need to test nudges and incentives before investing their limited resources, said Gromet: Different approaches are going to work for different people and at different times.

Nudging works if people are already inclined to do the thing they are being reminded to do, she points out, which is why tactics that worked earlier in the vaccination campaign no longer did. Governments and businesses were increasingly dealing with vaccine holdouts who couldnt be nudged or offered incentives. Instead, mandates caught on, with major companies like United Airlines requiring employees to get vaccinated to come to work.

No one knows if governments will continue to use heavier-handed interventions for public health, but in an August op-ed, Thaler himself suggested that it was time to do more than merely nudge those not yet vaccinated against Covid-19. Instead, he suggested sterner measures like vaccine passports and different isolation policies for vaccinated versus unvaccinated people, as adopted by the NFL. We might call these interventions, he wrote, pushes and shoves.
My Nashville Post role has evolved since 2000 when I joined the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister publication in 2008 (when I began doing some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have been managing editor of the Post since late 2011.

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(Natural News) A 34-year-old woman in the United Kingdom died of a brain bleed after getting injected with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine from AstraZeneca.

Nicola Mundy, coroner for South Yorkshire, confirmed on March 16 that a sudden and catastrophic brain bleed caused the death of Kim Lockwood back in March 2021. She declared vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) as the official cause of death, which AstraZeneca claims is a rare side effect. VITT involves the formation of clots in various blood vessels alongside an abnormally low level of platelets.

The mother of two who works as an administrative secretary was injected with a dose of the AstraZeneca AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine on March 16, 2021. She first visited the emergency department of Rotherham Hospital on March 22, but left when none attended to her despite a long wait.

Lockwood returned the next day complaining of debilitating headaches, blurred vision and vomiting. She could no longer speak in full sentences by midday on March 23. During the early morning of March 24, Lockwood became unresponsive  which prompted the hospital to call her family to say their goodbyes.

Mundy lamented the extremely unlucky circumstances of Lockwoods passing, adding that little was known about the vaccines link to VITT at the time of her death.

Kims relatives are not convinced, however. Her husband Damian remarked that she was experiencing so much pain her head felt like it was going to explode. Meanwhile, Kims father Wayne Merrill said her last words to him were that the headache she had was actually killing her.

The Lockwoods ultimately remarked that Kim had died in agony and that they had expressed concerns about her treatment. They also announced plans to file a medical negligence claim against the Rotherham Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the medical facility where Kim passed away.

In spite of Kim Lockwoods death after vaccination, the British government still insists that VITT is an extremely rare side effect. Based on government data, there have been 438 reported VITT cases and 78 VITT deaths out of the more than 49 million AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the United Kingdom.

VITT caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine kills another mother

A month after Lockwood died of VITT, 35-year-old Alpa Tailor suffered the same fate. The mother of two also experienced blood clots and low platelet count after getting injected with the shot in March 2021. She died the following month. According to the Daily Mail, Tailor got vaccinated as a way to protect her family from COVID-19. (Related: Healthy mother dies of blood clots after AstraZeneca vaccine dose.)

Tailor was rushed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London on April 8, 2021 after complaining of slurred speech, a headache and a facial droop. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed her with VITT, and she went under the knife to relieve pressure on her brain.

Following her surgery, doctors at the hospital initially thought that she would respond well to treatment. Neurosurgeon Dr. Jonathan Hyam even said he is quite optimistic for Tailors prognosis about a week after her procedure.

However, a CT scan revealed that Tailor suffered from massive bleeding in the brain leading to her death on April 22, 2021. Hyam remarked that he was really surprised upon hearing the news of her passing.

An autopsy confirmed that Tailor developed multiple blood clots in her brain. Mary Hassell, senior coroner for Londons St. Pancras Coroners Court, ruled without hesitation that the vaccine caused her death. Everything points in the same direction, which is that [she] had the AstraZeneca [vaccine], said the coroner.

Visit VaccineDeaths.com for more stories like this.

Watch the video below that talks about the death of 44-year-old BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Lisa Shaw after she got the AstraZeneca vaccine.

This video is from the Truth or Consequences channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

9 more Australians report blood clots after receiving AstraZeneca vaccine.

Australian woman dies from blood clots days after getting AstraZeneca vaccine.

Mom-of-3 excited about getting vaccine dies from blood clot in brain following Astrazeneca jab.

Briton censored on Facebook for posting baseball-sized blood clot following AstraZeneca vaccination.

BBC presenter Lisa Shaw confirmed killed by the covid vaccine spike protein injection caused fatal brain blood clots and bleeding.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

BBC.com

DailyMail.co.uk

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Mark Woolhouse, University of Edinburgh senior epidemiologist and longtime government adviser on infectious diseases, revealed that he was advised to correct his comments after he spoke about implausible Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) models.

Woolhouse shared that there was fallout from his reaction to a September 2020 presentation by U.K. Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) Sir Patrick Vallance.

According to the presentation, the United Kingdom was slated to see at least 50,000 COVID-19 cases per day by mid-October.

But Woolhouse thought the projection was wrong, especially since it didnt have any reason to expect the epidemic to accelerate suddenly. He added that if the projection had been extended for another week, there would have been 100,000 cases per day.

Within the next month, cases would have skyrocketed to half a million per day. He added that an exponential projection will give you any number you wanted if you run it for long enough.

Woolhouse was worried that the implausible projection would damage the experts credibility so he quickly posted what he thought was a reassuring comment through the Science Media Center. In his post, he said that it was highly unlikely that the U.K. would see so many reported cases per day by mid-October.

However, his post had the opposite effect. (Related: Hospitals intentionally inflating COVID cases to collect financial incentives, whistleblower says.)

Woolhouse said he received many emails after he posted and that he was asked to correct his comments. But since the invitation was sent to him by messenger, hes not sure where in the system it originated.

Several weeks later, he was asked to provide evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee. The event then produced more emails over an October weekend from two senior government scientists who were worried that Woolhouse might criticize the CSAs graph before the MPs.

When asked where the message telling him to correct his views came from, Woodhouse answered that he was unable to pinpoint the source. However, he insists that it didnt come from a random person. Woolhouse added that it wasnt his views that needed correcting but the projections.

Errors in COVID modeling repeated within the same month

On October 31, 2020, prior to the U.K.s second lockdown, the government presented another chart predicting 4,000 deaths a day.

Again, Woolhouse was dismayed because he had already advised that the data presented was inaccurate on the day it was shown and that the second wave of infections was starting to abate.

The errors in COVID modeling identified by Woolhouse include fixation on the R (reproduction) number. He explained that the R number only indicates infections, not the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, which is important to the National Health Service (NHS) and the government.

The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modeling, which Woolhouse is a member of, uses ensemble modeling or different teams to calculate their own scenarios. No one asked Woolhouse and his colleagues to model alternatives to lockdown and that the government often operated based on worst-case scenarios without considering how behavioral changes would affect outcomes.

Woolhouse and his colleagues acknowledged that they created a monster. Experts like him regret the fact that the U.K.s strategy for dealing with coronavirus has harmed children and young adults in the country.

Because of the governments actions, young citizens were deprived of their education, jobs and normal existence. Children and young adults in the U.K. will also face poorer future prospects. Woolhouse also believes that it is morally wrong for young U.K. citizens to inherit a record-breaking mountain of public debt.

He advised that there should have been more focus on the elderly as they were vulnerable to coronavirus infections and that this was proven early in the pandemic.

At the height of the pandemic, Woolhouse believes the government should have taken measures to protect the vulnerable. Since then, research has been done on such an approach and it could have been made to work, concluded Woolhouse.

Lockdowns did more harm than good across the globe

Throughout the western world, data suggests that lockdowns were ineffective at saving lives.

In March 2021, Associated Press admitted that California and Florida experienced almost similar outcomes in COVID-19 case rates even though California imposed some of the most draconian lockdown measures in the country while Florida remained mostly open.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that both California and Florida have had a COVID-19 case rate of around 8,900 per 100,000 residents since the pandemic began. The two states also rank in the middle among states for COVID-19 death rates, with Florida 27th and California 28th.

Additionally, the mortality gulf between Connecticut and South Dakota was similarly small even though both states had vastly different approaches to lockdowns.

Visit Pandemic.news for news related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch the video below to learn more about the hospitalization numbers scam exposed by Grant Stinchfield of Newsmax.

This video is from The New American channel on Brighteon.com.

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HISTORY IS MADE: Top 6 Covid Corruption Whistleblowers of 2021 and 2022.

Murder for money: Whistleblower reveals hospitals get PAID for every COVID patient admitted.

Shocking whistleblower recordings show children getting jabbed with poorly mixed COVID vaccines.

Whistleblower: Pfizer FORGED signatures of trial participants, falsified and fabricated trial data.

Whistleblower says Pfizer falsified data, conducted flawed covid vaccine trials to rig FDA approval.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

News.sky.com

APNews.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Matrixxx Grooove hosts Jeffrey Pedersen and Shannon Townsend told fellow Brighteon.TV host Ann Vandersteel in an episode of Steel Truth that the American public must know and learn the truth about Ukraine.

Whats going on in Ukraine is very complicated. And what theyre doing in the media is very unfair to the American public because you should be having access to the truth. The raw, hard, cold truth is what you should have access to. And what the media is currently doing is theyre preventing you from having access to information that would benefit you and your decision-making about exactly who we should be trusting, Townsend said.

He added that almost every politician out there is telling Americans they have to be supportive of Ukraine and that they have to protect the people of Ukraine although there are different things coming out of the European country. Townsend noted that he and Pedersen are continuously digging into the truth that people need to listen to, take the information and amplify it aside from knowing it and looking at it with an open mind.

Look up and research about the truth

Meanwhile, Pedersen said the truth about the election, the virus and the bad deals being made are being covered up with Ukraine at the center of it all. He called on the viewers to look up and research everything theyre saying because the truth is learned.

I dont care if you use Google, DuckDuckGo. I dont care what you do, get on your computer and start researching one topic. Pick out one topic of what we talked about today and find out for yourself because its all open-source, we just have to connect the dots for you. And thats why were here, Pedersen said.

Townsend brought up National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Faucis COVID lies, debunking the idea that the SARS-CoV-2 came from a laboratory. And then all of a sudden people are now starting to talk about the biological laboratories.

We start showing initially that the locations of the laboratories were in Ukraine. Now these things arent just in Ukraine, by the way, we have multiple episodes about this but the reality of the situation is these people are engineering something. Theyre getting afraid whenever people start talking about it, Townsend said.

Ukraine biolabs tied with Hunter Biden

Pedersen noted that the biolabs in Ukraine are tied with Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.

He related that aside from being one of the founders of Rosemont Seneca, along with former Senator John Kerrys stepson Christopher Heinz and Devon Archer, the presidential son is also one of the key investors at Metabiota  an American company involved in pandemic tracking and the production of bio agents under diplomatic cover and biological threat research. (Related: Matrixxx Grooove: Company of Joe Bidens son funded bioweapons labs in Ukraine  Brighteon.TV.)

Metabiota has headquarters in Ukraine, Washington DC, San Francisco, Tbilisi, Baghdad, Kazakhstan, Singapore, China, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Munich and many more.

Follow Corruption.news to know more about the Ukraines role in the Biden familys corrupt practices.

Watch the video below to see the proof of U.S. funded biolabs in Ukraine you were told didnt exist.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

The real reasons why Ukraine is so important To Biden, Clinton and their global crime cabal: Ukraine is their little crime playground where their devastating secrets are hidden

Obama funded biolab in Ukraine that experimented on deadly pathogens like the plague, anthrax and Ebola

Pentagon ran bioweapons labs in 25 countries, including Ukraine yet no global outcry against the USA for funding covid gain-of-function crimes against humanity

The plot thickens: Hunter Biden investment firm funded Ukraine biolabs

Sources include:

Rumble.com

Brighteon.com
FILE  Fidelity Investments chairman & CEO Edward Ned Johnson III, left, addresses an audience as General Electric chairman & CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt, right, looks on during a Boston College Chief Executives Club luncheon, Sept. 25, 2002, in Boston. Fidelity Investments announced that Johnson died Wednesday, March 23, 2022. He was 91. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, File) (CHITOSE SUZUKI/AP)

NEW YORK  Edward Ned Johnson III, a businessman who grew Fidelity Investments into the financial giant it is today, has died. He was 91.

Johnsons family confirmed Thursday that he died at his home in Wellington on Wednesday but did not give a cause of death.

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Born in Boston at the start of the Great Depression, Johnson joined his fathers firm in 1957 as a portfolio manager. He became president of Fidelity in 1972 and, after his father retired in 1976, became chairman and CEO.

While his father founded Fidelity, Johnsons four-decade tenure transformed the firm into the Wall Street and investment giant that it is today.

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We are immensely proud of his achievements and grateful for his life, the Johnson family said in a statement. He was a visionary, an innovator, and a philanthropist who had tremendous curiosity about the world around him and who lived his life to the fullest each and every day.

When Johnson took over, the way Americans saved and planned for retirement was about to change fundamentally. Companies began to move away from pension plans. The Individual Retirement Account, better known as the IRA, was created in 1974. The 401(k) account, an employer-sponsored retirement plan that invested in stocks and bonds but was ultimately run by the individual employee, was created by Congress in 1978.

Fidelity benefited from a massive broadening and interest in investing that started in the 1980s.

The stock market was no longer something just for the rich; it was now a vehicle that nearly every retirement account in the U.S. had a stake in. Under Johnson, Fidelity started selling mutual funds directly to the public. The company also started offering discount brokerage services that made stock investing significantly cheaper.

These efforts paid off. When Johnson took over Fidelity in 1977, the company had $3.9 billion in assets under management. When he retired as chairman in 2014, Fidelity had $5.7 trillion in assets under management. Fidelitys growth made Johnson and his family billionaires. The firm now holds more than $11 trillion in assets, according to its most recent annual report.

The Boston-based company, which is still privately held, is now run by Johnsons daughter, Abigail Johnson.

Johnson donated his wealth mostly anonymously, according to the family, but some named places he gave funds to included the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Johnson is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Lillie Johnson, and three children: Abigail, Elizabeth Johnson and Edward Johnson IV.
(Natural News) When Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the U.S. under then-President George H. W. Bush took immediate action, sending American planes, warships and soldiers into the region, with more arriving by the day.

By the middle of the following month, Bush felt good enough to proclaim to Congress that the invasion could not stand and that on the other end of the defeat of Iraqi forces and ejection from Kuwait awaited a New World Order, allegedly a period of international cooperation and peace in which the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle, Air Force Magazine reported in a reflective piece 17 years later, on Aug. 1, 2007.

The term caught on with globalists around the planet, mostly from the West, and in the ensuing years it became clear that Western elites were acting upon it. The World Economic Forum, the hive of globalists and budding young autocrats and authoritarians, frequently employed the term to mean reshaping the world in a way that was uniquely beneficial to them, not necessarily their own countries or their own people.

Wars were consistently fought to those ends; markets were exploited; currencies manipulated; manufacturing off-shored to countries with vast, young workforces who cost a fraction of what they do in the West; governments attacked and toppled. And so on.

And while the term has not been used much in the mainstream in recent years, Joe Biden  who was around as a U.S. senator when Bush first used it because government had become Bidens career  resurrected the term just this week, much to the chagrin of his handlers, no doubt.

In an address involving the burgeoning war in Ukraine following Russias invasion last month, Biden made his remarks during a speech before the Business Roundtables CEO Quarterly Meeting, in which he said events currently occurring in the world have generated significant opportunities to make some real changes in the world economy.

And nows the time when things are shifting. Were going, theres gonna be a new world order out there and weve got to lead it and weve got to unite the rest of the free world [in] doing it, Biden said, to the shock of the WEF crowd and our own Deep State.

BIDEN: Theres going to be a new world order out there, and weve got to lead it. pic.twitter.com/o8JyndJX1P  Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 21, 2022

For those who doubt that this is a long-running Western conspiracy to control the planet, consider a few things, the first being the fact that the phrase has not changed in more than 30 years.

Also, there are questions that need to be asked about this specific phrase:

 What is a new world order? What exactly does it mean? What does it entail?

 What is the old world order the new world order is meant to sweep away and replace?

 Who will lead the new world order? Who is leading the old world order?

 Would our founders approve of a global order of nations or would they insist upon jealously guarding American sovereignty? (We know the answer; George Washington himself said our country ought to avoid entangling alliances, which we havent done very well.)

 What rules will govern this new world order, and who decides on those rules  the rulers or those they mean to rule? Will it be a system based on the U.S. Constitution? Will there be guaranteed rights protected by this world order governing body?

 Will the world order governing body be elected? By whom? Who can and cannot vote in elections for the new world order leaders?

 Will citizens of nations be forced to give up their wealth in order to share it with others? Will property rights still exist?

 And finally, will there be a functional, realistic way to hold new world order leaders accountable for wrongdoing, tyrannical ways, or corruption?

We likely already know the answers to many of these questions, so that leaves this as the only real option: Countries should remain sovereign, free, and able to self-govern according to the wishes of their citizens, period.

But thanks to Biden once again letting the cat out of the bag, we know whats really coming.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) There are different types of people who support the corrupt, warmongering and disgusting system that the nations in the West have, and they are collectively called system pigs.

According to American novelist and filmmaker Gonzalo Lira, people can recognize this system intuitively whether it is left, right or center because it is corrupt and self-serving.

And it certainly does not have the best interests of the people at heart. On the contrary, it just wants to perpetuate itself. And its toying with the idea of nuclear war at this time. And so it pays for us to understand the system that weve got going in the West and the system pigs who are supporting it, Lira said.

Lira said all the journalists in the mainstream media by definition are system pigs because they are corrupt and that every single one of them is a nasty piece of work.

He added that it is important to understand the clear reasons why journalists are the way that they are. The novelist-filmmaker stated that there is a reason why they lie constantly, why they are so destructive and why they constantly try to tear down other people.

Journalists lie, pull down others for a reason

There are reasons for this behavior. And if you dont understand the reasons, then for you it would look weird. Its like why are all these journalists like this? Why do they lie all the time about everything? And why do they constantly try to pull down others? asked Lira, who mentioned that a system pig has already contacted him and is now trying to pull him down.

Lira explained that journalists are acting the way they are because of money. He mentioned that before the internet and social media came, news organizations earned money by way of advertising and subscriptions.

And so news media like the New Yorker and CBS News were making money by paid advertisements. He added that the content was periodically interrupted by commercials on TV or cable and there were advertisements on the pages of magazines or newspapers.

Lira pointed out that the advent of social media for all intents and purposes stole the advertising revenue from news organizations.

People would read these articles and copy the link to the article and post it on their social media feed. And so people would see the article. But the advertisement on that social media platform, well, that advertising revenue went to Facebook, went to Google. It didnt go to the Washington Post, the New York Times or CBS News that had made that bit of content. Thats how social media companies cut out the advertisement revenue from the news organizations. And so they slowly started to go broke, Lira explained.

He noted that local newspapers across the United States and Western Europe have practically vanished because they all started to go broke, and that only big newspapers, news magazines and television channels are reporting the news.

Even a big publication like the Washington Post got sold to Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon. Lira noted that Amazon is a very large corporation that does a lot of business with the government.

The novelist-filmmaker said Bezos has used the Washington Post as a megaphone for what the government wants to put out there into the public sphere and that it does not report on things that the influential people in government and politicians dont want you to know about, such as Hunter Bidens laptop. (Related: Tom Renz and Emerald Robinson talk about media corruption  Brighteon.TV.)

News organizations are being used for propaganda by government, oligarchs

Lira mentioned that news organizations and journalistic enterprises are now being used for propaganda by the government and other oligarchs like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. These people are using the press, the mainstream media and other news organizations for their propaganda and financial interest.

The filmmaker said a journalist who has a conscience and realizes the truth that they are no longer working for a news organization but for a propaganda outlet would quit.

Lira stressed that only the corrupt people stay in all these mainstream news outlets since the system is practically designed to advance the careers of people who are most corrupt, most unwilling to look at the truth, the ones most willing to hold the editorial line of the narrative and the most willing to become system pigs with their snouts in the trough of money.

Follow Corruption.news to know more about the corruption in the mainstream media.

Watch the video below to know why corrupt journalists are called system pigs.

This video is from the Jerusalem Cats channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

NY Times, other mainstream outlets, called out for failing to retract fake news claiming Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.

The fall of the mainstream media and the biggest lies they told in 2021.

How mainstream media gets away with distributing propaganda masquerading as legitimate journalism.

Sources include:

YouTube.com

BusinessInsider.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The co-founder of one of the worlds leading fact checker organizations, which presents itself as a supreme authority on which sources of information can be trusted, labeled the now completely confirmed genuine Hunter Biden laptop story a hoax.

(Article by Paul Joseph Watson republished from Infowars.com)

Whoops.

Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the legacy media declared the laptop scandal to be a hoax, with Politico and others citing dozens of former intel officials who declared it to be Russian disinfo.

This prompted social media giants like Twitter and Facebook to censor discussion of the story, even locking out major news outlets like the New York Post from their accounts.

Why hasnt this been retracted as disinformation? https://t.co/Ratr4cUYhV  Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 17, 2022

However, the story was completely true and (if it were even necessary), this has again been confirmed by the New York Times, which reported this week that emails from the abandoned laptop were authenticated as real.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald described the legacy medias attempt to cover up the scandal as one of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history.

That cover up was aided by top fact checking organizations, including NewsGuard, whose co-founder labeled the story a Russian hoax at the time.

My personal opinion is theres a high likelihood this story is a hoax, maybe even a hoax perpetrated by the Russians again, said NewsGuards Steven Brill during an appearance on CNBC.

As Allum Bokhari notes, this spectacularly incorrect call is crucial because NewsGuard champions itself as an ultimate arbiter on the trustworthiness of news sources.

NewsGuard has a track record of giving negative ratings to conservative-leaning publications, while giving a positive green rating to establishment media outlets with a track record of publishing hoaxes, like Rolling Stone, writes Bokhari.

This once again proves that fact checker organizations are merely partisan tools used to bludgeon free speech and censor information thats inconvenient to the regime.

Despite innumerable examples of brazen disinformation and hoaxes over the last month, including the Snake Island hoax, the fake attack on a Kiev Holocaust memorial and the Ghost of Kiev farce, fact checkers have been largely AWOL.

Whenever stories emerge that are hugely damaging to the regime and the military-industrial complex, fact checkers are weaponized to bury them by falsely labeling such stories misleading or hoaxes even if they are completely authentic.

This then serves to justify their censorship by social media algorithms and the targeted banning and deplatforming of anyone who tries to amplify them.

Fact checkers arent impartial, independent outlets, they are merely information attack dogs working on behalf of the regime.

Read more at: Infowars.com
(Natural News) Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 22, became the first major city in the United States to have an average gas price of over $6 per gallon.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for Boston-based fuel price assessment company GasBuddy, broke the story that Los Angeles was the first big city in America to breach the $6 mark for gas prices. He noted that this comes just weeks after Los Angeles reached an average gas price of $5 per gallon.

The average price of gas in the entire state of California is the highest in the country and far surpasses the national average, which has already fallen slightly from its record highs earlier this month.

The current national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.24, according to the American Automobile Association. This price is down from a peak of $4.35 per gallon on March 10.

By comparison, the average price of a gallon of gas in California is currently at $5.866, with Los Angeles Countys average price of $6.011 per gallon being the highest in the state.

Los Angeles Countys prices are followed closely behind by neighboring Southern California counties. The price of a regular gallon of gas in Orange County is at $5.97, while Ventura County is at $5.95, San Bernardino County at $5.9 and Riverside County at $5.88.

California gas prices to remain high for the next few weeks at least

Gas prices in the country have risen since the beginning of Russias invasion of Ukraine, and if Californias prices were hovering just slightly above the national average it would not have been out of the ordinary. (Related: White House turns to low-IQ TikTok influencers to put spin on why oil and gas prices are rising cue ridiculous explanations by clueless celebs.)

But analysts have pointed out that California has, in recent years, been known for having the highest gas prices in the U.S. due to the states high fuel consumption taxes and its cap and trade program, which assesses a premium based on emissions.

Furthermore, an ongoing strike at a Chevron refinery in the Bay Area has pushed the oil giant to find replacement workers, disrupting operations and pushing gas prices in Southern California further up.

Several other refineries in California, including PBF Energy refineries in Los Angeles and Contra Costa Counties and Valero refinery outside of San Francisco, are causing big hits to gasoline production.

The PBF Energy refinery in Los Angeles County is located in Torrance and is a crucial source of gas for the Greater Los Angeles area.

According to De Haan, the above-mentioned refineries, excluding Chevrons, have undergone flaring, or burning off of gases that have to be released when the refineries go into safety mode due to problems that have emerged. None of the refineries have disclosed why they are in safety mode, but it could be due to valve or computer issues.

De Haan added that it can take between two to four weeks before a refinery can return to full capacity, which means California will have to deal with lower gas supplies until at least the end of March.

Lawmakers in the solidly Democratic state have been under pressure for weeks to resolve the situation. The leading proposal by Democrats is for the distribution of a $400 gas rebate for all of Californias taxpayers, not just motorists.

This proposal would use around $9 billion of the states budget surplus.

This proposed $400 rebate would cover the current 51 cents-per-gallon gas tax for one full year, 52 trips to the pump for most vehicles, wrote the lawmakers who proposed this idea in a letter addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking for his support.

Notably, we believe a rebate is a better approach than suspending the gas tax  which would severely impact funding for important transportation projects and offers no guarantee that oil companies would pass on the savings to consumers.

Learn more about the deteriorating economic situation in California at CaliforniaCollapse.news.

Watch the full March 21 episode of WarRoom with host Owen Shroyer on InfoWars as he talks about how gas stations all over the country are imposing fueling limits.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Record gas prices are pushing up everyday costs, could lead to recession.

Bidens globalist agenda sees Americans suffering from gas prices and more.

Trumps 2020 prediction gas prices would reach $7 under Biden comes true.

Sen. Cotton says gas prices will continue to rise, calls for deregulation of energy production in US.

State and federal regulations cause gas prices to surge in California.

Sources include:

Fox5NY.com

FoxBusiness.com

LATimes.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) An elementary school in Austin, Texas held a pride parade in its halls during a Pride Week which the school reportedly did not inform the parents was happening. A video taken inside the school shows children being made to march through the halls with rainbow signs and flags in their elementarys own gay pride parade, some chanting Pride! Pride! Pride!

(Article by Amber Crawford republished from 100PercentFedUp.com)

According to documents posted online, children as young as five  and possibly even younger  were also made to participate in community circles to discuss sexuality, LGBTQ+ experience, and subjects that have no place in an elementary school classroom.

In the instructional documents provided for faculty to lead these discussions, it tells them to continuously remind the children that the conversations they have in the room are not to be told to anyone. Thus, these kids are being told to keep everything that was discussed a secret, even from their parents.

What would five-year-olds be discussing that should be kept a secret? Certainly nothing thats an appropriate conversation for kids of their age to be having, especially in school.

As a matter of fact, Texas state law states that A parent is entitled to full information regarding the school activities of a parents child. An attempt by any school district employee to encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from the childs parent is grounds for discipline.

The assistant principal at the school, Hannah Wankel, posted a video of the parade to her Twitter account, then deleted it shortly after. Fortunately, others had already captured a copy.

Watch the video of the elementary school gay pride parade below.

I knew she would delete it so I saved it. The assistant principal posted this video of a pride parade in school to her Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/GrUdr9V4MS  Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 21, 2022

The school that hosted this recent grooming event is Doss Elementary School, located in the very liberal area of Austin, TX.

The Austin Independent School District (AISD) places a major focus on the LGBTQ+ community, even at their elementary schools where children do not even need to be learning about sexuality whatsoever.

AISD made a very big deal on their Twitter account of promoting their pride weeks Pride Out party, with an attached flyer encouraging students to go to the schools front office to get pride stickers, posters, flags, pronoun buttons and more!

Pride Week: March 21-26, 2022 ???? Every year, to celebrate LGBTQIA+ students, staff & families Austin ISD hosts its own Pride Week, a time to highlight the districts commitment to creating a safe, supportive, inclusive environment.https://t.co/afRtuF51d6#AISDPride #AISDProud pic.twitter.com/ygbaui0Ew3  Austin ISD (@AustinISD) March 21, 2022

Hannah Wankel, Doss Elementarys assistant principal, has a Twitter account absolutely littered with posts about gay pride and pride week at the school.

Read more at: 100PercentFedUp.com
(Natural News) The number of teenagers identifying as transgender has exploded. Advocates say it protects young people from marginalization. Some experts, however, many of whom consider themselves survivors, warn against treating adolescent confusion with drugs and surgeries that have irreversible physical and psychological effects. In the first part of this series, the Washington Examiner speaks to some of these women who are still struggling with their decision years later.

(Article by Tori Richards republished from WashingtonExaminer.com)

The mournful post on Reddit, My consent was not informed, details a grim future for a woman who pulled herself out of a transgender lifestyle: weekly injections, diabetes medication, pain, lack of energy, and who knows what else for the rest of her life.

I was a child, allowed to destroy my body permanently, under the assurance that I can always change my mind, and that its a beautiful, harmless process, wrote Lgbtcos in February . The informed consent model is a lie, because we are just guinea pigs to a medical experiment, my life is permanently afflicted, and I was not informed.

The missive was on the Detrans subreddit, which currently has 23,000 members. It caught the eye of Candace Sharpe, 22, who has undergone her own hellish surgeries. She answered the post.

NO CHILD OR TEENAGER CAN CONSENT TO THE MEDICALIZATION, STERILIZATION, AND NONREVERSIBLE EFFECTS OF TESTOSTERONE AND/OR SURGERY, Sharpe wrote. This is an almost unbearable loss. Im here with you and it hurts so bad.

Social media is filled with a neverending stream of detransitioners who are trying to undo the effects of hormone therapy and invasive surgeries such as hysterectomies and mastectomies. March 12 was designated as Detrans Awareness Day, and social media was flooded with postings from people describing their efforts to leave the transgender lifestyle.

when i was 15, lonely, and hated my body, i got sucked into gender ideology online. my school encouraged me and i was easily prescribed a high dose of testosterone at 18, and it was very damaging. this is not rare.#DetransAwarenessDay me at 19, trans // me now at 23 pic.twitter.com/oNPF5J3Q7m  helena (@lacroicsz) March 12, 2022

The average age to detransition is 23, approximately five years after undergoing transition, a clinical survey of 237 participants showed. Seventy percent realized that their gender dysphoria was related to other issues, such as existing depression.

When I was younger, I had a lot of mental issues, depression, anxiety, about life, Sharpe told the Washington Examiner. When I was 12, I found on the internet that young girls could be trans and it would solve why I hated myself so much, why my life was so horrible, why my life was so wrong.

Sharpe, who lives in Canada, was a withdrawn child who was bullied at school and spent an inordinate amount of time online. Her home life wasnt great, so when she told her mother she was a boy, the answer was to see a psychiatrist and obtain antidepressants. No one inquired why she thought she was a different sex. This evolved into puberty blockers and testosterone injections at 15.

She started having infections and pain with the testosterone that lasted years. At 17, a doctor pressured her into getting a full mastectomy followed by a hysterectomy at 19. In Canada, teenagers can undergo surgery at 16 without parental consent.

Regardless, Sharpe said her mother approved of the surgeries.

It was sold as this thing thats no big deal. If you dont like a body part, just get rid of it, Sharpe said. Now, I have chronic pain all over my chest. Im stuck on painkillers. The doctor sold it like it was worth the risk because, You need it. Does anyone really need that kind of surgery, especially a young girl at 17?

The story of Athena, 22, is similar. As someone who didnt have a lot of friends growing up and was being treated for depression, Athena found a sense of belonging when she befriended a group of transgender adults. She lives in Seattle where society and especially medical professionals see this lifestyle as a cure-all, she said.

Athena was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at 16 and, five months later, underwent a double mastectomy. Initially, her parents balked at the surgery but were talked into it by a psychologist and primary care physician who told them that I was going to kill myself if I didnt get it, she said. I was told by the psychologist that kids with gender dysphoria will become suicidal if they dont get the treatment. I was also told if I said I would kill myself, I would get what I wanted. It worked.

Athena said she believes she was pressured by the doctors who told her she was in dire need of medical intervention.

After the surgery, Athena said she looked at her chest and knew she had made the biggest mistake of her life. However, she forged ahead with hormone therapy because I had come this far. Her physical transition included a deeper voice and hair growth all over her body.

Then, when she turned 19, Athena decided to revert back to her old self. But it wouldnt be easy. Four years after stopping the testosterone, her body hair continues to grow. She will need 30 electrolysis treatments on her face to get rid of the beard and mustache permanently.

She is now in a long-term relationship with a man, but, after having three miscarriages, Athena believes having children is out of the question. Her ovaries are at risk of growing cysts.

I dont understand how people dont realize how abusive this is, she said.

For Sharpe, talking to detransitioners on Reddit is therapeutic. She wants to help others avoid the trauma she endured.

Young girls need to know that what they think they hate about themselves is so superficial, she said. Society gives the message that you just need to be a boy so you dont need to deal with the pressures of being a girl.

Its only been a year since she snapped out of this and is now spending time learning to live with herself. She is debating whether to file a lawsuit against the doctors who did not fully explain the dangers of her medical procedures.

She recently wrote on Reddit: Im gonna tell u from experience the coddling of transgender ppl and their delusions  You are going against fundamentals of nature, immutable stuff, and damaging yourself!!! no such thing as sex change, only sterilization. people wont want to date you. your health declines. your body suffers. your social life suffers.

Read more at: WashingtonExaminer.com
(Natural News) Should children get vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19)? Not according to the Wall Street Journals (WSJ) Allysia Finley.

An opinion piece she wrote echoes what Natural News is saying for quite some time now: that young people with healthy immune systems should not be shot up with dangerous and experimental pharmaceutical concoctions just because Big Pharma demands it.

Citing Floridas recent decision to not recommend Fauci Flu shots for children, Finley makes a strong argument for why the injections do not belong in the arms of little ones.

Abundant scientific evidence shows that the Wuhan Flu poses a nearly zero risk to young people. The shots, on the other hand, pose a substantial risk.

A recent paper published in The Lancet estimates that the infection fatality rate for children under age 18 is somewhere between 0.0023 percent and 0.0085 percent.

This means that 2.3 to 8.5 out of every 100,000 children who get infected will die, with the lowest rates being among those aged 5 to 11.

Between Oct. 3, 2020, and Oct. 2, 2021, according to the CDC, only 66 children aged 5-11 died after testing positive for COVID. This is the exact same number that died from suicide, which is exceedingly rare in this age group.

By comparison, there were 969 deaths in this age group from unintentional injury and 207 from homicide in 2019, Finley writes.

Covid vaccine efficacy turns negative over time, putting children at greater risk

Another recent study out of New York State found that jabs do pretty much nothing to prevent hospitalization, which is already extremely low, to begin with.

Not only that, but the efficacy of the jabs wanes and turns negative over time. This is why many are now referring to the aftereffects of the injections as vaccine-induced AIDS, or VAIDS.

This means vaccinated children were significantly more likely to catch COVID than the unvaccinated, Finley explains.

One possible explanation is that the unvaccinated may have been more likely to have been previously infected, and natural immunity is more protective than vaccines.

This fact alone makes it both foolish and senseless to inject children for something that will not make them sick, but that exposure will produce lasting natural immunity. Why not just let nature run its course?

There is no profit to be made from nature, of course, which is why the establishment stands opposed to this approach. But there are healing and protection to be derived from it for those brave enough to take that route.

Finley further admits that Pfizers vaccine trials for children were inadequate because too few children were included in them. This makes it impossible to identify rarer adverse events, which she says could exceed the risks from the virus.

Some 40% of children 5 to 11 reported systemic reactions after their second shot (e.g., fatigue, headache, fever), she writes. About 10% missed school, and 1% needed medical care.

For this reason and many others, Germany, Norway, and Sweden have all decided not to recommend the jabs for healthy children under age 12. The Danish Pediatric Society has urged its government to do the same.

Vaccinating children is a great idea, wrote a commenter at the WSJ. More doses = more money. Isnt that what this has always been about?

The idea that we should substitute a childs robust, healthy immune system with vaccinations for a harmless disease is idiotic, wrote another, pointing out what one would think is an obvious fact.

Stop it. Youll ruin the narrative, said someone else. Albert Bourla and his little friends at Pfizer have vaccines to sell and stock options to exercise.

More of the latest news about covid injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

WSJ.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Australia recently hit Russia with alumina export ban. The move by the worlds top alumina exporter immediately sent aluminum spot prices soaring.

Following the bans announcement on March 21, Australias top alumina refineries stopped shipping alumina to Russias United Co. Rusal International PJSC, the worlds second-largest aluminum company by production output.

Rusal has a 20 percent share in Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Groups Queensland Alumina Ltd. (QAL) refinery. Rio Tinto owns 80 percent share in Queensland Alumina in its joint venture with the Russian company. Rio Tinto is right now figuring out alternatives concerning its alliance with Rusal.

Australia makes up 20 percent of Russias alumina supply, also called aluminum oxide, which is acquired from bauxite ore and delivered to refiners and changed into alumina. Bulk carriers then send the alumina to manufacturing plants in Russia where it is then turned into aluminum.

There was a ship that was due to dock in Australia this week to collect a load of alumina bound for Russia. That boat is not going to Russia with our alumina, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Australias export ban affects Russias aluminum production

Although aluminum was not on the sanction list enforced by Western nations after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, big corporations are divesting in Russia. Australia is choking supplies that could seriously affect the Russian production of aluminum, which is used in beer cans and kegs, kitchen utensils, window and door frames, consumer electronics, household appliances, aircraft and spacecraft components, among others.

Aluminum prices soared to as much as 5.1 percent to $3,554 a ton. Bloomberg noted that this reinforces the case for LME prices to find a foothold above $4,000/ton.

Australia declared that the immediate ban on exports of alumina, aluminum ores and bauxite is part of its continuing sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia relies on Australia for nearly 20 percent of its alumina needs. The government will work closely with exporters and peak bodies that will be affected by the ban to find new and expand existing markets, the Australian government stated in a joint statement from several ministries, along with the prime ministers office.

The statement noted that the move will limit Russias capacity to produce aluminum, which is an important export for Russia.

Australia in the previous week enforced sanctions on two Russian businessmen with connections to its mining industry, among them billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who keeps shares in QAL.

The statement also mentioned that Australia has so far slapped 476 sanctions on 443 individuals, including businessmen close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, 33 entities, most of Russias banking sector and all individuals accountable for the countrys sovereign debt. (Related: Russia likely to default on sovereign debt payments.)

The Australian government added that it will provide at least 70,000 tons of thermal coal to Ukraine to satisfy its energy needs.

Australian coal producers have been pestered with calls for supply over the previous weeks from Ukraine and other countries like Poland that have been dependent on Russian stocks.

The Australian government in a statement said that it is working with the Australian coal industry to look for supplies. The statement added that Whitehaven Coal has quickly organized a shipment and the Australian government is now working with the company and the Ukrainian and Polish governments to ship the supplies at the soonest possible chance.

Australia to provide military equipment, humanitarian aid for Ukraine

Australia also promised extra military equipment and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.

The Australian government added that it would be providing Ukrainians temporary humanitarian visas, which would enable refugees to access Medicare, study and work. It stated that close to 4,500 visas have been distributed so far, and that more than 600 Ukrainians with those visas have already arrived in the country.

Australia will give $21 million for defense aid to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and $30 million in humanitarian assistance.

Australia stands with the people of Ukraine, and again calls on Russia to cease its unprovoked, unjust and illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Australian government statement said.

Other countries have also promised support for Ukraine, including opening up temporary paths for Ukrainians to stay in their nations amid the invasion.

Canada announced this month that it would be permitting Ukrainians to enter through a Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel, which would enable them to stay in the country for at least two years.

The Joe Biden administration earlier this month said it would be giving an 18-month temporary protected status to Ukrainians already in the United States.

Watch the video below to know why anti-Russian sanctions could be catastrophic for Westerns economies.

This video is from the Russia Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

GLOBAL SHOCKWAVE: Russia announces plans to ban commodity exports following Western sanctions.

Global food shortages about to become much worse as Ukraine halts all exports of commodities.

Oil prices soar as Russian sanctions stir supply chain concerns.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

Bloomberg.com

Asia.Nikkei.com

MSN.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Gas prices are out of control, but the situation with one specific type of gas, diesel, is perhaps most concerning due to the serious implications of it running dry.

An absolutely critical fuel for maintaining just in time delivery of goods and services all around the world, diesel could disappear from some areas of the world due to sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The heads of one of the largest commodity trading houses and the biggest independent oil trader spoke at the recent FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, revealing that as many as three million barrels of oil and its products a day could be lost due to sanctions against Russia.

Aligning with previous estimates, the global markets for diesel could face a major squeeze, with Europe being most at risk of a systemic shortage of diesel that could lead to fuel rationing.

The thing that everybodys concerned about will be diesel supplies. Europe imports about half of its diesel from Russia and about half of its diesel from the Middle East, said Russell Hardy, chief of Switzerland-based oil trader Vitol. That systemic shortfall of diesel is there.

Diesel shortages are a global problem, not just a European problem

About 15 percent of Europes diesel comes from Russia, according to the FT. This poses serious problems for European supplies as the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies continue their crusade against Vladimir Putin.

Refineries could boost their diesel output in response to higher prices, but this would come at the expense of other oil-derived products. Rationing, Hardy said, is still a strong possibility.

Diesel is not just a European problem, noted Torbjorn Tornqvist, co-founder and chair of the Geneva-headquartered Gunvor Group. This is a global problem. It really is.

European gas markets are no longer functioning properly, he added, as traders face huge demands from banks for cash to cover their hedging positions.

I think its broken, Tornqvist said. It really is. I never thought that somebody could say, Ah, gas has fallen below 100 per megawatt hours, its really cheap.'

Before Russias invasion of Ukraine, Europes wholesale gas price was about 70 ($76.8) per megawatt hour. At one point, it reached about 230 ($252.5) per megawatt hour, and has since slid below 100 ($109.8) per megawatt hour.

Europes largest energy traders are now calling on governments and central banks to provide emergency liquidity to cover their bets amid sharp volatility in the energy markets.

Hardy said that to move a cargo equivalent to one megawatt hour of liquefied natural gas priced at 97 ($106.5), traders must provide 80 ($87.8) in cash, straining their capital requirements, reported Zero Hedge.

Fulfilling Europes gas storage requirements for next winter amid all this chaos will be tough, especially given the paralyzed state of the spot market for gas  that is, unless lawmakers intervene to shield buyers against price swings.

The diesel market is extremely tight, said Trafigura CEO Jeremy Weird. Its going to get tighter and will probably lead into stock outs, meaning fuel stations are eventually going to run dry.

Numerous other CEOs expressed similar sentiments about gas stations running dry of diesel, which is when all hell will really break loose for the global economy, which relies on diesel for just-in-time delivery of consumer goods.

Needless to say, without diesel, not only will traffic in Europe grind to a halt, but much if not all U.S. truck-based logistical support and supply chains will soon be paralyzed, Zero Hedge warned. The consequences for the global economy will be dire.

More related news coverage can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Societies that refuse to recognize reality and instead choose to live in a world that is neither sane nor real will eventually collapse, and several Western countries, thanks to insane left-wing wokeness, are well on their way.

That includes Great Britain, once the globes dominant power.

According to GBNews, staff at an undisclosed hospital told police that a female patient on one of the wards could not have actually been raped because the alleged attacker was transgender  a biological male identifying as a female.

But the attack, which happened roughly a year ago, was captured on closed-circuit television (CCTV), and thus, there is plenty of evidence that there was indeed a rape and that the alleged suspect who committed the horrendous act was male.

Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne brought up the incident  and the lunatic explanation that followed  in Britains House of Lords this week, noting that the victim filed a police report following the attack. But staff at the unnamed hospital insisted the rape could not have happened because there was no male in the hospital.

They forgot there was CCTV, nurses and observers, she told fellow MPs. Nonetheless, it has taken nearly a year for the hospital to agree that there was a male on the ward and, yes, this rape happened.

During that year she has almost come to the edge of a nervous breakdown because being disbelieved about being raped in hospital has been such an appalling shock, the baroness continued. The hospital, with all its CCTV, has had to admit that the rape happened and that it was committed by a man.

Now, finally, a police investigation has been launched.

GBNews added: Lady Nicholson said such incidents arise because of the use of single-sex wards, which allows patients to be allocated into wards depending on the gender they identify with. She is calling for the policy, known as Annex B, to be amended as it gives priority to trans people over women and therefore threatens the dignity, privacy and safety of female patients.

The result of Annex B is that hospital trusts inform ward sisters and nurses that if there is a male, as a trans person, in a female ward, and a female patient or anyone complains, they must be told that it is not true  there is no male there, she told the House of Lords.

I think it is completely wrong that the National Health Service should be instructing or allowing staff to mislead patients  to tell a straightforward lie. It is not acceptable, she added.

Currently, the policy is under review, but womens rights groups in addition to nurses have claimed that the appraisal is rife for bias since one of the leading physicians involved is reportedly an LGBT adviser.

Dr. Michael Brady, who is currently involved in reviewing the policy, promised activists that the commitment from the team leading on the review is supporting the maintenance/strengthening of trans rights in the update.

Baroness Fox, meanwhile, lashed out over the statement, noting that since Brady is the NHS LGBT adviser it might make him rather the opposite of impartial. She also said that the policy assessment is not satisfactory because it has no public terms of reference and is currently being carried out in secret.

She said the review is not satisfactory as it has no public terms of reference and is being carried out in secret.

I want the Government to take this seriously and recognize that when somebody says that there are no plans to reduce the existing rights of transgender people, what women hear  if I can translate it  is that women-only wards are not guaranteed at all, she told the Telegraph.

I want the Government to be honest with us about what they believe they are arguing for. I also want them to take us away from having to discover these things in newspapers and, instead, assure us that a new review will be set up that is independent and fully resourced.

Civilizations in denial of basic facts about their existence will eventually cease to exist.

Sources include:

GBNews.uk

Libtards.news
Florida fined its largest Medicaid payment vendor nearly $9.1 million over software problems that delayed payments for nearly three months for tens of thousands of health-care claims for the states sickest and neediest children, the governments health regulator said Wednesday.

In a letter to the CEO of Sunshine State Health Plan Inc. of Tampa, the Agency for Health Care Administration also demanded detailed explanations for how the problems occurred and how the company responded. It also required the company to demonstrate within 30 days that future claims were being paid promptly and asked for weekly updates in phone calls with the CEO, Nathan Landsbaum, or another senior executive.

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The payment problems left families in Florida with critically ill children who relied on Medicaid-paid health providers stranded. They affected children receiving care under the companys Sunshine Health Medicaid program and the Childrens Medical Services Health Plan it operates on behalf of the Florida Department of Health, for patients under 21 who are eligible for Medicaid and who have serious, chronic conditions.

A spokeswoman for Sunshine State did not immediately respond to a phone message or emails asking whether the company intended to pay the large fine of $9,092,025 or planned to appeal. The state said the fine was calculated as $75 for each failed payment claim.

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[ RELATED: Medicaid expansion still prescription for Florida | Randy Schultz ]

The states health care regulator also revealed that the number of affected claims  121,227  was far higher than Sunshine State had previously acknowledged. The company had previously said the problems affected one-half of 1% of its 9.2 million total payment claims it processed during the period, or about 46,000 claims. The state identified problems that included denials for invalid diagnosis codes, incorrect age restrictions, claims processed under incorrect benefit packages and more.

Sunshine State previously said the glitches stemmed from the companys merger on Oct. 1 with the second-largest payment vendor, WellCare of Florida Inc. Combined, Sunshine and Wellcare have multi-year contracts worth $31.6 billion from the states Agency for Health Care Administration, according to figures from the states chief financial officer.

The billing problems were described in an investigative report last month by Fresh Take Florida, a news service at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The states letter informing Sunshine State about the fine was dated March 17  one day before a reporters latest inquiries asking whether the company would be fined  but was not released publicly until Wednesday.

Before then, the payment problems drew almost no public attention. Sunshine acknowledged payment issues in a press release it published on its website Jan. 20, blaming it on an unspecified information-technology problem and not hinting at the scale or seriousness of the issue.

Dan Miller, 57, and his son with autism Nathan Miller, 17, pose for selfies together in their house in Lake Worth.(Contributed/Fresh Take Florida) (Fresh Take Florida)

The payment problems were among the most serious technology meltdowns  affecting one of the most vulnerable populations  under the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis since unemployment claims overwhelmed Floridas Department of Economic Opportunity early in the pandemic.

The Agency for Health Care Administration in its letter acknowledged that Sunshine States billing problems were non-willful. The letter, signed by Floridas assistant deputy secretary for Medicaid operations, Brian Meyer, also provided the company with instructions on how to dispute the fine, which would have to take place within 21 days.

The company said last month the improperly rejected payments were all re-processed by Jan. 31, but new interviews with health care providers demonstrated payment problems have been continuing. In at least one case, a company in Orlando was asked to stay quiet before Sunshine State would agree to pay part of the money it already owed the provider, an executive said.

Brendan Ramirez, a mental health advocate and CEO of Pan American Behavioral Health Services LLC in Orlando, said he had spent months trying to recover payments he was owed from Sunshine State.

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Ramirez said that during negotiations over the payments, Sunshine States parent company, Centene Corp., asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement before he could receive $234,225.90 of what he said he was owed. He provided a copy of the agreement, which he declined to sign. Ramirez said the amount Centene offered was less than the total he should have been paid.

They said, Before we wire money into your account, we want you to sign this document, Ramirez said.The agreement would have prohibited Ramirez from publicly disclosing terms of his settlement with Centene for the payment. It did not include any provision that would have prevented Ramirez from criticizing the company or talking to journalists.

I called them back and I said, Im not signing this. Im not comfortable with signing this. Its almost like a document from litigation, and were not in litigation. Im just trying to get money that you guys owe me, he said.

Ramirez said the company eventually paid him without a signed copy of the agreement. He said he is still owed as much as $80,000 by the company. He said it also has improperly denied about $100,000 more worth of claims submitted by his company.

Centenes stock price closed at $82.46, down nearly 6% on Wednesday. Other health care companies also were trading lower Wednesday.

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at kristin.bausch@freshtakeflorida.com.
(Natural News) Sen. Rick Lopes (D-Ct.) has introduced new legislation that would make it a crime to install gas or oil heating systems in new or remodeled residential homes in the state of Connecticut.

Senate Bill 292 would ban the use of fossil fuels in all new residential construction or when major alterations or residential buildings occur. The only legal option would be expensive and often unreliable electric heating systems.

The Connecticut Energy Marketers Association (CEMA) has come out in opposition to the bill, which would amend the states building codes and standards to:

 prohibit the use of any electric resistance or fossil fuel combustion system as the primary source of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning or water heating in new residential construction or in major alterations of residential buildings.

According to reports, three Connecticut state representatives, Sens. Anwar (D-South Windsor), Cicarella (R-North Haven), and Rep. Poletta (R-Watertown) have taken up the case of CEMA by lobbying Lopes to amend the bill.

Two CEMA members also spoke with Lopes and lobbied for his bill to be scrapped entirely. Lopes promised to work with CEMA if he does, in fact, decide to bring up the bill for a vote, which has not yet occurred.

CEMA and some Connecticut legislators have also committed to blow up the bill through whatever means possible.

Why are Democrats trying to destroy fossil fuels and American prosperity?

Lopes has already agreed to drop language from the bill about rules for home renovations, but is sticking to his guns concerning new homes not having any fossil fuel systems installed.

He is also trying to compromise by expanding the type of equipment allowed to include renewable fossil fuel sources such as biodiesel, renewable propane, and renewable diesel.

There is also talk about changing the bill to make it more of an incentive-based approach as opposed to full-on prohibition.

Had Lopes talked with experts such as those at CEMA before introducing the bill at all, he would have found out that it is ridiculous and more than likely would not even work in the state of Connecticut  at least if Connecticut wants to remain a first-world state.

The costs alone would be astronomical, pricing many Connecticut residents out of being able to purchase a home or a new heating system for their existing home.

Paula Ryan, who operates Ryan Oil in Hamden along with her son, says that the cost of a whole-house electric heat pump system is anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. This is compared to just $7,000 to $12,000 for a new oil, propane, or natural gas system.

Typical heat pumps also only last between 15 to 20 years, while a traditional boiler system can last 30 years or longer. Maintaining electric systems is also a major chore, which Ryan says increases maintenance costs by up to five times compared to a traditional fossil fuel system.

Another problem with heat pump systems is that they require a secondary heat source, Ryan warns. When temperatures plunge, as they often do in New England, electric systems stop working.

Fossil fuel systems, on the other hand, work in all types of weather, which is why they have long been the standard, especially in colder climates.

Leftists like Lopes hate fossil fuels because they claim that it spreads petro-masculinity. Since the left hates masculinity, fossil fuels have simply got to go.

Electric is much more feminist, apparently, so it makes sense for Democrats to de-masculinize the energy system and make it more female, which is why electric systems supposedly do.

The latest news about the leftist assault on fossil fuels can be found at GreenTyranny.news.

Sources for this article include:

LawEnforcementToday.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Jeffrey InTheMatrixxx Pedersen and Shannon ShadyGrooove Townsend talked about Hunter Bidens controversial laptop in the March 17 episode of The Matrixxx Grooove Show on Brighteon.TV.

An October 2020 article from the New York Post, which was published a month before the 2020 presidential elections, elaborated on the laptop and its contents. The aforementioned MacBook was dropped off at a computer repair shop in Delaware back in April 2019. While the shop owner was unable to verify if Hunter himself was the one who delivered the laptop, it had a sticker of the Beau Biden Foundation named after his older brother.

The Posts article pointed out that based on emails found on the laptop, the presidential son used his familys government links to strike out questionable deals with various individuals from Ukraine, China and other countries. These personalities included oligarch and founder of the Burisma energy company Mykola Zlochevsky and Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi. The Post managed to obtain the laptops contents after the Delaware shop owner, copied its contents and turned the copy over to lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who subsequently provided it to the news outlet.

I was talking to somebody that, you know, doesnt really know and theyre like: How do you know that the Hunter Biden laptop is real? Well, its because we saw everything on that laptop. In fact, its [the reason] why The Matrixxx Grooove Show on YouTube was taken down [on] the day it was released, revealed Pedersen.

Townsend added: A lot of people dont realize that that information was put out there in multiple, different areas. It is out there, [and] they act like its only on the laptop. There is a tremendous amount that is out there with these pictures.

Pedersen also pointed out White House Press Secretary Jen Psakis earlier dismissal of the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation. She repeatedly dodged questions about her prior comments, directing reporters to the younger Bidens representatives and the Department of Justice.

Psaki said that Hunter Bidens story is Russian disinfo. In order for [her] to actually show me that its not real, she has to go over the Posts article and what we have and say No, this is fake. Thats not Hunter Bidens face, thats not [his] text message with his real email address and phone number.' (Related: Politico confirms Hunter Biden laptop story they previously slammed as Russian disinfo.)

Did Hunter leak the laptop on purpose?

Townsend quoted QAnon Intelligence Drop No. 4891 from October 2020 that alluded to the laptop and why it was left at the Delaware computer repair shop.

The QAnon drop stated: Why would Hunter Biden risk turning over such material to a computer shop, [with] contents unrestricted? On purpose  years of being treated poorly by [the elder Biden]  or simple negligence? If such information existed on [the] laptop, why wouldnt [the] contents be claimed [despite] several attempts  to contact [and] messages left?

Why wouldnt Hunter Biden want to reclaim, knowing the contents on the drive could bury Pops and family? A troubled life? A troubled family? Looks can be deceiving.

According to Pedersen, the owner of the computer repair shop where Hunter Bidens MacBook was dropped turned over the laptop to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

He sent that to the FBI [and] the FBI totally ignored it  but he kept a copy of the hard drive, he said.

Townsend pointed out that the FBI refusing to act on the laptop means they cannot move yet, given the investigation by Special Counsel John Durham.

Theres all kinds of stuff going on in the background that we dont see, and youre not getting any leaks, Townsend said. Not only is it real, but it is incriminating for thousands and thousands. It was unbelievable how much stuff was just left on that laptop. Very interesting course of events that occurred with that laptop, and its going to be relevant in the future. I promise you that.

For more on this topic, head over to BidenCrimeFamily.news.

Watch the full March 17 edition of The Matrixxx Grooove Show below. Tune in to The Matrixx Grooove Show from Monday to Friday at 12-1 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Hunter Biden chaired a foundation to stop child abuse, while engaging in it.

Leading fact-checker falsely claimed that Hunter Bidens laptop story was a hoax.

The NYT now admits the Biden laptop  falsely called Russian Disinformation  is authentic.

Hunter Biden was NOT hacked; agreed to transfer ownership of Mac under terms of repair agreement.

Computer repairman who turned over Hunter Bidens revealing laptop to Feds harassed, shunned nearly to bankruptcy.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

NYPost.com

FoxNews.com

QAlerts.app
(Natural News) The British government is now considering using the hospitality and offers of Britons to resettle non-Ukrainian refugees.

It comes after much criticism from neighboring nations, which noted that the U.K. had been allowing very few refugees to enter its borders. Moreover, government restrictions made the process to seek asylum too difficult. Over three million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.

In contrast to the U.K., the European Union (EU) immediately waived visa requirements for the war-torn country. Poland, a next-door neighbor to Ukraine, has already taken in nearly two million Ukrainians. Romania housed half a million. Ireland, which has less than 10 percent of the U.K.s population, offered refuge to 6,500 Ukrainians.

Britain previously left the EU to set its own immigration policies. However, it became clear that the public was not going to stand for the mean-spiritedness of the British governments response, which led to the government introducing the additional resettlement routes such as Homes for Ukraine. The scheme allowed those with no family members to come, so long as they are sponsored by a named individual who will house them for at least six months, with each household receiving 350 ($461.4) per month for doing so.

Nick Beever, one of the Britons ready to take part in the program to house Ukrainian refugees, said he and his wife were hoping to have one or two refugees staying with them. Helping people is one of those duties you have as a member of society, as a human being, he said.

While Britons are ready to offer help, there had already been reports of their generosity being abused. After seeing over 150,000 members of the public offering to take in Ukrainian refugees, ministers are now looking into using the same scheme to resettle thousands of Afghans, many of whom have been living in hotels at the expense of U.K. taxpayers.

With the government struggling to persuade local authorities to house Afghans, senior government sources described the idea of expanding the Ukraine-based scheme as a good idea. (Related: Russian ambassador to the UN claims his country does not plan to occupy Ukraine.)

On March 15, more than 400 individuals crossed the English Channel in small boats  the highest number so far this year. There had been a total of over 2,600 who have crossed since the beginning of 2022. Comparatively, there had been 28,526 people who crossed the Channel in small boats from France, over 20,000 more compared to 2020.

Home Secretary Priti Patel noted that 70 percent of migrants who entered the U.K. from France are not genuine asylum seekers. Theyre mostly made up of single men who are effectively economic migrants. Recent Home Office figures showed that the housing asylum seekers were costing the country around 5 million ($6.6 million) every day.

Britain cautious about taking in immigrants

The British immigration issue remains a key concern among the public since the end of World War II. Back then, the nation opened its doors to immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations. However, there had been security concerns as a result of the open border policies. (Related: Western powers warned of global collapse if they interfere with Russias invasion of Ukraine.)

For instance, it was found in 2018 that the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi, was rescued by the Navy from war-torn Libya just three years before he attacked the indoor arena  killing 22 and injuring hundreds at a concert.

Investigations revealed that Abedi spent years on housing estates in Manchester, fraternizing with groups of young radicalized men.

Individuals who were on the no-fly lists were also found to have been flown into the U.K. during the failed Afghanistan evacuation of 2021, despite the government claiming to have looked at the cases, saying that one of the men questioned was not a person of interest.

Read more stories like this at Migrants.news.

Watch the video below discussing what could possibly go wrong on taking in Ukrainian refugees.

This video is from the Kim Osbl  Copenhagen Denmark channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

China slams US, NATO for provoking Russia to invade Ukraine.

Advisory: Do not travel to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

Russia-Ukraine conflict not helping American companies with their supply chain problems.

Rising gas prices to hit $7 a gallon if crude oil cost spikes and tension between Russia and Ukraine escalates.

Germany halts Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia over Ukraine incursion, putting citizens at risk of freezing.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

TheGuardian.com

Aljazeera.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The conflict raging in Ukraine may be bringing about widespread devastation, but some observers are warning that we cant lose sight of the fact that the country has also been implementing so many of the hallmarks of the World Economic Forums Great Reset. The case is laid out by Julian Schernthaner at the German news site Wochenblick in an article entitled: In the shadow of war: Ukraine as the great reset laboratory of the global tech elite.

The author notes that those pushing for a radical restructuring of the world have long had their sights set on Ukraine.

With the vigorous participation from President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine would be a Mecca for U.S. bioweapons laboratories and pave the way for digital networking, the Metaverse, and a transparent citizenry. The linchpin is the digital ID app known as Diia, an acronym for The Government and me.

Shortly after Zelensky took office, the countrys Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) was formed and tasked with creating a governmental platform for smartphones. Diia, as it is known, has more than 50 applications devoted to online identification, drivers licenses, student IDs, COVID vaccination passports, business and insurance applications, and the management of social benefits.

One French tech portal likened Ukraines approach to Chinas social credit system, and the comparisons dont end there. Last year, Zelensky offered the equivalent of a tenth of a typical monthly Ukrainian salary to anyone who uploaded their vaccination records to Diia.

Just two weeks before the system went live, a World Economic Forum summit that was hosted by the architect of the Great Reset, Klaus Schwab, named Zelensky its Guest of Honor. The Ukrainian presidents speech there included buzzwords like new normal. He expressed his belief that international security needed to be rethought and that current global institutions are not efficient.

He also described his vision for Ukraine to become an Eastern European Silicon Valley and investment mecca. It was an idea Schwab embraced, and he praised the reforms already made in the country, many of which had been initiated by the WEF.

Following the WEF appeal, Ukraine struck a deal with Apple to carry out a digital census this year, with Apple looking for projects that will promote the countrys transition to paperless mode. The MDT also struck a deal with Microsoft in a far-reaching collaboration to develop a highly secure cloud platform ecosystem that will affect various industries and promote energy transition, digital transformation of agriculture and sustainability.

Global food shortages serve Great Reset agenda

Ukraine may have already been headed down that path, but now many fear that the current fighting between Russia and Ukraine is also serving the Great Reset agenda. During the conflict, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for a federal study of cryptocurrencies and an urgent exploration of a new digital dollar. The White House said there would be an urgency on research and development of a potential United States CBDC, should issuance be deemed in the national interest.

Its not unlike the global digital currency envisioned by the Great Reset proponents. Glenn Beck explained why we should all be frightened: Theyre going to make a transition away from the U.S. dollar to a digital currency, one that can be tracked, controlled, manipulated and designed for, in the words of the White House, equitable access to safe and affordable finance services. .It will control you and your life, as well as remake all of society.

Moreover, the global food shortages set in motion by the Russian invasion are playing right into the globalists hands. As fighting in Europes breadbasket leaves many countries with grain shortages and rising fertilizer prices impact farmers in the U.S. and around the world, skyrocketing food production costs are being passed down to consumers at the grocery store.

Speaking on an episode of American Journal, Harrison Hill Smith noted: Once you have shortages, you have rationing. Once you have rationing, especially for  things like food, medicine, which theyre also rationing now, you have basically total control.

The shortage will be used to, once again, determine who does and who does not get the food they need to survive. Its pretty simple.

There are also fears that these shortages in crucial foods like vegetable oils and grains will pave the way for biotechnology to play a greater role, with food systems being redesigned and more people consuming gene-edited crops just to survive.

Sources include:

RAIRFoundation.com

Deseret.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, which is set to receive over $1 billion in aid from the World Bank, is going to get more.

On March 17, the United Nations Security Council voted to expand support and financial aid in Afghanistan  despite the country being controlled by the hardline Islamist Taliban terrorist group. And while the majority of the developed world has shunned Taliban-run Afghanistan, the UN has increased its presence in the region devastated by the August 2021 Taliban takeover.

The international community provided nearly 80 percent of Afghanistans public spending budget during the previous administration. The aid has since been suspended due to the regime change. The UN resolution, which obviously avoided using the word Taliban, allows the globalist organization to restore work in the area.

The implicit recognition of a legitimate Taliban government in Afghanistan is as dangerous as it is naive. With Iran, theres already one funded terrorist regime. We dont need two, said an article published by 100percentfedup.com.

The World Bank earlier declared that it will be granting $1 billion in aid to the region via third parties, such as international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to support the delivery of essential basic services.

Heres a reminder: The U.S. spent $83 billion in equipment for Afghanistan and left basically all of it behind during Joe Bidens catastrophic withdrawal. Thats $83 billion in U.S. tax dollars, which the American people will never recover, and $83 billion worth of military equipment, which a radical Islamic government can now use as it pleases.

The UN and World Bank want to give them more. (Related: Biden knew all along the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was imminent.)

World Bank approves $1 billion fund for Afghanistan

The executive board of the World Bank recently approved a plan to utilize more than $1 billion from a frozen Afghanistan trust fund to bankroll critically needed education, agriculture, health and family programs.

The plan, which will avoid sanctioned Taliban authorities by spending the money through UN agencies and international aid groups, will provide a major boost to efforts seeking to ease the countrys worsening humanitarian and economic crises.

The World Bank said in a statement that the approach aims to support the delivery of essential basic services, protect vulnerable Afghans, help preserve human capital and key economic and social services and reduce the need for humanitarian assistance in the future.

Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) was frozen last August when the Taliban took over Kabul as the final U.S.-led international troops left after 20 years.

Foreign governments ended financial support consisting more than 70 percent of government expenses while the U.S. led in the freezing of some $9 billion in Afghan central bank funds.

The financial aid cuts hastened an economic collapse, worsening cash trouble and escalating a humanitarian crisis that the UN said has pushed more than half of Afghanistans population of 39 million people to the brink of starvation.

The World Bank statement added that as a first step, ARTF donors will choose four projects worth about $600 million that will assist urgent needs in education, health and agricultural sectors, as well as community livelihoods and that there will be a strong focus on ensuring that girls and women participate and benefit from the support.

The Taliban has untangled gains in rights made by women during the past 20 years, including restraining them from working and limiting their travel unless escorted by a close male relative.

Most girls have been banned from going to school beyond seventh grade since the Taliban takeover. The group said all girls will be allowed to return to classrooms later this month.

The World Bank will be closely cooperating with ARTF donors and multilateral stakeholders to finalize the design and funding allotment for these projects. The banks operational policies apply to activities funded through recipient-executed grant arrangements and the World Bank remains engaged in project design and supervision.

The $600 million will be augmented with additional allotments from the ARTF this year as conditions allow and as decided by the ARTF donors. This phased approach is intended to be flexible and adaptive, realizing that the situation on the ground continues to be fluid.

Watch the video below to know the real reasons why Joe Biden turned over Afghanistan to the Taliban.

This video is from the Kris Zane channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Taliban executes folk singer after music ban announcement in Afghanistan.

Taliban seized billions worth of US weapons in Afghanistan was it all staged on purpose?

Now it makes sense: Biden wanted out of Afghanistan so his Chinese masters could take control of lithium deposits ahead of electric car push.

Sources include:

100PercentFedUp.com

Aljazeera.com

WorldBank.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet this week with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss the possibility of freezing Russias $132 billion in gold reserves, the news website Axios reported on Wednesday.

(Article republished from RT.com)

Maine Senator Angus King reportedly has claimed that the legislation could pass the Senate as early as this week. The initiative is meant to deprive Moscow of the opportunity to mitigate the effects of Western sanctions on its economy by monetizing other assets, in an effort to punish the Kremlin for its military action in Ukraine.

Russias massive gold supply is one of the few remaining assets that Putin can use to keep his countrys economy from falling even further. By sanctioning these reserves, we will further isolate Russia from the worlds economy and increase the difficulty of Putins increasingly-costly military campaign, King explained.

The American politicians behind the initiative believe that Moscow is using gold to hinder the devaluation of its national currency, the ruble. Washington is concerned that vast gold reserves allow the Kremlin to purchase other currencies on the international market.

Secretary Yellen regularly meets with members of Congress to discuss legislation. Additionally, Treasury staff frequently provide technical assistance on sanctions bills, a Treasury Department spokesperson said.

On March 8, the same group of US senators introduced a bill designed to close this loophole in the sanctions that allows Russians to trade gold. The bill is titled Stop Russian GOLD, which stands for Stop Russian Government and Oligarchs from Limiting Democracy. If adopted, the legislation will allow the US government to apply secondary sanctions to anyone selling or buying the gold that belongs to Russias central bank.

Russias Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov has previously declared that Moscow has lost access to nearly $300 billion worth of its reserves because of US and EU sanctions. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that freezing the assets of the Central Bank amounts to theft. Russias President Vladimir Putin has described anti-Russian sanctions as a total undisguised aggression and a war waged by economic, political, and informational means.

Read more at: RT.com
(Natural News) The world is now seeing the true conspiracy theorists: the ones who believed that jet fuel brought down the World Trade Center; the ones who believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, when the Bush oil family went there to steal their oil and fund Dick Cheneys military industrial complex, a.k.a. Haliburton; the ones who believed we needed to invade and occupy Afghanistan (for 20 years), while we steal their opium to make heroin-based painkillers for Americans, but were supposed to believe it was all about chasing down ONE GUY who supposedly lived near the Khyber pass, by the border of Pakistan, who used to work with the Central Intelligence Agency, whos been dead for decade.

Where are all those terrorists now? Theres a new kind of terrorist, and it doesnt talk or walk, but it can fly on planes. Its the infectious disease created in a laboratory, and the deadly clot-shot vaccines to go with it, that clog blood and strain the heart. We have been invaded with biological warfare by our own leaders in government, Big Pharma, Big Tech and Big Media.

Who are the conspiracy theorists? The ones who DONT believe these wars were all well-planned out by billionaires who take our money, health and human rights away, not to mention our constitutional freedoms.

US borders are WIDE OPEN while we are supposed to be angry about Russia invading Ukraine

Meanwhile, the USA still occupies Iraq, and its going on 20 years. The question for the conspiracy theorists is this: Who are we to intervene in the Ukraine crisis? Why are so many Americans convinced to cheer for Ukraine, where the most evil political, medical and military criminals on planet Earth live and function right now? What ground do Americans have to stand on to tell Russia not to bully their neighboring oblast (province cluster)? The Ukrainians are planning to castrate Russian soldiers they capture. Ukraine is the new Nazi Germany-style headquarters, but Americans are supposed to hate Russia more?

Currently, Mexico is invading the USA, at our wide-open border, along with any terrorists from anywhere who can just pretend to be Mexican or South American and walk right in.

Biden will even pay them to come in and to stay. Freedom for you is very safe and effective under the communists in Washington DC. Yet were supposed to whine about Russia invading Ukraine. Please, dont hurt them, while we still occupy other countries in that region, and steal all of their resources.

Medical terrorists are working hard to get everyone vaccinated for COVID, and the next lab-made-gain-of-function virus release will be blamed on Russia

Its another fake news conspiracy, this Ukraine-sympathy bandwagon. The conspiracy theorists are hard at work running a distraction from the waning Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the wave of vaccine-induced deaths occurring. The mass media is running that full-on Obama Hypnosis garbage, like hes hiding under the Biden mask.

The COVID booster shots and the next variant will likely be a mass-genocidal event blamed on Russia. The terrorists are medical terrorists and billionaires who want to control the whole world at once. Theres nobody flying planes into tall buildings, and theres no war our politicians are interested in besides the ones for stealing resources and poisoning our own people.

The real war right now is the War against Vaccines. Will you fight to protect your health and life, right here on American soil? Know your rights. Do not get force-medicated. Protect your children. This has been a public service announcement from Natural Health News.

Stay tuned and stay frosty. Tune your internet to Censored.news for a huge swath of truth news.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) On Monday, Joe Biden urged private sector partners to strengthen their cyber defenses, citing evolving intelligence that suggests Russia might conduct cyber activity against American companies and critical infrastructure. These attacks would be a move of retaliation against the economic sanctions placed on Russia by the US and its NATO allies.

(Article by Amber Crawford republished from 100PercentFedUp.com)

Last week, after months of warning the private sector about the possibility of Russian retaliation, the administration hosted classified briefings with companies and sectors [they] felt would be most effective and provided very practical, focused advice, according to the Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, Anne Neuberger. Neuberger also reported that Russia had been conducting preparatory activity for cyber attacks, which could include hunting for software vulnerabilities on websites.

While critical infrastructure includes sectors like water, energy, healthcare, and financial services  to name a few  Neuberger did not specify which particular area could be targeted by Russia cyberattackers.

Neuberger did note, however, that there is no certainty there will by a cyber incident on critical infrastructure.

Now, evolving intelligence has caused an increased level of threat to the United States.

After Biden told them where to hit https://t.co/yAD3yRC5n5  Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) March 21, 2022

I have previously warned about the potential that Russia could conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States, including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs weve imposed on Russia alongside our allies and partners, said Biden in a statement. Its part of Russias playbook.

Bidens statement specified that the Department of Homeland Securitys Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been actively working with organizations across critical infrastructure to rapidly share information and mitigation guidance to help protect their systems and networks.

A professor at the University of Virginia who specialized in cybersecurity, Ryan Wright, warned of serious attacks from Russia which could affect Americans in a very personal way. [I]t is only a matter of time until the U.S. is targeted more directly, Wright warns. This may mean attacks on your personal device through ransomware but also attacks on the infrastructure such as your internet access or even the power grid.

Though unlikely that Americans would be individually targeted by Russian cyberattackers, its very possible that the effects of a cyberattack can be felt by millions across the country.

Read more at: 100PercentFedUp.com
Cancer is a scare that nobody wants to face. This illness comes with a sheer force that allows it to draw up barriers after barriers, resisting the processes of chemo-therapy and all other cancer-eliminating practices.

But according to the famous Jason Hope, a well-known phenomenon, death-resistant cells might just be what the medical world needs.

Cancer resistance is a complex phenomenon, according to Jason Hope, which can be eliminated with the help of cell death inhibition. Many well-known scientists and research universities are researching this influence.

Jason Hope believes that with the right determination and knowledge, the medical world can finally crack the code and work against the stubborn cancer cells.

Let's see how that is humanly possible!

Death Resistant Cells - What You Need to Know

When talking about death-resistant cells, there are different ways to comprehend this concept.

In simple layman's terms, death-resistant cells refer to the loss of cells as a human body goes through different changes and ages. This loss of cells is not due to any specific abnormality. It's just how a human body works.

Besides this analogy, we have another one. Death-resistant cells take place when vertebrate cells fail to perform their function. And what function is that? The reproduction process. Yes, that's right. Certain cells will fail to perform this task due to the limited period of cells in culture.

These cells will be devoid of any mitosis, but they continue to stay in a postmitotic state.

According to Jason Hope, the human body cells are not immortal. They come with a ticking clock, and they will cease to exist one day, and this period could either be years or even a few days.

The last set of definitions of these death-resistant cells is pretty intriguing. Sometimes the cells in our body get damaged. They don't get a chance to be a part of our skin or our liver. They simply get ruined.

One example of this damage is nobody's favorite - the C-word, also known as Cancer.

When cancer hits a body with its full mighty force, it will push certain cells to diverge around. And this free movement ultimately leads to a process that causes uncontrolled growth, causing the building-up of a tumor. Now, our body is programmed in such a way that it will not accept such intrusion easily.

According to Jason Hope, our body works in such a way that will cause such dangerous cells to die automatically. And this whole process is known as Apoptosis.

However, Jason says that there is another programming that will initially keep the cell alive and working, restricting the uncontrolled growth of the cell.

These senescent cells are beneficial for the body but only when they are in a limited ratio. If their size grows, they will be, according to Jason Hope, detrimental to the health of a human being.

Jason Hope's Insights on How Senescent Cells Cause Cancer

These Senescent Cells are the perfect example of an enemy in disguise. According to the research done by Jason Hope, they go through a specific process before destroying the human body from within.

This process will involve

Providing a supportive role to our organs in the initial stages.

The built-in programming will limit the diverging spread of the Senescent Cells for a short period.

However, after a passage of time, these cells will eventually find their way through proteins that are nothing but bad news for your body.

Via this, these Senescent Cells build over time, cause major inflammation in the body, and destroy the healthy tissue in our body.

According to Jason Hope, tissues that contain a considerably large amount of these cells will lead to inflammation and eventually Cancer!

Advancements Made to Tackle the Growth of Senescent Cells

To tackle this dangerous advancement of Senescent Cells, two options can opt. One is the more practical way; developing a drug that will nullify all the toxic cells and stay away from the healthy ones.

This, according to Jason Hope, is the selective killing of cells. Oncologists are already carrying out such a practice. This type of practice will target the abnormal cells and make space for the healthy ones to grow. And this is how one prevents illnesses like cancer from taking place.

Besides manufacturing a drug that's beneficial in more than one way, research is also being carried out by the scientists of the University of Arizona. These sets of scientists are looking for ways to promote a healthy immune system in mice.

This they will do by eliminating useless and harmful immune cells named "anergic T-cells". This elimination will lead to the freeing up of space for healthy cells to take place. The same process a drug would carry.

According to Jason Hope, the researchers of the Arizona University, hope to produce some sort of killer T-cells that will provide the mice's immune system a much-needed boost.

Ph.D. candidate Kevin Perrott is carrying out research, studying how molecules affect Senescent Cells and the overall immune system.

According to Jason Hope, these researchers are working long and steady nights testing a bunch of compounds that have the capability of singling out and targeting Senescent Cells.

But the research is going to take its time, and even though these scientists hope to find a way towards killing these cells, it's not going to happen over time and will for sure take its sweet time. Until then, unfortunately, these Senescent Cells will continue to take place and destroy a healthy and perfectly working immune system.

Death Resistant Cells Provide Us With a Solution As Per Jason Hope

All these research programs are not in vain, though. Scientists are working day and night to find a loophole that will solve this mind-triggering mystery. Nick Schaum in the Campisi lab is also carrying out his research with the help of the generous funding of the SENS Research Foundation. Nick is mainly targeting understanding how cell build-up and their programming can lead to illnesses and looking for ways that will keep Senescent Cells under control.

What Does the Research Say?

All these research programs will be looking out for a drug that's only targeting the toxic cells and finding out ways that will boost up the immune system.

According to Jason Hope, if these researches are successful, abnormal cells can be stopped from wreaking havoc. Thes advancement in biotechnologies will nullify, treat, and avoid the harmful effects caused by these abnormal cells.

The Bottom Line According to Jason Hope

The elimination of Senescent Cells comes with a list of pros and cons. Furthermore, many ethical issues have been raised regarding the processes being carried out.

However, with the rise of these abnormal cells and the widespread of Cancer, it is more crucial than before to either find a way that will give our immune systems the hoist that it needs or to manufacture a drug that will solve the problem.

Let's just hope that all these findings and research do lead to biotechnologies that are helpful and will bring change to the scientific world and revolutionize medicine.



Connect with Jason Hope: Instagram | Medium | F6S | Twitter
Salmonella is among the most prevalent kinds of bacterial food poison. It is often characterized by stomach pains and diarrhea that lasts four to seven days.

Despite the fact that many migrating birds carry Salmonella, the bacteria they carry often lack antibacterial agent genes, according to Penn State researchers who led a team completing a new study.

While scientists have known for a long time that wild birds may transmit Salmonella, the strains they carry appeared to be of less concern to human health.

Salmonella enterica in Migratory birds

According to team leader Ed Dudley, a Penn State professor of food science.

"We assumed that these salmonellae, like the germs we can isolate from domesticated farm animals, would have a huge number of antimicrobial-resistance genes, but we discovered the reverse," as per ScienceDaily.

According to Dudley, wild birds are known to be widely accepted reserves of Salmonella enterica, a type of bacteria that horrifies millions of citizens each year, and researchers have been concerned that wild birds having to carry antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella enterica present a hazard to public health since they can spread the resistant strains throughout large areas in a short period of time.

But according to the findings, wild birds are not key reservoirs of resistant Salmonella enterica strains.

The study, led by Yezhi Fu, a postdoctoral researcher in Dudley's research group at the College of Agricultural Sciences, resolved critical issues concerning the function of migrating birds in disease transmission to people.

Typhimurium was the most common Salmonella enterica bacteria, accounting for 68% of the bird specimens, according to research published in Environmental Microbiology.

However, less than 2% of those isolated were found to be multi-antimicrobial resistance or heavy metal resistance.

Surprisingly, all of the multi-resistant Salmonella enterica isolates were from water birds or raptors; none came from songbirds.

Dudley's investigators proceeded to examine the government collection of Salmonella samples from wild birds, generating many more discoveries.

Researchers reported in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology that different strains of Salmonella were linked to certain hosts.

After analyzing 131 Salmonella typhimurium specimens from wild birds gathered in 30 U.S. states, researchers discovered that songbirds and waterbirds were likely to harbor the same strains, but gulls and terns carried unique, independent lineages of the bacterium.

Typhimurium may have evolved inside wild birds in the United States, according to the research.

Also Read: Bearded Dragons Linked to Salmonella Outbreak That Infected 44 Across 25 States

What is Salmonella?

Salmonella is among the most prevalent kinds of bacterial food poisoning in the United States.

Each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention receives around 42,000 complaints of salmonella.

According to experts, the overall number of cases may be greater than 1.2 million.

Salmonella outbreaks are more prevalent in the summer than in the winter, as per the Cleveland Clinic.

Diarrhea might be severe or linger for a long time in some persons.

In general, children are more prone than other age groups to get salmonella.

A lab test on the ill person's feces is the only method to be certain if the diarrhea, cramps, and fever are caused by Salmonella infection.

There are around 2,000 distinct varieties of salmonella bacteria that cause illness. Certain antibiotics are ineffective against some of these strains.

If the patient visits a doctor, the doctor may conduct additional lab testing on the bacteria in the stool sample to determine the kind of salmonella.

This information will assist the doctor in determining which antibiotic to employ if the patient requires treatment.

Related article: CDC Raised Warning on Salmonella Outbreak Across 37 States Linked to Onions
Palm Beach Countys runoff elections went smoothly Tuesday, helping decide races that were too close to call earlier this month.

Overall, the elections should all be final and certified by about 6 p.m. Thursday, Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said. The election was very successful, she said. Were glad that there wasnt a race that was so close we needed a recount.

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As of Wednesday afternoon in the Boynton Beach City Commission race, Thomas Turkin had received 960 votes, or 52.86%, to Marit Hedeens 47.14%, amounting to 856 out of 1,816 total ballots cast for Boyntons race.

As of the afternoon, 99 ballots for all the races still needed curing, which means a signature needs to be matched to a voter or witness from an absentee or mail-in ballot. Link said an additional 12 provisional ballots will be reviewed by the countys Canvassing Board Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

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By 10 p.m. Tuesday, all precincts had finished reporting their results, but the Supervisor of Elections said Wednesday that just over 100 mail-in, absentee or provisional ballots wont be fully counted until Thursday evening. Those ballots could sway some of the closer races, one of which is currently separated by a mere 11 votes.

The Jupiter Inlet Colony, with a population of about 400, counted 209 ballots on Tuesday. Marie Rosner was leading with 110 votes to Cynthia B. Keims 99.

Other races were even closer, as a matter of percentile, even if the number of votes separating them was higher.

In the city of Riviera Beach, one contested City Council seat had a difference of 68 votes. Shirley Lanier had received 2,062 votes as of Tuesday night, representing 50.84% of the vote, while Marvelous Washington had 1,994 votes, or 49.16%.

Austen Erblat can be reached at aerblat@sunsentinel.com, 954-599-8709 or on Twitter @AustenErblat.
400 years after their extinction in the UK, Eurasian beavers or European beavers will be reintroduced in the country to combat urban flooding.

Two beavers named "Justin Beaver" and "Sigourney Beaver" will be reportedly deployed in Enfield, London, as part of a natural flood management initiative.

The beavers are expected to serve as natural engineers to create dams and waterways as an alternative catch basin during urban flooding caused by heavy rain during severe weather or storm.

The two beavers are also expected to reproduce in the coming months and restore natural habitats, including wetland habitats, in the Enfield city area.

The said beaver species are considered to be rodents that were once abundant in Europe and Asia but were hunted down on the brink of extinction at the start of the 20th century.

The global conservation status of the Eurasian beaver is currently listed as "least concern" due to their low population.

After 400 Years of Extinction

The UK government is reintroducing two Eurasian beavers who were temporarily named "Justin Beaver" and "Sigourney Beaver" set to be deployed in the city of Enfield in London, England, as part of measures against urban flooding, as per AccuWeather.

After 400 years of extinction in the UK, the beavers have been introduced in the country over recent years; with the two Hollywood-named beavers to be the latest of the widescale effort to fight not only flooding but also as a form of conserving the Eurasian beaver population and restoring natural habitats.

On March 17, local authorities have released Justin Beaver and Sigourney Beaver at their enclosure at Forty Hall Farm in Enfield.

It is part of a two-year natural flood management initiative. Over recent years, Enfield had been battered by severe flash floods.

Also Read: Researchers Uncover More About European Beaver

Eurasian Beaver in the UK

A Eurasian beaver or European beaver (Castor fiber) is part of the taxon Rodentia.

Their common natural habitats are woodland areas, floodplains, and the bottom of slow-moving river valleys, as per the Mammal Society, a non-profit organization created to save wildlife in the UK.

These rodent mammal species were once prevalent in the UK, including in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Once perceived to be an extinct species in the UK, there has been the reintroduction of Eurasian beavers over recent years.

The reintroduction is considered to be a significant step toward animal conservation, ecological restoration, and flood control measures.

Related efforts were done already in Cornwall, Devon, Kent, and Scotland.

Hunted Toward Near-Extinction

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Castor fiber beavers were driven toward near-extinction due to excessive hunting food and for their fur at the beginning of the 1990s.

In Europe, Eurasian beavers can be found in a few areas such as in Rhone, France; Elbe, Germany; Voronezh, Russia, Neman River and Dnepr Basin, Belarus; and Norway.

In Asia, there is still an existing Eurasian beaver population in Mongolia.

Globally, the IUCN classifies them under its list of "least concerned" species, meaning their population is very small, ranging between the hundreds and more than a thousand.

Furthermore, the IUCN the population of beavers, especially in Asia, needs urgent conservation measures.

Related Article: How Damming Beavers are Boosting Methane Production
Specialists clearly know that the venom of cone snails, which cruise the bottom for a fish feast, contains chemicals that can be used to treat chronic pain, diabetes, and other diseases.

However, the venom of cone snails has much more surprises.

A genus of cone snails creates a venom molecule comparable to the hormone somatostatin, according to a recent study published in Science Advances.

Toxins that came from Cone snails

An international team of scientists revealed that conical snails living in tropical lowlands create a substance that is identical to somatostatin, an inhibiting hormone used to treat growth, pancreatic, pain, and inflammatory diseases, as per infobae.

Even though the poison of these snails has been used for years to make drugs to treat chronic pain, diabetes, and other illnesses, the maximum capabilities or use of the compounds is unknown.

Now, a study published in Science Advances showed that a snail species creates a somatostatin-like toxin, and while the pharmaceutical uses are unclear, the discovery underscored the potential of poisons made and developed by snails for millions of years.

Helena Safavi-Hemami, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Utah and an affiliate professor at the University of Copenhagen said that they must extend the scope of what we expect these poisonous creatures to manufacture, presuming that they may indeed be creating anything.

According to Iris Bea Ramiro of the University of Copenhagen, cone snail venom is like a natural library of chemicals.

It began in Bohol, Philippines

Ramiro was raised on the Philippine island of Bohol, where the narrative begins.

Most cone snails seek fish. Some of them employ a "taser-and-tether" hunting method, in which they fire a barbed hook into a fish and administer a shock of venom that chemically decapitates and paralyzes the fish.

Others employ a net hunting method, spewing a mist of toxin into the water that contains components that deprive the fish of sensory information and cause them to become disoriented, as per the University of Utah.

Only half of the predicted eight groups of fish seeking cone snails have been thoroughly examined.

The Asprella cone snails are one of the least-studied genera. They are not, like some others, shallow-water snails. Instead, they prefer deeper seas at depths of 200-800 feet (60-250 m) and had therefore been inaccessible to experts.

Also Read: Cone Snail Venom Might Hold the Cure for Malaria, Study Shows

Cone snail collected at the University

Far outside the sparkling Pacific, Utah researchers have real researching cone snails and their venom since 1970, when Baldomero "Toto" Olivera moved in to Salt Lake City, bringing with him the cone snail investigation he'd undertaken in the Philippines.

Countless studies have yielded a wealth of knowledge about how toxins interact with receptors in the body and overpower normal metabolic processes.

Olivera and his colleagues looked into whether these effects may be used as medications in people.

Prialt, a pain reliever, was the result of one endeavor.

Frank Whitby, a research associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, determined the composition of Consomatin Ro1 using X-ray crystallography.

According to Christopher Hill, a renowned professor of biochemistry, this was a significant addition since it demonstrated that Consomatin Ro1 does not mimic somatostatin but instead a pharmacological analog of somatostatin called octreotide.

Meanwhile, the study team collaborated with local fishermen off the coast of Cebu, an island near Bohol, to bring Asprella specimens to the lab to study their behavior patterns and biochemistry.

It is unclear how a venom substance that resembles somatostatin may be beneficial, but the study found that Consomatin Ro1 can block pain in mice with comparable efficacy to morphine and can be utilized to dull pain so that the prey does not realize it has been hit.

Researchers will now investigate the origins of consomatin Ro1 in snails to fully understand the structure's viability as an anti-inflammatory or painkiller.

Related article: New Research Shows How Cone Snail Venom Reduces Pain
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Not that we needed a reminder, but the past two years have driven home just how vital local doctors are to our states well-being.

Connecticut has weathered the coronavirus pandemic as well as any state, with most metrics since the advent of vaccines showing the state recording deaths and hospitalizations below national averages. But at the outset, when New York City and other international travel destinations served as entry points for the virus, Connecticut sustained a devastating blow.

Doctors and other medical professionals were asked to carry an exceptionally heavy load, and responded to the call. But amid the thanks offered to those in life-saving professions was the underlying reality that its not easy to be a doctor in Connecticut.

The burdens of care during the COVID pandemic have stretched an already thin margin even further, Dr. Timothy Siegrist, president of the Connecticut Urology Society, said in testimony before the state General Assembly this week. We are seeing record numbers of providers of all types planning to reduce care or leave practice entirely.

Siegrist and other doctors were testifying in support of a bill up for debate this session that would, among other measures, establish a physician loan reimbursement grant program. To be granted eligibility, a person would need to be licensed and employed in the state and have either graduated from a medical school in the state or completed a medical residency program at a licensed Connecticut hospital.

The bill also proposes a physician recruitment grant program that would offer $20,000 for doctors who relocate to Connecticut as full-time providers for at least two years, as well as establish a task force to review the states medical malpractice policies.

The high cost of living in Connecticut comes up in a variety of contexts, and even among high-earning professions such as physician, it can be a detriment. For one thing, doctors nearly always come out of school deeply in debt, and when that much more of their salary needs to go toward paying for a place to live, it serves as a severe disincentive.

Connecticut has as solid a pipeline of young doctors as any state could ask, with medical schools at major universities graduating new physicians every year who have a lot of choices about where they want to land. Keeping them in Connecticut should be a priority for lawmakers, both for their earning power and contribution to the state economy as well as for the irreplaceable services they provide.

As reported by the CT Mirror, a report from the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that the nation is due to see a doctor shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 primary care and specialty care physicians by 2034. Such a deficit would put health care services at risk with a particular hit in marginalized communities, rural areas and low-income neighborhoods. Connecticut is far from alone in facing such challenges.

Thats why its important to act. Other states will surely be passing legislation aimed at bringing doctors in, and Connecticut should not be left behind.
From learning about the science of the stars to sheering sheep this weekend in Connecticut offers something for everyone.

Here are 25 things to do in Connecticut this weekend:
As part of the White House effort to secure the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, 277 Florida lawyers have signed a letter endorsing her elevation to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Jackson, the letter said, fits squarely within the mainstream of American legal thought.

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The message counters Republican efforts to label her a judicial activist. Some Republican senators have accused her of not being tough enough in sentencing child pornographers in her current job as a U.S. district judge, a charge described as misleading by independent fact checkers.

[ RELATED: Senate committee wraps up hearings on Ketanji Brown Jacksons nomination ]

The lawyers said Jackson excelled in the most rigorous academic environments, touted her unique blend of personal and professional experience and said she has a reputation for collegiality and consensus building.

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The six-paragraph letter, dated Wednesday, was released Thursday by the White House.

The Florida lawyers touted the nominees Miami roots.

Judge Jackson would make an exceptional nominee regardless of where she was raised. But as leaders in the legal community in Florida, we take special pride in the fact that Judge Jackson is a daughter of Florida, one of the most international and culturally rich states in the union. Even as a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Judge Jackson stood out among her peers as a leader in a community that included culturally diverse students from African-American, Cuban-American, and Jewish homes. Her journey as the daughter of public school teachers to the highest levels of American law attests to the promise of America, the letter said.

(article continues after the letter)

If confirmed she would be the first Black Associate Supreme Court Justice in history, the fourth justice of color and the sixth woman.

The letter is addressed to six senators: the Democratic chairman and top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, the majority and minority leaders, and Florida Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. Neither Rubio nor Scott is expected to vote for Jackson, who was raised in Miami.

The letter was signed by enough lawyers that, if they were all working at the same firm, would be among the 10 largest in the state. The 12 pages of supporters included lawyers at major law firms, small groups, solo practices and public interest organizations. Some work in Legal Aid Society offices and public defenders offices. Jackson was a public defender earlier in her career.

More than a third of the signatories are from Miami-Dade County. Another three dozen are from Palm Beach County and two dozen from Broward.

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Also this week, the White House put out a letter from 71 law professors and legal scholars supporting Jacksons nomination to succeed retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.

[ RELATED: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says hell vote against Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court ]

On March 11, 83 former Democratic and Republican attorneys general signed a letter in support of Jacksons nomination. The only one on that list from Florida was former Attorney General and former Broward Sheriff Bob Butterworth.

The law professors letter also touted her experience and Florida upbringing and urged senators not to not let the confirmation process devolve into a polarized partisan affair, as it regrettably has in the past.

We urge the Senate to evaluate Judge Jacksons broad and impressive experience on a non-partisan basis and, after doing so, to confirm her to the U.S. Supreme Court by a wide margin, as it did for Justice Breyer 27 years ago, the letter from the lawyers said. Virtually identical language was in the law professors and scholars letter.

Orlando Sentinel staff writer Jeffrey Schweers contributed to this report.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @browardpolitics
The condition of this section of Fair Street in Newburyport, between Spring and Essex streets, was rated as very poor by Beta Engineering. This road is included in the repair plans for Wards 2, 4 and 6 in fiscal 2024. The proposed repair method for this section is reclamation.
Former President Donald Trump is taking Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee to court over what he has called the Russia hoax, allegations that his successful 2016 campaign for the presidency was aided by collusion with Russia.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Florida, Trump accuses his opponents of manufacturing the Russian collusion story in a bid to undermine the legitimacy of his campaign, his Electoral College victory and his presidency.

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Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot  one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nations democracy, attorneys for the former president wrote. The defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent ... was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty. The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme  falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources  are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.

Trumps ties to Russia were brought up as a campaign issue repeatedly in 2016, with Clinton calling him a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised debate. The extent of the Trump campaigns ties to Russia were investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose report on Russian interference became a political Rorschach test after it was released in March 2019.

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The investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government, Muellers report concluded. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the [Trump] campaign. In some instances, the campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the campaign officials shied away. Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.

According to Trumps lawsuit, the allegations of collusion were nothing more than political theater aimed at destroying Trumps life and political career.

Trumps lawyers, from the Ticktin Law Group in Deerfield Beach, say the former president has spent more than $24 million defending himself against the collusion allegations since 2016.

Rafael Olmeda may be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Twitter @rolmeda
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South Florida can expect attention-getting cooler weather in the early-morning hours Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures in the low-60s thanks to the same cold front that spurred tornadoes in the New Orleans area earlier this week.

But high temperatures each day are expected in the mid- to upper-70s, meaning Spring Break festivities should be mostly uninterrupted.

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Two periods of rain are possible in the next few days with the passing cold front, according to Ana Torres-Vazquez, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

[ RELATED: Were not as wild and crazy: As Miami Beach enacts Spring Break curfew, Fort Lauderdale embraces different vibe ]

The first round will be a round of showers and thunderstorms [Thursday] afternoon coming ahead of the front, she said. The second round is expected to begin later overnight and early Friday morning once the front has kind of made it through and is exiting the region.

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Even with the brief cooldown, weekend temperatures will be only slightly below normal, which is defined as the average over the past 30 years. The average normal temperature is 77 degrees, while the average high is 81 and the average low is 67.

Spring Breakers play volleyball on Fort Lauderdale Beach on March 19, 2022. (Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel)

Fridays morning temperatures are forecast for the upper-60s or low-70s with Fridays high temperatures forecast for 75, both of which are normal for this time of year.

Saturday and Sunday mornings get cooler, with temperatures forecast for the low-60s.

However, highs each day are forecast for the mid- to upper-70s with highs of 79 forecast for Saturday and Sunday.

[ RELATED: Spring break has arrived in Fort Lauderdale, and these tips and reminders will help visitors enjoy and stay safe ]

In the Lake Okeechobee region, low temperatures could dip to the 50s with wind chills in the upper-40s over the weekend.

The big thing to watch the next few days for beachgoers and Spring Breakers remains the risk of rip currents.

This has been kind of the story the past several weeks, Torres-Vazquez said.

Theres a high risk of rip currents Thursday across Atlantic beaches. Conditions improve slightly Saturday but the rip current risk increases again late this weekend and into early next week.

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Palm Beach County surfers will have to be aware of the rip current risk as well as high seas and windy conditions.

All in all, Torres-Vazquez said, conditions may be risky for any kind of water activity into the weekend at least for Palm Beach.
Stacker curated a list of the first jobs of 50 famous actors. These stars range across eras and styles and their first jobs represent a true cross-section of American career arcs. Click for more.
JONESBORO  The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has identified the man Clayton County police shot and killed early Wednesday morning.

Charles Henry Calhoun, 68, was killed after he pointed a gun at officers, according to Police Chief Kevin Roberts.

Calhoun died at the scene.

Recommended for you +51 50 first jobs of famous actors Stacker curated a list of the first jobs of 50 famous actors. These stars range across eras and styles and their first jobs represent a true cross-section of American career arcs. Click for more.

Police responded to a person armed call at 5:20 a.m. on Jenni Circle in Jonesboro Wednesday, March 23.

They met with neighbors who guided officers to Calhouns location. Community members told police he had a long gun and was shooting it.

Roberts said when officers made contact with the armed Calhoun, he was wearing pajamas and laying on the ground in the prone position.

He was given verbal commands to drop his weapon. Roberts said an officer fired when he pointed what is believed to be a shotgun at police.

Its unclear whether Calhoun fired at police before officers shot him. However, the chief noted that several shots were reportedly fired before and after police arrived on scene.

The shots are believed to be random, he said. No officers were injured and the community is safe.

Clayton County police are continuing their investigation into the incident.

As is customary, the GBI is conducting an independent investigation of the shooting. Once completed, the case file will be turned over to the District Attorneys Office for review.
Edgewater High School students wave flags and signs while walking out of class to protest the Dont Say Gay bill that is headed to the Florida Senate, Friday, March 4, 2022. Students have mobilized in recent days across the state to oppose Florida House Bill 1557, which passed in the House last week and limits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in the states primary public schools. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Young people across time, race and place have always led movements to pave the way for equality and freedom. When communities are under attack, you are the ones who fight back  even when the fight isnt your own. From the Greensboro sit-in to more recent protests to defend Black lives, you have shown up, stood up and refused to let up until you bend the arc of history towards justice.

You have done it in the face of fierce opposition. And youre still doing it today, even as some politicians seek to hold on to their own power by silencing your voice.

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Across the country, some politicians are pushing laws to restrict your freedoms  because of the color of your skin, where you live, the people you love or the gender with which you identify  by targeting the public schools you attend. Rather than adequately funding them, some politicians are using our schools to stoke fear instead of doing their job to ensure our students have everything they need to thrive.

Becky Pringle is president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country.

Were seeing this take place in real time in Florida, where the state legislature just passed the shameful Dont Say Gay bill. This deeply disturbing legislation aims to censor educators and prevent them from valuing, affirming and supporting our students because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And in doing so, it also seeks to isolate students, like you, who dare to ask questions to better understand and express yourselves and the world around you.

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Sadly, this isnt just happening in Florida. Across our nation, politicians are manufacturing false narratives about young people  and then proposing unconstitutional, discriminatory and just plain harmful solutions to nonexistent problems  seeking to inflame and divide communities.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott recently directed the state Department of Family and Protective Services to consider gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth to be child abuse. And in 2021 alone, more than 250 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across America.

These politicians are introducing, passing and enacting these harmful bills into law, hoping that you wont notice their failures. Theyre hoping to twist what theyre doing into making you believe that theyre fighting for kids. But you arent letting them get away with it. From protests to walk outs, you are bravely showing these politicians that you arent afraid to stand up for yourselves, speak for yourselves as well as your peers, and fight back.

To our students in Florida and elsewhere: We see you! We hear you! We are with you!

During my more than 30 years of teaching, I often found myself learning as much from the courage of my students as they learned from me. And one of my most life-changing lessons came from a young man who bravely confided in me about his own experience being bullied at school for being gay. You see, when I overheard bullying in the hallways, I would always step in and intervene. But I would do it in the corner because I didnt want to embarrass the targeted student. Listening to this student talk about his own experience, and asking me, and all educators, to speak up for him taught me that not only did I need to stand up  others needed to see me do it. They needed to know that Mrs. Pringles room was a safe space.

Little did I know the impact this lesson would have not only on me, but on my daughter, whom I was lucky enough to teach in my middle school science class. At that time, neither of us knew that she would one day grow up and fall in love with the woman of her dreams. But as she was struggling in those teenage years with her own identity, she watched me stand up for her classmates and friends. And when she was ready to come out, she already knew that I would love, support and fight for her. And now that my daughter has a beautiful daughter of her own, it is up to us, all of us, to ensure my granddaughter is safe, and her parents are valued and respected.

So to students in Florida and across the country: I urge you to continue standing tall, speaking out and fighting for what is right. And I hope you know that when you do  whenever you do  you will always have an educator in your corner who will not only see and hear you, but will stand up with you and demand that people see your humanity, protect your rights and respect you for who you are.

Becky Pringle is president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. High 56F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low 53F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Robert F. O'Malley, 42, faces four to 15 years when sentenced in March after pleading guilty Tuesday in an October 2020 accident that killed Dr. Robert Schuh, 58, who was riding his bike on U.S. 150.
Chinese, Nigerien FMs meet on ties, regional security

Xinhua) 13:20, March 24, 2022

ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Nigerien Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou Wednesday on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held in the Pakistani capital.

Wang said that China and Niger have enjoyed solid mutual trust and friendship, and have always firmly supported each other on the issues concerning each other's core interests.

Noting that the two countries have witnessed deepening economic and trade cooperation and smooth advancement of key projects, Wang said China is ready to work with Niger to promote the implementation of the outcomes of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Niger to better benefit the Nigerien people.

China appreciates Niger's contribution during its tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and is willing to strengthen coordination with Niger on multilateral affairs, jointly oppose hegemonism, uphold international equity and justice, and safeguard the common interests of both countries and developing countries at large, Wang said.

China hopes that Niger will support the Global Development Initiative, build greater international consensus and speed up the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Wang added.

For his part, Massaoudou said the Global Development Initiative proposed by the Chinese leader is visionary and has the firm support of Niger.

China has always offered timely assistance to Niger when it encountered difficulties. China is the first to respond to Niger's request for COVID-19 assistance, providing the first batch of vaccines, which Niger will bear in mind, he said.

Niger is willing to deepen its friendship with China, an important economic and trade partner for the country, and accelerate economic development and enhance its international competitiveness with China's support, he added.

The Nigerien foreign minister also introduced the security situation in the Sahel region and hoped to strengthen the regional security cooperation mechanism and enhance Niger's capability to safeguard security.

In response, Wang said that China supports national security capacity building in the Sahel region.

Noting that development is the basis for security, Wang said that China stands ready to continue to provide assistance within its capacity to the countries in the region to accelerate development and improve people's livelihood, and to mobilize more resources and form stronger synergies by strengthening South-South cooperation so as to support African countries to achieve common development.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Marco Rubio finally showed up for work.

Then he did the wrong thing.

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Last week, Floridas senior senator sneaked through the chamber a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Its been a Rubio priority for years.

According to published reports, it took all of 14 seconds to get the Sunshine Protection Act approved by voice vote through what the Senate calls unanimous consent. Sen. Kyrsten Synema, D-Ariz., who was presiding, said, I was surprised that someone didnt object.

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No one objected because almost no one knew what was happening. Rubio abused the privilege of unanimous consent. Senators seeking approval of a bill in that fashion are supposed to notify their colleagues. Any senator can  and usually does  object.

Many senators, though, said they received no such notification. One of those was Floridas other senator, Rick Scott, who in 2018 signed legislation to make daylight time permanent in Florida.

Being sneaky was bad enough. But Rubio used that stealth to pass the wrong bill.

Gods time

We agree that Congress should end the twice-a-year annoyance of changing clocks. The loss of an hour from the shift to daylight time is especially hard.

The better change, though, would be to make standard time  what farmers once called Gods Time  permanent. As experts pointed out after the Senate acted, its the natural way to go.

We do applaud stopping the switching during the course of the year and settling on a permanent time, Jocelyn Cheng told the Washington Post. She serves on the public safety committee of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Cheng, however, said, Standard time, for so many scientific and circadian rationales and public health safety reasons, should really be what the permanent time is set to.

In plainer English, circadian rationales means that having the sun rise earlier more closely matches our internal clocks. Two years ago, the academy issued a statement favoring year-round standard time.

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Daylight time, the statement said, upsets those internal clocks. The academy has linked such disruption to higher risks of heart disease, depression and obesity.

Fortunately, the legislation must go to the House. The simplest thing would be for that chamber to choose standard time and return the bill to the Senate. In each case, there should be the sort of debate that Rubio prevented.

Now if only Rubio would show the same interest in the rest of his job.

The Man Who Wasnt There

Since Joe Biden became president, Rubio has been The Man Who Wasnt There. He has joined other Republicans in skipping committee meetings to stall key Biden appointments.

One stands out. Biden nominated the eminently qualified Deborah Lipstadt to be special envoy in fighting global antisemitism. In South Florida, which Rubio claims to represent, thats almost a local issue.

But Lipstadts nomination has stalled for eight months in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rubio is the second-ranking Republican.

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Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rubios GOP colleague, has held up Lipstadts nomination. Apparently, Lipstadt hurt his feelings when she sent out a critical tweet.

The commission is evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans. Rubio could break that deadlock by voting to confirm Lipstadt. Instead, he has displayed another profile in cowardice.

Rubio doesnt do much better when he shows up to vote. His hypocrisy is on display.

After voting for COVID-19 relief during the Trump administration, Rubio voted against the 2021 American Rescue Plan. Among other things, it extended the child tax care credit that Rubio once wanted expanded.

Rubio voted against the infrastructure bill that got 18 Republican votes in the Senate. Rubio later demanded that the Biden administration prioritize money for Floridas airports, which will get $240 million from the legislation that Rubio rejected.

Rubio voted against the bill to increase competitiveness with China by creating more domestic supply chains. Pre-Biden, Rubio said the country needed more domestic supply chains.

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But we call particular attention to Rubios record on Ukraine.

Though he regularly misses committee meetings, Rubio never misses a chance to appear on Fox News. Under friendly questioning, he seeks to pass himself off as a serious-minded senator.

But while Rubio has criticized Biden for supposedly not helping Ukraine enough, Rubio voted against the spending bill to keep the government operating. It has $13.6 billion for Ukraine. The money will supply weaponry and humanitarian aid and support increased U.S. deployment to Eastern Europe.

In addition, Business Insider reported that since 2017, Rubio has missed nearly 50 meetings of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Many of the topics related to Ukraine and NATO.

Rubio is seeking a third term this year. Its past time for him to start working for Florida.

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.
The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a sharp rise in the use of plastics globally. To prevent the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves, masks, etc., has become mandatory and such equipment and the packaging material make extensive use of plastics. This is detrimental to the environment because plastics disintegrate micro/nanoparticles due to physical, chemical, or biological actions. Owing to their small size, they can enter into food chains and pose significant threats to the ecosystem. Polystyrene is used in the manufacture of PPEs but is less studied regarding its eco-genotoxicity. A new study forthcoming in the journal Chemosphere studies the effects of polystyrene beads on three freshwater species.

Study: Toxic impact of polystyrene microplastic particles in freshwater organisms. Image Credit:

Background

The increased use of plastics is harmful to the environment due to its long half-life, very low degradation rate, and poor waste management. To give an idea of the scale of the problem, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 89 million medical masks were required each month in 2020. Further, the International Solid Waste Association has estimated the consumption of single-use plastics to rise by 250 to 300%, compared to pre-pandemic times. Furthermore, a recent study has shown that more than eight million tons of plastic waste were generated globally in response to the pandemic, and more than 25,000 tons entered the oceans. This has raised the presence of microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in the aquatic environment.

Some studies have already focused on the distribution and the occurrence of MP in the marine environment, while others have focussed on the toxicity of microplastic particles or single polymers. There are very few studies that look into the effect of the pandemic on waste and plastic pollution. The MP particles of polystyrene have been observed to be genotoxic and this could be due to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS).

A New Study

The current study expands the knowledge on the acute, chronic, and subchronic effects of MP polystyrene beads (PS-MP, size 1.0 m) on three species of the freshwater chain. These species are the green alga Raphidocelis subcapitata, the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus, the cladoceran crustacean Ceriodaphnia dubia, and the benthic ostracod Heterocypris incongruens. Researchers also studied the genotoxicity and ROS production in C. dubia. Next, using light microscopy, scientists also explored the presence of PS-MP in the gut of daphnids and also calculated the risk quotient (RQ) to estimate the risk posed by PS-MPs in the freshwater environment.

The rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus shown under Nomarski illumination, Robinson R (2007) In Cryptic Population Dynamics, Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence. PLoS Biol 5(9): e255. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050255

Key Findings

Researchers observed that the organisms acutely affected by 24 hour  PS-MP exposure were the rotifer and the cladoceran crustacean. In addition, an independent study found the median immobilization of Daphnia pulex to be around 76.69 mg/L, and this number was well within the confidence interval obtained by the authors of the present study.

The crustacean C. dubia was the organism most affected by the PS-MP. Its EC50, after 7 days exposure, was in the order of units of g/L (106 p/L) and it also reported a lowest observed effect concentration (LOEC) value in the order of tenths of g/L (105 p/L). These values signify operating very close to what could be considered to be an environmental concern. Further, researchers also observed that the gut of C. dubia was filled with PS-MP after 24 hours exposure, at concentrations ranging from 8.5 g/L through 85 mg/L. The former concentration corresponds to 50% mortality while the latter is 100% mortality.

Scientists stated that the exposure of aquatic organisms to PS-MP could lead to long-term toxicity and also have adverse effects, including DNA damage. By exposing C. dubia neonates to PS-MP for 24 hours, they demonstrated the alterations in genetic material and production of ROS. Previous studies have also shown that exposure to PS-microparticles or PS- nanoparticles could increase the amount of ROS, causing the breakage of DNA strands.

The value of PS-MP RQ was computed to be equal to 7.2, absolutely above the threshold value of 1, signifying severe environmental concern for the freshwater ecosystem. The results documented herein show conclusively that during the COVID-19 era, the consumption of plastic materials, including polystyrene products, has led to an abundant deposition of micro and nanoplastics in the environment.

Concluding Remarks

The current study has provided novel insights into the eco-geno /toxicological implications of the 1 m polystyrene, considered to be a borderline size between micro- and nanoplastic particles. This contaminant has been seen to pose serious risks to freshwater organisms, as plastic particles can easily bypass conventional treatment plants. Additionally, these particles could act as carriers of toxins, pathogens, or other hazardous elements, thereby compounding the problem. As there are no concrete solutions to remove microplastic particles, it is absolutely essential to adopt sustainable strategies that prevent further plastic pollution.
West Nile virus, Usutu virus, Zika virus, and St. Louis encephalitis virus are all transmitted by mosquitoes and cause a significant threat to human health.

Nisha Duggal, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences and pathobiology in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, has recently received three R21 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling $825,000 to combat the transmission of these diseases, develop therapeutics, and predict future disease in humans.

"Mosquito-borne viruses are emerging globally, with increasing host range and disease potential. With this funding, we are determining who is most at risk for transmission and looking to develop future vaccines and therapeutics," said Duggal, who is also an affiliated faculty member of the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens and the Fralin Life Sciences Institute.

Duggal's long-term goal is to understand how viral adaptation during emergence affects virus transmission and pathogenesis. Her interests involve emerging viruses, host-virus co-evolution, virus transmission, and immunity in birds.

With these grants, Duggal and her research team will tackle Usutu virus, West Nile virus, and St. Louis encephalitis virus transmission and pathogenesis in mosquitos and birds; study Zika virus sexual transmission in humans; and use molecular virology and phylogenetic tools to predict future viral emergence and disease.

"Nisha's innovative research on these medically important, mosquito-borne viruses fits nicely in an important thematic area of vector biology and vector-borne diseases within the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic and Arthropod-borne Pathogens. These grants will allow Nisha to continue her ongoing collaborations both within and outside of Virginia Tech and further establish her as a rising star in the field of emerging and vector-borne viral diseases," said X.J. Meng, University Distinguished Professor and interim executive director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute.

West Nile virus and Usutu virus research

West Nile virus and Usutu virus are closely related mosquito-borne viruses that cause disease in the human nervous system. West Nile virus emerged from Africa and Europe into the U.S. in 1999, and it is now the most common mosquito-borne disease in the continental U.S.; however, no vaccines or therapeutics are available. Usutu virus is emerging in Europe, where it has been introduced at least three times from Africa by migratory birds, and human disease cases are increasing.

For this project, Duggal is developing a reverse genetics system by transforming the viral RNA into DNA that can be more easily manipulated for experiments. Duggal hopes to discover cross-reactivity in immune responses to determine if future vaccines can be used for both viruses. The long-term goal is the development of therapeutics to reduce disease.

Zika virus research

Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Zika virus is also transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy and through sexual contact, transfusion of blood and blood products, and organ transplantation.

Duggal and her team plan to use this grant funding to identify the infectious potential of Zika virus in semen and the window of time in which infection is possible between sexual partners. Upon successful completion of the proposed research, the anticipated impact of this work will be the identification of the cellular source of Zika virus in semen and the ability to assess and prevent the risk of Zika virus sexual transmission.

West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, and Usutu virus research

West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, and Usutu virus are closely related mosquito-borne viruses that are maintained in overlapping bird and mosquito transmission cycles, with spillover to humans.

Duggal and her team will study North American birds and mosquitoes to identify possible transmission cycles. The long-term goal of this project is to understand the factors that influence novel virus emergence in order to predict future outbreaks in humans.
Of the estimated five million patients in the U.S. diagnosed with heart failure annually, nearly half will have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Also known as diastolic heart failure, HFpEF occurs when the heart's lower left chamber loses its ability to relax and fill up with enough blood in between in each heartbeat.

To compensate, the heart increases pressure inside the ventricle to properly fill with blood. This increased filling can cause fluid buildup in the lungs, leading to shortness of breath, fatigue, irregular heartbeat and, ultimately, heart failure.

While HFpEF accounts for most heart failure-related hospitalizations in the U.S. for people over 65, there is still a limited understanding about the underlying biological mechanisms and how to effectively prevent and treat the disease.

At the forefront of HFpEF research are investigators at the Feinberg School of Medicine, who were recently awarded an $18.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the underlying pathophysiology of HFpEF. The grant is part of the NIH's HeartShare program, a multi-institutional research effort with the goal of characterizing the mechanisms driving HFpEF and identifying new therapies.

Sanjiv Shah, '00 MD, the Neil J. Stone, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and director of Northwestern Medicine's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute  Clinical Trials Unit, will lead HeartShare's Data Translation Center at Northwestern, which will coordinate patient phenotypic data for all six HeartShare program sites.

"The HeartShare grant from the NIH is a phenomenal opportunity to continue our research to improve the classification of the heterogeneous HFpEF syndrome, understand the biological basis of HFpEF phenotypes and set the stage for precision medicine clinical trials for HFpEF," said Shah, who is also director of the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine's Center for Deep Phenotyping and Precision Therapeutics.

Northwestern will also be home to one of HeartShare's six clinical centers. Sadiya Khan, '09 MD, '14 MSc, '10, '12 GME, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Epidemiology will lead the center, along with Laura Rasmussen-Torvik, PhD, chief of Epidemiology in the Department of Preventive Medicine, to recruit and enroll patients with HFpEF.

Collectively, the field has come far, but we have not sufficiently addressed HFpEF. Uniquely here at Northwestern, we have the talent and now the resources to allow us to further study the pathophysiology of this particular iteration of heart failure." Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc, the Magerstadt Professor and vice dean for Diversity and Inclusion, chief of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine and professor of Medical Social Sciences

Improving diagnosis and treatment

HFpEF continues to be one of the most challenging cardiovascular conditions to diagnosis and treat. Unlike heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, there are currently no clear diagnostic tests for HFpEF. Healthcare providers must rely on interpreting patient signs and symptoms or cardiac imaging results, which often leads to a missed diagnosis.

A lack of clear definitions for subtypes of HFpEF has also contributed to confusion and misdiagnosis, therefore not all HFpEF patients receive the same treatment, and while some proven treatments are available and FDA-approved, long-term benefit is limited.

"Major work is still necessary in the areas of increasing recognition and diagnosis of HFpEF, discovering new biological pathways underlying the HFpEF syndrome, and identifying and validating novel phenotypes of HFpEF that can be targeted with specific therapies, which is consistent with our goal of advancing precision medicine for common, heterogeneous disorders like HFpEF," Shah said.

Nevertheless, Shah added that in the past 15 years, investigators have learned more about the underlying biological basis of HFpEF. For example, risk factors such as physical inactivity, obesity, metabolic stress, hypertension and autoimmune diseases contribute to the development of HFpEF.

In 2007, Shah developed the worlds first HFpEF-dedicated clinical program at Northwestern to improve HFpEF prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. In February, his team found that patients with HFpEF could benefit from an atrial shunt, publishing their findings in The Lancet. The novel, minimally invasive device which is placed through a catheter could potentially lower pressure in the heart's left atrium and reduce HFpEF symptoms.

Northwestern's recent support from the NIH will expand upon this work, enabling Feinberg investigators to further study HFpEF to improve diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes. Additionally, Feinberg investigators have already made significant contributions to the advancement of HFpEF treatments and identifying at-risk patient groups.

In a study published in Nature Medicine, a team of investigators including Shah and Khan found that dapagliflozin  a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes  improved symptoms and physical limitations in patients with HFpEF.

Utilizing machine learning

Feinberg investigators have also employed machine learning to identify patients diagnosed with hypertension who were at risk of HFpEF. Led by Yuan Luo, PhD, associate professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Health and Biomedical Informatics and chief AI officer for the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine, the team used machine learning technologies to identify subgroups of patients with hypertension who expressed abnormal cardiac mechanisms.

"Such subtyping is important for heterogeneous clinical syndromes like hypertension and HFpEF," Luo said. "Our results offer new avenues to systematically and coherently deriving such subtypes, which can lead to earlier identification of targeted interventions and improve patient outcomes."

Expanding cardiovascular research and care

Northwestern will soon have the opportunity to increase its cardiac care capacity with the creation of Northwestern Medicine's new Bluhm Heart Hospital at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Made possible by Chicago philanthropist Neil G. Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation, the hospital will expand cardiovascular research and modernize cardiovascular care services at Northwestern and help Feinberg investigators recruit more patients in clinical trials with greater speed and diversity.

"With the new Bluhm Heart Hospital, we hope to expand the multidisciplinary nature of our program, see more patients, and offer even more clinical trials," Shah said. "In addition, we are one of the leading centers for developing interventional HFpEF therapies, and our vision is to house a center for interventional heart failure therapies in the Bluhm Heart Hospital where we can develop and test novel interventional treatments for our HFpEF patients."
A smart bra device developed in Nigeria can detect breast cancer early, potentially saving African women long journeys to access screening services, its inventor says.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 129,000 new cases diagnosed in 2020. Only around half of women here live for more than five years after being diagnosed, with late diagnosis a major factor, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Robotics engineer Kemisola Bolarinwa, who developed the smart bra, hopes it will be instrumental in addressing the barriers to early detection of the disease.

"My beloved mother died of breast cancer in 2017 at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria because it was diagnosed late," says Bolarinwa, founder of Nextwear Technology, a wearable technology company based in Abuja, Nigeria.

"In her ward at the hospital, I saw women of different age groups, even teenagers, groaning in the pain of breast cancer. That was when I felt I needed to contribute my part to fight the disease."

Bolarinwa tells SciDev.Net that women could use the device safely from the comfort of their home to check their breasts on a regular basis.

"If they could detect early that they have cancer, then they will be safe, and many don't have to die," she explains.

The inventor hopes the device will be ready to market in July this year, after a four-year journey. The engineer and her team started work on the design in 2018 and by February 2020 had come up with their first prototype. Since then, the company has developed ten more, she says.

We have conducted a local trial and got about 70 per cent accuracy. We are working towards 95-97 per cent accuracy," Kemisola Bolarinwa, Founder of Nextwear Technology

The smart bra was developed using ultrasound technology, she explains, and the chargeable, battery-operated device comes with mobile and web apps that can display where a tumour is on the breasts.

"The result will show if the tumour is benign [harmless] or malignant [harmful]," Bolarinwa adds. "The smart bra must be worn on the breasts for a maximum of 30 minutes for the result to show. The app also has an interface for the result to be transmitted to a doctor."

Bolarinwa says it is her dream to see many African women saved from breast cancer, adding that her invention could save the stress of women travelling long distances to cities for cancer screening.

The invention, she says, has received the approval of Nigeria's Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Communications and DigitalEconomy, and the Communications Commission.

Bolarinwa says her team will consider affordability when the smart bra is finally produced for the market, but delays in getting raw materials shipped from overseas and a lack of funding have been a challenge.

The project is funded with revenue from the company's first-ever product, a global positioning system (GPS) necklace device that alerts wearers' families and friends of their movements, to help navigate insecurity in Nigeria.

Breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, according to statistics released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in December 2020.

Diagnosis of the disease at an advanced stage greatly reduces the possibilities of curative treatment, but many African women experience delays in being diagnosed, according to a WHO report on breast cancer outcomes in the region.

Francis Durosinmi-Etti, a professor of radiation therapy and oncology at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, says that technology such as the smart bra could help change this.

"The idea is good," he tells SciDev.Net. "I probably heard of a smart bra in 2015, but it wasn't for cancer detection. The ultrasound technology behind the smart bra sounds okay because it does not produce any radiation."
Scientists already know that the venom of cone snails, which prowl the ocean floor for a fish dinner, contains compounds that can be adapted as pharmaceuticals to treat chronic pain, diabetes and other human maladies. But the cone snails' venom has more secrets yet to be revealed. In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers report that a group of cone snails produces a venom compound similar to the hormone somatostatin.

While they continue to learn more about this venom compound and its possible pharmaceutical applications, the results show the wide variety of drug leads that venomous animals produce, designed and refined over millions of years.

We have to broaden the scope of what we expect that these venomous animals make, assuming that they could really be making anything. We should look very broadly and keep an open eye for completely new compounds." Helena Safavi-Hemami, adjunct assistant professor, University of Utah and associate professor, University of Copenhagen

"Cone snail venom is like a natural library of compounds," adds Iris Bea Ramiro of the University of Copenhagen. "It is just a matter of finding what is in that library."

Find the full study here. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, a Villum Young Investigator Grant, the Department of Science and Technology-;Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, USAID and the Benning Society.

Beginning in Bohol

The story begins in the Philippines, on the island of Bohol where Ramiro grew up. Although she and most Boholanos didn't encounter cone snails often except for finding shells on the beach, fishermen knew how to find and catch the venomous snails, which are often sold to shell collectors and are sometimes eaten. One fisherman told Ramiro that his parents warned him to avoid eating a bean-like organ in the snail.

"The bean-like structure is actually a bulb that is connected to the gland where venom is produced," Ramiro says.

Some cone snails are fish hunters. Some of those use a "taser-and-tether" hunting strategy, shooting a barbed hook into a fish and delivering a jolt of venom that chemically electrocutes and paralyzes the fish. Others use a net hunting strategy, releasing a cloud of venom into the water with compounds that leave the fish sensory-deprived and disoriented.

Of the estimated eight groups of fish hunting cone snails, though, only half have been extensively studied. Among the least-studied lineages are the Asprella cone snails. They're not shallow-water snails, like some others. They like deeper waters, at depths of 200-800 feet (60-250 m), and have been less accessible to scientists.

As a graduate student at the University of the Philippines, Ramiro began studying Conus rolani, a species of Asprella snail. "No one in our lab was working on it at that time," she says. "I was just looking to identify any small peptide (chain of amino acids) from the venom of C. rolani that had unusual or interesting activity in mice."

She found one. A small peptide from the venom caused mice to act sluggishly or unresponsive. But it was slow-acting, hardly the expected effect since other cone snails produced venoms that acted almost immediately. It had a few similarities to the hormone somatostatin (more on that later) but not enough to say conclusively that the venom peptide and the human hormone were functionally related.

While exploring how and why the venom worked, Ramiro made a visit to the University of Utah, a hub of cone snail research.

Cone snails at the U

Far from the glittering waters of the Pacific, U researchers have been studying cone snails and their venom since 1970, when Baldomero "Toto" Olivera arrived in Salt Lake City, bringing the cone snail research he'd begun in his native Philippines.

Decades of study have provided an abundance of information about how venom compounds interact with the bodies of prey fish, including how the venoms interact with receptors in the body and overwhelm natural biochemical processes. Olivera and his colleagues investigated whether those effects could be employed as pharmaceuticals in humans. One effort yielded a pain medication, Prialt. Another, in which Safavi played a leading role at the U as an assistant professor, investigated how insulin analogs produced by cone snails might be adapted as a fast-acting insulin for people with diabetes.

"Somehow cone snails take some of their hormones and turn them into weapons," Safavi says. So she and other researchers helped Ramiro compare the peptide she'd found, now called Consomatin Ro1, to known human proteins.

Frank Whitby, a research associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of Consomatin Ro1. "This was an important contribution because it showed that Consomatin Ro1 does not resemble somatostatin but rather resembles a drug analog of somatostatin called octreotide," says Christopher Hill, distinguished professor of biochemistry.

Meanwhile the research team also worked with local fishermen off Cebu, an island near Bohol, to bring Asprella specimens to the lab to observe their behavior and learn more about their biochemistry.

It took a year, Ramiro says, to confirm that the peptide that she'd originally isolated from the C. rolanisnail activates two of the five human receptors for somatostatin "with unique selectivity," she says.

"Then," Safavi says, "we really wanted to understand what it's doing and how it could be better than somatostatin."

Snails and snakes

Somatostatin is a hormone that, in humans and many other vertebrates, is generally an inhibitor-;kind of a wet blanket. It's the main inhibitor of growth hormone, and can be used to treat the excessive growth disorder acromegaly. It also inhibits hormones in the pancreas and signals of pain and inflammation.

"So it's this hormone that has many, many different functions in the human body," Safavi says, "But it's always blocking something. And because of that, it had been an interesting hormone for drug development for some time."

How can a hormone like somatostatin work as a weaponized venom, especially when it acts slowly? The best way to understand that, the researchers say, is to look to another predator with a slow-acting venom: the rattlesnake.

Rattlesnakes, vipers and cobras have developed a hunting strategy to protect themselves against dangerous prey that could possibly fight back. The snakes strike, injecting their venom, and then retreat. They then wait and follow their prey until the venom takes its full effect and the prey is dead or nearly dead and safe to approach and eat.

Observations of cone snails in tanks showed similarities to the rattlesnakes' strike-and-release hunting strategy. After injecting venom, the snails would wait, sometimes up to three hours, before delivering a second injection and waiting again.

"And only when the prey is really incapacitated and unable to swim, they come and eat it," Safavi says. "If you don't catch the prey immediately, you have the advantage of just waiting until the prey can no longer move. That's particularly important if the prey can fight back."

How does a venom component that mimics somatostatin help with that strategy? It's still unclear. The study showed that Consomatin Ro1 can block pain in mice with efficiency similar to morphine, and it may be used to block pain so that prey doesn't know it's been struck, Safavi says. Different species of fish hunters may use these toxins for different purposes.

Tiny drug designers

As a somatostatin analog, Safavi says, Consomatin Ro1 is structured "as if it was designed by drug makers." The molecule is short, stable and efficient in the receptors it targets.

That's likely a reflection of the process of evolution. Cone snails likely began using their own somatostatin in venom and then, through generations of trial and error, refined the compound for maximum effectiveness. That's an advantage for us, since the biology of fish and humans is similar enough that a compound that's highly effective in fish will likely be effective in humans.

It's yet to be seen whether Consomatin Ro1 is more effective than somatostatin analog drugs already on the market that treat growth disorders or tumors.

"The advantage with the cone snails, though, is that there are so many species," Safavi says. "And we know that many of these species make somatostatin, so the chances of finding the best analog might be pretty high."

Future directions

Next, the research team wants to investigate the origin of Consomatin Ro1 in snails, as well as better understand the potential of the compound as an anti-inflammatory or pain reliever. They'll also look to see if modifications to the compound could make it even more useful.

The results show how venomous animals can turn a hormone into a weapon and suggest that the range of biochemical tools in venom might be broader than previously thought.

"There's evidence that viruses also turn hormones into weapons," Safavi says. "We can spend a lot of time trying to design good hormone drugs, or we could try to look at nature more often. And I think if we did the latter, we might be more successful or we might be faster in our drug development efforts." Safavi will continue this work when she returns to the U as an associate professor of biochemistry in summer 2022.

"This gives insight to the development of next-generation therapeutics," says Hill. "More generally, this is a great example of how evolution in the natural world has already developed drug-like natural products that have great potential to improve human health."

"Discovering new peptides from the cone snails is fun and exciting but it could be a long and difficult journey," Ramiro says, adding that the integration of various disciplines including biology, biochemistry and pharmacology have made this study successful. "There is still so much we can find, discover and learn from the cone snails and their venom."
The threat from Melioidosis is real. The bacterium that causes this infectious multisymptom illness is resistant to antibiotics, making diagnosis and treatment more complex and resulting in a mortality rate of up to 50%. Professor Charles Gauthier of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has spent the past decade studying the neglected tropical disease. Having now received more than $700,000 in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), he is now embarking on preclinical testing for a vaccine in collaboration with professors Eric Deziel and Alain Lamarre.

Burkholderia pseudomallei is found in mud and soils, mainly in equatorial countries such as Australia, Thailand, India, and Brazil. When a flood or drought occurs, it can contaminate surface particles that are carried by the wind.

With rising temperatures and the growing risk of natural disasters, studies predict an increase in contamination and the areas at risk. We have to be ready." Professor Charles Gauthier, INRS

Over the course of the next five years, his team will develop a glycoconjugate vaccine. The sugars expressed on the bacterium's surface will thus be linked to a protein carrier recognized by the body's T cells-;the immune system "soldiers" who trigger the production of antibodies. Professor Lamarre, who specializes in vaccine development, and Professor Deziel, an expert in the microbiology of Burkholderia bacteria, will conduct vaccination studies in mice and investigate the nature of the immune responses.

Imitation sugars

The team of scientists will test several versions of the vaccine with different combinations of the three sugar chains, or polysaccharides, expressed by the bacterium. The sugars are promising because they are already targeted by antibodies. Rather than isolating them directly from the bacterium, Professor Gauthier uses imitations of these sugars developed in his earlier work. This approach avoids the risk of handling the pathogen.

"We have been able to synthesize polysaccharides that mimic those of the bacteria, in addition to being recognized by antibodies. It's pioneering work," he said. However, the synthesis process will need to be optimized to increase the total sugar yield.

As a member of the University of Oxford's VALIDATE network for the development of vaccines against neglected pathogens, Professor Gauthier can count on the help of scientists from around the world. One of his collaborators is US researcher Brad Borlee from Colorado State University, who supplies him with attenuated strains of Burkholderia pseudomallei. Borlee makes the sugars that will be used as controls for the sugar "mimics" in the vaccine studies. Gauthier is also working with Professor Siobhan McClean from University College Dublin, an Irish researcher investigating the proteins expressed by the bacterium. Those proteins are also targeted by the immune system and could be used jointly with the sugars to increase the vaccine's efficacy.
Just as a water filtration system acts to filter contaminants from the water you drink, your kidneys act to filter waste and excess fluid from your blood. In chronic kidney disease (CKD), kidney function is impaired over time, and the resultant build-up of excess fluid and waste has harmful repercussions on overall body function. Researchers in Japan conducted a study of real-world data from patients with CKD to evaluate the impact of a commonly prescribed medication on disease outcome.

In a study published in Hypertension, researchers from Osaka University have demonstrated an association between the use of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), a class of medicines that acts by suppressing the action of the steroid hormone aldosterone, and an improved renal prognosis in individuals with CKD.

As CKD progresses, the initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT), which includes dialysis and kidney transplantation, may be necessary for life support in kidney failure. MRAs, which include spironolactone, eplerenone, and potassium canrenoate, are commonly used to reduce swelling, blood pressure, and urine protein levels in people with CKD. However, the association between MRA treatment and the initiation of RRT has not been fully explored in a real-world population, which spurred the research team from Osaka University to undertake a large-scale retrospective study of MRA use in people with CKD.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical data from over 3100 individuals with CKD. We evaluated MRA treatment in various populations of people with CKD, including those with diabetes, heart disease, and severely impaired renal function." Tatsufumi Oka, Lead Author

The research team employed a marginal structural model to analyze the association between MRA use and the initiation of RRT across multiple patient subgroups.

"Our analysis showed that MRA use was associated with a 28% lower rate of RRT initiation and a 24% lower rate of the combined outcomes of RRT initiation and death," says senior author Jun-Ya Kaimori.

The research team observed a reduced risk for RRT initiation across various subgroups of people with CKD, including those with and without diabetes and those with severely impaired renal function. These findings highlight the association of MRA use and improved renal outcomes in a real-world population of CKD patients with varying health backgrounds. Overall, this study supports the use of MRAs in treatment plans for various groups of people with CKD who are not undergoing dialysis.
A vaccination campaign targeting 23 million children has kicked off in Malawi and neighboring countries to contain an outbreak of wild polio declared last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Malawi confirmed a fresh outbreak of the virus  the first in the country for 30 years  on 17 February after a three-year-old girl developed acute paralysis, triggering concerns of a major outbreak.

The wild poliovirus type 1 case was genetically linked to samples of patients analyzed in 2020 in Sindh, a province of Pakistan where this type of the virus is endemic.

This campaign is not the usual immunization where health workers are at a health facility and wait for children to come. Janet Kayita, WHO

There are three variants of wild or naturally occurring poliovirus. Types 2 and 3 have been eradicated, while type 1 remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Polio is a highly infectious and an untreatable disease that can result in permanent paralysis," said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, announcing the vaccination drive that started on Sunday.

"In support of Malawi and its neighbors, we are acting fast to halt this outbreak and extinguish the threat through effective vaccinations."

The vaccination campaign will deliver more than 80 million doses of bivalent oral polio vaccine to children under five in Malawi and neighboring countries Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia over the coming months.

The move comes two years after Africa was certified free of the indigenous wild poliovirus, which most often spreads through fecal matter taken into the mouth via contaminated food or fingers.

The WHO says that surveillance has been stepped up in Malawi, starting in the capital Lilongwe where the new case was detected and across 11 sites in the cities of Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba.However, no further new cases have been detected.

"To make sure we are not missing any cases, all health workers are on high alert," said Janet Kayita, the WHO representative for Malawi, explaining the country's three-pillar response to keep the outbreak in check, which also includes strengthening routine vaccination.

"This campaign is not the usual immunization where health workers are at a health facility and wait for children to come," she added, describing it as a "house-to-house active outreach" in all of Malawi's 29 districts where health workers are also tasked to identify children who might have missed their previous routine vaccines or have symptoms suggestive of polio.

"The idea is to reach every child, everywhere, including the communities living across the border,'' explained Kayita, adding that children will be inoculated regardless of their previous immunization status.

The first phase of the four-round campaign will target 9.4 million children in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, while three subsequent rounds starting in April, June and July will also include Zimbabwe, according to the WHO.

Elisha Osati, an internal medicine specialist and honorary lecturer at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania, welcomed the move. She believes that significant gains made over the years in taming the virus could be reversed if Africa does not act swiftly.

"For a continent that had already defeated wild poliovirus, the element of cross-border vaccination which is included in this vaccination campaign is key," said Osati.

"This strain of the poliovirus is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now that it has been detected in Malawi, it means that the risk of cross-border spread is still high. From now on, the effort should focus on making sure all corners of the world are free from this virus."
Shaving critical minutes off the time it takes to diagnose a heart attack and begin treatment could be as simple as the push of a button. Using a programmable button to page a phlebotomist for a blood draw reduced the time it took to identify patients suffering a heart attack by more than 11 minutes on average, in a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 71st Annual Scientific Session.

According to researchers, the study represents the first time programmable button technology-; designed to help consumers easily order products online-; has been applied in a medical setting.

Often in medicine you need a rapid response, but there are many processes that require numerous laborious steps that take time, and in the setting of a potential heart attack, time is muscle. The longer the wait, the more damage there is to the heart muscle and less chances for recovery. This approach potentially can cut out many steps. It's using innovative technology in an innovative way by bringing together the technology and the application to improve the process." Milind R. Dhond, MD, medical director of cardiovascular medicine at NorthBay Healthcare in Fairfield, California, and study's lead author

To diagnose a heart attack, doctors look at the level of troponin in the blood as an indicator of damage to the heart muscle. Drawing blood and sending it to the lab for analysis is integral to the process used to determine whether a heart attack is occurring before clinicians intervene to open the blocked artery.

Researchers adapted the Internet of Things (IoT) button developed by Amazon Web Services to page an on-call phlebotomist for a blood draw whenever a patient arrived in the hospital's emergency department with chest pain. The device is a physical, handheld button that communicates wirelessly, triggering a pre-programmed process when pressed-;a process similar to the "Buy now with 1-click" option Amazon developed for its web-based product ordering system. Having the button handy allowed triage nurses to rapidly summon a phlebotomist for patients with chest pain while continuing the rest of the patient intake process.

For the study, researchers compared the records of 2,098 patients who presented to the NorthBay emergency department with chest pain between January 2020 and April 2021, when the IoT button was in use, with records from 1,614 patients who presented to the same emergency department with chest pain in 2019 prior to the implementation of the button. The demographics and cardiovascular risk factors of the two groups were similar.

Analysis showed that use of the button significantly reduced the time it took to diagnose a heart attack by an average of 14%. The largest gains were in the period between the patient's arrival at the emergency department and when the nurse ordered a troponin test, which was reduced by an average of seven minutes after the button was implemented.

Using the button also reduced the time between placing the order and having blood drawn by 2.5 minutes and the time between drawing blood and delivering the sample to the lab by about two minutes, on average. There was no significant difference in the time it took to receive lab results once the blood sample arrived at the lab for analysis.

The total process from start to finish was about 11 minutes shorter after the IoT button was implemented, representing an increase in efficiency given that hospitals aim to begin interventions to open a blocked artery within 60 minutes or less after a patient arrives at the hospital with a heart attack.

"We were pleasantly surprised to see quite a significant reduction in time just by introducing such a simple concept," Dhond said. "If you get the lab results sooner, you can admit the patient sooner or discharge them sooner."

Dhond said that the approach should be scalable and cost effective for a variety of other time-sensitive areas of health care delivery, such as cardiac arrest and stroke treatment.

The study was limited to a single medical center and used a retrospective analysis as a control, although researchers noted that the study's large sample size strengthens the conclusion that the button resulted in significant improvements. Researchers noted that the hospital's cardiac testing protocols did not change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged a few months after the button was implemented, and said it was unlikely that the pandemic had any effect on the study results.

Dhond will present the study, "Novel Use of Amazon 1-Click Button to Significantly Reduce Time to Diagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Emergency Department Patients," on Saturday, April 2, at 1:45 p.m. ET / 17:45 UTC in Poster Hall, Hall C.
Shillpa Naavaal, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, presented "From Cervical Cancers to Oropharyngeal: HPV Research in Rural Communities" at the hybrid 51st Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the AADOCR, held in conjunction with the 46th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), online and onsite in Atlanta, GA, on March 21-26, 2022.

This research examined parents' knowledge about HPV and the HPV vaccine in the context of cancers and explored their perceptions about dental providers' role in HPV vaccination in rural communities with low HPV vaccine uptake.

Parents of children ages nine to 17-years-old from three rural counties in Virginia participated in a HPV vaccine survey study (n=300). HPV-related cancer knowledge was measured using the following statements:

1.) HPV can cause some types of cancers

2.) HPV vaccines offer protection against most cervical cancers and against most oropharyngeal cancers

Perceptions about the role of dental providers in HPV vaccination were assessed and participants were asked if they were: 1.) comfortable discussing, 2.) getting a recommendation for, and 3.) receiving HPV vaccination from a dental provider.

The researchers discovered knowledge gaps about the relationship between HPV, the HPV vaccine, and oropharyngeal cancers. They also found that 60% of parents approve of dental providers' role in HPV vaccination. Therefore, effective communication and messaging through dental providers can build awareness about HPV, its relationship with oropharyngeal cancers, and the importance of the HPV vaccine for cancer prevention in rural communities.

This research was presented as a virtual Interactive Talk on March 24, 2022 at 8 a.m. EDT, view the abstract on the 2022 Annual Meeting Hybrid Platform.
Many Floridians have scoffed in disbelief at all the homebuying competition posed by out-of-state newcomers, and a new study shows just how eager they are to remove the welcome mat.

Over 73% of Floridians polled believe that too many people have moved in from out of state, according to a survey from Mphasis Digital Risk, a tech company for residential real estate lending.

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You are starting to see people getting really priced out of the market, or migration happening within the state itself to more affordable areas, said Kim Lanham, senior vice president of Florida based Digital Risk. Its this perfect storm, if you will, of a housing crisis.

[ RELATED: South Florida housing prices are astronomical. But are cities upstate really a better deal? ]

Over 1,000 Florida homeowners were surveyed between Feb. 6 and Feb. 7 on their opinions on out-of-state buyers moving to the area, whether they would consider moving to another state or different part of Florida and if they had been asked to sell their home.

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The influx of out-of-state buyers hasnt changed how the vast majority of polled Florida homeowners feel about their state. Forty percent said it did change how they feel, with 60% saying it did not.

The frustrations of many Floridians who have often been priced out of the real estate market over the past two years were laid out in the survey, with many saying they were thinking about leaving the state entirely or moving to a different area in the state where prices might be more affordable.

The housing market has put so much pressure on Floridians that many of them are contemplating leaving the state entirely. When asked if they were considering moving to a different state, 51% of homeowners said they were thinking about it.

And 67% of respondents said they were thinking about moving to a different part of the state.

For those living in Miami Dade County, 10% said they would consider moving. For those living in Broward County, 10% said they would consider moving to a different part of the state. And for those living in Palm Beach County, 5% said they would consider moving to a different area in Florida.

Its no surprise that out-of-staters have come around to the benefits of living in the Sunshine State, said Jeffrey C. Taylor, co-founder and managing director of Mphasis Digital Risk and a board member of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Weather, family, amenities and taxes, in that order, are the chief reasons homeowners cited for living here. However, its clear that the states booming popularity may force longtime residents to rethink living in their communities or even Florida itself.

And high real-estate prices were a large reason for respondents wanting to move, with 46% of Floridians pointing out how expensive real estate has become.

[ RELATED: State of the market: South Florida home prices soar as inventory dwindles ]

Real estate prices have soared in South Florida, with little signs of a slowdown on the horizon.

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The latest numbers from the Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors show that the median sale price of homes in South Florida skyrocketed in February compared to the year before.

In Palm Beach County, the median sale price of a home jumped 19% to $535,000. While in Broward County, the median sale price jumped 19% to $519,000. Similarly in Miami-Dade County, the median sale price of a home jumped 19% to $536,000.

Its probably going to be another two years before things start to level out and catch up, added Lanham. It takes a while for developers to go through the building process.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* pre-print server, researchers used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to explore the transmission dynamics of four severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOCs) - Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1) and Delta (B.1.617.2) in the Netherlands.

Background

In 2021, all the four VOCs were globally circulating, and they resurged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks, impeding efforts to control the pandemic worldwide. Of these, the Alpha and Delta VOCs primarily dominated in the Netherlands. Hence, the Dutch government restricted flights from countries where Alpha and Delta had first emerged, simultaneously implementing several non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to mitigate their effect between 2020 and 2021.

More importantly, the government started a nationwide surveillance program and scaled up its WGS efforts for monitoring the introduction and spread of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants.

About the study

In the present study, spanning 48 weeks between September 2020 and August 2021, researchers sequenced randomly collected 39,844 high-quality SARS-CoV-2 whole genomes from the 1,792,759 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2-positive samples to characterize the importation risks and spread of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs in the Netherlands.

They used the NextClade lineage assignment to genotype the SARS-CoV-2-positive samples.

For a deeper insight into the overseas introduction of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs, the researchers subsampled a representative set of Dutch and overseas sequences collected within the same time frame. They reconstructed time-scaled, maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenies and used a Bayesian approach to perform distinct trait analyses on these fixed phylogeny trees.

They used a different set of Alpha and Delta WGS data for continuous phylogeographic analyses to estimate events of oversees introductions from other countries into the Netherlands for all the four VOCs to reconstruct the origin of ancestral strains.

Lastly, the research team fitted the weekly data of sampled VOCs to a logistic growth model for quantifying the growth rates of the Alpha and Delta VOCs in the Netherlands.

Study findings

The WGS genotyped most samples gathered during the starting phase of the study to clade 20A and its sublineages, 20B and 20E. The introduction of NPIs, such as closing nightlife establishments and restaurants in October 2020, reduced cases from these lineages circulating till December 2020 in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands imposed a nationwide lockdown after the first Alpha case, reported on December 5, 2020. Although the lockdown slightly decreased Alpha cases, it still became the dominant circulating SARS-CoV-2 VOC by February 2021, i.e., week 6 of the study period. Later, the Beta and Gamma VOCs were also identified via WGS efforts but did not outcompete Alpha.

When Alpha cases began to decline by the end of April 2021, the Dutch government began relaxing lockdown restrictions. Around the same time, WGS identified the first Delta case in the Netherlands, and by June 2021, the Delta VOC accounted for 24% of all sequenced genomes.

In June 2021, SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was lowest in the Netherlands, with only 8,690 SARS-CoV-2-positive cases. However, within a week of reopening, COVID-19 cases surged over 50,000 in weeks 26 and 27 (July 2021), and most were due to Delta. In just three weeks, Delta replaced Alpha as the dominant SARS-CoV-2 VOC in the Netherlands, with over 90% of surveilled genomes assigned to the Delta variant by mid-July 2021. Additionally, the Delta cases rapidly surged inter-regionally in late June 2021, as indicated by a more than 400% estimated increase in total phylogenetic branch movements by July 2021.

The study estimated that the most overseas introduction events for the ancestral strains were from Europe, and the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs accounted for 71%, 29%, 71%, 79% of these events, respectively. Notably, these European introductions continued to occur during the travel ban period in the Netherlands, suggesting the need for pan-European flight restrictions.

The researchers identified that the large, densely populated cities in the North Brabant, Utrecht, North and South Holland, also international and regional travel hubs of the Netherlands, formed the first (local) core cluster of dominant source locations in March 2020.

The Alpha and Delta VOCs were first detected in these locations and circulated mostly within these areas during the first four weeks after the introduction and dispersal to other regions was relatively less frequent. Later, bidirectional and asymmetric exchanges in phylogenetic branches between different regions emerged throughout the country amid strict lockdown.

Furthermore, the researchers observed that the Delta VOC showed a weekly growth rate of 103%, about two times higher than Alpha, which showed a weekly growth rate of 45%. Interestingly, Alpha and Delta replaced their predecessors rapidly with similar rates across most age groups.

Conclusions

The study highlighted that all the VOC lineages detected in the Netherlands before September 2020 until August 2021 originated mainly from its European neighbors. The very first introduction of SARS-CoV-2 in the Netherlands in February 2020 was due to travelers from Northern Italy, the seeding place of the earliest European SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Moreover, even after implementing international travel restrictions, the Netherlands remained highly vulnerable to importation risks of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants due to the European Union border policies.

The study findings highlight the need for continued surveillance of the cluster of locations where the VOCs were first detected to gather actionable information early on about the introduction of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants and timely containment of infections and onward transmission.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
A recent article posted to the Research Square* preprint server presented the differences among total anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies (Abs) following SARS-CoV-2 Pfizer primary and booster vaccinations.

Study: Variation of total anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies after primary BNT162b2 vaccination and homologous booster . Image Credit: BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock

Background

Currently existing data shows that no known vaccine is fully effective against infectious illnesses, including those generated against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The reasons for the failure to achieve global herd immunity against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) include: 1) low compliance to vaccination, 2) emergence of heavily mutated SARS-CoV-2 variants, and 3) waning of vaccine efficacy over time. Moreover, variations are seen in the vaccine-induced immune response in the presence of COVID-19.

Hence, epidemiological and experimental studies are required to precisely identify and assess the influence of the several elements that may contribute to vaccination efficacy deteriorations with time. This will lead to the establishment of appropriate and timely methods to 1) restrict SARS-CoV-2 transmission, 2) avoid or minimize the likelihood of developing severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 3) curb the emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants.

About the study

In the present serosurveillance investigation, the scientists interrogated the variance of total anti-SARS-CoV-2 Abs in 925 healthcare professionals who received primary BNT162b2 (Pfizer) immunization and homologous boosting. These study volunteers were from the Pederzoli Hospital, Peschiera del Garda, Italy.

The included participants received a two-dose regimen of COVID-19 BNT162b2 vaccine (primary vaccination) and a single dose of BNT162b2 boosting (homologous boosting). In addition, the subjects received the booster vaccination more than eight months following the primary BNT162b2 vaccination schedule. The participants submitted informed consent before enrollment in the study.

Throughout the study, nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) were conducted every two to four weeks for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infections using the Altona Diagnostics RealStar SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kit or the Seegene Allplex SARS-CoV-2 assay. Blood samples were procured 1) before the initial and second dose vaccination, 2) at one, three, and six months following the second dose, and 3) before and one month following the vaccine booster.

The Roche Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) chemiluminescent immunoassay was used to measure total anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing Abs. In line with previous research, a total anti-SARS-CoV-2 Ab concentration of 656 kBAU/L was considered predictive of 80% or more protection against severe or modest SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, inter-group comparisons were conducted using the Mann-Whitney test.

Results

The results showed that among the initial 925 subjects, 401 were lost during the follow-up period. Of the 524 participants, 65.3% were females, and the median age of the study population was 46 years. Nearly 65.1% of participants were SARS-CoV-2 seronegative before vaccination (baseline) and constantly tested COVID-19-negative ("N/N").

More than 16% of the subjects were SARS-CoV-2 seronegative at baseline yet became COVID-19-positive ("N/P") following booster vaccination. On the contrary, over 18% of healthcare workers were SARS-CoV-2 seropositive before vaccination and consistently tested COVID-19-negative ("P/N") thereafter. The individuals in the N/N group were slightly younger than subjects in the other two groups, but the gender ratio was comparable in all three groups.

The total anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Abs trend was similar across all cohorts throughout the study. Nevertheless, the P/N group had higher values than the other two groups until they received the BNT162b2 booster dose, whereby the anti-SARS-CoV-2 levels in all cohorts were similar. There were no significant changes in total anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Abs between the N/N and N/P cohorts even one month following the booster dose.

In detail, after the Pfizer booster dose, the rate of participants with protective Ab levels increased to 100% across all cohorts. The proportion of subjects with total serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Abs in the N/N and N/P groups elevated from zero to 82-84%, yet these values gradually dropped to 32-35% until receiving booster vaccination. However, after the booster dose, the rate hiked in both cohorts to 100%. Contrastingly, the rate of P/N participants with protective total anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Abs was 7% at baseline, then maintained consistently over 88% throughout the succeeding time points, and rose to 100% after receiving the booster vaccination dose.

Conclusions

On the whole, the study findings impart crucial information on SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination. These include SARS-CoV-2 infection after booster vaccination did not substantially enhance the anti-SARS-CoV-2 Ab titers. However, baseline seropositivity was linked with a more prominent humoral immune response following initial vaccination than those without COVID-19 history. Thus, these findings could assist in prioritizing booster vaccination for the SARS-CoV-2 seronegative people.

Additionally, the study depicted that the COVID-19 booster vaccination significantly hiked the total anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Ab titers across all participants. This observation was congruent with the two prior hypotheses.

*Important notice

Preprints with Research Square publish 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.
Thought Leaders Dr. Maxine Caws Senior Lecturer Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

March 24th is World Tuberculosis Day. News Medical spoke to Dr. Maxine Caws about her expertise in this field and how best to invest to end TB, and ultimately save lifes.

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us about your expertise in tuberculosis (TB)?

I am Dr. Maxine Caws. I have worked on tuberculosis for over twenty years and authored over 100 scientific journal articles and book chapters. After my Ph.D., I moved to the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I began working in a large tuberculosis referral hospital in the city and at the Hospital for Infectious Diseases. I was based in Vietnam for ten years, leading the TB research group at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, developing a multidisciplinary research team, and mentoring young Vietnamese scientists, researchers, and doctors who wanted to study tuberculosis. For the last five years, I have been based in Kathmandu, Nepal, with the Birat Nepal Medical Trust (BNMT). I am the principal investigator for a large research program on tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Tuberculosis is a complex problem to solve, and my career has spanned many of the intertwining aspects of the challenge, from developing new drug treatments and diagnostic tests in the laboratory to testing them in real-world clinical trials, investigating the immune system variations that increase peoples vulnerability to TB disease, drug resistance and the evolution of the bacteria which causes TB, and assessing the financial impact of having TB on vulnerable families so that we can design effective strategies to reduce these costs, and talking to policymakers and politicians to advocate for improved TB services and prioritize resource allocation for TB in national and international health system agendas.

What inspired your career and subsequent research into TB?

While I was studying for my biochemistry undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews, late one night, I searched in the university library for a topic to complete an essay assignment on the use of viruses for humanity, which was due the next day. I came across a book that night about the smallpox eradication campaign.

I was enthralled by the story of how humanity united together to achieve a seemingly impossible goal and eradicate this devastating infectious disease, which is now history.

My essay was, of course, submitted late, but my career direction was set- I was inspired to pursue a career in infectious disease research and eradication that night.

How have you seen the diagnosis, treatment, and management of TB change over your career?

Sadly, far too little progress has been made in tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment, and management due to a lack of investments over the last 20 years.

When I started my Ph.D. studying tuberculosis, many people said, why are you studying that? Its history.It should be history, but over 20 years later, we still have a situation where there are 10 million cases of TB and 1.5 million deaths every year.

There have been advances in the development of far more accurate rapid diagnostic tests based on the same PCR technology we have all become too familiar with during the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, far too few patients in high TB burden countries have access to these new tests due to a lack of investment in the scale-up of the technology, including maintenance and logistics systems in countries with a high burden of TB. Similarly, although TB is a curable disease, the treatment for TB is long and difficult. Patients have to take multiple drugs for a minimum of six months, and many patients want to stop treatment when they start to feel better, but this is dangerous and can lead to the recurrence of the disease with more dangerous drug-resistant forms.

Patients need support and encouragement to complete the entire treatment; otherwise, they can relapse with drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is even harder to treat. In the last decade, new drugs and shorter drug treatment regimens have been developed for drug-susceptible TB disease and drug-resistant forms of TB and TB prevention. Yet sadly, these new treatments are not being used widely in the countries with the highest number of TB cases due to a lack of downstream investment in implementation.

In most low-income countries with a high burden of TB, the National TB Programmes still rely on old-fashioned passive diagnostic systems, inaccurate microscopy-based testing networks, and lengthy treatment regimens developed in the 1960s and 70s. While the last 20 years have seen several advances in TB diagnosis and care, these advances are not being widely applied in the places where they are most needed due to a chronic lack of investment in TB research and treatment.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to human health. How has drug resistance affected the treatment of TB?

Resistant forms of tuberculosis are especially hard to treat, with complicated drug treatments which have many side effects and must be taken for over nine months. Treating MDR TB is very complex, and we need a broader range of drugs and more clinical trials to understand how to combine the drugs for patients best to achieve a shorter treatment duration with fewer side effects.

There are thousands of patients willing to take part in trials. Still, running clinical trials safely requires investment in skilled human resources and monitoring structures at the centers where patients are treated. We would make much faster progress against TB if we invested in clinical trial network infrastructures in high burden countries.

In 2006, reports came out from South Africa of an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant TB (known now as XDR TB). Fifty-three patients had become infected with a strain of TB resistant to almost all the effective drugs available at the time, and 52 of them died. Since then, almost every country has reported XDR TB detection.

If there had been better laboratories and treatment centers for drug-resistant TB around the world at the time, XDR TB would not have been able to spread so widely. Survival is possible now, but treatment requires highly skilled healthcare staff to develop and manage personalized treatment courses with many side effects. Diagnosing and treating drug-resistant TB forms requires specialized skills that are not available in many places of the world where TB is common. Many people die unnecessarily of drug-resistant TB due to a lack of access to diagnosis and care.

To prevent the spread of drug-resistant TB, we must invest in strengthening the diagnosis and treatment of all forms of TB for every case, everywhere.

Image Credit: Fahroni/Shutterstock.com

During the current pandemic, research and resources were prioritized for novel infectious disease that is COVID-19. How has the pandemic impacted TB research and management?

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the fragility of healthcare systems worldwide. For TB, services essentially collapsed in many parts of the world, as healthcare personnel were re-assigned to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, fell sick themselves, or had to care for sick family members. Health clinics were often unstaffed, and patients were unable to access TB medicines. Lockdowns made it difficult for people to travel to health centers to get the drugs they needed, and people with TB symptoms were afraid to go to health centers to get tested for TB, worried about catching COVID or being put in quarantine centers.

We know that in 2020 TB cases officially registered as diagnosed plummeted to just a third of pre-pandemic levels in many high TB burden countries. While these cases remained undiagnosed, the patients were getting sicker, damaging their lungs and long-term health, and at risk of spreading the untreated disease to other family and community members. It is estimated the COVID pandemic has reversed a decade of progress against TB.

However, the community-based health services proved most resilient and accessible to TB patients during this time. Despite the personal risks, dedicated community health workers continued to reach out to community members to diagnose TB cases and provide drugs, care, and support to TB patients on treatment.

The COVID pandemic has badly hit research investment in TB. Governments and multilateral agencies have had to divert resources to combat COVID-19 and shore up faltering economies. Aid budgets have been cut, impacting services like community health worker networks. Investment in scientific research has also fallen- ironically, at a time when the extraordinary success of intensive efforts globally to develop and deploy a vaccine against COVID-19 rapidly have shown what can be achieved with political commitment and investment.

Considering the theme of World Tuberculosis Day 2022 is Invest to End TB. Save Lives, where should investments be made to help achieve the commitment to end TB?

In 2019, TB research and development funding was only half of the 2 billion USD per year target committed to by the United Nations Member States in 2018. Investments are needed at all levels- from basic research into new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines to scale-up and implementation science, investment in health systems strengthening and training, and improved social protection mechanisms for those affected by TB. Studies consistently show that the long-term return on investment for TB care investments is high, so investing in TB care makes good financial sense and is morally right.

We are still using a TB vaccine called BCG developed in the early 20th century. It only offers weak protection against TB, but lack of investment in research on TB immunity and vaccines has meant we have failed to find a better vaccine. We need investments for TB vaccine development on a similar level to COVID-19 investments. An effective vaccine is the holy grail of infectious disease elimination efforts.

We also know from experience in Europe that TB elimination campaigns can be highly effective at reducing the disease; by screening for TB infection in populations and treating those infected with the TB bacteria with preventative therapy, we can reduce the silent pool of TB in a community and reduce transmission. We all know and believe the adage that Prevention is better than Cure, yet TB preventative therapy is not widely used in overburdened health systems due to lack of funding in high incidence countries.

Image Credit: awsome design studio/Shutterstock.com

While we work on developing an effective vaccine, we also need investments to help the millions of people affected by TB now. We have improved drugs and diagnostics, but investments are needed to ensure they are accessible to all people affected by TB- especially the poorest communities in the poorest countries, where TB is incredibly common.

Of the ten million people who fall sick with TB each year, three million do not get diagnosed and enrolled in an effective treatment- we must close this diagnostic gap to make progress against TB. We need more investment in patient-centered care and community health networks to do so.

Investments are needed to strengthen TB control programs around the world and build capacity- skilled researchers and infrastructure in the countries most affected so that we can conduct high-quality trials of new tools in the countries where they are needed most. Dedicated scientists and healthcare workers in low-income countries are eager to conduct research on improving TB treatment and care but lack the facilities and resources to do so.

We need to invest in clinical trials, laboratories, and research networks in high burden countries to develop and test new tools to help us eliminate TB. For everyone. Everywhere.

The TB and HIV epidemics of a country can intersect. What challenges and opportunities does this present for both the patient and the medical professional/researcher?

People living with HIV can be more vulnerable to tuberculosis because HIV weakens the immune system. HIV infection also complicates the management and care of people with tuberculosis because they need drugs for both HIV and TB. We have made amazing advances in HIV treatment and care since the virus emerged in the 1980s. Many countries are now setting targets for the elimination of new HIV cases due to the scale-up of preventative therapy and effective treatment, which prevents onward transmission.

HIV has attracted more research and investment than TB because it has also severely affected richer countries and has a stronger advocacy network. The community of people working to END TB can learn a lot from the HIV advocacy movement. In 2020, the number of deaths from TB was double the number of deaths from HIV.

The association of HIV with TB in peoples minds has created a lot of misconceptions about TB, though. The vast majority of TB cases globally are not in people living with HIV, yet people often assume that if a person has TB, they also have HIV. This can prevent people from getting the TB care they need and increase the stigma associated with having TB.

Ideally, both HIV and TB care would be integrated into strong, effective, and comprehensive health systems, but we have a long way to go to reach that ideal in much of the world.

Your career in TB research has been remarkable. What achievement are you most proud of during your career?

Each patient with TB we are able to see diagnosed and supported to cure is an achievement, particularly those who are living in remote rural areas and would otherwise not have access to care.

I strongly believe that we need to develop an improved capacity for infectious disease research in low and middle-income countries, where the burden of diseases is highest. I was extremely fortunate to work at the beginning of my career in a Wellcome Trust supported research unit in Vietnam, under the mentorship of Jeremy Farrar (now Sir Jeremy Farrar). The long-term support over several decades committed by the Wellcome Trust to these major overseas programs in Asia and Africa allows the sustained development of local research skills, capacity, and infrastructure, which is extremely rare.

I was able to supervise and develop a team of early career Vietnamese scientists and clinicians, including seven doctoral students, who have now led teams of their own and contribute in diverse ways to the fight to END TB. I am also privileged to now be working with a team of dedicated professionals in Nepal, including many early career researchers who are building their research portfolios.

Image Credit: TarikVision/Shutterstock.com

What does the future of TB research and treatment look like?

I hope that we will improve access to shorter TB treatments in the next decade and develop an effective TB vaccine. Without a better TB vaccine, the key to reducing TB globally will be sustained investment from politicians and multilateral agencies to bring the best available diagnostics, drugs, and supportive care to TB patients everywhere in the world.

TB is a preventable, curable disease, and no one should die of TB in the 21st century, yet someone dies of TB every twenty seconds. Political leaders have made grand commitments to reduce TB to levels now seen in developed countries by 2035- but they have failed to back these grand words with the sustained long-term financial investments needed to make that a reality.

I hope that the COVID pandemic has increased recognition of the importance of investing in strong global health systems and clinical research and that this will translate into improved funding for research on infectious diseases and capacity building for science in low and middle-income countries.

I hope that when someone tells our grandchildren TB is history, it is true.

Where can readers find more information?

About Dr. Maxine Caws

I am based in Kathmandu, Nepal, at the Birat Nepal Medical Trust (www.bnmtnepal.org; @BiratNepal), where I lead a program of research on tuberculosis (www.impacttbproject.org; @impact_tb) and other infectious diseases and health challenges.

Our research designs a nd tests strategies to improve the community-based diagnosis and care of people affected by TB, focusing on remote rural communities of Nepal. We work with a network of community health workers to screen high-risk communities for tuberculosis and apply advanced PCR-based molecular testing for TB (GeneXpert test) to detect cases early and support them to complete effective treatment.

We are also evaluating the financial impact of having TB on families- who are often precipitated into extreme poverty by the illness- and test different ways of supporting them through treatment to reduce or eliminate these devastating consequences.

Our research revealed that one-third of TB affected families face food insecurity due to TB in Nepal, at a time when they need nutritious food the most to support recovery, and so we designed a locally appropriate nutrition support package to help patients recover weight lost due to illness and regain strength to return to normal life. It is often these simple interventions that help patients the most.

We are also working to better understand the transmission of TB in Nepali communities through a project to sequence the DNA of TB bacteria and study the genetic epidemiology of the strains circulating in Nepal- a similar approach to the one scientists have been using to understand the emergence of new variants of the COVID-19 virus.

We have also established a pilot drone transport network in the rural hill district of Pyuthan to help our community health workers transport clinical samples to the laboratories for testing (www.drones4nepal.org).

My research has contributed to policy development for tuberculosis at national and international levels. I am a member of grant review panels, data safety monitoring boards for clinical trials, and advisory committees.
The zine "MoodRing" features the artwork and writing from local teens. The launch party will be held at the Carnegie Center this Thursday from 6-7:30 p.m.
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As sellers try to take advantage of the soaring real estate market, new data suggests that there may be an optimal time to list a home and gain even more leverage in the market.

A new analysis from realtor.com suggests that, at least in South Florida, the week of June 26 could be the most optimal time to list your home for sale.

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We are looking for that golden window, said George Ratiu, senior economist and manager of economic research with the site. When you look at the prices in the summer versus much fewer price reductions on the market, that translates into more money for sellers at the end of the day.

To calculate the optimal time to list, analysts looked at a few key metrics based on data from seasonal trends from 2018-2019 and 2021:

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time on market (how fast homes are selling)

median sale price

the number of views on a property (or how much buyer demand there is)

price reductions

the number of other listings (how much competition sellers have)

For the week of June 26th, the median sale price was about 5% higher than at the start of the year, with listing views increasing by 18% compared to the average week. Price reductions in the market were 38% lower in this week than the average week during the rest of the year. And sellers faced less competition from other sellers, with an almost 6% decrease in active listings compared to the average week.

In the graph above, week 26 represents the week of June 26, what could be the optimal week for a seller to list a home. Red signifies less optimal circumstances, while green represents better metrics.

The best time for sellers to list is at a time when there are less sellers, and that really can vary on a micro level in your community, said Patty Da Silva, broker at Green Realty Property in Cooper City. Weve always had incredible success selling homes in the summer, but that is usually because the seller has less competition.

[ RELATED: Renters are overpaying by 18% in South Florida, study shows ]

And that correlates to strong buyer interest in certain segments of the market that are closer to quality school zones during the summer.

A lot of the South Florida real estate market is driven by school zones and when school is in session. Many families can get into a home in June, be under contract in July, leaving them time to register for their new school zone in August, explained Whitney Dutton, real estate agent in Fort Lauderdale.

We do see that buyer demand gets high in June, said Dutton. It starts to get very popular in areas like Parkland and Davie.

However, that may not be the case for the luxury market, says Bonnie Heatzig, executive director of luxury sales at Douglas Elliman in Boca Raton. She explains that high-end sellers has an advantage in spring, because luxury buyers are often vacationing somewhere in the northeast during summer.

Typically in the luxury market, spring is the best time of year to sell, as this is the time where many of the luxury buyers are escaping the colder climates and they fly down to South Florida to look for winter homes, she said, adding that the lack of inventory is the biggest driver of the market, with potential buyers waiting to scoop up a property the second it hits the market.

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Selling a home during the holiday season can be difficult, as many families are focused on celebrating with each other.

Its different in the rest of the county. Nationally, similar data analysis suggests that the best time to list a home is the week of April 6th.
(Newser)  Russian military forces have destroyed a new laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that among other things works to improve management of radioactive waste, the Ukrainian state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone said Tuesday. The Russian military seized the decommissioned plant at the beginning of the war. The exclusion zone is the contaminated area around the plant, site of the world's worst nuclear meltdown in 1986. The state agency said the laboratory, built at a cost of 6 million euros with support from the European Commission, opened in 2015, the AP reports.

The laboratory contained "highly active samples and samples of radionuclides that are now in the hands of the enemy, which we hope will harm itself and not the civilized world," the agency said in its statement. Radionuclides are unstable atoms of chemical elements that release radiation. Ukraine's nuclear regulatory agency had reported Monday that radiation monitors around the plant had stopped working. Several fires were burning near the plant, Ukraine said, adding that they probably were caused by Russian artillery or arson, per CNN. On Wednesday, per the AP, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Russia for attacking Chernobyl and lamented the length of time it will take to clean up the site once the fighting has stopped.

(Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  Two brothers from Pontiac, Michigan, are free men after spending 25 years in state prisons for a murder they did not commit. George DeJesus, 44, and Melvin DeJesus, 48 were found guilty in 1997 of the murder of family friend Margaret Midkiff after a jury believed testimony from the man now believed to be the real killer, the Detroit News reports. Midkiff was raped and murdered in her Pontiac home in 1995. After DNA evidence linked Brandon Gohagen, now 50, to the crime, he claimed the DeJesus brothers had murdered the woman after forcing him to rape her.

Gohagen was convicted of sexual assault and second-degree murder but received a lesser sentence in exchange for his testimony against the brothers, who were found guilty of first-degree murder despite the facts that they had alibis and that there was no DNA evidence linking them to the crime. At a hearing Tuesday, Robyn Frankel of the Michigan Attorney General's Conviction Integrity Unit said new evidenceincluding DNA from the 1994 rape and murder of Pontiac woman Rosalia Brantley shows Gohagen committed the crime alone. Gohagen was found guilty of Brantley's murder in 2017, the year after the DNA evidence surfaced, and was sentenced to life in prison.

Frankel said Tuesday that the Brantley investigation found that Gohagen had sexually assaulted at least a dozen other women in the area in the 1990s, destroying his credibility as the only witness in the Midkiff case, reports WXYZ. Oakland County Circuit Judge Martha Anderson overturned the convictions Tuesday, the AP reports. "I wish to apologize for the actions taken by your fellow citizens against you," she said. "Twenty-five years of your life has been taken from you that cannot be replaced." The brothers celebrated with family members including Melvin's daughter after the decision. Melvin said he wanted to thank his mother in particular for never letting the brothers lose hope. (Read more Michigan stories.)
(Newser)  When one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils ever found sold at a Christie's auction for $31.8 million in October 2020, experts worried the 39-foot-long specimen would be lost to the public, and to research. That prompted National Geographic to go looking for Stan, as the most expensive fossil ever auctioned is dubbed. It was a search that took reporters halfway around the world, as trade records showed a 5.6-ton shipment worth Stan's exact sale price was shipped from New York to the United Arab Emirates last May. On Wednesday, the outlet revealed that found Stanand it turns out he won't be hidden from view at all.

Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism confirmed that the 67-million-year-old fossil found on private land in South Dakota in the early 1990s will be housed in the 377,000-square-foot Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, which is set to open on Saadiyat Island in 2025. "Natural history has a new home here in Abu Dhabi, and we will tell the story of our universe through some of the most incredible specimens known to mankind," says department chairman Mohamed Khalifa al Mubarak. Stan "will be in the care of expert scientists, and will continue to contribute to education and research and inspire future explorers," reads the department statement, per Live Science.

That's great news to paleontologists like Lindsay Zanno of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. "If Stan can inspire a new generation to protect the past and lean into conserving our planet's biodiversity in the future, that's what I call a happy ending," she tells Nat Geo, which notes Stan has provided "crucial data in studies" of T. rex. The new museum will also be home to a piece of the famous Murchison meteorite that crashed in Australia in 1969 and is known to contain tiny grains formed billions of years before the birth of our solar system, officials confirmed. Christie's sold one fragment for $30,000 in August 2020 and another for $40,000 in February 2021. (Read more T. rex stories.)
(Newser)  Two islands where Jeffrey Epstein was accused of sexually assaulting women and girls are for sale. Known as Great St James and Little St. James, the Caribbean islands are listed at $125 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. An attorney for the estate of Epstein, a financier whose 2019 death was ruled suicide, said money from the sale of the islands will go toward resolving lawsuits and other costs. The proceeds will be taxable and subject to claims by creditors, including liens placed on the Virgin Islands properties by Attorney General Denise George.

Virgin Islands prosecutors said in 2020 that Epstein had brought girls as young as 11 to the private islands who were sexually assaulted by him and his associates. So far, an Epstein estate attorney said, $121 million from Epstein's estate has been paid to victims through its compensation program, per the Guardian. Epstein bought the 70-acre Little St. James in 1998 and Great St. James, which is about 160 acres, in 2016 for nearly $20 million, per the Journal. Epstein's New York mansion and Palm Beach, Florida, house already have been sold by his estate, bringing in nearly $70 million combined. (Read more Jeffrey Epstein stories.)
(Newser)  Wednesday was the third day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committeeand for a third day, Republicans focused heavily on her sentencing in child pornography cases. Republican Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham were among those pressing Jackson on what they considered lenient sentences, while she accused them of misrepresenting her record, the Washington Post reports. Jackson concluded her answer to one of Hawley's questions by saying: "Thats my answer. Ive answered it many times. Do you have other questions for me?"

Graham frequently interrupted Jackson during a heated exchange, which Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy called "outrageous" behavior. "You had a Republican member who went way over the time allotted to him, ignored the rules of the committee, badgered the nominee, would not even let her answer the questions," Leahy said, per the Hill. "I've never seen anything like that, and Ive been here 48 years." Graham also clashed with Jackson over an immigration ruling and, as he went over his allotted 20 minutes, tried to ask her what she thought about Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing.

In response to a question from Cruz, Jackson said that if confirmed to the Supreme Court, she would recuse herself from a case involving affirmative action at her alma mater, Harvard University, where she currently sits on the Board of Overseers. Jackson is likely to be confirmed as the first Black woman on the nation's top court, but the focus on her record suggests that the vote in the full Senate will have few, if any, Republicans in favor, the AP notes. (Read more Ketanji Brown Jackson stories.)
(Newser)  A senior Manhattan prosecutor who led the investigation of Donald Trump's finances says the former president is "guilty of numerous felony violations" and it's "a grave failure of justice" not to indict him. The investigating team "harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimeshe did," Mark Pomerantz writes in a Feb. 23 resignation letter obtained by the New York Times and confirmed by CBS News. Another senior prosecutor leading the inquiry, Carey Dunne, resigned on the same day after new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg suddenly stopped pursing an indictment of Trump, removing what the Times refers to as "one of the greatest legal threats Mr. Trump has ever faced."

According to the Times, Pomerantz and Dunne planned to charge Trump with falsifying business records and believed they could show he knowingly inflated the value of assets on annual financial statements. But Bragg, who became attorney general in January, wasn't so sure. His decision not to pursue an indictment, which ended the presentation of evidence to a grand jury, was "contrary to the public interest" and "will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice," Pomerantz writes. Three prosecutors resigned last year over apparent gaps in evidence. But Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., had pushed forward with the case before leaving office, indicating Trump would become the first US president to face criminal charges.

Pomerantz argues the "decision not to authorize prosecution now will doom any future prospects that Mr. Trump will be prosecuted for the criminal conduct we have been investigating." Trump's lawyer, Ronald Fischettia former law partner of Pomerantzcounters that Bragg should be applauded for "making an apolitical charging decision based solely on the lack of evidence." In a statement, the Trump Organization calls Pomerantz "a never-Trumper," adding that "never before have we seen this level of corruption in our legal system." A rep for Bragg notes the investigation is ongoing: "A team of experienced prosecutors is working every day to follow the facts and the law." (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  Despite the clear risk of escalation, Russian military leaders have been ghosting their American counterparts since the invasion of Ukraine began. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley have been trying to set up calls with Russia's top military leaders but the Russians "have so far declined to engage," the Washington Post reports. A deconfliction channel remains open, but analysts say direct contact between the US military leaders and their Russian counterparts, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, is necessary to avoid confusion about Russian movements, especially since the conflict is occurring close to the borders of NATO members Poland and Romania.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander at NATO from 2009 to 2013, tells the Post that there's a high risk of "rapid and irreversible escalation" without direct contact between military leaders. "We must avoid a scenario of NATO and Russia sleepwalking into war because senior leaders cant pick up a phone and explain to each other what is happening," says Stavridis, who warns that a "nightmare scenario" would be a Russian missile hitting a US command post near the Poland-Ukraine border, drawing an immediate response from local commanders. Analysts say the problem might be that Vladimir Putin is refusing to grant approval for the calls.

Amid the lack of communication from Russia, the White House has assembled a team of national security officials known as the "Tiger Team" to look at possible responses if Putin uses chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the New York Times reports. Sources tell the Times that the team, assembled within days of the invasion last month, is also looking at possible scenarios in which Putin strikes convoys inside NATO territory bringing aid to Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the use of weapons of mass destruction inside Ukraine could have "dire consequences" for its NATO neighbors. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  A Maryland dentist has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, a former patient and employee, whom he was allegedly supplying with drugs. Sarah Harris, 25, had been living with 48-year-old James Michael Ryan in Clarksburg for seven months when she died of an anesthesia overdose on Jan. 26. At the scene, investigators found seven bottlesusually restricted to medical settingsfilled with or containing residue of injectable propofol, midazolam, and ketamine, along with hypodermic needles, syringes and tourniquets, court records show, per the Washington Post.

Relatives had been concerned about Harris' drug use for months after noticing needle marks and bruises on her arms. After her death, a family member was able to access text messages between Harris and Ryan, who operated Evolution Oral Surgery in Germantown. According to investigators, the conversations "often depict Sarah Harris asking Ryan to procure/obtain different drugs." Ryan allegedly replied with a list of drugs and supplies he was bringing home. It was "tantamount to an open supply" of drugs, detectives say. At other times, he allegedly instructed Harris to retrieve drugs from his car, discussed how ketamine and neurontin affected her, and recalled events of which she had no recollection.

Investigators claim "Harris developed an ever-worsening addiction that was continuously fed over the months by Ryan," who faces up to 78 years in prison on charges including "depraved heart" second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, and other drug-related counts. Defense attorneys argued in court Tuesday that Ryan should be released from custody to seek addiction treatment, adding there is no evidence that he gave drugs to Harris, WUSA reports. (Authorities dispute that, per the Sacramento Bee.) A judge nonetheless denied bond, calling him a "dangerous man." "Thank you Jesus for this victory," said Harris' mother, Tina. "That's all I have to say." (Read more murder stories.)
(Newser)  As President Biden traveled to Europe this week to hunker down with NATO leaders over the continuing crisis in Ukraine, another issue halfway around the globe emerged. According to Japanese and South Korean officials, North Korea on Thursday fired off a banned intercontinental ballistic missile, its first one since 2017, reports Axios. Japan and South Korea estimate the ICBM flew at least 600 miles, at an altitude of more than 3,700 miles"higher and farther" than the November 2017 missile, per the Washington Postbefore landing in Japan's economic zone off the coast of the northern island of Hokkaido. Multiple outlets note the move raises a red flag on a weapon that could prove a threat to the United States mainland.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the suspected launch "a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions" and said that North Korea must "come to the table" now to negotiate in good faith. "The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions," Psaki noted in her statement. Leader Kim Jong Un imposed a moratorium in 2018 on ICBM launches and nuclear tests. South Korea's military says it fired off several missiles of its own in response to Thursday's incident, reports Sky News. That nation's Defense Ministry also notes it's trying to assess if Thursday's launch, the North's 11th this year, involved the new Hwasong-17 ICBM system, which Pyongyang unveiled at a 2020 military parade, per the Post. (Read more North Korea stories.)
(Newser)  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's trip to Jamaica might go down in history as one of the least successful royal visits on record. During an official welcome Wednesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness unexpectedly announced that the island nation is planning to become fully independent, which would involve cutting its ties with the British monarchy, the Guardian reports. "We are moving on," he said. "We intend to ... fulfill our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country." The AP reports that William and Kate, who were standing next to Holness, "did not immediately react except for only a couple of brief head nods."

The couple's visit to Jamaica spurred protests demanding the removal of Queen Elizabeth II as the country's head of state and reparations for slavery and other abuses during the island's centuries as a British colony. In a speech Wednesday night, William expressed his "profound sorrow" about slavery but stopped short of the apology protesters have been demanding, the BBC reports. "Slavery was abhorrent and it never should have happened," he said. "I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history." (Read more Jamaica stories.)
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(Newser)  The Russian-controlled port of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine is burning. Videos shared on social media Thursday morning showed the port on the Sea of Azov, about 50 miles southwest of besieged Mariupol, where several Russian warships were docked, in flames as the Ukrainian Navy claimed to have sunk a Russian tank-landing ship, dubbed the Orsk. A warehouse holding fuel and ammunition was also destroyed, according to media reports cited by the Washington Examiner, which indicate two other ships are "smoking heavily and trying to escape."

A Ukrainian military officer said damaged ships dubbed the Kunikov and Novocherkassk did escape. But he noted another large landing ship, the Saratov, was also damaged by fire. On Wednesday, Russian state-funded media had shared footage of the Orsk bringing tanks and other equipment into Berdyansk, which has been in Russian hands since Feb. 27, per the Examiner. "Our arrival here is a milestone event," an unnamed Russian military official told RT. "It opens up completely new opportunities for the Black Sea Fleet to use existing Ukrainian infrastructure for our logistics operations."

The Ukrainian officer said three people were killed in the assault and 11 were injured. "The [Russian] occupiers are burning well!" reads the caption on a video showing a large explosion at the site, shared by the Ukrainian armed forces. One video cited by the Scotsman appeared to show a missile striking a boat. Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials claimed Russian tug boats had stolen five ships stocked with grain from the port. Also Thursday, a Ukrainian flag was hoisted at city hall in Russian-occupied Kherson, according to photos shared by Mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev. "We found a way to replace it," he wrote, per CNN. "Have a nice day, my Hero City." (Read more Ukraine stories.)
(Newser)  The cause of China's deadliest plane crash in more than a decade is still unknown but pilot inexperience can probably be ruled outthe pilot and two co-pilots on Flight 5735 had a combined 39,000 hours of flying experience, the New York Times reports. According to reports in mainland Chinese and Hong Kong newspapers, pilot Yang Yongda, 32, had more than 6,000 hours of flying experience and first co-pilot Zhang Zhengping was one of China's most experienced pilots, with almost 32,000 hours of experience, and had flown a wide variety of aircraft over the last few years.

The Boeing China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plunged suddenly in a near-nosedive from its cruising altitude in good weather Monday and experts say pilot suicide can't be ruled out at this stage. "Certainly an intentional downing is always a part of any investigation, and especially with this particular flight profile," Hassan Shahidi, chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation, tells the Times, though he warns against jumping to conclusions. More answers could arrive soon. A black box believed to be the cockpit voice recorder has been recovered with the crash site, along with what is believed to be an engine, per the Wall Street Journal.

Human remains have also been recovered from the site in a mountainous area of Guangxi province, but there is no sign of any survivors from the 132 passengers and crew, reports the BBC. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered an extensive investigation. Authorities said Wednesday that air traffic controllers had been in communication with the plane until just before that sudden descent. "From what we know, the performance of the three pilots had been good and their family life relatively harmonious," a China Eastern representative told reporters. (Read more plane crash stories.)
(Newser)  Update: Alex Jones will be fined $25,000 for each weekday that he fails to appear for a deposition in a lawsuit brought against him by the families of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting. A Connecticut judge found him in contempt of court orders Wednesday and ordered the fines, which will start Friday, the AP reports. Lawyers for the Infowars host called the order "lawless and unprecedented," and one said the earliest date Jones could be available to testify is April 11. (Sandy Hook families also recently nixed Jones' settlement offer.)

This story has been updated with news of Jones' no-show on Thursday. On Tuesday, Connecticut state Judge Barbara Bellis seemed skeptical when she received a request from Alex Jones' defense team to once again delay his deposition, set for Wednesday in Austin, Texas. The Infowars founder had already postponed the deposition in his casein which he's being sued for defamation by families of Sandy Hook victims for calling the 2012 shooting that killed 26 a hoaxseveral times since the fall. A big factor leading to Bellis' wariness, per Connecticut Public Radio: During Tuesday's proceedings, it was brought to her attention that the 48-year-old right-wing conspiracy theorist was, at that very moment, broadcasting his Alex Jones Show radio program live from his studio.

He was doing so despite his legal team telling the court he needed to put off the next day's deposition due to illness, and a doctor's recommendation that he stay at home to avoid "serious risk of harm," reports the Washington Post. Per a Monday court filing, Jones attorney Norman Pattis says that Jones told him he didn't want his condition revealed in the court records, nor the name of the doctor who's supposedly treating him. Plaintiff attorney Christopher Mattei called the delay request "completely bogus," and Bellis, while conceding the doctor's note did detail a "potentially serious" illness, more or less concurred. "Mr. Jones cannot unilaterally decide to continue to engage in his broadcasts, but refuse to participate in a deposition," she said in her decision to deny his request.

Instead, she ordered Jones to show up the next morning as planned. He didn't, and the AP notes he also didn't appear in person at his recording studio Wednesday, though he did call in. Bellis gave Jones one more chance to show up in person on Thursday to give his sworn testimony, but he was a no-show then as well. The judge had warned that if he was absent on Thursday as well, he could be held in contempt of court, and that attorneys for the plaintiffs could try to subpoena him and ask for sanctions, per the AP. The plaintiff's legal team had said Jones should have a warrant for his arrest issued if he blew off Thursday's deposition. Bellis has already ruled against Jones in the defamation case, but a jury still has to determine what damages he should pay, which is why his deposition is still needed. (Read more Alex Jones stories.)
(Newser)  If Mark Zuckerberg and other top Meta execs were rank-and-file workers, they might get accused of taking the company's work-from-home policy a little too far. They have scattered far from Meta's Silicon Valley headquarters, with Zuckerberg spending a lot of time in Hawaii, Instagram head Adam Mosseri working from multiple locations including Hawaii and Cape Cod, and others relocating to countries including the UK and Israel, the Wall Street Journal reports. Meta said last year that full-time employees whose roles allow it are welcome to apply to work from home. Others are expected to return on March 28.

Having a leadership team spread out around the world is unusual but some analysts say it could work well Meta, which changed its name from Facebook Inc. in October and has been working to develop products that make it easier to work from home. "If youre trying to develop the metaverse and develop workplace systems, learning by doing is probably not a bad way to do it," Stephen Lee at Logan Capital tells the Journal. David Heger, an analyst at Edward Jones, disagrees. He says that having execs spread out across many time zones could make it harder for Meta to deal with the many issues it is facing.

Meta shares plunged more than 20% last month and have not recovered. "Considering the juncture that the companys at right at the moment, it may not be the ideal time to be experimenting with your top managers working remotely," Heger says. Axios notes that while execs at Facebook are putting a lot of distance between themselves and the office, leaders at other companies are more enthusiastic than rank-and-file workers about returning to the office. According to a Slack Future Forum report, 75% of execs want to return to the office three days a week or more, compared to just 37% of other employees. (Meta employees have been complaining about the loss of perks like laundry service.)
(Newser)  Update: Four members of a French family who fell to their deaths from an apartment building in Switzerland last week jumped "one after the other," according to police. A 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister, and the couple's 8-year-old daughter died. The couple's 15-year-old son also apparently jumped and is now in a coma, reports the New York Times. Police said a stepladder was found on the seventh-floor balcony of an apartment where officers had arrived to summon the father in regards to the home-schooling of his son. Officers, who were not permitted entry, said there was no one else at the scene and no signs of a disturbance. They added the family lived "removed from society" and apparently in "fear of an interference by the authorities." Our original story from Thursday follows:

Swiss police say three adults and a child have died and a teenager was seriously injured after falling from a seven-story residential building Thursday in the lakeside town of Montreux. Police said the victims were all French citizens and members of the same family. Officers had tried to execute a warrant in connection with the home-schooling of a child shortly before the incident. In a statement, police identified the people killed as a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister, and the couple's 8-year-old daughter. They said the couple's 15-year-old son was seriously injured.

Authorities have opened an investigation to determine the exact circumstances and reasons for this tragedy, police said. A regional police spokesperson, Alexandre Bisenz, told the AP that he couldn't immediately confirm Swiss media reports that the five had jumped. However, Bisenz said that was the likely explanation, per the New York Times. Police said two officers had knocked on the door of an apartment and identified themselves. Unable to make contact with the possible occupants, they left the place, said the statement. In the meantime, a witness called the police to report that people had fallen from the balcony of an apartment. Montreux, a bucolic lakeside city, is best known as a tourist hot spot and in particular for its annual jazz festival.

(Read more Switzerland stories.)
(Newser)  More than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began a month ago, and the White House says the US will do its part to welcome refugees and assist those who remain in Europe. In a statement Thursday morning, the White House said the US is planning to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees "through the full range of legal pathways," including new programs "with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the United States. Sources tell Politico that the administration has also prioritized journalists, activists, LGBTQ individuals, and others targeted by Russian forces.

The invasion has caused Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. The United Nations estimates that as well as those who've fled the country, around 6.5 million have been displaced within Ukraine, and around 12 million more are stranded or unable to leave their homes due to fighting, the BBC reports. The White House said it's supporting the efforts of Ukraine's neighbors to welcome refugees and plans to provide more than $1 billion for "food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies, and other forms of assistance" for those affected by the war. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  After the Oscars are handed out on Sunday, it's a sure bet that Halle Berry will remain the only Black woman to have won the best actress award. As CNN notes, no Black women are nominated this year. Berry won her Oscar for Monster's Ball in 2002, and the 55-year-old considers it a travesty that no Black actress has been similarly honored in the last two decades. "It didn't open the door," she tells the New York Times. "The fact that there's no one standing next to me is heartbreaking." In her Times interview, Berry recalls that she truly didn't expect to win in 2002 because she hadn't won a Golden Globe that year.

"I don't have any memory of it," she says of her reaction to her name being called. "I don't even know how I got up there. It was totally a blackout moment. All I remember is Russell Crowe saying, 'Breathe, mate.' And then I had a golden statue in my hand, and I just started talking." (You can watch her speech here, one in which she paid homage to Black actors before her, including Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne.) In an interview earlier this year, she also said how "special" it was to see Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar, in the audience as she accepted her award. Two film critics at the Los Angeles Times look back at the 2002 winners, assessing who won versus who should have won. Both conclude that Berry deserved her honor. "Her passion in Monster's Ball stands up," writes Glenn Whipp. (Read more Halle Berry stories.)
(Newser)  President Biden said Thursday he thinks Russia should lose its place in the Group of 20. At a news conference in Brussels after meetings with NATO allies over the invasion of Ukraine, Biden said he backed the ejection of Russia from the world forum but said it's up to the G20 as a whole to decide, reports the Washington Post. Failing that, he said Ukraine should at least be allowed to send a delegation to observe. The next G20 meeting is this fall in Indonesia, per the Wall Street Journal. In other remarks:

Chemicals: Biden said Russia would pay a price if it uses chemical weapons in Ukraine. We would respond if he uses it, Biden said. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use," he added.

Trump: In response to a question, Biden said he would be "lucky" if Donald Trump ended up being the Republican nominee in the 2024 election, per the New York Times.

In response to a question, Biden said he would be "lucky" if Donald Trump ended up being the Republican nominee in the 2024 election, per the New York Times. China: I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia," said Biden, asked about the possibility of Beijing helping out Moscow. "And so I am hopeful that he does not get engaged, the president added of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia," said Biden, asked about the possibility of Beijing helping out Moscow. "And so I am hopeful that he does not get engaged, the president added of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Territory: Should Ukraine cede territory to Vladimir Putin? That is a total judgment based on Ukraine. Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine," said Biden, per CNN. "I dont believe that theyre going to have to do that, but ... it's their judgment to make."

(The White House said Thursday that the US would take in 100,000 Ukraine refugees .)
(Newser)  Southwest Airlines will add a fourth fare category as part of changes designed to attract more business travelers and boost revenue. The new fare level will be priced higher than Southwest's cheapest tickets but below the airline's top two fare categories. Southwest executives think this will fill the large price gap between the cheapest fares, called Wanna Get Away, and more expensive tickets, the AP reports. Consumers who buy the new fare level, called Wanna Get Away Plus, will get 33% more frequent-flyer points than they receive for the basic ticket, and they will be able to transfer the value of a ticket to another Southwest customer.

It's the first major change in Southwest's fare structure in 15 years. Airline officials said the changes announced Thursday will take effect in May or June. Airlines frequently tinker with fares and fees to squeeze more revenue from passengers. In recent years, Delta, American, and United have reacted to competition from discount airlines by rolling out new, bare-bones "basic economy" fares. The big-three airlines then nudge customers to pay more for regular economy seats that include the amenities they have come to expect. Southwest hinted at the changes in December without giving details.

Executives declined to say how much more Wanna Get Away Plus seats will cost than the cheaper seats, but it will vary by flight. Plus buyers will be allowed to fly standby at no extra cost, even if there is a higher fare for the new flight. Southwest will also add early-boarding privileges to the next priciest fare, called Anytime, to avoid cannibalizing sales of full-price tickets. Early boarding is a perk because Southwest does not assign seats, meaning that the last passengers to board a crowded flight wind up in middle seats. Andrew Watterson, the airline's chief commercial officer, said all the changes should be particularly appealing to business travelers. A majority of Southwest customers buy Wanna Get Away fares.

(Read more Southwest Airlines stories.)
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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.
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Bahrain is among the 10 nations having the worst air quality, a key study has found. Conducted by Swiss firm IQAir, the 2021 World Air Quality Report is based on measurements of particulate matter obtained by ground-level monitoring stations worldwide.

PM2.5, the size studied, consists of fine aerosol particles measuring 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter and is thought to be the most harmful to health of the air pollutants monitored by international bodies.

PM2.5 concentration in Manama yesterday was 20.2 times above the WHO annual air quality guideline value.

Bahrain came in at eighth, with 49.8 10 g/m. Bangladesh was rated the worst at 76.9 g/m, followed by Chad, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India.

The readings for Bahrain were higher than in 2020. A score over 50 means the level of PM.25 exceeds the World Health Organisation guidelines by at least 10 times. In September, the WHO updated the guidelines for the first time in 15 years to push countries to do more to combat the problem.

The researchers behind the report used the new guidelines to return its results. To meet WHO guidelines, the annual reading should be less than 5 g/m. Only three nations currently meet that, according to the IQAir study: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and New Caledonia.

The UN body says about 80 per cent of deaths related to PM2.5 could be avoided if air pollution was brought to within the new guidelines. Clean air should be a fundamental human right and a necessary condition for healthy and productive societies.

However, despite some improvements in air quality over the past three decades, millions of people continue to die prematurely, often affecting the most vulnerable and marginalised populations, the WHO regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, said.

We know the magnitude of the problem and we know how to solve it. These updated guidelines give policymakers solid evidence and the necessary tool to tackle this long-term health burden.

Bad air quality kills more than million people a year worldwide, and can aggravate symptoms of Covid-19. Last year, a direct link was found between poor air quality and the deaths of 40,000 children.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia came 15th and 21st in the report, respectively. The report is based on PM2.5 air quality data from 6,475 cities in 117 countries, regions and territories around the world. The readings in the Gulf are linked to fossil fuel-based energy production, emissions from industrial processes, waste burning, construction, and motor vehicles, the report said.

But sandstorms also play a part, the report said. Its cited research that showed a dust plume created in June 2021 by strong winds carried dust from the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley to the western coast of the Arabian Gulf. The Supreme Council for Environment has released a new app that shows air quality across Bahrain.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) app will show live readings from stations monitoring pollution across the Kingdom. These stations have been built in Sitra and Awali. There is already a station at the US Embassy in Manama.

Available from both Apple App store and Google Play, the app will also give you information about what action you can take as a precaution when the pollution is at a hazardous or unhealthy level. The government is in the process of implementing strategies and measures to curb increasing air pollution. The roadmap for better air quality has been drawn up by the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE), encompassing short, medium and long-term solutions.
The attorney representing Michelle Troconis in the death and disappearance of Jennifer Dulos is again asking a judge to force prosecutors to turn over evidence in the case, including documents related to a federal investigation of Fotis Dulos.

Attorney Jon Schoenhorn contends that he has not received DNA and digital evidence that he has requested for months and says it is affecting his defense preparation for his client, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in the 2019 death of the New Canaan mother of five.

In the motion filed Thursday, Schoenhorn said hes also missing documents and evidence gathered during a federal Department of Homeland Security investigation of Fotis Dulos, who died by suicide in January 2020 while facing murder and other charges in his estranged wifes death.

It is apparent that the absence of court orders has only contributed to unnecessary delays, either due to inertia or intentional suppression of materials by responsible law enforcement agencies that have an obligation to respond to states attorneys requests, Schoenhorn said in the motion to compel prosecutors to turn over evidence.

Schoenhorn also claimed in the filing that New Canaan police investigating the death of Jennifer Dulos knew about the federal investigation into Fotis Dulos and his connection to certain Greek nationals who may have been involved in the crime, but failed to inform the states attorney prosecuting the case.

New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

There has been no reference in court proceedings, documents or arrest warrants about a federal investigation.

In a second motion filed Thursday, Schoenhorn again asked the court to remove the GPS device that his client is required to wear. He hopes to argue the motions at his clients next hearing on Tuesday in state Superior Court in Stamford.

Troconis and Kent Mawhinney have each pleaded not guilty and are free on bond while being monitored by GPS devices. Mawhinney, a former attorney and longtime friend of Fotis Dulos, has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and the prosecution has said he may testify against Troconis if her case goes to trial.

Schoenhorn has filed five motions, asking a judge to compel prosecutors to turn over evidence, but said he hasnt received key portions, including documents, photos and reports from the state Division of Scientific Services, which runs Connecticuts crime lab.

He wants the DNA analysis of several pieces of evidence collected on Albany Avenue in Hartford where Fotis Dulos was captured on the citys surveillance camera system disposing of bags the night of the disappearance on May 24, 2019. The video footage shows Troconis sitting in the passenger seat of Fotis Dulos truck as he made a series of stops to put bags in trash bins, according to arrest warrants.

One of the bags retrieved by police contained clothing belonging to Jennifer Dulos that was stained with her blood and DNA, the arrest warrants said.

Schoenhorn is still seeking the DNA analysis reports on several items and he wants a judge to preclude the use of anything that has been unlawfully withheld from the defense as of Thursday, including any witness statements.

He also wants the use of any evidence culled from electronic devices owned by Troconis, her mother, or her daughter, to be thrown out as well on the grounds prosecutors said they would return the items after they were processed, but never turned them over, Schoenhorn said.

These repeated delays outside the defendants control, continue to cause substantial interference with counsels ability to prepare a defense, Schoenhorn said.

His client has also not been able to have meaningful pre-trial discussions that could lead to a resolution or a trial date, he said.

In short, the defendant cannot determine what evidence is objectionable or admissible if she does not know it exists, Schoenhorn said.
Blackshear, GA (31516)

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Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 94F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

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NEW FAIRFIELD  A Hartford man was charged after he allegedly scammed a local couple out of $8,900 by posing as their grandson on the phone and claiming he needed to be bailed out of jail, police said.

The New Fairfield Resident State Troopers office arrested Kylo Simons Wednesday after he turned himself in on a warrant for his arrest. The 40-year-old was charged with second-degree larceny, third-degree burglary and criminal impersonation, state police said.
Contributed photo

SOUTHBURY  An investigation into an untimely death in town turned into a multi-agency response Tuesday following the discovery of hazardous materials inside a home.

Various law enforcement agencies responded to Ridgeview Road after Southbury police discovered suspicious materials while investigating an untimely death at a home on the residential street, according to state police.
C$5-billion transaction marks the largest ever Green Bond in the Canadian dollar market and a paramount development in Canada's sustainable finance market.



Proceeds will support green investments, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing climate resilience, conserving nature and protecting the environment

TORONTO, March 23, 2022 /CNW/ - BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO) (NYSE: BMO) today congratulated the Government of Canada on the successful completion of its inaugural Green Bond transaction and is proud to have acted as a joint-lead manager on this landmark achievement.

The C$5-billion transaction demonstrates Canada's environmental leadership, ensures government expenditures align with Canada's ESG goals and principles, and acts as a catalyst towards the continued development of the sustainable finance market in Canada. The Government of Canada recognizes that sustainable finance plays a key role in accelerating the transition to a cleaner economy, and that mobilizing capital is a critical part of Canada's work to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Nearly 100 investors participated in Canada's debut transaction, with final demand of over C$11 billion. 45 per cent of the transaction was distributed internationally, illustrating the strong appetite for CAD green bonds globally and a true testament to investors' interest for Canada's AAA credit rating.

The Government of Canada Green Bond Framework, developed in accordance with the International Capital Market Association's (ICMA) Green Bond Principles (2021), defines the criteria for the use of proceeds from green bonds as those projects that will facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy and contribute to the climate goals set out by the government.

"We're proud to be a joint lead-manager on the issuance of the first Government of Canada Green Bond," said Jonathan Hackett, Head, Sustainable Finance and Co-Head, Energy Transition Group, BMO Financial Group. "The establishing of a green financing program by the Government will help to accelerate sustainable finance adoption in Canada and is strongly aligned with BMO's Climate Ambition and our Purpose to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life."

BMO is a recognized sustainability leader

Carbon neutral in its own operations since 2010, BMO announced its Climate Ambition in March 2021 with a commitment to deploy $300 billion in sustainable lending and underwriting to companies pursuing sustainable outcomes by 2025. BMO is focused on being its clients' lead partner in their transition to a net zero world and, since December 2019, has completed green and sustainability-linked loans for companies in a range of sectors, with targets including decarbonization, diversity & inclusion, and health and safety. To support clients' pursuit of opportunities driven by the increasing momentum of the global economy's shift in production and consumption of energy, in 2021 BMO established a dedicated Energy Transition Group and the BMO Climate Institute.

BMO's leadership on sustainability has been recognized on a number of rankings, including the Wall Street Journal's 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies in the World, Corporate Knights' Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World Index, and Ethisphere Institute's list of the World's Most Ethical Companies.

For more information on BMO's commitment to a sustainable future, please visit the bank's latest Sustainability Report. To learn more about sustainable finance at BMO click here. For BMO's climate ambition, visit its Climate page.

About BMO Financial Group

Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $1.02 trillion as of January 31, 2022, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

SOURCE BMO Financial Group

For further information: For News Media Enquiries: Kelly Hechler, Toronto, [email protected] (416) 867-3996
Residents of rural communities to benefit from increased connectivity

HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, NL, March 24, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Through the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF), the Government of Canada is taking action to get people living in rural and remote communities connected to high-speed Internet.

In February 2022, the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced a historic plan to connect all remaining households in Newfoundland and Labrador to reliable high-speed Internet. Funding of up to $116 million will come from the Government of Canada through the UBF, and up to $20 million will come from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Today, Yvonne Jones, Member of Parliament for Labrador, on behalf of the Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development, announced $22,355,503 in funding to bring high-speed Internet to more than 1,000 households in rural areas in Labrador. Funding will be allocated to the Nunatsiavut Government for a project benefiting the communities of Rigolet, Postville, Makkovik, Nain, Hopedale and Natuashish. The network will be built and operated by Bell Canada.

Today's announcement builds on the Government of Canada's progress toward making sure that 98% of Canadians have access to high-speed Internet by 2026. As we work to rebuild from the pandemic, the Government of Canada will continue to make investments in infrastructure to build strong communities and a more competitive and resilient Canada for everyone.

Quotes

"This investment will bring reliable high-speed Internet access to more than 1,000 households in Labrador, helping create jobs, improving access to health care and online learning services, and keeping people connected. Since 2015, the Government of Canada has committed $7.2 billion to connect rural Canadians to better, faster Internet. We will continue making investments like these in rural and remote communities to help connect every single Canadian to high-speed Internet."

 The Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development

"The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is extremely pleased to partner with the federal government to bring high-speed Internet to six isolated and Indigenous communities on the north coast of Labrador. Such investments close the connectivity gap and greatly assist rural and isolated communities in boosting access to a wide range of services, including health care and education."

 The Honourable Lisa Dempster, Minister Responsible for Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation and for Labrador Affairs, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

"Today's announcement of more than $22 million to improve high-speed Internet connectivity will mean faster and more reliable Internet service for Rigolet, Postville, Makkovik, Nain, Hopedale and Natuashish. This pandemic has shown us just how essential reliable Internet access has become. Connecting Indigenous communities to high-speed Internet is a top priority, and this project with the Nunatsiavut Government helps us achieve our goal and commitment to ensuring Indigenous communities are not left behind."

 Yvonne Jones, Member of Parliament for Labrador

"Secure Internet connection has been a barrier in many aspects of life for those living in the five Inuit communities of Nunatsiavut. This initiative will be a step towards bridging those gaps and ensuring that Labrador Inuit have adequate access to opportunities for employment, health care and online learning. Connecting Labrador Inuit living in Nunatsiavut to high-speed Internet is of high priority for the Nunatsiavut Government, and we are thankful for the contributions that will help make this possible."

 Anthony Andersen, Minister of Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology, Nunatsiavut Government

"This announcement is certainly very welcome news. We are an isolated community on the north coast of Labrador where, because of geographical and environmental reasons, communications present a host of challenges. Secure, fast and reliable Internet connections are vital to our community and will greatly improve the lives of our members. As we move forward towards implementing our social and economic strategic plan, it is very important that our community have secure, reliable and effective connections. We welcome the project announced today and look forward to its implementation."

 John Nui, Chief of Mushuau Innu First Nation, Natuashish

"Bell's priority is to connect more people in more places, and the Northern Labrador Broadband Project will provide improved Internet access in the communities of Rigolet, Postville, Makkovik, Nain, Hopedale and Natuashish. We're proud to be partnering with the Nunatsiavut Government to deliver enhanced high-speed connectivity for these communities as part of this historic initiative."

 Glen LeBlanc, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of BCE Inc and Bell Canada, and Bell's Vice Chair, Atlantic Canada

Quick facts

The project announced today is receiving over $22 million in funding from the Government of Canada and Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to bring high-speed Internet to more than 1,000 households in Labrador . The network will be built and operated by Bell Canada .

in funding from the Government of Canada and Government of and to bring high-speed Internet to more than 1,000 households in . The network will be built and operated by . Canada's Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload.

The Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) is a $2.75 billion investment by the Government of Canada designed to help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030.

investment by the Government of Canada designed to help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030. As of March 1, 2022 , 171 projects supported through the UBF's Rapid Response Stream were announced. These projects will bring high-speed Internet to more than 75,000 households in rural and remote communities across Canada.

, 171 projects supported through the UBF's Rapid Response Stream were announced. These projects will bring high-speed Internet to more than 75,000 households in rural and remote communities across Canada. The UBF is part of a suite of federal investments to improve high-speed Internet access. Find out more on the High-speed Internet for all of Canada page.

Since 2015, Government of Canada funding has supported projects to bring improved Internet speeds to over 1.2 million households in rural and remote communities across Canada.

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The campaign calls on its employees, as well as those of the nearly 300 travel agencies that make up its distribution network, the largest in Canada with 2,000 travel counsellors. Air Transat passengers are also being invited to make a donation on board its flights, a collection made possible by the engagement of its crews. Customers and the general public can also donate in support of the organization's emergency response plan on the SOS Children's Villages portal dedicated to this fundraising campaign at http://support.soschildrensvillages.ca/goto/airtransat .

"This conflict is shattering the lives of millions of innocent people, especially children, and that resonates deeply with us," said Transat President and Chief Executive Officer Annick Guerard. "We have always been strongly committed to the protection of children and we are eager to support SOS Children's Villages' emergency response to those internally displaced in Ukraine, as well those Ukrainians who have fled the country." She added: "We invite our teams, our customers and the public to demonstrate their strongest support for the Ukrainian people, whose needs are immense, by joining us in this gesture of solidarity."

SOS Children's Villages is responding to the immediate critical needs in Ukraine by providing safe shelter, food items, medical supplies, hygiene kits, education materials, as well as psychosocial and mental health support. In addition, SOS is working with other humanitarian agencies to assist and reunify children who have been separated from their families. SOS Children's Villages has been helping children and families in Ukraine since 2003.

"SOS Children's Villages was founded to support children who lost everything during the Second World War in Europe, and now works in more than 130 countries. Beyond providing shelter and food, SOS Children's Villages focuses on building the trust and warmth of strong human connections. In all things we are on the side of children,", said SOS Children's Villages Canada President and CEO Thomas Bauer. "We will continue to protect children from the horror of war."

Over the years, Transat has supported numerous humanitarian operations by SOS Children's Villages and other charitable organizations in emergency situations, including in Canada, Haiti and other countries where Transat operates. Transat will strengthen its commitment to SOS Children's Villages by contributing $25,000 to this campaign.

About Transat

Founded in Montreal 35 years ago, Transat has achieved worldwide recognition as a provider of holiday travel particularly as an airline under the Air Transat brand. Voted World's Best Leisure Airline by passengers at the Skytrax World Airline Awards, it flies to international and Canadian destinations, striving to serve its customers with enthusiasm and friendliness at every stage of their trip or stay, and emphasizing safety throughout. Transat has been Travelife-certified since 2018, renewing its fleet with the greenest aircraft in their category as part of a commitment to a healthier environment, knowing that this is essential to its operations and the magnificent destinations it serves (TSX: TRZ).

About SOS Children's Villages:

Founded in 1969, SOS Children's Villages Canada is a member of the SOS Children's Villages International federation. SOS Children's Villages is dedicated to protecting children and advancing their rights in a 137 countries and territories. We believe that children deserve more than just survival. They have a right to grow up in a safe and caring family environment, giving them the best chance of a secure future. Using a holistic approach, we work to empower vulnerable children, families, and communities to ensure children's rights are met. Through programs focused on child protection, education, health, nutrition, women's economic empowerment and humanitarian responses, SOS Children's Villages serves over 1 million people annually. Learn more: www.soschildrensvillages.ca

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According to the eye witness, the violent mob kept shouting 'Ransack the houses, kill whoever is there' during the carnage.

An eyewitness account of the Birbhum violence has emerged after a resident of the districts Bogtui village spoke to the press and narrated the events of the horrifying evening when eight people, 6 women and 2 children, were allegedly burnt to death by a violent mob after the murder of local TMC leader Bhadu Shaikh. According to the eye witness, the violent mob kept shouting Ransack the houses, kill whoever is there during the carnage.

Speaking to ANI, the eyewitness, Shah Alam Shaikh, a resident of Bogtui village narrated, During the incident around 9-9.30pm, I was inside my house. My wife and I were offering namaz. After hearing the noise, I went outside and heard people saying that the Up-pradhan was killed. We were there outside our homes when we saw a person approaching us. They were saying ransack the houses, kill whoever is there. I then rushed inside the house and took our children to one room. I then kept family members locked inside the house.

Alam added that the perpetrators hurled bombs at the houses they were targeting. He stated, We then heard 10 bombs exploding which were hurled at houses. They ransacked the houses of those with whom they had enmity. Then they started setting all the houses on fire. No one tried to stop them. If one had tried, he would have been killed. Burnt bodies of seven people have been recovered from a house.

The eyewitness further stated that he could not see the faces of the perpetrators since he was hiding inside his house. It was not known who those people were. We were inside the house so we could not figure out. We could see from my house that the neighbouring houses were burning. This rampage was carried out all night. There is an atmosphere of fear and I am also leaving the house, said Alam.

The Calcutta High Court (HC) has already taken cognizance of the case.
Umar Khalid, an accused in the bigger conspiracy case involving the northeast Delhi riots, had his bail application refused by a Delhi court on Thursday.

Umar Khalid, an accused in the bigger conspiracy case involving the northeast Delhi riots, had his bail application refused by a Delhi court on Thursday.

Khalid, a former student leader at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was arrested on September 13, 2020, for violating parts of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). On March 3, the Karkardooma court reserved the order.

The order was set to be issued on March 14th. It was postponed due to Umar Khalids lawyer failing to file written arguments.

The healthy behaviour of the accused must be shown in the case of conspiracy, according to Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad. There are many chats, as well as additional proof. He also said that there is sufficient evidence against the defendants.

On the precise point posed by the court on Umar Khalids lecture at Amaravati, he stated that the Maharashtra police denied permission for the event on February 11, 2020. On the 12th of February, another application was submitted by a Welfare Party of India office-bearer, this time naming six dignitaries in addition to Umar Khalid.

The accuseds father serves as the partys national president. Despite the fact that permission was only issued for six individuals, Umar Khalid went there and made a speech on February 17th. According to the SPP, a FIR was filed for failure to comply the order.

The accuseds attorney, Senior Advocate Tridip Pais, rebutted the order and FIR, claiming that they were invalid since the right to free expression cannot be restricted. The Maharashtra Police Act contains no such limitations.

He said that Umar Khalid was not identified as a defendant in the FIR filed in the Amaravati case. After the speech, nothing occurred. Because he delivered a speech there, the prosecution cannot label it a terror act. The prosecution is making a farce of UAPA prosecution.

He further said that in the charge sheet submitted in the JNU case in 2016, the comment Bharat tere tukde honge was not ascribed to Khalid. However, the prosecution has ascribed the comment to him this time. This case is linked to the broader conspiracy of northeast Delhi riots, which resulted in the deaths of 53 people and the injuries of hundreds more.

Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and others were named in a bigger conspiracy case filed by Delhi police.
Last week the Supreme Court had said that the appeal challenging the Karnataka High Court's order to uphold ban on Hijab in educational institutions would be listed for hearing after Holi break.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea to expedite the hearing of the petition challenging Karnataka High Courts Hijab verdict. The bench hearing the petition is being headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana. The bench observed that exams have nothing to do with the Hijab issue. CJI Ramana stated, Exams have nothing to do with the hijab issue. The bench also asked the petitioners counsel to not sensationalize the issue.

Last week the Supreme Court had said that the appeal challenging the Karnataka High Courts order to uphold ban on Hijab in educational institutions would be listed for hearing after Holi break.

Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the petitioner argued that exams are starting on March 28 and students would lose a year as authorities are not allowing their entry in educational institutions with Hijab.

The Karnataka High Court had ruled in the Hijab matter that wearing of Hijab is not an essential practice of Islam.
Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister and the leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), visited Bagtui village in Rampurhat on Thursday to meet the relatives of those killed in the Birbhum violence.

Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister and the leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), visited Bagtui village in Rampurhat on Thursday to meet the relatives of those killed in the Birbhum violence.

Following the execution of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh, a mob allegedly set buildings on fire in the Rampurhat region of West Bengals Birbhum on Tuesday, killing eight people. Nagendra Nath Tripathi, Superintendent of Police of Birbhum, visited the area with a huge presence of police officers before of Banerjees visit to Rampurhat.

CCTV cameras are being put in the Rampurhat violence-affected region, as ordered by the Calcutta High Court. The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance after taking suo motu notice of the Rampurhat tragedy. The state government has also been ordered to produce a status report on the event within 24 hours, according to the Court (by around 2 pm on Thursday).

To look into the problem, a special investigative team has been constituted.

As many as eight people have been burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengals Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bahadur Shaikh.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Islamabad as a special guest. He also met the Pak Army Chief on the sidelines of the summit.

The Indian government on Wednesday slammed China for the uncalled reference to Jammu and Kashmir by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi while addressing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Islamabad and said matters related to the union territory are entirely the internal affairs of India. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated, We reject the uncalled reference to India by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the Opening Ceremony. Matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir are entirely the internal affairs of India. Other countries including China have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from public judgement of their internal issues,

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Islamabad as a special guest. He also met the Pak Army Chief on the sidelines of the summit. The Chinese Foreign Minister attended the OIC meeting as a special guest. While speaking at the meeting, Yi made remarks challenging the integrity of India and said that China shares the same hope for Kashmir as other Islamic countries. He stated, as reported by TRT, On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope.

Earlier, India slammed the OIC after the group invited Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to attend its Islamabad summit. Ministry of External Affairs had the OIC to not let Pakistan use its platform for anti-India causes.

Currently, the Imran Khan-led Pakistani government is facing a crisis in the form of an impending no-trust vote brought in by the opposition and endorsed by several ruling party lawmakers and major allies
Biden will also discuss military deployment on NATO's eastern flank and contingency plans for the potential use of chemical and biological weapons by Russia.

US President Joe Biden will announce new sanctions on Russian politicians and oligarchs during his visit to Brussels on Thursday, as per media reports. Biden will also discuss military deployment on NATOs eastern flank and contingency plans for the potential use of chemical and biological weapons by Russia, reported CNN citing a statement by US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Speaking on the new sanctions to be imposed against Russia, the US NSA informed that during a G7 meeting, the leaders will deliberate on coordination for sanctions enforcement to disallow Russia to circumvent existing sanctions.

A discussion regarding the sanctions will be held at the European Union, along with how to manage China as it considers providing military assistance to Russia, CNN reported.

On the potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia, Sullivan said that deliberate drumbeat of misinformation, propaganda and lies on this subject that has all the markers of a precursor to them actually using these weapons. Earlier this week, a spokesperson of Russian President Vladimir Putin had said in an interview that Russia wont rule out use of nukes in the event of an existential threat to Russia.
A series of shootings over a five-day period in eight Connecticut communities has left seven people dead and two others wounded, according to officials.

The unrelated incidents throughout the state come as gun violence and other types of violent crime have spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the number of homicides recorded in Connecticut jumped to 108, up from 77 the previous year, according to data from the FBI.

Heres how the recent wave of shootings in Connecticut unfolded.

Hartford

The deadly shootings began in the afternoon on March 16, when police in Hartford responded to a home on Irving Street for reported gunfire around 1 p.m. There police found a woman in her 60s with a gunshot wound. She was taken to the hospital in stable condition, but died several days later, according to police.

Authorities have identified the woman as 62-year-old city resident Cynthia Reynolds. Police have said they do not believe Reynolds was the intended target of the shooting.

Farmington

Hours after the shooting in Hartford, police in Farmington said they were called to the Unionville section of town around 11:15 p.m. March 16 when a shooting was reported inside a home on Sunset Terrace.

A woman told police shed been awakened by her brothers voice moments before he shot her fiance, Jorge Tejada Camacho, according to an arrest warrant.

The woman told police her brother, Deodre Dominique Linder, had called out I know what you did to Camacho the moment before he pulled the trigger, according to the arrest warrant.

It was not clear from the document what he was referring to, but the woman told police Camacho had given Linder two weeks to either move out or get a job.

Police said Linder fled the scene, but was apprehended by officers soon afterward on Interstate 84 later. He has been charged with murder along with other offenses related to allegedly possessing and firing a gun during the incident. Police said the womans children were also present in another room of the home when the shooting occurred.

Branford

Local police were called to the Branford Motel on East Main Street during the early-morning hours of March 17 for a reported shooting. When officers arrived, they found the shooter and an armed man in one of the rooms with multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

The man was later pronounced dead. Police have identified him as 39-year-old New Haven resident Lamar Woodhouse.

Branford police said they obtained warrants for vehicles and two rooms in the motel involved in the shooting.

Detectives are working in collaboration with the Office of the New Haven Chief States Attorney and the investigation will determine if charges will be forthcoming, the department said in its most recent update on the case Monday morning.

Bridgeport

On Saturday, police in Bridgeport responded to a call for a person shot in the 1000 block of Stratford Avenue. When officers arrived, they found 43-year-old city resident Fredrick Shelby with at least one gunshot wound, a city spokesman said.

Shelby was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they were investigating the motive behind the shooting.

East Hartford

Just before 2 a.m. Saturday, East Hartford police responded to Chapel Street near East Main Street after a report of gunfire.

When they arrived, they found 36-year-old Hartford resident Michael Manson unresponsive in a vehicle. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, according to police.

A 31-year-old woman from Bristol was also located at the scene with a gunshot wound to her arm. She was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Milford

In Milford, officers were called to the 100 block of Housatonic Avenue around 10 a.m. Sunday after a report of shots fired. Police said they found a man outside the home with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.

Police allege the man was shot by a relative in an argument that started over a greenhouse in the backyard. A .38-caliber revolver with two spent casings was located at the scene, according to police.

Authorities charged the alleged shooter, 60-year-old Eric Stoughton, with attempted murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and illegal discharge of a firearm. He was arraigned on the charges Monday, and ordered to surrender any guns he has and stay away from the victim if he is released.

Court records show Stoughton remains in custody on $750,000 bond.

New Haven

Around 9 p.m. Sunday, New Haven police were called to Orchard Place in the citys Dixwell neighborhood after a caller reported a person had been shot.

When officers arrived, they found a 17-year-old city resident who had been wounded, according to police. The teen was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, the department said.

The fatal shooting marked the Elm Citys second homicide of the year.

Meriden

In Meriden, police were dispatched to the Atrium condominium and apartment complex on East Main Street around 9:25 p.m. Sunday night after multiple calls reported gunfire.

When police arrived, they said they found a 37-year-old woman, lying in the entryway driveway to the complex, Meriden police said in a statement.

Investigation has determined that there had been an unknown number of shots fired in the immediate area and there is an active investigation ongoing at this time; however, it is too early to determine any of circumstances surrounding this incident, the police statement said. As the investigation progresses and as further details are learned, additional information will be released accordingly.

Police said the death has been ruled a homicide, and a suspect has been identified in the case.
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HARTFORD  The anti-abortion movement in Connecticut has been reenergized by the likelihood that the national right to abortion will be significantly curtailed in the coming months, even as Democratic lawmakers here move to protect abortion providers and expand access to the procedure.

As lawmakers in the General Assembly are set to begin debate on whether to enshrine a persons right to choose into the states constitution, about 2,000 anti-abortion supporters descended upon the Capitol grounds Wednesday for the first March for Life rally ever held in Connecticut. The event was scheduled to take place in 2020, but was rescheduled due to the pandemic.
After years of delay on a state retirement plan for businesses and nonprofits, Connecticut is finally bringing a program forward to benefit as many as 600,000 workers who lack access to employer-sponsored plans.

Under a law passed in 2016, Connecticut employers will be required to offer a retirement plan if they have at least five employees earning $5,000 or more annually, whether through the private sector or the new MyCTSavings plan. Those failing to do so could face penalties, which the new Connecticut Retirement Security Authority has yet to establish.

State Comptroller Natalie Braswell estimates as many as 30,000 businesses in Connecticut will have to add a retirement plan to comply with the law.

There is no fee for employers. Those with 100 or more employees have until June 30 to sign up, while deadlines for smaller companies have not yet been set.

Employers choosing MyCTSavings will see their workers enrolled automatically, with 3 percent of each paycheck set aside for savings in a Roth Individual Retirement Account, up to $6,000 annually or $7,000 for those 50 or older. Contributions are taxed at the time they are deducted, allowing retirees to withdraw savings in the future without any additional tax obligation.

This makes it easy, this makes it simple, this makes it automatic  its a payroll deduction, Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday during a press conference in Hartford. Over 30 years, with 5, 6 or 7 percent appreciation, that compounds  youll have a pretty good nest egg to go alongside your Social Security.

Workers can opt out at the time of enrollment or any point afterward, and can adjust their contributions to fit their budget and retirement outlook. Participants have the option of rolling accumulated savings into other retirement plans, including when they switch jobs or move elsewhere.

To sign up for MyCTSavings, employers must provide bank account numbers and information on payroll processing firms handling paycheck administration for their workers. The Connecticut Retirement Security Authority has begun notifying employers by postal mail and email of the requirements.

At the time of the original proposal in 2016, several employer groups opposed the legislation, including the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and a separate coalition of some 85 trade associations and chambers of commerce. The groups argued the private sector already had plenty of options for small businesses to add retirements plans. Advocates countered that thousands of those businesses choose not to establish plans, contributing to a retirement crisis for their workers that spills into the state budget as older citizens seek help for basic needs.

Some will ask why is the state involved in this  whats the public policy interest, said Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, majority leader in the Connecticut House of Representatives. We know that when people retire and dont have adequate savings to live out their life post-work, the state is going to bear a cost in that either in additional medical costs, or housing costs or social services.

Despite the urgency, progress stalled for several years before Kevin Lembo pushed through MyCTSavings in his final stretch as state comptroller before stepping down in December for health reasons.

Braswell, who was appointed as Lembos replacement, said federal law prevents the state from offering a 401(k) stock savings plan under the MyCTSavings umbrella.

The Connecticut Retirement Security Board originally hired BNY Mellon to administer the program. In January, BNY Mellon sold off its Sumday retirement plan administration division to New York City-based Vestwell, which since its 2016 launch, has picked up administration of similar retirement savings plans in Maryland, Oregon and Washington. Braswell said BNY Mellon remains involved in the Connecticut plan.

Under a pilot program last fall with a handful of Connecticut employers, 40 chose to remain enrolled in MyCTSavings, with a dozen opting out.

It has been a very easy process  not difficult at all, said Axel Collazo, assistant manager for Tollands Ace Transportation, which participated in the pilot. I have about seven or eight employees who are part of the program, and they are happy with the program.

According to a Pew Trusts survey, many employees who opted out of the Illinois plan cited an inability to save for current expenses on their income.

This program is going to have an impact on women more than anyone, said Nora Duncan, state director of AARP. Over one in four women age 65 and up rely solely on Social Security.

For information, a MyCTSavings call center is operating weekdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be reached at 833-811-7435.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
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More than a half-century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Connecticuts ban on contraceptives  a case that has garnered renewed attention this week after Sen. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, called the decision constitutionally unsound.

Blackburns comments came as the Senate began deliberations this week over the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, during which some Republicans  including Blackburn  have become increasingly critical of the courts decisions involving social issues.

While much of that criticism has revolved around the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, both of those precedents stem from the 57-year-old case out of New Haven known as Griswold v. Connecticut.

The Griswold case centered around an 1879 Connecticut state law, which stated that "any person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purposes of preventing conception shall be fined not less than forty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days.

The law was one of many Reconstruction-era state statutes known as Comstock laws due to their similarity to federal acts that aimed at prohibiting obscene or immoral materials from being sent through the mail.

The plaintiff in the case, Estelle Griswold, was born in Hartford and later became the executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, where she led the groups campaign against the states anti-contraception law.

Women and families were moving eagerly to adopt birth control across the country, Planned Parenthood spokesperson Susan Lloyd Yolen told Yale in 2007. The birth control pill came out in 1960, but Connecticut was a hold out on birth control at that point.

In 1961, Griswold and C. Lee Buxton, a gynecologist from the Yale School of Medicine, opened a clinic on Trumbull Street in New Haven that offered counseling services and prescriptions for birth control in direct violation of the law. The pair were promptly arrested and each fined $10, which began their legal battle.

Their case was eventually appealed to the Supreme Court, where Griswold and Buxton were represented by two Connecticut attorneys and Yale graduates, Thomas Emerson and Catherine Roraback.

In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Griswold, finding that the Connecticut law violated the various amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which the court determined for the first time had created a right to marital privacy.

Would we allow the police to search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for telltale signs of the use of contraceptives? The very idea is repulsive to the notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship, Justice William O. Douglas wrote for the courts majority.

The Griswold case and the courts determination that a right to privacy exists in the constitution would later be cited by the court in Roe v. Wade, which granted all women the right to access abortion services, and later in Obergefell v. Hodges, which granted same-sex couples the right to marry.

Griswold and her attorney, Roraback, were both later inducted into the Connecticut Womens Hall of Fame. Emerson was later cited by Justice Douglas as the nations leading First Amendment scholar.

In 1981, Griswold died at the age of 81 in Fort Meyers, Fla.
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HAMDEN  Two New Haven Dominican friars and Quinnipiac University employees returned from Ukraine with hopes of using what they experienced to grow awareness and create positive action, they said Wednesday.

The Rev. Jordan Lenaghan, the executive director of university religious life, and the Rev. Joachim Kenney, a staff chaplain for Catholic life, went to Poland to work alongside the Knights of Columbus, who are there to try to help refugees in the area.

Originally, the plan was to work on the Poland side of the border to hear peoples needs and work with the medical community, but the opportunity to go into Ukraine arose, they said while speaking at Quinnipiacs School of Communications Wednesday morning.

Thus began the 21-hour trek to the Ukrainian city of Lviv.

We realized ... the first weekend that we were there that we were not going to be able to do what we thought we intended to do, or at least at the location we thought at the border, Lenaghan said.

The pair spoke with a person on the ground who was handling logistics for the Dominicans and Knights of Columbus and said they wanted to go into Ukraine to learn the other side of the story, Lenaghan said.

Lenaghan and Kenny were told they would be put on a medical truck at 1 p.m. the following day.

He looked at me and said, Well, the first thing that we need to do is to vouch to the people who will be moving you that you are not Russian spies, Lenaghan said.

The pair then were given the name of a city and driven there with no other information, he said. When they arrived, they received a text message with an address to go to, which wound up being a parking lot in an industrial area with nobody around.

Lenaghan said they received another message with a persons name and so went into the building to look for him, only to find he was not there. They then got into a car and a man got in, giving them directions to an unmarked warehouse behind a distillery.

There they were met by people who were expecting them, he said.

Then I realized we werent going to go in a truck from the Knights, from the relief agency, we were going in an unmarked truck, Lenaghan said. We were being handed off to some trucking company that sent trucks into Ukraine to the war.

Everyone loaded into the truck, with Lenaghan and Kenney in the back of the cab, dressed in their collars.

The group was told they were missing a document and stopped at a gas station for roughly six hours, Lenaghan said.

At some point, a little car drove up, a guy got out, handed us documents which we noticed were not for our organization, Lenaghan said. Kenney pointed out the documents were not theirs but the pair were told they would work. They were sent to a hotel, which was expecting them, to spend the night as it was too late to cross into the city.

We got up early the next morning, we made our way to the truck. We got to the Polish border and we were delayed. We were pulled off for additional inspection and secondary passport patrol, Lenaghan said.

Once they crossed the border, they began hitting both army and militia checkpoints heading toward Lviv.

After getting to the city, Lenaghan and Kenney spoke with Ukrainians to learn about their experiences, asking how they have been affected, whether they were afraid, what they wanted Americans to know.

Some told them to ask the American people to close the skies, saying they could fight on the ground; others thanked Americans for not forgetting them, Lenaghan said.

Every person we spoke to thought they would die, but as the one woman who ran the shelter in Lviv said to us, I dont think Ill get through this, but she said, Im going to fight because this is my country, Lenaghan said.

Another person told Lenaghan and Kenney that Ukraine was not a unique case, and that if America doesnt help them draw the line there, it will have to be drawn somewhere else because this will happen in another country if Ukraine falls.

Lenaghan and Kenney also spoke with undergraduate students in Ukraine, many who reminded them of the students they see at Quinnipiac, they said, and who were making bandages and other aid supplies for people.

They looked at me and every one of them said, Im not afraid to die; and then one said, Tell them thanks for remembering us. The second one said, Im not afraid to die but Im afraid of being kidnapped and tortured by the Russian soldiers; and the third one said, Im not afraid to die but I am afraid of the occupation, Lenaghan said.

While in Lviv, which is far from the fighting happening in eastern Ukraine, according to the pair, they saw monuments and buildings being boarded up. By the time they were leaving the city three days later, the monuments and buildings were more secure.

Less than 24 hours after Lenaghan and Kenney left Lviv, Russian missiles struck the city, fewer than two miles from where the men had stayed during their trip.

Now that they have returned to Connecticut, the pair plan on taking action to help those they met in Europe. Kenny Kenney said theyre hoping to organize fundraisers with Quinnipiac students to lend a hand.

We are hoping to be able to organize efforts at raising awareness, education and then turning it into positive action, Lenaghan said.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
The UAE Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) recently discussed the investment opportunities up for grabs for Emirati and Turkish private sector agencies.



This came at a meeting between the FCCI Secretary-General, Hamid Mohamed bin Salem, and Nezaket Emine Atasoy, the President of the International Investment and Business Confederation (ULUSKON) in Turkey and her accompanying delegation, currently visiting the country, reported Emirates News Agency WAM.



During the meeting, prospects for collaboration between private sector institutions in the countries and ways to enhance them were reviewed.



Bin Salem welcomed the visit of the Turkish delegation, expressing the readiness of the FCCI to promote the opportunities presented by the Turkish delegation among Emirati business owners willing to invest in Turkey.



The two sides also mulled over the possibility of signing an MoU between ULUSKON and FCCI.
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EAST HAVEN  Attending prom can be expensive, from the tickets and transportation to the dresses, suits and accessories. But one East Haven resident is lending a hand by creating an organization aimed at helping everyone attend prom.

Cherie Bicknell came up with the idea when the mother of a girl on Bicknells four-year-old daughter Kaylees pageant team asked whether Bicknell could help collect prom dresses for students in need.

That drive was for students in Danbury, but it got Bicknell questioning whether her hometown of East Haven  shes an East Haven High School graduate herself  had a similar drive for students.

I reached out to a few active members of the community and they said no, Bicknell said of the town having its own such drive. I reached out to the community through social media and they all loved the idea and we just kind of ran with it.

Thus, Kaylees Prom Land Boutique was born.

The organization is named after Bicknells daughter, the youngest of her four children. She said she wants to instill in her children the love and importance of lending a hand.

I try to teach them like, hey, help people in need, Bicknell said. You just dont know anybodys situation. I was a single mother with my two older children and I had help from others in the community. Those avenues were available, so any little help I can help somebody with, Im more than willing to do that.

Bicknell wanted to create more of a boutique shopping experience versus participants feeling as though they were at a consignment or thrift shop picking out their prom attire.

Bicknell enlisted the help of two active community members, Ann Penington and Annarose Russo, to create the drive, with other volunteers helping at two donation sites earlier this month.

In just two months, the team managed to create the entire program.

The community was wonderful with donations, Bicknell said. I havent really counted them because theres a lot but I want to say I have 300 dresses.

Some dresses still have tags and were never worn after the pandemic led to the cancellation of proms and dresses could not be returned. Dresses that were donated, in cases with the tags still on, cost as much as $600. Other dresses are by designers Bicknell recognized from the pageant world.

Other donations so far include 50 pairs of shoes, accessories and items from small businesses, such as Attilios Mens Clothing, which donated five tuxedo rentals. Flowers by Lisa is donating corsages and another local flower shop is donating corsages and boutonnieres.

Branford Academy, a cosmetology school, came up with a bundle of services it will provide, as well. Nail and hair salons have donated vouchers or gift certificates.

Bicknell and a friend are Paparazzi Accessories representatives and donated jewelry and accessories for students.

My plan, depending on this year because it was kind of fast moving, is the total package, Bicknell said. I would love to provide that for your child. You know, find your dress, find your shoes, heres your accessories, heres a voucher to go get your hair and nails done. The total package of where they want the glam and they just unfortunately cannot afford it.

Kaylees Prom Land Boutique is not just a one-time event for Bicknell, who filed to become a nonprofit with the state of Connecticut. She wants to hold the event annually but also grow it to include not only the total package, but more towns to help more children in need.

Were just trying to make it here as the trial run, learn from it and grow from it, Bicknell said.

Kaylees Prom Land Boutique, located at Hayes School at 1 Maple St. in East Haven, will be open for all East Haven High School students who need help with the financial burden of attending prom, and they can shop April 2.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is first come, first served, with limited appointments available, as well. Those interested in learning more or scheduling an appointment can email kayleespromlandboutique@yahoo.com.

Just because of your financial situation, it shouldnt affect being able to go somewhere or having a good time as a kid, Bicknell said. If I can provide this for them, hey, I just made a childs day.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
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HAMDEN  More than 100 people poured into Miller Memorial Library Wednesday afternoon, but not to browse the shelves.

The crowd, made up primarily of senior citizens, most of them women, came concerned about crime in town, especially at shopping centers. Some said they avoid buying groceries locally because of recent reports of thefts and carjackings, including against elderly persons.

Though many types of crime are down, Chief of Police John Sullivan said, Hamdens shopping centers and elderly population have become a common target. And theft from motor vehicles has skyrocketed, according to Sullivan, who provided a crime statistics chart.

Some 120 such thefts have been reported since January, the chart showed, while only 70 were reported during the same time frame last year.

Sullivan was there to answer residents questions and describe measures the department was taking to combat the trend. Police Detective Sean Dolan, Mayor Lauren Garrett and Andrew Bermant, who owns the Hamden Plaza and flew out from California to attend the discussion, also came to speak to the crowd.

The forum, hosted by the Miller Association of Seniors, came less than a week after a 74-year-old woman was seriously injured after a reported carjacking at the plaza.

Last month, police reported an attempted purse-snatching, also at the plaza, that left an 83-year-old woman with a hip injury.

Also in February, police announced they were investigating multiple reports of car break-ins at Hamden shopping centers.

Such events had evidently rattled many of the forums attendees.

One woman told the crowd she no longer felt comfortable walking the Farmington Canal Trail. At least two people said they have avoided shopping in Hamden because of crime reports, choosing instead to go to North Haven or East Haven.

Residents also shared techniques for keeping themselves safe. A woman said she no longer puts groceries in the trunk of her car because she feels it leaves her vulnerable with her back to the parking lot.

Instead, she goes between cars and puts her bags in the back seat.

Eleanor Pesanelli, vice president of the Miller Association of Seniors, said the group always invites a guest speaker or entertainer to its monthly meetings.

Because of the interest in crime in Hamden, we opened it up to the Police Department, she said. People are telling us that they are not shopping in Hamden. They are afraid of whats going on.

Pesanelli has her own concerns.

Every time something happens in Hamden, I go to North Haven for a while and then come back, she said, adding that she has lived in Hamden most of her life and prefers to shop there.

To allay residents concerns, officials described the existing police presence in shopping areas and announced added patrols.

With the weather warming up, residents soon will see bicycle patrols on the canal trail, Sullivan said. The town also deploys patrols in shopping areas, though the officers sometimes need to leave if they get a call, he said.

Sullivan provided further details following the meeting. Both sides of Dixwell Avenue have area patrol cars, he said.

Stop & Shop also hired two extra-duty police officers, and a third is stationed at Walmart, according to Sullivan. The department will be putting one to two additional patrol cars on the street in coming days as part of a crime deterrence unit, he said.

Meanwhile, Bermant told residents of recent steps he has taken to improve safety in Hamden Plaza.

A security patrol car maintains a presence in the lot during business hours, he said, and he is exploring the possibility of hiring a second one as well as an extra-duty police officer.

The plaza also has improved lighting and installed security cameras, according to Bermant, who said management has spent $250,000 on improvements in the last year.

Were doing everything that we can do as a property owner, he said. You are the most important thing to us.

Bermant could recall just two concerning events prior to 2019 over nearly two decades of managing the property. It was nothing like what were facing today, he said.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
The legislative Transportation Committee on Thursday dropped a proposal that would have required motorcycle riders to wear helmets for the first time since the mid-1970s.

Its another victory for the two-wheeled Let those who ride, decide supporters, who recently told the committee that they want to keep their freedom of choice.

There was a lack of support from committee members on both sides of the aisle, said state Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the committee, after the committee voted on its deadline day. The committee took the action with no discussion.

The large-scale transportation bill still includes a section that would finally ban open containers of alcohol in vehicles, but that was the target of criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, even as state Rep. Will Haskell, D-Westport, committee co-chairman, cited law that requires a percentage of federal road construction money go to alcohol education in states that dont ban open containers.

Opposition to the provision, which is nestled in a much-larger, 23-section DOT bill, was led by state Rep. Devin Carney, R-Old Lyme, the top Republican on the panel, along with veteran state Sen. Steve Cassano, D-Manchester, who said that in the real world, designated drivers are important when others are drinking.

From my perspective, if the driver is not drinking an alcoholic beverage, then I dont think there is a law violated, Carney said. The whole point of designated-driver laws is just that. If the driver even takes a drop of alcohol while they are driving, they could be guilty of driving under the influence. That law is already in place.

Carney warned that creating the open-container law could result in more traffic stops around concerts and sporting events at a time when police are already over-worked. I just dont think that this is an egregious violation, Carney said. Obviously nobody wants somebody driving to drink, but we already have those laws in place. Having a passenger with an open container just does not, to me, seem like something we should be asking police to look for.

Connecticut is one of only 11 states without specific laws against open containers of alcohol. Haskell replied that the states lack of a statute prohibiting open containers has resulted in the diversion of three percent of federal highway construction support to education instead of infrastructure. He said since 2001, $175 million that could have gone to roads has instead shifted over to alcohol education, and $11.2 million is estimated to be diverted this year.

Unfortunately we are seeing a spike in alcohol-related injuries and fatalities in the state of Connecticut, Haskell said. In 2019, 98 of 249 fatalities on our roadways were alcohol-impaired. In 2020 that number increased to 118 out of 299 fatalities.

Cassano agreed with Carney that designated drivers are important, stressing that there have been extensive media and public service campaigns for years stressing their importance.

Ive gone to a Red Sox game or a Patriots game, whatever it might be and wed have a designated driver, he said. It made sense. This proposal just tears that apart. Its totally inconsistent with the kind of money they invested in making sure that somebody driving that vehicle is not drinking. People are just going to break the law. Theyre still going to go to a ballgame. Theyre still going to have beer in the car.

Every few years, state lawmakers again propose the return of motorcycle helmets, or finally stopping passengers in motor vehicles to drink alcohol. But one way or another, the measures fail. Passengers in taxi and livery vehicles including ride-sharing vehicles would be allowed to imbibe under the current proposal, which next heads to the House of Representatives.

In recent years it has been defeated in committee and, most recently in the House of Representatives. One year it was UConn supporters in the House, concerned about tailgating in the rain, who killed the legislation. Another year it was pulled from a multi-hour debate after urban lawmakers warned that sipping beer in parked cars in front of their homes could invite racial profiling from police.

In other action on Thursday, the committee approved legislation to allow direct sales of electric vehicles in the state. But on a Democrat-dominated committee, the legislation received opposition from Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford and Rep. Christine Conley, D-Groton.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Cliff villagers embrace new city life

(People's Daily App) 13:27, March 24, 2022

A steel ladder in the cliff village of Atule'er has become a popular tourist spot after villagers were moved out into houses in the county town, President Xi Jinping was informed at the two sessions, an annual meeting of two of China's elite political bodies in March this year.

Atule'er is a 200-year-old village in Sichuan Province where a rattan ladder once provided the only link to the outside world.

At a 2017 two sessions panel discussion, Xi expressed concern about the village.

Check out the video to see the profound changes at Atule'er.

(Produced by Huang Jingjing and Xie Runjia)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has launched a tailored campaign as a tribute to women across the kingdom acknowledging the key role they play in life.

The campaign started from March 21 and will run until April 30, 2022, featuring a credit card promotion, special offers and exquisite prizes.

During the campaigns duration, all types of womens credit cards will be rewarded with an entry to a raffle draw for every BD3 ($8) spent in one transaction.

Rewards for customers

To reward the customers, three lucky winners will walk away with a diamond bracelet. The campaign will also ensure women avail of special offers by NBB through its partner stores.

Commenting on this exclusive campaign, Subah Abdullatif Al Zayani, Chief Executive Retail Banking at NBB, said: As a gesture of praise to all the women in the kingdom and to showcase our appreciation for the role they play in our everyday lives, we are excited to launch this exclusive campaign. This is a tribute to their efforts and achievements, and a celebration of their accomplishments and contributions to raising the kingdoms future generations.

At NBB we live by our promise of being closer to our customers, and as such, we continuously strive to provide bespoke products and services tailored to fulfil the needs of all women. This launch is just the beginning of a number of surprises prepared for women by NBB for this year, and we urge you to stay tuned for more exciting reveals, he concluded.-- TradeArabia News Service
Passengers wait in the Air New Zealand lounge at Auckland International Airport in Auckland, New Zealand, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. New Zealand's flagship airline said Wednesday it plans to start direct flights to New York in September, a route that would take more than 17 hours southbound and be among the longest nonstop flights in the world. Tickets start at $1,400 round trip (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Bahrains real estate sector is strong and resilient and will continue to grow in the years to come, real estate leaders of the kingdom said at the Gulf Property Shows roundtable yesterday.

Moderated by event organiser Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE) Exhibitions Director Ahmed Suleiman, the discussion featured Amin Al Arrayed, Chief Executive of Bahrain Real Estate Investment Company (Edamah), Majid Al Khan, Executive Board Member of Infracorp, and Aref Hejres, Chairman of Bahrain Property Developers Association (BaPDA), a Gulf Daily News report said.

Al Khan said: It is important for Bahrains real estate future that we ensure that there is greater connection across the real estate sector. It is not only about synergistic thinking to meet the needs of the citizens of Bahrain but also about connecting projects in their purpose. We are putting this into action by joining the developments across the water of Harbour Row with The Avenues.

Edamah, the real estate arm of Bahrains sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, faces the challenge of adding value to the destination creation for Bahrain.

Edamah has strongly aligned with the governments long-term vision and Bahrains Economic Recovery Plan. We have put into place projects which add value to Bahrain as the destination to reside in and visit. Our developments are geared to providing meaningful experiences that add value to Bahrains economy, said Al Arrayed adding that under the leadership of the board of directors, Edamah has become the reliable option for delivering massive scaled hospitality projects.

We have created more open access for the beaches of the kingdom under our management. Beach-goers are required to buy an entry ticket but this is in reality a coupon valid to be spent at any of the outlets available on site, explained Al Arrayed, adding, So access is ultimately free.

Hejres, reminded the audience of the advances that Bahrain has made in the real sector; in particular the regulatory framework set up by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, the Golden Visa scheme and professionalisation of the sector.

As one of the proponents of the regulatory push, Hejres said: Construction and development as sectors are continuously evolving the framework structure that we have in Bahrain, which gives the flexibility for positive evolution of rules and practices as part of the regulatory framework.

He added that the greater use of proper techniques and meeting requirements on green and sustainable building in Bahrain will benefit the real estate sector.

The panel united behind the message of the value proposition of Bahrain as a destination for international visitors, investors and citizens. The buoyancy in the market can be seen by the increased visitor attendance of the Gulf Property Show.
BUFFALO -- A plea deal may be in the works for former Falls businessman Frank Parlato Jr., a
A 2020 file photo shows a sign at a Starbucks Coffee store in south Seattle. Workers at a Seattle Starbucks store in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood voted to on unionize on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, the latest push by workers at the coffee giant to form collective bargaining units. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Ahead of the All Progressives Congress, APC, upcoming national convention, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, met with governors of t...





Ahead of the All Progressives Congress, APC, upcoming national convention, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, met with governors of the party.





During the meeting, Buhari urged the APC leadership to refund aspirants who were dropped immediately.





He urged them not to allow the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to take over power in 2023.





The President told the party leadership to be united in appointing executives ahead of the 2023 general elections.





He spoke while reeling out 11 points during the meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.





See full text of Buharis speech below:





Your Excellencies, I would like to express my gratitude to you all for the work you have done and are doing and your continued partnership and fortified alliances with the Federal Government over the years.





When we came together to form the All Progressives Congress, nearly eight years ago our goal was National Salvation, our resolve was unshakable, our motivation was patriotic and noble.





Consequently, by the Grace of God, we were rewarded with victory in the 2015 General Elections in a free and fair election.





Over the last seven years, we have done our best to deliver good governance to the country. We have guaranteed national food security, we have provided modern infrastructure to kick-start economic growth and we have implemented the most comprehensive social welfare programmes in our history.





Along the way, our party has survived shocks and attempts to derail it. Our government has also had to endure the worst economic crisis with the free fall of oil prices from an average of $100 per barrel over 15 years of PDP government to an average of $30  $50 until the recent energy crisis.





We need to remind ourselves of these achievements and not be diverted by petty quarrels and unseemly jockeying for positions. It will be a very sad and regrettable development if these manifest gains are frittered away as a result of internal dissent and rivalry. We must avoid narrow focus and inordinate personal ambitions at the expense of our partys common good. We must stop frivolous and diversionary litigation when the Partys reconciliation processes are available for settling disputes.





We must restore sanity and purpose in the affairs of our party and lead ourselves to victory and safety.





As I remarked when I met Your Excellencies on February 22nd, our aim must be to hand over to an APC Government at the Center and the great majority of states. We must not, by default allow the PDP to get its dirty hands on Government again and return us to the Stone Age.





As I said at that meeting, our Party chose its leadership by consensus. I again plead that we choose our next leadership by consensus. This is consistent with the spirit of democracy, the Partys Constitution and the Nigerian Constitution.





I have already given my input and other recommendations on the way forward in both my 25th February 2022 meeting with the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee and my 13th March 2022 letter to the Chairman of the APC Governors Forum.





With the convention only two days away I implore you to come together and sort out all the remaining party positions so that within the next 24 hours we can arrive at a Unity List which we can take to the convention.





Finally, all those who have bought forms indicating interest and have been dropped should have their money refunded without delay.
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Wednesday, lamented that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu was passing through unimaginable torture in deten...





The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Wednesday, lamented that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu was passing through unimaginable torture in detention.





IPOB claimed that the Nigerian government, through the Department of State Services, DSS, had subjected Kanu to torture and humiliation since his rendition from Kenya.





Emma Powerful, spokesman of the group, lamented that the DSS had refused Kanu from changing clothes.





A statement by Powerful urged the United Nations, UN, and the Human Rights Watch to prevail on the Nigerian government to release Kanu, unconditionally.





He said: The global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), wish to put the whole world on notice that our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is currently under severe torture and humiliation in the hands of Nigeria Government at the Abuja headquarters of the Department of Security Services, DSS, where he is under custody.





We condemn this torture and the flagrant abuse of his human rights by DSS. Since his abduction from Kenya on June 19, 2021, till date they have been touring him. They have denied him access to his religious materials.





They have never allowed him to change his clothes while on the other hand, the same hypocritical Government is sewing new clothes for bandits and mass murderers who have purportedly repented.





Our leader has been subjected to unimaginable torture since his rendition to Nigeria. The world will be shocked at further revelations of what he has passed through ever since then.





Therefore, the global world, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all diplomatic missions in Abuja Nigeria should prevail on Nigeria to release Kanu, unconditionally so he will not die in detention.





Kanu was arrested and repatriated from Kenya last year.





Upon his return to Nigeria to continue his trial, Kanu was detained in the DSS custody on the order of an Abuja Federal High Court.
The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Millard Dikio (rtd), has warned that things would only get worse if th...





The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Millard Dikio (rtd), has warned that things would only get worse if the Federal Government does not do more to wage a war against the activities of informal operators of modular refineries in the Niger-Delta region.





Dikio pointed out that the domestic refining of crude oil by artisans in host communities had grave health and environmental implications for the country.





The amnesty boss said this in Abuja on Wednesday at the stakeholders engagement on the integration of modular/artisanal refinery operations in the oil and gas sector, with the theme, Current Challenges of Revenue Loss, Petroleum Product Scarcity, Environmental Pollution and Negotiated Way-Out.





Dikio also encouraged all stakeholders to set aside their differences and support efforts to save not only the environment but also the countrys economy.





According to him, things can get worse if urgent and systematic steps were not taken to fight the effects of informal crude oil refining.





He warned that it was dangerous for citizens to seek to make money by all means, adding that people will end up destroying the environment for the love of money.





There are problems with artisanal refining, he explained, noting that these activities of illegal crude refiners have serious health and environmental implications.





He said that stakeholders in the industry must come together to solve the problems.





Also, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger-Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, told the gathering that the President Muhammadu Buhari government has lost so much money to oil thieves





He went further to disclose that it was high time the country regularised modular refinery operators to save the countrys economy.





According to him, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which has led to the ongoing war between the two countries, has created opportunities for the nations energy sector.





He pointed out there was the need for all players in the industry to be brought on board in order for Nigeria to take full advantage of the rising global demand for oil.
The Management of the Federal Polytechnic Nedeke, Imo State, has said the institution is not conducting any form of recruitment and warned m...





The Management of the Federal Polytechnic Nedeke, Imo State, has said the institution is not conducting any form of recruitment and warned members of the public not to be misled by racketeers whose stock-in-trade is to deceive and extort innocent people.





The warning follows an alert on the nefarious activities of internet fraudsters who are said to be scamming desperate members of the public with a promise of a job at the Polytechnic.





Michael Arimanwa, the Rector of the Institution, alerting the public of the scam in a statement regretted that the new method devised by the unscrupulous elements is to clone the social media accounts of public officers to offer fake jobs at a fee, warning the public to be wary of them.





The Rector said, I have only one Facebook account and I have not been requesting friendship, lately. Do not become a victim. If you are already friends with me on Facebook, kindly ignore any further invitation for friendship. If you are not already my friend on Facebook, please be diligent enough to confirm by phone call, SMS, WhatsApp or any other means that I am the one requesting friendship.





Arimanwa called on security agencies to investigate those cloning peoples Facebook accounts, using such to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.





The Polytechnic management under me as Rector unequivocally neither sends friendship requests on Facebook nor demand money from anyone under any guise.





Employment in the institution is purely by merit when the time comes, and no one pays any fee for it. People should avoid anyone, however, close to him, who requests money from them to be favoured with a job slot, he concluded.
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described the protests embarked upon by some Ile Ife indigenes over the announcement of a non-nati...

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described the protests embarked upon by some Ile Ife indigenes over the announcement of a non-native as the next Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University as crazy.

Soyinka, a former lecturer at OAU, spoke at a lecture titled, The Politics of Black Intellection and Creativity, at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States, which was the first of the newly-inaugurated Distinguished Lecture series in African Studies.

Reacting to a question by Professor Wale Adebanwi, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Soyinka said hes shocked over the incessant kidnappings, ritual killings and violence that have become the order of the day in Nigeria.

Asked to express his reaction to the agitations that the next Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University must be an indigene of its host city, Soyinka faulted the protesters.

He said, An Ife person wrote me and say, look at these people disgracing us. I told him to go there and disgrace them. You are an Ife person. You should be in the front line.

The Ife people should say those people dont belong to us, we dont know where they came from. And they should be dealt with ruthlessly. Why should there be an Ife VC anywhere? I just dont understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy.

Since the announcement of Prof Adebayo Bamire as the 12th substantive VC of OAU, some Ife indigenes commenced protest.

The protesters argued that an Ife indigene should have been appointed.

It was gathered that Prof Rufus Adedoyin, who hails from Ile-Ife, came ninth in the screening, which saw 16 candidates shortlisted for interaction for the post of VC by the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board.

Determined to ensure the installation of an Ile-Ife indigene as the next OAU VC, some indigenes entered the varsitys campus with charms and other fetish objects on Monday.

They also closed the varsitys two major gates, thereby preventing staff, students, and other stakeholders from either coming into or leaving the University.

The protests by the Ife indigenes started last Thursday, March 17, 2022, shortly after the University Governing Council, led by its Chairman, Owelle Oscar Udoji, announced a professor of Agricultural Economics, Bamire, as the 12th substantive VC.

The protesters, who initially blocked the main gate of the University on the first day and threatened staff and students to stay away from campus, allegedly became violent the second day as they beat up workers, particularly the staff of the Security Unit, and vandalised their office at the Main Gate.

Some of the security workers were reportedly taken to the Universitys Health Centre for treatment.

On Monday, March 21, 2022, the protest took another dimension as the protesting indigenes blocked the two major gates as early as 6: 00 am, entering the campus with charms, and other fetish items.

Videos that surfaced online showed the protesters assembled at the motion ground of the University Secretariat, dressed in all-white spiritual traditional attire, chanting incantations and performing rituals.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, cautioned the protesting indigenes and residents of the town to be lawful, saying protests were legitimate rights and a way to pass messages of dissatisfaction across to relevant authorities.

At the end of the interaction, the sealed envelopes were opened one after the other and announced to all the members. The score sheets were thereafter passed around for sighting. Then, the scores of the candidates were collated with Microsoft Excel and ranked from the highest to the lowest.

The candidate with the highest score was eventually announced as the Vice-Chancellor by the Governing Council.

For the avoidance of doubt, no member of the Board had foreknowledge of each candidates score before the final collation at the end of the interaction.

The University hereby affirms that due processes were followed and merit was the basis for the appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor, OAU said in a statement by its spokesperson, Abiodun Olarewaju, on Monday.
The United Kingdoms Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has said that the government will ensure that Russian President, Vladimir Putin fails in ...









The United Kingdoms Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has said that the government will ensure that Russian President, Vladimir Putin fails in the ongoing war in Ukraine.





Truss said this on Thursday while announcing more sanctions against Russian and Belarusian citizens and companies, targeting key industries supporting Russias illegal invasion.





CNN reports that the latest UK sanctions target 65 individuals and entities, including six banks, Russian railways, a defence company and the Wagner Group, a secretive Russian military contractor thought to be connected to and financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch so close to the Kremlin that he is known as Putins chef.





The newly sanctioned individuals include oil tycoon, Eugene Shvidler; Tinkoff bank founder Oleg Tinkov; and Herman Gref, the CEO of Russias largest bank Sberbank.





The Russian-installed Mayor of Melitopol was also sanctioned.





These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price. Putin should be under no illusions  we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up, Truss said.
Through the partnership, Dar Al Arkan will develop a mixed-use project in Yiti and Yankat areas, 20-minutes from Downtown Muscat, a paradise with a distinctive terrain where the earthy atmosphere envelops as part of a large master development, situated 100m above the shores and overlooking the Sea of Oman in Muscat.

The value of the investment in the project from both parties will reach SR6 billion ($1.5 billion), and it will be developed in three stages on a 3.5 million sq m area.

The project marks Dar Al Arkans first entry into Oman to drive the development of the property market and support the growth of Omans real-estate sector in accordance with Oman Vision 2040.

Dar Al Arkan, a leading real estate company in Saudi Arabia and the GCC, and Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran Group), the executive arm of sultanate for tourism development, have signed an agreement to develop AIDA one of the largest premium, mixed-use real estate projects located in the Yiti area in Muscat.

Situated on a hilltop, the project which will be developed 100 m above sea level, will comprise 3,500 residential units of medium-sized villas, townhouses, and low-rise apartments.

It will feature two charming hotels, a plaza filled with cafes and restaurants, a gated promenade with luxury retail and premium wellness centres, and gyms, cradled by a gorgeous outdoor landscape, stated Omran.

On the new venture, Ziad El Chaar, Vice Chairman of Dar Al Arkan Properties, said: "We are excited to become part of this unique project. Oman has always offered an exceptional experience for residents and tourists, and the development of Yiti and Yankat areas will further elevate the nations offering and position it as a world-class destination."

"Our project in Oman builds on Dar Al Arkans strategic aspirations of elevating the standards and quality of the real-estate sector in the region, but most importantly, with this project, were working to ensure a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to building a large, mixed-use development that fits in with the characteristics of the area," he stated.

"AIDA sits atop one of the worlds highest peaks, a place where all the noise is quietened, composing a beautiful symphony. Overlooking one of the most breath-taking horizons in the world, will lie a place bubbling with inspiration, he added.

Omran Group CEO Hashil Bin Obaid Al Mahrouqi said: "We are delighted to work with Dar Al Arkan on this master project that is being developed with world class expertise. We believe they share the same vision with regards to balanced and sustainable building practices, and this is a critical factor in the success of this project."

"The project is strategically designed as an extension to Muscat city to showcase the vision of progress and sustainable urbanisation. AIDA will become an attractive and sought-after destination with its many residential, entertainment, cultural, retail and recreational offerings that will put Oman on the regional and global tourism map, as well as drive foreign investment and stimulate key economic sectors that will help achieve Oman Vision 2040," he stated.

The project is one of the largest urban developments in Oman, extending to a total area of over 11 million sq km. Its masterplan was designed to ensure innovative standards in urban development and place-creation, and adoption of architectural foundations in harmony with the rich natural surroundings.

In line with the Sultanate's ambitious plans for economic diversification, the project plays a pivotal role in increasing the contribution of the tourism sector to support the national GDP.

Based on the position of Omran Group as the active national arm in the development of the tourism sector, the project will contribute to providing promising investment opportunities and creating a fertile environment to attract capital and foreign direct investment.-TradeArabia News Service
Moderna to seek emergency authorization for COVID-19 vaccine use for kids under 6
The Opec Fund for International Development and the organisation Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) are strengthening their cooperation in the field of clean cooking, a key part of Sustainable Development Goal 7.

In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed during their joint "Finance for Clean Cooking" forum in Vienna, both organisations commit to scale-up their support of global and national efforts towards universal access to clean cooking.

Around 2.6 billion people lack access to clean cooking solutions, with the lowest access rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Indoor air pollution from the use of traditional fuels for cooking causes millions of deaths every year.

The estimated cost worldwide from the use of traditional fuels for cooking is $2.4 trillion each year, while finance for clean cooking solutions remains far below the estimated $4.4 billion required annually to ensure universal access by 2030.

Critical component

Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-chair of UN-Energy said: "I'm pleased that through this partnership, SEforALL and Opec Fund will continue to provide support for countries to advance clean cooking as a critical component of their integrated energy plans.

Through the Energy Compact process, unlocking much-needed finance, and providing data and analysis, we will accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 and ensure a just and inclusive energy transition that leaves no one behind."

Opec Fund Director-General Dr Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: "We are very pleased to expand further our cooperation with SEforALL with the aim to unlock much-needed investments for clean cooking. Innovative planning and finance mechanisms can unleash the significant global potential of clean cooking and provide safer, cleaner and more efficient use of energy resources in households. Going forward, the Opec Fund and SEforALL will scale up our efforts with a joint action plan."

AAID recognised for its clean cooking

The Opec Fund's 2021 Annual Award for Development, which focused on clean cooking solutions, was presented to the African Agency for Integrated Development (AAID) during the event.

The organisation was chosen for its community work in promoting clean cooking technologies, training and advocacy for women and youth in the Kyaka II refugee settlement in Western Uganda.

AAID is working with the local government to lead awareness and training sessions and aims to create a ripple effect to encourage women and youth in the settlement to switch to more efficient, safe and cleaner cooking practices.

Prioritising the energy challenge

Kisembo Asuman, the President of the AAID said: "In Uganda, displaced communities heavily rely on open fires and polluting fuels for cooking. This is not only unhealthy, but also means that our forests are vanishing to support the cooking needs of the refugee settlements.

We thank the Opec Fund for prioritising the energy challenge in Kyaka II settlement and recognising our efforts to promote the use of clean energy and cooking resources through supplies, training and awareness."

Now in its 15th year, the Opec Fund Annual Award for Development recognises individuals and organisations for their outstanding work in, and contributions to, development.

Previous winners include Earthspark International for scaling-up energy access in Haiti; Vida Duti in recognition of her work in striving for sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in Ghana; Bangladesh-based BRAC for its support of Rohingya refugees; and the Bolivian Confederation of campesinos, indigenous and native women "Bartolina Sisa".-- TradeArabia News Service
If the Tudor Revival brick architecture with ornamental half-timbering and a huge arched garage door dont immediately spur curiosity about Wade and Farron Tornyos Mid-City firehouse-turned-residence, the official-looking plaque near the front does.

Neighbors and passersby routinely stop to read the inscription, which commemorates the citys 1998 rededication of the early 1900s building as a New Orleans Recreation Development Commission community center for the elderly. People even have been known to peer through the mailbox for a look inside.

When were doing yard work, somebody at some point always asks about (the house), said Farron Tornyos. Its definitely a conversation piece.

Wade Tornyos interest was piqued back in 2013, however, when the couple, then living in Houston, were considering moving back to New Orleans and temporarily decamped to Farron Tornyos parents pool house less than a block away. The building, which served as a firehouse from 1912 to 1975, had been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina and had fallen into disrepair. There was graffiti on the facade, holes in the roof and mold that needed to be remediated.

When it rained outside, it also rained inside, said Farron Tornyos.

The ceiling was falling in and the courtyard was completely overgrown. Nevertheless, when the city put the century-old building up for auction, the Tornyoses, who hoped to renovate it as their home, submitted the winning bid.

We both like cool, interesting, unique properties, Farron Tornyos said. Also, we like projects. This house has become a hobby to us.

The airy ground floor, visible ductwork and huge windows of the Mid-City property all spoke to the Tornyoses vision of an urban loft-inspired home. According to Farron Tornyos, her husband brings the big ideas, and she reins them in. But they both knew what they hoped to achieve with the house.

The day we won the auction, we were so excited we ... bought some champagne and we ... jumped the fence to celebrate, said Wade Tornyos. But we left because we were being bitten by fleas. It was a rude awakening of what we had just gotten ourselves into.

Luckily, the couple, who say they were blissfully naive when they took on the renovation, found that the building was in relatively good structural condition despite the more obvious damage. Forty gallons of beehive (and bees) had to be removed, but there was no termite damage.

They stayed on budget by using restraint and letting the original house come through.

Working with a general contractor who had a reputation for quality millwork and who had a draftsman in-house, the Tornyoses turned the two-story portion of the property into a four-bedroom, 3-bath house that also includes an office. The single-story L-shaped building that was originally the stable now houses guest quarters and Wade Tornyos woodshop.

We call (the house) Hotel Goodell, said Farron Tornyos of the moniker that comes from her maiden name. Our joke is that the reservation book is always full. Out of 52 weekends, we have somebody here at least 30 of the them.

Today, the graffiti is long gone and the exterior looks much as it would have 100 years ago. Inside, the couple carefully preserved as many of the historic details as possible.

They kept the original doors and windows and happily discovered wood flooring beneath four subsequent layers of various material upstairs.

A bank of wooden lockers that once belonged to the firefighters is showcased on a guest room wall, and large circles on the floors where the firemens poles once resided are purposely highlighted rather than camouflaged.

The ground levels concrete floors had been noticeably sloped toward the arched garage door (its now a permanent window) leading to the street. The couple surmises this was for hosing out the firehouse in its heyday. But concrete was a natural choice for the industrial architecture and for foot traffic, so the Tornyoses had the floors leveled, resurfaced and stained a glossy brown.

They likewise chose track lighting and exposed ductwork because of the way they go hand-in-hand with the deconstructed quality of the surroundings.

A 17-foot-long kitchen island provides a focal point for the linear first floor and a multifunctional work/eating/relaxing space for the revolving door of family and friends who visit. Custom cabinetry, Carrera marble on the island and counters, and silvertone lanterns add polish.

Upstairs, the homeowners devised a new floor plan with private bedrooms and baths. The separation of rooms, along with use of the original wood floors, the addition of classic crown moldings and window coveringss, creates a more traditional aesthetic.

Wade Tornyos, who works in the energy industry, also is a skilled woodworker. He designed and built the dining table and the home office. When the smallest of the bedrooms lacked an optimum place for a bed, he crafted three built-ins: a bunk bed against one wall and a single under a window.

To accommodate the bunks, the antique wooden lockers that belonged to the firemen of old were moved to the opposite wall, where their rustic patina stands out in contrast to the clean white of the beds.

Farron Tornyos, a sales manager for a company that purchases food for colleges, universities and schools, did some of the stripping, painting and tile setting. While the walls on the first floor are white, she indulged her love of color in each of the bedrooms and in her closet, where she went with a vibrant pink.

The Tornyoses also incorporated things with special meaning. The newel posts on the stairwell are reclaimed from a house that Farron Tornyos parents owned. An elegant grandfather clock was handed down from her paternal grandmother.

A vintage childs firetruck that once belonged to an aunt is displayed above the kitchen cabinets like a firehouse mascot. Farron Tornyos stepfather drove to Chicago to retrieve it from her aunts garage during the renovation.

One big moment for the renovated home came on New Year's Day 2021. The house across the street caught on fire, and after the blaze was out, the Tornyoses invited the curious firefighters in for a tour. They marveled at how the residence honors its firefighter past.

We cycled in about 20 of them that day, said Wade Tornyos. They were excited to come in because theyd seen it a lot and it still looked like a firehouse. They thought it was cool that it had so much original stuff.
A man shot and killed his ex-girlfriends new lover, an Orleans Parish jury decided on Thursday, after prosecutors spent four days painting a picture of a man scorned and ready for revenge.

Christopher Alexander, 31, was found guilty of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the Jan. 8, 2018 shooting death of Idrick Brister in New Orleans East's Little Woods neighborhood.

Brister, 29, was shot twice in the head, New Orleans police said. He died four days later.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Robin Pittman, who presided over the four-day trial, is scheduled to sentence Alexander on April 6. A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence; obstruction of justice conviction carries up to 40 years.

This is a case about a love triangle, Andre Gaudin Jr., a prosecutor with the Orleans Parish District Attorneys Office, told jurors during his opening statements Tuesday.

Gaudin said Alexanders heart was broken after his relationship with his longtime girlfriend had ended and she began dating Brister. He claimed Alexander ordered a cab and took it to the neighborhood where Brister lived. Alexander waited nearby, Gaudin said, then shot and killed Brister when he left for work.

But the states case was largely circumstantial, after the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that Alexanders confession, given to police during an interview, was inadmissible at trial.

Instead, prosecutors poked holes at what Alexander had told police when he was brought in for questioning: That he was in the neighborhood to meet a stripper, and was shocked to learn that the address she gave him for their meet-up was actually his aunts house in Little Woods, which is located near where Brister lived. Prosecutors said police found no evidence of Alexander communicating with a stripper, either by phone or via Instagram, where the two allegedly met.

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He was going to show up and a stripper fairy was going to drop a stripper at that house, said Ned McGowan, the first assistant district attorney who co-prosecuted the trial.

There is no stripper fairy, McGowan added.

Alexanders defense team put on no case, and warned jurors during their opening statements they would be mostly silent during the trial, asking few questions of witnesses.

Please dont take our silence as evidence that we are not taking this seriously, said Annick Jordan, of Orleans Public Defenders. She added that the defense team would remain mostly mum because it didnt expect prosecutors to present much evidence that we need to explain.

During her closing statement, defense attorney Mariah Holder pointed out that Alexander calling a cab to the neighborhood where Brister lived was not proof he had pulled a trigger.

She said the other evidence prosecutors presented  including Alexanders phone call to the cab company; his agonized texts to his ex-girlfriend; that he had gone to a shooting range days before Brister was killed; and his unprovable stripper story  did not make him guilty.

They are trying to make something out of nothing. Do not let them, Holder repeated twice.

She added that prosecutors were asking jurors to send Mr. Alexander to die at Angola [prison] based on the meaningless information theyve presented to you over the last four days.
The man gunned down in a Gentilly drive-by shooting Wednesday had been on the way to a pretrial court hearing in the killing of an Edna Karr High School student and his stepsister. The man's mother, who was accompanying her son to Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, was badly wounded in the gunfire.

Hollis Carter, 21, was shot in the head just before 9 a.m. while driving on Chef Menteur Highway, as he and a passenger in a white sedan were stopped at a traffic light, according to New Orleans police and Carter's attorney, John Fuller, who identified Carter as the deceased victim. He said the passenger was Carter's mother but did not provide her name.

Fuller said he thought the killing was related to the double homicide.

"Street justice has resulted in an assurance that there would never be any closure in this case," Fuller said.

Had the case gone to trial, Fuller he planned to show that a person other than Carter fired the weapon that killed Caleb Johnson, an 18-year-old Karr senior, and Breyiana Brown, his 25-year-old stepsister, at an Algiers apartment complex on March 28, 2021.

Police secured a videotaped confession from Carter, also a Karr graduate, who said he shot Johnson and Brown after a gun sale went south. Fuller said he planned to argue that Carter confessed because he was afraid of the actual killer, who has never been publicly identified or arrested.

The district attorney's office would not comment on Fuller's defense, saying the case is still open.

But that trial will never come to pass. On Wednesday, police said a black Ford F-150 pickup truck pulled alongside the car carrying Carter and his mother and fired into the vehicle. Carter's mother fell out of the sedan onto the pavement, police said, as the vehicle rolled forward down the street. Police found Carter dead at the scene.

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His mother suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was hospitalized in critical condition.

After the shooting, a woman sat behind yellow crime scene tape and rocked herself back and forth, crying over and over: They killed my baby.

Mike Smith, an assistant pastor at Bethel Community Baptist Church, which operates a car wash and at least two other businesses on the block, said car wash employees watched as someone unloaded a gun into the sedan. The shooter fired at least eight shots, he said.

Carter had been expected in court for a status hearing. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the Algiers double homicide, plus attempted second-degree murder for allegedly injuring a third victim.

Fuller said he is "still committed to proving [Carter's] innocence. He doesn't deserve to have his obituary tainted by what were basically false charges."

Carter had been jailed in lieu of $375,000 bail until October, when he posted bond and was released, according to court records.

"He was a good kid. He was working at a restaurant. He was abiding by all of the restrictions required by a defendant whos out on bond," Fuller said. "He was loved by his family. This is tragic."
The New Orleans coroner released the official cause of death for Linda Frickey, 73, whose Monday carjacking in Mid-City escalated into a homicide when four teen suspects dragged her from her vehicle until her arm ripped from her body.

The official cause of death is blunt force injuries.

Surveillance video footage released by Frickey's family appears to show an assailant climbing into the driver's side front seat, pulling Frickey from the vehicle and kicking and punching her. Neighbor Austin Northcott reported hearing screams before rushing outside and witnessing Frickey being dragged from her 2021 Nissan Kicks for more than a block down Bienville Street from the 300 block of North Scott Street at around 1:34 p.m.

Jason Melancon, director of public information at the Orleans Parish Coroner's office, could not clarify whether those fatal injuries were sustained on Frickey's arm or elsewhere on her body. The severed arm and blows sustained during a deadly beating would both be considered blunt force injuries, Melancon said.

Four juveniles were arrested Tuesday and charged with second-degree murder. Two of their parents turned them in to authorities. NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said he plans to ask District Attorney Jason Williams to prosecute the teens, who have been arrested in the past, as adults.

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According to Louisiana law, the deliberate killing of or infliction of great bodily harm on a person older than 65 or younger than 12 is first-degree murder and may be sentenced with the death penalty.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said District Attorney Jason Williams intends to prosecute the juveniles as adults.

Jillian Kramer contributed to this report
New Orleans residents who have been forced to pay hundreds of dollars to recover their stolen or carjacked vehicles will be able to seek reimbursement from the city under new rules adopted Thursday.

The City Council unanimously passed a series of measures establishing the fund, which will make $650,000 from the city's general fund available to pay people back for towing fees assessed by private contractors on recovered vehicles.

Council President Helena Moreno, who spearheaded creation of the fund, said "everyone is aware of the situation" that requires "victims who have had their car stolen having to go to tow yards and then pay fees to try to retrieve their cars."

The new fund accompanies an amendment to local law approved last month that council members say will stop victims from having to pay for their property once it is recovered.

Beau Tidwell, spokesperson for Mayor LaToya Cantrell, said that the administration supported the changes but noted that additional amendments might be needed to streamline the process.

An 'unfair practice'

At its Feb. 17 meeting, the City Council voted to updated an ordinance that established a framework for how the police should work with towing companies, but that instead often saddled residents with towing and storage charges. In some cases, victims reported spending hundreds of dollars to recover their vehicles, which had languished in lots for days.

"This is a pretty unfair practice," Moreno said in January.

As it was written, the ordinance gave New Orleans police the green light to tow recovered vehicles  at the owners expense  if they could not reach the owner. But the ordinance was in conflict with a Louisiana state law that requires law enforcement agencies to expeditiously return any stolen property to victims or their families at no cost to victims or their families.

The new fund established Thursday was initially set to be $150,000. It was increased after the council received information that as many as 1,600 stolen vehicles have been towed in New Orleans since 2017. The money will come from the city's general fund balance.

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Only owners of stolen cars towed since Aug. 1, 2017, will be eligible for reimbursement. Thats when the state law requiring stolen property to be returned at no cost to victims was passed. Reimbursement instructions will be posted on the citys website. It's not clear when the fund will start taking applications.

At a budget meeting on March 17, city representatives shared New Orleans police estimates that as many as 200 stolen vehicles are towed each month.

The amendment to the local ordinance passed last month, co-written by District A council member Joe Giarrusso and Moreno, makes clear that all fines and fees assessed as a result of a litany of crimes, including carjackings, robberies and thefts, will be waived.

Giarrusso said that New Orleans police should be doing everything in their power to reach victims and avoid a recovered vehicle needing to be towed. But in circumstances where a vehicle is towed to a private lot, the ordinance makes clear that a victim will not ultimately be responsible for any fees incurred.

The amendment works in tandem with the fund, he said, allowing victims to be reimbursed.

To have towing and storage fees waived, victims will have to present evidence that the alleged crime was reported to law enforcement in a timely manner, the amendment states. Theres no strict timeline outlined in the ordinance; Giarrusso said that was to give people flexibility.

But the requirement to present evidence is in place to make sure people werent cheating and trying to get money, when in fact they were parking where they shouldnt be, he said.

The creation of the fund and passage of the amendment come at a time when carjackings have surged across New Orleans and other U.S. cities. The city has already seen at least 90 carjackings since the start of 2022.

Thats nearly as many in just three months as during the entirety of 2018 or 2019.

Staff writer Ben Myers contributed to this report.
Etihad Engineering, one of the worlds leading maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services providers, recently showcased its comprehensive capabilities and key achievements to a visiting delegation from Argentina.



The delegation was led by Dr Matias Kulfas, Minister of Productive Development, Daniel Filmus, Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation, and Mirta Iriondo, President, Fabrica Argentina de Aviones.



The delegation was hosted by Abdul Khaliq Saeed, Chief Executive Officer, and other senior executives from Etihad Engineering. Following a corporate presentation, the group was taken on an extensive tour of Etihad Engineerings 500,000-sq-m facility.



The tour encompassed aircraft hangars at the facility which cover approximately 66,000 sq metres, including dedicated aircraft painting facilities and a custom-designed hangar that can accommodate up to three Airbus A380 aircraft simultaneously.



In 2019, Etihad Engineering signed a comprehensive agreement with Fabrica Argentina de Aviones (FAdeA), Argentinas main aircraft manufacturer, to serve MRO customers in South America. As part of the agreement, Etihad Engineering has been supporting FAdeA in developing processes and capabilities to maintain and modify aircraft and aircraft components, while utilising FAdeAs skilled aviation professionals and well-equipped facilities in South America.



Abdul Khaliq Saeed, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Engineering, said: Our strategic partnership with FAdeA has been a great success over the last three years, with more than 50 maintenance checks completed so far for third-party customers. As our robust customer footprint continues to grow in South America, I am delighted to welcome our esteemed guests from Argentina to experience our award-winning facilities in Abu Dhabi.



The Minister of Productive Development, Matias Kulfas highlighted the comprehensive approach developed by Etihad Engineering, and the excellent development in the manufacturing of parts, maintenance, and repair of aircraft. He highlighted the importance of the existing cooperation with FAdeA and the possibilities of deepening it, in what he hopes will be part of a growing relationship between the Argentine and Emirati aviation industries.  TradeArabia News Service
You wouldnt know it from the flocks of marching bands that parade down St. Charles Avenue during Carnival, but jazz music and dancing has been banned in New Orleans public schools for almost a century.

This week the Orleans Parish School Board is poised to reverse that policy exactly 100 years after it was passed.

Officials say the rule has racist origins, as its creators sought at the time to distance New Orleans schoolchildren from the African Americans who invented the genre. Those efforts clearly didn't bear fruit, as the local jazz ban has been ignored for decades.

In this instance and in this instance only were glad that the policy was ignored by our students, by our schools," board member Katherine Baudouin said. "Our schools played a major role in the development of jazz.

The board discussed the policy at a committee meeting on Tuesday and plans to vote Thursday on reversing it.

'Rooted in racism'

While digging through University of New Orleans archives, for research on a dissertation that would eventually become the book "Chord Changes on the Chalkboard: How Public School Teachers Shaped Jazz and the Music of New Orleans," Al Kennedy found traces of a school system-wide ban on jazz dancing and music that passed without much fuss. The long-overlooked policy came to the board's attention after Ken Ducote, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools, read about it in Kennedy's book.

According to reports from the time, a School Board member identified as Mrs. Adolph Baumgartner interjected her thoughts on jazz during an unrelated School Board discussion March 24, 1922.

Jazz music and jazz dancing in schools should be stopped at once, Baumgartner said during a debate on finances. I have seen a lot of rough dancing in school auditoriums lately."

What is jazz? asked board member Percy H. Moise.

Ive only seen a little bit of it, but it was awful, replied a third member, Henry C. Schaumburg. The children have no business engaging in such dancing.

The motion to ban jazz music and dancing in schools passed, with Moise abstaining. Afterward, Baumgartner was asked to name permissible dances.

Oh, yes  they can dance the one-step, two-step and the waltz, she said. The waltz is most beautiful, dont you think?

Kennedy said the ban was likely the School Board reacting to the fears of the day.

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Think of it as an early version of the book ban, he said. It seems like they were more afraid of it being a bad influence than anything else.

Ducote mentioned the policy to board member Carlos Zervigon, who introduced the motion to reverse the ban at Tuesday's meeting, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ban.

School Board President Olin Parker said the policy was rooted in racism and noted that the ban didn't prevent the tremendous contributions of our students and especially of our band directors whose legacy continues from 1922 on now through the Carnival season.

Ducote said the School Board's current practices require considerable public input before new policies are adopted. That forbids board members to pass new policies on a whim, as was done in 1922.

"It's like if Colorado passed a rule banning students from looking at the Rocky Mountains," Ducote said.

Legacy of jazz in schools

Despite the ban, New Orleans public schools had a large influence on jazz musicians, Kennedy said. Some musicians were hired as teachers, moonlighting at jazz gigs after school hours.

Take Osceola Blanchet, a trained pianist who spent 45 years teaching chemistry at McDonogh 35 High School during the school day, and giving students music lessons during his lunch hour and after school. Blanchet produced many operettas and inspired some students to pursue careers as professional musicians, Kennedy said.

There's also the late Yvonne Busch, a renowned jazz musician who toured the country with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm at age 12 and had a 35-year career teaching music at Booker T. Washington, Joseph S. Clark and George Washington Carver High schools. Several of her students went on to make names for themselves in the music world, including R&B star James "Sugarboy" Crawford, bandleader Porgy Jones, saxophonist James Rivers, guitarist George Davis and drummers Herlin Riley, John Boudreaux and James Black.

And Roderick Paulin, a fifth-generation professional jazz musician who attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts as a student, credits his afternoons at NOCCA with building his deep understanding of music theory. He also learned discipline, work ethic and high-level thinking, he said.

Music played in schools in Paulin's youth eventually became what was played in clubs around town, he said. Many groups, including the Neville Brothers and the Rebirth Brass Band, grew out of high school groups.

Other jazz greats who attended New Orleans public schools include Louis Armstrong, Pete Fountain and Ellis Marsalis Jr.

Paulin, who is pursuing a doctorate in music education at LSU, hopes local officials will expand music education in public schools. He said he hadn't heard of the ban on jazz music and dancing during his time as a New Orleans student or after. "Children need to experience music," he said.

Note: This story has been updated to correct a misspelling of Yvonne Busch and International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
While strong tornadoes like those that cut across parts of the New Orleans area Tuesday are blessedly rare, they are really no rarer here than elsewhere -- though the total number of tornadoes annually along the Gulf Coast does seem to be on the rise, forecasters and tornado researchers said Wednesday.

But what could be good news is the improved accuracy of tornado forecasts and increased lead time of tornado warnings.

For the devastating tornado that hammered Arabi and Gretna, the first warning was issued nearly a half-hour before the first damage was reported.

Tornadoes per year This map shows the total number of tornadoes across the U.S. (Harold Brooks, National Severe Storm Center)

And forecasters issued warnings about the tornado that menaced the north shore almost 50 minutes before the first damage was reported near Larose.

Concerns about the heightened risk of tornadoes, and specific information about the dangers of the two supercells spinning off tornadoes, were passed on to emergency managers and television meteorologists through the weather services online NWSChat beginning at about 6 p.m.

According to tornado researchers with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, based in Norman, Oklahoma, the current official National Weather Service average lead time for warnings involving all tornadoes is 9 minutes. For more intense tornadoes, ranked from EF3 to EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the average lead time is 23 minutes.

Benjamin Schott, director of the Slidell office of the weather service, said the unusually early warning time for both tornadoes was a reflection of a staff that knows New Orleans and southern Gulf Coast weather patterns, and dramatic improvements in the tools they use -- from the latest advances in satellites, to the latest version of dual-pole Doppler radar that can measure winds both coming and going at the same time.

+2 Photos, video: Daylight view of tornado damage in Arabi, including aerial images A tornado ripped through Arabi on Tuesday night, leaving one person dead. On Wednesday morning, photographers got a first look at the damage i

Many of my staff have been here for an extended period and understand the complexities that being on the Gulf Coast can provide, Schott said. And the improvements in our resources can actually tell us what winds are doing out over the ocean and provide us with better information in areas where 10 or 20 years ago, the technology wasnt there to give us the depth of data that was available to us yesterday.

On Tuesday afternoon, as the unusually strong and wide squall line of intense thunderstorms moved east across southwestern Louisiana, the line seemed to be breaking up into individual thunderstorm cells before it approached the New Orleans area.

But Schott said his team of forecasters recognized as early as 6 p.m. Tuesday that atmospheric changes were in the works to create several supercell thunderstorms likely to spin off tornadoes.

Radar image of tornado in Arabi This radar image shows the intensity of winds as a tornado hit Arabi on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.(National Weather Service)

Everything had looked like this wasnt going to be much of an event after all, he said. But we were having conversations with the Storm Prediction Center, telling them that everything was still there that was necessary. It just needed a little boost.

That boost came from the low-pressure system that was steering the squall line, which was much farther south than normally occurs with such systems. It was in the Gulf, rather than in north Texas or the Midwest. The result was that its counterclockwise surface winds were blowing southeast in advance of the squall line at the same time that a strong midlevel jetstreams winds above the line were blowing from the northwest.

The jetstream also was much farther south than normal.

The combination created perfect conditions to trigger rotation in two of the supercells along the squall line, creating the combination of lift and spin needed to spawn tornadoes.

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The phenomenon of tornadoes hitting southeastern Louisiana is not necessarily unusual at this time of year, said Harold Brooks, a senior research scientist with the severe storm center.

While the traditional "tornado alley" region that includes Oklahoma rarely sees tornadoes before the middle of March or after mid-June, Gulf Coast states don't really have a tornado season, he said. There's a chance of the destructive storms occurring during any month.

The reason is that the conditions for tornado formation are usually available year-round in this years, including warm, moist air on the ground, with layers of cold, dry air between 10,000 feet and 30,000 feet above the ground.

"If you have something to get a storm started, a weather boundary like a front, it helps initiate storms," Brooks said. And as occurred on Tuesday, it's the difference in the directions of winds at the surface and in the upper part of the atmosphere that creates the spin within a strong thunderstorm that becomes a tornado.

And while a tornado reaching the intense EF3 level, with winds as high as 165 mph, is unusual, the number of such stronger storms ranges between 30 and 100 a year across the nation.

Brooks said it's also not unusual for such a strong tornadoes to strike a populated areas. Schott agreed, adding that this storm is a reminder that the public has myths about tornadoes that the southshore twister proved wrong: "that they don't hit big cities, or they don't cross the Mississippi River."

"It's an unfortunate reminder that when we're forecasting things, you do have to pay attention," he said.

A more complicated question is whether these two tornadoes were affected by, or the result of, global warming or other aspects of climate change.

"Given the small-scale and rare nature of tornadoes, it is difficult to identify climate change signals in tornado data," said Todd Moore, chair of the department of Geosciences at Fort Hays State University, in Kansas.

But researchers have found that fewer tornadoes are occurring in the Great Plains over time, while the number of tornadoes has increased in the Mid-South and southeast U.S., including Louisiana.

Tornadoes on the rise This graphic shows how the number of tornadoes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that are EF-1 or stronger are increasing. (Todd Moore, Fo

That eastward shift is following a similar shift of atmospheric patterns, he said, including increased humidity, atmospheric instability and the wind shear patterns -- upper level winds blowing in the right direction to create spin, Moore said.

Another change in seen in longer-term statistics is that tornadoes are occurring on fewer days during the year, but there are more days with multiple tornadoes, such as the outbreak of multiple tornadoes in Texas and Louisiana on Monday and Tuesday.

"Why does this matter? Population in these regions are more at risk and vulnerable," he said. "The risk is higher in these regions not only because tornadoes are occurring more, but also because a relatively large number of them occur overnight when people are not alert, and they tend to be faster moving, providing people less time to seek shelter.

"The vulnerability is higher in these regions for a multitude of reasons, including a more dense population, denser forest cover that can lower visibility, higher proportion of mobile homes, and a suite of socio-economic factors that make it difficult for people to absorb the impact and recover," he said.
Wind-whipped flames are marching across more of New Mexicos tinder-dry mountainsides, forcing the evacuation of area residents and dozens of patients from the state's psychiatric hospital as firefighters scramble to keep new wildfires from growing. The big blaze burning near the community of Las Vegas has charred more than 217 square miles. Residents in neighborhoods on the edge of Las Vegas were told to be ready to leave their homes. It's the biggest wildfire in the U.S. and is moving quickly through groves of ponderosa pine because of hot, dry and windy conditions that make for extreme wildfire danger. Forecasters are warning of extreme fire danger across New Mexico and in western Texas.
Williamsport, Pa. -- The James V. Brown Library will celebrate April 3-9 as National Library Week, an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and communities.

The theme for National Library Week 2022, Connect with Your Library, promotes the idea that libraries are places to get connected to technology by using broadband, computers, and other resources. Libraries also offer opportunities to connect with media, programs, ideas, and classesin addition to books. Most importantly libraries also connect communities to each other.

To kick off National Library Week, the Library will host a special family event from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 2, featuring the book Saturday by Oge Mora.

The event will feature a puppet palooza and four creative station-based learning activities inspired by the book. Families will also receive a free copy of the book for their home libraries, sponsored by the Friends of the James V. Brown Library group. The Friends also will have coupons available that day for all children who attend to receive a free childrens book from the Friends Bookstore on the third floor of the Library.

The selected book is the 2022 PA One Book, a state program that highlights the importance of early literacy development in preschoolers and the significance of reading early and often to children, as well as engaging them in conversation and other activities around books. For more information, visit paonebook.powerlibrary.org.

The author and illustrator, Oge Mora, will speak virtually to children across the state on Tuesday, April 5 at 10 a.m. During this event, Mora will talk about her work as a storyteller and answer questions from librarians, teachers, and students alike. You can register for this free event online.

Molly Shannon, multiple Emmy-nominated and Spirit Award-winning actress, comedian, and legendary Saturday Night Live cast member, will help celebrate our nations libraries as the honorary chair of National Library Week, April 3-9, 2022.

I am so honored to serve as honorary chair of National Library Week for 2022. My mom was a librarian. She encouraged kids to read. So, the work of librarians and libraries has such a special place in my heart, Shannon said. Libraries are places where communities connectto things like broadband, computers, programs and classes, books, movies, video games, and more. But most importantly, libraries connect us to each other.

Also celebrated during National Library Week are the following events:

Monday, April 4: State of Americas Libraries Report released, including Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books of 2021.

Tuesday, April 5: National Library Workers Day, a day for library staff, users, administrators, and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

Wednesday, April 6: National Library Outreach Day (formerly National Bookmobile Day), a day to celebrate library outreach and the dedicated library professionals who are meeting their patrons where they are.

Thursday, April 7: Take Action for Libraries Day, a day to rally advocates to support libraries.

The James V. Brown Library helps lead the community by offering safe in-person programs, a variety of virtual programs, and contactless outreach book deposits to local childcare and senior care facilities.

Libraries are cornerstones of democracy, promoting the free exchange of information and ideas for all, said Barbara S. McGary, Executive Director of Brown Library. They also foster civic engagement by keeping people informed and aware of community events and issues.

If you havent been to the library in at least two years, your library card may have expired. But dont worry  you can fill out the contact us form on jvbrown.edu or call to easily renew it and get access to all the library has to offer. In 2021, the Brown Library went fine-free to remove any financial barriers to accessing library materials.
Williamsport, Pa. -- One Pennsylvania College of Technology student will move on from Penn College to helicopter manufacturer training schools after receiving scholarship support.

A senior in the college's four-year aviation maintenance technology major, Kevin Pardel was among only seven selected worldwide to receive a Bill Sanderson Aviation Maintenance Technology Scholarship from Helicopter Association International's Technical Committee.

Pradel's scholarship provides a tuition waiver for a helicopter manufacturer training school and a stipend to offset expenses. Pradel, of Belleville, New Jersey, will attend the Leonardo AW139 helicopter factory school in Philadelphia.

During the colleges recent spring break, Pradel and junior Shiv Patel, of Union, New Jersey, a junior in the same baccalaureate major, attended the HAI Heli-Expo in Dallas, Texas. The event is the worlds largest vertical aviation conference and trade show, attracting more than 13,000 attendees from 72 countries and nearly 600 exhibitors this year.

Pradel joins a distinguished list of Penn College students honored by HAI over the past 18 years; the total amount of association scholarships awarded to those students exceeds $200,000.

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Williamsport, Pa.  Put yourself in the shoes of a forensic investigator this March at Lycoming College.

Darvin Harrell, crime scene investigator with the city of Aurora, Colo., will be the next guest speaker of Lycoming Colleges annual Strauser Lecture Series. This event is free and open to the public, with a reception in Pennington Lounge following the lecture.

The talk, C-16: A Forensic Perspective is slated for Monday, March 28, at 4 p.m., in the Academic Center, D001, according to a press release from the college.

Harrell will focus on his experiences as a crime scene investigator in the Aurora Crime Lab, including his work on the well-known case of the Century 16 Theater mass shooting of 2012. Throughout his twenty-year tenure in the lab, Harrell has worked on thousands of cases, ranging from burglaries to homicides, performing tasks such as photographing crime scenes, fingerprinting items, using chemicals to discover further evidence, and identifying different types of evidence.

According to the release, Harrell graduated in 1993 from South Dakota State University with a bachelors degree in microbiology and a minor in chemistry. In addition to working as a Crime Scene Investigator, he is also endorsed as an expert witness for testifying in the Federal and local court systems for crime scene processing, fingerprinting, fingerprint processing, gunshot residue and DNA collection.

Darvin brings to life both the logistics and psychological toll of processing a complicated crime scene, said Julie Yingling, Ph.D., assistant professor of Criminal Justice at Lycoming College.

Harrell was previously slated to speak at Lycoming in March of 2020, but the event was postponed due to Covid-19 concerns.

The annual Strauser Lecture Series was developed to honor the legacy of Professor Larry R. Strauser, who began the criminal justice major at Lycoming College in 1975, according to Lycoming.

Strauser envisioned "a unique interdisciplinary curriculum at a liberal arts college that would contribute to the reformation of the criminal justice system. Under Strausers direction, the program grew, and today many alumni have gone on to successful criminal justice careers," the release said.

The Strauser Lecture highlights the work of criminal justice practitioners and researchers who are dedicated to improving criminal justice practice and policy, according to the college.

Other experts who have delivered Strauser Lectures include Ramiro Martinez, Ph.D., professor of sociology and criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University; Thomas Vanaskie 75, Lycoming alum and Federal Judge of the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania; and Elijah Anderson, Ph.D. and William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

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Sayre, Pa.  Sayre Borough Police officers said a man bashed his head off a partition inside a cruiser enough times to cause bleeding from his mouth on March 16.

Despite being asked to stop several times by officers, Brian Carr, 55, of Jersey Shore, allegedly continued the behavior. According to an affidavit, Carr threatened to take out officers as he carried on.

Carr was transported to the Sayre Police Station where he continued his behavior of yelling, threatening, and spitting blood from his mouth on the holding room floor, windows, and door, wrote Chief Daniel Reynolds.

Officers initially spoke with Carr at the Guthrie Hospital emergency room on March 16 after State Police requested assistance taking him into custody. Carr allegedly complained several times about wanting to kill himself and low blood sugar.

Police said staff informed them twice that Carr was medically released from the hospital. After being taken into custody and placed inside a police cruiser, Carr allegedly bashed his head off the partition, causing damage to himself and the vehicle.

I reached into the vehicle to stop him when Carr attempted to headbutt me and at which point I struck/pushed Carr in the face with a closed hand once to gain control and stop his attempted assault, wrote Reynolds.

According to Reynolds, Carr was evaluated by Greater Valley EMS once back at the Station. Reynolds said Carr stopped with the threats and yelling after EMS determined there was no need for medical treatment.

Carr was charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault to go with three misdemeanors that included second-degree simple assault and three counts each of third-degree disorderly conduct engage in fighting and obscene language and gestures. Carr was given $100,000 monetary bail during a preliminary arraignment with Judge Jonathan Wilcox in Bradford County.

Carr will face Wilcox again on March 30 for a preliminary hearing.

Docket sheet

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Mifflinburg, Pa.  A Union County man received felony charges for failing to register information under Megans Law requirements.

Brian Gemberling, 58, of Mifflinburg, failed to provide state police with registration information for his vehicle and a fishing boat, according to the arrest affidavit. PSP Milton received a tip in December that Gemberling possessed these items but had not reported them.

Gemberling is listed on the Pennsylvania Megans Law website as a tier 3 offender and must report updates every three months at the PSP Milton barracks.

When he arrived at the barracks on Jan. 3 for his update, he provided the registration information for the vehicle. Trooper Jessica Naschke wrote in the affidavit that Gemberling also confirmed that he had the vehicle during his last check-in. Gemberling failed to provide the information during that previous check-in.

PSP also discovered that Gemberling had failed to provide his cell phone number and information on a Facebook account. Police also confirmed Gemberling possesses a boat which he failed to report.

Gemberling's Megan's Law status stems from a 2020 incident in which he was charged with indecent assault against a minor under age 13.

Felony charges of failure to provide accurate registration info and failure to verify address/be photographed were filed at the office of District Judge Jeffrey L. Mensch.

Docket Sheet

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The Center Square  A proposed bill could mean more ballot referenda in Pennsylvania to prevent controversial tax increases, and also make it harder for localities or the General Assembly to boost tax revenues.

Rep. David Rowe, R-Union/Snyder, introduced HB2432 to amend the Commonwealths constitution to add ballot questions during primary elections that would allow voters to override any new taxes or fees, or their increase or expansion.

As the financiers of the Commonwealth, our taxpayers deserve to have a direct say in any new tax proposal that will affect them, Rowe said in a memo. My legislation will give the people an opportunity to vote for or against any new tax, or expansion of an existing tax, allowing them to have direct say over what is being done with their hard-earned income.

If voters reject the tax, the General Assembly could override the referendum, but only with a two-thirds vote.

Tax referenda periodically appear on ballots across the country; for example, Arizona might have a citizen referendum to reject a flat income tax later in 2022. Famously, Californias Prop 13 limited property tax increases in 1978 and had long-term consequences.

HB2432, however, would subject many more taxes and tax increases to popular scrutiny. Doing so could reduce the tax burden placed on Pennsylvanians.

The ballot questions would make Pennsylvania a bit similar to western states. Citizen initiatives and popular referenda are often used in western and Midwestern states to allow voters to bypass legislatures and change state law. Currently, Pennsylvania has neither.

Allowing the people to have this kind of direct hand in matters that directly affect them is crucial to ensuring that our society stays one that is governed by the people, Rowe said in a memo.

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Students Named Wyoming State Science Fair Winners at UW

High school students from Cheyenne, Greybull and Laramie were the top winners from this months virtual Wyoming State Science Fair, hosted by the University of Wyoming.

The students will represent Wyoming and will have the chance to compete for top prizes at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) May 7-13 in Atlanta, Ga. The ISEF is the worlds largest international precollege science competition, with more than 1,800 high school students from 75 countries, regions and territories competing for approximately $4 million in prizes.

This springs ISEF will be a hybrid event with a judged competition and an awards ceremony for both in-person and virtual finalists.

The Cowboy State ISEF representatives selected, listed by school, grade level, category and project title, are:

Cheyenne Central High School -- Zoya Khan, sophomore, computer science, Modeling Genetic Changes Associated with Alcohol Use Disorder.

Greybull High School -- Jose Atilano, senior, earth and environmental sciences, A Low-Cost Device to Improve the Quality of Drinking Water: Utilization of Ultrasonic Transduction in Conjunction with Filtration.

Laramie High School -- Padmalakshmi Ramesh, freshman, computer science, Evaluating Machine Learning Methods for Modeling the Distribution of the Two Form Bumble Bee (Bombus bifarius) in Wyoming.

Newcastle High School -- Senior Toby Johnson, with his behavioral and social science project, titled The Effects of Test Question Design on the Accuracy of Tests at Assessing Student Knowledge, was selected as an ISEF alternate.

The students qualified for the ISEF after competing in the state-level competition. Students, representing more than 40 schools, displayed their original science research and competed for award prizes. Student research projects, which spanned a broad spectrum of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines, were grouped into nearly 12 different categories.

Three Wyoming middle school students also were nominated for the Broadcom MASTERS (math, applied science, technology and engineering for rising stars) competition after qualifying through the Wyoming State Science Fair.

The Wyoming participants will join approximately 300 students nationwide for a chance to qualify for the next Broadcom MASTERS round Sept. 7. Two weeks later, finalists will be announced.

The Broadcom MASTERS is a national STEM competition that inspires students to study science and engineering, and to help achieve personal goals or aspirations.

The Wyoming Broadcom MASTERS nominees, listed by school, grade level, category and project title, are:

Big Piney Middle School -- Addalee Cunningham, eighth grade, microbiology, The Antibacterial Properties of Different Bee Products.

Lander Middle School -- Bryce Newman, sixth grade, mathematics, Plants Using Fibonacci Branching Patterns Collect More Sunlight Than Plants Using Other Branching Patterns.

McCormick Junior High School, Cheyenne -- Abdullah Khan, eighth grade, biomedical and health science, Assistive Walking Device for the Mobility of Parkinsons Patients.

For a complete list of all category winners, for both high school and middle school participants, click here.

For more information, email Erin Stoesz, Wyoming State Science Fair director, at estoesz@uwyo.edu.
Hulking international ships known as salties again are passing through the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes to ports like the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor and the Port of Chicago.

The St. Lawrence Seaway opened the 2022 navigation season after the winter ice melted away. The Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the binational series of locks linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes reopened this week.

Were thrilled to start the 2022 navigation season, said Craig Middlebrook, deputy administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. This year were confident that the St. Lawrence Seaway will continue to be a major driver of economic development while offering solutions to the environmental and supply chain challenges facing shippers around the world.

Typically, about 75 to 90 international ships visit the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor every year. They typically bring manufactured goods like steel products, windmill blades, beer tanks and power plant equipment.

Shipments often come from Europe, India and other foreign countries.

The ships typically haul off grain from Hoosier farmers, taking it to international markets. The Region's ports also move products by barge, train and truck, shipping commodities like road salt and gypsum.

As ice clears, the Welland Canal connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie opens Thursday. The Soo Locks connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron open Friday.

The 2022 Navigation Season is already shaping up to be a strong year for the Port of Cleveland. We are expecting to build on the success we achieved in 2021 as we continue to position Cleveland  and the Great Lakes  as a key destination for cargo," Port of Cleveland Chief Commercial Officer David Gutheil said.

Optimism abounds across the Great Lakes for this shipping season.

"Michigan's Gateway Port will launch 2022 with great pride, as we start the construction of the first marine container terminal in the state of Michigan, scheduled to open in 2023," said Paul LaMarre III, port director of the Port of Monroe. "We will also take delivery of our new 165-ton Manitowoc crawler crane and complete significant dredging work with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Improving infrastructure is a theme across the United States, and we are proud to say that we are doing our part for the Great Lakes and country, right here in Monroe, Michigan.

About 140 million tons of international commercial cargo gets transported across the Great Lakes. It's estimated by the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. that the industry supports 237,868 jobs, $35 billion in economic activity, $14.2 billion in wages and $6.6 billion in taxes across the Upper Midwest and Canada.

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United Food and Commercial Workers International Local 1546 has been fighting to get Jewel-Osco workers pay that's owed them dating back to last August.

The union reached a three-year deal with Jewel-Osco for 4,000 workers in the deli, seafood and meat department at 182 stores across Chicagoland, including in Northwest Indiana. The two sides agreed to raises of between 55 cents and 70 cents per hour, retroactive to when the last contract expired in August 2021.

Jewel-Osco had until March 1st under the terms of the contract, agreed to in December, to implement raises. But no one has gotten raises yet, and some workers have even gotten inadvertent pay cuts of $2 to $3 per hour, the union's Jeff Weiss said.

The supermarket chain is working to resolve the payroll issue, spokeswoman Mary Frances Trucco said.

Making sure our hardworking UFCW local 1546 associates receive the money that is owed to them is of the utmost importance to us," she said. "We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Weiss said at least a third of the union's workers at Jewel-Osco stores have seen their paychecks shrink by $30 to $40 a week over the past few weeks.

"They'll get it eventually, but they're hard hit," he said. "They need that money for gas, food and rent. It really puts a hardship on people."

Trucco said the supermarket chain addressed the mistaken pay cuts in the latest rounds of paychecks that went out this week and was still working on the other issues.

"We corrected the accidental pay cuts some UFCW local 1546 associates experienced, and we are quickly working to resolve other pay issues," she said. "We apologize to our associates for this inconvenience.

The union has been calling the company, which is owned by the Albertsons chain, daily in the hope of resolving the issue.

"It's been three weeks and it's still not fixed," Weiss said. "They're aware of this situation."

The union works with hundreds of different companies, many in the meatpacking industry. It's never encountered this issue before.

"They're one of the largest companies we work with," he said. "They should be able to handle payroll. Workers are frustrated."

The union filed a class-action grievance with Jewel-Osco for its workers to get them the back pay they're owed. It will authorize membership actions like social media posting if the issue isn't resolved soon.

Jewel has indicated to the union it hopes for a resolution any day now.

Every single union-represented Jewel employee has been and is still being asked to risk exposure to the virus and work in dangerous conditions despite recently relaxed CDC guidelines, stated UFCW Local 1546 President and International Vice President Robert OToole. These essential workers have voted for and have earned their right to union-negotiated wage increases and retro pay, and that is what we will continue to fight for on their behalf throughout the grievance process and further if necessary. The real question the employees, shoppers, and the community should now be asking is whether Jewel will uphold its legal, contractual obligations and truly honor their own workers that they claim as heroes?

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Joseph Mitchell spent just two years as the police chief in Orland Park, but they were very active years.

He took over as the pandemic was getting going and faced a summer of nationwide protests of police treatment of African-Americans.

He got through that and in 2021 helped guide the force and the city to some impressive recognition. MoneyGeek named Orland Park the eighth safest city in the United States for those communities with populations of 30,000-100,000 for 2021.

That came a year after Mitchell and former Chief Tim McCarthy tag-teamed to lead the village to a safest city in Illinois designation by safety.com.

With those accomplishments, Mitchell was scheduled to leave the post March 25, with Eric Rossi set to take over as interim chief.

Mitchell leaves the department after 27 years of service and will become the new chief in Wilmington.

Twenty-seven years in Orland Park has been an incredible experience and a great opportunity, he said. I love the community dearly. But the opportunity to move on and write a new chapter in my career is enticing.

He said that leading a smaller force will give him a chance to be out in the community more and not dealing with as many administrative duties.

He also added that he was looking forward to working with Will County States Attorney James Glasgow after dealing with Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, whom Orland Park officials called on to resign in a resolution. Mitchell and Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau say Foxxs office allows too many dangerous criminals to remain free.

Mitchell looked back on his time in Orland Park with pride.

Im very proud of my staff. They did an outstanding job, he said. Pushing the Youth Supervision Program with Simon Properties and getting that locked in was a large reason our crime had gone down." He is talking about the limits placed on teen hours at Orland Square mall to curb fighting last March.

Our crisis intervention team, a team I created back in 2014 or 2015, received a national grant for $744,000 and it was instrumental in helping us address people with mental illnesses. Its been phenomenal and its keeping people out of jail and getting treatment.

There are some good programs there."

Mitchell has served as a patrol officer, investigator, sergeant, lieutenant, commander and deputy chief before being named the chief in 2020.

Chief Mitchell has faithfully and diligently served the Village of Orland Park, Mayor Keith Pekau said in a news release. "He has provided steadfast and dependable leadership to the men and women of the Orland Park Police Department throughout his period as chief. In 2021, the Village of Orland Park had the lowest number of index crimes in 27 years  thanks to his outstanding leadership.

Mitchell said he learned a lot from McCarthy, whom he replaced.

Im proud of the organization, Mitchell said. It was a great career of 27 years. I learned more from Chief McCarthy than anyone else. But its a new chapter and a new experience that awaits me and Im excited about it.

Rossi has been a member of the force for more than 18 years and has served as a patrol officer, bicycle patrol officer, field training officer, investigator, patrol sergeant, lieutenant in administration, investigations commander and deputy chief.

Rossi also was on the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force as an investigator and assistant commander.

He is a graduate of Northwestern School of Police Staff and Command. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Lewis University.

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Hammond mailman-turned memoirist Dave Woerpel will sign copies of his new book "Nothing Like I Planned" this weekend.

Woerpel, who is also the Hammond City Council president, will appear between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday at Miles Books at 2819 Jewett Ave. in Highland.

"Dave wrote a wonderful memoir of him growing up in Hammond, Indiana and his observations on life in general, as a mailman in that same great city," Miles Books owner Jim Roumbos said. "As the book is both satirical and serious at the same time, it is a perfect read for our continued Covid times. I am telling my customers that the book is better, in my opinion, than Jean Shepard's writing. Dave truly captures the character of the Region."

The book covers Woerpel's childhood in Hammond and nearly four decades working as a mailman. He previously had written a humor column about his postal work for the Calumet Press and had always been encouraged to write a book.

He recounts stories like how his father overheard him turning down a summer job as a mail carrier and told him he would get off the couch one way or another, or how his dad used needlenose pliers to plunk a splinter out of his foot before sewing it up himself.

"There's a lot of humor in there," he said. "It's me telling stories the way I would to my friends and grandkids."

One reader described it as "a hilarious trip back in time to the 1960s and 1970s."

"It steps back in time to tell the story of a left-handed kid in a right-handed world who wasn't going to listen to anybody or anything," he said. "I wasn't going to be told I couldn't do something. I was going to do it my own way. When my parents got me braces, I yanked them off as soon as I got out of the house."

The book takes a nostalgic look back at his childhood in Hammond. He recounts going to see Cubs games, skipping school to go to punk rock shows in Chicago and working at the Hammond Civic Center as a teen.

"The selling point is that it's a trip back in time in Hammond, what life was like back then," he said.

Much of the book recounts his time spent delivering mail around the city and the often interesting characters he encountered on his route.

"I never wanted to see my name on a book on a shelf or anything," he said. "I just want to tell interesting stories and keep the reader interested. I just want people to read it and be entertained."

For more information, call 219-838-8700.

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"Belfast" was thought to be just about neck-and-neck with "The Power of the Dog" for Best Picture this past fall. But "Dog" kept pulling away a little bit at a time. Then "CODA" won at the SAGs for ensemble cast and turned it into the little engine that could. There still is a path that "Belfast" could take to win Best Picture  but it would have to beat "Dog" on a bunch of ballots and basically be No. 2 on everything else. That's not likely to happen with "CODA" coming on strong. Still, Kenneth Branagh's autobiographical film about the start of civil unrest in Northern Ireland in the late '60s truly is fantastic. Branagh is up for Best Director, as well as Original Screenplay  which probably is his best shot at a win for the film. Ciaran Hinds and Dame Judi Dench are up for supporting roles, and its nominations haul is rounded out with Van Morrison's original song and Sound.
CROWN POINT  A man who was charged in a triple homicide was found dead in Lake County Jail early Sunday, police said.

At about 9 a.m., correctional officers found Huston Bond, 32, of Gary, unresponsive in his cell, said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr.

Bond's cause of death is under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff's Detective Bureau and the Lake County Coroner's Office. Police said at this time there is no further information available.

Bond, 32, of Gary, and his co-defendant, Erik P. Long, 43, of Gary, each have pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Darius Ross, 28, of Gary; Darius' fiancee, Heather Talley, 27, of Hammond; and the couples friend, Nicholas Edwards, 28, of Gary, the morning of July 15, 2018, in Gary.

Defense attorneys had said Bond was a heart transplant patient who took about 30 medications on a daily basis.

On March 3, a Lake Criminal Court judge denied a motion for the emergency release of Bond.

Before Bond's arrest in late January, he had been regularly going to a hospital for treatment to maintain his heart function, his defense attorney Patrick Young said at the March hearing.

Young had alleged the staff at the Lake County Jail had not been administering Bond's medications and that an outside doctor concluded he needed "a gold standard" of care that cannot be provided while incarcerated.

Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Brandewie objected to Bond's release from jail, in part because prosecutors have not had an opportunity to fully investigate the matter.

Judge Natalie Bokota asked Young if he had any evidence the jail cannot provide the necessary medical care.

"Why can't the sheriff transport him to treatment?" Bokota asked.

Young had said Bond is at great risk of death and alleged he had been exposed in jail to a person who had an amputation because of an infection caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

At the hearing, Bokota said she had to balance Bond's medical risks with the fact that he's charged with three counts of the murder, the most serious of crimes.

She denied Bond's motion for release, but said she would consider ordering the Sheriff's Department to transport him for medical care if Young submitted a detailed motion.

Times staff writer Sarah Reese contributed to this story.

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LANSING  A Lansing city employee noticed something unexpected while peering down into a sewer while replacing some equipment, turning a normal work day into a rescue effort.

Around noon on March 16, employees from the Lansing Public Works Street Department noticed a manhole cover that was out of place in the 18200 block of Exchange Avenue, said Tiffani Rosati, of Lansing Public Works.

The crew then got in touch with staff from the water and sewer department about replacing the lid and checking the area for other issues. As a water department employee looked down into the sewer, a rabbit was spotted about 15 feet down in the darkness.

He could tell by the size and appearance of the creature that it was a domesticated rabbit.

In 15 minutes, the water department crew, the street department crew and Lansing officers formulated a rescue plan. First, the group tied bungee cords together and attached them to a bucket.

Kevin Schreiber, of Lansing Public Works, climbed into the hole as the others lowered the bucket down. He was then able to guide the rabbit into the bucket, which was pulled back up.

Lansing Public Works employees took the newly freed rabbit to the Glenwood Village Pet Hospital. The Lansing Police Department posted a photo of the rabbit in search of its owner.

The animal hospital confirmed the rabbit's owner was found and the rabbit, named Bella, was returned to her family safe.

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WESTVILLE  A former LaPorte County resident was arrested Monday by the Indiana State Police following an investigation into child exploitation.

Thomas Back, 29, of Walkerton, Indiana, has been charged with three counts of felony child exploitation and two felony counts of possession of child pornography, stemming from incidents when Back was living in the LaPorte County town of Westville.

The Indiana State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force began investigating Back after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an online account had been used for child exploitation, police said.

According to police, Back currently is being held in LaPorte County Jail. His bond is set at $20,005, records show.

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GARY  A Region woman has been accused of murder after a man was found fatally shot early Monday morning at a gas station in Gary. Court documents stated the man had punched her before she fired a shot in the vehicle.

Isedra Simone Brooks, 28, of Gary, is charged with murder in the death of Armani Darnell Handy, according to Lake County Superior Court records.

Handy, 33, of Gary, was pronounced dead at 2:10 a.m. after he was found unresponsive at a gas station in the 4800 block of Broadway, according to the coroner.

At 1:45 a.m. Monday, Gary officers responded to the scene to find Brooks crying hysterically and asking for help while standing on the passenger side of a Honda, according to the court records.

Handy was found lying on his back on the ground between the Honda and blue Toyota Sienna. He was not responsive and medics transported him to Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus, where he was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

Upon further investigation, police found a loaded handgun in the Honda on the passenger seat.

Surveillance footage showed the Honda parking on the south side of the gas station. After the vehicle stops, movement can be seen inside, police said.

On the video, a man is seen exiting the vehicle, approaching the passenger side of the vehicle and entering through the passenger side.

The court documents states the man appears to initiate a physical altercation with someone in the vehicle. Next the man is seen exiting from the passenger side to go back to the driver's side.

Once back in the vehicle, it appeared that more activity was happening inside, the footage showed. Then, a short time later, a female is seen exiting the Honda and firing a handgun into the vehicle, according to court records.

The man is then seen exiting the vehicle and collapses next to the driver's side door.

The surveillance video shows the woman taking a phone from the vehicle and making calls while holding the firearm, court reports alleged.

Finally, the female is shown placing the firearm back inside the vehicle, walking to the driver's side where the man is and sitting down and checking on the man.

Brooks told police that she and Handy were driving from a bar when they began to get into an altercation because they believed a gun was missing from the vehicle, court records stated.

After they pulled into the gas station, she stated that Handy punched her in the face. After that, she told police she could not remember what happened but allegedly said she fired the gun into the vehicle but was not sure if the bullet struck him, police reported.

She said she then went to check on him and he was on the ground.

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Dan Carden Chief Political Reporter Dan has reported on Indiana state government for The Times since 2009. He also covers casinos, campaigns and corruption. Follow Dan Carden 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
With others words as intermediaries, the harsh light of hindsight softens.

From my early 20s, there are pages trying to convince myself that friendship, which I had, could be as valuable as romantic love, which I didnt. (Andrew Sullivan: If love is about the bliss of primal unfreedom, friendship is about the complicated enjoyment of human autonomy.) Then theres reference to the kind of heady, urgent closeness that I surrounded myself with instead. (Sean Wilsey: Those three in the mornings in a booth with a bunch of people that I really liked talking about whatever and being engaged and some beautiful woman across the room that you thought you might have something with.) There are quotes from songs and stories that crushes sent me, and finally, poems that I saw my own love story in. Ultimately, when I was no longer so preoccupied with finding romantic love, my shift toward looking more closely at my other relationships is mirrored in my transcriptions: Vivian Gornick on her relationship with her mother; Durga Chew-Bose on the rapturous, fresh intimacy that I miss now.

Not surprisingly, theres also an evolution in how I thought about being a writer. First, the canon I studied in college: John Steinbecks descriptions of my beloved California coast, Roberto Bolanos posturing wistfulness. Then, a turning point toward making my own canon, marked by Claire Vaye Watkinss On Pandering: I read women (some, but not nearly enough) but I didnt watch them. I didnt give them megaphones in my mind. As I started to think that maybe I could be a writer, my book featured more of the sorts of lines I wished I could write: Hanif Abdurraqibs cadence, Parul Sehgals precision, Pamela Colloffs evocative details (One girls heart beat so furiously that her pulse was visible beneath her dress; other girls sashes trembled).

Inevitably, there are also quotes about writing down lines you love. Take Mary Karr on memorization as Eucharist: It rewires your head and keeps you in company with gods. Or Martha Gellhorn on writing thank-you notes to the artists who open your mind: We say thank you without meaning it; why not say thank you when youre really grateful. Or Nicholson Baker on commonplace books: My own bristling brain-urchins of worry melt in the strong solvent of other peoples grammar.

Thrumming beneath the pages is a shifting self-image. When I read them, I recognize the past me who saw herself in these quotes, but I dont roll my eyes at her. With others words as intermediaries, the harsh light of hindsight softens. If keeping a journal would be a way to look in the mirror and make an honest appraisal of myself, keeping a commonplace book is more like looking at myself out of the corner of my eye.
If the majority of the staff chooses to unionize (through a secret ballot election yet to be scheduled), the museums leadership has pledged to work with union representatives.

The B.M.A. has already made some progress on pay equity. The starting hourly rate for the security team has been raised three times since 2020, most recently from $15 to $16 in January 2022. (Maryland minimum wage is $12.50 an hour; at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where the guards are unionized, the starting hourly wage was raised to $16.50 in December.) The 17 curator-guards were paid additionally for their work on the show  from $750 to $1100 depending on their level of involvement.

Elias, the trustee, is confident that initiatives like Guarding the Art will continue regardless of who is appointed as the B.M.A.s next director. We didnt spend all these years moving our museum along to where we are now to make an abrupt reversal, she said. I will die on the sword on that one.

Fred Wilson, the guard-turned-artist, is now also a trustee of the Whitney Museum of Art. He fears that some critics may bemoan a loss of scholarship if these efforts continue at the Baltimore Museum of Art and other institutions.

I worry that this experiment, if repeated, will be erroneously understood as a possible dumbing down of museum exhibitions, Wilson said. He counters that by engaging with professionals and laypeople from other communities, museum curators can peek beyond their professional silos and learn how to reach people who do not have the same background.

Guarding the Art
It was a striking moment, in a day full of them.

On Tuesday afternoon, during the confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Senator Ted Cruz quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s dream of a world where children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character  before sharply questioning Judge Jackson about her views on critical race theory.

He held up two books by Ibram X. Kendi that he said had been assigned or recommended at a school where she is on the board of trustees, describing their contents as the exact opposite of Dr. Kings famous I Have a Dream speech.

Are you comfortable, he asked, with these ideas being taught to children?

It was a salvo aimed squarely at todays pitched battles over critical race theory, a once obscure academic discipline that has emerged as a potent political weapon for the right. From the floor of the Senate to the report of the Trump administrations 1776 Commission, it has been painted as the antithesis of the colorblind America that Dr. King supposedly wanted to create.

But some scholars who tuned into the hearings said they saw a familiar distortion.

Tommie Shelby, a professor of philosophy and African-American studies at Harvard and editor of To Shape A New World, a collection of essays about Dr. Kings political philosophy, said those who selectively pluck words from Dr. Kings speech during the 1963 March on Washington have not studied it very closely.
The French carmaker Renault said on Wednesday that it was halting operations at a plant in Moscow and was reassessing its partnership with AvtoVAZ, Russias largest auto manufacturer.

Renault owns 68 percent of AvtoVAZ, the maker of Lada vehicles, and has relied on Russia for about 18 percent of its global vehicle sales.

Regarding its stake in AvtoVAZ, Renault Group is assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia, the company said in a statement. Renault Group reminds that it already implements the necessary measures to comply with international sanctions.

The company also revised its financial outlook for 2022, saying it now expects an operating profit margin of 3 percent, down from a previous forecast of more than 4 percent.
It looks as if Rachel Zegler, who plays Maria in Steven Spielbergs West Side Story, is going to the Oscars.

She has been invited to be a presenter at the Oscars, and Disney is working to rearrange the production schedule on her current project, a live-action version of Snow White, to make it happen, according to two people briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid a conflict with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Oscars.

How the arrangement came together provides a glimpse into how the Hollywood gears can sometimes grind.

It started on Sunday, when Zegler, 20, posted a photo of herself in a blue gown on Instagram. A follower commented, Cant wait to see what youll be wearing on Oscar night.
Nominees have learned not to say much of consequence, which reduces the hearing to assessments of rhetorical performance and physical stamina. The nominees demeanor and comportment become signifiers of fitness to serve.

And even then, they are no guarantee of how the hearings will go. In fact, the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 may well have been the death knell for the decisiveness of these hearings. He was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford. An investigation into the matter was rushed and incomplete. Republicans complained that a good mans reputation was being destroyed. Kavanaugh raised his voice and choked back tears in his own defense. He was confirmed anyway.

That brings me to the spectacle we are seeing in the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. There is no doubt that she is qualified. There is also no doubt that, if Democrats simply stick together, she can be confirmed without any support from Republicans.

So what does one do when a nominees ascension to the bench is most likely a foregone conclusion? You use that big stage and the bright light to put on a show. In many ways, Judge Jackson is just a prop in that show, the reason all 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are gathered for this performance, but nothing more. In many ways, she is being used.

For the Republicans, these hearings present an opportunity to rehabilitate Justice Kavanaugh, to rewrite history to pretend that the reason he had a tough confirmation hearing was that Democrats lacked civility, not that Dr. Ford had leveled a damning accusation against him. The Republicans have invoked Justice Kavanaugh repeatedly over the last few days, and yet Dr. Ford never gets so much as a reference. She is being erased from this history altogether. Republicans are crafting their own judicial Lost Cause narrative around Justice Kavanaugh.
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As Ukrainian forces continued to hold off Russian advances on Kyiv, President Biden traveled to Brussels on Wednesday for an emergency meeting with other NATO leaders to discuss how to respond to Russias assault and help the 3 million Ukrainians who have fled the country.

Almost a month in, the war is in a precarious phase. On the one hand, the Russian invasion has essentially stalled, in the words of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and has so far failed to fulfill any of President Vladimir Putins major objectives. But on the other, having lost more than 7,000 of his troops, according to the U.S. government, Putin may decide to escalate his bombing campaign, which has already left parts of Ukraine in ruin and, at a conservative estimate, more than 900 civilians dead.

Where does the war go from here, and how might it end? Here are some potential paths forward.

A quick diplomatic solution

Even as Russias bombardment of Kyiv intensified last week, representatives of Ukraine and Russia began a fresh round of negotiations. The talks are being mediated by Turkeys foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who said the two countries were making slow but significant progress on key issues. Its not that easy to negotiate while the war is ongoing or to agree when civilians are dying, he said over the weekend. But I want to say that there is momentum.

What would a diplomatic solution look like? As The Timess David Leonhardt explained, both sides have conditions that are likely to remain nonnegotiable. Ukraine, for its part, would probably refuse any deal that deprives it of control over Kyiv, while Russia would probably refuse any deal that leaves the door to NATO membership open to Ukraine.
Gov. Brad Little of Idaho signed a strict new abortion bill into law on Wednesday, even as he expressed grave concerns about the wisdom and constitutionality of the measure and warned that it could retraumatize victims of sexual assault.

Modeled after a new law in Texas, the Idaho legislation bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy  before many women are aware they are pregnant  and allows family members of what it calls a preborn child to sue the abortion provider. Mr. Little, a Republican, said the law could conflict with the U.S. Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which established a constitutional right to abortion.

While I support the pro-life policy in this legislation, I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise, Mr. Little wrote in a message to Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who is also president of the State Senate. The state attorney generals office had previously issued an opinion saying that the bill would effectively prohibit all abortions and that it would most likely be found unconstitutional.

Mr. Little warned that liberal states could embrace the same legal tactic to limit religious or firearm rights.
After 25 years in prison, George DeJesus said the realization that he had been freed began to sink in only when he was finally able to change out of his prison uniform and put on his own clothes  including a sweatshirt with a photo of him and his brother beneath the word innocent.

When I took off them blues and started putting on these, every stitch of clothing that I put on, my smile got bigger and bigger, he said. That was about the moment  when I put these clothes on, it was real for me.

Mr. DeJesus, 44, was speaking on Tuesday after a judge freed him and his brother, Melvin DeJesus, 48, overturning their convictions in the 1995 murder of their neighbor Margaret Midkiff, who was found nude in her basement in Pontiac, Mich., with a pillowcase over her head and wires binding her neck, wrists and ankles.

The brothers had always maintained that they were at a party when Ms. Midkiff was murdered, but they were convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 1997 based on the testimony of Brandon Gohagen, who claimed that the brothers had forced him to rape Ms. Midkiff and had then killed her by stomping on her.
These are questions that Europe has not confronted since the depths of the Cold War, when NATO had far fewer members, and Western Europe worried about a Soviet attack headed into Germany. But few of the leaders set to meet in Brussels on Thursday ever had to deal with those scenarios  and many have never had to think about nuclear deterrence or the effects of the detonation of battlefield nuclear weapons, designed to be less powerful than those that destroyed Hiroshima. The fear is that Russia is more likely to use those weapons, precisely because they erode the distinction between conventional and nuclear arms.

Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday that if Mr. Putin used a weapon of mass destruction  chemical, biological or nuclear  there would be consequences even if the weapons use was confined to Ukraine. Mr. Reed said radiation from a nuclear weapon, for instance, could waft into a neighboring NATO country and be considered an attack on a NATO member.

Its going to be a very difficult call, but its a call that not just the president but the entire NATO Council will have to make, Mr. Reed told reporters, referring to the governing body of the Western alliance.

The bottom line is this is a NATO decision, Mr. Reed said. It wont be the presidents decision alone. I dont think hed want to take action unilaterally.

One major issue the Tiger Team is looking at is the threshold that could prompt the alliance to use military force in Ukraine. Mr. Biden has made clear that he is enormously reluctant to do so, fearing that direct confrontation with Russia could escalate the conflict beyond control. Thats World War III, he noted recently.

A second team of officials, also created by Mr. Sullivans Feb. 28 memo, is looking at long-term opportunities for the United States to improve its geopolitical position as a result of Mr. Putins invasion. Inside the White House, it has become an article of faith that the Russian leader made a huge strategic error  one that will diminish Russias standing, cripple its economy and alienate potential allies for years. But it is early in the conflict, other officials caution, and that conclusion may prove premature.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have requested confidential presentence reports in child sexual abuse imagery cases overseen by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, part of an effort to portray her as soft on crime as the third day of her confirmation hearings neared its end.

The committees Democrats, who have the votes to block the effort, quickly dismissed the request, saying that it would unnecessarily expose victims, already exploited as minors and subjected to a painful legal process, to new danger and trauma.

I would suggest that the information contained in these reports is dangerous  dangerous to the victims, and to the innocent people who are mentioned in these reports, said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, the committees chairman, during a testy exchange with Republicans late on Wednesday.

Its never been requested by this committee before, added Mr. Durbin. Its merely a fishing expedition in dangerous territory.
The episode is only the most recent example of how Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is able to define the boundaries of what is acceptable on subjects from Iran to Venezuela. He is plugged in with Washington-savvy pro-Israel groups and with the politically active Cuban- and Venezuelan-American communities in South Florida. Sometimes in sync with the administration and often at odds with it, he is always to be handled with a healthy amount of respect and fear.

Hes somebody that you need on your side no matter what, so theyre very careful, said Juan Cruz, who served as a senior director for the Western Hemisphere during the Trump administration.

Last year, in a measure of the deference given to Menendez, the White House allowed him to suggest who should and should not be invited to an event with President Biden. The three individuals Menendez nixed were critics of the decades-old economic embargo of Cuba, which many on the left view as an example of a failed, right-wing policy.

Menendez has a very moralistic and inflexible view on the use of sanctions to punish and improve human rights, regardless of evidence, said Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, a think tank in London.

At the same time, Menendez has been a crucial administration ally on a number of Bidens priorities, from clearing a path for dozens of appointees Republicans have tried to block to fostering a bipartisan consensus on the Ukraine war. Top administration officials consult with Menendez multiple times a month. His relationship with Biden is also a vast improvement over the tension-filled Obama era, allies said.
White House officials are again pleading with Congress for more emergency aid to buy coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics as a highly infectious Omicron subvariant spreads, though the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought Wednesday to assuage concerns about it.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said BA.2 accounts for about 35 percent of new U.S. coronavirus cases, and appears to be driving small increases in cases in both the city and state of New York, as well as some hospitalizations in New England, where more than half of all infections are attributable to BA.2.

But, she added, theres no evidence that the BA.2 variant results in more severe disease or is more likely to be able to evade our immune protection.

Dr. Walenskys comments came at the first White House briefing on Covid-19 since March 2, the day that the administration unveiled President Bidens plan to transition away from pandemic crisis mode and toward what many experts are calling a new normal. But that plan depends on funding from Congress, which so far is not forthcoming.
Many Asian and Pacific countries are dismantling thickets of pandemic rules at bewildering speeds, even though the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is still raging in many places. The trend could be seen in the crowds packing the Manila zoo, K-Pop concerts in Seoul and Hindu festival celebrations across India over the last week.

The moves are driven by a mix of medical advice, economic pressure and a pandemic-weary publics growing sentiment that enough is enough. But there is at least one major country bucking the trend: China.

Mainland China, with 1.4 billion people, has tried to stick with a zero Covid approach, including snap lockdowns and strict border controls, since early 2020. State-controlled media play up reports of the pandemics high toll of death and illness abroad, and point to Chinas relatively low numbers as a sign of the superiority of the countrys system.

But experts have questioned the wisdom of the countrys maximalist approach, which has disrupted manufacturing and snarled frayed supply chains, as China has grappled recently with its largest outbreak since the pandemic began.
On 22 and 23 March 2022, at the invitation of Mr. Genti Gazheli, the Director General of Albania Customs, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) visited Tirana, Albania, to discuss Customs modernization and capacity building requirements.

During a meeting with the Customs management team, Director General Gazheli, who participated in the WCO Fellowship Programme in 1999, expressed his appreciation for the WCOs long-standing support. Secretary General Mikuriya appreciated the continuous progress in Customs modernization in Albania. During a visit to Tirana Customs Terminal, which handles 40% of trade volume in the country, he observed the actual Customs operations with regards to paperless trade procedures as well as the functioning of the risk management system.

Secretary General Mikuriya went on to meet Ms. Vasilika Vjero, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy, to review the progress of Customs reform. As Albania has aligned its legislation with the international standards, including those of the WCO, WTO and EU regulations, their focus is now on the implementation aspect, including, among other things, the improvement of economic competitiveness in Albania.

During his visit, Dr. Mikuriya had a meeting with Mr. Arben Ahmetaj, the Deputy Prime Minister, who, in the absence of the Prime Minister, expressed his countrys thanks to the WCO. While acknowledging the progress made in the Customs reform process, they discussed several areas of continued improvement, including the application of technology and further development of human resource in Albania Customs. Dr. Mikuriya thanked the Deputy Prime Minister and offered further WCO support in this respect.
Female dance-makers and choreographer-composer collaborations are the poles of this years Vail Dance Festival, which will feature the New York City Ballet soloist Roman Mejia and the dancer and choreographer Caili Quan as its artists in residence, the festival announced on Thursday.

The program for this edition, which will run from July 29 to Aug. 9 in Vail, Colo., includes commissions from Quan  who will create a piece for Meija and make a work to a new score by Caroline Shaw, the festivals Leonard Bernstein composer in residence. There will also be a new dances by Bobbi Jene Smith for the City Ballet principal Sara Mearns, and new pieces by Ephrat Asherie, Jodi Melnick, Justin Peck, Claudia Schreier and Pam Tanowitz.

Pecks collaboration with Chris Thile, the high-profile bluegrass musician and former NPR host, will be the 100th dance commission of the festival since Damian Woetzel, the former City Ballet principal who is now the president of the Juilliard School, became the festivals artistic director in 2006. (Woetzel recently fended off a challenge to his position at Juilliard by the schools chairman, Bruce Kovner.)

Woetzel said collaborating on new works was an essential element for the artists of various disciplines who come to Vail. The idea for me is to set the table, striving for innovation and spirited curiosity, he said in an email. The aim, he added, is to give artists, at whatever stage of their careers, an experience that adds to their quiver of knowledge and possibility.
Is that pronounced Paree ploos, like in French, or Paris plus?

The official name of the fair is Paree ploos, but people will translate it as Paris plus, said Marc Spiegler, Art Basels global director, in a telephone interview. We wanted something small and minimal because a big part of what we want to do is work with other entities within the art world and outside, added Spiegler, echoing previous interviews in which he said MCH wanted to create a dialogue between the fair and other cultural industries in Paris.

Paris+ will launch in the Grand Palaiss temporary site with a roster of about 170 dealers, and remain there until 2023, before moving in 2024 to the Grand Palais itself, with its capacity for more than 200 exhibitors, Spiegler said.

The director of the new event is Clement Delepine, the former co-director of Paris Internationale, a highly regarded fair for emerging gallerists that was held in a different distinctive venue each year during what used to be called FIAC week.

We want to develop its historical continuity and take advantage of the cultural context, Delepine said in an interview. We will have a V.I.P. team of more than 30 people from Art Basel, he added, emphasizing that the organizers of the new fair were committed to maintaining FIACs distinctive French flavor. Weve agreed from the get-go that 25 to 30 percent of the galleries will remain French, Delepine said.

In a statement, Art Basel said that three of the seven gallerists on the fairs selection committee, which chooses new exhibitors and maintains quality control among existing participants, were based in Paris. Jennifer Flay, the long-serving director of FIAC, will join Paris+s management team as president of the fairs advisory board in March 2023, the statement added.
In 2013, Tippett and On Being parted ways with MPR, feeling that the network hadnt made the show a priority. Inside that big, traditional radio organization, we couldnt be truly innovative, she said. We couldnt experiment.

Tippett had always done her own fund-raising  Because if I hadnt raised my own money, my show would have been starved or killed  and as a result she was able to buy the rights to the show for an undisclosed fee. Since then, she has produced and recorded On Being herself, with the help of a growing staff. Under Tippetts watch, even the rerun shows are revised or repackaged, which has meant hours, if not days, of preparation and editing long interviews into the approximately 52 minutes that comprise the public radio hour.

That is a rigor and a craft that has served the show well. It has served a lot of shows well, Tippett said. But during the pandemic, even as On Being kept to its schedule, Tippett began to interrogate that routine, questioning how she and the show might more fully meet the moment  including an expansion of the show beyond radio and into live events and field work.

And me meeting a weekly deadline is not the answer, she said.

For WNYC, which has aired the show since its Speaking of Faith days, and now distributes it, the news is bittersweet. We will really miss her, but were really happy for her, said Melissa LaCasse, the director of distribution. Sometimes you have to close some doors to open others, and Im just really excited to see what her and her team do.

Tippett and her 21-person team will remain with On Being through the transition. As fees from public radio comprise only a small portion of the annual $6 million budget, Tippett estimates the cost of her extrication from public radio as negligible. The show has never run ads; that wont change. So dont expect to hear Tippett extolling a mattress or a mobile game. On Being is sustained by like-minded individuals and foundations and, according to Tippett, those foundations will continue their support.
I started drawing when I was 5 years old, Mr. Korty said at a 2013 panel discussion of his work, and for many, many years I thought I was going to be what youd call a commercial artist.

But in 11th grade a teacher showed the class some of the innovative animated films of Norman McLaren, and Mr. Korty found a new interest. He soon made his first animated film, but, as he told The Abilene Reporter-News of Texas in 1986, he couldnt afford new film stock. Instead he somehow obtained a reel of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and dumped bleach on it in his parents bathtub to erase the images, then hand-painted images on its 2,600 frames. The trick worked, he said, but it took him a week to scrub the bathtub clean.

He earned a bachelors degree at Antioch College, where he continued to experiment with animation. In about 1963 he settled in the Bay Area, where he set up his own studio. One of his earliest professional efforts, Breaking the Habit, a documentary about smoking produced in cooperation with the American Cancer Society, was nominated for the short-subject documentary Oscar in 1965.

Mr. Korty directed the independent features The Crazy-Quilt (1966), Funnyman (1967) and riverrun (1968) before he made his first television movies, drawing some critical acclaim and the attention of other young filmmakers who were interested in working outside the Hollywood system. Among them were Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, who came to visit his setup in 1968.

They showed up in two station wagons, and when Francis walked in, his mouth dropped open, Mr. Korty told The Marin Independent Journal in 2011. He said, My God, youve done exactly what we want to do: get out of Hollywood and set up a studio. If you can do it, we can do it.

A year later Mr. Coppola and Mr. Lucas would found their American Zoetrope studio in San Francisco. Mr. Korty had an office there for several years and went on to work with Mr. Lucas. He and Charles Swenson directed Twice Upon a Time, an animated feature made with Mr. Lucass Lucasfilm company in 1983, and the next year Mr. Korty directed Caravan of Courage, a Lucasfilm TV movie based on the Ewok creatures from the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi.
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.

Upon Approval

Wednesday was the final day of questions for the Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, or, as Jimmy Kimmel referred to it, another day of grandstanding, speechmaking and hissy-fitting in the Senate.

A newly released poll, conducted before the hearings began, found that 58 percent of Americans supported Judge Jacksons appointment to the court.
This is one of the only streaming series that has focused on the underbelly of Bollywood. How realistic did that portrayal feel to you?

Anamika is still stuck in that era where everything was dumped on you basically, like: You have to do this. You have to look a particular way. You have to behave a particular way. And I think with me, I had a little more freedom to choose what I wanted to do. I got opportunities to work with very good directors and scripts that were very, very forward for that time.

Anamika is caught in that world where its very patriarchal. Now shes trying to create that space for herself and she is struggling not only with that, but also with her family issues and everything. So her journey has been different, but in the show there are a lot of comments on the industry that are very real.

How has the industry changed since your earliest days?

I was lucky to get roles where the woman was the center of everything, even though when I started off, it was a very male-dominated industry. The only females on set used to be me, my hairdresser and whoever was playing the female characters in the movie. Now when I walk into a set, I see women everywhere in every department, whether its the [director of photography], or its a makeup artist. Today you see women behind the camera, women directors, and theres a lot of power women have now.

What has made Hindi cinema, and maybe India at large, more open to being by, for and about women?

I think society has changed in general. I remember when we used to talk about a female-centric film, it used to be either someone whos a victim and who rises up in the end, or someone who has been wronged and is going to avenge her modesty. But today, women are seen and perceived in a different way. Their characters are someone who helped to launch the rocket to Mars, someone who was a great mathematician, someone whos a great sportswoman. Women are playing different roles [in society], and the writers are writing roles to that effect. Women stepping into writing or directing has also changed a lot. The thinking is changing slowly.
A well-rounded contemporary dancer must embrace a range of techniques and styles, which the rigorous training at the Juilliard School provides, cultivating flexibility of both body and mind. In the schools annual Spring Dances concert, which continues through Saturday, second-, third- and fourth-year students showcase their artistic scope through an appealing assortment of choreography.

The program includes Set and Reset/Reset, a bespoke response to Trisha Browns seminal 1983 postmodernist work; Shelter, a 1988 piece examining the physical and emotional toll of homelessness, by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the founder of Urban Bush Women; and return to patience, a large ensemble work created by Aszure Barton for Juilliard dancers in 2015 and set to music by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, a Juilliard creative associate.

Spring Dances takes place at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard on Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. (Saturday performances will also be livestreamed.) Tickets are $30 and available at juilliard.edu.

BRIAN SCHAEFER
LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN: Stories, by Roddy Doyle. (Viking, $25.) Doyles latest book is a collection of stories set during the recent lockdowns; its atmosphere of desolation has a dark power, and the resilient wit of the Irish is everywhere. Many of the stories show how the pandemic made routine problems  empty nest syndrome, relationship trouble, the angst of a certain age  much more acute. The guy certainly seems to have a facility for creating characters out of thin air and making them stick, Daphne Merkin writes in her review. Not to mention the sly humor, the ability to hew to the fine line between pathos and bathos and write unsentimentally about sad people and situations, and the gift for quicksilver dialogue that can sound like a poetic form of vernacular speech.

WE DONT KNOW OURSELVES: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, by Fintan OToole. (Liveright, $32.) OToole, a prolific journalist and critic, didnt think his own six decades merited an autobiography, so instead he wrote a personal history of contemporary Ireland in which the countrys dizzying 20th-century shifts  economic, religious, moral, social, political and geopolitical  come to vivid life via vignettes from OTooles own life. The real accomplishment of this book is that it achieves a conscious form of history-telling, a personal hybrid that feels distinctly honest and humble at the same time, Colum McCann writes in his review. OToole has not invented the form, but he comes close to perfecting it. He embraces the contradictions and the confusion. In the process, he weaves the flag rather than waving it.

LIFE BETWEEN THE TIDES, by Adam Nicolson. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) A historian and nature writer explores tide pools  those shifting ecosystems that form where the ocean meets the land  and evokes their tiny inhabitants in luminous, lovely detail. He operates in a tradition pioneered by Annie Dillard and upheld by the likes of David Haskell  closely observing a discrete patch of earth (or sea) and taking it as his muse, Ben Goldfarb writes in his review. Theres brutality here, but also brilliance  anemones, despite literal brainlessness, adeptly size up their rivals  and astonishing tenderness.

WAYS AND MEANS: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War, by Roger Lowenstein. (Penguin Press, $30.) Lowenstein brings impressive energy and drama to what might otherwise seem a dry subject: how the Norths financing of the Civil War contributed to its ultimate victory. Wars cost money as well as lives, and the Civil War required what Lowenstein calls gargantuan sums, Eric Foner writes in his review. In the hands of a less skilled author, the litany of bonds, notes, loans and forms of currency that he discusses could become mind-numbing. But Lowenstein is a lucid stylist, able to explain financial matters to readers who lack specialized knowledge.

RUN AND HIDE, by Pankaj Mishra. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) This novel, by the author of the 2017 nonfiction book Age of Anger, follows three university classmates who come of age in a time of turbocharged economic progress in India, and take different career paths into the 21st century. Having realized their once-impossible dream of joining Indias elite, they now must reckon with the steep costs of success. Its insufficient to call Run and Hide a novel of ideas, because Mishras ideas about the state of the world, unlike those of many novelists, are ones he thought of, Jonathan Dee writes in his review. This is a novel of modern India that takes some of the big-picture phenomena from Age of Anger and  as good social novels have always done  gets us to engage on the level of feeling by returning those abstractions to human scale.
Amid talks, NATO bolsters its defenses

NATO announced on Wednesday that it would double its military presence on its eastern front. The additional four combat-ready, battalion-size units were deploying in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

President Biden arrived in Brussels for an extraordinary strategy session, where he will press European allies for even more aggressive sanctions on Russia.

But Europeans feel the impact of sanctions and the war more acutely than Americans, and NATO members are trying to defend Ukraine without directly engaging with Russia.

European leaders may be especially unwilling to follow the U.S. in stopping purchases of Russian oil and gas: The E.U., on average, gets 40 percent of its natural gas and a quarter of its oil from Russia. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, which has the largest economy in Europe, said halting such purchases would imperil hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The United States hit Russia with a new round of sanctions on Thursday, targeting more than 300 members of its Parliament and dozens of defense companies, while moving to restrict Russias ability to use gold reserves to prop up its currency.

The actions, which came in conjunction with new sanctions from Western allies, were the latest attempt to inflict economic pain on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for his invasion of Ukraine. In addition to imposing new sanctions, the U.S. moved to curtail Russias ability to evade existing restrictions on its central bank and major financial institutions. There had been concerns that Russia was finding ways to stabilize the ruble and rebuild its currency reserves.

The United States, with our partners and allies, is striking at the heart of Russias ability to finance and carry out its warfare and atrocities against Ukraine, Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, said in a statement.

The sanctions were announced as President Biden met with world leaders at summits in Brussels focused on the war in Ukraine.
Agricultural expert devotes more than 60 years of his life to developing new wheat varieties

People's Daily Online) 13:46, March 24, 2022

Zhao Yu, an 87-year-old wheat breeding expert, has been devoted himself to breeding wheat varieties for more than 60 years.

Zhao Yu (2nd L) checks on the growth status of planted wheat. (Photo/Shi Liangqi)

File photo shows Zhao Yu (3rd R) introducing some wheat breeding experimental scenarios to agricultural technicians in 1975.

Over the past years, Zhao, a researcher with the Yangling Vocational and Technical College in northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province, has successfully bred nine new and improved wheat varieties. This series of wheat varieties has been used for growing wheat on more than 80 million mu (about 5.3 million hectares) of farmland across the country, helping growers increase their incomes by more than 5 billion yuan (about $784.5 million).

Born in a mountain village in Yongdeng county, northwest Chinas Gansu Province in 1935, Zhao became well aware of the hardships that farmers faced from a young age and decided to study agricultural sciences to help them. After taking the national college entrance exam, he was eventually admitted into Beijing Agricultural University (now China Agricultural University) in Beijing.

He had an opportunity to be a teacher at the university after his graduation in 1959, but chose instead to work at the Shaanxi Wugong Agricultural School (now Yangling Vocational and Technical College) to focus on wheat breeding and work in the fields.

In 1961, Zhao started his breeding work from scratch at the school, which was ill-equipped for conducting research into wheat breeding. To develop drought- and disease-resistant wheat varieties as well as those able to grow in areas with low soil fertility and cold temperatures, he tested nine hybrid wheat varieties.

When a farm was allocated as an experimental field to the school in 1965, Zhao led his students to the farm to begin conducting wheat breeding. Due to harsh conditions and a lack of research facilities, many teachers and students eventually left the farm. Zhao, however, continued his research there. The farm is in a flat area and has good soil. Its an ideal place for wheat breeding, so I was determined to take up roots here, the expert said.

His hard work has since paid off. In 1970, the Wunong 132, a wheat variety developed by Zhao was massively planted on the farm. He then successfully developed the Wunong 99, Wunong 133, and Wunong 148 wheat varieties.

These high-quality wheat varieties have been well received by farmers. Li Suiding, a farmer in Liangma village, Wugong county, Shaanxi Province, is a big fan of Zhao and has grown all the wheat varieties developed by the expert.

After planting the Wunong wheat variety series, my income increased every year. Now, most of my fellow villagers plant the Wunong wheat variety series, Li said.

After retiring in 1996, Zhao continued to focus on wheat breeding. Another five new and improved wheat varieties developed by him have since been approved by the authorities.

Zhaos work has formed an important part of Chinas efforts to strengthen its food security. The expert said cultivating more talents in wheat breeding is one way to ensure food security in the country.

Therefore, Zhao has also attached great importance to cultivating young talents. He has passed on his experience to young teachers without any reservation. He has always patiently instructed any teachers and students who conduct research at the experimental field and guided them to observe and monitor the growth of wheat there.

To better support wheat breeding, the Yangling Vocational and Technical College set up a breeding center for dryland crops (wheat) under the name of Zhao and formed a breeding team with PhD students and backbone research-oriented teachers as its mainstay in 2021, according to Wang Zhousuo, president of the college.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low near 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
When Im in restaurant critic mode, I often look around the dining room to determine the best seat in the house. But its not obvious. Think of the cookbook author Grace Young, who grew up dining around San Franciscos Chinatown with her father: They always sat as close to the kitchen as they possibly could, so they could eat their food still hot from the wok.

They were seeking out wok hei, a Cantonese word for the mouthwatering aroma of wok-seared foods  deeply savory and smoky. The irresistible, ephemeral aroma comes from the wok itself, or, more precisely, from the flames curling up and around the wok, and tickling the fat inside it. So the smokiness of wok hei is just as vivid, habit-forming and powerfully delicious in vegetarian dishes.

Cantonese restaurant chefs produce it using incredibly powerful wok ranges, but even if you dont have that kind of set up, you can still get some of that smokiness at home. Trust Genevieve Ko, who has a simple, smart technique for stir-frying without a wok  cooking brussels sprouts and garlic in a very hot skillet  which results in what she describes to her daughter as sort-of wok hei. Ha!
Mr. Papi said the jewelry was last seen in public when worn by Queen Elena of Montenegro, who had received them for safekeeping after the assassination of her father-in-law, King Umberto I, in 1900. They were stored in various places over the years, including a tunnel in central Rome during World War II, and after the war were moved to a safe in the Quirinale Palace, the royal familys official residence.

But when a 1946 referendum ended the monarchy and Umberto II was going into exile in Portugal, he consigned the jewels to Luigi Einaudi, the governor of the Bank of Italy at the time, along with a note that read, in translation: Entrusted to the custody of the central treasury of the Bank of Italy to be kept available to whomever has the right.

The Savoy heirs say the jewels are the familys property.

Unlike the collection of coins, the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum, that my grandfather Vittorio Emanuele III donated to the Italian people, Princess Maria Gabriella said in a phone interview, the jewels kept at the Bank of Italy have never been donated, nor have they been confiscated. They are private jewels. A provision of the countrys 1948 constitution that assigns all Savoys property to the Italian state does not mention them.

Prince Emanuele Filiberto, an entrepreneur who has appeared on Italian TV (and won its version of Dancing With the Stars in 2009), is the only son of Prince Vittorio Emanuele and would have been in line to be king of Italy if history had been different. In a recent interview, he echoed his aunts argument: There is no such thing as Italian crown jewels; they were privately owned by my family.
Tracing the path that gold takes from mine to market is notoriously difficult. The precious metal is mined around the world, but unless it remains segregated on its journey through the global supply chain  most crucially at the refining stage, where batches traditionally are mingled  there is no way to distinguish the origins of one gold bar or the gold in one bauble from another.

That explains both golds millennia-old history as an international form of currency  and what many say is its most conspicuous modern-day weakness.

With gold mining practices coming under increasing scrutiny for their potential links to child labor, mercury pollution and other human rights and environmental abuses, the drumbeat of voices demanding full traceability in the gold supply chain has been growing louder.

The calls have taken on new urgency in light of fresh concerns that the Russian government may use gold supply chains as a tool to evade sanctions and further subsidize their military aggression against Ukraine, as an open letter to the jewelry industry from the Global Gold Transparency Initiative, an advocacy group, recently put it.
At the center of it all is Evelyn Wang, played by the great Michelle Yeoh with grace, grit and perfect comic timing. Evelyn, who left China as a young woman, runs a laundromat somewhere in America with her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). Her life is its own small universe of stress and frustration. Evelyns father (James Hong), who all but disowned her when she married Waymond, is visiting to celebrate his birthday. An I.R.S. audit looms. Waymond is filing for divorce, which he says is the only way he can get his wifes attention. Their daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), has self-esteem issues and also a girlfriend named Becky (Tallie Medel), and Evelyn doesnt know how to deal with Joys teenage angst or her sexuality.

The first stretch of Everything Everywhere All At Once is played in a key of almost-realism. There are hints of the cosmic chaos to come, in the form of ominous musical cues (the score is by Son Lux) and swiveling camera movements (the cinematography is by Larkin Seiple)  but the mundane chaos of Evelyns existence provides plenty of drama.

To put it another way, the Daniels understand that she and her circumstances are already interesting. The key to Everything is that the proliferating timelines and possibilities, though full of danger and silliness, dont so much represent an alternative to realitys drabness as an extension of its complexity.
Halle Berry had all but counted herself out.

It was a cool March night in Hollywood in 2002, and she was just excited to have been nominated for her first Academy Award, in the best actress category, for her role as a waitress who has an affair with her convicted husbands executioner in Marc Forsters dark drama Monsters Ball.

Up against Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge), Judi Dench (Iris), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom) and Renee Zellweger (Bridget Joness Diary), Berry was only the seventh African American actress ever nominated. A win would vault her into the annals of history as the first Black winner.

But Berry never thought it would happen.

Back in those days, if you didnt win the Globe, you really didnt get the Academy Award, Berry, 55, said in a recent phone conversation, referring to the Golden Globe that she had lost to Spacek. So Id pretty much resigned myself to believing, Its great to be here, but Im not going to win.

But then the previous years best actor winner, Russell Crowe, opened the envelope and read her name, the camera zooming in on her teary, shocked face. She took a moment to collect herself, then walked to the stage in her now-iconic Elie Saab gown, the voluminous burgundy train trailing behind her, as the applause went on, and on, and on.
When performers sign on as producers of their movies it can feel like a statement of intent. Thats the case with the true-life drama Infinite Storm, starring Naomi Watts as a grieving woman on an unexpected rescue mission. The movie has an appealing, streamlined trajectory: The woman hikes up and down a mountain, pausing to save a lost soul. With this role, Watts is reminding us that she can hold the screen by herself and without saying a word tell you everything you need to know about a character  and all the while looking fantastic.

Early on Oct. 17, 2010, a New Hampshire woman named Pam Bales set off on a six-mile hike up Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast. The temperature was expected to hit the high 20s, with winds reaching 80 m.p.h. Bales, though, was a lifelong hiker and a search-and-rescue volunteer. So she stashed extra layers and snow goggles in her pack before heading into an area she called an office and playground. At 5,000 feet, about three miles in, she later wrote in Backpacker magazine, the wind began to pick up around me.

Even for those who enjoy hiking (on level ground in lovely weather, thank you), this sounds like lunacy. The presence of a sympathetic performer like Watts, though, eases doubts even as it deepens the stakes. Youre already on Pams side when she wakes up at home in the gray early morning. Alone, she patters around her isolated house, which is filled with homey touches and picturesquely parked near a river. Its quiet inside, which prompts you to wonder about the children smiling in the framed photographs. Mostly, you settle into the stillness and vibe on the methodical rhythms of Pams preparing for what looks like a very serious hike.

The world comes into view and increasingly fills the silence. Pam stops by a restaurant, where she exchanges pleasantries with a friend (Denis OHare) and fills in some blanks. Its a brief, outwardly perfunctory interlude: He tells her to be careful and she reminds him that its an anniversary of an unspoken event. The scene seeds the ground with questions (what is she commemorating and why?), but mostly seems construed to appease anyone who might be disturbed by all the quiet and a woman alone: She isnt a nut, the scene reassures you, she has at least one friend and even a rationale for heading into the forbidding wilderness alone.
Its Mothers Day in 1924, and England is a green and pleasant land of sturdy cars and bicycles, repressed emotions and class divisions. A familiar place, in other words, even  or especially  if your ideas about 20th-century Britain have been shaped by books, movies and prestige television.

Theres nothing wrong with that, and theres nothing egregiously amiss with Mothering Sunday, Eva Hussons adaptation (from a script by Alice Birch) of Graham Swifts 2016 novel. Pirouetting backward and forward from its highly eventful titular day, the movie samples a buffet of tried-and-true narrative offerings. Its a love story about the mildly transgressive romance between a servant and a son of the gentry; a chronicle of literary awakening; a reckoning with the awful legacy of World War I and a foreshadowing of the social transformation that was to follow.

Living through all of it is Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), an orphan who works in the household of the Nivens, a kind couple who wear their unhappiness like well-tailored tweed. They are played by Colin Firth and Olivia Colman, who appear in just a handful of scenes and stamp the rest with a seal of highest British quality. So does Glenda Jackson, in even fewer scenes as the famous novelist Jane will grow up to be.
Olivia Rodrigo, the pop sensation whose global megahit Drivers License put her career in the fast lane in 2021, is, naturally, driving a car in the first film about her life.

She makes the same trip  Salt Lake City to Los Angeles  in the director Stacey Lees film on Disney+ as she did to record her wildly popular debut album, Sour. Its a trek that puts Rodrigo in a reflective state, and Lees mood-infused film is tailored to appeal to the vintage taste of a Gen Z crowd that loves the grainiest of photo filters. Her subjects ruminations feel overstated when paired with a retro-chic visual palette, so there are looks of intense longing that would make Folklore-era Taylor Swift proud.
The Vera Institute, in a statement on Wednesday, said, The medical reasons behind Ms. Apples weight loss are still being determined by medical professionals.

While guardians are required to file annual reports on their wards health and financial status, Vera filed its most recent one, for 2019  before Ms. Apple started losing weight  on Wednesday, after receiving inquiries from The New York Times. Vera declined to answer several other questions about her case.

Vera said that Ms. Apples care was now being overseen by Project Guardianship Inc., an independent entity spun off from Veras Guardianship Project in 2020, and that Project Guardianship was investigating this matter internally.

Project Guardianship said in a statement on Wednesday, We have worked closely with Ms. Apples physicians and the 24-hour home health aides who provide direct care and assistance to Ms. Apple to help her make decisions about her treatment and care. In a statement on Thursday, Project Guardianship added that it had acted diligently to ensure that food was available in the household.

Guardians can be appointed by the court system when someone cannot care for themselves and no one else is both willing and able to do so; there are about 13,000 people under guardianship in New York City, the state court system said.

No city or state agency was able to provide statistics Wednesday on elder abuse complaints involving people under guardianship. But Elizabeth Valentin, a visiting associate professor at New York Law School who specializes in elder law, said that guardianship rules had a number of gaps in oversight mechanisms and that opportunities exist for negligence. She added: You only need one or two people not doing their job and the whole thing falls apart.

How Ms. Apple ended up starving under the care of a guardian does not matter, her family says. Ms. Apples case manager was supposed to visit every month. Home health aides were with Ms. Apple, a former instructor at the Manhattanville College School of Education, around the clock. She had paid more than $20,000 a month for them, but in December, Medicaid began picking up the bill.
Why are we hearing about Bratsenis now?

In January, a veteran political campaign consultant named Sean Caddle pleaded guilty to arranging the killing of an associate in 2014. Caddle said Bratsenis had been the primary hit man. Caddle said he paid Bratsenis thousands of dollars in cash in advance and the balance in the parking lot of a diner in Elizabeth, N.J., on the day after the murder.

You wrote that Bratsenis was an old-school hoodlum whose criminal heyday ran from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.

Yes. From 1974 to 1985, he racked up 10 convictions  many of them for felonies like burglary, armed robbery and, in one instance, conspiracy to commit murder. Most of the cases were in Connecticut, in or within an easy drive of his hometown, Stamford. But he also ventured to Florida (where he was charged with grand theft), Nova Scotia (where he robbed a bowling alley at gunpoint for $700) and New Jersey.

One thing I learned in reporting all this was what a cesspool of organized crime and government corruption Stamford was in the 1970s and into the 80s. It was fertile ground for someone like Bratsenis, who, as one retired Stamford officer put it, would do anything for hire. Capt. Richard Conklin of the Stamford police told me that Bratsenis and his crew would link up with organized crime associates  chiefly those tied to the Gambino family  and do their bidding: robberies, burglaries, selling drugs.

Court records show that his primary partner was a guy named Louis Sclafani, who called himself Trigger Lou and who ultimately betrayed Bratsenis, testifying against him as a federally protected witness in several cases.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Cloudy early with scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 86F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low near 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
The U. S. Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted New Jerseys plans to unilaterally shut down an agency that has policed the busy ports around New York City for nearly 70 years in an effort to stem organized crimes influence.

The courts order came in response to a lawsuit filed by New York officials seeking to block a push by their New Jersey counterparts to disband the agency, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which was formed in 1953 via a bistate compact.

New Jersey officials argue that the commission  a product of the On the Waterfront era, when the mob exerted major control over the local docks and the unions that work them  has become obsolete. New York officials disagree.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey had vowed to pull the states representative off the commission by next week, a move that would leave the agency unable to operate and end its seven-decade run of fighting to keep the mob off the docks.
We at NATO have a solid basis to work from. Members are committed to the defense of the whole of NATO territory, and in recent years the alliance has taken some bold, necessary steps. Among them was the establishment in 2016 of an enhanced forward presence of allied troops  multinational, combat-ready battle groups  in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. On Wednesday the alliance announced that it will likely double the number of battle groups on its eastern flank.

But we need to go further. The forward presence needs to become forward defense, of land, air and sea. That would mean more combat-ready allied troops stationed permanently in the Baltic States, supported by long-range artillery, air defense and other enabling capabilities. It would mean more NATO fighters in our skies ready to switch from peacetime air policing to wartime air defense. And it would mean more NATO ships patrolling the Baltic Sea.

Third, we must paralyze the Kremlins war machine. We must do so not only to end the bloodshed and occupation in Ukraine but also to disarm Russia economically, to prevent Mr. Putin from further expanding the war.

At the heart of the machine is oil and gas. Last year exports from hydrocarbons amounted to roughly 40 percent of the Russian state budget, and this year theyre likely to turn into the biggest source. Our focus must be on drying up these revenues. The European Union has already announced plans to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds by the end of this year. But it can and should go further. We should also put some of the payments for Moscows oil and gas in a special third-party account so that the revenue does not go toward financing the war. And we should direct a significant share of these funds to a future reconstruction plan for Ukraine.

None of this will be easy or cost-free. And the time will surely come when we hear calls for the easing of sanctions. But we  NATO, the European Union and individual countries  must be patient and remain firm. There will be no business as usual with Mr. Putins Russia. In fact, there can be no business at all.

Fourth, we must help Ukrainians fleeing the war.

Moscow may think that forcing millions of Ukrainians to leave and seek shelter across Europe will destabilize our societies. This is also part of Mr. Putins war aims, and one of the tools of his hybrid warfare. We must show him hes wrong.

Neighboring countries have already been extraordinarily welcoming in such a short period of time, and the European Union immediately gave Ukrainians the right to live and work in the bloc. In Estonia, we have welcomed many Ukrainian refugees, who now make up around 1.6 percent of our population. All countries should do as much as they can to provide a safe haven for Ukrainian refugees until they can return home.
(SINGING) When you walk in the room, do you have sway?

nayeema raza

Im not Kara Swisher, but yes, you are listening to Sway. This is Nayeema Raza, Sways showrunner. Karas recovering from a cold, so while she did tape this interview on deaths doorstep, she asked me to fill in for the intro. Our conversation today is about a topic that has too often been reduced to, quote, woke capitalism. Whether its McDonalds pausing its burger business in Russia, Major League Baseball leaving Georgia over voting rights, or Disneys debacle with the Dont Say Gay Bill in Florida, these days, it seems like corporations have had to become our conscience. Kara discusses this trend with our guest, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, also known as the C.E.O. whisperer. Hes a professor of leadership at the Yale School of Management. He convenes C.E.O. forums, and he consults with big bosses at Fortune 500 companies. As it turns out, hes something of a moral compass for them. These days, Sonnenfeld and his team are busy compiling a corporate watchlist of companies who have taken a stand on Putins invasion of Ukraine and those that havent followed through. So we wanted to ask him what the end goal is with this list and press him on whether we really can rely on profit-seeking C.E.O.s for political change. Now over to Kara.

kara swisher

Jeffrey, welcome to Sway.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Thanks. Im delighted to join you, Kara.

kara swisher

We talked a lot over the course of the Ukraine situation about whats happening there. First of all, explain what youve been doing with the list that youve been compiling.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Well, as you know, Ive been tracking business social impact. Weve always tried to separate out whos really doing something and who isnt. And as you know, war broke out on February 24. Immediately, there was three sets of companies that moved very quickly, and they werent the three that I would have ever predicted would have been the early movers. That was shocking, and then I saw a lot of the cling on effect. A lot of companies that had their artful PR people create lookalike images of things that sounded like they were doing something, too, but they really werent. And we thought, you know, lets just create a list that chronicles and separates out whos really done something and whos not.

kara swisher

So just data of whos really done something. Who were the three companies?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Well, the three sets were energy. I mean, when do you see the oil companies as the early movers on social change? And the three particular players in the oil were BP, Shell and Exxon. And they left a lot on the table to do it. The second set, which was pretty surprising, is everything from the big heavy metal, you know, device companies to the platforms and social media. And the third cluster are the professional service firms that the lawyers and the accountants and the consultants, these folks would usually rather jump off a cliff than be identified with political controversy. And those three clusters were the first movers.

kara swisher

So what was your goal here? To celebrate them or shame the rest?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Well, I wanted to first just calibrate and certify that they were, in fact, truly moving. So that was the first thing, was just to make sure this reporting is accurate. But it turns out, youre exactly right. It had a salutary effect on the early movers. It gave them confidence. The wannabe early movers that often had nervous boards on that corporate speak word of benchmarking, this gave them peer affirmation. So those C.E.O.s go back to their boards and say, hey, look, were not going to be out there on some limb or the tall poppy syndrome, as the Australians call it. Were not going to get cut down the scale because weve stepped out in front. Were going to be with the thundering herd. And then it also had an unexpectedly punitive effect as a Hall of Shame of sorts.

kara swisher

So the list went viral. Over 400 companies have since pulled out. Is that correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yeah, its actually almost approaching 500. Many of the changes are marginal at this point. There are very few that are the big changes. What we had to do  and I should explain that  is, originally, we just had a dichotomous, who has curtailed and whos not. But now we realized that because of clever public relations spin and some corporate challenges, there were some different levels. So we now have five different categories, almost like an A, B, C, D, and F ratings.

kara swisher

Right, so were going to get to those specifically in a minute. But you hosted a large C.E.O. forum this week. So I think you cant talk about specifics because this was an off the record thing. But can you give us some high level ideas of what was happening with these C.E.O.s, with whats happening in Ukraine? Theres inflation, theres all kinds of things.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

The runaway biggest concern that they had had to do with supply chain issues. It was a huge spike of concern of the ripple effects in global supply chains because of being on the edge of World War III that had them quite alarmed. Also theres a major shift. It was almost universal that people are rethinking their global strategies. People are dramatically pushing for domestic self-reliance, which would have been seen as Neanderthal in the 1990s. And we had a wild spectrum there from hospitality, airlines and hotels, and information technology companies, and lots of sort of creative new startups, and professional services. And we looked at for industry differences. This was one weird, rare time. There was such unanimity here that it was shocking.

kara swisher

And these were largely Western companies, correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Oh, yeah, it was Europe or U.S. and one Asian company, a major company, but.

kara swisher

So theres self-selection in that in terms of whats going on, correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Theres self-selection in this particular in-person conversation because this was not hybridized. However, the list that weve created, which started out as being purely European and U.S., of course, envelops the whole world. And it is more global than we have the ready competencies to unravel.

kara swisher

So lets do a lightning round with the bigger players on your list. I want to get your take on how theyre doing and what more they could be doing. All right, BP. Theyve suspended operations completely.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Shockingly, leaving billions on the table.

kara swisher

What grade would you give them?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Both by being a first mover and by the drama of the cutback, we give them, you know, an A on our list if we were doing the grading. But its a complete withdrawal of category one, clean break. It was impressive. And frankly, I wouldnt have seen that in prior leadership of BP for a lot of obvious reasons.

kara swisher

All right, Amazon.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Amazon, I was surprised that they were in the lead and pulled out when they did. So thats been a cutback, but its not as dramatic. I think they still have some degree of AWS engagement for very little.

kara swisher

But theyre keeping their options open, correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yeah, so they havent said that this is a permanent withdrawal. Theyve suspended operations.

kara swisher

Right, so is that a good job or a bad job?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

I think thats a great. Wed give it a B, B plus.

kara swisher

OK, McDonalds, which was such an important company in Russia for anyone who remembers Glasnost, et cetera.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Now watch out. Youre dealing with a school teacher. Do we do an hour on that one? Because 

kara swisher

No, no, no.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

s top me when you need to on that one because McDonalds is a very complicated but fascinating saga. They are representative of this post-perestroika symbolism, believe it or not, of Western liberal values of freedom and the rest. Your colleague, Tom Friedman, was famous for his golden arches rule of diplomacy. And his theory was any two countries with McDonalds dont go to war with each other.

kara swisher

Oh, that didnt work. That didnt work.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

It didnt work there or anywhere else. And McDonalds persisted. And it was only through public shame that Chris Kempczinski, whos the very good new C.E.O., there, realized they had to respond. So you got to 

kara swisher

So what grade? What grade would you give them on that?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

McDonalds, even though they were late, I think they deserve at least a B. So theyre in our second category.

kara swisher

And their restaurants, Russia could take over. And then they have a logo that looks like McDonalds, correct? Uncle Vanyas, is that correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yeah, and see, thats why we dont give them an A. And theyre also paying their people to do nothing, their original employees, over 50,000 people. That doesnt quite do what we all would have needed for a top, you know, A categorization or a complete withdrawal because thats still pumping cash into the economy. The well-intended perhaps explanation for that is we dont want to cut off loyal long service employees who are innocent, not a part of all this. I dont buy that. Theres a famous book called Hitlers Willing Executioners, which is that the Second World War, the Holocaust, the Third Reich, is not all attributed to Hitler. It was the complicity of the everyday German at that time, and the complicity here of Russians. To want to support these people by paying them salaries is not what needs to be done. We need to stop civil society. Make it hurt.

kara swisher

Right. OK, J&J, Pfizer, Merck, all you categorize as buying time  what does that mean?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

They have cut back on their clinical trials. They have some partnerships. They have forestalled future investment. But we would hope for more. And by the way, I love those companies. Theyve obviously been heroic on the vaccine front. And Ive talked with the C.E.O.s of each of the companies you mentioned or their recent past C.E.O.s or chairs. And they have humanitarian explanations, but I dont buy them.

kara swisher

OK, so grade?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Thats a D.

kara swisher

A D. Oh, thats like an F, Jeff. Thats an F. You know that. A D is an F.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yeah, theyre right on the borderline. So its a C minus then, if you want to call it that. But because they arent intending to do harm, but they should completely shut down, and they dont understand the purpose of this, you know, so.

kara swisher

OK, what about the tech platforms? Meta didnt choose to leave, but the Russians banned Facebook and Instagram. Is that a good thing, even though its denying people access to information?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Well, you know, one famous expert on this space once said, theres the right way to do something, and then theres the Facebook Meta way to do something. You ever hear that one?

kara swisher

Is it from me? It sounds like me.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

It is you. And I hope it was from you because I attribute it to you at the time.

kara swisher

That sounds like me, yeah. Yeah.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

And in this case, Ive gotten some blowback because Cloudflare has stayed. Citrix stayed till quite late and finally moved.

kara swisher

Cogent came out quickly.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Oracle. I mean, really, Larry Ellison? I mean, I wouldnt have thought, but theyre saying, well, its important to maintain cloud platforms for at least the possibility of free flow of information to go through there. Even this morning, I got some folks arguing that were too unidimensional on when it comes to that space. So Im not sure in terms of the truth there 

kara swisher

Meaning some should stay in order to give people access to information.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Right, yeah, so were being purists right now.

kara swisher

Although lets just be clear, its not involuntary. Theyve been kicked out, some of these companies.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Some were kicked out, but its a challenge as to whether or not some who have stayed, like the Cloudflare who stayed, if thats a good or a bad thing. And right now, Cloudflare is feeling more virtuous as if somehow that the IBMs, the Dells, Oracles, and others that were providing their web support, their cloud support or not  are somehow evil. I think those companies are doing the right thing. This country should be a pariah, and everything should be cut.

kara swisher

Well, talk about that because how much of the business flight from Russia is rooted in corporate morality versus just sheer business pragmatism, and for those who stay  and well get to the Koch Industries in a second  opportunity for new business?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

I think the early movers, some of them may have had some oligarchical engagement that they wanted to preemptively avoid the bad press on, but they moved so quickly that they were very effective on that front, that it came off looking like it was based in responsibility and ethics. So I give them the benefit of the doubt on that. Same with the professional service firms. Some people say its clouded because they have surviving entities that are now separated out from the company. Who cares? The global company severed ties, which is the right thing. Theyre not going to be part of the global support mechanisms. And the thing that made those companies so valuable was their global branding that gave investors and others trust in them. And if thats severed, thats great.

kara swisher

Yeah, so what was the grade you would give tech overall, although its quite  theyre very different, the Cogents from the Facebooks or the Apples.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

I give tech A, A minus. Im very impressed, impressed they moved so quickly. And for whatever their motives were 

kara swisher

All right, some companies have doubled down on staying in Russia, like Koch Industries. Its president and C.O.O. wrote in a statement that, quote, we will not walk away from our employees there or hand them these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government so it can operate and benefit from them. Doing so would only put our employees at greater risk and do more harm than good. Does he have a legitimate point?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

No.

kara swisher

Why is that? Explain.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

It is an excuse for cowardice. Any company would have that. Any company that has a significant workforce and many of the companies we talked about did have significant workforces. They could all say that. I mean, what were talking about so far, Kara  I should mention this. We havent mentioned this anywhere. But it looks like the numbers we have is we have just above 23 percent of the Russian G.D.P. of these voluntary, corporate-led retreats. This has nothing to do directly with the economic sanctions, which are a large percent of the Russian G.D.P. But thats incredible impact, and thats because these companies have stalled down. You want civil society to come to a halt to show a totalitarian is not truly in total control because thats one way to weaken them.

kara swisher

So the goal here is to get Russia to be such a pariah that people push Putin out. That is your thought.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yes, is Putin is not in power because hes loved. Its obviously hes feared.

kara swisher

No, some people think thats not true, Jeff. I have a lot of 

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Whos going to honestly answer, though, an opinion survey in Russia? But hes there not as a legitimate democratic leader, of course. Hes there by brute force. Do we take him on because the coercive bloody reign, which means war, or do we take them on by the aura of totalitarian effectiveness that he claims he has? If you can take on the totalitarian side and show that he doesnt have the control he does, then he loses support. And also, the symbolic messaging here, everything weve talked about is substantive. The symbolic side, Bishop Tutu had told me personally, Desmond Tutu in the early 90s, that the symbolic side of the corporate pullout of South Africa was as important as was the substantial hit to their economy. And by the way, it was a big sacrifice for companies. People forget.

kara swisher

So this is a South Africa moment when 1980s and 90s, when businesses finally boycotted the country to protest apartheid.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yes, South Africa was a watershed moment. This is independently happening, and no coercive hands of government. Only do we hear the president of Ukraine call out Nestle, as he did yesterday.

kara swisher

Yes, see, Nestle remains there, correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yeah, largely. After that call-out, there are some slight pullback.

kara swisher

Its so interesting because my son knows that. He was like, Nestles still there, Mom. This is a 16-year-old. And hes like, were not using Nestle products. It was really interesting.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Can we hire him? I love that. Yeah, thats good.

kara swisher

Maybe. So let me give you some pushback. South Africa worked because there was strong Western unity in the U.S. and in Europe. Now China is ascendant. You had only one Asian company at that C.E.O. forum thats not representative of the continent or the countrys economic power. Russia has approached them for military and economic aid. Chinese banks and businesses may be happy to do business in Moscow. And this is where ultimately revise the Western world order.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

We worry about certainly the creation of a new Axes powers, and but we take a look at whats China doing, is the largest banks of China, I.C.B.C., which is one of the top three banks in the world, including every Western bank, I.C.B.C., which is surprisingly progressive on a lot of fronts and not even lending to flimsy Chinese companies that the Ministry of Finance wanted them to do. Its amazing, I.C.B.C. has said no to helping Russia out with credit. Also, Bank of China has said no to helping out. And then also their version of an XM Bank and things like that, which is China-sponsored, has said no to all Russia. In fact 

kara swisher

So is that directed by the government? Because Chinas been very tough on the tech sector  Chinese government has. It does have control of a lot of these entities.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

It does, and its impossible that Xi Jinping doesnt know about this. Its coming from the Ministry of Finance in China, which really controls these banks.

kara swisher

So its hard to say if this will be a South Africa moment right now. If you were to bet, because the fundamentals are different  the U.S. is not the sole driver. China is a big player. If you were to bet, do you think this is that South Africa moment?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Putins staying power is pretty strong. Its interesting that I believe that nobody in the top levels of Western governments has any idea that if theres a Brutus moment, although last week was the Ides of March and he got past it. If anybody was going to take Putin out 

kara swisher

Thank you, Lindsey Graham. Thank you, Lindsey Graham.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Lindsey, thank you. Yeah, who wouldve thought?

kara swisher

So thats a no, which is, in which case, whats the point of squeezing the Russian people and the economy? Is there an argument to be made, or you think it will eventually have an effect, you just dont know?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Itll eventually have an effect, such a corrosive thing, that the most likely option is that Putin has to pull back. And theres some face-saving territorial compromise, a negotiated  I cant call it peaceful negotiation, but some sort of a negotiated solution, where theres very little confidence its going to be a lasting one, but its something which stops the mass slaughter right now. And then Putin goes back with his tail between his legs, trying to claim victory. And hell have to deal with his domestic consequences on that. [MUSIC PLAYING]

nayeema raza

Well be back in a minute. If you like this interview and want to hear others, follow us on your favorite podcast app. Youll be able to catch up on Sway episodes you may have missed, like our conversation with former Disney C.E.O., Bob Iger. And youll get new ones delivered directly to you. More with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld after the break.

kara swisher

Lets talk about the overall. Goldman Sachs C.E.O., David Solomon, recently said  and I recently interviewed him also  that its not the job of businesses to decide whether to ostracize Russia. Its the governments job. Do companies need to have a point of view on everything?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

The slippery slope argument that people use in the business community is look at the array of injustices in the world and different governmental regimes that were not a business to be a humanitarian and social change operations. And the old Milton Friedman argument, by the way, of course, about the bottom line is the only responsibility of business. And I love David Solomon. I think hes a terrific C.E.O. But no matter who you are on this planet, you cant ignore that bombing childrens hospitals is not a good thing. If theres anything you can do to condemn the people that are doing that, you should do that.

kara swisher

So this ones not a hard one, but on other things, lets talk about Disney C.E.O. Bob Chapeks initial silence on Floridas Dont Say Gay Bill. Its turned into a fiasco for him. Hes had fiasco after a fiasco, actually. What did you think of that? And what will happen to him?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

You know, Ive studiously avoided comment on this one, but I will comment because 

kara swisher

Please do.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

 I have no escape, is, Bob Iger had a much more developed public presence. His values, though, perhaps were not the exact same as Bob Chapeks either. But in terms of his comfort in public discourse, Bob Iger was very smooth and one of the most underestimated new C.E.O.s when he took over. But at this stage, they thought they kind of had it right and werent going to worry about slightly different politics of Bob Chapek versus Bob Iger. But as sure of the maladroitness there, I think hes learning on the job, and its expensive learning. But I would not write Chapek off for having gotten this one wrong because hes learning quickly now not only who his workforce is, but the role of a C.E.O. there. I think Id give him an opportunity to see this as expensive training.

kara swisher

So you think hes fine? You think he handled it well, the recovery?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

No, but I think he and the company are learning how to handle this better. And hes gotten undercut even from Governor DeSantis when they made statements that we were trying to work privately behind the scenes.

kara swisher

Yeah, he got hit on all sides, yeah.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yeah, so he was out on a limb that then got sawed off. So it was a terrible spot to be in. And I give him 

kara swisher

So what do you imagine is going to happen? You think hes going to learn. Do you think hes in any trouble?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

In this case, I think they definitely need to learn like, how not to fight the critics, but embrace critics, embrace  and I think theyre going to. And its more than just spin. Its showing that you have a great pipewind 

kara swisher

So he probably should do an interview with a well-known lesbian reporter of media and tech, for example. Anyway, a similar dynamic happened last year after Georgia passed a bill restricting voting rights. Delta and Coca-Cola were initially silent about it until it was pressured by the public. Do you think that was a misstep?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

It was a huge misstep, and I took them on in a Newsweek column. They had this constructive engagement nonsense where they thought they were convincing the governor of Georgia to not come out with the ridiculous voting restrictions that had no justifications. And worse than the access restrictions was the political intervention and the validation of whose ballots count, which was missed by many of the voting rights groups as the worst part is what happens after people vote, is that the companies didnt engage. They learned their lesson, and they spun on that.

kara swisher

OK, let me ask you, does employee activism fit into this equation? You mentioned that Disney has employees walking out. Microsoft had to change its tune on PAC donations due to employee strife. Do you think it works?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Huge, huge. Thats my big learning for me, is the importance of internal voice at the professional service firms and the tech companies. The professional service firms, they dont have investors that need to worry about. They dont have a lot of consumer boycotts. So those critical sensitive constituencies werent what helped drive these guys to move so quickly. It was the huge internal dissent by employees who had revulsion about their exposure in those countries that was so noteworthy. Thats a big change. Ive never seen that in my lifetime. Theres one firm, its a major firm, that is not with the PAC on this. Theyre right now, as I learned yesterday, facing a walkout of some of the most senior people in this firm. And thats going to be devastating to them. And so, yeah, I think employee voice has been critical. And I wish we saw more of that employee voice, by the way, in the voting rights because we didnt.

kara swisher

Yeah, we do, yeah.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Whats happening in Texas and Florida with tech companies and things that should be speaking out more 

kara swisher

I think they get weary. I think they get weary after 

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Well, theres too much pressure on C.E.O.s already. I mean, the 1960s social change movement had clergy walking together across face, hands in hands. And all these trade unions and employee groups that spoke out, the pension funds 

kara swisher

So employees need to speak up for whatever they want.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Employees have to, and the Russian retreat is the proof they should have done that on voting rights.

kara swisher

So let me ask, are corporations now meant to be on the side of the left really? They get a lot of C.E.O.s are dismissed as woke C.E.O.s. DeSantis did that with Chapek in Florida. I was astonished by that. But do they have to just ignore it?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Laugh at it. When people tell you, the C.E.O.s to get back in your lane, this is the lane of business. What do they think the right lane is, the breakdown lane? The social impact is very critical. Understanding uncertainties and technological disruption where youre second to none, of course, are very important. Understanding, of course, a changing demography and understanding new competitors and all the rest, theyre very important in all operational changes in business and things. However, this is also part of the social context of business. When de Tocqueville came, Alexis de Tocqueville came to the United States, as a French jurist to understand our legal system 

kara swisher

Oh my God, were going into Tocqueville, but go ahead.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

He understood that  and Democracy in America was his book in 1840. He said its not the tightness of our laws that make things work here. Its something that people think was created last year, called social capital, but its as important as financial capital. Its public trust. None of these C.E.O.s want angry workforces. They dont want communities finger pointing. So out of self-interest, they want social harmony. That makes for a better enterprise. You have to have trust and 

kara swisher

So they should not care if theyre called woke C.E.O.s, and they seem like theyre with the left.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

A lot better to be awake than asleep, thats right.

kara swisher

Oh, all right. Last question, you also consulted  youve written about this with Donald Trump before his presidential run. You told him not to do it. Do you think hes going to run again?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

No, I think he wants to create a lot of that noise, but I think he wont be able to because of all the legal complications. And theres certainly a lot of leaders in the Republican Party that are hoping he wont, ranging from 

kara swisher

Yes, there are.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

 DeSantis to Romney. Theres quite a portfolio in that. So I think that its not likely, but its possible.

kara swisher

Would corporations back him if he does run again?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

No.

kara swisher

No.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

There would be a revolution in all those critical constituencies I spoke about. And you know what? They didnt support him when he ran in either of his elections. Our C.E.O. summits, the secret here is  Ill tell you this, Kara  is that 70 percent of our participants are Republicans, 65, 70 percent. And Donald Trump came to one of our C.E.O. summits before he was president. And some of the most vocal prominent Republican business leaders today were in that room. They said if he walks in the room  that clown walks in the room was the expression of one of the biggest financiers, still active today  Im walking out. And you know what? He walked in. We were at the Waldorf. He walked in, and the whole top tier walked out. And so I reminded Trump about that in January 2017. He said, well, Jeff, theyre all coming by here now. I said, well, why do you think that is?

kara swisher

But they did show up. I wrote a whole piece when all the tech C.E.O.s lined up like sheep and walked right into Trump Tower.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

You did write about that, and I asked a few of them that were there about that. And they told me they were glad that he seemed to be listening, and there was a lot of enthusiasm. That was in December after the election, but that in 2017, they went off to these advisory councils and maintained that excitement, but melted down by February because his modus operandi is divide and conquer.

kara swisher

So were they Pollyannas?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Yes, they were naive and hoping that they could manipulate him. And they did get, of course, concessions on the tax front, but on the regulatory front, very few business leaders wanted the sustainability and climate change rollbacks. In fact, the energy industries 

kara swisher

So they got what they wanted, Jeff, correct?

jeffrey sonnenfeld

A little bit. They got the taxes. But 

kara swisher

But let me just say, when I had a discussion with one of them and they said were going to change his mind, and I go, guess what? Youre not Jesus. Its not happening. This guy is very clear on what he said. And he 

jeffrey sonnenfeld

I must tell you, I thought he would pivot more to the center than he did. But no, exactly, right.

kara swisher

You know what? Peter Thiel will always be there. Thats what you have to keep in mind. Anyway, thank you so much. This has been a fascinating discussion.

jeffrey sonnenfeld

Thank you so much. [MUSIC PLAYING]

nayeema raza
Lulu Garcia-Navarro: I want to get to that. But I want to ask you this, Tom: President Biden is also going to be delivering a sobering message to Europe on this trip, we understand, that the conflict will last for months, possibly for years. Briefly, Tom, do you think thats true? And if so, what do you think it means?

Thomas L. Friedman: Well, its very hard to predict, Lulu. And the reason is because of the incredible asymmetry in how were able to view this war. So what we see graphically every day are pictures of the battlefield, and we see pictures that show the effectiveness, often, of Ukrainian forces, and then the terrible devastation thats been wrought by the Russians so far. That dimension of the war really plays to video.

But theres a whole other war going on. The West, led by the United States, has dropped the equivalent of an economic nuclear bomb on Russia. And its blast radius just keeps widening every day. So what you dont see is Ivan Ivanovich going to his A.T.M. machine and not being able to withdraw money, or going to the boss of his factory and saying, How are we going to operate by next week if we have no more microchips?

So we are inflicting terrible pain on the Russian economy at a very broad scale, but none of it is viewable, or very little of it is viewable  very little is being reported inside Russia. I would keep that in mind for anyone who says this is going to go on forever. Maybe it will. I dont know. But I think we are inflicting a lot more pain than were able to see right now.

Lulu Garcia-Navarro: Farah, you were just in Poland. How is Europe thinking about the possibility, and preparing for the possible eventuality, that this war may drag on?

Farah Stockman: Well, I guess the short answer is when I was there, they were not. I went to Warsaw city hall and the mayors press secretary told me that energy costs to heat municipal buildings were up 600 percent before the Russian invasion. And she said people were just bracing themselves. They didnt even want to talk about how much costs were going to go up further.

So I think theres a lot. This has come on really quickly. The response was quick. And people havent actually had time to process what this really means for Europe in terms of city budgets and how are you going to take all of these refugees in for years. So there are just starting to be conversations now about whether the European Union should give money directly to cities that are hosting these refugees instead of to their federal governments that tend to be less generous. But theres a profound transformation thats going to happen in Europe once people really start digesting what this means for Europe.
Shutting down Mr. Putins cash flow is an urgent moral and strategic imperative, but Europe is frozen in the headlights.

Some European experts claim that the war is not being financed by energy exports. This is entirely wrong. Mr. Putins regime is seeking to buy military equipment. With much of the central banks reserves frozen, Mr. Putin needs the hard currency he receives every day, and therefore Russia has continued to pump oil at full prewar capacity. The euros that Mr. Putin receives now go directly toward firepower that kills Ukrainian civilians and destroys our cities.

The economic and energy minister of Germany, Europes largest economy, said that any reduction in current purchases of oil and gas would cause his countrys economy to crater.

But Europe already has enough gas to get to next winter, and the International Energy Agency has laid out a viable plan for conservation and alternative supplies, which would reduce European imports of Russian gas by more than one-third. Germany is particularly dependent on Russian gas, but a study from the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina pointed out that a short-term suspension of Russian gas would be manageable. Additionally, given that Germany has low debt relative to G.D.P., the potential effects on lower-income people can be addressed.

In the meantime, payments for Russian gas should go into escrow accounts, so that the proceeds cannot be used to buy weapons. This is standard practice when there are sanctions. Russia has already imposed its own escrow requirement on foreign investors who receive coupon payments on their ruble-denominated corporate bonds.

In terms of oil, OPEC and other suppliers can provide up to an additional 2.2 million barrels per day within a month. These countries should have no interest in allowing the price of oil to rise too high, because that will sharply accelerate the long-term transition to renewable energy. If you build strong sanctions on Russia, OPEC will pump more oil. Of course OPEC enjoys higher oil prices, but at some point that will backfire.

There is some concern as to whether an embargo on Russian oil would be undermined by smuggling. To address this issue, President Volodymyr Zelenskys economic advisory team has established the Russian Tanker Tracking Group, which now follows every ship that lifts oil from Russian ports. You can hide many things in the oil business, but you cannot conceal the movements of large crude oil tankers that are visible from space.
The boa constrictor got its name for a reason. To kill its prey, a boa will coil around it, squeezing hard enough to stop the preys blood from flowing, and then, stretching its jaws open, devour it whole. They are known to eat opossums and rats. Some of their larger relatives, anacondas, can eat capybara and deer, and there have been some instances of pythons eating people.

But constricting and ingesting prey is no small  or quick  feat. They do this for 10, 15, up to 45 minutes, said Elizabeth Brainerd, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University. And that takes quite a bit of energy, so they have to be breathing.

Dr. Brainerd and her colleagues set out to understand how boa constrictors breathe under such cramped conditions and discovered that theyre able to precisely shift the region of their rib cage that expands to draw air into their lungs. Their work was published on Thursday in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Their findings shed light on the anatomy of snakes and how these slithering predators have come to thrive in so many parts of the world.

Large prey ingestion really opened up all these new avenues for snakes to evolve that otherwise would not have been possible, said John Capano, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University and an author of the study.
Spirit works through me, answers the photographer Ming Smith when asked how shes able to sense the precise moment at which to snap a picture of someone on the street  just as they walk into the light, say, and their expression changes ever so slightly  so that the resulting image feels candid yet definitive, and deeply intimate. Smith has been creating such images since even before the 1970s, when, bolstered by a debate about whether or not photography is art that shed overheard while on a modeling assignment, she focused on shooting black-and-white pictures of everyday people in her neighborhood of Harlem. Soon after, she began to apply oil paint on top of certain prints in order to enhance their mood. Eight never-before-seen painted pictures appear in A Dream Deferred, a show of Smiths work at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London. In one, an older woman sits pensively at a diner as if reflecting on time gone by, and melancholy blue streaks suggestive of clouds appear above her head. Also on view are vintage gelatin prints from Smiths Invisible Man (1988-91) series  its title a reference to Ralph Ellisons novel  for which she photographed her subjects at night, often without a flash and at slow shutter speeds. Yet even when blurred and shrouded in darkness, the figures are impossible to miss. And while the shows title comes from another work by a writer adept at illuminating Black American life, Smith herself has fulfilled a dream of her father, who wanted to be an artist. A Dream Deferred is up through April 30, houldsworth.co.uk.
So many artists have lived hard lives and had awful deaths that for years we seemed to expect this of them  that addiction and an early grave were a kind of tax levied on artists, most especially writers, whose profession has gone together with substance abuse like ice goes with bourbon. Everything about the act of writing seems to invite abuse  its solitary nature, its interiority, the misery of sharing yourself with an often indifferent audience. Any list of the great authors and poets of the 20th century would include countless addicts: Lucia Berlin, Elizabeth Bishop, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Jack Kerouac, Jean Rhys, William Styron, John Williams  all experienced varying degrees of addiction, which they explored over the course of their respective careers. Artist-addicts continue to inspire curiosity and obsession, but as we move farther from the 20th century and toward a reinterpretation of substance abuse that places it in the context of wellness and mental health, this figure seems increasingly a relic of a different era, like beehive hairdos or fallout shelters. Writers today certainly dont broadcast their vices the way they used to, in their work or otherwise, and American culture no longer abides a drunken stupor as an inevitable state crucial to the creation of great art. Even as drugs have become more widely available and legally sanctioned, their use remains illicit  if a writer tackles the theme of substance abuse, it is almost universally done from the perspective of convalescence, of overcoming the addiction itself, which is what we now require of a user in order to have anything resembling a career. Where, then, have all the addicts gone?

In the 19th century, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas De Quincey wrote freely about their use of opium, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning referred to a mixture of morphine and ether as my elixir. But the figure of the modern artist-addict truly began with Edgar Allan Poe. The Poe who has become almost mythical for his beastly intoxication, as one description of the author in his final days in October 1849 put it, is largely the creation of Rufus Wilmot Griswold, who was the literary executor of Poes estate but in reality a resentful rival who attempted to assassinate the authors posthumous legacy through the publication of dubious biographical materials that presented Poe as a lifelong loser, prone to drunken fits and unspeakable indiscretions, a man with few or no friends. Griswold effectively fashioned the portrait of the artist as an erratic degenerate.

But rather than ruining Poes legacy, Griswold created a legend: that of the tortured writer whose (seemingly) debauched life matched the sly melancholy of his work. We can never truly know the reality of an artists character, so its the legend with which were often stuck. (Life, friends, is boring, Berryman writes in Dream Song 14. We must not say so.) What we remember now is Poe dying of a mysterious, acute and very possibly typical alcoholic episode; that he was a member of the anti-alcohol organization the Sons of Temperance (he was rumored to have had his membership card on him when he died) is less a refutation of this fact than a baffling detail that burnishes the mystery.
GOTTINGEN, Germany  The European Union agreed on Thursday to one of the worlds most far-reaching laws to address the power of the biggest tech companies, potentially reshaping app stores, online advertising, e-commerce, messaging services and other everyday digital tools.

The law, called the Digital Markets Act, is the most sweeping piece of digital policy since the bloc put the worlds toughest rules to protect peoples online data into effect in 2018. The legislation is aimed at stopping the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services and considerable resources to box in users and squash emerging rivals, creating room for new entrants and fostering more competition.

What that means practically is that companies like Google will no longer be able to collect data from different services to offer targeted ads without users consent and that Apple may have to allow alternatives to its App Store on iPhones and iPads. Violators of the law, which will take effect as early as later this year, could face penalties of up to 20 percent of their global revenue  which could reach into the tens of billions of dollars  for repeat offenses.

The Digital Markets Act is part of a one-two punch by European regulators. As early as next month, the European Union is expected to reach an agreement on a law that would force social media companies such as Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to police their platforms more aggressively.
FRANKFURT  Of the 24 new productions expected on Schauspiel Frankfurts three stages this season, two-thirds will be directed by women. This is an astonishing statistic in Germany, where gender inequality is still pronounced across the vast theater landscape. Despite advances in recent decades, women run only a small fraction of the 142 publicly owned playhouses, and, according to the latest available statistics, in 2016 only 20 percent of theater directors were female.

Two current productions at Schauspiel Frankfurt, the municipal theater company, show how the theatrical ground here has shifted over a generation to allow more confident explorations of female self-expression. Both plays lie far outside the standard repertoire, which is consistent with a general trend in German theater to break out of the narrow canon of acknowledged masterpieces. But only one seems to provide a uniquely female perspective on the work in question.

Claudia Bauer, born in 1966, is one of German theaters most acclaimed and prolific directors. A fixture on stages throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the past quarter-century, she enjoys a certain seniority among Germanys female theatermakers. But both formally and thematically, her productions often feel very similar to those of her male colleagues. Like them, she has spent much of her career sifting through the (mostly male) theatrical canon: Some of her most acclaimed recent productions have been based on plays by Brecht, Moliere and Tennessee Williams.

At Schauspiel Frankfurt, Bauer has turned her attention to Luis Bunuels 1972 film, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise, adapted for the stage in a surprisingly faithful version by the writing team PeterLicht and SE Struck.
Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows ruble banknotes in Moscow, capital of Russia. Russia will reject U.S. dollars or euros and only accept rubles for its natural gas supplied to "unfriendly countries," including the European Union (EU) members and the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

MOSCOW, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia will reject U.S. dollars or euros and only accept rubles for its natural gas supplied to "unfriendly countries," including the European Union (EU) members and the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

Over the past few weeks, some Western countries have taken "illegitimate decisions" to freeze Russian assets, thus undermining the reliability of their currencies, Putin said at a meeting with government members via video link.

"It makes no sense for us to supply our goods to the EU, the United States and receive payments in dollars, euros and other currencies," he said.

Putin decided to implement a set of measures to transfer payments to rubles, starting with Russian natural gas in the shortest possible time.

He promised that Russia, nevertheless, will continue to supply gas in accordance with the volumes and prices in existing contracts.

"The changes will affect only the payment currency," Putin said. "I ask the government to issue a relevant directive to (Russian gas industry giant) Gazprom on amending existing contracts."

The president instructed the central bank and the government to determine the procedure for settlement in rubles within a week. 

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows ruble banknotes and coins in Moscow, capital of Russia. Russia will reject U.S. dollars or euros and only accept rubles for its natural gas supplied to "unfriendly countries," including the European Union (EU) members and the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows ruble banknotes and coins in Moscow, capital of Russia. Russia will reject U.S. dollars or euros and only accept rubles for its natural gas supplied to "unfriendly countries," including the European Union (EU) members and the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)
As they worked from home during the pandemic, and the virus and wildfires curtailed their social life, they spent more time in their cramped apartment and questioned whether it was worth it. They eventually decided to return to Atlanta, where they had met in 2014. They were able to buy a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment for $315,000. And they no longer have roommates.

The price of living in the Bay Area was so out of sync with the quality of life we were getting, said Ms. Grady, a public health strategist.

Cities like New York and Los Angeles remain alluring, as evidenced by bidding wars for homes and big companies investing in office space. But many residents have been pushed away by a lack of affordable housing, as well as by pandemic-related changes to how they order their priorities.

Across the nation, counties with more modest housing costs gained in population, the data showed.

Five years ago, counties ranking above the 90th percentile for housing stress  a measure of housing costs as a share of income  accounted for a third of the nations population growth, suggesting that the high prices represented high demand.

But in 2021, those counties were net population losers, suggesting that costs have gotten out of hand.

In the Los Angeles area, for example, nearly half a million renters do not have access to an affordable unit, according to a 2021 report from the California Housing Partnership. For this group  including essential workers such as home health aides, janitors, child care professionals and medical assistants  homeownership can be all but impossible.
Another prosecution witness who also pleaded guilty to the kidnapping conspiracy, Kaleb Franks, testified on Thursday that he also intended to kidnap the governor and had not been forced into the plot by the F.B.I. Mr. Franks, who has not yet been sentenced, said he had hoped to die during the attack on the governor. Mr. Franks, 27, said he had been in despair after the deaths of three close family members.

Prosecutors said in the months before the arrests, the men, many of whom were militia members, attended meetings and what they described as field training exercises to practice shooting and first-aid. In one exercise, they videotaped themselves jumping out of Mr. Frankss bright-blue PT Cruiser and taking cover behind its doors while they fired rifles.

Secretly recorded audio and private messages also showed members of the group repeatedly airing grievances about the government, especially about Covid-19 restrictions, and expressing openness to a range of possible attacks. But there has been vast disagreement in court about how close they were to carrying out any attack, and about what their exact plan even was.

Dan Chappel, a military veteran who signed on as an F.B.I. informant in early 2020 after becoming worried about the goals of one militia, the Wolverine Watchmen, pretended to befriend the men who were charged and recorded their interactions for months. As the group began to develop a plan, some of the defendants mused about storming the State Capitol in Lansing or taking Ms. Whitmer in a boat across Lake Michigan or blowing up a bridge to make it harder for police to respond to the kidnapping.

But defense lawyers, who are pursuing an entrapment defense, questioned Mr. Chappels role in the plot, pointing out that he helped lead militia training and made suggestions about attack plans. The implication was that, if not for Mr. Chappel, who was receiving instructions from the F.B.I., the plan to kidnap Ms. Whitmer would probably not have moved forward.

Mr. Chappel, who spent parts of several days on the witness stand, said he believed the men intended to kidnap Ms. Whitmer, kill members of her security detail and eventually kill the governor herself after staging a fake trial. But the exact plans for the kidnapping, a date for which had not seen set, seemed to have still been in flux at the time of the arrests, a fact that defense lawyers have seized on.

Mr. Garbin, who had expressed hope of setting off a civil war, testified that he thought they would kidnap Ms. Whitmer, take her out on Lake Michigan, strand her in a boat, drop the motor and leave her there alone. Under cross-examination, Mr. Garbin conceded that no boat had been selected for that mission, and that he did not know how the kidnappers planned to get themselves back to shore.
A Democratic candidate for Congress in Oklahoma has ended her campaign one month after she apologized for verbally abusing children attending a sleepover at a friends home.

The candidate, Abby Broyles, a former investigative television reporter who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2020, said she was ending her bid to represent Oklahomas Fifth Congressional District to focus on myself and my happiness, according to a Medium post published on Thursday.

In the essay, Ms. Broyles, 32, described how she hit rock bottom after the sleepover incident last month.

She described being in an emergency room on March 2, less than two weeks after the apology.

I drank heavily in my hotel room, more than 1,300 miles away in an effort to hide and took sleeping pills, anguishing in pain reading about myself on social media and in tabloid articles, she wrote.
The report from the German Marshall Fund, a research group that promotes democracy, laid out similar examples of coercive diplomacy by China in the constellation of United Nations agencies and associated groups. (The authors, Jessica Drun and Bonnie Glaser, both Taiwan experts, said they had received funding from the Taiwanese government for the research but that the views in the report were their own. Separately, Laura Rosenberger, senior director for China and Taiwan at the White House National Security Council, was a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.)

In some cases, Chinese diplomats worked to ensure that Taiwan could not participate in the groups. In other cases, Chinese officials pushed U.N. personnel to ensure that Taiwan was labeled a province of China in documents. The U.S. has a policy of promoting Taiwans participation in international organizations and venues.

A United Nations spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment.

A State Department official said that U.S. officials consistently highlighted the value of Taiwans meaningful participation in U.N. activities and associated groups, especially ones related to public health and safety. In a statement, the official said this is in the best interest of all U.N. member states, given the transnational nature of the challenges we face. U.S. officials regularly have private conversations with U.N. leaders on the issue.

Chinas efforts in the United Nations context are part of a campaign to shift the understanding of that bodys Resolution 2758, passed in 1971. The resolution says the Peoples Republic of China would be the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations, meaning it would take the seat held by the government of Taiwan. The resolution does not say anything about the sovereign status of Taiwan, but China has been trying for years to change peoples understanding of the language so they think the text says Taiwan is part of China, Ms. Drun and Ms. Glaser wrote.

China has used U.N. Resolution 2758 and bilateral normalization agreements with other member states to falsely claim that its One China principle is a universally accepted norm, they wrote, adding that China gets support for its views partly through economic pressure on governments.

Those efforts allow China to more easily argue that Taiwan should be shut out of international organizations.

They have lots of reasons to solidify the One China principle, as they put it, in the minds of the leadership of the United Nations, said Thomas Christensen, the interim dean at Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs and a former State Department official.
WASHINGTON  A decade after the Supreme Court struck down segregated schooling in 1954, the president of a neighborhood association here wrote a letter urging leaders of local private schools to stop granting scholarships to further the cause of integration, asserting that it was unwholesome and unwise to have a student body so miscegenated.

One of the founders of Georgetown Day School, which had been integrated for 20 years at that point and whose population was one-fourth Black, wrote back.

Edith Nash, one of the schools founders, noted that not only had it always had more white applicants for scholarship assistance than Negro, but a thoroughly mixed enrollment is our aim, according to the letter, parts of which were published in The Washington Post that year.

If you feel this population is miscegenated, she added, thats your problem.

Nearly 60 years later, the first integrated school in Washington still firmly embraces the mission of its founders. Georgetown Day came under a national microscope this week in the escalating culture war over antiracism teaching in schools.
How badly the intelligence agencies got it wrong is subject to debate. Ahead of the invasion, Ukraine experts clearly and repeatedly told policymakers in the White House and Congress that Ukraines government and people probably would resist a Russian invasion, a U.S. official said.

But intelligence reports are usually hedged. And under questioning from Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said this month that, before the invasion, he had thought the Ukrainians were not as ready for an attack as they needed to be.

Therefore, I questioned their will to fight. That was a bad assessment on my part because they have fought bravely and honorably, General Berrier said.

In an interview, Mr. Cotton said the intelligence agencies were at their best assessing Russia in the lead-up to the invasion. Once the invasion began, the assessments of Ukraines capabilities and Russias military were less than stellar. Still, he said, judging how effective a countrys defenses will be ahead of a potential attack is tricky.

Will to fight is not a discrete area of intelligence you can go out and collect on it, Mr. Cotton said. Its not like how many working fighters did an air force have? Theres a lot of subjectivity.

Recent counteroffensives by the Ukrainian military suggest that the countrys leaders are resolved to do more than simply defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Over the last week, Ukrainian forces have used tanks and fighter jets to attack Russian positions outside Kyiv and other cities in a way that demonstrates that their objective is not to take back territory, but to destroy Russian forces. It is a sign of not only savvy strategy but a clear intent by Ukraine to defeat the Russian military and win the war.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said it was easy to overstate what the intelligence community got wrong, both in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Last summer, intelligence agencies repeatedly warned that the Afghan government would collapse and that military leaders were surrendering to the Taliban, Mr. Schiff said.
A contempt of Congress charge carries a penalty of up to a year in jail. A recommendation from the panel would send the matter to the full House, which would then have to vote to refer the charge to the Justice Department.

The only target of the House investigation to have been criminally charged with contempt of Congress so far is Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trumps onetime top adviser. That case, which is tentatively set to go to trial in July, has been bogged down recently in arguments over whether Mr. Bannon can defend himself by claiming he was merely following the advice of his lawyers when he declined to respond to the committees subpoena.

In December, the House also recommended that Mark Meadows, Mr. Trumps final chief of staff, face criminal contempt of Congress charges for his own refusal to cooperate with the committees investigation. The Justice Department has not yet decided whether to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Meadows, who turned over thousands of documents to the committee but ultimately refused to sit for an interview.

The potential contempt charges come as the committee is fending off a litany of lawsuits from witnesses seeking to block its subpoenas. In response to one such suit, the committee on Thursday laid out more of the case it is building, directly linking the storming of the Capitol to the lucrative fund-raising effort by the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign that was built on false claims that Democrats had stolen the election from Mr. Trump.

In a filing in federal court in Washington, the committee gave its most detailed statement yet of why it believes the joint fund-raising effort was not just a plan to dupe donors into sending the Trump campaign and the R.N.C. millions, but also a leading cause of the mob attack on Congress.

In a 57-page document, the committee outlined how, in the weeks after Mr. Trump lost the election, his campaign and the R.N.C. raked in hundreds of millions of dollars sending out fund-raising appeals that called Mr. Bidens victory illegitimate and encouraged supporters to fight, including multiple messages sent the same day the Capitol was attacked.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote that there was good reason to think that Mr. Ramirezs religious requests were sincere.

Ramirez seeks to have his pastor lay hands on him and pray over him during the execution, the chief justice wrote. Both are traditional forms of religious exercise.

Indeed, he wrote, there is a rich history of clerical prayer at the time of a prisoners execution, dating back well before the founding of our nation.

Judge David Hittner of the Federal District Court in Houston ruled against Mr. Ramirez, saying it was enough that prison officials intended to allow Mr. Moore to stand nearby during the execution. Courts should not become entangled, Judge Hittner wrote, in the minutiae of prison security procedures.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, upheld the lower courts decision. In dissent, Judge James L. Dennis questioned Texas new policy, which permitted spiritual advisers to be present in the death chamber but prohibited them from touching or praying aloud with the condemned inmates.

What purpose is there for allowing a spiritual adviser, like a pastor, to be present in the execution chamber if that pastor is prohibited from attending to the spiritual needs of the condemned during the final moments of his life, through audible prayer, physical touch or otherwise? Judge Dennis wrote. At the end of life, what does a pastor do but minister to and comfort his parishioner?

In a concurring opinion on Thursday, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh described the various approaches the Supreme Court has taken to suits in which death row inmates asked that their spiritual advisers be present to comfort them during their executions.
WASHINGTON  The Biden administration has finalized a plan to overhaul the system for immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, aiming to take a burden off the backlogged immigration courts in what some experts see as the most sweeping change to the process in a quarter-century.

Under the new policy, which the administration released on Thursday as an interim final rule, some migrants seeking asylum will have their claims heard and evaluated by asylum officers instead of immigration judges.

The goal, administration officials said, is for the entire process to take six months, compared with a current average of about five years. The plan is to release many asylum seekers through a parole status while they go through the process, which critics say will draw even more hopeful migrants to the border. In recent weeks, border officials have been apprehending more than 13,000 undocumented migrants a day, according to internal data shared with The New York Times.

Mr. Biden pledged to restore humanity to the asylum system after four years of restrictive measures put in place by President Donald J. Trump. But the need to fix the overburdened system, where more than 670,000 cases were pending in immigration court alone at the end of February, long predates the last administration.
A spokesman for Senator Hawley declined to comment on his motivations.

Although few QAnon followers appeared to take notice of Judge Jacksons sentencing record before Senator Hawleys tweets, her judicial career had touched the roots of the conspiracy theory: an earlier internet myth known as Pizzagate.

That debunked theory held that Satan-worshiping Democrats were trafficking children out of the basement of a Washington restaurant, and in 2017 a believer armed with an assault rifle stormed in and fired his weapon. Judge Jackson, as a district court judge, sentenced him to four years in prison, saying his actions left psychological wreckage.

The QAnon conspiracy theory was born a few months later when an anonymous writer  often signing as Q  elaborated on the discredited myth that a cabal of top Democrats was abusing children. Q purported to be a top official close to President Donald J. Trump and asserted that the president was waging a secret war against the cabal.

Slogans about protecting the children became catchphrases that QAnon adherents used to identify one another, and their bizarre fantasy  initially encouraged by far-right news outlets, then promoted by a ring of social media influencers  appeared to spread widely among Trump supporters. At least two Republican lawmakers elected in 2020 had made statements supportive of QAnon, and prosecutors say that many people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol subscribed to the theory.

Among those now echoing the Republican allegations about the judicial nominee, in fact, is Ron Watkins, a former website administrator who is widely believed to have played a major role in writing the anonymous Q posts. Mr. Watkins, who has denied any part in the Q messages, is running for the Republican nomination to an Arizona congressional seat, largely on the strength of his QAnon association; this week, he qualified for the ballot.

Judge Jackson is a pedophile-enabler, Mr. Watkins wrote Wednesday on social media. Any senator who votes to confirm her nomination is also a pedophile-enabler.

QAnon Telegram channels on Wednesday grew increasingly agitated. She has committed unbelievable crimes against humanity with her judgeship, one user wrote. If she gets confirmed the victims remain victims & trapped in the misery bestowed on them, said another. Some talked of violence.
People visit a special hotel bazaar dubbed "Creative Land" in Gaza City, March 21, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

by Sanaa Kamal

GAZA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- For three days in a row, Ruba al-Kurd, a young Palestinian woman from the Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip, has showcased her hand-made artworks at a special hotel bazaar for creative products.

Dubbed "Creative Land," the bazaar enabled the 20-year-old student of fine arts from a local university to sell hand-made artifacts and paintings to earn money. Otherwise, al-Kurd only sells them via social media as a way to cover some of her expenses at the university.

"I have gained an appropriate number of customers, but I was not able to reach the entire Palestinian public in the Gaza Strip, so I joined this fair in order to further market my products to the local population," al-Kurd added.

About 70 entrepreneurs and business owners attended the trade fair in a hotel, which was co-organized by the Phoenix Advertising Company and the Palestinian Eyes Foundation, a local non-governmental organization.

Hadeel Hammad, an organizer, said the bazaar is a platform for young entrepreneurs, who mostly operate e-commerce via social media, to explore offline business opportunities with customers directly.

Yasmine, 21, also tried her luck at the bazaar promoting her own skincare and cosmetic products.

The college graduate said she ventured into the business and launched the brand "Jasmina" in January 2021 after failing to find a job.

"I developed specialized skin and hair care products with natural materials," she told Xinhua, saying her products are promoted for research-based manufacturing and therapeutic effects.

"I have been working for a long time to build a network with my clients, but that isn't enough for me, especially because I want to compete with the commercial brands," she said.

Hammad told Xinhua that due to the high unemployment rate in Gaza, many young people resort to opening their own businesses at home.

The organizers, through hosting the bazaar, want to send a message "that the youth of the Gaza Strip are not unemployed or helpless, but rather a great number of them are innovative, whatever simple project it may be, they are capable of transforming their lives for the better," she added.

A report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2021 showed that 53 percent of young people in the Palestinian territories were unemployed. In Gaza Strip, the figure stood at 67 percent, more than two-thirds of whom were female. 

People visit a special hotel bazaar dubbed "Creative Land" in Gaza City, March 21, 2022.(Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A woman participates in a special hotel bazaar dubbed "Creative Land" in Gaza City, March 21, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A woman participates in a special hotel bazaar dubbed "Creative Land" in Gaza City, March 21, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
U.S. officials have repeatedly said they expected that most Ukrainian refugees would want to stay in Europe, close to their homes and adult male family members, who have been prohibited from leaving the country. So far, some three million Ukrainians have fled their homeland. But millions more have been internally displaced and may also need to find safe haven in other countries.

White House officials said that the refugees would be received through the full range of legal pathways, including the U.S. refugee admissions program, which leads to permanent residence, or a green card. Others may be granted visas or humanitarian parole, a temporary form of entry offered to displaced people in wartime and other emergencies.

The initiative would focus on Ukrainians who have family members in the United States. However, the United States is not considering airlifting Ukrainians into the country, as it did during the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, White House officials said.

Mr. Bidens announcement won praise from some immigration advocates, as well as Ukrainians still in Europe seeking refuge. Oleksandr Berezhnyi, a 32-year-old stuck in Bucha, Ukraine, hoped it would increase the chances for his pregnant wife and 4-year-old daughter to resettle in the United States. They fled to Slovakia weeks ago and have family in New Jersey.

There is nothing left for them other than now looking at this new program, Mr. Berenzhnyi said through a translator in a phone interview on Thursday.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Ethiopias government on Thursday announced what it called an immediate humanitarian truce with forces it has been fighting for 17 months in the northern Tigray region, where millions are hungry and food aid has not been delivered since December.

The deadly conflict in Africas second most populous nation has pitted the Ethiopian military against rebels in the northern region of Tigray.

Late Thursday night, the provisional government in Tigray, which is aligned with the rebels, released a statement saying that if sufficient humanitarian aid arrived to meet the needs on the ground within a reasonable timeframe, then it, too, would be committed to implementing a cessation of hostilities effective immediately.

Officials with the United Nations and several aid agencies greeted the developments with hope, but also cautioned that an end to the humanitarian crisis and the bitter conflict was still far off.
ALONG HIGHWAY 1, Afghanistan  The Bomb Crater Stop N Go is not the actual name of this shop along a desolate stretch of highway in rural Afghanistan. But thats what it is: a small shed that sells fuel and snacks to passing travelers, right beside a scar in the earth where road and sand meet after an explosion there sometime in the last 20 years of the countrys violent history.

Hafiz Qadim, the 32-year-old shopkeeper, occasional gas attendant and snack dispenser, has no formal name for his business venture. It sits like a lone beacon of essential provisions among the sand dunes, rock outcroppings and occasional grape fields on the border of Kandahar and Zabul provinces in Afghanistans south, where the surrounding mountains cut through the sky like the backs of sleeping dinosaurs.

It is the only store for miles.

I opened this shop after Kabul fell, Mr. Qadim explained, gesturing toward his new steel roller door and the mud bricks that looked like they were still drying in the sun.

That was in August, when the capital was seized by the Taliban, consolidating their control of the country.
The pilot of the China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed in southern China with 132 people aboard was an industry veteran with more than 6,000 hours of flying time. His co-pilot was even more experienced, having flown since the early days of Chinas post-Mao era, training on everything from Soviet-model biplanes to newer Boeing models.

Together, the men operating Flight 5735 had more than 39,000 hours of flying experience, the equivalent of four and a half years nonstop in the cockpit, adding to the mystery of why the plane plunged from a cruising altitude of 29,000 feet into a wooded mountainside on Monday.

How they piloted the Boeing 737 will be closely examined as investigators seek to explain what is probably Chinas worst air disaster in more than a decade. Experts have said it is unlikely that anyone survived the crash.

On Thursday, rescuers said they had found engine components, part of a wing and other important debris as they searched the mountainside in a rural part of the Guangxi region for a fourth day.
But with Russia now in the cross hairs of the United States and its allies, Mr. Kim may have sensed a rare opportunity to take advantage of worsening relations between the veto-wielding powers and escalate tension.

North Korea wanted to test its ICBM while the war is raging in Ukraine, said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute outside Seoul. The relations between the United States and Russia are the worst ever. There is no way Russia is going to cooperate at the U.N. Security Council when the United States wants to impose tough sanctions against North Korea.

Many questions remained unanswered about North Koreas long-range missile program, such as whether the country can actually fly its missile on an intercontinental trajectory and whether it has mastered the technology for a re-entry vehicle, carrying a warhead, to detach from a missile at high altitude and survive the stresses of diving back into the atmosphere on its way to its target.

The Norths resumption of ICBM tests also raised the specter of Mr. Kim returning to an earlier posture when he threatened to fire ballistic missiles in a ring of fire around Guam, home to major American military bases in the Western Pacific.

This year, North Korea has been gearing up to celebrate the 110th birthday of Kim Il-sung, Mr. Kims grandfather and the founder of North Korea, in April. Mr. Kim has often pointed to his weapons arsenal as his biggest achievement as a hereditary leader, though his economy remains hobbled by the pandemic and decades of harsh sanctions.

The North Korean launch on Thursday caught South Korea by surprise. The country is in the middle of a transition of power from President Moon Jae-in to the president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol, who campaigned on a promise to strengthen ties between Seoul and Washington and has even suggested pre-emptive strikes against the North.

After its last ICBM test in 2017, North Korea said it no longer needed nuclear or ICBM tests because its nuclear-tipped missiles could strike any part of the continental United States. Earlier that year, it detonated what it called a thermonuclear bomb  foreign analysts have expressed some doubt about that  in its sixth underground nuclear test. North Korea is the first United States adversary since the Cold War to test both an ICBM and a claimed hydrogen bomb, according to Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear proliferation at M.I.T.
LISMORE, Australia  As the floodwaters rose higher and higher, submerging the stilts that once protected his home, Laurence Axtens grabbed a chair and placed it on top of a table.

Into this last-ditch perch he muscled his 91-year-old mother and then called for help. The police said that there was nothing they could do, but that someone from emergency services in their Australian state, New South Wales, would call back.

Three weeks later, Mr. Axtens is still waiting for that call.

As climate change increases the frequency and size of natural disasters, governments around the world are struggling to scale up their responses to match. That has been especially apparent in Australia, which experienced catastrophic flooding over the past few weeks along its eastern coast, just two years after the countrys worst bush fire season ever.
President Biden faces intensifying pressure at home four weeks into the war, with a solid majority of Americans expressing doubt that he has done enough to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, according to a poll by The Associated Press and NORC released Thursday.

Some 56 percent of Americans  and 43 percent of Democrats  said Mr. Biden, who was meeting on Thursday with European leaders, had not been tough enough in his response. About one-third said his handling the crisis was just right, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,082 U.S. adults between last Thursday and Monday, more than three weeks into the war.

Just 6 percent of Americans, barely more than the polls 4 percent margin of error, thought Mr. Biden has been too tough on Moscow.

The survey reflected a rapid swing of public opinion  from a decade-long national aversion to conflict to a far more aggressive position, spurred by images of indiscriminate Russian attacks on civilians. Support for a major U.S. role in Ukraine has grown to 40 percent, from 26 percent just before Russias invasion in February.
They vowed to tighten sanctions on Russia, but the Europeans stopped short of blocking imports of Russian oil and gas, as the United States has done. Europe is hugely dependent on Russian energy, paying Mr. Putin the vast revenues needed to support his military  and giving him the power to wreak havoc on Europe by disrupting supplies.

I think were seeing a coordinated divergence between the European Union and the United States, said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group. Theres no rupture or even a split. Rather, there is an agreement that the U.S. will go more aggressively than the E.U. because they can afford to do so.

Speaking to reporters Thursday evening, Mr. Biden said that he had requested the emergency meetings  with leaders of NATO, the European Union and the Group of 7 industrialized nations  to show Mr. Putin that the allies will not crack in their determination to keep economic pressure on Russia over days, weeks, months and more.

We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united, he said, adding that he favors ejecting Russia from the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations.

For Mr. Zelensky, though, none of it was enough. He has become more pointed in his criticism of Western restraint on military aid as Russian forces have savaged Ukrainian cities and towns, especially in the south.

Speaking by video to NATO leaders behind closed doors, Mr. Zelensky thanked them for their support but chided them for not doing more. He described his battered country, which is not a NATO member, as trapped in the gray zone between the West and Russia, according to a transcript released by the Ukrainian government.

On Feb. 24, I addressed you with a perfectly clear, logical request to help close our skies, he said of his request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine to keep Russian planes away. In any format. Protect our people from Russian bombs and missiles. We did not hear a clear answer.
Drinkers are boycotting Russian vodka. Small and large U.S. cities are cutting ties with their Russian sister cities. And in one of the latest examples of symbolic efforts to isolate Russia from the rest of the world, a group in Brussels disqualified Russias candidate  an oak tree said to have been planted 198 years ago by the novelist Ivan Turgenev  from the European Tree of the Year competition.

We cannot stand idly by and watch the unprecedented aggression of the Russian leadership against a neighboring country, the organizers of the competition, one of the largest competitions devoted to trees, said in a statement.

The European Tree of the Year competition was founded in 2011 as a way to celebrate the histories of old trees and develop bonds between nations around a subject that was seemingly as neutral as anything could be: trees. But with war escalating in Ukraine, even a competition devoted to celebrating trees found itself unable to remain separate from global politics.
A Chinese envoy on Wednesday expressed the hope that the UN Security Council would play a meaningful role in handling the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun made his explanation remarks at the council after it failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Russian crew members on a mysterious $700-million luxury yacht that U.S. officials say could be owned by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia abruptly left their jobs and the Tuscan coastal town where it is undergoing repairs a couple of weeks ago amid scrutiny of the vessel, local union leaders and workers say.

The crew members had been fixtures in the small port of Marina di Carrara since the fall of 2020, when the 459-foot-long yacht, Scheherazade, arrived at a dry dock less than four months after being built. No owner has been publicly identified.

They were replaced by a British crew, said Paolo Gozzani, the local leader of Italys General Confederation of Labor trade union, on Wednesday. I dont know and dont care whether the yacht is indeed Putins or not, but I worry about the repercussions on shipyard workers if police impound or confiscate the vessel.

Workers at the shipyard and regular visitors to its private lounge confirmed that the Russians had routinely supervised the work done on the yacht and had drinks at the bar or played pool there in the evenings. The yacht, estimated by the website SuperYachtFan to cost about $700 million, has two helicopter decks, a swimming pool with a retractable cover that converts to a dance floor and a gym.
Dmitri Likin spent more than two decades helping shape the look of Russian state television, but he says neither he nor his friends ever watched the news.

It is an illustration of the kind of bargain long made by some employees of the Kremlin propaganda machine  people who valued the steady work and the creative challenge, even if they did not agree with the mission of their workplace.

It was only this month, after President Vladimir V. Putin invaded Ukraine, that Mr. Likin resigned as the longtime art director for Channel 1, the Russian state television network that is a major player in the Kremlins sprawling propaganda apparatus. He insisted that he was not a politician, but that the invasion meant he was now part of an operation with a life-exterminating agenda.

In Russia, television is made for people who for one reason or another are too lazy to use alternative sources of information, Mr. Likin said in a phone interview, reflecting on his audience. These are simply people who lack education, or who lack the habit of analysis.
LVIV, Ukraine  In Belarus, Konstantin Suschik was a graphic designer who used his skills to support the opposition movement against President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the strongman who has held power for nearly 28 years. The movement collapsed in a wave of repression after hundreds of thousands of people protested Mr. Lukashenkos fraudulent re-election in 2020.

Now Mr. Suschik is fighting against him  and against his patron, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia  not by designing political campaigns but with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. And not in Belarus, but in Ukraine.

Mr. Suschik, 31, is one of hundreds of Belarusian dissidents who have joined the Kastus Kalinouski battalion, a volunteer unit that is helping to defend Ukraine as part of the official army. Unlike the thousands of foreign fighters who have poured into Ukraine to fight against Russia, Mr. Suschik was already living in exile in Kyiv, one of thousands of Belarusians who fled to Ukraine to avoid prison for their activism at home.

As soon as the war started, we decided to stay here because there is actually nowhere to run, our country is lost under occupation, said Mr. Suschik, in a telephone interview from a training center in an undisclosed suburb of the Ukrainian capital, as shooting could be heard in the distance.
BRUSSELS  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made another urgent plea for help to President Biden and members of the NATO alliance on Thursday, telling them in a closed-door session that his country was under siege, trapped in the gray zone between the West and Russia, according to a transcript of his remarks released by the Ukrainian government.

Mr. Zelensky spoke via video link from Ukraines capital, Kyiv, as alliance members gathered here for the first of three back-to-back summits designed to bolster the worlds unity of opposition to Russia's monthlong invasion of the country.

He argued that NATO should come to Ukraines defense even though his country is not a formal member of the defensive alliance set up after World War II.

Yes, we are not in the alliance. And I do not make these claims. But Ukrainians never thought that the alliance and the allies were different, he said. He said he understood the position, often expressed by Mr. Biden, that American troops would not be sent to Ukraine to fight directly with Russians.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution addressing the dire humanitarian situation in Ukraine on Thursday, passing the measure in an overwhelming vote that underscored Russias isolation.

The resolution, drafted by France and Mexico and sponsored by over 90 countries, was approved by 140 countries  nearly two-thirds of the General Assemblys members. It blames Russia for creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in Europe in decades and demands that Moscow abide by humanitarian laws, including the protection of civilians and infrastructure, safe passage for humanitarian aid and an end to the war.

It just shows, again, that when the international community is asked to take a stand, Russia is isolated, said Olof Skoog, the European Unions ambassador to the U.N. The appeal today of the General Assembly is directed primarily towards Russia, he added, and we just hope that this time they will heed that call.

Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea and Belarus voted against the resolution. Among the 38 countries that abstained were China, India, South Africa, Iran and Pakistan.
Khecari Mudra is an obscure and somewhat controversial yoga practice that involves gradually severing parts of the tongue and then curling it back until it enters the nasal cavity.

Can you even imagine pulling your tongue back enough for the tip to slide into the nose through the mouth? It sounds impossible, and even if you could do it, wouldnt that pose a risk of choking? Well, diehard hatha yoga practitioners must not worry about that too much, because thats exactly what the advanced stages of a practice called khecari mudra require. Well, that, and gradually cutting the frenulum, the small piece of skin connecting the tongue to the floor of the mouth

Photo: engine akyurt/Unsplash

In the early stages of khecari mudra, practitioners curl back their tongues as far back as possible so that the tip touches the soft palate at the back of the mouth or even the uvula. It seems hard to do, right now (you know youre trying it as you read these lines), but its supposed to get easier as you practice. This beginning stage is applicable to most practitioners, but its the advanced practice that really captures peoples imagination.

True khecari mudra is said to seal the energy of Bindu and give yogis able to pull it off supernatural powers. But in order to attain these powers one must curl their tongue back far enough to then insert it into the nasal cavity and lick the supreme nectar of immortality flowing there.

Photo: Ananda Kriya Sangha/Wikimedia Commons

Sadly, that requires more than months, even years of daily practice. Sure, the tongue can be lengthened naturally so that it actually reaches behind the uvula, but in order for it to curl back enough to actually enter the nasal cavity, the lingual frenulum has to be cut.

According to a hatha yoga text quoted by Wikipedia, the frenulum has to be gradually cut, using a sharp blade. Each time, a hairs breadth has to be cut, until, after about six months, the piece of skin is completely destroyed. Then, after another six months of constant practice, the advanced stages of khecari mudra can be reached, and with them, a host of supernatural benefits.



Spiritual Curiosity lists resistance to poison, diseases, old age and even death, among the benefits of khecari mudra. You can also expect resistance to fainting, hunger, thirst and laziness, as well as your body becoming divine. That almost makes having the frenulum cut worth it, almost.
Tayyip Erdogan

Garvey Strategies is providing government relations services to Turkey's Washington embassy under a one-year agreement worth $180K.

The firm is educating Congress and the Biden administration about issues of importance to Turkey.

It also pushes for US action that results in a positive image for Turkey, Turks and the bilateral America-Turkey relationship.

Garvey is working as a subcontractor to Lydia Borland's LB International Solutions. She's a former consultant at former House Speaker-designate Bob Livingstone's shop.

Turkey's president Tayyip Erdogan has been serving as a mediator to end the war in Ukraine.

Turkey, a NATO member that has been providing drones to Ukrainian forces, objects to its second-class citizenship in the military alliance.

Canada, for instance, has blocked arms sales to Turkey.

NATO countries objected to Turkey's decision to buy its S-400 air defense system from Russia and booted it from the F-35 fighter jet consortium.

Turkey has rebuffed calls to transfer the S-400 system to Ukraine and replace it with US Patriot batteries.

Turkey "takes pride in its NATO membership and expects to be treated by the West as it deserves," wrote Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan's director of communications, in a March 23 letter to the Wall Street Journal.

He claims the US refused to sell the S-400 to Turkey, forcing it to purchase the Russian system.

Turkey won't consider the Ukrainian transfer unless the West delivers the F-35s and Patriot batteries without preconditions, according to Altun.
Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival curator and visual artist Caroline Conway in association with Birr Theatre and Arts Centre will host Empty Columns Are a Place to Dream - How to use monuments for Good and Evil this Friday, March 25.

The event coincides with the Irish launch of the book Empty Columns are a Place to Dream by Ric Kasini Kadour and an exhibition responding to the empty column in Emmet Square by St Brendans Community School 5th & 6th year art students.

It takes place at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre at 7pm on Friday.

A panel discussion with historian Regina Dunne and some of the artists (in-person and online) that participated in the Empty Columns are a Place to Dream exhibition as part of Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival in 2021 will also take place.

Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival curator and artist Caroline Conway said:

This project has been a really interesting journey - having a group of International artists focus their attention on Birr, and now working with young people to respond to the column, and reimagine the monument in terms of their own priorities and ideals, with the various strands of this project culminating with the Irish launch of Ric Kasini Kadours book Empty Columns are a Place to Dream at Birr Theatre and Arts Centre on March 25. Birrs empty column in Emmet Square has inspired and forged international connections and amplified conversations and art making around the role of columns and their relevance to our ideas on identity and history.

Empty Columns are a Place to Dream was exhibited during Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival in 2021. Curated by Ric Kasini Kadour, eighteen national and international artists participated in this collage exhibition and responded to the empty column in Emmet Square, examining the meaning of monuments, reimagining them as sites of truth and reconciliation. The exhibition has since been shown at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, USA.

The Irish launch of his book Empty Columns are a Place to Dream featuring the collages of eighteen artists from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Poland, South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom who made a series of collages that reimagined the empty column in the centre of Birr, which from 1747 to 1915, commemorated the Duke of Cumberland's 1745 victory over the Scots at Culloden.

Ric Kasini Kadours book unpacks what monuments are and their role in our communities. He takes the reader on a tour from the Megalithic Temples of Malta to Bru na Boinne in Ireland to the Confederate monuments of Obion County, Tennessee to the empty column in the centre of Birr, and asks us to consider monuments as sites of collective memory and as places to reflect upon history, even when that history is false or misleading. He then shows us what happens when collage artists reimagine these spaces as sites of truth and reconciliation.

Working with Dublin collage artist Una Gildea, the 5th & 6th year art students at St Brendans Community School have created their own unique response to the empty column. This outdoor exhibition will be displayed in Birrs Emmet Square and the Artivive app (free to download) is required for enhanced viewing.

Emma Nee Haslam said:

We here at Birr Theatre are delighted to be part of this exciting and creative project which gives young people the space to explore and imagine possibilities. By looking at the monument in Emmet Square, the focal point in the heart of our town, young people develop their sense of place and community, enriching their presence in it.

Booking is essential. All information on attending in-person and also joining the event via zoom is available at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre.

Empty Columns Are a Place to Dream book launch & exhibition is funded by Birr Theatre & Arts Centre and is part of the Arts Council funded Spectacular Vernacular- Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary, In the Open/Faoin Speir programme and Offaly County Council.
A Judge in Tullamore District Court last week said Ireland is "awash with drugs" at the moment.

Judge John Brennan made his comment when he was listening to evidence about a drug offence which happened in Kilbeggan.

Before the court was Luke Garland, Mooretown, Celbridge, Kildare who was caught with illegal drugs on his person when he was stopped by a Garda on the M6 near Kilbeggan.

The defending solicitor Aisling Maloney said her client was pleading guilty.

The drugs were worth 120 and were for his own use. Garland was 26 years of age and had no previous convictions.

"My client has a degree in marine biology," said Ms Maloney, "and he is worried about the effect that a conviction would have on his job prospects. He came back from Germany for this court case and he is taking this matter very seriously. He plans to live and work in Australia.

"This was out of character for him and he wants to leave this period behind. His father is present in court today and is concerned about the case as well."

"Unfortunately," commented Judge Brennan, "the country is awash with drugs at the moment. I presume it is a similar situation in Germany?

"Mr Garland clearly made an out of character mistake and he deserves a chance. I won't convict him. I will ask him to make a charitable donation of 300 and to attend an online drug awareness course. If he does these two things then I will strike out the case when it is next heard, which is April 20."

The Judge also ordered the destruction of the drugs.

"Illegal drug taking is a very dangerous thing," continued the Judge. "A lot of young men have ended up in psychiatric wards because of their addiction to drugs. When you go down this road you can end up throwing your whole life away."
Vehicles exit a petrol station in Accra, Ghana, on March 22, 2022. The Road Transport Coordinating Council in Ghana announced a 15 percent increase in transport fares in February as the ex-pump price of petroleum products increased constantly since the beginning of this year.(Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

ACCRA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Amid the rising cost of petroleum products and transport fares, many Ghanaians told Xinhua in a street interview this week that they are feeling increasing hardships.

The Road Transport Coordinating Council in Ghana announced a 15 percent increase in transport fares in February as the ex-pump price of petroleum products increased constantly since the beginning of this year.

Richmond Larbie, a banker who commutes between the capital Accra and the eastern port city Tema daily, told Xinhua that the additional one Ghana cedi (0.13 U.S. dollars) charged fare per trip along that corridor had a rippling effect on his cost of living.

"The cost of living has increased due to higher transport fares and has reduced the general standard of living since there is no corresponding increase in incomes to compensate for the increasing fares and higher prices of general goods and services," Larbie said.

The situation becomes critical for urban populations, many of whom change buses at least once daily before reaching their destinations.

Vivian Braimah, a secondhand clothes vendor, said the higher transport costs and commodity prices had crippled businesses and affected the incomes of traders.

"Things are even more difficult for those with children of school-going age, because with my three children, their transport costs, food subsidies, and other costs have all doubled, and families can't even enjoy three square meals a day," Braimah told Xinhua.

Braimah urged the government to introduce some measures to ease the hardships of citizens and lessen their plights a little.

Amid the hue and cry by Ghanaians, commercial bus drivers still have to seek further increases in their fares in line with the constant rise in petroleum prices.

"We have to start training to commute to work on foot because the transport fares may become unbearable," said Rebecca Akordor, a clothes vendor at Makola, the central market in the CBD.

"It is no secret that our economy is going through difficult times. It is also no secret that we are not alone in this situation. Many of the phenomena we face are also apparent in many parts of the world," Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo said late Tuesday, during a meeting with the Council of State, the constitutionally mandated advisory body to the president.

The president vowed that the government would make some "difficult but necessary decisions" to bring the economy back on track and lessen the impact of these challenges on the people.

Ernest Addison, the central bank governor, said Monday that the government planned to pump about two billion dollars into the economy through budget financing.

Addison said he was hopeful that this action would strengthen the Ghana cedi together with monetary policy measures.

Some Ghanaians told Xinhua that they hope a stronger cedi would also reduce the impact of exchange rate depreciation on petroleum price build-up, thereby resulting in lower ex-pump prices, transportation costs, and commodity prices, to ease the harsh economic conditions in the country. 

Vehicles run on the main road in Accra, Ghana, on March 22, 2022. The Road Transport Coordinating Council in Ghana announced a 15 percent increase in transport fares in February as the ex-pump price of petroleum products increased constantly since the beginning of this year.

TO GO WITH "Feature: Ghanaians lament hardships amid fuel price, transport fare hikes" (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

Vendors sell products in a busy street in Accra, Ghana, on March 21, 2022. The Road Transport Coordinating Council in Ghana announced a 15 percent increase in transport fares in February as the ex-pump price of petroleum products increased constantly since the beginning of this year.

TO GO WITH "Feature: Ghanaians lament hardships amid fuel price, transport fare hikes" (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

A ticker seller waits for passengers in a street in Accra, Ghana, on March 21, 2022. The Road Transport Coordinating Council in Ghana announced a 15 percent increase in transport fares in February as the ex-pump price of petroleum products increased constantly since the beginning of this year.

TO GO WITH "Feature: Ghanaians lament hardships amid fuel price, transport fare hikes" (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

Vendors sell products in a busy street in Accra, Ghana, on March 21, 2022. The Road Transport Coordinating Council in Ghana announced a 15 percent increase in transport fares in February as the ex-pump price of petroleum products increased constantly since the beginning of this year.

TO GO WITH "Feature: Ghanaians lament hardships amid fuel price, transport fare hikes" (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)
Ireland is in discussion with the EU over a possible reduction of VAT on fuel prices Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has confirmed.

"We are looking for some more flexibility so that if we need to, we might be able to do more to help people to absorb the very serious and severe increases in energy prices that have happened in the last couple of months," the Tanaiste told RTE

Both the EU VAT and Energy directives were "quite strict", he said, and that under the rules if Ireland were to reduce its VAT rate then when it was raised later it would be pegged at a higher rate.

He said the government could reduce VAT on fuel from 13.5% to 12%, but a 1.5% decrease would not be sufficient.

"So, we're looking for a bit more flexibility around that," he said.

Earlier this month, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said they were prevented from reducing fuel costs any further than they had done.

"We can't bring it down by 25 cent for diesel, because of the energy directive," Micheal Martin said.

"The reduction in excise for diesel of 15 cents is the most that can be provided when taken in conjunction with the diesel rebate scheme," Mr Martin said, in context with the EU energy directive.

He also said if you reduce the VAT rate of 13 and half per cent, you run the risk of it going higher once the crisis eases. He said it was important to protect their derogation on energy rates which they want to protect in the long-term, "which keeps the VAT rate lower than it otherwise would be".
AN Offaly puppy farmer who surrendered her dogs after her premises was inspected last year has been fined 1,600 and ordered to pay 700 in costs.

Maureen Mahon (71), Lugmore, Geashill, pleaded guilty at Tullamore District Court this afternoon to operating a dog breeding establishment without a licence.

Judge John King was told that it would have cost Mrs Mahon 1,600 to register her operation in accordance with the 2010 Dog Breeding Establishments Act and he decided to fine her by the same amount.

The 700 is for County Council costs and Emily Mahon, solicitor for the council, told the court an inspection of Mrs Mahon's premises had taken place fairly quickly after the prosecution had come before Judge King on Monday (March 21).

Very quickly, I'd have to say, remarked Mark Cooney, solicitor for the defendant.

Prosecuting solicitor Ms Mahon said Aidan Grant from the council, along with Michelle Fox and Alma Kelly, plus ISPCA staff, attended at the premises and she handed a report, illustrated with current pictures, to the judge.

Mr Cooney said he had indicated on Monday that his client would facilitate the inspection at 12 noon the following day but unfortunately the council officials proceeded immediately to Mrs Mahon's premises and even more importantly with media in tow.

Mr Cooney raised an issue which had not been put before the court previously but which was of huge concern to his client because of her daughter's position and that issue had taken on a life of its own.

Mr Cooney said that in February 2021 national media carried a headline State solicitor keeping mum about puppy farm run by her mother, along with similar articles.

Mr Cooney said the dogs were removed at that time and the issue with his client at that point was that she had suffered a bereavement on the death of her brother and had not been around her place as frequently as she normally would.

He explained that Mrs Mahon had started off with a boarding kennels but found that difficult to run in terms of people coming and going and then went into dog breeding prior to the 2010 Act.

She continued in ignorance of the law, which he accepted was no defence, and she then volunteered the surrender of the dogs in January, 2021.

The number of dogs she now had did not fall within the category of having a dog breeding establishment and she was not going to operate in that way again.

Mr Cooney said his client, a pensioner, had suffered very considerably, especially because of lurid headines in two national newspapers which referred to the incident prior to any prosecution, which referred to her daughter's position in the county of Offaly, and put her daughter in a very invidious position because her name had been highlighted.

That had a huge adverse effect on Mrs Mahon who was a lady now in receipt of the State pension having reared her family and who was accompanied in court by her son.

She always had dogs and will continue having a number of dogs but will not be breaching any regulations again, said Mr Cooney.

The defending solicitor also said Mrs Mahon will facilitate further checks once appropriate notice is given.

Maureen Mahon's daughter, Sandra Mahon, is the state solicitor for Offaly.

Imposing the fine and costs, Judge King gave Mrs Mahon six months to pay.

A closure notice was served on Maureen Mahon by Offaly County Council following inspections at Mill House, Lugmore on January 22 and January 25, 2021.

The notice said 44 breeding females, six litters of pups and nine adult males were recorded at that time.

The notice added that none of the dogs were licensed or identified with a microchip, no records were available on request and no registration was in place or applied for.

The inspector said he was satisfied that the operation of the dog breeding establishment posed a serious and immediate threat to animal welfare.
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Poison gas conjures up the ghost horrors of WWI. But its been used in battle since. And Western leaders are warning that Russia may use it soon in Ukraine. What would that mean?
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Allies from NATO, the EU and G7 nations are holding talks in Brussels to decide how to respond to Russia's assault on Ukraine, which began one month ago. Follow DW for the latest.
Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (CAAC News/Handout via Xinhua)

NANNING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Pieces of engine wreckage from the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

The main impact point of the plane crash has been basically determined, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Most of the plane wreckage was scattered within a radius of about 30 meters of the main impact point and the depth from the surface extends to about 20 meters underground, Zhu said.

A suspected wreckage piece, 1.3 meters long and 10 cm at its widest, was also found in farmland around 10 km away from the crash site, said Zheng Xi, head of the fire brigade of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

Rescuers expanded the search area on Thursday despite persistent rain that has complicated rescue efforts over the past days, Zheng said.

Rain caused waterlogging at the core crash site and increased the risk of small-scale landslides. Large rescue vehicles and equipment was not able to reach the area due to the narrow and slippery mountain road, he said.

The area east of the core crash site is mainly virgin mountain forest and the steep and heavily-wooded terrain increased the difficulty of the search-and-rescue effort, Zheng said.

"We will work to shorten the search-and-rescue time and improve the efficiency of search and rescue as much as possible, with enough being done to ensure the safety of our rescue staff," he said.

The Boeing 737-800 plane with 132 aboard crashed Monday in a village in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou. No survivors have been found so far. One black box from the plane has been recovered.

The recovered black box was sent to a decoding laboratory in Beijing on Wednesday night, and the data downloading and analysis work is underway, Zhu told reporters.

The possibility that the data storage unit of the cockpit voice recorder was damaged cannot be ruled out at present, Zhu said, adding that the rescuers are going all out to locate the second black box, or the flight-data recorder.

Following the crash, China Eastern Airlines and its subsidiaries temporarily grounded 223 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and the airline has launched a sweeping safety overhaul, Liu Xiaodong, head of the airline's publicity department, told the press briefing.

All grounded aircraft are undergoing checks and maintenance according to the highest safety standards to ensure that they meet the airworthiness requirements, Liu said.

Liu added that 305 family members of 56 passengers aboard the crashed plane had arrived in the city of Wuzhou by Thursday morning, with over 200 family members having been to the crash site. 

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (CAAC News/Handout via Xinhua)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (CAAC News/Handout via Xinhua)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (CAAC News/Handout via Xinhua)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (CAAC News/Handout via Xinhua)

A rescuer conducts search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (CAAC News/Handout via Xinhua)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

A rescuer conducts search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24, 2022. Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in south China's Guangxi earlier this week have been found, an official told a press briefing on Thursday. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said. The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi's Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far. One black box of the plane has been recovered. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged citizens around the world to protest against Russia one month into the invasion, as Russian forces reportedly stall outside Kyiv. Follow DW for the latest.
The Jamaican prime minister told Prince William and Kate that he wants Jamaica to be fully independent, which would mean breaking ties with the British Queen. There was no immediate reaction from the royal couple.
North Korea has fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast, according to Japan and South Korea. It comes less than a fortnight after the US accused Pyongyang of testing an ICBM system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged people to take to the streets in an emotional plea to the west one month after the start of the war in Ukraine.
North Korea's rocket launch has been branded a "clear violation" of UN Security Council resolutions by South Korea's deputy national security advisor, as Seoul responded to the provocation by firing multiple missiles, its military said.
Watch VideoThe United States will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the..

Newsy 24 Mar 2022
NATO estimates that up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, wounded or taken prisoner so far in Ukraine, a senior alliance official said.
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US Wants Russia , To Remain Weakened, , Says Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

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SEOUL, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean presidential Blue House said Thursday that it believes the projectile launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) earlier in the day was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) over the DPRK's projectile launch, which was attended by chief presidential secretary, top aide to Moon for security affairs, intelligence agency chief, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and ministers of defense, foreign affairs and unification.

During the meeting, Moon strongly denounced the DPRK move, saying it poses serious threats to the Korean Peninsula, the region and the international community.

Moon ordered officials to thoroughly devise all countermeasures in close cooperation with relevant countries and the international community, based on the firm South Korea-U.S. alliance.

The South Korean president urged Pyongyang to immediately stop such acts, saying they create tensions, and called on Pyongyang to rapidly return to the path of diplomatic solutions through dialogue concerning the Korean Peninsula issue.

Earlier in the day, South Korea's JCS said in a statement that the DPRK fired an unidentified projectile into eastern waters without mentioning further details.

According to the South Korean military, it marked the 12th launch of missiles and projectiles by the DPRK this year.

On Sunday, the South Korean military said the DPRK fired four shots from multiple rocket launchers off its west coast.

South Korea has also said the DPRK tested a new ICBM system on Feb. 27 and March 5, but the DPRK said those were the reconnaissance satellite development tests. 
Indias stance on the votes in UN bodies over the Ukraine conflict is emblematic of the tightrope walk it is having to do as it seeks to balance competing considerations. Indias abstention in the security council was to the liking of the West with the US hailing support from the 13 countries as a unified protest vote against Russia. Moscow was reported to have sought support from India last week for the co-sponsorship of its resolution but India apparently didnt agree.
Australia has taken up New Zealand's long-standing offer to resettle up to 150 refugees per year, with a three-year deal announced today. The offer, first made in 2013, would mean asylum seekers, some who have been held indefinitely...
The Taliban militant group, which has taken control of Afghanistan since ousting the government, walked back on its previous promise of reopening high school for girls in the region. The extremists said that they would indefinitely close schools until an appropriate school uniform can be designed.
The United States will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and other displaced people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, a senior administration official told reporters traveling with President Biden.
Cabinet will on Monday consider the next steps in developing a plan for Aotearoa to realise its international obligations around Maori self-determination.Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson will take a paper to Cabinet...
At the fourth and final hearing, representatives from the American Bar Association lauded Jackson's resume and career. GOP panel members continued their focus on her handling of child pornography.
Anoosheh Ashoori has revealed Boris Johnson did not respond to any appeals from his family while he was detained, but since his release the prime minister has asked to meet with him.
The UK has imposed sanctions on 65 more Russian people and businesses aimed at cutting off "vital industries fuelling Putin's war machine", the foreign secretary said.
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Here's the latest for Thursday March 24th: Zelenskyy asking NATO for support and weapons; South Korea says North Korea fired a suspected missile; Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings; Shooting at mall near Phoenix.


AMMAN, March 23 (Xinhua) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday held separate meetings with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi, and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi in Jordan's coastal city Aqaba.

The meetings were held ahead of the Aqaba Process round scheduled for Thursday, which will cover East Africa for the fifth time, according to a statement by the Royal Hashemite Court.

During the meetings, they looked into bilateral ties and means to bolster cooperation in the political, defense, economic, tourism and trade spheres.

Discussions also covered upholding regional and international counter-terrorism efforts with a holistic approach on the military, security and ideological dimensions.

The Aqaba Process is an initiative launched in 2015 by the king in the namesake Jordanian city for enhancing international cooperation against extremism and terrorism. 
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Robert Junior Mugabe, son of the late former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, has come out in support of Zanu PF ahead of by-elections due to be held in the country.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg any chemical strike by Russia on Ukraine will alter the direction of the war, however, there are still no signs whether the alliance would respond militarily.
Ukrainian soldiers at the Black Sea outpost made headlines at the start of the war by profanely defying threats from a Russian warship. Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 10 prisoners on Thursday.
Daily Star 23 Mar 2022

UFC fighter Conor McGregor faces another day in court over a potential driving offence after he was arrested in Dublin, with his..
Skrill & NETELLER Launch Brand New Crypto Promo & Expand Operations Globally

Published March 24, 2022 by Brett C

On March 1, 2022, leading payment processing companies Skrill & NETELLER expanded their offerings by providing more cryptocurrency services to players. Users are privy to a 20% cash bonus crypto during the promotional period, and VIP Silver customers enjoy benefits (T&C apply).

Paysafe Expands Cryptocurrency Services

Back in July 2021, Paysafe group company Skrill established itself as a top-tier provider of cryptocurrency services and digital wallets. It added 20+ digital currencies and entered 11 new US markets (States and Territories). Now, clients using Skrill can process money transfers and transact in 20 new digital currencies.

The new digital currencies include Aave (AAVE), Ankr (ANKR), Balancer (BAL), Decentraland (MANA), Celo (CGLD), Curve (CRV), Compound (COMP), The Graph (GRT), Numeraire (NMR), NuCypher (NU), Loopring (LRC), Synthetix Network Token (SNX), UMA (UMA), Maker (MKR), SushiSwap (SUSHI), Storj (STORJ), Uniswap (UNI), SKALE (SKL), Polygon (MATIC) and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Skrill already features a digital wallet for its clientele, and the total number of cryptocurrencies available for users outside of the US is 35. This boosted integration is readily available within NETELLER's range of crypto services. Both Skrill and NETELLER are the proprietary digital wallets of Paysafe. When Skrill entered the lucrative US market in March 2021, it also launched a 'buy and sell' service for cryptocurrencies.

This ambitious undertaking kicked off in an additional 11 US states and territories. These include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Florida, and California. Now, 48 US states and territories can access these services by Skrill. This particular crypto payment processing solution was launched in 2018 and is growing steadily. The cryptocurrency offerings have added a bunch of new currencies, features, and functions. Today, customers can access this crypto service in almost 100 countries.

Skrill clients can easily convert one cryptocurrency to another using the payment processing platform. It's also possible to set up conditional or recurring orders based on price movements. Earlier in 2021, Skrill and NETELLER published research detailing that 28% of the existing 8000 customers believe that crypto was a good investment for the future. An additional 38% had already invested in crypto or purchased crypto. The senior vice president (SVP) of Paysafe, Consumer Digital Wallets, Rupinder Singh, said this,

''After a surge in overall activity in the industry, we're seeing more interest in cryptocurrency than ever from our digital wallet customers, both current and new. The potential for this service is growing all the time, and we want to continue to expand responsibly what we offer at the same rate by adding new functionality, enabling new currencies, and launching in new territories. In addition, we aim to make it even easier for consumers to get started in crypto using Skrill or NETELLER.''

Places where Customers can use BTC and Cryptocurrencies

In recent years, the widespread media attention garnered by cryptocurrency has made Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple household names. An ever-increasing number of vendors, e-commerce platforms, online casinos, and individuals is taking to crypto. Businesses around the world are processing vast volumes of transactions using crypto. Statistics suggest that some 15,100 merchants globally accept payment in BTC (Bitcoin).

Fortunately for users, it's just as easy to send crypto as it is to receive crypto. Sending is just like spending  crypto is transferred from one person to another. All that is required is the receiver's address or the merchant's address. This is typically in a QR code or a string of characters. Once that is available, all it takes is a tap of the send button when the amount has been verified. In addition, customers can use Skrill's cryptocurrency wallets to track all transactions (incoming and outgoing) and ensure that balances are accurate.

Individuals and companies can use cryptocurrency for many different purposes. There are multiple use cases for crypto, including bookings at hotel and travel sites, in-store purchases, e-commerce platforms, online casinos, or person-to-person transfers. With Skrill, it's possible to develop your crypto portfolio with an easy-to-use online wallet that accommodates buying and selling of crypto in more than ten different currencies. When customers want to use crypto, many apps facilitate this at Skrill and NETELLER. These include a Bitcoin Cash Map, which indicates all land-based stores accepting crypto in your area. More specifically, customers can use crypto for the following purposes:

Off-line locations  many land-based places don't currently use cryptocurrencies, but several do. One way to find them is the Coinmap website.

 many land-based places don't currently use cryptocurrencies, but several do. One way to find them is the Coinmap website. Gift cards  Many e-commerce platforms allow customers to use Bitcoin and other digital currencies to buy gift cards.

Many e-commerce platforms allow customers to use Bitcoin and other digital currencies to buy gift cards. Charitable causes  many NGOs currently accept Bitcoin, including Save the Children. A quick Google search confirms which charities accept crypto donations.

 many NGOs currently accept Bitcoin, including Save the Children. A quick Google search confirms which charities accept crypto donations. Travel and tourism  Bitcoin is increasingly accepted as a viable payment method for many travel and tourism websites. You can book flights with ticketing companies using BTC or even go on an outer space adventure with Virgin Galactic.

 Bitcoin is increasingly accepted as a viable payment method for many travel and tourism websites. You can book flights with ticketing companies using BTC or even go on an outer space adventure with Virgin Galactic. Movies and games  game players can deposit crypto into Microsoft accounts for purchasing games, apps, or movies. Many online gaming locations accept Bitcoin, and a growing number of online casinos accept legal-age players using crypto.

 game players can deposit crypto into Microsoft accounts for purchasing games, apps, or movies. Many online gaming locations accept Bitcoin, and a growing number of online casinos accept legal-age players using crypto. Dining out  many fast food places now accommodate customers using Bitcoin. Others like to buy gift cards with crypto so that you can use them in-store or online.

Paysafe Specials for Crypto Clients  Benefits for Skrill & NETELLER Clients

When registered clients at Paysafe participate in the recently launched crypto promotion, they will receive a 20% cash bonus on crypto buy & sell fees. These are paid regularly. Plus, VIP Silver account holders benefit too when transacting crypto valued at 5000 on Skrill and $6000 using NETELLER's crypto wallets. Kindly see details of accepted countries for Skrill and NETELLER. Unfortunately, the UK market is excluded from this promotion due to regulatory requirements. However, the actual crypto services are available to UK residents. This service is available in the following countries (Skrill & NETELLER):

Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Korea (South), Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vietnam.

Only for Skrill: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan

The promotion kicked off on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, and is an ongoing promotional offer.

About Skrill & NETELLER



Skrill

Skrill is a market-leading digital payments provider. It was established in 2001 to create a global payments solution for personal and business purposes. Skrill facilitates buying goods and services online, sending money to friends or family members, and meeting the needs of companies the world over. Skrill USA, Inc is the official company name of Skrill. Paysafe Ltd has no equity ownership in this company.

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OTTUMWA [mdash] Dorothy Helen Cox 92 of Ottumwa Iowa went home to be with the Lord March 17th, 2022. She was born to Reece and Eva Carnes in Ottumwa. She was preceded in death by her daughter Connie Van Niewall and a great great grandchild. Surviving is her son Kevin (Vicki) Palmer, Son in l
China firmly opposes unreasonable U.S. suppression of Chinese companies

Xinhua) 13:55, March 24, 2022

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes the United States' generalization of the concept of national security and its abuse of state power to unreasonably suppress Chinese enterprises in the absence of facts, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry made the statement after China's Pacific Networks Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, ComNet (USA) LLC, on Wednesday formally received an order from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which revoked its authorization for the two companies to provide telecom services in the United States.

The move seriously damaged the U.S. business environment and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and global consumers, including U.S. users, it said.

Pacific Networks Corp. and ComNet (USA) LLC have been operating in the United States for years. They have always abided by U.S. laws, regulations and regulatory requirements, and provided high-quality services to many users in the United States in accordance with commercial principles, the ministry said.

The ministry urged the FCC to withdraw its unfair decision and stop the wrongful practice of generalizing the concept of national security and politicizing economic issues, as well as provide a fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment for Chinese companies that invest and operate in the United States.

China will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, it said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
With the extra time weve been spending at home during the pandemic, more of us have welcomed a four-legged family member into our lives. For instance, puppy adoption spiked across the country in February 2022.

The beginning of 2022 represented a 12% increase in puppy adoption compared to the last two months of 2021, according to a report by TOP Agency, a marketing company.

The Michigan Department of Attorney General has seen a surge in complaints of internet scammers using the pandemic as an excuse to refuse in-person visits or to demand additional fees, including fees for shipment in special "protective" crates, for pandemic insurance or a COVID-19 vaccine or medication for dogs  none of which exist, according to the department. Such methods are in addition to the typical scam practices of advertising puppies that do not exist or demanding exorbitant fees once the purchase price is paid.

Several Michiganders have recently been tricked into paying for pets that do not exist. Due to these thieves often being outside the United States, the prospects of getting money back are extremely low, according to the department.

To highlight the importance of doing the research before getting a pet to avoid scams, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released a video Wednesday as part of her "Consumer Alert" series focused on protecting Michigan consumers.

"It remains imperative that future pet owners do their research before committing to anything," Nessel said in a statement. "And if you think you encountered a scam, contact my Consumer Protection Team right away."

The video, which is available on the Department of Attorney General's YouTube page, reminds you to conduct an internet search of the breeder from whom you intend to purchase the puppy and to avoid wiring money, sending gift cards or sending money using apps such as Venmo or CashApp, to best avoid scams.

More reminders in Nessels Puppy Scams Consumer Alert include:

Research the breed : Take the time to understand ideal breeding conditions, common health issues and their average selling price if youre looking at different breeders.

: Take the time to understand ideal breeding conditions, common health issues and their average selling price if youre looking at different breeders. Research the breeder : Conduct an internet search of the breeder from whom you intend to purchase the puppy. You should also search the email address that is advertised on the breeders website or that the breeder uses to contact you, as scammers often use the same email address across multiple websites. If the breeders website contains testimonials, conduct an internet search of the text of the testimonial. If the same or similar text appears on other websites, the breeder is likely a scammer.

: Conduct an internet search of the breeder from whom you intend to purchase the puppy. You should also search the email address that is advertised on the breeders website or that the breeder uses to contact you, as scammers often use the same email address across multiple websites. If the breeders website contains testimonials, conduct an internet search of the text of the testimonial. If the same or similar text appears on other websites, the breeder is likely a scammer. Do not purchase a puppy sight-unseen : If you are unable to do so, request that the breeder video chat with you or send you a photo or video with your name and the date written on a piece of paper next to the puppy. Be sure to do this before making any sort of deposit. In addition, request to see the premises and the mother. Avoid breeders who offer to meet you at a "convenient" public location and will not allow you to see where the animals are kept.

: If you are unable to do so, request that the breeder video chat with you or send you a photo or video with your name and the date written on a piece of paper next to the puppy. Be sure to do this before making any sort of deposit. In addition, request to see the premises and the mother. Avoid breeders who offer to meet you at a "convenient" public location and will not allow you to see where the animals are kept. Use a credit card to make the purchase : Avoid wiring money, sending gift cards or sending money using apps such as Venmo, Zelle or CashApp, as such transactions cannot be refunded and are not traceable. Use a credit card to the extent possible, which will allow you to dispute a purchase.

: Avoid wiring money, sending gift cards or sending money using apps such as Venmo, Zelle or CashApp, as such transactions cannot be refunded and are not traceable. Use a credit card to the extent possible, which will allow you to dispute a purchase. Retain all documents and communications from the breeder : Be sure to retain all records of the sale, including screenshots of the original advertisement, written communications and any other paperwork associated with the breeder.

: Be sure to retain all records of the sale, including screenshots of the original advertisement, written communications and any other paperwork associated with the breeder. Consider contacting your local shelter: Most shelters are looking for adopters or fosters to prevent overcrowding and to relieve stress on the animals. Many animals at the shelter are immediately available for adoption. Shelters also may be able to offer references to reputable local rescues or breeders.

Nessel also suggests visiting the Humane Society of the United States website for more information on finding a puppy, how to find a responsible breeder, how to recognize shady pet store practices and to obtain additional resources.

The Department of Attorney General provides a library of resources for consumers to review anytime on a variety of topics.

Consumer complaints can also be filed online at the attorney general's website here. If you have questions, call 877-765-8388.

You can also report a puppy scam to the Better Business Bureau, the Humane Society of the United States and the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Collin Periatt.

Tuesday, March 22

11:29 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to an Edenville Township apartment complex regarding loud music. Deputies could hear music coming from an apartment. Contact was made with a 56-year-old man, who agreed to turn the music down.

8:23 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Warren Township location regarding a rollover accident. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the 44-year-old driver didn't have a valid driver's license. The man was issued a citation.

7:48 p.m.  Officers investigated a domestic assault on Lund Drive.

6:59 p.m.  Officers investigated a probation violation on Dublin Avenue.

5:05 p.m.  Officers investigated a domestic verbal disturbance on Harold Street.

2:23 p.m.  An Animal Control deputy received a complaint of two dogs running loose at a home in Mills Township the last several days. One dog had left the area prior to the deputy arriving. A second dog was taken to the Humane Society.

9:51 p.m.  An Animal Control deputy received a complaint of two people being bitten by a dog in the city of Midland. The dog's aggression could not be controlled. The dog was humanely euthanized and a sample for a rabies test was submitted to the Michigan Department of Health.

9:40 a.m.  Officers investigated a case of larceny on Jenkins Drive.

9:35 a.m.  Officers investigated a case of larceny on River Street.

7:43 a.m.  A 54-year-old Bay County woman advised she was following a small white SUV from Bay County while on the way to work in Midland. The SUV turned around to get behind her and put their bright lights on. The woman advised it was possible she had her own bright lights on, but she was still upset about the incident. The woman provided a license plate number of the SUV, but it came back with no record from the Secretary of State. The woman was advised to be aware of that vehicle since she sees it regularly on her way to work, and to report incidents in progress if she can.
Being an FBI agent is not an easy job. For Erika, a Michigan native working as a special agent with the Springfield Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the rewards outweigh the stress.

She works in the Violent Crimes Against Children program, which deals with kidnapping, human trafficking, sex trafficking and protecting children against online predators.

Being able to say to family and friends that I love what I do gives me a huge sense of accomplishment, said Erika, who is using her first name only to protect her identity.

March is Womens History Month. This year marks the 50th anniversary of women special agents working in the FBI. Nationwide, 20% of special agents are women. Overall, 43.2% of FBI employees are women.

Erika grew up in Michigan and earned a degree in social work from Central Michigan University.

I wanted to be a social worker and work with families and kids, which Im still doing now, Erika said. I moved down south with my husband. I took a contract job with the Tennessee National Guard as an all-source intelligence analyst working with the DEA (United States Drug Enforcement Administration).

I did that for a few years, but I wanted to get back to the family focus in my job. I knew the FBI had a job like that, so I applied with them. The process took a while and COVID interrupted some things, but Ive been with the bureau for almost a year now and Im thoroughly enjoying it.

For Erika, working in the Violent Crimes Against Children program is a natural progression from her social work background and her DEA/military background.

Once I got to the DEA and I was able to get a glimpse into what the federal law enforcement system was. I knew I wanted to stay on this level," she said. "I also wanted to work with families.

To become an FBI agent, Erika underwent a four-month new agent training process at the FBIs academy in Quantico, Virginia.

At Quantico, trainees learn the basics of how to be an agent  how to handle firearms, how to conduct an investigation and how to do some vehicle tactics, Erika explained. Prospective agents also learn how to work in a team. The new agent training has a physical aspect as well, which can be a challenge in itself.

Agents have to take a fitness test in order to be qualified. That involves pushups, a sprint and a mile-and-a-half run, Erika said. Also, while youre at the academy, you do group fitness in the morning and you have defensive tactics, which is a jiu-jitsu-based environment where youre learning one-on-one protective skills if you ever get into a fight with somebody you may be investigating.

For Erika, her experience at Quantico reinforced her belief that the FBI was the right career choice for her. The best part of her job is knowing that she makes a difference to help children who are being exploited.

Working in Violent Crimes Against Children, it definitely has its hard days, but getting to the end, where we are taking predators out of the community and protecting our children, its definitely worth it, Erika said. Everything is on the internet. With social media and group chatting, I would tell parents to monitor what their kids are doing because its so easy for predators to be able to reach out to young children.

As a female in a male-dominated industry, Erika has faced some challenges along the way, but few of them have been in her current job.

Coming from my previous employment with the military, theres an old-school mentality in the military, said Erika, who spent nine years with the Tennessee National Guard while serving in the U.S. Army. You have to deal with the men who dont think its the right job for women. Once I got into the bureau, I havent had a problem with that. Its a modern society where they are more accepting.

Erika also has some advice for women interested in pursuing an FBI career.

Go onto the FBI website and see if youre qualified, Erika said. If youre still in high school and youre thinking about it, take a look at it so you can be better prepared as you go through college into your professional work environment.

Erika also cautions that the life of an FBI agent is nothing like its portrayed to be in movies and television.

If somebody thinks what a special agent does is like you see it on TV, that is not accurate, Erika said. Theres a lot of hard work that goes into it."

While Erika is unsure how her long-term role with the FBI might change, she cant see herself leaving the bureau.

Ill stay as long as the bureau will allow me, Erika said. I cant think of a job that would be a better fit than what Im doing now.
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MANISTEE COUNTY  Around this time last year, Norman Township experienced a handful of wildfires with two requiring significant effort by agencies to respond to, and it has prompted a new collaboration starting this weekend.

Leaders with the Norman Township Fire Department and Manistee National Forest are teaming up for the first time to create an educational event called the Wildland Fire Urban Interface Workshop to help residents who live near fire-prone areas like ones in and near the Manistee National Forest.

Jack VanderBie, Norman Township fire chief, said the two entities want to get the community prepared for prevention and reducing risk of wildland fire.

The workshop is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Norman Township Community Center, 1273 S. Seaman Road in Wellston. The workshop is also expected to be livestreamed through the private Facebook group called Whats Happening Around Wellston Michigan. However, since the group is private, anyone seeking to view the livestream event would need to be added to the group ahead of time.

Anyone with questions about the event can leave a voicemail with the Norman Township Fire Department at 231-848-4495 or email 140firechiefjack@gmail.com.

Last March

VanderBie noted that there were two large fires last year that sparked the need for this workshop.

What started out as a grass fire ended in the loss of a farmhouse, two barns and several other structures on Dorothy Road southeast of Wellston on March 20, 2021. Seven fire agencies responded.

Two days later, fire crews at Manistee National Forest were getting the Warfield wildfire under control that grew to more than 600 acres on the Norman Township-Wexford County border area.

Submitted photo/National Forest Service

Luckily on that particular fire there (were) very few residents that were in the fire path. It if had been in a more highly populated area, it would have (had) structure loss, he said.

Ben Wagner, fire management officer who oversees the fire operations for the Manistee side of the Huron-Manistee National Forest, said the forest has a great deal of wildland urban interface spread across really all of the state of Michigan.

Within proximity to the Manistee National Forest, the national forest ownership is very mixed, Wagner said. That puts homes and infrastructure intermingled with wildland fuels and so that means that Jack and I spend a lot of time seeing each other and coordinating.

He emphasized that the idea to team up came from VanderBie who approached Wagner several months ago.

VanderBie said the goal is to get ahead on preparing residents for the fire season and provide information on the fire risks and what people can do to minimize risk.

VanderBie said at this time, the event only involves the Norman fire department, but he wants to expand education efforts in the future with other departments like the Sauble Elk Eden Townships Fire Station in Irons.

When we go on a fire, theyre usually on our fires. If they get a fire, were usually on their fires as mutual aid, he said. So, I brought it up to their chief several months ago and he thought it seemed like a great idea.

Manistee National Forest

Wagner said there are also some areas that exist in the Manistee National Forest where there have not been fires in recent times and those areas have existing fire fuels such as grasses, twigs and pine needles near residences.

I think people often underestimate wildfire in Michigan because it doesnt get a lot of the national attention, he said. We do experience a lot of fires within our protection area, at least for the forest.

He said there are about 115 wildfires each year on average for the Huron-Manistee National Forest.

About 70% of those are on the Manistee side of the forest.

A lot of those are small, but as we say every fire starts small and it doesnt take a big fire to cause significant damage. Small fires can do a great deal of damage, he said.

When asked why there are so many fires, Wagner said it was due to people.

We have a lot of people. Most of our fires are human-caused. We have a landscape that is very fire prone and we have vegetation that dries quickly because it is sitting on top of sand, he explained.

This means that even if the area gets 0.5 inches of rain, people let their guard down.

They go out and they light brush piles on fire. Everything dries out six hours later, they leave it unattended, the wind comes up and away it goes, he said. Wherever you have a lot of people and you place them in a landscape that is very fire prone, fires are the outcome.

Provided images/U.S. Drought Monitor

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the region has also been under moderate drought this month, compared with last year at this time when the area was in the lesser category of abnormally dry.

This includes all of Manistee, Benzie and Leelanau counties as well as a large section of Grand Traverse, Lake, Wexford and Mason counties. This is the only section in the Lower Peninsula that is under moderate drought.

From mid-Michigan north to the tip of the mitt in the Lower Peninsula, the state is under abnormally dry conditions.

Weve been tracking that all winter definitely with the intention of not being caught off guard this spring, Wagner said. If we arrive in spring fire season and were still in moderate drought, Jack and I have been talking about it and the implications for us is what we can expect for our fire season.

He said that would mean more fires, larger fires, ones that take more work to extinguish since they burn deeper, and there would be the expectation of more time spent mopping up and patrolling fires as well.

For VanderBie in his role as chief, these types of fires can stress an already limited staffing situation.

We have limited personnel. And with being all volunteer, last year when Warfield started, we had three people there, he said.

The Forest Service also has a fire program set up to respond with equipment like bulldozers, a fire crew and out of state fire responders.

Like right now, Im expecting firefighters from South Carolina, Montana and then well put orders in for additional ones, Wagner said. The fire season moves around the country at different times of the year. So, in the summertime when we green up, we spend time in Oregon and Washington and Montana.

But he noted that the Forest Service is struggling with the same issues with staffing and recruiting as well.

Wagner urged residents to check the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Burn Permit Management System online at www2.dnr.state.mi.us/burnpermits if they are planning debris burning.
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Lee Township Clerk Laura Dawson is explaining xenophobic comments she made during a March 14 board meeting.

During the meeting, which was recorded and uploaded to YouTube by an audience member, Dawson cautioned residents about selling their homes to people who arent from here. Dawson said to board members, and the audience, that men from Cuba were driving through the township looking at properties to purchase.

She was making residents aware of this, Dawson said on the video, due to her concerns that people from outside of the country are attempting to buy homes in Midland County with the intention of growing marijuana on the property.

There are a lot of people from outside of this country that speak-a-no-a-English, buying homes that go up for sale and then, they do not live in those homes, they use those homes as (marijuana) grow facilities, Dawson said more than 90 minutes into the board meeting.

The Daily News asked Dawson to explain her comments after township residents contacted the newspaper with concerns.

"I was saying that to let (residents) know that this is happening, to take notice of things and if you see something, definitely report it," she said to the Daily News.

This controversy happens amid an ongoing recall of two other Lee Township board officials, Supervisor Kristy Gustafson and Trustee Darla Rippee.

"This topic was not an agenda item and furthermore was presented as an opinion by Mrs. Dawson," Gustafson said. "She started the discussion under 'any other business that can be brought before the board,' she said she wanted to speak about the MCTOA meeting she had attended."

Gustafson said she was caught off guard and taken back by Dawson's comments.

"I have not seen any documentation to support Mrs. Dawsons claims on the home purchases and accusations towards the business she references," she said. "I believe her wording choices she made were in poor judgment and facts were not presented, only opinion at this point."

After Michigan voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, Michigan residents over the age of 21 have been able to grow up to 12 plants at their home. And since 2008, Michigan residents with medical marijuana patient and caregiver registration cards have been able to grow a limited number of marijuana plants in their homes.

Dawson told the Daily News she isnt alone with her concerns that she raised at the March 14 meeting. Gustafson said Dawson's comments do not reflect the views of the rest of the Lee Township board.

Dawson said the topic was also raised at a recent Midland County Township Officers Association meeting. She said a Midland County Sheriff's deputy discussed the topic at the meeting, but Dawson said local police departments cant pinpoint anything on them (people she believes are involved in this type of activity).

However, Sheriff Myron Greene said the Midland County Sheriffs Office did not raise a public safety concern at the township officers association meeting. He also said to his knowledge, there is no public safety threat.

In the video, Dawson quotes the deputy as having showed concern about people moving into the township.

(A deputy) He said, 'We're not going to be Midland County as we know it within the next year, because they are moving in on us at a high rate," Dawson said in the video. So, if youre putting your home up for sale, you have a right to turn down a contract. So, all I am doing  I have concerns. My grandkids play outside, you know we all should 

Dawson's comment was cut off by another township official at the meeting.

But Greene said the deputy did not offer any such concerns at the township association meeting.

According to Dawson, her son recently spoke with men outside of her home and asked them to leave the property, as they were driving through the township looking at properties. She said the men were driving a car that she has seen at a local business in town  Friendly Grow, a hydroponics and indoor grow supply dealer.

I really feel that theres a new business in our township that happens to be the official headquarters, she said during the meeting. I really feel  that is their distribution center.

Several residents record each Lee Township board meeting due to the ongoing conflicts in the township. The board does not livestream public meetings.

In the meeting, Dawson prefaced her comments by stating that what she was about to say was not intended with any prejudice  then she proceeded to speak of people seeking to buy homes who arent from here.

According to the draft of board minutes from the March 14 meeting, Dawson spoke about the status of homes being purchased with no one living in them and being used as grow houses.
MECOSTA COUNTY  Deputies with the Mecosta County Sheriffs Office responded to the following calls from March 15-22. All calls may not be reported. All suspects are assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

 Deputies responded to four car-deer crashes and four car crashes without injury.

 Deputies executed a warrant arrest in the 17000 block of Jefferson Road, Deerfield Township. Deputies arrested a female for a felony warrant and arrested a male for probation violation.

 A traffic stop near Jefferson and 155th Avenue in Deerfield Township resulted in a ticket issued for improper plate.

 A suspicious situation was reported in the 15000 block of Isabella Drive, Big Rapids Township. An employee at Sally said she thought that a customer might have put something in her purse. When asked if she needed help, the female headed to the door and left.

 An assault was reported at the Morley Motel, Aetna Township. A male stated that he was punched by another male, but did not want to press charges

 A retail fraud was reported in the 14000 block of Northland Drive. A clerk believed a subject had a clothing item in her purse.

 A larceny complaint was made in the 13000 block of 220th Avenue. A male said he had someone come onto his property today sometime between 12:40 p.m. and 4 p.m. and steal a load of wood. Case is under investigation.

 A suspicious situation was reported in the 4000 block of 85th Avenue. Female caller needed assistance leaving the area of an argument with a male.

 A male called dispatch distraught and wanting to end his life. He was transported to Spectrum Health Big Rapids hospital for a mental evaluation

 A traffic stop near Locust and Winter for swerving and expired plate resulted in a pursuit. Deputies say the male driver refused to comply with any instructions on the stop and fled in the car. The pursuit led to the hospital where he was stopped again then arrested for Flee & Elude, Reckless Driving and Resisting Arrest.

 A report of malicious destruction of property was made. A male caller said his 2016 Chevy Silverado had been keyed sometime this week at an unknown location.

 A report of trespassing was made in the 300 block of East Main Street, Morton Township. A female came into another female's yard after she had been trespassed. The trespassing female was issued an appearance ticket for trespassing.

 A routine patrol found a vehicle abandoned along the road near 16 Mile and 140th Avenue, Colfax Township, with a loaded handgun inside. The gun was placed into evidence and the vehicle was impounded to Big Rapids Tow.

 A hit and run was reported in the 300 Block of East Fourth Street, Morley. Female said a truck ran the stop sign off of Bridge Street and came into her yard, hitting her front deck and well head. The vehicle was described as an early 00's Gray Chevy Silverado, possibly with a toolbox. It would have front bumper and passenger side mirror damage. The vehicle turned left, east on Jefferson, and was unable to be located.

 Information let to a traffic stop near Northland Drive and 17 Mile, Big Rapids Township, on a male for a minor traffic violation. The male was on parole. Male consented to a search and had marijuana on him and large quantity of meth in the vehicle. Male was lodged for parole violation and possession of meth with intent.

 A civil issue was reported in the 300 block of North Washington. Landlord upset with a female and male, and they got into an argument. They have an eviction hearing April 5.

 A suspicious situation was reported in the 200 block of West Main Street. Anonymous caller reported that a known male was taking property from this business after the owner had died. Deputies made contact with owner's daughter who said the known male has permission to take stuff.

 A felony assault was reported on Northland Drive near Park Road. A male driver intentionally cross the center line and collided on purpose with his fathers vehicle. His father was driving northbound on Northland Drive and his son was southbound on Northland Drive. This was witnessed by the passenger in fathers vehicle and also by another male. The son was arrested and lodged at Mecosta County Jail for felonious assault.

 A larceny was reported in the 4000 block of 110th Avenue, Hinton Township. A male reported that his barn was broken into within the past two weeks. Three chainsaws and various tools are missing.

 A report of breaking and entering was made in the 9000 block of 21 Mile Road, Chippewa Township. Call originally came in as a report of breaking and entering, elderly female in the early stages of dementia. No signs of forced entry were observed and nothing was missing from the residence. Deputies spoke to her son who told them she has congestive heart disease and dementia.

 A male caller who was suicidal on the night prior scratched his wrist and was treated at Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital and released. Got into a verbal argument with his mom and stepdad.

 A report of fraud was made in the 4000 block of 50th Avenue. Caller got a call from Isabella Bank stating someone was trying to deposit or withdraw $12, 000 into his bank account.

 A disorderly person was reported at 300 North Washington, Morton Township. A civil incident occurred between the landlord and female tenant. She was upset that the landlord was putting post in the ground to keep her from driving on the septic.

 A report of harassment was made in the 22000 block of 10th Avenue. A female reported that a male from Grand Rapids won't stop calling her and posting stuff on her accounts. She said he also was sending nude photos of her to her friends, but they don't want involved. She was advised of the process of obtaining a personal protection order.

 A report of larceny was made at the Jefferson park-and-ride lot. A catalytic converter was taken sometime between 6 a.m. and 5: 30 p.m. Mother-in-law drove by about 1 p.m. and saw a dark blue passenger car pulling out of lot from next to his truck, but had no other info or description.

 Deputies performed a wellbeing check in the 6000 block of 80th Avenue. The wellbeing check was called in by Kent County who had a male call to report his mother Robin missing. Kent County advised that they had pinged the phone to the address in the 6000 block of 80th Avenue. The mother was found in a seasonal cabin wrapped in a blanket intoxicated at 4 times the legal limit. She was taken to the hospital. The property owner declined to press charges.

 A caller reported that she parked her husband's truck at the park-and-ride lot at 8 Mile and U.S. 131 and car pooled to work this morning about 7 a.m. When she returned about 4:30 p.m., she found that the converters were cut off the truck.

 Deputies provided assistance to Altercare with documenting mandatory report. Nothing assaultive or criminal.

 Deputies arrested female for delivery of meth. A search warrant was obtained for her residence and a quantity of meth was seized.

 A report of malicious destruction of property was made in the 10000 block of 70th Avenue, Morton Township. Two windows were broken on the building. Building was last checked by owner in December 2021.

 A male was transported to Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital for a mental health evaluation after having suicidal thoughts. Male was then transported to Auburn Hills.
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Its a tragic irony that Fox News - purveyor of so much disinformation and pundit propaganda about Russias war on Ukraine - is the media outlet now grieving the deaths of courageous correspondents who lost their lives transmitting the truth from that devastated nation.

Those casualties should stand as a reproach to the networks top-rated star, and biggest Russia apologist, Tucker Carlson.

While Carlson has been bloviating from the comfort of his studio, repeatedly propagandizing for Russian President Vladimir Putin while disparaging Ukraine and its allies, longtime Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and 24-year-old Oleksandra Kuvshynova, a local journalist and consultant to the Fox News crew in Ukraine, were braving arms fire there. They died last week when their vehicle was hit near Kyiv. Another Fox News journalist, Benjamin Hall, was injured in the attack.

A day earlier, the independent documentarian Brent Renaud was shot and killed outside Kyiv.

As Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin said in an emotional tribute to her colleagues, If ever there was a time that the world needed journalists, reporters, risking their lives to tell these stories, its now. Without a free press, the autocrats win.

Not that such an outcome would necessarily bother Carlson.

Why shouldnt I root for Russia, which I am? Carlson had said in 2019, as Putin was threatening Ukraine, building up his troops on the two countries border. Back then, Carlson was mocking the Houses impeachment of Donald Trump for withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine, extorting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to come up with dirt on Joe Biden.

Carlson later said he was joking, but hed begun his rant by saying, And Im serious. Carlson defended the murderous Russian dictator, dismissed Putins threat to Ukraine as merely a border dispute, falsely claimed Biden favored Ukraine because its leaders gave his family millions of dollars and said Ukraine isnt a democracy but rather a client-state of the U.S. State Department.

Lest you doubt Putin approves of Carlsons diatribes, that clip made it onto Russian TV, with Russian subtitles.

And not just that one. David Corn of Mother Jones disclosed a Kremlin memo to Russian media outlets and commentators, dated March 3, saying: It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Why? Well, as the 12-page directive explained, Carlson sharply criticizes the United States and NATO, including for their provocative behavior  towards President Putin, personally.

Carlson is Moscows gift that keeps on giving. He recently denounced U.S. sanctions against Putins Russian oligarchs as unfair property seizures and echoed Russian disinformation that the United States has bioweapons labs in Ukraine.

Its a wonder that Fox News can attract and retain reputable journalists like Zakrzewski, Kuvshynova and Hall when they have to share its airtime with the likes of Carlson. He should be canned for his shameful performances of late  and they are performances. But of course he wont be; a long history of outrages attests to that.

Were left instead to mourn the real journalists, the ones who sought to inform Americans, not con them.

Jackie Calmes is an opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times in Washington, D.C.
I lost my son, Private Heath Warner, on Nov. 22, 2006 during the Iraq War. My son watched the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001 and was inspired to fight for freedom. He said, I am going to fight them over there, so you do not have to fight them here.

At the time, I believed what I was told - that there were weapons of mass destruction. It was a bitter pill to swallow as the years went by and there were none. Many Gold Star Families have had to search our hearts with how to live sending our loved ones off to war only to realize believing the President of the United States of America lied to us.

In my heart, I developed a resentment, as I believed there was little to show for the enduring wars our country faced over 15 years.

The war in the Ukraine has awakened something in me that I thought I had lost  my love of freedom.

Unlike what I observed in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am watching common, everyday people who love freedom, and their country, form a resistance that I believe will ultimately defeat the powers of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They are true patriots!

What I learned through losing my son is freedom is not free. It requires the blood, sweat and tears of the ones we love.

The people of Ukraine are living this in view of the worldwide community.

I have to ask: Is there more we can do to help the people of Ukraine before it is too late for their country?

I grew up during the Cold War. I was never more inspired than by President Ronald Reagan with his policy of peace through strength, not peace through fear. Without a gunshot, I watched in awe as the Berlin Wall came down in real time on television. That was the manifestation of peace through strength.

Now I ask, why we should take military options such as a no-fly zone off the table? When we talk about what we will do not do that sounds like fear to me and signals weakness to Putin. We are already at war with Russia by proxy. We are only deceiving ourselves that supplying weapons, providing training, intelligence, and necessary supplies for everyday life and as well as sanctions that Putin does not view these actions as acts of war.

How can we judge China for doing the same for Russia? Are they not fighting by proxy with Russia? Why else would the President Joe Biden say there would be severe consequences for China if they support Russia?

The war in Ukraine is different from the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ukraine did nothing to deserve this. They were living their lives peacefully. What we are observing, as a world community, are atrocities of the worst kind: the shedding of blood of innocent people and the destruction of a civilization.

Each day we that passes is another day we could have done more.

I listened to President Volodymyr Zelensky address the United States Congress, asking us if a no-fly zone too much to ask for. I believe Zelensky was spot-on that this is not a war only with Ukraine. It is a war against the entire Western world who believes in freedom. If World War III is to come, it will come if Putin has decided this in his heart regardless of what we do or do not do.

As the father who has given a son for the cause of freedom, I know war is the last option we should pursue. War is beyond terror  it is a horror that only the people of have suffered from the shocking, ghastly consequences really understand.

Fellow Americans, I encourage you to not live by fear, but to live by faith. Faith in doing the right thing, whatever it takes, to stop the atrocities of Putin against innocent people.

We can observe the current events of our time through the lens of pre-World War II global community.

We could have done more, but we did not and still ended up in war with the dictators of the time. When we live by faith, we will lead by strength.

May we all keep the people of Ukraine in our prayers, help provide donations to help them survive everyday life and the appropriate military support that signals we are Americans, we are fearless and we are strong.

May we be bold and courageous like the people of Ukraine doing whatever it takes to fight for freedom.

Dr. Scott N. Warner is an Assistant Professor of Management at Northwood University. He is the father of the late Private Heath Warner, killed in action Nov. 22, 2006 in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Warner is a Gold Star Father.
Palestine, TX (75801)

Today

Strong thunderstorms likely. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High 77F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early. Skies will become mostly clear late. A few storms may be severe. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - A guide on the right to water and sanitation for parliamentarians was launched on Thursday by the international organization - Sanitation and Water for All - as part of the 9th World Water Forum being held in Diamniadio, about 30 km from Dakar, the Senegalese capital
Washington, DC, US (PANA) - Egypt has requested the International Monetary Funds (IMF) for support to implement their comprehensive economic programme as the rapidly changing global environment and spillovers related to the war in Ukraine pose challenges for countries around the world, including the North African country
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan and Dutch officials on on Wednesday discussed a twinning project between the Interpol Bureaux of the two countries, to increase cooperation and exchange of information and experiences in various fields, the Libyan Ministry of Interior announced
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Senegalese Sovereign Strategic Investment Fund (FONSIS) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group dedicated to the private sector, on Thursday signed a partnership agreement in Dakar for the construction of 30,000 modern housing units in Senegal
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FedEx Express has launched its international, day-definite e-commerce service in 14 additional countries  Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovenia and Switzerland.

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The service, named FedEx International Connect Plus (FICP), is now available in a total of 24 European countries with connections to 47 markets worldwide. Through FICP, businesses can ship products to online shoppers in Europe in one to three days, North America in three to four days, Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world in three to five days. With these improved connections, FedEx Express expects its service to help e-commerce sellers to grow their business in Europe and abroad.

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Within the service, FedEx Delivery Manager enables sellers to send out notifications and gives shoppers the flexibility to change the day and location of deliveries to provide more visibility, control and convenience.

According to the companys research, the retail landscape has transformed with growth in both domestic and cross border e-commerce sales through the Covid-19 pandemic. Consumer research in 40 countries worldwide found that, in 2020, 37% of e-commerce shoppers bought more cross border due to the pandemic and 28% of the consumers surveyed agreed that they will buy more online from retailers based abroad in the future. When asked about several elements of the delivery process, these consumers indicated satisfaction levels for delivery speed were lowest. In addition, the company found that 71% of consumers would pick an online retailer that offers flexible delivery options over one that doesnt.

Wouter Roels, senior vice president of marketing international at FedEx Express Europe, said, Worldwide e-commerce sales are expected to exceed US$5tn in 2022 and grow to over US$7tn in 2025, creating many opportunities for European businesses. With the latest extension of FICP to growth markets in eastern and northern Europe, FedEx Express is supporting businesses on their growth journeys by connecting them to more customers in global and intra-European markets.

Brian DeCair, vice president of operations in Ireland and UK North at FedEx Express, said, The launch of FedEx International Connect Plus in Ireland is an exciting development for e-commerce businesses who want to reach global online shoppers with speed and efficiency. Cross-border e-commerce is growing faster than domestic e-commerce and businesses are increasingly seeking more diversified, cost-effective solutions in order to meet consumers evolving needs and this new cross-border service, balancing speed with attractive prices, delivers just that.
Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, has launched its first distribution center and trucking line haul route in South Korea.

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This move was made to improve cross-border delivery services for Alibabas e-commerce platform, AliExpress. South Korean customers will now receive their parcels from mainland China in an average of five working days. In the near term, Cainiao plans to further expand its last-mile delivery network by adding more local courier partners and establishing a nationwide logistics network beyond South Koreas capital city, Seoul.

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Within an hours drive of Seoul, the 1,500m2 distribution center is situated near the local customs clearance checkpoint. It is equipped with innovative smart technologies such as automatic assembly lines and a smart distribution setup that can support high-volume small parcel sortation. These smart logistics facilities are expected to reduce operating costs by 10% and save more than 12 hours in processing and handling time for cross-border deliveries.

To accelerate delivery time, Cainiao has also established a trucking line haul route with a one-ton daily capacity, connected to the distribution center. Once packages are sorted and packed, they can be brought directly to the nearest courier station to be dispatched via last-mile delivery.

Cainiao is investing in logistics technology and a localization strategy to reinforce overseas infrastructural facilities that can safeguard the timeliness and cost-effectiveness of the value chain. Last year, the company launched a sea freight route between China and South Korea, with chartered ships operating six times a week. Furthermore, an MoU was signed with the Korea SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises]and Start-ups Agency (KOSME) for Cainiao to be the official logistics partner for SMEs to support their exports.

Shawn Louis, executive general manager for Cainiao Global, said, The launch of this distribution center and trucking line haul route is another key milestone for Cainiaos business in South Korea, where we witnessed a 50% increase in sales volume over the past year. The localized logistics network, along with a cost-effective logistics solution, will enable cross-border merchants to continue meeting consumer demands and improve the overall shopping experience. By expanding our partner ecosystem and implementing smart logistics in the distribution center, we are able to optimize the efficiency of the entire value chain.
Photo: (Photo : ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

More and more Ukrainians are fleeing their homeland to escape Russia's brutal military invasion. One of those people was Victoria, who made the harrowing journey across ice-capped fields in Ukraine alongside her child to escape the war zone and now seek refuge in the city of Miami in the United States.

Like other Ukrainian mothers trapped in the war-torn country, Victoria made the dangerous decision to leave Ukraine in order to keep her young child Anna safe. Her story is very similar to fellow Ukrainian civilians, who have been displaced because of the Russian onslaught.

Victoria told News Nation in an interview that it took them four days to reach Florida from Ukraine. According to Victoria, the most challenging part of the journey was walking 15 miles in freezing cold temperatures while carrying her 10-month-old daughter. Apart from her daughter, Victoria also brought along a suitcase that was filled with items she was able to quickly grab from her home.

Victoria leaves husband and stepsons behind

Victoria explained the thought process of someone who is trying to escape a war zone, saying "You think only to save your life and life for children. And you don't have time. You don't think about what you can, what you must do. Oh, I must take some passport, some money, and that's all."

Victoria and her daughter had to escape without her husband and stepsons, who decided to stay put in Ukraine as men of fighting age are barred from leaving the country. According to Victoria, her husband's main role now is to fight the Russians and protect their family from the continuous bombing and shelling that is destroying the communities around them.

Victoria and Anna may be safe now in South Florida but their hearts are aching for the people and things they left behind. Victoria explained her neighborhood is not the same anymore, saying "Houses in my street in Kyiv are destroyed. Like 20 meters of my house destroyed, nothing."

According to a report by the BBC, the Russians have been trying for weeks to occupy Kyiv but their efforts have been repeatedly thwarted by Ukrainian troops who still control the capital city.

Read Also: Human Trafficking Problem Surfaces in War-torn Ukraine After Chinese Pair Caught Smuggling Babies

Number of Ukrainian refugees rising as war rages on

Victoria was emotional as she talked about her loved ones back home, saying "I cry, but I hope that I see my family very soon." She continuously prays for Ukraine and hopes that the Russians will be stopped so that she and her daughter can go back to their homeland.

Victoria and Anna are among the lucky ones to have reached safety in the United States. Most of the refugees displaced by the war in Ukraine are crossing to neighboring European countries, such as Moldova, Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia.

According to the United Nations, more than 3.5 million civilians have now fled Ukraine since the war started. As of March 21, UNHCR figures show Poland taking in 2,113,554 refugees, making it the most popular destination for Ukrainian refugees.

Romania came in second, taking in 543,308 refugees from Ukraine. The Republic of Moldova also has been a prime destination for Ukrainians, with 367,913 civilians seeking refuge there. Hungary and Slovakia have also welcomed a bunch of refugees from Ukraine. At least 317,863 Ukrainian refugees went to Hungary, while Slovakia took in 253,592 displaced people from Ukraine.

Related Article: War in Ukraine Puts Spotlight on Country's Surrogate Mothers
Photo: (Photo : Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Race To Erase MS)

Jack Osbourne is going to be a father once again. The 36-year-old "Osbournes" alum made the announcement on social media platform Instagram, revealing on Tuesday, March 22, that his fiancee, Aree Gearhart, is pregnant and that they are expecting their first baby together.

Osbourne posted a photo of himself placing his hand on Gearhart's baby bump with the caption "Exciting news!!! @seecreature and I are expecting a baby in the summer! Baby #4 here we come!"

According to Page Six, Gearhart also announced the baby news on her own Instagram account, sharing a close-up picture of her bare baby bump with the caption, "best friend downloading." Proud grandma Sharon Osbourne joined in the celebration, boasting on her profile that she could not be more excited about grand-baby #4.

Kelly Osbourne sends her congratulations to the couple

Of course, Jack's sister Kelly wouldn't be left behind as she also can't hide her excitement with the news that she is going to be an aunt once again. Kelly replied to Gearhart's post, saying that she is a nimbly bimbly kitty cat who is now eating for two. Kelly sent her congratulations to the couple, saying that outside of them, there is no one more excited for this baby than her.

As Jack and Sharon mentioned above, this will be the fourth child of the TV personality. He already has three daughters from his previous marriage with ex-wife Lisa Stelly. They are 9-year-old Pearl, six-year-old Andy, and four-year-old Minnie. Osbourne and Stelly split in 2018 and finalized their divorce back in 2019.

E! News reported that it was double celebration for Osbourne and Gearhart as the pregnancy reveal comes just one day after the latter celebrated her 31st birthday. Osbourne paid tribute to her on Instagram on her special day, writing "Happy birthday to my best friend and lover @seecreature! In the words of Doctor Evil 'you complete me'."

Read Also: Pregnant Katherine Schwarzenegger Finally Shows Baby Bump Ahead of Child No. 2 With Chris Pratt

Pregnancy news comes three months after Jack and Aree's engagement

The couple got engaged in a beautiful winter setting in December of last year. Osbourne was ecstatic with his engagement to the interior designer at the time, writing on Instagram that he asked the most beautiful and loving he has ever met to marry him and she said yes!

Osbourne added that life is a series of doors and he is so excited to walk through this one with Gearhart. Osbourne said she is truly a magical being with a heart bigger than anything he could have imagined and her step-mom skills make his heart so full. Osbourne concluded his message by saying "I couldn't be happier than I am right now."

According to a report by Us Weekly, Gearhart also expressed her love for his fiancee, telling Osbourne that he is her soulmate, adventure partner, and protector and that she is ready for forever with him and their tribe. Osbourne's engagement came just seven months after the former reality star celebrated 18 years of sobriety.

Related Article: Massive Milk Formula Recall Empties Store Shelves in Utah, Mothers Panicking
A customer walks past shelves at a supermarket in Caceres, Spain, on March 23, 2022. Strikes by Spanish truckers protesting high fuel prices and working conditions on Wednesday moved into their 10th day, which has had wide-ranging effects. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua)

People shop at a supermarket in Caceres, Spain, on March 23, 2022. Strikes by Spanish truckers protesting high fuel prices and working conditions on Wednesday moved into their 10th day, which has had wide-ranging effects. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua)

A man stand by shelves at a supermarket in Caceres, Spain, on March 22, 2022. Strikes by Spanish truckers protesting high fuel prices and working conditions on Wednesday moved into their 10th day, which has had wide-ranging effects. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua)
Photo: (Photo : EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP via Getty Images)

A batch of Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizer, popularly used by parents and kids, has been recalled due to bacterial contamination. The makers of the product, Kao USA, urge consumers to check their supply at home.

Kao USA, based in Cincinnati, announced the voluntary recall through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and cited that a limited number of Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizer might have traces of Pluralibacter gergoviae.

The FDA stated that this bacterium "poses little medical risk" among healthy individuals, but it can trigger infections among people with compromised immunities. So far, there are no reported cases of infection. Nevertheless, the FDA and Kao USA ask consumers, especially parents, to stop using the product if they have a contaminated bottle.

Read Also: Baby Formula Recall: Mom Gets Enormous Help for Teen With Rare Condition Who Only Eats Baby Food

What Batch of Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizer are Affected?

The recall order covers Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizers manufactured between October 1 to 18, 2021. Kao USA makes two sizes for this product in 3oz and 10oz bottles. Each bottle is identified with a lot code printed at the bottom.

The batches for recall have these lot codes for the small sizes: ZU712851, ZU712871, ZU722881, ZU722851, ZU712881, ZU712861, and ZU712911. The bigger bottles cover the following lot codes: ZU722741, ZU722781, ZU732791, ZU732811, ZU722771, ZU732781, ZU732801, and ZU732821.

Other lots of Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizers and products made at the Kao USA facility are not affected. The company has also initiated precautionary measures to remove the bad batches at their distribution centers and has informed retailers about taking these down from their store shelves.

Dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Fromowitz told Allure that Pluralibacter gergoviae had been implicated in other product recalls relating to skincare in the past. In 2020, Cottonelle from Kimberly-Clark also announced a recall of its wipes due to the same bacterial contamination. The company received complaints of skin irritation but with no reported severe cases.

The bacterium is a concern because children, senior adults, and those with weakened immunities are most at risk and may even be hospitalized if they develop an infection after prolonged use of the product.

What Parents Must Do if They Have a Bad Batch

According to Kao USA, parents who may have a contaminated supply can contact the Kao USA Consumer Care Center by phoning 1-800-742-8798 or emailing consumer@kao.com to receive a replacement coupon. They will also receive a paid package to send the affected Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizers back to Kao USA.

"Kao USA cares about our consumers' safety," the company said, per NBC News. "We are committed to manufacturing products that not only meet, but exceed, the highest industry standards."

Meanwhile, the FDA also advised consumers to report any adverse event due to using this product by calling 1- 800-332-1088. Serious cases are rare, but those who develop an infection might experience skin irritation, high fever, some vomiting or nausea, respiratory complications, and physical weakness.

Related Article: Unsafe Infant Loungers: CPSC Sues Leachco for Refusing to Recall the Product
Photo: (Photo : BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images)

In the middle of this brutal war, joy and solace can still be found in Ukraine. Just ask the people at a maternity ward in the port city of Mykolaiv, who witnessed Tamara Kravchuk deliver her newborn baby Katya. It was a moment of bliss for them, despite bloodshed happening around them.

The 37-year-old Kravchuk talked to Reuters while lying in a hospital bed at the Ukraine maternity ward. She said that she is so happy and that no matter what happens now, she will remain the happiest person because her daughter is healthy. Like her fellow Ukrainians, Kravchuk's main wish is for the war to end, saying that God willing, there will be peace in their homeland.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, a Ukrainian mother looking at her new daughter's tiny hands and face, dreaming of a better future. For a brief period amid this Russian invasion, the anxiety and desperation that dominated Kravchuk's thoughts before her daughter's birth were gone.

Doctor says there is still hope in Ukraine

Kravchuk said that she thinks the war will end, and they will live as it was before, and their lives will be calm again. Kravchuk wants this primarily for Katya's sake, saying that she hopes that their children won't see all these crazy things and everything will be good again.

Kravchuk was not the only one delighted with her daughter's arrival. Valentin Podaranchuk, the head of the maternity ward, is also all smiles after successfully delivering Katya. The 39-year-old doctor said, "A new life is born, despite all the horrors happening around. That's why we still have hope. Today a new little girl came to our world."

According to the Guardian, Russian forces tried to enter Mykolaiv on March 4, but they met fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops in the Black Sea port city. Since then, Mykolaiv has been subjected to intermittent shelling, with the Russian attacks coming ever closer to the hospital where Kravchuk and baby Katya are staying.

Read Also: Heartbreak for Families of Passengers as No Survivors Found in China Eastern Airlines Plane Crash

War stress results in baby boom in Mykolaiv

According to Podaranchuk, the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought a wave of new births in the city of Mykolaiv, with women going into labor because of the stress brought upon by the war. Katya is the 49th baby born in the hospital since the war started on February 24. Podaranchuk said it was very unusual to see a lot of births, with the hospital witnessing a baby boom during the first ten days of the war.

Podaranchuk added that the hospital's birth rate is back to normal, but many people have now fled Mykolaiv because of the continuous bombings. Kravchuk herself had been fearful before having Katya. She said that there were explosions 500 meters from the hospital.

The danger is real for ordinary civilians like Kravchuk. According to the United Nations human rights office, 953 civilian deaths have already been recorded in Ukraine since the war started. Some say the numbers are even higher, with Russian troops ramping up their attacks on ordinary civilians.

Related Article: 19-Month-old Baby Among Six Children Wounded in Dumas, Arkansas Car Show Mass Shooting
Photo: (Photo : LUCA SOLA/AFP via Getty Images)

Fertility startup Alife Health announced on Tuesday, March 22, that it had raised $22 million in Series A money to help fund its artificial intelligence in vitro fertilization tool. According to Fierce Healthcare, the latest funding will support the company's goal of conducting clinical studies for products still in development and bringing its fertility products to market; particularly its fertility AI tools.

Lux Capital, Maveron, and Union Square Ventures led the new round of funding for the San Francisco-based startup. The news comes roughly a year after Alife Health closed a $9.5 million seed funding round, which Lux Capital also led.

Maveron's Anarghya Vardhana and Union Square's Rebecca Kaden will join Alife Health's board of directors as part of the new deal. Vardhana said she had been on the lookout for a company aiming to meaningfully move the needle in IVF and found it with Alife.

Alife Health hopes to make fertility care more accessible

Paxton Maeder-York, founder and CEO of Alife, issued a statement regarding the company's new funding, saying, "Artificial intelligence has tremendous potential to impact the effectiveness and equity of fertility care."

Maeder-York added that their AI software uses one of the world's largest and most diverse IVF datasets to analyze millions of data points from patient cycles. According to Maeder-York, Alife provides insights on what treatment has worked best for patients in the past, and a fertility clinician can then use the report that it shared to craft a personalized, data-driven treatment plan.

According to a report by Vator, Maeder-York also said that their goal is to enhance clinicians' expertise with machine learning and help them improve fertility outcomes. Alife also hopes to make AI-powered fertility care accessible for everyone in the near future.

Undergoing in vitro fertilization is not cheap. A single IVF cycle in the United States will cost a patient around $12,000, and that price can soar to up to $25,000 with medication. Most parents also undergo multiple IVF cycles to have a baby, given that the success rate of a single cycle is just close to 30 percent.

Read Also: Ukrainian Mother With Baby Walk 15 Miles in Freezing Temperatures to Flee Russian Invasion

Alife Health lining up fertility AI tools for patients

Alife's first product, the Stim Assist, helps clinicians in their decision-making during ovarian stimulations. According to MobiHealthNews, the patient receives injected medications during this stage to induce their ovaries to produce mature eggs. Once this part is successful, clinicians will remove them from the uterus, fertilize the eggs and reimplant them back to the patient.

This particular fertility AI tool provides clinicians with insights to use just the correct dose of medication to extract the maximum number of mature eggs per cycle from the patient and, in the process, lower medication costs.

Alife Health is also planning the release of a patient platform in the latter stages of this year with treatment management tools and educational resources for appointments, medication reminders, and lab results.

The startup's third product, which is currently planning clinical trials, uses AI to analyze patient embryos to help embryologists determine which they will prioritize for transfer.

Women's health startups are attracting huge money right now. They raked $1.3 billion in venture funding in the first eight months of 2021.

Related Article: Human Trafficking Problem Surfaces in War-torn Ukraine After Chinese Pair Caught Smuggling Babies
Photo: (Photo : EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP via Getty Images)

No one believed a mother's instinct when she claimed that her baby was switched at birth at the hospital until she got a DNA test that proved her allegations.

Texas mom Mercy Casanelles had her baby through a cesarian section and was not able to see the child for some hours because she was still in recovery. All that Casanelles could recall was that she was still able to kiss her newborn before he was taken to the hospital's nursery.

Despite being under heavy medication due to the C-section, the mother also remembered getting a short glimpse of her newborn. She mentally noted that he looked like her husband, Rich Cushworth. So, when the hospital staff brought her son in the next day, Casanelles insisted that he was not her child.

The mother, who has an older son in his teens, didn't have that familiar bond when breastfeeding her newborn. However, the hospital staff disagreed with the mom and told her that she was so out of it after the baby's birth. Every person who has visited her at the hospital also did not believe that her real baby was switched at birth, according to Amomama.

Read Also: Switch at Birth: Man Resents His Biological Mom for Not Correcting Baby Mix-up

Jacob and Moses: Switched at Birth

Casanelles gave birth in her hometown of El Salvador, where she and Cushworth worked as missionaries. Before her due date, the mom had to fly back from Texas to El Salvator to have her visa fixed. However, Casanelles experienced labor earlier than planned; thus, her baby was born prematurely. On the other hand, the baby's father stayed behind in Texas and was resigned to wait for Casanelles to return with their son.

Because no one believed her, Casanelles brought the boy, whom she named Jacob, back to Texas with her. However, she immediately unloaded her suspicions to Cushworth when they finally reunited. They took a DNA test.

Two months later, Casanelles had proof that her mother's instinct was right all along. The DNA test confirmed she and Cushworth are not biologically related to Jacob. The result showed a zero percent link.

Casallenes and her husband then took the matter to court in El Salvador so that they could track Jacob's birth parents and find their biological son. The ordeal took months to unfold, and when they finally found their real son, whom they named Moses, he didn't immediately bond to Casanelles and Cushworth.

"I was just a caregiver to him, just another person in his life," Casanelles revealed, per Daily Mail.

Casallenes also felt Jacob's loss even as the baby was only theirs for a few months. The family was not able to properly part with their "son" as the exchange between the other parents was rushed.

A Breakthrough with Moses

According to The Mirror, Moses appeared to have a speech and feeding issue due to what happened to him since the first day of his separation from Casallenes. But she worked hard on him and made every effort to bond with her biological son.

Finally, Moses had a breakthrough at three years old and uttered the word "mama" for the first time while looking at Casallenes. The mother, who now feels complete, said that she and her husband don't plan on keeping this extraordinary experience a secret from Moses when he is a lot older.

Related Article: Friends Who Bonded Over Their Adoption Discover They Are Biological Sisters
Photo: (Photo : Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images)

The U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel has delivered some outstanding news to intended parents in Great Britain, revealing in a letter that three-year visas will be made available to Ukrainian surrogates who are pregnant with British citizens.

According to the letter the Home Office sent to leading surrogacy lawyers in the country, a provision will also be made for babies born outside the United Kingdom to Ukrainian surrogate mothers.

BioNews reported that the U.K. Visas would be granted to Ukrainian surrogates "outside the Immigration Rules," meaning that the government's scheme will be discretionary. This might sound alarmingly vague, but that is not a complete surprise as much of the U.K.'s immigration and nationality laws regarding surrogacy is discretionary.

Ukrainian surrogates to be given 3-year U.K. visas

Pregnant surrogate mothers from Ukraine and their "immediate family members" will be eligible for three-year U.K. visas. They will be able to live in the United Kingdom during that period with the visas granting them access to public funds and employment.

The application will be free to make for Ukrainian surrogates, and there will be no Immigration Health Surcharge given to them. The information that has been available thus far suggests this proposed route will mirror the Ukraine Family Scheme devised by the U.K. government recently.

In this case, surrogate mothers will be permitted to enter the United Kingdom as the government will treat them as family members of the intended parents. The Ukrainian surrogate mother is not mandated to live with the intended parents or that the latter will be financially responsible for her. According to Free Movement, both parties are free to arrange things that way if they wish to do so.

This is a major boost for Ukrainian surrogates carrying babies with British citizenship and the intended parents as they only need to prove their relationship for the former to be allowed entry to the United Kingdom.

Proving the relationship between the surrogate and the intended parents would presumably require evidence of the surrogacy arrangement and the pregnancy. It would be better if there is a letter from the agency or clinic with details of the surrogacy.

Read Also: Newborn Baby Brings Hope to Ukraine Maternity Ward in the Middle of War; Mykolaiv Sees Baby Boom

Only the surrogate's children and partner can come with her to the U.K.

The surrogate mother's "immediate family" that can come with her to the U.K. would likely include only her children and partner. Under the Ukraine Family Scheme, Ukrainian children who do not own a passport can be included in their parents' travel documents.

However, it remains to be seen if intended parents of any nationality can sponsor their Ukrainian surrogate mother to move to the United Kingdom. If concessions given in the Ukraine Family Scheme will be followed, it will not only be British citizens who can act as sponsors for Ukrainian surrogates, but also people who are settled in the United Kingdom; citizens of the European Union who are living in the U.K. since before 2021; and even refugees.

According to a report by the BBC, surrogacy is legal in the United Kingdom, but under the English law, the surrogate's name will be on the birth certificate as the baby's mother. That makes Ukraine a prime option for intended parents as the country has lax surrogacy laws.

Related Article: Heartbreak for Families of Passengers as No Survivors Found in China Eastern Airlines Plane Crash
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The European Union's foreign ministers disagreed on Monday on whether and how to slap sanctions on Russia's lucrative energy sector over its invasion of Ukraine, with Germany saying the bloc was too dependent on Russian oil to decide an embargo.



The EU and allies have already imposed hefty measures against Russia, including freezing its central bank's assets.



Russia's siege and bombardment of Mariupol port, which EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called "a massive war crime", is increasing pressure for action.



But targeting Russian energy exports, as the United States and Britain have done, is a divisive choice for the 27-nation EU, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas.



Some of those who want the EU to go further showed impatience at the pace of talks after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.



"Why should Europe give Putin more time to earn more money from oil and gas? More time to use European ports? More time to use unsanctioned Russian banks in Europe? Time to pull the plug," Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Twitter.



But Borrell told a news conference that while that the bloc would "continue isolating Russia", concrete decisions would be made later.



One EU diplomat said some hoped that by June the EU would have found enough alternative sources of energy to seriously consider an oil embargo. No date has been agreed though, and other EU states may have different targets in mind.



Germany and the Netherlands said the EU was dependent on Russian oil and gas and could not cut itself off right now.



"The question of an oil embargo is not a question of whether we want or don't want (it), but a question of how much we depend on oil," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters.



"Germany is importing a lot (of Russian oil), but there are also other member states who can't stop the oil imports from one day to the other," she said, adding that the bloc should instead work on reducing its reliance on Moscow for its energy needs.



BIDEN IN TOWN



Other potential sanctions being discussed, diplomats have said, include closing loopholes on trust funds used by oligarchs, adding new names to the sanctions list, stopping Russian boats from docking in EU ports, and cutting more banks' access to the SWIFT global messaging system.



All this will be discussed again on Thursday, when U.S. President Joe Biden will be in Brussels for talks with transatlantic alliance NATO's 30 members, the EU, and Group of Seven (G7) members including Japan, designed to harden the West's response to Moscow. read more



Diplomats have said a Russian chemical weapons attack in Ukraine, or heavy bombardment of the capital, Kyiv, could be a trigger for the EU to go ahead with an energy embargo.



But they cautioned that energy was one of the most complex sectors to sanction because each EU country has its own red lines.



They said that while the Baltics want an oil embargo, Germany and Italy, which depend on Russian gas, are pushing back because of already high energy prices. Sanctions on coal are a red line for some, including Germany, Poland and Denmark, while for others, such as the Netherlands, oil is untouchable.



Moscow itself has warned that such sanctions could prompt it to close a gas pipeline to Europe - another potential deterrent.



'TECTONIC SHIFT'



Meanwhile, EU foreign and defence ministers adopted a security strategy meant to boost the bloc's military clout, establishing a rapid reaction force with up to 5,000 troops to be swiftly deployed in a crisis.



"The war that is ongoing is a tectonic shift," Borrell said. "We have to be able to react rapidly."



The Kremlin has so far not been moved to change course in Ukraine by EU sanctions, including on 685 Russians and Belarusians, and on Russian finance and trade.



Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a "special operation" to demilitarize Ukraine and purge it of dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and the West say these are baseless pretexts for aggression.

Source: REUTERS









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has assured Ghanaians that President Nana Akufo-Addo has no intention to roll back on the flagship free SHS programme.



Speaking to the media during a press briefing to outline measures taken by government to address challenges facing the economy on Thursday, March 24, he said the vision of the President is to ensure that every Ghanaian benefits from quality and unrestricted education for the betterment of the country.



" . . President Akufo-Addo has no absolute intention to roll back any major policy like the Free SHS. He sees education as the best and enabling force for sustainable economic growth, transformation, and social mobility, and we will do more to improve on it for it to serve more and better our children," he stated.



This is contrary to earlier suggestions by the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah that all 16 flagship programs of the government including the Free SHS were up for possible review after a recent cabinet meeting to proffer solutions to the economic hardships.



He said governement will roll out measures to ensure that we generate more internal fund to cushion the economy.



Concerns



Executive Director of Child Right International, Mr Bright Appiah, has urged the government to maintain its Free SHS programme despite some economic challenges in recent times.



He said the flagship programme has been of help to many who couldnt have afforded education over the years.



Speaking on NEAT FMs morning show, Ghana Montie, Mr Bright Appiah reiterated the benefits of the programme for the needy but brilliant children across the country.



The statistics are there to show, he said.



Head of the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly called Opanyin Agyekum, has called on government to review its free Senior High School (SHS) policy.



The free SHS was implemented by the government to capture all Ghanaian school children in the education bracket and enhance quality education in the country.



Children from both rich and poor homes all equally benefit from the free SHS policy.



But Professor Kofi Agyekum feels this provision of ''free SHS for all'' is exerting financial pressure on the government and further thinks it is somehow an inequality to have both rich and poor parents enjoy from the free SHS.



To him, there are some rich families that can afford their children's school fees, hence don't have to benefit from the free SHS.



Opanyin Agyekum asserted that the free SHS should be for only the underprivileged or deprived families.

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Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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DAMASCUS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday discussed the developments of talks on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Damascus, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

During the meeting, Assad said reaching an agreement on the nuclear deal has become more important than ever for serving Iran's interests and the regional and global balance, said the report.

For his part, Amir Abdullahian briefed Assad on the ongoing nuclear talks, saying his country has made proposals in line with the rights and interests of the Iranian people, and reaching an agreement requires the West to show serious will in responding to the proposals.

The two sides also discussed bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism. Abdollahian stressed Syria's role in regional stability, reiterating that his country would stand by Syria and its people until it regain control of all territories. 
Across the globe, the financial sector thrives on trust, efficiency, and customer experience. These, and many more, are what Obsidian Achernar Limited (OA) readily offers its clients.



OA is a wholly Ghanaian-owned entity that specialises in delivering high-quality services for a broad range of financial products. These include financial technology, fixed income, currencies and commodities brokerage and corporate advisory on indigenous companies that aim to compete on the international level. Our passion to help SMEs, multinational corporations and banks to find better pricing on currency and bonds has positioned us as a leader in the market.



It is one thing to do business in Africa, and its entirely another to offer services to African firms whiles adhering to the rigorous international standards. We tick and operate within the latter box.



We are here to connect, empower, sustainably develop and secure ease of access to all of the financial markets in Africa. We seek to connect investors and the diaspora to Africa, empowering them to do business here. OA has also developed the connections between the exchanges across the continent, removing borders and ensuring ease of access.



Africas economic potential excites OA and that is why we are committed to supporting private sector-led growth on the continent. Our firm does this by providing onshore institutional clients access to leading financial services.



Our wide network of local and offshore clients also ensure that we have competitive pricing on rates. The goal is to help clients to be profitable in a seemingly volatile financial landscape.



In May 2021, we became then the only brokerage firm licensed by the Bank of Ghana to operate as a primary dealer of government bills and FX Broker. We have competent professionals across the globe, with key teams in Europe, London, USA and an established network of partners based in Johannesburg, Kigali, Nairobi, Lagos and Cairo.



Such solid grounding on the continent enables OA to provide instrument advisory on current financial trends to clients. We also help to eliminate boundaries by sourcing competitively priced currency solutions when trading against African currencies.



With OA, trust is everything and that is evidenced by our relationships with tier one international banks, private equity, pension and hedge funds in the USA, Switzerland, UK and Hong Kong. As a firm, we have the capacity of taking tailor-made and bespoke orders and have a dedicated team that is always on hand to help clients.



Our customers can attest to the speed and efficiency of our transactions. In short, OA is tried and tested, and we are a rising force in Africas financial landscape. In addition to offering excellent financial services, Obsidian Achernar is also big on charity and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We are always exploring avenues to empower and to give a voice to the voiceless in society.



Through different social initiatives, we aim to help the less privileged to break through barriers to succeed in a world of endless opportunities. OA is here for African businesses and we are always ready to serve you. So wait no longer, speak to us because we are the firm that can offer you the full package.

Source: Kwadwo Nyame BINEY









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March 21 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has settled with six current and former employees who had alleged the company unfairly stifled worker organizing in a case stemming from potential sales of its cloud technology to U.S. immigration authorities -- an abrupt ending to a trial that had been paused for several months.



The U.S. National Labor Relations Board had pursued the case on behalf of the workers and brought Google before an administrative law judge last year. Weeks of hearings were then stopped pending resolution of a dispute over whether the NLRB could force Google legal chief Kent Walker to testify.



Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing the workers, said they had grown emotionally exhausted from fighting Google. They had to weigh that against wanting to reveal additional "juicy" evidence about Project Vivian, Google's effort to quell worker activism, she said.



"We exposed enough, and its time for my clients to be able to move on with their lives," Burgess said.



The workers independently settled with Google last Wednesday, the NLRB did not object and the judge in San Francisco dismissed the case last Friday, legal filings show. The settlement was first reported on Monday by Vice.



Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. A parallel lawsuit in California state court also was dismissed.



The case had concerned Google's actions against workers who were among a larger group protesting the company's cloud technology relationship with U.S. immigration authorities in 2019.



Google interrogated workers and fired some of them, aiming to dissuade people from engaging in legally protected concerted activities, the government said.



The company denied wrongdoing, arguing that the employees it fired or suspended were accessing files they should not have and had no right to dictate with whom the company does business.



Google said on Monday it was pleased everyone avoided years of legal proceedings.



"We've always supported our employees' right to speak about working conditions, and we stand by our policies that protect the security of our systems and safeguard user, customer and employee data," Google said.



Worker activism across Silicon Valley has been on the rise for years. Hundreds of Google workers last year formed a small labor organization in hopes of better protecting their rights in future protests.













Source: REUTERS









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered the Federal Republic of Nigeria to carry out an effective prosecution of Peter Okoro, a man accused of raping a female Nigerian applicant 11 years ago.



The Court held that the respondent (Nigeria) violated the applicants right to fair trial under Article 7 (1) (a) of the African Charter by virtue of its failure to conduct speedy and effective trial against the alleged perpetrator of the sexual violence.



The Court however dismissed the applicant's prayer for damages in the sum of 25-million Naira as compensation for the physical and psychological pains and emotional distress caused her.



The Court ordered the respondents to submit to the Court within six months of the date of the notification of the judgement, a report on the measures taken to implement the orders set forth.



It further directed parties to bear their respective costs.



The applicant (name withheld) had gone to the Court after she was raped by Okoro on August 20, 2011, at Olokonla Area of Lagos State, Nigeria at the age of 17 years.



The applicant alleged that after the rape, she was taken to the Lagos State General Hospital, Ibeji Lekki where she was admitted for four days.



The medical report by the hospital indicated that her vaginal canal was free and open, her hymen broken into and there was mild bleeding.



The matter was reported to the Aijwe Police Station in Ajah, Lagos State, Nigeria.



The applicant asserted that the perpetrator was charged with rape and unlawful assault and arraigned before the Lagos State Magistrate Court Ajah Division on September 2011 where he pleaded not guilty.



According to the applicant, she finished her oral testimony in the case by March 29, 2012. However, the trial has suffered various adjournments till date.



She held that accused person was present in Court on January 7, 2013, and he has not been produced in court, even though he is in prison custody.



She said the prosecution had not called other witnesses to enable the accused to open his defence and the trial is stalled leaving her without a remedy, more than seven years after she suffered the rape.



Applicant further held that the case was filed before a court lacking jurisdiction in respect of the offence of rape, adding that the case was filed before a Magistrate Court rather than a High Court which had the exclusive jurisdiction to try the offence of rape.



She contended that by virtue of the above facts, the respondent (Nigeria) was responsible for violation of her rights to dignity, to a fair hearing, to remedy, freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, freedom from discrimination as guaranteed under the relevant human rights instruments, particularly the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (African Charter).



The applicant was therefore seeking a declaration that the Federal Republic of Nigeria has violated her right to a fair hearing pursuant to Article 7 clause (1) (a) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples rights.



She was further seeking among others damages in the sum of 25-million Naira as compensation for the physical and psychological pains and emotional distress caused her.



The application was also seeking an order directing the Federal Republic of Nigeria to carry out an effective prosecution and punishment of her perpetrator of sexual abuse suffered by her.



The Court presided over by Mr Justice Edward Amoako Asante, ruled that Nigeria (respondent) was not in violation of the applicant right to dignity and freedom from cruel or inhuman or degrading treatment under Article 5 of the African Charter.



The three-member panel held that the respondents failure to conduct a speedy and effective trial against the perpetrator of the sexual violence suffered by the applicant did not legally violate her rights to freedom from discrimination under Article 2 of the African Charter.



That the respondents failure to conduct speedy and effective trial against the perpetrator of the sexual violence suffered by the applicant did not legally violate her rights to remedy-Obligation to investigate and arrest under Article 1 of the African Charter.

Source: GNA









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The Minerals Commission has provided a pick-up vehicle and other logistics to the George Grant University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) to enable them to undertake an exploration of some mining blocks.



On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. George Mireku Duker made the presentation to the University with an appeal to them to use it for the intended purpose.



Hon. Duker described the partnership between the Minerals Commission and UMaT as a novelty that speaks directly to the aim behind the establishment of the university.



Hon. Mireku Duker whose constituency, the University is located shed light on the positive impact of the exercise on the school.



He noted that the investigation is the ideal medium to create linkages between academia and industry.



He, however, appealed to the Minerals Commission to provide more logistical and other forms of support to the University to help them undertake the assignment.



This is the first time the commission has asked the university to explore areas we can mine. This is a novelty, lets applaud the Commission. This is something that is going to help the University to enhance their geological investigation as far as mining is concerned, he said



There are some areas for the university to mine and that is also a novelty. The university is going to have its own concessions that student will be deployed to mine directly. They will be attending to some practical activities whiles on campus, he added



The Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Mr Martin Ayisi said its the resolve of the Commission to provide adequate support to the Geological Service and other relevant institutions to undertake the prospecting of areas suspected to be rich in mineral resources.



He explained this is a new dimension the commission is embarking on as a way of resourcing and empowering institutions in the country.



He assured authorities of the George Grant University that the Commission will continue to provide the needed logistics for them to carry out the investigative exercise.



Professor Richard Amankwah, the Vice-Chancellor of UMaT welcomed with pleasure the task handed the University and assured that it will be executed to perfection.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, has invested an amount of GH30 million to provide ultra-modern equipment and retool its operations.



This has helped to revamp the operations of the hospital, the second-largest referral facility in the country built resilience in its quest to provide quality, affordable and accessible healthcare.



Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KATH, said these at the hospitals 2021 Performance Review meeting in Kumasi.





The theme for the meeting was, Building a resilient and affordable healthcare system; the role of Teaching Hospitals and the Healthcare Practitioner.



The meeting afforded participants the platform to formally and comprehensively access the collective performance of the various directorates and units, against set targets and devise strategies to address the challenges.



It also gave them the opportunity to introduce the new board to the staff of KATH.



Dr Owusu-Danso pointed out that the new equipment were making a remarkable difference in the ability to provide a broader range of specialist care to the public and training of healthcare professionals in the country.





He mentioned some of the units, which were renovated and retooled as the maternity block, the KATH guest house, reconstruction and asphalting of the hospital's roads and car parks, the construction of a paediatric care unit and the construction of a four-story building for officers.



Additionally, some of the machines purchased were Surgical Plants, two Oxygen plants with various accessories, an Electroconvulsive Therapy machine, Endoscopic suits for medical directorates, 128 slice Siemens CT scan and UV - VIS Spectrophotometer.



According to the CEO, the hospital also witnessed an appreciable increase in all clinical performance and other related indicators.



He said building a resilient healthcare system needed the right investment for health institutions, staff motivation and welfare as well as the creation of enabling environment for research, innovation, and learning.



He said the hospitals management with the support of other stakeholders were committed to the enhancement of the hospital's resilience and by extension, the healthcare system of the country.



Dr Emmanuel Odame Ankrah, Director for Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME), at the Ministry of Health (MOH), said the vision of KATH rightly falls in place with that of the President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo  Addos vision.



It is the Presidents vision that the country becomes a medical tourism hub in the West African sub-region and beyond, he added.



He added that healthcare was a human right issue regardless of socio-economic status and that Ghanaians must not be denied healthcare due to the cost.



Dr Ankrah said the Universal Health Coverage could be achieved by promoting Public-Private Partnerships, adding that, relationship in healthcare was also key, and stressed the need for health workers to have a good relationship with patients for them to have trust in them.





Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Association of Ghana Apparel Manufacturers (AGAM), the largest apparel-based business advocacy organization in the country, has outdoor its newly elected executives at a formal ceremony held in Accra at the associations general meeting last week.



The newly elected executives are Mrs Natasha Bannerman Kudjawu President, COO of Sleek Garments, Nura Salifu, Vice President and CEO of Sixteen 47, Dr. Florence Chambas, General Secretary CEO of Ford flora, Mr. Mahama Yussif, Treasury Secretary, CEO of Harmony Trends, Jane Damaris Agyarko Organising Secretary, CEO of Damaris and Garments Ltd.



The old executives who handed over to the newly elected executives are Mr. Gregory Kankoh CEO, Nallem Clothing President, Mrs. Linda Ampah, CEO, Cadling Fashons  Vice President, Mr. Dela Gomado, Del Gh Consult, Treasurer, Mrs. Natasha Kudjawu, Sleek Garments, Executive Member.



The handing over ceremony was witnessed by industry players such as Dignity DTRT, Manise Designs, Charisma Fashions, Precious Textiles, Tiffylis, Global Garments, Jem Afrik and Others.



Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Mr. Gregory Kankoh, Outgoing President said there is increased interest in Africa by key international players as a result of recent international events and AGAM is determined to work with members to take advantage of this opportunity and use that platform to continue to improve standards to suit market trends.







Mrs. Linda Ampah, Outgoing Vice President of the association, encouraged members to increase collaboration to maximize opportunities, both locally and internationally.



Nana Poquah A. Adiamah, the National Coordinator, briefed members about the recent successful visit to the country of international garment and apparel buyers facilitated by the GIZ, the German Agency for International Corporation, in partnership with the German Embassy and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.



The newly elected President, Mrs. Natasha B. Kudjawu outlined the strategy for the incoming team and said their areas of focus are Business Development, Members Capacity Enhancement and Effective Partnerships.



Other programmes include Advocacy for a national policy for the sector, Leverage on the partnership to further improve International standards of compliance, industry-oriented capacity building for the entire sector, increase awareness of the industry and develop further market access for the members of the Association/industry.



AGAM continues to partner  GIZ, USAID, DFID, UNESCO, DANIDA, EU, TFO CANADA, ITA, Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Ghana Exim Bank, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana Enterprise Agency, Ghana Investment Promotion Center, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, AGI, GNCCI and COTVET etc.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A Private Legal Practitioner, Lawyer Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, has proposed to Parliament to enact laws that will prevent drivers from driving late in the night.



According to him, the spate at which accidents are claiming lives is so alarming that something drastic should be done immediately before the worse happens.



Speaking on Okay fm's Ade Akye Abia, Edudzi Tamakloe, who is an aide to former president John Dramani Mahama, bemoaned how some drivers try to cheat nature by foregoing rest and end up falling asleep behind the wheel leading to fatal road accidents.



"We cannot continue to look on while innocent lives are lost through road accidents when something can be done about it. It is about time parliament enact laws that will protect passengers and drivers and also reduce road carnages.



"There should be some strict laws that will guide drivers, especially the big truck drivers who carelessly park on the shoulders of the road posing as danger to drivers and pedestrians. Some of these accidents can be avoided if only the laws enacted are enforced by the security agencies," he stated.



He maintained just like governments in advanced countries pass laws relative to road traffic regulations and ensure sure that these laws are strictly adhered to by drivers, same should be done in Ghana.



"We have not even ended the third quarter of the year yet we have recorded not less than 500 deaths through road accidents and it cannot continue like this," he added.



Watch Video Below





Meanwhile, fourteen (14) persons onboard an Accra-bound Ford vehicle from Tarkwa are believed to have perished in a car crash at Asem Asa in the Shama District, near the boundary between Western and Central Regions.A number of bodies at the scene of the accident were left charred after the crashed bus caught fire.According to an eyewitness, the accident occurred after a truck lost control and burst its tyre in an attempted overtaking, and crashed into the Ford.

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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As part of measures to gather the database of all Ghanaians and clamp down on cyber crimes, all Ghanaians have been asked to register their SIM cards with their Ghana cards.



The SIM card registration, which commenced in October last year, has seen over 14 million Ghanaians registering their cards.



However, the numbers are still small as according to the Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu, the population of Ghanaian SIM card users is 40 million.



This therefore called for the extension of the deadline for the SIM registration which has now moved from March 31, 2022 to July 31, 2022 and aimed at providing all Ghanaians the opportunity to register the SIM cards with the Ghana card.



The extension comes as good news to many Ghanaians, particularly those who haven't registered their SIM cards yet, but this isn't the only good news to share with Ghanaians.



Another notable news to make Ghanaians glad is that the Ministry of Communication is developing a self-service app to ease the challenges they encounter in registering their SIM cards.



To cut the long queues at the Telco offices and avoid the difficulties in registering the SIM cards, the Ministry is making sure Ghanaians can conveniently register from any place.



Therefore, the self-service app is designed to give Ghanaians the opportunity to register using their phones without having to go the offices of the Telecom service providers.



Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi, the sector Minister disclosed the SIM registration app ''will be available from the middle of April'' this year.



"So, if you have your Ghana card and want to use the SIM registration app, you can sit in the comfort of your home and do the registration," she emphasized.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has revealed that Bishop Charles Agyinasare the Founder and Head Pastor of Perez Chapel International was his mate at the Law School at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).



Eulogizing the renowned man of God on his 60th birthday he revealed that they sat in class together for lectures recounting how the family has been a blessing



Myself, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Hon. Samuel Nartey George, Dr & Mrs Mensa Otabil and several others joined Bishop Charles Agyinasare to celebrate his 60th birthday on Tuesday, 22nd March, 2022.



I had the privilege of sitting in class and being a friend to Bishop at the GIMPA Law school some years back. His life has been a blessing to my family and many. May God continues to bless his ministry, he wrote on his Facebook Page sighted by MyNewsGh.com.



Profile



Bishop Charles Agyinasare was born Charles Yewuraekow Agyin Asare in Achiase in the Eastern Region of Ghana on March 22, 1962. He later moved to Accra in the Greater Accra Region to attend school.



He is a past student of Weija Barracks Primary, Armed Forces Experimental School and Nsawam St. Martins. There, he was a women-chasing college freak who got caught up in what he calls sin, revelry, alcoholism and drug addiction and a life of smoking, truancy, chasing girls, using hard drugs, night-clubbing, and stints with various occult associations.



He was later expelled from St. Martins. In 1980, Agyinasare was invited to the Church of Pentecost, where, at the age of 18, he converted to Christianity, was delivered from his immoral life, and joined the Church of Pentecost.



In 2011 Agyinasare did a statutory declaration as to change of name to Charles Agyinasare.



In 1984, Agyinasare was ordained as a missionary by Enoch Agbodzo.



In 1986, he travelled to Nigeria to study crusade planning under the leadership of Benson Idahosa in Benin City, Nigeria. He is currently (2015) the senior pastor of the Perez Dome, which has a 14,000-seater auditorium, regarded as the largest auditorium in Ghana. The former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, on a visit described the place of worship as one of the Seven Wonders of Ghana.



In 2007 Agyinasare received a national award  the Member of the Order of the Volta (MV)  by former President of the Republic of Ghana John Agyekum Kufuor, for his outstanding achievements in championing African excellence as a religious leader.



In 2015, Agyinasare was awarded The Global Leadership Award from Regent University, the USA by Professor Clifton Clarke in recognition of his efforts in raising leaders across the world and for his impact across the globe.



He has been given declarations from the State of Texas and is an honorary citizen of Texas. Agyinasare was said to be the 20th Most Influential Ghanaian according to a poll in Ghana that was taken in 2015.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Wa West, Mr Peter Lanchene Toobu says the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) must be proactive to ensure its officers are protected in their line of duty.



He claimed the service is not doing much for its officers on the countrys various borders  leaving their fate to themselves while protecting the country.



His comment comes after a statement from the Ghana Immigration Service appealing to persons who can provide information leading to the arrest of the murderers of one of its officers, AICO I Michael Otu.



The Immigration Officer was shot dead at Kokoligu, a village between Nandom and Hamile in the Upper West Region.











The service statement said, While we call for calm, together with the Defense Intelligence and Police, all efforts in the pursuit of the perpetrators cum their modus operandi behind the callous killing of this selfless Patriot is a necessity."



We call on anyone with positive leads to volunteer same in order to allow justice to take its own course.



It added: We shall leave no stone unturned in pursuit of the perpetrators of this barbaric incident. They may run but they can't hide!



But the Wa West lawmaker seems not to be happy with the service operation in his constituency.



What are they doing to protect their officers? he questioned.



Adding that, their statement is just English. We shall leave no stone unturned is a hard language, my brother, hard language doesnt bring back life.



It doesnt change the situation. We need to learn from it. Its a misconduct and leadership failure and some must be held accountable for it. The immigration service should make sure this doesnt happen again.



Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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UNITED NATIONS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. 
The government has cut by a further 10 per cent the expenditure of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as part of a raft of measures to ensure fiscal consolidation of the Ghanaian economy and set the economy back to its pre-COVID-19 levels. This brings to 30 per cent the cut in the expenditure of all MDAs in the country.



Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta who made the announcement during a press conference in Accra on Thursday, March 24, 2022, said the expenditure cut has become necessary to help government align spending to revenue mobilization by reducing cost and pruning expenditure to hasten the countrys recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.



Discretionary spending is to be further cut by an additional 10%. The Ministry of Finance is currently meeting with MDAs to review their spending plans for the rest of the three (3) quarters to achieve the expenditure cuts, the Minister said.



According to Mr. Ofori-Atta, this is among other important measures by the government to revive the Ghanaian economy and set it back in motion stressing that the cut will help regain investor confidence in the economy.



Additionally, the Minister also announced a 50% cut in fuel coupon allocations for all political appointees and heads of government institutions, including State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), effective 1st April 2022 to ensure the efficient use of energy resources.



He said the government has also imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. This will affect all new orders, including 4-wheel drives. Note that, while this order will not affect vehicles manufactured or assembled in Ghana, the overall effect is to reduce total vehicle purchases by the public sector by at least 50 per cent for the period.



The Minister also announced with immediate effect the imposition of a moratorium on all foreign travels, except pre-approved critical and statutory travels. This he said will help the government implement austerity measures to tackle the economic challenges.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Extractive Industry Workers Union of Ghana(EIWUG) has called on appropriate authorities to, as a matter of urgency, bring the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) to order so they will allow their members who want to denounce their membership and join a different Union to do so.



According to them, the Ghana Mine Workers Union has refused to grant the request of their members from various mining companies to join other Unions like the Extractive Industry Workers Union and have their freedom.



The EIWUG further stated that the GMWU is not giving the necessary documentations to join other Unions, thereby accusing them of enslaving the members.



Speaking to Peace FM News reporter, Pious Baidoo Banson, the Executive Director of EIWUG, Mr. Victor Asare Gyapong said, "there are thousands of miners who want to join the Extractive Workers Union from the Ghana Mine Workers Union but they are not getting the chance though three different courts have ruled in their favour''.



Addressing a press conference in Accra, he added they believe the Ghana Mine Workers Union is refusing the members because of their selfish interest and the goodies that their executives enjoy from the members.



Mr. Victor Asare Gyapong called on trade union fraternity including Industrial-All Global Union and ILO to address the Ghana Mine Workers Union since the Trade Union Congress is refusing to do so.

Source: Pious Baidoo Banson/Peace News









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Governance Lecturer at the Central University, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah has advised teachers to heed the directive by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to pay rent on the bungalows they occupy.



A statement issued by the GES requested the teachers to pay a 10% of their basic salary as rent for their bungalows.



I wish to draw your attention to Ministry of Finance circular No. 133385/05/06NTR CAGD of May 15, 2006, which requires that occupants of government bungalows are expected to pay 10% of their salary as rent.



I, therefore, write to inform you that effect from March 1, 2022, all teachers/staff occupying school/government bungalow are to pay 10 per cent of their basic salary as rent, the GES said in the statement.



But the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana has issued a threat to the GES.



According to the President of the Association, King Ali Awudu, ''if they will force us to pay, then we will ask our house mistresses, our house masters to leave the campus. They should leave the bungalows for the students only to stay in the schools".



He also argued the Ministry of Finance's circular that was issued in 2006 stated it was the duty of the government to furnish the bungalows but the government never did.



"The bungalows in the schools, some are decent, some are in extremely deplorable state and the teachers, themselves, renovate it," he stated, wondering why the teachers should pay rent.



He underscored how dangerous it is for the teachers living on campus as the welfare of the students is their daily duty.



''Recently, we heard of Konongo-Odumase where two students stabbed themselves. That is when even the teachers are around and monitoring events. So, when the teachers are not in the school, you can imagine the chaos. So, you cannot keep them in the bungalows to do this job and then tax them. That is our position," he recounted, stressing, "we will not pay. We are in the school for a purpose . . . we will not pay because we are working for it."



But Dr. Otchere-Ankrah has called on the teachers to rescind their decision, stating they have to pay the 10 percent to enable the government to get funds for renovation and other developmental purposes regarding their condition of service.



Making his submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Dr. Otchere-Ankrah said; ''I will never agree with you, though I'm a teacher, that you will stay in a bungalow and not pay rent. I will never agree!''





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has launched a corruption league table to compile a list of the most-to-least corrupt institutions and organisations in the public sector.



The corruption league table, according to the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, was an important intervention to drive down corruption in the public sector.



The project, christened, the Ghana Corruption League Table (GCLT), will be akin to a fusion of the Corruption Perception Index programmes of Transparency International and Afrobarometer.



The table will be a research-based model designed to assess real and perceived levels of public sector corruption.



It will use specially designed instruments to collect data on the perception and actual experiences of corruption, after which it will undertake a gap analysis of institutional frameworks, based on which recommendations on how to deal with vulnerabilities and exposure to corruption at the institutions covered will be made.



The list of ranked public sector agencies on corruption will be published annually on the International Anti-corruption Day, which falls on December 9.



The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) are providing technical support for the OSP on the GCLT.



Important gauge



A Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, who launched the GCLT on behalf of the Minister, Godfred Yeboah Dame, yesterday, expressed the belief that the league table would be used as an important gauge by public sector agencies in managing corruption risks when conducting businesses.



It will prompt the agencies to review their compliance programmes, identify any compliance risks that might have previously been undetected and make adjustments accordingly, Mr Tuah-Yeboah said.



He cited the United Nations Convention on Corruption (UNCAC), which describes corruption as an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies, and added that the canker also retarded growth of the economy and robbed the people of their resources.



Citizen involvement



The deputy A-G said lessons from around the world indicated that no government could fight corruption without the involvement of the citizenry and, therefore, called on all citizens to be on board to fight corruption vigorously.



The fight against corruption should not be left in the hands of the government alone, Mr Tuah-Yeboah stressed.

He commended the Special Prosecutor for the flagship programme to help fight corruption.



Detailed diagnosis



For his part, Mr Agyebeng explained that the results of the study would form the basis for enhanced pragmatic suppression and repression of corruption in the public sector.



He added that the project would identify the factors that advanced corruption in the public sector, including deficiencies in regulations and procedures, deficiencies in the administration of instructions (including lack of internal control mechanisms), individual interest (including greed, lack of ethicalness and legal



awareness) and external influences (such as public attitude, culture and traditions), to facilitate corruption prevention.



That was in line with the requirements of Regulation 31(2) of the OSP (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L.I. 2374).



Furthermore, Mr Agyebeng said, all public institutions, departments, agencies and companies would be required to prepare and submit Integrity Plans intended at assessing deficiencies in their regulations, procedures, policies, guidelines, administration instructions and internal control mechanisms to determine their vulnerability and exposure to corrupt practices.



The plans were also to prescribe curative measures to manage such susceptibility to corruption and corruption-related offences, the SP added.



He said the OSP would document, measure and ascertain the breeding of corruption, name and shame peddlers of corruption, assess the impact of anti-corruption initiatives and take curative and remedial measures to crack down on corruption.



"It is time to move beyond the composite annual ranking of countries on a corruption drop list to own our local narrative and fashion and retool our reformation by prodding our public sector into real and concrete action against corruption and corrupt practices," Mr Agyebeng stated.



Personalities



The launch was attended by representatives from sister anti-corruption institutions, anti-graft civil society organisations, academia and members of the Diplomatic Corps.



Some of the dignitaries at the event were the Executive Secretary of EOCO, COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, members of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC), led by their Vice-Chairman, Kofi Okyere Agyekum; Alhassan Sayibu Suhiyini, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North; the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Kati Csaba; representatives of the US Ambassador to Ghana, the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana and the EU Mission in Accra.



Technical committee



In a presentation on behalf of the Technical Committee of the GCLT, a member of that committee, Dr Edem Selormey, said the partnership was to build a resilient country with robust integrity systems, and that CDD-Ghana and the GII had committed to offering technical support to the OSP to actualise its corruption prevention initiative.



He said both organisations had the experience and the technical know-how to deliver the GCLT envisioned by the OSP.



Dr Selormey said for more than a decade, the GII had published the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a measure of public sector corruption, informed by business people and experts, as well as the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB).



CDD-Ghana, on the other hand, had a track record of conducting surveys, including its flagship Afrobarometer surveys, which had modules for assessing the perception of corruption in the country, he added.



CDD-Ghana also partnered UNICEF to produce the first-ever District League Table (DLT), which has now become a popular governance and service delivery tool for local assemblies to compete towards reducing the vulnerabilities of their inhabitants.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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It is estimated that about 41% of Ghanaians currently depend on underground water for their domestic and industrial purposes  as well as at the community level as drinking water; which is more reliable, especially, during periods of drought.



Even though 41% of Ghanaians depend on groundwater for household use, this rate is higher in rural areas (59%) than in urban areas (16%). Groundwater dependency is much higher in northern Ghana due to low seasonal availability of surface water, with Ashanti Region having a high drilling success rate of 91%.



Studies have also confirmed that in the Ashanti Region the Birimian rock formation is within medium to high yielding potential zones (30-60 1/mm or higher) with a high drilling success rate of 91% and average borehole depth of 53m.



In attribution to Appiah-Adjei & Osei-Nuamah (2017), a recent assessment of 2,788 drilled boreholes in Ashanti Region indicate that geological formation of the region comprised the Birimian , Grantoids, Tarkwaian and Voltarian formations.



The Granitoids are within the relatively low yielding zone (

The Tarkwaian formation, on the other hand, is within the medium yield zone with a drilling success rate of 80% (ibid).



Generally, groundwater in Ashanti Region is largely potable except for a few locations within the Birimian and granitoids, where there are problems with the levels of iron, nitrate, manganese and arsenic.



In the Obuasi municipality, the mining of gold from the Birimiam rock rich in arsenopyrite ore leads to the release of arsenic (As), which can contaminate groundwater resources.



The Principal Officer and Head of Pra Basin of the Water Resource Commission, Mrs. Abena Dufie Wiredu Bremang, made these revelations and more during the commemoration of AngloGold Ashantis (AGA) maiden celebration and observation of World Water Day at Obuasi, on the theme Groundwater  making the Invisible Visible.



The event brought together stakeholders such as traditional leaders, Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) among others to observe World Water Day, which has been set up by the United Nations for global celebration



Mrs. Abena Dufie Wiredu Bremang assured the public that boreholes in the Obuasi municipality and its environs are not at risk of poisoning; she noted that WRC is however not relenting on its regular monitoring of boreholes and wells in the municipality, and throughout the region, to ensure the quality of water is good for consumption.



Touching on challenges bedeviling the future of groundwater, Mrs. Dufie Wiredu mentioned that much as groundwater presents a huge opportunity that humanity can leverage, human activities including rapid growth of population and the inelastic search for wealth as well as climate variability are increasing the pressure on groundwater resources quality.



She noted that issues of illegalities coupled with galamsey and pollution are having countless effects on the countrys ecosystem and on underground water: What good will we have achieved if we end up destroying everything in our quest to extract gold and other resources? she asked rhetorically.



Under the WRC implementation of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), she indicated that her outfit is vigorously engaging key stakeholders on all fronts and working together to ensure they effectively manage these groundwater resources for future generations.

Source: B&FT









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Minority in Parliament has hinted of a planned demonstrations and picketing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra if the government does not make COVID-19 test free.



According to the Minority, they will not stop at anything until testing is free for Ghanaians at the airport.



Inasmuch as I welcome this development it is inadequate. We want to see a complete reversal; a complete rollback, the Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told Citifm.



He continued We want to serve notice that if by next week, the government does not reverse the fees. We are going to talk. Series of actions including public action, public manifestation and picketing at the airport until that fleecing going on at the airport is reversed.



Meanwhile, the government has announced plans to cancel the mandatory PCR tests for vaccinated passengers at KIA, according to a document in possession of Starr News.



The document details a number of restrictions government intends to ease including reopening of land borders and corresponding measures to curb spread of Covid-19.



This follows the 3-day cabinet retreat where President Akufo-Addo approved such moves as mitigation measures for the economic hardship in the country.



Currently, the point of entry allows only fully vaccinated passengers entry into the country. Such passengers undergo 72-hour PCR Test and Antigen test on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).



Citizens and foreign residents in Ghana who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated currently, are given waivers by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to allow them entry into the county through the KIA. Such passengers undergo a 72-hour PCR Test and Antigen test on arrival and are offered vaccination.

However, the document proposed that a Fully vaccinated travellers would not need PCR and Antigen Tests from the country of embarkation to allow them entry into the country through the KIA.



Citizens and foreign residents in Ghana not fully vaccinated would need to do a prior arrival 48-hour PCR Test, Antigen test on arrival and will be offered vaccination at the KIA.





Source: starrfmonline.com









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STC Chief Executive Officer, Nana Akomea says the electronic transaction levy, popularly called e-levy, proposal by the Akufo-Addo government is a brilliant idea to fix the economy.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Nana Akomea urged Ghanaians to embrace the e-levy believing it will hugely benefit Ghanaians.



He revealed why the proposal hasn't been accepted yet but was of a strong view that the e-levy will be passed.



"The only reason the e-levy hasn't been approved is that we don't have the numbers in Parliament. Period! If we had the numbers in Parliament, we would have passed the e-levy in December and, by this time, it would be working," he said.



Nana Akomea explained how beneficial the e-levy will be for the development of Ghana saying, "the electronic transaction business is one of the fastest growing businesses in this country. In 2016, electronic transactions, MOMO, electronic transfers amounted to 80 billion cedis. In 2016, electronic transactions, MOMO, electronic transfers amounted to 80 billion, last year, 2021, it moved from 80 billion in 2016 to 950 billion cedis. The volume of electronic business going on in this country, so it shows [I mean] if the part of the economy is growing so well, you tax a little''.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has stated that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo deserves to be whipped in order for him to make difficult economic decisions.



According to him, the President needs such force to be applied on him in order to turn the countrys economic downturn around.



Speaking on Good Morning Ghana, the morning show of Accra-based Metro TV, the ranking member on Parliaments Finance Committee decried the economic standing of the country.



He indicated that the Akufo-Addo-led administration ought to be blamed fully and squarely for the current situation, adding that there was the need for difficult decisions to be taken to salvage the situation.



Whiles expressing reservation about the cabinets communique post the crunch meeting held at Peduase lodge over the weekend to proffer solutions to the economic challenges, he maintained that somebody with a whip [should have been] in that cabinet meeting who will tell them 'until you take the right decisions that will improve the economy, you are not leaving here.



The decisions that have to be taken are very difficult decisions. And the government that always wants to look good in the eyes of Ghanaians is not the type of government that can take the difficult decisions.



The government that wants to be praised in doing the wrong things to hurt the economy furtherwhat this government needs is somebody with a whip whipping Akufo-Addo to run around until he says yes sir, I wont do that again. That is what they need.



They should have had somebody with a whip in that cabinet meeting who will tell them until you take the right decisions that will improve the economy, you are not leaving here, Mr. Adongo stressed.



The economy in recent times has witnessed a downward spiral.



Many economists have cited the depreciating Cedi, increase in fuel prices and general cost of living as pointers to this claim.



Some analysts have asked the government to seek an IMF bailout programme, however, government has shot down the proposal whiles banking its hopes on the E-Levy.



The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, over the weekend held a crunch meeting with key members of his government to decide on ways to mitigate the current economic challenges.



Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to brief the nation on Thursday on the outcome of the meeting.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) must be blamed for the long queues at the SIM card registration centres.



I need to make this point, even before the elections were done, this [Ghana] card registration exercise took off I believe in 2018 thereof, the National Democratic Congress told its members not to register and to boycott it, Owusu-Ekuful said on Asaase Radio Wednesday (23 March).



So, the queues we are seeing currently are directly attributable to that action that the NDC took, and if we had all availed ourselves of that opportunity at that time, everybody who wanted a card would have gotten it by now and we wouldnt have been seeing the queue, she told the ABS host Kwaku Nhyira-Addo.



It is through no fault of the National Identification Authority, it is those who did not register at the time the nationwide registration exercise was opened who are having to go through this thing. So lets lay the blame where it is and stop beating NIA over a situation which wasnt their own doing.



Owusu-Ekuful urged Ghanaians to stop politicising national exercises in the future.



And let me appeal to everyone that when there is a national exercise, lets not politicise it, because at the end of the day, it is the citizen who suffer. It is not the party which is queueing to acquire the card she added.



Meanwhile, the deadline for the SIM card re-registration has been extended to 31 July, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation announced on Tuesday (22 March).



The Ghana Card is the main requirement for the registration.





Source: asaaseradio.com









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Former National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Obed Yao Asamoah said making Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, the running mate of the party in the 2020 did not add anything to the fortune of the party.



He believes it was a big gamble and mistake to have gone to the election with the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast.



According to him, the former Education Minister did not add any value to the main candidate, John Dramani Mahama in the 2020 polls.



He said former President Mahamas running mate in the 2020 general elections even failed to make any impact in her own backyard, the Central Region.



The former Attorney-General revealed that Prof Opoku-Agyemang even lost a seat in her home town to talk of other regions.

The lady who is a running mate to Mahama lost the Central Region in the last election. Lost a whole constituency, the former Attorney-General told Accra based JoyNews.



He said under Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemangs watch; the NDC lost a seat in her home Region.



The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost nine of its parliamentary seats to the opposition NDC which swept 13 out of the Regions 23 seats with nine of them being new, snatched from the NPP.



Prior to the 2020 general election, the NPP had 19 seats while the opposition NDC held four parliamentary seats in the Region.

However, the NPP won the presidential election in the Central region, one of the swing regions, raising question about the effective of Mahamas running mate in the in the 2020 elections.



Dr. Asamoah however expressed fear this could repeat itself for the party in the 2024 general elections if Mahama settles on 2020 running mate.



According to him, the NDC must rethink of sending Prof. Opoku-Agyemang once again as a running mate, saying that there has to be some fresh thinking.



There could be some amends we make to make her succeed. But for now, she didnt make an impact.



Dr Obed Asamoah believes the NDC could have lost completely if not for the votes the party amass in the Greater Accra Region.



He cited the disagreement between government and spare parts dealers as one of the factors that worked in favour of the NDC.



Dr. Asamoah noted that They (spare parts dealers) thought that the taxation against them was too much. A lot of them supported the NDC. We were prepared to allow Okada. That was also a significant factor against the NPP.





Source: Daily Guide









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Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam (5th L, front) attends the handover ceremony of the community isolation facility (CIF) in Yuen Long, south China's Hong Kong, March 24, 2022. The CIF in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the HKSAR government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

HONG KONG, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The community isolation facility (CIF) in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong.

The Yuen Long facility is composed of modular cubicles, with each room equipped with basic furniture and bedding, air conditioner and smoke sensor, among others. It provides over 2,300 rooms with around 9,400 beds.

Chief Executive of the HKSAR Carrie Lam and Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's government in the HKSAR Tan Tieniu attended the handover ceremony.

The first phase of six medical facilities in Hong Kong were all handed over in March, providing a total of about 20,000 beds. The one in Tsing Yi was finished in about one week's time and started operation on March 1. Later, projects in San Tin, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Fanling and Hung Shui Kiu were also put into use, greatly reducing the pressure of Hong Kong's medical system and providing strong support for the financial hub to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lam told a press conference on Thursday that the HKSAR government has requested the central authorities to send another team of traditional Chinese medicine experts to Hong Kong.

Since mid-February, three groups of experts have been sent by the Central authorities to inspect and guide the anti-epidemic work of the HKSAR, Lam said, adding that the mainland's experience in using the traditional Chinese medicine to treat COVID-19 patients is applicable to Hong Kong and she believed that the experts will be of great help to Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work.

On Thursday, Hong Kong registered 5,732 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 7,342 additional positive cases through self-reported rapid antigen tests, official data showed. 

Aerial photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the community isolation facility (CIF) in Yuen Long, south China's Hong Kong. The CIF in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Staff members pose for a group photo at the handover ceremony of the community isolation facility (CIF) in Yuen Long, south China's Hong Kong, March 24, 2022. The CIF in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the community isolation facility (CIF) in Yuen Long, south China's Hong Kong. The CIF in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam attends the handover ceremony of the community isolation facility (CIF) in Yuen Long, south China's Hong Kong, March 24, 2022. The CIF in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the HKSAR government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Aerial photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the community isolation facility (CIF) in Yuen Long, south China's Hong Kong. The CIF in Hong Kong's Yuen Long, constructed with the support from the mainland, was handed over to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday, marking the full completion of the first phase of mainland-aided medical facilities in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Gang)
Chief Executive Officer for the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP), Kofi Ofosu Nkansah has mooted an idea that will save Ghana Millions of Cedis.



Currently, the Government of Ghana is cutting off its expenditure in order to be able to run the affairs of the country.



Salaries for Government appointees have been cut by 30%, the Presidency has also cut its expenditure by 30% whiles the countrys budget has been cut by 20%.



But Kofi Ofosu Nkansah believes that ex gratia paid every four years should be made a thing of the past.



He argues that Members of Parliament who are leaving their seats should only be the ones to be paid ex gratia and that will save the country millions of Ghana cedis.



Lets begin by putting an end to Ex gratia. It should only be given to persons who are exiting parliament, he said in a post shared on Facebook.



This subject has been of great concern to some Ghanaians.



Kwame Asare Obeng popularly known as A Plus believes that it should be scrapped entirely because it hurts the countrys finances.



Ex gratia is the only thing both sides in Parliament agree on without any form of opposition in the country.





Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has blamed the Minority in Parliament for the sharp depreciation of Ghana's currency against foreign currencies.



The Ghana cedi has, in 2022, depreciated by about 14.6% to the US dollar, according to data by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).



According to the BoG's March 2022 Summary of Economic and Financial Data, the local currency lost 0.3% and 9% in value to the US currency in January 2022 and February 2022 respectively.



Briefing the media on the economy, the Finance Minister recounted some factors that have badly impacted the economy and one of which he said is the opposition by the Minority against the government's 2022 budget, with particular reference to the e-levy.



The Minister expounded that, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has been looking at ways to revitalize the economy, hence designing the 2022 budget with the tools to restore Ghana and put the country in better shape.



But, to him, the government's inability to implement the budget due to the opposition by the Minority has potentially eroded the investors' confidence and subsequently resulting in the cedi depreciation.



" . . three things that we could not and did not predict hit us. That one that Parliament will approve government's 2022 budget statement, the appropriation and its expenditure plans and then turn around to vote against one of the key revenue generation measures that was being introduced, the e-levy. That the unyielding stance of the Minority in Parliament against the e-levy will gravely affect investor confidence in our capacity to implement our programmes and settle our debts, triggering a downgrading by credit rating agencies and now leaving the cedi vulnerable as we could not assess the international capital market.



"Ladies and gentlemen, the third hit was the launch of the attack on Ukraine by Russia on February 24th, 2022. The war in Ukraine could not have come at a worst time for the global economy. Already, global efforts towards economy recovery from the devastation wreaked by the Coronavirus pandemic were being disturbed by supply chain disruptions," he said.















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Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A well-known Nollywood actor has addressed rumours reportedly circulated online that he had died, by cursing the person behind the gossip.



Speaking on Instagram Kanayo O Kanayo warned: "You will not live past the next seven days. You've got the wrong guy."



He said before people start rumours about famous people, they should think about the impact on their families.



"Do most people think that Nollywood actors or entertainers or popular people don't have families? What kind of life do they think we live? Somebody wakes up, compiles three, four, five pictures, and puts RIP," he said.



"My life has never been in anybody's hand. I want to thank all friends who have called since morning. I don't even have fever," he continued.



He concluded the video by thanking fans for their kindness.



Kanayo O Kanayo is a veteran in the industry and has featured in hundreds of movies over 30 years, according to Nigeria's Pulse news website.

Source: BBC









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Alyssa Kroeker and younger brother Lagos are pictured out for a walk in Penticton with her dog Storm prior to leaving for California and the six-month trek along the Pacific Crest Trail.
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Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)

ANKARA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported.

The explosion occurred at a workplace in the third industrial estate, located on the central Kayapinar district, along the Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa highway route.

The agency reported that an oxygen cylinder at the workplace might have caused the explosion.

Many police and medical teams were dispatched to the scene. The injured were taken to hospital, some with serious wounds, according to the DHA. 

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the scene of an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province. At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported. (Xinhua)
Hands of the Week: Deeb Pulls Off Trademark Slowroll w/ Aces in Wynn Millions

March 24, 2022 Chad Holloway Executive Editor U.S.

PokerNews is known throughout the world for our industry-leading live updates for both live and online events. In fact, right now we're offering various updates right here.

Over the years, weve captured memorable hands, many of which have become a part of poker history. In this column, we will bring you some of the biggest hands of the week as reported in the PokerNews Live Updates from the 2022 Wynn Millions.

The prestigious $10,000-buy-in tournament lasted for six days and attracted a total of 1,075 runners to generate a huge $10,105,000 prize pool, surpassing the $10 million guarantee. Tony Sinishtaj defeated Isaac Kempton during heads-up play to win the massive first-place prize of $1,655,952 and the Wynn golden trophy.

Remember, if youre playing an event PokerNews is covering, you can get in the updates via the MyStack App. You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.

Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.

Huge Cooler Rockets Eveslage, Dents Imsirovic, and Busts Shak

Chad Eveslage

On Day 1a in Level 9 (1,000/1,5000/1,500), Chad Eveslage opened to 3,500 in early position, Ali Imsirovic called in middle position, the button called, and Dan Shak jammed the small blind for approximately 60,000. Eveslage rejammed for 119,000, and Imsirovic called.

Dan Shak:

Chad Eveslage:

Ali Imsirovic:

It was aces versus kings versus queens, and Eveslage looked to be on the right side of the massive cooler.

The board ran out to change nothing, and Eveslage took the pot with his rockets. Meanwhile, Imsirovic took a hit but still holds one of the top stacks, and Shak was eliminated.

Free to Play Slots in the US

Lovgren Hits Quads to Crack Wigg's Set of Aces

Sofia Lovgren

A few levels earlier in Level 6 (400/800/800), Sofia Lovgren was seen with a big smile on her face and raking in a massive pot that she won after going all-in against two opponents for around 33,000.

Lovgren held and was against Erik Wigg's and the of Peter Cross. The flop of gave Lovgren a set and Wigg a bigger set, but the miracle on the turn improved Lovgren to quads.

The river brought the and Lovgren scooped the massive pot, while a side pot went to Wigg, and Cross was eliminated.

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Guilbert Bluffs With Best Hand and Gets Called

Johan Guilbert

In Level 10 (1,000/2,000/2,000), Johan Guilbert opened to 4,000 in early position, a middle position player called, and the small blind called.

The flop fell . The small blind checked, Guilbert bet 8,500, and the middle position player raised to 22,000. The small blind folded and Guilbert called.

The landed on the turn and Guilbert check-called for 27,000.

The completed the board and Guilbert jammed. His opponent went deep into the tank and after a couple of minutes, called for his stack of approximately 78,000.

Guilbert revealed .

"No way," his opponent said, seemingly perplexed.

"I was bluffing," Guilbert said. "Fives?"

His opponent's hand was shown to be indeed, and the French vlogger took the pot and added the chips to his stack.

Don't miss these free to play poker games

Deeb Coolered By Schwartz

Shaun Deeb

On Day 1b in Level 3 (200/400/400), Jake Schwartz opened to 1,000 in middle position and Shaun Deeb three-bet to 3,300 as the player next to act. The action folded back to Schwartz, who called.

Schwartz checked on the flop of and Deeb bet 3,000. Schwartz called. Schwartz checked again on the turn and Deeb bet 6,500. Schwartz responded by re-raising all-in for around 27,000 and Deeb snap-called.

Jake Schwartz:

Shaun Deeb:

Deeb had a set of aces but it was no good against the flush of Schwartz. The board didn't pair as the river bricked off and Schwartz secured the double-up, while Deeb was left with crumbs.

Despite losing that hand, Deeb would go on to finish in 12th place for $125,326.

Quads Over Quads for Dicarlo

Sal Dicarlo

On Day 1b in Level 7 (500/1,000/1,000), Sal Dicarlo got his 11,700 chips in preflop and was up against two other players.

Sal Dicarlo:

Opponent:

Opponent:

The board ran out , and although one opponent made quad jacks, Dicarlo's quad kings took the main pot, while the other player took the side pot to stay alive as a consolation prize.

"Made quads and broke even," someone at the table noted to the winner of the side pot.

Poker Bunny Doesn't Show Cards While All In

Paulina Loeliger AKA Poker Bunny

On Day 1c in Level 10 (1,000/2,000/2,000), Shaun Deeb opened to 4,000 in middle position and Paulina Loeliger shoved for 9,000 in the hijack. The cutoff called and Deeb called.

The dealer spread the flop and Deeb bet 10,000, causing the cutoff to fold.

Paulina Loeliger:

Shaun Deeb:

The dealer ran out the turn and river, but had forgotten to flip over Loeliger's hand. Loeliger sat still for a bit of time before suddenly putting her cards into the middle of the muck and moving the pile of cards around, leaving her hole cards unknown.

Deeb added the chips to his stack and Loeliger made her exit from the tournament area.

Deeb Pulls Off Trademark Slowroll with Aces

Shaun Deeb

On Day 2c in Level 13 (2,000/4,000/4,000), when Shaun Deeb raised in late position to 8,000 with just 65,000 total in his stack. The big blind, Javier Zarco, then moved all in, and after about 10 seconds of pondering his decision, Deeb decided to call off, a decision he had already made.

"I've got a pretty big hand," Deeb said while slowly turning his hand over.

Shaun Deeb:

Javier Zarco:

In fairness to Deeb, he acted much quicker than he often does when facing an all-in bet with the nuts. As for the board, it ran out and the "King of Slowrolls" took down the pot.

"It's too bad justice wasn't served," Zarco uttered.

Read About Sinishtaj's Wynn Millions victory here!

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liviu_hzn Wins Retro Week $100K Challenge As Main Event Approaches

March 24, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

The $888,000 guaranteed Retro Week has reached the halfway stage at 888poker with 14 champions crowned. Those champions now have a sufficient bankroll to buy into the upcoming $300,000 guaranteed $215 Retro Week Main Event.

Romania's "liviu_hzn" is the player who has won the biggest prize of Retro Week so far after they turned their $90 investment into $16,330. The Romanian came out on top of a 1,363-strong field in the $90 buy-in $100,000 guaranteed Sunday Challenge.

The top 180 finishers shared $111,766, with British grinder "EZ.PZ" bursting the money bubble. A min-cash weighed in at $223.53 but this increased to $1,542 by the time only nine players remained.

Nicolas "PKaiser" Fierro, a player with almost $13 million in online poker winnings, was the first of the finalists heading for the exits. "JulioFantin" of Brazil and Albania's "LLudockha" were the next casualties; they banked $2,022 and $2,671, respectively.

888poker Ambassador Vivian Saliba Hoping for "New Memories" in Retro Week

Two more Brazilians fell in quick succession and saw their 888poker accounts swell by $3,553 and $4,771. "luish64" was the first of the Samba stars to fall, and "azevado45" joined his fellow countryman on the rail after.

liviu_hzn doubled before azevado45 when their aces held against the ace-six of "Agharazi" and they never looked back from this point.

"R3li_able" fell in fourth for $6,448 who lost when liviu_hzn's king-queen came from behind to best their ace-nine. Then heads-up was set when "Ii1Ii1" ran their last four big blinds with jack-seven into the queen-ten of liviu_hzn.

The eventual champion held 41.1 big blinds against the 25.3 big blind stack of Agharazi and they never looked back. The final hand saw all the chips go into the middle, liviu_hzn holding ace-king of hearts against pocket nines. A king on the flop proved more than enough for liviu_hzn to become a Retro Week champion.

Retro Week #2 - $100,000 Sunday Challenge Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 liviu_hzn Romania $16,330 2 Agharazi Azerbaijan $11,936 3 Ii1Ii1 Romania $8,773 4 R3li_able Lithuania $6,448 5 azevedo45 Brazil $4,772 6 luish64 Brazil $3,554 7 LLudochka Albania $2,671 8 JulioFantin Brazil $2,022 9 Nick "PKaiser" Fierro Chile $1,542

888poker Retro Week Results So Far

Peter Traply

Peter "kiskutya23" Traply is another 888poker players who has won big during the first half of Retro Week courtesy of taking down the $525 Whale, and getting his hands on $14,414, the lion's share of the $58,500 prize pool.

Event Buy-in Entrants Prize pool Champion Prize #1 - $25,000 Big Fish $33 1,157 $34,710 E.D.I.T.H $5,373 #2 - $100,000 Sunday Challenge $90 1,363 $111,766 liviu_hzn $16,330 #3 - $15,000 Catfish $16.50 961 $15,000 penfolds6 $2,123 #4 - $50,000 Whale $525 117 $58,500 Peter "kiskutya23" Traply $14,414 #5 - $15,000 Lightning PKO 6-Max $109 276 $27,600 Kabosu69 $5,743* #6 - $10,000 Monday Twins 1 $22 587 $11,740 andrzn $2,147 #7 - $10,000 Monday Twins 2 $22 553 $11,060 VERYPOTATO $2,023 #8 - $10,000 Breeze PKO $55 259 $12,950 Vlaaad25 $2,678* #9 - $30,000 Tuesday Challenge Freezeout $109 242 $30,000 Christy1979 $6,081 #10 - $20,000 Monsoon 8-Max $55 388 $20,000 ItalianPorn $3,900 #11 - $10,000 Catfish PKO $16.50 691 $10,365 abit23 $1,739 #12 - $7,000 Blowfish $11 787 $7,870 PVMMacedo $1,285 #13 - $20,000 Wednesday Challenge $33 676 $20,280 06jecaeS $3,508 #14 - $15,000 Monsoon PKO $55 407 $20,350 Pulgetti $3,535

888 Launches Eye-Catching Made To Play Campaign

Remaining 888poker Retro Week Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Event Buy-in Thu 24 Mar 4:30 p.m. Retro Week #15 - $20,000 Hurricane PKO $109 6:00 p.m. Retro Week #16 - $20,000 Thursday Challenge R&A $22 8:00 p.m. Retro Week #17 - $10,000 Breeze 6-Max $55 Fri 25 Mar 6:00 p.m. Retro Week #18 - $30,000 Friday Challenge KO $109 7:00 p.m. Retro Week #19 - $20,000 Big Fish PKO $33 8:00 p.m. Retro Week #20 - $10,000 Catfish 6-Max $16.50 Sat 26 Mar 4:00 p.m. Retro Week #21 - $12,000 Swordfish 6-Max $33 6:00 p.m. Retro Week #22 - $30,000 Saturday Challenge PKO 8-Max $55 8:00 p.m. Retro Week #23 - $15,000 Tornado PKO $88 Sun 27 Mar 6:00 p.m. Retro Week Main Event - $300,000 Mega Deep $215 7:00 p.m. Retro Week #25 - $50,000 Mini Mega Deep $33 8:00 p.m. Retro Week #26 - $50,000 Whale $525

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A deputy connected to an officer-involved shooting in Graniteville on Feb. 3 has resigned from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office after being charged with driving under the influence in Savannah, Georgia.

Deputy Justin Rutland was pulled over by Georgia State Patrol near the intersection of West Bay and Carolan streets on March 19, according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety. He is charged with driving under the influence and failure to maintain lane.

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office said Rutland was cited and released at the scene.

Rutland has been employed with the Aiken County Sheriffs Office since November 2012, working most recently in special operations, said Capt. Eric Abdullah with sheriff's office.

If a deputy is facing any kind of criminal charges, an internal investigation takes place.

"It's something he chose to do before any investigation was initiated," Abdullah said.

If a deputy is found to have broken policy, they are usually terminated from the agency.

Officer-involved shooting in February

At the time of his arrest, Rutland was on administrative leave following an officer-involved shooting incident in Aiken County in February.

On Feb. 3, an Aiken County deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop when the suspect, later identified as Cameron Duncan, fled from police.

Rutland took over the pursuit and when confronted by deputies, the suspect pointed his weapon at police, according to the police report.

Rutland and Deputy Tillman Ruston fired at the suspect. They were not injured.

Duncan was treated at an Augusta hospital and released.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is still investigating.

"[Rutland] is still a part of that investigation until SLED submits their findings to the second circuit solicitor once they've completed their investigation," Abdullah said.

This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
A traveling Holocaust remembrance exhibit is making stops in the Charleston area beginning this week and will include a welcome event led by Mayor John Tecklenburg and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

Another ceremony will be held by Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie and Holocaust survivor and author Joe Engel.

The Hate Ends Now Tour is taking a replica of a World War II-era cattle car across the U.S. It will make multiple stops in the Charleston area from March 25 through April 1.

Viewers step into the cattle car replica to experience a multimedia presentation about the transportation of Jewish people to concentration camp in such cattle cars.

The experience educates attendees about the Holocaust and the continuation of hate and intolerance that exists today.

This unique approach to Holocaust education engages the senses and creates a lasting impression that will not only help young people understand the consequences of anti-Semitic attacks and bigotry in America, it will also teach them to stand up against ignorance and hate, said Arielle Nakdimon, regional spokeswoman for the Hate Ends Now Tour in a press release.

The exhibit was created by Holocaust education organization Shadowlight and is being brought on tour in collaboration with the Southern chapter of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.

The exhibit will make the following stops:

Bees Ferry West Ashley Library

10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 25 at 3035 Sanders Road, Charleston.

Congregation Dor Tikvah

Noon-4 p.m. March 27 at 1645 Raoul Wallenberg Blvd., Charleston. Tecklenburg and Scott, R-S.C., speak at noon.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 28.

Wando Mount Pleasant Library
COLUMBIA  The State Ports Authority said planned delays in construction of a rail yard serving its container terminals will drive up costs, but the projected increase was not disclosed publicly during a March 24 meeting.

Barbara Melvin, chief operations officer for the agency, told the Joint Bond Review Committee that construction of the Navy Base Intermodal Facility in North Charleston won't begin until after legislators approve all of the money needed to complete the project. That likely won't be until July, when the new fiscal year budget begins.

"Any delay that we experience in letting the contracts is going to have an effect" on the final cost, Melvin said. She added the SPA has calculated "what we feel like construction escalation could be," but the figures weren't discussed until an hour-long closed-door session.

Sen. Nikki Setzler, a West Columbia Democrat who chairs the bond review panel's Fiscal Oversight Subcommittee, thanked Melvin after the closed session "for the openness and responsiveness that we're seeing ... even when the questions are uncomfortable."

The construction delay appeared to catch committee members by surprise.

"This is the first time I recall hearing anything about you will not enter into any contracts until you have all cash in hand," Setzler said.

Legislators included $200 million for the rail project in this fiscal year's budget and are expected to approve the remaining $200 million in the next spending plan. Another $150 million would go toward a barge system that would move cargo containers by water from the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant to the rail yard in North Charleston.

Setzler said he believed the SPA would start building the rail yard after the first batch of money was approved, but Melvin said the maritime agency still doesn't have enough cash to cover those costs. She said approving construction contracts without having all of the money in the bank would be risky because contractors would likely want to charge more if they thought the project might be halted because of a lack of funding.

"I think that they add risk into their bid price," she said. "And I think that would be something that we want to try to avoid if it does not ultimately significantly impact the completion schedule."

Melvin said the rail yard could still open by 2025, although its completion might be pushed to the second half of that year.

News that construction won't start until another $200 million is approved puts added pressure on legislators to include that money in the next budget.

The S.C. House approved a proposal this week that includes that money and the extra $150 million for the barge service while the Senate is still debating its budget plan. Both sides must reach a compromise on their respective spending proposals before a final version is sent to Gov. Henry McMaster.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee, which met Wednesday, were leaning toward including the $350 million total but debated where the money should come from. Setzler, who is also on that panel, wanted assurances that the SPA won't seek more funding in the future.

"If the General Assembly gives you that $350 million, that is the total commitment of the General Assembly," Setzler said. "Everything else is yours? Any shortfall in construction or anything else, you own it and you wont be back?"

Melvin replied: "Not on this project, no, sir."

The SPA has been using the initial $200 million it received to complete preliminary construction and settle condemnation lawsuits that started when Palmetto Railways was in charge of the project. The short-line railroad, a division of the S.C. Commerce Department, turned the development over to the ports authority last year.

The rail yard will handle cargo containers going to and from the nearby Leatherman Terminal that opened last year on the former Navy base. It has been in the planning stages for about a decade. Norfolk Southern and CSX Corp. will haul freight to and from the site.

Jim Newsome, the SPA's chief executive, has said having a rail yard on or near a terminal is necessary for the Charleston waterfront to maintain its growth and remain among the top 10 ports in the nation. That need is amplified, he said, by the congestion thats stymied container traffic in South Carolina and elsewhere.
A New England retailer that makes handbags from recycled sail cloth recently dropped anchor in downtown Charleston.

Maine-based Sea Bags now offers a second South Carolina location at 84 N. Market St. across from the historic City Market. It opened March 18.

The company has been designing and crafting an assortment of bags, totes and accessories from old sails since 2006.

The retailer has another store in Myrtle Beach and is planning a third Palmetto State location in the Hilton Head Island area later this spring. The Charleston site is the company's 39th in the U.S. Four other stores are in the works for Florida, Michigan and Massachusetts.

The new Charleston shop is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

"With its cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages and pastel buildings, Charleston is truly one of the most charming port cities in the country," said Don Oakes, CEO of Sea Bags.

He hopes the new shop will help the company expand its sail trade program that allows people to donate old or unused sails. For every usable sail, the retailer offers customers a Sea Bags product in trade. The company can arrange to pick up a sail or customers can drop them off at a retail location.

Since the program started in 2017, the company has reclaimed more than 700 tons of sail cloth material. Last year, it collected over 7,000 sails.

Branching out

Sandwich, breakfast and frose eatery Co-op is planning a fifth location.

The new cafe plans to open May 1 at 190 Gardners Circle in the Harris Teeter-anchored Freshfields Village Shopping Center between Kiawah and Seabrook islands. The restaurant is taking over the space currently occupied by Ladles Soups, which plans to close April 1, according to Colin Keenan of Co-op.

The quick turnaround for the opening of the new location is the result of "an equipment buyout," Keenan said.

The cafe currently operates on the Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island as well as next to Edmund's Oast Brewing Co. on Charleston's upper peninsula.

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Another site is planned for 81 Cannon St. in Charleston.

"It's moving along," Keenan said. "We are in the permitting phase."

An opening is tentatively set for late summer.

Making a home

A nomadic housewares retailer has scrapped plans to build a new store and is hosting an open house after settling into a new location.

The owners of Coralberry Cottage  now at 1751 U.S. Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant  paid $895,000 for a parcel at 1135 Chuck Dawley Blvd. in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Business partners Rutledge Carter, Melissa Hempstead and Liz Baker planned to build a new shop on the site and posted a rendering of the new store on a sign along the road.

Last summer, the retailer pulled out of Northcutt Plaza on Coleman Boulevard when the lease expired and operated virtually for a while, as they hoped construction would be done before long on the new structure.

After delays on the proposed new building for numerous reasons, they landed in a new location in November between Interstate 526 and Mount Pleasant Towne Centre.

At the time, they signed a three-year lease and planned to operate on site while their building was being built.

With construction not progressing as they hoped, Carter said she and her partners decided to sell the Chuck Dawley property and stay where they are since they had signed on for three years. The transaction to an undisclosed buyer is expected to close in May.

Now that they have decided to stay anchored for a while, the business partners will host an open house 1-5 p.m. March 26.

The event will feature Zuma Turkish rugs and 3L Collective, a fabric printing business for custom pillows, curtains and other items. Light bites and drinks will be available as well.
South Carolina's 2022 top honors in the cultural arena are well underway, with recipients in two sectors recently announced and nominations now open in a third.

South Carolina Governor's Awards for the Arts

The South Carolina Arts Commission named four recipients to be honored in 2022 with South Carolina Governor's Award for the Arts, the state's highest award for exceptional achievement in practicing or supporting the arts.

Recipients always represent the best of South Carolina. They are talented, successful, and dedicated. They give of themselves to ensure access to the arts for all, Arts Commission Chairwoman Dee Crawford said.

The recipients include:

Artist: Darion McCloud (Columbia) is an actor, director, storyteller, educator, arts activist and childrens literature advocate who is also the founder and creative director both of NiA Theatre Company and Story Squad.

Individual: Ed Madden (Columbia) is a poet and activist who is a professor of English with a focus on Irish literature at the University of South Carolina, where he is also director of the womens and gender studies program.

Arts in Education: Carrie Ann Power (Aiken) is an arts educator and advocate with 30 years of contributions to South Carolina arts education, serving in roles at East Aiken School of the Arts and the state Department of Education.

Organization: One Columbia for Arts and History (Columbia) was officially named Columbia's Department of Cultural Affairs earlier in 2022 after serving as its de facto office, facilitating public arts programs and other initiatives.

This class of Governors Award recipients is notable for the ways in which it improves access to the arts across the spectrum," said Arts Commission Executive Director David Platts.

Making the arts more representative is central to the South Carolina Arts Commissions mission. All four of these recipients demonstrate tireless efforts to help the arts be more inclusive and accessible.

The mission of the Columbia-based Arts Commission is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. The state agency works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in four areas: arts learning, community and traditional arts, artist development and arts industry. It is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources.

Recipients of the Governors Awards are honored during a video presentation of the South Carolina Arts Awards. Plans for the 2022 awards will be announced on a later date.

Nominations for the awards typically take place in the fall. For more information, go to SouthCarolinaArts.com.

The 2022 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards

In 2022, the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards will be presented by the General Assembly to three recipients, who are being honored for work keeping the states traditional art forms alive.

The 2022 recipients are:

Justin Guy (Edgefield) is an artist working in traditional alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery.

Ann Phillips (Sumter) is an artist whose focus is quilt-making.

Duncan Rutherfurd (Aiken) is an advocate and artist specializing in custom knife-making.

Their crafts  now recognized as art forms in their own right  represent an important connection to, and recognition of, South Carolinas cultural past," Platts said.

"At the same time, they remain an integral and vibrant part of communities across the Palmetto State today. These artists do exceptional work that enriches the lives of all South Carolinians, and for that we are all fortunate and grateful.

The awards program is managed jointly by the South Carolina Arts Commission and USC's McKissick Museum, based on nominations made by community members. Recipients of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards are presented during the video presentation of the South Carolina Arts Awards.

South Carolina Humanities Awards Nominations Open

South Carolina Humanities announces nominations are open for the Governors Awards in the Humanities and the Fresh Voices in the Humanities Awards.

Established in 1991, the Governors Awards celebrate the Palmetto States humanities academics and advocates. It is administered through South Carolina Humanities, a nonprofit governed by a volunteer board of directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state.

The mission of South Carolina Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians, and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually.

Nominations are accepted through May 14. To learn more about the Governors Awards, the nomination process and to see a list of past winners, go to www.schumanities.org/annualevents/govawards.
COLUMBIA  Attorneys representing relatives of a Columbia man shot and killed by a Richland County sheriff's deputy over the weekend said police knew he was mentally ill after previous episodes and escalated the confrontation by drawing their guns.

Police responded to a call about a man threatening relatives with a knife in a north Columbia home on March 19. Irvin Moorer Charley, 34, came out of the home holding a narrow piece of wood at his side and approached a deputy, according to bodycam footage released March 23. A second deputy arrived and tased Charley, who charged at the officer. Charley was shot four times and killed.

Charley's family said he was having a mental health crisis, something that led to previous police calls. He never raised the wooden object threateningly, the family's attorneys said.

"We believe officers could have disarmed Mr. Charley without the use of deadly force," family attorney Shaquana Cuttino told reporters March 23. "Yet they came in with guns blazing."

The family and their attorneys called for an independent agency to investigate the shooting.

Richland County Sheriff's Department is an outlier in the state in investigating its own officers in cases of a deputy firing their weapon, said attorney Brendan Green, one of the lawyers representing Charley's family. The State Law Enforcement Division typically investigates shootings by police officers elsewhere in South Carolina.

The shooting death was the first at the hands of a Richland County deputy since 2013, Sherriff Leon Lott said. The deputies had a right to protect themselves, he said, and Charley was not listening to deputies' commands to drop a weapon and kept approaching them.

After the family called for the release of body camera video during a news conference March 23, the sheriff's department released video that afternoon from cameras worn by deputies John Anderson and Zachary Hentz.

Richland County received a 911 call at 5:49 p.m. March 19 from a woman who said she was Charley's sister complaining about a man pulling a knife on their mother, stepfather and brother. He also was punching some of them.

"He was about to jump on them," the woman said in the 911 recording released March 23.

The first officer to respond at the home on Heyward Brockington Road was Anderson.

Anderson's body camera footage begins with the deputy approaching the house of Charley's mother, Connie Craig, and Craig standing out front telling Anderson he needs to get in the house.

"Is it Irvin?" Anderson asks.

Craig tells Anderson that Charley had hit her in the head. Charley's brother, Ivan, initially tells Anderson that his brother had a knife but quickly clarified it was scissors, and that he had gone after other people in the house.

As Anderson approaches the door to the home, Ivan Charley tells Anderson not to shoot, that his brother doesn't have a gun. Anderson orders Ivan Charley away from the house.

In the next instant, the door to the house opens and Irvin Charley walks down the wooden steps toward Anderson, the wooden object in his right hand. Anderson begins backing away with his gun pointed at Charley and yells repeatedly for Charley to to get on the ground and "drop the weapon."

Craig can be seen in a 48-second dash camera video walking between Charley and an officer and asking officers not to hurt her son. Deputies order her to move out of the way, and Craig walks several feet away and collapses under a tree.

As the second deputy, Hentz, approaches with his gun drawn, Charley walks backward a few steps while saying "Y'all can shoot me, y'all can shoot me" before slowly advancing toward one of the officers again.

Hentz can be heard for the first time in Anderson's body camera about a minute after Anderson approaches yelling for Craig to move away from her son, and for Charley to "drop the knife."

Anderson then radios dispatchers to say that Charley has a knife and officers have him at gunpoint. As Charley continues walking toward Anderson, Hentz says "Taser, Taser, Taser" and deploys his stun gun toward Charley.

Charley then appears to run toward Hentz, who fires several shots from a gun in his left hand while still holding the Taser in his right. Hentz can be seen falling backward to the ground at the same time Charley falls in front of him.

Charley was shot four times, with bullets striking his heart and liver, Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said.

One minute and 40 seconds pass from the time Anderson approaches the house and when Charley is shot.

Video shows Anderson roll Charley facedown and secure his hands in handcuffs behind his back after he is shot. Hentz can be seen getting back to his feet and holstering his gun and Taser.

Charley's mother can be heard screaming in the background.

"All you had to do was drop the knife," Hentz can be heard saying. "That's all you had to do."

Hentz begins chest compressions on Charley about 90 seconds after the shooting and the officers trade off a few minutes later.

In the 48-second video clip from the dash camera, someone can be heard off the camera telling officers Charley has a mental health problem.

Richland County Sheriff's Department also released a photo of what the object Charley was holding, a narrow piece of wood 16 inches long that ends in a point. Lott said the object could have been the arm of a chair.

Seth Stoughton, professor of criminal law and police policies at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said in reviewing only the dash camera video that officers appeared to be trying to maintain distance and had a common configuration of one deputy prepared with a non-lethal weapon, the Taser, while the other covers with deadly force if necessary.

After the Taser was fired, the situation changed quickly with Charley running toward Hentz and the officer's options were limited in defending himself, Stoughton said.

Using a Taser is not ideal because of its potential to escalate an encounter, Stoughton said, but it could have been appropriate given Charley was moving toward the officers.

"I think it's perfectly reasonable for an officer to say: 'We can't maintain this situation with him coming forward and us backing up. It's not safe for us to maintain this situation. So we have to do something to change it,' " Stoughton said "If that's the call, then using a Taser is an appropriate means of doing so."

The professor maintained he was speaking only to the dash camera video and had questions about how the encounter began.

Lott acknowledged during a news conference March 20 that mental health is a problem in the community and needs to be better addressed.

"We don't need to lose anybody else to something like this," Lott said. "But we also have to protect our community and protect our deputies."

Green questioned why the sheriff's department didn't employ a crisis-intervention team with a mental health professional that Lott unveiled to much publicity in 2021. When family members told officers of Charley's mental health issues, deputies should have relayed the information to dispatchers, Green said.

"My son did not deserve this," Craig told reporters. "I know they could have taken better action. The only thing I want is justice."

Lott said his agency will investigate the shooting and turn the records over to the Fifth Circuit Solicitor's Office to determine if Hentz acted appropriately in shooting Charley.

SLED or another law enforcement agency should fully investigate the shooting in the interest of transparency and learning how the death could have been prevented, Green said.

"This is the fox guarding the hen house," Green said during a news conference at his Columbia law office March 23.

Richland County Sheriff's Department has investigated its own officer's shootings since 2014 and has the technology and expertise to do everything in house, said Capt. Maria Yturria, an agency spokeswoman. The coroner's office and citizen's advisory council are also involved to ensure proper oversight, she said.

"The videos speak for themselves," Yturria said. "They show exactly what happened and how quickly everything happened."

SLED Chief Mark Keel said in a statement that his agency, along with multiple statewide law enforcement organizations including the S.C. Sheriff's Association, advocates for independent investigations of officer shootings and deaths that occur while in police custody. Independent investigations are part of guidelines in a joint document penned by those groups outlining steps law enforcement can take to build community trust and confidence in the state's police agencies, Keel noted.

SLED requests outside agencies to investigate shootings involving its agents and uses an out-of-state lab to process evidence, the agency's chief said.

"This is not about capability," Keel said in a statement that didn't directly address the Richland County Sheriff's Department. "It is about conducting independent investigations with the utmost integrity and impartiality.

The family's attorneys said before the body camera footage was released that the agency was selectively releasing records that cast the department in the most positive light.

Lott initially said the body camera video wouldn't be released publicly but the agency decided to release the footage after the family and others have viewed the video, Yturria said.
Liu Dianbo, the director of the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) interacts with Namibian students during an orientation event at the CI of UNAM in Windhoek, Namibia, March 23, 2022.(Photo by Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua)

WINDHOEK, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Oozing with confidence, Kaarina Nangolo, 26, left Namibian students enrolled at the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in awe with her close to perfect command of the Chinese language during an orientation event held in the capital city, Windhoek on Wednesday.

Nangolo, who is now a medical practitioner at one of the country's state hospitals, was enrolled at the CI at UNAM in 2014, thereafter she received a scholarship to study at China's Dalian Medical Institution in 2015.

Speaking to visibly excited Namibian students at the orientation, Nangolo attributed her current status to the CI in Namibia which prepared her for the journey.

"The Chinese language is a difficult language to learn, but the CI at UNAM taught me a lot, which made it easier for me to transition during my 7-year stint in China," she said.

Nangolo's story like many other Namibian beneficiaries started at the CI in Windhoek, where she learnt the Chinese language from entry-level.

"By the time I attended my tertiary education in China, I had an idea of how to communicate, of which my Chinese language was further refined by further lessons I received in China," she said.

Explaining why she chose China, Nangolo, says she loves the Chinese culture and the language as she believes it is mind-opening and vast opportunities are available through speaking the language.

"Now I can write, read and I do not have a language barrier. To be honest, language is very important in any day to day business and I am glad that I enrolled at the CI. Currently, if I want to do any business in terms of ordering stuff from China, I can do it easily in Chinese," she told Xinhua.

Nangolo emphasized that language is vital to understanding another culture, while she encouraged budding Namibians to enrol and study hard and learn Mandarin.

"For one to understand a culture, one must be able to communicate," she said, adding that during her stay in China she experienced life-changing episodes, from developmental advancements to cultural heritage, which she can later plough back into her local community.

Head of UNAM Department of Humanities and Arts, Herman Beyer, commended students that have enrolled at the CI.

"You are brave to take on the task to tackle the Chinese culture and language being offered at the CI. This is a bold move in unlocking vast potentials in the various fields of your studies," he added.

To further the learning of Chinese language and culture in Namibia, the CI seeks to organize some Chinese cultural activities since the progress made over the years was eroded by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, said Liu Dianbo, the CI director at the UNAM.

"We might organize a Chinese Bridge competition and some exchange programmes, with the China University of Geosciences(Beijing). The university is eager and will continue accepting some UNAM staff or students to China for their further study, for a master or PhD degree programme supported by Chinese Government Scholarship," he said.

Furthermore, Liu said the CI will try to reignite some of the Chinese teaching sites this year and offer more Chinese courses to students across the country.

"Currently the challenge the CI in Namibia is facing is that there are not enough Chinese lecturers who can come to Namibia due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "The CI is in the process of luring more potential Chinese lecturers to come to Namibia as the pandemic subsides."

The institute currently offers non-credit Chinese courses in the evening time for many Namibians, he added.

"Due to the COVID-19, we have had to downsize our classes to 20 students, despite many Namibians showing interest in joining the CI at the UNAM," he said. 

Namibian students attend an orientation event at the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in Windhoek, Namibia on March 23, 2022.(Photo by Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua)
WADMALAW ISLAND  Residents here are concerned that a planned wetland mitigation bank near the Leadenwah Creek would introduce salt into freshwater habitat for a number of animals, including the threatened American wood stork.

The plan by Point Farm, MB LLC is meant to enhance and restore tidal salt marsh on more than 2,000 acres in Charleston County, the company said in a permit application to the state. It plans to remove earthen dikes that have held back ocean water from fresh wetlands.

The proposal would change an already salty pond to tidal salt marsh, turn 10.14 acres of freshwater impoundments brackish and expand 20.60 acres of tidal salt marsh and creeks into currently impounded ponds. Regulators at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control have approved a permit for the work already.

In a news release, Wadmalaw Island residents John and Marilynn Hill said they are concerned that the only justification for the project's potential damage appears to be the creation of a "multimillion-dollar windfall profit" from an investor group from Georgia that is creating the mitigation bank.

But the American Mitigation Co., which represents Point Farm, said in a statement that destruction of marsh will not occur, and the project will not adversely affect protected species, including the wood stork.

"From the onset of this project, American Mitigation Company has endeavored to create a unique salt marsh restoration project that is consistent with the conservation goals of the Wadmalaw Island community," wrote Ross Nelson, the company's president.

Last week, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project filed a formal request asking DHEC's board to review the permit and reverse the choice of staff to let the work go forward. The law project is representing the Wadmalaw Island Land Planning Committee, Coastal Conservation League and residents of the sea island.

These groups believe there are issues with the project. First, the creation of the mitigation bank would convert freshwater wetlands, a functioning habitat, to saltwater wetlands without a real need.

Wadmalaw Island already contains very little freshwater. Places on the island with freshwater wetlands have functioned for hundreds of years as important habitats for wading birds and other wildlife, according to Jason Crowley, Coastal Conservation League's communities and transportation senior program director. These areas were former rice impoundments.

"You're taking away important habitat on the island for the personal profit of this commercial enterprise," Crowley said.

Secondly, by only protecting a 50-foot strip of high ground next to the marshy mitigation bank, the property would be at risk of stormwater runoff if development happens close by, Crowley said.

The third concern is that the area is low-lying and susceptible to sea level rise and marsh migration. Crowley said the narrow buffer won't allow the marsh to move far as sea levels rise.

"That whole bank that people bought credits for to offset their unavoidable impacts somewhere else is at risk of degradation and disappearance in the future because of the issues of sea level rise and uplands development," Crowley said.

Nelson, in his statement, countered that the mitigation company is proud to have created a project that will result in the restoration of salt marsh and protection of developable lands in the buffer.

"The conservation easement for the bank has been recorded, and the uplands adjacent to the restored marsh are now protected from future development," Nelson said.

Mitigation banks are private commercial entities that are meant to offset wetland destruction elsewhere. Federal law requires building projects to avoid harming wetlands. And if that isn't possible, developers must pay to create more wetlands in the same watershed where the old ones were destroyed.

Mitigation banks do this work in advance, and entities can buy credits from them equal to the amount of the lost wetlands.

The Point Farm bank on Wadmalaw has support already from at least one buyer. In November 2020, Charleston County Council voted to purchase mitigation credits from the completed bank, to offset impacts from transportation improvement projects paid for by the county's 2016 transportation sales tax. Among those projects is the effort to extend Interstate 526 through Johns and James Islands.

In a report, the county Finance Committee touted the proposed mitigation bank as the largest salt marsh restoration project of its kind in South Carolina.

"The bank will improve water quality, lessen the effects of flooding and sea level rise, and provide environmental improvements that offset the impacts of several critical road construction projects," according the November 2020 committee report.

But John Taylor Jr., vice chair of the Wadmalaw Island Land Planning Committee, said the bank developer's plan would not only destroy wildlife habitat but also a public resource used for fishing, boating and recreation. Once the bank is created, it is unclear if the public would have access to the area for recreation.

"We urge the board to overturn this permit in order to protect the interests of our community and the interests of all South Carolinians," Taylor said in a news release.

Permitting for the Point Farm bank began in 2017, and plans to restore and preserve the salt marsh have been reviewed and approved by agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, DHEC and the state Department of Natural Resources, according to the American Mitigation Co.

DHEC issued its permit on March 2. A DHEC spokeswoman said the agency typically does not comment on pending requests to review permit decisions.

The agency's board has 60 days to respond to the Law Project's request to review the mitigation bank permit with DHEC's board.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Mostly sunny. High near 90F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 71F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Mike Woodel reports on Georgetown County for The Post and Courier. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2018 and previously worked for newspapers in Montana and South Dakota.
PIEDMONT  Slightly past the town limits, a deceivingly small building on almost three acres  which has lived many lives under other businesses before  displays a new sign.

Antique chairs, figurines and vases wait inside for when Trina Smith and her husband Scott open the doors of Antique Junction Upstate to the public on April 2, launching their latest endeavor.

The Smiths became the owners of the building at 18 Piedmont Highway in 2017. The couple searched for about two years for the perfect place to house their former plumbing company. When they finally found the property, Trina "heard angels sing."

"It was exactly what we were looking for," Trina said.

Across the road, a restaurant named Little Italy is land-locked in a triangle by the highway and two other streets. In the distance, headstones from the Rose Hill Cemetery dot the grass. Antique Junction Upstate perches on an L-shaped plot of land with an expansive parking lot in the rear. It used to be a Duke Power building in the 1950s, Trina said.

All Clear Plumbing Properties acquired the land in 2017 for $275,000. The Smiths ran the business "24/7, 365," Trina said, until it was bought by another local plumbing company in April 2021.

With the business gone but the building still theirs, they turned to what they knew best after plumbing: antiques.

Deep, deep love for antiques

The Smiths, both in their 60s, considered getting a booth at an antique mall somewhere since they both had been "collectors for quite a while," Trina said.

For Trina, collecting olden treasures was passed on to her like a gene. She is one of seven siblings and the daughter to a mother who loved antiques. When on family trips, while her siblings would stay in the car, Trina would venture inside roadside shops with her mom, who was always on the lookout for a kitchen-related gadget. Trina terms her own hobby-turned-business a "deep, deep love for antiques."

The Smiths searched but there were no booths available at the malls where they looked. At an antique store in North Carolina, they were number 86 on a waiting list to get a booth.

"We were driving around from antique mall to antique mall trying to find a spot," Trina said. "And, we just kind of looked at each other and were like, 'what are we doing?' Like, we have a building. We have a storefront. Why not give it a shot?"

One of their early fears while going through the process of transforming their building into an antique store was that not everyone knows where Piedmont is. The area often takes on many connotations to those both familiar and unfamiliar with the Palmetto State.

A "piedmont" means a slope leading from the base of a mountain to a place of flat land. More than a dozen counties in the state comprise the South Carolina Piedmont. It's even harder to pinpoint the town proper, with Piedmont mailing addresses stretching across portions of Greenville and Anderson counties from Powdersville to Pelzer.

Then, there is Piedmont, a census-designated, former mill town along the Saluda River south of Greenville and north of Williamston with a population of a little over 5,400.

"Turns out, Piedmont's not really far from anything," Trina noted.

Another fear the couple had was if they didn't keep the building, someone might tear it down for the three acres of land it sits on. But Trina insists it is a good building, even though they had to replace the heating and air systems and do some work on the roof.

The selfish thing is, Piedmont is up-and-coming, Trina said, So why sell the building when it's up-and-coming?

The first half of the upstairs space is filled with the Smiths' own antique merchandise for sale. The back half and the lower level are available for sellers looking to rent booths. There are 20 rentable booths, some still available, and two sections where local makers can offer handmade crafts on a higher commission.

On the top floor is a closet-sized space called the "holiday room" where any sellers renting a booth can aggregate their Christmas and other holiday decorations into one space. There are also glass cabinets where any sellers can display smaller items if desired. There is a warehouse on the bottom floor where vendors will be able to store or work on items.

The store will soft open on April 2 with a grand opening on May 14. Trina said there will be food trucks, with tents outside for makers to sell merchandise.

A second purpose

The Smiths sometimes go on picking trips around the country and are always so fascinated how different regions of the country attract certain types of antiques. In South Carolina, Trina said there are usually a lot of textile-related items.

The couple decorate their house with vintage items. Scott likes searching stores for old tools while Trina loves tins and anything associated with advertising. On one of the shelves in the store, she removed a container she calls her "pride and joy." It's a sardine tin over a century-old that she found in someone's attic in Pennsylvania.

"You will not find another one," she said.

She jokes that when she's throwing away a coffee tin today, she wonders if people of the future will one day search for it at an antique store.

"What made the people think to save that?" Trina wonders out loud. "But the fact that they saved them, and now they are finding a second life, it's a little, I don't know, it's a little meaningful to life. I think everything has a second purpose. I feel that way about people and buildings."
GREENVILLE  Stone Pizza Company, for the past four years a popular neighborhood hangout spot outside downtown, has closed and faces legal action to leave the building.

The restaurant's prominent stone chimney for its wood-fired Neopolitan-style pizzas was dormant this week with an eviction notice pasted on the front entrance door at the corner of East Park and East Stone avenues.

Last month, the building's owner, Park Avenue Partnership, filed in Greenville County court a complaint and a motion to vacate against Southern Hound Restaurants.

In court filings, the property group said it told the owner in December 2021 that the restaurant was in default of its lease and owes more than $268,000 in unpaid rent.

The restaurant has been closed since December.

In the complaint, Park Avenue Partnership alleges that in May 2019 it entered into a five-year lease agreement with Southern Hound owner Jeremy Ethridge with an option to purchase the building, which stands on the corner of East Park and East Stone avenues near the Overbrook community.

Southern Hound had yet to file an answer to the legal action as of March 24.

The registered agent for Park Avenue Partnership, according South Carolina Secretary of State business database, is Wayne Gathings, who opened Stone Pizza in 2017 and later sold it.

The building was once the home of the Park Avenue Pub, a windowless private club that for years sparked curiosity at the busy intersection.

Gathings renovated the building, adding windows, a screened back porch, and a stone oven and chimney sourced from southern Italy, where the distinct Neopolitan style originates.
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A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty for his role in the theft last year of $2 million from a North Charleston armored truck.

Anthony D-Trill Burge appeared March 23 in the U.S. District Court in Charleston to plead guilty to charges of bank larceny and conspiracy to commit bank larceny.

Burge, who is from Georgia, was one of five co-defendants indicted on those same offenses in the Jan. 16, 2021, truck robbery.

The other defendants, all of whom authorities say belong to the Folk Nation gang, are: Thomas Scoona Calhoun, Quantavius Popeye Murphy, Terry TT Pollard and James Edward Sewell.

Sewell pleaded guilty to the bank larceny and conspiracy charges in November. Calhoun entered guilty pleas to the same offenses last month.

North Charleston police officers were sent around 6:30 a.m. to 5900 Core Ave. off West Aviation Avenue for reports that a GardaWorld armored truck was robbed near an ATM, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case.

Sewell, a GardaWorld employee, was driving the truck when it stopped at the ATM. He and the co-defendants coordinated through the multimedia phone messaging app Snapchat to stage the robbery, authorities allege.

The four other defendants pretended to rob him. Calhoun struck Sewell with a gun and stole his weapon before the men loaded up $1.9 million into a Chevrolet sedan and fled.

Burge admitted to Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks at Wednesday's plea hearing that he was the cars getaway driver.

North Charleston police officers arrested Sewell hours after the staged robbery. He initially claimed he didnt know the four men, but later confessed to the plot after detectives questioned him, the affidavit states.

Sewell told authorities the men planned to meet again in Cedartown, Ga., where they all grew up, to split the profits. FBI agents learned Murphy was spotted in the town with his mother two days after the robbery.

Authorities found $130,000 wrapped in Garda bands while searching property belonging to Murphy's family, according to the affidavit.

Burge was arrested Jan. 19, 2021, at a gas station in Cedartown. After searching his residence, investigators found money bands matching the ones found with Murphys family, prosecutors said.

All five men were indicted March 16, 2021.

Peter Phillips, Burge's defense attorney, told the judge at the March 23 hearing he supported his client's decision to plead guilty. A probation officer will prepare a pre-sentence report before Burge is sentenced.

Murphy was also scheduled to appear for a plea hearing, but his was cancelled.

Pollard appeared Feb. 16 at a pretrial conference. The attorneys asked for more time to review evidence in the case.

Sentencing hearings for the guilty defendants have not yet been scheduled.
South Carolina nonprofits continue to be a focus of The 1772 Foundation, a Connecticut-based grant-making organization with a fascinating tie to Beaufort.

The foundation announced March 22 its largest-ever gift of $1 million to the Coastal Community Foundation in support of the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney Scholars Program and other initiatives.

The 1772 Foundation also is providing $125,000, the second half of a two-year grant, to The Center for Heirs Property Preservation, and $50,000 to The Slave Dwelling Project to help with its fall 2022 conference.

The foundation, which was established in 1985 with a focus on historic preservation and land conservation, has long provided financial support to African American causes and since late 2019 has doubled down on that mission.

One of our founders direct ancestors had enslaved people in the late 18th century in the Beaufort area, Executive Director Mary Anthony said. When Anthony and her board found out about John Keans involvement in American slavery, they wasted no time.

We immediately decided to take action, to make every effort not only to research what John Kean did, but to start making grants above and beyond our normal granting program to apologize and take corrective action, she said. We wanted to show that we knew that we needed to do something.

The Kean family, they discovered, had enslaved more than 100 people. The organization formed an ad hoc committee to investigate this history and make recommendations. Its board and staff agreed to an agenda of continued research, generosity, long-term commitment, self-education and partnership.

Whenever possible, we will cede control over funds to local community leaders who will direct funds to where it will do the most good, Anthony wrote.

Here is part of the foundations apology, published in its 2020 annual report:

While research is ongoing, we know that enslaved African people held by the Kean and Livingston families toiled in Georgia, South Carolina, and New Jersey. In honor of those enslaved for economic and social gain, and their descendants who continue to face systemic racism and brutality, we acknowledge the wrongs of enslavement and offer our deepest apology.

The organization didnt stop there.

And because we realize that an apology is meaningless without appropriate action, we commit to making meaningful change within our organization and to supporting efforts that lead to meaningful change towards a more just and equitable society. We recognize this legacy as a part of our inheritance, and we understand that this heritage continues to affect African Americans in the present. It is our collective responsibility to do what we can to acknowledge and right this wrong.

Their money went as grants to groups across the country, including several in South Carolina: the Gullah Farmers Cooperative, Penn Center, Preservation South Carolina, Edisto Island Open Land Trust, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, WeGOJA Foundation and the Coastal Community Foundation, which has become an essential partner in recent years, Anthony said.

The 1772 Foundation had never awarded $1 million before. The money will help fund a scholarship program managed by the Coastal Community Foundation and named for Pinckney, who was killed in the 2015 Emanuel AME Church attack.

The Pinckney Scholars program was started in 2015 with $3.2 million from a group of anonymous donors. It assists Black students pursuing higher education.

The 1772 Foundations big gift also will bolster the Community Foundations Place-Based Impact Investing Fund, which is used to assist CommunityWorks, a statewide community development financial institution and other organizations.

"Our two foundations"  the Community Foundation also operates in Beaufort  "are committed to righting the wrongs of historic, systemic racism and we are proud to stand together with The 1772 Foundation in this effort," Coastal Community Foundation President & CEO Darrin Goss said in a statement.

Anthony said her organization has come to rely on the Community Foundation as a trusted partner.

We knew they could do a better job of deploying funds than we could, she said. We work with lots and lots of nonprofits all over the country, and I have to say their professionalism and thoughtfulness was pretty remarkable.

The 1772 Foundation gives away about $3 million annually.

Another of their South Carolina recipients, the Center for Heirs Property Preservation, announced on March 21 that its new offices, part of The Opportunity Center at 8570 Rivers Ave. in North Charleston, were open for business.

A ribbon-cutting and open house is set for 11 a.m. March 31.

The center is sharing a space that once served as a 31,000-square-foot furniture store with three other nonprofit organizations: Increasing H.O.P.E., Homes of Hope, and the S.C. Association for Community Economic Development. The Opportunity Center affords these groups a chance to share costs and encourage daily interaction.

The building will also serve as hub for job training, a business incubator, a workspace for entrepreneurs and a Womens Business Center.

Economic development isnt just for for-profit institutions, said Jennie L. Stephens, CEO of the Center for Heirs Property Preservation, which helps families and individuals protect inherited land. The Opportunity Center is a unique collaborative place impacting low-wealth communities of the Tri-County and surrounding areas.

It is funded by a $2.7 million grant from the Economic Development Administration, awarded in 2019 to Homes of Hope, as well as an $800,000 equity investment from the Coastal Community Foundations Place-Based Impact Investing Fund. Other funding came from several public and private sources.
COLUMBIA  The State Ethics Commission will no longer silence whistleblowers who file complaints accusing South Carolina public officials of misconduct, agency leaders decided this week.

The move reverses a practice that goes back at least to the early 1990s. It has long been criticized for giving cover to politicians accused of misconduct and shielding the Ethics Commission itself from scrutiny of how it addresses those allegations.

The change comes seven months after a Columbia attorney filed a federal lawsuit alleging the public misconduct watchdogs gag orders violate free-speech protections that are guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Ethics Commission has already revised its official complaint form, deleting language that warned citizens that they could be prosecuted for a misdemeanor, fined up to $1,000 and jailed for a year for speaking out about their allegations before the agencys investigators have vetted and verified them.

Chris Kenney, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of a client whose complaint against a state lawmaker was dismissed, praised the Ethics Commissions decision. He said he expects to see whistleblowers speak out when they think their complaints were dismissed because of flaws in the states loophole-riddled Ethics Act or shortcomings in the Ethics Commissions investigation.

For decades, the Ethics Commission has intimidated citizens into not speaking about complaints that they filed, Kenney said. This is a positive development in terms of free speech and the right to criticize public officials and public bodies and the work of the Ethics Commission.

The Ethics Commission says the change applies to past complaints as well as future ones.

For decades, the agency held up the threat of criminal charges to keep those who had filed complaints from speaking publicly about their allegations  at least until the Ethics Commission has investigated the claims and decided to bring charges. Whistleblowers whose complaints were dismissed by the commission in secret proceedings were bound to never speak of their allegations again.

The Ethics Commission clamped down on a whistleblower as recently as 2020. That October, the agency brought a case against a Beaufort County resident who had provided a local newspaper with a copy of her ethics complaint against a school board member. The resident got credit in that case for contacting the newspaper and persuading the reporter not to run a story about her complaint. She received a warning.

The practice of muzzling citizens appeared rooted in the state Ethics Act, which requires that documents involving pending ethics cases remain confidential.

But after Kenney filed his lawsuit, leaders of the S.C. Senate and House intervened in the case and clarified that they didnt intend for state law to silence whistleblowers. The lawsuit is expected to be settled soon.

In an advisory opinion the Ethics Commission published this week, it wrote that a closer review of the ethics law reveals that its confidentiality requirements apply only to the commission, not to citizens who file complaints.

That is fabulous news, said Lynn Teague, a good government advocate for the League of Women Voters. The public has been shut out by that provision, and the public should be aware of how theyre handling things.

The reversal accompanies heightened attention toward how well the Ethics Commission serves its function as one of the states top misconduct watchdogs.

For years, the Ethics Commission has routinely let public officials off with light punishments, dismissed cases on technicalities and rarely referred its findings to law enforcement, The Post and Courier revealed in November.

The newspapers Uncovered series also detailed how the agency struggles to collect ethics fines from uncooperative politicians, including some 50 sitting officials who stiff arm the commission even as they seek and win reelection.

Kenney filed the lawsuit on behalf of an unnamed client who filed an ethics complaint concerning a state lawmaker. The complaint alleged that the lawmaker improperly voted on a bill to benefit a special interest that had paid the lawmaker some $108,000 over the course of three years.

Kenney said his client was incredulous that the Ethics Commission determined the allegations were true, yet found the lawmakers actions didnt violate the state ethics law. His client wanted to lobby the Legislature to tighten the law but couldnt speak about the ethics case since the commission had dismissed it in a secret hearing.

Now, they can.
A group of first-year medical students from the Medical College of Georgia wanted to make an immediate impact on the lives of women within their community.

North Augusta resident Katherine Dunn alongside Gabriela Duchesne, Brittany Sheffield and Brooke Amero started Period. The new club, which is part of a national organization, creates educational and service opportunities to distribute and learn about menstrual products.

Duchesne, Sheffield and Amero first learned about the organization during their involvement in the club at the University of Georgia while in undergrad. Once in Augusta, they realized a need in the CSRA the club could fill.

We found last year that Augusta had the highest percentage of homeless people by population in Georgia. I really wanted to focus on that population and try to help them because if they dont have a home, they may not have access to essential products such as period products, Duchesne said.

In 2021, the city of Augusta created a homeless task force to find solutions to the unhoused population. According to date from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, over 10,000 individuals are homeless in Georgia.

The group aims to help women who may need sanitary menstrual products by partnering with Golden Harvest Food Bank and student-run health clinics at MCG. The group has currently purchased and distributed over 4,000 menstrual products.

We are focusing on putting together bags for one period per person, so we will do 7 or 14 tampons, or 7 pads and mix and match the bags with different sizes, some just pads for people that prefer that, some are just tampons, Dunn said.

They hope to destigmatize and bring awareness to womens health through their GoFundMe.

I think just giving them menstrual products is something that will really help their quality of life and help them realize how essential that is for them as well so maybe that can be something that they start to prioritize and that they start to understand that that is natural and important as well to take care of, Sheffield said.

As all women, we all have a period and we all know how frustrating it is to deal with it every month, and I cant imagine not having menstrual products to take care of my period and just have to bleed or handle it, Amero said. We were listening to a video where a lot of women would just rip off cardboard and put it in their underwear to absorb and that is just hard to think about and I think the mission of Period is really good and that is a basic need for a lot of women.

To learn more about Period, visit the national organization website.
SOFIA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said in Brussels on Thursday that his country would recall its ambassador to Russia for consultations, according to a press release from the government.

The reactions came after a recent interview of the Russian Ambassador to Sofia Eleonora Mitrofanova with the Russia 24 TV channel.

During the interview, Mitrofanova said that the people of Bulgaria do not support the rhetoric and actions of their government regarding the "special operation in Ukraine."

According to Petkov, Mitrofanova's statement was "undiplomatic, sharp, rude," "so what we will do is recall our ambassador from Russia for consultations."

"All diplomats know what this means in diplomatic language," Petkov said. "Usually, when one country recalls its ambassador for consultations, the other side should do the same," he said.

Recently, there have been tensions between the two countries, after Bulgaria expelled two Russian diplomats on March 2, and 10 more on March 18. 
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.
Pictured is a city-sponsored graffiti art wall in Goose Creek. The traffic box painting project and graffiti wall are both part of the city's efforts to promote public art in the community.
Construction is set to begin in July on a pavilion, additional parking spaces and new amenities in downtown Inman.

The Mill Street Pavilion will be used to host art events, markets and will serve as a concert venue. The structure will be on green space above the Mill Street parking lot. In order for part of the pavilion to serve as a permanent stage, a peaked roof will cantilever out to create a covering for bands. A four-stall, prefabricated restroom will go next to the pavilion.

We see the need for it with the number of special events that we're having, said Joe Lanahan, Inmans city administrator.

The pavilion and restroom will be on a grassy area that used to be a residence. Construction will begin in July and should be finished by early fall 2022, according to Lanahan.

It can be a strain on private business owners to have their restroom open for the public all the time, Lanahan said. Its something that the city should provide, and we're excited for it to be added there and have it open year-round for folks.

Lanahan said that the city also is looking to partner with a bank or financial institution in efforts to put an ATM downtown.

The city is working with South Carolina Department of Transportation to add 25 to 30 parking spaces on the business side of Main Street. Electric vehicle charging stations will be added downtown, and the city is planning to narrow Main Street to two lanes in efforts to slow traffic.

Funding for the upcoming projects is coming from grants, private donors and money from a 2 percent hospitality tax on prepared food within the city. The tax revenue goes into a fund that must be used for projects that increase tourism to the city.

David Grayshock, president of The Greater Inman Area Chamber of Commerce, said Inmans goal in the future is to become a walkable city.

With all of these entities coming in and pitching in at the same time helping to build this kind of infrastructure, it takes participation, and we have all focused on it extremely well, Grayshock said.
The South Carolina Environmental Law Project is calling for the states health agency to require the regular inspection of storage tanks to protect drinking water, following an Uncovered investigation.

Without that change, residents in the state could be exposed to "illness-causing" water from their taps, the law firm said in a petition, which it filed on behalf of concerned residents and organizations.

The proposal would require the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to force public systems to examine the inside of water tanks every year and report their findings. If contaminants are found, SCELP suggested the tanks be cleaned within six months.

We shouldnt have to rely on the good graces of a water system to check its own tank, said Ben Cunningham, an attorney who filed the petition.

The request follows an October investigation by The Post and Courier and The Sumter Item, which found that a water tank owned by the town of Summerton was not cleaned for years. Several inches of sludge grew inside the tank, which fed to a nearby housing complex, turning its white interior black and brown.

Discolored water flowed from faucets and gave shower curtains a brown tint, according to residents who lived in the complex. White clothes turned beige after they were washed. And the town's new water operator determined the tank wasn't cleaned in at least 12 years. The inside was cleaned in August.

Uncovered is an initiative by The Post and Courier to team up with community outlets across the state to investigate questionable conduct.

SCELP, in its petition, said the issue in Summerton exposed a gap in South Carolina's existing rules, and it referred to laws in other states that require the inside of tanks be inspected. It said mandating the reviews was "both necessary and economically justifiable." It also called for other changes to drinking water rules in response to issues in communities, including in Denmark and Darlington County.

Currently, DHEC and the federal government recommend, but dont require, that water utilities check inside their tanks. DHEC recommends that they are cleaned and examined every three to five years, in line with what the water industrys top trade group suggests. Instead, the agency relies on water quality tests to identify health risks, a spokesperson said last year.

According to state law, DHEC has 30 days take action on the petition or deny it. A spokesperson in an email said the agency looked "forward to reviewing and responding to" it.
Federal agents found close to one pound of marijuana inside a package that was recently sent to Guam through the U.S. Postal Service.

U.S. Postal Inspectors executed a search warrant on the items March 14 and found approximately 449 grams of marijuana, according to the warrant filed in the District Court of Guam on Thursday.

The package was shipped from a Las Vegas address to a residence in Liguan Terrace in Dededo.

Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request.

No charges or arrests have been reported in connection with the case.

The description on the box noted that its contents included two hats and two shirts.

Guam and a large majority of states across the nation have legalized marijuana for medical purposes alone or with some level of recreational use. However, the federal government classifies cannabis as a controlled substance, along with heroin and cocaine. As such, it is also illegal at a federal level to transport it across state lines.
There have been contradictions about our local government's strategy on COVID-19 testing and limitations for those who have come in close cont Read more
Students attend a science lecture delivered by astronauts from Chinas space station in Luan, East Chinas Anhui province, on March 23, 2022. The astronauts carried out four experiments to show physical phenomena only possible in microgravity. (Photo by Tian Kaiping/Anhui Daily)


UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- UN member states on Thursday adopted a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

The resolution, drafted by Ukraine and allies, received 140 votes in favor and 5 votes against, while 38 countries abstained.

The text strongly encourages the continued negotiations between all parties, and again urges the immediate peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine "through political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means in accordance with international law." 
The New York Times supports the efforts of the government to get James OKeefe and Project Veritas in the case of Ashley Bidens diary. Reporters including Michael Schmidt and Adam Goldman are working as the public relations arm of the Biden administration and the national security establishment to nail them.

It turns out that the FBI and SDNY prosecutors have been working the case for a long time. They have had Project Veritas under incredibly intrusive surveillance for over a year. No charges have yet emerged. If Project Veritas crossed over the line between lawful and unlawful activity in its work on the diary, the line must be a little blurry. The Times gleefully supports the national security establishment in its treatment of Project Veritas. I find the treatment chilling.

I thought it might be interesting to take a walk down memory lane  a little ancient history, all the way back to 2019  when the Times was greatly alarmed by the superseding indictment bringing 17 charges under the Espionage Act against Julian Assange. The Times of course itself gives the espionage laws the back of its hand. One could feel the anxiety emanating from the May 2019 Michael Grynbaum/Marc Tracy story Frightening: Charges Against Julian Assange Alarm Press Advocates.

I had written about the superseding indictment in this post. Tracy wrote us to ask if we might be available to discuss the superseding indictment before a deadline the following week. I promptly gave Tracy my personal contact information and invited him to fire away. He didnt get around to posing a question until 11:00 p.m. the evening before his deadline the following day. Tracy wrote:

Basically we are writing about the indictment against Assange. I deduce from your post that you are in favor of the broader, superseding indictment. Here are a few questions: -Tell me a little about yourself, and how you came to this field. -Do you agree with the governments decision to charge Assange, including for things that many say are similar to what other national security reporters do. Eg, this is not just the 18th count, which was in the previous indictment, but the ones that strive to criminalize his contacts with his source that sought to protect the sources identity; and to publish the classified information? -Do you see a meaningful difference between Assange and, say, nat sec reporters at the WaPo or NYT? -Do you see a link between the governments increased willingness to prosecute leakers of classified information and, now, this prosecution against a publisher of that information? Thanks! Marc

I responded the following morning as follows:

Marc: I am a Minneapolis attorney who has been writing about politics and public policy for newspapers and magazines for nearly 30 years. I have written for the Power Line site nearly every day since we founded it 17 years ago. In 2004 I was involved in the exposure of the Rathergate fraud on Power Line. For a symposium published on election day 2004 the Times invited my colleague John Hinderaker and me to contribute a short piece discussing our role. If there is more you would like to know about me, I would be happy to answer specific questions. The publication by the New York Times of highly classified information for reasons of pure political malice has been a special interest of mine. I wrote about it in the 2006 Weekly Standard column Exposure and have written about it frequently on Power Line. In my Standard column, for example, I specifically asked Is the New York Times a law unto itself? I support the enforcement of the Espionage Act laws with discretion, such as in cases involving the publication of highly classified information of the kind that is protected from publication by the Espionage Act with absolutely no bona fide public purpose, or no purpose other than rank partisan politics. Yesterday I cited two egregious 2017 instances involving the Times in the Power Line post Tears of the Times. I cited these cases in the context of the Times story by Barnes and Sanger on the Trump declassification order. Barnes and Sanger seem all choked up by President Trumps lawful authorization of Attorney General Barr to declassify documents bearing on the Russiagate hoax. The Times wants to reserve to itself the authority to determine which highly classified information is to be exposed to the enemies of the United States. I dont. Accordingly, I advocated for the prosecution of the Times under the Espionage Act in 2005 and 2006. My work on Power Line elicited this letter to the editor of the Times from then-Lieutenant Tom Cotton serving in Baghdad: Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen: Congratulations on disclosing our governments highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23[, 2006]). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.) Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Platos guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful. Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion  or next time I feel it  I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance. And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others  laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars. Very truly yours, Tom Cotton

Baghdad, Iraq Then-Lieutenant Cotton copied Power Line on his letter to the editor of the Times. We promptly published it. Even though the Time has since interviewed Senator Cotton about his letter to the editor, the Times has never seen fit to publish it. The Times has failed utterly in its duty to air the issues raised by its own conduct bearing on enforcement of egregious violations of the Espionage Act. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact me. In the meantime, thank you for contacting us in connection with your interest in the issues. Scott W. Johnson

Power Line

Tracy has responded with a question. He wondered if I could speak to [my] feelings specifically on the superseding indictment against Assange. I thought my feelings were apparent from what I wrote, but I have responded as follows:

I support enforcement of the Espionage Act against perpetrators of egregious violations such as Assange and such as the Times. I hope it might have a deterrent effect on the Times next time around.

I cant find the story for which Tracy was sounding me out. Perhaps there wasnt one.
If youre a glutton for misery, no doubt youve heard more than a few times from the climatistas about how we need to end fossil fuel subsidies. Supposed subsidies for oil, natural gas, and coal are actually minuscule when calculated on a per-unit-of-energy delivered to the consumer, and has little effect on consumer prices, unlike subsidies for wind and solar power, which are yuuuge on a per-unit-of-energy delivered, and they have large market price-distorting effects for electricity. If we simply levelized energy subsidies on a per-unit-of-energy delivered basis, wind and solar development would halt overnight, and oil, gas, and coal production would not change a bit in output or price.

So whats the latest idea from the Democrats? Only the largest subsidy ever for oil, in the form of $100 per person monthly payments to assist Americans to buy gasoline. Up to $400 a month for a household of four. (Democrats are calling it a rebate, but in fact they arent rebating anything, since rebate would involves consumers paying the government in the first place.)

Im guessing Democratic Party polling must find that high gasoline prices are killing them with voters, and that voters grasp which party consistently opposes domestic production of the energy supplies we actually use.

The Wall Street Journal expresses the appropriate snark: The rebate idea deserves to die in the crib, but the spectacle of climate-change warriors suddenly trying to subsidize fossil-fuel consumption is almost worth it.
The Freeport Question refers to Abraham Lincolns devastating question posed to Stephen Douglas in his second debate against Douglas on August 27, 1858, held in Freeport, Illinois. The question was seemingly simple: Can the people of a Territory in any lawful way, against the wishes of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State constitution?

Douglass answer split the Democratic Party in half, and helped to assure Lincolns victory in the 1860 presidential election. Douglass answer was Yes, a territory could exclude slavery prior to applying for statehood if the residents of the territory so chose. But the Democratic Partys southern slave interest was demanding a federal slave code that would permit them to take slaves to any territory as a matter of federal legal right (a prospect made more possible by the lamentable Dred Scott decision), no matter what a majority of the residents thought. As such, Douglass answer was unacceptable, and so was his candidacy in 1860, which is why the Democratic Party split in half in the summer of 1860 and ran two tickets in the November election.

Todays Freeport Questionthe question that has the potential to split the Democratic Party off from a majority of votersis: what is a woman? We have seen, this week, a nominee for the Supreme Court says she is incapable of defining what a woman is, without the expertise of a biologist. Are the federal courts now going to need in-house biologists to determine how to apply laws aimed at prohibiting discrimination against women? (Or men for that matter, because someone who cant tell what a woman is may well have the same difficulty identifying a man.)

I hope the mediaor Republican candidates since we know the media will not risk embarrassing Democratswill press the question What is a woman? repeatedly in the next two election cycles. As we have seen, Democrats cant give a common sense answer to the question because they are pledged to the new identity politics orthodoxy that it is perfectly fine for women collegiate swimmers to have a penis and change in the womens locker room. (And to suppress anyone who dares criticize this impulse.)

JOHN adds: In a miracle of timing, a full-length documentary titled What Is a Woman? is coming out in May. The documentary features Matt Walsh, is produced by the Daily Wire and directed by my friend Justin Folk. Walsh previews it on Twitter:
The Biden administrations efforts to arrive at another deal with Iran are beyond absurd. They belong in a Twilight Zone preface. Youre traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a land of delusion, self-abasement, suicidal ideation, and madness disguised as statecraft. Thats the signpost up ahead  your next stop, the Twilight Zone!

Barak Ravid supplies the material for todays reflections in the Axios report Iran hasnt agreed to U.S. conditions for removing IRGC from terror list. Ravid reports: Iranian officials have not agreed to publicly commit to de-escalation in the region  a U.S. condition for removing the countrys Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from a terror list, two U.S. sources with direct knowledge of the issue and one Israeli official told me.

Analyze this (emphasis added): An agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear deal [Ed.: The framing of the imminent agreeement as a restoration is deceitful, to avoid the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act] is nearly complete, but Irans demand that President Biden reverse former President Trumps decision to designate the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization is one of the last remaining sticking points.In recent weeks, U.S. envoy for Iran Rob Malley negotiated the IRGC point indirectly with the Iranians through EU political director Enrique Mora.

Query what happened to the friends of Vladimir Putin who have been so helpful thus far. They must have advocated for Bidens proposal that the administration would remove the IRGC from the FTO [Foreign Terrorist Organization] blacklist in return for a public commitment from Iran to de-escalation in the region.

If you cant trust a public commitment from the Iranian regime, whom can you trust?

Creative juices are flowing: The Iranians didnt agree to the U.S. demand and suggested giving the U.S. a private side letter instead, two U.S. sources and one Israeli official told me.

Cultural sensitivity has come into play: State Department spokesperson Ned Price hinted on Monday that the U.S. is waiting until after the two-week Nowruz holiday to determine whether Iran is willing to move on its demands.

Clarification: The senior State Department official later clarified that Prices comments did not mean that the U.S. is going to wait until after the Nowruz holiday, but expects to get the Iranian response within days.

I fear that the adage that applies here is where theres a will, theres a way.
What better time to celebrate the finalists of the inaugural Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) African Poetry Prize than on the World Poetry Day?

That was exactly what the Abuja Writers Forum (AWF) did on Monday, 21 March 2022.

AWF hosted Echezonachukwu Nduka, Servio Gbadamosi and Olumide Olaniyan on World Poetry Day 2022.

Tanure Ojaide could not join us due to a clash of schedules. These were the poets who were shortlisted for the PAWA African Poetry Prize, along with the eventual winner, Obari Gomba.

The poets thrilled us with some of the poems in their winning collections and confirmed why they are among the best in Africa.

Their craft was evident and their engagement with society vibrant! You need copies of the books to understand why we are excited with their works.

When asked whether the poets thought their poetry was relevant to the Nigerian society, they unanimously answered in the affirmative.

They said the poet is part of the society and is an observer, commentator and chronicler, writing about what happens in the society.

They all agreed that poets have shaped the country and referred us to the Wole Soyinkas and the Christopher Okigbos who handed the baton to the Osofisons and the Iyayis who are energising young people to push for human rights and justice.

Poets, according to these PAWA African Prize for Poetry finalists, interrogate the past and envision the future, to allow us to dream.

How did we get here and how do we move on? Poets can answer these and many questions that are relevant to the society.

But the poet is just a single voice. How can poets work together to bring this relevance to the Nigerian society? The finalists advised poets to come together in collectives and amplify their voice!

They point to innovations in technology that enable collaboration across different media and spaces.

Someone asked the poets: since they write in English, a colonial language with its baggages, are they still relevant? The poets were uncomfortable but they suggested that poetry written in English can be translated into indigenous languages, highlighting the supporting work and importance of translators, with Kola Tuboson doing a good work here.

They also mentioned bilingual writing, such as the great Ngugi Wa Thiongo does.

However, they drew our attention to the power relations issue in languages. Why do we focus on the big three, WaZoBia, for instance, in Nigeria?

The poets reminded us of the punishments some of us suffered in secondary school for speaking what our teachers considered as vernacular! Thus, we need to decolonise our communication and grow our languages.

We ask of what use if we write in our indigenous languages when there are no readers? So they concluded that for now, we must write in English for a wider reach.

It was a good ending to the World Poetry Day on 21 March 2022, that cozy evening with the three PAWA poetry prize finalists and a handful of poetry lovers!

Kudos to Abuja Writers Forum!

Kabura Zakama is a Veterinarian and award-winning poet whose latest collection of poetry is CHANT OF THE ANGRY
Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) operatives have arrested four suspects and impounded pirated books worth N2.5 million in Wuse Market in Abuja.

John Asein, the Director-General of the NCC, made this known while briefing journalists in Abuja.

Mr Asein said that the commission made the arrest when a team of operatives carried out monitoring and enforcement operations in the market.

He said that one of the suspects escaped arrest while searching for more pirated books in his shop.

The director-general said that the impounded books included storybooks, literature, including his published book titled Introduction to Nigerian Legal System which was out of market ten years ago.

He said that the signs to know the pirated books would include fade printed copies, outdated editions and others.

We are committed to ensuring that there are safe corridors for every copyright work in Nigeria. Unless we provide that, the youths who are wonderful will not see the need to create more. I want to see more authors coming out, he said.

Continuity

The director-general said that enforcement operations of the commission will be a constant thing henceforth.

Most of these pirated books came from Wuse Market and we are going back. If you dont sell original books, you either move out of business or face the wrath of the law.

We will process and prosecute every person arrested.

What we do know is to have a quick turnaround to ensure that every arrested suspect goes to court immediately. The one we did in Lagos State was about a two-week turnaround.

I will make sure that the action has been filed in court within two weeks, the director-general said.

According to him, these are very serious offences that affect the finances of publishers.

They also destroy the foundation of learning education in Nigeria. The more you find pirates doing this, the fewer authors are willing to create and write.

We also realise that we cannot fight this piracy alone. We are going to work with the state authorities to let their schools know that when books are adopted, those books should be saved from the hands of pirates, he said.

Mr Asien said that the management of schools should not be the one that would contribute to providing corridors for the books to get to the users.

(NAN)
MOGADISHU, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Thursday called for investigations into the suicide attacks in the central Somalia town of Beledweyne Wednesday night which have so far left at least 30 people dead.

The UN also condemned the attacks which killed an outspoken parliamentarian Amina Mohamed and offered its condolences to the families and relatives of those killed.

"The UN condemns the suicide attacks which killed parliamentarian Amina Mohamed and others in Beledweyne yesterday (Wednesday)," it said in a brief statement. "The UN welcomes an investigation into the heinous act, and calls for Somalia's electoral process to be concluded peacefully and safely."

The move comes as the death toll from the suicide attacks in Beledweyne town where the ongoing elections of the House of the People, the Lower House of the Parliament, were taking place, rose to 30.

Hiraan Regional Police Commander Isak Ali Abdulle said the death toll could increase after several people are still hospitalized with serious wounds.

Abdulle said a suicide bomber wearing explosive vests wrapped around his waist detonated explosives in front of the heavily secured Lamagalaay base. He said the second blast took place at a security checkpoint, targeting vehicles for rushing the injured to the hospitals but no casualties were reported.

Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they targeted government officials including electoral delegates in Beledweyne town taking part in the elections. 
Nigerian comic skit maker, actor and activist Adebowale Adedayo, also known as Mr Macaroni, has revealed that he attended four universities before he could bag a degree in theatre arts and film studies.

The 28-year-old comedian revealed this on his Twitter handle while sharing some facts about himself.

Popular for his Sugar daddy role in his comedy skits, Mr Macaroni revealed that he hails from Abeokuta Ogun State, but he was born and raised in Lagos State.

He wrote: So here are some facts about me. For those that keep asking. These are pure facts. If you have questions, you can ask.

I am Adebowale Adedayo, born in Lagos on the 3rd day of May 1993. Into a Muslim and Christian Family. I answer David and Ibrahim.

My state of Origin is Ogun. Im from Abeokuta precisely. I attended Tendercare International Nursery and Primary school in Ojota, Ogudu. Now at Magodo here.

So I will be an Ojota/Magodo boy. I started secondary school in 2002. Babcock University High School.

Mr Macaroni said that he went to four universities between 2009 to 2013.

He said that he had gained admission into LeadCity University in 2009, where he was studying law not until he left the school at 200 level due to accreditation issues.

In 2011, he also noted, he went to North American University Cotonou to continue his law programme but couldnt finish for some reasons which led him to Afe Babalola University in 2012, where he started studying Theater Arts, a course he described as his first love.

However, according to him, he moved from Afe Babalola University to Redeemers University in 2013 to continue studying Theatre Arts.

So here are some facts about me.

For those that keep asking These are pure facts. If you have questions, you can ask.

I am Adebowale Adedayo, born in Lagos on the 3rd day of May, 1993. Into a Muslim and Christian Family. I answer David and Ibrahim.  DeboMacaroni (@mrmacaronii) March 23, 2022

He said, I went to 4 Universities.

I gained admission into LeadCity University in 2009. I was studying law at the time. In 200L, our school had accreditation issues, we started to protest, things got hot. I had to leave school. Lol. I miss City sha. A sweet school like this.

From there, I went to Houdegbe North American University Cotonou in 2011. I was still studying law there I cos small wahala, I had to leave. From there I went to Afe Babalola University in 2012 it was there I decided to go back to my first love; Theatre. As Law don tire me.

One thing led to the other, I had to leave ABUAD

And that was when I went to Redeemers University in 2013 to study Theatre Arts. Small wahala happen. But everything settles las I finished there and got my certificate and the rest is history. 

Life after School

Mr Macaroni finished his one-year compulsory national youth service On March 5, 2020.

He completed his secondary school in 2009. He was mobilised for National Youth Service in 2019.

Although he was already making waves before his service year, he became a household name after his active participation in the EndSARs protest, and his activism for good governance.

Mr Macaroni was among the 40 protesters including passers-by, who were arrested for defying the Lagos State directive against the protest.

They were arraigned before a mobile court in Yaba by the police and later granted bail in the sum of N100,000 each, with sureties in like sum.

Taking to his Twitter account, Mr Macaroni recounted his experience and revealed that he had filed a lawsuit to that effect in March.

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Mr Macaroni recently featured in two big-screen movies, which include Ponzi (2021) and Ayinla (2021).

He also stars in the TV adaptation of Femi Adebayos comedy series Ile Alayo.
The Niger Delta in southern Nigeria is one of the most polluted places on earth. Decades of spillages from over 50 years of oil operations continue to erode local communities health, well-being, and livelihoods.

Ogoniland, located in Rivers State, has a complex history of oil exploration fraught with environmental, social and political problems. While the region does not currently produce oil, incessant spills from the pipelines running through it and looming plans by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company to resume operations threaten any hope of long-term restoration.

Most oil extraction from the sensitive ecological area of Ogoniland stopped in the early 1990s. But despite subsequent clean-up efforts, the region is constantly set back by spillages from pipeline sabotage, theft, artisanal refineries and pipeline corrosion. This has caused conflict between local communities and multinational oil companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, TotalFinaElf and Agip, which engaged in petroleum exploration for decades.

As part of the reconciliation process between Shell and local communities, the federal government appointed the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2005 to undertake an environmental assessment. UNEP was also mandated to supervise clean-ups in areas damaged by the decades of mismanaged oil operations. UNEPs 2011 report predicted it would take 25 to 30 years to deal with the pollution.

The government only began acting on the reports recommendations in 2016  five years after its release. At the time, President Muhammadu Buhari said this marked a turning point in restoring Ogonilands fragile ecosystem and the rest of the Niger Delta. That signalled a commitment to clean up other communities devastated by oil spills and provided hope for those relying on water resources for their survival.

However, since 2016, rising oil spills in the Delta have outpaced clean-up efforts and hamper any possibilities of environmental restoration in the near future.

The four Niger Delta coastal states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers produce 93 per cent of Nigerias crude oil. The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) database shows that of the almost 6,000 confirmed crude oil spillages recorded in these states since 2006 (see map), 32 per cent occurred after 2016. Some 408 confirmed spills have been documented in these states since January 2020  21 during this year alone.

More than 75 per cent of spills in Nigeria since 2016 can be attributed to theft and sabotage, mostly by militants and organised crime groups who target the pipeline network. Nigeria lost an estimated $4.5 billion in 2020 due to petroleum pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft. These crimes lead to large-scale spills and environmental destruction, jeopardising clean-up efforts.

The Nigerian Petroleum Development Companys resumption of oil exploration in Ogoniland will increase these figures and further harm the environment. Since the clean-up started in 2016, 692 oil spills have been confirmed in Rivers State. Sixty of these were in Ogoniland, with an estimated spillage of more than 2,200 barrels of oil. All the spills were attributed to theft and sabotage of the pipeline and corrosion, according to the NOSDRA database.

Nigerias Petroleum Production and Distribution (Anti-Sabotage) Act defines sabotage as intent to obstruct or prevent the production or distribution of petroleum products. This includes destroying or damaging materials, premises or utilities for oil bunkering and theft, pipeline vandalism, fuel scooping, operating illegal oil refineries and pipeline rupture.

Anyone committing sabotage is liable on conviction to a death sentence or imprisonment of up to 21 years. The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps reported 503 arrests and 122 convictions for offences bordering on pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft in 2021.

This stringent legal framework has not, however, deterred offenders. Oil spillage due to sabotage by criminal groups, corruption and collusion by state security officials are increasing in the Niger Delta.

The crimes are enabled by the weak implementation of laws, inconsistent oil spill data (which hampers monitoring), accidents and corporate negligence by oil companies. Old and poorly maintained infrastructure is also to blame, as is the lack of commitment among some oil companies to containing spills.

Fyneface Dumnamene, Executive Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre in Port Harcourt, told ISS Today that environmental restoration would remain difficult until efforts were made to stop all new pollution. He said multinationals had not provided enough alternative job prospects for people engaging in illegal artisanal refining of crude oil. The UNEP report proposed a plan for employment options to stop the water and land pollution resulting from artisanal refining during the Ogoniland clean-up.

Niger Delta environmental rights activist Ledum Mitee told ISS Today that priority was not given to the UNEPs suggested measures to protect households from consuming water from wells, streams and rivers where hydrocarbons were detected. Oil companies did not provide these households with alternative sources of drinking water as planned. These problems make replicating the Ogoniland clean-up model in other polluted areas in the Niger Delta harder.

Nigerias government should conduct a comprehensive review of the clean-up seven years after its launch and improve the pace of work by using new technologies. Communities need to be involved through training and awareness that warns of the dangers of spills, theft and sabotage. Adequate government funds should be provided to NOSDRA so that the agency can monitor and detect oil spills and take speedy action.

Nigerias judicial system must remain a guardian of environmental justice. It needs to stay steadfast as it deals with penalties for environmental crimes committed by oil companies and compensation claims for the affected communities. Otherwise, oil spills in Ogoniland will continue to make the Niger Deltas future as dark as the substance itself.

Oluwole Ojewale, ENACT Regional Organised Crime Observatory Coordinator  Central Africa, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Dakar and Alize le Roux, Senior Researcher, African Futures and Innovation, ISS Pretoria

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, patients were seen trooping in and out of Alheri Ifeoluwa clinic, a facility located at Masaka, a suburb in Nasarawa State.

One of the patients, who was coughing profusely, had caught everyones attention.

The patient, later identified as Angulu Anti, a resident of Ankara Agwan garaga, across Kogi river, was recently diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB).

The managing director of the health family, Ogunyebi Veronica, said Ms Anti was diagnosed with TB in early 2021 and placed on treatment immediately.

Ms Veronica said the patient stopped visiting the hospital for treatment after a while and all efforts to reach her and the family failed.

I stopped going to the hospital because people in my community were distancing themselves from me, Ms Anti told this reporter as she coughed into her face mask.

Speaking in Gwandara, her local dialect, she said many people in her community started avoiding her, because, according to them, she may infect them with the disease.

Ms Anti, in her early 20s, said she decided to stay indoors, so that nobody sees her visiting the hospital.

She explained that she felt better after some time and concluded there was no longer need going to access treatment.

I started having headaches and the cough became more serious so my mother rushed me here today, she said.

What is Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis is caused by bacterium (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that often affects the lungs.

It is spread from person to person through the air. When people with TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.

Despite TB being a vaccine-preventable disease, statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that every year, about 245,000 Nigerians die from the disease, and about 590,000 new cases occur.

The data further shows that around 140,000 of this figure are also HIV-positive.

TB is identified as the number one infectious killer disease in the world and also among the top 10 causes of death worldwide.

One-quarter of the Worlds population, approximately 1.9 billion people, is infected with TB.

Nigeria ranks first in Africa and sixth amongst 30 countries globally with the highest burden of the disease. Nigeria also ranks first in Africa with the number of undetected cases.

To reduce the scourge of TB, global leaders at the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) in 2018 set a global target to identify more TB cases and put people on treatment by the year 2025. The target is a road-map to ending TB by the year 2030.

Nigeria at this meeting also committed to diagnose and treat over 1.1 million TB cases and place about 2.2 million persons on TB preventive therapy between 2018-2022.

By the first quarter of 2022, not much progress has been made in the fight against TB in Nigeria. The country still accounts for at least 300,000 missing cases every year.

The failure of Nigerias government to meet this target may be partly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic which has been largely blamed for disrupting several health targets globally.

However, factors like stigmatisation which led Ms Anti to derail from her treatment also threatens the countrys response to TB.

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2022 World TB Day (WTBD), PREMIUM TIMES with excerpts from health experts analyses some factors that have hindered TB eradication in Nigeria.

Poor funding

The Nigerian government has repeatedly failed to budget a substantial amount for the countrys overburdened health sector.

Health experts mainly attribute the failure to meet the TB target to poor funding and timely release of budgeted funds.

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The experts said the federal government has consistently failed to release adequate funding for TB, leaving major contributions to foreign donors.

The acting board chair of the Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Queen Ogbuji, said of the N150 billion ($373 million) needed for TB control in Nigeria in 2020, only 31 per cent was available to implementers.

Ms Ogbuji said about seven per cent of the money released came from the Nigerian government, while 24 per cent came from donors, leaving behind a funding gap of 70 per cent.

Globally, of the $15 billion annual funding for TB promised by world leaders at the UNHLM on TB in 2018, less than half has been delivered.

And in Nigeria, of the $373 million needed for TB control in 2020, only 31 per cent was available to all the implementers of TB control activities; seven per cent domestic and 24 per cent of donor funds, she said.

She lamented that the country still accounts for a 70 per cent funding gap in TB and the low levels of funding for TB response year after year is no longer acceptable.

Ms Ogbuji said more investment would save millions of lives and accelerate the end of the TB epidemic.

World leaders including governments at the National and sub-national levels must step up and quadruple TB funding to save lives and end the disease by 2030, she said.

A public health expert, Bethrand Odume, said improved funding will account for more TB case funding in the country.

Mr Odume said to fight any disease, the country requires a lot of available resources but that unfortunately, for years there have not been adequate resources to tackle TB.

The point to note is that we have what we call a strategic plan, which indicates what we need to curb TB. If you look at the funding gap, it mirrors the gap in case finding, he said, adding that; TB costs more to treat, it is high time we improved from 25 per cent TB funding.

COVID-19 pandemic

It is no longer news that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted human activities and overshadowed other health issues across the globe, including TB.

A 2021 data released by Stop TB Partnership, indicates that global treatment and diagnosis of TB cases witnessed a drastic decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is still troubling the world.

The report indicates that disruptions in services caused by the pandemic have led to further setbacks in progress already made against the disease.

The pandemic is said to have eliminated 12 years of progress in the global fight against TB.

Twelve years of impressive gains in the fight against TB, including in reducing the number of people who were missing from TB care, have been tragically reversed by another virulent respiratory infection, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership, Lucica Ditiu, said in her reaction to the report.

Ms Ditiu said the pandemic put the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in jeopardy.

She said data emerging from India and South Africa shows that people coinfected with TB and COVID-19 have three times higher mortality than people infected with TB alone.

She said this development makes contact tracing, case finding and bi-directional TB and COVID-19 testing essential.

The National Coordinator of National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Chukwuma Anyaike, said the pandemic has negatively affected all efforts to tame TB in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, over 255,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded and over 3,000 persons have died from the virus.

Stigma, discrimination

Various studies have shown that the fear of discrimination restricts people with TB symptoms from seeking help, making it much more likely that they will become seriously ill and infect others.

Just like Ms Anti, Precious Muyiwa, a resident of Masaka, said she suffered a lot of discrimination during her treatment of TB.

Ms Muyiwa said although she has completed her treatment, she is yet to recover from the shame of contracting TB.

As at then, once I start coughing, people around say I should not infect them with the disease, they tell me to stay far away from them, she said

Mr Anyaike said most people fail to report to the health facility once they start experiencing symptoms of TB, due to fear of condemnation.

He said the way people with TB are treated leads to delay in reporting to the hospital and consequently increases mortality from the disease.

He explained that to make sure those diagnosed are placed and retained on treatments according to national protocol, stigma and discrimination must first be tackled.

He said this will be a sure way of cutting the chain of TB transmission and ending the disease in Nigeria.

So many people do not want to be identified with TB and when they get cured, because of the stigma attached to it people still think they are very infectious, he said.

He explained that stigmatisation does not only affect people in the community, it also affects health care workers.

If you say you are working for TB programmes, they assume you are carrying the disease around and you will infect them, he said.

Ms Ditiu also confirmed that the disease is mostly associated with stigma, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened the situation due to similarities in both diseases.

If you cough in a gathering, before you know there are lots of empty spaces around you because everyone assumes you have COVID-19, she said.

Poor awareness

Studies have confirmed that the majority of persons especially those in rural communities lack adequate knowledge about TB.

Health experts believe that a lack of knowledge about TB generally is one of the biggest contributors to low case presentation.

The experts also said if awareness level on TB remains low, eradicating the disease will become an uphill task.

Mr Anyaike said there are some existing beliefs and myths about TB even among the educated populace, which he noted restrict people from accessing treatment.

One of the challenges in eradicating TB is poor awareness level. It is on record that only 27 per cent of Nigerians have true information about TB, he said.

He said more efforts are needed to raise awareness levels on TB, especially for those in hard-to-reach areas.

He said this will further reduce the unnecessary stigma associated with the disease.

We as a group are doing our best to increase the awareness level of people on TB, we tell them about the symptoms and importance of seeking medical help immediately, he said.

Mr Anyaike noted that one case of TB can infect 10-15 people in a day and the disease keeps spreading once the carrier fails to seek help.

Misdiagnosis, unidentified cases

Misdiagnosis and missing TB cases are also major contributors to delay in addressing the killer disease.

Mr Anyaike said early diagnosis is very important in TB because it is deadly to mix a bad egg with a good one.

He said TB misdiagnosis is rampant among children, especially those under five years of age.

He noted that despite the availability of Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccines to prevent TB, more children still get sick from the disease because their guardian failed to present them for vaccination.

BCG vaccination given to babies and young children provides consistent protection up to 80 per cent against severe forms of childhood TB, such as TB meningitis, he said.

He explained that some mothers have their children outside the health facility, making it difficult to administer the vaccines on them.

On missing TB cases, he said the country identified above 207,000 missing cases.

When you look at it and compare with what we have been having in this country, that stands out as the highest ever.

If at the end of the year we have above 300,000 missing cases and one unidentified case has the capacity to infect 15 to 20 people.

So if you multiply this by 300,000, you will see that there is a huge problem. TB is not sitting somewhere waiting for you, it is a deadly bacterial infection so it continues to spread in the communities, in hard-to-reach areas, he said.

Mr Anyaike said the earlier the bad ones are separated from the healthy ones, the better for the countrys response against TB.

And that is why we need to expand our diagnostics platforms.

We should be able to have at least one effective diagnostic platform in every local government in the country, he said.

World TB Day

To create awareness about the impact of TB, World TB Day is marked on March 24 every year.

The day is held to raise public awareness about the health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global epidemic.

The theme of World TB Day 2022 is Invest to End TB. Save Lives and Nigerias localised slogan is Give more, Do more, End TB now.

The theme conveys the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments made by global leaders to end TB.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern that with 36 per cent of all tuberculosis (TB) deaths occurring in Africa, failure to invest in its response will take a formidable toll on African countries.

The organisation said that increased investment can be a game-changer, and alleviate the preventable suffering and death of millions of people.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said this in a message to commemorate the World TB Day that is observed on March 24, each year.

Mrs Moeti said the day was to raise public awareness and understanding about one of the global deadliest infectious diseases.

She said that the UN High-Level world leaders had agreed to mobilise 13 billion dollars per year to finance TB prevention and treatment by 2022.

According to her, the world leaders also promised another two billion dollars per year for TB research in the face of growing concerns around drug-resistant TB.

WHO regional director said the world saw an increase in the number of global TB deaths for the first time in over a decade in 2021, adding that contributing factors included reduced access to TB diagnosis and treatment in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She called on the governments to mobilise additional domestic financial support for TB control, including contributions to the Global Fund.

Mrs Moeti said the fund, in February, launched its 18-billion dollars Seventh Replenishment campaign in a bid to counter the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on the fight against TB.

Today, I call on governments to mobilise additional domestic financial support for TB control, including contributions to the Global Fund, which last month launched its 18-billion dollars Seventh Replenishment campaign.

This is in a bid to counter the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on the fight against TB.

I urge all stakeholders to advocate increased investment and to ensure that TB services are integrated into the primary health care response.

We must all also work more closely with our communities, leveraging their expert local knowledge to tailor response efforts for maximum impact, she said.

Mrs Moeti appealed to donors, the private sector, civil society, and academia to pay increased attention to urgently boosting investment in the fight against TB and in TB research.

She said that in Africa, governments contribute only 22 per cent of the resources required to deliver adequate TB services, with 44 per cent going unfunded, which has remained an impending effort to reduce the TB burden.

She said it would help to accelerate technological breakthroughs and uptake of innovations towards ending TB by 2030.

Mrs Moeti said that funding for TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services continues to fall short of estimated global needs.

She added that there was the need for increased funding from domestic and international donors to counteract a reversal of the significant gains made against TB in the past decades

According to her, at the current rate of progress, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of ending the TB epidemic by 2030 may not be achievable.

Mrs Moeti said that this years theme; Invest to end TB. Save lives, emphasised the urgent need for the resources necessary to ramp up the fight against TB and realise the commitments to end TB made by global leaders. (NAN)
Fourteen Nigerian states are seeking foreign direct investments up to $15 billion from businesses and organisations from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and will be pitching their proposals to investors at the forthcoming 11th Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai.

The AIM meeting is being organised by the UAE Ministry of Economy and is scheduled for March 29 and 31.

The gathering will provide delegates of the 14 Nigerian states opportunities and ideal channels to share and promote investment opportunities in their respective states, said Abdullateef Shittu, the executive director in charge of strategy at the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) secretariat in Abuja.

The NGF, an association of the 36 Nigerian governors, has been working with the UAE Embassy in Nigeria to ease participation at the forum by Nigerian states.

Mr Shittu said the delegations from the participating states will promote Nigeria as an attractive investment and trade destination, showcase existing investment opportunities and provide leads that can be converted to investments.

Details obtained by PREMIUM TIMES listed the states that will be wooing investors at the forum to include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo and Ekiti, Enugu, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Plateau, Sokoto and Yobe.

Key projects for potential UAE investors

Delegates of the aforementioned participating states, some to be led by their governors, will be convincing potential UAE investors to invest in key and capital-intensive projects across sectors  infrastructure development, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, technology, transportation and logistics, tourism and hospitality, education and finance.

For instance, Abia State will be seeking $1 billion (N416.25 billion by the current official market dollar-naira exchange rate) for Enyimba economic city development ($288 million), leather and garment city project ($300 million) and Abia State special agro-processing zone development project ($450 million).

Similarly, Akwa Ibom will try to convince potential investors at the meeting to bring in a total of $2.6 billion into the Ibom Deep Seaport, Ibom Industrial City Project, Ibom Science Park and Industrial City, agribusiness and construction of jetties infrastructures in the state.

Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Ekiti and Enugu states will seek $88 million, $2.3 billion, $3.5 billion, $1.1 billion, $104.5 million, and $160 million respectively for maritime projects, agriculture and infrastructural developments across the states.

Likewise, the governments of Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Plateau, Sokoto and Yobe states will be telling potential investors to consider bringing in $97 million, $184 million, $2.5 billion, $33 million, $388 million and $910 million respectively for the implementation of projects in the agriculture, hospitality, infrastructure and mining sectors in their respective states.

Insert image showing lists of projects for which the states are seeking funding for

Potential UAE investors

At least 74 potential UAE investors have signified intentions to engage with the delegations from the 14 Nigerian states, Mr Shittu of the NGF said.

They include the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, African Development Bank, National Marine Dredging Company, Islamic Development Bank, Al Ain Farms, Strata manufacturing, TVM Capital Healthcare, Amea Power, MENA Infrastructure, Dubai Investments, Investment Corporation of Dubai, Mubadala, Gazprom Bank, Jumeirah Group, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Group, the Saudi Fund for Development, VTB Capital, MENA Tech Fund, among others.

Organisers say delegates of the Nigerian states would be allotted time to make presentations to investors.

Arrangements have also been made for the delegations to hold pre-arranged meetings with officials of the UAE Ministry of Economy, members of the AIM investors hub as well as participants in the Arab countrys global investors programme.

This, the organisers said, will give participating states the ideal stage and opportunities to strengthen and improve their countrys national brand within the global community and among relevant potential investment partners, and the international investment community.
Abass Muhammed, 32, became a Point of Sale (PoS) agent after losing his teaching job during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. He borrowed money from friends and family to launch his agent banking business with the aim of making money and attending to the financial needs of residents in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State, North-west Nigeria.

Since there was no bank in the locality, many bank customers preferred to pay N200 to deposit or withdraw money from their accounts within a few minutes, instead of spending more money and time going to far-away banks for the same purpose.

Like Mr Muhammed, many other PoS operators joined in making life easy for residents and business owners by setting up their operations at markets and bus parks, handling deposits and withdrawals for bank customers while taking the burden of having to face large crowds at the banking halls.

All was going well for Mr Muhammed until September 17, 2021 when bandits robbed him and also kidnapped his wife and brother.

Goronyo is one of at least seven areas in Sokoto under frequent attacks by terror groups, known locally as bandits, with the crisis leading to loss of lives and property. Over 42,000 people have reportedly been displaced as a result of repeated terror attacks in the state. Those who could not flee have joined vigilante groups to protect their villages.

Unfortunately, vigilante heads and community leaders are not spared as the terrorists now impose multi-million naira protection levies on residents in some of the communities.

It was about to rain when Mr Muhammed closed his shop at Sabon-gari area of Goronyo around 9:30 p.m. on September 17, 2021. As a bolt of lightning tore across the sky and claps of thunder followed, he jumped on his motorcycle and drove home.

He told our reporter that the rain that poured that night soaked his clothes and the unpaved paths to his house were awash with mud. The rain never stopped drizzling like a broken tap until he got home.

The attack

Barely one hour after getting home, the rain had subsided and it was time for Mr Muhammed to sleep. He kept his bag in his wardrobe as usual and proceeded to bed. Mr Muhammed was struggling to catch up with sleep when he heard sounds of people jumping over the fence into his compound.

Before he could make any attempt to hide, six men, armed with guns and machetes had broken into his sitting-room already, asking him to give them all the cash in his house.

They put guns on my head and asked where I kept my money. I tried explaining to them that the money was borrowed from different friends and family members to run the PoS business but they threatened to kill me, he said. I was forced to lead them to my room, they took over N3.2 million from me and went away with my PoS machine.

He told our reporter that his wife, Zarau, and elder brother, Annas, were subsequently kidnapped by the bandits after stealing his money and other valuables from him.

They took my wife and elder brother away that same night. They called the following morning, asking me to pay N5 million ransom for their release. They held them for seven days, threatened to kill them but I kept begging, he explained.

When the bandits realised that Mr Muhammed could not get the ransom available a week after, they settled for N300,000 and subsequently released his family members. To continue his business, he now borrows money from people to carry out his mobile banking services, and returns to the lenders at night.

He has also vacated his personal house to rent an apartment close to the office.

PoS agents vacate Goronyo

Unlike Mr Muhammed who continues to run his business activities after his encounter with terrorists, many other PoS agents have left the community because of fear of being attacked. One of them is Suleiman Adamu.

He left the community after I was attacked. As the level of insecurity deteriorated, he quit the job and has since gone to Sokoto capital alongside his family members. I dont know where he is currently operating. I am here because there are some soldiers who are still trying to ensure our safety. If not, I would have run away as well, Mr Muhammed said.

When contacted on why he left Goronyo, Mr Adamu told this reporter that his life is worth more than rendering financial service to people in an area where lives and properties are threatened by terrorists.

The challenge is beyond what you think. I left Goronyo following repeated attacks by bandits. I used to be in the markets to help people withdraw and deposit money on market days. I concluded the plans to leave the place after bandits opened fire on those carrying out their weekly market. I have never looked back since the day I left, he said during a telephone interview with our reporter.

Suraju Umar, another agent who claimed the insecurity in the community has affected him said people no longer come to Goronyo to run business because the kara is locked.

Residents excluded from financial service

Following the absence of banks and the shut down of most PoS shops in Goronyo, residents are denied financial services as many told our reporter they now keep their monies at home.

We usually withdraw money through PoS, make deposits, pay electricity bills, and other things but that has really reduced now because most of the PoS operators stopped working due to insecurity, said Zainab Aliyu, a petty trader in the community.

One of the police officers ensuring peace in the community, Ismail Muhammed, said the security challenge in this part of the state has really affected banking activities. There is no bank and with PoS shutting down, many residents here are excluded from financial services.

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There are times when people gather their money for me to help them send to their children who are in school anytime I go to Sokoto capital. The activities of the bandits are overwhelming and only God can save Nigeria. No banks and PoS operations aiding financial services are dying.

Adding to this, Suleman Zeyanu, secretary of the security committee in Goronyo, said, as our people continue to face banditry attacks, many have lost their livelihood. PoS agents are running for their lives and residents are denied financial services. No bank has its branch here because they are scared. We can only pray for a safe country where protection of lives and properties would be guaranteed.

Nigerias effort to achieve financial inclusion

Financial inclusion means that people have access to basic financial services. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the PoS banking in 2013 to ease financial transactions, enhance a cashless economy, and improve financial inclusion.

One of the conditions people must meet to become agents is that the person applying must have a current account being used to run a profitable business, and that holds a minimum of 50,000. They make profits from the charges on money withdrawn or deposited.

The Deputy Governor and Chair of the Financial Inclusion Technical Committee of the CBN, Aishah Ahmad, said in June 2021 that women, rural dwellers and citizens in the northern area are still excluded from financial inclusion in the country.

In August 2021, Senate Committee on Banking and Other Financial Institutions urged state governments particularly in the northwest zone of the country to ensure financial inclusion for poor citizens. The lawmakers said over 70 per cent of adults in the region are financially excluded.

The banking industry in Nigeria has evolved to a level that consumers can now execute transactions at their comfort. As simple as this may seem, Nigeria fell below its targets for 2020 which is to have 80 per cent of its adults financially included.

A 2021 data from by the EFInA access to financial services in Nigeria showed that 38.1 million of the countrys 106 million (18 years and above) adults or 36 per cent of Nigerian adults remain completely financially excluded.

The challenge is more prevalent in rural areas because banking services are not getting to the communities, especially those facing repeated terror attacks in the northern region of the country. A breakdown of the data showed that regional differences in financial access persist, with troubling regression in the Northwest.

According to the data, 68 per cent of the adults in the Northwest are predominantly excluded.

This is because many residents in the region are residing in communities with no financial access points (FAPs). These FAPs include banks, ATMs and Microfinance institutions.

Compared to its African colleagues, Nigeria has the highest proportion of financially excluded adults. Rwanda in 2020 reported a 36 percent banked population but less excluded adults at 7 percent. With a banked population above 40 percent Kenya has about 83 percent of its adult population financially included leaving only about 17 percent out of the financial system.

Financial experts weigh in

Reacting to our reporters findings, Ayodeji Ajao, a financial expert said insecurity is affecting every aspect of Nigerias economic life.

The activities of bandits in the northwest show that nobody is safe in most rural communities and financial inclusion cannot operate in isolation. While banks do not want to set up their branches in places that pose risks to their staff, PoS operators are targeted.

Nigeria is a troubled nation and no financial inclusion target can be met except we get rid of the problems affecting the country. Financial inclusion figures will continue to be low because people are not at peace. Im sure that all that will be required to do is sensitisation of people if everything is normal and the operating environment is good.

She argued that the government, setting financial inclusion targets must ensure that there is peace and stability for other economic parameters to take its shape.
President Muhammadu Buhari has urged leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to channel their energies toward improving the fortunes of the party in the coming elections by avoiding squabbling that easily distracts and creates disharmony.

The president made the call when he received the APC National Assembly leadership at the State House, Abuja on Thursday.

The president had met the APC governors and the national chairmanship aspirants separately on Wednesday over the proposed convention.

Mr Buhari reminded them of the proximity of the election dates set by INEC, admonishing that positions should be harmonised with a bigger picture of winning elections and providing good governance.

As you all know, the National Convention of our party, which we have committed to, is holding on March 26. And we cannot afford to do anything that will jeopardise the chances of the party in the 2023 General Elections.

The limited time frame of the INEC time table does not permit us any room for delay or further squabbling. We must therefore in the light of this reality consistently keep our eyes on the ball and refuse any distraction.

A critical segment of our national democratic process is the National Assembly.

Being representatives of our people from all over the country, the National Assembly especially the 9th Assembly has exhibited commitment to a peaceful democratic process in its conduct and utmost maturity in its relationship with other arms of government, I commend you, the leadership for this success, he said.

He added: Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members, we have an obligation to conduct the upcoming convention in a manner that not only fortifies the unity of our party but also improves the prospects of our electoral fortunes in the 2023 general elections.

You have an important role to play in ensuring that this happens.

Mr Buhari told the lawmakers that a zoning template was produced and adopted by the party after wide consultations in order to ensure that the leadership was reflective of the country s diversity, while representing various dynamic interests.

It is imperative that we adhere to that template.

The time available to us is limited and I therefore enjoin you to collaborate with the various stakeholders within and outside your respective states and zones to agree to work together and harmoniously in electing into the allotted positions appropriately, as stipulated in the provided template.

This will not only produce a smooth process and limit friction but will enhance the image of the party positively and strengthen our overall position of dominance in the political space, he said.

The president said he met with the governors and the party national chairmanship aspirants on Wednesday, to reiterate the need to go into the convention with a united front.

It is the same reason why I invited you today.

We should all do our part to ensure the success of this convention. This will fortify us for the campaigns ahead of us, Mr Buhari said.

The APC lawmakers were led to the meeting by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila of the House of Representatives.

The Senate President, who spoke to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, said it was held at the instance of the Nigerian leader to ensure a rancour-free convention as well as remain focused in delivering development projects to Nigerians.

He said the National Assembly had also resolved to work towards the emergence of consensus candidates to ensure smooth convention.

The resolution is coming ahead of Saturdays National convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said the president emphasised the need for party members to be united ahead of the convention, adding that it was a very important exercise for the party.

This is not what were used to in the legislature. The president, our leader of the party, the All Progressives, Congress in the country, and beyond, invited the principal officers of the APC in the National Assembly, to hold todays meeting with us.

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The President emphasised the need for us, in the APC to be united, always acting as a family, to ensure that we remain focused. We have the leadership of Nigeria today at the national level and of course, we have many states, about 22 states, under the leadership of the APC.

We have 22 states and then control of the federal government that requires that APC as a political party remains very focused, energetic, and purposeful, as it has always been, and ensures that we maintain the trajectory of development for our country. Because that is the trust Nigerians gave us in 2015 and renewed that, in 2019.

Mr President also emphasised the need for us to ensure that we have a successful convention on March 26.

This convention, by way of emphasis, is a very important convention for us in the APC, and by the grace of God, through our processes and procedures, at different levels of the party, the convention would be a very successful one and very peaceful one, he said.

He expressed the hope that the party would achieve consensus for all its positions at the national level before Saturday.

He affirmed that their meeting with the president had galvanised them to do more for the nation.

I want to say that this meeting with the President has given us more energy.

We believe that there is a father, at least in our party, there is a president who will ensure that once there are disagreements, he is able to call everybody to order and ensure that the family continues to remain united and that is what we have been able to achieve over the years.

Well, I dont want to be very partisan but of course, when you have a father in the family and a mother, then youre likely to have a stable family.

And when you have only one or none in the family, you are not likely to be successful, the family is likely to be disunited, and that is what other political parties probably are facing.

And I want to add here, finally, to say that we are committed to ensuring that this political party does not only have a successful convention, but a very successful, peaceful and safe electioneering campaigns during 2022/2023 general campaigns and the general elections, by the grace of God, Mr Lawan said.

(NAN)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has rejected the N548 billion subsidy payment claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

NNPC in 2021 alone claimed to have paid over One Trillion Naira as petroleum subsidy. Indeed, (in) the month of March 2022, N220 billion was deducted as oil subsidy with a promise that N328 billion will be deducted in April 2022.

Add together, the country would have spent N548 billion on oil subsidies for March and April, 2022.

This is unacceptable, the PDP governors said in a communique issued at the end of the forums meeting in Abia State on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by 12 state governors and the deputy governor of Taraba State.

The governors, who decried the inability of NNPC to make contributions to the federation account despite oil price now over $110 per barrel, said it was unconstitutional for NNPC to pay money into the federation account at its whim and discretion.

They further said that over N7 trillion has been withheld from the federation account by NNPC between 2012 and 2021 as subsidy payment and that the leakages were possible because the President Muhammadu Buhari doubles as Petroleum Minister.

We believe that all these leakages in NNPC have been made possible because the President is also the Minister of Petroleum. The urgent separation of these two portfolios have become necessary, the governors said.

Besides oil subsidy payment, the governors also accused NNPC of deducting N8.33 billion monthly for rehabilitation of refineries in Nigeria even when no refinery is working

CBN, EFCC, NIMASA, 14 others not remitting revenue to FAAC account

The PDP governors said 18 federal agencies were not remitting to the Federal Account Allocation Committee.

They listed the alleged defaulting agencies to include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Security and Exchange Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria Port Authority, the Security and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Communication Commission.

FIRS and DPR take the cost of collection of 4 per cent of Revenue collected, while Customs collects 7 per cent. In March 2022 for instance, FIRS took N15.4 billion as cost of collection and (Nigeria) Customs took N8.4b.

If these are annualised, FIRS and Customs collects about N1.84 billion and Customs N100B per annum. Obviously, some states of the Federations capital budget does not come close to these, the governors said.
Two days to the convention of Nigerias ruling party, APC, President Muhammadu Buhari has hosted the founding fathers of the party to a dinner.

The dinner was held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.

One of the attendees was Bola Tinubu, the former Lagos governor who wants to succeed Mr Buhari as president.

Another presidential aspirant and founding member of the APC who attended the dinner was Imo senator Rochas Okorocha.

Transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi, who is believed to nurse a presidential ambition, but has yet to formally declare his interest, was also at the dinner.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the get-together was to show Mr Buharis appreciation to the critical stakeholders for their continued support, understanding and cooperation to his administration.

It was also meant to show appreciation to the founding fathers for keeping faith with the goals and ideals of the ruling party, the agency reported.

The engagement was also in furtherance of genuine efforts by the Buhari administration aimed at ensuring a rancour free and successful National Convention of the party, slated for March 26.

Others in attendance included the first interim chairman of the party, Bisi Akande, Ogbonnaya Onu, Ibrahim Shekarau and Aliyu Wamakko.

Others are Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and Aminu Masari of Katsina.

The Chairman, Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party, Mai Mala Buni, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, also attended the dinner.

NAN reports that no official statement was issued on the outcome of interactive dinner as at the time of filing this report.

Mr Buhari had earlier met with APC governors, national chairmanship aspirants of the party as well as the partys leadership at the National Assembly during which issues relating to the APC National Convention were discussed.

Saturdays APC convention will hold in Abuja during which new leaders will be elected for the party. The new leaders will lead the party into next years general election.

Mr Buhari is rooting for a former Nasarawa governor, Abdullahi Adamu, to be the next chairman of the party.
The Federal High Court in Lagos, on Wednesday, vacated a subpoena on a journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) following an application by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

The court vacated the subpoena in the trial of a defendant, Chukwunonye Madubuike, following an application by NAFDAC prosecutor, Washington Adume.

The defendant is charged with dealing in unwholesome products.

He was re-arraigned on March 14, 2019, before Justice Maureen Onyetenu, on a one-count of selling Emzolyn with codeine cough syrup.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail.

Recall that in 2018, a ban was placed on the production and importation of cough syrup containing codeine after a BBC undercover investigation.

The BBC investigation sweet sweet codeine by a reporter, Adejuwon Soyinka, showed the syrup was sold in the black market to be used by young Nigerians to get high.

A joint probe by the BBCs investigation unit, Africa Eye, and BBC Pidgin, prompted the ban.

Consequently, NAFDAC arraigned the defendant in 2018 before Justice Babs Kuewumi, who had been transferred to the Ado-Ekiti division of the court.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty before both Justices Kuewumi and Onyetenu.

In 2019, Justice Onyetenu granted the issuance of a subpoena to compel the BBC journalist to come and testify in court.

Meanwhile, lawyers to the BBC reporter had filed a motion, seeking to dismiss the subpoena duces tecum ad testificandum (commanding or ordering a person to appear and bring specified documents or records and to give testimony), issued on Mr Soyinka.

In the said motion, they had averred that the reporter was entitled to freedom of expression and also had the right not to disclose sources of information used in reports.

Mrs Onyetenu was again transferred out of the Lagos jurisdiction and the defendant was re-arraigned before a new judge, Justice Akintayo Aluko.

When the case was called on Wednesday, the prosecutor, urged the court to vacate the subpoena issued by the previous judge on the reporter.

Mr Adume argued that when the case was charged to court, the reporter was invited to come and testify but he refused and proved hostile, in spite of the issuance of a subpoena.

He urged the court to vacate the said subpoena so as to make progress in the trial.

The court, consequently, granted the application and vacated the subpoena.

He adjourned the case until July 13 for a continuation of trial.

In the charge, the defendant was alleged to have committed the offence on April 24, 2018.

He was alleged to have sold Emzolyn with codeine cough syrup at Sheraton Hotel in Akiti Avenue, Lagos, a place not licensed or registered by the appropriate authority.

The prosecution said that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 2(a) of the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, Cap C34, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

(NAN)

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Mamadou Tangara, Gambian minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Jiang Chao)

ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Wednesday that sustained, stable and healthy development of the China-Gambia relations serves the long-term and fundamental interests of the two peoples.

Wang made the remarks while meeting with Mamadou Tangara, Gambian minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in the Pakistani capital.

Wang noted that China appreciates Gambia having adhered to the one-China policy to maintain the political foundation for bilateral relations since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations.

The two countries' mutual support in international affairs have showed that bilateral relations are at a high level, Wang added.

China will continue to support Gambia's efforts for national development and improving its people's well-being, he said.

During the meeting, the Chinese foreign minister also said that China is willing to work with Gambia to strengthen bilateral strategic communication and jointly safeguard the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs -- the basic norm governing international relations which is of crucial importance to the developing countries.

Wang said China has never engaged in proxy wars nor sought so-called spheres of influence. China opposes power politics and bloc confrontation, stands for equality among all countries regardless of their sizes, and advocates promoting greater democracy in international relations.

Wang congratulated Gambia on its hosting the upcoming OIC summit this year, saying that Gambia will continue to play an active role in the OIC, boosting the solidarity and advance of the Islamic world.

Tangara said the relations between his country and China have weathered changing circumstances and moved forward steadily, enjoying smooth progresses in their cooperation in every field as well as a reliable and strong partnership.

Tangara reaffirmed his country's adherence to the one-China policy. He said that like China, Gambia sticks to an independent foreign policy and firmly supports multilateralism.

The Gambian foreign minister also noted that China has played a leading role in promoting global development and made significant contributions to the world's joint fight against COVID-19. 
Yusuf Abdullahi, the Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Bauchi State, says that one person lost his life while 38 others injured in a lone auto crash that occurred in Bauchi on Monday.

Mr Abdullahi confirmed the incident in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Wednesday in Bauchi.

He said that the accident, which involved a Mercedes truck, occurred at Kwanan Balma village, along the Bauchi-Kano road in Ningi Local Government Area of the state.

The Sector Commander said the accident occurred around 12:30 p.m, adding that it took the personnel of the Corps barely 10 minutes to arrive at the scene to clear the site.

He said the ill-fated vehicle belonged to the Jigawa Sunrise Transport Company, and attributed the accident to reckless driving and loss of control.

The crash involved 86 males, one male adult died on the spot and 38 injured while 47 others escaped unscathed.

Being an open vehicle, it flung them away as a result the fatality rate was low.

And, luckily none of them fell onto a hard surface, the victims landed on soft part of the road, he said.

Mr Abdullahi said the corpse of the deceased and the wounded had been referred to the General Hospital, Ningi for identification and treatment.

He advised motorists to always observe traffic rules and regulations as well as drive with caution while plying the road. (NAN)
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says it now receives over 100 complaints daily from consumers regarding poor services by firms and service providers, a figure that is relatively small for the whole country but significantly higher than the past.

The agency, formerly the Consumer Protection Council, said before now it received an average of 50 complaints monthly, indicating low consumer rights awareness.

As of today, we receive nothing less than 100 complaints in one day. This is because Nigerian consumers are becoming enlightened day by day, FCCPCs director of administration, Mohammed Aliyu, said on Tuesday during an engagement with consumer-related civil society organisations in Abuja.

Nigerians frequently accuse service providers and private companies of mistreating customers and violating their rights. Yet, few follow through the process of filing complaints and seeking redress. The banking, telecoms and aviation sectors are the usually the most criticised sectors.

In February, airlines in the country raised flight tickets in the country 100 per cent to N50,000 against anti-competitive laws and have not reversed or moderated the rates despite complaints from passengers and a directive by the FCCPC.

The government said it is doing more to raise awareness amongst customers about their rights, and will do so working with civil society organisations. The FCCPC met with 30 CSOs in Abuja on Tuesday, the first of such engagements.

Mr Aliyu said the number of complaints has increased from 50 received quarterly or monthly previously as a result of enlightenment for the consumers.

He urged the groups to engage citizens through consumer rights awareness campaigns to broaden their knowledge on rights.

We have to collaborate with you to see that Nigeria consumers are not cheated. We have to organise programmes like these workshops, seminars, so that this programme will serve as a train the trainer whatever you learn here, go back to your various destinations and enlighten Nigerian consumers, he added.

The consumer agency assured it will employ stiffer actions against businesses that breach the consumers data privacy.

The head, Surveillance and Enforcement Department of FCCPC, Omagu Nwachukwu, said the meeting was to help minimise the number of complaints received by the commission and possibly resolve them.

You have the power to resolve complaints through mediations, you also have the power to resolve some societal issues through advocacy in your localities without even coming to the commission, she said. We want to have a holistic approach to complaints resolution.

Cecilia Powl, the executive secretary of the Non Governmental Association for Literacy Support Services, which works to enlighten consumers on their rights, said consumers find it difficult to engage owing to illiteracy and ignorance.

She called for more opportunities to engage consumers while encouraging her colleagues to continue engaging with rural consumers on their rights.
Governor Abudulahi Sule of Nasarawa State says the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be guided by the Electoral Act in the conduct of Saturdays National Convention.

Mr Sule, who is the chairman of the APC Sub-Committee on Media and Publicity for the National Convention, said this at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the conference was to brief the public on the steps taken so far to ensure a peaceful and rancour-free National Convention.

You can be rest assured that whatever we are going to do is going to be in line with the Electoral Act, he said.

He said this was because the party was working on consensus candidates for its various elective offices.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that clause 84(9) of the Electoral Act provides that a political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall secure a written consent from all cleared aspirants for the position.

This implies that they must indicate their voluntary withdrawal from the race as well as endorse the consensus candidate.

Where a political party is unable to secure the written consent of all cleared aspirants for the purpose of a consensus candidate, it shall revert to the choice of direct or indirect primaries.

This is for the nomination of candidates for elective positions.

Mr Sule said the APC was a law abiding political party which believed in the rule of law.

We are a law abiding political party, we will not do anything whatsoever, as a political party that is going to be in violation of the law, because as the ruling party.

We will not carry out something that is going to be detrimental to our laws, so we do not give bad examples, he said.

He said that following President Muhammad Buharis request, the party leadership might refund money paid by aspirants for the purchase of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms after emergence of consensus candidate.

This was an appeal made by Buhari to show leadership, he said once we agreed on the consensus, it is only fair that what they paid to purchase the forms be returned to them.

That is his request, and I am telling you, his request will be honoured, because we know he is doing it sincerely for the benefit of the party.

It was a request actually made by the president to the leadership of the party and the leadership were there, so, I will say that the leadership of the party also agreed, Mr Sule said.

He said that only accredited delegates would be allowed into the convention venue.

Mr Sule lauded Mr Buhari, the Progressive Governors and Chairman of APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), for the efforts in advancing the partys course.

He said the APC had in Mr Buhari, a political leader and a father that was respected by its members.

We strongly believe that he will not do anything for selfish reasons, greed or for anything that will be against the partys interest. His interest is to ensure the unity of the party.

So, he is not doing anything for his personal benefit, that is the kind of leader we have, that is why each time he speaks, everyone listens, Mr Sule said.

He said that while the party had zoned its national chairmanship to the North-Central, some aspirants outside the zone were still in the race.

He said this was democracy in action as such, aspirants could not be denied since they had already purchased the forms to contest the position.

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New national executives are expected to be elected at the partys national convention to manage its affairs currently being managed by the CECPC led by Governor Mala Buni of Yobe State.

So far, seven aspirants in the chairmanship race had obtained and submitted the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms at the cost of N20 million.

They include Saliu Mustapha, a former Deputy National Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressives Congress (CPC), George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Sani Musa, Tanko Al Makura, Abdullahi Adamu, and former Governor Abudulaziz Yari of Zamfara State.

(NAN)
Saliu Mustapha, an aspirant for the position of national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has promised to reserve all deputy positions in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for women and youth, if elected.

Mr Mustapha, a former deputy national chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, made this promise while soliciting the support of the members of the House of Representatives APC caucus on Wednesday, ahead of the 26th of March convention.

The promise by the aspirant is coming at a time when Nigerian lawmakers rejected five bills that sought to bridge the gender gap in political leadership in Nigeria.

During voting on constitution amendment earlier in the month, the two chambers of the National Assembly had rejected the bills, including a bill to reserve 35 per cent of all positions in political parties administration for women.

The decision of the lawmakers had triggered protests at the entrance of the federal legislature by different women groups. Following the protests, the lower chamber rescinded its decision on three of the bills and promised to schedule them for new voting.

On Tuesday, the women suspended the protests and gave the lawmakers a seven-day ultimatum to reconsider the bills. The protest was suspended after House Majority Leader, Ado Doguwa (APC, Kano) met the protesters. He asked them to give the parliament time to work on the bills.

Mentoring women and youth

I also want to promote a deliberate policy here, whereby, in certain positions where we have deputies, it should be an automatic policy of APC that a competent woman or competent youth must be given that position.

 Once we achieve this, it will go a long way to mentoring young people and women to leadership positions, he said.

He added that the policy will not prevent women from contesting for other positions in the party.

Mr Mustapha also promised the lawmakers that if he is elected, the NWC will be holding quarterly meetings with members of the National Assembly.

I doubt if in the last six to seven years our party has sat with the honourable members of this party. We need to encourage this process within our party, he said.

Mr Mustapha and other candidates in the race still face uncertainty as President Muhammadu Buhari is still pushing for a consensus candidate for all the positions in the NWC of the party.

On Wednesday, Mr Buhari had asked the party to refund money paid for the expression of interest and nominations by any aspirant willing to step down for consensus candidates.

The president gave the directive when he hosted all the aspirants to a dinner at the State House in Abuja.
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has said he was not worried by the recent court judgment sacking his administration.

The Federal High Court in Abuja two weeks ago sacked Mr Umahi, the Deputy Governor, Kelechi Igwe, along with 16 lawmakers in the state over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The judge, Inyang Ekwo, ruled that by defecting from the party on which they were sponsored and elected, they had resigned or deemed to have resigned from office.

The court last Monday struck out the governors motion seeking a stay of execution of the judgment.

But Governor Umahi said at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday that he was not worried by the judgment.

Do I look worried? Am I still not David? You see, God has plans for everything. Nobody sacked my administration, Mr Umahi insisted.

The governor, while referencing a case in Bayelsa State where a governor-elect was sacked by the Supreme Court, argued that the votes cast in an election belong to the candidates, not the political party.

And even a day to his swearing-in, the Supreme Court ruled disqualifying the candidate of APC that won the election because of his deputy. And so if votes belonged to the party, it would have been that the Supreme Court in their wisdom would have just asked for the man that won the election, for the party to bring a substitute to do that, he said.

The Supreme Court, in February 2020, sacked David Lyon of the APC as governor-elect of Bayelsa State, barely 24 hours to his inauguration, on the grounds that his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, presented false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

In the first place, there is no constitutional provision that says that a governor can be sued. So, Im not sueable, you know. But a court judgment is a court judgment.

And the Constitution says that once youre elected, you enjoy immunity, and the Supreme Court says votes cast in an election belong to the candidate. And thats why you have qualifications of a candidate and not qualifications of a political party, Mr Umahi insisted.

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The governor said God allowed the court ruling to happen so as to provide him with the opportunity to make further consultations on his 2023 presidential ambition.

Presidential ambition

Mr Umahi denied that he was considering dropping his presidential ambition.

There is no such thing. You can see us in the various media houses, you know, social media. And you can see my supporters everywhere, you can see my consultation, I even consult those who are also aspiring, and that shows you how committed I am to this course, he said.

Row with Mr Wike

Mr Umahi slammed Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike over the latters remarks on the court judgment sacking the Ebonyi governor.

You heard him on Channels TV boasting that he is behind the court judgment (that sacked me). A mere man that depends on the breath of God, I pity illiteracy.

Its a shame (that he is) boasting to remove another government. What qualifies you? Just because youre packing money, that is a public fund, you know, not your own, he said, apparently referring to Mr Wike.
As soon as the governing council of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, announced the appointment of Adebayo Bamire as a successor to the institutions outgoing vice-chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, last week Thursday, a group of protesters stormed the university and blocked its main entrance gates, causing human and vehicular traffic.

The protesters had threatened to shut down the institution the following days, accusing the governing council of scheming out an indigene of Ile-Ife, the institutions host community, from being appointed.

One of the 16 applicants shortlisted for the office out of the 20 that applied, Rufus Adedoyin, a professor of Physiotherapy, had been backed by a group of elders and youth of the community under the umbrella of Town and Gown.

They cited examples of the Universities of Ilorin, Jos and also, Ibadan, which have been administered at different times by indigenes of their host communities.

True to the protesters threat, for more than 48 hours beginning from Monday, both young and elderly men and women including those clad in traditional attires and even masquerades besieged the university, threatening fire and brimstone.

They demanded the reversal of the governing councils decision and threatened that there would be no peace until an indigene is appointed the vice-chancellor.

One of the coordinators of the protest, Agbogunleri Oluwaseun, said the only path to peace was the nullification of the appointment of Mr Bamire, the vice-chancellor-designate, and the announcement of Mr Adedoyin, the preferred candidate of the Ife people.

He said; What we want is that the governing council, the university management and the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, should consider the indigenous person and declare our candidate (Rufus Adedoyin) as the vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University.

Mr Agbogunleri challenged the selection committee to make public the parameters used in the selection of Mr Bamire.

According to him, it is wrong to say the selection of the vice-chancellor is based solely on merit without consideration for indigeneship.

If you go to University of Ibadan, the indigenous person is the vice-chancellor, if you go to the University of Ilorin or University of Calabar, the indigenous persons have been the vice-chancellors at one time or the other, he said.

He said the university establishment principle provides room for indigenous people. We are not domesticating the university. But there should be a little bit of consideration for indigenous people.

About Adedoyin

Mr Adedoyin, who is being supported by various groups in the community including a group of academics under the umbrella of Ife Academia, is a professor of physiotherapy.

A former head of the department of medical rehabilitation at the university, Mr Adedoyin is also an honorary consultant cardiopulmonary physiotherapist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife (OAUTHC).

He was one of the 16 candidates that took part in the selection process leading to the appointment of Mr Bamire.

But he was not one of the top three candidates at the end of the selection process.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that Razaq Kalilu, a professor of Art and former deputy vice-chancellor at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, and Kayode Ijadunola, a professor of public health and community medicine and former provost of the OAUs college of health sciences, came second and third respectively at the end of the process.

But Mr Agbogunleri insisted that with more than 200 publications, Mr Adedoyin is competent to be appointed the VC.

Even the incumbent, the outgoing vice-chancellor, has less than 200 publications, he said.

Due process followed

However, the university has maintained that due process was followed and merit was the basis by which the vice-chancellor-designate was chosen.

In a release by its spokesperson, Abiodun Olarewaju, the university stated that: The Joint Council and Senate Selection Board shortlisted sixteen (16) candidates for the interaction for the post of vice-chancellor and the candidates whose names were arranged in alphabetical order, were called in for interaction and each was scored by each member of the selection board.

The score sheets of each assessor for individual candidates were dropped into an envelope and sealed, with the signature of the Chairman of Council on each one.

At the end of the interaction, the sealed envelopes were opened one after the other and announced to all the members. The score sheets were thereafter passed around for sighting. Then, the scores of the candidates were collated with Microsoft Excel and ranked from the highest to the lowest. The candidate with the highest score was eventually announced as the vice-chancellor by the governing council.

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For the avoidance of doubt, no member of the Board had foreknowledge of each candidates score before the final collation at the end of the interaction.

The university is aware of the false presentation of the alphabetical arrangement of the applicants as the authentic list of applicants performance where unfounded allegations have been made of changing the leading candidate.

We were attacked with charms

The university also accused the protesters of invading the campus with charms and other fetish objects and grounding movement on the university premises.

According to Mr Olarewaju, the protesters vandalised the security office and the main gate on Friday, the second day of the protest.

Another statement by Mr Olanrewaju reads in part: The protesters, who initially blocked the main gate of the university on the first day and threatened staff and students to stay away from campus, became very violent the second day as they beat up workers, particularly the staff of the security unit, and vandalised their office at the main gate. Some of the security staff had to be taken to the universitys health centre for treatment.

Today, Monday, 21st March 2022, things took more dangerous dimensions as the indigenes beat up some OAU students who they met at the gate, blocked the two major gates as early as 6 a.m., coming into the campus with charms, and other fetish items. They assembled at the motion ground of the university secretariat, dressed in all-white spiritual traditional attire, chanting incantations while performing rituals.

Corroboration

The leadership of the students union on the campus, in a statement by its public relations officer, Ogunperi Taofeek, also alleged harassment of students by the protesters.

It, therefore, appealed to the university management to close the university in 72 hours if the protests did not stop.

The unions statement reads in part; The union strongly condemns the barbaric acts perpetuated by the protesters, including but not only beating and harassing members of our union.

Based on the aforementioned, the union has demanded that the management of the university, if the protests do not subside in 72 hours, should close the university until the crisis is over.

Informing this decision is also the fact that the protesters are scaling up their affront on our university community and its immediate community where a large number of our members live. Without proactive measures to address this crisis, it is not impossible that the protesters will invade the campus at any time and further inconvenience the university community such that union members suffer.

Protesters deny harassment allegation

Abimbola Afolabi of Ife First Advocate, one of the groups coordinating the protest, said the accusation was untrue.

He said the only issue they had was trying to stop someone from recording them during the protest.

He said: The only issue we had was someone who was trying to record without taking permission. We are not saying you shouldnt record us. But before you record we must be sure that you are a journalist.

If you are recording without our consent, we dont know who you are. Maybe you want to use that to victimise our members. We try to seize their phones, delete the pictures or videos and return their phones to them. This is what I personally do.

On Friday when we got to the gate, a security man was still trying to man the gate and we told him to leave. So at that point before I called them, there was an altercation. There was no beating. I approached him. And he agreed and he left. Hes a person I know personally.

Akeredolu expresses disappointment

Meanwhile, the governor of Ondo State and an alumnus of the university, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has condemned what he described as the invasion of the university by traditionalists over the appointment of vice-chancellor.

Mr Akeredolu, in a statement issued on Tuesday, lamented that the glory of the university like its other counterparts nationwide had diminished, noting that universities were more interested in trivial issues rather than teaching and research.

The statement reads in part, The latest news on the invasion of the campus by some Ife indigenes and traditionalists, allegedly, to protest the failure by the authorities to appoint an Ife indigene, showcases the extent to which the system has sunk, almost irretrievably.

This is, perhaps, symptomatic of the pervasive rot in the academia. This thoughtless, reckless and misguided step forebodes untoward occurrences in the future.

A situation which seems totally extraneous elements to the university environment invade the serene ambience to offer support, presumably solicited and sponsored by those who may have lost out in the selection process, is lamentable. There can be no worse signs than these outward displays of attitudes alien to academia.

To assert that we are disappointed is an understatement. All those responsible for this disgrace should be ashamed of themselves, and this is assuming they possess any sense of shame. This act should elicit the most strident condemnation from all good people. I condemn it without equivocation.

Osun governor wades in

On Tuesday, the government of the host state, Osun, called on aggrieved parties to sheathe their swords.

In a statement signed by the chief press secretary to Governor Gboyega Oyetola, Ismail Omipidan, the government appealed that the protesters give peace a chance going forward.

Mr Oyetola noted that ivory towers anywhere in the world were sacred institutions and everything must be done to accord them that dignity.

The governor, who noted that though the state had no role in the choice of who becomes the vice-chancellor of the university, being a federal institution, said he had responsibility for the safety and security of the institution and its workers as the host governor.

It is with a heavy heart and a deep sense of concern that I call on the good people of Ile-Ife, especially those protesting over the choice of a new vice-chancellor for Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, to stop further protest and give peace a chance.

Ooni sues for peace

On Wednesday, the monarch of the host community, Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, cautioned his subjects and residents against unlawful acts.

Mr Ogunwusi also assured workers and students of the institution of the safety of their lives and property.

In a statement signed by his spokesman, Moses Olafare, the monarch promised the protesters that their agitation would be given adequate attention.

The statement reads in part, Over the years, the good people of Ife have been a superb host to the university even as they enroll their children and equally join qualified hands (regardless of background) to work in the citadel of learning.

The Ife community is proud to have partnered and still partnering the institution through the House of Oduduwa on viable programmes and projects capable of projecting Ile-Ife to the outside world as an ancient city ready for progress and development.

The good relationship between the town (Ile-Ife) and gown (OAU) remains as strong as ever, particularly to the benefit of the younger ones in and outside the university. OAU is Ife, Ife is OAU and we shall continue to cohabit in peace for progress.

Backstory

Shortly after the announcement of Mr Bamire, a professor of agriculture, as the vice-chancellor-designate on Thursday, a mild protest began around the university with the demand that an Ile-Ife indigene should have been appointed.

Mr Bamires appointment was announced by the universitys governing council led by a business mogul and founder of Superior Motors, Oscar Udoji.

The selection process which had been adjudged peaceful and noiseless by some members of the university community soon began to generate noise.

The protesters, the indigenous people of Ife, continued the protest on Friday and again on Monday. They said they will continue with the protest until there is a reversal and their candidate was appointed.
The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the status of refineries in Nigeria has issued a fresh summon to the Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, and Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed.

The panel also summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and the managers of the state-owned refineries.

The summon was issued by the committee on Thursday after the officials shunned the investigative hearing it organised.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila had constituted the ad hoc committee in January with the mandate to determine the state of refineries in the country and what is needed to bring them back to maximum refining capacity.

In addition, the committee was asked to determine the amount of money spent on turnaround maintenance of the refineries.

Last week, the committee had requested an extension of eight weeks to allow it to complete its work.

Hearing

During the hearing, the Chairman of the Committee, Ganiyu Johnson (APC, Lagos), said the NNPC had submitted a written response, but that it was not satisfied with the submission, hence, its decision to summon Mr Kyari.

He said the GMD should provide the appraisal of the state of Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Warri Refining and Petrochemical Limited, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Limited.

Also, he is to provide copies of the annual budget on rehabilitation of all the refineries, list of approvals and funds released for rehabilitation, list of contracts awarded for rehabilitation, the actual cost of rehabilitation, evidence of payment and list of service providers.

The committee rejected the representatives of Mr Sylva and other officials and requested they appear in person.

Ibrahim Isiaka (APC, Ogun), a member of the committee, expressed dismay with the invited officials for sending representatives without a letter to that effect.

The chairman ruled that all the officials should appear before the committee next week Thursday.

The other officials that will appear are the Accountant General of the Federation, Auditor-General for the Federation, the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, and the Chief Executives of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority.

The Managing Director, Port Harcourt Refinning Company Limited (PHRC), the Managing Director, Kaduna Refinning and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC) and the Managing Director, Kaduna Refinning and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC) are expected to appear.

This investigation is coming amidst biting fuel scarcity that has lasted for about a month.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed a bill seeking to make the countrys business environment better suited for business.

A statement issued on Thursday by the secretary of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Jumoke Oduwole, said the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Nigeria Bar Association, the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable and law firms were involved in the process.

Christened Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, the proposed legislation aims to amend 23 business-related laws and codify Executive Order 001, which requires Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to publish licenses, permits, waivers and approvals.

It will also modify the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) as well as the law establishing the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) among other statutes.

A product of a review that began in 2017, the proposal, alternatively known as Omnibus Bill, will be dispatched any moment soon to the National Assembly for assent.

The PEBEC is optimistic that the National Assemblys consideration and anticipated passage of the Omnibus Bill into law in the not so distant future will further improve the business environment in Nigeria thereby attracting the much needed participation and investment from the private sector necessary to actualize the funding objectives of the National Development Plan 2021, Mr Oduwole said.

According to the last edition of the World Bank report on Ease of Doing Business in 2020, Nigeria featured among the economies with the most notable improvement on the ranking table.

Overall, Nigeria emerged 131 out of 190 countries, moving up 15 places from the 146th position it occupied the previous year, or 56.9 per cent point score.

If passed into law, the bill is believed to make the business environment friendlier and attractive enough for investors by making the business operation process more seamless in the country.

The first version of the Omnibus Bill was produced by the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMoJ) and presented to the PEBEC in 2019, Oduwole said.

In 2020, the PEBEC Secretariat invited additional submissions to the Omnibus Bill from both public and private sector stakeholders. These submissions were reviewed by a Technical Committee constituted by the PEBEC Secretariat which included both private and public stakeholders, she added.
For Nigeria to take its rightful place in the comity of nations, the quality of leaders elected in 2023 must change.

Also, Nigerians must vote for good leaders, rather than queue behind leaders who mortgage their lives by giving them money and food as incentive in exchange for votes.

These were the submissions made by former Governors of Ogun, Anambra and Kaduna states, Gbenga Daniel, Peter Obi, Ahmed Makarfi, and other eminent Nigerians on Tuesday in Lagos during the 4th yearly lecture of Freedom Online newspaper.

The host and Editor-in-Chief of Freedom Online, Gabriel Akinadewo, set the ball rolling by insisting that the time to decide on the bright side or bleak future for Nigeria is now as the world is moving and not waiting for Nigeria.

While expressing concern over the present quality of leaders in the country, he declared that Nigeria urgently needs transformational leaders.

Mr Daniel said with the nations enormous resources, Nigeria can still perform better, if the quality of leadership is addressed.

In his keynote address, entitled: Nigerias Political Indices: Bright or Bleak Future, Mr Daniel urged Nigerians to vote for good leaders, rather than queue behind leaders who mortgage their lives by giving them money and food as incentive in exchange for votes.

The former governor said Nigerians should realise that the only way to see a developed Nigeria is to ensure that they vote with their brains and not their stomach.

Mr Makarfi, the chairman of the event, said he was optimistic about a brighter Nigeria, but added that the leaders Nigeria needs now must be those that would provide a Government of National Unity (GNU).

Mr Obi, the Special Guest Speaker, observed that the recruitment and selection process of leaders are poor.

He said: We have everything but lack the right leadership. In choosing the right leaders, we must look at character, competence and capacity. Leaders must also invest in education, health and pull people out of poverty.

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Military Administrator of old Ondo State, Olabode George, said Nigerians must be seen to be selfless in service and to the rule of law.

Mr George, who was represented by erstwhile member of The Guardian Editorial Board, Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, said no matter the situation, he would not give up on Nigeria, saying: This nation will not, should not and must not fail.

The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, called for restructuring.

He said the issue of restructuring is very important to us.

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, stated that though there are challenges, there are still good narratives about the country.

He said: Nigeria is not retrogressing. We are making progress. The youths are doing wonderful things all over the world. For instance, in Lagos, youths are deploying technologies to solve societal problems. The future of Nigeria is very bright and everything is in the hands of all of usthe old and the youths.

For the former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, it is time to stop dwelling so much on the past and focus on the future as tomorrow may be too late.

According to him, the quality of leadership impacts on all citizens and aligns with the need to rethink recruitment process for the leaders of this country.

Akin Onigbinde faulted the dominance of money issue in Nigerian politics.

Former Military Administrator of Bayelsa State and former Police Affairs Minister, Omoniyi Olubolade, simply said it shall be well with Nigeria.
Nigerias health minister, Osagie Ehanire, has said the country must fully revitalise its Primary Health Care Centres (PHC) to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Mr Ehanire, while speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day Primary Health Care summit in Abuja on Thursday, said the country must recommit to strengthening its PHC systems.

The PHC message itself is not new, because it is underpinned by the Alma Ata Declaration and has been amplified in Nigeria ever since the ministerial term of Ransome Kuti: but despite all that, it somehow has not found the required resonance, when it comes to implementation, he said.

He said the summit is timely, insisting that the country must put in more efforts to ensure UHC for everyone.

This is a call to recommit to strengthening our PHC system, and to emphasise that this administration is dedicated to making progress towards attainment of UHC and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria, he said.

He noted that the summit must not be another missed opportunity to address issues that hamstring the countrys health sector.

PHC Summit

The summit, which is themed; Re-imagining PHC in Nigeria was organised by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).

The summit aims to galvanise stakeholders to invest and collaboratively implement a PHC revitalisation strategy for the country.

The summit is also geared towards launching a historic programme to transform the under-resourced, weak PHC system in Nigeria by leveraging private sector, international agencies and government collaborations.

Achieving UHC

Mr Ehanire said to achieve UHC, the country must overcome obstacles militating against giving due attention to PHCs and their optimal performance.

He said the foundation of any strong health system and for UHC rests on a robust, resilient PHC system.

He said health experts reckon that up to 70 per cent of the countrys disease burden can be treated at PHCs and vital disease prevention and health promotion education can be given, including immunisation.

Strengthening PHCs, not only assures better population health but reduces the workload on secondary and tertiaryhealthcare levels and also the catastrophic out-of-pocket patient spending on health, he said.

Mr Ehanire said Nigeria needs to urgently revitalise PHC services by ensuring their availability at designated communities, at least one functional PHC per ward.

He noted that this should come with adequate human resources for health, comprising nurses, skilled birth attendants and other staff for basic healthcare.

They must be supported with efficient supply chain management that assures availability of essential medicines, medical devices, consumables and other commodities, he said.

The minister explained that the newest PHC design in the country sees the provision of staff quarters in every centre, to enable round-the-clock service delivery.

The plan also requires an obligatory source of potable running water and steady power supply with solar aggregate, for a conducive environment to deliver quality healthcare services, he said.

PHC is important

Speaking at the summit, the World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director, Matshidiso Moeti, said PHC is an integral part of any economic development.

Ms Moeti commended the Nigerian government for the desire to reimagine primary health care in Nigeria.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that health care is critical to every aspect of a countrys development.

In her remarks, U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Leonard, said the U.S government is pleased to have a close partnership with the government on the COVID-19 response.

Ms Leonard noted that the U.S government had partnered with Nigeria to invest in the health and well-being of the people.

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She said this ranges from providing anti-retroviral treatment to over 1.7 million people living with HIV to scaling up immunisations including COVID-19, malaria and other disease outbreaks.

The U.S government stands ready to support the PHC revitalisation in Nigeria. The diplomatic community stands ready to support this move, she said.
Simelokuhle Zibengwa, a stone sculptor at Chitungwiza Arts Center, works on a rock to make a sculpture in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

by Tafara Mugwara

CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Firmly grasping a hammer and chisel, Simelokuhle Zibengwa, a stone sculptor, effortlessly pounded on a small chunk of rock.

White-ish fragments fell off as she carefully hammered through the stone.

After a while, and with a great deal of effort, a figure of a rabbit could be seen taking shape.

Zibengwa's works of art are not just a marvel to the onlooker, they narrate different tales through the use of stone-carved sculpture.

The renowned artist uses figurative art in the form of rabbits to tell stories of human life, particularly women's day-to-day struggles.

"The rabbits are not realistic wild rabbits. They are creative abstracts, and they describe human lives," Zibengwa told Xinhua.

She said by employing personified rabbits, her art aims to create art that provokes an emotional response to the onlooker.

One of Zimengwa's pieces depicts a rabbit playing an African drum. Another one shows a rabbit mother showing affection to her child.

"The trait of a rabbit that influenced my decision to do rabbit-themed art is how brave rabbits are portrayed in fairy tales that we were told (as children) about hare and baboon. In the end, you would see the hare displaying bravery, even in difficult circumstances, the hare would prevail," she added.

Historically, the Shona people who occupy present-day Zimbabwe have employed folk tales to shame bad behavior, to educate and to preserve cultural norms, values and history.

Grandmothers, who were often tasked with taking care of children, narrated the tales, which often involved personified animal characters.

One of the famous folktales in which ancient society shamed bad behavior is the story of the hare and the baboon, in which the baboon was outwitted by the hare.

"Rabbit art speaks of women's daily lives. It narrates how they live with their children, how they celebrate life, and it also teaches, particularly girls who engage in drug abuse not to abuse drugs," Zibengwa said.

Today, artists like Zibengwa are carving their place in the male-dominated art industry, playing their part in preserving the old tradition of using personified animals to tell stories.

As the world marks women's month, Zibengwa and other female sculptors at Chitungwiza Arts Center near Harare are using art to reclaim their narrative.

Ever since the center opened its doors in 1997, it has been providing a platform for women, youths and the disabled to get exposure from experienced artists.

Unlike Zibengwa, Lorraine Mamvura focuses on realistic art, creating lifelike sculptures of human female figures.

"My art focuses on women because I want to embrace and showcase the importance of a woman in society," said Mamvura.

Her pieces of art include full-size figures and small pieces.

One of the pieces on display speaks of the pandemic, with prevention measures inscribed on the stone.

"So my art is all about explaining the roles of a woman, our day-to-day encounters that we face every day," she said.

"Part of my artwork portrays love, mothers love, mothers care, a mother should take care of her loved ones," Mamvura added.

Another artist, Agness Mpariwa focuses on abstract art, which does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead uses shapes and forms to achieve its effect.

"My art is called abstracts, they are visual forms that portray love, and reflect beautiful colors, the environment of beautiful things that I encounter, but in abstract forms," Mpariwa said.

Her art also expresses things that are not visible such as emotions or feelings.

"The message that I put through is that we should love one another," she said.

In addition, Mpariwa said the viewer can also imagine their narrative by looking at the piece.

Zimbabwe has a long history of employing stone works as a means of construction, decorations and as a way of preserving history.

The country's name "Zimbabwe", which means houses of stones, stems from a Shona term for historical Great Zimbabwe, a medieval city that was constructed from carved stone with no mortar used.

Much of the stone used in Zimbabwean sculpture belongs to the Serpentine family, a type of sedimentary, metamorphic stone that can be found in a wide variety of colors.

The country's famous stone sculpture industry attracts a fair share of foreign visitors every year, contributing to the tourism sector.

Works by some of the country's renowned female artists have been exhibited around the world. 

Simelokuhle Zibengwa, a stone sculptor at Chitungwiza Arts Center, polishes her sculpture in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Lorraine Mamvura, an artist focusing on realistic art at Chitungwiza Arts Center, works on an artwork in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Simelokuhle Zibengwa, a stone sculptor at Chitungwiza Arts Center, shows her rabbit sculptures in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Lorraine Mamvura, an artist focusing on realistic art at Chitungwiza Arts Center, shows her pandemic-inspired artwork in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Agness Mpariwa, an artist focusing on abstract art, works on a rock at Chitungwiza Arts Center in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Agness Mpariwa, an artist focusing on abstract art, shows her artwork at Chitungwiza Arts Center in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Lorraine Mamvura, an artist focusing on realistic art at Chitungwiza Arts Center, is seen with her artworks in Chitungwiza, a town south of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)
The vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019, Peter Obi, has declared his interest to run for the president of Nigeria in 2023.

Mr Obi made the declaration, on Thursday, while addressing traditional rulers and Presidents-General of the 181 communities in the state at Government House, Awka, The Punch reported.

I have come to inform you of my intention to contest the 2023 presidential election. I need your support, the newspaper quoted Mr Obi as telling the monarchs.

After a careful study of the country, I noticed that were too divided and I promise to lead a united and secure Nigeria to be able to attract foreign investments.

The Nigeria I will lead will create jobs, boost our economy, improve education. If I have the opportunity, I will turn around the country for the better, he said.

Continuing, the former governor added, I will move Nigeria from a consuming nation to a producing nation. As a Nigerian, I want all parts of the country to be secured. Im not aspiring for a political position, but to serve the country.

Let me assure you that I will seriously contest for the president of Nigeria on the platform of the PDP.

His declaration has brought to an end months of speculations about his interest to join the presidential race.

Mr Obi served as the governor of Anambra State between 2006 and 2014 under the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance.

In October 2014, seven months after handing over to Willie Obiano, the former governor defected to the PDP.

He was the vice-presidential candidate in 2019 to Atiku Abubakar, who has also declared interest to run for the same position in 2023.

Igbo presidency dream

Mr Obis declaration appears to strengthen the clamour for the Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.

The former governor is said to enjoy the support of many residents in the South-east.

Beyond Mr Obi, the region has about five other aspirants jostling for the position.

Among those from the region who have declared interest to run for president in 2023 include former secretary to the government of the federation, Anyim Pius, a former governor of Imo State and senator, Rochas Okorocha, and Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, has reiterated the partys stance on the controversial demand to jettison its existing zoning arrangement.

Mr Ayu, on Thursday, at the inauguration of the 37-member zoning committee in Abuja, said the PDP will stick to its custom of rotating its political offices among geopolitical zones in the country.

While the party has successfully crossed the hurdle of zoning its national officers at its 2021 National Convention, the controversy around where the party will zone its presidential ticket has not been resolved.

There have been calls from the PDP leaders, especially those from the Northern region, to jettison the rotation arrangement and throw the ticket open.

The 2019 presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, has been at the forefront of the campaign, dismissing the debate on zoning as the solution to the leadership crisis facing the country.

His view was also recently aired by the Governor of Sokoto, Aminu Tambuwal, who on Tuesday cautioned his party against maintaining status quo on zoning rather than focusing on fielding a good candidate.

This is coming as the South-west and South-south intensify their campaigns for a Southern president.

Both Messrs Abubakar and Tambuwal are gunning for the PDP presidential ticket whether the party zones it to their region or throws it open for all.

Mr Ayu urged interested aspirants whom the rotation arrangement for the 2023 poll may not be in their favour to wait for their time.

PDP has a history of rotating our offices. Anybody who doesnt get it this time should wait after the tenure of whoever will be our next president.

We believe PDP is going to produce the next President once we start this journey. This time, we will ensure it goes round. And it will go round with justice, fairness and the interests of Nigeria, he said.

The party, after the 95th National Executive Council meeting, had tasked the zoning committee to submit its final zoning list by March 30.

Mr Ayu assured Nigerians of a smooth process that will produce credible candidates to return the PDP back to the centre after its defeat in 2015.

There is no issue that is too difficult or too important for the PDP to resolve. That is the spirit of the party. Therefore, I urge all of you to discuss this matter with the same spirit that you discussed at NEC. Let us not have any rancour whatsoever and at the end of the day, remain focused on the main goal, he said.

He added that the party will be at liberty to rotate the party ticket as it wishes after it returns to power.

Mr Abubakar, from the north, was the partys presidential candidate in the 2019 election.

Apart from Messrs Abubakar and Tambuwal, other members of the party from the north who have shown interest in the presidential race are former Senate President, Bukola Saraki from Kwara State and Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State.

Those from the South are former Senate President, Pius Anyim; Dele Momodu, Sam Ohuabunwa and former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State.

Since its formation in 1998, the PDP, which was in power at the centre for 16 years, has always rotated the presidency between the north and the south.

While former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan hail from the South, the late President Umaru YarAdua hailed from the north.

The main opposition party may likely zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the south since Mr Ayu hails from the north.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended action on court orders and motions regarding the defection of Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi and his Deputy, Kelechi Igwe.

The commission disclosed this in a statement issued by Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education in Abuja on Thursday.

He said that the commission met on Thursday and deliberated on a wide range of issues.

The issues according to him, includes preparations for the Osun State governorship election and cases on the defection of the governor and deputy-governor of Ebonyi State and 16 members of the State House of Assembly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Okoye said that the commission decided to stay action in the light of the conflicting judgements and orders served on it from courts of coordinate jurisdiction.

It will be recalled that the commission met on Thursday, March 17 on the matter, decided to defer its deliberation on the Ebonyi cases.

The commission stepped down the listed Memorandum to enable its Legal Services and Clearance Committee to study the new processes served on it in the light of the previously served ones and advise the commission comprehensively.

Since then, the commission has been served yet more court processes on the same matter, bringing the total to 12.

The commission also considers it prudent to stay action on the conflicting judgements and orders being aware of the pendency of Appeals and Motions for Stay of Execution of some of the judgements before various divisions of the Court of Appeal.

On Osun governorship election, Mr Okoye said that the commission would not be publishing the nominations of the Action Alliance (AA); African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

He said that the commission would on Friday, publish in its State and Local Government Offices in Osun State the list and personal particulars of the candidates that political parties propose to sponsor at the election.

Mr Okoye said those who would make this list must be candidates who emerged from valid primaries in line with Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022.

The commission will publish the list and personal particulars of the candidates of 15 out of the 18 political parties that conducted primaries.

The nominations of AA; ADC and APGA will not be published for their failure to comply with the Commissions Guidelines on Political Party Operations (2018) or the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

The AA did not submit a nomination jointly signed by the National Chairman and Secretary of the party while the ADC and APGA nominated candidates that do not meet the age requirements for the office of Deputy Governor as enshrined in the Constitution.

The commission has already communicated this position officially to the affected Political Parties.

(NAN)
Ebele is unforgettable. How can anyone forget her pair of crystal-studded Gucci glasses estimated by some to be worth only $2,755 or the equivalent, at the current price of three years minimum wage in the country? I think if she had been treated nicely, she might even have decided to leave the exotic bones behind in the state museum. But sadly, that chance has been missed.

I thought there was a mistake. The headline said Nigerias former ambassador to Spain and wife of Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca, slapped the outgoing First Lady of Anambra State, Ebele Obiano. In my head, however, the news read differently. This was not the sort of thing you would associate with Bianca, a former ambassador and beauty queen.

In spite of what I was reading as the news broke, I told myself that the reality was the other way round: Ebele Obiano must have slapped Bianca Ojukwu. If you know Ebele, you will know why, in spite of the news, it is easy to be mistaken about what really happened at the swearing-in of Charles Soludo as governor of Anambra State, last week.

Willie Obiano may have been governor for eight years, Ebele ruled. She called the shots in respect of appointments, especially those related to internally generated revenue. Onitsha Market, a cash cow of the state, for example, reported to her through her protegee/manager. Members of the State Universal Basic Education Board took their brief from her, too. And inside Government House, her office was so strategically located, you could not mistake that it was the altar at this official shrine.

She was also a major political force, whose influence people vying for political positions coveted. Her displeasure was avoided at all costs. She had weight and she knew how to flaunt it.

During the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship primaries last year, for example, Ebele told her husband  the governor  that she had a different candidate. She reportedly told him that Soludo was a risk; they would be unable to control him if he took power.

But the governor wanted Soludo. His wife, on the other hand, made it clear that her preferred candidate was Chukwuma Ume Umeorji, currently representing Aguata federal constituency at the National Assembly. It took the combined intervention of some traditional rulers, along with members of the clergy, to appease Ebele and save the family divided against itself on the eve of an important election.

It would appear that as part of the terms of settlement, the governor would later announce that whereas he had no desire to continue in active politics after leaving office, he would secure a senatorial seat for his wife, Ebele, for her labours.

Such is the strength of Ebeles clout and the fear of her majesty that you can imagine my confusion at the breaking of the news that she was at the receiving end of Biancas ambassadorial slap. It turned out that that was indeed the case, and to make matters worse, Ebele was alone in her moment of distress.

She was painfully ignored by her husband at the crime scene and left to be set upon by an ecstatic public that seemed so pleased by the incident it was prepared to forgive the indiscretion of an ambassador who ignored the provisions of the Geneva convention, supposedly in self defence. All is fair in love and war, I guess.

The diary of her last days in office was nothing, if not extraordinary, worthier in my view than the famous memoirs of Harriette Wilson, the concubine of the Duke of Wellington who, in defiance of the threat of the Duke to publish and be damned, still went ahead to leak her salacious notes to a blackmailer.

But this may well be an incident that Anambrarians, even the whole world, will look back on with deep regret. Had Ebele been permitted to take the dignified exit that she had hoped for and for which she had made elaborate preparations, including a dance rehearsal the night before, only matched by her extraordinary butterfly-sleeves pink dress on the D-Day, she might have considered sharing her First Lady diary with us.

The diary of her last days in office was nothing, if not extraordinary, worthier in my view than the famous memoirs of Harriette Wilson, the concubine of the Duke of Wellington who, in defiance of the threat of the Duke to publish and be damned, still went ahead to leak her salacious notes to a blackmailer.

Im told, for example, that two weeks before the handover, the governor had taken journalists in the State on a final tour of his legacy projects. Later when they returned for lunch in the Government House, Obiano hosted them alone; Ebele was not available. As they finished and were departing, however, she returned.

The governor quickly recalled as many journalists as he could find and asked them to take their seats again. As they were wondering why, he announced that he recalled them to pay their respects to Her Excellency, the First Lady. Now that they had paid their courtesies and she had bestowed her benevolent smile on them, they could depart in peace.

People familiar with Anambra protocols in the last eight years said preferments had been amended to ensure that at all public functions, Ebele was duly acknowledged and applauded before the deputy governor. And, in fact, even on the handover day, Ebeles diary would show that she was her own woman. She chose her own time to arrive at the venue which, by the way, was inside Government House. She arrived, not before the event started, but in line with her disdain for all deputies, including deputy governors, she came in after the new deputy governor had been sworn in.

Ebele has amassed such a rich collection of experiences in the last eight years, the world, especially the office of first ladyship, would be the poorer for the recent public humiliation which I strongly suspect might force her into her shell. Who wouldnt want to find out what exactly was her beef with Bianca, for example?

Im told that she was unhappy that Bianca took the Ojukwu political talisman too far. That just because shes Ojukwus widow, Bianca regarded herself as the goddess of APGA, the sun around which everything revolved.

The cold war had gone on for years. When Bianca made a bid for the Senate in 2019, however, Ebele thought that was the moment to settle the matter of supremacy once and for all. She opposed Biancas candidacy and instead, backed E.N. Ukachukwu, the perennial aspirant for Anambra governorship and veteran Abuja politician.

Of course, Bianca lost the APGA party primaries to Ebeles candidate, but another party, the YPP, exploited the divided house and won the bigger electoral war for Anambra South senatorial district. In the end, both Bianca and Ebele lost. That defeat widened the gap and festered the wound. By handover day, matters had reached boiling point.

Ebele was in good company of a long list of forebears who, though in a higher league, would have been proud of her performance. Former Kenyan First Lady, Lucy Kibaki, once slapped a government official during an Independence Day ceremony, for mistakenly introducing her in the name of a woman widely believed to be President Mwai Kibakis second wife.

Ebele is unforgettable. How can anyone forget her pair of crystal-studded Gucci glasses estimated by some to be worth only $2,755 or the equivalent, at the current price of three years minimum wage in the country? I think if she had been treated nicely, she might even have decided to leave the exotic bones behind in the state museum. But sadly, that chance has been missed.

And also gone with the Gucci glasses is the inside story of the designer COVID-19 vaccine, which Ebele travelled thousands of miles to Houston to receive, at a time folks in her home state were wondering when the first jabs would arrive and if they would be alive to be vaccinated.

Im sure that entries from Ebeles 2014 diary would also have included the now leaked encounter in Poland where it took Nigerias former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, to save Ebele from what might have degenerated into a brawl, on foreign soil, with a Federal lawmaker, Uche Ekwunife. Mrs Jonathans prompt and decisive intervention at that moment of great peril, it would seem, was one of the reasons insiders will forever remember the erstwhile First Lady as Mama Peace.

Ebele has given her side of the handover-day story; she explained that on that fateful day, she went over to admire the gloss on Biancas lips and to greet her only to be molested and struck in the face by the latter. I honestly think Biancas act of aggression constitutes a contravention of the Geneva convention. It was unprovoked (just like Putins war in Ukraine), and should be condemned in its entirety. Her supporters, whether they are oligarchs or puny-garchs, should also have their assets frozen as a deterrent.

Yet, Ebele was in good company of a long list of forebears who, though in a higher league, would have been proud of her performance. Former Kenyan First Lady, Lucy Kibaki, once slapped a government official during an Independence Day ceremony, for mistakenly introducing her in the name of a woman widely believed to be President Mwai Kibakis second wife. That was apart from besieging a newspaper house, slapping a cameraman and seizing a reporters notebook on charges that the newspaper had been unfair in its reporting.

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Simone Gbagbo, wife of former Cote dIvoire President Laurent Gbagbo, seemed to share Lucys aggressive genes; while Patience Jonathan was perhaps a softer, more dramatic and hilarious version of Lucy and Simone.

Grace Mugabe (fondly called Gucci Grace) had a cerebral approach. She pulled the strings behind the scenes and like the breeze, you knew she was there but you couldnt hold her. She topped off her performance by procuring a postgraduate degree which became a subject of litigation only after her husbands death. Her fury only came to the fore after her bereavement. Understandably.

Let no one diminish Ebeles record. She will be greatly missed. In my humble view, our misery can only be assuaged if she could find it in her heart to let bygones be bygones, followed by the publication of her much-expected Government House diary.

It would be a bestseller, the envy of her cohorts, her ultimate revenge against Bianca, and for good measure, the launchpad for her senatorial ambition.

Azu Ishiekwene is Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP.
Passing the Special Seats Bill will ensure that every state has at least one woman representative in the National and State Assembly, notwithstanding political party antics, structural challenges and other impediments limiting women. Nigerian women are not asking for special treatment, they are simply asking for a constitutional mandate to lessen the burden of the chains of patriarchy and historic marginalisation for a fair chance to contribute to national development.

Global trends indicate the slow-paced progress in closing gender gaps across major dimensions of human development in different countries. Nigeria remains one of the poor performing countries with respect to closing its gender gaps, especially in relation to political empowerment. In 2020, Nigeria ranked 145 out of the 153 and in 2021, 149 out of the 153 countries surveyed under the political empowerment dimension (World Economic Forum-WEF; Gender Gap Report). For womens representation in parliament, Nigeria ranks 184 out of the 187 countries assessed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 2021. To put these rankings in context, if Nigeria was a student in a class of 153/155/187, it will be that student always amongst the last 10 in class. Nigeria is that F student who either needs extra lessons, substitute classes or special care to perform better. What loving parent wouldnt do all within its power to help their child succeed in life, regardless of the cost? The Special Seats Bill is that necessary decision, like a special class, that can help boost Nigerias status as one of the countries making efforts to improve womens representation in elective office.

The Special Seats Bill is one of the Gender Bills whose fate is still in the hands of Nigerias senators and representatives. Co-sponsored by the Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Rt Hon Speaker Femi Gbajabiamilia and over 80 legislators, the Bill seeks to increase womens representation in legislative houses. The Bill is a form of legislated reserved seats, which is one of the globally recognised gender quotas designed as a positive measure to enable incremental growth in political representation for women. According to International IDEA, gender quotas aim to reverse discrimination in law and practice and to level the playing field for women and men in politics. In their 2013, Atlas of Electoral Gender Quotas, I-IDEA highlighted that about 118 countries and territories use a form of gender quota adopted either in their constitution or electoral law to increase womens political representation. With almost 23 years of democracy, Nigeria is yet to adopt any form of gender quota, notwithstanding the decline in womens representation. Womens representation in the ninth National Assembly is currently at 4.47 per cent (21 of the 469 legislators). So far, the highest number of women in the National Assembly was in 2007, with 36 females out of 469 legislators, at 7.6 per cent. Currently, 15 states in Nigeria have no woman in their Houses of Assembly. The 2019 general elections revealed that while there was an increase in women aspirants, the percentage of women emerging as party candidates reduced during the post-party primaries, especially for legislative houses. In 2019, women female candidacy for the Senate was at 12.3 per cent, a decline from the 17 per cent in the 2015 elections. For the House of Representatives, womens candidacy was at 11.6 per cent in 2019, which was a decline from 15 per cent in the 2015 elections, and for State Assembly, the candidacy of women was at 12.7 per cent in 2019, revealing a decline from 14 per cent in 2015 (No Country without Women, Yiaga Africa). The political trajectory indicates that Nigeria is heading to an almost all-male legislative house, if legislative measures are not taken to guarantee womens representation in elective offices.

The Special Seats Bill seeks to amend sections 48, 49, 71, 77 and 117 of the constitution and proposes additional seats in the legislative houses: 37 in the Senate, 74 in the House of Representatives and 108 in the State Assemblies. The Bill empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in line with its power in section 71 of the Constitution to divide the State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) into two electoral constituencies for the House of Representatives seats.

Nigeria practices a first-past-the-post/plurality-majority electoral system, which enables the-winner-takes-all. This is why political parties/candidates fight dirty to win elections at all costs. The challenge with this system is that it is averse to the representation of minority or marginalised groups. Accordingly, historically marginalised groups like women fight tough but yet are kicked out of the space by the electoral system challenge, existing structural challenges and patriarchal orientations. The Special Seats Bill seeks to amend sections 48, 49, 71, 77 and 117 of the constitution and proposes additional seats in the legislative houses: 37 in the Senate, 74 in the House of Representatives and 108 in the State Assemblies. The Bill empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in line with its power in section 71 of the Constitution to divide the State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) into two electoral constituencies for the House of Representatives seats. For the Senate, the additional Senator will represent the State and for the State Assembly; the three women will be elected from each of the senatorial districts. The additional seats will be contested by only women who successfully emerge as candidates from their party primaries and does not preclude women from contesting for the other seats in the National and State Assemblies. The additional seats will operate for only four electoral cycles to enable political socialisation that makes electing women a norm and dislodges patriarchal orientations that create impediments for women contesting and winning elections in Nigeria.

The additional seat proposal is not alien in Nigeria. The Uwais Report of 2008 proposed a combination of first-past-the-post and modified proportional representation for legislative elections at all levels. These included the creation of 108 additional seats to be filled by proportional representation. The report recommended for 30 per cent women representation in the party list for the proportional representation. As Nigeria retains its plurality-majority electoral system, the Special Seats Bill is reasonably the best fit to increase womens representation.

In 2021, the WEF estimated that it will take an average of 135.6 years to close the gender-gaps globally. This means that the majority of us living today may not see the world close its gender gap. No matter how worrisome this seems, only the actions we take today can contribute to building a better world for women and girls in the generations ahead. Nigeria remains a case study in assessing how the failure of the intentionality to close the gender gap can keep women and the country behind

Interestingly, for both the sceptics and champions of the Bill, the issue of an enlarged legislature and the cost of governance is a concern. However, the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) conducted a cost analysis of the Special Seats Bill using the 2021 national budget. The analysis highlighted that it will cost between N5-18billion per annum which was less than a 1% increase to the Budget and less than 5% of annual defence/security expenditure. Imperatively, reviewing the national budget to remove wastage/extraneous allocations will enable the budget to cater for this cost sufficiently. More importantly, is the need for analysis of the cost of exclusion and the value of womens inclusion in Nigerias economy. In 2016, UNDP noted that gender gaps cost sub-Saharan Africa US$95 billion a year. Studies have shown that countries with increased women leadership achieve better economic growth, development and peace. It is projected that closing gender gaps in Nigeria can lead to 9 per cent GDP gains by 2025 (Growing Economies Through Gender Parity, Analysis). Out of the top 10 most developed countries in 2020 (United Nations Development Report, December 2020), eight of these have at least 30 per cent women representation in their legislative house, with the other two within 20+ per cent. When you juxtapose the supposed cost to the budget with the humongous cost of exclusion or the possible gains in GDP, with more women in government, it only makes economic sense to pass the Special Seat Bill. For size, this will not be the largest assembly in Nigerias history. The 1979 Constitution of Nigeria provided for five senators per state and 450 seats in the House of Representatives, at a time when Nigeria had 19 states.

In 2021, the WEF estimated that it will take an average of 135.6 years to close the gender-gaps globally. This means that the majority of us living today may not see the world close its gender gap. No matter how worrisome this seems, only the actions we take today can contribute to building a better world for women and girls in the generations ahead. Nigeria remains a case study in assessing how the failure of the intentionality to close the gender gap can keep women and the country behind, while other nations move ahead in development. Passing the Special Seats Bill will ensure that every state has at least one woman representative in the National and State Assembly, notwithstanding political party antics, structural challenges and other impediments limiting women. Nigerian women are not asking for special treatment, they are simply asking for a constitutional mandate to lessen the burden of the chains of patriarchy and historic marginalisation for a fair chance to contribute to national development.

Cynthia Mbamalu is the Director of Programmes in Yiaga Africa with 15 years of experience, working to support sustainable democracies, promote political inclusion, electoral integrity and human rights. She has an LLM in Comparative Constitutional Law from the Central European University (CEU). She tweets @DCynthiaM, please send your feedback to coambamalu@gmail.com.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has said his administration has taken effective measures to maintain the prevailing peace in the state, and also turn it to an epicentre of development despite the insecurity in the north-east region.

He stated this while delivering a keynote address at the 2022 annual security conference and recognition awards ceremony organised by Peoples Security Monitors, where the governor bagged the Security Ambassador of Nigeria (SAN) award.

The event, which took place at the National Merit House in Abuja, had in attendance security top brass, enthusiasts and diplomats.

Mr Yahaya, who chaired the event, said despite being in the midst of the epicentres of insurgency, his administration has tried its best to maintain peaceful coexistence.

We thank God for helping us as far as the issue of security is concerned. We are in the midst of the north-east, sharing borders with the frontline states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. So, we have tried as much as possible to manage security in Gombe state. We are happy and by the grace of God, we shall try to sustain that, he said.

Represented by the member representing Akko Federal Constituency and Chairman House Committee on Police Affairs, Bello Kumo, the governor acknowledged the support of security agencies in facilitating peace and harmony.

He said despite religious, social, ethnic and other differences that normally cause friction among the people, Gombe State has been able to surmount the challenges with the understanding of its people.

The governor disclosed that the government has adopted a holistic approach by enhancing its internal security architecture.

In addition to the novel ministry of internal security and ethical orientation which we set up on coming on board in 2019, we have security management committees in place, comprising traditional rulers from the ward, to districts, emirates and chiefdoms, up to the state level.

Therefore, we share information and manage whatever decision we take, and whenever there is an issue, we nip it in the bud without allowing it to get to an alarming level.

Mr Yahaya appreciated the Peoples Security Monitors (PSM) for recognising the modest efforts of his government in the area of security, assuring of his administrations readiness to work with the organisation.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of PSM, Ishiaka Mustapha, said the award on Mr Yahaya as Security Ambassador of Nigeria (SAN) was in recognition of his dedication, sacrifice and commitment to the promotion of peace and security in the country.

Gombe State is one of the most peaceful states in the North-east region. It shares boundaries with the insurgency-ridden Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.
The Police in Enugu State on Wednesday arraigned a man, Ogechukwu Okeke, at the Enugu East Magistrates Court for the alleged murder of a 30-year-old man named Chinonso Odenigbo.

Apart from murder, the defendant is also charged with illegal use of weapons.

The defendant, who had no counsel, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Bonaventure Nnadozie, told the court that the defendant and others, now at large, on February 14 in Abor, Apugoeze in Oji River Council Area of Enugu State, committed a felony, murder.

Mr Nnadozie, a police inspector, said they killed and threw the victims body into the bush after hitting him with sticks and fist blow.

He said the offences were punishable under section 494 and 274(1) of the Criminal Code, Cap 30, Vol. l Revised Laws of Enugu State, 2004.

Mr Nnadozie tendered police files from Inyi Police Station and State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) and their inventories which was admitted by the court.

READ ALSO: Gunmen kill four policemen in Enugu

The magistrate, Ngozi Edeani, said the defendant had the right to apply for bail at the High Court and ordered that he should be remanded at the Correctional Centre, Enugu.

Mrs Edeani also ordered that the case file be transmitted to the Department of Public Prosecution for legal advice.

The case was adjourned to April 6, for hearing.

(NAN)
The police in Ebonyi State have vowed to arrest the killers of 35-year-old woman, Nnenna Onu, who was burnt to death in December last year.

The police spokesperson, Loveth Odah, told journalists on Thursday in Abakaliki that the police would leave no stone unturned in the efforts to arrest the killers.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the single lady was set ablaze by her assailants who reportedly dumped her body behind her late fathers house in Onicha-Igboeze, Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

According to the police spokesperson, the Commissioner of Police, Aliyu Garba, will not rest until the perpetrators of the heinous crime are brought to book.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police (Investigation) will join the team to the community and ensure stakeholders involvement in the matter in order to help to arrest the perpetrators.

They will be arrested no matter where they are, said Ms Odah, a deputy superintendent of police.

She debunked speculations that the police were not doing anything regarding the matter.

It is not true that the police are not doing anything.

Truth is that the matter was reported to us two months after it happened, she said.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the state has appealed to the Chairman of Onicha Local Government Area, Felix Igboke, and others to assist the police in fishing out those behind the dastardly act.

The State Coordinator of the NHRC, Christopher Okorie, made the call at a news briefing in Abakaliki.

Mr Okorie said the commission received the complaint about the incident from the mother and sister of the slain woman on February 10.

He said the complainants alleged that the assailants had threatened to kill her and her mother.

He urged the Coordinator of Ezeukwa Development Centre, Igwe Agwu, the traditional ruler and religious leaders in the community to join in the manhunt for Ms Onus killers.

He appealed to the public to report all cases of human rights violation to NHRC police and others that are involved in human rights defence.

Mr Okorie said: Evil can be stopped only when it is exposed.

We passionately call on all good spirited individuals, civil society organisations and other groups to come to the aid of this widow to get justice for her late daughter and safety for them.

(NAN)
The Lagos State University, (LASU) is going ahead with its plan to make a professor whos internal documents obtained by this newspaper showed falsified his age multiple times to manipulate the system and extend his years of service, the first emeritus professor at the university.

Peter Okebukola, a former executive secretary of the Nigerian University Commission (NUC), will be named the universitys first emeritus professor of the universitys 25th Convocation ceremony on Thursday.

In October 2020 PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported plans by the university to appoint Mr Okebukola an emeritus professor while being fully employed by the university. The norm in universities across the world is that meritorious honours such as that of an emeritus professorship are awarded to retired and outstanding professors.

Mr Okebukola is now retired from service.

He was nominated for the role in August 2020 by the department for Science and Technology Education because of his outstanding contribution to the university in general and his extensive research and publication.

His nomination was backed by a letter by the dean of the Faculty of Education dated September 1, 2020, which referenced Section K of the universitys rule, which states +that the candidate must have successfully supervised the PhD Thesis of at least five (5) candidates; he must have produced at least a student who had attained Professorial cadre.

He must enjoy the overwhelming support from his department; as an ambassador of the University, such candidate should consistently attract funds or grants from which the younger generations would benefit; a certain percentage of the funds which the Emeritus Professor attracted should be given as Honorarium to the Emeritus Professor; he must be a team player and be good at conflict resolution; he must be someone highly respected and with high dignity; scoring template should be developed to accommodate the above criteria; attendance at Senate meetings should not be made mandatory for the Emeritus Professor.

How Okebukola falsified his age

Mr Okebukola, whose emeritus-status was practically sealed by the immediate past vice-chancellor of the university, Olanrewaju Fagbohun, (who was a protege of Mr Okebukola, before he left office) at various times presented three different birth dates to the university during his more than 30-year career at the institution, internal LASU documents obtained by the newspaper revealed.

The original birth date he presented when he was first employed was February 17, 1949. He later changed that to February 17, 1948, and February 17, 1951, at different times.

The university management noticed the discrepancy in 2014 but turned a blind eye and was not appropriately punished as stipulated by the university rule. If LASU management had followed its own rule to the letter, Mr Okebukola should have been dismissed immediately the age discrepancies were found out.

Documents obtained by this newspaper showed that on October 2, 2014, Olayinka Amuni  the then deputy registrar (who is now the substantive registrar of the university)  raised the irregularities in Mr Okebukolas birth dates to the registrar of the university.

Mr Amuni explained that the professor, who was employed in 1984, with the birth date of February 17, 1949, was due for mandatory retirement on February 17, 2014, the day he turned 65.

Professor P.A.O Okebukola was granted approval for three hundred and thirty-six (336) days deferred leave, which should be utilised as terminal leave preparatory to final retirement from the service of the university, he wrote in the letter with reference number LASU/ASE/REG/002.

Besides Mr Amuni who raised the concern, the universitys Academic Staff Establishment, the division of the university that oversees matters of staff recruitment, promotion, discipline and welfare, also flagged the discrepancies in Mr Okebukolas birth dates after he applied for sabbatical leave in July 2014, and consequently refused to approve the leave.

After his request for a sabbatical was declined, Mr Okebukola on December 5, 2015, wrote to the university stating he was prepared to resign.

But on January 18, 2016, less than a month after he expressed his desire to retire, he wrote another letter withdrawing his notice of retirement. He did this five months before the then Lagos governor Akinwunmi Ambode signed the amendment to the LASU law, which extended the retirement age from 65 to 70 in May 2016.

Upon the withdrawal of his notice of retirement, Mr Fagbohun swiftly, quickly approved Mr Okebukolas February 2016 sabbatical to February 2017. But the directive was again countered by Mr Amuni, who noted that the VCs approval of Mr Okebukolas request to withdraw his notice of retirement was out of tune with the universitys law. Mr Amuni said this in a letter dated February 9, 2016, describing the approval as an anomaly.

Mr Amuni argued in the letter addressed to the registrar at the time that the subsisting policy of the university under which the sabbatical leave was approved was that an academic staff who is sixty-five (65) years old shall compulsorily retire on age grounds.

In view of the law enacted by the Lagos State House of Assembly establishing the contributory Pension Scheme for Employees in the Public Service of Lagos State and for connected purpose, Professor Okebukola ought to have retired statutorily by the 17th February 2014 on the strength of the first date of birth he presented i.e 17th February 1949, he wrote.

In the view of the above background information/irregularities observed, vis-a-vis the positions of regulations, the Registrar may wish to recommend to the vice-chancellor that to redress the anomalies, Professor Okebukolas sabbatical leave is terminated forthwith and; his letter seeking to withdraw his earlier retirement be discountenanced, the deputy registrar pointed out then.

How Mr Fagbohun-led management of LASU lied to protect Okebukola

After this newspapers exclusive, the Fagbohun-led management of the university released a statement claiming it relied on the date of birth forwarded to it by Mr Okebukolas former employer, Oyo State College of Education when he was employed by the university.

Professor Peter Okebukola joined the service of Lagos State University transferring his service from the then Oyo State College of Education, Ilesa and the date of birth on his Record of Service forwarded to the University by his former employer is 17th February 1951. The University is bound to stand by that date because the Record of Service is the officially recognized record of his past service.

The affirmation of the Date of Birth of Professor Okebukola in the Record of Service forwarded to the University by the Oyo State College of Education, Ilesa confirmed the assertion by Professor Okebukola that he was born on 17th February 1951, the management of the university stated.

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But official documents obtained from the university showed the school management was aware of Mr Okebukolas multiple birth dates.

The documents also revealed that the university vice-chancellor, Mr Fagbohun, was not only aware of calls by the universitys Academic Staff Establishment division for Mr Okebukola to retire having exceeded his statutory retirement age but also actively prevented the division from ordering him to retire.
Olaiya Kupolati, Senior Special Assistant on Electoral Matters to Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state, has resigned.

In a letter dated March 23, addressed to the Secretary to the State Government, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, Mr Kupolato said his resignation took effect from March 30.

Mr Kupolati said he has also defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), on whose platform he would aspire to contest for the state House of Assembly seat.

He said he will formally join the SDP at his ward in Iye Ekiti, Ilejemeje Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

Mr Kupolati said his resignation was in line with the provisions of the new Electoral Act.

He appreciated the governor for giving him the opportunity to serve the good people of Ekiti State.

I perceive former Gov. Segun Oni as the best man for Ekiti after Fayemi at this trying time and I am ready to support him.

The former governor is a man of the people. A man of integrity, with unblemished records.

He has a better pedigree. He performed very well while in office in his first term, so he deserves reelection by every standard.

I am also following the trend in town, especially my people in Ilejemeje, they are totally for Segun Oni and as a good leader and community person, I dont want to work against the wish of my constituents, he said.

Mr Kupolato said that it would be a gross betrayal of trust, if he worked against the wish of his people, in the June 18 governorship poll.

(NAN)
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan cuts the ribbon as she inaugurates the Tanzanite bridge in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, March 24, 2022.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday inaugurated a landmark Tanzanite bridge and 5.2 kilometers of approach roads to the bridge in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The 1.03-km bridge constructed under a 123 million U.S. dollars soft loan from the government of the Republic of Korea and 4.4 million U.S. dollars by the government of Tanzania was constructed by Korea GS Group with two sub-contractors from China. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua)

DAR ES SALAAM, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday inaugurated a landmark Tanzanite bridge and 5.2 kilometers of approach roads to the bridge in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The 1.03-km bridge constructed under a 123 million U.S. dollars soft loan from the government of the Republic of Korea and 4.4 million U.S. dollars by the government of Tanzania was constructed by Korea GS Group with two sub-contractors from China.

The Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) chief executive officer, Rogatus Mativila, named the Chinese sub-contractors as China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co. Ltd and China Railway Seventh Group.

Speaking shortly before she had inaugurated the bridge along the Coco Beach coastline in Oysterbay stretching from the Aga Khan Hospital, President Hassan said the bridge is intended to ease traffic congestion for motorists in the capital.

"Construction of the bridge is part of efforts by the government to ease congestion by improving the infrastructure," said the president.

She said the new Tanzanite Bridge has changed the landscape of the commercial capital, adding that "we want to make Dar es Salaam an ultra-modern capital and a state-of-the art business hub."

Makame Mbarawa, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, said preliminary studies have shown that between 17,726 vehicles and 19,764 vehicles pass through the new bridge on workdays.

"Traffic congestion is a menace to motorists in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam," said Mbarawa, adding that the new bridge is also a tourist attraction as it is located along the Indian Ocean beach. 

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the Tanzanite bridge in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday inaugurated a landmark Tanzanite bridge and 5.2 kilometers of approach roads to the bridge in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The 1.03-km bridge constructed under a 123 million U.S. dollars soft loan from the government of the Republic of Korea and 4.4 million U.S. dollars by the government of Tanzania was constructed by Korea GS Group with two sub-contractors from China. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the Tanzanite bridge in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday inaugurated a landmark Tanzanite bridge and 5.2 kilometers of approach roads to the bridge in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The 1.03-km bridge constructed under a 123 million U.S. dollars soft loan from the government of the Republic of Korea and 4.4 million U.S. dollars by the government of Tanzania was constructed by Korea GS Group with two sub-contractors from China. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua)

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan speaks as she inaugurates the Tanzanite bridge in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, March 24, 2022.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday inaugurated a landmark Tanzanite bridge and 5.2 kilometers of approach roads to the bridge in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The 1.03-km bridge constructed under a 123 million U.S. dollars soft loan from the government of the Republic of Korea and 4.4 million U.S. dollars by the government of Tanzania was constructed by Korea GS Group with two sub-contractors from China. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua)
Budding trees and blooming flowers.

The return of robins, loons and other migrating birds.

The return of bees, butterflies and frogs.

Melting snow and lake ice.

Longer days and light in the evening.

Shedding the winter garments.

The myriad scents of flowering trees and plants.

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Boards are seen covering the windows at Plattsburgh City Hall Wednesday afternoon. With funding secured during former Mayor James Calnons administration, all the exterior windows of the building are getting replaced.
Pilot project with DSM's feed additive Bovaer at 200 FrieslandCampina dairy farms

HEERLEN, Netherlands, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- It's a European first by FrieslandCampina: a large-scale pilot project to gain practical experience with Bovaer, DSM's innovative feed additive that consistently reduces methane emissions from cows by around 30 percent. Following EU approval for the additive's use in February 2022, the parties have decided to launch this pilot immediately. The Dutch feed supplier Agrifirm will supply the feed additive to the participating farmers. Through innovations like this, Dutch dairy farmers can build on sustainability improvements over recent years and contribute to a sustainable food production system.

The Bovaer pilot collaboration between the Dutch companies FrieslandCampina, DSM, and Agrifirm marks an important step forward in increasing the sustainability of the dairy sector. Some 200 FrieslandCampina dairy farms in the Netherlands will take part in the pilot in the second half of 2022. Providing the results are positive, the use of Bovaer will be further upscaled from 2023.

Hein Schumacher, CEO of Royal FrieslandCampina: "Our ultimate goal is for all of our dairy products to be climate neutral. Though we can't achieve this overnight, we're working toward it. In addition to solutions like switching to green energy  preferably generated by our members  reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of our cows is one of the routes towards reaching our climate goal. This requires innovation  and now Bovaer, a truly innovative feed additive from DSM that significantly reduces cows' methane emissions, is part of the solution. We know that our members are always open to innovation and improvements in our sustainability performance, and with this pilot we will be the first dairy company in Europe to gain valuable practical experience with Bovaer."

Dimitri de Vreeze, Co-CEO of Royal DSM: "There's no time to lose when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cutting methane emissions is the fastest way to combat global warming, as was underlined during the most recent UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. I'm proud that we, FrieslandCampina and DSM, can offer dairy farmers a solution that will help to make a major contribution toward tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time. Collaboration, new ways of thinking and pioneering innovations are crucial to making dairy farming more sustainable. It's important that dairy farmers are rewarded for their sustainability performance."

Innovation

Bovaer is a feed additive for cows and other ruminants. DSM has researched and developed this additive over ten years. Just a quarter of a teaspoon of Bovaer added daily to each cow's feed will enable a consistent reduction in methane emissions of 30 percent, on average. This feed additive therefore contributes to a significant and immediate reduction in the environmental footprint of meat and dairy products. With its Food System Commitments, DSM addresses several of the most urgent societal and environmental challenges facing the world's food consumption and production up to 2030. One of its commitments is to enable a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in dairy production. Since the end of last year, Bovaer has been approved for use in Brazil and Chile, and, at the start of 2022, it also received EU approval.

30 percent fewer methane emissions

Together with its member dairy farmers, FrieslandCampina, aims to achieve a 33 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on its farms by 2030. To this end, the dairy cooperative is working on various solutions, such as generating sustainable energy on farms, using guaranteed deforestation-free soy in cattle feed, and thanks to this project reducing cow methane emission using Bovaer. Previous tests with Bovaer at the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden showed an average reduction in methane in enteric emissions* per kilogram of milk of 30 percent. This leads to a reduction of approximately 10 percent in CO 2 footprint.

During the pilot, the participating dairy farms will feed Bovaer to their cattle for a period of six months. It will be added to the feed by the feed supplier, Agrifirm, an agricultural cooperative. In addition, there will be talks with other feed suppliers in the follow-up phase.

Dick Hordijk, CEO of Royal Agrifirm Group: "As an agricultural cooperative, we are constantly working on feed solutions that help to improve food production and hence enable us to continue to feed future generations in a responsible manner. This additive is one of the solutions that will help to reduce emissions, so we're very enthusiastic about it."

During the pilot, the results and experiences of farmers will be gathered through workshops and surveys. The economic aspects, together with the costs and benefits, will naturally be considered as well. FrieslandCampina will ensure that every dairy farmer receives fair payment for the supplied milk and reward for the sustainability efforts they make on their farm.

* Enteric emissions are the methane emissions that primarily arise during fermentation in the first stomach of ruminants such as cattle.

For more information DSM Media Relations Andre van der Elsen tel. +31 (0) 45 5782421 email media.contacts@dsm.com FrieslandCampina Jan-Willem ter Avest M +31 (0)683639940

press@frieslandcampina.com

Forward-looking statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to DSM's future (financial) performance and position. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections of DSM and information currently available to the company. DSM cautions readers that such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and therefore it should be understood that many factors can cause actual performance and position to differ materially from these statements. DSM has no obligation to update the statements contained in this press release, unless required by law. The English language version of the press release is leading.

Royal FrieslandCampina N.V.

FrieslandCampina is one of the largest dairy companies in the world with a cooperative tradition going back 150 years. The company processes the milk from dairy farms into a wide range of dairy products and ingredients. This way Royal FrieslandCampina provides hundreds of millions of people throughout the world with valuable nutrients from milk.

Royal FrieslandCampina N.V. is fully owned by Zuivelcooperatie FrieslandCampina U.A., with 15,703 dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany as members. Through the cooperative, these member dairy farmers own and supervise the company. Together with member dairy farmers, FrieslandCampina manages the entire production chain: from grass to glass.

FrieslandCampina provides consumers with dairy products, such as milk, yoghurt, condensed milk, dairy-based beverages, cheese, butter, quark, and cream. The dairy company supplies specific nutrition to specific consumer groups, such as children, the elderly, and sportspeople. Professional customers, such as bakers, pastry chefs, chocolate confectioners, chefs, and caterers can rely on FrieslandCampina for a broad product range, including creams, butters, desserts, and fillings. In addition, the company supplies high-quality ingredients to international food producers and pharmaceutical companies.

In 2021, 10,564 member dairy farms in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium supplied almost 10 billion kilos of milk for processing into dairy products and ingredients. FrieslandCampina has branches in 32 countries and exports to more than 100 countries worldwide. At year-end 2021, FrieslandCampina employed an average of 22,961 workers (FTEs). For additional information, please visit our website: www.frieslandcampina.com.

Royal DSM

Royal DSM is a global, purpose-led company in Health, Nutrition & Bioscience, applying science to improve the health of people, animals and the planet. DSM's purpose is to create brighter lives for all. DSM's products and solutions address some of the world's biggest challenges while simultaneously creating economic, environmental and societal value for all its stakeholders  customers, employees, shareholders, and society at large. The company was founded in 1902 and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. More information can be found at www.dsm.com.

Royal Agrifirm Group

With over 3,000 dedicated employees driven to excel every day, Royal Agrifirm Group contributes to a responsible food chain for future generations. We deliver measurable, relevant and sustainable value at the farm, on the field and in the feed industry. Founded 120 years ago in the Netherlands, we now are a leading agricultural cooperative with an international network of subsidiaries in Europe, South America, the USA and Asia and a worldwide distribution network.

By combining years of global scientific research with local, specific know-how in the agrarian and livestock feed sectors, we offer our customers worldwide the best solutions for the challenges they face every day. With high quality feeds, premixes, concentrates, mineral mixes, additives for the feed industry, crop cultivation products, animal and crop specific digital solutions and professional advice, we offer nutritional solutions for enterprising livestock farmers, integrators, feed mills and distributors, as well as cultivation solutions for growers. Royal Agrifirm Group strives to be the preferred knowledge and solution-driven partner for our customers in animal nutrition, crop cultivation and animal, plant and soil health. Better Together | www.agrifirm.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/329419/dsm_logo.jpg

The content and accuracy of news releases published on this site and/or distributed by PR Newswire or its partners are the sole responsibility of the originating company or organisation. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of our services, such releases are not actively monitored or reviewed by PR Newswire or its partners and under no circumstances shall PR Newswire or its partners be liable for any loss or damage resulting from the use of such information. All information should be checked prior to publication.

SOURCE Royal DSM
The use of technology is inevitable in genetic testing given the increasing number of genetic tests and volume of data. OptraHEALTHs GeneFAX brings better engagement, experience, and conversationality to genetics at unprecedented levels. Beilinson Hospital will conduct a research study for its patients undergoing genetic counseling and education, an important aspect for patients to make informed decisions. As part of this study, Beilinson Hospital will send GeneFAX virtual assistants to patients and assess the quality, time, and scale of genetic counseling sessions using GeneFAX.

On this occasion, Prof. Lina Basel Salmon (Head of Department, Genetics Institute) from Beilinson Hospital said, "Digital platforms assist in education of patients and help them to prepare for genetic counseling sessions. In addition, such tools facilitate the disclosure of testing results in a personalized and an understandable way."

GeneFAX is a unique solution that enables any patient to conversationally obtain information. Dr. Ashwin Kotwaliwale MD Ph.D., Medical Director, OptraHEALTH said, "GeneFAX is trusted by many large US labs, and we are excited to make GeneFAX available to our partners in Israel. GeneFAX empowers patients to make accurate health choices by providing a seamless experience."

Gamidor Diagnostics is supporting the pilot in the region as the adoption of genetic testing services powered by technology is gaining wider adoption. Amichai Cnaan of Gamidor Diagnostics said, "We are excited to evaluate advanced digital genetic counseling tools with OptraHEALTH and our customers for a better patient's treatment and accessibility to advanced preconception carrier screening and hereditary cancer testing."

About OptraHEALTH:

OptraHEALTH is focused on improving outcomes for consumers and leading Life Sciences and Healthcare organizations by utilizing our next-generation Artificial Intelligence Platform. OptraHEALTH's flagship product HealthFAX.ai Virtual Care Platform for Healthcare is used in healthcare for better engagement, experience, and education.

Media Inquiries Contacts:

Dr. Ashwin Kotwaliwale | Medical Director | OptraHEALTH | info@optrahealth.com

Amichai Cnaan | Business Unit Manager | Gamidor Diagnostics | amichai@gamidor.co.il

Image: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1772236/OptraHEALTH.jpg

SOURCE OptraHEALTH
KHARTOUM, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) has warned of a deepening food crisis in Sudan as result of the African country's economic downturn, displacement and devastated harvests.

"The combined effects of conflict, economic crisis, and poor harvests are significantly affecting people's access to food and will likely double the number of people facing acute hunger in Sudan to more than 18 million people by September 2022," the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a press release on Wednesday.

"There are already worrying signs that access, affordability, and the availability of food is shrinking for most people in Sudan, which is pushing more people deeper into poverty and hunger," Eddie Rowe, the WFP representative and country director in Sudan, was quoted as saying.

In recent months, there has been a surge in the number of people displaced due to conflict in parts of Darfur and the Kordofan region. "This insecurity has eroded livelihoods, damaged farms, and triggered widespread unemployment," Rowe added.

The depreciation of the Sudanese pound as well as the rising food and transportation prices are making it more difficult for Sudanese families to put food on the table, and a lack of access to hard currencies is expected to cause the currency to depreciate further.

Domestic cereal production for the 2021/22 crop season in Sudan is estimated to be 5.1 million metric tons, which will only meet the demands of less than two-thirds of the population, according to the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission report issued by the FAO and WFP.

"Rising food prices and scarcity of essential agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and seeds mean that farmers have no other option than to abandon food production if they do not receive immediate support," said FAO Representative in Sudan Babagana Ahmadu.

This will likely have "grave consequences" not only for their food security, but also on food availability in Sudan, and may ultimately lead to more conflict and displacement, Ahmadu added.

Sudan is reliant on wheat imports from the Black Sea region. The current Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted the flow of grains into Sudan, raising food prices, according to the press release.

Currently, the wheat price in Sudan has already surpassed 550 U.S. dollars per ton, up 180 percent from the same period in 2021.

In 2021, the WFP was a lifeline for almost 9 million Sudanese, who were suffering from political unrests and economic uncertainty. However, WFP food reserves in Sudan are dangerously low this year, and without new funding, they would run out by May, according to a WFP report.

A budget shortage has already compelled the WFP to target the most vulnerable individuals, said the report.

"Urgent support is required to provide essential agriculture inputs to vulnerable farming households before the main agriculture season starts in June, so that they can produce enough food and become self-reliant," the FAO said in Wednesday's press release.

Sudan has been facing an economic crisis since the United States and international agencies suspended aid after Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the general commander of the Sudanese armed forces, declared a state of emergency on Oct. 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council.

The U.S. has suspended 700 million dollars in economic aid to Sudan, while the World Bank failed to provide 500 million dollars to Sudan, which was expected in November 2021. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also halted 150 million dollars in special drawing rights for Sudan.

Sudan's debt relief process under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative of the IMF has also been suspended.

Sudan has been plagued by an economic crisis since the secession of South Sudan in 2011, due to which Sudan has lost 75 percent of its oil revenues. 
"With travel restrictions easing across the region, this is the perfect time for a tropical vacation," says Rainer Stampfer, President of Hotel Operations  Asia Pacific. "We recognize that for many of our guests, their next trip will be incredibly special. Now, more than ever, we want their stay to be extraordinary and transformative  a true Four Seasons holiday."

Indeed, the brand's luxurious resorts are rolling out the red carpet with fresh enhancements and experiences. At Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, the all-new Healing Village Spa sets the stage for innovative wellness with a surround-sound suite, massage bed made from crushed crystals, and an ecoVichy shower room for guests to enjoy the vibrational effects of simultaneous water, colour, sound and massage therapies.

The recently unveiled Imperial Villa at Four Seasons Resort Langkawi is spread across 4,810 square metres of indoor-outdoor space with five bedrooms and two private pools. Located on a white sand beach and framed by limestone cliffs, this palatial residence offers Langkawi's most luxurious experience.

The renovated Premier Oceanfront Bungalows at Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru feature a 12-metre pool, lavish outdoor living space and refreshed interiors. The new Family Oceanfront Bungalow also includes a study with sofa bed. At Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, Chaan Baan invites guests to immerse in rich cultural traditions: plant rice shoots, spin the potter's wheel, or bathe the resident water buffaloes.

Each destination offers adventures aplenty. Intrepid explorers can hop into a junket boat, Land Rover or private yacht for journeys near and far. Or slow down with soulful sojourns that replenish the spirit. Guests can also savour storied dining experiences, from toes-in-the-sand barbeques and nourishing riverside picnics to intricately designed culinary theatre by award-winning chefs.

The Resorts of Asia portfolio also includes: Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan; Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa; Four Seasons Private Island Maldives at Voavah; Four Seasons Explorer Maldives; Four Seasons Resort Hoi An (The Nam Hai); Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui; Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle.

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspzu1DP2uU

SOURCE Four Seasons Resorts of Asia
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. , March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Medical Practice Management ("AMPM") provides notice of data event.

AMPM is a third-party medical billing administrator that provides billing services to certain healthcare providers. This notice provides information about the incident, AMPM's response, and resources available to individuals to help protect their information from possible misuse, should they feel it appropriate to do so. AMPM is providing this notice on behalf of Pain Relief Center of Southwest Florida.

On August 5, 2021, AMPM discovered suspicious activity associated with certain files within its environment. AMPM quickly took steps to secure the network, and began an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the activity. AMPM's investigation subsequently determined that an unauthorized actor acquired certain files from its environment between July 11, 2021, and July 13, 2021. Given that these certain files were accessed without authorization, AMPM then began a comprehensive review of the files to determine the information potentially impacted by this incident and to whom the information related for purposes of notification. Upon completion of this review, AMPM then worked diligently to reconcile this information with its internal records to confirm the individuals whose information may have been affected and the appropriate contact information for those individuals. AMPM completed this review on January 27, 2022, and thereafter worked to provide notification to organizations whose patients were potentially impacted in order to obtain necessary information and approval, and thereafter began notifying potentially impacted individuals as quickly as possible. The investigation determined that the following information may be impacted name, Social Security number, driver's license number or state identification card number, other government identification number, payment card number, financial account information, medical information, and health insurance number.

AMPM treats its responsibility to safeguard information in its possession as an utmost priority. As such, AMPM responded quickly to this event and have been working diligently to provide an accurate and complete notice of the incident. AMPM's response to this event also included prompt reporting to federal law enforcement. Further, as part of AMPM's ongoing commitment to the privacy and security of personal information in its care, AMPM is reviewing and enhancing its existing policies and procedures relating to data protection and security. AMPM also instituted additional security measures, as well as provided additional training to employees, to mitigate any risk associated with this incident and to better protect against future incidents. AMPM is also notifying relevant state and federal regulators, as required.

AMPM has established a dedicated call center at 855-482-1557, which is available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday for any questions individuals may have regarding this event.

AMPM encourages individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud, to review account statements, and to monitor free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors.

Under U.S. law, a consumer is entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. You may also directly contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below to request a free copy of your credit report.

Consumers have the right to place an initial or extended "fraud alert" on a credit file at no cost. An initial fraud alert is a 1-year alert that is placed on a consumer's credit file. Upon seeing a fraud alert display on a consumer's credit file, a business is required to take steps to verify the consumer's identity before extending new credit. If you are a victim of identity theft, you are entitled to an extended fraud alert, which is a fraud alert lasting seven years. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, please contact any one of the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below.

As an alternative to a fraud alert, consumers have the right to place a "credit freeze" on a credit report, which will prohibit a credit bureau from releasing information in the credit report without the consumer's express authorization. The credit freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. However, you should be aware that using a credit freeze to take control over who gets access to the personal and financial information in your credit report may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make regarding a new loan, credit, mortgage, or any other account involving the extension of credit. Pursuant to federal law, you cannot be charged to place or lift a credit freeze on your credit report. To request a security freeze, you will need to provide the following information:

Full name (including middle initial as well as Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.); Social Security number; Date of birth; Addresses for the prior two to five years; Proof of current address, such as a current utility bill or telephone bill; A legible photocopy of a government-issued identification card (state driver's license or ID card, etc.); and A copy of either the police report, investigative report, or complaint to a law enforcement agency concerning identity theft if you are a victim of identity theft.

Should you wish to place a credit freeze, please contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below:

Equifax Experian TransUnion https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/ https://www.experian.com/help/ https://www.transunion.com/credit-help 888-298-0045 1-888-397-3742 833-395-6938 Equifax Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348-5069 Experian Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016 Equifax Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 Experian Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094

You may further educate yourself regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, credit freezes, and the steps you can take to protect your personal information by contacting the consumer reporting bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission, or your state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission may be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov ; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. You can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. You have the right to file a police report if you ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, you will likely need to provide some proof that you have been a victim. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and your state Attorney General. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement

SOURCE Advanced Medical Practice Management
OmniiX Founders John W. Collins and Stormey Collins Join Society Brands as Executive Leadership Team Members

CANTON, Ohio, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Society Brands , an Amazon aggregator built for and by founders, today announced its strategic acquisition of OmniiX , a leading Amazon brand management agency with a track record of growing brands at nearly 40% annually. OmniiX founders John W. Collins and Stormey Collins have joined the Society Brands executive leadership team as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff, respectively, charged with leading the growth of acquired companies.

"Acquiring a proven Amazon brand management agency is one of the biggest wins we've had as an organization to date and sets our platform up for long-term success," said Michael Sirpilla, CEO of Society Brands. "OmniiX has demonstrated the ability to manage a large block of business at scale. Many Amazon aggregators struggle to scale brands post acquisition, but with the OmniiX platform a part of Society Brands, the company is uniquely positioned to quickly grow our acquired brands."

OmniiX has serviced hundreds of consumer product companies selling their products on Amazon, managing over $500MM of revenue for their clients. The OmniiX team's deep understanding on how to organically grow businesses on Amazon provides a unique opportunity for Society Brands to scale future acquired companies at a rapid pace.

"In my twelve years as an Amazon seller and then as an Amazon agency owner with an absolutely phenomenal team, I've seen firsthand the power of winning combinations and how that benefits not just a brand, but everyone involved," said John W. Collins, OmniiX Founder and Society Brands Chief Marketing Officer. "As a former Amazon seller, the founder-first mission of Society Brands deeply resonates with me. I see that mindset really coming to life in our conversations with the founders."

"The collective experience the Society Brands team brings across Amazon performance, retail success, M&A leadership and people development is a recipe for monumental growth. I couldn't be prouder and more excited to focus the team's effort exclusively on the growth and success of our acquisitions at Society Brandsa new society is coming!" concluded Collins.

Another pivotal piece of making this acquisition worthwhile is the continued involvement of two of OmniiX's founders. "We are thrilled to welcome them as members of our executive leadership team and are confident that the same success OmniiX has had for its clients will continue with the growth of Society Brands acquired companies," said Sirpilla.

Since its launch in October 2020, Society Brands has raised $205M in total capital, making it one of the best-funded Amazon aggregators in the world. Society Brands has a unique business model and deal structure that creates alignment with founders while truly enabling them to take their brand to new heights by sharing best practices and resources. Society Brands acquires e-commerce consumer products companies and encourages the founders to stay on board to be part of the team. These founders join "the society" as a Brand President and get access to shared resources that can scale the business to new heights. It's their desire to build a community and ecosystem of like-minded entrepreneurs that have the skill and energy to grow with their brand. Not only will founders elevate to the next level professionally, but they will also develop relationships that will last a lifetime.

About Society Brands

Society Brands is a tech-enabled consumer products company that acquires e-commerce native brands that primarily sell on Amazon and their own DTC sites. The company was built for and by founders, providing entrepreneurs meaningful liquidity while at the same time affording them an opportunity to stay on board, build their brand and roll equity into Society Brands' platform. For more information, please visit www.societybrands.com .

Media Contact:

Nicole Fait

The Brand Amp

[email protected]

SOURCE Society Brands
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Annual General Meeting of Aktiebolaget SKF, parent company of the SKF Group, was held on Thursday, 24 March 2022.

Due to Covid-19, the general meeting was held without physical presence by shareholders exercising their voting rights only by postal voting.

The income statements and the balance sheets were adopted, together with the Board's proposal for distribution of dividend. A dividend of SEK 7.00 per share was approved. To be entitled to receive the dividend, shareholders must be recorded in the share register on 28 March 2022.

The Meeting resolved that the Board's fee for 2022 is to be in accordance with the following:

a. an allotment of SEK 2,530,000 to the Chairman of the Board, and SEK 825,000 to each of the other Board members; and

b. an allotment for committee work of SEK 285,000 to the Chairman of the Audit Committee, with SEK 210,000 to each of the other members of the Audit Committee, with SEK 165,000 to the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and with SEK 130,000 to each of the other members of the Remuneration Committee.

A prerequisite for obtaining an allotment is that the Board member is elected by the General Meeting and is not employed by the company.

The following Board members were re-elected: Mr. Hans Straberg, Mr. Hock Goh, Ms. Colleen Repplier, Mr. Geert Follens, Mr. Hakan Buskhe, Ms. Susanna Schneeberger and Mr. Rickard Gustafson.

Mr. Hans Straberg was elected Chairman of the Board.

The Meeting approved the Board's proposal for revised principles of executive remuneration, the Board's remuneration report and the Board's proposal for a resolution on SKF's Performance Share Programme 2022.

Aktiebolaget SKF

(publ)

CONTACT:

For further information, please contact:

PRESS: Carl Bjernstam, Group Communication

tel: 46 31-337 2517; mobile: 46 722-201 893; e-mail: [email protected]

INVESTOR RELATIONS: Patrik Stenberg, Head of Investor Relations

tel: 46 31-337 2104; mobile: 46 705-472 104; [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/skf/r/annual-general-meeting-of-ab-skf,c3531884

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/637/3531884/1553410.pdf 20220324 Annual General Meeting of AB SKF https://news.cision.com/skf/i/gotahom-4jpg-png-highpreview-1278,c3029031 Gotahom 4jpg png highpreview 1278

SOURCE SKF
Anti-racism is an active process to identify and remove barriers faced by racialized persons. McLean & Company outlines that these barriers typically fall under workplace, social, and health settings. The research associated with the newly released guide indicates that racialized employees often endure an emotional tax, with negative impacts on wellbeing, health, and the ability to thrive at work.

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The complete Anti-Racism Guide is available for download now so that HR departments can implement recommendations immediately.

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Supporting Resources

Download the complete Anti-Racism Guide research.

About McLean & Company

Through data-driven insights and proven best-practice methodologies, McLean & Company offers comprehensive resources and full-service assessments, action plans, and training to position organizations to meet today's needs and prepare for the future.

McLean & Company is a division of Info-Tech Research Group.

SOURCE McLean & Company
Vendor Insights

The automotive exhaust manifold market is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:

Benteler International AG

BG Products Inc.

Bosal Nederland BV

DENSO Corp.

DuPont de Nemours Inc.

Eberspacher Gruppe GmbH and Co.KG

EDELBROCK LLC

ElringKlinger AG

Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd.

Katcon SA de CV

Magneti Marelli After Market Parts and Services Spa

MAHLE GmbH

Sango Co. Ltd.

Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd.

SPM Autocomp Systems Pvt Ltd.

Tenneco Inc.

Walter Boysen GmbH and Co.KG

Yutaka Giken Co. Ltd.

Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings. Read Free Sample Report.

Geographical Market Analysis

APAC will account for 72% of the market's growth during the forecast period. China, Japan, and India are the key countries for the automotive exhaust manifold market in APAC. Moreover, market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions. The increasing purchase power parity will drive the automotive exhaust manifold market growth in APAC during the forecast period.

Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with the detailed analysis of the top regions. View Our Report Snapshot

Key Segment Analysis

The commercial vehicle segment will have significant market share growth during the forecast period. The growing demand for utility vehicles in North America is the primary driver for the market in focus. This is because SUVs and pickup trucks are classified as light commercial vehicles in North American countries. In addition, the increasing demand for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles in APAC is contributing to the growth of the market. Moreover, the significant use of V-type engines in light commercial vehicles in North America is contributing to the revenue generation of the market in focus. These factors will drive the segment growth during the forecast period.

View FREE Sample: to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years.

Key Market Drivers & Challenges:

The growth in the production volume of passenger vehicles is driving the automotive exhaust manifold market growth. The global automotive exhaust manifold market is directly dependent on the growth of automobiles, particularly passenger vehicles, as exhaust manifold is a standard part of the fitment in vehicles.

The issues related to the development of cracks or leakages are challenging the automotive exhaust manifold market growth. An exhaust manifold is subjected to extreme heat during the working condition and is cooled down when the engine is switched off. This results in a high probability of the development of cracks or leakages due to continuous subjection to high-stress levels over the course of time.

Download free sample for highlights on market drivers & challenges impacting the automotive exhaust manifold market.

Customize Your Report

Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time.

We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now!

Related Reports:

Automotive Diesel Filter Market by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

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Automotive Exhaust Manifold Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.17% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 566.79 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.0 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 72% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, India, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Benteler International AG, BG Products Inc., Bosal Nederland BV, DENSO Corp., DuPont de Nemours Inc., Eberspacher Gruppe GmbH and Co.KG, EDELBROCK LLC, ElringKlinger AG, Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd., Katcon SA de CV, Magneti Marelli After Market Parts and Services Spa, MAHLE GmbH, Sango Co. Ltd., Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd., SPM Autocomp Systems Pvt Ltd., Tenneco Inc., Walter Boysen GmbH and Co.KG, and Yutaka Giken Co. Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for 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 Application



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 Application

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Application

5.3 Commercial vehicle - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Commercial vehicle - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Commercial vehicle - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Commercial vehicle - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Commercial vehicle - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Passenger car - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Passenger car - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Passenger car - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Passenger car - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Passenger car - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by Application ($ 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 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 42: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 44: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 45: 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 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 49: 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 50: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 51: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 52: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 53: 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 54: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 56: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: 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 58: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 60: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - 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 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 (%)

7.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 72: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 73: 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 74: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 82: 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 83: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 84: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 85: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 86: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 87: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 88: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 Benteler International AG

Exhibit 89: Benteler International AG - Overview



Exhibit 90: Benteler International AG - Business segments



Exhibit 91: Benteler International AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 92: Benteler International AG - Segment focus

10.4 Bosal Nederland BV

Exhibit 93: Bosal Nederland BV - Overview



Exhibit 94: Bosal Nederland BV - Product / Service



Exhibit 95: Bosal Nederland BV - Key news



Exhibit 96: Bosal Nederland BV - Key offerings

10.5 DENSO Corp.

Exhibit 97: DENSO Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 98: DENSO Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 99: DENSO Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 100: DENSO Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: DENSO Corp. - Segment focus

10.6 Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 102: Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 103: Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 104: Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.7 Katcon SA de CV

Exhibit 105: Katcon SA de CV - Overview



Exhibit 106: Katcon SA de CV - Product / Service



Exhibit 107: Katcon SA de CV - Key offerings

10.8 Magneti Marelli After Market Parts and Services Spa

Exhibit 108: Magneti Marelli After Market Parts and Services Spa - Overview



Exhibit 109: Magneti Marelli After Market Parts and Services Spa - Product / Service



Exhibit 110: Magneti Marelli After Market Parts and Services Spa - Key offerings

10.9 Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 111: Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 112: Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 113: Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 114: Sejong Industrial Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

10.10 Tenneco Inc.

Exhibit 115: Tenneco Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 116: Tenneco Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 117: Tenneco Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 118: Tenneco Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 119: Tenneco Inc. - Segment focus

10.11 Walter Boysen GmbH and Co.KG

Exhibit 120: Walter Boysen GmbH and Co.KG - Overview



Exhibit 121: Walter Boysen GmbH and Co.KG - Product / Service



Exhibit 122: Walter Boysen GmbH and Co.KG - Key offerings

10.12 Yutaka Giken Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 123: Yutaka Giken Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 124: Yutaka Giken Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 125: Yutaka Giken Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

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
TORONTO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - BlueRush Inc. ("BlueRush" or the "Company") (TSXV: BTV ) (OTCQB: BTVRF), a leading personalized video Software as a Service ("SaaS") company, today announced its financial results for the three and six-month periods ended January 31, 2022 ("Q2 2022").

"We are delighted with the way the first half of the fiscal year has started for BlueRush. We continue to see acceleration in terms of new contracts including our first TELCO and UTILITIES customers. We had expansion from our existing customers and contribution from our growing partner network. Furthermore, we saw an increase in both services revenue and profitability," said Steve Taylor, CEO of BlueRush.

The quarter included a number of significant growth and progress in every important metric:

Year-to-date total revenue increased by 36% or $614,779 from $1,727,786 in Q2 2021 to $2,342,565 in Q2 2022.





from in Q2 2021 to in Q2 2022. Committed ARR (CARR) of $3,072,614 as at January 31, 2022 , as compared to $2,357,494 as at January 31, 2021 .





of as at , as compared to as at . Year-to-date gross profit increased by 71% or $713,968 from $1,009,237 in Q2 2021 to $1,723,205 in Q2 2022.





from in Q2 2021 to in Q2 2022. The Company achieved SaaS revenue for the six months ended January 31, 2022 of $1,121,962 up 16% or $152,822 compared to the first six months of FY21 of $969,140 .





of up 16% or compared to the first six months of FY21 of . Services revenue increased by 61% in both the three and six-month periods ended January 31, 2022 to $649,247 and $1,220,603 , respectively, compared to the same periods in the prior year.





to and , respectively, compared to the same periods in the prior year. Services gross profit came in at $403,920 for Q2 2022, increasing by 198% or $268,225 from $135,695 in Q2 2021. Year-to-date services gross profit increased by 228% or $495,553 from $216,965 in Q2 2021 to $712,518 in Q2 2022.





for Q2 2022, increasing by 198% or from in Q2 2021. Year-to-date services gross profit increased by 228% or from in Q2 2021 to in Q2 2022. Subscription and support gross profit % continued to increase reaching 90% in Q2 2022 compared to 82% in Q2 2021.





The Company achieved positive Net Dollar Retention (NDR) in Q2 2022:

NDR is a significant sign of health in the business and is an indicator that the Company is growing before the addition of new customers.



Management attributes the continued success in growing the Company's customer base to the Company's investment in a dedicated customer experience management team and the excellent results they have achieved.

Subsequent to Q2 2022, the Company made a couple of important announcements:

The Company announced it is working towards a brokered financing of up to US$5,000,000 (not including the agent's over-allotment option):

(not including the agent's over-allotment option): units offered at US$0.05 per unit

per unit

each unit consists of one common share and one-half of one share purchase warrant, with each whole warrant exercisable at US$0.075



for US investors, the financing is being led by a US-based broker dealer



included as part of the maximum raise, BlueRush is accepting subscriptions by Canadian investors at $0.064 per unit with whole warrants exercisable at $0.096

per unit with whole warrants exercisable at The Company announced inclusion into the Brightcove marketplace  the Brightcove partnership creates a significant sales opportunity for BlueRush. Brightcove has approximately 10,000 enterprise customers who can benefit from the integration which allows Brightcove users to quickly and easily add personalization and calls to action to existing video assets stored on Brightcove's Video CMS.

"We continue to grow and at the same time lay the foundation for the business going forward. We have been able to increase our growth rate while simultaneously lowering costs and increasing gross margins," continued Steve Taylor. "I could not be prouder of the team or more grateful to our wonderful partners who are becoming a more and more important part of our success."

Financial Results for Q2 2022

The Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the three- and six-month periods ended January 31, 2022 and 2021, have been posted both to the BlueRush website at www.bluerush.com and on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com . The financial information included in this news release is qualified in its entirety and should be read together with the unaudited consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the three- and six-month periods ended January 31, 2022 and 2021, including the notes thereto.

About BlueRush

BlueRush develops and markets IndiVideo, a disruptive, award-winning interactive personalized video platform that drives return on investment throughout the customer lifecycle, from increased conversions to more engaging statements and customer care. IndiVideo enables BlueRush clients to capture knowledge and data from their customers' video interaction, creating new and compelling data driven customer insights.

For more information visit https://www.bluerush.com .

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include, without limitation: changes in law; the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities; state of the capital markets; the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations; a novel business model; dependence on key suppliers and local partners; competition; the outcome and cost of any litigation; the general impact of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com . Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

Discussion on Non-IFRS Measures and Key Metrics

The Company prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). However, the Company may refer to a number of measures and metrics which we believe are meaningful in the assessment of the Company's performance including Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue ("CARR"). CARR is the subscription revenue of a given period calculated as an annual run rate for all contracts including those that were signed in the same period. Many of these measures and metrics are non-standard measures under IFRS, do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and are unlikely to be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. These measures, which it believes are widely used by investors, security analysts and other interested parties to evaluate its performance and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies, nor should they be construed as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS. Readers are cautioned that the disclosure of these items is meant to add to, and not replace, the discussion of financial results or cash flows from operations as determined in accordance with IFRS. The purpose of these non-IFRS measures and key metrics is to provide supplemental information that may prove useful to readers who wish to consider the impact of certain non-cash or uncontrollable items on the Company's operating performance. Management uses both IFRS and non-IFRS measures when planning, monitoring and evaluating the Company's performance.

SOURCE BlueRush Inc.
Canadian company helping Americans access affordable medication marks their one-year anniversary.

WINNIPEG, MB, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Buy Canadian Insulin (BCI), the online store providing Americans with affordable insulin & other life-saving medications, proudly announced today that it is celebrating its one-year anniversary. The company has been a critical source for many Americans without proper medical coverage that face excessive and unmanageable costs for their prescription medications.

In particular, Americans with type 1 and type 2 diabetes have seen the cost of insulin skyrocket. The high prices have led individuals to take up extreme measures to try and pay for their life-saving medication, including crowdfunding to raise money, skipping doses or rationing insulin.

According to researchers at the Yale Diabetes Center, one in four patients with diabetes in the United States ration their insulin due to high costs. This habit can lead to severe health consequences or even death.

Buy Canadian Insulin enables Americans to purchase up to a 3-month supply of insulin online or over the phone if they have a valid prescription from an American doctor. They offer top brands including Lantus, Levemir, Humalog, Apidra, Fiasp and other major insulin brands. In addition to insulin, BCI also offers almost any medication including over-the-counter, brand name and generic medications and medical supplies. All orders are express shipped to the US from licensed pharmacies. Some examples of savings offered include:

Humalog insulin vials:

-US Price: $362/vial

-BCI Price: $70/vial (Bulk Discount: Get three vials for $150)

Ozempic (semaglutide) injection pens:

-US Price: $1,269

-BCI Price: $290

Apidra insulin vials:

-US Price: $451/vial

-BCI Price: $60/vial (Bulk Discount: Get four vials for $160)

In Canada, insulin prices are a fraction of what they are in America. This is primarily due to heavy price regulation by a Canadian government body  the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB). Because of the generally lower drug prices in their northern neighbor, pharmaceutical tourism has become increasingly popular with Americans, particularly those needing insulin. BCI hopes to fill the need for those who don't want to travel internationally to obtain their medicine at reasonable prices.

About Buy Canadian Insulin

Founded in 2020, Buy Canadian Insulin helps Americans, especially those without medical insurance, save up to 90% on top brand insulin & other life-saving medication. For more information please visit www.buycanadianinsulin.com or call toll free at 1-888-525-1815 during business hours located on our website.

SOURCE BuyCanadianInsulin.com
FOREST HILL, Md., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cadmium is pleased to announce their participation in the inaugural Business Events Industry Week, a new initiative dedicated to community, commerce, content, awards, and advocacy in the live event industry.

Business Events Industry Week (23  25 March 2022) is an all-new in-person event that will unify the global business events industry and reinforce the power of business events to promote economic and social good. The event will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Cadmium, a leading learning and event technology provider, will facilitate this initiative with their award-winning mobile app, event website, and exhibitor management solutions.

"We're delighted to support the very first Business Events Industry Week," said Michelle Wyatt, President of Event and Video Technology at Cadmium. "This new cross-industry initiative will be an invaluable opportunity for event professionals to connect, learn, and inspire one another. Cadmium technology will play a vital role in facilitating these connections."

Cadmium's event technology will promote networking, matchmaking, and seamless communication among the thousands of attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors expected to be in attendance. Based on interests registered during account creation, the system will match attendees with exhibitors, peers, and other persons of interest.

As the event technology partner for Business Events Industry Week, Cadmium will support the industry mission to deliver exceptional learning experiences to event professionals and, ultimately, their customers.

About Cadmium

Cadmium simplifies the production of live, hybrid and virtual events and maximizes the value of online learning with a single, flexible platform designed to capture the chemistry of people, ideas and knowledge. The company's software products are trusted by more than 1000 content-driven organizations worldwide to generate revenue, drive customer retention, and lower operational costs for their events and education initiatives. For more information, visit https://gocadmium.com.

Contact:

Jessie Reyes | Cadmium

[email protected]

SOURCE Cadmium
HONG KONG, March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Asset Management Limited ("CICC HKAM"), a wholly owned subsidiary of China International Capital Corporation Limited ("CICC"), announced today the launch of the CICC Carbon Futures ETF (the "ETF"), the first of its kind in Greater China. Units of the ETF will begin trading today on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong ("SEHK") under the ticker 3060 for HKD counter, 83060 for RMB counter and 9060 for USD counter.

The ETF invests in the most liquid and most representative ICE EUA Futures Contracts by tracking the ICE EUA Carbon Futures Index (Excess Return)[1], which measures the performance of a long-only basket of EUA Contracts. Each European Union Allowance ("EUA") is an entitlement to emit one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent gas under the European Union Emissions Trading System ("EU ETS").

Established in 2005, the EU ETS is the world's largest carbon market. EUA notional traded in 2021 was 683 billion EUR[2], accounting for around 90%[2] of the global emission trading that year. The EU ETS works on a "cap and trade" principle, where a cap is set on the amount of greenhouse gases ("GHG") that can be released into the atmosphere. The EU ETS is a cornerstone of the European Union's ("EU") climate policy, and it contributed to the EU's reduction of GHG emissions by 31%[3] from 1990 to 2020. The new ETF allows investors to participate in the carbon market efficiently in the Asia-Pacific time zone.

"This ETF highlights our commitment to the development of climate-themed products and our overall capabilities in structuring innovative investment solutions," said Ning Lin, Managing Director at CICC HKAM. "This new ETF will allow investors to access one of the largest, most liquid and most actively traded carbon markets in the world. Better still, as the carbon market exhibits low correlation with other assets, it is an excellent choice to deliver portfolio diversification."

The launch of the ETF marks another milestone for CICC HKAM, which provides a wide range of asset management products and services for investors. It is the fifth ETF under its unit trust CICC Fund Series. The other Hong Kong listed ETFs under the CICC Fund Series are CICC CSI Select 100 ETF (a China A-shares ETF under the ticker 3093 for HKD counter and 83093 for RMB counter), CICC Bloomberg China Treasury 1-10 Years ETF (a China government bond ETF under the ticker 3079 for HKD counter and 83079 for RMB counter), ICBC CICC USD Money Market ETF (a USD money market ETF under the ticker 3011 for HKD counter and 9011 for USD counter) and CICC HKD Money Market ETF (a HKD money market ETF under the ticker 3071).

[1] "Excess Return" does not mean any additional return on the ETF's performance.

[2] Data source: Refinitiv. As of January 2022. See https://www.refinitiv.com/content/dam/marketing/en_us/documents/gated/reports/carbon-market-year-in-review-2022.pdf

[3] Data Source: European Commission. See https://ec.europa.eu/clima/system/files/2021-10/com_2021_962_en.pdf

- Ends -

About China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC):

China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC, 03908.HK, 601995.SH) is a top tier investment bank, founded in China in 1995, providing first-class financial services to corporates, institutions and individuals worldwide. As the first international joint-venture investment bank in China, CICC plays a unique role in supporting China's economic reforms and liberalization through the provision of comprehensive one-stop domestic, overseas and cross-border financial services including investment banking, equities, FICC, wealth management, asset management, private equity investment, and research. As a China expert, CICC provides in-depth and insightful interpretation and analysis on the Chinese economy and markets. With sustainability at the core of CICC's values, we seek to create long-term value for society and actively practice corporate social responsibility at the highest industry standard. Headquartered in Beijing, CICC has over 200 branches in Mainland China and offices in Hong Kong SAR, New York, Singapore, London, San Francisco, Frankfurt and Tokyo. For more information about CICC, please visit www.cicc.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Asset Management Limited:

China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Asset Management Limited ("CICC HKAM") was established in 2005 in Hong Kong as a wholly owned subsidiary of China International Capital Corporation Limited ("CICC"), a leading Chinese investment bank. CICC HKAM is licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC") to carry out Type 4 (Advising on Securities) and Type 9 (Asset Management) regulated activities.

CICC HKAM provides full-range asset management products and investment solutions, including SFC-authorized funds, ETFs, non-SFC authorized funds, as well as discretionary account management. CICC HKAM's capabilities cover major asset classes, including fixed income, equities, commodities as well as quantitative strategies. CICC HKAM also manages one of the largest* QFII ("Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors") schemes.

Adhering to CICC's core value of "Chinese roots and international reach", CICC HKAM is committed to serving investors with the best-in-class asset management products and investment solutions.

*Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange, as of 31 May 2020

Disclaimer:

This document is issued by China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Asset Management Limited ("CICCHKAM") and has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. This document is provided for information purposes only. Nothing contained herein constitutes investment advice or invitation for investment, or should be relied on as such.

Although the information provided in this document has been obtained from sources which CICCHKAM believes to be reliable, it does not guarantee the accuracy of such information and such information may be incomplete or condensed.

Please refer to the offering documents for the index provider disclaimers.

Important Risk Warnings:

The CICC Carbon Futures ETF is a futures-based exchange traded fund which is subject to risks associated with derivatives and is different from conventional exchange traded funds. The ICE EUA Carbon Futures Index consists of only ICE EUA Futures Contracts whose price movements may deviate significantly from the spot price of EUA. The ETF does not seek to deliver a return of the spot price of EUA.

An investment in the ETF involves risks which include without limitation to carbon emissions allowance market risks, futures contracts risks, risk of material non-correlation with spot/current market price of EUA, concentration / single commodity risk and new index risk. Movement in the prices of futures may be highly volatile. It is possible that the entire value of your investment could be lost. Please note that the aforementioned investment risks are not exhaustive. Investors should not base on this document alone to make investment decisions, but should read the prospectus of the ETF in detail (including the product features and risk factors).

SOURCE China International Capital Corporation Limited
Firm will lease landmark six-building, 1.4M-square-foot, Class-A corporate park

NORWALK, Conn., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarion Partners, LLC and Marcus Partners, leading real estate investment managers, have retained JLL as the exclusive leasing agent for Merritt 7, a six-building, 1.4 million-square-foot, Class-A corporate park in Norwalk, Connecticut.

With the guidance of world-renowned architecture firm Gensler, Merritt 7 is nearing completion of an extensive repositioning project for the property, which has included enhancing on-site amenities and services to create a vibrant atmosphere, improve tenants' work-life balance and manage the needs and complexities of employees returning to work post-Covid.

The property holds LEED Gold, Fitwel and WiredScore Gold certifications, with current amenities including in-building cafes, catering, two food halls with indoor and outdoor seating, 10,000 sq. ft of flexible, state-of-the-art conferencing, lounge and event space, 60,000 sq. ft. of curated outdoor plazas, courtyards and seating areas, a full-scale fitness center, hair salon, and car detailing.

Merritt 7 is located at the nexus of the Merritt Parkway and Route 7, offering easy access to the entire tri-state area. Metro-North rail service provides travel to New Haven and Manhattan.

Available leasing options at the property range from 1,600 square feet to 155,000 of contiguous square feet. Current tenants include Frontier, IBM, Aon, Xerox, M&T Bank, Siemens, Mercer, The Hartford, and Mass Mutual. Datto, a cybersecurity and data storage firm, is the largest tenant, leasing 135,000 square feet.

Senior Vice President Betsy Buckley, and Managing Directors Edward Tonnessen and Gil Ohls, with JLL, will lead the leasing team for the property.

"As Merritt 7 nears completion of an extensive revitalization program, JLL is well positioned to market and lease the property to a growing tenant base seeking space that accommodates evolving employee lifestyles," said Margaret Egan, Clarion Partners senior vice president of asset management. "JLL's extensive experience combined with Betsy Buckley's deep real estate expertise and asset management experience provide critical resources for this project."

"As companies manage the transition back to the office, creating a workspace that draws and retains talent will be critical," Buckley said. "The property is ideal for small- and large-block tenants, offering exceptional accessibility, extensive amenities, planned upgrades, and a superior environment that supports human wellness, life balance and sustainability."

JLL is a leader in the New York tri-state commercial real estate market, with more than 2,600 of the most recognized industry experts offering brokerage, capital markets, property/facilities management, consulting, and project and development services.

About Clarion Partners, LLC

Clarion Partners, LLC, has been a leading real estate investment manager for more than 39 years. Headquartered in New York, the firm maintains strategically located offices across the United States and Europe. With $71 billion in total real estate and debt assets under management, Clarion Partners offers a broad range of real estate strategies across the risk/return spectrum to 500 institutional investors across the globe. More information about the firm is available at www.clarionpartners.com.

About Marcus Partners

Marcus Partners is a vertically integrated real estate firm with a strong history of successful investment, management and development. The firm is based in Boston, with regional offices in Metro New York City and Metro Washington, D.C. The firm focuses on strategic and opportunistic investment strategies across multifamily, industrial, life science and other property types where it can create value and maximize risk-adjusted returns. Marcus Partners and its affiliates owns, operates or is developing 6.3 million square feet of real estate and 1,044 multifamily units. For more information, please visit WWW.MARCUSPARTNERS.COM

About JLL

JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $16.6 billion in 2020, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce more than 95,000 as of September 30, 2021. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.

SOURCE Clarion Partners
 Revenue of $97.9 million, an increase of $23.3 million year-over-year  Adjusted EBITDA of $52.1 million in 2021 Tweet this

Revenue of $97.9 million , an increase of $23.3 million year-over-year, primarily due to sales of Logix Smart COVID-19 Tests throughout the world

, an increase of year-over-year, primarily due to sales of Logix Smart COVID-19 Tests throughout the world Gross profit increased to $86.3 million year-over-year, representing 88.2% of consolidated revenue

year-over-year, representing 88.2% of consolidated revenue Operating income improved to $46.1 million due to record revenue and gross profit for the year

due to record revenue and gross profit for the year Income before taxes of $45.6 million

Net income of $36.7 million , compared to a $42.5 million from the prior year, representing $1.23 per fully diluted share compared to $1.52 in 2020

, compared to a from the prior year, representing per fully diluted share compared to in 2020 Adjusted EBITDA of $52.1 million in 2021 improved from $45.3 million in 2020

in 2021 improved from in 2020 Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $89.9 million at December 31, 2021 , compared to $47.3 million as of December 31, 2020

Dwight Egan, Co-Diagnostics' Chief Executive Officer, said, "Our record performance during Fiscal 2021 reflects the strength of our innovative product portfolio, and our ability to quickly adapt and deliver our products to customers in regions experiencing increased demand. We strengthened our executive management team and welcomed Brian Brown as Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Jesse Montgomery as Chief Scientific Officer. The Company also announced the existence of our new at-home/point-of-care diagnostics platform and completed two strategic acquisitions during the year to further enhance efficiencies related to this platform, which includes the addition of two key team members in Dr. Kirk Ririe and Dr. Carl Wittwer, pioneers of rapid and real-time PCR. The addition of Mr. Brown, Dr. Montgomery, Dr. Ririe and Dr. Wittwer reinforce our goal of becoming a leading global molecular diagnostic company. We are confident that this next-generation healthcare solution is the path to achieving growth and increasing value for our shareholders. We look forward to continuing to develop and iterate new, groundbreaking products on the Co-Dx YourTest PCR platform."

Egan continued, "Looking ahead, we believe that the demand for our COVID-19 tests and other diagnostic products will persist as our reputation has now been established and continues to grow among the diagnostic testing community and organizations implement COVID-19 testing as part of normal protocol. We remain focused in our long-term strategy and we expect that the Co-Dx YourTest PCR platform will contribute to future growth. The platform, along with our innovative portfolio of tests, provides a strong foundation for 2022."

2021 Business Highlights:

Completed the acquisition of Idaho Molecular Inc. and Advanced Conceptions, Inc., which are expected to streamline the commercialization of the Co-Dx YourTest PCR device as it nears completion.

JV CoSara received clearance by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization ("CDSCO") in India to manufacture and sell its SARAPLEX Flu A/Flu B/COVID-19 (ABC) RT-PCR test as an in vitro diagnostic ("IVD").

to manufacture and sell its SARAPLEX Flu A/Flu B/COVID-19 (ABC) RT-PCR test as an in vitro diagnostic ("IVD"). Received approval for Logix Smart SARS-CoV-2 2-Gene multiplex test from the United Kingdom Health Security Agency's ("UKHSA") Medical Devices (Coronavirus Test Device Approvals) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 ("CTDA").

Received authorizations for COVID-19 test to be sold and used as an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) in Mexico , India , and Australia , among others.

, , and , among others. Awarded a patent from the Republic of Korea's Intellectual Property Office for the Company's CoPrimer technology.

Logix Smart COVID-19 Test Kit was used by Australian researchers to demonstrate rapidly deployable mobile molecular diagnostics support for remote locations, with the peer-reviewed results published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Announced the development of a new at-home/point-of-care PCR diagnostic testing, screening and surveillance platform designed to perform COVID-19 testing at businesses, schools, homes, hotels, cruise ships, airports, airplanes and other locations.

First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Outlook

First quarter revenue in the range of $21.0 million to $22.0 million ;

to ; Diluted EPS in the range of $0.17 to $0.20 ;

to ; Diluted shares outstanding of 32.4 million; and

Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $9.0 million to $10.0 million .

Conference Call and Webcast

Co-Diagnostics will host a conference call and webcast at 4:30 p.m. EDT today to discuss its financial results with analysts and institutional investors. The conference call and webcast will be available via:

Webcast: https://ir.codiagnostics.com/ on the Events & Webcasts page

Conference Call: 877-317-6789 (domestic) or 412-317-6789 (international)

The call will be recorded and later made available on the Company's website: https://codiagnostics.com.

About Co-Diagnostics, Inc.:

Co-Diagnostics, Inc., a Utah corporation, is a molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and markets state-of-the-art diagnostics technology. The Company's technology is utilized for tests that are designed using the detection and/or analysis of nucleic acid molecules (DNA or RNA). The Company also uses its proprietary technology to design specific tests to locate genetic markers for use in industries other than infectious disease and license the use of those tests to specific customers.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

This press release contains adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP measure defined as net income excluding depreciation, amortization, income tax (benefit) expense, net interest (income) expense, stock-based compensation, and one-time transaction related costs. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to management and investors relating to its results of operations. The company's management uses this non-GAAP measure to compare the company's performance to that of prior periods for trend analyses, and for budgeting and planning purposes. The Company believes that the use of adjusted EBITDA provides an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing the company's financial measures with other companies, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to investors, and that it allows for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making.

Management does not consider the non-GAAP measure in isolation or as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP. The principal limitation of the non-GAAP financial measure is that it excludes significant expenses that are required by GAAP to be recorded in the company's financial statements. In order to compensate for these limitations, management presents the non-GAAP financial measure together with GAAP results. Non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. A reconciliation tables of the net income, the most comparable GAAP financial measure to adjusted EBITDA, is included at the end of this release. The Company urges investors to review the reconciliation and not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate the company's business.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "estimates," "intends," "may," "plans," "will" and similar expressions, or the negative of these words. Such forward-looking statements are based on facts and conditions as they exist at the time such statements are made and predictions as to future facts and conditions. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding the (i) use of funding proceeds, (ii) expansion of product distribution, (iii) acceleration of initiatives in liquid biopsy and SNP detection, (iv) use of the Company's liquid biopsy tests by laboratories, (v) capital resources and runway needed to advance the Company's products and markets, (vi) increased sales in the near-term, (vii) flexibility in managing the Company's balance sheet, (viii) anticipation of business expansion, (ix) benefits in research and worldwide accessibility of the CoPrimer technology and its cost-saving and scientific advantages, and (x) the impact that known and unknown COVID-19 variants may have on us and our products, our customers and suppliers, including disruptions and inefficiencies in the supply chain. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances, a fuller discussion of which can be found in the Risk Factors disclosure in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 24, 2022, and in our other filings with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated or anticipated by such forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement relating to matters discussed in this press release, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

CO-DIAGNOSTICS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS





December 31, 2021



December 31, 2020

Assets















Current assets















Cash and cash equivalents

$ 88,607,234



$ 42,976,713

Marketable investment securities



1,255,266





4,335,446

Accounts receivable, net



20,839,182





12,136,833

Inventory



2,004,169





7,995,189

Prepaid expenses



2,338,444





369,028

Note receivable



75,000





-

Total current assets



115,119,295





67,813,209

Property and equipment, net



1,933,216





949,639

Goodwill



14,706,818





-

Intangible assets, net



27,195,000





-

Investment in joint venture



1,004,953





1,927,125

Deferred tax asset



-





547,224

Note receivable



75,000





-

Total assets

$ 160,034,282



$ 71,237,197

Liabilities and stockholders' equity















Current liabilities















Accounts payable

$ 607,506



$ 598,318

Accrued expenses, current



3,859,652





2,849,503

Accrued expenses (related party), current



-





120,000

Contingent consideration liabilities, current



5,767,304





-

Income taxes payable



2,213,088





189,729

Deferred revenue



150,000





305,307

Total current liabilities



12,597,550





4,062,857

Long-term liabilities















Income taxes payable



1,067,853





447,831

Deferred tax liability



7,228,444





-

Contingent consideration liabilities



4,665,337





-

Accrued expenses (related party), noncurrent



-





30,000

Total long-term liabilities



12,961,634





477,831

Total liabilities



25,559,184





4,540,688

Stockholders' equity















Convertible preferred stock, $0.001 par value; 5,000,000 shares authorized; 0 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020



-





-

Common stock, $0.001 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized; 33,819,862 and 28,558,033 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, respectively



33,820





28,558

Additional paid-in capital



80,271,999





49,157,236

Accumulated earnings



54,169,279





17,510,715

Total stockholders' equity



134,475,098





66,696,509

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 160,034,282



$ 71,237,197



CO-DIAGNOSTICS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS





Years Ended December 31,





2021



2020

Revenue

$ 97,885,603



$ 74,552,758

Cost of revenue



11,574,944





16,591,346

Gross profit



86,310,659





57,961,412

Operating expenses















Sales and marketing



13,397,813





4,665,113

General and administrative



11,550,615





8,278,734

Research and development



14,961,916





3,185,290

Depreciation and amortization



335,363





138,635

Total operating expenses



40,245,707





16,267,772

Income from operations



46,064,952





41,693,640

Other income (expense)















Interest income



45,631





97,215

Loss on disposition of assets



(44,355)





(175)

Gain (loss) on equity method investment in joint venture



(430,433)





778,385

Total other income (expense)



(429,157)





875,425

Income before income taxes



45,635,795





42,569,065

Income tax provision



8,977,231





90,536

Net income

$ 36,658,564



$ 42,478,529

Earnings per common share:















Basic

$ 1.27



$ 1.59

Diluted

$ 1.23



$ 1.52

Weighted average shares outstanding:















Basic



28,874,555





26,720,133

Diluted



29,903,686





28,000,341



CO-DIAGNOSTICS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

GAAP AND NON-GAAP MEASURES

Reconciliation of GAAP net income to adjusted EBITDA:





Years Ended December 31,





2021



2020

Net income

$ 36,658,564



$ 42,478,529

Interest income



(45,631)





(97,215)

Depreciation and amortization



335,363





138,635

Transaction costs (1)



656,195





-

Stock-based compensation expense



5,509,404





2,738,041

Income tax provision



8,977,231





90,536

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 52,091,126



$ 45,348,526





(1) Expenses incurred relating to the acquisitions of Idaho Molecular and Advanced Conceptions

SOURCE Co-Diagnostics
HARTFORD, Conn., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Comptroller Natalie Braswell on Thursday announced the launch of MyCTSavings, a new retirement savings option for the more than 600,000 Connecticut private-sector workers who aren't offered a plan through their employer.

"Everyone deserves a financially secure retirement," said Comptroller Natalie Braswell. "The MyCTSavings program creates new opportunities for workers to plan for their futures and fills a critical need in the marketplace. The plan is designed to be easy for employers to maintain and is optional for workers to participate. I'm grateful to everyone who worked to get us to this point and look forward to the hardworking people of Connecticut benefitting from this important program."

"This program provides an option for workers who don't currently have the opportunity through their employer to save for retirement and make smart investments in their futures," said Governor Ned Lamont. "Expanding opportunities like this not only helps workers themselves, but it also supports small businesses in their efforts to attract employees. I extend my gratitude to former Comptroller Kevin Lembo on his efforts to get MyCTSavings up and operating, and to Comptroller Braswell on her efforts to see it through to its launch."

In early April, letters will be sent to approximately 30,000 Connecticut employers informing them of the MyCTSavings program, and the requirements to participate. Employers are required to register if they have more than five employees and do not currently offer a qualified retirement savings option. Participation for employees is voluntary  they can choose to remain enrolled or even opt out and then re-enroll later. The regular contributions to a Roth IRA help save for retirement and the account is portable; if a participant changes jobs, their account follows them.

MyCTSavings is designed to be easy and flexible for both the employer and employee. Employer registration is quick, and the program seamlessly integrates into any payroll process. A pilot program began in October, enrolling several employers to test processes and gain feedback. Participants have found it easy to enroll and maintain, and are already seeing the benefits for their workers.

"I really like the program and see how beneficial it has been to my employees," said Diane Peters, President of JCHI Cleaning, LLC in Norwalk. "Some have chosen to participate and other chose not to, but what this type of program provided is an opportunity to make them aware of saving, especially for retirement. This program will be very valuable for small businesses like mine because it offers us the opportunity to add value to our company and possibly attract future employees."

"As a small company, it can be hard to compete with benefits packages at large corporations," said Axel Collazo, Assistant Manager of Ace Transportation of Tolland. "It was easy to enroll and our employees who chose to participate are already excited about the opportunity to start saving for retirement."

"I investigated 401K retirement plans for our staff in the past, but they were always too expensive for our company," said John Miller, owner of National Chromium in Putnam. "This program is very easy to administer, charges no fees and literally takes me five minutes a week to enter the weekly payroll deductions for our employees that opted to participate."

"Massage therapists have traditionally not had good vehicles for retirement savings. The MyCTSavings program is the first opportunity some of our therapists have had to start planning for financial security," said Julie Robbins, founder and CEO of The Well For Women in New Haven. "We found the system very straightforward, painless to maintain, and easy to make changes if needed. The whole team is so excited about the MyCTSavings plan, and we are grateful to have participated in the pilot program!"

Businesses statewide are now able offer this important program to their employees at a crucial time when 51 percent of Americans have increased concern about their retirement due to the COVID-19 pandemic (according to a report from the National Institute on Retirement Security).

"We are pleased that the MyCTSavings program is launching and will provide a more secure retirement for the over 600,000 workers who do not currently have a payroll deduction retirement savings program," said Nora Duncan, State Director of AARP Connecticut. "Employees are 15 times more likely to save for retirement when offered an auto-deduction opportunity. This program is a win, win, win. It will help employers provide a no-cost benefit to their employees. It will provide employees with a more secure retirement. And it will benefit all Connecticut taxpayers by reducing the need for social safety net programs in the future."

The program is sponsored by the Connecticut Retirement Security Authority, of which Comptroller Braswell serves as Chair. The Board selected Vestwell as the program's third-party administrator after a competitive bidding process.

Comptroller Braswell acknowledged the contributions of the Board, former Comptroller Kevin Lembo, Governor Lamont, AARP and staff of the comptroller's office for their work in bringing this program to launch.

For more information, or to enroll, visit myctsavings.com.

Contact: Tyler Van Buren

[email protected] | (860) 702-3325

SOURCE Connecticut Office of the State Comptroller
CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Concentric Equity Partners ("CEP"), the direct investing arm for Financial Investments Corporation, formally announced the formation of Leap Partners Holdings LLC ("Leap Partners"), a Nashville-based HVAC and plumbing consolidation platform, along with the recapitalization of Conditioned Air Solutions ("Conditioned Air" or the "Company"), a leading provider of essential services including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning ("HVAC") in Huntsville, Alabama.

Led by two home-service veterans, John Cerasuolo (CEO) and Patrick Ritter (CFO), Leap Partners is a new Nashville-based home services company seeking to find, acquire, and combine many of the best businesses in residential and small-commercial HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services across the Southeast. Prior to Leap Partners, John Cerasuolo and Patrick Ritter worked alongside each other for more than a decade at Nashville-based home security company, ADS Security ("ADS"). Together, they led ADS to become one of the fastest-growing security companies in the USA. They successfully completed over 30 acquisitions and expanded the company to 25 locations across the Southeast. With southern hospitality, a deep understanding of operating service businesses, and a focus on putting team members and customers first, John and Patrick developed a reputation of being buyers of choice for business owners thinking about selling. The foundation of their success is that they treat all companies they work with as partners throughout the acquisition process.

Headquartered in Huntsville, AL and employing more than 70 people, Conditioned Air is a leading residential and small-commercial HVAC installation and services provider. The Company differentiates itself through its high-quality work, transparent pricing, commitment to exceptional customer service, and established track record of success. The Company was founded by Keith Lowe in 2004; and alongside the leadership of Paul Snowden (President), Conditioned Air has grown to become one of the most trusted HVAC service providers in northern Alabama. Conditioned Air is Leap Partners' first acquisition and CEP provided the controlling equity for the transaction.

CEP and Leap Partners are excited to partner directly with Keith Lowe and Paul Snowden at Conditioned Air to leverage the Company's established brand name and reputation to continue to grow throughout northern Alabama. Additionally, CEP and Leap Partners are excited to continue pursuing add-on acquisitions in the HVAC and plumbing space throughout the Southeast.

"Finding partners like CEP and Leap Partners who share Conditioned Air's commitment to serving our customers and employees as well as our vision for the future was crucial for me in this process. I am excited to work together with both firms as we embark on a long-term growth plan and to carry on the legacy of Conditioned Air," said Keith Lowe.

John Cerasuolo, CEO of Leap Partners, adds: "Leap Partners and CEP have a shared value in the prioritization of people. We both believe that our business success will be defined by how well we serve the technician community and focus our efforts on recruiting, training, and retaining our technicians. This is a long-term journey and we could not be more excited to have a partner like Conditioned Air."

CEP and Leap Partners are actively seeking to partner with additional HVAC and plumbing businesses primarily in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. If you're aware of HVAC and plumbing businesses that are looking for a financial / strategic partner to enable future growth, please contact us.

About Concentric Equity Partners:

Concentric Equity Partners is a private investment firm that partners with leading middle market companies by providing capital and strategic advisory services to accelerate long term value creation. Concentric's approach is simple: support entrepreneurs and operators by providing the resources required to achieve extraordinary results. The firm's investment team is made up of individuals with distinguished track records as operators and professional investors across a variety of growth oriented middle market companies.

Concentric Equity Partners is the direct investing arm of Financial Investments Corporation, a private asset management firm and family office with over $2 billion in investment commitments under management. Financial Investments Corporation was founded in 1994 by father and daughter Harrison and Jennifer Steans and has been partnering with private companies for more than 25 years.

For more information on Concentric Equity Partners, visit https://www.ficcep.com/.

About Leap Partners:

Leap Partners is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The company is working to connect the best small and medium-sized HVAC, plumbing and electrical service businesses in the Southeast to build a world-class employer and service-provider of choice with industry-leading customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

For more information on Leap Partners, visit https://www.theleappartners.com/.

About Conditioned Air Solutions:

Conditioned Air Solutions was founded in 2004 by Keith Lowe in Huntsville, Alabama. Conditioned Air is a local HVAC company performing services for both commercial and residential customers in the Madison and neighboring counties. The Company provides new installation, maintenance, replacement and repair for all heating and air conditioning systems. Everything the Company does is focused on fixing the customer's problem correctly, fixing it the first time, and giving the customer the best value possible.

For more information on Conditioned Air Solutions, visit https://www.conditionedairsolutions.com/.

SOURCE Concentric Equity Partners
cQuant.io and Hartigen announced they have built a seamless integration that will enable customers to more effectively optimize their energy portfolios through the utilization of historical, day-ahead, real-time, balance of month and settlement market data from PowerOptix and short to long-term forecasting and analytics from the cQuant.io platform.

DENVER and HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- cQuant.io, a modern analytics company, and Hartigen, an energy software company, have announced a technical partnership. With the partnership, cQuant.io and Hartigen will be able to provide their customers with a comprehensive portfolio management solution that utilizes historical and realized market data from PowerOptix along with simulated forward data with cQuant's advanced analytic platform.

The integration with cQuant.io will enable Hartigen customers to execute complex future analyses on their diverse asset portfolios, such as mark-to-market, net position, position-at-risk, and val ue-at-risk. Additionally, cQuant.io provides advanced renewable project/PPA evaluation to report fair market value, cash-flow timing, value of storage, and project/contract risk. With PowerOptix, cQuant.io customers will have a complete PnL view of their portfolios and the ability to seamlessly bid/offer, trade, schedule, and settle across bilateral & RTO markets.

"Choosing to partner with Hartigen made perfect sense for our mutual customers," said David Leevan, CEO of cQuant. "Energy market participants are seeking best-of-breed solutions that work together seamlessly to provide real-time operations, settlements as well as market forecasts, asset optimization, net-position and risk reports. This partnership is delivering a world-class solution to energy companies."

"Many of our customers operate complex portfolios that continue to evolve and expand into new areas of technology that require nuanced analytics," said David Potts, President of Hartigen. "cQuant's advanced analytics platform is flexible and provides our customers with the capabilities needed to evaluate and value new technologies as well as provide visibility into the associated risks and opportunities."

The seamless integration between cQuant and PowerOptix has raised the bar for companies looking to improve their ability to manage and optimize their North American energy portfolios.

About cQuant.io

cQuant.io is an industry leader in analytic solutions for energy and commodity companies. Specializing in Total Portfolio Analysis & Optimization, cQuant's cloud-native platform enables optimized energy decision-making from BALMO to 40 years. cQuant is the leader in analytics for renewable, storage and other clean energy technologies. cQuant's customers have greater insight into their financial forecasts and the drivers of value and risk in their business. For more information or to schedule a demo, visit https://cquant.io/.

About Hartigen

Hartigen is the leading provider of tightly integrated software used to enable seamless execution of trading, scheduling, bidding, operations, and settlements across both bilateral and deregulated North American power markets. PowerOptix customers include utilities, IPPs, public power, federal power, service providers, commodity traders & retailers. Hartigen is a privately held company based in Texas, with a reputation built upon customer service and agility: www.hartigen.com

Media Contacts:

cQuant.io

Noelle Demo

Phone: +1-888.313.0303

Email: [email protected]

Hartigen

David Potts

Phone: (832) 483-4127

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE cQuant.io; Hartigen
The company to hold a 2-day conference focused on empowering organizations to transform and innovate with no-code and a maximum degree of freedom

BOSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Creatio, a global vendor of one platform to automate industry workflows and CRM with no-code and a maximum degree of freedom, today announced that it will host an offline eventNo-Code Days: Freedom to Create in Chicago on May 26-27. The company is inviting its customers, partners, and IT, operational and digital leaders to the in-person conference on the future of no-code workflow automation and CRM.

Hundreds of single-minded attendees will gather at the Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel to discuss the latest trends that drive business growth today, meet top talent and brilliant minds, and learn how no-code, workflow automation and advanced CRM solutions can aid in achieving digital transformation goals. The registration is now open.

During the event attendees will have a chance to:

Learn how no-code can become a game-changer for their business

Discover the no-code playbook on how to enable a no-code strategy, team, and process within an organization

Experience the freedom to own their automation with Creatio technologies demonstrated through various workshops and learning labs

Network with a leading no-code community

The event will also include industry workflow-focused sessions designed for financial services, manufacturing and distribution, life sciences, and public sector professionals. The conference will host an impressive lineup of speakers representing the most prominent thought leaders in no-code/low-code and digital transformation space.

The registration is available via the following link. It's free, but seats are limited.

About Creatio

Creatio is a global vendor of one platform to automate industry workflows and CRM with no-code and a maximum degree of freedom. Millions of workflows are launched on our platform daily in 100 countries by thousands of clients. Genuine care for our clients and partners is a defining part of Creatio DNA.

For more information, please visit www.creatio.com.

Media contact:

Vera Mayuk

[email protected]

+1 617 765 7997

SOURCE Creatio
DR-ONETM is DigitalReef's software platform that integrates mobile advertising, marketing, and app engagement tools for mobile operators, OEMs, and application developers.

MIAMI and SAO PAULO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DigitalReef, a leading global mobile advertising, and marketing technology company, announces the availability of its integrated mobile advertising and marketing platform, DR-ONETM. Through this platform, mobile operators, OEMs, and app developers can now implement and optimize their marketing strategies to reach, engage, and retain their users while optimizing their application business monetization goals.

DR-ONE is a software platform that enables highly optimized device experiences combining notification, messaging, and rich media content with the interactivity of the smartphone experience enabling mobile operators, OEMs, and application developers to deliver relevant messaging and marketing experiences to their customers in the form of CRM messaging, advertising, brand, and marketing support.

In addition to targeted rich media advertising and marketing, DR-ONE supports a suite of customer data platform tools that leverages DigitalReef's sophisticated artificial intelligence engine to profile audience behavior. Audience intelligence and consumer insights provide advertisers with the ability to understand, profile, target, and engage any DR-ONE-enabled device. As part of the DR-ONE suite of tools, DigitalReef's audience profiling tool is an indispensable tool that offers improved advertising and marketing relevance along with high conversion media opportunities.

"The launch of DR-ONE is a breakthrough for the MarTech and AdTech industries, and more specifically, our carrier and publisher customers," DigitalReef CEO Maurizio Angelone explains. "Through this integrated platform, our customers now have a single, integrated, end-to-end platform to help them accomplish their mobile advertising and marketing business objectives. It is also an important milestone for DigitalReef as DR-ONE will rapidly accelerate and scale the growth of DigitalReef across the Americas in terms of user growth and monetization."

Available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, DR-ONE is a proven, scalable, and big-data SaaS cloud platform that delivers on four key monetization and engagement attributes that are important to our customers:

Mobile Advertising : More than 10 premium formats including on-device, notification-based, and in-app messaging providing support for display, video, app install and interstitial content, allowing direct content curation and high conversion while providing tools to optimize campaign budgets on the fly.







: More than 10 premium formats including on-device, notification-based, and in-app messaging providing support for display, video, app install and interstitial content, allowing direct content curation and high conversion while providing tools to optimize campaign budgets on the fly. Mobile Marketing : Directly manage mobile marketing KPIs and mobile application engagement goals by creating one-to-one or one-to-many custom marketing campaigns, identifying and personalizing messaging that is catered to specific audience behavior, or optimizing messaging automatically with DR-ONE's messaging suite.







: Directly manage mobile marketing KPIs and mobile application engagement goals by creating one-to-one or one-to-many custom marketing campaigns, identifying and personalizing messaging that is catered to specific audience behavior, or optimizing messaging automatically with DR-ONE's messaging suite. Mobile Engagement : Leverage DR-ONE's analytical tools to understand customer behavior, user journey management, and click analytics, along with improving your mobile application user metrics.







: Leverage DR-ONE's analytical tools to understand customer behavior, user journey management, and click analytics, along with improving your mobile application user metrics. SIM App Push: One of the world's first SIM-based messaging capabilities that provides on-device marketing and advertising support through a device's SIM card or e-SIM technology. DR-One's SIM App Push suite can be deployed over the air and has been fully tested and validated by the leading SIM Card Vendors globally.

The initial release of DR-ONE has been implemented by Brazilian mobile virtual network operator, Veek. As part of this partnership, DR-ONE has provided Veek with the full capability to operate an adv-based offer for their user base across DR-ONE's multiple solutions.

"Broader reach, better user engagement and more monetization possibilitiesDR-ONE is an important resource for our expansion throughout the Brazilian market, and we see DigitalReef as a key partner in our growth strategy," said Pablo Asenjo, Head of Business Development at Veek. "We are going to be able to offer a better experience to both our users and advertisers by using this technology."

To learn more about DR-ONE, visit DIGITALREEF.com/DR-ONE .

About DigitalReef

DigitalReef connects more than 350 million registered devices with more than 3,000 active partnerships with brands, publishers, and carriers. It delivers rich audience targeting and segmentation through the aggregation of first- and third-party data. Headquartered in Miami, it operates in ten countries, with offices in major urban centers including Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Mexico City, and Bogota. For more information, visit www.DIGITALREEF.com .

SOURCE DigitalReef
HERNDON, Va., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- B3 Group, An Octo Company is proud to announce that Dwight Hunt, Strategic Advisor for Veterans Initiates at Octo, has joined the Women Veterans Interactive Foundation (WVIF) Board of Directors. An organization for women Veterans by women Veterans, WVIF supports connects, engages, and empowers women Veterans with tools and resources to achieve post-military success through financial assistance, workforce development, and community.

"After being in the military for 20 years, it was not until I got involved with WVIF that I realized the need to support this underserved and underrecognized population," said Dwight Hunt. The services that women Veterans need differs from male Veterans, such as immediate housing, women's health services, childcare, mental health care, and much more. Being on the WVIF Board allows me to continue my commitment to serving the military, beyond my own experience."

Women constitute more than 14% of today's active-duty soldiers, with a projected increase in the future as more women continue to enter the Armed Forces. Women traditionally do not receive the same support and services as their male counterparts. WVIF has been able to provide emergency food and shelter for homeless women Veterans and their families, meeting the increasing demand for immediate resources. "Dwight and B3 Group have been integral to WVIF's platform over the past three years," said Ginger Miller, CEO of WVIF. "As a Veteran-owned and operated organization, they have been significant partners to our mission and the addition of Dwight to the board will provide us valuable insights as we continue to grow and raise awareness for this underserved population." Ginger Miller, a Navy Veteran, was recently appointed to the United Service Organizations (USO) Board of Governors by President Biden, serving alongside her other roles as CEO of WVI Foundation and Northwest Federal Credit Union Advisory Board Member.

About the Women Veterans Interactive Foundation

Founded upon the principles of the award-winning national nonprofit organization Women Veterans Interactive (WVI) and armed with a dedicated, diverse board of directors, the Women Veterans Interactive Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of our Nation's women Veterans and military women. By utilizing dedicated hi-tech research, tailored support programs, and training delivered through a comprehensive ecosystem, the WVI Foundation ensures the women who have served and sacrificed for our country are equipped with the necessary resources to assist them through all stages of their military transition. https://womenveteransinteractive.org/

About B3 Group, An Octo Company

B3 Group, An Octo Company, is an IT transformation firm specializing in digital services and technology solutions that impact the lives of Veterans. B3 manages large-scale digital transformation platforms and provides services facilitated through its technology partnerships. Founded in 2008 on the principles of servant leadership, B3 has been recognized annually by Inc. 5000 for its strategic growth and was recently named a 2021 Washington Post Top Workplace. B3 brings its foundational values of innovation, collaboration, and integrity to every interaction with its stakeholders: employees, government, and partners. B3 Group was acquired by Octo in 2021. Learn more about B3 Group at b3groupinc.com. Learn more about Octo at octo.us.

CONTACT

Stephanie Chase

[email protected]

SOURCE B3 Group, An Octo Company
Focused on Helping Wartime Veterans Apply for VA Pension

GREEN VALLEY, Ariz., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Law firm devoted to helping veterans apply for the VA Pension opens new office in Arizona.

Marcie Johnson, VA accredited attorney with The Johnson Firm, P.C., is here to help wartime veterans, or their surviving spouse, receive tax-free money to help pay for long-term care.

A father-daughter team with over 45 years legal experience, The Johnson Firm, PC specializes in helping veteran families protect their life savings from potentially devastating healthcare costs.

At The Johnson Firm, P.C., you can expect compassionate guidance based on years of experience with a focus on education. Whether your goals are long term or you need a solution quickly, you will get the answers you need to make the right decisions in planning for your family and loved ones.

To find out more about The Johnson Firm, P.C. and the Veterans Pension program, visit our website at vapension.com, or call the Green Valley office location at (520) 563-2020 to schedule a complimentary consultation.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

THE JOHNSON FIRM, P.C.

JOANNE FIELDS

520-563-2020

[email protected]

SOURCE The Johnson Firm, P.C.
Photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows the shuttered Shae Saung Cinema in downtown Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar's Ministry of Information has announced to reopen about 60 movie theaters in the country starting on April 17, in accordance with Health Ministry's COVID-19 prevention and control measures. (Xinhua/U Aung)

YANGON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's Ministry of Information has announced to reopen about 60 movie theaters in the country starting on April 17, in accordance with Health Ministry's COVID-19 prevention and control measures.

"Some 60 movie theaters were allowed to reopen in the first phase starting on April 17, Myanmar New Year, in line with standard operating procedures (SOPs) for reopening of theaters," U Aye Kywe, a director-general from the Ministry of Information, told Xinhua on Thursday.

Myanmar has seen a decline in COVID-19 cases over the past week, with daily cases dropping to 267 on Wednesday, when the ministry made the announcement of reopening movie theaters.

The operations of film industries and movie theaters stopped in Myanmar due to the coronavirus. Now the COVID-19 infection is under control in the country and the ministry decided to allow the reopening of theaters aiming to earn incomes for filmmakers and those working in the industry, he said.

The movie theaters in Myanmar were closed on March 16 in 2020 to cut the transmission of the virus through mass gatherings. 

People walk past the shuttered Shae Saung Cinema in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, on March 24, 2022. Myanmar's Ministry of Information has announced to reopen about 60 movie theaters in the country starting on April 17, in accordance with Health Ministry's COVID-19 prevention and control measures. (Xinhua/U Aung)

People walk past the shuttered Thamada Cinema in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, on March 24, 2022. Myanmar's Ministry of Information has announced to reopen about 60 movie theaters in the country starting on April 17, in accordance with Health Ministry's COVID-19 prevention and control measures. (Xinhua/U Aung)
"I am eternally grateful for everyone's hard work and creativity." Tweet this

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Mid-Atlantic region. Between 2018 and 2020, these 131 private companies had an average growth rate of 161% percent and, in 2020 alone, they added 7,365 jobs and $1.9 billion to the Mid-Atlantic region's economy.

"This year's Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of America's off-the-charts growth companies. They're disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies you'll be hearing about for years to come," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.

About Endgame360

Publishing since 2009, Endgame360 received the Inc. Best Workplaces Award in 2020. Endgame360 strives to educate passionate fans about topics they love. Its brands, which include Showbiz Cheat Sheet ( cheatsheet.com ), Sportscasting ( sportscasting.com ), and MotorBiscuit ( motorbiscuit.com ), serve over 40 million unique users per month.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States.

SOURCE Endgame360
FORTUNE returns to form with a robust slate of in-person, executive-level conferences

NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, FORTUNE announced its 2022 conference calendar. Known for peer-level interactions and networking opportunities, all of FORTUNE's franchise events will be in-person gatherings this year, bringing together FORTUNE's membership communities. Building upon FORTUNE's cutting-edge content and unrivaled power to convene top CEOs, policymakers, and experts, the conferences are by-invitation-only, and designed for business leaders and executives. They are on the record and open to external press.

FORTUNE announces its 2022 live events, returning to form with a robust slate of in-person, executive-level conferences. Tweet this FORTUNE Live Media Editorial Director Michal Lev-Ram welcomes members to the 2021 FORTUNE Most Powerful Women Summit at The Mandarin Oriental in Washington, D.C. Photograph by Karen Sayre/FORTUNE MPW.

FORTUNE Live Media Editorial Director Michal Lev-Ram says, "News-making live events have been a pillar of FORTUNE journalism for decades, and we are excited to continue building out our stellar slate of conferences in 2022."

At FORTUNE's conferences, innovative formats and engaging sessions tap into the brand's top editors', members', and guests' insights on the most crucial topics facing industries today. Through one-on-one and panel interviews, as well as roundtable and town hall discussions, the agenda tackles topics such as best practices for navigating the ever-changing pandemic landscape; stakeholder capitalism and driving meaningful change worldwide; supply chains and a volatile global economy; and much more. Executives make further valuable connections during networking breaks, cocktail receptions, and meals at some of the country's most well-regarded restaurants.

FORTUNE's conference calendar for 2022 includes these marquee events:

Brainstorm Health, May 1011, Los Angeles, CA: Leaders from across the health care world convene to discuss and share the most exciting innovations and practices taking place in the industry. https://fortune.com/conferences/fortune-brainstorm-health-2022/

Brainstorm Design, May 2324, Brooklyn, NY: Diverse and unique leaders from across industries convene to share perspectives and best practices at the nexus of design and business. https://fortune.com/conferences/fortune-brainstorm-design-new-york/

Brainstorm Tech, July 1113, Aspen, CO: A unique mix of technology executives, start-up founders, and corporate leaders explore new technology products and services. https://fortune.com/conferences/fortune-brainstorm-tech-2022/

Most Powerful Women Summit, Oct. 1012, Laguna Niguel, CA: A gathering of the most preeminent women in business along with select leaders in government, philanthropy, education, sports, and the arts. https://fortune.com/conferences/fortune-most-powerful-women-membership-2022/

CEO Initiative, Nov. 23, Palm Beach, FL: Purpose-led CEOs come together to share ideas and best practices that will drive the acceleration of stakeholder capitalism and leverage the power of business to positively impact society. https://fortune.com/conferences/the-fortune-ceo-initiative-2022/

Most Powerful Women Next Gen, Nov. 1516, San Diego, CA: The next generation of top women executives, rising founders, and emerging leaders share best practices and learn from each other. https://fortune.com/conferences/fortune-mpw-next-gen/

Impact Initiative, Nov. 2930, Atlanta, GA: Senior executives convene to share ideas and formulate best practices for this new era, in which ESG and societal impact have become a key part of corporate output.

Brainstorm A.I., Dec. 56, San Francisco, CA: Top executives from the world's biggest tech companies, thought leaders, and innovators explore key issues emerging from the A.I. revolution.

Capitalizing on an exceptional pivot to virtual programming earlier in the pandemic, FORTUNE is also scheduled to host more than 50 smaller custom partnership events, dinner programs, and virtual membership meetings throughout the year. FORTUNE's events are presented with support from its partners, and FORTUNE thanks its 2022 sponsors committed to date, including AARP, Accenture, Bain, BCG, Bristol Myers Squibb, Citi, C3.ai, Deloitte, Diligent, EverFi, Great Place to Work Institute / UKG, Heidrick & Struggles, IBM Watson Health, IBM Corporation, Insigniam, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, McKinsey, Mizuho, Project Management Institute, PwC, Salesforce, Walton Family Foundation, and Workday.

To attend any of FORTUNE's events, or for information about speaker and partnership opportunities, please visit https://fortune.com/conferences.

About FORTUNE

FORTUNE drives the conversation about business. With a global perspective, the guiding wisdom of history, and an unflinching eye to the future, we report and reveal the stories that matter todayand that will matter even more tomorrow. With the trusted power to convene and challenge those who are shaping industry, commerce, and society around the world, FORTUNE lights the path for global leadersand gives them the tools to make business better. www.fortune.com

Press Contact:

Alison Klooster

646-437-6613

[email protected]

SOURCE FORTUNE Media
March 24 Is National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day

VANCOUVER, BC, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GenXys Health Care Systems, Inc., the global leader in precision prescribing software and embedded pharmacogenetic data, today joins the American Society of Pharmacovigilance in raising awareness of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) on National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day. With ADRs being the fourth leading cause of death in North America (excluding COVID-19), GenXys is working to reduce ADRs by advancing precision medicine, improving patient safety and treatment response, and reducing health care costs.

There are 46 million ADRs leading to 1.3 million emergency room visits each year in the United States alone. ADRs include medication errors, medication side effects, allergic reactions to medications, and overdoses, and they add $136 billion in U.S. health care costs each year. According to the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ), adverse drug events are the costliest and most preventable hospital-acquired condition.

Genetic variants affect the efficacy, dosage, and safety of 50 percent of all commonly prescribed medications. In fact, 97% of the population has at least one pharmacogenetic variant that influences how medication is metabolized by the body.

Pharmacogenetic testing can help inform medication decisions that avoid "trial and error" prescribing. GenXys' clinical decision support software, which interprets data from pharmacogenetic testing, is used by major insurance providers, health systems, and pharmacies across North America. GenXys' software can ensure that medication is much more likely to work from the start, identifying the right medication and the right dose for each patient.

"The GenXys team is driven by a mission to make every prescription better to avoid ADRs," says Karl Pringle, CEO of GenXys Health Care Systems. "When it comes to medicine, one size does not fit all. Our precision prescribing software with pharmacogenetic interpretation solutions helps personalize drug selection to increase effectiveness, eliminate side effects, and reduce health care costs."

With COVID testing abating, genetic labs are reorienting their testing to high growth and wide applicability areas such as pharmacogenetics. GenXys is seeing a significant uptick in proposal requests and inquiries, and the company recently added several new customers for its clinical decision support software with embedded pharmacogenetics. GenXys is working with innovative U.S.-based CLIA and/or CAP labs and associated health clinics, as well as a focused pharmacy network, which is incorporating pharmacogenetics into patient care.

For more information on ADRs and their impact on health care, visit https://fourthcause.org or search for the hashtag #fourthcause on social channels.

GenXys Health Care Systems, Inc.

GenXys Health Care Systems, Inc., the global leader in precision prescribing software embedding pharmacogenetic data, is solving one of health care's biggest challenges: inappropriate ("trial-and-error") prescribing. Our clinical decision support software suite is used by major insurance providers, health systems and pharmacies across North America. Ongoing global clinical studies are paving the way into geographical markets to enable GenXys to realize its vision of powering every prescription with our software to increase patient safety, improve population health and reduce healthcare costs. Contact us to learn more: https://www.genxys.com/.

Media Contact:

Patty Pologruto

[email protected]

SOURCE GenXys
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 7; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 9152

Companies: 59 - Players covered include 3M; Abbott Laboratories; Agilent Technologies; Becton, Dickinson and Company; bioMerieux; Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc; Bruker Corporation; Cepheid Inc; Danaher Corporation; Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd.; Hologic, Inc; NEOGEN Corporation; QIAGEN GmbH; Hoff Man Roche - Diagnostics Division ; Shimadzu Corporation; Thermo Fisher Scientific and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Product (Instruments, Reagents); Disease Area (Respiratory Diseases, Bloodstream Infections, Gastrointestinal Diseases, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Urinary Tract Infections, Other Disease Areas); End-Use (Hospitals & Diagnostic Centers, Custom Lab Service Providers, Academic & Research Institutes)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Clinical Microbiology Instruments and Reagents Market to Reach $5.8 Billion by 2026

Clinical microbiology holds a prominent role in the field of research and medicine, and support the fight against numerous infectious diseases along with antimicrobial resistance. High prevalence of infectious diseases and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) will continue to drive the future of automated and rapid tests, as the need for quicker, higher volume and more accurate methods of testing gains significance. Emerging technologies and robust processes have thus transcended microbiology testing to the next-level. Rising healthcare expenditure, growing need to speed up microbiological testing, scarcity of time, need for rapid QA-QC procedures, and growing imposition of regulations that regulate various production processes are factors that have catalyzed this transformation. The uptake of microbiology is further favored by technological advancements including automated instruments to identify pathogens across laboratories. The trend towards automated instrumentation is aided by the promise of overall cost effectiveness and efficiency. Another driver for the market growth is consolidation of laboratories and rising consumer awareness.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Clinical Microbiology Instruments and Reagents estimated at US$4.5 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$5.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.4% over the analysis period. Instruments, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 5.3% CAGR and reach US$2 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Reagents segment is readjusted to a revised 7.1% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Growth in the Reagents segment is due to increasing aging population that is vulnerable to microbial infections and chronic conditions such as bacterial pneumonia, urinary tract infections, gastrointestinal issues, renal diseases and cancer. The market growth is slated to be augmented by outbreaks of pandemics including COVID-19, Ebola and Zika virus, leaving a large number of infected people.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $1.7 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $284.1 Million by 2026

The Clinical Microbiology Instruments and Reagents market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1.7 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$284.1 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.2% and 6.3% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.3% CAGR. The US and Europe constitute major markets for automated and rapid microbiological tests. Emerging nations, such as China, India, and Brazil, present significant opportunities due to their constantly growing healthcare infrastructure. Aging population and rising incidence of chronic illnesses and lifestyle diseases are spurring spending on health services and clinical lab services. The Asian market presents substantial growth opportunities owing to rising prevalence of various pathogenic diseases, requirement to accelerate microbiological testing and discovery of adapting and mutating bacterium. More

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
NEW DELHI, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the study undertaken by Astute Analytica the global digital therapeutics market was valued at US$ 3,744.3 Million in 2021 and is forecasted to reach US$ 24,143.3 Million by 2030. The market is expected to register a CAGR of 23.1% during the forecast period 2022-2030.

Digital Therapeutics (DTx) is a mobile software application that treats a disease or condition. Digital therapeutics provides evidence-based technologies that helps in improving patient outcomes. These products are reviewed and approved by the regulatory bodies before use and it is delivered through clinically evaluated software programs and devices in order to treat, prevent and manage a broad spectrum of diseases and medical conditions. Digital therapeutics software application can be used independently or in combination with medications or devices in order to impact complex healthcare challenges.

Request a Sample Report of Global Digital Therapeutics Market: https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/digital-therapeutics-market

Moreover, factors such as increasing use of wearable devices and investment in digital health will drive the digital therapeutics market growth. Wearables and digital therapeutics are driving a more patient focused, preventative approach to healthcare by providing real-time monitoring and data collection. Wearables and digital health technologies provide opportunities for personalized treatment for patients by lowering costs and improving healthcare access and quality. In order to early diagnose disease and provide timely care the adoption of wearables integrated or linked with digital therapeutics will fuel the demand for the market and accelerate its growth over the forecasting period. Furthermore, the increasing importance of digital health and technologies has fueled capital investments and will amplify the growth of the market over the forecasting period. Also, the integration of digital therapeutics with other digital health measures such as telemedicine will contribute in the growth of the market. Moreover, the growing introduction of advancing technologies in medical devices and launch of blockchain-based digital therapeutic solutions will reduce the security concern up to some extent and create lucrative opportunities for the growth of the market over the forecast period.

However, the reluctance among people to use digital therapeutics and privacy concerns are major restraining factors faced by digital therapeutics providers which hampers the growth of the market.

Market Segmentation

Software segment holds the highest market share in 2021 in the Global Digital Therapeutics Market

Based on component, the digital therapeutics market is segmented into hardware, software and services. The software segment dominated the digital therapeutics market in 2021 owing to its high application from digital healthcare sector. The growing adoption of smart devices and surging proliferation of telehealth has significantly boosted the segmental growth. Moreover, the services segment is projected to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Preventive Applications segment is expected to register at a highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on application, the digital therapeutics market is bifurcated into preventive applications and treatment/care-related applications. The preventive applications are further segmented into prediabetes, obesity, nutrition, lifestyle management and others. The treatment/care-related application is classified into diabetes, CNS disorders, chronic respiratory disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, smoking cessation, medication adherence, gastrointestinal disorders, substance use & addiction management and rehabilitation & patient care. The preventive application segment is estimated to have the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Whereas, treatment/care-related applications dominated the market in 2021.

B2B segment is estimated to have the highest market share in 2021

Based on sales channel, the digital therapeutics market is segmented into Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C). The Business-to-Consumer (B2C) is further classified into patient and caregiver. The Business-to-Business (B2B) is further bifurcated into Employer, Healthcare Provider, Payers, Pharmaceutical Companies and Others. The B2B segment dominated the digital therapeutics market share in 2021. Moreover, B2C segment is expected to register a CAGR of 24.3% during the forecast period owing to the growing awareness among providers, payers and employers about the benefits of digital therapeutics.

North America held the major share in terms of revenue, in the Global Digital Therapeutics Market in 2021

Based on geography, North America dominated the global digital therapeutics market in 2021. Whereas, Asia Pacific is expected to project the highest CAGR in the global digital therapeutics market during the forecast period owing to increasing investments in digital therapeutics and government initiatives to support technological advancements further drives the market growth in this region.

Directly Purchase a copy of report with TOC @ https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/digital-therapeutics-market

Report Attribute Details Market Size Value in 2021 US$ 3,744.3 Million Market Outlook for 2030 US$ 24,143.3 Million Expected CAGR Growth 23.1% from 2022 - 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2030 Top Market Players include Livongo Health, Inc., Omada Health, Inc., Proteus Digital Health, Inc., Akili Interactive Labs, Inc., 2Morrow Inc., Click Therapeutics Inc., Happify Health, Kaia Health, Teladoc Health, Inc., Medtronic, Pear Therapeutics, Inc., ResMed and Voluntis Segments Covered By Component, By Application, By Sales Channel, By Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, South America Customization Options Get your customized report as per your preference. Ask for customization

Company Profile

Teladoc Health is the global leader in whole-person virtual care offering the technology to connect, expertise one can trust and the power to improve health for all. It provides a data science and technology enabled platform for detection of diabetes. It offers a wide range of portfolio including diabetes management solution, wellness, population health, health tech, digital health, hypertension, diabetes prevention, DPP, blood pressure and behavioral healthcare. Whereas, in terms of geographical revenue segmentation, United States holds the highest share in the marketplace.

holds the highest share in the marketplace. Medtronic plc is an American registered medical device company that develops, manufactures, distributes and sells device based medical therapies to hospitals, physicians, clinicians and patients globally. It is a global producer of medical devices and therapies such as insulin pumps, pacemakers and diabetes therapies. And it is best known for its revolutionary cardiac devices such as battery-powered and miniature pacemakers, it also has introduced cutting-edge products into the industry.

Akili Interactive Labs, Inc. builds clinically validated cognitive therapeutics, assessments and diagnostics that look and feel like video games. Their digital medicine is not delivered through a pill but rather through a patented and captivating video game experience. They evaluate new technologies and are advancing a broad pipeline of programs to treat cognitive deficiency and improve symptoms associated with medical conditions across neurology and psychiatry. The company specialties lie in biotech, digital, ADHD, biostatistics, digital therapeutics and digital medicines.

Competitive Insight

Global Digital Therapeutics Market is highly competitive in order to increase their presence in the marketplace. Some of the key players operating in the global digital therapeutics market include Livongo Health, Inc., Omada Health, Inc., Proteus Digital Health, Inc., Akili Interactive Labs, Inc., 2Morrow Inc., Click Therapeutics Inc., Happify Health, Kaia Health, Teladoc Health, Inc., Medtronic, Pear Therapeutics, Inc., ResMed and Voluntis among others.

Segmentation Overview

Global Digital Therapeutics Market is segmented based on component, application, sales channel and region. The industry trends in global digital therapeutics market are sub-divided into different categories in order to get a holistic view of the global marketplace.

Following are the different segments of the Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Market:

By Component segment of the Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Market is sub-segmented into:

Hardware



Software



Services

By Application segment of the Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Market is sub-segmented into:

Preventive Applications



Prediabetes





Obesity





Nutrition





Lifestyle Management





Others



Treatment/Care-related Applications



Diabetes





CNS Disorders





Mental Health Disorder





Other CNS Disorders





Chronic Respiratory Disorders





Musculoskeletal Disorders





Cardiovascular Diseases





Smoking Cessation





Medication Adherence





Gastrointestinal Disorders





Substance Use & Addiction Management





Rehabilitation & Patient Care

By Sales Channel segment of the Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Market is sub-segmented into:

Business-to-business (B2B)



Employer



Healthcare Provider





Payers





Pharmaceutical Companies





Others



Business-to-consumer (B2C)



Patient





Caregiver

By Region segment of the Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Market is sub-segmented into:

North America



The U.S.





Canada





Mexico



Europe



The UK





Germany





France





Italy





Spain





Poland





Russia





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan





Australia & New Zealand

&



ASEAN





Rest of Asia Pacific



Middle East & Africa (MEA)



UAE





Saudi Arabia





South Africa





Rest of MEA



South America



Argentina





Brazil





Rest of South America

Enquire more about this report before purchase @ https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/digital-therapeutics-market

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About Astute Analytica

Astute Analytica is a global analytics and advisory company which has built a solid reputation in a short period, thanks to the tangible outcomes we have delivered to our clients. We pride ourselves in generating unparalleled, in depth and uncannily accurate estimates and projections for our very demanding clients spread across different verticals. We have a long list of satisfied and repeat clients from a wide spectrum including technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and many more. These happy customers come to us from all across the Globe. They are able to make well calibrated decisions and leverage highly lucrative opportunities while surmounting the fierce challenges all because we analyze for them the complex business environment, segment wise existing and emerging possibilities, technology formations, growth estimates, and even the strategic choices available. In short, a complete package. All this is possible because we have a highly qualified, competent, and experienced team of professionals comprising of business analysts, economists, consultants, and technology experts. In our list of priorities, you-our patron-come at the top. You can be sure of best cost-effective, value-added package from us, should you decide to engage with us.

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SOURCE Astute Analytica
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 17; Released: February 2022

Executive Engagements: 656

Companies: 154 - Players covered include Abeona Therapeutics Inc.; Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc; Advantagene, Inc.; Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc; Akcea Therapeutics; Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Amgen Inc; Anchiano Therapeutics, Inc.; AnGes, Inc.; Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation; Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.; Biogen; bluebird bio, Inc.; Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A; CRISPR Therapeutics AG; Editas Medicine, Inc.; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; Intellia Therapeutics, Inc.; Jazz Pharmaceuticals, plc.; Juno Therapeutics, Inc; Merck KGaA; MolMed S.p.A.; Novartis Gene Therapies; Orchard Therapeutics plc; REGENXBIO Inc.; Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.; Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.; Sibiono GeneTech Co. Ltd.; Spark Therapeutics, Inc.; uniQure N.V.; Voyager Therapeutics and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Vector Type (Viral, Non-Viral); Application (Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Cardiovascular Diseases, Neurological Disorders, Infectious Diseases, Other Applications)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.



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ABSTRACT-



Global Gene Therapy Market to Reach $2.7 Billion by 2026

Gene therapy involves the replacement of defective or missing genes with normal genes, thereby enabling proper functioning of the cells. This therapeutic option holds tremendous potential in providing one-time treatment for various different types of diseases, including bone marrow and blood cancer, severe muscular dystrophy, and genetic blindness. Gene therapy is growing at an impressive pace, having emerged as a prospective segment in the field of biotechnology, and also presenting a bright outlook, given the increasing investments in R&D as well as mounting incidence of genetic disorders. The rapid growth in global population, along with growing incidence of cancer and chronic disorders, introduction of novel gene therapy-based products, strong clinical evidence for therapeutic efficacy and safety of gene therapy products, favorable reimbursement policies and guidelines, and rapidly growing demand for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell-based gene therapies are some of the key factors driving growth in the market. Moreover, rising awareness regarding the potential of gene therapy in treating various chronic diseases, ethical acceptability of gene therapy for treating cancer, and increased government support for promoting research in gene therapy are expected to bolster the market growth in the coming years

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Gene Therapy estimated at US$1.2 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$2.7 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 19.5% over the analysis period. Viral, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 19.7% CAGR and reach US$3 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Non-Viral segment is readjusted to a revised 17.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Viral segment accounts for a major share of the market. Deployment of viral vectors in delivery of gene therapy drugs continue to exhibit progressive tide, driven by wider availability of advanced mechanisms for quicker and effective modifications of viruses such as Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV), Lentivirus, Retrovirus & Gamma-Retrovirus, Herpes Simplex Virus, Poxvirus, and Vaccinia Virus, among others. Robust improvement in RNA, DNA, and oncolytic viral vectors is encouraging the prospects of viral vectors. Non-viral vectors are perceived as safer substitute to viral vectors, and playing an important role in redirecting pharmaceutical industries and clinicians towards gene therapy. The demand for non-viral vectors is also attributed to factors like easy characterization, mass production, enhanced reproducibility, superior transgenic capacity, and few bio-security issues.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $628.1 Million in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $82.3 Million by 2026

The Gene Therapy market in the U.S. is estimated at US$628.1 Million in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$82.3 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 25.1% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 17.3% and 18.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 18.6% CAGR. The presence of large market players, availability of favorable reimbursement policies, prevalence of advanced healthcare infrastructure, high healthcare spending, the availability of high disposable income among the consumer base, and rising incidence of chronic diseases are some of the key factors that are expected to continue driving growth in the US market. In Europe, rising funding for cell and gene therapy programs in countries such as the UK is expected to steer the gene therapy market in the region. European companies with commercial gene therapy portfolios are actively seeking roll out of their treatments in other regional markets by winning approvals from concerned regulatory bodies. Growth in the Asia-Pacific region is attributed to the rising prevalence of cancer, growing government initiatives for improving healthcare infrastructure, and increasing healthcare expenditure by various countries across the region. More



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About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.



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Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

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Email: [email protected]



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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 16; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 14184

Companies: 168 - Players covered include Birdseye Dairy, Inc.; Campbell Soup Company; Del Monte Foods, Inc.; Dohler Group; Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc.; Florida`s Natural Growers; Golden Circle; Harvest Hill Beverage Company; Ito En Ltd.; Kanegrade Limited; Lassonde Industries, Inc.; Loblaw Companies Limited; Mott`s LLP; Naked Juice Company; Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.; Odwalla, Inc.; Old Orchard Brands, LLC; PepsiCo, Inc.; Schweppes Australia Pty Ltd.; Tampico Beverages, Inc.; The Coca-Cola Company; The Minute Maid Company; Tropicana Products, Inc.; Welch Foods, Inc. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Product Segment (Fruit Juices, Fruit & Vegetable Blends, Vegetable Juices); Distribution Channel (Supermarkets/Hypermarkets, Convenience Stores, Other Distribution Channels)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.



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ABSTRACT-



Global Fruit and Vegetable Juices Market to Reach $193.8 Billion by 2026

Fruit and vegetable juices are beverages extracted from a variety of fruits and vegetables or their blends. Juices obtained from both fruits and vegetables are fast emerging as a choice of drink among consumers of all age groups owing to their refreshing attributes and high nutritional content. Rising awareness about health wellness among people and growing consumer preference and demand for healthy products are driving growth in the global market for fruit and vegetable juices. Some of the factors boosting the growth of the fruit and vegetable juices market include increased demand pertaining to healthy products; prevalence for juice; as well as prevalent consumer trends. The market primarily relies on flavor preference, consumer taste, and brand value. The general trend in favor of natural and healthy foods and beverages is one of the major factors driving consumer demand for beverages manufactured naturally, without the use of artificial preservatives or additives. Despite the turbulence seen in fruit and vegetable juice market over the recent years in the form of poor weather conditions, fluctuating prices and consumer shift towards still drinks, juice market is likely to record stable growth driven by the development of products with innovative flavors as well as healthy and natural attributes.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Fruit and Vegetable Juices estimated at US$176.9 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$193.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 2.1% over the analysis period. Fruit Juices, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 2.1% CAGR and reach US$93.8 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Fruit & Vegetable Blends segment is readjusted to a revised 2.4% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The recent years have witnessed strong growth in fruit juice market, globally, driven primarily by the general trend favoring health and wellness. Consumer shift from carbonated beverages towards drinks that are free of preservatives, sugars and flavors are also driving demand for fruit juices.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $38.1 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $24.3 Billion by 2026

The Fruit and Vegetable Juices market in the U.S. is estimated at US$38.1 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$26.2 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.2% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 2% and -1% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately -1.6% CAGR. Developing countries across Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America offer considerable opportunities for growth, due to their large population base, rising income levels, and escalating demand for healthy and nutrition-rich products. Asia-Pacific and China represent the fastest growing regional market in the global fruit and vegetable juices market. Growth is also being fostered by the sustained demand for premium superfruit 100% juices in the region. North America and Western Europe, which account for a significant share of global consumption, are relatively mature markets. The new varieties of juices, production of which is done using newer processing techniques, are expected to revitalize the limping value growth of juices market in developed regions.

Vegetable Juices Segment to Reach $32.1 Million by 2026

In recent years, demand for juices produced from vegetables has been steadily gaining popularity, driven by their high nutritional content and relatively lower calorie content. In addition to health awareness, the launch of new flavors and more widespread availability of the products are expected to foster growth in the vegetable juices market. In the global Vegetable Juices segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 1% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$22 Billion will reach a projected size of US$22.2 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$3.2 Billion by the year 2026, while Latin America will expand at a 4.9% CAGR through the analysis period.

More



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Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android



About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.



CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

LINKS

Join Our Expert Panel

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Connect With Us on LinkedIn

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Journalists & Media

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 6; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 18824

Companies: 111 - Players covered include 3M Company; ABB Group; Aquilar Ltd.; Badger Meter, Inc.; Gutermann AG; Halma PLC; Honeywell International, Inc.; Mueller Water Products, Inc.; NEC Corporation; Pentair PLC; Pure Technologies Ltd.; Schneider Electric SA; Siemens AG; SPX Corporation and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: End-Use (Residential, Commercial, Water Supply Systems, Other End-Uses); Segment (Active Leak Detector Systems, Passive Leak Detector Systems)

Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Water Leakage Detector Systems Market to Reach $5.9 Billion by 2026

A water leak detection system swiftly responds to water leakage in certain applications so that businesses can operate smoothly without any service disruptions or needing to go offline. These systems use sensing cables or probes to monitor the environment for any spills or water leakage that would otherwise go unnoticed. After detecting an issue, the system usually sets off an alarm to warn the engineering team so that workers can resolve the issue in an efficient and timely manner. Critical areas that typically deploy water leak detection systems include data centers, server rooms, offices, hospitals, commercial applications, data halls, plant rooms, and pantries. Growth in the global market is set to be driven by the construction industry's swift expansion and increased investment in infrastructural development. Strict government regulations for green buildings to address environmental issues are encouraging building owners to reduce water wastage. Therefore, building owners are using water leakage detector devices like water leak detectors, water leak alarms, and water sensors are in turn propelling the water leakage detectors market. The industrial sector requires to constantly monitor the leaks and can't afford the slight defects among water leak detectors, in turn boosting the water leak detectors' market growth. The rise in environmental concerns about water scarcity caused by global population growth is increasing the water leak detectors demand. Advanced water leak detectors' introduction is anticipated to be the prime market trend to gain traction in the market of water leak detectors in years to come. Advanced leak detectors are user-friendly and sophisticated and are possible to be deployed on all pipe materials including PVC or polyvinyl chloride pipes.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Water Leakage Detector Systems estimated at US$4.6 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$5.9 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.8% over the analysis period. Active Leak Detector Systems, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 6% CAGR to reach US$4.3 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Passive Leak Detector Systems segment is readjusted to a revised 5.4% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 30.9% share of the global Water Leakage Detector Systems market. Passive leak detection systems are usually standalone battery-operated devices that can be easily installed below plumbing or water appliance to detect leaks but need frequent battery testing. On the contrary, active leak detection systems offer immense efficiency in detecting water and are usually hooked onto the main water supply line of a building to intervene in case of a leak. These systems do this by cutting the water supply, which in turn, prevents further water leakage and property damage.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $1.9 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $403.7 Million by 2026

The Water Leakage Detector Systems market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1.9 Billion in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 42.05% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$403.7 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.8% through 2026. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 4.2% and 6.2% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 5.2% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$285.2 Million by the year 2026. North America leads the water leak to detect systems' market and is anticipated to dominate the market over the analysis period. The North American region is observing robust economic growth, rapid urbanization, increased population, and enhanced living standards, in turn creating the requirement for high-end infrastructure. Therefore, the government is investing extensively to overcome the issue of water wastage by implementing water leak detectors. Increased population in the APAC region is the prime driver of the non-residential, as well as the residential construction sector in the APAC region, further demanding the enhanced pipeline network. Increased measures are being taken by the government to attract private investments for infrastructural development, speeding up the water leak detection systems deployment in the APAC region. More

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DUBLIN, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Joint Venture Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2014-2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Joint Venture Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2014-2021 report provides comprehensive access to over 400 joint venture deals entered into by the world's biopharma companies.

There is an increasing willingness for parties to enter joint venture deals; such deals enable both parties to benefit from the upside of a big product win, whereas traditional licensing deals forfeit upside for near term upfront, milestone and royalty payments.



Joint venture partnering allow the parties to securitize value and reduce risk, but keep a part of the potential upside should the product reach the market. Event if the licensor does not commercialize the project they can either sell those rights to the licensee partner or another partner for an amount higher than would have been achieved at an earlier stage licensing deal.



Another reason for joint venture deals is the joint origin of a project. Drug development projects often require various scientific and technological novelties that stem from different companies. If both companies contributed to the origination of the project, then both have from the beginning a stake in the project.



Understanding the flexibility of a prospective partner's negotiated deals terms provides critical insight into the negotiation process in terms of what you can expect to achieve during the negotiation of terms. Whilst many smaller companies will be seeking details of the payments clauses, the devil is in the detail in terms of how payments are triggered - contract documents provide this insight where press releases and databases do not.



This report contains a comprehensive listing of all joint venture deals announced since 2014 as recorded in the deals and alliances database, including financial terms where available, plus links to online copies of actual joint venture contract documents as submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission by companies and their partners.



Contract documents provide the answers to numerous questions about a prospective partner's flexibility on a wide range of important issues, many of which will have a significant impact on each party's ability to derive value from the deal.



Key benefits

In-depth understanding of joint venture partnering deal trends since 2014

Analysis of the structure of joint venture agreements with real life case studies

Comprehensive listing of all joint venture deals since 2014, together with deal terms, value and press release

Comprehensive access to actual joint venture contracts entered into by the world's life science companies

Insight into the terms included in a joint venture agreement, together with real world clause examples

Understand the key deal terms companies have agreed in previous deals

Undertake due diligence to assess suitability of your proposed deal terms for partner companies

Global Joint Venture Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2014-2021 includes:

Trends in joint venture dealmaking in the biopharma industry since 2014

Analysis of joint venture deal structure

Case studies of real-life joint venture deals

Comprehensive listing of joint venture deals since 2014

Access to joint venture contract documents

The leading joint venture deals by value since 2014

Most active joint venture dealmakers since 2014

The leading joint venture partnering resources

Available deals and contracts are listed by:

Company A-Z

Headline value

Therapeutic area

Technology type

Analyzing actual contract agreements allows assessment of the following:

What are the precise rights granted or optioned?

What is actually granted by the agreement to the partner company?

What exclusivity is granted?

What is the payment structure for the deal?

How do milestone align with clinical stage development phases?

How are sales and payments audited?

What is the deal term?

How are the key terms of the agreement defined?

How are IPRs handled and owned?

Who is responsible for commercialization?

Who is responsible for development, supply, and manufacture?

How is confidentiality and publication managed?

How are disputes to be resolved?

Under what conditions can the deal be terminated?

What happens when there is a change of ownership?

What sublicensing and subcontracting provisions have been agreed?

Which boilerplate clauses does the company insist upon?

Which boilerplate clauses appear to differ from partner to partner or deal type to deal type?

Which jurisdiction does the company insist upon for agreement law?

Key Topics Covered:



Executive Summary



Chapter 1 - Introduction



Chapter 2 - Trends in joint venture partnerships

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Definition of joint venture deals

2.3. Success factors for joint venture partnerships

2.4. When joint venture partnerships can be useful

2.5. Attributes of joint venture partnerships

2.6. Aligning partners to make the joint venture work

2.7. Trends in joint venture partnerships since 2014

2.7.1. Joint venture dealmaking by year, 2014 to 2021

2.7.2. Joint venture dealmaking by stage of development 2014 to 2021

2.7.3. Joint venture dealmaking by industry sector 2014 to 2021

2.7.4. Joint venture dealmaking by therapy area, 2014 to 2021

2.7.5. Joint venture dealmaking by technology type, 2014 to 2021

2.7.6. Joint venture dealmaking by most active company, 2014 to 2021

2.8. The future of joint venture partnerships



Chapter 3 - Overview of joint venture deal structure

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Joint venture agreement structure

3.3. Example joint venture agreements

3.3.1. Case study 1: Agila Specialties - Pfenex

3.3.2. Case study 2: Dance Biopharm - Harmony Asset



Chapter 4 - Leading joint venture deals

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Top joint venture deals by value



Chapter 5 - Top 25 most active active joint venture dealmakers

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Top 25 most active joint venture dealmakers



Chapter 6 - Joint venture deals including contracts directory

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Joint venture deals with contracts 2014 to 2021



Appendices

Appendix 1 - Joint venture dealmaking by companies A-Z

Appendix 2 - Joint venture dealmaking by industry sector

Appendix 3 - Joint venture dealmaking by stage of development

Appendix 4 - Joint venture dealmaking by therapy area

Appendix 5 - Joint venture dealmaking by technology type

Appendix 6 - Joint venture references

Appendix 7 - Resources

Appendix 8 - Deal type definitions

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hyppm2

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SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Specialty Chemicals Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global specialty chemicals market grew at a CAGR of around 5% during 2015-2020. These chemicals are also known as specialties or effect chemicals and are widely utilized as ingredients in finished products to improve the manufacturing process. These chemicals can be single-chemical entities or formulations producing high-value chemicals, which are used in products vital to consumers. As compared to commodity chemicals, specialty chemicals are produced in lesser volumes. Consequently, they find applications in a wide range of industry verticals, such as chemicals, agriculture, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage (F&B).



The escalating demand for high-performance and function-specific chemicals across different end use industries, such as oil and gas, pulp and paper, personal care and cosmetics, represents one of the significant factors propelling the growth of the specialty chemicals market.

Apart from this, the rising concerns about the harmful effects of conventional chemicals on the environment have led to an increase in the demand for user- and environment-friendly specialty chemicals. As a result, leading players are focusing on the development and marketing of specialty chemicals in these variants to expand their product portfolio and improve their overall sales. These players are also investing in research and development (R&D) activities to provide innovative and custom-made specialty chemicals for target applications.

However, with the sudden outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the consequent imposition of lockdowns by governing authorities of various countries and temporary closure of various manufacturing units, the market has been adversely impacted. It will experience growth once lockdown restrictions are relaxed. Looking forward, the publisher expects the global specialty chemicals market to exhibit moderate growth during the next five years.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Akzo Nobel N.V., Albemarle Corporation, Ashland Global Holdings Inc., BASF SE, Bayer AG, Clariant AG, Evonik Industries AG (RAG-Stiftung), Huntsman Corporation Solvay S.A. and The Dow Chemical Company.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global specialty chemicals market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global specialty chemicals market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

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 specialty chemicals 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 Specialty Chemicals Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Agrochemicals

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Polymer Additives

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Construction Chemicals

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Water Treatment Chemicals

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast

6.5 Oil field Chemicals

6.5.1 Market Trends

6.5.2 Market Forecast

6.6 Food Additives

6.6.1 Market Trends

6.6.2 Market Forecast

6.7 Surfactants

6.7.1 Market Trends

6.7.2 Market Forecast

6.8 Electronic Chemicals

6.8.1 Market Trends

6.8.2 Market Forecast

6.9 Specialty Polymers

6.9.1 Market Trends

6.9.2 Market Forecast

6.10 Others

6.10.1 Market Trends

6.10.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Region



8 SWOT Analysis



9 Value Chain Analysis



10 Porters Five Forces Analysis

11 Price Analysis



12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Market Structure

12.2 Key Players

12.3 Profiles of Key Players

12.3.1 Akzo Nobel N.V.

12.3.1.1 Company Overview

12.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.1.3 Financials

12.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.2 Albemarle Corporation

12.3.2.1 Company Overview

12.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.2.3 Financials

12.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.3 Ashland Global Holdings Inc.

12.3.3.1 Company Overview

12.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.3.3 Financials

12.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.4 BASF SE

12.3.4.1 Company Overview

12.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.4.3 Financials

12.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.5 Bayer AG

12.3.5.1 Company Overview

12.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.5.3 Financials

12.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.6 Clariant AG

12.3.6.1 Company Overview

12.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.6.3 SWOT Analysis

12.3.7 Evonik Industries AG (RAG-Stiftung)

12.3.7.1 Company Overview

12.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.7.3 Financials

12.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.8 Huntsman Corporation

12.3.8.1 Company Overview

12.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.8.3 Financials

12.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.9 Solvay S.A.

12.3.9.1 Company Overview

12.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

12.3.9.3 Financials

12.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis

12.3.10 The Dow Chemical Company

12.3.10.1 Company Overview

12.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/e4nmjz

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
CANBERRA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Almost 5 percent of Australian university students have been sexually assaulted since starting university, a report has found.

Peak body Universities Australia (UA) on Wednesday published the results of the 2021 National Student Safety Survey.

It revealed that 4.5 percent of about 44,000 participant students said they have experienced sexual assault.

One in six students have been sexually harassed since starting at university and one in 12 has been sexually harassed in the past 12 months, said the report.

Some victims said they did not know how to report the incidents to their institutions.

"On behalf of Universities Australia and its 39 members, I am deeply sorry," John Dewar, chair of UA and vice-chancellor of La Trobe University, said in a statement.

"To every single university student who has experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault, or has a friend, family member or loved one who has, I am sorry."

Students who lived in on-campus accommodation were more likely to be harassed or assaulted than their peers who live with family.

Australian National University (ANU), the second-best university in Australia according to Times Higher Education's rankings, said the survey results indicate, within a university context, that a higher percentage of ANU students experienced sexual harassment since starting university and in the last 12 months than the national average.

Earlier in March the university announced a 3.3 million Australian dollar (2.4 million U.S. dollar) student safety and wellbeing plan with a focus on safety in student residences.

"No instance of sexual harassment or sexual assault should be tolerated, and our institutions must set the tone for what is expected from our future graduates," Dewar said. 
Full Year 2021

- Total Revenue grew 24% year-over-year to $619.1 million

- Written Premium grew 17% year-over-year to $674.3 million

- Total Active Members grew 13% year-over-year to 2.4 million

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/  Hagerty, Inc. (NYSE: HGTY), an automotive lifestyle brand and a leading specialty insurance provider focused on the global automotive enthusiast market, today announced financial results for the year ended December 31, 2021. The complete full year 2021 financial results, as well as management commentary, can be found by accessing the Company's shareholder letter on its investor relations website.

"Our growth is attributable to our strong and unique brand and the incredible people behind it  our Hagerty team  who treat our members like they are part of the family and share their enthusiasm for cars and driving," said McKeel Hagerty, Chief Executive Officer of Hagerty.

"During 2021, we continued our strong track record of membership growth, ending the year with 2.4 million members, as well as 2.1 million vehicles insured. We generated robust revenue growth of 24%, and written premium grew 17% to $674.3 million. Our solid revenue growth continues to be enhanced by our recurring revenue model with contributions coming from across our ecosystem of product offerings," added Mr. Hagerty.

"As we move through 2022 and beyond, we are well positioned to drive organic growth across our insurance and membership offerings. We see clear opportunities to further monetize our sizable addressable market and expand our market share; therefore, we plan to continue to invest in our capabilities in 2022 to capitalize on these opportunities. Importantly, while we look forward to launching our relationship with State Farm, we have deferred the launch until later in 2022 as the companies work through state licensing and product rate filing processes as well as significant policy and membership systems integration to ensure the highest standard of agent and customer experience," concluded Mr. Hagerty.

Conference Call Details

Hagerty will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results today at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. A simultaneous webcast of the conference call, including a short Hagerty video followed by a slide presentation highlighting full year 2021 financial results, will be available on Hagerty's investor relations website at investor.hagerty.com. The dial-in for the conference call is (877) 423-9813 (toll-free) or (201) 689-8573 (international). Please dial the number 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

A webcast replay of the call will be available at investor.hagerty.com for 90 days following the call.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements reflect Hagerty's current expectations and projections with respect to its expected future business and financial performance, including, among other things: (i) expected operating results, such as revenue growth and increases in earned premium; (ii) changes in the market for Hagerty's products and services, (iii) Hagerty's plans to expand market share, including planned investments and partnerships; (iv) anticipated business objectives; and (v) the strength of Hagerty's business model. These statements may be preceded by, followed by or include the words "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "goal," "intend," "likely," "outlook," "plan," "potential," "project," "seek," "target," "can," "could," "may," "should," "would," "will," the negatives thereof and other words and terms of similar meaning.

A number of factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: (i) Hagerty's ability to compete effectively within its industry and attract and retain members; (ii) its dependence on a limited number of insurance distribution and underwriting carrier partners; (iii) Hagerty's ability to prevent, monitor and detect fraudulent activity, including its reliance on a limited number of payment processing services; (iv) disruptions, interruptions, outages with its technology platforms or third-party services; (v) the limited operating history of some or Hagerty's membership products and the success of any new insurance programs and products; (iv) adverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and current and future variants of the virus; (vii) the cyclical nature of the insurance business and Hagerty's ability to collect vehicle usage and driving data; (viii) unexpected increases in the frequency or severity of claims; (ix) compliance with the numerous laws and regulations applicable to Hagerty's business, including state, federal and foreign laws relating to insurance and rate increases, privacy, the internet and accounting matters; (x) whether investors or securities analysts view Hagerty's stock structure unfavorably, particularly its dual-class structure; (xi) the fact that Hagerty is a controlled company; and (xii) other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in documents filed or to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") by Hagerty.

The forward-looking statements herein represent the judgment of Hagerty as of the date of this release and Hagerty disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. This press release should be read in conjunction with the information included in the Company's other press releases, reports and other filings with the SEC. Understanding the information contained in these filings is important in order to fully understand Hagerty's reported financial results and our business outlook for future periods.

About Hagerty, Inc. (NYSE: HGTY)

Based in Traverse City, Michigan, Hagerty's purpose is to save driving and car culture for future generations and its mission is to build a global business to fund that purpose. Hagerty is an automotive enthusiast brand offering integrated membership products and programs as well as a specialty insurance provider focused on the global automotive enthusiast market. Hagerty is home to Hagerty Drivers Club, Hagerty Drivers Club magazine, Hagerty Drivers Foundation, Hagerty DriveShare, Hagerty Valuation Tools, Hagerty Media, MotorsportReg, Hagerty Garage + Social, Hagerty Marketplace, The Amelia, the Detroit Concours d'Elegance, the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance, the California Mille, Motorworks Revival and more. For more information on Hagerty, please visit www.hagerty.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

More information can be found at newsroom.hagerty.com.

Category: Financial

SOURCE Hagerty
PHILADELPHIA, March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Heritage Consulting Group announced today that John Tess, its Founder, will retire on April 1, 2022, after 40 years of successfully leading the company. Mr. Tess, a pioneer in the Historic Tax Credit industry, built Heritage from a single office in Portland, Oregon in 1982 into one of the nation's largest and most respected historic consulting firms with multiple offices spanning the United States, servicing hundreds of clients annually.

"It has been a wonderful and rewarding journey," Mr. Tess said regarding his tenure. "Over the past forty years we have helped usher in a new era of preservation-oriented developers, broadened the national growth of historic tax credits  a powerful economic incentive tool  and consulted on the rehabilitation of some of the country's most important landmark buildings. We also have carved new pathways for the definition of 'historic.' We have secured the future validity of preserving and reinventing America's diverse architectural history," recounted Mr. Tess while highlighting some of the impact Heritage has had since he founded the company and the evolution of the industry over time.

Mr. Tess will hand the reigns over to Cindy Hamilton, President of Heritage since 2021, a highly respected industry veteran. Ms. Hamilton has been with Heritage since 2004 when she opened an east coast office for the firm in Philadelphia, PA. In recent years, aside from running the day-to-day operations of the company, her work has been focused on the expansion of client relations and business development, a strategy she and Mr. Tess created during internal succession planning over the last three years. Ms. Hamilton also spearheads the firm's growth initiatives in the utilization of historic tax credits on public housing and providing due diligence services, both established specialties for Heritage and their client portfolio.

In announcing the appointment, Mr. Tess hailed Ms. Hamilton as the right person to take the company forward. "Cindy has a demonstrated track record of success and has the leadership skills necessary to take the firm into the next era of growth, while maintaining its position as the national leader along with her highly respected reputation among the firm's client base."

As part of Heritage's succession planning, Mr. Tess sold the company to J. Jeffers & Co., a Milwaukee-based investment firm in November of 2021. The sale brings fresh capital and resources to Heritage, supporting Mr. Tess's transition and Ms. Hamilton's appointment, and solidifying the company's next chapters in its evolution.

Reflecting on the opportunity, Ms. Hamilton offered that she has a strong foundation of industry specific expertise and a long tenure with the Company to build upon and her gratitude for the trust John Tess and Joshua Jeffers have in her ability to take the Company into the next era. Ms. Hamilton praised the team she has helped to assemble and expressed great confidence in their ability to provide the highest-quality service to the company's valued client base. "I am delighted to further our strong legacy by continuing our growth strategies of providing additional opportunities for the next generation of leaders at Heritage," remarked Ms. Hamilton.

John Tess, retiring forty years to-the-day of founding Heritage Consulting Group, will maintain the company's national leadership seat on the Board of the Historic Tax Credit Coalition. Mr. Tess will continue to advise Heritage on its Giving Back Program, which was established in 2012 in honor of the company's 30th year anniversary.

ABOUT HERITAGE CONSULTING GROUP

Founded in 1982, Heritage Consulting group is a national advisor to owners and developers of older and historic buildings and properties, primarily working to secure federal and state historic tax incentives. Nationally headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, with offices in Portland, OR, Madison, WI, and in the New England States, Heritage is one of the nation's largest, most established Historic Tax Credit consulting firms. In its 40-year history, Heritage has completed over 1,700 projects, nominated over 350 buildings to the National Register of Historic Places, and has advised thousands of clients. The firm is currently active in 32 states. Some of the firm's milestone projects include: the Tariff Building in Washington, D.C., the IBM Building in Chicago, IL the Denver Union Station, CO, Macy's Herald Square in New York City, New York and Bell Laboratories located in Holmdel, New Jersey.

SOURCE Heritage Consulting Group
RICHMOND, Va., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hilb Group announced today that it has partnered with E.B. Cohen Insurance and Risk Management, expanding the company's growing presence in the Tri-State area.

With offices in both Roseland, New Jersey, and New York, New York, E.B. Cohen has been serving the area for more than 90 years. They provide a broad range of insurance and risk management services to individuals and industries, with a focus on hospitality, real estate, and small businesses. Agency Principals David and Neil Owens and their team of insurance professionals will join the Hilb Group's Tri-State regional operations.

"At E.B. Cohen, we pride ourselves on establishing long-term relationships with our clients and understanding their business to produce careful, customized solutions," said David Owens. "The partnership we have created with the Hilb Group will deliver access to even greater national resources for both our agency and our customers."

"We are excited to be partnering with the Hilb Group to continue the legacy that Jonathan Cohen helped establish, prior to his retirement after more than six decades  including 52 years as leader  with our agency," stated Neil Owens. "Our team of experts, coupled with the resources Hilb Group provides, will continue to drive growth in the agency for years to come."

"E.B. Cohen aligns perfectly with our strategy for growing among industry leaders  bringing a terrific history of insurance and risk management experience and expertise, combined with deep, trusted client relationships," said Hilb Group CEO Ricky Spiro. "We are pleased to welcome them to our company, and we look forward to our next steps together."

About Hilb Group: The Hilb Group is a leading property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and advisory firm headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Hilb Group is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. Hilb Group seeks to grow through strategic acquisitions and by leveraging its resources and expertise to drive organic growth in its acquired agencies. The company has completed more than 130 acquisitions and now has over 100 offices in 22 states. Hilb Group is rated as one of the Fastest Growing Brokers by Business Insurance, a Top P/C Agency by Insurance Journal, and one of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies in the Inc. 5000. For more information on Hilb Group's growth as well as career opportunities, please visit our website at http://hilbgroup.com.

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804.414.6508

[email protected]

SOURCE The Hilb Group, LLC
Denver and Seattle were again tops among the nation's busiest markets with close to 25 showings per listing while other cities recorded impressive year-over-year gains, from Nashville's 43% jump to a 36% increase in Orlando, according to data from ShowingTime

CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest data from ShowingTime , a residential real estate industry leading technology provider of showing management and market stats, shows that home buyers got a head start in February on what is proving to be a sustained busy stretch, with Denver and Seattle recording close to 25 showings per listing while a total of 109 markets averaged double digits.

Even compared to last year's early spring frenzy of home tours, the number of markets averaging double-digit showings per listing jumped 45% from 75 to 109, according to the ShowingTime Showing Index. Many markets matched last year's intense buyer demand while others saw big year-over-year increases: among the top 25 busiest markets, Nashville was up 43% year over year; Orlando, 36%; and Bridgeport, Conn., 30%.

Other cities among the 25 busiest markets recording big year-over-year gains included Dallas, up 29%; Hartford., Conn., and Sarasota, Fla., up 28%: and Charlotte, N.C., up 24%.

February's brisk activity throughout most of the country was in keeping with a trend that began in May 2020, when immediately after COVID-19 slowed real estate activity, buyers re-emerged to find their next home amid a shortage of available inventory.

"Seeing 109 markets with such impressive buyer traffic is remarkable," said ShowingTime Vice President and General Manager Michael Lane. "A year ago, we were amazed to see 75 markets hit double digits in showings per listing. The heightened activity is widespread, with 17 states having at least one market averaging in double digits. We're here to help agents navigate these circumstances with new features integrated into our platform tailored to meet their needs."

For example, ShowingTime's waitlist feature enables buyer's agents to be notified immediately when an appointment time becomes available on a popular listing that's fully booked. More than 50,000 appointments have been successfully scheduled to date by agents who joined waitlists. Offer Manager is another option available to help agents manage offers in today's multiple-offer environment, equipping them to track offers, easily update every agent on the status of their offer and share a side-by-side comparison with their sellers.

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.

Regionally, the South's 19.5% surge in home tours led the country, followed closely by the Northeast's year-over-year gain of 16.6%. The Midwest's 10% increase rounded out the gains, while the West recorded a decline of 13.6% compared to the prior year, when traffic was at unprecedented levels.

Metropolitan Area February 2022 Ratio of Showings to Listings Year-Over-Year Change Month-Over-Month Change U.S. 12.58 14% 9% Denver, CO 24.82 -3% -1% Seattle, WA 23.30 -11% -11% Richmond, VA 18.17 21% 19% Salt Lake City, UT 17.30 -13% -2% Boulder, CO 17.01 7% -2% Grand Rapids, MI 16.55 9% 16% Orlando, FL 16.38 36% 1% Colorado Springs, CO 16.21 -18% 6% Manchester, NH 15.90 -21% -7% Dallas, TX 15.74 29% -4% Portland, OR 15.55 7% 4% Washington, DC 15.18 2% 7% Bridgeport, CT 15.13 30% 12% Virginia Beach, VA 15.03 12% 8% Olympia, WA 14.73 -13% -5% Tampa, FL 14.69 22% 2% Worcester, MA 14.60 -8% 16% Nashville, TN 14.59 43% 25% Hartford, CT 14.30 28% 17% Rochester, NY 14.24 -2% 6% Bremerton, WA 13.93 -14% -4% Sarasota, FL 13.92 28% -4% Trenton, NJ 13.91 9% 4% Charlotte, NC 13.88 24% 13% Bakersfield, CA 13.81 5% -2%

About ShowingTime

ShowingTime is an 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: Elana Bodow Juliana Ferre

Barbara Wagner Communications Barbara Wagner Communications

(315) 440-7554 (787) 568-3876

[email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE ShowingTime
RADNOR, Pa., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com) informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against TAL Education Group ("TAL") (NYSE: TAL). The action charges TAL with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the company's business, operations, and prospects. As a result of TAL's materially misleading statements to the public, TAL investors have suffered significant losses.

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.

TO VIEW OUR VIDEO, PLEASE CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR TAL LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/tal-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=tal

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: April 5, 2022

CLASS PERIOD: April 26, 2018 through July 22, 2021

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:

James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Email at [email protected]

TAL'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

TAL provides K-12 after-school tutoring services in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, the company offers tutoring services to K-12 students covering various academic subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, political science, English, and Chinese.

On April 25, 2021, media reports revealed that the city of Beijing had fined four online education agencies, including TAL, the maximum fine of 500,000 yuan (approximately $80,000) each for misleading customers with false advertising. Specifically, regulators found that TAL's VIE, Beijing Xueersi Education Technology Co., Ltd., had been misrepresenting the un-discounted costs of enrollment in its courses to consumers, thereby deceiving customers into paying full price for courses that they believed they were receiving at a discount. Following this news, the price of TAL American Depository Shares ("ADSs") dropped from $53.14 on May 11, 2021, to $46.25 on May 13, 2021, a 13% decline over the two-day period.

Then, on June 1, 2021, Chinese regulators announced they had fined 15 off-campus training institutions, including TAL, for illegal activities such as false advertising and fraud. The offending companies, including TAL, were hit with maximum penalties for their illegal business practices, totaling a combined 36.5 million yuan ($5.73 million). Following this news, the price of TAL ADSs dropped from $40.51 on June 1, 2021, to $33.27 on June 3, 2021, nearly an 18% decline over the two-day period.

Finally, 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 TAL ADSs fell from $20.52 on July 22, 2021, to just $4.40 on July 26, 2021, a nearly 79% decline.

WHAT CAN I DO?

TAL 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 TAL 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
NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pivot Point Consulting , a national health IT consulting leader and the 2022 #2 and 2020 #1 Best in KLAS Overall IT Services Firm, released a new success story, "Medical Group Finds Immediate Wins and Long-term Value with Interim CIO" which profiles how Pivot Point's Executive Advisor Denise Webb served as an interim CIO and helped Indiana Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center (IHTC) develop a long-term IT strategy, complete critical IT projects and recruit a permanent CIO.

Founded in 1998, IHTC has evolved into a national leader in comprehensive hemophilia treatment. The Indianapolis-based organization's IT staff has helped navigate two decades of organic growth and increasing complexity of the mid-sized medical group's IT systems and services. As technology innovations amplified and business strategy matured, IHTC, turned to longtime partner Pivot Point Consulting for strategic guidance, interim IT leadership and assistance in recruiting a permanent CIO.

"We wanted to ensure our IT systems and data remain stable and secure as we continue to grow and as healthcare organizations become more interconnected," said IHTC's Chief Executive Officer Nancy Hoard. "We also felt a real need to improve our ability to integrate emerging technologies."

Serving as interim CIO, Denise Webb, Executive Advisor on Pivot Point's strategy team led IHTC efforts to establish project portfolio planning and governance, develop an IT budget, evaluate and develop staff capabilities, kickstart numerous stalled projects and recruit and onboard a permanent CIO. The Pivot Point advisor also focused on improving IHTC's infrastructure by choosing a new electronic health record (EHR) system and a unified patient communications and telehealth platform.

"We made incredible progress under the leadership of Pivot Point's interim CIO," said Hoard. "In the four years we've worked with Pivot Point, they have consistently provided us with high-caliber healthcare IT professionals."

Pivot Point Consulting recently was recognized as a top performer by KLAS research for the seventh consecutive year. In the 2022 Best in KLAS Awards, Pivot Point ranked #2 in the category of Overall IT Services Firm, #2 in Partial IT Outsourcing and #2 in Overall IT Advisory Services. To learn more visit pivotpointconsulting.com.

About Pivot Point Consulting

Pivot Point Consulting, 2022 #2 Best in KLAS: Overall IT Services Firm, enables healthcare organizations to realize the most value from their technology and resources through EHR, ERP, Strategy, Virtual Care, Data & Analytics, Cybersecurity, Service Desk, Application Support and Revenue Cycle Management services. Our experts deliver consulting, managed services and talent solutions to providers, payers, life sciences and technology organizations. For more information, visit us at pivotpointconsulting.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

About Indiana Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center

The Indiana Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center (IHTC) is the only federally recognized comprehensive hemophilia treatment center in Indiana and one of the largest centers in the nation. The IHTC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit entity that is dedicated to providing the best, most comprehensive care to people in Indiana with bleeding or clotting disorders and to their families. The IHTC is both nationally and internationally distinguished as a Center of Excellence for its leadership in bleeding disorder patient care, education and research. For more information, visit https://www.ihtc.org.

Media Contact:

Kim Warth, Amendola Communications, [email protected]

SOURCE Pivot Point Consulting
Lucid has collaborated with Electrify Canada to offer those who reserve a Lucid Air by June 30, 2022, two years of complimentary charging on the rapidly growing charging network. Designed to Combined Charging System (CCS) standards and compatible with any open DC fast charging station, the Lucid Air Grand Touring is capable of the fastest charging speeds of any production car available today.

With 150 kilowatt (kW) and 350 kW chargers, Electrify Canada provides some of the fastest charging available in the country, allowing Lucid Air owners to charge up to 350 kilometers in just 15 minutes for models with 900+V architecture connected to 350kW chargers.

"Opening a Studio at the largest shopping destination in Canada will help us elevate the brand in Canada as we continue to expand in North America," said Zak Edson, Vice President of Sales and Service, Lucid. "We are looking forward to seeing the longest-range EV driving, and charging, on Canadian roads soon."

Designed in Silicon Valley and produced in Arizona, Lucid Air delivers next-level efficiency from Lucid's in-house developed and manufactured powertrain technology. The lineup features models offering 516 miles (830 kilometers) of EPA-estimated range on a single charge and industry-leading efficiency of 4.6 miles (7.4 kilometers) per kWh on Grand Touring models.

Studio Experience

Every Lucid Studio offers a digitally oriented luxury experience tailored to each customer's preferences, whether they visit in-person, make inquiries entirely online, or combine the two. Lucid Studios allow customers to experience the brand and obtain information about its products in locations that underscore the company's unique design aesthetic. Visitors who explore a Lucid Studio will get a vision of how the company draws inspiration from the beauty, innovation, and diversity of its home state of California. In addition, Lucid Studios augment the physical experience of seeing and touching a Lucid Air with an elevated digital experience. Using a 4K VR configurator, Lucid's Virtual Reality Experience combines the physical and virtual worlds to showcase seamless personalization of everything from interior finishes and materials to exterior color.

Virtual Experience

Mirroring the luxury one-to-one Studio experience online, customers can also take advantage of "Lucid Studio Live," a cloud-based configuration solution powered by ZeroLight's Concierge product. From the comfort of their own homes, customers can virtually interact with a car while a Lucid representative guides them through key features and configuration options.

Future Studio & Service Centers

The Lucid Studio in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre serves as the company's first location in the Toronto area, with a service center opening later this year. Additional locations will continue to open as Lucid expands its presence in North America and globally. Customers can visit during normal business hours or can book a personal appointment by contacting the Lucid team at lucidmotors.com/contact. They can always start exploring the Lucid Air through the "Design Yours" Configurator.

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. Customer deliveries of Lucid Air, which is produced at Lucid's new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, are underway.

Media Contact

[email protected]

Trademarks

This communication contains trademarks, service marks, trade names and copyrights of Lucid Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the "Company") and other companies, which are the property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication 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 facts. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's expectations related to the customer ownership experience, planned locations of Studio and service centers, production and deliveries of the Lucid Air and Lucid Gravity, the performance, range, and other features of the Lucid Air, construction and expansion of the Company's AMP-1 manufacturing facility, the promise of the Company's technology, and the Company's ability to develop, maintain, and improve critical processes and infrastructure. These statements are based on various assumptions, and actual events and circumstances may differ. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including factors discussed in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 under the heading "Risk Factors," as well as other documents of the Company that are filed, or will be filed, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If any of these risks materialize or the Company's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that the Company does not presently know or that the Company currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect the Company's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.

 When connected to DC fast chargers. Actual rates will vary based upon vehicle equipment, state of charge, and charging conditions.

SOURCE Lucid Motors
As CTO, Mr. Mukherjee will be responsible for driving cross-company initiatives to enhance and grow Lummus' broad portfolio and champion the company's technology solutions to strategic customers. He will also lead the development of advanced technology solutions that place Lummus at the forefront of our industry, the energy transition and digitalization.

"I am very proud to announce Ujjal as Lummus' next CTO. Ujjal has an outstanding track record of innovation, performance and execution, which I had the pleasure of witnessing first hand for many years," said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. "The direction and strategic goals of our company are inextricably tied to the CTO role, and I am confident in Ujjal to take Lummus' technology leadership to a new level.

"I want to thank Jo for his many accomplishments to Lummus for over three decades, leaving an incredible legacy across the company. I am also grateful for his continuing role to advise the Lummus leadership team as we face many strategic issues and opportunities," added de Bruyn.

Beginning his career with Lummus in 1990, Mr. Mukherjee has developed expertise in clean fuels, petrochemicals and emerging technologies. He has 38 issued U.S. patents and many of the processes he invented have been successfully commercialized, including LC-MAX technology and integrated hydrocracking.

Most recently, he served as Vice President and Managing Director of Chevron Lummus Global, a joint venture between Chevron and Lummus, while also overseeing Thermal Crude to Chemicals (TC2C) for Lummus. TC2C is an innovative technology pioneered by Saudi Aramco, Lummus Technology and Chevron Lummus Global that enables higher chemicals yield than previously achievable by bypassing conventional refining steps and employing a proprietary direct conversion process. Mr. Mukherjee is also a Lummus Fellow, a distinguished role in which he helps Lummus lead in knowledge transfer and development initiatives in key technology areas.

Mr. Mukherjee holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India; a master's degree in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from ENSPM in France; and a master's degree in Business Administration from Rutgers University in the U.S.

About Lummus Technology

Lummus Technology is the global leader in developing process technologies that make modern life possible and focus on a more sustainable, low carbon future. Lummus is a master licensor of clean energy, petrochemical, refining, gas processing and renewable technologies, and a supplier of catalysts, proprietary equipment, digitalization and related lifecycle services to customers worldwide. To learn more about Lummus, visit www.LummusTechnology.com.

SOURCE Lummus Technology, LLC
"We're proud to welcome Meta to Kansas City for this historic, cutting-edge development that will positively impact our state's economy for years to come," said Governor Mike Parson. "The Show-Me State stands out as a rising technology hub due to our strategic location, skilled workforce, and prime business climate. This unprecedented investment signals Missouri is open for business, and that our state is a prime destination for high-tech leaders and innovators alike."

The new data center is the first of its kind in Missouri. Meta is investing more than $800 million and supporting up to 100 jobs in the region.

"Meta is excited to call Kansas City our new home. It stands out with so much to offer - good access to infrastructure and fiber, a strong pool of talent for both construction and operations, and more than anything, great community partners," said Darcy Nothnagle, Director of Community and Economic Development at Meta. "Meta is committed to being a good neighbor and investing in the long-term vitality of the region for years to come."

The nearly 1 million-square-foot data center will be located in the Golden Plains Technology Park. It will be supported by 100% renewable energy and will be one of the most sustainable data centers in the world.

"Projects of this magnitude are extraordinary. Meta's decision to make such a hallmark investment in our state is a testament to Missouri's reputation of being a reliable and solid destination for investment," said Subash Alias, CEO of Missouri Partnership. "Meta also recognizes our exceedingly favorable business climate for such data centers as cited by the recently released Tax Foundation's Location Matters study. We are so thrilled to welcome Meta to Missouri and look forward to a long-lasting relationship with this marquee company."

Missouri's central location in the U.S. provides improved network connectivity between coastal data centers. It also offers increased security with less risk of natural disasters, as well as competitive energy prices and more options to power facilities using renewable energy resources. The Kansas City region is the third fastest-growing technology market in the nation - ranking among the best cities for startups in the country. The region provides a large talent pool with the skills needed for technology jobs.

"KC is the most connected region in the U.S. with more than 5.5 million miles of fiber deployed. This infrastructure, coupled with a dynamic and robust talent pool, provides Meta the resources it needs for long-term success in our market," said Tim Cowden, President and CEO of the Kansas City Area Development Council. "Meta's selection of KC, joining many other global tech brands in our region, puts a spotlight on our thriving tech industry. The region's new state-of-the-art single terminal airport opening in March 2023 and our collaborative business community make KC a top location of choice for other tech companies seeking growth."

Missouri Partnership worked with several organizations to attract Meta to Kansas City, including: State of Missouri; Missouri Department of Economic Development; Kansas City Area Development Council; City of Kansas City, Missouri; Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City Missouri; Evergy; Diode Ventures; Platte County; Clay County; Turner Construction; Kimley-Horn; Black & Veatch, BNIM; Olsson; Husch Blackwell; Rouse, Frets, White, Goss, P.C.; KC Tech Council; Metropolitan Community College; North Kansas City School District; Platte County R-3 School District; Smithville School District; Greater KC Building & Construction Trades Council; Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council; and Union Station.

Meta plans to be operational in Kansas City in 2024.

About Missouri Partnership

Missouri Partnership is a public-private economic development organization focused on attracting new jobs and investment to the state and promoting Missouri's business strengths. Since 2008, Missouri Partnership has worked with partners statewide to attract companies that have created 29,500+ new jobs, $1.5 billion+ in new annual payroll, and $4 billion+ in new capital investment. Some recent successful projects that led to major investment in Missouri include Accenture Federal Services LLC, Amazon, Casey's, Chewy, Inc., Square, Swift Prepared Foods, USDA, and Veterans United.

Media Contact:

Janelle Higgins

314.541.4911

[email protected]

SOURCE Missouri Partnership
CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New York orthopaedic surgeon Michael L. Parks, MD, FAAOS, was named treasurer of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). He will assume the new position following the AAOS 2022 Annual Meeting in Chicago, March 22-26, 2022.

The AAOS treasurer serves as chair (and is one of three voting members) of the AAOS' Finance Committee. The committee oversees the finances and fiscal health of the AAOS, which has more than 39,000 members.

Dr. Parks is associate attending at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and associate professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at Weill Cornell College of Medicine in New York. He specializes in the surgical treatment of adults with arthritis requiring reconstructive procedures of the hip and knee.

Dr. Parks has led several research projects at HSS, with a particular interest in socioeconomic and racial disparities in access to arthritis care and total joint replacement surgery. His research has published numerous journal articles related to joint replacement outcomes and racial differences.

Dr. Parks has also been recognized for his expertise in numerous publications throughout his career, receiving top doctor rankings in Black Enterprise and Money magazines. He has also been recognized in such publications as The Network Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and Castle Connolly's Best Doctors: New York Metro. In 2019, he was the recipient of the AAOS' Diversity Award.

Dr. Parks has served as president of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) and is a past president of the New York State Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He previously served on the AAOS Board of Directors and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) Board of Directors. Dr. Parks is active in the AAOS and has served on the Annual Meeting Committee, Board of Councilors, and chair of the AAOS Resolutions Committee. He also served on the former Publications Committee and was a member of the 2003 class of Leadership Fellows Program. He has also been actively involved with the Movement is Life Caucus, a multi-stakeholder group devoted to decreasing musculoskeletal healthcare disparities.

Dr. Parks graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and went on to earn his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where he received the President's Clinical Science Award. After completing an internship in general and thoracic surgery, followed by an orthopaedic residency at Duke University Medical Center, he continued his training at HSS with a fellowship on the Hip and Knee Service where he remains in practice today.

About the AAOS

With more than 39,000 members, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is the world's largest medical association of musculoskeletal specialists. The AAOS is the trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal health. It provides the highest quality, most comprehensive education to help orthopaedic surgeons and allied health professionals at every career level to best treat patients in their daily practices. The AAOS is the source for information on bone and joint conditions, treatments, and related musculoskeletal health care issues, and it leads the health care discussion on advancing quality.

Follow the AAOS on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

SOURCE American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
ULAN BATOR, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 55 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the national tally to 468,840, the country's health ministry said.

Mongolia reported no deaths in the past 24 hours, leaving the country's COVID-19 death toll unchanged at 2,108.

Currently, there are 1,732 active COVID-19 cases across the country.

Almost 67 percent of Mongolia's population of 3.4 million has received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, 1,031,108 people have received a third dose and 113,047 have received a voluntary fourth shot.

With a high vaccination coverage and declining daily infections, Mongolia has essentially returned to normal life. It has resumed in-person classes for all educational institutions and fully opened its borders to foreign tourists. 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Next week, MIT Technology Review returns to live events for its annual conference on AI, EmTech Digital, March 29-30, 2022.

Part of the esteemed EmTech event series, EmTech Digital is the outlet's signature event on artificial intelligence (AI) and business leadership. Curated for executives and technology decision makers, the two-day program focuses on the business impacts of recent AI breakthroughs and strategies for critical AI execution.

MIT Technology Review's signature AI event, EmTech Digital, begins March 29 Tweet this

Through mainstage sessions, thought-provoking interviews, and live Q&A sessions, EmTech Digital explores the data, applications, and algorithms behind building an AI-driven business. Speakers include world-renowned technology experts and industry leaders, including:

Mike Haley - VP of Research, Autodesk

- VP of Research, Autodesk Tony Jebara - VP of Engineering and Head of Machine Learning, Spotify

- VP of Engineering and Head of Machine Learning, Spotify Julia (Xing) Li - Deputy General Manager, Baidu USA

- Deputy General Manager, Baidu Darcy MacClaren - SVP, Digital Supply Chain, SAP North America

- SVP, Digital Supply Chain, SAP North America Mira Murati - SVP of Research, Product, and Partnerships, OpenAI

- SVP of Research, Product, and Partnerships, OpenAI Andrew Ng - Founder and CEO, Landing AI

- Founder and CEO, Landing AI David Simchi - Levi - Director, MIT Data Science Lab

- Levi - Director, MIT Data Science Lab Fiona Tan - CTO, Wayfair

- CTO, Wayfair Nicol Turner Lee - Director, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution

- Director, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution Oriol Vinyas - Principal Scientist, DeepMind

EmTech Digital combines the authoritative, influential, and trustworthy insight MIT Technology Review is known for with a hybrid, attendee-centric experience. In-person attendees gather for live sessions and networking at the MIT Media Lab; and all participants will have access to an online event platform for live-streamed content, videos on demand, and interactive discussions.

The EmTech Digital Presenting Partner is Intel , an industry leader creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. For additional partnership opportunities, please contact Andrew Hendler at [email protected] .

For full conference details, registration, and partnership opportunities visit www.emtechdigital.com.

Media who would like to cover the event should reach out to [email protected] to learn more about obtaining press credentials.

About MIT Technology Review

Founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899, MIT Technology Review is a world-renowned, independent media company whose insight, analysis, and interviews explain the newest technologies and their commercial, social, and political impacts. MIT Technology Review derives its authority from its relationship to the world's foremost technology institution and from its editors' deep technical knowledge, capacity to see technologies in their broadest context, and unequaled access to leading innovators and researchers. MIT Technology Review's mission is to bring about better-informed and more conscious decisions about technology through authoritative, influential, and trustworthy journalism. Subscribe. Listen. Attend. Follow: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram.

Media Contact:

MIT Technology Review

[email protected]

SOURCE MIT Technology Review
SHANGHAI, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Music China, jointly organized by CMIA, Shanghai INTEX, and Messe Frankfurt, returns to Shanghai, China, October 26th -29th, 2022. As its 20th edition, Music China this year will feast your eyes with not only front-edge products but also various events to celebrate the anniversary.

Having been held for 20 years, Music China has contributed to building an international platform for exhibition and exchange of musical instruments in the global market, helping open a widow for Chinese products to go abroad and also for international brands to enter the Chinese market. In 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic Music China was successfully held, hosting 1,106 exhibitors from 15 countries and regions, and drawing a total of 81,761 visitors onsite and 1.62 million viewers online. In 2021, although the exhibition was called to a halt due to domestic pandemic plans, an online program was held to meet the needs for business match-making, new product launch, and branding, drawing a total of 239,000 visits online.

Embracing its 20th anniversary this year, Music China will continue to upgrade itself in both depth and breadth  with a parallel development of the digital and physical exhibition, as well as an extension of the exhibit categories and the exhibition space to 115,000 m2. As a complementary service, the online exhibition and business match-making meetings will be held to meet the needs for international trade during the epidemics, generating a tremendous buying power in the collapsed distance.

To promote music business, education, and culture, Music China will also throw a series of concurrent events covering all aspects of music, such as the Industry Forum, the New Product Global Launch, the National Music Education Conference, and the Future Music Festival. Those events will not only allow exhibitors to explore more channels for branding and marketing their products but also deliver valuable content related to music to audiences from all walks of life.

Although the pandemic has been keeping people away from each other, Music China will try to bring the global practitioners together through Internet, and continue its efforts in generating business opportunities for brands and traders on this functional platform, and contributing to the prosperity of the global music industry. We look forward to seeing you on Oct. 26th -29th in Shanghai New International Expo Centre, sharing with you the fruit of the past 20 years, and making a brand-new start for the prosperous future.

For more information about Music China 2022, please visit our official website: www.musicchina-expo.com, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube searching for Music China 2022.

SOURCE Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd.
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) have selected two astronauts to launch on NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, for the mission. Two mission specialists will be announced later, following review by NASA and its international partners.

The mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Moghbeli, Mogensen, and the additional mission specialists will join an expedition crew aboard the space station.

This will be the first spaceflight for Moghbeli, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017. Moghbeli is from Baldwin, New York, and earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. As an AH-1W Super Cobra pilot and Marine Corps test pilot, she has flown more than 150 missions accruing 2,000 hours of flight time in more than 25 different aircraft. She also graduated with honors from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. At the time of her selection as an astronaut, Moghbeli was testing H-1 helicopters and serving as the quality assurance and avionics officer for VMX-1. She is also the proud mom of twin girls.

This will be Mogensen's second trip to the space station as a veteran of the ESA 10-day Iriss mission in 2015, for which he served as a flight engineer. Mogensen was the flight engineer on Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft during launch and Soyuz TMA-16M during the return flight. Mogensen has logged 9 days, 20 hours, and 9 minutes in space. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and graduated with an international baccalaureate from the Copenhagen International School, a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London, and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2015, Mogensen became the first Danish person to go to space and currently is serving as the European astronaut liaison officer to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program works with the U.S. aerospace industry to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station on American-made rockets and spacecraft launching from American soil.

For more than 21 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 253 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 109 countries and areas.

The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and developing a robust low-Earth orbit economy, NASA is free to focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.

Follow Moghbeli on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Follow Mogensen on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Find more information on NASA's Commercial Crew Program at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

SOURCE NASA
Health care organizations donate crucial supplies during humanitarian crisis

NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nashville Health Care Council has joined the humanitarian relief effort launched in Tennessee by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Russell Street Ventures Founder and CEO Brad Smith to support Ukraine and Poland with medical supplies and equipment. Council member companies and other Tennessee health care organizations have donated 85 pallets of medical supplies and more than $180,000 in financial support in just 10 days. The first shipment of supplies was delivered on Tuesday, March 22, and a second load will be delivered soon.

The relief effort, supported by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the state of Tennessee, is facilitated through Nashville-based global health non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands, which Frist founded in 2004. Health care organizations in Nashville and across the state have contributed to support hospitals and health care providers in Ukraine and Poland.

"According to recent reports, nearly one in four Ukrainians have been forced from their homes since Russia's invasion. In total, 10 million have fled to other parts of the country or across Ukraine's borders in less than a month," said Frist. "Understandably, Ukrainian hospitals are overwhelmed and need help. We hear that call and are doing everything we can to answer. Thanks to the generous support of the Nashville health care community, we have already shipped a plane full of supplies and are organizing the next shipment as we speak."

Tennessee organizations contributing medical supplies to the humanitarian effort include Ballad Health, CHI Memorial Hospital, Cookeville Regional Medical Center, Covenant Health, CrossLink Memphis, Inc., DeRoyal, Erlanger Health System, HCA Healthcare, University of Tennessee Medical Center, Vanderbilt University, West Tennessee Healthcare and Williamson Medical Center.

"Nashville has experienced its fair share of crises, and our community responds when people are in need. When Senator Frist launched the program to support Ukraine and Poland, it was only natural for Council member companies to jump in," said Jamie Lee, interim president and chief operating officer of the Nashville Health Care Council. "As long as Senator Frist and Hope Through Healing Hands are accepting donations, our members will contribute and encourage other organizations to do so, as well. Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine and Poland."

If your organization is interested in making a tax-deductible donation of medical supplies for Ukraine humanitarian relief, visit hopethroughhealinghands.org/donate .

About the Nashville Health Care Council

The Nashville Health Care Council is a premier association of health care industry leaders working together to inspire global collaboration to improve health care by serving as a catalyst for leadership and innovation. Since 1995, the Council has served as a trusted source for information on trends influencing the nation's health care industry. Through regular programs, the Council provides members with unparalleled access to national and international policymakers, industry innovators, and thought leaders.

For more information on the Council, please visit www.healthcarecouncil.com.

Contact: Christa Pittaluga

Nashville Health Care Council

615-743-3142

[email protected]

SOURCE Nashville Health Care Council
BETHESDA, Md., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The unprecedented, rapid advances in genetic and genomic knowledge and technologies have made it challenging for primary care and other nongenetics healthcare providers to stay current on recommendations and practices in clinical genetics. To address this education gap for nongenetics providers and to foster the effective integration of those advances into the broad clinical practice of primary care and specialty healthcare providers, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) announces the creation of a new online Continuing Medical Education (CME)* series, "Genetics101 for Healthcare Providers." The free educational series will be featured in the widely popular AMA Ed Hub, the online learning platform of the American Medical Association.

ACMG CEO Max Muenke, MD, MBA, FACMG said, "We're proud to collaborate with the AMA Ed Hub, an online platform bringing together high-quality education from the American Medical Association and other trusted sources, including ACMG. Designed to support the lifelong learning, licensure and certification needs of physicians and other health professionals, the AMA Ed Hub offers thousands of opportunities to earn CME, CEU and MOC."

This exciting new educational program addresses a key part of ACMG's Strategic Plan to develop customized education and resources for nongeneticists.

ACMG President Marc S. Williams, MD, FACMG said, "The ACMG's strategic plan states that we will take the lead in 'educating the medical community on the significant role that genetics and genomics will continue to play in understanding, preventing, treating and curing disease.' This partnership with the AMA Ed Hub is a significant milestone is achieving this objective."

In each module of the "Genetics101 for Healthcare Providers" course, a board-certified medical genetics expert will provide a case-based presentation, along with supporting reading materials. Initially, there will be 10 modules, with some modules covering general topics and others specific to a particular medical specialty area. Topics included in this initial series:

1. Neurogenetics

2. Prenatal Genetics

3. Key Principles in Pharmacogenomics

4. Online Genetics Resources

5. Inherited Cancer Syndromes

6. Genetics for the Primary Care Provider (Adult)

7. Genetics for Endocrinologists

8. Genetics for Cardiologists

9. Genetics Workup for the Pediatrician

10. General Overview of Genetics (Coming soon)

This course is supported by an independent medical education grant from Illumina, Inc.

ACMG is the largest group of medical geneticists in the country and the only medical society that represents the full spectrum of medical genetics disciplines including clinical and laboratory geneticists as well as genetic counselors in a single organization. ACMG's mission is to improve health through the practice of medical genetics, as well as through education and clinical research, and to guide the safe and effective integration of genetics and genomics into all of medicine and healthcare, resulting in improved personal and public health.

This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit.

About the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) and ACMG Foundation

Founded in 1991, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) is the only nationally recognized medical society dedicated to improving health through the clinical practice of medical genetics and genomics. The ACMG provides education, resources and a voice for more than 2,400 biochemical, clinical, cytogenetic, medical and molecular geneticists, genetic counselors and other healthcare professionals, nearly 80% of whom are board certified in the medical genetics specialties. The College's mission is to develop and sustain medical genetics-related initiatives in clinical and laboratory practice, education and advocacy. Four overarching strategies guide ACMG's work: 1) reinforce and expand ACMG's position as the leader and prominent authority in the field of medical genetics and genomics, including clinical research, while educating the medical community on the significant role that genetics and genomics will continue to play in understanding, preventing, treating and curing disease; 2) to secure and expand the professional workforce for medical genetics and genomics; 3) to advocate for the specialty; and 4) to provide best-in-class education to members and nonmembers. Genetics in Medicine, published monthly, is the official ACMG peer-reviewed journal. ACMG's website (www.acmg.net) offers resources including policy statements, practice guidelines, educational programs and a 'Find a Genetic Service' tool. The educational and public health programs of the ACMG are dependent upon charitable gifts from corporations, foundations and individuals through the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine.

Contact:

Kathy Moran, MBA

[email protected]

SOURCE American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics
Early data from landmark study shows rapid whole genome sequencing (rWGS) provided diagnostic insights for more than half of newborns who received testing; one-third had no previously documented clinical suspicion of a genetic condition

GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GeneDx, LLC, a leader in genomic analysis, today announced new research in collaboration with the University of Washington, Seattle Children's and the Brotman-Baty Institute during the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting which demonstrates the utility of rapid whole genome sequencing (rWGS) to diagnose critically ill infants in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The data is part of SeqFirst , a study at the University of Washington examining the impact on care of broad access to routine whole genome sequencing in critically ill infants at Seattle Children's Hospital. Results showed that rapid whole genome sequencing provided a potential, partial or full diagnosis for 53% of newborns tested. Moreover, of those infants who received a diagnosis through whole genome sequencing, 30% had no previously-documented suspicion of a genetic condition, highlighting the limitations of strategies that rely on family history or clinical indicators to qualify for genetic testing. The impact of the genetic information was profound, leading to a change of management for 93% of these patients.

In addition to improving diagnosis, the SeqFirst data also suggested that making whole genome sequencing routine for critically ill patients in the NICU could help overcomes disparities in access to testing. Notably, 67% of patients in whom a genetic condition was not considered prior to testing identified as non-White.

"Our study shows how impactful routine use of whole genome sequencing can be in the neonatal ICU," said Mike Bamshad, M.D., SeqFirst principal investigator and professor and chief of genetic medicine in the department of pediatrics at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital. "Whole genome sequencing is the most advanced type of genetic testing and our study offers clear insight on the benefit of using it early in the diagnostic process to help families of children with health conditions find a precise genetic diagnosis, better anticipate their child's needs and take advantage of new treatments."

The SeqFirst study was established at the University of Washington with the goal of making whole genome sequencing more accessible. SeqFirst is one of several projects focused on access to testing in the NICU and for use in diagnosing developmental delays in outpatient settings.

"The data is clear  rapid whole genome sequencing can provide critical diagnostic insights and much-needed answers for infants in the NICU," said Paul Kruszka, M.D., chief medical officer at GeneDx. "Whole genome sequencing is vastly underutilized in the NICU, despite the clear support for its utility in getting to a diagnosis quickly. Genetic disorders are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in infants and very often every minute counts. Our hope is that by understanding the benefits of sequencing, we may be able to intervene earlier and pursue clinical approaches that improve outcomes."

GeneDx performs exome sequencing for infants enrolled in the SeqFirst study. GeneDx has played a pivotal role in pediatric disease diagnosis for hundreds of thousands of patients. With a database of more than 300,000 clinical exomes and corresponding clinical information, GeneDx is a key driver in understanding gene-disease relationships.

About GeneDx

GeneDx, LLC, is a global leader in genomics, providing testing to patients and their families worldwide. Originally founded by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, GeneDx offers a world-renowned clinical genomics program with particular expertise in rare and ultra-rare genetic disorders. In addition to its market-leading exome sequencing service, GeneDx offers a suite of additional genetic testing services, including diagnostic testing for hereditary cancers, cardiac, mitochondrial, neurological disorders, prenatal diagnostics, and targeted variant testing. To learn more, please visit http://www.genedx.com.

CONTACT: Julie McKeough, [email protected]

SOURCE GeneDx, Inc.
The technique, called 3dMD, uses an array of cameras to generate nearly instantaneous images of the torso, which can guide treatment plans.

CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study that includes researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City has found that a technique called 3dMD, which uses an array of highly sensitive cameras and can image the entire body in a fraction of a second, generates extremely accurate and reliable models of the torso that can guide the management of adolescents with scoliosis.

The findings, presented today at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2022 Annual Meeting, shows that the ultrafast cameras produce scans of the surface of the body that complement internal images generated by low-dose x-ray. Because 3dMD does not rely on ionizing radiation, the investigators believe the technology may help scoliosis patients avoid many of the repeated and potentially harmful x-rays that conventional care require.

Surface topography and internal imaging work together to provide a much fuller picture of how scoliosis affects the body, according to Roger F. Widmann, MD, chief of the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Service at HSS and the senior researcher on the study. "When you see someone with a spinal deformity, you're not necessarily visualizing the shape of the spine underneath," he said. "Three-dimensional (3-D) surface scanning is analogous to what you see visually, whereas x-rays or MRI are often much different from what you see on the surface. Both approaches are important, but the information they provide is quite different."

Howard J. Hillstrom, PhD, a biomechanical engineer at HSS and co-principal investigator on the project, says the 30-camera array can generate a full image of a standing person in under two millisecondsfast enough to eliminate any blurring from even the slightest movement in any direction. "It gives us very accurate information to begin with, and it's important to start with sound data," Dr. Hillstrom noted.

What was previously unknown was how well these images of the body's surface conform to the anatomy beneath the skin. This relationship is critical for 3dMD to be useful in the clinic as a way to guide treatment for scoliosis, which affects between 2% and 3% of youth in the United States, or 6 to 9 million people.

Treatment for scoliosis frequently involves the use of braces to correct the curvature of the spinea measurement called the Cobb anglebut in the most severe cases, surgery may be necessary.

Dr. Hillstrom, who describes the image as a "large, 3-D selfie," said these results "give us the green flag to study spinal pathology and the effects of treatments for different severities of scoliosis" in ways that weren't possible previously.

For clinicians, he added, "It's great to have objective tools to support the patient-reported outcomes that we use."

For the study, the researchers compared images gathered by 3dMD with those produced by a next-generation x-ray system called EOS. A total of 46 youths participated in the study, 26 of whom had been diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (mean age, 14.7 years; 14 female, 12 male) and 20 who did not have the condition (mean age, 14.6 years; 9 female, 11 male).

The 3dMD images demonstrated extremely high reliability, particularly for linear geometric measurements of the surface of the subjects. "The measurements generated from the 3-D scans were used to create unique volumetric measures of truncal asymmetry, which demonstrated very high correlations with patient-reported self-image," Dr. Widmann said.

Dr. Hillstrom noted the post-processing software that employs artificial intelligence (AI) is the secret behind the accuracy of the camera array. "AI fills in the blanks very quickly. It helps to identify anatomical regions and provide a mathematical approach to organizing the topographic data showing you the head, neck, trunk and pelvisfrom outside of the body. You can uncover details you wouldn't normally be able to see with the naked eye or with the use of conventional radiology."

As the 3dMD system moves into the clinic, the technology will help surgeons better predict both the cosmetic and functional outcomes of the various procedures for scoliosis. "You can use the system to assess the efficacy of different surgical techniques based on how well you're creating symmetry of the surface of the torso," Dr. Widmann said. "This technology offers a quick and easy way to objectively assess surface symmetry as well as global spine range of motion, and both measures are really important to assess after scoliosis surgery."

Authors: Alon Wolf, PhD; Ankush Thakur, MS, BS, (HSS), Benjamin N. Groisser, BA (Technion), Howard J. Hillstrom, PhD (HSS), Kyle Morse, MD, Matthew E. Cunningham, MD, PhD, FAAOS (HSS), Michael T. Hresko, MD, FAAOS (Boston Children's Hospital), Roger F. Widmann, MD, FAAOS (HSS), Ron Kimmel, DPHIL (OXON).

About HSS

HSS is the world's leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. At its core is Hospital for Special Surgery, nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics (for the 12th consecutive year), No. 4 in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report (2021-2022), and the best pediatric orthopedic hospital in NY, NJ and CT by U.S. News & World Report "Best Children's Hospitals" list (2021-2022). In a survey of medical professionals in more than 20 countries by Newsweek, HSS is ranked world #1 in orthopedics for a second consecutive year (2022). Founded in 1863, the Hospital has the lowest complication and readmission rates in the nation for orthopedics, and among the lowest infection rates. HSS was the first in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center five consecutive times. An affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS has a main campus in New York City and facilities in New Jersey, Connecticut and in the Long Island and Westchester County regions of New York State, as well as in Florida. In addition to patient care, HSS leads the field in research, innovation and education. The HSS Research Institute comprises 20 laboratories and 300 staff members focused on leading the advancement of musculoskeletal health through prevention of degeneration, tissue repair and tissue regeneration. The HSS Innovation Institute works to realize the potential of new drugs, therapeutics and devices. The HSS Education Institute is a trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal knowledge and research for physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, academic trainees, and consumers in more than 145 countries. The institution is collaborating with medical centers and other organizations to advance the quality and value of musculoskeletal care and to make world-class HSS care more widely accessible nationally and internationally. www.hss.edu.

SOURCE Hospital for Special Surgery
What's New for 2022?

Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 2; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 6915

Companies: 115 - Players covered include American Greetings Corporation; Carlton Cards Ltd.; John Sands (Australia) Ltd.; UK Greetings Ltd.; Archies Limited; Avanti Press Inc.; Budget Greeting Cards Ltd.; Card Factory plc; Child Rights and You; Crane & Co.; Current Media Group LLC; Galison Publishing LLC; Hallmark Cards, Inc.; IG Design Group Plc; LovePop, Inc.; Party City Holdco Inc.; Simon Elvin Ltd.; UNICEF and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Occasion (Birthday, Christmas/New Year, Valentine's Day, Anniversary, Other Occasions)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Middle East; Africa.



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ABSTRACT-



Global Greeting Cards Market to Shrink to $20.9 Billion by 2026

Greeting cards reflect the feelings and thoughts of the sender in a relevant way. Although Snapchat and Facebook have made sending instant greetings much easier, younger generations still prefer sending greeting cards. The global market for greeting cards is significantly impacted by changing consumer values, ideas, shifting demographics, and changing technology. The earlier vibrant greeting cards industry is currently under pressure to sustain in the modern digital technology era. The radical changes in the economy, lifestyle and demographics are resulting in steady decline in demand for greeting cards. With the tech-savvy new generation favoring e-cards in place of physical greeting cards, the impact has been evident on the greeting cards industry. E-cards hold an edge as they enable customization to suit different occasions. In addition, the growing postage cost appears to be affecting the future of greeting cards. The use of high-end technologies to increase appeal and reach of greeting cards among consumers is emerging as a common strategy of card manufacturers to safeguard their business in the digital era. Card manufacturers are increasingly integrating audio capabilities and LED lighting features into physical greeting cards in order to boost adoption. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Greeting Cards estimated at US$22.5 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to decline to revised size of US$20.9 Billion by 2026, declining at a CAGR of -1.7% over the analysis period. Birthday Cards, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a -0.7% CAGR and shrink to US$6.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Christmas/New Year segment is readjusted to a revised -2.5% CAGR for the next 7-year period.



The U.S. Market is Estimated at $7.2 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Dwindle to $1.1 Billion by 2026

The Greeting Cards market in the U.S. is estimated at US$7.2 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to shrink to US$1.1 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a negative CAGR of -1.2% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to record negative CAGR of -1.8% and -2% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to decline at approximately -2.5% CAGR. These markets are witnessing decline in growth, constrained by challenges posed by growing social media proliferation, and surging popularity of digital e-cards. With the advent of digitalization, social media platforms and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, the greeting card business has been affected considerably. This coupled with rising awareness among people about the need to save trees has led to rising demand for e-cards. Despite the challenges posed by the growing social media and e-cards, there still exists a niche consumer base for physical greeting cards, and giving and receiving these cards continues to matter to a set of consumers, albeit a shrinking one. For this niche group of consumers a physical greeting card on special occasions means much more than a Facebook message or an e-card.

Valentine`s Day Segment to Contract to $2 Billion by 2026

Greeting card is the most popular gift for valentine day, surpassing flowers and candies. Valentine`s Day is the second largest holiday for giving greeting cards. Valentine`s Day is popularly celebrated in the US, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Canada, and Mexico. In the global Valentine`s Day segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the -2.4% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$1.8 Billion will reach a projected size of US$1.6 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain a major market in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$254.7 Million by the year 2026.

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Hear from leadership experts Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of best-selling book The Leadership Challenge. Tweet this

While the agenda is still shaping up, the center is proud to announce keynote speakers Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of best-selling book The Leadership Challenge. These experts help people discover their own leadership skills and help organizations create the right environment to develop leaders.

Jim Kouzes serves as a fellow at the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. The Wall Street Journal named him one of the ten best executive educators in the U.S. Dr. Barry Posner is a faculty member at Santa Clara University and has worked with global brands including Apple, Amazon and IKEA.

About the Conference:

The conference will be held virtually over three days, June 14  16.

 16. Registration will open on April 15 at ncu.edu/cavo.

at ncu.edu/cavo. The registration fee is $149 , and an early bird rate of $99 will apply through May 15 . Accessibility is central to Northcentral University's mission!

For more information about the Center for the Advancement of Virtual Organizations, visit ncu.edu/cavo. For questions, email [email protected].

About the Center for the Advancement of Virtual Organizations

The Center for the Advancement of Virtual Organizations (CAVO) is a hub of current and relevant information and practices aimed at supporting diverse industry professionals and educators in all aspects of virtual work. Hosting both research and real-world examples, NCU's CAVO partners with external experts around the remote workforce, innovations in virtual work and supporting technologies to grow a knowledge base and expertise.

About Northcentral University

Founded in 1996, Northcentral University is a regionally accredited, nonprofit, online and graduate-focused university serving professionals globally. Over 11,000 adult students are enrolled in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs at NCU, including business, education, health sciences, law, marriage and family therapy, psychology and technology.

Northcentral University is an affiliate of the private, nonprofit National University System. It is regionally accredited by WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). For more information, visit ncu.edu or call 866.776.0331.

SOURCE Northcentral University
AUSTIN, Texas, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) today announced that it unanimously elected Awo Ablo to Oracle's Board of Directors and increased the size of the Board to 15. The election is effective as of March 22, 2022.

Ms. Ablo is the Executive Director, External Relations at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (the "Institute") and has served as Company Director for the Institute since 2019. Ms. Ablo is Vice Chair of the Board at BBC Media Action and Vice Chair at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex. Previously, Ms. Ablo served as the Director, External Relations at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and as Director of Business Development at the BBC World Service Trust. Ms. Ablo is engaged as an Advisor to Iceaddis. Ms. Ablo has served on various advisory groups and committees, including the Chatham House Global Health Working Group. She has a Masters degree from SOAS, London University's School of Oriental and African Studies and a Bachelors degree in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Kent.

"At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Awo Ablo works directly with Tony Blair in both the formulation and implementation of policy initiatives designed to improve national governance and economic development," said Larry Ellison, Oracle's Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer. "Awo now has years of experience collaborating with heads of state, heads of government and other high-ranking government officials to help develop national programs addressing a wide range of critical challenges ranging from securing the food supply to modernizing healthcare and digital infrastructure. This wealth of experience will enable Awo to provide the Oracle Board with a unique perspective as to what is required for us to better meet the needs of our government customers around the world."

Bruce Chizen, Chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee, added, "I am delighted to welcome Ms. Ablo to the Board. We believe that Oracle, along with its customers and shareholders, will benefit from Ms. Ablo's current and prior experience in global healthcare and governmental affairs."

Members of Oracle's Board of Directors serve one-year terms and stand for election at the company's next annual meeting of stockholders in November 2022.

About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

"Safe Harbor" Statement: Statements in this press release relating to Oracle's future plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions and prospects are "forward-looking statements" and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. Many factors could affect our current expectations and our actual results, and could cause actual results to differ materially. A detailed discussion of these factors and other risks that affect our business is contained in our U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, particularly under the heading "Risk Factors." Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or by contacting Oracle's Investor Relations Department at (650) 506-4073 or by clicking on SEC Filings on the Oracle Investor Relations website at www.oracle.com/investor/. All information set forth in this press release is current as of March 24, 2022. Oracle undertakes no duty to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

SOURCE Oracle
A new national guideline on research ethics and governance will enhance China's oversight of projects in frontier fields, including life sciences, medicine and artificial intelligence, aiming to ensure that scientific and technological progress serves the greater good of humankind, officials and experts said. The guideline also demands that international research projects abide by the regulations of the participants' home countries and pass ethical reviews. Chinese authorities can organize experts to reevaluate international projects that have high ethical risks, it said. On Sunday, the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued the country's first comprehensive guideline on enhancing governance over ethics in science and technology. Xiang Libin, vice-minister of science and technology, said the current ethic governance system cannot keep up with China's rapid sci-tech growth, given how some of the country's cutting-edge scientific endeavors are exploring unchartered territories with many uncertainties. "Science and technology is a double-edged sword," Xiang said. "Therefore, the guideline plays a key role in building consensus, improving public awareness on the importance of research ethics and governance, and mitigating ethical risks in scientific undertakings." A key requirement of the guideline is that research ethics should be emphasized and upheld throughout the entire process of scientific research and technological development, Xiang said. Managing sci-tech ethics in accordance with laws and regulations, swiftly and properly handling emerging ethical challenges, establishing a system of ethical standards based on Chinese characteristics, and enhancing international cooperation in sci-tech governance are also among the top objectives, he added. Scientific activities should serve the greater good of humankind, respect human and animal rights, treat social groups from different backgrounds fairly and equally, properly prevent and manage ethical risks, and maintain openness and transparency during research, according to the guideline. "No agency, organization or individual can conduct scientific activities that damage social, public, biological and ecological security, nor can they undermine the safety and well-being of people's lives, health and dignity," it said. Universities are encouraged to bolster education about research ethics in undergraduate and graduate studies. Chinese authorities should guide universities, research institutions, medical agencies, social groups and companies to optimize their monitoring and early warning mechanisms to spot ethical risks. Violators of research ethics will be investigated and punished in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, with measures ranging from revoking research grants and titles to banning offenders from conducting future studies. In regard to ethical review of high-risk research, Dai Guoqing, director of the Department of Supervision and Scientific Integrity at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said there will be a multilayered review mechanism in which a proposal is not only required to pass a review by the ethical committee of the researchers' institution, but also several rounds of reviews by local regulatory agencies. Feng Chujian, deputy director of the department, said the purpose of enhancing ethical oversight is to nip unethical experiments in the bud, so "ethical supervision should not be an afterthought, nor should it be a simplified or perfunctory process". Zhai Xiaomei, a member of the National Science and Technology Ethics Committee, said the profound respect for the right to life and personal dignity highlighted in the guideline is in the same spirit that led to the creation of China's first Civil Code, which went into effect in January last year. In the medical experiments, the rights of trial participants should be fully protected, including their right to privacy and the right to make informed decisions, Zhai said. "They should be treated fairly and justly, and not be forced to make a compromise due to their circumstances." Zeng Yi, director of the International Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the level of research ethics varies greatly among different scientific disciplines. Artificial intelligence is one of the fields that sorely needs a comprehensive ethical review and oversight system, he said. "There is still a lot of room for improvements in AI ethics, especially those related to personal data and the user's right to know and choose, but this is also a global challenge." A major takeaway from the guideline for Zeng is the requirement for international projects to pass ethical reviews in the participants' home countries. "This is a big deal because foreign researchers can no longer carry out studies in China that are deemed too ethically risky in their home countries," he added. The release of the new guideline, along with the country's efforts to improve research ethics and governance in recent years, show that China has begun a systematic building of ethics in scientific activities, which will benefit the country's sci-tech development and open new areas for international cooperation, Zeng said.


Homeownership company sets sights on Oklahoma City as focus market; Introducing its homebuying service that upgrades conventional bids to all-cash, contingency-free offers

NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon , the homeownership company, today announces its expansion to Oklahoma, furthering its presence across the U.S. and providing Oklahoma's everyday homebuyers a fresh competitive advantage to help them compete against investor interest in single-family homes.

Homebuyers in Oklahoma face unprecedented challenges in securing the American Dream. According to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors , single-family home prices were up 10.6 percent compared to last year, and the number of homes available for sale was down 13.3 percent. High prices, low inventory, and growing Wall Street investor interest combine to impose a significant hurdle for buyers, as the national inventory of existing homes was at 910,000 at the start of 2022, the lowest level recorded since 1999.

With housing inventory at record lows, growing investor interest is ratcheting up competition to the point of leaving single-family homes further out of reach for everyday buyers.

"This combination has created unprecedented challenges in the housing market in Oklahoma where everyday buyers in search of their dream home are bidding against Wall Street investors and iBuyers with all-cash offers. Oklahoma's residents deserve better," said Shaival Shah, CEO and co-founder of Ribbon. "By expanding our all-cash solutions and best-in-class software and home financing solutions to Oklahoma City residents and real estate professionals, we're empowering the ecosystem and ensuring buyers win their dream homes while building equity in the process."

Buyers, sellers and agents are given added predictability and certainty in their deals with RibbonCash Offers . Homebuyers can waive mortgage, appraisal and home sale contingencies through the power of an all cash-offer on their dream home. Ribbon holds agent and loan officer webinars weekly.

In addition to Oklahoma, Ribbon also announced its expansion into Virginia, Missouri, and Indiana, adding to its operations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Indiana and Missouri with plans to expand to half of the U.S. by the end of 2022. For more information about Ribbon, visit www.ribbonhome.com .

About Ribbon:

Founded in 2017 in New York and Charlotte, Ribbon is on a mission to make homeownership achievable. A tech-enabled homeownership company, Ribbon allows everyday families to compete on a level playing field with high-net-worth individuals and institutional buyers by upgrading their offers to winning RibbonCash Offers. Ribbon empowers agents, brokerages, and lenders to create a world-class experience for home buyers and sellers through powerful financial products and digital workflow software. Visit ribbonhome.com.

Media Contact:

Charlie Ozuturk

GtM Communications Manager, Ribbon

[email protected]

732.552.5080

Media Contact:

BLASTmedia for Ribbon

[email protected]

317.806.1900

SOURCE Ribbon
Market Dynamics

The increased productivity with improved laser technology is challenging the robotic laser cutting market growth. The switch from traditional laser technology to fiber-based cutting in order to improve cut resolution, cutting speed, control on laser pulse, and the life of the equipment has increased the capability of laser cutting further. Green laser is one of the technologies used to improve the above-mentioned parameters. It provides the advantage of absorbing over a 1-micrometer wavelength and can be used with pulsed YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) or fiber. Furthermore, laser automation adds extra flexibility and capacity, and the nozzle technology leads to energy efficiency. Such advantages are driving the market growth.

The lower least count of the accuracy of robotic laser cutting is challenging the robotic laser cutting market growth. Historically, there was an average positioning error of +-5 mm at the EOAT. However, accuracy has vastly improved with advances in control modules and software to compensate for the error, with a least count of +- 0.05 mm. This has improved the precision and effectiveness of robots in cutting applications. However, the accuracy, compared with the least count of +-0.01mm in five-axis laser cutting machines, is a hindrance to the adoption of robotic laser cutting. It is anticipated that the required precision in the robotic arm will be attained during the forecast period with advanced controls. However, currently, it is a major challenge for the global robotic laser cutting market.

Learn about additional drivers and challenges impacting the growth of the robotic laser cutting market. View Our Free Sample Report Now

Company Profiles

The robotic laser cutting market report provides complete insights on key vendors, including ABB Ltd., AMADA Co. Ltd., Coherent Inc., DAIHEN Corp., FANUC Corp., Hans Laser Technology Industry Group Co. Ltd., Jenoptik AG, Jinan Style Machinery Co. Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Laser Photonics, MIDEA Group Co. Ltd., Midwest Engineered Systems Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp., Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co. Ltd, Staubli International AG, TRUMPF GmbH Co. KG, Universal Robots AS, Vector Automation Technologies Inc., and Yaskawa Electric Corp.

Competitive Analysis

The report includes the competitive analysis, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their industry position score and market performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last three years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.

Market Segmentation

By end-user, the market is classified into automotive industry, metal industry, aerospace industry, and others. The automotive industry segment contributes the largest share of the market.

contributes the largest share of the market. By geography, the market is classified as APAC, Europe , North America , South America , and the Middle East and Africa . APAC will have the largest share of the market.

Find out the contribution of each segment of the robotic laser cutting market. View Our Free Sample Report Now

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Robotic Laser Cutting Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 14.61% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 127.47 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 14.07 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 69% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled ABB Ltd., AMADA Co. Ltd., Coherent Inc., DAIHEN Corp., FANUC Corp., Hans Laser Technology Industry Group Co. Ltd., Jenoptik AG, Jinan Style Machinery Co. Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Laser Photonics, MIDEA Group Co. Ltd., Midwest Engineered Systems Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp., Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co. Ltd, Staubli International AG, TRUMPF GmbH Co. KG, Universal Robots AS, Vector Automation Technologies Inc., and Yaskawa Electric Corp. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for 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 End-user



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 End-user

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by End-user

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by End-user



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by End-user

5.3 Automotive Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Automotive Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Automotive Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Automotive Industry - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Automotive Industry - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Metal Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Metal Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Metal Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Metal Industry - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Metal Industry - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Aerospace Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 36: Chart on Aerospace Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Aerospace Industry - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Aerospace Industry - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Aerospace Industry - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 40: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 42: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.7 Market opportunity by End-user

Exhibit 44: Market opportunity by End-user ($ million)

6 Customer Landscape

6.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 45: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 46: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 48: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Geographic comparison

7.3 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 (%)

7.4 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 (%)

7.5 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 60: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 64: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 65: 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 66: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.8 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 (%)

7.9 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 (%)

7.10 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 78: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 79: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 80: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 81: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 South Korea - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on South Korea - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on South Korea - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 84: Chart on South Korea - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on South Korea - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 86: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 87: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 88: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 89: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 90: 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 91: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 92: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 93: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 94: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 95: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 96: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 ABB Ltd.

Exhibit 97: ABB Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 98: ABB Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 99: ABB Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 100: ABB Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: ABB Ltd. - Segment focus

10.4 DAIHEN Corp.

Exhibit 102: DAIHEN Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 103: DAIHEN Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 104: DAIHEN Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 105: DAIHEN Corp. - Segment focus

10.5 FANUC Corp.

Exhibit 106: FANUC Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 107: FANUC Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 108: FANUC Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 109: FANUC Corp. - Segment focus

10.6 Jenoptik AG

Exhibit 110: Jenoptik AG - Overview



Exhibit 111: Jenoptik AG - Business segments



Exhibit 112: Jenoptik AG - Key news



Exhibit 113: Jenoptik AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 114: Jenoptik AG - Segment focus

10.7 Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.

Exhibit 115: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 116: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 117: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 118: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 119: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. - Segment focus

10.8 Laser Photonics

Exhibit 120: Laser Photonics - Overview



Exhibit 121: Laser Photonics - Product / Service



Exhibit 122: Laser Photonics - Key offerings

10.9 NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp.

Exhibit 123: NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 124: NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 125: NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 126: NACHI FUJIKOSHI Corp. - Segment focus

10.10 Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co. Ltd

Exhibit 127: Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co. Ltd - Overview



Exhibit 128: Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co. Ltd - Product / Service



Exhibit 129: Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co. Ltd - Key offerings

10.11 Staubli International AG

Exhibit 130: Staubli International AG - Overview



Exhibit 131: Staubli International AG - Product / Service



Exhibit 132: Staubli International AG - Key offerings

10.12 Yaskawa Electric Corp.

Exhibit 133: Yaskawa Electric Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 134: Yaskawa Electric Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 135: Yaskawa Electric Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 136: Yaskawa Electric Corp. - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 137: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 138: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 139: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 140: Research methodology



Exhibit 141: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 142: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 143: 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.

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SOURCE Technavio
NEW YORK, March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE: AI): (i) pursuant and/or traceable to the Offering Documents issued in connection with the Company's initial public offering conducted on or about December 9, 2020 (the "IPO" or "Offering"); and/or (ii) between December 9, 2020 and February 15, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important May 3, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased C3.ai securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the C3.ai class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=3839 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than May 3, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, the Offering Documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading and were not prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations governing their preparation. Additionally, throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding C3.ai's business, operations, and compliance policies. Specifically, the Offering Documents and defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) C3.ai's partnership with Baker Hughes was deteriorating; (2) C3.ai's was employing a flawed accounting methodology to conceal the deterioration of its Baker Hughes partnership; (3) C3.ai faced challenges in product adoption and significant salesforce turnover; (4) C3.ai overstated, inter alia, the extent of its investment in technology, description of its customers, its total addressable market, the pace of its market growth, and the scale of alliances with its major business partners; and (5) as a result, defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the C3.ai class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=3839 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

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Contact Information:

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The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

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New York, NY 10016

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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
Dr. Debasish Mridha and his wife both studied in Ukraine before emigrating to the U.S. in the 1990s; their MIIPH Ukrainian Relief Fund is collecting donations to support aid and recovery

SAGINAW, Mich., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Saginaw physician / author / philanthropist Debasish Mridha and his wife Chinu Mridha have organized the MIIPH Ukrainian Relief Fund to generate financial support for refugees from Ukraine.

The Mridhas, who attended college in Kiev, Ukraine, before emigrating to the United States, founded the Mridha Foundation after Dr. Mridha established his Saginaw, Mich. neurology practice, Michigan Advanced Neurology Center (MANC). More recently, in 2021, they founded Mridha International Institute of Peace & Happiness (MIIPH), an organization dedicated to peace, nonviolence, and education.

The MIIPH Ukrainian Relief Fund, launched March 21, will continue raising funds for one month. Monies collected will be funneled to the USA for UNHCR relief efforts spearheaded by the United Nations, which is dedicated to aggregating international support for victims of the war currently happening in Ukraine.

Anyone interested in donating to the MIIPH Ukrainian Relief Fund can do at www.miiph.org or by visiting https://unrefugees-ukraine.funraise.org/fundraiser/miiph.

MIIPH is an organization of the Mridha Foundation, a nonprofit created by the Mridhas in 2001 to support educational institutions and philanthropies in Saginaw and beyond. In addition to leading his neurology practice and the Foundation, Dr. Mridha has published five books of his writings. His quotes are widely circulated through social media and various online sites.

"We are strongly committed to a peaceful resolution for the people of Ukraine and for promoting the goodwill of all nations and the right for everyone to live in peace," says Dr. Mridha. "I started the Institute because there will always be a need to make more peace in the world, especially right now."

About MIIPH: Founded in 2021, the Mridha International Institute of Peace & Happiness (MIIPH) is a 501(c)(3) company and a subsidiary of the Mridha Foundation. Based in Saginaw, Mich., the Institute is dedicated to promoting peace, happiness, and harmony through education, advocacy, and conscious consideration for others. For more information, visit http://www.miiph.org.

SOURCE Mridha International Institute of Peace & Happiness
MIAMI, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Great white sharks around Mexico's Guadalupe Island sometimes hang out with each other  and while it's not a popularity contest, some might just be a little more social than the rest.

Florida International University (FIU) marine scientist Yannis Papastamatiou and a collaborative team of researchers wanted to uncover some of the mysteries of the white sharks that gather seasonally around Guadalupe Island. They found sharks tended to stick together when patrolling for food.

"Most associations were short, but there were sharks where we found considerably longer associations, much more likely to be social associations," said Papastamatiou, lead author of the study. "Seventy minutes is a long time to be swimming around with another white shark."

Normally, studying such cryptic animals involves some form of tracking device. To study these white sharks, though, the researchers needed a much better tag. They combined different commercially available technology into a "super social tag" equipped with a video camera and an array of sensors tracking acceleration, depth, direction and more. What put the "social" in this tag was special receivers that could detect other tagged sharks nearby.

Those other tagged sharks were the result of previous work the study's co-author Mauricio Hoyos-Padilla had done to track movements of white sharks around Guadalupe Island. Around 30 to 37 of those sharks showed up on another white shark's super social tags.

Six white sharks over a four-year period were tagged. Data shows they prefer to be in groups with members from their same sex.

If the sharks shared any other similarities, it was in how totally unique each one was. One shark that kept its tag on for only 30 hours had among the highest number of associations  12 sharks. Another shark had the tag on for five days, but only spent time with two other sharks.

They also displayed different hunting tactics. Some were active in shallow waters, others at greater depths. Some were more active during the day, others at night.

The challenge of the hunt was reflected in the video footage. A great white followed a turtle. Then, the turtle saw it and got away. A great white followed a sealion. The sealion spotted it, danced loops around the shark and got away. Papastamatiou points out this isn't unique to white sharks, since predators are unsuccessful a lot of the time.

That's why forming social associations might be so important. Papastamatiou has studied the social lives of other shark species and noticed a link between sociality and the ability to take advantage of another shark's hunting success. The same thing may be happening at Guadalupe Island.

"Technology now can open up the secret lives of these animals," Papastamatiou said.

The findings were the cover story of Biology Letters.

B-roll footage of the study, courtesy of Discovery Channel, is available here for download and use.

Media Contact:

Angela Nicoletti

305-348-4493

[email protected]

SOURCE Florida International University
"We are thrilled and grateful that the PFAFF  creative icon 2 was chosen as a Red Dot award winner in the Product Design category. It's an honor to even be nominated and to win proves our R&D and design teams are delivering the most technologically advanced and beautiful machines for our customers. The innovative spirit at SVP Worldwide is unmatched, "says Dean Brindle, CMO of SVP Worldwide, the parent company of Pfaff.

The PFAFF creative icon 2 is the first sewing machine ever to be engineered with Artificial Intelligence to perform and evolve in response to the sewistto what and how they sew. In true AI fashion, the PFAFF creative icon 2 is set up to continually chase perfection, getting smarter with each task, in bold, new ways. It eagerly awaits the sewist's voice commands and imagination, also making it one of the most technologically advanced machines in the industry. The beauty of the machine is also unmatched with clean, modern lines and smoothly designed accessories and attachments.

The Red Dot Award will be formally presented to SVP Worldwide on June 20, 2022, in Germany.

Brindle says the Creative Icon 2 features and technological breakthroughs defy imagination. "It is the world's first and only sewing machine to be controlled by speech recognition. Hands-free commands offer sewers more flexibility and creativity. The machine is able to work alongside the sewist and the large interactive tablet acts as a virtual assistant, customizing and assisting through the project. Artificial Intelligence capabilities are an amazing feat of technology combined with honoring the history of the craft. We are humbled and honored by this award."

ABOUT PFAFF

With a celebrated history of superior design and engineering, PFAFF sewing machines are the world's premier precision machines that sewists aspire to own. The PFAFF brand has more than 150-years of sewing heritage that creates a climate for continued development and design of high-quality sewing and embroidery machines. Known as the perfector of the craft, PFAFF machines deliver precision to the most demanding sewists by offering maximum control and customization. PFAFF machines are catalysts for passionate sewers, producing the highest quality results in all aspects of sewing.

PFAFF is a registered trademark of KSIN Luxembourg II, S.a.r.l.  2022 KSIN Luxembourg II, S.a.r.l.

SOURCE SVP Worldwide
GREENWICH, Conn., March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Logan Generating Company, L.P. ("Logan"), and Chambers Cogeneration Limited Partnership ("Chambers"), companies owned by investment affiliates of Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC ("Starwood Energy"), a leading private investment firm focused on energy infrastructure, announced today the NJ Board of Public Utilities ("NJ BPU") has approved Atlantic City Electric's petition to modify its power purchase agreements ("PPAs") with Logan and Chambers. Once all conditions to modification of the PPAs have been satisfied and such modification transactions have closed, both facilities are expected to cease coal-fired generation on or around May 31, 2022.

The modification of the PPAs has been supported by numerous stakeholders including the Sierra Club, 350NJ-Rockland, and Environment New Jersey.

"We are pleased to continue our focus on sustainable energy transition by creating win-win solutions with our counterparties such as ACE," said Himanshu Saxena, CEO of Starwood Energy. "We appreciate the opportunity to support New Jersey and ACE's environmental goals, as we permanently shut down the last two coal plants in New Jersey, and transition the site to 21st century clean energy solutions, such as battery storage. We appreciate the support from Governor Phil Murphy, NJ BPU, ACE, Sierra Club, 350NJ-Rockland, Environment New Jersey, and many other stakeholders and look forward to completing this monumental milestone for New Jersey."

About Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC

Starwood Energy Group is a private equity investment firm based in Greenwich, Conn., that specializes in energy infrastructure investments. Through its existing general opportunity funds and affiliated investment vehicles, Starwood Energy has raised in excess of $3 billion of equity capital and has executed transactions totaling more than $8 billion in enterprise value. For more information, please visit starwoodenergygroup.com.

Contacts:

Tom Johnson or Dan Scorpio

[email protected]/[email protected]

(917) 747-6990/ (646) 899-8118

SOURCE Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC
IRVINE, Calif., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- StayLinked Corporation, the leader of innovative terminal emulation solutions for the supply chain industry, is proud to announce the winners of the 2021 Partner of the Year awards. "This was a pivotal year for StayLinked, for our partners, and for the industry," said Ron Caines, President of Sales at StayLinked. "We continue to rely heavily on our partner community to not only extend our reach in a global marketplace, but to offer product expertise and industry-leading support. We congratulate all of our partners of the year on their valuable contributions in 2021, and we look forward to what promises to be another spectacular year."



We are honored to recognize partners in the following categories:

Global Partner of the Year  Manhattan Associates, Atlanta, Georgia

Since 1990, innovation has been at the heart of everything they do at Manhattan Associates. They've put nearly $600 million into research and development since 2009, $88 million in 2019 alone. And 90% of Manhattan's workforce is directly focused on delivering customer value. They are committed to developing new, powerful ways to leverage emerging technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning, to provide a single vision: to be the nucleus of innovation transforming consumer experiences.

North American Partner of the Year - SMG3, Schaumburg, Illinois

Strategic Mobility Group (SMG3) is an innovative technology provider that designs and integrates mobile solutions for enterprises. SMG3 consults companies on how to operate more efficiently through the use of mobile hardware, software, professional services, and support. SMG3's focus is to keep businesses up to date on the latest technology and provide them with innovative solutions that will maximize efficiency both inside the four walls and out. Helping businesses improve operational efficiencies and ROI is why many of the Fortune 500 companies choose SMG3 to manage their enterprise mobility needs.

European Partner of the Year - The Barcode Warehouse, UK

The Barcode Warehouse is the UK's leading specialist provider of barcode technology, RFID, labeling and enterprise mobility solutions. They are a UK family business with more than 30 years' experience and a reputation for exceptional customer service. They help organizations transform their operations with the latest technology, software and labeling solutions, and their own, unrivalled mobile managed services. Their extensive experience across a wide range of industries helps our clients increase performance, operate more efficiently and be more competitive; from education to utilities, retail to manufacturing, healthcare to logistics.

Latin American Partner of the Year - BOREAL Technologies, Argentina

A company focused on innovation since 2002, Boreal continues betting on innovation as a path of growth and support for their clients' implementations. The Boreal team is fully focused on bringing innovation, with a commitment to customer support. Boreal offers extensive industry experience and proven results in providing mobile computing solutions to customers in a broad range of markets: Airports, Automotive, Field Service, Government, Ports, Transportation, and many others.

Distributor of the Year  ScanSourc

ScanSource is a worldwide leader in offering the industry's best AIDC, point-of-sale, communications, physical security and emerging technology solutions. They are committed to providing the value-added services and support that enable their customers to be successful. Their goal is to be a trusted partner to their employees, customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders.

Technology Partner of the Year, North America - Fetch Robotics

Fetch Robotics is an award-winning intralogistics automation company headquartered in Silicon Valley. By combining autonomous mobile robotics with the power of the cloud, the Fetch Cloud Robotics Platform provides on-demand automation solutions for material handling and inventory management, with the power to find, track, and move almost anything in any facility. Fetch Robotics' solutions and services are deployed in leading distribution, fulfillment, and manufacturing centers around the world, augmenting workforces to drive increased efficiency and productivity.

Technology Partner of the Year, EMEA - ProGlove

Founded in 2014, ProGlove is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and builds the smallest, lightest, and toughest barcode scanners in the world. ProGlove's industrial wearables connect the shopfloor worker to the Internet of Things. The wearables combined with ProGlove's industry analytics software platform promote human-machine collaboration and drive the digitization across the shopfloor. ProGlove's customers include some of the most iconic global industrial brands, pioneers and innovators in manufacturing and production, logistics and warehousing, retail and e-commerce, and post and parcel.

TekTerm for Android Partner of the Year  PIINK TEKNOLOGY

PIINK TEKNOLOGY was founded in 2017. They develop innovative and intuitive mobile solutions, mainly based on Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision technologies. It is thanks to the talent of their employees, their open-mindedness and their professional approach that they are both explorers of today and creators of the world of tomorrow.

StayLinked Solution Ambassador of the Year - Adam Robinson, Senior Solutions Architect, Honeywell

It is our pleasure to congratulate Adam on being selected as our 2021 Solution Ambassador of the Year.

We sincerely appreciate Adam's support for our products in Australia and this award is in recognition of his efforts for serving our mutual customers and ensuring that their experience with StayLinked SmartTE is exceptional.

About StayLinked

StayLinked is the proven market leader in Terminal Emulation for the supply chain industry and continues to drive innovation with the most advanced software solutions available for the warehouse. StayLinked enables our customers to easily migrate to state-of-the-art devices, measure and optimize productivity with cutting-edge business intelligence, and interface with ground-breaking technologies in the areas of automation, robotics, augmented reality, and location-based services. For nearly two decades, StayLinked has continued to deliver revolutionary software products with unparalleled customer satisfaction and world-class support to hundreds of partners and thousands of customers around the globe.

For more information, visit www.staylinked.com, email [email protected], or call +1-714-918-7700.

Press Contact:

Jay Cichosz

StayLinked Corporation

714-918-7709

SOURCE StayLinked Corporation
STOCKHOLM, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MARAD (United States Maritime Administration) has signed a contract for the purchase of two vessels. Crowley serves as vessel acquisition manager (responsible for contract implementation), and Stena RoRo is part of Crowley's project team on the shipping and logistics company's behalf for MARAD. Stena RoRo is participating as market experts and brokers, as well as providing support in contract drafting.

MARAD is purchasing two vessels from the American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group (ARC). The vessels will be part of the RRF fleet. More vessel purchases are expected to follow as the fleet is in need of rejuvenation.



Stena RoRo is part of the project team that Crowley created for the MARAD contract. Stena RoRo assists in the process of finding and selecting new vessels, serves as a broker and supports the parties in drawing up contracts in connection with the purchase of vessels.



Stena RoRo has extensive experience and knowledge of the global markets relevant to MARAD's very specific requirements.



"We are delighted to be assisting MARAD in strengthening the RRF fleet, and looking forward to participating in more vessel purchases within the framework of this collaborative arrangement," says Ambjorn Frojd, Commercial Project Manager, Stena RoRo.



The vessels that MARAD has agreed to purchase from ARC are the M/V Freedom and the M/V Honor. The RRF is part of MARAD and already has some 40 vessels.



For more information, please contact

Per Westling, Managing Director, Stena RoRo AB

Tel: +46 31 855154; +46 704 85 51 54

Email: [email protected]



Since 1977, Stena RoRo has led the development of new marine RoRo, cargo and passenger concepts. We provide custom-built vessels, as well as standardized RoRo and RoPax vessels. The company leases about fifteen vessels to operators worldwide, both other Stena companies and third parties. Stena RoRo specializes above all in applying its technical expertise to the design and production of new vessels and the conversion of existing vessels for providing tailored transport solutions to its customers. We call this "Stenability". Since 2013, we have been responsible for the design and completion of Mercy Ships' new hospital vessel the Global Mercy  the world's largest civilian hospital ship which was delivered in 2021. www.stenaroro.com



More information about:

Crowley's Government Solutions: Crowley Government Solutions

MSP: Maritime Security Program (MSP) | MARAD (dot.gov).

ARC Shipping : American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (arcshipping.com)



Foto: M/V Honor, at lay-by berth in Norfolk

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/stena-roro/r/stena-roro-assisting-marad-in-purchase-of-two-vessels-for-ready-reserve-force--rrf-,c3532030

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/9515/3532030/1553558.pdf Stena RoRo assisting MARAD in purchase of two vessels for Ready Reserve Force (RRF) https://news.cision.com/stena-roro/i/mv-honor-at-lay-by-berth-in-norfolk,c3029137 MV Honor at lay-by berth in Norfolk

SOURCE Cision AB
Largest privately owned Mobility-as-a-Service ("MaaS") platform based in Germany with 24% market share in Germany, > 70 deployments in 10 European countries, approximately $2.8 million revenue in 2021 and approximately $7 million pipeline

7.5x revenue growth from 2017-21, 45% customers CAGR from 2018-21 and >90% customer retention

Provides a launch pad when combined with Shotl to tap into the $22.5 billion SaaS/TaaS market1 in Europe, where door2door brings deep understanding, access and track record

Offers a complementary suite of new mobility solutions - EV/AV fleet management, Integrated inter and multi-modal trips, Paratransit / NEMT and Logistics

DUBAI, UAE, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Swvl Inc. ("Swvl" or the "Company"), a global provider of transformative tech-enabled mass transit solutions, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire door2door, a European high-growth mobility platform that partners with municipalities, public transit operators, corporations, and automotive companies, providing software for on-demand mobility, multimodal routing and mobility analytics. The closing of the door2door transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in Q2 2022.

Founded in 2012 with the mission of making cities smarter, door2door has developed a leading proprietary MaaS software platform that can be easily integrated into any existing transit network. door2door has a strong commercial track record with 70 deployments across 10 European countries and approximately 24% market share in Germany, Europe's largest mass transit market. Swvl and door2door share a commitment to expanding access to affordable transportation and unlocking economic, social, and environmental benefits for riders and their communities.

Mostafa Kandil, Swvl Founder and CEO, said, "Swvl and door2door share an ongoing commitment to disrupting traditional public transportation systems with tech-enabled mobility solutions focused on accessibility, convenience and sustainability. door2door's impressive foothold in Europe, and particularly DACH2, complement Swvl's recent growth efforts, including our acquisitions of controlling interests in Shotl and Viapool, which launched the Swvl platform in Europe and Latin America, respectively. By significantly expanding our European footprint and furthering our MaaS and SaaS capabilities, we continue to deliver on our growth objectives, while effectively scaling the Swvl platform to key additional geographies."

Transaction Highlights:

The transaction with door2door will create a leading global mass transit player, with synergies on offerings, geography, partnerships and product domain:

Boosts Swvl's momentum of growth and expansion in Europe and beyond by bringing the Company's total geographic presence to more than 20 countries on 4 continents.

and beyond by bringing the Company's total geographic presence to more than 20 countries on 4 continents. Leverages door2door's impressive growth track record, with 45% CAGR in number of customers from 2018-2021, >90% customer retention and 7.5x revenue growth from 2017-2021.

Provides compelling market opportunities with access to more than 100 additional European cities.

Provides a launch pad when combined with Shotl to tap into the $22.5 billion SaaS/TaaS market in Europe , where door2door brings a deep understanding of market dynamics.

to tap into the SaaS/TaaS market in , where door2door brings a deep understanding of market dynamics. Unlocks the full potential of SaaS for Swvl through door2door's proprietary mobility orchestration platform with fleet operations management, insights and reporting, and a driver, passenger and attendant application combined with strong technology in the form of a white-label engine, API integration and free floating options.

Allows Swvl to integrate door2door's scalable technology stack with Swvl's proprietary technology to predict and identify latent demand, create routes around demand clusters, create dynamic routes and cost efficient plans, price supply through bidding, and enhance dynamic pricing capabilities.

Enables partnerships with municipalities, public transit operators, corporations, non-emergency medical transportation and smart city organizations, and automotive companies.

Offers a complementary suite of mobility solutions including EV/AV fleet management, on-demand and fixed route public transit, corporate and campus shuttles, autonomous logistics delivery and demand management to add to Swvl's existing suite.

Advances Swvl's ESG strategy by accelerating its adoption of EV/AV technology and creating partnership opportunities to digitize non-emergency medical transport.

Maintains an outstanding policy network on both a national and EU level, providing additional opportunities to enter new markets and expand Swvl's B2G business.

Dr. Tom Kirschbaum, door2door Co-CEO, said, "We are excited to embark on this next phase of growth alongside the Swvl team. We have been impressed by Swvl's ability to rapidly scale its business while continuing to provide best-in-class, transformative mobility solutions for customers. Now we are looking forward to leveraging the combined capabilities of our platforms to alleviate many of the burdens and inefficiencies posed by traditional commuting methods."

Maxim Nohroudi, door2door Co-CEO, said, "With Swvl and door2door joining forces today we are building a global mass transit company. Swvl's outstanding TaaS experience adds value to our European customers, while door2door complements Swvl with MaaS solutions and B2G capabilities. Together, we are catering to diverse mass transit challenges worldwide, providing a truly global mobility platform. "

Youssef Salem, Swvl CFO, said, "The acquisition of door2door provides us with a leading position in Central Europe, attractive SaaS revenue base and pipeline, complementary suite of new mobility products, strong hub in Berlin and a launch pad for further European and global expansion across marketplace and SaaS offerings. Following our recent acquisitions of controlling interests in Shotl and Viapool, investments in mass transit platforms in the United Kingdom and Mexico and launches across Latin America and Europe, this transaction further demonstrates our ability to utilize our growth capital and public currency to pursue accretive organic and inorganic strategic initiatives. We look forward to capitalizing on the numerous opportunities provided by this transaction and furthering partnerships to advance our leading market position as a provider of technology-enabled mass transit solutions on a global scale. We are confident that the Swvl platform will have a very positive and sustained impact on European transit."

About Swvl

Swvl is a global provider of transformative tech-enabled mass transit solutions, offering intercity, intracity, B2B and B2G transportation across 115 cities in 18 countries. The Company's platform provides complimentary semi-private alternatives to public transportation for individuals who cannot access or afford private options. Every day, Swvl's parallel mass transit systems are empowering individuals to go where they want, when they want  making mobility safer, more efficient, accessible, and environmentally friendly. Customers can book their rides on an easy-to-use proprietary app with varied payment options and 24 / 7 access to high-quality private buses and vans.

Swvl was co-founded by Mostafa Kandil, who launched Carmudi in the Philippines, which became the largest car classifieds platform in the country in just six months. He then served as Rocket Internet's Head of Operations. In 2016, Kandil joined Careem, a ride-sharing company and the first unicorn in the Middle East, where he launched services in multiple new markets.

For additional information about Swvl, please visit www.swvl.com .

About door2door

door2door is a European high-growth mobility platform providing software solutions for on-demand shared mobility, multimodal routing and mobility analytics. The Berlin-based company licenses its B2G/B2B mobility software to municipalities, mass transit operators, transit agencies, corporations, and automotive companies, with 70 deployments across 10 European countries and approximately 24% market share in Germany, Europe's largest mass transit market. Founded by Dr. Tom Kirschbaum and Maxim Nohroudi with the goal of making cities smarter, door2door has been appointed by LinkedIn as "Top-10 Startup in Germany" and "European Company of the Year".

For additional information about door2door, please visit www.door2door.io .

Media Contact

Daniel Yunger

Kekst CNC

[email protected]

917-574-8582

Investor Contact

Youssef Salem

Swvl CFO

[email protected]







1 Additional market opportunity: Estimated TaaS/SaaS TAM in Europe in 2027 is $22.5B. Source : BCG analysis 2 Germany, Austria and Switzerland

SOURCE Swvl Inc.
HANOI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam recorded 120,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, down by 7,883 cases from Wednesday, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new infections, logged in 62 localities nationwide, included 119,992 domestically transmitted and eight imported.

Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the epidemic hotspot with 12,485 cases reported on Thursday, followed by the central highlands Dak Lak province with 4,463 cases and the northern Bac Ninh province with 4,292 cases.

The infections brought the total tally to 8,599,751, with 42,145 deaths. Nationwide, as many as 4,826,024 COVID-19 patients, or 56 percent of the infections, have so far recovered.

More than 204.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the Southeast Asian country, including 187.1 million shots on people aged 18 and above, said the ministry.

Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication, and infectivity. As of Thursday, it has registered nearly 8.6 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave of infections in April 2021, said the health ministry. 
HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon Bolivar Foundation Inc., a 501 (c)(3) non-profit private foundation, has presented results from a recent report on the health crisis in Venezuela, aiming to help guide humanitarian health programs and provide updated, objective and reliable data. The report was prepared by researchers at the Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

There are significant challenges to understanding the health situation in Venezuela given the difficulty in obtaining accurate health information and laboratory and testing capacity data. Most notably, no official data has been released since 2017. The report states that the political and economic crisis over the past five years has severely crippled Venezuela's health system. In addition, the situation has been exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a review of available information and data from 2019 to late 2021, the report reveals the following on the current health situation in Venezuela:

Life expectancy in Venezuela has declined, and rates of both child and maternal mortality have increased which contrasts with regional trends.

has declined, and rates of both child and maternal mortality have increased which contrasts with regional trends. Vaccination coverage in Venezuela is well below the regional average, with a resurgence of many vaccine-preventable diseases, most notably measles.

is well below the regional average, with a resurgence of many vaccine-preventable diseases, most notably measles. Venezuela's health infrastructure is crumbling, with more than 70% of public hospitals without regular access to water or electricity, inadequate supplies of medication and essential supplies and the loss of many health workers.

health infrastructure is crumbling, with more than 70% of public hospitals without regular access to water or electricity, inadequate supplies of medication and essential supplies and the loss of many health workers. More than 90% of the population is living in poverty and 32% of children have chronic malnutrition.

There are an estimated 14.3 million people in Venezuela in need of humanitarian assistance. The United Nations 2020 humanitarian response plan required $763 million in aid, but by August 2020 only $130 million in assistance had been provided.

Key recommendations from the report include that health investments should prioritize:

Investing in new cadres of on the ground health workers that require less extensive training and can provide critical services at the community and primary level;

Prioritizing adequate supplies and medication for essential primary and preventative care;

Focusing on raising levels of coverage and service provision capacity for maternal and child health, nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, non-communicable diseases, and mental health; and

Addressing widespread gaps in access and investing in primary care at the facility and community levels.

This report was presented as part of a webinar series sponsored by the Simon Bolivar Foundation and organized by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, "Lunchtime Conversations: A Learning Opportunity for Funders," aimed at raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. You can watch the webinars here.

The report demonstrates that we can help mitigate the ongoing crisis in Venezuela through the coordination of collective efforts. The Foundation will soon be announcing a public call for grant proposals for the Foundation's Integral Maternal, Neonatal and Childhood Health Care Grant Program.

Please visit simonbolivarfoundation.org for more information.

About The Simon Bolivar Foundation

Simon Bolivar Foundation Inc. is the 501(c)(3) non-profit, private foundation of CITGO Petroleum Corporation. The Foundation supports charitable initiatives, leverages existing resources and provides charitable grants to qualified organizations to meet the immediate and long-term health needs of the most vulnerable individuals particularly in and from Venezuela with a special focus on the health and well-being of children and their mothers.

SOURCE The Simon Bolivar Foundation
CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New York orthopaedic surgeon Toni M. McLaurin, MD, FAAOS, became a member-at-large of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' (AAOS) Board of Directors. She will assume the new position following the AAOS 2022 Annual Meeting in Chicago, March 22-26, 2022.

Dr. McLaurin is currently a professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for NYU Langone Orthopedics. She also serves as associate director of orthopaedic surgery and chief of orthopaedic service at Bellevue Hospital Center.

Specializing in orthopaedic trauma, Dr. McLaurin's interests include musculoskeletal infections and reconstructive orthopaedic trauma, especially post-traumatic deformity correction. Throughout her surgical career, she has transformed life-altering injuries back into functioning limbs.

Dr. McLaurin takes pride in teaching reconstructive treatment procedures to orthopaedic residents with a focus on the management of both acute and reconstructive trauma. She has been involved in resident education for her entire career, receiving multiple Teacher of the Year awards at both NYU Langone and Emory University where she was previously faculty. She works with medical students, pre-medical students, and even high school students through pipeline activities to mentor and encourage interest in orthopaedics and STEM.

Dr. McLaurin is an active member of numerous orthopaedic professional societies, including the J Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society, AO Trauma North America, and the Orthopaedic Trauma Association where she is a member of the Diversity Task Force and Membership Committee. Dr. McLaurin previously served as a member-at-large on the AAOS Diversity Advisory Board.

A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., Dr. McLaurin attended Harvard University and graduated with a degree in biochemical sciences. After teaching high school for two years, she then matriculated to the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. She completed her residency at Michigan State University and an orthopaedic trauma fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine.

About the AAOS

With more than 39,000 members, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is the world's largest medical association of musculoskeletal specialists. The AAOS is the trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal health. It provides the highest quality, most comprehensive education to help orthopaedic surgeons and allied health professionals at every career level to best treat patients in their daily practices. The AAOS is the source for information on bone and joint conditions, treatments, and related musculoskeletal health care issues, and it leads the health care discussion on advancing quality.

Follow the AAOS on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

SOURCE American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Practice Encourages the Spread of Avian Influenza and Salmonella Bacteria to People and Birds

MACHIPONGO, Va., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/  Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is sweeping the country, including backyard birds, reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

United Poultry Concerns , a nonprofit organization promoting the compassionate care of domesticated fowl, is calling upon the Tractor Supply Company to stop carrying live chicks and ducklings in its stores  a practice that contributes to the spread of disease.

Poultry factory farms and transport methods, added to traditional farming practices, live bird markets, cockfighting, and the wild-caught bird trade, have created the conditions responsible for the spread of avian influenza (bird flu) viruses capable of infecting birds and humans alike. Backyard-poultry keepers and their birds are not immune to this contagion, as shown in How Infected Backyard Poultry Could Spread Bird Flu to People.

Salmonella infection of backyard birds, children, and adults is also a significant risk. More and more children have egg allergies and complications of seasonal flu. The risk of infection, said Dr. Pascal James Imperato of the State University of New York's Health Sciences University, in 2009, is "especially high for young children who come into contact with baby chicks and ducklings."

Despite these risks, parents regularly bring their children to Tractor Supply stores to handle and buy the birds as if they were toys, responding to the company's "Chick Days" promotions.

United Poultry Concerns (UPC) is urging Tractor Supply Company to stop selling these birds. Typically shipped by airmail, the newborns arrive at the stores in a fragile state of food and water deprivation and extreme stress. Many are dying or are already dead.

As an employee wrote to UPC on March 7, 2022:

"The birds come by mail with many squashed to death. The sick ones suffer by themselves in the back of the store in a separate tub.  Parents buy them for their kids and the kids handle them to death, literally."

Says Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns: "The stresses they endure weaken the birds' immune systems, making them particularly vulnerable to avian influenza and Salmonella infections. At the store, they receive little or no care, and often lack fresh food or water. Often their food and water bowls are filthy, as reported by customers and employees. It is time for Tractor Supply Company to act responsibility and stop selling living creatures and encouraging the spread of poultry diseases."

For more information, visit United Poultry Concerns at www.upc-online.org.

SOURCE United Poultry Concerns
SHANGHAI, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 11th, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, New Chainbase, and the DFINITY Foundation partnered to announce the 2022 IC Bootcamp, an Internet Computer training program focused on connecting great startup projects being built on the Internet Computer blockchain worldwide with ecosystem resources to jointly explore and develop Web3 dapps, DeFi, games, NFTs, social media, and infrastructure and metaverse projects.

Teams participating in the Bootcamp will receive technological and financial support from the DFINITY Foundation, as well as access to resources offered by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and New Chainbase to help them reliably operate their projects. Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and New Chainbase will also offer selected teams access to systematic training courses regarding developer community development and operation, blockchain team management, and branding. Participants may also receive additional entrepreneurial support from Wanxiang Blockchain, such as financing access, roadshow opportunities, and workspace.

Furthermore, DFINITY engineers and IC technology community developers will formulate dedicated training courses for the Motoko programming language, IC development tools, IC key technologies, and IC application development to provide these teams with fundamental assistance.

The Bootcamp boasts a strong and experienced mentor group, including members of leading blockchain investment institutions who will serve on an expert committee to offer guidance and support. Teams will prepare for two evaluations in total, the first at the mid-term and the second at the end of the term, where each selected team will need to demonstrate their project's achievements and progress.

The DFINITY Foundation and Wanxiang Blockchain will monitor the Bootcamp program until completion while tracking updates. Distinguished teams will have the opportunity to showcase their projects at Global Blockchain Summit and DFINITY events.

"Wanxiang Blockchain has long embraced the vision for an enabling and sustainable blockchain ecosystem, geared up as the incubator and enabler for excellent blockchain projects," said Du Yu, General Director of Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and New Chainbase. "We hereby sincerely welcome like-minded teams who aspire to learn more about IC technology and work and grow with IC community."

Dominic Williams, DFINITY Founder and Chief Scientist, noted that "The Internet Computer is the first blockchain where you can build without cloud and legacy IT. It is hundreds of thousands of times more efficient than traditional blockchains, it hosts smart contracts that can serve interactive web directly to end users, and end users can interact with dapps without holding tokens. The development of the Internet Computer dates back to 2015, and has roots in China, including support from Wanxiang, Fenbushi and Amino Capital. In partnership with Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and New Chainbase, IC Bootcamp now supports teams building Web3 startups that run entirely from chain, who are pioneering the world's future internet."

SOURCE Wanxiang Blockchain Labs
BETHESDA, Md., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the future of work continues to evolve, many employees are still working from home and expect a level of permanence to this arrangement. As a result, a new definition of home comfort is emerging. Today, Service 1st Financial, LLC ("Service 1st"), a disruptive financial technology company serving residential home services contractors, and Dynamic Air Quality Solutions ("Dynamic"), the industry's leading provider of residential and commercial indoor air quality ("IAQ") technologies, announced a strategic alliance to deliver enhanced worry-free home comfort solutions to contractors.

Installing the right combination of heating and air conditioning equipment paired with IAQ products and smart controls is only part of what today's consumers are demanding. Service 1st's Premier ProgramTM delivers a worry-free service for homeowners to replace and upgrade their heating and cooling systems for a low monthly payment, while eliminating the common pain points associated with owning, maintaining, and repairing such systems. As an added benefit, Dynamic's full line of whole house IAQ products, including but not limited to, polarized media air cleaners, high output UVC and UVV air purification systems, bypass HEPA filters, and steam humidification systems, provide cleaner, fresher, and healthier air to deliver the ultimate worry-free home comfort experience.

"The ease with which Dynamic's scientifically-proven IAQ products can be included in the Premier Program provides a significant opportunity for incremental growth for our customers," said Steve Mores, Dynamic's Divisional President. "The majority of IAQ products are sold and installed by technicians on service and maintenance calls. Selling IAQ with the original system sale is a large opportunity that often gets overlooked. By offering the Premier Program, our contractors will experience significantly higher IAQ attachment rates on system sales, resulting in true incremental sales and margin growth, while providing customers a compelling worry-free home comfort experience for years to come."

Contractors will benefit from the collaboration between Service 1st and Dynamic by improving key performance measures that drive business growth and long-term value. Premier Program authorized contractors are experiencing significant increases in average ticket, developing 10+ year customer relationships with maintenance agreements, earning substantial recurring revenue, and securing the first call on the next replacement.

Service 1st VP of Business Development, Tom Towe, added, "Our alliance with Dynamic excites me because of the strong alignment between our organizations in terms of innovation, contractor training, and a laser focus on contractor success. We look forward to educating current and future Dynamic contractors on the benefits of this strategic alliance and how it can help differentiate them in today's rapidly changing and increasingly competitive home services market."

About Dynamic Air Quality Solutions

Since 1982, Dynamic Air Quality Solutions has been the leader in designing, manufacturing, and distributing IAQ products to the commercial and residential markets through authorized HVAC contractors. Our products are scientifically proven to work, not only in a lab, but in the application for which they are designed. We create an IAQ culture and provide ongoing world-class technical and communication training for contractors so their teams understand and believe in our products and can communicate IAQ challenges and solutions in plain language on every call. Partner with us and enjoy the benefits of The Science of Clean Air.

About Service 1st Financial

Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Service 1st Financial, LLC is a leading financial technology, innovation, and training company serving residential home service contractors in the United States. Our Premier Program is offered through independent contractors on a full portfolio of home comfort products, including HVAC systems, IAQ products, tank and tankless water heaters, water purification systems, and standby generators. Service 1st is the only independent, unconflicted provider of comprehensive worry-free home comfort programs in the industry.

For additional information, visit: https://dynamicaqs.com/ and https://www.worryfreehomecomfort.com/

Media Contacts:

Tom Towe, VP of Business Development, [email protected], 240.800.7568

Steve Mores, Divisional President, [email protected], 630.417.4998

SOURCE Service 1st Financial, LLC
Imagining a TB-free world amidst resurgence during COVID-19 pandemic

NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The world continues to battle against two pandemics: COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB). Today, March 24, marks World TB Day and TB Alliance is joining partners around the globe to raise awareness and continue shining a light on one of the world's oldest diseases. TB had long been the deadliest infectious diseaseuntil COVID-19. This new pandemic has shown that new tools, diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines can be developed with the right amount of funding and political will. The same resources are needed to bring the TB pandemic under control and make progress toward a TB-free world.

TB Alliance and partners have worked to advance the development of innovations in TB, and to accelerate global accessibility of new treatments. Highlights in these efforts include:

TB Alliance's ZeNix trial of the BPaL regimen (bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid) in South Africa and Eastern Europe sought to optimize a six-month, all-oral treatment regimen by assessing various dosing modifications of the linezolid component of BPaL. Data presented in 2021 demonstrated improvement in the safety and tolerability of the BPaL regimen with alterations in linezolid dosing with sustained favorable outcomes in 89 precent of all participants.

and sought to optimize a six-month, all-oral treatment regimen by assessing various dosing modifications of the linezolid component of BPaL. Data presented in 2021 demonstrated improvement in the safety and tolerability of the BPaL regimen with alterations in linezolid dosing with sustained favorable outcomes in 89 precent of all participants. To date, 16 countries or regulatory bodies have approved pretomanid as part of the BPaL regimen for the treatment of patients with highly drug-resistant forms of TB. Regulatory applications have been submitted to another 16 countries and counting by Viatris, TB Alliance's global commercialization partner for pretomanid as part of the regimen. Viatris is joined by Macleods, Lupin and Hongqi Pharma in holding a non-exclusive license for pretomanid in high-burden countries. More than 30 countries have procured pretomanid for use in the regimen.

The evidence generated from the Nix-TB and ZeNix clinical trials is now being supplemented through operational research programs such as LIFT-TB, and 11 countries are actively enrolling patients in operational research in regions around the world.

The LIFT-TB initiative continues to broaden and accelerate the adoption and scale up of the regimen. Patients are actively being treated in six of the seven LIFT-TB countries and 563 healthcare professionals have been trained. Regulatory submissions have been submitted in all countries, with two approvals to date ( Ukraine and Uzbekistan ). Additional information is available on the new LIFT-TB website, launched today in commemoration of World TB Day.

TB Alliance is also working to advance the development of new TB compounds and medicines, with a goal to develop a short, simple, and affordable TB regimen suitable for all people with TB. TB Alliance works closely with partners and researchers to advance both early- and late-stage research.

Though many important advances have been made in recent years, the need to invest in TB research and development is even more apparent amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already reversed hard-won progress against TB. In 2020, the world saw the first increase in TB deaths since 2005, and a 15 percent reduction in the number of people treated for drug-resistant TB.

Visions of a TB-free world can only be realized with global commitment and collaboration.

About TB Alliance

TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight TB. Through innovative science and with partners around the globe, we aim to ensure equitable access to faster, better TB cures that will advance global health and prosperity. TB Alliance operates with support from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (United Kingdom), Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research through KfW, Global Disease Eradication Fund (Korea), Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, Indonesia Health Fund, Irish Aid, Korea International Cooperation Agency, Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the United States Agency for International Development. For more information, visit www.tballiance.org.

SOURCE TB Alliance
According to Advertise Purple's President, Kyle Mitnick; "I couldn't be more proud of our team; I am in awe of our ability to perform at such a high level for so long. Earning this prestigious award from Inc. for a third consecutive year makes the investment well worth it.

Although, the truth is, growth sucks. Recipients of this award rarely talk about the constant discomfort, long nights, and therapy sessions required to sustain growth at this scale, but I believe it's worth addressing.

The companies who have made this list are just like us; customer service and progress are on their minds when they wake up and go to sleep. But company mantras and mission statements can only take you so far. The rest of the journey is connected through blood, sweat, tears, and unbridled persistence.

Thank you to our employees, customers, and Inc. for the recognition; we'll continue to apply the same effort toward our service as we did ten years ago."

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2018 and 2020, these 150 private companies had an average growth rate of 195% percent and, in 2020 alone, they added 10,252 jobs and $5.1 billion to the Pacific region's economy. Companies based in the Irvine, Santa Monica, and Venice, California, areas had the highest growth rate overall.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals Pacific, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/pacific starting March 15, 2022.

"This year's Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of America's off-the-charts growth companies. They're disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies you'll be hearing about for years to come," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.

About Advertise Purple, Inc.

Advertise Purple has helped over 3,000 brands in 23 verticals generate $3B in affiliate revenue, making us the leader in partnership marketing management. Through a combination of experience, exclusive proprietary affiliate partnership technology Purply, and our team of 150+, Advertise Purple provides award-winning affiliate program management for Enterprise, SMB, and international e-commerce brands looking to drive performance-based online customer acquisition.

Contact: Jonathan Moisan, (424) 272-7400

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2022 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2018 and 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2019. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.

The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

SOURCE Advertise Purple
DUBLIN, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Africa & Middle East Embedded Lending Business and Investment Opportunities - Q1 2022 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to the Q4 2021 Embedded Finance Survey, Embedded Lending industry in the region is expected to grow by 49.5% on annual basis to reach US$1,936.4 million in 2022.



The embedded lending industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 31.9% during 2022-2029. The embedded lending revenues in the region will increase from US$1,936.4 million in 2022 to reach US$8,983.7 million by 2029.



Strategic partnership with global players to drive financial inclusion through embedded lending in the Africa and Middle East region



In the Africa and Middle East region, there is a large proportion of the young population who do not have access to financial services. Targeting such consumer demographics, firms are entering into strategic alliances with global players to drive financial inclusion in the region.

In June 2021 , Aafaq Islamic Finance entered into a strategic partnership with The Social Loan Company, a Singapore -based artificial intelligence-powered cutting-edge, big data-driven credit enablement platform company.

, Aafaq Islamic Finance entered into a strategic partnership with The Social Loan Company, a -based artificial intelligence-powered cutting-edge, big data-driven credit enablement platform company. Under the collaboration with The Social Loan Company, the firm is planning to launch embedded lending services, thereby offering credit to the underserved young population in the region.

Notably, The Social Loan Company has had a phenomenal upward trajectory through its flagship embedded lending brand CASHe in India over the past four years.

The publisher expects more such strategic alliances with global players in the embedded lending industry over the next four to eight quarters, which will subsequently drive the growth of the market in the Africa and Middle East region from the short to medium-term perspective.



Strategic collaboration with online and offline businesses will be the key to driving the growth of embedded lending in the Africa and Middle East



To provide an increasing number of consumers and businesses with embedded lending solutions, the publisher expects that strategic alliances with both online as well as offline businesses will be the major driving factor for the growth of the industry in the Africa and Middle East region. Notably, buy now, pay later (BNPL) firms have adopted this strategy widely in the region.

In the Middle East , BNPL firms are aggressively partnering with various businesses across industry verticals. Dubai -based Tabby, for instance, has partnered with 2,000 global brands, which also include small and medium-sized businesses in the region. Similar, Tamara, the Saudi Arabian BNPL firm, has entered into a strategic collaboration with 1,000 merchants to offer consumers short-term loans in the UAE as well as Saudi Arabia .

While the BNPL sector is growing strongly in the online space, the publisher expects that strategic partnerships in the offline space will remain a key factor in driving the industry's future growth in this region.

This is primarily because businesses are reopening again as the effect of the global pandemic subsides and consumers return to physical stores. Consequently, future growth will be driven by partnerships with offline retailers in the region.

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of Embedded Finance Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate embedded finance strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry.

Get Sector Insights: Drawing from proprietary survey results, this report identifies opportunities across embedded lending, embedded insurance, embedded finance, and embedded wealth sectors.

Region and countries included in this report are:

Africa & Middle East

& Egypt

Israel

Kenya

Nigeria

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

Key Topics Covered:



1 About this Report



2 Embedded Lending Industry Market Size and Forecast, 2020-2029



3 Embedded Lending Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Segment

3.1 Market Share Analysis by Consumer Segment

3.2 B2B Lending - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

3.3 B2C Lending - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029



4 Embedded Lending Industry Market Size and Forecast by Business to Business (B2B) Sectors

4.1 Market Share Analysis by B2B Sectors

4.2 Retail & Consumer Goods Lending - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

4.3 IT & Software Services - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

4.4 Transport & Logistics - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

4.5 Manufacturing & Distribution - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

4.6 Real Estate - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

4.7 Other - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029



5 Embedded Lending Industry Market Size and Forecast by Business to Consumer (B2C) Sectors

5.1 Market Share Analysis by B2C Sectors

5.2 Retail & Consumer Goods Lending - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

5.3 Home Improvement - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

5.4 Leisure & Entertainment - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

5.5 Healthcare & Wellness - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029

5.6 Other - Embedded Lending Industry Revenue Trend Analysis, 2020-2029



6 Further Reading



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/l6fktl

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
Akram & Associates PLLC has opened new offices in Newport Beach, California, Lahore, Pakistan, and in Singapore. Tweet this

New members of our team are Steven Rosen and Amir Mahmood. They have previously worked with our Founder, Muhammad Akram, in different capacities before joining the Akram team full time.

Mr. Rosen has worked with regional and national CPA Firms, as well as an international financial institution on audit, tax, and consulting engagements. He also has extensive experience with investment partnerships, and has served as the Chief Account Officer, and subsequently the Chief Financial Officer, of a private investment partnership with assets under management exceeding half a billion USD.

Mr. Mahmood is a Fellow Chartered Accountant from Pakistan. He has been associated with large business conglomerates of Pakistan, Dubai, and Oman in the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer.

Akram's goal is to continue to grow and evolve our team, while maintaining our niche as a boutique Accounting Firm with a sharp focus on alternative investments. With our growing international presence, we can cater to the unique needs of this core clientele in the United States and abroad.

Akram | Assurance, Advisory & Tax Firm

Akram is a trusted adviser to alternative fund managers  the cornerstone of our business. Our laser focus on this industry allows us to provide highly specialized accounting, tax and advisory services that are accurate and affordable.

Our team of professionals is well versed in the nuances of hedge funds, private equity funds, Crypto funds, venture capital funds, insurance dedicated funds, and family office entity structures and strategies. Akram prides itself as an expert resource to both emerging managers and sophisticated managers overseeing multiple funds.

Always one step ahead of the evolving needs of our clients, Akram stays informed of the latest accounting and regulatory reporting developments and constantly re-evaluates our service offerings according to changing dynamics.

CONTACT:

Ana D'Occhio

[email protected]

SOURCE Akram & Associates PLLC
"Our partnership with Bank of America has been key to strengthening Alaska's brand recognition and building unparalleled customer loyalty. This extension of our relationship with Bank of America will continue to provide our guests meaningful ways to enhance their travel experience with us," said Ben Minicucci, Chief Executive Officer of Alaska. "Over time, we will continue to invest in value-added benefits for our cardholders, while consistently providing them with remarkable service in line with our culture of care."

"We are excited to announce this multi-year extension of our partnership with Alaska Airlines," said Dean Athanasia, President of Regional Banking for Bank of America. "This relationship continues to unlock growth opportunities for both Alaska and Bank of America, while driving greater loyalty and engagement with Alaska's customers."

Alaska Airlines' co-branded credit card with Bank of America currently offers cardholders the airline industry's most generous loyalty rewards program, including Alaska's Famous Companion FareTM, free checked bag, the opportunity to earn 3x the miles on eligible Alaska purchases, oneworld Alliance mile redemptions, 50 percent discount on day passes for Alaska Lounge access, 20 percent back on all inflight purchases and many other travel benefits.

In the second half of 2022, Alaska and Bank of America intend to announce additional benefits to further elevate its loyalty program for cardholders, while driving long-term value for both companies.





About Alaska Air Group

Alaska Airlines and our regional partners serve more than 120 destinations across the United States, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico. We emphasize Next-Level Care for our guests, along with providing low fares, award-winning customer service and sustainability efforts. Alaska is a member of the oneworld global alliance. With the alliance and our additional airline partners, guests can travel to more than 1,000 destinations on more than 20 airlines while earning and redeeming miles on flights to locations around the world. Learn more about Alaska at news.alaskair.com. Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).





About Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,200 retail financial centers, approximately 16,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with more than 54 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

SOURCE Alaska Airlines
TORONTO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - The Alzheimer Society of Toronto ("AST") is proud to announce the renewal of their Partnership Agreement with Integracare Inc. ("Integracare") to provide a range of innovative Dementia Care training for 100% of Integracare's Personal Support Workers ("PSWs") and Registered Practical Nurses ("RPNs"). Building off the original ground-breaking partnership agreement signed in 2017, Integracare has agreed to continue its unique partnership with AST through 2025 creating advanced educational opportunities for frontline health workers.

"It is essential, as the number of people living with Dementia increases in the GTA, that Home Care companies like Integracare invest in the advanced education of their staff through our comprehensive Dementia Care training programs," said Scott Russell, CEO of the Alzheimer Society of Toronto. "Training personal support workers (PSWs) and other frontline health professionals is one way we know that we can dramatically improve the quality of life for people living with Dementia and their families. Through the extension of this partnership, Integracare is demonstrating they have seen the value that advanced education in Dementia Care brings and are continuing to provide the best training for their staff."

This partnership is going to continue to grow in significance as we see a steady rise in the rate of Dementia across Canada. The pandemic strengthened the need for meaningful and innovative partnerships between Canadian non-profit organisations and the corporate businesses in their communities.

"As the leading family-funded at-home Dementia Care provider in the GTA, we have a responsibility to ensure that our Caregivers receive the highest quality education. The Alzheimer Society of Toronto is a leader in Dementia Care and education and their support helps set our Caregivers apart. We are thrilled to continue our partnership with AST and provide our Caregivers with the best tools available to provide world-class Dementia Care." said Lee Grunberg, CEO of Integracare.

Integracare has also agreed to continue to go beyond its investment in training and education, by making a significant commitment to community events run by the Alzheimer Society of Toronto including the Walk for Alzheimer's, Unforgettable Evening Gala, and Alzheimer Society PSW Nights.

About Integracare Inc.

lntegracare provides a wide range of private nursing care and personal support services for individuals in their homes, hospitals, retirement residences and long-term care facilities. Its services, while encompassing all levels of nursing care, have always included a wide range of related services that address the needs of their clients while promoting joyful living and helping Integracare Clients maintain their independence and dignity. For more information about lntegracare, contact us at 396 Moore Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M6C 3A8, (416) 421-4243, or visit https://integracare.on.ca

About the Alzheimer Society of Toronto

The Alzheimer Society of Toronto provides free counselling and education to people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, their families, and caregivers. They deliver specialised training and professional development for frontline health-care providers, and public education and awareness events to increase accessibility to dementia information.

SOURCE Integracare Inc
CALABASAS, Calif., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) ("American Homes 4 Rent"), a leading provider of high-quality single-family homes for rent, today announced that it has been named to Newsweek's 2022 List of America's Most Trusted Companies. The list is available at Newsweek.com.

"At AH4R, one of our values is to hold ourselves accountable to earn the trust of those who rely on us, including our employees, customers, shareholders and communities," said David Singelyn, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of American Homes 4 Rent. "This recognition is a testament to our team's commitment to doing the right thing and serving our residents with compassion and care. We thank all of our partners for helping us foster a culture of trust, inclusion and belonging."

America's Most Trusted Companies were identified in an independent survey based on a vast sample of approximately 50,000 U.S. residents who rated companies on three touchpoints of trust: customer, investor and employee trust. All publicly traded companies headquartered in the U.S. with a revenue of more than $500 million in 2020 were considered in the study. A total of 110,000 evaluations were submitted, resulting in a list of the top 400 Most Trusted Companies across 22 industries.

The recognition is the latest for AMH, which was most recently named to Newsweek's 2022 list of America's Most Responsible Companies, a distinction it also earned in 2021. Additionally, AMH was recently Certified as one of the nation's top employers by Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture.

About American Homes 4 Rent

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) is a leader in the single-family home rental industry and "American Homes 4 Rent" is a nationally recognized brand for rental homes, known for high-quality, good value and resident satisfaction. We are an internally managed Maryland real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on acquiring, developing, renovating, leasing, and operating attractive, single-family homes as rental properties. As of December 31, 2021, we owned 57,024 single-family properties in selected submarkets in 22 states.

Additional information about American Homes 4 Rent is available on our website at www.americanhomes4rent.com.

Contacts:

American Homes 4 Rent

Media Relations

Megan Grabos

Phone: (805) 413-5088

Email: [email protected]

American Homes 4 Rent

Investor Relations

Nicholas Fromm

Phone: (855) 794-2447

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE American Homes 4 Rent

Related Links

http://www.americanhomes4rent.com


GREEN BAY, Wis., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE: ASB) today announced it will release first quarter 2022 financial results on Thursday, April 21, 2022, after market close. The Company will host a conference call for investors and analysts at 4:00 p.m. Central Time (CT) on the same day.

Interested parties can access the live webcast of the call through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, http://investor.associatedbank.com. Parties may also dial into the call at 877-407-8037 (domestic) or 201-689-8037 (international) and request the Associated Banc-Corp first quarter 2022 earnings call. The financial tables and an accompanying slide presentation will be available on the Company's website just prior to the call. An audio archive of the webcast will be available on the Company's website approximately fifteen minutes after the call is over.

ABOUT ASSOCIATED BANC-CORP

Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE: ASB) has total assets of $35 billion and is Wisconsin's largest bank holding company. Headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Associated is a leading Midwest banking franchise, offering a full range of financial products and services from more than 200 banking locations serving more than 100 communities throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. The company also operates loan production offices in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Texas. Associated Bank, N.A. is an Equal Housing Lender, Equal Opportunity Lender and Member FDIC. More information about Associated Banc-Corp is available at www.associatedbank.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements made in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This includes any statements regarding management's plans, objectives, or goals for future operations, products or services, and forecasts of its revenues, earnings, or other measures of performance. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "should," "will," "intend," "target," "outlook," "project," "guidance," or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current management expectations and, by their nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements include those identified in the Company's most recent Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings. Such factors are incorporated herein by reference.

Investor Contact: Ben McCarville

Vice President | Director of Investor Relations

920-491-7059 | [email protected]

Media Contact: Jennifer Kaminski

Vice President | Public Relations Senior Manager

920-491-7576 | [email protected]

SOURCE Associated Banc-Corp
NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As per Zion Market Research study, Automotive Platooning System industry gathered revenue worth about US$ 2.7 billion in 2021 and is slated to accumulate returns of approx. US$ 30.2 billion by 2028. In addition to this, Automotive Platooning System market is set to register CAGR of nearly 54.1% in 2022-2028. Apparently, expansion of automotive platooning system industry over forecasting timeline is subject to need for reduced traffic jams, road accidents, and enhancement of fuel economy. Thriving automotive sector will further contribute towards growth of automotive platooning system market in years ahead. Key players in automotive platooning business are investing massively in development of novel platooning systems, thereby driving market trends. A prominent surge in acceptance of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies will amplify demand for automotive platooning systems.

Zion Market Research published the latest report titled as "Automotive Platooning System Market- By Type (Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I)) and By Application (Passenger Vehicles and Commercial Vehicles): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, And Forecast, 20222028." into their research database.

Automotive Platooning System Market: Overview

Vehicle platooning is an intelligent transport system app that has evolved as potential solution for traffic management in highway. The key concept of automotive platooning system is a set of vehicles travelling together while maintaining a meager distance between them. This can result in rise in traffic capacity along with enhanced traffic management activities as well as reduction in travelling timespan. Precisely, automotive platoon system is viewed as vehicle group travelling in close co-ordination with headway control mechanism. Furthermore, passenger safety & comfort is improved with acceleration & deceleration scenario removed as well platoon vehicle considered as a sole unit.

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Zion Market Research methodology

Industry Dynamics:

Automotive Platooning System Market: Growth Dynamics

Platooning provides massive benefits including fuel economy, enhanced road safety, and improved road capacity. This will drive growth of automotive platooning system industry over forecasting timeline. Furthermore, automotive platooning system makes use of myriad techniques for attaining safe & effective transport. Apparently, vehicle platooning tools reduce distance between two automotive through use of mechanical and electronic coupling. In addition to this, it facilitates vehicle to move at rapid pace and stop simultaneously. Moreover, these systems assist in improving fuel efficiency and reducing traffic jams as well as vehicular collisions.

Additionally, thriving vehicle manufacturing sector is set to crop up growth of automotive platooning system industry. Moreover, large numbers of participants are investing majorly in developing automotive platooning systems, thereby creating new growth avenues for automotive platooning system industry. However, key challenges to growth of automotive platooning system industry are technical errors of automotive, impaired drivers, and implementation of novel applications in current road infrastructure.

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Vehicle To Vehicle (V2V) Segment To Dominate Type Landscape Over 2022-2028

Expansion of vehicle to vehicle (V2V) segment over forecasting period is due to ability of vehicle to vehicle communications tools in sharing data pertaining to speed, location, and direction of vehicles. Apart from this, it offers exact information to commuters about other kind of automotive on roads, thereby minimizing chances of fatal vehicular collisions.

Passenger Vehicles Segment To Account Majorly Towards Overall Market Size By 2028

Segmental growth over forecasting timeframe can be attributed to escalating use of automotive platooning system in passenger vehicles. In addition to this, need for reducing traffic jams will translate into huge penetration of automotive platooning tools in passenger vehicle segment. Apparently, it also reduces carbon emissions along with enhancing fuel efficacy.

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List of Key Players of Automotive Platooning System Market:

Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Continental AG

Peloton Technology

MAN SE

IVECO Group N.V.

Scania AB

Volvo Cars

Delphi Technologies

Nokia Growth Partners

Meritor Wabco

Navistar International Corporation

TomTom N.V.

Key Industry Insights & Finding of the Automotive Platooning System Market Reports:

As per the analysis shared by our research analyst, the Automotive Platooning System Market is expected to grow annually at a CAGR of around 54.1% (2022-2028).

(2022-2028). Through the primary research, it was established that the Automotive Platooning System Market was valued approximately USD 2.7 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach to roughly USD 30.2 billion by 2028.

billion in 2021 and is projected to reach to roughly billion by 2028. Major players in countries such as the U.S. will multiply automotive platooning system market earnings

Key questions answered in this report:

What are the growth rate forecast and market size for Automotive Platooning System Market?

What are the key driving factors propelling the Automotive Platooning System Market forward?

What are the most important companies in the Automotive Platooning System Market Industry?

What segments does the Automotive Platooning System Market cover?

How can I receive a free copy of the Automotive Platooning System Market sample report and company profiles?

Report Scope:

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 USD 2.7 Billion Revenue forecast in 2028 USD 30.2 Billion Growth Rate CAGR of almost 54.1% 2022-2028 Base Year 2020 Historic Years 2016 - 2021 Forecast Years 2022 - 2028 Segments Covered By Product Type, By Application, and By End Use Forecast Units Value (USD Billion), and Volume (Units) Quantitative Units Revenue in USD million/billion and CAGR from 2022 to 2028 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Companies Covered Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Continental AG, Peloton Technology, MAN SE, IVECO Group N.V., Scania AB, Volvo Cars, Delphi Technologies, Nokia Growth Partners, Meritor Wabco, Navistar International Corporation, and TomTom N.V. Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porter's five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis. Customization Scope Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/177

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Regional Dominance:

North American Market To Exhibit Tremendous Surge Over Forecast Timeline

Growth of regional market over forecasting period is subject to rise in use of automotive platooning systems in countries such as Canada and the U.S. Furthermore, presence of major players in countries such as the U.S. will multiply automotive platooning system market earnings. Huge focus of market players on minimizing GHG emissions will expedite growth rate of regional market over forecasting period. A prominent increase in utilization of trucks for goods transport will contribute substantially towards automotive industry size, thereby driving regional market trends.

Global Automotive Platooning System Market is segmented as follows:

Automotive Platooning System Market: By Type Outlook (2022-2028)

Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V)

Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I)

Automotive Platooning System Market: By Application Outlook (2022-2028)

Passenger Vehicles

Commercial Vehicles

Automotive Platooning System Market: By Region Outlook (2022-2028)

North America

The U.S.

Canada

Europe

France

The UK

Spain

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Southeast Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

Press Release For Automotive Platooning System Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/news/automotive-platooning-system-market-to-hit-elevating-heights

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The global automotive panoramic market was worth around in 2021 and is estimated to grow to about by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15.4 percent over the forecast period. Automotive Engine Oil Market : The global Automotive Engine Oil Market accrued earnings worth approximately 38.12 (USD Billion) in 2021 and is predicted to gain revenue of about 48.19 (USD Billion) by 2028, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 3.5% over the period from 2022 to 2028.

The global Automotive Engine Oil Market accrued earnings worth approximately 38.12 (USD Billion) in 2021 and is predicted to gain revenue of about 48.19 (USD Billion) by 2028, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 3.5% over the period from 2022 to 2028. Recreational Vehicle Market: The global Recreational Vehicle Market accrued earnings worth approximately 55.2 (USD Billion) in 2020 and is predicted to gain revenue of about 130.1 (USD Billion) by 2028, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 10.3% over the period from 2021 to 2028.

Browse through Zion Market Research's coverage of the Global Automotive Industry

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Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the client's needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.

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SOURCE Zion Market Research
This year, female students from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering were asked to think critically and help develop potential solutions that address the bias female consumers often experience in their car buying journey. The Forbes Idea Incubator is an extension of Audi of America's sponsorship of the 2021 Forbes Women's Summit that was held virtually on December 9, 2021. The Forbes Idea Incubator served as a platform to present the Audi Drive Progress Grant, a $50,000 fund providing financial assistance for student tuition and related expenses to the winning teams, for a fifth consecutive time. Since the inception of this program, Audi has donated more than $250,000 to students at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

"At Audi, we're committed to driving progress in gender equity and there's nothing more inspiring than watching the next generation of female innovators and leaders rise to the challenge," said Mirjam Abel, vice president of Digital Business at Audi of America and Audi Canada. "Audi is honored to partner with Forbes and NYU Tandon to support and empower today's young women in STEM."

Audi of America is committed to an inclusive and equitable workplace. By removing barriers to equity, inclusivity, growth and development, Audi is cultivating and promoting a diverse culture that helps enable women to achieve their highest potential.

At Audi of America, we believe the Future is Electric. By 2025, our U.S. model lineup will be 30 percent electrified, including fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Globally, we are committed to net CO2 neutrality by 2050. In 2021, Audi sold 196,038 vehicles in the U.S. and more fully electric models than ever before, with electric vehicle deliveries up by more than 50% over 2020. Learn more about who we are and how we're working to create a more sustainable, innovative, and inclusive future at audiusa.com or media.audiusa.com.

SOURCE Audi of America
CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new research report, the "Automated Material Handling Equipment Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Product (Robots, ASRS, Conveyors and Sortation Systems, Cranes, WMS, AGV), System Type (Unit Load, Bulk Load), Industry and Region - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Automated Material Handling Equipment Market size is projected to grow from USD 28.8 billion in 2022 to USD 45.1 billion in 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.4% from 2022 to 2027. The growth of the automated material handling equipment industry is driven mainly by demand for ASRS in the e-commerce industry due to the onset of COVID-19.

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ASRS segment to hold the largest share of the market during the forecast period.

ASRS accounted for the largest share of the automated material handling equipment market in 2021. ASRS offer benefits such as reduced space and labour utilization, improved supply chain efficiency and productivity, real-time inventory control at a lower cost, error-free fulfilment, and rapid storage and retrieval of items. The deployment of ASRS is increasing, as these systems help warehouses and manufacturing companies improve their production capacity and order accuracy. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it supply chain disruptions, inventory shortages, and shipping and logistics restraints. Due to these factors, many warehouses and distribution centers initiated the consolidation of warehouses to align with the needs of their customers, a trend expected to be followed by more warehouse operators. Consolidation of warehouses results in storing many packages in a small space. This would drive the demand for ASRS.

3PL industry to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The 3PL segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Factors such as the need for efficient order management, increased outsourcing of logistics and transportation operations, and globalization of supply chain networks have fuelled the adoption of AMH equipment in the 3PL industry. With the global lockdowns following the outbreak of COVID-19, the online retail industry has flourished, and the potential of 3PL has also been witnessed by the e-commerce industry. This factor is expected to fuel the demand for AMH equipment in the 3PL industry during the forecast period.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Automated Material Handling Equipment Markethttps://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/routing-market-207011132.htmlhttps://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/refrigeration-coolers-market-250448757.html"

225  Tables

72  Figures

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Asia Pacific to grow at the highest CAGR from 20222027.

Rising awareness related to warehouse automation, increased emphasis of the leading economies such as China and Japan on robotics and automation, and the growing e-commerce industry are some of the primary factors contributing to the higher share of Asia Pacific in market. The rapid growth of automotive, e-commerce, food & beverages, and healthcare industries in emerging economies, such as China and Japan, has contributed to the growth of the automated material handling equipment market in Asia Pacific. Moreover, governments in Asia Pacific countries are increasingly emphasizing safety and security on production floors, which can be best achieved by the implementation of automated material handling equipment. The market is witnessing rapid growth in countries such as China and Japan, owing to increasing investments by manufacturers and suppliers in the installation of such equipment at warehouses and distribution centers.

The key players operating in the automated material handling equipment market include Daifuku (Japan), KION (Germany), SSI Schaefer (Germany), Toyota Industries (Japan), and Honeywell International (US) among others.

Related Reports:

Warehouse Management System Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Offering (Software, Services), Deployment (On Premises, Cloud), Tier Type (Advanced, Intermediate, Basic), Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026

RFID Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Product Type (Tags, Readers, and Software and Services), Wafer Size, Tag Type (Passive Tags and Active Tags), Frequency, Applications, Form Factor, Material, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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Northbrook, IL 60062

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Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/automated-material-handling-manufacturing-market.asp https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/weather-forecasting-services-market.asphttps://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/precision-guided-munition-market.asp

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
WELLESLEY, Mass., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- F.L.Putnam Investment Management Company today announced that Robertson P. Breed, CFA has been named to the Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisors by State list, ranking #2 in the state of Maine. The recognition marks the fourth consecutive year that Barron's has recognized Mr. Breed as one of Maine's top advisors.

"Rob consistently demonstrates why he is one of the best advisors in the business. He works tirelessly to implement strategies that help his clients get through periods of volatility while allowing them to remain focused on their goals. He builds extremely productive relationships with them, and they trust his advice. Rob is very deserving of this recognition," commented Tom Manning, CEO of F.L.Putnam.

Mr. Breed joined F.L.Putnam in 1991, where he serves as Managing Director of Investment Advisory Services advising high-net-worth individuals and families, foundations, and endowments on their financial goals. He currently oversees the firm's Core U.S. Equity Strategy and co-chairs its Asset Allocation Committee. An active member of the Maine community, Mr. Breed is a Co-Founding Board Member of the CFA Society Maine and serves on the Investment Committee of the Maine Community College System. He also has a long association with several local non-profit organizations including Maine Initiatives, which supports social, economic, and environmental causes throughout Maine.

Prior to F.L.Putnam, Mr. Breed was an institutional equity trader for both E.F.Hutton and Montgomery Securities.

The Barron's ranking of the Top 1,200 Financial Advisors by State is based on data provided by around 6,000 of the nation's most productive advisors. To compile the ranking, Barron's takes several factors into account including assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, regulatory record, quality of practice and philanthropic work. Investment performance is not an explicit component.

About F.L.Putnam Investment Management Company

F.L.Putnam provides investment management, financial planning, and consulting services to high-net-worth clients and institutions, including endowments and foundations. Since 1983, F.L.Putnam has delivered a comprehensive set of solutions that help clients build, preserve, and manage their wealth. The firm serves clients nationally from offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island. More information is available at www.flputnam.com.

Contact:

KWM Communications

Kellie Walsh

914-315-6072

[email protected]

SOURCE F.L.Putnam Investment Management Company
GN, Beltone's parent company, donated $1 million to UNICEF to support children impacted by the war, and now Beltone is also offering assistance for Ukrainian refugees in need of immediate hearing care. Created to provide quality hearing healthcare and technology to those who otherwise could not access it, The Beltone Foundation has been helping thousands around the globe to hear better through their acts of kindness and are proud to extend these benefits to displaced refugees.

To access these benefits, Ukrainian refugees located in the U.S. may visit one of the 1,500 Beltone Hearing Care Centers located across the country to receive their free hearing screening. Upon assessment, their Beltone Hearing Care Provider will provide their hearing care recommendation and submit the appropriate Beltone hearing aid request to The Beltone Foundation. Once the request has been fulfilled by The Beltone Foundation, the patient will then be fitted with their new pair of Beltone hearing aids which also include free lifetime care.

"Beltone is proud to stand with Ukraine and support refugees during their time of need," says Mike Halloran, Beltone President. "In addition to their donation to UNICEF, GN showed support to Ukraine by suspending trade with Russia, and we're pleased to be able to also offer help domestically through The Beltone Foundation."

About Beltone

Beltone is the nation's leading hearing care retailer and has remained the most trusted hearing care provider for over 80 years as we are committed to providing more than just hearing aids, but also a partner for our patients every step of the way. With over 1,500 Beltone locations nationwide, each office is a local business part of the community it serves and the hearing care professional and staff at your local Beltone will get to know you to provide a personalized experience during your journey to better hearing. And with a nationwide network, you can expect this level of personalized service wherever you go. Our Beltone hearing care professionals receive extensive training and education, so they are always equipped with the latest knowledge to bring you the best care. Proudly part of the GN Group, Beltone continues to focus on the needs of our patients through the research and development of innovative new hearing technologies to allow you to hear what truly matters the most. To learn more, please visit www.beltone.com.

The Beltone Hearing Care Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, donates hearing devices to qualifying individuals in need of hearing help but cannot afford the cost of hearing aids. Through the donation of Beltone hearing aids and their time, our team of people has touched thousands of lives in the United States and around the globe with these generous acts. To learn more about The Beltone Hearing Foundation, please click here.

SOURCE Beltone
MINNETONKA, Minn., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Table Trac, Inc. (OTCQX: TBTC) announces it has signed an agreement to install the CasinoTrac management system at Best Bet Products, Inc's Phoenix Bar and Grill located in Pahrump Nevada.

"We are excited about expanding the use of Casino Trac's integrated slot accounting and customer reward programs in our locations. Casino Trac's system has helped us build loyalty with our existing customers while driving future customer growth at our existing projects. With Casino Trac's system, Best Bet Products, Inc is building a Player's Club across our locations that will be used to maximize our opportunities in the distributed gaming and wholly owned gaming locations," said Shawn Holmes, President of Best Bet Products, Inc.

Chad Hoehne, President of Table Trac Inc, stated, "We are thrilled that Best Bet Products, Inc. expanding the use of the CasinoTrac management system and are confident that our suite of products will help Mr. Holmes meet their objectives and grown their business at their gaming operations."

About Table Trac, Inc.

Founded in 1995, Table Trac, Inc. designs, develops and sells casino management systems. CasinoTrac is currently operating in casinos across 13 countries including the United States, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Australia. More information is available at http://www.tabletrac.com/.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve numerous risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information:

Robert Siqveland

Table Trac, Inc.

952-548-8877

SOURCE Table Trac, Inc.
WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state of the United States, died Wednesday, her family announced. She was 84.

Albright died of cancer, her family said in a statement, adding she was "surrounded by family and friends" during the final moment of her life.

A native of Prague, then Czechoslovakia, Albright migrated to the United States in 1948 as an 11-year-old refugee, rising to the top of U.S. Foreign Service as she held the post of secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 during the Bill Clinton administration.

During her tenure at the State Department, Albright championed the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), pushing in particular for the alliance's military intervention -- led by the United States in 1999 -- into the conflict in Kosovo between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

NATO's 78-day airstrike campaign against then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia extended to the bombardment of the capital city of Belgrade.

Before becoming the secretary of state, Albright was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations between 1993 and 1997. She was a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service at the time of her death. 
BlueHalo is committed to investing in New Mexico as well as sustaining and creating high-wage manufacturing jobs. Selecting an existing location with the necessary infrastructure in place, allows the company to expand while also meeting a move-in schedule that enables on-target product deliveries to key customers in New Mexico and around the nation.

"Throughout my years in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, I've been proud to support New Mexico's growing role as a leader in emerging defense and space technologiesand the new careers that brings to our state. I'm proud that BlueHalo has chosen Albuquerque to be a launchpad for new jobs and economic activity. I look forward to this new, state-of-the-art campus that will host the type of innovation that we do so well in New Mexico," said U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).

"BlueHalo's commitment to our City is an investment in our community and its future, and we're looking forward to even greater aerospace and directed energy activity in Albuquerque in the coming decades," said Mayor Tim Keller. "Albuquerque's proximity to key research partners and educational institutions, highly-skilled workforce, and excellent quality of life make it a top choice for innovative, high-tech industries."

"As we drive the flywheel of innovation, delivering leading-edge solutions to our customers, we will continue to expand our footprint to ensure our ability to properly serve those customers in the most timely and efficient way. BlueHalo's long-term commitment to New Mexico is stronger than ever, and we are thrilled to continue that partnership as we deliver the next generation of products and solutions to the warfighter," said Jonathan Moneymaker, BlueHalo Chief Executive Officer. "The decision to expand into an existing facility near Kirtland Air Force Base, adjacent to our other Albuquerque facilities, will avert any disruptions to our programs and delivery of our solutions to those who need it to defend our country. This facility will be upfitted to accommodate our high-tech needs and will serve as one of the major hubs across the BlueHalo Labs national infrastructure."

The new space, located at 10800 Gibson Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123, offers proximity to BlueHalo's current manufacturing and development facility as well as to customers the company serves at Kirtland Air Force Base. The facility includes an office complex, laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and test areas. The extensive building improvements, designed by Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, will be completed by Klinger Constructors, LLC, an Albuquerque-based company founded in 1982. The facilities will be built specifically to accommodate continued technology innovation and rapid transition to manufacturing for BlueHalo products across multiple mission areas including Advanced Radio Frequency (RF) Systems; c-UAS and Directed Energy; Laser Communications; and Space-Qualified Electronics and Systems, including Stabilized Precision Optics and Tracking (SPOT).

The New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD) has awarded BlueHalo $2.25 million from its LEDA job-creation fund.

"BlueHalo is committed to New Mexico and the state's partnership with BlueHalo remains strong," said Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes. "The Economic Development Department will continue to support this vital technology company as it expands at the Sandia Science & Technology Park, grows its manufacturing space to meet customer demand, and creates dozens of highly skilled and good-paying jobs.

"We are delighted to welcome BlueHalo to North America's Premier Science and Technology Park," said Sherman McCorkle, Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Sandia Science & Technology Park Development Corporation. "The Sandia Science & Technology Park provides unparalleled synergy between private sector technology innovators and our nation's national laboratories. The everyday collaboration of such a broad range of world-class scientists and engineers can't be duplicated elsewhere, and we are excited for BlueHalo to become a part of that with this expansion."

The City of Albuquerque Economic Development Department has pledged $250,000 through its LEDA fund and will also act as fiscal agent for the state's funding. BlueHalo will also apply for an Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB). All incentives are pending and contingent on approval by the Albuquerque City Council.

"Investing in aerospace and directed energy is a key strategy for the City of Albuquerque and our economic development colleagues across the City, and the State," said City of Albuquerque Economic Development Director Charles Ashley, III. "Partnerships like these will continue to build the space economy infrastructure in Albuquerque, creating jobs, opportunity, and strengthening our position as the place for space."

Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance (AREA), the area's non-profit, private sector economic development organization, provided technical assistance for the project.

"BlueHalo's expansion of its current manufacturing facilities in the Albuquerque region exemplifies the great opportunity here for firms in the aerospace and defense industry sector. Utilizing an exciting facility at a strategic location such as the Sandia Science & Technology Park not only allows for acceleration of launch of operations, but it will contribute to the growth of the overall industry ecosystem," Danielle Casey, AREA President and CEO, said.

The lease has been executed and the expected move-in date is May 2022.

About BlueHalo

BlueHalo is purpose-built to provide industry-leading capabilities in the domains of Space Superiority, Space Technology, Directed Energy/Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS), Autonomy, Advanced Radio Frequency (RF), Cyber, and Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). BlueHalo focuses on inspired engineering to develop, transition, and field next-generation capabilities to solve the most complex challenges of our customers' critical missions and reestablish our national security posture in the near-peer contested arena. www.bluehalo.com

SOURCE BlueHalo
SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. fintech company Brex, the company reimagining finance for growing businesses, has provided $10 million in growth capital via venture debt to Zesty.ai, a leading provider of predictive data analytics in the climate risk space. The financing will help Zesty.ai power its growth in insurance and expand into use cases in real estate including financing and asset management.

This deal marks continued momentum for Brex Venture Debt, which Brex launched in August 2021 as a way to help founders take their business to the next level. It helps growing businesses scale quickly and flexibly with a founder friendly, less dilutive offering that is tailored to their needs.

Zesty.ai uses AI to deliver real-time assessments of climate risks associated with real estate assets and portfolios. The company's technology considers a wide range of climate risks, including wildfires, wind and hail storms, floods and other catastrophic events, to help insurance companies better underwrite and rate homeowners and commercial lines policies. Zesty.ai counts leading insurance companies such as Amica, AON, Berkshire Hathaway, The California Fair Plan, Cincinnati Financial, Farmers Insurance, and more among its partners. The company continues to see significant growth as evidenced by tripling its committed revenues in 2021.

"Zesty.ai has built the market-leading data analytics solution that addresses climate risk for insurance and real estate," said Benjamin Wu, CEO of Brex Asset Management. "Zesty.ai is a great example of the many innovative customers we are championing with Brex Venture Debt. Our mission is to support our customers at every stage of growth and we're excited to help the Zesty.ai team scale their business quickly."

"We're at a major inflection point in the future of climate change that requires innovation in how we assess risk and respond to its effects," said Attila Toth, Founder & CEO, Zesty.ai. "Zesty.ai is dedicated to helping our customers use the power of AI to better protect families, communities and their financial well-being. Brex Venture Debt lets us focus on our core mission and be flexible in how we scale our business."

Brex Venture Debt provides a less dilutive, more founder-friendly source of capital that gives companies like Zesty.ai the financial tools to scale quickly. It differs from traditional bank offerings by providing customers with longer terms and a faster diligence process. Brex Venture Debt is offered to certain high-growth, venture-backed customers with scalable, recurring revenue business models including companies in the SaaS software, fintech, B2B marketplace, and B2C subscription sectors.

About Brex Asset Management

Brex Asset Management ("BAM"), Brex's recently launched asset manager focusing on supporting companies with venture debt and growth capital, leverages Brex's reach within the venture fund backed startup industry and offers alternative investment opportunities to investors around the world  including institutional investors, endowments and foundations, financial institutions, and private wealth investors. BAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brex Inc.

About Brex

Brex is a powerful financial stack designed to serve the next generation of growing businesses. By integrating software, services, and products into one experience, we help customers effortlessly extend the power of every dollar, so they're free to focus on big dreams and fast growthwithout worrying about wasted spend. We proudly serve tens of thousands of businesses, from small private companies to many of America's most beloved public brands.

Learn more .

About Zesty.ai

Zesty.ai offers insurers and real estate companies access to precise intelligence about every property in North America. The company uses AI, including computer vision, to build a digital twin for every building in North America, encompassing 200B property insights accounting for all details that could impact a property's value and associated risks, including the potential impact of natural disasters. Visit https://zesty.ai for more information.

SOURCE Brex
BANGALORE, India, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bromine Market is segmented by Type - Dead Sea Brine, Brine Wells, Others, by Application - Flame Retardants, Biocides, Drilling Fluids, Chemical Intermediate, Water Treatment, Others Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 2022 - 2028. It is published in Valuates Reports under the Chemicals Industry Category.

The global Bromine market size is estimated to be worth USD 2044.6 million in 2022 and is forecast to be a readjusted size of USD 2484.3 million by 2028 with a CAGR of 3.3% during the review period.

Major Factors Driving The Growth Of Bromine Market Are

The rising demand for bromine in flame retardants, oil and gas drilling, PTA synthesis, mercury emission control, and water treatment and biocides is propelling the market forward.

Bromine market growth is expected to be aided by rising demand for clear brine fluids (CBFs) in the oil and gas industry in North America.

Browse The Table Of Contents And List Of Figures At https://reports.valuates.com/reports/QYRE-Auto-34E322/global-bromine

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF BROMINE MARKET

Increasing demand for flame retardants due to stringent fire safety framework is expected to drive the growth of bromine market. Globally, properties worth billions of dollars are lost due to fire-related accidents every year. Insurance companies have to utilize a major share of their revenue in settling claims on assets, infrastructure, and human lives lost in fire accidents. This makes anti-inflammatory agents or flame retardants crucial chemicals since they minimize the fire-related risks for almost every manufactured commodity. Bromine Flame Retardants (BFRs) are the most prolific flame retardants used for their vapor phase inhibition properties. Bromine in particular is used because as it is heated the compound releases active bromine atoms into the gas phase, before the material reaches its ignition temperature.

The growing use of Bromine as biocide is expected to drive the bromine market. At high pH levels, bromine is more effective than chlorine. Hypobromous acid, like the other bromine compounds, is a very effective biocide, and because all bromine compounds have biocidal properties, it has a wider kill spectrum. Because several bromine compounds have biocidal properties, we can use total bromine instead of free chlorine as the target residual. Microbiological control is usually provided by total bromine. Bromine is also less corrosive than chlorine in a one-to-one comparison.

Due to bromine's ability to kill harmful contaminants by combining with bacteria and other living organisms in water, bromine-based products are ideal for water treatment applications. Bromine is effective against a wide range of bacteria as well as tough waterborne viruses like poliovirus and rotaviruses. This in turn is expected to drive the growth of the bromine market.

Clear brines containing bromine improve the efficiency and productivity of oil and gas wells. Hydrocarbons such as oil and gas are trapped in porous stone. To gain access to these hydrocarbons, a hole must be drilled into the pay zone, which is where they are stored. To avoid closing the pores of the stone while maintaining permeability, the drilling requires a specific gravity to compensate for the pressure. In comparison to other substances, fluids have significant productivity advantages. Factors such as weight, thermal and chemical stability, and lubricating ability aid in the extraction of oil and gas and help preserve the expensive equipment used in the process.

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BROMINE MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

With a market share of around 50%, the Middle East is the largest market, followed by China and North America, both of which have a market share of over 35%. In Asia Pacific, rising infrastructure development and middle-class disposable income has boosted demand for flame retardants, which are widely used in plastic and electronic component insulation and fabrication.

Based on product, Dead Sea Brine is the largest segment, with a share over 50%.

Based on application, the largest application is Flame Retardants, followed by Chemical Intermediate, etc. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are bromine-containing compounds that are added to materials to slow or stop them from burning.

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Market By Region

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

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Market By Company

ICL

Albemarle

Lanxess

Jordan Bromine Company (JBC)

Tosoh

Solaris Chemtech (SCIL)

Perekop Bromine

Yuyuan Group

Haiwang Chemical

Dadi Salt Chemical Group

Chengyuan Salt Chemical

Lubei Chemical

Runke Chemical

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NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- buywith, a leading Livestream shopping platform, announced today its participation in ShopTalk 2022 event. The company will host daily demo Livestream shopping sessions to showcase its new shoppable features that drive engagement and conversions.

Click here to sign-up for the daily ShopTalk 2022 demo sessions.

The sessions will be available to all ShopTalk participants, as well as general audience signing up from any place in the world. The sessions will be hosted on Walmart's eCommerce website and can be attended from a smartphone.

The buywith's new shoppable features include:

- "Shop now" feature enabling shoppers to check out without living the session;

- Conversion-enhancing features - coupon code and timer;

- Engagement-enhancing features - spotlight, double-host, and animation features.

Meet buywith in booth #10044 at the ShopTalk 2022 event.

"We are thrilled to be sponsoring the ShopTalk 2022 event and showcasing our Livestream shopping platform and its new features that drive engagement and increase conversions. buywith is not only a Livestream shopping platform but a marketplace of independent content creators with expertise in hosting Livestream shopping sessions," said Adi Ronen Almagor, the CEO and Co-Founder of buywith.

About buywith

buywith is a platform for retailers and brands, influencers, and experts to host Livestream shopping events with their followers on retailers' and brands' e-commerce websites through innovative patent-pending technology. Compared to other Livestream shopping solutions, buywith doesn't require an app download or code integration, creating a unique "shop with me" experience.

buywith facilitates cutting-edge, multi-dimensional live shopping experiences that help brands capture high-value customers and shoppers discover precisely the products they need while empowering independent content creators worldwide. The Livestream Shopping trend is booming in China and growing fast in the US, estimated to surpass $35 in 2023.

The company was founded in 2018 by Adi Ronen (CEO & Co-Founder) and Eyal Sinai (CTO & Co-Founder) with offices in Tel Aviv and New York. buywith is working with world-class brands in the fashion and beauty industries across the US, Europe, and the Middle East and is backed by private investors and VCs from Europe and the US.

For more information, visit https://www.buywith.com or contact Ms. Liel Anisenko at [email protected]

SOURCE buywith
Envision added to Voyager Space Services best-in-class services portfolio

Partnership gives Canvas exposure to dynamic community of NewSpace start-ups

Canvas Envision combines a powerful and intuitive graphics app with cloud-based collaboration and viewing

BOSTON , March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Canvas GFX, Inc, the leading provider of visual communication solutions to the manufacturing and technical industries, today announced that it has partnered with Voyager Space Services, a Voyager Space Company, to make Canvas Envision available through the Voyager Space Services MarketSpace platform.

Voyager Space Services provides a curated portfolio of business and technical solutions to entrepreneurs and early-stage NewSpace companies that supports and accelerates their development. Voyager Space Services' easy-access solutions enable company founders and executives to focus on innovation and product development, rather than time-consuming business operations tasks.

Envision is the exclusive visual communication solution offered on the MarketSpace platform. It joins a select number of solutions offered by Voyager Space Services to its customer base alongside a suite of more than 30 offerings.

Canvas Envision bridges the divide between technical and creative visual communication solutions. It makes sophisticated 3D CAD visualizations available to anyone involved in creating product documentation, without the need for prior CAD training or a technical background. Envision combines a lightweight graphics application with cloud-based documentation storage, access, and collaboration.

"Space exploration is one of the most exciting sectors imaginable," said Pat Hume, CEO, Canvas GFX. "By empowering the space start-up community to innovate freely, the Voyager Space Services team is laying the groundwork for huge achievements. We are delighted that Canvas Envision has been selected to be part of the prestigious MarketSpace platform. I can't wait to see how this new audience will put Envision to use."

Dan Geraci, President of Voyager Space Services added: "At Voyager we are focused on helping entrepreneurs turn great ideas into even greater successes that will power humanity's exploits in space. The ability of these companies to effectively communicate what their product can contribute, and how it works, is paramount to their success. Canvas Envision gives space companies that ability and we are very pleased to offer their solution to our network."

About Canvas GFX

Canvas GFX develops visual communication and collaboration solutions trusted by leading brands from verticals including aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial, and domestic appliance, energy, and education. Canvas solutions bridge the divide between technical and creative graphics applications, empowering everyone to communicate and understand complex information with absolute clarity.

https://www.canvasgfx.com/

About Voyager Space Services

Voyager Space Services, a Voyager Space Company, provides operating, technical, business development, and Founder solutions to NewSpace start-ups & grown-ups to allow entrepreneurs to focus on innovation and product development, rather than time-consuming operational tasks. Voyager Space Services' online portal, MarketSpace, provides a user-friendly interface for clients to shop for services and quickly get connected with the space industry's best providers. To learn more about available solutions or to become a provider, visit http://www.VoyagerSpaceServices.com

Media Contact:

Liberty Communications for Canvas GFX

[email protected]

Abby Dickes for Voyager Space Services.com

[email protected]

SOURCE Canvas GFX
DALLAS, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Carleton University's Sprott School of Business, in Ottawa, Ontario, announces a partnership with Academic Partnerships (AP) to expand Carleton's high-quality and affordable MBA degree offerings to include a fully online program starting this July.

Sprott's online MBA responds to the growing demand for flexibility and the convenience of management education that prepares graduates to succeed in an increasingly dynamic and diverse global environment. This is especially important to working professionals who want to pursue graduate degrees to advance their careers but need the ability to study from anywhere and set their own schedule.

Students can apply to enrol in one of four market-driven, online MBA programs:

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

MBA with a concentration in Business Analytics

MBA with a concentration in Financial Management

MBA with a concentration in Management and Change

"The Sprott School of Business at Carleton University is delighted to collaborate with Academic Partnerships to offer professionals across Canada access to high quality and flexible online MBA programs," said Dana Brown, dean of the Sprott School of Business.

Sprott's online MBA programs emphasize experiential learning and feature a rigorous, integrated management curriculum. There are multiple start dates throughout the year and learning is self-paced with 24/7 access to asynchronous courses to accommodate busy schedules.

"We took great care to select a partner that brings significant experience and insight to online education delivery, as well as an openness to co-create a unique academic offering that meets the needs of professional learners and organizations," said Brown.

AP is a leading online facilitator focused primarily on adult learners and a partner to more than 55 universities, primarily regional public universities, helping those institutions expand access to top-quality, affordable and workforce relevant education. Carleton University is the first Canadian university with which AP has partnered.

Carleton and its faculty will ensure academic quality by driving all aspects of teaching, curriculum, and course content, while AP will work collaboratively in a consultative role with faculty in converting their courses to an online format.

The first cycle of classes begins July 4 with an application deadline of June 20. For more information or to apply for these programs or other University Online offerings, please visit onlinessb.carleton.ca.

About Carleton University

Carleton University is a dynamic, research-intensive institution that engages in partnerships to address the world's most pressing challenges. The university's corporate collaborations bring together world-class companies, researchers and a new generation of talent with 32,000 students to deliver innovations and results that are driving a more prosperous, sustainable future.

About the Sprott School of Business

The Sprott School of Business at Carleton University creates learning opportunities and scholarship that harness the potential and opportunity for business to improve lives worldwide. Through our transformational education, research and partnerships, we are cultivating the enterprising spirit of business to build a better future that is prosperous, inclusive and sustainable.

About Academic Partnerships

Based in Dallas, Texas, Academic Partnerships is an online facilitator that assists primarily public institutions of higher education across North America in taking their academic programs online and recruits and retains qualified students through program completion. AP's mission is to expand access to top quality, affordable and workforce relevant education, especially for working and adult students. Founded in digital innovation more than a decade ago, Academic Partnerships brings single-minded dedication, an integrated set of services and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partnerseven more so as we face the challenges brought on by COVID-19. For more information on innovative online learning solutions, please visit www.academicpartnerships.com.

SOURCE Academic Partnerships
Retailer Trent Limited, apparel brand Ethnicity and jewelry manufacturer Derewala have become the first three companies in India to harness Centric PLM, the intuitive, configurable, easy to use, mobile, cloud-based PLM software. All three companies cited spreadsheet chaos, a widespread challenge across the industry, as a main driver for adopting PLM. Searching through numerous spreadsheets, files in multiple emails and out-of-date versions will be a thing of the past. With Centric PLM, all product development information can be found in a single, digital hub, accessible to all departments when they need it.

Kripya, Centric's trusted partner for over a decade is leading the implementation of Centric PLM for Trent Limited, Ethnicity and Derewala. Kripya has already successfully rolled out Centric PLM for multiple global brands, retailers and manufacturers of different sizes and levels of complexity such as Li & Fung, ASICS, Brandix, Hirdaramani, MAS Holdings, VT Garment and SHOEfabrik. Since inception, Centric PLM projects have a 100% go-live and 97% referenceability rates, emphasizing the customer satisfaction of its 500+ customers.

Venkatesh Narasimhan, Chief Operating Officer at Kripya Solutions Pvt Ltd, comments, "Kripya has amassed considerable best practices in working with innovative, market-leading brands, retailers and manufacturers from around the globe." He continues, "By combining the best of Silicon Valley innovation and local knowledge, we will streamline activities for Trent Limited, Ethnicity and Derewala. These companies can expect boosted visibility throughout product development and enhanced team and external collaboration ."

Ravi Rangan, Chief Technical Officer and VP Client Services at Centric Software says, "It is fantastic to progress Centric's relationship with Kripya, a premier PLM Consulting firm and Centric's closest partner, towards our deployments in India. With over a decade of Centric deployment partnership, Kripya is tightly integrated into Centric's processes and governance. Together we will empower three leading Indian companies to realize the gains in collaboration and speed-to-market they seek with Centric PLM."

"We are proud to welcome Centric's newest customers from India," says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. "Hand in hand with Kripya, Trent Limited, Ethnicity and Derewala will see a boost in efficiency by laying their digital product development foundation."

Learn more about Centric PLM.

Request a Demo

Centric Software (http://www.centricsoftware.com/)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a Product Concept to Consumer Digital Transformation Platform for fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer electronics and consumer goods including cosmetics & personal care and food & beverage. Centric's flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLMTM, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric's Visual Innovation Platform (CVIP) offers highly visual digital board experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Retail Planning is an innovative, cloud-native solution powered by Armonica Retail S.R.L., that delivers an end-to-end retail planning process designed to maximize retail business performance. Centric Software pioneered mobility, introducing the first mobile apps for PLM, and is widely known for connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com, planning and more as well as creative tools such as Adobe Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric's innovations are 100% market-driven with the highest user adoption rate and fastest time to value in the industry. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost product innovation and reduce costs.

Centric Software is owned by Dassault Systemes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021.

Centric Software is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Centric Software
Clearwave Fiber enters Kansas with RG FIBER acquisition, giving them a foothold to expand into nearby communities. Tweet this

"I am extremely proud of the business we have built over the past eight years," added RG FIBER President & Founder Mike Bosch. "Clearwave Fiber will be an excellent partner and its size and financial strength will help us accelerate our plans to invest in the communities we serve. Furthermore, they equally value the importance of being involved and engaged with their customers, bringing an unparalleled level of local focus."

Armistead further noted, "We look forward to dedicating the resources to providing Kansas with high-speed internet access through the most advanced technology and unparalleled customer support. As we continue to grow, our focus on the customer and product quality remains relentless. We are excited to partner with local municipalities to bring their communities a fiber network that is durable, reliable, and will easily keep pace with technology innovations that will undoubtedly require increased demand for bandwidth."

About Clearwave Fiber

Clearwave Fiber is a fiber-based Internet service provider that operates a more than 2,000 route-mile fiber network, serving a growing number of towns and cities across the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States. They deliver advanced telecommunications solutions with an emphasis on state-of-the art network performance, exceptional customer care for businesses and residents, and community engagement.

SOURCE Clearwave Fiber
Will Advance the Company's Technology Designed to Aid the Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease and Other Neurological Disorders

PHOENIX, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CND Life Sciences, Inc. (www.cndlifesciences.com), an innovative medical diagnostics company pioneering the detection, visualization, and quantification of protein deposition in cutaneous nerve fibers, has added two senior pathologists to its core team, Dr. Janine Feng, MD and Dr. Dana Haydel, MD.

Dr. Feng, who is also serving as CND's Medical Director, is an anatomic and clinical board-certified pathologist who attended NYU School of Medicine and performed residency training at the University of Arizona. She has practiced pathology in both private and academic settings. Prior to starting at CND, she worked as a pathologist at Roche Tissue Diagnostics (formerly Ventana Medical Systems) for 17 years.

"CND is the first commercial laboratory to offer a test that detects synucleinopathies in the skin," said Dr. Feng. "I look forward to exploring ways to apply our technology to many other neurodegenerative conditions. In addition to pioneering diagnostic technologies, my goal is for CND to play a role in clinical trials as researchers study potentially disease-modifying therapies."

Dr. Haydel is a board-certified pathologist with anatomic and clinical specialty training from UC Irvine. She also completed subspecialty fellowship training in pediatric pathology from Children's Hospital Los Angeles and in dermatopathology from UCLA. She also earned a Master of Science in Human Genetics from Tulane University.

"I am very excited to help advance this new medical technology at an early stage of the company," said Dr. Haydel. "And, what's so exciting is that CND's technology gives physicians and patients critical information that they could not access before. For challenging neurological disorders, this information helps provide answers for patients and families with greater diagnostic clarity and confidence. That's powerful."

"The expertise Dr. Feng and Dr. Haydel bring to CND will allow us to propel our core business forward as we continue to expand our diagnostic testing capabilities in new directions through research programs and collaborations with biopharma and other organizations," said Todd Levine, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of CND Life Sciences. "We are thrilled to welcome these accomplished pathologists to our team and are confident that their expertise will be key to our growth as we build upon the success of the Syn-One Test."

About CND Life Sciences and the Syn-One Test

Founded in 2017, CND Life Sciences is dedicated to supporting the care of patients facing the potential diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease and other neurological conditions. Operating a CLIA-certified laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, CND launched the Syn-One Test as the world's first commercially available test to detect, visualize, and quantify misfolded alpha-synuclein located in cutaneous nerve fibers. The test, which analyzes small skin biopsies collected conveniently from the patient in a physician's office, aids in the diagnosis of a synucleinopathy including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and pure autonomic failure. The Syn-One Test leverages a decade of published science from leading academic institutions in multiple countries and has demonstrated over 95% sensitivity and specificity. The company has research collaborations with multiple biopharmaceutical companies and has been awarded two prestigious NIH SBIR awards to advance the validation and clinical utility of its Syn-One Test. For more information visit www.cndlifesciences.com.

Disclosure: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R44NS117214 and R44AG076072. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact: Kendall Swanson

CND Marketing and Communications

(480) 386-6667

[email protected]

SOURCE CND Life Sciences
The primary driving factor for the Concrete Bonding Agents Market is an investment in the improvement of existing infrastructure, concrete bonding gents are broadly used in repair and restoration application and other factors.

JERSEY CITY, N.J., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Concrete Bonding Agents Market" By Agent (Cementitious latex-Based, Epoxy-Based), By Application (Repairing, Flooring, Decorative, Marine), and By Geography. According to Verified Market Research, the Global Concrete Bonding Agents Market size was valued at USD 3.67 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 6.25 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 6.70% from 2021 to 2028.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=221385

Browse in-depth TOC on "Concrete Bonding Agents Market"

202 - Pages

126  Tables

37  Figures

Global Concrete Bonding Agents Market Overview

Rapid urbanization and population growth will likely accelerate the growth of the Concrete Bonding Agents Market. Surging levels of investment for infrastructure development, increasing preferences for new and advanced designs, rising demand for products due to their high compatibility with Portland cement, and rapid urbanization will likely accelerate the growth of the Concrete Bonding Agents Market. The use of concrete bonding agents in micro tops and overlays to provide the interiors of commercial and residential structures a more pleasing appearance. As a result of the growing usage of concrete bonding agents in ornamental applications, the market will gain significant growth.

Insufficient execution and a lack of knowledge about the raw materials to use for repairs will be a big stumbling block for the market. These bonding agents are utilized in building and construction for repairing, flooring, decorating, and a few other applications, which help to redecorate buildings. Cohesion is improved by these bonding agents. Its positive adhesion is greater than the host concrete's tensile strength. Concrete bonding chemicals are most commonly used in the building and construction industry. Concrete bonding solutions are in more demand as residential construction and restoration activities increase in emerging countries. As per the World Bank, global construction spending in 2019 was USD 12 trillion, and it is expected to reach USD 15.3 trillion in 2026, resulting in a demand for concrete bonding agents.

Because of the present trend of multi-family structures and an increase in migration to cities, the US Census Bureau has been issuing more permits for the construction of new residential buildings. According to the US Census Bureau, building investment in the United States in 2020 will be over USD 1,400 billion for both private and public construction. Furthermore, according to StatCan, the construction industry's gross domestic product at basic prices in Canada was anticipated to be around 141.22 billion Canadian dollars in 2019, and it is expected to rise during the forecast year.

Key Developments

On Dec 2020, Sika has signed a growth equity investment agreement with CiDRA Concrete Systems Inc. to augment its existing global connection.

On Jan 2020 , Eucoweld 2.0, Level Top PC-AGG, and the new and enhanced Kurez DR VOX are among the three new products introduced by The Euclid Chemical Company.

Key Players

The major players in the market are Sika AG, Fosroc International Ltd., BASF SE, Saint-Gobain Weber S.A., Mapei S.p.A., Dow Construction Chemicals, LafargeHolcim, The Euclid Chemical Company, GCP Applied Technologies Inc, and Dow Corning Corporation.

Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Concrete Bonding Agents Market On the basis of Agent, Application, and Geography.

Concrete Bonding Agents Market, By Agent

Cementitious latex-based



Epoxy-based

Concrete Bonding Agents Market, By Application

Repairing



Flooring



Decorative



Marine

Concrete Bonding Agents Market by Geography

North America



U.S





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





France





U.K





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





Japan





India





Rest of Asia Pacific



ROW



Middle East & Africa

&



Latin America

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Cellular Concrete Market By Application Type (Building Material, Road Sub-Bases, Concrete Pipes), By End Users (Residential Buildings, Commercial Buildings, Infrastructure), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Insulated Concrete Form Market By Product (Polyurethane Foam, Cement-Bonded Wood Fibre, Polystyrene Foam), By Application (Non-Residential, Residential), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Concrete Repair Mortars Market By Type (Epoxy Based Mortars, Cementitious Based Mortars), By Application (Spraying, Manual or Hand Mixing, Pouring), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Top 7 Construction Equipment Manufacturers acting as pillars for construction industry

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Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over a meeting of lawmakers from an inspection team under the NPC Standing Committee to hear a report on the enforcement of the environmental protection law, in Beijing, capital of China, March 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A meeting of lawmakers from an inspection team under the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee was held Wednesday to hear a report on the enforcement of the environmental protection law.

Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the meeting.

China's legislation on ecological and environmental protection has made progress in terms of quantity and quality, contributing to the fight against pollution, Li said.

Underlining the environmental protection law as a fundamental and comprehensive legislation that plays a leading role in the field of ecological and environmental protection, Li said that problems discovered during the inspection should be solved under supervision.

The inspection was led by Li and has seen four teams sent to eight provincial-level regions, and other regions were inspected by standing committees of people's congresses at the provincial level. 
DeepBrain AI will introduce Virtual Humans and demonstrate how they support increased online and digital learning engagement. Whether implemented as an AI Teacher or AI Tutor, the Virtual Humans guide the learning process with an ultra-realistic video that simulates the instructor-led experience. The Virtual Humans can also be implemented as a chatbot to enable real-time interactive question and answer.

In addition, DeepBrain AI is also exhibiting the "AI STUDIOS" platform, a video synthesis and editing platform that allows for script-to-video editing to produce educational and training video content directly. One of the most prominent features of AI STUDIOS services is that anyone can create video content (lectures, training videos, etc.) featuring Virtual Humans without separate technologies and equipment for video and voice synthesis. DeepBrain AI will provide visitors with hands-on experiences such as selecting the AI model entering the text they want Virtual Humans to say.

DeepBrain AI located at Booth #213 of MANCHESTER GRAND HYATT

Interested parties can contact [email protected] for more information before the event.

Media Contact : John Son, [email protected]

SOURCE DeepBrain AI
BALTIMORE, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Delfi Diagnostics, a pioneering developer of a new class of high-performance, affordable liquid biopsy tests for early cancer detection, added two new leaders to its management team to oversee regulatory, policy, and reimbursement activities as the company advances its products toward commercialization. Michaela Hart has joined as Delfi's Vice President of Regulatory, Quality and Lab Operations, and Paul Sheives has joined as Vice President of Government Relations and Reimbursement.

"Michaela and Paul bring important regulatory and reimbursement leadership to the team we have been building for the last year at Delfi," said Jenn Buechel, Delfi's Chief Operation Officer. "As we advance our clinical programs and prepare to launch our first commercial products, we are fortunate to have such talented and experienced individuals joining us on our mission to make cancer less deadly through widely accessible early detection tests."

Before joining Delfi, Hart was Vice President of Quality Systems and Compliance for Roche Molecular Solutions where she led the teams that aligned the various quality management systems from Roche's Molecular Systems, Tissue Diagnostics, and Sequencing Solutions customer areas. Previously, she served as Vice President of Quality Management and Regulatory Affairs for Roche Sequencing USA, and also as Vice President of Molecular Operations and Quality Assurance for Veracyte.

"I am especially delighted to be joining Delfi where I will be leading the Regulatory, Quality, and Laboratory Operations teams who play a proactive role in helping to bring safe, reliable, high-performing diagnostic tests to market for the people who need them."

Sheives joined Delfi in late 2021 and most recently served as Senior Director of Health Policy and Reimbursement for Roche Diagnostics where he led all health policy efforts and reimbursement strategies across the company's portfolio in the United States. He previously held leadership roles at the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) where he worked with members and stakeholders to drive health policy solutions affecting access to laboratory diagnostic tests.

"I am thrilled by the opportunity to work with a world-class team to bring Delfi's ground-breaking technology to patients in a responsible and clinically meaningful way. The current reimbursement system presents challenges for developers of tools for the early detection of cancer, and it is our responsibility to ensure that patients have access to these critical tools in the fight against cancer, " Sheives said.

About Delfi Diagnostics

Delfi is developing a new class of liquid biopsy tests for early detection based on altered genome-wide fragmentation profiles, also known as "fragmentomes," representing aberrant packaging of DNA in cancer cells. By applying advanced machine learning algorithms, these fragment patterns are detectable at a very low sequencing cost. Delfi is using this technology to develop highly sensitive and specific cancer detection assays intended for wide and cost-effective distribution and adoption.

SOURCE Delfi Diagnostics
Customer Reviews Reveal Satisfaction in Account-Based Advertising, Buyer Intent Data Tools, Sales Intelligence, and More

SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Demandbase, the Smarter GTM company for B2B brands, today announces it has been recognized as a leader in 39 G2 Spring 2022 categories, including 28 G2 Grids. The G2 Grid Reports are a result of real user ratings and reveal which solutions have the most satisfied customers and largest market presence. Demandbase was also awarded the top spot in the Enterprise Grid Report for Account-Based Analytics and Account-Based Attribution and was marked a leader in Account-Based Advertising, Account Data Management, Demand Side Platform (DSP), Account-Based Orchestration, Account-Based Analytics, Buyer Intent Data, Marketing Account Intelligence, Sales Intelligence, Marketing Intelligence and more.

"We are always honored to be included in G2's Grids because they represent the true feelings of our customers," says Brewster Stanislaw, chief product officer at Demandbase. "Watching our rankings get higher and higher each quarter shows that we don't rest on our laurels and are committed to helping our customers improve their go-to-market (GTM) success each and every day. We're excited to see our customers leveraging Demandbase Account Intelligence to reshape how they engage with their customers and prospects, and we are honored that they recognize us by repeatedly sharing their success stories with G2."

These rankings are yet another example of Demandbase being recognized as a leader by industry analysts, further supporting its favored position in the B2B GTM industry . To learn more about what real users have to say, or to leave your own review of Demandbase on G2's review page, please visit https://www.g2.com/products/demandbase-abm-platform/reviews .

About Demandbase

Demandbase is Smarter GTM for B2B brands. We help marketing and sales teams spot the juiciest opportunities earlier and progress them faster by injecting Account Intelligence into every step of the buyer journey and orchestrating every action. For more information about Demandbase, visit www.demandbase.com .

SOURCE Demandbase
Read the 120-page report with TOC on "Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (E-UAV) Market Analysis Report by Technology (Battery, Solar, and Fuel cell) and Geographic (North America, APAC, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and South America), and the Segment Forecasts,2022-2026". Gain competitive intelligence about market leaders. Track key industry opportunities, trends, and threats. Information on marketing, brand, strategy and market development, sales, and supply functions. https://www.technavio.com/report/report/electric-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-e-uav-market-industry-analysis

Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (E-UAV) Market - Drivers, Trends & Challenges

The electric unmanned aerial vehicle (E -UAV) market is driven by the development of powerful electric engines. In addition, the rapid adoption of sensor fusion technology is a major trend to boost the growth of the electric unmanned aerial vehicle (E-UAV) market. However, swap and other network-based constraints may impede the market growth. The holistic analysis of the drivers, trends, and challenges will help in deducing end goals and refining marketing strategies to gain a competitive edge.

Some of key Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (E-UAV) Players:

The electric unmanned aerial vehicle (E-UAV) market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as technological innovations to compete in the market.

AeroVironment Inc. - The company offers unmanned aircraft solutions to unmanned vehicles such as Jump 20, T-20, Raven B, and others.

The company offers unmanned aircraft solutions to unmanned vehicles such as Jump 20, T-20, Raven B, and others. Airbus SE - The company offers a Zephyr drone as an electric unmanned aerial vehicle.

The company offers a Zephyr drone as an electric unmanned aerial vehicle. Bye Aerospace Inc. - The company offers Electric eFlyer Aircraft as an electric unmanned aerial vehicle.

The company offers Electric eFlyer Aircraft as an electric unmanned aerial vehicle. Draganfly Inc. - The company offers drones such as Tango 2 and dragonfly commander 2 as electric unmanned aerial vehicles.

The company offers drones such as Tango 2 and dragonfly commander 2 as electric unmanned aerial vehicles. ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd- The company offers the manufacture of AEROB 4D which is an unmanned aviation system.

The company offers the manufacture of AEROB 4D which is an unmanned aviation system. To know about all major vendors with their key offerings - Download a free sample now!

Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (E-UAV) Market - Segmentation Analysis

Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD billion, 2021-2026)

Battery - size and forecast 2021-2026

Solar - size and forecast 2021-2026

Fuel cell - size and forecast 2021-2026

Geographic Outlook (Revenue, USD billion, 2021-2026)

North America - size and forecast 2021-2026

- size and forecast 2021-2026 APAC - size and forecast 2021-2026

Europe - size and forecast 2021-2026

- size and forecast 2021-2026 The Middle East and Africa - size and forecast 2021-2026

and - size and forecast 2021-2026 South America - size and forecast 2021-2026

To know about the contribution of each segment - Grab an Exclusive FREE Sample Report

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Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (E-UAV) Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 14.36% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 5.42 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 14.29 Performing market contribution North America at 35% Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled AeroVironment Inc., Airbus SE, Auterion Ltd., Bye Aerospace Inc., Draganfly Inc., Elbit Systems Ltd., ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd., Equinox's Drones Pvt. Ltd., Eviation Aircraft, Guangzhou XAG Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Parrot Drone SAS, Raytheon Technologies Corp., Sunlight Aerospace, SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd., Teledyne FLIR LLC, Xiaomi Global Community, Yuneec International Co. Ltd., and Thales Group Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Content

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 Technology



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 ($ billion)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



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 Technology

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on Technology - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Technology - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Technology

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Technology



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Technology

5.3 Battery - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Battery - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Battery - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Battery - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Battery - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Solar - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Solar - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Solar - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Solar - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Solar - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Fuel cell - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 36: Chart on Fuel cell - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Fuel cell - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Fuel cell - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Fuel cell - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Market opportunity by Technology

Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Technology ($ billion)

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 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 50: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 52: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on APAC - 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 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

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 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 60: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 64: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 65: Data Table on South America - 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 ($ billion)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



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 Turkey - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on Turkey - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on Turkey - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 72: Chart on Turkey - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 73: Data Table on Turkey - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.10 Israel - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Israel - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on Israel - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 76: Chart on Israel - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on Israel - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 80: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 84: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 86: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion)

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 AeroVironment Inc.

Exhibit 93: AeroVironment Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 94: AeroVironment Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 95: AeroVironment Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 96: AeroVironment Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 97: AeroVironment Inc. - Segment focus

10.4 Airbus SE

Exhibit 98: Airbus SE - Overview



Exhibit 99: Airbus SE - Business segments



Exhibit 100: Airbus SE - Key news



Exhibit 101: Airbus SE - Key offerings



Exhibit 102: Airbus SE - Segment focus

10.5 Bye Aerospace Inc.

Exhibit 103: Bye Aerospace Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 104: Bye Aerospace Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 105: Bye Aerospace Inc. - Key offerings

10.6 Draganfly Inc.

Exhibit 106: Draganfly Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 107: Draganfly Inc. - Key offerings

10.7 Elbit Systems Ltd.

Exhibit 108: Elbit Systems Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 109: Elbit Systems Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 110: Elbit Systems Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 111: Elbit Systems Ltd. - Segment focus

10.8 ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd.

Exhibit 112: ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 113: ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 114: ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 115: ELcomponics Sales Pvt. Ltd. - Segment focus

10.9 Parrot Drone SAS

Exhibit 116: Parrot Drone SAS - Overview



Exhibit 117: Parrot Drone SAS - Product / Service



Exhibit 118: Parrot Drone SAS - Key offerings

10.10 Raytheon Technologies Corp.

Exhibit 119: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 120: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 121: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 122: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 123: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Segment focus

10.11 SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 124: SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 125: SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 126: SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.12 Teledyne FLIR LLC

Exhibit 127: Teledyne FLIR LLC - Overview



Exhibit 128: Teledyne FLIR LLC - Business segments



Exhibit 129: Teledyne FLIR LLC - Key offerings



Exhibit 130: Teledyne FLIR LLC - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 131: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 132: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 133: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 134: Research methodology



Exhibit 135: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 136: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 137: List of abbreviations

About Technavio

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.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
Second Annual Report Underscores Company's Security Transformation and Commitment to Transparency in Cybersecurity

ATLANTA, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax  (NYSE: EFX) today released its 2021 Security Annual Report , part of the company's ongoing commitment to further transparency in cybersecurity. The report outlines the company's investments in top-tier cybersecurity capabilities and a security-first culture; how Equifax has innovated its security infrastructure in ways that make its business, customers and consumers more secure; and the steps taken to collaborate across the industry to be a force for good in cybersecurity.

"Over the past four years, we have transformed our organization at every level, investing $1.5 billion in technology and security to build the Equifax Cloud," said Mark W. Begor, CEO of Equifax. "We are a New Equifax - a truly diversified data, analytics and technology company that has expanded well beyond a traditional credit bureau  and we're just getting started. We view security as a key differentiator. We will continue to invest in security leadership and remain committed to working openly with our peers, customers, partners, and regulators to tackle emerging security challenges and work together to deliver solutions that benefit both the security community and our customers."

Over the past year, Equifax expanded its top-tier cloud security to include automated validation and monitoring; fortified its digital supply chain with greater detail, speed, and innovation; strengthened its global risk posture; enhanced its employee security training; and engaged with stakeholders around the world to help others prepare for and defend against emerging threats.

"Despite 2021 being the most disruptive year on record for global cybersecurity, Equifax expanded our security program even further  from automation that accelerates new product innovation to more robust digital supply chain security that protects the entire ecosystem of our organization," said Jamil Farshchi, Chief Information Security Officer of Equifax. "We are committed to being a leader in cybersecurity and to continuously raising the bar to out-smart, out-work and out-innovate cyber criminals. Few companies have dedicated more time and resources into ensuring that consumer information is protected."

Of note, for a second-consecutive year, a leading global research and advisory firm found that the maturity of Equifax's cybersecurity program exceeded every major industry benchmark. Additionally, a leading cybersecurity reporting service found that Equifax's security posture ranked in the top 1% of Technology and Financial Services companies analyzed.

The Report also highlights the impact of Equifax security in 2021:

35+ million Cyber threats defended against on average each day

370,000+ Simulations conducted to test the global workforce in security

11,000+ Employees received personalized security training

1000+ Deep-dive analyses conducted on critical digital supply chain partners

800+ Organizations supported through Equifax Breach Services

160+ Automated cloud security checks monitored in real time

150+ Equifax products securely brought to market

50+ Industry forums participated in to tackle global cyber challenges

20 Certifications and authorizations obtained from outside auditors

In recent years, Equifax has taken unprecedented steps to transform its security program across every level. The company invested $1.5 billion to rebuild its security and technology systems from the ground up; built a $7.3 million Cyber Fusion Center that supports 24/7 detection and response; and hired more than 600 highly-skilled cybersecurity professionals to protect consumer data.

To view the full 2021 Security Annual Report, please visit Equifax.com .

ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.

At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 13,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 25 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Kate Walker for Equifax

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.
Tournaments will take place throughout the next 24 weeks and are open to all players

ORLANDO, Fla., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ExitLag and Gamers Club have come together to announce a series of Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) tournaments that will take place across the North American region. Knowing that it is a necessity to strengthen the North American community through tournaments, ExitLag and Gamers Club created a series of 1v1 format tournaments with a prize pool of $9,000.

Tournaments are open to all players with a prize pool of $9,000

The tournaments started on March 10th and will be held every Thursday for 24 weeks with each week's winner receiving $375. Interested players can join the tournaments at Gamers Club's website. Registration is free and open to all players.

"We're proud to be partnering with Gamers Club as we continue to grow our profile in North America and deliver the best experience to the gaming community," said Atila Breowicz, CMO of ExitLag. "Creating this 24-week tournament is a fantastic way to give the North American Counter-Strike community the true Gamers Club experience - and without any lag issues, of course."

Late in 2021, Gamers Club expanded into North America to encourage the CS:GO community all over the continent, bringing its belief in the community and values to a new region. This is the first step taken by the companies together in North America to reinforce the region's competitive landscape.

About ExitLag

ExitLag, a proprietary online gaming software, was created by gamers for gamers to level the playing field and provide a better, more competitive gaming experience to users worldwide. Using data trafficking optimization and artificial intelligence, multi-path connections with simultaneous activation guarantee you always have the best connection while gaming. ExitLag is currently in beta testing for the first-ever mobile app to optimize connection for mobile gaming. You can learn more at ExitLag.com or on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram.

About Gamers Club

Gamers Club is the largest esports platform in Latin America, having all the features that an amateur or aspiring professional player needs to practice, play, compete, and have fun.

Media Contact:

Laura Panza

(949) 777-2487

[email protected]

SOURCE ExitLag
Helps rapidly deploy agile digital assets for new business models that can drive growth, reduce costs and improve customer experience

Brings together a combination of sector insights, cloud-based platforms and comprehensive solutions to enhance efficiency and drive performance

Helps organizations realize their digital transformation agenda through strategies focused on people, technology and innovation

LONDON, March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EY today announces a new global alliance with Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, to support organizations in their end-to-end business transformation and growth. The alliance takes the current successful relationship of teaming and go-to-market efforts between EY and Infosys forward to effectively deliver tech-enabled transformation (TET) programs.





The EY Transformation Realized Framework is an approach to business change, centered on helping clients realize their business transformation goals through the power of people, technology and innovation.

The EY-Infosys Alliance combines EY functional and industry-specific consulting services with Infosys technology assets and platforms to form a compelling vision to get organizations future-ready. This approach leverages sector-specific platforms and solutions through emerging technologies such as cloud, internet of things (IoT), blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). The Alliance applies to TET programs such as business integration, systems integration and post-implementation guidance and support.



The two organizations will collaborate on helping drive client value by leveraging technology assets and services. The Alliance will focus on building services around Infosys' market-leading and sector-specific platforms, co-developing solutions around Infosys' existing cloud assets and solutions, and co-creating new assets and solutions to address emerging opportunities and challenges that are top-of-mind for boards and the C-suite.

Andy Baldwin, EY Global Managing Partner  Client Service and Executive Sponsor of the EY-Infosys Alliance, says:

"The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organizations to accelerate the pace of their digital transformation to meet changing customer and market demands. They need to leap-frog from their current legacy business to new models enabled by cloud and powered by disruptive technologies. To achieve this, they will need to draw on a diverse set of external skills and expertise from across the vendor ecosystem. The EY-Infosys Alliance is designed and positioned to help businesses explore the impact of digital on their strategy, products, services, customers and employees, and assist to unlock maximum value to gain competitive advantage. Through the Alliance, businesses can rapidly leverage the complementary skills of EY and Infosys to navigate their own digital transformation journey to effectively build a better working world."

Mohit Joshi, President, Infosys, says:

"Enterprises globally are investing in becoming 'digital-ready' organizations today to stay relevant and competitive. Digital technology has evolved, and its significant impact can be seen in most industries. There is now an increasing need for organizations to embrace digital technology than ever before, and we are delighted to collaborate with EY on this journey to enhance client value and help clients mitigate challenges that come with legacy transition."

For more information, visit ey.com/alliances.

About EY

EY exists to build a better working world, helping to create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets.

Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate.

Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE,NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

SOURCE EY
Facility Management Services Market by Type (Outsourced, In-house), Service (Hard Service, Soft Service, Management Service), Application (Government & Public Sector, Industrial, Commercial, Education, Transportation, Healthcare) & Region - Forecast 2022 - 2032

DUBAI, UAE, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The facility management services market is expected to increase at a CAGR of over 12.6% from 2022 to 2032, finds a study by Future Market Insights. Increased investments in the real estate and construction industries around the world are credited with the rising facility management services market share.

Attributes Details Facility Management Services Market CAGR (2022-2032) 12.6% Facility Management Services Market (2027) US$ 86.01 billion Facility Management Services Market Attraction Demand for cloud-based facilities management systems is surging to boost market potential.

The expansion of the facility management services market is fueled by factors such as increased industrialization and urbanization, increased residential and non-residential building, and increased awareness of asset protection. Furthermore, several facility management service providers, such as CBRE Group, Quess Corp Ltd, and others, are working to integrate sustainable development, technology, infrastructure, people, and real estate to achieve optimum efficiency.

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As a result, the global facility management services market is predicted to rise as people become more conscious of the importance of protecting their assets or properties. However, the lack of trained personnel and resources in emerging nations, as well as a lack of managerial awareness and reliance on in-house facility management teams, are impeding the demand for facility management services.

The facility management system will benefit from growth in the infrastructure sector. Infrastructure investment is a priority for governments in a number of countries. They have begun to make significant investments in the construction of trains, ports, airports, and other infrastructure. There have been a number of cooperation with a variety of private companies, including service providers, to keep the infrastructure sustainable. Furthermore, governments are entering into agreements with a number of multinational players to finish and connect their infrastructure both inside and beyond borders.

As a result, the facility management services market is likely to be driven by the expansion of the infrastructure sector in various nations. Furthermore, service providers all around the world have a plethora of options for obtaining contracts from the private sector.

However, one of the issues limiting the facility management services market outlook is security worries about the integrity of devices and networks. Increasing security breaches and cybercrime group threats are causing distrust, which is harming industry growth.

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As per the global facility management services market study, growth is hampered by a lack of stable contracts, little use of technology, and a lack of resources and competencies. The infrastructure sector's rapid growth necessitates more workers, which has an impact on domestic facility management across the country. These are the main elements influencing the market's development. However, the workforce and cost control will be critical in resolving such difficulties.

Key Takeaways

By 2023, the outsourced facility management services market in the United States is expected to reach US$ 200 billion . Outsourcing income is increasing in the healthcare and education industries in the United States .

is expected to reach . Outsourcing income is increasing in the healthcare and education industries in . By 2027, the electrical segment is likely to contribute for 20% of the customer base in the United Kingdom .

. The Asia Pacific facility management services adoption rate is expected to grow at a rate of over 15% until 2027. Increased government measures to help smart cities are a feature of the APAC sector. The number of large public facilities, such as airports, malls, universities, hospitals, and seaports, is growing in tandem with the development of smart cities, which has boosted demand for facility management services.

facility management services adoption rate is expected to grow at a rate of over 15% until 2027. Increased government measures to help smart cities are a feature of the APAC sector. The number of large public facilities, such as airports, malls, universities, hospitals, and seaports, is growing in tandem with the development of smart cities, which has boosted demand for facility management services. The rapidly expanding building sector in Asian countries like India and China would also help the business advance in Asia .

and would also help the business advance in . The security segment of the facility management services market in Japan is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 15% until 2027. Organizations will need to recruit qualified security staff to safeguard themselves from potential hostile attacks or criminal operations on their premises, which will fuel industry growth.

Competitive Landscape

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), GDI Integrated Facility Services, Inc., Colliers International, Aramark, Compass Group, Cushman & Wakefield, EMCOR Group, Inc., G4S plc, IBM Corporation, Interserve PLC, ISS Facilities Services Inc., OCS Group, and Veolia Environment are some of the major players in the facility management services market.

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The global demand for facility management services is still extremely fragmented, with several leaders competing for market share. The rising hospitality industry of regional markets is attracting the attention of prominent corporations operating in the market. Government officials are assisting these companies in expanding their strong foothold in facility management process through strategic priorities. This aspect helps cater to the hospitality industry's changing regulatory needs, notably during the height of the ongoing pandemic's safety standards.

Important Industry Developments:

In June 2020 , Sodexo teamed with Bureau Veritas to launch a hygiene verification label for Sodexo services, providing consumers with quality assurance. This collaboration includes on-site facility management and culinary services. The label was first introduced in the United Kingdom , France , the United States , and Canada , and then progressively expanded to other nations across the world.

, Sodexo teamed with Bureau Veritas to launch a hygiene verification label for Sodexo services, providing consumers with quality assurance. This collaboration includes on-site facility management and culinary services. The label was first introduced in the , , , and , and then progressively expanded to other nations across the world. August 2019 - ISS has signed a five-year Vested collaboration agreement with a prominent Nordic professional services group. Furthermore, in the Nordics, this contract will take effect on October 1, 2019 .

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Key Segments

By Type:

Outsourced

In-house

By Service:

Hard Service

Electrical



Civil



Mechanical



Specialized Hard Services



Others Hard Services

Soft Service

Cleaning



Laundry



Landscaping



Security



Others Soft Services

Management Service

Contract Management



Energy & Utilities



Maintenance Planning & Control



Others Management Service

By Application:

Government & Public Sector

Industrial

Commercial

Education

Transportation

Healthcare

Others

Key Questions Answered in the Report

How much is the Facility Management Services Market worth?

Which Segment leads in the Facility Management Services Market?

What is the Demand for Facility Management Services driven in Germany ?

? What is the Asia Pacific facility management services market worth?

Top Reports Related To Industrial Automation Market Insights

Facility Management Services Market: During the projected period, the facility management services market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 12.6% during the forecast period, from US$ 42.2 billion in 2021 to US$ 76.3 billion in 2026.

Industrial Air Filtration Market: The industrial air filtration market size is projected to grow at a rate of 6.2% CAGR during the forecast period to surpass a valuation of US$ 45.2 Bn by 2027, from US$ 33.5 Bn in 2022.

Industrial Temperature Controller Market: Industrial Temperature Controller Market is expected to reach US$ 2.08 Bn in 2022, likely to surge at a vigorous 4.8% CAGR during the assessment period

About Future Market Insights (FMI)

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in Dubai, and has delivery centers in the UK, U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and make critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. A team of expert-led analysts at FMI continuously tracks emerging trends and events in a broad range of industries to ensure that our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.

Contact:

Future Market Insights,

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Plot No: JLT-PH2-X2A,

Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai,

United Arab Emirates

For Sales Enquiries: [email protected]

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Website: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/

Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/facility-management-services-market

SOURCE Future Market Insights
Financial institutions can comply with phase 6 of Uncleared Margin Rules in a matter of weeks

LONDON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra today announced that its Collateral Management as a Service app  powered by CloudMargin and available through Finastra's FusionFabric.cloud platform  now incorporates new capabilities to help financial institutions meet the requirements for Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR).

It's estimated that the new Phase 6 of UMR, due to come into effect in September 2022, will affect 1,000 additional entities for the first time. For firms not familiar with posting initial margin, getting ready for UMR can be a significant, time-intensive process. The partnership between Finastra and CloudMargin will make it easy for Finastra customers using solutions such as Fusion Kondor, Fusion Opics and Fusion Summit to submit the data needed to comply.

Akber Jaffer, EVP, Treasury and Capital Markets Business Unit at Finastra said, "As the deadline for UMR approaches, the need for new and complex calculation methods for initial margin calculation is more important than ever. Together with CloudMargin, we're offering our customers a solution that is cost efficient and quick to adopt. Delivering collateral management as a service, rather than deploying on-premise software, dramatically reduces the cost of ownership for users and delivers fast results."

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based CloudMargin solution is provided with integration to certified ISDA standard initial margin model (SIMM) partners, as well as grid-based methodology support. As well as margin call calculations, it handles counterparty messaging, dispute management, substitutions, settlement and interest payments, and it optimizes bank security inventory for collateral pledges.

Stuart Connolly, CEO of CloudMargin, said, "Now is the time for Phase 6 firms, that will be subject to UMR for initial margin calls, to start addressing operational and technological challenges ahead of the deadline. Our partnership with Finastra makes it easy for firms using Finastra's core treasury and capital markets solutions to submit their data to CloudMargin and quickly comply with the new requirements."

By facilitating the end-to-end straight-through processing of derivatives transactions, and all associated collateral management workflows, it's estimated that the use of CloudMargin through Finastra's FusionFabric.cloud platform can result in savings of up to 70% in total cost of ownership in comparison to an on-premise solution.

For further information please contact:

Caroline Duff,

Global Head of PR

T +44 (0)7917 613586

E [email protected]

About Finastra

Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com

Corporate headquarters

4 Kingdom Street

Paddington

London W2 6BD

United Kingdom

T: +44 20 3320 5000

SOURCE Finastra
Leading boutique government affairs consultancy appoints Tom Gray to lead California practice

New expansion enables Fontas Advisors to extend its best-in-class lobbying, community relations, real estate, and business development capabilities to both coasts

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fontas Advisors, a leading boutique government affairs consultancy, today announced the opening of a new office in Sacramento, California. The Sacramento office builds upon the firm's existing presence in New York and New Jersey and strategically positions Fontas Advisors to serve clients across California to meet the growing demand for its innovative government affairs capabilities.

"We are thrilled to extend our footprint to California as a critical next step in our growth strategy, allowing us to offer clients a bi-coastal approach," said George Fontas, Founder and CEO of Fontas Advisors. "Through our Sacramento office, we have the opportunity to expand our burgeoning tech and innovation practices, deepen our knowledge base on state and local issues, and tap into the incredible creativity, energy, and thought leadership generated by the Golden State's businesses and universities."

With the opening of the new office, Tom Gray, a seasoned political affairs strategist with extensive experience across the California and New York markets, has joined the firm as Managing Director and Head of California. The expansion to California underpins Fontas Advisors' growing presence as a leader in state and local government affairs as the firm continues to meet and anticipate the needs of its current and prospective clients, which increasingly face similar public affairs challenges on both the East and West Coasts.

Under Gray's leadership, the firm has extended its core capabilities to California with a focus on lobbying, community relations, real estate services, and business development. He will manage strategy for a diverse portfolio of clients, including tech leaders such as Intel and SAS, global corporations such as Accenture and Lime Micromobility, and nonprofit organizations including Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Bay Area and the San Francisco Foundation.

"For Fontas Advisors, launching our California practice is an important step towards serving our clients in a Post-Covid global economy," said Tom Gray, Managing Director. "As we emerge from the pandemic, business is navigating an unprecedented public affairs ecosystem that has highlighted the wide-ranging authority of state and local government. We are committed to partnering with our clients as they return to full speed by utilizing the lessons we've learned in New York, applying them in California, and vice-versa, driving success on both coasts and hopefully everywhere in between."

A seasoned strategic advisor and government affairs strategist, Gray brings a cross-functional approach to Fontas Advisors, combining expertise in politics and government, communications, business development, and direct marketing across both the California and New York markets. He has a long track record of success partnering with the tech community and has worked hand-and-hand with companies including Google, Centene, and IBM to promote their missions, navigate challenges, and grow their businesses. Throughout his career, he has also been involved in numerous state, federal, and local elections.

Fontas Advisors was founded in 2017 with a vision to build a firm that offers superior government affairs services and maintains a boutique culture, enabling a highly attentive approach and customized solutions for every client engagement. With the ability to work seamlessly across jurisdictions in California, New York, and New Jersey and diverse capabilities curated for today's rapidly evolving public affairs environment, Fontas Advisors builds trusted, long-term partnerships with its clients across the tech, corporate, real estate, and nonprofit sectors.

Read " Five Questions with Tom Gray " to learn more about Gray's perspectives on state and local government affairs and Fontas Advisors' expansion to California.

About Fontas Advisors

Fontas Advisors is a boutique government affairs consultancy serving the next-generation needs of corporations, nonprofits, and trade associations operating in and partnering with New York, New Jersey, and California. We leverage our robust network, strong knowledge of state and municipal administrations, and decades of combined experience representing innovative leaders to drive results for our clients. With Fontas Advisors there is always a path forward. Learn more at fontasadvisors.com

Media Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE Fontas Advisors
Students arrive at Rogers Fine Art Elementary School in Chicago, the United States, on March 14, 2022. (Photo by Joel Lerner/Xinhua)

Experts are concerned about allergy season because some early symptoms of COVID-19 resemble allergies -- runny or stuffy nose, or a cough and fatigue. It may cause delay in distinguishing between the coronavirus and pollen allergies.

LOS ANGELES, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The BA.2 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant has made up over one third of new COVID-19 infections in the United States, coinciding with the allergy season that may complicate symptoms and delay timely distinction.

The BA.2 variant accounted for about 34.9 percent of new COVID-19 infections in the country in the week ending March 19, according to the latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This data went up from 22.3 percent a week prior, and 15.8 percent two weeks before.

The BA.2 variant is steadily gaining its ground in the country, with infections almost doubling each week in February, the data showed.

In the northeastern part of the country, BA.2's prevalence has surpassed 50 percent in the latest week.

With COVID-19 cases rising in parts of Europe and Asia due to BA.2's rapid spread, scientists worry that the variant may soon push cases up in the United States.

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said he expects "an uptick in cases" due to BA.2, but not necessarily a massive surge like other variants have caused.

Fauci said the new strain is about 50 to 60 percent more transmissible than the first Omicron strain, adding that it could take over as the dominant strain in the United States.

A woman jogs by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., the United States, on March 4, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

Adding to the complication is the start of allergy season. Experts are concerned about allergy season because some early symptoms of COVID-19 resemble allergies -- runny or stuffy nose, or a cough and fatigue.

It may cause delay in distinguishing between the coronavirus and pollen allergies.

Meanwhile, experts cautioned the decline in COVID-19 case counts from peak high in early January may not reveal the full picture of the pandemic.

Keri Althoff, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that CDC case counts may underestimate the true numbers because some people are no longer getting tested, and some others are testing at home and not reporting the results.

Also, not every specimen is genetically sequenced to determine the variant, she said.

Health officials and experts stressed COVID-19 vaccines and boosters remain the best ways to prevent serious illness from the virus. 
CINCINNATI, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a timely follow up to the concepts and strategies revealed in his first book, Tech Debt 2.0, Michael Fillios, Founder of IT Ally and the IT Ally Institute, delivers his next installment of expert, tech-savvy business guidance, with Tech Equity, How to Future Ready Your Small Business and Outperform Your Competition.

Writing from the perspective of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and with the devastating effects of the global pandemic in mind, Fillios explains why now, more than ever, it is critical to shift from the defensive maintenance of technical debt, go on offense, and lead the charge toward building Tech Equity.

"Conceptually viewed as an asset, Tech Equity comprises key components of a company's technology portfolio. SMBs that invest in building Tech Equity are better positioned to navigate crises, take advantage of opportunities, and outperform the competition. This not only translates to higher returns and a more appealing balance sheet, but yields greater talent retention, a heightened focus on the customer experience, and a better understanding of the company itself." - Michael Fillios, Founder, IT Ally and IT Ally Institute

Fillios draws on more than 25 years of experience in business, finance, and IT leadership and includes multiple real-world case studies demonstrating Tech Equity in action, amidst the challenges of the pandemic, as companies compete for survival and search for new opportunities. Complete with strategies and tools for building, diagnosing, and measuring Tech Equity, business leaders will find Michael Fillios' latest publication an invaluable resource for understanding the importance of Tech Equity and its crucial role as they future ready their business.

About IT Ally LLC.

IT Ally, LLC. is a market leader for providing IT and Cyber advisory services for small and mid-size businesses. Our industry-leading research and practices, exceptional IT and Cyber practitioners combined with our unique subscription-based delivery model, helps organizations grow, be more secure and maximize the value of their technology investments.

About the IT Ally Institute

The IT Ally Institute provides small and mid-size businesses access to knowledge, research and tools which help improve the capabilities for managing IT, to future proof their business and improve their tech bottom line. The Institute recently published "Tech Debt 2.0, How to Future Proof Your Small Business and Improve Your Tech Bottom Line".

For more information, contact Michael Fillios at [email protected] or visit itallyllc.com.

SOURCE IT Ally LLC
DUBLIN, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Connected Car Market (2021-2026) by Service, Hardware Type, Form Type, Vehicle Type, End Market (2021-2026), Transponder Network, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Connected Car Market is estimated to be USD 36.5 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 82.1 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17.6%.

The rising urge for escalated user comfort, convenience, and safety is one of the major factors contributing to the market's growth. The increasing tendency of consumers towards anti-theft systems and the adoption of significantly increased computing power and interconnectivity are majorly driving factors of the market.

In addition, various features integration in connected cars such as remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and online service scheduling have increased connected cars' popularity. Other factors contributing to the market growth include the growing acquisition of driver assistance systems. However, some factors, including the absence of infrastructure for the proper functioning of connected cars, may affect the market growth. Automotive cyber threats introduce the potential for mass compromise of vehicles and entire fleets, hindering the market growth.



Research of several technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G is expected to generate untapped opportunities for market participants.



Market Segmentation

The Global Connected Car Market is segmented further based on Service, Hardware Type, Form Type, Vehicle Type, End Market, Transponder Network, and Geography.

By Service, the market is classified into Navigation, Remote Diagnostics, Multimedia Streaming, Social Media & Other Apps, OTA Updates, On-Road Assistance, eCall & SOS Assistance, Cyber Security, Remote Operation, Collision Warning, Auto Parking/Connected Parking, Autopilot, Home Integration, Vehicle Management, and Asset Tracking.

By Hardware Type, the market is classified as Head Unit, Central Gateway, Intelligent Antenna, Electronic Control Unit, Telematic Control Unit, Keyless Entry Systems, and Sensors.

By Form Type, the market is classified as Embedded, Tethered, and Integrated.

By Vehicle Type, the market is classified as Battery Electric Vehicle, Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle.

By End Market, the market is classified as OEM and Aftermarket.

By Transponder, the market is classified as Onboard unit and Roadside unit.

By Network, the market is classified as Operational Data, Dedicated Short Range Communication, and Cellular.

By Geography, America is projected to lead the market.

Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Airbiquity, CloudMade, Continental, Intellias, Luxoft, Qualcomm Technologies, Robert Bosch, Sierra Wireless, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Connected Car Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Rising Urge for Escalated User Comfort, Convenience, and Safety

4.1.2 Increasing Tendency of Consumers Towards Feature on Demand

4.1.3 Growing Acquisition of Driver Assistance System and Automobile Automation

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Connectivity & Subscription Complexity and Reliable Coverage Issues

4.2.2 Absence of Infrastructure in Developing Countries

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Growing Trend of Cab Sharing, Ride Sharing, Car Rental, and Other Services

4.3.2 Arrival of Several Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Vehicle to Everything Communication

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Failure to Generate Customer Interest and Differentiate Services

4.4.2 Threat of Cybersecurity



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Connected Car Market, By Service

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Navigation

6.3 Remote Diagnostics

6.4 Multimedia Streaming

6.5 Social Media & Other Apps

6.6 OTA Updates

6.7 On-Road Assistance

6.8 eCall & SOS Assistance

6.9 Cyber Security

6.10 Remote Operation

6.11 Collision Warning

6.12 Auto Parking/Connected Parking

6.13 Autopilot

6.14 Home Integration

6.15 Vehicle Management

6.16 Asset Tracking



7 Global Connected Car Market, By Hardware Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Head Unit

7.3 Central Gateway

7.4 Intelligent Antenna

7.5 Electronic Control Unit

7.6 Telematic Control Unit

7.7 Keyless Entry Systems

7.8 Sensors



8 Global Connected Car Market, By Form Type

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Embedded

8.3 Tethered

8.4 Integrated



9 Global Connected Car Market, By Vehicle Type

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Battery Electric Vehicle

9.3 Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

9.4 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle



10 Global Connected Car Market, By End Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 OEM

10.3 Aftermarket



11 Global Connected Car Market, By Transponder

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Onboard Unit

11.3 Roadside Unit



12 Global Connected Car Market, By Network

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Operational Data

12.3 Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC)

12.4 Cellular

12.4.1 4G

12.4.2 5G



13 Global Connected Car Market, By Geography



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Competitive Quadrant

14.2 Market Share Analysis

14.3 Strategic Initiatives

14.3.1 M&A and Investments

14.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

14.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



15 Company Profiles

15.1 Airbiquity

15.2 AT&T

15.3 Audi

15.4 BMW

15.5 CloudMade

15.6 Continental

15.7 Daimler (Mercedes-Benz)

15.8 Ericsson

15.9 Ford Motor

15.10 Harman International Industries

15.11 Intellias

15.12 Luxoft

15.13 Qualcomm Technologies

15.14 Robert Bosch

15.15 Samsung

15.16 Sierra Wireless

15.17 Telefonica

15.18 Tesla

15.19 Thales Group

15.20 Tomtom

15.21 Verizon Communications

15.22 Visteon Corporation

15.23 Vodafone

15.24 Zubie



16 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sgr3lq

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SOURCE Research and Markets
What's New for 2022?

Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 8; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 1931

Companies: 64 - Players covered include DuPont De Nemours, Inc.; Glen Raven, Inc.; Gun Ei Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.; Kaneka Corporation; Koninklijke Ten Cate bv; Milliken & Company; Newtex Industries, Inc.; PBI Performance Products, Inc.; Solvay S.A.; Teijin Ltd.; W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Type (Treated, and Inherent); Application (Apparel, and Non-Apparel); and End-Use Industry (Industrial, Defense & Public Safety Services, Transportation, and Other End-Use Industries)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

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ABSTRACT-

Global Fire Resistant Fabrics Market to Reach $4.4 Billion by 2026

Fire resistant fabrics are technical fabrics that exhibit a high degree of resistance to fire and can endure the impact of fires and flames to a certain period of time, providing fire protection to the wearer or the equipment upon which they are placed. Fire resistant fabrics can be grouped under two categories, based on materials used, namely inherently fire retardant fabrics and treated fire retardant fabrics. Inherently fire retardant fabrics are produced from fibers, which because of their natural composition can resist combustion upon exposure to a fire. On the other hand, treated fire retardant fabrics are made using fibers that are milled and treated with fire retardant chemicals to induce fire resistance capability into the fabric. For both types of fabrics, the level of fire resistance is determined by an array of features including the fabric construction, composition, and weight etc.

Fire resistant fabrics are widely used as apparel in the form of personal protective work wear and uniforms and also in the non-apparel versions such as drapes, tarps, tents, and furniture upholstery, in demanding as well as general-purpose fire safety applications. Fire resistant personal protective clothing, made available in the vests, jackets, pants and accessories, is highly relevant in hazardous manufacturing environments, power utilities, oil & gas facilities, construction sites and other industrial sites prone to fire accidents. These fabrics also find wider use in military clothing, empowering military personnel to perform their duties in the most demanding environments including combat zones and search and rescue operations. On the other hand, firefighting departments constitute the major consumers of fire resistant fabrics. Because of the challenging conditions, firefighters need advanced clothing, in the form of uniform and turnout gear, made from best-in-class fire resistant and retardant materials that can endure high temperature flames and environments for longer periods.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Fire Resistant Fabrics estimated at US$3.7 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$4.4 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.3% over the analysis period. Treated, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 3.9% CAGR and reach US$2.6 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Inherent segment is readjusted to a revised 4.8% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $1 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $595.4 Million by 2026

The Fire Resistant Fabrics market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$595.4 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.2% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 2.4% and 3.5% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 3.6% CAGR.

Occupational safety organizations in countries worldwide mandate use of flame retardant garments by employees. Employers are required to provide them to the workers, especially those exposed to flame hazards and electric arcs. Such regulations are present both in developed and developing countries and in the recent years, have been implemented more strictly, which resulted in a major spurt in sales. These trends would continue to positive influence market growth in the future. Industrial standards in countries across the world becoming more stringent, is also anticipated to drive demand for FR going forward. The OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) in the US made it compulsory for all oil & gas industry workers to wear FR clothing. Many other industries, in other countries, would also implement similar rules which would bode well for the market. South America for instance, has been witnessing increasing importance of workplace safety. Mineral extraction is one of the important sectors for many South American nations. Such countries are implementing legislations for making work environments safer for miners. The market for fire resistant fabrics at the global level is generally driven by the demand from the oil and gas industry. The fabrics are used for providing safety to industry workers who work in a high accident prone environment. Technological advancements and growing awareness about benefits of the products among more end-users are some of the other factors that fuel market growth. The area that sees most innovation is the segment of polymeric materials. New varieties of polymeric materials are continuously being developed for the electronics industry primarily. The new varieties meet all the regulatory mandates and also have less negative impact on the environment. Demand in the future would also increase for nanocomposite synthetic fibers. More

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Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 20; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 10762

Companies: 321 - Players covered include Airboss of America Corp.; Avon Rubber p.l.c.; Bando Chemical Industries, Ltd.; Bridgestone Corporation; ContiTech AG; Cooper Standard; Dayco Products, LLC; Eaton Corporation; EnPro Industries, Inc.; Federal-Mogul Corporation; Gates Corporation; Habasit AG; Hutchinson S.A.; JSJ Corporation; Sparks Belting Company; Meiji Rubber & Chemical Co., Ltd.; Mitsuboshi Belting Ltd.; Nichirin Co., Ltd.; NOK Corporation; Parker-Hannifin Corporation; Patch Rubber Company; Semperit AG Holding; Sumitomo Riko Company Limited; Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd.; The Freudenberg Group; The Yokohama Rubber Company Ltd.; Toyo Tire Corporation; Toyoda Gosei Company Limited; Trelleborg AB and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Product Segment (Mechanical Rubber Goods, Rubber Hose & Belting, Other Product Segments); Rubber Type (Natural, Styrene Butadiene, Polybutadiene, Ethylene-Propylene, Nitrile Butadiene, Other Rubber Types); End-Use (Automotive, Construction & Infrastructure, Energy, Aerospace, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Africa.

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ABSTRACT-

Global Industrial Rubber Products Market to Reach $136.5 Billion by 2026

Industrial rubber products market comprises manufacturers engaged in the production of goods by processing rubber (natural, synthetic or reclaimed). These companies use a variety of processes such as cementing, vulcanizing, extruding, lathe-cutting, and molding for transforming the raw material into either intermediate products or final goods. Major industrial applications of rubber include hoses, gaskets, conveyor belts and sealing products, which find use in several applications due to advantages such as better endurance to extreme environments and enhanced durability. Industrial rubber goods also exhibit corrosion resistance against alkalis, chemicals, and acids, enabling their use in a variety of industrial applications. Growth in the global market is set to be driven by resurgent growth in the automotive industry, and intensifying manufacturing activity in various industry verticals, including construction machinery and household appliances. Growth in the industrial rubber products market will also be spurred by growing application base of products and the relative ease of processing of various products. Given its high tear resistance and elongation property, rubber is also used extensively in the production of adhesives and sealants for various industries. Advancements in production technologies used for industrial rubber products will also boost growth. The development of recycled industrial rubber products has managed to partly address environmental and health issues concerning toxicity and emissions of rubber chemicals and products.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Industrial Rubber Products estimated at US$106.1 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$136.5 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.4% over the analysis period. Mechanical Rubber Goods, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 5% CAGR and reach US$60 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Rubber Hose & Belting segment is readjusted to a revised 6.3% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Globally, industrial rubber products market is currently being significantly impacted by the COVID-19 environment, the dull pace of industrialization, and stagnant income levels, which have dampened the manufacturing activity. Post the pandemic period, improving standards of living are expected to promote sales of automobiles and durable goods containing industrial products, thus driving long term demand for industrial rubber products used by OEMs and those used in maintenance and repair operations. In the coming years, demand for industrial rubber products is likely to increase in various end-use sectors such as construction, aerospace, mining and forestry, OEMs and replacement, household and appliances, and computer and office equipment.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $20.9 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $36 Billion by 2026

The Industrial Rubber Products market in the U.S. is estimated at US$20.9 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$36 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 6.3% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 4.3% and 4.5% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 4.9% CAGR. Asia-Pacific (including Japan and China) leads the world industrial rubber products market, with China, India, Malaysia, and South Korea being the main consumers of the products due to construction activities and demand for automobiles. The availability of rubber has increased due to its widespread cultivation in India. The industrial rubber products market in the country has particularly gained from the 100% FDI permitted by the government in the mining industry and for the exploration of non-metal and metal ores. North America is another key industrial rubber products market, mainly supported by the strong growth of the construction sector in the US and Canada. The market in the US is expected to grow in future, stimulated by the expansion of the construction and automotive industries and rising production in the chemical sector post COVID-19 scenario. The market will gain from the anticipated growth in tire demand in the country, due to increasing sales of various types of vehicles. Further, the growing adoption of high-end products and the emergence of novel and sophisticated rubber products are expected to boost market growth in future.

Natural Rubber Segment to Reach $40.5 Billion by 2026

In the global Natural Rubber segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 4.9% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$22.8 Billion will reach a projected size of US$32.7 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$5.5 Billion by the year 2026, while Latin America will expand at a 5.5% CAGR through the analysis period.

More

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Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
What's New for 2022?

Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 8; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 551

Companies: 55 - Players covered include Allied Vision Technologies GmbH; Axis Communications AB; Bosch Security Systems, Inc.; FLIR Systems, Inc.; Fluke Corporation; General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.; Hanwha Techwin Co., Ltd.; L3Harris Technologies, Inc.; Leonardo DRS; Lynred; New Imaging Technologies; Opgal Optronic Industries; Sensors Unlimited, Inc.; Xenics NV; Zhejiang Dali Technology Co., Ltd and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Technology (Uncooled, Cooled); Application (Security & Surveillance, Monitoring & Inspection, Detection); Vertical (Industrial, Non-Industrial)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

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ABSTRACT-

Global Infrared Imaging Technology Market to Reach $7 Billion by 2026

Infrared (IR), also sometimes known as infrared light, is an electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that possesses longer wavelengths in comparison to a visible light, and is not visible to ordinary human eye. Though under certain conditions a human eye can visualize IR with wavelengths of about 1050 nm generated from specialized pulsed lasers. From the total energy emitted by the sun to the earth, more than half is emitted in the form of infrared radiation. The balance between emitted and absorbed infrared radiation shows a critical effect on the climate of the Earth. Infrared radiation is absorbed or emitted by molecules, especially when there is change in the rotational-vibration movements. As a result, the vibrational modes are excited in the molecule due to changing of dipole moment. Given these properties, infrared radiation finds application across several industrial sectors, including medical, law enforcement, military, scientific, and industrial areas. Night-vision devices that use active near-infrared illumination enable animals or people to be observed, even without divulging the details of the observer.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Infrared Imaging Technology estimated at US$5.4 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$7 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% over the analysis period. Uncooled, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 6.6% CAGR and reach US$4.9 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Cooled segment is readjusted to a revised 5.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period. By technology, uncooled segment is projected to dominate market growth, driven by robust demand for uncooled infrared imaging cameras in security and surveillance applications. The low cost of manufacturing sensors for uncooled IR cameras as they require less expensive vacuum packaging is expected to boost demand for uncooled IR imaging products. Another advantage is that uncooled cameras have lower power consumption and fewer moving parts and therefore have much longer service lives and will work continuously for years without maintenance.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $2.4 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $603 Million by 2026

The Infrared Imaging Technology market in the U.S. is estimated at US$2.4 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$603 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.6% and 5.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.1% CAGR.

The market is forecast to witness robust growth opportunities driven by growing demand from non-industrial sector, growing adoption in new end-use applications, technological advancements in IR imaging technology, rising adoption in security and surveillance applications, increasing availability of reasonably priced infrared cameras. Furthermore, rising demand for infrared imaging cameras in emerging economies and high penetration of SWIR cameras is poised to open up new avenues of growth in the upcoming years. The increasing use of IR cameras in quality control and inspections and steady uptake in consumer electronic market also presents untapped growth opportunities. IR imaging can be used as both a predictive and preventive tool, which makes it highly diverse. However, high cost of infrared imaging systems in comparison with substitute technologies, strict import and export regulations, and lack of awareness about the technology hamper market prospects. SWIR cameras are expensive owing to the use of expensive semiconductor material such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) sensors in their formulation.

By Application, Security & Surveillance Segment to Reach $4.1 Billion by 2026

Global market for Security & Surveillance by Application segment is estimated at US$3.2 Billion in 2022, and is projected to reach US$4.1 Billion by 2026 reflecting a compounded annual growth rate of 6.1% over the analysis period. The United States constitutes the largest regional market for Security & Surveillance segment, accounting for 42.8% of the global sales. China is poised to register the fastest compounded annual growth rate of 7.6% over the analysis period, to reach US$417.6 Million by the close of the analysis period. More

MarketGlass Platform

Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

LINKS

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
What's New for 2022?

Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 16; Released: February 2022

Executive Engagements: 7499

Companies: 119 - Players covered include A. N. Wallis & Co Ltd.; Alltec Corporation; AXIS Electrical Components Pvt. Ltd.; Fatech Electronic Co., Ltd.; K.M.L. Technology Co., Ltd.; Lightning Eliminators & Consultants, Inc.; Lightning Protection International Pty Ltd.; Littelfuse, Inc.; MTL Instruments Group; NexTek, Inc.; nVent Electric plc; PT. Zeus Prima Garda and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Technology (Conventional, Unconventional); End-Use (Commercial, Residential, Industrial)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Lightning Protection Technologies (LPT) Market to Reach $1.1 Billion by 2026

Lightning represents a highly frequent and most dangerous weather hazard that packs a powerful electricity punch of up to 100 million volts. Lightning strikes are capable of ripping through roofs, exploding brick or concrete walls, igniting fires and killing people. There are more than 40 million incidents of lightning strikes per year in the US, with lightning being the main culprit behind church fires. Lightning holds staggering costs, requiring commercial property owners to spend millions of dollars as a result of damages. Lightning strikes result in significant inventory loss, insurance claims, and damage to equipment and production. Yearly structural damages associated with lightning in the US exceed $1 billion. In addition, lightning damages account for 3-5% of commercial insurance claims. Majority of structures, mainly buildings with modern designs, are highly vulnerable to the damage owing to various service entrances, expensive equipment and reliance on isolated metal-based building components.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Lightning Protection Technologies (LPT) estimated at US$891.1 Million in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$1.1 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% over the analysis period. Conventional LPT, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 5.2% CAGR to reach US$734 Million by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Unconventional LPT segment is readjusted to a revised 4.2% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 38.3% share of the global Lightning Protection Technologies (LPT) market.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $171 Million in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $210.4 Million by 2026

The Lightning Protection Technologies (LPT) market in the U.S. is estimated at US$171 Million in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 19.26% share in the global market. China, the world second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$210.4 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 6% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 3.5% and 4.3% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 4% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$224.2 Million by the close of the analysis period.

The market in the post COVID-19 period will grow on account of the convergence of numerous drivers, mainly increasing construction of high-rise buildings and tall structures coupled with advancements in electrical systems. Rapid industrialization and urbanization globally have resulted in emergence of tall structures that are exposed to lightning due to the presence of various conductors, requiring effective protection from lightning. Growth will also be favored by stringent regulations for public services and ongoing advancements in the telecom sector along with expansion of the telecommunication infrastructure. The need to protect smart homes from high current and voltage spikes due to lightning is expected to further bolster demand for lightning protection systems. These products are anticipated to find increasing acceptance across different end-user segments like utilities, water treatment plants, warehouses, nuclear power units, military, airports, residential areas and healthcare facilities. The adoption is favored by development of telecommunication facilities coupled with mounting regulatory pressure for protecting commercial facilities like offices, schools and healthcare units. Deployment of lightning protection systems in commercial units is likely to be one of the prominent trends driving the global market. The pressing need for surge protection and spectral power distribution for home offices is slated to trigger the demand. More

MarketGlass Platform

Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

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Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 9; Released: February 2022

Executive Engagements: 392

Companies: 70 - Players covered include ABB Ltd.; ABShot Tecnics S.L.; BAhler Motor GmbH; Changzhou Fulling Motor Co., Ltd.; Constar Micromotor Co., Ltd.; FAULHABER Group; Johnson Electric Holdings Limited; Mabuchi Motor Co., Ltd.; maxon motor AG; Nidec Corporation; Precision Microdrives Limited; Printed Motor Works Limited; Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd.; Siemens AG; Telco Intercontinental Corporation and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Technology (Brushless, Brushed); Application (Automotive, Industrial Automation, Medical Equipment, Construction Equipment, Other Applications)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Micro Motors Market to Reach $34 Billion by 2026

Micro motors are miniaturized motors used in products in a range of industries, for mobility applications specifically. High energy efficiency, portability and the ability of notifying vibrations are the major attributes of these motors. These attributes make the motors better substitutes to traditional small sized motors in a number of applications. Micro motors allow for greater accuracy of movement in mechanized equipment. The unique properties of micro motors make it suitable for use in advanced electrical and electronics systems with space constraints and restricted power budgets. The market for micro motors is mainly driven by rise in industrial automation, increasing demand from medical equipment and automotive industry, growing use in aircraft systems, and emerging applications in communications equipment, home appliance and 3D printers. The growing trend of factory automation in countries across the world and increasing vehicle numbers are the two main factors propelling growth. The rise in lab automation also bodes well for micro motors market driven by growing need for precision motion control solutions. Micro motors find application as miniature piezo motors in medical pipette, telemedicine robots, MRI robot, endoscopy surgical precision, robotic biopsy system, infusion pumps, ultrasound transducer, and pharmaceutical dispensing among others. Demand for ultra-micro motors increased significantly over the past few years driven by rapid communications growth and increased proliferation of micro video games, healthcare equipment and consumer electronics.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Micro Motors estimated at US$28.5 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$34 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.1% over the analysis period. Brushless, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 4.5% CAGR to reach US$24.9 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Brushed segment is readjusted to a revised 3.2% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 32.1% share of the global Micro Motors market. Brushless motors are expected to witness heightened demand in automotive applications, such as in plug-in electric vehicles with electromechanically-driven powertrain and chassis systems. Thus, the rising sales of electric vehicles in the automotive industry bode well for brushless motors.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $5.4 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach of $8.6 Billion by 2026

The Micro Motors market in the U.S. is estimated at US$5.4 Billion in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 19.29% share in the global market. China, the world second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$8.6 Billion in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 5.1% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 2.9% and 3.4% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 3% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$9.2 Billion by the end of the analysis period. Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness robust demand for micro motors on account of growing automotive industry, increase in healthcare centers, and rise in mining and construction activities. The growing industrial automation in China offers lucrative growth opportunities in the region. More

MarketGlass Platform

Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

LINKS

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 19; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 404

Companies: 56 - Players covered include Global Silicon Technologies, Inc.; Kinik Company; KST World Corp.; Mimasu Semiconductor Industry Co.,Ltd.; Mospec Semiconductor Corp; NanoSILICON, Inc.; NoeL Technologies, Inc.; NOVA Electronic Materials, LLC; Optim Wafer Services; Phoenix Silicon International Corporation; Pure Wafer; Rokko Electronics Co., Ltd.; RS Technologies Co., Ltd.; Scientech Corporation; Shinryo Corporation; Si Wave Co., Ltd.; Silicon Inc.; Silicon Materials, Inc.; Silicon Valley Microelectronics, Inc.; SUMCO CORPORATION; Thai Advantec Co., Ltd.; West European Silicon Technologies B.V. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Wafer Diameter (300mm, 200mm, 150mm, Other Wafer Diameters); Application (Solar Panels, Integrated Circuits, Other Applications)

Geographies: World; USA; Japan; China; Europe; Asia-Pacific; South Korea; Taiwan; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Silicon Reclaim Wafers Market to Reach $840.4 Million by 2026

Silicon Reclaim Wafers are defined as reprocessed used test and prime wafers, which are stripped and re-polished for re-use. Silicon wafers are used extensively in semiconductors industry and today form the foundation of all electronics components. As the fundamental building block for semiconductors, silicon wafer demand is significantly linked to the sales of electronic products including computers, telecommunication products, and consumer, automotive and industrial electronics. While silicon wafers are offered in various sizes, the trend is towards larger sizes that allow fabrication of multiple chips on a single silicon, thereby reducing manufacturing costs per semiconductor chip. At present, 12-inch or 300mm diameter wafers comprise the largest category. New processing technologies are helping reduce the risk of defect formation in silicon wafers, an important benefit given the escalating cost of raw semiconductor grade silicon and silicon wafer development. Given the large number of wafers required for testing purposes, use of reclaim wafers for testing applications is poised to benefit due to the significant cost savings offered as compared to virgin test wafers. Also poised to drive demand is the increasing use of reclaim wafers in manufacturing solar panels and photovoltaic cells. Growing investments in the solar energy industry worldwide is forecast to step up opportunities for reclaimed wafers as technology developments enable the use of scrap wafers in the manufacture of high-performance solar cells.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Silicon Reclaim Wafers estimated at US$606.4 Million in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$840.4 Million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.6% over the analysis period. 300mm, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 8.2% CAGR and reach $584.8 Million by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the 200mm segment is readjusted to a revised 5.9% CAGR for the next 7-year period. In the semiconductor industry, wafer diameter is steadily increasing from 200mm to 300mm. This transition to larger diameter wafer sizes is primarily the result of the growing focus on reducing cost per die. Key factors driving the transition to larger silicon wafer sizes include the constant need for miniaturization, and developments in packing density i.e. very large scale integration (VLSI) as well as system on chip (SOC).

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $134.6 Million in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $42 Million by 2026

Silicon Reclaim Wafers market in the U.S. is estimated at US$134.6 Million in the year 2022. China is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$42 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 9.8% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Europe, each forecast to grow at 5.9% and 6.5% respectively over the analysis period. In North America, growing installations of solar panels are leading to high demand for silicon wafer reclaim services. The region is home to several major players engaged in offering the reclaim wafer services due to the widespread availability of technical expertise. In Europe, demand for reclaim silicon wafers will be supported by the growing adoption of renewable energy sources and the increasing demand for various electronic devices and components. Growth of the electronic industries of India, China, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea is anticipated to contribute to market growth in Asia-Pacific. The regions are also witnessing major shift towards renewable energy, which also contributes to increased silicon wafer reclaims demand. More

MarketGlass Platform

Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

LINKS

Join Our Expert Panel

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Journalists & Media

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Sherrier was one of more than 40 leading corporate and M&A lawyers from around the country who analyzed 123 publicly available purchase agreements, executed and closed in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, to create the Deal Points Study. Specifically, the study evaluated the prevalence of certain contract provisions used in private M&A deal negotiations  including financial terms, representations and warranties, covenants, closing conditions, and indemnification related provisions  in middle market deals ranging in size from $30 million to $750 million.

Sherrier identified 10 key trends of note from the Deal Points Study in a recent "What'sMarket" blog. Highlights include the following.

Purchase Price Adjustment Escrows. Forty-seven percent (47%) of the 2021 deals evaluated included a separate escrow account in which to hold back a portion of the purchase price at closing, to be used to settle a post-closing true up of closing or pre-closing estimates. While this is down slightly from 51% in 2019, it is up significantly from 20% in 2008. Representation and Warranty Insurance (RWI). Sixty-five percent (65%) of deals included references to RWI  up significantly from 29% in 2017. Indemnity Caps and Escrows Continue as a Percentage of Total Enterprise Value (TEV). While 99% of deals included a cap on sellers' indemnification liabilities for beaches of general representations and warranties, the median indemnity cap (as a percentage of TEV) decreased from 11% of TEV in 2008 to 2% of TEV in 2021. This is largely a result of the increase in RWI, which provides buyers an alternative source of recovery for breaches of general representations and warranties. Definition of Material Adverse Effect (MAE). Ninety-nine percent (99%) of deals include MAE qualifiers. Given its significance, the definition of MAE tends to be heavily negotiated.

- Seventy-three percent (73%) of the deals include impairment of a target's ability to consummate the transaction as an MAE  a steady increase from 61% in 2017 and 50% in 2008.

- At the same time, the Study shows a trend away from including the impact on the target's prospects as an MAE, with this appearing in just 7% of deals  down from 38% in 2008. Knowledge Qualifiers. In qualifying representations and warranties by the knowledge of the seller, buyers prefer a "constructive knowledge" formulation, while sellers prefer an "actual knowledge" standard. Eighty-one percent (81%) of the deals utilized a constructive knowledge formulation  up from 61% in 2006.

Sherrier represents public and private companies in M&A and corporate restructuring transactions. She works across a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and retail. She also has significant experience advising clients regarding the formation of private equity funds, structuring CPOM transactions, and on general corporate governance matters.

About Goulston & Storrs

Collaboration is not just a pillar of our strategy; it is the key to our competitive advantage and approach to clients, community, and each other. At Goulston & Storrs, we practice law with excellence and integrity. We are a place where mutual respect and collaboration drive open discussion, transparency, creativity and optimal results for our clients. We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where sophisticated business is conducted with genuine camaraderie. To learn more about us, visit www.goulstonstorrs.com.

Contact:

Leigh Herzog Amy Blumenthal Goulston & Storrs PC Blumenthal & Associates PR (617) 574-2259 617) 879-1511 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Goulston & Storrs PC
Launched in 2010, California-based GTI Corporation is a subsidiary of GTI Business Holdings, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, the leading telecommunications firm and digital purveyor in the Philippines. Globe's Enterprise Group has a long and successful history as the Trusted Business Advisor for top corporations across a wide range of industries.

GTI Corporation is a US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensed telecommunications provider. It started as a company offering international calling services to US-based Filipinos. Now, GTI Corporation has emerged to be a trusted provider of comprehensive voice and connectivity services to its US customers, capable of addressing their specific needs backed by homegrown knowledge and cutting-edge innovations.

Wielding its wealth of experience in connectivity services and lasting partnerships with global providers, GTI Corporation is able to provide a comprehensive range of voice, data, and ICT solutions that promise the finest, uninterrupted, and clearest connections for corporate clients.

Businesses can confidently connect across the globe with GTI Corporation's top-notch connectivity services

Believing that connectivity is a crucial force that drives business growth, GTI Corporation has built its corporate connectivity services on stable, resilient, and state-of-the-art network technologies that enable businesses to reach their customers locally and globally.

Its international connectivity solutions include Virtual Private Network, which features multi-service ports for businesses that require higher bandwidth at cost-efficient rates and support a range of local-access types, including 4G and 5G access in the Philippines.

Its Ethernet Private Line presents a high performance and flexible transport, and a variety of configurations and bandwidth speeds to tailor-fit business demands on flexibility and scalability.

GTI Corporation also offers E-Line, E-LAN, Direct Internet, Freeway IP, and Bandwidth on Demand from the Philippines, which are anchored on a technology that guarantees the lowest latency or instances of connection loss or delays through public IP, and allows businesses to link to any part of the country with ease and speed.

Aside from these services, the company also plans to offer Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solutions in the future that enterprises can use to connect their networks, including branch offices and data centers, over large geographic distances.

GTI Corporation provides a wide array of Data Center solutions to ensure business continuity and security

Supporting GTI Corporation's robust infrastructure and connectivity services are its resilient, secure, and operationally excellent data centers interconnected via a robust nationwide backbone and housed in multiple, strategic locations in the Philippines.

With GTI Corporation's data center offerings  Co-location, Cross-Connect, LAN-based internet, Media Storage, and Disaster Recoverybusinesses are assured of continuity and security with only specialized, fully trained, and certified engineers managing their critical data.

GTI Corporation utilizes its SEA-US submarine cable fiber connectivity to provide the best solutions for its customers

GTI Corporation, together with six international companies, owns and operates the Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US) submarine cable system, to better serve the growing bandwidth demands between the United States, the Pacific Islands, and Asia Pacific Region.

GTI Corporation is the landing party of the SEA-US and operates the SEA-US cable landing station in Hermosa Beach, California. The undersea cable includes extensive terrestrial networks that connect cable stations and data centers in California, Guam, Hawaii, Indonesia, and the Philippines. This state of the art and diverse cable system was launched in 2017 by the consortium of seven international telecommunication companies that include GTI Corporation.

"Over the years, we've worked hard to become a reliable partner and provider of connectivity and game-changing ICT solutions to our customers, enabling them to achieve digital transformation and expand globally in an increasingly competitive business landscape," said GTI Corporation President Ramon Aesquivel, Jr.

As a trusted ally across frontiers, GTI Corporation continues to expand its portfolio of digital solutions that will inspire customers and businesses to harness technology to reinvent their success and build a brighter future for themselves, their families, communities, and society as a whole.

To learn more about GTI Corporation and how its solutions can help businesses enhance their performance, visit www.gticorporation.com .

SOURCE GTI Corporation dba GTI Telecom
Gupta will be responsible for running all of Guaranteed Rate's marketing efforts, including branding, advertising, direct marketing, social media and PR. His digital responsibilities will include creating an even more seamless experience on both Rate.com and the company's mobile app. In addition, Gupta will also focus on significantly scaling Guaranteed Rate's consumer direct business.

Gupta joins Guaranteed Rate after the company's record-setting year with more than $116 billion in total loan volume in 2021.

"Guaranteed Rate has an incredibly strong reputation for putting the customer first by focusing on digital innovation," said Gupta. "I'm very excited to get to work and help make big things happen that continue to grow the business across multiple channels."

Gupta brings more than two decades of experience leading marketing efforts for some of the most recognized names in financial services, including Bank of America, AllState and Ally Financial. He most recently served as EVP, Head of Client Solutions & Outcomes at TIAA, where he was responsible for managing enterprise strategy, analytics and financial products.

A graduate of the University of Mumbai, he received his Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin, and has held Board positions at ICF International, Mobile Marketing Association and the Association of National Advertisers.

To learn more, please visit Rate.com.

About Guaranteed Rate Companies

Guaranteed Rate Companies is a leader in mortgage lending and digital financial services. Headquartered in Chicago, the Guaranteed Rate Companies has more than 10,000 employees in over 850 branches across the U.S., serving all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Since its launch in 2000, Guaranteed Rate Companies has helped more than 1 million homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances, with a total loan volume of more than $116 billion in 2021 alone. The company has cemented itself as an industry leader by introducing innovative technology, offering low rates and delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; Best Mortgage Lender for Online Loans and Best Mortgage Lender for Refinancing by NerdWallet for 2021; HousingWire's 2020 Tech100 award for the company's industry-leading FlashClose technology; No. 3 ranking in Scotsman Guide's 2021 list of Top Retail Mortgage Lenders; Chicago Agent Magazine's Lender of the Year for six consecutive years; and Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years. Visit rate.com for more information.

SOURCE Guaranteed Rate
ATLANTA, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Barbara A. Israel, DrPH, MPH, advocate for health equity, today was awarded the 2022 Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award. Israel is a professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, and founder and director of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC).

This year's award was presented virtually to Israel at the annual meeting of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), along with her lecture entitled "Community-Based Participatory Research: Its Social Justice Roots and Contributions to Anti-Racist Research and Practice". The CDC Foundation with the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation honored Israel for her pioneering work in developing community-based participatory approaches to public health education research and interventions to address health inequities.

The Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award, first presented in 1992, recognizes a health educator who has made a substantial contribution to advancing the field of health education or health promotion through research, program development or program delivery.

Israel has partnered with community-based organizations, academia and health and human services agencies to establish and sustain the Detroit URC. The Center fosters and supports community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships aimed at increasing knowledge and addressing factors associated with health inequities and quality of life in Detroit. The Center was originally funded in 1995 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of their Urban Research Centers Initiative started by then CDC Director, Dr. David Satcher.

Israel has been actively involved in numerous CBPR partnerships and projects examining, for example, environmental triggers of childhood asthma and strategies for reducing them; social and physical environmental determinants of cardiovascular disease; impact of physical activity interventions on heart health; misinformation about COVID-19 and approaches for addressing (e.g., increasing vaccine uptake); impact of air quality on health and strategies for mitigating that impact; translation of research findings into policy change; and capacity building for conducting CBPR and policy advocacy.

"Dr. Israel's research has informed CBPR practice and demonstrated its contributions to basic etiologic research and interventions that address social and environmental determinants of cardiovascular health, asthma, and health inequities, building capacity to inform policies that promote health equity," stated Cleopatra Caldwell, PhD, professor and chair, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, who helped champion Israel's nomination for the Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award. "Her continued contributions to the field are expected to build upon and further enhance our knowledge and understanding in these areas of critical importance to the field of health education and health promotion."

Israel is the lead editor of Methods in Community Based Participatory Research for Health, now in its second edition, a text that is essential in the training of health education and promotion professionals. While the CBPR approach was known by only a handful of public health researchers when the Detroit URC began, the success of the Center and a number of other CBPR partnerships around the country has elevated CBPR to what former U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said is now "the preferred model for conducting research in communities." There are presently hundreds of CBPR partnerships worldwide, and many government health agencies and private foundations now require that grantees for many of their funding initiatives adopt a CBPR approach.

Israel has published widely in areas including the development, implementation and evaluation of CBPR partnerships; the social and physical environmental determinants of health and health inequities; the relationship among stress, social support, control and physical and mental health; and evaluation research methodologies.

She has received several prestigious recognitions including the American Journal of Health Promotion Game Changer Designation, the Spirit of Detroit Award, SOPHE's Distinguished Fellow Award, the Early Career Award from the American Public Health Association, Public Health Education and Promotion section, and several awards from the University of Michigan including the Outstanding Service Award, Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award, Eugene Feingold Diversity Award, and the Excellence in Teaching Award.

"Dr. Israel has had a profound impact not only on the on the health of people in Detroit but also in conceptualizing and implementing community-based participatory research," said Martha Katz, MPA, chair, James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation Board of Directors. "We are grateful for her contributions and honored to present her with the Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award."

The Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award was named in memory of Elizabeth Fries, who was a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-director of the Massey Cancer Center Outreach Program. She made many important contributions to program development, implementation and evaluation. The Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award recipients receive a $25,000 prize. The award and lecture is presented annually at the SOPHE conference, which draws approximately 900 health education researchers, faculty, practitioners and students for the latest research and practice in health education. Founded in 1950, SOPHE's mission is to provide global leadership in health promotion and to promote the health of society.

The James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation is a nonprofit corporation incorporated in 1991. The mission of the Foundation is to identify and honor individuals, organizations or institutions that have made great contributions to the health of the public. The Foundation seeks to reward accomplishment rather than promise, practicality rather than theory.

The CDC Foundation is honored to partner with the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation, which established and funds the award. As of 2016, the CDC Foundation manages and administers the Fries Foundation's public health award programs, which include the Fries Prize for Improving Health and the Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award.

About the CDC Foundation

The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC's critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has raised over $1.6 billion and launched more than 1,200 programs impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. The CDC Foundation managed hundreds of CDC-led programs in the United States and in more than 160 countries last year. Learn more at www.cdcfoundation.org and follow the Foundation on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.

SOURCE CDC Foundation
Nelson Griswold is an industry titan I can count on to inform & invigorate - IPA Association President, Albert Holloway Tweet this

Griswold's talk entitled, "The First-Party Payer" Revolution - Restoring the Primacy of the American Physician," will present third-party payers issues by asking and addressing the following questions:

How happy are physicians with the payment arrangements with insurance companies?

Would your doctors be interested in an alternative to the third-party pay system?

What impact could direct-pay for their services have on your physicians?

Could you grow your IPA membership if you could show doctors how to earn more and have a less stressful lifestyle?

The 10:00 am interview-syle conversation, promises to enlighten and inform. With 90 percent of Americans living within 10 miles of one of Walmart's 5,000+ retail locations, it is uniquely positioned to provide health and wellness services to all Americans. Griswold and Pulluru will discuss Walmart's views on independent physicians and the impact of their 2019 introduction of the Walmart Health Primary Care Clinics. They will also cover the retail giant's recent acquisition of telehealth company meMD and what this progressive move means to the overall healthcare industry.

For more information visit TIPAAA and NextGen Benefits Network .

About NextGen Benefits

The NextGen Benefits Mastermind Partnership is the employer health care industry's premier peer exchange network committed to improving the quality of health care while making it affordable by managing the supply chain of employees' health care for quality and cost. The Mastermind's Vision Statement  "The highest quality health care, accessible and affordable for all Americans, beginning with the employees of our employer clients" is the group's "Why," driving each adviser/member to disrupt the broken benefits industry and the dysfunctional health care delivery system.

CONTACT:

Toni Purry

NextGen Benefits

323.253.7966

[email protected]

SOURCE NextGen Benefits
Surge in awareness on available renewable energy sources is propelling the demand for hybrid power systems globally





Rising initiatives by governments for electricity generation using renewable sources is offering sales prospects in Asia Pacific

ALBANY, N.Y., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global hybrid power systems market is estimated to register growth at a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2031, state analysts of a study by Transparency Market Research (TMR). Moreover, the market is prognosticated to gain a valuation of over US$ 1 Bn by 2031.

The hybrid power systems market is projected to gain profitable prospects in Asia Pacific during the forecast period. Increase in the initiatives by government authorities of several regional nations in order to generate the electricity with the help of renewable sources is boosting regional market growth. Moreover, the Asia Pacific market is being driven by increase in overall understanding on the adverse impact of using diesel power generators on the environment and people. Besides, companies operating in the Asia Pacific hybrid power systems market are seen focusing on the development of products as individual mini-grids so as to avoid transmission expenses.

Get PDF Brochure for More Insights  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12884

Hybrid Power Systems Market: Key Findings

Many developing nations across the globe are experiencing the issues pertaining to increased incidences of low rate of electrification. This factor is prognosticated to create profitable opportunities for companies operating in the global hybrid power systems market. Moreover, the market for hybrid power systems is being driven by increased inclination in off grid generation of power as an alternative to diesel generators.





Hybrid power systems are being increasingly adopted across the globe owing to rise in concerns pertaining to the environmental pollution. Moreover, these systems are in high demand, due to the limited availability of conventional energy sources. Besides, increase in awareness about renewable sources of energy is also boosting demand opportunities in the global hybrid power systems market, states the TMR study.

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Due to rise in awareness on renewable sources globally, many enterprises operating in the power generation industry are increasing inclination toward the generation of electricity using different sources such as the wind, sun, fuel cell, and water. This factor is leading to prominent sales prospects in the hybrid power systems market.





Popularity of hybrid power solutions have increased in recent years, owing to rise in awareness on their different advantages such as their ability to help in reducing carbon emissions. In addition, many important properties of hybrid power solutions such as cost-efficiency and abundance of supply are expected to play crucial role in the expansion of the global hybrid power systems market, states a study by TMR.

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Hybrid Power Systems Market: Growth Boosters

Surge in demand for different renewable sources from across the globe in order to generate energy is creating business opportunities in the global hybrid power systems market





Rise in popularity of hybrid power systems due to their ability to generate maximum output using minimum fuel is driving sales in the global hybrid power systems market





Growth in efforts of government authorities of many developing nations globally through innovative schemes in order to achieve 100% rural electrification is also opening business avenues in the market for hybrid power systems

Hybrid Power Systems Market: Key Players

Some of the key players profiled in the report are:

MAN Energy Solutions SE

General Electric

Kestrel Renewable Energy

Guangzhou HY Energy Technology Limited Corp.

Eaton

KYOCERA Corporation

Panasonic Corporation

Iberdrola

Sharp Electronics

Schneider Electric

Siemens Gamesa

Suzlon Group

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Hybrid Power Systems Market Segmentation

Product Type

Wind-Solar-Diesel-Hybrid

PV-Diesel-Hybrid

Others

Application

Residential

Rural Facility Electrification

Commercial

Others

Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

Energy & Natural Resources Industry battles Tangible Impact of Economic and Cultural changes, Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Energy & Natural Resources:

Waste Management Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/waste-management-market.html

Low Voltage AC Drive Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/low-voltage-ac-drive-market.html

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SOURCE Transparency Market Research
Three-year export initiative unveiled at Bakery @ SIAL America this week

ROME, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ITALMOPA - The Italian Association of Millers  established in 1958 and with more than 80 flour companies from across Italy -- has launched an ambitious initiative to promote exports of organic soft wheat and durum wheat flour and semolina to the U.S. and Canada and to raise awareness of their high quality.

The effort, called "Pure Flour from Europe: Your Organic and Sustainable Choice!" is co-funded by the European Commission.

Home cooks and chefs now want premium ingredients like organic flour that are healthy, nutritious and sustainable. Tweet this Organic milled flour and groats from Europe featured in new campaign from ITALMOPA to boost exports to U.S. and Canada (PRNewsfoto/Pure Flour From Europe)

The program made its debut this week at Bakery @ SIAL America, an international trade show March 22 - 24 in Las Vegas. ITALMOPA had representatives from three of the group's largest producers at its booth: Molino Grassi, Molino Casillo and Molino de Vita. During the show, the association hosted a private event at Eataly Las Vegas with culinary creations using organic flours from its members.

Pure Flour from Europe will last three years and include consumer and trade events with product demonstrations led by chefs featuring such well-loved Italian foods as pizza, pasta, pastries and breads. There will also be social media and advertising campaigns and participation in important trade shows targeting the grocery, foodservice and food manufacturing sectors. The initiative will include an educational tour of millers of organic flours and semolina in Italy.

"We see great opportunity in North America to grow exports of organic soft wheat flour and durum semolina from Italy. More than ever before, home cooks and chefs are looking for premium ingredients that are healthy, nutritious and grown without synthetic fertilizers. They also want to respect the environment," says ITALMOPA President Emilio Ferrari. "Organic flour from our member companies delivers on all these needs and elevates the quality of most any culinary creation."

The U.S. and Canada are some of the countries with the highest demand for organic products, according to ITALMOPA, but statistics on organic flour imports are hard to come by, and are now viewed as relatively low. The goal is to increase exports by close to 300 percent compared to 2020 for Canada and the U.S, and to boost knowledge and awareness of the products among consumers in the two target countries by at least 20 percent.

To achieve this, in the U.S., POS EU Flour will focus on five large urban markets: Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas and New York. In Canada, the target will be on the provinces Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. All have high organic food consumption and demographics to support the often higher prices of organic flours compared with conventional flours, according to ITALMOPA.

About ITALMOPA

Founded in 1958 and based in Rome, ITALMOPA is the most important industrial flour association of the European Union representing 82 flour milling companies across Italy. Member companies mill flour for the production of pasta, breads, pastries, pizza and more. ITALMOPA is overseeing a three-year information and promotion program for agricultural products in third countries called "Pure Flour from Europe: Your Organic and Sustainable Choice!" - Acronym "POS EU FLOUR" - intended for the US and Canadian markets and co-financed by the European Commission. The program runs through 2024.

Photos: For Organic Flour Product Images and program logos, click here. Please credit photos to ITALMOPA.

SOURCE ITALMOPA--PURE FLOUR FROM EUROPE
STOCKHOLM, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- After many growth stages and 14 successful years as CEO of EasyPark Group, Johan Birgersson has decided to step down from his position to enable a leadership transition ahead of the company's next phase. Cameron Clayton, previously CEO of "The Weather Company", will take over the role as CEO of EasyPark Group as of April 19, 2022. Johan Birgersson will continue as a Senior Advisor to Cameron Clayton and to the Board of Directors.



Johan Birgersson has successfully led EasyPark Group for close to 14 years, which is a uniquely long time. Some time ago, Johan indicated to the Board of Directors that he was ready to step down from his position as CEO, when the timing was right and a solid succession plan was in place. After a structured process to secure a successor, the Board of Directors has now appointed Cameron Clayton as the new CEO of EasyPark Group.



- It has been an honour and a fantastic time in my life leading EasyPark Group. Taking us from a Swedish startup to where we are today - a global, market-leading tech company. Stepping down has not been an easy decision, but this role requires long term planning. I have achieved my dream, to take EasyPark from the Nordics to over 20 European countries and last year to the UK and across the Atlantic into the US. I would like to thank everyone who's made this team effort possible. I am convinced that the team is ready and highly capable to take on the next chapter of EasyPark's successful global growth journey, says Johan Birgersson, CEO of EasyPark Group.



- Johan's devotion and track record in operational excellence is impressive. He has always led from the front and with his personal behaviour and decisions set the example for what good looks like and how values translate into action. This has made it possible for EasyPark Group to become a global pacesetter within digital parking services. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Johan for everything he has done during his years as CEO, says Niklas Savander, Chairman of the Board.



Cameron Clayton has long experience from the tech-business and leading global organisations, most recently as CEO of The Weather Company, the world's largest private weather company. He was responsible for building weather.com into a top 10 website in the world, and he also led them to their partnership with Apple and Android, which made the Weather app the 3rd most downloaded app in the world. In addition, he has been General Manager of IBM's partner ecosystem, and he successfully helped lead IBM's integration of Red Hat building Red Hat Marketplace.



- I am honoured by this opportunity to lead EasyPark Group going forward. The company has a great history and I am really impressed by the strong culture and commitment among all employees. With the acquisition of PARK NOW Group, EasyPark is well on its way to helping cities around the world be more liveable. I see a very bright future ahead and I look forward to being part of this journey, says Cameron Clayton.



- The acquisition of PARK NOW Group from BMW Group and Daimler Mobility has enabled a great expansion of EasyPark Group's global footprint. Cameron's experience within business, product and technology strategy together with a strong ability to build high performing teams will be a great asset for the company, says Niklas Savander.



Cameron Clayton will assume his role as CEO on April 19, 2022. Johan Birgersson will continue as a Senior Advisor to Cameron and to the Board of Directors.



Press contact

Louise Ekman, Head of Group Communications & PR, EasyPark Group

[email protected] / +46 70 5222 117

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/easypark/r/johan-birgersson-steps-down-and-cameron-clayton-takes-over-as-ceo-of-easypark-group,c3531626

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/12430/3531626/1553281.pdf EasyPark Group press release 20220324 https://news.cision.com/easypark/i/cameron-clayton,c3028828 Cameron Clayton https://news.cision.com/easypark/i/johan-birgersson-cameron-clayton-1,c3028829 Johan Birgersson Cameron Clayton 1 https://news.cision.com/easypark/i/johan-birgersson-landscape,c3028830 Johan Birgersson landscape

SOURCE Easypark
HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR (NYSE: KBR) and ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC ("ExxonMobil") will collaborate to bring significant advancements to propane dehydrogenation (PDH) technology.

Under the collaboration, ExxonMobil's new proprietary catalyst technology will be combined with KBR's proprietary K-PRO Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) technology to convert propane into propylene. Enabled by the superior performance of ExxonMobil's new catalyst, the combined technology solution could offer financial savings compared to PDH technologies currently available.

"The collaboration with ExxonMobil is exciting not only for new K-PRO customers but also for existing K-PRO licensees who could have the potential to increase capacity and reduce operating expenses by upgrading to the new catalyst," said Doug Kelly, KBR President, Technology. "This joint technology offering, which is anticipated to feature substantially reduced energy consumption, adds to KBR's growing portfolio of sustainable solutions."

"KBR's K-PRO technology and our next generation catalyst are a great fit and our collaboration with KBR will significantly help to reduce time to commercialize our next generation catalyst for PDH," said James Ritchie, President of ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC.

This cooperation brings together over 50 years of both ExxonMobil's innovative leadership in the development of specialty catalysts and KBR's leadership in technology development, plant design and construction.

About KBR

We deliver science, technology and engineering solutions to governments and companies around the world. KBR employs approximately 28,000 people performing diverse, complex and mission critical roles in 34 countries.

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and long- term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

About ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC

ExxonMobil's cutting-edge proprietary catalysts, gas treating solvents and advantaged process technologies help refineries, petrochemical manufacturers and gas processors increase capacity, lower costs, improve margins, reduce emissions and operate safe, reliable and efficient facilities. Ready for better results across your refining, gas and chemical needs? View our video.

About ExxonMobil Chemical

ExxonMobil Chemical is one of the largest chemical companies in the world. The company holds leadership positions in some of the largest-volume and highest-growth commodity chemical products. ExxonMobil Chemical has manufacturing capacity in every major region of the world, serving large and growing markets. More than 90 percent of the company's chemical capacity is integrated with ExxonMobil refineries or natural gas processing plants. To learn more, visit www.exxonmobilchemical.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the significant adverse impacts on economic and market conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the company's ability to respond to the resulting challenges and business disruption; the recent dislocation of the global energy market; the company's ability to manage its liquidity; the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; the possibility of cyber and malware attacks; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

The company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that the company has identified that may affect its business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.
Assessment HQ Update Includes Test Participation Rate Information

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Collaborative for Student Success announced a key update to the AssessmentHQ.org site that will allow viewers to see in one place state assessment data from across the United States that reflects testing during the 2020-2021 school year.

The scores are an important benchmark that, when combined with other tools, will help families and policymakers better understand the impact of disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic so that all students can emerge from the pandemic stronger.

"There is a great need to assess areas of strength and need in our education systems  especially as families, schools and students are coping with learning challenges and loss as a result of the pandemic," said Jim Cowen, executive director of the Collaborative for Student Success. "Assessment data displayed as part of the Assessment HQ update allows schools, educators, and administrators to be honest with students and parents about achievement and what the education needs are for students to be successful and competitive in college, careers, and life. Sadly, an alarming number of students are not performing at a proficient level across the country, and we must do better."

Primarily because of decisions made with testing during the pandemic, testing participation rates varied greatly across the country. In response, the new Assessment HQ update includes information for each state about how transparent the state has been in reporting its participation rates. This information is notable when interpreting results because as participation rates decrease, challenges with interpreting test results increase.

Data posted on the site was gleaned from publicly available information posted by states  with the vast majority of states reporting scores at some level from the school year. Overall, only about a dozen states provided parents and other stakeholders a complete picture of both student rates in each grade as well as proficiency across student groups. But there were notable exceptions. Washington, D.C., received a waiver from the Education Department so no scores were reported, while officials from states such as New Mexico and Maine said they would not release scores. Other states, such as Maryland and New Jersey, conducted delayed testing in fall 2021 and scores had not yet been made available.

Since 2019, Assessment HQ has been the go-to source for understanding statewide annual academic assessments for grades 3-8. These assessments tell us about mastery of skills and the knowledge that is needed to be successful throughout a student's academic career.

Assessment HQ highlights state-reported student performance results in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) by student demographics. The site allows users to see which annual assessments are used in states and observe the performance of student groups, like African American and Hispanic students.

While annual assessments can always be improved, they are one of the best tools we have to provide an honest check on states to ensure that the decisions and policies impacting young people are grounded in evidence and real results. They are particularly important for those students who are most vulnerable or who historically have been underserved. Not only do assessments help level the playing field, but they also help ensure that schools are preparing students for college or career.

The site includes original commentary provided by Dale Chu, a former teacher, and educational policy expert who has led work in both the Florida and Indiana Departments of Education.

"Students, parents, teachers, and community members all need and have a right to know where students are academically as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic," Chu said.

About the Collaborative for Student Success

The Collaborative for Student Success is a nonprofit advocacy organization that works to defend high standards, high-quality assessments, and strong systems of accountability to ensure that all kids are prepared for college or career. Through capacity-building efforts with in-state organizations and collaboration with national partners, we promote fact-based public discourse and fight to advance policies that promote best practices and ensure equitable outcomes for all students.

SOURCE Collaborative for Student Success
BALTIMORE, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kidney Cancer Impact Alliance (KCIA) has brought together a formidable and diverse group of researchers, patient advocacy groups, physicians and health professionals within the kidney cancer community in a dedicated effort to advance education about, research into and access to high quality care for people with kidney cancer. Convened by the American Urological Association (AUA), KCIA has launched an online presence at www.UrologyHealth.org/KCIA.

The Kidney Cancer Impact Alliance has launched an online presence at www.UrologyHealth.org/KCIA.

According to the American Cancer Society, kidney cancer is among the ten most common cancers among American men and women. In 2022, an estimated 50,290 men and 28,710 women will be newly diagnosed with kidney cancer. It is estimated that more than 13,290 of those diagnosed in 2022 will die from this disease.

"This Alliance is about reimagining the possibilities for better patient outcomes and equitable access to care for people diagnosed with this potentially deadly disease," said Harris M. Nagler, president of the Urology Care Foundation, a KCIA stakeholder organization and the official Foundation of the AUA. "By joining forces as the KCIA, we intend to scale our network, improve health outcomes and make a profound impact on the kidney cancer community, including the millions of people living with the disease."

The Kidney Cancer Impact Alliance is organized as a diverse group of stakeholders who collectively seek to advance education about, research into, and access to high-quality care for people with kidney cancer. The goal of the KCIA is to:

Raise awareness about prevalence and implications;

about prevalence and implications; Advocate to protect and secure funding research;

to protect and secure funding research; Increase access to skilled specialists and improved treatments; and

to skilled specialists and improved treatments; and Promote collaboration between stakeholder groups.

"The outlook for people impacted by kidney cancer has changed dramatically. In 2021 alone, there were five new drug or regimen approvals. Yet, as exciting as advancements like these are, there is much more work to be done, which is why the Kidney Cancer Association is honored to be an inaugural member of the KCIA's steering committee, said Gretchen E. Vaughan, president and CEO of the Kidney Cancer Association. "We are excited to come together with one voice to address the needs of our community, build on the momentum of the past 30 years and make a meaningful impact on the lives of those facing kidney cancer."

KCIA members have already collaborated on a number of issues including a letter to the Biden Administration encouraging prioritization of policy that supports diversity of research and the needs of those living with kidney cancer, as well as the hosting of informational webinars on the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) and hosting a virtual Advocacy Day to encourage Members of Congress to support medical research funding for kidney cancer.

The KCIA inaugural steering committee has played an integral part in developing and shaping this Alliance. Those members include:

Chandra Clark , Executive Director, The VHL Alliance

, Executive Director, The VHL Alliance Ashley Ruggieri , Director of Patient Advocacy and Partnerships, Kidney Cancer Association

, Director of Patient Advocacy and Partnerships, Kidney Cancer Association Jacqueline Zarro , Patient Advocacy Liaison, American Urological Association

For more information about current and future KCIA activities, please visit www.UrologyHealth.org/KCIA.

About the American Urological Association: Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology and has nearly 24,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health policy.

About the Urology Care Foundation: The Urology Care Foundation is the world's leading nonprofit urological health foundation, and the official foundation of the American Urological Association. Collaborating with physicians, researchers, patients and the public, the Foundation supports and improves urologic clinical care by funding research, developing patient education and pursuing philanthropic support. To learn more about the Urology Care Foundation and its programs visit: www.urologyhealth.org.

Kidney Cancer Impact Alliance is a collection of diverse stakeholders within the kidney cancer community working together toward increased awareness and access for kidney cancer treatments. The KCIA membership is represented by 14 patient advocacy groups and professional medical and scientific organizations, as well as industry companies. The KCIA events and activities are supported in part by funding from industry companies.

Media Contact:

Caitlin Lukacs, Corporate Communications and Media Relations Manager

410-689-4081, [email protected]

SOURCE American Urological Association and Urology Care Foundation
While drug shortages have been an ongoing issue even before COVID-19, it is no surprise 91% of pharmacists agree the pandemic has exacerbated the issue. For the fourth consecutive year, over half of pharmacists rank drug shortages as their number one challenge facing pharmacies.

Hospital pharmacies continue to experience year-over year drug shortage increases. For context, the percentage of hospital pharmacies experiencing 10 or more drug shortages increased 14% from 2020.

The findings of the survey found COVID-19's impact to be much more far reaching than just drug shortages and supply issues.

Some standout statistics that the survey include:

57% of Hospital Pharmacists reported that each medication shortage typically consumes 3 or more staff hours, adding more pressure to an already strained staff.

Nearly 1 in 4 IDNs (integrated delivery network) have reduced the services that they offer.

Over half of hospitals report their ICU's are more often at capacity.

The top three tech initiatives that hospitals are looking to take on in 2022 are controlled substance tracking technology, automated dispensing cabinets and IV prep tracking software.

Outside of normal COVID-19 trends, the survey also found drug visibility is still considered a challenge area for most hospitals. Drug diversion continues to be an issue, hospital pharmacists that report it would be "easy" or only "somewhat difficult" to divert opioids increased 30% from last year. This report also found that .One in four hospital pharmacists report they are aware of a colleague who has diverted opioids and yet, even with these rates, less than half of hospital pharmacists have a post-diversion response plan in place.

This issue is especially problematic in procedural locations such as operating rooms or transfer areas in-between storage and dispensing of drugs. Without full visibility, pharmacies are more susceptible to drug diversion and less prepared to manage drug shortages.

Taking this information and looking ahead to 2022, many new technology initiatives are consistent with the years prior.

As hospital pharmacists continue to navigate staffing shortages, many are turning their focus to operational efficiency. While reducing drug spend was the top cost savings initiative in last year's survey, improving operational efficiency became the number one initiative this year. One area of demand has been inventory management software. Over two-thirds of hospital pharmacists believe software solutions that provide full visibility are helpful to their operational efficiency.

However, the demand for controlled substance tracking has now outpaced automated dispensing cabinets as the number one initiative in 2021. It is projected that within the next two years, 61% of hospital pharmacists will invest more resources to improve controlled substance tracking and diversion analytics.

While the report revealed COVID-19 caused changes in the market landscape, I wasn't surprised to see drug shortages rank as the top challenge hospital pharmacies are facing for the fourth year in a row", said Kevin MacDonald, Kit Check CEO and co-founder. "This area continues being a top issue for our customers. As hospital pharmacy staff continue to focus on improving operational efficiency, the demand for technological solutions rises. At Kit Check, we are always up to the challenge and we strive to meet those demands by providing new software solutions and expanding on our products to better help these organizations through any challenges or shortages they may face".

The full report can be found here

About Kit Check

Kit Check is the leading provider of automated medication tracking and diversion detection solutions for hospital pharmacies in the U.S., bringing visibility, simplicity, and predictability to the complex world of medication supply management. Our groundbreaking Medication Intelligence platforms provide item level visibility, workflow simplicity and actionable analytics, empowering stakeholders to deliver the right medicine to the right patient at the right time, every time.

To date, our more than 700 U.S. and Canadian hospital partners have tracked more than 140 million medications using Kit Check's RFID product. Bluesight for Controlled Substances software is currently in use in more than 250 hospitals including full health system implementations, with nearly 20 million cases tracked, and was ranked #1 in the Drug Diversion Monitoring category in the 2020 Best in KLAS report. More information about Kit Check and our software solutions can be found at kitcheck.com.

Media Contact:

Lucas McCanna

[email protected]

SOURCE Kit Check
Fund Continues Track Record of Supporting Founder-Owned Services and Consumer Businesses

SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Knox Lane, an investment firm focused on partnering with growth-oriented, founder-owned businesses and management teams within the consumer and services sectors, today announced the final close of its first institutional fund, KLC Fund I ("KLC I"), at $610 million, significantly above the fund's original target of $500 million and above its hard cap. The oversubscribed fund received strong support from a diverse range of high-quality institutional investors, including pensions, insurance companies, corporate foundations, institutional family offices and fund of funds. Following the close, Knox Lane now manages approximately $1 billion in assets.

Founded by John Bailey and Shamik Patel, former partners at TPG Growth who headed the firm's global consumer and services teams, Knox Lane is headquartered in San Francisco and brings an investor-operator mindset to partnering with businesses to help optimize operations and accelerate growth. Utilizing Knox Lane's unique operational expertise, the fund will continue to pursue acquisitions and strategic investments in businesses that play within attractive consumer and services end-markets.

"This is an exciting milestone for our firm, and we are grateful for the incredible support of our limited partners," said John Bailey, Managing Partner at Knox Lane. "Our investors share the strong conviction in our strategy, and today's news is a testament to the quality of our team, many of whom have been working together for more than a decade. We look forward to bringing our curated partnership approach to more businesses, helping them accelerate growth and generate long-term value."

To date, Knox Lane has completed three platform investments, each of which exemplifies the firm's commitment to identifying and partnering with leading businesses in the services and consumer sectors:

Fingerpaint , a global pharma commercialization partner;

, a global pharma commercialization partner; The Any Hour Group , the leading provider of home services in the Mountain West region; and

, the leading provider of home services in the Mountain West region; and Pattern, a leading partner for global ecommerce and marketplace acceleration.

In addition, Knox Lane has also completed eight strategic add-on investments, adding further capabilities, diversification and growth across these platforms.

"Our recent activity embodies our concentrated, sector-focused approach and highlights our expertise in partnering with and supporting founder- and family-owned businesses and management teams," said Shamik Patel, Partner at Knox Lane. "We are committed to being the partner of choice for these businesses that are looking for an operationally-minded partner to help them grow and scale."

Credit Suisse acted as placement agent to Knox Lane for the fund. Kirkland and Ellis acted as legal advisor.

About Knox Lane

Based in San Francisco, Knox Lane is a growth-oriented investment firm comprised of a team of accomplished investors and operators with a shared work history and a strong track record of partnering with leading companies to accelerate transformational growth. Knox Lane employs an investor-operator mindset and seeks to provide support across a number of business components, including human capital, brand management, end-to-end digital transformation, sourcing, supply chain and logistics, strategic acquisitions and business development. For more information, please visit www.knoxlane.com

Media Contact

Woomi Yun / Erik Carlson

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

212-355-4449

SOURCE Knox Lane
HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Ramirez v. Collier, Seth Kretzer, who argued at the Court for Texas death row inmate John Henry Ramirez, issued the following statement:

"The Supreme Court clarified that the rule of law is as ubiquitous as God. Both exist everywhere and always  high up in the hallowed halls of power and down low in the hell of the execution chamber. Banning prayer by clergy members will not be permitted under the American legal system in even the most dejected square foot of this country. We look forward to prevailing in the forthcoming litigation about the issue of whether Mr. Ramirez's pastor may safely touch him during execution just as prison-employed chaplains have done in every execution over the past 37 years. After an 8-1 Supreme Court loss, the time has come for the State of Texas to end its failed, taxpayer-funded battle against prayer."

Ramirez alleges that state prison officials would violate federal law and Christian traditions by refusing to allow his pastor to be present and directly minister to him when he dies by lethal injection. Ramirez, who is awaiting execution for a 2004 murder in Nueces County, filed suit in Houston federal court in 2021 to force the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to allow ordained Baptist pastor Dana Moore to "lay hands" on Ramirez as he dies in the prison execution chamber. Moore, who was approved by prison officials to attend previously scheduled executions for Ramirez, has counseled and visited him in prison for about five years.

The lawsuit alleged violations of the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000  and a prison policy break from 560 Texas executions from 1982 to 2019 that allowed the execution chamber presence of pre-screened, TDCJ-approved religious advisers. Since 2019, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down TDCJ's protocol for execution attendance after a dispute with a Buddhist prisoner, state prison officials have repeatedly revised the execution attendance protocol for religious advisers. In April 2021, Ramirez was notified that Moore, the pastor of Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, would not be allowed to be present at the execution. Grievances filed by Ramirez were denied by the TDCJ.

The Ramirez lawsuit sought a declaratory judgment that TDCJ's amended policy violates Ramirez's First Amendment rights under the Free Exercise Clause, a declaratory judgment that TDCJ's amended policy violates Mr. Ramirez's rights under RLUIPA, and a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting state prison officials from executing Ramirez until they can do so in a way that does not violate his rights.

The underlying case is, "John Henry Ramirez vs. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Huntsville, Texas, et al.," Case No. 4:21-cv-2609 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.

CONTACT: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for the Law Offices of Seth Kretzer, 281.703.6000, [email protected].

SOURCE Law Offices of Seth Kretzer
HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it has secured a contract from a leading midstream company for a world-scale olefins production facility to be built on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide the license and engineering for the olefins production plant. KBR's K-COTTM catalytic olefins technology is the key enabler that can process a wide range of feedstocks to achieve exceptional olefin yields and production ratios in a single train with the most capital and carbon efficient design. The combination of K-COT and SCORETM steam cracking technology will deliver the most innovative design, support energy transition and advance refining-petrochemical integration opportunities in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"We are excited to support our client's vision for this ambitious petrochemical venture," said Doug Kelly, KBR President, Technology. "Along with meeting their objective to address growing light olefins demand, our technologies will deliver leading decarbonization techniques and provide the platform to incorporate plastics circularity into the project plans."

Based on KBR's K-COT and SCORE technology, the planned project will provide the owner and their partners an opportunity to develop on existing infrastructure. The project will utilize available and advantaged feeds to produce 2.4 million metric tons per year of light olefins, while being supported by an extensive logistics network for feedstock supply and product delivery.

About KBR

We deliver science, technology and engineering solutions to governments and companies around the world. KBR employs approximately 28,000 people performing diverse, complex and mission critical roles in 34 countries.

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and long- term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the significant adverse impacts on economic and market conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the company's ability to respond to the resulting challenges and business disruption; the recent dislocation of the global energy market; the company's ability to manage its liquidity; the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; the possibility of cyber and malware attacks; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

The company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that the company has identified that may affect its business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, will hold a conference call to review the company's first quarter 2022 financial results and related matters on May 3, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

To participate in the conference call:

Toll-free calls: 877-883-0383

International calls: 412-902-6506

The conference code is 6997631.

You also may listen to the live audio webcast of the call, in listen-only mode, on Lear's Investor Relations website at ir.lear.com. The webcast replay will be available two hours following the call.

Note: The first quarter 2022 slide presentation will be available on Lear's website before the earnings call begins on May 3, 2022.

SOURCE Lear Corporation
New Mexico Small Business Expands to Meet Growing Needs of Community

LOS LUNAS, N.M., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Amazon and Meta are expanding their operations south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Small businesses like Los Lunas Self Storage are poised to fight for the resulting new customers.

With the influx of new employees coming to these tech giants, the need for storage during relocation is dire in the village of Los Lunas. With its own new facility now online, Los Lunas Self Storage set itself up to meet the needs of Los Lunas for the coming decades.

Los Lunas Self Storage at 290 Los Morros Road, Los Lunas, New Mexico. A typical clean, safe, secure self storage unit at Los Lunas Self Storage.

"In the past two years, we saw there was a need for self-storage on the west side of Los Lunas, where all the growth is," explained Debbie Sannes, a representative for Onshore LLC, owner of Los Lunas Self Storage. She went on, "That is why we decided to build the facility in the Los Morros Business Park  to fulfill the needs of the area."

Their previous facility is closer to the communities of Peralta and Bosque Farms. The newer facility, Los Lunas Self Storage - West, is also expected to serve residents of Valencia and Los Chavez. For more information about location, or to reserve a unit find Los Lunas Self storage at https://loslunasselfstorage.com. For details about Los Lunas Self Storage, see https://loslunasselfstorage.com/about.

Los Lunas Self Storage Expanding to Meet its Community's Needs

Last year, Los Lunas Self Storage had just one safe and easy self storage facility, but decided to expand to meet demands of their growing community. Their second, brand new facility has just come online and is already filling, but they now have sufficient units of all sizes ready. Large units handle items up to the size of automobiles and smaller units cover just a few square feet.

Los Lunas Self Storage has drive-up gated access, professional, on-site management, and 24-hour access and surveillance. The goal was to make Los Lunas Self Storage a safe and easy place for both current and newly relocated locals to store items.

New Mexico natives have a major ownership stake in Los Lunas Self Storage, and the small business employs local professionals from the area. They feel they are positioned to be the small business option for customers from Albuquerque, Los Lunas, and surrounds.

The expansions of Amazon and Meta in Los Lunas offer an exciting opportunity for local small New Mexico businesses. As self-storage needs expand, Los Lunas Self Storage is ready to fight for customers.

Los Lunas Self Storage

Onshore, LLC

(505) 866-7000

[email protected]

SOURCE Los Lunas Self Storage
INDIANAPOLIS, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumina Foundation has awarded more than $1.4 million to eight nonprofit organizations informing policymakers about state policies meant to increase the number of adults with college degrees or short-term credentials while improving outcomes among Black, Hispanic or Latino, and Native American students.

Lumina announced a call for proposals in August for organizations seeking to inform the development of education policies at the state level. The foundation received 86 proposals from 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Awardees are approaching the challenge with activities such as research, convenings, nonpartisan education, communications campaigns, and coalition building.

"Our state policy work at Lumina focuses on working with states to improve policies to provide clearer pathways to completion for adult students of color," said Paola Santana, strategy officer for state policy. "We look forward to partnering with these organizations which share in our mission and our commitment to racial equity, and have demonstrated success in informing the policy process in their respective states."

The following organizations received one-year grants:

California  Campaign for College Opportunity ($325,000) will focus on making college more affordable by sharing research findings, through nonpartisan communications efforts that highlight the need for better financial aid policies, and through streamlining pathways to degrees and certificates for adults.

Colorado  The Attainment Network ($200,000) will scale regional pathways and implement policies to advance an education-to-career system that fosters a diverse, talented workforce prepared for current and future living wage jobs.

Illinois  Advance Illinois ($200,000) and Partnership for College Completion ($200,000) will undertake nonpartisan research, communications, and coalition-building efforts to highlight the need for a university funding model in Illinois centered on achieving racial equity.

Minnesota  Minnesota Education Equity Partnership ($122,000) will develop and share a college racial equity toolkit that includes financial aid and affordability recommendations, followed by a communications campaign and information sessions for policymakers.

North Carolina  Center for Racial Equity in Education ($200,000) will support the development of a shared policy agenda among North Carolina's 10 public and private Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Virginia  Partners for College Affordability and Public Trust ($100,000) will work with Education Reform Now ($100,000) to explore the need for fair and adequate college funding through nonpartisan research, meetings and events, and education efforts for policymakers.

About Lumina Foundation

Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. We envision a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation's need for talent through a broad range of credentials. Our goal is to prepare people for informed citizenship and for success in a global economy.

Media Contact:

Tracy Chen

317.670.0521

SOURCE Lumina Foundation
TULSA, Okla., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE: MMP) plans to host a meeting with research analysts and institutional investors beginning at 8 a.m. Central on Tuesday, March 29 in Houston.

Members of Magellan's senior management team will discuss the partnership's current business, long-term outlook and capital allocation.

A copy of the slide presentation and audio webcast will be available live on the day of the event on the partnership's website at www.magellanlp.com/investors/webcasts.aspx. A replay of the webcast also will be available for at least 90 days at www.magellanlp.com.

About Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P.

Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE: MMP) is a publicly traded partnership that primarily transports, stores and distributes refined petroleum products and crude oil. The partnership owns the longest refined petroleum products pipeline system in the country, with access to nearly 50% of the nation's refining capacity, and can store more than 100 million barrels of petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and crude oil. More information is available at www.magellanlp.com.

SOURCE Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P.
Maize Market - Scope of the report

The maize market covers the following areas:

Maize Market - Drivers & Challenges

The key factor driving the global maize market growth is the increasing demand for maize as animal feed. In developing countries such as India, due to the population growth and the rising incomes of consumers, the consumption of meat and poultry has increased. The country is heavily dependent on maize as it constitutes around 50%-60% of the input required for broiler feed and 25%-35% of the input required for layer feed. Around 24 million metric tons of maize are consumed in India, out of which 13.5 million metric tons are used as poultry feed. In addition, in India, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce Industry (FCCI) has launched the maize mission 2022 to promote and increase the production of maize in the country. Thus, the increasing global demand for meat and poultry and the growing population of livestock will boost the demand for maize-based animal feed during the forecast period.

However, the key challenges to the global maize market growth is the logistics and distribution challenges. The producers of maize and maize byproducts face transportation challenges such as the need to pay taxes at multiple checkpoints and the poor condition of roads, which can negatively affect the efficiency of freight distribution. Furthermore, the lack of collection points and the lack of adequate storage and warehouse facilities can negatively affect inventory management. In addition, there are various intermediaries in the market, including wholesalers, commission agents, and retailers. These middlemen focus on avoiding any decline in revenues, which can result from gaps in inventory. There can be instances when a vendor is unable to supply a sufficient amount of maize. Thus, in order to maintain their order fulfillment rate, these middlemen can approach multiple vendors of maize. These logistics and distribution challenges can negatively impact the growth of the global maize market during the forecast period.

To know about more drivers, challenges, and upcoming trends - Download a free sample now!

Maize Market - Segmentation Analysis

The Maize Market is segmented by End-user (Industrial, Retail, and Foodservice) and Geography (North America, APAC, South America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa).

Technavio report presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters.

To know about the contribution of each segment - Download a free sample now!

Companies Mentioned

The maize market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as business expansion and product innovation to compete in the market.

Alianz Global Groups Pty Ltd.

Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Associated British Foods plc

Balaji Exim

Bayer AG

Bunge Ltd.

Cargill Inc.

CGB Enterprises Inc.

COFCO Corp.

Exotic Exim

Fazaz Global Concepts LLC

Gombella Integrated Services Ltd.

Greenfield Global Inc.

Groupe Limagrain Holding

Ingredion Inc.

Ista International General Trading LLC

Louis Dreyfus Co. BV

Maeddy Impex Pvt. Ltd.

Roquette Freres SA

Tate and Lyle Plc

Tereos Group

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Maize Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 2.6% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 41.08 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.2 Performing market contribution North America at 39% Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Alianz Global Groups Pty Ltd., Archer Daniels Midland Co., Associated British Foods plc, Balaji Exim, Bayer AG, Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc., CGB Enterprises Inc., COFCO Corp., Exotic Exim, Fazaz Global Concepts LLC, Gombella Integrated Services Ltd., Greenfield Global Inc., Groupe Limagrain Holding, Ingredion Inc., Ista International General Trading LLC, Louis Dreyfus Co. BV, Maeddy Impex Pvt. Ltd., Roquette Freres SA, Tate and Lyle Plc, and Tereos Group Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for 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:

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 End-user



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 ($ billion)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



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 End-user

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by End-user

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by End-user



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by End-user

5.3 Industrial - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Industrial - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Industrial - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Industrial - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Industrial - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Retail - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Retail - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Retail - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Retail - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Retail - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Food service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 36: Chart on Food service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Food service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Food service - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Food service - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Market opportunity by End-user

Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by End-user ($ billion)

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 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 50: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 52: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 56: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 60: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on Europe - 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 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

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 ($ billion)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



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 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

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 Brazil - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Brazil - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on Brazil - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 76: Chart on Brazil - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on Brazil - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 Argentina - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Argentina - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on Argentina - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 80: Chart on Argentina - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on Argentina - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Ukraine - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on Ukraine - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on Ukraine - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 84: Chart on Ukraine - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on Ukraine - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 86: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion)

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 Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Exhibit 93: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Overview



Exhibit 94: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 95: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Key news



Exhibit 96: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 97: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Segment focus

10.4 Associated British Foods plc

Exhibit 98: Associated British Foods plc - Overview



Exhibit 99: Associated British Foods plc - Business segments



Exhibit 100: Associated British Foods plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: Associated British Foods plc - Segment focus

10.5 Bayer AG

Exhibit 102: Bayer AG - Overview



Exhibit 103: Bayer AG - Business segments



Exhibit 104: Bayer AG - Key news



Exhibit 105: Bayer AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 106: Bayer AG - Segment focus

10.6 Bunge Ltd.

Exhibit 107: Bunge Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 108: Bunge Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 109: Bunge Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 110: Bunge Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 111: Bunge Ltd. - Segment focus

10.7 Cargill Inc.

Exhibit 112: Cargill Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 113: Cargill Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 114: Cargill Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 115: Cargill Inc. - Key offerings

10.8 CGB Enterprises Inc.

Exhibit 116: CGB Enterprises Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 117: CGB Enterprises Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 118: CGB Enterprises Inc. - Key offerings

10.9 Greenfield Global Inc.

Exhibit 119: Greenfield Global Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 120: Greenfield Global Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 121: Greenfield Global Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 122: Greenfield Global Inc. - Key offerings

10.10 Groupe Limagrain Holding

Exhibit 123: Groupe Limagrain Holding - Overview



Exhibit 124: Groupe Limagrain Holding - Business segments



Exhibit 125: Groupe Limagrain Holding - Key offerings



Exhibit 126: Groupe Limagrain Holding - Segment focus

10.11 Louis Dreyfus Co. BV

Exhibit 127: Louis Dreyfus Co. BV - Overview



Exhibit 128: Louis Dreyfus Co. BV - Business segments



Exhibit 129: Louis Dreyfus Co. BV - Key offerings



Exhibit 130: Louis Dreyfus Co. BV - Segment focus

10.12 Tate and Lyle Plc

Exhibit 131: Tate and Lyle Plc - Overview



Exhibit 132: Tate and Lyle Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 133: Tate and Lyle Plc - Key news



Exhibit 134: Tate and Lyle Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 135: Tate and Lyle Plc - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 136: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 137: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 138: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 139: Research methodology



Exhibit 140: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 141: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 142: 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
HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Following an extensive national search, Memorial Hermann Health System has named Bryan Sisk as its Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive.

Sisk will work collaboratively with nursing leaders, physician leaders and others to improve patient and organizational outcomes and to advance the clinical practice across Houston's largest not-for-profit health system. His role will also include developing career pathways that prepare, support and empower nurse leaders.

"Bryan brings an ideal set of skills to this role," said Dr. David L. Callender, President and CEO of Memorial Hermann. "He is a talented leader with an ability to innovate and see the big picture. At the same time, Bryan has a strong understanding of what nurses are experiencing on the frontlines, and he creates environments where nurses and healthcare teams thrive."

Sisk brings more than 20 years of experience in nursing and healthcare leadership. He is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army and has spent much of his career working to improve medical care for military service members and veterans. From 2008 to 2018, Sisk served in several leadership roles  including Chief Nurse Executive  at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, one of the largest and fastest-growing VA health systems in the country. Most recently, he was Chief Nurse Executive at HCA Healthcare's TriStar Division network in Tennessee, a large regional health system where he oversaw operations for more than 4,000 nurses.

"I'm incredibly honored to take on the role of Memorial Hermann's Chief Nurse Executive," Sisk said. "With this role, I believe Memorial Hermann is demonstrating its commitment to nurses. I am here so we can continue the work of investing in our people, developing strong nurse leaders and creating systems that streamline care delivery. Together, we can make Memorial Hermann the best place in the country for nurses to work."

Sisk earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree at Northern Kentucky University and holds a Master of Public Health degree from Texas A&M University. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Arkansas Tech University.

Sisk is active in several nursing organizations, including the American Nursing Association and Sigma Theta Tau. He has been an advisory board member for the National Science Foundation's Center for Health Organization Transformation (CHOT) and served on a United Way Blue Ribbon Task Force.

Media Contact:

George Kovacik

(281) 841-7119

[email protected]

SOURCE Memorial Hermann Health System
A growing coalition of advocates are coming together to protest the planned closure of the Northampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center

NORTHAMPTON, Mass., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Registered nurses and healthcare professionals from across Western Massachusetts, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, will rally outside the Northampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Monday, March 28 as part of a growing coalition of healthcare, veterans, labor and community groups and individuals opposed to the planned closure of the VA.

Rally to Save Northampton VA

When: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, March 28

Where: Outside the VA at 421 N Main St., Leeds, MA

Rally Participant Individuals/Organizations: Statement from Congressman Jim McGovern, Senator John Velis, the Chair for the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs, and a Major in the Army Reserves (speaker), Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (speaker), Northampton City Councilor Rachel Maiore, David Felty President/CEO of Homeward Vets & Commander of the VFW Post 8006 in Florence (speaker), Patrick Burke, WMALF Hampshire Franklin Labor Assembly (speaker), Statement from RN Patty Healey, Statement from Senator Jo Comerford, Colton Andrews, President, LIUNA local 596 & Pioneer Valley Building Trades (speaker)

Coalition Members: Western Mass Area Labor Federation, Jobs with Justice, Western Massachusetts Medicare for All

There has been widespread outrage among veterans, community and labor groups, and elected officials following the announcement March 14 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that it plans to close the Northampton VA Medical Center. The rally will encourage federal officials to save the VA. Nearly 100 years old, the Northampton VA provides a wide range of health and support services for veterans throughout the region.

"I was outraged to learn of the recommended closure of the VA Medical Center in Leeds," said State Senator Jo Comerford, D-Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester. "The Leeds VA is a critical healthcare provider for veterans in the western Massachusetts region. We're at the beginning of this process and my constituents can count on me to reject a blatant disregard for their healthcare needs. I join my federal and state colleagues in holding strong against this closure."

"The Northampton VA has been providing veteran centered healthcare for all veterans in the Pioneer Valley for decades," said Patty Healey RN. "Right now, local veterans can access the specialized care they need in Northampton without having to travel great distances or seek out more expensive inefficient private healthcare. For the well-being of our veterans, their families and caregivers, the federal government must keep our Northampton VA open."

The Veteran Administration's recommendation to close the Northampton VA and other sites around the country came out of the MISSION Act, which allows for the privatization of the VA healthcare system. MNA nurses and other labor groups have long called out the dangers of privatization, focusing on how wealthy political and economic interests have pushed for privatization against the interests of veterans and taxpayers.

"Closing VA facilities will force veterans to rely on uncoordinated, private, for-profit care, where they will suffer from long wait times and be without the unique expertise and integrated services that only the VA provides," the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, said in a statement earlier this month. "Every time the VA has tried to privatize veterans' care, the private sector has charged veterans more money out of pocket for worse outcomes."

As National Nurses United has pointed out in its opposition to the VA recommendations, ProPublica and other news outlets have reported extensively on the troubling ways profit-driven entities exploit efforts to privatize veteran care, as well as the dangerous effects on veterans who are trying to access care. Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin, and many veterans' service organizations have denounced any efforts to privatize veterans' services, underscoring privatization's negative outcomes for veterans.

A 2018 RAND Corporation study found that the VA medical system is working as well or better than non-VA care. On average, VA hospitals performed the same or "significantly better" than non-VA hospitals on almost all patient, mortality, and effectiveness measures, researchers found. For outpatients, VA facilities performed better than commercial and Medicaid HMOs and better or similarly to Medicare HMOs.

In addition, private healthcare is also far more expensive than the cost-effective VA system, NNU wrote in a March 14 statement on the planned closures and consolidations. If veterans are forced to seek care in the private sector, those services will undoubtedly lead to higher out-of-pocket costs at a time when many veterans are already struggling with higher housing costs and other economic troubles, especially those trying to reintegrate into society.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses  Instagram.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
ATLANTA, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 24th instead of having a regular morning, MobiDev employees woke up at 5 AM to the sounds of artillery bombarding the city. Ukraine was attacked by Russia. Since that moment, everyone has their own story to tell.

Freedom Square in Kharkiv after Russian Bombing Evacuation Bus from Kharkiv to Chernivtsi

For Julia Ramyalg, Senior Marketing and Technology Analyst at MobiDev, that morning started with unexplainable anxiety: "I woke up my kids trying to speak as calmly as possible. I called my mum asking her to come to my home. The next few hours we were sitting in the hall between two concrete walls in my apartment, and waiting for something." Julia later remembers that having spent a few hours at the metro as a shelter, there was only one right decision - to take her family, dog, and flee out of Kharkiv.

It's not everyone that started to evacuate immediately. It took about a week for Danil Yaylo and his family before they decided to relocate. "On the 7th day of the war, they started dropping banned bombs on the city. The road out of the city was very slow because of a traffic jam, but after 4 hours we came to a safe place," - that was the turning point for Danil, when his family decided to move.

In parallel, as a part of a business contingency plan, MobiDev was organizing evacuation buses from Kharkiv. The whole crew of IT professionals has provided a safe journey to more than 70 people from Kharkiv to Chernivtsi, Ukraine.

While Russia wages a war against Ukraine, most countries, businesses, and ordinary people stand with Ukraine. Nana Hrytsenko, Marketing Agent at MobiDev, is grateful for a huge response: "We are extremely lucky to have friends all over the world, who immediately started to ask what's going on and how they can help. Actually, I'm safe in Poland at the moment - my friends provided me with everything I need."

Today, most MobiDev employees have moved to the company's offices in Chernivtsi and Lodz (Ukraine and Poland respectively). Some went to other safe locations across Ukraine and Europe. And they are already back at work.

The full texts of stories can be found here:

https://mobidev.biz/trends-and-insights/people

MobiDev is an international software engineering company with offices in Poland and Ukraine. The company is focused on helping visionaries create their products. MobiDev invests into technology research and has years of experience building AI-powered solutions, implementing machine learning, augmented reality, and IoT.

Media Contact

Nana Hrytsenko

888-380-0276

[email protected]

SOURCE MobiDev
MAKKAH, Saudi Arabia, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Muslim leaders from the United States, Canada, and Latin America endorsed the historic Charter of Makkah at the Promoting Unity and Global Coexistence forum in Washington, D.C., pledging to expand cooperation and instill the document's principles of moderate Islam into their congregations and communities.

His Excellency Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, led the gathering of over two hundred prominent imams, scholars, and Muslim community leaders drawn from all branches of the Islamic faith in collaboration with the International Interfaith Peace Corps.

Dr. Al-Issa, in a keynote address, emphasized that the comprehensive framework of the Charter of Makkah serves as a powerful force for communities around the world to realize inter-faith harmony, tolerance, and peace.

"The Charter of Makkah warns against conflict and a clash of civilizations, hate speech and racism, and calls for inclusive citizenship," said Dr. Al-Issa.

The Charter of Makkah draws its strength from the incredible diversity of Islamic leaders that reached a consensus on how to best address the most pressing challenges and opportunities of our time, including the promotion of youth education, sustainable development, women's empowerment, and counteracting malign forces of prejudice, extremism, and violence globally.

The Islamic leaders held panel discussions focused on analyzing how the document's principles can be applied in different contexts throughout the Americas. Imam Mohamed Magid, IIPC Chairman and Executive Imam at the ADAMS Center, stressed that the implementation of the Charter is already leading to deeper community bonds and driving local development efforts forward.

U.S. Representative Andre Carson of Indiana spoke to the importance of safeguarding the rights of Muslims everywhere, and emphasized the congressional focus on protecting vulnerable Afghan families.

Rahmah Abdulaleem, Executive Director of KARAMAH Humera Khan, highlighted that the Charter of Makkah recognizes the importance of women's leadership in Islamic institutions and all areas of society, while Imam Talib Shareef, President of Masjid Muhammad, spoke to the core drive of all those present to uplift humanity and realize a world in God's image. Amb. Arslan Suleman stressed the importance of advocacy from faith leaders in creating and cementing peace.

The Muslim leaders created an action plan and new communications infrastructure that will see Islamic leaders throughout the Americas share information and best practices as their communities work to realize the vision of the Charter of Makkah.

Communique by Muslim Societies of North, Central, and South America on the Implementation of the Charter of Makkah

We, the leaders of Muslim societies of North, Central and South America, meeting here in Washington DC on this day, joined by some of our prominent and important non-Muslim friends and leaders from other religions, community, civil society, government and the congress, resolve to take certain concrete steps towards implementing the Charter of Makkah whose articles and principles call for collaborative actions to address today's historic challenges hunger, poverty, homelessness, disease, illiteracy, marginalization, insecurity, liberty, and economic opportunities for all. This conference, which is a call to the Charter of Mecca has received great global welcome and appreciation. The conference emphasized the promotion of Muslim unity, the affirmation of the bonds of sisterhood and brotherhood, love among all humanity, as well as the understanding that diversity and pluralism are among the blessings of Allah, May He be Exalted. Religious identity never contradicts national identitya principle embedded in Islamic teaching.

We the attendees of this conference have decided in this first meeting of Muslim societies in North, Central and South America with the objective of finding the best ways to benefit more widely from the principles of the Charter of Makkah and whose workshops focused on a number of important topics, including capacity building for religious leaders, youth engagement, women empowerment, and religious diplomacy; taking into account that the Conference on the Charter of Makkah Al-Mukarramah was attended by all Islamic sects and schools of thought as a seed of goodness to strengthen their brotherly and sisterly ties. After reviewing the discussions that took place in the forum's workshops, the attendees suggested establishing a body for Muslim communities in North and South America with all its sects and schools of thought as an independent body in which everyone would participate equally, from which an international forum would branch out of the Charter, and this body and forum would have non-Muslim friends from religious leaders of other faith communities, governmental and parliamentary bodies in the Americas, in order to: collaborate on common goals and issues, especially promoting the values of brotherhood and coexistence. build bridges of understanding and alliance between followers of religions and cultures in the Americas to achieve common national and human interests. emphasize the strengthening of the concept of the national sovereignty and warning of the danger of the concepts of classification and exclusion  a value advocated by the Makkah Al-Mukarramah Charter, for which it received great global acclaim. The conference organizers will create a committee of seven to nine members, taking into account all necessary diversity, to work on preparing the statute and governance of the aforementioned body and forum, and to operationalize the recommendations of the workshops of the international forum. The members of the committee will also organize annual meetings, similar to our gathering today, with the participation of the forum's friends of other faiths. We are also pleased with the launch of the multi-language website of the charter of Makkah . This interactive website welcomes contributions and inputs from all of you to the implementation strategy of the Charter of Makkah .

May Allah bless this effort, have all our aspirations materialize, and bring benefit across the continents. May Allah reward the scholars who wrote the charter of Makkah, and the participants who have affirmed it. May Allah make this conference the beginning of many initiatives that will positively impact our communities and our nations.

Our thanks to all the participants and May Allah's Blessing be upon you all!

Issued by the Conference Organizers on behalf of all Conference Attendees

SOURCE Muslim World League
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two Roscosmos cosmonauts are scheduled to end their mission aboard the International Space Station and return to Earth on Wednesday, March 30.

Vande Hei, along with Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, will close the hatch to the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft to begin the journey back to Earth. The Soyuz will undock from the Rassvet module, heading for a parachute-assisted landing Wednesday, March 30, on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.

Coverage of the crew's farewells, undocking, and landing will air live on NASA TV, the agency's website, and the NASA app at the following times (all EDT):

11:30 p.m. EDT , Tuesday, March 29  Farewells and hatch closure (at 12 a.m. , Wednesday, March 30 )

,  Farewells and hatch closure (at , ) 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, March 30  Undocking (at 3:21 a.m. )

 Undocking (at ) 6:15 a.m. Wednesday, March 30  Deorbit burn and landing (landing at 7:28 a.m. / 5:28 p.m. Kazakhstan time)

Vande Hei and Dubrov launched April 5, 2021, on Soyuz MS-18, and will wrap up a 355-day mission spanning 5,680 orbits of Earth and more than 150 million miles. During the long-duration mission, Vande Hei broke the record for longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut, previously held at 340 days. Vande Hei will wrap up his second spaceflight with a total of 523 days in space. Shkaplerov launched on Soyuz MS-19 on Oct. 5, 2021. This was Dubrov's first flight. Shkaplerov is ending his fourth mission with 708 cumulative days spent in space.

In advance of Soyuz departure coverage, Shkaplerov will hand over command of the station to NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn during a change of command ceremony. The event will air live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency's website beginning at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, March 29.

At the time of undocking, Expedition 67 will formally begin aboard the station, with new station Commander Marshburn, NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov.

After landing, the Soyuz MS-19 crew will split up, as per standard crew return practice, with Vande Hei returning to his home in Houston, while the cosmonauts fly back to their training base in Star City, Russia.

Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station, and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts and the space station blog.

SOURCE NASA
SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, March 21, 2022, the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission (NCMAC) held a virtual public meeting to review the National Service Animal's Memorial Act, bill # HR 6353/S.3447, designating the National Service Animals Monument Corporation (NSAM) to build a national service animals memorial on land within Washington DC or its environs, and requires the approval of the Commission before passage can be considered by Congress.

The 9-person Commission, focused on whether or not the proposed memorial meets the criteria of the 1986 Commemorative Works Act (CWA). Thirty-six individuals from all over the United States joined the meeting and presented testimony to demonstrate that the memorial will meet the required level of historical significance appropriate for inclusion in our Nation's Capitol.

Beginning with a short PowerPoint showing all of the species that are considered "service animals" within the context of American history, the first speaker was world-renowned artist Susan Bahary, the visionary for the memorial. Following Susan was Theresa M. Brandon, the President of NSAM, who delivered a substantive timeline of American historical events, sharing how changes in military tactics and technology directly affected how and which animals were used. These included early calvary, war dogs, horses and mules in World War I & II, Viet Nam, and Afghanistan, as well as search and rescue dogs at the sites of Oklahoma City and 9/11. The increasing use of animals in therapeutic settings and as assistance animals for Veterans and persons with disabilities was also presented.

Three additional key pieces of testimony were delivered. Raylene Lewis spoke about her teenage son Kyler, who experienced substantial brain injury and stroke, and the critical impact that their service dog, "Sammy", provides to him every day. Valerie Cramer, representing the Guide Dog Foundation & America's Vet Dogs, talked about the loyalty of assistance dog "Sully", who served President HW Bush in his later years, noting that President Bush had signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Missy Craft, an equine therapy specialist, then provided testimony as to the strength of using horses with patients suffering from extreme trauma or PTSD.

Following the formal presentation, public comment was taken from 31 individuals from across the nation (and Australia!) who one-by-one were given one minute to share their personal story about service animals. Each urged the Commission to approve the bill with a yes vote. Almost every speaker talked about the human-animal bond.

In the end, a roll call vote was held, and unanimous approval was attained, for the creation of this historical memorial in honor of service animals and their handlers as they provide safety, security and independence for all Americans. The bill, which has bi-partisan support, will now move to the Congressional committees for further review and then back to Congress for final passage. For more information re: this organization, go to: www.NSAMProject.org

Contact: Theresa M. Brandon, MBA

972-754-9996

SOURCE National Service Animals Monument
"Safety is a shared priority in the communities we serve, and this year's three NKCR Safe Shipper award winners have each demonstrated their tireless commitment to community safety," said OmniTRAX CEO Dean Piacente. "It is our honor to recognize their accomplishments with donations to the local Nebraska fire departments that serve our communities every day."

The 2021 OmniTRAX Safe Shipper Award recipients for the NKCR are Mid America Agri Products/Wheatland, Hi-Line Co-op, and Frenchman Valley Coop. In their honor, NKCR made $1,000 Safe Shipper donations respectively to the Madrid Volunteer Fire Department, the Grant Volunteer Fire Department, and the Imperial Volunteer Fire Department.

About OmniTRAX, Inc.

As one of North America's largest and fastest growing private railroad and transportation management companies, OmniTRAX's core capabilities range from providing transportation and supply chain management services to railroad and port companies, to providing intermodal and industrial switching operations to railroads, ports and a diverse group of industrial companies. Through its affiliation with The Broe Group and its portfolio of managed companies, OmniTRAX also has the unique capability of offering specialized industrial development and real estate solutions, both on and off the rail network managed by OmniTRAX. More information is available at omnitrax.com.

About The Broe Group

Founded in 1972, The Broe Group is a private, multi-billion-dollar investment group with diversified holdings in real estate, rail, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, water, healthcare and technology throughout 37 North American states and provinces. Its deep operational knowledge derived from owning and operating multi-billion-dollar businesses and the global economic insights gleaned from serving its vast Fortune 500 clientele are strategic differentiators. The Broe Group's entrepreneurial focus enables it to find true value wherever it resides. For more information, visit broe.com.

SOURCE OmniTRAX
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 16; Released: March 2022

Executive Pool: 36182

Companies: 320 - Players covered include Appian Corporation; BP Logix; Fujitsu Ltd.; IBM Corporation; OpenText Corporation; Oracle Corporation; Pegasystems, Inc.; Software AG; Tibco Software, Inc.; Ultimus Inc. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Component (Platform, Services); Business Function (Sales & Marketing, Human Resource Management (HRM), Procurement & Supply Chain Management (SCM), Accounting & Finance, Customer Service Support, Other Business Functions); End-Use (Manufacturing, BFSI, IT & Telecom, Retail & Consumer Goods, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa.



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ABSTRACT-



Global Business Process Management (BPM) Market to Reach US$19.8 Billion by the Year 2026

Business process management (BPM) covers operation management tools to help organizations maintain, manage and optimize business processes. The concept encompasses automation, design, control, modeling and process optimization to support business objectives. The global BPM market is bound to gain from increasing uptake of these services and solutions, rising IT spending and advancements in big data and cloud computing. The market growth is expected to be augmented by integration of emerging technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence with BPM software. Organizations are increasingly investing in these solutions to automate business processes, reduce manual errors and improve IT systems for addressing evolving requirements of customers. In the recent years, BPM solutions have experienced extensive uptake across a broad array of industries such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, healthcare and telecommunications. Companies are using BPM tools to push productivity and revenues while reducing overall costs. The BPM market is bolstered by increasing use of smart technologies including AI and machine learning to develop sophisticated BPM tools and platforms. These innovative solutions are witnessing high uptake across organizations for dynamic automation of business workflows. Majority of these suits are cloud-enabled as well as provide developers with low-code tools for faster development of workflow solutions.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Business Process Management (BPM) estimated at US$13.2 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$19.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 12% over the analysis period. Platform, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 10.6% CAGR to reach US$12.3 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Services segment is readjusted to a revised 14.2% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 37.5% share of the global Business Process Management (BPM) market.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $4.5 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $1.7 Billion by 2026

The Business Process Management (BPM) market in the U.S. is estimated at US$4.5 Billion in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 34.37% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$1.7 Billion in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 14.9% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 9.8% and 11.3% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 11.6% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$901.2 Million by the year 2026. North America is predicted to continue ruling the global business process management (BPM) market on account of high uptake of sophisticated technologies among businesses and notable contribution from the US. The regional market is buoyed by the presence of leading players and introduction of advanced solutions. An increasing number of mid- to large-sized organizations in the US are implementing cloud-based applications and using cloud computing, which is bolstering the demand for cloud-based BPM solutions. The region boasts high concentration of leading cloud providers and a notable share of cloud storage.

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Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 17; Released: March 2022

Executive Pool: 12218

Companies: 229 - Players covered include Ansell Healthcare Products, LLC; B. Braun Melsungen AG; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Cypress Medical Products, LLC; Halyard Health, Inc.; Hartalega Holdings Bhd; Kossan Rubber Industries BHD; Molnlycke Health Care AB; Paul Hartmann AG; Rubberex Corporation (M) Berhad; Semperit AG Holding; Shijiazhuang Hongray Group; Supermax Corporation Berhad; Top Glove Corporation Bhd; Vulkan Medical AS and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Segment (Examination Gloves, Surgical Gloves); End-Use (Hospitals & Clinics, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Medical Gloves Market to Reach US$29.8 Billion by the Year 2026

Medical gloves are indispensable products in the area of medicine, whose primary function is to protect healthcare personnel as well as patients from various infections. These gloves are used by physicians, surgeons and other assisting professionals in various healthcare settings. Although a commodity, the criticality of medical gloves continues to rise in wake of growing spread of infectious diseases, increasing incidence of hospital-acquired infections, and growing awareness on safety. In an era where infectious diseases such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, AIDS, SARS, Dengue, Ebola and Zika elude medical defenses and treatment, the need for superior quality and highly functional protective gloves is more pronounced than ever in endeavors to prevent spread of diseases in hospitals. The need and demand for disposable types of medical gloves surged in the wake of growing nosocomial or hospital acquired infections over the years. The technology behind medical gloves has grown considerably over the years. Persistent increase in incidence of infectious and chronic diseases, rising concerns over personal safety and sanitation and strict regulations in place pertinent to the use of personal protective equipment are fueling demand for medical gloves. Also driving growth is the development of healthcare infrastructure in developing nations and the increase in number of hospitals and other care facilities.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Medical Gloves estimated at US$21.8 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$29.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 13.2% over the analysis period. Examination Gloves, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 14% CAGR to reach US$26.4 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Surgical Gloves segment is readjusted to a revised 9.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 20.7% share of the global Medical Gloves market. Examination gloves are widely used due to their extensive use by medical practitioners during patient examinations. As the number of infectious diseases continue to increase around the world, the demand for examination gloves is on the rise. In the coming years, the growing need for early detection and diagnosis of diseases and the steady rise in routine diagnostic tests will spur demand for examination gloves. Surgical gloves, used while performing surgical procedures, are witnessing growing demand led by the rise in surgeries in both developed and developing regions. Growing prevalence of chronic diseases and other medical conditions that contribute to the need for surgical interventions is giving impetus to the market.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $6.9 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $6 Billion by 2026

The Medical Gloves market in the U.S. is estimated at US$6.9 Billion in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 31.7% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$6 Billion in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 15.1% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 11.3% and 12% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 12.1% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$676.4 Million by the end of the analysis period. The United States dominates the global market for medical gloves on account of high level of awareness about hygiene and the role of these gloves in preventing spread of infectious diseases. The US is poised to retain its leading position in the coming years due to its advanced healthcare setup, strong focus on minimizing the risk of healthcare associated infections and increasing demand for quality polyisoprene medical gloves in surgeries. The market is also propelled by high cost of medical gloves and the presence of numerous suppliers across the region. In addition, the presence of an extensive base of patient population and high R&D investment are anticipated to drive regional adoption of disposable medical gloves.

Europe is projected to remain the second leading market in the global medical gloves market due to increasing healthcare spending and extensive adoption of disposable medical gloves while performing surgical procedures. Increasing medical tourism, efficient supply chain, and enforcement of stringent regulations to control cross-contamination are anticipated to help the regional market in exhibiting incremental gains. While developed regions remain major revenue contributors, developing regions, especially China and Asia-Pacific, have evolved into fastest growing regional markets. Growing healthcare spending and a significant base of patient population are likely to present lucrative opportunities in China. While similar trends prevail in Asia-Pacific, the regional market is also anticipated to gain from growing prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases. Rising cases of chronic diseases like diabetic foot ulcer and cancer along with infective conditions including STDs and HIV across emerging countries are expected to provide a notable impetus to the market. Asia-Pacific is also the leading provider of rubber gloves and plays an important role in addressing global demand. The region's dominance is attributed to the presence of advanced rubber manufacturing units in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The regional market for medical gloves is likely to be also propelled by increasing medical tourism, adoption of sophisticated products and rising healthcare awareness across rural areas.

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Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

LINKS

Join Our Expert Panel

https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp

Connect With Us on LinkedIn

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SYDNEY, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CU6) ("Clarity"), a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing next-generation products to address the growing needs in oncology, is pleased to announce that an investigator-initiated trial (IIT) will commence shortly in the US investigating 64Cu SAR-bisPSMA in prostate cancer (NCT05286840)[1}.

The X-Cancer's investigator-led trial of SAR-bisPSMA in known or suspected prostate cancer (X-Calibur) is a Phase I/II IIT in up to 150 patients at the Urology Cancer Center and GU Research Network (GURN) in Omaha, Nebraska, sponsored by Dr Luke Nordquist. It will investigate a broad spectrum of prostate cancer patients by imaging with 64Cu-SAR-bisPSMA on the day of administration and at later timepoints. The X-Calibur trial will be assessing the safety of 64Cu SAR-bisPSMA as well as looking at the impact of the product on staging and clinical management of participants with prostate cancer.

Clarity's Executive Chairman, Dr Alan Taylor, commented, "We are excited to support Dr Nordquist's trial, who has had first-hand experience with our products in the theranostic 64Cu/67Cu SAR-bisPSMA SECuRE trial (NCT04868604)[2]. We look forward to continuing to work together on progressing the development of our optimised SAR-bisPSMA agent in prostate cancer and exploring the many benefits of this product as part of Clarity's Targeted Copper Theranostics (TCT) program in pursuit of our ultimate goal of improving treatment outcomes for cancer patients."

Prostate cancer is a key focus of Clarity's Targeted Copper Theranostics (TCT) program, where the IIT at GURN is the fourth clinical trial utilising the SAR-bisPSMA agent in prostate cancer. The US-based theranostic 64Cu/67Cu SAR-bisPSMA trial, SECuRE (NCT04868604)[2], has been able to successfully image patients with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer from 1 hour to 72 hours post-injection. The diagnostic 64Cu SAR-bisPSMA trial in Australia, PROPELLER (NCT04839367)[3], is well underway, with over 50% of participants recruited in untreated, confirmed prostate cancer patients (i.e. pre-radical prostatectomy). The most recent diagnostic 64Cu SAR-bisPSMA trial in the US, COBRA (NCT05249127)[4], has received a Study May Proceed Letter from the FDA in February 2022, with recruitment of participants with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer planned to commence in the second quarter of 2022. Clarity has previously received advice from the FDA that its prostate diagnostic clinical program with 64Cu SAR-bisPSMA is addressing the two relevant patient populations for registration: pre-prostatectomy/pre-definitive treatment as well as patients with suspected biochemical recurrence.

Dr Luke Nordquist, CEO and Urologic Medical Oncologist at the Urology Cancer Center and GU Research Network in Omaha, Nebraska, commented, "We are very impressed with the PET imaging data collected at GURN from the SECuRE trial which indicates high tumour targeting and retention, especially compared to first-generation PSMA agents that use a single PSMA binding motif and have very short half-lives of 1-2 hours. As such, we were excited to seize the opportunity and continue the development of SAR-bisPSMA in the diagnostic IIT at GURN, continuing to further expand the clinical benefits of the product and to provide our own prostate cancer patients with the very best technologies available.

"In addition to the clinical advantages, we have also been excited about the supply and logistical benefits of SAR-bisPSMA as a TCT, which can be distributed on-demand and in large scale from central manufacturing facilities. TCT can provide universal access to radiopharmaceuticals in every zip-code in the continental US, something that is lacking with current approved agents. GURN has a significant backlog of patients who cannot access sufficient quantities of PSMA imaging agents based on gallium-68 (Ga-68) or fluorine-18 (F-18) due to the logistical issues of short half-life isotopes. We have already experienced the benefits of Cu-64 based products and their longer shelf-life of up to 48 hours with our current trial with Clarity, and we expect minimal delays and interruptions as we look to address the large backlog of treatments, providing up to 150 prostate cancer patients with the critical imaging required to improve patient outcomes."

Dr Taylor said, "This fourth clinical trial of SAR-bisPSMA will build on the exciting data to date as we progress this product towards the market. The trial will also continue to demonstrate the numerous benefits of the centrally manufactured, on-demand distribution model of ready-to use cGMP TCT products over the first-generation short half-life products using Ga-68 and F-18. We look forward to Dr Nordquist advancing the X-Calibur trial and hope it will improve cancer diagnosis and ensure that critical treatments will be available to patients and their treating staff on time and at a convenient location when and where they need it most."

This announcement has been authorised for release by the Executive Chairman.

For more information, please contact:

Clarity Pharmaceuticals

Dr Alan Taylor

Executive Chairman

[email protected]

About Clarity Pharmaceuticals

Clarity is a clinical stage radiopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious disease. The Company is a leader in innovative radiopharmaceuticals, developing targeted copper theranostics based on its SAR Technology Platform for the treatment of cancer in children and adults.

www.claritypharmaceuticals.com

About Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men globally and the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide[5]. The National Cancer Institute estimates in 2022 there will be 268,490 new cases of prostate cancer in the US and around 34,500 deaths from the disease[6].

References 1. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05286840 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05286840 2. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04868604 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04868604 3. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04839367 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04839367 4. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05249127 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05249127 5. Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.21660 6. American Cancer Society, Cancer Statistics Center, https://cancerstatisticscenter.cancer.org/?_ga=2.79808020.284532473.1620009137-1916069442.1615761164#!/cancer-site/Prostate

SOURCE Clarity Pharmaceuticals
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

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Edition: 9; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 423

Companies: 42 - Players covered include Brdrene Hartmann A/S; Fibercel Packaging LLC; Georgia-Pacific Packaging & Cellulose; Henry Molded Products, Inc.; Huhtamaki, Oyj; Pactiv LLC; UFP Technologies, Inc. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Molded Pulp Type (Transfer Molded, Thermoformed Fiber, Processed Pulp, Thick Wall); End-Use (Food & Beverage Packaging, Food Service Disposables, Consumer Durables & Electronics, Healthcare Products Packaging, Transportation & Logistics, Automotive & Mechanical Parts Packaging, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Africa.

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ABSTRACT-

Global Molded Fiber Trays Market to Reach $2.3 Billion by 2026

Molded fiber is emerging as one of the preferred packaging options due to its sustainable and eco-friendly attributes. The versatile nature of molded pulp and ability to create endless designs are contributing to the increased adoption of molded fiber in packaging applications. The growing prominence of molded fiber as a packaging material for consumer goods, healthcare items, mechanical and automobile parts, electronic items and eggs and fruits can be attributed to its environment friendly attributes. The growing need to use ecologically sustainable protective material for packaging goods has led to a burgeoning demand for molded pulp/ fiber packaging as a superior option to conventional packaging materials. There is a growing preference for using packaging materials that can be naturally decomposed and recycled for further use. The continuous improvement in molding technologies, machinery and processes along with the shift towards environment-friendly and sustainable packaging solutions is giving impetus to the molded fiber packaging market including molded fiber trays. The advancing and improving molded fiber processing technologies including use of 3D manufacturing are supporting growth in the molded fiber packaging market. The food and beverage industry demonstrates a huge demand for molded fiber trays, which includes demand for food and beverage packing, and food and beverage disposable packaging.



Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Molded Fiber Trays estimated at US$1.9 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$2.3 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.2% over the analysis period. Transfer Molded, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 5.8% CAGR to reach US$1.4 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Thermoformed Fiber segment is readjusted to a revised 4.9% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 18.5% share of the global Molded Fiber Trays market. Transfer Molded pulp trays have premium finish leading to their high demand for packaging consumer durables and electronic items. A relatively new type of molded pulp, thermoformed molded pulp is considered as a high quality thin-walled product. Key use cases of the material include applications with importance on high definition and appearance, and for point of purchase packaging purposes.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $437.7 Million in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $302.7 Million by 2026

The Molded Fiber Trays market in the U.S. is estimated at US$437.7 Million in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 23.65% share in the global market. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$302.7 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 6.9% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 3.8% and 4.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 4.1% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$325.7 Million by the end of the analysis period. Europe is among the leading regions with growth supported by rapid advancements in packaging and processing techniques in the past few years and the rising demand for biodegradable, environmentally friendly packaging from different countries. In North America, demand for molded fiber trays is expected to benefit from the robust food processing industry and prosperous trade flows of ready-to-consume packaged food. In Asia-Pacific region, growth is mainly driven by the expanding food and beverages industry. The rising consumption of packaged foods and beverages amongst the working consumer`s is driving market growth.

Processed Pulp Segment to Reach $367.1 Million by 2026

Processed molded pulp is used in several custom applications. The material is subjected to some form of secondary processing, and is hence different from other types by adding another process to basic production process to any of the other procedures. Secondary processing can include processes like hot pressing, coating, printing, trimming, die cutting and even manufacturing through the use of special slurry additives or colors. In the global Processed Pulp segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 4.1% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$217.4 Million will reach a projected size of US$288 Million by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$47.5 Million by the year 2026, while Latin America will expand at a 5.3% CAGR through the analysis period.

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NorthCurrent Partners ("NorthCurrent") is pleased to announce its fourth acquisition in the home services space, Certified Climate Control ("CCC"), a leading HVAC services provider in Central Florida.

Founded by David Hill, Certified Climate Control has taken a customer-first approach throughout its history and been an active part of the greater Orlando community for fifteen years. NorthCurrent worked closely with David to achieve his transaction goals, accomplishing a swift close and the continuation of CCC's company culture. NorthCurrent will further invest in CCC and its team to support the company's growth in Central Florida.

David Hill, the founder of CCC, said: "We've had many offers through the years but NorthCurrent with Buck and Alex were the first company that I knew would honor our company reputation, the employees that built it, and the customers that trusted it. It's not all about the money, it's about people that will take care of your family the way you did. They were friendly and helpful and very patient during the process. It really was a pleasure dealing with them."

NorthCurrent managing partners Buck Marshall and Alex Brown will continue to search out additional acquisition opportunities in the home services and HVAC space. Buck Marshall said: "We are excited to support the CCC team and brand in the Orlando community. We will continue to invest in and expand the team, accelerating CCC's growth, and we will maintain the strong company culture that has made the company a leader in central Florida with an outstanding reputation among its customers."

About Certified Climate Control

Certified Climate Control is headquartered in Orange City, Florida and markets, installs, and services residential HVAC systems and other products. The Company was founded in 2009 by David Hill. Certified Climate Control takes a customer-first approach, and has demonstrated strong growth throughout its company history.

About NorthCurrent Partners

Based in New York City, NorthCurrent Partners is a private investment firm that seeks to partner with and grow companies in the United States. As the private equity arm of a family office, NorthCurrent brings certainty, flexibility, and speed to our transactions and investment partnerships. NorthCurrent's longer-term approach comes from its roots in growing a multi-generation family business. NorthCurrent focuses on business services, consumer services, and niche manufacturing. Further information about NorthCurrent can be found at www.northcurrentpartners.com.

SOURCE NorthCurrent Partners

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FDA also approved complementary diagnostic imaging agent, Locametz  , after radiolabeling with gallium-68 for the identification of PSMA-positive lesions 2

Metastatic prostate cancer has a 5-year survival rate of less than 30% 3 ; mCRPC patients who progress on multiple lines of therapy have limited treatment options

FDA approval was based on pivotal Phase III VISION trial, where patients with pre-treated PSMA-positive mCRPC who received Pluvicto plus standard of care had a statistically significant reduction in risk of death 1 ; both alternate primary endpoints of overall survival and radiographic progression free survival were met 1

Novartis is committed to reimagining medicine in prostate cancer with targeted radioligand therapy - a type of precision cancer treatment combining a targeting compound (ligand) with a therapeutic radioisotope (a radioactive particle)

Two pivotal Phase III studies evaluating Pluvicto in earlier lines of treatment for metastatic prostate cancer are underway, with a goal to move into earlier stages of disease

EAST HANOVER, N.J., March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan) (formerly referred to as 177Lu-PSMA-617) for the treatment of adult patients with a certain type of advanced cancer called prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (PSMA-positive mCRPC) that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic)1. These patients have already been treated with other anti-cancer treatments (androgen receptor pathway inhibition and taxane-based chemotherapy)1.

Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8969951-novartis-pluvicto-fda-approval-prostate-cancer/

"The approval of Pluvicto is an important clinical advancement for people with progressing mCRPC, as it can significantly improve survival rates for those who have limited treatment options," said Oliver Sartor, MD, Medical Director at Tulane Cancer Center. "Pluvicto is a step forward in the evolution of precision medicine for prostate cancer."

Pluvicto is the first FDA-approved targeted radioligand therapy (RLT) for eligible patients with mCRPC that combines a targeting compound (ligand) with a therapeutic radioisotope (a radioactive particle)1. Pluvicto is expected to be available to physicians and patients within weeks.

The FDA has also approved Locametz (kit for the preparation of gallium Ga 68 gozetotide injection)2. After radiolabeling, this imaging agent may be used to identify PSMA-positive lesions in adult patients with mCRPC through a positron emission tomography (PET) scan2. Gallium-68 labeled Locametz can identify tumor lesions expressing the PSMA biomarker and locate where in the body tumors may have spread (eg, in soft tissue, lymph nodes, or bone), identifying patients eligible for targeted treatment with Pluvicto1,2. PSMA is highly expressed in more than 80 percent of patients with prostate cancer, making it an important phenotypic biomarker for assessing the progression of metastatic prostate cancer10. Locametz is expected to be available to physicians and patients within weeks.

"With our unique strategy to tackle cancer by leveraging four therapeutic platforms, I am thrilled that with Pluvicto, we are bringing the targeted RLT platform to bear for treating eligible patients with mCRPC," said Susanne Schaffert, PhD, President, Novartis Oncology. "Today's approval builds upon our history in prostate cancer, a devastating disease where we believe our innovation can make a meaningful difference to patients."

FDA approval of Pluvicto is based on the results of the Phase III VISION trial which demonstrated that PSMA-positive mCRPC patients previously treated with androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibition and taxane-based chemotherapy who received Pluvicto plus standard of care (SOC) had improved overall survival compared to SOC alone1. Participants treated with Pluvicto plus SOC had a 38% reduction in risk of death and a statistically significant reduction in the risk of radiographic disease progression or death (rPFS) compared to SOC alone1. Interpretation of the magnitude of the rPFS effect was limited due to a high degree of censoring from early drop out in the control arm1.

In addition, about a third (30%) of patients with evaluable disease at baseline demonstrated an overall response (per RECIST 1.1) with Pluvicto plus SOC, compared to 2% in the SOC alone arm1. The most common adverse events (all grades) in the Pluvicto arm of the study were fatigue (43%), dry mouth (39%), nausea (35%), anemia (low red blood cell counts) (32%), decreased appetite (21%), and constipation (20%)1.

"Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in Americans with a prostate gland13. Although the treatment landscape for mCRPC continues to evolve, there is a high unmet need for additional precision medicine treatment options to improve outcomes for these patients," said Jamie Bearse, CEO and President at ZERO  The End of Prostate Cancer. "The approval of Pluvicto offers new hope to the mCRPC community."

Pluvicto and Locametz are registered products of Advanced Accelerator Applications, the radioligand business of Novartis, approved in the United States for physicians to prescribe to appropriate patients. Additional safety details for Pluvicto and Locametz , and full Prescribing Information can be found on the Novartis website.

About Pluvicto

Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan) is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have already been treated with other anticancer treatments (androgen receptor pathway inhibition (ARPI) and taxane-based chemotherapy)1. It is a type of precision cancer treatment combining a targeting compound (ligand) with a therapeutic radioisotope (a radioactive particle)1. After administration into the bloodstream, Pluvicto binds to target cells, including prostate cancer cells that express PSMA, a transmembrane protein1. Once bound, energy emissions from the radioisotope damage the target cells and nearby cells disrupting their ability to replicate and/or triggering cell death1.

Novartis has submitted marketing authorization for Pluvicto to the European Medicines Agency and other health authorities.

About Locametz

Locametz (gallium Ga 68 gozetotide), diagnostic kit for radiopharmaceutical injectable preparation is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) of PSMA-positive lesions with prostate cancer with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy; with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level; and for selection of patients with metastatic prostate cancer, for whom lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan PSMA-directed therapy is indicated2.

Novartis has submitted marketing authorization for Locametz to the European Medicines Agency and other health authorities.

About VISION

VISION is an international, prospective, randomized, open-label, multicenter, phase III study that assessed the efficacy and safety of Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan) (7.4 GBq administered by IV infusion every 6 weeks for a maximum of 6 cycles) plus investigator-chosen standard of care (SOC) in the investigational arm, versus SOC in the control arm1. Patients with PSMA PET-scan positive mCRPC who have received androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibition and taxane-based chemotherapy were randomized in a 2:1 ratio in favor of the investigational arm1. The alternate primary endpoints were rPFS and OS1. The study enrolled 831 patients1.

About Phenotypic Precision Medicine in Advanced Prostate Cancer

Despite advances in prostate cancer care, there is a high unmet need for new targeted treatment options to improve outcomes for patients with mCRPC. More than 80% of patients with prostate cancer highly express a phenotypic biomarker9 called prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA)4-6,9,10, making it a promising diagnostic (through positron emission tomography (PET) scan imaging) and therapeutic target for radioligand therapy10. This differs from 'genotypic' precision medicine which targets specific genetic alterations in cancer cells7.

Novartis and Prostate Cancer

With more 1.4 million new cases and 375,000 deaths in 2020 alone, prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in 112 countriesmore than half the world12.

At Novartis, we are harnessing the innovation of our world-class scientists, strategic partnerships, and one of the industry's most competitive pipelines to explore the potential of new, targeted therapies and precision medicine platforms to address the greatest unmet needs in prostate cancer.

Through the bold science of targeted therapies, our goal is to reduce the global disease burden, extend the lives of patients with prostate cancer, and elevate current standards of care.

Pluvicto Indication

PLUVICTO (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan) is a radiopharmaceutical used to treat adults with an advanced cancer called prostate-specific membrane antigenpositive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (PSMA-positive mCRPC) that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic), and has already been treated with other anticancer treatments.

Pluvicto Important Safety Information

Use of PLUVICTO involves exposure to radioactivity. Long-term, accruing radiation exposure is associated with increased risk for cancer. To minimize radiation exposure to others following administration of PLUVICTO, patients are advised to limit close contact (less than 3 feet) with household contacts for 2 days or with children and pregnant women for 7 days, to refrain from sexual activity for 7 days, and to sleep in a separate bedroom from household contacts for 3 days, from children for 7 days, or from pregnant women for 15 days.

PLUVICTO may cause low level of blood cell counts. Patients should tell their doctor right away if they develop any new or worsening symptoms, including tiredness or weakness, pale skin, shortness of breath, bleeding or bruising more easily than normal or difficulty to stop bleeding, or frequent infections with signs such as fever, chills, sore throat, or mouth ulcers. PLUVICTO may also cause problems with kidneys. Patients should tell their doctor right away if they develop any new or worsening symptoms, including passing urine less often or passing much smaller amounts of urine than usual.

Before receiving PLUVICTO, patients should tell their doctor if they have low level of blood cell counts (hemoglobin, white blood cell count, absolute neutrophil count, platelet count); if they have or have had tiredness, weakness, pale skin, shortness of breath, bleeding or bruising more easily than normal or difficulty stopping bleeding, or frequent infections with signs such as fever, chills, sore throat, or mouth ulcers (possible signs of myelosuppression); if they have or have had kidney problems; if they have or have had any other type of cancer or treatment for cancer, as PLUVICTO contributes to long-term cumulative radiation exposure; and if they are sexually active, as all radiopharmaceuticals, including PLUVICTO, have the potential to cause harm to an unborn baby. Patients should use effective contraception for intercourse during treatment with PLUVICTO and for 14 weeks after the last dose. PLUVICTO may cause temporary or permanent infertility.

Before administration of PLUVICTO patients should drink plenty of water in order to urinate as often as possible during the first hours after administration.

The most common side effects of PLUVICTO include tiredness, dry mouth, nausea, low red blood cell count, loss of appetite, changes in bowel movements (constipation or diarrhea), vomiting, low blood platelet count, urinary tract infection, weight loss, and abdominal pain.

Please see full Prescribing Information for PLUVICTO at https://www.novartis.us/sites/www.novartis.us/files/pluvicto.pdf.

Locametz Indication

LOCAMETZ (kit for the preparation of gallium Ga 68 gozetotide injection), after radiolabeling with gallium-68, is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive lesions in men with prostate cancer:

with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy

with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level

for selection of patients with metastatic prostate cancer for whom lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan PSMA-directed therapy is indicated

Locametz Important Safety Information

LOCAMETZ PET images can be misinterpreted. Gallium Ga 68 gozetotide may be taken up into other types of cancerous and noncancerous tissue. Corroborating approaches, which may include histopathology, are recommended.

Gallium Ga 68 gozetotide contributes to a patient's long-term cumulative radiation exposure, which is associated with an increased risk of cancer. Safe handling and preparation procedures must be ensured to protect patients and health care workers from unintentional radiation exposure. Patients should be well hydrated prior to administration and urinate immediately prior to and frequently during the first hours after image acquisition to reduce radiation exposure.

Adverse reactions that occurred at a rate of 0.5% or greater in the VISION study were fatigue, nausea, constipation, and vomiting; at a rate less than 0.5%, diarrhea, dry mouth, injection site reactions, and chills.

Please see full Prescribing Information for LOCAMETZ at https://www.novartis.us/sites/www.novartis.us/files/locametz.pdf.

Patient Access and Support

Novartis is committed to helping ensure that our medicines are accessible to as many patients as possible. With the approval of Pluvicto in the United States, we offer support and services to address a range of needs through AAA PatientCONNECT. AAA PatientCONNECT is a support center staffed by dedicated case managers who can help eligible patients throughout their treatment journey to start and stay on treatment. Patients or providers can call 1-844-638-7222 or visit AAApatientconnect.com to enroll and learn more about AAA PatientCONNECT.

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "may," "could," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Advanced Accelerator Applications

Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA), a Novartis company, specializes in targeted radioligand therapies and precision imaging radioligands for oncology indications. We are committed to transforming patients' lives by leading innovation in nuclear medicine. AAA has a legacy as a leader in radiopharmaceutical drugs for Positron Emission tomography (PET) and Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) diagnostic imaging. For more information, please visit: https://www.adacap.com.

About Novartis

Located in East Hanover, NJ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation  an affiliate of Novartis  is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis employs nearly 15,500 people in the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.novartis.us.

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References

Pluvicto [prescribing information]. Millburn, NJ : Advanced Accelerator Applications USA , Inc.; 2022. Locametz [prescribing information]. Millburn, NJ : Advanced Accelerator Applications USA , Inc.; 2022. SEER. Cancer stat facts: prostate cancer April 2021 . [https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html] Hupe MC, Philippi C, Roth D, et al. Expression of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) on biopsies is an independent risk stratifier of prostate cancer patients at time of initial diagnosis. Front Oncol 2018;8:623. Bostwick DG, Pacelli A, Blute M, et al. Prostate specific membrane antigen expression in prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and adenocarcinoma: a study of 184 cases. Cancer 1998;82(11):225661 Pomykala KL, Czernin J, Grogan TR, et al. Total-body 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT for bone metastasis detection in prostate cancer patients: potential impact on bone scan guidelines. J Nucl Med 2020;61(3):40511 Sant GR, Knopf KB, Albala DM. Live-single-cell phenotypic cancer biomarkers-future role in precision oncology? NPJ Precision Oncology 2017;1(1):21 Minner S, Wittmer C, Graefen M, et al. High level PSMA expression is associated with early PSA recurrence in surgically treated prostate cancer. Prostate 2011;71(3):2818 Hope TA, Aggarwal R, Chee B, et al. Impact of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET on management in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. J Nucl Med 2017;58(12):195661 Hofman MS, Violet J, Hicks RJ et al. [177Lu]-PSMA-617 radionuclide treatment in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (LuPSMA trial): a single-centre, single-arm, phase 2. American Cancer Society. Deaths from prostate cancer. ACS website. Available online: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate-cancer/about/key-statistics.html. Last accessed November 2021. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Sung H, et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2021;71(3):209-249. doi:10.3322/caac.21660.

Novartis Media Relations

E-mail: [email protected]

Julie Masow Head, US External Engagement +1 862 579 8456 [email protected] Rachel Levine Advanced Accelerator Applications, a Novartis Company +1 917 375 2935 [email protected]

Novartis Investor Relations

E-mail: [email protected]

North America Sloan Simpson +1 862 778 5052







SOURCE Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
ABMS Offers Patients Helpful Guidance on Quality Care, Licensing, and Board Certification

CHICAGO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 30, "National Doctors' Day," the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is encouraging patients to give their doctor a "check-up" to make sure they continue to be the right doctor for them and their loved ones.

"Choosing an appropriate physician for yourself and your family is an important decision," noted Greg Ogrinc, MD, MS, ABMS Senior Vice President of Certification Standards and Programs. "The good news is that there are free tools you can use to find the right professional for you and your family."

Check-Up Questions

Does your doctor make you feel respected and listened to? Do you feel that you are getting the care you need? If not, talk to your doctor and their staff so that they can make improvements. If your needs are still not being met, choose another physician that may be a better fit. Is your doctor licensed to practice in your state? Has a state medical board disciplined your doctor? To find out, look up your doctor on the Federation of State Medical Boards' free web site, www.docinfo.org, the nation's most comprehensive database of medical licensure and disciplinary actions. Is your doctor board certified in their specialty by an American Board of Medical Specialties Member Board? This indicates that they are skilled and knowledgeable, an expert in their specialty, and meet a higher standard that was developed by their peers. Do a check-up on your doctor on the American Board of Medical Specialties' free web site at www.CertificationMatters.org.

"Unfortunately, there seems to be confusion about the difference between physician licensing and board certification," said Dr. Ogrinc. "While both are important markers, it is helpful to note that state licensing is mandatory, while board certification is a voluntary step physicians take to demonstrate their commitment to providing the highest quality of patient care. In fact, several studies show that board certified physicians provide a higher quality of care and tend to have fewer disciplinary actions than those who are not board certified."

What is the difference between licensing and board certification? All physicians must have a current state medical license to practice medicine in the United States. Licensing means that the physician has met the core standards needed to provide safe and effective patient care. To obtain a medical license, individuals must graduate medical school, receive postgraduate training, and pass a national medical licensing examination.

After earning their medical license, most doctors in the United States choose a specialty in which to practice, such as pediatrics or internal medicine. Becoming board certified by one of the 24 ABMS Member Boards demonstrates that a physician has gone above and beyond basic medical training to become an expert in that specialty. Board certification requires extra training that can take anywhere from three to seven years. Then, the physician must pass a rigorous exam given by an ABMS board. The fact that most doctors in the United States have chosen to become board certified speaks to its significance.

"ABMS board certification represents a physician's training and their continued commitment to the specialized knowledge and skills in a particular area of medicine," noted Dr. Ogrinc. "It represents their lifelong commitment to staying current with specialty knowledge, excellence in professionalism, and engaging in systematic efforts to improve the system in which they work."

About ABMS

Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is responsible for the creation of standards overseeing physician certification in the United States. Dedicated to improving the quality of care to the patients, families and communities they serve, the 24 ABMS Member Boards develop educational and professional standards and programs of assessment to certify physicians and medical specialists. More than 940,000 physicians and medical specialists are certified by one or more of the ABMS Member Boards in one or more of 40 specialties and 88 subspecialties. For more information about ABMS visit abms.org or 353 North Clark Street, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60654, T: (312) 436-2600, F: (312) 436-2700

SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties
TEL AVIV, Israel, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cymbio, a leading marketplace and drop ship automation platform, announced today an investment from PayPal Ventures, the venture capital arm of the global payments company. This latest development comes just months after Cymbio closed a $20M Series B round.

As marketplaces' share of eCommerce grows and retailers expand their drop shipping operations, brands are seeking solutions to easily integrate their product catalogs and help manage operations across channels. Cymbio's marketplace and drop ship automation platform acts as a technology bridge to relieve brands from the burdensome process of individually connecting with each marketplace and retailer, so they can focus on the core of their business. Cymbio offers a centralized platform enabling seamless and scalable retail connections to 800+ marketplaces, retailers, and widely used ecommerce solutions worldwide.

"PayPal Ventures' investment in Cymbio reflects the important role that Cymbio plays in enabling brands to shift to a multi-channel commerce model," said CEO Roy Avidor, who co-founded the company along with Mor Lavi and Gilad Zirkel. "This investment will support Cymbio in the next stage of our journey as we continue to help brands accelerate their digital sales growth by connecting them to a global retail ecosystem. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the PayPal Ventures team, and we are excited to start enabling our customers with the financial tools needed to run efficient drop ship and marketplace operations."

"Cymbio shares our ambition to support businesses of all sizes in expanding their digital commerce operations. Multi-channel selling is one of the most effective ways for brands and merchants to reach more consumers and increase sales," said Phil Valka, Senior Director, PayPal Ventures. "We're excited to invest in an innovative solution that solves customers' pain points around data integrations, thereby unlocking further growth opportunities."

Cymbio's platform is compatible with many different systems and protocols used by retailers and marketplaces, and automates all drop ship and marketplace operations, including integration, set-up, and day-to-day management of the full relationship between brands and retailers. The investment from PayPal ventures will allow Cymbio to continue to invest in the company's hypergrowth and expand capabilities to better serve clients, including a financial services offering for the hundreds of brands on its platform slated for Q2 2022.

Cymbio will be on hand at the upcoming Shoptalk 2022 conference to talk about these developments, new offerings and the future of retail. Held March 27-30 in Las Vegas, the event will bring together thousands of established retailers, brands, tech companies, media, analysts, and more, to learn, network, collaborate and evolve.

To learn more about Cymbio and the company's work to seamlessly connect brands and their retailer counterparts, visit www.cym.bio .

About Cymbio

Cymbio's digital commerce enablement platform provides brands a robust, centralized platform to manage marketplaces and drop ship sales and operations, from data integration, set-up, mapping, taxonomy, onboarding, and daily management of all operational needs. Cymbio enables digital sales growth for brands with the world's first brand-centric eCommerce automation platform and acts as the technology bridge between brands such as New Balance, Authentic Brands Group, Steve Madden, Marchesa, Camper, Micro Kickboard, and thousands of retailers, marketplaces, department stores, and boutiques, such as Farfetch, Kohl's, Macy's, Dillard's, Saks, Urban Outfitters, Kroger, Walmart, Zappos and more. For more information, please visit https://cym.bio

Media Contact

Jolene Amit

VP Marketing at Cymbio

[email protected]

+1 (215) 515-6644

SOURCE Cymbio Digital Ltd
RESTON, Va., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Plus3 IT Systems, LLC (Plus3 IT) is pleased to announce it has been awarded a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) from the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) for Data Readiness for Artificial Intelligence Development (DRAID). Created in 2018 the JAIC's mission as specified in the Department of Defense (DoD) AI Strategy, is "to accelerate the delivery of AI enabled capabilities, scale the Department-wide impact of AI, and synchronize DoD AI activities to expand Joint Force advantages." As a Prime DRAID BOA holder, Plus3 IT will support tasks needed to create, acquire, curate, prepare, manage, or secure data sets for use in DoD AI models and application development, testing, certification, and operation. This full and open multiple-award, five-year agreement has a $241M ceiling and is one of five acquisition vehicles offered by JAIC, each addressing a specific DoD AI challenge. DRAID is designed for rapid ordering of data services to address "data wrangling" issues and make DoD data "AI Ready"

"Plus3 IT has made great strides in the DoD and Intelligence Community with Extract Transform Load (ETL), data catalogs, data management frameworks, data governance solutions for fine grained access control and usage audits, AI-assisted cyber event correlation, and AI-assisted analytic support.," said Christopher Isaacs, Plus3 IT Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. "This award allows us to deliver these capabilities to a broad set of DoD customers, driving mission efficiencies and maximizing the use of cloud enabled AI."

Plus3 IT is a privately-owned small disadvantaged business, headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As an expert-level cloud services firm, Plus3 IT supports mission requirements through cloud adoption, cloud security, cloud native application development, cloud enabled data analytics, and DevSecOps. Plus3 IT has proven success supporting the DoD, IC, and other Federal customers in all things related to cloud. Plus3 IT is also a GSA Multiple Award Schedule holder.

Visit our website: https://www.plus3it.com

Follow Plus3 IT news on LinkedIn , Facebook , and @Plus3IT on Twitter.

For Contract inquiries: [email protected]

For general inquiries: [email protected]

SOURCE Plus3 IT Systems
With this latest round of funding, Podimetrics plans to focus on hiring to build out their product development and research teams, while also expanding the breadth of services delivered by their nurse support team. This new funding will help even more at-risk providers and health plans drive broader adoption of Podimetrics' SmartMat so they can improve care outcomes for at-risk patients dealing with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) that often lead to amputations.

Podimetrics, founded in 2011, developed the SmartMat  the only easy-to-use, at-home mat that a patient steps on for 20 seconds per day. The mat detects temperature changes in the foot, which are associated with early signs of inflammation, often a precursor to DFUs. The FDA-cleared and HIPAA-compliant SmartMat is remotely monitored by Podimetrics' in-house nurse support team. If the data from the mat are indicative of potential health issues, Podimetrics' nursing team connects with the patient and the patients' provider in as close to real time as possible. The SmartMat, which also has the Seal of Approval from the American Podiatric Medical Association, has already been used by thousands of patients through partnerships with leading risk-based healthcare providers and regional and national health plans, such as the Veterans Health Administration.

"The patients we serve at Podimetrics are extremely complex and have been largely ignored by our healthcare system," said Jon Bloom, MD, CEO and Co-founder of Podimetrics. "With our SmartMat and this latest funding, we have the chance to put an end to 'Civil War'era amputations with early, home-based detection. We also have the opportunity to improve the overall health and well-being for patients dealing with diabetes because of the close relationship we've built through our trusted technology and clinical services."

In a previous multi-center trial , diabetic foot complications were shown to be detected up to five weeks before they presented clinically. Even after one full year, about 70% of patients continued to use the SmartMat regularly. Early detection and related preventive care actions often result in significant cost-savings, too, anywhere from $8,000$13,000 in savings per member per year (savings estimates based on customer research and analysis). In addition, considering Black Americans and Hispanics are two to three times more likely to require a diabetic amputation than others , Podimetrics' SmartMat holds the power to help support health equity advancements over time.

Recent peer-reviewed research has also suggested the following benefits among patients using the SmartMat at home: 71% elimination of amputations ; 52% reduction in all-cause hospitalizations ; 40% reduction in emergency department visits ; and a 26% reduction in outpatient visits .

Building on these notable data-driven findings, most recently Podimetrics published peer-reviewed research in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice , the journal of the International Diabetes Federation . This research found that during episodes-of-care for DFUs, patients are 50% more likely to die and nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized. What this research shows is that patients with a DFU tend to have multiple other chronic health conditions, putting them at higher risk for hospitalization and even death. In addition, these medically complex patients are often among the costliest patients within a healthcare system. As a result of this research, diabetic foot complications can and should be viewed as indicators of other costly chronic conditions not commonly associated with DFUs.

In addition to this research, which was published in January 2022, Podimetrics has already gotten off to a strong start in 2022. The company doubled its revenue for the third year in a row, and also doubled the size of its team.

"We are proud to partner with Podimetrics and to support its efforts to save lives and limbs," said James Rogers, Investment Partner with D1 Capital Partners. "Our growth capital will expand commercialization of the SmartMat which we believe has demonstrated the ability to reduce unnecessary healthcare costs through preventive, risk-based strategies that prioritize high-quality outcomes for vulnerable patients. We believe that Podimetrics is building a strong team and are honored to support its worthy mission."

For more information on Podimetrics and how its SmartMat and clinical care services can help prevent diabetic foot ulcers and improve patient outcomes, please visit Podimetrics.com .

About Podimetrics

Podimetrics is the creator of the FDA-cleared SmartMat and integrated clinical care services that can help save the limbs and lives of complex diabetic patients. Through partnerships with regional and national health plans and at-risk providers, such as the Veterans Health Administration, Podimetrics has helped prevent amputations associated with complex diabetes. By combining cutting-edge technology with best-in-class clinical care services, Podimetrics earns high engagement rates from patients and allows clinicians to save limbs, lives, and money  all while keeping vulnerable populations healthy in their own homes. For more information, visit podimetrics.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter .

About D1 Capital Partners

D1 Capital Partners is a global investment firm that operates across public and private markets. The firm combines the talent and operational excellence of a large, premier asset management firm with the flexible mandate and long-term time horizon of a family office. Founded in 2018 by Dan Sundheim, D1 focuses on investing in the global internet, technology, telecom, media, consumer, healthcare, financial, industrial and real estate sectors.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Podimetrics
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) announced the winners of the 2022 PREA Real Estate Investment Management ESG Awards at the group's Spring Conference in Beverly Hills on March 23. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues are increasingly central to investment decision making, and these awards were introduced by PREA to recognize private equity real estate funds at the forefront of ESG within real estate investing.

By highlighting these award-winning investment funds, PREA is not only recognizing industry leaders, but also providing examples to the industry of how properly implemented ESG programs can help foster a more sustainable and socially responsible future, without sacrificing investment performance.

Five awards were presented in different categories: PREA Open-End Fund ESG Award, PREA Closed-End ESG Award, PREA ESG Momentum Award, PREA Emerging Manager ESG Award, and PREA Social Impact ESG Award.

This is the second year the awards were presented, but the first year in which the Social Impact category was included. PREA once again received a tremendous response to its call for submissions for the awards, attracting submissions from 47 real funds with aggregate net assets under management of over $167 billion USD. Submissions were judged by a panel of experts from outside PREA, and independent of any investment manager or institutional investor.

WINNERS

The winners of the 2022 PREA Real Estate Investment Management ESG Awards in the five categories are:

PREA Emerging Manager ESG Award

To recognize excellence in addressing ESG issues by emerging real estate investment management firms.

2022 Winner: SoLa Impact

From Martin Muoto, CEO of SoLa Impact: "Ultimately, real estate is most successful when it meets the needs of the communities it serves. Many of the challenges the world is facing cannot be solved without investing significant capital into the ESG sector. SoLa Impact is demonstrating that when it comes to social returns and financial results, we don't have to choose one or the otheryou can 'Do Well by Doing Good.' PREA and the pension fund industry are setting a strong example of rewarding intentional ESG investing and we are incredibly proud to be recognized by PREA for our work.

PREA Open-End Fund ESG Award

To recognize excellence in addressing ESG issues by open-end real estate funds.

2022 Winner: Hines European Core Fund (managed by Hines)

From Simone Pozzato, Fund Manager of the Hines European Core Fund, Hines: "It is an honor to win the PREA Open-End Fund ESG award for a second year in a row for our Hines European Core Fund. The award is a testament to our team's exceptional ongoing work in ESG-focused asset management and community driven initiatives. With the urgency of transitioning towards a Net Zero Economy, ESG performance is increasingly correlated with financial returns as core investors are now extremely focused on adding sustainable assets to their portfolios. I am confident that our continued efforts to respond to communities' social needs, carbon neutrality and innovation in asset management will create long- lasting impact on the neighborhoods we serve, and also seek to provide benchmark-leading financial performance for our investors."

PREA Closed-End Fund ESG Award

To recognize excellence in addressing ESG issues by closed-end real estate funds.

2022 Winner: Welput (managed BentallGreenOak)

From Ker Gilchrist, Managing Partner for Welput, at BentallGreenOak: "Drawing on the power of BentallGreenOak's global platform and ESG capabilities, Welput continues to challenge the boundaries for what can be achieved to develop sustainable office buildings that will respond to ESG demands now and into the future. Our Welput team approaches their ESG mission with a bottom-up and top-down strategy that examines the attributes of each asset and explores in detail how we can improve our plan. I'm delighted by and grateful for the recognition that this award brings to our work, as we remain steadfast in our ambition to make Welput net zero-ready in the short term."

PREA ESG Momentum Award

To recognize industry-leading and innovative approaches to ESG issues among open- and closed-end real estate funds, and/or significant recent advances in ESG outcomes.

2022 Winner: Jamestown Premier Property Fund (managed by Jamestown LP)

From Josh Wechter, Managing Director and Fund Manager for the Premier Property Fund, Jamestown "The future of real estate is built on sustainable development principles and operations. Each year, we make progress toward that vision and aim higher. The PREA ESG Momentum Award affirms both our progress to date and our long-term ESG strategy."

PREA Social Impact ESG Award

To recognize excellence in addressing social issues among real estate funds.

2022 Winner: Turner Multifamily Impact Fund (managed by Turner Impact Capital)

From Bobby Turner, CEO, Turner Impact Capital: "Turner Impact Capital is thrilled for PREA's first-ever Social Impact ESG Award to honor Turner Multifamily Impact Fund I. We're proud to be addressing America's severe housing crisis by acquiring and preserving thousands of units of workforce housing nationwide, while generating strong and dependable returns for investors. This recognition by PREA is tremendous validation of our firm's core mission: to create positive change through market-driven solutions to some of our nation's greatest challenges."

Greg MacKinnon, Director of Research at PREA, said:

"Society is built on real estate, and to be successful as an investment in the long run real estate needs to reflect the broader needs and concerns of society. Incorporating ESG considerations into the investment decision process not only contributes to creating a more sustainable future, but makes business sense. All of the 2022 winners of our ESG awards show that, appropriately designed, a real estate investment program can have significant, positive impacts on society and the communities in which it operates, while at the same time providing competitive investment performance. At PREA, we are proud to recognize these real estate investment managers at the vanguard of incorporating ESG considerations into their investment strategies."

About SoLa Impact

SoLa Impact is a family of real estate funds with a double bottom line strategy focused on preserving, rehabbing, and building high-quality affordable housing in Black and brown communities. SoLa's proven track record leverages data-driven social impact strategies to deliver superior financial returns. SoLa Impact's fourth fund, the Black Impact Fund, is part of an initiative to invest over $1 billion in affordable and workforce housing and related social impact strategies across urban cities in California.



SoLa Impact was ranked as the 7th fastest-growing minority-led private company on Inc. Magazine's 500 list and was also recognized by Forbes Magazine and the Sorenson Impact Center as the leading urban Opportunity Zone fund in the country. SoLa Impact's funds have attracted a number of leading investors seeking yield while also remaining committed to Diversity & Inclusion and delivering impact through ESG initiatives.

About PREA

Founded in 1979, the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) is a non-profit trade association for the global institutional real estate investment industry. PREA currently lists over 700 corporate member firms across the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Our members include public and corporate pension funds, endowments, foundations, Taft-Hartley funds, insurance companies, investment advisory firms, REITs, developers, real estate operating companies and industry service providers

SOURCE SoLa Impact
LOS ANGELES, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nationwide leader in the recruitment and support of LGBTQ and all prospective parents interested in fostering and fostering-to-adopt, RaiseAChild has been recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal's Diversity, Equity + Inclusion Awards and selected as a nominee for the "DE&I Nonprofit Organization of the Year." The awards honor diversity, equity and inclusion champions in the Los Angeles region for their ongoing efforts to celebrate and respect the unique needs, perspectives and potential of all their team members while simultaneously creating an inclusive environment that enables diversity and equity to thrive.

"As the father of two children adopted through Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, I understand firsthand the trials and tribulations of LGBTQ community members and of single parents who seek to build families," says Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RaiseAChild Richard Valenza.

RaiseAChild believes that every child deserves a forever family. The RaiseAChild Parent Advocate Program is a unique and complimentary service designed to advance prospective foster and adoptive parents with their family-building goals. The program includes personal mentor services, a nationwide referral network, and proprietary software case management program that enables RaiseA Child to follow and support parents throughout the process. From orientation to training and throughout the child matching process, the Parent Advocates are there to assist.

The Los Angeles Business Journal grants its "DEI Nonprofit Organization of the Year" recognition to nonprofit organizations that set a positive example to their communities for what it means to be an inclusive organization in 2022 and beyond. RaiseAChild has lived the realities of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion throughout its entire 11-year existence, well before the current definitions and concepts of DE&I had been developed. One might say DE&I is "part of the organization's DNA" as the organization was entirely formed to reach out to individuals and families who were traditionally not reflected or well served in the various governmental and private programs that supported foster care and adoption.

"Inclusion" is the core of the mission of RaiseAChild. The organization places priority on maintaining a diverse workplace, primarily because the preponderance of the population of children in "the system" in Los Angeles County are children of color. In order to provide the intuitive and tailored support to parents of color who are interested in fostering and/or adopting children, the organization has maintained a diverse workplace, including bilingual and bicultural staff (Latino/Spanish).

RaiseAChild produces foster and adoption informational programs to support, educate, and motivate prospective parents. These events feature a diverse panel of parents who share their foster and adoption experiences and advice with new prospective parents. To learn more, visit https://raiseachild.org/

SOURCE RaiseAChild
Infusion Pumps Sales to Reach US$ 301 Bn in Home Infusion Therapy Market by 2032

In the latest study, Fact.MR provides critical insights on the global home infusion therapy market for the upcoming decade It also covers key growth drivers and opportunities impacting the sales in the market. To gain a better perspective, the report offers comprehensive analysis through leading segments including product type, application type, and regions.

NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fact.MR  A Market Research and Competitive Intelligence Provider: The global sales in home infusion therapy market is expected to surpass a valuation of US$ 76 Bn, growing at a CAGR of 8.6% during the forecast period (2022-2032).

The demand in home infusion therapy market reached US$ 31 Bn in 2021 and overall sales are projected to expand by 2.4x through 2022 & beyond. Growth in underpinned by increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses, propelling the demand for transparency in the quality of care and remote patient management.

Based on these factors, the market is likely to witness exponential growth, creating remunerative prospects for the market over the upcoming decade. In addition to this, easy availability of these home infusion therapy devices will contribute to the growth in the market.

For Critical Insights on this Market, Request for More Info at:

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=7169

Moreover, healthcare industry is witnessing rapid technological advancements. Consequently, introduction of advanced intravenous devices in the sector is projected to increase the sales in home infusion therapy market.

Also, availability of several favorable government policies favoring the treatment for geriatric population to cover their medical expenses will propel the growth in the market. Furthermore, rising preference for home care to lower the medical expenses and increase patient mobility is estimated to bolster the sales in the market.

Report Attributes Details Base Year Value (2021A) US$ 31 Bn Projected Year Value (2032F) US$ 76 Bn Global Growth Rate (2022-2032) CAGR 8.6%

Key Takeaways:

Based on product type, the infusion pumps segment is estimated held maximum share of US$ 16.5 Bn in 2021 and the trend is likely to continue during the forecast period.

in 2021 and the trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. North America is anticipated to account for more than 40% of the market share due to the rising demand for infusion therapies in the U.S.

is anticipated to account for more than 40% of the market share due to the rising demand for infusion therapies in the U.S. Nearly 4/5 th of the home infusion therapy market share is held by infusion pumps and intravenous sets, collectively.

of the home infusion therapy market share is held by infusion pumps and intravenous sets, collectively. India and China are expected to spearhead the growth in Asia Pacific home infusion therapy market.

and are expected to spearhead the growth in home infusion therapy market. Infusion pumps segment will create an absolute $ opportunity of US$ 301 Bn between 2022 and 2032

Growth Drivers:

Rising need for home care infusion devices for people with certain conditions such as diabetes, nephropathy, and others is projected to increase the demand

Growing awareness about patient care outside of medical settings across the U.S., China , and India will boost the market.

, and will boost the market. Introduction of smart pump technology is projected to increase the adoption of home infusion therapy across the globe.

Restraints:

Lack of reimbursement policies associated with home infusion therapies in low income countries is likely to restrict the growth in the market.

To Gain In-Depth Insights on Home Infusion Therapy Market, Request Methodology at

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=7169

Competitive Landscape:

Leading players operating in the global home infusion therapy market are focusing on introducing advanced healthcare technologies to improve healthcare services. They are also adopting strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships to gain a competitive edge in the market.

For instance,

February 2020 : Avocet launched AvosetGO, an infusion pump device with touch display that can be connected and monitored through smart electronics.

: Avocet launched AvosetGO, an infusion pump device with touch display that can be connected and monitored through smart electronics. May 2021 : Smiths Medical partnered with Ivenix, Inc. to deliver a range of infusion management solutions in the United States . This deal will help both the company focus on infusion administration and patient safety.

Key Companies Profiled by Fact.MR

Option Care Health

PharMerica

CVS/ Coram

JMS Co. Ltd.

Fresenius Kabi

B. Braun Melsungen AG

Baxter

ICU Medical, Inc.

Terumo Corporation

BD

BriovaRx/Diplomat

Caesarea Medical Electronics

Smiths Medical

More Valuable Insights on Home Infusion Therapy Market

Fact.MR, in its report, offers a market analysis on the global home infusion therapy market providing unbiased analysis for the forecast period of 2022 to 2032. This survey also reveals key growth prospects and major trends affecting the sales in the home infusion therapy market. To gain a better understanding, the market is segmented on the basis of:

By Product Type:

Infusion Pumps

Elastomeric



Electromechanical



Gravity



Other Infusion Pumps

Intravenous Sets

IV Cannulas

Needless Connectors

By Application Type:

Anti-Infective

Endocrinology

Hydration Therapy

Chemotherapy

Enteral Nutrition

Parenteral Nutrition

Specialty Pharmaceuticals

Other Applications

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

APAC

MEA

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Key Questions Covered in the Home Infusion Therapy Market Report

Which are factors driving the global home infusion therapy market?

What is the expected market valuation of home infusion therapy market during 2022-2032?

Which region will dominate the global home infusion therapy market?

What was the market size of home infusion therapy market in 2021?

Which are key players operating in the global home infusion therapy market?

Which are challenges faced in home infusion therapy market?

Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Healthcare Domain

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Home Respiratory Therapy Market Forecast: Growing prevalence of problems related to lung function and breathing is boosting the demand for respiratory therapy. Furthermore, rising incidence of asthma and lung failures among elderly population will drive the market.

Home Menopause Testing Market Analysis: Demand for home menopause testing is increasing due to the growing number of elderly woman population experiencing menopausal hot flash symptoms. Additionally, growing awareness about women's health by various private and public organizations will facilitate the growth in the market.

About Fact.MR

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Contact:

Mahendra Singh

US Sales Office

11140 Rockville Pike

Suite 400

Rockville, MD 20852

United States

Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583

E: [email protected]



SOURCE Fact.MR
RED OAK, Texas, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Previously offered as a beta application on iOS, Rootines, a patient engagement platform is now available commercially. The new Rootines platform includes all new applications on both iOS and Android for parents and caregivers of those with chronic behavioral health and developmental disorders. Complete with a web portal, Rootines provides valuable data and insights to hospitals, therapy centers, and healthcare clinics.

Leveraging condition tracking and patient reported outcomes along with remote patient monitoring integrations, the platform provides unique insights that support care. Available for sale to hospitals, therapist offices and other clinical institutions, Rootines offers available integration into the Electronic Health Record (EHR). Clinicians can access insights and data through an easy-to-use web portal that delivers the critical information efficiently to match the fast-paced environments of today's health care facilities.

Built out initially for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rootines is a platform for Pediatric behavioral health and developmental disorders. Examples of conditions that will follow include ADHD, cerebral palsy and bi-polar disorder.

Improve the patient experience and enhance care with Rootines. Just a few real-world examples of how Rootines can help:

Clinicians noted that there was a need to collect weights for some patients who would otherwise need to travel to the hospital for weekly weight check-ins. Solution: Rootines integrated smart scale. (*purchase of scale is extra) Leveraging Rootines available EHR integration, weight data can flow directly to your database.

An Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy professional noted that they struggle when changes in medications aren't communicated. Easy to miss in this hectic world, care team sharing functionality of Rootines solves this problem and delivers the information to the therapist office so they can better plan sessions.

Parents and caregivers have noted the difficulty in keeping all the members of a care team updated with the various care plans. Rootines connects the group and allows for the safe, secure sharing of information among the professionals that need to know. Insights on daily trackable items like medication adhearance, sleep and mood are delivered seamlessly to the care team.

Rootines is HIPAA compliant with medical grade security. If you are a hospital, therapy center or other clinical professional and would like pricing or to schedule a demo, please contact us today at [email protected]

Download the app today on iOS or Android. More information on Rootines and its parent company ASD.ai LLC can be found at www.rootines.app

Heading to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing's (NATCON22) upcoming conference this April? Rootines will be there! Please stop by our booth to learn more.

Contact:

Tamera Jackson

CEO/Co-Founder

[email protected]

860.759.5753

SOURCE ASD.ai LLC
The state-of-the-art extrusion line will further elevate Safespill's turnkey solutions for new builds and existing retrofits of commercial and the United States Military aircraft hangars. Around-the-clock production capabilities that will allow production capacity to increase to a maximum of 200 hangar projects annually will solidify Safespill's timely, efficient delivery of Safespill floors, generically known as ILDFAs.

"What is significant about our investment is its value to our clients, particularly Safespill's U.S. military clients, by minimizing potential bottlenecks in the manufacturing process," said Tristan Mackintosh, CEO of Safespill. "It will allow Safespill to continue delivering environmentally safe, chemical-free fire protection systems while being less dependent on suppliers struggling to meet market demand for aluminum extrusions."

Aligned with Safespill's environmental initiatives, this new extrusion press will significantly reduce the product's carbon footprint through increased energy efficiency as high as 25% compared to older extrusion lines used elsewhere in the industry. In-house capabilities will also allow Safespill to purchase certified recycled aluminum alloy billets  green aluminum  higher in the supply chain. As a result, fire protection and environmental protection will work in tandem in ways not being executed elsewhere in the industry.

Installation at the company's headquarters in Houston, Texas, is slated for early-2023 and is expected to be fully operational by mid-year.

ABOUT SAFESPILL

Based in Houston, Texas, Safespill Systems, LLC was founded in 2013 and developed its ignitable liquid drainage floor assembly after many years of R&D and fire testing. The company earned the coveted FM Approval mark in 2017 following rigorous fire and materials testing. It earned a second FM Approval in 2020 for larger floor areas, such as those used in aircraft hangars and distribution centers. The company is dedicated to transitioning the world to environmentally safe fire protection.

To learn more about Safespill, please visit safespill.com.

To view PFAS (the family of chemicals used to make AFFF) contamination in the U.S., visit this interactive map or safespill.com/esg-sustainability/ for more.

ABOUT KAUTEC

Kautec Solutions is a premier supplier of aluminum extrusion equipment headquartered in Girona, Spain.

For more information, go to https://www.kautec.net/en/

Media Contact: Jessica Hurd, Marketing Manager

832.338.6867

[email protected]

SOURCE Safespill
BOSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A newly announced partnership between Saga Education and Littera Education means that schools will be able to offer students one of the most effective personalized tutoring programs in the country via a platform designed to make delivery easy.

Saga, a national nonprofit, provides a research-backed math curriculum with a track record of success for middle and secondary grades. The Littera platform provides technology enabling districts to design, deliver and evaluate customized tutoring programs offering real-time, face-to-face instruction, in person or virtually.

"Success in middle-years math, in particular Algebra 1, is fundamental to passing higher level math courses and graduating high school and Saga is the gold standard for high-dosage math tutoring," said Justin Serrano, CEO and co-founder of Littera. "Saga's proven tutoring intervention, coupled with Littera's platform, will be easier for districts to implement effectively and to deliver critical support to students who need it most."

"Tutoring, when done well, can do more than help students catch up. It can help them thrive," said AJ Gutierrez, co-founder of Saga Education. "By partnering with Littera, we are excited to bring our research-back tutoring curriculum to schools and districts as they address the disruptions to learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."

Littera's Academic Support Platform leverages district assessment data to identify students who need tutoring and to support a variety of program models and content. It automates scheduling and other logistics and can include instruction in person or with real-time video and audio, with the same tutor each time. The Saga tutoring curriculum will be integrated into the Littera Academic Support Platform, enabling district customers to select the appropriate content required to address individual student needs. As tutoring progresses, the Littera platform captures student and tutor feedback, attendance, and dosage data, and connects the dots for schools and teachers to have visibility into tutoring programs executed on the platform.

Since 2013, the University of Chicago Education Lab has researched Saga Education's intensive math tutoring model in Chicago Public Schools and in New York City, finding that it substantially improves academic outcomes for high school students. In two randomized controlled trials, students who received Saga tutoring learned as much as an extra two and a half years of math in one academic year  the equivalent to closing up to 50 percent of the black-white test score gap in one school year. The randomized controlled trials also found that Saga's tutoring model reduced math course failure rates by 60 percent.

About Saga Education

Saga Education is an evidence-based, personalized, in-school-day tutoring intervention designed to support students with math, to support them in generating confidence and academic strength to graduate high school and pursue their dreams. In 2020, the organization was named to Fast Company's prestigious list of the World's Most Innovative Educational Companies, recognized for its evidence-based, scalable tutoring model that serves students in high-need schools. For more information, visit sagaeducation.org.

About Littera

Littera Education is transforming academic support by enabling districts to make high-quality, cost-effective tutoring accessible to all students, including those who need it most. The Littera platform ensures that tutoring is a seamless extension of a school district's in-class instruction, curriculum and assessments. Through Littera, academic support is in reach for everyone. For more information, visit litteraeducation.com

SOURCE Saga Education; Littera Education
Scratch, the decentralized finance company, has completed its Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) allowing investors to be stakeholders in its non-fungible token (NFT) financial services with the limited launch of the Scratch Token.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Scratch  the NFT research, assessment, and loan company  is officially launching the Scratch Token for the Scratch Platform : an NFT industry-first designed to standardize the market value of NFTs by leveraging multiple public tools and data sets.

This valuation is backed by offering investors the opportunity to take out loans with their NFTs as collateral. The Scratch Token allows investors to be stakeholders in the platform.

This Scratch Token limited launch  presently only available via Uniswap until Regulation A approval with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is achieved  coincides with the completion of Scratch Platform's first security audit by the leading security platform in blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), Certik .

"It's clear with record months in 2022 on NFT valuations  even outperforming cryptocurrencies  that the NFT industry is getting taken seriously all over the world," says Shawn Owens, Co-founder of Scratch. "It's amazing to see that people are realizing it can be a fun technology, but that it's also serious and life-changing for the artists and communities that are so passionate about NFTs."

"Currently, it's difficult for anyone to valuate NFTs at scale. But with Scratch Platform's future product development releases, it's possible and can unlock new financial applications for NFTs. Scratch Token  starting today with a limited launch  will help power those applications," Owens elaborates.

At SXSW 2022, NFTs dominated the event alongside Web3 technologies, to the exclusion of most Bitcoin and other crypto projects. Although the NFTs segment of the crypto economy is being taken very seriously, it's also a market sector lacking in standardized data research, asset valuations, and financial services. These are issues future product development releases of the Scratch Platform aim to resolve.

This limited launch of the ETH-based ERC 20 Scratch Token for the Scratch Platform falls under the multiple development phases of the platform's present roadmap . As these future development phases for the Scratch Platform progress and partnerships with Scratch are finalized, the planned Scratch Platform features include:

Scratch Value: A programmatic valuation solution for NFTs and digital assets using multiple market tools and the latest market data sets. This allows investors to receive real-time values on their NFTs and other digital assets.

Scratch Loan: A first for NFTs, take out a loan of a percentage of the estimated NFT value on assets. Once assumed, the asset is stored in the Scratch Vault. Loan factors include: loan amount, length of loan term, NFT desirability and value, etc.

Scratch Vault: The repository for all NFTs and digital assets loaned against. Scratch Vault assets are secured and insured to prevent loss of value. Transfer and cash-out options for investor assets will also be available.

Scratch Gallery: A future marketplace where investors can shop our collection of NFTs and other digital assets. The Scratch Gallery collection is obtained from assumed loans and direct purchases from the Scratch Engine.

To learn more about the Scratch Platform and the Scratch Token pre-sale, or to schedule an interview with the Scratch team, please call Brian Markowski at +1 603 306 3645 or e-mail [email protected].

"Security, Stability and Scalability" is the mantra of the Scratch team, underlying all of its projects. To learn more about Scratch and the Scratch Engine platform, please visit scratchengine.com .

About Scratch

With over a decade of experience in the digital asset space combined, Scratch is a company with the experience needed to bring the tools, standards, and strategic partnerships required to create trust and financial services to NFTs, metaverse, and blockchain economies. "Security, Stability and Scalability" is the mantra of the Scratch team, underlying all of its projects. To learn more about Scratch and the Scratch Engine platform, please visit scratchengine.com.

PRESS CONTACT

NAME

Brian Markowski

PHONE

1-603-306-3645

WEBSITE

https://scratchengine.com/

SOURCE Scratch
SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SkySlope, the leader in real estate transaction software, has launched Breeze, an all-around simple and streamlined application making Seller's Property Disclosure Statement (SPDS) and Lead Based Paint (LBP) disclosures easy for agents and sellers.

SkySlope enables brokers, agents, auditors, and transaction coordinators to track their deals while remaining compliant. Equipped with forms and a digital signature tool, SkySlope provides a frictionless workflow that saves time for agents. As the transaction management platform serving over half of the top 20 largest brokerages in the U.S. and Canada, SkySlope is known for its award-winning customer experience.

With the launch of Breeze, SkySlope gives agents the ability to prepare and send SPDS and LBP disclosures at lightning speed.

Breeze requires minimal preparation for agents to prepare and send disclosures to their clients in minutes, from anywhere. For home sellers, Breeze's guided workflow helps simplify complicated and confusing disclosure formsgetting them completed quickly and with more confidence and accuracy.

Breeze Features

Streamlined disclosure preparation equipped with MLS data sync

Status visibility, notifications, and easy revision requests

Simple guided workflows with helpful tips for consumers

Equipped with SkySlope DigiSign for free and unlimited digital signatures

Seamlessly integrated with SkySlope's suite of products

"Breeze is truly a one-stop-shop for faster disclosures," says Diana Costas of Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty. "The guided workflow helps clients complete disclosures quickly and accurately and our agents can easily prepare disclosures, request signatures, and submit forms for compliance review."

"Disclosures are a common pain point for both agents and sellers," explains SkySlope CEO, Tyler Smith. "We're excited to launch a solution that takes a complicated process and makes it effortless for REALTORS and home sellers."

Breeze is currently available in Arizona and California and will be launching to additional states in 2022. For more information about Breeze please visit breeze.skyslope.com.

About SkySlope

Established in 2011, SkySlope is a comprehensive transaction management platform for brokers, agents, auditors, and transaction coordinators to manage real estate transactions from anywhere at any time. In 2021, over 300,000 users across 8,000 offices used SkySlope to manage 2.25M transactions. SkySlope provides digital transaction management and services to help agents and brokers be more efficient and compliant. From automation to integrations, SkySlope's vision is to keep agents and brokers connected to the customer forever. For more information about SkySlope, visit www.skyslope.com.

Contact

SkySlope

[email protected]

1-800-507-4117

SOURCE SkySlope
The Smart Pills Market Size, Growth driven by the increase in strategic collaborations & partnerships on smart pills, rising demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures, rise in the gastrointestinal disorders, rapid technological advancements in drug delivery. The drug delivery segment is estimated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 13.4% during 20212028.

New York, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Insight Partners published latest research study on Smart Pills Market Forecast to 2028  COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis  by Application (Capsule Endoscopy, Drug Delivery, and Patient Monitoring), Disease Indication (Gastrointestinal Diseases, Neurological Disorders, Cancer, Inherited Disorders, and Other Disease Indications), and End User (Hospitals and Clinics, Research Institutes, and Home Healthcare)", the global smart pills market size is projected to reach $9.06 billion by 2028 from $4.01 billion in 2021; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.3% during 20212028.

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Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 4.01 billion in 2021 Market Size Value by US$ 9.06 billion by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 12.3% from 2021 to 2028. Forecast Period 2021- 2028 Base Year 2021 No. of Pages 198 No. Tables 119 No. of Charts & Figures 76 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Application, Disease Indication, and End User Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends

Smart Pills Market: Competition Landscape and Key Developments

CapsoVision, Inc.; Medtronic; Check-Cap; PENTAX Medical; Olympus Corporation; BodyCap; Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.; IntroMedic and Jinshan Science & Technology (Group) Co., Ltd.; and RF Co., Ltd. are a few key companies operating in the smart pills market. Companies operating in the smart pills market adopt product innovation strategies to meet the evolving customer demands worldwide, permitting them to maintain their brand name in the global market. Also, the companies in the market create partnerships, collaborations, and contracts with hospitals, dental specialists, and clinics to further drive the smart pills market revenue.

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In February 2022, Check-Cap Ltd. announced that the Company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its amended Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application, enabling the initiation of the U.S. pivotal study. In addition, in November 2021, Medtronic plc announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted 510(k) clearance for its PillCam Small Bowel 3 system for remote endoscopy procedures. The PillCam SB3 @HOME program combines Medtronic's PillCam technology with Amazon logistics, a combination intended to ensure both timely and accurate results for patients from the comfort of their homes. Also, in September 2020, CapsoVision announced that the U.S Food & Drug Administration (FDA) would apply enforcement discretion which allows at-home administration of the CapsoCam Plus small bowel capsule endoscope during the COVID-19 pandemic for patients who are determined eligible for at-home administration.

Smart pills are capsule-sized ingestible medical devices consisting of elements such as sensors, cameras, patches, and trackers that help in better diagnostics, patient monitoring, and targeted drug delivery. They are majorly available in the form of a vitamin capsule-sized pill and possess a small wearable sensor patch, an application on a mobile device, and a provider portal.

The strategic collaboration is a vital factor for the overall growth of the smart pills market. The players are involved in mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and partnerships. These activities help expand the influence of the players in the market, eventually strengthening the growth structure. Furthermore, the investment levels in the smart pills market are expanding at a rapid pace. The rising popularity of smart pills among a large chunk of the global populace attracts many investors. Various companies and investment firms are investing heavily in mergers, acquisitions, and startups. These factors help increase the growth rate of the smart pills market.

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Moreover, collaborations agreements between research institutions and companies, licensing agreements & partnerships amongst companies, and augmented R&D investment on smart pills are other factors boosting the market growth. In addition, for instance, in January 2021, etectRx, Inc. entered into a partnership agreement with Pear Therapeutics, Inc. to develop two product candidates in the CNS space integrating adherence sensors and PDTs (Prescription Digital Therapeutics). The partnership is the first of its kind in exploring the usage of digital pill solutions with PDTs. Furthermore, the elderly population is highly vulnerable to gastrointestinal disorders. Various smart pills are now being analyzed for potential application in therapeutics and diagnosing several acute and chronic diseases. Patients with chronic diseases who need to follow a specified dose of medication at the target site are anticipated to form a large customer base for advanced drug delivery products.

The increasing demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures led to innovative techniques such as capsule endoscopy. Capsule endoscopy is replacing traditional endoscopy methods with advantages such as ease of administration and detailed observation of the gastrointestinal tract. The capsule endoscopy plays a vital role in the early diagnosis and proper treatment of these disorders, in addition to hybrid imaging technologies and new component innovations. Additionally, as per the University of Texas Health Science Center, the deployment of various colorectal cancer screening procedures such as capsule endoscopy improves adherence to screening. The university conducted a study comprising haphazardly assigned patients aged between 50 and 75 years and inferred that capsule endoscopy gives better diagnostic results when compared with CT colonography. Such findings are boosting the smart pills market growth.

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Browse Adjoining Reports:

Biology Smart Pills Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Capsule Endoscopy, Drug Delivery, and Patient Monitoring); Application (Imaging, and Monitoring); Disease Indication (Esophageal Diseases, Small Bowel Diseases, Colon Diseases, and Others), and geography

Drug-Delivery Smart Pill Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Application ( Capsule Endoscopy, Drug Delivery, Patient Monitoring ); Type ( Adult, Children ) Culturing, Biofuels ); Organism Type ( Plants, Animals, Microbes)

Ingestible Smart Pills Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component (Smart Pills, Workstation); Application (Imaging, Monitoring); End-User (Hospitals, Clinics Research Institutes, Home Healthcare)

Electronic Pill Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Target Area (Eesophagus, Stomach, Large Intestine); Application (Capsule Endoscopy, Drug Delivery, Patient Monitoring); End User (Hospitals, Diagnostic Centers, Clinical Research Organizations, Others) and Geography

Intelligent Pills Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Applications (Capsule Endoscopy, Sleeping Disorders, Reflux Monitoring, Stress Management, Mobility Monitoring, Others); Prescription Type (Prescription Smart Drugs, Non Prescription Smart Drugs); End User (Hospitals, Clinics, Home Care, Others), Impact of covid-19 pandemic.

Smart Healthcare Products Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Products (Smart RFID Cabinets, Electronic Health Record, Smart Syringes, Smart Pills, and Others); and Application (Inventory Management, Health Data Storage and Exchange, Monitoring and Treatment, and Others)

Capsule Endoscopy Market to 2027 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Product (Endoscopy Capsule and Components); Formulation (Tablets, Capsules); Application (Obscure Gastrointestinal Bleeding (OGIB), Crohn's Disease, Small Bowel Diseases, and Other Diseases); End Users (Hospitals, Clinics, Research Centers, and Other End Users), and Geography

Liposome Drug Delivery Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Product (Liposomal Doxorubicin, Liposomal Paclitaxel, Liposomal Amphotericin B, Others); Technology ( Stealth Liposome Technology, Non-PEGylated Liposome Technology, DepoFoam Liposome Technology, Lysolipid Thermally Sensitive Liposome (LTSL)); Application (Fungal Diseases, Cancer Therapy, Pain Management, Viral Vaccines, Photodynamic Therapy)

Ocular Drug Delivery Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Technology (Implantable Ocular Drug Delivery Systems, Particulate Drug Delivery Systems, Nano-Particle Drug Delivery System, and Others), Formulation Type (Liposomes and Nanoparticles, Solution, Emulsion, Suspension, and Ointment), Disease Type (Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, Dry Eye Syndrome, Macular Degeneration, Cataract, Diabetic Macular Edema, and Others), and End User (Hospitals, Ophthalmic Clinics, and Ambulatory Surgical Centers) and Geography

About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

If you have any queries about this report or if you would like further information, please contact us:

Contact:

Sameer Joshi

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: +1-646-491-9876

Press Release: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/pr/smart-pills-market

SOURCE The Insight Partners
"As we continue to grow and welcome more Customers at Denver International Airport, we're laser-focused on the work that happens behind-the-scenes that enables us to provide a great Customer experience," said Mike Van de Ven , Southwest Airlines' President & Chief Operating Officer. "This new hangar facility is a critical investment that supports our commitment to maintaining a safe, reliable fleet so we can connect our Denver Customers to the people and the places that matter most in their lives."

The new hangar adds an important location within Southwest's network to support scheduled, overnight maintenance of its fleet of nearly 730 Boeing 737 aircraft*. The facility includes:

A 130,000 square-foot hangar with offices, a training area, warehouse space, and maintenance shops;

Space inside the hangar for three Boeing 737s and room for eight additional 737s outdoors;

And serves as the new home for Southwest's more than 100 Denver-based Technical Operations Employees.

The Technical Operations Team will begin moving into the facility in the coming weeks. The hangar joins six other Southwest Airlines aircraft maintenance hangars located throughout the country including Atlanta, Chicago (Midway), Dallas (Love Field), Houston (Hobby), Orlando, and Phoenix.

"We're excited to see Southwest Airlines continue to invest in our community and bring high-paying jobs to the region," said Mayor Michael B. Hancock. "Southwest's support, both at the airport and throughout our city, is what makes Denver a top place to live and work, as well as make it attractive for both business and leisure travelers to come visit the Mile High City."

"Swinerton is grateful to have been a part of the Southwest Airlines Technical Operations Complex Team as the general contractor, working alongside industry experts to bring this state-of-of-the-art hangar from conception to completion," said John Spight, Vice President of Swinerton's Colorado Division. "We are thrilled to have helped Southwest complete one of the few capital improvement projects it continued with during the pandemic, and to join forces with Southwest as it expands across the nation."

Supporting More Growth at DEN

Southwest Airlines will begin moving into the first gates of a 16-gate expansion project on the C concourse within the next few months. Once completed, Southwest will have the ability to use up to 40 gates, the most gates it has at any airport it serves.

With the anticipated growth in the coming years, the airline is doing preliminary work to build larger spaces for its Provisioning, Ground Support Equipment, and Cargo Teams. It is also creating an expanded People Department at DEN, which will support the airline's robust recruiting efforts. Today, the airline is one of the largest employers in the city with nearly 5,000 People based in Denver. To learn more about career opportunities at Southwest Airlines in Denver and throughout its network, visit careers.southwestair.com.

To download high-resolution images and broadcast-quality b-roll of Southwest's new Technical Operations facility, please visit the Southwest Airlines Newsroom at swamedia.com/DenverHangar.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Specific forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements related to the Company's expectations related to its growth, in particular with respect to its growth in Denver. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current estimates, intentions, beliefs, expectations, goals, strategies, and projections for the future and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that are difficult to predict and that could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by them. Factors include, among others, (i) any negative developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including, for example, with respect to the duration, spread, severity, or any recurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic or any new variant strains of the underlying virus; the effectiveness, availability, and usage of COVID-19 vaccines; the impact of government mandates, directives, orders, regulations, and other governmental actions related to COVID-19 on the Company's business plans and its ability to retain key Employees; the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on overall demand for air travel and the Company's related business plans and decisions; and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's access to capital; (ii) the Company's dependence on its workforce, including its ability to employ sufficient numbers of qualified Employees to effectively and efficiently maintain its operations; (iii) the impact of fuel price changes, fuel price volatility, volatility of commodities used by the Company for hedging jet fuel, and any changes to the Company's fuel hedging strategies and positions, on the Company's business plans and results of operations; (iv) the impact of fears or actual outbreaks of other diseases, extreme or severe weather and natural disasters, actions of competitors, consumer perception, economic conditions, governmental actions and regulations, fears of terrorism or war, socio-demographic trends, and other factors beyond the Company's control, on consumer behavior and the Company's results of operations and business decisions, plans, strategies, and results; (v) the Company's dependence on third parties, and the impact on the Company's operations and results of operations of any third party delays or non-performance; (vi) the Company's ability to timely and effectively implement, transition, and maintain the necessary information technology systems and infrastructure to support its operations and initiatives; and (vii) other factors, as described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the detailed factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2021.

ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the world's most admired and awarded airlines, offering its one-of-a-kind value and Hospitality at 121 airports across 11 countries. Celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2021, Southwest took flight in 1971 to democratize the sky through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel and now carries more air travelers flying nonstop within the United States than any other airline1. Based in Dallas and famous for an Employee-first corporate Culture, Southwest maintains an unprecedented record of no involuntary furloughs or layoffs in its history. By empowering its more than 55,0002 People to deliver unparalleled Hospitality, the maverick airline cherishes a passionate loyalty among as many as 130 million Customers carried a year. That formula for success brought industry-leading prosperity and 47 consecutive years3 of profitability for Southwest Shareholders (NYSE: LUV). Southwest continues to develop tangible steps toward an environmental sustainability goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, including offering an opportunity for Customers to contribute toward helping Southwest offset its carbon emissions. For more information, please visit Southwest.com/wannaoffsetcarbon. Learn more at Southwest.com/citizenship about how Southwest Airlines leverages a unique legacy and mission to serve communities around the world.

1) U.S. Dept. of Transportation most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded

2) fulltime-equivalent active Employees

3) 1973-2019 annual profitability

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.
NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global spices and herbs market is benefitting from increasing demand for ethnic flavor in the food industry. Growing consumer inclination toward better taste and nutrition is among the contributing factors for the growth of the spices and herbs market. Spices and herbs are associated with multiple health benefits, including anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and immune supporting properties, which leads to a favorable market scenario for the spices and herbs industry.

In recent years, the global spices and herbs market has witnessed substantial growth, and this trend is anticipated to continue over the forecast period of 2020-2030 too, at a significant CAGR of 5%.

Key Takeaways from Spices and Herbs Market Study

Paprika is expected to witness a value CAGR of over 8% during the forecast period, owing to its increased application in food to season a variety of dishes and in the preparation of meats and sausages. Application in the cosmetics industry as an antioxidant and it being a rich source of vitamin C also contributes for the high value CAGR.

Spices and herbs in the food industry, as an end use, will hold the highest volume share of 45% in the year 2020, owing to increased use of spices and herbs as a food additive for enhancing the flavor and color of food products, along with providing immense health benefits.

Garlic has the highest market share amongst herbs and spices at 45%, attributable to the powerful flavor it imparts to food along with its medicinal benefits that cure various health problems.

The whole form in the spices and herbs market has the highest value share of 60%, attributable to the longer shelf life of spices and herbs and property of retaining freshness until the intense flavor is extracted.

Production of spices and herbs has been hampered due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Major producing countries in Asia Pacific such as India and China have seen disruptions in trade. However, with rising demand for essential food products, increase in home cooking, and governments encouraging the supply of food products with minimal restrictions, the impact of the pandemic remains low on the spices and herbs market.

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"Consumers today consider health to be of paramount importance, and are shelling out more money on organic food. Manufacturers in the spices and herbs market can target this aspect by processing organic spices and herbs for increased application in the F&B industry. Increasing government support for organic food products also marks an opportunity for new players to enter the market," says a PMR analyst.

Global Spices and Herbs Market: Competitive Landscape

Leading manufacturers in the global spices and herbs market space are carrying out various expansion strategies by acquiring companies and integrating business models in order to increase their market presence along with growing their product portfolio.

In 2020, SOLINA GROUP completed the acquisition of Produits Alimentaires Berthelet. This acquisition reinforced the position of the company in the foodservice market.

In 2018, Sleaford Quality Foods Ltd. acquired The Great Plains Limited to strengthen its business operations and meet the rising demand for spices and herbs.

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In addition, key players in the global spices and herbs landscape are focusing on launching new products in line with the latest market trends to attract more customers and increase their customer base.

In the year 2018, McCormick & Company, Inc. launched new organic global seasonings under its brand 'McCormick Gourmet'.

Explore More Valuable Insights on Spices and Herbs Market

Persistence Market Research, in its new report, offers an impartial analysis of the global spices and herbs market, presenting historical data (2015-2019) and estimation statistics for the period of 2020-2030. The study offers compelling insights on the spices and herbs market based on type (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, paprika, pepper, turmeric, cumin seed, garlic, mustard, oregano, parsley, mint, basil, rosemary), nature (organic, conventional), form (whole, powder/granule, oil), end use (food industry, beverages, foodservice industry, retail/ household, cosmetics & personal care, others), and distribution channel (business to business, business and consumer), across seven regions.

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About Food & Beverage Division at Persistence Market Research

The Food and Beverages team at Persistence Market Research provides all the necessary insights and consulting analysis to fulfill the unique business intelligence needs of clients worldwide. With a catalog of more than 500 reports pertaining to the latest statistics and analysis from the food & beverage industry, the team is happy to help with every business intelligence research and consulting requirement.

Popular Research Reports by PMR:

Sterols Market: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/sterols-market.asp

Tempeh Market: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/tempeh-market.asp

Tea Concentrate Market: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/tea-concentrate-market.asp

Persistence Market Research Overview:

Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.

To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.

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SOURCE Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.
NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers have become more aware about what they consume as the decades have gone by, and they want to know more about the ingredients and their nutritional worth without impacting the product's taste and flavor.

This has driven demand for spices that play a vital role, from shaping food flavor to achieving the desired taste. Manufacturers of spices are offering new and creative spice products that give food a genuine flavor while also being healthful to eat.

Besides, spices have wonderful beauty-enhancing effects. The current 'Clean Beauty' and 'Green Beauty' trends are encouraging cosmetic scientists to include natural elements into new formulas. As a result, players in the spice market will have additional opportunities.

As per detailed industry analysis by Persistence Market Research, the global spices market is predicted to expand at 5.1% CAGR and cross a valuation of US$ 244.8 Bn by 2032.

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Key Takeaways from Market Study

South Asia accounts for 38.7% of the global market share, followed by North America and Europe .

of the global market share, followed by and . The spices market is dominated by a large number of manufacturers, but a majority of them are regionally focused. The market is very fragmented. Because spices are not grown in every region and the industry is more export-oriented, competition is predicted to be fierce.

Conventional spices presently account for more than 95% of the market due to their nature. Due to consumer preferences for organic products, organic spices are projected to increase in popularity in the future.

due to their nature. Due to consumer preferences for organic products, organic spices are projected to increase in popularity in the future. Spices, both whole and powdered, are more widely employed in many end-use sectors. The whole form accounts for more than 55% market share.

Authentic meals are becoming increasingly popular. The authenticity of cuisines is derived from varied combinations of spices, which tends to raise demand for spices and aids in the preparation of foods with a range of flavor or taste, look, and perfume. Companies are developing a variety of spices sourced from all over the world in order to bring out the best and most unique flavors of cuisines.

Spices are mostly utilized in the food processing business, which accounts for over 46% of the market share, followed by the foodservice industry.

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"Consumers are adopting healthy eating habits without compromising on the taste and flavor of food products. Thus, increasing demand for healthy and savory tasting food is expected to boost the sales of spices," says a Persistence Market Research analyst.

Competitive Landscape

Major spice manufacturers are pursuing strategies such as expanding their current capacities and expanding their businesses. Market players are attempting to supply better quality and larger quantities of spices to the food industry as well as other end-user sectors, in response to the recent trend of demand for healthy and nutritious food products.

In 2020, McCormick & Company, Inc. purchased 100% of FONA International , a global provider of natural and clean flavor for use in a variety of applications, including food, drinks, and nutrition. Under the brand 'McCormick Gourmet,' the company recently debuted a new line of global organic seasonings. These seasonings are influenced by the cuisines of South America , the Middle East , and Africa .

, a global provider of natural and clean flavor for use in a variety of applications, including food, drinks, and nutrition. Under the brand 'McCormick Gourmet,' the company recently debuted a new line of global organic seasonings. These seasonings are influenced by the cuisines of , the , and . In 2021, Olam International completed the acquisition of Olde Thompson , a renowned private-label spice and seasoning maker in the United States . The purchase will assist the company in expanding its private-label offering across its entire product portfolio. In 2020, the firm also purchased Mizkan America, Inc., a company established in the United States , to meet customer demand for Mexican spices and flavors.

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Explore More Valuable Insights

Persistence Market Research, in its new report, offers an impartial analysis of the global spices market, presenting historical data (2016-2020) and estimation statistics for the forecast period of 2021-2031.

The study offers compelling insights on the basis of type (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, chilies, turmeric, cumin seeds, mustard, black pepper, fennel, coriander seeds, and others), nature (organic and conventional), form (whole, powder/granules, and oil), end use (food processing, beverages, foodservice, retail/household, and others), and distribution channel (business to business and business to consumers), across seven major regions of the world.

Related Reports:

Seasonings Spices Market : https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/seasonings-spices-market.asp

: Organic Spices Market: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/organic-spices-market.asp

Mulling Spices Market: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/mulling-spices-market.asp

Cajun Spices Market: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/cajun-spices-market.asp

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Persistence Market Research is always way ahead of its time. In other words, it tables market solutions by stepping into the companies'/clients' shoes much before they themselves have a sneak pick into the market. The pro-active approach followed by experts at Persistence Market Research helps companies/clients lay their hands on techno-commercial insights beforehand, so that the subsequent course of action could be simplified on their part.

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SOURCE Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.
1200VC Spins O from Talipot, Names Guadalupe Rodriguez as Board Chair

Mexico City, Mexico and San Diego, CA, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Talipot, a recognized global leader in alternative asset investing, is setting new direction for the future of VC investing with its spin-o of Twelve Hundred VC (1200VC), a female-led investment company focused on early stage investing in the Americas. The move was announced just days in advance of the Kauman Fellows LATAM Summit in Mexico City, where 1200VC will be introduced to the Kauman Fellows members network. Talipot will remain an anchor investor in 1200VC.

"We believe company building and investing at the earliest of stages continues to remain one of the most attractive risk-reward opportunities within the venture asset class," said Guadalupe Rodriguez, Chief Investment Ocer of Talipot Holdings. Lucas Fernandez, Sr. VP of Talipot emphasized "The introduction of 1200VC as a standalone investment company with diverse leadership brings innovative thinking and dierent seed-stage funding opportunities to the VC ecosystem. We are committed to backing Adriana and the team in their endeavors to build an enduring investment company."

1200VC CEO Managing Partner Adriana Tortajada and her partner Esteban Coppel Gomez lead the early-stage investment platform in its focus on transformative technologies and cross-regional value creation that accelerate planetary and human betterment. Tortajada is a Class of 16 Kauman Fellow with nearly 20 years of experience in investing and nance. She holds a Master's in degree in Public Policy from the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset in Madrid, Spain, and attended the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. Follow Tortajada on Twitter.

"The Kauman Summit is the ideal time for 1200VC to step into the VC ecosystem," said Fernandez. "The Summit brings together the exceptional global network of Kauman Fellows as well as the premiere limited and general partners in the industry. We're excited to shine the light on an unconventional new VC player that oers diverse perspectives on seed-stage investing."

About Talipot Investment Group

Talipot is focused on investing globally in alternatives across the Venture Capital, Real Estate and Private Equity spaces.

Within alternative investments, Talipot participates as a LP, direct investor, and has incubated GP strategies internally, starting with 1200VC within the early stage VC market. Talipot is headquartered in Mexico City, with the primary alternative investment operations headquartered in San Diego, California. Learn more on LinkedIn.

About 1200VC

Twelve Hundred VC (1200 VC) is a U.S.-based fund of funds platform and entire lifecycle direct investment rm. We invest in managers and founders building companies shaping humanity's future, and we identify the cross- regional opportunity as well as the ESG & Impact lens as our core value generation for accelerating planetary and human betterment.

The fund supports companies and managers catalyzing solutions to solve some of the world's most challenging problems and unlocking value in the following sectors: AI/ML, FinTech, Genomics, ClimateTech, Health

Tech, Robotics, B2B SaaS, EdTech, Food Tech, Retail, Logistics, UrbanTech, and the wide variety of modern infrastructure enablers. 1200VC is led by CEO and Managing Partner Adriana Tortajada. The rm was co-founded by Esteban Coppel, Investment Manager, Talipot Holdings. Learn more at www.twelvehundred.vc and on LinkedIn.

Contact: Adrienne Uthe, Kronus Communications mobile: +1 [715] 418-1614, [email protected]

SOURCE Talipot
Electrify America has sharpened the focus on customer needs and reimagined the charging experience by introducing The Charging Station of the Future, Today which can add design and comfort elements such as solar canopies and awnings, customer waiting areas and other customer-focused services at select locations.

The company plans to showcase this transition with installation in 2022 and 2023 in select new flagship charging facilities in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, San Diego and Beverly Hills, California and in New York within Manhattan and Brooklyn. Currently the company has flagship charging stations located in Baker, California and Santa Clara, California.

"Electrify America will be reinventing the look and feel at many of our charging stations to meet and exceed the expectations of customers moving from a gas-powered vehicle to an electric lifestyle," said Giovanni Palazzo, president and CEO of Electrify America. "These new designs will help elevate the charging experience for our customers, building on the foundation of our ultra-fast and reliable coast-to-coast network."

The bold and innovative design concepts create planned, comfortable spaces focused on enhancing the human experience. Using spatial, behavioral and emotional layers, the renderings for future stations evoke a dynamic new environment for electric vehicle charging. The Electrify America team leading the new station design vision has integrated in-depth customer feedback and insights from trend research and leading architecture and construction consultants to increase the focus in bringing human-centered and unique community-centric design strategies to the charging experience.

A Customer-Centric Charging Experience

With some of the new showcase stations featuring up to 20 ultra-fast DC chargers, the company is looking to add a number of options at various locations including:

Customer lounges, electric vehicle showcase areas, dedicated event space

Overhead solar canopies to shield customers from the sun and inclement weather

On-site security cameras and additional lighting

Charging stations located at select shopping locations may offer valet charging and curbside delivery options

Solar Awnings

Electrify America is currently adding solar awnings to 400-500 individual chargers at 100 charging stations across the country. In addition to providing shelter from the sun and weather elements, the energy captured by the solar awnings will be utilized to help power the station's operations.

The company has already installed solar canopies at its flagship charging stations in Baker and Santa Clara, CA. The solar energy from these solar canopies is also routed to the onsite battery energy storage systems onsite, capturing energy to help charge electric vehicles.

Next-Generation Charger

Electrify America will also begin the rollout of a redesigned electric vehicle charger with functional and design features to simplify the customer experience. The ultra-fast chargers with up to 150 and 350 kilowatts of charging power will keep Electrify America's iconic green glow that customers have come to recognize and embrace, and continue to stand at an easily recognizable at 8 feet tall. The next-generation charger will also feature:

An all-new design that refines the look and reduces the footprint of the charger

A recessed and brighter HMI (human-machine interface) screen to help reduce the glare from sunlight making it easier for customers to view the operational instructions and charging progress

A single connector cable with an all-new cable management system to ease the effort to plug in the cable no matter where the charging port resides on a customer's EV

A reduced footprint of both the charger and power cabinets will allow installation of more equipment in space constrained, urban locations.

Deploying More Than 150 Onsite Battery Energy Systems

The company's new charging station design vision is focused on marrying the latest technology innovations with a true customer-focused experience. New station design is integrating energy and cost-saving technology to help improve efficiency and make the charging experience more simple, fast and comfortable than ever before. By expanding the deployment of onsite battery energy storage systems (BESS) to more than 150 stations, the company continues to build on previous investments to help manage the energy load to the grid and capture excess solar energy where possible.

"The momentum moving us closer to an electric transportation system is accelerating with consumers finding more and more choices of EVs from virtually every manufacturer," Palazzo said. "Our customer research shows the need to transition to a more inviting charging experience that accommodates the human experience with waiting areas and other conveniences."

To view a collection of images highlighting the new design vision Click Here -- to see

Electrify America's "Lookbook - The Future of Charging"

About Electrify America

Electrify America LLC, the largest open DC fast charging network in the U.S., is investing $2 billion over 10 years in Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure, education and access. The investment will enable millions of Americans to discover the benefits of electric driving and support the build-out of a nationwide network of workplace, community and highway chargers that are convenient and reliable. Electrify America expects to have more than 1,800 total charging stations with over 10,000 chargers in the United States and Canada by 2026. During this period, the company will be expanding to 49 states and the District of Columbia, delivering on its commitment to support increased ZEV adoption with a network that is comprehensive, technologically advanced and customer friendly.

Electrify America earned the 2020 and "2021 EV Charging Infrastructure Best-in-Test" award from umlaut, an infrastructure and benchmarking specialist, now part of Accenture, as published in Charged Electric Vehicles Magazine. Electrify America's Electrify Home offers home charging solutions for consumers with flexible installation options. Electrify Commercial provides expert solutions for businesses looking to develop electric vehicle charging programs. For more information, visit www.electrifyamerica.com and media.electrifyamerica.com.

SOURCE Electrify America, LLC
SPRING, Texas, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Global Prebiotic Association (GPA) announced the addition of seven new members to its membership roster. The non-profit organization serving as the voice of the prebiotic category also announced that Associate Member Nexira has upped their participation to Member level. The new companies include Embion Technologies at the Member level and Advanced Biotics, Comet Bio, Microba Life Sciences, Pathway International, Synbiotic Health, and Uplift Food as Associate Members.

"GPA serves as the worldwide resource for prebiotic education, insights and awareness building," said GPA Executive Director Len Monheit. "It's a testament to the growth of this category that were now further expand our reach with members from all over the world-in this case including the UK, EU and two Australia-based companies-representing ingredients, technologies and brands."

"GPA serves as the worldwide resource for prebiotic education, insights and awareness building," said GPA Executive Director Len Monheit. "It's a testament to the growth of this category that were now further expand our reach with members from all over the worldin this case including the UK, EU and two Australia-based companiesrepresenting ingredients, technologies and brands."

GPA is focused on increasing public awareness about the production, quality and science of prebiotic products, expand understanding of the solid science supporting both well-known and newfound benefits, and create needed transparency about their interaction with the microbiome.

GPA defines a prebiotic as:

'A product or ingredient that is utilized in the microbiota producing a health or performance benefit'

and a prebiotic effect as:

'A health or performance benefit that arises from alteration of the composition and/or activity of the microbiota, as a direct or indirect result of the utilization of a specific and well-defined product or ingredient by microorganisms.'

Learn more about GPA at prebioticassociation.org.

About the Global Prebiotic Association

The Global Prebiotic Association is comprised of scientifically validated prebiotic ingredient manufacturers, brand holders, retailers, and service companies. The association is focused on the education and awareness building of prebiotics. For more information on prebiotics and the Global Prebiotic Association, please visit www.prebioticassociation.org .

Media Contact: Traci Kantowski, Communications Director, Global Prebiotic Association

+1-832-843-7287 | [email protected]

SOURCE Global Prebiotic Association
HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC) will host its 2022 Investor Day on Thursday, April 7 in Summerlin, Nevada. The event will include presentations led by the HHC executive team starting at 9:00 am PT, which will be live-streamed and can be viewed using this link .

Shareholders may submit questions during the live presentation using the webcast portal.

For those unable to join the live webcast, a replay of the event and corresponding materials will be available on the company's website (www.howardhughes.com) following the event.

About The Howard Hughes Corporation

The Howard Hughes Corporation owns, manages, and develops commercial, residential, and mixed-use real estate throughout the U.S. Its award-winning assets include the country's preeminent portfolio of master planned communities, as well as operating properties and development opportunities including: the Seaport in New York City; Downtown Columbia, Maryland; The Woodlands, The Woodlands Hills, and Bridgeland in the Greater Houston, Texas area; Summerlin, Las Vegas; Ward Village in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Douglas Ranch in Phoenix. The Howard Hughes Corporation's portfolio is strategically positioned to meet and accelerate development based on market demand, resulting in one of the strongest real estate platforms in the country. Dedicated to innovative placemaking, the company is recognized for its ongoing commitment to design excellence and to the cultural life of its communities. The Howard Hughes Corporation is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as HHC. For additional information, visit www.howardhughes.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements made in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements accompanied by words such as "will," "believe," "expect," "enables," "realize," "plan," "intend," "assume," "transform" and other words of similar expression, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's expectations, estimates, assumptions, and projections as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are set forth as risk factors in The Howard Hughes Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Quarterly and Annual Reports. The Howard Hughes Corporation cautions you not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. The Howard Hughes Corporation does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, information or circumstances that arise after the date of this release.

Contacts

The Howard Hughes Corporation

Cristina Carlson, 646-822-6910

Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Communications

[email protected]

For HHC Investor Relations

John Saxon, 281-929-7808

Chief of Staff

[email protected]

Carlos Olea, 281-475-2143

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE The Howard Hughes Corporation
Disorderly TeaHouse is the first hard tea to be fresh-brewed with premium guayusa tea leaves that are hand-picked by Indigenous farmers from Ecuador. Guayusa [gwahy-yoo-suh] is described as "ancient energy" and Lagunitas deliberately chose it because of its slightly sweet, smooth, and never bitter flavor. After selecting only the finest guayusa tea leaves, Lagunitas brews the tea in-house to give Disorderly TeaHouse its authentic taste. Then, natural fruit flavors are added to provide a crisp finish to Disorderly TeaHouse's two available varieties: Yuzu Lemon Squeeze and Mixed-Up Berries.

"Lagunitas saw an opportunity to create our first hard tea that taps into people's growing demand for a better-for-you alcoholic beverage -- coming in at just 100 calories with 0 grams of sugar* and gluten-free. Nothing artificial," said Paige Guzman, Lagunitas' Chief Marketing Officer. "We've seen the hard seltzer and premium malt beverage market become so oversaturated, and wanted to offer up an alternative that spoke to the authenticity of our heritage in the craft brewing process and gives consumers a more premium offering."

Hard teas are building in popularity among consumers. In fact, tea is growing at 50%, which is 8 times faster than total beer.*

"Our brewers have been fans of guayusa tea for years because of the clean, unique flavor and smooth energy it produces; it felt natural to innovate using 100% hand-selected and hand-harvested guayusa tea as the featured ingredient for Disorderly TeaHouse, elevating the whole profile of the beverage," said Jeremy Marshall, Lagunitas BrewMonster. "And then we don't load it up with artificial sweeteners or flavors. It's a premium, balanced tea-forward taste paired with delicious and thoughtful natural fruit flavors that we think people will love, especially as we move into the warmer seasons."

Spilling the Tea on Disorderly TeaHouse

In true Lagunitas fashion, the name is inspired by its rebellious nature and history. Back in 2005, the brewery was served a citation for keeping a "disorderly house" by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and the brewery was promptly shut down temporarily. Disorderly TeaHouse reflects the combination of the charge and a traditional tea house.

Disorderly TeaHouse is a different kind of brew that brings a twist to classic tea flavors. Both of the current varieties are earthy and herbal along with a splash of flavorful fruits. The Yuzu Lemon Squeeze has a whisp of aromatic, tart yuzu citrus love, while Mixed-Up Berries has subtly sweet raspberry and blackberry fruitiness. Each Disorderly TeaHouse has only 5% Alcohol by Volume, 100 calories, 2 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar** and gluten-free. So #SteepOnThat!

Ready to get a little Disorderly? Disorderly TeaHouse comes in 19.2 oz. single-serve cans for MSRP $2.99 and single-flavor 6-packs of 12 oz. cans for MSRP $11.99. It is available nationally at various retailers, including Sprouts, Meijer, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Safeway, among others. Check out Lagunitas' brew finder to pick up some today or have some delivered to your door.

For more details about Disorderly TeaHouse, visit: https://lagunitas.com/disorderlyteahouse/

About The Lagunitas Brewing Company

When The Lagunitas Brewing Company started on a kitchen stove back in 1993, no one could have imagined that a small, Northern California brewery would expand to more than 38 countries and have the #1 selling IPA in the world. During its history of making innovative craft brews, it has created an iconic line of hop-forward beers including: Lagunitas' Flagship IPA, Daytime, Hazy Wonder, A Little Sumpin' Sumpin', Maximus and Super Cluster. And there is now a seat at the bar for everyone. Lagunitas' next chapter of innovations include a craft brewed non-alcoholic beer, seltzer and hard sparkling tea for full-flavored imbibing: IPNA, Hoppy Refresher, and Disorderly TeaHouse. Even as its offerings have evolved, its passion for edgy brewing, fresh music, strong sense of community, and of course, dogs, have remained the backbone of brewery. To learn more about The Lagunitas Brewing Company, visit: www.LAGUNITAS.com.

*Source: Numerator Cross Purchase Last 6 months ending 4/30/2021

**Per 12 oz. Serving. Not a low-calorie food.

SOURCE The Lagunitas Brewing Company
BlackBerry AtHoc is being deployed, in partnership with TELUS, by all municipalities and the regional police in Niagara, providing the tools they need to respond more quickly and keep residents and the community safe

WATERLOO, ON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today announced that the Region of Niagara has selected BlackBerry AtHoc as its critical event management platform. BlackBerry AtHoc will be deployed by Niagara's 13 municipalities, as well as the Niagara Regional Police Service, enabling advanced communication and faster, more effective crisis response to help keep the region's nearly 500,000 citizens safe in times of crisis.

The announcement is the result of a partnership between BlackBerry and TELUS , which enabled TELUS to resell BlackBerry AtHoc across Canada. Modernizing emergency management systems, BlackBerry AtHoc, with TELUS' world-class connectivity, gives organizations the information they need to make critical safety decisions in real-time, helping to protect lives, assets and operations, during planned and unplanned events.

"Ensuring the safety and well-being of our community requires reliable communication systems and collaborative partnerships. This association with BlackBerry and TELUS will provide our community with exceptional emergency management technology," said Ron Tripp, Niagara Region's acting Chief Administrative Officer. "BlackBerry AtHoc modernizes our emergency management systems and provides Niagara with a secure mass communications solution."

"We are honored to serve the Niagara Region, in a joint effort with TELUS, with BlackBerry technology to enable the safety and security of the community," said Ramon Pinero, VP, BlackBerry AtHoc. "BlackBerry AtHoc, the most secure critical event management solution, will modernize the Niagara Region's systems and give Canadians increased confidence in their resiliency."

"We're thrilled to build on our long-standing relationship with BlackBerry to bring best-in-class emergency solutions to Canadians," said Marshall Berkin, Vice President, Industry Solutions, TELUS Business Solutions. "The deployment of BlackBerry AtHoc in the Niagara Region will connect Canadians in an exciting new way, keeping them safe and informed during emergency and critical situations."

BlackBerry AtHoc is trusted by millions of government, enterprise, education, healthcare and humanitarian users around the world, as it is the most secure critical event management platform. BlackBerry AtHoc gives communities and organizations the information they need to make critical safety decisions in real-time, helping to protect lives, assets and operations, during planned and unplanned events.

To learn more, visit BlackBerry AtHoc and follow @BlackBerryAtHoc.

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including over 195M vehicles. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint management, endpoint security, encryption, and embedded systems. BlackBerry's vision is clear - to secure a connected future you can trust.

BlackBerry. Intelligent Security. Everywhere.

For more information, visit BlackBerry.com and follow @BlackBerry.

Trademarks, including but not limited to BLACKBERRY and EMBLEM Design are the trademarks or registered trademarks of BlackBerry Limited, and the exclusive rights to such trademarks are expressly reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services.

Media Contact:

BlackBerry Media Relations

+1 (519) 597-7273

[email protected]

SOURCE BlackBerry Limited
Premise announces survey results from respondents throughout the United States regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine

SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Premise , the global insights company, recently surveyed Americans amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Overall, respondents rebuke Russia and back U.S. support of Ukraine, though they are less enthusiastic about more aggressive approaches to intervention, with some key party and generational differences.

Those surveyed shared their thoughts on humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, economic sanctions, and U.S. military intervention in the region. Here are some of the most significant findings:

On the humanitarian front, a vast majority (86%) back sending aid to Ukraine and welcoming Ukrainian refugees into the United States (79%).

Both Democrats (88%) and Republicans (84%) agree on the need for humanitarian aid, but Republicans are less enthusiastic (69%) than Democrats (85%) when it comes to admitting refugees.

Among potential economic actions, an overwhelming majority believe that American companies should voluntarily stop doing business with Russia (83%) until the conflict ends, and nearly as many (78%) believe the country at large should stop purchasing oil and gas from Russia  even if it means higher prices at the pump.

Respondents over the age of 60 are particularly passionate about these measures, with 92% in favor of halting business and 90% behind suspending the purchase of oil and gas from Russia , compared to 75% and 65% of 18- to 29-year-olds respectively.

By contrast, very few Americans support direct military intervention in the region.

Only 37% back sending U.S. troops to help defend Ukraine against the Russian assault. Interestingly, Americans under 30 (47%) are more open to the idea than those over 60 (26%).

against the Russian assault. Interestingly, Americans under 30 (47%) are more open to the idea than those over 60 (26%). On the other hand, Americans over 60, seem to prefer a less direct approach, with 81% in favor of supplying weapons to Ukraine while only 67% of those under 30 agree with this policy.

In the end, the war in Ukraine has largely unified Americans across the board. These results are based on 1,241 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older, surveyed from March 10 to March 12, 2022. Respondents completed the survey in English and in Spanish on the Premise application. Demographic quotas based on age, gender, and region were used to solicit responses from Premise's network of U.S.-based app users. After all responses were submitted, Premise calculated post hoc weights to bring the characteristics of the sample into line with the U.S. population on age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment.

About Premise

Premise is a crowdsourced insights company. Its technology mobilizes communities of global smartphone users to source actionable data in real-time, cost-effectively, and with needed visibility. In more than 125 countries and 37 languages, Premise finds Data for Every Decision. To learn more, please visit www.premise.com .

Contact: Taylor C. Pearson

[email protected]

202-235-3482

SOURCE Premise
Is the Lone Star State still as uniquely independent with all that red vs. blue polarization dominating our news media? And is it still as neighborly a place, despite all that individual silo-ing and othering on social media and in social life? TPP Host Robert Pease, a lifelong political independent, poses these questions to a blue ribbon panel of "Texperts" in an extended mini-series stretching across this vast and varied, vocal state.

Episode 1 (Messing with that Texas Identity): "Y'all-itics" co-hosts Jason Wheeler and Jason Whitely of WFAA Dallas suggest the longstanding, deep-rooted Texas identity is weakening. Whitely recalls "a much stronger sense of being Texan'' while covering the 2000 George W. Bush Presidential campaign. Wheeler finds many "spoiling for a political fight."

Episode 2 (Strongest Identity of Them Y'all): Texas Monthly Editor-in-Chief Dan Goodgame draws the distinction between polarized politics and society writ large, contending that a Lubbock Republican will identify as a Texan first, "and a Democrat from San Antonio will say the same."

Episode 3 (Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics?): Dr. James Henson, Director of The Texas Politics Project at UT Austin, underscores the structural imbalance between the reining Texas Republican Party and the opposition Democrats. The latter are so disadvantaged, he observes, "that it almost changes the fundamental nature of political competition."

Episode 4 (Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity): Dr. Henry Cisneros, former Mayor of San Antonio, notes that thousands of committee appointments are under Republican control in Texas, enhancing appeal among Hispanic business owners. And Dr. Sharon Navarro, of UT San Antonio, describes the eroding Democratic support among Tejanos.

Upcoming Episodes 5 & 6 spotlight Texas history and culture with award-winning writers  and longtime Austin neighbors  Lawrence Wright (God Save Texas) and Steve Harrigan (Big Wonderful Thing). Plus, former Congressman Will Hurd (American Reboot) talks on immigration reform and a need for "ideological consistency" in politics.

Not quite as deep as the heart of Texas, this 6-episode series does probe well below the headlines and soundbites to bring an important and thoughtful assessment of political and cultural polarization in this great state.

Add The Purple Principle to your podcast feed from any app. More information at: www.purpleprinciple.com

Contact: Alison Byrne, [email protected] , (732) 766-1806

SOURCE The Purple Principle
For the past 99 years, the Awards have empowered creative teens and celebrated their voices. The Awards continue to champion and support teens' originality and creative prowess, as well as bolster their artistic and literary futures through opportunities for publication, exhibition, and scholarships. The Awards encourage students to build confidence as creative individuals and to trust that their voice is important. Many esteemed artists and writers received some of their earliest validation from the Awards, including Andy Warhol, Tschabalala Self, Joyce Carol Oates, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White, Stephen King, and the 2022 Scholastic Awards Alumni Achievement Award recipient, distinguished multidisciplinary artist Derek Fordjour.

The Awards also value and recognize the dedication of thousands of educators across the nation who inspire, encourage, and motivate their students each year to push themselves to dream, craft, and submit works of remarkable art and writing. In acknowledgment of the major role educators have played in the success of the Awards and their students for the past nine decades, the Alliance provides medals, cash rewards, and the opportunity to participate in professional development programs to select educators whose students receive regional or national recognition.

Chris Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, said: "Each year we are continually impressed by the level of creativity demonstrated by our nation's teens. Even more impressive are the individuality, vulnerability, sensitivity, and passion reflected in their work. Teens and their teachers have been living through truly unprecedented times, enduring unbelievably challenging circumstances. We're all privileged to experience this year's Scholastic Art & Writing Awards medalists' accomplishments, which channel the hopes, fears, anger, frustrations, desiresvoicesof remarkable young people to inspire us all. We thank the educators who guided and supported these students through this past year while still encouraging creative expression."

To honor the challenges this year's participants overcame and the accomplishments they have achieved, as well as celebrate the Awards' return to Carnegie Hall after a two-year hiatus, the Awards have identified a record-high 22 recipients of the program's highest honor in 2022, the Gold Medal Portfolio Award, which includes a $10,000 scholarship.

The 2022 Gold Medal Portfolio Award winners are:

Gold Portfolios, Art:

Lily Arnold , Franklin, TN

, Educator: Michael Boyle

Gina Bae , Palo Alto, CA

, Educator: Alan Chan

Mac Barnes , Durham, NC

, Educator: Carrie Alter

Hayden Brashear , Denver, CO

, Educator: Martin Loftus

Lorie Chen , Troy, MI

, Educator: Todd Burroughs

Dessa Ely , Toronto, Ontario, Canada

, Educator: Matthew Vary & Glen Novak

Ava Hudson , Portland, OR

, Educator: Addy Kessler

Shaeley Lincoln , Towson, MD

, Educator: Joe Cypressi

Tess Nelson , Eden Prairie, MN

, Educator: Rebecca Johannsen

Andrew Palmer , Richmond, VA

, Educator: Genevieve Dowdy & Mary Scurlock

& Franchesca Vilmenay , Boston, MA

, Educator: Sara Macaulay

Gold Portfolios, Writing:

Amina Adeyola , Chesterfield, VA

, Educator: Cindy Cunningham & Gail Giewont

& Samantha Aikman , Jericho, VT

, Educator: Spencer Rosner

Serene Almehmi, Vestavia, AL

Educator: Ben Davis

Ashley Binstock , Wahoo, NE

, Educator: Marisa Grady

Claudia Comini , APO, AE

, APO, AE Educator: Heather Gurnsey

Mukta Dharmapurikar, Durham, NC

Educator: Adam Cluff

Maya McFadden , Jackson, MS

, Educator: Sarah Ballard

William Meng , Novi, MI

, Educator: Eric Sutton

Destiny Ouellette , Vernon Rockville, CT

, Educator: Victoria Nordlund

Deja Robinson , New Orleans, LA

, Educator: Anne Gisleson

Trini Rogando , Alexandria, VA

, Educator: Josephine Porcelli

In addition to the 28 eligible categoriesincluding drawing and illustration, photography, flash fiction, poetry, film and animation, journalism and morestudents can also submit their work to a variety of sponsored award scholarships. The 2022 Cash Awards include:

Best-in-Grade Award: Underwritten by Bloomberg Philanthropies, this Award provides $500 scholarships to 24 Gold Medal recipients (two artists and two writers per grades 712).

Underwritten by Bloomberg Philanthropies, this Award provides scholarships to 24 Gold Medal recipients (two artists and two writers per grades 712). Civic Expression Award: Underwritten by The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, this award provides $1,000 scholarships for original works of art or writing that promote responsible civic life. The six recipients are: Emily Bennett , Cortland, OH ; Maya Dabney , Huntersville, NC ; Sara Homma , San Antonio, TX ; Ava Paulsen , Castaic, CA ; Samantha Podnar , Wexford, PA ; and Kadi Sacko, West Fargo, ND .

Underwritten by The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, this award provides scholarships for original works of art or writing that promote responsible civic life. The six recipients are: , ; , ; , ; , ; , ; and Kadi Sacko, . The Herblock Award for Editorial Cartoon: Underwritten by The Herb Block Foundation, the Editorial Cartoon category celebrates the legacy of four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Herb Block and his remarkable contribution to American history and free expression. The three teen artists who receive $1,000 scholarships for their outstanding drawings, illustrations, or animations offering commentary on current events or political topics are: Ava Fong , Princeton, NJ ; Asya Sozen , Cazenovia, NY ; and Polina van Hulsen , Palo Alto, CA.

Underwritten by The Herb Block Foundation, the Editorial Cartoon category celebrates the legacy of four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist and his remarkable contribution to American history and free expression. The three teen artists who receive scholarships for their outstanding drawings, illustrations, or animations offering commentary on current events or political topics are: , ; , ; and , New York Life Award: Underwritten by New York Life Foundation, the national award provides six scholarships of $1,000 each to students whose work explores personal grief, loss, and bereavement, and exemplifies how the arts can act as a positive outlet to cope with these issues. This year's recipients are: Gwen Canfield , Columbus, OH ; Taylor Herron , Brookhaven, MS ; Brooke Johnsen , Fort Calhoun, NE ; Sofia Monteleone , Pelham, AL ; Adeline Nevins , Saint Louis, MO ; and Raquel Pihlstrom , Lake Oswego, OR.

Underwritten by New York Life Foundation, the national award provides six scholarships of each to students whose work explores personal grief, loss, and bereavement, and exemplifies how the arts can act as a positive outlet to cope with these issues. This year's recipients are: , ; , ; , ; , ; , ; and , One Earth Award: Underwritten by the Salamander Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation, this award provides four students with $1,000 scholarships for creative works that encourage the awareness of, and meaningful responses to, pressing issues of human-caused climate change. This year's recipients are: Gwyn Barnholtz , West Chester, OH ; Eli Browne , La Jolla, CA ; Eduarda Favero , Boca Raton, FL ; and Mustafa Haque , Plano, TX.

Underwritten by the Salamander Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation, this award provides four students with scholarships for creative works that encourage the awareness of, and meaningful responses to, pressing issues of human-caused climate change. This year's recipients are: , ; , ; , ; and , Additional awards and scholarships for students are made possible through the support of Apple TV+, Blick Art Materials, Command Companies, Jay Pritzker Foundation, Jill and Peter Kraus , The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, The New York Times , and The Roome Fund, among others.

To learn more, and to find a complete list of the 2022 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national award winners, visit: artandwriting.org.

Award Selection

Regional awards and national medals are selected without knowledge of the student's name, gender or gender identity, age, ethnicity, or school. The absence of biographical data enables work to be judged purely on its own terms through the prisms of originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. There are no limits on content. Other variables are taken into consideration to determine scholarship recipients.

Entries are first adjudicated regionally through more than 100 regional partners of the Alliance. Teens receiving Gold Keys, Silver Keys, Honorable Mentions, and American Visions & Voices Nominations are celebrated within their communities through exhibitions and ceremonies. Gold Key works are then judged nationally by an impressive panel of creative-industry experts to receive Gold, Silver, and American Visions & Voices Medals, and Gold Medal Portfolio or Silver Medal with Distinction Portfolio Awards. Top National Medalists are invited to an in-person National Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are presented by the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and are made possible through the generosity of Scholastic Inc., The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, New York Life Foundation, Command Companies, The Herb Block Foundation, The Jay Pritzker Foundation, Blick Art Materials, The New York Times, National Endowment for the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Salamander Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation, Apple TV+, Lindenmeyr, Salesforce, Garcia Family Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and numerous other individual, foundation, and corporate funders; and, for the National Student Poets Program, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Hearthland Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, and Academy of American Poets.

For more information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, visit artandwriting.org. Additional details about the Awards can be found in the Scholastic media room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/artandwriting.

SOURCE Alliance for Young Artists & Writers
Conference call and webcast scheduled for 9:00 a.m. EDT

TORONTO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters (NYSE, TSX: TRI) announced today its first-quarter 2022 earnings will be issued via news release on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

Steve Hasker, president and chief executive officer, and Mike Eastwood, chief financial officer, will host a conference call and simultaneous webcast that morning at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Discussions may include forward-looking information.

You can access the webcast by visiting the "Investor Relations" section of the Thomson Reuters website. Registration for the webcast is now open. Additionally, an archive of the webcast will be available following the presentation.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world's most global news service  Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com.

CONTACTS MEDIA INVESTORS



Andrew Green Senior Director, Corporate Affairs +1 332 219 1511 [email protected] Gary E. Bisbee, CFA Head of Investor Relations +1 646 540 3249 [email protected]

SOURCE Thomson Reuters
STOCKHOLM, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tobii, the global leader in eye tracking and pioneer of attention computing, announced today the integration of Tobii Aware software into the new MSI Summit and Prestige Series laptops. Tobii Aware takes users' privacy, security, productivity, and wellbeing to the next level. Through attention computing, the software senses the users' presence and intent and adapts to their needs. This is Tobii's first deal with MSI in their line of commercial laptops, which brings the smart software to an additional group of users.

Tobii Aware allows users to safely work in any environment by improving the devices' security and privacy. With Continuous ID authentication, the contents on the screen are blurred when the user looks or steps away and refocuses only when the correct user is active. The device dims and locks automatically shortly after the user leaves as well. The "peeker" detection also uses subtle visual clues to tell the user when another person is looking at the screen. It can then automatically blur the screen if desired, protecting the information shown on the device in scenarios requiring a high level of privacy.

"By integrating Tobii Aware software solution into our latest MSI Summit and Prestige Evo Series laptops, we are providing new innovations to our users by enhancing their security, privacy and also taking care of their wellbeing," said Clark Peng, MSI Notebook Division Vice President of Product Management. "MSI's Summit and Prestige Evo Series laptops take the next step by bringing new innovations to reinforce the importance of security and privacy."

The software also improves productivity and digital wellbeing with various interactive features and provides insights into screen time, user position, distance to the screen, and computer usage. For example, with the "stay awake" feature, the computer will not dim or lock as long as the user is present, increasing focus and productivity.

"Attention computing is becoming the standard in all PCs, and this partnership with MSI demonstrates we are moving in that direction," said Ulrica Wikstrom, VP of PC at Tobii. "Users and businesses want computers that proactively work to keep their information secure while also helping with their wellbeing and productivity. This is exactly what Tobii Aware brings when paired with MSI's new line of laptops."

On a stand-alone basis, this collaboration is not expected to be material for Tobii's revenue in 2022.1

For more information about Tobii Aware, please visit https://tech.tobii.com/products/aware/

For more information about the new MSI Summit Series and Prestige Laptops, please visit https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity

1Tobii defines material impact as more than 10% of total company revenue.

Contact

Lina Perdius, Head of Communications, Tobii AB, phone: +46 (0)70 018 78 75, email: [email protected]

Henrik Mawby, Head of Investor Relations, Tobii AB, phone: +46 (0)72 219 82 15, email: [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/tobii-ab/r/tobii-aware-enhances-privacy--security-and-wellbeing-in-the-new-commercial-line-of-msi-laptops,c3531766

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/2874/3531766/1553386.pdf Tobii Aware in new laptops from MSI - press release - 24March2022

SOURCE Tobii AB
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Triple Whale , the all-in-one operating system for Shopify brands, today announced that it has raised $27.7M in an extended Series A, the company's first announced funding round since its foundation in May 2021. Triple Whale's latest funding round consists of a $24M investment led by Elephant VC, alongside a previously undisclosed $2.7M seed round led by NFX, and an additional $1M raised with notable participation from individual investor Shaan Puri.

This extensive investment will enable the Columbus-based ecommerce startup to build on the rapid growth it has achieved within less than a year, with the funds being used to expand the company's development team and integrate additional components into its platform, all in order to cement Triple Whale as the default ecommerce operating system for Shopify brands.

Digitalization has been transforming the retail world for decades, a trend expedited by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made ecommerce an essential component of any retailer's offering. With large sums of advertising spend shifting online since early 2020, and platforms like Shopify opening up accessibility to e-commerce on an unprecedented scale, merchants are typically faced with a "black box" of consumer behavior, unsure where to target advertising spend most effectively to target key demographics.

Triple Whale's analytics platform was designed to address a clear need: equipping Shopify brands with an all-in-one, easy-to-access tool to help them locate key metrics and derive instant insights into the performance of their advertising campaigns. Triple Whale provides brands with a clear, quick, and transparent view into metrics that matter, integrating merchants' data from Shopify, Facebook, Google, TikTok, and other popular apps..

"We're on a mission to empower business owners to build better and more successful lives," said Aj Orbach, CEO and Co-Founder, Triple Whale. "I look forward to seeing the impact of our latest investment as the company develops and expands its offering, furthering our vision of establishing the default ecommerce operating system for Shopify brands."

"We're building the platform I wish I had when growing my own ecommerce brands," said Maxx Blank, COO and Co-Founder, Triple Whale. "I am excited to see many more ecommerce businesses continue to benefit from our fusion of centralization, visualization, and attribution, which equips brands with the insights they need, when they need them."

"Triple Whale was built by e-commerce operators who understand how critical real-time operating performance visibility is for success," said Andrew Hunt, Founder and General Partner, Elephant. "Triple Whale's eCommerce Analytics platform is exactly the type of solution we lacked when we started Warby Parker. Access to real-time operating performance metrics still remains a challenge for brands. As fellow eCommerce merchants, we think the Triple Whale team is uniquely positioned to solve this problem. We speak with thousands of companies every year here at Elephant and rarely see this type of distinct product-market fit. We are thrilled to partner with the brilliant team at Triple Whale as the company continues to emerge as a leader in this market and beyond."

"Of my hundreds of early-stage startup investments, Triple Whale is one of the fastest-growing and most exciting companies I've ever worked with," said Gigi Levy-Weiss, General Partner, NFX. "As Ecommerce brand owner/operators, they clearly felt a gap in the market for understanding their most important metrics. And I'm super impressed that, within just 10 months, they've been able to transform that pain point into a SaaS company that's already empowering thousands of DTC brands to scale more effectively. Because of their deep understanding of the market, high cadence of quality product releases, and passion for helping others succeed, I'm confident that Triple Whale will become the default operating system for ecom businesses."

Triple Whale's founding team consists of Aj Orbach (CEO), Maxx Blank (COO) and Ivan Chernykh (CTO), a talented team of tech entrepreneurs who have extensive experience designing apps and building DTC brands from scratch.

About Triple Whale

Founded in May 2021, Triple Whale is an analytics platform for key stakeholders of Shopify brands looking to scale their businesses. The Triple Whale platform combines centralization, visualization, and attribution in an easy-to-use dashboard which presents and illustrates KPIs in a simple and actionable way, making sophisticated insights into advertising performance accessible for any Shopify retailer. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Triple Whale is on a mission to build the default ecommerce operating system for Shopify brands, ultimately empowering business owners to live better and easier lives. For more information, visit trytriplewhale.com .

Triple Whale Media Contact

Ben Crome

Headline Media

[email protected]

+1 914 336 4922

SOURCE Triple Whale
OMAHA, Neb., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP) will release first quarter 2022 financial and operating results on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at 7:45 a.m. ET. The company's management team will host a conference call and live webcast at 8:45 a.m. ET.

Parties interested in participating via teleconference may dial 877-407-8293. International callers may dial 201-689-8349. A live webcast of the presentation and materials will be available in the investor relations section of Union Pacific's website at www.up.com/investor. A replay of the audio webcast will be available shortly thereafter.

ABOUT UNION PACIFIC

Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) delivers the goods families and businesses use every day with safe, reliable and efficient service. Operating in 23 western states, the company connects its customers and communities to the global economy. Trains are the most environmentally responsible way to move freight, helping Union Pacific protect future generations. More information about Union Pacific is available at www.up.com.

Union Pacific Investor Contact: Brad Stock at 402-544-4227 or [email protected]

Union Pacific Media Contact: Kristen South at 402-544-3435 or [email protected]

www.up.com

www.facebook.com/unionpacific

www.twitter.com/unionpacific

SOURCE Union Pacific Corporation
MOULTONBORO, N.H., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Uraiwan Srisukai is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Distinguished Business Owner in the Restaurant industry and in acknowledgment of her work at Lemongrass.

Uraiwan Srisukai

Uraiwan Srisukai is the Chef and Owner at Lemongrass, a restaurant and sake bar established in 2005. At the Asian fusion-style restaurant, Ms. Srisukai serves up delicious American recipes with an Asian twist. Ms. Srisukai creates a custom lemongrass sauce along with her specialty dishes. Located at 64 Whittier Highway in Moultonborough, NH, the cuisine includes sushi, pad thai, curry, spring rolls, satay, and much more.

Ms. Srisukai grew up in a small town in southern Thailand and relocated to the United States as a high school exchange student. She loved the lake region of New Hampshire, so she remained in the US to attend college. She first earned a degree in International Business Management. Ms. Srisukai then earned a Master of Business Administration in Small Business Entrepreneurship degree in 2004.

While earning her MBA degree, Ms. Srisukai studied with Chef and Restauranteur Mike Love. Her experience increased her interest in cooking and the culinary arts, and she partnered with her mentor Mike Love to open her restaurant, Lemongrass. Today, Ms. Srisukai oversees daily operations at Lemongrass and manages everything from finances to staffing to selecting dishes for the rotating seasonal menu. Ms. Srisukai and her team of chefs make all sauces, dressings, and rubs with clean ingredients and no preservatives.

With 15 years of experience in the restaurant industry, Ms. Srisukai has never attended a formal culinary school and instead relies on her natural talent for cooking. She shares her creative recipes on the Lemongrass website, such as her Almond Spice Crispy Chicken Wings, Pan Seared Lamb Loin with Chili Citrus Sauce, and Stir Fry Beef and Udon Noodles.

Lemongrass has locations throughout New Hampshire in Moultonborough, Center Harbor, West Ossipee, Franklin, Merrimack, Portsmouth, Kittery, Bedford, Salem, and Amherst.

As she looks toward the future, Ms. Srisukai plans to expand the company in the coming years, adding more staff and expanding the menu. She believes that her success is due to her love of giving back to others.

In her free time, Ms. Srisukai loves to travel and find ways to give back to her community. She is an Ambassador for local charities and frequently makes donations to families in need.

For more information, visit https://www.lemongrassnh.com/.

Contact:

Katherine Green,

516-825-5634,

[email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates

Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform

Complimentary updates for one year

Edition: 6; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 753

Companies: 30 - Players covered include ADS Biotec Inc.; Argos Technologies Inc.; Arthrex, Inc.; Avita Medical; Bertin Bioreagent; BRAND GMBH + CO KG; Biomedical Research & Development Laboratories Inc. (Brandel); (USA); Connectorate AG; Cox Scientific Ltd; PerkinElmer Inc.; SP Industries; Terumo BCT Inc.; TOMTEC Imaging Systems GmbH and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Type (Manual, Automated); Application (Peripheral Blood, Bone Marrow, Umbilical Cord, Adipose Tissue, Other Applications); End-Use (Biotech & Biopharma Companies, Research Institutes, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Cell Harvesting Market to Reach $359.2 Million by 2026

Cell harvesting is a next-generation technique that involves collection of stem cells from the culture media for R&D and therapeutic applications. Growth in the global market is spurred by of increasing investments in clinical, cell-based and regenerative medicine research. The technique is likely to gain from rising incidence of infectious and chronic diseases coupled with continuous expansion of the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries. Stem cell research is estimated to witness fastest growth as stem cells derived from the bone marrow hold potential to advance stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and stem cell-based therapies. Stem cells are one of the latest entrants joining the race for COVID-19 cure. The therapy involves intravenous administration of MSCs derived from the human placenta to COVID-19 patients for boosting the immune response and helping the body in fighting the infection. Stem cells have demonstrated their ability to treat a number of degenerative diseases, mainly Alzheimer's, and type-I diabetes. The approach is being investigated by various researchers in the US and China, with some of them observing positive outcomes.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Cell Harvesting estimated at US$274.9 Million in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$359.2 Million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.3% over the analysis period. Manual, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 7.9% CAGR and reach US$284.4 Million by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Automated segment is readjusted to a revised 5.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The Manual segment dominates market share owing to extensive adoption of these systems as a result of their affordable and user-friendly nature.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $84.8 Million in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $32.1 Million by 2026

The Cell Harvesting market in the U.S. is estimated at US$84.8 Million in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$32.1 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 10.4% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 6.1% and 7% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.6% CAGR. The US dominates market share due to increasing R&D investments and favorable government policies. The US FDA has approved cord blood-based blood-forming stem cells for use in the US. These cells along with stem cells derived from the bone marrow are widely used in medical transplant procedures for treatment of cancer along with diseases related to the immune system and blood. The Asia-Pacific market expansion is being driven by increasing R&D spending to develop new treatments, government policies favoring stem cell research, and public-private efforts to foster stem cell-based treatments.

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Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
WYNYARD, UK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Venator Materials PLC (NYSE: VNTR) ("Venator") today announced that it will hold its 2022 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on Monday, June 6, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. local time, at its global headquarters at Titanium House, Hanzard Drive, Wynyard Park, Stockton-on-Tees, TS22 5FD, United Kingdom. Holders of record as of the close of business on April 14, 2022 will be entitled to vote at the meeting.

About Venator

Venator is a global manufacturer and marketer of chemical products that comprise a broad range of pigments and additives that bring color and vibrancy to buildings, protect and extend product life, and reduce energy consumption. We market our products globally to a diversified group of industrial customers through two segments: Titanium Dioxide, which consists of our TiO 2 business, and Performance Additives, which consists of our functional additives, color pigments and timber treatment businesses. Based in Wynyard, U.K., Venator employs approximately 3,500 associates and sells its products in more than 110 countries.

Social Media:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/VenatorCorp

Facebook: www.facebook.com/venatorcorp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/venator-corp

SOURCE Venator Materials PLC
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivaris Capital, LLC , an alternative assets investment manager, announced today the launch of its new, multi-strategy fund offering hybrid hedge and private equity structures, VICAN Fund. The VICAN Fund will provide investors with access to institutional quality alternative investments with high-growth, high-return potential while securing their principal. It is being launched with Vivaris' investment partner, HedgeACT. The Fund is attracting strong interest from family offices, high net worth private investors and institutions. It plans to raise $150 million this year and is targeting $500 million.

The VICAN Fund is led by President and Chief Executive Officer J. Christopher Mizer, a 25-year veteran of the alternative investment industry who founded Vivaris Capital in 1998 to invest in and acquire middle-market businesses in a broad range of industries that are leaders in their market niches. He is supported by an eight-member team that includes leading physicians, environmental and climate technology experts, alternative investment professionals, and global finance and business specialists. The VICAN Fund is primarily focused on building businesses in climate tech and life sciences, where the principals anticipate adoption of new technologies will drive growth and create value.

As Vivaris' investment partner for VICAN Fund, HedgeACT supports the Fund as its primary investment partner for allocation to principal security, including non-traditional, non-correlated markets such as life settlements, medical receivables, and insurance products. Investments are fully secured, non-leveraged, and allow for the return of principal amount at the end of a 5-7 year term. Underwriting is designed to give investors a 15% annualized return on investment plus additional upside from interest, dividends, share redemption, and capital appreciation. VICAN also allows mission-based investors to support innovative approaches to addressing unmet social needs while protecting their principal investment.

"We aim to be the disruptor the industry needs at a time when investors seek the security of an investment grade instrument combined with the upside associated with private equity. We secure the repayment of principal by investing in a diversified portfolio of investment grade securities that collateralize the portfolio, and the difference between the cost of the principal security portfolio and their face amount at maturity is invested in alternative asset opportunities with high return potential. The result is superior returns on a risk adjusted basis for investors," said Mizer.

The firm has retained top tier service providers including NAV Consulting, Inc. as fund administrator and Marcum, LLP as auditor.

For further information, visit https://www.vivariscapital.com, call +1-619-727-8497 or email [email protected].

Media contact:

Charlotte Luer

+1.239.404.6785

[email protected]

SOURCE Vivaris Capital, LLC
Levy Cohen, CEO of Wellfield commented, "We have followed Coinmama's pioneering journey as an early blockchain business for some time and are confident that their nearly decade of success in the sector and proven regulatory and operations expertise will bring significant value to Wellfield. We expect this transaction to generate substantial synergies for the Company. Following the transaction, Wellfield will be positioned with all of the attributes required to achieve its mission to scale next generation financial applications powered by blockchain technology: robust decentralized protocols, verifiable and secure credentialing , established regulatory and banking infrastructure, and a scalable consumer facing DeFi application."

Chanan Steinhart, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer of Wellfield added, "We are very excited to welcome Coinmama to Wellfield. Customer acquisition is one of the most expensive and difficult portions of any product launch and this transaction gives Wellfield an exciting foundation of over 3.5 million registered users, to which we will provide DeFi services when we launch our Seamless protocols later this year. These users are engaged with Coinmama and already looking for access to DeFi services delivered by a trusted party. For Wellfield's MoneyClip brand, the transaction gives us established infrastructure that we will leverage to scale the MoneyClip app within Canada and eventually into other markets. Together, we are even better positioned to build a sector-defining company that unlocks the power of DeFi and makes accessibility and adoption easy for both individuals and institutions."

Laurence Newman, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Coinmama added, "When Coinmama was founded in 2013, our goal was to introduce the world to Bitcoin and to make it effortless to buy and own. We set out to create a safe platform to learn and grow from within the rapidly growing industry. We identified an important gap in the market and successfully created a secure and easy infrastructure for global users to buy digital currencies. We're very proud of the role our organization played in the formative years of cryptocurrency adoption, serving more than 3.5 million registered users from all over the world. Nine years later blockchain is enabling yet another leap forward beyond the era of centralized products and solutions, towards DeFi services and this transaction will enable us to be an important part of this ongoing transformation."

Nimrod Gruber, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Coinmama added, "Within our own registered user base, we have seen a significant acceleration in demand for a broad selection of DeFi services. Wellfield has developed a unique suite of products and services under its Seamless brand, that address some of today's most critical DeFi infrastructure gaps, and that will give us the technology we need to make DeFi adoption possible for both individuals and institutions. Our senior team is excited to leverage the solid foundation we have built at Coinmama, into a robust, full-service DeFi platform as part of Wellfield."

Transaction Details

Pursuant to the Definitive Agreement and subject to customary closing adjustments, Wellfield will acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Coinmama in exchange for total aggregate consideration of US$3,000,000 payable in cash (the "Cash Consideration") and the issuance of 22,988,467 common shares in the capital of Wellfield (the "Share Consideration" and together with the Cash Consideration, the "Purchase Price"). Upon closing of the Transaction (the "Closing"), Coinmama will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Wellfield. Although the Share Consideration is fixed, the deemed issue price per share will be equal to the fourteen (14) day volume weighted average price per Wellfield common share prior to Closing.

It is currently anticipated that following the Closing, former security holders of Coinmama will hold approximately 19% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Wellfield. Each Consideration Share will be subject to a four month hold period in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws as well as contractual restrictions on transfer which periodic releases from such restrictions over a period of nineteen (19) months.

The terms of the Transaction were negotiated at arm's length. The Transaction will constitute a Fundamental Acquisition under TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") Policy 5.3 and as such it will require TSXV approval. As both Coinmama and its shareholders are arm's length and there is not expected to be any new control persons or insiders created, it is not expected that shareholders of Wellfield will be required to approve the Transaction. There are no finder's fees payable in connection with the Transaction.

Pursuant to the Definitive Agreement, the obligations of the parties to complete the Transactions subject to customary conditions for a transaction of this nature, including: the accuracy of representations and warranties; the fulfilment of certain covenants; the receipt of certain regulatory and governmental approvals, the approval of TSXV; the receipt of consents of certain third parties; and there having been no material adverse effect as of the time of Closing.

Transaction Benefits

Enables rapid launch of DeFi products and services, at scale  Coinmama brings Wellfield over 3.5 million registered users, each of which has undergone regulatory verification and transacted on the platform. These users are an ideal target audience for Wellfield's Seamless branded DeFi services. By integrating these services into Coinmama's existing platform, Wellfield expects to see accelerated capital formation and enhanced liquidity for the Company's critical DeFi infrastructure technology when it launches later this year.





 Coinmama brings Wellfield over 3.5 million registered users, each of which has undergone regulatory verification and transacted on the platform. These users are an ideal target audience for Wellfield's Seamless branded DeFi services. By integrating these services into Coinmama's existing platform, Wellfield expects to see accelerated capital formation and enhanced liquidity for the Company's critical DeFi infrastructure technology when it launches later this year. Opportunity to significantly enhance monetization of Coinmama's user base  During 2021, Coinmama generated over US$130 million in sales, and over US$5.8 million in gross profit 2 . Wellfield has identified a significant opportunity to enhance the monetization of Coinmama's user base by evolving from a single offering, and transaction-oriented model to a multi-product recurring revenue business that leverages DeFi protocols and self-custody.





 During 2021, Coinmama generated over in sales, and over in gross profit . Wellfield has identified a significant opportunity to enhance the monetization of Coinmama's user base by evolving from a single offering, and transaction-oriented model to a multi-product recurring revenue business that leverages DeFi protocols and self-custody. Coinmama's website generates millions of unique visitors per year, which presents a significant user conversion and expansion opportunity  Coinmama has been a trusted brand in the blockchain space since 2013. Because of this position in the industry, the company's website generates millions of unique non-user visitors annually, primarily via organic traffic. This consistent flow of visitors offers Wellfield an embedded audience to which it expects to market current products more actively, as well as future products and services.





 Coinmama has been a trusted brand in the blockchain space since 2013. Because of this position in the industry, the company's website generates millions of unique non-user visitors annually, primarily via organic traffic. This consistent flow of visitors offers Wellfield an embedded audience to which it expects to market current products more actively, as well as future products and services. Established infrastructure to facilitate growth within Canada and efficient future expansion  Coinmama has served customers in countries around the world, and has robust global regulatory, banking, and operational infrastructure. This infrastructure will reduce cost and time specifically as Wellfield seeks to grow the MoneyClip app both within Canada , and eventually to additional markets.





 Coinmama has served customers in countries around the world, and has robust global regulatory, banking, and operational infrastructure. This infrastructure will reduce cost and time specifically as Wellfield seeks to grow the MoneyClip app both within , and eventually to additional markets. Adds experienced team to manage growth  Coinmama's team of over 50 full time personnel, including the organization's senior management team, will be joining Wellfield. This is expected to provide the Company with the experience it needs to manage the growth it expects as it scales its offerings.

_________________________ 1 Unaudited fiscal 2021 results 2 Unaudited fiscal 2021 results

About Wellfield Technologies (TSXV:WFLD; FRANKFURT: K8D)

Wellfield builds advanced technology that uses blockchain to create the next generation of financial solutions for institutions and consumers. The Company has strong academic and development expertise in the rapidly growing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector, building its branded applications and critical infrastructure solutions directly on public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Join Wellfield's digital community on LinkedIn and Twitter, and for more details, visit wellfield.io.

Cautionary Notice on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking information" ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the Company's success in launching the protocols and other technologies and utilities discussed herein. In disclosing the forward-looking information contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking information will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: compliance with extensive government regulations; domestic and foreign laws and regulations adversely affecting the Company's business and results of operations; the impact of COVID-19; the decentralized finance industry generally, in Canada and abroad; and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive and readers are encouraged to review the listing application prepared in accordance with the policies of the TSXV and other disclosure documents accessible on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com . Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking information or otherwise.

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Wellfield Technologies
America's largest boating and fishing retailer to sponsor in-person and live-streamed events to promote accessibility and educate about the benefits of recreational boating and fishing

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- West Marine, America's leading retailer of supplies for the sailing, boating and fishing communities, today announced the inaugural Women Making Waves event series in partnership with Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation's (RBFF) consumer-facing brand, Take Me Fishing. The free, four-part interactive class series takes place each Wednesday in April and is designed to support increased female participation in fishing and boating. The events are open to the public and RSVPs are encouraged as space is limited.

"Interest in fishing and boating increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as families wanted to spend more time in outdoor, open-air environments," said Eric Kufel, West Marine CEO. "Time spent on and around the water provides a number of important mental health benefits, so our goal with the Women Making Waves class series is to ensure these new fans stay engaged for the long term  and for them to encourage their female friends to hop on board, too."

Women Making Waves is not just about increasing female participation in recreational boating and fishing; it also helps create awareness of how conservation efforts are impacted by everyone who purchases a fishing license or registers a boat. All funds collected for fishing license sales go directly back into water conservation projects from coast to coast.

"West Marine has been so supportive of Take Me Fishing's Women Making Waves initiative, encouraging the continued growth of women in fishing and boating," said Rachel Auslander, RBFF Director of Partnerships & Development. "These events provide a fantastic opportunity for our female presenters to share their fishing skills and knowledge of the local waterways with the public, both in person and online. It is our hope that their presence inspires other women and girls to get out on the water."

The industry's leading social media influencers, also known as Wave Makers, will host the Women Making Waves fishing demo events every Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m. local time in the following West Marine marine centers:

April 6 : Nicole Jacobs in Minnetonka, Minn.

: in Jacobs is a professional angler from St. Paul, Minn. who empowers others to follow their passions through faith and fishing. She's an avid bass angler and has competed in tournaments across the country since 2013.

who empowers others to follow their passions through faith and fishing. She's an avid bass angler and has competed in tournaments across the country since 2013. April 13 : Annie Nagel in Sausalito, Calif.

: in Nagel, a Sonoma County native, is a professional kayak angler who takes her fishing skills up the coast from Monterey Bay to Humboldt in Northern California . Although she's happy to catch any edible saltwater fish, her favorite targets are king salmon, rockfish and lingcod.

native, is a professional kayak angler who takes her fishing skills up the coast from Monterey Bay to in . Although she's happy to catch any edible saltwater fish, her favorite targets are king salmon, rockfish and lingcod. April 20 : Tiffany Risch (aka Snookie) in Virginia Beach, Va.

: (aka Snookie) in Born and raised in Virginia , Risch (known to many as @SnookieFishing) dedicates her life to fishing. She's worked as a deckhand alongside some of the best anglers in the business, honing her knowledge of the sport in freshwater and saltwater fishing.

, Risch (known to many as @SnookieFishing) dedicates her life to fishing. She's worked as a deckhand alongside some of the best anglers in the business, honing her knowledge of the sport in freshwater and saltwater fishing. April 27 : The Gale Force Twins in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

: The Gale Force Twins in During their time at University of Miami , Amanda and Emily Gale spent every summer break and long weekend on a busy fishing charter boat in Key West . It was there that they honed their fishing skills and earned their U.S. Coast Guard 50 Ton Captains licenses. Today, the duo runs Gale Force Twins, LLC where they build fishing communities and provide resources for saltwater fishing and boating.

Register for the Women Making Waves class series here. Visit West Marine to learn more, become a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Visit Take Me Fishing to learn and equip yourself for a day on the water, become a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok for more tips & tricks for all things fishing and boating.

About West Marine

Founded in 1968, West Marine is the leading integrated, omni-channel provider of aftermarket products and services to the boating, fishing, sailing, and watersports markets in the U.S. With 236 physical locations across 38 states and Puerto Rico and two eCommerce platforms reaching consumers and professional customers, West Marine is recognized as the leading resource for cruisers, sailors, anglers, and watersports enthusiasts. West Marine uses its scale, product breadth, and expert field associates to service all the needs of consumers seeking an exceptional on-water experience.

About Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF)

RBFF is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase recreational angling and boating participation, thereby protecting and restoring the nation's aquatic natural resources. RBFF's 60 in 60 effort strives to attract 60 million anglers to the sport by the end of 2021. To help recruit, retain and reactivate participants, RBFF developed the award-winning Take Me Fishing and Vamos A Pescar campaigns to build awareness of boating, fishing, and conservation and educate people about the benefits of participation. The campaign websites feature how-to-videos and an interactive state-by-state map that allows visitors to find local boating and fishing spots, helping boaters and anglers of all ages and experience levels learn, plan, and equip for a successful day on the water. RBFF also offers its industry stakeholders many tools, including a Fishing License & Boat Registration Plugin to connect their customers with the information they need in just one click. The embeddable Places to Fish & Boat Map helps customers discover places to fish and boat near them.

SOURCE West Marine
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares

Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial

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Edition: 17; Released: February 2022

Executive Pool: 16253

Companies: 80 - Players covered include B. Braun Melsungen AG; Aesculap AG; Boston Scientific Corp.; Conmed Corporation; Intuitive Surgical, Inc.; Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG; Medtronic, Inc.; Microline Surgical, Inc.; Olympus Corporation; Smith & Nephew, Inc.; STRYKER Corp.; Teleflex Incorporated; Teleflex Medical; Johnson & Johnson and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Product Type (Energy Devices, Access Devices, Closure Devices, Laparoscopes, Robot-Assisted Surgery Systems, Hand Instruments, Insufflators, Other Product Types); Application (General Surgery, Bariatric Surgery, Gynecological Surgery, Urological Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Other Applications); End-Use (Hospitals, Clinics, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.



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ABSTRACT-



Global Laparoscopic Devices Market to Reach $15.8 Billion by 2026

Laparoscopy is a form of minimally invasive surgery used in studying organs in pelvic and abdominal area of the body. The introduction of laparoscopic techniques revolutionized the surgical world through a gradual evolution from open surgical procedures to minimally invasive procedures. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, demand in the global market is expected to recover backed by the growing demand for minimally invasive procedures due to reduced recovery time, technological advancements, increasing adoption of laparoscopy for performing bariatric surgeries, rising cases of colorectal cancer, growing popularity of single-incision laparoscopic surgery, the availability of well-trained surgeons and growing acceptance of laparoscopic techniques. Factors such as increasing incidence of obesity and rising demand for bariatric surgery for its aesthetic appeal have pushed hospital admissions associated with bariatric surgeries. The market growth is also fueled by rising healthcare spending, insurance coverage, availability of advanced minimally-invasive surgeries, and adoption of minimally-invasive options due to fewer post-operative complications and faster recovery. Increasing technological advances and sophisticated surgeries with enhanced ergonomics and dexterity with low risks along with price declines are anticipated to present lucrative growth avenues.



Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Laparoscopic Devices estimated at US$12.3 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$15.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% over the analysis period. Energy Devices, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 7.5% CAGR and reach US$5.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Access Devices segment is readjusted to a revised 5.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Energy devices comprise advanced bipolar, monopolar, bipolar, harmonic, morcellator and integrated devices. Energy tools aid in different functions such as dissecting, cauterizing and resecting body tissue through a surgical procedure. Demand for single port access devices is on the rise in tandem with increasing single-port procedures.



The U.S. Market is Estimated at $3.8 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $2.3 Billion by 2026

The Laparoscopic Devices market in the U.S. is estimated at US$3.8 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$2.3 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.1% and 6.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 4.9% CAGR. The US remains at the forefront of adoption of sophisticated laparoscopic devices, and growth is being driven by rising geriatric population along with high incidence of abdominal and gastrointestinal conditions. The regional market is benefitting from high prevalence of morbid obesity and chronic medical conditions coupled with increasing demand for minimally-invasive surgery. The region is also witnessing increasing adoption of robotic technology for conducting laparoscopic procedures as a result of its superior precision. In Asia-Pacific region, growth is set to be driven by ageing population, improving healthcare infrastructure, and access to cost-effective laparoscopic procedures.

Closure Devices Segment to Reach $2 Billion by 2026

The mounting healthcare costs and growing need to alleviate complications associated with laparoscopy is driving the demand for safer, simpler and more consistent devices for port closure following laparoscopic surgery. Growth in the segment is being fueled by introduction of innovative port closure devices with improved clinical outcomes and rise in number of trained surgeons. In the global Closure Devices segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 6.4% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$1.1 Billion will reach a projected size of US$1.6 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$224.6 Million by the year 2026, while Latin America will expand at a 7.8% CAGR through the analysis period.

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
"Young is proud to offer BAK Probiotic Skincare to our market channel of elite plastic surgeons and dermatologists. The impressive technology is complimentary to Young's line of products while the edgy, sustainable packaging is beautiful," explains John Kulesza, Young Pharmaceuticals president and chief formulating chemist. Sren Kjrulff, Lactobio CEO comments "We are very excited about entering the world's largest dermatology and plastic surgery market. We are looking forward to leveraging Young's many years of experience in skincare." The exclusive distribution agreement includes North America and will only be available through dispensing medical offices and their on-line stores.

The official launch of BAK Skincare will take place March 25-27 at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Scientific meeting, Booth #2409, in Boston, MA.

About Young Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Young Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Wethersfield CT USA, was founded in 1977 as a developer of products for dispensing dermatologists. As transformative ingredients became available for such indications as photoaging, our scientists applied their pharmaceutical chemistry experience to formulating a new generation of aesthetic treatments. Today, Young remains committed to providing high-quality medical skincare products to dispensing physicians worldwide.

youngpharm.com

About Lactobio A/S

Lactobio A/S is a Danish Biotech company located in Copenhagen. The company was founded in 2017 with the aim of developing improved probiotic products based on new isolated probiotic strains identified by targeted screening. BAK Skincare, developed and produced by Lactobio, is an innovative topical skincare product line that supports the natural skin microbiome.

lactobio.com

Strategic guidance for the transaction was provided to Young and Lactobio by Scan MedPartners, LLC.

scanmedpartners.com

Contact for Media Relations: Jennifer Barnes [email protected]

SOURCE Young Pharmaceuticals
Poolbeg Pharma's Jeremy Skillington talks to Proactive London after signing a deal with CytoReason, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) to provide AI analysis of Poolbegs influenza disease progression data derived from human challenge study samples.

The company develops computational disease models for efficient drug discovery and development.

The partnership aims to harness the insights of Poolbegs unique repository of influenza human challenge trial data together with CytoReasons leading and validated AI technology.
AFC Energy PLC (AIM:AFC, OTC:AFGYF, ETR:QC8) has launched its new 10 kilowatt (kW) hydrogen power generator unit, branded as the Power Tower, as an off-grid power solution designed to displace fossil-fuelled generators.

The Power Tower, which can achieve full power within 30 seconds from start-up, is already being taken up by Spanish conglomerate Acciona and construction engineer Keltbray for operational deployments in the coming months.

Users of temporary power, such as the construction industry, are coming under increasing pressure to reduce emissions, and AFC Energy said the new product range will accelerate decarbonisation efforts at a time when diesel pricing pressures are rising.

With a smaller footprint and simpler design than its L-Series platform, the 10kW Power Tower has one of the smallest footprints of any comparable air-cooled fuel cell technology operating in the market today, the company said, helped by built-in energy storage to support users' peak operating loads.

AFC said the design of the Power Tower will enable it to be manufactured at high volumes when demand requires, with a robust supply chain established across all components and final assembly at the company's Dunsfold Campus.

Comprised of four AFCs air-cooled fuel cell stacks, with integrated battery storage, the Power Towers will initially use hydrogen as fuel but can easily be adapted to use methanol. For users with more power requirements, the units are designed to be easily combined in a modular system.

The first Power Tower will be on display at the company's annual general meeting on 7 April before being released to customer sites.
Brookside Energy Ltd (ASX:BRK) has completed a multi-stage stimulation operation at its Rangers oil and gas well in Oklahoma.

All stages were finished by Cudd Energy Services as designed, with the reservoir stimulated in accordance with Brooksides completion plan. Work concluded on schedule, safely and without incident.

Rangers is the second of three wells targeted under BRKs held-by-production program, which seeks to advance a series of oil and gas assets at Brooksides core holding in the SWISH Area of Interest within the world-class Anadarko Basin.

Now, its on to the final stage of completion operations at Rangers, which Brookside expects to close out in the coming weeks.

Planned activity includes:

Complete rigging up the coiled tubing unit;

Mill out the isolation plugs for each stage;

Commence circulation and well bore cleanup operations; and

Begin recovering the hydraulic stimulation fluid from the well.

Flowing back a high-impact well

Speaking to the development at Rangers, Brookside managing director David Prentice said: It is very pleasing to have this crucial part of the completion of the Rangers Well successfully executed by the Cudd crew under the supervision of our specialist contractors and the Black Mesa team.

Getting each stage pumped away as designed is obviously a very important step in the drilling and completion process, and with all the surface production equipment in place, we are now ready to remove the isolation plugs, clean up the well and commence flow back.

With oil at decade highs, it is a fantastic time to be flowing back this high-impact well and we look forward to keeping our shareholders updated over the coming weeks.

Oil prices soar

Brooksides work in the Anadarko Basin comes as oil prices move to record highs amid war in Eastern Europe.

Overnight, Brent Crude futures jumped 5% higher to US$121 a barrel as disruptions continue on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC)  one of the worlds key crude oil channels.

The CPC accounts for roughly 1% of the worlds crude oil demand, but sanctions on Russia  the second-largest crude exporter  has led to a supply disruption.

Lipow Oil Associates president Andrew Lipow told Reuters that prices would continue to march higher until the world worked out how to replace the 2 to 3 million barrels a day that were no longer being supplied.

Adding fuel to the fire, crude oil exports from Kazakhstans terminal on the CPC pipeline, located on Russias Black Sea Coast, were frozen on Wednesday.

Prologued bad weather and a major storm caused considerable damage to the terminal. The event could put exports from the pipeline on hold for up to two months, according to Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak.

Such events indicate therell be no stopping the oil prices meteoric rise in the weeks (and even months) to come.
Meeka Gold Ltd (ASX:MEK) has revealed broad zones of new high-grade rare earth element (REE) mineralisation at Circle Valley Project in the Albany-Fraser Orogen of Western Australia.

A systematic analysis of drill samples from both 2021 and 2022 drilling campaigns that were previously tested for gold has revealed iconic clay absorption style REE mineralisation, within an approximate area of 7 kilometres by 5 kilometres.

High grade intersections of total rare earth oxides (TREO) in parts per million (ppm) include:

4 metres at 1,269ppm TREO within 12 metres at 715ppm from 8 metres;

16 metres at 1,098ppm TREO within 36 metres at 672ppm from 12 metres;

4 metres at 937ppm TREO within 12 metres at 638ppm from 12 metres;

16 metres at 803ppm TREO within 23 metres at 582ppm from 12 metres; and

8 metres at 821ppm TREO within 15 metres at 606ppm from 28 metres.

These results contained an average 20% of neodymium-praseodymium within the TREO grades reported.

Data will form basis for REE exploration

Now we have received results for approximately 1,200 metres of the total 15,100 metres drilled at Circle Valley over the previous two field seasons it is apparent there is an opportunity in the exploration for ionic adsorption clay REE style mineralisation here, Meeka Gold CEO Tim Davidson said.

The tenure appears to be covered by a thick blanket of saprolitic clay, which as demonstrated by these results are proving to be a highly prospective horizon for the concentration of REE mineralisation.

Lithology logs from previous drilling have shown the prospective saprolite clay horizon blankets an area of about 10 kilometres by 5 kilometres, remaining open to the east.

As we systematically analyse the remaining 13,900 metres of drill samples for REE, we will overlay the results on the detailed lithology and regolith profile we now have of the tenure, along with the aeromagnetic and airborne EM (electromagnetic) data, to develop a targeting strategy, Davidson continued.

This will form the basis of ongoing fieldwork specifically targeting REE style mineralisation at Circle Valley later this year.

Meeka is still awaiting some 13,000 metres of reassess assays from Circle Valley, expected to be released periodically over the coming months.

About Meeka Gold

Meeka Gold is a junior gold explorer with a portfolio of exploration projects across Western Australia.

The flagship Murchison Gold Project has a combined 343 square kilometre landholding in the prolific Murchison Gold Fields of Western Australia and hosts a large, high-grade 1.1-million-ounce mineral resource.

The company also owns the Circle Valley Project and the Cascade Rare Earth Element Project, both within the Albany-Fraser Orogen in southern Western Australia.
Grab sample from Grnnedal-Ika showing a yet to be positively identified pink mineral that is highly anomalous in REE.

Eclipse Metals Ltd (ASX:EPM) has revealed total rare earth oxide (TREO) grades up to 4.66% in new carbonatite samples from the Grnnedal-Ika prospect at Eclipses multi-commodity Greenland Project, confirming the high-grade nature of the system hosted there.

Of six new samples taken, four returned values in excess of 1.00% TREO, consistent with previously reported REE assays.

Highlight multi-element assays from surface sampling of the Ivigtut and Grnnedal-Ika prospects include:

165 g/t silver, 0.15% copper, 3.83% lead and 0.37% zinc from Ivigtut mine dump;

0.32% lanthanum, 0.83% cerium, 0.12% praseodymium, 0.43% neodymium, 0.07% samarium, 0.05% gadolinium and 0.06% yttrium in Grnnedal-Ika surface sample;

0.60% lanthanum, 1.7% cerium, 0.24% praseodymium, 0.82% neodymium, 0.16% samarium, 0.11% gadolinium and 0.0.11% yttrium in Grnnedal-Ika surface sample;

0.27% lanthanum, 0.73% cerium, 0.10% praseodymium, 0.39% neodymium, 0.07% samarium, 0.05% gadolinium and 0.05% yttrium in Grnnedal-Ika surface sample; and,

0.65% niobium, 34 g/t silver, 0.96% lead, 0.15% copper, 0.16% tin, 200 parts per million lithium and 4.40% fluorine in Grnnedal-Ika surface grab sample of vein material.

REE exploration to provide data for 3D model

Our grab sampling program has once again verified the potential of both Ivigtut and Grnnedal-Ika to host REE mineralisation as well as precious, base and industrial metals, which is very encouraging, especially as the demand for REEs, in particular dysprosium, neodymium and praseodymium, as well as niobium continues to grow, Eclipse Metals executive chair Carl Popal said.

We have many historical core samples from Ivigtut that need to be assayed for these elements as there had not been any REE exploration previously at the project and this will provide us with a better understanding of what the existing pit holds, while we plan to create a 3D model for Grnnedal-Ika using the data we have at hand.

I am planning a site visit to Greenland and we are in the process to submit a work program to the Greenland Mineral Licence and Safety Authority (MLSA) for onsite work programs starting in the next few months as we work to progress our exploration and uncover the projects full potential.

About Eclipse Metals

Eclipse Metals is focused on exploration in south-western Greenland and Australia's Northern Territory and Queensland for multi-commodity mineralisation.

The company has a large portfolio of assets prospective for cryolite, fluorite, siderite, quartz, rare earth elements, gold, platinum group metals, manganese, palladium, vanadium, and uranium mineralisation.

Eclipse aims to increase shareholders wealth through capital growth by exploring and developing viable mineral deposits to generate mining or joint venture incomes.
Shaw and Partners' Davide Bosio talks to Proactive about gold, retail investor trends and the BHP demerger. The state manager says as the value of money continues to decline, gold picks are becoming increasingly attractive. Combine that with war in Ukraine, and investors are flocking to 'safe haven' investments like gold, driving up the prospects of our local precious metal stocks. As mining stalwart BHP prepares to demerge its energy assets, investors are set to receive a portion of Woodside shares and could be in for a dividend payday.
Horizonte Minerals PLC (AIM:HZM, TSX:HZM, OTC:HZMMF) has strengthened its board as it moves towards the production phase of its Araguaia and Vermelho nickel developments in Brazil with the appointment of two non-executive directors.

Gillian Davidson joins as an independent non-exec having had 25 years' experience in mining and natural resources and currently as a non-exec on the boards of Central Asia Metals, Lundin Gold (TSX:LUG) and New Gold.

Davidson is also a founding member and chair of the Global Battery Alliance and until 2017 was Head of Mining & Metals at the World Economic Forum.

Vincent Benoit, the other appointment, was CFO at soon to be FTSE 100 member Endeavour Mining PLC (LSE:EDV, TSX:EDV, OTCQX:EDVMF) between 2016 and 2019 and is currently working at La Mancha, which he rejoined in 2020 having instigated a restructuring in 2012.

Jeremy Martin, Horizontes chief executive, commented: "We are delighted to welcome two industry leaders to the board of Horizonte. Gillian and Vincent both bring new expertise to the senior team, particularly in the areas of sustainability, corporate finance and project oversight.

The appointment of Gillian and Vincent is the first phase of the board's evolution to better reflect our new shareholder register and the skillset required to successfully deliver two tier-one nickel projects through to production."
Red Rock Resources PLC (AIM:RRR) said it will delay its interim results by one month as it awaits drilling data from a number of targets.

Red Rock now plans to release its results for the six months to end-December 2021 in the second half of April.

Last month, the AIM-traded company said it was expecting drilling results from six targets in three countries over the coming weeks.

READ: Red Rock Resources close to announcing drilling results on a slew of targets

Drilling results from Congo and Kenya have been announced, although the company is still waiting for results from Australia, the Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe.

"We still have the gold drilling results from our diamond drilling programme in Victoria, Australia, to look forward to, and we also await the full results from a gold sampling programme across our Ivory Coast licenses, as well as results from lithium and tantalum sampling in Zimbabwe," said chairman Andrew Bell.

The company has reviewed its financial position and expects to have sufficient working capital available to it for the foreseeable future," Bell concluded.

Red Rock also reported that the pursuit of its legal rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo is progressing, with judgments rendered in its favour.
The upsized offering will consist of up to 20,000,000 units of the company at a price of $0.12 per unit

Gungnir Resources Inc said that, due to significant market demand, it has increased the size of its previously announced non-brokered private placement to aggregate gross proceeds of up to $2.4 million from $1.4 million previously.

The upsized offering will consist of up to 20,000,000 units of the company at a price of $0.12 per unit. Each unit will comprise of one common share in the capital of the company and one common share purchase warrant.

Each warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share at a price of $0.18 per share for a period of 24 months from the closing.

The net proceeds of the offering will be used to continue the exploration program, inclusive of drilling, at the company's 100% owned projects in Sweden, concentrating on its nickel resources, as well as for general corporate purposes.

The closing of the offering is subject to certain conditions, including but not limited to, the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

In connection with the offering, the company may pay finders' fees in cash or securities, or a combination of both, as permitted by the policies of the exchange.

All securities issued under the offering are subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the closing date.

The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States 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 the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws.

Gungnir Resources is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with gold and base metal projects in northern Sweden.

Its assets include two nickel-copper-cobalt deposits, Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget, with inferred resources totalling 177 million of nickel, and the Knaften project which hosts a developing intrusion-hosted gold system, and VMS (zinc-copper) and copper-nickel targets, all of which are open for expansion and further discovery.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
C3 Metals Inc (TSX-V:CCCM, OTC:CARCF) said it is getting set to drill some promising copper-gold targets in Jamaica.

The Toronto-based mineral company said it has secured a drill and is transporting it to the Bellas Gate property, where it holds 100% interest in three licenses covering an underexplored porphyry/epithermal area of the Caribbean country.

C3 is planning a 5,000-metre core drilling program, initially targeting a porphyry cluster at Bellas Gate.

Specifically, the group is zeroing in on the 'Porphyry Alley', a four-kilometre by two-kilometre mineral district that contains multiple porphyry prospects.

Previous drilling intersected strong porphyry copper and gold mineralization over broad intervals at multiple prospects, according to C3, with intercepts of up to 0.69% copper and 0.52 grams per ton (g/t) gold.

C3 CEO Kevin Tomlinson told investors that the company is very fortunate to hold a significant land package over high potential copper-gold belts in Peru and Jamaica. The compay is also drilling at its Jasperoide project in Peru.

Drilling of our flagship Jasperoide property in Peru continues to define a near-surface high-grade oxide copper-gold skarn and we are exploring this extensive alteration system for stacked high-grade skarns and their causative porphyries, Tomlinson said in a statement.

The CEO hailed the little known, yet highly-prospective Jamaican copper-gold targets.

The most recent drilling in Jamaica was undertaken from 2015 to 2017 which confirmed continuous zones of strong, near-surface, porphyry copper-gold mineralization that have not been followed up. In addition, reprocessing of geophysical data and our 'boots on the ground philosophy' of detailed mapping and sampling have provided an understanding of the geometry and controls of the hydrothermal system.

Jamaica is primarily known as a leading producer of bauxite and alumina, but it also has a long history of copper and gold production dating back several centuries.

"With the strong copper price, we consider it imperative to properly drill test these high-priority porphyry and epithermal targets, Tomlinson added.

The rig is currently on route to Kingston and drilling is expected to commence in late April.

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas
The Vale do Jequitinhonha region of Brazil is home to its flagship lithium project Grota do Cirilo

Sigma Lithium Corporation provided shareholders with a glimpse into its social initiatives in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region of Brazil, home to its flagship lithium project Grota do Cirilo.

The Canadian company said it is employing over 300 people on site, with nearly three-quarters of employees coming from the surrounding communities.

In a statement, the company laid out its environmental, social and governance (ESG) actions in the region, which is largely impoverished, including hunger programs, employment and education training, COVID-19 prevention, childcare initiatives and disaster relief support.

Sigma said it is actively engaged in supporting the communities in Vale do Jequitinhonha through multiple ESG initiatives, contributing to the sustainable development of the region as the company advances the construction of its Phase 1 Plant towards commercial production.

"Contributing to lift our neighbors in the communities around the project is the core purpose of Sigma, motivating us every day to execute faster and better, co-CEO Ana Cabral-Gardner told investors.

"As a large future producer of battery grade lithium, Sigma Lithium feels a great responsibility to develop its project with a focus on environmental and social sustainability, in alignment with the ethos of its customers. Our main objective is to play a leading role in building a sustainable supply chain for the EV Industry.

Some of its achievements so far include:

Reuniting families through its "Homecoming Program" (Volta Ao Lar)", bringing back home qualified workers that had migrated out of the region, due to lack of employment opportunities.

Extending humanitarian relief action for an additional 10-months pledging 7,000 more food baskets, which is expected to enable approximately 2.4 million meals.

Delivering an additional 6,000 litres of sodium hypochlorite totaling 30,000 litres together with Sigma Lithium's OMICRON COVID-19 prevention education booklet

Sponsoring an initiative to support the re-opening of two childcare centers serving 560 children in the municipalities where it operates.

Providing first response disaster relief supplying food and water for 400 victims who lost their homes as a result of the floods in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region during the unusually rainy season throughout New Year holidays and the month of January.

Organizing an educational partnership between the UFVJM (Campus Janauba) and the Federal Institute of Education of Aracuai, creating the first program to prepare mining technicians in the region.

Sigma Lithium is a resource company dedicated to powering the next generation of electric vehicle batteries with environmentally sustainable and high-purity lithium.
Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT, OTC:LMMFF)s joint venture partner, fellow ASX-lister Galan Lithium Ltd, has doubled down on a series of lithium targets at the Greenbushes South Lithium Project in Western Australia.

Recently, Galan rolled out an extensive fieldwork campaign at the project, and positive, anomalous soil assays have delineated prospective targets within the Donnybrook-Bridgetown Shear Zone.

Now, data from the campaign is being processed by Thomson Airborne, which carried out an airborne geophysical survey at Greenbushes South, and Southern Geoscience Consultants will interpret the results.

The results will inform the next phase of exploration at the lithium play, enabling Galan to generate and prioritise targets across the property.

Lithium Australia retains a 20% stake in Greenbushes South  in January 2021, it sold an 80% interest in the asset to Galan.

Strengthening geological data

Speaking to the fieldwork campaign, Galan managing director JP Vargas de la Vega said: We are excited with the prospectivity at our Greenbushes South Lithium Project and are encouraged with the new soil sample results that continue to indicate that the tracing elements that are found within the Donnybrook shear zone may well host lithium pegmatites the same as in the Greenbushes mine bordering to the north of our tenements.

Galan looks forward to further strengthening its geological data and knowledge within its tenements as soon as the report from our consultants is completed.

The results will formulate our next exploration phase when we will be able to generate and prioritise specific exploration targets in the area."

Fieldwork campaign

Recently, Galan secured results from a geochemical survey at Greenbushes South, which produced 425 soil samples and 14 rock chip samples.

These samples were taken at the northern edge of Galans E70/4790 tenement and at the mapped location of the Donnybrook-Bridgetown Shear Zone (DBSZ).

Notably, the zone is primarily associated with the syntectonic emplacement of lithium-bearing pegmatites from the Greenbushes mine to the north.

An airborne geophysical survey also wrapped up recently and is now in the data processing phase.

All up, 7,622 kilometres were flown at heights between 45 and 65 metres and the findings will improve targeting across the DBSZ and help identify lithium-bearing pegmatites.

Interestingly, pathfinder elements such as arsenic and antimony show elevated levels in soil samples near the trace of the DBSZ.

When combined with historical data in the area, this indicates the strong potential for pegmatite targets within Galans pending applications to the north.

Other pathfinder elements such as tin and rubidium show a broad lag (transported) signal east of the DBSZ.

Next steps

Galan has also submitted the final revision of its conservation management plan (CMP), which covers planned exploration activities on its pending applications.

The CMP outlines the proposed exploration and prospecting activities, management and communications for work within the Hester State Forest and proposed nature reserve.

Additionally, Galan has submitted a new CMP for a wholly-owned, pending tenement in the Donnelly State Forest.

Exploration within the tenement has been the focus for pegmatite-derived mineralisation, notably tin and tantalum, since the early 1900s.

More recently, however, exploration has targeted base metal mineralisation and lithium-tin-tantalum pegmatites.

A re-interpretation of historical geophysical data, acquired by Galan, indicates the DBSZ extends into Galan's pending tenement and may be responsible for the emplacement of pegmatites.

About Greenbushes South

Lithium Australia and Galans lithium play covers 353 square kilometres and is 200 kilometres south of Perth.

It rubs shoulders with the prolific Greenbushes Lithium Mine, which starts 3 kilometres south of the current Greenbushes open-pit mining operations.

Greenbushes is the largest hard-rock lithium mine in the world. It has been in operation since May 2014 and is run by Talison Lithium Pty Ltd (TSX:TLH), an incorporated joint venture between the Tianqi Lithium Corporation and Albemarle Corporation.

Greenbushes produces a concentrate of the lithium mineral, spodumene, to feed both China and Western Australian based mineral conversion plants or consumers of spodumene concentrates in Europe, North America and China.

In December 2020, Australian mining company IGO Ltd signed a deal to acquire a 24.99% stake in Greenbushes from Tianqi.
American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ARR) has demonstrated further rare earth potential at its flagship La Paz Rare Earths Project in Arizona, USA, after conducting a wide-area geologic mapping and surface geological sampling program.

The company has received encouraging assay results from the recent field geochemical samples - continuing to support further exploration activities at La Paz.

Moving forward, ARRs geologists are performing further detailed geological mapping and geochemical sampling in conjunction with the current exploration drill program aimed at expanding resources in the southwest zone of La Paz.

Expand exploration efforts

ARR managing director Chris Gibbs said: "The La Paz Project continues to exceed our expectations and is on track to become one of the largest rare earth projects in North America.

"We are currently drilling in the new Southwest Zone of the project where we have an exploration target of approximately 742-928 million tonnes to add to the 170.6 million tonnes JORC-compliant resource.

"We are further excited to report that assay results from fieldwork conducted in December 2021 indicate we should also expand our focus in the Northeast region."

Geologic mapping

In December 2021, ARR conducted a geologic mapping and surface geochemical sampling program across the full extent of the ARR claims at La Paz.

The mapping allowed ARR geologists to better define the extent of REE-bearing rock outcrops across the LPRE area.

Specifically, it provided more insight into the deposition and correlation between observed rock units

Geochemical surface sampling

ARR's geochemical surface sampling program collected 208 rock samples and 143 soil samples across the La Paz project area.

Notably, the geochemical data has indicated elevated total rare earth oxide (TREO) values in mylonitized dioritic and altered granodioritic gneisses lithologies.

The companys geologists compiled the results of the assays to augment ARR's broader geological knowledge of the area to highlight areas of higher REE grades and provide direction for additional exploration.

TREO assays of the 208 rock samples ranged between 33 parts per million (ppm) and 823ppm with an average of 280ppm.

While broad in scope, the results of the mapping and sampling provide ARR with key areas needing additional exploration and development.

Forward plan

ARR filed a geologic field operations plan (GFOP) with the Arizona State Lands Department (ASLD) that outlines a plan to drill at about 36 drilling sites on the state-owned section La Paz NE resource area.

This plan required an extensive environmental and cultural study across 242.8 hectares (600 acres) of the state section.

When the GFOP permit is approved, exploration drilling will allow ARR to update resource estimates in the La Paz NE region and collect fundamental data for conceptual mine design.

Gibbs adds: As such, we have lodged applications for an additional 36 drill sites with the Arizona State Lands Department.

"The sheer size and scale of this project continues to grow.

I'm looking forward to receiving the core assay results back from our current drill program and continuing to expand our exploration efforts in these new areas.

"I wish to pass on my thanks to the geology team on the ground who have been doing an amazing job as we develop this exciting project.

I urge you to watch our recent videos on our website and follow us on social media, where we provide regular updates."
Boris Johnson, touting a green industrial revolution, set ambitious targets that, if followed through, could seal the fate of vans and cars powered by internal combustion.

His 10-point plan would bring down the curtain on sales of the vast majority of petrol and diesel polluters by 2030, though hybrids would be available for another five years.

Electric vehicles will be part of the solution, but theyre not a panacea.

However efficient batteries become, there are limits to deployment, not just in transportation, but across other areas of the growing circular economy.

Hydrogen, wind, solar and biofuels will all have their role to play as Britain looks to address the severe climatological neglect first detected in the 1950s.

Innovation is key

Innovation will be key, which means a growing Sheffield company may find itself at the forefront of a technological arms race as the big manufacturers look to find new green solutions in transportation and energy.

Libertine Holdings PLC (AIM:LIB) is a technology and engineering company of linear generator products, which enable clean and efficient power generation from renewable fuels. Or more correctly, it has created a technology platform for the creation of linear generator products across a range of applications.

The market leader in this new product category is a US-based company called Mainspring Energy, which has already created and launched a successful linear generator that customers use to create green electricity.

Libertines target applications include small, packaged generators, but its platform has a host of other uses, including in hybrid powertrains for road transportation.

One of its corporate videos uses the example of a haulage company, where large battery-driven trucks are currently impractical on a number of levels, with recharging the main impediment to their commercial roll-out. Linear generator units would enable lorries to derive clean power from fossil-free fuels.

Success where others have failed

Car and truck manufacturers General Motors, Volvo and, most recently, Toyota have tried to develop linear generators with limited success.

None of these developers has moved the technology out of the lab. One of the main challenges has been the precise control of combustion as a result of the generators lack of a crankshaft.

Overcoming this issue requires a mix of sophisticated precision engineering, electronics solutions and software.

Libertines platform technology, intelliGEN, is a linear electrical machine and control technology platform that obviates the aforementioned technical obstacles.

Our technology combines e-machine hardware, embedded power electronics and controls along with the cooling and the bearing systems and the bounce chamber, explains Libertine chief executive, Sam Cockerill.

Using its patented know-how, Cockerill and his team aim to help equipment manufacturers, known as OEMs, create linear generators quickly, and relatively cheaply.

We aim to take away the pain and the risk and the hundreds of millions of dollars of cost and the high likelihood of failure which is normally been the case [with linear generators], says the Libertine CEO.

That's our proposition, and we expect this is going to turn the journey of making a linear generator from being one or two decades of painful development and investing hundreds of millions of dollars, into something that you can get done in five years for a few tens of millions.

Interest is growing

Interest in the technology is growing and Libertine is currently working on the MAHLE Powertrain to showcase the potential of linear generator technology to its prospective OEM customers.

It also has partnerships with as-yet-unnamed companies in India, Sweden, Australia, Italy and here at home in the UK spanning power and transportation.

Commercially, the group operates a three-pronged model, where it is deriving or will generate cash from engineering fees, IP licence payments and sales royalties.

In late December, Libertine floated on AIM, raising 9mln, which will be invested in expanding the engineering team and workshop facilities, while building out a business development operation.

Essentially, this [money] is providing us with the means to scale, doing what we've already done, nut just without the constraints of organic growth, says Cockerill.

Break-out point

However, the break-out point for the company, which was founded over 12 years ago, was not the initial public offering but came in 2017 when it received backing from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

This provided Libertine with the financial wherewithal to set up its current facility in Sheffield and create a technical team.

[Since then] we have gone from revenue of a couple of hundred thousand a year, with a big component that being grant revenues to around 3mln [of revenue] in this financial year, says Cockerill.

Over a third of that is commercial revenue.

Interest in the Libertine story will no doubt be enhanced by the success of others in the sector, including the pathfinder, Mainspring Energy.
'We expect that pharma will be keen to use this technology, which increases the probability of technical success and lowers both the cost and time of bringing new drugs to market,' said Predictive Oncology CEO J Melville Engle

Predictive Oncology Inc said it has achieved a key milestone towards monetizing its unique approach to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in oncology drug discovery.

Earlier this year, Predictive Oncologys Discovery 21 proof-of-concept campaign demonstrated its Patient-centric Discovery by Active Learning (PeDal) platforms ability to make high-confidence predictions of drug responses on ovarian tumor samples.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company, which is focused on applying AI to develop personalized cancer therapies, said the results from Discovery 21 are now validated and PeDAL has accurately and reproducibly predicted drug response results.

READ: Predictive Oncology set to market its flagship artificial intelligence drug discovery platform

These results demonstrate that PeDAL works with real-world drug compounds and tumor samples, Predictive Oncology CEO J Melville Engle said in a statement. We expect that pharma will be keen to use this technology, which increases the probability of technical success and lowers both the cost and time of bringing new drugs to market. This in turn will bring us closer to our overall mission of determining optimal therapies for the treatment of cancer.

Discovery 21 tested PeDALs ability to make drug response predictions, starting with an experimental space of 175 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cancer drugs and tumor samples from 130 ovarian cancers.

Predictive Oncology has a database with drug response results for over 150,000 tumor samples in over 137 tumor types, said Pamela Bush, senior vice president of Strategic Sales and Business Development, at Predictive Oncology. When we combine our database with PeDALs proprietary AI, we have an impressive tool for predicting whether a tumor will respond to a particular drug.

In Discovery 21, PeDALs AI predicted whether a specific tumor sample would respond to a drug with 91.8% accuracy, including predictions on drug/tumor sample combinations that had not been tested before. The Discovery 21 team has also developed a customer-facing portal to allow partners to evaluate and analyze project data and outcomes in real-time. The visual output of the portal will provide a platform for active collaboration and decision-making.

The companys PeDAL platform is powered by machine learning that drives experimental testing to evaluate models of hundreds of diverse tumor samples against hundreds of drug compounds for early-stage drug discovery. PeDALs AI iteratively improves the predictive models until it reaches a specific pre-determined goal. The customizable platform can leverage incomplete data and efficiently pick the best set of experiments so it can learn from the new experimental data.

Predictive Oncology explained that by selecting key experiments, PeDALs AI can make high-confidence predictions without testing the entire experimental space  meaning every drug with every tumor sample  thus saving valuable time and costs for the pharma industry. It inevitably helps companies select better drug compounds to move into clinical development. The AI component of PeDAL comes from an exclusive world-wide license from Carnegie Mellon University.

The completion of Discovery 21, and its subsequent validation, creates a path for Predictive Oncology to monetize its AI-driven approach, which brings efficiency to the drug discovery process. Predictive Oncology is set to be a first-mover in the AI-powered drug discovery market that the company estimates will grow to $20 billion in the next three years.

Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive
San Leon Energy PLC (AIM:SLE, AQSE:SLE, OTC:SLGYF)s 11.5% owned associate Decklar Resources, the operator of the Oza field in Nigeria, which has signed a crude handling agreement to deliver oil for injection into the Umugini pipeline.

The crude will be supplied to the UPIL crude handling facilities for Umugini and it will ultimately be delivered to the SPDC JV Forcados Oil Terminal for export and sale. It is anticipated that first shipments of oil to UPIL will start in early April.

After that, the next phase for the mid-to-long-term solution is seen as barging oil directly from storage facilities at Oza to a floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility, in shallow waters of the Bonny River. The company noted that shipping and exporting crude using barge and FSO could enable higher crude oil volumes per shipment and greater transportation and cost efficiency.

Decklar noted that Ozas on-site storage tanks hold around 20,000 barrels of oil, and as the Oza-1 well is brought into commercial production the company expects rates of 1,200 to 1,500 barrels of oil per day.
A 60-day extension for GlobalBlock UK under the temporary registration regime has been agreed with the FCA to ensure the company has a smooth transition to becoming a European-based Virtual Asset Service Provider

GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Ltd (TSX-V:BLOK, OTC:BLVDF) has provided an update on the pending application by the company's wholly-owned UK subsidiary, GlobalBlock Limited, for registration as a crypto asset business with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.

Over the past few weeks, the company said, it has had regular correspondence with the FCA regarding its application and has decided that a withdrawal from the FCA process is in the best interests of its clients and shareholders, with a view to reapplying at some point in the future.

A 60-day extension for GlobalBlock UK under the temporary registration regime has been agreed with the FCA to ensure the company has a smooth transition to becoming a European-based Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP).

GlobalBlock, therefore, also announced that, in conjunction with the above decision and fitting with its plans to expand the customer base beyond the UK, it has incorporated GlobalBlock Europe UAB in the European Union jurisdiction of Lithuania.

Thie company said this means that GlobalBlock UK will remain registered under the FCA's temporary regime in the UK until May 25, 2022, during which time the company will be registered as a VASP in Europe. This will ensure all client assets and trading services will continue as normal and accounts will be transitioned into a more crypto friendly regime.

GlobalBlock said it remains committed to the highest of regulatory standards, employing stringent policies and procedures in respect to Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing.

In a statement, Rufus Round, CEO of GlobalBlock, said: "Our client-centric approach has meant that the recent FCA developments have had little to no impact on the business in terms of clients' loyalty to the brand. GlobalBlock is dedicated to offering the best-in-class digital asset product solutions and crypto asset trading services and we are very aware that this nascent industry is subject to certain regulatory uncertainties."

"We look forward to transitioning them seamlessly to GlobalBlock Europe and the company's roadmap for growth remains intact, with plans to upgrade our technology soon. In turn we will be able to open further product offerings and opportunities for the business. The potential for MiCA and European crypto regulatory passporting is an exciting prospect that will open a huge market for us," he added.

GlobalBlock also confirmed that it has formally adopted the new Articles of Association that were approved by the shareholders of the company in accordance with the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) at the December 31, 2020, meeting of shareholders.

The purpose of implementing these was to modernize the company's Articles and better align them with recent legal and regulatory developments and market practice by TSX Venture Exchange listed companies.

The major changes from the former Articles included the adoption of "advance notice" provisions, updates to the mandatory indemnification provisions and certain "housekeeping" amendments that were intended to clarify and simplify the Articles.

GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited provides a personalised telephone brokerage service, trading platform and mobile app. Established in 2018 by an experienced team of financial services professionals, the company acts as a trusted agent serving the digital asset needs of individuals, corporates, institutional financial firms and intermediaries, providing best execution trading and safe custody of digital assets.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
Cloud DX said under its Patient First program, the clinics will deploy Connected Health to control exacerbations and avoid hospital admissions and ER visits

Cloud DX (TSX-V:CDX, OTCQB:CDXFF) Inc announced that it and its partner Maxwell Telecare have signed two additional new contracts with US-based primary care practices in Illinois.

The company said under its Patient First program, the clinics will deploy Connected Health to control exacerbations, improve quality of life, avoid hospital admissions and emergency room (ER) visits.

It added that the participating Maxwell clinics will prescribe the kits under US codes for reimbursed Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Chronic Care Management, paid for by public and private health insurance.

Maxwell Telecare understands the value of RPM and how it improves not only a clinic's return on investment but more importantly improves patient care and patient outcomes, Cloud DX (TSX-V:CDX, OTCQB:CDXFF) deployment manager Rajani Nair said in a statement.

As deployments across their network scale, the Maxwell team seamlessly integrates our Connected Health kit as part of their patient offerings, reimbursable in the US for RPM or Chronic Care Management, Nair added.

The company noted that the new contracts will contribute to a record-setting quarter for Cloud DX (TSX-V:CDX, OTCQB:CDXFF), bringing the total signed contracts this quarter to 12.

Accelerating virtual healthcare, Cloud DX is focused on making healthcare better for everyone. Its connected health remote patient monitoring platform is used by healthcare enterprises and care teams across North America to virtually manage chronic disease, enable aging in place, and deliver hospital-quality post-surgical care in the home.

Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com
United Nations : , March 24 (IANS) The 15-member UN Security Council has failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Two members (Russia and China) voted in favour of the text and 13 others abstained. The text submitted by Russia was rejected, Xinhua news agency reported.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the US to be adopted.

Russia's draft resolution expresses grave concern about reports of civilian casualties and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, including the growing number of internally displaced persons and refugees.

The draft text also calls for the protection of civilians, including humanitarian and medical personnel, respect for international law and the protection of civilian objects and critical infrastructure, safe and unhindered evacuation of all civilians, and unhindered humanitarian access in Ukraine.

The Council has held three briefings on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine since the conflict erupted, respectively on February 28, March 7 and March 17.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Moscow, March 24 : Russia has said it is expelling US diplomats in response to Washington's recent expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United Nations (UN).

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday in a statement that it summoned a senior diplomat of the US embassy in Moscow on Wednesday and declared a list of American diplomats "persona non grata", Xinhua news agency reported.

The US side was told that any hostile actions against Russia will receive a decisive and adequate response, it added.

The Ministry did not disclose how many US diplomats are targeted and the deadline of their departure.

The US on February 28 announced the expulsion of 12 staff members of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and a Russian national working with the UN Secretariat.
Washington, March 24 : Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State of the US, has died, her family announced. She was 84.

Albright died of cancer, her family said in a statement on Wednesday, adding she was "surrounded by family and friends" during the final moment of her life, Xinhua news agency reported.

A native of Prague, then Czechoslovakia, she migrated to the US in 1948 as an 11-year-old refugee, rising to the top of US Foreign Service as she held the post of Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001 during the Bill Clinton administration.

During her tenure at the State Department, she championed the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), pushing in particular for the alliance's military intervention -- led by the US in 1999 -- into the conflict in Kosovo between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

NATO's 78-day airstrike campaign against then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia extended to the bombardment of the capital city of Belgrade.

Before becoming the Secretary of State, Albright was the US Ambassador to the United Nations between 1993 and 1997. She was a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service at the time of her death.
New York, March 24 : Nearly 6,500 people -- mostly Black men, women and children -- were brutally murdered between 1865 and 1950 by White Americans who saw it as a way to terrorise, control and subjugate them, reported The Washington Post.

"Local, state and federal officials ignored, tolerated and even approved the racial violence. Lynching's stain will never -- can never -- be cleared away," said the article titled "Opinion: Why did it take so long to make lynching a hate crime?" However, now there will be no more looking away, with a bill making lynching a federal crime finally headed to the White House to be signed into law, according to the report.

The Senate earlier in March gave unanimous consent to legislation that would designate lynching a hate crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison. US President Joe Biden promised to sign the bill, which was approved earlier by the House, Xinhua news agency reported.

Though enactment of the anti-lynching act might be "mostly symbolic," said the report, "it is important that this country make clear that the lynching of Black people is not -- and never was -- acceptable."
Damascus, March 24 : Syrian President Bashar Assad discussed the developments of talks on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Damascus, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

During the meeting on Wednesday, Assad said reaching an agreement on the nuclear deal has become more important than ever for serving Iran's interests and the regional and global balance, said the report.

For his part, Amir Abdullahian briefed Assad on the ongoing nuclear talks, saying his country has made proposals in line with the rights and interests of the Iranian people, and reaching an agreement requires the West to show serious will in responding to the proposals, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two sides also discussed bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism. The Iranian Foreign Minister stressed Syria's role in regional stability, reiterating that his country would stand by Syria and its people until it regain control of all territories.
Kiev, March 24 : Oksana Baulina, a Russian journalist reporting for investigative website The Insider, was killed during shelling in Kiev, according to media reports.

"Oksana Baulina, a journalist for The Insider, died under fire in Kiev while performing an editorial task. She was filming the destruction after Russian troops shelled the Podolsk district of the capital," Ukrayinska Pravda quoted the website as saying in a statement on Wednesday night.

"Another civilian was also killed, and two more people who accompanied her were wounded and hospitalised," the statement added.

The website went on to say that it "will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas which result in the deaths of civilians and journalists".

According to the Ukrayinska Pravda report, Baulina had previously worked for the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.

Baulina was "forced to leave Russia after the organisation was added to the extremist list. She went to Ukraine as a correspondent, where she managed to make several reports from Lviv and Kiev", the report said.

Since Russia's war started on February 24, several journalists have died in the line of duty.

Video journalist Brent Reno was killed at a checkpoint near Irpin, journalist Viktor Dudar was killed during hostilities near Mykolayiv, and live cameraman Yevhen Sakun was killed in a missile attack in Kiev, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

US journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud was shot dead on March 13 he was filming in the town of Irpin outside.

Two days later, Fox News journalists - cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshinova, were killed when their vehicle was struck by incoming fire on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.

Meanwhile, local journalists Victoria Roshchyna and Oleh Baturin were abducted by Russian forces, but have since been released.
Kiev, March 24 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for protests across the world on Thursday as Russia's ongoing invasion of Kiev completes a month since it started on February 24.

"The war of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine. Its meaning is much wider... Russia started the war against freedom... This is only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land," Zelensky said in his nightly video message which he addressed in English for the first time.

"Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe. Of all the people in the world.

"It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters. It tries to show that people do not matter... That's the reason we must all stop Russia, the world must stop Russia. The world must stop the war.

"One month already. That long. It breaks my heart, the hearts of all Ukrainians and every free person on the planet.

"That's why I ask you to stand against the war... Show your standing, come from your offices, your homes, your schools and your universities, come in peace... Come in the name of Ukraine, with Ukrainian symbols to support freedom, to support life.

"Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard. Say that people matter, freedom matters, peace matters. Ukraine matters," he added.

Since the war began on February 24, Zelensky has been posting the nightly video messages on various social media platforms.

Russia has continued its hostilities by bombarding major cities across Ukraine in order to advance towards Kiev.

Forces have are continued to bombard and blockade the southern port city of Mariupol, where residents have run out of water and food and an estimated 90 per cent of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed, said the BBC.

Russian shelling also continue in Kiev, Chernihiv and Kharkiv Meanwhile in Irpin, located about 40 km from Kiev which has seen fierce fighting in recent weeks, is back in Ukrainian hands, according to authorities in the capital.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, March 24 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will embark on a four-day visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday, marking his first overseas trip since taking office in May 2021.

During the trip, the Chief Minister will visit the India Pavilion at the Dubai Expo and also conduct high-profile meetings with several CEOs of many foreign and Indian companies to push the case of the state as an investment destination.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu Industries Department told IANS that Stalin will highlight the improved law and order situation in the state, as well as the political stability, citing back-to-back electoral victories for his party since the 2019 general elections.

The Chief Minister's office said that after a few high-profile meetings in Dubai, Stalin will reach Abu Dhabi where he will meet the rulers of the UAE.

After Stalin's visit concludes on Sunday, his business discussions will be followed up by his team of officials.

Sources in the Industries Department told IANS that the Chief Minister will monitor the developments after his visit and will push aggressively for more investments to the state and transform it into one of the most sought-after destinations in South India.

Stalin is also scheduled to meet the Tamil diaspora in the UAE and will share the state government's new schemes and projects undertaken for the welfare of the people.
Chennai, March 24 : The elite 'Q' branch of the Tamil Nadu Police have increased security across the coastal areas of the state following the possibility of a huge refugee influx from Sri Lanka in view of the internal crisis in the island nation.

A total of 16 refugees, including children, have landed in the state after being rescued by the Indian Coast Guard and Tamil Nadu Marine Police.

The refugees were produced before a magistrate court which sentenced three adults from the first batch of six Sri Lankan refugees for 15 days of judicial custody. The first batch of Sri Lankan refugees included R. Gajendran (24), his wife Mary Clary (23), their four-month-old son, Nishanth, Duri (28), and her children, Esther (9) and Moses (6).

The court allowed Nishanth and Moses to stay with their mothers while Esther (9) was handed over to her grandmother who is in the Sri Lankan refugee camp at Vellore.

The second group of 10 refugees who reached the shores of India on Tuesday late night were identified as Sivarethnam (30), his wife Mery Yalini (27), their children, Reshalini (8) and Sindhuja (5), Seythu Mohammed (45), his wife Sivasankankathi (33), and their children, Samila (17), Mujini (15), Mohammed (13) and Bhoomika(8).

All of them are from Vavuniya district of Sri Lanka and the state government has decided to keep them at the Mandapam refugee camp at Rameswaram.

Jacintha Lazarus, Commissioner for Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non-Resident Tamils while speaking to IANS said, "We have asked the authorities to keep such people at Rameswaram camp and to conduct inquiries at the camp itself." It may be recalled that during the Civil war in Sri Lanka more than 1,00,000 people reached India and, especially in Tamil Nadu. They are lodged in 107 refugee camps across the state.

The Tamil Nadu Police along with the Indian Coast Guard have beefed up the security at the coastal line to prevent the huge refugee influx and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin has already written to the Government of India regarding the possible crisis.

The state government has also issued special advisories to Tamil Nadu fishermen to immediately inform the authorities if they spot any illegal movement in the sea.
New Delhi, March 24 : An aide of gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was shot dead in a suspected case of gang-war in the KN Katju area in Delhi's Rohini, police said.

A senior police official said that they got a call about the incident at around 10 p.m.

Initial inquiry revealed that the victim, identified as Shekhar Rana alias Sannata, a resident of Khera Village, was alone in his car when he was attacked by armed men on Wednesday night.

The assailants opened fire indiscriminately at his vehicle and fled the scene.

"Apparently two rounds have hit the victim as seen on the body. One wound is on the right rib and the other on the inner part of left thigh," the official added.

"The victim was rushed to BSA Hospital and later on referred to MAX Hospital Pitampura, where he succumbed to his injuries," the police official said.

A case has been lodged and manhunt is on to nab the assailants.
New Delhi, March 24 : An 85-year-old man was allegedly beaten to death by a teenage boy for objecting to assault on his pet dog in Najafgarh area, police said on Thursday.

The man succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday, while undergoing treatment in Rao Tula Ram Memorial Hospital.

The Dwarka District police which probed the matter has apprehended the 17-year-old boy in this connection.

According to police, they got a PCR call from the victim Ashok Kumar's daughter regarding the incident. A police team was then rushed to the crime scene," said a senior police official.

By the time police reached the spot, the injured was taken to Rao Tula Ram Memorial Hospital for the treatment.

In her statement, Meena, the wife of the deceased, said that the boy, their neighbour, had barged into their house and attacked her husband with an iron rod repeatedly.

The police learnt that the deceased's dog was barking at the juvenile which upset him. In a fit of rage he entered the house of the deceased and started beating the dog.

"When Ashok tried to rescue his dog he was too hit by the juvenile. Ashok suffered severe head injuries and started bleeding profusely. He was rushed to the hospital," said the police.

Initially, a case was lodged under sections 323 and 452 of the IPC. After the victim succumbed to his injuries, section 302 of the IPC was also added in the FIR.

The juvenile was produced before Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), from where he was sent to an observation home.

Further investigation in the matter is on.
Washington, March 24 : US drug maker Moderna said it will request the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate children under 6 years of age.

The company will submit the request to the FDA, as well as the European Medicines Agency and other global regulators "in the coming weeks", Xinhua news agency quoted Moderna as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

The submission was based on tests of its Covid-19 vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, in children aged 6 months to under 2 years, and 2 years to under 6 years.

The interim analysis showed a robust neutralising antibody response in both age groups after a 25 microgram two-dose primary series of mRNA-1273 along with a favourable safety profile, according to the company.

In the study, vaccine efficacy in children aged 6 months to 2 years was 43.7 per cent, and 37.5 per cent in the 2 to under 6 years age group, said Moderna.
Sanaa, March 24 : A photojournalist was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz, a police officer said.

The officer told Xinhua news agency on Wednesday that "the body of Fawaz Al-Wafi, an independent photojournalist, was found inside his car in Wadi Al-Qadi area, and he was stabbed several times".

The official said that the local authorities are conducting investigations into the incident, and an official statement will be issued later.

The motive behind the killing is yet to be determined, and no one has claimed responsibility so far.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a total of 22 journalists have been killed in the war-torn nation from 1992 to 2022.

Yemen ranked 169 in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

There are very few foreign reporters on the ground, while Yemeni journalists are trapped in the middle of all these forces, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Around 20 are currently held by the Houthi militia or Al Qaeda, most of them since 2015, it claims.

According to the RSF, online access to media outlets has been blocked ever since the Houthis overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.

In all parts of the country, citizen-journalists are monitored and can be arrested for a single social media post.
Seoul, March 24 : North Korea fired an apparent long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday, South Korea's military said.

The North appears to have launched the projectile at a lofted angle, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It did not provide other details, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The North's move came four days after it fired four artillery shots into the Yellow Sea, apparently using multiple rocket launchers, from Sukchon, north of Pyongyang.

Last week, the North unsuccessfully fired an apparent long-range rocket system.

Concerns have persisted that the North could engage in provocative acts down the road as it made a veiled threat in January to lift its years-long self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests.
Miami, March 24 : After a dominant run to the quarterfinals in Indian Wells, Australia's Nick Kyrgios stayed in Miami with another straight-sets victory on Wednesday.

His 7-6(3), 6-3 win did not come easy against the "ridicuously tricky" France's Adrian Mannarino, but strong serving kept the pressure off and set up power-packed late strikes in both sets.

Kyrgios' doubles partner, Thanasi Kokkinakis, was also victorious against a veteran French opponent on Wednesday evening. The 25-year-old was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Richard Gasquet.

"That first-serve percentage was key tonight," Kyrgios said after the match. "If I miss my first serve, he's going to be on the front foot from the early jump, and I couldn't afford to do that tonight against such a tricky opponent." Kyrgios posted an 82 per cent win rate on first serve, making 75 per cent of his first deliveries, and did not allow the crafty Frenchman a break point. While Mannarino was strong on serve himself, allowing just one break chance in each set, Kyrgios struck a flurry of return winners at the crucial moments in both sets.

He found a killer angle off the return to secure an early mini-break in the first-set tie-break, surprising even himself with his precision from outside the doubles alley.

On the return at 3-4 in the second, Kyrgios fired back-to-back backhand return winners to turn 30/15 into 30/40. He had to wait a little longer to find a winner on break point, as he showed great patience before a lengthy rally with a looping forehand.

Ace No. 12 ended the match after one hour, 32 minutes, setting up a second-round showdown with Andrey Rublev, already a two-time ATP Tour champion in 2022.

Kyrgios' doubles partner Kokkinakis had the better of the early exchanges but missed out on his first four break points as Gasquet led, 3-4. But from there, the Aussie won nine of the last 11 games to ease through to the second round, where he'll face 13th seed Diego Schwartzman.

The World No. 96 improved on his showing at Indian Wells, where he qualified before losing to Sebastian Korda in the opening round. He again qualified in Miami, matching his efficiency at that stage in the desert by doing so with a pair of straight-sets wins.

After winning their maiden Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open, Kokkinakis and Kyrgios reached the Round of 16 in Indian Wells and will look to go further as a duo in Miami.
Chennai, March 24 : A Pondicherry-based social activist has disclosed that actor Vijay Sethupathi has silently helped over a lakh people in the state to secure employment.

The activist, Veerarahavan, runs a non-governmental organization called Vallallar Velai Vaaipu Sevai Iyakkam, which is engaged in guiding and providing employment services free of cost to youngsters.

The NGO also has helped many companies in Pondicherry and several districts of Tamil Nadu find suitable employees.

Veerarahavan, who was working as a teacher in a central government school, initially started helping people on a part-time basis in the year 2016. At that point, he helped people find employment through three Whats App groups that he started. By 2019, he had managed to help around 3300 people secure jobs.

His service did not go unnoticed and Veerarahavan was invited to participate in a television show called 'Namma Ooru Hero' (Our Village's Hero). Vijay Sethupathi, who was the host of the show, was impressed with Veerarahavan's services.

Says Veerarahavan, "After the show ended, Vijay Sethupathi told me that he would do everything possible to help me provide my service on a full-time basis." Trusting his words, Veerarahavan chose to resign his teacher's job. The programme in which Veerarahavan participated was aired on a popular TV channel in March 2019.

"Soon after the programme was aired, I was flooded with calls from companies looking for employees and youngsters looking for opportunities. When I drew Vijay Sethupathi's attention, he immediately helped me set up a proper office in Pondicherry and recruit people to run it. All government norms were followed and a proper service organisation called the 'Vallallar Velai Vaaipu Sevai Iyakkam' came into existence.

"Vijay Sethupathi's help was not an ordinary one. He kept disbursing the salaries of all my employees and me every month on time. As a result, both companies looking for employees and youngsters looking for employment stood to gain. As of March 20, 2022, 1,00,133 educated youngsters have stood to benefit from our services and have found suitable employment." Apart from giving out information on providing information about vacancies in private entities, the NGO also gives out information on vacancies in government departments. This apart, it also provides help to those looking to generate self-employment.
New Delhi, March 24 : Two-wheeler major Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India is conducting a feasibility study to introduce an electric two-wheeler option in India.

At present, the second largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India offers 21 products including bikes as well as scooters.

However, it does not have an electric powered option in its India stables.

"We are currently in the feasibility study and planning stages," a senior company official told IANS.

On a global level, Honda has a solid electric powered product line-up in key markets such as China.

Notably in India, the company's competitors have introduced electric products.

On the overall business environment, the company maintains a stand of 'Cautious Optimism' regarding the growth prospects in 2022.

Accordingly, the official said that Omicron wave delayed the recovery further and led to many restrictions coming back across various states in India.

"Not just limited to India, the impact of the new wave was felt globally. However, mild severity of the wave ensured business continuity, though subdued." Last month, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India reported total sales of 312,621 units in February 2022 down from 4,42,740 units sold during the corresponding period last year.

In parallel, Honda's exports for the month stood at 26,944 exports.

In addition, the company expects a positive impact of new academic session on sales.

"Across both scooter and motorcycle segments, student community constitutes as one of our key customer groups. The scooters with their unisex appeal, have a wider acceptance amongst the students and teachers," the official said.

"Therefore, as new academic session begins, we are expecting customer enquiries, dealership footfalls and overall sales to increase in coming months." (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)

-- Syndicated from IANS
New Delhi, March 24 : A few hours after the alleged controversy erupted on social media that a man was denied hotel room because he was a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, the Delhi Police have clarified that there were no directions from their side, and they were mulling penal action against those who were spreading fake news.

The Delhi Police on Thursday clarified that they had not given any direction to any hotel regarding who will stay or who cannot.

"A purported video is viral on social media wherein a person is being denied hotel reservation due to his J&K ID. The reason for cancellation is being given as direction from the police. It is clarified that no such direction has been given by the Delhi Police," said a senior police official.

The official said that it has come to their notice that the aggrieved person in the video while posting the same on YouTube has stated that he stayed in the same area in another hotel and it was a lame excuse given by the hotel.

"Some netizens are trying to discredit the image of Delhi Police through willful misrepresentation of the video in circulation which can attract penal action," the police said.

The matter was posted by Nasir Khuehami, a verified handle on Twitter which claimed that due to the impact of 'The Kashmir Files', the man was denied entry to the hotel. He also posted a video in this respect.

Police said they were also checking the authenticity of the video as it was said that it could be an old video.

Meanwhile, OyoRoom replied on Twitter that their hearts and rooms were open for all.

The matter took a political turn on Thursday after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh took to Twitter to criticise the Centre on the matter.

"Utterly shameful. By such an attitude Amit Shah ji are you not driving Kashmiris more against us itself? What is this? "Please ask Delhi Commissioner Police to enquire into it and punish who ever has given such an order," Singh tweeted.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Kumar the hotel owner said that all the rooms were full and hence they didn't accept booking. He said it was the guest who was using filthy language.

"Facts have been twisted, things are being highlighted in a different manner. The guests had a booking through OYO; all rooms were occupied except one room whose AC wasn't functioning properly," Kumar said.

Police said they were looking into the action and penal action would be taken against the guilty persons.
New Delhi, March 24 : Thousands of birds crammed up in small cages and kept in suffocating rooms, have been rescued from illegal traders at the Kabutar Market near Jama Masjid.

The rescued birds included adult and baby parakeets, both ring-necked and plum-headed parakeets; hundreds of muniyas; two hill myanas and a pigeon.

Delhi Police carried out a raid on Wednesday based on a complaint that the birds were crammed on top of each other into small cages and in small, dark, unventilated rooms where they were struggling for air and space.

Baby parakeets were found stuffed on top of each other in tiny cardboard boxes. Many dead parakeets were found trapped between the wire mesh of the cages and on the floor, and some bodies had even started decaying.

PETA India said its representatives had first alerted the police about the situation and then filed a formal complaint at the Jama Masjid police station.

"We have requested that an FIR be registered under various sections of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA), 1960 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860. We have also filed another complaint with the Delhi Forest Department, calling on them to register a preliminary offence report under various sections of the Wild Life (Protection) Act (WPA), 1972," PETA India said.

Hill mynas are protected under Schedule I of the WPA, and an offence involving such protected species is punishable with a minimum of three years in prison, which may be extended to up to seven years, and also with a fine of at least Rs 10,000.

Other rescued parakeets and muniyas are also protected species under Schedule IV of the WPA, and an offence involving them may lead to imprisonment for up to three years, a fine of up to Rs 25,000, or both.

The birds are currently in the custody of the Forest Department and the adult parakeets, muniyas, and hill mynas are expected to be released into their natural habitat after examination by a veterinarian and upon receiving the Court's permission.

As per the direction of the deputy conservator of forests (North), the responsibility of the care and management of the rescued birds, including the baby and juvenile birds, has been given to Wildlife SOS.

PETA India's rescue team nursed, fed, and offered water to all of the rescued birds while they were at the police station and later at the forest department's office.

PETA India senior advocacy officer, Harshil Maheshwari said: "PETA India applauds the Delhi police for sparing these birds a neglected life and for showing that illegal treatment of animals will not be tolerated."
San Francisco, March 24 : Micro-blogging site Twitter has announced that its Direct Message (DM) search feature has received an upgrade as it can now search through the content of your conversations and return specific messages that contain whatever keyword you type in.

Before users could only use it to search for people's names or the names of group chats, but now if they want to find that one conversation they had with a friend about "chili" they can just type it into the search bar, reports The Verge.

Of course, searching for person or conversation names still works, and users can even decide whether they want to see results for people, groups, or messages -- handy if the keyword they are trying to search happens to be someone's name.

This change has been a long time coming, the report said.

When Twitter brought DM search to Android in May 2021, it said that content search was coming later that year.

The company seems to have missed that deadline by a bit, but at least it is available on every platform -- the original search was available on iOS for almost two years before Twitter added it to Android.
Hyderabad, March 24 : Aircraft maker Airbus has forecast that India will require 2,210 new aircraft over the next 20 years when the country's air passenger traffic is expected to grow at 6.2 per cent per annum, the highest in the world.

The fleet could comprise 1,770 new small and 440 medium and large aircraft.

To serve its growing aviation industry, India will also require an additional 34,000 pilots and 45,000 technicians by 2040.

The forecast was announced by Airbus on the sidelines of Wings India 2022, Asia's largest civil aviation show which began here on Thursday.

Airbus said it would deliver more than one aircraft to India every week for the next 10 years.

"Over the next decade, India will grow to have the largest population in the world, its economy will grow the fastest among the G20 nations, and a burgeoning middle class will spend more on air travel. As a result, passenger traffic in India will grow at 6.2 per cent per annum by 2040, the fastest among the major economies and well above the global average of 3.9 per cent," said Brent McBratney, Head of Airline Marketing, Airbus India and South Asia.

India has witnessed an upward trend in the growth of air traffic over the last 10 years -- with domestic traffic growing almost threefold and international traffic more than doubling.

Remi Maillard, President and MD, Airbus India and South Asia, said India has huge untapped potential in the long-haul market.

On international routes, India has only about 1/10th of the widebody fleet installed in similar markets, depriving homegrown carriers of a larger share of the profitable long-haul routes now dominated by foreign airlines.

"We have seen India's domestic market develop strongly with our flagship A320 aircraft. It is time now for Indian carriers to unlock the potential of international travel in and out of India, leveraging the country's demographic, economic and geographic dividends," said Remi Maillard.

"Whether it is expanding existing airlines or supporting new airlines, there must now be a re-fleeting and rethinking about future-oriented solutions with technology that paves the way for sustainable long-range travel. The A350 is the perfect solution for that," he said.

Airbus is displaying the A350 at the airshow which will continue till March 27.

The complete Airbus product line comprises the only aircraft specifically designed for the small single-aisle market, the A220, the world's best-selling A320 Family, the mid-size widebody A330/330neo and the Long-Range Leader, the A350.

Maillard said Airbus has been ramping up focus on sourcing core capabilities across product life cycle from India.

Currently, the annual sourcing of Airbus from India is at more than $650 million from 45 suppliers.

Airbus also supports 7,000 jobs, including about 1,650 engineers in India.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Sonipat, March 24 : The Jindal School of Journalism and Communication (JSJC), O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), an "Institution of Eminence" as recognised by the Government of India, is admitting students to its new B.A. (Hons) Film and New Media Programme.

This innovative programme offers courses on art history, cinematography, direction, screenwriting, film appreciation, video editing, sound design, animation and gaming. The emphasis is on documentary and narrative non-fiction. Like the journalism and media studies programme, the film programme will honour the liberal arts tradition of holistic learning and critical design practice and is perhaps the only one of its kind in the country.

According to Professor Tom Goldstein, Founding Dean of the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication, formerly Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism and the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, "Now, more than ever, it is crucial for young, talented minds to be exposed to the kind of broad-based academic subjects that the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication has worked so far to offer." The Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University, Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar said, "JSJC students over the years have reported that they have had a unique experience of studying at an exciting school with an innovative and interdisciplinary curriculum that offers a wide range of international opportunities. The programme stresses on the basics; reading and writing and is rooted in the best traditions of liberal arts education.

"Our students are placed in legacy institutions across broadcast and print in India and at the same time in digital and new media platforms. Since 2017, our students have interned with the BBC South Asia, NDTV, TV18, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Times of India (digital), Newslaundry, Newsminute, The Tribune and other media and production houses." While JSJC prides itself on producing working journalists through its skill-intensive, studio-based curriculum, many students have gone on to pursuing Masters' degree programmes in universities such as the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Toronto Film School, Columbia University and King's College, London. Frequently, journalism students go on to diverse areas of study such as human rights, law, policy, design and film.

Professor Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Executive Dean, JSJC, a former broadcast journalist who has made several documentaries and reported widely from India's conflict zones, says JSJC has a responsibility in training future storytellers: "We need more and more journalists and truth/storytellers to help make sense of what is happening around us. We try to offer innovative, sustainable, market-driven training focusing on niche reporting and new media skills. Whether they report news or write a screenplay, we encourage our students to question the status quo." Since its inception in 2017, the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication (JSJC) has also awarded 98 scholarships to journalism students pursuing B.A. (Hons) Journalism and Media Studies. Scholarships were awarded on a Merit-cum-Means basis to students with combined household income below a certain threshold and qualifying board examination marks above 70 per cent.

Over the past two decades, journalism education has gone through a sea-change. Prof. Chandni Mehta, who teaches Gender and Sexuality at JSJC, studied journalism at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi 16 years ago. According to Prof. Mehta, "Over the past two decades, the liberal arts foundations and the interdisciplinary scope of the journalism course has certainly strengthened and grown, as has the training and diversity in production techniques. Hence, the journalism course is no longer niche, but a dynamic and comprehensive area of study and training." JSJC offers a range of courses from social science foundation courses to studio-based multimedia skills courses.
New Delhi, March 24 : Pitching for 'One nation, One election', BJP MP Dr D.P Vats on Thursday demanded that all the elections be held at the same time to prevent the national resources from draining.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP lawmaker batted for simultaneous elections. He said that in 1967, the then government had dismissed many state governments and held fresh Assembly polls. "From then only, the nation got into an election mode with polls being held in different intervals throughout the year," he added.

Continuous holding of elections, Vats said, also drains the administrative and the national resources.

Referring to a media report, the BJP leader said that when the Covid pandemic broke out in China, many international manufacturing companies shifted out their base to Indonesia and nearby countries. But India was left out as, according to the report, it is always in election or agitation mode.

He requested that the government, on the basis of consensus among all political parties, hold all elections at the same time.

Other Members also associated with Dr Vats on this issue.
Bengaluru, March 24 : National Intelligence Agency (NIA) will soon visit Karnataka's Shivamogga district in connection with the murder case of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha Hindu, sources said on Thursday.

Authorities in the state have decided to shift 10 accused persons in the murder case to the Central Prison in the Parappana Agrahara, located in the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The Centre has handed over the case to the NIA, which in turn has registered a case in connection on Wednesday, according to the sources.

The incident, which took place on February 20, triggered large scale violence in Shivamogga, leading to authorities to impose a seven-day curfew.

Union Minister for State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje had written a letter to the Home Minister Amit Shah demanding an NIA probe into the incident.

The Karnataka government had invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the 10 accused persons .

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had also stated that once the local police complete their investigations, the case would be handed over to Central agencies.
Patna, March 24 : More than 100 school students have been admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital when they complained of uneasiness after consuming lunch during Bihar Diwas celebrations.

The conditions of many are stated to be critical, said hospital sources.

Bihar Diwas celebrations were held on Tuesday (March 22) and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar attended the event in Patna's Gandhi Maidan. School students from across the state were invited for the event.

District Magistrate and civil surgeon of Patna has refused to comment on the matter.

The Bihar Diwas was celebrated after three years due to the pandemic.
Warsaw, March 24 : Poland has ordered 45 staffers at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw to leave the country in less than a week, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here said.

This represents about half of the total Russian staff at the embassy, and its consular and trade representatives, reports Xinhua news agency.

"In total, 45 people with varying diplomatic status have been ordered to leave the territory of the Republic of Poland within five days," Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina announced.

One person will have to leave within 48 hours, he added.

Meanwhile, taking to Twitter, Polish Foreign Minister Mariusz Kaminski said: "Poland expelled 45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats. With full consistency and determination, we are breaking up the agents of the Russian secret services in our country." Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev was informed of the decision after being summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Andreev said there will be consequences for Poland's actions, including the expulsion of Polish diplomats from Russia "on the principle of reciprocity".

The envoy called the expulsions "baseless," adding that all staff members "were carrying out normal diplomatic and trade activity".
New Delhi, March 24 : The South East Delhi Police on Thursday said that they have arrested a woman drug peddler for allegedly supplying smack in the capital. More than 200 grams of smack valued at Rs 29 lakh was recovered from her.

Esha Pandey, DCP of South East Delhi, said that the accused woman was identified as Raheema. A case in this respect was lodged with the New Friends Colony Police Station.

"To curb the sale of contraband in the area, a team was constituted to nab the active drug peddlers. On March 22, the team received information that a lady would come near Taimur Nagar, NFC to sell psychotropic substances to an unknown person. Responding to the tip-off, the team laid a trap and nabbed the accused," the police said.

Upon search, she was found containing a small plastic packet filled with smack weighing about 229 grams. An FIR under sections 21/61/85 of the NDPS Act was registered against her.

The police is further looking into the matter.
New Delhi, March 24 : Kerala Congress MPs on Thursday accused the Delhi police of "manhandling" them during a protest march outside Parliament.

The Delhi Police, however, dismissed the charges as "fictitious".

As per sources, some Congress leaders (all MPs) held a press conference at Vijay chowk this morning and then started to march towards Parliament when they were stopped by security personnel. The Congress leaders alleged that they were manhandled.

Rejecting the allegations, DCP, New Delhi, said that no manhandling was done.

"Few people came to the north fountain barricades point from the media lawn raising slogans in Malayalam. They were stopped by the staff at the barricades. They claimed to be MPs and continued sloganeering. On being asked for IDs, they refused. Meanwhile, the security staff from the gate number 1 of Parliament were called to identify them. The staff came and identified them, following which they were allowed to go forward," said the senior police official.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader K.K. Venugopal, took to Twitter and posted a video of the incident.

He charged the Delhi Police with "misusing" their power.

"The preposterous misuse of State power to silence our nation's democratic voice is unacceptable! While the CPIM destroys Kerala's future through its Silver-line project & bulldozes the people's voice of protest, BJP's diktat has led to manhandling of MPs by Delhi Police," Venugopal said in the tweet.

A report in this regard will be prepared and sent to senior police official. This report will later on furnished with MHA, the police official said.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 24 : The opposition to the K-Rail project reverberated not just across Kerala but also in Delhi, when several MPs from the state claimed they were roughed up by the Delhi police while taking part in a protest against the project.

Incidentally, this took place just minutes before a meeting between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to take place in parliament house.

Vijayan and his Left allies want the project to go ahead, while the Congress and the BJP say that this project is not viable and massive destruction of the environment will take place due to this.

Veteran Congress MP K. Suresh raised the issue of manhandling of MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Speaker assured it will be looked into.

Meanwhile in Kerala across several locations, angry Congress workers took to the streets against the way their leaders were treated in Delhi and also against the K-Rail project.

Tension prevailed in Kottayam, Palakkad, Trissur, Kozhikode over this. In the state capital city, angry BJP workers pulled out a marking stone of K-Rail and carried it to the official residence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to be planted there. But their attempt was thwarted by the police.

If completed, the K-Rail project will see a 529.45 km corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod with high speed trains covering the distance in around four hours.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, March 24 : Congress MP Chhaya Verma on Thursday urged the government to include over 21,000 women from Chhattisgarh to the maternity benefit schemes, and also requested that the application procedure be made easy and user friendly.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, she said, "21,000 women in Chhattisgarh do get the maternity benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana scheme of the Union government even after two years when the child was born. The forms are very lengthy and cumbersome, and it runs into 40 pages." Chhaya Verma also said that if a woman gets pregnant, after one month she gets Rs 1,000 as first installment but in case of miscarriage, she does not get the benefits during the pregnancy of other child. "These anomalies must be ended and those who have miscarriage during pregnancy must be included under the benefit scheme during her next pregnancy.

During the Zero Hour the BJD member Muzibullah Khan raised the issue of setting up a Legislative Council Assembly in Odisha. He said that the state Assembly has passed a resolution to set up the Upper House in the Odisha Assembly and sent the proposal to the Centre.

"Our leader in the Rajya Sabha P. Acharya even asked for an update on this, but he was informed by the government that it has not received any such proposal. After that the Speaker of the Odisha Assembly sent the 'Resolution passed by the Assembly' to the Centre. I urged the Centre to consider the state Assembly proposal." Congress MP P. Bhattacharjee demanded a minute of silence for the Rampurhat victims in West Bengal.

He said that the state government has ordered a probe, but the House should observe one minute of silence for the victims.

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal on Thursday alleged that the Delhi Police manhandled him and some other members near the Vijay Chowk while they were returning after attending a demonstration during the Zero Hour.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu asked Venugopal to send a detailed note regarding the incident. "I will get information from the Union Home Ministry," Naidu assured Venugopal.
Gandhinagar, March 24 : Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel's stature is far more taller in the hearts of the people than the 182 metres tall Statue of Unity at Kevadiya, said President Ram Nath Kovind while addressing the Gujarat state assembly on Thursday, where a function was organised as a part of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'.

"Iron Man Sardar Patel gave a new vision to Independent India and strengthened the pillars of the country. The 182 metres tall statue of Sardar Patel at Kevadiya in Gujarat, is the tallest statue in the world. But in the eyes of the nation, Sardar Patel's stature is far more taller than the statue. This image of his, is a small gift in remembrance of that great son of India," said Ram Nath Kovind.

"Gujarat's contribution to India's freedom struggle is immense. Among the top leaders who were dreaming of an independent Bharat, were from this land. People like Dadabhai Naoroji and Pherozeshah Mehta raised their voices for the rights of the people. The state of Gujarat constantly increased its presence in voicing people's concern, culminating that fight into achieving the freedom, under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi. Not only did Mahatma Gandhi extraordinarily led the freedom struggle, but gave a new direction, a new thought and a new vision to the entire world," added Kovind.

"Today, wherever the world is witnessing violence, Mahatma Gandhi's original 'Mantra' of non violence is remembered. Gujarat's history is unparallel. The land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel is also called as the land of Satyagraha -- seen as a mighty weapon against empirical rule," added Kovind.

The President appreciated economic development Gujarat has achieved over the years. "Right from its inception in 1960, Gujarat has carved out a niche in economic development. I appreciate all the former Chief Ministers, deputy Chief Ministers in achieving this. Gujarat has also been leading the chart in milk revolution, which has made India one of the top milk producers in the world," added Kovind.

"In democracy, the responsibilities of public representatives are of great importance. You all are public representatives of your region and the people in your area look towards you as their 'Bhagya Vidhata'. The people are expecting a lot from you and that should be your top priority," said Kovind. After saying that in the moment of silence, he asked, "Won't you clap on that? "This is a moment of pride and honour for all of us and I thank and welcome the President for sparing his valuable time to remain present and address the house. In the entire history of the state assembly, there have been 6 special seatings and this is one of those. This function is a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, when the 75th year of the freedom of India is being celebrated," said speaker Nimaben Acharya.
Moscow, March 24 : Experts from the Russian Armed Forces have revealed new evidence of the involvement of the US Department of Defence (DOD) in the development of biological weapons in Ukraine.

Addressing a briefing, Defence Ministry official Igor Konashenkov said that Russian experts on radiation, chemical and biological protection, in the course of studying documents, revealed new facts proving the direct involvement of the DOD in the development of biological weapons components in Ukraine, RT News reported.

In the near future, the Ministry will publish original documents that demonstrate that the Pentagon developed and approved the U-Pi-2 biological project, the official added.

According to Konashenkov, the main goal of this project was to conduct a molecular analysis of especially dangerous infections that are endemic to Ukraine.

"This work involved sampling the pathogen in old cattle burial grounds in order to obtain new strains of anthrax." Earlier, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would require consideration of the issue of biological laboratories in Ukraine within the framework of the convention on the prohibition of biological and toxin weapons.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, March 24 : Well known Tamil film producer K.T. Kunjumon has announced that actress Nayantharaa Chakravarthy will play one of the two female leads in his much-awaited upcoming film 'Gentleman 2'.

Taking to Twitter, the producer posted a picture of him welcoming the actress with a flower and said, "Happy to introduce Nayantharaa Chakravarthy as the lead actress in 'Gentleman2'. Another lead actress will be revealed soon." Interestingly, Nayantharaa Chakravarthy, who has acted in over 30 films in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu as a child artiste, will be making her debut as a lead actress with 'Gentleman 2'. As a child artiste, Nayantharaa Chakravarthy has acted with several top stars including Rajinikanth, Mohanlal and Mammootty.

Earlier, social media was rife with rumours that the producer had roped in popular actress Nayanthara for his film. However, the producer's announcement made it clear that it was the debutante Nayanthara Chakravarthy who would be playing the female lead in his film.

Kunjumon, who is known for having produced a number of blockbusters in Tamil, including the Prabhu Deva-starrer 'Kadhalan' and the Vineeth and Abbas-starrer 'Kadhal Desam', is credited with having introduced Shankar as a director with 'Gentleman'.

The producer, who had stopped producing films after 1999, announced his comeback recently, saying that he would be making the sequel to his blockbuster 'Gentleman'.

Accordingly, the producer is now busy finalising the core team of 'Gentleman 2' and had announced music director MM Keeravani, who is known for having scored music for pan Indian blockbusters like 'Baahubali', as the first member of the team.
New Delhi, March 24 : Though the government is committed to making India Tuberculosis-free by 2025, the 'END TB' programme initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2017, looks indecisive five years ahead of the global target of 2030, public health experts said on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day, globally observed on March 24 every year.

Covid-19 has played a big role in derailing efforts and reversed the gains made so far in controlling the infectious disease both in India and worldwide. It is because healthcare resources were diverted to combat the rising Covid cases that affected diagnosis, notification and treatment as well as nutrition post treatment, which also contributed to relapse cases.

A study by the 'Stop TB Partnership' in May 2020, suggested that the Covid pandemic could lead to an additional 6.3 million TB cases globally between 2020 and 2025.

In March last year, an analysis by the health ministry notified that Covid brought down TB detection by 25 per cent in India in 2020. The decreases occurred in both the public and private sectors. While there has been some recovery subsequently, but not to 2019 levels.

"As 2025 is only three years from now, it doesn't seem that we will be able to achieve the target and Covid has played a big role. It seems that it will take at least 20 years to eradicate TB and to meet the target that India has set as a goal," Pratibha Pandey, Sr Health Specialist at non-profit ChildFund India, told IANS.

"We applaud the commitment of our partners in the Health Ministry and state governments towards ending TB by 2025, but recognise that the Covid-19 pandemic has put 'End TB' progress at risk as funding and momentum for programmes and treatments has stalled," added Vaishakhi Mallik, Associate Director, South Asia for Policy, Advocacy and Communications, Vital Strategies - a global public health organisation.

The major problem with this has been the notification. Though there is a big team of health workers, the notification is not as per the mandates and the contact tracing and identifying the latent TB is very low.

Another problem is the relapse cases happening again and again. For example, nutrition support is a big requirement for patients who have just recovered from TB, but the food insecurity in our country is huge.

"Unless and until we don't identify the underlying causes, the social determinants, we may not be able to eradicate TB from our country," Pandey said.

Furthermore, tobacco is also a concern and achieving the goal of ending TB in India is difficult unless tobacco use is simultaneously addressed, the experts warned.

TB among children is also a major challenge as diagnosis is difficult. Children struggle to produce sputum - the specimen which allows simple detection of the bacterial infection. Also, the diagnosis is difficult to establish whether the child is having a TB or not. In India, only 6 per cent of TB cases reported to the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) are children.

"If we look at the burden of TB among children, around 10-12 per cent of children have it. But the identified children with TB is less than 6 per cent in India, which means there are children that are not detected under the TB control programme," Pandey said.

"Childhood TB in India is estimated to be approximately 10 per cent of total adult incidence. While the exact numbers remain unknown, it can be extrapolated that India comprises 2,20,000 children with TB, annually," Dr Sarabjit S. Chadha, Regional Technical Director, India and SE Asia, at global non-profit FIND, told IANS.

TB treatment among children has also been a challenge due to the long duration. A shorter regimen - 4-month regimen rather than the standard 6-month regimen - now approved by the WHO will ensure improved compliance and will also reduce the exposure of medicines and their side effects especially among children, Chadha said.

While not entirely unachievable, eradicating TB needs effective response which requires significant resources, including increased funding, training and protecting health workers, reinforcing systems for health.

Government's new door to door TB screening programme is one such major effort that will help effectively trace, test and treat TB cases on time.

There is also a need to "reinvest in TB prevention and treatment programmes as well as urgently implement proven policies that push tobacco products further out of consumers' reach", Mallik said.

(Rachel V. Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)
Dhaka, March 24 : The Bangladesh Conscious Citizens Committee (BCCC) on Thursday a protest in front of the National Museum here to mark Genocide Remembrance Day.

The call for the BCCC protest rally was given earlier in the day.

It was presided resided over by Muktijoddha Professor Dr Neemchand Bhowmik and was addressed by Political Analyst FF Major General M.A. Sikder, Co Convenor F.F.M.D. Salauddin, Member Secretary and Chairman of Bangladesh Bharat Sampriti Parishad F.F. Fazle Ali, Journalist Basudeb Dhar, Secretary General of Bangladesh Bharat Sampriti Parshad F.F. Mehidi Hasan Chowdhury, HBCUP leader Nirmal Chatterjee, Professor Sadia Sharmin, among others.

At the rally, which was attended by a few hundred people, the leaders condemned the massacre in Bangladesh staged by the Pakistan Army on March 25, 1971.

The Pakistan Army turned entire the Bangladesh into a killing field with it's indiscriminate killing, torture of innocent people and unprecedented scale of rapes for nine months.

That was the kickoff of one of the biggest genocides, led by General Yahya Khan of Pakistan, in the world history causing the biggest ever humanitarian catastrophe after World War II.

They killed 30 lakh people and violated two lakh women and children. Freedom fighters and researchers claim that still, many mass graves in the district and upazila levels remain unidentified.

Leaders and participants of the rally demanded international recognition of this genocide or Operation Searchlight - a planned military pacification carried out by the Pakistan Army.

They also demanded apology by the Pakistan government and a trial of the war criminals immediately.
Kochi, March 24 : The probe team, investigating the 2017 actress abduction case in which actor Dileep is the main accused, is likely to serve a notice to his wife and former actress Kavya Madhavan to appear before it.

Dileep, along with others, is also facing a trial for conspiring to kill the officials probing the assault case.

Kerala High Court has given the probe team time till April 15 to complete the probe and hence, apart from his wife, a few other VIPs are also likely to be called in.

Dileep has already been served a notice to appear before them which might take place on Monday.

It was a moral victory for the team when the High Court first refused to suspend the further probe and later a stay sought by the actor into the probe was also nixed.

Late last year, his former friend and director Balachandrakumar had come out in the open against him, disclosing that Dileep was conspiring to eliminate police officials investigating the 2017 actress abduction case in which he is presently out on bail.

However, the actor's counsel argued that the fresh disclosures were cooked up by the prosecution to book the actor and to fabricate evidence against him after the probe agency failed to find any concrete evidence.

A frontline south Indian heroine had complained that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of goons in 2017 and certain scenes were filmed to blackmail her. After the main accused Sunil was arrested and questioned, Dileep was accused of being the main conspirator in the case and arrested.

According to the prosecution, Dileep, who is presently out on bail after spending two months in jail, had also seen the visuals of the attack on the actress.

Kavya Madhavan is the second wife of Dileep, whom he married after divorce with his first wife another frontline actress Manju Warrier who has since returned to acting.

Kavya has quit the film industry post her wedding.
Moscow, March 24 : Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has blocked the Google News service in the country for access to numerous materials containing unreliable information about Moscow's ongoing war in Ukraine, media reports say.

The access to the online resource news.google.com has been blocked, the telecoms regulator told Interfax on Wednesday.

"Based on a request from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Roskomnadzor has restricted access to the Internet service News.Google in the country," the statement said.

"The mentioned US Internet news resource provided access to numerous publications and materials containing unreliable, publicly significant information about the course of the special military operation in Ukraine," it added.

Recently, Russia blocked Instagram for nearly 80 million users in the country, after its parent company Meta allowed posts with calls for violence against Russian soldiers and President Vladimir Putin on Facebook and Instagram in some countries.

The social media platform was inaccessible for the vast majority of the country's population, according to internet monitoring service GlobalCheck.

Russian influencers on Instagram posted farewell messages to their followers, asking them to follow them on other social media platforms, or download VPN (virtual private network) software to bypass the ban.

Instagram has also provided a platform for Russians to speak out against the war, including wealthy oligarchs and their families.
Bengaluru, March 24 : Despite the posters of ban on Muslim traders in Hindu religious fairs and hue and cry by the Opposition Congress, the Karnataka government said that it is impossible to initiate action against those who are imposing ban on Muslim traders in and around temples in the state.

Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs J.C. Madhuswamy on Thursday said in the Legislative Council that it is impossible to initiate action against those who have banned traders belonging to faiths other than the Hindu religion, in the limits of temples.

Answering to the demand for initiation of action against those who are imposing ban on Muslim traders by Congress MLC C.M. Ibrahim, Minister Madhuswamy said that the government is working as per the rule of law.

The rule in this regard was made in 2002, which gave the rights to the temple authorities to award contracts to business persons who belong to Hindu religion. Mentioning the rule of 2002, the Minister said this government has no role in this regard.

"The temple authorities are telling us that they are being questioned for following the rules made by the government for denying contracts for non-Hindus. It is not possible to take action in this regard," he stated.

Meanwhile, Karnataka State Roadside Vendors Federation's President Rangaswamy submitted a memorandum to the government to see to it that street vendors are not harmed.

"Muslim roadside vendors should not be put to inconvenience. There are 2.60 lakh registered roadside vendors in the state. Among them, more than 20 per cent are Muslims," he said in the backdrop of the unofficial ban on Muslim traders in the state.
Seoul, March 24 : South Korea's armed forces conducted a joint live-fire exercise on Thursday involving some of its key missiles in a retaliatory move against North Korea, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The military shot the missiles from ground, sea and air from around the East Sea hours after the North launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into the sea, Yonhap News Agency quoted the JCS as saying.

Assets mobilised were a Hyunmoo-2 ground-to-ground missile and one Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile as well as a Haesung-II ship-to-ground missile and two JDAM air-to-surface missiles, it said.

The drills were aimed at sending a clear counterforce message to North Korea.

The JCS said the South's military is keeping a close eye on the North's military activities.

"It has been confirmed that in case of North Korea's missile launch, (we) have the ability and posture to precisely strike the origin of the missile launch and command and support facilities at any time." It added that the North's ICBM firing amid its rejection of a dialogue offer is a "serious challenge" to the South's military and its alliance with the US.

Pyongyang's show of force, the 12th this year, means an end to its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and a long-range missile testing.

The North's latest launch came four days after it fired four artillery shots into the Yellow Sea, apparently using multiple rocket launchers, from Sukchon, north of Pyongyang.

Last week, the North unsuccessfully fired an apparent long-range rocket system.

In January, Pyongyang made a veiled threat to lift its voluntary moratorium on strategic weapons tests that it declared in April 2018 amid nuclear diplomacy with Seoul and Washington.
Jammu, March 24 : The Jammu and Kashmir government has recommended a CBI probe into the allegations levelled by former Governor Satya Pal Malik that he was offered a bribe of Rs 300 crore.

On October 17, 2021, Malik had said at a function in Rajasthan, "Two files had come for my consideration. One of the secretaries told me that if I approve these, I can get Rs 150 crore each. I turned down the offer saying that I had brought five 'kurta-pyjamas' to Kashmir and will just go back with them." Malik had alleged that he was offered Rs 300 crore in return for clearing the files of two big industrial houses. However, he refused to accept the money and cancelled the deals.

Following such serious allegations by a former governor, the J&K government has recommended that the CBI investigate the matter to ascertain the facts and the details.
New Delhi, March 24 : External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that India's stand on the Russia-Ukraine war is based on six principles.

Responding to a question, he said that India has called for immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities. "We stand for peace, we believe that there is no other way than a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy. We recognize that the global order is anchored on international law, UN charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states and we call for humanitarian access to a conflict situation."

He also said, "We have given 90 tonnes of humanitarian assistance so far and we are looking to providing more, especially medicines." Jaishankar also said that the Government of India is in touch with the leadership of both the Russian Federation and Ukraine on this matter. "The Prime Minister himself has spoken with the Presidents of both the countries. This was also mentioned in a statement made before the House recently," he added.

Responding to a question by MP Naresh Gujral on Indian trade with Russia especially payment in rupees, Jaishankar said that because of the emerging problems with Russia, the government is examining various aspects by the group composed of various Ministries under the aegis of the Finance Ministry to examine the issue of payment.

Replying to the query of Gujral on crude oil import, he said, "we import less than one per cent of crude oil from Russia. Many western countries are importing 15 to 20 times more than what we import." Replying another question on the development in our neighbourhood, the Minister also said that the government is very clear on principles, "We believe that international order must respect the territorial integrity of States and it is our foremost attention in our neighbourhood."

To a follow-up question about the growing relations between Russia and China, Jaishankar said, the government is aware of the changes in international relations. "We monitor it, we obviously assess it from our own national perspective and fashion our strategy in accordance with those developments," he said.

Jaishankar also informed the House that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Vladimir Putin thrice and to Volodymyr Zelensky twice, the evacuations of Indians was the priority, but the major part of the conversations was on what we could do to encourage a cessation of hostility through the dialogue and diplomacy.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- Syndicated from IANS
New Delhi, March 24 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has directed the officials to devise a plan to promote defence tourism and also sought suggestions about the visits to historic battlefields and its establishments.

Pointing out the willingness of people, especially the youth, to connect with the subjects related to defence, Singh urged the officials of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to devise a plan to promote defence tourism.

He suggested exploring the possibility of organising visits to historic battlefields, war memorials, war museums, training academies or other similar defence establishments for people with the help of industry, startups and ex-servicemen, keeping in mind the security and sanctity of the places.

"This will instill a feeling of patriotism among the people and generate revenue at the same time," said Singh during the inauguration of an user-friendly website created by the Border Road Organisation (BRO) aimed to facilitate e-booking of guided tours to the road infrastructure projects constructed by them.

Singh appreciated the efforts of the BRO in developing the portal and exuded confidence that the website will go a long way in boosting tourism in far-flung areas.

The website contains photo and video galleries of tourist destinations and local flora and fauna, besides providing information about the BRO, the nature of works it has executed in border states and the challenges faced.

It also hosts technical information related to the construction for those working in the field of civil engineering, especially students and academia.

Singh said, in the coming times, it will be the most accessible and reliable source of information about the history and importance of the projects executed by the BRO and will provide a peek into the upcoming projects as well.

He commended the BRO for playing an incomparable role in promoting tourism in these areas, saying that after the construction of Atal Tunnel, the number of tourists in that area increased six times.

He made special mention of the setting up of BRO Cafes at 75 places in the far-flung areas, expressing confidence that these cafes will provide basic amenities to the travellers, promote tourism in the remote areas and strengthen the local economy.

He also praised the BRO for constructing more than 60,000 kilometres of roads, 850 major bridges, 19 airstrips and four tunnels over the last six decades, thereby playing a vital role in nation building through infrastructure development in remote and inaccessible areas.

He stressed on the importance of connectivity and infrastructure in the development of the nation, saying that roads, bridges and tunnels in the border areas play a central role in ensuring their socio-economic development of the region, besides catering to the needs of the Armed Forces.

"Earlier, the infrastructure development in the border areas was never a priority, fearing its misuse by our adversaries during trying times," said Singh.

He said that their government totally changed this approach.

Infrastructure development of any region is linked with the development of the Nation as well as the global situation.

"With changing times, all areas move ahead in the path of development. We are committed to ensure the development of the border areas as well. The recent announcement of a record increase in the capital budget of the BRO reaffirms that commitment," Singh added..

He appreciated the fact that the far-flung areas are now witnessing reverse migration, wherein people who had left their villages in search of employment, education and better health facilities are returning, seeing the development in these areas.

He spoke about the Huri village of Arunachal Pradesh, the residents of which returned after the BRO ensured connectivity with the district headquarters.

"Atal tunnel and Umling La pass are the biggest achievements of the BRO which have put India on the world map. The BRO is striving towards realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'," he added.

The defence minister emphasised that tourism and travel industry are one of the biggest job and wealth creators in the world and the government has taken a number of steps to promote tourism in the country. "Incredible India, Adopt a heritage - 'Apni Dharohar, Apni Pehchaan', 'Swadesh Darshan', 'With love from North East', 'Dekho Apna Desh' and 'Udan', are some of the schemes that aim to ensure all-round development of the country. These efforts will ensure increased connectivity, strengthened security system, developed tourist destinations and creation of employment opportunities," he added.
Kabul, March 24 : The cabinet meeting of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said that had they (interim government) got enough money, they would have paid salaries for every single man and woman in Afghanistan but the government is impoverished, so people must assist the government, Khaama Press reported.

The three-day cabinet meeting was held in Kandahar and was headed by the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Hebtullah Akhundzada for the first time.

The Amir al-Mu'minin or Supreme Leader said that if he could, he would set salaries for the Afghan men and women, adding that he understood the problems and hardships of his poor people, but that the economy of the Islamic Emirate was still weak, Bakhtar News reported.

Therefore, the people should help their system, try to collect Zakat and Ushr and spend it in their place and the organs of the government should refrain from extravagance.

Deputy Minister of Information and culture and chief spokesperson of the IEA Zabiullah Mujahid who was one of the participants of the meeting, in a press release, said all government administrations were directed to make efforts in implementing Sharia law so that all Afghans live under the law, Khaama Press reported.

"The meeting was concentrated on rules in government bodies, their activities, interaction with people, seeking a solution for ongoing economic difficulties, and absorbing all Taliban affiliates in security bodies," the statement said.
Mysuru, March 24 : A man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly impersonating his dead brother to work as a government school co-teacher in Karnataka's Mysuru district.

Though the accused rendered services for 25 years as a teacher, the education department had got no clue about it surprisingly.

The arrested has been identified as Lakshmane Gowda. The accused had impersonated his brother Lokesh Gowda, who managed to get the government job but died before joining service.

Claiming himself to be Lokesh Gowda, the accused joined the government service as the co-teacher of the Government Higher Primary School of Kattemalalawadi village near Hunsur town. He rendered service at various schools across the district till date.

In 2019, a local journalist, who got a clue about it, had lodged a complaint with the Education department, police said.

After this, an investigation was conducted and the accused was arrested.

During the course of investigation, the accused's family did not give information.

District Commissioner had directed to lodge a complaint with police department.

After finding the name of the accused suspiciously from the family tree, the authorities have initiated action and arrested him.

Piriyapattana police are investigating the case.
Kiev, March 24 : The disappearance of Russia's senior military officials from the public eye is an indication that the Russian government is looking to lay blame for the military failure in Ukraine, said Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.

"Currently, they (Russian officials) are trying to find out who is to blame for Russia entering into this risky venture (the war in Ukraine) without having any information about our country. Their government structures are currently implicated in assigning blame (for Russia's military failure in Ukraine). The FSS (Federal Security Service), Russia's principal security agency and successor to the USSR's KGB are pointing their finger at the military for not having done their job well, and the military says that other structures are to blame," he said, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

Danilov said that it is not only Sergey Shoigu, Russia's Minister of Defence, who is missing, but also many other Russian generals from whom there has recently been no communication.

"They have already replaced many of the generals. They believe that they will begin an offensive on our territory with fresh forces. I can say that this will not help them," Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine stressed.

He also stated that President Vladimir Putin of Russia "has destroyed the Russian Federation" over the 22 years of his rule.

"What is happening today is the destruction of the Russian Federation carried out by its president. No one was bothering them, they have destroyed themselves in these 22 years," Danilov claims.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Chennai, March 24 : It's been a five-year-long struggle but Coimbatore-based environmental and social activist Manikandan's efforts are paying off.

The 39-year old activist is among the 36 people selected across the country by Union Ministry for Jal Shakthi to receive the water warrior award instituted by the ministry. He will receive the award later this month at New Delhi from Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Manikandan has formed the organisation,'Kovai Kulangal Padhukappu Amaippu' on February 5, 2017, and has been at the forefront of desilting lakes, ponds and removing plastic wastes and Seemaikaruvelam trees.

He, along with 100 volunteers drawn from a cross-section of society, including drivers, techies, housewives, union workers took up the initiative and has since then improved the increase in groundwater level as well as filling of water in tanks, ponds, and lakes.

Manikantan while speaking to IANS said: "I'm thankful to the government of India and the Jal Shakti department for selecting me for the prestigious 'Water warrior' award. This is for our team and will be an inspiration to do more in conservation and protection of water sources and improving groundwater levels." The 39-year-old conservationist said that the first initiative taken up by the organisation was clearing of Seemai Karuvelam trees at Perur Periyakulam for which they spent Rs 10 lakhs. He said that people from all walks of lives are supporting the organisation in the conservation of water both physically as well as chipping in with small contributions.

He said that after the team's work of desilting 21.5 km of inlet points of Vellalore lake and as a result, Vellalore lake is filled with water after 15 years. The young social worker also said that the team's work has led to the filling of Perur big tank( 265 acres) and Kattampatty Lake (160 acres).

He said that around 10,000 native tree saplings, herbal plants, flowering plants that attract birds and butterflies were planted under Miyawaki method at Vellalore lake.
Islamabad, March 24 : China has decided to increase its arms exports to Pakistan and take a major leap in its defence cooperation with Pakistan, initiating sale of arms ranging from stealth fighters to submarines, a move viewed as Beijings attempt to inflict more pressure on its border dispute rival India.

China is aiming to increase its defence expansion in South Asia, which would further multiply its influence in the region. It should be noted that China's increase in defence cooperation comes at a time when the US and Europe are focused on the deteriorating situation arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

"Beijing stands ready to provide assistance within its capacity to Pakistan to overcome difficulties and recover its economy," said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit to Islamabad as a special guest representative in the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) Conference of Foreign Ministers (CFM).

Earlier this month, China delivered six J-10CE fighter jets to Pakistan as part of its defence cooperation. The J-10CE jets were also part of the Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad on Wednesday, in which Pakistan showcased its military strength.

J-10CE is a 4.5-generation fighter jet, the make of which is among F-15s and F-35 stealth fighters in terms of capacity.

Pakistan has also added at least 50 new JF-17 fighters, developed jointly with China.

It is pertinent to mention that China's increased defence cooperation with Pakistan is directly linked to India's recently acquired Russian S-400 missile defence system.

China's increased defence cooperation with Pakistan is being seen as a response to potential threat from Indian air operations.

China is also facilitating Pakistan's naval capacity and capabilities as Islamabad inducted a Chinese-built Type 054 frigate, designed for anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare, with an aim to counter potential Indian threat of clouting important India-Pacific sea lanes.

It has been reported that Pakistan is also planning to purchase eight submarines from China, which Pakistan is positioning as the backbone of its navy.

It has also been stated that at least four will be built in China, while the remaining will be built in Pakistan.
New Delhi, March 24 : Terming the legal clash between former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh as "battle royale", the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe into all cases lodged against Singh by the Maharashtra Police.

Emphasising that an impartial probe into the matter is required, it clarified that it is not revoking Singh's suspension, and also, if there were any FIRs registered against Singh in future, then these will also be transferred to the CBI.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh said the CBI must hold an impartial probe in all the aspects of the matter and examine whether the allegations in the FIRs have any truth or not. It directed the Maharashtra Police to hand over the cases, which includes 5 FIRs and two PEs, to the CBI within a week and render all assistance to the central agency in its probe into the cases against Singh.

"We are not saying the appellant is a whistle-blower or anyone involved in this case is washed with milk," it noted.

The bench also stressed that the objective is to embolden and gain people's confidence into the police and this is not a reflection on Maharashtra Police.

"The troubling situation arising at the higher echelons has been presented before us," said the bench.

Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing the Maharashtra government, vehemently argued that cases should not be transferred to the CBI, as it will be very demoralising for the state police.

During the hearing, the bench observed: "The murky churning from battle royale between then Home Minister and the then Police Commissioner has given rise to these unfortunate proceedings on which we have commented before." Senior advocate Puneet Bali, representing Singh, submitted that CBI should probe all the cases registered against his client, and not the state police on which he does not have faith, even though he headed the same.

The bench was hearing a plea by Singh against the Bombay High Court judgment passed in September last year, dismissing his plea challenging the two inquiries ordered by the Home Ministry for allegedly violating service rules and corruption charges, as non-maintainable.
New Delhi, March 24 : A Kashmiri Pandit organisation has moved a curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the alleged mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90.

The plea, filed by Roots in Kashmir, has challenged an order of the top court passed in 2017 dismissing the plea saying: "The instances referred in the petition pertain to the year 1989-90, and more than 27 years have passed by since then. No fruitful purpose would emerge, as the evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture".

A statement from the organisation said that in support of the curative petition, a certificate has been issued by senior advocate and Supreme Court Bar Association President, Vikas Singh. The curative petition also cited a 2018 Delhi High Court order on Sajjan Kumar in anti-Sikh riots case, where, allowing the appeal, it said: "It is important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, truth will prevail and justice will be done...".

The plea said: "Transfer of investigation of all the FIRs/cases of murder and other allied crimes against Kashmiri Pandits in year 1989-90, 1997 and 1998, to some other independent investigating agency like the CBI or the NIA or any other agency as appointed by this Court, as till date J&K Police has failed miserably to make any progress in hundreds of FIRs lying pending with them." The plea sought prosecution of Yasin Malik and Farooq Ahmed Daar @ Bitta Karate, Javed Nalka and others, for hundreds of FIRs of murders of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90, 1997 and 1998, and which are lying uninvestigated by J&K Police even after expiry of 26 years.

"Transfer of all the FIRs/cases pertaining to murders of Kashmiri Pandits, from State of J&K to some other State (preferably NCT of Delhi), so that the witnesses, who were reluctant to approach police or courts in view of their safety concerns, can freely and fearlessly come and depose before investigating agencies and courts," added the plea.

The plea urged the top court to issue direction to complete the trial and prosecution of Yasin Malik for alleged gruesome murder of 4 officers of Indian Air Force on the morning of January 25, 1990, which is currently pending before a CBI court.

It also sought "some independent Committee or Commission to investigate into the mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90 and subsequent years, and also to investigate the reasons for non-prosecution of FIRs of murders of Kashmiri Pandits and court-monitored investigation so that the hundreds of FIRs can reach their logical conclusion without any further delay".
Hyderabad, March 24 : The nation has witnessed the bromance between 'RRR' actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR during their country tour, as they promoted S.S. Rajamouli's epic directorial.

Now that the D-Day has arrived, the actors have expressed what quality from each other they seek to imbibe.

In a conversation with Rana Daggubati, NTR and Ram Charan had expressed that they had unlimited fun on the sets of 'RRR'.

When quizzed about one thing NTR would imbibe from Charan, NTR said that he would love to have the calmness and composure of Charan.

"I am a hyperactive person, and I feel that I need to calm down sometimes. So, if I had that composure like Charan, it would be a great balance", the 'Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava' actor said.

On the other hand, Ram Charan expressed that he would want to have the grasping power of NTR. "He grasps things so quickly. I would like to imbibe that quality from Tarak", the 'Magadheera' actor said.

Rajamouli, who kept talking about Ram Charan and NTR's brawls on the sets, mentions that they both are equally hardworking and are looking forward to the movie's release, so as to see the audience's reception.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, March 24 : Skylines across Delhi and other cities in India would go dark, as every year, to observe the 'Earth Hour 2022' on Saturday, March 26 at 8.30 p.m. with the theme 'Shape Our Future' which aims to herald a new era that puts people and the planet first.

The World Wide Fund-India (WWF) has come out with the 'Earth Hour India' anthem, composed by Shantanu Moitra with vocals by Mohit Chauhan that also appeals to people for urgent action to save the planet.

In Delhi, the BSES has appealed to its over 46 lakh consumers - around 1.8 crore residents - to join the effort to make the "right choice for the planet and for the future generations that will inherit it".

"As we continue adapting our lives to the impacts of Covid-19 and the catastrophic events of the past two years, Earth Hour 2022 aims to signal to Shape Our Future. It will herald a new era that puts people and the planet first," WWF said.

Sharing his experience about working on the anthem, Harmony and Hope Ambassador for WWF India, Shantanu Moitra said: "The Earth Hour anthem is the binding force for everyone to be part of this global movement. I want to thank Mohit Chauhan, who has lent his voice to this noble cause. Lyrics written by Tanveer Ghazi share the sentiments of people to protect nature before it is too late." Mohit Chauhan sharing his views said: "I'm very glad to be part of Earth Hour through the Earth Hour anthem. I look forward to millions getting together this Earth Hour, to support and act for our mother nature." Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO, WWF India, said: "Earth Hour is an important step forward in our lives every year. Spend this hour to meditate and think of positive actions that we can take, individually and collectively, to better the environment." As many as 190 countries across the globe participate in the Earth Hour every year, this year being the 16th edition, with residents switching off their electrical appliances and non-essential lighting fixtures for one hour starting at 8.30 p.m. (local time) to show their concern for the environment.

A BSES spokesperson said: "We sincerely appeal to our over 46 lakh consumers and around 1.8 crore residents in our area to make the right choice for the planet and for the future generations that will inherit it. This Earth Hour, all our actions, albeit small, will 'Shape Our Future'. Citizens can help protect the natural world to safeguard our future by switching off." Moreover, BRPL and BYPL will also switch off all non-essential lights at their over 400 offices, spread across an area of around 900 sq km, during the appointed hour.
Chennai, March 24 : With a video of a group of school students, both boys and girls, drinking beer in a bus going viral, police in Tamil Nadu's Chengalpattu district have launched investigation into the matter.

The police said that the students belong to a government school and that they were travelling from Thirukuzhakundram to Thachur.

As the video of students in uniform consuming beer went viral, the Tamil Nadu Education Department had initiated a probe after it was found that the students are from the state.

On detailed investigation, it was found that the students belong to a government school in Chengalpattu and the matter was handed over to the police.

"The incident has taken place outside the school and police has already commenced an investigation. Once they give the report, we will take appropriate action," Chengalpattu District Education Officer Rose Nirmala told IANS.

She also said that the incident took place on Tuesday.
Mumbai, March 24 : Actor Rishaab Chauhan, whose recent song 'Saiyaan' co-starring Chitrangda Singh has been receiving positive response, feels that the song provides an antidote to female objectification in as it conveys feminine sexual interest in men.

Elaborating on the same, he said, "My character in the song is a one-of-a-kind experience. We've all seen how guys who objectify women are a staple of popular music genres ranging from hip-hop to country to rock and pop. Songs that turn the tables on males and convey feminine sexual interest in them can be refreshing antidotes to the toxic levels of testosterone in this environment." "They can also be magnificent, defiant, liberating, and even therapeutic. In terms of the song itself, it's wonderful for grooving to, and I love the Arabic touch it has. I just hope for the audience to enjoy the song and send lots of love", he added.

'Saiyaan' sung by Asees Kaur, composed by Raees, Zain - Sam with lyrics by Raees and Vikki Nagar, has been directed by Sam Khan and is available to stream on Hitz Music YouTube channel.
London, March 24 : The UK has announced it will be sanctioning the Wagner Group, BBC reported.

The organisation is a group of mercenaries that was first identified in 2014 when it was backing pro-Russian separatists in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Since then, it has been involved in other regions too, including Syria, Mozambique, Sudan, and the Central Asian Republic. The paramilitary group has been described as Vladimir Putin's private army.

It's been warned that the group has been tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, BBC reported.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss described the group as "hired thugs" in her statement on the new sanctions - saying they, alongside oligarchs and businesses, are "complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right they pay the price".

Officially there are no ties between the Wagner Group and the Russian government - it denies any state involvement with the group, while also maintaining it does not legally exist because private military contractors are illegal in Russia, BBC reported.

It is believed to be funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rich businessman with links to Putin. But Prigozhin has always denied any connection with Wagner.

Announcing the new sanctions UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "Putin should be under no illusions - we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up."
Mumbai, March 24 : Congress' Maharashtra unit President Nana F. Patole has filed a defamation case of Rs 500 crore against senior IPS officer and a former State Intelligence Department (SID) chief Rashmi Shukla for illegally tapping his phone.

Patole said it was necessary to get to the bottom of the matter and find out who is "the mastermind of the plot" enacted by Shukla - currently the Additonal DGP, CRPF, Hyderabad.

The suit has been filed before the Nagpur District and Sessions Court alleging harassment and blackmailing of people by snooping into their private lives and to dig out the person/s behind the conspiracy, he added.

Shukla, when she was the Pune Police Commissioner in 2016-2017, had ordered the illegal tapping of various politicians, including Patole, who was shown as a drug dealer with the name of 'Amjad Khan'.

"When I raised the matter in the Maharashtra Legislature, an inquiry committee was appointed which found Shukla guilty. Later, the Pune police have registered a case against her," said Patole.

However, though the police investigations are underway, Patole said that his "personal and public image has been severely damaged and can never be repaired", compelling him to file the defamation suit through the appropriate legal channels.

He said that illegal phone-tapping is a serious crime and can be done only with special permission to investigate serious cases like terrorism or drug-trafficking.

"We had nothing to do with such activities and it was a violation of our individual freedom and other rights. The then Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state conspired against me to trap in fake cases and systematically finish off my political career by misusing the government machinery," Patole said.

The illegal phone-tapping incidents, which erupted last year into a major political row between the Maha Vikas Aghadi government the opposition BJP, led to the filing of cases against Shukla in Mumbai and Pune.

Besides Patole, the phones of other prominent leaders like Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP leader Eknath Khadse and others in the MVA government were spied upon unauthorisedly, when Shukla was the SID head.

Top MVA leaders have also said the illegal phone tapping activities were carried out when the three parties were involved in the government formation exercise after the October 2018 Assembly elections which left the BJP out of power.
Amid the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus scare in the country, Madhya Pradesh has so far procured as much as 10.5 lakh tonnes of wheat as against a target of 110 lakh tonnes this season. Last year, the target was 96 lakh tonnes. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Bhopal, March 24 : The Madhya Pradesh government has decided not to levy tax on export of wheat produced in the state, and traders will be allowed to purchase wheat anywhere in the state on single license, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Thursday.

Chouhan, who was in Delhi on Thursday to meet Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to discuss the wheat export issue, said: "There will be no mandi tax imposed on wheat exported from Madhya Pradesh. The government will provide all possible facilities to the exporters." He further stated that the exporters were allowed to buy wheat from mandis and also directly from the farmers.

He also said that the Railway Board has ensured to provide racks for wheat export.

"If the exporters need space to set up export houses in major mandis, they will be provided space at concession rates," he added.

The chief minister informed that production of wheat in Madhya Pradesh has reached up to 1.29 crore MT.

He said the wheat of Madhya Pradesh has credibility. Online auction process is available in the market and exporters will be able to buy wheat by registering with a local person. For value addition and quality certification of wheat, infrastructure, lab facilities will be made available to the exporters in major mandis of the state.

"We have tried to provide all the facilities that the exporters asked for. I am sure that these decisions will increase exports and our farmers of Madhya Pradesh will be benefited," Chouhan added.

Chouhan had held a review meeting with his cabinet ministers and senior officials on Wednesday, and instructed that there should be no shortcomings in the arrangements for wheat procurement.

He said that export of wheat should be promoted and it should be procured keeping in mind the new provisions of Rabi Registration 2022-23.
New Delhi, March 24 : Mobile phone exports from India will increase by 75 per cent from $3.16 billion in 2020-21 to over $5.5 billion in the current fiscal, a report said on Thursday.

The primary driver of this outstanding performance is the smartphone PLI Scheme launched on April 1, 2020, aimed at shifting GVCs to India and increasing India's share in global exports.

"The unprecedented increase in smartphone exports is a tribute to government-industry partnership under the most trying circumstances. The government led with its vision and trust in the mobile industry. The industry, in turn, has redefined Atmanirbhar Bharat as Make in India for the World. We are just getting started," Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of ICEA, said in a statement.

After an uncertain start in 2020, owing to multiple Covid waves, the industry stabilised operations in 2021 and has delivered results that exceed expectations.

Increase in mobile phone exports also marks an important shift in the export basket which is gradually transforming from primary commodities to more value-added, high-end products driven by technology industries.

The smartphone PLI saw participation from five global companies -- Samsung, Foxconn Hon Hai, Rising Star, Wistron and Pegatron -- and Indian champions, including Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics.

During a 5-year period, the approved companies under the PLI scheme are expected to lead to total production of over Rs 10.5 lakh crore, of which nearly 60 per cent will be contributed by exports to the tune of Rs 6.5 lakh crore.

It is also expected that during this period, nearly 8 lakh new jobs (2 lakh direct and 6 lakh indirect jobs) will be created in the country.
San Francisco, March 24 : Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made a new comment about the Tesla Cybertruck, which recently took a backseat, and said that the automaker aims to complete Cybertruck development this year for production in 2023.

During an event for the start of Model Y deliveries at Gigafactory Berlin, Musk was asked by an employee about Tesla's short-term goals, reports the auto-tech website Electrek.

Musk reiterated that Tesla's focus this year is to ramp up production of current vehicle programmes, especially Model Y and Model 3, but he also offered a rare comment on Cybertruck. He said that Tesla aims to complete the development of the Cybertruck this year for production in 2023.

"We want to complete the development of Cybertruck this year and be ready for production next year," Musk was quoted as saying.

When Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck back in 2019, Tesla said that the electric pickup truck would make it to market by the end of 2021. As the deadline was approaching, the automaker confirmed that production slipped to 2022.

Musk later said that Tesla was targeting a start of production for the electric pickup truck in "late 2022" at Gigafactory Texas.

With the focus clearly on bringing the Model Y to production at the factory, and that being delayed as well, it appeared likely that the Cybertruck production timeline could also slip, the report said.

During Tesla's last earnings report in January, Musk gave an update confirming that Tesla wouldn't launch the Cybertruck or any new vehicle in 2022.

The CEO remained vague when it comes to the electric pickup truck and only said that it would "hopefully come next year" - meaning in 2023.

Since then, there have been rumours that Tesla is planning to start production of the Cybertruck in early 2023.
London, March 24 : Britain has sanctioned the stepdaughter of Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as part of a new raft of sanctions on a string of Russian "oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs", Daily Mail reported.

Also among the targets of the new measures announced on Thursday are The Wagner Group mercenaries -- known as 'Putin's private army', and accused of trying to assassinate Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian politicians.

The most prominent target of the sanctions is Imperial College graduate Polina Kovaleva, a glamorous 26-year-old who lives in a 4 million piund home in Kensington.

Polina's mother is reported to be Svetlana Polyakova, 51, a powerful member of the Russian Foreign Ministry, who accompanies Lavrov on every foreign trip and has had a relationship since the early 2000s. It is rumoured that she is Lavrov's 'unofficial' wife, Daily Mail reported.

Polina went to a private boarding school in Bristol before gaining a first-class degree in economics with politics at Loughborough University and later completing a masters in economics and strategy for business at the Imperial College London.

She went on to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, where she helped with mergers and acquisitions, and later worked at Glencore, the mining company. Before buying her own home, she lived in Holland Park, west London, in an apartment in a townhouse that is owned by the Russian Embassy, Daily Mail reported.

Records show that the nearby Ukrainian Embassy alleged Russia had wrongly claimed ownership of the property.
Moscow, March 24 : Russia and Iran have been cooperating to connect their interbank messaging systems in order to bypass the SWIFT financial transactions network, Kazem Jalali, Ambassador of Iran to Russia, said on Thursday.

SWIFT is a messaging network that financial institutions use to securely transmit information and instructions through a standardised system of codes.

Both countries are facing severe Western sanctions, making settlements in trade through SWIFT difficult or impossible.

"We are making efforts in this direction," Jalali told reporters, as quoted by RIA Novosti news agency, RT reported.

Last month, seven Russian banks were severed from SWIFT, effectively denying them access to international markets. The ban was part of the latest Western sanctions targeting Russia over its military operation in Ukraine.

Russia has its own payment mechanism called the Financial Message Transfer System (SPFS) that has similar functionality and allows the transmission of messages in the SWIFT format. It was created as an analogue to SWIFT that has been developed by the Bank of Russia since 2014.

The ruble had surged on Wednesday after the announcement that payments for gas exports to certain Western countries will be switched to Russia's domestic currency.

The Russian currency immediately rose to a three-week high of 95 rubles against the US dollar, before settling below 100. It also gained 3.5 per cent against the EU's currency, trading at 110.5 rubles per euro.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Hyderabad, March 24 : India's civil aviation sector is likely to rebound quickly from Covid-19 crisis even as the rising oil prices, and the war in Ukraine will have an impact on the overall aviation market, a top Airbus official said.

Remi Maillard, President and MD, Airbus India and South Asia, believes that domestic traffic in India will fully recover by the middle of the current year while international traffic will rebound by the next year.

"The Covid crisis has had a massive impact on the industry and air traffic in India. We see traffic recovering on the back of strong demand," he said and welcomed the decision of the Civil Aviation Ministry to reopen to international traffic from March 27.

Addressing a news conference where he announced the company's latest market forecast for India, Maillard believes that the outlook is promising and fundamentals of the economy are strong.

To a query about rising oil prices and the Ukraine war, he admitted the crises would have an impact. Stating that the world is facing crises from a security and defence environment standpoint, he said they were impacting and would continue to impact the aviation and aerospace industry.

"Crises which we are observing will have an impact but I am also fully convinced that aviation will remain an engine to drive the economies of all countries and will remain a powerful force to unite people," he said.

Airbus has forecast that India will require 2,210 new aircraft over the next 20 years.

"Just as the economy continues to improve, we believe traffic is going to go up here. This is going to drive the need for more aircraft. The fundamentals in general continue to improve. We are bullish where the market is going to go," said Brent McBratney, Head of Airline Marketing, Airbus India and South Asia.

The Airbus officials pointed out that India's air traffic grew by 9 per cent in the last 20 years and the country established itself as the third largest domestic market in the world. They believe India will replicate this performance in the international market in the next 20 years.

The passenger traffic in India is expected to grow at 6.2 per cent per annum by 2040, the fastest among the major economies and well above the global average of 3.9 per cent.

They see a huge potential for India in the international long-haul market out of India. Foreign carriers have captured 94 per cent of the growth in the long-haul market over the last 20 years.

Maillard believes that commercial aviation will leverage India's geographic, demographic and economic dividend to strongly deliver in the long-haul market.

According to him, the long-haul market offers major untapped opportunities to the Indian carriers. However, to tap the potential the aviation eco-system in India needs to be further developed when it comes to training, maintenance, leasing and service capabilities.

"We need to develop a competitive environment for all stakeholders across the aviation value chain," said Maillard and stressed the need for a better taxation regime and appropriate policy interventions.

He said Indian carriers need to be equipped with high technology for long-haul operations and this is where he believes the A350 can play a key role.

Airbus is displaying A350 aircraft at the airshow and it believes that this most modern and efficient aircraft will play a strategic role in transforming commercial aviation in India when it comes to the long-haul market.

The company officials pointed out that India only has 57 wide body aircraft across its airline fleet, compared to 458 in China and 686 in the US.

During the last 20 years, India's single aisle fleet multiplied by a factor of six but the wide body fleet remained stagnant.
New Delhi, March 24 : The statements and resolutions adopted during a meeting demonstrate both the irrelevance of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a body and role of Pakistan as its manipulator, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that references made at the OIC meeting about India are "based on falsehoods and misrepresentation". "The absurdity of this body commenting on the treatment of minorities, that too at the instance of a serial violator of human rights like Pakistan, is so evident," Bagchi said.

He also said that nations and governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation.

OIC members participated in the 48th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held at Islamabad in Pakistan on March 22 to March 23.

On Wednesday, OIC -- a 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations, including Pakistan -- said that lasting peace in South Asia cannot be achieved without a settlement of the Kashmir issue.

In the Annex to the Joint Communique, the Group stated: "We renew unwavering solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and express full support for their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the OIC, and the wishes of the Kashmiri people." The OIC members alleged that there is a massive violation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

They reiterated their demand that India must reverse unilateral measures taken on or after August 5, 2019.

The Foreign Ministers of OIC had supported Pakistan's call for a joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the accidental firing of a projectile into the country from India earlier this month.

"We express grave concern over the violation of Pakistan's airspace, threat to passenger aircraft and dangers to peace and security in South Asia arising from the launch of supersonic missile on March 9, 2022 by India. We call on India to fully abide by international law and norms of responsible State behaviour and conduct a joint probe with Pakistan to accurately establish facts," said the joint statement.
Colombo, March 24 : Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has signed an agreement with India's Goa Shipyard Ltd to obtain a much-needed floating dock worth $20 million as a grant. The dock is to be constructed at SLN dockyard in Trincomalee within the next 30 months, SLN spokesman said.

"Floating dock is of paramount necessity to SLN for underwater maintenance and repair of ships and vessels belonging to SLN efficiently. The dry dock presently belonging to SLN can only facilitate underwater repairs of vessels and boats weighing less than 350 tonnes," a navy spokesman stated.

SLN explained that languishing in waiting lists, underwater repair servicing of larger vessels and boats belonging to SLN is now done through the private sector.

"This procedure causes long delays, affecting the lifetime of the vessels," the navy stated.

Having discussed with navies of the friendly nations in the neighbouring region and carrying out studies from 2015 to 2017, SLN had been finally recommended to obtain a floating dock of its own.

Subsequently, Sri Lanka had discussed with India on securing a floating dock from the latter at the Military Staff level meetings. In 2020, SLN had received green light from the Cabinet of Ministers to obtain a floating dock from India as a grant and approval was given to select Goa Shipyard Ltd from which the SLN had previously procured two Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessels in 2017 and 2018, the navy spokesman said.

"With the floating dock from Goa Shipyard Ltd valued at $20 million, SLN will be able to save $2.1 million (600 million Sri Lankan rupee) annually," he said.
New Delhi, March 24 : If you thought heat waves are something to do with increased temperatures on the land in summer months, it is time for a rethink! Not only are there heat waves in the ocean, which is heating too, but they are increasing too over the decades.

The western Indian Ocean had a total of 66 Marine Heat Wave (MHW) events while the Bay of Bengal had 94 events during 1982-2018, a recent investigation of marine heat waves by the scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, found out.

"The western Indian Ocean region experienced a four-fold rise in marine heat wave events (increasing at a rate of 1.5 events per decade) and the north Bay of Bengal experienced a two-to-three fold rise (at a rate of 0.5 events per decade)," the Parliament was informed on Thursday.

In recent decades, the tropical Indian Ocean has experienced a rapid increase in ocean warming with an average rise in sea surface temperature (SST) of about 1 degree Celsius over the period of 1951-2015 at a rate of 0.15 degrees Celsius/decade.

In 2021, there were six marine heat waves recorded in the western Indian Ocean over a period of 52 days. In the north Bay of Bengal, there were four marine heat waves over a period of 32 days.

"These heat waves did not break all previous records but were above normal. The western Indian Ocean heat waves in 2021 were in the top four years in terms of the number of events," Minister for Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh, told the Rajya Sabha.

The monsoon forecast models used by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) considers the ocean surface temperatures as input data. These forecasts can be used for advance planning and disaster management.
New Delhi, March 24 : The government on Thursday said that around 128 requests are pending in connection with bank fraud cases of Rs 21,074.43 cr for grant of consent by states.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is still waiting for the grant of consent in the cases to kick start the probe. The states who will grant permission are all non BJP ruled states.

Most of the cases are from Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh and West Bengal. Here the State Governments are not ready to grant permission to the federal probe agency to investigate the case.

At least 12 cases are pending with Chhattisgarh. The federal probe agency has requested the state to allow them to investigate.

The West Bengal government has not given consent in six cases.

A total 101 requests was pending with Maharashtra pertaining to the bank fraud amounting to over Rs 20,000 crore. There are total 173 cases in which Maharashtra government didn't give consent. Out of 173, the cases related to bank fraud are 101.

Mizoram, Jharkhand, Kerala, Punjab and Meghalaya have also withdrawn general consent to the federal probe agency. Here 127 cases were pending. The agency has requested the authority concerned to grant them permission. At least 16 cases are pending with the Punjab government.

There are nine states which have not given permission to the CBI to investigate. These states have given the CBI permission to probe 101 cases as of now.
Lucknow, March 24 : The BJP has staked claim to form the new government in Uttar Pradesh after Yogi Adityanath was on Thursday unanimously elected as the leader of BJP's legislative party.

BJP leaders Swatantra Dev Singh, Raghubar Das and others drove to Governor's house on Thursday evening after the legislative party meeting, where Adityanath was elected the leader.

A proposal to this effect was put forward by senior BJP MLA Suresh Khanna, which was approved by all the legislators.

UP Governor Anandiben Patel has invited Adityanath to form the government.

Accordingly, Adityanath will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister for the second consecutive term on Friday evening.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who had been nominated as an observer for Uttar Pradesh, was present at the party meeting along with co-observer and former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Raghubar Das.

Apna Dal leader Asheesh Patel and Nishad Party President Sanjay Nishad also submitted their letters of support to the Chief Minister designate on Thursday.

Addressing the legislators, Shah said that the BJP has created history by returning to power in the state with a majority.

"This is an endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and guidance, and Yogi Adityanath's competence. The BJP has brought political stability to UP and given a sense of security to its people," he said.

Shah further said that the people of UP have elected Adityanath as the Chief Minister and "we have simply elected him as the leader of the legislative party".

Speaking on the occasion, Adityanath thanked Modi, Shah, Raghubar Das and the party leadership for his election as the leader of BJP's legislative party.

He said that it is the first time in recent history that a sitting Chief Minister has been asked to continue for a second consecutive term.

Adityanath spoke at length about the achievements of his government in the first term, and attributed its success to the vision of the Prime Minister.

Adityanath further said that despite a misinformation campaign, the BJP has returned to power in UP with an overwhelming majority under the guidance of Modi.

The legislative party meeting, which was earlier scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., was delayed by almost an hour-and-a-half as Shah, Das, Adityanath and other leaders held another meeting at the BJP state headquarters to iron out the irritants in ministry formation.

According to sources, a major bone of contention is the inclusion of Keshav Maurya as the Deputy CM. Though Maurya lost the elections, his lobby is insistent on his continuing in the post.

His supporters are citing the example of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who has been made the CM despite losing the elections.
Patna: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carries out raids at the residence of a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Hulas Pandey in an alleged Munger arms case in Patna on June 20, 2019. 22 AK-47 rifles smuggled from the Central Ordnance Depot in Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, March 24 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday carried out search operations at four locations in Gujarat and Maharashtra in connection with an espionage case.

The case was initially lodged by the Vijaywada police station in Andhra Pradesh in 2020. Later, the NIA took over the probe.

The case pertains to the involvement of Pakistani agents in espionage activities in India.

The NIA learnt during the investigation that the accused had conspired with their associates based at Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and Gujarat for gathering sensitive information to carry out terror acts in India.

Indian SIM cards were fraudulently procured and OTPs were received through their Indian associates for activation of WhatsApp accounts by Pakistan-based handlers, which were then used to establish contact with defence personnel to elicit sensitive information related to vital installations.

"We carried out searches at Godhra in Gujarat and Buldana in Maharashtra at the premises of the suspects. During the searches, digital devices, suspicious SIM cards and incriminating documents were seized," said an NIA official.
New Delhi, March 24 : BJP Vice President and Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal's Medinipur, Dilip Ghosh has slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her failure to curb violence in the state, and claimed that she is targeting Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to hide her failure.

In an interaction with IANS, Ghosh also raised questions on the recent Birbhum killings and hit out at the ruling Trinamool Congress over the harrowing incident.

Here are some excerpts Q. You (BJP MPs) met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday on the issue of Birbhum violence and demanded intervention. Trinamool Congress MPs also met the Home Minister and demanded the removal of Governor Dhankar. What do you have to say? A. The Governor has become a thorn in the flesh for the Trinamool because he asks questions. Whenever this type of incident (Birbhum violence) happens, he directly asks questions to the administration. This time also, the Governor asked where is the law and order? If a Trinamool Congress leader was killed, why police forces were not deployed immediately? In reaction to that killing, 12 people including children and women were burnt to death. Chief Minister Banerjee is asking the same question which we have been asking. She asked the police to arrest the leader of her party. Will this happen only when the Chief Minister intervenes? Is this law and order? The Governor also raised the same question, so Trinamool is angry with him. The truth is that when these people fail, they target the Governor.

Q. But after meeting the Home Minister, Trinamool leader Sudip Bandopadhyay claimed that he informed him about the action taken by the state government on Birbhum violence and the Home Minister was satisfied with the answer.

A. How did Sudip Bandopadhyay know that Amit Shah ji is satisfied. If he is satisfied, then why is he sending a team to West Bengal. Amit Shah ji knows Bengal for the last 7-8 years. He is aware of the law and order situation there, has sent advisories several times, but the Mamata government did not budge and she is now on a mission to remove the Governor.

Q. The BJP is seeking the intervention of the Central government. What kind of intervention do you want? A. The Central government will have to take a decision as per the Constitution. Not even a year has passed since the new government was elected with a full majority. But that government has failed, law and order has collapsed. There is no security for people. Four days back, one of our MPs was attacked. Two days before that, our district president was attacked. In the last one week, 26 people have been killed in the state. Violence of all kinds -- political, non-political and social, is increasing continuously in the state. The Mamata Banerjee government is responsible for this. Therefore, we demand that for the safety of the people of West Bengal, the Central government should take whatever steps it deems fit as per the Constitution to improve the law and order situation in the state.
Patna, March 24 : A youth, lodged in the district prison in Bihar's Nawada after a case of murder was slapped on him, has cracked the IIT Joint Entrance Test for Masters.

Suraj Kumar has achieved the 54th rank in the country and he will soon get admission in IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand.

A meritorious student who was preparing for the IIT JEE entrance test for one year in Rajasthan's Kota, he had came to his native village Mosma under Warsaliganj police station in Nawada last year when a person died during an altercation between his family and the neighbours over a dispute over a drain. The complainants had given his name in the FIR and he was arrested on April 19, 2021.

Abhishek Kumar Pandey, the then Jail Superintendent, had helped him in the preparation for the entrance test, providing necessary study materials including notes, books, and stationery items.

Suraj Kumar was released from jail on parole on February 13 this year to give the entrance test.
New Delhi/Jaipur, March 24 : Former Rajasthan Chief Minister and National Vice President of the BJP, Vasundhara Raje on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and held discussion on organisational issues and party matters concerning the state.

Raje's meeting with Modi took place separately at the Prime Minister's Office located in Parliament House. Before this, Raje met several senior BJP leaders on Wednesday at the swearing in ceremony of Pushkar Singh Dhami in Dehradun.

After meeting with the Prime Minister, Raje also had a long discussion with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other top BJP leaders.

The former Chief Minister will also attend the swearing-in ceremony of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to be held in Lucknow on Friday. She has been made a state guest by the UP Government. She will return to Delhi the same day.

At the Parliament House, Raje was welcomed by other Rajasthan MPs. She also met Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Meanwhile, Vasundhara who is now back to attending BJP events has triggered speculations in the state as in the last many months, was seen missing from national events, but was quite active in Rajasthan politics. She took out religious yatras on her birthday, went meeting people around and an her individual unit Team 2023 has also been quite active endorsing her as future CM.

However, she was not seen campaigning in any of the five states which went to polls and also was missing during state by-poll campaigns.

Sources said Raje is asserting herself as a national leader, but the BJP leadership is keen on promoting young leadership. Dhami, Yogi and Jairam Thakur -- all are young leaders. The same criterion can be applied to Rajasthan also, sources added.

Rajasthan will face assembly polls at the end of next year.
New Delhi, March 24 : With plans afoot to hold the Winter Session of Parliament in the new building, the Union government aims to complete the construction of the new Parliament complex by October this year.

Kaushal Kishore, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, told IANS that efforts are on to conduct the Winter Session of Parliament in the new building this year.

"Construction of the new Parliament building is underway as part of the Central Vista Project, and we are confident of completing the work by October. We are putting in all efforts into complete the project by October so that the Winter Session can be held at the new Parliament building," Kishore said.

Construction of the new Parliament building has achieved 44 per cent physical progress so far.

The minister admitted that the work was slowed down due to the Covid pandemic, but now it has picked up pace and should be completed by October as per the schedule.

"In Covid period, the work was slowed down. Now the construction work is going at a good pace and the new Parliament building will be ready by October," Kishore said.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on March 21, Kishore had shared the status and progress of various ongoing works under the Central Vista Master Plan.

"Under the Master Plan, the new Parliament building has achieved about 44 per cent physical progress and so far the government has spent Rs 480 crore on the project," the minister had said.

Kishore also informed the Upper House that about 80 per cent work of 'Redevelopment of Central Vista Avenue' has been completed till now, and the government has spent Rs 441 crore on it.

"The Vice President's Enclave and the common Central Secretariat buildings have achieved 3 per cent physical progress and the government has spent Rs 9 core and Rs 243 crore on them so far, respectively," Kishore had said.

The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that Rs 419.55 crore has been spent on various works under the Central Vista Master Plan since commencement of work in 2020-21.

"Rs 1,423.00 crore is the likely expenditure on the projects in 2021-22 and Rs 2,285 the is likely expenditure in 2022-23," the minister had said.

Kishore further stated that all the projects are monitored regularly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Central Public Works Department on a weekly basis to avoid delays and any inconvenience to the general public.
Haveri : , March 24 (IANS) Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot on Thursday visited the family of Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, the student of Medicine who lost his life in Kharkiv city of war-torn Ukraine during Russian shelling.

Governor Gehlot paid floral tributes to the portrait and condoled the death of Naveen at his residence in Chalageri village near Ranibennur in Haveri district. He also consoled his family members.

Shekarappa, father of Naveen said that the Governor had given gold medal to his elder son Harsha. Now, he has remembered it and expressed his sadness over the death of Naveen, a talented student, he said.

He further stated that the Governor told him that he was supposed to visit Naveen's home on March 21 when his body arrived from Ukraine. But, due to pre-arranged event in Madhya Pradesh he couldn't make it.

"The governor has assured us not to worry and the government is with the family," he said.

Naveen had died on March 1 when he came out of bunker to get food for himself and friends.

The Karnataka government has given Rs 25 lakh compensation to the family of Naveen who has donated his body for medical research.
Bhopal, March 24 : The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday issued show-cause notice to senior IAS officer Niyaz Khan, whose comments on 'The Kashmir Files' resulted in a big controversy in the state.

Khan, a 2015 batch IAS officer serving as deputy secretary with the Public Works Department, had last week urged makers of 'The Kashmir Files' to also make a film on the killings of large numbers of Muslims across several states in India.

Notice has been issued by the general administration department of the state government which is headed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. According to sources, the show-cause notice has been issued on Thursday evening, mentioning that the officer (Khan) has violated the rules of the civil services. He has been asked to submit his reply in seven days.

The notice was sent a day after several state ministers including Home Minister Narottam Mishra demanded action against Khan for his statements on the movie. On Wednesday, Mishra said that the officer had crossed and violated the 'lakshman rekha' (limit) set for (government) officials and therefore, a show cause notice will be issued to seek his reply.

In his defence, Khan has maintained that he made statements on a movie using his constitutional right of expression and alleged that he was being targeted for his religious identity. "If expressing an opinion on any serious issue is a violation, then such incidents have come where senior IAS and IPS officers have made comments. But, not a single notice was issued against them. I have been a victim of my name, especially my surname Khan," Niyaz Khan said while talking to IANS on Thursday.

Khan added that apart from being an IAS officer, he is also a writer which makes him express his thoughts using the rights of freedom of expression under the Constitution of India. "What wrong did I do if I said that I would be transferred to Kashmir. I have posted four tweets - two on the movie and two on politicians. I will submit my reply to the department." Khan made statements on his Twitter account soon after the movie was released. The controversy over Khan gained momentum after one of his statements on his Twitter account, which reads, "I am thinking to write a book to show the massacre of Muslims on different occasions so that a movie like Kashmir Files could be produced by some producer, so that the pain and suffering of minorities could be brought before Indians." Among several tweets, he pointed directly or indirectly at various people including director of 'The Kashmir Files' Vivek Agnihotri, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and MP and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi.

On March 20, Khan had pointed fingers at Owaisi saying, "Owaisi ji is silent on the issue. Please speak on human issues, not only during elections. We have to make a strong country joining shoulders with Hindu brothers. Arab is not our model, India is our model and this land is our motherland."
New Delhi, March 24 : Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who landed in Delhi on Thursday evening, is expected to hold bilateral talks on trade and the pending border dispute in Ladakh that is almost two years old now.

Yi is scheduled to meet Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Friday.

This is the first high-level Chinese diplomatic visit to India in over two years since the border dispute began between the two countries in Eastern Ladakh.

So far, 15 rounds of military-level talks have taken place between the two sides to resolve the issue.

Yi's visit to Delhi is part of his ongoing South Asia tour. He was in Kabul on Thursday morning, following his participation in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Islamabad, where he had raked up the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

In Islamabad, Yi had said: "On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope." India, however, had rejected the "uncalled reference" to Kashmir during Yi's speech in Islamabad.

"Matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are entirely the internal affairs of India. Other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from public judgement of their internal issues," spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, had said on Wednesday while reacting to Yi's comments.

The Chinese Foreign Minister is expected to be in Nepal from March 25-27.
New Delhi, March 24 : Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee -- nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was on Monday questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to an alleged coal scam, has been again summoned by the probe agency to join the probe on March 29.

Banerjee had on Monday told the media that the BJP was "misusing the agencies", and he was not afraid.

His wife Rujira Banerjee who was supposed to join the investigation on Tuesday did not come due to a "family issue", as she had to look after her children. She had said that she would reply through e-mail.

Banerjee, however, had joined the probe on Monday. He was questioned for eight hours.

"I have told the agency that I am willing to cooperate but why here in Delhi. There are elections in Bengal. BJP can't fight democratically and thus they are resorting to this vengeance politics.

"I am not cowed down. BJP has lost in 2021 and will again lose in 2024. This washing machine tactic is not going to work for long. If you want to fight, do that democratically. They have been harassing me by calling me so many kilometres away," he had said.

He alleged that the way these agencies have been functioning, shows the BJP's dictatorship.

"I will bow down before the power of people not before people in power. They can't scare me. They are living in fool's paradise," he had said The ED had asked Banerjee and his wife to join the investigation on March 21 and 22.

His wife was supposed to be questioned separately.

Banerjee had earlier on September 6 recorded his statement before the ED officials. He was questioned for around six hours. The probe agency, however, was not satisfied with his answers and he has been summoned again along with his wife.

In September last year, Banerjee and his wife, through their counsel, had moved a plea before the Delhi High Court against the summon of ED. But they did not get any relief from the High Court. After hearing the matter, their plea was dismissed by the High Court on March 11.

They had said in their plea that they were residents of West Bengal and had sought relief on that ground. Their contention was challenged by Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General, who was appearing for the ED. He told the court that ED was not confined by any area under PMLA.

This case is being probed by the CBI and the ED. Both the agencies are doing a parallel investigation.
London, March 24 : Russia's invasion of Ukraine has ended globalisation as we know it, said the head of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, CNN reported.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told shareholders in a letter on Thursday that Russia's "decoupling from the global economy" following its assault on Ukraine has caused governments and companies to examine their reliance on other nations.

"The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to globalisation we have experienced over the last three decades," Fink wrote, CNN reported.

The CEO, whose company manages $10 trillion in assets, predicted that Russia's isolation will "prompt companies and governments worldwide to re-evaluate their dependencies and re-analyse their manufacturing and assembly footprints".

But some countries could benefit from focusing on building up their domestic industries, as companies onshore or "nearshore" their operations, he said.

Fink said the Coronavirus pandemic had already set these wheels in motion, CNN reported.

"Energy security has joined the energy transition as a top global priority," Fink said.

While Fink anticipates that coal consumption may increase over the next year as Europe and Asia try to wean themselves off Russian oil and gas, soaring energy prices will likely make renewables more competitive, he said.

"Longer-term, I believe that the recent events will actually accelerate the shift towards greener sources of energy in many parts of the world," Fink wrote.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, March 24 : The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth University to regularise services of a guest lecturer, who was engaged by its Sanskrit Department to teach 'Karm Kand' to students.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V. Ramasubramanian said: "It is time for the University to put an end to this 'Yuddh Kand' and allow the appellant to move from 'Karm Kand' to 'Karm Phal Kand'." Noting that Dinesh Chandra Shukla has been teaching the very same subject for the past nearly 16 years, it said: "The original Selection Committee which found him eligible for appointment, comprised of Professors from the Department of Sanskrit of which the diploma course in 'Karm Kand' was a part, a direction is issued to the 5th respondent- the University to regularise the services of the appellant (Shukla)." Shukla moved the top court challenging the dismissal of his plea by the high court seeking to quash an order of the Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth University, rejecting his request to be appointed as lecturer (Karm Kand).

The bench noted that under Section 25(1)(c) of the U.P. University Act, the Academic Council is empowered to advise the Executive Council in connection with the qualifications required to be possessed by persons imparting instructions on particular subjects.

"Therefore, the minutes of the meetings of the Academic Council dated August 22, 2013 has clinched the issue in favour of the appellant," it said.

The bench said if only the high court had looked into the minutes of the meetings of the Academic Council, it could have easily appreciated that the appellant was entitled to succeed.

In the case, on one hand, no candidate was available with a postgraduate degree in 'Karm Kand' and the selection committee which consisted of a representative of the Department of Sanskrit found the appellant to possess a master's degree in the relevant subject.

"The entire controversy appears to have arisen as a result of the tug of war in the year 2006 between the then Chancellor and the then Vice Chancellor, making the appellant a victim in the line of fire. Unfortunately, the High Court omitted to take note of all this," noted the bench.

In 2006, an advertisement was issued by the university inviting applications for appointment to one post of lecturer in Karm Kand.

In the case of the appellant, the selection committee had recommended his candidature for appointment to the post. But the Executive Council disagreed with the selection committee on the ground that the Vice Chancellor failed to request the Chancellor to nominate subject experts in the selection committee. Shukla had challenged the Chancellor's order passed in 2012, rejecting recommendation made by the selection committee for his appointment.

The division bench of the Allahabad High Court in 2015 dismissed the writ petition of the appellant on the ground that after the order of remand, the Chancellor had consulted a few experts and found that the subject of 'Karm Kand' is altogether different from the subject Sanskrit and that therefore, with the qualifications that the appellant possessed, he could not have been selected for the post.
Chennai, March 24 : In Tamil Nadu there are single-teacher schools in many tribal settlements but the situation of these schools are poor mainly due to the lethargic attitude of the teachers.

The single-teacher schools in Tamil Nadu were formulated as part of the central government policy of 'Ekal Vidyalaya' and is supported by the government of India through the concerned state governments.

While teachers are not paid a princely sum as salary and they have to trek to distant places to reach the tribal settlements, there are cases in which teachers are doing yeoman services. However of late many teachers are not properly visiting the schools and not providing proper noon meals to the students of the tribal colonies.

In the tribal settlement of Krishnagiri district, there are complaints against the concerned teacher that he does not visit the school regularly and instead appears once a week. The Irular tribes who inhabit here have complained to the District education officer, Krishnagiri district against the callous attitude of the teacher and that mid day meals have not been served in the school and if at all it is served, the quality was very poor.

On receiving a complaint, the health department and education department officials conducted a surprise inspection at the school premises and found that the teacher was not present. The inspection team also found that the mid day meals served at the Panchayat Union School at Bettamugilalam in Krishnagiri district was of poor quality and not edible. Egg was also not served substantiating the complaint raised by the Irular community.

In the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu also, the Kattunaikar community has complained against the ill functioning of a tribal school in their settlement. Similar to the complaint at Krishnagiri district, in a single teacher school, an inspection team found poor quality and inedible midday meals and the teacher was absent for the past five days.

An education department official of Nilgiris district told IANS, "The single teacher school where we went inside was found serving poor quality food and egg was not served at all. In fact the meal was served by a local person and teacher was nowhere to be seen. Children and community members told us that the teacher pays a visit to the school once in four or five days and does not teach anything." While the central government and state governments have commenced the single teacher schools in good intention, it is to be seen whether the schools are in fact delivering what was intended.

Tamil Nadu School Education Minister, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told IANS, "I will have to check with the facts regarding this and will speak to our department heads and get a clear picture on what is happening and then will take appropriate action if the teachers are found to be irresponsible as reported." Social workers among the tribal communities said that in almost all the districts of Tamil Nadu, situation is similar in tribal hamlets.

M. Kannan, a tribal leader from Coimbatore told IANS, "The situation is similar in several single teacher schools in tribal areas and unless the government conducts proper monitoring and checking, nothing is going to change. We have been petitioning several times to authorities and the inspections conducted were part of the regular complaints we were filing against this injustice conducted in the name of development of tribal schools. At least this has turned into an eye-opener."
Moscow, March 24 : Russia on Thursday said that the investment fund Rosemont Seneca led by Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, is involved in financing the Pentagon's military biological programme in Ukraine.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the George Soros Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provide financial support to the Pentagon programme, the Russian Defense Ministry added, RT reported.

At the same time, the scientific curator is the US nuclear center at Los Alamos.

"The incoming materials allow us to trace the scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects. Attention is drawn to the involvement in the financing of these activities of structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the Rosemont Seneca investment fund, which is headed by Hunter Biden," said Lt General Igor Kirillov, head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence forces of the Russian Armed Forces, RT reported.

According to him, the fund has resources in the amount of at least $2.4 billion.

"At the same time, the fund has a close relationship with the main contractors of the US military department, including Metabiota, which, along with Black and Veach, is the main supplier of equipment for Pentagon biolabs around the world," he added.

Kirillov said that the Los Alamos nuclear center, where the first American atomic bomb was developed, was one of the scientific curators of the Pentagon's military biological program in Ukraine.

"The scale of the program is impressive. In addition to the military department, the US Agency for International Development, the George Soros Foundation, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are directly involved in its implementation. Scientific curation is carried out by leading research organisations, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which develops nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project," he said.
Amaravati, March 24 : In a clear indication of his stance on trifurcation of the state capital following the recent setback in the High Court, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday reiterated his commitment to decentralised development.

"Decision on capitals is our right and responsibility while policy making is the domain of legislature," Reddy said during the discussion on legislative competence in the Assembly.

The Chief Minister stated that the courts cannot pre-empt or direct not to make a policy with presumptions and lay down impossible conditions setting timelines which cannot be met.

"The recent verdict of Andhra Pradesh High Court appears to be a trespass into the legislative terrain though our Constitution has laid down the frame work of the three pillars of executive, legislature and judiciary. We felt that the limits were crossed and hence, had taken up the discussion in the House," Reddy stated in the House.

"The laws we are making stand for public scrutiny every five years, which is the very reason why the previous dispensation was rejected and people gave us a thumping mandate with 151 of the 175 seats in the House and courts should not be getting into our domain of making laws and this I am saying with utmost respect towards judiciary and to set the record straight for future generations to come." Pointing out that it is impossible to implement the High Court verdict which has ordered that Amaravati be developed as the state capital within six months, Reddy said that the government is studying the legalities. He reminded the House that the Supreme Court has told High Courts not to issue orders that cannot be implemented.

"The impossible timeline set by the courts like setting up basic amenities within one month and other infrastructure in the region within six months is impossible. The 29 villages form a minor fraction of the total state. We are exploring legal options on the issue," he said.

Even as he declared his commitment for decentralised development, Reddy assured to safeguard the interests of the famers of the region who gave land for the state capital.
New Delhi, March 24 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday that if people are so eager to watch 'The Kashmir Files', they should ask director Vivek Agnihotri to put the film on YouTube.

"Where is the question of making it (the film) tax-free," Kejriwal asked, while reacting to the demand for making 'The Kashmir Files' tax-free, during the ongoing Assembly session on Thursday.

The remarks came a day after BJP leaders demanded that the 'The Kashmir Files' be made tax-free in the national capital during the ongoing Budget session of Delhi Assembly.

Kejriwal said that if filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri wants everyone to watch the movie, he should release it on YouTube so that it is available to everyone.

Taking a jibe at BJP leaders demanding to make the film tax-free in Delhi, Kejriwal said that "he (Agnihotri) has earned crores in the name of Kashmiri Pandits and you are putting up posters on the walls".

"Few years back, a film titled 'Bunty Aur Babli' was released wherein some characters could be seen raising slogans to fulfil their demands, but when the leader asks what are their demands, they appeared unaware of the same," Kejriwal said, adding that some people were raising slogans during the LG's speech on Wednesday, some demanding to make 'The Kashmir Files' tax-free, some others talking about closing liquor shops.

Without taking names, the Chief Minister said that they only say what they have been asked to say.

"Inside this House, they praised the farm laws, and after they were repealed, they praised that move too. Then they protested against liquor shops. Now they have come up with 'The Kashmir Files'... I have only one request for all of you, think about the nation," Kejriwal said on the floor of the House.
New Delhi, March 24 : Love transcends borders even in the time of war. This may sound like a cliche out of a romantic film's promo, but it did happen in the case of a Delhi High Court lawyer, Anubhav Bhasin, 33, who proposed to his Ukrainian girlfriend, Anna Horodetska, 29, as soon as she landed here, taking an agonisingly circuitous route from her home city Kiev.

Talking about their relationship, Anubhav said: "We have known each other for about two and a half years. We met each other while traveling. The first time we actually got to know each other properly was just before the first lockdown in 2020." Anubhav and Anna were travelling together across India when Anna, who was working with an IT company and doubled as a makeup artist back home, got stuck because of the lockdown and the cancellation of flights. "She stayed in my house till the time she could take a flight back to Ukraine," Anubhav said, recalling how their relationship blossomed during the lockdown.

Then came the second wave of Covid-19, and with it, another lockdown, yet Anubhav and Anna stayed in touch with each other. "Once the lockdown got over, we met again in Dubai and then she came to India, and I went to Kiev. In December last year, she came to India and met my family and that's when we decided to get married. Then she went back to Ukraine." It was going according to plan till the war erupted in Ukraine. "When the war broke out on February 24, Anna woke up to the sound of bombs," recalled Anubhav. "For the next three days she was in and out of bomb shelters that were close to her home. On the 27th morning she decided to move to Poland, so she packed a bag with warm clothes and other essentials and found a cab to reach the station, from where she left with her dog and her mother.

"Her mother took a train towards her hometown Kamianka to go to her grandma's place. Anna waited for two hours till she found a train going towards Lviv, which is to the west of Ukraine and close to the Polish border." Continuing with his account of Anna's escape from war, Anubhav said: "She reached Lviv on the 27th night and stayed there overnight. On the 28th, Anna decided to take a bus to Poland, but she learnt that there were people who had been waiting at the Polish border for more than 24 hours and not been able to get through. She finally found a bus going to the border with Slovakia and reached there around midnight, and crossed the border on foot after waiting for a couple hours." After entering Slovakia, Anna managed to find a minibus heading to KrakAw, Poland, where stayed for a couple of weeks. "I had some friends there who helped her and provided her accommodation," Anubhav said. "Finally, she applied for a visa at the Indian embassy in Poland and when it was granted, she flew to India and I proposed to her at the airport." Now that Anna is in India, Anubhav says they are going to get married soon and then she will apply for Indian citizenship. As of now, she has a one-year visa. "We just need to go back to get the dog whenever the war gets over," Anubhav concluded.

It may be a long time, though, before Anna gets to be reunited with her dog.
Colombo, March 24 : In a major ruling against Sri Lanka's colonial law against same-sex relationships, the United Nations human rights body has ruled that criminalising consensual, lesbian relations is a human rights violation.

On a petition filed by a Sri Lankan female, the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has held that criminalisation of lesbian and bisexual women violates the Convention and demanded to repeal the law.

The UN decision came following an eight-year-long battle by Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, an LGBTIQ and women's rights activist.

The CEDAW committee termed Section 365-A of Sri Lanka's Penal Code of 1883 (amended in 1995), which criminalises same sex relations between consenting adults, as discrimination against women in Sri Lanka, which violates lesbian and bisexual women's right to non-discrimination under Article 2 (a) and (d)-(g) of the Convention.

Sections 365 and 365-A of Sri Lanka's Penal Code are based on 139-year-old British law, which state that "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and "acts of gross indecency" are criminal offences punishable by the law, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years. The Sections are used against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) community in Sri Lanka.

"It has been a long journey getting here, but I am satisfied with the ruling and happy that the years of hard work in this case have become successful," said Rosanna, who has been fighting for LGBTIQ rights for the past 22 years with her organisation EQUAL GROUND.

While urging the government to decriminalise same-sex sexual relations, the CEDAW committee has also asked Sri Lanka to take measures to protect women against gender-based violence by adopting comprehensive legislation against discrimination against the LGBTIQ community.

The UN body has also called on Sri Lankan government to ensure that victims of gender-based violence have access to effective civil and criminal remedies and protection, including counselling, health services and financial services, addressing workplace discrimination against LGBTIQ community, and providing sensitisation training to the law enforcement agencies.

"The Sri Lankan government has ratified CEDAW, and this is therefore further encouragement for them to repeal these discriminatory laws and free us from the stigma and violence caused by criminalisation," Rosanna, who herself had been a victim of violence, said.

"This sends a strong message to Sri Lanka's policymakers, as well as the international community, that ensuring the rights of all citizens is of foremost priority," she added.
Shillong, March 24 : Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai on Thursday said that the Assam Rifles has shown exemplary performance in the fight against insurgency in the northeast region and in preventing drug smuggling along the India-Myanmar border.

Addressing the 187th Raising Day celebrations of the Assam Rifles in Shillong as Chief Guest, the minister said that the Assam Rifles during its glorious history has contributed significantly to the maintenance of peace and harmony in the insurgency affected areas of the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir, and has performed exemplary work in preventing drug trafficking.

Keeping this in mind, the government has given the Assam Rifles the powers under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

"Assam Rifles is an all-rounder force, it has two battalions stationed in Jammu and Kashmir and one NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) battalion, which is playing its active role in case of natural calamities," he said.

Rai said that the Home Ministry has given in-principle approval to the formation of five additional battalions so that after field postings, jawans can get an opportunity to live with their families in a friendly environment.

The Union Minister said Assam Rifles has made concerted efforts for gender equality and women's empowerment which has resulted in the induction of 1,187 women into the force.

The number of women soldiers in the force would increase further, he added. The para-military force has planted about 31 lakh trees which is the highest among all the forces under the Home Ministry.

Assam Rifles has the unique distinction of being conferred with the most number of gallantry awards among all paramilitary forces during its long history, he pointed out.

The Minister recalled the supreme sacrifices made by Col Viplav Tripathi and four bravehearts in the Manipur encounter with insurgents in November last year in which the wife and child of Col Tripathi were also killed.

The MoS Home said that the Assam Rifles was established in 1835 as the "Cachar Levy".

The Director General of Assam Rifles, Lt Gen P.C. Nair, senior officers and jawans of the force and their families from across the country also attended the function through video conferencing.
Kabul, March 24 : Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Thursday denied rumours that the group's Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund has been replaced by his deputy, Dawn reported.

The rumours of Akhund being replaced emerged after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Kabul unannounced on Thursday morning, for the first time since the Taliban takeover of the country in August last year.

Earlier in the day, reports of Taliban government's Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar replacing Akhund started doing the rounds on social media.

Yi's visit came a week before Beijing hosts a two-day conference - on March 30-31 - comprising Afghanistan's neighbours on how to assist the Taliban government. Pakistan and Iran had earlier hosted similar meetings after the Taliban takeover.

Subsequently, Mujahid in a tweet clarified that media reports of any reshuffle of the Prime Minister and changes in the cabinet were untrue.

"There has been no change in the cabinet of the Islamic Emirate or anywhere else," he added.

In September last year, the Taliban appointed Akhund as its new head of state. Prior to his ascension to the top office, Akhund was the head of the Taliban's Rehbari Shura or leadership council. He hails from Kandahar and is also said to be one of the founders of the movement.
New Delhi, March 24 : There has been a 22 per cent increase in employment in the last seven years since 2013-14, Union Labour Minister Bhupendra Yadav on Thursday told the Parliament.

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he also said that as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLSF), the unemployment rate among graduate-level job-seekers, between the age group of 18 to 40 years, has come down.

Replying to the supplementary questions in the House, Yadav said that apart from the farm sector, other sectors such as transport, education, hospitality, education, trade, and information technology have witnessed an increase in employment.

Over 27 crore informal workers have also been enrolled on the e-SHRAM portal during the last six months, he said.

The e-SHRAM portal was launched in August, 2021 with an objective to create a national database of unorganised workers and to facilitate delivery of social security schemes/welfare schemes of the Central and state governments to them. Any unorganised sector worker between 16 and 59 years of age group is eligible for registration on this portal.

The government has made a provision for all registered workers to get an accidental insurance cover of Rs two lakh free of cost for a year through the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), the Minister said.
Washington, March 24 : In its latest action to impose severe costs on Russia, the US Department of Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating key enablers of the invasion.

This includes dozens of Russian defence companies, 328 members of the Russian State Duma, and the head of Russia's largest financial institution. This action aligns with similar actions taken by the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and reflects continued unity to hold Putin accountable for his war of choice.

It has also issued new directions to blunt the Russian Central Bank's ability to deploy international reserves, including gold, to prop up the Russian economy and fund Valdimir Putin's war against Ukraine. This guidance makes clear that any transaction involving gold related to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is covered by existing sanctions.

OFAC is designating multiple companies that are part of Russia's defense-industrial base and that produce weapons that have been used in Russia's assault against Ukraine's people, infrastructure, and territory.

Today's designations build on those levied by Treasury in previous weeks against key components of the Government of the Russian Federation (GoR) that facilitate Putin's hostile campaign against Ukraine.

By cutting off 48 companies from western technological and financial resources, today's action will have a deep and long-lasting effect on Russia's defense-industrial base and its supply chain, the US Treasury said.

"The United States, with our partners and allies, is striking at the heart of Russia's ability to finance and carry out its warfare and atrocities against Ukraine," said the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet L. Yellen.

"The Russian State Duma continues to support Putin's invasion, stifle the free flow of information, and infringe on the basic rights of the citizens of Russia. We call on those closest to Putin to cease and condemn this cold-blooded war," she added.

The US Treasury has also issued new guidance on transactions with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation involving gold.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Kolkata, March 24 : Days after eight people were charred to death in the violence that broke out after the murder of a deputy panchayat pradhan at Baguti village in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday ordered the arrest of local Trinamool Congress leader Anirul Hossain for his involvement in the carnage, besides slamming the local police for not acting in time.

Three hours after Banerjee ordered the arrest of Trinamool block president for Rampurhat-1, Anarul Hossain, on camera while on a visit to the site of the mayhem, Hossain was taken into custody.

In her statement at the site, Banerjee said, "The kin of the victims said that they had telephoned Anirul and asked him to send police to Bagtui, but he didn't." "I want him arrested. He can surrender, but otherwise I want him to be arrested immediately," she told the Director General of Police, Manoj Malviya, at Bagtui.

Hossain is the first Trinamool member to be put behind bars for the gruesome violence that was allegedly triggered by the killing of deputy panchayat pradhan Bhadu Sheikh, a local strongman.

A resident of Sandhipur in Hooghly district, Hossain is said to have worked as a mason before he started his political career with the Congress.

In the Trinamool Congress, he is said to have been recognised for garnering grassroots support for the party. He has held the block president's post since 2018.

Banerjee also slammed the local police for not acting in time and said that the problem could have been averted had the police responded to the calls.

"This incident could have been avoided had the police gone to the spot immediately. They did not fulfil their responsibility. Action must be taken against those who knowingly did not perform their duty," the Chief Minister said.

However, Banerjee refused to rule out the involvement of outsiders in the violence.

"The police are investigating the matter from all sides. They are probing who all were involved. Was it a local issue or outsiders were also involved in it... The police have to check all the angles," she said.

"The sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) knew what was happening, the inspector in-charge (IC) knew what was happening... but they didn't take any action," she added.

"There is a larger conspiracy here. I want continuous police picketing here," Banerjee said.

Both the SDPO and IC have been placed under suspension.

There are strong speculations that Birbhum Superintendent of the Police, Nagendra Tripathy, might be placed under suspension soon, and Dhritiman Sarkar, who is presently posted in Bankura, might take over the charge in Birbhum.
New Delhi, March 24 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met a delegation of leading Sikh intellectual voices from across the country at his official residence here.

The meeting witnessed freewheeling interaction by the Prime Minister with the delegation on diverse topics like farmer welfare, youth empowerment, drug free society, National Educational Policy, skilling, employment, technology and Punjab's overall development trajectory.

The Prime Minister, while expressing his happiness at meeting the delegation, said the intellectuals are opinion makers of the society.

Urging the members of the delegation to engage and educate the public and work towards making the citizenry properly informed, he emphasised the importance of the spirit of unity which acts as the central pillar amidst the wide and beautiful diversity of our country.

The Prime Minister talked about the significance of education in mother tongue.

"Efforts are being made to develop professional courses in Indian languages so that higher education in mother tongue becomes reality," the Prime Minister said.

It is learnt that the delegation thanked the Prime Minister for the invitation and said that they had never imagined that the Prime Minister of the country would engage with them in such an informal setting.

They also appreciated the continuous and multiple steps taken by the Prime Minister for the betterment of Sikh community.
New Delhi, March 24 : The financial impact of climate-related risks to Indian companies responding to global non-profit environmental disclosure system CDP was estimated at Rs 3,285 billion, with climate-related opportunities cited at Rs 3,000 billion.

CDP India launched its 2021 Annual Disclosure report on Thursday at a virtual event. The report, Disclosure Imperative for a Sustainable India, details the climate action disclosed by 88 Indian companies responding to CDP's climate, water and forests questionnaire in 2021.

CDP's new 2025 strategy, Accelerating the Rate of Change, recognises the urgent need for such climate commitments to be translated into swift, effective action, with increased accountability and transparent climate plans from companies, cities, states and regions alike.

It sets out how CDP will respond to the interlinked crises of catastrophic climate change and an irreversible loss of nature and habitats.

Indeed, this rate of change seems to be accelerating in the Indian market. In 2021, 85 Indian companies disclosed to CDP's Climate Change questionnaire in response to a request to do so from investors, representing a 27 per cent growth since 2020 when 67 companies responded.

It is evident that Indian companies are becoming increasingly climate conscious, with 64 Indian companies joining the Science-Based Targets initiative in 2021, making India the leader among emerging economies when it comes to committing to making science-based targets for the transition towards a low carbon economy.

The report also showed that 72 companies, representing 85 per cent of all Indian companies responding to CDP, engaged with suppliers at different levels across their value chain on climate related issues, an essential step in addressing Scope 3 emissions.

Tech giant Wipro has also become the first Indian company to join CDP's Supply Chain Program as of 2022, representing an exemplary step forward in corporate climate action within the market.

These many achievements by Indian companies responding to CDP in 2021 will be celebrated at the annual event, which will feature exclusive sessions engaging corporates on key areas of the transition to a sustainable India.

Prarthana Borah, Director, CDP India, at the report launch said, "This report captures a landmark year for India's climate ambition trajectory, as the regulatory board SEBI introduced mandatory sustainability reporting for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalization and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at COP26 the country's commitment to reach net-zero by 2070." The companies demonstrated impressive climate action and environmental leadership across water security and forest protection, and included ACC, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, WIPRO in climate change; Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and Ambuja Cement in water.
New Delhi, March 24 : Pakistani pharmaceutical importers are holding back payments of $430,000 to Indian Exporters for pharmaceutical products exported to Pakistan from April-December 2021, the government told Parliament on Thursday.

"As per available records, India has exported $203.68 million worth of pharmaceutical products to Pakistan from April 2021-December 2021. Some instances of non-payment of dues to Indian exporters of pharmaceutical products by Pakistani importers have been brought to our notice. As per the data available, the total amount of dues unpaid to Indian exporters is around $430,000," External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Responding to the query of BJP member Subramanian Swamy who had had asked whether some pharmaceutical companies and suppliers supplied pharmaceutical items to Pakistan and if they have not been paid for the goods exported to Pakistan, he said that the matter of unpaid dues has been taken up with the relevant authorities in Pakistan through the High Commission of India in Islamabad but the Pakistani side are yet to revert on the issue.
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, March 24 : On a day of fast-paced developments, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed happiness after his long meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital on the K-Rail project on Thursday, though the Congress in Kerala seems to be smelling a rat.

"The meeting with the PM was excellent. He gave us a patient hearing and the response was encouraging. Overall, it was a positive feeling and we expect the Centre will give us the sanction for our K-Rail project," said Vijayan.

The Chief Minister also dismissed the protests going on in the southern state against the K-Rail project as "stage managed".

"We know that the people are with us, as our track record speaks of our development agenda for the state. People believe us and the protests going on in the state are scripted. We assure the people that the ongoing survey is being done for social impact assessment, and not for land acquisition.

"Once the survey ends, then only a decision would be taken on land acquisition, and when it's done, we will invite the people losing their land and inform them on what they will be getting. We will not harm a single person," said Vijayan, as he thanked Modi for giving him the time to discuss the matter.

Explaining the financing of the project, Vijayan said its cost will come to Rs 63,941 crore, of which Rs 33,700 crore will come from various financial institutions, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Asian Development Bank, to name a few.

The Rs 13,362 crore funds for the proposed cost of acquisition of land will come from HUDCO, KIIFB and state government, while the balance after loans from the funding agencies will come from the Railways -- Rs 3,125 crore -- Rs 3,253 crore will come from the state government and Rs 4,252 crore form the public, said Vijayan.

Minutes before the meeting began, protesting Kerala Congress MPs were allegedly roughed up by the Delhi police inside the Parliament.

As the news trickled in, numerous protests were witnessed across the state with angry Congress workers clashing with the state police.

At a few places, the local people were seen protesting against the K-Rail officials who had come to lay the marking stones for the project.

Meanwhile, reacting to Vijayan's meeting with Modi, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said that for the past one week, hectic preparations were going on for this meeting at the highest level among the Sangh Parivar forces, as there seems to be some sort of "unholy alliance" between the BJP and the CPI-M.

"The proposal submitted for this project is misleading and the figures are all fudged so as to present a rosy picture. Vijayan is deceiving the people of Kerala by painting a rosy picture about the project. We want answers to the questions which we have raised about this project. We will not allow this project to go forward as this will bring untold miseries to the state as it's not a feasible one," said Satheesan.

If completed, the K-Rail project will see a 529.45 km corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod with semi high-speed trains covering the distance in around four hours.
New Delhi, March 24 : The Central government on Thursday issued fresh instructions for laying down the procedure and time-line for change of option by the pensioners and family pensioners for availing OPD facility under Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) or Fixed Medical Allowance (FMA).

The existing guidelines allow pensioners or family pensioners residing in an area not covered by CGHS to have the option to avail the Fixed Medical Allowance of Rs 1,000 per month in lieu of OPD facility under CGHS.

However, the pensioners can change the option from FMA to OPD facility under CGHS or vice versa once during their life time.

As per the new instructions, if a pensioner or family pensioner in receipt of FMA, intends to avail the OPD facility under CGHS, they may apply to the concerned pension disbursing bank for discontinuation of FMA.

The pension disbursing bank shall discontinue the payment of FMA and issue a certificate to this effect within three working days from the date of receipt of application.

Thereafter, the pensioner can apply to the concerned CGHS authorities for issue of CGHS card after paying requisite CGHS contributions, if not already paid and the CGHS authorities will issue a provisional CGHS card to them within four working days from the date of completion of all formalities and deposit of contributions by the pensioners till issue of a regular CGHS Card.

If a pensioner or family pensioner, who is availing CGHS medical facility for both IPD and OPD, intends to avail FMA while residing in a non-CGHS area or on shifting of residence from a CGHS area to a non-CGHS area, they can apply to the CGHS authorities for surrender of OPD facility under CGHS.

The CGHS authorities will make necessary endorsement on the CGHS card and issue a certificate within four working days from the date of receipt of application, that the pensioner or family pensioner is not availing OPD facility.

Thereafter, the pensioners can submit an application to the Head of Office along with a copy of the surrender certificate for issue of a revised pension payment authority for payment of FMA.

The revised Pension Payment Authority will be issued within two months from the date of submission of application by the pensioners. The payment of FMA in such cases will be made from the date of issue of the surrender certificate by the CGHS authorities.
New Delhi, March 24 : The issue of availing services of poll strategist Prashant Kishor in the Gujarat Assembly polls slated for later this year was discussed in a meeting of state party leaders with senior leader Rahul Gandhi, party sources said on Thursday.

However, there was no decision and the leaders moved on to discuss the organizational issues of the party in the meeting held two days back, a source said.

There are said to be back-channels talks going on again after the initial negotiations failed, but the Congress denied it. However, the party has taken on board a close aide of Kishor, to work for the party without any condition, as the joining of the political consultant was stalled by Congress leaders because he wanted a major say in ticket distribution.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has already hired Kishor to evolve a strategy for next elections.

PK, as Kishor is popularly called, had recently met Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and they were understood to have discussed plans for 2023 Assembly polls and also Rao's proposed front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He is believed to have provided the outcome of a preliminary survey reportedly done by his team in other states to the TRS chief's idea of a national alternative.
Bhopal, March 24 : The three-day Chitra Bharati Film Festival will begin on Friday evening at the new campus of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication in Bhopal.

It is the fourth edition of the film festival, which is being organised by Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna.

Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna President, B.K. Kuthiala, told the media on Thursday that the three-day long film festival will end on March 27 at Ravindra Convention.

The Union Minister of State, Information and Broadcasting, Loganathan Murugan will attend the closing ceremony as the chief guest.

He informed that eminent film actors and directors, including director Vivek Agnihotri will attend the inaugural ceremony of the film festival on Friday.

Actor and Vice-Chancellor of Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts, Haryana, Gajendra Chauhan, film directors Abhinav Kashyap and Vivek Agnihotri will be present as special guests on Friday, the Union Minister said.

A master class will be organised on all three days of the festival.

Apart from these, film directors T.S. Nagabharana (Kannada), Subhash Sahu (Oriya) and Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (Hindi) will take a master class on the inaugural day.

Master class of Marathi film director Vaman Kendre, Sharat Sharat Bhattatiripad and film critic Anant Vijay as well as voice artist Harish Bhimani will be held on March 26 and 27.

It will be followed by the Open Forum of film director Abhinav Kashyap.

It is estimated that as many as 120 short films will be screened in this festival. The organisation has received total 712 short films in 15 languages from 22 states of the country to participate in the film festival.

"Of these, 120 films have been selected by the Screening Committee for screening at the festival. The films will be screened at four different locations, which include short films, documentaries, animation and campus films," Kuthiala added.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 24 : Veteran anthropologist and sociologist Filippo Osella was not allowed entry to India after he landed at the Thiruvanthapuram airport on Thursday morning and sent back to the UK.

He arrived through Dubai and was sent back to Dubai from where he will return to the UK.

Upon arrival at the airport here, he was received by an official who took him to the immigration desk and after a brief while, he was told that he was being deported.

Airport officials were tight-lipped on the reason for the deportation, only saying that they were doing their duty.

A Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at the University of Sussex, the 65-year-old Osella is an expert on Kerala and arrived here to take part in a seminar scheduled for Friday.

Incidentally, Osella has a valid research visa till April and his return was slated much before the expiry.
New Delhi, March 24 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted raids at multiple locations in Aizwal, Mizoram, belonging to two accused persons in connection with a case related to terror activity.

The NIA official said the case pertains to the seizure of 1,300 kg of explosive powder along with 3,925 detonators and fuse wires during a routine checking at Farkawn village by Assam Rifles personnel.

The explosives were concealed in a vehicle carrying relief material for Myanmarese refugees sheltering in areas along the India-Myanmar border.

The consignment was ordered by a Myanmarese national and a committee member of Chin National Front.

Initially, the Mizoram police had lodged a case in this connection in June 2021. Later, the probe was taken over by the NIA in July 2021.

During the searches, many incriminating documents, foreign currency and other materials have been recovered.

Further investigation in the matter is underway.
Patna, March 25 : After the BJP's "surgical strike" on VIP, luring away all its three MLAs, Bihar's ruling JD-U on Thursday said it was up to the BJP to decide the fate of its party chief and Minister Mukesh Sahani.

The VIP President is the Animal Husbandry Minister in the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar and BJP leaders are demanding he be sacked after the three VIP MLAs joined the saffron party on Wednesday.

But JD-U leader and Building Construction Minister Ashok Chaudhary said: "During 2020 Assembly election, the seat distribution was done between the JD-U and the BJP. The JD-U had adjusted Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha and BJP accommodated Mukesh Sahani-led VIP. Mukesh Sahani became cabinet minister under BJP quota. Hence, the BJP can take the initiative to remove him from the post of cabinet minister." "Sahani is a young leader of the state and he wants to do good things for his community. In politics, patience is extremely important. Unfortunately, he loses patience and becomes too ambitious to become a big leader in a short time. The consequence of an impatient attitude is in front of everyone now.

"In politics, 2 plus 2 can not be 4 all the time. It required patience. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said that three 'Ps' required for a successful politician in the country and that are presence, patience, and political knowledge," the JD-U leader added.

BJP MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur said that Sahani should resign from the cabinet on moral grounds as he has lost his party's presence in the Assembly.

On the other hand, former Chief Minister Manjhi said: "Whatever is happening between the BJP and Mukesh Sahani is an internal matter between them and I don't want to comment on it but I must say that everything is possible in politics." Meanwhile, Sahani said that he would not quit on his own.

"I would not resign from the post. The Chief Minister would decide my fate. It is his special privilege," he said.
New Delhi, March 25 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday said it has filed a supplementary chargesheet against an accused in connection with a 500-kg heroin smuggling case by people based in Dubai. The drug was smuggled through Pakistan-India sea route.

Earlier, 10 accused persons have been chargesheeted in the case. The chargesheet was filed before a Special Court in Ahmedabad.

The case was initially registered by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2018.

The case pertains to a criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused based in Dubai and Pakistan for smuggling and distribution of 500 kg of illegal narcotic heroin from Pakistan to Gujarat through the sea route.

This heroin was brought by Pakistani nationals in a Pakistani fishing vessel and was delivered in the Indian territorial waters near Jakhau Port in Kutch.

The NIA had re-registered the case on July 2, 2020.

The accused Shahid Kasam Surma was a close associate of earlier accused persons -- Arshad Razak Sota and Rafik Adam Sumra -- who have been absconding since committing the crime.

Surma had stored, transported and delivered 495 kg of the 500 kg of drugs received from Pakistan to Amritsar, Punjab, through his associates.

A red corner notice was issued against him by the Interpol. He was later deported from Dubai and arrested in this case.
Beirut, March 25 : Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said Iran is ready to cooperate with Lebanon in various fields, the National News Agency reported.

"The Islamic republic of Iran is always ready to build bridges of cooperation with the sisterly Lebanese Republic in various fields, especially economy, trade and development," Abdollahian added on Thursday upon his arrival in Lebanon.

The Iranian Foreign Minister said he already informed Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in February at a forum in Munich that Iran is ready to build two power plants in Lebanon, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, and to cooperate in other developmental and economic fields, Xinhua news agency reported.

Abdollahian arrived in Lebanon earlier on Thursday for an official visit. During his stay, the Iranian diplomat is scheduled to meet with Lebanon's House Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Mikati and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to discuss regional and international developments.
Kolkata, March 25 : In a damage control mode, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not only ordered the arrest of Trinamool Congress (TMC) block President Anirul Hossain for his involvement in the Birbhum violence incident but also slammed the local police for not acting in time.

Three hours after Banerjee ordered the arrest of Hossain while on a visit to the site of the violence at the Bagtui village in Birbhum district, the latter was taken into custody.

In her statement at the site, the Chief Minister said, "The kin of the victims said they telephoned Anirul and asked him to send police to Bagtui but he didn't." "I want him (Hossain) arrested. He can surrender but, otherwise, I want him to be arrested immediately," Banerjee told the state Director General of Police Manoj Malviya at Bagtui.

Hossain is the first TMC leader to be put behind bars for the gruesome violence that was allegedly triggered by the killing of local party member and reputed strongman, Bhadu Sheikh on Monday evening.

A resident of Sandhipur in Bengal's Hooghly district, the TMC block President is said to have worked as a mason before he started his political career with the Congress.

In the Trinamool Congress, he is said to have been recognised for organising grassroots support for the party. He has been handling the block President's post since 2018.

The Chief Minister also slammed the local police for not acting in time and said the problem could have been averted if the police responded to the calls.

"This incident could have been avoided if the police had gone immediately. They did not fulfill their responsibility. Action must be taken against those who knowingly did not perform their duty," Banerjee said.

However, the TMC supremo refused to rule out the involvement of outsiders in the Birbhum violence.

She said, "Police officials are investigating all sides. They are probing who all are involved. Was it done locally or whether outsiders were involved in it? Police have to check all angles." "The Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) knew what was happening, the Inspector In-Charge (IC) knew what was happening but didn't take any action," Mamata Banerjee added.

"There is a larger conspiracy here. I want police picketing here continuously." Both the SDPO and IC have been suspended.

However, there are indications that the state administration is likely to take stricter action to instill confidence among the people.

There are strong speculations that Birbhum Superintendent of Police Nagendra Tripathy might be suspended soon and Dritiman Sarkar, who is presently posted in Bankura, could take over the charge of Birbhum.
Global chip shortage is an incontestable fact nowadays.

Global chip shortage is an incontestable fact nowadays. By one estimate, the global chip shortage affects 169 industries.

Apple has reportedly halved iPad production and reused old iPhone parts for the iPhone 13[1].

Nintendo is slashing production of its switch OLED console by 20 percent, with a spokesman saying chip shortages have affected production[2].

The global chip shortage is a reality.

Gartner estimated that the semiconductor shortage will continue into 2022, and warns that wafer orders could take a year to deliver. [3]

Forrester said chip shortages are continued into 2022 and 2023[4].

The ICT industry is another industry that relies heavily on chips to produce products. The global chip shortage that has lasted for several years has provided to continual changes in the prices of products in the ICT industry.

ICT Manufacturers changed their price several times recently.

As the chip shortage, many ICT manufacturers must delay their lead-time or raise their product price.

Cisco is a famous ICT manufacturer, but it also suffers from chips shortages.

"I wouldn't say we have a complete timeline for you as to when things start to improve. All we know now is we expect this to be with us through the second half of our year," Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said. [5]

The past year and at the beginning of this year, Cisco has adjusted its prices intensively several times. About the service (such as license, software, etc.), the price changed on Jan 30th, 2022. It raised 10%-30%.

On Mar 4th, 2022, the price of some products reduced 100%, but there was still numerous products price raised, up to 149.99%.

The price also will change on April 1st, 2022, up to 321.72%.

Check the details here:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/partners/price-changes/services.html?dtid=osscdc000283 [6]

From some suppliers information, Aruba also will raise its price in April, about 20%. The HPE and Dell also will delay their lead-time because of the material shortage.

There are counterfeit products in the market

The ICT manufacturers products price increase has skyrocketed procurement costs for system integrators and end-users. To make matters worse, there are counterfeit products in the market, which increases procurement risks.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world from both supply and demand sides. Steve Calabria, the founder of the Independent Distributors of Electronics Association (IDEA), believes this double squeeze will result in a surge in counterfeit electronics, affecting the longevity and reliability of devices made with substandard components.

Calabria said, "worldwide shortages have led the way for criminals to exploit the electronic component marketplace," adding that he's already seeing early signs of trouble. "Companies that have never been rated by any other company in the industry [are] showing significant quantity of parts that are in shortage."[7]

How to respond to ICT equipment price increase?

How to deal with the ICT devices price increase? An ICT supplier with 20-year experience, Router-switch.com suggests taking measures like these:

1. Assess your need

Do an in-depth and complete assessment of whether you or your company really need a lot of equipment or licenses. Equipment manufacturers will bundle their equipment and licenses for sale, leading some customers to purchase more equipment and licenses than they need. When the assessment is complete and the actual needs are determined, you can then consider what equipment and licenses you need.

2. Put pressure on your suppliers

Ask your ICT equipment supplier to deliver the best price. If not, change supplier! There are numerous excellent suppliers like Router-switch.com in the market! Excellent price and short lead time are the two principal things. When you have to change your ICT devices supplier or other top-branded products, please be vigilant. Some suppliers may not provide brand-new sealed products. Youd better make some survey.

First, see the website of the supplier, is it believable? Second, check the reviews of actual consumers of this supplier. Third, ask their customer service for detailed information about their company. Fourth, place a small order to verify if it brand-new seals. Last, if there are no suspicious things, you can choose this new supplier.

3. Choose other manufacturers

Good ICT manufacturers are not only Cisco but also HPE, Huawei, Dell, etc. If the price of all these big manufacturers is high, you can also choose medium-to-small manufacturers, such as Aruba, Ubiquiti, etc. There are many lists of top manufacturers, just search at Google!

There is likewise a tip here. You should not put all your eggs into one basket. For example, you can select Cisco routers and switches, to deploy your company network, when choosing HPE servers to deploy your data center.

4. Purchase certified refurbished products

Although refurbished products get some bad reputation, purchasing certified refurbished products is used as the method. Some manufacturers will certify refurbished, such as Cisco, HPE, etc. The price of refurbished products is not very high. If using refurbished products will not bring a big risk to your company or project, why not?

5. Turn to Cloud, like SD-WAN

What is SD-WAN? Software-Defined Wide Area Network is a service formed by applying SDN technology to wide area network scenarios. This service is utilized to connect enterprise networks, data centers, Internet applications, and cloud services. SD-WAN is a rapidly deployable, low-cost and highly flexible WAN solution. The SD-WAN becomes more popular than before. It saves much cost than actual hardware but provides useful applications.

Stay optimistic, the darkness will pass

The epidemic has gradually been the norm, and major chip manufacturers are also building new factories for production. Remain optimistic and always believe that the global chip shortage will one day be alleviated and equipment prices will gradually fall.

Sources:

[1] Apple trims iPad production to feed chips to iPhone 13.

[2] Nintendo is reportedly making 20 percent fewer Switches due to the chip shortage

[3] Gartner Says Global Chip Shortage Expected to Persist Until Second Quarter of 2022

[4] Forrester: Supply Chain, Chip Shortages, Bot Management Top 2021 Holiday Season Retailer Obstacles

[5] Cisco CEO: We aren't sure when the semiconductor shortage will end

[6] Cisco: Services Price Changes

[7] Chip shortages lead to more counterfeit chips and devices
BlackCloak is filling a major gap in cybersecurity and online privacy that cannot be solved through software alone by serving as the digital bodyguards of uniquely at-risk individuals with significant wealth, assets, access, and esteem."

BlackCloak, the first Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection Platform for Executives and High-Profile Individuals, today announced that it has won Best Cybersecurity & Network Security at the inaugural WealthTech Americas Awards 2022. Sponsored by WealthBriefing, the WealthTech Americas Awards recognizes companies that have demonstrated innovation and excellence during the last year. In February, BlackCloak, a pioneer of Digital Executive Protection, was named a finalist for Best Cyber Security by WealthBriefings sister company, The Family Wealth Report.

The organizations and individuals who triumphed in these awards are all worthy winners, and I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to the winners and to those who have put so much work into each winning submission, said Stephen Harris, ClearView Financial Medias CEO, and Publisher of WealthBriefing. These awards recognize the very best operators in Americas wealth management, with independence, integrity and genuine insight the watchwords of the judging process - such that the awards truly reflect excellence in Americas wealth management.

BlackCloak emerged as the overall cybersecurity category winner by besting a highly contested group of finalists chosen from a large pool of entrants. The independent judges, which consisted of members from WealthBriefings Advisory Board, evaluated entrants on the basis of their submissions and their responses to a number of specific questions that focused on the client experience rather than purely quantitative performance metrics.

BlackCloak is filling a major gap in cybersecurity and online privacy that cannot be solved through software alone by serving as the digital bodyguards of uniquely at-risk individuals with significant wealth, assets, access, and esteem, said Chris Pierson, BlackCloak founder and CEO. Were thankful to WealthBriefing for recognizing the holistic value that our Platform and white-glove concierge approach provides to those with little time but a lot to lose.

Cybercriminals and fraudsters are increasingly targeting individuals with wealth, status, access, and reputation. As the leader in digital protection, BlackCloak is the first and only online privacy and cybersecurity solution built specifically to protect uniquely at-risk clientele from financial fraud, identity theft, targeted cyberattacks, and other modern threats to their personal digital lives.

To learn how BlackCloak partners with leading Wealth Management Firms and Family Offices to bring digital protection to their clients, visit https://blackcloak.io/partners and download our new guide, 5 Reasons Family Offices & Private Wealth Managers Choose BlackCloak For Clients.

About BlackCloak

BlackCloak protects corporate executives and high-profile individuals from cybersecurity, privacy, financial, and other reputational risks. Used by Fortune 500 companies across all industries, the BlackCloak Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy Platform is a holistic solution including mobile and desktop apps as well as concierge support. Executives and high-profile individuals get peace of mind knowing their family, reputation, and finances are secured. Companies rest assured that their brand, intellectual property, data, and finances are protected against threats coming through executives without having to invade their personal lives. Learn more at http://www.blackcloak.io, follow them on Twitter @BlackCloakCyber, or watch the product video.

About ClearView Financial Media Ltd (ClearView)

ClearView Financial Media was founded by Chief Executive, Stephen Harris in 2004, to provide high quality need to know information for the discerning private client community. London-based, but with a truly global focus, ClearView publishes the WealthBriefing group of newswires, along with research reports and newsletters, while also running a pan-global thought-leadership events and awards program.
Maggie Reardon, Senior Report, CNET News The safety issue only comes into play when theres bad weather and pilots can't see the runway, or they have low visibility I don't think that the FAA is allowing planes to go up that are unsafe.

As consumer demand for sending and receiving more information in less time increases, wireless carriers are rolling out the new 5G network to satisfy those demands. So, what does that have to do with airline travel and why did the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure need a Congressional hearing in February to discuss it? Well, apparently the radio waves within the electromagnetic spectrum used with 5G may interfere with radio frequencies used by many airline altimeters, the device that measures the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Not a big deal on a beautiful sunny day, but bad weather and low visibility is another matter entirely.

To help travelers understand the actual issues at hand and confirm if there is a safety issue passengers need to be concerned with, ExpertFlyer recently went One-on-One with Maggie Reardon, Senior Reporter at CNET who has been covering this topic since November and spectrum issues more generally for almost two decades, and Dean Greenblatt, aviation attorney and former airline pilot, to help sort the facts from fiction. Is passenger safety really at risk? Will flights need to be re-routed? Will this cause fares to rise? To listen to both interviews in their entirely, visit ExpertFlyers blog.

"Right now, the FAA is focusing on the primary safety issue, which is to identify which planes are using the old altimeters, said Maggie Reardon. The safety issue only comes into play when theres bad weather and pilots can't see the runway, or they have low visibility. But there are other ways of landing the plane and I don't think that the FAA is allowing planes to go up that are unsafe.

Ms. Reardon explains that the center of the issue lies along the C-band spectrum where the radio frequencies used with airline altimeters and those used by Verizon and AT&T for 5G are very close to each other, causing interference. At the time, no one else was using that C-band spectrum so the airline altimeters didnt need to use these new filtering technologies, Reardon explains. What really needs to happen is they have to figure out a way to either replace those altimeters or alter them in some way. But that's a big job and potentially expensive.

Dean Greenblatt concurs that passenger safety is not really the issue but its the cost and inconvenience passengers may experience that could be worrisome. "People should feel okay about flying because the system is secure. That's not going to be the issue. The issue is whether or not travelers are going to experience additional costs or flight disruptions in poor weather conditions. That's a real possibility until this issue gets resolved."

According to Greenblatt, the problem emanated from a general lack of communication between the FAA and FCC. "The FCC auctions certain spectrum and the 5G spectrum was auctioned off some time ago to AT&T and Verizon to operate their 5G networks. But the FCC is supposed to cooperate with other governmental entities. They do that through the NTIA, which is the National Telecommunications Information Administration. The NTIA is principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policy issues and managing the Federal government and industrys efficient use and allocation of spectrum.

"In this case, there were some indications that there were problems, but we also had an independent, private nonprofit called the RTCA, the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics look into the matter. After analyzing the issue, they developed a report which concluded there were some radio altimeters that use an area of the spectrum that is very close to the 5G spectrum and that could interfere with the use of airline radio altimeters.

So why isnt Europe facing the same issues with their implementation of 5G? The European Union uses a different spectrum for 5G, Greenblatt said. It's further displaced from the frequencies that are used by radio altimeters but its also a question of power, placement, and angle of the antenna. We really need to address this with the US telecoms so that they can adjust their power and angle of their antenna to avoid unnecessary interference."

To listen to the full interviews with Maggie Reardon and Dean Greenblatt, visit ExpertFlyers blog.

About Maggie Reardon

Maggie Reardon is a senior reporter for CNET News, where, since 2004 she has covered tech policy, broadband, the digital divide, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the debate over how to regulate Big Tech.

About Dean Greenblatt

Dean Greenblatt is an attorney licensed in Michigan and Florida. Dean has 4,000 hours flying as an airline transport pilot and flight instructor with additional ratings in seaplanes and gliders. He is a part-time professor of aviation law; twice served as chairperson of the Aviation Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan; was appointed to the Michigan Aeronautics Commission; and volunteers as coordinator for Operation Good Cheer, an all-volunteer gift-giving program for foster children. Greenblatts aviation practice includes civil litigation and FAA enforcement defense for airlines, certificate holders, operators and related businesses.

About ExpertFlyer.com

Each month, ExpertFlyer's One-on-One blog goes face-to-face with the travel industry's leading decision makers to discuss and address topics relevant to many of today's business and frequent travelers.

ExpertFlyer.com was conceived and created by an eclectic team consisting of a veteran elite tier frequent flyer, an airline captain and corporate travel manager, and information technology professionals to deliver a 24/7 real time powerful air travel information service. The company provides its subscribers and corporate travel managers alike with a complete, concise, and efficient way to access the ever-changing details of worldwide air travel information. For more information, please visit expertflyer.com.

Stuck in the middle seat again? Download the free Seat Alerts app from ExpertFlyer and get the window or aisle seat without hassle or frustration.
As the cannabis industry continues its massive growth, Im proud of composing a team of experts with centuries of combined cannabusiness and consulting experience to support the acceleration of the cannabis and hemp industries.

Higher Yields Consulting, the leading international cannabusiness consulting firm, today announced that it achieved record growth in the last year by increasing its new clients by over 400%. Higher Yields provides professional business development services to cannabis startups, existing operators and local, state and federal governments - both domestically and internationally.

As the cannabis industry continues its massive growth, Im proud of composing a team of experts with centuries of combined cannabusiness and consulting experience to support the acceleration of the cannabis and hemp industries, stated Cory Waggoner, founder and CEO of Higher Yields. Our team works with all types of businesses and governments. Our client profile spans from conceptual startups to publicly traded Multi-State Operators to federal governments.

We help to determine and advise the feasibility of our clients potential endeavors and expansions of operators, from the onset working with federal and state governments, supporting them with regulatory structure and program development to create vertically integrated supply chains around the world. I look forward to supporting the growth of the industry, continuing to set the benchmark for customer service and to champion global access and education to cannabis and hemp products.

The company has accelerated commercial cannabis and hemp industries by:



Work with clients in 35 states and 15 countries.

Drafted more than 500 cannabusiness applications.

Won licenses in 15 competitive states.

Supporting commercial construction and operational systems support of over 4 million square feet of cannabis businesses.

Supporting the continued growth of over 100 client projects.

Currently advising clients on over $100,000,000 of projects globally.

Higher Yields provides cannabis consulting services such as licensing, real estate, cultivation management, financial plans, facility design-build services, branding, marketing, compliance, banking access, and more, to learn more visit https://higheryieldsconsulting.com/.

About Higher Yields Consulting Higher Yields Consulting (Higher Yields) is a Denver-based, international cannabusiness consulting firm whose founding members have been successfully providing professional consulting services to the commercial cannabis and hemp industries since 2008. From licensing, real estate, cultivation management, financial plans, facility design-build services, Human Resource Services, branding, marketing, compliance, banking access and more, Higher Yields has decades of combined experience working closely with clients across the booming cannabis industry. The company has helped build more than four million square feet of cannabis facilities alone and offers an in-house marketing and branding team. Learn more and chat with us at higheryieldsconsulting.com.
BlueConic, the worlds leading pure-play customer data platform (CDP), will be joining Conns HomePlus to host a discussion called The Journey to Customer-Centricity: Transforming a Centuries-Old Company, at the upcoming MarTech Spring Conference.

BlueConic, the worlds leading pure-play customer data platform (CDP), will be joining Conns HomePlus to host a discussion called The Journey to Customer-Centricity: Transforming a Centuries-Old Company, at the upcoming MarTech Spring Conference. The session will explain why consented first-party data has become an essential tool for engaging customers at every point in their journey and how Conns HomePlus strategically approached the onboarding of BlueConic as its customer data platform.

Who: Nicholas Visconti, Vice President of Marketing, Conns HomePlus will be joined by Jackie Rousseau-Anderson, Chief Customer Officer, BlueConic.

What: Visconti and Rousseau-Anderson will discuss how Conns HomePlus is leveraging BlueConic to successfully navigate its customer-first business transformation.

When: Tuesday March 29, 2022, 1:00-1:30pm EST

Why Attend: Conns HomePlus traces its roots back to humble beginnings as a small plumbing and heating company in Beaumont, Texas. Now a $1.5B+, 4,000 employee retailer and lender with a footprint spanning the southern U.S., the success of Conns HomePlus is driven by its strong belief that everyone deserves a home they love.

In this session, Visconti will share how Conns HomePlus is bringing the voice of the customer to life and the ways they are using the unified customer profiles in their BlueConic database to demonstrate their organization is thinking about a customers state of mind, at any given point in their journey. Attendees will learn:



Best practices for successfully navigating a customer-first business transformation

Key steps that accelerate readiness for onboarding a customer data platform (CDP)

Ways to operationalize the voice of the customer and facilitate personalized customer experiences

Where: Participants can learn more about the MarTech Spring Conference and register for free here.

Tweet this: Join @BlueConic and @ConnsHomePlus at the MarTech Spring Conference on March 29 to learn how first-party data is bringing the voice of the customer to life. Register for free: https://events.martechconf.com/martech-Spring 2022

About BlueConic

BlueConic, the leading pure-play customer data platform, liberates companies first-party data from disparate systems and makes it accessible wherever and whenever it is required to transform customer relationships and drive business growth. Over 300 companies worldwide, including Hearst Newspapers, Heineken, ING, T-Mobile, UEFA, and VF Corp, use BlueConic to unify data into persistent, individual-level profiles, and then activate it across customer touchpoints and systems in support of a wide range of growth-focused initiatives, including customer lifecycle orchestration, modeling and analytics, digital products and experiences, audience-based monetization, and more. BlueConic is a global company with offices in the US and Europe. Learn more at http://www.blueconic.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn @BlueConic.
Carolyn McCarty, President of Illinois PTA, is working with New Jersey-based yearbook provider, Entourage Yearbooks, to create a new kind of convention program book.

Every year, the Illinois Parent Teacher Association holds the Illinois PTA Convention and Advocacy Conference for PTA leaders statewide to "network, learn new ideas, and sharpen leadership and advocacy skills." The Illinois PTA was first founded in the year 1900*, and their annual convention is one of their most important and most anticipated events. The Illinois PTA is the Illinois state chapter of National PTA, which is the largest child advocacy organization* in the country.

I spoke with Carolyn last week to discuss her new partnership with Entourage and her journey to the state PTA presidency and this year's convention.

"I first joined the PTA in 1986, when my daughter entered second grade. I had just moved to Illinois and I didn't even know that there was a larger PTA than the group at her school," McCarty shared with me.

From humble beginnings in the late eighties, McCarty's role with the PTA grew when she quit working in 2006 and began volunteering at the school full-time. Before leaving the workforce, she was a director at The May Department Stores Company (former operators of department stores such as Lord & Taylor and David's Bridal), in their credit division. Because of her background with finance, the school's principal reached out to her for help with a PTA tax question, and eventually that led to an introduction to a member of the state PTA board. McCarty joined the state board in 2010, and stepped into the role of President last year.

As State PTA President, McCarty's role includes overseeing the group's numerous advocacy initiatives as well as the annual convention. Her partnership with Entourage began last October, when she was attending a principal's conference and happened upon Entourage's booth.

"She walked up to our booth and said, 'Can you give me a great deal on a program book?,' and I told her, 'I'll do you one better,''' said Shaun Stapleton, Head of Sales and Marketing at Entourage. He offered to cover the cost of the project entirely in exchange for McCarty's help getting the word out about Entourage's services to PTA members. McCarty agreed, and the process of designing the program book soon began in earnest.

Though a convention program isn't the first use one might think of for a yearbook software, the versatility of Entourage's proprietary design platform makes page design for any kind of printed matter possible.

"We think using a yearbook company is a great opportunity to make a program book, also," said McCarty. "A yearbook is not limited to classroom pictures and student pictures, but can be utilized for other types of event books."

One of the biggest benefits of working with a yearbook company for an event program is the quality. Since yearbooks need to be durable above all else, the paper and cover material is typically thicker and glossier than that of any standard printer. When McCarty received the proof for her program book, she was amazed. "I showed the proof to our executive board members, and they were like, 'This is wonderful!,' 'This looks great!' and I'm going, 'Yes, it does!'"

"[I] love, love, love this program book! It is professional and promotes Illinois PTA in a positive way," said Illinois PTA President-elect, Greg Hobbs.

Other executive board members agreed: "[The book] is amazing! It promotes Illinois PTA as an outstanding organization advocating for the best interest of children and families," said Peggy Staehlin, Illinois PTA secretary.

The Illinois PTA Convention and Advocacy Conference takes place March 29-30 this year*, where the program book will be distributed to registered convention attendees.

*Source: https://illinoispta.org/

*Source: https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association

*Source: https://illinoispta.org/illinois-pta-onvention/
Out Leadership, the oldest and largest coalition of global companies working to improve LGBTQ+ equality in the world, is delighted to welcome Perpetual as its newest member firm. Perpetual, one of Australias leading financial institutions joins an illustrious and influential group of 96 member companies that span industries such as global banking, investment management, private equity, alternative investments, legal, consumer goods, business advisory, media, manufacturing and more.

Todd Sears, CEO & Founder, Out Leadership, said: Were stoked that Perpetual has joined our global community of firms that now represents over 6 million global employees. Perpetuals dedication to diversity and inclusion is clearly part of their DNA. The fact that the firms CEO leads Perpetuals D+I Council is impressive. We are looking forward to working together to advance LGBTQ+ equality.

Rob Adams, CEO and Managing Director, Perpetual said: Central to the work of our Diversity and Inclusion Council is ensuring Perpetual continues to be an organisation that is open and accepting, with a culture that values individuals, their differences and perspectives. We want our people to feel they can be their true self when they come to work at Perpetual, to feel confident and safe."

Adams continued, Our dedicated Diversity and Inclusion Council has made so much progress in the 10 years since it was established, and as our business grows internationally, were thrilled to be partnering with Out Leadership and tapping into their global expertise to inspire our leaders and further develop our global D&I policies and training.

Perpetual is a trusted brand with longstanding client relationships, some of which span five generations. Earning this reputation requires hard work, combined with high-quality talent.

Sears continued, We are excited to support Perpetual in their ongoing work to create a fully inclusive environment for their people, and are looking forward to welcoming their teams at our Leadership Summits and Talent Accelerators.

About Perpetual:

Perpetual Limited (ASX:PPT) is an ASX listed, diversified financial services operates company which has been serving clients since 1886. Perpetual offers funds management, financial advisory and trustee services across its four businesses: Perpetual Asset Management Australia, Perpetual Asset Management International, Perpetual Corporate Trust and Perpetual Private. Its origin as a trustee company, coupled with its strong track record of investment performance, has created a reputation as one of the strongest brands in financial services in Australia. For further information, go to http://www.perpetual.com.au

About Out Leadership:

Out Leadership is the oldest and largest global LGBTQ+ business advisory that partners with the worlds most influential companies to build business opportunities, cultivate talent, and drive LGBTQ+ equality forward. We believe that LGBTQ+ inclusion positively impacts business results, and that including LGBTQ+ people at the most senior level of executive leadership builds business. We call this idea Return on Equality.

Out Leadership is a global coalition of more than 90 member firms with a combined market capitalization of over $6.3 trillion, annual revenues exceeding $1.8 trillion, and representing more than 6 million global employees. Out Leadership convenes CEOs, business leaders, and allies at exclusive invitation-only events across 4 continents. Out Leadership also operates three talent initiatives: OutQUORUM, which aims to increase LGBTQ+ representation on corporate boards; OutNEXT, the first global talent development program for emerging LGBTQ+ leaders; and OutWOMEN, connecting senior-level LGBTQ+ women in business. To learn more, please visit https://outleadership.com/
With Access we now have a near-limitless source of merchant brands and mobile discount offers with which we can surprise and delight our gift recipients," said Jason Wolfe, founder of Telos Gifting.

Online gift card recipients will soon have even more to celebrate, thanks to a new partnership between Access Development and Telos Gifting. The joint effort will combine the budget-stretching value of Americas largest mobile discount network with the expansive reach of Telos Giftings gift card technology.

Through its GiftYa platform, Telos Gifting makes it possible for consumers to send digital gift cards on behalf of merchants nationwide  from local businesses to national brands. Starting in April, qualifying eGifts purchased from GiftYa will include discounts sourced from the Access Development merchant network, boosting each gifts purchasing power by as much as 50%.

Here at Access, our mission is to help the world experience more by adding value to the purchases they make every day, including those made using gift cards, said Kelly Passey, president of Access Development. This partnership gives us an opportunity to reach more people, impact more lives, and spread more joy to those who give and receive.

From its founding, Telos Gifting has sought to revolutionize the gift-giving experience through its GiftYa, Gift Card Granny and PerfectGift.com business units. Together its family of products and platforms has expanded the boundaries of the gifting industry to deliver superior value and meaningful experiences.

Founder Jason Wolfe sees the new relationship with Access Development as a way to enhance Telos Giftings value proposition beyond others in the gifting space. With Access we now have a near-limitless source of merchant brands and mobile discount offers with which we can surprise and delight our gift recipients. As our network of partners continues to grow, so will our ability to make our overall gifting experience fast, easy and meaningful.

About Access Development

For over 30 years, Access Development has helped organizations connect with their customers and build revenue, engagement and loyalty through cash-back rewards, employee perks, and membership discount programs. The companys private discount network of over 850,000 merchant locations is North Americas largest, providing discounts and rewards of up to 50% on everyday purchases. For more information on Access, please visit https://www.accessdevelopment.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/accessloyalty.

About Telos Gifting

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Telos Gifting occupies the building at 495 Mansfield Ave in Greentree, Pennsylvania. Telos Gifting, LLC, owns and manages PerfectGift.com, GiftYa.com, and GiftCardGranny. Telos Gifting was formed in 2019 by Wolfe, LLC, a fin-tech incubator, to re-enter the gift card market after selling GiftCards.com in 2016.

About GiftYa

GiftYa, a Telos Gifting, LLC company, is reinventing gift giving with a meaningful no loss, no waste e-gift. GiftYa enables you to text a personalized gift for any national or local merchant in the U.S. within seconds.
Dallas-based FBFK Law Firm Ryan and Kevin are excellent young attorneys who deserve this recognition, said CEO & Founder Kyle Ferguson. Their top-notch work for FBFK clients and contributions to our firm spotlight why they are Rising Stars.

For the second year in a row, Ryan Marrone and Kevin Barnett, business litigators with the FBFK Law Firm, have been selected to the distinguished 2022 Edition of Super Lawyers Texas Rising Stars list.

The annual list of 40-and-under attorneys (or those in practice 10 years or less) is a result of a multi-phased process involving peer nominations, evaluations and independent research by Super Lawyers. No more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in Texas are honored each year.

Ryan and Kevin are excellent young attorneys who deserve this recognition, said CEO & Founder Kyle Ferguson. Their top-notch work for FBFK clients and contributions to our firm spotlight why they are Rising Stars.

Marrone was selected to the 2021 Texas Rising Stars list and currently serves as chair of the Collin County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section, chair of the FBFK Mentorship Program, and serves on the Advisory Board of the First United Methodist Church Weekday Program. Barnett, also a 2021 Texas Rising Stars honoree, serves on FBFKs Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and Recruiting Committee, and is a member of the Collin County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section, Dallas Asian American Bar Association, and Dallas Association of Young Lawyers.

Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

About FBFK

Celebrating 20 years of legal expertise and success across Texas and the U.S., Dallas-based FBFK is an entrepreneurial-minded, full-service business law firm with offices in Plano, Houston and Austin, Texas, as well as in Silicon Valley. Driven by a commitment to creating lasting client relationships grounded in high-quality representation and client service, FBFK represents clients nationwide in nearly 40 practice areas related to business structures and transactions, intellectual property protection and dispute resolution. http://www.fbfk.law.
Responsum Health serves patient and chronic-disease communities The platform and its mobile app primarily focus on delivering summarized, understandable content that increases womens awareness of menopause symptoms and their confidence to speak with their healthcare providers and seek treatment when needed.

Responsum Health (Responsum), an innovative developer of personalized patient apps and chronic-disease knowledge communities, in partnership with the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning (ACHL), has created and launched an online connection and knowledge platform for women living with menopausal symptoms.

The platform, called Responsum for Menopause, is now available to the public and is free to access via web browser or mobile app.

While nearly all women will go through menopause in some phase of their lives, its symptoms and effects in women's lives are often underrecognized and undertreated. Hot flashes affect an estimated 80% of women with menopause and generally last 10-15 years. The average age for menopause is between 46-53 years, but hot flashes can start during perimenopause, which usually begins at around 40.

In collaboration with ACHL, and an Expert Advisory Council comprised of women who have experienced menopause, as well as leaders from the menopause medical and advocacy communities, Responsum for Menopause provides a digital home for a community that features education resources and content applicable to all women experiencing menopause symptoms.

Responsum Health has designed, developed, and provided a digital platform with daily-updated, expert-vetted, patient-centered content to address identified unmet educational needs of women experiencing menopause.

The platform and its mobile app primarily focus on delivering summarized, understandable content that increases womens awareness of menopause symptoms and their confidence to speak with their healthcare providers and seek treatment when needed. It serves as a comprehensive resource and informational support tool for those suffering from menopausal symptoms.

Additionally, the Responsum app approach incorporates an expert-moderated community "chat" around which it convenes robust member-support networks.

Responsum Health's proven approach has already demonstrated unequaled success at working in partnership with leading advocacy groups to bring its novel digital platforms to people with pulmonary fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, glaucoma, uterine fibroids, and long COVID.

Finally, in addition to educating members, the Responsum platform will provide ACHL with insights gathered from user data and surveys. Through quarterly surveys, including initial benchmarking, Responsum will work with ACHL to measure the impact of its content and community support on members' self-reported knowledge level, willingness to engage healthcare providers, and mental health (among others). These insights will support identifying areas for future healthcare provider education, ensuring members perspectives and challenges are considered.

This program is supported by an educational grant from Astellas.

We are grateful that Astellas is willing to support our mission to educate, support, and empower people with chronic conditions through our unique approach to providing individuals with the information they need to drive better outcomes, said Andrew Rosenberg, founder of Responsum Health. By working with recognized educational leaders like ACHL, as well as trusted voices from within the patient advocacy community, we have created a unique online platform that fills a vital information gapwhile simultaneously creating an authentic, welcoming online community for women with menopause.

ACHL is delighted to partner with Responsum Health on the creation of this unique app to address the unmet needs of menopausal women. By creating this community, we hope women will find education, support, and empowerment to speak to their healthcare providers about their menopausal symptoms and treatment options. We are especially thankful to Astellas for recognizing the need for education and supporting the goals of our program, said Amanda Kaczerski, SVP with ACHL.

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About Responsum Health

With a mission of building and supporting online knowledge communities of chronic disease patients, Responsum Health (Latin for the answer) is a disruptive and innovative healthcare startup company that develops and provides free, disease-specific patient engagement platforms and apps that monitor, search, and curate the Internet  and then generate a personalized newsfeed of article summaries vetted by Responsum's patient group and subject matter expert partners. For patients with chronic illness, Responsum Health replaces the need to sort and sift through the Internet on their own with a professionalized search and summary service; indeed, no other such app or platform exists.

Responsum Health wraps a proprietary newsfeed into a highly engaging digital platform that enables patients to comment on and rate the articles and share with their professional care team and loved ones. Responsum platforms also enable patients to share experiences through a moderated social wall, organize their health information, and find local patient support groups and services near them.

With dynamic patient knowledge platforms in areas as diverse as pulmonary fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, uterine fibroids, glaucoma, and long COVID, Responsum Healths apps drive extremely high user engagement metrics that widely exceed industry standards. Developed from years of interviews, extensive research at Carnegie Mellon University, and collaboration with hundreds of patients worldwide, Responsum Healths disease-specific apps are designed to improve patients knowledge, grow their self-confidence, and provide for the organization and coordination of their healthcare information. Today, thousands of patients and their caregivers rely on Responsum Health apps and content for their daily health information.

The company is a part of the Startup Health network of recognized healthcare innovators and counts leading corporations and organizations among its clients and partners in delivering knowledge platforms in areas as diverse as pulmonary fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, uterine fibroids, and glaucoma. Clients and partners of Responsum Health include Astellas, Otsuka, Abbvie, Galapagos, the Allergan Foundation, Prevent Blindness, the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, The White Dress Project, the Black Womens Health Imperative, and CARE About Fibroids.

https://responsumhealth.com/

Responsum is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

About the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning (ACHL)

The Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning has been an accredited provider of CME/CE for over 20 years. ACHLs mission is to design, develop, and implement quality continuing education activities that will have a positive influence on the way healthcare is practiced and ultimately to improve the quality of care provided to patients. ACHL serves its mission by designing directly sponsored and jointly sponsored educational activities using a variety of educational methods, media, and approaches.

ACHL actively engages and collaborates with diverse healthcare stakeholders to transform the reach and redefine the value of independent medical education. Through these collaborations and as an independent CME/CE provider, ACHL strives to promote positive change and improve the quality of care for patients everywhere. Based in Chicago, IL, ACHLs team of 25 employees manages over 250 educational activities each year across a wide range of therapeutic areas  winning awards for our groundbreaking digital technologies, innovative designs, and global reach.

https://www.achleducation.com/
Meghan Stiling's role at Nerdery expands to Chief Digital & Operating Officer (CDOO) The expansion of Stilings role will streamline the client delivery and development teams, ensuring efficient collaboration and communication.

Nerdery, a premier digital product consultancy, announces it has expanded Meghan Stilings role with the company to Chief Digital & Operating Officer (CDOO). In this expanded role, Stiling will assume responsibility for leading client-facing and delivery operations teams, while continuing to be responsible for defining and driving new technology and strategy capabilities.

Stiling joined Nerdery in 2019 to lead their Emerging Technologies and Architecture teams and was promoted to Chief Digital Officer (CDO) in 2021. Her expertise in cloud engineering, security, data, and technical architecture led to significantly growing those in-demand service offerings.

We are thrilled to recognize Meghan with this expanded role and create the right structure to allow us to quickly and thoughtfully deliver the digital products that our clients consumers want, said Nerdery CEO Michael Schmidt. Meghan is an inspiring force and I consider myself privileged to work with her. Her expertise, leadership and passion positively impact our industry and the Twin Cities business community.

The expansion of Stilings role will streamline the client delivery and development teams, ensuring efficient collaboration and communication. This hyper-connected, cross functional team will bring agility and speed in support of delivering impactful solutions that drive value to Nerderys clients and their customers.

In addition to Stilings proven expertise within tech  working with Fortune 50 companies and Big Four consultancies like Best Buy, Accenture and Deloitte  she also holds a bachelors degree in engineering from Purdue, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Carlson School of Management, and her Juris Doctor from the William Mitchell College of Law.

Stilings technology acumen and strategic expertise is valued both at Nerdery and in the many philanthropic efforts that she supports. Stiling perpetuates a culture of mentorship through her leadership involvement with the Carlson School of Management as an alumni board member and as a high-tech judge for the MN Cup competition.

Within the tech industry, a field largely dominated by men, Stiling is steadfast in her work to empower women to become technology leaders. Nerdery has a long history of empowering female leaders in the technology field. Currently 48% of Nerderys director and above roles are filled by women, and 37% of roles overall are filled by women, both well above national average numbers according to Deloitte.

ABOUT NERDERY

Nerdery is a premier digital product consultancy with depth of experience in technology and engineering, serving clients across a range of industries. Nerdery works alongside its clients to understand their goals and build digital products that transform business, create enduring customer connections and elevate the human experience. Much more than consultants, they are allies for the digital journey  a collection of strategists, designers, technologists and proud Nerds, who are united around a vision of relentlessly inventing a world that works better for all. Nerdery was founded in 2003 and has offices in Minneapolis, Chicago and Phoenix. Find out more at nerdery.com.
Alliance of Channel Women Opens Registration for ACWConnect Live! Spring 2022 At ACWConnect Live! Las Vegas 2022, ACW will join Channel Partners Conference in celebrating its 25th Anniversary, the channel community's remarkable change and growth, and the promise that "The best is yet to come!"

Alliance of Channel Women, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of female channel leaders in technology, will kick off the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas with its ACWConnect Live! networking event from 4-7 p.m., April 11, on the show's main stage, Level 2, Ballroom F at The Venetian.

At ACWConnect Live! Las Vegas 2022, ACW will join Channel Partners Conference in celebrating its 25th Anniversary, the channel community's remarkable change and growth, and the promise that "The best is yet to come!"

ACW also will tackle change and growth we've all experienced individually. Over the past two years, we've been tried and tested in surprising ways, becoming new versions of ourselves  personally and professionally. We've developed grit and resilience in an ever-changing environment. At ACWConnect Live! we'll explore "The Evolution of You."

The ACW event will feature our signature networking reception and engaging programming, such as:



Keynote Address by MeiLee Langley, ACW member and Head of Worldwide Channel Marketing at LiveVox, who will talk about what she learned in her transformational journey

Welcoming remarks from incoming ACW President Cassie Jeppson, Director of North America Channel Programs at Lenovo

A prime location in the Channel Partners Conference & Expo Keynote Ballroom

Not one, but two rapid-fire roundtable discussions

Raffle prizes

More!

The ACWConnect Live! Networking Event is open to all women and men attending the Channel Partners Conference & Expo event. Admission is free to all ACW members and $30 for non-members. Click here to register. Become an ACW member and attend free; sign up at https://allianceofchannelwomen.org/join.

Tickets are limited to space available. Advance registration is recommended. Pre-registration closes on April 8 at 12 p.m. ET. Additional tickets may be available at the door on a "first come, first served" basis.

In addition to hosting its signature event, ACW also will be part of the Channel Partners educational program and exhibition:



Hear from ACW members in the panel discussion, "Empowering the Next Generation of Women Leaders," at 12:15-12:35 p.m. on April 12, Level 2, The Venetian Ballroom F

Meet ACW Members at Booth 2254 to learn more about ACW programs and membership benefits.

About the Alliance of Channel Women

Founded in 2010, the Alliance of Channel Women is a not-for-profit organization of women in the indirect sales channel of the telecom and IT industry. The Alliance of Channel Women brings us together to empower and advance women's careers and leadership roles in the technology channel through education, community, advocacy and opportunities for personal growth. To learn more and to become a member, please visit http://www.allianceofchannelwomen.org.
Andre Assous' new website will feature a modernized new look for the famous footwear brand and deliver a premium shopping experience. Both CQL and Vida Shoes are excited with the results of the launch of Stride Rite, Vidas flagship brand. With Shopify Plus, CQL can take the top-performing features of one site and easily extend them to other brands, producing optimized site performance right from the point of launch.

Andre Assous, a division of Vida Shoes International known for creating innovative and comfortable footwear with modern styling and a classic touch, has announced CQL will deliver a digital brand refresh and optimize its user experience on Shopify Plus. The new website will revitalize the Andre Assous brand personality, provide customers with a highly-visual buyer journey, and improve site speed and performance. While maintaining their Spanish roots, Andre Assous new eCommerce site will elevate the brand to capture the timeless, chique, stylish, and trendiness of its footwear to a social and digital-first consumer market.

Vidas leading kids shoe brand, Stride Rite, replatformed to Shopify Plus in December 2021, laid the foundation for growth with a robust and optimized framework that could be scaled to additional Vida brands. Based on the proven success of the replatform for Vida Shoes premier shoe brand, the Andre Assous brand will benefit from leveraging the features/functionality from Stride Rite and focus primarily on optimizing the digital experience. In addition to a brand refresh, Andre Assous gains a unified tech stack, a more robust drag-and-drop Shopify CMS experience, and new integrations with growth marketing partners like Attentive, Bluecore, and SearchSpring.

Following the successful launch of Stride Rite, VIDA can now relaunch brands like Andre Assous into the same framework, utilizing features and functionality we designed with Stride Rite. With a site audit from CQL and a modernized new look to the Andre Assous brand, we can optimize the impact of site migration and deliver a premium shopping experience, says Todd Dreith, VP of Customer Experience and Digital at Vida Shoes International.

Andre Assous is the 13th Shoe Brand to replatform for CQL, following Wolverine Worldwides Bates, CAT Footwear, Chaco, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Hush Puppies, HYTEST, Keds, Merrell, Saucony, Sperry, Wolverine, and Vida Shoes Stride Rite. CQL brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the fashion & apparel industry, working with industry-leading brand retailers to grow their online business, says Scott Robertson, CQL Managing Director. Both CQL and Vida Shoes are excited with the results of the launch of Stride Rite, Vidas flagship brand. With Shopify Plus, CQL can take the top-performing features of one site and easily extend them to other brands, producing optimized site performance right from the point of launch.

The new website is expected to launch in late spring 2022. For more information, visit CQLCorp.com.

About VIDA International

Vida designs, sources, markets and distributes fashion-forward and outdoor adventure footwear for women, men and children. In addition to marketing products under its own brands including Jambu, JBU, J Sport, M.A.P. and Andre Assous, Vida is a licensee of various brands, including BCBGeneration, BCBGMAXAZRIA, BCBG GIRLS, Stride Rite, Carters, OshKosh BGosh, Kensie, XOXO, UNIONBAY and Esprit. Vida also designs and sources products under private labels brands for various retailers. Vidas wholesale distribution includes department stores, independent retailers, specialty stores, national chains and mass merchants. Learn more at vidagroup.com.

About CQL

CQL is a digital commerce agency with a 27 year history of creating commerce experiences and solutions for inspiring brands and people who love them. CQLs unparalleled technical expertise and experience design coupled with industry leading eCommerce platforms, has helped retailers and manufacturers drive record on-line revenue, build new channels, and envision world-changing ideas. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, our clients include PetSmart, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Wolverine Worldwide, James Avery Artisan Jewelry, Escalade Sports, Costa Del Mar and more. For more information, call 616-365-1000 or visit CQLCorp.com.
The deplorable state of the Church brought about by poor leadership and the urgent need to rescue the Church.

Author Niyi Olusoji, EdD provides the imminent and extremely necessary transformations to be made by every Christian in Politics, Prophesy, and The Pillage of the Church ($12.49, paperback, 9781662844171; $5.99, e-book, 9781662844188).

Dr. Niyi Olusoji believes that the Church has deviated from its primary role of preparing souls for the Kingdom of God. He emphasizes that Christians are residents of the earth and citizens of heaven and through his impactful writing, provides the much-needed transformations that every Christian should do before they can appreciate who they are and what the Lord expects of them. In this book, Dr. Olusoji encourages all Christians to examine those in Church leadership as he thoroughly identifies the attitudes and behaviors expected of those individuals. The author expresses his dismay at the use of the spiritual gift of prophecy to the detriment of the Church. He urgently advises the Church to repair and guard its walls to prevent another imminent attack by individuals that are neither called nor trained to lead.

When asked what inspired him to write this book, the author said, The deplorable state of the Church brought about by poor leadership and the urgent need to rescue the Church.

Dr. Niyi Olusoji was born and spent his early years in Nigeria, West Africa, where he trained and worked as a Nurse Anesthetist. He holds a Masters Degree in Ministry and a Doctor of Education in Education and Leadership. Hes worked in healthcare in Southern Africa, the United Kingdom and currently in the United States. Dr. Olusoji met the Lord in the course of his career, pursued a ministry education, and was ordained as a Deacon and then as a Pastor. He is currently involved in the training of future generations of health workers and still answers the Call as a Preacher of the Words of Life. Dr. Olusojis passion for the souls of believers, the health of the Church, and concern about the Churchs deviation from its primary purpose of preparing souls for Gods Kingdom, informed the writing of this book. Besides worship, prayer and meditation, he also enjoys reading and writing.

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Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. Politics, Prophesy, and The Pillage of the Church is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
Mark Pasquesi, president; Diane Glass, CEO, and Joe Stacy, sr vp, general sales manager of BHHS Chicago at the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices convention where they accepted the Top 10 Award. I am so honored and proud that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago is ranked among the Top 10 firms in the national network. This award belongs to our agents and is a testament to their hard work and dedication to their clients and to our industry.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago was named among the Top 10 brokerages in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices national network. The honor, known as the Berkshire Elite Circle, was announced during the annual sales convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Diane Glass, CEO, enthusiastically accepted the award on behalf of the firms 1,400 agents in 24 offices.

In additional awards categories, the firms Michigan Avenue office, located at 980 N. Michigan Avenue and Lincoln Park Clybourn office located at 1800 N. Clybourn ranked among the top 10 offices in the national network for Gross Commission Income (GCI) and Units.

Individual agents and teams were also recognized for their outstanding 2021 achievements.

The MG Group, of the Lincoln Park Clybourn office, was recognized among the Large Teams in the national network based on Total Gross Commission Income (GCI) and Residential Units. The Pattie Murray Team of the Glen Ellyn office was recognized among the Medium Teams for Residential Units and Total GCI. Klopas Stratton Team of the Michigan Avenue office ranked among the top teams for Total GCI. Michael Rosenblum, of the firms Michigan Avenue office, ranked #1 in the Midwest Region for Total GCI.

Additionally, six BHHS Chicago brokers received the 5 Year Legend award for five consecutive years of exceptional sales. They are: Maureen OGrady-Tuohy of the Lake Forest office; Keith Goad of the Michigan Avenue office; Katie Claypool of the Wheaton office; Akos Ethan Straub and Karen Ranquist of the Lincoln Park Clybourn office and Jim Streff of the Bucktown office.

Receiving the 10 Year Legend Award for 10 consecutive years of sales excellence were Diana and Chuck Ivas of the Hinsdale office and Elaine Pagels of the Downers Grove office.

In all, more than 392 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago sales professionals were recognized for outstanding performance in national awards categories.

Glass said, I am so honored and proud that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago is ranked among the Top 10 firms in the national network. This award belongs to our agents and is a testament to their hard work and dedication to their clients and to our industry. Im also proud to have so many of our agents receive national recognition. These talented professionals and exceptional individuals make our company the amazing work home that it is.

ABOUT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES CHICAGO

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago is a full-service real estate firm with more than 1,400 real estate professionals and staff in 24 offices serving customers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, the North Shore, West and Southwest communities, Southern Wisconsin and Harbor Country, Michigan. Recognized as a Top Workplace in Chicago, their local roots are complemented by the extensive global reach of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, one of the nations leading real estate brands. Clients can experience all-inclusive homeownership services from their affiliated companies: Prosperity Home Mortgage, Fort Dearborn Title, and HomeServices Insurance. Visit BHHSChicago.com.
Charles E. Crutchfield III, M.D. "Each year we evaluate tens of thousands of peer nominations in the medical community and select Top Doctors based on referred doctors' exceptional work. My congratulations to Dr. Crutchfield." Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.'s President and CEO Dr. John Connolly

Castle Connolly Top Doctors who are selected each year by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. are first nominated by their peers in an online nomination process. Nominations are open to all board-certified MDs; each year tens of thousands of physicians cast many tens of thousands of nominations. Nominated physicians are then screened and selected by the Castle Connolly physician-led research team based on criteria including medical education, training, hospital appointments, disciplinary histories, and much more. Only physicians such as Dr. Charles Crutchfield who are considered to be among the top 7% in their specialties are selected for inclusion in America's Top Doctors.

Castle Connolly Top Doctors who are selected each year by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. are first nominated by their peers in an online nomination process. Nominations are open to all board-certified MDs; each year tens of thousands of physicians cast many tens of thousands of nominations. Nominated physicians are then screened and selected by the Castle Connolly physician-led research team based on criteria including medical education, training, hospital appointments, disciplinary histories, and much more. Only physicians such as Dr. Charles Crutchfield who are considered to be among the top 7% in their specialties are selected for inclusion in America's Top Doctors. Dr. Crutchfield has been honored as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor every year since 2012.

Castle Connolly's consumer guide has emerged as the nation's definitive source for the acknowledgment of the top physicians and experts in medicine today. Their stringent selection process has guaranteed that the professionals who make their list are the top in their fields and the best choice for patients. It is important to note that doctors do not and cannot pay to be included in any Castle Connolly guide or online directory.

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.'s President and CEO Dr. John Connolly commented on Dr. Crutchfield's recognition: "Being selected for inclusion in America's Top Doctors 2022 is a very significant achievement. American physicians are incredibly high-quality medical professionals, yet some stand out. Each year we evaluate tens of thousands of peer nominations in the medical community. Then our experts go even deeper to evaluate and select Top Doctors based on referred doctors' exceptional work and outstanding conduct. My congratulations to Dr. Crutchfield."

About Charles Crutchfield III MD

Charles E. Crutchfield III, MD is a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of Biology at Carleton College. He also has a private practice, Crutchfield Dermatology in Eagan, MN. He received his MD and Masters Degree in molecular biology and genomics from the Mayo Clinic. He has been selected as one of the top 10 dermatologists in the United States by Black Enterprise magazine. Minnesota Medicine recognized Dr. Crutchfield as one of the 100 Most Influential Healthcare Leaders in Minnesota. Dr. Crutchfield specializes in skin-of-color and has been selected by physicians and nurses as one of the leading dermatologists in Minnesota for the past 20 years. Dr. Crutchfield was selected by The Grio, a division of NBC, as A history maker shaping Americas future. He is the team consulting dermatologist for the Minnesota Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Wild, and Lynx. Dr. Crutchfield is an active member of both the American and National Medical Associations and past president of the Minnesota Association of Black Physicians. He can be reached at CrutchfieldDermatology.com or by calling 651-209-3600.

Crutchfield Dermatology is a proud member of Doctors for the Practice of Safe and Ethical Aesthetic Medicine (DPSEAM).
"Attendees will hear from our in-house experts and leading institutions about the latest product enhancements, best practices, and innovative policies and practices driving successful outcomes in transfer and degree completion. -- CollegeSource CEO Kerry Cooper

CollegeSource, the higher education industrys most trusted SaaS provider of transfer and degree achievement solutions, today announced that it will offer its 2022 annual conference through two separate events. Attendees will be welcomed in person at The Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter June 27 - June 30, 2022, and a separate virtual conference will take place July 18 - July 20, 2022, each day from 10 a.m.  2 p.m. (PST).

The two events are designed for higher education advisors, registrars, admissions officers, enrollment management experts, transfer specialists, IT professionals and more. The in-person conference will consist of 46 sessions, while the virtual conference will include 22 live sessions and 24 on-demand sessions split into two tracks: Degree Achievement and Transfer Solutions.

We are beyond thrilled to welcome everyone back to San Diego for this years conference. We believe offering these two separate events is whats best for our user community, so we will host a safe in-person gathering for those who are ready to get back to a face-to-face learning and networking experience and offer a virtual event for those who arent ready to travel or face budget constraints but still need access to this crucial training material, said Kerry Cooper, CEO, CollegeSource. Attendees will hear from our in-house experts and leading institutions about the latest product enhancements, best practices, and innovative policies and practices driving successful outcomes in transfer and degree completion.

Registration opens March 21st and attendees for both events will have access to the session recordings through November 30, 2022. For more information on the 2022 CollegeSource Annual Conference, please visit collegesource.com/2022.

About CollegeSource

CollegeSource is the higher education industrys trusted provider of transfer and degree achievement solutions. For 50 years, CollegeSource has led market-changing transformation by inventing and investing in technology solutions that aid the staff and students of higher education in their quest to plan and complete academic careers. As the archiver of the nations extensive higher education course catalogs, CollegeSources degree audit, academic planning, and transfer credit evaluation solutions are depended on by more than 2,000 institutions and millions of individuals worldwide. Founded and led by higher education and technology veterans, CollegeSource is a privately-held company based in San Diego with offices in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, please visit collegesource.com.
Seeking Christ: Testimonies, Thoughts, and a Dash of Dogma: a thoughtful and reflective discussion of Gods word. Seeking Christ: Testimonies, Thoughts, and a Dash of Dogma is the creation of published author David A Jamadar, a professor of radiology from a prestigious Midwest university.

Jamadar shares, This book describes a three- to four-year period of my many mundane and ordinary interactions through the Holy Spirit interspersed with infrequent dramatic and life-changing encounters, such as being a conduit for healing. For most of these testimonies, I have tried to explain what I learned from the experience, if anything. I have also introduced some discussion about ideas that I have had trouble grasping, such as how we as Christians should pray and fast. I have also included some probably nontraditional views of mainstream Christianity, including an understanding of sin and repentance, with the hope that the reader may embrace the option of engaging a different perspective. A different perspective does not necessarily mean agreement, but rather the willingness to accept that Gods ways and understanding of the universe are probably a little different from our own ideas of what we believe are the ways of our Holy Father.

I use scripture to support my understanding, and to a lesser extent, my testimonies, as best I can. I suspect that the scope of the material within is somewhat limited, as I look primarily at healing, peace, prayer, demonic influences, and my experiences of moving into a non-egoic understanding of God. My overall approach is not academic but is generally experiential and in places feels almost conversational. In the chapter on Prayer, however, it is primarily didactic. I have come to believe that relationship with God through surrender is one way that we may get a glimpse of what it means to live an inclusive Christian life, a life from the perspective of love.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, David A Jamadars new book will encourage and empower believers as they witness Jamadars spiritual growth.

Consumers can purchase Seeking Christ: Testimonies, Thoughts, and a Dash of Dogma at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Seeking Christ: Testimonies, Thoughts, and a Dash of Dogma, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
an awareness of how few people really knew the Bible

Author Beryl Lavender is joined by Canon Michael Faure for Volume III of her series Is the Bible a Dangerous Book?, entitled Problems, Praises and Proverbs ($19.99, paperback, 9781662842726; $9.99, e-book, 9781662842733).

In this easy-to-read Bible commentary, Lavender shows readers that the Bible is still extraordinarily relevant today. This volume addresses Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, as well as historical accusations against Christians, such as their involvement in the fall of Ancient Rome and European Dark Ages.

Lavender said she was inspired by an awareness of how few people really knew the Bible.

South African-born Beryl Lavender, now living in the UK, majored in English and History at the University of Natal. She is also author to the first two volumes in this series, The Story of the Torah and The Broken Contract.

Canon Michael Faure contributed to the sections on the Psalms. He is the retired canon of the Cathedral in Johannesburg.

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Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. Problems, Praises and Proverbs is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
The first step to protecting your business from the threat of ransomware or a data breach is to understand your risk level." Brian Guenther, President of Exceed Cybersecurity & IT Services

Exceed Cybersecurity & I.T. Services, a premiere provider of cybersecurity risk management and CMMC compliance management, will be co-hosting the educational webinar Risky Business with Beltway Merchant Services at 10am  11am EDT on Thursday, March 31st, 2022 via Zoom. (https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cfhV2FWkT2-yEakLp-sBzw)

Today, every business is at risk from a cyber-attack. The number of attacks, such as ransomware, continue to rise year over year, and the price to recover from an attack continues to rise along with it. Because of this, businesses are suffering permanent damage. However, there is good news: there are tools business owners can use to protect their organization.

In this educational webinar, attendees will learn:



Why no business is safe today

The imminent danger of a cyber-attack on your organization

The effect a data breach or ransomware attack will have on your business

What you can do to protect yourself

The role cyber liability insurance plays in protecting you

How to manage your cyber liability & plan for recovery

Unfortunately, regardless of size, industry, or location, it is no longer IF an organization will be hit by a cyber attack, but WHEN, stated Brian Guenther, President of Exceed Cybersecurity & I.T. Services. He continued The first step to protecting your business from the threat of ransomware or a data breach is to understand your risk level. Dan Helhowski (Beltway Merchant Services) and I want to do our part to help our business community by spreading awareness about this issue. I encourage everyone to join us for our educational webinar Risky Business: How to handle you unmanaged cyber risk to understand your risk level.

About Exceed Cybersecurity & I.T Services

Exceed Cybersecurity & I.T. Services is a premier Cybersecurity-first Managed Internet Technology (I.T.) company offering all-encompassing I.T. support (Managed I.T., Cybersecurity, Cloud, etc.) with a focus in cybersecurity risk management and CMMC compliance management. Exceed Cybersecurity has consistently helped businesses mitigate the potential financial, reputational, operational, and legal damages of cyber-attacks and data compliance regulations. Exceed Cybersecurity is an accredited Registered Provider Organization (RPO) by the CMMC AB. For more information on Exceed Cybersecurity, please call (240) 377-0504 or visit http://www.exceeditmd.com.
Florence Consulting Group today announced it has been recognized as Southern Europe Breakthrough Partner of the Year by MuleSoft, provider of the worlds #1 integration and API platform. Florence Consulting Group has been honored for its excellence in growing the organization's MuleSoft business in terms of practice development, new customer opportunities and project implementations in Southern Europe, and helping companies become composable businesses with reusable building blocks, like APIs, to enable speed, agility, and efficiency.

In todays all digital, work from anywhere world, companies are using digital technologies and data to reimagine their customer, employee, and partner experiences. MuleSoft research (https://www.mulesoft.com/lp/reports/it-business-alignment-barometer) shows that creating better connected customer experiences ranks among the top five business priorities for organizations. To create these experiences, companies need to quickly unlock and integrate an increasing number of data sources and apps, wherever they reside.

Using MuleSoft technology, partners like Florence Consulting Group serve as a trusted advisor to help companies transform every asset in their organization  data, bots, and applications  into reusable building blocks so that they can innovate and deliver experiences faster.

Florence Consulting Group helps organizations create, configure, and deploy their API-led infrastructure for Business automation, Legacy System Modernization, Cloud and SaaS Integration, Headless eCommerce and Omnichannel Marketing.

With Florence Consulting Group, companies can enhance organizational agility, innovate faster, improve customer experience, expand their growth and global presence.

According to Niccolo Francini, Chief Executive Officer of Florence Consulting Group:

"The partnership with MuleSoft has been, is and will be critical for our Company. Digital Transformation, now more than ever, is the key business driver in every global market. Thanks to MuleSoft, our customers can benefit from faster delivery, more agile processes, and continuous innovation.

"We are honored to be part of the MuleSoft ecosystem and to be able to support some of the most important Italian and European companies in managing their business growth strategies. We confirm our commitment to the growth of the MuleSoft Business Unit in Italy and Europe. We have ongoing growth initiatives, including doubling of the Digital Integration team, the recruitment and training of new people in addition to the delivery team for the year 2022."

Organizations in the MuleSoft Partner Program (https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-partner/finder) provide consulting and services for MuleSofts unified platform for integration, API management, and automation. MuleSoft partners empower joint customers across industries to accelerate innovation throughout their organizations by connecting apps and systems, composing new products and services, and automating business processes.

Todays digital imperative means that companies are facing increased pressure to quickly meet customer expectations for connected digital experiences, said Dan McAllister, senior vice president of global alliances and channels. With industry knowledge and expertise, our MuleSoft partners help joint customers deploy integration, API, and automation solutions at scale so that they can deliver these seamless experiences, faster. We are excited to celebrate the success of our MuleSoft partner ecosystem and recognize their continued commitment in driving digital transformation and productivity for customers globally.

To learn more about the work Florence Consulting Group is doing with MuleSoft, visit: https://www.mulesoft.com/partner/florence-consulting-group

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About Florence Consulting Group

Florence Consulting Group offers Digital Transformation, System Integration and Cyber Security services for over 33% of the 200 largest companies in Italy. With a 70% growth rate in the last three years, the Financial Times named Florence Consulting Group as one of the "Top 1000 Europes Fastest-Growing Companies".

WE Deliver - Why are we different from other IT Companies? In Porter's Five Forces analytical surveys, Florence Consulting Group gets the highest score (the area showing the broader gap between internal strengths and competitors' weaknesses) in the "delivery" - the final project's quality.

To learn more about Florence Consulting Group, visit: https://www.florence-consulting.it

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MuleSoft is a registered trademark of MuleSoft, Inc., a Salesforce company. All other marks are those of respective owners.
Information Technology World Awards by GLOBEE The IT World Awards are open to all Information Technology and Cyber Security organizations from all over the world and their end-users of products and services.

The Globee Awards organizer of the worlds premier business awards programs and business ranking lists is now accepting nominations and entries for the 2022 IT World Awards honoring achievements and recognitions in the information technology and cyber security industries worldwide.

Subscribe to the Globee Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe to Globee Awards YouTube channel

Follow Globee Awards on Twitter

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Product Development Executives, Leadership, Professionals, and Engineers from all over the world can be nominated in categories such as Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

Watch the Globee Awards video

IT industrys premier excellence awards program, the IT World Awards honors achievements in every facet of the information technology and cyber security industries. This annual industry and peers program now has several major sections making this one of the most and only complete IT recognitions and achievements award programs in the world. There are many categories for which your organization and the people behind its success can be nominated. Categories are classified under the following groups:

Learn more about the 2022 IT World Awards and how to nominate here: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/



Company-Organization Awards categories

Corporate Communications and Public Relations Awards categories

Creative, Social and Traditional Media Awards categories

Customer Service & Support Awards categories

Best Deployments and Customer Success of the Year Awards categories

Executive & Professional Awards categories

Chief Technology Officers Awards categories

Human Resources Awards categories

Information Technology Users Awards categories

Marketing Information Technology Awards categories

New Product & Service Awards categories

Product Development and Engineering Awards categories

Sales and Business Development Awards categories

COVID-19 Business Response Awards categories

A special category group for startups of the year will include the achievements of new startups formed since 2018 in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

A worldwide judging panel of executives and professionals representing a wide spectrum of industries will determine the winners. Winners will be presented and honored in a virtual ceremony attended by the finalists, winners, judges, and industry peers from all over the world. Industry experts and end-users of information technology products and services can participate in the judging process.

IT World Awards will also recognize Chief Technology Officers from all over the world for their achievements in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

Winners of previous years are listed here: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/winners/

Apply here to participate as a judge and an industry expert to help decide the winners: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/judges/

Stay posted and read success stories of organizations by subscribing to the Globee Newsletter: https://globeeawards.com/subscribe/

About the Globee Awards

Globee Awards are conferred in eleven programs and competition: the American Best in Business Awards, Business Excellence Awards (Best Employers), CEO World Awards, Communications Excellence Awards, Customer Sales & Service World Awards, Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards, Disruptor Company Awards, Golden Bridge Awards, International Best in Business Awards, IT World Awards, and Women World Awards. Learn more about the Globee Awards at https://globeeawards.com

All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
This is a crucial step toward understanding the mechanisms of protection that can guide us toward successful development of an effective MRSA vaccine.

Integrated BioTherapeutics Inc. (IBT), a Maryland biotechnology company specializing in emerging infectious diseases, announced today the receipt of a research grant of $3.55 million over 5 years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The primary objective of the grant is to conduct a prospective clinical study of patients infected with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus or staph"), including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), to determine risks of recurrent infection, and immunological correlates of protection. The clinical study will be performed at the Olive View-UCLA emergency department, an affiliate of The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. There are millions of cases of staphylococcal infections in the United States and around the world, which cause a significant disease burden in terms of morbidity and mortality. To date, efforts to develop a vaccine against staph have been unsuccessful in large part due to a lack of understanding of the mechanisms of protection against this dangerous pathogen.

Staph skin infections, particularly those caused by the drug-resistant MRSA strains, lead to widespread suffering and disability, and in their most serious form, exact a deadly toll when they lead to bloodstream infections and sepsis. Unfortunately, we know very little about the nature of a protective immune response in humans, said Dr. M. Javad Aman, Chief Scientific Officer of IBT and the studys Principal Investigator. The award of this grant is a crucial step toward understanding the mechanisms of protection that can guide us toward successful development of an effective vaccine.

IBT and its subsidiary Integrated BioTherapeutic Vaccines (IBV) are working to develop a novel vaccine for S. aureus (IBT-V02) with support from CARB-X and Novo Holdings. The vaccine is scheduled to enter Phase 1 clinical trial this year. The NIAID grant will help the company generate data to inform future clinical trials to assess vaccine efficacy.

Following the discovery of the emergence of the invasive MRSA strains as the predominant cause of skin infections in the US, and later trials in which we identified the most effective antibiotic treatments, our groups final goal is to determine how these infections can be prevented altogether, said Dr. David Talan, the studys clinical Principal Investigator and Professor Emeritus of Medicine/Infectious Diseases and Emergency Medicine and emergency physician at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

The prospective clinical study is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01AI111205. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About Integrated BioTherapeutics:

IBT develops vaccines and immunotherapies for bacterial and viral infectious diseases. The Companys lead vaccine product, IBT-V02 is a first-in-class multi-component vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus.

Supported by CARB-X and by Novo Holdings Repair Impact Fund, IBT-V02 is currently undergoing cGMP manufacturing and IND-enabling studies, with initiation of clinical trials anticipated in late 2022. IBT and its subsidiary IBV (http://www.integratedbiotherapeuticvaccines.com) immunotherapeutic pipeline includes monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of the array of viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever. IBT also is developing product candidates for the treatment of S. aureus, anthrax, and Clostridium difficile, based on its proprietary Infection Site Targeted Antitoxin Antibody (ISTAb) technology. Learn more about IBTs pipeline at https://www.integratedbiotherapeutics.com/our-science/.
Intellias, a global technology enabler and partner to top-tier companies, is strengthening its presence worldwide with strategic locations in the United States. The company established its office in Chicago, Illinois, earlier. This year, Intellias extends its presence in the US by opening an office in Boca Raton, Florida.

The new office opening comes from the companys continuous growth and expansion of the existing office network in Europe and the Middle East. The geographical development mirrors Intellias growing ambitions to advance new domains and cover a new market. Joining the USA technology-enabled realm is a thoroughly planned step, which aims at a more vigorous advancement along several key vectors. The companys first area of focus is the rapid growth of client outreach in North America. Intellias strives to emphasize its determination to cultivate strong partnership relations with residential businesses. Another vector is to accumulate and amplify the companys expertise within strategic domains and competencies.

As part of strengthening Intellias global strategy-forming human crux, opening an office in Chicago was a natural step. With its innovative approach to urban living, embodied in the next-gen projects like Array of Things, Chicago received many business and tech awards. With over 6,000 tech companies based in the city and around 400 startups founded there in the past five years, Chicago has become a hot spot for innovation. The city is also a global leader in the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies 2021 report, with 26 newly founded companies and over 25,000 jobs open.

"As a global company, Intellias has consistently recognized the need to ensure local presence in the areas where our clients run their businesses. Intellias expansion to Chicago is a natural step towards our US-based partners and clients  weve been working with resident companies for more than ten years now. Today, we aim to maximize the vast opportunities of Illinois high-growth market, expanding our customer base and enlarging the project pipeline," says Sergio Varela, VP of Business & Operations, USA, at Intellias.

The Boca Raton office represents the strategic growth of the Intellias brand in the United States. Boca Raton in Florida is the growing platform for global enterprises, tech visionaries, and entrepreneurs to set up their businesses. Local universities provide a strong foundation for launching and nurturing startups. World-class accelerators like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and many more take advantage of the strategic location of Boca Raton, leading the development of the citys technology ecosystem and transforming its economy.

"Central and Southern Floridas technology community has expanded during the last two years. Cities such as Orlando and Miami have attracted investment opportunities given the growth in the tech ecosystem. Intellias new Boca Raton office location provides access to serve these markets while also becoming our US headquarters for North and Latin America," Michael Labate, President of North America at Intellias.

The decision to set up new locations on the US soil comes as a response to the increasing demand from the USA and Canada for qualified technology services and innovative solutions. Intellias has successfully implemented many projects for clients from North America. The USA office will further simplify communication and enable more frequent face-to-face strategic meetings elevating and enhancing the project delivery experience.

About Intellias

Intellias is a global technology partner to Fortune 500 enterprises and top-tier organizations, helping them accelerate their pace of sustainable digitalization. Intellias empowers businesses operating in Europe, the US, the MENA region, and the APAC region to embrace innovation at scale. The company has been featured in the Global Outsourcing 100 list by IAOP, recognized by Inc. 5000, and acknowledged in Forbes and in the GSA UK Awards. With almost two decades of experience, Intellias is geared towards ensuring the sustained success of our clients on their value journey.
Inverters R US Ranked #1 in Reno, #4 in Nevada For Fastest Growing Private Companies

Inverters R Us Among the Nations Fastest Growing Private Companies

 Ranks No. 1 in Reno 

 Ranks No. 4 in Nevada 

 Ranks No. 41 in Rocky Mountain Region 

Inc. magazine today revealed that Inverters R Us is No. 41 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals Rocky Mountain list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies based in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Rocky Mountain region economys most dynamic segment  its independent small businesses. Within the region, Inverters R Us is No. 4 in the state of Nevada and No. 1 in the greater Reno/Northern Nevada area.

Daniel Stack, Founder and President of Inverters R Us, said, being included in the prestigious Inc. 5000 list is a significant accomplishment for Inverters R Us and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees, the trust and support of our customers, vendors and other business partners, and solid execution by our Reno-based team. We have built a great company here in Northern Nevada and are excited about our growth prospects in the future.

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Rocky Mountain region. Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/regionals starting March 15, 2022.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.

About Inverters R Us

Inverters R Us is a leading developer and direct marketer of brand name and private label electrical products in North America and goes to market through proprietary branded websites, third party online marketplaces, and direct sales. The Company markets its products to both consumers and businesses. The Companys products are generally utilized in recreational vehicle and related end markets. The Company was founded in 2003 and its primary operations are located in Reno, Nevada.

Contact: Daniel Stack, President, 866-419-2616 x1003 or dstack@invertersrus.com http://www.invertersrus.com

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2022 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2018 and 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2019. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.

The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Were thrilled to welcome Randy to KUBRA and to see him lead an incredibly impressive Sales Team. His vast experience opening new markets is a tremendous asset as we continue our expansion into different sectors" - Rick Watkin, President and CEO of KUBRA

KUBRA, a leading provider of customer experience management solutions for some of the largest utility, insurance, and government entities, announced today the appointment of Randy Langley to the role of Chief Revenue Officer. In this executive role, Langley will leverage his extensive payment experience in KUBRA's existing, new, and emerging sectors to grow KUBRAs presence in these markets while maintaining its dominance in the utility sector.

KUBRA is on a mission to conquer new frontiers, and Im looking forward to helping them on this exciting journey, said Langley. As a leader, I focus on bringing transparency, technical knowledge, and industry insights to my teams, so theyre able to establish deep client relationships built on trust and expertise.

Randy has more than two decades of experience as a sales leader, speaker, and strategist. Before joining KUBRA, Mr. Langley led national sales teams and account management for Paymentus, Bestbill, and Revspring.

Were thrilled to welcome Randy to KUBRA and to see him lead an incredibly impressive Sales Team. His vast experience opening new markets is a tremendous asset as we continue our expansion into different sectors, said Rick Watkin, President and CEO of KUBRA. Im confident Randy's collaborative leadership style, focus on innovation, and strategic expertise will empower and inspire our revenue generating teams to thrive in the competitive markets were pursuing.

About KUBRA

KUBRA provides customer experience management solutions to some of the largest utility, government, and insurance entities across North America. Our extensive portfolio includes billing and payments, mapping, mobile apps, proactive communications, and artificial intelligence solutions for customers. With more than 1.5 billion customer interactions annually, KUBRA services reach over 40% of households in the U.S. and Canada. KUBRA is an operating subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation. Visit https://www.kubra.com for more information.
Lake Road Advisors, a fee-only financial planning firm in Upstate New York welcomes Hayley Haslett, CFP to the company as an Associate Advisor.

Prior to joining Lake Road Advisors, Haslett served as an Associate Advisor for Blue Water Wealth, Inc., where she was an advisor for more than 130 client household relationships. During her time there, she worked with dozens of clients, helping each of them understand their current financial situation, visualize their future, and determine action steps to meet their goals.

Hayley will play a key role in supporting the firms growing client base, says Paul Sydlansky, CFP, and Founder of Lake Road Advisors. She brings a customer-first approach and a strong financial planning background that I know will benefit our clients.

Haslett graduates in May with a Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Financial Services from San Diego State University. In addition, Haslett is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) professional.

Haslett is passionate about working with the next generation, including mid-career professionals, small business owners, and young families who are seeking guidance through complex financial decisions. It is Hasletts priority to be a trusted advisor and empower her clients to make financial decisions that serve their best interests.

I am thrilled to join Lake Road Advisors as I know the firm offers its clients an innovative, forward-thinking approach and outstanding customer experience, says Haslett. I look forward to supporting current clients and growing the business alongside Paul.

In addition to advising clients at Lake Road Advisors, Haslett is also passionate about supporting new industry professionals and giving back to the community. This year, she plans to mentor financial professionals through the CFP Board Mentor Program and SDSU students through the Aztec Mentor Program.

Sydlansky, in particular, is looking forward to Haslett serving Lake Road Advisors growing client baseand giving the companys clients tools and information needed to shape their financial futures.

About Lake Road Advisors

Lake Road Advisors, an independent fee-only financial planning firm based in Corning, NY, specializes in working with mid-career professionals with young families across the country who want to ensure they are making smart financial decisions today and for their future. For more information about Lake Road Advisors, visit https://www.LakeRoadAdvisors.com.
Speaker Samuel Ortiz will inspire graduates at SLCC's Commencement by sharing his story about how he uses his education to lift up those around him and to change society for the better. My dad dropped me off for my first day of class and told me that I was getting this degree not just for me but for our entire family.

Mentor and higher-education leader, Samuel Ortiz will give the keynote address at Salt Lake Community Colleges (SLCC) 2022 Commencement Ceremony, scheduled for May 6 at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.

Ortiz will inspire graduates by detailing his own story on how he uses his education to lift up those around him and to change society for the better. He will emphasize the importance of challenging inequities, promoting justice, taking a deeper interest in those around you, and caring for your mental and physical wellbeing so you can better serve others.

As the son of immigrants who struggled financially, Ortiz had no roadmap or even an understanding of how college might work or look for him, but he was determined. My dad dropped me off for my first day of class [at SLCC] and told me that I was getting this degree not just for me but for our entire family, he said.

What started out as feeling completely out of my element and very unsure of myself turned into a thriving experience, thanks to a few key influences and impressions along the way.

He credits his very first instructor at SLCC for setting him up for a successful college experience. The instructor was patient, attentive and consistently gave me positive feedback and encouragement, he said. She instilled a belief in me that not only was I capable, but that I truly had what I needed to succeed. Her kindness has stayed with me and became a defining moment in my academic journey.

Ortiz went on to earn an associates degree in sociology at SLCC (2012) and then transferred to the University of Utah where he earned a bachelors degree in social work. He received his masters degree in higher and postsecondary education administration at Columbia University.

Currently, Ortiz is a doctoral student in educational leadership at the University of Dayton and also serves as its Associate Director of Campus and Community Engagement.

Originally from Bronx, New York, Ortiz moved to Utah while in high school. He has devoted much of his life since 2009 to serving others. He spent five years mentoring youth in refugee communities through the non-profit organization Good in the Hood, and he worked as a Community Director at Brown University. While at Brown, Ortiz managed a housing complex for first-year college students and created a residential curriculum designed to foster learning and promote student safety and emotional well-being.

At the University of Dayton, his job is focused on multi-cultural affairs, diversity and inclusion. In his role, Ortiz emphasizes relationship building using restorative practices that consider existing inequities in school and society as well as students academic and emotional growth. He is also responsible for the universitys large-scale programming related to diversity, cultural celebrations and peer mentoring for underrepresented students.

Sams journey through college and beyond is a triumph and testament to hope and courage, says Dr. Deneece G. Huftalin, president of SLCC. From thinking he wasnt college material to succeeding as a student, leader and young professional, Sams story will remind our graduates what is truly possible when they lean into life!

ABOUT SLCC

Salt Lake Community College is Utahs largest two-year college, proudly educating the states most diverse student body in 8 areas of study at 10 locations and online. The majority of SLCC graduates transfer to four-year institutions, and thousands more are trained in direct-to-workforce programs. In 2023, SLCC will celebrate 75 years of providing Utahns with education and training in fields that contribute to the states vibrant economy and high quality of life.
Meta will invest more than $800 million over the next several years to build out its nearly 1 million-square-foot facility in Kansas City, Missouri. Rendering courtesy of Meta. Kansas City is the most connected region in the U.S. with 5.5 million miles of fiber deployed. This infrastructure, coupled with dynamic talent, provides Meta the resources it needs for long-term success in our market, said Tim Cowden, president and CEO, Kansas City Area Development Council.

Today, the Kansas City Area Development Council and its partners announced that Meta selected the Kansas City region for its new hyperscale data center.

Locating in the Golden Plains Technology Park, a 5.5 million-square-foot data center campus in Kansas City, Missouri, Meta will invest more than $800 million over the next several years to build out its nearly 1 million-square-foot facility.

Meta is excited to call Kansas City our new home. It stands out with so much to offer - good access to infrastructure and fiber, a strong pool of talent for both construction and operations, and more than anything, great community partners, said Darcy Nothnagle, director of community and economic development, Meta. Meta is committed to being a good neighbor and investing in the long-term vitality of the region for years to come.

The development will boost the local economy, supporting up to 100 operational jobs and more than 1,300 jobs at peak construction. The tech company is starting construction and plans to be operational in 2024.

Were proud to welcome Meta to Kansas City for this historic, cutting-edge development that will positively impact our states economy for years to come, said Missouri Governor Mike Parson. The Show-Me State stands out as a rising technology hub due to our strategic location, skilled workforce, and prime business climate. This unprecedented investment signals Missouri is open for business, and that our state is a prime destination for high-tech leaders and innovators alike.

Metas Kansas City location will be one of the most sustainable data centers in the world and will add additional renewable energy to the regions local grid. The facility will achieve net-zero carbon emissions and will aim to be LEED Gold level certified. Metas Kansas City data center will use 32% less energy and will be 80% more water-efficient on average than the industry standard.

As a central U.S. location, Kansas City is a midpoint that provides improved network connectivity between coastal data centers. Additionally, the region offers more security with less risk of natural disasters and other threats. The Midwest offers competitive energy prices and more options to power facilities using renewable energy resources.

KC is the most connected region in the U.S. with more than 5.5 million miles of fiber deployed. This infrastructure, coupled with a dynamic and robust talent pool, provides Meta the resources it needs for long-term success in our market," said Tim Cowden, president and CEO, Kansas City Area Development Council. Metas selection of KC, joining many other global tech brands in our region, puts a spotlight on our thriving tech industry. The regions new state-of-the-art single terminal airport opening in March 2023 and our collaborative business community make KC a top location of choice for other tech companies seeking growth.

The Kansas City area is the third fastest-growing tech market in the U.S., and among the top large metros for its number of tech jobs per capita. In addition to being ranked one of the best startup cities in the U.S., the KC region has 102,000+ technology jobs and 3,900+ established tech firms. The pool of available talent within IT (67,800+) is strong due to the concentration of financial services, telecommunications, data processing, software and engineering firms in the Kansas City area.

The following organizations helped bring Meta to Kansas City: State of Missouri; Missouri Partnership; Missouri Department of Economic Development; City of Kansas City, Missouri; Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City Missouri; Port KC; Evergy; Diode Ventures; Platte County; Clay County; Turner Construction; Kimley-Horn; Black & Veatch; BNIM; Olsson; Husch Blackwell; Rouse, Frets, White, Goss, P.C.; Spire; KC Tech Council; Metropolitan Community College; North Kansas City School District; Platte County R-3 School District; Smithville School District; Greater KC Building & Construction Trades Council; Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council; Union Station.

About Meta

Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.

About Greater Kansas City

Home to 2.5 million people, Kansas City is a vibrant metro in the heart of the U.S., known as "KC Heartland. A center for technology, entrepreneurship and artistry, KC ranks first in the nation for startup growth rate and among the best for startup density. | KC.org

About KCADC

The Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC) serves the 18-county, two-state Kansas City area by marketing the region's business and lifestyle assets to companies around the world. Working closely with its two states, and 50-plus county and community partners, the region has attracted more than 60,000 new jobs over its 40-plus year history. Leading the efforts behind the KC Animal Health Corridor, KC SmartPort, TeamKC, KC Heartland and KC Global Design, KCADCs clients consistently rank the organization as the No. 1 economic development group in the nation. | thinkKC.com.
The Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE) announced today that Nashville General Hospital (NGH) will receive the 2021 TNCPE Achievement Award. NGH is the only hospital in the Middle Tennessee region to be recognized. An organization recognized with the Achievement Award demonstrates, through their commitment and practice of performance improvement principles outlined in the Baldrige Framework for Excellence, fact-based evaluation and improvement and exhibit high performance levels in organizational results.

We are honored to receive this award and humbled to be publicly recognized as a health system with a track record of validated excellence based on evidenced-based principles, said Dr. Joseph Webb, chief executive officer Nashville General Hospital.

The 2021 TNCPE Achievement Award will be accepted by Nashville General Hospital on March 23, 2022, as part of the 2022 TNCPE Excellence Conference and Awards Celebration.

"TNCPE's vision is to be a trusted partner and regional resource in achieving performance excellence, and one of the many ways we do that is through the Awards Program," said TNCPE President, Tamera Fields Parsons. "Organizations being recognized this year have demonstrated a strong commitment to improvement and have chosen TNCPE and the Baldrige framework as their path to excellence. They have completed a rigorous assessment and site visit process in order to receive valuable feedback on their excellence journey, and I personally commend them! TNCPE is proud to be associated with these organizations."

A full list of winners can be found on the TNCPE website http://www.tncpe.org

About Nashville General Hospital

For more than a century, Nashville General Hospital has been serving the community as a steadfast beacon of care and compassion  making outstanding, comprehensive healthcare accessible to all. Here, all are welcomed, and all are treated equally. We serve as a lifeline for the health needs of our Nashville community. Your well-being is our primary concern  and our experienced and skilled professionals are here to nurture both health and hope. Every day, we earn the trust of our neighbors through our integrity, accountability, and accessibility. And we look forward to another hundred years of providing the care and respect our patients and their families deserve. For more visit: https://nashvillegeneral.org/

About Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence

Established in 1993 as a public-private partnership, the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence strives to strengthen economic development and organizational health by helping companies and organizations grow more competitive in today's global marketplace through affordable, in-depth assessments. A nonprofit, TNCPE is grounded in the Baldrige Excellence Framework-a holistic framework used by organizations across multiple industries to improve their performance and achieve sustainable results. More than fifteen hundred {1500) organizations have participated in and benefited from the TNCPE award program. Six Tennessee businesses-The City of Germantown TN, Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Pal's Sudden Service, Eastman Chemical Company, and Federal Express-have been honored with both the prestigious Baldrige National Quality Award and the TNCPE Excellence Award.
We are thrilled to have Dr. Jerome Adams kick off our conference and address the very people who are committed to problem-solving healthcare challenges and standardizing the exchange of health information to improve healthcare outcomes for all - Lee Ann Stember, President & CEO of NCPDP

NCPDP announced today that the 20th Surgeon General for the United States, Dr. Jerome Adams, will take the stage on Monday, May 2nd to deliver the Opening Keynote Address at NCPDPs 2022 Annual Technology & Business Conference, BE BOLD. Break Barriers., which will be held May 2-4, 2022, at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona. As Surgeon General, Dr. Adams led the 6,000 person U.S. Public Health Service during a worldwide pandemic, while passionately fighting for issues that his own family and community experienced, including limited healthcare access, chronic disease, substance use disorder and ensuing stigma, tobacco addiction, maternal health, mental illness and the opioid epidemic.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Jerome Adams kick off our conference and address the very people who are committed to problem-solving healthcare challenges and standardizing the exchange of health information to improve healthcare outcomes for all, remarked Lee Ann Stember, President & CEO of NCPDP. Dr. Adams forged an influential career focused on addressing public health challenges and breaking barriers on key issues that align with the work of NCPDP. This will be an enlightening and inspiring kickoff to our 2022 Annual Conference.

In his keynote address, Dr. Adams will share his expertise at the forefront of national and global health policy and his own personal experiences: growing up poor and Black with life-threatening asthma, as a brother to someone with substance use disorder, and as someone navigating politics to tirelessly champion the health of the vulnerable and voiceless during times of crisis. In 2016, when Dr. Adams became Americas 20th Surgeon General, he brought an ambitious goal to tackle the raging opioid crisis and make naloxone widely available. His agenda also included addressing health disparities such as maternal health and promoting community health and wellness through engagement with businesses and employers. Dr. Adams faced an e-cigarette/vaping epidemic among youth, and a once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic. Through it all, he stayed at the table, as one of the only high-level Black voices in the administration. Dr. Adams leveraged his position to advocate for disproportionately hard-hit communities of color and address the systemic health disparities that COVID-19 brought to light. As Dr. Adams often says, If youre not at the table, youre on the menu.

Dr. Adams is as steadfast and committed as ever to his 25-year mission in community and public health. He is currently a member of the Bipartisan Policy Centers Opioid Crisis Task Force which was launched to develop evidence-based recommendations for Congress and the Biden administration. The Opioid Crisis Task Force will develop policy to reduce drug overdose deaths and combat the national opioid crisis, an epidemic within the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Adams is also a fellow of The University of Virginia Darden School of Business Deans D.C. Fellows program. Most recently, he became a Distinguished Professor, Presidential Fellow and Executive Director of Health Equity Initiatives at Purdue.

NCPDPs national conference draws attendees from across the healthcare industry, including technical, business, and executive representatives from health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, retail and independent pharmacies, specialty pharmacies, long-term care providers, healthcare consultants, technology vendors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesale drug distributors, database management organizations and others. The NCPDP Annual Conference is open to all healthcare industry stakeholders. To register for the conference visit https://ncpdp.org/ac/register.aspx.

The complimentary media registration form can be downloaded here.

For a photo of the 20th U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, please visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/ncpdp/.

For real-time updates before and during the event, follow us at http://twitter.com/ncpdp or join the discussion using NCPDPs 2022 Annual Technology & Business Conference hashtag: #NCPDP22.

About NCPDP

Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development organization with more than 1,500 members representing virtually every sector of the pharmacy services industry. Our diverse membership provides leadership and healthcare business solutions through education and standards, created using the consensus building process. NCPDP has been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA, MMA, and HITECH. NCPDP members have created standards such as the Telecommunication Standard and Batch Standard, the SCRIPT Standard for ePrescribing, the Manufacturers Rebate Standard and more to improve communication within the pharmacy industry. Our data products include dataQ, a robust database of information on more than 80,000 pharmacies, resQ, an industry pharmacy credentialing resource, and HCIdea, an innovative prescriber database that provides continually updated information on more than 2.5 million prescribers. NCPDP's RxReconn is a legislative tracking product for real-time monitoring of pharmacy-related state and national legislative and regulatory activity. For more information about NCPDP Standards, Data Services, Products, Educational Programs and Work Group meetings, visit http://www.ncpdp.org or call 480.477.1000.

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Pierre Pambou Tsitsi had an issue with limited ambition. He wanted so much more. He wanted to see the world, learn more about life and extend himself. His dream was then, and still is today, to be able to share the valuable knowledge he has gained from his people in his tiny village.

Your Vision from the Hunter out of Africa: Inspirational Pages to Help you Realise Your True Self (published by Balboa Press AU) narrates Tsitsi story, telling how his mother insisted he learn well at school, read books continuously, and never let go of his dream to live a larger life. Through his testimony, he demonstrates that it is possible to break out of a situation or an environment one is born into by facing fear and breaking the chain of convention. He was born in Gabon, a country situated on the equator west of Central Africa; he now resides in Cairns.

Tsitsi says While growing up I received a lot of love from many of my relatives and friends; all of them wanted me to do well in life and I am always so grateful to them; they sowed that seed of integrity in me to always do the right thing because its the right thing to do.

I see myself as a burning candle and I use this candle to ignite candles within others. If I think of others as candles to be lit, how many could there be? Five million, twenty million, more than sixty million people  all listening to my C.Ds, reading my books, attending my seminars, continued Tsitsi.

Your Vision from the Hunter out of Africa: Inspirational Pages to Help you Realise Your True Self offers inspiration to help others realize their true selves, encourage them to seek out their destiny, and make a clear plan to achieve their goals. Readers can go to ppambou.com and click order now to see this book and read a few pages. For more details, please check out https://www.balboapress.com/en-au/bookstore/bookdetails/833360-your-vision-from-the-hunter-out-of-africa

Your Vision from the Hunter out of Africa: Inspirational Pages to Help you Realise Your True Self

By Pierre Pambou Tsitsi

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 112 pages | ISBN 9781982292294

E-Book | 112 pages | ISBN 9781982292300

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Pierre Pambou Tsitsi was born in Gabon, Central Africa. He has worked in the insurance industry for many years and has traveled to more than 30 countries, which culminated in the move from Libreville, Gabon, to Queensland, Australia, where he now lives. He is an independent life success consultant.

Balboa Press Australia is a division of Hay House, Inc., a leading provider in publishing products that specialise in self-help and the mind, body and spirit genre. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the Author Solutions self-publishing model. For more information or to start publishing today, visit balboapress.com.au or call 1-800-844-925.
Real or fake? MRA member Unified Steel, a Westlake company, stone coated metal roofing material looks so much like shake, it can fool even the most discerning eye Thats what makes look-alike options so exciting. The wide variety of styles and better performing materials available on the market open up creative possibilities that many homeowners never before imagined.

This April Fools Day, a tight supply chain and the search for better performing options that can deliver strong return on the investment have homeowners weighing their choices and pursuing work-arounds more than ever before.

Leading industry experts at the Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA) report that includes roofing materials. As the spring home improvement season heats up this year, traditional materials such as wood shake, clay tiles, slate and asphalt have experienced market fluctuations and as many homeowners are starting to realize, they also come with major disadvantages and hidden costs.

Thankfully, there are more options available than ever, including metal roofing styles that mimic some of these classic looks, yet offer much better performance, reduce long-term maintenance hassles and up the ante on durability and reliability. With the ability to fool the eye, many of these options look so good, its a challenge for even the experts to tell the difference.

Look-alike metal roofing styles include those that mimic real stone, wood, shake and tiles. And materials like stone-coated metal offer serious performance advantages, such as improved energy efficiency and durability in extreme conditions. No matter what the style, quality metal roofs offer better sustainability, reduced maintenance and serious benefits like best-in-class hurricane and wildfire protection.

Most people know that metal roofing is extremely durable, strong and long-lasting, but they may not realize it also offers more style and design variety than any other type of roofing material, said Renee Ramey, MRA executive director.

Increasing the durability of homes throughout the country is no joke. Last years devastating storms and wildfires are still top of mind for many homeowners and forecasts are calling for more climate extremes this year. Yet beyond practicality, appearance and styles that enhance a homes architecture also remain paramount.

Thats what makes these look-alike options so exciting, said Ramey. The wide variety of colors, shapes, styles and metals that are available open up creative possibilities that many homeowners never before imagined.

Greater awareness for look-alike metal roofing styles and options also are helping break down outdated homeowners association guidelines that limited homeowners to only certain roofing material options. According to Ramey, when considering the performance advantages of metal roofing in addition to the wide variety of architectural styles available, even the most restrictive HOAs are updating their guidelines to include metal roofing styles.

For more information and free resources about metal roofing styles, materials and colors, including a comprehensive Residential Metal Roofing Buyers Guide, visit http://www.metalroofing.com.

About Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA)

Representing the residential metal roofing industry in the United States and Canada, the Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA) was formed to help educate consumers about the many benefits of metal roofing. For more information about MRA membership, residential metal roofing resources and tools, visit MRA at http://www.metalroofing.com.
Sandler Partners, the leading independent technology solutions broker, and one of the nations fastest-growing private companies welcomes Ben Edwards to their growing Sales Engineering team. In his new role, he will support Partners and their customers to identify solutions and help guide them towards crucial approaches, particularly cloud and cybersecurity protection, that are a priority for organizations today.

Bens past experience working with leaders across the C-Suite, Director, and Managerial levels makes him extremely comfortable discussing, proposing, and addressing organizational technology solution requirements. With an anticipated increase in cyberthreat activity, as stated in a recent White House Cyberthreat Advisory, now is the time to revisit data, system, and network approaches. Cloud, in its many applications, empowers organizations and the people who work for them by allowing everything from remote work to minimizing the threat attack surface. Having the right expertise in place can streamline the journey to innovation and productivity. Having the right expert in place provides the confidence that only comes with trust.

Based in Northern California, Ben will assist the Sandler Partners community in the West, while also providing nationwide CCaaS support. Partners will get their first chance to meet, talk shop, and start working with Ben when he joins a few members of the Sandler Partners Sales Engineering team at the Channel Partners Conference in Las Vegas April 11-14.

Were excited to grow the team, states Gerry Davis, SVP of Sales Engineering, Ben joining Sandler Partners is a statement of our commitment to providing direct support for our Partners, and their ability to serve their customers. It also adds to our capacity to provide education for different technology solutions, sales techniques, and challenges organizations are facing  allowing us to continue setting the bar as the premier independent community of technology professionals. Ben brings a tremendous amount of experience, and we are grateful he is now part of the Sandler Partners family.

Bens mission will be to further solidify the human element, a strength that Sandler Partners is known for. Partners also have the 24/7 real-time empowerment of the Sandler Portal suite of enhanced online tools to research solutions, providers, generate accurate pricing, promote their services, and review their commission/project statuses. Leading the way with intelligence and expertise, both human and tool based, helps partners achieve, while also providing a tangible support network embodied by the whole sales engineering team.

About Sandler Partners

Sandler Partners is Americas fastest-growing technology solutions brokerage and distributor of connectivity and cloud services. In 2021, Sandler Partners was included on the Inc. 5000 list of Americas Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the 12th straight year. Over the years, weve expanded beyond our telecom roots to deliver best-in-class cloud, colocation, mobility, continuity, and security solutions from 200+ suppliers through a network of 9,000+ expert technology sales partners  agents, VARs, and MSPs  to thousands of small, medium, and enterprise organizations nationwide.

How Our Partners Benefit  Independently owned. Independent spirit. Our Partner community gains access to our industry leading support network of sales, marketing and engineering professionals, plus the Sandler Portals Marketing Center (with customizable campaigns), and sales tools like SCOUTs real-time cable pricing and the Solution Finder. We also have the industrys strongest agreements and a team with a proven track record of ensuring all commissions are found, tracked, and paid.
UPSTACK Acquires Telecom Agency Meridian Network Services [Dupree's] knowledge of the industryboth the players and the technologyas well as her depth of experience, business acumen and exemplary customer service make Stacey and Meridian great additions to the UPSTACK team.

UPSTACK, a fast-growing platform that transforms the way businesses design and select internet infrastructure solutions, announced today that it acquired Meridian Network Services, a full-service telecommunications agency serving both small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprises. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The investment in California-based Meridian is part of UPSTACKs strategy to accelerate the growth of its industry-transforming platform, which combines leading internet infrastructure advisors with proprietary software and support resources. Building on an earlier equity investment from Berkshire Partners, UPSTACK secured $100 million in financing from MidCap Financial and Morgan Stanley Private Credit to further scale its platform through technology expansion and strategic partner investments.

Meridian Network Services Founder and President Stacey Dupree will join UPSTACK as a Partner.

Stacey Dupree is a seasoned infrastructure professional dedicated to providing full-service solutions to a diverse client base, said UPSTACK CEO Christopher Trapp. Her knowledge of the industryboth the players and the technologyas well as her depth of experience, business acumen and exemplary customer service make Stacey and Meridian great additions to the UPSTACK team.

Dupree began her telecom career working for Cable and Wireless, starting first in San Francisco before moving to Florida to take over as regional manager in a flagging region. In just two years, she led her group from last to first place. After time with Espire as Director of CLECs (competitive local exchange carrier), she returned home to California to be VP of Sales for Paetec West (now Windstream). When the dot-com bubble burst, Dupree chose to leave Paetec and founded Meridian after a brief hiatus.

Our service, our skill at negotiating, and our industry knowledge set us apart; we know how to get things done for our clients, whether they are SMBs or enterprise, Dupree said. We have many long-tenured clients who look to our team as a seamless part of their own and value what we bring to the table. Joining UPSTACK allows me to serve my existing clients better, to grow the business in new ways, and to share best practices with leaders in the field.

Meridian was formed in 2001 by Dupree as a full-service telecommunications agencyconducting audits, negotiating contracts, managing implementations of network projects, and servicing clients. The Meridian team provided the much-needed additional workforce to in-house IT departments without the overhead.

With proven growth and success behind it, Meridian was courted by several firms to sell or merge. Dupree ultimately chose UPSTACK because of its similar vision and dedication to customer service and the chance to remain part of the company.

I didnt want to walk away from my customers; I wanted to offer them more in terms of resources and service that I just couldnt build out on my own, said Dupree. Joining UPSTACK and having the resources of a skilled back-office and marketing department will bring enormous benefit to Meridians clients.

For more information about the UPSTACK Advisory Partnership, visit upstack.com/for-advisors or contact partners@upstack.com.

About Meridian Network Services

Founded in 2001 by telecommunications industry sales and executive Stacey Dupree, Meridian Network Services is a full-service agencygrounded in technical knowledge, carrier relationships, and industry experiencededicated to providing exceptional customer care to SMBs and large enterprises. Services include negotiating, procurement, implementation support, auditing, expense management, and post-sale, continued customer support. For more information, visit http://www.meridiannetworkservices.com/

About UPSTACK

Launched in 2017 in New York, N.Y., UPSTACK is transforming the way internet infrastructure is sourced and sold. Through a powerful combination of the industrys leading advisors, advanced technology, and dedicated customer support resourcesUPSTACK uses actionable business intelligence to architect and source customized technology solutions for businesses of all sizes. With UPSTACK, business buyers streamline IT procurement by tapping into a single source for mission-critical technology services from hundreds of proven providers along with the professional guidance to identify and evaluate the best solutions. UPSTACK's service portfolio includes colocation and data center, network connectivity, SD-WAN, unified communications, cloud contact center, private and public cloud, security, mobile, business continuity and IoT. For more information, visit us at upstack.com.
Sylvia Barela, MBA Women leaders are transforming behavioral health. We are very fortunate to have a such a strong, trailblazing leader at Via Positiva.

Via Positiva, a national behavioral health training and technical assistance company, today announced that Founder and Principal Jim Clarkson will be stepping down after an 11-year tenure and former Santa Fe Recovery Center CEO, Sylvia Barela will be joining Via Positiva as CEO on April 1, 2022.

After a period of supporting Sylvia, I will be moving on to other projects and interests. We are so fortunate to have a person of Sylvias stature in our field to lead Via Positiva. Sylvia is that rare person with deep clinical knowledge and compassion along with a very impressive sustainability and growth track record as CEO of a large provider system. She has been a key leader in developing New Mexicos System of Care and we are thrilled that she will now be leading Via Positiva on the national stage, said Clarkson.

Via Positiva was founded in 2011 as a practice of behavioral health executives and practitioners dedicated to helping substance abuse, mental health and other human service providers navigate the healthcare landscape toward becoming fiscally strong, sustainable, integrated, and clinically and culturally excellent. Working with insurers and regulators, Via Positiva focuses on aligning clinical and recovery best practices with business best practices while helping to shape and raise the bar nationally on access and quality for positive therapeutic and business outcomes.

I look forward to leading Via Positiva in its mission to help providers, insurers and regulatory agencies develop systems that are truly recovery oriented, trauma informed and have excellent engagement and retention, along with high quality and positive therapeutic outcomes. To do this, each of these, and others, have to strategically and creatively partner, and include business best practices into their company and equity within the system of care, so there is hope, help, sustainability, and growth for the future, said new CEO Sylvia Barela.

We have to help the consumer understand and feel comfortable and empowered in the whole process of seeking and engaging in treatment and recovery--we have to start from their perspective and needs completely. We show providers and systems how to do that in praxis, and how, with the right combination of funding and strategic partners with the same philosophy, it will impact their top line revenue and therapeutic outcomes in a positive way, continued Barela.

Media Contact:

Jim Clarkson, CEO, at Jim.Clarkson@ViaTIva.com

505-944-5284
NVTC will host a complimentary virtual event to review the reports key findings on March 31, 2022. To register, please visit www.nvtc.org. "Virginias data center tax incentive program sends a clear signal to investors worldwide that it is a welcoming home for technology and innovation," said Jennifer Taylor, NVTC president and CEO.

The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the trade association representing the regions technology community, today released a research report, The Impact of Data Centers on the State and Local Economies of Virginia, produced by Mangum Economics. The report highlights the data industrys crucial role in strengthening and diversifying the Commonwealth of Virginias economy as well as propelling innovation in the state.

Data centers continue to be a major driver of investment in Virginia. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), in 2021, 62 percent ($6.8 billion) of all the new investment was generated from new and expanding data centers. In 2021, the data center industry supported over 45,000 jobs, producing $3.6 billion in labor income and created $15.3 billion in total economic output across the Commonwealth.

Northern Virginia in particular has the largest data center market in the world with the regions total data center capacity more than doubling from 2018 to 2021. As of last year, the data center inventory in Northern Virginia exceeded that of the next five largest markets in total (Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Silicon Valley, New York/Tri-State Area and Phoenix), with an annual compound rate of growth of 25 percent from 2014-2021.

As businesses and consumers generate exponentially more data, demand for data storage, protection and analytics continues to grow. We are so proud that Virginia has emerged as the world's largest data center market, and a substantial driver of Virginia's statewide economy, said Jennifer Taylor, NVTC president and CEO. Data centers are increasingly recognized as the backbone of the modern technology economy; this industry continues to generate incremental tax revenue for the state. Virginias data center tax incentive program sends a clear signal to investors worldwide that it is a welcoming home for technology and innovation.

Highlights of the researchs findings include:



In 2021, the data center industry in Virginia provided approximately 5,550 operational jobs and almost 10,000 construction and manufacturing jobs.

For every job inside a Virginia data center, an additional 4.1 additional jobs that are supported in the rest of the Virginia economy, with 45,460 supported jobs in 2021.

Data centers generate significant tax revenue for local governments. Data centers were directly and indirectly responsible for generating $174 million in state revenue and $1 billion local tax revenue in Virginia.

Without data centers and the way in which Virginia subsidizes local education budgets, the Commonwealth would have had to reallocate $90.5 million in state education funding away from other Virginia localities to provide $73 million in additional funding to Loudoun County, and $17.5 million to Prince William County.

Virginias data center tax incentive programs continue to attract investors and demonstrates that its business climate is welcoming to the high-tech industry.

Data centers are the engines of growth of digitalization across businesses and major drivers of investment in Virginia. We look forward to seeing the continued growth of the digital infrastructure industry in the years ahead, said Vinay Nagpal, chairman of NVTCs data center and cloud committee, and president of InterGlobix. It is through the hard work and collaboration of our members, tech leaders, and innovators, along with Northern Virginia's technology-rich culture, that places the National Capital region on the map, giving it global recognition as the leading data center market in the world.

NVTC is honored to work with lead sponsors of this report: CloudHQ, Digital Realty, Dominion Energy, Fairfax Economic Development Authority, Iron Mountain, Loudoun County Virginia Economic Development, Microsoft, Prince William Economic Development and VISA. Supporting sponsors include: Fredericksburg Regional Alliance and Vantage Data Centers.

NVTC will host a complimentary virtual event to review the reports key findings on March 31, 2022 from 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. ET. All members of the data center, connectivity and cloud community, Virginias EDAs, policymakers and administration officials, industry and community partners, and the media are invited to attend. Fletcher Mangum, Ph.D., the founder and CEO of Mangum Economics, the company that prepared the report, will be one of the featured guest speakers. To register, please visit: https://www.nvtc.org/NVTC/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=MTGDATA137

Read the full report to learn more about how data centers positively impact Virginia here: https://www.nvtc.org/NVTC/Workforce/Resource_Library_Docs/2022_NVTC_Data_Center_Report.aspx

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About the Northern Virginia Technology Council

NVTC is the trade association representing the Northern Virginia technology community. As one of the nations largest technology councils, we serve companies from all sectors of the industry, from small businesses and startups to Fortune 100 technology companies, government contractors, as well as service providers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. More than 400 member look to the organization as a resource for networking and educational opportunities, peer-to-peer communities, policy advocacy, industry promotion, fostering of strategic relationships, and branding of the region as a major global technology center. Learn more at http://www.nvtc.org.
Inc. magazine today revealed that TwelveStone Health Partners is No. 69 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals Southeast list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies based in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Southeast region economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

We are thrilled to be given this honor as we continue to aggressively expand our footprint across the Southeast, said Shane Reeves, chief executive officer, TwelveStone Health Partners. Our success is testament to the need for concierge care for those with long-term chronic medical conditions.

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Southeast region. Between 2018 and 2020, these 173 private companies had an average growth rate of 147% percent and, in 2020 alone, they added 27,794 jobs and nearly $4.9 billion to the Southeast regions economy. Companies based in the Miami, Florida, Fairhope, Alabama, and Covington, Louisiana, areas had the highest growth rate overall.

Our growth is directly related to the success of our business development team who have built strong relationships with our referral partners and their patients, shared Dave Carter, chief revenue officer, TwelveStone Health Partners.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals Southeast, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/southeast

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.

About TwelveStone Partners

TwelveStone Health Partners incorporates the objective of glorifying God into its mission by delivering a higher level of service to partners and patients. As an organization, TwelveStone supports the transition from acute to post-acute care environments and the transition from sickness to health. This is the third evolution in the companys history, beginning in 1980 when Richard Reeves and Ronald Powell created a single retail pharmacy location then called Reeves Powell Saveway Drug Store. In 1994 Shane Reeves and Rick Sain launched Reeves-Sain and over 20 years grew the organization to include seven companies. In 2015 Reeves Sain Drug Store, Inc., a retail pharmacy, and its specialty pharmacy, EntrustRx were sold to Freds, Inc. In 2016 Shane Reeves launched TwelveStone Health Partners with the objective of continuing to pursue the highest professional, business and community goals set forth by its founders. For more information visit http://www.12stonehealth.com.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2022 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2018 and 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2019. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.

The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
White employees made up 64.6% of Hachette Book Groups workforce in 2021, down from 67.1% in 2020, the publisher said in its annual update on how its diversity, equity, and inclusions efforts are proceeding. The greater diversity in the HBG ranks was driven by the hiring of more BIPOC employees, with BIPOC candidates representing 54.2% of all new hires, up from 47.8% in 2020.

The percentage of new book acquisitions also became more diverse last year, the publisher said, with BIPOC authors illustrators representing 34% of new deals compared to 29% in 2020.

Hispanic/Latinx employees comprised 20.5% of all HBG staff in 2021, up slightly from 20% in 2020, and Asian American employees also saw a slight increase, accounting for 6.9% of employees up from 6.7% in 2020. Black employees were 5% of the workforce last year, up from 3.9% in 2020.

At the senior management level, progress was slower: 78.4% were white in 2021 compared to 79.5% in 2020.

Carrie Bloxson, who joined HBG in February 2021 to head its DEI efforts and is now the publisher's chief diversity officer, said in a statement: "We are committed to making sure that employees from all backgrounds feel like valued members of HBG."

New Partnerships

The update on its employee ranks was accompanied by an announcement of four new partnerships HBG has signed to support writers and publishing professionals from underrepresented backgrounds.

In an agreement with City College of New York, HBG has created the CCNY+HBG Associates Program, which will provide a salaried, full-time, full-year work experience at HBG for a recent graduate of the City College of New York Publishing Certificate Program.

HBG is also working with the Hurston/Wright Foundation to offer support and resources to aspiring Black authors. To that end, HBG will copresent the Hurston/Wright Writers Week Retreat at Rutgers University, a seven-day summer writing workshop which will include writing instruction, workshopping, networking, and craft talks hosted by industry leaders.

HBG is working with Lambda Literary to continue its support of LGBTQIA+ literature by fully funding one fellow and offering several scholarships to Lambdas annual writers retreat, which draws LGBTQIA+ writers from across the country. This years writers retreat will take place from July 31 to August 5.

To help BIPOC employees stay in publishing, HBG has teamed with We Need Diverse Books as a backer of Rise Up, a Retention Program for Diverse Mid-Level Publishing Professionals, which was designed to support mid-level adult and children's publishing industry professionals. The Rise Up program will include workshops, panels, resources, skill development, and support for diverse publishing professionals to assist in their career development and growth.

We have worked with these excellent organizations in different ways for many years, but we see these expanded relationships and specialized programs as our opportunity to make a greater positive impact on the reading community, Bloxson said. Together well strive to open up publishing to a far broader array of talents, perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Our partners goals align with HBGs goals: to make publishing more inclusive, more diverse, and more accessible for all.
In his striking and soulful debut, Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison, Daniel Genis revisits his stint in New York State prisons after committing a string of knife-point street robberies to fund his heroin habit at the age of 25, when he was also working at a Manhattan literary agency. His gritty picaresque features jail-yard fights; witnessings of attempted murders and suicides; routine humiliations; squalid conjugal visits with his wife; and much Kafkaesque absurdity (he was sent to solitary for purchasing other inmates souls with cups of coffee, which violated rules against commercial transactions). To counteract boredom and despair, Genis had his reading list, which included Sartres No Exita schizophrenic cellmate brought home the plays declaration that hell is other peopleand Prousts Remembrance of Things Past, which taught him that memory was the antidote to the inevitability of losing time. By turns harrowing and mordantly funny, Geniss account illuminates how the written word helps humanity endure in the stoniest soil.

Would you like to visit the joint without being convicted? Check out what its like Inside while retaining the right to leave? Maybe sample incarceration across a few cultures and continents, various times and places? Well then, I have the travel package for you! Speaking as an ex-con who spent the years 2003 to 2014 in the prisons of New York state, Ill be happy to book your tour from the czars dens of exile 200 years ago, to the mid-20th-century nightmares of Nazi-occupied Europe, to the hoosegows of today! And you dont even need to commit five counts of armed robbery in the service of a heroin habit like I did to earn my sentence of 12 flat, which is 10 years and three months with good behavior. All you need to do is read these 11 standout books about prisonwhich could easily have been twice as longand you will have a good idea of the nature of incarceration. Be warned: It aint pretty.

1. The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky This autobiographical novel published in 1862 describes the life of Russian convicts in a Siberian prison camp. The author of Crime & Punishment, a classic of moral relativism, served four years for his involvement in a politically liberal movement. His exile began after a mock execution followed by a commutation from the czar.



The novel describes the brutality of the guards, their wards, the civilian staff, and their commanders, basically positing that the very condition of incarceration brutalizes the human soul. Despite the setting being on the other side of the earth and the era being before the U.S. Civil War, I found the similarities between what I saw every day and what I read about to be shocking. I had an almost psychedelic moment when I read about an entrepreneurial Siberian convict carving a chess set to sell to the novels gentleman convict hero while the lifer in the cell next to mine was using spittle to make paper mache chess pieces to sell to me. The more things change...

2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Also published in 1862, this giant of 19th-century novels employs Jean Valjean as its hero, an ex-con who served 19 years in the Bagne of Toulon for stealing a loaf of bread (he actually gets 5 for the carbs; the other 14 years are for all the escape attempts). This is a very poor characterization of prison inmates in my experience. I met not one prisoner who committed his crimes because of poverty, and while I cannot say for sure who was over-sentenced, since almost every prisoner I met except for myself was not in prison for the first time, it seems that second chances are available in our society. Im on my third, at least.



The story of Jean Valjean is best at helping one understand incarceration when it is the story of #24601. The struggle I felt to remain Daniel Genis and not become #04A3328, the 3,328th prisoner to be registered at Downstate CF in the year 2004, was a very real one. Your identity is removed in every way, from your clothing, substituted with a uniform, to your hair, replaced by a shaven pate, to your very name, erased by a number. That is why prisoners tattoo themselves so much; an identity that can only be removed with a laser is a hurdle the guards cannot (yet) overcome. By the way, #24601 was chosen by Hugo because that date in the year 1801 is when the writer believed he had been conceived!

3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and 4. The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Perhaps the grandaddy of all writing about the Zone, as its called in Russian, these works tell you just how great you have it anywhere else but Stalins Gulag. Solzhenitsyn wrote his classics after an eight-year stay of his own, which he barely survived. He was saved from labor, cold, and starvation when the authorities realized he could be used in the Sharashka, where captive scientists worked for the USSR, a tale further told in his book The First Circle.



One Day in the Life is a short and grasping introduction to sub-zero days spent working to bring down lumber while not allowed the use of a saw. It describes the hunger that leads men to cannibalism and suicide, and the injustice and caprice with which bad things happen to good men while the bad ones are rewarded. Reading the three volumes of The Gulag Archipelago is a bit like serving out a sentence yourself; the grim bleakness that stretches for thousands of murderous pages (with photographs!) is an experience that will never allow you to feel sorry for yourself again. And remember, to share this behemoth among the samizdat circle, dedicated typists would reproduce copies through entire nights of fevered work, when a neighbors phone call could result in their own sentence.

5. Papillon by Henri Charriere This story of a French convicted murderer with a charming butterfly tattooed on his chest and a stainless steel plan devasion containing a diamond, a roll of francs, and a razor hidden in his rectum, made for a great film that I only saw years after reading the book in prison. Devils Island, where Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was held a generation before Papillon, was meant to be an escape-proof little hell-island off the northern coast of South America, but our hero just couldnt be discouraged from trying.



In Charrieres somewhat novelized memoir of life in this tropical inferno and his many escape attempts, we get a feel for the variety of men that wind up in such places, as well as those who work there. The descriptions of solitary confinementwhere our protagonist spent years being attacked by huge biting centipedes and starved after his buddy the forger was caught sending him coconutsis eye-opening. After reading about how skeletal prisoners were no longer able to walk after a multiyear stay in solitary, it is hard to reconcile with the obesity problem among Americas inmates.

6. In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Henry Abbott This autobiography impressed Norman Mailer enough that he got the author, a convicted murderer, paroled (this was possible 40 years ago) as a literary genius, only for Abbot to murder the waiter at his celebratory dinner. (After all, the man had looked at him funny.)



A friend of mine lived in the cell in which Abbot hanged himself 20 years later, having squandered his bizarre opportunity for redemption. This friend had little interest in Abbot, as his book is despised by most modern prisoners. It describes the inmates of Maximum Security in N.Y. state about two generations ago, when having sex with kids, juvenile first-time convicts, was considered okay and even manly. It is no longer seen this way, and the impression which Belly of the Beast makes is one todays prisoners cannot abide. I mostly didnt like the last third of the book, which was all about the wonders of Marxism, but apparently Norman Mailer had different standards. This one is definitely a period piece, but the poor waiters end did not hurt its reputation.

7. Newjack by Ted Conover A work of undercover reporting! Conover went through the Correctional Officers Academy in Albany in order to get a job at Sing Sing, where all of New Yorks old-time gangsters used to take a seat in Old Sparky, the electric chair. Reading this memoir gives you a good look at the other side, the life of a prison guard. We dont hear from this contingent too much, and its not a popular field. I think youre better off telling someone you met in a bar that you are an ex-con or an escaped one than a C.O. Nevertheless, these men are doing a very hard job that can have lethal consequences, and we should not judge them all by the characterization we get from the screen. Like me, Conover met his share of sadists and guys just doing a job. The book is a bit skewed because the author really wanted to see the best in the prisoners, his wards, and I commend him for his Christmas kindnesses I wish I had seen more of that over my 10 years in, but then again, Conover himself may have worn the uniform but wasnt a real C.O.



By the way, you have to read this one in County. Upstate its censored. Not because of the dastardly truths the author reveals, but because he describes the Sing Sing locker room.

8. Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov This more obscure Russian novel from 1975 also tells the story of a camp guard, only a canine one. Of course, its all a metaphor, and of course it must be read in the context of the Soviet Union, where millions of people were kept in prison. Ruslan is an abandoned camp dog, and the novel is the sad story of a character made obsolete. His end is a tearjerker except that he spent his life wishing to bite into the completely innocent, cowering, and helpless prisoners he knew to despise, but not why. Its a talented author who draws a tear for such a character!



I read Ruslan to better understand my overseers, when they were cruel or sharp with me, and to give them a human face. Of course, Ruslan was a dog. But he was a very Soviet dog and if youve also read The Heart of a Dog by Bulgakov, its a good pairing.

9. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts A wonderfully interesting tale of crime and punishment in India. Prison in the subcontinent is rough; youll have little to complain about once you read about the general acceptance of transparent worms in all available water. The drug abuse that led the author to his fate is a good meditation on the dangers of that path, if all the other usual suspects arent enough.



Shantaram is 1,000 pages of Locked up Abroad; it will terrify you and then mortify you, finally leaving you very grateful for your comfortable cot in a First World facility. Men in N.Y. state prison wouldnt eat bread that had fallen on the floor; in poorer nations you cannot even count on food without payment. This novel is colorful and exciting and autobiographical without being too much so.

10. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi Also called If This Is a Man, this is a dark piece of writing about going from a happy life as a member of an intellectual Jewish family in Italy to living moments away from death in the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz. Its harsh, especially since the narrator knows all of the Jews herded to their deaths or forced labor. He remembers them as Rabbis and professors and doctors and gangsters only here they are stealing spoons of sugar solution meant for nursing Aryan mothers and being mercilessly killed the moment they are viewed as no longer fit for work.



When the narrator witnesses his father perish, and wails at his absolute inability to help him in any way, it is soul-shaking. I was completely ashamed of every time I had called our guards Nazis or complained about the food Inside. After all, just like in the Soviet Gulag, these people were innocent of any crime.



Primo Levi eventually committed suicide, as did so many others who made it through the camps. Perhaps it was the guilt of surviving that was so unbearable. I know that I still feel bad about all the people I remember inside who will never be leaving like I did. They committed more serious crimes than me, but they didnt seem all that different.

11. A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe This 1998 novel only has about 120 pages set inside prison, but boy are they on point! I would have loved to have asked Tom Wolfe how he knew? How did he get the sights and sounds so right, and most of all the fear? Prison wears away at your soul and takes years off your life by keeping you in an unnatural state, afraid from the moment you get up until the cell door closes, and even then the fear follows you into your nightmares. In this novel, the hero is terrified of being raped and just when it looks like there can be no reprieve, Tom Wolfe allows such a deus ex machina that its very placement is tongue in cheek. An earthquake brings down the prison walls and allows our protagonist to escape his fate in all senses. Never have the walls of Jericho fallen with such good timing.



This is a very good novel to read about prison because it also deals heavily with Epictetus and the Stoic philosophy. This is what allows a man to suffer, especially when things are not going to get better, maybe not for a while, maybe never. I knew that situation well, and somehow, despite being a literary celebrity, so did Tom Wolfe!
Looking for the latest in hypersonics research? Need someone to explain hypersonics to you? A variety of Purdues leadership, expertise and innovation is highlighted in this roundup.

If you have any questions or want to speak to someone, contact Brian Huchel at bhuchel@purdue.edu.

Jonathan Poggie, a professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, discusses how hypersonic missiles will factor into the military both now and in the future following Russias use of hypersonic missiles against Ukraine.

The Hypersonics Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (HAMTC) at Purdue is the only complex to integrate academia and industry from the start of hypersonics materials development and manufacturing.

Centralizing design/build/join/test capabilities is expected to shorten the entire hypersonics development process.

HAMTC will collaborate with industry partners such as GE Additive, Lockheed Martin and others to work on real industrial defense challenges.

Poggie breaks down the high-speed technology that offers applications in both spaceflight and the military in this video.

The Hypersonic Ground Test Center (HGTC) provides hypersonic testing streams reaching speeds up to Mach 7.5  more than 5,000 mph.

The center is expected to help the U.S. leapfrog research progress of peer adversaries.

Rolls-Royce North America is the first aerospace industry member of a consortium that will manage the HGTC.

New Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility (HARF) to feature first Mach 8 wind tunnel and a hypersonic pulse (HYPULSE) reflected shock/expansion tunnel.

Tunnels allow the re-creation of different real-world scenarios, from a spacecrafts atmosphere reentry to Mach 5+ missile flight.

Construction of the 65,000-square-foot HARF broke ground in late 2021.

Purdue hypersonics in the news

Can the U.S. Win the Hypersonics Race?

As seen in The Wall Street Journal

Purdue to expand hypersonics research hub

Aerospace Manufacturing and Design

National Hypersonic Ground Test Facility to be Built

Defense Media Network

Purdue to host new hypersonics test facility

National Defense Magazine

Purdue Plans Hypersonic Test Center Backed By Rolls-Royce

Aviation Week

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/.
Captain Matthew Tomkiewicz, a former student of Purdue and member of Alpha Tau Omega, died during a training flight in Norway on March 18.
Brayden Johnson, a sophomore in the College of Health and Human Sciences, was nominated to election director of PSG.
Sven Park in Long Island City will be open to the public early next year. It bears the name of a new adjacent apartment tower.
Con Edison has replaced a utility pole that had been leaning over during rainfalls and has been a cause of concern to South Jamaica residents for two years.
Former president of CEC 26 Alan Ong, center, will now sit on the Panel for Educational Policy as a mayoral appointee.
Gov. Hochul signed a Workplace Harassment and Discrimination bill package last week, which will protect state employees, their personnel files and establish a toll free-hotline for complaints.
JMart, which plans to open in Little Neck, currently has two other locations: one in Brooklyn and another at Flushings New World Mall on Main Street, above.
A residents security camera captured three people shooting at the car the victim was in. The full video is available for viewing at qchron.com.
Following pressure from both sides of the toddler mask debate, Mayor Adams said Tuesday that masks will become optional in April if rates stay low.
Published on:

24 March 2022





The Awards were created to celebrate the outstanding achievements of people who studied at CCLS, and to highlight the impressive global impact of the Centres alumni community. Ahead of todays inaugural event on the Lincolns Inn Fields campus, there were more than 80 nominations for the four prizes available.

First to be presented was the Community Impact Award, recognising CCLS alumni whove brought about real change for people. This award was taken home by Geronimo Frigerio (Banking and Finance Law LLM, 2001) for his work to reduce poverty and enhance growth by removing legal red tape. Geronimos achievements include developing education and transport sector policy reforms to rebuild Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, designing the regulatory framework for the expansion of the Panama Channel, and redesigning the sovereign financial architecture in the Bahamas.

Also shortlisted were Dr Amir Ibrahim (Competition Law PhD, 2015) whose work as chair of the Egyptian Competition Authority was key for the countrys Covid-19 recovery; Dr Maritza Adonis (Arbitration summer school, 2014) who promotes diversity, equality and inclusion not only in her professional efforts but through grassroots volunteering; Mary Rizk (Laws LLM, 2018) who co-founded a community organisation that helps build schools, homes and toilets for underprivileged children around the world; and Siddharth Chandrashekhar (Commercial and Corporate Law LLM, 2012) whose advocacy in Bombay High Court has won challenging public interest cases, stopping fake Covid vaccine scams and helping vulnerable people and abandoned animals.

The next prize was the Commitment Award, which recognises CCLS alumni who support the Centre and wider University by sharing their time, expertise, networks or resources. This award was given to Assunta Ndami (Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LLM, 2019) whose determination and dependability were key to the success of CCLS free legal advice service qLegals bid for funding to help establish an Entrepreneurship Law clinic at the University of Strathmore in Nairobi. Thanks to Assunta, the bid was successful, and the Strathmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic is thriving.

Also shortlisted were Ajit Mishra (Intellectual Property Law LLM, 2005) who quickly formed a really special community as chair of the CCLS India Chapter; Dr German Dario Florez Acero (Intellectual Property Law LLM, 2011) who has been a very active Alumni Ambassador for more than a decade; Julia Bonder-Le Berre (Intellectual Property Law LLM, 2007) who has generously shared her time and expertise with postgraduate students via qLegal and qMentoring programs since 2018; and Kuseme Iseh (International Dispute Resolution LLM, 2021) who built a supportive social media community for students isolated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Next was the Achievement Award, for CCLS alumni whove shown excellence and best practice in a chosen area of commercial activity or society. This award was bestowed on Francis Ben Kaifala (Law and Economics LLM, 2014) for his impressive anti-corruption work in Sierra Leone, where he has introduced strong and far-reaching legislative reforms to ensure accountability in public life. Francis is head of the republics Anti-Corruption Commission, as well as President of the Network of Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa and an elected member of the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption, while also lecturing in commercial law at the University of Sierra Leone.

Also shortlisted were Antonius Alexander Tigor (Computer and Communications Law LLM, 2017) who is Head of Legal for Telkomsel in Indonesia, where he was recently named Rising Star and In-house Lawyer of the Year; Bijetri Roy (Public International Law LLM, 2014) who is Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer at her start-up, the Institute for Pioneering Insightful Research and Edutech (InsPIRE); Muge Bulat Cetinkaya (Commercial and Corporate Law LLM, 2010) who is Head of Legal for Dominos in Turkey, where she has introduced a more proactive approach to risk management and compliance; and Meenakshi Salathia (Criminal Justice LLM, 2019) who is practising law at the High Court of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, where she recently filed a domestic violence case on behalf of a male against his wife for the first time in State history.

Finally, the Chapter Award recognised the achievements of CCLS international communities. This award was collected by Ajit Mishra on behalf of the CCLS India Chapter, which emerged as one the fastest growing Chapters with over 400 members in its inaugural year. Also shortlisted were CCLS Chapters for China, Columbia, Indonesia and Nigeria.

Winners were selected by a panel of judges drawn from across the University: Queen Marys President and Principal, Prof Colin Bailey CBE; CCLS Director, Prof Ian Walden; Prof Julian Lew QC, Head of the School of International Arbitration; and Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer, Academic Deputy Director of Alumni Relations and a CCLS Alum herself (PhD in Law, 2018).

Prizes were presented by The Right Honourable Lord Justice Kitchin, who chairs the CCLS Advisory Council. Also in attendance was Queen Marys visiting professorial fellow Prof Sir Roy Goode QC, who founded CCLS in 1980, among many other achievements in his eminent legal career. After 17 years as a solicitor, Roy made the rare move from private practice to academia  an extra impressive feat having never been to university himself, instead qualifying through work experience.

Speaking ahead of the event, Prof Sir Roy Goode said: When I left Queen Mary in 1989, CCLS was small but flourishing. In subsequent years, it has been transformed  by the imagination and drive of my successors as Director, and the enthusiasm and dedication of the incredibly hard-working staff. Its now the largest centre of its kind in Europe and one of the largest in the world, engaged in advanced postgraduate teaching and diverse research, with links to a wide range of institutions here and overseas. Though it should come as no surprise that such impressive people spring from an equally outstanding institution, the alumni we celebrate in these awards are truly inspirational, and every nominee would be a very worthy winner.

Prof Ian Walden, Professor of information and communications law and Director of CCLS, added: Were delighted and very proud to have such an amazing alumni community. CCLS was created to bring together practising commercial lawyers with those from academia, so that their different perspectives could find innovative solutions to complex legal challenges. The impact and achievements of our alumni highlighted here are proof positive that this diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Prof Colin Bailey, Queen Marys President and Principal, concluded: On behalf of my colleagues on the judging panel, we have seen a really high standard of nominations. It has been great to see the nominations and the finalists today. We are proud of what our postgraduates achieve, and this can publicly help demonstrate successes for what future students can go on to do.
Chinas solar industry has the Communist Partys unflinching support even if it means violating WTO rules. By contrast, American solar manufacturers walk a lonely road despite investing billions and creating thousands of stable, good-paying jobs in states like Ohio.

Consequently, we have no choice but to defend Americas corner, its clean energy leadership ambitions, and the rule of law. Unfortunately, this places us directly in the crosshairs of powerful lobbies that, inadvertently or otherwise, hold positions that reflect the interests of Chinese manufacturers. Unfortunately, it is impossible to mirror Chinese interests on trade policy, the rule of law, and human rights without consequences to America.

Take, for instance, Auxin Solars petition to fix a loophole allowing Chinese-headquartered solar manufacturers to circumvent anti-dumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) duties, put in place in 2012 and renewed in 2019 in response to subsidized Chinese solar products being dumped in the US, causing material injury to American producers.

The mechanics are well defined: virtually every solar panel component is manufactured in China and exported to Southeast Asian Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) member countries. Here panels are assembled in a low-cost, low-value process and then exported to the United States with a Southeast Asian origin label. This allows Chinese manufacturers to circumvent the duties designed to ensure that they sell panels at a fair price. While Chinese solar imports decreased 86 percent since 2012, imports from four Southeast Asian BRI members surged 868 percent.

This is textbook circumvention of U.S. law and to dismiss any effort to uphold the law as frivolous is to dismiss the rule of law altogether. Yet, that is precisely the word used by lobbyists in strong reactions that criticized the California-headquartered manufacturers routine request to use the legal tools placed at the Department of Commerces disposal by Congress.

Proponents of unrestricted Chinese access to the U.S. solar market are rolling out a familiar playbook in response to Auxins filing. Rather than acknowledge that Chinese manufacturers are circumventing U.S. laws, they paint Auxin, a minority- and woman-owned business, as the wrongdoer. They say that theres insufficient domestic capacity. That duties are bad for electricity prices, jobs, and, ultimately, the fight against climate change. That trade safeguards have done nothing to boost domestic manufacturing.

Unsurprisingly, Chinas Commerce Ministry also shares many of these flawed, intellectually dishonest claims.

Take the role of Chinese solar in fighting climate change. Chinese polysilicon is heavily reliant on coal electricity. When the price of coal goes up, so does the price of polysilicon and crystalline silicon solar panels. We all live on the same planet, and whether produced in Xinjiang or Massachusetts, emissions exacerbate the global climate crisis. Smokestacks not visible from Pennsylvania Avenue arent less harmful.

Thats not all. Its cheaper to build a solar power plant than any other form of new electricity generation. This may explain why, despite the fearmongering, American solar has continued its growth streak, setting new records even amid a pandemic. Demand for new solar projects has been so significant that it prompted Americas largest grid operator to propose a two-year pause on reviewing new project applications.

Its also crucial to recognize that intense lobbying to gut safeguard duties and tariffs has consistently thwarted domestic manufacturing growth.

The cycle is exhaustingly vicious. U.S. manufacturers advocate for a level playing field using smart trade policy. The government assesses the need to safeguard domestic industry from proven injury. Lobbyists successfully intervene against restricting Chinese anti-competitive behavior using questionable data on jobs and domestic manufacturing capabilities to make a case cloaked in climate change. With safeguards gutted and Chinese panels flowing in at irrational prices, U.S. manufacturers are unable to expand capacity. Repeat.

The over 10 gigawatts of new solar manufacturing capacity announced since May last year would effectively double domestic capacity, putting the United States on track to self-reliance. Yet, the combination of the slowdown in setting manufacturing policy and pro-China lobbying efforts may have placed much of that planned growth in peril with one major manufacturer, LG Solar, already going out of business.

The first step towards a durable U.S. solar policy is an honest level-set, based on verifiable facts, not the fiction that dominates todays narrative. A reality-based assessment will drive appreciation for the value that domestic solar manufacturing delivers, including jobs on the factory floor and across its supply ecosystem, from glassworkers in Ohio and Illinois, and sand miners in Michigan, to automation engineers in Georgia and warehouse workers in South Carolina. Perhaps then, American solar will earn the respect and level playing field it deserves.

Until that time, we will defend Americas corner.

Mark Widmar is the CEO of First Solar, the largest American solar manufacturer.
Orange is the New Black actress Jackie Cruz is a new mom.

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The 35-year-old actress recently welcomed twins with her husband, Fernando Garcia.

Cruz shared the news Wednesday on Instagram alongside a pair of photos. One of the pictures is a maternity photo, while the other shows the feet of Cruz's babies.

"Being a mother has changed my world. My babies are everything to me. I've been taking my time to enjoy every moment. I'm feeling content, exhausted, overwhelmed, grateful, tired, joyful, blessed, and fortunate all at the same time."

"My Babies are healthy and beautiful. I want to thank my gorgeous friend @elenakosharny for capturing this image right before I met my babies. We were lost en el bosque de Tlalpan, Mexico surrounded by nature and Love."

Cruz's Orange is the New Black co-star Karina Ortiz and actress Elisha Cuthbert were among those to congratulate Cruz in the comments.

"Felicidades amor!! This is everything, sending my love!" Ortiz wrote.

"Congratulations beautiful!!!" Cuthbert said.

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Cruz and Garcia married in August 2020. Cruz announced in December that she was expecting twins -- a son and a daughter.

"It's been a wonderful pregnancy, honestly," she said. "I've been working on it for a few years. I've had some issues with fertility."

Cruz played Marisol "Flaca" Gonzales on Orange is the New Black and has since portrayed Rhea on Good Girls.
With 27 years experience teaching all subjects to fourth and sixth graders, Greg Frey is a jack of all trades and a master of none. With 52 years experience wandering around in the outdoors, his hunting and fishing skills follow a similar path. When he masters the skills of the outdoors, hell take up paddle ball. He hopes that day never comes. Based on the fact hes genuinely surprised when he catches a fish or spots a deer, it probably never will. Hes good with that.
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High 93F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 53F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
On May 24, Athens residents will be welcomed back to the polls to vote for Mayor and on a referendum to renew TSPLOST. On Nov. 8, residents will vote for Board of Commission districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 as well as Board of Education members 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Health Editor and Athens Frontline Podcast Host

Simran Kaur Malhotra is the current health editor and a member of the D&I committee. As a pre-med student, she is majoring in anthropology & minoring in global health. Simran is the founder and CEO of UGA Doctors Without Borders. Associated: AHCJ; AAJA
Sunday marked the 23rd annual Frog Hop 5K and Tadpole Fun Run. Typically, over 200 runners ready to get their blood pumping gather on the North Oconee River Greenway at Sandy Creek Nature Center and take off. But while the race continues to gain popularity and be a fun day for families to spend outdoors, one question about the event remains unanswered: why the frog?
Olivia is a junior journalism major at the University of Georgia. Her love for writing and sharing stories from the community led her to The Red & Black. She loves being able to highlight the people who make up the Athens community.

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An attendee holds a candle during the moment of silence. Dozens of UGA and Athens community members gathered in Athens, Georgia at Tate Plaza on the evening of March 23, 2021, to hold a vigil for those lost in the shootings in Atlanta a week prior, and to call out for a stop to violence against Asian American people. (Photo/ Kathryn Skeean, kskeean@randb.com)
Sources for this story

Larry Burgess profile of Scipio Craig.

Ronald L. Burgesss paper, Redlands Powers the World  How the San Bernardino Valley Developed Modern Electric Power First, Jan. 18, 2007.

On the Banks of the Zanja, Edith Parker Hinckley.

Southern California Edison archives.

Seven miles east of the heart of Redlands just off Mill Creek Road stands an unassuming 130-year-old power plant that revolutionized the transmission of electrical power in North America and probably the entire world.

The Mill Creek No. 1 Hydroelectric Plant began generating electricity on Sept. 7, 1893. It was the first to generate 3-phase alternating current (AC) for commercial use.

This was the beginning of 3-phase electrical generation in the world and provided the principles on which many of the worlds hydroelectric plants are operated today, said Howard Hayes, former advertising manager, Southern California Edison.

On Feb. 20, 1977, the plant was dedicated as a California Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. It is still in operation today, along with its sister plants added in later years  Mill Creek 2 and 3.

The story of how this came about is yet another tribute to the innovative early citizens of Redlands childhood days.

The newspaper editor

Named for an ancient Roman statesman, Scipio Africanus Craig, born in 1848, was the only son of Riverside, California pioneer William Craig. After spending his youth in Indiana where his family had moved, he learned the printing trade and became an acclaimed newsman. In 1877, he started Redlands first newspaper, The Citrograph, which is today the oldest continuous printing operation in the city of Redlands.

Described in a profile by former A.K. Smiley Public Library Director Larry Burgess as a larger-than-life, red-bearded, energetic editor, opinionated publisher and 100% booster of all things Redlands, Craig expended large amounts of ink in calling for the city trustees to start an electric company.

In a paper in for the Fortnightly Club presented on Jan. 18, 2007, Ronald L. Burgess quotes from several of Craigs writings, including a story published on Jan. 23, 1891, advocating the use of hydroelectric power to run motors.

We could run dozens of small factories, besides furnishing lights by night when factories are idle. All our streetcars could run for half the cost of mule power. It seems as though someone would get up a company and start the thing going.

Enter Harry Harbison Sinclair.

The fishing trip

H.H. Sinclair and family came to Redlands in 1887 and bought property at the corner of Texas Street and San Bernardino Avenue. (The home was later destroyed by fire.) Sinclair was one of Redlands first city trustees and secretary of one of the water companies. A former shipping merchant, he had come to Redlands to explore the fruit-drying industry.

As he sat fishing, he studied the water and thought of using the water for power. Although Craig had been critical of him as a city trustee for being a mossback and not supporting formation of a city electrical company, it was Sinclair who stepped up. He became enthusiastic about the possibility of developing power in Mill Creek Canyon and organized the Redlands Electric Light and Power Co., which included George H. Crafts, George B. Ellis and Fulton G. Feraud as directors.

The city of Redlands granted a franchise to the company in 1892, and the company built the Mill Creek No. 1 Hydro-electric Plant.

The company had managed to scrape together $10,000, but it was pitifully inadequate. Sinclair himself was so hard put for money at one point that he had a $40 mortgage on his cow. In 1893  the year of the Great Panic  Eastern investors were skeptical of California schemes after too many land-boom defaults. Sinclair attempted to raise money in San Francisco and Los Angeles without success. He telegraphed his colleagues, Cannot place bonds, must abandon proposition.

Enter Henry Fisher.

Big money

Just when Sinclair thought all was lost, Fulton Feraud, secretary of the company, wired him, Come homeFisher takes bonds.

Henry Fisher and family had returned to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a few months, and not realizing the urgency on the part of his associates at the Redlands Electric Light and Power Co., had written instead of wiring his favorable answer to their appeal for funds. It was Fisher money that was largely responsible for the power project.

Fisher owned a palatial house on the corner of San Mateo Street and Highland Avenue, built the block at the corner of Citrus Avenue and Orange Street, laid out the Enterprise Tract, owned the streetcar system of Redlands, and was president of the San Bernardino Traction Co., which became part of the Pacific Electric Railway Co.

Now the company needed an engineer to design a revolutionary power system that would power all electrical devices, not just provide lighting. They already had a customer  the Union Ice Co. in Crafton.

Enter Almarian William Decker.

Tuberculosis

Almarian Decker was born in 1852 in Ohio and was a talented electrical engineer who had spent time working in the Brush arc light company in Ohio. Fortunately for Southern California, Decker moved here for the better air quality because he had contracted tuberculosis.

In 1890, the city of Pomona hired him to engineer a hydroelectric power generator on the San Antonio River in the mountains north of Pomona. Decker faced the problem of transmitting power 14 miles to Pomona. Direct Current (DC) could not be transmitted this distance. He was aware of Nicola Teslas work at Westinghouse in developing the single-phase alternating current generator, which could increase the voltage so the power could be transmitted over great distances.

The problem with single and 2-phase alternating generators was that they were not ideal for running all electrical devices such as motors because they were cumbersome and required long-distance synchronizing. Deckers design for the Pomona project was a revolutionary 3-phase power system, but Westinghouse refused to build a 3-phase AC generator, calling it impractical at the time.

Decker was forced to build a single-phase plant. His solution was to step up the voltage to push the power the 14 miles and then step it back down to the standard voltage used more safely in homes. He did this with what we now call transformers.

Decker was also hired by professor Thaddeus Lowe to daily supervise the electrical installations on the Mount Lowe Incline Railway, which opened in Altadena in 1893. Decker was so weak from tuberculosis that he had to be ferried out to the work sites daily in a wheelbarrow.

In 1892, Sinclair and Fisher hired Almarian Decker to build the Mill Creek No. 1 hydroelectric plant, which became the first in history to generate three-phase AC power. Decker found only one company in the United States that could build the new generator, the Thompson-Houston Electrical Co.

In early 1892, J.P. Morgan merged Thompson-Houston with Edison Electric Light Co. By fall of 1892, the new company emerged as General Electric, and that is the company that built the first three-phase AC generator.

Scipio Craig was overjoyed. He wrote in the Jan. 14, 1893, issue of The Citrograph:

Engineer A.W. Decker, who has the superintendence of the Electric Light and Power Co.s work, has been here for some days.

The construction of the powerhouse was begun this week. It is to be a stone structure, 16 feet high, 12 feet being below the surface of the ground, the object being to secure a greater fall to the machinery and thus gain a larger amount of power. The building will have an iron roof and will be fire proof. The machinery will be of the 3-phase alternating system, for incandescent lighting, and the arc system will be independent of this.

The company has decided to run its line through Mentone, where a few lights will be used and a few houses lighted.

The poles have been received via the Terminal and Santa Fe roads from San Pedro, and a gang of men commenced placing them. The company is pushing its work and in three months time we may expect to see our city lighted and at least a couple of factories in operation.

Almarian Decker died of tuberculosis in August 1893, one month after the opening of the Mount Lowe Incline Railway, and just before the opening of Mill Creek No. 1 on Sept. 7, 1893. He was 41 years old. He is interred at Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery.

Deckers genius resulted in:

 Long-distance electric power transmission via transformers.

 First commercial U.S. 3-phase AC generator.

 First electric irrigation pumping  Redlands, 1894.

 First commercially viable 3-phase synchronous motors.

Thus, a new electrical industry was born in Redlands on Sept. 7, 1893, thanks to Scipio Craigs prodding, H.H. Sinclairs opportunistic vision, Henry Fishers financial backing, and Almarian Deckers genius.

Electric development timeline

Oct. 22, 1879 : Thomas Edison perfects the incandescent light bulb.

: Thomas Edison perfects the incandescent light bulb. 1890: Nikola Tesla develops single-phase AC generators that can transmit electricity farther than before.

Engineer Almarian Decker designs and builds a plant in San Antonio Creek capable of sending power to Pomona 14 miles away.

October 1892 : Redlands Electric Light & Power Co. incorporates to build a hydroelectric plant at Mill Creek. Backed by General Electric Co., Almarian Decker builds the revolutionary Ty 3-phase AC generator, which can operate self-synchronizing motors without constant attention. The two generators go online on Sept. 7, 1893.

: Redlands Electric Light & Power Co. incorporates to build a hydroelectric plant at Mill Creek. Backed by General Electric Co., Almarian Decker builds the revolutionary Ty 3-phase AC generator, which can operate self-synchronizing motors without constant attention. The two generators go online on Sept. 7, 1893. 1896 : Southern California Power Co. acquires the rights to the upper Santa Ana River and builds the Santa Ana No. 1 power station.

: Southern California Power Co. acquires the rights to the upper Santa Ana River and builds the Santa Ana No. 1 power station. 1896 : Southern California Edison Power Co. is formed. H.H. Sinclair is general manager.

: Southern California Edison Power Co. is formed. H.H. Sinclair is general manager. After September 1893: Harry Harbison Sinclair formed the Southern California Light and Power Co. to build the Santa Ana power plant. This later merged with Redlands Light and Power to become Southern California Edison, of which Sinclair was general manager.

He recommended the site for the Hoover Dam some 20 years before it was feasible to build it. He became world famous for twice winning the Trans-Pacific sailing race from San Pedro to Honolulu with his yacht Lurline. In 1904, he took his family on a seven-month cruise of the South Pacific in an all-sail two-masted schooner.

In recognition of his Mill Creek achievement, the Edison Co. placed a bronze tablet embedded in solid rock as a monument to him on a knoll west of the Mill Creek No. 1 powerhouse plant.

Henry Fisher electrified Redlands trolley system, sold it and became a major stockholder in Southern California Edison.
Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray hosted a Seat at the Table discussion that featured three Ukrainian students from Middlebury College.
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Tim Stevenson is a community organizer with Post Oil Solutions from Athens, and author of Resilience and Resistance: Building Sustainable Communities for a Post Oil Age (2015, Green Writers Press). The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.
AP PhotoFILE - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, left, talks with Botswana's Health Minister Joy Phumaphi, in Gaborone on on Dec. 11, 2000, where Albright announced a U.S. government donation of 200 trailers to be used as HIV counseling centers across Botswana. Phumaphi holds a symbolic key with an attached AIDS ribbon. Albright has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Obed Zilwa, File)
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TORRINGTON  The states inspector general is investigating after an officer shot an individual while responding to a well-being check at a local home Wednesday, officials said on Thursday.

Inspector General Robert Devlin said in a brief statement on Thursday that his office is investigating the incident, adding that further information will be provided in the near future.
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TORRINGTON  A man was sent to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after a Torrington Police officer shot him, according to the police department.

Torrington Police were called to a home on Tioga Street for a well-being check around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Upon arrival, a man confronted an officer and the officer was forced to fire his service weapon, Torrington Police Detective Kevin Tieman said Wednesday night.
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The determination has no immediate legal impact, but it has important implications, Zachary Abuza says.

Unidentified men carry knives and slingshots as they walk past a burning house in Gawdu Tharya village near Maungdaw in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar, Sept. 7, 2017.

On 21 March 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a formal determination that Myanmars military committed genocide against the Rohingya population in 2017. He described the attacks as widespread and systematic, with a clear and premeditated intention to destroy the Rohingya population. This went beyond the U.S. governments previous findings that the military had committed ethnic cleansing in the process of driving over 740,000 Rohingya across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

The determination comes five years after the fact, in a case that was broadcast in real time, and documented by human rights observers who were able to use commercial satellite imagery to prove that entire villages had been razed. Interviews of refugee women found so much rape and gang rape that it could only have been official government policy.

The determination has no immediate legal impact on Myanmars military, which in February 2021 staged a coup detat and ousted the democratically elected government that a few months before had shielded the military, defending its actions before the International Court of Justice.

But the designation does have other important policy ramifications.

Does it obligate the United States to do anything?

In a legal sense, the designation is nothing more than symbolic, which begs the question why it could not have been made sooner. It does not commit the United States to do anything, including increasing aid and support for third country resettlement of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The United States will provide the original ICJ plaintiff, The Gambia, an additional $1 million to continue their lawsuit. More importantly, it will provide The Gambia with the documents and evidence that it used to make the determination, which could be important if they then move to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.

The designation comes just over a year into the Biden administration, which wants to draw a clear distinction from its predecessor and reinforce the governments commitment to human rights and democratic values.

Myanmars military junta has been in power now for almost 14 months. In that period, they have killed over 1,700 people and arrested 13,000. The army has waged an all-out war against its population, razing thousands of homes.

As Blinken noted: Since the coup, we have seen the Burmese military use many of the same tactics. Only now the military is targeting anyone in Burma it sees as opposing or undermining its repressive rule.

Coming on the heels of Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine, the genocide declaration signals a change in the U.S. resolve to stand up to aggressive authoritarian regimes. Not imposing costs early on only emboldens further aggression.

The Tatmadaw got away with genocide in 2017 with nothing more than diplomatic opprobrium, which emboldened it to stage the coup detat in February 2021. Likewise, the Russian invasion of Crimea in the Donbas in 2014 went unanswered, and emboldened President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in 2022.

Myanmar soldiers walk down a street during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Feb. 28, 2021. Credit: Reuters What does it mean for the Rohingya?

For the Rohingya, it is a validation, and an important acknowledgement of the wrongs committed against them. It will increase expectations that perpetrators will eventually be held accountable. This has to be a real morale boost for the beleaguered population.

The designation doesnt have any immediate impact on the more than 900,000 refugees living in Bangladesh. But it does pave a way for them to assert their rights to return home when conditions allow them to return with safety and legal protections.

Obviously the ruling matters for Bangladesh, which seeks the soonest possible repatriation of the refugees.

Will it influence the international community?

The designation could help usher in a necessary new wave of sanctions on Myanmars junta. While U.S. sanctions against Naypyidaw thus far have been more encompassing than anyone elses, they have not put sufficient pressure on the military. A new round of sanctions could target the banking system, more cronies of the military leadership, and the Ministry of Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Notably, Blinken referenced an arms ban twice in his speech, though it is unlikely that China or Russia would allow the U.N. Security Council to impose one. Perhaps, it will help galvanize support for a ban on jet fuel.

The designation is perhaps an opportunity to pull Japan, Australia, Singapore, and South Korea all of whom who were quick to sanction Russia, but have resisted sanctioning Myanmar  on board. It also creates a moral imperative for corporations to cut their business ties to Myanmar, in general, and with military-backed corporations, in particular. Shareholders may turn a blind eye to a forcible change in government; genocide is a whole other matter.

The designation is also an important gesture to Indonesia and Malaysia, who both led ASEANs condemnation of the junta and took in substantial numbers of refugees. The plight of the Rohingya is an issue the public in both countries cares about.

Both Jakarta and Putrajaya continue to condemn the juntas failure to implement the Five Point Consensus, ASEANs road map for restoring democracy in Myanmar. The genocide designation gives them and other like-minded states another tool to prevent Cambodia from using its position as the groups chair to fully embrace the junta.

Fleeing persecution in Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims carry their young children and belongings after crossing the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, Nov. 1, 2017. Credit: AP What does it mean for Myanmar?

The designation does have some impact on the worsening quagmire in Myanmar.

First, its important to note the difference in positions on the U.S. designation: one by a responsible stakeholder, the other by a pariah.

The opposition National Unity Government welcomed the designation and reiterated its policy on the Rohingya, committing itself to the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return of the Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons, and to comprehensive legislative and policy reform in support of citizenship, equality in rights and opportunity, and justice and reparations.

This reinforces the NUGs commitment to establishing a federal democracy and further legitimizes them. The NUG had previously dropped its objection to the ICJ case moving forward and pledged cooperation with the court.

Unsurprisingly, the juntas statement was dismissive, a blanket denial of any genocidal actions that accused the United States of interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. They remain impervious to international criticism.

But does it have any bearing in terms of an off-ramp for the conflict?

On the one hand, it will convince Min Aung Hlaing and the other junta leaders that they need to prevail to escape accountability. Things just got more existential for them and they are likely to escalate the violence.

More importantly, they will message this through the ranks, in order to stave off more defections from their depleting forces: we hang together, or we hang separately.

On the other hand, it could convince more officers to cut their losses and defect. The costs of being tied to a regime that is committing atrocities against an unarmed civilian population, while decimating the economy, is already causing plummeting morale and defections. The U.S. determination could help in that calculus. If the officers are looking for yet one more reason to sever ties to the senior military leadership, this could be it, even if they themselves willingly participated in and supported the operation against the Rohingya.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or BenarNews.
Beijing backs Moscow but Indonesia, this years G-20 president, says the forum should focus on economic issues.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sits in front of a screen displaying Chinese President Xi Jinping as he attends a G-20 summit via a video link at his residence outside Moscow, Oct. 31, 2021.

President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the G-20 summit in Bali in October, Russias ambassador to Indonesia said Wednesday, amid reports of attempts by Western governments to oust Moscow from the group over its invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing meanwhile backed Moscow on the matter, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying that no member of the Group of Twenty leading economies had the right to strip another of its membership.

Putins attendance at the G-20 summit in Bali would depend on many things, including the COVID situation that is getting better, Russian Ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva said.

So far, his intention is, he wants to come [to the G-20 summit], she told a news conference in Jakarta, when asked about the prospect of Russia being booted from the group.

The envoy acknowledged that many international organizations are trying to expel Russia, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), and said the Wests reaction to its invasion of Ukraine was disproportionate.

Vorobieva said the G-20 was not the right platform to discuss the conflict in Ukraine.

The expulsion of Russia from this kind of economic forum will not help economic problems to be resolved. On the contrary, without Russia, it would be difficult to do so, she said.

We really hope that the Indonesian government will not give in to  pressure that is being applied not only to Indonesia but also so many countries in the world by the West, she added.

Ukraine earlier this month urged Indonesia, this years president of the G-20, to include discussions on the invasion during the upcoming summit in Bali.

But Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for Indonesias Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Indonesias stance was that the G-20 forum should focus on global economic issues.

The G-20 was formed as a premier forum for economic issues, he told BenarNews last week.

Vorobievas made her remarks a day after the top U.S. national security official indicated that Washington would lead an effort to put pressure on Russia to be excluded from international forums over its invasion of Ukraine.

On the question of the G-20, I will just say this: We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.

As for particular institutions and particular decisions, wed like to consult with our allies, consult with our partners in those institutions before making any further pronouncements, he said.

In March 2014, the United States and other powers indefinitely suspended Russias membership in the G-8 after Moscow annexed Crimea; In 2017, Russia permanently withdrew from the grouping.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden was heading to Brussels to participate in the summits of NATO, the G-7 and the European Union where he plans to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to Ukraine for as long as it takes, Sullivan said.

He also said Biden would consult with NATO on Chinas ties to Russia and the question of Beijings potential participation in the conflict in Ukraine.

The administration is worried Beijing will provide economic or military help to Moscow, Sullivan said.

Protesters display the flags of Russia and Ukraine during an anti-war demonstration in front of the Russian embassy in Jakarta to call on Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine, March 4, 2022. Credit: AFP True multilateralism

China, meanwhile on Wednesday, claimed that Russia could not be kicked out of the G-20.

The G-20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. It brings together major economies in the world, including Russia, which is an important member of the group, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

No member has the right to strip another member of its membership.  [The G-20] should practice true multilateralism 

For its part, Indonesia had voted for a U.N. General Assembly resolution that condemned Moscows military strike on Ukraine. But, at the same time, Jakarta has not directly criticized Russia or used the word invasion.

After Moscow launched the invasion on Feb. 24, President Joko Jokowi Widodo posted on Twitter  without referring to Russia or Ukraine: Stop the war. War brings misery to mankind and puts the whole world at risk.

Hikmahanto Juwana, a professor in international law at the University of Indonesia, said Western members of the G-20 may boycott the Bali summit if Putin attends.

[T]hey definitely dont want to be there if Russia attends. Australia just said they wont attend if Russia does, Hikmahanto told BenarNews.

The absence of other member countries will undermine Indonesias credibility, he said.

According to Hikmahanto, Russias expressed intention to attend the summit was intended to forestall American participation.

Now Russia is playing chess, making such a statement so that America wont attend. This spells failure for the G-20, he said.

Teuku Rezasyah, a lecturer in international relations at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, said Putin should be allowed to attend the summit, even it means risking a boycott.

Everyone wants to hear what Putin has to say because right now he is the center of global attention, he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Authorities in China have launched a mass training program for censors to erase non-government religious content from China's tightly controlled internet.



According to a March 21 directive published by the Zhejiang provincial ethnic and religious affairs commission, online training sessions will begin for would-be "religious content reviewers," including sessions on religious policy and regulation under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).



Protestant pastor Liu Yi, who now lives in California, worked for many years at a church in Zhejiang, and said the new policy is an extension of already-stringent controls on all forms of religious activity in China.



"In the early days of the CCP regime, there were [religious affairs] officials in both Protestant and Catholic churches, monitoring the preaching and Bible study carried out by the pastors [and priests]," Liu told RFA.



"They would report the church to the authorities if they found any so-called anti-socialist content," he said. "This kind of spying has always existed among religious groups in China [under the CCP]."



An Xuanxuan, an official who answered the phone at the Zhejiang religious affairs commission on Tuesday, said the provincial government is recruiting people to monitor all kinds of religious content, including Christian and Islamic content.



"Any religious information service or religious website has to be licensed and [its staff] trained," An told RFA.



The online training has been launched to avoid face-to-face contact during the COVID-19 pandemic.



According to Liu, the authorities are now extending their control over religious content online, as churches and other religious organizations have increasingly moved online during the pandemic.



"Anyone can post to social media, so that's why the government needs these people, to supervise that," he said. "They want them to monitor and report back on any religious activities online."



New set of rules



The move comes after a new set of rules governing online religious content took effect from March 1, 2022.



Under the rules, no individual or organization is allowed to set up religious groups online, or carrying out religious schooling or ceremonies online, nor to recruit new followers.



Foreign organizations and individuals are also banned from publishing religious content on China's internet.



"This is mainly aimed at the activities of some individuals and of unofficial churches," Liu said. "It is putting further pressure on the ability of people to preach online."



He said only Protestant churches that join the CCP's official Three-Self Patriotic Church body may publish any kind of content online.



The training program in Zhejiang said it is seeking religious studies graduates, clerical personnel, religious studies researchers in institutes and other trainees with similar experience.



While courses have already started, registration will be ongoing, with new students permitted to start at any time.



Liu said the program isn't confined to Zhejiang, however.



"The training and testing of online religious content reviewers isn't just happening in Zhejiang; it's happening nationwide as well," he said.



So far, similar advertisements have been seen on official websites for authorities in Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shanghai, Yunnan, Shandong, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guangdong, Anhui and Tianjin.



The announcement in Tianjin dated March 7 says the course in that city will also include modules on the political thought of CCP general secretary Xi Jinping on "socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era," "socialist core values," and "important remarks from general secretary Xi Jinping on religion," as well as the relevant laws and regulations.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The security agreement, if approved, would be eyed with concern by the United States and Australia.

Children fish at a beach in central Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, in file photo taken Sept. 14, 2012.

The Solomon Islands and China are considering a security pact allowing Beijing to set up military bases and deploy troops in the Pacific island nation. The reported move drew immediate concern Thursday from close U.S. ally Australia.

Honiara has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration, a Solomon Islands government official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying Thursday.

A leaked draft security cooperation agreement circulated on social media and later confirmed by Australian media as authentic says China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands.

This suggests there would be Chinese logistical hubs or bases in the island nation, which occupies a remote but strategic location in the western Pacific, about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the northeastern coast of Australia.

The draft also says relevant forces of China can be used to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands, referring to the deployment of Chinese troops.

This security agreement, if approved, would be eyed with concern by the United States, which has been making efforts to reconnect with the Pacific and to counter Chinas rising influence in the region.

Analysts say a presence of Chinese troops in the Solomon Islands could raise the risk of confrontation between China and the U.S. and its allies, as well as challenge the U.S.-led vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

Australia, which is a U.S. treaty ally and has its own concerns about Chinas rising military clout, was quick to express its misgivings about the planned agreement.

That is our backyard, this is our neighbourhood and we are very concerned of any activity that is taking place in the Pacific Islands, Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews was quoted as saying by ABC.

Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank, said: This is a very serious development in Australia's defense and national security - the very real prospect of a Chinese military presence close to Australia.

If approved by the Solomon Islands cabinet it would also be the first time the Chinese military has an operational presence in the Pacific region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping talks to Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (not pictured) during their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, October 9, 2019. Credit: Reuters Grim prospect

This is pretty grim, said John Blaxland, professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the Australian National University.

I presume the Australian government is formulating a response, he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February made a week-long trip to the Indo-Pacific in an effort to elevate American engagement with the remote Pacific islands  described by one analyst as ground zero for U.S.-China strategic competition.

During the trip, the U.S. top diplomat said his country was looking to reopen an embassy in the Solomon Islands to reaffirm the U.S. strategic interest in the region.

Washington closed its embassy in Honiara in 1993.

President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said in January that the United States has enormous moral, strategic, historical interests in the Pacific but had not done enough to assist the region.

In recent years, China has been actively developing closer ties with the Pacific islands, wooing them with infrastructure loans and economic assistance, as well as military exchanges.

The Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019  a move to please Beijing, which seeks to diminish the international diplomatic recognition of the government in Taiwan.

The Pacific Islands have of late become a ground zero for the strategic competition between China on one side and the U.S., Australia, and to a lesser extent, Japan, on the other, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense institute based in Hawaii.
A police officer directs traffic near a billboard that reads in Chinese "Study Communist Party history, understand its theories, do practical work, and make new advances" in Nyingchi in western China's Tibet Autonomous Region, as seen during a rare government-led tour of the region for foreign journalists, Friday, June 4, 2021.

The United Nations human rights chief must include Tibet on the itinerary of her planned trip to China in May, human rights groups told RFA.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet announced earlier this month that she had come to an agreement with the Chinese government for a visit foreseen to take place in May.

Though Xinjiang is expected to be a major focus of her trip, as the U.N. seeks to complete an overdue report on serious rights violations by Chinese authorities targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities there, rights groups told RFA that Bachelet, a former Chilean president, should not overlook Tibet.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago. Chinese policies that violate Tibetans rights to religious freedom and assembly and have made a push to ban Tibetan language learning to promote Mandarin Chinese dominance there, rights groups say.

We welcome the U.N. high commissioners visit to China, including Xinjiang. However, no assessment of human rights violations by China can be completed without a visit to the Tibetan regions, Kalden Tsomo, the UN Advocacy Officer in the Tibet Bureau in Geneva, told RFAs Tibetan Service Wednesday.

In order to understand the reality of whats happening inside Tibet, we urge the UN Human Rights Council to press China to give unfettered access to Tibetan regions for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights during the visit to China and regions under its control, she said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the high commissioner has been worryingly quiet regarding Tibet.

I think the same problem will apply to Tibetan areas as to the Uyghur regions, meaning that she is incredibly unlikely to be able to travel freely or to be able to talk to people freely without fear of reprisal, said Sophie Richardson, the groups China director.

Access to Tibet is a sore point with not only the U.N., but also the U.S. and other Western countries.

China in 2021 systematically impeded travel to Tibet and other areas within China for U.S. diplomats and officials, journalists, and tourists in 2021, the U.S. State Department said in a report submitted to congress last week.

The United States remains concerned that PRC authorities systematically impeded travel to Tibetan areas of the PRC for American citizens, including Tibetan Americans who seek to visit their families, a State Department spokesperson told RFA.

Under the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, signed into law in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, Washington has applied visa restrictions on Chinese officials who have restricted access of foreigners to Tibet.

Washington has long complained that Chinese diplomats, scholars, and journalists enjoy unrestricted travel in the United States, while China tightly restricts the access of U.S. counterparts to Tibet and other areas.

Translated by Tenzin Dyicki. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
"Ukraine Uncle" is the nickname used by a Chinese national living in Kyiv whose short video clips and tweets from the front line of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have garnered him more than 35,000 followers on Twitter. He has posted close-up clips of his local coffee-shop, poignant glimpses of Ukrainians carrying on with their lives, and before-and-after shots of shelled buildings. He spoke to RFA's Mandarin Service recently about the war, and why he stays on in Kyiv:



RFA: So whereabouts in Kyiv are you?



Ukraine Uncle: Right in the downtown area.



RFA: Is that in the center of the city, or near the edge?



Ukraine Uncle: If the center is the Dnieper, I am farther from the river bank, farther from the city center.



RFA: What's the situation in Kyiv now? We see that the Russian convoys are all on the edge of the city, but they don't seem to have moved into it, is that right?



Ukraine Uncle: The only thing the Russians can really do is shell us. But in the northwest corner of Kyiv, more than 200 people were reported dead , so I guess the shelling over there is more serious. I don't think it is very likely that Russia will move into Kyiv [with ground forces] because they are too few in number. They only have about 70,000 or 80,000 Russian troops to take a city as big as Kyiv. They would need at least 500,000 or 600,000 or even a million troops for a ground attack.



RFA: We have seen heroic resistance from the Ukrainians throughout this war. What's your understanding of their behavior?



Ukraine Uncle: Actually, I liked it here in Ukraine very much, as soon as I got here. I felt as if they had gotten rid of the overdependence on the government that they had during the communist era. The people here are like wild animals in their natural habitat, as opposed to caged bunnies and kittens like they are back home. They yearn for freedom, and have a strong ability to self-govern. After I got here, I saw that the subway here is not managed at all, there are no safety measures, nor any security checks, and you can go in casually. My roommate said that in thirty years, there has never been a major criminal or terrorist incident. This shows that these people can live freely and peacefully without any supervision, with very good public order. Putin has claimed that there are some pro-Russian forces in Ukraine who want to return to the era of the Soviet Union, but there are none.



RFA: Besides you, are there any other Chinese people around?



Ukraine Uncle: I haven't met any other Chinese people, and I haven't contacted any. I guess most of them are leaving.



RFA: Is there anyone at the Chinese embassy?



Ukraine Uncle: To be honest, I don't even know where the embassy is. They can't offer much in the way of help, anyway. I called them, and they told me to leave under my own steam by train. I thought, what's the point in that? I can leave if I want to. A lot of friends of mine have managed to find transportation out to the western part of the country. If I wanted to leave, I could just ask them about it.



RFA: Have you got normal supplies of water and power, and an internet connection?



Ukraine Uncle: Everything is normal, including heating and so on. It's fine. There are bread, milk, eggs, etc. in the supermarket, all of which are normal. In the mailbox, it seems that our bills for property fees are still being produced, which shows that enterprises are still operating normally.



RFA: How are the prices over there now. How much do you pay for a cup of coffee?



Ukraine Uncle: Exactly the same as before the war.



RFA: How much is a cup?



Ukraine Uncle: In general, an Americano coffee costs 25 or 6 hryvnia [around U.S.$0.88].



"Ukraine Uncle" shares close-up clips of his local coffee-shop, poignant glimpses of Ukrainians carrying on with their lives, and before-and-after shots of shelled buildings on his Twitter page. RFA: How do regular people there see the war?



Ukraine Uncle: Most Ukrainians are pretty well-educated, and they must be very angry with Russia's attack. Especially in places like Mariupol, those cities in the east, where the shelling and bombing has been was really bad, just terrible. They think Putin is unreasonable and crazy, and there is no benefit in attacking them. We think he may be trying to consolidate his own grip on power. His military operations in Georgia and Syria may have gone a bit more smoothly than here, which probably contributed to his delusions. I think he never imagined he'd meet with this kind of resistance from Ukraine.



RFA: The Polish Prime Minister said a few days ago that if Ukraine falls, Europe will no longer be Europe. What's your view of this remark?



Ukraine Uncle: So far, Ukraine has gone all out to show its determination to defend its freedoms. So if [Western nations] don't help them and let them fall, it will strike a massive blow at the heart of European values. Personally, I am still grateful for the help of Europe and the U.S. They have done the right thing so far. They decided not to get involved in the war, and I think they must have good intelligence that Ukraine can handle it.



RFA: But Putin seems to be taking a hard line, saying that Russia will never back down.



Ukraine Uncle: Putin has no choice. Personally, I think it's well-nigh impossible for him to retreat, because retreat is equal to failure, and that would the end of him. However, I am also disappointed by those people in Russia who still swallow government propaganda, despite having open internet access. This is so strange to me. China is locked in behind the Great Firewall, but the Russian internet works normally.



RFA: What about the future?



Ukraine Uncle: I want it to end as soon as possible.



RFA: Do you think it will?



Ukraine Uncle: I may be forced to retreat if the shelling gets really bad, as soon as a humanitarian corridor opens up.



RFA: Have you ever been shelled?



Ukraine Uncle: I've heard the shelling, but I don't think it's happened in my neighborhood. I reckon it happened about one kilometer away.



RFA: Why haven't you left yet? Aren't you afraid?



Ukraine Uncle: Right now my assessment, my personal judgment, is that the probability of death isn't very high. Then there's the fact that the people around me, including the Ukrainians who live alongside me, are still here.



RFA: How many civilians are there in Kyiv right now?



Ukraine Uncle: According to media reports, there are about two million people still in Kyiv, that is, about half the population. But probably less than half in the area where I live. I estimate maybe a quarter.



RFA: You said about a quarter of them are still there. Why don't they leave?



Ukraine Uncle: Probably not even that many. I have interviewed a lot of people.



RFA: What did they say?



Ukraine Uncle: So, when I needed to get my watch fixed, I asked the repairer [why they didn't leave yet], and when I needed a haircut, I asked the barber. Everyone started out by saying it was not an option. But what if the Russians attack, I said? And they said, I'm not leaving even if they do. I mostly asked people aged between 30 and 50, and they all said they didn't want to leave. I don't want to leave either.



RFA: They feel that their fate is tied up with the city, right?



Ukraine Uncle: Oh, it's not quite as noble as that. But ... they're not panicking. Sometimes there are a lot of people buying stuff in the supermarkets, and there are controls on how many can go in, which means there are long lines, with everyone queuing up outside.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
More than 1,200 families in Oudomxay province will be forced to move to make way for the project.

Fishermen cast their nets on the Mekong River near the town of Luang Prabang close to the site of an approved hydropower dam site in northern Laos, Feb. 8, 2020.

Villagers in two northern provinces of Laos who will be displaced by the Luang Prabang Dam along the Mekong River want more compensation than is being offered by local authorities and the project developer.

The U.S. $3 billion, 1,460-megawatt dam will be built by Thailands Xayaburi Power Company Ltd. and Vietnams PetroVietnam Power Corp. The project is being financed by the Luang Prabang Power Company Ltd., a consortium of the Thai and Vietnamese power companies and the Lao government.

Dam construction was planned to begin in 2020 and end in 2027, but the developer is assessing how the project will affect the nearby town of Luang Prabang, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The hydropower project will be one of several cascading dams built on the Mekong, as the Lao government pursues its controversial economic plan to become the battery of Southeast Asia, exporting electricity from more than 50 large and small-scale dams on the river and its tributaries.

Power purchase agreements for the sale of electricity generated by the Luang Prabang Dam to Thailand and Vietnam have yet to be signed.

In the meantime, residents of Nga district in Oudomxay province and Chomphet district in Luang Prabang province say authorities are shortchanging them for the land and other property they would lose to the project.

Oudomxay officials offered 100 million kip (U.S. $8,500) per hectare of farmland to locals, said a Nga district resident, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

The offer is less than what we are fighting for, and the new homes [offered] would be worth less than our current homes are, he told RFA on Monday. That has been the disagreement between the authorities and us, the villagers, for some time now.

Another villager in the district who will lose his farmland to the project said that he and others have demanded 150 million kip (U.S $12,800) per hectare.

So far, the dam developer and the authorities havent responded to our demand, he said. If the demand is not met, then we wont give up our land to the project.

Oudomxay province Governor Bounkhong Lachiemphone held a meeting on March 14 with the chiefs from 12 villages to be affected by the project and those responsible for compensating and relocating people displaced by the Luang Prabang project.

The dam developer said the project would flood a dozen villages on the bank of the Mekong River in Nga district, including Lath Han, Khok Phou, Yoiyai and Phonsavang villages, and that 1,263 households would need to be relocated.

The governor advised the chiefs to talk with residents about how the dam would help to reduce chronic poverty among villagers.

But a village chief who attended the meeting said that the new homes the project developer has built for villagers forced to move do not have an enclosed ground floor, as do their current homes.

Members of our village are not happy with that, he said. Our people would be poorer, [so] I proposed at last weeks meeting that the authorities and the dam developer enclose the lower level as well.

The village chief also asked that a new Buddhist temple, roads, a school, and power-generating and water facilities be built in the resettlement village.

An official from the provincial Energy and Mines Department said that the current compensation rate stands. The government is now waiting for the dam developer to clear the land for the resettlement village, the official said.

Well be poorer than before

The hydropower dam also will affect residents of Houei Yor village, Chomphet district, in Luang Prabang province.

One villager said residents expected to receive 70 million-100 million kip per hectare of farmland, depending on how far the land is from the main road.

Most of us are not pleased with the offers, and were demanding higher compensation between 130 million-150 million kip per hectare, he said on Tuesday.

An official from the provinces Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA on Jan. 19 that authorities already had established the location for the two resettlement villages and were looking for agricultural land that the displaced villagers could work.

Farmland in this area is scarce because its mountainous, he said. We might be able to provide only 0.7 hectare of land instead of one hectare for each family.

A resident who will lose his rice field to the project said that amount of land is not enough to raise goats, pigs and cows or to grow papaya and banana.

Another villager said he is worried about having enough food to eat.

Well get less land, so well produce less food, he said. Well be poorer than before.

The projects potential impact on the cultural history of the region is another potential complication.

The dam will sit about 16 miles north of the city of Luang Prabang, the once royal capital of Laos that lies in a valley at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Known for its Buddhist temples, including one that dates to the 16th century, the town of roughly 60,000 people was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

An official at the World Heritage Site Department in the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism said that the dam developer must do a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) as required by UNESCO, the U.N. education, scientific and cultural organization.

Were also required to report the findings of the HIA to UNESCO, the official said. We want to make sure that the town of Luang Prabang will not lose its status as a World Heritage Site.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An in-depth legal analysis of the events recommends the junta be tried in an international court.

Family members of a protester killed during a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations against the military coup escort their body outside a morgue as mourners hold up the three finger salute at Thingangyun Hospital in Yangon, March 15, 2021.

In the six months after seizing power in a coup, Myanmars military regime committed widespread and systematic crimes against humanity, according to a damning new report that identified dozens of junta officials it said should be investigated for their alleged roles in the atrocities.

The 193-page report, entitled "Nowhere is Safe" and published Wednesday by the Southeast Asian rights group Fortify Rights and the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School, draws on more than 120 testimonies and leaked documents to detail how the junta murdered, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, forcibly displaced, and persecuted civilians for months following its Feb. 1, 2021 putsch.

The report provides some of the most in-depth legal analysis of the atrocities in the aftermath of the coup to date and asserts that they meet the standard required by The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant. It comes a week after a U.N. report concluded that the Myanmar army was responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The junta has yet to respond, but has previously dismissed such accusations as foreign interference based on falsehoods.

In a statement accompanying its release, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews said that Fortify Rights and the Schell Center had compiled key evidence that could one day be used to deliver justice to the juntas victims.

Published just days prior to the first anniversary of the Armed Forces Day Massacre, this report provides the international community a better understanding of the juntas crimes, the individuals responsible, and their battalions locations in relation to attacks, said Andrews, Robina Senior Fellow at the Schell Center, and author of the foreword to the report.

This pivotal report on the juntas horrendous crimes can help guide efforts to ensure accountability, he added, calling on United Nations member states to ensure accountability for these ongoing atrocities.

On March 27, 2021, Myanmar's security forces killed more than 100 pro-democracy protesters in the bloodiest day since the coup, as the junta staged a show of might on its annual Armed Forces Day. In the nearly 14 months since seizing power, authorities have killed at least 1,700 civilians and arrested more than 9,870  mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights organization based in Thailand.

Myanmar's military ruler Min Aung Hlaing presides over an army parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2021. Reuters Officials identified

In their report, Fortify Rights and the Schell Center identified 61 senior military and police officials they said are potentially liable for crimes against humanity, including junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, Deputy Commander in Chief Vice Senior General Soe Win, and the Joint Chief of Staff General Mya Tun Oo. The men are also responsible for what the U.S. Biden administration on Monday determined to be genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017.

Other military and police suspects identified in the report are 19 Regional Commanders of the Police Force, 13 Regional Commanders from the military, and 27 other senior officials from the junta.

Only 20 of the 61 officials have been sanctioned by at least one government, according to Fortify Rights and the Schell Center.

All individuals responsible for these crimes should be sanctioned and prosecuted, said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights and co-author of the report.

Governments should revamp and calibrate their foreign policies to support the people of Myanmar in ending the militarys attack. Governments should acknowledge the [shadow] National Unity Government of Myanmar, end weapons transfers to the military, and create conditions to ensure international jurisdiction over these crimes.

The report also provides new details of the juntas chain of command during the crackdown, including Min Aung Hlaings establishment of a Special Command in Naypyidaw, led by four senior generals, that had sole authority to deploy and command troops in civilian areas.

Active-duty military personnel critical of junta rule helped Fortify Rights and the Schell Center to establish the locations of 1,040 military units nationwide in their report, which could be used by prosecutors and policymakers geo-locate alleged perpetrators vis-a-vis crime scenes throughout the country.

In addition to collecting testimonies, Fortify Rights collected 1,153 data points of open-source information about specific incidents of human rights violations uploaded by Myanmar citizens.

A policeman points his weapon at people amid a crackdown on anti-junta protesters in Shan state's Taunggyi city, Feb. 28, 2021. Credit: AFP Call for global response

In its examination of the evidence, the Schell Center found that from February to July 2021, forces under the juntas command conducted a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population with knowledge of the broader attack. Based on its findings, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the junta committed crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute, the international treaty that led to the establishment of the ICC.

Among 28 recommendations made in their report, Fortify Rights and the Schell Center called on governments to ensure international justice for past and ongoing atrocity crimes Myanmar and to push the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation there to the ICC.

The report also urged U.N. Security Council member states to support a resolution to impose a global arms embargo on the Myanmar military  a recommendation U.N. Special Rapporteur Andrews made to the council in a report last month, saying that weapons purchased by the junta are almost certainly being used to kill innocent people.

Additionally, the report said governments should impose targeted sanctions against military-owned enterprises and block the juntas access to natural gas revenues and access to financial services.

The Myanmar military poses a threat to international peace and security, said Roger Polack, Schell Center Visiting Human Rights Fellow and co-author of the report.

The Security Council must live up to its mandate to respond to such threatsand must discharge its responsibility to protectby putting forward a resolution that imposes the recommendations in this report.

Polack said that absent action by the council, its member states should coordinate a similar response.

Without a concerted effort to stop ongoing atrocities and to hold the junta accountable for the crimes it has committed to date, the junta will undoubtedly continue to persecute its opponents, murder civilians, and devastate the social, health, and economic well-being of Myanmar, he said.
The proposal before the cabinet would prohibit non-profit groups from actions affecting national security.

Two U.S. lawmakers are urging Thailand to drop provisions of a draft bill restricting NGOs, saying it would harm civil society and negatively impact the delivery of humanitarian assistance to neighboring Myanmar.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-chas government is seeking to pass a controversial bill regulating not-for-profit organizations in Thailand, including prohibiting groups from engaging in all activities that he says could be detrimental to national security or social harmony.

Local and international NGOs have opposed it, saying it threatens civil society work and hampers free speech.

In their letters to the Thai and U.S. governments, Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Sen. Jeffrey A. Merkley of Oregon said the draft, if enacted, will represent one of the most restrictive NGO laws in Asia and will have an irreversible effect on civil society in Thailand.

They urged the Thai government to revoke harmful provisions of the draft, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

The legislation also threatens to eliminate what could soon be the last available place for Burmese civil society organizations to operate, Markey and Merkley said.

We, therefore, call for an urgent, coordinated, whole-of-government approach to pressure the Thai government to drop all consideration of this dangerous law, the senators said in their letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and USAID Administrator Samantha Power.

In January, Prayuths cabinet approved the draft bill in principle.

A government ministry then launched a public survey of the bill as required by the constitution. That survey ends this week and the bill will be returned to the cabinet before being forwarded to the parliament for deliberation.

The survey shows 70 percent of the respondents favor the bill. However, most of them are government agencies-related people. NGOs are not supporting this draft law, Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, a Thai parliamentarian with the progressive Move Forward Party, told BenarNews on Wednesday.

Nattacha said the parliaments house committee on political development, mass media and civil participation, which he chairs, had invited relevant ministries and officials in November to answer concerns about how the bill would affect freedom and rights.

The Office of Council of State said it aims to counter money-laundering  but we recommended that they use the existing anti-money laundering act and not issue a blanket law like that, Nattacha said.

The foreign ministry admitted that many countries had expressed concerns regarding this bill, he said. But the government still failed to convince us why this law is needed.

Thai authorities did not respond immediately to BenarNews request for comment. Previously, government officials had said the new bill would make NGOs more transparent.

Tight leash on NGOs

According to the draft bill viewed by BenarNews, NGOs are prohibited from operating in ways that affect the governments security, affect economic security, or relations between countries, affect public order, or peoples good morals, or cause divisions within society, affect the public interest, including public safety, or affect the happy, normal existence of other persons.

Critics said those terms could be interpreted to mean any activity by any organization. Close to 1,870 NGOs issued a statement earlier this year opposing the draft, saying the administration is trying to regulate their charity work.

The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law said the draft contains heavy-handed provisions to control the NGOs activities and threatens to violate numerous aspects of international law.

The bill would regulate not only NGOs based in the country but others including from Myanmar. A military coup last year forced many organizations and activists to flee the country and take refuge in Thailand.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the draft would have a severe negative impact on efforts to support vulnerable communities in Thailand, including thousands fleeing Myanmar.

In the hands of Prime Minister Prayuth and his quasi-military government, this law would amount to Armageddon for civil society groups and NGOs who stand up for human rights, political reform, anti-human trafficking and protection of the rights and interests of the most vulnerable groups in society, he told BenarNews on Wednesday.

The two U.S. senators also called on the governments in Washington and Bangkok to do more to address the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and offer support to those fleeing violence.

Cross-border assistance provides a critical lifeline for these vulnerable populations, and we urge your government to work with the international community to allow for its increased flow from Thailand into Burma, including in areas not controlled by the regimes military, they wrote to Don Pramudwinai, Thailands deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

The Thai government should also allow unimpeded humanitarian access for civil society groups and the United Nations to visit the refugees in Thailand, Markey and Merkley said, adding Bangkok should use its voice as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] to press for a resolution in Myanmar.

No more critical NGOs

Bangkok political activist Sombat Boonngamanong said the draft bill results from Prayuths discontent with NGOs frequent criticism of him.

The goal of the new draft law is to take control of the NGOs. If it is enacted, there will only be government-friendly NGOs left, Sombat, president of the Mirror Foundation, an NGO based in northern Thailand, told BenarNews.

There will be no more critical NGOs to help improve the country or offer critical views of the government.

Robertson said the passage of the law would usher in a massive, systematic crackdown on freedom of association, expression and other core civil and political rights in a way that weve not seen in Thailand in decades.

He said even those who are not forced to cease operations would have to operate in fear, as one complaint, one issue, or one tweet could start an investigation to shut them down.

The U.S. senators are right to assess this draft law as a potential game-changer that could alter the political, economic and social development landscape of Thailand for the worse, he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Dung made online videos on politics and social issues, violating laws the UN has called vague and arbitrary.

Rights activist Le Van Dung (R) live streams on Facebook in a coffee shop in Hanoi, Vietnam in this file photo.

A Vietnamese court on Wednesday sentenced independent journalist and activist Le Van Dung to five years in prison for discussing political and socioeconomic issues in online videos, his lawyer told RFA.

In a trial that lasted a little more than two hours, Dung admitted to making the videos prior to his arrest in June. But his lawyer argued with the prosecutions stance that the videos violated anti-state propaganda laws, specifically Article 88, a controversial law used to target dissidents.

The trial started at 8:30 this morning and ended around 11, one of his lawyers, Dang Dinh Manh, told RFAs Vietnamese Service. The sentence is five years in jail and five years probation. They wanted to stick him with up to six years in jail.

According to Manh, the trial finished quickly because of Dungs admission.

He affirmed that he had exercised the right to free expression, so what he said in the videos were not violations of law, but they said they made a number of violations, such as bewildering the public and offending state agencies or leaders, Manh said.

Manh maintained that he and the other lawyers on the defense argued that what Dung said in the videos is protected under Vietnams constitution, which grants the right to free expression. They also said Article 88 is unconstitutional and violates international agreements signed by Hanoi.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in June said that Article 88, along with the similarly worded Article 117, is too broad and vaguely written, making it impossible to determine which activities are allowed and which are prohibited.

Dungs wife, Bui Thi Hue, was not allowed to attend her husbands trial. Though it had been announced that the trial was public, security forces said she could not get in without proper authorization.

I think my husband is innocent. That five-year verdict, even if it were only five days, it would be very unjustifiable, she told RFA.

Nguyen Van Son received an 18-month suspended sentence from the court for helping Dung hide prior to his arrest.

A day before the trial, New York-based Human Rights Watch in a statement called for Vietnamese authorities to immediately drop what it called the politically motivated charges against Dung.

The Vietnamese penal code provision on propaganda seeks to intimidate people with the threat to shut up or be locked up, the group said.

Independent media is illegal in Vietnam, which ranks 175th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders' 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Russian forces and the remaining Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol continue to fight pitched battles as Moscow's pledge of a three-day daytime cease-fire to allow the evacuation of civilians from the devastated complex appeared in doubt.

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.

"Russian occupiers are focusing on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainian units in the Azovstal area," the Ukrainian Army said in a statement on May 5, 10 weeks into the war. "With the support of aircraft, Russia resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant."

The statement came as a Russian-announced cease-fire was due to begin at the besieged plant, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been trapped for weeks.

Russia had said its forces "will open a humanitarian corridor from 08:00 to 18:00 Moscow time on May 5, 6, and 7 from the site of the Azovstal metallurgical plant to evacuate civilians."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed later on May 5 that that the humanitarian corridors were "functioning," but it was unclear how, given the heavy fighting, and there was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.

From the outset, Russia's announcement, which came after more than 300 people were evacuated from other parts of Mariupol, was met with skepticism, as previous cease-fires failed repeatedly.

Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett raised the humanitarian situation at Azovstal during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 5.

Bennetts office said in a statement following the call that Putin had promised to allow the evacuation of citizens through a UN and Red Cross humanitarian corridor.

In a statement released by the Kremlin, Putin told Bennett that Kyiv must order the fighters holed up in the steel plant to lay down their arms.

With Russian forces bogged down by stubborn Ukrainian resistance along all the eastern front line, a frustrated Kremlin accused the West of preventing a "quick" end to its military invasion by supplying weapons and intelligence to the country.

"The United States, Britain, NATO as a whole hand over intelligence...to Ukraine's armed forces on a permanent basis," Peskov told reporters.

"Coupled with the flow of weapons that these countries are sending to Ukraine, these are all actions that do not contribute to the quick completion of the operation," he said, adding that this was "incapable of hindering the achievement" of the goals of Russia's military operation.

Zelensky, meanwhile, launched a global crowdfunding platform -- United24 -- on May 5 to help Kyiv win the war and rebuild the country's infrastructure.

"Every donation matters for victory," he said in English in a video on his Twitter page.

"In one click, you can donate funds to protect our defenders, to save our civilians, and to rebuild Ukraine," Zelensky said in the video.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the conference raised $6.5 billion for Ukraine.

As the fighting continued, EU President Charles Michel, speaking a day after Brussels announced plans to curb Russian oil imports across the board, said the bloc should confiscate and sell Russian assets it has seized and use the proceeds to rebuild Ukraine, echoing an idea already floated by the United States.

The EU said early last month it had frozen 30 billion euros ($32 billion) in assets linked to blacklisted Russian and Belarusian individuals.

Meanwhile, the United States announced on May 5 that it had seized a $300 million yacht in Fiji belonging to Russian billionaire Suliman Kerimov.

The U.K. announced later in the day that it had sanctioned Evraz, a Russian steel producer whose products are critical for the nations rail industry. Russia is using its rail network to ship weapons and troops to its border with Ukraine.

Marking "another small victory," Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced on May 4 that 344 women, children, and elderly people were evacuated safely from Mariupol.

But her announcement was clouded by a report by the Associated Press that put the death toll of an earlier Russian air strike on a Mariupol theater converted into a shelter at approximately 600 people, doubling previous estimates by Ukrainian officials.

In neighboring Belarus, the armed forces began "surprise" large-scale drills on May 4 to test their combat readiness, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

The British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence bulletin on May 5 that Russia will likely attempt to "inflate the threat" posed by the Belarusian military's exercises with the aim of fixing Ukrainian forces in the Belarusian border area to prevent them from being deployed to the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Minsk has aided Russia's invasion by allowing Belarusian territory to be used to stage the attack.

Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed in an interview with AP on May 5 that he had information showing Ukraine had planned to attack Belarus, without producing any evidence.

Lukashenka has been shunned by the international community since he claimed victory in a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition says was rigged, and unleashed a wave of violence to stifle mass protests afterward.

In Moldova's Moscow-backed separatist region of Transdniester, a television channel reported that shots have been fired near one if its border crossings with Ukraine.

The report on May 5, which comes after several similar alleged incidents in the Moscow-backed Transdniester region since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, could not be independently verified.

Kyiv has warned that Russia wants to destabilize the region to create a pretext for a military intervention in Moldova, which also borders NATO member Romania.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, BBC, and AFP
Russia may be using more than three dozen air bases to launch strikes against Ukraine, including some located in Belarus and Crimea, an examination of satellite imagery shows.



Russia has largely dominated the skies since it launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, destroying Ukrainian civil and military infrastructure with missiles and bombs and dropping paratroopers to secure key territory.



Russia is believed to be flying as many as 200 sorties a day compared with just a handful for Ukraine. Missiles and bombs unleashed by warplanes are among the weapons that have devastated cities and killed hundreds, probably thousands, of civilians.



"Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on March 16, beseeching the United States for more help protecting the country from air attacks.

The United States has made clear it is not prepared to support a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying it would put NATO's forces in potential contact or conflict with Russia and take the war to a whole new level.



The Russian military jets and helicopters attacking Ukraine may be taking off from roughly 40 air bases, according to an analysis by Schemes (Skhemy), an investigative news project run by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in cooperation with UA: Pershy television. Schemes examined satellite images from the private, U.S.-based company Maxar Technologies.

Ukraine has said that Russian jets flying over the Black Sea have hit the Lviv region in the west. Russia is actively using airbases located on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea to bomb Ukraine, Oleksandr Musiyenko, head of the Center for Military Legal Studies in Kyiv, told Schemes.

He said Tupolev bombers armed with Kh-101 cruise missiles are believed to be based in Crimea. Russia has bombed the Lviv, Vinnytsia, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions with Kh-101 cruise missiles.

Belarusian Bases



Russia may also be using as many as nine air bases in Belarus, Russias closest military ally, the satellite images indicated. They show an increase in the number of military helicopters and jets located at air bases in Ukraines northern neighbor after the invasion.



Ukraines military said it has observed bombing raids made by Sukhoi fighter jets taking off from Belarus.



Belarusians are also posting information about military activity, including jet movements, on Telegram, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia has lost dozens of planes since it launched its invasion and may be running low on highly experienced pilots, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine says it has captured at least two Russian pilots.



Kyiv is seeking more anti-aircraft weapons from the West to deter Russian air operations.



The United States has supplied shoulder-launched missiles to take down jets and helicopters while Poland and Slovakia are considering sending MiG-29 fighters.

Written by Todd Prince based on reporting by Kyrylo Ovsyaniy of RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service.
Funerals are being held for soldiers. Shopping malls have more and more vacant storefronts. Prices are rising, and goods are disappearing from store shelves.

These are some of the stories that Russia's non-state regional media outlets have reported on in recent weeks. But what they can't tell their audiences is the story behind all of these stories: the story of what the Kremlin euphemistically calls its "special military operation," the war in Ukraine.

"Pskovskaya Guberniya tried to continue working under wartime conditions," said the former editor in chief of the last independent media outlet in the northwestern Russian city of Pskov, Denis Kamalyagin. But on March 5, one day after Russia adopted draconian new laws on the "dissemination of information that discredits the armed forces of the Russian Federation," OMON riot police showed up in force at the online newspaper's offices.

"OMON put all these 'dangerous criminals' face down on the floor and ransacked the office over a supposed administrative offense," Kamalyagin said. "Continuing to work after they confiscated all our equipment, after their threats, after they blocked our website and our social media channels was impossible. There is no room for independent journalism in Russia."

Kamalyagin and most of the newspaper's long-embattled staff have since left Russia. He hopes to reassemble Pskovskaya Guberniya and renew publication from outside the country in the near future.

"It is hard getting information when you are abroad, but we still have not only our own sources but also our local stringers," Kamalyagin told RFE/RL's North.Realities.

Although the closure or blocking of major national media like online channel Dozhd, Ekho Moskvy radio, and RFE/RL's Russian-language programming has received considerable international attention, the plight of non-state local and regional media has been less well documented. But at that level, as well, the Kremlin is conducting a scorched-earth campaign that is uprooting the last of the country's embattled independent media.

The state media monitor Roskomnadzor has forbidden Russian media from using the words "war" or "invasion" in connection with the attack on Ukraine and has warned them only to publish information from Russian government sources.

On March 22, the State Duma passed an additional bill that would criminalize the dissemination of "false information about the activity of Russian state agencies abroad, including that of the prosecutor's office, the National Guard, the Emergency Situations Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and others. Like the criminal law against discrediting the armed forces, the new bill -- which a Kremlin spokesman said on March 23 that President Vladimir Putin would sign quickly" -- stipulates punishments of up to 15 years in prison.

WATCH: TV2 in Tomsk, Siberia, was among the last free and independent regional media outlets in Russia. But the company's unfettered journalism was not in sync with the country's restrictive political climate. The station's broadcasts were shut down at the end of 2014. (Originally published in 2019)

In the Siberian city of Tomsk, the once highly respected TV2 regional television station, which was forced off the air in 2015, has closed after its Internet programming was blocked.

The popular Taiga-Info portal in Novosibirsk has been blocked, although it continues to function.

In Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha Republic, the portal Ykt.ru, which has operated since 1999, shut down on March 9, just days after the new censorship law was passed.

"It has become clear in recent days that this portal cannot last long as an independent space," founder Arsen Tomsky wrote in a farewell editorial. "In order to preserve the reputation of this portal and its team, our illustrious history, we have decided to end the work of Ykt.ru."

Vadim Vostrov is the director of TVK television in Krasnoyarsk, which continues to broadcast, although it is besieged by attacks on anonymous Telegram channels.

His staff "has done all we could under the circumstances," he said, explaining that it is possible to report about slain local servicemen and the social and economic effects of the war -- even as the new legislation and pressure from the state make it impossible to report accurately on the war itself.

"We give space to psychologists to talk about how to cope with all that is happening," Vlasov said. "In short, we do whatever we can for those who still have their common sense."

Yaroslav Vlasov, a journalist with Taiga-Info, said that when the war in Ukraine was launched, the website tried to cover the war independently, without repeating the Kremlin's unfounded claims.

"From February 24, we tried to cover the 'special operation' in detail from both sides," he said, adding that his website was perhaps the first media outlet in the country to give specific information about local soldiers killed in the conflict.

"I think that is why they quickly blocked us," Vlasov added. "Although the formal pretext was the same as it is for everyone: that we insisted on calling things by their real names."

"After the passage of Putin's law on military censorship on March 4, we -- like most remaining media in Russia -- were forced to delete all of our reporting about the 'special operation,'" he said. "As a result, we decided to stop covering it at all so that we wouldn't have to disseminate just the one-sided information of the Defense Ministry. We focused on articles about the economic crisis, protest actions, and other consequences of the president's decision.

"It would be honest to say that we are now afraid of everything because they can come for us for any reason," Vlasov said.

The same worries haunt Yelena Ivanova, editor in chief of the independent news agency Svobodnye novosti in the central Russian city of Saratov.

"We are consulting with legal specialists and lawyers and no one can tell us when, where, and how we might step on a mine," she said. "For the media, everywhere has become a minefield."

She said that Roskomnadzor has not published a list of the "official government sources" that it is acceptable to cite. If the governor reports the death of a conscript and the agency covers that, but then later the Defense Ministry says he was a contract soldier, does that mean Svobodnye novosti has violated the law and "discredited" the army, she asks.

"We don't know how to work," she said. "And every morning we wake up to this same nightmare."

Nonetheless, she added, none of her staff plans to leave Russia.

"We live and work in Saratov," she said. "We are simply trying to practice journalism in this situation as best we can and to remain -- no matter how pathetic this might sound -- honest people."

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting from Russia by RFE/RL's North.Realities.
Its Russias Google, a multibillion-dollar, homegrown technology company that dominates the countrys e-commerce, offering everything from search engine results and food delivery to car sharing and an online marketplace.



Yandex is a bellwether for Russias high-tech economy in the 21st century.



Now, with Russia bombarding Ukraine and the West pounding Russia with crippling sanctions, the companys future is in doubt.



On March 7, Yandex announced the resignation of two board members, quoting them as saying our hearts are with the entire team in these challenging times. A week later, the deputy executive director resigned, after he was hit with European Union sanctions. Then Yandex announced it was looking to sell two of its most visible content divisions to focus on its other businesses.



Western sanctions, meanwhile, have led to the companys shares being frozen on U.S. stock exchanges. That in turn has led shareholders to seek repayment on bond guarantees, but the company says it doesnt have the $1.25 billion to cover that amount.

The now-untradable stock is down nearly 80 percent from November, when Russias military buildup on Ukraines border first started grabbing public attention, wiping away more than $20 billion in market capitalization.



The future of Yandex depends on the future of Russia, not the other way around, Esther Dyson, a well-known American technology consultant and investor who was one of the two board members to resign earlier this month, said in an interview with RFE/RL.



Tonia Samsonova, who ran a question-and-answer service called Yandex.Q, resigned in protest earlier this month, accusing the company of censoring the Ukraine war from its search engine and news service, which garner millions of daily views.



As President Vladimir Putins government seeks to enforce loyalty and silence opposition to the war, Yandex risks becoming an engine of propaganda for a dictatorship, she said.



'You, My Former Colleagues, Are Also Responsible For This'



The Kremlin had been cracking down on independent journalism and media companies for years, using a foreign agent law to tar, then punish a number of publications, broadcasters, and individual journalists.



After the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, authorities took further steps, criminalizing independent war reporting by making the dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the armed forces punishable by prison time. It is also illegal to discredit the military.



Russian media, including some of the most well-known independent outlets, fell into line. Some prominent organizations were shuttered; journalists began fleeing the country.



Yandexs homepage is a major portal for Russian-language news and, like with Google in the West, a major driver of traffic to other news outlets. Yandex News draws an estimated 30 million Russian users.



Headlines, however, began guiding readers to official, state-run, or state-allied media companies. Searching Yandex News for the words war or invasion yielded no results.



On March 1, a former head of Yandex News, Lev Gershenzon, published a letter on Facebook in which he all but accused his former co-workers of complicity with the Russian state by hiding news of the war.

The fact that a significant part of the Russian population may believe that there is no war is the basis and driving force of this war. Yandex today is a key element in hiding information about the war. Every day and hour of such news is human lives. And you, my former colleagues, are also responsible for this, he wrote.



Reached by RFE/RL, Gershenzon, who left Yandex in 2012, declined to comment further, saying only that if they had listened to me, and did what I suggested, this wouldnt [have] happened.



I said what I wanted to about this whole situation. I think it is enough, he said in a message.



On March 18, Yandex announced it was looking to sell Yandex News as well as Yandex Zen, an infotainment channel, and instead focus on developing other businesses such as advertising, taxi services, e-commerce, self-driving cars, and other ventures.



Dyson, who had been one of the longest-serving Yandex board members, declined to give further details of what led to her resignation, which occurred after what one other person described as a contentious board meeting in February.



In the current political environment in Russia, it has become impossible for the team to continue to provide a free and open platform for information for the Russian public without breaking the law and putting the company and its employees at risk, the companys March 7 statement announcing their resignations said.



Dyson also declined to describe internal deliberations that occurred surrounding the news and search engine features.



Now you get more and more propaganda results before you get search results, she said. First you have the advertising, then the propaganda, then you have the news. You cannot get that information [about the war] on Yandex anymore.

Asked if there was an order or edict issued, either by the company or by a government entity, Dyson declined to answer directly.



It's not like suddenly the sun sets and the next morning, it all changes. It happens, like all these things, somewhat gradually, she said. It was kind of before the invasion of Ukraine but after the discussion of the invasionagain, things don't happen overnight, you sort of have a sense they're happening.



The other board member who resigned, Ilya Strebulaev, a finance professor at Stanford University in California, declined to comment.



Yandex did not respond to multiple e-mails from RFE/RL seeking comment. A receptionist who answered the phone at the companys Moscow headquarters said there would be no immediate comment and there was no immediate response to questions submitted by e-mail.



My father was in denial after the war began, Samsonova, a former Moscow-based reporter whose question-and-answer service was bought by Yandex in 2019 and renamed Yandex.Q.

She told RFE/RL that three days after the invasion, I went to Yandex.ru to see the top five news items. There was nothing [about the war]. I just realized there is no way that he, who does not speak English, could know about the news, about the war.



On March 2, Samsonova, who had been negotiating her exit from the company for several months, resigned in connection with the fact that Yandex does not publish on its home page Yandex.ru information that Russian forces are bombarding Ukrainian cities and killing innocent people.



I consider todays actions of the company to be crimes and [they are] accomplices in the invasion and war, she wrote.



'Not What Yandex Was Designed To Do'



Before the war, the screws were already tightening at Yandex, which currently employs around 18,000 people, most of them at its headquarters in Moscow.



Three years ago, the Kremlin sought to change its governance structure, and essentially seek a veto over its board. A compromise plan resulted in the government getting two board seats and a golden share -- which gave the state the power to block transactions and temporarily remove Yandexs management if it deems it in the national interest, according to the Financial Times.



The effort also coincided with the prosecution of Michael Calvey, an American investor who made a prescient $5 million seed investment in Yandex two decades ago. The prosecution of Calvey, who ended up getting a 5 1/2 year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement, spooked the business community, both Russian and foreign.



Yandex's revenue -- driven in large part by advertising -- could plummet with Russia's economy headed for its sharpest contraction since at least the early 1990s. Economists say Russias gross domestic product could decline by 15 percent this year.

Yandexs other businesses outside of content continue to generate substantial revenues for the company. Yandex Eats, for example, is a leader in food delivery and like its Western counterparts -- Uber Eats, Grubhub, Deliveroo, Frichti -- it flourished during the COVID-19 lockdowns imposed in Moscow and other Russian cities.



Yandex Eats was in the news this week after hackers accessed and leaked a database containing thousands of names and addresses across Russia. Regulators said they were investigating.



The sale of the news division is inevitable, Dyson said.



As an outsider, I would say the sooner they can do it [the better.] And by sell, I mean sell in quotes, she said. It will be sold.



If the content is going to be representing the government, it might as well be owned by the government. Or by people close to it, she said.



I dont have questions about the company itself. I have questions about its ability to[keep] providing real information, Dyson told RFE/RL. I hung on as long as I could, she said.



Samsonova predicted that Yandex would continue operating in Russia even as the government further restricts the free flow of information.



Yandex will remain in Russia, it wont go anywhere, she said.



But whatever Yandex is now -- there is a building, there are accountants, engineers, mergers-and-acquisitions people -- this is not what Yandex was designed to do, she said.



What will Yandex be during a military dictatorship? she said. It will be an engine of propaganda.
Western allies have imposed new sanctions against Russia and promised to send more military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine at a series of unprecedented summits in Brussels aimed at emphasizing a unified response to Russia's military aggression.

The leaders of the 30 NATO countries, the Group of Seven, and the 27 European Union countries announced the sanctions and additional aid as they held unprecedented back-to-back summits in Brussels on March 24.

The leaders spent the day discussing their response to the war, which has entered its second month, after hearing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's plea for unrestricted military aid and his concerns that Russia could use chemical weapons.

The West should provide "all the weapons we need" to "prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation," Zelenskiy told the emergency NATO summit by video link.

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.

"To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions. In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us," Zelenskiy said as fierce fighting continues in the besieged city of Mariupol and other flash points across the country.

"The alliance can still prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation, by giving us all the weapons we need," Zelenskiy added in the video address.

While Zelenskiy suggested the alliance could supply Ukraine with equipment such as anti-missile weapons, tanks, and even jets, his speech was possibly more noteworthy for what he didn't ask for: the enforcement of a no-fly zone to negate Russia's air superiority and membership in NATO.



Previously, the Ukrainian leader had made several impassioned pleas for NATO to create and enforce a no-fly zone over the country, a request that has been roundly rejected because the United States and other allies say it will escalate the conflict by bringing NATO forces in direct engagement with Russia's military.



Instead, Zelenskiy said his request for weapons and other military equipment from NATO members would give Ukraine "just like you, 100 percent security."

"I am sure you already understand that Russia does not intend to stop in Ukraine. Does not think and will not. She wants to go further, against the eastern members of NATO. The Baltic states, Poland -- that's for sure," he said.



Zelenskiy added that NATO had yet to show what it can do to save people, "to show that this is indeed the most powerful defense alliance in the world."

Biden used the occasion to slap sanctions on more than 400 Russian politicians, oligarchs, and companies over Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury said in a statement that the expanded list of those sanctioned includes dozens of Russian defense companies, 328 members of the Russian State Duma, and the head of Russia's largest financial institution, Sberbank.

Biden also announced that the United States would provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water, and other supplies to Ukraine and accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Britain also announced that it was adding 59 Russian individuals and entities to its sanctions list, effectively freezing their assets and restricting the people on the list from coming to the country. Companies now on the list include Gazprombank, Alfa Bank, and the state-run shipping firm Sovcomflot.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said EU countries need to strengthen their sanctions against Russia and prepare themselves to end their reliance on Russian fossil fuels.



"This is the best time to start to reduce the reliance on energy resources from Russia. This is the best day to punish this country for this terrible military aggression," Nauseda said after arriving for the EU summit.

In a separate video message late on March 23, Zelenskiy called on the world's democracies to unite in the face of Russia's "crude and cruel" force, accusing the invaders of atrocities against civilians and warning the West that freedom must take precedence over economic interests.

"At these three summits, we will see who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money. Life can be defended only when united," he said.

Russian ground forces slowed or stopped in their tracks by Western-armed Ukrainian troops are resorting to indiscriminately shelling military and civilian targets alike from a distance.

Zelenskiy told the G7 summit that the threat of full-scale use by Russia of chemical weapons in Ukraine is "real," and accused Russia of having already used phosphorus bombs against civilians.

Speaking ahead of the alliance summit, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russian President Vladimir Putin made a "big mistake" with his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Stoltenberg also said any use of chemical weapons would "fundamentally change" the nature of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as it would be a "blatant" violation of international law that will have "widespread and severe consequences."

He said leaders at the meeting will discuss "the need for a reset of our deterrence and defense in the longer term."

WATCH: Drone video has revealed widespread devastation in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The footage posted to social media on March 22 showed the smoldering ruins of damaged residential buildings that have been hit by Russian shelling.

NATO has already said it will double the number of deployments it has in Europe by adding four more. The new installments will be located in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, said on March 24 that Russia was stalling in talks on a cease-fire in Ukraine and won't take the discussions seriously until it has reached its goals.

A senior U.S. defense official said on March 23 that Moscow's ground forces appeared to be setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers outside Kyiv as they had made little to no progress toward the city center.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops appear to have pushed the Russians farther away.

The official added that there is activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, where the besieged strategic port of Mariupol is located.

The Ukrainian Navy said on March 24 that it had struck a Russian naval transport vessel docked in the Sea of Azov near Mariupol.

"The Orsk large landing ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the occupiers has been destroyed in the port of Berdyansk captured by Russia," the Ukrainian Navy wrote on social media.

Plumes of black smoke could be seen coming out of a large gray vessel docked next to big cranes in amateur footage of what the Ukrainian Navy said was the strike on the ship.

There was no immediate response to the claim from the Russian Defense Ministry and the strikes could not be independently confirmed.

In an interview with Spain's TVE broadcast on March 24, Borrell said Putin has his eyes on surrounding the Black Sea coast to the border with Moldova in order to isolate Ukraine from the water.

"Right now, Russia doesn't want to sit and negotiate anything. What it wants is to occupy the ground," Borrell said. "It wants to negotiate in earnest only when it has secured a position of strength."



Biden is scheduled to give a news conference after the March 24 meetings, then head to Poland for talks with leaders in that country, which has taken on the bulk of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the fighting.

The month of pitched battles across Ukraine have pushed almost 4 million civilians out of the country and left tens of thousands stranded in cities without utilities and dwindling foods supplies, creating what the Red Cross has called "apocalyptic" conditions.

The UN General Assembly on March 24 overwhelmingly demanded aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine and criticized Russia for creating a "dire" humanitarian situation.



The resolution, drafted by Ukraine and allies, received 140 votes in favor and five against -- from Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea, and Belarus -- and 38 abstentions.

Despite the sanctions and diplomatic pressure being exerted on Moscow, the Red Cross said the situation was becoming dire in some parts of Ukraine.



Mariupol, which had a population of 400,000 before the war, has been reduced to rubble, with thousands of civilians dead and many more seeking a route out of the city to safety.



International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer was in Moscow on March 24. Maurer said he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had discussed the need to protect civilians during Moscow's operations in Ukraine.



"We certainly also discussed the international humanitarian law and provisions of the Geneva Convention in regard to conduct of hostilities...that civilians must be protected," Maurer said at a joint press conference with Lavrov.



Moscow has not provided an update to casualty figures since early in the invasion, when it said on March 2 that 498 soldiers had been killed. However, a NATO official told AP that the Russian death toll was likely to be between 7,000 to 14,000, although numbers on both sides are impossible to independently confirm.



Ukraine's General Staff of the armed forces said in a tweet on March 23 that more than 15,000 Russian soldiers had died in the fighting.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
Since the first shots were fired in the early hours of February 24, China has walked an awkward line of supporting Moscows invasion of Ukraine while attempting to distance itself from the destruction Russia's military has inflicted.

On February 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing on the sidelines of the Olympics and the two signaled new depths to their partnership, saying ties between their countries had no limits as they unveiled a massive strategic document.

But after one month of war in Ukraine, the partnership has been thoroughly put to the test.



Sweeping Western sanctions have crippled Russias economy and left the Kremlin under unprecedented pressure internationally.

Beijing has avoided extending a political or economic lifeline to Moscow, but China has also provided diplomatic cover for its partner and its state-run media have pushed Russias narrative of the invasion to audiences at home and abroad.

This has left the West increasingly focused on Chinas ambiguous role amid the crisis, which is set to grow as U.S. President Joe Biden kicks off a four-day trip to Europe on March 24.



Through summits and meetings with NATO, the Group of Seven (G7), and the European Council, Biden is set to keep up the pressure on Russia over its invasion and forge a common front with Europe toward China before a planned European Union summit with Xi on April 1.



Washington has warned Beijing against providing material support to Russia and European leaders hope they can press China to act constructively to help bring an end to the bloody war.

But how deeply has the Ukraine war changed China and Russias growing partnership?



To find out more, RFE/RL asked six leading experts about what one month of war has taught us about the nature of the Beijing-Moscow relationship and where it might be heading.

The Xi-Putin Relationship Is Too Big to Fail

Steve Tsang, director of SOAS University London's China Institute

China and Xi were taken by surprise by Russias invasion of Ukraine, not that it happened, but that it was executed so poorly.

A true believer in the superiority of their authoritarian systems, Xi undoubtedly thought that Russia would launch surgical strikes or use coercive pressure for Putin to get his way in Kyiv without damaging Chinas substantial relations with Ukraine. Russian failures so far have harmed Chinas interests and diminished Chinese respect for Putin and Russia.



Even when the Russian invasion turned into a mess, China could have taken advantage of it by taking on a peacemaking role.



If Xi could persuade Putin to end the conflict, he would have gained international acclaim and made China look great again. Even if he should fail, Beijing would still have earned international gratitude for trying. But China did not even try, despite its talk of neutrality and a wish for the conflict to end quickly. Chinese professional diplomats can see the value of this option, but they cant get this past Xi.



The reality is that Chinas policy is dictated by Xi and he supports Putin. Allowing a fellow Leninist strongman to fail could encourage challenges to his own authority in China. Xi also shares Putins commitment to making the world safe for authoritarianism and challenging U.S. global leadership. It means we cant expect China to play a constructive role in Ukraine, as Xis focus is not what is best for the world or China, but rather what is best for him as the strongman of China.



Look To China's Actions, Not Its Words

Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and former director for China on the U.S. National Security Council



Beijings initial assumptions about the potential benefits China may derive from Russias invasion of Ukraine are becoming less tenable by the day.

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.

At the outset, many strategic thinkers in Beijing reportedly believed Russias invasion would divert American focus to Europe. They assumed the toll of war would diminish American power and potentially strain transatlantic unity. They also expected that Russia would become more isolated and dependent on China, giving Beijing leverage to extract concessions from Moscow, much as was the case following Russias invasion of Crimea in 2014.



Instead, one month into the conflict, transatlantic unity is arguably as strong as it has been at any point since the 1991 Gulf War. The speed and scale of Western sanctions on Russia exceeded Beijings expectations and Russia appears on a trajectory of becoming a rapidly depreciating strategic asset in the international system.



As the worlds leading importer of oil and a leading purchaser of food and commodities, China is also being disproportionately harmed economically by volatility in global markets for such goods.



Chinese officials with whom I have spoken are willing to acknowledge privately that Russias invasion of Ukraine has harmed Chinas interests. Even so, do not expect China to publicly condemn Russias behavior.



Instead, Chinese officials almost surely can be counted on to lend public support to Russia. While words are important, actions matter more. The key measure of Chinas role in the conflict will be what China does -- and does not do -- to demonstrate its support for Russia.



China Has No Plans To Ditch Russia

Melissa Chan, Berlin-based contributor to The Global Reporting Center and former China correspondent

Weve seen so many analysts dissect every comment from Chinese diplomats and every tweet from state media for a sign of a shift in Chinas position, believing that the terrible images of war crimes in Ukraine would surely drive Beijing to distance itself from Russia.

One month into the conflict, however, the fact is that China will still not call what is happening an invasion.



Troublingly, we see a convergence of doublespeak to outright conspiracy theories being touted by both Chinese and Russian diplomats and state media engines -- domestically and abroad -- and through proxies on social media. Beijing and Moscow now share the same messaging in a way that disinformation specialists have previously not observed.

Chinese diplomats have used some language that appears to distance the country from the Russian offensive, and Beijing has denied that it will provide arms to Moscow. We have seen Chinese scholars weigh in with diverse opinions, but the relationship between the two countries is not determined by these voices -- it is largely determined by two secretive and isolated men: Putin and Xi.

We really dont know much about either mans thinking. Attention has been given to Putins COVID bunker mentality, but we should remember that Xi has lived and operated similarly for the last two years. Unless Beijing renounces its declaration made during the Winter Olympics that its relationship with Russia has no limits, we should not assume otherwise.



The View From Ukraine

Yurii Poita, head of the Asia-Pacific Section at the Kyiv-based Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies



While Beijing will continue to diplomatically and informationally support Moscow in the future, the last month has shown that China-Russia cooperation has quite clear boundaries which the Chinese leadership is not yet ready to cross. This mainly concerns avoiding military and military-technical aid to Russia as well as significant assistance in overcoming sanctions.



In Ukraine, Beijings so-called pro-Russian neutrality does not cause much enthusiasm. In the expert community, it is believed that China, with its tacit consent for Moscows war, also bears its share of responsibility for the Russian invasion and even that Chinas lack of condemnation of the Kremlins actions indicates an indirect support for Russias war crimes.



In practice, as long as China does not provide military or other direct assistance to Russia, this will be more or less acceptable for Kyiv. Officially, the Ukrainian government will maintain friendly relations with Beijing as much as possible.



However, if China wants to be a truly global and responsible player, it must take a position consistent with international law. Otherwise, one way or another, its position in Ukraine, Central and Eastern Europe, and the EU will be significantly undermined.

In Ukraine, the discourse in Chinas state-run media is also perceived negatively, as it mostly repeats pro-Russian narratives and disinformation and also excludes Ukraine's participation in the war, instead framing it as Russia's confrontation with NATO, the United States, and the EU.



China should understand that Ukraine is a sovereign state. It is not a Russian gray area or a puppet of the West. Ukraine has its own national interests, and this should be taken seriously by Beijing.



A Bet That Isn't Paying Off

Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, fellow at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan and former adviser to the European Parliament



A month into the war, Putins gamble has turned into a strategic dilemma for Xi.



For now, there is no easy exit for Beijing, there are only difficult questions to address. What role will Xi choose to play and how can he reconcile his interests to uphold sovereignty, territorial integrity, and his geopolitical agenda for global leadership while maintaining cooperation with the EU?



Moscow and Beijing have thrived for years on the EUs lack of political will to act to protect its interests, undermining the bloc and discrediting democracy without having to face any consequences -- until Putins invasion of Ukraine.

This aggression has led to a level of coordination and joint action in Brussels that will have far-reaching consequences not just for the EU, but also for Chinas ties with Russia and for Chinas role in the world.



The path Xi takes regarding Putins war will put Chinas global image and credibility on the line, forcing Xi to reexamine the value that Chinas strategic partnership with Russia holds for Beijing.



Should Beijing choose to help Moscow circumvent international sanctions, there will be a high price to pay once secondary sanctions on China start kicking in. Xi risks finding himself entangled in an international security situation that leaves Beijing more closely scrutinized than ever before.



Undermining European and global security might finally have real consequences for Beijing and Moscow.



The Ukraine War Will Have Global Ripple Effects

Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute

While the durability of the China-Russia relationship is not in itself surprising, the sharpness and degree with which Beijing seems willing to back Moscow as the situation on the ground drags on and the West pushes with ever stronger sanctions highlights how tightly bound both countries are at the moment.



Few of the details that have emerged have been very surprising: Chinese firms are still not willing to place themselves in the crosshairs of American sanctions, while the reports of possible desired arms sales from China to Russia have yet to be confirmed.

This crisis is also showing how the Moscow-Beijing dynamic will echo in ways that will confuse the democracies versus autocracies narrative that the West likes to advance.



What has perhaps been less noticed is the way in which India and Pakistan have been interacting and seem to support Moscow. In many ways this gives China cover for its support for Moscow, while also opening up an interesting dynamic in South Asia that could complicate attempts by the West to use India as a keynote Asian ally in their confrontation with China.



In terms of whether the views of each other have changed: I would suspect the Chinese might now be slightly less in awe of their Russian military counterparts but, at the same time, they remain the most battle-hardened army around that China is able to do exercises with. This suggests an interesting possible future dynamic in the military-to-military relationship.
Russian strikes on cities across Ukraine have left a trail of devastation, with besieged cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv in the countrys east ravaged by artillery and rocket attacks.

Ukrainian forces have begun counterattacking in some places across the country, stalling Moscow's military objectives and leading Russia to turn increasingly to long-range attacks to bombard cities and towns. This phase of the nearly month-old war has left many people without food, electricity, and water and caused widespread destruction of civilian areas.

But with Russias advance slowed by Ukrainian resistance and its forces facing supply and logistical issues, the war could begin to see more urban warfare as military planners on both sides dig in for what many analysts say could be a long-term fight.

To better understand what this next phase of the war might look like, RFE/RL spoke with retired U.S. Special Forces Colonel Liam Collins, the executive director of the Madison Policy Forum who also advised the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on its military reforms.

RFE/RL: By this point, it seems clear that Russia will not be able to achieve its original goals for Ukraine. It is facing major supply and logistical issues and has not made much progress of late and is instead shifting to besieging cities and other increasingly brutal tactics. Ukrainian forces continue to resist and inflict damage on the Russians. Is this war entering a stalemate, or do you see it progressing differently?

Liam Collins: I think it's going to be something resembling a stalemate, so thats probably the right term for it. You're going to see small advances and then Ukrainian counterattacks, however. But I think, for the most part, what you've seen over the last couple of weeks is what we're going to see in the future and that's just Russia sitting on the outside of a city -- where they're in relatively safe positions -- and then launching artillery strikes into the cities.

RFE/RL: Ukrainian officials have claimed that Russian forces are running low on food and ammunition, and according to one report, could run out of both in the next three days. Do these reports ring true to you and what do these problems mean operationally for the Russian military in Ukraine?

Collins: I think three days might be a little bit on the short end, but no doubt, [the Russians] are running lower on supplies than they anticipated. It's clear by their initial attack they thought this was going to be a short-duration operation and the Russians don't have a strong logistical system like a lot of Western armies do. So, it's no doubt that they're going to be strained now.

So that's going to have an effect on it and that's going to prevent them from doing more of a larger-scale attack and then that's why they're sitting on the outskirts and just using artillery strikes; and [if] were seeing them try to gain supplies locally, then that's more of an indicator that they're out of [their own] supplies as well.

RFE/RL: How do you see the current state of play? It seems that Russian forces are quite stalled around Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv have been under intense bombardment. Are we shifting to more urban warfare and, if so, how does that change the face of this war?

Collins: Once Russia [starts to] enter the cities you're going to see things change because when they're sitting on the outside, they're in relatively safe positions and just shooting artillery bombardments [and] rockets into the city. When they actually have to enter the citytheyre not only exposed to the [Ukrainian] armed forces, but they're going to be exposed to tens of thousands of volunteers that are going to be in a city fighting those Russian elements [as well].

So [Russia] really doesn't want to enter [the Ukrainian] cities, but they're going to be forced to [and] they're going to take heavy losses throughout their movement into the cities. It's going to be a tough urban fight.

RFE/RL: What should people make of the casualty figures for this war? We have seen varying figures from Ukrainian and Western officials about the number of Russian soldiers killed and Moscow has only disclosed casualties once. We also have not seen regular figures for casualties on the Ukrainian side. How accurate are these different figures and is there a chance that these blind spots could skew our understanding of how the war is developing?

Collins: [Neither] side necessarily wants to be forthcoming with what their losses are because that tips their hand to the enemy in terms of what the effect is or isn't having on them. So, typically in war you're going to want to underreport your losses and overreport the enemys.

It's tough to get an accurate picture in terms of the losses and it's normal to overly focus on those [figures]. Each side has a finite number of tanks, a finite number of airplanes, [and] a finite number of fighters. So those [casualty numbers] do matter.

But I think when you're trying to look at the actual conduct of the fight and where it's progressing, I think it's more important to focus on what is the action or the inaction that's happening and that gives you a sense of the direction [the war is headed toward], and it seems like we're at that stalemate point where we're trying to figure out what's going to happen next.

RFE/RL: You advised the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on its reforms after Russias initial invasion in 2014. How crucial are the reforms that the Ukrainian military has undergone for the battlefield success that it has managed to achieve so far?

Collins: Without a doubt those reforms have been critical. It can't be overstated. In 2014, it was really a decrepit military that [Ukraine] had with really low combat-fighting capability and they underwent a significant reform [process] while they were at war in the east in the Donbas to reform their defense establishment -- anything from command and control to planning to operations [to] medical and [to] logistics into a more professional force with a focus on making [it] a more Western army.

I think the biggest surprise to me has been Russia's inability to use information operations, electronic warfare, and cyberwar...they just have been a no-show.

Additionally, some Western capabilities [have] helped them, like Javelin anti-tank missile weapon systems [and] right before the conflict started, Stinger missiles. Then there [was] really a cultural change within the Ukrainian defense establishment, [especially with] empowering the lower-level leaders to have what we call mission command in the United States, or discipline initiative, [that] allows them -- because the speed of the battle in the 21st century is so fast -- to be able to [give] them broad mission guidance and let them go execute [on their own], as opposed to everything going to the top [of the command structure].

RFE/RL: Is there anything -- whether its in terms of strategy, types of weapons, or tactics -- that could change things on the ground and break this stalemate that we've been discussing?

Collins: Wars always go on a lot longer than either side ever anticipates. That's a common theme of war. If any side knew the outcome, they probably wouldn't have gone to war in the first place. Obviously, Ukraine didn't have a choice.

[It] just takes a long time and heavy losses to actually make one side capitulate. At this point, there's a lot of sunk costs for the Russians. So, there's no option for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin [at the moment] -- for an authoritarian like him -- to pull out with a loss at this point.

And the Ukrainians are not going to capitulate. They're not going to give up their sovereign nation and become a [Russian] satellite, and so I think that's why it's just going to drag on. I don't think there's anything quick that can end this [war], and so I would expect it to be a long, long process.

RFE/RL: From a military point of view, is there anything about how this war has unfolded so far that has surprised you?

Collins: I think the biggest surprise to me has been Russia's inability to use information operations, electronic warfare, and cyberwar. That was really expected based on what they did in 2014 and what they did in Georgia in 2008, but they just have been a no-show in terms of those capabilities.

In terms of the tactical fight, it has pretty much progressed as I would have expected. I think that Javelins and other anti-tank missiles have been very effective at taking out Russian armor. Russia's been able to achieve some level of air superiority, but they can't achieve air dominance as long as Ukraine has the significant anti-aircraft capability that was provided by the West, [which] impedes Russia's ability to fly.

RFE/RL: Is there a particular reason why you think that those information, electronic, and cyberwar capabilities haven't shown up yet?

Collins: I think, initially, maybe Putin didn't employ those because he thought Ukraine was just going to capitulate and Russia can send tanks into downtown Kyiv and then [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy is going to fall and Ukraine is going to welcome [Russian forces] with open arms -- [and] that clearly didn't happen.

But I think [the] information operations clearly aren't working [and] people are onto it in terms of noticing [things like] false-flag events where they were potentially planning to try to preempt the conflict. I think part of it is we've learned [from past examples] and we're onto some of [Russias] games, but I think it's just their electronic warfare and cyber [capabilities] probably just aren't what we thought they were.

RFE/RL: In the U.S. military community, do you think that this has changed the way that the Russian military is perceived?

Collins: Yes, but [after this war] we probably are going to underestimate their capabilities. In 2014, everybody looked at what they did to seize Crimea without firing a shot, [which was] pretty impressive from a strategic and operational perspective, and we built Russia up to be a 10-foot-tall monster.

My fear [now] is that people will not respect them enough for what their capabilities are. I think it's too early to tell, but that's my fear.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Written By

Joe Schulz served as the reporter of the Green Laker in 2019 and 2020, before being hired as a reporter for the Commonwealth in October 2020. He is from Oshkosh and graduated from UW-Oshkosh in December 2020 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

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The MacArthur Award was presented to the campus ROTC unit for its performances in readiness training and commissioning lieutenants for military service. The unit is now eligible for the Department of Defenses national award.

The nations top-ranked undergraduate engineering college also has the countrys No. 1 Army Reserved Officers Training Corps unit.

Rose-Hulmans Wabash Battalion ROTC unit has earned this years MacArthur Award as the top program in the military branchs 7th Brigade, along with being selected as the Army ROTC programs candidate for the overall Department of Defense ROTC and Partner Institution Excellence Award.

The 7th Brigade is a region with Army ROTC units at 38 universities and colleges in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee, while the battalion stood out among 275 units nationally within the military branch.

Rose-Hulmans unit is now competing against designated Navy and Air Force ROTC finalists for the DoD national honor, being announced later this spring.

Col. Brent Clemmer, Army ROTCs 7th Brigade commander, stated, Rose-Hulman has earned distinction for producing some of the Armys best engineers. Its cadets have distinguished themselves exceptionally well during the past year across the variety of criteria. They consistently stand out among the best cadets regionally and nationally.

The U.S. Army Cadet Command recognized the units achievements during the 2020-21 school year for readiness training and commissioning lieutenants for military service. Award-winning programs best represent the Armys ideals of Duty-Honor-Country and the legacy of leadership as practiced by General Douglas MacArthur, according to Army ROTC award guidelines.

Professor of Military Science Lt. Col. Benjamin Schneller reports the following Army Wabash Battalion ROTC unit accomplishments for 2020-21:

Commissioning 35 officers, far exceeding the 19-officer requirement.

Six cadets ranked in the top 20% nationally and earned distinguished military graduate honors.

24 cadets exceeded performance averages in areas of physical fitness, written land navigation, practical land navigation, weapons qualification, and tactical performance evaluations during last summers training exercises.

Cadets had key leadership roles in the Bold Warrior/Ranger Challenge team that had its best finish in the past 20 years against other senior ROTC programs in the 7 th Brigade region.

Brigade region. 98% retention rate of students enrolled in the program from 2020 to 2021.

Rose-Hulman President Robert A. Coons points out that Wabash Battalion cadets wear a patch on their uniforms that highlight Leadership Excellence.

You cant get leadership excellence without a lot of hard work, Coons noted. This (MacArthur Award) recognition is for all the work you do every day to develop leadership excellence. It is about the hard work you put into your studies; the work youre doing at six in the morning to prepare physically; the extra work you put in on Wednesday evenings to learn tactics and leadership. But even more than that, its about the teamwork that you cultivate in this great program.

Rose-Hulmans portion of the battalion has 31 scholarship student cadets and five other students participating in unit activities. This years senior cadets are Griffin Altmix, Nick Barr, Landen Berlin, Samuel Dickinson, Drew Gearhart, Tristen Maesch, Alec Teichmann, Samuel VanDendurgh, and Ryleigh White. They will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army during Rose-Hulmans Commencement weekend May 27-28.

I cant put Lt. (lieutenant) before your name until Rose-Hulman puts B.S. (earning bachelor of science degree) after your name, said Clemmer during a special MacArthur Award campus ceremony March 23.

Joining Schneller in leading the Rose-Hulman ROTC unit are Thom Robbins, Ethan Allen, and Rick Maples, senior military science instructors; Max Dixon and Ari Merdler, assistant professors of military science; Mertz Goodwin, military science instructor; Bob Doll, recruiting operations officer; Tom Deal, human resource assistant; and Troy Batchelor and Gavin Brothers, National Guard liaisons.

Doll also was recognized as Recruiting Operations Officer of the Year for the 7th Brigade region.

Kathy Davis, executive assistant to Rose-Hulmans vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, received the Wabash Battalions Coins for Excellence honor in recognition of outstanding support to the unit, its leadership and staff, and cadets.

Rose-Hulman has one of the nations original Army ROTC programs. Shortly after its founding in 1874, the college hosted a Student Army Training Corps unit and had an active role in training engineers and mechanics for Army service during World War I. An official Army ROTC unit became active in 1917, after ROTC was authorized by the National Defense Act of 1916, and graduated its first commissioned officers in 1922. Today, Rose-Hulman is part of the Wabash Battalion with Indiana State University, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, DePauw University, Vincennes University, University of Southern Indiana, and University of Evansville.

You dont have to look far these days to see that our world is full of challenges, Coons said. Im very proud that for more than a century, Rose-Hulman and the Wabash Battalion have been commissioning leaders of character for our Army, who are ready to meet those challenges head on.

Rose-Hulman has been ranked No. 1 nationally for 23 straight years in U.S. News & World Reports Best College Guide among U.S. engineering colleges that are focused on bachelors and masters-level education. The ranking came from the guides annual survey of college engineering deans and senior faculty across America. The institute also has earned national distinction in science and mathematics education, along with being valued for its excellent return on investment. Learn more about the institutes rankings and national distinction here.
On 15 March, Vietnam officially opened all border gates, by sea, by rail, and by air and also restored its visa policies to the same pre-pandemic days, so as to allow all international and domestic tourism activities to resume once again. However, plans will still take some time to revive and for new expectations to be met.

Clear bottlenecks

The Covid-19 prevention and control measures of strict social distancing and lengthy quarantine periods have now been relaxed by the Ministry of Health. As of 15 March, these bottlenecks will be eased to allow the tourism industry to fully reopen their doors and resume activities as before. This move has been welcomed by all tourism companies, as they begin preparations to welcome international guests in the coming months. From now on there will be no requirement for travellers to undergo a re-test for the virus or to quarantine after entry. Visitors dont need to show a certificate for vaccination against Covid-19 or show they have recovered after being infected in the last six months.

Visitors now only need to show a negative test result before departure by air within 72 hours under the RT-PCR/RT-LAMP method, or within 24 hours under the rapid test method. People entering by land, sea or rail must all follow similar regulations. In case the test results are not available, testing for SARS-CoV-2 will be carried out at the border gate before entry. If the test results are negative, visitors will be allowed to enter and participate in tourism activities, but if the test results are positive, they will have to follow the instructions of the relevant health authorities.

Children under two years of age are not required to be tested for SARS-CoV-2, and even if they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 or have never been infected with SARS-CoV-2, they will be allowed to enter and participate in activities outside of place of residence with their parents and relatives. All tourists must make a medical declaration before entry and use the Medical Declaration Application (PC-COVID), while also taking appropriate measures to prevent and control the pandemic as prescribed for the duration of their stay in Vietnam.

Soon after the Ministry of Health issued their latest guidelines, a number of travel businesses also updated their travel information for their customers and partners. On 16 March, it was seen that on the flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City, new entry regulations had been applied. There is now more positive information coming forth from the tourism industry. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said that the number of international visitors searching for information on Vietnam has been increasing sharply since the beginning of 2022.

According to analytical data from the Google Destination Insights Tool, which tracks travel trends, the volume of search began to increase from the beginning of December 2021 and skyrocketed from the end of December 2021 to the beginning of January this year. The search volume as of 1 January 2022 was up by 222% from the previous month, and 248% from the same period in 2021. In particular, from the beginning of January until now, the international search volume for Vietnam has always remained at a very high level. Even on 21 January, it increased by 425%, and on 3 February, it increased by 374% compared to the same period in 2021.

Ambitious campaign

Despite the very high enthusiasm, the questions being considered by many in the tourism industry are directed towards the target markets, effective marketing campaigns and the efforts needed to reach the ambitious target of five million visitors in 2022.

At a conference to discuss the reopening of tourism activities under safe yet flexible conditions in the current pandemic conditions, Mr. Vu Duc Dam, Deputy Prime Minister, emphasized that by just reopening tourism we cannot have a flood of visitors right away, and tourism recovery will take a concerted effort over many months. Many businesses believe that in order to receive many visitors, they must step up tourism promotion campaigns and increase advertising. Promotion campaigns have for long been a weakness of the Vietnam tourism industry. We are currently implementing the "Live fully in Vietnam" communication campaign, but we still have to wait to see how effective it will prove to be.

The reopening of tourism after a long gap also means tougher competition with other countries in attracting visitors. If the promotion campaigns are not effective, the recovery phase will become much more difficult, and reaching out to the target market will become a strain. Looking back at the golden age of Vietnam's tourism industry in 2019, the largest number of international visitors came from the four main markets of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, accounting for about 60% of the total number of visitors to Vietnam. Among these, most visitors were from China. Currently, China continues to implement its Zero Covid policy, hence it will be quite difficult to reach out to this market.

Among the remaining three markets, Japan has not been very receptive to opening up tourism markets and travel routes. South Korea has taken steps to remove social distancing rules for travellers and shortening quarantine periods for people who have been fully vaccinated. However, with the pandemic cases still arising the tourism industry may not receive many visitors from this market this year. As regards Taiwan, there does not seem much enthusiasm from this market either.

Mr. Vu Tien Dung, Director of the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, said that Taiwan currently has strict pandemic prevention measures in place, and people entering the country must be isolated for ten days, with a further seven days under self-check. Hence, when Vietnam opens for international tourists, initially there will be no visitors from Taiwan.

Even though the four main tourism markets for Vietnam have opened the doors the current Russia-Ukraine war crisis is bound to affect several key localities such as Khanh Hoa and Phan Thiet, which earlier were inundated with Russian tourists. On the other hand, the travel demand of Americans has increased both at home and abroad. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung, Ambassador of Vietnam to the US, said that after two long years of travel restrictions, the US tourism market is once again beginning to revive.

According to a study by the Destination Analysis Company, 80% of Americans have made travel plans for the next six months. American tourists have always considered Vietnam as an attractive tourist destination because of its beautiful and serene landscape, history, culture, and exotic cuisine. Unfortunately, with a current rise in the number of Covid cases, the US CDC has also just upgraded the pandemic level for travel to Vietnam to level 4 and has advised US citizens against travel to Vietnam.

Thanh Lam
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Rooftop Cinema Club's screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of our top events this weekend in San Diego
March 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Rolling Out - Everything We See So Far

Google is rolling out its third version of the product reviews update, named the March 2022 Product Reviews Update. The previous two versions were the April 2021 Product Reviews Update and the December 2021 Product Reviews Update. The March version was updated to incorporate more signals and criteria in this niche ranking algorithm.

Google started to roll out the March 2022 product reviews update yesterday, March 23, 2022 at about 12:00pm ET. This impacts only English-language pages for now but Google hinted this can rollout to other languages soon, possibly before another official product reviews update. Google wrote "we plan to open up product review support for more languages."

Google also said it will take about three weeks to complete and can impact "product reviews across many sites" - "many sites" Google said. So like previous product reviews updates, sites hit by this, can feel this in a big way.

As a reminder, the product reviews update aims at rewarding high-level product review content, above thinner product review content. Product review updates are not core updates, but they may be mistaken as such.

This latest version "builds on that work to enhance our ability to identify high quality product reviews," Google wrote. Google added "this will make it easier for us to get sound purchasing advice in front of users, and to reward creators who are earnest in being helpful."

Currently, at the time of publishing this - I am seeing very little movement in the Google search results. I suspect that will change any moment now but the SEO industry chatter is quiet on ranking changes right now and the tracking tools have yet to pick up on any volatility. Again, I expect this to change soon, very soon.

Google Product Reviews Update Quick Facts

Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:

Name: Google March 2022 Product Reviews Update

Google March 2022 Product Reviews Update Launched: March 23, 2022 at around 12:00pm ET

March 23, 2022 at around 12:00pm ET Rollout: It will take about three weeks to fully rollout

It will take about three weeks to fully rollout Targets: It looks at product review content

It looks at product review content Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards "insightful analysis and original research."

It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards "insightful analysis and original research." Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not.

Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not. English Language but will expand: This is only looking at English-language content right now but likely will expand soon to other languages, this is a global launch.

This is only looking at English-language content right now but likely will expand soon to other languages, this is a global launch. Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update.

Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update. Discover : This update can impact your performance in Google Discover, Google previously said.

: This update can impact your performance in Google Discover, Google previously said. Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's advice below

If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's advice below Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. This may be the first refresh that Google has done, it is the first refresh Google communicated about.

What's New With The March 2022 Product Reviews Update

Google said "we're launching another update that builds on that work to enhance our ability to identify high quality product reviews. This will make it easier for us to get sound purchasing advice in front of users, and to reward creators who are earnest in being helpful."

Also the fact that this may work in non-English languages in the future is new.

Google released three new FAQs with this announcement:

(1) Are product review updates relevant to ranked lists and comparison reviews? Yes. Product review updates apply to all forms of review content. The best practices Google shared also apply. However, due to the shorter nature of ranked lists, you may want to demonstrate expertise and reinforce authenticity in a more concise way. Citing pertinent results and including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this.

(2) Are there any recommendations for reviews recommending "best" products? If you recommend a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, be sure to share with the reader why you consider that product the best. What sets the product apart from others in the market? Why is the product particularly suited for its recommended purpose? Be sure to include supporting first-hand evidence.

(3) If I create a review that covers multiple products, should I still create reviews for the products individually? It can be effective to write a high quality ranked list of related products in combination with in-depth single-product reviews for each recommended product. If you write both, make sure there is enough useful content in the ranked list for it to stand on its own.

Google also posted this graphic showing that product review lists can be impacted by this as well:

Google also listed these four points about the criteria Google uses for product reviews:

Include helpful in-depth details, like the benefits or drawbacks of a certain item, specifics on how a product performs or how the product differs from previous versions

Come from people who have actually used the products, and show what the product is physically like or how it's used

Include unique information beyond what the manufacturer provides  like visuals, audio or links to other content detailing the reviewer's experience

Cover comparable products, or explain what sets a product apart from its competitors

Spring 2022 Google Updated Related?

Over the weekend we reported on what I called the Spring 2022 Google update but was this product reviews update related to this Spring 2022 update? Well, according to Google - no. Danny Sullivan of Google updated us on that saying there was no update during that time. It does make me wonder if maybe Google was testing this but Google would probably say no.

There was a lot of buzz around that update impacting product review sites, even Lily Ray tweeted about that:

I was just in the midst of tweeting about how Google seems to have tweaked the product review update last week  https://t.co/Btr172mkWl  Lily Ray  (@lilyraynyc) March 23, 2022

But again, the March 2022 Google Product Reviews Update didn't start to roll out until days after the the unconfirmed Spring update. So again, no - they are not related.

Alan Kent from Google directly said so, these are unrelated:

It is unrelated. This new update is just starting to roll out now. It *usually* hits most data centers fairly quickly (days) then takes weeks to get everywhere.  Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

More From Google

Here are some more details from Google for clarification purposes:

Product reviews on a merchant website would be impacted as well. This update is relevant to content we believe is a product review, not to product pages. When we believe the user wants a review, and a page contains a review, we try to find the best review for that query.  Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

Google has never ranked "solely on domain strength". But there is always room to improve and the latest update is another step on that journey. In case you have not seen them, we document recommended best practices for product reviews: https://t.co/VYIXLBfreC  Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

We don't expect *all* images to be created by the reviewer. We look for evidence the reviewer did actually review the product. A mix is fine.  Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

This is just a boost for product reviews. Other pages would only be impacted if believed they are a product review  Alan Kent (@akent99) March 27, 2022

Original PRU Google Advice

Here is the original advice but Google has posted this in a new help document with the new advice from December, this does not include the specific new points listed above:

Express expert knowledge about products where appropriate?

Show what the product is like physically, or how it is used, with unique content beyond what's provided by the manufacturer?

Provide quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance?

Explain what sets a product apart from its competitors?

Cover comparable products to consider, or explain which products might be best for certain uses or circumstances?

Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product, based on research into it?

Describe how a product has evolved from previous models or releases to provide improvements, address issues, or otherwise help users in making a purchase decision?

Identify key decision-making factors for the product's category and how the product performs in those areas? For example, a car review might determine that fuel economy, safety, and handling are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas.

Describe key choices in how a product has been designed and their effect on the users beyond what the manufacturer says?

Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.

Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

I have written about every tiny detail of these product reviews update, just do a search on this site for more.

Multiple Sellers

What about the line on the importance of including links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice, Glenn Gabe asked. Alan Kent from Google said "The update is an improvement of current algorithms. There is no special support for multiple sellers in this update."

Hi Glenn. The update is an improvement of current algorithms. There is no special support for multiple sellers in this update.  Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

Tracking Tools Showing Volatility?

It is early, less than 24 hours since it started to roll out but here is what the various tracking tools are showing right now. Keep in mind, the bulk of this update should be realized within the first few days. But there will be noticeable changes over the first couple weeks and even "tremors" later on.

As of this morning, at the time of publishing this, the tools are showing nothing right now. In fact, the chatter in the SEO community has nothing around ranking changes yet either. I do suspect we will see changes here, fluctuations, chatter, volatility and so forth in the upcoming days - it just didn't happen yet but it will.

Semrush:

RankRanger:

Accuranker:

Cognitive SEO:

SERPmetrics:

Mozcast:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Algoroo:

Industry Reaction

Heads-up! The third Product Reviews Update is officially rolling out. Will roll out over the next few weeks. And you should expect the bulk of the ranking volatility to happen in the earlier stages of this rollout. https://t.co/7XyQpd2Z07  Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 23, 2022

I would very much take Google at their word here w. the new guidelines.



I think they can profile the writing style that comes with in-depth knowledge & experience of a product.



I talked about this in my @semrush post from the Dec 21 PRU https://t.co/4CGeBFuh50 https://t.co/wrJYDsdbnR  Mordy Oberstein  (@MordyOberstein) March 23, 2022

G: "We know people appreciate reviews that share "in-depth research"  , rather than simply summarize a bunch of products with the latest update launching today. https://t.co/ze1ySvEbPv  Nicholas McDonough (@Callmenicholi) March 23, 2022

To all affiliates out there 



"reviews come from people who demonstrate expert knowledge and first-hand research about products" https://t.co/pHh1WP81Hd  Paul P (@pavlos1944) March 23, 2022

Academically, I would like to know how Google measures relevancy. Because for me I'm finding the results even more and more irrelevant and I've seen major publishers right about the irrelevancy, so not just me.



Is anyone else having a problem with irrelevancy? https://t.co/cWq0vF5FF3  Kristine Schachinger (@schachin) March 23, 2022

Of course I meant to write: It has always been about  Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) March 23, 2022

Also a reminder that the first two product review updates had large impact for many sites -- similar to a big core update.



With the last two product review updates there was a lot of turbulence even amongst SERPS without product reviews.  Dr. Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) March 23, 2022

Main takeaway: make great content as always, but whats jumping off the page for me is the emphasis on promoting content showing actual use of the products being reviewed.This is great news for niches and bad news for content farmers.  Michael Micacchi (@michaelmicacchi) March 23, 2022

Game on folks! May the bots be ever in your favour. #GoogleAlgorithmUpdate https://t.co/rne6TCZopz pic.twitter.com/NcLmm4S976  Crystal Carter (@CrystalontheWeb) March 24, 2022

Forum discussion at Twitter and WebmasterWorld.
When Californians voted in favor of Proposition 64 in 2016 and legalized the adult-use cannabis industry, they gave municipalities the ability to opt out of the cultivation, manufacturing and retail sales. A new bill appears to challenge that key provision of local control, but theres an ongoing debate over its intentions and what it would mean in practice.

SB1186 by Sen. Scott Wiener would enact the Medicinal Cannabis Patients Right of Access Act. It is intended to prevent local governments from enacting bans or unreasonable restrictions around medical cannabis sales.

The measure is seeking to ensure that the voter initiative legalizing medical Cannabis in California  Prop. 215, passed in 1996  isnt undermined by the more recent Prop. 64, which legalized recreational adult cannabis use but allowed for local bans on dispensaries. Prop. 64 explicitly did not give cities and counties local control over medical cannabis businesses. The later passage of SB94 in 2017, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, was intended to bridge together the medical and adult-use propositions and ended up allowing localities to prohibit medical cannabis.

If passed, Californias local governments would be forced to legalize medical cannabis sales with only a couple of exceptions.

Supporters of the bill, including Hirsh Jain of the cannabis consultancy Ananda Strategy, are calling it a major milestone in the maturation of the California cannabis industry.

Jain, who is also the vice chair of the California Chamber of Commerce and sits on the board of directors for the Los Angeles chapter of NORML, a pro-cannabis advocacy organization, said SB1186 has the potential to significantly expand retail cannabis access in California by creating markets where they previously didnt exist.

Jain said that more than 300 of Californias 482 cities ban any form of retail cannabis sales, whether through storefront or delivery, adult use or medical. This bill would force those 300-plus municipalities to either allow at least one medical cannabis storefront, delivery service or both. Opponents of local control provisions say that the lack of cannabis access statewide is not only a medical issue for patients, it also provides the illegal market with a way to thrive since customers cant easily access legal cannabis.

But there is one line in the bills current language that has caused pro-cannabis advocates to balk. One section appears to allow local governments to ban delivery while also giving the state the ability to enforce local bans.

Lobbyists, lawyers and other advocates said the language is unclear.

It gives local jurisdictions the power to limit medical cannabis sales only to medical delivery or one or more brick-and-mortar storefront, or both, whichever it chooses. The key to the debate, advocates say, is that it provides the option to choose just a storefront and disallow delivery. That could allow a jurisdiction to prohibit new medical cannabis deliveries and to uphold any existing local cannabis sales bans, which state law currently supersedes. Currently, residents in areas with bans can still legally access cannabis through deliveries.

Advocates for cannabis access say the bill could therefore limit, rather than expand, access by creating a loophole.

While I fully support the intent of this legislation, the practical application of it is not as simple as most people believe, said Nate Bradley, executive director of the Cannabis Consumer Policy Council.

California cities have been fighting long and hard, Bradley said, for the ability to ban deliveries from outside of their jurisdictions. He points to the efforts in 2018 by the then-Bureau of Cannabis Control to enact delivery statewide, over the objections of the California Police Chiefs Association, League of California Cities and United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council, which opposed the rule that eventually became law. He said the language in the bill might allow local governments to enforce complete bans on deliveries.

About 14% of sales in Californias cannabis market come from deliveries, according to cannabis data company Headsets sample of more than 250 retail connections.

Bradley said that though he lives in a cannabis desert city that currently has a ban on sales, he still has access to numerous delivery services.

Taking that away and forcing me to make my purchases from a single store that doesnt have to compete and can charge whatever they like does not increase patient access at all, Bradley said. He believes the confusion could be cleared up if the authors office simply amends SB1186 to clarify that this bill in no way allows cities to ban deliveries from outside their jurisdiction.

Wieners office challenged the notion that the bill does anything to chip away at legal cannabis access.

The bill does not reduce access in any way, said Catie Stewart, Wieners communications director. Cities currently have the ability to ban everything and almost two-thirds do. This legislation forces cities to legalize either delivery or storefront or both. It does not in any way reduce what is currently legal, she said.

Stewart said that some local jurisdictions with full commercial cannabis bans also ban licensed delivery operators from delivering to addresses within their jurisdiction, and enforce those bans with steep fines to licensed delivery operators who violate them.

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This patchwork of existing prohibitions creates uncertainty for businesses and reduces access for medicinal patients and patients, she said. SB1186 is intended to provide additional access above and beyond what is currently offered, Stewart said, in part by requiring jurisdictions to provide additional access for medical patients from retailers located in their own neighborhoods.

Many of SB1186s critics agree that the bill appears to create more access but caution that cannabis legislation has a long history of imprecise language that can create problems down the road, requiring legislative cleanup.

Bills like this can do a lot of good or immense harm if the language isnt fully clarified, said Hilary Bricken of Los Angeles law firm Harris Bricken.

Though the bill does provide a seemingly significant challenge to local control, the kicker is that its not guaranteed what kind of medical cannabis outfits can be chosen by cities that would be deemed either automatically reasonable or unreasonable under this law, Bricken said.

Omar Figueroa, a cannabis lawyer whose firm has offices in Sebastopol and New York, said the bill, if passed, would represent a symbolic rollback of Prop. 64s local control.

But he found another potential snag in the language that could have wide-ranging consequences: The bill doesnt prohibit localities from enacting new medical bans in the future.

In those local jurisdictions that ban medical cannabis sales entirely, SB 1186 would be an improvement over the status quo. In those local jurisdictions which already allow for medical cannabis sales, SB1186 if passed would give local delivery bans the imprimatur of state law. Any new medical delivery bans would erode patient access, Figueroa said.

Regarding the delivery quandary, Bricken says that cities wouldnt be able to ban essential parts or services of a medical cannabis business that would allow it to provide access. If a business revolves around delivery and its medical, the delivery probably couldnt be eliminated, she said.

Still, Bricken said, the main question is whether banning delivery would be considered unreasonable if other means of sale are available, like brick and mortar. She thinks the bill doesnt expressly address that aspect.

Jackie Bryant is a San Diego freelance journalist. Email: jacqbryant@gmail.com @gmail.com Twitter: @jacqbryant
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As Senate Republicans continued their swiping at Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing Wednesday, California Sen. Alex Padilla did some swiping back.

Some of my colleagues have attempted to disparage your judgment and character, the Democrat said in a cordial 20-minute exchange with the federal appeals court judge, the first Black woman to be nominated to the high court, as Judiciary Committee members ended two days of questioning. Youve answered them fairly and thoughtfully.

People of color often have to work twice as hard to get half the respect, Padilla said. If (her Republican critics) really cared about Americans faith in the judicial system ... even if they disagreed with you on the law, you should have received bipartisan support.

He spoke after Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had voted to confirm Jacksons previous appointments to U.S. District Court and the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., repeatedly interrupted the nominee as she tried to answer his questions about her sentencing practices.

Graham also asked her how she would rate her religious faith, on a scale of 1 to 10, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked her to define woman, apparently referring to cases over sexual orientation and gender identity. Jackson declined to answer. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., berated the nominee for a three-month sentence she imposed on an 18-year-old who had pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

After Thursdays testimony by the American Bar Association and other witnesses, Democratic leaders plan a Judiciary Committee vote on April 4 and a Senate confirmation vote before the next scheduled recess on April 8.

One development at the hearing Wednesday was Jacksons statement to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that if confirmed, she would not take part in a case to be heard in the fall challenging affirmative action programs for Black and Hispanic applicants at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Jackson, a graduate of both Harvard and its law school, is finishing a term as a member of the universitys Board of Overseers, the apparent reason for her planned recusal. It increases the likelihood that the court will rule that considering applicants race and ethnicity violates the rights of white and Asian-American applicants, which would overturn decisions from 2003 and 2016.

California voters banned affirmative action in a 1996 initiative, Proposition 209, which applied to state education and employment. A Supreme Court ruling could also apply to private universities.

Padilla had his own concerns, but said Jackson had satisfied them. He noted that federal immigration law refers to foreigners in the United States as aliens, and opponents of immigration often describe unauthorized immigrants as illegals.

No person is an alien, and no human being is illegal, he said, while noting that Jacksons published decisions use terms such as undocumented and non-citizens.

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He finished by describing conversations he had last Friday with high school students in South San Francisco who were worried about their future.

What would you say to all those young Americans ... who may doubt that they can achieve the same great heights? Padilla asked.

In reply, Jackson recalled her own doubts during her first year at Harvard, and an encounter with another Black woman while walking on campus one evening.

The woman, whom she didnt know, leaned over as we crossed and said, Persevere, Jackson said. I would tell them to persevere.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
On a wintry morning in the town of Moulvibazar in northeast Bangladesh, 21-year-old Saeed Ahmed was reading news on Facebook when he came across an unusual story: Truckers were staging a mass protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

Much of the world was bewildered by the Freedom Convoy and its disruptive blockades, but Ahmed was excited. He sensed an opportunity  one made possible by two tech companies with roots in the Bay Area.

Ahmed created a fake Facebook profile, pretending to be an American named Krystle Marie, and used the profile to build a pro-convoy group called Convoy Freedom 2022. Writing as Krystle, Ahmed sent a flood of posts supporting the truckers and bashing liberals such as President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Many people found his group simply by searching for terms like Freedom Convoy, but Ahmed also hooked people by sharing viral pro-convoy messages and memes. His Facebook group swelled, attracting more than 15,000 followers at its peak.

It was only then that the savvy spammer made his move: Ahmed, as Krystle, began to steer his followers to an online retail store where he offered shirts, coffee mugs and other items emblazoned with symbols like flags and big rigs and slogans like Dont Mess with the Truckers and Truck You, Trudeau.

Our objective, Ahmed said in a phone interview with The Chronicle, is to sell T-shirts.

The spread of fake news and disinformation by malicious actors and bots has become a crisis by destabilizing countries, exposing failures of oversight at Facebook and other social networks and making it hard for people to differentiate between what is real and what is not.

In early February, Facebook removed two large pro-convoy groups after inquiries from the news site Grid, which had found that Bangladeshis were managing the groups. When a spin-off trucker convoy started in Australia, it was also propped up by deceptive Facebook groups, including those run by Bangladeshi spammers, the news site Crikey reported.

The motives of these groups are not always easy to pin down. Some have diverted followers to digital donation sites organized by real protesters, others to content mills filled with pay-per-click ads.

But The Chronicle uncovered an extraordinary new set of players in the battle: Internet entrepreneurs in developing countries who take advantage of Western political division  and inflame it  with the sole aim of juicing sales of customized T-shirts, mugs, tumblers, ball caps, tote bags, pillows and phone cases, with the profits shared by American companies.

Foreign spammers targeting polarized political audiences can often inadvertently boost perceptions of a positions prominence or legitimacy, Jared Holt, a misinformation researcher at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said when told of The Chronicles findings.

Though it may seem silly to be concerned about T-shirts and other novelty products, these items can give a reinforcing effect to their target audiences, he said. Fringe political movements may be somewhat validated when they are chosen for marketing.

Its unclear how many people bought pro-convoy merchandise after following this type of fake Facebook account. But after locating more than two dozens similar online stores promoted by Bangladeshis on Facebook, The Chronicle found that the scheme has been made possible not only by Facebook but by an e-commerce company founded in San Francisco in 2013.

GearLaunch, which moved its headquarters to Salt Lake City in 2020, cultivates a loose network of marketers such as Ahmed. The companys software platform allows them to  with just a few keystrokes  place designs on shirts and other products and sell them in online storefronts. GearLaunch handles payment, customer service, shipping and the print on demand manufacturing of the products, a business known as POD.

GearLaunch is the only e-commerce software provider to cover the entire value chain, the companys Facebook page states, so marketers can focus on what they do best  marketing.

But the company has gone further: A GearLaunch point person in Bangladesh, The Chronicle found, has encouraged marketers to trick customers by creating and maintaining fake Facebook accounts  outfitting the accounts with real peoples photos that they download without those users knowledge.

The Chronicle sent requests for comment, and detailed questions about this story, to GearLaunch founder and CEO Thatcher Spring, as well as to a designated press email and the Contact Us page on the companys website. There was no response.

In a statement, Facebook parent company Meta said it had removed groups run by spammers who used abusive tactics to mislead people about the origin and popularity of their content to drive them to off-platform websites. The company said it would enforce against violations when we find them.

GearLaunch has built huge marketer bases in Bangladesh and Vietnam, where it stations employees to cultivate and train marketers, who do not directly work for GearLaunch but use the platform. T-shirts and other items related to Donald Trump have been the big sellers for years, but less political items are popular, too, including those geared for cat and dog lovers.

The company said in 2019 and 2020 that it was generating more than $100 million in annual sales from thousands of merchant websites.

GearLaunchs Bangladesh-specific Facebook group is administered by a person identified online as the companys country manager, S.M. Belal Uddin, and others including Elly Pham, the companys global growth director. At least four Bangladeshi marketers who controlled large pro-convoy Facebook groups were members of this GearLaunch group, The Chronicle found.

Uddin, who has a GearLaunch email address, organizes training sessions and uploads tutorial videos for GearLaunchs Bangladeshi users. In some of the videos viewed by The Chronicle, he shared tips on deceptive marketing tactics  tactics that resembled those adopted by merchants like Ahmed.

In a tutorial video he published on YouTube, Uddin created a fake Facebook profile  Joanna A. Gibson  by using an online name-and-address generator and cloning an actual Americans profile. Uddin showed how to make an account seem legitimate by uploading other peoples photos, then blocking those people on Facebook so they could not see their photos on the deceptive account.

In the video, Uddin then created and joined Facebook groups related to cats in an effort to direct people to purchase cat-related T-shirts and mugs from a GearLaunch-powered store. He suggested to marketers that they needed to practice patience, first making organic posts to gain the trust of fellow Facebook members and followers.

If you join a group and immediately start off by sharing links (to your store), other members will be able to detect that you are a spammer and that you are here for marketing, Uddin said.

Someone removed the video from Uddins YouTube channel after The Chronicle sent GearLaunch a list of questions. He did not respond to a request for an interview. When a reporter tried to call him via a company phone number, the person who answered claimed not to be Uddin, said it was a wrong number and declined to comment.

Rejwan Ahmed Ruhel, another Bangladeshi spammer who has worked closely with Ahmed, said in an interview that he understood GearLaunch was aware of these marketing practices, including the choice of explosive political topics such as the Canadian trucker convoy.

Why wouldnt they know? he asked.

In one training session for GearLaunch marketers, Uddin displayed a T-shirt with a firefighter and the words Every Life Matters, a slogan popularized by critics of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a PowerPoint presentation, he included a slide titled Never Ending POD Game, depicting Donald Trump as the hottest product in America. A day before the 2020 presidential election, however, he posted a photo featuring Biden on GearLaunchs Bangladesh group with the caption, Bid farewell to Trump, start selling Biden T-shirts.

Fake Facebook groups are not the first controversy for the print-on-demand industry. In 2017, San Francisco firm TeeSpring, now rebranded as Spring, was criticized for failing to moderate sales of shirts featuring racist, violent and misogynistic slogans. In 2021, after a U.S. Capitol rioter wore a Camp Auschwitz shirt, TeeSpring apologized for selling similar shirts and removed them from its platform.

Many vendors operating under this model have failed to act when individuals and groups have used their services to sell inflammatory or derogatory products until doing so generates a public relations problem, said Holt of the Atlantic Council.

Because of the nature of the POD business model, the industry has faced significant criticism over intellectual property rights, trademarks and copyrights, as marketers often steal other peoples creative work or borrow popular brands to decorate T-shirts and other products.

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.

GearLaunch alone has been sued at least 10 times in federal court over such disputes, records show, including by prominent companies such as Harley-Davidson, which won $19 million in damages against another POD company in 2018, and by a group of more than two dozen universities including Duke, Northwestern and UCLA. The company reached settlements with the plaintiffs in most if not all of these suits.

In one of the cases in 2016, GearLaunch blamed the marketers, many of whom do not live in the U.S., saying it assumed the marketers had obtained copyright permissions for their designs.

The print-on-demand industry has long relied on marketers in developing countries such as Bangladesh, which has 160 million people. TeeSprings former country manager in Bangladesh, Zafar Hossain Zafi, estimated that up to 40,000 people, mostly young men, work as POD marketers in the country.

The primary reason for this is unemployment, he said in an interview. Young people are becoming desperate to find a source of income.

Justin Tang / Canadian Press

For a young man living halfway across the world, Ahmed possesses a surprisingly firm grasp of Western political fault lines. From debates over COVID-19 restrictions and gun control to Black Lives Matter activism and the Capitol insurrection, Ahmed not only understands the nuances of the biggest issues but the movements and memes they generate.

Mostly, he knows how to cash in on them.

The Chronicle found him and other marketers after noticing they had added their authentic Facebook profiles as administrators of the pro-convoy groups. A reporter contacted five Bangladeshi men who had used fabricated identities on Facebook to build the groups and interviewed them on the phone in Bengali.

They said they put together product designs and marketing strategies but left the logistical side of the business to GearLaunch. Many of the images and slogans collected for the T-shirts and mugs appear to be widely available on the Internet.

To sell the pro-convoy T-shirts through his store, Ahmed said, he signed up on the GearLaunch website and, once his registration was approved within a day, installed the companys software. When the storefront was live, he uploaded designs  in this case, symbols and slogans of the convoy movement that he found on the Internet  to be imprinted on blank T-shirts. He then displayed the mock-up of the T-shirts to potential customers on his store.

Some online marketers promote e-commerce stores by buying online ads. But Ahmed went straight to his customers. He pushed the link to his store to the Facebook group started by Krystal Marie, the one he had grown virally on the back of a hot political issue.

According to promotional materials from GearLaunch, the companys print-on-demand operation would handle everything else. When a customer puts in an order for a shirt, a company-affiliated production facility prints and ships it.

With Print on Demand (POD), you create the designs (or hire a designer) and choose from a list of products available for printing, GearLaunch said in text accompanying a promotional video on YouTube. Then you market your store and once a customer places an order, the POD service does the rest!

Ahmed could also set the price, which determined the potential profit. According to a FAQ page on GearLaunchs website, the company takes a 7% cut of profits, in addition to the cost of production.

For marketers like Ahmed, timing is everything. At his online store, some themes for T-shirts rise and fall with the tide of global politics, while others are consistent winners. These include dogs (Best Dachshund Dad Ever), cats (Check Meowt) and military veterans (Ive Done Bad Things to Bad People and Ill Do It Again If Necessary.)

By late February, the Canadian trucker convoy had ended. In turn, marketers like Ahmed reoriented their focus. Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, his store began to sell T-shirts and other items with the messages Stand with Ukraine, Ukraine Strong and Puck Futin.

Nazmul Ahasan (he/him) is a student in the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Email: nazmul@berkeley.edu Twitter: @the_nazmul
A residential fire that killed a woman and her adult daughter in Vallejo on Tuesday afternoon is under investigation, fire officials said.

Firefighters responded at 4:47 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a home fire on the 100 block of Bayview Avenue and found the basement of a residence fully engulfed in flames, with the fire extending to the home itself, Vallejo Fire Department officials said in a statement on Wednesday.

While firefighters worked to control the blaze and search for residents, they found and rescued three people, two of whom sustained fatal injuries, officials said. The department did not release the names of the victims.

An 81-year-old woman and her 50-year-old daughter were taken to local hospitals for treatment but died from injuries sustained from the fire, officials said. The third resident sustained minor burns and experienced smoke inhalation but is expected to fully recover, fire officials said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but authorities said the blaze started in the homes basement.

Vallejo Fire Chief Kyle Long said in a statement on Wednesday that he extends his condolences to the victims family during this very difficult time.

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We are all devastated by this tragic loss of life, Long said. I would also like to commend our firefighters for their heroic efforts in a rescue operation during an active fire and their ability to preserve the life of one victim during this horrific incident.

Firefighters also discovered a dog that had died in the home, officials said.

Lauren Hernandez (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com
Courtesy of San Francisco Police Department

A San Francisco man was arrested last week on suspicion of pointing a gun at employees in a San Francisco business and demanding cash in an attempted robbery, police said on Wednesday. No one was injured.

Police officers responded to a report of a robbery in the 2200 block of Mission Street shortly before 11:30 a.m. on March 18 and spoke to employees, who said that a man  later identified by police as Bruce Blanco, 37 went into the business, pointed a firearm at multiple employees and demanded they open the cash register in an attempted robbery, San Francisco police said.
A correctional officer was charged with abusive sexual contact against an inmate at an all-women prison in Dublin, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced Wednesday.

Enrique Chavez, 49, of Manteca was charged with two counts of abusive sexual contact against a prisoner. Both incidents were alleged to occur on separate occasions at the Federal Correctional Institution in October 2020.

Chavez was arrested in Arizona on Sunday. Federal prosecutors said Chavez was incarcerated in Tucson but was being transferred to Oakland to face the charges against him.

His case represents the latest in a string of alleged sexual abuse incidents against prisoners at FCI Dublin. Last month, the Associated Press reported that prisoners said they were subjected to rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers, and were silenced when they tried to speak up about it.

According to federal prosecutors, Chavez was working as a cook supervisor when the alleged abusive sexual contact occurred. The U.S. Attorneys Office did not provide further details about the alleged sexual contact.

Each of the two counts Chavez faces carries a maximum statutory sentence of two years imprisonment, a three-year term of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Above all else, the Bureau of Prisons is charged with providing safe and humane treatment of all who are in their custody, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement.

As this case makes clear, the Department of Justice is committed to holding BOP personnel accountable, including through criminal charges, when they fail to uphold their responsibility.

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Last month, former chaplain James Theodore Highhouse pleaded guilty to five felony charges of sexually abusing an inmate and lying to federal investigators.

And last September, former warden Ray Garcia, who has since retired, was charged in federal court with sexually abusing a prisoner and for allegedly asking at least two female inmates to strip naked.

Ryce Stoughtenborough is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ryce.stoughtenborough@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rstoughts
Looking down the barrel at seven vacant food stands, the popular Public Market in Emeryville recently decided to invest more than $1 million to transform four of them from shell kiosks into ready-to-go spaces.

They installed all the necessary kitchen equipment, flooring and other upgrades at a price tag of $300,000 per stand. Its a costly investment they hope will pay off as the Shellmound Street food hall recovers from a steep sales drop during the pandemic.

It appears to be working. Two businesses are set to debut this summer in two of the renovated kiosks: Caribbean-inspired restaurant Calypso Rose Kitchen; and Naru Sushi, from the owners of another market stand, NabiQ Korean BBQ. Public Market is in talks with other owners to take over another two.

This is a reaction to the pandemic, said Mark Stefan, president of Public Market co-owner City Center Realty Partners. Given what the restaurateurs and especially the small vendors we work with had been through, we felt that it was not likely theyd have that much capital to invest. We decided to invest the money in the hopes of finding the right vendors.

The future of food halls, with their mostly indoor and often crowded dining experiences, was in question for much of the pandemic. Stefan thinks demand is rebounding, and said some of the stands sales are back to pre-pandemic levels, at least for businesses that arent short-staffed.

The new vendors are set to join several food options that opened in the last few months, including Indian stand Konarq, popular East Bay bakery A Girl Named Pinky and Pizzeria Mercato, a Neapolitan pizzeria from the owners of East Bay Mediterranean restaurant Lokanta. Live music and events are back in full swing in the hope of drawing more customers.

Public Market made other improvements to drive up business, including spending about a half-million dollars to upgrade an outdoor seating area with new furniture, windscreens and art installations. Theyre hoping to make permanent the drive-in movie night held in the parking lot during the shutdown. Public Market has been under new ownership since January, though the new owners planned biotech labs there wont affect the food hall.

Verna McGowan, owner of Calypso Rose, was eager to open a stand at Public Market  so much so that she didnt look at any other spaces. A native New Yorker of Caribbean descent, McGowan will serve spins on Caribbean food, like fried plantains and oxtail stew made with allspice, orange peels and cassareep (a molasses-like syrup made from cassava root). Calypso Rose will join popular Public Market vendors such as Minnie Bells Soul Movement, Pig in a Pickle and Super Duper Burgers.

We believe in the concept of the Public Market, this idea of allowing people to experience many different foods (from) around the globe, McGowan said.

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Still, several popular stands didnt renew their leases during the pandemic, including the halls oldest vendor, Wazwan Indian Cuisine, which opened along with the original market in 1987. Public Market said it kept on Wazwans chef and employees when its replacement, Indian restaurant Konarq, opened in November. Mama Lamees, a now-shuttered Middle Eastern stand from a graduate of food nonprofit La Cocina was on a short-term lease at Public Market. The same pop-up kiosk helped launch other La Cocina businesses, including Minnie Bells and Nyum Bai. A Girl Named Pinky is now using that stand, also temporarily.

As the threat of omicron fades and pandemic restrictions continue to loosen, Public Market is actively working to fill its remaining vacancies. Theyre on the hunt for salad and sandwich options, Stefan said. He believes there is pent-up demand on both the customer side and small-business side to gather and enjoy a variety of great food together again. He is particularly hopeful about the return of office workers to the area.

When they do find new tenants, Stefan said, theyll spend more money to renovate the remaining empty kiosks.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
Throughout the pandemic, weve experienced time and time again the roller-coaster pattern of a spike in COVID cases followed by a descent, then a lull before another seemingly inevitable wave.

After two years and multiple surges, many people in California may be feeling that we can know what to expect from here  and that, perhaps, its becoming easier to predict when we might see surges and valleys in new coronavirus cases.

But experts stress thats anything but the case, and that the idea of being able to forecast a COVID season, or to know when surges can be expected, is still beyond our capacity.

Instead, experts say, we have to continue watching COVID metrics and patterns, monitor viral material in wastewater and follow whats happening in other countries to spot when another COVID wave is on its way. Generally, theres no way yet to accurately predict COVID surges  or lulls.

A lot of predictions have missed on past waves, so I would hope this leads to some humility in trying to predict future waves, said Dr. Joshua Salomon, professor of health policy at Stanford University School of Medicine.

What about seasonality, such as the annual winter flu?

It is still difficult for us to accurately predict the start of flu season, which we have been living with and tracking for decades, said Shama Cash-Goldwasser, senior technical officer at public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives.

She said it is simply not possible to predict the future of COVID-19 and far more time is needed to be able to even roughly predict future surges. One way she said we can get closer to predicting surges is to support more genomic sequencing and surveillance efforts around the world.

Salomon said while its hard to make any sort of precise predictions about seasonal patterns, there are some clues learned over the past two years that can be revealing.

Weve seen substantial summer waves in the South and large winter waves everywhere, and this likely relates in part to when people tend to spend a lot of time indoors with others due to weather, he wrote in an email. Beyond those broad strokes, though, prediction remains challenging because the way that new variants will continue to evolve is harder to foresee.

Myoung Cha, president of home-based care and chief strategy officer at Carbon Health, recently tweeted that he doesnt think the U.S. is prepared for an impending surge from a yet-more contagious sub-variant of omicron called BA.2. Experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci have said they expect a rise in cases in coming weeks, but nothing as significant as the previous omicron surge.

Unfortunately, we havent entered a predictable zone with COVID yet to say for sure, Cha wrote in an email. The surges have been too frequent so far to say that it will be just like flu season.

Tracking COVID data

Monitoring wastewater is one tactic that has grown in prominence across the country. UCSF infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong said it is the earliest, most unbiased source of the amount of circulating virus. More local universities and institutions have been investing in tracking programs, including Santa Clara County and UC Berkeley, but it has its limitations.

It is limited by not giving an estimate of the number of people infected, Chin-Hong said. That is why it must be combined with case counts, test positivity rates and traditional metrics as a way to determine where we are going.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set up a national wastewater surveillance program, where state, local and tribal health departments can send their wastewater data into a federal database. But Cha said the coverage is currently sparse and sporadic with a lot of the country missing from the network.

Another way to know what could happen here is to look at other countries, particularly in Europe. After the U.K. saw surges from the alpha, delta and omicron variants, the U.S. soon followed. The U.K. has a national healthcare system and robust COVID variant monitoring system.

We certainly should be watching whats happening in other countries right now for clues about how the next wave may unfold here, at the same time that we need to acknowledge that theres a lot of uncertainty about the precise timing and impact of future surges, Salomon said.

Chin-Hong said the U.K. and Denmark are helping provide instructive cases right now.

The BA.2 surge is already declining rapidly in Denmark despite no reintroduction of restrictions, he said. We dont yet know where the U.K. surge is headed, but it will likely be similar to what was observed in Denmark: high numbers of cases, but manageable hospitalizations without a reintroduction of restrictions.

Planning for the future

All that being said, could we plan our lives, events and travel around future COVID waves?

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I think its pretty difficult to know what the rest of this year will look like in terms of future waves, so its prudent to have some contingency plans in place for any big event planning, said Salomon. On the other hand, it makes sense that people will adapt their daily routines  around things like dining in restaurants or going to the movies  in view of current levels of transmission in the community.

The CDC recently released new guidance that measures COVID-19 community levels in the low, medium and high range. The agency would only recommend reinstating some restrictions when cases and hospitalizations are at high levels in a county, state or territory. Currently most of the country is at low or medium levels.

Cha said the CDC tracker is a lagging indicator and not a good way to plan ahead for events and travel, and instead said keeping an eye on rising test positivity rates along with case rates are better metrics to watch.

Salomon called the CDCs approach coarse, and instead recommends people monitor COVID trends in their own areas, including wastewater surveillance. He said it continues to be important for people to consider their own risk tolerance, including if they are immunocompromised, work in high-risk essential jobs, or have children who are too young to be vaccinated.

There are always small things we can do, like wearing masks indoors when there is substantial transmission in the community, that can reduce our own risks and also keep others safe, especially if we see signs that things may be taking a turn for the worse, he said.

Chin-Hong said knowing how long the protective effect of vaccines and prior infection last can be a helpful way to assess personal risks.

Antibodies from vaccines or infection may last six months, but the more times the population is hit with waves of infection, the better it is equipped to deal with the next threat in general, even beyond six months from the prior surge or vaccination.

Memory T- and B-cells offer even longer lasting protection against serious disease, hospitalization and death, particularly after people get boosted. This part of the immune system is adaptive, likely working to protect against future variants as well, he added.

Ultimately, he said, and unfortunately, the only thing predictable about COVID is that it is unpredictable.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com
Throughout the pandemic, weve heard the narrative of a mass exodus from big cities as many offices went remote, and people sought out more space and affordable housing.

But new data from the U.S. Census Bureau gives us a closer estimate of how many people left than ever before, and San Francisco and San Mateo County are near the top of the list with the biggest decreases in population in counties with 100,000 or more residents.

From July 2020 to July 2021, San Franciscos population decreased by an estimated 6.3%, losing nearly 55,000 people in that time frame. San Mateo County was fourth, with its population decreasing 3.2% and a loss of nearly 25,000 people.

Domestic out-migration, or the movement of people out of the counties and elsewhere in the U.S., drove population loss from all the fastest-shrinking counties. Domestic out-migration from San Francisco was more than 10 times larger from July 2020 to July 2021 than over the previous year, and nearly nine times higher in San Mateo County.

While many counties also saw increased deaths in 2021, probably caused in part by the winter COVID surge that peaked in early January, those deaths were outweighed by a corresponding increase in births. All counties that saw major population decreases still saw more births than deaths in 2021, whats called positive natural change.

Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, told The Chronicle in an email that the Census Bureau data confirms patterns the organization has been tracking over the course of the pandemic.

Remote work options combined with a high cost of living in the Bay Area have been the major factors contributing to a falling population in many parts of the region, he wrote. San Francisco and San Mateo counties in particular have some of the highest percentages of remote work eligible occupations in the country and some of the highest housing costs in the nation.

Ahmad Thomas, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, said his initial reaction is theres nothing new about these findings.

Bay Area residents are relocating to cheaper locations within California and further away from the Bay Area, he said. The cost benefit dynamics for both employers and employees in the state are quite serious.

He said from a higher-level perspective, the cost of housing and cost of living in the Bay Area continues to be a significant challenge, and the focus now is to enhance the California value proposition for businesses to locate, invest and expand in the Bay Area. He said that requires continued policy innovation and continued solutions around affordable housing for us to maintain competitive advantage.

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It is an area of significant focus for our leaders, certainly the business leaders in Silicon Valley, he added.

San Francisco had the second-largest population decline after New York County (Manhattan), which saw a decrease of 6.6% from July 2020 to July 2021. Los Angeles County didnt quite crack the top 20, with its population declining 1.6%.

San Francisco rents have been bouncing back after tumbling at the beginning of the pandemic, and more companies are asking employees to return to the office. Bellisario said hes interested to see how this will impact population growth.

Affordability and quality of life issues remain huge challenges for San Francisco on its road to full population recovery, he said. Employment numbers are also showing San Franciscos jobs recovery moves more slowly than the rest of the nation, which does not bode well for future population growth.

Kellie Hwang and Susie Neilson are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, susan.neilson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: Twitter: @kelliehwang, @susieneilson
Cleve Jones has called the Castro neighborhood his home for five decades. The gay activist first moved to the city in 1973 from Arizona as a 19-year-old and was quickly swept up in the burgeoning LGBTQ political movement of the era, becoming a protege of pioneering gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and a community organizer in his own right.

In 1987, the neighborhood was also where Jones founded the Names Project, the organization behind the AIDS Memorial Quilt. When Jones published When We Rise: My Life in the Movement in 2016, the book chronicled the evolution of the Castro as an LGBTQ neighborhood as much as it told his own story.

Even during those times when I was away from the city, I was never really away, Jones, 67, said recently. I was always coming back. Thats my hood.

But this week, Jones is moving out of the rent-controlled, one-bedroom flat in an 18th Street duplex hes lived in since 2010. The move comes after he received notice of a significant rent increase from the buildings new owner, who argues that the unit is not his primary residence. Jones denies that is the case, but has decided he does not have the stamina to fight what would likely be a protracted legal battle to remain there.

For those familiar with San Franciscos often volatile real estate and rental issues, the dispute between Jones and his new landlord is probably not surprising. What is unusual in this case is the high profile of the tenant in question.

The new owner of the duplex is San Francisco resident Lily Pao Kue, 30. Zillow shows that she purchased the property on Feb. 18 for $1,585,000. Since making the purchase, Kue has initiated some construction work on the building, installed new security cameras, had a car belonging to Jones friend and roommate towed from in front of the property, and notified Jones that she planned to more than double the rent.

Jones showed The Chronicle a letter he received from Kue on March 18 informing him that she had determined he had vacated the unit and was invoking a Costa-Hawkins petition, which would allow her to raise the rent from $2,393 to $5,200 as of July 1. Costa-Hawkins is a state law that sets some requirements for cities with rent control, including allowing a landlord to raise rent to market rate once a tenant moves out.

Kue says that she is seeking a hearing on her petition with the San Francisco Rent Board, but is waiting for a staff member to be assigned to the case.

I want Cleve to continue the tenancy and let the judge determine the petition, Kue said in an email. I will be gracious and accepting of law.

The San Francisco Rent Board did not immediately respond to questions about the case.

Experts say there are a few ways to prove residency in a property. According to Janan New, the executive director of the San Francisco Apartment Association, a drivers license address and utility bills are among the documents that can be used as proof. The San Francisco Tenants Union also lists numerous factors, including the presence of personal possessions and that the tenant resides there except for reasonable temporary periods of absence. Jones said he believes he meets these requirements.

Jones said he feels that he and his roommate, Brenden Chadwick, have been harassed by Kue, citing her towing away Chadwicks car without notice and installing the security cameras that allow her to monitor their comings and goings. He also is concerned that the construction work on the property could endanger archival materials from the LGBTQ movement he has kept there. She denies that she has harassed Jones and Chadwick.

Kue, who described herself as a stock market investor who previously worked as a janitor and as a farm laborer after immigrating to the United States from Thailand, calls the duplex her dream home. She said that since the dispute over the duplex became public, she is worried about harassment from Jones social media followers. She said she has filed a police report after comments shes seen in response to Jones post about the situation on Facebook.

Rather than further contest Kues plans, though, Jones and Chadwick plan to move out this weekend and look for a new home in the Castro, which means they would lose any potential relocation payments if Kue were to lose her Costa-Hawkins petition and choose to pursue eviction.

If I were a younger man, I would fill the sandbags and Id batten down the hatches and would drag this out for as long as possible, Jones said. Part of me feels quite guilty that I dont have it in me to do it. I am not in good health, Im HIV-positive and one of the longest-living HIV survivors.  And Im old.

Still, Jones is not going quietly. On Sunday, supporters of Jones plan to take part in a rally at 11 a.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza focusing on his situation and similar issues facing other renters in the neighborhood. A 2021 story in The Chronicle reported that since 2009, there have been 614 no-fault evictions in District Eight, where the Castro is located, and that most are either because of owner move-ins or Ellis Act evictions, where the owner decides to stop renting altogether.

While Jones said he expects to survive financially, It is very clear how an event like this could be truly catastrophic for so many others.

Cleve recognizes that this is happening and has happened to so many other folks, said District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who will be at the rally. But he is such an iconic figure and so associated with that neighborhood. Its heartbreaking.

Tina Aguirre, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District manager, told The Chronicle that housing security in the neighborhood is especially important for older residents and people living with HIV, and that the district is saddened by what Jones is experiencing.

The fact that he is a community icon, organizer, and AIDS activist underscores that this can happen to any of us, Aguirre said.

Kue said that she installed security cameras on the property to monitor construction workers. But in checking the comings and goings from the building, and seeing that many of Jones posts on Facebook indicated that he had been staying in Guerneville, she said she determined that the unit on 18th Street was not his primary address, and that there was overwhelming proof that Chadwick was living there alone.

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Jones said he was told by Kue that she planned to move into the vacant unit above his after construction on the property was completed, and that she planned to move her mother and grandmother into the unit he and Chadwick occupied.

Jones said Kue began discussing buyout options with him, but said she did not want to involve attorneys. Kue said she still does not have an attorney representing her. Jones, though, hired Dave Crow of the tenants rights firm Crow & Rose.

Crow said he believes the rent increase notice was not legal because Jones had not moved out of the property.

Jones denies that he ever vacated his unit, but says that, for his health, he has spent time during the two years of the pandemic at a fairly primitive cabin he owns in Guerneville.

When COVID happened, of course, that became my refuge, Jones said of the cabin. Im 67, Im immunocompromised. So Im guessing that thats her reference to me vacating the unit. But of course its a lie. I never vacated. I never moved my stuff out and continued to spend time there.

Among that stuff, Jones said, are materials from the LGBTQ movement going back to the 1970s, including Milks famous bullhorn, the quilt his great-grandmother made that inspired the creation of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and items connected to the filming of the 2008 biopic Milk, in which Jones was a central character.

To protect them from possible damage, Jones has given the National AIDS Memorial some of the materials related to the Names Project while the GLBT Historical Society Museum now has Milks bullhorn.

My office is right there on Castro Street, my doctor is right there on Castro Street. The hospital is right down the street.  Guerneville is lovely, but it doesnt have the kind of specialized health care thats necessary for people in my circumstance.

Jones said he needs to remain in the city for his work as community and political coordinator at Unite Here, the North American Hospitality Workers Union.

Jones said he, like many longtime survivors of HIV, cannot afford to retire because many of his potential earning years were spent battling serious health complications from the virus instead of working.

Still, Jones said hes turned down requests to create crowdfunding campaigns to assist him. He said hes also received offers of legal help and housing, but has not felt at risk enough to accept help that others in the community likely need more.

Im going to be just fine, but shes going to do this to someone else, Jones said. This old gay guy is being forced out of his home, but the real issue is one more gay elder has been lost and one more rental unit has been lost.

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF
Dont expect winter wonderland weather this weekend if youre headed to Lake Tahoe.

Record-high temperatures were forecast for the area, reaching into the upper 60s around the lake, mid-70s in Markleeville and the eastern Sierra and the high 70s to low 80s in Carson City and Reno, according to the National Weather Services Reno office.

The unseasonably warm weather began Wednesday with South Lake Tahoe setting a record high at 66 degrees, exceeding the previous record of 62 degrees set in 2004.

On Friday, high temperatures were expected to rise to 69 degrees in Truckee but dip to 67 in South Lake Tahoe. Saturday is expected to be cooler, with a high of 65 in South Lake Tahoe and 66 in Truckee.

Those projected highs would set records in South Lake Tahoe on Friday, surpassing previous record highs of 64 degrees. In Truckee, the temperatures could break a record on Friday, topping the current record by one degree.

Thoughout the area, 14 cities could set or tie records on Friday, according to forecasters.

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The temperatures  about 20 degrees above average  were expected to wane on Sunday and Monday as a storm front bringing rain and snow moves in.

 Michael Cabanatuan
Weve all seen a Greek pizza on the menu at a pizzeria. It usually consists of toppings like feta cheese, kalamata olives, diced red onion and so forth. But the real San Francisco version of a Greek pizza might be a mashup of the ever-popular Square Pie Guys and Souvla.

In a one-time event, the two San Francisco fast-casual staples are teaming up to benefit La Cocina, a non-profit food incubator based in the Mission district.

On Sunday, April 3, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Square Pie Guys Oakland location, the Souvla Pie Guys pizza will make its debut  Souvlas chicken salad combined with Square Pie Guys Detroit-style pizza. Tender pulls of shredded chicken with pickled red onion, mizithra cheese, Souvlas own Granch dressing and the creative use of navel orange slices sit gingerly atop the crispy rounded edges of a pan-baked pizza crust perfected by the Square Pie Guys.

It seems as though this collaboration was destined to happen at some point.

We've always been big fans of The Square Pie Guys and really admire what they've built here in a very short and challenging period of time. Their pizzas are incredibly delicious and of course, wildly popular both here in San Francisco and Oakland, said Charles Bililies, founder and CEO of Souvla. When they came to us with this collaboration opportunity we leapt at it, bringing our two brands together and creating a really special and unique product."

A portion of the proceeds will go to La Cocina, which works to solve the inequity in business ownership for women, people of color and immigrants. La Cocina launched the careers of many successful food businesses in the Bay Area, such as Nyum Bai, Azalinas and La Guerreras Kitchen.

We continue to be inspired by their mission to support women in formalizing food businesses, and our Oakland neighbor, La Guerrera's Kitchen was born out of La Cocina, said the Square Pie Guys in a statement. Their food is incredible, and we love that the sales from this pizza can help support La Cocina."

Bililies echoed that sentiment.

"For years, La Cocina has done an extraordinary job of mentoring and celebrating entrepreneurial women, immigrants and people of color in the culinary space, he told SFGATE. We at Souvla strive to emulate those values within our own organization and wish to continue to highlight what incredible value they provide to the local community and beyond."

The afternoon shindig will also feature a musical set from DJ Joog Mac and mini Greek froyos from Souvlas food truck. The pizza will also be available at both Square Pie Guys locations through June if you cant attend the party.

The Souvla collaboration launch party will take place at the Square Pie Guys Oakland outpost, located at 499 Dr Huey P. Newton Way, Oakland, on Sunday, April 3, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. More info is available on the Eventbrite page.
Dmitry Likin spent more than two decades helping to shape the look of Russian state television, but he says neither he nor his friends ever watched the news.

It is an illustration of the kind of bargain long made by some employees of the Kremlin propaganda machine  people who valued the steady work and the creative challenge, even if they did not agree with the mission of their workplace.

It was only this month, after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, that Likin resigned as the longtime art director for Channel 1, the Russian state television network that is a major player in the Kremlins sprawling propaganda apparatus. He insisted that he was not a politician, but that the invasion meant he was now part of an operation with a life-exterminating agenda.

In Russia, television is made for people who for one reason or another are too lazy to use alternative sources of information, Likin said in a phone interview, reflecting on his audience. These are simply people who lack education or who lack the habit of analysis.

Putins invasion of Ukraine has led some Russians who long worked for the government to cut ties with it, a sign of how the Kremlin is struggling to keep society fully unified behind the war. Thousands have been arrested protesting the invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands have fled the country, and on Wednesday, Putins climate envoy, Anatoly Chubais, became the first senior government official reported to have quit since the invasion began Feb. 24.

There have been at least four high-profile resignations at Russias state television channels, a crucial pillar of Putins dominance over the countrys domestic politics. Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel 1 staff member who interrupted a live news broadcast last week to unfurl an anti-war poster that said Theyre lying to you here, offered the most striking act of protest. Others, including Likin, have gone more quietly, providing a glimpse of the ferment inside Putins system  and a reminder of the immense power of television in shaping how most Russians see the war.

People are just depressed  clinically depressed, Zhanna Agalakova, a Channel 1 correspondent who resigned this month, said of some of her colleagues left behind. Many thinking people are sensing their own guilt. And there is no exit, you understand? Simply asking for forgiveness is not enough.

All of Russias national television networks are controlled by the Kremlin, and although their influence has declined with the rise of YouTube and social media, they remain the publics single main source of news. About two-thirds of Russians relied on state television last year to get their news, down from 90% in 2014, according to surveys by the Levada Center, an independent Moscow pollster.

During the war, the state television channels have delivered to Russians a picture of the conflict that is the polar opposite of what people see in the West: The Russians are the good guys, as they were when fighting Nazi Germany in World War II, bringing liberation to Ukrainian lands seized by neo-Nazis funded by the hegemonic West. Pictures of dead civilians and destroyed homes are falsely branded either fake or the consequence of the Ukrainians shelling themselves.

Local residents are saying that the Ukrainian military is deliberately shooting at residential buildings, a Channel 1 reporter said in a segment broadcast Wednesday from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the target of some of the fiercest Russian bombardment of the war. Others are saying the nationalists were ordered to destroy the city as much as possible before retreating.

Most Russians, pollsters say, buy into the message beamed into their living rooms  especially since the war is being presented as a logical extension to the narrative of enmity and grievance toward the West that Russian television has been promoting for years. And most state television journalists have, for now, stayed in their jobs, amping up to a fever pitch the message of Russia struggling for its right to exist. Liliya Gildeyeva, an anchor who quit the state-run channel NTV, told the Russian outlet The Insider this week that she could not judge her colleagues who had stayed behind  and acknowledged that she herself had made compromise after compromise, realizing only when the war started how far she had gone.

When you gradually give in to yourself, you do not notice the depth of the fall, she said.

The shock of the war appears to be what pushed tens of thousands of Russians into a historic exodus in recent weeks, packing planes to destinations that were still accepting flights from Russia, including Turkey and Armenia. Although some were journalists and activists fleeing possible arrest, many others were tech workers and other young professionals who suddenly no longer saw a future for themselves in Russia.

Some members of Russias elite, too, have headed for the exits. News of the most high-profile departure so far came on Wednesday when Bloomberg News reported that Chubais, the Kremlins climate envoy, had quit over the war in Ukraine and left the country. The Kremlin confirmed that Chubais had stepped down. He was seen as one of the few liberal-minded officials remaining in Putins government, and his leading role in Moscows 1990s economic reforms made him unpopular in much of Russian society.

It is far from clear if the grumblings among some of the elite could in any way destabilize Putins government. Likin, the former Channel 1 art director, said he believed that people like him who were willing to resign over their principles made up a tiny minority of Russias populace.

A lot of people dont work for an idea, Agalakova, the former Channel 1 correspondent, said of her ex-colleagues who stayed behind. People have a family, have loans and have some kind of need to survive.

Those who quit state television jobs, and especially those who speak out, face an uncertain future. Agalakova spoke by phone from Paris, where she had been based as a correspondent, and said some of her acquaintances stopped communicating with her after she quit. Likin said he planned to stay in Russia and continue his parallel career as an architect. He said he could imagine returning to television if it changes its agenda from a life-exterminating one to a life-affirming one.

Government-sponsored polls claim that most Russians support Putins invasion, although analysts caution that people are even less likely to answer surveys truthfully at a time of war. Years of propaganda on Russian television, Agalakova now recognizes, prepared the ground for war, in particular by subverting Russians remembrance of their countrys World War II sacrifice into support for the Kremlins current policies.

Of course, when the concept of Nazism is thrown into society, as though it is literally in our backyard in Ukraine, everyone reacts instantly, Agalakova said, referring to the Kremlins false claims that Russia is fighting Nazis in Ukraine. This is a shameless game. This is a fraudulent game.

Amid the propaganda barrage, Russians who distrust television have found ever fewer places to turn for more accurate news. Since the start of the war, the liberal Echo of Moscow radio station has been shut down, the TV Rain independent television channel has gone off the air for the security of its staff, and access to Facebook and Instagram has been blocked by the government.

On Tuesday, Russian authorities announced that a popular journalist, Alexander Nevzorov, was under criminal investigation for posting about the Russian bombing of Mariupol on his Instagram page. It was the latest effort to sow fear among critics of the war by trumpeting the enforcement of a new law that hands out as many as 15 years in prison for any deviation from the official narrative about what the Kremlin calls a special military operation in Ukraine.

Denis Volkov, director of the Levada polling center, said the real test for Russian public opinion is still to come as the economic hardships touched off by Western sanctions filter through society. Still, he said he thought the Kremlins narrative of a West subverting Ukraine in order to destroy Russia and of Russias waging a noble fight to protect its people abroad has become so strongly ingrained in the television-viewing public that it was unlikely to be dislodged anytime soon.

What seems to fit is accepted, what doesnt fit is simply rejected, Volkov said of how many Russians perceive the news to agree with the television narrative. What is true or not true doesnt matter.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The online world of adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory sprang into action almost as soon as Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted his alarm: that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Biden administrations Supreme Court nominee, had handed down sentences below the minimum recommended in federal guidelines for possessing images of child sexual abuse.

An apologist for child molesters, QAnon supporter Zak Paine declared in a video the next day, on March 17, asserting without evidence that Democrats were repeatedly elevating pedophiles and people who can change the laws surrounding punishment for pedophiles.

By Wednesday, as Jackson appeared for the third day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, claims that she was lenient toward people charged with possessing the illegal imagery had emerged as a recurring theme in her questioning by Republicans.

Every judge who does what you are doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., picking up the line of attack.

Never mind that those sentences did not come up at Jacksons confirmation hearing last year to a federal appeals court, that other judicial nominees have faced no questions about similar sentencing decisions, or that a former federal prosecutor called the allegations meritless to the point of demagoguery in the conservative National Review.

The line of attack has set off a new debate over the Republican Partys stance toward QAnon. A White House spokesperson this week accused Hawley of pandering to the conspiracy theorys believers among his partys rank and file, calling his comments an embarrassing QAnon-signaling smear. Conservatives, in return, blasted the Biden administration for invoking the specter of QAnon for its own political agenda, to fire up the Democratic base without addressing the questions.

Left Invokes QAnon After Josh Hawley Exposes Ketanji Brown Jacksons Soft Record on Child Sex Offenders, declared a headline on the right-wing website Breitbart that was widely shared this week in QAnon circles.

A spokesperson for Hawley declined to comment on his motivations.

Although few QAnon followers appeared to take notice of Jacksons sentencing record before Hawleys tweets, her judicial career had touched the roots of the conspiracy theory: an earlier internet myth known as Pizzagate.

That debunked theory held that Satan-worshipping Democrats were trafficking children out of the basement of a Washington restaurant, and in 2017 a believer armed with an assault riffle stormed in and fired his weapon. Jackson, as a district court judge, sentenced him to four years in prison, saying his actions left psychological wreckage.

The QAnon conspiracy theory was born a few months later when an anonymous writer  often signing as Q  elaborated on the discredited myth that a cabal of top Democrats was abusing children. Q purported to be a top official close to President Donald Trump and asserted that the president was waging a secret war against the cabal.

Slogans about protecting the children became catchphrases that QAnon adherents used to identify one another, and their bizarre fantasy  initially encouraged by far-right news outlets, then promoted by a ring of social media influencers  appeared to spread widely among Trump supporters. At least two Republican lawmakers elected in 2020 had made statements supportive of QAnon, and prosecutors say that many people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol subscribed to the theory.

Among those now echoing the Republican allegations about the judicial nominee, in fact, is Ron Watkins, a former website administrator who is widely believed to have played a major role in writing the anonymous Q posts. Watkins, who has denied any part in the Q messages, is running for the Republican nomination to an Arizona congressional seat, largely on the strength of his QAnon association; this week, he qualified for the ballot.

Judge Jackson is a pedophile-enabler, Watkins wrote Wednesday on social media. Any senator who votes to confirm her nomination is also a pedophile-enabler.

QAnon Telegram channels on Wednesday grew increasingly agitated. She has committed unbelievable crimes against humanity with her judgeship, one user wrote. If she gets confirmed the victims remain victims & trapped in the misery bestowed on them, said another. Some talked of violence.

Polls suggest that QAnon supporters have continued to make up a significant portion of the Republican base even after Trumps departure from office contradicted Qs predictions. One poll last October found that about 60% of Trump voters had heard of QAnon, and 3 out of 10 of those Republicans viewed it favorably.

Yet the same poll found that Democrats were far more likely to say they had heard a lot about QAnon and also overwhelmingly to reject it, and other polls, taken after the attack on the Capitol, indicated far more widespread condemnation. Democrats thus have much to gain politically from linking the name QAnon to Republicans questioning a Supreme Court nominee, the polls suggest, but individual Republicans might benefit by signaling to QAnon supporters without explicitly naming the movement.

You wouldnt talk about the extreme stuff, but you would talk about how people in elite power are enabling traffickers, said Bond Benton, an associate professor at Montclair State University who has studied QAnon. That is a secret handshake to the Q crowd.

Other conservative commentators have noted that soft-on-crime or soft-on-sex-crime accusations against politicians or judges have long resonated widely with voters regardless of connection to QAnon, disputing the accusation that the Republican questions are any kind of covert signal.

Others on the right have also accused Democrats of employing their own dog whistles  notably when Amy Coney Barrett, a practicing Catholic and now a Supreme Court justice, was nominated to an appeals court. Many conservatives have said that they heard a covert appeal to anti-Catholic or anti-religious bigotry when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the judge that the dogma lives loudly within you.

Jim Manley, a former top aide to the Senate Democratic leadership who helped wage a half-dozen battles over Supreme Court confirmations, said that party elders often understand the Senate math makes confirmation highly likely and prefer to get it over quickly, without mudslinging that could alienate moderate voters  in this case, by evoking QAnon.

But I learned the hard way that there are always some in the caucus  especially those who may be thinking about running for president  who are going to want to throw some red meat to the base, Manley said. They just cant help themselves.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
WASHINGTON - Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have zeroed in on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's service on the board of a wealthy D.C. private school during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., complained that the school tells children they "can choose their own gender and teaches them about so-called White privilege." Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the school, which also educates Jackson's daughter and is known for its focus on social justice and diversity, "is filled and overflowing with critical race theory."

In the hearings and in conservative media, Georgetown Day School - which is in a wealthy area of overwhelmingly Democratic D.C. - has proved a useful foil for social conservatives who think American schools are teaching students inappropriate materials about sex, gender, White privilege and "critical race theory," which has become a catchall label for lessons on race and history.

Founded in 1945, Georgetown Day was the first racially integrated school in the nation's capital. It is a sought-after institution where students call teachers by their first names and study a "progressive curriculum." Annual tuition is more than $40,000.

The school, which educates more than 1,000 students, publishes a detailed "anti-racism action plan" online and, according to an article in the student newspaper, requires parents to sign an enrollment contract saying they are committed to the school's anti-racism efforts. The school hosted a "Transgender Day of Visibility" last year, and some parents belong to a White anti-racist group "that empowers White allies to show up effectively, reliably, and meaningfully for racial justice."

Jackson has served on the board since 2019. Current and former board members include an impressive roster of powerful Washingtonians, including former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, D-Ward 5. Lisa Fairfax, a law professor and Jackson's Harvard roommate, is the board's current chair. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, whose children attended the school, once sat on the board.

During the confirmation hearing Tuesday, Cruz revealed a stack of controversial books that he said are taught or are available at Georgetown Day and questioned Jackson about the book "AntiRacist Baby" by Ibram X. Kendi.

"This is a book that is taught at Georgetown Day School to students in pre-K through second grade," he said, as he displayed blown-up pages from the book. "Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids, that babies are racist?" he asked.

Jackson answered: "I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist, or though they are not valued, or though they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors. I do not believe in any of that."

The head of Georgetown Day did not respond to requests for comment on the exchange. More than a half-dozen board members and staff members also did not respond to questions about the school's curriculum and what responsibilities fall to the board.

But although the board does not shape the curriculum - that falls to the head of school - it does approve some social initiatives, including the anti-racism enrollment pledge, according to multiple people familiar with school's operations and reporting in the student newspaper. The school credits the board's chair with guiding the school's "institutional growth around anti-racism."

Trustees' main responsibility, however, is overseeing the finances of the school, according to staffers and former board members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about the school. McDuffie told the student newspaper, the Augur Bit, that Jackson works with him on the "Facilities Master Planning Committee" and that she has brought a "special eye for nuance and complex legal issues."

Jackson did not detail her work on the board during the hearing, but she issued a sweeping defense of her involvement in the school, saying that the school is a private institution and that any parent who enrolls a child there does so willingly. She cited the school's history and informed Cruz that it was founded by a group of Jewish and Black families at a time when schools were still segregated.

"Georgetown Day School has a special history that I think is important to understand when you consider my service on that board," she said. "The idea of equality - justice - is at the core of the Georgetown Day School mission."

Students and staffers say Jackson is a typical and involved parent at the school. She and her husband are among a long list of parents who volunteer to speak to classes about their professions. The school newspaper noted that Jackson informed the school about a citywide mock trial event in which students argued constitutional cases in front of D.C. federal judges. A history class signed up to participate.

Aidan Kohn-Murphy, a senior and the student body president at Georgetown Day, said the school doesn't shy from teaching students about systemic racism and issues of gender identity, even in younger grades. He said the school offers a wide variety of courses and electives - including women and literature, creative writing and African history - and students are exposed to countless books. He hadn't read any of the books about law enforcement and race that Cruz showed to the hearing but thinks they made be available for his schoolmates to read.

Kohn-Murphy said his schoolmates watched the hearings unfold and were shocked that the aspects of the school in which they took pride were thrust onto the national stage in such a negative light.

"Everyone is having a reaction of confused pride," he said. "A commitment to racial justice and accepting everyone's identity - to be put on a national scale as an attack is confusing."

Head of School Russell Shaw, who did not respond to requests for comment, told students that he expects Jackson to step down from the board.
Joey (left) and Justin Young, 24 of Brookfield will compete on season 19 of "The Bachelorette." (Photos courtesy of ABC's "The Bachelorette" via Facebook)

Joey (left) and Justin Young, 24 of Brookfield will compete on season 19 of "The Bachelorette." (Photos courtesy of ABC's "The Bachelorette" via Facebook)

Season 19 of ABCs The Bachelorette will not only feature two bachelorettes, but also a set of twins  from Brookfield. A UConn alum is also on the cast list.

For the first time, Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey are both set to star as the Bachelorettes, and ABC released the first look of the contestants on Facebook Wednesday.

Among them are Justin and Joey Young, 24, from Brookfield. According to the brothers social media, both attended Quinnipiac University in 2016.

Matt Labagh, 25, might live in San Diego but he is a Connecticut Husky. According to UConn Phi Delt's twitter, Labagh is a UConn alum and was the 51st founding father of Phi Delt.

ABC/The Bachelorette on Facebook

This is not the first time contestants have Connecticut ties on the show. Season 26 of The Bachelor, in which both Recchia and Windey were on, featured Tess Tookes from Stamford and Yale Law School student Daria Rose.

It was it was like the least familiar experience Ive ever had, Tookes said in a previous interview. I cant compare it to anything else. I guess maybe its like going to the prom with no date ... hoping to meet someone that night.

Craig Sjodin/ABC

According to Windey's bio, the bachelorette doesn't have a physical type but if the contestant doesn't have a personality? "It's a hard pass." Her ideal man will challenge her, communicate their feelings and work hard to "equally carry the weight of the relationship."

Racchia is looking for someone who is as playful, passionate and spontaneous as she is, according to her bio. She wants them to be nurturing, empathetic and respectful. She wants to find "crazy, insane love that makes sense to no one else but her and her soulmate.

According to US Weekly, the show is set to start filming this month. Season 19 will premiere on July 11 on ABC.
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Sheriff, prosecutor discuss Sheridan Township murder case

Jeff Kiessel | Dailyy News Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Lauren Kreinbrink answers a question during Wednesday's press conference held to discuss the investigation into the alleged murder into Jeffrey Grant. Jeff Kiessel | Daily News Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole stands next to Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Lauren Kreinbrink as he answers a question during Wednesdays press conference held to discuss the investigation into the alleged murder into Jeffrey Grant.

Some details of a fire that claimed the life of a Sheridan Township man were released during a press conference Wednesday morning at the Mason County Sheriffs Office.

Jeffrey Grant, 57, died in a fire on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, as did two dogs at his residence. Hope Lynn Snyder was arraigned last Friday on several felony charges including murder and arson in relation to the fire.

Snyder, 41, of Kincheloe, faces a felony count of homicide open murder, homicide murder in the first degree, first-degree arson, two counts of killing/torturing animals in the second degree and a count of habitual offender supplemental warrant, third conviction. She was arraigned in 79th District Court by Magistrate Glenn Jackson III.

There is no bond, and she is lodged at the Mason County Jail.

The defendant has a presumption of innocence.  It is a fascinating case, said Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole. It showed a great deal of work and patience that went into it. I know were talking five months since this fire took place. These events sometimes take a lot of time.

Patience proved fruitful for our investigators in this matter.

Cole spoke to the family, too, thanking them.

I cannot imagine the pain you have gone through, and for that, I am truly sorry, he said. But you were patient with us. During those times when social media was abuzz with various theories and rumors, you allowed us to work at the pace that best served the investigators.

For that, I am grateful.

Cole said near the end of the press conference that it took a lot of work.

I hate to say it, but this could have been written off as a fatal fire, he said. But there things that were just not adding up.

Investigators conducted 18 interviews, Cole said, and picked up 23 search warrants including eight on electronic devices. The investigation went through five other counties besides Mason  Saginaw, Osceola, Tuscola, Lapeer and Mackinaw  plus it took investigators to Alaska.

This trip was crucial in tying evidence gathered in Mason County and to validate statements that were made, Cole said, adding that the trip to Alaska was well worthwhile.

Mason County Prosecutor Lauren Kreinbrink and Cole declined to state the nature of Grants death, only adding that he was alive on the second floor at the time the fire was set at the residence. Kreinbrink said the fire started on the first floor.

My preference would be to release that information in the course of the proceedings, Kreinbrink said, particularly at the preliminary examination.

Cole said Grant and Snyder were acquaintances.

Miss Snyder had visited Mr. Grants residence on at least one other prior occasion before the fire. As to the particular details of their relationship, that will come out as evidence is presented to the court, Kreinbrink said.

Snyder drove a 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche that belonged to Grant to the Saginaw Bay region. It was recovered on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021, in a parking lot in Saginaw at a childrens hospital, but Cole didnt know Wednesday morning the exact hospital where it was recovered.

When investigators notified the media of the missing vehicle, Cole said an individual contacted them from Osceola County about Snyder.

That put us on a course going east from here. Our detectives worked with the authorities from those counties as mentioned after tips were received, investigative tips were received in those areas, Cole said.

Cole said Snyder took a flight from MBS International Airport near Freeland that Friday to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, and she was arrested by Detroit Metro Airport Police as she was coming off of her plane from Freeland. She was apprehended without incident.

Kreinbrink said Snyder intended to board a flight for Anchorage, Alaska.

I reached out to Sheriff (William) Federspiel over in Saginaw County and (asked) can you get to the airport and get a hold of her for us, Cole said. They just missed her. She boarded a flight. At that time, our detectives were heading across U.S. 10, heading to Saginaw to try to get her.

When our detectives learned she hopped a flight, our detectives hopped on (I-75) southbound and started heading to Detroit. We made a phone call to the Detroit airport police, and they got her getting off the flight in Detroit, he said.

Early on in the investigation, we knew there was a tie to Alaska. We didnt know what that really was or how significant it was. Through the execution of search warrants and information, I felt it was prudent to get our detectives to Alaska.

Not that I dont trust the detectives in Alaska, but our authorities had information that had not been released that needed to be communicated to a person in Alaska. I thought that it was important that the people she was communicating with in Alaska saw Mason County detectives in Alaska. I think it sends a message that were very serious about this.

Snyder pleaded guilty to a count of attempted unlawful driving away an automobile earlier this year as it was related to the fatal fire, and she was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday to the crime. She was initially charged with unlawful driving away an automobile. The sentencing hearing was adjourned because she has a different attorney representing her.

She was a very significant flight risk, Kreinbrink said. I think there was a mutual concern about an individual being sentenced and leaving our community or being out and about in our community without the proper repercussion, so to speak. My office  together with the sheriffs office, worked diligently to make sure that these charges were levied prior to the sentencing.

There was an enormous amount of pressure put on our detectives, Cole said. As an elected official, and a person who has worked in law enforcement for 37 years, this is an incredible case. It is a case like Ive never seen in my career. I had inside information from our detectives that there was no way  if the prosecutor was going to levy these charges  there was no way we could allow her on the streets and face our public knowing what I knew.

I appreciate the detectives working at a break-neck pace to put what they knew on paper to get it to the prosecutor so the prosecutor can bring charges.

Snyder previously was convicted of two prior felonies, Kreinbrink said. On Jan. 25, 2001, she was convicted of larceny of a building in a case from 11th Circuit Court in Mackinaw County. She also was convicted of a felony of theft $1,000 to $24,999 in superior court in Alaska.

Cole said that he wouldnt characterize people as helping Snyder in November after the fire, but added that all options are on the table.

If there are people that have information or there have been people who have been dishonest with our detectives, they need to understand that this is a serious matter, Cole said. Were talking about the death of a citizen. Were talking about the death of a member of our community.

Were trying to give hope and closure to one of our families.

Cole was thankful for fire departments  Fountain, Branch, Custer, Free Soil-Meade, Scottville and Pere Marquette  that assisted at the scene of the fire. He thanked the Anchorage Police Department and the Alaska State Police. He thanked the fire marshals division of the Michigan State Police as well as detectives: Det. Sgt. Tom Posma, Det. Mike Kenney and Det. Steve Hansen.

Cole said the investigation remains open. Kreinbrink said she was not aware if Snyder was facing other charges in other counties.

We review the facts and evidence before us, Kreinbrink said. I dont want to make a statement saying that we definitively are not going to have other charges, but we are reviewing the actions of those individuals or individuals who may participated with or assisted Miss Snyder and (will) issue charges accordingly, if appropriate.
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Employees in Japan worked fewer hours after the country started implementing a law limiting overtime, although many companies have exceeded those mandatory caps.

Japanese policymakers passed the Work Style Reform Legislation in 2018 to address "karoshi," or death from overwork. The overtime limits became effective for large employersgenerally those with more than 50 employeesin April 2019 and for small employers the following April.

The law, with some exceptions, established a basic limit on overtime, or work beyond eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, to 45 hours of overtime a month and 360 hours of overtime per year.

In special circumstances, employers may extend work beyond these limits on a temporary basis. Employees may not exceed the basic overtime limit more than six months per year.

A relatively narrow exemption to the overtime limits applies to highly skilled, well-paid professionals.

Lower Average Working Hours

Due to the law, monthly average working hours per employee declined from 142.2 to 139.1 in 2019 and further to 135.1 in 2020, noted Aki Tanaka, a Littler attorney in Boston focused on international employment and labor law. Overtime and other nonscheduled monthly hours declined by more than 13 percent in 2020, the Japanese government reported.

In response to a new mandatory requirement to take five days' annual leave, the percentage of those taking annual leave days has increased from 52.4 percent to 56.3 percent in 2020, Tanaka added.

Last year, the Japanese government announced that only 552 employees, or fewer than 0.001 percent of the country's employee population, were using the "highly skilled professional" exemption, Tanaka said.

"For U.S. employers in Japan, this could have been a more helpful exemption category for high earners," those making approximately $100,000 a year, she said. However, due to the narrow scope of its application, including a limited job duty test, and a complex system requiring employee consent to the exemption and allowing the employee to cancel the exemption at any time, "in practice this is a very hard exemption category to use."

The government found that 37 percent of companies inspected from April 2020 through March 2021 had exceeded overtime limits under the new law or under their own Article 36 agreement, a labor-management document setting out an employer's maximum overtime hours, according to Tanaka. That amounts to nearly 9,000 workplaces, according to news reports.

"This is actually a drop from the previous year's 47.3 percent rate, which may be due to the reduction in working hours overall because of COVID-19," Tanaka said.

A Long-Hours Mindset

Erika Collins, an attorney with Faegre Drinker in New York City, suggested employers have more progress to make in changing attitudes toward overtime, despite some progress so far.

"While I think the situation is better, the actual situation has not yet been clearly improved even with the overtime law becoming much stricter in Japan," she said. "Many Japanese people still think that long hours of work [are] valuable and that long hours  show employees' industriousness."

Among other steps, the law also requires employees who have accrued more than 10 days of unused annual leave to take at least five days off, and mandates that employers track hours on the job for all workers, not just nonexempt employees, as the law previously specified.

The overtime measure allows for criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance against employers and certain individuals, such as managers, in charge of a company's working hours. Violations could bring up to six months imprisonment or fines up 300,000 yen (approximately US$2,597).

"As far as I have seen, sanctions and lawsuits concerning the new overtime law are rare thus far," Collins said. "Employers should be aware of the law and should comply with the new overtime law, but there have been no unexpected issues."

One part of the overtime law has yet to become effective. In April 2023, smaller employers will be required to pay workers 1.5 times their regular rate for overtime exceeding 60 hours a month, as large companies must do now. Employers are required to pay 1.25 times for overtime up to 60 hours.

Extended Statute of Limitations

Tanaka noted that a new law took effect in April 2020, a revision to the Labor Standards Act, extending the statute of limitations for bringing claims for unpaid wages, including overtime. The statute of limitations has been extended from two years to three years and is expected to eventually be stretched to five years.

"Limiting overtime and holding employers accountable for paying proper overtime under the applicable law continue to remain the government's focus. Given the high threshold to classify employees as exempt under Japanese laws, U.S. employers in Japan tend to have misclassification issues," Tanaka said.

"Under the new laws that extend the statute of time limitation and also the new requirement on time tracking for employees, including exempt employees, employers are in riskier positions than before," she added. "Wage and hour audits, including an exemption category audit, are recommended for those operating in Japan."

Dinah Wisenberg Brin is a freelance reporter and writer based in Philadelphia.


The Centre has no plans for disinvestment of state-owned telecom player BSNL, Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan informed the Parliament on Wednesday.

"There is no plan under consideration for disinvestment of BSNL," he told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

In 2019, the Centre had approved a revival plan for BSNL which included measures to reduce the staff cost through a 'Voluntary Retirement Scheme' (VRS) for employees of age 50 years and above.

The plan also included administrative allotment of spectrum for providing 4G services with funding through budgetary allocation, monetisation of non-core and core assets to generate resources to retire debt and meeting capex and other requirements along with debt restructuring by raising of Sovereign Guarantee Bonds.

Chauhan, in his response to another question, said: "As a result of these measures, BSNL has become EBITDA positive (operating profit) in 2020-21."

To a question regarding the impact of the VRS scheme on services provided by BSNL, he said: "There is no delay or deficiency in services provided by BSNL due to implementation of VRS.

"Current strength of employees is sufficient for operation of BSNL."

The telecom player had a domestic market share of 9.90 per cent for mobile subscribers and 15.40 per cent for wired broadband subscribers as on December 31, 2021.
Indian American astronaut Raja Chari took a 6 hour and 54-minute spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Kayla Barron in preparation for the installation of a solar array at the International Space Station

FREMONT, CA: In preparation for installing a solar array at the International Space Station, Indian American astronaut Raja Chari took a 6 hour and 54-minute spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Kayla Barron. According to NASA, the pair started their spacewalk at 8:12 a.m. EDT Tuesday. They finished at 3:06 p.m. EDT after fulfilling their critical objectives for the day by constructing and installing modification kits.

It was Chari's first spacewalk and flight engineer Barron's second. Chari is the SpaceX Crew-3 Dragon ship commander, which is now docked to the ISS. They live and work aboard the microgravity laboratory for a six-month science mission to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA's Moon and Mars exploration approach, which includes lunar missions through NASA's Artemis programme. Chari was selected as an astronaut in 2017 after serving as a colonel in the US Air Force with over 2,500 hours of flight service. In 2020, he was chosen as the commander of the Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station, and he was sent to the orbiting station.

Chari and Barron constructed a support bracket for a future ISS roll-out solar array (iROSA) during the spacewalk. Two of the six iROSAs have been placed on station thus far, with four more arrays on the way. Six of the station's eight power channels will eventually be supplemented by the arrays, raising the total available power from 160 kilowatts to 215 kilowatts. During the spacewalk, dubbed US EVA 79, astronauts Tom Marshburn and Matthias Maurer assisted the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits and monitored their external operations. For nearly a week, Chari and Barron had been preparing for the spacewalk, putting their spacesuits on and placing their spacewalk supplies inside Quest.

Chari holds a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School, which has a long history of producing astronauts. Born in Milwaukee, he was raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Congressman Danny K Davis presented the awards to these eminent women at the 10th Annual Congressional International Women's Day Gala

FREMONT, CA: Women & Wealth Inc is a not-for-profit organization that holds events on International Women's Day to empower, inspire. Support women across Canada who are, or are on their way to becoming, confident and passionate leaders of our businesses, organizations, governments, schools, and communities, is hosting the 2022 International Women's Day Women + Wealth Galas. The organization hopes to close the gender gap and promote gender equality in society by working together.

Over a half-dozen, notable Indian-American women from throughout the country were honored at the US Capitol for their outstanding achievements. The prizes were awarded by Congressman Danny K Davis during the 10th Annual Congressional International Women's Day Gala, which was co-hosted by the American Multiethnic Coalition and the Multiethnic Advisory Task Force at the US Capitol.

Producer artist Rashaana Shah, Indica News founder and journalist Ritu Jha, physician Dr. Kalai C Parthiban, social activists Madhu Rohatgi and Chandani Duvvuri, artist Indrani Davaluri, popular anchor and host Nilima Mehra, and community activist Suhag Mehta were among the Indian-American women honored Ritu Jha remarked in her award speech that it matters a lot for a woman when she is recognized for her efforts. Such praise would instil confidence, motivate them to achieve better, and give her the strength to take on new tasks. Congressman Davis praised the honorees for their achievements.

Ritu Jha is an experienced journalist and the founder of indica News, a California-based online daily focused on the problems of the South Asian diaspora in the United States. Ritu noticed the need for a forum that could showcase the successes, concerns, and conditions of the South Asian community in the United States after working as a Special Correspondent for Rediff Inc. and its journal India Abroad in the United States. As a result, indica News  the community's voice  was formed.
Foreign investors investing in the United States are being stymied by a U.S. immigration border policy preventing them from looking after their businesses in the country

FREMONT, CA: Foreign investors wishing to invest in the United States are currently being hampered by a US immigration border policy that prevents them from managing their operations in the country. The regulation is particularly unpleasant to Canadian investors. Still, it also poses an issue for foreign investors who are not visa-exempt, i.e., those from countries where applicants must apply for a B-1/B-2 visitor's visa to enter the United States. US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) might quickly amend the applicable rule with a policy directive.

The Covid-19 is mostly to blame for the situation. Foreign investor interviews for E-2 treaty investor visas take an abnormal amount of time to schedule under the USMCA, previously the NAFTA free trade deal. Indeed, in the past, consular officers could not predict how long it would take to schedule E-2 visa interviews. Foreign investors had no choice except to come to the United States somehow until their E-2 visas were ultimately granted. While asking for a change of status from visitor to E-2 status within the United States is an option, the Consul General at the Toronto Consulate recently encouraged U.S. attorneys to avoid it, signalling that such petitions are likely to be denied. Because E-2 visas are generally processed by U.S. Consulates abroad, U.S. officials considered changing from business traveller to E-2 status inside the United States as gaming the system. As a result, the only reasonable option has been to enter the United States as a business traveller.

The main hitch is that E-2 investors are only allowed to stay in the United States as visitors for a certain amount of time. The current border regulation provides for a maximum of six months of stay. Indeed, business visitors who have already been physically present in the United States for six months in any given year are denied admittance.
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Australian medical cannabis companies are ploughing millions into research in a race to bring the first over-the-counter CBD product to pharmacies, with the sector expecting stock to hit shelves next year.

However, consumers have been warned to expect prices for these medicines to be higher than in other countries like the US and UK and could run into the hundreds of dollars a month.

While no current prices are yet to be set for any Australian over-the-counter medicines, for a product that contains 150mg of CBD, patients could be paying $7.50 per day, or $230 a month. Credit:iStock

Medicinal cannabis products are already available in Australia via prescription, but the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) changed regulations at the end of 2020 that would let pharmacists dispense low-dose products that contain up to 150mg of CBD, an element of the cannabis plant, without a prescription.

Fifteen months on, no product has yet received TGA approval, but industry experts are predicting several companies will have lodged data for these medicines by the end of this year, paving the way for sales in 2023.
And then we had the floods hit as well. Its been a bit tricky for us, but despite that we love it, we absolutely love it, she says. Not surprisingly, running South Australias most isolated pub is not all desert sunsets and cold beer. Its an adventure here every day. Not always a welcome one, but there is an adventure here every day, Shaynee says. The family are first responders for the western side of the Simpson Desert and surrounding areas. The pub is equipped with a Royal Flying Doctors Service medical kit that includes a defibrillator, high-grade painkillers and other essential survival resources.

We might have the Flying Doctor in to evacuate someone six times a year, says Graham. We do get a lot of broken bones coming to us. We get them back here and then put them on a plane. Its not just humans getting harmed in the harsh desert landscape. The rolling red dunes also take a heavy toll on vehicles. Overall we might do 20 recoveries out of the desert a year, he says. Vehicles crossing the Simpson Desert. Credit:Simon Johanson Mostly its some form of mechanical breakdown. It could be anything from gearboxes, suspension problems, to a broken chassis. The pub runs a mechanics workshop off the same generator that powers the hotel.

Outback publicans are a town under one roof, says hotel broker Peter Moore, who flies potential buyers around the red centre to inspect pubs in his Piper Cherokee Six aircraft. Youve got to provide every possible service that you would expect in a small town, he says. He transacts about four outback hotels each year. They are generally cheaper to purchase and more profitable than their city or regional counterparts, but owners need to manage harsh and demanding conditions: heatwaves, floods, breakdowns and isolation. True outback pubs, youve got to be a bit unique to own them, he says. He should know: he now owns and runs the nearest pub to Mt Dare, the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta 200 kilometres away. Back in Mt Dare, Graeme says many aspiring four wheel drivers have a desert crossing on their bucket list but dont fully understand how tough the Simpson is, adding he actively discourages some from trying to cross it. I can give you a written guarantee we will be recovering you because you wont make it, he tells them.

And its not cheap extracting vehicles broken or stuck 300 kilometres from the pub in the deserts heart. A retrieval for a mistake or mishap can cost owners up to $8000. Last year a family with three children showed up at Mt Dare with no fresh water and ordinary road tyres on their car. They had a reservation for Birdsville caravan park on the other side of the desert which Google maps told them was 15 hours away, Shaynee says. Traversing is normally a tough four- or five-day off-road adventure. They thought, if we allow a day well be fine, she says. They tooted at us going past, but luckily they saw the sign and turned around.

Others arent quite so fortunate. The Zavros family from Perth made headlines last November after being winched to safety from the desert by a rescue helicopter and taken to Coober Pedy. Their vehicle got bogged and was stranded for days, running low on supplies. Graham extracted their all-terrain motorhome many weeks later. True outback pubs, youve got to be a bit unique to own them. Peter Moore, hotel broker Alice Springs, six to seven hours away in a 4WD, is the source of Mt Dares supplies. Thats our corner store, says Shaynee. The only thing we get delivered here is fuel.

Taipan snakes, the countrys most venomous, frequent the scrub around the hotel along with an array of colourful native birds  Budgies, Finches, Black Cockatoos, Corellas and Galahs. One memorable occasion three years ago, Graham and Shaynee were flying a newly acquired light aircraft when it suffered catastrophic engine failure and was forced into an emergency landing. It was an interesting experience, Graham, who was the pilot, dryly notes. Another time, after a heavy rain event, Shaynee recalls her dad heading off in the Unimog towards Alice Springs uttering the ill-fated words that hed never bogged the Mog. But the first time he went out, he bogged the Mog, she says. It required a rescue crew from a neighbouring station to dig him out.

But the extreme isolation doesnt mean the pubs not busy. Loading In winter, when travellers are moving through the desert, it can serve up to 150 meals a night, although in high summer when access to the Simpson Desert is shut, patronage dwindles to next-to-nothing because of the oppressive 50-degree heat. Graham credits an outback ethos where locals unstintingly help each other with making desert life enjoyable. The pubs neighbours  the families and station hands that run New Crown, Andado, Hamilton and Mount Sarah stations  although many miles away, are just fantastic, often flying in by light plane for a cuppa and chat.
The Art Gallery of NSW has announced the largest multimillion-dollar commission of artworks in its 150-year history including bronze-cast super-sized creatures that will greet visitors on arrival at its new contemporary art galleries.

Nine new works, more than half by women artists and three by Indigenous artists, will go on display inside and outside Sydney Modern and the existing Walter Vernon-designed building from December.

The largest of these will be a family of bronze-cast mythical creatures to be installed in the new Welcome Plaza.

Francis Upritchard working on one of her fantastical figures that will greet visitors in the Welcome Plaza of the Art Gallerys new building. Credit:David Mazza

Inspired by the gnarled forms of the Moreton Bay figs of Sydney Harbour the London-based, New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard has been bringing them to life in her Italian studio. Its believed to be her largest commission to date.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size In 1945, Joy Hester painted Pauline McCarthy, a portrait of her close friend. Not only is it a rare oil painting by Hester, it presages one of her oeuvres most significant and arresting features  the emphasis on the eye as the carrier of emotional and pictorial power. McCarthy is rendered sharply, her features marked by life. Her face bears an introspective sadness, underscored by her frail-fingered arm clutching her body. Yet in 1945, McCarthy was a vibrant young woman, the centre of a cultural group, including Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan, who gathered at her Fitzroy bookshop. When I got to know Pauline, in the late 1970s, she looked just like the portrait, as if Hester, who believed in uncanny apparitions, had presciently seen her friends older face. Interestingly, when I mentioned it to Pauline, she was puzzled. She could see no likeness. Joy Hester, Pauline McCarthy, 1945. Credit: Joy Hester Estate/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia What constitutes portraiture? Flattery? Mimesis? Character analysis? There are few art genres as controversial because, under its broad scope, portraiture can address issues of identity, ethnicity, gender, verisimilitude, modernity, history, self and other. Hester at 25, a woman artist, poor, a mother, a wife, took as her subject a blonde-haired, vivacious, 18-year-old intellectual and read in her face what might be a womans destiny: disappointment, disillusion, even despair. Pauline, who was in her 50s when I met her, seemed to have none of those qualities: she was bright, cheerful, with an excellent memory. Perhaps it was why Pauline could not see herself in the portrait: Hesters darknesses were not her own. Hester took as her subject a vivacious 18-year-old and read in her face what might be a womans destiny: disappointment, disillusion. Having recently turned 70 and started a memoir, the passing of time is especially vivid for me. A photograph of me, by Robert Rooney, taken in 1980 when I was 28, is in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), Canberra. Like most women, Im an unwilling audience to my own appearance: the (unattainable) ideal of perfection being foisted upon us from an early age. It was Roberts idea to photograph me in the lecture room at the Victorian College of the Arts, where I taught art history. The harsh light from the slide projector makes me glance away, my eyes huge. The young art historian who subjects artists to her gaze becomes herself the subject of an artists gaze. I recall that crowded time around 1980, researching my masters degree on Hester, involved in many art/feminist/collaborative projects. I ponder this face with its expression of dream-like reverie, as if, in the midst of all the busyness, a quiet, intense, inner self attends.

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WHO ARE YOU: Australian Portraiture is a major new exhibition, comprising more than 200 works drawn from the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria and the NPG. The directors of both galleries  Tony Ellwood and Karen Quinlan, old friends from their days working together at Bendigo Art Gallery  sought to explore, as Quinlan notes, the idea of Australian identity and its many layers and facets through the lens of portraiture. The result, as Ellwood comments, is the largest thematic portraiture exhibition in the history of either institution. The shows bold aim, as Beckett Rozentals describes it, is to reframe the portrait genre. Starting in 2019, Rozentals was part of a seven-person team who acquitted the massive task of scouring their respective collections for relevant works. The team comprised (from the NGV) Rozentals, curator, Australian Art to 1980, Sophie Gerhard, assistant curator, Australian Art to 1980, David Hurslton, senior curator, Australian Art to 1980, Myles Russell-Cook, senior curator, Indigenous Art and Hannah Presley, former curator, Indigenous Art. On board from the NPG were Joanna Gilmour, curator Collection and Research, and Penny Grist, curator exhibitions. To create a structure and to provide a series of compartments from which to observe, query and analyse what constitutes portraiture, the curators decided on five themes. In the Australian Icons section, Michael Rileys Maria (1986) will hang next to Polly Borlands HM Queen Elizabeth II (2002). Its a striking juxtaposition. Marias gaze is unequivocal: she is strong, calm and beautiful, a plain necklace her only adornment. Maria (Polly) Cutmore is a Gamilaraay woman and Rileys first cousin. The two were close from childhood. Their traditional lands are in northern NSW: Cutmore grew up in Moree and Riley further south in Dubbo. In 1986, Riley was a member of an influential group of young artists, including Brenda L. Croft and Tracey Moffat, who garnered acclaim for their fresh representations of Aboriginality. Polly Borland, HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2002; Michael Riley, Maria, 1986. Credit:NGV Australia In her catalogue essay, Hannah Presley writes: The power that exists within portraiture to control and manipulate our identities has seen Aboriginal artists embrace portraiture as an effective path for truth-telling, and for reclaiming our identity and history and honouring our ancestors. Borlands bright-eyed, grinning Elizabeth seems almost risible. For the sitting, Borland was given five minutes with the Queen. Completely overwhelmed, she could scarcely focus either literally or figuratively on her subject. She ended up taking only two photographs. In a video available on the NPG website, Borland comments drily, It was the end of my portrait career. Elizabeth is festooned with jewellery, her skin is incandescent white and the background is glittering gold (2002 was the Queens Golden Jubilee). Borland may not have set out to caricature the Queen but alongside the formal severity of Rileys black and white photograph, which underscores Marias gravity and composure, the jolly, reigning monarch, herself an embodiment of historic colonialism, is little short of bizarre.

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If a portrait is traditionally meant to be a likeness, what prompted John Nixon to title his abstract painting Self Portrait (1990)? The artist, who sadly passed away in 2020, had a decades-long engagement with the work of revolutionary Russian artist Kasimir Malevich. Not only did Malevich wholeheartedly engage with the lofty and radical hopes of the revolution but he created a new visual language to match it  dramatic, spare, geometric paintings he designated Suprematist. While artists can get annoyed when critics explain their style in terms of their influences, Nixon had no such qualms. He honoured his debt to Malevich by obliterating his own style, and literally imaged himself as Malevich. John Nixon, Self Portrait (non-objective composition) (yellow cross) 1990. Credit: Courtesy of the artist How do immigrant eyes visualise their Australian experience? Atong Atem is a South Sudanese photographer who creates lush, vivid images of her family and friends such as Adut (2019). Atem, who this month won the inaugural La Prairie art award for Australian women, is part of Melbournes South Sudanese community in Footscray. Dominating the news from South Sudan are its ongoing crises, which include conflict, famine and poverty. Atong Atem, Adut, 2015. Credit: Atong Atem Atem, however, chooses to explore the visual richness of her heritage, rather than its problems. Her practice is respectfully collaborative. In her studio, Atem has props  brilliantly coloured lengths of fabric, real and fake flowers, clothes, make-up and jewellery. She invites her model  in this case, writer and poet Adut Wol Akec  to make a selection. Then the two discuss how best to fashion the portrait. As Atem told ABC arts presenter Namila Benson: Just the act of me taking the photographs counters the usually, white, male gaze of ethnographic portraits of black people which were used, she said to justify colonialism. Charles Dennington also pictures a triumphant South Sudanese woman in Adut Akech (2018). Akech is a globally successful model as well as an activist for humanitarian issues, the rights of asylum seekers, and racial and gender equality. The issue of racial equality is foremost in William Yangs Self Portrait No. 2 (2007). The esteemed photographer, who grew up in far north Queensland and describes himself as born-again Chinese, was the butt of racism as a child. He tells the story in a handwritten text that decorates a photograph of himself as a perky little kid.

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When I was about six years old, one of the kids at school called me Ching chong Chinaman, born in a jar, christened in a teapot, ha ha ha, he writes in his catalogue essay. I had no idea what he was talking about although I knew from his expression he was being horrible to me. So I went home to my mother and I said to her, Mum, Im not Chinese am I? My mother looked at me very sternly and she said, Yes, you are. Her tone was hard, and it shocked me, and I knew in that moment that being Chinese was like a terrible curse, and I could not rely on my mother for help. William Yang Self Portrait #2 from the Self Portrait series 2007. Credit: William Yang Yang carried the memory like a badge of shame for the next 30 years. Within himself was a self-loathing ... I hated the way I looked. Coming out as a gay man in Sydney in the early 1970s was exhilarating: he participated in a movement that cast off some of the shackles of prejudice. His relationship with China deepened when he visited the country though there was only a certain penetration I could make, as I couldnt speak the language. While Yang covers his young image with the cruel words, the image itself, of a lively, confident child, augured well for Yangs ownership of his dual Chinese/Australian legacy. I ask Beckett Rozentals the impossible question. What are her two favourite works? Unhesitatingly, she cites Napier Wallers The man in black (1925) and Kaylene Whiskeys Seven Sisters Song (2021). As a soldier during the First World War in France, Waller was severely wounded and his right arm was amputated at the shoulder. That terrible event demanded Wallers courage. During his convalescence in France and England, the right-handed artist taught himself to write and draw with his left hand. Rozentals finds The man in black curious and fascinating. Napier Waller, The man in black (detail), 1925, Credit: Courtesy of the artists estate Waller, elegantly dressed, debonair and with a confident stance with both arms held in front, presents himself prior to his injury. Behind him is a detailed study for his magnificent mural Peace After Victory (1928) which remains in situ in the State Library of Victoria. Though Waller had every reason to depict himself as heroic, in this small print, he cuts an ambivalent figure. The dark pools of his eyes, partly shadowed by his hats brim, hint at anguish while the words peace after victory could serve as a testament to his own struggle.

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Kaylene Whiskeys Seven Sisters Song is a superheroine Christmas party. Whiskey combines her interests in popular culture with her own heritage. As she explains on the Iwantja Arts website, Us younger ones are from the generation that grew up with Coca-Cola and TV as well as Tjukurpa (cultural stories) and bush tucker, so we like to have a bit of fun combining those two different worlds. Seven Sisters Song is a homage both to women and to Iwantja Arts, the Aboriginal arts centre Whiskey attends at Indulkana, about 1200 kilometres north of Adelaide. Whiskey introduces us to her icons. Cher is on the left, beside a small figure who raises her clenched fist in a symbol of black solidarity. Theres also Cat Woman, Whoopi Goldberg in her nuns habit from the film Sister Act. A tree is surrounded by presents and, in the centre, two women are making music. Seven Sisters, one sings. Kaylene Whiskey, Seven Sisters Song, 2021. Credit:Courtesy of the artist, Iwantja Arts and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Loading The paintings overarching theme is the star cluster known in Western myth and astronomy as the Pleiades. Its shimmering luminosity can be viewed almost across the entire Earth, making it significant to many cultures. In the Southern Hemisphere its visible in summer. In the Aboriginal version of the myth, the cluster was formed when seven sisters escaped from a male ancestral being who, desirous of the women, sought to capture them. The women raced across the country, the man in pursuit. In a final attempt to elude him, the sisters launched themselves into the sky where they were transformed into stars  the celestial version of Whiskeys heroines. When I was an art history student at Melbourne University, I was astonished by the cavalcade of naked women discussed in my course but also by the absence of any reference to eroticism. It was as though if sex wasnt mentioned, it wasnt there. In recent decades, some male artists have earned stern critiques for their objectification of women, making the nude ripe for new evaluations. Virginie Granges photograph Untitled (1990) squarely confronts the viewer. Central to the composition is a womans less-than-perfect body.

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Former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has been charged with high-range drink-driving following a crash with another vehicle in the states Hunter region on Wednesday night.

According to a social media post from Johns, he got lost while driving and was in an accident.

Daniel Johns has been admitted to rehab following a car crash. Credit:Jordan Munns

NSW Police said in a statement that 42-year-old Johns was behind the wheel of an SUV, travelling northbound on the Pacific Highway, when his vehicle allegedly collided with a van travelling south.

Mr Johns was assessed at the scene by paramedics before police conducted a roadside breath test, which allegedly returned a positive result.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size For more than half a century Andrew Lloyd Webber has built his worldwide musical theatre empire on being fashionably unfashionable, pursuing his vision and cheerfully ignoring whatever the trend of the day might be. Despite inevitable misses along the way, he has amassed with this idiosyncratic single-mindedness a string of hit shows including Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera. It seems perfectly fitting then that the composer arrives for lunch  bang on time  dressed down in jeans and polo shirt, looking more suburban grandad than a peer of the realm with a net worth, if the Sunday Times Rich List is to be believed, that hovers around $1 billion. Hes visiting Sydney to cast an eye over Opera Australias new Simon Phillips-directed production of Phantom. Lunch is at Il Pontile, on the wharf at Woolloomooloo, and Sydney has turned on one of those classic glittering days we have almost forgotten about this summer. Across the bay and just hidden from view, Opera Australia workers, with fingers crossed for clear skies on Fridays opening night, are putting the finishing touches to the over-water stage on which Phantom will play. Andrew Lloyd Webber celebrating his birthday in Sydney. Credit:Steven Siewert As we settle down to a light meal (rigatoni alla Genovese and salad), I wonder whether watching a fresh production of Phantom causes the slightest butterflies. On the contrary. Its completely out of my control, he says. I have absolutely nothing to do with it. At my old age, I actually think that productions I dont have anything to do with seem to be rather better than the ones I do. So, I rather look forward to this.

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Lloyd Webber was born in London on March 22, 1948  which makes our lunch date his birthday, a fact he skips over, saying at his age its scarcely cause for celebration. His father William was a composer and organist, his mother Jean a pianist, and younger brother Julian a celebrated solo cellist. In his 2018 autobiography Unmasked (autobiographies are by definition self-serving and mine is no exception), he describes a bohemian upbringing populated by an endless parade of eccentric relatives and family friends. What better than a little birthday Rigatoni alla Genovese? And dont forget the green salad. Credit:Steven Siewert Lloyd Webber was an unusual child whose earliest memories are dominated by his fascination with architecture  particularly unfashionable Victorian architecture  and equally unfashionable musical theatre. Exactly where these twin obsessions sprang from, he finds hard to pin down. I cant explain where the theatre came from, he says. Its very hard. If only I knew. The theatricality of things and performance go back as far as I can remember. The majority of records have no melody at all now. Its all about rhythm and rapping. You dont find young people are as passionate about melody. Andrew Lloyd Webber Much of his childhood was spent mounting his own musical productions in an intricately detailed toy theatre dubbed the Harrington Pavilion after the family home at 10 Harrington Court, South Kensington. The origins of his fascination with architecture, which resulted in many family holidays driven by his precocious desire to tick off this church or that grand house, remain equally opaque. That passion still burns as strong. Despite having been in Sydney only a couple of days, he had already found time to take in the Gothic Revival charms of St Marys Cathedral.

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Due in large part to this passion he ended up at Magdalen College, Oxford, to study history. With a head full of theatre he was a less than diligent scholar, however, when the possibility arose to switch to study music instead, his father wisely counselled against it, saying formal instruction would only educate the music out of him. He dropped out of Oxford after meeting Tim Rice who was to become his frequent lyricist collaborator, and the pair were on their way to their first Broadway show, the rock-infused, revolutionary Jesus Christ Superstar. He has had a show on Broadway continuously since 1979 and Phantom, which opened there in 1988, is its longest-ever running production. The main cast members for The Phantom of the Opera: Callum Francis (Raoul), Georgina Hopson (Christine) and Joshua Robson (Phantom). Credit:Louie Douvis At the heart of all these productions lies a succession of killer melodies. Even if youve never seen a Lloyd Webber show, you almost certainly know Memory (Cats), Any Dream Will Do (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Dont Cry For Me Argentina (Evita) or The Music of the Night (The Phantom of the Opera). So, where do they come from? I wish I knew, he says. Sometimes Im just playing around on the piano and Ill find a phrase I think is good or strong. Sometimes they come when you are not thinking. I dont find theres a rhyme or reason at all. Sometimes I wake up with a tune in my head and then sometimes Ive got an idea and Ill work on it and work on it. In his book he recounts the story of walking down Londons Fulham Road when the signature theme to Jesus Christ Superstar appeared in his head, prompting him to duck into a restaurant to jot down the melody on a napkin before it returned to the ether.

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Fifty years later and Lloyd Webbers latest show, an updated Cinderella now playing successfully in Londons West End and set for a Broadway run later in the year, has all those same melodic hallmarks, part of his dogged insistence that a good tune remains a good tune despite current musical trends. The majority of records have no melody at all now, he says. Its all about rhythm and rapping. You dont find young people are as passionate about melody. Andrew Lloyd Webber has had a show on Broadway continuously since 1979. Credit:Steven Siewert But melody alone is not enough  the other pillar on which Lloyd Webber has built his most successful shows is plot. I think it would be fair to say that a great story can carry a fairly average musical score, whereas even a great musical score cant carry a not very good plot. However, even Lloyd Webber doesnt have the Midas touch for everything. For every Evita or Phantom there is a Jeeves or Stephen Ward. He remains philosophical about productions that, by comparison, havent soared.

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Musicals are such an incredibly collaborative thing that, in the end, any one ingredient, particularly the look of the show, can bring the show down, he says. It wont be as simple as just saying the story was wrong or the script was wrong or the book was wrong or the music was wrong. Itll be more complicated than that. But broadly speaking, you have to remember if a show isnt working its because the public havent actually liked it. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Credit:Alamy Stock Photo And then there are the projects into which he has no input including the much maligned 2019 film adaptation of his huge hit, Cats. At the time, he told Variety that it was off-the-scale all wrong. A lifelong cat-lover, the trauma of seeing the film was so great that he was driven to buy his first dog, a much-loved Havanese called Mojito who couldnt be truer. Even at 74, there is no sign of Lloyd Webber slowing down. He has just been in Madrid talking to Antonio Banderas about translating some shows into Spanish and is constantly casting around for the story that will inspire and drive his next show. Jac Yarrow as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at The London Palladium in 2021. Credit:Tristram Kenton Im very restless at the moment because I cant find a subject, he says. He has publicly floated the idea of a musical about the worldwide refugee crisis, following on from a gala performance of Cinderella raising funds for Malala Yousafzais charity. But the idea has yet to crystallise.

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Activist groups have hit back at the state governments new anti-protest laws saying they are anti-democratic and a knee-jerk reaction.

It comes as a group that calls itself Blockade Australia has disrupted traffic across Sydney for three days, with two protesters facing deportation for their involvement. The group has little history in Australia but claims to be concerned, not just about climate change, but about the colonial and extractive systems of Australia.

A spokesperson for the group declined to even tell the Herald how many members it had, but whatever its size, its actions have already prompted anger not only from disrupted drivers but authorities and politicians.

Fewer than three hours after Thursdays third day of protesting, harsher penalties were introduced by the NSW government for those disrupting any bridge or tunnel across Greater Sydney. Under the new crackdown, offenders will face $22,000 fines and two years imprisonment.
For me to fall asleep (and I regularly do it twice a day now, rather than once) is to surrender abjectly and completely to an inner idiot. It is to cede all reason and rationality and become the protagonist in a world where nothing makes sense. My dreams are as appallingly nonsensical as a Greens defence policy. But Im one of the few who will admit his dreams are punk anthems written by a fevered chimp. Somehow people have come to believe their dreams have mystical wisdom, a subtext founded on solid truths. They just need interpreting, a gentle translator.

Freud was, in essence, an empire builder, like Rhodes. And when he realised dreams were a continent that hadnt yet been claimed he planted a flag and drew a vast, detailed, and completely fake, map. Theres no evidence for his claims on dreams and what they mean. His theories are fiction dressed in a lab coat. He was making stuff up. Nevertheless, Sigmund set off an industry of dream interpretation to which a person who thinks dully while awake might be told he or she slumbers as a genius. Well, I say only folk whose waking thoughts are wine-spill shallow would bother trying to decode echoes from the ghetto that is their slumbering brain.

Credit:

There is no logic, anyway, in my dreams. There is no order, justice, gravity, morality, not even a narrative arc. And all this is bad enough, but then Sarah will overheat and toss the doona off so that it doubles itself on top of me. With my temperature rising, my dreams seethe with horror; the brake pedal doesnt work, the tyres have no tread, the cliff edge looms, nuns mumble prayer while hanging from meat hooks in the warehouses of my mind, bikies batter down my door, and the Cats lose the 2008 Grand Final again, et cetera, et cetera. And people advise you to live your dreams. If you lived mine youd be arrested and quarantined. But, on the upside, you would be seeing quite a lot of Margot Robbie.

Alas, I know way too many people who sermonise their dreams as if they were Holy Writ. Priests spreading the wan gospel of their own unconsciousness. Last year, as an obedient citizen of a stopped nation, I was watching the Melbourne Cup with a friend. We were at a party standing next to each other and as the field laboured down the back straight on the flatscreen she said, as if it was nothing at all, I used to be able to dream the winner of the Melbourne Cup. The night before the race, every year for about 15 years.
NSW MP Gareth Ward has been suspended from parliament two days after he was charged with sexual assault.

The former government minister, who moved to the crossbench last year amid reports of a criminal investigation, was charged with three counts of assault with an act of indecency, one count of sexual assault without consent, and one count of common assault. Mr Ward denies the allegations.

NSW state MP Gareth Ward. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The government on Thursday afternoon moved to suspend Mr Ward, with the support of the opposition.

The Kiama MP will retain his salary, despite the government earlier this week floating it was considering an attempt to suspend it.
A Federal Court judge has said he is completely dumbfounded that Google allowed videos to be uploaded to YouTube which attacked the lawyers of former deputy premier John Barilaro and accused them of misconduct, and is considering referring the matter for prosecution for contempt.

Mr Barilaro sued Google and political commentator Jordan Shanks last year over two videos published on the Friendlyjordies channel in 2020 titled bruz and Secret Dictatorship.

John Barilaro leaves the Federal Court with his lawyers on Thursday. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The case against Mr Shanks was settled in November last year, when he provided an apology to Mr Barilaro and edited the two videos. However, the case against Google continues.

Google initially offered a range of defences in the case, but has now conceded Mr Barilaro was defamed. The tech giant is liable as a publisher because they were asked to take the videos down and refused.
The number of COVID-infected children in hospital is rising as figures reveal fewer than one in five students in the youngest cohort have received a second vaccine dose.

Positive cases are surging in Queensland schools, with several private schools moving to implement mask rules to try to stop the spread.

Across Queensland on Thursday, 3354 students tested positive to COVID-19, down from Wednesday when more than 3600 contracted the virus.

Earlier in the week it was revealed about 14,000 students had contracted the virus.
Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at Federal Court on Thursday. Credit:Louise Kennerley Mr Hastie, a federal Liberal MP, said he recalled undertaking training with Person 1 in 2013 and he was very bright, confident and competent. Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times over a series of articles in 2018 which he says accuse him of bullying a fellow soldier and committing war crimes, among other claims. The newspapers are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and allege Mr Roberts-Smith bullied Person 1 and committed or was involved in six murders of Afghans under the control of Australian troops, when they cannot be killed under the rules of engagement. Mr Roberts-Smith maintains he did not bully Person 1 and any killings in Afghanistan were carried out lawfully in the heat of battle.

Mr Hastie was deployed to Afghanistan in October 2012 and recalled a mission involving Mr Roberts-Smith in an area called Siah Chow. He said he had a strong recollection of soldiers dubbed Persons 7, 26, 66 and 4 being present, and he knew Person 66 in particular well because they had lived near each other for a time. We were in the ready room; I remember trying not to get in the way ... and I caught the eye of Person 66. He seemed a thousand miles away and quite nervous or anxious; he didnt really meet my eye when I said gday, he said. Mr Hastie said that during the mission he saw Mr Roberts-Smith and his patrol tactically questioning a group of 10 to 15 Afghan prisoners. Person 66 was with them. The PUCs [persons under the control of Australian forces] were up against a wall and they were ... tactically questioning them through the interpreter, he said.

Mr Hastie said he went to another structure, before returning to observe some of the tactical questioning. He said Person 66 was looking nervous, and I just met his eyes briefly and I just thought, thats not the person I know, happy-go-lucky, kind of classic country Aussie. Loading He said he left again, and heard on the radio shots fired but he didnt hear a shot. Later, he said,Mr Roberts-Smith walked past me ... he looked me in the eye and said, just a couple more dead c---s. The newspapers have alleged Mr Roberts-Smith directed Person 66 to kill one of the Afghan prisoners as an exercise in blooding a soldier. Mr Hastie did not see that alleged incident and Person 66 has not given evidence. Earlier on Thursday, Mr Roberts-Smiths former lover denied she engaged in a calculated campaign of deceit about being pregnant with his child but admitted she did not reveal in text messages she had had a miscarriage.

Person 17, whose name has been suppressed by the Federal Court, had an affair with the decorated former soldier between October 2017 and April 2018, when they were both married. She has told the court she discovered she was pregnant in February 2018 and the pair discussed her having a termination but she ultimately had a miscarriage, which started on March 2, 2018. Mr Roberts-Smiths barrister, Bruce McClintock, SC, put it to Person 17 on Thursday that it followed that she was not pregnant on March 3, when she texted Mr Roberts-Smith and did not tell him about the miscarriage. She replied through tears that she was not sure if youre aware of the process where a miscarriage happens, but it doesnt happen within a short space of time always. You wanted him to think you were still pregnant when you knew you were not? Mr McClintock said of the messages.
With heightened warnings that Russia could be preparing a major cyber attack on the US, the Biden administration would expect the Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) to be invoked in full support of America, according to a senior official.

Such a decision could draw Australia into a retaliatory American cyber assault on Vladimir Putins regime, drawing Australia directly into any confrontation.

Australia could be drawn into a retaliatory cyber assault on Vladimir Putins regime in the event of a Russian cyber attack on America. Credit:Rhett Wyman, AP

The top cyber security adviser to President Joe Biden, Anne Neuberger, told reporters in Sydney that the US equally would support Australia in the event that it suffered a major cyber attack.

The Biden administration last week called to a classified briefing several hundred US companies to warn them that it had detected Russian preparations for a possible cyber attack on critical infrastructure. This category includes power grids, water supplies, financial systems, hospitals and transport networks.
Labor forces aligned with the late Kimberley Kitching have launched legal action challenging the legitimacy of the federal takeover of the Victorian ALP in a move that threatens to destabilise the party on the eve of an election.

The fast-tracked application to the High Court of Australia, confirmed by three senior Labor sources, represents a major escalation of the factional war that has plagued federal Labor since the 52-year-old senators death from a suspected heart attack.

When Athony Albansese resurfaced on Thursday he was consumed by questions about the bullying of Kimberley Kitching. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer/Alex Ellinghausen

The sources expect the court to hear the case on Friday.

Senator Kitchings power base in Victoria  which includes the Health Workers Union and Plumbers Union  has been unsuccessfully fighting the Labor Party on this issue in court since last year.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has put senior frontbencher David Davis on a final warning but will not reprimand him for admitting to drinking too much and acting inappropriately towards guests at a gala dinner on Saturday.

The Liberal leader said he was very upset that he needed to confront the misdemeanours of Mr Davis, whom Labor ministers say should be punished for what Environment Minister Lily DAmbrosio claimed was a pattern of behaviour.

David Davis (third from right) with colleagues including Matthew Guy at the Victorian Multicultural Commission gala dinner on Saturday.

Witnesses told The Age the shadow treasurer was told to leave the Victorian Multicultural Commission dinner at the Convention Centre by two Liberal Party colleagues for making people feel uncomfortable by touching, hugging and getting too close to people.

Before Liberal deputy leader David Southwick and frontbencher Richard Riordan tried to force him out of the venue, four witnesses said he was hugging men and women and talking in close proximity to people who did not want to engage with him. One person said they saw Mr Davis fall over on two different occasions on the night.
A mother and her two children have been found dead in a burnt-out car beside a highway in Melbournes south-east.

The remains of a woman, believed to be in her 30s, and two children, both girls aged under six, were discovered in the charred shell of the vehicle on a dirt road off the Western Port Highway in Cranbourne West just before 8pm on Thursday.

After extinguishing the fire, emergency services discovered three bodies inside the vehicle. Police have since notified relatives.

Arson detectives said they were not looking for any suspects in connection with the fire.
Ten people have been charged over a riot at Acacia Prison on February 27, where they allegedly set fire to buildings and threw furniture at guards from the roof of their burning cells.

Across more than six hours of mayhem, 100 prisoners took over the prison, forcing guards to lock themselves away.

The fires caused significant damage to various buildings, rocks were thrown through windows and mattresses were also set alight.

Three prison officers were injured and taken to hospital, two suffering from smoke inhalation and a third with an injury to his knee.
A 40-year-old man has been charged with murder after his 26-year-old partner, who was found seriously injured in a home in Nollamara, died in hospital on Wednesday morning.

Christopher Dimer, from Victoria Park, allegedly stabbed his girlfriend multiple times to the chest in a domestic violence incident on Tuesday night.

She managed to call police after the alleged attack. She was taken to Royal Perth Hospital, but later died from her injuries.

Mr Dimer allegedly ran off and was hiding in bushes at a neighbouring property 70 metres away when he was found by a police dog.
Australias deal to send refugees to New Zealand was part of a private commitment independent senator Jacqui Lambie says she secured from Prime Minister Scott Morrison in return for her vote to end the medevac legislation for asylum seekers on Nauru.

The three-year agreement will lead to 450 refugees who attempted to arrive by boat resettling in NZ. Priority will be given to about 100 people still on Nauru after being processed in Australias offshore immigration centre there. NZs offer had been repeatedly rebuffed by the Australian government since it was first made in 2013.

Senator Jacqui Lambie during debate on the medevac laws in the Senate in December 2019. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Senator Lambie said she had negotiated with Mr Morrison to accept the offer to resettle refugees in offshore detention as part of her agreement in December 2019 to reverse the medevac legislation, which was originally passed without the governments support. The laws allowed refugees and asylum seekers in the offshore camps on PNG and Nauru to be brought to Australia for urgent medical care with the sign-off from two doctors, instead of having to go through a lengthy court process to have the transfer ordered.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and NZs Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi made the refugee resettlement announcement, which will see NZ accept 150 refugees each year for three years, on Thursday afternoon, more than two years after Senator Lambie says she made the deal with the Prime Minister.
Former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon will run for the Senate again on a platform of fixing aged care and targeting manufacturing jobs, as he says he supports Australias stance on national security after he did work for Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

More than four years after he quit federal politics to make an unsuccessful run for South Australian state politics, Mr Xenophon has announced he will run for the Senate at the upcoming federal election.

Nick Xenophon is running for the Senate again. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

His former party, the Nick Xenophon Team, was renamed Centre Alliance when he quit to run for state politics. The lack of a party means his name will not be above the line on the Senate ballot paper.

Mr Xenophon said if elected he would like to see action on improving aged care, the NDIS, and increasing the number of Australian manufacturing jobs. He also wants to ensure strong local content rules in South Australia for the construction of Australias proposed nuclear submarine fleet.
Widespread coral bleaching first hit the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, but it is now happening so frequently that scientists say the billions of dollars spent on conservation measures have failed to halt the growing damage caused by climate change.

Last week aerial surveys revealed severe bleaching to 60 per cent of the corals along a 500-kilometre stretch of the reef between Innisfail and Mackay. Surveys are ongoing on the southern section of the reef and scientists anticipate further widespread bleaching of similar severity will be revealed.

Coral bleaching on Stanley Reef, south of Townsville, which occurred in a late summer heatwave in March. Credit:Australian Marine Conservation Society/Climate Council/Harriet Spark

The federal government is under pressure at home and abroad to increase its greenhouse gas emissions cuts. A delegation from UNESCOs World Heritage Committee and scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature are in Australia to inspect the reef before they vote on downgrading its World Heritage status.

Federal and state governments are pouring billions into practical action like hand-removing the damaging crown of thorns starfish that eat coral and working with farmers to reduce water pollution.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was shocked and disappointed that Hillsong global senior pastor Brian Houston had resigned from the church after he was found to have breached its moral code, but said he had not been a member of the church for 15 years.

I think its entirely appropriate [that Mr Houston resigned], and I must admit that we were very disappointed and shocked to hear the news, Mr Morrison told reporters on Thursday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on stage before a Hillsong congregation in 2019.

My first thoughts were with the victims, as theyve been rightly described ... I mean, I havent been at Hillsong now for over about 15 years. I go to a local church in my own community, a Pentecostal church, I think everybody knows that. But, you know, I was quite shocked, and Im sure, like many, very disappointed.

Mr Houston resigned on Wednesday following an internal investigation by the church that found he had breached its moral code in two separate incidents. One complaint involved sending inappropriate text messages to a member of staff and the other involved entering the hotel room of a woman at a Hillsong convention. According to the acting head of the church, Pastor Phil Dooley, the woman involved in the hotel room incident has not said it involved any sexual activity.
Australias busiest freight corridor will go green under a landmark collaboration between NSW, Victoria and Queensland to establish a renewable hydrogen refuelling network for heavy trucks.

The state-led push to decarbonise logistics along the eastern seaboard will commence with four hydrogen stations along the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne by 2026.

NSW and Victoria will contribute a combined $20 million to build the first four stations and offer grants for long-haul hydrogen freight trucks, with an expectation industry will match the investment.

A hydrogen fuel cell-powered prime mover manufactured by US-based Hyzon Motors, which is building a new assembly plant in Melbournes south-east. Credit:

Both states have set targets to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Victorian Liberal MP Wendy Lovell has been widely condemned for claiming public housing should not be built in the best street in Brighton in Melbournes wealthy south-east because the children cannot mix with others.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy defended Ms Lovell, a former housing minister, on Thursday morning as well-intentioned, but conceded her comments in the Victorian upper house on Wednesday during a homelessness debate were clumsy.

Liberal MP Wendy Lovell arrives at Parliament on Thursday. Credit:Nine News

There is no point putting a very low income, probably welfare-dependent, family in the best street in Brighton where the children cannot mix with others or go to school with other children or where they do not have the same ability to have the latest sneakers and iPhones, Ms Lovell said.

We have got to make sure that people can actually fit into a neighbourhood, that they have a good life, and that people are not stigmatising them because of their circumstances.
Singapore: China and Solomon Islands are set to sign off on a security deal that will allow Chinese warships to be based in the Pacific and shift the balance of power in Australias region.

The agreement will give China the power to use its military to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands and give Beijing a base for its navy less than 2000 kilometres off Australias coast. The base would be the first time Australia has had a strategic adversary within striking distance of its coastline since World War II.

A Chinese frigate and a guided missile destroyer on manoeuvres in the South China Sea in 2020 Credit:Li Wei

China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in and have stopover and transition in the Solomon Islands, the draft framework agreement states.

Solomon Islands may, according to its own needs, request China to send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces to Solomon Islands to assist in maintaining social order, protecting peoples lives and property.
The US and its allies now need to confront a bitter reality: that they led Ukraine on without any real plan for the country to ever join NATO.

No amount of sanctions on Russia and military aid for Ukraine  which have no doubt helped force a stalemate  can avoid the need to address where it went horribly wrong.

Since Russia invaded the country on February 24, there have been two diametrically opposing versions of reality.

A Ukrainian serviceman stands in the cemetery on Wednesday after the funeral of his comrade Vladyslav Buvalkin in Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit:Getty Images

When I was reporting on the ground in Ukraine over the past three weeks, these two narratives seemed a world away from the incredibly complex conflict in front of me.
PHILIPSBURG, The Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor, Omar Ottley visited the Marie Genevieve DeWeever school today in the representation of World Oral Health Day 2022. He distributed water and apples to the students as a symbol of healthy living.

Minister Ottley also delivered a speech to the 2nd-grade students about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the importance of proper dental healthcare.

The Minister would like to express a heartfelt word of thanks to the Nagico group of companies for sponsoring such a great initiative.
PHILIPSBURG:--- As Sint Maarten transitions to endemic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) transmission, a number of public health changes are underway.

1) As of 15th March 2022, Minister VSA relaxed the mask mandate  this means that masks are not legally required in any situation on Sint Maarten, however business owners can choose to implement their own mask policy.

2) After 25th March 2022:

a. CPS will no longer be managing individual cases of SARS-CoV-2 and will not be conducting source and contact tracing.

b. CPS will no longer issue quarantine or isolation letters.

c. SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals will not need to isolate but may be advised to stay at home by their general practitioner (house doctor).

d. Any individual who tests positive for SARS-CoV-2 will need to follow the advice of their general practitioner (house doctor). The house doctor will advise on how many sick days are required. For extended sick leave, contact your insurance as you would for any other illness.

3) Screening of individuals, particularly employees, will be up to the discretion of the employer, but this must be reasonable and should not infringe the rights of employees. CPS only recommends SARS-CoV-2 screening in closed, high-risk settings e.g. hospitals, elderly care homes, prisons.

4) After April 29th 2022, CPS will no longer conduct community testing. Individuals will not be able to access free testing at the Community Help Desk in Hope Estate. Any individual who would like a SARS-CoV-2 test will need to visit their house doctor and/or a laboratory, as they would for any other illness.

5) If persons have general questions about COVID-19, call 914.

The transition to accepting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 may be socially difficult, but Ministry VSA deems the relative risk to the population to be significantly lower than when SARS-CoV-2 first emerged. Vaccination is effective and widely available, and the most recent variant (Omicron) is significantly less likely to cause hospitalization and death, particularly for the vaccinated.

CPS and the Ministry VSA will continue to monitor SARS-CoV-2 transmission and will inform the community of any updates.
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The Collective Prevention Services (CPS), a department in the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (Ministry VSA), would like to inform the general public, about its facility opening/closure hours for the different services that it renders to the community.



The CPS COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic is located at the Vineyard Building Office Complex for COVID-19 vaccinations. The opening hours are: Mondays 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM; Wednesdays 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM; Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination is Wednesdays by appointment from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM; Fridays 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM.



Anyone who received a Tuesday or Thursday appointment, can come to the next open clinic day at any of the above-mentioned hours. They will be taken quickly for their second dose.



For vaccination related questions, registration queries persons can go to services.sintmaartengov.org; or email/call (914), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; or call the paediatric hotline Cell: (721) 526-1644.



Everyone is urged to come and get their COVID-19 vaccine. Walk-ins are welcome for their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd doses of the vaccine. You must bring with you your vaccination card and a form of Identification (ID).



The CPS COVID-19 Helpline (914) is operational Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM and on Saturday 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.



COVID-19 Testing remains available at the Community Help Desk Hope Estate from Monday - Friday 8:30 AM to 11:00 AM.



The Baby Wellness Clinic operational hours are Monday to Friday 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. The clinic can be reach by calling: 542-3003, 523-553 or 542-2078 or send an email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



The Surveillance/Vector Control Unit is open from Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and can be reached by calling/emailing: Phone: 542-1570; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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
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Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who is in the process of parting ways with Chelsea, is reportedly interested in buying Turkish club Goztepe SK.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has reportedly expressed an interest in buying Turkish club Goztepe SK.

Having been heavily sanctioned by the British government, Abramovich will part ways with Chelsea as soon as possible, with a vast array of bidders currently in the race to purchase the West London outfit.

While the Russian billionaire will not benefit financially from the sale, he has several other business interests which appear to provide him with the opportunity to buy another team.

According to Fanatik, Abramovich is in negotiations to take over at Goztepe, who currently find themselves eight points adrift of safety in the Super Lig standings.

Two of Abramovich's luxury yachts have recently docked in Turkey, who have so far not imposed any sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

The report adds that face-to-face discussions are expected to take place at a time when Raine Group plan to identify their preferred bidders for Chelsea.
Madrid, March 22, 2022(SPS) - The Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, will appear urgently today before Congress as a result of the political crisis generated by the mistaken statement by Pedro Sanchez regarding the process of decolonization of Western Sahara, even before the date, several deputies and senators have taken advantage of the parliamentary work on yesterday to condemn the decision and wear the colors of the Saharawi flag.

In a debate on the extension of maternity or paternity leave in single-parent families, the deputy spokesperson for Unidos Podems in Congress, Sofia Castanon, wanted to show the support of the confederal group of Unidos Podems to the representatives of the Saharawi people who were in the tribune of hemicycle guests. Among the attendees was the Delegate of the Frente POLISARIO in Spain, Abdullah Arabi, who thanked this and other political groups for the expressions of affection received before and during the plenary session.

"I want to convey to you the firm commitment to Western Sahara because it is a matter of historical responsibility, coherence and memory", Castanon stated to the applause of his colleagues from the confederal group, who took advantage of the end of the intervention to remove several flags from the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic in full hemicycle.

Also in the upper house, the Senate, there have been proclamations and posters in favor of the Saharawi people. During the session, the Valencian senator from the Compromis formation, Carles Mulet, took out several flags and posters that read "Free Sahara". Before, the political representative described the Prime Minister as a "traitor" for supporting Morocco.

The image highlights the gaps between the unilateral policy of Pedro Sanchez and the bulk of the Spanish political class, critical not only of form but of substance for betraying the Saharawi people.SPS

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GLASTONBURY  The court cases against a local school board member and the man accused of punching him during a confrontation at a public hearing last year have both been statutorily sealed, according to the Connecticuts judicial website.

The judicial branchs office of external affairs on Wednesday confirmed the cases were sealed, but said further details were not available.

Glastonbury Board of Education Secretary Monte Ray McFall and local resident Mark Finocchiaro were both charged with second-degree breach of peace in the Dec. 14, 2021 incident.

The board had met to gather public comment on whether to reconsider its decision to change the high school mascot name to the Glastonbury Guardians. The name had been changed in spring 2020 over concerns that the previous team name and logo were offensive to Native Americans.

But some parents objected to the name change, circulating a petition that led to the board to reconsider the decision.

During the public hearing to discuss changing the name, the crowd became so unruly that a police sergeant called for additional officers and they discussed how they could evacuate the crowd from the building if necessary, according to the arrest warrants for the two men.

In a video that went viral online, the two men came face-to-face during the recess after the public comment portion of the meeting. McFall can be seen shoving Finocchiaro. The footage then shows Finocchiaro punching McFall in the face, knocking him to the floor.

Prior to the altercation, McFall had been in charge of tracking speakers time and limiting each of them to three minutes during the public comment period, according to the warrants. When Finocchiaro spoke, he went over his allotted time and at one point walked toward where the Board of Education members were seated on the stage shouting and using profanities, the warrants state. He eventually sat down, but continued shouting during the hearing while others were trying to speak, according to the warrants.

McFall later told investigators he had gone into the crowd during the public recess to speak with a council member about defusing tensions, but admitted to police he had stated he was going to tear that [expletive] guys lips off, referring to Finocchiaro.

The chair of the Republican Town Committee later called on McFall to resign from the board, but said McFall had refused and instead resigned from the Republican party.

The board ultimately voted 7-1 against reconsidering the name change in December.
Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police

PLAINVILLE  A Berlin man was killed Wednesday afternoon after he drove the wrong way on Interstate 84 and crashed head-on with another vehicle near Plainville, according to Connecticut State Police.

State Police were notified of the incident just after 2 p.m. Wednesday. A 27-year-old Waterbury woman was driving her Toyota RAV4 west on Interstate 84 in the leftmost lane Wednesday afternoon while a 43-year-old Berlin man was driving his Ford Focus the wrong way  east in the westbound lanes  also in the leftmost lane, according to an incident report from state police.
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HARTFORD  Amid claims of election ballot fraud, a conservative lawmaker made eight attempts Wednesday to rewrite a bill that would allow for expanded mail-in voting this November. But even his proposal to cut-and-paste a section of the state Constitution was rejected by majority Democrats.

During a virtuoso 31/2-hour stand-up in the state Senate, Sen. Rob Sampson, of Wolcott, warned that a law passed in the House of Representatives last week was a dodge around the Constitution, which limits mail-in ballots to a voters sickness, military service, work at polling places, or if they are out-of-town all day for business or school.

I can honestly say that you could look at the language that is in the bill before us several different ways, and I dont know that youd necessarily be right or wrong, but I also think that thats part of the problem and something that we should address, Sampson said.

The new law would allow voters to apply for absentee ballots even if they were worried about possible sickness or physical disability of others, rather than their individual sickness. Under the bill, qualified voters could also cast mail-in ballots because of their absence from their city or town during part of election days.

My concern is that this definition is so loose that what will happen is, it will allow a legitimate claim that every person in the state of Connecticut would be eligible for an absentee ballot, based on the intangible definition of illness, Sampson said.

The bill was approved 30-4 after a 41/2-hour debate. Any amendment accepted by the Senate would have sent the legislation back to the House, which passed the bill in a bipartisan 126-16 vote last week.

State Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, co-chairwoman of the legislative Government Administration and Elections Committee, asked for the rejection of each of Sampsons eight amendments, one of which would have moved the statewide outdoor drop boxes, purchased by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill with federal pandemic-relief funding, to the inside of municipal buildings, where video surveillance would be required.

Sampson said he had drafted as many as 19 amendments, including one that would begin the system of signature verification of electors, a controversial tactic that has been criticized as voter suppression. It results in many voters being disenfranchised, Flexer said, asking Democrats to also vote against Sampsons proposals.

All but one of Sampsons amendments failed along party lines, 22-12, with two absent. But one amendment, which was based on a template from the conservative Heritage Foundation, would have required the secretary of the state to confirm the citizenship and immigration status of voters. Sen. Tony Hwang, of Fairfield, who was born in Taiwan and is a naturalized citizen, sided with Democrats against the measure.

State Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, who is considering a campaign for secretary of the state, said Connecticuts absentee ballot rules are the most restrictive in the nation. In particular, it will help commuters cast their ballots.

When you make voting a little easier, people use it, Lesser said, noting that the 2020 election turnout set a statewide records for turnout.

Flexer noted that over the last two years, one of the most-important pandemic-related issues has been the ability of people to vote.

Over that period of time we have debated several different measures to make sure people could exercise their right to vote, Flexer said. This language will put our state statutes in concert with the language in our states Constitution. It will empower voters who still continue to have concern about the pandemic for example, to be able to exercise their right to vote using an absentee ballot because that person is unable to appear due to sickness.

Merrill, using federal funding in 2020, mailed applications for absentee ballots to every registered voter, a policy that Sampson characterized as inviting ballot fraud.

Currently, there will be a statewide ballot question this November on possibly amending the state Constitution to include early voting. Republican opposition to a related question, which is on-track to make the statewide ballot in 2024, would authorize no-excuse absentee balloting.

We are prudent to be cautious and thats what this bill will do, said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, warning that the COVID pandemic can again rage and frighten voters. We are still haunted by this disease, and we need to make provisions for the fall.

Those who voted against the bill, all Republicans, included Sens. Dan Champagne of Vernon, Henri Martin of Bristol, and John Kissel of Enfield, as well as Sampson.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Connecticut residents may soon see more bats silhouetted in the night sky as the states population of cave-dwelling bats wake up from their hibernation.

This time of year, cave-dwelling bats, including little brown, big brown, and northern long-eared bats are beginning to emerge from their winter hibernaculum, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said in a Facebook post.

State biologists have set up equipment that can listen in on bat hibernation areas. This equipment allows researchers to hear the calls of bats as they emerge, giving them a better understanding of what species are using the hibernation spots.

Some locations where bats hibernate, such as caves or mines, have metal gates installed that allow bats to enter and leave. The gates prevent humans from entering and disturbing the animals.

Thats important, because many species of bats in Connecticut are endangered, according to the state. Two of those species, the Indiana bat and Northern long-eared bat are also considered endangered or threatened by the federal government.

Cave roosting bats in the state are under threat from white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection that results in a powdery white growth on the wings and muzzle of hibernating bats. The infection is most often spread between bats roosting together, but it can also be inadvertently carried between caves by people through spores trapped on their clothing.

DEEP says people who see bats flying or clinging to the sides of buildings during the winter months should report the sighting to the agency, as the behavior can be a sign of White-Nose Syndrome.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong launched his reelection campaign Thursday.

In a short video, Tong, a Democrat from Stamford, promoted his record of going after big corporations, including leading price-fixing litigation against Big Pharma, and investigating the harms posed by social media platforms on youth.

Much of his first term has been marked by his fight against the opioid epidemic. Earlier this month, he announced that Connecticut had reached settlement in a years-long legal battle against Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.

I know Connecticut families are strong, but it is my job to help make us stronger. That is why I work hard every day for the people of Connecticut and plan, with your support, to continue fighting as your attorney general, Tong said in a statement Thursday announcing his candidacy.

Tong was elected in 2018 after 10 years as a state representative and is the first Asian-American to hold statewide office in Connecticut. He plans to participate in the states Citizens Election Program, which enables him to get public financing.

Just one other candidate has filed paperwork with the state to run for attorney general. Jessica Kordas, an attorney from Norwalk, is seeking the Republican nomination.
NEWTOWN  A series of fights at Newtown High School, which led to the arrests of 12 students, began over hearsay, according to police.

It wasnt gang-related or anything  it was teenage drama, Police Chief David Kullgren told Hearst Connecticut Media.

He said the altercations started March 16, when a group of girls started fighting in the hallway.

One of the girls thought another girl was talking about her and (they) confronted each other in the hallway, Kullgren said.

The police departments call log from that day shows a dispute reported at the high school at 11:14 a.m.

Two more fights occurred at the school  one on Monday and another on Tuesday  both of which stemmed from the first incident, according to Kullgren.

After Mondays fight, school officials decided to increase security in the school building, especially in shared spaces and bathrooms.

Newtown High Principal Kimberly Longobucco said doing so helped the school quickly intervene in a third alteration that occurred Tuesday.

Police responded to a report of a dispute at the high school at 10:53 a.m. that day, according to the Newtown Police Departments March 22 call log.

Kullgren said school staff intervened in each of the fights and a teacher was pushed during one of the altercations, but no one was hurt.

No medical services were called in and there were no on-site injuries reported, he said.

After investigating, school resource officers issued juvenile summons to 12 students on Wednesday. A juvenile summons still counts as being arrested, according to the state website.

They were charged with second-degree breach of peace, and one also was charged with third-degree assault.

Police said applying juvenile charges was deemed appropriate due to the particularly aggressive nature of the incidents, and noted the students involved chose not to take advantage of the multiple avenues available for reporting and support for peer-to-peer conflict resolution.

The big message here is the Board of Education and police department are not going to tolerate this kind of activity in Newtown schools, Kullgren said. We want a safe and secure environment.

Longobucco said the incidents led school officials to review behavioral expectations of students during morning announcements, and the school will continue to hold responsible the students involved.

Students are urged to refrain from posting about anything related to the fights on social media.

This heightens the situation, has the potential to interfere with an ongoing investigation and may lead to additional consequences, not limited to suspensions, loss of extracurricular activities, Longobucco wrote in a letter to the school community Tuesday.

The school will continue to assess safety measures with law enforcement as needed, she said, and students concerned about the behaviors of others can report it to an adult or use the schools Anonymous Alerts application.

Posted on Newtown High Schools Facebook page Thursday morning was a reminder that all students are expected to uphold the schools behavioral code of conduct and that fights, arguments and aggression will not be tolerated.

The post stated school staff and administration know that we have excellent students and the last two weeks are not representative of who we are as a school.
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STAMFORD  After Connecticuts Supreme Court ruled in its favor, Stamford developer Building and Land Technology is moving forward with rebuilding more of the South End.

Harbor Points developer plans immediately to move foward and begin work on building more than 700 new apartments on the former B&S Carting, according to BLT spokesman Rob Blanchard.

The site, a former trash hauling facility, which has unfortunately remained a vacant brownfield in the center of the South End neighborhood, can finally be reincorporated into the fabric of the community, Blanchard said in a statement.

Even though a development plan for the buildings cleared the city zoning board in 2020, its future was tied up in the court system after a group of South End residents in 2019 filed a petition pushing back on a Planning Board change allowing denser development in the area.

However, the State Supreme Court this month cleared the way for BLT to build 714 units across the two parcels it owns between Woodland Avenue and Walter Wheeler Drive. After years of legal acrimony between Stamfords Board of Representatives and the developer, the justices upheld a lower court decision that essentially voids the resident petition.

The new apartments will be split unevenly between BLTs two lots on the site. The western half, which is about three acres, will house 174 apartments and include 218 parking spaces, according to the 2020 application. Application materials from the time show the finished building ranging from four to six stories, with the highest points closest to the center of the property.

The larger, eastern half of the property is planned for buildings ranging from seven to 25 stories, making it home to one of the tallest buildings in Harbor Point. Across roughly four acres, the developer plans to build 540 apartments and 690 parking spaces. BLT will place all its city-mandated affordable housing on this property, adding 54 homes to the local stock of below market-rate units.

Despite its approval, the plan for the B&S Carting site drew mixed emotions during the public hearing process. While BLT pointed to the municipal benefits that an updated B&S Carting site would bring, some longtime South End residents shuddered publicly at the prospect of BLT building densely on another site in the South End. Despite BLTs promise to include robust roadway infrastructure for the neighborhood and millions of dollars in revenue for the city, South End stalwarts asked for a lower-rise approach to developing the site, since it abuts more traditional residential streets.

Just as residents have consistently argued for lower-density development on the site, BLT has consistently argued that it was impossible. Because the B&S Carting site contains contaminated soil, the costs of remediation and municipal infrastructure upgrades that come with this project are substantial, said company co-president Ted Ferrarone in a 2020 statement to The Stamford Advocate.

BLT declined to provide an exact timeline on when the environmental remediation and construction work would begin.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
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STAMFORD  A city man who was out of prison on parole was arrested Thursday morning on gun and drug charges, according to police.

Toney Jordan, 33, was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of ammunition, possession of a high-capacity magazine, possessing weapons in a motor vehicle, possession of narcotics and possession of narcotics with intent to sell following a weeks-long investigation by the Stamford Police Departments Narcotics and Organized Crime squad.
More than 90 Ukrainian architects and designers have announced their intention to work for Romanian companies, by filling in an online form, Agerpres reports.

They responded to a move initiated by the Cluj-based architect Vlad Negru and popularized by the Romanian Order of Architects. Thus, Ukrainian architects looking for a job, as well as the architectural offices that intend to hire them, are invited to fill in online forms."Among the hundreds of thousands of adult refugees who have fled Ukraine, fleeing the war, are architects who need our support during this very difficult time. We invite you all to lend a helping hand through two tools developed by architect Vlad Negru, via Trans Form in Cluj. (...) These instruments are very useful because they bring together the Ukrainian architects in search for a job and also the architecture companies that want to hire," says the announcement.Architect Ioan-Razvan Molie, managing director of a Bucharest company, says that he has taken steps to hire Ukrainian refugee architects in Romania, both through the platform promoted by OAR, and also through the special section for refugees on E-jobs.In the registration form for architects, the vast majority of candidates have announced their intention to work remotely, but there are also some who can work in Romania. Among the languages they speak there are mainly English or Russian, but also German, Romanian, French or Spanish.Seven companies said they want to hire a total of nine architects, in Bucharest, Cluj, Oradea, Miercurea Ciuc, Alba Iulia, Baia Mare or Arad.
The Timisoara-based Banat Village Museum is going to exhibit online a collection of wall carpets, which are traditional pieces, collected from the old Romanian, Slovakian, German, Ukrainian, Serbian households in Banat, blending the quality of being aesthetic with that being useful.

The wall carpets in Banat came from the Low Countries, through Germany, Austria and Hungary, in the beginning of the 20th century, when women used to compete in decorating their kitchens with pieces of embroidery sewn on a rectangular patch of cloth made of cotton or other woven fabric made in the house or bought from the markets, reads the presentation of the exhibition hosted by the Banat Village Museum.These were especially arranged above the washstand, the cooking machine or near the table and had various motifs written on them, such as: "Where is peace there is also good luck and happiness," "The beautiful cook prepares the tasteful meal" etc.The role played by these wall carpets was an educational, moral one, teaching children how to behave in society, while sometimes they were just meant to be funny. Obviously, their charm is to be found in their naivety, naturalness, grammatical mistakes or in the fact that they were made with conviction and devotion.A researcher in anthropology and folklore with the Vest University of Timisoara, Otilia Hedesan told AGERPRES, on the occasion of a traditional crafts and gastronomy fair in Banat, that among the customs kept in Serbia and Hungary [the historic Banat - editor's note] was also that of sewing various motifs on pieces of cloth to place them on the kitchen's walls, as decorating objects, in the 1960s. "These wall carpets are now completely gone from Romania, and we don't have any museum to place value on their traditional elements. In exchange, a smart museologist in our neighbouring country collected them and they are very precious today," said Otilia Hedesan.
Romanian Crown Custodian, Her Majesty Margareta received on Wednesday, the title of "the most important female personality in Romania", at the eleventh edition of the Forbes Woman Gala.

The title was awarded out of competition, informs the Royal House, in a post on Facebook.

On this occasion, Her Majesty Margareta sent a message to the participants in the gala.

Organized by Forbes Romania magazine, the Forbes Woman Gala encourages the most valuable female personalities in various fields, to serve as a model in the entire Romanian society. The gala celebrates and rewards the strongest and most influential women in Romania, whether they are active in business, politics, philanthropy, public relations, education or sports.

Her Majesty Margareta was awarded the title of "Most Influential Woman in Romania" by Forbes Romania in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2014, the Crown Custodian ranked first in the Top 50 Most Influential Women in Romania, and in 2020 and 2021, Her Majesty was granted, out of competition, the title of "the most important female personality in Romania".
Her Majesty Margaret, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, offered, on Thursday, during a ceremony that took place in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace, the certificate of supplier to the Royal House of Romania, for the second time, to the National News Agency AGERPRES.

"Today, Her Majesty Margaret, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, decides to extend the status of supplier to the Royal House of Romania, for the second time, to the National News Agency AGERPRES for news flow, press monitoring service and photographic services," Radu Ghinea informed.On the same occasion, the Custodian of the Crown granted the High Patronage to the exhibition "100 years since the Coronation of Alba-Iulia," organized by the National Bank of Romania, and to the Geography Society of Romania. Prince Radu has granted the High Patronage to the Association for Falconry and Protection of Birds of Prey "Peregrinus."
Some Army endowment programmes will be brought forward, if Parliament approves the allocation of 2.5pct of the GDP for defence, Minister Vasile Dincu stated on Thursday, Agerpres reports.

He was asked what plans the Bucharest authorities had for military procurement, given President Klaus Iohannis' announcement of the need to allocate 2.5pct of GDP for defence."Romania has an extended plan, a strategy called the Army 2040 and which has three periods, 2021-2026, then 2026-2032 and 2040, the end. (...) Our document is quite well anchored in reality, for that was one of Romania's topics, one of the topics with which Romania tried to sensitize NATO, by saying that there is a possibility of a conflict nearby, because we knew somewhat or intuited what Russia can do in this area. This means that we did have some endowment plans. And probably some of these plans will be brought forward, if we succeed next year - and I think that Parliament will approve 2.5pct of the GDP. This means that my plan is to use 30 per cent of this money for endowment. The NATO limit is 20, and last year we used 26pct. I think we have important needs and that means we will also bring plans related to land forces, endowment, the purchase of aircraft for the aviation area and, also, the purchase of corvettes and other forms of modern weapons," Dincu told Digi 24 private television broadcaster.The minister said the acquisitions would be made sooner."There are some plans, the countries insist and Romania was among them, and we have been talking lately at NATO to make joint acquisitions, that is to make acquisitions together, not separately, depending on the money we have, and to try, for instance, to come up with joint projects as soon as possible. (...) And Europe also did this under the Strategic Compass, the document that we managed to approve last week, approving other investments and other funds from the European Union, such ad the European Defence Fund, which was not used very well before, but now it will certainly help the states," Dincu also stated.Asked what Romania will buy urgently, as weapons, the Minister of Defence specified: "Urgently, we will purchase corvettes, which is a project that is almost finished, we are just waiting, and it will come very soon, for the decision of the association between Naval Group and the Constanta shipyard, we are waiting for the last offer. We have been negotiating for the last few months, for the ministry is not the buyer... Romtehnica is also a public procurement, which is ultimately not about our ministry.""We also have a few projects related to the Patriot area, we still have to receive... We will buy more anti-aircraft batteries. We have an important area and we already have a lot of deliveries in the area of land mobility, armoured vehicles of various types, platforms in the area of light armoured vehicles; we also have projects, a very important projects that we are going to launch this year, which is the drones project, by which we are going to buy drones," he said.The Minister also highlighted the Romanian participation, in offset system, in these endowment projects."In all these projects we rely on two things: acquisitions at the highest level, but, at the same time, Romanian participation, offset, meaning maintenance or production in our area. I think we will also benefit from a fortunate situation, and we will be able to relaunch, we started a project together with the Minister of Economy, a project to relaunch our defence industry, as the new trend and situation has shown that Europe needs to bring home some of the productions in critical infrastructure, including in the area of armaments, which were made somewhere else. And it possible that the important countries producing weapons, in the world and in Europe, such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom, may come, and I invited them to my meetings with all the ministers, we invited them to come to Romania to make a joint venture with these big suppliers, so that we can produce here too, in order to have a participation in the innovation programnes," Dincu explained.
Romania's Defence Minister Vasile Dincu said on Thursday that reports of a possible chemical attack by Russia in Ukraine were primarily a matter of concern, but he added that the Romanian authorities had no signs at the moment of such an attack, Agerpres reports.

He was asked by Digi 24 private broadcaster what the information from the Romanian authorities shows, related to the worries about a chemical attack by Russia voiced by the US President, Joe Biden, and the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg."It is a matter of concern, first and foremost. We have no signs of a chemical attack at this time. For the time being, both parties to the conflict, both the Ukrainians and the Russian Federation, are accusing each other of using chemical weapons. The Russians have already started with the idea that the Ukrainians are using such weapons. If you remember, at the beginning of their conflict in Crimea and when they started the attack in the Donbas they claimed that the Ukrainians used chemical weapons there. Highly unlikely; that has not been proven. But there is this rhetoric on the part of the Russian Federation that they will use what they call a kind of strategic defence in nuclear or chemical province. We must be prepared for that, but we do not believe that at this moment it is a threat to the population...," said Dincu.The minister explained that NATO has now considered facilitating elements for defence in the event of a chemical war."First of all, for Ukrainians to defend themselves, because it is about them. These rumour about the cloud coming from the bombings in Ukraine, the toxic cloud coming to Romania are social media fabrications, there is no such thing, they are fake news, but in this instance, we've obviously started to prioritise our special priorities, to review the plan in the event of a chemical attack in the neighbourhood. We've been doing these things for two or three weeks now, we've started reviewing all plans, but that means we're on the lookout. This is not an alarm yet. It is a signal that NATO is giving out, a political signal and a diplomatic signal, trying to deter Russia from doing so. So right now, there are no chemical attacks, and I don't think we should be afraid of that. We are ready to train the population in such case and to have a plan for this area, which has been active for a long time, but I tell you: it is only a hypothesis. That is not a calculable probability (...). No, people should not worry right now, because it is almost like in the case of a nuclear attack, of a hypothetical nuclear attack. (...) It is a way of mutual deterrence that has been used," said Dincu.He added that the population should rather listen to what the authorities say and what the media sources who take points of view from the authorities say."And I think we can be calm. At the moment, there are no worries for a chemical or, let's say, marine mine attack," Dincu said.
National Defence Minister Vasile Dincu on Thursday said that the NATO Battlegroup that will be stationed in Romania, together with those in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary, will mean extra troops on Romania's soil, a deterrence force, nevertheless a force that is not meant to attack Russia or enter a military conflict, Agerpres reports.

According to Minister Dincu, these battle groups are the decision of the European Union and NATO, bringing to mind the significance of the NATO Summit in Brussels."The significance of this summit is also important as, for the first time, we have a union between NATO and the European Union, a collaboration, a partnership that is very important, for which Romania has militated for years. With the activation of the NATO response force, there have been established four battlegroups in Poland and in the Baltic countries, as at the moment that was regarded as the most fragile area, so to speak, in terms of European security, Back then we insisted and the President has been doing so since 2016 that the Eastern Flank be also strengthened in the southern area, in Romania's area, in the Black Sea area as well. It has happened now and it is one of the great gains, in my opinion. Four more battlegroups will come to Europe, this means in the first place that Romania will have another battlegroup, of round 1,000 troops. The number is not precise, the volume, it also depends on the specialisation of the military to come, on the type of arms they come with. Obviously, already trained troops will come, and they will enter in the system of collaboration with the Romanian Army, a system that has been tested in Afghanistan, in very many applications," Vasile Dincu told Digi 24 private television broadcaster.He also explained what activities the military in the NATO battlegroup that will come to Romania will carry out."They will obviously conduct joint applications with the Romanians, with the other NATO forces. We shall work together on defence strategies, joint training strategies, all that is related to defence. These battle groups are not meant to attack Russia, they are not meant to enter a military conflict, they are meant to defend and the be a force of deterrence in the first place, because this is in fact the mission of the entire activation of the response force. When NATO activated one month ago this response force - it had never done it before, it was for the first time - , this means 40,000 soldiers on NATO level who are prepared for the situation in which a NATO territory is attacked. Therefore, we'll have extra troops somewhere in Romania and this is a good thing. It is exactly what Romania had been asking for a long time, over the recent years," Dincu said.The Defence Minister confirmed that this measure could also be regarded as a preparation for hosting permanent bases in Romania, when asked in this respect."It is a preparation, indeed. This is a decision that is going to be made probably in the future, it is a sensitive decision, as it is also a matter of language. We participated in a NATO debate that was quite intense, as there are some countries saying that 'permanent' doesn't sound right, as it would mean saying that war is permanent. As such it will be called a rotating force or something like that," he explained.Leaders of NATO member states gathered in Brussels in an extraordinary summit approved on Thursday four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced, according to AFP, Reuters and dpa."Leaders approved our four new NATO battlegroups. In Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. These are in addition to the four already in the Baltic countries and Poland. So we have eight multinational NATO battlegroups now. From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea," Stoltenberg said after the end of the meeting.NATO already has battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) welcomes the adoption by the UN General Assembly, convened in a special emergency session, of the resolution entitled "Humanitarian Consequences of Aggression Against Ukraine", with a large majority of 140 UN members.

Romania, together with 88 member states, co-sponsored the resolution initiated by France and Mexico. Five UN member states voted against the resolution.The support for the document reaffirms the historic support the first resolution on the situation in Ukraine caused by the invasion and aggression of the Russian Federation against the country received on March 2, 2022, adopted by the UN General Assembly in the first part of the 11th emergency session, a document entitled "Aggression against Ukraine", said a MAE release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday."The resolution of March 24 reaffirms its support for the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders, and emphasizes the need for full implementation of the General Assembly Resolution of March 2, 2022. The great majority of UN member states call for immediate cease of the hostilities, condemn the violations of the international humanitarian law and demand the full observance of its provisions, the document encouraging the resolution of the conflict by peaceful means ", the MAE informed.The document also expresses deep concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, especially with regard to the high number of civilian casualties, including children, as well as the situation of displaced persons or refugees in need of humanitarian assistance, the quoted source added.The resolution also contains strong messages about the global repercussions of Russia's aggression, especially on the impact of the conflict on growing food and energy insecurity. At the same time, the need to ensure the protection of civilians, without discrimination, of humanitarian and medical personnel, as well as of the objectives and infrastructure indispensable for the survival of the civilian population, is underlined."In response to Russia's threats about the use of nuclear weapons, as well as armed actions against Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the Resolution expresses concern about the serious humanitarian and environmental consequences of accidents that could result from the bombing of Ukrainian nuclear infrastructure. Thus, the document underlines the obligation to guarantee the safety and security of the entire nuclear infrastructure", the MAE release mentioned.
The four NATO-approved battlegroups will become fully operational "in a relatively short period of time", with the one in Romania being "the most advanced," NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana told AGERPRES on Thursday.

NATO has approved the creation of four battlegroups in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia."They are already in an initial phase of becoming operational and will become fully operational in a relatively short period of time. We'll thus have eight battlegroups on the Eastern Flank, four existing ones in the Baltic area and Poland, plus four in our region - this, if you will, is a decision for the very near term," the official said.Regarding a permanent military presence on the Eastern Flank, Mircea Geoana spoke about NATO's decision on Thursday to appoint NATO military commanders "to present them with options for a more robust, permanent and sustainable military presence on the Eastern Flank. Based on this military opinion, NATO leaders will approve medium- and long-term decisions at the Madrid Summit."He reminded that there are already activated Defense Plans for the countries on the Eastern Flank, including Romania or Turkey."Today we have 40,000 Allied troops under the command of the NATO military, as a result of the activation of these plans, and also in the medium and long term, we will make decisions on missile defense systems, cyber defense, in general another quality and a another depth of NATO's presence on the Eastern Flank. "As to the battlegroups becoming operational, the Deputy Secretary General of NATO appreciated that "it is rather a technical issue at this time"."The composition of this battlegroup is known, its composition regarding the nations that announced their participation, some of them have today reconfirmed, obviously, France, the framework country, but also the Netherlands and other countries have announced their intention to participate. So I anticipate a relatively short period of time, and I am convinced that the Romanian military commanders, who are highly respected in NATO, will contribute to a very short timetable. I would say the battlegroup in Romania is the most advanced of the four decided and set up by our leaders," he added.
There are currently no indications of "imminent" use of chemical or biological weapons by Russia, NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana told AGERPRES, speaking in the context about the rhetoric of the Russian Federation in the past.

"We have no indications of the imminent use of chemical or biological weapons by the Russian Federation. On the other hand we have indications on a rhetoric it used in Syria, falsely accusing Ukraine and American allies of allegedly having a biological laboratory - exactly the recipe used by the Russians in Syria," he said.Thus, says the official, NATO leaders have decided to preventively provide protective equipment against such potential."We do not anticipate an attack by the Russian Federation on NATO territory or countries," he said.The message sent by NATO on Thursday, Geoana points out, is to warn Russia of the risks that such an escalation of the conflict could bring, "but also of the severe consequences that the Russian Federation would have to additionally bear compared to current sanctions, such a new atrocity is reached, and the war crimes case would become even more robust and this should be taken into account by the Russian leadership.""We do not see an imminent risk, but we do see preliminary steps in the public communication that Russia made in the past, and that is why we decided to speak clearly, as we spoke clearly a few months ago, about the fact that we had information that Russia would attack Ukraine. It is also a part of strategic communication that we have decided to use today," he said.Geoana said that "it is very clear that Russia has specialized in inventing pretexts and very often these pretexts are so clear.""We are also very attentive to what Russia is doing in the military field, obviously we have real-time information about all the movements that they make, and on the other hand we are very attentive to the way they communicate publicly, because sometimes they only use it for the purpose of intimidation, other times they use it for the purpose of preparing very aggressive actions," he said.
Health Minister Alexandru Rafila announced on Thursday, in Iasi, that there are four counties left in which the potassium iodide pills must be distributed, Agerpres reports.

The official stressed that potassium iodide should only be taken in case of a recommendation from doctors and authorities at a certain time."[Antibiotice Iasi] has already distributed to the Public Health Directorates most of the production of potassium iodide, 90%. There are four more counties in which it must be distributed. We organize ourselves at the Ministry of Health. We try to find the best solution for these medicines to reach the population as soon as possible, but under the conditions of an information campaign on how to use them, on how to store them, a public campaign of public interest," said Alexandru Rafila.Earlier, the health minister paid a visit to the antibiotic factory in Iasi."At Antibiotice Iasi, I came to see how they managed to solve a complicated problem, in a very short time, the achievement of the national stock of potassium iodide," said the health minister.Antibiotice Iasi is the only medicine factory in Romania that can produce potassium iodide. 30 million tablets were produced, which were subsequently distributed to the Public Health Directorates, and will reach the level of all these institutions by the end of the week.Antibiotics Iasi first produced potassium iodide 11 years ago following a nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan. This drug is manufactured at the request of government authorities, so that it can be offered free of charge to the public, in crisis situations caused by a nuclear incident.
Romania's President Klaus Iohannis pointed out at an extraordinary NATO meeting that reinforcing NATO presence in Romania, on the Black Sea and on the entire eastern flank is a strategic goal of the country in response to the implications of Russian aggression on European and Euro-Atlantic security, and such enhanced presence must be unitary, balanced and consistent from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, Agerpres reports.

The Romanian Presidential Administration reports that during the meeting, NATO leaders discussed the full impact of the current crisis on the security state of play on NATO's eastern flank, including the Black Sea, as well as in the entire European and Euro-Atlantic areas. Discussions reconfirmed the unity and strength of NATO and the transatlantic relationship, and the allies' firm commitment to acting without hesitation in collective defence, as well as their commitment to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty on collective defence.The summit also set priorities in preparation for the NATO summit in Madrid in June, when strategic decisions will be made on the long-term adaptation of NATO taking into account the new security context, and a new NATO Strategic Concept will be adopted.Iohannis welcomed the adoption of a joint statement of NATO heads of state or government that fully reflects Romania's strategic objectives and interests, as well as the decision to create a NATO battle group in Romania along with three other such groups mentioned in the statement of the meeting.Iohannis underscored the need for a structural and long-term review of NATO's posture on the eastern flank, given the substantially different circumstances from the time the current eastern flank approach was designed. He thus appreciated the concrete proposals put forward by the NATO secretary-general and SACEUR on the consolidation of the eastern flank in the short, medium and long term.The Presidential Administration notes that, following the requests of Romania and President Iohannis, the statement of the meeting explicitly mentions the decision to accelerate NATO's transformation for a more dangerous strategic reality, including through the adoption of the next Strategic Concept in Madrid this June. The statement included Romania's long-term goal of significantly strengthening NATO's longer term deterrence and defence posture and further developing the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to maintain credible deterrence and defence. To this end, the NATO leaders decided to call on NATO military authorities to come up with concrete proposals for the long-term adjustment of the NATO deterrence and defence posture for their adoption at the Madrid summit.President Iohannis reiterated that Romania will continue to fully meet its commitments as a security provider in the region and presented his country's decision to increase public defence spending from 2% to 2.5% of GDP starting in 2023 and to continue investing in national capabilities and capacities."This growth reflects Romania's responsible conduct to act as a committed ally in defending Euro-Atlantic values and principles, to sustain a strong transatlantic relationship, while allowing the further development of the Romanian armed forces and the creation of conditions for implementing NATO decisions related to the defence of the entire eastern flank, including by increasing the Allied presence in our country and in the Black Sea."The President also mentioned the strategic resilience of the entire Euro-Atlantic area in relation to strengthening the transatlantic relationship, and welcomed the presence of US President Joe Biden at the summit.The NATO leaders also discussed continuing support for Ukraine and identifying new ways to support it. President Iohannis drew attention to the need to support other partner states facing the effects of Russia's security crisis and to strengthen their resilience, especially of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.Iohannis mentioned the concrete role and contributions of Romania and its citizens toward Ukraine, pointing to the important humanitarian effort of Romania, including the Suceava hub that became operational on March 9 for the purpose of collecting and distributing humanitarian aid to both Ukraine and the Moldova.The NATO leaders decided at their summit to extend for one year the term of office of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, throughout September 2023. President Klaus Iohannis expressed Romania's full support for the decision, voicing the country's appreciation for the way in which the secretary general has lead NATO, including amidst the Russian aggression against Ukraine.The extraordinary NATO meeting, which was also attended by US President Joe Biden, was convened amidst Russian Federation's illegal military aggression against Ukraine and its negative consequences for regional, European and Euro-Atlantic security. It is the second extraordinary NATO summit this year, after the one on February 25.
President Klaus Iohannis declared on Thursday, before the extraordinary NATO summit, that he will present the allies the logistics hub in Suceava and will invite them to contribute aid for Ukraine.

He also said that he will present the concerns about the Republic of Moldova's economic and energy plight.

"First of all, at this summit we want to prove that we are united, that we stand united within NATO, but also in the transatlantic relationship. We want to discuss how we can further help Ukraine. In the first place, this is about humanitarian aid for Ukraine and for those forced to leave Ukraine, for those who flee the war. We also want to discuss issues that are extremely important to us, such as reinforcing NATO's eastern flank. In my address I will emphasize the importance of unity, the importance of support for Ukraine, for the refugees. I will present the logistics hub we have set up in Suceava and I will invite the allies to contribute aid for Ukraine. I will also present our concerns about the Republic of Moldova, about Moldova's security, energy and economic situation. I will insist that NATO's eastern flank needs to be better reinforced," President Iohannis told a news conference before NATO's extraordinary summit in Brussels.

According to Iohannis, concerns regarding Romania are not justified, considering also its vicinity to the Republic of Moldova.

"Romanians can rest assured that Romania is safe. It is protected by the largest alliance, but there is no reason for concern about Moldova either. There is no data other than media speculation that Moldova would be targeted by an attack or that there is an action planned on Moldova. Moldova's problems stem from the large number of refugees, its economic weakness and its energy situation. You know very well that Moldova is a captive state, receiving energy from only two sources, Russia and Transnistria, these are Moldova's major problems. We can help here with financing, energy supplies and, of course, support for Moldova's economy, but beyond that we don't have any data at the moment that other threats would be looming," Klaus Iohannis explained.
President Klaus Iohannis reminded on Thursday that chemical weapons are banned under international law and expressed hope that the signatories to the international treaties providing for this interdiction will respect their commitment.

"Chemical and biological weapons are banned under international treaties and we cannot simply set out from the premise that someone is using them. We all hope that it stays like this and that all signatories to international treaties respect what has been decided," the head of the Romanian state said before attending the extraordinary NATO summit in Brussels, informs Agerpres.
Nine Ukrainian men were discovered by border police on Romanian territory after crossing the Tisza River, Dan Buca, the spokesperson for the Maramures County Emergency Situations Committee (CJSU), informed on Thursday, Agerpres reports.

"Maramures border police found at the border of Maramures County with Ukraine (...) nine Ukrainian citizens, men aged between 18 and 59, who crossed from Ukraine to Romania, in the area of competence of the Romanian Border Police Sector. All Ukrainian citizens have requested a form of protection from the Romanian state, which is why specific procedures have been initiated in such cases," said Dan Buca.Maramures firefighters also transported 11 people with special vehicles, accompanied by gendarmes, to the Maramures Regional Center for Accommodation and Asylum Seekers.Another 55 people were transported, accompanied by gendarmes and volunteers, from the Sighetu Marmatiei Border Checkpoint to the Sighetu Marmatiei Railway Station, from where they left by train for Bucharest."There are currently no people accommodated in the camp operated by Maramures firefighters in Sighetu Marmatiei. 160 places are provided for accommodation, which can be supplemented depending on the evolution of the situation," said Dan Buca.
Oil companies have given reassurances that there is no risk of a significant increase in prices or a decrease in fuel stockpiles, according to a press statement released by Romania's National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC), Agerpres reports.

The ANPC leadership - Chairman Horia Constantinescu and General Manager Paul Anghel - had a working meeting on Thursday at ANC with oil company executives who responded to an ANPC's invitation, namely Rompetrol, OMV Petrom, and Gazprom.During the discussion, the results of the recent controls carried out by ANPC commissioners at the petrol station chains throughout the country were analysed, and it was agreed that such meetings will take place regularly in order to prevent any possible unusual market situations.The attending business operators once again gave assurances that there is no possibility, at least in the foreseeable future, of a dip in fuel stockpiles or a significant change in price, which does not justify any concern on the part of consumers.At the same time, some concrete action was put forth to deal with the deficiencies found during the inspections. These and many more will be included in a good practice guide, which will be developed by a working group consisting of one exec of each fuel supplier, with the help of ANPC, so that the services and products in this field offered consumers to be of the highest quality.The discussion took place on two levels: fuel supply and the stores of consumer goods inside the stations, with the conclusions to be found among the measures provided for in the guide of good practices.With regard to fuel supply, given that both the price and the quality of the fuel and the durability of the engines are important to consumer, business operators should pay more attention to informing the consumer inside the station and not only, and also to fuel containers delivered to customers so that the business process is a safe one, given the highly flammable potential of the products.With regard to refuelling, it was agreed that it was necessary to renew equipment and commodity display systems, as well as more regular monitoring of product stockpiles so that there is no longer the danger of some of them being marketed after the date of minimum durability lapses.Special attention will also be paid to the issues related to keeping up cleanliness in the sales and storage spaces, so that they are aligned with the norms provided by law.At the moment, at all gas station chains, work is being done on a plan to deal with all the deficiencies found, under the coordination of teams of ANPC commissioners to the benefit of consumers.
As many as 527,553 Ukrainian nationals had entered Romania as of March 23 at 24:00 hrs since the start of the military conflict in the neighboring country, the General Border Police Inspectorate (IGPF) reports.

As many as 54,217 travelers of whom 8,910 Ukrainian nationals entered Romania on Wednesday (by 4.1 pct less compared to the previous day), with 4,855 Ukrainian nationals crossing into Romania at the border with Ukraine (by 5.4 pct more), and 2,692 entering the country at the border with Moldova (by 17.9 pct less), the IGPF said. AGERPRES
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced on Thursday that he had a discussion with Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir on European security, the situation in Ukraine, but also on bilateral relations, saying that they should be strengthened, Agerpres reports.

"We had a substantial and open dialogue with the Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrin Jakobsdottir, on European security and the situation in Ukraine. We agreed that relations between Romania and Iceland can and must be strengthened," Ciuca said, in a message posted on the Government's Twitter page.On Thursday, together with President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca attended a special meeting of NATO heads of state and government at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels.
President Klaus Iohannis and Prime minister Nicolae Ciuca will take part on Thursday in the extraordinary summit of heads of state and government from NATO member states, organized at the Alliance's Headquarters in Brussels, the Presidential Administration informes.

The summit is called in the context of the "illegal" military aggression made by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the significant increase of risks and threats towards regional, European and transatlantic security, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES.

During the meeting, the allied leaders will analyze the impact of the current crisis towards the security situation on NATO's Eastern Flank, including in the Black Sea, as well as for the entire Euro-Atlantic space.

According to the source, president Klaus Iohannis will highlight that the response of the Euro-Atlantic community towards Russia's military aggression against Ukraine needs to be "firm", "coordinated", "unified" and "substantial".

"The President of Romania will reiterate, especially during this grave security context, the need to constantly consolidate the allied posture of deterrence and defence on the Eastern Flank, especially in the Black Sea," the press release highlights.

The head of state will reaffirm our country's support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, for its right to make its own decisions regarding foreign policy and security, as well as the need for NATO to continue support and assistance for the neighboring country.

President Iohannis will also highlight Romania's support for cooperating with partners and the importance of granting political and practical support to them, given the current security situation.
President Klaus Iohannis had a meeting on Thursday with Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, on the sidelines of the European Council meeting, Agerpres reports.

"Good exchange of views with Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on coordination of Romania and Bulgaria on the security situation in our region, helping Ukrainian refugees, deepening economic and energy cooperation and speeding up the interconnectivity between our countries," Iohannis wrote on Twitter.President Iohannis is participating Thursday and Friday in the European Council meeting in Brussels.The head of state on Thursday also participated in the extraordinary summit of NATO. In the debut of the North Atlantic Alliance meeting, President Klaus Iohannis had a brief conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden, who is also participating in the meetings in Belgium's Capital.
President Klaus Iohannis is attending, Thursday and Friday, the European Council meeting which will take place in Brussels, the Presidential Administration informs.

The meeting will be attended, following invitation, by the President of the United States, Joe Biden, as a reconfirmation of the tight transatlantic unity and coordination in the current security context generated by Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

The agenda of the European Council mainly targets the security developments in Ukraine, with emphasis placed on the support granted by the European Union to this country on the political, financial, material and humanitarian levels. The discussions will approach, also, ways to support Ukrainian refugees at the European level, facilitated by the use of the temporary protection mechanism.

The heads of state and government will agree upon the Strategic Compass, instrument which will ensure guidance at the strategic level, for the next decade, for actions in matters of security and defence at the level of the European Union.

Following discussions that will be part of the Versailles Summit, the European leaders will discuss aspects relating to ensuring energy supply security at the European level, on the backdrop of measures to reduce dependence on Russia. On the basis of European Commission communications, the agenda will feature the situation of energy prices, measures to support the most vulnerable categories and short-term support for the business environment.

Furthermore, talks will also approach economic aspects regarding to the consolidation of the Internal Market, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union's foreign relations with emphasis on its relation with China, as well as the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. AGERPRES
Romania has taken restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine against three entities indirectly controlled through TMK Steel Holding United by a natural person on the list of sanctions imposed EU-wide, Romania's National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF) reported on Thursday, Agerpres reports.

"ANAF has implemented the provisions of Article 2(1) of Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine against TMK Artrom SA, TMK Assets SRL and TMK Europe GMBH, indirectly controlled by TMK Steel Holding United (CY), by a natural person on the list of sanctions imposed at European Union level. In accordance with EU Regulation No. 269/2014, 'all funds and economic resources belonging to, owned, held or controlled by any natural persons or natural or legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them as listed in Annex I shall be frozen.'"The measures taken concern the bank accounts as well as any other funds or economic resources, as defined in Article 1 of the regulation.The orders of the chairman of ANAF sanctioning the three entities have been sent for publication in the Official Journal of Romania."At the same time, at the request of SC TMK Artrom SA, it has been granted the derogation provided for in Article 6 (1) (a) and (b) of Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine for making payments essential for the continuation of the company's business and the payment of employees' salary, payments to suppliers and credit institutions.".Payments are authorised provided that their addressees are not listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014, as subsequently amended and supplemented.Similar derogations have been adopted in other EU member states as well, according to ANAF.On Thursday, TMK-Artrom Slatina unionists announced that they would protest next week if the company's employees did not receive their salaries by then, with payments delayed by nine days due to the freezing of the company's accounts amidst sanctions against Russia.The unionists also argued that TMK-Artrom's accounts should not have been frozen because Russian businessman Dimitri Pumpianski, the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) on the Russia sanctions list had resigned as a trustee and transferred his shares in the Cyprus-based company that owns the TMK group to unsanctioned persons.
As many as 4,088 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, by 433 fewer than on the previous day, on almost 35,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Thursday.

Of the new cases, 532 were in re-infected patients who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.

Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 1,282, and in the counties of Cluj - 351, Timis - 297, Ilfov - 241.

As of Thursday, 2,832,024 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 2,725 people with COVID-19 are hospitalised at specialist care facilities across the country, by 58 fewer than the day before; 209 of this total are children.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 428 - including two children - are in ICUs, down by three from the previous day. Of the 431 ICU patients, 379 are unvaccinated for COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the Ministry, another 37 Romanians infected with SARS-CoV-2 - 22 men and 15 women - were reported dead in the last 24 hours, of which 4 prior to the reference interval.

Out of the total 37 fatalities, 31 were unvaccinated. The vaccinated patients were aged between 70 and 85 and suffered from underlying conditions.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 64,826 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania, Agerpres informs.
A 27-year-old woman from Ukraine, a refugee in Galati, has given birth to a baby girl at the Buna Vestire maternity hospital in the city, hospital officials reported on Thursday, Agerpres reports.

The baby was delivered by C-section that went very well, with the little girl, who will be baptised Olivia, weighing in at 3.200 kilograms.The woman, who also has a 7-year-old boy, told the medical staff that in Mykolaiv, where she came from to Romania, she had hidden for three weeks in the basement of the local maternity hospital with doctors and other patients.This is the second child of a refugee mother to be born at the Buna Vestire maternity hospital in Galati.Another woman gave birth to a baby girl who weighed in at 3.700 kilograms at birth."At the Buna Vestire OB-GYN clinical hospital in Galati, there are patients from Ukraine, female refugees from Ukraine, who need services specific to our hospital. In addition to the patients who have given birth in the maternity and outpatient clinic, there have been about 22 patients so far, and 11 patients showed up at the emergency department for care but did not check in," says Costinela Georgescu, the maternity hospital director.She said that female Ukrainian refugees receive free health care at the Buna Vestire maternity hospital in Galati.
Dancers from Best Dance and Talent Center perform in the conference room of the Annie Malone Foundation for the virtual Annie Malone May Day Parade on Sunday, May 16, 2021.
Harry L Williams, Thurgood Marshall College Fund [TMCF] president and CEO, says Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been addressing the impact of COVID-19 on its students and Black communities since March 2020.
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There may never be a good time to draw the IRS attention, but this year you really want to avoid extra scrutiny.

The IRS is so understaffed and overwhelmed that even a tiny mistake could delay your refund for months. A return that requires manual processing  basically, any action by an IRS employee  could join a massive queue that started building at the beginning of the pandemic and has yet to be resolved. If something goes wrong, good luck getting through to a human: The IRS answered about 1 in 10 calls last year, down from about 1 in 3 before the pandemic, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate.

To avoid tax hassles, the best approach is to be careful, thorough and digital when you file your return.

Dont file a paper return or ask for a paper check

Lets start with the basics: File electronically and request direct deposit of any refund you might be due, says April Walker, lead manager for tax practice and ethics with the American Institute of CPAs. If your income was $73,000 or less in 2021, you can use the IRS Free File tax preparation option.

If you file electronically, you can begin tracking the status of your refund on the IRS site within 24 hours, says CPA Lei Han, associate professor of accounting at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York. If you file a paper return, tracking typically wont be available for four weeks, Han says.

Paper returns dont just take longer to process, notes Kent Lugrand, president and chief executive of InTouch Credit Union in Plano, Texas. Paper returns are also much more likely to contain errors  either that a taxpayer made or that an IRS employee introduced while transferring the data from a paper return into the agencys computer system. Electronic filing, by contrast, wont let you file a return with many common mistakes such as mathematical errors or failing to sign your return. You have to fix those before you can submit the return, Lugrand says.

E-filing software may not detect other problems, such as incorrect Social Security, bank routing or bank account numbers, so check all numbers carefully, Walker recommends.

Make sure your numbers match

The IRS automated matching system looks for discrepancies between the income you report and forms filed by your employer and financial institutions. A mismatch can cause the agency to freeze your refund and trigger a notice demanding more information.

If you invest outside a retirement account, beware: Brokerages are notorious for sending out preliminary 1099-B forms  which track investors gains and losses  to meet the IRS mid-February deadline, and then sending corrected forms a month or so later. If you rely on the preliminary form, you may end up having to file an amended return, which would have to be manually processed and could delay your refund for months.

Sometimes the W-2 or 1099 forms you get contain errors. If thats the case, try to get the error corrected and the form reissued before you file, Han recommends. Consider filing an extension if you need more time to get the issue resolved, she says.

Properly report child tax credit and stimulus payments

Your return also could be derailed by a mismatch between the child tax credit or stimulus payments you report versus what the IRS says you got last year, Walker says.

Taxpayers who received monthly child tax credit payments in 2021 will have to reconcile those payments with the amount for which they were actually eligible. The IRS based the payments on income data from a prior year, so some families may have received too much while others will qualify for additional money when they file their returns, Han says. In addition, eligible people who didnt receive the third stimulus payment, or who qualified for more than they got, can claim the recovery rebate credit on this years tax return.

In January, the IRS began sending out notices to taxpayers who had received payments in 2021: Letter 6475 summarized how much stimulus money the taxpayer got, while Letter 6419 reported total advance child tax credit payments.

If youre married and received the payments, you likely received two letters about the child tax payments  one for each spouse, Walker says. If your family has one child and received $300 a month for six months for a total of $1,800, for example, you typically would get two IRS letters, each reporting $900.

Some people thought the second letter was a duplicate, and so they might have thrown it away, Walker says.

If youre missing any of this paperwork, dont just rely on your memory or your bank records, Walker says. You can create an account on the IRS site and view IRS records to find the correct figures.

If you just wing it on that number, it's probably going to cause a delay, Walker says.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

Liz Weston, CFP writes for NerdWallet. Email: lweston@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @lizweston.

The article How to Keep Your Tax Return From Getting Hung Up originally appeared on NerdWallet.
If you want to see a nationally known author visit your public library, it typically costs the library thousands of dollars  something not in the budget for many smaller library systems.

A small group of librarians throughout Illinois worked together in spring 2021 to solve that issue and came up with a pilot program called Illinois Libraries Present.

The program allows patrons of 192 member library systems access to virtual library events.

Novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia spoke in January, and novelist Jasmine Guillory in February. Moreno-Garcia spoke about her newest book, Velvet Was the Night, and her genre-defying mashups of cultural noir and Lovecraftian horror, according to the program website. Guillory, the author of six romance novels, spoke about the modern rom-com.

Humorist and author Jenny Lawson will speak about her new book, Broken (in the Best Possible Way), at 7 p.m. March 30.

Actor and humorist Nick Offerman will join musician and Belleville native Jeff Tweedy at an event April 27. Michelle Zauner is scheduled for May 18 and Kwame Onwuachi for June 22.

The events are free for library patrons.

Because member libraries are pooling resources, they are affordable on a sliding scale. Those with operating budgets smaller than $250,000 can join for $40 for six months. Those with operating budgets of more than $5 million join for $1,150.

Jill Pifer, the director of the Fairview Heights Public Library, is on the Illinois Libraries Present steering committee. It held a series of informational meetings in the fall, showing potential library members what a budget would look like and what fees would be. Response was enthusiastic.

We had zero presenters booked, she said. So it was a little bit on faith.

Patron response has been enthusiastic as well. About 1,000 people registered to see and hear Moreno-Garcia, and about 900 for Guillory.

These are speakers and authors that would have never been available to our patrons without this program, said Kate Niehoff, a Eureka native who is the marketing chair for Illinois Libraries Present and works for the Schaumburg Township District Library, just outside Chicago. Its a surprise to people. When people see these really big bestselling authors promoted as library events, they are thrilled.

If participants arent able to see the speaker live, theyre given a link to see a video of the presentation, which is usually online for about 10 to 14 days afterward.

The programs can cost Illinois Libraries Present about $10,000 each, including paying moderators to ask questions. The program has a budget of $114,450, which mostly comes from membership fees, but also from grants from the Illinois Heartland Library system and the Illinois State Library.

Illinois Libraries Present provides libraries with marketing materials they can use to post on bulletin boards and on social media. The group even rents its large-capacity Zoom license if member libraries want to hold their own events.

Library directors believe the program is unique and havent seen anything like it on this scale.

It just speaks to that whole idea of collaboration is the key  its what libraries do, said Pifer. We share resources. We share materials. Thats an important advocacy piece for legislators to see, to keep funding libraries, keep funding initiatives that libraries support, keep listening to what libraries are saying that are their issues.

The planners have members across the state from different types of communities to serve on committees, including marketing, programming, data and numbers, and event production. They take suggestions and look at new books coming out as they decide which authors to ask. Theyre deciding whom to bring on for fall and are looking for more library systems to join the official program as it starts in September.

As it becomes safer for people to gather in person again, they dont see the desire for virtual programming to end. Niehoff has had many patrons ask her to continue hosting virtual events, that it makes it easier for them to attend.

It makes Pifer think of the evolution of the internet in the 1990s, and people wondered if libraries would go away. But they evolved into offering things like hotspots and computers that people can check out, she pointed out.

You have to evolve to stay relevant, she said. Now were just trying to elevate all of us at the same time, and not leave programming to people that are higher budget. People around the state are interested in these authors. Its nice to do something to bring people collectively in Carbondale and people in Rockford together. To have people across the state doing something at the same time, thats great.

Illinois Libraries Present An Evening with Jenny Lawson: Join award-winning humorist Jenny Lawson as she discusses her most recent bestseller, "Broken (in the Best Possible Way)," and her funny body of work. 7 p.m. March 30 Nick Offerman and Jeff Tweedy: Join us for actor/humorist/woodworker Nick Offerman in conversation with musician/walking companion Jeff Tweedy. 7 p.m. April 27 For more information: illinoislibrariespresent.com

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Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman 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

Some times, so it seems, logic and common sense rear their heads and stare hard enough to make bureaucracy blink.

Readers may recall that this bureau reported last week on a St. Louis County man who had been on the receiving end of 50 St. Louis city parking tickets in late 2021, with fines totaling at least $1,500  for a car he had sold two years before the tickets were issued.

But the most interesting, some might even say mind-boggling, aspect was this:

Steve Moro (this bureau's brother-in-law) obtained state records which showed he had sold the car to a dealer in 2019, and that the dealer sold it to a Florissant woman about a month later.

He sent those records to the parking violations bureau of the St. Louis Treasurer's Office. He also told the bureau that he had taken the plates from the car, cut them in half and threw them away.

But William A. Douthit, the bureaus administrative hearing officer, wrote to Moro and said those records, from the Missouri Department of Revenue, did not provide a preponderance of credible evidence proving that the bureau should dismiss or invalidate the tickets.

Douthit, who is an independent contractor and not a treasurer's office employee, did not return any phone calls before the first story ran. But he did call this bureau on the first morning after it did  basically to say he had no comment.

When asked if it seemed fair that Moro had to hire a lawyer to appeal the case, Douthit quickly said that was Moro's decision, not the traffic bureau's.

But between then and now, Treasurer Adam Layne reviewed the case and a resolution has been reached.

Felice McClendon, Layne's spokesperson, said that upon review, her office discovered that the tickets had been written not by the treasurer's office enforcers, but by a St. Louis police officer who  because the Florissant woman had never titled the car and apparently drove on temporary tags  copied the vehicle identification number off the car and found Moro to be the last titled owner.

McClendon expected the situation would soon be laid to rest, "and that's great news," she said.

Despite hiring a lawyer and spending hours getting records, making copies, placing phone calls and sending emails, Moro said he is relieved the case seems to be closing. All he has to do now is sign an affidavit for the city, stating he destroyed the plates that had been on the car he sold.

"But I'll feel a lot better," he said, "when I'm holding the documents in my hand that say this case is closed."

Your weekly capsule of local news, life advice, trivia and humor from Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Holleman. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman 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

According to what might be the most hipster-y list to ever hit this bureau, St. Louis needs to bolster its brunch game.

When it comes to brunch  the meal designed for sleep-in types who like a slab of prime rib with their bacon and waffles at 11 a.m.  we were only No. 37 in the nation.

Even worse, we were only No. 2 in Missouri.

The listers at LawnStarter turned its heat lamps on the largest 197 U.S. cities and ranked them on four main criteria.

Our strongest showing was in the area of access (No. 25), which was based on total number of brunch-serving restaurants.

When it came to demand (Google searches for brunches), we were No. 27. In the area of "community," the number of brunch clubs and events, we were No. 30.

Our Achilles heel was in quality, registering a bland No. 65 ranking. This was based on the number of highly rated establishments offering brunch and the customer ratings for those meals.

Among our major neighbors: Chicago (3), Kansas City (15) and Nashville, Tennessee (18) finished higher; and we managed to best Cincinnati (88), Indianapolis (113), Memphis (119) and Louisville (120).

The best city in the U.S. was New York, though No. 2 New Orleans should appeal that decision to a higher food court. The worst was San Bernardino, California.

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Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger 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

Three words define the abuser.

Power and control.

Theyre buried toward the end of Sheena Greitens nine-page legal brief filed last week in Boone County, asking to move a child custody case from Missouri to Texas. Greitens, an accomplished college professor, wants to move the legal proceedings because her ex-husband, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, exercises so much power and control over so many things in the Show-Me State.

The fact that Eric Greitens resigned as governor after facing multiple criminal allegations and Missouri House investigatory hearings and still leads in various polls as he seeks the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate says it all.

The couple is divorced, in part, because the former governor exercised that power and control over a woman who was not his wife, with whom he acknowledged having an affair. Greitens is no longer governor at least in part because that woman told a Missouri House committee investigating the matter that she was abused by Greitens, and that he took a photo of her, in the basement of his house  the one he used to share with his wife and children  without the womans consent and threatened to use it to silence her.

Greitens and his attorneys vehemently denied that the photo existed.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, who charged Greitens with felony invasion of privacy for allegedly taking the photo, never found it. Neither did her investigator, William Tisaby, who pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of evidence tampering related to lies he told during a deposition about documents involved in the case. Tisabys conviction will be erased if he stays out of trouble for 90 days.

But nothing will erase the disclosure by Sheena Greitens in her legal filing: The photo existed, she says. The woman over whom her ex-husband exercised power and control was telling the truth.

After Eric admitted to me in late January 2021 that he had taken the photo that resulted in the invasion of privacy charge, he threatened that I would be exposed to legal jeopardy if I ever disclosed that fact to anyone, even family members or a therapist, Sheena Greitens wrote in her legal filing.

She believed him, she wrote.

She believed her.

In alleging that her ex-husband abused her and her children, in validating the story of a previous victim, Sheena Greitens took back the power and control that the former governor tried to take from her.

After news broke of the affidavit, most of the Republicans running against Greitens denounced him and asked him to get out of the race. First out of the gate was the only woman in the race, U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler. The denouncers eventually included Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is running for the Senate, and the holder of the other Missouri Senate seat, Sen. Josh Hawley.

One of the reasons Greitens is running for the Senate is because those two men, the current and past attorneys general of the state, didnt exercise the power and control of their office.

When the Kansas City Star reported in 2018 that Greitens and his staff were using the text message-destroying app called Confide, Hawley started a Sunshine Law investigation. It turned out to be a sham. He basically let the governor walk with very little serious inquiry.

When Schmitt took over the office, he did the same thing. One of the reasons both Hawley and Schmitt turned a blind eye to Greitens destruction of state documents is because they had staff members using the same app on their phones. We may never know the truth about what was on Greitens phones.

Part of that truth could have explained to taxpayers and voters what happened to the photo that two women say he took. After Gardner dropped the privacy case against Greitens  and a second one credibly accusing him of stealing from the veterans charity he founded  the photo case ended up with a different special prosecutor. She eventually dropped the case, too, but she dropped this bombshell in the process:

Theyre gone, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said of about 31,000 files from Greitens phone. I know that theyre gone. Whether or not they were intentionally deleted, why they were deleted, how they were deleted, I do not know.

There has been no special prosecutor to examine what happened to those 31,000 files.

Such is the power and control the Friends of Greitens still have in Missouri, where the strongest voices in the story that wont go away all belong to women of courage.

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UPDATED with mugshot, additional information on Robinson

ST. LOUIS  St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner on Wednesday charged a man with pointing a gun at St. Louis police officers and said the evidence doesn't support the officers' claim that they were nearly carjacked last weekend in a marked patrol car.

Police had sought charges Saturday, but none was issued for days. Police had wanted the man, Allen Lee Robinson, charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and resisting arrest.

Gardner's office refused those charges and instead settled on a weapons charge: unlawful use of a weapon.

Gardner said she is limited to the evidence provided by police and said the case doesnt warrant more serious charges.

Any suggestion that the evidence provided by SLMPD supports charge of robbery 1st/carjacking in this incident is an unfortunate and inaccurate characterization, Gardner said in a statement.

Investigations take time, Gardner continued, and we should wait until the facts are submitted and reviewed.

The charge of unlawful use of a weapon is a Class E felony, the least severe felony in Missouri. It is punishable by up to four years in prison or one year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Robinson, 27, is charged with pointing a black Taurus G2c handgun at the head and torso of an officer. Robinson lives in the 1100 block of Hornsby Avenue in north St. Louis. He was being held Wednesday in the Jefferson County Jail in an unrelated case.

Gardners spokeswoman, Allison Hawk, released Gardners statement to reporters on Wednesday, two days after the Post-Dispatch first inquired about any decision not to file charges. Hawk on Monday had said the case was still being investigated.

Police sought the warrants for robbery, armed criminal action and resisting arrest against Robinson on Saturday, but the prosecutor refused to file charges.

The head of the police officers' union did not return a call seeking comment about Gardner's statement Wednesday.

On Wednesday, St. Louis police denied a public information request by the Post-Dispatch for available dashcam or body camera footage of the confrontation. The department cited an open investigation as the reason for not releasing the footage to the public.

About 3 a.m. Saturday, the two officers were driving to Chouteau Avenue and Seventh Street to check on a report of gunfire in the area. The officers saw a man run from a nearby bus stop and stand in the middle of Chouteau, in the citys LaSalle Park neighborhood.

Robinson stepped in front of their patrol car on eastbound Chouteau near South Tucker Boulevard, preventing the police car from moving, police Officer Randal Welsch said in court documents.

Robinson walked to the passenger side and pointed a gun directly at the torso and head of Officer Ricardo Williams as he sat in the patrol car, according to court papers and a police incident report.

Police called it an attempted carjacking and said Robinson ran off once he realized the car was a marked police car. No one was hurt. Police didnt say if the patrol cars lights had been activated when the man stopped the car.

After the gunman ran off, the St. Louis Police Department issued an officer in need of aid call. Other officers showed up and helped search for the man. Police arrested Robinson, who had a handgun in his waistband, court documents said.

Robinson does not have an attorney listed in online court documents. He was being held Wednesday in Jefferson County, and the sheriff's office there released his mugshot. His Jefferson County pending cases are for property damage in Festus from May and violating an order of protection twice in June. He lived in Festus at the time.

He also has an unrelated case pending in the city of St. Louis, a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree domestic assault from January 2020.

Joel Currier and Erin Heffernan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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CLAYTON  One of two men who forced their way into a Sunset Hills home in 2019 to rob a woman after asking her for water was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison.

Dion D. Nickleson, 39, of Berkeley pleaded guilty in October to charges of robbery, burglary and armed criminal action before Circuit Judge Brian May.

Nickelsons accomplice Joseph Carlson, 24, of Hanley Hills, struck a plea deal with prosecutors last month and was sentenced by May to five years in prison on one count of burglary. Prosecutors dropped other counts of robbery and armed criminal action.

Police said Nickelson and Carlson forced their way into a home the afternoon of Jan. 30, 2019, in the 100 block of Deane Court while a woman in her 60s and her three grandchildren  ages 6 months to 10 years old  were inside.

The men knocked on the womans door, pretended to have car trouble and asked for water, authorities said. They then burst in, forced the woman to the floor and robbed her of jewelry including a ring from the womans 50th birthday.

The children hid in a bedroom, where Carlson pointed a gun at the 10-year-old he saw calling 911.

Nickelson pleaded guilty last fall for a 12-year prison term after negotiations that included Nickleson returning the ring, said his lawyer Robert Taaffe.

At sentencing Thursday, Taaffe asked the judge to allow Nickleson to withdraw his guilty pleas after learning of Carlsons lighter sentence. Taaffe argued Nickleson wouldnt have pleaded guilty with the knowledge of Carlsons plea deal and that Carlson was more culpable in the home invasion because he pointed a gun at a child.

It is manifestly unjust, Taaffe said.

Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Wrenn argued there was no legal basis for Nickleson to withdraw his pleas.

What I think we have is buyers remorse from the defendant, Wrenn said.

The judge agreed and denied Nicklesons request.

Theres been no fraud in this case, May said.

The victim, Rose Griffin, said in court that shes still traumatized over the intrusion and appreciated the judge upholding the plea agreement.

She said she still lives with the fear that I cannot protect my grandchildren from invasion into my own home.

Nickleson was on probation at the time of the home invasion for a 2016 conviction of receiving stolen property. He stood trial last May but a judge declared a mistrial because of a hung jury.

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ST. CHARLES  A St. Charles County jury will decide next week whether to give a former Dent County sheriff's deputy convicted of murdering a woman in 2017 a death sentence or a life term without parole.

Jurors will hear evidence over several days next week to re-sentence Marvin D. Rice, 54, in the 2011 killing of Annette Durham, the mother of his child.

A judge in 2017 sentenced Rice to death after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The Missouri Supreme Court later affirmed the conviction but ordered a new sentencing.

Rice was also sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder in the killing of Durham's boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp, but the Missouri Supreme Court in 2019 overturned that case and ordered a new trial.

Rice's first trial was moved to St. Charles County from Dent County because of the publicity attached to the case, and because of Rices former job there. His retrial also will be held in St. Charles County.

A jury was selected this week, officials said. The St. Charles County Circuit Court sealed Rice's pending murder case in Missouri Case.Net, the state's online court system, ahead of trial.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the nature of Marvin Rice's trial that is beginning March 28. The story has been updated.

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CLAYTON  St. Louis County is withholding jail inmate medical records from auditors hired late last year under a long-delayed demand to investigate in-custody deaths, including five inmates who died of health complications in 2019.

The decision, relayed in a recent email, also made members of the Justice Services Advisory Board aware that the county had changed the scope of its requested investigation, removing specific instructions to review inmate deaths over the past five years.

County officials insist that inmate medical records are confidential under federal patient privacy laws, and that the investigators are still able to interview employees and look at other records on the deaths. And they tout improvements in medical care at the facility, which hasnt seen an inmate death since early 2020.

But without the medical records, some advisory board members doubt there can be an in-depth review of the type they have pushed for since August 2020, when a former jail director hired to reform the facility resigned under allegations of misconduct. The five inmates who died in 2019 had all complained of sickness or were found unresponsive in their cells before they died.

And the board members question why County Executive Sam Pages administration, after delaying the investigation for months, never told them that language requiring the contractor to investigate jail deaths had been removed.

Why not just do what was asked? said the Rev. Philip Duvall, an outspoken board member who had chaired the panel when it demanded the investigation. Why not tell us no from the beginning?

We keep talking about transparency and accountability, Duvall said. Well, accountability here and now should focus on the people obstructing us from finding out what happened.

The request for proposals the county issued in March 2021 included a scope written by the board, but by the time the county reissued the request in August, the scope had been rewritten.

Jail Director Scott Anders, who succeeded former director Doug Burris in November after being hired to the facility in June, said he had not been aware until recently that the investigation scope was changed or if it was ever communicated to the board.

Page spokesman Doug Moore said he did not know details about the bidding process because of an ordinance forbidding discussion about contract bids.

Page had agreed to the boards request for an external review at the time, but then delayed action for months to instead conduct an internal survey of jail employees that was eventually released in January 2021. After renewed calls from the advisory board and the St. Louis County Council, the county issued a request for bidders in March 2021 to examine eight areas of focus detailed by the board, including inmate deaths over the last five years.

Some board members said the county had by then already slow-walked the request; Mary Taylor, who had been instrumental in pushing for the investigation, resigned in April in frustration. Another board member, Twyla Lee, resigned in July.

After receiving only one bid for the project, county officials said they wanted a more competitive applicant pool and restarted the process in August, ultimately hiring Florida-based CGL Companies LLC from a group of eight finalists, for a $121,505 contract set to expire in May. As late as February, board members made clear in public meetings that they wanted CGL to investigate the deaths and other sentinel events.

But in an email March 14, Dr. Faisal Khan, acting director of public health, informed other members of the advisory board that his department, which oversees jail medical services, would not provide CGL any inmate medical records despite the companys request. The email was obtained by a reporter through a Sunshine request.

Khan said the decision was made in consultation with County Counselor Beth Orwicks office and that the county considered the medical records highly confidential and legally protected information, unviewable even by the public health director. The email copied Orwick, Anders and officials in Pages office including Moore and Chief Administrative Officer Deanna Venker.

Khan said that CGL had misunderstood the scope of their work, arguing that they could review communications between medical workers and corrections officers and policies on responding to medical calls without the inmate medical records themselves.

I am very concerned that CGL have fundamentally misunderstood their scope of work. Access to medical records is strictly controlled precisely because of the highly confidential and legally protected information contained therein and access is restricted to direct patient care staff.

At least one board member, Dr. Alex Garza, had written back to Khan saying he agreed with the decision. I agree with your assessment and did not know that CGL was attempting to review clinical records, he said.

But Jeff Smith, chair of the advisory board, said in an interview that he had not been aware that the county would not provide medical records to the investigator until that email.

He said he also was unaware the county had changed the scope of the investigation until late last week, after speaking to officials about the March 14 email. Smith declined to provide more details about the conversations but said the board is concerned with the process and that he expected it to be a focus of a monthly meeting Friday.

Whether through this review or a future one, the board will work with the county to ensure that everything in our original scope of work is reviewed, he said.

In a statement, Anders maintained the jail is working closely with CGL to ensure they can do a thorough review of Justice Center operations.

The review team has visited the jail and interviewed staff members and we have made available to the review team any jail employee that the review team wants to interview. We have provided information on how jail and corrections medicine staff respond to sick inmates and the changes that have been made over the past few years. We are proud of the hard work we have done to improve the operations of the Justice Center.

Moore said the countys public health department is a health care provider like a hospital, and they dont release medical records for patients, and I dont know why it would be different for an inmate.

Moore said he did not know whether the changes to the RFP were communicated to the advisory board. He said there may have been a misunderstanding with the advisory board over what records an independent investigator would have access to.

No one is saying we dont want this investigation, it sounds to me like there was some misunderstanding of what records they would get to see, he said. The medical records are not included in the scope of the review, but certainly the way they investigated and handled those cases is something that will be reviewed.

Mark Pedroli, an attorney representing families of three inmates who had died in the jail, blasted the argument.

The county could release the medical records to CGL with the permission of the families of the inmates, he said.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996  the federal law known as HIPAA  says a decedents protected health information can be released by his or her personal representative.

Theyre a phone call away, Pedroli said. If the county really wanted to conduct an investigation into the deaths they could ask for the familys consent to provide medical records to the auditor.

They havent done that, because I believe they do not want an investigation into the deaths, and theyre actually obstructing it.

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JEFFERSON CITY  State lawmakers on Thursday affirmed the importance of educating students about one of historys darkest chapters by advancing a Holocaust awareness measure.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, would establish a Holocaust Education Week for Missouri schools during the second week in April.

The measure received first-round approval in the House on Thursday through a voice vote.

Schwadron, who had distant family members die in the Holocaust, emphasized the danger of allowing people to forget.

A 2020 Claims Conference survey referenced by lawmakers Thursday took stock of how much the nations younger generations know about the Holocaust. In Missouri, most surveyed did not know 6 million Jews were killed, had seen Nazi symbols in their community or on social media in the past five years, and couldnt name a concentration camp or ghetto. Eight percent of those surveyed said they believed Jews caused the Holocaust.

We need to have this legislation, said Rep. Doug Clemens, D-St. Ann. We need to lock in vital remembrance of our history and the harm that our species is capable doing to each other.

The bills would require classes from sixth grade through high school to designate a week to teach about the Holocaust, using materials developed or supported by the Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum or St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum.

The bill received broad support, though several Democrats brought up other controversial measures proposed this session banning certain race-based curriculum and allowing parents and students greater control over curriculum.

I am very grateful that the gentleman has brought this bill forward, said Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, but I also want to say I hope we keep this same energy, love and support for some of your other colleagues history as well.

The legislation is House Bill 2000.

Originally posted at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 24.

Grace Zokovitch gzokovitch@post-dispatch.com
ST. LOUIS  The number of people who live in the city of St. Louis fell below 300,000 in 2021 and the metropolitan area also saw a decline in population as the region for the first time recorded more deaths than births. That puts it among just a handful of large urban areas hit by outmigration and a negative birth rate.

The numbers, though estimates, reinforce concerns about stagnant growth in a region that appears poised to be overtaken in the coming years by fast-growing metro areas such as Orlando, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

As of July 1, the Census Bureau estimated that just 293,310 people resided in the regions core city of St. Louis, down from the 301,578 people counted in the 2020 census.

The entire metro area, meanwhile, had about 2.81 million people as of July 1. That was a drop of about 10,000 people in a little more than a year: the 2020 census counted 2.82 million in the region.

And in an unexpected and worrying sign, the region entered a demographic winter, said St. Louis University sociologist Ness Sandoval. That is, the number of deaths outpaced births here  long one of the factors blunting the trend of people moving away from the St. Louis region.

While a majority of the countrys counties saw a natural population decline, a trend accelerated by higher death rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many large Midwestern cities still notched natural increases, including Kansas City, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Even in Chicago, where overall population declined, more babies were born than people died. St. Louis joined just a handful of large metro areas that saw both a negative birth rate and outmigration.

St. Louis has consistently had positive natural growth, Sandoval said. Compared to peers, it differentiated itself from previous years because it had more babies born. But now thats not the case.

Existential threat

The numbers drew another call from the St. Louis metros new business and civic booster group for regional unity and a redoubling of efforts by area leaders to draw residents and focus on inclusive economic growth. Much of the citys population losses have been of Black residents leaving the disinvested neighborhoods of north St. Louis.

At the start of last year, we established Greater St. Louis Inc. out of the core belief that growth must be a top civic priority for the St. Louis metro, said Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall. These numbers tell us what we expected and underscore the urgency of focusing this metro on growth and more opportunities for all. Stagnation is the existential threat to everything we love about the place we call home.

St. Louis County, which grew by just a couple thousand people from 2010 to 2020 to just above 1 million people, fell to 997,187 people last year, the estimates show. While the city of St. Louis saw a slight natural increase of about 100 people  which was more than offset by the departure of an estimated 8,000 people from April 2020 to July 2021  St. Louis County saw deaths outpace births by 2,000 in that time.

People also continued to leave the Metro East counties that, along with St. Louis city, have shed population over the last decade. St. Clair County fell to 254,796 as of July 1, from 257,400 in the 2020 census. Madison County fell by a little more than 1,000 people, to 264,490. Monroe County was estimated to have 30 fewer residents than the 2020 count, dropping to 34,932. All three saw both negative birth rates and outmigration.

The bright spots were in the western and southern suburbs of the region, primarily St. Charles County. It was estimated to have grown by almost 5,000 people in the 15 months since the 2020 census, to 409,981 people. Franklin County, too, grew by a couple hundred residents, to 105,231. Jefferson County added about 1,000 people, growing to 227,771.

But of those three, only St. Charles County had more babies born than deaths. Even then, it was less than 10% of its overall growth, adding just 400 people.

Meanwhile, Missouri as a whole added residents, unlike Illinois. Missouri was estimated to have about 6,168,187 residents in July 2021, about 13,000 more than were counted in the 2020 census. Illinois lost about 140,000 people, according to the estimate, falling to 12.67 million. Much of that was concentrated in Chicago, which lost about 100,000 from its metro, according to the estimates.

But Missouris population growth was largely new residents. Between the 2020 census and July 1, about 5,600 more people died in Missouri than were born, unlike Illinois, which saw positive natural growth of close to 4,400 despite the outmigration.

The St. Louis regions declining birth rate is in contrast to its cross-state peer, which Sandoval said is largely because of Kansas Citys larger Mexican population, which tends to be younger and have higher birth rates. Many of the places that managed to notch natural population increases are those with sizeable Hispanic populations, something St. Louis doesnt have.

The negative birth rate could be a deviation due to COVID-19, Sandoval said. But its still concerning.

Hopefully if we get past the pandemic, mortality rates kind of go back to normal, he said. But I think the unanswered question is: will fertility rates go back? We dont know.

Other cities

Two of the nations fastest-growing cities look poised to soon overtake St. Louis in population.

Orlando added almost 20,000 people from the 2020 census to July 1, growing to 2.69 million. Charlotte grew even faster, adding 40,000 people in that time to reach an estimated 2.7 million people.

Some of St. Louis peers in the Midwest also notched growth between the 2020 census and the 2021 population estimates. The Kansas City metro added about 7,000 people, growing to just under 2.2 million. The Indianapolis region added about 15,000 people, reaching almost 2.127 million. The Cincinnati region grew by about 3,000 people in that time, to 2.26 million.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like the almost $500 million in federal money the city received from the federal government will allow it to invest in affordable housing and neighborhood amenities.

These steps are necessary to reverse decades of disinvestment that has led to St. Louisans leaving our city  especially north of Delmar, Jones said in a statement.

St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, though, thinks until the region deals with the citys high crime rate and the perception it gives the whole region, even growing places like St. Charles County will eventually run out of steam.

Whatever short-term advantage its given us, long term its a real potential problem, Ehlmann said in an interview.

He suggested Republicans in Jefferson City may want to look at changes to the laws governing the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office or city control of the police department.

Maybe itll light a fire under some people, he said.

Originally posted at noon Thursday, March 24. Updated at 5:30 p.m.(tncms-asset)a4152836-9b0e-11ec-8c90-00163ec2aa77[2](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)a5def16a-fc80-11eb-bb4c-00163ec2aa77[3](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)6d6ebcca-1ac7-11eb-86d9-00163ec2aa77[4](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)9eb86180-5ec5-11ec-8a64-00163ec2aa77[5](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)a51febde-5c30-11ec-ad42-00163ec2aa77[6](/tncms-asset)

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JEFFERSON CITY  One month after lawmakers approved a plan to boost the wages of some of the lowest-paid state employees in the nation, Missouri officials are still having to hire outside companies to provide workers.

Since March 16, the Missouri Department of Transportation has awarded contracts to four temporary personnel firms to plug holes in its beleaguered workforce.

MoDOT spokeswoman Linda Horn said the laborers will work mostly in the St. Louis area picking up trash and other roadside debris.

The additional help is needed now to help address the litter problem while our MoDOT maintenance crews have been busy fighting winter storms and more recently filling potholes, Horn said.

The cost to the state for each of the 10-12 laborers per week is $28 an hour. That amount covers the companys cost as well as paying the worker, Horn said.

All told, Missouri typically spends about $6 million a year picking up trash tossed out by motorists or debris left behind after accidents.

Like other state agencies, turnover has been a problem at MoDOT. Last year, nearly 17% of the workforce left the agency. The current salaried headcount is 4,738 full-time employees, with a total of 370 full-time vacancies.

Missouri residents have seen other state services suffer because of a shortage of workers. There have been long wait times at state call centers and limits placed on bed space at mental treatment facilities, prisons and nursing homes for veterans.

Low pay in Missouri has triggered hundreds of Missouri residents to cross the Mississippi River to work in Illinois prisons and mental health facilities where union-backed government jobs pay significantly higher rates.

MoDOT is not alone in needing temp workers to fill gaps. In October, the state hired a temporary staffing agency to supply clerical help to various state agencies.

With employees fleeing the state payroll for higher paying private sector jobs, Gov. Mike Parson last year called on the Legislature to boost pay by 5.5% and bring the lowest-paid hourly workers up to $15 an hour. He signed the wage hikes into law on Feb. 25.

The effect of those raises has not yet been felt at MoDOT.

It is too early for us to determine if the salary increases for state employees have impacted our applicant pools, Horn said. We continue to have high turnover and difficulty hiring new employees.

State officials said last week they were pleased with the turnout at a job fair in the capital city where hundreds of people met with representatives of various state agencies.

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JEFFERSON CITY  The Missouri Senate on Thursday approved a congressional map that shores up a St. Louis-area congressional district for Republicans, emphatically putting an end to a debate that had dragged on for more than two months in the upper chamber.

The map fortifies Rep. Ann Wagners St. Louis County-based 2nd Congressional District, sending it as far south as Iron County in southeast Missouri.

A hard-line Republican said allies ended their filibuster because of changes made to a boundary in St. Charles County that divides it between the 2nd and 3rd districts.

The blueprint now moves back to the House, which could opt to send the map to Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, early next week. Candidate filing for the Aug. 2 primary ends Tuesday. But Rep. Dan Shaul, the chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, indicated the plan could face resistance.

Of course, I want to get it done, Shaul said. But I think we have to get it done right.

Four of 10 Senate Democrats voted for the map. It preserves U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleavers safe Democratic 5th Congressional District in the Kansas City area. Hard-line Republicans had fought to gerrymander the district for the Republicans.

The St. Louis-based 1st Congressional District, held by Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, is changed from the House plan.

Among the alterations is moving precincts in the Maplewood-Shrewsbury area of St. Louis County from the 1st District under the House plan to the 2nd District under the Senate plan.

The 1st District is poised to take in more voters in the Webster Groves and Maryland Heights areas than under the map that has been in place for the last decade.

Jefferson County, south of St. Louis, would shift from the 3rd Congressional District under the House plan to the 8th Congressional District, which covers southeast Missouri and stretches as far west as the Branson area.

In a win for Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, the new map keeps both Whiteman Air Force Base and Fort Leonard Wood in the 4th Congressional District, which could help the state keep its military bases if the federal government opts to reduce its military presence.

Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, said the map would result in Missouri sending six Republicans and two Democrats to the U.S. House for the foreseeable future.

Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said by midmorning Thursday the Senate reached a point where enough lawmakers were either willing to vote for the map or willing to stop filibustering a vote.

Rowdens home of Boone County, under the plan, would be split between the 3rd and 4th districts. It is currently situated completely within the 4th District.

Schatzs Franklin County is split between the 2nd and 3rd districts under the Senate plan; the county west of St. Louis is now completely within the 3rd, represented by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth.

You had to get a map done, Rowden said when asked how he supported the Boone County split. The blessings and curses that come with being in these positions is that sometimes youve got to put your money where your mouth is as it relates to being able to get something done.

Rowden said he didnt believe members of the congressional delegation were contacted Thursday before the vote.

My assumption is based on the conversations that we had with them over the course of time, that Im not sure any of them are going to be thrilled, Rowden said. I think theyre going to be OK.

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, was one of the Democrats to vote for the map.

The winner of the day is compromise, he told reporters.

Asked whether the new lines would help or hurt Bush in her congressional reelection bid, Rizzo said: I dont think it hinders or helps her.

I think she has a clear advantage being the incumbent, he said, saying the seat would remain Democratic. And I think that some of her votes in the past may hinder her winning that seat again. But thats something shes going to have to answer to her voters.

I dont think the district by any means is unwinnable for her or more winnable for anyone else, he said.

Schatz had previously accused Sen. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis, of pushing for lines that would favor his potential challenge to Bush; Roberts denied this.

Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, who was among those in a GOP faction holding out for changes to the House map, ended up voting for the Senate version.

The map that we did pass I think did accomplish some objectives that we had been talking about for the past few months, Eigel said, saying the map strengthened the 2nd District for Republicans.

The hard-liners Thursday morning filibustered a plan by Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City. The 2nd District in that version, as well as the version that was approved, were similar in shape and in partisanship, both stretching to southeast Missouri.

But the map that was ultimately approved places parts of western St. Charles County including Augusta into the 3rd District. The majority of the countys population would go into the 3rd.

We had some changes in the layout of St. Charles County, Eigel said when asked why the hard-liners ended their filibuster.

Schatz, the Senate president, wondered earlier Thursday why the slice of western St. Charles County couldnt fit into the 2nd.

Investor David Hoffmann last year announced a $100 million development plan for Augusta, in western St. Charles County.

Whos developing wine country in St. Charles? Schatz asked Thursday morning, before there was an agreement. Why do you think that that isnt part of CD2?

Eigel suggested the western St. Charles County sliver in the 3rd was due to necessity.

If you were going to look for a split that only took a small portion of the population of the county, that is where you would naturally have to go, he said.

It didnt appear that the Thursday breakthrough would lead to more cooperation in the near term.

I dont expect next week will be any easier, Eigel said.

Updated at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 24.(tncms-asset)fcaf209a-ab1d-11ec-bd26-00163ec2aa77[1](/tncms-asset)

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JEFFERSON CITY  The Missouri House is considering a plan inspired by the behavior of one of the key figures in the events that led to former Gov. Eric Greitens downfall in 2018.

Under legislation sponsored by Rep. David Evans, R-West Plains, a person subpoenaed to testify before the General Assembly could face prosecution for failing to comply with that order.

In addition, the proposed law would hold a person in contempt if he or she fails to appear to testify or refuses to answer questions or produce documents requested by lawmakers.

The proposal is a reaction to the conduct of Scott Faughn, who publishes The Missouri Times, a website and newspaper that caters to the states political class.

Faughn was called before a special House committee investigating Greitens in May 2018 after Faughn gave $120,000 to an attorney for the ex-husband of Greitens former mistress.

Faughn told the panel that the money included $100,000 for recordings the ex-husband had made of the woman discussing her 2015 relationship with the governor, which led to Greitens ouster.

The remaining $20,000 was a retainer for Clayton attorney Al Watkins, who was representing the ex-husband.

Committee members didnt believe Faughn when he said the money was his own, suggesting instead he was an intermediary for individuals or groups that were trying to undermine Greitens governorship.

Members of the committee also said at the time it didnt make sense for Faughn to profess he didnt know who delivered $50,000 of his money to Watkins.

The chairman of the investigatory panel, former Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, added that he was skeptical about Faughns explanation because Faughn was convicted of forgery in 2002 when he was a mayor in southeast Missouri.

Faughn said he bought the recordings as part of a book he hoped to write about Missouri politics. No book has been produced.

On Wednesday, Evans told members of the House Judiciary Committee that the 2018 committee realized quickly they had no way to ask a judge to hold Faughn or other potential witnesses in contempt.

They recognized they didnt have the authority to get that done, Evans said.

A version of the proposal has been taken up in the House for three years, but it has not been acted on in the Senate. Evans said Gov. Mike Parson, who has been a guest on a podcast hosted by Faughn, said he wouldnt sign the legislation.

Evans said it is time to push the legislation through in order to avoid future problems.

There needs to be a legal procedure to be able to proceed further, Evans said.

After Faughns payments came to light, the Missouri Capitol News Association voted to remove The Missouri Times from the organization.

The hearing on Evans bill came two days after Greitens ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, alleged in a court filing that Eric Greitens mentally and physically abused her and their children, including during the turbulent time at the end of his short tenure.

The latest allegations triggered calls for Greitens, a Republican, to drop his bid for the U.S. Senate.

Greitens, in a brief statement Monday, called his ex-wifes allegations completely fabricated and baseless.

The legislation is House Bill 2781.

Originally posted at 6:50 p.m. Wednesday, March 23.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Two Republican lawmakers say the state needs to encourage a new approach to homelessness by prioritizing short-term shelter for unhoused people.

The proposal, heard in two committees Wednesday, would act as a reversal of the popular housing first policy, which aims to provide people foundational stability by getting them into permanent housing.

Giving them a free apartment is not getting to the root of the problem, said Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder, R-Sikeston. They need mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling and support beyond just a roof over their head.

The proposal, sponsored by Thompson Rehder in the Senate and Rep. Bruce DeGroot, R-Ellisville, in the House, would direct existing funds to build short-term shelters, largely in the form of encampments with six-month stay limits.

These facilities would be required to meet certain livability requirements, be monitored by police and social workers, and collect data on the mental health, substance abuse and other issues affecting the tenants.

More controversial provisions aim to sweep homeless individuals off the streets. The measure institutes penalties for residing or sleeping on state land without permission and removes funding from localities with high homeless populations that refuse to enforce certain ordinances against the homeless.

Judge Glock of the Texas think tank Cicero Institute, which wrote the model for both bills, said the intent was not to criminalize homelessness, although thats what critics have asserted in other states where similar legislation has been introduced. Glock claimed the policy was meant to create an incentive rather than lead to arrests.

What my bill does is basically bans camping on the streets, DeGroot said.

And that might seem at first blush not the humanitarian thing to do. But it provides a safe place for the adults with some of these camps that are secure, that are clean.

At both hearings Wednesday, lawmakers expressed a general consensus that the issue called for a more active legislative approach, though several expressed concern with some aspects of the bills.

As of 2020, Missouri had more than 6,500 homeless individuals, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Witnesses noted that due to the difficulty surveying homeless individuals, this was likely an undercount.

The states homeless population dropped by about 4,000 between 2011 and 2014 and remained relatively stable up to the latest 2020 count.

Sarah Owsley of Empower Missouri said that while the proposed legislation takes some steps in the right direction regarding issues such as mental health and safety, the underlying systemic causes are not fully addressed, citing a lack of affordable housing as one.

If we really make this an issue of the individual, we ignore the systemic structures that create homelessness to start with, Owsley said.

Originally posted at noon Thursday, March 24. Corrects Glocks first name.

Grace Zokovitch gzokovitch@post-dispatch.com
ST. LOUIS  The citys top fiscal body on Wednesday endorsed an $87 million citywide capital improvements package funded mainly by federal pandemic aid but delayed $37 million to boost commercial corridors in north St. Louis.

The Board of Estimate and Apportionment backed the capital package 3-0 but held up voting on Aldermanic President Lewis Reeds revised North Side corridor plan at the request of Comptroller Darlene Green.

That spurred Reed later in the day to cancel Fridays special Board of Aldermen meeting, at which the capital improvements plan had been expected to win final passage. The estimate board will meet again next Tuesday to again take up the North Side measure.

Mary Goodman, Reeds legislative director, said in an interview that the capital improvements bill will not move forward until the North Side measure is OKd by the estimate board.

During the estimate boards videoconference meeting, Green complained that Reeds staff hadnt briefed her on details of his measure.

She also expressed concern that the bill doesnt specify the process for applying for the grants it would authorize for small businesses, nonprofit organizations and community services along major North Side streets.

I dont want to tell you that Im going to approve something so it can sit on the shelf for six months while the application process is formulated, Green said.

Reed said a bill has to be passed before applications can begin. He also said he didnt understand why Green needed more information because the idea was discussed ad nauseam last summer by aldermen during debate on a previous allocation of federal aid.

He also noted that the new version has been available since it was endorsed by an aldermanic committee March 10.

But he said hed try to figure out what else would need to happen to win the approval of the estimate board, which is made up of Green, Reed and Mayor Tishaura O. Jones.

Jones, who in August vetoed an earlier $33 million version of the North Side corridor plan, didnt give her opinion of the revised plan during Wednesdays meeting.

Jones in her veto had contended that the program amounted to general economic development not allowed under federal rules.

Reed, in promoting his revised version, has pointed to final regulations under the American Rescue Plan Act that grant wide discretion on using the funds if deployed in low-income census tracts such as the North Side areas the bill covers.

Reeds new bill, which had been expected to come up for first-round aldermanic approval at the now-canceled Friday meeting, expands the number of streets covered to 10 from four.

The measure also includes $2 million to bring city recreation centers and other buildings in line with federal Americans With Disabilities Act standards.

The $87 million capital improvements bill endorsed Wednesday includes a wide range of projects, including street paving; repairing and replacing bridges; buying new police cars, fire trucks and ambulances; and renovating the city jail downtown.

The measure is to be funded with $69.5 million in federal ARPA funds and the remainder from other city money.

The estimate board on Wednesday also signed off on several contracts and agreements worth about $20 million to carry out ARPA spending approved last year.

Mortgage payment assistance, shelter and other aid for homeless people, home repairs and an internship and employment program in city public schools are among the programs covered.

Originally posted at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23.

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Regarding the editorial Missouri bill to outlaw abortion in ectopic pregnancies is effectively a death sentence (March 13): Back in the summer of 1979, I was sitting at my kitchen table reading the Sunday newspaper. Just the week before, I made an appointment with my OB-GYN doctor as I suspected I was pregnant. Suddenly, I had an intense excruciating pain in my lower abdomen. I was on my hands and knees crawling to the back glass door banging on it, trying to get the attention of my husband who was cutting the grass.

By the time he noticed me, I was fading into unconsciousness. Rushed by ambulance to the hospital, an emergency room doctor saved my life. The next day in the hospital, the doctor confirmed to me that my fallopian tube had ruptured from my ectopic pregnancy and there was extensive blood loss. He told me, You would have died without quick medical attention. I have since become a lifelong blood donor.

Next year, my husband, Tom, and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with our children, grandchildren and siblings. When you are at deaths door, every day becomes precious. Sadly, no medical technology currently exists to move an ectopic pregnancy from the fallopian tube to the uterus. House Bill 2810 would have been a death sentence for innocent women. The measure criminalizing ectopic-pregnancy surgery has been withdrawn.

Marilyn Lane  Oakville
Regarding Republicans again targeting health insurance for low-income Missourians (March 22): Missouri House Joint Resolution 117 is an ill-advised effort to overturn a vote of the people. It would put thousands of Missourians health care at risk and reverse the health and economic benefits that Medicaid expansion will bring.

As a cancer survivor, I well understand the importance of affordable health insurance. I remember my first visit to the oncologist. Next to me sat a sobbing man and his family. He had just been diagnosed with cancer but was uninsured and couldnt afford the treatment. A diagnosis of cancer is a traumatic experience. Knowing you could be helped, but not being able to afford the care, is tragic.

Health insurance also allows those with chronic health problems to remain healthy enough to work. This legislation might force newly eligible Missourians to lose their health care coverage.

Under House Joint Resolution 117, coverage for prescription drugs, hospice care and senior citizen services would be subject to debate every year  placing health care for Missouri kids, pregnant women, and people with disabilities at the whim of political winds.

Medicaid expansion is the law of the land, approved by voters and upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court. The Missouri Senate should vote no on HJR117.

Ruth Ehresman  St. Louis

Co-president, Womens Voices Raised for Social Justice
Regarding Greitens urged to exit U.S. Senate race in wake of new abuse allegations (March 22): Eric Greitens doesnt have anything to worry about. I believe he is a certain shoo-in to win the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in November. Hes alleged to be an abusive, philandering husband and gun-loving guy who isnt above threatening his girlfriend with a compromising photograph to prevent her from blowing the whistle on him.
Defeated former president Donald Trump is notorious for turning on allies if they fail to show sufficient loyalty. When his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, properly recused himself from the Russia investigation, Trump berated him until he resigned. Even Supreme Court justices whom he appointed felt his wrath when they did not produce his desired outcome. And who can forget all the people Trump claimed he barely knew when they ended up in trouble or criticized him?

But disloyalty can come back to bite you. On Wednesday, Trump yanked his endorsement from staunch supporter Rep. Mo Brooks for a Senate seat in Alabama, faulting Brooks for not wanting to dwell on the 2020 race. Brooks struck back with a damning written statement.

The only legal way America can prevent 2020s election debacle is for patriotic Americans to focus on and win the 2022 and 2024 elections so that we have the power to enact laws that give us honest and accurate elections, Brooks wrote. President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. Twisting the knife, he added, As a lawyer, Ive repeatedly advised President Trump that Jan. 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.

Oops.

This account, if true, is invaluable to the Jan. 6 committee and to any criminal investigation given the difficulty in proving whether Trump had criminal intent. If Trump asked Brooks to rescind the election, as Brooks alleged, and if Trump understood from Brooks that there was no legitimate way to overturn the election, Trumps risk of being charged with obstruction of an official proceeding (i.e., the electoral-vote-counting session), attempting to defraud the United States or seditious conspiracy increases dramatically.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection certainly will send an invitation to Brooks to testify. He turned down a request from the committee last year for phone records, but he didnt rule out testifying. His campaign spokesman previously released a statement that, if Congressman Brooks is asked to testify, the testimony must be in public, not in secret and not denying the American people their right to hear the entirety of testimony by any and all witnesses. He might now be more willing to cooperate with the committee. And he might have plenty to tell.

The Washington Post previously reported, A review of [Brookss] speeches, tweets and media appearances as well as affidavits and other court filings reveals his central part in mobilizing the effort to overturn Joe Bidens victory by repeatedly claiming that the election was stolen and then becoming the first member of Congress to declare he would challenge the Electoral College results. He publicly claimed to have led the charge. Whatever testimony he could give about conversations he had with Trump or senior aides in the events leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, or on the day of the armed insurrection would be invaluable.

One might be skeptical of the veracity of a claim from a congressman who eagerly spread the big lie of a stolen election. But the benefit of the Jan. 6 committees exhaustive investigation is that any testimony he gives can be corroborated by scores of documents and other witnesses testimony. Brookss testimony might simply put an exclamation point on the account of Trumps treachery and betrayal of his oath.

And if Brooks needs any incentive to testify, the committee might seriously consider granting him some sort of immunity. Recall that the Justice Department previously refused to defend him in a civil lawsuit linking him to the Jan. 6 insurrection, arguing that he was not acting in any official capacity when he spoke at a rally outside the White House preceding the violence. While Brooks was dismissed from that lawsuit, the potential for criminal investigation remains if there is sufficient evidence tying him to the coup attempt and the armed insurrection on Jan. 6. Thus, giving him immunity in exchange for direct testimony about Trumps state of mind might be an attractive deal.

Trump might come to regret pulling the rug out from under Brooks. Sometimes you want to keep friends close  and potentially dangerous witnesses closer.

Jennifer Rubin is the author of Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump. On Twitter: @JRubinBlogger Copyright The Washington Post
Women have always known what matters most when you are traveling  good food, a comfortable place to sleep and practical advice.

Thats certainly been true at Americas national parks. Jennie Foster Curry and her husband ran a tent camp at the base of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. She carried on after his death, growing Curry Village from 25 tents to 650 tents, 60 cottages, a bakery, cafeteria, pool hall and more by 1922.

The award-winning Mariposa Museum and History Center is a great place to learn about pioneer women's contributions to the region. Stop in when visiting the region and Yosemite National Park.

Yes, we are at the tail end of Womens History Month. But as you plan your spring and summer trips, consider noting womens contributions wherever and however you travel. Consider it a teaching moment for your kids.

Womens contributions and womens history can be found at every national park, whenever you visit, from the lives of young, immigrant women who worked the textile mills at Lowell National Historic Park to those of the female shipyard workers who were essential to the home front during World War II at Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historic Park.

Women have long been involved with the National Park Service too, pioneers in many jobs. Tell the kids that today, there are women park directors, rangers, wildlife biologists, paleontologists, firefighters, artists-in-residence and more.

Is there a woman in the cockpit on your flight? Point her out to the kids and tell them that airline industry groups estimate that fewer than 7 percent of commercial pilots are women, and only about 1 percent are women of color, NPR reported recently. That is beginning to change. United Airlines, in fact, has recently established the United Aviate Academy flight school to open the cockpit to women and people of color

Look for women in leadership roles on your next cruise. Windstar, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity all have women captains. More than 32 percent of Celebrity Cruises bridge officers are now women. Women are also presidents of Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises. Encourage kids to ask cruise officers to tell them about their jobs.

If you are opting for an adventure trip, you likely find female guides part of the mix, as we did on a recent Grand Canyon raft trip and Backroads bike trip in Europe. Some 52 percent of Backroads guides are women. Chat them up to find out how they came to be in their current roles.

To create a more equitable America, the Smithsonian is researching, disseminating, and amplifying the histories of American women through its American Womens History Initiative in preparation for the future Smithsonian American Womens History Museum (#BecauseOfHerStory). Thats at least a decade away, though.

Meanwhile, see the exhibit Picturing Women Inventors at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Thats also where you will find the excellent Girlhood (Its Complicated), which showcases how girls have changed history and have used their voices to make a difference (check out the online exhibit).

The online National Womens History Museum (NWHM) is showcasing Heritage and Harmony: Her Art, Her Voice. Created by pianist Donna Weng Friedman it includes a concert pianist, violinist, opera and Broadway performers and more. The idea is to inspire and empower school-aged girls of color to find their true voice.

Ask your kids if they could imagine a time when women couldnt vote. The Womens Rights National Historical Park tells the story of the first Womens Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, N.Y., on July 19-20, 1848. It is a story of struggles for civil rights, human rights, and equality, global struggles that continue today. Geared to children/students ages 5 to 12 years old, this downloadable booklet consists of activities that teach about civil rights and human rights.

Could your teens imagine leaving the only home they knew to move to a strange city and work grueling hours at a mill? The Lowell National Historic Park in Massachusetts is a good place to explore the mill girls story and the industrial revolution. Though they did work in grueling conditions, for many it was the first time they were living on their own and earning their own money.

During World War II, a shortage of white male workers led the government to recruit women to war industry jobs. Integration of women and minorities into the workforce was initially met with resistance, however, the new opportunities for women and minorities "cracked open" the door to equal rights and would later impact the civil rights movement and women's movement. Find out more at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. Perhaps a woman in your family was a home-front war worker

I loved visiting Val-Kill, the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site near President Franklin Delano Roosevelts home and library in Hyde Park, N.Y. It is the only national historic site dedicated to a first lady, showcasing Mrs. Roosevelts efforts on behalf of social reform, economic justice and human rights. Did you know that she was a correspondent covering the United Nations for United Press International in the early 1960s? She was a civil rights and womens rights advocate ahead of her time. We will be the sufferers if we let great wrongs occur without exerting ourselves to correct them, she famously said.

Appropriate today, dont you think?

(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kids Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kids guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kids Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)
By March 2022 the U.S. had approved a billion dollars worth of weapons for Ukraine. One of items being sent is the Switchblade loitering munition, which is little-known to the general public but extremely popular with American troops fighting in small units, especially in places like Afghanistan. Switchblade was first revealed in 2005 and the Ukrainians are receiving at least a hundred of the Switchblade 300.

Switchblade is a small UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) fired from its storage container. Switchblade was sent to Afghanistan in 2009 for secret field testing. This was very successful and the troops demanded more, and more, and more. Switchblade completed development later in 2009 and was initially thought useful only for special operations troops. In 2011, after a year of successful field testing, the army ordered over a hundred Switchblades for troop use and since then has ordered a lot more.

While Switchblade was developed for the army, the marines apparently noted the success that soldiers and SOCOM (Special Operations Command) had with this system and ordered them as well. Switchblade was very popular with troops in Afghanistan and with SOCOM in all sorts of places they wont discuss in detail. Switchblade is still used and thousands have been ordered and many of them used. There have been several upgrades

The original 2009 Switchblade was a lightweight and expendable (used only once) UAV that could also be equipped with explosives. The Switchblade is launched from its shipping and storage tube, at which point wings flip out, a battery-powered propeller starts spinning and a vidcam begins broadcasting images to the controller. The Switchblade is operated using the same controller as the larger (two kg) Raven UAV. A complete Switchblade system (missile, container, and controller) weighed 5.5 kg (12.1 pounds).

Moving at up to a kilometer a minute, the original Switchblade can stay in the air for 20-40 minutes, depending on whether or not it was armed with explosives. Switchblade can operate up to ten kilometers from the operator. The armed version can be flown to a target and detonated, having about the same explosive effect as a hand grenade. Thus, Switchblade enables ground troops to get at an enemy taking cover in a hard to see location.

Technically a guided missile, the use of Switchblade as a reconnaissance tool encouraged developers to refer to it as a UAV. But because of the warhead option, and its slow speed, Switchblade also functions like a rather small cruise missile. The troops were particularly enthusiastic about the armed version because it allowed them to more quickly take out snipers or a few enemy gunmen in a compound full of civilians.

Switchblade has been so successful that the army ordered several upgrades and the updated original Switchblade was renamed Switchblade 300. The new version appeared in 2016. It is heavier (2.7 kg) with 15 minutes endurance and a 10-kilometer range. The sensor has night vision and is stabilized. The 300 can lock onto a target and track it. The 300 comes with optional accessories, like a six-pack launcher that is used as part of base defense. This was first used for base protection in 2019 and proved effective. One or more of these six packs are placed near the base perimeter and power is maintained with a solar panel. The base security commander can order a Switchblade to be launched from the six-pack and control it as it searches for a potential target. Switchblade 300 is also capable of being used from a helicopter or larger UAV and controlled from the helicopter or by the operator of the larger UAV (like a Reaper).

In 2020 AeroVironment, the company that developed the unlikely, but popular, Switchblade loitering munition, introduced a third version; Switchblade 600. While the original Switchblade weighed one kilogram (2.2 pounds), the latest Switchblade is ten times heavier at 23 kg (50 pounds), can stay in the air for 40 minutes and be controlled up to 80 kilometers from the operator. Top speed is 180 kilometers an hour and more economical cruise speed is closer to 150 kilometers an hour. The heavier warhead can destroy most tanks, although some modern tank designs include protection from top attack.

Switchblade 600 was requested by the U.S. Army for longer range surveillance missions and the option to hit specific small targets, like a building or enemy position. Unlike the earlier Switchblades, the 600 uses a tablet controller with more options, including manipulating the more powerful vidcam. Video transmitted back to the operator can be saved and passed on. The operator also has a wave off feature in which a quick tap on the controller screen can cause the 600 to abort an attack and be available for another try. The 600 can also be programmed to carry out a mission without operator control. This means there is no control signal for enemy electronic warning systems to detect or jam. In this case when time is up the 600 self-destructs. The 600 can be carried into a remote area and used quickly. Its most likely use in the Ukraine is against the engines of Russian military supply and troops transport trains operating near the border or inside Ukraine.

The U.S. Navy also requested a version of Switchblade, for reconnaissance only, that could be launched from ships or submerged (at periscope depth) submarines. In this case the sub would have a communications mast on the surface to receive data from what was called the Blackwing. This version is a little heavier, at 1.8 kg (four pounds). The size of the Blackwing is designed to fit into existing navy countermeasure launchers. Without a warhead Blackwing has endurance of about an hour and uses encrypted digital communications compatible with current navy systems. When released from a submarine countermeasures launcher, the Blackwing container pops to the surface and the Blackwing is ejected into flight like the other Switchblades. The U.S. Navy has bought at least 150 Blackwings, starting in 2016. Armed versions of Blackwing are available but these have shorter endurance. For subs, reconnaissance is the most important item.

Switchblade is not a unique concept, as these loitering munitions have been around for decades. What Switchblade provided was a design that met the needs of combat troops, especially special operations personnel or small groups of Ukrainians seeking to halt Russian supply trucks. Since Switchblade entered service and its popularity became widely known, similar systems have appeared, trying to provide features that Switchblade lacked but the troops would appreciate.

Ukraine had already developed a loitering munition of its own, but these are not as efficient as Switchblade. The same can be said of the new Polish Warmate loitering munition that Ukraine has received. Warmate is a 5.3 kg (12 pound) conventional UAV that carries a 1.4 kg (three-pound warhead). Warmate has an endurance of 70 minutes and top speed of 150 kilometers an hour and can be controlled 15 kilometers from the operator. While portable, Warmate requires five minutes to assemble and needs a road or catapult device to be launched.

Ukraine developed its own loitering munition, Silent Thunder, in 2019. This is a 9.5 kg (28 pound) UAV with a variety of different 3.5 kg (7.7 pound) warheads. It takes fifteen minutes to ready Silent Thunder for use and it has a duration of 60 minutes and top speed of 150 kilometers an hour. It can be controlled up to 30 kilometers from the operator. Silent Thunder is reusable if no warhead is carried. Silent Thunder is a complex system to use and that limits its effectiveness.

In 2019 an Israeli firm introduced the Firefly, a loitering munition UAV, which is portable enough for infantry to carry and continually reuse. There is also the option to replace one of the two batteries with an explosive warhead and turn Firefly into a guided weapon. Another major advantage of Firefly is that it operates like a helicopter, not a fixed-wing aircraft. Being able to hover is a major advantage for loitering munitions used by infantry. Firefly seems to have addressed all (or most) of the user criticisms of earlier lightweight loitering munition systems.

Firefly was developed by Rafael, the same firm that developed and builds the Spike family of ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles). Much of the tech in Firefly was based on what is already used in Spike systems. In particular, Firefly has a guidance system that can track and attack a moving target. This can be critical for infantry using such a weapon because these targets are elusive in the first place and, without a UAV, the infantry would not have spotted dangers like snipers or moving troops at all.

Firefly is a dual rotor miniature helicopter and those dual (on top of each other) rotors make it stable in winds that would make a similar-sized fixed-wing or quad-copter UAV unusable. The .4 kg (one pound) warhead replaces the second battery to halve the normal 30 minutes of flight time. The operator uses a small tablet device that is mostly a touch screen and a Firefly controller. Firefly can be controlled up to 500 meters in a built-up (or forested) area or up to 1,500 meters in line-of-sight (nothing between Firefly and operator) mode. Firefly returns to the operator if the control signal is lost. The operator can press an icon on the screen to get Firefly to return immediately, abort an attack or carry out a high speed (19 meters/62 feet a second) attack on a target. The target can be moving, as in a sniper changing firing positions out of sight of the operator. This is accomplished using the ability of the Firefly guidance system to remember the shape of a target and follow it. The Firefly warhead would be most often used against troublesome targets like snipers or hidden machine-guns. Even without the warhead Firefly would be able to locate such lethal adversaries and enable the infantry to avoid them. Firefly can also be launched and operated from a moving vehicle.

The big advantage Firefly has over similar loitering munitions like the 40mm Pike and GLAUS, as well as Switchblade, is reusability. Carry one Firefly and just use it as a UAV for a dozen or more times. The relative simplicity of Firefly compared to Switchblade, and to similar designs like GLAUS and Pike based on 40mm grenade shells, makes it a better system that is also cheaper when you take into account the reusability.

Russia is also using its new Zala loitering munition in Ukraine. Zala carries a two kg (4.4 pound) explosive charge. Zala is a delta shaped (1.2 meter/3.8 feet wingspan) UAV with a three kg (6.6 pound) payload that is used mainly for explosives plus a vidcam to locate the targets and dive on it. It is carried and launched from a catapult on a truck. Endurance is 30 minutes and top speed is 130 kilometers an hour. Zala has been available since 2017 and has apparently been tested in Syria.
HALIFAX, NS / ACCESSWIRE / March 22, 2022 / Namibia Critical Metals Inc. ("Namibia Critical Metals" or the "Company") (TSXV:NMI) (OTC:NMREF) today announced that, as a result of strong investor interest, it is increasing the non-brokered private placement previously announced on February 23, 2022 from a maximum of CDN$500,000 to a maximum of $750,000. The private placement is for units at a price of $0.20 per unit ("Private Placement"). Each unit will consist of one common share and one warrant. Each whole warrant will be exercisable for one common share at a price of $0.35 for a period of 24 months. A maximum of 7,500,000 common shares of Namibia Critical Metals will be issued pursuant to the Private Placement (assuming full exercise of all warrants).

The Private Placement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV").

The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used primarily to fund gold exploration and general corporate purposes. The common shares and warrants of the Company issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month hold period.

About Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Namibia Critical Metals Inc. holds a diversified portfolio of exploration and advanced stage projects in Namibia focused on the development of sustainable and ethical sources of metals for the battery, electric vehicle and associated industries. The most advanced stage project in the portfolio is Lofdal. The Company also holds significant land positions in areas favourable for gold mineralization.

Figure 5: Location of Namibia Critical Metals' projects highlighting position of gold projects (Erongo, Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein) in relation to important gold mines in the Central Namibian Gold Belt

Heavy Rare Earths: The Lofdal Dysprosium-Terbium Project is the Company's most advanced project being fully permitted with a Mining Licence (ML 200) issued in 2021. The project is being developed in joint venture with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC").

About Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) and the JV

JOGMEC is a Japanese government independent administrative agency which among other things seeks to secure stable resource supplies for Japan. JOGMEC has a strong reputation as a long term, strategic partner in mineral projects globally. The mandated areas of responsibilities within JOGMEC relate to oil and natural gas, metals, coal and geothermal energy. JOGMEC facilitates opportunities with Japanese private companies to secure supplies of natural resources for the benefit of the country's economic development.

Rare earths are of critical importance to Japanese industrial interests and JOGMEC has extensive experience with all aspects of the sector. JOGMEC provided Lynas with US$250,000,000 in loans and equity in 2011 to ensure supplies of the Light Rare Earths metals suite to the Japanese industry.

Namibia Critical Metals currently owns a 95% interest in the Lofdal project with the remaining 5% held for the benefit of historically disadvantaged Namibians. The terms of the JOGMEC joint venture agreement with the Company stipulate that JOGMEC provides $3,000,000 in Term 1 and $7,000,000 in Term 2 to earn a 40% interest in the Lofdal project. Term 3 calls for a further $10,000,000 of expenditures to earn an additional 10% interest. JOGMEC can also purchase another 1% for $5,000,000 and has first right of refusal to fully fund the project through to commercial production and to purchase all production at market prices. The collective interests of NMI and historically disadvantaged Namibians cannot be diluted below a 26% carried working interest upon payment of $5,000,000 to JOGMEC for the dilution protection. The JV Agreement is structured such that no NMI equity will be issued and it is totally non-dilutive to NMI shareholders. To date, JOGMEC, has approved funding Term 1 and 2 expenditures totaling $6,600,000.

Gold: The Company's Exclusive Prospecting Licenses ("EPLs") prospective for gold are located in the Central Namibian Gold Belt which hosts a number of significant orogenic gold deposits including the Navachab Gold Mine, the Otjikoto Gold Mine and more recently the discovery of the Twin Hills deposit. At the Erongo Gold Project, stratigraphic equivalents to the meta-sediments hosting the recent Osino gold discovery at Twin Hills have been identified and exploration is progressing over this highly prospective area. The Grootfontein Base Metal and Gold Project has potential for magmatic copper-nickel mineralization, Mississippi Valley-type zinc-lead-vanadium mineralization and Otjikoto-style gold mineralization. Interpretation of geophysical data and regional geochemical soil sampling have identified first gold targets.

Tantalum-Niobium: The Epembe Tantalum-Niobium-Uranium Project is at an advanced stage with a well-defined, 10 km long carbonatite dyke that has been delineated by detailed mapping and radiometric surveys and over 11,000 meters of drilling. Preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical studies including sorting tests (XRT), indicate the potential for significant physical upgrading. Further work will be undertaken to advance the project to a preliminary economic assessment stage.

The common shares of Namibia Critical Metals Inc. trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information please contact -

Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Darrin Campbell, President

Tel: +01 (902) 835-8760

Fax: +01 (902) 835-8761

Email: [email protected]

Web site: www.NamibiaCriticalMetals.com

The foregoing information may contain forward-looking information relating to the future performance of Namibia Rare Earths Inc. Forward-looking information, specifically, that concerning future performance, is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the appropriate securities commissions.

SOURCE: Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:
Carson City, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME) (OTCQB: ACLHF) (the "Company", or "ACME") is pleased to announce that President and CEO Steve Hanson will be meeting and presenting to investors at the 121 Mining Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. https://www.weare121.com/121mininginvestment-las-vegas/

The 121 Mining Investment Las Vegas Summit takes place on March 30th and 31st and attracts US and international investors for two days of investment-led panel sessions and CEO presentations.

With the rapid demand for securing a domestic supply of lithium, Nevada is at the forefront of mining in the US and remains one of the world's most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment.

ACME's CEO Steve Hanson will be presenting an overview of ACME's two Nevada projects including the upcoming drill campaign at Clayton Valley, Nevada, as well as information on ACME's Manitoba and recently announced Oregon project.

About ACME Lithium Inc.

Led by an experienced team, ACME Lithium is a mineral exploration Company focused on acquiring, exploring and developing battery metal projects in partnership with leading technology and commodity companies. ACME has acquired or is under the option to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in projects located in Clayton Valley and Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County Nevada, south east Oregon and southeastern Manitoba.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Steve Hanson

Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

Telephone: (604) 564-9045

[email protected]

Neither the CSE nor its regulations service providers accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("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 and in this news release include but are not limited to the attributes of, timing for and expected benefits to be derived from the drilling program to be carried out on the FLV property. Information inferred from the interpretation of drilling and other sampling results may also be deemed to be forward-looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be found to be present when and if a project is actually developed. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to fluctuations in metal prices; uncertainties related to raising sufficient financing to fund the planned work in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; changes in planned work resulting from weather, logistical, technical or other factors; the possibility that results of work will not fulfill expectations and realize the perceived potential of the Company's properties; risk of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in the work program; the risk of environmental contamination or damage resulting from the Company's operations and other risks and uncertainties. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117800
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2022) - American Aires Inc. (CSE: WIFI) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the second tranche of a non-brokered private placement to the Company through the issuance of 1,750,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.10 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $175,000 (the "Offering"). The net proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Company for working capital and for other general and administrative costs.

Each Unit consists of one common share (each a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.10 per Common Share for a period of thirty-six (36) months from the closing of the Offering (the "Warrant Term"), provided, however, should the closing price at which the Common Shares trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange (or any such other stock exchange in Canada as the Common Shares may trade at the applicable time) exceed CDN$0.30 for 10 consecutive trading days at any time following the date of issuance, the Company may accelerate the Warrant Term (the "Reduced Warrant Term") such that the Warrants shall expire on the date which is 30 business days following the date a press release is issued by the Company announcing the Reduced Warrant Term.

In connection with the Offering, the Company paid certain eligible persons (the "Finders") aggregate cash commissions of $14,000 and issued an aggregate of 140,000 broker warrants ("Broker Warrants"). Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Unit at an exercise price of $0.10 for a period of thirty-six (36) months from the closing of the Offering and subject to the acceleration provision noted above.

All securities issued under the Offering are subject to a four month hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws.

About American Aires Inc.

American Aires Inc. is Canadian-based nanotechnology company which has developed proprietary silicon-based microprocessors that reduce the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). The technology was developed by a team of highly credited scientists and confirmed by independent third-party validation including peer reviewed studies and publications in scientific journals. Aires' Lifetune products specifically target EMR emitted by consumer electronic devices such as cellphones, computers, baby monitors, Wi-Fi radiation, including the rapidly expanding next-generation high-speed 5G networks. Aires is listed on the CSE under ticker 'WIFI'. Learn more at www.airestech.com .

On behalf of the board of directors

Company Contact:

Dimitry Serov, CEO

Email: [email protected]

Telephone:(905) 482-4667

Website:www.airestech.com

For further information please contact:

5 Quarters Investor Relations, Inc.

Cindy Gray, CEO & Managing Director

Email:[email protected]

Telephone: (403) 705.5076

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Common Shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. We seek safe harbour.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Not intended for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States Securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/117986
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks in a video address in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 23, 2022 in this still image taken from video. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/via Reuters TV/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Ukraine is fighting for the security of the whole of Europe and should be a full member of the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Swedish lawmakers on Thursday.

"We are not fighting just for the people of Ukraine, but for Europe's security and we have shown that we deserve to be a fully fledged member of the EU," Zelenskiy said in a video address to parliament.

"It's time to go ahead with that decision and I am convinced you are going to support us even in that."

Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country in the month since Russia launched its invasion, which Moscow calls a "special military operation" to "denazify" its neighbour.

Western allies have imposed sweeping sanctions against Russia and provided weapons and aid worth billions of dollars for Ukraine's defence.

NATO, the G7 and the EU will all hold summits on Thursday with further measures directed against Russia expected to be agreed.

Zelenskiy, who will address NATO and EU leaders by video-conference, called for more sanctions and asked for Swedish help to rebuild Ukraine when the war is over.

"I want Swedish companies, Swedish architects, the Swedish state and the Swedish people to take part in that," he said through a translator.

"We will rebuild for the sake of the people ... for the sake of Europe."

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Simon Johnson, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Nick Macfie)
MADISON, Wis. (Tribune News Service)  A group seeking to block the military from stationing F-35 fighter jets in Madison is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene.

Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin filed a complaint Wednesday alleging federal, state and local leaders violated the Civil Rights Act because the basing decision will disproportionately affect low-income families and people of color who live near Truax Field.

The complaint asks EPA Administrator Michael Regan to block the deployment of the jets or develop a plan to mitigate noise from the jets and groundwater contamination resulting from the use of PFAS-laden firefighting foam at the airport.

Safe Skies leader Steven Klafka said the complaint is asking the Biden administration to "do the right thing" and honor its commitment to environmental justice, the notion that the negative impacts of policy decisions should not fall disproportionately on disadvantaged communities.

"They were clear that they take this seriously," Klafka said.

Other groups signed on to the complaint, including Midwest Environmental Advocates, Wisconsin Environmental Health Network, the Madison teachers' union and School Board.

According to the Air Force's environmental review, the new  and arguably louder  jets will expose more than 1,000 households to unhealthy levels of noise. City leaders also fear the increased noise could affect as many as 10 schools, including some where large numbers of students are already falling behind their peers.

Hawthorne Elementary School teacher Melina Lozano says the current F-16 noise is already disruptive and fears the initial increase in flight activity will make it worse.

"Teaching stops when students are distracted by the loud jets flying over the school throughout the day," Lozano said. "Students lose track of the lesson and their learning is interrupted."

Safe Skies also complains the National Guard is not doing enough to clean up toxic "forever chemicals" that have been found in soil and groundwater under the base and are believed to be connected to contamination of Starkweather Creek, Lake Monona and at least one Madison municipal well.

The group claims the total cost of the 20-jet squadron could exceed $2 trillion, yet the military has yet to fully fund PFAS cleanup, which may not be completed for more than a decade.

Safe Skies says the government should purchase impacted homes and relocate residents; fund soundproofing for homes, schools and businesses; stop construction on the base "until there is a comprehensive program" to investigate and clean up PFAS; pay for water filtration; and set up a "fish exchange" program for contaminated fish from Starkweather Creek and local lakes.

The anti-jet group has filed two federal lawsuits since the Air Force selected the 115th Fighter Wing as one of two units to get F-35s next year, replacing the current fleet of 34-year-old F-16s.

Earlier this year a judge dismissed one of the cases, ruling that the National Guard Bureau's environmental review of construction projects for the jets complied with federal law. The second case challenges the military's environmental review of the basing decision itself.

Unlike those suits, the EPA petition also faults state and local leaders, including Gov. Tony Evers, Department of Natural Resources Sec. Preston Cole, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who opposed the F-35s.

The group says they were "complicit in promoting environmental injustice and environmental racism due to their approval, support or acquiescence" in the basing decision.

Spokespeople for the accused officials did not respond to a request for comment.

(c)2022 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)

Visit The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) at www.wisconsinstatejournal.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Updates to uniforms and grooming standards announced Wednesday by the Marine Corps will impact troops from head to toe.

The Corps decided on the changes last month, but they became official with the publication of an administrative memo to all Marines.

Among the updates is the authorization allowing Marines to maintain a thicker head of hair.

The limit for so-called bulk of hair, which is the thickness of hair lying flat on the scalp, has been extended from 2 to 3 inches, according to the memo.

The Marine Corps remains the only service that does not allow women to sport ponytails while in uniform after the Coast Guard authorized the style last summer.

The Corps now allows men to edge up their hairlines.

This cut is used for undesirable hair that extends beyond or below the natural hairline, the memo said.

For example, it can be used to remove a widows peak or other excess hair on the forehead, as long as it provides a neat, professional, and natural appearance, the memo said.

The Corps is also changing what Marines can have on top of their heads in limited circumstances.

Marines can wear several colors of commercial-brand liners beneath helmets, and they may be worn as an outer garment for short periods when the helmet is removed, per the Commanders discretion, the memo said.

Nametapes on uniforms are now authorized to include special characters that are helpful in pronunciations, such as apostrophes, accent marks, tildes and hyphens.

The special characters will be used only as space allows, however, as the overall length of nametapes is unchanged, the memo said.

The Air Force made a similar change to nametapes in 2020 as a means of adapting to a more ethnically diverse force.

Several changes to maternity uniforms have been adopted.

They include adjustable side tabs on the tunic and short- and long-sleeved shirts that will make it easier to get the best fit during the course of a pregnancy.

Pregnant Marines are also authorized a supplemental cash allowance to buy two maternity undershirts.

Still under development are maternity dress blue skirt and slacks and physical training shorts, the memo said.

Female Marines now have more manicure options.

Fingernail polish that is clear or matches the wearers skin tone is now authorized for all uniforms.

Marines are also now allowed to wear olive drab or black cushion socks with their combat utility uniform, the memo said.
The U.S. Marines and their counterparts in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force added airstrike practice by the Marines most advanced weapons system to their three-week exercise southwest of Tokyo.

Simulated strikes Wednesday by an F-35B Lightning II marked the first time the advanced stealth fighter worked alongside Japanese troops over Japanese territory.

Approximately 600 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit on Okinawa and about 400 members of Japans Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade started training together March 4. The exercise, called Maritime Defense Exercise-Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, ends Friday at a sprawling military training complex for Japanese and American troops at the base of Mount Fuji.

The F-35 portion took place in the Self-Defense Forces East Fuji training site on the Fuji Training Center and at Numazu Beach at the Marines Combined Arms Training Center, a spokesman for the Ground Self-Defense Force told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday. Japanese soldiers from the 1st Amphibious Rapid Deployment Regiment and 1st Helicopter Brigade also took part.

In one scenario, Japanese troops relayed targeting information to an F-35 that made a simulated attack on an area designated as an enemy-held island, the spokesman said. The aircraft did not actually fire any of its weapons systems.

Over the previous weeks, the two forces also practiced beach landings at Numazu Beach and troop insertions via Marine and Self-Defense Force MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft on the Japanese training center.

The exercises demonstrate the Marines doctrine for seizing and holding islands within range of enemy missiles, also called expeditionary advanced base operations. They also show the allied forces ability to work together using each others methods and equipment, a concept the military refers to as interoperability.

The Rapid Deployment Brigades mandate involves defending Japans remote southwestern islands, such as the Senkakus. The small, rocky outcrops are also claimed by China, whose coast guard makes frequent incursions.

The Marines and Self-Defense Force say the exercise is not meant as a response to any particular threat. But the Pentagon refers to China as its pacing challenge in the Indo-Pacific region, a phrase echoed in the halls of Congress.

This training is nothing to do with a particular country or a region, the Self-Defense spokesman said. The purpose of the training is to strengthen the cooperation between Japan and the U.S. and to improve response capabilities.

Its customary in Japan for some government official to speak to the media on condition of anonymity.

However, experts believe such exercises are meant as a message for China, which aims to eventually reunify Taiwan with the mainland. Chinese President Xi Jinping believes he has to bring Taiwan under Chinese control to solidify his status as ruler, said Toshiyuki Shikata, a former lieutenant general in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.

The joint training is a deterrent, for sure, Shikata told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.

A Chinese attack on Okinawas main island is unlikely; however, attacking or seizing one of the smaller islands that make up the southern island chain is not out of the realm of possibility, he said.

Japan and the U.S. are conducting this kind of training to show China that they have no chance, he said. The F-35 is the best fighter jet in the world and China doesnt have aircraft to match that.
U.S. Marines are barred from traveling to Ukraine and two neighboring countries, while those going on official or personal travel in Europe must now request prior clearance for their trips, the service said Thursday.

Due to the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, Marines are prohibited from travel to Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, the Marine Corps said.

The directive said Marines and other military personnel attached to Marine units who are going anywhere in Europe on vacation or temporary duty must first submit travel clearance requests to the Aircraft and Personnel Clearance System, effective immediately.

The purpose of the message, known as a MARADMIN, was to echo a State Department Do Not Travel advisory and travel restrictions on all service members that the head of U.S. European Command imposed in February, said Maj. Jim Stenger, a Marine Corps spokesperson.

I know I check MARADMINs more frequently than State Department travel advisories, so this was an attempt to communicate an important message to our Marines and sailors directly, Stenger said.

It comes one month into the Russian invasion of Ukraine and follows reports of thousands of foreigners responding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys call for volunteers to help repel the advance.

But some U.S. military veterans have been frustrated after arriving and being assigned to comparatively menial infantry tasks relative to their military specialties, Military.com reported this week.

Meanwhile, Russia has warned that foreigners will not be treated as legitimate combatants if captured.

Also this week, a Canadian defense official told members of Parliament that the countrys military members are now barred from joining a new international wing of Ukraines Territorial Defense Forces, the Guardian reported.

Enough volunteers from Americas northern neighbor had answered Zelenskyys call that one source told the National Post early this month that they had formed their own unit, the Canadian Ukrainian Brigade.

But Lt. Gen. Frances Allen, vice chief of defense staff, told members of Parliament on Wednesday that officials were concerned Moscow would use captured Canadian troops in disinformation campaigns.

Stenger, the Marine Corps spokesperson, declined to say why that service mandated travel clearances for trips throughout Europe, or whether it stemmed from concerns that Marines might try to sneak their way into battle as freelancers.

I appreciate your questions but we have nothing further to add on this, Stenger said in an email.

I met at Utah USMC reservist in Lviv who came to fight for Ukraine. He said his unit doesn't know he's here. I wonder what the Corps would do if they find out. https://t.co/CFWFJxPMPm  Daniel Carde (@DSCarde) March 24, 2022

Daniel Carde, a photojournalist in Ukraine, wrote on Twitter that he met a Marine reservist from Utah whod traveled to the western city of Lviv to take part in the fight.

He said his unit doesnt know hes here, Carde said.
A Navy security officer in Virginia tried to help further the career of an undercover detective he thought was a prostitute, posting an ad that garnered over a dozen responses, prosecutors said this week in court.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles M. Cranston Jr., of Chesapeake, Va., also told the vice detective that he had a studio and an OnlyFans page to help make money, authorities said at a hearing Tuesday in Henrico County Circuit Court, Norfolks WTKR News 3 reported.

A longtime member of the Navys law enforcement and security branch, Cranston pleaded guilty at the hearing to a charge of commercial sex trafficking to receive money.

The felony charge involves soliciting, recruiting or encouraging a person to engage in prostitution.

Cranston could face one to 10 years in prison for the felony conviction. A jury or court also has the discretion to impose a lesser sentence of up to 12 months in jail or a $2,500 fine, or both.

Neither he nor his attorney provided comment when reached by WTKR.

Cranston was arrested at a Norfolk base on Nov. 18 on charges related to an incident near Richmond early that month, police said at the time. The Navy confirmed he was then serving with U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

Prosecutors at Tuesdays hearing said Cranston had responded to an ad targeting potential sex trafficking, which was posted by the Henrico County Police Divisions vice unit on Nov. 2. Detectives worked with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service during the investigation.

Using the alias Tony, Cranston sent text messages agreeing to split the costs of the hotel room with the supposed prostitute and discussing what would take place there, authorities said.

Richmond and the Tidewater area around Norfolk are among the three major metropolitan areas in the state that have a reputation as places where theres a lot of money to be made in sex trafficking, said Michael Feinmel, the countys deputy commonwealths attorney.

The areas have the same dynamics, he told News 3 in November: theyre centrally located on the East Coast, are stopping points midway between New York and Miami, and have a high military presence that creates a lot of transients.

The vice unit used to see over 90% of sex trafficking ads on the website Backpage.com, but after that site was shuttered by federal authorities in 2018, the ads moved to other sites such as Craigslist and Grindr, he said.

Some of them (the sites) you have heard of, Feinmel said. Some are a little more covert.

It wasnt clear where the vice unit placed the ad Cranston responded to, but prosecutors said that in a phone call at some later point, the sailor told the undercover detective that he wanted to help advance their prostitution career before he eventually posted his own ad on their behalf.

Cranston had served in the Navy for 27 years at the time of his arrest, his LinkedIn profile showed, including a stint as the enlisted community manager for the master-at-arms rating, where he was responsible for helping manage the careers of sailors in the security specialty.

Cranston was a security officer with Fleet Forces Commands Anti-Terrorism Force Protection unit in Norfolk when he was arrested, Task and Purpose reported in November. Hes lived in Chesapeake with his wife and two children since 2019, News 3 reported this week.

He was selected for promotion to commander, the equivalent to a lieutenant colonel, a Navy message said last June.

This June, hes slated to face sentencing on the sex trafficking charge.
Two centuries of marine grime have been peeled away from three Revolutionary War muskets found off Florida, revealing the firearms are largely intact.

The revelation was made this week when the Florida Division of Historical Resources shared before and after photos of the British Brown Bess muskets.

All three muskets are missing their wooden butt and stock, but retain many of their other parts, the photos show.

Conservators removed the outer layer of corrosion to reveal the muskets, complete with intact stock, lock, and brass furniture, the division reported in a March 23 Facebook post.

The muskets were found on the wreck of a British Loyalist ship that sank off St. Augustine in December 1782, during a frenzied British effort to evacuate troops, Loyalists and enslaved Africans from Charleston, South Carolina, historians say. St. Augustine is on Floridas northeast coast, south of Jacksonville.

The evacuation of Charleston was a massive logistical effort by colonial authorities, involving more than 129 ships gathered from throughout the British Empire, according to data cited by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum.

One of the ships carrying Loyalists and their possessions, along with some military hardware, ended up wrecking on the notorious St. Augustine Bar, and is now known as the Storm Wreck.

The Storm Wreck, which sits about a mile off St. Augustine, was found in 2009 by the museums Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) and later added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Divers with LAMP were groping around in the dark on the ocean floor when they found the muskets in 2012, and photos show the weapons were largely unrecognizable, including one that had a bottle neck fused to it.

A uniform button has also been found on the wreck  with the number 71 on it  which historians believe indicates the 71st Regiment may have been on the ship when it went down. The regiment is known to be among those evacuated from Charleston, the museum says.

The three muskets will eventually be on public display at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, the state said.

2022 The Charlotte Observer.

Visit charlotteobserver.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The restaurant offerings between the city centers of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt sometimes give the impression that human survival is dependent on pizza and doner kebabs.

While some of those kebabs are pretty good, there is some diversity along the way, if you look carefully.

Ido, a Korean restaurant in the town of Sulzbach, is a welcome part of that.

Having sampled food from all parts of South Korea during my time there, I had big expectations for the restaurant, and it did not disappoint.

Korean food is best known for the red chili pepper and garlic punch it brings to any number of dishes, especially the most common style of cabbage kimchi. But just as there are hundreds of varieties of kimchi, Korean flavors range from sweet to spicy to savory, and often more than that at the same time.

We visited Ido after some our Korean friends recommended it highly. Upon walking in, the restaurants modernish decor and large dining room made a good impression.

We sat down to a menu with more than 10 appetizers and 20-plus main courses. The drink menu is small but has both German and Korean offerings.

For starters, my dining companion and I ordered the kimchi pancakes and fried dumplings. Both appetizers were served with a dip made with soy sauce, sesame oil and minced onions. The kimchi pancakes were some of the best I have ever eaten.

For the main course, I ordered the gochugaru, a spicy noodle soup with shrimp, mussels and squid. It also had plenty of onions, peppers and cabbage.

There was a light pepper oil on top of the soup to ensure spiciness. Although the dish was very spicy, the kick was still a notch or two below fire hydrant-inducing.

My companion ordered chunjang, a black bean paste-based sauce, served over wheat noodles with pork and vegetables. It was a visually striking selection; when mixed, the dish turned pure black.

The flavors were just as dramatic, thanks to the earthiness of the black bean sauce, which imparted a succulent blend of savoriness with a hint of spice.

The main courses were served with side dishes, as is the norm in South Korea. Idos sides had the occasional Western-inspired twist. They included a form of hash browns that was cooked in an egg batter, deep-fried broccoli, kimchi, a tofu-and-potato fritter, raw onions and daikon radish slices.

The prices are reasonable and the portions are ample. We received polite, attentive service from the restaurant staffers, who speak German, English and Korean.

Both my companion and I enjoyed our experience at Ido, and I would happily go there again. Maybe itll be for the Korean barbecue next time.

Ido

Address: Cretzschmarstrabe 6a, 65843 Sulzbach, Germany. Its about a 30-minute drive from U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden.

Hours: Monday noon to 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday noon to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Thursday and Saturday noon to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Fridays noon to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m to 11 p.m. Closed Sunday.

Prices: About 15-20 euros for most meals.

Menu: Hangul (Korean) and German with English descriptions.

Information: Email; idosulzbach@gmail.com; Phone: 0619-6767-2250; Online: facebook.com/idosulzbach
Surveys say shopping for secondhand merchandise is on the rise; its trendy, affordable and many consider it the right thing to do.

The secondhand apparel market was worth about $28 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach up to $64 billion by 2024, according to the 2020 Resale Report by ThredUp and GlobalData.

Luckily for bargain hunters, secondhand shops in Tokyo provide a plethora of outlets where pop culture and fashion collide.

Clothing, from casual to kawaii

The most popular secondhand chains are Hard Off, 2nd Street and Treasure Factory. These stores sell clothing from both Japanese and global brands.

There is often a designer section that on average charges around 5,000 yen, or about $42, per item, while all other items tend to cost under $10.

These shops typically carry one-third mens clothing and two-thirds womens attire. The sizes range from extra small to medium. Finding shoes bigger than a womens size 9 or mens size 11 can be challenging.

If you like to shop for a specific Japanese brand, these stores can be helpful with their large selections of designer brands.

However, if fashion subculture brands such as lolita, Fairy Kei or kawaii are what youre after, these stores may not be the right fit.

Try instead Closet Child, a downtown Tokyo chain that features brands that are rare in America, like Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty, at a discount. But be aware that these brands are even less size inclusive secondhand.

All these stores accept both yen and major credit cards.

Toys and trinkets

In Tokyo, unique furniture pieces are often easier to find than affordable secondhand clothing. In Fussa, the western Tokyo municipality where Yokota Air Base is located, youll commonly come across wooden and wicker pieces.

Woven chairs, room dividers, small tables, shelves or baskets are familiar finds at most thrift stores, as well as intricately carved masks, wooden bookshelves and dressers.

Japanese antiques like large mirrors and tea sets are thrifting staples. Statues of tanuki, a raccoon dog native to Japan that in local lore brings good luck to homes, are also common finds.

In the chain shops Book Off and Hobby Off, look for anime figurines and manga book series.

The children's sections of places like Hobby Off and Hard Off often carry empty wooden dollhouses for less than 2,000 yen, along with stuffed animals, toy cars and Disney items, most popularly merchandise from Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story or Monsters, Inc., as well as merchandise from popular Japanese franchises such as Studio Ghibli.

Think global, shop local

For some shoppers, thrifting is a moral choice as well as an economical one.

Research from Remake, a fair wage advocacy group, estimates that 80% of garment workers worldwide are women ages 18 to 24, along with minors who often earn less than $3 per day. According to a study in 2018 from the United Nations Economic Commission, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year.

Yokota Air Base residents can thrift right at home, as well as donate goods they no longer need.

Located on the installations west side, the Yokota Thrift Shop is also a boon for recent arrivals to the base. Clothes and furniture cost $3 to $5 dollars on average, with accessories and other small items for about $1.

The Yokota thrift store includes more plus-size options than similar stores in Japan and the clothes sold there are predominantly American brands.

However, the Yokota Thrift Shop occasionally has kimonos or Japanese clothing styles or brands in stock.

The thrift store accepts yen and dollars or checks and is generally open three days a week. Donors may bring items during business hours to the shed behind the store, right in front of the outdoor community pool.

The shop always needs volunteers to sort through donations and keep the store running. Its Facebook page shares information on business hours, volunteering opportunities and updates on special sales each month.
The scenes from Russias invasion of Ukraine are heart-rending  the bombing of hospitals and civilian neighborhoods, the killing of children by Russian forces, and the driving of millions of Ukrainians from their homes. The carnage in Ukraine has rightly sparked an international coalition to stop the destruction and roll back the Russian invasion.

There is another conflict where the aggressor nation has bombed hospitals, civilian neighborhoods, basic infrastructure, a funeral, a wedding, and even a school bus, causing thousands of civilian casualties in the process  the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which marks its seventh anniversary later this month. But unlike Ukraine, the United States has done more to enable the conflict in Yemen than it has to end it.

It is hard to overstate the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the intervention of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. There have been at least 18,000 civilian casualties caused by coalition airstrikes, and a Saudi air and naval blockade has severely limited the import of fuel and humanitarian aid. Almost 400,000 people have died from direct and indirect causes since the start of the war. A Jan. 21 Saudi airstrike on a detention center in the northern part of the country killed at least 91 people and wounded 226 others.

As soon as he took office, President Joe Biden pledged to do all he could to end the Yemen war. In his first foreign policy speech as president, he promised to end support for offensive operations in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.

The Biden administrations record on the Yemen war has not lived up to its initial rhetoric. After pausing two sales of bombs destined for the Royal Saudi Air Force, the administration approved more than $1 billion in arms sales to the regime. These sales raise serious concerns in their own right, but they also represent an endorsement of Saudi conduct.

The administration may go even further in enabling Saudi conduct in the war as a quid pro quo for Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to counteract the impact of sanctions on Russia. Rewarding one autocracy in an effort to punish another would be both hypocritical and counterproductive.

Unlike in Ukraine, where the push for a negotiated settlement involves a complex clash of interests and U.S. leverage has limits, the Biden administration has a clear path to pressing the Saudis to stop harming civilians and negotiate in good faith for a comprehensive peace agreement. Saudi air and land forces  including over two-thirds of its combat aircraft  cannot operate for long without U.S. maintenance and spare parts. In essence, the United States has the power to ground the Saudi air force if Riyadh doesnt stop its indiscriminate bombing of Yemen and negotiate in good faith to end the war. Its long past time for the United States to use this leverage. If the administration fails to do so, Congress should step in to make it happen.

Congress has made a number of efforts to end U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen, from voting to block bomb sales to Riyadh, to passing amendments to cut off spare parts and maintenance, to attempting to force an end to U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia by passing resolutions under the War Powers Act. Unfortunately, these efforts were either vetoed by President Donald Trump or stripped out of the final versions of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

Its time for Congress to try again. Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., are planning to introduce a War Powers Resolution on Yemen. Congress should pass it and the Biden administration should respect it. Doing so would mark an important first step toward ending the horrific humanitarian suffering in Yemen and bring U.S. policy in line with Bidens rhetoric and purported values. While the Biden administration deliberates on how to convince Putin to end his devastating war on Ukraine, the U.S. government can act now to end its role in the carnage in Yemen.

William D. Hartung is a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Annelle Sheline is a Research Fellow in the Middle East Program at the Quincy Institute.
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan  Middle school and high school students at the home of the U.S. 7th Fleet recently competed in the SeaPerch Challenge there for the first time in two years.

Students on 13 teams from Nile C. Kinnick High and Yokosuka Middle built and tested remotely operated vehicles that competed in an underwater obstacle course on Sunday in a pool at the Purdy Gym. The schools are part of the Department of Defense Education ActivityPacific.

These students learned so much science throughout this process, Angela Lewis, a biology teacher and sponsor for the Kinnick High School Engineering Club, told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday. From soldering individual electronic components to creating the controller, to designing the body of the aquatic ROV, the kids used scientific methodology to problem solve and come up with the fastest and most aerodynamic body design.

SeaPerch organizes the competitive program and sells the ROV kits and materials to get students underway, according to its website. The program aims to address the problem of decreasing college enrollments in engineering and technical programs by introducing students to science and engineering through hands-on activities.

Each team, composed of students from both schools, had 12 minutes to complete the course.

Team Iguana took first place with a time of 1 minute, 58 seconds. They won a $100 gift card and a bid to compete in June at the International SeaPerch Competition in Maryland.

The second-place team received $60, and third place won $40. The Engineering Club raised the prize money through fundraisers.

Volunteers from Naval Facilities Engineering Command and the Navy dive locker aided from inside the pool by setting up the obstacle course and assisting during the event.

The first SeaPerch Challenge at Yokosuka, born out of student interest, took place in February 2020. School budgets helped students field four teams that year, Lewis said.

The event was suspended in subsequent years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lewis said she hoped to find more grants and fundraisers to keep the challenge going.

This year, Naval Facilities Engineering Command provided a grant through its program to support teachers of STEM subjects at Yokosuka, Lewis said. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics  subjects often lumped together as educational priorities.

Lewis said she obtained the grant to help pay for materials, the ROV construction process and their storage.
TOKYO  U.S. military bases in and around the Japanese capital are asking service members to save power amid a recent cold snap and earthquake that damaged power plants.

In Tokyo, lights were dimmed and heating was reduced this week following a call from the government to save power amid supply problems.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake on March 16 damaged thermal power plants in northeastern Japan in the same region where a massive earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 16,000 people and damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in March 2011.

Temperatures dropped to near freezing Tuesday while snow fell on U.S. bases. Meanwhile, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, warned of blackouts because of the spike in demand, Kyodo News reported that day.

Due to the recent cold temperatures, decreased solar output and the 16 March 2022 Fukushima earthquake, TEPCO electrical supplier has asked Yokota to try and reduce their electrical usage for a few days, the 374th Civil Engineer Squadron said Wednesday in a message to facility managers at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

There are no immediate plans to turn off heating to reduce energy, the message said.

We are requesting you to turn off anything electrical you can spare such as, lights, computer monitors, TVs, etc., the message said. If you need to keep things on for your mission, keep them on.

At Camp Zama, home of U.S. Army Japan in nearby Kanagawa prefecture, officials posted a similar message Wednesday on the garrisons official Facebook page.

Japanese officials are asking for everyone to turn off unnecessary lights, lower their thermostats and help lower power consumption today to avoid a possible electricity shortage. Let's lend a hand! the message said.

A week earlier, Zama posted an article on the Armys official website that said officials hope to drastically cut the garrisons annual power bill of nearly $20.4 million.

Whether it be the garrison, the tenant units or anybody else on the installation, its not free, Eduardo Zepeda Jr., chief of Camp Zamas Directorate of Public Works electrical and air conditioning branch, said in the report. Someone has to pay for it.

The garrison aims to reduce energy and water consumption 2.5% annually, Zepeda said.

Unfortunately, with [the coronavirus] and everyone pretty much staying indoors, instead of going downward, it has increased, he said.

The garrisons policy is that during the colder months the temperature in peoples homes should generally not go above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. In warmer months, cooling should not go below 76 degrees, the article said.

Use an extra blanket when sleeping to stay warm in the winter or fans to keep cool in the summer, Zepeda said.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is installing new thermostats at Yokota to limit the range of temperatures in base homes, 374th Airlift Wing spokesman 1st Lt. Danny Rangel said in an email March 11.

The new thermostats have occupancy sensors installed, so they will go into a setback mode when you are not home for over 18 hours, he said.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Marc Billings, 33, of Syracuse, N.Y., said hed follow official guidance about saving power. New thermostats installed in his tower apartment last summer have not affected his comfort, he said Thursday.

Its really made no difference to me and my wife, Billings said.

The thermostats, which cost $18.7 million to install, will save an estimated $1.8 million in energy costs annually, Rangel said.

However, there are no up-front costs to the government as the contractor will be paid back through the savings produced over the next 21 years, he said.
The Ukrainian boy wore flannel Stitch pajamas and a big smile as he blew out the eight candles on his cake.

Two weeks before his March 16 birthday, Daniel wondered whether hed even have a celebration. His family fled the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv by car shortly after Feb. 24, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

How can I celebrate it in the car? he told his mother. We have no place to go.

But it turned out that Daniel and his family did have a place to go. The Bledsoes, a U.S. military family that lives near Ramstein Air Base, are hosting them until they can get settled in Germany.

Now were having this party, Daniels aunt Anya said as her American hosts and Daniels extended family gathered to sing Happy Birthday and eat cake and ice cream. I think its the best we could ever give to this child.

Daniel and his relatives are among more than 60 refugees from Ukraine who have found a temporary home in the Kaiserslautern area through a nonprofit group created by U.S. military spouses at Ramstein days after the war broke out.

Operation Ukrainians to Ramstein assists Ukrainians as they start a new life in Germany, said Jessie Bledsoe, an Air Force spouse and one of the groups directors.

The group has hundreds of volunteers, helping with transportation back to Germany, providing translation in Ukrainian, Russian and German, and collecting, sorting and dropping off donations to ensure refugees have the essentials when starting anew.

Were acting as a bridge between when they leave Ukraine and get set up in our local community, said Bledsoe, whose husband is an Air Force officer at Ramstein.

An acquaintance from Colorado who once was a missionary in Ukraine told the Bledsoes about Anya, whose real name is being withheld due to fears for the safety of family members still in Ukraine.

Anya was an English teacher at a private school in Kyiv. She left with her husband, her mother and the couples 2-year-old twin girls; her brother and his wife and their two children, including Daniel.

The former missionary flew to Germany, drove with Bledsoe to pick up the Ukrainian refugees in Moldova and helped connect the group with charities in countries bordering Ukraine.

Russia had already invaded Ukraine in 2014, leading to an eight-year war in the eastern region known as the Donbas. But in the last week of February, Kremlin forces spilled across the borders in an assault that has resulted in more than 3 million refugees in less than a month.

Thousands of displaced Ukrainians are arriving in Germany every day, according to the German Interior Ministry. As of Wednesday, nearly 239,000 had registered in Germany, Reuters reported.

Most of the refugees are women, children or elderly people.

Ukrainians can enter without a visa. Once registered, they can receive comprehensive government support.

The Americans are helping the Ukrainians register locally, a process that has been taking weeks.

Were estimating four to six weeks (staying) in host homes, said Jessica Top-Simons, an Army spouse and one of Operation Ukrainians to Ramsteins directors.

Top-Simons is hosting a family that fled from the Donbas to the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in 2014 and was forced to flee once again.

Top-Simons and Bledsoe met while looking for a way to support Ukrainian refugees. After witnessing the comfort shown to the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who came through Ramstein last fall, they said they knew the military communitys capacity for generosity to people in need.

The group estimates it has received more than $50,000 in donations.

Currently, 27 families in the Kaiserslautern area are hosting Ukrainian refugees, said Shelby Dobbs, an Air Force spouse and group leader. Most are Americans but a few are German, Dobbs said.

Fifteen more host families are awaiting arrivals. The need for hosts continues to grow, Dobbs said.

To host, active-duty members need approval from their unit and off-base residents in government-leased quarters need consent from their landlord, the group said.

A few commanders havent approved the requests, but some have agreed after learning more about the group, Bledsoe said.

Once they realize  all these steps we go through to make sure our host families are protected, then they are more likely to be OK with it, she said.

U.S. European Command said there is no official policy on hosting Ukrainians.

Any assistance must comply with host nation laws and local installation guidance, a command spokesman said last week, adding that most residential leases require a landlords permission for additional guests.

Operation Ukrainians to Ramstein does frequent welfare checks on both the Ukrainians and their host families. Dobbs is always on call, she said, to answer questions or concerns.

Top-Simons, a trained therapist, said the group also can put the refugees in touch with counselors who speak their language.

Some of the refugees show telltale signs of trauma such as hypervigilance and fear of loud noises, she said.

A lot of them (are dealing with) grief, she said. They all have anxiety about the future.

For Daniels aunt Anya, the anxiety often keeps her up at night. She worries about her husband and her brother and the uncertainty of the war. She feels the pressure of being the sole breadwinner for her family.

But she is thankful that she and the rest of her family are safe.

I still dont believe there are such people who would help in this way, she said of the Bledsoes. I couldnt hope for anything more than this.

When they are celebrating a birthday, sharing pizza or her mothers borscht, being here feels like a vacation, she said.

But I just cant let all my feelings go and just fully relax, she said. I just return back to Ukraine, what is happening there.

It was a wonderful life. It was perfect.

Operation Ukrainians to Ramstein can be reached via Facebook under its group name or by email, operationukrainianstoramstein@gmail.com.
NATO is activating nuclear, biological and chemical defenses in response to concerns that Russia may be preparing a chemical attack on Ukraine, a potential action that the alliances top official said Thursday could put neighboring nations at risk.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, after a meeting of allied heads of state, said the alliance also agreed to send Ukraine gear to protect its people from chemical attacks.

The equipment on the way could include personal protective gear, medical supplies, chemical agent detectors and training for decontamination, Stoltenberg said.

Meanwhile, recent Russian nuclear saber-rattling also has prompted NATO commanders to prepare for the worst, he said.

We are taking measures to support Ukraine and defend ourselves, Stoltenberg said.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATOs supreme allied commander and head of U.S. European Command, was tasked with activating nuclear and chemical defense elements, said Stoltenberg, who didnt elaborate on what that entailed.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who took part in the NATO talks in Brussels before heading to meetings with the G-7 and European Union on Thursday, has warned that Russia could be seeking a pretext to carry out a chemical attack in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said any such action by Moscow would totally change the nature of the conflict and could have a direct effect on NATO countries.

It will be a blatant violation of international law, he said. It will have widespread consequences and of course be extremely dangerous.

In Brussels, NATO also agreed to the establishment of four new battlegroups in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary. The units, which include forces from across the alliance, are part of NATOs efforts to enhance defenses on the eastern flank. Bigger changes also are anticipated in the months ahead as NATO prepares for long-term changes to its force posture.

A significantly larger NATO force is expected in the east, but details wont be finalized until June when heads of state meet again in Madrid, Stoltenberg said.

During the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed NATO leaders virtually, calling on members to send in more weaponry.

So far, the U.S. and other allies have rushed in billions of dollars of equipment, including anti-tank Javelins and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

Zelenskyy said his country needs more, including anti-ship missiles and long-range air defenses.

I ask you to reassess your positions and think about security in Europe and in the whole world. You can give us just 1% of all of your airplanes, just 1% of your tanks, Zelenskyy said.

After the talks, Stoltenberg told reporters that allies are committed to supplying weapons to Ukraine, but that NATO has a responsibility to prevent this conflict from becoming a full-fledged war in Europe."

Also on Wednesday, NATO announced that Stoltenberg, who had planned on stepping down from his post this year, will remain in his role through September 2023 to help guide the alliance through the challenges posed by Russia.

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATOs top official since 2014.
EVENES, Norway  Most of the participants in a 27-nation military exercise underway in the upper reaches of this Nordic country have one adversary at the forefront of their thinking: Russia.

Cold Response, in which the United States, NATO allies and partner nations join to practice defending Norway, is held every two years. Large-scale combat drills around the world often avoid mentioning their opponents, even when its plainly obvious what country has them training for a potential conflict.

But at this exercise, planned well before Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, there is far less pretense. The U.S. and its allies are deliberately showing off their strength and putting Russia on notice, should it decide to attack another nation along its borders.

The lesson learned here is you cant predict what a dictator might do, you have to respect the capabilities that they have, and you have to be ready to respond, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger told reporters at Bardufoss Air Station in Norway on Wednesday.

Some 3,000 U.S. Marines and sailors are among the roughly 30,000 troops participating in the exercise, which spans Norway and includes land, sea and air operations.

For the Marines here, I think the point is driven home to them that this can happen anywhere around the globe at any time, Berger said, in reference to the invasion of Ukraine. They have to be ready now.

A record number of troops turned out at Cold Response this year. While military officials dont foresee an imminent Russian attack in Norway, which would draw in the entire NATO alliance, theyre refusing to rule anything out.

Meanwhile, concerns over the Kremlins military buildup in the Arctic, which includes the presence of nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles less than 100 miles from its border with Norway, are at their most elevated level in years.

The U.S. military has begun to put greater focus on expanding its Arctic capabilities, as melting sea ice is expected to open up new shipping routes and lead to greater competition in the region.

The force-on-force portion of the exercise began Wednesday. A group of Americans, French and Norwegians is fighting on land against another group of Finns, Swedes and other Norwegians.

Convoys of military vehicles participating in the exercise have backed up traffic throughout the mountainous counties of Nordland and Troms og Finnmark.

The activity began two days after Dutch ship HNLMS Rotterdam carried U.S. Marines and allied equipment to shore in the village of Sandstrand, a rare instance in which Americans worked on a foreign ship during an amphibious landing.

Upon reaching shore, Lt. Col. Ryan Gordinier, the commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, 6 Marines, described the landing as an important display of NATOs collective power.

In these times, it is even that much more important to make sure that (our) credible combat capability is demonstrated to those that need to see it, Gordinier said when questioned about Russia.

The U.S. has sent thousands of troops to NATO countries in central and Eastern Europe since the protracted buildup of nearly 200,000 Russian troops and heavy weaponry in areas bordering Ukraine began around December.

The military drills in Norway, which shares a roughly 120-mile border with Russia, is seen as a complement to the reinforcements along the alliances eastern flank. Both are meant to show that all parts of NATO will be protected, Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Stars and Stripes earlier this month.

Turnout for this years Cold Response was expected to be even larger but had to be scaled down because of the war in Ukraine, said Maj. Mikal Klaeth, who leads a Norwegian combat service support battalion.

Nevertheless, as someone who lives in Russias backyard, Klaeth said he was glad the exercise was happening, especially because hes seen tangible results from it over the years.

A few year ago, the Marines didnt know we existed, Klaeth said of his battalion.

And now they are starting to ask for specific capacity, he said. What has been developed is real cooperation between us and the Marine Corps.
Valentine Hrytsenko, the marketing chief of a Ukrainian security-system company, was fleeing Kyiv with his one-month-old in the first hours of the war when he got the Facebook message: What did his companys coders know about air-raid sirens?

The head of a Ukrainian app developer, Stepan Tanasiychuk, had friends whod struggled to hear the haunting alarms triggered by civil-defense workers anytime the military radioed in missile strikes. The Cold War relics werent audible in bomb shelters or outside cities - a critical flaw for Ukrainians desperate to evade surprise attacks.

But Hrytsenkos company, Ajax Systems, had for years built apps that could alert a persons smartphone even in sleep or silent mode. Tanasiychuk knew it, because he owned one of their home-security systems himself.

Working from homes and shelters, a hastily assembled team of programmers from both companies built the siren app Air Alert in a single sleepless day. And every day since, they have rolled out updates to what has become the most-downloaded app in all of Ukraine. More than 4 million people use it today.

Yesterday, some soldiers ... told us this app had saved their lives, Hrytsenko said. We feel very proud ... to help the country to fight.

In peacetime, the programmers of Ukraines tech scene crafted the consumer software that powered homegrown start-ups and some of Silicon Valleys biggest names.

Now, they build apps of war - an unprecedented digital infrastructure designed for both front-line combat and the realities of life under siege.

There are glossy online tools for rallying anti-Kremlin protests and documenting war crimes. There are apps for coordinating supply deliveries, finding evacuation routes and contributing to cyberattacks against Russian military websites.

Theres even an app people can use to report the movements of Russian troops, sending location-tagged videos directly to Ukrainian intelligence. The countrys minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, told The Washington Post theyre getting tens of thousands of reports a day.

Ukrainians have skillfully used social media to neutralize propaganda in Russia, rally spirits at home and mobilize antiwar sentiment around the world.

But the apps show how the invaded country has weaponized the internets power in a subtler way, expanding the reach of strained civilian resources and crowdsourcing the nations urban defense.

The displaced Ukrainians who built the apps said theyre realistic about the impact theyll have in a devastating war. But they said they are pouring their lives into the tools on the chance they could help stop the carnage, working even as they stock up on body armor, uproot their families and dig in for the battles ahead.

The developers say Ukraine was primed for this kind of resistance. Boosted by project-outsourcing budgets from the West, the countrys tech sector has become a digital juggernaut, with thousands working for homegrown start-ups and American tech giants including Google, Oracle, Snap and Amazons Ring.

Many of the software designers, engineers and hackers who called Ukraine home have seen their traditional work disrupted and been thrown into lives of uncertainty, fear and national pride. Nearly all of them still have functioning internet.

In Russia, independent media has been squashed, dissenting voices arrested and the nations internet clogged with propaganda and conspiracy theories about a war the Kremlin wont let people call a war.

But the Ukrainian government has welcomed this freewheeling style of technical innovation at its highest levels. In early 2020, its Ministry of Digital Transformation launched an app, Diia or Action (), that worked like a digital drivers license and included links to public services, from coronavirus-vaccination certificates to construction permits.

Its leader, the 31-year-old Fedorov, had previously launched an online marketing agency that ran Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys winning e-Zelensky election campaign. Since the war began, Fedorov has used his visibly brash social media persona to pressure tech companies in the West to defy the Russian state.

The ministrys app has evolved, too, from a stodgy public-service network into a full-scale companion for Ukrainians at war. The app now includes remote-job listings for Ukrainians out of work; a portal of cash payouts for citizens fleeing from combat; and even a set of video-learning lessons and math classes for children stranded away from school.

The app has become a lifeline - and a popular one, ranking within the top three most-downloaded apps in Ukraine all month, data from the analytics firm Sensor Tower show.

But some of its most prominent features are unmistakably militaristic. The apps developers have started allowing ordinary Ukrainians to submit location-tagged photos and videos of Russian military sightings - as well as tips on suspicious people who might be invaders or saboteurs. The data, Fedorov told The Post in an interview, are aggregated onto a map visible to Ukrainian intelligence officials working on defense and counterstrikes.

Ministry officials have also begun pushing the apps capabilities into controversial frontiers. Fedorov said on social media this week that his team, which once used facial recognition scans to verify Ukrainians identities for government services, has started adapting the face-scanning technology to identify the faces of dead Russian soldiers.

A ministry official told The Post last week that the project is in very early development and would likely rely on software offered by the facial recognition firm Clearview AI, which has been criticized by international governments for fueling its database with billions of peoples face photos taken from social media and other websites.

Ukrainian officials say the technology would help refute the Kremlins claims that only a small number of soldiers have been killed during what it has called a limited military operation. Fedorov told Reuters that Ukrainian authorities had already used the dead soldiers identifications to contact their relatives back in Russia. Those claims could not be independently confirmed.

Officials in Federovs agency are also working on systems to mass-dial Russian phone numbers to share the grisly truth about the war in hopes of spurring antiwar dissent. We have all changed. We started doing things we couldnt even imagine a month ago, Fedorov said in a roughly translated Instagram post Wednesday. Thank you to everyone for the fight.

For people wanting to report Russian military locations and behaviors without the Diia app, they can send information to eVorog, a ministry chatbot on the messaging service Telegram. After verifying that the sender is not Russian, the chatbot asks for the exact location of the military equipment or occupiers alongside a photo or video of the scene. That information, the ministry said, is then sent to the Ukrainian military to quickly repel the enemy.

Ukraines Security Service, its top law-enforcement agency, runs a separate Telegram bot, @stop_russian_war_bot, that allows people to submit sightings of suspicious people or vehicles. Images promoting the tool on Facebook, Instagram and Telegram show a Russian tank in the crosshairs, a QR code for easy downloading and a question in Ukrainian: Did you see the enemy?

Many other Ukrainian agencies have rolled out their own online tools. The countrys Office of the Attorney General has created a website for reporting war crimes that allows anyone to submit photos, videos and geolocation data for further investigation of a long list of potential horrors.

The office uses the data and other reports to offer daily estimates of possible war crimes. A checkbox on the reporting site lists torture (beatings, rape, mutilation), murders, injuries to medical personnel and use by the occupier of civilian clothes.

The Ukrainian Information Ministrys Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security has used Google forms to organize antiwar protests in 18 cities around the world, with questions like How many people could you theoretically bring to a rally?

And Ukraines International Legion of Territorial Defense, a foreign legion founded last month to recruit volunteer fighters from around the world, created a glossy website with tips for traveling to the battlefield: It is recommended, if available, to bring your military kit ... [including] helmet [and] body armor.

An interactive map on the site allows visitors to see how many volunteers traveled from each country. Russia, in red, is shown as negative 14,000 - Ukraines unconfirmed assessment of the number of Russian soldiers killed in action.

Official government accounts have shared such numbers constantly on social media. On Instagram, Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs posts daily tallies of what the Russian military has lost, including 1,578 armored vehicles, 517 tanks and 42 military drones.

The country has also used Telegram to give directions to hundreds of thousands of IT Army volunteers on which Russian websites to overload. Ukrainian fighters have also used social apps to exact more direct punishment; a Wall Street Journal journalist said Ukrainian soldiers and Territorial Defense volunteers have used the messaging app Viber to direct artillery fire at Russian troops.

Beyond the government-led efforts, Ukrainian tech companies have unveiled a number of their own wartime tools. Theres Prykhystok, a site for coordinating room-sharing arrangements to house Ukrainian refugees escaping active war zones.

Theres an evacuation site from the nonprofit UkraineNow that connects volunteer drivers with people looking to hitch a ride. Another site, Pomich, made by the Ukrainian freight-tech start-up Cargofy, helps link up truck owners with people seeking to move food and humanitarian supplies.

Theres a wartime job board for online-work requests: web developers, graphic designers, language translators and online anti-propaganda volunteers. And then there are apps like Play for Ukraine, an online puzzle game that, in the background, uses the players internet connection to blast thousands of online requests at Russian websites in hopes of helping take them down.

Most of the efforts are untested, and each carries their own risks in a war zone where thousands have already been killed. One refugee-housing site, for instance, faced criticism that a lack of security checks for hosts could mean people might end up staying somewhere dangerous. (The site has since relaunched with a more aggressive process for verifying hosts identities.)

But the Russian invasion has clearly given Ukrainian tech workers a new calling, and several said they were emboldened by the idea that they were building tools for the public good.

Tanasiychuk, founder of the development firm Stfalcon that helped with Air Alert, had previously led a team doing outsourced app projects for Western companies looking to plan bus routes and sell concert tickets. The closest theyd come to the military action was a cheeky smartphone game released shortly after Russia invaded Crimea, The Last Outpost, centered on a soldier defending his homeland against waves of invaders in Russian hats.

Developing and updating Air Alert, he said, often felt like a chaotic jumble of late-night calls and Telegram chats. To get it to work, the private-industry coders had to work with federal authorities and local units for emergency services and civil defense. They also had to design a digital system so the operators of the old-school analog sirens could easily ping millions of phones; now, when a possible airstrike is reported, they hit two buttons, instead of one.

The coders werent sure how itd be received, writing in an announcement: The app was developed in an emergency during one day, so there may be some minor problems. But within a day of its debut on the app stores, it was downloaded more than 100,000 times. Google has since made the alert notifications available for all users in Ukraine.

The air-raid warnings have become a powerful symbol of a nation on edge: In one of his daily video reports this week posted to Telegram, Zelensky held up his phone while a siren played, saying, We hear this for hours, days, weeks.

But the apps developers also feel it is a symbol of what a driven team can accomplish. Even as they scramble to keep their day jobs running, they have continued to roll out free, once-a-day updates fixing bugs and adding new monitored regions. Upcoming versions will include new types of alarms for shelling, street fighting and chemical-weapons attacks.

Its the best thing me and my team did in our lives, Tanasiychuk said. Each team member, they worked also for their parents, their neighbors, their relatives. They were worried for them ... and if you have this feeling, you can break mountains.

Cat Zakrzewski and Rachel Lerman contributed to this report.
(Tribune News Service)  Russias war on Ukraine is reshuffling Middle East diplomacy and forcing the U.S. to reassess the political costs of reviving the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran.

Clinching the deal after a year of negotiations now hangs on a sticking point that people familiar with the talks say has emerged as the most politically explosive for the Biden administration  whether to remove Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

The designation isnt directly linked to the original pact, which curbed Tehrans atomic activity in return for sanctions relief, but Irans insisted all along that it be scrapped.

The issues galvanized U.S. lawmakers in an election year and united erstwhile Middle East foes in an unprecedented bid to nix a pact they fear will hand Iran an oil windfall. They include Gulf Arab nations that face regular attack from Iran-backed groups and have rebuffed requests to top up stricken oil markets unless their security needs are met.

UAE, Israel pressure U.S. for Iran security guarantees

The stakes are higher for President Joe Biden than theyve been since he came to office in January 2021. Iran now has stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium, sanctions have failed to halt its progress and no deal means potentially living with the risk it could develop nuclear weapons and set off a regional arms race.

Lifting the IRGCs terror designation, however, would alienate Gulf Arab leaders just as Biden works to rally allies against Moscow and curb soaring gasoline prices. It also risks upending a decades-old alliance that extended U.S. influence in a strategic region that exports more energy than any other and straddles three shipping choke points.

High stakes

Two weeks after talks to revive the agreement were suspended, diplomats say its not clear when negotiators might return to Vienna. Russias decision to drop its 11th hour condition to a deal and the release last week of two British-Iranians detained for years by Tehran have yet to imbue new momentum.

Reflecting the souring mood as Ukraine redraws the political landscape, U.S. senators emerged discouraged from a classified briefing on the talks Tuesday.

Russia was initially interested in getting the U.S. back into the deal, said Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who attended the briefing in Washington. Now they have only concern about Ukraine. Their attention isnt there anymore.

After suggesting for weeks that a deal was close and remaining hurdles could be cleared within days, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that an agreement is neither imminent nor is it certain.

Symbolic sanctions

The deals proponents argue that the IRGCs terrorism designation was a symbolic measure taken by then-President Donald Trump after he abandoned the agreement in 2018 and launched a maximum pressure campaign. Iran has said from the start it wants all the additional Trump-era penalties removed.

Even if the designation is scrapped, the military organization thats armed and trained proxy groups around the region and launched attacks on the U.S. and its allies in Iraq and on tankers in the Persian Gulf would remain subject to a slew of other sanctions.

Plus, reinstating the pact would incentivize Iran to reduce tensions, potentially breaking the tit-for-tat cycle of violence thats shaken the Gulf since Trump exited the agreement.

Opponents of the deal, and even administration members who had been supportive, calculate that backing down would project weakness and carry political costs ahead of November elections in which Bidens Democrats stand to lose control of Congress.

Theyre also concerned about pushing Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which face regular attacks from Iranian-backed Yemeni fighters, further into Russia and Chinas embrace, accelerating an erosion of American power already underway.

The senate briefing came hours after Israel, the UAE and Egypt held a rare summit  unthinkable just a few years ago  aimed at presenting a joint front against the Iran pact and shielding themselves from the more immediate economic turmoil triggered by the Kremlins month-old war.

Oil thirst is forcing Biden to pivot U.S. back to Saudi Arabia

And the debates prompted an unusual public objection from Israel. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid issued a joint statement Friday urging the U.S. not to abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists.

Another challenge to a deal could come from within Bidens own party once he submits the text for Congressional oversight as required by a 2015 law. As well as broad Republican opposition it could meet resistance from some influential Democrats including Robert Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and has warned the administration not to accept a bad deal or interim agreement.

I have no question in my mind that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a terrorist organization, said Menendez. We have acknowledged that their actions are such, so it would have to be explained.

Mideast retreat

In the absence of an agreement, Irans enriched uranium stockpile looks likely to grow unabated while its government solidifies trading ties with China and Russia. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian spoke with his Chinese counterpart following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow only last week.

China disclosed this week that it continued importing Iranian crude in January. Security analysts have warned for months that China could provide Iran an economic escape route if nuclear talks collapse. Beijing has consistently criticized U.S. secondary sanctions that target its trading partners. The list of sanctioned companies has only grown in the wake of Russias war in Ukraine.

While Bidens trying to discourage China from helping sanctioned entities, hes been slow to address the depth of anger among Gulf Arab allies over the Iran deal, damaging efforts to isolate Moscow.

No Middle Eastern government, including Israel, has signed on to support the crushing sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Russia.

The State Department says its now in constant touch with Middle East allies to provide assurances. Having shunned Saudi Arabias de facto ruler and neglected for years to appoint ambassadors to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials say theyre trying to schedule high-level diplomatic meetings in the region in the days and weeks ahead.

And the differences over a symbolic designation arent insurmountable, say people familiar with the talks, if both sides decide the agreements worth it.

Both the U.S. and Iran want a deal, Eurasia wrote last week. There may yet be some theatrics, with Iran trying to leverage high oil prices to win several additional concessions.

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The FBI is trying a novel strategy to recruit Russian-speaking individuals upset about the countrys invasion of Ukraine: aiming social media ads at cellphones located inside or just outside the Russian Embassy in Washington.

The ads, which appear on Facebook, Twitter and Google, are carefully geographically targeted. A Washington Post reporter standing next to the embassys stone walls on Wednesday morning received the ad in their Facebook feed. But the ads did not appear in the feed when the reporter stood on the other side of Wisconsin Avenue NW, in the Districts Glover Park neighborhood.

The ads are designed to capitalize on any dissatisfaction or anger within Russian diplomatic or spy services - or among Russian emigres to the United States - over the invasion of Ukraine, an event that counterintelligence experts call a huge opportunity for the U.S. intelligence community to recruit new sources.

The unlikely star of the ad is Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose own words are used to encourage people working in or visiting the embassy to talk to the FBI. The ad quotes Putin at a meeting last month where he publicly chastised his intelligence chief, Sergey Naryshkin, correcting the spy bosss position on Russian policy toward the separatist eastern regions of Ukraine.

Naryshkin, the director of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, stammered at the meeting and seemed unsure of what Putin wanted him to say.

The FBIs ad quotes Putin saying, in Russian, speak plainly, Sergey Naryshkin, reminding any SVR officers working at the embassy that Putin humiliated their boss. The FBI then uses Putins words to make its own appeal - also in Russian: Speak plainly . . . Were ready to listen.

Text running above the ad says: The information provided to the FBI by the public is the most effective means of combating threats. If you have information that could help the FBI, please contact us.

Peter Lapp, a former longtime FBI spy-hunter who now works as a private consultant, praised the ads as a clever and sophisticated use of new technology to conduct old-fashioned recruitment.

Its a brilliant recruiting strategy, because I think theres probably a lot of folks within the Russian government that are incredibly dissatisfied with Putins war, and therefore its a great opportunity to see if any of those dissatisfied people could help us understand Putins intentions better, Lapp said. Its also nice to see the FBI using 21st-century technology to do this, since the FBI is not usually known for its technological advances.

The recruitment effort could have an additional benefit for the never-ending spy-versus-spy games in Washington, Lapp said.

Theres little doubt the Russian Embassy staff, including its intelligence officers, are aware of the ads, which feature a link to an FBI website for more information about how to contact agents. Russian intelligence officers will probably have to spend some of their time looking into anyone whose phone visits that website, he said.

Russian counterintelligence officers are currently in an all-hands-on-deck mode to make sure their folks dont stray, and that they are keeping an eye on their own officers to make sure that no one goes rogue, Lapp said. This will probably cause those folks to work even harder than they are already working, and they may end up chasing ghosts, things that arent there, and spend time doing this. That in and of itself is a counterintelligence success for the FBI.

Anyone who clicks on the recruitment ad is steered to a webpage of the counterintelligence program of the FBIs Washington Field Office, where they are encouraged in both Russian and English to come to that office in person if they want to talk.

The best intelligence on foreign spy activity comes through information provided by the public, the webpage says. The information you provide will be handled in a confidential manner, and our interactions with you will be professional and respectful.

The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, the FBI said Russia has long been a counterintelligence threat to the U.S. and the FBI will continue to adapt our investigative and outreach techniques to counter that threat and others. The FBI would like to speak to anyone who can help us minimize those threats and keep our country safe.
Repeated attempts by the United States top defense and military leaders to speak with their Russian counterparts have been rejected by Moscow for the last month, leaving the worlds two largest nuclear powers in the dark about explanations for military movements and raising fears of a major miscalculation or battlefield accident.

Since Russias invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have tried to set up phone calls with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov but the Russians have so far declined to engage, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement Wednesday.

The attempted calls by Austin and Milley, which have not previously been reported, come as Russia conducts operations near the borders of NATO members Poland and Romania while the United States and its European allies conduct air-policing operations over the Baltic Sea and pour weapons and equipment into Ukraine by ground transport.

Moscow and Washington maintain a deconfliction channel but current and former officials say contact from higher-ranking military leaders is needed to avoid unnecessary escalation or confusion.

There is a high risk of escalation without the firebreak of direct contact between the most senior officials, said James Stavridis, who served as the Supreme Allied Commander at NATO from 2009 to 2013. Very young people are flying in jets, operating warships, and conducting combat operations in the Ukrainian war. They are not seasoned diplomats, and their actions in the heat of operations can be misunderstood.

We must avoid a scenario of NATO and Russia sleepwalking into war because senior leaders cant pick up a phone and explain to each other what is happening, he added.

Russias recent use of hypersonic missiles and other sophisticated weaponry against targets in western Ukraine have underscored the threat of spillover into a broader confrontation.

The risks are obviously elevated currently, said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Russia is striking targets in western Ukraine, which are not far from the border with NATO members, and the Ukrainian Air Force apparently continues to operate from that region, which means there is a risk that its aircraft could be mistaken for NATO aircraft across the border.

U.S. defense officials have described the deconfliction phone line as a tactical mechanism to avoid miscalculations, especially when it comes to protecting NATO airspace or territory, but its functionality can be limited.

Its not set up to be a complaint line where you can just call in and just grouse about stuff, said a U.S. defense official this week when asked about whether anything had been communicated through the channel. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.

Sam Charap, a senior political scientist at Rand Corporation, said calls by Austin and Milley serve a fundamentally different purpose from the deconfliction channel.

One is about tactical accident avoidance. The other about strategic engagement, he said. Its always important to maintain the strategic level to communicate our interests clearly and better understand theirs. When theres no communication at that level, their worst-case assumptions, often based on poor information, are more likely to drive their behavior.

As Russias battlefield setbacks become more pronounced and the conflict nears its second month, U.S. officials are concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin may escalate militarily in the hopes of changing the trajectory of the war. As more dangerous weaponry and tactics are deployed, the risks of a wider conflict grow.

A nightmare scenario would be a Russian missile or attack aircraft that destroys a U.S. command post across the Polish-Ukrainian border, said Stavridis, a retired admiral. A local commander might respond immediately, thinking the event was a precursor to a wider attack. This could lead to rapid and irreversible escalation, to include potential use of nuclear weapons.

Stavridis said when he was Supreme Allied Commander, he could dial his Russian counterpart anytime and did on several occasions to clarify a situation and de-escalate.

The Pentagon holds the view that engagement between the U.S. and Russian defense leaders is critically importance at this time, Kirby said. Besides the deconfliction channel, the United States and Russia can also engage through the defense attache at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow or the relaying of messages to the Ministry of Defense.

Communications between the United States and Russia have been much more sparse since the war began last month. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John J. Sullivan, has met with Russian officials most frequently, with on and off visits and calls in Moscow. President Joe Bidens national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, spoke to his counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev, last week for the first time since the start of the conflict. Some U.S. and Russian military officials met last week at the Russian Ministry of Defense, CNN first reported.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not attempted any conversations with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, since the start of the conflict, according to U.S. officials.

It remains unclear why Russias top generals have refused to hold calls with their U.S. counterparts.

I suspect that the problem lies with the Russian insistence that this is a special military operation and unwillingness to admit the real nature of the war, said Angela Stent, a Russia scholar at Georgetown University who served as a senior intelligence officer in the Bush administration.

The generals may also be waiting on Putins approval to make the calls, given the high stakes of the conflict, and he may not be signing off, Charap said.

Another theory is that Putin may now view the United States as a determined adversary bent on his downfall and not worth engaging. Russian officials bristled at Biden calling Putin a war criminal, saying it could lead to a complete break in relations.

Biden has sought to avoid a conflict by keeping U.S. troops out of Ukraine and U.S. aircraft out of its airspace.

Youre talking about avoiding incidents with aircraft or at sea, said Ben Hodges, a retired Army officer who served as commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe. Im sure they wouldve wanted to convey to Gerasimov and Shoigu that Russian pilots should not be launching missiles too close to the Polish border, but they would also want to talk about other places, not just Ukraine, where you have Russian aircraft.

I would also imagine they would want to convey - heres what were doing, dont interpret what were doing as a provocative act, he added.

- - -

The Washington Posts Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
(Tribune News Service)  In the next 18 months the Mare Island dry docks are about to get a whole lot busier.

On Wednesday morning U.S. Rep. John Garamendi hosted a press conference on Mare Island in California with numerous Mare Island Dry Dock (MDD) officials to announce a $13 million investment that aims to double its workforce and help the shipyard prepare to conduct ship repairs for the United States Navy.

The funds come from private investments, according to Garamendi.

Garamendi didn't mince words when he discussed what the news meant for the area.

"This is a big, big, big deal," Garamendi said on Wednesday, his voice rising with each word. "This is not just a big deal for Vallejo and not just a big deal for Mare Island, but it's also a big deal for the U.S. Navy. ... I'm very excited and so happy that the Mare Island Dry Dock will expand and grow at this facility."

Garamendi was joined by officials from Mare Island Dry Dock, Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown, Vallejo Mayor McConnell, Vallejo Vice Mayor Rozzana Verder-Aliga, as well as Vallejo City councilmembers Pippin Dew and Hakeem Brown, as well as Jon Riley from the Napa/Solano Central Labor Council.

"As Chair of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness I have direct jurisdiction over Naval ship repair issues," Garamendi said. "As a proud representative of Solano County for over 12 years, I know how critically important Mare Island can be for our military readiness as well as the local economy. I will always fight to invest in Mare Island to create new good-paying jobs throughout the community.

"Today is a historic step towards realizing that goal," Garamendi continued. "This investment is being made to help the shipyard prepare for MIL-STD-1625D dock certification so Mare Island can conduct ship repairs for the Navy. The average salary for positions at Mare Island Dry Dock is over $100,000 per year and only requires a high school diploma or relevant experience. Today symbolizes the beginning of a historic expansion of Mare Island that will bring thousands of new, good-paying jobs and a vital economic stimulus to local communities."

Garamendi said that the timeline for the issue should gradually take place over the next 18 months, but that Mare Island Dry Dock is hiring immediately.

"We're not talking minimum wage jobs here," the congressman said. "We need to reach out to the community colleges and various government training programs and make sure everything is coordinated together."

Mare Island Dry Dock General Manager Bill Dunbar said that the company has reached out to Cal Maritime students for possible jobs.

"We have about 7-8 Cal Maritime graduates working for us now and usually have two to five cadets do summer internships with us," Dunbar said.

Mare Island Dry Dock President Steve DiLeo, said the new jobs will consist of work similar to what's already being done, only that most of the work will contain facility upgrades, pumps and working on the quality of systems. DiLeo said that the building of ships could possibly be done again on Mare Island, but not in the near future as the president said the focus now is on repair capabilities.

Also discussed at the press conference was finding jobs for women and veterans.

Richard Palmer, the vice president of operations and a retired veteran, told a story about how he found his life's calling at Mare Island.

"When I retired from the military in 2014 I wasn't sure what I was going to do," Palmer said. "Once I came here to Mare Island Dry Docks I really flourished. So I know what it's like and I'll be trying bring more veterans in."

Riley, the executive director of the Napa and Solano Counties Central Labor Council, was also pleased with the announcement.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of this community today," Riley said. "When the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39) came into Vallejo last year we had a bunch of people on the waterfront welcoming it. So this community looks forward to bringing more ships in. And if you need qualified labor (looks at DiLeo, Garamendi), well, I think I can help with that."

(c)2022 Times-Herald (Vallejo, Calif.)

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(Tribune News Service)  Brian "Amarok" Critton is struggling with mixed emotions after dragging a woman from a burning car on March 10 in Jacksonville, Fla.

Critton, of Kingsland, Ga., served a decade in the Army, including a tour of duty in Iraq. He said he was driving on his motorcycle to a Muay Thai meeting in Jacksonville designed to help combat veterans deal with PTSD when he saw smoke billowing from a vehicle involved in a three-vehicle accident that happened moments earlier.

He approached the smoking vehicle to check on the condition of the driver and saw it was leaking gasoline and other fluids. The woman said she couldn't move, so he carried her out of the wrecked vehicle.

Critton said the accident reminded him of an incident in Iraq where he was unable to save a man who burned to death.

What was most dismaying to Critton was the drivers of the other two vehicles involved in the accident were talking on their cell phones when he arrived instead of checking on the well-being of the others involved.

"It was heartbreaking," he said. "I was concerned the car was going to blow up. I'll burn before I'd watch her burn."

Critton said he approached one of the drivers still on his phone instead of helping the injured woman trapped in her car.

"The only thing I said is, 'What are you doing?'" he said. "I was trying to figure out why he was just staring at her. I can't understand."

Critton said the indifference of people is one of the things he struggles with since he left the military.

"After so much time in the military you get use to hanging out with a certain group of people," he said. "I can't function around people whose hearts and spirits are in the wrong place. People don't realize how many people would kill to go back in time to save a life."

(c)2022 The Brunswick News (Brunswick, Ga.)

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(Tribune News Service)  When rummaging through the contents of an unclaimed storage locker in San Bernardino purchased at auction in February, Bob Blank came upon an unusual discovery: A sealed box with human cremated remains.

Attached were a death certificate, discharge papers from the U.S. Army dating back to World War II, two war medals and a letter from a U.S. president thanking the veteran for his service.

Blank, 62, a retired detective from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, whose father fought in the Korean War, said he was saddened by the find and knew a proper burial for the WWII veteran was in order. He quickly contacted the American Legion Post 835 in Rancho Cucamonga.

A proper burial

Led by commander Neal Hughes, 80, captain of the posts honor guard, the group performed a full military service on Thursday, March 24. Shortly after the firing of nine rifle volleys broke the silence and the melancholy sound of taps echoed through the morning air, the remains of George Walter Ralph Wally Brady were interred at Riverside National Cemetery.

Blank, who was handed the folded American flag because the American Legion could not locate any living relatives, noted his ambivalent feelings a day earlier. It will be sad and respectful at the same time, he said, adding he will donate the flag to a veterans group. The medals were interred with the deceased.

Left in storage

Unusual, to say the least, was the find of remains dating back to Bradys death on Nov. 19, 1984. He was 59. The decorated soldier served in the Army Air Corps, a precursor to the Air Force, during World War II. One medal was for his participation in the Africa/Europe theater and the other was a World War II Victory Medal.

The letter to Bradys family was signed by President Ronald Reagan, which read: The United States of America honors the memory of George Ralph Brady; this certificate is awarded by a grateful nation in recognition of devoted and selfless consecration to the service of our country in the armed forces of the United States.

Shock, sadness and a trace of anger pulsed through Blanks words.

His remains were in a cardboard box, like the one you would get from Amazon, he recalled, but declined to reveal the address label on the box, saying only that Brady may have had ties to Los Angeles County.

His remains were in a box for 38 years. He should have been laid to rest (before Thursday), Blank said on Wednesday, March 23. Man, somebody totally disrespected this man.

The box with his remains listed Greenwood Memorial Park in Phoenix as the sender, Blank said.

A veterans tale

Brady, who may have been called Wally, was born in Glen Ellyn, DuPage County, Ill., in 1925, a suburb about 24 miles west of Chicago. He died in Yuma County, Ariz., according to the website Findagrave.com. The website revealed a list of kin who are all deceased.

His father, Charles Anson Brady, died in 1947. His mother, Madeline Mae Marie Anderson, died in 1968. The site lists two brothers, John William Brady, who died in 1976 and LeRoy Anderson Brady, who died in 1979, as well as a sister, Marion Margaret Brady Baker, who died in 1982. Several half-siblings are all gone, the last passing away in 2017.

Brady had two sons, Daniel Walter Brady, who died at age 72 in California; no city was listed. Another son, Patrick George Brady, died in 2000 in Pomona at age 49. For both, and for their father, the website does not list a gravesite, saying that they were cremated and ashes given to family or friend.

Forgotten, no living relatives

Hughes said the American Legion could not find any living relatives after weeks of trying and scouring ancestor records. So they performed the ceremony with the honor guard and members of the American Legion Riders and the Patriot Riders paying their respects and helping with the flag line.

I would suspect his remains got passed down from family member to family member and they lost control of where the remains were, Hughes surmised.

Yes, this was unusual because the remains were found in a storage unit, Hughes said. It was also the first one Ive done where we didnt have the family. We were lucky we had the paperwork, that the discharge papers were there with the remains.

Hughes, who served in the Air Force from 1961-1969, has helped perform numerous ceremonies for military veterans. He also receives the bodies of recently deceased service members at the USO facility located at Ontario International Airport.

I do it for the love of it, the honor of it, said Hughes, who has been captain of the American Legion post honor guard for the last eight years. Burying World War II veterans is rare, since so many have already passed on, he said.

It is all about giving back, Hughes said.

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Charles G. Boyd, a highly decorated Air Force general who was shot down as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, endured nearly seven years of captivity and rose to become the only former POW from that conflict promoted to a four-star rank, died March 23 at a hospital in Haymarket, Va. He was 83.

The cause was complications from lung cancer, said his son, Dallas Boyd.

A 36-year veteran who held posts in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Pentagon, Gen. Boyd retired from the Air Force in 1995 after serving as deputy commander of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, with an area of responsibility spanning 82 countries. He later served as executive director of the Hart-Rudman Commission, a congressionally chartered panel that reviewed the state of national security and - seven months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks - called for the creation of a new agency similar to what became the Department of Homeland Security.

Active in the realm of foreign affairs long after his retirement from the military, Gen. Boyd went on to warn against a unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq, declaring that the cakewalk that some observers anticipated for American forces trying to replace Saddam Hussein would never happen. He was also a senior vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, president and chief executive of Business Executives for National Security and chairman of the Center for the National Interest, a Washington think tank.

But as he saw it, the defining experience of his life was the 2,488 days he spent in confinement in North Vietnam, where he was tortured and beaten at prisons including Hoa Lo, a notorious detention center that American POWs nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton. For about 18 months, he occupied a cell next to a young naval officer, John S. McCain, and got to know the future U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate by communicating through a series of coded taps on the wall, which POWs used to share stories and information.

The prolonged malnutrition he suffered in captivity led to vision problems that ended his career as a military aviator. Long after he was released in 1973, he returned to Southeast Asia to retrace his wartime steps and found himself overwhelmed by memories. For years, he rarely spoke about his experience as a prisoner, saying he wanted to look forward, not back.

I made a significant effort in my life, and I think fairly successfully, to put that all behind me, he told Airman Magazine, an Air Force publication, in 2016. Id lost about a fifth of my life at that point, he added, and I didnt want to waste any more feeling sorry for myself or fussing over what otherwise might have been.

Charles Graham Boyd was born in Rockwell City, Iowa, on April 15, 1938, and grew up working on his familys farm. At age 7, his father paid for him to take a 15-minute flight on a crop duster. It was his first plane ride, and transformed an interest into an obsession.

For a preteen farm boy from Iowa in bib overalls, in a family of very modest means, that was a really big dream - rather like, say, going to the moon, he recalled in a 2019 oral history interview with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.

Gen. Boyd studied for two years at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., before learning about the Air Forces aviation cadet program, which offered him a chance to become an officer and a pilot without receiving a degree. He signed up in 1959 and was deployed in 1965 to Thailand, where he went on bombing missions to North Vietnam and Laos, flying a supersonic F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber.

On April 22, 1966, during his 88th mission over North Vietnam, he volunteered to participate in an operation to destroy surface-to-air missile sites on the outskirts of Hanoi. He evaded a pair of missiles and continued his attack before being hit by antiaircraft fire, according to his citation for the Air Force Cross, the service branchs highest decoration after the Medal of Honor.

The selfless act of making repeated attacks through intense ground fire after barely avoiding two missiles was far beyond the normal call of duty, the citation said.

Gen. Boyd recalled that his plane was damaged so severely he was forced to bail out at a dangerously high speed; his helmet was ripped off his head as he exited the aircraft. Parachuting into a rice paddy, he landed with scraped cheeks but no broken bones and was immediately captured by North Vietnamese wielding AK-47s.

Much of his captivity was spent in isolation, either in solitary confinement or with a fellow POW or two in his cell, although a few months after his capture he and some 50 other prisoners were forced to participate in a propaganda demonstration known as the Hanoi March. Paraded through the North Vietnamese capital, they were beaten and attacked by civilians along the way.

Gen. Boyd was released in February 1973, days after the Paris Peace Accords ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. By then he had vowed to return home a different and better man, including a better husband. His marriage to Millicent Sample, a schoolteacher, had been strained, he said, but they renewed their vows at a hospital chapel shortly after he returned, and remained together until her death in 1994.

Readjusting to life outside of captivity, he enrolled at the University of Kansas to pursue Latin American studies, an interest he had developed while in Vietnam, where a fellow POW used the tap code to teach him basic Spanish. The big calluses on my knuckles from tapping so much lasted close to 10 years after I came home, he told a University of Kansas interviewer.

He received a bachelors degree in 1975 and a masters in 1976, and continued his military education at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

Gen. Boyd later served as vice commander of Strategic Air Commands 8th Air Force in Louisiana, director of plans at Air Force headquarters and commander of Air University in Alabama before being appointed to U.S. European Command in 1992. His military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart.

In 2005, Gen. Boyd married Jessica Tuchman Mathews, a former member of The Washington Post editorial board and president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, retiring with her to a farm outside Marshall, Va. In addition to his wife and son, of Falls Church, Va., survivors include a daughter, Jessica of Corona, Calif.; a sister; and four grandchildren.

Although vision problems stymied his career as a fighter pilot, Gen. Boyd rode a BMW motorcycle into his late 70s and continued to fly until last fall, including on a T-34 Mentor, the same single-engine aircraft he had trained on. Some of his other habits started to change, however. He noted that he had been a Republican, but quietly since his return from Vietnam, and served as a military adviser to Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in the 1990s. Yet he largely stayed out of national politics until 2020, when he joined nearly 500 former senior military and civilian leaders in signing an open letter in support of Joe Bidens presidential campaign.

I fervently believe that military officers should not get involved in presidential politics, even when retired, he said in a video he recorded for the groups Twitter account. But this year is different. Donald Trumps assault on the rule of law that makes a democracy possible has been so egregious Ive decided to speak out.

He was voting for Biden, he added, and hoped others would do the same.
The Payne County Board of Commissioners is still considering options for an emergency radio system to serve the Payne County Sheriff's Office, Emergency Management and the various police and fire agencies throughout the county.
Lavenia Hutchinson, 84, died May 1, 2022. Services will begin at 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 9, 2022 at the Calvery Assembly of God. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens under the direction of Strode Funeral Home.
Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.
Young criminals are leaving police in their dust thanks to an updated police pursuit policy that forbids officers from chasing them down.

While it has emboldened offenders and left police frustrated, the change has reduced the number of fatal and serious crashes involving fleeing drivers, according to the Police Association.

Since February 1, for example, Waikato police officers have arrested more than 50 people aged 12 to 18 years old, and more than 500 vehicles have been stolen.

The young people were targetting Mazda Demios and Toyota Aquas, and using them for other offending, such as ram-raid style burglaries.

Stuff understands police officers are frustrated by their inability to pursue offenders, who go on to commit multiple offences without being caught.

Police Association president Chris Cahill said the updated policy had reduced fatal crashes and serious injuries involving fleeing drivers, but had unintended consequence of emboldening some offenders.

The revised fleeing driver policy, released in December 2020, prioritised safety over the immediate apprehension.

When a fleeing driver was not stopped, police conducted follow-up investigations to identify the vehicle and arrest the driver at a later time.

Our members raise a concern at the pursuit policy as it stands, Cahill said.

It would appear that has led to a change in youth behaviour, who are more likely to engage in dangerous driving behaviour, often in stolen cars.

He said youth were likely to believe police did not have the ability to pursue them, which meant their risk of being found was low.

The question would be if [police officers] have the resources to follow up on them afterwards. No, I dont think they do, they are way too busy.

We are still supportive of the policy because of the numbers of serious injuries and fatals has reduced massively.

In 2019, there were eight deaths and 53 serious injuries and in 2020 there were three deaths and 37 serious injuries from pursuits of fleeing drivers.

If someone doesnt stop when you signal them to stop, how does chasing them change that? They very rarely then stop when you pursue them.

That's a big, big plus. But I dont dispute it causes a level of frustration with some members.

Meanwhile on the streets, police were called to a burglary at a service station in St Andrews at 4am last Monday.

Two offenders were seen smashing the doors before getting inside, stealing the cash till and beverages and fleeing in a stolen Toyota Aqua.

A dairy next door was also targeted, but the pair were unable to get inside.

About 15 minutes later, the same group broke into a vape store on Collingwood St in Hamilton central.

That afternoon police were called about a group attempting to break into vehicles on Lake Rd and Somerset St in Frankton around 3.15pm.

Officers arrested two people, one aged 12 and the other 14 years old.

The 12-year-old boy was found with items linked to other break-ins, including a vape shop in Hamilton on Sunday night.

They stole various items before fleeing in another vehicle.

Officers located a 16-year-old at a property shortly after. He was taken into custody and faced charges of burglary and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.

He was charged with five commercial burglaries and failing to stop for police.

The 14-year-old was charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, unlawful interference, and possession of instruments.

The young people were referred to Youth Aid Services and would be followed up by youth engagement teams.

Waikato police have set up a dedicated team to investigate these types of incidents, Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders said in a statement.

People were encouraged to report suspicious activity to police immediately on 111.

-Stuff/Rachel Moore.
The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is a severe threat to New Zealands honey bees, says Agcarm chief executive Mark Ross.

"Since the mite appeared on our shores twenty years ago, affected bees have not been able to survive without human intervention."

Mark says effective treatment for varroa is essential for protecting NZ's most productive pollinators.

More bee colonies are now being lost due to varroa mites than any other cause, according to the latest Ministry for Primary industries annual bee surveillance report. This was the first time in the survey's history that the mite had been most frequently attributed to colony losses, with queen problems previously being considered the leading cause.

Varroa wiped out wild bee colonies as it spread throughout the country, so its essential that beekeepers remain highly vigilant, check for its presence and treat hives with miticides - at the right time and with the right dose,' says Mark.

Miticides arent sprayed on bees. Rather, plastic strips are inserted into hives.

The bees walk on the strips, get the material into their body and it kills the mites, says Mark.. Its also important to get the timing and dose of the treatment right.

A good guide is to follow the manufacturers instructions.

MPI has commissioned Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research to conduct a colony loss survey annually since 2015, to help it monitor losses over time and support work to improve bee health.

The 2021 winter survey, which involved nearly half of New Zealand's beekeepers, found the overall loss rate to be 13.6 per cent, or approximately 109,800 colonies, up 2.3 per cent on 2020 levels.

Agcarm is the industry association that represents crop protection, animal health and rural supplier businesses.
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Fiber and conduit arrives at the Nuvera facility in Prior Lake. The companys Gig Cities Project builds fiber optics right to the home.
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Observations: AEW TE102 Exhaust on the Royal Enfield Interceptor



I've had the Interceptor for 16 months now. I can't stop praising how brilliant a job Royal Enfield have done with this motorcycle. I do not think there is any motorcycle out there that can beat it for what it is. I've had a lot of folk come up to me and say that this is a beautiful machine. Some are in shock that this is a Royal Enfield. All they know of a Royal Enfield is the Bullet.



Over time and with all the riding I've done, I was starting to feel that this motorcycle sounds like a Brother sewing machine. When you are out cruising or even when pottering around the city, there is no noise. At all. I wanted to try and replicate some of the character, noise seen in their marketing videos (I've mentioned this before). That was not possible with the stock exhaust. It had to go. Question was which one and will it be a pain to source and fix it. We all know that the Interceptor has been received well globally. With that, the after market parts you can get for this motorcycle is almost unlimited. From simple cosmetic upgrades to technical ones. Right from Hitchcock motorcycles to our very own Trip Machine, there is a lot you can do to spruce up an Interceptor and its cousin the Conti.



This has been on my mind for months. How do I get a little more character (or life) out of this motorcycle. I don't need more power. With New Zealand's conservative legal speed limits, the stock power output is heaps. I could only think of an exhaust upgrade. I wanted something that will be easy going on my ears, won't cost too much and easy to fix. I heard a "two to one" single side pipe (or exhaust) arrangement on a Conti and it was loud. All I need is a little noise to be heard under the lid.



A few months after I picked up the Interceptor, I had seen another rider with the pea shooter style exhaust fitted on his bike. It looked nice. However; I wanted to retain the same upswept design.



I had popped into Motorad who are the sole Authorized dealers for Royal Enfield and a few other makes. They had a S&S Cycle Stainless Steel muffler set for $1100! It sounds the part. No question about it. I did not want to spend that much though. Then I stumbled on a few folks here who fitted Aashu Engineering Works exhaust system. They looked good, well finished and videos on the Tube suggest they sound good too. To be honest, none of those videos actually do justice to the way this exhaust sounds. They somehow fail to capture the note accurately. I tried and my Sony Action camera fails to capture audio such as an exhaust note. The microphone tends to mix up a lot of ambient noise, wind and ends up drowning out the exhaust note.



I've had a TE102 fitted and have clocked close to a 1000km with it. All observation are with Baffles or db killer installed. I'll tell you one thing, close your eyes and buy one. Its the kind of exhaust the Interceptor should have come with.



I'll get a couple of things out of the way first.

Has the bike lost or gained any power or torque? I find a slight reduction in torque. This is noticeable at urban speeds. Not when you're out cruising.



Does the bike sound like a Triumph? No. I don't believe you can get an Interceptor to sound like a Triumph. It comes close under some scenarios. Not always.

The first thing you notice is an increase in bass note from the exhaust. You hear/notice this from startup and at urban speeds. Less so when cruising. Wind noise tends to drown this bass when you're on the highway. Over the stock exhaust, it adds a bit more weight to the exhaust note from each cylinder firing. You don't need to do WOT stunts to hear it. Its audible even otherwise. I suspect these pipes may sound annoyingly loud if you remove the baffles. This is a personal preference. For now, I like what I hear with the baffles.



Start moving slowly (<50kmph) and as you cut throttle, you'll hear a clear phat-phat sound from the exhaust. Come down the gears, blip the throttle to go from 4-3-2 and you hear a intake-exhaust noise that sounds similar to another parallel twin British motorcycle. Though not exactly the same, there are similarities. Roll on in 5th from 60 - 110kmph and the aural pleasure trip continues. You hear the firing order of each cylinder, in Stereo. On a typical highway scenario, where you have a long gradual incline, leave it in 6th and let the engine work a little hard and you hear exhaust pops from each side. It is clear under your insulated lid. Keep the throttle open on a wide sweeping corner and you are rewarded with the exhaust note reflecting off the surface of the road. Words cannot describe this. It is amazing.



Throttle modulation has improved. Riding between 40 - 50kmph in 4th is easy-as. Its so much easier to ride in the City. You may ask, why bother with low speed? New Zealand Town and City limits have either 30kmph or 50kmph limits. Depends on how congested the zone is. When you're touring, you pass through several towns on the way. Small towns do not have by pass roads. You need to reduce speed from cruising to 50 from time to time. I don't believe this situation is too different when you travel on rural or urban roads in India. The Interceptor is a bit annoying at such low speeds. The throttle is quite snatchy and you need to keep disengaging or slip the clutch to control it.



In terms of design, the exhaust is free flow. Noise levels are controlled by means of a db killer and ceramic fiber exhaust or muffler packing. Got the latter info from fm tharian.



I had reached out to



Post order, the exhaust arrived in 12 days. Double boxed, wrapped in cling film and a little Styrofoam. A specification sheet and an Allen key (also in styrofoam) to take off the baffles. Installation could not be easier. They've positioned the inner flange (or galvanized packing in Aashu terms) at the correct position. This is thin metal inner sleeve(Think of it as a coke can tin your mechanic used to cut and place for your old Enfield exhaust at the joint below the front foot rest). In fact, it takes longer to remove the stock exhaust.



Aashu Engineering Works provide the following measurement specification for their TE102.

510mm - End to end length

75mm - length for only the tapered section of the exhaust end bit(or can)

63mm - Outer diameter at the exhaust end

80mm - Outer diameter for the bend pipe end



You'll need a couple of 12mm spanners as the size is the same for nut and hex bolt at the rear foot rest mount point. You'll also need a 10mm spanner to loosen/tighten the exhaust at the bend pipe joint. Easier if you have a socket set. You need to remove the joint shield before you can remove the stock exhaust. The joint shield has its own bolt and is further secured by two notches than slip on the bend pipe and exhaust side. It can cause some resistance when you try to remove it. After you remove the joint shield, you can access the bolt securing the exhaust to the bend pipe. Once you pull out the stock exhaust, the first thing you notice is the weight. I weighed them and they measure almost 10kilos on the scale! In comparison, the TE102's are 5.2kilos.



The TE102's should slip in with ease. I put a few drops of 3 in 1 oil to make it easier. The only struggle I had was for the right exhaust. The slot for the joint shield for the stock exhaust was protruding a bit much. The non removable joint shield on the AEW's was hitting against this when I tried to slip them on. This was a non issue for the left exhaust. I had to hammer the slot a bit so it goes a bit flat and the AEW joint shield does not rub against it. Other than this, its a job that can be done in <1 hour.



There are some small design improvements over the previous TE101. The baffle screws are threaded on the baffle itself. Not on the exhaust unit. When you need to remove them (with the supplied hex key), you unscrew them just enough to release them from the exhaust and pull them out. The screw isn't going to come off and fall into the exhaust, nor will the baffle unit slip into the exhaust. The screw that holds the baffle in place does not thread into the exhaust unit. There is a indentation formed (on the inner part of the exhaust tip) when they first screwed or tightened it in. Aligning it back to this same indentation will require a few attempts, when you want to put back the baffle. Its not difficult. Just needs some care and patience. In one of the close up pictures below of the exhaust tip, you'll notice what looks like a large screw which is what you remove for pulling the baffle out. The screw to remove the baffle is inset on that part.





The TE102 before installation. The finish of these pipes are outstanding.















Bend pipe end. The little metal loop you see is to secure the joint shield. This is what needed to be hammered down a bit to accommodate the joint shield of the AEW. It is possible this is a non issue for you and this particular batch of bend pipe had the height of the metal loop higher than it should be.





Underside of stock exhaust and joint shield. You need to remove all those bolts.





The joint shield from the stock exhaust. Note the two notches that slip onto the bend pipe and exhaust unit. Those tiny rubber bits are what cause a little resistance when you try to take the joint shield off as they rub against the metal loop on the bend pipe.





These pipes look and sound good. Royal Enfield should partner with AEW and list these pipes as an option. For a brand known for their iconic "thump" and the innumerable exhaust options that were available (Official, custom made, etc) for the Bullet, their flagship motorcycle deserves a follow up of some kind.





Test run on New Zealand's Desert Road. An almost arrow straight road ~50km in length. It looks like a desert now. In a couple of months, the area will be covered in frost and maybe some snow. With the darn virus hammering the country, the place was empty. Its usually a busy road and has a few hiking start points. This was also the last ride with a heavily worn out rear Pirelli (I carried a foot pump, a spare tube and a tube repair kit for this journey). That's been replaced with a







*The Interceptor's oil filter is the most expensive of any motorcycle in my part of the world. $58 NZD! That's about Rs. 3100. In India, you pay big money to maintain something like a Triumph. The same holds true to maintain a Royal Enfield abroad as parts are imported from India. The only difference is that there is a lot less that can go wrong with a Enfield than most other imported motorcycles. I'll be honest. I am reluctant to fiddle with things. Especially modifying a motorcycle or a car. Its usually a hit or miss process. Unless you are technically savvy, don't mind a trial and error process along the way.I've had the Interceptor for 16 months now. I can't stop praising how brilliant a job Royal Enfield have done with this motorcycle. I do not think there is any motorcycle out there that can beat it for what it is. I've had a lot of folk come up to me and say that this is a beautiful machine. Some are in shock that this is a Royal Enfield. All they know of a Royal Enfield is the Bullet.Over time and with all the riding I've done, I was starting to feel that this motorcycle sounds like a Brother sewing machine. When you are out cruising or even when pottering around the city, there is no noise. At all. I wanted to try and replicate some of the character, noise seen in their marketing videos (I've mentioned this before). That was not possible with the stock exhaust. It had to go. Question was which one and will it be a pain to source and fix it. We all know that the Interceptor has been received well globally. With that, the after market parts you can get for this motorcycle is almost unlimited. From simple cosmetic upgrades to technical ones. Right from Hitchcock motorcycles to our very own Trip Machine, there is a lot you can do to spruce up an Interceptor and its cousin the Conti.This has been on my mind for months. How do I get a little more character (or life) out of this motorcycle. I don't need more power. With New Zealand's conservative legal speed limits, the stock power output is heaps. I could only think of an exhaust upgrade. I wanted something that will be easy going on my ears, won't cost too much and easy to fix. I heard a "two to one" single side pipe (or exhaust) arrangement on a Conti and it was loud. All I need is a little noise to be heard under the lid.A few months after I picked up the Interceptor, I had seen another rider with the pea shooter style exhaust fitted on his bike. It looked nice. However; I wanted to retain the same upswept design.I had popped into Motorad who are the sole Authorized dealers for Royal Enfield and a few other makes. They had a S&S Cycle Stainless Steel muffler set for $1100! It sounds the part. No question about it. I did not want to spend that much though. Then I stumbled on a few folks here who fitted Aashu Engineering Works exhaust system. They looked good, well finished and videos on the Tube suggest they sound good too. To be honest, none of those videos actually do justice to the way this exhaust sounds. They somehow fail to capture the note accurately. I tried and my Sony Action camera fails to capture audio such as an exhaust note. The microphone tends to mix up a lot of ambient noise, wind and ends up drowning out the exhaust note.I've had a TE102 fitted and have clocked close to a 1000km with it. All observation are with Baffles or db killer installed. I'll tell you one thing, close your eyes and buy one. Its the kind of exhaust the Interceptor should have come with.I'll get a couple of things out of the way first.The first thing you notice is an increase in bass note from the exhaust. You hear/notice this from startup and at urban speeds. Less so when cruising. Wind noise tends to drown this bass when you're on the highway. Over the stock exhaust, it adds a bit more weight to the exhaust note from each cylinder firing. You don't need to do WOT stunts to hear it. Its audible even otherwise. I suspect these pipes may sound annoyingly loud if you remove the baffles. This is a personal preference. For now, I like what I hear with the baffles.Start moving slowly (<50kmph) and as you cut throttle, you'll hear a clear phat-phat sound from the exhaust. Come down the gears, blip the throttle to go from 4-3-2 and you hear a intake-exhaust noise that sounds similar to another parallel twin British motorcycle. Though not exactly the same, there are similarities. Roll on in 5th from 60 - 110kmph and the aural pleasure trip continues. You hear the firing order of each cylinder, in Stereo. On a typical highway scenario, where you have a long gradual incline, leave it in 6th and let the engine work a little hard and you hear exhaust pops from each side. It is clear under your insulated lid. Keep the throttle open on a wide sweeping corner and you are rewarded with the exhaust note reflecting off the surface of the road. Words cannot describe this. It is amazing.Throttle modulation has improved. Riding between 40 - 50kmph in 4th is easy-as. Its so much easier to ride in the City. You may ask, why bother with low speed? New Zealand Town and City limits have either 30kmph or 50kmph limits. Depends on how congested the zone is. When you're touring, you pass through several towns on the way. Small towns do not have by pass roads. You need to reduce speed from cruising to 50 from time to time. I don't believe this situation is too different when you travel on rural or urban roads in India. The Interceptor is a bit annoying at such low speeds. The throttle is quite snatchy and you need to keep disengaging or slip the clutch to control it.In terms of design, the exhaust is free flow. Noise levels are controlled by means of a db killer and ceramic fiber exhaust or muffler packing. Got the latter info from fm tharian.I had reached out to Aashu Engineering Works late last year for a quote. They got back and said they would prepare a payment invoice after which I never heard back. I revived the conversation a month ago and got a prompt response and follow up to the quote. The TE102's were shipped at $555. Yes; its still a lot for an exhaust*. However; after I received and installed the exhaust, I realized that its money well spent. The finish of the TE102's are first class. I opted for matt stainless steel finish. The welds are clean, the exhaust joint shield has an almost consistent .5mm gap running around the partial diameter of the exhaust. It feels solid and does not ring when you tap it. Looking at the design, it looks like a straight copy of the exhaust from a Triumph Street Twin. Should be an easy guess where the "TE' part of the model name comes from :-)Post order, the exhaust arrived in 12 days. Double boxed, wrapped in cling film and a little Styrofoam. A specification sheet and an Allen key (also in styrofoam) to take off the baffles. Installation could not be easier. They've positioned the inner flange (or galvanized packing in Aashu terms) at the correct position. This is thin metal inner sleeve(Think of it as a coke can tin your mechanic used to cut and place for your old Enfield exhaust at the joint below the front foot rest). In fact, it takes longer to remove the stock exhaust.Aashu Engineering Works provide the following measurement specification for their TE102.You'll need a couple of 12mm spanners as the size is the same for nut and hex bolt at the rear foot rest mount point. You'll also need a 10mm spanner to loosen/tighten the exhaust at the bend pipe joint. Easier if you have a socket set. You need to remove the joint shield before you can remove the stock exhaust. The joint shield has its own bolt and is further secured by two notches than slip on the bend pipe and exhaust side. It can cause some resistance when you try to remove it. After you remove the joint shield, you can access the bolt securing the exhaust to the bend pipe. Once you pull out the stock exhaust, the first thing you notice is the weight. I weighed them and they measure almost 10kilos on the scale! In comparison, the TE102's are 5.2kilos.The TE102's should slip in with ease. I put a few drops of 3 in 1 oil to make it easier. The only struggle I had was for the right exhaust. The slot for the joint shield for the stock exhaust was protruding a bit much. The non removable joint shield on the AEW's was hitting against this when I tried to slip them on. This was a non issue for the left exhaust. I had to hammer the slot a bit so it goes a bit flat and the AEW joint shield does not rub against it. Other than this, its a job that can be done in <1 hour.There are some small design improvements over the previous TE101. The baffle screws are threaded on the baffle itself. Not on the exhaust unit. When you need to remove them (with the supplied hex key), you unscrew them just enough to release them from the exhaust and pull them out. The screw isn't going to come off and fall into the exhaust, nor will the baffle unit slip into the exhaust. The screw that holds the baffle in place does not thread into the exhaust unit. There is a indentation formed (on the inner part of the exhaust tip) when they first screwed or tightened it in. Aligning it back to this same indentation will require a few attempts, when you want to put back the baffle. Its not difficult. Just needs some care and patience. In one of the close up pictures below of the exhaust tip, you'll notice what looks like a large screw which is what you remove for pulling the baffle out. The screw to remove the baffle is inset on that part.The TE102 before installation. The finish of these pipes are outstanding.Bend pipe end. The little metal loop you see is to secure the joint shield. This is what needed to be hammered down a bit to accommodate the joint shield of the AEW. It is possible this is a non issue for you and this particular batch of bend pipe had the height of the metal loop higher than it should be.Underside of stock exhaust and joint shield. You need to remove all those bolts.The joint shield from the stock exhaust. Note the two notches that slip onto the bend pipe and exhaust unit. Those tiny rubber bits are what cause a little resistance when you try to take the joint shield off as they rub against the metal loop on the bend pipe.These pipes look and sound good. Royal Enfield should partner with AEW and list these pipes as an option. For a brand known for their iconic "thump" and the innumerable exhaust options that were available (Official, custom made, etc) for the Bullet, their flagship motorcycle deserves a follow up of some kind.Test run on New Zealand's Desert Road. An almost arrow straight road ~50km in length. It looks like a desert now. In a couple of months, the area will be covered in frost and maybe some snow. With the darn virus hammering the country, the place was empty. Its usually a busy road and has a few hiking start points. This was also the last ride with a heavily worn out rear Pirelli (I carried a foot pump, a spare tube and a tube repair kit for this journey). That's been replaced with a Bridgestone Battlax BT46.*The Interceptor's oil filter is the most expensive of any motorcycle in my part of the world. $58 NZD! That's about Rs. 3100. In India, you pay big money to maintain something like a Triumph. The same holds true to maintain a Royal Enfield abroad as parts are imported from India. The only difference is that there is a lot less that can go wrong with a Enfield than most other imported motorcycles. Last edited by sandeepmohan : 24th March 2022 at 03:38 .
In a nutshell: It's almost certain that Samsung will release the fourth versions of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip handsets this year, but could a brand-new third foldable device be unveiled alongside them? Rumors say it might be one of the interesting concept devices or patents that we've seen from the company in recent times, such as the triple-screen foldable or the Flex Note laptop/display.

GalaxyClub reports that it has discovered the codenames for Samsung's upcoming phones. The first is B4; the B stands for Bloom, a codename for the Galaxy Z Flip that was once thought to be the name of the Z Flip 2. The second codename is Q4, which is the Galaxy Z Fold 4, based on the fact that the Z Fold 3 was codenamed Q3. Then there's the mysterious N4.

There are several theories as to what the N4 could be. One possibility is it's a phone capable of folding and rollingusers pull the edge to extend the screenwhich appeared in a patent filed in June last year.

N4 could also be a foldable device spotted in another patent: the double-folding, three-screen phone that Samsung showed off in an early prototype form back in August. Its design enables one of the three main displays to double as an outer screen when the phone is closed, and it even comes with an HDMI port.

But a more likely option, given the name, is that N4 is the Flex Note. Samsung showed off this foldable OELD display concept at CES 2022. It works as a 13-inch laptop but can also open up into a 17-inch display. Samsung never revealed any potential release dates back then, so could a final version be unveiled this year?

Alternatively, N4 could be a device we've never seen before. Whatever it turns out to be, N4 is said to be receiving a limited launch much like the original Galaxy Fold, suggesting Samsung wants to test the waters before any full-scale release. We'll find out more later in the year, possibly sometime in August.
What just happened? Has the mastermind behind Lapsus$ been revealed? That's the claim being made by Bloomberg, which writes that cybersecurity researchers investigating a string of attacks carried out by the hacking group have traced them back to a 16-year-old living in his mother's house in England.

The publication reports that four researchers investigating the Lapsus$ attacks on behalf of the companies that were targeted say they believe the teenager is the mastermind. While they haven't been able to conclusively link him with every hack claimed by the group, the investigators have used forensic evidence and public information to identify the teen.

The suspect, who uses the online aliases "White" and "breachbase," has not been accused by police of any crimes. Bloomberg spoke to his mother, who lives in Oxford, England, after tracking her down using material leaked about the teen by rival hackers. She was unaware of allegations against her son and said he has been harassed by others. She declined to discuss him and said she was contacting the police.

Microsoft Security has been tracking criminal actor DEV-0537 (LAPSUS$) targeting organizations with data exfiltration and destructive attacks - including Microsoft. Analysis and guidance in our latest blog: https://t.co/gTMXJCoPY5  Microsoft Security (@msftsecurity) March 22, 2022

One investigator said they had identified seven different accounts linked to Lapsus$, along with another teenage member living in Brazil. The UK suspect is said to be so skilled and fast at hacking that some believed his work was automated.

Cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs writes that a core member of the group using the handles "Oklaqq" and "WhiteDoxbin" purchased doxing website Doxbin. They later sold it back to the original owner but leaked "the entire Doxbin data set." This resulted in the Doxbin community doxing WhiteDoxbin, "including videos supposedly shot at night outside his home in the United Kingdom," writes Krebs.

Lapsus$ claims to have been behind attacks on Nvidia, Samsung, Vodafone, Microsoft, Okta, and more. It's believed they are motivated as much by notoriety as money, given the group doesn't cover its tracks and has joined in victims' Zoom calls to taunt them.
(Photo : Unsplash/ Christian Wiediger) UV light

A new study says that a newly discovered ultraviolet light is said to kill almost all microbes in a room and could potentially avoid another pandemic.

The study researchers said that the new light called far-UVC could be emitted from ceiling lamps. It can kill fungi, bacteria, and viruses, including coronavirus, without causing any damage to the skin.

New UV Light Kills Microbes

In the experiments, the far-UVC took less than 5 minutes to reduce the level of indoor bacteria by 98%. Even as microbes continued to be sprayed into the room, their level remained low as long as the far-UVC lights were on and working, according to The Independent.Co.

According to the researchers, people will catch a pathogen in a room with far-UVC lamps as in an open space.

The far-UVC lamps are already available, but experts warned that some of the products are not certified.

Also Read: COVID-19: UV Light Won't Cure Coronavirus; But Scientists Say It Could Disinfect Medical Gear

The new study was conducted by scientists at the University of Dundee, University of St. Andrews, Columbia University, and the University of Leeds, and it was published in Scientific Reports.

According to the study author Professor David J. Brenner, the far-UVC can reduce the number of active microbes in the indoor air to almost zero, making the air indoor is safe as the outdoor air.

Prof. Brenner added that using the technology in locations where people gather together indoors could prevent the next pandemic.

The far-UVC light is simple to install. It is not expensive. It does not need people to make any changes to their behavior. It is also a safe way to prevent the transmission of any virus, including the COVID virus its other variants. It can also prevent the transmission of influenzas and other potential pandemic viruses.

Ultraviolet light is divided into three classifications depending on the wavelength they are UVB, UVA, and UVC.

The UVC has the shortest wavelength, and it is the most germicidal in the UV list, which means that it is the best at killing germs and damaging human skin.

UVC light has been used for years to help kill bacteria and viruses in both commercial and industrial locations like factories, hospitals, and water treatment plants.

However, conventional UVC light can't be used directly to destroy viruses in indoor spaces because it is a potential health hazard to the human skin and eyes. Thankfully, the new far-UVC light is safe on human skin.

How Far-UVC Works

The far-UVC light has a wavelength between 207 to 222 nanometers, and it is efficient in inactivating microbes without harming the human skin, according to EurekaAlert.

Far-UVC's wavelength means that it can only travel a very short distance, and it can't penetrate the layer of dead cells on the surface of the human skin, nor the tear layer covering the surface of the eyes. This means that the light can't reach the living cells in the body.

In the past years, studies have shown that far-UVC light is efficient at killing airborne bacteria and viruses, and it is safe for use around humans.

However, these studies had only been conducted in small experiments and not in full-sized rooms mimicking real-world conditions.

During the experiment, a sprayer continuously emitted an aerosol mist of Staphylococcus aureus indoors. The Staphylococcus aureus bacteria was chosen because it is less sensitive to far-UVC light than coronaviruses, giving the researchers a strong model.

Since the far-UVC successfully killed Staphylococcus aureus, it can do the same to other more sensitive microbes.

In 2020, MTA had set up UV lights that kill coronavirus in subways in New York.

During the pandemic's peak, a Japanese company released a UV light robot that could allegedly kill coronavirus in two minutes.

Related Article: Is UV Light Effective? Anti-COVID Robot Stops Demo After 10 People Gets UV Irritation From Device

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Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Meta's executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, are now taking WFH more seriously as many of them are seen doing their jobs far from the Silicon Valley.

Right, many companies are already allowing their employees to go back to the office. One of these tech firms is Google, saying that employees can return to the office starting April.

However, it seems like Meta's executives have other plans. According to The Wall Street Journal's latest report, Mark Zuckerberg and other executive officers of Meta are seen scattering to areas far away from the Silicon Valley.

Meta Executives Embrace WFH Even Further

Meta's Head of Product, Naomi Gleit, is believed to have relocated to New York. Meanwhile, Alex Schultz, Meta's Chief Marketing Officer, has transferred to U.Okay.

Also Read: Meta's New Zucker-Vision To Replace Apple's iPhone? Here's What Mark Zuckerberg Claims

Aside from these two, Meta's Chief Development Officer, Javier Olivan, is currently moving between California and Europe. A company spokesperson said that Olivan might also spend more time overseas.



On the other hand, the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, was also seen touring around Los Angeles, Cape Cod, and Hawaii. But, he is not going on a vacation since he is working in these places.



Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg is also seen spending extra time at his compound in Hawaii.

"The previous few years have introduced new potentialities around the methods we join and work. We believe that how people work is far more important than where they work from," said Tracy Clayton, Meta's spokesman.

Meta Really Encourages WFH

If you visit Meta's official website, you will see that Meta offers some tips on how employees can efficiently work remotely.

The company wrote articles explaining how managers can do their job properly while working outside the office. Aside from them, the tech firm also shared some tips for employees who are taking care of their kids.

This just shows that Meta is still one of the companies that encourage work from home.

In other news, Meta Facebook stock increased by around 4.16%. Meanwhile, Meta's Campus App was recently removed.

For more news updates about Meta and other giant tech firms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Meta's Oculus Quest 2 is the Top Selling VR Headset of 2021; XR Market Growth Skyrockets

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Remember the viral jumping Tesla video? Well, that popular stunt did not end well since it destroyed a Subaru owned by a musician.

What makes this matter worst is that the Subaru vehicle is the only means of transportation for Jordan Hook. The footage of the jumping Tesla went trending on various social media platforms, such as YouTube and TikTok.

Musician Jordan Hook is the owner of a Subaru that was hit by a flying Tesla over the weekend in Echo Park. The Tesla driver abandoned his car in a hit-and-run.



Hook is now without a car. pic.twitter.com/ci4RG45TIn  Nathan Solis (@tarantulaarms) March 21, 2022

The scenario happened in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood. At first, many individuals took this EV stunt as a joke, saying that Tesla has a new feature that allows it to fly.

But, it was just a Tesla speeding up on a sloping road and crashing at the bottom.

Jumping Tesla Destroys Musician's Subaru

According to The Drive's latest report, the Tesla vehicle lost control after jumping a few meters. Unfortunately, it slammed into a street-parked Subaru Forester, owned by Jordan Hook.

Also Read: Tesla Supercharger Still Can't Solve Fuel Hike Issue? Elon Musk Says He Is Working On It

Since he can't afford to fix the damage, he is left with no choice but to raise a GoFundMe goal. Luckily, many kind-hearted individuals donated so that he could fix his Subaru.

The main goal of Hook's GoFundMe is to raise $20,000. But, the current donations have already reached more than $22,000. If you want to help the musician, you can visit this link.

Right now, the police department in the Echo Park neighborhood is still investigating the incident since it is considered a hit-and-run. They said that unknown individuals only rented the Tesla Model S involved in the accident.

LAPD Issues $1,000 Reward

Los Angeles Times reported that the unknown Tesla Model S driver is now facing a misdemeanor for the hit-and-run. If you check the video, there are a lot of guys filming the incident.

However, their faces were not shown in the video. As of the moment, the LAPD is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can provide essential details about the identity of the Tesla driver.

In other news, Elon Musk finally opened a Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin. Meanwhile, Tesla is now considered the best EV automaker in the United States.

For more news updates about Tesla and other car tech stories, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Tesla Employee YouTuber Fired After Posting FSD Video Reviews! Are Unannounced Products Leaked?

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Google's User Billing Choice debuts now, and the company announced it, saying that it is already allowing users to use a third-party payment option for the public. The internet company is loosening up its payment options for the people. The feature debuts with Spotify payments for its features, and soon the company will add more billers and apps to receive this option.

Google User Billing Choice: Third Party Payments Now Available

Google is exploring a new billing system that will give the public more options to manage their payments and the many factors it includes without relying on its services solely. The User Billing Choice from the Mountain View giant aims to bring power to the public, and it will help expand the options they prefer.

The developer's blog mainly focuses on the Google Play payment service to have more options. Google claims that its initial offer focuses on an absolutely safe transaction via its service. Now, the company is discussing more terms for the public to enjoy, utilizing their many partner companies for this venture.

South Korea initially received this service from Google, but the company is now testing it on selected countries outside the Asian country.

Read Also: Google Pixel 6 Update: Arrives After Delays, 5G C-Band Support to Boost Network Connections

Google's Third Party Payments Starts with Spotify, More Soon

The first biller for Google to allow this feature is with paying Spotify, which mainly focuses on its premium subscription for its music streaming features, podcast, and more. Google will integrate more billers into this service, focusing on expanding the service to help the public see more of the offers that the company aims to introduce.

Google Play and the Company's Payment Options

Google's financial feature, Google Pay, is a service that many companies already use, along with the public utilizing its features for their many billers and payment options. Google Pay recently introduced its ability to use cryptocurrencies in its transactions, but more into storing the digital assets in its systems, in partnership with Coinbase and BitPay.

The internet company also introduced a way for the public to earn money from its payment systems, and it is with the cashback feature across merchant partners for the public to enjoy.

Many companies partnered with Google for its cashback feature on Google Play, and one of it is YouTube Premium's services.

The third-party payment system for Google is a massive step for the company since its previous setup of having all billers come through its service before it goes to the merchant or service provider.

Now, the flexible options give users an advantage and control over their bills without creating new accounts or registering to different services.

Related Article: Google News & Update: Photos App to Bring New Features Soon; Play Store Removes Movies, TV Tab





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Written by Isaiah Richard

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/Tingey Injury Law Firm) Lyft

Ride-hailing company Lyft and micromobility company Spin are partnering to integrate Spin's electric scooters into the Lyft app in 60 cities in the United States. The launch will be completed by the end of 2022.

Lyft and Spin Partner Up

The integration of the electric scooters in the Lyft app will enable users to find and pay for them through the app. The first city to get the service in Nashville, Tennessee, on Mar. 24. On April, 13 additional cities will get the service.

The partnership supports a more combined transportation ecosystem, one that manifests in other app integrations, according to The Verge.

Spin and other micromobility companies like Lime and Bird are also integrated into apps like CityMapper, Google Maps, and Moovit. In addition, Lime electric vehicles have been available on Uber's app since 2019.

Also Read: Lyft Extends 'Work From Home' Model Until 2023 | No Mention of Omicron?

Spin's CEO Ben Bear told TechCrunch that this is the first time they have done a native integration, where users can execute the entire trip flow within the Lyft app.

This means that users do not need to go to the Spin app. They need to open the Lyft app, find the Spin scooter, and scan, unlock and ride the electric scooter. This is also the first time that Lyft has done an integration partnership too.

By hosting Spin's vehicles on its platform, Lyft, which offers shared bikes in nine cities in the United States, is effectively increasing its micromobility footprint. This can help boost its position as a go-to transportation platform for Americans.

The company will get a fee per ride from Spin, but Bear did not disclose how the revenue share will work between the two companies.

Bear added that it is a partnership where both companies are bringing a lot of value in terms of Lyft being able to offer bikes and scooters in several markets because Lyft has been focused on core cities. They don't have the coverage right now in the rest of the country.

Over the next few weeks, rides in cities like Cleveland, Phoenix, Providence, and Memphis will see Spin electric scooters as an option when they search their destination on the Lyft app.

Electric scooters can be unlocked through Lyft by scanning a QR code or entering the scooter ID number in the app, according to Engadget.

Bear said that at a time when gas prices are high, micromobility is a part of the solution, but it is not the only solution.

Being able to access ride-share and electric scooters and bikes across the U.S. is really exciting for both companies as it can reduce the dependence on personal vehicles.

Acquisition of Spin

On Mar. 3, Tier Mobility, the Berlin-based micromobility operator that has been taking over Europe these past few years, bought Spin from Ford in an attempt to enter the North American market.

Tier Mobility acquired all of Spin's 50,000 electric scooters and electric bikes, bringing the company's total fleet to 300,000.

The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, but in 2021, Tier Mobility raised $200 million, which the company said would be used for strategic investments and acquisitions.

In 2016, Lyft announced its goal to evolve its transportation technology by 2025.

In 2021, Lyft sold its autonomous tech to Toyota to focus on self-driving transportation.

Related Article: Uber and Lyft Prices Continue to Surge Due To Driver Shortage - Incentives Does Not Seem To Help?

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Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Getting a PS5 nowadays seems stressful for others since the global chip shortage continues to hit the tech companies. For tech manufacturers, it's been a struggle to hit a target production amid the supply chain issue.

However, a glimmer of hope recently appeared for the fans. For the second day in a row, PlayStation Direct will be hosting another round of invite-only PS5 restock on Thursday, Mar. 24.

Here's what you need to know about this event.

Invite-Only PS5 Restock

The PS5 stock shortage won't stop throughout the whole year, as several reports claimed. However, expect that several units will be released each month so there's still breathing room for those who fear missing these out.

According to a report by Gaming Intel, Sony's official PlayStation Direct store will be rolling out some PS5 supplies today.

A day prior to the second restock event, the console maker was able to hold an invite-only PlayStation 5 restock. Since the units are just limited in numbers in the inventory, not everyone has gotten this elusive gaming machine from the retailer.

This time, Sony will release another wave of PS5 consoles for those who missed the previous restock from the shop.

Like our always reminder for PlayStation Direct customers, you need to regularly check your email for the updates you want to hear from Sony. Don't forget to visit your spam folder, as well.

Since this is invite-only, you don't have to worry about scalpers and bots.

Related Article: PS5 Restock March 21-27, 2022: Rumored Retailers to Drop Sony's Console This Week

PlayStation Direct Tips

Of course, your goal here is to secure a slot for the PlayStation 5 console. With that, we suggest you be on the lookout at an earlier time. Usually, the restock from this shop kicks off from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. PT (2:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. ET).

For UK-based buyers, GAME recently dropped consoles on the same date. However, all PS5 units from this retailer have now sold out, but still, you need to keep an eye on the second round of the event.

According to T3, this is now the third time GAME held a restock for this month. It's a good sign that supplies are circulating across the country.

Aside from the consoles, there are several bundles that you might want to purchase. One of them includes a PS5 DualSense controller together with "Gran Turismo 7" and "Horizon Forbidden West."

For additional PS5 restock tricks, Tech Times reported that you could increase your chances of snagging the next-gen console by creating three different accounts.

With that, you will receive three invites over a three-month period. This would later translate into a bigger success of securing Sony's console.

For more information about PlayStation5 restock, you can visit other retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target in the United States. For U.K. users, you can check Argos, Smyths Toys, and more.

Read Also: Amazon PS5 Restock Confirmed to Push Through March 31 For Prime Members | Here Are the Other Retailers to Check

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Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Tehachapi, CA (93561)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 76F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low around 50F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Over the past 2 months, the United States and its European allies have been increasing their military support to countries that are in Russia's vicinity.

During the summit to be held in Brussels on Thursday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is preparing to approve the deployment of four new multinational battalions in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria.

After Crimea joined Russia in 2014, NATO deployed four battalions to these countries. So far this year, the process of strengthening the Alliance's presence near Russia has been marked by events such as the following:

- January 7: The United States accuses Russia of mobilizing 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and of having plans to "double" this figure in the short term.

- January 18-20: Russia sends troops to Belarus for joint exercises near the Ukrainian border and announces large-scale exercises throughout its national territory.

- January 21: Bulgaria asks Moscow to respect its status as a NATO member, after Russia demanded that it withdraw foreign troops to prevent the expansion of the Alliance.

- January 25: NATO sends more ships and planes to its eastern flank and allied countries put their forces "on alert" in the face of increased tension.

- January 28: President Volodimir Zelensky asks NATO to "openly say" whether Ukraine will be admitted as a member of that organization.

- February 1: President Vladimir Putin warns that Ukraine's entry into the Alliance would lead to a war between Russia and NATO for control of the Crimean peninsula.

- February 3: NATO warns of a large Russian military deployment in Belarus.

- February 10: Spain announces that four Eurofighter fighter planes will patrol from February 15 to April 31 in Bulgaria and six in Lithuania from April 1.

- February 11: The Alliance reinforces its presence in the Black Sea with 1,000 U.S. soldiers.

- February 22: NATO says Russia is "preparing a full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

How NATO expanded to the east, closer to the borders of Russia pic.twitter.com/dy6gjjrplh  The Hurin (@intel1osint100) March 19, 2022

- February 24: Russia begins a special military operation in Ukraine. NATO recalls that article 4 of its treaty is activated when one of its member countries is threatened. Denmark sends 200 soldiers to Estonia and two fighter planes to Poland on a NATO mission.

- February 25: NATO announces the deployment of elements of its Response Force in the eastern flank, for the first time in a "collective defense operation." France sends 800 soldiers and four fighters to allied countries.

- February 27: Putin orders to put the Russian containment forces in "special service regime" after the "aggressive declarations" of the main NATO countries, in reference to the sanctions imposed on Moscow. NATO members decide to increase their arms support to Ukraine.

- March 1: Zelensky asks NATO to impose a no-fly zone for "Russian missiles, planes and helicopters" in Ukraine. NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg reiterates that he will not send troops to that country, but will offer military support.

France deploys 500 soldiers in Romania for the NATO Response Force, and Russia demands that the U.S. withdraw its nuclear weapons from Europe.

- March 4: The Alliance agrees that neither aircraft nor allied troops enter Ukraine and rules out participating in a no-fly zone.

- March 7: The U.S. announces the sending of 500 additional soldiers to countries on the eastern flank of NATO.

- March 10: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announces that two Patriot anti-missile batteries have been deployed in Poland.

- March 11: The European Union announces 1 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine.

- March 13: Russia bombed a military base in the Ukrainian city of Yavoriv, 20 km from the Polish border, where U.S. and NATO instructors had worked.

- March 15: Zelensky accepts that Ukraine will not join NATO but asks allies for more weapons.

- March 16: Stoltenberg acknowledges that the Alliance has a "responsibility" to ensure that the war does not spread beyond Ukraine. Russia demands that Ukraine renounce joining NATO and hosting foreign military bases.
Representatives from the United States and its 29 allies are meeting in Belgium to show unity against Russia.

On Thursday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched an extraordinary summit to assess how it can provide further support to Ukraine and bolster the eastern flank with four new battalions in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.

Representatives from the United States and its 29 allies are meeting in Brussels to show unity against Russia. They will be joined by the Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski through a videoconference.

At the beginning of the meeting, the NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said that Western countries are united in supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and "determined to continue to impose costs on Russia" until it stops its military operation.

As part of its immediate response to military developments in Ukraine, NATO leaders support the deployment of four new multinational battalions to the eastern flank. They will add to the battalions in Poland and the Baltic states from 2017.

As Biden attends the NATO summit in Europe this week, he must continue to reject a no-fly zone over Ukraine, the transfer of fighter jets, and a NATO peacekeeping (aka boots on the ground) mission. Preventing WWIII depends on it! https://t.co/7ak9VyuxFY  Meriem (@ninabugsy) March 24, 2022

In the longer term, the Alliance is also preparing to review its deterrence and defense capabilities. "This is what is needed to respond to Europe's new security reality," Stoltenberg said.

The U.S. President Joe Biden did not make a statement to the press upon his arrival at NATO headquarters. Before taking a photo with the rest of the allies, he briefly greeted the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the French President Emmanuel Macron, and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Spanish President Pedro Sanchez called for China to play a "constructive" role in resolving the crisis and for Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas assured that Russia "cannot win this war" and stated that President Putin has taken certain steps to "scare" Western leaders and dissuade them from giving more support to Ukraine.

"The tougher our sanctions are, the faster this will be over," UK Prime Minister said.
PabloPablo, the son of Jorge Drexler who is looking for his own name: "I don't intend to run away from my father, I just do something new"
Emily Scott Robinson performs at the Telluride Transfer Warehouse. Telluride Arts District is navigating the approval process for the warehouses new plans. (Photo courtesy of Austin Halpern)
At the SU entrance checkpoint, an SU Police officer talks to the driver of a stopped vehicle before having it turn around as Southern University's campus is in lockdown Monday Jan. 31, 2022, in Baton Rouge, La, after receiving a bomb threat, a spokesperson said. At least six historically black colleges and universities received similar threats this morning, CNN reported. Classes have been canceled and students were told to remain in their dorm room until further notice, Southern University communications specialist Sylvia O'Bear said around 7:30 a.m. in a press release. The lockdown has been issued for: Southern University Lab Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center Southern University Law Center University operations are suspended until further notice and campus entry is limited, O'Bear said.
Premier Retails chief executive says there is a long way to go before Sydney and Melbournes CBD shopping areas return to normal after the Smiggle and Peter Alexander owner claimed thousands of days in lost trading due to COVID.

Profits at the $4.6 billion retailer dropped by 13 per cent to $163 million for the six months to December, but Premiers board increased its payout to shareholders after the business posted growth in its key brands despite having storefronts shut due to COVID lockdowns. The interim dividend of 46, up from 34 a year ago, is payable on July 27.

Online sales soared for Premier Investments with a number of its retail storefronts shut due to COVID lockdowns. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, chief executive Richard Murray said the company had seen some positive results from CBD locations over the past six months, but acknowledged city shopping had not fully recovered.

There is still a long, long way to go... The reality is that there are still a lot of offices where a material number of workers are not back, he said.
Otto Toto Sugiri was already a multimillionaire after selling his company to Indonesias largest telecom operator. Then he spotted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

It was 2011, and web usage in the nation was booming. To ensure data security, the government was planning a law requiring online information to be stored in Indonesia rather than abroad. That meant a huge need for local data centres.

Otto Toto Sugiri owns 30 per cent of DCI, which has surged 10,000 per cent since listing last year. Credit:PT DCI Indonesia

So Sugiri, along with six partners, founded PT DCI Indonesia, the company thats become Indonesias leader in the field with more than 200 clients. Since its listing last year, DCI shares have shot up more than 10,000 per cent.

Now Sugiri, 68, is not just a multimillionaire. Hes one of the worlds richest people with a fortune estimated at $US2.5 billion ($3.3 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Only Birds Above

Portland Jones

Fremantle Press, $29.99

Its hard to write evocatively about a subject as ugly as war  the challenge lies in depicting the horror of unimaginable atrocities while painting a scene using the right words to make the reader keep reading.

Portland Jones Only Birds Above succeeds to a fair degree. Following the lives of two generations within a family, describing the way their lives have been altered by World War I, and then World War II, we get the sense, very early in the book, that trauma has a way of lingering within the gaps in our most intimate relationships.

Portland Jones brings the experiences of her own grandfather into her novel about the impact of war on two generations. Credit:

A man named Arthur returns from Egypts Sinai Peninsula in 1918, silent, changed, his shoulders bunched like river stones beneath his shirt. His altered state is observed by his son and daughter  two vicarious witnesses of inexplicable tragedies who adopt their fathers unprocessed grief.
The James Charles Palette, from the make-up company Morphe, had it all: 39 eye shadows in glittery pinks and blues, audacious neons and non-shimmery neutrals  and a solid gold tie-up with James Charles, the beauty influencer. It sold out several times and generated tons of attention for Morphe since the palettes debut in late 2018.

James Charles attending a Morphe event before the company ended their relationship with the beauty blogger. Credit:Getty Images

But last year Morphes business relationship with Charles ended after accusations emerged that the influencer had sent sexual messages to underage boys, the latest in a series of controversies for Morphe and its parent company, Forma Brands. Forma also owns Morphe 2, a make-up and skin line geared toward Gen Z; Jaclyn Cosmetics, a label from the influencer Jaclyn Hill; and helped to create R.E.M. Beauty, Ariana Grandes make-up line. (Forma Brands declined to comment for this article.)

Morphe, which gained popularity with its approachably priced eye shadow palettes (a 35-pan palette costs $25) and make-up brushes, is best known for its collaborations with the biggest YouTubers of the last decade. Make-up, especially eye shadow palettes, created with Charles, Hill and Jeffree Star, the beauty influencer, could sell out in less than an hour.

But most people outside of its dedicated online following never heard of the brand. Product drops and gossip about its collaborators remained largely within the confines of the devoted YouTube and Reddit beauty communities.
Australia and New Zealand agree on landmark refugee deal

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The former lover of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has denied she engaged in a calculated campaign of deceit about being pregnant with his child but admitted she did not reveal in text messages she had had a miscarriage.

Person 17, whose name has been suppressed by the Federal Court in Mr Roberts-Smiths defamation case, had an affair with the decorated former soldier between October 2017 and April 2018, when they were both married.

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at Federal Court this morning. Credit:Louise Kennerley

She has told the court the pair met in October 2017 at a charity lunch that Person 17 attended with her husband.

Mr Roberts-Smith and Person 17 were among guests who attended an after-party in the city later that day, she said, and the pair later used separate exits to leave the venue and meet at his hotel room.
Ive described the Islamophobia Register Australia as my third child. I founded it when I was on parental leave with my first child and this year they are both eight years old. Its definitely the child which has given me the most amount of grief.

Recognising the increase in anecdotal experiences of every-day Islamophobia among my circle of friends, I felt compelled to start the register to track these incidents. When Id ask my friends to report their incidents to police, like the time one of them was verbally abused and spat on as she walked through Sydneys Central railway station, theyd say: Whats the point?

Mariam Veiszadeh is the founder of the Islamophobia Register Australia. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The point, of course, was that authorities needed to know that these incidents were not just random  the victims were being targeted for appearing to be visibly Muslim.

Eight years on from launching the register, last week we released the third Islamophobia in Australia report to coincide with the third anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks as a reminder that Islamophobia kills, to put it bluntly.
A second man has been arrested over a botched attempt to execute a member of the Hamzy crime family on the North Shore last year.

Ibrahem Hamze was saved from the alleged attempt on his life by gangland rivals when traffic police attempted to stop a stolen Mercedes on North Sydneys Walker Street in August 2021.

Joseph Vokai was arrested at Parklea Correctional Centre on Wednesday. Credit:Police

The driver refused to stop, sped off and ran a red light, leading police to call off their pursuit for safety reasons. The vehicle sustained a flat tyre as it fled.

The car was later abandoned in nearby Cammeray, where two allegedly armed men wearing dark clothing allegedly escaped by carjacking a Toyota Camry by threatening its 76-year-old driver.
A man has been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after an improvised bomb exploded in the front yard of a Queensland home.

The explosion happened about 5.30pm on Thursday at Jacaranda Avenue in Kingston, south of Brisbane, when the man moved a bucket in the yard, police said.

Residents in the area were evacuated after an emergency declaration was declared, but it has since been revoked.

The 52-year-old man was taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital with serious lower leg and concussion injuries.
A network of Brisbane shopfront businesses being used to launder about $1.5 million and pay drug suppliers their wages has been disrupted by Queensland police.

Cocaine was seized during a poilce raid. Credit:SMH

About 25 people have been charged with offences including drug trafficking and money laundering after an 18-month investigation.

Police raids on Friday, March 18, resulted in a seizure of one kilogram of cocaine with a street value of $400,000, two firearms including one shotgun, 10 kilograms of cannabis and more than $65,000 in cash.
Education is a social necessity, a fundamental right for children, and also the ground for passionate, lively and occasionally heated debate. As it should be. This was certainly true when The Age this week brought together some of the most influential and enlightened voices at its annual Schools Summit. The point was to open up a marketplace of ideas about education, in the belief that transparent public discourse on important issues is an essential good.

Acting federal Education Minister Stuart Robert addresses the Schools Summit this week. Credit:Joe Armao

A couple of issues attracted intense debate. One was kicked off by comments last week from acting federal Education Minister Stuart Robert, who told a forum of independent schools that dud teachers could in part be blamed for the decline in the academic results of Australian students. Cutting the bottom 10 per cent of teachers from the system would lift education standards, he said. He did not back down when quizzed at The Age summit, saying he wanted to start a discussion about quality, and was happy to have done so. But Victorias Education Minister James Merlino hit back: Weve had this revolving door of [federal] education ministers, each one was worse than the one before.

Mr Roberts made his dud teachers remark just days after releasing a report into how to attract more high-quality candidates into teaching. One way to raise the professions status, the report argued, was to celebrate the positives of teaching and debunk negative myths.

Marcia Devlin, the chief executive of the new Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership, said in reference to the ministers remarks she was a bit tired of the teacher bashing. One effect of teacher-bashing, Dr Devlin said, was to reduce teachers status in the public eye, which in turn made it more difficult to attract and retain them. Victoria needs 5000 new graduate teachers annually.
Seven senior doctors wrote a lengthy open letter accusing the health service of failing to provide permanent medical staff and hiring expensive locums instead. The letter called for an extra $10 million in government funding to employ more permanent staff, saying they were needed to train junior doctors in Portland. The hospital in Portland. Credit:Tony Wright The hospital has a new board of governors determined to reduce expenditure, the letter said. Yet they have failed in the important role of providing permanent medical staff. At a community protest last month 200 people urged the state government to retain health services in the region.

Portland has a growing population of just over 10,000, with rising demand for healthcare. In 2019-20 there were 9080 emergency presentations at the hospital, compared with 6960 in 2015-16. Ms Polaski was born in the Portland hospital and had her first child there. She was comfortable returning, so that the same obstetrician and staff could deliver her second child. Jessa Laws had planned to use the Portland hospital as a back-up option if she went into labour quickly. Credit:Nicole Cleary But now she faces the prospect of a near-90-minute drive to the Warrnambool hospital. She has stayed light-hearted about that predicament, but acknowledges the dangers and distress it might cause for some families, particularly first-time mothers. Jessa Laws lives near Portland and is expecting her third child.

Loading She had already made plans for the birth to happen in Warrnambool because there were complications with her previous deliveries and the hospital there has a wider range of maternity services. But the Portland hospital was her local back-up option if she went into labour quickly. The security in having that as a back-up is so incredibly important for someone facing one of the most vulnerable moments in their life, she said. Difficulty attracting healthcare workers is an issue across regional Victoria, where many health services struggle to recruit and retain specialist staff.

A recent review of the Portland hospital by healthcare consultant David Hillis found the service was dependent on specialists who stayed in Portland just days at a time and had other commitments elsewhere. The review found qualified specialists rarely applied for positions in the area. It proposed a workforce shake-up with rural generalists at the hospitals core, providing clinical services in the hospital and in general practice. It also proposed greater sharing of medical services with other health providers in the region. Portland District Health chairman Peter Matthews apologised to the families affected by the birthing unit suspension but said the hospital had to put safety first. He also rejected criticisms the hospital was defaulting to locums rather than hiring permanent staff.

The suggestion that we are deliberately doing that is manifestly false and misleading, Professor Matthews said. He said small regional services across Australia faced similar issues and stronger collaboration with other health services would help alleviate workforce shortages. Ophthalmologist Robert Harvey is leaving the hospital, where he worked three days a week, after nine years service, first as a visiting medical officer, then as a permanent staff member. Dr Harvey, who plans to retire in two years, said he had urged hospital management to find a replacement, but this had not occurred. He said there was strong demand for eye surgery, with 150 people on a waiting list. He said the hospital also needed to replace anaesthetists who had left, but no appointments had been made.

Loading The hospital is on a knife edge, he said. Its a small service losing critical specialists. The Liberal MP for South-West Coast, Roma Britnell, said Portlands hospital was in a significant health crisis and it could not rely on the larger hospital at Warrnambool to fill gaps. Warrnambool is already under enormous pressure, she said. A spokesman for the state government said it had increased Portland District Healths funding by 21.8 per cent this year.
A parliamentary inquiry into Victorias justice system has recommended the state government raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14.

The report, which made more than 100 recommendations and 73 findings and was supported by committee members across the political divide, said the reform should act in concert with an expansion in the community-based support services required to address the factors underpinning childrens criminal behaviours.

Reason Party Leader Fiona Patten. Credit:Eddie Jim

The inquiry found raising the legal minimum age of criminal responsibility was consistent with evidence about child development, international norms and human rights standards.

The committee has made a number of recommendations for a strong focus on early intervention. We must identify individuals at risk and provide those social supports to divert them away from the system, committee chair Fiona Patten, from the Reason Party, told Parliament on Thursday.
The University of Melbourne has denounced protesters who stormed the opening night of an exhibition at its new Liberal Party-aligned research institute on Wednesday evening, where they jostled with security guards and blocked entrances.

Police were called to the universitys Parkville campus and are investigating the incident at the Robert Menzies Institute, which follows months of increasingly bitter action by protesters who hammered a cross stating Pig-iron Bob, dead at last into university turf a fortnight ago.

Melbourne University estimated 70 protesters stormed the Robert Menzies Institute event on Wednesday night.

Images obtained by The Age show masked protesters attempting to push past a university security guard, while another shows a group of about 12 protesters attempting to access an internal entry. Protesters can be heard chanting in one video, although the wording is inaudible.

Melbourne University condemned Wednesdays clashes, which it estimated involved about 70 protesters, saying freedom of speech was central to the universitys values and identity.
Six teenagers charged with the alleged murder of 16-year-old Declan Cutler are all accused of stabbing and beating the teen after he was chased down on a residential street in Melbournes north.

Court documents released to The Age show police allege Declan was walking along Horton Street, Coburg North, about 2.25am on March 13 when a carload of eight people who had been driving around Reservoir and Coburg North got out and chased him.

Declan Cutler.

Police allege Declan was grabbed from behind and slipped and fell to the ground, where eight offenders each then proceeded to stomp, kick, punch and stab the 16-year-old.

After the group left the scene, police say, four offenders assaulted the victim again.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is leaning on Indonesia to exclude Russia from the G20, saying it would be a step too far to sit at a summit table with Vladimir Putin when his country has been accused of war crimes.

Indonesia, which is hosting the summit of 20 of the worlds largest economies this year, is coming under increasing pressure to bar the Russian President from the leaders meeting in November or risk a boycott from Western nations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison greets Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 in 2018. Mr Morrison now says people who are invading other countries should not be at the summit. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Morrison said he raised the issue personally with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, but said publicly Australia wanted to work closely with its neighbour to make sure the G20 was a success.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said there were very sensitive issues to work through in relation to the G20 and a range of other international groupings in which Russia participated.
In recent weeks the state opposition has attempted to rewrite history on three occasions.

First, Matthew Guy suggested supporting a net zero emissions target was nothing new for the Coalition, even though the Coalition voted against the target in 2016, and until very recently did nothing to suggest its policy position had changed.

State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. Credit:Simon Schluter

Then he complained to The Guardian that he hadnt spoken about African gangs during the 2018 election campaign, blaming The Age, among others, for rewriting history.

Our policy never ever mentioned the words African gangs, because many of the gangs we were talking about were not African, he said. Many in the left, in the Labor Party and The Age, like to rewrite history. But that is not what we talked about.
Seoul: North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed states largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major escalation in the Norths development of weapons potentially able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the US.

North Koreas return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for U.S. President Joe Biden as he responds to Russias invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Koreas incoming conservative administration.

People watch a TV showing a file image of North Koreas missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday. Credit:AP

Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, meeting at a Group of Seven summit in Brussels in a show of unity against the Kremlins war, condemned the North Korean launch, stressed the need for diplomacy, and agreed to work together to hold Pyongyang accountable, a White House official said.
London: Prince William has admitted slavery should never have happened after being confronted by the Prime Minister of Jamaica, who told him the Caribbean nation wanted to become independent and remove the Queen as head of state to address unresolved issues.

In a speech at a state dinner in the Jamaican capital Kingston on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), William stopped short of apologising for the British Empires legacy and human rights record in Commonwealth countries, but expressed his profound sorrow and acknowledged slavery was abhorrent.

The Duke of Cambridge and his wife, Catherine, are in the country as part of a week-long tour of former British colonies that coincides with the Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations marking her 70 years on the throne.

During the trip, the pair has faced public questioning, including from protesters calling on the United Kingdom to pay reparations for slavery.
Brussels: Handshakes. Family photos. Press conferences. Condemnations, warnings and demands. Sooner or later NATO might have to actually do something.

The emergency gabfest of world leaders in Brussels to deal with the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II took a month of bombs and missiles blasting homes, schools, hospitals and killing children to be organised.

A French soldier from the 7th Mountain Battalion wears a NATO badge at Amari air base, Estonia. Credit:AP

It is little wonder the nations courageous President Volodymyr Zelensky is growing impatient.

Yes, Russias savage and brutal invasion of its sovereign neighbour has galvanised the West and made NATO relevant again. It wasnt long ago French President Emmanuel Macron declared we were experiencing the brain death of NATO.






October 1952 Washington's Hardest Decision With this essay the Atlantic begins a series of biographical papers each of which will discuss that time of supreme crisis, that turning point, when a man's fortunes were made or lost. DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN, the leading historian of the South, knows more about George Washington than any other man alive. Ten years ago he began laying the foundation for his great biography, four volumes of which have already appeared, with a fifth announced for this autumn. Mr. Freeman, affectionately known as the Sage of Richmond, was for thirty-four years the editor of the Richmond News Leader, but at his busiest he never ceased to work at his monumental life of Robert E. Lee for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1934. He knew the turning point in Lee's career, and he now singles out with fresh illumination the hardest decision General Washington ever made.



by Douglas Southall Freeman

T he time had come when the General felt that he could resign without disservice to his country. Sir Guy Carleton's last transport had left New York. Not a British soldier remained on the soil of the United States elsewhere than at the western posts from which it was assumed the garrisons soon would be withdrawn. The peace treaty contained explicit admission of American independence; the alliance with France was firm. Command of what remained of the Continental Army could be transferred safely to Henry Knox, former Chief of Artillery. So, on the 23rd of December, 1783, Washington appeared before Congress at Annapolis, Maryland, and in ceremonies made tense by their complete simplicity, he read a brief address that concluded with these words: "Having finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action; and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life." With that he drew the folded paper from his pocket, stepped forward, placed the document in the hands of President Thomas Mifflin; and as soon afterwards as courtesy allowed, he mounted his waiting horse and started for Mount Vernon. He knew he was a national hero. Had not Congress voted him an equestrian statue? When later he asked for his commission as a souvenir, was there not talk of returning it to him in a gold casket? Glen who had witnessed all the discouragements and defeats of war from 1775 to Yorktown in 1781 believed that his energy, his resolution, his leadership had carried the cause to victory, and they did not begrudge any honor or withhold applause of any apostrophe the most imaginative of their orators could fashion. The General was honored not less for what he was than for what he had accomplished, because the people of the United States realized that in dealing with Congress, with jealous subordinates, and with some difficult men among the fine corps of officers France had sent to America, he had displayed a patience and a candor that had behind them unshakable integrity. Washington was alone on his pedestal of public acclamation. Survivors of his campaigns mentioned his name gratefully and then paused before they spoke of anyone else, even of Nathanael Greene, who had conducted a magnificent campaign with a small force on the other front. This distinction in the public mind was the one the retiring Commander-in-Chief most desired and most cherished. The day before he said farewell to Congress, he told the authorities of Annapolis that he had the "greatest of earthly rewards: the approbation and affections of a free people"; and when he had been home a month he wrote that he was "made extremely happy by the gratitude of my countrymen." Others might seek the prize their ambition coveted; the good opinion of the country repaid him for eight years' neglect of his private affairs. He would not trade principles for popularity but he wanted to preserve his position at any honorable price. Although he never quite persuaded himself that it was possible to escape all criticism, he confessed later to Arthur Young: "I have studiously avoided, as much as was in my power, to give any cause for ill-natured or impertinent comments on my conduct." The surest means to these ends obviously was to keep away from political contention. He would continue to love his country and to rejoice in its progress, but he had lived his day. "I shall view the busy world," he told one of his French comrades, "in the calm light of philosophy and with that serenity of mind which the soldier in his pursuit of glory, and the statesman of fame, have not time to enjoy." He went further: "I am not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself and shall tread the private walks of life with heartfelt satisfaction." To his beloved Lafayette, his son in the spirit, he wrote almost exuberantly: "Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order of my march, I will move gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers." 2. Retirement did not bring leisure. His antebellum debts remained; bonds and mortgages due him had not been collected or had been paid, usually, in depreciated currency; he heard that lands on the Ohio which he had patented with every safeguard of law were being offered for sale in Philadelphia and even in Europe as the property of other men; inquiries of every sort came to him by post; guests, sometimes a dozen of them at a time, enjoyed his viands and drank his Madeira, while their servants gorged in his quarters and their horses munched his corn because he lived in a district that boasted no inn to care for visitors' attendants and mounts. Almost a year and a half elapsed before he had a single dinner alone with his wife. With Mount Vernon crowded week after week, Washington counted himself fortunate if he could devote himself to business during the morning and discharge his duties as host during the afternoon. Public service gnawed many hours. Some estates of which he had been executor in 1770 still were unsettled; trusteeships continued; his interest in the development of the West made him a willing leader in a movement to improve the navigation of the upper Potomac, and when a company was organized to link this eastern river with the watershed of the Ohio, he became its president. Even if financial difficulty and busy occupation denied him the contemplative ease he had thought he would have, life at Mount Vernon was as close to the fulfillment of his dreams as a practical man could have expected. With himself the sole loser by possible mistakes of judgment, Washington did not have to display the public "care and caution " that had been the vigilant law of his anxious life in the Army. There could be on the plantation no Thomas Conway to scoff at his management, no Charles Lee to revile him, no Horatio Gates to hold suspiciously at arm's length. Decisions about crops and cattle did not incense Governors or arouse Delegates in Congress. For a short time, Washington had optimism, curbed but confident, for the future of the Union. "Everything, my dear Trumbull," he wrote a former secretary, "will come right at last, as we have often prophesied; my only fear is that we shall lose a little reputation first." He told Governor Benjamin Harrison, his long-time spokesman in Congress: "Like a young heir, come a little prematurely to a large inheritance, we shall wanton and run riot until we have brought our reputation to the brink of ruin, and then, like him, shall have to labor with the current of opinion, when COMPELLED perhaps, to do what prudence and common policy pointed out, as plain as any problem in Euclid, in the first instance." Before many months, the theorem was confused. The gradual economic recovery of some parts of the country was less apparent from the seclusion of Mount Vernon than was the political bewilderment of public men. Ugly rivalries developed among the States; Congress manifestly needed more powers than it had, but it would not exercise those it possessed; the considerable volume of specie left in America by French and British was hoarded or sent overseas for needed goods; a depreciated currency was a dragging ball and chain whenever a forward step was made; British commercial policy appeared inflexibly hostile. Washington tried to view this philosophically in the private letters he wrote. Over and over he remarked that the people "must feel before they will see," but he found even his tightly woven patience raveling. "Illiberality, jealousy, and local policy mix too much," he warned, "in all our public councils, for the good government of the Union." In the dispute over the grant to Congress of powers to raise revenue and to regulate commerce, he did not pretend to be a nonpartisan, though he made no public statement. "If we are afraid to trust one another under qualified powers," he insisted, "there is an end of the Union." In another communication his argument was: "We are either a united people or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a nation....If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it." This letter was written to the Virginia Congressman, James Madison, thirty four years of age, for whose discerning accounts of public events Washington was grateful. Most of the General's older friends in public life were dead or feeble, preoccupied with their own affairs or concerned chiefly with the politics of their State. Exchange of views with the Adamses, with Franklin, and with Hancock never had been frequent. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and even Philip Schuyler now wrote seldom. Most of those sending information to Mount Vernon or seeking his advice on political questions were men, such as Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, who had been too young to participate in the colonial juntas and too busy with arms during the war to share conspicuously in the organization of the State governments. Washington enjoyed and extended this correspondence. Of his 159 political letters written to Americans in four and a quarter years at home after the war, 76 were addressed to one or another of seven men, all of them in their twenties or thirties. Without the least intention of doing so, Washington speedily became the leader of a company of young men more interested in the Union than in the individual States. Washington's own opinion of the States was being lowered by every delay on their part in voting to Congress the power to raise revenue with which to revive public credit. The danger that America would lose the reputation she had won in the war made him forget on occasion his resolution to give no cause for "ill-natured comments." "My opinion," he said almost angrily in May, 1786, "is that there is more wickedness than ignorance in the conduct of the States." He concluded unhappily: "The want of disposition to do justice is the source of the national embarrassments. It was not necessary to specify. Unwillingness to pay taxes, suspicion of government in general and particularly of Federal government, the selfish jealousy of rival States, and an alarming increase in every sort of vicious economic cheating that promised temporary gain--these were hampering the recovery of America and were too widespread for Washington to spend time in describing them to correspondents who battled daily with the base realities. He began to think that the men who formed the American Confederation "probably had," as he put it, "too good an opinion of human nature," and he confessed his concern over a situation he did not think he could improve. "Having happily assisted," he said, "in bringing the ship into port, and having been fairly discharged, it is not my business to embark again on a sea of troubles." He continued: "Nor could it be expected that my sentiments and opinions would have much weight on the minds of my countrymen; they have been neglected, though, given as a last legacy in the most solemn manner. I had then perhaps some claims to public attention. I consider myself as having none at present." 3. Events of the summer and autumn of 1786 seemed to confirm all Washington's fears for the future of the Union. Bitter loss and perilous sliding on the very brink of financial chaos had not convinced the country that a surfeit of paper money was worse than a shortage of specie. Seven States yielded to the temptation and started the presses again. Rhode Island outdid them all by voting to issue any needy freeholder paper currency equal in nominal value to half the estimated value of his real estate, the only security behind the bills. This currency was made legal tender for the payment of all debts. If a creditor refused it, the debtor could deposit the bills with the court and procure his discharge. Any person who declined to accept this paper money in current purchase and sale was liable to arrest and fine. If, as a few courageous leaders warned, the result of this emission of depreciating paper was relief for the poor debtor and ruin for the well-to-do creditor, this was considered by many as precisely what should come to pass. All had shared in saving property during the war; they should divide equally what had been preserved. To Washington it seemed as if the controlling faction in Rhode Island were burning down the homes of all, but he said, half bitterly, "there are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to." Shays' Rebellion in western Massachusetts alarmed him, if possible, still more. Anxiously he wrote to inquire whether the insurgents had a just grievance that should be corrected; and if they had no excuse for their acts, he wished to know what Massachusetts intended to do to vindicate its courts and its laws. Until this time Washington had abandoned his detached position to the extent only that he had spoken sternly in private letters of men and of policies that threatened to ruin the country's credit and to destroy the Union. Now, in answer to his inquiries, his friends had to suggest that he do more than write. David Humphreys knew how earnestly his old chief wished to continue in retirement, but in describing to the General the state of affairs in New England, the former military secretary gave this unpleasant advice: "In case of civil discord, I have already told you that it was seriously my opinion that you could not remain neuter, and that you would be obliged, in self-defense, to take part on one side or the other, or withdraw from the Continent. Your friends are of the same opinion." Word was sent, also, that Congress might ask him to come to New York to counsel the discouraged Delegates; James Madison had received intimation that it would be desirable for Washington to make a "private visit" to New England if conditions grew worse, as some of his correspondents believed they inevitably would. "We are all," Light-Horse Harry Lee wrote his old leader, "in dire apprehension that a beginning of anarchy with all its calamities has approached and [we] have no means to stop the dreadful work." Washington himself said, "I shall be surprised at nothing, for if, three years since, any person had told me that at this day I should see such a formidable rebellion against the laws and constitutions of our own making as now appears, I should have thought him a bedlamite, a fit subject for a mad house." Benjamin Lincoln routed Shays' insurrectionists in January-February, 1787, and deferred, if he did not render unnecessary, a call for the former Commander-in-Chief to take the field, but the Massachusetts general could not destroy the contagion of unrest. Madison confessed a fear that discontent still was spreading. Washington thought the spring of 1787 would witness events that would "astonish world." If this was to be prevented and a score of other dangers averted, the Federal government must be strong enough to raise money and to enforce law. Unless these things were done, the Union would cease to exist. It could not live on sentiment or by sufferance. The Revolution was played out, the spirit of '76 was gone. Most of Washington's correspondents and native guests were of one mind on all this. The speediest rescue, they agreed, would be through the revision of the Articles of Confederation, but in what manner should this be undertaken? From what quarter could strength be mustered to overcome the hostility of those who lived in the illusion their States could survive though the Union perished? The answer was not as complex as the question made it appear. A demand had been taking shape for a convention of the States. The proceedings of the Annapolis convention, attended by several of Washington's most devoted political lieutenants, had pointed the way. If a body of the ablest men of the entire country met and exchanged views, their recommendations for changes in the Articles might be approved. The proviso was a most important part of the plan. Any success that attended the work of a new convention would depend, among other things, on the representation of all the States, and on the standing and equipment of the men who were put forward--small men, small issue. Favorable action by Congress on the call for a convention and the election of Delegates by all the States except Rhode Island came quickly and presented a new problem to the old soldier, whose hounds in full cry made finer music, he thought, than even that of General Saint-Simon's band at Yorktown. Instead of having the prospect of continuing the daily delights of rural life and all the pleasures of experimenting with seed and trees from far countries, Washington might be required to return to the realm of wrangle: the Virginia General Assembly had named him unanimously as one of the State's representatives at the Federal Convention, which was to meet in Philadelphia early in May. His supporters were divided over the "yes" or "no" of his acceptance. James Madison insisted that Virginia could not spare Washington from her delegation and that gloom would engulf the enterprise in his absence. Edmund Randolph, then Governor, and Henry Lee were equally urgent. Henry Knox was doubtful. Washington, he said, would be elected president of the convention if he attended, with the result that "the proceedings...will more immediately be appropriated to you than to any other person." Knox concluded: "Were the convention to propose only amendments and patchwork to the present defective constitution, your reputation would in a degree suffer." Conversely, the proposal over Washington's signature of an "energetic and judicious system" would be "highly honorable to your fame...and doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country." David Humphreys was cautious, almost pessimistic: "What chance is there...that entire unanimity will prevail? Should this be the fact, however, would not the several members, as it were, pledge themselves for the execution of their system? And would not this inevitably launch you again on a sea of politics?...I have heard few express any sanguine expectations concerning the successful issue of the meeting, and I think not one has judged it eligible for you to attend." 4. Washington's inclination was to accept Humphreys's view. Previously the General had notified the Society of the Cincinnati that he would not attend its meeting, which was to be held in Philadelphia about the time the Federal Convention assembled. It might seem rude, if not insincere, to decline to sit with his old officers and then to appear in the same town as a member of another body. Besides, he was having rheumatic pains and could not conveniently be absent from his plantations at the wheat harvest. On the other hand, the life of the Union depended on revitalizing its organic law. If this could be done at the proposed convention, "it would," he said, "be an honorable employment," but if the convention were small and restricted to easy amendment, then, he said frankly, "I should not like to be a sharer in this business." Still again, he wondered whether his absence from the convention might not be considered, as he phrased it, "dereliction to republicanism." Even worse motives, which he did not specify, might be attributed to him. The choice was difficult, but in the end the pressure of his friends and the prospect of the attendance of leading men in considerable number induced him to accept appointment and to start promptly for Philadelphia. When the convention was organized, he was unanimously elected president, as Henry Knox had predicted, and in that position he was spared a direct share in debates for which he was not well-equipped. His presence meant more than his vote, though he went on record for a strong executive and for a lower House of Congress in which there could be a Representative for as few as 30,000 voters. He was willing, too, to have the constitution become effective when seven States approved it, and he did not value the good opinion of all honest men so highly that he withheld denunciation of those who refused to participate in efforts to give America a respectable and responsible government. Rhode Island's absence from the convention outraged him. That State, he said privately, "still perseveres in that impolitic, unjust and, one might add without much impropriety, scandalous conduct which seems to have marked all her public councils of late." Empty argument on the floor, fruitless debate over trifles, angered him further. For a time, he almost despaired of a favorable outcome, and, he confided to Alexander Hamilton, "do therefore repent having had any agency in the business." He went on: "The men who oppose a strong and energetic government are, in my opinion, narrow-minded politicians, or are under the influence of local views." The document that finally was placed before him for signature contained a few provisions he disliked and many that he approved. His judgment both of the constitution and of the country's needs made him favor ratification: but was it necessary that he publicly say so? He had stepped out of retirement in the emergency and had taken the risk of being denounced as a partisan: could he not return to his position as the impartial friend of all right-minded men? The constitution, he wrote Lafayette, "is now a child of fortune, to be fostered by some and buffeted by others." Then he said, "What will be the general opinion on, or the reception of it, is not for me to decide, nor shall I say anything for or against it; if it be good, I suppose it will work its way good; if bad, it will recoil on the framers." Washington's old neighbor, Colonel George Mason, draftsman of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and a member of the delegation to the convention, had begun to assail parts of the constitution before he had left Philadelphia. Patrick Henry aligned himself against ratification. So did Richard Henry Lee. The incurably suspicious Arthur Lee, youngest brother of Richard Henry, was of opinion that what others termed "errors" in the constitution were a deliberate scheme to create an oligarchy. Washington thought the arguments of these men were feeble, shortsighted objections to the best system of government on which it had been possible to reach agreement. The moment the constitution was assailed, his experience in dealing with an impotent Congress and with selfish States made him the champion of the new plan. He left the detailed argument to Madison, to Hamilton, and to others scarcely less astute; but almost without regard to its effect on his reputation as a man who stood apart from the political controversies of the time, he opened correspondence with supporters of the constitution in all the States where he had friends of influence and he continued eagerly to follow the deliberations of all the State conventions. They absorbed much of his thought in the winter of 1787-88 and the following spring. Nowhere did the heat of contest rise more quickly or the fires of debate flame more furiously than in Virginia, where Washington and the other supporters of an adequate Federal government had to face the persistent opposition of Patrick Henry, who was fully aroused and at the head of a powerful following. It was manifest early in 1788 that ratification or rejection of the constitution in the Old Dominion would be by a narrow margin. Washington took up his pen with much awkwardness but he wielded it as vigorously as if it had been a sword, though in one instance only, and then by mistake, did his letters get into print. Without excessive risk and opposition, the constitution received the favorable vote of nine States. When Virginia became the tenth in June, 1788, by a disagreeably narrow majority of ten, many thought that Washington's efforts had been decisive in prevailing over the opposition of Patrick Henry. "Be assured," James Monroe said, "General Washington's influence carried this government." 5. Washington had not been subjected to personal abuse, though in several instances relations had been strained. "With some," he said, "to have differed in sentiment is to have passed the Rubicon of their friendship." He added: "With others (for the honor of humanity) I hope there is more liberality; but the consciousness of having discharged that duty, which we owe our country is superior to all other considerations." Unruffled, he continued: "It is the lot of humanity. But if the shafts of malice had been aimed at me in ever so pointed a manner...shielded as I was by a consciousness of having acted in conformity to what I believed my duty, they would have fallen blunted from their mark....At my age, and in my circumstance, what sinister object or personal emolument had I to seek after, in this life?" Now that the task was performed and the new government was assured of a chance to prove itself, he hoped once again that he could return permanently to the quiet occupation he most enjoyed. "The growing infirmities of age and the increasing love of retirement daily confirm my predilection for domestic life: and the great Searcher of human hearts is my witness that I have no wish which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm." When this was written, August 16, 1788, Washington knew that jealous, hostile men probably were saying already he "aspired"--and to the highest office. While the Philadelphia convention still was in session, the assumption had been that he would head the new government. The powers vested in the President of the United States had been shaped, as Pierce Butler said afterwards, with one eye on Washington; otherwise they would not have been so extensive. Lafayette, reading the constitution "with an unspeakable eagerness and attention" in Paris, was alarmed because a President who exercised those powers was eligible for re-election. But he found comfort, he wrote, in the belief that Washington could not decline the presidency and, once in the chair, would recommend that the seat be narrowed if it proved too much like a permanent throne. In February, 1788, General John Armstrong, friend and comrade since the days of the French and Indian War, had exhorted Washington solemnly: "Persuaded as I am it will cost you much anxious thought, nevertheless, if the call of God is manifested to you in a plenary or unanimous call of the people, I hope that will obviate every objection; if not for the whole term of four years, at least for half that time, if health admit; considering, as you will, that we were not made for ourselves, therefore must not live to ourselves. My sole reason for these early hints is, that by a divine blessing you may be made instrumental in giving a wise and useful EXAMPLE TO SUCCESSORS, in more things than what may be merely essential to the office." Washington scarcely could have read a more disturbing letter or one written in wiser appeal to his love of country. In answer, he reminded Armstrong he had accepted membership in the convention because, "at so critical a moment, an absolute refusal to act might on my part be construed as a total disregard of my country, if impelled to no worse motives"; but a call to another "tour of duty" of this kind? He hoped from his heart he would not receive it. "I am so wedded to a state of retirement," he said, "and find the occupations of a rural life so congenial with my feelings, that to be drawn into public at my age could be a sacrifice that would admit of no compensation." There he left it; there he prayed it would remain. Even to Lafayette, he elaborated only in this: "it might not be decent for me to say I would refuse to accept or even to speak much about an appointment which may never take place." He repeated over and over again that he did not entertain a wish "beyond that of living and dying an honest man on my own farm," but these answers neither silenced nor satisfied the Federalists, whose cause he had made his own. They continued to urge him to accept an office they insisted the electors unanimously would tender him. 6. As long as he could, he persisted in saying, "The event...may never happen," but by October, 1788, he felt the "kind of gloom" coming over him that always had shadowed him when he had to make a crucial decision. He comforted himself, as best he could, with the assurance that if he had to accept, he would remain in office no longer than was necessary to get the new bark over the shoals and into the clear channel. Then he might be permitted "once more to retire," as he wrote wistfully, "to pass an unclouded evening after the stormy day of life." Another hope of the autumn was that the "government would be just as happily and effectually carried into execution without my aid as with it." He did not find his friends willing to admit this, or even to look for someone else. Before the month ended, he was forced to say, "At my time of life, and under my circumstances, nothing in this world can ever draw me from [retirement] unless it be a CONVICTION that the partiality of my countrymen had made my services absolutely necessary, joined to a FEAR that my refusal might induce a belief that I preferred the conservation of my own reputation and private ease to the good of my country." On that he stood, but not confidently, because the two influences he had underlined, the conviction of duty and the fear of just reproach, challenged him hourly. In December he cried: "May Heaven assist me in forming a judgment, for at present I see nothing but clouds and darkness before me....If ever I should, from any apparent necessity, be induced to go from home in a public character again, it will certainly be the greatest sacrifice of feeling and happiness that ever was or ever can be made by [me]." He still clung to the hope that he would not be called, and he told himself that if he were elected he would decline if he could. One letter after another, written to those he knew would keep his statement confidential, set forth his overwhelming perplexity. Against acceptance he mustered all save one of the arguments that seemed most reasonable to him: he was too old; his interest was in agriculture; he had a growing love of retirement; the office would involve new fatigues and trouble; if he returned to public life after all he had said about ending his service, might he not be "chargeable with levity and inconsistency, if not with rashness and ambition"? His last citadel of defense was the assertion that the duties of the office most certainly could be discharged by someone else as successfully as by him. What he naturally kept to himself was the unhappy state of his finances: he did not have money with which to pay for even current household purchases and he would have to go deeper in debt to make the journey to the temporary capital. In the "contra" column of this balance sheet of duty and inclination, the heaviest entry had the simplicity of this eight-word question: Was the good of the country at stake? If danger or collapse did not threaten the new structure, he would remain in his own house, where by silence and kindly action he could preserve the good opinion of his fellow citizens; but if the welfare of the United States required his service, he would leave Mount Vernon again, risk his reputation and endure the clamor, the censure, the unjust abuse even, he was apt to receive. "If I know myself," he said, "I would not seek or retain popularity at the expense of one social duty or moral virtue." The new year, 1789, brought hope for the future of America along with added unhappiness for Washington. Elections to the First Congress, he wrote Lafayette. "have been hitherto vastly more favorable than we could have expected." There were evidences of an "increasing unanimity" that was "not less indicative of the good disposition than the good sense of the Americans." Through the "clouds and darkness" of his own perplexity, Washington thought he saw "a path as clear and direct as a ray of light, which led to the attainment" of national happiness. "Nothing," he continued, "but harmony, honesty, industry and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy people." In that was promise and perhaps reward, but with it--of all things!--an embarrassing multitude of insistent applications for office as if he already were President. To the burden of answering these letters was added the task of getting affairs in order at Mount Vernon. Five or six hundred pounds had to be borrowed, also, if Alexandria merchants were to be paid before... Yes, it now was "before" and not "if" he had to quit that beloved refuge of his on the Potomac, and face again the contest and confusion. He did not say in plain words "I will accept," because formal notice of election had not been received. The electors in the various States were assumed to have met on February 4 and were believed to have cast their votes unanimously for Washington; but their certificates had to be delivered to the new Congress, which was not due to meet until a month later. In March, Washington's correspondents wrote discouragingly of the slow arrival of Senators and Representatives. It was impossible to say when a quorum would be mustered and the vote be counted, but the result was certain. Washington knew it, and knew that his sense of duty demanded he accept. There was no escape. Delay in the organization of Congress, he told himself, was no more than a reprieve. Painfully, sadly, on the 1st of April he opened his heart to Henry Knox, his still-young former Chief of Artillery, the man who had never failed him: "My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm. I am sensible that I am embarking the voice of my countrymen and a good name of my own, but what returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell. Integrity and firmness is all I can promise; these, be the voyage long or short, never shall forsake me, though I may be deserted by all men." That was the decision; the rest was formality. When Charles Thomson arrived at Mount Vernon on the 14th of April and delivered the official announcement of unanimous election, Washington wasted no time in answer: "Having been impressed with an idea of my being with Congress at as early a period as possible, I propose to commence my journey...the day after tomorrow"; a long, hard journey for him--and for any like-minded man who comes after him. Copyright  1952 by Douglas Southall Freeman. All rights reserved.

The Atlantic Monthly; October, 1952; "Washington's Hardest Decision"; Volume 190, No. 4; pages 45-51.


Associate Editor

Brent Addleman is an Associate Editor and a veteran journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He has served as editor of newspapers in Pennsylvania and Texas, and has also worked at newspapers in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Kentucky.
Buzz Brockway is vice president of public policy for the Georgia Center for Opportunity.
In this photo provided by the Port of Seattle and taken April 27, 2016, a Dallas-bound American Airlines airplane is shown parked at a gate after it returned to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shortly after takeoff following a bird strike that left a large dent on the airplane's nose.
North Carolina Auditor Beth Wood speaks to members of the Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, in Raleigh, N.C.
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Vicky Klukkert | The Daily StarJim Rotzler, left, of the Town of Hancock Ambulance, and Ray Baker of the Sidney EMS talk about their paid ambulance services during the Delaware County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday, March 23. Also pictured are Masonville Town Supervisor Betty Scott, Meredith Town Supervisor Jim Ellis and Middletown Town Supervisor Carl Patrick Davis.
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Melanie joined The Daily Times in the early 90s and has served as the Life section editor since 1993. A William Blount and UT alum, Melanie is generally the early arriver who turns on the lights in the newsroom.

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More groups and organizations are bringing back their special events, so the newspaper has restarted its weekly calendar of events listing to help readers find things to do in the community. The Events Hub will be featured each Friday in The Derrick and The News-Herald.
Netflix recently dropped their latest true crime documentary series 'Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives' and it's already being called much wilder than the Tinder Swindler.

The series follows Vegan celebrity chef Sarma Melngailis and her relationship with her now ex-husband Anthony Strangis, who she knew as Shane Fox.

Sarma owned a raw vegan restaurant called 'Pure food and wine' in New York, which was attended by celebrities like Anne Hathaway, Katie Holmes, Janet Jackson and Alec Baldwin before the restaurant closed in 2015, in the midst of the scandal.
A video image shows the major fire that killed at least 11 people and injured four others in a scrap warehouse in India's southern city of Hyderabad on March 23, 2022. (KK Productions via AP/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

11 Dead in Fire at Scrap Warehouse in India

A major fire in a scrap warehouse killed at least 11 people and injured four others Wednesday in Indias southern city of Hyderabad, police and officials said.

Police said 15 laborers were sleeping in the shop when fire caused by a short-circuit broke out, trapping the people inside.

The laborers were from the eastern state of Bihar and had come to Hyderabad for work.

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, the chief minister of Telangana state, of which Hyderabad is the capital, expressed his condolences and ordered monetary compensation for the deceased.

Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents.
A flock of chickens are seen at Springfield Farm in Sparks, Md. on Nov. 17, 2012. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

570,000 Nebraska Chickens to Be Killed in Humane Manner After Contracting Bird Flu: Officials

Over 500,000 chickens in Nebraska are set to be killed in a humane manner after contracting bird flu, the state Agriculture Department announced on March 22.

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) made the announcement in a press release in conjunction with the United States Department of Agricultures (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Officials said that the case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) also known as bird fluwas confirmed in a commercial flock of 570,000 broilers in Butler County.

The farm is now under NDA quarantine and the birds will be humanely depopulated and disposed of in an approved manner, NDA said. Additionally, officials will also be establishing a 6.2-mile control zone around the infected premises.

Premises with poultry that fall within that control zone will not be allowed to move birds or poultry products on or off their premises without permission from NDA, officials said.

HPAI is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects birds, although it has been discovered in pigs in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, dogs in Thailand, domestic cats in Germany, among others, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In domestic poultry, it can prove deadly.

Since 2003, an Asian HPAI virus has resulted in high deaths in poultry and wild birds throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. However, the risk of humans contracting HPAI is still low.

So far, there have never been any human cases of HPAI detected in the United States but such cases have been reported in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Egypt in Canada, in an individual who had traveled to China.

Although human infections with this virus are rare, approximately 60 percent of those individuals who contracted the virus have died, the CDC says.

HPAI spreads easily among birds through nasal and eye secretions, as well as manure, and can be spread from flock to flock through contact with infected poultry, equipment, or the clothing and shoes of those caring for the birds, according to NDA.

While wild birds can contract and carry the virus without showing signs of sickness, domesticated birds can become very ill.

Officials said that the farm in Butler County had boosted its biosecurity and began doing more observational testing of the chickens after the initial threat of HPAI in the United States. After noticing a larger than normal death loss among the chickens, the farmers immediately quarantined their facility and contacted NDA, officials said.

The virus was initially discovered on March 7 in a wild goose in Lincoln, Neb., but additional cases were later discovered in a backyard flock of chickens in Merrick County and in wild geese in Cedar and Douglas counties, according to an earlier press release.

Having a second farm in Nebraska confirmed to have HPAI is unfortunate, but not completely unexpected, NDA Director Steve Wellman said in the release. NDA will use all the resources at our disposal, in coordination with our federal partners to manage a quick response.

Symptoms of HPAI in poultry include decreased egg production or producing eggs that are soft-shelled or misshapen, decreased energy and appetite, drinking less water, nasal discharge, coughing, sneezing; incoordination; and diarrhea, although sudden death can also occur in birds who are not displaying symptoms.

Officials noted that HPAI can also survive for weeks in contaminated environments and stressed the importance of keeping such areas clean and disinfected.

This latest announcement from Nebraska officials means more than 13 million chickens and turkeys in at least eight states have been killed or will be destroyed soon, the Associated Press reports.
5th Worker Charged With Sex Abuse at Federal Womens Prison

WASHINGTONA fifth worker at a federal womens prison in California has been charged with sexually abusing an inmate, and prosecutors say more arrests are expected at the lockup.

Enrique Chavez, a food service foreman at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, is accused of touching an inmates breasts, buttocks, and genitals on two separate occasions in October 2020, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court.

Chavez was indicted on March 10, while a Bureau of Prisons task force was at Dublin speaking with inmates and staff about ways to eliminate a culture of abuse at the prison. He was arrested Sunday in Arizona and appeared in court Tuesday in Tucson. He had been on administrative leave from the prison for several months.

The government is currently investigating additional suspects for related crimes, prosecutors said in court papers. Investigators were planning to execute multiple search warrants on Wednesday, they said.

The Bureau of Prisons is under increasing scrutiny for myriad crises, many of them exposed by Associated Press reporting, including criminal activity by employees, critically low staffing levels hampering responses to emergencies, crumbling infrastructure, the rapid spread of COVID-19, a failed response to the pandemic and dozens of escapes.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement that misconduct by bureau staff, at any level, will not be tolerated, and our efforts to root it out are far from over.

Chavez, 49, of Manteca, California, is charged with two counts of abusive sexual contact, which carries a maximum punishment of up to two years in prison. He will appear before a federal magistrate in Oakland once he is returned to California. Officials said they did not know when that would happen. Information on a lawyer who could comment on Chavezs behalf was not immediately available.

Chavez is the fifth employee at the Dublin prison to be charged with sexual abuse of inmates since last June. Others include the prisons former warden and a chaplain. Two of the people who have been arrested have pleaded guilty so far.

Chavezs indictment comes after the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons convened a task force of 18 senior executives to visit Dublin, examine conditions and meet with inmates and staff members.

In a statement, Stephanie Hinds, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, said correctional officers have a trusted responsibility to protect those under their authority and that sexually abusing inmates is a betrayal of that responsibility and undermines a just penal system.

Craig Fair, the special agent in charge of the FBIs San Francisco field office, said Chavezs arrest should send a clear message that the FBI will investigate and hold accountable any and every individual who commits an act like this, regardless of your title or authority.

By Michael R. Sisak and Michael Balsamo
In this photo posted on Facebook provided by the Johnston County Oklahoma Sheriff's Office is the scene of a deadly two-vehicle collision on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, (Johnston County Oklahoma Sheriff's Office via AP)

6 Victims Killed in Oklahoma Crash Were in Car That Seats 4; Most Werent Wearing Seatbelts: Officials

Officials in Oklahoma said that six teenagers who were killed in a crash this week were in a car that only seats four and most werent wearing seatbelts.

The high schoolers were on their lunch break when their 2015 Chevrolet Spark was involved a collision with a semi-truck, said Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesperson Sarah Stewart to USA Today.

The 16-year-old driver and front-seat passenger were wearing seat belts when the crash occurred, said the Highway Patrol in a statement. The highway patrol added that the vehicle can only seat four people.

The unbelted people put everyone at risk, said William Van Tassel with automotive group AAA. In a crash, the unbuckled people fly around all over the place, injuring others inside the vehicle.

The six victims were reportedly identified as Gracie Machado, Brooklyn Triplett, Austin Holt, Madison Robertson, Addison Gratz, and Memory Wilson, according to friends and family members.

I cant even begin to express the heartbreak I know many families are feeling right now, Madisons aunt, Falesha Roberts, wrote on Facebook.

Sadie Machado, who identified herself as Gracies sister, posted a photo of the two hugging each other. My best friend, Sadie wrote in a Facebook post.

Brooklyn was an amazing kid, she loved her family and friends wholeheartedly, read a tribute on a GoFundMe campaign for the Triplett family. She was a loyal friend and one hell of a ball player! She will be missed deeply by our family.

Natalie Houston, who said she was a relative of Austin Holts, asked for prayers on social media.

She is having a hard time and feels like its a joke. I dont know why these tragic things happen, she wrote on Facebook.

Tributes were also posted on social media for Memory Wilson, who leaves behind a daughter. A family friend described Memory as someone with the biggest heart of pure gold, as reported by the Daily Mail, which obtained photos of the victims.

Addison Gratz, referred to as AJ by family members online, was remembered on social media by family members. Charles Lewis, her grandfather, posted that with her death, a large part of me died yesterday, the Mail reported.

The six victims have not been officially identified by any local agencies.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, in a Wednesday statement, said that its traffic unit is conducting a thorough investigation that could last weeks and that any loss of life is tragic and we will continue to thoroughly investigate.

Officials said the crash occurred shortly at around noon Tuesday in Tishomingo. The victims included the 16-year-old driver, three 15-year-olds, and two 17-year-old passengers, according to officials. The driver was not identified.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
7 Children Hospitalized in Virginia After Overdosing on Sleeping Pills, Police Say

A group of children, all under the age of eight, required hospital treatment on Wednesday for a suspected overdose after they were given sleeping pills by another 7-year-old child, authorities say.

The Hopewell Police Department (HPD) responded to an emergency call at the home on South 16th Street in Hopewell around 5:30 p.m. and found four children, ages 1 to 4, unresponsive, WTVR-TV reported.

Three more children were found in a different part of the home, police said. These children were awake but appeared to be in a lethargic state.

They were left unsupervised for a short period of time and one of the kids that have prescription medication got into it and shared with the other children here, HPD Lieutenant Cheyenne Casale said.

All minors were immediately rushed to the hospital, while the two youngest children were transported to another facility in a serious condition.

I dont know the details of their treatment but some are being transported to other hospitals for further treatment, Casale said.

Police were notified by someone who was babysitting the children and found some of them unresponsive upon returning from a corner store.

Casale said the primary focus is now getting all seven children in a safe environment and then finding out who is going to be held accountable.

A preliminary investigation found that a 7-year-old child gave the other children his sleeping pills. The recovered pill bottle didnt have a label on it but after questioning the child and consulting with doctors, they were able to determine the medication was sleeping pills.

Police said the children are expected to recover and Child Protective Services have been notified.

They are expected to recover, but because they dont know exactly how much of the prescription medication they ingested  they are having a harder time processing and metabolizing [the drug], the HPD told WRIC.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

From NTD News
Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey gives his state of the state address at the Arizona Capitol on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. (Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo).

Arizona Legislature Passes Bill Requiring Proof of US Citizenship to Vote

The Arizona Legislature passed a bill on March 23 that would ensure only U.S. citizens with proof of identification are eligible to register to vote in the state.

Under House Bill 2492, Arizona voters would be required to provide proof of citizenship on voter registration forms.

The state Senate passed the bill on March 23 in a 1612 vote, with 12 Democrats voting against the bill and two othersSens. Lela Alston and Juan Mendezopting not to vote. The state House already passed the bill, which now heads to Republican Gov. Doug Duceys desk to be signed into state law.

The bill requires that every voter be a citizen of the United States and able to provide satisfactory evidence of such. The legislation states that the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections must reject any application for registration that isnt accompanied by satisfactory evidence of citizenship.

The Attorney General shall prosecute individuals who are found to not be United States citizens, the bill states, referring to noncitizens who attempt to register to vote.

Democrats say the measure is part of an effort to suppress voting in the battleground state.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs called on Ducey to veto the bill, saying in a Twitter post that it creates new, unnecessary barriers for people registering to vote.

Testifying March 23 on why House Bill 2492 should become state law, Republican Sen. Warren Petersen, chairman of the state Senates Judiciary Committee, said it would bolster election integrity.

The issue is making sure the citizens of our country are voting  and if youre not a citizen of this country, youre not allowed to vote, he said.

Republican Rep. Jake Hoffman, who sponsored the bill, told the Arizona Daily Independent in February 2022 that the bill is to ensure that only U.S. citizens are able to vote in elections.

Non-citizens should never be allowed to vote in American elections, yet shockingly nearly 12,000 people voted in the 2020 general election for federal office without any proof of U.S. citizenship, he said.

Republicans at the Capitol are fighting like hell to protect the integrity of Arizonas elections with bills like HB2492, so that voters can have confidence that every legally cast ballot matters.

Hoffman also said that the number of people using the federal form without providing proof of citizenship had jumped between 2018 and 2020.

So clearly this is a trend that is increasing, he said. This bill ensures that there is maximum flexibility to provide documentary proof of citizenship, but we dont want foreign interference in our elections.

Duceys office didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Residents are riding scooters along a street after the city was reopened following a lockdown against COVID-19 outbreak in Shenzhen in China's southern Guangdong Province on Mar. 21, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

As Chinas Zero-COVID Policy Inflicts Damage to Economy, Local Officials Face Dilemma

Local officials in Chinas Shenzhen city are struggling to keep their cities running, even with the central regimes newly branded dynamic zero-Covid policy, but will be dismissed if they challenge it.

Its very hard for the government to maintain operations. Nobody works [under lockdown]. We cant collect any tax, Guo Qiang (Pseudonym), an official from Guangdong Provinces Shenzhen, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on March 21.

Guo revealed difficulties that the local government is facing under the Chinese Communist Partys zero-COVID policy. Over the past two years, hundreds of Chinese people have told The Epoch Times of the difficulties they have faced under the governments lockdown, including no access to food, medicine, baby formula, and hospital treatment despite government assurances that they would get assistance to ensure their needs.

On March 21, the authorities in Shenzhen lifted a lockdown on most of the city, and allowed the residents to go back to work. However, for at least two neighborhoods the next day, authorities announced more infections and reimposed a lockdown. This risk of being forced into lockdown has put a strain on all sectors of society and is proving a strain looking forward.

Other Chinese cities with COVID-19 outbreaks are also facing a similar situation to Shenzhen.

Officials Face Dilemma

Guo said that Chinese officials are under huge pressure, with city leaders unable to reach agreements with the central government on measures to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.

If they strictly follow the central regimes COVID-19 zero-tolerance policy, the economy of the city will worsen quickly. The consequences include the local government being unable to support its operations, including paying the officials salaries and benefits. Also, the officials will lose their positions sooner or later without a good economical performance by their city. The regular residents will lose more benefits because they cant work but have to pay more money to buy food and other essential items. Price increases have been dramatic in locked down areas.

If authorities allow people to move around freely, they worry that the outbreak will deteriorate, the consequences of which include immediate dismissal.

On March 18, Shenzhen city authorities announced that eight officials in the city had been dismissed. They were the deputy director of Shenzhen Police Bureau Huang Wenya, deputy directors of Futian district regime Ye Wenge and Ma Yan, director of Futian District Police Bureau Jiang Feng, and other four officials in Futian district.

The two goals of the regime are contradictory. One goal is to let the factories and companies get back to work, the other is to strictly control peoples movement, Guo said. Even the orders [that the city regime released] are contradictory  We, the lower level officials, dont know which order we should follow and we are confused.

Guo said that officials prefer to bear the lockdown rather than open up because [we] have to make sure we wont be dismissed tomorrow.

Strain Showing

On March 21, the first day the Shenzhen authorities lifted a lockdown on most parts of the city, people flooded the streets, the subway, and the buses.

According to videos posted on social media as well as Hong Kong media reports, one of the citys subway stations had hundreds of people crowded inside one waiting to board the train, while hundreds more crowded outside waiting to enter.

I have waited for 40 minutes [on the platform]. I still cant enter the train, Malaysias Chinese media ChinaPress quoted a Shenzhen netizen saying on March 21.

Li Jing (Pseudonym), a resident in Shenzhen, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on March 21 that he, his family, friends, and colleagues were eager to work after having been locked down at home for over a week.

Today is the first day [out]. We have been locked down for so long. We really need to work. We need to earn money, Li said. We couldnt earn any money for such a long time, but needed to pay for rent and food. The regime didnt give us a penny.

On March 20, a video went viral on social media platforms. In it, a middle-aged man pleaded to police, saying that he needed to leave his village for work.

I dont damage the society. I need to make a living. I need to feed my family. [If you dont allow me to go out], I will die today. Please show me what I can do? the man pleaded.

The Chinese regime charges people who dont follow its zero-tolerance policy with the crime of damaging society.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (R) and Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino (C) tour The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia, with Dr Julian Druce, head of the Virus Identification Lab (M) on Dec. 14, 2021 (Andrew Henshaw/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia Secures 10-Year Deal With Moderna to Produce mRNA Vaccines in Victoria

The Australian government has finalised a 10-year partnership agreement with Moderna and the state government of Victoria to manufacture mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and other mRNA vaccines in the state.

This is an Australian made shot in the arm that will protect Australians from future pandemics and secure a new manufacturing capability right here on our shores, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on March 24.

The $1.5 billion (US$1.12 million) Moderna Manufacturing Strategy will see Australia produce up to 100 million mRNA doses every year in a bid to protect against new COVID-19 strains or new respiratory diseases.

Under the agreement, Australia is expected to get a guaranteed vaccine supply over the long term as well as vaccine options for COVID-19, the flu, COVID-19 with flu, along with other respiratory viruses.

The mRNA production facility will be one of the first in the world as well as the first in the southern hemisphere.

The facilitys construction is expected to support 500 direct jobs, with hundreds of indirect jobs supported and up to 200 highly skilled staff will be expected to work at the facility once the hub is up and running from 2024.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the partnership was crucial insurance for the publics health and will mean that Australians will now have access to the most cutting-edge vaccination technology available.

While Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the deal would increase Australias future prosperity as Moderna becomes a key player in the development of Australias RNA technology.

The news of this agreement first came on Dec. 14, 2021, when the federal government announced an in-principle agreement with Victoria and Moderna.

At the time, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said: This will be a boon for both our economic recovery and our fight against future pandemics.

The Australian government promised a further investment of $25 million from 2022-23 as part of the 2021 mRNA Clinical Trials Enabling Infrastructure Opportunity to promote the development of mRNA technology in the country.

Victoria also announced its agreement between the government agency, mRNA Victoria, and Pfizer on March 18 to increase global collaboration opportunities with Victorian researchers and industry.

Vaccine production is expected to start in 2024, pending regulatory and planning approvals.
Australia to Spend $875 Million on Upgrades to Defence Facilities

The Australian government will outlay $875 million (US$655.6 million) to upgrade 234 defence facilities across the country.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the program would also be an economic boon for regional communities.

The defence estate is an important national asset and is an integral part of enabling defence to meet its force capabilities, he said in comments obtained by AAP.

Just weeks ago, we announced our plans to grow the size of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) across all the Army, Royal Australian Navy, and Air Force, and we know that if we are to attract additional personnel, we need to ensure our facilities are safe and fit for purpose, he added.

The Australian Government is investing $875 million in 234 Defence projects across the country as part of our plan to continue to strengthen the nations sovereign defence capability. pic.twitter.com/4ORBulwOSu  Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 24, 2022

The money will be spent from 2022-23 and is earmarked to create around 1,600 jobs.

On March 10, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Dutton, announced the biggest expansion to the ADF in 40 years by increasing personnel numbers from 59,095 to 80,000 by 2040.

The upgrades will be split across 79 projects in New South Wales ($298 million), 41 in Queensland ($166 million), 34 in Northern Territory ($112 million), 29 in Victoria ($122 million), 28 in South Australia ($106 million), and 23 in Western Australia ($71 million).

The projects will go to tender in a few months.

The Australian Labor Partys (ALP) Shadow Minister for Defence Brendan OConnor accused the government of dressing up previously announced projects.

An Australian soldier from 7 Brigade operates a machine gun through the turret of a truck as part of exercise Talisman Sabre in Rockhampton, Australia, on July 9, 2015. (Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Base upgrades flagged today were announced six years ago in the 2016 Defence White Paper and again in the 2020 Force Structure Plan, but they have yet to be delivered, he said in a statement. The government, in its attempt to push a national security agenda, is presenting routine works as a new announcement.

OConnor said the ALP supported upgrades and procurement projects for the ADF but would act faster to ensure the ADF had its capabilities updated on time and on budget.

Todays reannouncement confirms that after six defence ministers in eight years the Prime Minister remains focussed on announcements but no follow up, he said.

Defence procurement has been an ongoing issue for successive Australian governments.

The lack of genuine external threats in recent decadesprior to Beijings aggression in the South China Seahas relegated major defence projects to being major employment generators.

A prime example was the 2015 decision to switch from buying ready-made Soryu-class submarines from Japan, to building Barracuda-class submarines from France. A $90 billion project which involved customising brand new vessels and building it from the ground-up in France and in Adelaide in the state of South Australia.

The project ended up being torpedoed once AUKUS was announced for new U.S.- and UK-backed nuclear submarines. But questions remain over the procurement timeline.

Lincoln Parker, chair of the Liberal Partys Defence and National Security Policy Branch, said the government needed to do everything to ensure Australia was not vulnerable.

We need submarines. Are there possibilities for us to lease or buy off-the-shelf? he told The Epoch Times. There are a bunch of Los Angeles-class submarines (in the U.S. Navy) due to be retired or refitted.

Could we do a deal with the Americans whereby we lease one of their submarinesthey crew half of it, and we crew the other half so we can get trained up? Then we have one or two LA-class submarines operating out of Australia, he added.

I think it would provide us with capability in a much shorter amount of time, and at least have our adversaries thinking twice.
Australian Govt Unveils Major Cyber Intelligence Facility

The Australian government has revealed a new world-class cyber and foreign intelligence facility with the goal of bolstering the nations defensive and offensive cyber warfare capabilities.

Located at Majura Park in the capital, Canberra, the facility will become home to a new generation of cyber operators and intelligence analysts working for the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)Australias cyber intelligence arm.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the ASD played a critical role in defending Australias critical infrastructure, such as energy and telecommunications, at a time when cyber attacks were on the rise.

This state-of-the-art building reflects the Australian governments determination to defend against and confront our adversaries in what is a rapidly deteriorating strategic environment, Dutton said.

ASD is a world-class intelligence, offensive cyber and cyber security agency and this new facility will ensure its dedicated staff can continue to innovate and stay one step ahead of our most cunning adversaries.

Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton during top of meeting remarks ahead of Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN) talks at Admiralty House in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 21, 2022. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi)

In anticipation of cybers growing importance to national security, the Australian government had earlier announced it would be offering fully paid traineeships for students to fast track their careers as cyber security specialists.

Dutton also reiterated Australias stern attitude towards foreign nations seeking to engage in cyber warfare, and that Australia was strengthening its ability to strike back when necessary.

The ASD expects the Majura Park facility will enable stronger collaboration within its intelligence network consisting of Five Eyes membersthe United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

Assistant Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie said the digital threat from foreign governments posed a significant threat to Australias sovereignty.

As were seeing in conflicts around the globe, authoritarian states are increasingly using cyber attacks to undermine and threaten democracies, and a strong ASD is vital to Australias cyber defences, Hastie said.

In 2021, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)a department of the ASDwitnessed a jump in cyber crime, with the ACSC receiving reports on average once every eight minutes.

This includes attacks on government, power stations, hospitals, food producers, communications, media, and educational institutions.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) logo at the Brindabella Business Park in Canberra, Australia on Aug. 16, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

But while some of these were independent attacks, others came directly from state-based actors, such as the Russia-linked SolarWinds attack and the China-linked Microsoft email server attack.

For ACSC Head Abigail Bradshaw, the increasing reports of attacks on vital infrastructure was even more concerning.

The threat against critical infrastructure is real, Bradshaw said in October.

We analysed that at least a quarter of those attacks which were recorded relate to entities which we would regard as critical infrastructure. Thats a scary statistic. Its more scary when we know that the instances of attacks are severely underreported.

Read More Australia Should Prepare for Russian Cyber-Retaliation: Experts

Australia is aiming to improve its ability to detect cyber attacks through a new critical infrastructure bill that seeks to mandate incident reporting for organisations.

While receiving positive feedback from some industries, the proposal angered big tech as the new laws could, in some instances, see the government install their own cyber security software onto big-tech managed data centres.
U.S Marines from MRF-D (Marine Rotaional Force Darwin) participate in an Urban assault as part of Exercise 'Talisman Sabre 21' on July 27, 2021 in Townsville, Australia. (Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Australias North at Risk of Attack: US Admiral

Three fully militarised Beijing-backed bases in the South China Sea pose a threat to Australias vast northern region, according to Adm. John Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

The leader of the United States largest commandwhich includes 380,000 army, marine, air force, and navy personnel spread across 14 time zonesvisited Darwin, Australia on March 23, after flying over the South China Sea.

They are full-fledged offensive bases, he told reporters in comments obtained by AAP. Runways, hangers, barracks, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ship missiles, jamming capability, hangers for fighter aircraft, bomber aircraft  That is fact.

When questioned about the threat to Australias north, Aquilino said, There is certainly a threat.

Today in the Indo-Pacific, it hosts the most concerning security challenge that we have faced in a number of years, he said.

The admiral is in Australia to inspect the U.S. marine contingent in Darwin, and to work closely with Gen. Angus Campbell, chief of the Australian Defence Force, on further military collaboration and interoperability.

We want to be able to join together quickly and operate immediately, he said. The current seasonal force will include personnel from the U.S. Army for the first time and will gradually increase to 2,200 individuals.

Regarding Australias recently announced space command, Aquilino said there would be more collaboration via the AUKUS agreement with the United States and United Kingdom.

Some of the U.S. team is coming to Australia (tomorrow) to synchronise our exercise, operations, and effects, he said. Critically important. We have no separation of domain between Australia and the U.S., he said.

On March 22, Defence Minister Peter Dutton announced the commander of Australias new Defence Space Command, Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts.

Space is becoming more congested and is already contestedparticularly as the boundaries between competition and conflict become increasingly blurred through grey-zone activities, he said.

While space is primarily a civil domain  it will undoubtedly become a domain which takes on greater military significance in this century, he added.

The defence minister conceded that in terms of scale, the Australian space arm would be modest compared to more established entities, but noted that it was necessary to continue protecting our national interests.

Australias location on the planet is considered vital for expanding the space infrastructure of the United States.

Concerns over increasing competition for the use of space were inflamed by the decision of Russian authorities to shoot down a defunct satellite, which created more than 1,500 pieces of debris, and Beijings move to tow an old satellite into graveyard orbit.
BBC Granted 4.1 Million Extra Funding to Counter Disinformation on Ukraine War

The BBC World Service will receive more than 4 million extra government funding to support its Ukrainian and Russian language services and help counter disinformation about the war in Ukraine.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) on Wednesday confirmed the 4.1 million ($5.41 million) in emergency funding following a request from the BBC to cover urgent and unexpected costs that have arisen as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The DCMS and FCDO said the funding will help the public broadcaster to relocate staff and operations to safe locations so they can continue to reach their audiences and Russia and Ukraine.

The funding will also be used to continue expanding new and more widely accessible content, delivered through a range of channels, to tackle disinformation and to help local audiences circumvent the Kremlins media restrictions and continue to access the BBCs journalism.

Earlier this month, the broadcaster said BBC World News had been taken off air in Russia.

Russian authorities have been restricting access to foreign and independent media outlets, including the main BBC websites, as the country continues its invasion of Ukraine.

Moscows Parliament recently passed a law making it a criminal offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison to spread fake or false news about the Kremlins war in Ukraine, prompting the BBC to temporarily suspend the work of all its news journalists and support staff in Russia.

The BBC said its news coverage in Russia has now resumed.

Drawing parallels between the current war and World War II, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: In scenes reminiscent of 80 years ago, the BBC will ensure that audiences in the region can continue to access independent news reporting in the face of systemic propaganda from a dictator waging war on European soil.

Its vital we lift the veil on and expose the barbaric actions of Putins forces, Dorries said.

James Cleverly, minister for Europe and North America at the FCDO, said the UK is calling out Putins lies and exposing his propaganda and fake news.

This new funding will help strengthen the BBCs impartial voice in Russia and Ukraine, which is critical to counter Russian disinformation and will help ensure we win the battle for the airwaves, he said.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie welcomed the news, saying he is hugely proud of the BBCs war coverage and his colleagues bravery and resilience.

Davie said the public broadcaster had seen a big demand for clear, fact-based, impartial journalism to counter disinformation and it will work around the clock to bring people the very best independent journalism.

This funding will also help us with the immediate need to support staff who have been displaced, many of whom are continuing to work and provide vital expertise to the whole of the BBC, while life changes dramatically around them. We pay tribute to their incredible strength and professionalism, he said.

Earlier this month, U.S. journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud and Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski were killed in Ukraine, while Fox News correspondent, British journalist Benjamin Hall was severely injured.

Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of Russian state television, was fined and is facing a possible prison sentence after protesting on-air against the invasion.

PA Media contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden looks on as he attends a North Atlantic Council meeting during an extraordinary summit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Announces New Sanctions Against Russia, Aid to Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden has announced new economic sanctions against Russia along with the latest aid package for Ukraine amid the ongoing war between the two countries.

The United States is again adding to its list of Russian targets, to include 400 new individuals and entities receiving full blocking sanctions. This latest tranche includes 48 state-owned defense companies, more than 300 members of the Russian legislature, and board members and heads of Russian financial institutions, the White House said in a March 24 statement.

Alongside Bidens announcement, the Group of Seven (G-7) countries and the European Union announced an initiative meant to prevent Russia from evading the sanctions already put in place against the country. This effort includes engaging with other governments on adopting sanctions similar to those already imposed by the G-7 and other partners, according to the White House.

The G-7 and EU also vowed to block transactions involving gold related to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, saying thats already covered by existing sanctions.

The Biden administration also announced that its prepared to provide an additional $1 billion in humanitarian aid to the Ukrainians and those who have fled the country, as well as $320 million meant to support societal resilience and defend human rights in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

The United States also announced plans to take in up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees through the full range of legal pathways, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

The announcements came out of an emergency NATO summit Biden attended in Brussels on March 24, the one-month anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The international security alliance announced the establishment of four new battle groups in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, with promises of additional forces and capabilities before the NATO summit in June.

Our joint statement today makes clear that NATO is as strong and united as it has ever been, Biden said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting via video link. Zelenskyy repeated requests for continued and increased Western security assistance, but, notably, there wasnt a request for a no-fly zone. There also wasnt a request for NATO membership in his remarks, according to a senior administration official.

The announcements come as fighting continues in major Ukrainian cities and a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wants unfriendly countries to start paying for Russian energy with rublesa move that could force European countries that rely on Russian energy products to help revive the weakened currency.

Officials say multiple speakers at the NATO meeting also made calls for China to not aid Russia in its war with Ukraine and for China to live up to its role as a U.N. Security Council member.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during her confirmation hearing to become a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, in Washington, on March 23, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Bitterness Erupts at Senate Judicial Hearings Over Brett Kavanaugh and Janice Rogers Brown

Graham: "We're not going to live in an America like that, any longer"

Bitterness and contentious interruptions erupted at the Senate confirmation hearings on March 23, as remembrances of the Brett Kavanaugh and Janice Rogers Brown hearings surfaced in the questioning of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kavanaugh was the Republican choice for the Supreme Court in 2018 and was plagued by charges of sexual misconduct that colored his nomination.

Brown, an African-American woman sitting on the California Supreme Court, was nominated by Republicans for the D.C. Circuit Court and was filibustered for two years by Democrats.

Those hearings were evidently fresh in the minds of Republicans who took the opportunity to bring Democrats to task over their behavior.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), opened his 20-minute portion of questions with a discourse reviewing the treatment of another woman of color, Janice Rogers Brown, a Republican nominee for a high judicial office.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on a probe of the FBIs Russia investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on Nov. 10, 2020. (Susan Walsh/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Graham agreed with the assessments of Jacksons nomination as a recognition of how far we have come as a nation, but wondered aloud why that assessment is not applied evenly.

He said, To my Democratic colleagues, I wish you had that same attitude when an African-American conservative is appointed to high office in the judiciary.

Brown was a single mother, Graham said, the daughter of Alabama sharecroppers and member of the California Supreme Court when she was nominated for the D.C. Circuit Court.

Instead of celebrating how far weve come, my Democratic colleagues filibustered her ascension to the D.C. Circuit Court. It is well known on our side that we [Republicans] were very much considering her to be the first African-American woman on the Supreme Court, he said.

No Longer

To Democrats, Graham said, Where were you and others, when there was a wholesale assault on her nomination? Nowhere to be found. The filibuster was used for two years to stop her nomination. Eventually, we got her through after two years.

Graham added, When asked about her [Brown] being on the Supreme Court, our current president said [then], I can assure you that would be a very, very, very difficult fight and she would probably be filibustered.

Thats what he said about an African-American conservative nominee by President Bush who had served five years on the California Supreme Court.

Graham shook his head and declared, Were not going to live in an America like that any longer.

To my Democratic colleagues, if youre a person of color, a woman supported by liberals, its pretty easy sailing. But if youre Miguel Estrada, Janice Rogers Brown, or Amy Coney Barrett, your life gets turned upside down.

Speaking to the room, while looking at Jackson, Graham said.

I want to remind you that another woman of color that was picked for the D.C. Circuit with one of the highest scores, was not met with that same fate [of acceptance] and those days should be over.

Jackson, who was not asked a question during Grahams statement, remained silent.

Sandwiched between his opening statement and final questions, Jackson and Graham sparred over child pornography issues, interrupting each other, before Graham once again returned to the treatment of Republican nominees to the bench, where tempers rose.

Ambushed

Heres one thing that wont happen to you, Graham told Jackson. How would you feel if I had a letter from somebody accusing you of somethinga crime, or misconductfor weeks and I gave it to Senator [Dick] Durbin just before the hearing is over and not allow you to comment on the accusation? How would you feel about that?

Jackson replied, Im not sure, Senator. I dont understand the context of the question.

Asked if she had seen the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, Jackson said No, but was generally familiar with what had happened.

As Graham began a response Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) interrupted and said Grahams allotted time had expired.

Instead of yielding, Graham responded with disbelief and became animated.

Please, Mr. Chairman, Graham protested. Shes filibustered every question Ive asked, and she has the right to give an answer, but Im trying to make a point in 20 minutes.

To Durbin Graham said, You were here for Kavanagh. If shes confused about what happenedand turning back to Jackson said, some people on the other side had an accusation against Judge Kavanaugh, that during high school, he sexually assaulted somebody, and the rest is history.

That was known to the people on the other side and never revealed during the meetings they had. Judge Kavanaugh was literally ambushed. How would you feel if we did that to you?

Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 14, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images)

Jackson said, Senator, I have appreciated the kindness each of you has shown to me, to see me in your offices, to talk with me about 

Graham interrupted with, That was not my question. Our 15-minute exchange [in Grahams office] was very pleasant, youre a very nice person and you have a lot to be proud of.

Graham forged ahead and lectured Democrats while speaking to Jackson.

I would never do that to you. If I had some information that was sketchy at best, that somehow you had done something wrong, I promise you, just from human decency, I would share it with you.

I would not disclose it at the last minute of the last day of the hearing, having already given it a newspaper so the whole country could read about it before you ever said a word.

Durbin tried to interject with, Senator, shes had nothing to do with the 

No, Graham interrupted heatedly, slapping his desk forcefully, but I am asking her about how she feels about what yall did, speaking over Durbin, who seemed to say that Jackson could not respond.

A few voices overlapped as the hearing degenerated into a call for order and those speaking struggled to be heard.

Durbin interrupted Graham again, saying, Senator, your time has expired and Im going to give her an opportunity to finally complete an answer.

Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh speaks at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on Sept. 27, 2018. (Michael Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images)

Jackson said, Senator I dont have any comment on what procedures took place in this body regarding 

What did you think about the Kavanaugh hearing? Lindsey interrupted.

What Id like to answer, Jackson said, Is your point of my sentencing in child pornography cases.

The remainder of the extended segment, approximately seven minutes, dealt entirely with Jackson expressing her views of the sentencing of those receiving child pornography, with Graham listening to Jackson before offering a summation.

No further replies referring to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings were given, nor further questions pursued.
This aerial photo shows newly produced cars lined up surrounded by recent snow at a BMW factory in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning Province on Nov. 17, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

BMW Suspends Production in China Due to COVID-19 Outbreak

German automaker BMW announced on March 23 that its plants in Shenyang, China, will temporarily shut down from March 24 due to the citys COVID-19 restrictions, with no date determined for resuming production.

Northeastern Chinas Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province with a population of 9.1 million, is home to BMWs largest production base in the world. The base is a joint venture between BMW and its Chinese partner, Brilliance China Automotive, and has two vehicle production plants, a research and development center, a powertrain plant, and a new vehicle plant that is under construction.

According to BMW Shenyang, the production capacity of its base is currently 760,000 vehicles per year. In 2021, the base manufactured over 700,000 cars, which is 27.8 percent of BMWs total production.

Employees are working on a production line of automobiles at the BMW factory in Shenyang in Chinas northeastern Liaoning Province on Nov. 22, 2017. (AFP via Getty Images)

Despite the citys strict COVID-19 restrictions, including quarantining international arrivals for 28 days at quarantine centers followed by another 28 days of home quarantine since last October, it is still suffering from outbreaks of COVID-19, with the situation deteriorating quickly in the past days.

On March 23, city authorities announced that all residents would be tested for COVID-19 for the fourth, fifth, and sixth times from March 24 to March 30, and said that no resident can avoid the tests.

Meanwhile, no residents are allowed to go to work except the ones who work directly in efforts to curb the outbreak. The regime allows residents who dont live in locked down neighborhoods to go out to shop for food if the resident can present a negative test result and a green health code on their cellphone app. But all the public transportation has stopped.

The residents living in locked down neighborhoods arent allowed to leave home in general, except to take a COVID-19 test organized with the government.

On March 22, the regime ordered the residents not to leave the city, and not shop online, saying that parcels might transmit the virus.

Shenyang city mass tested all residents three times from March 17 to March 23, reporting more and more infections.

On March 19, the regime announced that the variant spreading in the city was Omicron.

Volkswagen sedans are displayed prior to the 5th Changchun International Automobile Exhibition in Changchun of Jilin Province, China, on July 12, 2007. (China Photos/Getty Images)

Automaker Volkswagen has also suspended its vehicle production in Changchun, the capital city of Liaonings neighboring Jilin Province, due to a new wave of COVID-19.

Volkswagen has a joint venture production base in Changchun with the China FAW (First Automobile Works) Group. The base delivered 2.1 million vehicles in 2020.

On March 14, Chinese state-run media Securities Times reported that the China FAW Group had suspended production across all of its plants in Changchun, including the Volkswagen joint-venture, on March 13. The report said the suspension might last four days.

However, the outbreak keeps on deteriorating, with no sign from the authorities that they will ease restrictions for the plants to reopen for production.

We feel like the regime is having jokes on us. Its locked down more and more businesses, and shut down more and more factories. Nobody knows what it will do next, Qin Jun, a resident in Changchun, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on March 23.

Operations of all factories and businesses have stopped. An enterprise as big as China FAW Group has been suspended, Qin added.

China FAW Group had 129,000 employees in November 2021. In Changchun, the group has its own factories, and joint ventures with Volkswagen and Japanese automaker Toyota. In 2020, the group sold 3.7 million vehicles manufactured from its factories and joint venture plants.

Chinese employees are working on a production line of automobiles at a factory in Changchun in Chinas northeastern Jilin Province on Nov. 1, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Changchun, a hub of over nine million people, reported nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 infections in almost every district and county-level city on March 23. The city regime has asked that all residents stay home.

Changchun officials also said the city has built six makeshift hospitals in the past days, where 9,304 COVID-19 patients can receive treatment at one time. Meanwhile, hospitals in the city have capacity for another 12,513 patients.
Bob Sagets Widow Releases Statement After Claims He Felt Ill

Bob Sagets widow, Kelly Rizzo, said Thursday that the family is standing behind the medical examiners report after a crew member claimed told police investigators that the Full House star didnt feel good on the night he died in January.

The records released tell the entire storythat is, Bob passed away after a fall and hitting his head in his hotel room, the Saget familys attorney, Brian Bieber, said in a statement to the New York Post on behalf of Rizzo.

The statement added: Now that the medical examiners and police departments records have been released after their respective thorough investigations, the Saget family would appreciate privacy to mourn in peace.

It came after Rosalie Cocci, who produced Sagets comedy show at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall in Florida, told officials that Saget wasnt feeling well before his performance.

Of his performance, Cocci said, He wasnt sweating, he didnt miss a beat, nothing slurred.  He came out very energetic.

Im ready to do the show. This is what I do this for, Saget allegedly said before going on stage, Cocci told the Daily Mail. She also mentioned to investigators that Saget was suffering from long COVID-19 and told police that he had been sick the night beforehis hearing was off, and he had a sore throat.

An autopsy report that was released days after his death revealed that Saget, 65, had COVID-19 antibodies. It also said that he had suffered from multiple skull fractures, internal bleeding, contusions, and other injuries.

They ruled that he died due to blunt head trauma on Jan. 9. His death was ruled an accident.

The Orange County Sheriffs Department also released photos earlier this week to The Epoch Times that showed the Ritz-Carlton hotel room where Saget died. Audio that contained Coccis statement was also provided to The Epoch Times by the sheriffs office.

Rizzo and Sagets three daughters Aubrey, Lara, and Jenniferfiled a lawsuit against Orange County Sheriff John Mina and the District Nine Medical Examiners Office to prevent the release of his death records.

On March 14, a permanent injunction was granted to later prevent materials such as photographs and audio recordings from being released.

This Court finds that as a matter of law that there exists a lesser public interest in the disclosure of the Protected Records than the privacy and statutory rights of [the Saget family]. There is a legitimate public interest in government accountability in the performance of the Sheriffs Office and the Medical Examiner, Circuit Judge Vincent Chiu wrote.

However, in this case, there is no ongoing criminal investigation. The [authorities] have conducted thorough investigations, and there are no allegations of incompetence or misconduct in their respective roles.
British trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan poses for a photo after an interview in Ottawa on March 23, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Patrick Doyle)

British Minister Hopes for Free Trade Deal With Canada Within a Year

Britains trade minister says she hopes her country can finalize a formal free trade agreement with Canada within a year now that negotiations are set to start in earnest.

U.K. Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan offered that timeline in an interview with The Canadian Press after her arrival in Ottawa.

Trevelyan is set to announce the formal start of the talks with Canada on Thursday with Canadian counterpart Mary Ng.

I would hope that, you know, within a year would be realistic, Trevelyan said at the British High Commissioners residence in Ottawa. Were both keen to get on (with talks), but substance over speed is always my view.

Britain and Canada have already negotiated an interim trade agreement to replace the broader Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, that Canada negotiated with the European Union.

Britains decision to leave the EU after its Brexit referendum meant that it was forced out of CETA at the end of 2020. In November 2020, Britain and Canada inked the interim deal that preserved the main elements of CETA, including the elimination of tariffs on 98 percent of Canadian exports to Britain.

Trevelyan says it is critical for Britain to strike deals with Canada as well as gain entry to the 11-country Pacific Rim trade pact known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.

Canada is a founding member of the CPTPP  an alliance that former U.S. president Donald Trump unceremoniously withdrew his country from in 2017.

Trevelyan has just come from the United States, another key partner with whom Britain is looking forge a bilateral trade deal. Britain needs to recreate its international trading relationship because that was a task that fell under the bailiwick of the EU when it was a member.

Leaving the EU forced Britain to create a trade department literally from scratch, and Trevelyan was eager to point out that she had already helped craft two new deals for her country with Australia and New Zealand in recent months.

Trevelyan said she and Ng are focused on womens empowerment and providing them more access to finance to help them grow small- and medium-sized businesses.

That is particularly significant, she said, because the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionately hard effect on women that the new deal could help address.

We want to make sure we can give them the tools they need but also that we shift the dial on things like access to finance for women. There is this huge gap in the U.K., she said.

If we could rebalance female business at the same level of investment as mens, wed add something like 250 billion (U.K.) pounds to the economy. There is a massive gap there.

Trevelyan also said she wants to see an increase in Canadian investment in Britain, but she does not have a specific target in mind.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced Britain to join allies, including Canada, in imposing sanctions on oligarchs loyal to President Vladimir Putin, many of whom were heavily invested in London.

Trevelyan said Britain was poised to follow Canadas lead this week and revoke Russias most-favoured nation trading status, which will lead to 35-per-cent tariffs on all Russian goods including the luxury goods that Putins oligarchs are so fond of.

Trevelyan said Canadian and British business are very strongly taking the moral choice to step away from Russian trade, and thats hard on our businesses but that the joint action is necessary. She said Britain has now sanctioned 381 oligarchs.

Ng and Trevelyan also took part in a virtual G7 trade ministers meeting on Wednesday where they discussed further measures against Russia.

At a time of increased global volatility and shifting geopolitical environments, it is imperative that Canada boosts its economic resiliency by strengthening relations with reliable partners and longstanding allies such as the UK, said Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada.

He said the interim agreement between Canada and Britain has served its purpose, but the time has come for a more comprehensive and tailor-made deal with our third-largest export market.

By Mike Blanchfield
California Community Colleges Consider Diversity Quotas in Hiring, Tenure Review

The governing board that oversees the California Community Colleges (CCC) considered March 21 including diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the employee evaluation and tenure review process amid enrollment decline, and some have expressed concern, calling it a divisive measure.

The proposal (pdf) was introduced as part of the enrollment management strategy by Deputy Chancellor Daisy Gonzalez and Vice Chancellor Marty Alvarado, with an aim to advance student equitable outcomes by requiring the faculties to employ teachings that reflect DEIA and anti-racist principles, and in particular respect for, and acknowledgment, of the diverse backgrounds of students, according to the proposal.

We cant get to improve student outcomes, equitable student outcomes, eliminating achievement gaps and or addressing the issues that have come to this board previously in terms of the number of students that we lose every term until we get to really thinking about what happens in the classroom and the critical role that plays in our student retention and enrollment policies, Alvarado said to the board.

The proposal requires the Chancellor to establish guidance describing DEIA competencies and criteria for all employees for evaluation and use it as minimum standards in all districts.

In addition to faculty, the criteria would also require the administrators and staff members to promote DEIA and anti-racist principles and acknowledge the diversity of students of colleagues.

This regulatory action was questioned by multiple parties such as Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, a non-partisan and non-profit organization that seeks equal rights in public education.

By marrying DEIA with anti-racism, CCC has fully subscribed to all major tenets of critical race theory, read a statement issued by the foundation following the meeting. The proposed changes are illiberal and toxic, serving only to further inflame racial divisions and cover up real problems in our education system.

Additionally, the foundation said the action also pushes higher education toward ideological indoctrination and thought conformity through creating a uniform understanding of how to evaluate for all employees.

The presidents of the Community College Association of the California Teachers Association, the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers, and the California Community College Independents also expressed their concern in a letter (pdf) asking the board to make changes in the proposal.

They said that imposing the criteria solely identified by the Chancellor will deprive the collective bargaining right, adding that local involvement is essential to the formation of the evaluation criteria.

Collectively bargaining evaluation criteria is not only required by law; it is also the best way to ensure that evaluations have the desired impact, the letter reads.

The CCC governing board will further discuss the proposal at a future meeting.

A spokesperson for CCC did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline.
Canada Under the Gun as NATO Allies to Present Defence Spending Plans by June

Pressure from Canadas allies to boost the countrys defence budget marked the end of an extraordinary summit on the war in Ukraine, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed anew to increase military spending but with only vague suggestions of how to get there.

NATO members gathered Thursday in the Belgian capital, strategizing on the alliances latest response to Russias invasion of its neighbour and pledging to draw up plans by June to bolster spending on their respective militaries.

Trudeau said Canada agreed to that commitment, but repeatedly sidestepped questions during a closing news conference about whether and how his government would inject substantial new money into the Canadian Armed Forces.

The prime minister instead referred to his governments 2017 defence policy that promised to invest billions of dollars through new equipment and personnel. Trudeau said Canada had upped its investments in the military, as well as its contributions to NATO.

All NATO members pledged in 2014 to earmark two percent of their national gross domestic products for defence within the next decade. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that allies had agreed to redouble those efforts and submit plans on how to meet the pledge at a June meeting in Madrid, Spain.

NATO estimates that Canadas defence budget amounts to 1.39 percent of GDP. Even with the billions of new dollars promised by the Liberals defence policy for new aircraft, ships and other equipment, the country is projected to fall short of NATOs target.

Billions of additional dollars to meet the target will have to muscle space in federal spending plans already being shaped by a days-old deal with the NDP to introduce a bevy of new social programs like pharmacare and dental care in return for New Democrat support on key parliamentary votes.

We have always been committed to doing more on defence, and we will continue to do that, Trudeau said at the news conference.

The agreement with the NDP is very much about delivering on specific things for Canadians, but doesnt in any way impact on the choices we make and areas not covered by that agreement. Canadians expect us to be fiscally responsible.

Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute has estimated Canada would need to spend about $16 billion more per year on defence to meet NATOs target. It currently spends about $30 billion per year.

Theres no kind of easy, quick solution where the government waves a magic wand and were at two percent, Perry said.

The spending pledge came at the end of a remarkable day in Brussels where NATO, European Union and G7 leaders held a series of meetings about the situation in Ukraine, vowing further support for the country and blasting the Kremlins unprovoked invasion.

NATO leaders called on Moscow to immediately instigate a ceasefire in Ukraine, warned of severe consequences should Russia use chemical or biological weapons, and called on China to cease amplifying the Kremlins false narratives and work toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Leah Sarson, a foreign policy expert from Dalhousie University, said the meeting underscored the unity of like-minded partners and reinforced ways to prevent a disastrous expansion of hostilities beyond Ukraine. Decisions like sending more NATO troops to Europes eastern flank are going to be critical to that response, she said.

Measures from Trudeau included new sanctions against 160 members of the Russian Federation Council and a coming ban on the export of certain goods and technologies to Russia.

Canada and its allies have targeted hundreds of organizations and Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin. Trudeau said more may come and those already in place could stay for months or years.

The thing with sanctions like this is, yes, you can start feeling the impact after a few days or a few weeks as were seeing right now, he said, citing a devaluing of the ruble and Russian stock market troubles.

Over the coming months, as they continue, that pain will only get harder and harder and harder for the Russian economy to bear.

NATO leaders also heard an emotional address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who outlined the severe hardship his country has had to bear over the last month.

Russias attack has killed hundreds of civilians and thousands of soldiers, and displaced 10 million people since the fighting started one month ago.

Zelenskyy asked NATO for fighter jets and tanks to bolster his forces, chastised allies for failing to do everything possible and voiced frustration with a seeming lack of political will from the alliance to do more.

Ukraine is very much waiting, awaiting real action, real security guarantees, from those whose word is trustworthy, and whose actions can keep the peace, read Zelenskyys remarks posted online.

Trudeau indicated Canada is looking at buying and sending more weapons to Ukraine after Defence Minister Anita Anand indicated earlier this month that the Canadian Armed Forces own stockpile has been tapped out.

As President Zelenskyy has been asking for various new pieces of equipment, were looking to see what we can send, he said.

Were also committed to looking at procuring that equipment directly for the Ukrainians in other ways by working with allies and making investments necessary.

By Jordan Press
Minister of National Defence Anita Anand takes part in the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence in Ottawa, March 11, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Canadian Troops Ordered to Stay Away as Foreign Fighters Flock to Ukraine

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces have been banned from joining the thousands of foreigners who have flocked to Ukraine in recent weeks to help fight Russias invasion.

Vice-chief of the defence staff Lt.-Gen. Frances Allen told the House of Commons defence committee on Wednesday that the order came from Gen. Wayne Eyre, chief of the defence staff and it applies to both full-time service members and part-time reservists.

So for current CAF members, they are not permitted to be in the area, even if they were to be on leave, Allen told the committee as she appeared alongside Defence Minister Anita Anand.

The only exception is if their presence in Ukraine is specifically approved by Eyre, Allen added. She did not indicate whether any Canadian troops are currently in Ukraine.

Canada currently had 250 military trainers in Ukraine, but the federal government said they were withdrawn to neighbouring Poland shortly before Russian forces invaded the country.

The government said those troops were re-tasked with providing humanitarian support, but Anand did not give the committee an update, citing operational security.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the creation of an international brigade to help fend off a Russian invasion that began Feb. 24.

Thousands of foreigners have since answered that call to arms, including many Canadians, despite warnings from the federal government against all travel to the country.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Anand repeated those warnings Wednesday when asked what support the government will give Canadians captured by Russian forces.

Russia has reportedly threatened criminal prosecutions against any foreigners captured fighting in Ukraine.

Allen, meanwhile, raised the spectre of Moscow attempting to use captured foreign fighters for propaganda purposes.

Global Affairs has identified for Canadians the risks that are associated with going into a conflict zone at any given point in time, not only for their own physical safety and protection, but as well for disinformation, she said.

Foreigners who may be engaged in the country can be used in ways that are difficult and counterproductive to the work that is going on there through the disinformation campaigns that we know that Russia is very apt to use.

Some experts have also raised questions about the legality of Canadians fighting in another countrys war, as well as the potential security concerns given the presence of far-right paramilitary groups in Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine will be the focus of a special meeting of NATO leaders in Brussels on Thursday, which will include Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Anand told the committee that the government is continuing to look at ways to support Ukraine as it continues to hold out against Russian forces, including the potential of buying more weapons for its military.

We are doing whatever we can to assist Ukrainian soldiers at this time, including exploring the possibility of procurements from third-party suppliers, as well as liaising with our international partners to contribute to efforts to support Ukrainian soldiers in a bilateral way, she said.

By Lee Berthiaume
Capitol Report (March 23): Biden Warns of Chemical Threat; US Power Grid Vulnerable

President Joe Biden, off to an emergency NATO meeting Wednesday, warns of a real threat from Russia. Is it likely that Putin will us chemical weapons against Ukraine?

The FBI warns that Russia is exploring options for cyberattacks targeting the United States. Does Russia have the ability to shut down our power grid, and what would the consequences be for us if they did? To find out more, well hear from a film producer whos been working on an in-depth documentary about the vulnerability of our electric power grid.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is facing her final day of questioning today, and the heat has only gone up. What did she say about abortion, gender, and illegal immigrants?

House Republicans this week are gathering in Florida to get on the same page and finalize their partys top priorities. Theyre keeping in mind they should be prepared in the case that they take back the House majority later this year.

The United States has now officially declared that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine. We look at what those war crimes are and hear Congressman Buddy Carters thoughts on the issue.

Moderna is coming closer to gaining FDA approval to vaccinate Americas youngestbabies, toddlers, and teens. The company released information on its child vaccine study.

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Chickens take shelter from a rainstorm at the Nu Sunrise Farms in Griffin, Ga., on March 15, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

CDC Reveals If US Bird Flu Outbreak Poses Risk to Humans

Federal health officials are closely monitoring an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird influenza that has devastated poultry farms on the East Coast and in the Midwest in recent days.

While millions of birds have been culled due to avian influenza across the United States, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that there are no signs this strain of bird flu poses a threat to people yet.

No cases of H5N1, the strain, have been detected among people in the U.S., said CDC spokesperson Kate Grusich.

Based on past experience with earlier H5N1 bird flu virusesand what is known about this group of viruses from existing epidemiologic and genetic sequence dataCDC believes the health risk to the general public is low, Grusich told NBC News on Wednesday.

However, officials are watching to see whether the strain mutates, potentially posing a risk to people.

Data so far shows that the current H5N1 virus lacks mutations seen in past bird flu viruses that are associated with infected people, causing severe illness, the CDC said.

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday that it has confirmed a case of H5N1 in a commercial flock of 570,000 broiler chickens. As a result, they were humanely depopulated and disposed of, according to the agency.

[Highly pathogenic avian influenza] is a highly contagious virus that spreads easily among birds through nasal and eye secretions, as well as manure, the Nebraska department said in a statement. The virus can be spread in various ways from flock to flock, including by wild birds, through contact with infected poultry, by equipment, and on the clothing and shoes of caretakers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a March 24 update, confirmed the broiler chickens were culled. There have also been sizable outbreaks in Delaware, Maryland, Iowa, Wisconsin, and other states.

In recent days, more than 2.7 million commercial layer chickens were culled due to the virus, said the USDA. Another 5.3 million were also infected in Iowa, the agency said. There have been reports of backyard-kept flocks of chickens also contracting avian influenza in recent days.

According to the World Health Organizations data, 622 people were infected with H5N1 bird flu between 2003 and 2013, and about 60 percent of those individuals died.

Two people died from the H5N6 avian influenza in China, according to the Department of Health for Hong Kong in a statement issued in January of this year. The outbreak occurred in mainland China, not Hong Kong, the agency said.
Certain Schools in Virginia May Require Masks: Judge

Certain schools in Virginia may impose masking requirements despite a state law and executive order that bar such mandates, a federal judge ruled on March 23.

Schools where students of parents who sued over the law and order can require masking, U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon, a Clinton appointee, said in a five-page preliminary injunction ruling.

Federal law, specifically, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, preempt the challenged measures, Moon concluded.

Together, the law requires that schools be able to consider and afford disabled students reasonable modifications from otherwise applicable state or local laws, Moon wrote.

Plaintiffs have demonstrated theyre likely to succeed in their lawsuit, which alleges the state measures prevent or limit plaintiffs schools or school districts from considering plaintiffs individualized requests that some amount of masking is necessary as a reasonable modification to that otherwise applicable Virginia law, he said.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, on Feb. 16 signed the law that gives parents the right to decide whether their child wears a mask in school. Before that, he signed an order that stipulated the same requirements, amounting to a ban on mask mandates.

The parents who sued alleged the order discriminated against students with disabilities and claimed it heightened the risk that their kids would contract COVID-19 because masks help prevent transmission of the virus.

According to exhibits entered in the case, doctors have advised some of the parents not to let their children attend school if a mask mandate is not in place.

On the other hand, Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Colin Greene noted to the court that children are at a low risk of severe illness from COVID-19. He also said mask mandates had questionable effectiveness, particularly after the emergence of the Omicron virus variant, and that forced masking has downsides, such as making it difficult to breathe.

Plaintiffs had sought a statewide block of the measures barring mandates, but Moon issued a targeted injunction that only applies to the schools where plaintiffs children attend. That is 12 schools, including Brownsville Elementary School in Albemarle County, Enon Elementary School in Chesterfield County, and Quioccasin Middle School in Henrico County.

A preliminary injunction means the block is in place temporarily and could be removed in the future or made permanent.

Christopher Seaman, a law professor at W&L Law School and one of the plaintiffs, called the ruling a victory, while Tasha Nelson, another plaintiff, said on Twitter that the order meant we can ask [for] peer masking as a reasonable accommodation.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, noted in a statement that the order and law remain in force, quoting from the ruling.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin smile during the welcoming ceremony on the final day of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on April 27, 2019. (Valery Sharifulin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

China Drawing Back From Helping Russia Offset Effect of Western Sanctions: Analyst

While China may initially have planned to help Moscow offset the effect of Western sanctions, Beijing has now shifted gears after seeing its devastating impact on Russias economy, according to China analyst Antonio Graceffo.

Less than three weeks before Russias invasion, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Beijing during which they announced a no limits partnership as well as oil and gas deals worth more than $117 billion. They also set a goal to boost bilateral trade to $250 billion by 2024.

Graceffo, an economic analyst, believes that Beijing may have known about the invasion then and pledged to help Moscow in the form of economic support.

It looked like they [Beijing] were setting up  an economic shield to protect Russia against sanctions that might come from the Ukraine invasion, Graceffo, also a contributor to The Epoch Times, recently told EpochTVs Forbidden News program.

But the Chinese regime did not expect how devastating Western sanctions would end up being. The impact of sanctions on Russia, according to Graceffo, is unprecedented in magnitude and effectiveness.

The economic damage thats being done to Russia, its just absolutely catastrophic relative to the Russian economy, he said.

As a result of certain Russian lenders removal from the global SWIFT payment system, other trade embargoes, and the exodus of Western businesses, the analyst said, at least maybe 30 to 40 percent of the Russian economy, if not more, has just been wiped out by the sanctions.

All told, Graceffo believed that Russia was looking at more than $700 billion in damage to its economy.

China, meanwhile, is in no position to make up for such losses. In Graceffos view, even if the two countries agreed to increase their trade fourfold over the next five years to $400 billion, and factoring in Chinas new gas pipeline with Russia that the analyst believes will bring Moscow over $100 billion, Beijing could hardly make up for the loss incurred to Russia both in the short and long terms.

Whats more, Beijing risks being targeted by sanctions itself if it were to help Russia evade Western sanctions.

If the West were to embolden themselves to stand up to China in the same way, to bring the same types of sanctions against China  it would bring down even China, the expert said.

I believe that China saw what happened to Russia. And this may be part of why theyre trying to change their stance now. They dont want the same thing to happen to them, he added.

In this scenario, both the United States and Europe would boycott trading with the worlds second-largest economynot to mention other economic powers that are its main trading partners including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea who would join in and cut off their trade deals.

In addition, foreign companies generating over half of Chinas exports would withdraw from this Asian country.

Given these possibilities, the expert said that China is looking carefully at the strength of the Wests response to Russias aggression.

If we show a weak reaction  China will then step up their workarounds [to Russia sanctions], he said. Theyll do more of these workaround behaviors, and it will nullify a lot of the sanctions.

Hannah Ng China Reporter Follow
China Should Further Integrate Its Economy With the West to Deter Possible Future Sanctions, Chinese Scholar Argues

China should further integrate with the global market so that it could cause pain to any country that chooses to sanction the communist regime, a Chinese scholar argued during a recent interview with state-run media, saying that this was a lesson that Beijing should draw after seeing the effect of Western sanctions on Russias economy amid the Ukraine war.

The country must stride toward greater opening-up in global trade and investment to deter sanctions, as the West would dare not punish Beijing fearing that they would also suffer economic damage from such a move, said Zheng Yongnian, a director on global and contemporary China studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

Chinas economy, deeply embedded in the West, will already make the West feel real pain, Zheng told Chinas hawkish state-run newspaper The Global Times on March 18. In this way, such sanctions will be difficult to sustain.

He said domestic enterprises must keep expanding globally at any cost, calling it a huge lesson for China from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Russia is currently feeling the economic pain caused by unprecedented Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Economists expect the sanctions will push the country into a deep depression, which it may not recover from for years.

Yet sanctions have not deterred Russian President Vladimir Putins military aims. He has put his countrys nuclear forces on high alert several days after launching the war. Its foreign minister warned earlier this month of a nuclear and destructive third world war amid the ongoing conflict.

Zheng claimed that China will not even need to threaten use of such weapons to defend itself in the event of a future conflict, because the country would be able to win the battle on the economic warfare front.

But an observer said China would be more vulnerable and has more to lose under the same circumstances, given that Russia is more self-sufficient in food and energy while China is heavily dependent on imports for a range of commodities including soybeans, crude oil, and natural gas.

Without international trade, Chinas economy would be set back by more than 50 percent, an unnamed market watcher recently told Taiwanese state news agency CNA, saying the achievements of Chinas reform and opening up over the past 40 years will disappear in an instant.

On global equity markets, China has also appeared to be the major casualty of the Ukraine war, as mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stocks suffered several deep sell-offs since the invasion.

Chinese leader Xi Jinpings book, translated into foreign languages, is on display at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing on Dec. 1, 2017. (Fred Dufour/AFP)

The communist regime seeks to reshape the global order into its own image, Western officials and experts have warned, so that political, military, and economic affairs can be conducted on Beijings terms across the world.

The Chinese Communist Party insists on making the Chinese people and the people of all countries to have the same destiny, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said last July in a speech to political party leaders from over 100 developing countries.

Over the past years, Chinese policymakers have also used economic coercion to intimidate countries that have criticized Beijing. Since mid-2020, for example, Beijing has targeted Australia after it called for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 by restricting imports such as beef, coal, and grapes, and imposing tariffs on the countrys barley and wine.
A man reads the Chinese state-run newspaper with coverage of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which supports Russias invasion, on a street in Beijing, China, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images)

China Trolls the World: Everyone Is to Blame for the Ukraine CrisisExcept Us

Commentary

As the U.S.-led Western world continues to fail in pressuring China to condemn Russia and its military operations in Ukraine, one is left to wonder: Are our policymakers just going through the political motions, repeating talking points that are passed down through think-tanks and academia, or are they truly just downright naive?

China wont condemn Russia. It wasnt going to do it before, its not doing it now, and it will never do it in the future. The seeming inability for our leaders to comprehendagain, purposefully or notthis fact leads to deaf-mute policy responses that allow Beijing to falsely represent itself as the responsible actor in various scenarios.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has resolutely presented itself as the intermediary between the Western world and Russia, pretending to be the facilitator of peace. Its pronouncements refuse to condemn Moscow while simultaneously denouncing NATO expansion and careless U.S. foreign policy, claiming to somehow still support Ukraines absolute sovereignty; in other words, every party involved is to blame except for China.

This stance has manifested in Beijings role in major world events throughout the previous week.

While purporting to stand for compromise and peace, the CCP condemns all U.S.-led sanction attempts on Russia or other third parties (especially itself) as being contrary to international law. Instead, Beijing claims that it is the true champion of peace and human rights.

The U.S. statement [on placing sanctions on China] is full of ideological bias and political lies, discrediting China and suppressing Chinese officials for no reason. What the United States has done violates international law and norms and grossly interferes in Chinas internal affairs, said Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

In other words, the fact that the United States is even attempting to respond to Russias aggression is in bad faith because the United States does not live up to the standard it professes to represent.

This same sentiment was captured in Chinese state-controlled medias coverage of the March 18 video call between CCP leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden.

Whereas Xi approached the talks in good faith and the hope for peace, Biden represents an aggressive mode of U.S. foreign policy that is not a civilized manner of conducting international affairs, according to Beijings mouthpiece Peoples Daily.

The Peoples Daily published other articles on the issue that discuss how the United States is adding fuel to the conflict, reestablishing a new [geopolitical] inquisition, and how its response is just thinly veiled racism!

(That latter point may play well for those American citizens who still pay attention to U.S. legacy media.)

This is compared to China, which is instead peace-loving and accommodative. One article states that peace is a hallmark of Chinas foreign policy. Indeed, China has not overtly engaged in many overseas military engagements; however, do the same principles apply in Beijings domestic policies?

It would be hard to argue that peace is a hallmark of Chinas internal governance for those who have dissenting opinions, belong to persecuted minority groups such as the Tibetans or Uyghurs, or wish to freely and openly engage in organized religion.

Supporters of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement rally in front of the British Embassy in Washington on April 16, 2021. The group calls for Uyghurs and other Turkic people fleeing Xinjiang to be granted refugee status and calls for an international boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Russian state media has been happy for a partner who is willing to stand up and say that the United States past foreign policy follies negate it from having the ability to condemn anything in the international arena. Their headlines proudly report that Washington was unable to pit China against Moscow.

Well, of course, it couldnt. Again, are our leaders that naive to believe that Beijing would have ever acquiesced to Western demands for it to denounce a situation from which it can gain a geopolitical advantage?

Instead, we have once again provided the CCP with the opportunity to assume the undeserved moral high ground. Beijing loves to play the nonjudgmental, more responsible older sibling watching over the international situation that has ensued because of the misbehavior of those miscreant, toddler-like Western democracies.

One of the other Chinese articles alluded to as much: [Beijings maturity] is due to the fact that China is an ancient civilization, which has passed through many ups and downs in its long history, having learned in the process that peace ought to be the ultimate goal of humankind.

Another article: In the face of nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths, over 40,000 gun violence victims each year, and tens of thousands of victims of racial discrimination, the United States should reflect on its own human rights deficit.

In other words, those silly Americans with their notions of natural rights, liberty, and personal autonomy rather than collective devotion to the centralized state and party. Better to live in total lockdown and constant government oversight over the CCP virus rather than undergo a personal cost-benefit analysis of ones risks to the negligence-derived pandemic.

As for the issue of gun violence, misrepresented by the article, the notion of having a God-given right to self-preservation and duty to oppose tyrannical governance is enough to cause an involuntary outburst of hysterical laughter in a CCP Politburo meeting.

The last point about victims of racial discrimination, while also significantly exaggerated, is another line that would likely gain some head-nodding approval from those few still watching U.S. mainstream media, though.

The rupturing of ties between Western-aligned nations and Russia also provides plenty of room for China to step in as the ostensible peacemaker. This past week additionally saw the termination of negotiations between Russia and Japan for a peace treaty between the two over World War II. Once again, Beijing was one of the first nations to step in and denounce Tokyos acquiescence to the U.S.-led sanction regime against Moscow and urge all sides to mend ties and seek peace.

Still, treating China like another Western nation on the world stage is our own mistake. Even Beijing would agree with such an assessment. Instead, our pleas for the CCP to follow the U.S. lead and denounce Russia not only allows it to then look solid and firm in its conviction when it says no, but also allows China to pretend to be the cooler head urging restraint from all parties involved.

Standing up to the United States also wins applause from other rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea. Russia stuck it to the United States, and economic heavyweight China came to their defense. Maybe if we also cause revisionist trouble in our neighborhood, Beijing will come to our aid as well.

A realistic assessment of the geopolitical situation would lead the United States to expect less from China. Why our policymakers continuously fail to reach the appropriate conclusion from the given circumstances begs the same question as that asked at the beginning of this article: Do they even really believe what they are saying anyway, or are they just plain naive?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
China Warned Not to Help Russia Evade Sanctions, Obtain Semiconductors: Biden Administration

The Biden administration warned China on March 23 not to help Russia evade Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, saying G7 countries will soon announce a unified initiative to prevent systematic sanctions busting.

All countries will be held to the same requirements, U.S. officials said, although China has been receiving special attention after Beijing announced a no-limits partnership with Russia shortly before the war in Ukraine began.

Thats not specifically about China, but it will apply to every significant economy and the decisions that any of those economies take to try, in an intentional and active way to undermine or weaken the sanctions that we put in place, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One.

President Joe Biden is on a trip to Europe where he is scheduled to attend an emergency NATO summit in Brussels on March 24, when leaders of the 30-nation bloc will discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and challenges posed by the Chinese regimes tactic support.

Biden will also meet with other G7 leaders and European Union leaders, before traveling to Warsaw, Poland on March 25.

Sullivan said Washington has already communicated this message to China.

We expect similar communication by the European Union and individual European countries. And were also on the same page in that regard, Sullivan said.

The European Union and China are scheduled to hold a summit on April 1, where the Ukraine crisis will be front and center.

The U.S. Commerce Department has imposed sweeping restrictions on exports to Russia, banning Moscows access to U.S. semiconductors, computers, telecommunications, and information and security equipment.

The United States is concerned that Beijing and China-based companies could help Russia backfill and obtain these restricted items, Sullivan said.

We obviously have tools available to us to ensure that backfilling cant happen, he added.

Sullivan also warned Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by Western sanctions.

He added that the United States and G7 allies will respond to any systematic efforts, industrial-scale efforts to try to reorient the settlement of financial payments targeted by the sanctions.

On Feb. 26, the United States, the European Union, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK announced joint action to remove certain Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system.

Separately, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, in an interview with Reuters on March 23, warned China against sending semiconductors to Russia, saying that all Chinese semiconductor companies relied on U.S. software for the manufacturing of these tiny chips.

If we find that they are selling chips to Russia, then we can essentially shut them down by denying them use of that software, and were absolutely prepared to do that, Raimondo said.

The fabrication of semiconductors, which are powerful chips that power everything from smartphones to missiles, require thousands of manufacturing steps. First, the chips need to be designed using IC design softwares that are known as electronic design automation (EDA) tools.

China is yet unable to develop its own EDA tools and such software development is currently dominated by American companies such as California-based companies Synopsys and Cadence.

She said that the United States was monitoring hour by hour, minute by minute for possible violations of its export controls on Russia.

Raimondo said she had not yet seen any China-based firms violating U.S. export controls, but added that the U.S. Commerce Department does not disclose investigations or enforcement actions before they are finalized.

What youre seeing now is really unprecedented levels of cooperation between the U.S. and our like-minded allies, Raimondo said. Im sure that China takes notice that America is strong and that our relationship with our partners is stronger than its been in a long time.
Medical workers in protective suits prepare to take a sample for a nucleic acid test for a resident at a makeshift testing site, following a COVID-19 outbreak, at a residential compound in Shanghai, China March 20, 2022. (David Stanway/Reuters)

Chinas Local Governments Have Financial Difficulties Following Zero-COVID Policy

Chinese authorities admitted on March 19 that outbreaks of new COVID-19 cases occurred in multiple cities at the same time. Although the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) still claims that Dynamic Zero-COVID strategy suits the situation in China, analysts believe that this policy will make the already difficult local finances even more strained.

Liang Wannian, head of the expert panel for Chinas pandemic response, clarified that the new dynamic Zero-COVID policy can have two meanings. One, is the ideal situation of absolutely no patients, and the other, is that as soon as there is a new outbreak, patients are quickly identified so that the outbreak can be nipped in the bud.

While touting Chinas Zero-COVID policy, Liang denigrated the concept of Coexisting with the virus in the West as lying flat, meaning, a passive do-nothing approach.

He also stressed that quick identification requires that antigen tests and PCR tests should complement each other. Regardless of the test method, the funding for mass testing is a pressing burden for local governments.

Taking Zhengzhou as an example, from Jan. 3 to Jan. 11, the citys entire 12 million population went through four rounds of PCR tests, and the most suspect individuals went through six rounds of tests. The cost was 24 to 48 yuan (about $3.80-$7.70) per test per person, and the total sum was certainly a considerable amount.

Albert Song, a financial analyst with 27 years of experience in Chinas financial industry, told The Epoch Times on March 21 that Chinas local finances are already under great pressure, and the CCPs zero-COVID policy has exacerbated the conflict between the central and local finance departments.

The conflict is increasingly intensified and is becoming increasingly obvious, Song said.

He also revealed that he received inside information from China. Some local governments actually hope that the pandemic situation in China will become very bad, so that the central government will have to ease the pandemic control measures and end the absolute zero policy. Thats why there is this new term dynamic zero-COVID. I think China will gradually ease its pandemic control measures, which have proven unworkable in other countries, he said.

Conflicts of Central and Local Financial Departments

The financial distress of local governments can be seen from the scale of new loans issued and the degree of dependence local governments have on the central government.

Chinese authorities usually determine the scale of new debt after the Two Sessions each year, and the money is gradually distributed from central government to provincial level, then to city level and county level in May and June.

However, due to financial constraints in recent years, the debt scale was announced in mid-December last year, when 1.788 trillion yuan (about $281 billion) of new debt was added. About 70 percent of it has been issued so far.

Moreover, Chinese Premier Li Keqiangs recently released 2022 Government Work Report stated that transfer payments from the central government to local governments reached nearly 9.8 trillion yuan (about $1.6 trillion) this year, an increase of 1.5 trillion yuan (about $240 billion) from last year.

Transfer payments are funds returned from central government to local governments after the former collects tax revenues from the latter. Due to corruption, many local governments have been running at a loss for a long time.

Song explained that it is through transfer payments that the central government controls local governments.

The central governments centralization in recent years is characterized by financial power is in the hands of the upper level while administrative power is transferred to lower levels. That is to say, the central government has seized financial power, and the control ratio has reached 70 percent, but the power to handle administrative affairs has been released, Song said. Local governments receive less money, but have more jobs to do. They have to rely on the transfer payments from the central government. This has become the focus of the conflict between the two.

Moreover, local governments are seeing drastically reduced revenues as their income from land sales has dropped significantly, amid tightened regulation by the central authorities. According to Song, local officials have a lot of complaints in this regard.

Now Chinas economy is declining, tax revenue is limited, and the real estate market has cooled down. Both the central government and local government are facing serious pressures. At present, the conflict between central and local finance is getting more and more intensified, Song said.

The Financial Blue Book: Chinas Fiscal Policy Report (2021) released by the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences on Aug. 18, 2021 disclosed that by 2025, the fiscal gap is projected to reach 10.65 trillion yuan (about $1.7 trillion).

Shanghai Has Changed Its Pandemic Measures

Wu Fan, an expert in the Shanghai Pandemic Prevention and Control Expert Group, said on March 18 that Shanghais pandemic control practice will be changed.

Wu said that Shanghai, a mega city with a population of nearly 30 million, would not be locked down or suspended for pandemic control. In a sense, we are forced to take this approach, because Shanghai is not just a city of the people of Shanghai. It is a city of all the Chinese people, she said. Its importance to Chinas economic and social development is irreplaceable, and local economic activities will even affect the overall situation of the international economy.

Wu Fan said that if Shanghais container ports are suspended, many international trade shipments will be implicated. During a 10-day lockdown, migrant workers have to stop working, and all kinds of losses would be too great to bear, Wu added.

Regarding the severity of the epidemic in Shanghai, Wu said, The previous number of cases reported was only the tip of the iceberg  The staff at Shanghais CDC and grassroots pandemic control teams are already exhausted.
Ten Rohingya men with their hands bound kneel as members of Burmese security forces stand guard in Inn Din village, Burma, on Sept. 2, 2017. Later, pictures reportedly emerged of the same mens bodies in a shallow grave. (File Photo/Reuters)

Chinas Other Genocide: Against the Rohingya in Burma

The US has recognized the genocide against the Rohingya in Burma, but not Chinas culpability

News Analysis

After five years of terror against the Rohingya in Burma (also known as Myanmar), the U.S. government finally designated it as a genocide. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the determination on March 21 at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

The genocide designation took so long because Washington did not want to drive the Burmese regime further into the arms of China. Officials had hopes of instead easing the Burmese military junta from the illiberal embrace of Beijing.

But after a coup in February 2021, less than two weeks following President Joe Bidens inauguration, a deteriorating environment for the Rohingya, including additional murders, and a war launched by Russia that approaches a new genocide against Ukrainians, the Biden administration is changing its mind.

The murders, rapes, maiming, torture, and village burnings that occurred in Burmas Rakhine State since 2017 have resulted in the flight of as many as 1.1 million people. Over 900,000 now live in Bangladeshs refugee camps. Approximately 600,000 are trapped in Burma, where they face severe persecution by the military regime in a conflict environment.

Perhaps the current terror against Ukrainians, 10 million of whom have now fled a country with a prior population of just 44 million, spurred Bidens action on the Rohingya. Calling Russias violence against the Ukrainian state and populationwhich Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to erasea genocide would be the right thing to do.

We know genocide when we see it, and failing to label such mass forms of violence against civilians for what it is, gives the world an excuse not to take action and accept its responsibility to protect (R2P).

The Rohingya and Ukraine genocides now join the others currently ongoing against the Tigray people of Ethiopia, and the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Falun Gong of China. Not all these genocides are presently recognized.

But what should be recognized is that all of them have top cover from Beijing. All the dictatorial regimes that impose genocide know that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)which seeks to cleanse its population of all religious and linguistic diversity in favor of not just Chinese communism, but Han communism under the rule of one man: CCP leader Xi Jinpingsimultaneously supports the right of other regimes to similarly repress diversity in their populations.

The CCP thus exports its acceptance of genocide to the dictatorships over which it has influence, including most obviously Russia, Burma, and Ethiopia. Who knows which other countries Beijing is now encouraging through its realist foreign policy that ignores ethics, norms, and human rights to engage in genocide. It could be Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Syria. It could be the Philippines. All have been particularly violent in their domestic or foreign policies.

Rohingya refugees make their way along a beach after arriving by boat at Shah Porir Dip, Bangladesh, on Sept. 14, 2017. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

What matters most for the CCP is power, and it has plenty of it to encourage the chaos and power vacuums globally into which it can step and save the day by offering itself as a mediator. Power grows from the barrel of a gun, according to Chairman Mao Zedong, and Xi is now making that real on a global level through encouraging massacres and genocides against its own and other populations.

On the Rohingya repression, China has worked to stymie U.N. sanctions that might otherwise have been imposed on the Burmese regime.

Chinas aggressive support for and defense of the Myanmar military in international fora, such as the United Nations, provides the regime diplomatic cover, according to Rachel Lambert at the Wilson Centers Asia Program in Washington.

By defending the Burmese regime, Beijing makes the Rohingya genocide its own.

Lambert noted in a 2022 article that China is even trying to use the crisis to sell its development exports to Burma and avoid any precedent of R2P against genocide.

China certainly has economic and geostrategic interests in Myanmar: it has large investments in Myanmar and naturally opposes other nations increasing their influence in a close neighbor, according to Lambert.

However, Beijings interference in the plight of the Rohingya appears based fundamentally in concerns over setting precedents that could impact its own internal policies, particularly in Xinjiang.

On a January 2021 trip by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Burma, the minister promised support to Burmas handling of the Rohingya and other ethnic issues, along with progress on Burmese development projects that favor Beijing.

The two regimes agreed to launch a study of a possible rail link between Burmas Kyaukphyu port and Mandalay, the countrys second-largest city. Thus, Beijing seeks to further tie Burma to its economy through the debt required to build the rail and an additional rail connection to its Yunnan Province. China already has a pipeline network that moves oil and gas to Yunnan from the Bay of Bengal.

As far back as 2018, the United States Institute of Peace noted that Beijing protects Burma from U.N. sanctions. The CCP regime has offered rhetorical and material support for its handling of the so-called [Rohingya] terrorist attacks, according to USIP.

Counter-terrorism was Burmas excuse for its genocide against the Rohingya, just as it was the CCPs excuse for genocide against the Uyghurs.

As with atrocities elsewhere, the genocide against the Rohingya attracted global opprobrium to Burma and forced the government into the arms of China. Knowing this dynamic, Beijing has had every incentive to support Burma in its repression, including promises of economic trade and diplomatic support at the United Nations.

It is long past time for the world to recognize how the CCP has had a horrific impact against peace and human rights not only in China but globally from Europe through Africa and into Southeast Asia. Once this is recognized, the world can finally start taking effective action in its defense, including through greater economic sanctions on Beijing.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
People follow turbulence on the stock exchange in Zurich, Switzerland, on Jan. 15, 2015. (AP Photo/Keystone, Walter Bieri)

Chinese Industrial Giants to List in Switzerland as Chinese Stocks Face Delisting Pressure in US

Since Chinese companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange face increasing pressure of being delisted, some are now considering listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange through Global Depository Receipts (GDR), bank certificates listing shares in two or more countries.

Two Chinese manufacturing giants, Sany Heavy Industry and Lepu Medical Technology, have recently announced plans to list on the Swiss Exchange.

The decision would broaden international financing channels and advance our companys international business development, the two companies stated.

Following their statements, Chinese battery manufacturer, Gotion High-tech, also announced plans on March 17 to use the SIX Swiss Exchange through GDR.

None of the three companies disclosed financial information details or listing dates, saying details were still pending approval by their boards of directors and regulatory authorities before actual implementation.

In response to their announcements, Jurg Schneider, SIX Swiss Exchange spokesperson, told the AWP Financial News that everything is ready on their side, as the GDR listing segment has existed since 2007, it has just never been used.

Failure to Meet Audit Requirements In US

On March 10, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned it would delist five Chinese companies for failing to meet audit requirements under the Foreign Accountability Act. The five companies would be the first batch to be held accountable under the Act since its adoption in 2020.

Additionally, because the Chinese Securities Act prohibits Chinese-based companies from turning over audit documents to the United States, all Chinese companies listed on the U.S. stock market may be subject to delisting.

Chinese stocks listed in the U.S. plunged following the SECs warning.

Furthermore, the Russia-Ukraine war worsened investors expectations as China refused to condemn Russias attacks, prompting concerns about potential sanctions on China by the United States.

Similarly, the Hong Kong stock market and the China A-Share market have also suffered significant losses recently as the Hang Seng Index dropped to a six-year low on March 15.

Faced with these financial uncertainties, the Chinese regimes Financial Stability and Development Committee held a meeting on March 16, presided over by Vice Premier Liu He.

Six days prior to the meeting, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) released provisions on depository receipts, which emphasized the need for expanding to stock exchanges outside the country and allowing companies to list on the Swiss and German stock markets.

The plans announced by the three Chinese companies, Sani, Lepu, and Gotion, to list in Switzerland, appear to correlate to the new policies discussed during this meeting. All three companies have called their decisions a response to the domestic capital market policies of deepening financial connections with European markets.

The European Union became Chinas largest trading partner in the first two months of 2022, surpassing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by $570 million, at $828.1 billion dollars in bilateral trade.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seen in Washington, on June 11, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Chinese National Convicted of Fraudulently Obtaining US Visas for Individuals Working for Beijing

A Chinese national from New Jersey has been convicted of fraudulently obtaining U.S. visas to get Chinese government employees into the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on March 23.

Liu Zhongsan, 59, of Fort Lee, was arrested and charged in September 2019. He was convicted on March 22 of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit visa fraud, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years. Sentencing was set for July 11, according to the DOJ.

Liu Zhongsan sought to exploit the J-1 research scholar programwhich is intended to allow foreign nationals to conduct research at approved U.S. institutionsfor the improper purpose of enabling his conspirators to work for the Chinese government in the United States, against the rules of the research scholar program, said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement.

From 2017 to September 2019, Liu operated an office of the China Association for International Exchange of Personnel (CAIEP) in Fort Lee, helping several individuals fraudulently obtain a J-1 visa, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial. The J-1 research scholar program allows foreign nationals to come to the United States for a short-term visit for the primary purpose of conducting research at a research institute, corporate research facility, museum, library, university, or similar types of institutions.

CAIEP is a Chinese regime agency that recruits U.S. scientists, academics, engineers, and other experts who assist in Beijings technological and economic development needs, according to prosecutors. This overseas agency is under the control of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), which is, in turn, a department within Chinas cabinet-like State Council.

Before running the office in Fort Lee, Liu worked for nearly 26 years at CAIEP in China and SAFEA. He is a former general director of the Secretariat of CAIEP in China, according to the criminal complaint.

In 2019, the FBI said that these Chinese individuals with J-1 visas came to the United States seeking to recruit top U.S. talent to benefit the government of China.

The criminal complaint also claimed that Liu took part in recruitment efforts for one of Chinas well-known state-run recruitment programs, the Thousand Talents Plan.

Two individuals that Liu helped were identified by the DOJ on March 23Sun Li and Liang Xiao.

In about April 2018, Liang received a J-1 visa to conduct research at an unnamed U.S. university, prosecutors said, but she was in reality a CAIEP employee. Liu took several measures to help enhance Liangs false appearance as a research scholar, including ensuring her obtaining a U.S. drivers license and disguising her CAIEP salary as a subsidy for a research scholars living expenses.

Liu also reached out to multiple unidentified U.S. universities in order to have one of them invite Sun, a prospective CAIEP employee, to come to the United States as a J-1 research scholar, the DOJ said.

Lius conviction reflects this offices commitment to holding to account those who seek to defraud this countrys visa system and the agencies responsible for its administration, Williams said.
The Netflix logo is seen on the Netflix, Inc. building on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on Oct. 19, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Cowen Analyst Comments Netflixs New Password Sharing Experiments

Cowen analyst John Blackledge said Netflix Inc.s new password sharing tests in three Latin American countries could yield a long-term revenue opportunity.

Cowens monthly survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers suggested that 42 percent of U.S. users share a Netflix password leaving Netflix well-positioned to pursue ways to monetize these subscribers.

If Netflixs test worked and the company rolled the program out globally, it could add $1.6 billion in global revenue, or 4 percent upside to Cowens 2023 estimates.

Blackledge has an Outperform rating on Netflix.

By Anusuya Lahiri

 2021 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
CSIRO to Release Foreign Fungi to Control Coastal Invasive Weed for Penguin Nests

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced that it will be releasing the Venturia paralias fungi to attack the invasive coastal weed called sea spurge that is threatening nesting sites of native Australian little penguins as well as coastal vegetation.

Our research found that the fungus is highly specific towards sea spurge. Based on our results, the fungus was approved by the regulator for release in Australia, Caroline Delaisse, CSIRO research technician said.

The fungi was originally found to cause leaf and stem lesions on sea spurge plants in the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast of France and will be released at Port Campbell in Victoria, a common nesting area for little penguins.

Delaisse said the fungus was isolated from diseased sea spurge plants and tested in France. After yielding positive results on its host range, the biocontrol agent was then imported to CSIROs quarantine facility and studied extensively in Australia.

The CSIROs studies in 2021 on the funguss host range found the fungus to be very selective and only caused the same symptoms of disease in sea spurge and Euphorbia segetalis; the most phylogenetically related species to the sea spurge present in Australia.

For three other susceptible hosts the fungus penetrated the leaf and developed an initial infection but did not expand further, therefore CSIRO researchers determined that the species will not pose a threat to valued non-target Euphoribaceae species if introduced to Australia.

CSIRO scientist and lead author of the study, Gavin Hunter said the introduced sea spurge from Europe is problematic for nesting coastal birds, including penguins.

Though there are no specific evidence reported of the species damaging sites, there are reports that the weed can alter sand dune structures, making them steeper and more likely to erode.

The plant is also a prolific seed producer, with a mature sea spurge capable of producing up to 20,000 seeds per year. The weed can grow anywhere on the beach above the high-water mark, taking over sand and dune vegetation.

Sea spurge grows along Australias southern coastline and is a concern for coastal ecosystems. Were hopeful the biocontrol agent will help reduce the dense weed from penguin nesting sites at Port Campbell, and many other beaches along the coastline where the weed occurs, Hunter said.

The weed also has a sap which can cause irritation to animals as well as humans.

Hunter said the current methods of removing sea spurge physically by hand or using chemical sprays are labour intensive, costly, and cannot be easily deployed in areas that are difficult to access, therefore they saw a biocontrol agent important to complement current strategies.

A risk analysis of the fungus conducted by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment completed on Sept. 7, 2020, and a report of negligible risk estimate was released on Nov. 16, 2020.

The CSIRO is currently calling for volunteers to help with the biocontrol release program on beaches infested with sea spurge in Victoria and Tasmania.

The research project has been financially supported by the NSW Government as part of around $500,000 (US$374,000) in funding targeting four weed species including sea spurge.
A series of smash-and-grab robberies left stores with boarded up windows on Nov. 22, 2021. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times)

Democrat Lawmakers Bill to Reform Prop. 47 Fails in Committee

SACRAMENTOThe effort to lower Californias threshold for felony theft from $950 to $400 failed in an Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing on March 22.

Assemblyman Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield) brought forward Assembly Bill (AB) 1603 in January to reduce the threshold for felony theft from $950 back to $400, which was the law in California before Proposition (Prop.) 47 was passed in 2014.

The failed legislation comes as retailers have seen an increase crime, according to Salas.

California prosecutors state the number of thefts are likely underreported as business owners are discouraged from filing reports since a penalty against criminals has been reduced to a misdemeanor, Salas said at the March 22 hearing.

Assemblymember Rudy Salas presents a bill on the Assembly Floor at the California State Capitol on April 8, 2019 (Courtesy Office of Asm. Rudy Salas)

While some argue the $950 threshold has not contributed to the increase in theft, Salas said that business owners have claimed that they didnt see theft as an issue until Prop. 47 passed.

Lets go back to what it was prior and hopefully that helps alleviate the situation, Salas said.

Many spoke in support of AB 1603, including store owners who have experienced the worst of thefts in the recent months as smash and grabs have been on the rise.

I have been working [in] my store since I was 16 years old with my family, and weve never seen what we have today, Countryside Market & Restaurants Chief Operating Officer Raji Brar said. Every single day at our stores we have people who run in, grab items, and leave  this is happening all across the board up and down the valley.

Critics of AB 1603 included Chair of the Public Safety Committee Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles).

He warned that if passed, state prison populations may increase and the black and brown communities would especially be impacted.

You really have to be concerned about the number of people that law enforcement will go after to fill the prisons, he said. That is not the solution.

The bill failed to pass the committee just weeks after the committee declined to move forward with a bill proposed by Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin)AB 1599to repeal Proposition 47.
Podder the agricultural detector dog is retired from San Diego County's Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department on March 23, 2022. (County of San Diego)

Detector Dog Podder Given Service Award for Career Sniffing Parcels

SAN DIEGOPodder the detector dog was honored on March 23 as he heads into retirement after four years working for the San Diego County Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department.

The San Diego county staff organized a small ceremony at the Waterfront Park to acknowledge his work. His former coworker, Yeti, the countys other detector dog, and Venus, a retired detector dog, and other officials were there to give him a pat on the back, a scratch on the head, and lots of treats and toys.

In honor of Podders service, Id like to present this Service Award for four years of county service, said Ha Dang, commissioner/sealer for the Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department.

Podder (R) the agricultural detector dog is retired from San Diego Countys Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department on March 23, 2022. (Screenshot via YouTube)

The Labrador and beagle mix has worked with his handler Kyle Moranton to intercept unmarked agricultural parcels that are shipped in violation of agricultural quarantine, or contain unwanted plant pests including insects, diseases, and other harmful organisms to agriculture.

He has a great nose, Moranton said. Im going to miss him.

Podder is six years old and is retiring due to a medical condition. He has been adopted into a loving home, Moranton said.

Podder the agricultural detector dog is retired from San Diego Countys Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department on March 23, 2022. (Screenshot via YouTube)

The California Department of Food and Agriculture started its Detector Dog Team program in 2009. The dogs sniff and identify unmarked parcelsconsidered a high-risk pathway for pests to enter the county. Dog teams conduct inspections at shipping facilities such as UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service.

Dogs are trained to alert on packages that contain agricultural material such as plants, cuttings, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and soil. Those packages are then opened and checked for insects, diseases, or quarantines.

During his career, Podder made 426 visits to those facilities, where he found 728 plants in unmarked parcels, including 137 rated insect pests capable of causing serious harm to agriculture or were questionable, Moranton said.

Podder the agricultural detector dog is retired from San Diego Countys Agriculture, Weights & Measures Department on March 23, 2022. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Another San Diego County agriculture inspector is now training to become a dog handler and will join the department in the summer with a new detector dog.

Joyce Kuo contributed to this report.
Considering its ubiquitous nature at restaurants and in homes throughout North America, it may come as a surprise (or not) that original recipes for this 19th-century Russian dish didnt include mushrooms or egg noodles. Or even Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup. I know, right? Ground beef? Not exactly.

While beef stroganoff and its manifestations have taken on a life of their own, the origins of this hearty meal are interestingif a bit murky.

Today, beef stroganoff and its manifestations have taken on a life of their own. (Kari Ahlers/shutterstock)

To Russia With Love, From France?

In the 17th century, Russian society, high and low, often ate some common traditional Russian dishesthough differing in quantity, quality, and availability, surely. But Peter the Great who from 1682 to 1725 ruled first as tsar and then emperorwas enamored of Western Europe, and sought to Westernize his empire, even ordering his court and military to shave their long beards and lose the long robes. (He levied a tax on both in 1698.)

Among the nobility, French cuisine quickly became popular, and wealthy families hired so many French chefs that they actually became scarce. So its not an unreasonable theory that this dish came out of the kitchen of the Stroganoffs, one of the wealthiest families dating back to salt mining fortunes and land acquisitions in the 16th century.

It is said that a French cook of Count Pavel Aleksandrovich Stroganoff, a general and statesman who passed in 1817 during the reign of Alexander I, created it. But details of a recipe, a particular chef, or whether this was made for the count during his lifetime or named in honor of him (or the noble family) later are hard to come by.

Actual historical evidence does show that in 1891, a French chef named Charles Briere won a St. Petersburg cooking contest with a dish he called Beef Stroganoff. But the recipe for such a dish was already in a book.

First published in 1861, Elena Molokhovets cookbook A Gift to Young Housewives became the standard for aspiring home cooks. Govjadina po-strogonovski, s gorchitseju, that is, Beef a la Stroganoff, with mustard, wasnt in that first edition, but appeared a decade later, well before Brieres. In the introduction to her 1992 translation of the cookbook, author Joyce Toomre points out that 50 years later, the original author was still editing the newer editions. By 1914, the book, often referred to simply as Molokhovets, had sold over a quarter of a million copies and continued to sell after Molokhovets death in 1918.

According to Elena, Beef a la Stroganoff with mustard called for cubed tender beef seasoned with salt and allspice and sauteed in butter. Then a butter-based roux with a bit of bouillon, Sarepta mustard, and pepper simmered and mixed with just a couple spoonfuls of smetanaa soured heavy creamand mixed with the meat. No mushrooms, no onions or tomatoes, no beef strips, and certainly no noodles or Cream of Mushroom soup.

But elsewhere, the written Stroganoff recipe had taken a turn. Pelagia P. Aleksandrov-Ignatyev (18721953), a professor and author of cooking manuals, published works in the early 20th century, texts that went into greater detail than just the ingredients and process but also explained why things were to be done as indicated. In 1914, his recipe for Beef Stroganoff in Practical foundations of culinary art: A guide for culinary schools and for self-study included diced onion and tomato paste and a side of potato straws.

Stuck on the Mustard

But the mustard intrigued me, not an ingredient Id associate with Russians. Ive found articles that claim the mustard was a touch of the FrenchDijon, right?but Molokhovets recipe specifically calls for Sarepstkaja, and so I entered the rabbit hole.

Even before the French came the Germans. By invitation from Catherine the Great, Germans emigrated to the steppe along the Volga River and in 1756 founded the town of Sarepta, today a district of Volgograd.

Among these settlers was Konrad Neitz, a missionary and doctor who took an interest in breeding wild mustard plants there. Eventually, he had something that satisfied him, a spicy-sweet brown variety, and in 1802, he started producing it and grinding by hand. By 1810, its popularity demanded a horse-powered mill. But it was when he served some to Emperor Alexander I that it really exploded. The emperor liked it so much he gifted Neitz a gold watch.

In the years before this, the Russians had relied on England for their mustard, but starting in 1806, Napoleons embargos on British trade had made it scarce. This, combined with the quality, explains its sweeping popularity and its inclusion by name in that cookbook recipe 60 years later. It became widely known by its town of origin, Sarepta.

If youre looking for a substitute, consider English mustard, which is what they would have used before Napoleons time. Other variations are aplenty, but this recipe is a good base from which to begin.

Beef Stroganoff

Serves 4 to 6

1 pound top sirloin, ribeye, or tenderloin, thinly sliced in two-inch strips against the grain

1 cup beef broth

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil, for the roux (optional)

1/2 cup sour cream or smetana (see note)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)

1/2 teaspoon spicy brown mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

8 to 12 ounces egg noodles (or mashed potatoes, rice, or potato straws)

1 tablespoon chopped chives or green onions

Heat a large frying pan over medium-high and oil it lightly once hot. Sear the beef pieces quicklyless than a minute per sideso that they are browned on both sides but not cooked through. If you need to, cook the slices in batches; if crowded, the pieces will steam each other rather than sear right away. Set them aside off heat but keep them warm. Heat the broth and keep it at the ready.

Add the butter to the pan, plus the chopped onion and sliced mushrooms. Saute for about 8 minutes, until the onions and mushrooms are lightly golden and the mushroom liquid has evaporated. Then add the minced garlic and saute that for about a minute, just until fragrant.

At this point, one can add the flour directly and stir it in well, or, as I prefer, make a roux as the mushrooms are sauteing: In a small pan over medium heat, mix the flour and 2 tablespoons olive oil until smooth, and cook it a couple of minutes more to lose the raw flour taste. Then add a few tablespoons of the heated beef broth to thin it out, so that its smooth and liquid, and set aside.

Add the remaining broth to the mushrooms, deglazing the pan to get those flavorful bits into the mix. Then stir in the roux and let that simmer a bit and start to thicken. Stir in the mustard (and Worcestershire sauce, if using).

Temper the sour cream (see note) by adding a couple spoonfuls of the sauce from the pan, blending well, and adding a bit more until its mixed smoothly. Only then add the warmed sour cream to the pan while stirring constantly. Do not let this boil, or the sour cream still may curdle.

Add the beef slices back in allow the meat to cook through for a minute or two. When the dish reaches the gravy consistency, season to taste with salt and pepper.

No ones judging here: Serve it old-school on a plate with potato straws, or pour it over al dente twisted egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or even rice. (Im a noodle guy.) Sprinkle with chopped chives or green onions.

Note: Smetana had high enough fat content not to curdle, but the typical American sour cream will curdle a bit if you dont temper it.
A P&O ferry remains moored at the Port of Dover in Kent, southeast England. (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Dubai-Owned Ferry Firm Admits Breaking Law by Firing 800 UK Staff Without Notice

A Dubai-owned ferry firm has admitted that it broke the law when it fired 800 UK-based staff with no notice.

P&O Ferries, which was bought by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World in 2019, sparked outrage on March 17 when it fired 800 seafarers without any prior notice and replaced them with cheaper agency workers.

At a Parliamentary hearing on March 24, P&O Chief Executive Peter Hebblethwaite acknowledged there is absolutely no doubt the ferry operator was required to consult with trade unions.

Peter Hebblethwaite, chief executive of P&O Ferries, answers questions in front of the Transport Committee and Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Select Committee in the House of Commons, on March 24, 2022. (PA Media)

He said the firm decided not to consult the unions because a consultation process would have been a sham, as given the fundamental nature of change, no union could accept it.

We didnt want to put anybody through that. We are compensating people in full and up-front for that decision, he told a joint session of the transport and business select committees of the House of Commons.

Andrew Burns QC, barrister at Devereaux Chambers, told the hearing that all employers with ships must give a notice to the appropriate authority 45 days before dismissal.

My understanding from what Ive been told this morning is that the notice was given to the appropriate authorities in the countries where the ships are flagged only on the day of the dismissals and not in advance, he said.

That appears to be a breach of employment law, and it may be that (P&O Ferries) are liable to a prosecution, he told MPs.

Hebblethwaite said the new crews are being paid below the UKs minimum wage apart from on domestic routes, but insisted this is allowed under international maritime rules.

The minimum wage in the UK for people aged 23 and above is 8.91 ($11.74) per hour. But according to Hebblethwaite, the average hourly pay of the new crew is only 5.50 ($7.25).

We are paying above ITF (International Transport Workers Federation) minimum wages, he said.

Hebblethwaite also claimed Transport Secretary Grant Shapps knew about the firms intention to cut jobs last year, as he was informed on Nov. 22 by P&O Ferries owner DP World that the company would be changing its business model.

But the Department for Transport (DfT) denied any prior knowledge of the sackings.

A DfT spokeswoman said: DP World did not mention to the Transport Secretary any changes it would be making to P&O Ferries and there was no indication of the completely unacceptable changes it has subsequently made.

PA Media contributed to this report.
European flags are diplayed at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Nov. 24, 2021. (Julien Warnand/ via Reuters)

EU Loosens State Aid Rules for Companies Affected by Sanctions on Russia

BRUSSELSEU companies affected by sanctions imposed on Russia can get up to 400,000 euros ($440,360) in state support and compensation up to 30 percent of energy costs under looser EU state aid rules, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

From airlines to carmakers to tourism businesses, thousands of companies across the 27-country bloc have reported severe disruption due to the sanctions.

Companies in the agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture sectors can get up to 35,000 euros while businesses facing a liquidity crunch can get state guarantees on loans, subsidized loans.

The Commission did not specify which sectors would qualify for the larger support.

Companies facing soaring energy costs can get state aid up to 30 percent of costs, capped at 2 million euros, the Commission said.

This measure will benefit manufacturers of aluminum and other metals, glass fibers, pulp, fertiliser, hydrogen, and other basic chemicals.

These sanctions also take a toll on the European economy and will continue to do so in the coming months. We need to mitigate the economic impact of this war and to support severely impacted companies and sectors, Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager addresses EU lawmakers during a plenary debate on industrial strategy for Europe at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, May 18, on 2021. (Francisco Seco/ via Reuters)

The looser rules will be effective until the end of the year. Sanctioned Russian-controlled entities are not eligible for such aid.

The EU executive, which also acts as the blocs competition enforcer, relaxed its state aid rules two years ago, allowing governments to pump trillions of euros into companies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Foo Yun Chee
Industrial facilities of PCK Raffinerie oil refinery in Schwedt/Oder, Germany, on March 8, 2022. The company receives crude oil from Russia via the 'Friendship' pipeline. (Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo/Reuters)

Europe Aiming to Significantly Cut Russian Gas Imports With Washingtons Assistance

The European Union is seeking to scale down its reliance on Russian gas imports while seeking help from the United States, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers on March 23.

Stressing that energy policy is also security policy, von der Leyen pointed out that the commission has proposed measures that will allow for Europe to significantly reduce the regions gas imports from Russia. This is very ambitious. But we can achieve it. We have already set a clear path to do this, she said.

With our new proposal REPowerEU, we can speed up this transition even more. First, by fast-tracking renewable projects  including hydrogen and biogas. Second, by speeding up investment in energy efficiency  And third, by diversifying our gas supply away from Russian gas towards reliable suppliers.

REPowerEU is dependent on two pillars, according to a European Council press release. The first involves diversifying gas supplies through higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline imports from non-Russian suppliers. The region will also seek to boost the production and import of biomethane and renewable hydrogen. Secondly, it involves reducing the dependence on fossil fuels in Europe by boosting energy efficiency, resolving infrastructure bottlenecks, and so on.

REPowerEU seeks to phase out the blocs dependence on Russian fossil fuel-based energy by 2030. If fully followed, the plan allows the EU to remove at least 155 billion cubic meters (bcm) of fossil gas by the end of the decade, which would be equivalent to the volume of gas imported from Russia last year. Roughly two-thirds of the reduction can potentially be achieved in a single year.

The EU imports 90 percent of its gas, 45 percent of which is accounted for by Russian imports. Moscow is responsible for 45 percent of the EUs coal imports and 25 percent of oil imports.

Von der Leyen also intends to talk with President Joe Biden on prioritizing LNG deliveries from the United States in the coming months.

We are aiming at having a commitment for additional supplies for the next two winters, she told lawmakers.

Biden will be meeting with European leaders at the NATO summit on March 24. The president will discuss with European counterparts ways to secure the continents energy security, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. He suggested that Biden might make relevant announcements on Friday morning along with von der Leyen.

Washington is currently diverting cargoes to increase the supply of U.S. LNG to Europe in the immediate term, Sullivan said in a March 23 press briefing. I think you can expect that the U.S. will look for ways to increase LNG supplies, surge LNG supplies to Europe not just over the course of years, but over the course of months as well. Of course, that amount will grow over time, Sullivan said.

Europes imports of U.S. LNG have seen an increase in recent times. In February, the region remained the top importer of U.S. LNG for the third consecutive month, taking in roughly three-quarters of all exports, vessel tracking data from Refinitiv showed. Second-placed Asia only accounted for 15 percent of the exports. With Europe looking to detach itself from Russian energy supplies, the demand for U.S. LNG is expected to increase.

At the NATO summit, European leaders are expected to discuss Russias demand to pay for gas imports in rubles. If followed through, it could undermine EU sanctions slapped on the country in the aftermath of Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

EU nations are divided on the proposal of banning Russian energy imports. While countries like Latvia and Poland are urging a ban, Germany and Hungary are opposed to the proposal, arguing that such a decision would inflict considerable economic damage.
Rescuers announce one of two black boxes have been foundfollowing the tragic Boeing plane crash in China. Relatives and other loved ones also arrive on the scene.

The United States deals another heavy blow to Chinese officialsthis time, targeting their ability to get through the border.

A U.S. military admiral says China is arming man-made islands in the South China Sea, as the United States and allies in the region pursue a different goal: a free and open Indo-Pacific.

We examine Chinas oil imports and look at how its purchases from the United States are changing.

Did China send weapons to Russia? For the first time, the United States makes an official statement.

China is facing a severe COVID-19 outbreakone of the worst since it first emerged in Wuhan. But how long will Beijing hold onto its strict zero-cases policy?

Have other topics you want us to cover? Drop us a line: chinainfocus@ntdtv.org

And if youd like to buy us a coffee: https://donorbox.org/china-in-focus

Subscribe to our newsletter for more first-hand news from China.

For more news and videos, please visit us on Gettr and Twitter.
Police officers stand guard at the entrance to a village near the site of a plane crash in Tengxian county, Wuzhou city, in Guangxi Province on March 21, 2022.(-/AFP via Getty Images)

Explainer: What is Known About the Crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735

A China Eastern Airlines jet carrying 132 people crashed into the mountains of southeast China on the afternoon of March 21. The reason for the nosedive of the six-year-old Boeing 737-800 is baffling aviation experts.

What Caused the Plane to Crash

So far, the cause is unknown, but nothing has been ruled out.

We are unable to make a clear judgment about the cause of the accident with the information available now, Zhu Tao, Director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said at a press conference on March 22.

Recovering the planes flight-data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, commonly known as black boxes, are considered key to figuring out what caused the crash. Theyre typically located in the tail area, where theyre less likely to be damaged in a crash.

Searchers have so far found one black box, that Chinese aviation authorities said is highly likely the cockpit voice recorder. The casing is severely damaged and the box will be sent to Beijing for decoding and analysis.

Rescuers are trying to find the second box, but poor weather and steep terrain hampered search efforts.

Fragments of wreckage were scattered in a heavily wooded area near the city of Wuzhou, in southwestern Guangxi Province. The crash site is surrounded on three sides by mountains and accessible only by foot or motorcycle on a steep dirt road. Heavy rain temporarily suspended rescue operations Wednesday.

Local residents told The Epoch Times on Monday that the jet was completely disintegrated.

Citing severe damage, Zhu said the investigation was very challenging.

Confirming the cause of a plane crash sometimes takes months or years due to the need to gather badly damaged debris and examine specialized technical factors.

A piece of wreckage of the China Easterns flight MU5735 after it crashed on the mountain in Tengxian County, south Chinas Guangxi Province on March 21, 2022. (Xinhua via AP)

Whats Known About the Passengers

The plane was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed.

Only Chinese nationals were on board, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The search for survivors continues, but there has been no word of anyone found alive.

Remains of letters, identity cards, and wallets were among the possessions rescuers recovered at the crash site. Search crews found fragments of human remains on Wednesday.

All three pilots on the flight were in good health, Sun Shiying, president of China Easterns branch in Yunnan Province, said on March 23.

If everyone on board is confirmed dead, the accident would be the worst air disaster in China in over a decade.

Relatives of passengers leave the village closest to the crash site of China Eastern flight MU5375 in Wuzhou, Guangxi Province on March 23, 2022. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Events During the Crash

China Eastern flight 5735 crashed about an hour into its journey from Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan Province, to Guangzhou, an industrial center of Guangdong Province.

The plane was cruising at an altitude of 29,000 feet when it suddenly went into a near-vertical dive at 2:20 p.m. local time, according to FlightRadar24s data.

Flight data shows it lost more than 20,000 feet in one minute and briefly regained altitude at about 8,000 feet before resuming its nose dive.

The planes last tracked altitude on FlightRadar24 was 3,225 feet at 2:22 p.m. local time. CAAC said its radar signal disappeared at 2:23 p.m. local time.

Air traffic controllers were unable to contact the crew in the final moments before the crash, a senior official of CAAC said at Tuesdays news conference.

The flights final seconds were captured by a local camera, and state-backed news outlet The Paper said it verified the video was shot by a nearby mining company.

Residents near the crash site on Monday afternoon describe hearing a boom. The plane caught fire before it hit the ground in the mountainous area, CCTV reported.

An aerial view shows scorched land at the site where a China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed in Wuzhou, Guangxi Province, China, in this still image taken from a drone footage on March 23, 2022. (CGTN via Reuters TV)

Whats Known About the Plane

The plane that crashed was a Boeing 737-800, a workhorse model that has a good safety record.

Its not the Boeing 737 Max, a newer model that was temporarily grounded worldwide following two deadly crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 respectively. Use of the 737 Max hasnt been allowed to resume in China.

The widely used Boeing 737-800 has been flying since 1998 and has an excellent safety record, said Hassan Shahidi, president of the Flight Safety Foundation. This model has been involved in 22 accidents that damaged the planes beyond repair and killed 612 people.

The plane, acquired in June 2015, met the requirements to fly before it took off on Monday, and its technical condition was stable, according to the chairman of China Eastern.

China Eastern said it grounded all 737-800 planes after the accident.

A screen displays cancelled China Eastern Airline flights at Kunming Changshui International Airport in Kunming in southwest Chinas Yunnan Province on March 22, 2022. (Dake Kang/AP Photo)

Leading the Investigation

The accident involved a major state-backed airline and took place in southern China, so the CAAC will lead the investigation.

Senior air safety investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and representatives from Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will assist in probing the crash, according to NTSB. It falls under international standards because the plane was designed and manufactured in the United States.

However, U.S. investigators havent determined whether they will travel to China, said NTSB, citing the regimes visa requirements and COVID-19 quarantine rules. China requires travelers to stay at a quarantine hotel for at least two weeks upon arrival.

Government workers control access to the entrance of Lv village which leads to the crash site in Chinas Guangxi Province on March 23, 2022. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In Wisconsin, local Democratic Party activists have gotten creative with how theyre trying to win the midterm elections. Specifically, they have filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that three of the incumbent Republicans (one senator and two House members) should actually be barred from serving in office.

Their argument is that since these three lawmakers spoke out against election irregularities in 2020 and they allegedly attempted to manipulate the certification of the presidential election results, they should not be allowed to serve in office due to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars people who have committed treason from holding any kind of office.

Meanwhile, while I was in Florida about two weeks ago, I took the opportunity to sit down with Cherise Trump, executive director of an organization called Speech First, and we discuss the practical steps that shes taking to fight back against censorship on college campuses.

Stay tuned for our newsletter so you wont miss out on our exclusive videos and private events.

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Signs like these are marked along Florida's coast areas alerting that manatees are in the area. (Courtesy FWS)

Feeding Program for Manatees Is Winding Down

PUNTA GORDA, FloridaThe program to feed lettuce to starving manatees is scaling down as the weather gets warmer, The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said on March 23.

Efforts are being made now to sort of scale down some of the operations, Scott Calleson, an Ecological Services officer in the Florida office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a Zoom call. Were continuing to feed out lettuce at the site and we have been making plans for how were going to transition down to demobilizing.

We will probably reach 200,000 pounds of lettuce by the end of March, he said.

As the weather gets warmer, the manatees are beginning to fan out from warm-water sites, Calleson said. Unlike whales, manatees do not have blubber to insulate and protect them against the cold elements; they are mostly muscle.

Wild manatees gather in a Brevard County, Florida, waterway near a Florida Power & Light power plant to eat lettuce thrown to them by scientists. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)In 2021, more than 1,101 manatees perished, due mostly to starvation, according to FWC. That number, representing 13 percent of the population, was almost double that of previous years. So far this year, 420 have died.

After spending half a century on the endangered list, in 2017, the animals were designated as threatened. However, Carli Segelson, FWC communications director, said that by fall of 2022 that designation may be changed back to endangered.

In years past, the greatest number of manatee deaths were attributed to injuries from watercraft, but starvation is rapidly taking that place as FWC necropsy data shows that many of the starving animals have resorted to ingesting sand off the sea floor in an attempt to survive. Many of the casualties are lactating mothers that require higher caloric intakes while nursing their calves for a year.

As each winter in Florida approaches and ocean temperatures reach on average a chilly 68 degrees, the manatees make their way in large numbers to inland waterways, warmer estuaries like the Indian River Lagoon (IRL). But this place of refuge has become a place of starvation for the friendly mascots of Florida. FWC said animals normally will move on when their food sources diminish; but not manatees. Much like humans, they are territorial and predictable.

A family watches manatees in an exhibit that doubles as a rehabilitation facility at ZooTampa at Lowry Park in Florida. (Natasha Holt/The Epoch Times)

The manatees main food source, seagrass, has been nearly wiped out by pollution such as failing septic systems, urban sprawl, and fertilizer runoff causing damaging nutrients to drain estuaries of necessary oxygen for plant life to prosper. In order to find solutions to aid starving mammals, in 2021 FWC partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), working together to combat what they call an Unusual Mortality Event. (UME).

Mid-January of this year brought record low temperatures to the Sunshine State, and scientists and researchers decided to break their own rules by hand-feeding the manatees heads of lettuce to save them from starvation. They were careful, however, not to allow the manatees to associate food with humans and then not migrate north when it was time. At feeding time, they hid behind a protective screen. FWC warned the public that feeding the manatees is against the law and authorities wont hesitate to prosecute.

The beginning of the program was bleak as the manatees, accustomed to submerged seagrass, did not recognize the floating heads of lettuce as a viable food source. However, FWC researchers and scientists were encouraged during the last days of January, as the lumbering herbivores began to eat the lettuce.

FWC said 160,000 pounds of lettuce has been provided to the manatees with very little waste, with an estimated 25,000 to 40,000 pounds more to go before the end of the program for the winter. Calleson said only $250 has been spent on the lettuce program, which has run mostly off of public donations.

On December 15, 2021, FWC staff found a thin adult female manatee carcass with a small calf at the Cape Canaveral Energy Center. Staff responded and captured the calf, which was then transported to SeaWorld Orlando.

(courtesy of USFWS)

Since the program is winding down, the group has not ruled out continuing to feed next winter.

The effort was designed as a winter intervention to help get the animals through the winter, Calleson said. There was very little food to get them through the winterwe want them to fan out so they can find vegetation in other areas. Our intent at this point is to watch the weather, and once were comfortable that were through the winter, we will stop probably in the next two weeks and then monitor them as we normally would.

The best way for Floridians to help manatees is to report distressed, dead, or tagged animals by calling the state wildlife hotline at 888-404-3922. FWC reminded boaters to be on the lookout for manatees as they migrate north for the summer.

(Nanette Holt contributed to this story.)
Alina Kaconskaya with her baby Denis at the Lviv train station in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 24, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

For Some Ukrainian Refugees, War Is 2014 All Over Again

LVIV, UkraineAlmost eight years ago, Slovyansk, a small city in eastern Ukraine, was the first to be captured by pro-Russian separatists.

Svetlana Isakova, 42, didnt flee the city back then, but sent her daughter away to safety. After days of fighting and shelling, the Ukrainian military recaptured the city on July 5, 2014. The separatists fled to Donetsk.

After Russia invaded Ukraine late last month, the first explosion that Isakova heard brought back the memories and trauma of 2014, when she spent a week in a bomb shelter.

This time, Isakova fled, taking her daughter, son, and three grandchildren along. The two women and four children found a taxi driver willing to pick them up when an air raid alert was in place. They traveled for two days and arrived at the Lviv train station late on March 23.

Its just to keep the children safe, Isakova told The Epoch Times the following day. Last time, a childrens hospital was blown up where we lived.

Isakovas daughter, Alina Katonskaya, 21, was in relative safety when the fighting took place in 2014, but still remembers crying when she heard rumorswhich later turned out to be untruethat Slovyansk was completely destroyed as a result of the fighting.

Katonskayas three children, Maximillian, 5, Maria, 3, and Denis, 6 months, played with toys on the mats set up for mothers with small children in a hall at the Lviv train station on March 24. When volunteers came with trays of cookies and candy the night of their arrival, the children took what they could every time they were offered.

They just kept on eating. They were so hungry, Isakova said.

Katonskaya didnt want to leave Slovyansk, but she said the people there are living in a state of panic and anxiety. She had given up going to the bomb shelter when the air raid sirens went off. The shelter is too far away and was usually at capacity before she could get the three children ready to go.

Isakova managed to convince her daughter to leave Slovyansk, but not Ukraine.

Its our home. How can we leave? Katonskaya said.

In 2014, roughly 40 percent of the residents of Slovyansk fled the city after it was captured by pro-Russian separatists. A refugee crisis of greater proportions has ensued after Russias invasion in 2022. According to a United Nations report, one in four Ukrainiansroughly 10 million peoplehave fled their homes since Feb. 24, 2022.

Many of the refugees come to Lviv. The western region is now home to 450,000 people who have fled from central and east Ukraine, according to the regions governor. Others head further west or across the border.

Isakovas sister had fled from Slovyansk to Kharkiv in 2014. This time, she fled from Kharkiv to Germany.

She calls me crying on the phone now. She cant learn German and wants to go home, Isakova said. Everything she worked for for eight years, she left behind. She lost two homes in eight years.

Isakova and Katonskaya arent sure where theyll go next. Lviv is overloaded with refugees, so theyre considering heading to another city. Both women have been touched and surprised by the help of the volunteers at the train station.

I was nervous, but this young man came up to me and asked if there was anything he could do to help, Isakova said. Everybody is so kind here.

Correction: This article was updated to say Slovyansk is in eastern Ukraine.
Former FBI agent William Don Tisaby, left, is accompanied by attorney Jermaine Wooten as he turns himself in at St. Louis Police headquarters on June 17, 2019. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Tampering With Evidence

A former FBI agent who was involved in an investigation of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2018 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tampering with evidence in the case on March 23, a day before jury selection was set to start in his trial on seven felony counts, including perjury.

William Don Tisaby, 69, who is now a private investigator, was hired by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner to investigate allegations against Greitens in an invasion of privacy case. Greitens resigned in 2018 after the investigation began.

Tisaby was indicted on seven felonies, including perjury and evidence tampering, in 2019.

He acknowledged in the plea agreement that he said in a deposition that certain documents didnt exist when, in fact, they did, Robert Russell, the special prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside of the courthouse in St. Louis after the deal was reached.

Hes admitting to hiding or at least testifying that the notes that Ms. Gardner gave to him were not given to him by testifying that he did not take any notes, when in fact he did take notes on those notes Ms. Gardner gave him, Russell said.

Tisaby also took notes from an interview with a witness and sent them to Gardner, but falsely testified that he never did.

Gardner is set to face a disciplinary hearing soon for allegedly hiding details about the Greitens investigation from members of her team.

Russell said prosecutors have an ethical obligation to correct and make sure the record is clear regarding documents and that they should correct witnesses who offer false information.

The deal means that Tisaby, who was facing serious prison time, wont serve any time in jail. He will serve one year of probation and must pay court costs.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, right, during a rally in St. Charles, Mo., in a file image. (Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)

I think weve reached an appropriate resolution for Mr. Tisaby in this case based on what occurred, Russell said, noting that its important to make sure anybody attached to law enforcement is held accountable for being untruthful.

Jermaine Wooten, an attorney for the defendant, told reporters that while he and his colleagues were prepared to go to trial, Tisaby wanted to put the case behind him because of his age and health.

I think it was just more of an issue of just negligence in this matter. It was a slew of documents that he had and he just went into that deposition not prepared. There was no malice in this mans heart, Wooten said, noting that no one instructed his client to hide the existence of the documents.

But Russell pushed back on that depiction, describing the guilty plea as an admission that the defendant purposefully shielded evidence.

I think he just didnt want anybody to see what he had done, Russell said.

The investigation in question was looking into whether Greitens snapped a picture of a woman at his house in 2015. The alleged picture has never been found.

Greitens, whos running for a U.S. Senate seat, said on Steve Bannons show that the guilty plea was a great victory.

The corrupt former FBI agent, William Tisaby, pled guilty, he said. What everyone recognizes now is what we said from the beginning, is that this was a criminal witch hunt against me.
Cristiana Chamorro talks to the media outside the Interior Ministry, in Managua, Nicaragua, on May 20, 2021. (Carlos Herrera/Reuters)

Former Nicaragua Presidential Candidate Chamorro Gets 8 Years for Financial Crimes

MANAGUAA judge late on Monday sentenced former Nicaraguan presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro to eight years of detention for money laundering and misuse of funds, in a case that government opponents argue was politically motivated.

A judge will later decide if she will serve her sentence under house arrest or in prison.

Chamorro and her brother were convicted of various financial crimes on March 11. They are children of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who defeated current President Daniel Ortega in the 1990 elections to end his first term in power.

Chamorros brother, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, received a 9-year sentence from the same judge, while three workers from the free speech foundation bearing Chamorros mothers were ordered to pay $2 million each.

A lawyer representing Cristiana Chamorro, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisals, dismissed the sentence, saying there was no evidence to support the charges.

Prosecutors alleged that Chamorro received, through the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, millions of dollars to help destabilize the government.

She has dismissed the accusations as political revenge to tar the legacy of her mother and her father, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, a journalist assassinated by the Somoza dictatorship in 1978.

Another brother living in exile in Costa Rica, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, said the sentences show the Ortega regime is in crisis, that it can no longer govern and has nothing to offer Nicaraguans.

The government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Cristiana Chamorro led Ortega in several polls when she was arrested in June 2021. Ortega won re-election for a fourth consecutive term in November after at least 46 opposition figures, including six presidential candidates, were detained.

The United States and the European Union said Ortegas last election was illegitimate and have pressed him to hold new elections and release more than 160 prisoners.
Employees of the Avtoframos automobile plant assemble a Renault Logan model in Moscow. Russia is one of the hardest-hit by the global economic crisis, causing the country to plunge into its first recession since 1998. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)

French Automaker Renault Halts Moscow Operations, Downgrades Financial Outlook

French automaker Renault Group has announced it is suspending operations in Moscow as of March 23 amid Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The companys board of directors met earlier on March 23 and approved the decision to pull the plug on activities at its Russian manufacturing plant amid international pressure and the threat of a boycott.

Renault Group activities in its manufacturing plant in Moscow are suspended as of today, the company said.

The Epoch Times has contacted a Renault spokesperson for comment.

Renault also has a 69 percent stake in Russian automobile manufacturing company AvtoVaz and said it is assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment.

The French vehicle maker had recently released its financial report for 2021 in which AvtoVazs revenues were shown to have grown by 10.4 percent to 2.9 billion euros ($3.1 billion).

The multinational automobile manufacturer said March 23 that it was acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia and has already implemented the necessary measures to comply with international sanctions.

Due to the suspension of its Moscow operations, Renault also downgraded its financial outlook, saying it was looking at a group operating margin of around 3 percent versus at least 4 percent previously.

Renaults decision came after the company was criticized by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for failing to suspend its operations in Moscow.

The French government currently owns a 15 percent stake in Renault.

During a 15-minute video address to the French parliament on March 23, Zelenskyy urged French companies, including Renault, to quit the Russian market amid what Russian President Vladimir Putin has branded a special military operation in Ukraine.

Renault, Auchan, Leroy Merlin, and others must stop sponsoring the Russian war machine, Zelenskyy said. All companies must remember once and for all that values are worth more than profit, especially profit on blood.

Renault had previously suspended production at its Moscow plant in February 2022 after Russias invasion of Ukraine, at the time citing a forced change in existing logistic route.

However, it resumed production again later in March 2022.

In a March 23 social media post before Renaults announcement, Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for a global boycott of Renault products, saying the company refuses to pull out of Russia.

Mistakes must come with a price, especially when repeated. I call on customers and businesses around the globe to boycott Group Renault, Kuleba said.

Later that day, Kuleba wrote on Twitter that he welcomed Renaults decision to cease its operations in Moscow, calling it a responsible move against the backdrop of Russias ongoing barbaric aggression against Ukraine.
The facade of a Google office is seen in New York on Feb. 10, 2022. (Paresh Dave/Reuters)

Google Urges Judge Hearing US Antitrust Lawsuit to Reject Sanctions Request

WASHINGTONAlphabets Google urged a judge hearing a U.S. antitrust case against it to reject the Justice Departments request that it be sanctioned, saying it had not abused attorney-client privilege.

The department had asked Judge Amit Mehta to sanction Google, saying the companys Communicate with Care program was sometimes a game to shield communications that did not genuinely fall under attorney-client privilege.

In a filing dated Thursday, Google said that allegations of sanctionable misconduct are baseless and a misreading of a small number of slides used to train employees.

Google also said it was conferring with the government on which emails that are indicated as potentially falling under attorney-client privilege genuinely do. It said it had given the government some of the affected documents.

Plaintiffs come nowhere close to proving the bad-faith misconduct that is required to strip a party of its privilege protections, Google said in its filing.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Google in 2020, accusing it of violating antitrust law in its handling of its search business. Trial was set for September 2023.

By Diane Bartz
Governments in Canada Were Already Bigger Than Optimum Size Pre-COVID: Study

The size of governments in Canada increased enormously during the COVID-19 pandemic, but even before that, the size of the federal government and almost all provincial governments had already grown beyond the optimal point to benefit citizens, a new study shows.

Its important to understand just how much governments across Canada have grown in recent years, and what impact that might have on our economic recovery moving forward, said study co-author Alex Whalen, a policy analyst at the Fraser Institute, in a March 17 press release.

The study, titled The Size of Government in Canada in 2019, finds that with the exception of Alberta, between 2007 and 2019 the rest of the provinces saw their governments grow to a size exceeding the optimal level relative to the size of their economies.

In deciding the standard for optimal government size, the authors cited 2013 research by Livio Di Matteo, an economics professor at Lakehead University, who concluded that in order to maximize economic growth in a country, the size of government has to fall between 26 percent and 30 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

When governments exceed that size, it imposes negative effects on the economy, such as crowding out private sector investment, but without providing proportionate benefits such as greater social progress, the Fraser Institute release said.

Crucially, the data used in the analysis is prior to COVID-19 and recession-related spending, meaning the size of government already exceeded the optimal size prior to the current spike in spending.

The study measured federal, provincial, and local government spending in each province, which included spending on goods and services, transfer payments, capital transfers, and subsidies. The total spending was then compared to the size of each provinces economy, as measured by GDP.

The authors noted a wide range in the size of governments across the country, spanning from a low of 29.7 percent of the economy in Alberta to a high of 60.2 percent of the economy in Nova Scotia. For Canada overall, the government represented 40.4 percent of the economy in 2019.

The authors also observed a pattern based on geographic location. For example, the size of government is largest in the Maritime provinces, with Nova Scotia taking the lead at 60.2 percent, followed by Prince Edward Island at 58.5 percent and New Brunswick at 57.4 percent of their respective economies.

With Newfoundland and Labrador at 44.1 percent added in, the Atlantic provinces, as well as Quebec (47.8 percent) and Manitoba (47.7 percent), have the largest spending in the country, the authors wrote.

Whalen said while governments across Canada have been growing in size for years, their increase was nowhere near the Atlantic provinces.

Atlantic Canada has been burdened by a large government sector for decades and the evidence shows that trend continues to this day, he said.

Further, an increasing size of government could impair the regions ability to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic.

In contrast, the three westernmost provinces had the lowest size of government as a share of their economy. British Columbia came in second after Alberta at 35.7 percent, trailed closely by Saskatchewan at 37.2 percent.

The authors found that even though the governments in Saskatchewan and PEI grew beyond their optimal level throughout the studied period, they were the only provinces that decreased in size in 2019, with 0.5 percentage points, and 3.1 percentage points, respectively.

Alberta, on the other hand, saw the largest increase in government size at 7.3 percentage points compared to 2007 levels. NL took the second spot at 5.5 percentage points, followed by Nova Scotia at 3.3 percentage points.
Mary Jane Thomas and Hank Williams Jr. seen during the 2021 Medallion Ceremony on November 21, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Hank Williams Jr.s Wife Mary Jane Thomas Dies: Family Member

The wife of country star Hank Williams Jr., Mary Jane Williams, died this week, according to family members.

My dear Mama Mary Jane was a beautiful soul who forever affected everyone who knew her. She had a smile and presence that lit up every room and she never met a stranger she didnt befriend, their son Sam, 24, told People magazine in confirming her death.

He added: Her spirit was gentle and giving. She could take down a ten-point buck and fix dinner for her grandchildren at the same time! Now she gets to radiate from above with my sister Katherine Diana right by her side, he wrote, referencing his late sister, who died in a 2020 car crash.

A spokesperson for the Jupiter Police Department in Florida told several news outlets that they received a call to the Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa on Tuesday at 5 p.m. A patient, who those reports identified as Williams, was taken to a local hospital, they said.

My father fell in love with the Daytona Beach beauty the minute he set eyes on her in the early 80s. They went on to live the most powerful love story of travel and hunting and raising a family, their son continued to say. She is survived by my father, her two parents Ramona and Bill, her brother Andy, her sister Angela, myself and her three grandchildren: Beau Weston, Tennyson Hiram, and Audrey Jane. Rest in peace Mama, I will always be the son of Mary Jane.

Other family members told TMZ that Thomas appeared to suffer a complication following a medical procedure.

According to reports, Thomas, a former model, got married to Williams in 1990.

Other details about her death were not provided.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison looks on while attending a multicultural community awards and afternoon tea at Herb Graham Recreation Centre in Perth, Australia, on March 15, 2022. (Paul Kane/Getty Images)

History Repeating Itself as Liberals Abandon Philosophical Roots

Commentary

In his autobiography, Lazarus Rising, John Howard, Australias second longest-serving prime minister, stated that the Liberal Party is the party of both Edmund Burke and John Stuart Mill. It is the party of both conservatism and classical liberalism.

Historically, the Liberals have been electorally successful when espousing these philosophies simultaneously.

Edmund Burke, the 18th century Irish-born statesman, is considered the father of modern conservatism. He argued against the British Governments attitude toward the American colonists, including its taxation policies.

Burke believed the colonists should enjoy the rights of all English citizens. On the other hand, he was very critical of the French Revolution, asserting that it was destroying the fabric of good society and its traditional institutions.

John Stuart Mill, the great English political philosopher of the 19th century, conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control. He was a passionate advocate for free speech as necessary for intellectual and social progress.

Mill was possibly the first to argue against the tyranny of the majority, in which the majority of an electorate pursues exclusively its own objectives at the expense of those of the minority factions.

In his Forgotten People speech of May 22, 1942, Sir Robert Menzies, our longest-serving prime minister, laid out the foundation principles of the Liberal Party. In it we see a blending of the ideas of both Burke and Mills.

Menzies declared that he would stand up for the middle class who are for the most part unorganised and unself-conscious. They are envied by those whose benefits are largely obtained by taxing them.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison poses for a photo standing next to a photograph of Sir Robert Menzies during a luncheon in Melbourne, Australia, on March 12, 2019. (AAP Image/Daniel Pockett)

In this discourse, Menzies went on to add:

We say that the greatest element in a strong people is a fierce independence of spirit. This is the only real freedom, and it has as its corollary a brave acceptance of unclouded individual responsibility. The moment a man seeks moral and intellectual refuge in the emotions of a crowd, he ceases to be a human being and becomes a cipher.

To discourage ambition, to envy success, to have achieved superiority, to distrust independent thought, to sneer at and impute false motives to public servicethese are the maladies of modern democracy, and of Australian democracy in particular.

It seems, some 80 years later, in Australian democracy, nothing has changed.

As Tony Abbott argued in The Australian in 2017, conservatives are not interlopers in the party Menzies formed. To this end, Abbott cites Menzies despairing letter to his daughter Heather about the partys Victorian state executive.

Menzies observed it was: dominated by what they now call Liberals with a small lthat is to say Liberals who believe in nothing but who still believe in anything if they think it worth a few votes. The whole thing is tragic.

Sound familiar? The problem is that when the Liberal Party tries to become Labor-lite, it dismays its own best supporters without gaining any new ones.

In fact, in the 1972 election, disgusted with what the then Liberals had become, Menzies cast his vote not for the party he founded and led for 22 years, but for B.A. Santamarias Democratic Labour Party.

Some 50 years later, history may well be repeating itself with the Liberals under Scott Morrison. The Liberals state on their website that they believe in the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples  a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives  those most basic freedoms of thought, worship, speech and association and the role of law and justice.

But Morrison seems to have other ideas. Remember free speech doesnt create a single job, Daniel Andrews has my total support, and his treatment of Cardinal George Pell, and most recently, under parliamentary privilege no less, of Bruce Lehrmann, who has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins, to give just some examples.

Menzies and Howard became long-serving prime ministers because they were conservative politicians of conviction.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (C) with former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard (R) after leaving the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 2, 2019. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

As another successful conservative, Margaret Thatcher, stated in her Menzies lecture in November 1981:

I count myself among those politicians who operate from conviction. Consensus is the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects. The process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner I stand for consensus?

By contrast, lacking any depth, Morrisons guiding principle is to be a little to the right of a very left Labor partyand thats delivering us two left-wing parties. The results of this have been disastrous for Australia, at so many levels.

Maybe Morrison and the Liberals should acquaint themselves with probably the most famous quote attributed to Edmund Burke: Those who dont know history are destined to repeat it.

Rocco Loiacono is co-author, with Augusto Zimmermann, of Deconstructing ScoMo: Critical Reflections on Australias 30th Prime Minister, available at https://DeconstructingScoMo.com.au.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) speaks to media at the annual retreat of House Republicans at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., on March 23, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

House Republicans Demand Tougher Measures on China to Deter an Attack on Taiwan

PONTE VEDRA, Fla.In a midterm election year, House Republicans are gathered in Florida to roll out policy proposals to change the direction of the country as they look to regain the majority in Congress this fall.

China accountability is one of the key policy issues being discussed at this years GOP retreat. Republicans pledge to hold China accountable on many issues, including the origin of COVID-19.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy during a press conference on March 23 criticized President Joe Bidens policies toward Beijing.

He said the United States should take lessons from the invasion of Ukraine and apply them to protecting Taiwan from a Chinese invasion. Increasing arms sales to Taiwan is one of the proposals being discussed.

Stop holding up weapons sales to Taiwan; let them defend themselves, McCarthy said during a press conference.

Republicans also criticized Bidens policies on Russia that the administration followed last year. McCarthy said Bidens actions, such as waiving U.S. sanctions on Russias Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany and allowing Europe to be more dependent on Russia, sent the wrong message to Moscow.

House Republicans have created seven task forces that focus on the GOPs key policy issues: jobs and the economy; big tech censorship and data; the future of U.S. freedoms; energy, climate, and conservation; American security; healthy futures; and China accountability.

The GOP House members expressed confidence in taking back the chamber this fall.

Republicans are ready to lead, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters. If given the majority, we will tell you what our agenda is and what we will do to change the direction of this nation.

McCaul, who leads the China Task Force, also said that the growing RussiaChina ties the world is witnessing have major ramifications.

We cant make the same mistake of not arming Taiwan like we didnt arm Ukraine in advance, he said.

The Republicans also criticized Bidens leadership on a number of other issues, including rising gas prices. Biden has been pushing back on the criticisms, blaming oil companies and Russian President Vladimir Putin for the record prices.

Its not just policies we will do in the majority; we will hold this administration accountable, McCarthy said.
Becoming a profitable real estate investor requires giving time and attention to your finances. Being a landlord requires you to manage rental income and spend money on repairs, maintenance, taxes, and other property-related expenses.

Although some properties generate more income than others, you can optimize your ROI, no matter what kind of properties you own. The key is to manage your finances. The better you manage your rental income and expenses, the more profitable youll become.

Try These Strategies for Managing Your Rental Income and Expenses

1. Limit the Pursuit of Time-Consuming Investments

There are plenty of ways to make money in real estate. For example, you can rent properties, fix and flip, or invest online. All of these are good money-makers, but rental properties produce the best source of income.

If you spend your time pursuing too many short-term investments, you wont have any time left to acquire more rental properties.

Owning rental properties may not make you as much cash upfront, but its the only long-term wealth-building strategy in real estate. If you arent building long-term wealth, your investment income will require continued hard work, and you might end up too exhausted to manage your properties.

Its tempting to put your money into every aspect of real estate in an attempt to see what works best. However, if youre managing multiple rental properties, you need to be selective with your investments.

If you want to pursue other investments, you can free up your time by hiring a property management company. However, your time still might be better spent acquiring more rental properties.

2. Hire Only Licensed Professionals to Perform Repairs

Trying to complete all repairs yourself or hiring a friend can turn out to be a disaster. If you get in over your head, or your friend doesnt have the required experience for the jobdisasters can happen. You could end up having to hire a professional to fix the original problem and the mistakeending in costly work. These types of poor judgment will dramatically increase repair costs.

Hire professionals to perform maintenance and repairs in the following areas:

Plumbing

Roofing

HVAC

Electrical

Propane appliances

As an investor, you dont have time to figure out DIY repairs. If you choose to hire a property manager, they can handle repairs and maintenance for you by hiring the right professionals. When you contract with a professional management company, theyll have existing relationships with local maintenance companies to ensure you get good deals on professional jobs.

3. Set Aside Your Estimated Tax Payments Immediately

Dont let a significant income tax bill sneak up on you. Manage your rental income taxes from the start by setting aside the approximate percentage each time you receive a rent payment.

Your income taxes will fall somewhere between 10% and 37%. A tax professional can help you estimate what youll owe. Youll need to pay quarterly taxes, and setting the money aside as it comes in makes it easy to pay your taxes on time and in full.

It may be easiest to have a separate bank account to hold your taxes. That way, you wont risk thinking you have more cash available than you actually have. Every penny in your tax account will be untouchable.

4. Regularly Set Aside Money for Repairs and Other Expenses

Do you have a savings account set up just for expenses? If not, consider creating one as soon as possible. Even if you already set money aside for taxes, youll need to set aside more for repairs and insurance.

Some of the most common repairs can be enormous. For instance, say the roof has been leaking in the same spot for years. You dont want to have to rip off the roof and replace rotted drywall and rebuild the roof. Leaks have to be followed up on quickly to avoid costing thousands of extra dollars.

Youll Need Cash on Hand for Fast Repairs

When your tenants report the need for repairs, sometimes you only have up to ten days to get it done. For instance, a leaky roof in the winter, no running water, and a broken water heater are all considered priorities. Most states require these repairs to be completed within 24 hours. Other maintenance, like a broken window or malfunctioning garage door, is generally given ten days to complete the repairs.

Theres no way to escape numerous repairs from each of your tenants. Some repairs will be cheap and easy, but others will be expensive. You cant guess which repairs will come up next.

Set aside 30-50% of all rental income for expenses. If youre already setting aside money for taxes and insurance, add more to that fund for repairs so that youre tucking away at least half of your rental income.

Most importantly, put this money in an account that will generate some kind of return, no matter how small. Every dollar will help, and with enough money in the account, a small rate of return will add up fast.

5. Be Selective With Renovations

Your rental properties dont need the latest and greatest fixtures, lights, cabinets, or appliances to be profitable.

The inside of a rental property should be relevant to the homes style, but you dont need to go overboard. If a renovation doesnt impact your rental income, its probably wasted cash.

Some renovations make sense to perform for tenants, but some dont. For example, the following renovations are worth spending money on:

Installing accessible kitchen cabinets for a disabled tenant.

Rearranging small bathrooms so that the toilet, sink, and shower are in the optimal position for daily use.

Repairing a concrete driveway.

Grading the backyard and planting grass.

Installing overhead lighting where there is no natural light.

Adding shelving to closets.

Installing a storm shelter if youre in an area prone to tornadoes or heavy storms.

Updating the HVAC system with a more efficient model.

The following renovations wont increase the amount of rent you can collect:

New kitchen cabinets

Installing low flow toilets

Smart appliances like a washer, dryer, and refrigerator

Installing a new oven when the original one works just fine

Replacing the siding when theres no reason other than aesthetics

As a general rule, renovations should directly support generating more rental income.

6. Connect With a Tax Professional

Income tax regulations are complex, and just when you think you understand what youre allowed to do, things can change. If you mess up, you could get hit with massive fines and penalties that deplete your profits.

Connect with a tax pro to handle your state and federal income taxes. There are so many nuances that apply to real estate investors that require expert knowledge to understand. For instance, your rental losses are subject to the passive activity loss regulations.

If your MAGI is under $100,000, youre allowed to deduct no more than $25,000 in passive losses set against other income. However, if your MAGI is above $100,000, the $25,000 deduction is reduced by $1 for every $2 in MAGI over $100,000 and maxes out at $150,000.

Another complication is that rental activities dont count as passive income for licensed real estate professionals unless you spend at least 750 hours and more than 50% of your time working on real estate trades or a real estate business.

There are other complex rules that a tax professional can help you sort out. However, since the penalties are steep for not paying your taxes correctly, its wise to hand it all over to a professional, so you dont unnecessarily cut into your profits.

7. Negotiate Accommodation Requests

At some point, youll have a disabled tenant who will make a request for a reasonable modification that youll be required to pay for.

Although landlords are required to accommodate tenants with disabilities, you dont have to grant every request. While you have a legal responsibility to make certain modifications, you also have the legal right to reject a request and offer a cheaper or less intrusive alternative option.

For example, a tenant may ask you to replace a dirt path with a concrete sidewalk because it becomes uneven and muddy in the winter and spring. However, building a concrete sidewalk and path is expensive. If your tenant just needs stable ground, there are other options. For instance, you can hire someone to grade the ground and install compacted gravel to create a stable surface.

If your tenant needs something more solid than compacted gravel, you can use asphalt or even crushed asphalt instead of gravel. Although its installed in a similar manner, crushed asphalt is far more solid than gravel  its also cheaper. When compacted about four inches into the ground, crushed asphalt will harden and feel almost like standard, poured asphalt.

When there are no other options that will accommodate your tenants disability, you might be required to build a concrete sidewalk for them. However, always make an effort to negotiate when receiving an expensive request. The difference could be thousands of dollars.

8. Always Collect Late Fees

Late fees wont make you rich, but they will deter tenants from being habitually late with the rent. If youre a new property investor, dont let your tenants get away with paying late rent and skipping late fees. Continuously pursue late fees, and if your tenant doesnt pay them, dont let them off the hook.

Late fees will affect your income because the minute you let a tenant slide on late fees, they know they can pay rent late without any consequences. If you do it once, theyll expect to be forgiven every time theyre late. Late rent will mess up your cash flow and might be the beginning signs of a tenant youll soon need to evict.

9. Evict Bad Tenants

Dont hesitate to get rid of bad tenants. Start the eviction process the second youre able to fill out the paperwork. Begin the process by serving your tenant a proper comply or vacate notice according to your state law. In the notice, address the violation you need them to correct and give them a legally-appropriate time frame.

If your tenant fails to comply with the rules, start the eviction process immediately. Evictions take time to process through the courts, so the sooner you start, the better. If your tenant ends up complying, you can always change your mind and cancel the eviction hearing. However, most tenants facing eviction will remain in violation of the rules the entire time.

Each day you allow a bad tenant to stay in your rental property, is money lost. Get them out as soon as possible and replace them with a better, more reliable tenant.

Managing Your Expenses is the Key to Profitability

Owning rental property is a great way to generate the long-term wealth required to secure your financial future. The key to profitability is the same as in any other industry: reduce your expenses and maximize your income.

In real estate, you wont become profitable immediately, so its essential to micromanage your finances from the start. Dont waste money on frivolous expenses like brand-new granite countertops or fancy light fixtures.

Keep your expenses low, minimize renovations between tenants, and dont hesitate to evict tenants who are taking advantage of you.

By Deanna Ritchie

The Epoch Times Copyright  2022 The views and opinions expressed are only those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. The Epoch Times does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. The Epoch Times holds no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.
People queue to get a swab test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Beijing on March 17, 2022. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Lockdown of Millions Leaves Locals Being Denied Care, Basic Needs

On a road damp with rain, in front of a neighborhood officials office in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai, a kneeling womans heart-wrenching pleas for her dying husband tore through the frigid air.

I beg you to please do some good deed, the woman beseeched while crying. I beg you to save my husband.

Wearing a khaki jacket and black pants, she was in a kowtow position on the ground, heedless of the cold and wet. She repeatedly bent her head so low that it nearly touched the cement.

The womans husband was suffering from late-stage cancer. But no ambulance could be made available to ferry him to the hospital, nor would any medical facilities take himfor the sole reason that the couple lived in a residential compound that had been sealed off under the Chinese regimes zero tolerance virus policy.

Three months after a Chinese city became the center of an online storm for its draconian lockdowns that delayed much needed medical care for the sick and caused several pregnant women to lose their unborn children, similar scenes of helplessness are emerging on the Chinese internet as the country faces its purported worst COVID wave since its first emergence two years ago.

China is now reporting thousands of cases daily, an explosive growth compared to the clusters of infections in the double-digits it had recorded throughout 2021. But even this is likely to be an understatement, according to some experts and locals, given the communist regimes practice of suppressing information that undermines its image. Infections are now recorded in every province, prompting a chain of responses from the Party bureaucracy as part of its dynamic COVID-zero policy: sacking local officials, mass testing, locking down cities, and quarantining anyone deemed a close COVID contact.

One factor that has consistently been overlooked in this playbook has been the human toll.

Residents look at the street from their neighborhood where barriers are being placed around to close off streets around after the detection of new cases of Covid-19 in Shanghai on March 15, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

On March 11, the same day Changchun, the capital of northeast Chinas Jilin Province, went into lockdown, a 4-year-old girl died of acute laryngitis while awaiting treatment that had been delayed due to the family of four being unable to present proof that all of them were virus-free.

On March 19, the city began a three-day testing drive of its 4.5 million residents that would also bar anyone, with the exception of medical workers, from leaving their respective compounds.

The government seems to be treating this as a joke. They make announcements out of the blue without knowing what the next step will be, Qin Jun, a local Changchun resident, told The Epoch Times.

Anger

In the Nanshan district of Shenzhen, the technology hub of southern China, a man in his 30s died following weeks of lockdown, according to his next-door neighbor. The timing and cause of his death were unknown. The residents only realized something was wrong after detecting a foul smell coming out of his apartment.

No one knows how he died. Some say he starved to death. Others say he took his own life, Lin Nan (pseudonym) told The Epoch Times.

She said that one man living in the same building had attempted suicide but was stopped by people nearby.

Residents frustration toward local officials eventually triggered a showdown earlier this week, Lin said.

Staff members wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) stand at the entrance to a residental area which is restricted due to a recent outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Harbin in Chinas northeastern Heilongjiang province on March 15, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

One health worker had told the residents, while conducting virus testing one morning, that they deserved to be sealed inside and that theyd better not get out for several months or even a year, she said. In response, furious residents knocked over a checkpoint booth and metal fences that separated the compound from the outside world, and asked district officials to lift the lockdown.

The protesting residents disbanded in the evening after three police vans arrived to break up the mob. The local Chinese Communist Party secretary, who had avoided meeting with them earlier in the day, also appeared then, threatening to have them all arrested if they continued to clamor, Lin said.

The Epoch Times couldnt reach the districts neighborhood office by phone on March 24.

I just want to ask, When will the lockdown end? Lin said.

Aggressive Enforcement

Amid the rise in complaints, the regime has reacted aggressively to punish anyone who disobeys its rules.

Chinas capital Beijing has prosecuted nearly 150 people since March 7 over COVID-related violations such as failing to scan their health code on their mobile app, entering the city by climbing fences or using fake virus testing results.

Medical workers prepare to conduct nucleic acid tests for the Covid-19 coronavirus on residents who cant leave their premises conveniently in Shenyang in Chinas northeastern Liaoning province on March 23, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Nantong city in southeastern Jiangsu Province is deploying 90,000 workers going door to door to collect locals health information.

Meanwhile, the Chinese censors have continued to monitor the internet space in real time to suppress any information it deems harmful to the outbreak control efforts, including, at times, appeals for help from citizens under lockdown.

Food Concerns

Lin, of Shenzhen, is concerned about her two young children, one is three months old and the other just over 1. Local authorities have only sent food supplies five times since Feb. 23, when the district enforced the lockdown, she said. In one batch, they received a box containing six packets of instant noodles, which was barely enough for her family of seven.

The local officers had rejected her request for something more nutritious, such as meat, saying they had no time.

Lins 1-year-old weighed about 22 pounds before the lockdown. Now the childs only 18 pounds.

The toddler has thinned so much, said Lin.

Further north, lockdown fears in Shanghai have prompted a new wave of panic buying both online and in stores. A viral video on social media purportedly shows a hoard of locals emptying baskets of fresh produce from local grocery markets at close to midnight. Some tech savvy young people, meanwhile, wait past midnight to snap up orders on stores online apps, which often go out of stock within seconds.

Guards wear protective suits as they watch over a barricaded community that was locked down for health monitoring after recent cases of COVID-19 were found in the area in Beijing, China, on March 21, 2022. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Official Response

Shanghai has denied having a lockdown in place despite recently turning out tenants under short notice in order to convert their apartments into quarantine hotels.

As of Thursday, 39 hospitals have shut down some operations to cooperate with outbreak investigation, according to the citys health officials.

A video recently circulating on the Chinese internet showed people clad in white hazmat suits screwing shut an apartment door before sealing it with metal wires, while two men stood watching inside.

Related Coverage China Locks Down 51 Million as COVID Surges Across the Country

It remains a question how long the regime will continue with its COVID-zero policy as it battles the high-infectious Omicron variant, when most countries have been opting to live with the virus and lifting restrictions.

While Chinese leader Xi Jinping last week called for controlling outbreaks with the smallest cost possible, top officials have not indicated a marked shift away from its all-out containment methods.

But Zhang Wenhong, a top Shanghai-based infectious disease doctor, expressed a different sentiment on Wednesday.

The battle is tough, he wrote on his personal Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site. While largely toeing the official line, he conceded controlling the outbreak to be a long term process.

We cant have the mindset of killing the virus no matter if we can live or not, he said. Life has to go on.

Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.
Idaho Governor Signs Texas-Style Abortion Ban, but Expresses Concerns

Idaho Gov. Brad Little on March 23 signed into law a measure that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is at about six weeks of pregnancy. The measure has an enforcement mechanism inspired by a Texas law that allows private citizens to file lawsuits against abortion providers.

I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies, Little wrote in a letter on March 23 (pdf) to Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who also is the president of the Idaho Senate. Little is facing a primary challenge from McGeachin, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

The governor also noted in his letter, however: While I support the pro-life policy in this legislation, I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise.

The law takes effect 30 days after its signing. The Idaho legislature had passed the measure, S.B. 1309, in mid-March. The legislation updates Idahos current fetal heartbeat abortion ban that Little signed into law in 2021, by adding a private enforcement mechanism modeled after an abortion ban in Texas.

The 2021 law wasnt in effect due to a trigger provision that means the measure would only be enacted if a federal appeals court upholds another heartbeat law.

But the latest measure the Idaho governor signed into law means that private citizenscertain family members of a woman who had the abortioncan now bring a civil lawsuit against the abortion provider for a minimum of $20,000 in damages within four years after the procedure.

Family members who can sue include the father, the grandparent, a sibling, or an aunt or uncle of the unborn child. An individual who caused the pregnancy through incest or rape cant sue the abortion provider for damages, although their family can.

Little, in his letter advising of his signing of the bill, questioned the implications of the measure hed just signed into law. He said the approach could be used by leftist-governed state governments to target constitutional rights, including gun rights.

Deputizing private citizens to levy hefty monetary fines on the exercise of a disfavored but judicially recognized constitutional right for the purpose of evading court review undermines our constitutional form of government and weakens our collective liberties. None of the rights we treasure are off limits, he said. How long before California, New York, and other states hostile to the First and Second Amendments use the same methods to target our religious freedoms and right to bear arms?

In California, a gun control bill (A.B. 1594) that has a similar enforcement mechanism to the Texas abortion ban is being considered by the states legislature. It would let private citizens and the government sue gun companies if they violate the states assault weapons ban; it would also allow them to sue gun dealers for liability in shootings that cause injuries or deaths, if the dealers knowingly sell guns to people who cant legally own them.

Pro-life protesters stand near the gate of the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)

The Idaho ban provides exceptions for rape and incest if the pregnant woman reports her rape or incest to the police and gives the police report to the abortion provider. But some say the exception for rape and incest would likely be impossible for many women to meet because Idaho law prevents the release of police reports in active investigations.

Little commented on the latest amendment in light of the above provision, saying victims of sexual assault may face unintended consequences under the measure.

I appreciate the exception provided for victims of rape and incest, but the challenges and delays inherent in obtaining the requisite police report render the exception meaningless for many, he wrote in his letter.

I am particularly concerned for those vulnerable women and children who lack the capacity or familial support to report incest and sexual assault. Ultimately, this legislation risks traumatizing victims by affording monetary [incentives] to wrongdoers and family members of rapists.

I remain committed to protecting the lives of preborn babies and strongly encourage the legislature to promptly rectify any unintended consequences with this legislation to ensure the state sufficiently protects the interests of victims of sexual assault.

Idaho state Rep. Lauren Necochea, a Democrat, criticized the measure.

The vigilante aspect of this bill is absurd, she said, according to The Associated Press. Its impacts are cruel, and it is blatantly unconstitutional.

She wrote on Twitter, I am holding children who are victims of rape and incest especially close to my heart today and every day until this monstrous legislation is reversed.

Necochea also reposted a Twitter post from opinion writer Bryan Clark, who wrote, [Governor Little] cant disavow S1309 and sign it. Statements without action are meaningless. Little knows what the effects of the bill will be, so he owns them entirely.

An activist speaks outside the Supreme Court in protest against the Texas abortion law in Washington on Sept. 2, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rebecca Gibron, an official of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky, which operates Idahos three abortion clinics, said the abortion provider will remain open and is committed to helping people access the health care they need, including abortion, AP reported.

State Rep. Steven Harris, a Republican, a sponsor of the bill, said in a statement after the bill passed the legislature on March 14, This bill makes sure that the people of Idaho can stand up for our values and do everything in our power to prevent the wanton destruction of innocent human life.

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates previously commented on the Idaho bill: This bill is modeled directly after Texass latest abortion ban, which was designed explicitly to avoid legal challenges and which the Supreme Court ultimately allowed to go into effect.

Since its implementation in September, 60 percent of the states abortion care has been eliminated, the group said, referring to Texas.
Inclusionary Housing Policy a California Fairy Tale: Newport

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.Newport Beach failed to move forward with its plan to create a citywide inclusionary housing ordinance because the number of units required by the state is too mind-boggling to be practical for the city.

Inclusionary housing is a type of housing program that requires developers to make a certain portion of units within newly built residential complexes affordable for residents with very low, low, and moderate incomes.

I call this the California fairy tale that this can all work, when we all intuitively know it cant work, Councilman Brad Avery said during a recent meeting. And yet, we need to do everything we can to try and make it work, but the city of Newport Beach and the residents get the wrong side of this deal, unfortunately.

The number required by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is very hard to achieve, according to the city council. Even if the entire city was rezoned for affordable housing, the councilors said it is still uncertain whether the city could meet the HCDs requirements.

To follow the states housing guidelines, Newport Beach needs to add 11,000 units in total in the next eight years, said Seimone Jurjis, the citys community development director, in a presentation at the meeting.

Among those 11,000, 4,396 units have to be affordable housing, amounting to about 550 new affordable units per year.

Its mind-boggling. I dont understand how to comply, Councilman Will ONeil said during the meeting. And that is obviously bad government when we dont know how to comply with something ourselves.

ONeil said he would like to know whether the councils making huge changes and decisions for rezoning wide swaths of area of land can actually comply with the states requirements.

[These] numbers are not feasible, even upon the rosiest predictions that our consultant has provided that is not proven to be effective in cities that have tried to implement those kinds of numbers, Mayor Kevin Muldoon said. So, Newport doesnt need to be the test case. We dont need to be the first in this.

Also, the city is not necessarily losing out on affordable units for not creating its own inclusionary housing ordinance while new development projects are being built, community director Jurjis said, because around 90 percent of developers are utilizing the state bonus law, which gives developers certain benefits for providing affordable housing.

The states bonus law allows developers to build fewer parking spaces, smaller units, and up to 50 percent denser units, among other incentives to add more affordable housing.

After discussing the matter for over an hour, the council opted to not move forward at this time, mainly due to the citys inability to produce that many housing units.

I think you have a consensus. This is not the right time. I dont think its ever the right time, Mayor Muldoon said. I believe at the end of the road, this is going to be a complete disaster statewide.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building is seen in Washington on Feb. 19, 2014. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

IRS Investigators Find Nearly $2 Billion in COVID-19 Stimulus-Related Fraud

Agents of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigated 660 cases of alleged fraud connected to COVID-19 stimulus funds and found more than $1.8 billion over the past two years, according to investigational data made public on Wednesday.

These cases included a broad range of criminal activity, including fraudulently obtained loans, credits and payments meant for American workers, families, and small businesses, the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division said in a statement.

The statutory body noted that it had a 100 percent conviction rate for prosecuted cases, with prison sentences averaging 42 months.

Nearly two years ago, President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act meant to fuel the fight against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic and sustain the hard-hit economy.

The approximately $2.2 trillion stimulus package included $500 billion in loans to industries, $100 billion for hospitals, $58 billion in aid to airlines, $150 billion for states and local governments, and $45 billion for disaster relief.

Unfortunately, even during times of crisis, criminals pop their heads out to look for ways to take advantage of those in their most vulnerable state, IRS-CI Chief Jim Lee said. Thanks to the investigative work of IRS-CI special agents and our law enforcement partners, weve ensured criminals who try to defraud CARES Act programs face consequences for their actions.

One case highlighted by the agency involved a California family who used stolen identities to submit fraudulent small business loan applications in a scheme that defrauded the government of millions of dollars.

Another case presented by the IRS involved two Florida residents who were sentenced to prison for wire fraud after they submitted false documentation about their companies to fraudulently secure loans from the CARES Act.

Meanwhile, the IRS-CI said the departments lack of funding has damaged the ability of law enforcement investigators to effectively do their work, noting the workforce of the investigations unit has shrunk by 25 percent over the course of the last decade, a U.S. Treasury Department official told The Associated Press.

The IRS criminal investigators are some of the best financial investigators in the world. Its important they are at full strength, said Danny Glaser, a former Treasury assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes.

From NTD News
Irvine Man Who Managed Car Company Arrested on Bribery Charge

LOS ANGELESA former auto manufacturing company manager from Irvine was arrested on March 24 on a federal charge alleging he solicited a $5 million bribe from a South Korean firm with promises of delivering a large contract for various car parts.

Hyoung Nam So, 46, also known as Brian So, surrendered to federal authorities after a grand jury on March 23 charged him with bribery conspiracy. So is expected to be arraigned on the one-count indictment on March 24 afternoon in Los Angeles federal court.

The indictment alleges that the foreign parts supplier paid So a total of $3.45 million in cash. Homeland Security Investigations seized $3.19 million believed to be proceeds from the bribery scheme from a private vault in Los Altos in 2017, and federal authorities subsequently returned the money to South Korean authorities, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

As a manager and team leader at the Michigan-based car manufacturerreferred to as Company A in the indictmentSo oversaw the supply of parts used to build interiors for the unnamed companys automobiles in North America, according to federal prosecutors.

In October 2015, the indictment alleges, So promised a contract to the owner of the South Korean parts companyCompany Bin exchange for $5 million, which So demanded in cash.

The following month, the owner of Company B arranged to have $1 million in cash transferred to the United States through money brokers, which an accomplice then drove from Los Angeles to Michigan, according to the indictment. The owner of Company B allegedly flew to the United States in late November 2015 and personally delivered the cash to So in a meeting at a hotel in Troy, Michigan, the indictment says.

By the time the $1 million payment was made, So had learned that Company B was not the lowest bidder on the contract, and he arranged for information to be provided to Company B so it could revise its bid on the contract, according to the indictment. On Dec. 8, 2015, So recommended to Company A executives that the contract be awarded to Company B, and the contract was awarded to Company B on the same day, according to federal prosecutors.

So refrained from notifying Company B of the contract award, and continued to withhold the information until [Company Bs owner] paid the remaining portion of the bribe, the indictment states.

On Dec. 20, 2015, the owner of Company B allegedly paid So another portion of the bribe at a restaurant in Detroit$2.45 million that also had been driven from Los Angeles to Michigan. The following day, So arranged for Company B to be told it had won the contract, prosecutors allege.

The indictment charges So with one count of conspiracy to commit federal funds bribery, a charge related to the fact that Company A received money through federal assistance programs. The offense carries a penalty of up to five years in federal prison, according to prosecutors.

The owner of Company B was prosecuted for offenses related to the bribery scheme in South Korea.
Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki prepares to ring a bell during the New Year ceremony marking the opening of trading in 2022 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 4, 2022. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

Japan Unsure How Russia Will Execute Rouble Payments for Energy Sold to Unfriendly Nations

TOKYOJapan does not know how Russia will handle the required rouble payments for its energy sold to unfriendly countries, the finance minister said on Thursday.

Japan accounted for 4.1 percent of Russias crude oil exports and 7.2 percent of its natural gas exports in 2021.

Currently, were looking into the situation with relevant ministries as we dont quite understand what is (Russias) intention and how they would do this, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said in a parliament session.

The government will also coordinate with Japanese companies to collect information about the move, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a Thursday news conference.

Russias President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday his country would seek payment in roubles for gas sales to unfriendly countries in retaliation for Western sanctions against its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has put Japan on its unfriendly nation list along with the United States, European Union member states, and others.

Japan has revoked Russias most-favoured nation trade status, banned exports of certain goods to the country, and frozen assets of about a hundred Russian individuals, banks, and other organizations after the invasion, which Moscow calls a special military operation.

Suzuki said the government would closely monitor the side effects of the sanction measures on the Japanese economy and financial markets and continue to take appropriate steps in coordination with the Group of Seven (G7) and the international community.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, escorted by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, and General Staff Valery Gerasimov walk after attending an extended meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 21, 2021. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Kremlin Disputes Reports Russian Defense Minister Has Gone Missing

The Kremlin has disputed reports and speculation that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was missing amid the weeks-long conflict in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters Thursday that Shiogu hasnt been seen in public appearances because he doesnt have time.

The Minister of Defense now has a lot of worries. A special military operation is underway, Peskov said, referring to Russias description of the conflict in Ukraine. Of course, now is not quite the time for media activity, this is quite understandable, he said in response to a question about Shoigus health and whereabouts.

Responding to allegations that Shiogu is suffering from undisclosed health problems, Peskov said, You dont need to listen to the Agentstvo publication, which made the claims. Contact the Ministry of Defense.

On Thursday, footage of Shoigu was released by state-run RIA Novosti, showing him speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other advisers, according to Reuters. Shoigu was seen in the top corner of a screen that Putin was using, while RIA Novosti said that Putin listened to Shoigus report as the Minister of defense of the Russian Federation reported to the president on the progress of the special operation in Ukraine.

Until March 11, Shoigu made near-daily media appearances in the aftermath of Russias invasion of Ukraine, which began Feb 24, according to reports. During a televised Security Council Meeting, Shoigu told Putin on March 11 that Russias invasion of Ukraine was being carried out smoothly.

All is going according to the plan, we report to you here every day this week, Shoigu said at the time. Western officials have said that Moscow has faced significant resistance from Ukraines forces.

When meeting on Thursday, Shoigu provided an update to Putin Russias Security Council about Russias operation in Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reported, citing the Kremlin. No other details about the update were provided.

It comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that a Polish government-backed proposal to send NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine would backfire. NATO leaders are scheduled to meet on the Ukraine-Russia conflict Thursday.

Our Polish colleagues have already stated that there will be a NATO summit now, and peacekeepers should be deployed, Lavrov said Wednesday, reported state-run media. I hope they understand what is at stake. This will be a direct clash between the Russian and NATO armed forces, which everyone not only wanted to avoid but said that it should never take place in principle.

The Russian Defense Ministry has been contacted for comment.
Jeffrey Epsteins Private Caribbean Islands Listed for Sale

Private islands in the Caribbean owned by Jeffrey Epstein have been listed for sale, a lawyer for Epsteins estate has confirmed.

Lawyer Daniel Weiner told the BBC that the two islands  Little St James and Great St James  have been put on sale and that some of the proceeds from the sale will be used to settle outstanding lawsuits.

Weiner said the sale is taking place with the support of U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George.

George, in January 2020, launched an investigation into Epsteins estate, his trust, and five entities linked to Epstein that were alleged to have been part of his expansive scheme of human trafficking and sexually abusing young women and underage girls in the Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands Justice Department said in a statement.

Weiner said that the proceeds will be used by the estate for the resolution of outstanding lawsuits and the regular costs of the estates operations.

The Epoch Times has contacted Lawyer Daniel Weiner for comment.

Epstein, 66, was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution. After serving a short amount of time in jail, he was released, but he was arrested again at a New Jersey airport in 2019 on child sex trafficking charges.

He killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled as suicide by the New York medical examiner, who said he had hung himself with a sheet from his bed.

The convicted sex offender purchased the 90-acre Little St James nearly 25 years ago for almost $8 million.

Little St. James Island, one of the properties of financier Jeffrey Epstein, near Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands, Aug. 17, 2019. (Reuters/Marco Bello)

The two islands that he owned were Little St. James and Great St. James, located about two miles from St. Thomas, a larger island with a population of around 50,000.

According to a January 2020 lawsuit filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein purchased Little St. James in the late 1990s as the perfect hideway (sic) for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse, and sexual assault.

He reportedly bought it for nearly $8 million before going on to buy Great St. James for more than $20 million in 2016, the lawsuit alleged.

Both islands are located around two miles from St. Thomas, a larger island with a population of around 50,000.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the two islands could be sold for as much as $125 million.

Epsteins Little St James island allegedly welcomed a string of high-profile guests over the years. One of Epsteins alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, has claimed in a lawsuit that Epstein arranged for Prince Andrew to sexually abuse her when she was 17, and that the embattled royal sexually assaulted her in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as New York, and London.

The Duke of York has denied all allegations against him and told the BBC in a 2019 interview that he had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre, despite photographic evidence showing the two together.

Andrew was stripped of his military titles and charities in January and they were returned to the Queen, Buckingham Palace officials said.

In February, the royal settled the lawsuit with Giuffre, although the details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Epsteins New York townhouse sold for just under $50 million in 2021, The New York Post reported.
A United Airlines jetliner taxis down a runway for take off from Denver International Airport in Denver, Colo., on July 2, 2021. (David Zalubowski/AP Photo)

Leaders of 10 Major US Airlines Call on Biden to Drop Mask Mandates, Pre-departure Testing Requirements

The advocacy group Airlines for America issued President Joe Biden a letter demanding the end of mask mandates for transportation, and other COVID-19 requirements, such as pre-departure testing for international flights.

The letter from the groups board of directors was signed by the leaders of 10 major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines Holdings, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines.

Others include the leaders of UPS Airlines, FedEx Express, JetBlue Airways, Alaska Air Group, and Atlas Air Worldwide.

We are encouraged by the current data and the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions from coast to coast, which indicate it is past time to eliminate COVID-era transportation policies, the group wrote in its letter, which comes as overall numbers of infections decline in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

All 50 U.S. states have announced plans to lift indoor mask mandates.

The airlines CEOs and presidents said they implemented various policies voluntarily at the start, including mask mandates, contact tracing, and enhancing cleaning protocols, and later followed measures imposed by the CDC including pre-departure testing and vaccination requirements for international travelers.

However, much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context. The persistent and steady decline of hospitalization and death rates are the most compelling indicators that our country is well protected against severe disease from COVID-19, the group wrote.

Given that we have entered a different phase of dealing with this virus, we strongly support your view that COVID-19 need no longer control our lives.

Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictionsincluding the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandatethat are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.

An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in a file photo. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The letter comes as BA.2, a subvariant of the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus, now accounts for over a third of new COVID-19 cases in the country, according to CDC data. BA.2 doesnt appear to cause more severe disease, but its more transmissible than the original Omicron BA.1 variant.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on March 23 that New York, where BA.2 is the dominant variant, has seen small increases in infections. She said theres been no indication so far of an increase in severe disease that would strain the hospital system.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on March 10 that it was extending the face mask mandate for public transportation, which includes airplanes, until April 18. The extension was based on a recommendation from the CDC. The order was otherwise due to expire on March 18.

It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do, the airline letter said.

A man gathers his luggage after arriving at Miami International Airport on a plane from New York in Miami on Feb. 1, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The TSA recently reported it had issued more than $640,000 in fines to over 900 people who didnt comply with the mask mandates. Most of the fines came onboard airplanes, where 788 people were fined for a total of over $500,000, averaging about $636 per fine.

The White House didnt respond to The Epoch Times request for comment by press time. It declined to comment when reached by Reuters.

On March 15, the Biden administration said (pdf) the CDC was working to help develop a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor. The statement came as a response to the U.S. Senate having passed a resolution to lift the mask mandate for airplanes and other public transport.

In a separate statement, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the federal mask mandate and pre-departure testing no longer fits with the current environment.

We appreciate the leadership of the federal government throughout the pandemic, he said. Current data and science show its time to move from mandates to guidance and personal health choices.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault speaks at a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic on Feb. 8, 2022 at the legislature in Quebec City. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot)

Legault Warns New Liberal-NDP Alliance Will Trigger Confrontation With Provinces

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is warning that the new alliance between the federal Liberals and the NDP is going to trigger a confrontation with the provinces, particularly around health care.

Legaults comments to reporters on Wednesday were in reaction to the agreement announced this week that would see the NDP support Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus minority Liberal government through to 2025.

In exchange for the NDPs support, the Liberals have agreed to work with the party on several priorities, including a dental-care program for low-income Canadians and national pharmacare.

But Legault says both of those potential programs fall under exclusive provincial jurisdiction, and he adds that the Liberals and NDP are very centralizing political parties.

He says the Liberal-NDP alliance will hit a wall if it tries to tell Quebec how to spend federal health transfers, adding that Ontario Premier Doug Ford agrees with him that Ottawa should not try to involve itself in areas of provincial jurisdiction, such as health care.

The Quebec premier is warning the federal leaders that they should expect from the provinces a very strong common front that would block any attempt to erode provincial powers.

Im sorry, but the federal government has no jurisdiction to be able to say how much money we put into long-term care, how much we put into mental health, Legault said.

Sonia LeBel, Quebecs minister responsible for Canadian relations, told reporters that the federal government has the obligation to transfer money to the provinces for health care and the funding shouldnt come with strings attached. She said Quebec wouldnt agree to having its powers eroded in exchange for money.

Quebec is not for sale, LeBel said.
President Joe Biden holds a press conference after meeting with NATO leaders on Thursday.
Russia-Ukraine (March 24): Zelenskyy Asks EU Leaders for Quick Membership

The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, March 24. Click here for updates from March 23.

Zelenskyy Asks EU Leaders for Quick Membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked EU leaders for working together to support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia, including Germanys decision to block Russia from delivering natural gas to Europe through the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

But he lamented that these steps werent taken earlier, saying there was a chance Russia would have thought twice about invading.

He then appealed to the EU leaders, who had gathered Thursday in Brussels, to move quickly on Ukraines application to join the bloc. Here I ask you, do not delay. Please, Zelenskyy said by video from Kyiv. For us this is a chance.

He then listed the 27 member countries, noting those he said were for us. He appealed to Germany and particularly to Hungary not to block Ukraines bid.

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UN Votes to Condemn Russia for Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine

The U.N. General Assembly has approved a resolution blaming Russia for a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and urging an immediate cease-fire and protection for millions of civilians and the homes, schools, and hospitals critical to their survival.

Thursdays vote on the resolution was 1405 with only Belarus, Syria, North Korea, and Eritrea joining Russia in opposing the measure. There were 38 abstentions, including China.

The resolution deplores Russias shelling, airstrikes, and besiegement of densely populated cities, including the southern city of Mariupol, and demands unhindered access for humanitarian aid.

The vote was almost exactly the same as on the March 2 resolution the assembly adopted demanding an immediate Russian cease-fire and withdrawal of all its forces and demanding protection for all civilians and infrastructure indispensable to their survival. That vote was 1415 with 35 abstentions.

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Russia Offers Safe Passage to Stranded Ships

The Russian military says it will offer safe passage to foreign ships that have been stranded in Ukrainian ports.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said Thursday that Russia is offering to allow foreign vessels to gather in the Black Sea 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of the port of Illichivsk and then follow an 80-mile-long (129-kilometer-long) humanitarian corridor to safety. He added that the safe route will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Moscow time (0500 to 1600 GMT) starting Friday.

He said that 67 ships from 15 countries have been stranded in Ukrainian ports. Mizintsev charged that those ships have been unable to leave due to the threat of Ukrainian shelling and the presence of sea mines deployed by the Ukrainian forces.

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Ukraines Military Claims It Destroyed Large Russian Warship

A Russian landing ship was destroyed and two other ships were damaged in the Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian military posted a video on March 24 that claimed its forces destroyed the Orsk.

The Orsk large landing ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the occupiers has been destroyed in the port of Berdyansk captured by Russia, the Ukrainian navy said on Facebook.

Russias military hasnt issued a public comment in response, and The Epoch Times couldnt immediately verify the claim.

Russias armed forces confirmed earlier this week that the ship had docked in Berdyansk, a Black Sea port city, to deploy military equipment, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

Read the full article here

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Biden Does Not Rule Out Ukraines Territorial Concessions

President Joe Biden told reporters at the NATO headquarters on Thursday that If Ukraine wishes to give up any territory in order to negotiate an end to the conflict with Russia, thats its own choice that Washington is going to respect.

Thats a total judgment based on Ukraine, Biden said in response to the question if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs to cede any territory to get a ceasefire with Russia.

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Russian Ally Belarus Warns of World War III

Belarus leader has warned that a Polish proposal to deploy a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine could trigger World War III.

President Alexander Lukashenko pointed Thursday at Polands offer of a peacekeeping mission made last week, saying it will mean World War III.

The situation is very serious and very tense, he added.

Lukashenkos comment follows Russian President Vladimir Putins warning at the start of the invasion of Ukraine that any foreign interference with Moscows military action would trigger an immediate Russian response that will lead to the consequences you have never seen in your history. A few days after the start of the invasion, Putin ordered to put Russias nuclear forces on special regime of combat duty.

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Biden Says He Prefer Russia Out of G20

President Joe Biden says that he wants Russia out of the G-20.

Biden made the comments during a press conference Thursday in Brussels following a series of urgent NATO meetings on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The G-20, or Group of Twenty, is an intergovernmental forum of 19 countries and the European Union that works on major global issues. He said he raised the issue Thursday with other world leaders.

Biden said that he would prefer Russia is removed from the group, but should Indonesia or other nations disagree, he would ask that Ukraine leaders be allowed in for conversations.

Biden and Western allies on Thursday pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid in response to the Russias invasion of Ukraine.

However, Indonesias deputy central bank governor Dody Budi Waluyo on Monday said at a seminar Indonesias position was always one of neutrality, but noting the risk of divisions over the issue said it would use its G20 leadership to try to resolve any problems.

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US to Welcome 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees

The United States will allocate $1 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine while welcoming up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the conflict under a new plan announced by the White House on Thursday.

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Moscow and Kyiv Exchange Military and Civilian Prisoners: Ukrainian Official

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners Thursday.

Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media that Ukraine exchanged 10 captured occupiers for 10 Ukrainian troops.

She also claimed that Ukraine had handed over 11 civilian Russian sailors who Ukraine had rescued from a sinking ship off Odesa, in return for 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors from a Ukrainian search and rescue boat. The boat will also be returned via Turkey, she said.

There have previously been reports of local prisoner exchanges on a smaller scale than those announced by Vereshchuk. They included a swap of nine Russian soldiers for a captured Ukrainian mayor. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday two prisoner swaps had taken place but didnt provide details of when they happened or who was involved.

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Ukrainian Official Claims Citizens Are Being Forced Into Russia

Ukraine claims more than 400,000 of its citizens have been forcibly taken to Russia.

Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said at a briefing Thursday that the Ukrainians were taken by Russian troops from Mariupol and other besieged Ukrainian cities. The number includes 84,000 children. She claims they are held in primitive conditions with little food and water.

Donetsk Region Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko also claimed that Russians are taking Ukrainians passports and taking them to filtration camps where Russian FSB counterintelligence agency officers conduct security checks before moving them to various distant areas in Russia.

Kyrylenko claimed that Mariupols residents had been long deprived of information and the Russians feed them false claims about Ukraines defeats to persuade them to move to Russia.

Russian officials reported Wednesday that over 384,000 Ukrainians had voluntarily traveled to Russia where they were being offered accommodation and payments.

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Germany Calls for EU Energy Emergency Plan

In response to the Russian presidents demand that unfriendly countries should pay for gas in rubles, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) has called for an agreement at the European level on an emergency protocol in response to Moscows announcement of the new gas payment mechanism.

There are certain and serious signs that we are heading towards a deterioration in the gas supply situation, the head of BDEW Kerstin Andreae said on Thursday, according to Prime news agency.

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NATO Issues Statement Laying Out Defense Readiness Against Russia

NATO on Thursday issued a lengthy statement laying out its defense readiness doctrine against Russia, condemning Moscows invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms.

We, the Heads of State and Government of the 30 NATO Allies, have met today to address Russias aggression against Ukraine, the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades. Russias war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and is causing enormous human suffering and destruction, said the statement ahead of a summit in Brussels.

The NATO statement called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately stop this war and withdraw its military from Ukraine and also urged Russia to call on Belarus to end its complicity.

Read the full article here

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Kremlin Disputes Reports Russian Defense Minister Has Gone Missing

The Kremlin has disputed reports and speculation that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was missing amid the weeks-long conflict in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters Thursday that Shiogu hasnt been seen in public appearances because he doesnt have time.

The Minister of Defense now has a lot of worries. A special military operation is underway, Peskov said, referring to Russias description of the conflict in Ukraine. Of course, now is not quite the time for media activity, this is quite understandable, he said in response to a question about Shoigus health and whereabouts.

Read the full article here

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G7, US Announce New Sanctions Against Russia

Group of Seven leaders have announced they are restricting the Russian Central Banks use of gold in transactions, while the United States announced a new round of sanctions targeting more than 400 elites and members of the Russian State Duma.

Previously, sanctions against Russian elites, the countrys Central Bank, and President Vladimir Putin did not impact Russias gold stockpile, which Putin has been accumulating for several years. Russia holds roughly $130 billion in gold reserves, and the Bank of Russia announced on Feb. 28 that it would resume the purchase of gold on the domestic precious metals market.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced more sanctions targeting 48 state-owned defense companies, 328 members of the Duma, Russias lower parliament, and dozens of Russian elites. The Duma as an entity was also named in the new sanctions.

The G-7 and the European Union also announced a new effort to share information and coordinate responses to prevent Russia from evading the impact of sanctions that western nations have levied since the Feb. 24 invasion.

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Lavrovs Stepdaughter on New UK Sanction List

Britain is sanctioning 65 more companies and individuals over Russias invasion of Ukraine. The targets include Russias largest private bank and a woman the British government said was the stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the new round of sanctions target strategic industries, banks, and business elites. Among those sanctioned are Alfa Bank, Russias largest private bank, and Alrosa, the worlds largest diamond mining company.

The UK also targeted billionaires Eugene Markovich Shvidler, who has close ties to Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich and Herman Gref, the chief executive of Sberbank, Russias largest bank.

Polina Kovaleva, who was described as Lavrovs stepdaughter, was also sanctioned as the UK broadens the scope of its sanctions to reach people linked to those responsible for Russian aggression.

Britain said it has sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and companies since the invasion. All of the named entities will have their UK assets frozen, and individuals will be banned from traveling to or from Britain.

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NATO Extends Stoltenberg Term for a Year Due to Russias War

NATO leaders are extending the mandate of Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for an extra year to help steer the 30-nation military organization through the security crisis sparked by war in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg posted on Twitter Thursday that he is honored by the decision of NATO leaders to extend his term until Sept. 30, 2023.

The former Norwegian prime minister was named to NATOs top civilian post in October 2014. Its the second time that his term of office has been extended. His mandate was due to expire in September.

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Zelenskyy Pleads for More Aid

Ukraines president has pleaded with NATO to provide his embattled nation with military assistance.

In a video address to the NATO summit Thursday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs military assistance without limitations, as Russia is using its entire arsenal against the country.

Zelenskyy urged NATO to provide Ukraine with 1 percent of all your planes, 1 percent of all your tanks. We cant just buy those, Zelenskyy said. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100 percent security.

Ukraine is also in dire need of multiple launch rocket systems, anti-ship weapons, and air defense systems, Zelenskyy said. Is it possible to survive in such a war without this? he asked.

It feels like were in a gray area, between the West and Russia, defending our common values, Zelenskyy said emotionally. This is the scariest thing during a warnot to have clear answers to requests for help.

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Kremlin Says Russias Latest Expulsion of US Diplomats Is Forced Measure

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Moscows latest expulsion of U.S. diplomats was a forced measure, after Washington last month said it was expelling 12 Russian diplomats at the countrys U.N. mission in New York over national security concerns.

The United States Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday received a list of its diplomats that were declared persona non grata in what Russian media said was a response to the U.S. move at the United Nations.

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Moscow, Tehran Developing SWIFT Alternative: Iranian Ambassador

Tehran and Moscow have been cooperating to connect their interbank messaging systems in order to bypass the SWIFT financial transactions network, Kazem Jalali, ambassador of Iran to Russia, said on Thursday.

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We Will See Who Is Our Friend, Zelenskyy Says as Western Leaders Meet

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western nations gathering in Brussels on Thursday to take serious steps to help Kyiv fight Russias invasion, as an unprecedented one-day trio of NATO, G7, and EU summits got underway.

The hectic day of summitry, aimed at maintaining Western unity, kicked off at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

While leaders promised to step up support for Ukraine, EU diplomats played down expectations of major new sanctions on Russia, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg repeated that the alliance will not send troops or planes to Ukraine.

At these three summits we will see who is our friend, who is our partner and who sold us out and betrayed us, Zelenskyy said in a video address released early on Thursday.

He said he expected serious steps from Western allies, repeating calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine and complaining that the West had not provided Ukraine with planes, modern anti-missile systems, tanks or anti-ship weapons.

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Biden, Western Allies Open 1st of 3 Summits on Ukraine Crisis

President Joe Biden and world leaders have opened the first in a trio of summits in Brussels focused on pressuring Russia to end its war in Ukraine.

Europes diplomatic capital is hosting an emergency NATO summit as well as a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the 27 members of the European Union.

Biden is attending all three meetings, beginning with NATO.

The president and the leaders of other NATO countries met for a group photo memorializing their urgent gathering before they went into the meeting, which was expected to last for several hours.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg opened Thursdays meeting by saying the alliance is determined to continue to ratchet up the costs on Russia.

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Kremlin: Bulgaria Will Pay for Russian Gas in Rubles, Whether They Like It or Not

Moscow addressed the concerns of European countries on Thursday about the plan to switch settlements for gas delivery from euros to rubles.

In response to the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic who said that Moscows decision would create many problems, because Bulgaria, the country through which gas supplies to Serbia and Hungary is delivered, was unwilling to switch to rubles in gas payments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that the issue is closed, and Bulgaria will have to pay in rubles whether they like it or not.

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Russia Stocks Jump as Trade Resumes After Month-Long Break

Russias stocks jumped on Thursday, the first day of trading in almost a month in the wake of its troops entering Ukraine, with gains in commodity stocks offset by a drop in a flagship bank and airline, in volatile trading backed by the promise of support from sovereign wealth fund money.

The government said on March 1 it would channel up to 1 trillion roubles ($10.5 billion) from its rainy-day National Wealth Fund (NWF) to buying Russian stocks roiled by a massive sell-off last month.

It was not clear if that money was being used yet, however, and the finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The markets are gradually reopening after President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into neighboring Ukraine four weeks ago, leading to sweeping sanctions being imposed by Western capitals and countermeasures taken by Moscow.

Read the full article here

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Zelenskyy Addresses Swedish Parliament

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited Sweden to help rebuild his country as he marked one month of the Russian invasion during an address to the Swedish parliament.

This is a month now, Zelenskyy said during a speech by video link Thursday. We have not seen a destruction of this scale since World War II.

He called on Swedish companies and state to come rebuild the country.

His speech was broadcast live before members of the 349-seat Riksdagen which gave him a standing ovation.

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Russian Ambassador Says Poland Blocked His Embassys Bank Accounts

Russias ambassador to Warsaw said on Thursday that Poland had blocked the Russian embassys bank accounts on the basis that they might be used to finance terrorist activity or launder money.

Our accounts have been blocked by a decision of the finance ministry, and then by a decision of the Polish prosecutor, the TASS news agency quoted Ambassador Sergey Andreev as saying on Russias Channel 1 state television.

He said the reason given for the move was that funds from our accounts could allegedly be used for laundering of illegally obtained money or for financing terrorism.

Polands foreign ministry on Wednesday said it was expelling 45 Russian diplomats suspected of working for Russian intelligence. Russia called the accusation baseless.

Asked about the expulsion of Russian diplomats and whether the Russian embassys funds had been frozen, Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday: I can only say in general terms that we have been dealing with the freezing of funds of the Russian Federation.

Relations between Russia and Central European countries that once formed part of its sphere of influence have long been fraught but the Ukraine conflict has significantly increased fear and suspicion of Moscows intentions.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbors military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists.

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Russian Stock Market Resumes Limited Trading

The Russian stock market has resumed limited trading under heavy restrictions, almost one month after prices plunged and the market was shut down following Moscows invasion of Ukraine. Trading of a limited number of stocks including energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft took place under curbs that are meant to prevent a repeat of the massive selloff that took place Feb. 24 in anticipation of Western economic sanctions. Foreigners cannot sell and traders are barred from short selling, or betting prices will fall. The benchmark MOEX index gained 8 percent in the first minutes of trading.

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UK Johnson Accuses Putin of Crossing Red Line

NATO leaders are refusing to rule out retaliation against Russia should it launch a chemical weapons attack on Ukrainebut British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thinks Moscow has already gone too far.

The reality is that (President) Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism, Johnson told reporters Thursday as he arrived for a summit of NATO leaders.

Johnson says that its now up to NATO to consider together the appalling crisis in Ukraine, the appalling suffering of the people of Ukraine, and to see what more we can do to help the people of Ukraine to protect themselves.

As an organization, NATO is not providing weapons to Ukraine. The 30-nation alliance refuses to send troops to Ukraine, either for combat or peacekeeping, and has said it will not deploy aircraft to protect civilians or police any no-fly zone.

But member countries are providing weapons and other assistance, individually or in groups.

De Croo warns that if chemical weapons or anything else could be used, that would have definitely grave consequences. No NATO leader has elaborated yet on what that might mean.

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Renault Suspends Russia Operations After Backlash

French carmaker Renault announced Wednesday night it is suspending activities at the Renault Moscow plant with immediate effect.

The move came hours after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke virtually to the French parliament, calling on Renault and other French companies with a Russian presence to stop indirectly supporting the war against Ukraine.

The Renault Group board of directors met Wednesday to decided to halt production at the plant that produces Arkana, Kaptur, Duster, and Nissan Terrano SUVs amid mounting criticism of its foothold in the Russian Federation.

However, the lions share of the groups Russian presence goes through its subsidiary AvtoVAZ, through which it sold nearly 500,000 vehicles in Russia in 2021.

Renault said that AvtoVAZ is not immediately withdrawing, but its assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia.

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France Claims Successful ASMP Nuclear Missile Test

Frances defense ministry announced Wednesday the country successfully tested the modernized version of its nuclear missile, the Air-Sol Moyenne Portee.

In a statement, it said that it was tested without a military payload and was fired from a Rafale twin-engine, multirole fighter aircraft that took off from Cazaux Air Force Base 120 in southwestern France.

The medium-range air-to-ground nuclear ASMP missile, developed by arms manufacturer MBDA, represents part of the air component of the French nuclear deterrence. The announcement comes at the height of the war in Ukraine, as some observers fear the potential for a military escalation by Russia.

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India Says US, Russia Ties Stand on Their Own Merit Despite Ukraine War

India has friendly relations with both the United States and Russia that stand on their own merit, the foreign ministry told parliament on Thursday, in reply to a query whether the Ukraine war had affected ties.

Over the past decade, India has grown closer to the United States in the face of a resurgent China across the border, but Russia remains its biggest arms supplier.

India is the only major country close to the United States that not to have condemned Russias invasion of Ukraine or imposed any sanctions on it.

India has called for immediate cessation of hostilities and return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue with respect to the conflict in Ukraine, junior foreign minister Meenakashi Lekhi told parliament.

India has close and friendly relations with both the U.S. and Russia, she added. They stand on their own merit.

This week, President Joe Biden said India was the only one of the Quad group of nations that was somewhat shaky in acting against Russia. Aimed at containing China, the grouping consists of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.

After a visit this week to New Delhi, a U.S. diplomat said the country stood ready to help India with more supplies of military hardware and energy to reduce its reliance on Russia.

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Stoltenberg: Chemical Attack Would Change War

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says any chemical attack by Russia on Ukraine would change the course of the war but he is not saying whether NATO would take military action.

Asked whether a chemical weapons attack is a red line for NATO, Stoltenberg said, I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect, and to react to any type of attack on a NATO-allied country.

Stoltenberg says any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It would be a blatant violation of international law, and it will have widespread and severe consequences.

His remarks Thursday came as he arrived at NATO headquarters in Brussels to chair a summit of the military organizations 30 national leaders, including President Joe Biden.

Moscow has denied the allegation of using chemical weapons.

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Ukrainian Navy Claims Destroying Russian Landing Ship in Southeastern Ukraine

Ukraines navy on Thursday reported destroying Russias large landing ship, Orsk, near the port city of Berdyansk.

A short Facebook statement about the ship was accompanied with photos and videos of fire and thick plumes of smoke in the port.

The Russian military has not commented on what happened to the ship.

Berdyansk has been under Russian control since Feb. 27.

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Zelenskyy Calls for Unrestricted NATO Aid

Speaking on the eve of the NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the alliance to provide effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.

We ask that the alliance declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war, clear our territory of the invaders, and restore peace in Ukraine, he said late Wednesday during his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy will speak to the NATO summit by video, the presidents office said.

He appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face of what he says are Russias efforts to lobby its interests with some partners to bring them over to its side.

We will see who is a friend, who is a partner, and who has sold out and betrayed us, he said. Together we should not allow Russia to break anyone in NATO, the EU or G-7, to break them and drag them to the side of war.

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Esteemed Theater Director Taken by Russians

Russian troops who occupy the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson seized one of the countrys most prominent theater directors in a fascist manner and took him to an unknown location, Ukraines Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said.

Witnesses said nine Russian military vehicles pulled up to the home of Oleksandr Kniga early Wednesday and led him out. The Russians warned neighbors that if they came out of their homes, they would be killed, the witnesses said.

The whole world should know about this! Tkachenko said on Facebook.

Kniga, 62, is one of the most important and respected theater directors in Ukraine. He founded the international theater festival Melpomene of Tavria.

He was among many in Kherson who oppose the Russian occupation. On Monday, Russian troops used stun grenades and fired in the air to disperse a protest.

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Russia to Expel More American Diplomats

The U.S. State Department says Russia has begun the process of expelling several more diplomats from the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

The department said it received a list of diplomats on Wednesday who have been declared persona non grata by the Russian foreign ministry. It didnt say how many diplomats were affected by the order, which generally results in the expulsion of those targeted within 72 hours.

The Russian foreign ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan on Monday to protest President Joe Bidens description of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal over the invasion of Ukraine. After that meeting, Russia warned that it was close to severing diplomatic relations with the United States, which would be an unprecedented move.

The State Department called Wednesdays move Russias latest unhelpful and unproductive step in relations between the countries. It urged Russia to end its unjustified expulsions of U.S. diplomats and staff.

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Russian Move on Ukraine Aid Fails at UN Security Council

A Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not mention Moscows role in the crisis failed at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.

If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and end their siege tactics. But they havent, Britains U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council after the vote. Russia denies attacking civilians.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France, or the United States to be adopted. Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused those who abstained on Wednesday of doing so for political reasons.

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Britain Giving Ukraine Thousands More Missiles

Britain will send thousands more missiles to Ukraines government as Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Western allies to boost the supply of military aid to Ukraine.

Johnson is traveling to Brussels on Thursday for talks with NATO and leaders of the Group of Seven. He is expected to provide further details of the new British aid during the visit, including the donation of 6,000 more missiles comprising anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry.

The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defenses as they turn the tide in this fight, Johnson said.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.

Jack Phillips, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
A sign stating proof of a Covid-19 vaccination is required is displayed outside of Langer's Deli in Los Angeles on August 7, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Moves Closer to Lifting Indoor Vaccine Mandate in a Week

LOS ANGELESLos Angeles may remove its mandate requiring ages 12 and up to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before entering indoor businesses as soon as the end of March.

On March 23, the Los Angeles City Council voted 131with Councilmen Paul Koretz absent and Mike Bonin dissentingto approve a motion to rescind the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Since the motion needed a unanimous vote to pass at the first reading, it will be read a second time on March 30, where 12 votes will be required to pass.

Bonin said during the meeting he voted against the motion because of the new Omicron sub-variant.

I know it feels like were out of the woods. It feels like were all going back to normal. But theres new variants and new strains all the time, he said. This BA.2 [variant] is spreading, and we really dont know what the variant a month from now, or two months, are.

Council President Nury Martinez, who first introduced the motion on March 9, agreed with Bonin, adding that the council may have to revisit vaccine mandates as we learn to live with this pandemic, unfortunately.

The citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which has been in place since Nov. 8, also requires people to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend outdoor events with 5,000 or more people.

If approved, the motion will go into effect immediately under an urgency clause.

During the public comments, Angelenos signaled that they were ready for the vaccine mandates to be over for good.

Council members, its time Los Angeles dropped the vaccine check, resident Mariett Bennington said in a written comment to the council. Its clear that [everyone who] wants to be protected by the vaccine has chosen to receive it  everyone has access to it. Let people choose.

Los Angeles resident Donna Baker commented that the vaccine requirement was hurting small businesses in the city and that peoples god-given rights to choose should be respected.

You [city councilors] are single-handedly ruining small businesses  Do you want to be left with nothing but big corporations and watch the small mom and pop stores shut down? Baker wrote. People do not like being asked to show vaccine cards, people do not like being asked to put on masks. Do you not see small businesses closing everywhere you look?

Baker urged the council to stand for freedom and follow the science and move on.

There was no public commenter against removing the indoor vaccine requirement at the meeting.

On the same day, the council also unanimously approved a motion to rescind certain ordinances enacted under the citys COVID-19 state of emergency.

The regulations that were rescinded included an ordinance that suspended citation enforcement for businesses putting up oversized advertising banners and an ordinance that allowed senior citizens only an exclusive period to shop at grocery stores, though Councilman Bob Blumenfield noted in a June 2021 motion (pdf) that nearly all stores had stopped the program, and the city was no longer enforcing it at the time.

Los Angeles County has already dropped its indoor COVID-19 vaccine requirement and will align with the state on April 1 to lift the requirement for attendees of indoor mega-eventssuch as sporting events or concertsto show proof of COVID vaccination or a negative test result.

A spokesperson for Council President Nury Martinez did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline.
An enduring value commanding the rise and fall of empires

Being loyal to humanity is a value worth considering, especially in times like these where our God-given gift of freedom is facing the risk of being whittled down at the hands of the anti-divine.

Some people find divine merit in being loyal to the ideals of truth and justice for the safety of those they serve. In contrast, there are those who outwardly claim a similar stance, but in essence, their loyalty to humanity is feigned and they are in fact only serving themselves, parasitically benefitting at others great expense.

Today, the loyalties of the common man and those of the ruling elite appear to be quite divided, as the former seeks freedom and the latter more control. Both sides are engaged in an apparent tug-of-war, with no conclusion in sight. Whereas over the ages, the enduring virtue of loyalty, with its divine ideals of truth, justice, freedom, respect, and faith, has triumphed in safeguarding humanity, bringing people less suffering and more peace in their lives.

Is it, perhaps, that today we have gone wrong somewhere?

The Divine Ideal

History has shown that humanity flourishes and peace reigns when the virtue of loyalty is faithfully embodied among people.

Our community is safeguarded, strong and shielded, when in our friendships we keep our word, without deceit. In marriages, relationships can be healthy and prosperous, without rifts and divorce, when we consider each other first and remain loyal despite the ups and downs of life. And among nationswhere rulers are entrusted with safeguarding lives and freedomloyalty is tied to an even bigger picture of world peace.

Wise and virtuous leaders exhibit true loyalty by guiding their followers to aspire to goodness, in turn, harmonizing and stabilizing the communities they serve. However, not all humans are equal, and loyalties do change.

Different people portray loyalty at different levels of conscience depending on their own values and ethics, which not only shape their lifes agenda, but also impact those around them. When hearts become immoral, true loyalty metamorphoses into trickery.

One-Faced Loyalty: True Leaders

Loyalty bonds people together through various means and ways. It starts with those humble steps that make one a good personsuch as being kind, considerate, genuine, honest, and forgiving.

One of the core traits of a loyal person is the habit of consistencythe manna that nourishes the devout will of upright men. Consistency is never wavering in a loyal heart. The noblest leaders in history were those who were steadfast. In their spirit, they were selfless, willing to sacrifice their own interests to serve their people.

In Asian war history, the most notable role model of loyalty is General Yue Fei (11031141), the military genius and Chinas national hero from the Song dynasty. Yue Fei fulfilled his promise to serve his country with utmost loyalty, keeping his people safe and well. He truly lived up to the four-letter tattoo his mother gave him: Serve the country loyally (jing zhong bao guo in Chinese).

Yue Feis mother writes the four-character tattoo on his back. (This image has been cropped and color corrected  Rolf Muller/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Yue Feis noble influence on his army won the admiration and respect of the masses. A common saying among his army was: I would rather freeze to death than pull down peoples houses; I would rather starve to death than rob the people.

The great general was known for how he cared for his army: in illness, he would console; in family hardships, he would compensate; in a generals death, he would also compensate the family greatly. The rewards and punishments under his leadership were noble as they were fair.

With his incorruptible spirit, Yue Fei naturally won the hearts of everyone, winning battles and wars and becoming one of the greatest heroic examples of loyalty. Yue Feis service as a successful military leader not only validates the divine virtue of loyalty, but also demonstrates one of the highest forms of filial piety that only someone of excellent character could accomplish.

Similarly, in the far West, the Founding Fathers of the United States and some of the presidents that followed left remarkable contributions to the advancement of the country they served, leaving the people better off than they had been.

George Washington (17321799), the first American president, came together with others and, representing the many who wanted to be free, they became the fuel for independence for all in the United States. Over time, the United States became a consistent place of hope to those seeking freedom and independencea place where immigrants were given a chance to achieve things they couldnt in their origin country. Many leaders, like Washington, fought for freedom and peace.

American artist John Trumbulls painting depicting the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress on June 28, 1776. (Public Domain)

Another notable American leader was John F. Kennedy (19611963), who was staunchly against communism.

On Aug. 12, 1952, in his speech to congress, Kennedy talked about the urgency of containing the spread of communism, referring to the threat of the communist expansion as an enemy, power[full], unrelenting and implacable, who seeks to dominate the world by subversion and conspiracy and when all else fails to military force, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Two-Faced Loyalty: Deceitful Dictators

A depraved characters hollow promises, which often appear to be made in good faith but are not, are destined to be unfulfilled due to his self-serving loyalty.

A classic example is how loyalty goes wrong for the people who serve communist and socialist regimes. A two-faced disloyal leader of such a government deceptively convinces you that they have your back if you devote your life to serving them in the way they command. But as history has shown, wherever communist regimes ruled, it didnt end well for those who served those regimes.

According to The Epoch Times exclusive series How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World, communist leaders usually promote materialism and paint a story of paradise on earth, a supposed collective society without any classes, nations, or government. Like a malignant tumor, communism metastasizes, eliminating other beliefsincluding the belief in the divineas it spreads. In turn, it destroys national sovereignty and identity, and humanitys moral and cultural traditions, thus leading man to destruction, the book explains.

Being loyal to the party may seem like a good idea to someone who thinks they can get ahead in life with personal gains, such as with power and money. The communists promise their people better living standards but show no remorse in turning their backs, and then censoring the supposed revolutionaries, as soon as they fear any spark of revoltreal or imaginary. Having allowed the anti-divine ideology to hijack their sense of justice and morality, such people become the communist specters most loyal apologists, according to the series.

Memorial of Karl Marx, in Moscow, Russia. Marx is the co-author of Communist Manifesto, which he wrote with Friedrich Engels, and is the author of Das Kapital. (Raki_Man/CC BY 3.0)

We are living in unprecedented times. Those with truly loyal hearts are seeing through the illusion and are returning to the tradition of cherishing universal values, giving hope for the future.

Perhaps those who find themselves at their dead end of supporting corrupt ways still have an opportunity to turn around and begin supporting humanitys freedom and human rights. If not, they might, for having betrayed the trust of those whom they serve, face the same judgment as those we read about in our history books who were responsible for the fall of empires.

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 sign of the Kaisa Plaza, a real estate property developed by Kaisa Group Holdings, is seen in Beijing, China on Dec. 1, 2021. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

More Chinese Property Developers Delay Earnings Reports, Deepening Market Concerns Over Sectors Woes

A growing number of Chinese property developers this week said they will be unable to publish audited 2021 earnings statements on time, deepening market concerns over the sectors financial troubles.

Indebted Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. became the latest developer to disclose that it will most likely miss the deadline for reporting audited financial results due this month. Another new COVID-19 wave in China disrupted audit work, the company said on Tuesday in a stock exchange filing.

Trading of Kaisas shares in Hong Kong will be suspended as of April 1, the filing added.

As required by listing rules, Chinese property firms listed in Hong Kong face a March 31 deadline to file annual results, their first audited financial statements since the industrys liquidity crisis spread.

Kaisa, the second-largest U.S. dollar bond issuer among Chinese property developers after China Evergrande, is restructuring its $12 billion offshore debt after defaulting on some bonds last year.

China Evergrande Group also said on Tuesday it would be unable to publish results on time owing to the drastic changes in its operational environment since the second half of last year, its auditor added a large number of additional audit procedures this year.

Since Monday, trading in Evergrande and its two Hong Kong-listed subsidiaries has been halted. The developer is crumbling under the weight of more than $300 billion in liabilities.

A worker pushes a cart in front of a sign showing Evergrande Groups China operation at a housing complex by the property developer in Beijing on Dec. 8, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and Shimao Group Holdings Ltd., which placed third and 12th in property sales last year, announced Monday that they will delay publishing audited results, but will release unaudited results on March 31 to keep their shares trading.

Certain developers have delayed results due to changing auditors. Ronshine China Holdings Ltd. said on Monday that auditor PwC had resigned, in part because the supply of requested information had fallen behind schedule.

Analysts said failure for companies to issue timely 2021 results will further dampen industry sentiment, which has already been harmed by liquidity concerns in recent months.

JP Morgan said in a note that auditors more stringent checks on project booking/debt may have also led to the delay, reported Reuters.

Japanese bank Nomura said in a Monday note that it typically raises red flags when companies change auditors ahead of earnings announcements and that such practice causes serious market concern about trustworthiness.

In the past two months, developers such as Aoyuan, Shanghai Shimao, and Hopson also announced a change of auditors.

A wall carrying the logo of Shimao Group in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 1, 2013. (Stringer/Reuters)

The chances of more developers failing to release financial results on time are increasing, Nomura predicted, since several developers have not scheduled the relevant board meetings.

JP Morgan also stated that it would not be surprised to see more delays; even for companies that have announced board meeting dates, there is still the possibility of a delay in results if auditing processes are not completed by then.

Delaying financial results would pose risks to banks and creditors because of potential breaches in lending clauses.

This year, Chinas home sales by leading developers have continued to slump. According to researcher CRIC data, home sales at the top 100 real estate firms declined by 47 percent in February compared to the same period last year.

Evergrandes sales fell by more than 90 percent in the first two months of this year, the data showed, Shimao fell by 60 percent, and Sunac fell by 26 percent.

Reuters contributed to this report.
David Jacobs, president and diagnostic radiologist with the Ontario Association of Radiologists, testified at the House of Commons Health Committee on March 23, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Name-Calling Uniquely Unhelpful in Convincing Canadians to Get Vaccinated: Medical Expert

The federal government has to develop more target-oriented policies to convince those who still havent received a COVID-19 vaccine to get their shots, while engaging in name-calling, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did, is uniquely unhelpful to that end, a medical expert told parliamentarians.

Trudeau used derogatory terms to describe unvaccinated Canadians, saying they are often racists, science-deniers, and misogynists during an interview on the French-language program La semaine des 4 Julie on Sept. 16, 2021. At a press conference days earlier, he called protesters demonstrating against federal vaccine policies anti-vaxxer mobs.

David Jacobs, president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists, told the House of Commons Health Committee that no scientific evidence can justify Trudeaus claims.

It was a uniquely unhelpful thing that the prime minister did when he said that. It was politically driven; it did not help anyone in the health care industry; it did not convince anyone to change their mind, he testified on March 23.

Jacobs noted that Canadians who are still unvaccinated are mostly in small religious or cultural groups or communities, and to get them to accept the shot, the government would need to reach out with a very specific program, providing them information they need to make an informed decision.

Some of them are unvaccinated because theyve looked at the research and they disagreed with the findings that the majority of health-care workers and scientists have come to in terms of conclusions, and there are other people who are just simply afraid. There are other people who have been misinformed by social media. Its quite a wide array of people, and name-calling is not helpful, he said.

Jacobs, who works as a radiologist at the Humber River Regional Hospital northwest of Toronto, has been vocal on social media in support of vaccination, but he also questioned the use of blanket vaccine mandates that remain an employment requirement for public servants, including the RCMP.

In terms of mandates, yes, Omicron was highly contagious, and no, the vaccine didnt do much in terms of preventing spread of [Omicron], he said. If it did, it was minimal.

He said vaccines were a robust prevention for the Delta variant and other previous versions of COVID-19, but that wasnt the case for Omicron.

That takes away some of the need for a vaccine mandate exceptand this is a big exceptionwhat we saw in the hospital were patients who were immunosuppressed, elderly, so de facto immunosuppressedand the patients who did not receive a full vaccine regimen. They were the ones who were getting very severe COVID pneumonias, Jacobs said.

Dr. Shiri Kaylan, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, also told the Health Committee that she really questions the validity of the current vaccine mandates imposed on the entirety of the Canadian population.

If we had focused on protecting the most vulnerable, it would have gone farther than putting blanket mandates on everyone because that actually has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy and trust in vaccines and the public health-care system in general, she said.

It is clear, especially with Omicron, that the vaccines we have cannot really be relied upon to either prevent transmission or infection.

Kaylan cited the example of the first Omicron case identified in an Israeli doctor who had been vaccinated three times and went on to pass it to another physician who was also triple-vaccinated.

With this evidence, we should have moved quickly to lift heavy-handed measures and explain the evolving evidence, she said.

This is necessary for public trust. It is also good for public health to have a well-informed populace. Having a false sense of security has obvious negative consequences.
(front-R) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo with the leaders of the US-led military alliance pose for a family photo at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, on March 24, 2022. (John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

NATO Condemns Russia, Calls on China Not to Support Moscows War Effort

NATO reaffirmed its commitment to leverage devastating economic consequences on Russia and to condemn the nations invasion of Ukraine during a meeting in Brussels on March 24. The alliance also called on Chinas communist regime to stop its support of Russia.

Russias war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and is causing enormous human suffering and destruction, the 30 state leaders of the NATO alliance said in a joint statement.

We condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms.

The alliance jointly reaffirmed Ukraines right to sovereignty and territorial integrity, and said Ukraine retained an inviolable right to self-defense.

NATO called on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to immediately stop the war in Ukraine and withdraw his military forces and called on Belarus to end its complicity in the invasion.

Massive sanctions and heavy political costs have been imposed on Russia in order to bring an end to this war, the statement said. We remain determined to maintain coordinated international pressure on Russia.

We are united in our resolve to counter Russias attempts to destroy the foundations of international security and stability. We are holding Russia and Belarus to account.

Chinas Role

NATO leaders called on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to halt its support of Russia in the war.

China must not provide economic or military support for the Russian invasion, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference following the summit. Instead, Beijing should use its significant influence on Russia. And promote an immediate, peaceful resolution.

Stoltenbergs comments were just the latest in a deterioration of relations between China and NATO following Chinese Communist Party (CCO) efforts to cement an anti-Western alliance with Russia.

On Feb. 4, Putin and CCP leader Xi Jinping made a declaration announcing a partnership with no limits, and in March, Chinese officials reiterated that Russia was the Partys most important strategic partner.

Since then, Western intelligence sources have claimed that Chinese officials knew about Russias invasion plans in advance and requested that Russia postpone any hostilities until the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics.

Beijing has also pledged to continue normal trade relations with Moscow amid the war and has refused to join multilateral sanctions leveraged against Russia by the international community.

Further, sources in the U.S. State Department claimed earlier in March that Chinese communist leaders were mulling the possibility of committing direct military assistance to the Russian war effort. Moscow and Beijing have denied the allegation.

President Joe Biden has said China would face consequences if it committed to such a course of action, but the White House didnt elaborate on what those consequences would be or how, precisely, they would be triggered.

We are concerned by recent public comments by [Chinese] officials and call on China to cease amplifying the Kremlins false narratives, in particular on the war and on NATO, and to promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict, NATOs March 24 statement said.

The comment appears to be a reference to Chinese diplomats and state media promoting Russian talking points, such as the narratives that the United States maintains bio labs in Ukraine for a bioweapons program and that NATO expansion was to blame for Russias aggression.

Ukraine was not being considered for membership in NATO and, even if it had applied, would have been rejected, as NATOs bylaws prevent the admittance of any nation that doesnt maintain territorial integrity, as has been the case in Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

We call on all states, including the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), to uphold the international order including the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, as enshrined in the UN Charter, to abstain from supporting Russias war effort in any way, and to refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions, the statement said.

CCP as Global Threat

NATOs callout of the CCP marks the latest development in the Western alliances current strategic reorientation. The alliance is expected to name the Chinese regime as a key security challenge its Strategic Concept later this year.

The Strategic Concept is second in importance only to NATOs founding charter and defines the overarching strategy of the alliance. The new strategy will mark the first time ever that China has been mentioned in such a document.

The NATO statement issued Thursday, however, said that Russias aggression against Ukraine was the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades, suggesting that Chinese support of the war would be interpreted within that context.

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence warned Congress early in March that Sino-Russian cooperation would only grow in the coming years.

Some experts also believe that the Chinese communist regime wants Russia to be further isolated as such isolation will increase Moscows dependence on Beijing, and, thus, increase Chinas economic power. To that end, Chinas economic power might be seen to grow in inverse proportion to Russias.

Western leaders have also warned that the United States and its NATO allies face an unprecedented threat in the combined nuclear arsenals of Russia and China.

Russian War Crimes

The mounting pressure on the Chinese communist regime to end its support for Russias war follows other developments in the war this week.

In one incident, a Ukrainian vice prime minister accused Chinese drone manufacturer DJI of degrading the performance of its products in Ukraine. In another, the United States formally acknowledged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Wednesday that the Russian military had committed war crimes in Ukraine, and that the United States held evidence of such from open intelligence sources. The news followed the announcement of an international investigation into the matter on March 2.

Weve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities, Blinken said in a prepared statement.

Russias forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded.

Blinken added that the attacks included missile strikes on a maternity hospital and a theater marked with the Russian word for children to signal that it was being used to house civilian families.

Putins forces used these same tactics in Grozny, Chechnya, and Aleppo, Syria, where they intensified their bombardment of cities to break the will of the people, Blinken said.

Every day that Russias forces continue their brutal attacks, the number of innocent civilians killed and wounded, including women and children, climbs.

The NATO statement also strongly condemned Russias devastating attacks on civilians, including women, children, and persons in vulnerable situations.

Boosting Eastern Defenses

NATO also announced that it would raise the number of troops stationed in Eastern Europe to prepare for any escalations by the Russian military, and that the alliance would continue to support Ukraines preparation for the possibility of responding to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attacks from Russia.

The NATO statement said that the alliance had activated its defense plans, forward deployed elements of its Response Force, and placed some 40,000 troops along the nations that make up NATOs easternmost flank.

It added that significant air and naval forces had also been mobilized in the region under direct NATO command.

Our measures remain preventive, proportionate, and non-escalatory, the Thursday statement said.

We will now accelerate NATOs transformation for a more dangerous strategic reality, including through the adoption of the next Strategic Concept in Madrid.
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, U.S. President Joe Biden, and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are seen in Brussels, Belgium, on on March 24, 2022. (Henry Nicholls/ Pool/Getty Images)

NATO Issues Statement Laying Out Defense Readiness Against Russia

NATO on Thursday issued a lengthy statement laying out its defense readiness doctrine against Russia, condemning Moscows invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms.

We, the Heads of State and Government of the 30 NATO Allies, have met today to address Russias aggression against Ukraine, the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades. Russias war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and is causing enormous human suffering and destruction, said the statement ahead of a summit in Brussels.

The NATO statement called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately stop this war and withdraw its military from Ukraine and also urged Russia to call on Belarus to end its complicity.

Western leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday as reports surfaced that the United States and European Union will tighten sanctions against Russia. This week, NATOs leadership indicated that more military aid will be provided to Ukraine and more troops will be sent to Central and Eastern Europe in the near future.

However, they stopped short of saying NATO would enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which has been sought by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The leaders also said they would not provide a full boycott to Russian oil and gas, which Zelenskyy has demanded in recent days.

We agreed to strengthen our deterrence and defense for the longer-term. We also agreed to give further support to Ukraine and to continue to impose costs on Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after leaders gathered at NATO headquarters, according to Reuters.

A satellite image shows Russian ground forces northeast of Ivankiv heading in the direction of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 27, 2022. (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters)

NATOs statement Thursday said that its member states are fully committed to the alliances Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all members.

In response to Russias actions, we have activated NATOs defense plans, deployed elements of the NATO Response Force, and placed 40,000 troops on our eastern flank, along with significant air and naval assets, under direct NATO command supported by Allies national deployments, the statement said. We are also establishing four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.

The statement also acknowledged that NATO has trained Ukrainian troops since 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and began its support for separatist areas in the Donbass. It did not say how many or in what capacity.

Ukraine has a fundamental right to self-defense under the United Nations Charter, it read. Since 2014, we have provided extensive support to Ukraines ability to exercise that right. We have trained Ukraines armed forces, strengthening their military capabilities, and capacities and enhancing their resilience.

Meanwhile, NATO members will also continue to provide assistance in such areas as cybersecurity and protection against threats of a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear nature, the statement continued.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, front right, looks toward President Joe Biden, front left, at a group photo during a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24, 2022.(Thibault Camus/AP Photo)

NATO Summit Kicks Off Amid Ukraine Crisis

President Joe Biden and Western allies convened in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday for the first of three summits meant to address what NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described as the most serious security crisis in a generation.

The Western allies met at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where they posed for a group photo before heading inside for closed-door talks expected to last several hours.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meetings, Stoltenberg said the discussions would focus on the alliances support to Ukraine in the context of the Russian invasion, which on Thursday hit its one month mark.

We will address this crisis together and address the threat that means for Ukraine, for NATO, and for the whole international rules-based order, Stoltenberg said.

NATO heads of state pose for a group photo during an extraordinary NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24, 2022. (Thibault Camus/AP Photo)

NATO leaders will also discuss the need to bolster the alliances deterrence and defense over the longer term, Stoltenberg added, with the first step in this regard being the establishment of four new battlegroups on NATOs eastern flank. The battlegroups will be stationed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.

He called for NATO leaders to ramp up defense spending and praised commitments already made by some to boost investment. Germany is notable in this regard, with its leaders having already pledged to invest $110 billion in defense this year while committing to raise defense spending to at least 2 percent of GDP.

We are the strongest Alliance in the world. And as long as we stand together, we are also safe, Stoltenberg said.

Asked by reporters about the mental state of Russian President Vladimir Putin in light of rumors that some from his inner circle are considering defecting, the NATO chief declined to speculate, saying only that Putin had made a big mistake by ordering the invasion.

President Putin has made a big mistake and that is to launch a war, to wage war, against an independent sovereign nation. He has underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, Stoltenberg said.

Members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces examine new armament, including NLAW anti-tank systems and other portable anti-tank grenade launchers, in Kyiv, on March 9, 2022. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)

Military analysts have said Russias offensive has faced numerous setbacks and has sustained heavy casualties amid fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces.

NATO estimated on Wednesday that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far in the war. Russia has not updated its official casualty count since saying on March 2 that 498 service members had been killed and 1,597 wounded.

But an article on the site of tabloid paper Komsomolskaya Pravda, captured by a web archive tool before it was taken down, quoted the Russian defense ministry as saying 9,861 Russian servicemen had been killed and 16,153 wounded.

Russia calls the conflict a special military operation and has imposed a draconian law that threatens punishment of up to 15 years behind bars for calling its actions in Ukraine a war or an invasion.

Damage at the Retroville shopping mall, a day after it was shelled by Russian forces in a residential district in the northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 21, 2022. (Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images)

There have been numerous arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia, with monitoring group OVD-Info estimating that, as of Thursday, at least 5,510 people had been detained for protests in 77 cities.

British intelligence said Thursday that Russian forces have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties in the invasion and that Moscow is now looking to mobilize reservists, conscripts, foreign mercenaries, and private military companies to replace these considerable losses.

Reporters asked Stoltenberg whether NATO would consider it an attack on one of its members if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, given the potential for chemical agents to spread over a larger area and potentially affecting a NATO member state.

Stoltenberg said he would not speculate beyond noting that any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict, that the use of such arms would be a violation of international law and would have widespread and severe consequences.

This will be a catastrophe for the people of Ukraine, but of course there is also a risk that we can see the spread of chemical agents also into NATO territory, the alliance chief said, adding that NATO stands ready to react to any type of attack on one of its members.

Biden said several days ago that there were clear signs that an increasingly desperate Putin was planning to launch a chemical attack in Ukraine.

Putins back is against the wall and now hes talking about new false flags hes setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europesimply not true. I guarantee you, Biden said at an event on Monday.

On Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that the ministry continues to study documents about the United States secret military biological activities in Ukraine, Russian state-backed media Tass reports.

The war in Ukraine has driven 3.7 million people from their homes, according to the United Nations.

Besides Thursdays extraordinary NATO summit, Brussels is hosting a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the 27 members of the European Union.

Biden is scheduled to attend all three meetings and plans to hold a news conference at the end of the day.
California Bill Would Allow Workers to Not Show Up Under State of Emergency

SACRAMENTO, Calif.A proposal that would allow employees in California to skip work if they cite a state of emergency as a reason for their absence is opposed by more than 30 business advocacy groups across the stateincluding the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Hospital Association, and the California Restaurant Associationwho say the measure will harm business owners.

Senate Bill (SB) 1044, introduced by state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), was approved in committee on March 21.

The bill requires employees to notify their employers before leaving a worksite due to emergency conditions; a previous version didnt.

If enacted, an employer who disciplines an employee for leaving the job site or not showing up for work could be subject to legal action under the Private Attorneys General Act, which enables California laborers to file lawsuits against employers for workplace violations.

If an employer chooses to discipline a worker for refusing to show up to work, opponents of the measure argue it will put employers at risk of lawsuits from employees who claim their work safety is at risk.

Work safety is a basic protection we strive to provide all Californians, Durazo said during the committee hearing. Unfortunately, there have been cases of workers being put in vulnerable and life and death situations where they are required to continue to work despite the imminent threat of a state of emergency or other significant emergency conditions.

In California, examples of declared states of emergency include wildfires, earthquakes, floods, and mudslides, according to Durazo.

Emergency conditions that also need to be accounted for include manmade emergency situations, including mass shootings and terror events, she said.

Durazo said SB 1044 is not intended to last throughout the duration of a state of emergency, and that it pertains to conditions outside the employers control that make the worksite unsafe.

This is not the same as the right to refuse unsafe work. We understand many employers are seeking exemptions for different categories, she said.

It applies only where emergency conditions exist, Durazo said.

But the California Chamber of Commerce, the largest business advocacy coalition in the state, said the bill ignores current protections already in place for employees under the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health regulations.

In a letter (pdf) sent to Durazo signed by more than 60 business advocacy groups, public policy advocate Ashley Hoffman, of the California Chamber of Commerce, said SB 1044 completely ignores the protections that these regulations already provide in making long-term emergency topicssuch as wildfire and heatsafer for Californias workplaces.

SB 1044 gives such broad discretion to employees that if they walk away from a completely safe workplace, the employer could do little in response without risking litigation, she said.

But states of emergency have a spotty history in California, according to Hoffman, because they have sometimes remained in effect past the time of a pressing emergency.

However, the provision wont remain in effect throughout the entire state of emergency, Durazo said during the meeting.

The March 4, 2020, COVID-19 State of Emergency provides an important example of how SB 1044 would operate if in effect today, the chamber coalitions letter read. That state of emergency remains in placedespite considerable improvement in Californias COVID-19 status.

The bill has the support of several labor unions, including the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the Teamsters Union.
New York Exempts Performers, Athletes From COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

New York has exempted all performers and athletes from its private business COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but is continuing to force all other workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, announced the carveout on March 24 at CitiField ahead of the New York Mets opening day.

Adamss predecessor, Bill de Blasio, imposed a raft of COVID-related mandates in 2021, including a private business COVID-19 vaccine mandate that contained an exemption for athletes and performers who were visiting the city, but not those who played for home teams.

Adams said he wanted to change the requirement after taking office on Jan. 1, but was told by health advisers to wait until COVID-19 cases were at a lower level. Cases are now at levels not seen since July 2021.

New York is a low-risk environment right now, so today we take another step in the citys economic recovery, he said. This is about putting New York City-based performers on a level playing field.

The mayor didnt cite any studies or real-world data to support the alteration. He has said mandates prevent the city from shutting down again, but the COVID-19 vaccines provide little protection against infection following the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving had been unable to play during home games during this season because of the mandate, as he has declined to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Hell be able to play in the next home game, which is on March 27 against the Charlotte Hornets.

Some Mets and New York Yankees players were also poised to be unable to play if the mandate hadnt been changed by April 7, Major League Baseballs opening day.

Adams said the move affected a small number of people including struggling singers.

During the briefing, Randy Levine, president of the Yankees, praised Adams for rolling back the mandate, calling it a courageous decision. Chloe Smith, event manager for Kings Theater, said the expansion of the exemptions would benefit the theater and its employees.

Under the altered rules, all workers not deemed performers or athletes must continue to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination to employers to keep their jobs. A separate rule that requires city workers to prove that theyve been vaccinated also remains in effect.

It definitely doesnt make sense to me at all, Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmens Association and chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, two local unions, told The Epoch Times.

Nespoli is calling on Adams and his administration to work to hire back all of the workers who lost their jobs because of the mandates.

I have no problem as far as these people playing ball, but you cant forget about the city workers, the average Joe that goes to work every single day, that gets on the train or drives into the city to do their job that they were doing for, like, 15 years, 11 years, 12 years, and then terminated because of the shot, Nespoli said.

New York has fired about 1,400 workers because of their refusal to get a vaccine, including about 125 workers from the sanitation union.

Adams said his message to fired workers was that we had an urgent, emergency pandemic. He praised de Blasio for his mandates. He said the city wouldnt rehire the terminated workers at this time.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (R) poses for a photo with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison ahead of their annual talks in Queenstown, New Zealand, on May 31, 2021. (Joe Allison/Getty Images)

New Zealand Agrees to Receive 150 Refugees From Australia for Next 3 Years

Australia and New Zealand have agreed to resettle up to 150 refugees for three years from Australias offshore detention centre in Nauru, nine years after the offer was first made.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and New Zealand Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi jointly announced the new arrangement for a total of 450 refugees, which will be implemented under New Zealands existing refugee quota program.

Andrews said Australias strong border policy remains in place and the new arrangement wont apply to anyone who attempted to illegally enter the country by boat.

Australia remains firmillegal maritime arrivals will not settle here permanently. Anyone who attempts to breach our borders will be turned back or sent to Nauru, Andrews said.

Faafoi said New Zealand was very pleased that Australia had accepted their offer, first made in 2013 by former prime ministers Julia Gillard of Australia and John Key of New Zealand.

We are pleased to be able to provide resettlement outcomes for refugees who would otherwise have continued to face uncertain futures, Faafoi said.

UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, welcomed the announcement and hoped that the arrangement would help as many people as possible and support their paths to recovery.

A refugee with a referral to New Zealand by the UNHCR will be given priority for consideration, and Adrian Edwards, the UNHCR regional representative, said the agency has indicated its readiness to facilitate the process of settlement referrals.

Refugees will also be initially considered if theyre in Nauru or temporarily in Australia, meet New Zealands own refugee program requirements, and arent engaged in other resettlement pathways, such as the United States resettlement arrangement.

People who are currently on resettlement pathways to the United States or Canada will remain on it, and the New Zealand arrangement will run in parallel.

However, Edwards said the arrangement wouldnt be sufficient to cover the needs of the 112 refugees and asylum seekers in Nauru and about 1,100 more in Australia.

We nonetheless hope it will bring about new impetus toward this goal so that compassionate and lasting answers can be found, including in Australia, for all who have been subject to Australias offshore processing policies, he said.

The New Zealand Greens Party welcomed the announcement, but said the arrangement should be made in addition to the existing refugee quota.

Extending the offer to resettle refugees and ensuring the quota can be met in full is an important way we can acknowledge the worsening plight of refugees in Ukraine and Afghanistan, Green Party refugee spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said.
Newsom Signs Law Eliminating Out-of-Pocket Costs for Abortion

SACRAMENTOGov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law this week that eliminates out-of-pocket costs for abortions and abortion-related services.

As states across the country attempt to move us backward by restricting fundamental reproductive rights, California continues to protect and advance reproductive freedom for all, Newsom said in a statement.

Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 245, the Abortion Accessibility Act, during a virtual ceremony with California Legislative Womens Caucus members and other pro-choice organizations.

Introduced by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), SB 245 prohibits health plans and insurers from requiring co-pay, deductible, or other costs for women seeking abortion servicesincluding pre-abortion and follow-up services.

The law also prohibits health plans and insurers from imposing utilization management practices on covered abortion or abortion-related services.

It also includes removing in-person follow-up visits and ultrasounds for Medi-Cal abortion providers.

California law permits pregnant women to terminate a pregnancy unless the fetus becomes viablemeaning survivable outside of the uterus, typically around 28 weeks oldor to protect the mothers life or health.

Pro-life advocates like Seth Gruber, a national pro-life speaker with Life Training Institute, a Christian advocacy group based in Texas, told The Epoch Times, the new bill is part of a larger strategy.

Its childs play compared to what they want to do, Gruber said. The council wants to turn California into a sanctuary state for an abortion.
No Evidence of Impropriety in Government COVID Contracts, but Records Inadequate: UK Watchdog

No evidence suggests the UK governments COVID-19 testing contracts with a health company were awarded improperly, but the audit trail was inadequately maintained, a watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office (NAO) on Thursday published the result of its investigation into the governments COVID-19 contracts with Randox Laboratories Ltd.

According to the NAO, 22 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing services and goods contracts worth up to 776.9 million ($1.02 billion) were awarded to Randox or its strategic partner Qnostics Ltd between January 2020 and December 2021, and 60 percent of the total value of the contracts (463.5 million, $610.5 million) was awarded directly without competition, under emergency procurement rules.

The watchdog said the government had to act quickly and in exceptional circumstances to scale up COVID-19 testing activity, given the lack of mass testing capacity in the UK at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Britains Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during the daily COVID-19 digital news conference in London, on April 15, 2020. (Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street/Handout via Reuters)

According to the NAO, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) first awarded a 132.4 million ($174.4 million) contract to Randox for testing services on March 30, 2020, after ruling out a competitive tender due to the need to move quickly.

The DHSC also told the watchdog that it could not award the contract from an existing framework as the value of the contract exceeded the framework limit.

But the NAO has found a number of inadequacies in the departments records of the contracts.

The DHSC didnt provide any documentation on detailed contractual negotiations and consideration of potential conflicts of interest for the initial contract, the watchdog said.

After reviewing documents provided to Parliament, it also identified four ministerial meetings for which the DHSC didnt record Randoxs attendance on its quarterly transparency releases.

In a response to the NAOs report, Randox later said it could categorically state that the awarding of contracts was not on the agenda at any of these meetings.

The NAO also said that in the years 2020 and 2021, meeting minutes were only kept for two out of eight meetings on testing involving ministers and Randox.

According to the watchdog, private correspondence exchanges between then Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the then MP for North Shropshire Owen Patersonwho was a paid consultant of Randoxwere recently made available to the DHSC.

Hancock told us he did not forward all of these messages to the Department at the time as they were not substantive discussions and so he was not required to do so, the report reads.

These messages were not inconsistent with what the then secretary of state saw as his ministerial responsibility to drive progress, rapidly building testing capacity with Randox and other suppliers.

Both Hancock and Paterson told the NAO that they were not involved in the negotiations of contracts, which were handled by officials.

The gaps in the audit trail mean that the NAO is not able to provide positive assurance in the normal way, but it has not seen any evidence that the governments contracts with Randox were awarded improperly, the NAO said.

Owen Paterson in the House of Commons in London on Nov. 3, 2021. (House of Commons/PA)

Paterson, an MP of 24 years and a former Conservative minister, resigned in November 2021 after a committee found he broke lobbying rules by repeatedly lobbying on behalf of Randox and another company for which he was a paid consultanta ruling he did not accept.

His resignation came after an attempt by the government to spare him from a 30-day suspension while shaking up the disciplinary process for MPs at the same time was met with enormous cross-party backlash.

Commenting on the report, Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said the overriding need to create a high volume testing capacity rapidly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that standard public procurement approaches were not appropriate.

But he added, Even taking these exceptional circumstances into account, the documentation of the decision-making process for such large contracts was inadequate.

Davies said the previous reports on government procurement activities during the COVID-19 pandemicproduced by the NAO and by Nigel Boardman, chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committeehave recommended improvements to ensure an adequate audit trail is maintained even when the priority is speed of action.

[The] government has already started to implement some of these improvements, and we will follow up progress, Davies said.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), accused the government of playing fast and loose with spending public money.

[The] government grasped the urgent need to increase the scale of testing early in the pandemic. But while it was fast on procurement, it was fast and loose on [the] process, she said.

The Randox contracts illustrate that proper transparency by [the] government is vital. [The] government didnt document decisions properly and the public is right to raise questions about whether it was playing with a straight bat.

Randox welcomed the NAOs findings, saying the fact the watchdog found no evidence of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts vindicates its insistence that the process was in keeping with official protocols.

Regarding the four ministerial meetings in which the DHSC didnt document Randoxs attendance, the company said, While we cannot comment on government minuting of meetings, Randox can categorically state that the awarding of contracts was not on the agenda at any of these meetings.

Responding to the report, Hancock said it confirms a total clean bill of health on ministers work with Randox during the pandemic.

The report found no evidence of wrongdoing because there was no wrongdoingjust lots of hard work to expand testing capacity, he said.

Lord Bethell, who was minister for technology, innovation, and life sciences in the DHSC from March 2020 to September 2021, said the NAOs conclusion that there was no impropriety puts to bed wild speculation and conspiracy theories.

A pedestrian walks past a sign directing members of the public to a COVID-19 testing centre in Bolton, northwest England, on May 28, 2021. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

A government spokesperson said: As the public would expect, at the start of the pandemic we took every possible step to build the largest diagnostic industry in UK history rapidly and from scratchwhich has helped to limit the spread of COVID and save lives.

Building the scale of testing needed at an unprecedented speed required extensive collaboration with businesses, universities, and others, to get the right skills, equipment, and logistics in place as quickly as possibleand contracts with Randox and other suppliers made a significant contribution to the UKs response to COVID.

There are robust rules and processes in place to ensure that conflicts of interest do not occur, and all contracts are awarded in line with procurement regulations and transparency guidelines. The NAO concludes there is no evidence that the Governments contracts with Randox were awarded improperly.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.
North Korea's intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 lifting off from the launching pad at an undisclosed location near Pyongyang on Aug. 29, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

North Korea Fires Suspected Ballistic Missile Toward Japan Sea: Officials

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan on March 24, the Japanese prime ministers office said in a statement.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas office announced the suspected ballistic missile launch by North Korea at around 2:40 p.m. local time.

He later delivered instructions to dedicate maximum effort to gather and analyze information, and provide the public speedy and adequate information regarding the missile launch and ensure the safety of aircraft, vessels, and other assets.

His office also said it would take all possible measures for precaution, including readiness for contingencies.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch possibly involved an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired on a lofted trajectory, Yonhap news agency reported.

Japans coast guard said the missile landed about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Aomori in northern Japan, outside of Japans exclusive economic zone, according to local reports.

South Koreas coast guard sent an alert about the launch at 2:49 p.m. local time and the missile landed at around 3:44 p.m., indicating a flight time of around 65 minutes, according to reports.

However, Japans defense ministry said the suspected ICBM flew for about 71 minutes and a distance of 1,100 kilometers (683 miles).

South Koreas defense ministry hasnt yet confirmed whether it was an ICBM.

ICBMs havent been test-fired at full range since November 2017 by North Korea, when it fired a Hwasong-15, which experts say is capable of delivering a nuclear weapon anywhere in the United States.

Both the United States and South Korea have warned that North Korea may be preparing to launch an ICBM at full range. To do so would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

North Korea has been conducting a string of missile tests since the start of this year.

On Jan. 17, it fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which has an estimated range of 4,500 kilometers (2,796 miles) and is capable of striking the U.S. military base in Guam with a nuclear warhead.

On Feb. 26, just days after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, North Korea launched what is believed to be the first-stage rocket for Hwasong-17, a newer ICBM that experts believe could hit anywhere in the continental United States.

Another test was conducted a week later, on March 4, and another suspected missile was launched on March 16, which appeared to explode in midair over Pyongyang shortly after liftoff.

On March 20, it fired four projectiles into the Yellow Sea, South Korean military officials said.

The purpose of these tests, which did not demonstrate ICBM range, was likely to evaluate this new system before conducting a test at full range in the future, potentially disguised as a space launch, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

The March 24 launch would be at least the 13th ballistic missile test-fired by North Korea this year, according to reports, prompting condemnation from officials in the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

South Koreas President Moon Jae-in is set to hold an emergency meeting regarding North Koreas latest missile launch, Yonhap news agency reported.

Bill Pan and Reuters contributed to this report.
Republican Senators Press DOJ to Fight Back Against CCP Espionage

A group of five Republican senators is urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to formally recognize and reprioritize the threat posed to national security by the Chinese communist regimes efforts to conduct espionage against the United States.

The senators, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), told Garland in a March 24 letter that the United States may not be able to effectively combat the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) efforts at international repression because of the Biden administrations recent decision to terminate the Justice Departments (DOJ) China Initiative, a Trump-era anti-espionage campaign.

Despite this critical moment and the high stakes, DOJ chose to disband its China Initiative in favor of a vague Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats that appears to equate the unique and extensive threats from the CCP with those of other nation-state threats, the letter reads.

What concrete policies and actions will emerge from this strategy, and their adequacy to the challenge at hand, remain to be seen. We urge DOJ to formally recognize and reprioritize the threat presented by the CCP to U.S. national security, and ask that you reconsider your decision to disband the China Initiative.

While the program was claimed by rights groups to be racially biased, an internal probe found no evidence backing the assertion. Nevertheless, the program was ended to avoid what Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen called a harmful perception of bias.

The decision to end the program in February without evidence of wrongdoing was criticized by some GOP lawmakers as a display of weakness.

The letter follows the unsealing by the DOJ of three bombshell espionage cases that outlined alleged CCP operations to stalk, harass, intimidate, and even attack ethnic Chinese dissidents on U.S. soil.

Victims in those cases included a U.S. Army veteran running for Congress, a U.S. Olympic figure skater, and a world-renowned sculptor, all of whom had spoken out against the regimes human rights abuses.

The senators requested that Garland and the DOJ answer five questions regarding the decision to end the China Initiative, including what changes it was making to its investigative procedures following the termination of the initiative and how it intended to counter the CCPs operations, which often explicitly recruits from within the Chinese diaspora.

The senators requested that the initiative be reimplemented and implored Garland to consider that countering Chinese communist aggression wasnt the same thing as being biased toward those of Chinese heritage.

Combating the CCP threat should not be confused with bias toward Chinese people, much less Americans of Chinese descent, the letter reads. In reality, the CCP represents neither of these groups of people.

Not only does the CCP not represent the Chinese people, but the greatest victims of CCPs totalitarian model of governance are the Chinese people themselves.
A file photo taken July 31, 2017, of the U.S. embassy building in Moscow. (Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia Expels US Diplomats in Retaliatory Move Amid Ukraine Invasion

Moscow on Wednesday announced that it will expel U.S. diplomats from Russia.

Russias Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. embassy in Moscow was handed a list of its diplomats that were declared persona non grata.

Persona non grata means an unwelcome person.

On March 23, a note with the list of the American diplomats declared persona non grata was handed to the head of the American diplomatic mission who was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry said in a statement.

The American side was told very firmly that any hostile U.S. actions against Russia would provoke a decisive and comparable response, the statement said, Russias state-run agency Interfax reported.

Russian state-run media said the move was in response to Washingtons decision last month to expel 12 Russian diplomats at its U.N. mission in New York. The United States accused the expelled individuals of espionage activities.

The U.S. has informed the Russian Mission that we are beginning the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the U.S. by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security, the spokeswoman for the U.S. mission to the U.N., Olivia Dalton, announced in a statement at the time.

Russias ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, denounced the decision last month as a hostile move by Washington. He said the move was a cause of deep disappointment and absolute rejection in Russia.

The United States last month also expelled Russias second-ranking diplomat in Washington, Minister Counselor Sergey Trepelkov. That decision came after Moscow expelled the No. 2 American diplomat in Moscow, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman, in mid-February.

It was not immediately clear how many or which U.S. diplomats would be expelled as part of the Kremlins decision on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed the news that the U.S. embassy in Moscow received a list of diplomats declared persona non grata from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 23.

This is Russias latest unhelpful and unproductive step in our bilateral relationship  Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments, the spokesperson said, Reuters reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying he aims to de-militarize and de-Nazify the country. The Kremlin has asked Ukraine for reassurance that it wont seek NATO membership.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on March 17 his priorities for potential peace talks with Russia are the end of the war, security guarantees, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, and real guarantees for our country, real protection for our country.

The Epoch Times has contacted the U.S. State Department for additional comment.
An exterior view shows a new pumping station of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) near the city of Atyrau, Kazakhstan on Oct. 12, 2017. (Mariya Gordeyeva/Reuters)

Russia Warns of Sharp Caspian Pipeline Oil Export Drop After Storm

Russian and Kazakhstan oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) from the Black Sea may fall by up to 1 million barrels per day (bpd), or 1 percent of global oil production, due to storm-damaged berths, a Russian official said on Tuesday.

Pavel Sorokin, a deputy energy minister, said the second berth could also turn out to be damaged after initial information about one of the three being damaged by a storm.

Sorokin said the maintenance could take up to two months, which could lead to exports falling by up to 1 million bpd.

A storm in Russias section of the Black Sea has damaged loading equipment of CPC, one of the worlds biggest oil pipelines, which ships crude from Kazakhstan to global markets, its operator said earlier on Tuesday.

The CPC pipeline has been in the spotlight since Russias invasion of Ukraine, which has restricted Russian exports and led to an oil price spike. The United States has imposed sanctions on Russian oil, but said flows from Kazakhstan through Russia should run uninterrupted.

The pipeline ships around 1.2 million barrels per day, or 1.2 percent of the global demand. Any major disruption to its flows will put further strain on a global oil market facing one of the worst supply crunches since the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s.

Most of the oil in the pipeline belongs to Russia, Kazakhstan and international oil majors such as Chevron. It exports oil from Russias Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.

A Chevron spokesperson said the company was currently assessing the situation.

The operator of the CPC pipeline initially said one of three mooring points has been damaged by the storm and it will take at least three weeks to repair while waiting for a vessel. It said it hoped exports will not be affected, as two other berths could continue to operate normally.

Due to the weather anomaly, CPC facilities were damaged.  There is risk that (a second berth) is also damaged, he said in a video posted by the Energy Ministry.

Major global trading houses such as Vitol and Trafigura said on Tuesday they estimated the current Russian oil disruption at 2 million to 3 million bpd. They said the world could barely cope with a disruption exceeding 2 million bpd because it would lead to a further price spike and economic recession.

Russia has said Western sanctions over Ukraine amount to an economic war against it. Officials have said Moscow would resort to all available tools to defend itself, including possibly limiting gas supplies to Europe.

The U.S. Treasury on Friday told buyers to be cautious if they think certificates stating crude from the CPC is not of Russian origin have been falsified.
A view of the car which was destroyed by recent shelling in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Genya Savilov//AFP via Getty Images)

Russian Journalist Oksana Baulina Killed in Kyiv Rocket Strike

A Russian journalist has been killed during shelling by Russian forces at a shopping center in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, according to reports.

Oksana Baulina, 42, was reporting for independent Russian investigative news website The Insider when she was caught up in shelling by Russian forces, the outlet said in a statement.

The journalist, who formerly worked for Russian opposition leader Alexander Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation, was filming the destruction after Russian troops shelled Kyivs Podil district, according to the statement.

Baulina was one of two people killed in the attack on the shopping center, while two others who accompanied her were wounded and hospitalized, the media outlet reported.

Oksana went to Ukraine as a correspondent, she managed to send several reports from Lviv and Kyiv, the statement reads. The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksanas family and friends.

We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas which result in the deaths of civilians and journalists.

Baulinas career spanned from stints with lifestyle magazines, including Time Out Moscow and InStyle, and she later became a producer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

At least five journalists have died since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

In December 2021, The Insider, which is on an official Russian list of foreign agents, was fined for breaking a law that requires it to attach a disclaimer to its publications and subjects it to increased bureaucratic scrutiny.

The Insider has worked with Dutch-based website Bellingcat on projects including an investigation into the 2021 nerve agent poisoning of Kremlin critic Navalny.

Moscows Tagansky District Court fined The Insider 1 million rubles ($13,600) for failing to identify itself as a foreign agent. Repeated violations of the law can lead to an organization being closed altogether.

The designation also requires media outlets to regularly report on their earnings and spending to the justice ministry.

Friends & colleagues of slain journalist Oksana Baulina are describing their last interactions with her, often sharing screenshots of what proved to be their final correspondence. Olga Shakina at the human rights group Department One remembered Baulina in a message on Telegram. pic.twitter.com/Rxy212XkVX  Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 24, 2022

Baulinas colleagues took to Twitter to mourn her death.

Former colleague Alexey Kovalyov remembered Baulina in a Twitter post as a journalist with a phenomenal sense of moral clarity.

Baulina was a courageous and honest, excellent journalist, Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.

She was our steadfast upstander and would always help, Yarmysh said. I dont even know how to speak about her death and cant even imagine all of this.

Bellingcat investigative reporter Christo Grozez remembered her as an amazingly brave Russian journalist who was killed by her own countrys army shelling civilian areas in the Podil district in Kyiv.

She was killed while reporting on the damage caused by the shelling, Grozev said.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The Google logo adorns the outside of their office building in New York on June 3, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Russian Regulator Blocks Google News Over Unreliable Information on Ukraine Invasion

Russias media regulator on Wednesday blocked Googles news aggregator service, accusing it of providing access to materials containing unreliable information about the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

Roskomnadzor, the communications regulator, said it had acted on a request from the office of Russias prosecutor general. It said access to the online resource news.google.com has been blocked.

The American online news resource in question provided access to numerous publications and materials containing inauthentic and publicly important information about the course of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, the regulator was quoted by Russias state-run news agency Interfax as saying.

In a statement, Google said it had confirmed that some people are having difficulty accessing the Google News app and website in Russia, Reuters reported.

Weve worked hard to keep information services like News accessible to people in Russia for as long as possible, the statement read.

It comes weeks after the Russian parliament passed a law that criminalizes the distribution of fake news about the countrys military, with those convicted facing a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The law was passed amid pressure on independent news outlets in Russia following Putins invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.

Media outlets in Russia are prohibited from using terms like war, invasion or assault. Putin describes the invasion as a special military operation and state-run media outlets describe it as such.

Moscow is engaged in a full assault on media freedom and the truth, the U.S. State Department said on March 2, as the Kremlin pressured domestic media outlets over coverage of the Ukraine invasion.

Multiple independent media outlets and channels have temporarily suspended their operations in light of the law, including independent television channel TV Rain (Dozhd) and radio station Ekho Moskvy.

On Feb. 26, Roskomnadzor, issued its first warnings to TV Rain and Ekho Moskvy, accusing the outlets of spreading information that calls for extremism, violence against citizens of the Russian Federation, mass violations of public order and public security.

TV Rains editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the outlet suspended operations because Russian legislators put us in such [a] situation that makes it impossible to continue working as a journalist.

Tomorrow [Friday], a new bill is set to be adopted about allegedly fake news, he said. It will make reporting on Ukraine practically impossible, illegal. It poses a threat to all of us, thats why we made such [a] decision.

Bloomberg reported that Google has in recent weeks begun quietly relocating its staff from Russia, citing people familiar with the decisions.

The Epoch Times has contacted Google for additional comment.
Damage after an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeting Saudi Aramco's North Jiddah Bulk Plant in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 22, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Satellite Photos Show Yemen Rebels Hit Saudi Oil Site Again

DUBAI, United Arab EmiratesYemens Iran-backed Houthi rebels this week struck the same oil storage tank in the Saudi Arabian city of Jiddah they had previously hit a year and a half ago, satellite photos showed Tuesday.

Satellite photos by Planet Labs PBC, analyzed by The Associated Press, show the damage on Sunday to the North Jiddah Bulk Plant, which sits just southeast of the citys international airport.

That same storage tankowned by the state oil behemoth Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramcowas hit by what the Houthis described as a cruise missile in a November 2020 attack.

Sundays attack comes as Saudi Arabia issued an unusually stark warning that it is unable to guarantee its oil production wont be affected by further attackswhich could push global energy prices even higher amid Russias war on Ukraine.

Both Saudi government officials and Aramco did not respond to questions Tuesday.

Among the targets was a petrochemicals complex in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, which Saudi officials said led to a disruption of production for the worlds biggest oil exporter.

Another target was the North Jiddah Bulk Plant, which stores diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel for use in Jiddah, the kingdoms second-largest city some 285 kilometers (177 miles) southeast of Yanbu on the coast. It accounts for over a quarter of all of Saudi Arabias supplies and also supplies fuel crucial to running a regional desalination plant.

Saudi authorities earlier described the attack as causing a limited fire in one of the tanks, (which was) brought under control without causing casualties. The Houthis said they used Quds-2 land-attack cruise missile in the assault.

Planet Labs PBC photos, taken Monday, showed what likely was white, fire-suppressing material surrounding the tank, which appeared damaged on its southern-facing side. A new, detailed photo taken Tuesday showed that debris and material partially cleared away, with a hole clearly punched through the scorched tank.

At the time of the 2020 attack, the tank, which has a capacity of 500,000 barrels, held diesel fuel, according to a recent report by a U.N. panel of experts examining Yemens war. Repairing it after the last attack cost Aramco some $1.5 million.

The U.N. experts described the facility as a civilian target.

While the facility also supplies the Saudi military with petroleum products, it is mostly supplying civilian customers, the panel said. If the plant had been out of service of a significant period, the impact on the kingdoms economy as well as on the welfare of the residents of the Western region would likely have been significant.

Cruise missiles and drones remain difficult to defend against, though the United States recently sent a significant number of Patriot anti-missile interceptors to Saudi Arabia to resupply the kingdom amid the Houthi attacks.
The curtain call at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, in Vancouver, on March 22, 2022. (Hugh Zhao/The Epoch Times)

VANCOUVER, CanadaWith captivating classical Chinese dance and music performances and colorful scenes on the stage, Shen Yun Performing Arts enchanted a Vancouver audience with splendor on its opening night on Canadas West Coast.

Its been overwhelming, very enlightening about [Chinese] history and culture, and Im very impressed, said professional accountant Ron Seymour on March 22. The dancing is amazingsuch skilled artists.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 with the aim of presenting the traditional culture of China the way it was before decades of communist rule all but destroyed it.

Shen Yuns performers depict stories from ancient China all the way to the present, showcasing dance and music that embody the universal values and exalted virtues that are hallmarks of Chinese civilization.

Ron Seymour at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on March 22, 2022. (NTD)

Reflecting on the themes he saw in the performance, Mr. Seymour said that I detected a bit of a common theme about our origin and where were headed in this world.

That was a strong message for us, he added.

Very Insightful

Manny Sahota, a police officer, was similarly impressed by Shen Yuns portrayal of Chinese culture.

Its very amazingjust the whole aspect of how they display their culture and the story behind, how it all started and how its going now, he said. Its very informative through storytelling. Im learning a lot today about Chinese culture.

Sifti Bhullar, a veterinarian, said she found Shen Yuns costumes to be very unique and the performance very informative.

We had no idea about the different effects of communism on the culture, she said. It was very insightful.

Manny Shota (L) and Sifti Bhullar at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on March 22, 2022. (NTD)

Ms. Bhullar, a dancer herself, said she learned a lot by watching Shen Yuns dancers.

Its just very amazing, eye-opening, for another dancer, she said.

Mr. Sahota said Shen Yun is a beautiful performance that everyone should see.

Everyone should come down and watch this show. Its amazing, he said.

Dazzling

Andy Baines and Michele Tamplin at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on March 22, 2022. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)

Andy Baines, who works in the real estate sector, said that Shen Yun is wonderful and dazzling.

It is extremely well-curated, and a very talented performance. The orchestra is very on point, he said. Were enjoying it all.

Michele Tamplin, a physiotherapist, said she enjoyed seeing the beauty of the Chinese culture through Shen Yun.

Its beautiful and I love it, she said. I love the fluid movement, the colorful outfits, and the message. Im learning a lot about the Chinese culture, Its lovely.

Reporting by NTD and Sherry Dong.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
The entrance of the plant of Dutch multinational automotive manufacturing company Stellantis in Douvrin, France on July 2, 2021. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)

Stellantis Fires up EV Rivalry With Tesla

Stellantis NV., Mercedes-Benz Group AG., and TotalEnergies SE. joint venture Automotive Cells Company looked to build an EV battery plant in Italy.

The plant would involve an investment of over 7 billion, Reuters reports.

The partners aimed to increase its industrial capacity to at least 120-gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2030. ACC looked to produce batteries for over 2.5 million vehicles per year by 2030. Tesla Inc.s Berlin plant aimed for an eventual capacity of 50 GWh.

ACC would convert an existing Stellantis plant in Termoli, in southern Italy, into a battery facility.

Stellantis previously announced battery plants in France and Germany through ACC.

It would increase the production capacity of each of the French and German plants to 40 GWh from the 24 GWh initially planned.

South Koreas LG Energy Solution Ltd. looked to invest $1.5 billion to set up a JV with Stellantis in Canada, Reuters reports.

LGES aimed to acquire a stake of $542 million in ES America to tap demand from EV startups in the U.S.

In October, LGES and Stellantis forged an EV battery production JV.

By Anusuya Lahiri

 2021 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
The Texas death chamber in Huntsville, Texas, June 23, 2000, where Texas death row inmate Gary Graham was put to death by lethal injection on June 22, 2000. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Newsmakers)

Supreme Court Sides With Convicted Murderer in Texas Seeking Comfort of Clergy at Execution

The Supreme Court has sided with a Texas death row inmate who wants his personal pastor to be present, praying, and in physical contact with his body during the administration of the lethal drugs that will end his life.

The justices voted 81, finding that John Henry Ramirez, 37, was likely to succeed on his claim that Texass restrictions on religious touch and audible prayer in the execution chamber violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

Seth Kretzer, Ramirezs attorney, praised the ruling.

The Supreme Court clarified that the rule of law is as ubiquitous as God. Both exist everywhere and alwayshigh up in the hallowed halls of power and down low in the hell of the execution chamber, Kretzer said in a statement. After an 81 Supreme Court loss, the time has come for the State of Texas to end its failed, taxpayer-funded battle against prayer.

Ramirez said in his petition to the Supreme Court that Texas was depriving him of his constitutional right to exercise his religion and running afoul of RLUIPA.

The right of a condemned person to the comfort of clergyand the corresponding right of clergy to comfort the condemnedare among the longest-standing and most well-recognized religious exercises known to civilization, the petition reads.

Texas Solicitor General Judd E. Stone II had argued that Ramirez was wasting everyones time trying to delay his inevitable execution.

The case goes back to July 19, 2004, when the former U.S. Marine, then 20, seeking money to buy drugs, robbed and murdered Pablo Castro, 46, stabbing him 29 times and taking $1.25 from him. Ramirez robbed a second victim at knifepoint and tried to rob a third. He evaded arrest for 3 1/2 years in Mexico, according to prosecutors.

Ramirez sought a preliminary injunction ordering Texas to permit his religious exercise if the state moved forward with his execution. The U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit declined to grant the requested relief.

The Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution on Sept. 8, 2021, hours before the sentence was to be carried out, and heard oral arguments two months later.

In a majority opinion (pdf) written by Chief Justice John Roberts and issued March 24, the court found that Ramirez was likely to succeed on his RLUIPA claims because the states restrictions on religious touch and audible prayer in the execution chamber burden religious exercise and arent the least restrictive means of furthering the states compelling interests.

The court found Ramirez was likely to succeed in proving that his requests were sincerely based on a religious belief and that a laying of hands on him and prayer over him during execution are traditional forms of religious exercise.

Texas had long allowed prison chaplains to pray with inmates in the execution chamber. But in the past few years, the state had decided to prohibit such prayer.

Despite this long history, prison officials now insist that a categorical ban on audible prayer in the execution chamber is the least restrictive means of furthering two compelling governmental interests, the opinion states.

Prison officials claim that absolute silence is necessary in the execution chamber so they can monitor the inmates condition through a microphone suspended overhead and that audible prayer might hinder their efforts to hear subtle signs of trouble, or prove distracting during an emergency.

Texas acknowledged that both the federal government and Alabama have recently permitted audible prayer or speech in the execution chamber, but then saidwithout explaining whythat such a policy isnt feasible in Texas, the opinion continues.

The Texas ban on religious touch in the execution chamber fares no better. The state claims that security in the execution chamber, preventing unnecessary suffering, and avoiding further emotional trauma to the victims family members justify the prohibition. Texas stated that allowing a spiritual adviser to touch an inmate would place the adviser in harms way because the inmate might escape his restraints, smuggle in a weapon, or become violent. Or the spiritual adviser might tamper with the prisoners restraints or yank out an intravenous line.

But Texas could still find a less restrictive means of addressing its otherwise valid concerns, the court held. Ramirez showed he will suffer irreparable harm should he be unable to engage in a protected religious exercise in the final moments of his life.

Because it is possible to accommodate Ramirezs sincere religious beliefs without delaying or impeding his execution, we conclude that the balance of equities and the public interest favor his requested relief, the opinion reads.

The Supreme Court ordered the case remanded to the lower courts.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority opinion.

Since the murder, Ramirez has manufactured more than a decade of delay to evade the capital sentence lawfully imposed by the State of Texas, according to Thomas.

This Court now affords yet another chance for him to delay his execution.

The case is Ramirez v. Collier, court file 21-5592.
New recruits practice charging with bayonets at a military training center in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan, on April 22, 2013. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

Taiwan Considers Extending 4-month Military Conscription

TAIPEI, TaiwanTaiwan is considering extending its four-month compulsory military service, its defense minister said Wednesday, amid concerns about the self-governing island democracys tensions with China, which have been underscored by Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said the government would not implement any changes immediately but he vowed it would release the results of its internal research regardless of what it decides. Any changes would only be effective a year after being announced and would be made following consultation with legislators, he said.

Currently, we are still in the research stage. This year we will definitely have results, Chiu said.

Some in Taiwan have suggested the four-month compulsory military service should be longer.

In recent years, The Chinese communist regime has stepped up its military harassment of the self-ruled island, ending fighter jets flying toward Taiwan on a near-daily basis.

Taiwan and China split during a civil war in 1949. The Chinese regime claims the island as its own, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution.

Many experts have drawn comparisons of the TaiwanChina situation to Russias invasion of Ukraine in February. However, the situation does not fit a simple narrative, and experts have so far said military action from the Chinese regime is unlikely. The war in Ukraine did prompt a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan to publicly say it is necessary to extend the mandatory service period.

Russias war against Ukraine has drawn sympathy in Taiwan, where the public raised more than $10.6 million in five days to help fund Ukrainian refugee relief efforts.

Taiwan has more than 215,000 members in its military, with the majority being volunteers. Taiwanese men over the age of 18 are required to serve for four months in the military.
Taliban Cancels Girls Higher Education Despite Pledges

KABUL, AfghanistanAfghanistans Taliban rulers decided against opening schools to girls above the sixth grade, reneging on a previous promise and opting to appease their hardline base at the expense of further alienating the international community.

The unexpected decision, confirmed by a Taliban official Wednesday, came at the start of the new school year in Afghanistan. It is bound to disrupt Taliban efforts to win recognition from potential international donors, at a time when the country is mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis.

The international community has been urging leaders of the terrorist group to open schools and give women their right to public space. A statement by the ministry earlier in the week urged all students to come to school.

The decision to postpone a return of girls going to school in higher levels appeared to be a concession to the rural and deeply tribal backbone of the hardline Taliban movement, that in many parts of the countryside are reluctant to send their daughters to school.

The decision to cancel the return of girls to school came late in the night on Tuesday, Waheedullah Hashmi, external relations and donor representative with the Taliban-led administration, told The Associated Press.

It was late last night that we received word from our leadership that schools will stay closed for girls, said Hashmi. We dont say they will be closed forever.

The surprise decision also comes as the movements leadership has been summoned to southern Kandahar by the reclusive Taliban leader, Haibatullah Akhunzada, amid reports of a Cabinet shakeup, according to an Afghan leader who is also a member of the leadership council. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said it is possible some of the senior interim Cabinet positions could be changed.

There have been persistent reports since the Taliban swept to power in August of differences among the senior leadership, with the more hardline among the movement at odds with the pragmatists among them. The pragmatists reportedly want to see a greater engagement with the world and while staying true to their Islamic beliefs be less harsh than when they last ruled Afghanistan, banning women from work and girls from schools.

Television is allowed in Afghanistan today, unlike in the past and women are not required to wear the all encompassing burqa. but must wear the traditional hijab, covering their heads. Women have also returned to work in the health and education ministry and at Kabul International Airport at passport control and custom.

The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and returned to power after Americas chaotic departure last August..

Girls have been banned from school beyond Grade 6 in most of the country since the Talibans return. Universities opened up earlier this year in much of the country, but since taking power the Taliban edicts have been erratic and while a handful of provinces continued to provide education to all, most provinces closed educational institutions for girls and women.

In the capital Kabul private schools and universities have operated uninterrupted.

The religiously-driven Taliban administration fears going forward with enrolling girls beyond Grade 6 could alienate their rural base, said Hashmi.

The leadership hasnt decided when or how they will allow girls to return to school, Hashmi said. While he accepted that urban centers are mostly supportive of girls education, much of rural Afghanistan is opposed, particularly in tribal Pashtun regions.

In some rural areas a brother will disown a brother in the city if he finds out that he is letting his daughters go to school, said Hashimi, who said the Taliban leadership is trying to decide how to open education for girls beyond Grade 6 countrywide.

Most Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns. In their sweep through the country last year, other ethnics groups such as Uzbeks and Tajiks in the north of the country either joined the fight to give the Taliban their victory or simply chose not to fight.

We did everything the Taliban asked in terms of Islamic dress and they promised that girls could go to school and now they have broken their promise, said Mariam Naheebi, a local journalist who spoke to the Associated Press in the Afghan capital. Naheebi has protested for womens rights and says they have not been honest with us.

By Kathy Gannon
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Other State Lawmakers Subpoenaed in Fed Probe

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton and other state lawmakers have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury as part of an ongoing probe into alleged legislative corruption and fraud, including a kickback scheme.

The alleged subpoenas come just weeks after now-former Rep. Robin Smith, (R-Hixson) resigned after pleading guilty to a wire fraud charge.

It is not unexpected that I and other members would be called to appear before a grand jury to provide factual statements as part of this ongoing investigation, Sexton said in the statement to NewsChannel5.

Connie Ridley, director of legislative administration, confirmed to NewsChannel5 that she had received a subpoena to testify.

Rep. Bud Hulsey, (R-Kingsport) confirmed to the Tennessee Lookout he was served Tuesday and said he believed the grand jury may want to interview him due to his previous business ties with former House Speaker Glen Casada regarding a constituent survey in 2020.

It is not clear how many other lawmakers, if any, have been issued with subpoenas.

We have been fully cooperating with the federal authorities since I became speaker in 2019, Sexton said.

The Epoch Times has contacted a spokesperson for Sexton for comment.

A spokesperson for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told NewsChannel 5 that no one from the governors office has been subpoenaed.

Phoenix Solutions

Smith, 58, faces one count of honest services wire fraud. She pleaded guilty on March 8, U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee said.

According to criminal information filed in U.S. District Court days before her guilty plea, Smith, while representing Tennessee House District 26, engaged in a fraudulent scheme with others to contract with Phoenix Solutions, LLC to provide mail and consulting services for members of the Tennessee General Assembly.

Smith and others falsely claimed that Phoenix Solutions was operated by an experienced political consultant who went by the name of Matthew Phoenix but this person actually did not exist, prosecutors said.

Officials allege that Smith and others received kickbacks or payments from Phoenix Solutions, in exchange for using their positions as lawmakers to approve Phoenix Solutions as a Mailer Program vendor and disperse State funds to Phoenix Solutions.

Prosecutors also allege that Smith received two checks from Phoenix Solutions in September and December 2020, which totaled more than $24,000. Smith allegedly deposited the checks into her consulting firms bank account.

Multiple media outlets report that former House Speaker Glen Casada, (R-Franklin) and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren were involved in the scheme receiving kickbacks from Phoenix Solutions, although officials have not confirmed this.

Casada resigned from his position in 2019 after inappropriate and offensive texts between him and his former chief of staff were leaked.

The Epoch Times has contacted a spokesperson for Glen Casada for comment.

Smith is due to be sentenced on Oct. 17, 2022.

I want you to know that serving the great people of this district, and indeed, all of Tennessee, has truly been an honor. I have resigned with the deepest of humility and out of respect for the role of public service, Smith said in her resignation letter to House Speaker Cameron Sexton on March 7.
A Russian state flag flies on the top of a diesel plant in the Yarakta Oil Field, owned by Irkutsk Oil Company (INK), in Irkutsk Region, Russia, on March 10, 2019. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Texas Puts Pressure on Firms that Boycott Oil and Gas Companies

Texas state agencies may no longer invest funds in companies that boycott oil and gas companies, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said on March 21.

As of March 16, Hegar had written to 19 major international investment firms like JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, and Blackrock, asking them to clarify their policies on fossil fuel investments. Companies have 60 days to clarify their position on fossil fuel companies. Any company that fails to reply will be assumed to be boycotting oil and gas companies and added to a final list.

While climate issues are very important, Hegar told NTD that we need to have companies be more accountable and have them acknowledge that petroleum based fossil fuels is still an important part of this economy and will be for a long time.

Being the ninth largest economy in the world as a state alone Hegar believes that Texass stance on fossil fuels will be able to influence behavior, and companies will continue to invest and realize that at least energy production in Texas is an extremely important part, [in] not just the state economy, the national economy, but the global economy.

In a March 16 statement Hegar said that while these companies push net-zero and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies they also tell Texas and other energy states that theyre committed to the fossil fuel sector.

It is time for these companies to come clean, stop the big lie and realize they cant have it both ways, he stated.

Another round of letters will soon follow to more than 100 other publicly traded investment companies identified to be boycotting the fossil fuel sector.

The inquiries came after the passing of Senate Bill 13 which prohibits Texas from investing in or signing contracts with companies that boycott energy companies.

The bill passed the Senate in April 2021 and came into effect in September 2021.

At a March 8 press briefing in which President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal, Biden said the aim is to make America a world leader [in] manufacturing and exporting clean energy technologies of the future to countries all around the world.

The goal is to become energy independent by accelerating the transition to clean energy, Biden stated.

He added that loosening environmental regulations or pulling back clean energy investment will not lower energy prices for families.

But transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles powered by clean energy with tax credits to help American families winterize their homes and use less energy, that will help, he added.

However Hegar said that artificial efforts to curb domestic energy production not only threatens the Texas economy and jobs, but also undermines national security.

The Ukraine crisis has only highlighted the importance of protecting our domestic oil and gas sector, Hegar stated, adding that Texas oil and natural gas should be playing a key role in supporting the American economy and providing security for our allies abroad.
A rail mounted gantry crane lifts a 40-foot shipping container and loads it onto a rail car at the Georgia Ports Authority Mason Mega Rail Terminal Savannah. (Stephen B. Morton, File/AP Photo)

The Great Global Supply Chain Reshuffle

The worldwide public health crisis and the UkraineRussia military conflict have affected the global supply chain, spotlighting its vulnerability in todays environment. Will the fresh COVID-19 outbreaks and war in Eastern Europe result in a great reshuffling of the international supply chain?

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemics first and second waves, a large number of companies announced efforts to abandon their Made in China ways, shifting operations away from China and establishing new facilities in India, Vietnam, and other regional low-wage markets.

During the 2020 economic downturn, LG Electronics, Hasbro, Universal Alloy Corp., Intel, and Samsung outlined plans to either invest more in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and New Delhi or to restart factories in these places.

Other businesses had even started their relocation initiatives prior to the pandemic in response to the U.S.China trade dispute, according to Bob Bilbruck, the CEO of Captjur, a technology consulting firm.

This transition has been already happening pretty quickly and massively. One of the areas is Vietnam that people are moving to. Also, some production is moving back to the United States, but mostly on items that have bigger margins and the additional manufacturing costs can be more easily hidden in the price of the goods, Bilbruck told The Epoch Times.

But some tech juggernauts have returned to China following outbreaks in Vietnam. Google had initially planned to produce its Pixel smartphones in the worlds 37th-largest economy, but COVID-19 infections and regulations resulted in the search engine giant making its smartphones in China again.

Considering the current situation unfolding in the Asian economic powerhouse, many Western companies are back to square one, further exacerbating global supply chain crisis problems.

Authorities in large urban centers, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, China, have considered fresh restrictions in response to growing cases. In addition, Dongguan, a key southern Chinese manufacturing hub, installed strict lockdown measures that expired on March 28. While other jurisdictions have ended their lockdowns, the temporary shutdowns of critical plants and businesses this month have added to supply chain pains.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG halted operations in Changchun, China. Unimicron Technology Corp., a maker of printed circuit boards and a crucial supplier for Intel, ceased production. Netac Technology, a USB flash drive and portable drive manufacturer, warned of shipment delays because its Shenzhen factory has stopped output.

The continued Omnicron outbreak in China and the countrys COVID-zero response have once again made clear the fragility of the supply chain labor force and its effect on the worlds logistics ecosystem, Ron Leibman, head of McCarter & Englishs Transportation, Logistics & Supply Chain Management practice, told The Epoch Times.

Are multinational corporations waiting for outbreaks to pass, hoping for the best outcome?

Since governments in the region are responding to new infections with renewed public health restrictions, companies might be looking at the length of haul, resulting in manufacturers attempting to shorten the supply chain.

But while wages had been one of the top reasons for outsourcing industrial production, experts say higher labor costs from manufacturing back home could be offset by savings from not having to transport goods globally.

Drewrys composite World Container Index surged by 74 percent to $8,470 per 40-foot container in the week ending March 17.

Others disagree that companies will choose to return their supply chains back to their home countries.

Instead, businesses need to assess what components of their supply chain are at severe risk. They can then determine if they can absorb these challenges by searching for alternative sources or exhausting inventory resources, according to Kiran Gore, an international disputes attorney and adjunct professor at GW Law & NYU at The George Washington University Law School.

The best solution to a supply chain challenge is to create diversity in sourcing, Gore said. Rather than relying upon supply from one factory, country, or region, its better to have a diversified modelthat way if disruptions appear in one area, the company is well-positioned to mitigate those challenges by turning to its other suppliers.

This is easier said than done, but it is truly the best solution for this problem.

Developing countries could also enjoy an opportunity to take advantage of the problems scattered throughout worldwide supply chains.

The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) noted in a January report that these developing markets could facilitate the reorganization of global value chains by establishing regional agreements.

These can ensure that small firms cooperate to reduce transaction costs and benefit from economies of scale, the report reads.

However, if companies are reconsidering where they produce their goods and source their materials, governments could pounce on this trend by utilizing public policy and laying the foundation for an incentive-based market.

From corporate tax credits to funding for reestablishing factories, the United States could appeal to corporations mulling over insourcing campaigns, according to Bilbruck. In other words, officials could create a made in America environment through incentives, which would also help accomplish Washingtons green energy objectives.

Energy efficiency will be a natural result of rebuilding our manufacturing sector in the U.S. as all these model facilities will be the best in the world because they are new, he said. Anything new is going to be more efficient and more cost-effective.

Whatever happens, everything that has transpired and what could further unfold is a brutal backlash against globalization, according to Eric Schiffer, chairman of the Los Angeles-based private equity firm, The Patriarch Organization.

Consumers and businesses are wondering just when the global supply chain crisis will dissipate and return to some level of normalcy.

Theres a wide range of factors contributing to todays post-crisis troubles, such as backlogs, labor shortages, and output and inventories failing to keep up with strengthening global demand.

In fact, it is going to get much worse, Bilbruck said, citing the war in Ukraine and Chinas lockdowns, which affect oil refining, computer chips, and rare earth metals. We have not seen the worst yet. Throw in gas production, and you have a heck of a mess that looks like it is lasting and not getting better any time soon.

But while the supply chain crisis is highlighting some improvements, the world still doesnt understand the extent of the effects of the recent COVID-19 outbreaks, according to Schiffer.

Youre seeing a fundamental spontaneous combustion to globalization, not driven by politics, but driven by reality, he said.
The Most Important Market in the World Is Also the Most Vulnerable

Commentary

Click past Apples shiny consumer marketing of its latest iPhone 13, and youll read in the specs that it brings some serious new technology to its hardware.

Its A15 Bionic chip has 15 billion transistors  a new sixcore CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores  a new fivecore GPU  a new 16core Neural Engine.

Even though Im not sure exactly what all that means, it sounds like some serious horsepower.

These days, we take our cell phones for granted. Theyre so integrated into our daily lives that most people are never without them. We never think about exactly how dependent on them weve become. And more importantly, we never think about where those miraculous circuits that make them run come from.

Apple has teams of engineers designing these new wonders, but who makes them a reality?

The Fab

In the mid-1980s, during the birth of the microchip revolution, leaders in the industry designed and manufactured their own chips in what were known as fabrication plants or fabs. Jerry Sanders, the founder of Advanced Micro Devices, once famously boasted: Real men have fabs.

But in 1987, Chinese engineer Morris Chang made a bet that would change. He believed that as semiconductor design advanced more and more, there would be a growing demand to outsource chip production. And with some financial help from the Taiwanese government, he founded the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC).

The company billed itself as the Switzerland of semiconductorsit wasnt interested in the intellectual property behind the chips. All it did was manufacture them so individual tech companies didnt have to.

Changs hunch paid off big time. Before long, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and otherseven real men have fabs AMDstarted outsourcing their chip production to TSMC. This resulted in a shift in the semiconductor balance of power.

A factory of Taiwanese semiconductors manufacturer TSMC at Central Taiwan Science Park in Taichung, Taiwan, on March 25, 2021. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

According to Boston Consulting Group, while the United States still leads the world in chip design and intellectual property, with homegrown giants such as Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, it now accounts for only 12 percent of the worlds chip manufacturing, down from 37 percent in 1990.

Today, the country of Taiwan accounts for 60 percent of the semiconductor industrys revenue. TSMC accounts for 54 percent of that by itself.

And when you specialize in something, you get to be the best.

According to research firm Capital Economics, TSMCs technology is so advanced that it now makes around 92 percent of the worlds most sophisticated chips, which have transistors that are less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair. Most of the roughly 1.4 billion smartphone processors worldwide are made by TSMC.

Estimates suggest that TSMC supplies 50 percent of the worlds semiconductor chip needs. It makes Apples chips exclusively.

Dependent Like a Crack Addict

I dont need to tell you that today, some 40 years later, semiconductors are in practically EVERYTHING. Your phone, your computer, your television, your car, your appliances  everything.

Under normal conditions, the world, especially the United States, has become dependent on access to a flow of semiconductors like a crack addict depends on his dealer.

But this dependence became glaringly evident during the pandemic lockdowns.

In June 2020, the House and the Senate introduced bills known as the CHIPS for America Act that would increase federal incentivesup to as much as $58 billionto support U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and supply chain security.

So far, like most misplaced government priorities, those bills have gone nowhere.

Why Push to Repatriate the Semiconductor Industry?

All you have to do is look around to see the kind of effects bottlenecks in the supply chains of anything can causeskyrocketing prices. Energy, construction materials, food  its all affected. The prices of used cars soared some 40 percent because new cars couldnt be produced without semiconductors.

Being tied to a single source is a recipe for trouble.

But if that single source is a tiny island nation that China happens to consider its own, thats a recipe for disaster.

China and Taiwan have a centuries-long relationship that has evolved into Taiwan becoming a sovereign state. Today, China has made no secret that it wants Taiwan back.

China doesnt want to reclaim Taiwan because of its glorious sceneryit wants the island for its industry.

And suppose the Chinese should make some move against Taiwana la Russia and Ukraineregardless of the outcome. In that case, any disruption in the flow of semiconductors coming out of Taiwan could freeze the U.S. economy for years.

Hyperbole aside, this is a national security crisis.

Fortunately, TSMC has been looking to expand its production facilities.

It has begun construction in Arizona of a $12 billion chip facility. Reuters reported that the company plans to build six factories on that site over the next 10 to 15 years. Intel is planning to spend $20 billion on U.S.-based semiconductor factories.

These are positive developments. But it will still be years before any of these plants are running at total capacity.

And where investors are concerned, an outcome like this would turn a lot of industries on their heads. Investors would likely do best by looking to more defensive stocks. Companies with household names such as Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Walmart would fit that bill.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Toyota logo is seen at its booth during a media day for the Auto Shanghai show in Shanghai, China, on April 19, 2021. (Aly Song/ Reuters, File Photo)

Toyota, Aurora Test-Drive Autonomous Ride-Hailing Fleet in Texas

SAN FRANCISCOJapans Toyota Motor and Aurora Innovation Inc, a U.S. developer of automated driving systems, have started testing autonomous ride-hailing fleet in Texas, with two safety operators and no passenger on board, Aurora said on Tuesday.

Toyotas Sienna minivans, retrofitted with Auroras self-driving system, will be tested on highways and suburban streets in the Dallas-Fort-Worth area, with the operation including trips enroute to an airport.

Autonomous vehicle startups are under pressure to generate meaningful revenue from billions of dollars of engineering investment, but scaling up the fleet is a challenge as technological hurdles remain.

The route showcases Auroras ability to safely operate at highway speeds, a key technical differentiator that allows it to prioritize popular and lucrative rides, the U.S. company said in a statement.

Auroras rival Waymo charges passengers of its driverless minivans for rides in limited suburban areas in Phoenix, and airport pickups are not available.

Waymo said on Monday it is ready to deploy driverless vehicles in the densely populated San Francisco city, without giving a timeframe for the launch.

Aurora, led by Chris Urmson, a former head of Googles self-driving car project that has since become Waymo, said it plans to continue adding vehicles to the fleet in preparation for commercial launch on ride-hailing networks such as Uber.

Aurora bought Ubers autonomous vehicle unit ATG while the ride-hailing giant had acquired a 26 percent ownership interest in Aurora.

By Hyunjoo Jin
Traders Warn of Russia-Related Diesel and Gas Shortages

LAUSANNEEnergy and commodity markets are in shock after Russias invasion of Ukraine, the worlds top trading firms said on Tuesday, warning of gas and diesel shortages in Europe and economic recession if Russian flows fall further.

Prices across gas, oil, metals, and agricultural markets have soared since the invasion and become so volatile that companies have had to cut traded volumes owing to strained liquidity.

The chief executives of four of the biggest energy tradersVitol, Gunvor, Mercuria, and Trafigurasaid the gas market in particular had become dysfunctional owing to unmanageable margin calls.

The longer the war goes on, the greater the chance of an economic recession, Vitol CEO Russell Hardy told the FT Commodities Global Summit.

Russia calls the biggest invasion in Europe since World War Two a special military operation to disarm Ukraine and protect it from Nazis. The West says this is a false pretext for an unprovoked war against a democratic country.

Energy markets had little spare capacity even before Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. They will now struggle to absorb the potential loss of about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Russia, which competes with Saudi Arabia as the worlds biggest oil exporters.

From an economic perspective, Russia will be a loser. Europe wont do particularly well either with a refugee crisis (and) higher commodity prices, Mercuria CEO Marco Dunand said, adding that he expects Middle East Gulf countries to benefit most from prices and as political brokers between the West and Russia.

Though sanctions have not been imposed on Russian oil globally, companies far and wide have been boycotting Russian commodities.

Many people across Europe wish to boycott Russian oil, Hardy said, adding that it is unclear as yet how much oil would be lost.

Trafigura Chief Executive Jeremy Weir pegged lost Russian crude and products so far at between 2 million and 2.5 million bpd. Vitol, Mercuria, and Gunvor, on the other hand, said the decline is not immediately calculable but they do not see the shortfall exceeding 3 million bpd.

The three businesses have halted spot purchases of Russian oil but are seeing out existing longer-term contracts.

Diesel Shortages?

The top concern for Europe is diesel. Europe imports half of its needs from Russia and could face shortages, the trading companies said, with Trafigura adding that Latin America and Africa could also be hit hard.

Any replacement oil is likely to be months away. Iran could increase exports by 1 million bpd provided that an international nuclear deal is signed, but the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies are unlikely to increase output faster, Hardy said.

A diesel fuel nozzle is pictured during refuelling of a car in Bad Honnef near Bonn, Germany on March 13, 2022. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

Theyve been fairly clear up til now that they will continue with their OPEC+ agreement, Hardy said, adding that African countries in particular had less oil to spare than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Are we expecting a 12 million bpd increase? Yes, but not likely in the next couple of months, he said.

Hedging in futures markets, particularly for natural gas, has become difficult to manage as strained credit lines force market participants to cut positions, which in turn contributes even more volatility.

The trading companies said the market was looking to regulators, central banks, and governments for back-up emergency liquidity.

Gunvors chief executive said that Dutch TTF wholesale gas futures, which are used as a European benchmark, were not fit to be used to hedge the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market.

The problem is the dysfunctional TTF price because of margin calls. The tradeability of gas has exploded over the last five years and a proper benchmark to absorb that kind of volume was shown not to be there, said Gunvor CEO Torbjorn Tornqvist.

We are in the middle of a storm now. Many parties got hurt.

Liquidity contraints because of extreme margin calls have forced traders to focus on core business, Tornqvist said, including his own.

The initial margin is collateral, or cash, posted by clearing members to the clearing house to cover potential losses in the event of a member default. Margin calls arise when the gap between the current spot price and the future sale becomes too wide, forcing traders to increase the deposit they hold at exchanges on each trade.

The spot market has dried up  Every trader is focused on core business. We are doing less volume than we normally do but we can size up again quickly, Tornqvist added.

By Julia Payne
Pipes at the landfall facilities of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are seen in Lubmin, northern Germany, on Feb. 15, 2022. (Michael Sohn/AP Photo)

Trump Got It Right About Germany Being Captive to Russia for Energy: Alberta Premier

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says former U.S. President Donald Trump was right about Germany being held captive by Russia when it comes to energy.

Say what you like about Donald trump, but he got this exactly right, Kenney said on Twitter Tuesday.

The premier was referring to a YouTube video posted by Bloomberg Markets and Finance on July 11, 2018, when Trump took aim at NATO for allowing Germany to seal the Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal with Russia, while the United States had to continue spending more in defence to protect the alliance.

Its very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia where youre supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia, Trump told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and his team in the alliances annual summit.

President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during the NATO summit at The Grove in Watford, England, on Dec. 4, 2019. (Evan VucciAP Photo)

Trump said its very unfair that the United States had to pay 4.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in defence spending, while most countries in the European Union failed to meet the 2 percent target pledged in 2014.

So were protecting Germany, were protecting France, were protecting all of these countries, and then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where theyre paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia, the former president said.

On Jan. 31, 2018, the Germans granted permits for the construction of Nord Stream 2, a 1,234 km pipeline under the Baltic Sea, which would carry natural gas from the Russian coast near St. Petersburg to Lubmin in Germany.

The 11 billion euro (C$15.2 billion) project, owned by Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, was set to double the existing Nord Stream pipelines annual capacity of 55 billion cubic metres. That is over a quarter of all the gas that EU countries use yearly.

Trump said that by having signed the deal, Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas.

Why are countries in NATO, namely Germany, having a large percentage of their energy needs paid to Russia and taken care of by Russia? Trump asked.

If you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia because they got rid of their coal plants, they got rid of their nuclear. Theyre getting so much of the oil and gas from Russia. I think its something that NATO has to look at.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses the media during a joint statement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz prior to a meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin on March 17, 2022. (Michael Sohn/AP Photo)

Stoltenberg defended NATOs position, saying that the alliance had traded with Russia even during the Cold War.

Because you [have to] understand that when we stand together, also in dealing with Russia, we are stronger, he told Trump, to which the former president countered, saying the alliance was just making Russia richer.

In an interview on CBCs Rosemary Barton Live on March 20, Stoltenberg urged Canada and all allies to fulfill their pledge to increase defence spending to at least 2 percent of GDP.

We have an agreement and I expect all allies, also Canada, to follow up on thatthat we should aim at 2 percent of GDP, because we live in a world which is more dangerous, the NATO chief said.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaking in Edmonton on Nov. 17, 2021. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

According to a tweet by Bill Browder on March 22, to which Kenney also responded, the EU has spent over 17 billion euros (C$23.5 billion) on Russian oil, gas, and coal since the Kremlins war on Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Browder, who is head of the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, a movement that seeks to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials, had cited the number from a real-time tracker published by Europe Beyond Coal, an organization that opposes using coal as fuel.

Specifically, the tracker shows Germany spent about 40.6 billion euros (C$56.2 billion) on Russian fossil fuels in 2021, which the organization said is based on trade data collected from the UN Comtrade, a repository of official international trade statistics.

Kenney criticized the EU for abetting Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine.

Shocking. The EUs dependence on Putins blood oil and gas continues to fund his war machine, said the premier on Twitter on March 22.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the town hall debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 9, 2016. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Trump Sues Hillary Clinton, Christopher Steele Over Russian Collusion Allegations

Former President Donald Trump on March 24 sued former Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the man who compiled the infamous Steele dossier on him while being paid by her campaign.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, says Clinton and ex-British spy Christopher Steele, along with around 30 others, carried out a plot to weave a false narrative that Trump was colluding with Russian actors.

The actions taken in furtherance of their schemefalsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sourcesare so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison, the 108-page suit states.

Under the guise of opposition research, data analytics, and other political stratagems, the defendants nefariously sought to sway the publics trust, it added. They worked together with a single, self-serving purpose: to vilify Donald J. Trump. Indeed, their far-reaching conspiracy was designed to cripple Trumps bid for presidency by fabricating a scandal that would be used to trigger an unfounded federal investigation and ignite a media frenzy.

Steele compiled a dossier based on what he claimed were sources inside Russia. His main source was revealed in 2020 to be Igor Danchenko, who has been investigated by federal agents for possibly being a Russian spy.

Russian analyst Igor Danchenko is pursued by journalists as he departs the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse after being arraigned on Nov. 10, 2021, in Alexandria, Virginia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Steele was paid by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clintons campaign for his work, which was released to select reporters ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump ended up winning the election over Clinton but was dogged by the collusion allegations for years after becoming president. Special counsel Robert Mueller ultimately found no evidence of conspiracy or coordination between Trump or his campaign and Russians.

Many claims contained in the dossier were later confirmed as false while others have never been proven.

Clinton, Steele, and the DNC were named as defendants in the suit.

Christopher Steele, former British intelligence officer, in London, U.K., on March 7, 2017. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP)

Others include Fusion GPS and its operatives, who helped produce and distribute the dossier; Danchenko and Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann, both charged with lying to the FBI as part of special counsel John Durhams investigation; former FBI officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe; and former FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.

Kevin Clinesmith, the former FBI lawyer who doctored an email to say a former Trump campaign associate was not a CIA asset when the original missive said he was, is also a defendant.

The defendants either did not immediately respond to requests for comment or couldnt be reached.

The complaint alleges crimes including conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice.

The complaint seeks damages amounting to at least $24 million and a jury trial.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, a Clinton nominee, although U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek Maynard, may handle some or all of the proceedings, according to the court docket.
UK: Kidnapper Whose Girlfriend Was Left Brain Damaged Has Sentence More Than Doubled

A kidnapper who bundled his girlfriend into a van before she was found seriously injured has had his sentence more than doubled by Court of Appeal judges.

Chay Bowskill, 20, of Syston, Leicestershire, picked up Angel Lynn and put her back into the van, being driven by his accomplice Rocco Sansome, after she had left it to get away from him in September 2020.

The 19-year-old was later found lying seriously injured in the carriageway of the A6 near Loughborough and has been left with permanent brain damage which means she will need care for the rest of her life.



Bowskill was locked up for seven-and-a-half years in January after being found guilty of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice, following a trial at Leicester Crown Court.

Sansome, also 20, of Birstall, Leicestershire, was also found guilty of kidnap and sentenced to 21 months in prison

Both men had their sentences for the kidnap of Lynn referred to the Court of Appeal by Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC, who argued they were unduly lenient.

Bowskills total sentence was increased to 16 years and three months by senior judges on Wednesday, after they concluded his original term for the kidnap was not long enough.

Giving a summary of their decision, Dame Victoria Sharp said: We have concluded that the sentence passed on him for the kidnap was unduly lenient.

She said the original term failed to reflect the seriousness of the kidnap and the harm caused to Lynn as a result.

Members of Lynns family gasped as the judge told the court of the increased sentence.

Bowskill, who appeared over a video-link from prison wearing a grey sweatshirt, shook his head as he heard the result.

The judge said Sansomes sentence should have been longer but that, in all the circumstances, including the fact he is close to being released, the court decided not to alter it.

Horrific video footage showed the moment in September 2020 when Lynn was forcibly picked up by Bowskill and taken into a silver Transit van, which was driven off at pace by Sansome.

Police previously said Lynn exited the vehicle at some point in the journey and she now requires round the clock care due to the injuries she suffered.

Dame Victoria told the court Bowskill had been in a relationship with Lynn for about a year before the incident, and he behaved in a coercive and controlling manner towards her throughout that time, threatening her with violence on a number of occasions.

The judge said he tried to intimidate his own mother into retracting a statement she gave to police about his behaviour towards Lynn following the kidnap.

In a statement released after the sentencing hearing, Lynns family said: Angel was so full of life and had such a great future ahead of her. That future has sadly been taken away from her.

The catastrophic injuries Angel suffered will mean life will never be the same for her or our family.

Every day is not only a huge struggle for Angel but also a huge struggle for our family and friends.

Dame Victoria said Bowskill must serve two thirds of his sentence behind bars before he can be released.
Members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces examine new armament, including NLAW anti-tank systems and other portable anti-tank grenade launchers, in Kyiv, on March 9, 2022. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)

UK to Send 6,000 More Missiles to Ukraine: Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a major new package of support for Ukraine, including 6,000 more missiles, to help the country in its war against Russia.

In addition to anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry, the UK is also providing 25 million ($33 million) from the Foreign Offices conflict security and stabilisation fund to help pay the salaries of Ukrainian soldiers and pilots.

Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson disembarks from an aircraft ahead of an extraordinary summit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, on March 24, 2022. (Henry Nicholls /Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

The announcement comes as Johnson joins fellow NATO leaders in Brussels for an emergency summit to discuss the latest situation a month on from the start of the Russian invasion.

The prime minister said: [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is already failing in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have shown themselves to be extraordinarily brave and tenacious in defending their homeland, in the face of an unprovoked onslaught.

But we cannot and will not stand by while Russia grinds Ukraines towns and cities into dust. The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight.

Johnson called on NATO leaders to keep the flame of freedom alive in Ukraine, warning that failure to do so could lead to freedom being snuffed out across Europe and the world.

A member of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces looks at destruction following a shelling in Ukraines second-biggest city of Kharkiv on March 8, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

The UK has already provided over 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraines armed forces, including Next generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons Systems, or NLAWs, and Javelin missiles.

Britain is also supplying Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles to help Ukrainians defend themselves against Russian aerial bombings.

The NATO meeting is expected to sign off on the formation of four new battle groups in Eastern Europe.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the battle groupseach numbering between 1,000 and 1,500 troopswould be deployed in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria.

The alliance already has 40,000 troops in Europe under its direct command, nearly 10 times the number it had a few months ago.

Stoltenberg told a news conference on Wednesday that the forces will remain in place as long as necessary.

This is a significant reinforcement of our presence in the east with air, sea, and land forces, he said.

We are there to protect and defend allies, ready to respond massively to any potential threat or attack against any NATO allied country.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Ukrainian soldiers carry a wounded woman during the evacuation by civilians of the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 8, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraines Disposable Men and Heroic Women

Commentary

A month into the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine, and every day we are confronted with images of heroic men and women defending their country. Even some women who initially fled to other countries are now returning to contribute to the war effort, the news tells us. Ukraine women are volunteering to fight and history shows they always have, boasts an NPR news story.

Media stories for the last month have run hot with stories about brave women and Twitter posts of women in combat uniform.

Ukraine has equal opportunity for women. A bullet from a woman has same effect as a bullet from a man  says #StandWithUkaine.

Except there are comparatively few Ukrainian bullets from women. The government made sure of that by forcing every male aged 18 to 60 to defend the country while women were given leave to flee.

After decades of feminists demanding equal treatment of women, including the right for women to serve through to the front line in the armed forces, that demand seems to be quite forgotten.

One lone male voice on TikTok called out the feminist silence; he attracted a wave of criticism and his video was removed.

The TikTok user, @notpoliticalspeaking, had the temerity to point out that the reported 32,000 women in the Ukrainian military werent all that manygiven that, according to his estimation, the country has 17 million women of age.

Social media ran hot with dozens of articles calling out the man for his ignorance and misogyny.

But hes rightthe Ukraine crisis has exposed the glaring hypocrisy of feminism today, where feminists talk about equality but happily exploit old-fashioned chivalry, that demands only men are disposable.

A female soldier of Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, the military reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, drinks a cup of tea in an underground garage that has been converted into a training and logistics base in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 11, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Women are too valuable to be in combat, said Caspar Weinberger, the U.S. secretary of defense, back in the 1980s, a time when military leaders were still allowed to say such things.

Now feminists sit silent as Ukraine forces their entire adult male population to defend their country, while the valuable women are safeguarded.

Traditionally this has been justified using the evolutionary argumentthat the size of the next generation is constrained by the number of fertile females and a species can tolerate the loss of males more easily than the loss of females.

No one dares point out how that hardly applies to all those 40-something single women past childbearing age that we watched scrambling to get on those crowded trains out of the county.

The other arguments for offering women special protection just dont hold water anymore. The active role played by women in the military puts paid to traditional arguments about womens lack of strengthand gender-based strength is not as critical when facing most modern weaponry.

Lets face itwhilst no one would quarrel with the need to protect children and arguably their mothers, the view of women as a protected class is simply a legacy of traditional, chivalrous thinking which is far too useful for feminists to discard.

So they have their cake and eat it, taking every possible opportunity to pretend that this isnt all about exploiting men by claiming women suffer tooperhaps even more than men.

The women-suffer-more tactic was made famous by Hillary Clinton who declared: Women have always been the primary victims of war because they lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat and because they are often left with the responsibility, alone, of raising the children.

Warren Farrell, in The Myth of Male Power, mentions an article in Parade magazine about the 40 million Russian/Soviet men who were killed between 1914 and 1945. The article was titled, Short End of the Stick, referring not to the men dying but to the women stuck with factory and street-cleaner positions due to the loss of so many men.

A woman stands in front of graves of Ukrainian soldiers during commemoration ceremony at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Feb. 20, 2022. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP via Getty Images)

As the horrific Ukraine situation continues, social media is running hot with messages talking about the plight of women, often barely mentioning men.

A Guardian article describes the uncertain future faced by the women, children, and others who are being evacuated.

Others? Presumably, that includes pesky, unmentionable menlike men too old to fight.

Another Twitter post urged men to fight hardechoes of the White Feather that women used to hand to young men in World War I, shaming them into doing their duty to protect women.

Theres a video of Ukrainian men being arrested trying to leave the country and being handed tulips, presumably a similar insult to their manhood.

A fascinating article, published in The Conversation, by a Newcastle law professor, claims that banning men from leaving Ukraine violates their human rights. Astonishingly, theres not one word in the entire article about the discriminatory treatment of men, even though the author raises LGBTQI+ peoples fears that they might face discrimination if captured by Russians.

I was shocked to hear the truth behind the coverage of the kidnapping of the 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist group. Remember all the glitterati lining up to protest this event?

How come we were never told that two months earlier, Boko Haram set fire to a school dormitory killing 59 sleeping boysthe third tragedy of its kind in just eight months. And why werent we informed when the attacks on boys continued? Where was the coverage when over 330 boys were kidnapped just over a year ago?

Boys lives are worthless or often regarded as pretty worthless, in the eyes of Western media. One of the few feminist contributions to this discussion that I have come across was an article from Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell, talking about a photograph of a Ukrainian father, Serhii, cradling the body of his dead 15-year-old son.

She writes: In our demand for equality here in Britain, we women have for decades tried to emasculate men, to stamp out the warrior and demand they get in touch with their feminine side. Yet we have been so, so misguided.

What arrogance for us feminists to insist they should emote more. Try telling that to poor Serhii as he cradles his dead son. Lets hope that one good to come from this terrible war will be that in the West we finally embrace the goodness, inherent decency, and courage in men.

A rare and touching insight amidst the blinkered coverage of mens role in this dreadful unfolding tragedy.

And I couldnt resist a wry smile at a meme saying, When barbarians are at the gate, suddenly masculinity is no longer toxic.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ukraines Military Claims It Destroyed Large Russian Warship

A Russian landing ship was destroyed and two other ships were damaged in the Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian military posted a video on March 24 that claimed its forces destroyed the Orsk.

The Orsk large landing ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the occupiers has been destroyed in the port of Berdyansk captured by Russia, the Ukrainian navy said on Facebook.

Russias military hasnt issued a public comment in response, and The Epoch Times couldnt immediately verify the claim.

The occupiers are burning well, wrote the Ukrainian armed forces on Twitter, alongside another video that shows dark smoke billowing from what was said to be the destroyed landing ship.

Yes, its destroyed, Ukraines Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said in a video briefing, according to Reuters. The ship was capable of carrying 45 armored personnel carriers and 400 troops, she said.

Russias armed forces confirmed earlier this week that the ship had docked in Berdyansk, a Black Sea port city, to deploy military equipment, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

The Orsks arrival in Berdyansk was hailed by Moscow as an epic event that opens up opportunities for the Black Sea in terms of logistics by using the port of Berdyansk infrastructure to the full extent, TASS reported, citing Russias Defense Ministry-linked television channel Zvezda.

Meanwhile, state-backed Russia Today posted footage earlier this week of the ship offloading armored vehicles in the port city.

Western leaders meeting in Brussels on March 24 agreed to strengthen their forces in Eastern Europe and increase military aid to Ukraine as the Russian assault on its neighbor entered its second month.

In Brussels, President Joseph Biden met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meeting, according to a readout provided by the White House.

The two discussed the unity and strength of the alliance and NATOs ongoing efforts to deter and defend against any aggression, and they welcomed the support of Allies for the government and people of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the leaders to go further and repeated his call for a no-fly zone over his country, where thousands of people have been killed, millions have become refugees, and cities have been pulverized since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

Zelenskyy reiterated that hes was ready to have a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

We are ready to discuss the terms of the ceasefire, the terms of peace, but we are not ready for ultimatums, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukraines armed forces chief of staff said on March 24 that Russia is still trying to resume offensive operations to capture the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mariupol.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives ahead of an extraordinary NATO summit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images)

UKs New Russian Sanctions Target Banks, Defence Industry, and Alleged Zelenskyy Assassins

Banks, strategic industries, and a mercenary group that reportedly tried to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have become the new targets of the UKs Russian sanctions.

Rallying NATO leaders to ramp up support for Ukraine in Brussels on Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the sanctions against 65 Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian individuals and entities, along with a new support package including 6,000 more missiles.

The UK government said it has sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and businesses under its Russian regime since the start of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Among them, 790 individuals and 39 entities were not previously on the UKs sanctions list.

The new sanctions, including 33 individuals, 26 Russian entities, and six Belarusian entities targeted strategic industries, banks, and business elites, the UKs Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) said.

The FCDO said the Wagner Group, sanctioned on Thursday, is the organisation [of] Russian mercenaries reportedly tasked with assassinating President Zelenskyy.

The group is widely regarded as Russian President Vladimir Putins private army, which carries out Putins assassination orders while giving him plausible deniabilitya connection the Kremlin has denied.

Russian Railways has also been targeted for supporting Russias illegal invasion, as well as defence companies including Kronshtadt, which the FCDO said is the main producer of Russian drones.

Others on the list include state-run shipping firm Sovcomflot; Alrosa, the worlds largest diamond producer with an estimated market value of $6.61 billion; and Polina Kovaleva, whom the FCDO said is Russian Foreign Minister Lavrovs stepdaughter.

The FCDO said she reportedly owns a 4 million ($5.28) property in London, with property records showing she lives in the Kensington district, famous for its parks, upmarket shops, and museums.

She purchased it in 2016 without a mortgage, the records show.

Ukrainian national Galina Danilchenko is also sanctioned as the Russian-installed Acting Mayor of Melitopol, the UK government said Danilchenko provided support for and promoted policies and actions that threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or independence of Ukraine, including through endorsing and acting in support of Russian occupation of Melitopol as part of efforts to normalise and provide legitimacy to it.

This is the first time an individual has been sanctioned for collaboration with Russian forces currently in Ukraine.

Britain and other Western nations are using sanctions to cripple the Russian economy and punish President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, seeking to press him to abandon what he calls a special military operation to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies call it a baseless pretext to invade a democratic nation of 44 million people.

As Johnson announces the new package of support and sanctions, Russian state-owned RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying the British prime minister is the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian.

Downing Street denied Kremlins accusation, saying the prime minister is against Putins regime, not the Russian people.

The prime minister is among the most active anti-Putin leaders, Johnsons official spokesman said.

We have no issue with the Russian people and in fact, we have seen many bravely protestnot least [jailed opposition leader] Alexei Navalnyagainst Putins regime and call on them to cease this war.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Even though there is plenty of evidence debunking modern education fads, they remain pervasive in the public education system. (Ben Mullins/Unsplash)

Under Scrutiny, Education Fads Arent Making the Grade

Commentary

Does the name Lynden Dorval sound familiar?

It should. Lynden Dorval was the high school physics teacher who was fired 10 years ago by the Edmonton Public School Board for defying his principals no-zeroes grading edict. Dorval thought it was ridiculous that teachers couldnt penalize students who chose not to hand in assignments. He decided to push back.

Most people agreed with Dorval. Not only did public opinion polls show overwhelming support for his position, but a provincial appeal board later ruled that he had been treated unfairly by his employer. In short, Dorval won his case, although it was far from easy.

The good news is that no-zero policies are much less common today than they were 10 years ago. Back in 2012, education consultants were pushing no-zero policies on schools across North America and many administrators decided to adopt this policy. In some provinces, notably Newfoundland and Labrador, no-zero edicts became universal.

Fortunately, the negative publicity about Dorvals firing meant that no-zero policies were subjected to serious scrutiny, and most people didnt like what they saw. While education consultants and administrators felt it made perfect sense to prohibit teachers from giving zeroes, the general public found it hard to believe that anyone could think this was a good idea.

No-zero policies are the brainchild of assessment gurus who claim that report cards should rigidly separate student behaviour from their academic achievement. They maintain that because handing work in late, cheating on assignments, or not submitting an assignment are behaviours, they should not impact a students final grade in the course. Instead, teachers were expected to assign marks only on the work that comes in.

In the fall of 2012, my research report, Zero Support for No-Zero Policies, was released by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. This report showed that no-zero policies were unsupported by research and that the commonly used arguments to defend the policy lacked substance. Simply put, no-zero policies were more about pushing progressive ideology on schools than about educating students and holding them accountable for their work.

As I pointed out in my report, anyone who teaches in a real classroom with real students knows that no-zero policies almost never work. The moment students find out that they can hand in their work any time or not at all with no penalty, teacher deadlines become meaningless. This outcome is obvious to pretty much everyone.

While we should be glad that no-zero policies have largely been abolished, we cannot afford to become complacent. Thats because no-zero policies are but one example of education fads pushed on schools. From discovery math to open-area classrooms to the three-cueing system of reading instruction, teachers are bombarded with bad ideas.

The reality is that even though there is plenty of evidence debunking these education fads, they remain pervasive in the public education system. Thats because evidence alone will not result in a policy change. Without publicity, its nearly impossible to drive these fads out of our schools.

It was, for example, only after Lynden Dorval became a household name that no-zero policies finally received the public scrutiny they deserved. Similarly, the Ontario Human Rights Commissions (OHRC) Right to Read reports devastating critique of the three-cueing approach has, at long last, awakened the public to a longstanding problem with reading instruction in that province.

It didnt take long after this report came out for the Ontario government to promise a complete overhaul of its Kindergarten to Grade 8 literacy curriculum. This shows that the best way to get meaningful changes in education policy is to publicly expose the useless fads that hold many students and teachers hostage.

There is a reason why the vast majority of education fads are developed by education professors and consultants rather than by regular classroom teachers. Most classroom teachers, particularly those with years of experience, are more interested in doing what actually works than in pushing fads that dont work.

If we want to get rid of useless education fads, we need to expose them to the public. Parents and teachers can often spot bad ideas faster than many education professors and school administrators. Good teachers like Lynden Dorval need the help of citizens to clear away the many obstacles that stand in the way of good teaching.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) testifies at a House hearing in front of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, in Washington on July 12, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

US Officials Have Neglected to Take Action on CCP Infiltration: Rep. Andy Biggs

While false claims of Russian interference in U.S. elections and collusion with Donald Trumps candidacy have gotten ample attention, the very real issue of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) infiltration and meddling in Americas domestic politics has gone largely ignored, according to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

[Russias] collusion with the Trump campaign was proven to be not real at all. But we have neglected the notion that China has also been an active player and has some interest in infiltrating our election systems and compromising our election integrity, Biggs told NTD, an affiliate of The Epoch Times, on March 22.

The lawmaker characterized the economic relationship between the United States and China as so vast, so broad, so deep that it presents opportunities for foreign bad actors to infiltrate various economic, social, and political networks within the country.

When we talk about Russian infiltration, it would be comparatively small, compared to the CCP. And the reason is, theres just a so much larger network of interconnectivity between the United States and our institutions, including our economic institutions, and China, Biggs said.

To alleviate what he sees as an excessive level of U.S. dependence on China, Biggs advocated a repatriation of U.S. economic institutions, corporations, and manufacturing networks that are either situated in or closely tied up with China. He also praised former President Donald Trump for attempting to curb American dependency on China.

That really is something that I think President Trump was trying very hard to do, the lawmaker said.

Biggs went on to describe the benefits of decoupling from China as essentially twofold.

Such a move bolsters U.S. self-sufficiency, whose shortcomings were greatly exposed during the pandemic, where American reliance on Chinese manufacturing was thrown into sharp relief. The further benefit is the forceful message that economic independence conveys to the leaders of the CCP.

Im never a big believer in intervention internationally, but I do [believe in it] when another nation is interfering in domestic politics. I do think that we have a responsibility to an American First foreign policy which actually would be beneficial to  citizens of China, he concluded.

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.
Western Australia Takes Aim at Gun Ownership Laws

Western Australia (WA) is looking to overhaul its gun laws from the ground up to ensure fewer illegal guns and to improve community safety.

In WA, similar to the rest of Australia, guns are not permitted for self defence. However, they are allowed under limited circumstances, such as for recreational shooting or hunting animals on eligible private properties.

According to WA Police, over the last 13 years the number of licensed holders remained steady at around 89,0004.3 percent of the states adult population.

Over the same period, the number of licensed guns increased by 60 percent to nearly 350,000, with one holder owning four firearms on average.

WA Police did not reveal what percentage of these were paintball guns, which also require a firearms licence.

Premier Mark McGowan said the government would be consulting with stakeholders during the process.

Western Australias Firearms Act is now nearly five decades old. The time has come to consider some contemporary improvements to enhance community safety, McGowan said.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan at Dumas House in Perth, Australia on Dec. 24, 2021. (Matt Jelonek/Getty Images)

Some of the proposed amendments include stricter training for new gun owners, with current protocol sometimes only requiring a multiple choice test before granting an individual permission to use a gun.

Other changes include revoking the licences of those convicted of violent offences, along with increasing requirements for security, and storage of firearms.

McGowan clarified that the intention was to make sure that very responsible and safe gun ownership is not affected.

There are a number of genuine reasons for needing a firearm, but we must ensure we have strong laws in place to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, he said.

Read More West Australian Govt Officials Attend CCP Events, Drawing Ire From Persecuted Groups

While WA Police does not publish gun crime statistics, Police Minister Paul Papalia acknowledged that most gun crime was committed by people not licensed to possess a firearm.

However, Papalia suggested that the 50-year old legislation and its lax storage requirements meant it was easier for criminals to gain access to guns.

What Im concerned about is theres something like 350,000 firearms out there, Papalia told 6PR. A lot of them are probably lying around, mostly unused if at all, in a state which is very attractive to a criminal to steal.

Uncertainty Around What New Laws Will Bring

While many industry stakeholders agree changes to the law are needed, concern has been voiced regarding how such reform will be executed.

This is because a comprehensive and independent report conducted by WAs Law Reform Commission had been made available to the WA government six years ago.

The nearly 200-page report published in 2016 offered a series of recommendations following two years worth of work and consultation with communities, gun owners, politicians, and other stakeholders.

The report recommended that the firearms legislation be redrafted from the ground up and already provided suggestions to issues now raised by the WA government, including strengthening criminal record prescreening and stricter storage requirements.

Augusto Zimmermann, head of law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, and one of three law reform commissioners that authored the report, questioned why the government had decided not to accept the recommendations of the report as it currently stood.

Professor Augusto Zimmermann speaks at the religious freedom conference Religious Freedom at Crossroads: The Rise of Anti-Christian Sentiment in the West in Perth, Australia, on June 14, 2019. (Wade Zhou / The Epoch Times)

The report was done only a few years ago and nothing has changed ever since to justify another community consultation, Zimmermann told The Epoch Times. Why have this commission in the first place?

Police Minister Papalia had acknowledged the WA government would be looking at the report. However, he did not rule out introducing further restrictions.

Zimmermann pointed to the fact that the government could inherently be biased in its own redrafting of the legislation, a process that is planned to take just one year.

This has already been done by a statutory independent bodythe politicians are not as neutral and independent as the law reform commission, he said.

Zimmermann also expressed deep concern that regardless of what the WA government had decided to draft up, the legislation would still end up passing through parliament.

This is because the WA Labor government maintains control of both the lower and upper houseallowing for the state to introduce and pass virtually any legislation unimpeded.
Retired U.S. Air Force pilots who carried out missions in China during World War II visit the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, on Aug. 14, 2005. A group of 270 World War II veterans from the U.S. who had supported the Chinese army to fight against the Japanese invasion, including members of the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers, are visiting China to attend events celebrating the anniversary of the Anti-Fascist War victory. (China Photos/Getty Images)

When China and America Were Friends

The Chinese Communist Party destroyed the goodwill that existed between the US and China

Commentary

Communist China conveniently forgets the U.S.-China alliance during World War II.

With the constant drone of anti-U.S. agitprop from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese state-run media, a person might think that Chinese animosity toward America has always existed. The communists venom and vitriol are blatant (examples here, here, and here), but they obscure that the United States and China were once friends and wartime alliesbefore the communists took over China in 1949.

Americans in China

Americans have been visiting, living, working, trading, and proselytizing in China from the earliest days of the American republic. The proselytizing aspect was critical.

During the Third Great Awakening (18551930), a period of maximum Christian activism in the United States, China was one of the countries targeted by American missionaries as part of a worldwide campaign that promoted Christianity and social change to non-Christian peoples.

The introduction of Christianity in China was a destabilizing factor, as Christian tenets conflicted directly with the patriarchal Confucianism that underpinned Chinese society, culture, and government for millennia. As a result, social change came hard, but that did not deter generations of American missionaries from performing mission work in China. Chinese laws were increasingly liberalized over time to facilitate the admission of foreigners into the country.

Chinese resistance to foreign presence led to the Boxer Rebellion (19001901), during which The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (or Righteous Hands) targeted all foreigners, including Chinese Christians and American missionaries. After a joint U.S.-European military force defeated the Boxers, China was forced to repay the victorious nations, including the United States and Imperial Japan, further adding to Chinese resentment of the foreign presence in their country.

In 1908, as a gesture of goodwill to China, the United States remitted the $11 million remaining from the Boxer indemnity, and the ruling Qing Dynasty used the remittance to finance the education of 50 to 100 Chinese students in the United States per year.

Enter the Imperial Japanese Army

Japanese aggression in China began in the early 20th century as part of their plan to develop a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere dominated by Imperial Japan. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 after the Mukden Incident. It is believed that Japanese army officers planted a bomb on a Japanese-owned railway in Mukden that precipitated the Japanese invasion.

The Japanese aggression led to the Stimson Doctrine, in which then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared that the United States would not recognize any agreements between the Japanese and Chinese that limited free commercial intercourse in the region.

In short, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria pushed China and the United States together as de facto allies, setting the stage for an alliance during the coming world war.

Elite troops of the Chinese Nationalist forces in World War II. (Wikipedia Commons)

The Marco Polo Bridge incident at Wanping in July 1937 precipitated the start of World War II in Asia, after which the Imperial Japanese Army occupied much of coastal China and engaged in bitter reprisals against Chinese noncombatants.

The United States sided with China as an extension of the Stimson Doctrine and placed diplomatic pressure on the Japanese to restore the integrity of Chinas borders and sovereignty, which had no discernible effect on continuing Japanese atrocities, including the Rape of Nanking in December 1937 through early 1938 and the carpet bombing of Chongqing from 1938 to 1943.

Nanking was the capital of China at the time the atrocities were committed, and the Japanese executed an estimated 150,000 male war prisoners, massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, according to some historians.

Its noteworthy the Stimson Doctrine is eerily similar to the sanctions and other diplomatic measures placed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine. The ineffectiveness of the Stimson Doctrine in deterring a determined aggressor like Imperial Japan should have been a historical lesson learned that diplomatic and economic measures are futile measures against a determined adversary that only respects military force.

World War II Allies

After the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States and China formed an official wartime alliance in 1942. The United States provided considerable material support to China throughout World War II, including through an extension of credits to the Chinese government and via direct military aid without strings attacheddelivered through overland and air routes. A central supply line was provided via air over the Himalayas from India to China throughout the war to support Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang-led Chinese Republic.

In addition, the American Volunteer Group (AVG) Flying Tigers were volunteer airmen from the United States and Britain. They manned the fighter aircraft that attacked Japanese bombers operating in East Asia during the early years of the war.

According to U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault, the founder of the AVG: The group had whipped the Japanese Air Force in more than 50 air battles without a single defeat. With the R.A.F., it had kept the port of Rangoon and the Burma Road open for 2 1/2 precious months while supplies trickled into China  [and] gave both Chinese and American morale an invaluable boost at a time when it was sagging dangerously low.

U.S. Marine Corps personnel represent Nationalist Chinese forces as Japanese officers sign surrender documents at the end of World War II in August 1945. (U.S. Marine Corps)

The Chinese helped Jimmy Doolittles raiders, who survived the carrier-launched B-25 bomber attack on Tokyo in 1942 and crashed in Manchukuo, the protectorate in northeast China that the Japanese then occupied. Doolittles raid and the assistance afterward provided to surviving U.S. airmen by local Chinese was dramatized in the 2019 remake of the movie Midway.

Eventually, the Stilwell Road was completed, which provided the main overland resupply route connecting Assam, India, with Kunming, China, in 1944. Some 44,000 Chinese troops supported British and American forces in defeating Japanese army forces to enable completion of the 1,000-mile road used to supply China for the rest of the war.

The contribution made by the Chinese people in winning World War II in the Pacific is a largely untold story in the United States. The Chinese fought the Japanese army for eight long years, tying down and preventing the Japanese military from completing other operations, including the likely invasion of Australia and possibly even India. As the Russians fought the Nazis on the Eastern Front, the Chinese army inflicted large numbers of casualties on the Japanese during a bitter war of attrition that had racial overtones.

The Chinese themselves suffered enormous casualties during the war. According to World Population Review: China is estimated to have endured the second-highest number of total casualties in WWII. As many as 20 million people died in China, including up to 3.75 million military deaths and 18.19 million civilian deaths, and 10 million died from war-caused famine and disease.

Contrast those numbers with the estimated 419,000 deaths suffered by the United States in battles fought in both the European and Pacific theaters of war.

American Sentiment on V-J Day

A lifelong friend recently provided a laminated edition of The San Francisco Chronicle of Aug. 15, 1945. The articles were a remarkable journey back in time to help ascertain Americans emotions, issues, and opinions at that seminal moment in historythe day after V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day).

Here are some of the articles and announcements contained in that issue:

Multiple articles on Japans unconditional surrender, including the text of President Harry Trumans announcement, and this quote from Japanese Emperor Hirohito: We accept Potsdam.  I do not want to turn the country into scorched earth.

Japanese War Minister Korechika Anami committed suicide to atone for his failure.

Truman announced that General Douglas MacArthur was named Supreme Allied Commander and would formally receive Japans surrender. MacArthur would later be instrumental in helping turn post-war Japan into a staunch U.S. ally.

General Douglas MacArthur rides in an open car and waves to well-wishers on April 20, 1951. (Fotosearch/Getty Images)

The U.S. monthly draft was cut from 80,000 to 50,000. Large military contracts were canceled, with the attendant fears of impending unemployment for thousands of workers (a significant national concern with memories of the Great Depression firmly in the minds of many Americans). Job controls were ended. Concern about future worker strikes was expressed in association with the reconversion of wartime to peacetime production.

All U.S. censorship is to be ended. The U.S. government had an Office of Censorship during the war to preclude disclosing war-sensitive information that the enemy could exploit.

Some bitter comments from men wounded in the war who were convalescing in U.S. hospitals: Dont write a tear-jerker about us, but right now Id sure like to have that leg back. Just for a little while. I wish I could get happy like the rest of them.

A banner article describes the USS Indianapolis loss to a Japanese torpedo on July 30: Down in 15 minutes with the loss of over 1,000 men.

The conviction of Marshal Henri Petain, the former head of Vichy France, for crimes against France and collaboration with the Nazis.

On a secret trip to Russia, General Dwight Eisenhower visited a Soviet collective farm and said that it reminded him of his boyhood days in Kansas (he was being diplomatic, of course).

Captured German documents detailed the duplicity of Swedish banking house Wallenberg (through Stockholms Enskilda bank) playing both sides during the war and accepting large commissions for safeguarding the stocks of German companies. (Consider this story in the context of the near-total financial sanctions on Russia; German business interests were not sanctioned by the Allies throughout World War II!)

A long article summarizing the entire war in the Pacific that pulled no punches in describing atrocities and battles fought. As one example, the Hiroshima atomic bomb was followed by a warning to surrender or face annihilation.

A comparison of the fighting styles and demeanor of the two 5-star flag and general officers in the Pacific: Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz.

A very interesting article highlighting the split between the Nationalist government in Chungking and Mao Zedongs communist forces in north central China. General Chiang Kai-Shek was portrayed as a strong U.S. ally and the rightful head of the Chinese government, and the sacrifices of the Chinese people during the war were acknowledged. Meanwhile, the Chinese communists continued attacks on Japanese forces after the ceasefire was declared, with Mao ordering the Eighth Route Army, the new Fourth Route Army, and the South China Anti-Japanese Brigade to attack Chinese positions in north China. This willful violation of the ceasefire in pursuit of communist political objectives was the spark that ignited the Chinese civil war.

Conclusion

China and the United States were wartime allies during World War II, with America providing significant war material and logistics support to China from 1940 onward. Chinese forces bore the brunt of the land war in East Asia, suffering tragic losses, including millions of civilian deaths.

The goodwill that existed between the Chinese and American peoples was destroyed after the Chinese communists consolidated control of China in 1949. That mutual goodwill can be restored with the demise of the Chinese Communist Partya mutual goal for all moral people in the world.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during her confirmation hearing to become a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, in Washington, on March 23, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

White House Continues Praise of SCOTUS Nomination

The White House is voicing continued support for its Supreme Court nominee two days into Senate confirmation hearings.

White House principle deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters while flying aboard Air Force One that President Joe Biden watched some portions of Tuesdays hearings and said that Biden couldnt be more proud of Judge Ketanji Brown Jacksons intellect, her grace, character, and the value of her experience.

The country is seeing just how qualified Judge Jackson is, and how she determines cases fairly based solely on the facts and the law, which is what the American people expect in a Supreme Court justice, Jean-Pierre said before noting endorsements from conservative judges, police organizations, and former state attorneys general.

Jean-Pierre added that Biden was impressed with how Jackson dismantled bad-faith conspiracy theories used to smear her record as a judge.

Jackson has faced scrutiny from Republicans questioning her sentencing record on child pornography cases, her past praise of Critical Race Theory, and her refusal to define the word woman during the proceedings.

Jean-Pierre was then pressed by reporters to address the line of questioning from Republican senators directlyone reporter asking if she thought the questions were inappropriate, racist, or whateverhowever you want to say.

Jean-Pierre replied by repeating that Biden was very proud of how Jackson had reacted to the questions.

I just told you his reaction, were not going to break it down to specific details, she added.

Biden, himself, was a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chairing the committee from 1987 to 1995.

Jackson responded to a line of questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) on Tuesday, during which the senator recalled the judges past praise of Critical Race Theory and citation of the New York Times controversial 1619 Project during a lecture.

[Critical Race Theory] is not something Ive studied, it doesnt come up in my work. I was mentioning it because it was at least at that time something that was talked about and well known to the students I was speaking to at the law school, Jackson said.

During the proceedings on Wednesday, Jackson refused to define what a woman is, saying: No, I cant. Im not a biologist.

She also did not directly answer a question from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on whether the United States should strengthen or weaken punishments for child pornographers.

Senator, that is not a simple question, and the reason is because what this country does in terms of penalties is in Congresss province, Jackson said. You all decide. You all decide what the penalties are, you decide what the factors are that judges use to sentence. If you determine that any set of penalties is insufficient, then it is in your purview to make that determination.

Biden nominated Jackson last month to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is set to retire at the end of this term.

Jackson, who if appointed will be the first black woman to sit on the high court, has found praise from Senate Democrats like Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who dismissed Republican allegations meritless to the point of demagoguery and described his joy at Jacksons nomination.

I want to tell you when I look at you, this is why I get emotional, Booker told Jackson at the hearing Wednesday. Youre so much more than your race and gender. Youre a Christian, youre a mom, youre intellect.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) introduces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak to the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 16, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite-Pool/Getty Images)

Whos on the Side of Not Taking Sides?

Commentary

Whose side is Tucker Carlson on? asks Dean Obeidallah of CNNthus reaffirming the popular progressive view that everybody has to pick a side, even in a war between two foreign powers 5,000 miles away where no vital U.S. interests or treaty obligations are involved.

This should come as no surprise, however, since it goes naturally with the lefts politicization of everything domestically. We are also expected to take sides on such seemingly non-political and private matters as what we should and should not eat, what should and should not be taught to 5-year-old children or in high school history classes, what kind of car we choose to drive or how to address a gentleman who is pretending to be a lady.

Not only must we pick a side in these and other matters, we must pick the right sidewhich is of course the left sideor risk cancellation and social ostracization. Or worse.

Over the last 10 years or so, not only in this country but across much of the Western world, we have lost the right to be non-political. Now we have also lost the right, apparently, to be neutral in wars taking place on the other side of the world in which our country is not involved.

The cry from right and left alike is now that we must be involved, even if this means open warfare between the worlds two largest nuclear powers.

The Chinese communists, currently at number three, might not mind this too much, though they are nominally allied with number two. But I think that more than just Tucker Carlson in this country would regret it if it happened.

The left has decided on behalf of all decent people (or at any rate all who would hate not to be thought decent people by the left) what is the right and wrong side of everything. They have proclaimed themselvesand, indeed, history itselfto be on the right side and then sought to lump with the wrong uns anyone with a mind to protest at such automatic and unquestioning side-taking.

Lets be clear. Sometimes you have to pick a side and fight for it as if your life depended on it, since it probably does.

But sometimes you dont. And in the case of the Russo-Ukraine war, its entirely possible that your life could depend on not picking a side.

I myself dont think it will come to nuclear war, at least so long as theres no direct military confrontation between the United States or its NATO allies and Russia. I also admire the resistance of the brave Ukrainians and am sympathetic to the view that, if Vladimir Putin is successful in subduing Ukraine, he will not stop there.

But if I also think it would be irresponsible not to consider the risks as well as the rewards of an American involvement in the war as great as that requested by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address to Congress on March 16; whose side does that put me on?

What seems remarkable to me is not this new shaming tactic of the progressives, for it has been going on for decades with great success in universities and media newsrooms, but the extent to which Republicans and conservatives have gone along with itespecially since the election of Donald Trump gave it a new impetus.

Only this week, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) must have used a similar logic to Obeidallahs to accuse Tulsi Gabbard of treason for worrying about the security of dangerous pathogens in the bio-labs in Ukraine under Russian assaultjust because Putin has claimed, with what truth nobody knows, that such pathogens are being developed as weapons of war.

After Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Romney is known as the most prominent Republican Never-Trumper, which makes him a prime success of the lefts effort, from 2016 onwards, to make the former president its touchstone for decency and indecency in their new political binary system: whatever hes against is automatically the right side, and whatever hes for is the wrong side.

With him on the wrong side were all the bad words, like autocracy and fascism, while with the progressive opposition on the right side were all the good words, like democracy and, of course, decency. So much so, indeed, that these words became redefined in relation, first, to Trump and then to anyone unfortunate enough to find him or herself at odds with the left-wing worldview.

You can see the process at work in the column by Obeidallah, questioning Tucker Carlsons patriotism, that I mentioned above.

Republican strategist Ana Navarro, he writes, while co-hosting The View on Monday, suggested that the Department of Justice should investigate whether Carlson is a foreign asset who is shilling for Putin. While we can debate whether he is or isnt, one thing is clear: Carlson is not on the side of democracy over autocracy.

Pardon me, but this is not clear at all. By the pretense that both democracy and autocracy are clearly understood terms with the meanings they have always had and not the meanings so recently and so tendentiously imposed upon them by the left, for whom they signify nothing more than anti- or pro-Trump, Obeidallah manages to hint that there may be some truth to the outrageous claim that Carlson is shilling for Putin.

Now, in other words, these words have made a seamless transition to signifying only anti- or pro-Putin, since both Trump and Putin are presumed to troop together on the wrong side along with autocracy, indecency, treason, and all bad things.

Its as simple, and as simple-minded, as saying youve got to be on one side or the other. About everything.

Heres a question for Obeidallah. President Joe Biden is currently said to be on the point of closing a deal with Russias other ally in the region, Iran, by which the Ayatollahs and their many terrorist allies, in exchange for saying theyre not going to develop a nuclear weapon just at present, will receive a sum reported to be in excess of $100 billion. Whose side is he on?

I think we can guess the answer to that one. And Im pretty sure its the same side as Obeidallahs.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Victoria Nuland, Bidens under secretary of state for political affairs, is the Forrest Gump of political operativeswith an uncanny habit of disrupting international relations.

Although many are unfamiliar with her gaffe-filled history, Nuland has played roles throughout pivotal moments in our nations foreign policy history.

Nuland, who held a background role in Hillary Clintons Benghazi scandal, helped the United States to orchestrate a coup in Ukraine in 2014and did so with Bidens involvement.

It was Nuland who gave permission to Christopher Steeles FBI handler, Micheal Gaeta, to meet with Steele in early July 2016an event that proved to be the opening salvo in the FBIs quest to get Donald Trump.

Nuland, who had received more than 100 previous reports from Steele, later admitted that she provided copies of the dossier to FBI leadership and then-Secretary of State John Kerry.

More recently, Nuland made a startling admission that U.S.-funded Ukrainian biolabs might fall into Russian hands.

Welcome to Truth over News with Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke.

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Will Putin Be Overthrown?

Commentary

Russias Defense Minister and Putin crony Sergei Shoigu seems to be missing, allegedly sidelined with heart problems. At present no one is sure what this is: A true medical emergency? A political decision by Putin? Or a protest by Shoigu over the war in Ukraine?

Its well known that Shoigu has been under pressure not only to win the war, but also from his family members, especially his daughter, who oppose the war in Ukraine and no doubt blame their father. Shoigus daughter, Ksenia, age 31, has reportedly been wearing Ukrainian flag colors as part of the family upheaval.

But the bigger picture is more worrisome than any family problems experienced by the defense minister.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be incensed not only with the generally poor performance of the Russian invasion force, but even more so by the advice he has been given by both the military and intelligence organs, and by leaks of sensitive internal information to the West. Some military and FSB (Russias security service replacing the KGB) top personnel are allegedly already under house arrest, according to reports.

Meanwhile, unlike Western armies that rely heavily on non-commissioned officers to lead fighting forces, Russian generals and senior colonels appear to be on the front lines, and are getting killed. At the latest count, along with five dead Russian generals, there are reportedly some 10 senior colonels who have died in the fighting. Some of them have been taken out by skilled Ukrainian snipers, many of them trained by U.S. and NATO special forces.

Putins effort to short circuit the dismal war mess by trying to decapitate Ukraines leadership also has failed. Different teams sent to assassinate Ukraines leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have either been intercepted and killed, or captured. This includes top Spetsnaz operatives, Chechen fighters, Wagner Group forces, and others. In at least one case, perhaps more, the Ukrainians were tipped off and caught the intruders flat footed.

These developments are very negative for Putin. While he can surely keep up the pounding of some eastern Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol, his forces have failed to take the city or force its surrender.

Mariupol is the southernmost city, which the Russians regard as part of Donetsk. It was the scene of fighting in 2015 where the Ukrainians were able to push back and defeat irregular forces coming from Donetsk who were supported by artillery strikes organized by Russian officers. It would appear that Putins strategy is to build out a larger Donetsk enclave that, like Crimea, will be a thorn in Ukraines side far into the future.

Russians killed and wounded are now impacting the domestic scene. In Russia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, a pro-regime former communist newspaper, published the following number of Russian casualties: 9,861 Russian soldiers killed and 16,153 wounded. Komsomolskaya Pravda pulled the numbers after claiming their website had been hacked. Its more likely that they removed them under official pressure to do so.

These are very sensitive numbers for Russians. In Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989 the Soviet Union lost around 15,000 soldiers. If the three weeks of the Ukraine war is taken into account, and if extrapolated to only one year, the losses for Russia would be staggering: using the alleged Russian death count as a basis, 170,924 killed and 280,140 wounded. It was Afghanistan that helped topple the Soviet Union as the Russian ruling class, the Nomenklatura, rebelled and stopped supporting the communist regime.

Putin surely knows his support is crumbling, even if he stages mass events to try to show the country supports him (and where the video feed was apparently sabotaged). Putin has not held any major meetings featuring his military leaders, has not traveled to rally the troops, as one would expect from a wartime leader, and has been mostly holed up inside the Kremlin. His few speeches, aside from the rally delivered over television, are not models of rationality, and his claims of Nazis lurking in Ukraine are unsubstantiated and do not constitute, in any case, a casus belli.

The Ukraine war is best understood as the outcome of a fairly lengthy conflict that goes back in part to the NATO Bucharest Summit Declaration in April 2008 where the heads of state and governments declared that Georgia and Ukraine would become part of NATO. Along with the declaration came a steady buildup of NATO efforts to strengthen Ukraines military and to build bases where NATO forces could operate with Ukrainian forces. The effort included preparing Ukraines ports for U.S. and other NATO warshipsthe United States paid for preparations at Ochakiv Naval Base and the military facility at Mykolai (recently surrounded by Russian forces).

Russia has long objected to Ukraine joining both the EU and NATO, as the Russians also objected to expanding NATO in eastern Europe. The Russians argue that former President Boris Yeltsin was promised there would be no NATO expansion, and similar assurances were given to Putin, who at one point thought Russia might also join NATO. Ukraines President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after protests in Kiev (he was from Donbas) after he broke a promise under pressure from Putin and decided not to join the EU. With this upheaval in Ukraine, which the Russians saw as the work of U.S. and NATO agents, Russia grabbed Ukraine and organized resistance in Donetsk and Luhansk.

During the Trump administration the reinforcement of Ukraines forces continued. However, the Russians saw an important window of opportunity after the U.S. debacle in Afghanistan, and a rising challenge to U.S. power thanks to China. At the same time it was clear to Russian policymakers that despite a lot of talk, NATO remains weak and divided, giving the Russians more or less a free hand to move militarily unless they could get the United States and Ukraine to make significant concessions. Biden not only refused, but Washington used harsh language confronting Russia (even while, at the same time, making it clear that neither the United States nor NATO would send any forces to Ukraine). The Russians proposed negotiations over security in eastern Europe, asked for western security guarantees, and complained about the alleged introduction of nuclear cruise missiles in Poland and Romania. The United States (and dutifully, NATO) rejected all the Russian assertions, giving Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, a black eye. These events, and a Russian intelligence assessment that Ukraine could be quickly defeated, allowed Putin to strike.

In retrospect, the Russian strategy backfired. Russia, despite a large invading force, heavy armor, and air power, has failed to break Ukraines resistance. Russia has turned to using long-range rockets and air strikes against both military and civilian targets. In fact, attacks on schools, apartment buildings, theaters, and city administration buildings, and the reported wanton shooting of civilians by Russian troops, are war crimes. Russia has lost large amounts of equipment, tanks, armored fighting vehicles, air defense systems, electronic warfare systems, fighter-bomber aircraft, and helicopters. Russian soldiers have been captured, some have deserted.

Putins Options

Putin can continue the war, but the personal risk will continue to grow as bodies are returned home and as the Russian public, especially in government and military circles, oppose the invasion. At some point, soon, there will be a crossoverwhere instead of opposing the war, leading elites hold Putin responsible for the carnage. Shoigus heart condition is one symptom of the emerging crossover. So too are reports where real facts about casualties are reported. The regimes attempt to impose fines and jail terms on dissidents can also backfire, as the punishments for dissent are imposed on popular figures, including artists and journalists, who are respected. Calling war opponents fascists and traitors also has a short half life.

Putin probably hopes Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians will buckle and surrender. By now this looks increasingly unlikely, but whether Putin understands that is not clear. What is clear is that he understands the deteriorating political situation in Russia.

To head off a fatal upheaval, Putin badly needs to negotiate a settlement. Some progress is being made in the ongoing technical negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, which Zelenskyy says are now taking place every day. But slow progress falls short of reaching a settlement. Putin will need to personally negotiate a deal with Ukraines Zelenskyy.

If Putin delays looking for a better deal in the future, he may lose everything. The chances for Putins overthrow have never been greater.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at a news briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)

Zelensky Democrats on the March

Commentary

Among the wise admonitions imparted to us boys at my Jesuit high school was the injunction Seldom affirm, never deny, always distinguish.

I am not so sure about the interdiction against denialit seems to me that there are plenty of things that call out for thatbut there is a lot to be said for the celebration of making distinctions.

I wish more people were heeding that desideratum with respect to the events unfolding in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, many commentators and, urged on by an overexcited media, the public at large seem to have embraced an updated Manichaean view of the world.

It does have the virtue, or at least the character (Im not sure it is a virtue), of simplicity.

In brief, according to this new Manichaenism, world affairs are a battle between good and evil.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, is evil.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, is good.

Lets begin by acknowledging that Putin is a thug, and a murderous thug at that.

Vocal opponents of Putin in Russia do not have a long life expectancy.

And lets acknowledge, too, that Putins invasion of Ukraine is an outrageous violation of international norms.

It has been going on for a month now.

Reliable figures are hard to come by, but it is clear that there have already been thousands of casualties on both sides, as well as enormous property damage.

So, yes, Putins invasion of Ukraine is a moral outrage.

It is also shaping up to be something that Machiavellian commentators deplore even more vigorously: a huge strategic blunder.

But if Vladimir Putin is evil, what of Volodymyr Zelensky?

In the drama prepared for us by our government and the commentariat, he must be the opposite: the very incarnation of everything good and noble, right?

Right?

Well, Twitterers like Bill Kristol think so.

He recently issued a bulletin declaring his fondness for Zelensky Democrats like Liz Cheney (and himself, of course).

I dont doubt it.

But what manner of democrat is Volodymyr Zelensky?

Telegenic, thats one thing.

Before he was a politician Zelensky was an actor, and he clearly understands the importance of image.

He has gotten a lot of mileage out of his T-shirt, for example.

Its an accoutrement that reeks of authenticity and was one thing, I believe, that prompted the entire Congress of the United States to give him a standing ovation when he addressed that august body via a video call last week.

I was in Washington, D.C., earlier this week and the embrace of all things Ukraine was patent everywhere.

Walking up Embassy Row on Massachusetts Avenue, I saw the Ukrainian flag hoisted in front of many embassies.

According to the commentator David Frum, Ukraine may be the first example in human history of a country that, under the pressure of war, is becoming more tolerant and more liberal.

Thats the narrative.

The reality is more complicated.

Did you know, for example, that president Zelensky just banned all opposition parties in Ukraine, effectively transforming the country into a one-party state?

He also nationalized all media outlets in order to propagate a unified information policy.

How do you spell Gleichschaltung?

There are atrocities aplenty in war-torn Ukraine.

Not all of them are perpetrated by the Russians.

One of the more grisly episodes comes to us courtesy of a Ukrainian front-line medic, who announced that he had just ordered that captured Russian soldiers be castrated because, he explained, they were cockroaches not human beings.

That did not play very well in Peoria, so he apologized and assured his critics that he spoke out of turn and he would not order the mutilation of POWs after all.

That was nice of him.

Heres a question: Is criticizing the behavior of Zelensky tantamount to supporting Putin?

I do not think it is, but it appears that Zelensky Democrats like Bill Kristol think so.

Bill seems very eager to push the United States into war with Russia.

Recently at The Bulwark, he got dressed up in his Winston Churchill costume and told us that 2022 was the new 1936.

He, just like Churchill out in political wilderness you see, is ringing the alarm bells, warning against the new Hitler (or is it the new Stalin?) Vladimir Putin.

No matter how trying this moment is, Kristol writes, the period of great testing lies ahead of us. The immediate crisis is merely the beginning of a series of challenges that well face for quite a while.

Forever, if he has his way.

A better guide to current predicaments, including the war in Ukraine, is a comment the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig made in his memoir The World of Yesterday (1942) about the mood of irrationality that swept over society with the outbreak of World War I.

War does not permit itself to be coordinated with reason and righteousness, Zweig noted.

It needs stimulated emotions, enthusiasm for its own cause, and hatred for the adversary.

It lies in human nature that deep emotion cannot be prolonged indefinitely, either in the individual or in a peoplea fact that is known to all military organizations.

I think this is true. And Zweigs next point follows as the night the day: Therefore, it requires an artificial stimulation, a constant doping of excitement; and this whipping up was to be performed by the intellectuals, the poets, the writers, and the journalists, scrupulously or otherwise, honestly or as a matter of professional routine.

They were to beat the drums of hatred and beat them they did, until the ears of the unprejudiced hummed and their hearts quaked. In Germany, in France, in Italy, in Russia, and in Belgium, they all obediently served the war propaganda and thus the mass delusion and mass hatred, instead of fighting against it.

And what was the result? Exactly what you would have expected:

The results were disastrous. Shakespeare was banned from the German stage, Mozart and Wagner from the French and English concert halls, German professors declared that Dante had been Germanic, the French that Beethoven had been a Belgian, intellectual culture was requisitioned without scruple from the enemy countries like grain and ore . It was not enough that thousands of peace-loving citizens were killing each other daily at the front. In the hinterland there was mutual berating and slandering of the great dead of the enemy countries, who had been slumbering in their graves for centuries.

The mental confusion increased in absurdity . It soon became impossible to converse reasonably with anybody in the first war weeks of 1914.

What would he say about 2022?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Zelenskyy Tells NATO What Weapons Ukraine Needs

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday urged NATO leaders to provide 1 percent of all your planes and 1 percent of all your tanks amid the conflict with Russia.

We cant just buy those, Zelenskyy told the NATO leaders, who are meeting in Brussels. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100 percent security.

Ukrainian forces also need anti-ship weapons, air defense systems, and multiple-launch rocket weapons, he said. Ukraines military on Thursday claimed it destroyed a large Russian warship at a Black Sea port earlier this week.

Zelenskyy, however, did not reiterate a request for a no-fly zone or ask to join NATO or the European Union during his address. Previously, NATO and U.S. officials denied his request, saying it would further escalate the conflict with Russia into a wider war.

A spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday rejected a request that Turkey, a member of NATO, transfer its S-400 missile systems to Ukraine in exchange for U.S.-made F-35 planes and Patriot missile systems.

It is the responsibility of the West and especially the U.S. to normalize relations with Turkey, Fahrettin Altun, the spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal. What the West must do is deliver the F-35 fighter jets and Patriot batteries to Turkey without preconditions, he added.

Servicemen of Ukrainian Military Forces move U.S.-made FIM-92 Stinger missiles and the other military assistance shipped from Lithuania to Boryspil Airport in Kyiv, on Feb. 13, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden and other leaders spent Thursday coming up with their next steps to counter Russias month-old invasion and considering how they might respond should Moscow use chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.

Zelenskyy also claimed Russia used phosphorus-based weapons on Thursday morning, killing adults and children. Phosphorus weapons are not classified as chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

It feels like were in a gray area, between the West and Russia, defending our common values, Zelenskyy added. This is the scariest thing during a war  not to have clear answers to requests for help.

Since the start of the Feb. 24 invasion, Western powers have sent anti-air missiles, anti-tank missiles, rifles, ammunition, and other equipment to Ukraine. There have also been reports that the United States and NATO shared intelligence with Ukraines military.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday also noted in a statement that his military alliance NATO has provided training to Ukraines military since 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea.

Biden said more aid was on its way. But Western leaders also suggested they were treading carefully so as not to further escalate the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine.

NATO has made a choice to support Ukraine in this war without going to war with Russia, said French President Emmanuel Macron. Therefore we have decided to intensify our ongoing work to prevent any escalation and to get organized in case there is an escalation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
DARIEN  After two years of delay on construction because of the pandemic, progress on major commercial and housing projects in town is starting up again.

During her first State of the Town address, First Selectman Monica McNally highlighted milestones for three large and long-awaited developments in town: the Darien Commons, the Corbin District and the Noroton Heights Shopping Center  each of which promises to bring dozens of new residential units to town, along with space for new retail establishments and restaurants.

McNallys comments came during an event coordinated by the Darien Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

The Corbin District, a $100 million downtown project that has received much buzz both in town and across the state, will bring 116 units of housing to Darien, she said.

Groundwork has been laid for three mixed-use buildings in Phase One of the project, with the first already framed on the corner of Old Kings Highway South and Corbin Drive. Two other buildings will be completed in late 2022, McNally said.

The first residents there are expected to move in sometime in 2024.

I'm sure you've seen a lot of activity there, McNally said, adding that The north east side of Corbin is starting to take shape.

Demolition of the current buildings at Noroton Heights Shopping Center will begin very soon with construction to immediately follow, she added.

That development, which has been in the works since 2017 and stalled during 2020, was approved earlier this week by the Planning and Zoning commission.

And for smaller-scale rental units, like those at The Darien Place, demand has been high, with most units reserved just days after going on the market, McNally said.

With developments raising renewed worries about traffic, McNally said the town is also eyeing improvements to traffic infrastructure.

A state grant will fund one project to add an additional traffic lane to the intersection of Noroton Road and West Avenue. Work on that will begin by April or May and wrap up by the end of 2022, she said.

During the talk, some community members questioned the need for any multi-residential development, voicing concerns about potential overcrowding in schools.

Why do we want such a densely-populated city when we're bordering on Norwalk and Stanford, which are mostly apartments? one attendee asked.

McNally responded that People move here and they want to live in Darien, they don't want to live in Stamford or Norwalk.

McNally added that residents with concerns about school enrollment projections should provide public comment to Board of Education members as a way to influence the school districts decisions around class size.

They really do need to hear what you're thinking, McNally said.
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NORWALK  Plans to build Connecticuts first Wegmans grocery store off Connecticut Avenue faced no opposition from local residents at a public hearing this week.

Wegmans, the New York-based upscale grocery store chain, announced plans this month to build a 97,000-square-foot store on Richards Avenue between Connecticut Avenue and Interstate 95.

Members of the public were offered their first chance to weigh in on the proposal during the Norwalk Conservation Commissions meeting on Tuesday.

But no one spoke in support or opposition to the store at the virtual hearing, clearing the way for the commission to vote on the project at its next meeting.

Alexis Cherichetti, the citys senior environmental officer, said the commission is expected to hold the vote on April 12.

The conservation commissions vote, however, will not mark the end of the citys approval process. The store must also get the green light from the Norwalk Planning and Zoning Commission before construction can begin.

READ MORE: Wegmans and Stew Leonards  family friends for decades  set to become rivals in CT

Architectural plans filed with the city show the grocery chain intends to raze an old office building at 47 Richards Ave., before erecting the new supermarket and a two-level, 255-space parking garage.

The existing office building is owned by MBI Inc. The company, according to Wegmans, plans to relocate to a different location in the city before construction starts, but has not yet said when the move will take place.

Two nearby retail buildings at 651 and 677 Connecticut Ave. will also be torn down to create a road connecting Connecticut Avenue to the stores entrance. The stores, the plans show, will then be rebuilt along the new roadway adjacent to Bowlero bowling alley.

One of the buildings slated for destruction is home to an urgent care clinic operated by DOCS Medical Group. The other houses the chain retailer LL Flooring and a showroom for Mr. Shower Door, a shower enclosure manufacturer.

Erika Foster, director of planning and implementation for DOCS Medical Group, said the health care provider is committed to continuing to offer patient care in the Norwalk area and is discussing with the landlord the companys next steps.

We will keep our patients and community updated as we know more, Foster said.

The other businesses, which share a building, have not yet announced if they plan to relocate. Representatives for the companies did not return requests for comment.

Wegmans has offered no timeline for when construction might start on the redevelopment project. Marcie Rivera, a spokesperson for the chain, has said it could take another two years before the supermarket officially opens its doors.

The proposed store must first win approval from the conservation commission because the property sits near a pair of wetlands. Among other responsibilities, the commission is charged with determining whether new developments obey local environmental regulations.

Matthew Gustafson, an environmental scientist working on the project, described the wetlands as fragmented and said their primary purpose is to drain water from the site.

We do not think there is any significant negative impact to these resources, he said. In fact, it is our position that this project will provide a net benefit.

richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com
STAMFORD  A former Norwalk police officer pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges stemming from accusations that he and a colleague were drinking and ignoring calls for service while on duty.

Michael DiMeglio, 39, appeared remotely before Judge Gary White Thursday and pleaded guilty to sixth-degree larceny and second-degree reckless endangerment as a part of a plea deal with the state.

In return for the pleas, DiMeglio received a total of $1,000 in fines.

Paul Ferencek, states attorney for the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District, said the state decided to reduce the charges against DiMeglio from second-degree larceny to sixth-degree larceny after investigators determined that loss of money to the city, which he said was hard to determine, only came out to around $200.

The reason the state has come off the larceny second-degree charge, which is theft from a municipality, is that Mr. DiMeglio has no criminal record, Ferencek added.

The guilty pleas come about two weeks after DiMeglio and his former coworker and codefendant, 32-year-old Sara Laudano, were decertified by the Police Officer Standards and Training Council following a review of the Norwalk Police Departments internal investigation. The investigation found the two officers had betrayed the public trust by consuming alcohol on the job.

By pleading guilty to a Class B misdemeanor, DiMeglio will not be allowed to recertify as a police officer in Connecticut, Ferencek said.

After Thursdays hearing, attorney Jessica Kordas, who represents DiMeglio, called the deal with the state a reasonable disposition.

Mr. DiMeglio has moved with his family out of the state, he resigned from the police department, he did not contest the ... decertification and it is unlikely with these convictions that not only will he not be able to work as an officer in this state but in any other state as well, Kordas said.

Laudano is scheduled to appear in court on April 8 and is expected to consider the same offer extended to DiMeglio.

DiMeglios guilty plea on Thursday ends more than a year-and-a-half-long ordeal that began on Oct. 9 when dispatchers couldnt locate either officer while they were supposed to be working.

Arrest warrants show a 12-hour period between Oct. 8 and 9 in which DiMeglio and Laudano, 31, are accused of drinking in their police cruisers in a Norwalk school parking lot and not responding to service calls before they were found in a hotel room together.

Laudano was accused of driving with a baby and a civilian in the cruiser after she consumed alcohol, and also using a THC vape pen, according to the warrants. She also faced a charge of risk of injury to a minor.

A department investigation was launched and both officers were placed on administrative leave.

The investigation determined their conduct went beyond department violations and criminal charges were filed.

DiMeglio and Laudano were later each charged with second-degree larceny and second-degree reckless endangerment in January 2021.

Both Laudano and DiMeglio resigned from the Norwalk Police Department on Oct. 15, 2021  nearly a month after both were denied a chance at wiping their records clean when a Stamford judge decided the allegations against them were too serious to grant them a pretrial probation program.
An Edwardsville man was charged with sexual assault after initiating sex with a sleeping woman.

Kyle E. Hickman, 42, of Edwardsville, was charged with criminal sexual assault, a Class 1 felony.

The case was presented by the Alton Police Department.

According to court documents, on March 20 Hickman allegedly attempted sexual contact with a sleeping woman who he knew was unable to give knowing consent.

Bail was set at $150,000.

Other felony charges filed March 22 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Victor L. Smith, 32, of Alton, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. According to court documents, on March 17 Smith allegedly strangled a household or family member. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Christopher J. Loyet, 44, of Marine, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony, and domestic battery (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On March 21 Loyet allegedly strangled a household or family member. He has a 2008 conviction for domestic battery out of Madison County. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Lauren E. Semanisn, 34, of Staunton, was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On March 21 Semanisin allegedly kicked a Madison County sheriffs deputy in the leg. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Brian P. Schmitz, 39, of Highland, was charged with unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Jan. 6 Schmitz allegedly had a reported stolen Smith & Wesson 22 pistol. Bail was set at $53,000.

 Darion C. Wren, 20, of Madison, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Illinois State Police. On Oct. 10 Wren allegedly had a Smith & Wesson SW9VE 9 mm handgun in a 2004 Chevrolet Impala while under 21. Bail was set at $25,000.
For Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students who are unvaccinated for COVID-19, the price they pay for missing multiple COVID tests can be severe, both academically and financially.

Kristina Carlson knows that all too well.

Carlson is the mother of David Carlson, a junior at SIUE who is majoring in criminal justice with a career goal of being a state police officer.

David Carlson, who started at SIUE in the fall of 2019, has not been vaccinated, and like other unvaccinated students at SIUE, he is required to take a weekly COVID test.

David, who is from Herrin, tested positive for COVID in August of 2020, when SIUE was holding all classes online for the fall semester.

If you miss a test, they send you an email and you have to meet virtually with (SIUE Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs) Jeffrey Waple or a hearing officer and explain why you missed it, Kristina Carlson said. Last semester, he missed three tests and this semester he had missed two tests.

He had a hearing again after he missed the first test, but after he missed the second test, they notified him that he would be suspended from all on-campus activities, including his classes. I contacted the (interim) dean of students (Terrence McTier) and he verified all of this.

Carlson noted that her son did not have a legitimate excuse for missing the tests.

Its a 21-year-old going to school and working, and it wasnt on top of his radar. He did not follow their rules, but in my mind, the rules they have set in place are extreme consequences for something thats not so extreme, Carlson said.

I asked if my son was the first student that something like this had happened to, and Dr. Waple said it has happened to multiple students this semester and last semester. I also talked to Dr. McTier and they understand the difficulty the situation puts on us, but he said they have to follow the rules. I just think (a suspension for the remainder of the semester) is a little outrageous under the circumstances.

Waple, meanwhile, feels that SIUE has done its best to make students aware of the possible consequences of missing multiple COVID tests.

Our COVID testing policy has been in place since August of 2021 and we sent multiple communications to students on their testing responsibilities, Waple said. On August 26, 2021, the governor of the State of Illinois issued an executive order requiring that all higher education students and personnel who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 must participate in weekly testing.

We had a process in the fall where after a certain number of missed tests, you were put on an interim separation from on ground activities, and you had a hearing where hearing officers specifically laid out what you needed to do to stay in compliance.

We had other students during the fall semester who failed to do that, and they were removed from on-ground courses and activities in the fall, and we have a similar process in the spring. If you missed four or fewer tests in the fall, you got a clean slate, and if you missed five or more, you started on what we call step one. That means if you have a second missed test (in the spring semester), you have a hearing, and if you have a third missed test, you would be separated from on-ground classes and activities.

Waple noted that students who were suspended during the fall semester had the opportunity to appeal the suspension in December to be reinstated for spring.

There were some students who took advantage of that, and were able to re-enroll, while others decided not to appeal at all, Waple said. Similarly, the students who are separated from on-ground classes and activities this spring will have an appeal process for the next term.

David Carlsons suspension from on-campus activities will cost his parents about $11,000 for this semester, and under the rules, that fee is not refundable.

It will also extend his college a whole semester, which means another $11,000 if he stays at SIUE. He only had a year of college left and now he has another year and a half, Kristina Carlson said.

Carlson said she has reached out via email to several Illinois politicians including Dale Fowler, Dave Severin, Mike Bost, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, asking for their support in getting SIUE to change its policy for suspending students who miss multiple COVID tests.

In the meantime, she is unsure what her sons collegiate future will hold.

I tried to get a copy of his transcript so I could see how many credits and what classes he has taken and if its possible he could transfer to another school. That way he could be closer to home, and we wouldnt have to pay living expenses, Carlson said.

Before SIUE announced his suspension, David Carlson was talking to his teachers to see if he could finish everything online for the rest of the semester. But the school told him that was not an option even if all of his teachers agreed.

He does have one online class that he was able to stay in and he had two other teachers that had agreed to work with him online, Kristina Carlson said. With the other two teachers, he hadnt even emailed to ask them yet when his classes got dropped.

Waple said that fewer students have been non-compliant during the spring semester for COVID testing than during the fall semester.

We have a temporary campus absence request form that you can fill out and that will make you exempt from having to test that specific week, Waple said.

For students like David Carlson, Waple said the issue about him not being able to switch to online instruction during the semester was that at the time of non-compliance, he was on-ground for classes.

A lot of this comes down to the students needing to take responsibility for keeping a commitment to keep our campus healthy, Waple said. Under (former chancellor) Dr. (Randy) Pembrook and under (new chancellor) Dr. (James) Minor, there has been every opportunity for students to remain in compliance.

We did give some leeway to students who had tests scheduled when we had snow days in February. I understand its a time commitment, but we moved the testing hours from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday for the spring semester. We also have testing on our East St. Louis campus and the School of Dental Medicine (in Alton).
Heights High School students work on a model bridge as part of the Engineering Alliance of America's Student Program, which pairs up volunteers and local engineers with high school classes. It is one of only 20 high schools in the country offering the program. (Contributed photo)
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That release could not be found.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has advised Nigerians to consume what they produce and export the surplus after adding value to it.

Godwin Emefiele disclosed this during the occasion of the 32nd Seminar organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria, for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors, themed, Exchange Rate Management and Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The PAVE Option, on Thursday in Akure, Ondo State capital.

The Deputy Governor of the apex bank, Corporate Services of the CBN, Mr Edward Adamu, made the disclosure virtually on behalf of Godwin Emefiele.

While delivering the keynote address, Mr Emefiele said; I am mindful that our goals may appear ambitious to some, but I am resolute and determined that we can achieve it.

Many countries that are much less endowed than Nigeria are doing it. Consider for example that agriculture exports alone from the Netherlands was about US$120 billion last year.

Yet, Netherlands has a landmass of about 42,000 square kilometres, which is much smaller than the landmass of Niger State alone at over 76,000 square kilometres.

He noted that; Produce, Add Value and Export initiative was expected to make Nigerians consume what they produce, add value to it, and even export the surplus.

Emefiele explained that the PAVE was an initiative similar to South-East Asias much referenced export-led industrialisation policy which has changed the economic advancement of countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

While adding that the initiative was designed to be the pivot for fast-tracking a bucket of substitutes to crude oil export, the Central Bank boss also urged that all hands to ensure the success of the PAVE, noting that the initiative would mitigate against future severe consequences of shocks beyond our control.

According to him; COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest crises that has faced mankind in recent history.

The pandemic impacted economies and disrupted business activities globally.

Expectedly, Nigeria, like most commodity-dependent countries, was not spared the deleterious impact of the pandemic, given our dependence on crude oil export as a major source of revenue and foreign exchange.
B14.32bn earmarked for national jab policy

BANGKOK: The government has set aside B14.32 billion for a five-year plan to ensure public health security through a national vaccine and vaccination policy to fight existing and emerging diseases as well as bioweapons.

CoronavirusCOVID-19healthVaccine

By Bangkok Post

Thursday 24 March 2022, 07:37AM

Traisuree: Jab security needed. Photo: Bangkok Post

Backed by the cabinet on Tuesday (Mar 22), the plan for building a national vaccination security policy and strategies will be implemented from next year until 2027, replacing the first plan that is due to expire this year, said deputy government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul yesterday.

Having learned from its experience with COVID-19 over the past two years, Thailand realises the importance of investing in its own national vaccination security, she said.

Comprising four main strategies, the plan requires a budget of B14.32bn over five years, she said.

The first strategy, requiring B2.88bn, deals with a system for managing the countrys inoculation in both normal and emergency situations, reports the Bangkok Post.

A total of 15 projects will be implemented, including one to stockpile vaccines for the possible outbreak of various diseases and another to develop a vaccination database equipped with big data technology.

The second strategy concerns research and development in the vaccine-making industry, which will cover 26 projects and require B9.91bn in funding, Mr Traisuree said.

Among these are an adenoviral vector platform and a viral vector platform for developing a prototype vaccine to fight emerging diseases, she said.

The third strategy concerns the development of the workforce to support national vaccination security building, which is split into 23 projects and requires B315.89 million. These projects deal with enhancing the capacity of those working in the vaccine research circle, Ms Traisuree said.

The fourth and final strategy deals with three projects aimed at improving the capacity of organisations in vaccine research and development. These projects, requiring B1.20bn in funding, are also important for protecting national security, she said. The national vaccine committee and the National Vaccine Institute will follow up the plan and evaluate it annually, she said.

The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said yesterday that 127.65 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered since Feb 28 of last year. So far, 79% of the population has received a first shot while 72.1% of those are double-vaccinated, said the CCSA.

As of Tuesday, 32.4% of the population has been administered a third booster shot.
Entry measures for domestic travellers to Phuket clarified

PHUKET: Domestic travellers coming to Phuket must be fully vaccinated or present results of either an RT-PCR or ATK (antigen test kit) test issued by an approved medical service provider confirming they are not infected with COVID-19 in order to allowed onto the island, Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew confirmed with a new provincial order issued last night (Mar 23).

COVID-19tourismVaccine

By The Phuket News

Thursday 24 March 2022, 11:43AM

The notice issued last night summarising the entry measures for domestic travellers coming to Phuket. Image: Phuket Info Center

The order, No. 2056/2565, was marked to apply to all Thai nationals and foreigners arriving from within the country.

The order rescinded previous provincial orders mandating the entry requirements for domestic travellers coming to Phuket.

The order was marked in effect from Mar 23 and to remain in effect until further notice.

Under the order, all domestic travellers must be fully vaccinated or show the results of an RT-PCR or ATK test conducted within three days of arriving to confirm they are not infected with COVID-19.

The only exemptions from the requirements are children under 5 years old travelling with parents or caregivers, persons travelling with a medical emergency vehicle, lifeguards or rescue services, and people who have recovered from COVID-19 within the previous 90 days. These people do not need to show any test or proof of vaccination in order to be allowed onto Phuket.

The requirements apply to all people arriving at any port to Phuket, including all boat transport piers, the road checkpoint at Tha Chatchai and at Phuket airport.

The order defined fully vaccinated as people who had received any of the following

Sinovac - 2 doses

Sinopharm - 2 doses

AstraZeneca - 2 doses

Pfizer - 2 doses

Moderna - 2 doses

Sputnik V - 2 doses

Johnson & Johnson - 1 dose administered at least 14 days before arriving

Crossed formula - 2 doses of any of the combinations of COVID-19 vaccines as approved by the Ministry of Public Health

People under 11 years old must have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days before arriving, or present RT-PCR or ATK test results issued in the previous three days to confirm they are not infected.

All travellers entering Phuket must download and install the Mor Prom app on their phones in order to show their vaccination history or test results.

Of note, The Phuket News has been unable to discern any difference between the entry measures for domestic travellers issued last night and the domestic entry measures that were already in effect. The new order appears to have been issued solely to ensure that the public are aware of the entry measures for domestic travellers as required by provincial order.

However, The Phuket News also understands that officials at the ports of entry to the island, especially at the checkpoint at Tha Chatchai may have been relaxed in enforcing the provisions. With the Songkran holidays approaching and the new order issued last night, that might be about to change.

The order included the standard warnings that as the order is being implemented under the Emergency Decree, parties may not exercise their right to object under Section 30 paragraph two (1) of the Administrative Practices Act B.E.

Any person who violates or fails to comply with the order may be punished under Section 51 of the Communicable Diseases Act B.E. 2558, which incurs a penalty of a fine of up to B20,000, or Section 52 of the same Act, which incurs a penalty of up to one year in jail or a fine of up to B100,000, or both.

Violators may also be punished under Section 18 of the Royal Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations, which incurs a penalty of up to two years in jail or a fine of up to B40,000, or both.
TAT Phuket chief touts B51bn in tourism revenues as arrivals stall

PHUKET: Nanthasiri Ronnasiri, Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office, has announced that Phuket has benefitted from more than 400,000 tourists generating B51 billion for the economy since July 1 last year.

COVID-19tourismeconomics

By The Phuket News

Thursday 24 March 2022, 02:34PM

Ms Nanthasiri announced the news during a live interview broadcast alongside Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew yesterday (Mar 23).

When tourists come, they create employment and business turnover at all levels. Even merchants, small vendors and villagers earn their income from tourism. More than 51 billion baht in the Phuket economy has been circulating, she said.

There were about 140,000 rooms [hotel and guest accommodation] before the COVID-19 outbreak, now more than 70,000 rooms are open, she added.

However, only last month did Ms Nanthasiri report that from July 1, 2021 to Feb 21, 2022 that the true spending by Sandbox and Test & Go tourists was B18bn.

Only after a multiplier effect had been applied did the government recognise that B43bn had been generated for the economy, she admitted.

During the 215 days from July 1, 2021 to Feb 21, 2022, a total of 331,365 tourists had arrived in Phuket, she said.

Following her report yesterday, and according to the Phuket Reopening Daily Report issued by the TAT, some 72,820 tourists had arrived in Phuket during the past month, reportedly generating B8bn for the economy.

However, using the same multiplier effect, the true spending of the 72,820 tourists was B3.361bn. That figure gives an average spending per tourist of B46,159 during their stay in Phuket.

Ms Nanthasiri also did not report how many of those tourists had been ordered into quarantine during the holiday in Phuket, which would determine where a large portion of the spending by tourists is being done.

According to daily reports by the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), in the past month a total of 1,239 international tourist arrivals have been ordered into quarantine after landing in Phuket, comprising 483 Sandbox tourists and 756 Test & Go tourists

Phuket officials do not report how many tourists are ordered into quarantine for being deemed high risk contacts.

Meanwhile, not recognised by Ms Nanthasiri in her announcement yesterday was the plunging number of tourist arrivals. During the past few months, the number of international arrivals landing in Phuket each day has averaged just over 3,000.

The number of international arrivals at Phuket airport yesterday (Mar 23) totalled 2,005.

On Tuesday the number of international arrivals landing in Phuket totalled was down to 1,893 for the day.
Thailand and China to boost cooperation on news and mass media

BANGKOK: Thailands Public Relations Department (PRD) and Chinas Xinhua News Agency are working to enhance their cooperation on news and mass media, with the aim of fostering connectivity between the peoples of both nations.

ChineseCoronavirusCOVID-19tourism

By National News Bureau of Thailand

Thursday 24 March 2022, 03:21PM

Photo: NNT

PRD and Xinhua News Agency officials recently met during a technical committee meeting chaired by PRD Deputy Director-General Sudruethai Lertkasem, with Xinhuas Bangkok bureau head, Lin Hao, representing the Chinese news agency, reports NNT.

The meeting started with a message of condolence for families of the victims of the China Easterns Boeing 737 aircraft that crashed in China.

The deputy PRD chief said the meeting served as a platform for both sides to review their achievements over the past year, as well as discuss future content to help promote better understanding and relations.

Sudruethai also asked Xinhua to help report on the preparedness and capabilities of Thailand to host Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings this year.

Additionally, the meeting discussed extending a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) established between the PRD and Xinhua News Agency, which governs their ongoing cooperation.

The meeting also discussed Thailands handling of the COVID-19 situation and in reopening the Kingdom to tourists.

The signing of an MOU on agreed topics between the PRD and Xinhua will be held at the next official meeting.

PRD Deputy Director-General Sudruethai later provided an overview of the meeting that focused on cooperation between members of the press from both countries, as well as the promotion of APEC affairs.
Have you ever thought you sounded like Johnny Cash, only to discover you were Pee-Wee Herman? I had a serious wake-up call like that when I was preparing to give a talk. Public speaking is hard enough, but its a true ordeal when you hear yourself.

You see, I suffered a psychological reaction known as voice confrontation, which has nothing to do with getting into a screaming match over gas prices.

Let me confess there are many things I dont like about myself, but Ive always been happy with my voice  or at least what I thought was my voice. I thought I sounded like that British intellectual Alistair Cooke, who hosted Masterpiece Theatre for about a century. Or that Hollywood cowboy Sam Elliott, whose voice is so deep it causes your ear drums to throb.

My fantasy came crashing down when I had heard a recording of what I actually sound like  which bears a close resemblance to Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, singing falsetto on Stayin Alive. You remember how he hit those high notes, as if his underpants were too tight? Ah ha ha ha stayin ALIIIIIVE!

Quite simply, when it comes to your voice, youre not who you think you are. Some of my students also experienced a voice confrontation after I recorded my public speaking class, and they listened to their presentations.

Do I really sound like that? I dont like it, one said. Yes, its you. Not an imposter.

Since 1966 when voice confrontation was identified by two psychologists, studies have shown people are shocked to hear their voices are actually higher, largely because our skulls and sinuses and ear wax  and whatever else is in our heads  play tricks on us and alter what we hear coming out of our mouths.

My recorded voice reminded me of when I was 11 and on the threshold of puberty. I had the squeaky voice of an awkward adolescent, struggling to sing Frere Jacques in music class. Back then, my voice cracked so bad that the teacher pulled me out of the choir and said, Just shut up and move your lips and pretend youre singing.

Ive been doing that for 50 years. In fact, Ive mastered the technique so well I could win an international karaoke competition, lip syncing Frankie Valli singing Big Girls Dont Cry.

Is this what my wife, my kids, my dog, and my students have been hearing all these years? How do they put up with it?

After these experiences, I vowed never to talk again ... at least until a cure is discovered. In the meantime, Im training to become a baritone like Morgan Freeman. Ill speak from my diaphragm or whatever that thing is where deep notes come from, and the next time you hear me, youll think youre talking to Darth Vader in Star Wars (aka James Earl Jones) or the wizard Gandalf in Lord of the Rings (aka Sir Ian McKellen).

Can you imagine how devastating this experience must be for celebrities? I can picture Mick Jagger, driving through the English countryside in his Aston Martin DB6 with his 35-year-old girlfriend, when Satisfaction comes on the radio. I bet he starts to perspire and suffers an anxiety attack. Whos that singing? he asks her.

You, Mick! Thats you!

I tell ya thats not me! Thats ... thats Tiny Tim!

We mere mortals arent the only ones with voice issues. Abraham Lincoln, our president during Americas darkest hour, was a somber and towering figure at 6-foot-4 with a full beard. To look at him, youd think he had a deep, bellowing voice. He didnt.

Historians say it was high-pitched and reedy, shrill and sharp. Horace White, a journalist who covered Lincoln, said his voice was a thin tenor, or rather falsetto, voice almost as high-pitched as a boatswains whistle. Of course, Lincoln never had to listen to a recording of himself ... and he never had a chance to sing with The Bee Gees.

Nevertheless, his message was eloquent and powerful. Observers said his voice had much carrying power that could be heard a long distance in spite of the bustle and tumult of the crowd.

A century later, one of historys most famous baritone orators, Martin Luther King Jr., stood in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial and gave a thunderous speech to 250,000 people at the March on Washington, when he told them, I have a dream. It was a speech that has touched the hearts of millions, and a voice that will echo throughout history.

(To listen to his I Have a Dream speech, go to https://youtu.be/vP4iY1TtS3s)

Former Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time Editor Joe Pisani can be reached at joefpisani@yahoo.com.
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.
After a prolonged cold snap in January and a roller coaster February, roads are in brutal condition across the Montreal region. Massive potholes and sinkholes have damaged numerous cars and caused several accidents. Crews have been filling them, but new ones appear just as quickly. You can blame it on the fierce freeze and thaw cycle over the last few weeks, along with deep frost this year and steady precipitation over the last 10 days. Since March 1st, over 80mm of rain and snow have fallen at Trudeau Airport.
Laval_news

Laval gives high marks for Quebec budget

On support for community orgs: This helping hand is excellent news for Laval community organizations, which do essential work on the ground. This aid is in perfect harmony with the orientations of our administration.

The Quebec budget got high marks all around from the Mayor of Laval Tuesday. Stephane Boyer welcomed the 2022-2023 budget with investments that correspond to municipal priorities.

Social housing is a major file for the new mayor, and the investment of $347 million for housing will make it possible to deliver a hundred new affordable housing units in Laval, while the $52.3 million for renovation of low-cost housing will contribute to the rehabilitation of Lavals aging low-rent housing stock.

Todays announcement is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go in order to sustainably improve the housing conditions of Laval residents, particularly in the context of the scarcity of available housing and the increase rents says Boyer. The housing crisis requires innovative solutions; we must think outside the box. This is why the Mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, and I will be holding a housing summit next August in collaboration with the Union des municipalites de Quebec and the Communaute metropolitaine de Montreal. 

As the impacts of the pandemic on public transit network ridership are still being felt, the Boyer administration is particularly enthusiastic about the additional support of $393 million from the governments of Quebec and Canada to support public transit agencies

The governments investment of some $888 million over 5 years to improve support for the overall mission of community organizations in several sectors is also good news for the city which made increased support for community organizations an item on its budget wish list. This helping hand is excellent news for Laval community organizations, which do essential work on the ground. This aid is in perfect harmony with the orientations of our administration.

Boyer also lauded the additional spending to fight climate change and accelerate Quebecs transition to a lower carbon economy, injections of additional amounts for the cultural sector, cash for the bio-food sector and investments in increasing the productivity of the economy in this post-pandemic era.
WOOD RIVER Equipment upgrades to Madison Countys 911 call centers will take longer than necessary because AT&T has fallen behind.

At Wednesdays Emergency Telephone System Board meeting, Madison County 911 Director Dana Burris said the installation of the new equipment which has been in the works for more than a year and had been delayed because of supply chain issues  has fallen slightly behind because of delays by the phone company in circuit testing.

Last month Burris said most of the work would be done by June 1. On Wednesday ETSB Chair Joe Petrokovich said it looks like it will be late summer before the project is completed.

The county currently has 15 call centers called Public Service Answering Points or PSAPs. The plan is to upgrade eight of those.

The county is currently in a legal battle over its 911 consolidation, which requires it to cut the number of PSAPs roughly in half.

The PSAPs included in the upgrade are the ones that are expected to remain in service.

The ETSB on Wednesday also approved a resolution to spend $183,151.57 for the annual maintenance agreement for its New World Computer Aided Dispatching system and training contract.

There is a slight increase this year because of the addition of some training costs to the contract.

Following a closed session that last more than an hour, the board on Wednesday also approved revising a specialists job description. The board approved both the description and an audit of the job, and referring both to the countys Personnel and Labor Relations Committee for further action.

A new ETSB member, South Roxana Police Chief Bob Coles, was also welcomed to the board.
TAYLORVILLE  An Illinois congressman has signed on as a co-sponsor of legislation that would require providers to follow notification laws in a minor's resident state when the minor travels to another state for an abortion.

Illinois recently repealed its notification law, which required the parents of a minor be informed their child was seeking an abortion. Notification will not be required after June 1.

About 1,180 of the 46,243 abortions performed in Illinois in 2020 were for girls 17 and under  1,092 age 15 to 17 and 88 under 15 years old, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That number was down from 1,343 for the same age group the year prior.

Restrictions in neighboring states, particularly Missouri, have raised the expectation that more women will travel to Illinois for abortions. State health department statistics show increases in the total number of women from other states having abortions in Illinois: the most significant increases were 6,578 from Missouri in 2020 compared to 4,494 in 2019; 531 from Wisconsin, up from 495 the year before; and Kentucky, which rose to 142 in 2020 compared to 99 the prior year.

While the federal legislation  H.R. 2223, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act  would apply only to minors, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said the repeal of notification was "far outside the mainstream" of most states.

The extreme abortion expansion laws pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Democrats are a disgrace, Davis said. "I am proudly pro-life and strongly support the rights of parents to be involved in their childrens lives. This legislation Im supporting would make sure that when a minor crosses state lines into Illinois to receive an abortion, their home states parental involvement in abortion laws are upheld."

He said it would be a "small step we can take to protect life and ensure parents can be there for their children during an incredibly difficult moment in their life.

Pritzker signed legislation in 2019 making abortion a "fundamental right" in Illinois, repealing restrictions on late-term abortion, and expanding taxpayer funding of abortion.
EDWARDSVILLE  The Illinois Small Business Development Center's International Trade Center (ITC) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is gearing up for the return of in-person trade missions.

The 2022 Southern Illinois Trade Mission to Mexico planned June 13-17 in Mexico City will be the centers first in-person trade mission since 2019.

The business community has expressed interested in traveling this year, ITC Director Silvia Torres Bowman said. The virtual aspect of connecting our clients with trade partners in other countries has been beneficial, but only up to a certain point.

Especially with Latin American markets, the personal connections are crucial," she said. "Traveling in-person is so important and adding the element of relieving much of the cost for our businesses is fantastic.

Only three spots are available to local businesses for the trade mission, and they will be filled in on a first-come, first-served basis.

Thanks to funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, the trade center will pay 100% of the matchmaking costs between local clients and Mexican businesses.

Matchmaking, which usually costs an average of $800 to $900 a day, includes two to three days of customized, pre-arranged one-on-one appointments with prospective buyers, distributors and/or partners. Also included is a personal driver and interpreter, detailed information on prospective business partners and a networking event with Mexico City businesses.

For the entire trade mission, thats $3,500 to $4,000 in terms of the savings for the three businesses that participate in this exciting opportunity, Torres Bowman said.

The trade mission also features pre-trip briefings, an in-country briefing by a Mexican representative, follow-up assistance and preferential hotel rates.

The cost for each participant includes a $150 sign-up fee plus airfare, lodging and meals, but an additional discount is being offered.

Up to $7,500 in Illinois State Trade Export Promotion (ISTEP) funding is available for reimbursement to eligible small businesses to offset from 50 to 75% of travel costs (air/lodging). For complete details regarding eligibility and how to apply, visit https://www.siue.edu/business/itc/istep/index.shtml.

Its a total win-win for our local businesses. I tell them that an opportunity like this might not come again, Torres Bowman said.

For the past two years, Torres Bowman has been trying to overcome the challenges of COVID and continue to engage her clients within the world of commerce and foreign trade. That has included virtual meetings in a variety of formats.

We did a virtual trade mission to South America, which started in mid-September and ran through mid-November, she said. We utilized Zoom and our clients met virtually with potential distributors from Peru, Colombia and Chile.

The response was very positive," she said. "We did some follow-up work in December in January and its still a work in progress.

David Kniepkamp, President of Smart Controls in Fairview Heights, was among the participants in the virtual trade mission.

The opportunity to meet, collaborate and share information and experiences with new professional colleagues was the pinnacle highlight of the virtual trade mission. To establish contact and dialogue with clients and get an opportunity to see and share their needs and desires is an experience of a lifetime, Kniepkamp said.

Pure and simple, the opportunity to participate in a trade mission of this magnitude would not have been possible without the help, support and vision of Silvia Torres Bowman at the International Trade Center at SIUE. Her dedication and insight to select the team at BusinessHub Consultants to spearhead the research and effort to make the virtual meetings a success only confirms the professional attention that is always received at the International Trade Center at SIUE.

Torres Bowman also made a solo trip to Peru in November 2021 to test the waters for a possible in-person trade mission to South America this year.

I took my chances in the midst of the pandemic because we have small businesses who rely on us and trust their hopes with us and the trade center, said Torres Bowman, who is from Peru and has numerous contacts there. You have a sense of responsibility and youre committed to them.

We had already two previous trade missions to Peru, one in 2009 and the other in 2019," she said. "We planned to have a third trade mission to Peru and Chile in 2020, but that was when the pandemic hit, and we couldnt do it. In November 2021, I wanted to meet with our trade partners and see what the conditions were to see if we could do something in 2022.

Torres Bowman said her meetings with partners in Peru were positive but nearly all were in public settings, such as restaurants, because people were working from home.

Everybody was wearing masks and things were very restricted. But they were all very accommodating to me being there and visiting with them, Torres Bowman said. Even though they were open to the possibility of doing something this year, I realized that the uncertainties were too many for us to put something together for this year.

With that in mind, Torres turned her focus to Mexico with the goal of setting up an in-person trade mission.

The June mission will be supported by the Illinois Office of Trade and Investment through the trade centers longtime partner Omar Mendoza, Managing Director of the Illinois Office in Mexico City, as well as local private consulting firms.

With Mexico, the situation was going to be much different, Torres Bowman said. For one, on the week of June 13, the state of Illinois was already going to be at a trade show in Mexico City called Expo Pack.

There was already recruitment going on with a group of Illinois businesses to travel there. We felt that if we could recruit some businesses from our area to go there, they could benefit from that.

Mexico is the second-largest goods export market for the U.S. and Illinois, the second-largest economy in Latin America and the 15th-largest in the world. About $700 billion in traded goods and services cross the U.S.-Mexico border every year.

With a population of 20 million, Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the hemisphere and the world.

Especially in the last couple of years with the pandemic, the government has been emphasizing woman-owned businesses, businesses in rural communities and minority- and veteran-owned businesses. I invite those groups to take this opportunity under consideration, Torres Bowman said.

The deadline to register for the trade mission is April 15. Contact Torres Bowman at sitorre@siue.edu.
ALTON  The Illinois Commerce Commission's five-year Crossing Safety Improvement Program includes work on about 50 railroad crossings in Madison, Macoupin and Greene counties.

For Fiscal Years 2023-2027, the ICC is expected to spend $386 million dollars from the Grade Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) to assist local communities and railroads pay for improvements at nearly 879 crossing locations statewide. The plan includes Rebuild Illinois capital program funds for the installation of grade crossing protection or grade separations not limited to local routes or other restrictions.

With Illinois status as the transportation hub of the nation, ensuring our infrastructure is as safe as it is strong is my top priority, said Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Our Rebuild Illinois plan is an investment in a safer Illinois, including at and around the rail crossings that crisscross our state."

The report includes projects at 25 crossings in Madison County, 14 in Greene County and 10 in Macoupin County.

Between 2016 and 2021, Madison County reported train-vehicle collisions at six public crossings and four private crossings. Macoupin County reported collisions at two public crossings and one private crossing.

The projects included in this plan are reflective of the ICCs priorities to address crossings with a high collision history, to improve pedestrian access at public highway rail locations and upgrade remote monitoring and automatic warning devices to improve safety and assist with the flow of people and goods on our railways and highways, said ICC Chairman Carrie Zalewski.

The projects are prioritized based upon several criteria, including the relative safety of the existing crossing, volume and types of existing train and highway traffic. After each potential project is prioritized based on engineering requirements, geographic location is also considered to ensure projects are awarded across the state as equitably as possible.

Among the projects included are grade separation projects in various communities across Illinois to keep pedestrians, bicyclists, and commuters away and safe from railroad tracks. The plan also furthers the ICCs ongoing commitment to expanding the use of advanced remote monitoring systems to better promote track safety and upgrade active warning devices and corridors in rural and urban communities across Illinois.

Illinois is second only to Texas in the total number of highway-rail crossings. Illinois has 7,550 public highway-rail grade crossings, of which 746 are on state roads and 6,804 are on local roads. There are 2,670 public highway-rail grade-separated crossings (bridges) in the state.

Illinois rail network is operated by 91 railroads or industries providing rail service to ports and industrial facilities.

In 2021, preliminary statistics indicate there were 104 collisions at public highway-rail crossings in Illinois, compared to 83 in 2020, a 25.3 percent increase. Fatalities resulting from collisions at highway-rail crossings in Illinois increased from 16 in 2020 to 22 in 2021.
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IVY GOODMAN, Stonington, Girls, Lacrosse, Senior; Goodman scored 12 goals and had 13 assists in three games. Her seven assists in the Bears win over Waterford established a school record. She surpassed the 50-goal mark for the season in Stoningtons victory over Ledyard.

DEAN PONS JR., Westerly, Baseball, Senior; Pons, a senior, struck out 14 batters in the Bulldogs five-inning win against Wheeler School/Rocky Hill. Pons had an assist on the remaining out, throwing out a runner on a groundout. Pons allowed just one hit and walked only two.

KATIE PIERCE, Wheeler, Girls, Lacrosse, Sophomore; Pierce scored five goals and the Lions beat Griswold to earn their first victory of the season. Wheeler avenged an earlier loss to the Wolverines this season with the 15-4 victory.

WEEKO THOMPSON, Chariho, Girls, Track Sophomore; Thompson, a sophomore, bettered her school record in the discus at the Classical Classic meet. She finished first in the event and also won the shot put.

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Port Allen, LA (70767)

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A mix of clouds and sun. High 87F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

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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 
Tillamook, OR (97141)

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Cumberland, MD (21502)

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editor's pick

BARRE TOWN

Appointed constable question to be decided by voters

BARRE TOWN  Residents will vote on two charter changes during the annual vote in May, one asking whether the constable position should be appointed instead of elected and the other looking to clean up some language from a prior charter change.

And there will be an in-person town meeting this year.

During a meeting last month, the Select Board discussed changing the constable position from elected to appointed. The current constable, Dave Freeman, had planned to retire and wasnt going to seek reelection. Members of the board expressed concern about a less-qualified person running for the position. Freeman had certification to serve as a law enforcement officer and had worked as a per diem police officer in town. He resigned from the police department last summer and let his certification expire in December.

The board had initially considered doing away with the constable entirely since the town has a full-time police department and does not need the position for law enforcement. But Freeman convinced board members to keep the position because he said it can still be an asset for the town when needed.

Freeman told the board he would run for the position one more time to alleviate any concerns about a less-qualified person becoming constable before the position could be altered, though he would not have the ability to do much without law enforcement certification.

The board asked the towns attorney, Mike Monte, to write up the language necessary for a charter change to turn the position from elected to appointed. Board members discussed that language at Tuesdays regular meeting.

If approved by voters in May, the constable would become a one-year appointed position. The language states the board may prohibit the constable from exercising any law enforcement authority. Board Chair Paul White asked how the town would go about doing that.

Town Manager Carl Rogers said the town could lay out what the constable is responsible for in the job description or in a signed agreement between the town and the appointed constable, whoever that may be. Since the position will be appointed annually, Rogers said the town could change the constables duties based on who would be holding the position and whether they have law enforcement certification.

In 2020, voters approved a charter change eliminating elected listers. The town has been using appointed assessors for years. A second charter change residents will be asked to vote on in May seeks to clean up the charter by removing listers from the record of elected officers and removing the lister section from the charter entirely. The change also adds a line to the assessor role stating an assessor shall perform all of the duties and have all of the powers prescribed for listers under the laws of Vermont.

The board voted unanimously to approve adding the two charter change questions to the ballot.

The conversation then turned to holding an in-person meeting. The town has traditionally held an in-person meeting on the Wednesday night prior to the annual vote by Australian ballot the second Tuesday in May. Those meetings didnt take place for the past two years because of the pandemic.

There isnt much business decided at the meetings, with residents voting on items such as the tax payment schedule and allowing the town to sell real estate, and the same small group of residents usually attends. Board members had floated the idea of doing away with the in-person meeting since it doesnt appear to serve much of a purpose anymore. Rogers noted that meeting is typically when the town announces the winner of the Wendell F. Pelkey Citizenship & Service Award.

Board member Norma Malone also noted the towns charter specifically states this meeting must be held unless the voters have decided otherwise.

White said without such a vote nor an emergency order allowing the town to conduct business differently, guess were having a town meeting on Wednesday, May 4.

The meeting will take place at the town office.

eric.blaisdell @timesargus.com
Barre, VT (05641)

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Princeton, KY (42445)

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Partly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms possible. A few storms may be severe. High near 75F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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US President Joe Biden has said NATO would respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin used a chemical weapon during his invasion of Ukraine.

We will respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use, Biden said after a NATO summit in Brussels.

He added Putin had failed to divide the West and that NATO has never, never been more united than it is today.

B departing for Europe on Wednesday, Biden had said that the possibility of a chemical attack was a real threat.

SOURCE: AGENCIES
Russia accused Poland on Thursday of trying to destroy bilateral relations by expelling 45 of its diplomats, and said it would respond harshly.

The Russian ambassador said Poland, which said on Wednesday it was expelling the diplomats on suspicion of working for Russian intelligence, had also blocked the embassys bank accounts.

The Russian foreign ministry said the expulsions were a conscious step towards the final destruction of bilateral relations, the dismantling of which our Polish partners have been systematically carrying out for a long time.

It added: Russia will not leave this hostile attack without a response, which will make Polish provocateurs think and will hurt them.

Relations between Russia and Central European countries that once formed part of its sphere of influence have long been fraught but the Ukraine conflict has significantly increased fear and suspicion of Moscows intentions.

Russia on Wednesday condemned what it called a reckless proposal by NATO member Poland that armed international peacekeepers should be sent into Ukraine.

Russian ambassador to Warsaw Sergey Andreev said the embassys bank accounts had been blocked on the basis that they could be used for money-laundering or terrorist finance.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: I can only say in general terms that we have been dealing with the freezing of funds of the Russian Federation.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Russias forces in Ukraine appear to be turning to a war of attrition with devastating effect on civilians, after failing to secure hoped-for swift gains when President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion one month ago.

The US government says recent days have brought more intense aerial and naval bombardment as Ukrainian resistance holds up the invaders advance on land.

Attacking forces remain 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to the north-west and 30 kilometres away to the east, able only to bombard it from a distance.

While US President Joe Biden has said Putins back is against the wall in Ukraine, US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby told CNN Tuesday that Ukrainian forces were now even going after Russians who were losing morale as food and fuel run out.

Capturing Kyiv had appeared the Russians top target as they entered the country on February 24, hoping to topple President Volodymyr Zelenskys administration.

But despite mobilising a force of between 150,000 and 200,000 troops, Moscow failed to anticipate anything other than weak resistance  likely owing to Russian intelligence failures  and made sloppy logistical preparations.

Even now, Russia does not have complete control of the skies over Ukraine, complicating their entire offensive.

The Russian lack a real command and control policy, a former top French military officer told AFP, pointing to lack of coordination between ground and air forces and the strikes lack of precision.

 Siege warfare 

The number of soldiers killed cannot be verified, although the Pentagon estimates as many as 7,000 Russian dead in the first month according to the New York Times.

That would amount to more losses than the US suffered in the years-long occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Putins offensive is stuck despite all the destruction that it is bringing day after day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday.

For its part, Kyiv acknowledged 1,300 troops killed in action on March 12  likely well below the real figure according to observers.

With their forces bogged down, the Russians have transformed their offensive into a string of sieges apparently aimed at wearing down and demoralising the Ukrainian population.

Around 10 million people have left their homes, while the UN human rights chief says almost 3.6 million have quit the country.

The more the Russian infantry struggles, the higher the army climbs up the scale of brutality and the disproportionate use of air power, a European source close to NATO told AFP.

Putin needs a deal, so he needs victories.

Throughout the one-month offensive, Russia has only captured one major urban centre  Kherson in south Ukraine. Mariupol to the east remains subjected to a siege that has caused international outrage.

Uncaptured northern cities like Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest urban centre, are under constant bombardment, while pressure is also growing on those in the south and east.

Mykolaiv, which blocks the way along the Black Sea coast towards Odessa, is also under artillery fire.

 Devastation 

But Russia has yet to put much emphasis on diplomatic efforts and analysts warn that even if a ceasefire were agreed it could just allow Moscow to buy time and rebuild its forces.

More than 200,000 people are stuck in Mariupol, reduced in large part to corpse-strewn ruins and cut off from necessities like food, water, electricity and heat.

Russias determination to capture the port city is in proportion to its strategic worth, potentially linking annexed Crimea by land with the pro-Russian separatist territories of the Donbas.

A firmer grasp on Ukraines east could ultimately allow the invaders to encircle the Ukrainian defenders fighting there.

The next chapter in this war could prove even uglier as it will likely turn into a war of attrition, with greater bombardment of civilian areas, Michael Kofman of the US-based CNA think-tank wrote on Twitter.

Russian forces will probably try to compensate for poor performance by inflicting greater destruction.

If no negotiated settlement arrives, attrition war is the most likely path, William Alberque of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told AFP.

He warned against pushing Kyiv into accepting a ceasefire at any cost.

The worst is, (Westerners) desire to stop the suffering of Ukrainian people could help the Russians. They rely on our desire to see peace as an opportunity, Alberque said.

They are going to use a ceasefire to build up forces, he warned.

SOURCE: AFP
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University at Albany Russian studies professor Nadieszda Kizenkos father was a Ukrainian-born Russian Orthodox priest who fled Russia in 1943. By that time, historians estimate Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had executed more than 5,000 Russian Orthodox priests and bishops. Her father enrolled in the seminary in Jordanville, Herkimer County, adjacent to a beautiful cathedral topped by glittering onion domes and surrounded by farm fields. He and his daughter were members of the Russian Church Outside of Russia. They remained members after 2007, when ROCOR accepted the Moscow patriarch as spiritual leader.

Kizenkos roots deepened her understanding of the strange path that led Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill to being President Vladimir Putins loyal supporter. In a Forgiveness Day speech during Lent, Kirill supported the war on Ukraine launched by the government that once brutalized his faithful and praised Putin as Ukraines savior.

Kizenkos father devotedly cared for his New Jersey ROCOR church until his death in 2010.

But now his daughter sees Putins unprovoked Ukraine invasion and bombing of homes, schools and hospitals. She and some Capital Region ROCOR faithful wonder if they must leave the church they love if their leaders wont denounce Putins war.

For us, looking at the evil that is happening, the question is, what does it mean to be a Christian? Kizenko says.

Path to Putin

Kizenko is dismayed by silence from ROCOR leaders and what she calls their namby-pamby responses to Ukraines tragedy. On Feb. 24, the ROCOR bishop Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, issued a pastoral letter urging congregants to refrain from excessive watching of television, following the newspapers and the internet, to close our hearts to the passions ignited by mass media, while doubling our fervent prayers for peace throughout the world.

Holy Trinity Monastery near her fathers alma mater posts messages like that from ROCOR leaders on its website. After an email and several calls requesting an interview, a senior priest who identified himself as Sergei Kotar told the Times Union Tuesday that the Jordanville Russian Orthodox monastery and seminary leaders decided against giving any interviews because "the media is hostile toward Russians" and Americans, in general, had been anti-Russian since the 1950s Cold War.

So, how did a church that was defiant toward and relentlessly persecuted by early Soviet leaders come to trust Putin?

The path starts in World War II. Stalin realized he needed the Russian Orthodox church to win the war. He wanted to convince Russians that World War II was a sacred war that they must fight. Historians have documented Stalins negotiations with Orthodox leaders; he agreed to scale back persecution and allow a seminary to open. In exchange, he wanted priests and bishops to share information with the NVKD, his brutal secret police.

University of Cambridge historian Christopher Andrew and Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin, the KGBs senior archivist before he defected to Britain, describe in their book, The Mitrokhin Archive," how priests, bishops and patriarchs were recruited to spy on congregants, support Soviet policies and share information with the secret police.

In the 1990s, ROCOR leaders told the church in Russia conditions that had to be met before ROCOR would recognize Moscows Patriarchate as head. ROCOR reattached itself to the Moscow Patriarchate in 2007. Some members angrily left ROCOR.

After the USSR splintered, classified KGB documents were released from Estonia to the Western press detailing how bishops and one the church's patriarchs acted as KGB spies. Church leadership in Moscow denounced the documents as fake.

But the sight of Russian high-ranking religious officials blessing bomber jets and tanks with holy water has been disconcerting to some of the faithful. Recently, a Moscow cathedral dedicated to Putins military opened. It had a mural depicting Putin as a Jesus-like savior that was reportedly removed after protests.

The church in Russia never had a housecleaning to get rid of KGB collaborators, Kizenko says, adding that many ROCOR faithful were realists, resigned to the reality that Russias religious leaders felt there were compromises they had to make to keep the church alive. And now there are great numbers of bishops who owe their careers to Putins government. They loved thinking of themselves as players with the big boys.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

I cant imagine Putin or (Moscow-based Russian Orthodox leader) Patriarch Kirill having a road to Damascus moment of truth at this point, she said.

Putin, Kirill bond

Kirill describes Putins leadership as a miracle of God. As Kizenko observes, they agree on a lot, especially gay marriage and LGBTQ rights. In his recent Forgiveness Day sermon, Kirill praised Putin as a savior rescuing Ukraine from decadence such as LGBTQ pride parades.

Such views mesh perfectly with those of Putin, who signed a 2015 law much like Floridas dont say gay bill. The Russian law banned gay propaganda which included LGBTQ parades and information designed to answer schoolchildren's questions about homosexuality. Putin vowed in his 2020 state of Russia speech that gay marriage will never be legal while hes in control.

Kizenko notes that the Ukrainian maternity hospital bombed by Russian forces cares for surrogate mothers whose babies will be adopted, some by gay men.

University of Munster Russian and Ukraine religious history professor Thomas Bremer is Kizenkos husband. During the Yugoslav wars, he helped reconciliation initiatives between bitterly divided religious groups.

Bremer doesn't see an eagerness among Russians for a holy war. The Russian people arent yearning for an apocalypse, he said.
The 94th Academy Awards on Sunday will for the first time have three hosts  Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes  who will each be hosting for the first time, too.

It will be quite a crowd compared to the past three years that the show has run without an emcee. For local viewers, the Oscars will be even more notable knowing that two of the women have new, Hudson Valley-filmed projects now streaming: Schumers new Hulu series Life & Beth, was filmed in Dutchess and Putnam counties, and Halls Amazon Studios movie, Master, was shot at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.

Coincidence? Maybe. Its also a sign of the uptick in filming in the region. Last year a record $57 million was generated by the Hudson Valley TV and film industry, the highest amount since the Hudson Valley Film Commission began collecting data in 2008.

Laurent Rejto, the commissions director, has a few theories as to why the Hudson Valley has become such a popular film location. Along with a high number of trained film professionals who live in the area, There are very few locations that we cannot match or find.

Here are 10 notable, Academy Award-nominated films that were shot in the region.

Tootsie (1982)

10 Oscar nominations:

Best Picture

Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman)

Best Supporting Actress (winner  Jessica Lange, Teri Garr)

Best Director (Sydney Pollack)

Best Original Screenplay (Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, Don McGuire)

Best Cinematography (Owen Roizman)

Best Sound (Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Rick Alexander, Les Lazarowitz)

Best Film Editing (Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp)

Best Original Song (It Might Be You by Dave Grusin, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman)

A young Dustin Hoffman plays an actor who cant get a call back until he cross-dresses for a role. His career as a female character takes off, but when he falls in love with a fellow actress (Jessica Lange), things get complicated. The film features a few scenes with Hoffman, Lange and Charles Denning primarily filmed at the Hurley Mountain Inn, Wynkoop House and a few other locations in Hurley. Dustin Hoffman didnt win the Oscar but he did win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Best Actor.

Michael Clayton (2007)

7 Oscar nominations:

Best Picture

Best Director (Tony Gilroy)

Best Actor (George Clooney)

Best Supporting Actress (winner  Tilda Swinton)

Best Supporting Actor (Tom Wilkinson)

Best Original Screenplay (Tony Gilroy)

Best Original Score (James Newton Howard)

A law firms star litigator breaks down on a high-profile case against an agrochemicals company facing a class-action lawsuit, and George Clooney is the fixer they send to clean up the mess. The film was partly filmed in Orange Countys Blooming Grove and Cornwall. Tilda Swinton, who plays the lead counsel for the evil chemical company, won Best Supporting Actress.

War of the Worlds (2005)

3 Oscar nominations:

Best Sound Editing (Richard King)

Best Sound Mixing (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Ron Judkins)

Best Visual Effects (Dennis Muren, Pablo Helman, Randam M. Dutra, Daniel Sudick)

Remember when Tom Cruise lost his mind and jumped on Oprahs couch to announce he was in love with Katie Holmes? He was there to promote the Steven Spielberg film he was in, War of the Worlds. Beacon and Cold Spring are among the Hudson Valley backdrops in this classic remake, but Athens is the star of the infamous ferry scene, pictured at top, where Cruise leads his family toward a boat to safety and all hell breaks loose as the throngs take flight down Main Street.

Splendor in the Grass (1961)

2 Oscar nominations:

Best Actress (Natalie Wood)

Best Original Screenplay (winner  William Inge)

Warren Beatty makes his film debut in this classic by Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) about a rich boy, Bud (Beatty), and poor girl, Deanie (Natalie Wood), who fall in love despite their parents differing wishes for their future. Its set in Depression-era Kansas, with some scenes filmed in High Falls at Kazans summer house.

Nobodys Fool (1994)

2 Oscar nominations:

Best Actor (Paul Newman)

Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Benton)

A heavy-drinking gambler played by Paul Newman skirts responsibility his whole life, until his long-estranged son and grandson enter the picture and force him to grow up (though not before he punches a cop played by a young Philip Seymour Hoffman). Set in a fictional town in upstate New York, it's primarily shot in Beacon, with other Dutchess and Columbia county filming locations that include the old Saint Frances Hospital in Poughkeepsie (now the MidHudson Regional Hospital), and a diner in Hudson that became Grazin on Warren Street.

You Can Count on Me (2001)

2 Oscar nominations:

Best Actress (Laura Linney)

Best Original Screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan)

The directorial debut of Kenneth Lonergan (Gangs of New York, Manchester by the Sea) follows a single mom (Laura Linney) raising her son in the Catskills home she grew up in, which  fun fact  is now the Roxbury home of director Roger Ross Williams. Her brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) comes to visit and disrupts their quiet life while also enriching it.

American Gangster (2007)

2 Oscar nominations:

Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee)

Best Art Direction (Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino)

Ridley Scott of Thelma and Louise and Blade Runner fame takes a turn at this based-on-a-true-story tale about a cop (Russell Crowe) who takes down the countrys biggest heroin dealer (Denzel Washington). Set mainly in Harlem, the film also tapped Newburghs Stewart Airport as a stand-in for Newark.

A Quiet Place I and II (2018 and 2021)

1 Oscar nomination:

Best Sound Editing for A Quiet Place I (Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn)

Aliens in the Hudson Valley? Just dont say it too loudly. The creatures in this sci-fi thriller can hear everything, as Emily Blunt and John Krasinski learn in the first film. They soundproof their country home (shot in Pawling), and tiptoe back and forth over the Walkill Rail Trail in New Paltz for supplies. While the first movie spent a month filming in the region  and planted all those corn fields in advance  the sequel had just three filming days in New Paltz and Pawling.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

1 Oscar nomination:

Best Visual Effects (Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken, Daniel Sudick)

Once you learn that some scenes in this Marvel superhero saga starring Robert Downey Jr., Brie Larson, Scarlett Johansson and more were shot in Dutchess and Ulster counties, you may want to take another look. The Esopus Meadows Lighthouse can be made out in one of the final scenes  you just have to wait three hours for it.
The recent news that five West Point cadets, at least one a football player, overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine while on spring break in Fort Lauderdale garnered national attention, at least partly because it seemed so out of the ordinary. In general, the biggest scandals that have roiled the Orange County-based U.S. military academy have involved cheating.

Paramedics were dispatched to an Airbnb in Wilton Manors, Florida, on Thursday, March 10, following frantic 911 calls for help. Five of the six guests at the Airbnb were cadets. All six were taken to the hospital, and two were initially placed on ventilators.

The U.S. Military Academy confirmed on March 23 that all cadets had been released from the hospital, but offered no other information except that the incident remains under investigation. A 21-year-old man who allegedly supplied the tainted cocaine was arrested on March 12.

West Point has yet to announce disciplinary action, but the cadets already face harsh judgment in the public sphere given their acceptance to the nations top military academy. Each student who goes to the federally funded, tuition-free school is considered a member of the U.S. Army, and must serve a minimum of eight years upon graduation. The process to attend West Point is extremely competitive, requiring excellent academics and at least one personal recommendation from either a member of congress like a U.S. senator, or someone in the military. The academy stresses honor and character.

So how did West Point cadets end up in Florida behaving like typical hard-partying college kids on spring break?

Because they are like other college students  to a degree, argued Timothy Ringgold, a former senior U.S. Army officer and class of 1977 West Point graduate. They work hard, theyre bright, theyre star athletes. Theyre all that, but theyre still susceptible to the same peer influences as any other student at any other college, he said. Theyre all adults, theyre in the Army, they should be more responsible. But we shouldnt be surprised that they arent.

In using a controlled substance as a West Point cadet, however, they are likely to get disenrolled, the term for expulsion in a military college. Greg T. Rinckey, a former Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) and founding attorney of the Albany law firm Tully Rinckey PLLC that specializes in military law, has represented several military students, including separate cases of West Point cadets who faced disenrollment for drug charges.

If it can be proven that the cadets knowingly ingested the drugs, he said, they would not only be disenrolled but could also be criminally charged for wrongful use, or possession of, a controlled substance and be required to pay back tuition. The total bill could amount to a whopping $150,000 to $200,000 per cadet  unless they are freshman, which is considered a kind of grace period to test young cadets dedication to service.

If the cadets are required to pay back the tuition money but fail to, the amount owed could be garnished from their tax refunds or bank accounts.

Uncle Sam puts a lot of money into the education of these cadets, and if theyre not going to serve, the Army wants their money back, said Rinckey, who said he believes the cadets will face a disenrollment process based upon facts known about the incident.

Cheating usually a cadets worst offense

Ringgold, who now teaches an ethics and leadership course at Ursine College in Pennsylvania, was himself involved in what was then the largest cheating scandal in West Points history in 1976, in which he acted as a whistleblower for 153 cadets whom he felt were unfairly penalized for collaborating on homework. His daughter recounted the episode in a book, Choosing the Harder Right.

Though Ringgold himself did not cheat, he still faced expulsion for speaking out. He was cleared to re-enroll following an investigation.

To this day, cheating and lying continue to be the main offenses cadets commit, said Augusto Giacoman, a class of 2004 West Point graduate, former Army Captain and now a partner at a consulting firm that is part of the Price Waterhouse Coopers network. This is mainly due to the strict cadet honor code, he said. Cadets dont lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.

Not only do those who break the code face disenrollment, said Giacoman, but if I know my roommate lied about something and I dont turn him in? I get kicked out.

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Both graduates said that there was very little drug use at West Point when they were cadets. In Ringgolds day, the most illicit drug commonly used at school was marijuana. There were some people, a lot of people, who smoked marijuana at the time, but it was all very quiet.

Giacoman said that pattern of drug use hadnt changed much when he was enrolled. Occasionally there were reports of pill use or cocaine, but it was not the norm  alcohol was. I would say about 80 percent of us drank off duty.

Rinckey agreed that hard drug use at West Point is very rare. Do I think West Point has a drug problem? No. Of course there are drugs there, but is there a major issue? I dont see it. Cadets are given urinalysis at random and quite often. So you never know when youre going to get tested  a disincentive to dabble in much more than alcohol.

Spring break a welcome escape for cadets

When Ringgold went to West Point in the 70s, Florida was not yet a spring break destination, a stark change from today. This week, the mayor of Miami enacted a curfew for the second year in a row as partying college kids became unruly, even violent  there were two shootings there recently.

By comparison, kids in the 70s just went home for spring break, Ringgold said. I have no recollection of the organized trips to Florida. Most of us were very eager just to go home, to get away from the military academy for a few days.

Giacoman agreed that cadets are desperate for a break. West Point is a strict place and its hard. You have classes from morning until early evening  everybody has to do an intramural sport  Saturday you have all-day inspections, he said. There are just a lot of expectations. Its very rigorous.

When he was at the academy, he flew to Myrtle Beach for spring break with his friends. I 100 percent understand cadets wanting to let loose a bit on spring break. What I dont understand is breaking the law, doing hard drugs like that  those kinds of behaviors are really unbecoming of people who are going to be leaders of people in the Army.
Timing has not been kind to Compartment No. 6.

Having enjoyed solid receptions at film festivals in 2021, this engaging if predictable film about mismatched travel mates on a Russian train was Finlands selection for international feature Oscar contention. The omicron surge delayed U.S. release plans; then the movie failed to make the academys final, commercially crucial nomination cut.

Now, Juho Kuosmanens gruff but sweet movie, about a young Finnish academic and an oafish Russian dude learning to like each other, arrives in theaters at a time when liking Russians probably isnt at the top of many Americans (or NATO-curious Finns, for that matter) list of entertaining ideas. On the other hand, the world knows that many Russians deplore their countrys invasion of Ukraine, so maybe a film that shows some of the peoples vulnerable, benign sides is good to have around.

That its premise is a fundamentally corny one weve seen a million times before is a separate matter, but filmmaker Kuosmanen (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki) and his two lead actors camouflage that well in naturalistic behavior and psychological depth.

Seidi Haarlas Laura is a Finnish student gone gaga over the intellectual ferment she finds in her professor/lover Irinas (Dinara Drukarova) Moscow circle; the movie starts with Laura entering a party at Irinas where Roxy Musics Love Is the Drug is blasting. Haarla subtly registers Lauras sense that shes not quite on par with the great minds there. Later, with more moping, she expresses disappointment that Irina suddenly has professional reasons for pulling out of their planned trip to far northern Murmansk to look at 10,000-year-old petroglyphs.

Laura gets on the train anyway, where shes stuck in the cramped title cabin with Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a buzz-cut mine worker who travels with his own collapsible vodka-drinking cup. Among other stereotypes, hes patriotic, loves snow, is often too friendly and is moody when hes not. When he asks Laura how to say I love you in her language, she instead tells the lout how to do the physical act of love to himself in Finnish.

On the crude side, Ljoha is curious if this stuck-up foreigner might be a prostitute. But hes a softy too, sentimental about a nurturing babushka (Lidia Kostina, wonderful in her few scenes) that he cajoles Laura into visiting with him during an overnight stop.

The opposites inevitably warm, perhaps even attract. Like a lot of this movie, which was loosely adapted from a novel by Rosa Liksom, many of Laura and Ljohas feelings are ambiguous or transitory. More obvious emotions just need a little nudge to break the shells of sorrow or machismo built around them. Perhaps the key barrier that comes down is not one of language or class, but education. This is a fine movie about an intelligent person being dumb about herself, but it has no delusions that working-class street smarts make life any more satisfying for Ljoha, either.

Again, though well-finessed, nothing new.

Dont expect pretty. The train, the towns, even the snow-blasted Arctic Ocean coast are all presented with maximum grunge. The main setting has built-in claustrophobia, and Kuosmanen is good at exploiting the entrapment and intimacy that it can represent. The sense that not just cold, crappy scenery but life is passing the passengers by is evoked without too much leaning on the metaphor.

Still, the gritty humanism of Compartment No. 6 must have felt better a month or longer ago. At one point, when Ljoha tries to comfort Laura after shes suffered another thoughtless cruelty at the hands of a fellow traveler, he growls, All humans should be killed.

Its hard to tell whether the actress laughs or sobs in response. There will be no such ambiguity among viewers now.
ALBANY  Residents in a majority of the states long-term care facilities are not receiving routine or even sporadic visits from representatives with the states Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, according to new data.

The program deploys staff and trained volunteers to nursing homes and other long-term care settings who serve as ombudsmen  or advocates  for residents who may otherwise have difficulty voicing concerns or filing complaints. Mandated by the federal Older Americans Act of 1965, the program is supposed to ensure residents have regular, timely, private and unimpeded access to ombudsman services.

But after years of flat funding and declining volunteerism, the program is running out of volunteers to send into facilities and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse.

In the final three months of 2021, just 8.5 percent of the states roughly 1,500 long-term care facilities received regular (weekly) visits from an ombudsman, according to data requested by AARP New York and shared with the Times Union. Nearly 63 percent of facilities statewide received no visits at all during that period.

"We were definitely taken aback by the last quarter," said Bill Ferris, legislative representative for AARP New York. "We knew the coverage wasn't great. But these numbers are completely unacceptable to AARP. You can't have a program that is designed to help residents exercise their rights to good care ... when it doesn't even cover more than 60 percent of all the facilities in the state of New York. It's unacceptable."

AARP New York and other advocacy organizations are pushing for a $15 million funding boost to the program in this years state budget that would allow the program to hire more staff.

"If this program doesn't receive the funding it needs this budget cycle, AARP has come to the conclusion this program will continue to fail," Ferris said. "Its failing now. And the people who will suffer are the frailest in our society."

New York Ombudsman Claudette Royal said staffing numbers havent changed significantly since the program was regionalized in 2015, remaining somewhere between 50 and 55 full- and part-time employees.

With a staff of that size and more than 160,000 residents statewide entitled to ombudsman services, the program has had to rely on a large corps of trained volunteers to serve as ombudsmen. But volunteer numbers have consistently dropped over the years, Royal said.

In the 2019 federal fiscal year the program had 435 volunteers, she said. In 2020 it had 312. By last year that number had fallen to 239, more than half of whom are not currently visiting facilities regularly due to COVID-19 concerns, she said.

"Many of our volunteers are over 65 and have not fully returned to in-person visitation at a time of continued health and safety concerns for themselves or their loved ones," Royal said. "As a result, the rates of facility coverage have declined."

While ombudsmen couldnt visit long-term care residents in person during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were eventually allowed back in. But not everyone chose to come back.

"Ombudsmen were not restricted from visitation at all for the timeframe of the data," Royal said. "Volunteers have not all chosen to return, which limits access to an ombudsman for residents, requiring much of ombudsmen work to be through alternate means of communication."

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Ferris said that while phone and video communication is better than nothing, its simply not sufficient for a program that services such a vulnerable population.

"At the end of the day, you need people on the ground in facilities with their eyes on residents," he said. "That is the most effective way to ensure that residents rights are enforced in nursing homes. Anything other than that is good to have, but it's not what's totally needed."

Advocates were bothered to see Gov. Kathy Hochuls budget propose only a study of the program instead of extra funding, Ferris said. The program has already been the subject of two audits that concluded it was underfunded and understaffed, he said.

Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays did not provide an explanation for why the governor proposed a study instead of more funding. In an email to the Times Union, she issued a canned statement the office has been using in response to questions about the spending proposals, saying the governor's budget "includes bold initiatives to embrace this once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in our future, and we look forward to continuing to work with the legislature to finalize a budget that serves all New Yorkers."

The federal government provides New York with $1.82 million a year for its ombudsman program, which the state supplements with $1.19 million. Advocates are seeking a $15 million boost, which Ferris said is significant enough to make a difference. The Assemblys one-house budget includes the $15 million request, while the Senates budget proposes a more modest $2 million lift.

"The program is strapped because it doesn't have the funding, it doesn't have the staff to complete its mission," Ferris said. "To no fault of the program, by the way. What they have is very good, but they just don't have enough."
BETHLEHEM  After school officials received some pushback from parents, the district decided to temporarily halt a proposal that would have required more students to either walk to school or be dropped off by a parent or guardian.

The Bethlehem Central School District Board of Education was supposed to vote last week on a resolution that would make fewer students eligible for bus transportation. The resolution proposed to increase the mileage eligibility for busing from a mile to a mile-and-half away for high schoolers; from a half-mile to a mile away for middle schoolers, and require all elementary schoolers who live less than three-quarters of a mile away to walk or get a ride. Currently all students in Bethlehem's five elementary schools are offered busing.

The changes could have impacted up to 700 students starting next fall.

The proposal was meant to be a solution for a shortage of bus drivers Bethlehem and other school districts are facing. If the board had approved the resolution, it would then have been sent to the public for a vote.

If we had money that we could throw to the issue to solve it, we would, Judith Kehoe, chief financial and business officer for the district, said at a board meeting in February. This is not about monetary resources, this is a labor supply and demand problem.

Currently, the school district has 59 school bus drivers, a few of whom are eligible for retirement. The district said it would need between 65 to 70 drivers to serve the students currently eligible for bus transportation. Without an increase in bus drivers or mileage eligibility, Kehoe said, there would likely be fuller buses (potentially leading to behavioral concerns), longer bus routes, earlier bus stop pickups and more frequent late arrivals to school.

The districts proposed mileage eligibility increases were still less than what is permitted by New York law. However, numerous parents voiced concerns over the proposal, and said the district was not being creative enough in finding a safe solution for students.

If we lose our bus eligibility these kids will be walking three-quarters of a mile to school and three-quarters of a mile home from school each and every day. There are no sidewalks on their walk to school, Anna Walker, a parent of three children in the school district, said at a March board meeting. Some areas of town do have sidewalks, but many other areas do not.

Please dont make working families choose between our employment and transporting our students to and from school.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

The chief concern parents expressed was the safety of their children walking amid heavy, peak traffic or in bad weather conditions, such as snow and ice. Numerous parents pointed specifically to a stretch of Kenwood Avenue across from Bethlehem Middle School where a jogger was seriously injured after getting struck by the side mirror of a truck while she was running on the sidewalk in August.

This hit-and-run incident took place just weeks before schools opened, at just the time of day that students would be walking to middle school along the same narrow stretch of sidewalk, Brian Sweeney, another parent, said at the same meeting, adding that the route is the only path his children would be able to take from their home. Many of us fear it is only a matter of time before a child in our community is injured or worse.

In past presentations, the school district said it had been meeting with the town to establish more safety protocols for students, such as hiring more crossing guards or establishing a child safety zone. However, Kehoe emphasized in her February presentation that the childrens safety getting to and from school would be the parents responsibility.

After a few parents spoke during the public comment period at the March board meeting, Superintendent Jody Monroe removed the vote on the resolution from the following board meetings agenda. In a note to parents, the district said the resolution would be postponed until next year. The district did not immediately answer the Times Unions questions about why the resolution was postponed.
GUILDERLAND  A Guilderland middle school custodian accused of raping an underage student has been released from police custody, school officials said Thursday, citing police sources.

Raquan D. Dyson, 28, was arrested on Tuesday after police said he went to the home of a 14-year-old girl to have sexual intercourse.

Dyson, who worked as a custodian at Farnsworth Middle School, previously had sexual contact with the student, according to police.

"Please be assured that he is barred from any and all Guilderland Central School District properties. Any further questions about the conditions of his release should be directed to the Guilderland Police Department," district officials said on Thursday.

Dyson was charged with second-degree rape, criminal sex act in the second degree, disseminating inappropriate materials to a minor and endangering the welfare of a child, according to police. His bail was set at $50,000 cash or $20,000 bond.

After being notified of Dyson's arrest Tuesday, the school district said in an email to families that his access to school buildings was immediately revoked.

Dyson was hired in December and cleared fingerprinting and background checks, Superintendent Marie Wiles said.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

School officials initially said Dyson worked the evening shift and was not in the building during regular school hours. His shift started at 2:30 p.m., one hour prior to the middle school dismissal, Wiles later clarified. She implied that social media may have played a role in the incident and listed resources regarding internet safety.

"To the extent that social media played a role in this situation, we urge families to take an active role in your childrens activities online, and to remind students to be mindful of their digital footprint," Wiles wrote Wednesday.

Guilderland police declined to state the conditions for Dyson's release on Thursday.

Update [March 23, 2022, 9:30 a.m.]: This article has been updated to include charges and bail information.
Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

SARATOGA SPRINGS --City police are looking for the suspect in Wednesday morning's robbery of the CVS on Congress Street.

At about 4:30 a.m. police received an emergency call for a robbery that had occurred at the drug store. An undisclosed amount of pills were taken from the pharmacy.
SAND LAKE  A Troy woman failed to get a sick dog medical treatment and an Averill Park man killed the animal, which was found earlier this month dumped under power lines off of Stewart Lane, State Police said.

The 44-year-old woman was charged with a misdemeanor under state agriculture and markets law punishable with up to a year in jail. State Police said she failed to get the dog medical care for an illness.
ALBANY  Advocates on Thursday urged state Attorney General Letitia James to delay enforcing minimum nursing home staffing requirements due to a workforce crisis that is afflicting that and many other industries.

James had voiced her for support for immediately imposing the states minimum staffing standards.

A letter addressed to James on behalf of LeadingAge NY, which represents not-for-profit and public providers of long-term care services, argued that the decision is not realistic for the groups members to meet.

"There is nothing our not-for-profit and public nursing home members would like more than to have ample staff and be able to pay them well," the letter stated, adding that nursing homes ability to pay competitive wages and recruit workers relies on the states Medicaid program.

"Very few nursing homes in the state would currently meet the rigorous and unrealistic, state-mandated staffing standards," the statement added.

The advocacy group contends the issue is centered on a lack of increases in Medicaid rates.

According to the letter, New Yorks nursing homes have not seen an increase in those rates in 14 years, though operation costs grew 31 percent during that period.

"When the pandemic hit and most states increased their Medicaid rates for nursing homes, the Cuomo administration imposed additional cuts on nursing homes, despite skyrocketing expenses for personal protective equipment, hazard pay and sick leave, and infection prevention measures," the statement added.

An additional 12,000 nursing home staffers would need to be hired to meet the states minimum nursing hours requirement, according to LeadingAge NY.

Prior to the pandemic, the institutions had more than enough staff to meet the states requirements. The job applicants today, "simply do not exist and will not materialize without a substantial and ongoing increase in Medicaid reimbursement that would support higher wages," they wrote.

The nursing home staffing requirements were included state legislation approved last May. Late last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order suspending the enforcement of those rules for 30 days. She has since extended the order, deciding not to impose the restrictions through the end of the month.

In December, a federal lawsuit was filed in Albany on behalf of the operators of hundreds of nursing homes seeking to overturn the recently enacted state law that would require them to spend at least 70 percent of their revenue on direct resident care, and at least 40 percent on staff who deal with residents.

The federal civil rights complaint, which is pending in U.S. District Court, claimed the new requirements violate the U.S. Constitution as an improper "taking" of private property for a public purpose, and run counter to the Supremacy Clause by confiscating federal dollars flowing to nursing homes through Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly.
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ALBANY  The Fort Edward village police chief and a sergeant are both scheduled to be arraigned on multiple felony charges Monday as part of an investigation by the state attorney general into allegations they falsified training records involving nearly a dozen police recruits.

Chief Justin C. Derway, 42, and Sgt. Dean E. Watkins, 50, are scheduled to appear in Albany City Court on Monday. They are named as co-defendants in criminal complaints charging them each with 11 counts of offering a false instrument for filing.

Both were placed on administrative leave in January by the village board in connection with the investigation. Matthew Traver, mayor of the village in Washington County, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Criminal complaints filed in Albany City Court accuse both men of falsifying hundreds of hours in certification documents that indicated they had been supervising police recruits.

The alleged falsification of the documents took place during an 11-month police academy the village police force conducted beginning in October 2018. The academy training, headed by Watkins, involved 15 police recruits  11 of whom were hired by the village police department, according to the criminal complaint.

Watkins was a field training officer for seven of the recruits and Derway for four.

After they submitted training certification records to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, officials there noticed that both police officials had claimed to work seemingly impossible numbers of hours while conducting field training.

"Specifically, they observed that Watkins and Derway worked an astronomical number of hours as an FTO," the complaint states. "Watkins was listed as working as an FTO for 71 out of 78 calendar days for a total of 892.5 hours; he reportedly worked several shifts exceeding 24 consecutive hours as an FTO and often had three or more recruits assigned to him simultaneously. Derway was listed as working as an FTO for 51 out of 67 calendar days for a total of 510 hours, and he was routinely assigned multiple recruits during the same shift."

After reviewing the time records of the recruits, DCJS officials determined that Watkins and Derway signed off on 668 and 228 hours, respectively, of supervised field training that they allegedly did not work.

Officials with state Attorney General Letitia James' office did not immediately comment on the case Thursday.

Kevin A. Luibrand, an attorney for Derway, said they intend to fight the charges.

"We will contest both the facts and the law," Luibrand said. "Chief Derway has a long history of good police work."

Thomas A. Capezza, who is the attorney for Watkins in the case, said: "He's had a devoted career in public service and we look forward to addressing the charges in court."

The charges mark the latest criminal case by the attorney general's office targeting smaller police departments where officials have been accused of falsifying police certification training records.

In a similar investigation in 2018, the attorney general's office charged Galway's police chief and two other senior officers with systematically falsifying records that documented state-mandated training courses for officers on that tiny police force in Saratoga County.

The charges were the result of a two-year investigation by then-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office.

Galway police Chief Leslie R. Klein allegedly sanctioned the filing of official forms with the state that falsely stated officers completed mandated training courses when they had not. Klein also worked as a Broadalbin-Perth school district janitor.

Also charged were Mark E. LaViolette, a former Schenectady officer who was a Galway sergeant and Schenectady County's director of emergency management; Galway Sgt. David Goodwin and Mark Kirker, who was also a Glenville police officer.



Klein, LaViolette and Goodwin, later pleaded guilty to reduced charges of criminal solicitation and agreed to resign as well as have their police officer certifications invalidated. Kirker also pleaded guilty, resigned and agreed to relinquish his certification to be a police training instructor.

The Times Union reported in January that Watkins also was under investigation in an unrelated matter for allegedly improperly using a stun gun on a man who was handcuffed and in police custody. Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney was appointed as a special prosecutor in that investigation, which remains open.

James C. Knox, an attorney for Robert C. Murat-Hinton, the man who was tasered by Watkins, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the village, the village police department and four officers, including Watkins. The lawsuit accuses them of using excessive force and other civil rights violations.

"Our police department has always been trustworthy and takes care of the Fort Edward residents first," Traver said in January, in response to questions about the stun gun incident. "This particular incident is isolated. We dont condone this action. We certainly need to investigate it further and see what we need to do after that. It's concerning."
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A potential disciple responded to Jesus command to go to the other side of the sea by saying, Let me first go and bury my father (Matthew 8:21). We might find ourselves shocked at Jesus rebuttal, Leave the dead to bury their own dead (Matthew 8:22).

Jesus generation knew even more than ours that ones obligation to ones nuclear family ranks very high among obligations in any society. Such slogans as family first would have sounded redundant to a society that wove that value into almost every decision. God even gave a command regarding it, Honor thy father and thy mother (Exodus 20:12).

What is Jesus trying to tell this potential disciple? Did Jesus forget the ten commandments?

Jesus was saying to this man that his loyalty in following him ought to surpass even the most basic and foundational responsibilities in this world. Being a disciple of Jesus consists of more than turning away from bad things. It also consists of making more of Jesus than even very good things, like family.

On another level, Jesus was saying to this potential disciple that he needed to make a decision about following him today. If you are getting into a canoe, you cannot keep one foot on the dock and the other in the canoe. If you do, you will only end up wet. Jesus did not want him to delay the decision to follow him.

Richard Wurmbrand, the name of the new convert I mentioned last week, thought it impossible to live out many of Jesus teachings in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Shortly after he and his wife converted, they found themselves in the throws of World War II and then the terrors of Joseph Stalin in their homeland of Romania.

They sheltered Jewish children during the war and reached out to their communist oppressors afterward. They were tortured and imprisoned for their faith in Christ.

Richard later said, I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with 50 pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in whose throats spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without water, starving, whipped, suffering from cold  and praying with fervor for the Communists. This is humanly inexplicable. It is the love of Christ, which was poured out in our hearts.

The path of discipleship can be steep, but it is worth it because Christ is worth it. He is the pearl or treasure of such value that it is worth laying aside all to get it (Matthew 13:44-46).
Illusion, misdirection, sleight of hand coupled with laughter and surprise defines the close-up magic that will be performed by three of the worlds greatest magicians in the the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main St., Wellsboro.

Magicians Garrett Thomas, Kozmo and Joe Maxwell are presenting Magic Beyond Imagination at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 at the Deane Center. Theatre doors will open for the show at 7 p.m. This is a family-friendly event.

Magic enthusiasts can pay $10 more for VIP tickets for a meet-and-greet with these magicians, including an up close and personal magic session that starts at 6:15 p.m. sharp. VIPs will be admitted to the theatre beginning at 6 p.m. and receive priority seating.

The beauty of our show is we make sure that everyone in the audience has a great seat, said Kozmo.

Garrett and I have been traveling and working on different magic projects for the past 18 years, said Kozmo. We both work at the Magic Castle, a nightclub for magicians and magic enthusiasts in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, and at the House of Cards in Nashville, Tennessee, a magic-themed dining experience.

Garrett Thomas is a magic creator, technician and artist. He is also a TV consultant for David Blaine, known for his magic, including his high-profile feats of endurance. Said Blaine, Garrett is simply the greatest close-up magician alive today. His magic defies logic and understanding, changing the impossible to possible for his audiences. Garrett has returned from a triumphant performance on the Penn & Teller: Fool Us television show and an exclusive performance for Madonna at her London home.

Kozmo is a street performer, who has thrilled audiences from Bourbon Street to the Great Wall of China with his laugh-out-loud brand of magic. He keeps his audiences in stitches and blows their collective minds with miracles using ordinary objects. In addition to performing at festivals and on street corners around the U.S., Kozmo has appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was one of six close-up magicians who went on the first Magic Tour of China in 2009.

Joe Maxwell is the master of ceremonies for this magic show and is one of the worlds most sought after drummers, having toured the world with Grammy-nominated recording artist, Moby. But, Maxwells real passion is mental magic, stunning audiences with his unbelievable predictions. He has appeared on Saturday Night Live and the Late Show with David Letterman.

Purchasing tickets in advance is strongly recommended. For tickets and more information, visit www.deanecenter.com or call 570-724-6220.
Moments ago from a Kansas City press conference . . .

Rep. Cleaver Highlights Local Impact of $2.8 Million in Community Project Funding for MLK Park Pedestrian Bridge

(Kansas City, MO)  Today, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) hosted a press conference at MLK Park to highlight the $2.8 million in Community Project Funding he secured to build a pedestrian bridge that will connect communities on the north and south banks of Brush Creek and allow pedestrians to safely reach the park. The pedestrian bridge at Brush Creek is one of ten community projects Congressman Cleaver championed and was able to secure funding for that will directly benefit residents of the Fifth Congressional District.



Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us to build bridges, not walls, and thats what were doing here today. This bridge will connect Kansas Citians to their schools, their homes, and their communities. Its a sign of beautiful rebirth in this neighborhood. Its a sign of development, of a vision for the future, and a plan to make that vision into a reality, said Congressman Cleaver. Thanks to KC Parks, the Kauffman Foundation, and the 15 and the Mahomies Foundation, the newly renovated MLK Park is a gem in our community that properly honors the legacy of Dr. King. I first proposed renaming Brush Creek Park after MLK in 1976, when I was Board Chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City. Nearly fifty years later, it brings me great joy to see the community investments in this park as we continue to bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice.



Since it opened last summer, the playground at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Square Park has quickly become a favorite Kansas City family destination, said Mayor Quinton Lucas. While the park includes inclusive play equipment for children of all ages, the lack of foot access to the park has been a challenge for families who live in the neighborhood. I applaud Congressman Cleaver for his work to secure funding for a pedestrian bridge, which will help the Kansas City Parks Department and the 15 and the Mahomies Foundation continue to provide a safe and exceptional park experience for all Kansas City children and families.



This bridge will provide exponential improvements to communities around Brush Creekunlocking access to new opportunities and of course the amazing new MLK Jr. Park, said City Manager Brian Platt. We are so thankful for Congressman Cleavers continued investment in and focus on the east side of Kansas City over the last few decades.



This pedestrian bridge will connect communities, schools, and affordable housing on the north side of the creek to MLK Park ensuring that adjacent neighborhoods have increased access to this destination park and the health and social benefits outdoor recreation offers, said KC Parks Board President Jack Holland. Neighborhood parks provide the heartbeat to our beloved city. We are grateful to Congressman Cleaver for bolstering Dr. Kings mission of bringing not just equality, but equity to the Brush Creek Cultural Corridor. Thanks also to the Kauffman Foundation and the 15 & the Mahomies Foundation, whose generosity made this wonderful park, playground, and trail possible!



We are thrilled to see more improvements being made to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Square Park, said 15 and the Mahomies Executive Director Marques Fitch. It was always our goal to make this location a special place for Kansas City residents to enjoy. We are thankful for everyone that helps continue this mission.



###

And then from his newsletter today . . .

Projects in Our Community



Hello Neighbor,



Last week, President Biden signed a bipartisan government funding bill into law, and I am thrilled to announce that I was able to secure over $15 million within the bill for 10 community projects across the Fifth Congressional District of Missouri.



This funding will have a profound impact on local communities throughout our congressional district, going toward projects that will make our communities safer, help combat the opioid epidemic, provide affordable housing, strengthen workforce development efforts, and so much more. As we continue a historic economic recovery from the global pandemic, its crucial that we invest in our communities so that they can build back stronger than before.



Take a look below to see the numerous projects in our community I was able to secure funding for.



Thank you for taking the time to read about the work Im doing in Congress to improve our community. If you would like more details on these projects, visit my website here.

########################



You decide . . .
Rampant gentrification is killing a great deal of what makes Kansas City unique but we're hoping that this bit of local ingenuity finds a way to survive the wrath of middle-class home buyers.



Check the struggle to keep Kansas City weird . . .



The DIY park was built on a vacant city-owned lot, and now the Housing Authority is preparing to put out a request for proposals to would-be developers of the land.



This Harrison Street DIY is a skatepark in Columbus Park built and funded by Kansas Citys skate community starting in 2014.



Ben Hlavacek, a founder of the park and a professional skate park builder, says that to have a park like Harrison Street built professionally would cost at least a half-million dollars. Skaters know it as one of only a few transition-style parks in the area that provide a flowy skate experience as you create a fun line or sequence of obstacles to skate. Its not strictly skateboarding at the DIY; youll see folks on roller skates, scooters and in-line skates as well. The typical crowd covers a wide range in age and experience. The organizers at the park want it to be a welcoming space for all.



But the skatepark sits on six acres that the Columbus Park Neighborhood Association has waited twenty years to have developed. The neighborhood has big hopes for this land. They want affordable single-family homes built on it and are working with the housing authority to court the right development plan.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Not really . . .

His sketchy supporters would have a hard time convincing anybody that he's not a repugnant creeper who imploded spectacularly and was never able to get along with his conservative colleagues whilst ignoring the Missouri good old boy network that keeps Jeff City running smoothly and much more fun than any other Midwestern state capital.



Nevertheless . . .

This tidbit is going to make life tougher for his political opponents . . . Check-it:



William Tisaby, 69, was hired by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to assist in the investigation of allegations that Greitens threatened to release a nude photograph of a woman, taken against her will while she was blindfolded and her hands were bound, if she told anyone of a sexual affair.



Tisabys plea to a single misdemeanor count came as he was scheduled for trial on six perjury charges and one evidence tampering charge.



Jury selection was set to begin Thursday, and the trial on Monday.



Tisaby, his family, and his attorneys made the decision to plead, after taking into consideration his current state of health, said his attorney Jermaine Wooten.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Investigator in Greitens' case pleads guilty to evidence tampering * Missouri Independent An ex-FBI agent who conducted the criminal investigation of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2018 pleaded guilty Wednesday to evidence tampering and was sentenced to a year of probation. William Tisaby, 69, was hired by St.

Greitens investigator pleads guilty to evidence tampering ST LOUIS - The investigator who played a key role in former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' resignation in 2018 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor evidence tampering on Wednesday, a day before jury selection was set to start in his trial on seven felony counts including perjury.

Investigator hired by St. Louis Circuit Attorney to work case against former Governor Greitens accepts plea deal ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - An investigator hired by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney to work the 2018 criminal case against former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has accepted a plea deal. William Don Tisaby was charged with six counts of perjury and one count of tampering with physical evidence.

Missouri House considers legislation stemming from Greitens investigation JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri House is considering a plan inspired by the behavior of one of the key figures in the events that led to former Gov. Eric Greitens' downfall in 2018. Under legislation sponsored by Rep. David Evans, R-West Plains, a person subpoenaed to testify before the General Assembly could face prosecution for failing to comply with that order.

Developing . . .
The newspaper attempts to flex in Independence, MO by way of social justice screed.

While it seems like fewer people are paying attention to dictates from the editorial board . . . They persist with half-baked arguments nevertheless . . .



Reform is desperately needed. A Kansas City man filed a lawsuit claiming that he was tased, choked and beaten by an Independence police officer while walking down the street. Youre being detained. Youre going to be tased. Independence Police Officer Tanner Philip screamed at Justin Layton of Kansas City, after he was accused of jaywalking, or walking while Black, as Layton calls it, in Independence on Valentines Day two years ago.



In a city where police solved just 34 of 64 homicides between 2013-20, according to available data, surely the officer had more important work to do. Layton claimed the incident, partly captured on police dashcam video, involved Philip and three other officers with the Independence Police Department, who were white. Independence has 185 sworn officers, according to a spokesman for the department. Only one is African American . . .



The police department is under investigation after an officer became the citys highest paid employee last year for overtime work on a construction project. The fallout from that has resulted in multiple changes in department leadership. Police Capt. Adam Dustman is interim acting chief, having replaced acting Chief Ken Jarnagin, who was placed on leave in wake of the overtime inquiry . . .



The culture of the Independence Police Department needs to change drastically, and only a new chief from outside the organization can do that.





Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
As we approach the zero hour of this year's Kansas City budget . . . We take notice of a strange screed that seems to demand silence from pro-police advocates.

The argument is peculiar given that Mayor Q also engages in conversation on Pete Mundo's talk show; which is under fire.

Also worth considering . . .

The KCPD Chief has spoken about the budget in a variety of forums, he has offered interviews with the Star and even appeared on national news networks pushing for more funding. The top cop doesn't take every interview request but the idea that he's not "accessible" if far fetched.



More importantly . . .

What we've seen during this budget debate is that Kansas City voters OVERWHELMINGLY support fully funding police and city council members have felt that pressure from the public.

Accordingly . . .

In a last desperate attempt to remain relevant, Mayor Q and his cadre of supporters hope to turn their budget shenanigans into a partisan debate against conservatives. They'd like voters to overlook that even Prez Biden is working to oppose demands to "defund the police" from activists and professional protesters.



Finally . . .

On the topic of "local control" Mayor Q and his acolytes are operating on the fringe given that the overwhelming majority of Kansas City voters have spoken against this idea. Remember that councilman Bunch was emboldened by the fantasy of council control of police after BLM protests but quietly backed off any real legislative action when it came time to call for a vote.

Accordingly and just for the cheap seats . . .

So many anti-police activists would like to imagine that they're arguing against conservatives or MAGA but the reality is that THE MAJORITY OF KANSAS CITY VOTERS SUPPORT POLICE. And what we've seen in this latest budget debate is that political operatives are willing to play games with law enforcement salaries and public safety funds in order to manufacture or even worsen local racial and ideological divisions.

Newsflash: EVERY neighborhood in KCMO wants safer streets and more support for cops willing to risk their lives to keep this cowtown safe . . . The slap fighting over money & control is only political theater amongst people who crave power.



In fairness, here's the best argument that defund/council control advocates can devise . . .



He (the KCPD Chief) often runs to the media, mainly just Pete Mundos talk radio show, to complain and inject political rhetoric into the debate. In conservative speak, Mundos show serves as a safe space for police chiefs who cant handle tough questions from normal journalists and citizens.



It is not unusual for city departments and their leaders to argue for more money, support, or changes to help their staff and their operations. Most of that is done within the bounds of the city council meetings or staff meetings not drug out onto political talk shows. And the language in which those arguments are made by city staff are remarkably apolitical.



Smith and his antics are a dramatic departure from that tradition.



And its inappropriate.



He is acting like the 13th city council member.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Introducing Kansas City's 13th Council Member: Police Chief Rick Smith City Council in the latest round of redistricting included language that there should be consideration to expanding the number of council people that serve our city. Well...if you have been paying attention during this budget season it appears an additional council member has been added without getting elected: Police Chief Rick Smith of the newly created 1125 Locust District.

Learn about KCMO's proposed budget ahead of Thursday's vote KANSAS CITY, Mo. - On Wednesday morning, a group of council members in Kansas City, Missouri, recommended slight changes to the $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 first proposed in February. The full City Council will vote on whether to adopt the budget Thursday afternoon.

You decide . . .
If TKC was really after clicks and not wanting to serve as some form of local resource, here's the headline that I would have used . . .

KANSAS CITY STAR CALLS OUT KCPD CONQUISTADORS!!!



Truth be told, I might go back and switch out the text but for right now it's really hard to match the self-parody from the so-called KCMO "paper of record" given their recent diatribes.

Here's part of their latest . . .



The vote is deeply disappointing, but not surprising. Heres the dirty little secret of Kansas City politics: While its leadership class pays lip service to local control of the police department, it doesnt actually want it. Colonialism, it appears, is just fine. Why? When the state controls your police, you dont have to worry about them. Murders are up? Not our problem. Officers are shooting unarmed civilians? Call the governor. Emergency calls go unanswered? Not much we can do.



The most important goal in contemporary politics is the avoidance of responsibility, not the acceptance of it. The Kansas City Council set the gold standard for this approach Wednesday, as did the mayor, who started this fight and then abandoned it.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
A well-known Caribbean bakery in north Scarborough has been significantly damaged in an early morning fire.
Jerry Dias accused of accepting $50,000 from COVID test supplier, says hes going to rehab facility

Dias says he was always guided by the principles in union constitution, but needs help for pain killer, sleeping pill and alcohol use. Thats why I am entering a residential rehabilitation facility, he says.
Dinesh Singh, 30, was last seen on March 3 near York Street and Lake Shore Boulevard West. - Toronto Police Service photo
University of Toronto Scarborough released this rendering of its future Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health, announced by the provincial government March 15. - University of Toronto Scarborough photo
Brevard, NC (28712)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 81F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 62F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Sky Vacations announces exclusive tours and royal experiences to mark Queens Platinum Jubilee.



(TRAVPR.COM) USA - March 23rd, 2022 - Sky Vacations, one of the leading U.S. based outbound tour operators has announced a collection of exciting programs to mark the Queens Platinum Jubilee.

The tours are aligned to mark one of the most significant milestone in British history, Queen Elizabeth IIs Platinum Jubilee. Itineraries feature private visits to many of the most popular royal attractions such as the Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey and special exhibitions being organized to honor the history of the British monarchy. Experiences also include quintessential British traditions of afternoon tea, pub crawls and Sunday Roast.

It is truly a privilege to be part of this incredible Jubilee celebration honoring the Queens 70-year reign said Richard Krieger, Director of Sky Vacations. Further he added given the closeness to our ancestral heritage and the ties we share with Great Britain, we have been inundated with requests from our travelers to create unique experiences to commemorate this once in lifetime celebration.

To view these and all of the Sky Vacations portfolio, visit: www.skyvacations.net. For reservations: 1.877.666.3113.

About Sky Vacations

One of the leading tour operators in North America for more than a decade, Sky Vacations custom crafts travel experiences around the globe for individual and group travelers. Sky Vacations is a member of the Sky Bird family.

PRESS CONTACT:

Priya Chhabra

E: priya@skyvacations.net

D: +1 248 653 1618

###
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03.24.22

On March 22, California's Fifth Appellate District Court of Appeals issued a decision on the availability of attorneys' fees under the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Holder Rule. This case follows recent FTC guidance and two decisions from California's Second Appellate District Court of Appeals holding that the Holder Rule does not bar recovery of attorneys' fees in excess of the amount paid pursuant to the contract. The Fifth Appellate District's decision, however, does not fall in lockstep with its sister courts' decisions: although it concludes attorneys' fees are available to the plaintiffs, it does so with substantively different reasoning that may have a profound effect on how this issue plays out in other states. The case is Reyes v. Beneficial State Bank, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 233 (Cal. Ct. App. Mar. 22, 2022).

The Holder Rule and Previous California Precedent

The FTC's Holder Rule requires certain consumer transaction contracts to include a provision authorizing the consumer to bring any legal claims against the "holder" of the contract that the consumer could assert against the original seller of the good or service, even if the claim springs from the seller's misconduct alone. The Holder Rule, however, states that a plaintiff's recovery from the holder for those claims "shall not exceed amounts paid by the debtor" under the sales contract.

California courts in particular have grappled with whether the Holder Rule's recovery cap applies to a plaintiff's recovery of attorneys' fees and costs over and above the amount paid pursuant to the contract, and divergent precedent has emerged among California's courts of appeals on the issue. In a 2018 decision, a California court of appeals held that the word "recovery" as used in the Holder Rule includes attorneys' fees, and therefore the cap prevents courts from awarding attorneys' fees against the holder defendant over and above the amount paid on the contract. In response, the California Legislature passed California Civil Code  1459.5, a fee-shifting statute that purports to allow attorneys' fees against the holder.

The FTC appeared to answer the question definitively in 2019, issuing a rule confirmation that explicitly addressed the question of attorneys' fees, and advised that consumers cannot recover from holders beyond what they have paid under their respective contracts unless state law provides otherwise. In 2020, another California court of appeals held that the Holder Rule's recovery cap applied to attorneys' fees and, citing the 2019 rule confirmation, that the Holder Rule preempted  1459.5.

California's Second Appellate District Court of Appeals, however, issued two recent decisions contrary to those previous decisions: Pulliam v. HNL Automotive, Inc., No. S267576 (Cal. 2021), and Melendez v. Westlake Servs., LLC, No. B306976, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 70, at *9 (Jan. 28, 2022). These decisions held that the term "recovery" as used in the Holder Rule does not include attorneys' fees, that the FTC's 2019 rule confirmation is not entitled to deference, and that attorneys' fees above and beyond the amount paid under the sales contract are therefore recoverable by a plaintiff from the holder defendant. The California Supreme Court is currently considering an appeal of the Pulliam decision, as we reported here.

The FTC also issued an advisory opinion in January 2022 that sided with courts that have refused to automatically cap attorneys' fees and costs, stating that applying the Holder Rule to preempt state laws and limit recovery of fees and costs "misconstrues" the FTC's 2019 rule confirmation. Troutman Pepper has previously reported here on the differences and apparent inconsistencies between the 2019 rule confirmation and the recent advisory opinion.

The Reyes Decision

The Reyes decision arose from the plaintiffs' appeal of a 2019 trial court decision that interpreted the Holder Rule recovery cap to bar an award of attorneys' fees. See Reyes v. Beneficial State Bank, No. BCV-17-100082 (Cal. Sup. Ct., Kern Co., Dec. 5, 2019). The appellate court decision follows the result of Pulliam and Melendez by allowing the plaintiffs to recover attorneys' fees from the holder defendant, but notably, the court's "reasoning differs from [Pulliam and Melendez] in certain respects." Reyes, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 233 at *8. The opinion walks through a lengthy and detailed history of the FTC's Holder Rule, the previous California courts of appeals decisions, the FTC's 2019 rule confirmation and 2022 advisory opinion, and California Civil Code  1459.5 before reaching a result that does not perfectly line up with any of the previous decisions.

The court in Reyes disagreed with Pulliam and Melendez by holding that the plain meaning of the word "recovery" as used in the Holder Rule includes attorneys' fees, consulting legal and non-legal dictionaries to arrive at that conclusion. Id. at *27-30. The court boiled down the definition of "recovery" to "getting something back," and concluded "[u]ndoubtedly, the recovery of attorney fees restores a claimant to his previous state or condition and, absent recovery, attorney fees are lost to the claimant. Consequently, we conclude the term 'recovery,' as used in the Holder Rule provision, is sufficiently broad to include attorney fees." Id. at *29. The court also concluded that this interpretation is consistent with both the FTC's 2019 rule confirmation and the 2022 advisory opinion, asserting that the latter "make[s] clear that recovery of attorney fees against a holder in excess of amounts paid on the contract is contingent upon the existence of a separate federal or state law providing for such a recovery  otherwise recovery of such fees is limited by the Holder Rule provision." Id. at 2930.

The court agreed with the Pulliam decision, however, on the issue of deference to the 2019 FTC rule confirmation and lack of preemption of  1459.5. The court held that the 2019 rule confirmation is not entitled to deference, particularly in light of the FTC's position in its 2022 advisory opinion that courts misconstrued the rule confirmation to conclude that it preempts  1459.5. Id. at *30-31. In a footnote, the court noted that despite the FTC's position to the contrary, the 2019 rule confirmation and the 2022 advisory opinion are not "completely harmonious," but it found that they agree on "at least this point: the FTC did not intend for the Holder Rule to preempt all state statutes and rules of contract in unyielding pursuit of its policy objective." Id. at *31 n.7. The court further noted that the FTC could have promulgated the Holder Rule as a direct, substantive rule of law, but instead only made it a mandatory provision in consumer contracts, which the court took to mean that such a provision would be subject to "all the ways in which litigation outcomes might differ from what is expressly contemplated by a contract. One such example is when a state statute overrides a contractual provision." Id. Based on this analysis, the court concluded that  1459.5 is not preempted by the Holder Rule.

The court's ultimate holding in Reyes is that the recovery of attorneys' fees in excess of the amounts paid on the contract is generally precluded by the Holder Rule, but that California's  1459.5 allows such recovery nonetheless and is not preempted. Id. at *3032.

Conclusion

The Reyes decision is another blow against the position that the Holder Rule recovery cap categorically bars recovery of attorneys' fees in excess of the amount paid under the contract. However, the decision does not wholeheartedly agree with the contrary position represented by Pulliam and Melendez, in that Reyes only reached the same result because of the passage of Cal. Civ. Code  1459.5. The decision's detailed analysis of the meaning of the word "recovery" as used in the Holder Rule provides strong support for the argument that the Holder Rule in general does not allow recovery of attorneys' fees in excess of the amount paid on the contract. Thus, the Reyes reasoning would only allow recovery of excess attorneys' fees where the state legislature has expressly authorized such recovery, leaving the Holder Rule's general prohibition intact.

Given the diverging opinions among courts nationwide, the seemingly conflicting FTC guidance, and the unfolding drama of this issue among California courts (culminating in the California Supreme Court's forthcoming decision in Pulliam), the Reyes decision represents an interesting additional perspective on the issue of the recovery of attorneys' fees under the Holder Rule.
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
About four battalion tactical groups of the Belarusian Armed Forces are deployed near Ukraines border.

As of 24:00 on March 23, Russian troops had not fulfilled the task of reaching the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, encircling the city of Kyiv and establishing control over the left bank of Ukraine. At the same time, the enemy does not abandon attempts to resume offensive operations to capture Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mariupol, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

According to the General Staff data, due to numerous losses, the command of the occupying forces continues to form and move additional units of the Russian Armed Forces to the borders of Ukraine to improve the situation at the front.

In order to recover the losses of the 144th Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District, contracting measures have been intensified in the military commissariats of Smolensk region of the Russian Federation. According to the General Staff, servicemen returning from Syria after the mission are also being recruited to replenish Russian units.

Remains of units of the Eastern Military District and airborne troops are arriving from the territory of the Gomel region of the Republic of Belarus on the border with Ukraine.

In Volyn direction, the invaders did not carry out offensive operations.

At the same time, certain units of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus are still likely to participate in the Russian aggression against Ukraine. In particular, according to the General Staff, there are up to four battalion tactical groups of the Belarusian Armed Forces near Ukraines border.

In Polissya direction, the enemy intensified air reconnaissance in the areas of the localities of Hlibivka, Liutizh, and Lebedivka. Along the line of contact, the enemy continues to equip positions and install minefields.

On March 23, Russian troops carried out artillery shelling in the areas of Kalynivka, Horenka, Pushcha-Vodytsya, Novi Petrivtsi, Romanivka, and the northeastern outskirts of Kyiv.

In Siversky direction, the enemy continues to concentrate forces and means to try to resume offensive operations by units of the Central Military District.

In Chernihiv direction, Russian invaders try to block and capture Chernihiv, conduct air reconnaissance of the city's areas, presumably to assess the results of air strikes and identify the positions of Ukraines Armed Forces.

The enemy was stopped in Brovary direction. The invaders tried to break through the defensive positions of Ukrainian troops in order to reach the outskirts of Kyiv but failed.

In Slobozhansky direction, the invaders launched artillery strikes on Kharkiv. Russian units failed to carry out active offensive operations.

In the direction of Sumy, units of the 1st Tank Army did not conduct active offensive operations. Their main efforts focused on blocking the city, launching artillery and air strikes on civilian infrastructure.

In the direction of Izium, the invaders attempted to break through the defenses of Ukrainian troops in the settlements of Donetske, Topolske, and Kamyanka. The fighting continues.

In Donetsk direction, the enemy shells Ukraines Armed Forces units in the vast majority of directions. The main efforts are focused on capturing the localities of Rubizhne, Severodonetsk, Popasna, Verkhniotoretske, Marinka, and Mariupol. The invaders are regrouping and building up groups to resume offensive operations. They are actively conducting reconnaissance, trying to move forward, bypassing the positions of Ukraines Armed Forces and places of resistance and not entering the battle.

In Popasna area, with the support of artillery, Russian troops continue to try to advance into the town and gain a foothold in previously captured positions. They are not succeeding at the moment, they are suffering losses.

The enemy also continues to launch air and artillery strikes on Mariupol's civilian infrastructure but to no avail.

In Tavriysky direction, according to the General Staff, changes in the composition and position of the enemy were not noted.

In the South Buh area, the enemy continues equipping its positions, takes measures to restore combat capability, replenish stocks of ammunition and fuel and lubricants in order to prepare for the resumption of offensive operations.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine in cooperation with the Territorial Defense units give a decent rebuff to the invader in all directions. The enemy suffers significant losses in personnel and equipment.

On February 24, Russian president Vladimir Putin started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, and ballistic missiles.

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Kyiv has made it very clear to Belarus that if their armed forces enter Ukrainian territory and start hostilities, they will be defeated.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said this during a telethon broadcast by Ukrainian TV channel, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"We have communicated very simply and clearly to the Belarusian side that if their armed forces enter the territory of Ukraine, start any hostilities here, they will be ruthlessly destroyed, just as the Russian army is being destroyed. I think the last thing that should be of interest to Belarusians is that their children, brothers and husbands could die here for some absurd ideas of Putin and Lukashenko," said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy.

Kuleba added that according to some sources, the Belarusian army does not want and is not ready to fight against Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported, according to the Ministry of Defense's Main Intelligence Directorate, Russian special services are trying to persuade the Belarusian military to take part in the war against Ukraine and offer $1,000-1,500 a month.

At the same time, according to another information, the Belarusian military plan to surrender if they are sent to Ukraine to take part in hostilities.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stressed that Ukraine needs military aid without restrictions.

According to Ukrinform, he said this in his speech at the NATO summit via video link.

"The Ukrainian army has been resisting [Russian aggression] for a month in unequal conditions! And I have been repeating the same thing for a month now. To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance - without restrictions. In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us, destroying all living things, any objects - from houses to churches, from food warehouses to universities, from bridges to hospitals. Ukraine asked you to provide aircraft so that we do not lose so many people. And you have thousands of fighter jets! But we haven't been given a single aircraft yet. We asked for tanks so that we could unblock our cities that are dying now - Mariupol, Berdiansk, Melitopol, others. Cities where Russia is holding hundreds of thousands of people hostage and artificially creating hunger - no water, no food, there's nothing there. You have at least 20,000 tanks! Ukraine asked for one percent. One percent of all your tanks! Give them to us or sell them to us. But we do not have a clear answer yet. [...] The worst thing during the war is not having clear answers to requests for help," Zelensky said.

He also stressed that Ukraine never wanted this war and does not want to fight for years.

"We just want to save our people. We just want to survive! Like any nation, we have a right to it. The right to life. The right to this one percent. And I do not blame NATO, I want to be clear. You are not to blame for that. It's not your missiles, it's not your bombs that are destroying our cities. This morning, by the way, there were phosphorus bombs. Phosphorus Russian bombs. Adults were killed again, and children were killed again. I just want you to know: the alliance can still prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation by giving us all the weapons we need," he said.

On February 24, Russia launched unprovoked large-scale military aggression against Ukraine, which was met with fierce opposition from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the entire nation.

Three summits will be held in Brussels on March 24 - in NATO, in the EU and in the G7 format, which will focus on responding to the crisis provoked by Putin's war against Ukraine.
Speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit

Dear attendees!

I am addressing you from Kyiv, our capital, which has been fighting for a month already, just as our entire state.

Yes, it is true - we are not in the Alliance. Not in the most powerful defense union in the world. Not one of the 30 states under the umbrella of joint protection. Under the umbrella of Article 5. It feels like we are in the "gray zone". Between the West and Russia. But we defend all our common values. And we are bright people! And we have been defending all these values for a month now!

A month of heroic resistance. A month of the darkest suffering.

A month of unpunished destruction of the peaceful state, and with it - the whole architecture of global security. All this is before the eyes of the whole world.

Over the decades, Russia has accumulated considerable resources, military resources, manpower and equipment, air bombs, missiles.

They invested crazy money in death while the world invested in life. But Ukraine is holding on bravely! At the cost of thousands of lives. At the cost of destroyed cities. At the cost of almost ten million migrants. Three and a half of them are already in your territories, in the territories of NATO countries. I am grateful for the support of these people. And people, unfortunately, continue to leave their homes. They are fleeing the terror that the occupiers brought with them.

The very first hours of the invasion meant brutal missile strikes for us. During the month of the war, Russia fired more than a thousand different missiles at our cities. Made hundreds of air raids.

On February 24, I addressed you with a perfectly clear, logical request to help close our skies. In any format. Protect our people from Russian bombs and missiles. We did not hear a clear answer. Ukraine does not have powerful anti-missile weapons, and has a much smaller aircraft fleet than Russia. Therefore, their advantage in the sky is like the use of weapons of mass destruction.

And you see the consequences today - how many people were killed, how many peaceful cities were destroyed.

The Ukrainian army has been resisting for a month in unequal conditions! And I have been repeating the same thing for a month now. To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance - without restrictions. As Russia uses without restrictions its entire arsenal against us. Destroys all living things. Any objects - from houses to churches, from food warehouses to universities, from bridges to hospitals.

Ukraine asked for your planes. So that we do not lose so many people. And you have thousands of fighter jets! But we haven't been given any yet.

We asked for tanks. So that we can unblock our cities that are now dying - Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol, others. Cities where Russia is keeping hundreds of thousands of people hostage and artificially creating famine - no water, no food, nothing there.

You have at least 20,000 tanks! Ukraine asked for a percent, one percent of all your tanks to be given or sold to us! But we do not have a clear answer yet... The worst thing during the war is not having clear answers to requests for help.

Ukraine never wanted this war. And does not want to fight for years. We just want to save our people. We want to survive! Just survive! Like any nation, we have the right to it. The right to life. The right to this one percent.

And I do not blame NATO - I want to be clear. You are not guilty. It's not your missiles, it's not your bombs that are destroying our cities. This morning, by the way, there were phosphorus bombs. Phosphorus Russian bombs. Adults were killed again and children were killed again. I just want you to know that the Alliance can still prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation, by providing us with all the weapons we need.

Yes, we are not in the Alliance. And I do not make these claims. But Ukrainians never thought that the Alliance and the Allies were different.

That in matters of life and death you can be a force separately, but together - no. That NATO may be afraid of Russia's actions. I am sure you already understand that Russia does not intend to stop in Ukraine. Does not intend and will not. It wants to go further.

Against the eastern members of NATO. The Baltic states, Poland - that's for sure. Will NATO then stop thinking about it, worrying about how Russia will react? Who can be sure of that? And do you have confidence that Article 5 can work?

"Budapest" hasnt worked for us already. Our Budapest Memorandum. Has not worked for peace in Ukraine.

And I will tell you honestly - today Budapest is not working for peace in Ukraine as well. Yes, we receive help from individual members of the Alliance. I am very grateful. Ukrainians are sincerely grateful for this. To each of you who gives what you have, supporting us.

But what about the Alliance? The question of Article 5 is fundamental. I just want you to know what we think about it. And I sincerely wish you that we are wrong in our assessments and in our doubts. I sincerely wish that you actually have a very strong Alliance. Because if we are wrong, the world is safe. But if we are at least one percent right, I ask you to reconsider your attitude. Your own estimates. And really take care of security, security in Europe and, consequently, in the world.

You can give us one percent of all your aircraft. One percent of all your tanks. One percent! We can't just buy it. Such a supply directly depends only on NATO's decisions, on political decisions, by the way.

MLRS systems. Anti-ship weapons. Means of air defense. Is it possible to survive such a war without it?

So when it's finally available, it will give us and you as well, one hundred percent security. And we need one. And the only thing I demand from you After such a month of war. This is a request for the sake of our military. After such a war against Russia ... Never, please, never tell us again that our army does not meet NATO standards.

We have shown what our standards are capable of. And how much we can give to the common security in Europe and the world. How much we can do to protect against aggression against everything we value, everything you value. But NATO has yet to show what the Alliance can do to save people. To show that this is truly the most powerful defense union in the world. And the world is waiting. And Ukraine is very much waiting. Waiting for real actions. Real security guarantees. From those whose word is trustworthy. And whose actions can keep the peace.

Truly. All offers are on the table. Our needs are on the table. We need peace immediately. The answers are up to you.

I am thankful to those who help us! Thank you!

Glory to Ukraine!
The Russian army is forcibly deporting thousands of Mariupol residents in order to use them as hostages for political pressure on Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said this in a statement posted to Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

The ministry said the Russian Federation has begun a new phase of terror against the city of Mariupol as residents who survived Russian bombing and artillery shelling are now being forcibly deported to Russia. Some 15,000 residents of the city's Livoberezhny district are in grave danger, as the Russian occupiers are now forcing them to move to Russia.

"According to the information available, the Russian army has forcibly deported about 6,000 Mariupol residents to Russian filtration camps in order to use them as hostages and put more political pressure on Ukraine," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Ukrainian diplomats stressed that at the same time, the Russian armed forces are firing on evacuation columns trying to leave Mariupol for the territory of Ukraine free from Russian occupation. Additionally, Russian troops continue to hold in detention a humanitarian convoy of buses that arrived a few days ago from Zaporizhia to take people from Mariupol.

The ministry stressed that such actions by Russia are a gross violation of the laws and customs of war, the norms of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.

"We call on the world leaders gathered in Brussels today for the NATO, Group of Seven and EU summits to take urgent action to save the lives of the residents of Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities who have found themselves in an inhumane siege by the Russian army," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Ukrainian diplomats also called on the international community to impose new tough sanctions on Russia to stop its deadly military machine, as well as cut off all business ties with Russian companies to stop funding Russia's war against Ukraine.

Ukrinform reported earlier that Russian invaders are deporting thousands of Mariupol residents to Russia. In total, about 15,000 Mariupol residents were illegally moved to Russia.

Mariupol City Council said the people are first taken to "filtration camps" from where they are sent to various remote cities in Russia.

Today it is known that about 6,000 Mariupol residents have already been forcibly deported to Russian territory.
Russia is delivering weapons and equipment to Belarus and Crimea to carry out offensive operations.

"The Russian military leadership, realizing that the available forces and means are not enough to keep the temporarily occupied territories and carry out hostilities, redeploys military equipment and weapons from other Russian military districts to Belarus and the temporarily occupied Crimea. The goal is to try to get ready for and carry out an offensive to encircle Kyiv," Oleksandr Motuzianyk, Spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said at a briefing.

According to him, in the Volyn, Polissya, and Siversky directions, the enemy had to abandon offensive actions, trying by all means to hold the previously occupied frontiers.

In addition, some Belarusian units continue to be involved in shielding certain parts of UkraineBelarus border.

The blockade of Chernihiv and unsuccessful attempts to capture the town of Slavutych continue.

In Slobozhansky direction, the blockade of the city of Sumy continues. No active hostilities are being carried out in the direction of Kharkiv. Russian invaders have focused on destroying the city's civilian infrastructure. In the direction of the town of Izium, the enemy retreated to its southern part.

In Donetsk direction, the enemy tries to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

In the South Buh direction, the enemy tries to restore combat capability, replenish ammunition and fuel stockpiles.

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NATO's eastern flank has a clear understanding of the possibility of Russias attack on the Allies, but the farther the countries are located from the eastern flank, the lesser they believe in that.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said this on the air of the nationwide telethon, Ukrinform reports.

In particular, Ukraines top diplomat noted that he and President Volodymyr Zelensky informed the partners that Ukraine had been fighting not only for itself but also to prevent the war from coming directly to NATO countries.

"On the eastern flank, there is a clear understanding and acknowledgment of this interpretation of events, but the farther countries are located from NATO's eastern front, the lesser they believe that Russia can attack them," he said.

"As a foreign minister of one of the Western European countries told me, You know, we have never been at war with Russia and therefore we do not even imagine that it is possible," Kuleba said.

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The UN Security Council has defeated Russias draft resolution on "aid" and "protection" of civilians in Ukraine.

As an Ukrinform correspondent reports from New York, only two of the 15 members of the Security Council, Russia and China, voted in favor, while 13 abstained: Britain, France, the United States, Ireland, Norway, Albania, Mexico, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Gabon, India, and the UAE.

"If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and abandon the siege of cities. But it didn't," said UKs Permanent Representative to the United Nations Barbara Woodward after the vote.

Russia convened a meeting of the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine on the same day as the UN General Assembly considered the issue.

France and Mexico refused to submit the draft resolution prepared by them for consideration realizing that Russia as the Security Council permanent member would veto it. Therefore, the draft document was submitted for discussion to the General Assembly, which adopts a decision by a simple majority.

In Russias draft, Russia itself is not mentioned as a culprit of the humanitarian disaster.

Russia tries to put to a vote at the General Assembly a similar draft, sponsored by South Africa and inspired by Moscow, but it is very likely to be defeated as well.

Instead, the General Assembly is expected to adopt resolution "Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine" on Thursday.

The emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on the situation in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion continued in New York. The previous meeting of the emergency session took place on February 28 - March 2. On March 2, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution "Aggression against Ukraine", which condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demanded that Russia immediately withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory.

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Agreeing to Putin's humiliating condition to the EU to pay for oil and gas in rubles will help the Russians kill Ukrainians.

According to Ukrinform, this was stated on Twitter by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

"If any EU country bows to Putins humiliating demands to pay for oil and gas in rubles, it will be like helping Ukraine with one hand and helping Russians kill Ukrainians with the other. I urge relevant countries to make a wise and responsible choice," Kuleba wrote.

As reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin said "unfriendly countries" must from now on pay for all Russian gas supplied in rubles. Putin's order means that buyers of Russian gas in Europe will have to buy rubles on the Russian market to pay for energy supplies.

On March 7, Russia added 50 countries to the list of "unfriendly" countries, including the European Union, Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Japan, Switzerland and others. The list includes countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Russian authorities have set up a series of rallies in Serbia, Bulgaria, Armenia, and Syria to misinform the international community. At the same time, this did not help the Kremlin implement its plans.

Thats according to the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, Ukrinform reports.

"The Center for Countering Disinformation at the NSDC reports that the enemy has held a series of rallies to misinform the international community. Russia has long been investing in building a network of pro-Russian organizations abroad to create in Europe the illusion of support for Russia's actions. Since the beginning of the war, Russia has decided to exploit these assets, the statement reads.

It is noted that a pro-Russian rally was organized in Serbia, where among the main messages were separatist slogans concerning Crimea and Kosovo.

A pro-Russian rally in Bulgaria was organized by the pro-Kremlin Renaissance party, where protesters demanded a halt to arms supplies to Ukraine.

In addition, a pro-Russian rally was held in Armenia, where the main message was support for Putin's actions.

Also at the rally in Syria, the main narrative was support for Putin's behavior.

At the same time, according to the Center, total corruption in Russia's intelligence community does not contribute to the implementation of the Kremlin's plans abroad and only exposes Vladimir Putin as a clown in the interational arena.

As Ukrinform reported earlier on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying civilian infrastructure and residential areas, massively using artillery, ballistic missiles, and bombs.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with Speaker of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia Inara Murniece, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen and President of the Riigikogu of the Republic of Estonia Juri Ratas who arrived in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader noted the importance of their visit despite the difficult security situation caused by the Russian invasion, the Presidents Office reports, according to Ukrinform.

"From the first hours, you are with us  at the level of leaders, at the level of nations. That is why we are grateful to you. In Ukraine, everyone understands this, everyone appreciates it," Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"The highest trust of the people of Ukraine is in your countries and in Poland, it is true. This corresponds to the steps you have taken towards Ukraine," he added.

The president praised the signing today in Kyiv of a joint statement by the Speakers of the Parliaments of Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in support of our state.

Volodymyr Zelensky also expressed gratitude for signing a joint statement "On the Urgent Need to Modernize the Air Defense of Ukraine," which was signed by representatives of the parliaments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

"We welcome all the legislative initiatives in support of Ukraine that you are talking about and fulfilling in your parliaments, as well as in the international arena. You were also among the first to help with weapons," he said.

The president briefed the Speakers of the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Parliaments on the consequences of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, noting that Russian troops were deliberately attacking the civilian population and destroying peaceful infrastructure. The aggressor is trying to besiege large cities such as Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in many settlements.

According to the president, in order to effectively protect citizens, including civilians, Ukraine needs weapons  air defense, aircraft, and armored vehicles.

Military and financial assistance from the Baltic States and other partner countries is vital for Ukraine today, said Volodymyr Zelensky.

He also stressed the importance of further strengthening sanctions against Russia, including the imposition of a full embargo on any trade with Russia and Belarus, as well as the disconnection of all Russian banks from the SWIFT system. This will deprive the Russian military machine of funding and force Moscow to seek peace.

The president thanked Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia for their active support of our country's accelerated movement towards membership in the European Union. He noted that given Ukraine's defense of European values in the war with Russia, our country deserves an accelerated procedure for joining the EU.


University Police Department

Clery Act

The ULM Police Department keeps statistics on crime and safety on the ULM campus, as required by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act), codified in 1990 as 20 U.S.C.1092(f).

The university compiles several categories of campus crime/safety reports:

Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports

Police and Fire Logs

Crime Statistics

The purpose of these reports is to provide information about on-campus security to include: campus and community crime statistics, policy information, safety tips, resource phone numbers, and a brief overview of the many services the university provides. Where applicable, these reports also provide information about fire statistics in ULM Residence Halls.

Per federal requirements, Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports are published on or before October 1 for the preceding calendar year.

Sexually-Oriented Criminal Offense Data Reports

The ULM Police Department reports annually to the Louisiana commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Criminal Justice a Sexually-Oriented Criminal Offense Data report. These reports are completed and submitted each year by February fifteenth as required by Louisiana Revised Statute 15:624. Annual reports are available as PDFs and are listed below.

2021 Sexually-Oriented Crime Report (as PDF)

Annual Security and Fire Reports

Annual Security and Fire Reports may be viewed at the ULM Police Department during normal business hours or are available for download as a PDF.

2021 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2020 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2019 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2018 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2017 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2016 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2015 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2014 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

2013 Annual Security & Fire Report (as PDF)

(To view these reports Adobe Reader is required, available as a free download)

To request a printed copy of any of these campus crime/safety reports, please call 318-342-5350 or stop by the University Police Department, located in Filhiol Hall at 3811 DeSiard Street.

For additional information or questions about ULM's Annual Security and Fire Reports, please contact Sgt. James Willis, Clery Compliance Officer at jwillis@ulm.edu or 318-342-5350.

Police and Fire Logs

Police and Fire Logs are available anytime upon request at the University of Louisiana Monroe Police Department located in Filhiol Hall at 3811 DeSiard Street. Archived reports are available as PDFs and are listed below.






A mother waits with her family before boarding a train from Lviv, in western Ukraine, to Poland on 10 March. They fled their home in Kharkiv two days earlier, after their electricity and water were cut off.  UNHCR/Valerio Muscella

Since 24 February, millions have been living through the horror of war in Ukraine. In a month, many civilians have lost their lives, with thousands more injured. Families have been torn apart. Without an immediate end to the fighting, this unspeakable suffering and mass human displacement will only get worse.

Almost a quarter of Ukraines population  more than 10 million people  have been forced from their homes. Some 3.7 million refugees have been forced to flee the country, making this the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Second World War. An additional 6.5 million people have been displaced within Ukraines borders, and at least 13 million are estimated to be stranded in affected areas or unable to leave due to heightened security risks, destruction of bridges and roads, as well as lack of resources or information on where to find safety and accommodation.

Behind the figures lies unimaginable suffering that only grows as humanitarian needs increase. Intense fighting continues to trigger large-scale displacement while simultaneously exacerbating the plight of the internally displaced or those who cannot flee the worst-affected areas.

Homes, schools, hospitals, essential services and other civilian infrastructure have been laid to waste, reducing some people to drinking rainwater and snowmelt, cutting off supplies of food and medicines. Inside Ukraine, establishing safe corridors and satisfactory security guarantees for the evacuation of civilians continues to be an urgent issue. And the delivery of lifesaving aid remains dangerous and challenging.

UNHCR has been in Ukraine for 30 years and we will not leave. When and where able, along side and in coordination with other UN organizations, the ICRC and NGOs, we continue to support the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities by providing emergency shelter, cash assistance, core relief items  from blankets and hygiene kits to folding beds and sleeping bags  and other critical services for those who have fled. We are contributing to humanitarian convoys destined for people in hard-to-reach areas, and we will keep doing so.

Outside Ukraine, we have reinforced all our teams and scaled up our humanitarian response to bolster governments of countries receiving refugees from Ukraine in providing critical humanitarian and protection assistance and supporting authorities to increase their capacity to host new arrivals. The warm welcome and well-organized reception of Ukrainian refugees has been exceptional and deserves recognition and gratitude.

UNHCR, however, has flagged protection risks to groups among those fleeing Ukraine that are of huge concern to us. It is critical that measures are put in place to quickly identify, mitigate and respond to risks of gender-based violence, exploitation, abuse and trafficking of women and girls. We also recognize unaccompanied and separated children, and refugees who are LGBTIQ+, older or living with disabilities have particular needs and could be vulnerable to greater protection risks. Thousands of third country nationals fled the war alongside Ukrainian nationals, including some in need of international protection or at risk of statelessness. Many have reached safety or returned to their home countries, however, there are persistent reports of unequal or discriminatory treatment.

Even a single case of racism or discrimination preventing anyone from fleeing violence or from accessing asylum and safety is one case too many. We will continue to work with authorities inside Ukraine and in neighboring countries to ensure everyone fleeing the same violence and tragedy of war in Ukraine, is offered the same safety and protection.

I am grateful that neighbouring countries have kept their borders open, and I welcome the unprecedented decision by the European Union to offer Temporary Protection. I am also humbled by the extraordinary compassion shown by local responders and global supporters as they help those fleeing the conflict, in the form of accommodation, transport, food, and financial and material donations. This support and solidarity demonstrated by the states and people across Europe and globally has been incredibly heartening.

This level of solidarity should set the example for all refugee crises. Even as the Ukraine crisis intensifies, we must not forget the millions more children, women and men displaced by conflict, persecution, violence and human rights abuses. In many other regions of the world  far too many  the devastation inflicted on millions of innocents is no less real and no less cruel. The right to seek and gain asylum is universal. It is not conditional on the colour of your skin, your age, gender, beliefs or birthplace. Respect for refugee rights is not open to interpretation or negotiation.

This crisis will challenge us. The capacity of neighbouring countries receiving refugees is already coming under strain. A protracted conflict characterized by the brutal disrespect of international humanitarian law which we have observed in the past month can kill, terrorize and displace millions more. The only way to resolve this crisis is for the war to end. But while the number fleeing continues to rise, both they and the people hosting them need and deserve our support. More will be needed  for states, for refugees, for local communities  and I urge the international community to ensure that it is forthcoming.

The war in Ukraine has generated enormous suffering but also inspired acts of great courage, generosity and compassion. Ensuring continued support to its innocent victims is vital if we are to stop this crisis turning into a catastrophe.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
In recent weeks, a large number of state institutions, businesses, civil society actors and individuals have responded to the influx of Ukrainian refugees by opening up education and job opportunities for the new arrivals.

Education and employment programmes and other safe and legal pathways can provide an opportunity for people forced to flee to be able to continue to pursue their education or career and be given a chance to leave a temporary shelter or protracted refugee situation.

We would benefit from having more safe and legal pathways for refugees to come to Europe and get protection here, says Lisa Pelling, Director of the think tank Arena Ide.

She was one of three panelists in the webinar Complementary pathways for persons in need of international protection, jointly organized on 10 March by Save the Children, the Swedish Red Cross, and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in the Nordic and Baltic Countries.

Right now, the solidarity with Ukrainian refugees is enormous. I believe that this crisis will give us additional arguments to show that we need to accept people forced to flee, we can afford to accept them, and we will even benefit from accepting them, Lisa Pelling adds.

The webinar  which is the second of a three-part series on durable solutions  brought together leading voices on migration, forced displacement and complementary pathways in Sweden. The panelists included Bernd Parusel, expert from the Swedish Migration Agency and researcher on European migration policy, Lisa Pelling, Director of the think tank Arena Ide and expert on migration and integration issues, and Karolina Catoni, Deputy Head of the International Centre at the University of Gothenburg and Coordinator of the Swedish section of Scholars at Risk.

To respond to the need for long-term solutions for refugees  whether from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia or elsewhere  UNHCR has long advocated for more complementary pathways for refugees to be established. Since the adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees in 2018, the interest in complementary pathways has grown and there are numerous initiatives in motion in Sweden and globally.

Complementary pathways refer to safe and legal pathways which complement resettlement by providing lawful stay in a third country where their international protection needs are met. These can include education programmes, labour mobility opportunities, family reunification and humanitarian admission programmes. With access to safe and legal pathways, people forced to flee can find safety and protection without being forced on dangerous and irregular journeys.

Legal pathways can be a way to increase refugees independence and give refugees the possibility to develop and use their skills and ensure that their competencies are not wasted, says Erika Lofgren, Senior Durable Solutions Associate at UNHCRs Representation for the Nordic and Baltic Countries. Legal pathways can also contribute to lessening the burden on first countries of asylum. It is an act of solidarity.

Complementary pathways do not substitute states responsibility to receive and protect refugees who seek asylum in their countries  and, in addition, the idea and clear recommendation from UNHCR is to make complementary pathways additional to the traditional resettlement of refugees. Which complementary pathways are available and how they work in practice varies between countries.

In Sweden, the international network Scholars at Risk is one example of a complementary pathway initiative. The network contributes to providing safe and legal pathways for academics at risk by connecting them with Swedish universities and higher education institutions open to hosting at-risk scholars. Currently, Sweden accepts around ten at-risk academics each year  a number which Karolina Catoni from Scholars at Risk considers likely to grow following high interest in the programme and motivation to expand.

The third and final seminar in the series will focus on integration and be held in the autumn.
Virtual reality film On the Other Side features the story of Arianna, a young woman from Venezuela who fled her country in search of safety in Ecuador.  UNHCR/Iman Transmedia

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the European Union launched today an innovative 360-degree interactive film that tells the story of a young woman from Venezuela who fled from her country in search of safety in Ecuador.

On the Other Side is a virtual reality film that aims to create empathy among the European and global public about the situation of Venezuelans who have left their country due to insecurity, persecution and widespread shortages of basic goods and services. With more than 6 million refugees and migrants, the exodus from Venezuela is one of the largest external displacement crises in the world. Over half a million Venezuelans have found a home in Ecuador.

"We hope that this project will help the public to better understand the courage and resilience that refugees and migrants need to show during the dangerous journeys they embark on," said Jose Samaniego, UNHCR Director for the Americas. "This film highlights the need to continue providing emergency assistance to Venezuelans on the move, while also investing in solutions to ensure they can contribute to their host communities."

Some of the countless risks that refugees and migrants face are portrayed in the film through the story of the protagonist, Arianna. She had to leave Venezuela and, after crossing Colombia on foot, she is now trying to join her older sister in Ecuador, where she hopes to resume her studies and achieve her dream of becoming a doctor. Hundreds of Venezuelans like Arianna endure hardship every day during their journey, braving the cold weather and exposed to dangers such as exploitation and abuse.

After several years of a crisis that continues to force Venezuelans to flee their country, it is necessary to remember that humanitarian needs persist and are even worsening, says Alvaro De Vicente, Head of DG ECHOs regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean. I hope that this project will help us not to forget the critical situation suffered by all Venezuelans on the move. The time that has passed since the beginning of the crisis has not helped to find a solution, rather the opposite, and this must be shown.

Throughout the film, viewers will help Arianna make three key decisions that will shape her future. This interactive film is fictional but based on true stories. Written jointly with dozens of refugees and migrants in Ecuador, On the other side will allow the audience to walk a mile in their shoes and face the difficult choices they have to make on a daily basis.

Note to editors

Virtual launch event

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in partnership with the European Union, is pleased to invite you to the virtual launch of the 360 interactive film On the Other Side, about the Venezuelan displacement, and to the High-level Panel on Venezuelan Displacement on 24 March 2022 (1600 CET; 1000 EST).

Speakers at the event include Mr. Gonzalo Vargas Llosa (UNHCR Representative EU Affairs), Ms. Andrea Koulaimah (Director of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and Pacific, DG ECHO), Mr. Jose Samaniego (Director, UNHCR Regional Bureau for the Americas), Ms. Rosa Ortiz (Actress and Venezuelan displaced in Ecuador) and H.E. Charles-Michel Geurts (EU Ambassador in Ecuador).

To register: click here

Watch the trailer here Under embargo until 0800 CET on Thursday 24 March 2022

Watch the film here Under embargo until 0800 CET on Thursday 24 March 2022

For more information contact:

About UNHCR

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution.

UNHCR, together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), co-leads the Regional Inter-agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V). With about 200 partners across Latin America and the Caribbean, the R4V Platform seeks to strengthen protection of the rights, improve access to services, and expand integration opportunities for refugees, migrants and host communities.

About EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid

The European Union and its Member States are the world's leading donor of humanitarian aid. Relief assistance is an expression of European solidarity with people in need all around the world. It aims to save lives, prevent and alleviate human suffering, and safeguard the integrity and human dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises.

Through its Civil Protection and Humanitarian aid Operations department, the European Union helps millions of victims of conflict and disasters every year. With headquarters in Brussels and a global network of field offices, the EU provides assistance to the most vulnerable people on the basis of humanitarian needs.
The support from the Government of Japan will contribute to the strengthening of the basic health cares systems in Mahama refugee camp & host community

Kigali, Rwanda  The Government of Japan announced its support to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) operation and the refugee response in Rwanda, amounting to USD 1.18 million.

This contribution from the Japanese government will boost the efforts of UNHCR in various health related services accessed by refugees and the host community in and around the Mahama Refugee Camp.

The generous support from the people of Japan will contribute to the strengthening of the basic health cares systems; improving water and sanitation conditions, especially in areas where there are high risks of Covid-19 spread; addressing Covid-19 infection and prevention through knowledge and development of effective prevention habits and behaviours for children and adolescents. In addition, this contribution will also enhance the provision of protection and psychosocial support to the most vulnerable displaced persons and the host community, such as Gender-Based Violence (GBV) survivors.

At the end of February 2022, the Mahama Refugee camp, located in Kirehe District, Eastern Province, hosted 55,907 refugees  mainly Burundian and Congolese.

The project will be implemented for a duration of 11 months, from February to December 2022, thanks to the generosity of the Japanese government and the people of Japan.

Mr. Ahmed Baba Fall, the UNHCR Representative to Rwanda, commended the government of Japan for its continued support in providing humanitarian assistance to persons of concern in Rwanda; noting that the support will allow UNHCR to cover life savings needs in the sectors of protection health and WASH, but also to strengthen the Covid-19 response in refugee in Mahama camp and the host communities.

Were happy to get this lifesaving support as we continue to mitigate and prevent the impacts of Covid-19 on refugees and the host community. Ensuring adequate healthcare is accessible to the people we serve is a key part of ensuring their protection, while durable solutions are being sought. We are thankful for the Japanese government for standing with refugees during this global pandemic. said Mr. Baba Fall.

H.E. Mr. Masahiro Imai, Ambassador of Japan to Rwanda said: It is our pleasure that this project through our support will improve the health of refugees in Mahama Camp and their living environment, including water and sanitation, and contribute to infection prevention through Covid-19 risk awareness education. Japan appreciates the efforts which have been made by the Rwandan Government and UNHCR in this regard, and we wish to continue working with them

The government of Japan has an excellent track record of supporting UNHCRs humanitarian work globally. In Rwanda, Japan has supported UNHCR operations with funding amounting to over 10 million USD over the past 10 years.

Read the Joint Press Release here

For more information, please contact:

Elise Villechalane, UNHCR/Kigali, [email protected]; Mob +250 788 315 198

Kentaro Tahara, Embassy of Japan/Kigali, [email protected]; Mob +250 781 362 564

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Can Eminoglu | 24 March 2022

With the support of the United States, persons in need of international protection in Turkey are supported to continue with university education, thereby building independent lives that benefit both host and refugee communities.

Examination period is around the corner, says 21-year-old Farzaneh. We are studying heavily. The two siblings, Farzaneh and her 19-year-old sister, Fahimeh, are currently at Ege University in Izmir, studying chemistry and economics, respectively.

The sisters family is originally from Afghanistan. As a result of the conflict, the entire family had to flee Kabul to Turkey in 2018. In Afghanistan, attending school brought many challenges for them due to the security situation. Back home, the siblings were in the top three in their school. Even though fleeing their home country felt quite difficult in the beginning, being able to access education became a source of motivation. Education means everything for us, explains Farzaneh.

At the high school, the siblings were welcomed with a strong support system. Not only their peers but also their teachers helped Farzaneh and her sister to succeed. Developing our Turkish skills was our first task. Once we achieved that, following courses turned out to be easier than we thought, highlights Fahimeh. Our parents were also supportive in this period. Thanks to the guidance provided at school and their dedication, they scored well on the university entrance exams. The siblings have been accepted by Ege University to study in the faculties of their personal choice.

Supporting us through education is very meaningful. This gives a chance to university students to be independent.

Before moving to Izmir and getting enrolled at the university, they contacted one of UNHCRs partners, Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM), to seek support. It was a mystery for us how to follow the university registration processes and look for a dormitory, mentions Farzaneh. Following our application at ASAM, we have received the necessary information. During their conversation with the social workers at ASAM, the siblings were also informed about UNHCR Turkeys Higher Education Cash Grant Programme. With this information in hand, Fahimeh applied for and received the grant: Supporting us through education is very meaningful, she emphasizes. This gives a chance to university students to be independent. UNHCRs Higher Education Cash Grant aims to provide financial support to contribute to higher education-related expenses, mainly for the enrollment fees.

This is the first year of university studies for the siblings. As usual, the sisters teamed up to study together. They have also registered with the university library and have already borrowed their first materials for upcoming projects. While concentrating on their studies is their number one priority, exploring the city is also a goal for their free time. Izmir is a city that gives inspiration, says Farzaneh. There are many things to do here. Once their campus is fully open, the siblings plan to join student clubs to learn new things and socialize with other students.

The siblings are determined to continue with their academic studies. For them, hard work is the most important criterion for being successful in any endeavor. They further believe that, especially for women, education has a transformative effect. Education helps to create independent women. The grant support that I received also contributes to that. My biggest dream is to be there for women who struggle to achieve their dreams, Fahimeh says. Having an occupation which will allow me to help women attend school, develop new skills and explore their internal power is my biggest dream.

Helping women attend school, develop new skills and explore their internal power motivates me the most to pursue a career in the future.

Thanks to the assistance of the United States, persons in need of international protection are supported to participate in enriching academic life through interventions such as education counselling and guidance provided by UNHCR and its partners, as well as the Higher Education Cash Grant Programme initiated by UNHCR. This support can strengthen the agency of women and girls, to promote womens economic empowerment and to support access by women and girls to education as recognized by the Global Compact of Refugees (GCR). More women in higher education, like Farzaneh and Fahimeh, also means a huge step in achieving gender equality by empowering all women and girls, which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015 for a more equal future.

Photo: UNHCR / Emrah Gurel

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Dharmik Sheth and his wife, Meera Sheth, play with their son, Anand, who is being held by a friend at the BAPS Mandir in Robbinsville, New Jersey, on March 16, 2022. He recently returned home from the Polish border, where he and several friends had traveled to assist Ukrainian refugees. (Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Sonora, CA (95370)

Today

Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 76F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.
Jennifer Ann Hancock was born Nov. 20, 1956, in Atlanta, to William Roy and Martha Jones Hancock. She went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, in Gray. She was preceded in death by her father, William Roy Hancock, and her brother, Timothy Roy Hancock, as well as grandparents
The government on Thursday expressed its resolve to successfully complete the programme of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September and said that the ongoing 7th review with the IMF team was going on as per schedule

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Mar, 2022 ) :The government on Thursday expressed its resolve to successfully complete the programme of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September and said that the ongoing 7th review with the IMF team was going on as per schedule.

Clarifying some news items speculating recently about the on-going 7th review under IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the ministry of finance in a statement said that negotiations under the 7th review were continuing as planned and the two sides remained engaged on a regular basis at a technical level through virtual meetings and data sharing.

The focus of negotiations under the 7th review has been on the agreed targets between the two sides, as well as the recently announced relief and industrial promotion packages.

"There is a consensus that all the end-December agreed targets have been achieved, while progress on other actions mentioned in the Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) for the 6th review has also been found to be satisfactory," the statement added.

On the relief package, complete details, including financing options, have been shared with the IMF and a general understanding has been developed.

The IMF has, however, indicated the need for some further discussions on the industrial promotion package over the next few days. An understanding is expected to be developed on the said package subsequent to those discussions.

Upon completion of the technical talks, the text of Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) for the 7th review will come under discussion.

"The Government is confident that the finalization of the MEFP would lead to IMF board meeting towards the end of April. The Government remains committed to completing the IMF program successfully in September", the statement added.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Mar, 2022 ) :President of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is promoting "The Kashmir Files", a film on the plight of displaced Kashmiri Hindus, to incite people on religious lines in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), Mehbooba Mufti talking to reporters on the sidelines of her party's convention in Jammu called for the setting up of a panel to probe the circumstances that led to the exodus of Pandits from the valley.

Asking people to watch the film but not harbour hatred towards Muslims, Mufti said the circumstances that led to the 2020 Delhi riots and the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 should also be probed.

"Of course, the government of India should take a decision in this regard (probing the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits)," here. She said the Indian government should set up a "truth and reconciliation commission" to probe not only the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, but also the Gujarat and Delhi riots.

"I have not seen 'The Kashmir Files'. I have heard that the film shows a lot of violence and bloodshed and that it has painful scenes. What happened with the Kashmiri Pandits was horrible. We feel their pain. But you cannot hate every Kashmiri Muslim (for the exodus of Pandits)," she said.

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief recounted the massacres of Sikhs in Chittisinghpura, Hindus in Bajrala (Doda) and Kotdhara and Muslims in Surankote and said, "Every community faced the worst oppression in Jammu and Kashmir. The people of Jammu and Kashmir were caught between the guns of Pakistan and India. The Kashmiri Pandits were also victims of it."Maintaining that the makers of the "The Kashmir Files" have to make money, Mufti said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are promoting the film to incite people on religious lines.
A woman and his son were killed while a minor girl sustained serious injures when a truck hit a motorcycle on Depalpur-Kasur Road, here on Thursday

KASUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Mar, 2022 ) :A woman and his son were killed while a minor girl sustained serious injures when a truck hit a motorcycle on Depalpur-Kasur Road, here on Thursday.

A Rescue-1122 spokesperson said the three members of a family were travelling on a motorcycle when a rashly driven truck hit it.

As a result, Goman Bibi, 60, her son Irfan, 25, died on the spot while his three-year-old daughter Abiha sustained injures.

On information, the Rescue-1122 reached the spot and shifted the victims to the DHQ Hospital Kasur.
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to work to hold North Korea accountable for its recent missile test, the White House said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2022) US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to work to hold North Korea accountable for its recent missile test, the White House said on Thursday.

"President Biden met with Prime Minister Kishida on the sidelines of the G7 today.

The two Leaders discussed DPRK's launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which both Leaders strongly condemned, stressed the need for diplomacy, and agreed to continue working together to hold the DPRK accountable," a White House official said, according to a pool report.

Biden also conveyed to Kishida the United States' commitment to Japanese and Korean security, as well as thanked him for Japan's response to Russia's ongoing special operation in Ukraine, the official said.
The investment fund of US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was participating in financing the military-biological program of Pentagon in Ukraine, Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2022) The investment fund of US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was participating in financing the military-biological program of Pentagon in Ukraine, Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Thursday.

"The incoming materials make it possible to trace the scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects. Attention is drawn to the involvement in the financing of these activities of structures close to the current US leadership, in particular, the Rosemont Seneca investment fund, which is headed by Hunter Biden," Kirillov told reporters.

The fund has significant financial resources in the amount of at least $2.4 billion, the official added.

"At the same time, there is a close connection between the fund and the main contractors of the US military department, including Metabiota, which, along with Black and Veach, is the main supplier of equipment for Pentagon biolaboratories around the world," he said.
Poland on Wednesday said it had expelled 45 Russian diplomats for espionage, an allegation immediately dismissed as baseless by Russia's ambassador to Poland

Warsaw, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Mar, 2022 ) :Poland on Wednesday said it had expelled 45 Russian diplomats for espionage, an allegation immediately dismissed as baseless by Russia's ambassador to Poland.

Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski made the announcement on Twitter.

"Poland has expelled 45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats," he wrote. "We are dismantling the Russian special services network in our country." Russian ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev confirmed the expulsions, telling reporters that the individuals concerned had been given five days to leave Poland.

"There are no grounds for these kinds of accusations," he said, adding that Russia reserved the right to take retaliatory measures.

Bilateral diplomatic relations remained in place, he said: "The embassies remain, the ambassadors remain."A spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry said the move came as "Russia is waging a barbaric war against Ukraine for more than three weeks.

"And we and other Western countries are treated by Russia as its key adversary," Lukasz Jasina said.
(UroToday.com) The 2022 Southeastern Section of the AUAs annual meeting included a state-of-the-art lecture by Dr. Brian Chapin discussing optimizing therapy for locally advanced prostate cancer. Dr. Chapin started by highlighting that the disease states of prostate cancer have become quite detailed, based on castration status and line of therapy received:

However, particularly in the locally advanced setting commonly leading to disease recurrence, is it possible to alter the disease course with an intervention? Is it possible to cure these patients? Prolong survival? Delay time to systemic therapy?

High-risk disease is defined based on digital rectal examination, PSA, and pathology, with two commonly utilized definitions:

NCCN High risk: cT3a, or Gleason Grade Group 4 or 5, or PSA > 20 ng/mL Very high risk: cT3b-4, or primary pattern 5, or >4 cores of Gleason Grade Group 4 or 5 DAmico: cT2c-T3a, or Gleason >=8, or PSA > 20 ng/mL

Ultimately, stratification into high and very high-risk groups provides meaningful delineation for risk of biochemical recurrence, metastasis, and cancer specific mortality:

Dr. Chapin emphasized that locally advanced disease equals high risk disease, but not all high-risk disease is locally advanced disease. But, what we are treating may not truly be high risk, given that Gleason 8 disease on biopsy may not correlate with radical prostatectomy pathology, as highlighted by work from Duke, the NCDB, and a MD Anderson Cancer Center/Cleveland Clinic/Johns Hopkins University collaborative:

Ultimately, risk stratification and treatment are moving targets, particularly with stage migration from increased utilization of PSMA staging in high-risk prostate cancer. The proPSMA trial was a multi-center, two-arm randomized controlled trial among men with histologically confirmed prostate cancer who were being considered for curative intent radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy.1 Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either conventional imaging performed using bone scan and CT or Ga-68 PSMA-11 PET/CT.

The primary study outcome was accuracy of first-line diagnostic imaging for the identification of either pelvic nodal or distant metastatic disease. Among 302 men, of which the reference standard was possible in 295 of men, PSMA PET-CT resulted in detection of any metastasis in 23% of cases, compared to 7% of cases for conventional imaging. However, Dr. Chapin notes that there are several unanswered questions with regards to the proPSMA data, including:

Are these patients with metastasis now oligometastatic? Do these patients even benefit from local therapy?

With regards to treatment options for high- or very-high risk patients, Dr. Chapin notes that the NCCN guidelines give external beam radiotherapy a category 1 recommendation, whereas surgery has a category 1 to 2B recommendation:

When trying to decide which treatment is better, Dr. Chapin notes that there are inherent biases, as highlighted with the following examples of discussions with urology and radiation oncology colleagues:

Urologist: salvage radical prostatectomy is near impossible

Radiation Oncologist: every post radical prostatectomy patients gets radiotherapy anyway

Urologist: secondary cancers are a real issue

Radiation oncologist: radiotherapy side effects dont occur

Looking closer at the available data, the following table highlights studies assessing ADT +/- RT for high risk prostate cancer:

The ProtecT trial randomized 1,643 men with localized prostate cancer to active monitoring, radiotherapy, or surgery.2 However, notably there were very few high-risk patients, including no patients with cT3 disease and only 37 patients with Gleason 8-10 disease (2%). The SPCG-4 trial randomized men with localized prostate cancer to surgery or observation,3 noting with 18-year follow-up no difference in relative risk reduction for death, prostate cancer-specific mortality, or metastasis, however with a relative risk reduction for ADT use favoring surgery (relative risk reduction 0.45, 95% CI 0.31-0.65):

The PIVOT trial4 randomized men with localized prostate cancer to prostatectomy versus observation and with long-term follow-up, there was a benefit favoring surgery for improved local and systemic disease progression, however no difference in prostate specific mortality among all patients and when restricting to only high-risk patients:

When comparing surgery to radiation for high-risk patients, the studies to date are inherently biased and thus data/results must be interpreted cautiously. Patients with high-risk prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy, still have significant 10-year secondary therapy, 10-year metastasis, and 10-year prostate cancer-specific mortality rates:

But, Dr. Chapin notes that with a glass is half full approach, it is perhaps notable that 35-40% of these patients will be spared any secondary therapy at 10 years after undergoing radical prostatectomy as their primary treatment.

Androgen deprivation therapy is commonly used with radiotherapy for 18-36 months had has several common and notable effects on quality of life, including (i) fatigue, (ii) hot flashes, (iii) decreased libido and erectile dysfunction, (iv) gynecomastia, (v) psychological/emotional/cognitive impairment, (vi) comorbidities such as coronary artery disease and diabetes mellitus, and (vii) anemia, lipid dysfunction. Additionally, the longer you wait after radiotherapy, the more second cancer the patient is susceptible to, with a 10-14 year relative risk of 1.6, and a >15 year relative risk of 1.91:

Based on data from SPCG7, patients that had radiotherapy in combination with hormonal therapy (versus hormonal therapy alone) had a noteable increase in secondary malignancies at ~10 years after starting therapy.

With regards to personalization of care, Dr. Chapin notes that the clinical cases dictate treatment. There are several situations where surgery or radiation may be preferred:

Surgery preferred: IBD/Crohns disease/UC, pre-existing lower urinary tract symptoms/retention, Lupus/scleroderma, young age (debatable), and prior pelvic radiotherapy

Radiation preferred: non-surgical candidate/extensive comorbidities, multiple prior/complex abdominal surgeries, unwilling to accept potential for stress urinary incontinence, cT4 requiring a cystoprostatectomy or pelvic exenteration

Dr. Chapin notes that the way we think about the personalized approach to prostate cancer therapy involves seeing a patient in the clinic and assessing them on a number of factors (clinical features, genetics, genomics, serum markers, receptors, induced responses, and selection pressures) and then developing a personalized approach to their treatment plan:

However, does sequence and subsequent therapy matter and does where you start predict where you will end up?

Over the last several years, there has been some clarity as to the timing of adjuvant versus salvage radiotherapy. Three randomized controlled trials were contemporaneously designed and began accruing to assess the comparison of adjuvant and early salvage radiotherapy strategies, each with a different primary outcome: time free of metastasis in RADICALS-RT,5 event-free survival (GETUG-AFU 17),6 and biochemical progression (RAVES).7 As an intermediate step, there was a planned aggregate data meta-analysis (ARTISTIC),8 which showed no difference in event-free survival between adjuvant versus early salvage radiotherapy:

Dr. Chapin notes that there are issues with generalizability when assessing randomized trials for adjuvant versus salvage radiotherapy, including: (i) more favorable risk patients were included (the majority of which were Gleason 7 disease), (ii) <20% had Gleason 8-10 or pT3b disease, and (iii) <5% had pathologic node-positive disease. As such, he suggests that shared decision-making still has a role in adjuvant therapies.

With regards to adjuvant ADT in node-positive prostate cancer, the ECOG 3886 trial randomized 98 patients with node-positive to disease to immediate ADT versus observation.9 Immediate ADT was associated with improved overall survival (85% vs 64%), disease-specific survival (93% vs 68%), and progression-free survival (77% vs 43%). As follows is the Kaplan Meier curve for prostate cancer-specific survival:

Salvage lymph node dissection has also continued to gain support in appropriate clinical scenarios, however Dr. Chapin notes that it is difficult to define success, it is debatable if there is any benefit aside from prognostication (does it help us decide on ADT? Radiation?), and just because we see it does not mean we need to excise it. Long-term outcomes of patients treated with salvage lymph node dissection for nodal recurrence until recently were essentially unknown. Bravi et al.10 undertook a multi-institutional approach to assess these long-term outcomes, including 189 patients who experienced PSA rise and nodal-only recurrence after radical prostatectomy and underwent salvage lymph node dissection at 11 centers between 2002 and 2011. Recurrences were detected with either 11C-choline or 68Ga PSMA. The primary outcome was cancer-specific mortality, and the secondary outcomes were overall mortality, clinical recurrence, biochemical recurrence, and ADT-free survival after salvage lymph node dissection. There were 110 and 163 patients experienced clinical recurrence and biochemical recurrence, respectively, with clinical recurrence-free and biochemical recurrence-free survival at 10 years of 31% and 11%, respectively:

After salvage lymph node dissection, a total of 145 patients received ADT, with a median time to ADT of 41 months. Importantly, additional therapy was warranted in >60% of patients within 6 months of salvage lymph node dissection. At a median follow-up for survivors of 87 (IQR 51 to 104) months, 48 patients died, of which 45 died from prostate cancer. At multivariable analyses, patients who had PSA response after salvage lymph node dissection (HR 0.45; p = 0.001), and those receiving ADT within 6 months from salvage lymph node dissection (HR 0.51; p = 0.010) had lower risk of death from prostate cancer.

Treatment of oligometastasis has also recently been generating great interest. Two important phase 2 trials, STOMP11 and the ORIOLE trial,12 have demonstrated biochemical recurrence-free survival and progression free survival for patients undergoing metastasis directed therapy/SABR versus observation:

For the remainder of his presentation, Dr. Chapin highlighted several important high-risk prostate cancer clinical trials. Generally, the neoadjuvant/presurgical preoperative clinical model for designing clinical trials includes a patient fit for surgery with a low cure rate with surgery, treated with a neoadjuvant drug(s) for 3-12 months, followed by a radical prostatectomy:

The CALGB 90203 (Alliance) trial is assessing neoadjuvant chemohormonal therapy prior to radical prostatectomy in high-risk prostate cancer. Patients are randomized to 6 cycles of chemohormonal therapy followed by surgical intervention versus surgical intervention:

The PROTEUS trial is an international multicenter study and enrolling ~2000 patients with localized/locally advanced high-risk/very high-risk prostate cancer who are candidates for radical prostatectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection over 3 years at > 203 sites in 18 countries. Stratification variables include: Gleason score (7 vs  8), pelvic node status (N0 vs N1), international region. Randomization is 1:1 to apalutamide (240 mg/day) + ADT or placebo + ADT. Patients receive 6-month neoadjuvant treatment followed by radical prostatectomy and then 6 months of adjuvant treatment.

The PROTEUS study design is as follows:

The primary end points are pathologic complete response rate and metastasis-free survival; in addition to metastasis-free survival based on conventional imaging, metastasis-free survival based on PSMA PET or conventional imaging will be assessed as a separate end point. The SPCG-15 trial is assessing radical prostatectomy + extended pelvic lymph node dissection versus radiotherapy + 24 months of ADT, with a primary endpoint of prostate cancer specific survival and secondary endpoints of metastasis free survival and quality of life. To date (as of June 2021), 760 patients have been enrolled, with 80% of patients cT3 and a median PSA of 13 ng/mL.

Decipher is a prognostic marker and has also recently been incorporated into clinical trials. Decipher is a 22 gene classifier for risk stratification based on radical prostatectomy specimen analysis with prognostication for metastasis. However, there is no data on predictive ability, although it is currently undergoing prospective evaluation. The PREDICT-RT trial (NRG-GU009) is using Decipher to stratify patients followed by subsequent randomization, as highlighted in the following trial schema:

Finally, the genomic umbrella neoadjuvant study (GUNS) trial is evaluating conditional lethality of targeted therapy. Patients with high-risk localized prostate cancer will undergo genomic profiling and an LHRH agonist + apalutamide for 8 weeks, followed by assignment to androgen receptor axis treatment if there are no targetable aberrations (SPOP, ETS; Group 1) or loss of tumor suppressor genes (PTEN, Rb, p53 mutations; Group 2) or DDR alterations (Group 3), or hypermuted/MSI/Lynch syndrome (Group 4). The trial outline is as follows and mirrors a STAMPEDE platform design approach:

Dr. Chapin concluded his presentation discussing the optimization of therapy for locally advanced prostate cancer with the following summary points:

What we need is improved radiation targeting, improved surgical techniques, and improved combination therapies

But, we also need improved staging with both local and whole body modalities (with evaluation of improved staging and treatment selection to assess for clinical benefit), and improved biology subtyping in order to predict which treatment is most effective

Presented By: Brian F. Chapin, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Written By: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, @zklaassen_md on Twitter during the 86th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association, San Juan, PR, Mar 16  19, 2022



References:
USF Receives $10.6 Million Gift to Open the Bellini Center for Talent Development

By Elizabeth L. Brown

TAMPA (March 24, 2022)  The University of South Florida Muma College of Business today celebrated the grand opening of the Bellini Center for Talent Development, an innovative career-development program housed in a state-of-the-art business hub adjacent to WUSF public media.

The center was made possible by a $10.6 million gift from philanthropists Arnold F. Arnie and Lauren Bellini, both USF alumni. It will bring together Tampa Bay-area business leaders and students for a three-year-plus credentialing program that creates a talent pipeline for employers and increases job placement for students.

The Bellinis vision will provide our business students with a professional development program unlike any in existence, one that can serve as a national model, said USF President Rhea F. Law. We are grateful for this very generous gift, which will benefit our students, business partners, and the entire USF community for generations to come.

More than 200 USF dignitaries, business leaders, faculty and students attended the ribbon-cutting event at the new center. Organizers played two videos showcasing what the center is all about.

The Bellinis are longtime supporters of USF and the Muma College of Business. Arnie Bellini co-founded ConnectWise Inc., a Tampa technology and software development company, in 1982. He sold the company in 2019 after revolutionizing the managed service segment of the IT industry and turned his focus to philanthropy, specifically, growing Tampa Bays IT business economy. His goal: Create 70,000 jobs by 2026.

Arnie Bellini described his $10.6 million gift as responsible capitalism.

I feel responsible capitalism is truly acknowledging the true nature of your success and if youre thinking holistically, you have to give back, he said. Everything that you learned in academia and everything that the business community wants  that gap in between is this, the Bellini Center, right behind me. Were going to fill that gap. If youve had success, you have to give back.

Moez Limayem, the Lynn Pippenger Dean of the Muma College of Business, reminded the crowd that they were witnessing a historic event.

The Bellini Center is timely, relevant, and transformational  a space and program dedicated to both student and business success, he said. From the first day students set foot on our campus, they will get a jump-start on landing their dream job after graduation.

We want to get each Muma College of Business student an internship and the skills they need to succeed in any business environment. With the help of the Bellinis and this remarkable gift, that goal will soon become a reality, he added.

The Bellini Center for Talent Development will be a one-stop shop for professional career development, job placement, advising, internships, and experiential learning opportunities for business students. Beginning in the second semester of their freshman year and continuing through senior year, students will attend workshops led by local business leaders and learn the soft skills employers seek. Theyll become adept at networking, interviewing, and displaying professionalism while developing relationships with potential future employers.

The whole idea of the Bellini Center is to prepare students and to give them the tools for success early on, said Cyndy Sanberg, executive director of the Bellini Center.

The center will open with 19 students, adding another 50 in the summer and 50 more in the fall. It will focus on internships early in a students academic journey and track placement and promotions.

We know that internships can increase job placement two-fold, Sanberg said. But students are waiting until their junior or senior year to get an internship, and we need to change that. We will give them the tools they need to succeed.

The center will also rely heavily on partnerships within the Tampa Bay business community.

Employers are teaching the skills they want to hire students for. Thats huge. Thats what sets us apart, Sanberg said. Theyll also introduce students to a variety of company cultures, beginning with a setting that feels more business than collegiate.

The vibrant 9,000-square-foot center is designed to stimulate creativity and innovation, with a layout geared toward facilitating student-employer interactions.

It includes a state-of-the-art 32-person seminar room, the main conference room, four teaming rooms where small groups can meet to collaborate, lounge areas, four employer interview rooms, and student workspaces that seat up to 24 people.

Hiring interns from USF for ConnectWise was tremendously successful for his company, Bellini said. The Bellini Center reimagines those valuable, traditional internship programs by expanding and formalizing opportunities for both business leaders and students.

Arnie Bellini earned an MBA from USF in 1982 and serves on the Muma College of Business Executive Advisory Council. Lauren Bellini is a 1991 USF marketing graduate. Their son, Peter Bellini, is a current USF MBA student.

Through their gift, the Bellinis help USF take its commitment to students and the Tampa Bay business community to the next level, said Jay Stroman, USF Foundation CEO.

The Bellini Center will be a game-changer; the whole region will benefit for years to come. Were grateful to Arnie and Lauren, two exceptionally dedicated and visionary USF alumni.
The University of South Florida today announced a $10.6 million gift and celebrated the grand opening of a new center, which will benefit all students in the Muma College of Business and ultimately businesses in the Tampa Bay area.

The gift from Arnold F. Arnie and Lauren Bellini to the USF Foundation creates and staffs the Bellini Center for Talent Development, housed adjacent to the WUSF Public Media building on the Tampa campus. Its intended to further increase job placements for USF graduates while providing Tampa Bay businesses with a talent pipeline of employees uniquely prepared to meet their needs through a three-year-plus certification program.

The Bellinis vision will provide our business students with a unique professional development program, one that can serve as a national model, said USF President Rhea Law. We are grateful for this very generous gift, which will benefit our students, business partners and the entire USF community for generations to come.

Beginning in their first year, students will work through a progressive program designed to increase internships and post-graduation job placement. Unlike other career-development programs, the Bellini Center will rely on business executives to lead workshops addressing the hard and soft skills they want to see in future employees, from writing refined resumes to exhibiting professionalism. Numerous experiential opportunities include one-day internships and practice interviews with real-world business leaders.

The Bellinis are USF alumni and their son, Peter, is a USF MBA student. Arnie Bellini earned an MBA in 1982 and Lauren Bellini is a 1991 marketing graduate. An entrepreneurial pioneer, Arnie and his brother David co-founded ConnectWise Inc., a Tampa IT support business, in 1982. Over four decades, they defined, scaled and revolutionized the technology industrys $213 billion managed service segment, selling the business in 2019. Today, Arnie is CEO of Bellini Capital.

The biggest challenge in business is finding, attracting and keeping great talent, said Arnie Bellini. The go button for business growth has been pushed in Florida, specifically in the Tampa Bay area, and now we can promise employers a talent pipeline that will meet all their needs.

The 9,000-square-foot space has been reimagined as a vibrant state-of-the-art business hub. The Bellini Center features an open concept, with seminar and conference rooms, as well as student workspaces designed to stimulate creativity and innovation

The Bellini Center is revolutionary, a space and program dedicated to both student and business success, said Moez Limayem, the Lynn Pippenger Dean of the Muma College of Business. Thanks to the Bellinis, from their first year in college, our students will be career-focused and guided by a team of advisors who help them chart their course and gain the internships they need to achieve their goals.

Through their gift, the Bellinis help USF take its commitment to students and the Tampa Bay business community to the next level, said Jay Stroman, USF Foundation CEO.

The Bellini Center will be a game changer that benefits the entire region for years to come. Were grateful to the Bellinis for bringing their vision to life at USF.

Some aspects of the program are expected to launch immediately. Others will be implemented throughout the year.
USM to Host State Level Science and Engineering Fair for K-12 Students

Thu, 03/24/2022 - 13:42pm | By: Van Arnold

Some of the brightest young minds in grades 7-12 will be on full display when the Mississippi Science and Engineering State Level Fair gets underway April 1 at the Payne Center on The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Hattiesburg campus.

Projects that were awarded 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in each of 13 research categories in three competition categories from Mississippis seven science fair regions will be presented for judging.

Each year one of the seven regions serves as the host site for the state fair. COVID-19 restrictions forced cancellation of an in-person state fair for the previous two years. This year Region I (Hattiesburg) teamed up with Region VI (Gulf Coast) to host the event at USM.

We wanted to do this so that northern Mississippi students would not have to travel all the way to the Gulf Coast, and we can show off the beautiful campus in Hattiesburg, said David Sliman, Chief Information Officer at USM and Region VI director.

Sliman notes that the host for each regional fair is a community college or university in Mississippi. USM serves as the host institution for 28 counties in south Mississippi.

It is a great recruiting opportunity for Southern Miss, he said. The State Science Fair may be the first time many of these students have been on a university campus, and that might be all it takes for them to become Golden Eagles.

Included among the many projects displayed in previous competitions were:

Do Subliminal Messages Work?

Micro-Plastics in Water

The Effects of Ocean Acidification on Phragmites

Which Brand Disinfectant Works Best to Kill Bacteria?

The Effects of Mississippi River Pollutants on the Growth of Microsystic Aerugin

After the two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, Sliman says that excitement continues to build as the state fair approaches.

It has been two years since we have had an in-person State Science fair, so this one will be doubly exciting, said Sliman. During our regional science fair, we are usually too busy entering scores and compiling results to get out and see the projects. The State Science Fair has time built in for viewing of the projects. Still, there is never enough time to see each project in depth.

Each regional science fair chooses one project that will be entered into the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held each May. The selected students will receive an all-expense paid trip for an entire week in Atlanta, Ga. One project from this years state fair will also be selected for the ISEF.
This week on our last episode of Celebrate Today we wish all students well on their finals and end-of-semester struggles. It's a crazy time of year so good luck and may the force be with you!
"I pray that all may be one" is the motto that will accompany the Popes Apostolic Journey from 5 to 7 July in Juba, South Sudan.

By Vatican News staff reporter

"I pray that all may be one" is the motto of Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey to South Sudan, which sees him visit the city of Juba from 5 to 7 July.

The Holy Father will first visit the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2 to 5 July, and then proceed to South Sudan.

Elements of logo and motto

The motto is taken from a chapter generally known as the Farewell Prayer or the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus in the Gospel of John chapter 17.

The motto and logo were announced on Wednesday by the Holy See Press Office, which also released the Pope's 37th Apostolic Visit logo.

The logo contains a dove, the outline of the map of South Sudan with the colours of the flag, the cross, and two clasping hands in a firm handshake.

The dove is placed above the map's contours, carrying an olive branch to represent the desire for peace.

In the centre of the map are two shaking hands representing the reconciliation of the various ethnic tribes that make up one nation.

On the right is the cross representing the country's Christian heritage and its history of suffering.

Next to the cross is the inscription "Pope Francis in South Sudan" and the date of the Apostolic Journey.
Cardinal Michael Czerny pays a visit to the Francois Libermann Interdiocesan Seminary in Sebikotane, Senegal, and encourages the Major Seminarians in their formation towards the priesthood.

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ - Dakar, Senegal

Cardinal Michael Czerny visited the Francois Marie Paul Liberman Major seminary in Sebikotane, Dakar, Senegal, on Wednesday, accompanied by Archbishop Michael Banach, the Apostolic Nuncio to Senegal, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, and Mauritania.

The interim Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development is in the West African country for the 9th World Water Forum taking place from 21  26 March. The Forum provides the opportunity for participants from the water community and other aspects of society to dialogue and coordinate efforts to respond to global water-related challenges.

A grand welcome met the Cardinal upon his arrival at the Seminary, with seminarians lined up in the courtyard of the compound.

The Rector, Fr. Augustin Sagna received Cardinal Czerny, and led him on a tour of the Seminary premises.

Integral development in formation

The Cardinal then met with the formation staff and the 60-odd seminarians in formation for the priesthood.

In his address, he highlighted the importance of integral human development in formation, insisting that no one develops on their own and that development should involve everyone.

He also stressed the need for evangelization, not only of people but also of the means of communication, particularly social media.

The Cardinal then invited seminarians to a greater participation in the synodal path, as the Church continues towards the Synod of Bishops in 2023.

Reflecting on the World Water Forum, Cardinal Czerny called upon the seminarians to do their part to contribute to the protection and conservation of water and other resources, in keeping with the teachings of Pope Francis in Laudato si'.
Fr. Francesco Patton, the Custos of the Holy Land, sprinkles holy water on a woman near the Jordan River

The Vatican is encouraging Catholics across the globe to donate to the annual Collection Pro Terra Sancta as a way to invest in the Churchs future in the Middle East, while connecting everyone to the Holy Land.

By Devin Watkins

If we lose our roots, how can we be, wherever we are in the world, a tree that grows and bears fruits of love, charity and sharing?

The Congregation for the Eastern Churches proposed that provocative question in a letter urging Catholics to give generously to the annual Holy Land Appeal.

All parishes around the world are asked to take up a special collectionusually on Good Fridayto help Christians in the land where Jesus was born, lived, died, and was resurrected.

Funds collected make up the main source of material support for Christian life in the Holy Land. Money goes toward preserving sacred places, assisting the regions Christian minority, and forming candidates for the priesthood, as well as investing in the education of Palestinian Muslims to build a country where mutual respect reigns.

Concrete connection to Jesus homeland

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, sent the appeal letter to local Churches around the world, offering a reflection on the deeper meaning of the Holy Land Collection.

The gesture of offering, even a small one, but by everyone, like the widows mite, allows our brothers and sisters to continue to live, to hope, and to offer a living witness to the Word made flesh in places and on the streets that saw His presence.

Cardinal Sandri noted that this years collection is particularly important, since Christians in the Holy Land have endured two years without the warmth and solidarity of pilgrims visiting the Holy Places and local communities.

Families, he added, have suffered immensely, mostly from lack of work linked to pilgrims.

Gesture of relief for suffering Christians

Christ, said the Cardinal, continues to suffer in His Body, which is the Church, especially in the Middle East, as well as in other parts of the world where persecution, violence, and wars persist, as happens in Ukraine.

Cardinal Sandri recalled that Pope Francis made two Apostolic Journeys to places assisted by the Custody of the Holy Land, which receives 65 percent of the Collection: Iraq in March and Cyprus in December.

The Pope, said the Cardinal, sought to reach out to many lonely and suffering Christians in Iraq, who have struggled to remain in the land of Abraham amid the pain of nearly two decades of war.

In response to the Holy Fathers gestures of closeness, Catholics everywhere are invited to extend their gaze of love toward the Holy Land and offer their own small gesture of relief, according to Cardinal Sandri.

Education for the future

The Congregation for the Eastern Churches also released a breakdown of last years Collection , which raised over US$6 million.

The territories that benefit in various forms of support from the Collection are Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

Education for laypeople and priestly formation are among the primary destinations for the 35 percent of the Collection destined for the Congregation for the Eastern Churches.

Bethlehem University perhaps deserves special mention, as the institution offers education that aims to help reconcile the religious and cultural differences that have marred life in the Holy Land for countless generations.

Almost 3,300 young people, mostly Palestinian Muslims, are trained intellectually and humanly with the hope of engaging in the construction of a country where mutual respect reigns and where human dignity is preserved.
Victoria, TX (77901)

Today

Cloudy skies. High 87F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 68F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
KATIE MARTENSEN is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Martensen can be contacted at kmarte1@ilstu.edu. Follow Martensen on Twitter at @ktmartensen

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MEGAN SPOERLEIN is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Spoerlein can be contacted at mkspoe1@ilstu.edu. Follow Spoerlein on Twitter at @meganspoerlein.

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KATE KARVELIS is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Karvelis can be contacted at kkarvel@ilstu.edu. Follow Karvelis on Twitter at @katekarvelis

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ERIN GESSERT is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Gessert can be contacted at eggesse@ilstu.edu Follow Gessert on Twitter at @erin_gessert

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NATO leaders meet in Brussels Thursday for an extraordinary summit on Russias invasion of Ukraine. Plus, experts say Russias assault mirrors tactics used in Syria, and whats it like for the children as they attend school during the war?
NATO leaders meet in Brussels as pressure mounts for the West to take stronger military action in support of Ukraine. Remembering the first female U.S. Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, following her death from cancer at age 84. And, a former banker in Ghana conquers her fears and pursues her dreams at the skate park!
Even though he claimed minor progress had been made, analysts say Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn achieved few tangible benefits in his visit to Myanmar this week as an Association of Southeast Asian Nations special envoy.

They point to his inability to meet all the parties in the countrys post-coup conflict and a failure to reach an agreement on the distribution of humanitarian aid  both key planks in the Five-Point Consensus on finding a solution to the crisis as agreed to by ASEAN, as having undermined the first visit by an ASEAN special envoy.

You can consider this trip as a waste of time because nothing concrete was achieved, said Charlies Santiago, chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

Cambodia has been criticized for legitimizing the regime of Myanmars Gen. Min Aung Hlaing after assuming the ASEAN chair for 2022 and pushing his strife-torn country to the top of the regional political agenda by initiating peace talks to try to bring Myanmar back into the trade bloc.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was the first leader to visit Myanmar after last years coup, which most ASEAN states condemned, along with the deaths of more than 1,500 people, resulting in the junta being barred from ASEANs annual summits.

Although Prak Sokhonn claimed minor progress after talks with Myanmars ruling junta, ASEAN diplomats, U.N. officials and some political activists, he was not allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned defacto leader of the ousted elected government.

According to The Associated Press, Prak Sokhonn said he was encouraged by the military government allowing him to meet with other parties to the conflict, and he was told consideration would be given to all requests to meet with Suu Kyi.

He described Min Aung Hlaings position as like opening a window to let in the light by paving a way for all parties to eventually achieve national reconciliation.

But he added that the parties involved wanted to keep fighting instead of negotiating, and that humanitarian aid was being stockpiled as it could not be distributed to those in need.

Santiago said a lack of progress on humanitarian aid, which the military wanted full control over, had undermined the trip, along with the inability to meet with Suu Kyi.

If he considers talking to Min Aung Hlaing as progress, then I think we have to redefine the meaning of the word progress, he said.

Were supposed to be convinced that there was a political dialogue and Min Hlaing told him that he will consider the application to meet Aung San Suu Kyi at another date."

So, this is going to be difficult because you cant be talking about a roadmap toward peace and reconciliation if you do not have civility in the process, Santiago said.

Negotiations with Suu Kyi, and other senior figures in her National League for Democracy party, and the delivery of humanitarian aid are key factors in the ASEAN consensus.

It also called for constructive dialogue among all the parties, mediation by an envoy of the ASEAN chair and an immediate cessation of violence. Cease-fires, including a truce agreed to during Hun Sens visit, have been repeatedly violated.

However, Carl Shuster, visiting professor at Hawaii Pacific University said Prak Sokhonns visit and response were in keeping with ASEANs political culture, and the best hope for Myanmar is that Cambodia and ASEAN can maintain diplomatic pressure.

They never insult each other, and their culture is theres never bad news even if there is bad news. So, when he says theres progress what he means is that they met with him, Schuster said, referring to Prak Sokhonns meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.

Schuster also noted that Cambodia under Hun Sen was at best a limited democracy and the focus should be on the three interests shared ASEAN members  peace, stability and economic trade.

ASEAN has to continue to engage with Myanmar and heres the dilemma they face: Cambodia is not in a strong position to say your government is not democratic and therefore here are the consequences, but what they can do is: what youre doing hurts peace and stability."

What ASEAN is going to do is just keep pushing for dialogue and hope that the coup leaders will see that it is not in their interests to continue down that path, Schuster said.

Theyre doing atrocities on their own people and the result is the resistance is growing, he said.

Prak Sokhonn proposed a conference in April or May to discuss the fair distribution of assistance, and he rebutted criticism that his mission had enhanced the legitimacy of Myanmars military government. He said Cambodia sought only to help reestablish peace.

But Bradley Murg, distinguished senior research fellow at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said ASEANs options appeared to be incredibly limited.

Optimism at this point in terms of Cambodia and ASEAN as a whole being able to achieve fundamental change in the status quo in Myanmar is misplaced, he said.

Prak Sokhonns visit illustrates the bind that Cambodia is in, in terms of its chairmanship of ASEAN as a whole, in that Myanmar really continues to demonstrate that it will play along with the process but not in any substance of way, Murg added.
Russia found itself further isolated in the international community on Thursday, when the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution demanding Moscow immediately stop its war against Ukraine.

On a vote of 140 in favor, five against and 38 abstentions, nations supported a text put forward by Ukraine with the backing of more than 80 countries that also demands the protection of all civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as humanitarian and medical personnel and journalists.

Together, a strong majority of U.N. member states made clear that Russia  Russia  bears sole responsibility for the grave humanitarian crisis and violence in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after the vote. Together, we called for the protection of all civilians fleeing the conflict and for steps to mitigate the increase in food insecurity caused by this senseless war. And together, we reaffirmed the U.N. Charter.

Thursdays vote largely mirrored a vote on March 2, in which 141 states condemned Russias invasion and called for it to immediately withdraw its troops. The same five countries voted against that resolution as they did on the humanitarian measure: Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria.

Russias envoy accused the West of unprecedented pressure to get support for its resolution.

Staggering crisis

The vote took place after more than a day of debate at which more than 70 countries spoke, most to condemn Russias war and call for a halt to hostilities, which are causing a humanitarian crisis in Europe, the severity of which has not been seen since World War II.

The numbers are staggering. In barely one month, the United Nations says 3.5 million people have fled to neighboring countries and 6.5 million are displaced within Ukraine.

The U.N. Childrens agency, UNICEF, said Thursday that more than half of Ukraines population of children  4.5 million boys and girls  have been displaced by the war.

Some 12 million people in Ukraine need humanitarian assistance.

The United States announced Thursday that it is ready to provide more than $1 billion in additional humanitarian funding for Ukraine, including the severe impacts around the world on rising food insecurity resulting from the disruption of Ukraines major wheat exports.

Diplomatic drama

Thursdays vote did not take place without some diplomatic drama.

This week, South Africa put forward a second humanitarian draft. But for many states it had a major omission  the cause of the humanitarian crisis, namely Russias invasion. As Canadas ambassador, Bob Rae, put it, In simple terms, we cannot talk about Moby Dick without mentioning it is a whale.

Ukraines ambassador said South Africas proposal was the twin brother of a draft resolution Russia put for a vote in the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, which sank with 13 abstentions. Only Russia and China supported it among the 15 members. Ukraines ambassador to the U.N., Sergiy Kyslytsya, said Ukraine had not been consulted on the South African text, nor had other countries.

It is a text promoted unilaterally by one country, prompted by another country, that has not even cared to hide it, Kyslytsya said, alluding to South Africa and Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with his South African counterpart the day before the vote to underscore U.S. views on the need for a clear, unified international response to President [Vladimir] Putins invasion to put a swift end to this crisis, Blinkens spokesman said.

Political issues that may lead to member states not agreeing to a text should be addressed elsewhere, South African Ambassador Mathu Joyini told the assembly. We believe an impartial humanitarian resolution should focus purely on addressing humanitarian needs of those affected.

That draft had seven co-sponsors, including China. But it did not come to a vote before members after Ukraine requested a procedural vote. Member states voted 67-50 with 36 abstentions not to vote on South Africas proposal.

'Now what?'

General Assembly resolutions do not carry legal weight, but they do have the moral weight of the international community and a clear message was sent to Moscow about its actions in the resolution that was adopted.

But as Lebanons envoy pointed out, it was still unclear whether the assemblys work would make a positive impact on the ground.

Now what? Where do we go from here? Is this resolution going to be implemented? Lebanons ambassador, Amal Mudallali, asked her colleagues. Is it more important to score successes in voting than making real progress on the ground, helping de-traumatize children and women who are looking to us to stop this war? How much safer are civilians in Ukraine because of this resolution today? How closer are we to a solution? How closer are we to peace today?
There will be a Western military response if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday.

"It would trigger a response in kind," Biden replied to a reporter's question during a news conference. "Whether or not you're asking whether NATO would cross (into Ukraine to confront Russian forces), we'd make that decision at the time."

The U.S. president also said at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that Russia should be removed from the Group of 20 major economies and that Ukraine be allowed to attend G-20 meetings.

Biden confirmed the issue was raised during his meetings with other world leaders on Thursday as they marked one month since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Asked whether Ukraine needs to cede any territory to achieve a cease-fire with Russia, Biden responded, "I don't believe that they're going to have to do that," but that is the judgment of Kyiv to make.

At his news conference, Biden said the United States is committing more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance "to help get relief to millions of Ukrainians affected by the war in Ukraine."

"With a focus on reuniting families," the United States will welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and invest $320 million to support democratic resilience and defend human rights in Ukraine and neighboring countries, the president said.

NATO announced earlier Thursday that the defense alliance would bolster its capabilities after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had called on the organization's leaders to provide more weaponry to his country "without limitations" as Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its second month.

Zelenskyy's appeal came as Biden met with NATO leaders to discuss their short- and long-term response to the Russian invasion.

Addressing the summit via video, Zelenskyy said his military needed fighter jets, tanks, and improved air and sea defense systems, as he warned Russia would attack NATO member Poland and other Eastern European countries.

"Russia has no intention of stopping in Ukraine," he declared. "It wants to go further. Against Eastern members of NATO. The Baltic states. Poland, for sure."

A White House statement issued Thursday said "between now and the NATO summit in June, we will develop plans for additional forces and capabilities to strengthen NATO's defenses."

A Biden administration official told reporters that Zelenskyy did not reiterate on Thursday his demand for a no-fly zone, which NATO previously rejected on the grounds it would lead to direct conflict between NATO and Russia.

NATO members said in a joint statement after the summit that they would "accelerate" their commitment to invest at least 2% of their national budgets on the alliance, allowing for a significant strengthening of its "longer term deterrence and defense posture."

The alliance also vowed to "further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to maintain credible deterrence and defense."

In addition to participating in the NATO talks, Biden met Thursday with G-7 leaders and the European Council.

The White House on Thursday announced a new round of sanctions targeting 48 Russian state-owned defense companies and more than 400 Russian political figures, oligarchs and other entities  an action Biden said was being done in alignment with the European Union.

Britain said Thursday its new package of sanctions includes freezing the assets of Gazprombank, a main channel for oil and gas payments, as well as Alfa Bank, a top private lender in Russia. Oil tycoon Evgeny Shvidler, Sberbank CEO Herman Gref and Polina Kovaleva, stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, are among individuals sanctioned.

China has criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia and has drawn warnings from Biden about not helping Russia evade the measures.

Asked about his recent phone discussion on the topic with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden said he had made clear to Xi "the consequences of him helping Russia," but, he noted, "I made no threats."

The U.S. president heads to Poland on Friday, a visit that will also spotlight the millions of Ukrainians who have become refugees since Russia started the war.

"I plan on attempting to see those folks," Biden told reporters amid speculation he might go to Poland's border with Ukraine. "I guess I'm not supposed to say where I'm going, am I?"

Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
NATO leaders are meeting Thursday in Brussels to discuss their short- and long-term response to Russia's month-old invasion of Ukraine, and they are due to hear a direct appeal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for more help.

Ahead of the meeting, Zelenskyy used a video message, delivered in English, to ask NATO members for "effective and unrestricted" support, including weapons for Ukrainian forces.

Zelenskyy also appealed to people around the world to hold public protests against the Russian invasion.

"Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life," Zelenskyy said. "Come to your squares, to your streets, make yourselves visible and heard."

In addition to the NATO talks, U.S. President Joe Biden is meeting Thursday with G-7 leaders and the European Council. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the overall goal is to hear "the resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes."

Sullivan said that includes countries following through on commitments to supply military equipment to Ukraine, to enforce existing sanctions against Russia and to look for ways to augment both along with humanitarian aid for those affected by the fighting.

Biden is due to announce a new round of sanctions targeting Russian political figures, oligarchs and other entities.

Britain said Thursday its new package of sanctions included freezing the assets of Gazprombank, a main channel for oil and gas payments, as well as Alfa Bank, a top private lender in Russia. Oil tycoon Evgeny Shvidler, Sberbank CEO German Gref and Polina Kovaleva, stepdaughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were among individuals sanctioned.

"We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about an end to this brutal war," Stoltenberg said as he opened Thursday meetings.

He told reporters earlier Thursday that "NATO is providing unprecedented support to Ukraine, helping them to defend themselves."

China has criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia and has drawn warnings from Biden about not helping Russia evade the measures.

Asked about China's role, Stoltenberg said Thursday that China should "join the rest of the world in clearly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and not provide political support neither provide any kind of material support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

Stoltenberg told reporters the alliance is establishing four new battlegroups in the alliance's eastern flank as part of its additional defensive measures since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The combat-ready units are set to deploy to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, according to Stoltenberg, bringing the total number of NATO battlegroups on its eastern flank to eight. The other NATO battlegroups have been fully operational in the Baltic states and Poland since 2017.

The alliance chief also warned against the use of chemical weapons, with NATO leaders expected to provide equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

"Any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict," Stoltenberg said. "It would be a blatant violation of international law, and it would have widespread and severe consequences."

Biden administration officials have previously sounded the alarm that Moscow could use chemical weapons in Ukraine and blame the Ukrainians for their use as part of a false-flag operation to justify the Russian invasion. Biden has previously warned that Russia would pay a severe price if it launched a chemical weapons attack but has not specified what that response would involve.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and that the United States will work to hold Russia accountable.

"We've seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities," Blinken said, adding that many of the apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure hit "have been clearly identifiable as in use by civilians."

The assessment was based on a careful review of public and intelligence information gathered since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last month, according to Blinken.

Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations of war crimes.

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday that Ukrainians have pushed Russian forces back to about 55 kilometers east and northeast of Kyiv, whereas a day earlier they were about 20 to 30 kilometers away.

Russian forces are still trying to encircle Chernihiv but are stalled between 8 and10 kilometers from the city center, the official added.

A NATO official who was speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence told reporters Wednesday that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine.

The official said Russian forces have achieved "almost none" of their strategic objectives, while noting "they are stalled" in the northern cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.

Russia is "achieving more results in the south, but the price is horrendous," the official said.

On its English-language Telegram feed, Russia's Ministry of Defense portrayed a vastly different war effort, praising Russian forces as they advanced on parts of southeastern Ukraine while Ukrainian forces fled, and claiming success in taking out Ukrainian fuel depots and positions with "high-precision long-range" weapons.

The United Nations says more than 3.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion one month ago. Another 6.5 million people have been displaced from their homes within the country.

National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin and U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Cameroon's public health ministry says a cholera outbreak is sweeping across the towns of Limbe, Buea and Tiko, near the border with Nigeria.

The government says 12 of the 600 patients rushed to hospitals in those towns died within the past 72 hours.

Nyenti Annereke, director of the Limbe government hospital, said the facility, which has a capacity of 200 beds, has received more than 240 cholera patients.

"We built three tents in Limbe hospital yesterday because patients were at the veranda, in the corridors of the wards," he said. "All the beds were full. The Tiko district hospital, the capacity also is overpowered. The hospital in Bota is another crisis zone."

To cope with the overflow, humanitarian workers are helping to erect tents at the hospitals in Limbe and Buea.

Still, The government says many families are rushing their sick relatives to surrounding towns, including Mutengene and Douala, a commercial hub on the Atlantic coast.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the South West region where Limbe, Tiko and Buea are located, chaired at least three crisis meetings on Wednesday.

Bilai said the cholera outbreak is caused by a shortage of clean drinking water in western towns and villages provoked by the long dry season and civilians should desist from drinking open stream water. He said the disease is spreading fast because cattle and civilians defecate in the open and in rivers.

"Our structures, the hospitals are overloaded, but thank God that the medical officers in charge of those hospitals have been proactive and they have taken measures to receive various patients," he said. "All the patients are under treatment."

Bilai said the government will provide water to arid towns like Limbe, Buea and Tiko and surrounding villages but did not say when.

Meanwhile, health officials are moving from door to door encouraging civilians to boil water from wells and streams before drinking it.

The government says people should also eat only properly cooked food and wash their hands before and after meals, and after using the bathroom.

Another cholera outbreak in Cameroon in February affected 1,300 people and killed about three dozen.
Canada will remove mandatory COVID-19 testing for those entering the country as of April 1, a move being met with optimism and varied expectations in both Canada and United States.

Advance COVID-19 screening will no longer be required for visitors wishing to enter Canada via land, sea or air as of the first of the month. Random travelers will still be selected for testing at points of entry in the immediate future.

Travelers entering by sea or through any of the 117 legal points of entry on land will have to enter information into the ArriveCAN app or website before arriving at the border. Before the pandemic, the app had mainly been used only by those arriving by air.

Visitors will still have to be fully vaccinated.

The decision by the Canadian government comes just in time for the start of the peak season for Alaska cruise ships, an industry that was virtually wiped out the past two years. Each passenger will still have to provide a negative antigen test taken not more than 24 hours before boarding a ship.

Visits worth many millions

Vancouver is the home port for many of the ships, while those leaving from Seattle also stop in smaller Canadian cities such as Victoria, Nanaimo and Prince Rupert. Before the pandemic, the Vancouver Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated each ships visit to the city generates at least $2.2 million in economic benefits, including hotel bookings before and after cruises.

Walt Judas, chief executive officer of the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia, is happy with the change, along with the return of cruise passengers and international travelers visiting for meetings, conventions and organized tours. However, he predicted it would take the regional tourism industry three to five years to recover. He said this was because airlines would need to increase capacity and the tourism industry would have to restaff. There is also the threat of new COVID variants.

"And so until that happens, you may still see restaurants closed for part of the week or at least part of the day. You may still see wings of hotels where there is no service or they're closed entirely, attractions with reduced hours," Judas said. "There's a number of factors at play based on the lack of workforce."

Skagway, Alaska, is a stop for many cruise ships to Americas northernmost state. After seeing the number of visitors crash when the pandemic started, the mayor of Skagway, Andrew Cremata, is optimistic the town will see upward of 1 million visitors this year.

He also said there would be a great chance for visits from what he called independent travelers, who arrive by road across the nearby border with Canada, or by car ferry from Washington state or British Columbia.

"So we're expecting a lot of independent travelers coming through here," Cremata said. "Not only does that make up for some of what we may not get through the cruise industry, but they tend to stay longer, maybe spend more money in town. And, you know, most of all, we're excited to have our neighbors from the Yukon come back down and see us en masse."

Short-time visitors

Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham, said she saw a return of same-day visitors and others making short trips across the border.

"So we had this brief period of time last December, where vaccinated Canadians who were traveling to the U.S. for just 72 hours were exempt from a testing requirement," she said. "And then that was revoked towards the end of December in response to the omicron variant. And during that little brief period of time in our region, we saw quite an uptick in travelers."

Trautman said many of these short trips are for personal visits, shopping or to visit recreational properties.

Cruise ships have scheduled a total of 310 calls at the Port of Vancouver this year. That is an 8 percent increase over 2019, the last full year of sailings.

The Port of Seattle is expecting 296 sailings.

Canada and the United States share the worlds longest undefended boundary in the world, at 8,891 kilometers.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has made a surprise one-day visit to Afghanistan, where officials said he held wide-ranging talks with Taliban rulers and renewed Chinas opposition to international sanctions against the war-torn country.



Wangs unannounced visit Thursday, his first since the Taliban takeover of the country last August, came a week before Beijing hosts neighbors of Afghanistan for a meeting on how to help the country tackle its worsening humanitarian crisis and economic upheaval.



Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will also represent Kabul at the meeting, scheduled for March 30-31, and brief participants on the latest situation in Afghanistan.



Shortly after the chief Chinese diplomat ended the trip to Kabul, a senior delegation from Russia landed in the Afghan capital under the leadership of Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putins envoy for Afghanistan.





Delegation-level talks between Muttaqi and Wang focused on strengthening bilateral political, economic, and trade ties between them, according to a post-meeting Taliban statement.



Wang was quoted as saying that China does not interfere in internal Afghan affairs nor does it want to safeguard its interests through such interventions. The Chinese diplomat opposed the imposition of political and economic sanctions against Afghanistan, said the statement.



Scholarships for Afghan students, visa issues, commencement of work by Chinese investors in the mining sector and Afghanistans role in Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) also came up in discussions, the statement added.

China hopes Afghanistan would live up to its commitment of not allowing any external forces to use its territory as a tool to oppose neighbors, or harm the security of other nations, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement quoted Wang as saying in a meeting with Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar.



Mr. Baradar stressed that Afghanistan's territory will not be used against any country, said a Taliban statement. Ensuring peace and security in Afghanistan means peace and stability in the region, it quoted Baradar as telling Wang.



A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman while speaking to a regular news conference in Beijing Thursday underscored the importance of next weeks meeting of Afghanistans neighbors.



We are speeding up preparations for the third foreign ministers meeting among the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, Wang Wenbin told a news conference. As Afghanistan's neighbor, China stands ready to leverage its strength and contribute to the countrys lasting stability and security, he said.



Beijing had maintained ties with the Taliban even when they were waging a deadly insurgency against the United States and coalition troops. The hardline group seized power from the now-defunct U.S.-backed Afghan government seven months ago as international forces withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.



But China has so far not extended diplomatic recognition to the Taliban government nor has the global community at large.



However, Beijing and other neighboring countries, including Pakistan, have kept their embassies open in Kabul since the chaotic withdrawal of Western forces in late August.



Chinese officials insist their engagement with the Islamist group primarily focuses on anti-terrorism and humanitarian issues and any decision to recognize the Taliban government will have to be collectively taken by regional countries.



China and Afghanistan share about 76-kilometers of rugged border.

Chinese officials fear if instability continues in the neighboring country, militants linked to an outlawed anti-China group known as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), could use Afghan soil as staging ground for attacks in Chinese border regions of Xinjiang.



ETIM claims it is fighting for the minority Muslim Uyghur community in Xinjiang allegedly being subjected to massive human rights abuses by Chinese authorities, charges Beijing rejects as Western-led propaganda.

China has invested around $25 billion in massive infrastructure projects in Pakistan under the BRI. Both countries want to extend what is known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC into Afghanistan to help in promoting political and economic stability there.



The Taliban have welcomed the proposal. Pakistani, Chinese and Taliban delegates are also scheduled to hold a tripartite dialogue on the sidelines of next weeks meeting in Beijing to discuss cooperation in economic projects, possibly under CPEC, said officials in Islamabad.



Russian visitors



Muttaqis office said his meeting with the Russian delegation focused on strengthening political, economic, transit and regional relations as well as fighting drug trafficking from Afghanistan. Moscow also has maintained close contacts with the Taliban even before they seized power.





Humanitarian needs, stemming from years of war and persistent drought, have increased in Afghanistan to record levels since the Taliban takeover in August.

Western countries immediately suspended non-humanitarian assistance to the heavily aid-dependent country, imposed financial sanctions and froze billions of dollars in Afghan foreign cash reserves, mostly held in the U.S.



The United Nations says more than half of Afghanistans estimated 40 million people face hunger and around 95% of Afghans could be living in poverty by the middle of this year. The world body has warned around one million Afghan children could die from malnutrition.



Wang traveled to Kabul from Pakistan, where he was invited as a special guest to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers conference, which represented Chinas first attendance in the history of the Muslim grouping. The Chinese diplomat will visit India Friday.



Thursdays visits by top officials from China and Russia to Kabul took place amid global condemnation of the Taliban for backtracking on their promise to allow teenage Afghan girls to return to school.



The Islamist group reopened schools across most of Afghanistan on Wednesday but decided against allowing girls from grade seven to 12 to resume their education at the last minute, citing a lack of arrangements for female students in accordance with Sharia or Islamic law.
Ethiopia's government on Thursday declared "an indefinite humanitarian truce effective immediately," saying it hoped to help hasten delivery of emergency aid into the Tigray region, where hundreds of thousands face starvation.

Since war broke out in northern Ethiopia in November 2020, thousands have died, and many more have been forced to flee their homes as the conflict has expanded from Tigray to the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government "is committed to exert maximum effort to facilitate the free flow of emergency humanitarian aid into the Tigray region," it said in a statement.

"To optimize the success of the humanitarian truce, the government calls upon the insurgents in Tigray to desist from all acts of further aggression and withdraw from areas they have occupied in neighboring regions," it said.

"The government of Ethiopia hopes that this truce will substantially improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and pave the way for the resolution of the conflict in the northern Ethiopia without further bloodshed."

The TPLF reacted to the government's announcement on Twitter:

The conflict erupted when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.

Fighting has dragged on for over a year, triggering a humanitarian crisis, as accounts have emerged of mass rapes and massacres, with both sides accused of human rights violations.

More than 400,000 people have been displaced in Tigray, according to the U.N.

The region has also been subject to what the U.N. says is a de facto blockade.

The United States has accused Abiy's government of preventing aid from reaching those in need, while the authorities in turn have blamed the rebels for the obstruction.

Nearly 40 percent of the people in Tigray, a region of 6 million people, face "an extreme lack of food," the U.N. said in January, with fuel shortages forcing aid workers to deliver medicines and other crucial supplies on foot.

'Welcome news'

Western nations have been urging both sides to agree to a cease-fire, with Britain and Canada hailing the truce declaration.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States "urges all parties to build on this announcement to advance a negotiated and sustainable cease-fire, including necessary security arrangements."

"The UK welcomes the Government of Ethiopia's decision to announce an indefinite humanitarian truce, and to ensure unimpeded access of aid into Tigray. We call on Tigrayan authorities to reciprocate," the British Embassy in Ethiopia said on Twitter.

Canada's embassy to Ethiopia and Djibouti said on Twitter that the announcement was "welcome news, as aid is urgently needed in northern Ethiopia."

Diplomats led by Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union's special envoy for the Horn of Africa, have been trying for months to broker peace talks, with little evident progress so far.

Analysts said the truce was an important step but urged the government to follow up the announcement with action and ease humanitarian access to Tigray.

"The unconditional and unrestricted delivery of aid could also help create enough trust to pave the way for ceasefire talks and, eventually, dialogue," said William Davison, the International Crisis Group's senior analyst for Ethiopia.

'Ground to a halt'

More than 9 million people need food aid across Afar, Amhara and Tigray, according to the U.N.'s World Food Program.

But humanitarian organizations have been forced to increasingly curtail activities because of fuel and supply shortages.

"WFP operations in the Tigray region have ground to a halt, with only emergency fuel stocks and less than one percent of the required food stocks remaining," the agency said this week.

A TPLF push into Afar has worsened the situation, driving up the need for emergency aid in the region.

The road from Afar's capital, Semera, to Tigray's capital Mekele is the only operational land route into Tigray, where the U.N. estimates hundreds of thousands are living in famine-like conditions.

The government previously declared a "unilateral cease-fire" in Tigray in June last year, after the TPLF mounted a shock comeback and retook the region from federal forces.

But fighting intensified in the second half of 2021, with the rebels at one point claiming to be within 200 kilometers of the capital Addis Ababa, before reaching a stalemate.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who protested Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine by bursting onto the set of a flagship television news show, says her colleagues at Kremlin-controlled TV Channel One are scared and she doesn't regret for one moment her action.

The 43-year-old television journalist last week held up a banner behind the news anchor during a live broadcast denouncing the aggression in Ukraine and shouted, stop the war. On the banner she wrote: No War and They are lying to you here.

My colleagues are scared, Ovsyannikova told VOA. The heads of Channel One forbade them to discuss this incident. Several colleagues quit, the rest  continue to work. They need to feed their families; they cannot find other work in such a difficult time. Because of Western sanctions, people have become real hostages of the difficult economic situation in Russia, she added.

Ovsyannikova has declined an asylum offer from France after she staged her protest to challenge the Kremlins narrative of the invasion, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin has dubbed a special military operation. She was detained and fined $290 for loading a video onto YouTube denouncing the invasion, but her lawyer, Anton Gashinsky, told VOA more serious charges could be filed against her.

Her action on the First Channel live has not yet been assessed by law enforcement agencies he said. He added: So far, Marina has not been summoned for interrogation. We do not have any official information about the investigation being carried out against her.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has launched a probe into her actions, according to Russian news agency TASS.

A preliminary inquiry is being conducted regarding Ovsyannikova to determine whether her actions constitute a crime under Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code [Public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation]," the news agency quoted an official saying. If found guilty of the charge Ovsyannikova could be jailed for 15 years.

Ovsyannikova has a 17-year-old son and a daughter. Her lawyer told VOA: During the detention she was treated with respect, they were polite, they did not use physical force. She was held for 14 hours but was denied a lawyer even though she demanded legal representation about 20 times, Gashinsky said.

No regrets



She does not recant a single word of her condemnation of the war. She is happy that she was able to show the whole world that Russian people are mostly against armed conflicts. And those who support armed conflicts, Marina's quote: poisoned by state information propaganda. Marina is a pacifist. She believes that all conflict situations can be resolved through negotiations, he added.

Gashinsky said: Its not easy for her now. Together with her are her two children and two golden retrievers. She has loans for a car and her house. Now she has lost the only source of income that she had, and she has no savings. She receives alimony from her ex-spouse for the maintenance of children. But she, like a real Russian woman, said that she would cope with all the difficulties.

Ovsyannikova told VOA, via her lawyer, she is not making plans as the future of our country is unknown and very foggy now and Russia is plunged into darkness.

Others targeted

This week, Russian prosecutors also opened a case against journalist Alexander Nevzorov, who has more than 1.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, accused of deliberately spreading false information about the war in Ukraine. In an open letter to Russia's top investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, Nevzorov dubbed the investigation ridiculous. The probe is focused on Nevzorovs postings on Instagram and YouTube about Russia's armed forces deliberate shelling of a maternity hospital in the besieged Ukrainian port town of Mariupol.

Nevzorov said the case against him was meant as a signal to journalists in Russia to show the regime is not going to spare anyone.

Russian authorities have been adding more and more offenses to try to shut down independent reporting on the war or any coverage that challenges the Kremlin version of what is happening in Ukraine, say Russian journalists.

On Tuesday, the Russian parliament passed amendments to the Criminal Code that would expand a new law of spreading of falsehoods to allow authorities to prosecute those deemed to have spread false information about the work of state bodies abroad.

A Moscow court this week granted prosecutors request to designate Meta an extremist organization and Russias federal censor instructed media organizations to stop displaying the logos of Meta, Facebook, and Instagram, all three are now being blocked on Russias internet along with Twitter. Television network Euronews is also now being blocked.

Most foreign news organizations have pulled their correspondents out of Russia and Russias few remaining independent digital news outlets have also gone into exile.

The editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, who received a Nobel Peace Prize last year announced this week he will auction his medal and donate the prize proceeds to an NGO that supports Ukrainian refugees. The paper has called on the Kremlin to: Stop combat fire, exchange prisoners, release the bodies of the dead, provide humanitarian corridors and assistance, and support refugees.

On Tuesday Russian investigative reporter Svetlana Prokopyeva announced she had left her home in the Russian town of Pskov and is now in Riga, Latvia. Two years ago, she was found a guilty of justifying terrorism in her reporting but was issued a fine rather than jailed in a case that was closely followed by the international media and rights groups. Her home was raided on March 18 during which she was forced to the floor and handcuffed. She was interrogated at a police station for allegedly spreading lies about the region's governor.

Yes, I am in Riga. I never thought this would happen in my life, she wrote on her Facebook page. I thought I would renovate the greenhouse, which was bent under the snow, and in the summer, maybe I'll make a foundation under the house, she added. And I will be back. As soon as it is possible, she added.

Some reporting for this story is from Reuters.
On the fourth and final day of confirmation hearings for U.S. President Joe Biden's nominee to the U.S Supreme Court, legal experts praised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying she was well qualified to serve on the nation's highest court.

The testimony from the American Bar Association and other experts came after two days of questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and wrapped up about 30 hours of hearings on Jackson's nomination.

In her testimony, the ABA's Ann Claire Williams, who leads the organization's committee that makes recommendations on federal judges, said virtually everyone they interviewed described Jackson as "outstanding, excellent, superior, superb."

Senate Republicans spent much of their time Tuesday and Wednesday trying to make the case that Brown was soft on crime. Witnesses invited by Republicans to testify Thursday, including Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall, echoed their charges.

When asked about that charge, the ABA's Williams said not one of the 250 judges they interviewed about Jackson mentioned that as an issue.

The four-hour hearing Thursday featured not only legal experts but government officials and civil rights groups who supported Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the court, as well as other conservative advocates who opposed her.

The Senate committee is expected to vote on Jackson's nomination by April 4. Democrats are hoping to hold a final confirmation vote by Easter, in mid-April, when the Senate leaves for a two-week break.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday, the United States and its allies in the region concluded, Pyongyang's first long-range launch since 2017.

The launch significantly raised tension on the Korean Peninsula. Just two hours later, South Korea fired five of its own missiles, in what it called a "demonstration of our ability and willingness to respond immediately and impose punishment."

The North Korean missile flew for over 70 minutes, at a lofted trajectory, before landing just 170 kilometers west of Japan's Aomori Prefecture, according to Japan's Ministry of Defense.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking from Brussels, where he is attending a G-7 summit, called the move "an outrage that cannot be forgiven."

The missile appeared to be a new type of ICBM, Japanese officials added, saying it reached an altitude of 6,000 kilometers and had a range of 1,100 kilometers.

South Korea's military offered similar figures, saying the apparent ICBM was launched from the Sunan area near Pyongyang  the same area where a North Korean missile last week failed shortly after launch, exploding mid-air.

During an emergency meeting of South Korea's National Security Council, South Korean President Moon Jae-in "strongly condemned" the launch, saying it violated North Korea's self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile tests, according to a presidential statement.

In a statement, the White House called the launch a "brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions" that "needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region."

"The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions. The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies," the White House statement added.

North Korea has repeatedly warned it is preparing to launch a military spy satellite. U.S. officials said such a launch would also essentially amount to a long-range missile test.

It is not yet clear whether North Korea's latest launch involved a satellite. North Korea has not commented on the test. It usually does not announce its missile activities until the following morning in state media.

North Korea has not launched a satellite since 2016. Its most recent ICBM test was in 2017, during the height of tensions between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim announced a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM and nuclear tests in 2018, amid talks with Trump and his South Korean counterpart, President Moon Jae-in.

North Korea resumed short-range launches in 2019. This year, it has conducted 12 rounds of missile launches, as it systematically works through a wish list of strategic weapons laid out last year by Kim.

The wish list included ICBMS large enough to carry multiple warheads and that can travel at least 15,000 kilometers. Analysts say the latest test appears to involve the Hwasong-17, which is an attempt to check those two boxes.

The Hwasong-17, which analysts say was likely the missile fired Thursday, was first unveiled during a parade in October 2020. Experts dubbed it the "monster missile." They noted it appeared large enough to carry multiple warheads, a capacity that would make it much harder for U.S. missile defenses to intercept.

Though the U.S. and its allies will likely respond firmly to the test, it is not clear North Korea will suffer major consequences. China and Russia, both veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, not only oppose further sanctions, but say current sanctions on Pyongyang should be relaxed.

"And North Korea and Russia have become even closer in recent weeks with Pyongyang publicly supporting Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. So there is no chance that we will see new U.N. sanctions on North Korea," said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea specialist at King's College London

"The U.S. can ramp up sanctions, and others will follow. But the North Korean economy is not going to become more isolated than it has been these past two years. And I would assume that China and Russia will provide the necessary economic and energy support," he added.

That contrasts the period of North Korea tensions in 2017, when the United States was able to work with China and Russia to impose tough new sanctions on North Korea.

Another difference from 2017 is that Trump, who threatened to "totally destroy North Korea" and who bragged about the size of his "nuclear button," is no longer U.S. president.

Mason Richey, a professor at South Korea's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said Biden will likely maintain a "more measured tone" toward North Korea.

On the other hand, Moon, whose diplomacy with Pyongyang eventually helped lead to the Trump-Kim negotiations, leaves office in May. He will be replaced by conservative former prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol.

"And the conservatives have already telegraphed that they're going to take a really firm and even potentially escalatory stance, to try to impose costs on North Korea for this behavior. And so that's a wild card we didn't have before," Richey said.

Yoon's transition team released a statement Thursday calling the North Korean launch a "serious provocation."
Investigators in China Thursday say the search continues at the mountain-side crash site for the data recorder from a Chinese airliner that went down Monday in southern Guangxi province.

Meanwhile, officials with the Civil Aviation Administration of China said, while the outside casing of the cockpit voice recorder  the first of the two so-called black boxes from the flight recovered Wednesday  was damaged, its contents are in good shape and investigators have begun examining them.

The voice recorder contains audio in the cockpit between members of the flight crew as well as communications with ground crews. The data recorder preserves information on the planes performance including airspeed, altitude, system performance and direction.

China Eastern Flight MU5735 went into a sudden dive and slammed into a mountain outside the city of Wuzhou. The Boeing 737-800 jetliner was carrying 132 passengers and crew on a flight from Kunming in Yunnan province to the industrial city of Guangzhou.

Data obtained from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed Flight MU5735 plunged at a rate of nearly 8,870 meters per minute before it crashed.

So far, pieces of the plane and human remains have been found, but no survivors, though officials have yet to officially declare anyone dead.

Officials have said the search for the planes flight data recorder and additional wreckage has been hampered by heavy rain, and the large crater caused by the crash was filling with water, raising the risk of small landslides on the steep slopes.

The crash has prompted China Eastern to ground its entire fleet of Boeing 737-800 planes. Chinas civil aviation regulator has announced a two-week safety inspection across the industry.

Mondays crash was the worst for Chinas aviation sector since 2010, when a Brazilian-built Embraer passenger jet operated by Henan Airlines crashed as it was landing in the northeastern city of Yichun, killing 42 of the 96 people on board.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse
As she pressed the Clinton administration into action against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic over war crimes in the Balkans, Madeleine Albright would harken back to her own childhood as a refugee from war-torn Europe.

World leaders recalled how Albright's personal history helped inspire her professional passion as they eulogized America's first female secretary of state, following her death Wednesday at age 84.

"She gave us hope when we didn't have it," said Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani. "She became our voice and our arm when we had neither voice nor an arm ourselves. She felt our people's pain because she had experienced herself persecution in childhood. That's why she was set against Milosevic up to stopping his genocide in Kosovo."

Albright, Osmani added, "supported Kosovo to the last breath, and that why Kosovo's people will memorize her eternally."

"Few of the world leaders did so much for our country as Madeleine Albright," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said of Albright, who was born in Prague and repeatedly visited her homeland after the 1989 Velvet Revolution led by her friend Vaclav Havel, an anti-communist dissident who became the country's president.

Fiala said Albright "got a chance in the free world, made the best of it. Thank you. We'll never forget you."

Bill Clinton, who as president in 1996 nominated Albright as America's top diplomat, recalled his final trip with her nearly three years ago. It was, perhaps fittingly, to Kosovo, where a statue was dedicated in Pristina in her honor as the country commemorated the 20th anniversary of its fight for independence.

"Because she knew firsthand that America's policy decisions had the power to make a difference in people's lives around the world, she saw her jobs as both an obligation and an opportunity," Clinton said.

More recently, he said, she supported Ukraine and its independence amid Russia's ongoing war against the country.

President Joe Biden recalled Wednesday that "working with Secretary Albright during the 1990s was among the highlights of my career in the United States Senate during my tenure on the Foreign Relations Committee. As the world redefined itself in the wake of the Cold War, we were partners and friends working to welcome newly liberated democracies into NATO and confront the horrors of genocide in the Balkans."

He said that when he thinks of Albright, "I will always remember her fervent faith that 'America is the indispensable nation.'"

On the floor of the General Assembly, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations honored Albright  a friend for decades, a former boss and a Georgetown University colleague  as a "trailblazer and a luminary."

"She left an indelible mark on the world and on the United Nations," Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the assembly, which was meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine and the ensuing humanitarian crisis. "Our country and our United Nations are stronger for her service."

Haris Silajdzic, a key figure in Bosnian government during the country's brutal interethnic war in the 1990s, including as foreign minister and prime minister, said Albright "truly understood what happened (in Bosnia) and was the most persistent champion of justice" for the Balkan country.

In Bosnia, Albright is well remembered as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who, in the summer of 1995, presented to the U.N. Security Council the first evidence of mass atrocities committed in the eastern town of Srebrenica in the closing months of the country's brutal 1992-95 war.

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims died during 10 days of slaughter after the town was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995. Their bodies were plowed into hastily made mass graves and then later dug up with bulldozers and scattered among other burial sites to hide the evidence of the crime.

The victims' remains are still being unearthed and identified.

"Because of her own experience, she was a true champion of justice, she could not stomach injustice," Silajdzic said of Albright, adding that, as such, "she understood that (Bosnia) has suffered injustice and was looking for ways to correct that."

The top Democrats in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, hailed the historic nature of Albright's leadership. CIA Director William Burns praised Albright, who as a Clinton administration hawk urged the president to become militarily involved in the conflict in Kosovo, as "direct and forthright in the face of injustice, both at home and abroad. Her flair and flawlessness will be deeply missed."

There were Republican tributes as well, from former President George W. Bush, who said Albright had "served with distinction as a foreign-born foreign minister who understood firsthand the importance of free societies for peace in our world," and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said one need not have shared each of Albright's policy views "to appreciate her dedicated leadership on behalf of our nation."
U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday NATO will bolster its defense capabilities after his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called on NATO leaders to provide more weaponry to his country without limitations as Russias invasion of Ukraine enters its second month.

Zelenskyys appeal came as Biden met with NATO leaders Thursday in Brussels to discuss their short- and long-term response to Russias month-old invasion of Ukraine, Bidens first of three urgent meetings in Europe with world leaders.

Addressing the summit via video, Zelenskyy said his military needed fighter jets, tanks, improved air and sea defense systems, as he warned Russia would attack NATO members in Poland and in other eastern European countries.

Russia has no intention of stopping in Ukraine, he declared. "It wants to go further. Against eastern members of NATO. The Baltic states. Poland, for sure."

In a statement released by the White House, Biden said, Between now and the NATO summit in June, we will develop plans for additional forces and capabilities to strengthen NATOs defenses.

A Biden administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss the closed NATO summit, told reporters that Zelenskyy did not reiterate his demand for a no-fly zone, which NATO previously rejected on the grounds it would lead to direct conflict between NATO and Russia.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who has said the alliance would not send warplanes or troops to Ukraine, acknowledged before the summit that NATO must reinforce its defenses and "respond to a new security reality in Europe."

After the summit, Stoltenberg said the alliances top military commander, General Tod D. Wolters, has activated NATOs chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense elements.

"Allies are deploying additional chemical, biological and nuclear defenses to reinforce NATOs existing and new battle groups," Stoltenberg added.

Biden administration officials have previously sounded the alarm that Moscow could use chemical weapons in Ukraine and blame the Ukrainians for their use as part of a false-flag operation to justify the Russian invasion. Biden also has previously warned that Russia would pay a severe price if it launched a chemical weapons attack but has not specified what that response would involve.

NATO members said in a joint statement after the summit they would accelerate their commitment to invest least 2% of their national budgets on the alliance, allowing for a significant strengthening of its longer term deterrence and defense posture.

The alliance also vowed to further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to maintain credible deterrence and defense.

In addition to the NATO talks, Biden is meeting Thursday with G-7 leaders and the European Council. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the overall goal is to hear the resolve and unity that weve seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.

Sullivan said that includes countries following through on commitments to supply military equipment to Ukraine, to enforce existing sanctions against Russia and to look for ways to augment both along with humanitarian aid for those affected by the fighting.

Meantime, Biden announced a new round of sanctions Thursday targeting 48 state-owned Russian defense companies and more than 400 Russian political figures, oligarchs and other entities.

Britain said Thursday its new package of sanctions included freezing the assets of Gazprombank, a main channel for oil and gas payments, as well as Alfa Bank, a top private lender in Russia. Oil tycoon Evgeny Shvidler, Sberbank CEO German Gref and Polina Kovaleva, stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were among individuals sanctioned.

China has criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia and has drawn warnings from Biden about not helping Russia to evade the measures.

Asked about Chinas role, Stoltenberg said Thursday that China should join the rest of the world in clearly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and not provide political support neither provide any kind of material support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Stoltenberg told reporters the alliance is establishing four new battlegroups in the alliances eastern flank as part of its additional defensive measures since Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The combat-ready units are set to deploy to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, according to Stoltenberg, bringing the total number of NATO battlegroups on its eastern flank to eight. The other NATO battlegroups have been fully operational in the Baltic states and Poland since 2017.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and that the United States will work to hold Russia accountable.

Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations of war crimes.

The United Nations says more than 3.6 million refugees, including 1.8 million children, have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion one month ago. Another 6.5 million people have been displaced from their homes within the country. Among those displaced are 2.5 million children, the U.N. said.

National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
As NATO and the G-7 met in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration announced a wave of new sanctions on Russia Thursday.



Targeted are all 328 Russian lawmakers and many state-owned companies.



Our purpose here is to methodically remove the benefits and privileges Russia once enjoyed as a participant in the international economic order, a senior administration official told Reuters.



Specifically, the sanctions target 17 board members of a leading Russian financial institution, Sovcombank, and 48 defense companies reportedly producing equipment for Russias ongoing operations in Ukraine.



Also targeted are Herman Gref, who is the head of Sberbank and Gennady Timchenko, a wealthy friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.



"As long as President Putin continues this war, the United States and allies and partners are committed to ensuring the Russian government feels the compounding effects of our current and future economic actions," the White House said in a statement.



Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
The U.S. Capitol will reopen to the public on Monday for guided tours for limited groups of people who have registered in advance, congressional officials said, two years after the coronavirus pandemic prompted the cessation of such visits.

Officials said that the resumption would occur in phases, beginning Monday for school groups and other groups of up to 15 people who would be led by lawmakers or their aides. Congressional offices would each be limited to leading one tour weekly.

The move, announced Wednesday, marked Congress' latest relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions as Washington and the world struggle to return to normalcy as the omicron variant wave wanes in the U.S. Mask requirements inside the Capitol were relaxed weeks ago in a gradual easing that has been colored by politics, with Republicans pushing for more aggressive easing of restrictions than Democrats.

A health screening form for all visitors was being "recommended," according to the statement by House Sergeant at Arms William Walker and Brian Monahan, the Capitol's attending physician.

Visitor facility

The Capitol Visitor Center, an adjacent underground complex that has exhibits and a restaurant, is tentatively set to reopen to limited numbers of visitors on May 30, officials said.

Walker and Monahan said the renewed tours would be monitored, with an eye to revamping the new restrictions if needed. They also said they would be guided by how widespread COVID-19 was in the Washington area.

"We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we work together to resume public tours of the Capitol for the American people in a way that protects the health and safety of visitors and institutional staff alike," they wrote.

The two officials said the decision to renew limited tours was made by congressional leaders, the Capitol's medical and visitors services staff, the U.S. Capitol Police and the board that oversees that force.

In normal times, around 3 million people visit the Capitol every year.
A study released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests COVID-19 played a role in lowering the population in more than 73% of U.S. counties last year.

The bureau's Vintage 2021 estimates of population and components said the population drop  reported in nearly 3,000 U.S. counties  was what they call a "natural decrease," caused by more deaths than births in a population over a given time period.

In a news release, the bureau said the study indicates a drop in births, an aging population and increased mortality intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in the natural decrease.

The study showed that some counties also experienced population declines attributable to both international and domestic migration. The census showed counties with net international migration loss  more people moving out of the country from the state rather than into the country  were most frequently found in California, Oregon and Mississippi.

The study showed states with the highest percentages of counties with net domestic migration loss  people moving within the United States  were Alaska, Louisiana and Illinois.

The study showed that more than 65% of U.S. counties experienced positive domestic migration overall from 2020 to 2021. Arizona's Maricopa County gained the most residents from domestic migration, followed by Riverside County, California, and Collin County, Texas. Los Angeles County, California, experienced the greatest net domestic migration loss, followed by New York County, New York.

Christine Hartley, assistant chief of estimates and projections at the bureau, said 2021 saw a shift in domestic migration patterns. She said even with the natural decrease in population and international migration overall because of domestic migration, more counties gained population than lost.

The bureau said the statistics released Thursday include population estimates and components of change for the nation's 384 metropolitan statistical areas, 543 micropolitan statistical areas and 3,143 counties.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee holds its final day of confirmation hearings Thursday for Judge Ketanji Brown Jacksons nomination to a seat on the Supreme Court.

Lawmakers will hear statements from outside witnesses, including officials from the American Bar Association, law professors, and representatives from civil rights, law enforcement and religious rights groups.

Following Thursdays session, committee members will consider Jacksons nomination before holding a vote on whether to send it on to the full Senate for consideration.

On the third day of confirmation hearings Wednesday, Jackson once again defended her record to Republican members, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis suggesting Jackson possessed a kind nature that made her too lenient in sentencing decisions as a federal trial judge.

Jackson gave a lengthy response, saying she often sought to explain to defendants the impact of their actions with the aim of reducing the likelihood that they would commit more crimes on their release.

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham was more combative as he continued to ask Jackson about her sentencing decisions as a judge, repeatedly interrupting her when she tried to answer. He also brought up the contentious 2018 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

A friendlier questioner, Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, asked Jackson why she felt it was important for U.S. democratic institutions such as the courts to reflect the diversity of the nation.

Jackson answered that among other reasons, it "bolsters public confidence in our system."

"We have a diverse society in the United States. There are people from all over who come to this great nation and make their lives," she said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
A court in Hanoi on Wednesday handed down sentences to a journalist and a relative who tried to hide him from authorities.

Le Van Dung, an activist and independent journalist who publishes to Facebook and YouTube, was sentenced to five years in prison and five years probation for propaganda against the state.

The court handed Dungs 66-year-old uncle Nguyen Van Son an 18-month suspended sentence for helping the journalist hide from police.

Dung denies the charges, according to his lawyers and family.

Ha Huy Son, one of the lawyers representing Dung, described the courts decision as an unjust verdict, with no basis. He added that they will appeal.

Dung, a 51-year-old journalist also known as Le Dung Vova, was arrested for his reporting in June 2021.

He posted videos and articles to social media about corruption and land confiscations, and commented on political and social issues.

An indictment cited by state media alleged that Dung made and posted to the internet 12 video clips between March 2017 and September 2018 that included propaganda against the state, defamed the government, spread false news, caused confusion, and were insulted the honor and prestige of the Party and State leaders.

Vietnams state-run radio Voice of Vietnam quoted part of Dung's statement to the court, in which he said it makes no sense to argue about the legal system in Vietnam.

His lawyer, Ha Huy Son, gave VOA the full statement.

In it, Dung said that the accusations against him have no legal basis. It does not follow a standard or a rule. I am not guilty.

A second lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, wrote on Facebook after the trial that while Dung admitted posting content to social media, he has consistently rejected the views that the statements in the clips are illegal.

Dungs wife, Bui Thi Hue, told VOA that she and his mother were not allowed to attend the trial, even though the court said it was open to public.

The Hanoi Peoples Court did not immediately respond to VOAs request for comments.

Human Rights Watch earlier said Vietnam should drop the charges and that Dung is one of more than 60 people being prosecuted for speaking out.

Vietnamese authorities persist in treating any sort of criticism of the government as a grave threat to be prosecuted with long prison terms, the rights groups deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said on Tuesday.

International donors and trade partners of Vietnam should press Hanoi to listen to its critics instead of persecuting them, he added.

With limited space for independent reporting in Vietnam, many independent bloggers and journalists use social media to report or comment on sensitive issues.

The country has one of the worst records on the global press freedom index, ranking 175 out of 180 countries where 1 is freest. Accusations of propaganda against the state and abusing freedoms are regularly used to jail critics, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says.

Many face lengthy sentences.

An activist arrested in July on propaganda charges lost his appeal against the sentencing on Thursday.

The appeals court in Nam Dinh province upheld a sentence of 10 years prison and four years probation for rights activist Do Nam Trung, his lawyer told VOA.

This is an unjust judgment, said the lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh. He added that under Vietnams penal code, violations of speech should be punished only under civil charges.

Trung has held the view that his statements in his video clips and articles are exercising his right to freedom of speech as provided by the constitution, and therefore he believes that the verdict is wrong, Manh said.

Trung, 40, was arrested on July 6, 2021, for posting six video clips that authorities said were distorting content and defaming the government, according to state-run media.

A court in December sentenced him to prison.

Vietnam routinely prosecutes people for simply expressing their views critical of the government, making it one of the most dangerous countries in Southeast Asia to be a human rights activist, said Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Authorities should immediately and unconditionally release [Trung] for speaking his mind about the government. Vietnam should also immediately repeal the rights-abusing charge of propaganda against the state, which has been used so frequently to target government critics, he added.

This story originated in VOAs Vietnamese service.
The White House announced Thursday plans for the United States to welcome as many as 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing the Russian invasion of the eastern European nation.



In a statement on its website, the White House said the plan is part of a larger $1 billion humanitarian aid package to assist all those affected by Russias war in Ukraine.



The White House said while it expects most Ukrainians will choose to remain in Europe close to family and their homes, the refugees will be welcomed through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and other usual legal pathways. The statement says it is also looking to expand and develop new programs focusing on Ukrainians who have family members in the United States.



Refugee advocates welcomed the announcements but questioned the administrations abilities to move refugee processing faster than its current pace.



Sunil Varghese, policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), said in a statement the Biden administration is right to respond to the crisis in Ukraine with "compassion" and "bold action," and advocates await more information on the program.



"Unfortunately, refugee resettlement continues at a glacial pace, and significant investments and innovations are required to ensure the Biden administrations intentions can be made reality. We look forward to receiving more details about the program to protect vulnerable Ukrainians and encourage the administration to issue a clear plan to fulfill its promise to rebuild the refugee admissions program as a whole, he wrote.



The U.S. Refugee Admissions program was dramatically cut under the previous Trump administration, leaving fewer resources within the government and resettlement agencies to handle the significant increase of refugee applications and arrivals.

In 2021, the Biden administration raised the 2022 refugee cap to 125,000. Yet actual admissions continue to lag, and the White House has acknowledged the "goal will be hard to hit" despite Biden's determination to rebuild the program and renew "America's commitment to protect the most vulnerable, and to stand as a beacon of liberty and refuge to the world."

But Biden officials say the U.S. government is coordinating closely with the European Union on efforts to help refugees and provide humanitarian transfers and admissions to make sure they are complimentary.



The White House statement said the new humanitarian package will also include funding to ensure food security, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance for those impacted by Russias aggression.



The statement says the package includes an additional $320 million in democracy and human rights funding to Ukraine and its neighbors.



The White House says since February 24, the United States has already provided more than $123 million to help Ukraines neighboring countries and the European Union receive and host the millions of refugees that have fled the country, with funding split among Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic.



Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters.
The presidents of China and the United States discussed Taiwan during a video call last week, prompting suggestions that Beijing may be seeking a trade-off in response to U.S. President Joe Bidens demand that his counterpart Xi Jinping withhold material support for Russians war effort in Ukraine.

The subject of appeared in public summaries of the discussion released by both sides. The U.S. readout mentioned Taiwan once, whereas the Chinese readout brought it up four times.

To put it together, it somewhat shows that the United States wants to please China in exchange for something  literally [the] Ukraine situation and try to convince China not do anything stupid with Russia, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists lost to Mao Zedongs Communists and rebased their government in Taipei. Beijing has not dropped the threat of force, if needed, to unite the two sides.

Since mid-2020, it has flown military planes over part of Taiwans air defense identification zone almost daily. The Chinese Navy has been passing ships through a widening swath of the worlds waterways, especially in Asia and in the strait west of Taiwan.

Biden said the U.S. government does not support Taiwan independence or intend to seek conflict with China, according to Xis summary of remarks from Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "I take these remarks very seriously, Xi was quoted as saying.

What's worth noting in particular is that some people in the U.S. have sent a wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces, Xinhua added. Xi called the signals very dangerous.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump had stepped up sales of weapons to Taiwan and increased the frequency of high-level visits to the island as he challenged China on issues from trade to military expansion around Asia.

Any U.S. mishandling of Taiwan will have a disruptive impact on the bilateral ties, Xi added.

Biden said U.S. policy on Taiwan had not changed and that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo, according to a White House statement.

That statement repeats a standing U.S. policy of supporting Taiwans current self-rule without declaring formal independence from China. The policy discourages China from unilaterally forcing its goal of unifying the two sides.

Their differences are here, and its obvious, but the fact that theyre talking  its actually good, and I think they can find some common ground despite the differences, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore's public policy school.

Biden warned Xi on the call not to provide material support to Russias invasion of Ukraine, after the U.S. presidents top diplomat said Washington believed Beijing was willing to offer support to Moscow.

Of course, the starting point for Americas interests was hoping that China will not help Russia, but this does constitute Bidens main rationale, said Chao Chien-min, dean of social sciences at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei.

Biden may be trying to cement a stronger long-term relationship with old Cold War foe China, Chao said.

Sino-US relations

The China and U.S. statements both say Biden and Xi asked their teams to follow up after the video call but did not give specifics about how they should do that.

More senior-level dialogue is likely, analysts say, pointing to the call last Friday that followed a Biden-Xi video meeting in November.

While the calls signal stability in Sino-U.S. ties, experts see low odds of the two countries advancing toward any stronger friendship. Both are minding their domestic political landscapes, Huang said, and they lack conditions for further easing of tensions between the two countries.

Its not clear yet whether China will distance itself from Russia in the month-old war that Moscow launched against Ukraine almost a month ago, some note.

I do not think [the Friday call] will have any impact on current Sino-U.S. relations, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. He forecast that China is not willing to sacrifice benefits from possible warm-again Sino-U.S. ties for Russia.
WASHINGTON  Senior Western officials are increasingly alarmed that Russia's losses in Ukraine are making President Vladimir Putin more dangerous, some going as far as to compare him to a caged animal ready to lash out.

The warnings, from Washington and Brussels, come as new intelligence estimates suggest that up to 20% of Russian troops sent into Ukraine have been killed, wounded or captured as Ukraine fights Moscow to a near standstill.

"I don't know if you can go as far [as to say] stalemate, but it's clear that after one month, Russia has achieved almost none of their strategic objectives," said a senior NATO official, who spoke to reporters Wednesday on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence.

"They are stalled in Kyiv. They are stalled in Kharkiv. They are stalled in Chernihiv," the official said.

And in a break with some U.S. defense officials, who have declined to talk about Russian casualties in Ukraine because of low confidence in the estimates, NATO officials say the price on the battlefield has been high.

NATO on Wednesday estimated that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in battle, basing the assessment on intelligence from Ukraine and its own observations, including information accidentally released by Moscow.

When wounded, captured and missing soldiers are factored in, the number of Russian troops taken off the battlefield is between 30,000 and 40,000, the alliance believes.

But Western officials warn that rather than pull back, Putin has decided to respond to failure with even greater brutality and tactics reminiscent of a previous era.

"They are achieving more results in the south, but the price of it is absolutely horrendous," the senior NATO official said, accusing Moscow of trying to carpet-bomb the Ukrainian city of Mariupol into submission.

"What they do is World War II, 70-year-old techniques," the official said. "To reach this extreme, you need to be cornered and you need to be pushed to break all moral human rules to go to such brutality."

The official further warned that Russia's failure to quickly subjugate Ukraine is feeding into Putin's already deep hatred of Western values, increasing the chances he may choose to expand the conflict beyond Ukraine.

"The alliance is absolutely at risk," the official said.

There is growing concern that Putin may turn to weapons of mass destruction, whether they be nuclear, chemical or biological.

"Russia must stop its nuclear saber rattling. This is dangerous and it is irresponsible," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels Wednesday, ahead of an extraordinary meeting of alliance heads of state.

"Any use of nuclear weapons will fundamentally change the nature of the conflict," Stoltenberg said. "NATO is there to protect and defend all allies, and we convey a very clear message to Russia that nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought."

Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrence forces on high alert just three days after Russian tanks first rolled into Ukraine, and some Russian officials have floated the idea of using tactical nuclear weapons if necessary.

"If it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the U.S.-based cable news channel CNN on Tuesday.

U.S. defense officials said earlier this week that so far, they had seen no movement by Russia that would cause them to change Washington's own nuclear deterrence posture.

But the U.S. has expressed growing concern about the possibility Russia will use chemical weapons.

"I think it's a real threat," U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Wednesday in Washington before leaving the White House to attend the NATO summit in Brussels.

While not downplaying the danger, a senior U.S. defense official cautioned Wednesday that, at this point, a Russian attack using chemical or biological weapons does not appear to be looming.

We haven't seen any imminent signs that there's going to be a chem-bio [chemical or biological] event caused by the Russians, the official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

NATO officials, however, said the alliance has reason to believe an eventual attack is not out of the question and that they are preparing for two equally frightening scenarios.

"One is what is openly called a false flag operation  this would be an accident on a chemical plant," the senior NATO official said, pointing to the large amounts of ammonia, nitrates and other agricultural chemicals in Ukraine.

"If you have a massive release of those agents, it is very dangerous for the population," the official added, warning that chemical clouds could then put other countries in the region at risk.

But NATO is also worried Russia could throw caution to the wind and use missiles or shells to target Ukraine with highly lethal neurotoxins.

"When you use them, they are so characteristic that the attribution is immediate," the official said, adding that the biggest question for Western defense officials is whether Russia is going to want to stay below the threshold of attribution for the weapons it unleashes.
The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) led by Nelson Chamisa says it is planning to take legal action against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for using a shambolic voters roll in the forthcoming weekend by-elections.

In a tweet, CCC spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, said. We have challenged the numerous irregularities in @ZECzims shambolic voters roll in writing. ZEC has indicated that they will proceed to use the defective voters roll which they disowned a few weeks ago. They have NO appetite to address our concerns. Litigation is underway!

CCC said the current voters roll has too many ghost voters that are designed to allegedly rig elections in favor of the ruling Zanu PF.

In a letter to CCC elections director, Ian Makone, the state-controlled entity indicated that it will use the voters registers of the House of Assembly that comply with the law.

The letter read in part, Please be advised that the voters rolls to be used on the 26th of March 2022 in respect to the National Assembly by-elections, will be those that closed on the 8th of January 2022 in line with the Presidential Proclamation No. 1 of 2022. With regards to local authority by-elections, the voters rolls vary depending on as and when the vacancy occurred in the respective ward in line with Section 121A(3) of the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13)

Mahere said CCC officials visited the ZEC offices on Wednesday to express their dissatisfaction over anomalies in the voters roll.

She said CCC secretary general, Chalton Hwende, was not allowed by the police to speak to the press about the voters register soon after holding the meeting with ZEC officials.

Mahere said, Our election & legal teams today visited ZEC offices to express our dissatisfaction over ZEC's unconstitutional behaviour ahead of the Saturday by-elections as @PoliceZimbabwe blocked champion leader @hwendec from addressing members of the media.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was unreachable for comment.

Meanwhile, police have blocked CCC from holding its final rally in Epworth today ahead of by-elections set for Saturday. This also comes at a time when a similar police move was overturned by a Harare magistrate.

At the same time, some opposition political parties contesting the March 26 by-elections have reacted angrily to ZECs pronouncements that only one polling agent will be allowed in a voting centre on polling day. This has not happened in the history of Zimbabwean elections. Opposition parties claim that such a move creates room for rigging. But Zanu PF says it is not worried and will not interfere in the operations of the electoral body.
PENTAGON  NATO leaders are meeting Thursday in Brussels to discuss their short- and long-term response to Russias month-old invasion of Ukraine, and they are due to hear a direct appeal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for more help.

Ahead of the meeting, Zelenskyy used a video message, delivered in English, to ask NATO members for effective and unrestricted support, including weapons for Ukrainian forces.

Zelenskyy also appealed to people around the world to hold public protests against the Russian invasion.

Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life, Zelenskyy said. Come to your squares, to your streets, make yourselves visible and heard.

In addition to the NATO talks, U.S. President Joe Biden is meeting Thursday with G-7 leaders and the European Council. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the overall goal is to hear the resolve and unity that weve seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.

Sullivan said that includes countries following through on commitments to supply military equipment to Ukraine, to enforce existing sanctions against Russia and to look for ways to augment both along with humanitarian aid for those affected by the fighting.

Biden is due to announce a new round of sanctions targeting Russian political figures, oligarchs and other entities.

"NATO is providing unprecedented support to Ukraine, helping them to defend themselves, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of Thursdays meetings.

NATO allies are also imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russia to hamper, reduce the capability of Russia to finance this war against Ukraine, and we are also of course making sure that we are ready to protect all allies," he said.

China has criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia and has drawn warnings from Biden about not helping Russia evade the measures.

Asked about Chinas role, Stoltenberg said Thursday that China should join the rest of the world in clearly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and not provide political support neither provide any kind of material support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Stoltenberg told reporters the alliance is establishing four new battlegroups in the alliances eastern flank as part of its additional defensive measures since Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The combat-ready units are set to deploy to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, according to Stoltenberg, bringing the total number of NATO battlegroups on its eastern flank to eight. The other NATO battlegroups have been fully operational in the Baltic states and Poland since 2017.

The alliance chief also warned against the use of chemical weapons, with NATO leaders expected to provide equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

"Any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict, Stoltenberg said. It would be a blatant violation of international law, and it would have widespread and severe consequences."

Biden administration officials have previously sounded the alarm that Moscow could use chemical weapons in Ukraine and blame the Ukrainians for their use as part of a false-flag operation to justify the Russian invasion. Biden has previously warned that Russia would pay a severe price if it launched a chemical weapons attack but has not specified what that response would involve.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and that the United States will work to hold Russia accountable.

Weve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities, Blinken said, adding that many of the apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure hit have been clearly identifiable as in use by civilians.

The assessment was based on a careful review of public and intelligence information gathered since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last month, according to Blinken.

Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations of war crimes.

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday that Ukrainians have pushed Russian forces back to about 55 kilometers east and northeast of Kyiv, whereas a day earlier they were about 20-30 kilometers away.

Russian forces are still trying to encircle Chernihiv but are stalled between 8 and 10 kilometers from the city center, the official added.

A NATO official who was speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence told reporters Wednesday that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine.

The official said Russian forces have achieved almost none of their strategic objectives, while noting they are stalled in the northern cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.

Russia is achieving more results in the south, but the price is horrendous, the official said.

On its English-language Telegram feed, Russias Ministry of Defense portrayed a vastly different war effort, praising Russian forces as they advanced on parts of southeastern Ukraine while Ukrainian forces fled, and claiming success in taking out Ukrainian fuel depots and positions with high-precision long-range weapons.

The United Nations says more than 3.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion one month ago. Another 6.5 million people have been displaced from their homes within the country.

National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin and U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
WASHINGTON  Political analysts say South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has undercut his own utility as a potential mediator of the war in Ukraine with a controversial suggestion that NATOs own actions are to blame for Russias invasion of its western neighbor.

Ramaphosa has said he prefers negotiations over weapons or economic sanctions, in reference to sanctions piled on Russia by the United States and Western allies in the aftermath of the invasion, now in its fourth week.

The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region, Ramaphosa told parliament last Thursday.

But he added that South Africa cannot condone the use of force and violation of international law.

The South African president said South Africa had been asked to mediate in the conflict, but he did not mention who requested the intervention.

University of Western Australia analyst Dr. Muhammad Dan Suleiman told VOA that Ramaphosas outrageous comment is more like stoking the fire of conflict (and) projecting a paradigm of war rather than peace." He said the comment undercuts any possibility for Ramaphosa to mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Longtime allies

Africa's most industrialized nation has long-standing relations with the Kremlin dating back to the 1960s. During South Africas apartheid regime, the Soviet Union backed anti-apartheid freedom fighters.

After majority control came to South Africa in 1994, politicians, including those of the ruling African National Congress, maintained ties with Moscow, which observers say makes it no surprise that South Africa has not condemned Russias invasion.

Suleiman said there is no historical reason that gratitude for Soviet support during the apartheid era should translate to a defense of Russias aggression against Ukraine.

''For whatever reason, (Ramaphosa) seems to be equating Russia to the Soviet Union. And that is not true, because Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. And so, whatever help the Soviet Union gave to the ANC during apartheid also had the contribution of Ukraine,'' Suleiman said.

Prince Mashele, executive director at the Center for Politics and Research in Pretoria, said Ramaphosas position doesnt reflect the current thinking of most South Africans.

''You can't have a foreign policy that is frozen in the past. Foreign policy has to be dynamic. If (Ramaphosa) had a flexible policy, he would appreciate that the Russia of today is not the Russia of yesteryear.''

Mashele told VOA, "Ramaphosa is trapped by his own political party, the ANC, and so, the position he articulates doesn't reflect his own personal preference. In the ANC, there are relics of the old world aligned with the Communist Party of South Africa and (are) still active, Mashele said.

Mashele disagrees with some analysts assertions that Black South Africans in 2022 continue to look to Moscow for support.

''I am Black. I come from Black communities. The majority of Black South Africans are actually inspired by the West. Their culture, mannerisms, are an extension of the West, in terms of thinking.''

He added, ''Black South Africans don't even wish to visit Moscow. They wish to visit New York, or Dubai in the East, or Europe. And so, the position that is articulated by Ramaphosa on behalf of South Africans doesn't reflect the thinking of Black people. It only represents the thinking of a political clique in the ANC.
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At the end of Homers 24-book-length poem The Iliad, the mighty Greek warrior Achilles slaughters his Trojan enemy, Hector, for his role in the death of his friend, Patroclus. In Part One of Snowfalls rendition of The Iliad, as Franklin and the Family struggle to survive amid a series of attacks, it was easy to assume that our ambitious lead was being set up to become the Achilles of this South Central saga. Last episode, each time a different group of Franklins team was blitzed, I braced myself for a casualty. And yet, Part One ended without the loss of a loved one the likes of which might propel Franklin into a grief-stricken quest for battle (No shade to Avis friend Azeen who died during one of the shootouts. RIP!). But, as it turns out, the war being waged this season is not bound up in Franklins own loss but rather the losses he has left others to mourn. Part Two reveals that the man behind the curtain was none other than Kane Hamilton  the formerly incarcerated brother of Kevin, Franklins former bestie, whom he killed in season two.

Before Franklin comes face to face with Kane and his grief, he must look death in the eye without knowing how he arrived in this situation.

For starters, after fleeing their original attackers (Kanes guys) and some local Mexican gangs, Franklin and Oso find themselves stuck in a literal tigers den thanks to the weird old man taxidermist from last week (whom I unaffectionately call Gran Torino after his muchachos comment). The two men escape within an inch of their lives after Oso, using his belt to lock the door so the old man cant feed them to the tiger, sets their captor up to climb on top of the cage where his own beast mauls him. Amidst the carnage, the key to the cage falls into the tigers domain, and Franklin, the skinniest of two, is made to crawl into the cage and get the key. Its a good day for gorditos, Gustavo remarks.

Unfortunately for El Santo y El Oso, they are not yet free from danger. Almost immediately after escaping one gruesome fate, they are captured by the Mexican gangsters are brought to a salon to have the moneys location beat out of them. Donde esta la feria? a man asks Oso after putting on gloves and punching him several times. When its Franklins turn to be interrogated, the man offers to translate for Franklin, who is focused on reading the room since he still cant understand Spanish. (At this rate, Mr. Saint needs to get on Duolingo and stop playing!) Eventually, Franklin offers to take the men to the money, which he lies and says is back at Gran Torinos Taxidermy Shop and Tiger Enclosure. The men agree on the condition that Gustavo has to stay behind as insurance. As one might expect, the gangsters get blindsided and mauled by the tiger who I imagine was having a very exciting day. (In a matter of a few hours, her captor has died, shes freed from her cage, and food is delivered to her. I might have to stan?)

After playing GrubHub deliveryman for the Tiger, Franklin steals his captors car and meets up with Jerome and Leon to rescue Gustavo. After opting to spare the gangsters who held him hostage, Gustavo leaves with Franklin, Jerome, and Leon. Still unsure of who is after him, Franklin turns to Gustavo for a sounding board. Three coordinated hits, and I didnt see any of em comin, he says. People hide who they are, but sooner or later, they show it, Gustavo responds. I didnt believe you were coming back, he adds. Franklin understands why Gustavo had difficulty trusting him. Shit, I didnt trust you too, Franklin remarks. When they compare notes about their first drop after Teddys return, it becomes clear that Franklin was wrong to assume Gustavos collusion with Teddys surveillance plan. You really didnt know? Franklin asks. Gustavo shakes his head and looks off in a daze, processing how Teddy remains an enigma to him. As the four men drive off, the tiger walks down the block, crossing the street as if the neighborhood were her kingdom.

When Gustavo and Franklin finally arrive at the club, they must tend to their wounds and face the women in their lives. Xiamara comes to pick up Gustavo, and after hugging him from behind, she punches him hard. You know whats not funny? Thinking you left me with those pinches kids Gustavo, she says. They embrace and she takes him home. In Franklins absence, Cissy and Veronique have been talking quite a bit, and unfortunately for Mr. Saint, his mamas pep talks have justifiably sent Veronqiues protective instincts into hyperdrive. After refusing to let Big Deon drive her home because apparently, he sings over the radio (he just like me!), Veronique tells Franklin she will take herself home. When Franklin gets home, however, Veronique is nowhere to be found. At a sonogram appointment, the doctor informs them that the fetus has a heartbeat. Franklin begins to tear up, and Veronique asks for the room and once they are alone, Franklin admits, Wish you wouldve said something instead of just taking off like that. You wouldve tried to convince me to stay, she responds. Fulfilling her expectations, Franklin tries to assuage her concerns by telling her about the new security hes hiring. Veronique is not convinced. What about next time? [] What about when the CIA decides theyre done with you? she asks. You said you could keep me safe, but you cant, so now I have to keep some distance from you until youre free from all this. Franklin shrinks a little accepting his new fate. He and Veronique will not see one another outside of work. Her safety and the safety of their unborn child are now riding on his ability to keep his distance from the family hes always wanted.

Heartbreak touches the Family once more when they discover that Peaches, a friend of Jeromes brought on as a bodyguard, was involved in the series of attacks. When Peaches was first suspected in last weeks episode, Jerome is defensive and unwilling to consider that his friend had lied about taking a sick day. But Franklin suggests that they go out and investigate the matter. When Franklin, Jerome, Louie, and Leon discover that Franklins money storage site has been ransacked, all clues point back to Peaches. Only two people knew about this place, and Im one of em, Franklin exclaims after noting that around $5 million dollars have been stolen. To come at us like that? Shoot at Cissy? V? Louie? Aint no way, Jerome says in disbelief. Leon wants to know where Peaches would take cover, and Jerome asserts that the two aint been that tight in years. Louie assesses the strategy required to pull off such a betrayal. This wasnt no impulsive move. If he did do this, aint no way he stuck around, she says. He aint do it alone neither. We find who he used to come at us; maybe theyll lead us to him, Leon adds. As the group files out, Jerome lingers, heartbroken and betrayed. [Peaches] was a broke down fuckin vet before I put him on, Jerome tells Louie. You mightve brought him in, but he was Franklins guy. If anybody shouldve seen this coming, its him, Louie responds. Later, when some dealers press the couple about a delayed drop, Jerome snaps and starts wailing on one of the guys. He finds no outlet for his sadness but rage.

As the episode comes to an end, all the Familys anxiety, angst, and anger are rivaled by Kanes calm fury that has been cultivated over a long period of time. The interaction between Kane and Franklin revisits the betrayal and trauma of losing family and foreshadows the violence to come:

Kane: When I heard about my lil cousin Delroy getting stabbed while slanging for you, I was in solitary, wouldnt even let me out for the funeral. Then I heard about Kev, then I didnt wanna go to the funeral, woulda been too angry, done something crazy, probably added more time. So I just sat waited it out.

Franklin: You dont know what really happened.

Kane: No? You dont shoot and kill my baby brother? Did I get that wrong, Frankie? Show me the proper respect and say it to my face.

Franklin: I was in prison.

Kane: Who you snitch on to get out?

Franklin: If you had a problem, you shouldve just come and spoken to us.

Kane: Unfortunately, some things can be made right and some cant, but I do sincerely apologize if shit got out of hand and misses saint or anybody else got caught up in it. Thats all on me. Next time, Imma have better people. Next time we get it right.

Charming yet chilling like the perfect movie villain, Kane is one to watch.

Coming Soon To A Theater Near South Central

 Monster-in-Law: After Cissy asks V about the move she pulled when the cops came in last weeks episode, Veronique explains that the waterworks was one of many manipulation techniques she learned from her mother, a con-man who traveled the world and often incorporated her in her scams. I tried to heal myself from the last before it swallowed me, but maybe I was just tryna outrun it, but hey, here I am back at the beginning, Veronique says to Cissy. Let me find out that Veroniques mama was the original City Girl!!! Prayers up for Franklin if this woman ever shows face.

 Misery: In between scenes of Franklins struggles after the shootout, the episode returns briefly to Teddy who is still at Parissas house which is to say that he is stuck in a creepy game of Operation. Struggling to level with her, Teddy repeatedly asks Parissa what she wants from him. Despite raising her rate for saving him from $250,000 to $500,000, she reveals that her desires are not strictly monetary. She kisses Teddy on the lips and smirks. The last two days have been the most fun Ive had in years, she says. Yeah, this episode confirmed that I need to immediately see Tiffany Lonsdale (the actress who plays Parissa) in a remake of Misery!
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Central European Summer Time begins in Italy and across Europe on the night of 27 March 2022.

This weekend we will lose an hour of sleep but gain an hour of sunlight when clocks "spring forward" by one hour at 02.00 Central European Time (CET) on Sunday 27 March.

The practice dates back to more than a century, before the advent of electricity, to take full advantage of all the daylight hours during the working day.

However it could be one of the last times that Europe is required to change its clocks. The European parliament recently voted to scrap daylight saving time at an EU level but the move has been put on hold due to complications with both Brexit and the covid-19 pandemic.

Under the plan the 27 member states will be required to choose either permanent summer time or winter time but must co-ordinate their choices to minimise risk of economic disruption in cross-border trade.

There are currently three different time zones in the EU: two countries operate under GMT (Ireland and Portugal, in addition to the UK), 17 have Central European Time (GMT+1) and eight have Eastern European Time (GMT+2).

The only country in Europe not to make the most of extra daylight hours during the summer is Iceland which stays on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) all year round.

Central European Summer Time (CEST) will be with us until Sunday 30 October 2022.
Rome marks the 78th anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre on 24 March 1944.

On this day 78 years ago, the Nazi forces then occupying Rome carried out one of the most horrific atrocities against civilians during the second world war in Italy.

The Fosse Ardeatine, a former quarry near Via Appia Antica, was chosen as the site for the mass killing of 335 people, in retaliation for a partisan attack on a column of marching German military police the day before.

Via Rasella attack

In a strike against the German forces occupying the city, Italian resistance fighters detonated a homemade bomb in a municipal rubbish cart on Via Rasella, near Piazza Barberini, targeting a column of the Bozen military police attached to the SS on its way from Piazza del Popolo to its quarters in the Viminale, just off Via Nazionale.

The bomb was ignited when the patrol turned into the narrow, steep street that runs parallel to Via del Tritone, between the Traforo and Palazzo Barberini, just a short walk from the Trevi Fountain.

Out of the 156 men in the German unit, 28 were killed instantly, rising to 32 the next day and subsequently to 42.

Hitler

The SS command in Rome under Herbert Kappler immediately recommended reprisals, which were swiftly approved by the military authorities all the way up to Hitler.

Within 24 hours the German command ordered the Ardeatine massacre. The response was rapid and brutal, without the usual posting of notices offering to forgo reprisals if the bombers should give themselves up.

Innocent victims

Hundreds of innocent victims were rounded up immediately from Regina Coeli prison, from their homes and off the street in an attempt to reach a ten to one ratio for every German killed in the Via Rasella bombing.

The innocent victims were a cross section of those living in Rome at the time: about 100 civilians and professionals, military men, factory workers, a Catholic priest and several students, 75 of them Jews.

They were of all ages from 15 to 70, and all political persuasions, from monarchist army officers to ultra-left wing communists. Some of them came from outside Rome.

On 24 March the 335 victims were taken in lorries outside the city by SS officers Erich Preibke and Karl Hass, divided into groups of five and shot in the back of the head.

When the officers discovered that, by mistake, five too many hostages had been rounded up, they decided to kill them anyway so that word of the massacre should not spread too soon.

The Fosse Ardeatine caves were then dynamited to seal them off and the bodies left to decay. It was not until more than a year later, after the Allied Liberation of Rome on 4 June 1944, that the caves were reopened and the bodies found.

Horrible sacrifice

After the war the site of the massacre was transformed into a museum, national mausoleum and sanctuary dedicated to the martyrs.

A plaque on the wall of the cave reads: Here we were brutally killed, victims of a horrible sacrifice. May from our sacrifice rise a better homeland and lasting peace among people.

Numerous personal items belonging to the Fosse Ardeatine victims can be found in Rome's Liberation Museum on Via Tasso, a former Gestapo headquarters where Jews and resistance figures were tortured during the Nazi occupation of Rome from 1943-1944.

Several public commemoration ceremonies in honour of the victims are due to be held in Rome, with President Mattarella expected to lay a wreath in the Fosse Ardeatine mausoleum this evening at 17.30.

Erich Priebke

Erich Priebke, the SS officer and Nazi war criminal, died in Rome aged 100 in October 2013. Following his extradition from Argentina, Priebke had been jailed for life in 1998 for his role in the Fosse Ardeatine massacre.

However, due to his advanced age and ill health, his life sentence was reduced to house arrest which he served in Rome's Balduina district.

Priebke's death sparked a heated debate over what to do with his body, with the Vatican taking "unprecedented action" to block his funeral from being celebrated by any Catholic church in Rome.

The then mayor of the capital Ignazio Marino also vetoed a public burial in Rome, a city he described as "profoundly anti-fascist."

In the end, Priebke's funeral was held by the Society of Saint Pius X - an ultraconservative Catholic splinter group, some of whose members have in the past faced criticism over anti-Semitic leanings - at Albano Laziale, a town in the Castelli Romani about 25 km south of Rome.

During the service, police prevented clashes from breaking out between fascist sympathisers and anti-fascist protesters. Due to the protests, Priebke's relatives were allegedly unable to access the church to attend the ceremony.

Afterwards the coffin containing Priebke's body was seized by the Italian authorities and taken to a military base near Rome before being buried "in a secret location."

3.52 p.m. 23 March 1944. Rosario Bentivegna (photo) is standing next to a street cleaner's handcart in via Rasella, central Rome, nervously smoking a pipe. The handcart contains a powerful rudimentary bomb & he is about to set in motion a series of terrible events [Thread] >> 1 pic.twitter.com/aqYe7tuqdd Nicholas Whithorn (@NickWhithorn) March 23, 2021
Scribbling and Doodling: From Leonardo da Vinci to Cy Twombly. An exhibition at Villa Medici until 22 May.

The French Academy in Rome at Villa Medici presents an exhibition devoted to the often overlooked exercise of doodling, examining the carefree sketches and scribbles by great artists through the ages, from doodle king Leonardo da Vinci up to master scribbler Cy Twombly.

Comprising almost 300 original works dating from the Renaissance to the modern era, the exhibition sheds light on a free-flowing practice that has punctuated the history of artistic creation.

In addition to da Vinci and Twombly, the exhibited artists include Michelangelo, Pontormo, Titian, Bernini, Picasso and Basquiat, whose doodles are hidden on the backs of canvases, beneath fresco fragments, in the margins of manuscripts or alongside finished drawings.
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The oil market is desperately in need of demand destruction. Governments should either be encouraging behavioral changes such as using more public transportation or allowing expensive fuel to force consumers to change. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Instead, industrialized countries are doing the opposite. Call it demand construction. From Germany to New Zealand, and from England to California, policymakers are either cutting taxes on gasoline and diesel or offering blanket, untargeted energy subsidies. Both will probably boost oil demand at the worst possible time.

The policies are, of course, wildly popular. But they are not only economically wasteful, they will also do geopolitical damage. Fuel tax cuts are essentially a subsidy to Vladimir Putin, and they hurt the effort to end the war in Ukraine. Think about it: If oil becomes more affordable, consumption rises. The higher oil demand goes, the higher oil prices go, too, and the more money the Kremlin makes. Those extra petrodollars can go toward killing more Ukrainians.

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According to the International Energy Agency, the global oil market is likely to be short by as much as 3 million barrels a day by summer if Russian crude production drops as anticipated. That hole amounts to what France and the U.K. together normally consume in a day. Part of the fuel shortfall would be cushioned by drawing down commercial and strategic oil stockpiles. But managing it will also require lower demand.

Faced with what could turn into the biggest supply crisis in decades, global energy markets are at a crossroads, the IEA said earlier this month. To respond, the world needs to reduce oil consumption  and quickly. That requires adopting 1970s-style conservation policies. The IEA, which has been preparing for an oil crisis since its founding more than 40 years ago, recently released a 10-point plan of behavioral changes that could reduce consumption over time. Changes include reducing highway speeds, lowering fares for public transportation and banning the use of cars in large cities on Sundays.

And yet IEA member countries, which include the likes of the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France and South Korea, are all currently doing the opposite. Rather than trying to reduce demand, they are favoring policies that will sustain or even lift it.

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Among the worse examples is what California Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed: a $400 direct subsidy per vehicle registered in the state, capped at two cars per person. That measure alone will cost $9 billion. The money, if the proposal is approved, will be sent in the form of debit cards and will benefit every Californian, irrespective of wealth. This is a textbook regressive tax policy. On top of that, Newsom has proposed more than $1 billion in fuel tax breaks, including a one-year cut in diesel duties. Compare this with how the state is planning to reduce fuel demand: Its offering $750 million in grants for bus and rail agencies to provide free transportation for merely three months.

California isnt alone. Japan offers another example of terrible energy policy, with a direct subsidy to oil refiners to produce cheaper gasoline. And then theres Europe, where governments are racing each other to announce ever larger tax cuts on gasoline and diesel consumption. The U.K. government announced a cut to fuel duties on Wednesday. On Thursday, Germany revealed an even larger tax cut for gasoline consumption.

These tax cuts and subsidies go against the spirt  and probably the letter, too  of the most recent international climate change deal. Only a few months ago, the worlds leaders agreed during the United Nations COP26 climate summit to phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Theyre straying far from their promises.

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What should OECD countries do instead?

First, they should support the IEA campaign for oil savings. They dont need to apply every recommendation, but politicians should urge everyone to save energy. Unsexy policies  like tax breaks for house insulation, for example  can also bring longer-term energy and climate change benefits. Although calling for energy conservation has been politically toxic since Jimmy Carter did so during the 1979 oil shock, the message today might resonate given the focus on Ukraine and climate change. The IEA also needs to play a role by calling the bad policies its members are announcing.

Second, countries need to focus specifically on supporting poor families. The response to the 2022 crisis must look different to that from the 1970s  above all because our economy and employment look different. Many jobs in the gig economy rely on cars and motorbikes, and policymakers should be aware of that. Targeted tax breaks and subsidies to the most vulnerable can play a role. Supporting public transportation also benefits everyone but especially lower-income urban dwellers.

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The more OECD governments go for demand construction, the harder the oil market will fight back with higher and higher oil prices. And the market, ultimately, will win.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Cutting Oil Demand Would Hurt Russia and Ease a Supply Crisis: Julian Lee

 Can Britains Tories Afford to Be a Low-Tax Party Again?: Therese Raphael

 All Thats Stopping a Full-Blown Food Crisis? Rice: Javier Blas

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Javier Blas is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. He previously was commodities editor at the Financial Times and is the coauthor of The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earths Resources.

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In recent weeks, we have seen a curious dichotomy in Russian President Vladimir Putins military approach to his war in Ukraine. With one hand, he is reaching for modern weapons of war: hypersonic missiles, cyberattacks and precision-guided munitions. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight With the other hand, he is turning to the dictates of medieval warfare in encircling large cities and threatening to reduce them to rubble. He has in effect said to the heroic defenders of Mariupol, Lay down your arms, and I will spare your homes and your spouses and children. Predictably, the Ukrainians, who enjoy not only the moral advantage but increasingly the tactical one, have spurned his offer. So his cannons boom, his cruise missiles fly and the tally of his war crimes rises by the day.

What can we learn about modern warfare, and how to foil Putins approach to it, from events in Ukraine?

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The top concern is probably the Russian presidents unsubtle saber rattling about nuclear weapons, including putting his nuclear forces into special combat readiness and the ominous statement from his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, You know about the famous black suitcase and the red button.

Putin surely doesnt want things to reach an apocalyptic level  he, too, has children and a country he deeply loves. But would he risk a relatively low-yield tactical nuclear weapon  perhaps to knock apart a city from which most civilians have fled  in hopes of avoiding Western retribution in kind?

Maybe, but doing so would raise him to the top of the pantheon of historys war criminals. I suspect it is a line even he is reluctant to cross, although he will continue to threaten it.

More likely would be the use of a chemical weapon, something he previewed when he falsely accused the Ukrainians of harboring their own arsenal. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is taking the threat seriously. I expect allies will agree to provide additional support, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday, including equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

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A chemical or biological attack would terrorize the population  a key objective in Putins Plan B strategy now that Plan A, a blitzkrieg decapitation of Ukraines government, has failed. It would also help him conserve his inventory of cruise missiles and bombs, which is shrinking rapidly. Few things would empty a city faster than a cloud of nerve gas.

As President Joe Biden meets with the European allies in Brussels, they should be crafting specific plans for each scenario. Putins use of weapons of mass destruction would probably need to be met by what NATO has henceforth avoided: a no-fly zone, at least above western Ukraine, to maintain the flow of weapons from Poland into Ukrainian hands. A Russian chemical attack might also demand a NATO ground force to protect the western city of Lviv, to which the Ukrainian government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy may need to relocate to prepare for mounting a nationwide resistance.

Another modern weapon Putin has rolled out is hypersonic missiles. While not confirmed by the Pentagon, the Russians say they launched one at a precisely demarcated target late last week. There is much confusion about hypersonic weapons. In a nutshell, they move at more than five times the speed of sound, have maneuverability in flight (and thus are hard to knock down), and can be either self-powered like a cruise missile or glide to their target after being launched from an aircraft or rocket. (Strictly speaking, hypersonics fly at low altitudes like traditional cruise missiles, although in the media the term is commonly used to describe some ballistic missiles and space-launched weapons. Bloombergs Roxana Tiron has a good explainer here.)

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The significance of the Russian launch has little to do with defeating Ukraine and much to do with signaling to the West. Putin is warning the U.S. and NATO that not only does he have nuclear weapons, but that he could deploy one on a platform against which there is little to no defense.

We should take the point: The U.S. needs to build its own hypersonic missiles to create a deterrent regime, and explore defenses against them, probably using lasers (ultimately the only system fast enough to engage them). The military is already on both these paths, but feasibility is years away. Thus NATO should take seriously Putins signal, but not overreact to it. The West has plenty of other escalation options  cyberwarfare, conventional strikes, maritime responses  if necessary.

Finally, the bear that hasnt growled is cyberwarfare. Biden rightfully has highlighted both the nuclear and chemical weapons possibilities, but Putin will may well ramp up on cyber against (in probably this order) U.S. consumers (gas pipelines and food distribution networks); transportation grids; financial institutions; the U.S. government itself.

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As we reach the one-month mark in this war, Putin is primarily using the strategies of ancient warfare: destroying cities and terrorizing populations. But in the background loom the most modern tools of combat: cyberattacks, hypersonic missiles  and perhaps chemical weapons and or even tactical nukes. The U.S. and its allies need to plan now how they will react to any or all of them.

Related at Bloomberg Opinion:

 What Happens in Russia If Putin Cant Win in Ukraine?: Hal Brands

 Putin Misunderstands History. So, Unfortunately, Does the U.S.: Niall Ferguson

 Putin Is Finding War Is Hell, and Expensive: James Stavridis

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.

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In a house in Oxford, England, a 16-year-old living with his mother has been wreaking havoc on the other side of the world. Believed to be a male, hes hacked victims from Microsoft Corp. to Okta Inc. and blazed a trail of mayhem along the way. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight His apparent youth isnt the only thing that sets this operator apart from better-known ransomware gangs like Conti and Revil. His outfit, dubbed Lapsus$, is known for using a pure extortion and destruction model without deploying ransomware payloads, Microsoft noted in a blog post this week. The U.S. software company uses the designation DEV-053 to track the group.

According to Bloomberg News, four researchers investigating Lapsus$ believe theyve identified this kid as the mastermind of the group. Another member is suspected to be a teenager living in Brazil. At the time of writing, the researchers havent been able to conclusively link the teen in England to each of the attacks claimed by Lapsus$, and theres been no public accusation by law enforcement of any wrongdoing, the report notes.

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While the world has been watching Russian hacking of Ukraine, and other targets, Lapsus$ continued with its own operations, adding to the global spate of cybercrime that is estimated to cost the world economy more than $1 trillion annually.

Many of the tactics deployed by Lapsus$ are familiar to security-response teams. Among them is social engineering, where an attacker impersonates a person in order to trick a help-desk employee into giving access to systems or providing sensitive information which can be used to breach a target, Microsoft noted. SIM-swapping is another, in which the hacker successfully replaces a victims phone number with its own in order to receive a multi-factor security code sent by text message.

But rather than quietly planning an intrusion, including setting up a cryptocurrency wallet and tailoring a ransom note for each victim, Lapsus$ looks to have taken a somewhat more high-profile approach. One thats far riskier than more disciplined operators solely motivated by money, and instead may be spurred by a desire for notoriety.

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The group even advertised through a Telegram group its willingness to buy credentials from employees of victim companies, which would then be used to breach corporate security systems. The purported goal has been to access computers, steal data, and then demand payment to prevent the release of sensitive information to the public. That was the apparent motive for a breach on user-authentication provider Okta.

Call it overconfidence, or the brashness of youth, but the actions didnt stop there. He, or they, went as far as joining victims discussion boards and crisis communications calls  on platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams  to eavesdrop on the response, Microsoft noted.

By contrast, Conti and Revil tend to surreptitiously slip into a targets servers, encrypt thousands of files, and leave a custom-made note outlining how payment can be made. Thats the approach taken by Darkside, which brought the Colonial Pipeline Co. to a halt in the U.S. last April.

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Yet we shouldnt conclude that youth fully explains Lapsus$ bold approach. In fact, some of the worlds most notorious hackers were teenagers when they took their first big steps into the cyber underworld. Kevin Mitnick was 16 when he broke into Digital Equipment Corp.s systems back in 1979. Jonathan James was 15 when he got started, and counted the U.S. Department of Justice among his victims. Canadian Michael Calces targets included the websites of Yahoo, eBay and Dell when he was 17.

That adolescence is a challenge for law enforcement and prosecutors. Many jurisdictions wont charge perpetrators as adults. James, for example, ended up pleading guilty to two counts of juvenile delinquency and was sentenced to house arrest and probation. From the almost 20 charges filed against him, Mitnick entered a plea bargain and took the rap on just seven and served five years. Calce received eight months in a youth detention facility.

While jail time is an obvious risk, theres also perceived upsides for youthful hackers. Mitnick ended up writing a book, inspired the Hollywood movie War Games, and went on to a prolific career as a security consultant. Calce also moved onto the side of the good guys as a white hat. But not all juvenile delinquents had a happy ending. James took his own life at the age of 24 after being accused of a hack he didnt commit, while another, Adrian Lamo, died in whats believed to be an accidental drug overdose.

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Security professionals know that child hackers are smart, proficient and extremely dangerous. Police and courts also remember that theyre still just kids.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 What the Modi Twitter Breach Tells Us About Hackers: Tim Culpan

 The Mercenary Threat of Hackers-for-Hire: Bobby Ghosh

 Hacktivists Are Piercing Russias Propaganda Bubble: Parmy Olson

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Tim Culpan is a technology columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Based in Taipei, he writes about Asian and global businesses and trends. He previously covered the beat at Bloomberg News.

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The first agreement to ban chemical weapons came in 1675, when France and the Holy Roman Empire forswore use of poisoned musket balls. Three centuries and at least six international treaties later, and despite the macabre specter of their use in World War I, they have remained a fixture in the arsenals of authoritarian regimes. Now, with Russian forces suffering heavy losses after their invasion of Ukraine, concerns have risen that Russia will employ chemical weapons in its war there.

1. What are chemical weapons?

Chemicals used to cause intentional death or harm through their toxic properties are defined by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as chemical weapons. So are munitions, devices and other equipment designed to weaponize toxic chemicals. One chemical that can be turned into a weapon is chlorine, a choking agent. It is absorbed through the lungs and irritates the nose, throat and lungs, causing fluid to build up, choking the victim. Sulfur mustard, meanwhile, is a blister agent. It causes large and often life-threatening skins blisters that resemble severe burns.

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2. What are the worries in Ukraine?

U.S. President Joe Biden said March 23 that theres a real threat Russia will use chemical weapons there. NATO officials said they are studying different scenarios around that possibility. A so-called false flag event could involve an accident at a chemical plant given the significant amounts of ammonia, chlorine and nitrates that are used in Ukraines agricultural industry. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that as part of its defense plans, the alliance activated its chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense elements. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of using phosphorus bombs, which emit a toxic, sticky substance that ignites on contact with air, producing thick smoke and extremely high temperatures. Russia has yet to comment. White phosphorus is not considered a chemical weapon.

3. What happened in World War I?

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Despite international treaties signed before the outbreak of the war, Germany used poison gas on the Western Front in 1915. Other combatant nations joined in, leaving more than 90,000 dead and a million wounded in chemical attacks by the wars end. That memory, and the 1925 Geneva Protocol, deterred the use of chemical and still-more-ghastly biological agents on the battlefields of World War II and most conflicts since then. But not entirely.

4. When have they been used since?

Chemical attacks by the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein killed 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in 1988; a sarin attack by the Aum Shinrikyo cult killed 13 people on the Tokyo subway in 1995. North Korea is suspected of involvement in the 2017 murder in Malaysia of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, using the nerve agent VX. The latest treaty to outlaw chemical attacks, the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, has been ratified by 192 nations, with holdouts including North Korea, Egypt and South Sudan; Israel has signed but not ratified. But even countries that accepted the treaty have come under scrutiny.

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5. Which countries are those?

Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime repeatedly used chemical weapons in that countrys civil war, even after it agreed to surrender such munitions following a 2013 sarin gas attack that killed hundreds in a Damascus suburb. Russia has been tied to the deadly Novichok nerve agent used in the 2018 poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain, the first reported use of chemical weapons in Europe since the Nazis used poison gas in concentration camps in World War II. And after Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was hospitalized in Berlin in 2020, Germany said tests showed unequivocally that he was poisoned using Novichok. Russia denies involvement in both cases.

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Its painful to watch the Republican senators cynical hectoring of Ketanji Brown Jackson, but the process is nevertheless instructive. For one thing, it confirms my long-held view that confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees are a bad idea. More important, the treatment being accorded Jackson  and the cynical hectoring of past nominees by Democrats  is a reminder of the terrible damage democracy suffers when our politics become centered on Washington, D.C.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings became a regular feature of the political landscape only in the 1950s, a time when the nation was sharply split over burgeoning demands for an end to racial segregation. And, yes, the Dixiecrats and the McCarthyites got their shots in. But overall, despite the divisions of the time, hearings were brief and the questioning tended toward the perfunctory.

Whats changed? Politics is no longer local.

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In his important 2018 book The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behavior Nationalized, the political scientist Daniel J. Hopkins points to the problem: With the attention of local voters nowadays focused heavily on Washington, D.C., elected officials can no longer rely on such traditional tools as constituent service to retain their offices. They have to seize whatever opportunities arise to signal their views on national issues.

Although Hopkins doesnt discuss Supreme Court nominations, his model fits them perfectly. Recent work has found a relationship between the vigor with which a senator questions a nominee and voter opinion about confirmation in the senators home state. The same research shows that senators who doubt that they cant block a nominee press especially hard. This behavior, too, is probably aimed at voters back home: At least I tried, the senator can say when reelection time rolls around.

Do the voters care? Once upon a time, maybe they didnt. In the age of nationalized politics, they surely do. In her fascinating 2010 book Battle over the Bench: Senators, Interest Groups, and Lower Court Confirmations, the political scientist Amy Steigerwalt reminds us that most federal judicial nominations sail through the Senate. One of the few ways to derail them is for interest groups to succeed in making them salient to the public  that is, to get voters to pay attention. On the other hand, writes Steigerwalt, all Supreme Court nominations are highly salient to the president, senators, interest groups, and the public. Voter attention is now baked into the process.

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On top of this, the nominees themselves have changed. For more than half a century, the research tells us, the influence of the nominees qualification on Senate voting has been shrinking and the influence of the nominees ideology has been growing. Small wonder: As the parties have grown more polarized, nominees are apt to be quite distant ideologically from most senators of the opposite party.(1) And although the fit isnt perfect, a nominee whos ideologically distant from a particular senator is probably just as distant from the majority of voters in the senators home state.

Thus we see the building blocks in place: The nationalization of politics leads senators to follow their constituents by focusing on national issues, nominations to the Supreme Court are highly salient, and the level of local ideological disapproval of the other partys nominees is likely to be high. Senators seeking re-election quite rationally use the opportunity to showcase their alignment with the preferences of their voters. And even if voters see no more than a snippet on cable news, the research suggests that the more political news voters watch  even if what theyre watching is itself intensely ideological  the more information they gain about the actual positions of political candidates.

It matters, too, that confirmation hearings are held in the Senate. Senators have a particularly urgent need to signal their positions. Hopkins, in his book on nationalization, points out the paradox that although voters are still more likely to know the names of their governors than those of their senators, and even though governors have far more influence over the day-to-day lives of voters, Senate races draw at least 75 percent more money than gubernatorial races during the same cycle.

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And so the hectoring of the opposite partys nominees, although ugly and often nasty, turns out to be a predictable and even rational act of electoral self-protection, which helps explain why both parties engage in it. But here, as so often, whats good for political advantage turns out to be bad for democracy. Most of us, I hope, would prefer to live in a political world where the solemn duty to consider a nominees fitness for the Supreme Court would lead to high-minded and thoughtful debate as our elected officials rose above self-interest of the sort that leads to the televised slinging of mud.

That wont happen as long as politics are all national and voters attention is scarce. If that genies not going back into the bottle, the next best idea would be to abolish the requirement that the nominee sit for senators questions. If were not prepared to do either of those things, the next vacancy will deliver more of what we profess to hate.

More from other writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

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 Confirmation Hearings Are Democratic Rituals: Jonathan Bernstein

 Ketanji Brown Jackson Belongs on the Supreme Court: Editorial

(1) The same research suggests that from the 1930s through the 1980s, Democratic presidents tended to choose ideological liberals and Republican presidents tended to choose ideological moderates. This distinction vanished under Ronald Reagan.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His novels include The Emperor of Ocean Park, and his latest nonfiction book is Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down Americas Most Powerful Mobster.

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Its a defection already being brushed off by the Kremlin as a personal issue. Of course. The truth is that as Moscow gets bogged down in a Ukrainian war far more costly than imagined, the abrupt departure of a crucial figure of the post-Soviet years  a man who helped push Vladimir Putin into power by giving him his first Kremlin job  will sting.

Anatoly Chubaiss name evokes the mayhem and hope of that first decade of post-communist life. He was an economist, a market reformer, a red-haired pioneer under Boris Yeltsin who launched a thousand asset sales. At breakneck speed, Chubais dismantled a decrepit economic system and, in the process, turned a handful of men into billionaires. Hes frequently been blamed (even targeted) for the unequal distribution of wealth that resulted, but he described his choice at the time as between bandit communism or bandit capitalism.

Now, Chubais has left an increasingly isolated Russia behind, apparently for Turkey, in the highest-profile desertion since Putins ill-fated invasion of Ukraine began a month ago. But there is no room for doubters. Putin, ratcheting up his threatening rhetoric, has talked of cleansing the country and warned of a fifth column of national traitors.

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In weighing up what this eye-catching departure means for a regime under pressure, its important to consider what it isnt.

Chubais is not an oligarch, so this exit is not a sign of mutiny among billionaires  who in any event are no longer propping up the political system as they did under Yeltsin. Nor was he any longer in Putins tight inner circle. That is increasingly made up of figures from the security services or those tied to the regime through hydrocarbon rents. Chubaiss last sinecure was the role of climate envoy for Putin  a president hardly bothered by the worlds carbon budget.

His was the highest-level defection so far, but arguably the most expected of the high-level defections, as Ben Noble, who researches Russian domestic politics at University College London, put it to me.

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And yet he was also one of several men of the system who for years had been able to exist just outside it, in what Noble describes as a liminal space, even as Putins Russia darkened. Now he was forced to choose sides.

Crucially, Chubais is not alone. Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that the highly regarded central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, had sought to resign after the invasion, only to be reappointed last week for a new term and left to manage the fallout from a war that has left Russia economically isolated, and has undone her work of years. Others in the economic elite  if not the political one  have signaled discontent.

Of course, those in the most distant orbit around the Kremlin speak up or leave first. Chubais has less to lose than fellow travelers from St. Petersburgs liberal administration such as Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister and currently the head of Russias Audit Chamber, or Herman Gref, who leads the countrys biggest lender, Sberbank. Their comments and actions will be worth watching.

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None of this should take away from the significance of Chubaiss exit. High-profile figures outside the Kremlin are now not only calling for peace, as the billionaire Oleg Deripaska has, but also voting with their feet, with all the costs that implies. Theres no return. In an environment where few are under the illusion that the operation in Ukraine is the swift success it was supposed to be, every departure emboldens more.

More from other writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Russia Exploits Big Holes in Financial Sanctions: Paul Davies

 The Other Big Commodity Shock From War in Ukraine: Javier Blas

 The Great Man Theory Makes a Comeback: Matthew Yglesias

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.

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The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine threatens to upend years of work to improve public health in the region  and especially to worsen the spread of tuberculosis. Ukraine has one of the highest rates of drug-resistant TB in the world. Of the nearly 24,000 people diagnosed in the country just last year, about a third have the most intractable kind  resistant to one or more treatment options. Ukrainian health authorities have been working for years to improve treatment and support for TB patients, and Russias invasion will almost certainly reverse their progress. To avoid a broader TB disaster in the region, the world needs to mobilize resources to help Ukrainians and refugees with the disease.

The war has of course come on the heels of Covid-19, which wreaked its own havoc on tuberculosis efforts, setting back detection, treatment and research by at least eight years, according to Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the global Stop TB Partnership. Worldwide, during the pandemic, deaths from the lung infection rose for the first time in more than a decade, and the number of people going without care has grown. Almost half of the 10 million people estimated to have tuberculosis globally remain undiagnosed.

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Yet, even as many Ukrainian patients struggled to access care during the pandemic, health authorities in the country were making strides against TB. In 2020, Ukraine became the first country to study how well a new three-pill regimen for drug-resistant infections (dubbed BPaL for bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid) would work in a real-world setting. Unlike older drugs, which need to be taken for up to two years and too often fail to clear the infection, BPaL, in clinical trials, had cured most subjects in just six months.

Early results from Ukraines operational study, released last fall, showed that 46 out of 55 patients who took BPaL for the full six months no longer carried the TB bacterium. Ukraine was preparing to make the treatment widely available this year.

Then came Russias attack.

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Now, nearly 10 million Ukrainians have left their homes, including more than 3 million who have fled to neighboring countries, and that population faces a long list of threats to their health. Those include, of course, the most basic needs for survival  food, water and safe shelter. But public health experts are also worried about diseases like HIV, polio and measles. In particular, living conditions for displaced people are breeding grounds for communicable diseases.

Right now, most people are simply trying to survive. Taking TB medicine has understandably dropped to the bottom of their list of concerns. Ukrainian health authorities and global health partners are doing their best to help patients stay on course. When Russian attacks began, TB dispensaries were handing out one-to-two-month supplies of pills.

TB patients fleeing Ukraine have also been given lists of health agencies in neighboring countries to help them find medicines  along with the personal telephone number of Yana Terleeva, coordinator of the Ukrainian Ministry of Healths TB program.

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Within Ukraine, many patients are afraid to seek help. Russia has directly attacked 64 health-care facilities and nearly 1,000 others stand within or near the line of fire, according to the World Health Organization. Terleeva says that three TB dispensaries have been shelled.

Outside the country, refugees face a different set of hurdles. Poland has welcomed the largest population of refugees, but TB is relatively under control there, making dedicated facilities, diagnostics and drug stockpiles scarce. Getting more supplies isnt as easy as simply placing an order. Ukraine gets its TB medicines through the Global Drug Facility, a World Health Organization-supported mechanism for purchasing and distributing low-price TB drugs. Manufacturers cannot send those drugs to the European Union without special approval. And some TB drugs used in Ukraine arent registered in the EU at all, so a waiver will be needed to distribute them to refugees.

Even if all of these pieces  and many others  come together to enable care, refugee TB patients might not seek it for fear of being turned away from a safe haven.

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Disruptions to treatment are dangerous not only for individual patients but for the broader community. Stopping medicines early or taking them inconsistently increases the risk that an infection will become drug-resistant, and that a more pernicious infection will spread.

The TB situation could shape up to be a slow burning time bomb, says Boston University epidemiologist Helen Jenkins, who has been conducting studies of TB in Ukraine. She worries that infections will progress and transmission will occur silently, and the impact wont be felt for many months, when its too late to do anything about it.

This makes it important for European countries now hosting Ukrainian refugees to cut away any red tape holding back drug access and to support on-the-ground efforts to get TB patients the comprehensive care they need.

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Given the global threat of drug-resistant TB, all countries need to reassess their ability to diagnose and treat the infection and ramp up the search for better vaccines against TB. The pandemic had already set the world back from the WHOs goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030. Without a significant new effort, Russias destruction in Ukraine could push that goal out of reach.

More from other writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Ukraine War Ends the World as We Know It: Liam Denning

 The Worlds Next Big Health Emergency Is Here: Therese Raphael

 Funding Long Covid Research Could Have a Long Tail: Faye Flam

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Lisa Jarvis, the former executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News, writes about biotech, drug discovery and the pharmaceutical industry for Bloomberg Opinion.

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The financial strictures imposed on Russia have put a spotlight on cryptocurrencies. Could the Russian government, or sanctioned officials, use digital assets to hide and move their wealth, undermining efforts to punish President Vladimir Putins regime for its bloody war in Ukraine? Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Heres where things stand: Global illicit crypto activity amounted to $14 billion in 2021  or about 0.015% of global gross domestic product  according to analytics firm Chainalysis. Russias exports amounted to more than $500 billion in 2021, a volume of transactions that far exceeds what even the largest and most liquid cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, can handle. Also, activity on most blockchains leaves a permanent public record. Any significant state-driven sanctions-busting would immediately stand out, alerting authorities and threatening undesirable consequences for all involved.

That said, theres still room for smaller-scale evasion. Suppose, for example, a sanctioned Russian wanted to move a few million dollars worth of rubles out of the country. Hed need to buy digital assets in Russia, then eventually sell those assets for fiat currency usable in the country where the funds needed to go  all without authorities knowing whose money it actually was.

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The first step would be easy: convert rubles to crypto at one of several accommodating exchanges that operate in Moscow. The next step would be to further obscure where the funds came from, perhaps through the fast-growing market for nonfungible tokens, where exchanges arent required to identify users or report suspicious activity. Once the funds looked legitimate enough, they could be converted into dollars at an established crypto exchange and deposited in the account of an entity that the sanctioned individual secretly controlled.

Such laundering, however, entails considerable risk. Unlike a banknote, a crypto token retains the digital fingerprints of everyone who has ever held it. Although each of those holders is identified only by an alphanumeric address, law-enforcement agencies  with the help of increasingly cooperative exchanges  are constantly improving their ability to recognize crime-related addresses and connect them to individuals. This allows authorities to confiscate stolen funds and nab people even years after the fact.

In Russias case, authorities have already taken steps to confound would-be sanctions evaders. The U.S Treasury Department has cracked down on two exchanges  Suex and Chatex  popular among money launderers, along with a long list of associated addresses. The department has alerted crypto exchanges and other financial institutions to flag certain suspicious transactions, with the implicit threat of fines for failing to report. And President Joe Biden has set up a special task force, called KleptoCapture, to identify and seize the assets of sanctioned Russians.

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More can be done. Officials can sanction other laundering-related exchanges and addresses. They can require a wider range of intermediaries  including nonfungible token exchanges and decentralized crypto platforms  to know who theyre doing business with and report suspicious transactions. The U.S. in particular has some catching up to do when it comes to financial transparency  for example, by setting up a genuinely public registry of corporate ownership and shedding light on opaque trusts. Eventually, crypto could become even more transparent than the traditional banking system, if enough platforms and apps demanded identification where appropriate.

The effort to enforce sanctions against Russia provides an opportunity: If policy makers take immediate steps to prevent Putin and those who support him from turning crypto into a haven for money they want to hide, theyll make life harder for criminals more broadly too.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:



How to Prepare for a Cyberattack: Parmy Olson



Russia Exploits Two Big Holes in Financial Sanctions: Paul J. Davies



Chinas Ukrainian Juggling Act Isnt Over: Clara Ferreira Marques

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Most of Washington's cherry trees grow around the Tidal Basin, where the Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials are located. There are many cherry tree species here, some with funny names. Which of these is made up?
People jam the hallways of the Rayburn House Building to get into a reparations hearing on June 19, 2019. (Katherine Frey/The Post)

Retroplolis The Past, Rediscovered
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If it sounds like I have a special connection to Sizzler, its because I do, and not just because I am fat and like to eat food. I grew up in Toowoomba, in regional Queensland. Sizzler was an institution in that city for an extremely long time. From as early as I can remember, seemingly every single time we would drive by, the car park would always be full, the long line into the restaurant always out the door.

Sizzler had been overlooked and neglected and left behind by this country for a long time before its demise. It was the Garden of Eden with its green and white panelling, a beautiful cornucopia of trays full of pretty okay food. And we let it fade away, not taking the opportunity to gaze and graze when we could.

First established in Brisbane in 1985, and keeping an unexplainable yet unmistakable Queensland vibe throughout its expansion to other states, the last Sizzler store in the country shut up shop during the pandemic in 2020. However, the blame does not lay at the feet of COVID-19. Yes, the pandemic may have delivered the final blow, but we delivered all the serious blows before that.

There are so many things the pandemic has taken away from us. Many things we didnt appreciate enough when they were within our filthy unsanitised grasp. For me, one of the main ones is the all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, Sizzler. The best restaurant in the world. The restaurant that Australia forgot.

Most famous for its cheese toast, which would arrive at your table piping hot soon after you sat down, Sizzler was the place you would eschew the regular menu that had dishes like steak and seafood, in favour of a spin around the iconic Salad Bar. Those two simple words Salad Bar evoke so much. To my mind, its the most beautiful phrase in the English language. The Salad Bar is where you had unlimited access to pasta, soup, salads, delicious crispy potato skins, plates of fruit (never touched this), and a dessert bar, including an ice cream machine. What could be better? What more could you people want? What more could they have done?

For my family, Sizzler was the fanciest place in town. It was the pinnacle of fine dining, and it was for special occasions only. I clearly remember the feeling of going to Sizzler for my 14th birthday, my parents finding enough money for me to bring along three friends. Sitting at the head of a long table, excitedly strategising our approach to the meal, knowing that for a couple of hours we were free from the constraints of everyday life. I felt like a powerful mob boss. Rules were flipped on their head, and we were allowed to start our meal at the ice cream machine, swirling it into little plastic bowls. Then, we would carefully decide what 10 different kinds of toppings and sprinkles to adorn our ice cream with until it was one disgusting sweet mushy soup you would leave half of on the table, before heading off to create another combination. That was our right, as Sizzler patrons. And it was glorious, just as Sizzler was.

In recent years Ive realised that people outside of areas where Sizzler held on, such as Toowoomba, or Caboolture, or Western Sydney, all viewed Sizzler in a much different way.

As a working-class kid in the country, it was always an extremely exciting event. In retrospect, I think some of it must have been about the experience of indulgence, which is not something we got to feel very often. The food might not have been out of a fancy French restaurant, but there was so much variety, there was so much possibility. I (shamefully) hadnt been to a Sizzler for a long while before they shut, my last experience coming at the Toowong sizzler in Brisbane, which was infamous for being the location where a woman put rat poison in the salad bar. Instead of turning me away from Sizzler for good, the rat poison incident being in the news reminded me about how much I missed Sizzler and the obviously too-accessible buffet. Where were the rest of you? At home, eating food that definitely didnt have rat poison in it? Pathetic.
There are millionaires superyachts in all their glory, and then there are abandoned wrecks left polluting Queenslands waterways and endangering boaties.

These barely buoyant vessels have gradually disappeared during the past 3 years through a state government program, which is set to run out of funding in September 2022.

The barely afloat Sonda in Cabbage Tree Creek at Shorncliffe.

The War On Wrecks program will remove its 1000th vessel in the coming weeks  a partially submerged vessel named Sonda in Cabbage Tree Creek at Shorncliffe, in Brisbanes north-east.

Stirling Hinchliffe, the state member for Sandgate, which encompasses Shorncliffe, said Maritime Safety Queensland contractors would haul Sonda out of the creek.
Around three-quarters of Australians would move from a capital city to a mid-sized regional town under the right circumstances, new research shows, but the threat of bushfires and floods play into where they would choose to live.

Only 16 per cent are happy to stay put in the city, a new Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report, titled Understanding what attracts new residents to smaller cities, revealed.

Noel Clifford is in the process of moving to his new home in Sedgwick, near Bendigo. Credit:Eddie Jim

As part of the research, undertaken by the University of South Australia, RMIT and UNSW Sydney, more than 3000 Australians aged 18 and older were surveyed about their preferences for city or regional living.

The survey was conducted in January and February last year, still within the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the report author - University of South Australia senior research fellow Associate Professor Akshay Vij - said there were unexpected results.
Lviv/Kharkiv: Russian forces bombed areas of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday AEDT, a month into their assault, while Western leaders gathered in Brussels to plan more measures to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his campaign.

The capital of Kyiv is still under fire. A barrage of shelling rocked the city on Thursday AEDT, with rockets slamming into a shopping mall and high-rise buildings in the districts of Sviatoshynskyi and Shevchenkivskyi.

A volunteer cleans the broken glass at a shop which got damaged as a result of shellfire in Kyiv. Credit:Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images

Destruction was extensive and fires from the shelling injured four residents, city officials said.

From a public park in Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian bombardment had so far killed 264 civilians in the capital, including four children. As he spoke to reporters, explosions and loud gunfire echoed across the city.
If countries such as Indonesia and others do not agree to remove Russia from the G20, then Ukraine should be invited into the group, he said. The official statement from the group after an emergency meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday (AEDT) said it was concerned by recent public comments by Chinese officials and called on Beijing to cease amplifying the Kremlins false narratives, in particular, on the war and the West. Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky receives a standing ovation as he addresses Swedens parliament via video link, in Stockholm. Credit:TT News Agency via AP The three summits  with NATO, the G7 and the European Union  come amid rising concern among Western leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin may turn to unconventional weapons in an attempt to regain momentum. The United Nations human rights office said on Thursday that at least 1035 people have been killed and 1650 wounded in one month of war in Ukraine while 4.3 million children  more than half of the countrys estimated 7.5 million residents under 18  have been uprooted, including more than 1.8 million who have fled abroad.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned the world it had entered a new normal for global security and said Beijing must not provide economic or military support for the Russian invasion. Instead, Beijing should use its significant influence on Russia and promote an immediate peaceful resolution, Stoltenberg said. He also said Kremlin-aligned Belarus must stop acting as an accomplice in the invasion. French President Emmanuel Macron said in his conversations with Xi they had shared our concerns and disagreed with the war, adding that he believed in Chinese coherence.

I think that China as [a] member of the [UN] Security Council cant do anything else than to be a power of mediation and moderation, Macron said. He said that he wants to believe that China will not participate in any escalation. While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, many fear that unity will likely be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy and governments are forced to commit to greater long-term security spending. Stoltenberg, whose position was on Thursday extended for 12 months because of the crisis, warned NATOs security alliance had fundamentally changed for the long haul and doing more would cost more. He reiterated that any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. But when pressed, he said he would not speculate about how NATO might respond if Russian chemical agents, either drifted or contaminated water supplies from Ukraine into NATO territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who addressed the meeting via video link from Kyiv, called for military assistance without limitations. He asked for 1 per cent of NATOs 20,000 tanks in a passionate speech to leaders. Ukraine has warned it is fast running out of weapons and on Wednesday urged Germany and France to keep their pledges to send more arms. A woman exercises near a car and apartments damaged by shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit:AP You can give us one per cent of all your planes, one per cent of all your tanks, he said, You have at least 20,000 tanks. Ukraine asked for a per cent, one per cent of all your tanks to be given or sold to us! He said the tanks were needed to lift the sieges on our cities that are now dying: Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol, others.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said while it was understandable why Ukraine wanted tanks and jets, it was logistically tough to deliver them. He also insisted there would be no boots on the ground. Loading We are very conscious of what he is asking for. The equipment we think is most valuable at the moment are missiles, which they can use to defend themselves, he said. Leaders agreed to four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, in addition to four in Baltic countries and Poland, bringing the total to eight between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Stoltenberg said 100,000 US troops across Europe were supporting efforts, along with 40,000 forces under direct NATO command, mostly in the eastern part of the alliance, including carrier strike groups.

The G7 and the European Union, which meets following the NATO summit, were expected to pledge to block transactions involving the Russian central banks gold reserves to hamper any Moscow bid to circumvent Western sanctions. Loading The US announced it would take in 100,000 refugees and donate $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) to help European countries take in people fleeing the war. Biden avoided what looms as a potential split in the alliance, with some EU member states calling for Europe to join the US ban on Russian energy imports despite the political sensitivities surrounding the Continents higher dependence on Russian energy. The US said it would work with Britain to ship more liquefied natural gas across the Atlantic as officials aim to ease any supply crisis.
Shepard's Office, an advocacy group for the homeless, says it's helping people clean up after a fire at a Georgetown homeless camp in the woods near Savannah Road.
Pictured: police on the scene of a shooting that wounded a 10-year-old boy in the 700 block of W. Hill Street in Louisville, Ky., on March 24, 2022.
Officer Andrew Riley was announced Wednesday as the new school resource officer for Bardstown City Schools, the first hired by the district's new Law Enforcement Services office. (Bardstown City Schools photo)
One person was killed, and another person was rushed to the hospital after a shooting at the Speedway gas station on Poplar Level Road, according to Louisville Metro Police.
Pictured: some of the trucks on display at the 2022 Mid-America Trucking Show at the Kentucky Expo Center. The show started on March 24 and continues through March 26.
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Casting and details have been announced for Paul Murphy's new comedy Dirty Hearts.

Running at the Old Red Lion in London from 5 to 30 April, the show follows a group of friends who come to question their own characters after a chain of events stemming from a painting's authentication.

Murphy was the joint winner of the inaugural Theatre 503 Playwriting Award, and said today: "As a writer, when pitching a play you're often asked 'Why now?' But what I was more interested in with Dirty Hearts was: 'Why always?'

"This isn't a play ripped from the headlines, rather it's a piece whose themes have been with us for over two thousand years. Love, friendship, trust, morality. All the topics that philosophers and artists have been grappling with from The Golden Age of Athens through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment are what I'm looking to explore. The great comedic potential when a person's ethics come up against their desires."

Pierro Niel-Mee, Allegra Marland, John MacCormick and Isabel Della-Porta will appear in the show, directed by Rupert Hands, who was the associate director on Cyrano de Bergerac.
Staging Clybourne Park 12 years since its premiere (this production, marking the tenth anniversary, was delayed by you-know-what) is likely to evoke mixed reactions. As writer Bruce Norris acknowledges in a programme note, the play has been subject to boycotts in the US, and even sparked at least one response play to "correct its shortcomings".

But whatever your view of its politics, there can be no doubting that Norris's willingness to dive headfirst into the thorny issues of race and gentrification makes for seminal drama. And, over a decade after it first appeared, the territory it explores has only become more topical, particularly in light of Black Lives Matter and the ever-spiralling property crisis.

The two acts, set 50 years apart, take place in a house in the fictional Chicago suburb created by Lorraine Hansberry in A Raisin in the Sun. They directly mirror each other. In the first, we meet a middle-aged couple who are moving out of the property following a family tragedy. The news it is being purchased by a Black family is revealed by a concerned (read racist) neighbour Karl, a character from Hansberry's play, precipitating an almighty row.

Half a century later, in 2009, we witness a gathering in the same address to discuss the development plans of a white couple, who have identified the now predominantly Black area as a property hotspot. Among the attendees is a family member of the buyers from the first act, who fears for the community's changing identity. Surprise surprise, the meeting does not go smoothly.

Oliver Kaderbhai's production fizzes with energy and features a top-notch ensemble. Richard Lintern and Imogen Stubbs are deeply affecting in the first act as the troubled couple Russ and Bev, whose son, lost to suicide, is a ghost that stalks the evening. Karl is entertainingly played by Andrew Langtree as a man constantly on the brink of losing it; he also plays Steve, the new owner of the house, who is similarly highly strung, particularly when goaded into telling racist jokes. Steve's wife Lindsey is superbly rendered by Katie Matsell, the epitome of liberal hypocrisy ("half my friends are Black"), who doubles as Karl's Deaf wife Betsy and steals some of the evening's biggest laughs in the process.

Aliyah Odoffin impresses as both the put-upon family maid, Francine, and Lena, whose delivery of a joke about white women and tampons is a highlight of the second act. Former ballet dancer Eric Underwood makes an assured stage acting debut as Francine's stoic husband Albert and Kevin, who enjoys skewering Steve and Lindsey's hypocrisies. And Michael Fox provides a good foil as both a prevaricating reverend and a gay lawyer; he also poignantly bookends the evening as the soldier son.

Watching this revival, it struck me how Norris's Pulitzer-winner owes a great debt to the drawing room farce. It is comically convenient how these disparate characters end up arguing in a room together, twice. But as with farce, therein lies its pleasure; it's like observing a perfectly choreographed brawl. James Turner's economic set design nicely plays into this, the front door and the stairs becoming important players in their own right. And although at times the production perhaps strains a little too hard for laughs, it's entirely forgivable when the material is so rich.
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Translator, Cairo, Egypt

Organization: World Health Organization (WHO)

Country: Egypt

City: Cairo

Office: WHO EMRO Cairo

Grade: NO-C

Closing date: Monday, 11 April 2022

Translator

( 2202608 )

Grade : NO-C

Contractual Arrangement : Fixed-term appointment

Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days) : 2 years

Job Posting: Mar 21, 2022, 11:14:17 AM

Translation/Interpretation Services Unit (TIS) is mainly responsible for translating, revising and editing health-related information and documents from English into Arabic and French. TIS occasionally provides translation from Arabic and French into English under the guidance and general direction of TIS Manager.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Within the framework of the delegated authority, the incumbent is assigned all or part of the following duties which are performed according to the needs and agenda:

Translate, edit, and proofread Arabic and English texts ensuring accuracy, clarity and uniformity of terminology.

Review and revise Arabic and English texts translated by NO-B, short-term translators and interns ensuring accuracy, clarity and uniformity of terminology.

Translate, revise, edit, proofread and rewrite documents and publications of the Regional Committee, technical papers and publication materials in the Office.

Upon request, revise outsourced publications.

Assign and follow up outsourced contracts for translation publication.

Translate into Arabic, edit, proofread RDs addresses and speeches.

Translate into Arabic, edit, proofread abstracts of papers to be published in HQ and EMRO journals.

Translate into Arabic, edit, proofread the contents of HQ and EMRO web-sites.

Establish and maintain standards for Arabic publications and terminology

Provide required advice and guidance to NO-B translators, short-term linguists, interns and external collaborators.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential

University degree in translation or languages.

Experience

Essential

At least 5 years of experience in language services (translation/revision/editing).

Desirable

Working knowledge in UN agencies is an asset.

Skills

Ability to use standalone/network-based Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT)

applications/tools.- Excellent knowledge of editorial and terminology work and in production

aspects of technical papers and books.- Ability to work under pressure.- Familiarity with health related; Proficiency in Microsoft office applications.

subjects

WHO Competencies

Teamwork

Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences

Communication dAtuRwI Dh7qKS

Moving forward in a changing environment

Producing results

With reference to http://www.who.int/employment/WHO_competencies_EN.pdf?ua=1

Use of Language Skills

Essential : Expert knowledge of English and Arabic

Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French

REMUNERATION

Remuneration comprises an annual base salary starting at EGP 788,033 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable) and 30 days of annual leave.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level

Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

A written test may be used as a form of screening.

In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.

Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.

For information on WHOs operations please visit: http://www.who.int.

WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

WHOs workforce adheres to the WHO Values Charter and is committed to put the WHO Values into practice.

WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

WHO has a mobility policy which can be found at the following link: http://www.who.int/employment/en/. Candidates appointed to an international post with WHO are subject to mobility and may be assigned to any activity or duty station of the Organization throughout the world.

Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.

Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to apply on-line. For assessment of your application, please ensure that your profile on Stellis is updated; all experience records are entered with elaboration on tasks performed at the time. Kindly note that CV/PHFs inserted via LinkedIn are not accessible

Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1647882798476
I was scanning the obituaries recently and ran across a familiar name. His picture, taken in his later years, did not ring a bell with me, mainly because Id not seen him in more than 60 years. But there he was, dead at 87 after a long and distinguished career in civil engineering. However, 
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In a unanimous vote, the Berryville Architectural Review Board on Wednesday recommended that the town give the owners of 112 Josephine St. (above) until Dec. 31, 2023, to renovate the boarded-up log cabin.
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TORONTO - Barrick Gold Corp. is selling its 13 per cent stake in Skeena Resources Ltd. for nearly $132.5 million.

Barrick Gold logo is seen during the company's annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Barrick Gold Corp. is selling its 13 per cent stake in Skeena Resources Ltd. for nearly $132.5 million. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - Barrick Gold Corp. is selling its 13 per cent stake in Skeena Resources Ltd. for nearly $132.5 million.

The gold miner says a Canadian investment dealer has agreed to pay $15 per share for its 8.8 million shares in Skeena Resources and plans to resell them on a bought deal basis.

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Skeena shares were down four cents at $15.74 in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Barrick says it is selling the shares for "investment portfolio management purposes."

Skeena Resources is a mining exploration and development company.

It owns the Eskay Creek gold-silver project in northwest British Columbia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:ABX, TSX:SKE)
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - As Newfoundland and Labrador's oil sector faces more hesitancy from Ottawa, the province's energy minister says he's unfazed by the federal New Democrats' comments that a pending approval of a new oilfield off St. John's will be hard to justify.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - As Newfoundland and Labrador's oil sector faces more hesitancy from Ottawa, the province's energy minister says he's unfazed by the federal New Democrats' comments that a pending approval of a new oilfield off St. John's will be hard to justify.

Andrew Parsons says he expects some opposition in Ottawa  especially from the NDP  to Equinor's proposed Bay du Nord development, which would open a new oilfield about 500 kilometres off Newfoundland's east coast.

Newfoundland and Labrador Energy Minister Andrew Parsons attends a news conference in St.John's on Tuesday, June 27, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

But Parsons says he's not worried that the opposition will affect the project's fate, even with this week's announcement of an agreement between the federal Liberals and New Democrats to work on shared priorities.

"I haven't had any conversation with the feds per se on this, nor have we been given any indication that the agreement will have any effect on the decision," he said in an interview Thursday.

"I know we do have federal support, and I know there are obviously people in the federal scene that are against the project. That's nothing new."

Newfoundland and Labrador is on tenterhooks waiting for a twice-delayed ruling on the project from federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who must determine if the Bay du Nord's environmental impacts will be minimal enough for its development to proceed.

Guilbeault first asked for more time last December to make his decision, and then again in March. His ruling is now expected next month.

On Thursday in Ottawa, Guilbeault appeared before a Senate committee on energy and discussed the Bay du Nord project in the context of the war in Ukraine and helping Europeans reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas. He told Sen. Claude Carignan that oil is not a transition energy and the project proposed off Newfoundland's east coast won't solve Europe's energy issues.

It must be understood that if the Bay du Nord project goes ahead, it could not produce oil before 2028, so I doubt that our European friends and colleagues will wait until 2028 for Canadian oil, the minister said.

Earlier this week, the NDP said it would support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberal government through to 2025. In exchange, the Liberals have agreed to work with the party on several priorities, including fighting climate change.

Federal NDP environment critic Laurel Collins said Wednesday she struggled to see how the Liberals could approve Bay du Nord and have it align with national commitments to limit a rise in global temperatures to 1.5 C.

"The NDP believes we need a concrete and immediate plan to move toward a green and sustainable economy, so the province is not continuously caught in a boom-bust cycle while the rest of the world moves away from non-renewable resources like oil and gas," Collins said in an email.

The provincial Progressive Conservatives have said that the deal between the two parties  and the influence it may give to the NDP  could signal the end of Bay du Nord.

Meanwhile, Ottawa has put the breaks on a new call for bids on Newfoundland and Labrador offshore exploration licences. Parsons announced Wednesday the federal government has asked for a delay of up to 90 days, saying it needed more time for review.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson explained Thursday his department requested the time because some of the areas up for bid overlap with marine protected areas, "and the intentions around marine protected areas."

Wilkinson told reporters there's no reason to read anything into the delay, adding they are not unusual. However, a spokesperson for the province's offshore oil regulator said Thursday this is the first time Ottawa has suspended a call for bids.

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Alex Marland, a political science professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the delays with Bay du Nord indicate Ottawa is having a "really hard time with this particular issue."

"Every political party has its kryptonite  something that splits it apart," Marland said in an interview Thursday. For the Liberals, Marland said, their kryptonite is climate change and their desire to make meaningful headway to combat it, while facing pressure to support oil and gas.

As for the federal NDP's power to influence the Liberals' call on Bay du Nord, Marland noted the parties do not have a coalition government, merely an agreement. The New Democrats, he said, are not sitting around the cabinet table.

Marland said the real indication of where the federal Liberals fall on Bay du Nord can be found in their campaign promises.

"They didn't campaign saying, 'We are going to support the oil and gas industry,'" he said. "They campaigned saying they were going to do something about climate change."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2022.
PARIS (AP)  French automaker Renault plans to pause production at its Moscow plant in an apparent move to fend off mounting criticism, breaking ranks with other major French companies that have defied pressure to keep operating in Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

FILE - A worker examines new cars at Renault's Moscow plant, on March 1, 2010. French automaker Renault moved to pause production at its Moscow plant in an apparent move to fend off mounting criticism, breaking ranks with other major French companies that have defied pressure to keep operating in Russia. The company's board of directors voted Wednesday night to suspend activities at the Renault Moscow plant." It came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the company and others in France of aiding Russia's war effort during an emotional virtual address to parliament. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

PARIS (AP)  French automaker Renault plans to pause production at its Moscow plant in an apparent move to fend off mounting criticism, breaking ranks with other major French companies that have defied pressure to keep operating in Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

The company's board of directors voted Wednesday night to suspend activities at the Renault Moscow plant." It came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the company and others in France of aiding Russia's war effort during an emotional virtual address to parliament.

Dozens of foreign multinational corporations have curtailed operations in Russia, amid sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its Western allies aimed at crippling the country's economy.

But some French companies have been notable for their reluctance to leave, underlining how it's often a point of pride for France  and its companies  to be more independent from the U.S. and United Kingdom when it comes to policy toward Russia. It's a stance that has started to unravel as the war grinds on.

French President Emmanuel warned Thursday about reputation risks for groups operating in Russia but said they are free to make their own choices.

My position is to let the companies free to decide for themselves. Thats up to the companies leadership to assess the situation, he said at a news conference in Brussels.

Home improvement giant Leroy Merlin, supermarket chain Auchan and sporting goods retailer Decathlon are among high-profile brands refusing to stop their business in Russia. French energy company TotalEnergies issued a combative statement this week, saying it would stop buying Russian oil but warned that a hasty withdrawal would only benefit Russian partners.

French food giant Danone said Wednesday that it's continuing local production of essential dairy and infant nutrition products in Russia, saying it has a duty to Russians who rely on the company for food. Danone said it condemned the war and suspended Russian imports, exports and investments and doesn't expect to receive any profits from its Russian business.

French firms are much more embedded in Russia than U.S. firms, so departure is more costly, said Witold Henisz, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton Business School.

Its particularly true for automakers and parts manufacturers whose European factories might be shut down without Russian-made parts, said Henisz, who studies political risk for corporations.

Henisz said French business and political leaders have clung to the longstanding notion that their continued engagement with countries of any political regime offers France more political and economic weight and a leadership position in Europe.

Not just French companies are feeling the heat. Swiss multinational food giant Nestle sought to deflect criticism by saying Wednesday that it will remove some brands from Russia, including KitKat candy bars and Nesquik milkshake powder, but will keep supplying essential food.

Zelenskyy singled out some French companies in his address to Frances parliament, pleading for them to stop indirectly supporting the war in Ukraine with their presence in Russia.

Renault, Auchan (and) Leroy Merlin must stop sponsoring the Russian war machine, and the murder of children and women, rapes, robberies and looting committed by the Russian army, Zelenskyy said. All companies must remember that values are worth more than profit.

In a tweet Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on customers and businesses worldwide to boycott Renault. Mistakes must come with a price, he wrote, alongside a picture describing the brand as sponsor of Putin's war.

Renault, which is partly owned by the French government, had temporarily suspended production at its Moscow plant when the war erupted, blaming logistical problems, before reportedly resuming production days ahead of Zelenskyys French address. The factory makes Renault's Arkana, Kaptur and Duster SUVs and the Terrano model for its Japanese partner Nissan.

The carmakers failure to abandon its subsidiary Avtovaz  which represents the lions share of the groups presence in Russia  means it will likely keep facing pressure. Last year alone, Renault sold almost half a million vehicles through its Russian subsidiary.

Renault said it is not immediately withdrawing but merely assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia.

Leroy Merlin has been more intransigent than Renault and  like Auchan and Decathlon  refuses to shutter its Russian business. In a statement, Leroy Merlin's management reaffirmed its desire for its Russian stores to stay open in a decision backed by French regional political leadership.

Not even the destruction of a Leroy Merlin store in Kyiv by a Russian bombardment on Sunday night was enough to make parent company Adeo reconsider its position. Ukraines Defense Ministry also accused the chain of indirectly financing the strike by operating in Russia.

The maintenance of our activity in Russia is a decision which is not easy, the company said. We have no reason to condemn our Russian teams for a war they did not choose," adding that it still has responsibility as an employer.

TotalEnergies slammed what it called serious and unfounded accusations of complicity in war crimes leveled against the company. It said sanctions, combined with Russian laws governing foreign investments, prevented it from finding a non-Russian buyer for its minority stakes in several private Russian energy companies.

Abandoning these interests without consideration would enrich Russian investors, in contradiction with the sanctions purpose," the company said. Rivals Shell and BP, in contrast, swiftly announced exits from their Russian energy projects.

TotalEnergies said it can't avoid buying Russian liquefied natural gas to supply Europe in the short term, citing the continent's gas logistics capacities," and noted that it doesn't have the same domestic resources as countries like the U.K. and U.S.

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French bank Societe Generale, which owns one of Russia's largest private lenders, said this month that it was conducting its business in Russia with the utmost caution and selectivity, while supporting its historical clients." The bank said its exposure to Russia amounted to 18.6 billion euros and warned of the possibility of being stripped of its local operations.

French companies are playing by the historical rules of a postwar order that has been upended, said Henisz, the management professor.

The only question firms face is whether they will get out early and look courageous or be dragged out among the last in their industry," he said.

French companies will have to pay the cost of looking the other way as Russia signaled its intent to leave the international system," Henisz added. Their shareholders and some EU customers will suffer. It is only a question of time."

___

Chan contributed from London. AP reporter Sylvie Corbet contributed from Paris.
NAGAON, India (AP)  Plans to build a sprawling solar park on land cultivated for generations by indigenous farmers in India's Himalayan foothills erupted in violent clashes with police last year after their crops were bulldozed for the development.

A man works at a solar power plant in Mikir Bamuni village, Nagaon district, northeastern Assam state, India, Feb. 18, 2022. Protests have been simmering among several poor families belonging to India's indigenous communities who contest the sale of 91 acres of land to New Delhi-based green energy producer Azure Power Global Limited. The dispute underscores not just Indias often fuzzy land ownership rules complicated by colonial-era land classifications, but also the immensity of the challenges facing India in its renewable goals for the next decade. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

NAGAON, India (AP)  Plans to build a sprawling solar park on land cultivated for generations by indigenous farmers in India's Himalayan foothills erupted in violent clashes with police last year after their crops were bulldozed for the development.

Most men from the farming village of a few hundred in Assam state were out looking for work on Dec. 29. One of the few people who remained was Champa Timungpi, who says she was beaten by police and kicked in the stomach when she tried to protest.

Pregnant at the time, the 25-year-old was rushed to a hospital for her injuries. I came back home at night, and I miscarried, said Tumungpi, who lodged a complaint with police.

The lush green village in Nagaon district  still largely unconnected to the grid and home to families who earn less than $2 a day  is now framed by blue solar panels, barbed wire and armed guards.

The solar developer Azure Power, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said in an email that the company legally bought 91 acres (38 hectares) in the village from recorded landowners and it's incorrect and erroneous to say the land was forcibly taken.

The company's position is strongly disputed by Timungpi and others in the Mikir Bamuni village who say their rights as tenants and established farmers were ignored. Local officials and police didnt respond to requests for comment.

However it plays out in a district court, the dispute not only speaks to Indias often-tangled land ownership rules rooted in its colonial era. It also illustrates the complexity and immensity of the challenges facing the country of nearly 1.4 billion people in meeting its renewable power goals for the next decade.

Over the next 20 years, India's demand for electricity will grow more than anywhere else in the world. Unlike most countries, India still has to develop and lift millions like Timungpi from poverty, and it will need to build a power system the size of the European Unions.

How India meets its energy and economic needs will have an outsized impact on the worlds climate goals. The country is a major contributor of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at last years United Nation climate talks that India would increase its capacity of non-fossil fuels electricity to 500 gigawatts by 2030  from the 104 gigawatts at the start of this year.

To meet its goals, India must add four times the amount of power the average nuclear plant produces  every month until 2030.

These short-term energy targets wont do much to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius (34.7 Fahrenheit)  the level beyond which scientists warn of catastrophic climate impacts, scientists at last year's United Nations climate conference had warned.

But for India, itll still be a gargantuan task, requiring investments between $20 billion and $26.8 billion, while only $10 billion is available, a parliamentary committee said last month.

Some obstacles to renewables  such as the need to build electricity storage for when the sun isnt shining or wind isnt blowing  are global challenges. Others are more specific to India  such as the question of who owns land in poor communities that bear least responsibility for the climate crisis and the need to realign power systems that have relied on coal for centuries.

While there's no clear roadmap yet for Indias renewable energy push, experts cite a federal report last year that said an optimal mix would be getting more than half the country's power from the sun and wind by 2030.

But big solar and wind facilities are sparking conflicts with local communities. This is partly because land ownership is fuzzy at many project sites. For example, some communities have used land for centuries to farm or graze cattle without legal rights over it.

As governments and companies focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels, such conflicts were collaterals that had to be managed, Kanchi Kohli, an environmental researcher at the Indian think tank Centre for Policy Research.

Mandatory environmental impact assessments were waived for solar and wind projects to make them more viable. But environmental issues still have arisen.

For instance, Indias Supreme Court in April 2021 ordered that transmission lines for solar energy be put underground after environmentalists reported the lines were killing critically endangered great Indian bustards. Nine months later, the federal government said burying the lines to safeguard the birds would be too costly and would impede green energy development. The court is hearing the matter again.

India could reduce its dependence on large solar parks by building solar panels on roofs in cities.

The country's initial rooftop goals were small, but in 2015 it set a target of 40 gigawatts of rooftop solar, enough to power 28 million homes. Customers were allowed to send electricity back to the grid  and the sector grew.

In December 2020, the federal government changed rules restricting large industries and businesses from sending electricity back to the grid. These commercial groups are among the highest paying customers for Indias perennially cash-strapped power distribution companies, which lost over $5 billion in 2020.

With industries sending electricity back to the grid in the evening when demand and power tariffs are highest, distribution companies were losing their best customers said Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

They were losing money, Garg said.

The installation cost makes rooftop solar too expensive for most homeowners. That was the case for Siddhant Keshav, 30, a New Delhi entrepreneur, who wanted to put solar panels on his home. It just didnt make sense, he said.

Homes comprised less than 17% of India's rooftop solar in June 2021, according to a report by Bridge to India, a renewable energy consulting firm. And India has only managed to achieve 4% of its 2022 rooftop solar target.

Wind could become another important element in India's clean energy portfolio. But the most attractive, juicy, windy sites have small turbines using old technology, said Gagan Sidhu, the director of energy finance at think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

By retiring old wind turbines built before 2002, India could unlock a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts, according to a 2017 study by Indo-Germany Energy Forum, the consulting firm Idam Infra and Indias renewable energy ministry. But experts said it's unclear who would do the retrofitting and pay the bill.

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With a coastline of over 4,670 miles (about 7,500 kilometers), India could potentially build enough offshore wind farms to provide roughly a third of the country's 2021 electricity capacity by 2050, according to an assessment led by the Global Wind Energy Council.

But these are very expensive to build  and the first such project, a wind farm proposed for the Arabian Sea in 2018, has yet to get underway.

___

Ghosal reported from New Delhi. AP journalist Chonchui Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils.

True North Collective vape cartridges are shown in Jackson, Mich., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils. But now that farm  like many other licensed grows in states that have legalized marijuana  faces an existential threat: high-inducing cannabis compounds derived not from the heavily regulated and taxed legal marijuana industry, but from a chemical process involving little-regulated, cheaply grown hemp. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils.

But now that farm  like many other licensed grows in states that have legalized marijuana  faces an existential threat: high-inducing cannabis compounds derived not from the heavily regulated and taxed legal marijuana industry, but from a chemical process involving less strictly regulated, cheaply grown hemp.

It's going to make our farm obsolete, Griffis, the chief operating officer of True North Collective, testified before Michigan's Marijuana Regulatory Agency recently. The $3 million or so that Ive invested ... is going to be wiped out.

At the center of the issue is THC, marijuanas main intoxicating component. While marijuana and hemp are the same plant  cannabis  the distinction between the two is a legal one, and comes down to the amount of THC in the plant, specifically the amount of a type of THC called delta-9.

Hemp is defined in federal law by its low delta-9 THC content and is traditionally used for food, clothing and industrial applications. Rope not dope was long a motto for those who advocated the legalization of hemp.

But since Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, authorizing the growing of hemp nationwide in accordance with state or tribal licensing programs, theres been an unforeseen consequence: People exploiting what they see as a loophole in the law have taken that hemp, extracted a non-intoxicating compound called CBD, and chemically changed it  generally by the addition of solvents and heat  into various types of impairing THC.

Cannabis plants are shown at a True North Collective growing facility in Jackson, Mich., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils. But now that farm  like many other licensed grows in states that have legalized marijuana  faces an existential threat: high-inducing cannabis compounds derived not from the heavily regulated and taxed legal marijuana industry, but from a chemical process involving little-regulated, cheaply grown hemp. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Unlike the completely artificial, often dangerous drugs known as K2 or Spice and called synthetic marijuana, the chemically created THC at issue here consists of molecules found naturally in cannabis, though sometimes in vanishingly small amounts. It's far cheaper to produce THC chemically from hemp than to extract it from marijuana.

Because it is derived from hemp, that THC  often in a form called delta-8  can wind up in candies, vape oils and other products sold in gas stations, convenience stores and online, even in states where marijuana is illegal. The Food and Drug Administration warned last year that the substances pose a public health risk due to multiple factors, including the way they are marketed and because of potential contamination when manufactured.

At least 17 states have banned such products, but they remain available in many, including the pioneering legal marijuana state of Washington, where gas station and vape-shop sales of THC created from hemp offer competition to the heavily taxed, regulated and tested marijuana market.

Virginia lawmakers this month approved a bill to strictly limit the amount of THC allowed in hemp-derived products; Gov. Glenn Youngkin has not yet signed it. In Kentucky and Georgia, recent lawsuits have sought to establish that delta-8 products are legal; a Kentucky judge sided with hemp advocates there on Feb. 28, allowing the products to continue to be sold as lawmakers consider a ban.

The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a hemp industry association, has decried the use of hemp-extracted CBD to create intoxicating products, saying it undermines the integrity of the hemp industry and intent of the 2018 Farm Bill.

Supporters call chemically derived THC economical and environmentally friendly. Hemp can be grown in vast fields outdoors, without expensive lighting systems, and can have a lower carbon footprint than marijuana.

Further, processors can make a more consistent product using chemistry to make THC from CBD, they say, and regulators shouldn't stand in the way of market innovations or pick winners and losers in the industry. They liken it to the synthetically created vanilla or caffeine added to food and drinks.

Jessica Owl, weighs True North Collective recreational marijuana, during packaging in Jackson, Mich., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils. But now that farm  like many other licensed grows in states that have legalized marijuana  faces an existential threat: high-inducing cannabis compounds derived not from the heavily regulated and taxed legal marijuana industry, but from a chemical process involving little-regulated, cheaply grown hemp. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Most growers dont like to hear this, because they feel like its taking away from their market, but its a great product, said Abe Fleishman, of Northstar Hemp in Oregon. It provides an opportunity for companies to scale production, for one, and to make a new product that is, in my opinion, cleaner than your regular THC products.

For critics, the safety isnt proven; the process of making it can leave behind trace amounts of unidentifiable compounds. The method also allows for the manufacture of lesser-known cannabis compounds whose health effects aren't well understood.

Chemically produced THC is unlikely to displace the top-shelf dried cannabis flower preferred by many connoisseurs, but it is so cheap to make that it drastically undercuts marijuana growers who focus on the extract market, and who have spent a lot of time and money adapting to stringent rules for their industry.

Griffis said he's seen the price of delta-9 distillate drop from $50,000 a liter to $6,000  and falling  as THC made from hemp floods the market.

It's an issue that almost every state cannabis regulator is thinking about, said Gillian Schauer, executive director of the Cannabis Regulators Association. It's presenting a lot of challenges to protecting public health and consumer safety, and also to protecting existing state cannabis markets.

And, Schauer said, THC chemically made from hemp is only the tip of the iceberg: It can also be made from bioengineered yeast, so regulators will soon find themselves wrestling with that as well.

In Michigan, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency is considering rules that would allow processors to convert CBD into THC with written prior approval from the agency, which would require demonstrations of the conversion method and product testing. They would also have to label their product as synthetic  a suggestion that has angered processors who note that the molecules are found in nature.

Oregon's Liquor and Cannabis Commission gave marijuana licensees a six-month grace period to sell off intoxicating THC-from-hemp products they had already acquired before a ban takes effect in July.

In California, hemp-derived THC products are not allowed in legal marijuana shops, but regulators are examining the steps necessary to allow them.

Colorado and Washington, which in 2012 became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, last year made clear that synthetically derived cannabinoids, including THC, are not allowed in their legal industries.

After an uproar from licensed growers who said they were being undercut, Washingtons Liquor and Cannabis board seized more than 1,600 pounds (726 kilograms) of chemically created THC products made by a single licensed marijuana company, Unicorn Brands. The board went on to ban them from the regulated market.

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For David Postman, the board's chairman, THC made from hemp represents an industrialization of the cannabis industry that he isn't sure voters wanted when they passed Washington's legal marijuana law, which was billed as a harm-reduction measure.

The LCB and the majority of the cannabis industry do not think the legal market should include mind-impairing, lab-created THC, Postman said. Allowing synthetically derived THC in the states legal cannabis market could devastate the industry.

Vicki Christophersen, a lobbyist for the industry group Washington CannaBusiness Association, argues that the boards approach is stifling innovation in ways that will make it tough for Washington to compete nationally, should the federal ban on marijuana ever be lifted.

The collaborations that occur between the hemp industry and the adult-use cannabis industry are not only inevitable, but they're important, she said. We need to look at what is going to advance Washington's industry alongside all the other competitor states that are advancing at a much higher speed than we are.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle.
PARIS (AP)  Dozens of nations, including the United States and much of Europe, say they are united in seeking to radically reduce imports of Russian oil and gas after its invasion of Ukraine, while ensuring those efforts dont fuel climate change.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, speaks during the closing media conference at the International Energy Agency (IEA) ministerial meeting in Paris, Thursday, March 24, 2022. The meeting comes at a critical time for the global economy and energy markets following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

PARIS (AP)  Dozens of nations, including the United States and much of Europe, say they are united in seeking to radically reduce imports of Russian oil and gas after its invasion of Ukraine, while ensuring those efforts dont fuel climate change.

At a two-day meeting of the International Energy Agency chaired by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, governments floated a raft of ideas to cut energy use, tap new supplies of gas, oil and coal beyond Russia, and ramp up the use of renewable power.

The 31 global energy ministers attending in Paris were united in seeing how we can do what we can to both increase supply, adopt efficiency measures" and accelerate the transition to renewables, Granholm said at the meetings conclusion Thursday.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said member countries were pursuing separate energy policies, but with one single target: reducing, radically, Russian oil and gas imports.

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Granholm said the Biden administration had pressed domestic oil producers to increase supply and that there is a response by the oil and gas market." On the meeting's opening day, Granholm said the government told American energy companies to increase production where and whenever they can, right now" and that the U.S. was doing its utmost to offer liquefied natural gas to countries seeking to wean themselves off Russian supplies.

Were exporting every molecule ... of natural gas that can be liquefied at a terminal that exists," Granholm said.

At the same time, countries should be conscious of the need not to increase greenhouse gas emissions by burning more fossil fuel, particularly heavily polluting coal, in their bid to replace Russian energy supplies, officials said. Birol warned that the fight against climate change shouldnt be a victim of Russias invasion.

Recent scientific reports show the world is on track to hurtle past the 1.5-degree-Celsius (2.7-Fahrenheit) threshold set in the 2015 Paris climate accord and may well pass the less ambitious 2-degree limit unless tougher emissions cuts are made in the coming years. Experts warn that every tenth of a degree of warming increases the risk of serious effects.

The IEA presented a 10-point plan last week that it said could significantly cut oil use in Europe. It included proposals for car-free Sundays, lower speed limits and avoiding car and plane travel where possible.

Birol noted that recent figures showed the global emissions increase last year was the highest in the history, as economies rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW DELHI (AP)  The company behind a COVID-19 vaccine touted as a key tool for the developing world has sent tens of millions of doses to wealthy nations but provided none yet to the U.N.-backed effort to supply poorer countries, a sign that inequity persists in the global response to the pandemic.

FILE - A worker moves boxes carrying Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine at SK Bioscience Co. in Andong, South Korea, on Feb. 9, 2022. Before the pandemic, Novavax was a small American company that had never brought any vaccine to market. Its shots have proven highly effective, but it is relying heavily on other companies to make them. (Kim Hyun-tae/Yonhap via AP, File)

NEW DELHI (AP)  The company behind a COVID-19 vaccine touted as a key tool for the developing world has sent tens of millions of doses to wealthy nations but provided none yet to the U.N.-backed effort to supply poorer countries, a sign that inequity persists in the global response to the pandemic.

A quarter-million doses from the company were supposed to be available to the vaccine-sharing initiative, called COVAX, by March. But the U.N. agency in charge of deliveries says the first shipments now likely won't be made until April or May.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The company, Novavax, got $388 million from one of the organizations leading COVAX to fast-track the vaccine's development and help make the shot available in poorer countries.

The investment guaranteed COVAX the right of first refusal to the first Novavax doses, but the deal applied only to factories in the Czech Republic, South Korea and Spain, said Bjorg Dystvold Nilsson, spokesman for COVAX co-founder CEPI.

There are other factories that aren't part of the deal  and their shots are going elsewhere.

The Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker, has manufactured millions of Novavax doses. According to Indias Ministry of External Affairs and the institute, more than 28.9 million of those doses were sent to the Netherlands in January and February, while Australia received about 6 million doses. Indonesia also received about 9 million doses in December.

Thousands of other Novavax doses were also shipped from a Netherlands factory to other EU countries.

Whatever the reason, a vaccine that was believed to be highly suitable for poor countries is now in large part going to rich countries, said Zain Rizvi, a drug policy expert at the U.S. advocacy group Public Citizen. Its tragic that in year three of the pandemic, we still cannot get the resources, attention and political will to solve vaccine inequity.

FILE - Employees pack boxes containing vials of Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, at the Serum Institute of India in Pune on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. The Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker, has manufactured millions of Novavax doses, but none went to COVAX. According to Indias Ministry of External Affairs and the institute, more than 28.9 million Novavax doses were sent to the Netherlands in January and February, while Australia received about 6 million doses. Indonesia also received about 9 million doses in December. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)

The delay is the latest setback for COVAX, which has been repeatedly hit by supply problems and has missed numerous targets to share doses.

Last year, WHOs director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus decried the chasm in vaccine supplies between rich and poor countries as a catastrophic moral failure.

Vaccine availability has been improving in poorer regions recently, but logistical problems persist.

According to data from Oxford University, only about 14% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. More than 680 million doses of COVAX-provided vaccines remain unused or have expired, according to government data.

Even with vaccine supplies improving, some officials were eagerly awaiting the Novavax vaccine in particular because it is easier to transport and store than some other coronavirus shots. They also hoped it might be more enticing to people skeptical of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which suffered through a botched rollout in Europe.

Countries including Zimbabwe, the Central African Republic and Kiribati were among those in line to be offered Novavax doses by March from COVAX.

Before the pandemic, Novavax was a small American company that had never brought any vaccine to market. Its shots have proven highly effective, but it is relying heavily on other companies to make them.

The company, struggling to scale up production, also has delayed delivery to other countries, including some in the European Union. COVAX is supposed to receive more than 1 billion Novavax doses.

In a statement, the Gaithersburg, Maryland, company acknowledged that it had yet to share any shots with the vaccines alliance Gavi, which fronts the COVAX effort, but said it stands ready to do so.

We continue to work with Gavi to reach our shared goal of ensuring global access to our protein-based vaccine where it is needed most, Novavax said.

Gavi suggested part of the delay is that the Novavax vaccine wasn't authorized by WHO until December. Gavi said it planned to allocate Novavax in the future and was in close touch with the manufacturer and expects the supply to be available for delivery when countries need it.

Health officials also worry that the urgency to vaccinate people everywhere against COVID-19 has disappeared  especially as many countries roll back precautions and the worlds attention is diverted.

Rich countries have moved on from COVID and everyone is fixated on the war in Ukraine, but COVID-19 remains an acute crisis for most people in the world, said Ritu Sharma, a vice-president at the charity CARE.

She said COVAX was still desperately short of vaccines and that based on the current pace of vaccination, the world was still years and years away from immunizing enough people to stop future COVID-19 waves.

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Other experts said it was incumbent on public health agencies to ensure their investments into vaccines would benefit poor countries and to be more transparent about what went wrong.

Whatever the explanation is, its unsatisfactory, said Brook Baker, an access to medicines specialist at Northeastern University. The bottom line is that there are still a lot of unvaccinated people in poor countries and once again, they are at the back of the line.

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Cheng reported from London. Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON - Amid pushback from industry groups and lawmakers in both parties, federal energy regulators on Thursday scaled back plans to consider how natural gas projects affect climate change and environmental justice.

Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., left, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., talk during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 10, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON - Amid pushback from industry groups and lawmakers in both parties, federal energy regulators on Thursday scaled back plans to consider how natural gas projects affect climate change and environmental justice.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said a plan to consider climate effects will now be considered a draft and will only apply to future projects.

Opponents had criticized a proposal approved last month to tighten climate rules, saying it was poorly timed amid a push for increased natural gas exports following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the climate policy baffling, while Senate Energy Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the agency's reckless decision to add unnecessary roadblocks" to approval of natural gas projects "puts the security of our nation at risk.

At a time when we should be looking for ways to expedite the approval of these important projects, the (energy) commission has chosen on a purely partisan basis to do the exact opposite, McConnell wrote in a letter Thursday, hours before the panel backtracked on the climate proposal.

Climate activists accused FERC of bowing to political pressure, a claim FERC Chairman Richard Glick denied.

FILE - This Oct. 17, 2019, photo, shows a post that marks the location of a shale gas pipeline in Zelienople, Pa. Amid pushback from industry and lawmakers in both parties, federal energy regulators on Thursday, March 24, 2022, scaled back plans to consider how natural gas projects affect climate change and environmental justice. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

Im not going to do anything for political purposes, he told reporters, adding that he and other commissioners have had discussions with numerous pipeline and natural gas companies since the panel approved the climate policy last month. Industry leaders told them the policy changes "raise additional questions that could benefit from further clarification,'' Glick said.

At a Feb. 17 meeting, the energy commission approved policy statements directing officials to consider how pipelines and other natural gas projects affect climate change and environmental justice. The statements were approved on a 3-to-2 vote along party lines, with Glick and two other Democratic commissioners supporting the policy changes and two Republicans opposed.

The panel said at the time that the new guidance would take effect immediately and apply to pending and future gas projects. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to step back from that commitment, which is now labeled as a draft and would apply only to projects filed after FERC finalizes the policy statements. The commission said it will seek further public comment before making a final decision.

In a related development, FERC approved three natural gas projects that have been pending before the panel for months. Two of the projects will expand gas production in the U.S. Gulf Coast, while the third is located in New York State. One of the projects will connect with an export terminal in Louisiana for liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

President Joe Biden has pledged to cut in half planet-warming emissions from fossil fuels such as oil and gas by 2030, but the Ukraine war has upended that focus as the administration takes steps to rein in rising energy costs and promote natural gas exports to Europe.

The U.S. sharply increased gas exports in the runup to the war and is looking for ways to surge LNG supplies to the European Union to help reduce its dependence on Russian gas, said Jake Sullivan, Bidens national security adviser.

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.

The American Gas Association said FERC's action to delay the climate policy was encouraging, adding that without changes, the plan would "actively discourage the development of pipeline infrastructure, reduce reliability and raise consumer costs.'' The industry group filed a legal challenge to the climate plan last week.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy panel, said FERC "must go back to the drawing board and start over on these harmful proposals.

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But Kelly Sheehan, senior director of the Sierra Clubs energy campaigns, said the draft policy was a small step toward meeting the commission's legal requirements to protect the environment and guard against climate change.

The fossil fuel industry and the politicians they finance are pitching a fit because theyre worried FERCs modest proposed policy changes might mean they no longer have free rein to build as many polluting pipelines as they want, with no regard for the impacts on communities or the climate, Sheehan said.

The commission's approval of three fracked-gas pipelines Thursday makes it painfully clear that FERC has not changed course, Sheehan added.

Former FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee, a Republican who supported a compromise proposal on climate change last year, decried the panel's actions.

Today's result exposes that @ferc is now a political body more than a quasi-judicial one,'' he wrote Thursday on Twitter. Should more emphasis be placed on 'lobbying' commissioners than focusing on arguments in (court) pleadings?"

Chatterjee, a former McConnell aide who was elevated to chairman by former President Donald Trump and later demoted by Trump, called the panel's decision to delay the climate rule a big-time win for pipeline companies. Any company considering a natural gas project "should expedite and move forward ASAP before the commission finalizes the statements,'' he wrote.
BRUSSELS - Pressure from Canada's allies to boost the country's defence budget marked the end of an extraordinary summit on the war in Ukraine, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised anew to increase military spending but with only vague suggestions of how to get there.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives to NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

BRUSSELS - Pressure from Canada's allies to boost the country's defence budget marked the end of an extraordinary summit on the war in Ukraine, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised anew to increase military spending but with only vague suggestions of how to get there.

NATO members gathered Thursday in the Belgian capital, strategizing on the alliance's latest response to Russia's invasion of its neighbour and pledging to draw up plans by June to bolster spending on their respective militaries.

Trudeau said Canada agreed to that commitment, but repeatedly sidestepped questions during a closing news conference about whether and how his government would inject substantial new money into the Canadian Armed Forces.

The prime minister instead referred to his governments 2017 defence policy that promised to invest billions of dollars through new equipment and personnel. Trudeau said Canada had upped its investments in the military, as well as its contributions to NATO.

All NATO members pledged in 2014 to earmark two per cent of their national gross domestic products for defence within the next decade. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that allies had agreed to redouble those efforts and submit plans on how to meet the pledge at a June meeting in Madrid, Spain.

NATO estimates that Canada's defence budget amounts to 1.39 per cent of GDP. Even with the billions of new dollars promised by the Liberals defence policy for new aircraft, ships and other equipment, the country is projected to fall short of NATO's target.

Billions of additional dollars to meet the target will have to muscle space in federal spending plans already being shaped by a days-old deal with the NDP to introduce a bevy of new social programs like pharmacare and dental care in return for New Democrat support on key parliamentary votes.

"We have always been committed to doing more on defence, and we will continue to do that," Trudeau said at the news conference.

"The agreement with the NDP is very much about delivering on specific things for Canadians, but doesn't in any way impact on the choices we make and areas not covered by that agreement. Canadians expect us to be fiscally responsible."

Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute has estimated Canada would need to spend about $16 billion more per year on defence to meet NATOs target. It currently spends about $30 billion per year.

"There's no kind of easy, quick solution where the government waves a magic wand and we're at two per cent," Perry said.

The spending pledge came at the end of a remarkable day in Brussels where NATO, European Union and G7 leaders held a series of meetings about the situation in Ukraine, vowing further support for the country and blasting the Kremlin's unprovoked invasion.

NATO leaders called on Moscow to immediately instigate a ceasefire in Ukraine, warned of "severe consequences" should Russia use chemical or biological weapons, and called on China to "cease amplifying the Kremlins false narratives" and work toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly told the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on Thursday that the government is actively engaging with China, as well as India on Ukraine. She noted that both countries were among the 35 that recently abstained on the recent United Nations General Assembly resolution calling on Russia to end the invasion.

"My deputy minister was in India last week to engage with the government. I had the opportunity to have a good conversation with the ambassador here and look forward to also engaging India," Joly said.

"We need to make sure that we engage China  because they sit on the UN Security Council it is important that they do everything not to escalate the conflict."

Leah Sarson, a foreign policy expert from Dalhousie University, said the meetings in Brussels underscored the unity of like-minded partners and reinforced ways "to prevent a disastrous expansion of hostilities beyond Ukraine." Decisions like sending more NATO troops to Europe's eastern flank are going to be critical to that response, she said.

Measures from Trudeau included new sanctions against 160 members of the Russian Federation Council and a coming ban on the export of certain goods and technologies to Russia.

Canada and its allies have targeted hundreds of organizations and Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin. Trudeau said more may come and those already in place could stay for months or years.

"The thing with sanctions like this is, yes, you can start feeling the impact after a few days or a few weeks as we're seeing right now," he said, citing a devaluing of the ruble and Russian stock market troubles.

"Over the coming months, as they continue, that pain will only get harder and harder and harder for the Russian economy to bear."

NATO leaders also heard an emotional address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who outlined the severe hardship his country has had to bear over the last month.

Russia's attack has killed hundreds of civilians and thousands of soldiers, and displaced 10 million people since the fighting started one month ago.

Zelenskyy asked NATO for fighter jets and tanks to bolster his forces, chastised allies for failing to do everything possible and voiced frustration with a seeming lack of political will from the alliance to do more.

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"Ukraine is very much waiting, awaiting real action, real security guarantees, from those whose word is trustworthy, and whose actions can keep the peace," read Zelenskyys remarks posted online.

Trudeau indicated Canada is looking at buying and sending more weapons to Ukraine after Defence Minister Anita Anand indicated earlier this month that the Canadian Armed Forces' own stockpile has been tapped out.

"As President Zelenskyy has been asking for various new pieces of equipment, we're looking to see what we can send," he said.

"We're also committed to looking at procuring that equipment directly for the Ukrainians in other ways by working with allies and making investments necessary."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2022.

 With files from Lee Berthiaume and Mike Blanchfield in Ottawa
The Manitoba Health Appeal Board recently ruled a regional authority was in the right when it terminated home care services for a client it had deemed disrespectful and verbally abusive.

The Manitoba Health Appeal Board recently ruled a regional authority was in the right when it terminated home care services for a client it had deemed disrespectful and "verbally abusive."

It delivered the decision Feb. 14, after a hearing in January, during which the aggrieved client even insulted the boards staffers.

At issue was whether the unnamed regional health authority followed procedures when it discontinued services to the client March 16, 2021, after the dismissal of two workers and months of disputes amid the pandemic.

The unnamed former client lives alone in an apartment and suffers from the back injury, which limits a number of household tasks, the appeal board wrote in its decision.

The appellant began receiving light household maintenance and laundry services every two weeks from health authority home support workers in December 2012.

When the pandemic hit Manitoba in the spring of 2020, the health authority reduced services  considered non-essential compared to meal preparation and bathing help  to every four weeks.

In late summer 2020, the client contacted the health authority and asked for a new support worker, as the current one "seemed to feel uncomfortable" in the home, the decision reads.

It notes an example: the client had an item "shaped like a snake" which seemed to trouble the worker, and out of concern for the helper, thought it best to find a new staffer instead.

The health authority said it might take time to find a new worker, due to staffing issues. It took until late August, but the client wasnt satisfied with the quality of the new persons work.

The client claims they called to seek clarification on the level of service that should be expected; the health authority told the board it doesnt have a record of the call.

The worker arrived for the next scheduled visit and subsequently claimed the client was smoking, which they denied but admitted to frequent cannabis use inside the home, as well as a grow operation. The worker left without providing any services; the client claimed they said something to the effect of: "This is how my place smells, if you dont like it, leave."

During the next in-home call, the health authority said, the worker found the client smoking pot inside when they returned from the laundry room  which the client again denied  violating the authoritys policy of no smoking during or one hour prior to a visit.

The worker reported the client was "verbally abusive" in early November, alleging the client was angry over the workers concerns about the pot smoke, directing them out of the suite.

Again, the health authority said it would take time to find a new worker, considering staffing shortages and the previous two dismissals.

After four months passed, the client contacted the provincial health minister, as well as a health authority team manager, claiming they were being deliberately ignored and penalized for complaining about the level of service.

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When the manager called to talk about the allegations, the client became angry, used foul language and hung up, the decision reads. The next day, the manager tried again to speak to the client about the smoking policy, staffing challenges and the appropriate treatment of a worker  the client again got upset and used foul language, the health authority said.

The health authority then terminated its services.

The appeal board, chaired by Joan Holmstrom, said the client displayed similar disrespectful behaviours during the January hearing, including frequent interruptions, insults to board staff and various other parties, and hung up while providing closing comments during the teleconference hearing.

It unanimously decided to dismiss the appeal.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
A winter of heavy snows has exposed serious problems with City of Winnipeg sidewalk clearing policies, two of its councillors say.

A winter of heavy snows has exposed serious problems with City of Winnipeg sidewalk clearing policies, two of its councillors say.

On Thursday, Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) put forward a motion, backed by Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) calling for the city to consider a pair of changes while conducting its upcoming review of snow and ice clearing policies.

The councillors are seeking low-priority sidewalks near high-frequency transit routes (particularly in their own wards) to be upgraded in priority. They are also asking the city to consider reassuming control over a greater portion of snow clearing services, currently delegated to private contractors.

"Its known (in Daniel McIntyre) we have some of the highest rates of Transit riders in the city I think when they do the snow and ice clearing review that they need to look at prioritizing areas that have really good transit lines, because we are looking at getting more people taking transit," Gilroy said, making special mention of Portage, Ellice, Wellington and Notre Dame avenues as hot spots in her ward.

Gilroy said while streets with a bus route are designated P2  meaning they are to be cleared to the paved surface within 36 hours of a significant snowfall  when lower-priority streets leading to those routes are uncleared, snow can make Winnipeg Transit difficult to access.

Gilroy said she would like to see all sidewalks in her ward to be upgraded to P2 priority.

"In some of the portions of the area I think we should be cleaning to cement. They are highly used in terms of the business around there and their connection to the different transit routes."

As for bringing more snow clearing services in house, many times even higher-priority sidewalks were left uncleared or insufficiently cleared, Rollins said.

The current system has made it difficult for Winnipeggers to find out who is responsible for a problem and how to fix it, she added.

"Oftentimes, councillors and residents alike were told that it was a contractor," Rollins said. "There were times when the city would even say, Which contractor was it? I dont like that level of accountability."

Joelle Robinson, with the Manitoba League for Persons with Disabilities, said shes "hugely in favour" of adding more high-priority sidewalks for snow clearing.

However, the motion fails to consider other important accessibility issues, she said: "People who have reduced mobility also need to be very much considered and prioritized."

For example, Robinson said, loading zones need to be considered high priority.

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"Weve had situations where people have not been able to get to their jobs for three and four weeks because the snow is so bad, and theyre not clearing those spots that Transit Plus would use."

Kyle Owens, president of Functional Transit Winnipeg, said while he was glad to see the motion recognized the importance of transit to Winnipegs plans, it doesnt go far enough.

"The city should invest broadly, so that we have fast, effective sidewalk snow clearing every year," he said.

That would increase Transit accessibility, and improved clearing city-wide, may also encourage more people to use public transit in lower-frequency areas, he added.

Rather than ask for a recommendation or a review, Owens said: "We can reverse service cuts and start funding the (Winnipeg) Transit Master Plan immediately."

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
With virtually no COVID-19 restrictions in place, some schools are recording an increase in novel coronavirus activity  a trend prompting public health to issue alerts and worrying parents and educators alike ahead of spring break.

With virtually no COVID-19 restrictions in place, some schools are recording an increase in novel coronavirus activity  a trend prompting public health to issue alerts and worrying parents and educators alike ahead of spring break.

At least four different community notification letters  notices sent out on a case-by-case basis that indicate public health officials have either identified increased virus transmission in a school, initiated a rapid testing program as a result of higher-than-usual absenteeism, or recommended temporary remote learning for one or more classes  have been issued to families in Manitoba over the last 20 days. A minimum of two letters were sent out this week alone.

Winnipeg mother Britt Bauer said she is unfazed by such emails after two years of living in a pandemic, and the latest one from Luxton School was particularly unsurprising, given recent events.

Families in Manitobas largest division were informed Wednesday about "increased COVID-19 cases and respiratory disease activity" in the elementary building at 111 Polson Ave.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg mother Britt Bauer said she is unfazed by such emails after two years of living in a pandemic.

"(It said): Within the last 14 days, and whats happened in the last 14 days?" said Bauer, who has a son in Grade 4 at Luxton. "People are starting to take their masks off."

Bauer said she will continue limiting indoor playdates and spring break plans will be low-key for another year in a row to limit the risk of contracting COVID-19 or spreading it to loved ones. As far as she is concerned, the near-complete loosening of public health measures was premature because ICU capacity remains high.

Both she and her son were wearing masks even while simply waiting outside the school around lunchtime Wednesday.

Cases have been low overall since the Omicron wave, although there have been some pockets of activity, said Radean Carter, spokeswoman for the Winnipeg School Division.

"Our families are being very responsible in monitoring their childs symptoms and ensuring students with definite COVID symptoms arent coming to school and they are testing them when they can."

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Families in Manitobas largest division were informed Wednesday about increased COVID-19 cases and respiratory disease activity in the elementary building at 111 Polson Ave.

The number of family-reported student absences on the Louis Riel School Divisions public dashboard was 151 on Wednesday, a far drop from the Omicron peak of 883 at the end of January.

That figure has fluctuated in recent weeks, but it has crept up overall since a record 2022-low March 4, when only 90 students were absent from school daily because a student had either tested positive, was showing symptoms, or following public health advice to isolate after an exposure.

One principal in Winnipeg provided both anecdotal and numerical evidence school cases, which are no longer tracked by the province, are on the rise.

In addition to colleagues at other schools and other people in the principals inner circle becoming ill, they said a cluster of their school staff roster has tested positive this month. Before March, not a single employee at the school had contracted COVID-19 when classes were in session throughout the 2021-22 school year, the principal said, adding numerous students have become ill in recent days.

The nuttiest part of this to me is that (public health officials) still only now recommend  and Ill underline that word: recommend  that masks be worn, even in the affected cohort.  School principal

"The nuttiest part of this to me is that (public health officials) still only now recommend  and Ill underline that word: recommend  that masks be worn, even in the affected cohort," the principal said.

The school leader noted while approximately 90 per cent of students and staff continue to wear face coverings to class even though they are not mandated, there has been a shift in how strictly and properly people use the personal protective equipment.

"We have a mask mandate thats been lifted, we have an isolation mandate thats been lifted, and the province is no longer testing or tracking. So in what way is the public able to assess  and is public health, for that matter  the degree to which the virus is permeating in the community, particularly in the school level?" the principal added.

An elementary school educator in Winnipeg, who is currently sick at home with COVID-19, and had to pause an interview Wednesday on several occasions to cough, echoed the concerns about the dearth of protections.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Robin Arnold puts a mask on his grandson Gabriel Reyes Arnold while dropping him off after lunch at Luxton School.

"The last couple of years, teaching in a pandemic has been crazy, but, last year, at least we had a lowered class size and that made a world of difference," the teacher said, adding she currently has a full classroom of young students, and a quarter of them are no longer masking.

March has been especially difficult because many families sent their children back to school after Omicron peaked, she said.

An additional change, as a result of the province pivoting to promote individual responsibility in the pandemic response, is teachers with COVID-19 need a doctors note to prove they cannot work if they are away for several days in a row. That figure varies from division to division.

The classroom teacher said her divisions human resources department would not accept a photo of her positive rapid antigen test in order to prove she needs time to recover. Earlier in the pandemic, teachers could take two weeks off work without issue if they contracted the virus that causes COVID-19.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
After avoiding COVID-19 infection for two years, many Manitobans are testing positive for the first time, as hospitals brace for a potential spike in admissions now that restrictions have ended.

After avoiding COVID-19 infection for two years, many Manitobans are testing positive for the first time, as hospitals brace for a potential spike in admissions now that restrictions have ended.

Experts say it will likely be a week or two before hospitals begin to see an impact from the provinces removal of pandemic public health orders, including the lifting of the mask mandate and nixing isolation rules for COVID-positive Manitobans.

SUPPLIDE Brandon Coun. Shaun Cameron tested positive for COVID-19 Sunday, despite taking precautions such as continued mask-wearing.

Brandon city Coun. Shaun Cameron received positive rapid antigen test results Sunday even though he continued to wear a mask and take precautions after all remaining rules ended on March 15.

"I think masking and being triple vaccinated have made (my) case less severe," said Cameron, 42, whose symptoms include a sore throat, nasal congestion and shortness of breath.

Hes isolating in his basement to avoid contact with his wife and two daughters, who have tested negative.

Cameron said Manitobans still need to make "good" public health decisions, such as wearing a mask, even if the province has ditched restrictions.

"We want to ensure were protecting the people who need to be protected the most," he said.

SUPPLIED Winnipegger Nicole Woelke and her daughter Ella. Both tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.

Winnipeggers Nicole Woelke, 46, and her daughter Ella, 18, had mild cases of COVID after testing positive on March 10. Both have since tested negative.

"Weve done every single thing right for two years," said Woelke, who works in data intelligence. "I feel like as soon as things started lifting and opening it was just a matter of time. We cant pause life much longer. I understand that, but I dont think people are done getting sick."

Woelke, who is triple vaccinated, said it was "irresponsible" of the province to scrap mandatory isolation for people infected with COVID. Instead, people are now recommended to self-isolate for five days.

We cant pause life much longer. I understand that, but I dont think people are done getting sick.  Nicole Woelke

Mike Gordon, an engineer who lives in Winnipeg, had a positive rapid test result Sunday. He had avoided the virus until then.

"It was a good run," the 47-year-old said while isolating at home.

Gordon said he didnt abandon precautions such as mask wearing when the rules ended, but he was "scaling back" in some situations.

If people are catching COVID despite taking precautions, "then whats (the virus) doing in communities where people are celebrating no restrictions?" he asked.

"Unless youre planning to stay home, its going to be difficult to avoid (COVID) over the next few months," said Gordon, whose symptoms include a cough and congestion. "The government lifted restrictions and kind of left us on our own."

Unless youre planning to stay home, its going to be difficult to avoid (COVID) over the next few months.  Mike Gordon

Dr. Ganesan Abbu, an anesthetist and special care unit doctor at Boundary Trails Health Centre between Winkler and Morden, said COVID admissions are down at the hospital, but he believes prevalence in the community is "still high."

"I have a sense people are either getting mild disease or they have been exposed previously in the (Southern Health) region, and that is why were not seeing an uptick in admissions," he said.

Dr. Julie Lajoie, a research associate working in virology and immunology at the University of Manitoba, said studies have shown the risk of transmission is low if a COVID carrier and a healthy person are both wearing a mask.

The risk is medium if one isnt wearing a mask, and it is high if neither is masked.

SUPPLIED Winnipegger Nicole Woelke (right), who is triple vaccinated, said it was irresponsible of the province to scrap mandatory isolation for people infected with COVID-19.

Lajoie cited a recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, which found a respirator mask such as an N95 or KN95 can reduce a persons odds of catching COVID by 83 per cent in an indoor public place.

A surgical mask can cut the likelihood by 66 per cent and a cloth mask by 56 per cent, according to research published Feb. 4.

U of M Prof. Andrew Halayko, who studies pulmonary health, said N95 and KN95 masks offer a mitigation rate of about 70 to 90 per cent.

"They certainly work, theres no doubt about that," he said. "Nothing is perfect, but 70 per cent is pretty darn good."

CP ROGELIO V. SOLIS / ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO U of M Prof. Andrew Halayko, who studies pulmonary health, said N95 and KN95 masks offer a mitigation rate of about 70 to 90 per cent.

Experts say the government doesnt have a grip on the true scale of COVID in Manitoba due to a lack of testing and contact tracing.

"Its difficult to get a true measure of whats happening," said Abbu.

"We have absolutely no idea how many cases are out there," said Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson.

Lajoie said Manitobans are "in the dark," as students prepare for spring break activities and families get set for Easter gatherings.

A source at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg said its emergency room has seen an uptick in COVID patients in the last week.

"Im not sure if it is a blip or something more sinister. I think its too early to say," the source said. "I have seen several vaccinated people with mild COVID or completely asymptomatic, as well as unvaccinated people who need the ICU."

I have seen several vaccinated people with mild COVID or completely asymptomatic, as well as unvaccinated people who need the ICU.  Source at Health Sciences Centre

Grace Hospital intensive care physician Dr. Doug Eyolfson said he wouldnt be surprised if hospitalizations increase in the coming weeks.

"The danger is out there, and were nervous were going to see another wave," he said. "The system is still running at or almost at 100 per cent capacity. Even a slight rise in cases is going to make things much worse."

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Jackson said there is a "significant" number of nursing vacancies.

"If we do have another influx (of COVID patients), Im not sure how were going to handle it," she said.

Abbu encouraged Manitobans to be vigilant and continue to take basic precautions. People who feel ill are urged to stay home.

"I think theres a sense that people feel COVID is over. I hope its the end, but the reality is COVID is going to be around for a long time yet, and we need to be cautious," he said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching
Manitoba has appointed two new provincial court judges in one of the busiest northern courts, including an Indigenous former Crown attorney from The Pas.

Manitoba has appointed two new provincial court judges in one of the busiest northern courts, including an Indigenous former Crown attorney from The Pas.

On Wednesday, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced Vincent George Sinclair has been appointed to fill an additional full-time judge position the province added to Thompson, and former defence lawyer Curtis Matthew Briscoe has been appointed to take over a vacancy following another judges transfer.

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Sinclair, a member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was called to the bar in 2010, and has worked for Manitoba Prosecutions, including attending northern circuit courts. He was recommended by a judicial appointment committee to fill the new judge position.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee commended the provinces appointment of Sinclair, an MKO citizen.

We know there is a need for increased representation of First Nations people working within the justice system Being appointed as a provincial court judge is a huge achievement and is a result of your hard work, Settee said in a statement Thursday.

Judge Vincent Sinclair is a role model for other First Nations citizens who wish to pursue a career in the field of law.

Briscoe was called to the bar in 2013, and has worked at Law North since then, becoming a partner in 2016 and the corporations senior partner and president in 2020. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the bench in Thompson after former provincial court judge Todd Rambow was transferred to The Pas.

An official swearing-in ceremony has not yet been scheduled.
Premier Heather Stefanson went to the ballet Wednesday afternoon  announcing $7.5 million in provincial funding toward the expansion and modernization of the Royal Winnipeg Ballets downtown campus.

Premier Heather Stefanson went to the ballet Wednesday afternoon  announcing $7.5 million in provincial funding toward the expansion and modernization of the Royal Winnipeg Ballets downtown campus.

The funding will help the downtown cultural institution make critical upgrades and improvements in areas such as efficiency, conservation of energy, accessibility, safety and artistic possibilities, the premier said.

The RWB plan includes new living facilities for its boarding students, as well as a modern 3,400-square-foot studio for the use of more than 1,500 dancers in the organizations professional and recreational divisions.

Before taking centre stage, Stefanson sat in the front row beside RWB school director Stephane Leonard for a brief performance by the ballets professionals, choreographed by Cameron Fraser-Monroe and set to music by Jeremy Dutcher.

The premier watched with glee before walking to a podium in front of the ballets students, who stood posed for the entirety of Stefansons four-minute address."My goodness, that was an absolutely amazing performance," she said. "Lets hear it for our dancers."

Stefanson called the RWB an important local institution, recognized internationally for artistic excellence, adding the organizations capital campaign to create a state-of-the-art campus had already raised $15 million in private contributions. The provincial support would pave the way toward the ballet receiving matching federal support from Ottawa, the premier said.

The $30-million project is scheduled to be complete by 2024.

"This project will greatly support the goal of a healthy and vibrant downtown in our capital city, especially as we reopen our province and move toward recovery (from the COVID-19 pandemic)," Stefanson said. "Manitobas arts and cultural organizations play a significant role in the health and well-being of all Manitobans."

RWB artistic director and CEO Andre Lewis then rushed up to introduce Minister of Sport, Culture and Heritage Andrew Smith. But first, he had to give the students some artistic direction.

"Relax your pose," Lewis said, smiling, and all at once, the students loosened up.

Smith complimented the performers and students, and echoed Stefansons comments, remarking the three-minute opening to the days program was "probably the first live performance" hed seen since before the pandemic began.

Lewis called the provinces financial support "incredible," before once again ceding the spotlight to Stefanson for questions from reporters.

The premier was asked what other supports were expected for the arts and culture sector from the province moving forward.

"I think that what is important is that during this very difficult last couple of years, the arts and culture sector has been hit very hard. And today this is about recognition of that. The minister outlined some other supports we have already made in this area, and we will continue to do so," Stefanson said.

There are "lots" of exciting announcements about arts and culture to come, she said, but did not offer any specifics.

The 51-year-old premier also looked back at her connections on the stage. "I used to be a Highland dancer, and I was actually a student at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet back in the day My daughter actually was also a Highland dancer and was a student here as well."

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
A farmer near Rivers is warning other producers to boost their security after thieves allegedly stole $40,000 worth of canola from one of his bins.

A farmer near Rivers is warning other producers to boost their security after thieves allegedly stole $40,000 worth of canola from one of his bins.

Les Wedderburn said he noticed the 1,600 bushels of canola were missing from his bins after rotating the grain over the winter.

"We saw a black pickup truck in and out of the yard that day  as quick as they could and I suspect they were doing a drive-by to see what they could find," he said in an interview.

"And then they took it that night, between the time we pulled the load and put it back in they took it."

The grain wasnt priced yet, Wedderburn said, so he didnt notice the bin was half-empty for approximately a month after, in late February.

The theft could be related to last years drought, he said, and the difficult year many in the agricultural sector endured.

"Who knows? People who would do that are either awful desperate or just plain thieves," he said.

Now, Wedderburn, who is also a co-owner of Rolling Spokes in Brandon, said he wants to warn other producers of the possibility of theft.

"Were so vulnerable and I dont think people realize it. I dont think we realized how vulnerable we were to that until it happens, and I dont think most farmers believe that theyre most vulnerable."

Farms are so spread out its difficult to have eyes on all aspects of an operation. Fuel tanks and liquid fertilizer are also a target, he said.

"Farmers, in general, are pretty complacent. Your bins are full of grain, you dont expect anybody to ever do a thing like that.

"We just have to do a lot more to stop [theft]."

Wedderburn plans to install security cameras around the bins that can send an alert to his phone. He also intends to put Cropgard in his bins, which is confetti with a traceable serial number on it. The serial number is then checked when the grain arrives at the grain elevator.

RCMP spokesperson Paul Manaigre said the police service only had one other reported theft of grain, on March 7, in the Rural Municipality of Argyle, south of Glenboro. Approximately 2,000 bushels of wheat were stolen from a grain bin in August 2021, he said in an email.

In March 2021, former Rivers police chief Bruce Klassen said a farmer near Isabella also reported grain theft.

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The Sun contacted the Rivers Police Service but did not hear back by press time on Tuesday.

Wedderburn reported the theft to Rivers police approximately three weeks ago and said he will keep looking for more information. He said he believes agricultural theft is a big issue, but there is little awareness.

The problem could be made worse by high prices for fuel and other inputs, he said.

"I just want the awareness to be out there that everyones watching and doing the things to protect themselves, because I just think were all way too vulnerable and maybe too trusting in a lot of cases."

 dmay@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @DrewMay_
After three break-ins in three years, Ashok and Sadhana Malhotra are packing up their boutique and moving out of Osborne Village.

After three break-ins in three years, Ashok and Sadhana Malhotra are packing up their boutique and moving out of Osborne Village.

"I cant take the stress of this anymore," said Ashok, co-owner of Silver Skies.

The final straw came New Years Day: he received a call that his 452 River Ave. shop had been broken into, along with a slew of other businesses in the building.

"You have no idea what it was like to drive from home to here for the 25 minutes, (after) I got that call," Ashok said. "It was, like, nerve shattering. We have so much jewelry and silver and gold."

Ashok and Sadhana Malhotra are moving their jewelry business, Silver Skies, out of Osborne Village after being broken into three times in three years. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

Nothing was reported stolen then, according to the Winnipeg Police Service. But thieves have taken thousands of dollars worth of goods in the past, the Malhotras said.

Theyre looking to leave Osborne Village. Maybe theyll find a place on Corydon Avenue, Ashok said.

"Weve been shaken up Were still figuring out what to do now," he said. "Were not looking (to open) something right away; were just too stressed."

The shop will continue to sell its wares online. The Malhotras are pausing from brick-and-mortar for a couple months; its for a mental reset, Ashok said.

You have no idea what it was like to drive from home to here for the 25 minutes, (after) I got that call. It was, like, nerve shattering. We have so much jewelry and silver and gold.  Ashok Malhotra

Businesses in the Village have voiced concern about crime over the past couple years, according to Lindsay Somers, the Osborne Village BIZs executive director.

"Community safety is a top priority," Somers wrote in a statement. "Ive been in discussions with business members to hear their concerns and have brought them to the attention of the area councillor."

She said discussions are ongoing, and crime isnt unique to the Village.

Silver Skies reported its first break-in on March 2, 2019. Someone busted through the back door and stole scarves, sunglasses and leather bags, Ashok said.

The Winnipeg Police Services major crimes unit investigated.

Less than two weeks later, on March 15, 2019, Silver Skies filed a second police report.

Ashok and Sadhana Malhotra say thieves have taken thousands of dollars worth of goods in the past. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

A man had entered the boutique several times over the course of a day, pretending to leave and consult his wife about what items to purchase, Ashok said.

"I walked across to the Subway to get some food, and he mustve seen me leave the store, so he walked in," Ashok said.

The man then took a tray full of rings showcased on the front counter  right in front of Sadhana, Ashok said.

"All the expensive and good rings were in that tray, for first impressions," he said. "Just that one ring tray that they took was close to $7,000."

The incident happened around 3 p.m., Ashok said. Sadhana ran out and called for help but couldnt catch the thief.

Its been a tough ride. Now COVID is getting over, now is the time to do some business. Weve got lots of new stuff coming in too. (But) we are busy packing instead. Its very heartbreaking.  Ashok Malhotra

The break-ins werent caught on camera, according to Jay Murray, a public information officer for the Winnipeg Police Service.

Now, Sadhana is afraid to be in the shop alone.

"If I go (travel for work) for a day or two, then I just close the shop," Ashok said. "Its not a conducive way to do business."

The couple previously ran their store  then called Yash Global  in The Forks Market for over two decades. Most of their time in Osborne Village has been pandemic-tinted.

"Its been a tough ride. Now COVID is getting over, now is the time to do some business. Weve got lots of new stuff coming in too," Ashok said. "(But) we are busy packing instead. Its very heartbreaking."

"We dont even get support from the landlords in this area," he said of the crimes.

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The pair is taking a few months to decompress before re-opening a brick-and-mortar, Ashok said.

River-Osborne has seen a decrease in reported property crimes, according to the WPSs CrimeMaps. In December of 2021, the area had 408 reported incidents, compared to the 652 in December of 2019.

Staff at Unique Bunny, at 106 Osborne St., call police around once a month over attempted thefts or harassment, said Kazumi Yoshino, the stores assistant manager.

"When we have something, we usually call 911 right away," Yoshino said.

Folks have stolen the shops phones and products for sale, like chips, she said.

I think you do have to be aware anywhere in this city. I think you just have to act with caution.  Judy Coy, owner of Silver Lotus

"I think with the Village, we always get a bad rap," said Judy Coy, owner of Silver Lotus. "People move out of places all the time  look at the mall(s). Theres a ton of theft (there)."

Coy used to be a tenant in the building Silver Skies rents. She said the place isnt well maintained and the security measures are lacking.

Her daughter, Arden Coy, echoed the same thought at her Osborne Village store, Small Mercies.

"That building has definitely been run down," she said.

The elder Coy hasnt noticed an uptick in theft but is "a little more vigilant with our watching and trying to be defensive."

"I think you do have to be aware anywhere in this city," she said. "I think you just have to act with caution."

Osborne Village gained 17 new businesses over the course of the pandemic and has seen eight closures, according to the BIZs Somers.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
An independent arbitrator has sided with Unifor in its battle with the provincial government over proposed Manitoba Hydro layoffs in 2020.

An independent arbitrator has sided with Unifor in its battle with the provincial government over proposed Manitoba Hydro layoffs in 2020.

On Tuesday, an arbitrator ruled the layoffs requested by then-premier Brian Pallister were a clear violation of the "lack of work" clause in Unifors collective agreement with Manitoba Hydro, the union said in a release.

The PC government tried to impose layoffs in 2019 but was unsuccessful after Manitoba Hydro cited safety concerns with the staff reduction, the union said. The provincial government tried again in 2020, this time using the pandemic as a reason for the need for cost-cutting.

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Treasury Board documents in 2020 asked all government departments to find from 10 to 30 per cent in savings to help the province fund the costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Hydro was at first told it needed to find 700 temporary layoffs. The government later lowered its cost-cutting target, and Hydro arrived at a deal in which some of its unions agreed workers would take three days of unpaid leave.

Unifor took the employer to arbitration.

"The PC government asked Manitoba Hydro workers to pay for its inability to govern with their jobs. We fought for good jobs and we fought for stable and reliable public hydro services," Victor Diduch, Unifor Local 681 president said in the release.

Unifors "lack of work" article ensures layoffs may only occur if there is not enough bargaining unit work to fill positions. The arbitrator ruled that the government demanded labour "savings" well in excess of any reasonable staff reduction.

Hydro declined to comment.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Ukrainian-born web designer Andriy Rudnyk and a small group of supporters wanted to tap in to their survivors guilt to help people fleeing the war and make it easier for Manitobans to pitch in.

Ukrainian-born web designer Andriy Rudnyk and a small group of supporters wanted to tap in to their "survivors guilt" to help people fleeing the war and make it easier for Manitobans to pitch in.

They have a launched a website that guides people through a single page to donate to one of three causes, to petition MPs to advocate support for Ukraine and to several pro-Ukrainian news sources.

"Were all living here in Winnipeg, but some have moved here recently. Some are exchange students. Some have lived here for a decade-plus. But I think the overall feeling that everyone has, the motivating factor, is guilt. Its some kind of survivors guilt," said Rudnyk, who was born in Kalush, Ukraine, near the Polish border, and lived in the country until he was 13.

The group wanted to make it easy for Manitobans to know how to get involved.

"Were spoiled for choice on ways to support, so it almost feels sometimes overwhelming. Who do I donate to and where do I go? Do I buy from Ukrainian restaurants? Do I not buy Russian goods? Is that the best way? We wanted to make it very clear," he said.

The site, mbhelpsukraine.ca, lists three categories: financial aid, political aid and informational resources.

The financial section contains links to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, the Canadian Red Cross and the Armed Forces of Ukraine via the National Bank of Ukraine.

While many Manitoba fundraisers have focused on humanitarian aid, Rudnyk said his group felt it was important to include the option to support the Ukrainian military.

"I understand that it seems like a more aggressive approach to it. And the humanitarian crisis is terrible. Its absolutely enormous, the number of displaced people," he said. "But first and foremost, this is a military problem that is causing the humanitarian problem."

The International Organization for Migration estimates 6.48 million people had been displaced by the Russian invasion as of March 16.

The next section contains templates for people who want to implore their members of Parliament to advocate for stronger political measures to back Ukraine. It also links people directly to a search for politicians email addresses.

The final section, titled "Help Fight Russian Propaganda," has links to several news sources, including some in and near Ukraine.

The site is just one of myriad ways Manitobans have stepped up.

Callum Morrison was inspired to hold a fundraising concert in Altona, which raised $18,000 for the Mennonite Central Committees humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

As he thought about friends hed made while travelling in Ukraine, about being welcomed as a guest to a Christmas dinner, Morrison felt he needed to do something.

The site designed by Rudnyk lists three categories people can throw their money behind: financial aid, political aid and informational resources.(Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press)

"I was just sitting at home and thinking we really need to do something in our community, not only to show support for our local Ukrainian community members, but also to contribute something towards the humanitarian effort in Ukraine," he said.

He called his pastor, who gave him the green light to use the church for the event. Artists immediately signed up to join the concert, including violinists and a Winnipeg jazz band. Others pitched in by donating baking or goods to for a raffle.

A prerecorded message from Morrisons friend in Ukraine was played at the event. The friend, identified only as Anton, detailed the killing of citizens who had lined up for groceries and while trying to flee their villages. At one point, he speaks about the siege Mariupol, saying "almost all the buildings in the city are damaged or destroyed."

Scott Campbell, director of development for Mennonite Central Committee, said the organization is "overwhelmed by the response from Canadians" for needs in Ukraine.

The funds it raises will be used by church groups in Ukraine for emergency food and other needs, and for trauma counselling.

Recently, two of MCCs thrift shops in the province organized special sales days for Ukraine, and raised more than $20,000.

In Winnipeg, fashion designer Lennard Taylor launched a fundraising effort Wednesday. The company is selling a Ukraine hand-painted Brenda shirt, for just under $500 each. The shirts are made to order and are individually painted by Taylor.

"Im super blessed and fortunate to have a wonderful following and career that I can help people with," Taylor said. "So I wanted to do something that would matter and something that will impact those (refugees) that are going to be coming here to Canada."

The designer sold two within the first few hours; all proceeds will go to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.

Winnipeg-based humanitarian agencies have been blessed with donations.

To date, about $550,000 for Ukraine has been donated to Canadian Lutheran World Relief.

That amount "is phenomenal," said spokesperson David Turner.

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"Theres still a steady stream of more coming in every day from individuals and from churches who are collecting money together to help."

The money will buy food, medical equipment and other assistance, he said.

Canadians have donated more than $516,000 to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, said spokesperson Gaylene Dempsey.

The money will be used by its members to respond with emergency food aid in Ukraine and surrounding countries where the refugees have fled to, she said.

 with files from John Longhurst

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
In less than two weeks, more than two million people have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Many in the Ukrainian-Canadian community have had to flee before as refugees and Canada now boasts the worlds second-largest Ukrainian diaspora.

Opinion

In less than two weeks, more than two million people have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Many in the Ukrainian-Canadian community have had to flee before as refugees and Canada now boasts the worlds second-largest Ukrainian diaspora.

Canada is known to be welcoming to refugees  to those from Vietnam in the 1970s, for example, and from Syria and Afghanistan more recently  and is seen as a global refugee resettlement leader. But Canadas response to Ukrainians fleeing the war is different than past policy.

Special admission provisions

When the invasion of Ukraine escalated on Feb. 24, Justin Trudeaus government introduced special admission policies for Ukrainian nationals.

The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel allows an unlimited number of Ukrainians fleeing the war to apply to stay in Canada for two years. Canada is also prioritizing applications of Ukrainian nationals reuniting with family in Canada, extending visas and permits of Ukrainians already in Canada and offering open study and work permits. Canadian-Ukrainians and refugee advocates have welcomed the measures yet also raised concerns.

First, emergency travel applicants still need a visa, whereas several countries in Europe have suspended visa requirements for Ukrainians. Canada is ramping up identification procedures, including biometrics, in central European countries receiving Ukrainian refugees, and is waiving fees for travel documents.

Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has long been plagued by processing delays. The new measures have raised concerns that they might have an impact on other refugees awaiting resettlement to Canada, in particular those from Afghanistan.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has stated: We can do more than one thing at a time, and says delays in the admission of Afghan refugees is a logistical challenge on the ground rather than a processing problem.

IRCC has, however, pointed to processing delays to justify technology acquisitions and purchases to speed up decision-making on the admission of refugees. Yet the use of artificial intelligence to deal with immigration applications raises issues of discrimination and racism.

Temporary protection

The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel also differs from Canadas previous resettlement efforts since it offers only temporary protection.

Similarly, the European Union, for the first time, triggered its Temporary Protection Directive for people fleeing Ukraine, which also only provides temporary protection.

The EU response was designed for mass influx scenarios. Protection is offered for one year, with the possibility to extend for two more years. Access to the asylum system in EU countries is still available to those who receive temporary protection.

Canada grants temporary protection for at least two years. But there are lingering questions on the durability of the Canadian response for those fleeing Ukraine. What happens once temporary protection measures ends is an open question.

While some may benefit from the new permanent residency pathway through family sponsorship, not all emergency travel applicants have family in Canada.

As we saw for those who fled Hong Kong to Canada by obtaining a visa, this was just the first hurdle to overcome. Canada is offering the same option to those fleeing Ukraine. Obtaining refugee protection or accessing other immigration pathways at a later date, however, is another obstacle with no guarantee of success.

It remains to be seen whether Ukrainians who wish to settle in Canada permanently will be required to apply for asylum, and if many will find other permanent residence pathways such as post-graduate and employer-sponsored visas.

Whos left out

Both the Canadian and EU responses raise questions about the differential treatment of people on the move. Canadas response only applies to Ukrainian nationals. The EUs measure includes third-country nationals fleeing the war as long as theyve been legally living in Ukraine. Both responses leave undocumented persons without protection.

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In 2019, the International Organization for Migration noted up to 60,900 undocumented people were in Ukraine, mostly from South Asia and Africa. The lack of legal protection options and reported instances of racism and discrimination means not everyone is able to access protection.

The movement of people from Ukraine will continue indefinitely. Its still early days, and Canadas response will undoubtedly evolve.

But it should be more inclusive, addressing non-Ukrainians fleeing the country as well. Further, temporary protection ensures Ukrainians are brought to safety faster. But will this kind of response become the preferred method in the future for all refugees? Are more permanent solutions forthcoming?

Temporary measures impose a burden on refugees to apply for numerous legal processes with no guarantee of permanent residence. As refugee advocates, were weary of providing the limited rights of temporary protection instead of putting in place robust asylum and resettlement programs.

Adele Garnier is an adjunct professor in the department of geography at Laval University. Jamie Chai Yun Liew is director of the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies and an associate professor in the faculty of law at the University of Ottawa. Shauna Labman is an associate professor of human rights at Global College, University of Winnipeg.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
IS the City of Winnipeg really going to agree to the construction of a 36.5-metre-tall cellphone tower in Norwood, in the midst of a residential neighbourhood, without regard to the guidelines that the city itself established in the Winnipeg Antenna Systems Policy?

Opinion

IS the City of Winnipeg really going to agree to the construction of a 36.5-metre-tall cellphone tower in Norwood, in the midst of a residential neighbourhood, without regard to the guidelines that the city itself established in the Winnipeg Antenna Systems Policy?

At a virtual town hall meeting on Feb. 24 sponsored by Rogers, the company proposing to build the tower, Norwood residents were unanimous in voicing their opposition to the location.

Concerns have been raised since the policy was introduced about whether it goes far enough to protect city residents from the impact of cell towers in their community, so, at a minimum, it should be strictly followed when it comes to objecting to towers proposed for locations the policy deems unsuitable. The policy is clear when it comes to where cell towers do not belong  at sites such as this one, within a residential neighbourhood, on the banks of the Seine River, and where it impacts the communitys enjoyment of Heather Park.

At a virtual town hall meeting on Feb. 24 sponsored by Rogers, the company proposing to build the tower, Norwood residents were unanimous in voicing their opposition to the location. Speaker after speaker lined up to voice concerns, which included: the documented health impacts of living in close proximity to a cell tower (backed by Canadian doctors and international scientists); the addition of a hideously high tower with the potential to hold multiple antenna arrays to a neighbourhood with nothing but low-rise buildings; a potentially substantial reduction of residential property values (concerns which have since been validated by a letter of opinion from an experienced local realtor); and the negative impact that a tower in the flora- and fauna-filled Seine River corridor, bordering the neighbourhood green space known as Heather Park, would have on an important urban wildlife habitat and the land the community uses for leisure and recreation in all seasons.

The citys antenna policy validates these concerns. This policy, adopted by city council in 2015, lays out specific locations where cell towers should and should not be built. The city policy specifically discourages cell towers from being built in residential neighbourhoods, presumably due to the effects on health and residential property values local residents spoke out against. It discourages cell towers from being built in front of residential windows, doors, balconies and frontages, presumably due to the unsightly appearance. It discourages cell towers from being built on riverbank lands and in neighbourhood parks, green spaces and natural areas, presumably due to the impact on wildlife, vegetation and human enjoyment.

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Instead, the city policy encourages cell towers to be built in far less harmful and impactful locations such as industrial and commercial areas. It states the towers should be attached to, or located near, buildings that are similarly tall, not standing alone in a sea of residential housing. It states that towers should be built in busy transportation corridors already filled with concrete and traffic, not on the side of a leafy riverbank next to a park where people play with their children and walk their pets.

It is clear this proposal should not be allowed to proceed. It simply does not fit within the policy put into force by our elected council, which carefully considered where cell towers should and should not go, based on the negative impact they can have on the city and its residents if towers are located in the wrong kind of location.

The citys planning department is aware of the proposed location, but has not yet received final documentation from Rogers that is necessary to begin the review.

The City of Winnipeg must do the right thing: stand by its antenna policy and state that it does not concur with the construction of such a huge tower in this neighbourhood, just as it did when a similarly inappropriate location in Charleswood was recently considered. The residents of Norwood deserve no less.

We trust the city will make this decision in accordance with councils adopted policy document and, in the best interest of the community, issue a letter of non-concurrence.

Melissa Grabowsky represents Norwood Residents Against the Youville Tower, a group of residents who live in the immediate area of the proposed tower and/or use the park and river that would be affected by the towers placement.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as hostages to pressure Kyiv to give up.

A Ukrainian firefighter sprays water inside a house destroyed by shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine,Wednesday, March 23, 2022. The Kyiv city administration says Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian capital overnight and early Wednesday morning, in the districts of Sviatoshynskyi and Shevchenkivskyi, damaging buildings. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as "hostages" to pressure Kyiv to give up.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken to Russia.

The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraine's rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.

A month into the invasion, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraines navy said it sank a large Russian landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to bring in armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is "defending our common values."

Volodymyr, 80, rests inside his apartment damaged by shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine,Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

U.S President Joe Biden, in Europe for the summit and other high-level meetings, gave assurances more aid is on its way, though it appeared unlikely the West would give Zelenskyy everything he wanted, for fear of triggering a much wider war.

Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders have fought Moscow's ground troops to a near-stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

In other developments Thursday:

A Ukrainian firefighter takes a break from extinguishing a fire inside a house destroyed by shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. The Kyiv city administration says Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian capital overnight and early Wednesday morning, in the districts of Sviatoshynskyi and Shevchenkivskyi, damaging buildings. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners, the largest swap reported yet, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

The pro-Moscow leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, warned that Polands proposal to deploy a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine "will mean World War III."

In Chernihiv, where an airstrike this week destroyed a crucial bridge, a city official, Olexander Lomako, said a "humanitarian catastrophe" is unfolding as Russian forces target food storage places. He said about 130,000 people are left in the besieged city, about half its prewar population.

A serviceman carries the photo of Capt. Andrei Paliy, a deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, during a farewell ceremony in Sevastopol, Crimea, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Paliy was killed in action during fighting with Ukrainian forces in the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. (AP Photo)

Russia said it will offer safe passage starting Friday to 67 ships from 15 foreign countries that are stranded in Ukrainian ports because of the danger of shelling and mines.

Kyiv and Moscow gave conflicting accounts, meanwhile, about the people being relocated to Russia and whether they were going willingly  as Russia claimed  or were being coerced or lied to.

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said the roughly 400,000 people evacuated to Russia since the start of the military action were from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting for control for nearly eight years.

Volunteers at a sand beach fill sandbags to defend their city, in Odesa, southern Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Western officials say that Ukrainian resistance has halted much of Russia's advance. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Russian authorities said they are providing accommodations and dispensing payments to the evacuees.

But Donetsk Region Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that "people are being forcibly moved into the territory of the aggressor state." Denisova said those removed by Russian troops included a 92-year-old woman in Mariupol who was forced to go to Taganrog in southern Russia.

Ukrainian officials said that the Russians are taking people's passports and moving them to "filtration camps" in Ukraines separatist-controlled east before sending them to various distant, economically depressed areas in Russia.

A woman cleans the staircase of broken glass at an apartment building damaged by bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine,Wednesday, March 23, 2022. The Kyiv city administration says Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian capital overnight and early Wednesday morning, in the districts of Sviatoshynskyi and Shevchenkivskyi, damaging buildings.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Among those taken, Ukraines Foreign Ministry charged, were 6,000 residents of Mariupol, the devastated port city in the country's east. Moscow's troops are confiscating identity documents from an additional 15,000 people in a section of Mariupol under Russian control, the ministry said.

Some could be sent as far as the Pacific island of Sakhalin, Ukrainian intelligence said, and are being offered jobs on condition they dont leave for two years. The ministry said the Russians intend to "use them as hostages and put more political pressure on Ukraine."

Kyrylenko said that Mariupols residents have been long deprived of information and that the Russians feed them false claims about Ukraines defeats to persuade them to move to Russia.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, front right, looks toward U.S. President Joe Biden, front left, at a group photo during an extraordinary NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, March 24, 2022. As the war in Ukraine grinds into a second month, President Joe Biden and Western allies are gathering to chart a path to ramp up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin while tending to the economic and security fallout that's spreading across Europe and the world. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

"Russian lies may influence those who have been under the siege," he said.

As for the naval attack in Berdyansk, Ukraine claimed two more ships were damaged and a 3,000-ton fuel tank was destroyed when the Russian ship Orsk was sunk, causing a fire that spread to ammunition supplies.

Zelenskyy rallied the country to keep up its military defense in hopes it would lead to peace.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives for meetings with NATO allies about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022, in Brussels. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

"With every day of our defense, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We are getting closer to victory.  We cant stop even for a minute, for every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live," he said late Thursday in his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war. Across the country, 230 schools and 155 kindergartens have been destroyed. Cities and villages "lie in ashes," he said.

Sending a signal that Western sanctions have not brought it to its knees, Russia reopened its stock market but allowed only limited trading to prevent mass sell-offs. Foreigners were barred from selling, and traders were prohibited from short selling, or betting prices would fall.

U.S. President Joe Biden, center, arrives for a round table meeting during an extraordinary NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, March 24, 2022. As the war in Ukraine grinds into a second month, President Joe Biden and Western allies are gathering to chart a path to ramp up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin while tending to the economic and security fallout that's spreading across Europe and the world. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Millions of people in Ukraine have made their way out of the country, some pushed to the limit after trying to stay and cope.

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At the central station in the western city of Lviv, a teenage girl stood in the doorway of a waiting train, a white pet rabbit shivering in her arms. She was on her way to join her mother and then go on to Poland or Germany. She had been traveling alone, leaving other family members behind in Dnipro.

"At the beginning I didnt want to leave," she said. "Now Im scared for my life."

From left, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden arrive for a G7 leaders' group photo during a NATO summit in Brussels, Thursday March 24, 2022. (Henry Nicholls/Pool via AP)

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Anna reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv and other AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
ST. PAUL  The Minnesota Senate Veterans Committee today approved a bill authored by Majority Leader Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) that would provide additional funding for new construction projects at the veterans homes in Preston, Bemidji, and Montevideo.

The states three new veterans homes are going to enable us to provide well-deserved care to more veterans, and that is fantastic news, Miller said. We have a duty to provide the highest level of care that we can to those who answered the nations call. This bill will allow us to fulfill our commitment to Minnesotas veterans.

I am grateful for the engagement from local officials from the city of Preston, Fillmore County, veterans groups, and countless volunteers who continue to make sure we are supporting as many people as we can, Miller added. And a special thank you to Fillmore County Veterans Service Officer Jason Marquardt for driving up to St. Paul to testify on this important bill. This bipartisan effort is a wonderful way to honor our veterans and their families.

The bill provides $6.9 million to the Preston home, $4.35 million for the Bemidji home, and $5.27 million to the Montevideo home for the design, construction, and equipping of site and building improvements that were not funded through the initial appropriation.

The legislature originally approved funding for three new veterans homes in Preston, Montevideo, and Bemidji in the 2018 bonding bill. The federal government authorized nearly $80 million in funding for its share of the projects in March of 2021, but due to the gap in the timeline, certain important projects had to be removed in order to meet the original budget. Millers bill would allow those projects to be completed.

Groundbreaking for the Preston home took place in August 2021, and it is slated to open in the summer of 2023.

The bill will next receive a hearing in the Senates Finance Committee.

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WABASHA, Minn.  Wabasha has a free bridge across the Mississippi River today, and a lifelong dream of the businessmen of this community has come true.

All of Wabasha and the nearby communities in Wisconsin knows it today, because Wabasha celebrated the event informally last evening and spread the good tidings far and wide over the area. It was a big night in Wabasha history.

The news came to Wabasha late Monday afternoon when E.B. Wise, vice-president of the Wabasha-Nelson Bridge Company  the company which built and operated the toll bridge since 1930  telephoned the bridgetender from St. Paul to close up shop and let traffic flow freely. The report that the contract selling the bridge jointly to the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin had been concluded and the check for $400,000 turned over to the officers of the bridge company, spread rapidly through Wabasha.

Celebration begins

The celebration was on. All business places In Wabasha closed, and a caravan of more than 25 cars started across the free bridge to spread the news in Nelson, Wis., just across the river. Nelson businessmen joined in the parade, and the celebrating crowd moved on to Alma. Alma businessmen joined in the celebration, informal in nature, and Pepin, Wis., joined hands. Then everybody went back to Wabasha where open house prevailed until the wee hours of today.

That was not the end of the celebration, Mayor H.D. Kenyon declared today. There is to be a formal celebration with fireworks and everything later, he said. A committee is to be formed immediately to complete details of this big event in Wabasha and Buffalo county history.

The deal selling the bridge was completed after several years of work by a committee of citizens, officers of the bridge company, and representatives of-the two highway departments.

The purchase price of the bridge was $400,000, each of the two states paying half. This price includes 2.4 miles of dike road built by the bridge company from the east end of the bridge to Nelson. The structure, completed in 1930, is of steel and concrete and is 2,400 feet long. Legislation making the purchase possible was passed at the 1945 sessions of the two state legislatures.

The legislation extends Minnesota Highway 60 from its junction with U.S. Highway 61 to the boundary of the state via the bridge, and a similar action on the part of Wisconsin connects the Wisconsin end of the bridge to Wisconsin Highway 35.

The Wabasha-Nelson Bridge Company is a stock company and has outstanding $257,000 in stock. There is a bonded indebtedness of $300,000 against the bridge, Mr. Wise stated today.

After the expenses of the sale and bonds are paid, he said, the remainder will be pro-rated between the stockholders.

In recent years, after years of struggle, the bridge has been a paying project. In 1946 the total toll collected was $42,000. The toll for a car was 50 cents.

Five employees of the bridge company will be retired at once, Mr. Wise stated. The tollhouse has been permanently closed.

The two state departments plan extensive improvements for the bridge, including the widening of the curves in the immediate future, E. J. Miller, bridge engineer, informed the St. Paul meeting Monday.

Opening of the Wabasha span as a free bridge eliminates the last toll bridge over the Mississippi river north of the Iowa line. This is the second interstate bridge on which tolls have been eliminated within the past year, the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin having purchased the Prescott bridge over the St. Croix River and opened it as a free bridge July l, 1946.

This reduces the number of toll bridges over Minnesota boundary waters to five. Remaining toll bridges are those over the St. Croix opposite Hudson and Grantsburg, two bridges over the St. Louis River between Duluth and Superior, and one over the Rainy River at International Falls.

There is no toll bridge within the state of Minnesota.

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Mayor Becky Glewen has appointed Michael Stephens to the citys five-member Police and Fire Commission.

Stephens introduced himself to the City Council Monday prior to his appointment and said he is honored to be able to serve on the PFC. A native of Beaver Dam, Stephens was previously a paid, on-call firefighter with BDFD until 2020. He said he resigned from that position as his work requirements increased at UW Hospital, where he is employed in emergency management.

Ald. Mick Fischer requested the council take an advisory voice vote on the appointment. Attorney Rick Manthe noted that no council vote is needed for a mayoral appointment to the PFC.

The Common Council can do this advisory vote, the results of it wont be binding, its more or less input for the mayor, he said.

Several aldermen expressed concerns over the appointment because of Stephens previous work history within the department.

Mayor Glewen said that Stephens met with Police Chief John Kreuziger, Fire Chief Mike Wesle and PFC Chairman Jeff Kohman following his nomination to the post. Recalling a later conversation with Kohman, Glewen said he called Stephens an absolutely great pick and wanted the nomination to move forward.

The non-binding advisory roll call vote was taken with split results. Alds. Heidi Freeby, Therese Henriksen, Kara Nelson, Cris Olson, Jaclyn Shelton, Mike Wissell and Zach Zopp voted in favor of the appointment and Alds. Ken Anderson, Kay Appenfeldt, Kevin Burnett, Frank Ferree, Mick Fischer, David Hansen and Jack Yuds voted against it.

Stephens will fill the PFC vacancy term which expires in 2026. He replaces Maria Lopez who resigned last month after being seated in November.

PFC Chairman passes away

Beaver Dam Police and Fire Commission Chairman Jeffry Kohman died on Monday at the age of 69.

Kohman served as a Beaver Dam alderman beginning in 1993 and served as council president from 1997 until 2005. He was a mayoral candidate in the 2020 spring election.

A full obituary for Kohman can be found in Thursdays edition of the Daily Citizen. Memorials are requested to the Beaver Dam Police Department Charities or the Beaver Dam Fire Department  Fire Prevention Fund.

Follow Kelly Simon on Twitter @KSchmidSimon or contact her at 920-356-6757.

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YMCA of Dodge County hosted its first bike-a-thon Wednesday for the organizations annual fundraiser with members and staff riding stationary bikes to help raise money so everyone can enjoy the facility.

Andrew Perkins, health and wellness director for YMCA of Dodge County, said the bike-a-thon participants raise funds by themselves and people can also leave a donation as they pass by the riders to check in and out of the facility. The people rode the stationary bicycles for an hour and recorded the miles traveled, which could be used with their fundraising efforts.

The annual campaign raises funds that go towards swim lessons, child care and use of the facility, Perkins said. Income-qualified qualified people can get 5% to 85% off the membership dues because of the money raised through the annual campaign.

The YMCA of Dodge County will not turn anyone away, Perkins said.

Perkins said the YMCA did a similar bike-a-thon for an area fundraiser in the past, but this is the first one in support of the annual fund.

We will certainly continue this and do it annually, Perkins said.

The annual campaign raised just over $150,000 last year and the YMCA provided $163,000 in services, YMCA of Dodge County membership director Ellie Moore said. The goal this year is $175,000.

The bike-a-thon funds from Wednesday will be added to the annual campaign fund. Those wanting to donate to the annual campaign fund can go online or stop at the YMCA, 220 Corporate Drive.

All of the money raised remains with the YMCA of Dodge County and is used locally.

Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760.

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Its election season and in the next couple of days there are multiple opportunities for citizens to meet some of the candidates for Portage City Council and mayor.

Portage Citizens for Change are holding a meet-and-greet event on Saturday in the Bidwell Room at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be free cupcakes and coffee on Saturday, Jami Hayes said. People can show up just to enjoy those.

For More Information Meet and Greet Portage Alderperson Candidates is on Saturday, March 26, in the Bidwell Room at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Portage Mayoral Debate will be held on Monday, March 28, at 6 p.m. in Portage City Council Chambers at City Hall, 115 W. Pleasant St. There will be limited seating. Questions must be submitted to the chamber via email or dropped off at the chamber office before noon on Monday. More information on the Portage Citizens for Change can be found at www.facebook.com/PortageCitzens.

Hayes was born and raised in Portage and has spent almost her whole life in the city. She recently started Portage Citizens for Change with Terry Bardell last summer following a situation with a local business during construction on Highway 51.

There are four alderperson seats up for election on the April 5 ballot. Districts 2, 5, 6 and 9 all have two candidates running and all eight candidates were invited to the meet-and-greet on Saturday.

There are so many new candidates running for alderperson and we wanted to hold an event to get to know the candidates before they cast their vote, Hayes said.

District 2 is the only race with the incumbent not running and Sue Frye and David Perrodin are the candidates in that race. District 5 candidates are incumbent Jeff Monfort and Karen Melito; in District 6, Mike Mulhern is running against incumbent Eric Shimpach, and in District 9, incumbent Chris Crawley is running against Lance DeJong.

Hayes explained she reached out to all the candidates and all confirmed there attendance except for Crawley, Mulhern and Monfort.

This is an opportunity for citizens to have conversations with candidates and get them on the spot answering questions about the important issues in our community, Hayes said. This will not be a debate and wont have a traditional candidate forum structure.

Hayes said she watched the mayor forum held before the Feb. 15 primary and was disappointed that candidates knew what questions were going to be asked ahead of time.

I dont want them prepared, Hayes said. I want the candidates to answer questions on the spot and for citizens to get to know the people that will be representing them on the council.

There will be a mayoral debate held by the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce on Monday night where the two candidates, incumbent Mayor Rick Dodd and Mitchel Craig, will be answering a handful of questions.

According to the Chamber of Commerce website, the debate will be held at City Hall, 215 W. Pleasant St., at 6 p.m. on Monday night with in-person attendance but a limited number of seats available.

Questions will be compiled by the chamber that have been submitted by citizens to the chamber. There will be no questions asked by the audience that night.

The idea behind both the alderperson meet-and-greet and mayoral debate is to get the community involved in the election process.

Hayes started the group Portage Citizens for Change in hopes of getting community members and citizens more involved in their local government.

I was recently appointed to the Historic Preservation Commission, Hayes said. It was important to me to get involved and Ive been studying the history of Portage since junior high. I want to bring some fresh ideas to the commission.

Hayes has spent the last few years working on the database of cemeteries in the area. One of her goals on the commission is to bring back cemetery tours to Portage.

Id like to hold a cemetery tour in Portage on a Saturday night in October with a Halloween theme, Hayes said. People in the community often ask, Why did those tours stop? and I think bringing them back would be good for the community and would also get young people involved.

When she was appointed to the commission, Hayes spoke of the importance of citizen involvement in local government, and she reiterated that point on Thursday.

I know people are busy but if you can volunteer in any way you should. Not everyone has time to sit on a committee or a commission but if you want change you need to volunteer, Hayes said. I hope people get more involved at the local level because citizens are what make the city work.

The group is hosting the meet-and-greet on Saturday but is leaving the choice of who to vote for with the citizens.

Were not going to be endorsing any candidates, Hayes said. The goal for Saturday is for people to come to the library and have conversations with the candidates and make their own decision on who to vote for in the upcoming election.

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Season Premiere 10/9c

Expect the unexpected as Donald Glovers critically worshipped comedy returns after a nearly four-year absence. Atlanta is less a place than a state of mind as Earn (Glover) manages cousin Albert/Paper Bois (Brian Tyree Henry) rap career on a European tour, shot on location. But in the first of two back-to-back episodes, a surreal and disturbing vignette serves as a racially charged curtain-raiser, with Glover and the rest of the cast nowhere in sight. (See the full review.)

Series Premiere

The thrills are mostly mechanical in a shoot-by-numbers dramatization of the video game franchise. Pablo Schreiber stars as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, a Spartan super-soldier who in true Mandalorian tradition is rarely seen without his fancy helmet on. The story, such as it is, kicks in when his troops intervene in an invasion by the beastly alien Covenant on the colonized planet Madrigal, where he rescues the attacks sole native survivor, the spunky teenage rebel Kwan (Yerin Ha). Watching from HQ: the ethereal Dr. Halsey (Natascha McElhone), whos intrigued by Johns transformation after he comes in contact with a mysterious object of alien tech.

The Trek spinoff is on richer sci-fi ground as the time-traveling crew continues its adventures in 2024 Los Angeles. With only a few days left to fix the timeline, Picard (Patrick Stewart) leaves his chateau to join his scattered colleagues in L.A., where he crosses paths with a significant presence from his future. Elsewhere, with Rios (Santiago Cabrera) in ICE custody, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) race to his rescue, and L.A. traffic may never recover from the former Borg taking the wheel.

Series Premiere

This cinematic docuseries feels like a collection of amazing DVD extras, with contemporary directors walking us through some of their best-known films most iconic scenes, entering their own shots in an immersive 360-degree visual tour. The six directors, and their films, include Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Michael Mann (Heat), Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) and Kasi Lemmons (Harriet).

In a generous nod to the past, the reimagined dramatization of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air welcomes two members of the original ensemble to return for cameos in the first seasons penultimate episode. Daphne Maxwell Reid, Fresh Princes second Aunt Viv, and Bob Hearts Abisholas Vernee Watson-Johnson (OG Viola Vy Smith) appear as Helen and Janice, members of the hoity-toity Art Council Board of Trustees

9/8c

After last weeks most unwelcome detour with the ghost of Ellis Grey and a pointless subplot involving the niece of Merediths (Ellen Pompeo) boyfriend Nick (Scott Speedman) during what was meant to be a romantic weekend in a remote cabin, the action thankfully returns to Seattle for some hospital drama. Richard (James Pickens Jr.) is still in a funk over the Webber Method fiasco, doubting his surgical abilities, while a pet python makes its presence known.

Inside Thursday TV:
At least two people are in custody after a 3-month-old Milwaukee boy was missing for more than 12 hours Wednesday, police said.

Anthony L. Crudup Jr. was found safe and unharmed at a residence in the 4000 block of North 44th Street in Milwaukee around 1:10 p.m., Milwaukee Police Inspector Paul Lough said during a press conference. An "investigative lead" led Milwaukee officers to the home, Lough said.

Anthony had last been seen around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 4300 block of West Marion Street, which is a few blocks away.

Lough did not specify why people were arrested nor whether any criminal charges could result from Anthony's brief disappearance.

"Several individuals were taken into custody," Lough said. "We are still trying to determine their specific involvement."

Later, Lough specified that Milwaukee police have two suspects in custody. He declined to answer a question about whether those involved were related to the family.

The FBI said in a tweet that a 15-year-old girl was a suspect in the case, but Lough said the girl has been cleared and was not involved.

An Amber Alert had been issued for Anthony Wednesday morning, but the alert was canceled once he was located. Around 2:30 p.m., Lough said Anthony was being medically cleared at the scene.

"We are thankful Anthony is safe," Lough said. "We're in the process of reuniting him with his mother right now."

Authorities ask anyone with any information about the incident to call 414-935-7405.

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About 100 French Island residents met Wednesday afternoon to talk about the ongoing PFAS crisis with community and state leaders while possible solutions continue to be investigated.

So far, more than 500 wells on French Island have been shown to be contaminated with above-recommended levels of PFAS, a toxic group of forever chemicals that are believed to have stemmed from the La Crosse Regional Airport.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, who lives on French Island himself, along with state Sen. Brad Pfaff and Rep. Steve Doyle joined town of Campbell leaders to discuss concerns and gather more information.

The discussion focused mostly on what solutions could be found and funded, and leaders urged that a game plan must be identified before they can go after funding. They requested that residents send letters to representatives and continue speaking out.

But residents expressed restlessness as many have been relying on bottled water for the last year.

My kids still like the flavor of our water better than the Culligan water that were drinking, area plumber Todd Nelson said. He said he has had to put flavoring in his water to tolerate it.

Right now weve got to weather the storm and weve got to work together, he said.

Kind advised that the whichever solution the community chooses to move forward with should be taken directly to Gov. Tony Evers and state DNR Secretary-designee Preston Cole. He advocated for using funds from the states portion of the American Rescue Plan Act and infrastructure bill to help fund the solution.

But that money is likely to be spent sooner than later, he cautioned.

I will say that time is of the essence. Theres only so long well be able to provide households and families with bottled water, Kind said. Its important for us all to work very hard and as quickly as we can to find a workable solution.

Pfaff and Doyle both stated that politics within the state Legislature were preventing help on the PFAS crisis, such as cost-sharing for water testing and establishing stronger state standards for the amount of PFAS in water.

One resident agreed, saying he was sick and tired of hearing about the $676,000 of taxpayer money that has been spent on a state investigation into the 2020 election.

And they cant even help us with our water, he said. He told his neighbors, Think twice when you vote because thats one of the first things we can do is just vote for people that want to help us.

If they dont want to pass legislation for helping us, well vote for someone who will, he said.

Currently, the two major solutions that have emerged to address the widespread contamination include directing city of La Crosse water onto the island  which creates some uneasiness among residents due to long annexation concerns  or somehow extracting the chemicals from the water so that residents can continue to use their existing private wells, though the data on that is still being reviewed.

After the listening session, the Campbell Town Board met to discuss its water agreement with the city of La Crosse. For more information on that meeting and the listening session, visit LaCrosseTribune.com or look for the story in Fridays paper.
Biden and Western leaders plan new ways to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine at emergency summits
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning is extended for the following rivers in Indiana... White River at Edwardsport, Montezuma, Covington. ...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Indiana... Wabash River at Lafayette. White River at Elliston. .Recent rainfall will lead to minor flooding along the White and Wabash Rivers in Indiana. Additional rainfall is expected over the next several days, bringing additional flooding. 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 TUESDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Lafayette. * WHEN...Until Tuesday afternoon. * IMPACTS...At 14.0 feet, Lowland flooding is in progress. High water affects river cabins near North 9th Street. Low county roads are nearly impassable. Tapawingo Park in West Lafayette begins to flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 10:30 AM EDT Thursday the stage was 12.6 feet. - Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours ending at 10:30 AM EDT Thursday was 12.6 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise to a crest of 12.7 feet this afternoon. It will then fall below flood stage early Tuesday morning. - Flood stage is 11.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
Stacey Harris named W&M dean of students

Stacey Harris, deans fellow, associate director of disability & access services and member of the student life management team at Boston University, has been selected as William & Marys next dean of students.

Harris, who has worked in higher education for 23 years, will assume the position on May 10. She succeeds Marjorie Thomas, who left W&M last July to become vice president for student affairs at the New College of Florida in Sarasota. Mark Sikes has been serving as interim dean of students since last summer.

An adaptive leader who approaches her work through a restorative and social justice lens, Harris has spent more than two decades overseeing student affairs operations and developing sustainable programming and resources to promote student success.

I am excited to be welcomed to a campus that focuses so holistically on student wellness, community values and social justice, Harris said. To have the honor of working for and with William & Mary students and to be able to lend my background and skills to further the university's mission is an extraordinary opportunity.

Reporting directly to the vice president for student affairs and serving as a member of the vice presidents senior leadership team, Harris will play a central role in realizing the divisions vision to create an engaging learning environment where community is strengthened and individuals flourish, according to the position announcement.

An advocate for undergraduate and graduate students alike, the [Dean of Students Office] endeavors to promote the academic and personal success of students, to ensure programs and services are supportive of a diverse and inclusive campus environment and support a strong sense of community and personal integrity among students. The dean of students supervises a number of critical student-life program areas, including academic enrichment programs, community values and restorative practices (student honor and conduct), student accessibility services, student services and care support, parent and family programs, the Haven and the Center for Student Diversity.

Stacey brings to William & Mary an exceptional record of success, particularly in the areas of accessibility services, restorative practices and conflict resolution. As an experienced senior leader in student affairs, she is deeply committed to students and promoting their success, both in and outside the classroom, said Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler. We are excited to welcome Stacey Harris as our next dean of students.

We are enormously grateful to Mark Sikes for his strong leadership as interim dean of students over these last 10 months. He has been unfailing in his commitment to serving our students with compassion and care, especially during this time of pandemic.

After holding leadership positions at Lesley University and Monmouth University, Harris hails most recently from Boston University where, over the past 14 years, she has served as a member of the Student Life Management Team under the associate provost and dean of students. In that role, she supervised a team responsible for university-wide Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) policy and student counseling, served as a Title IX deputy and in 2020 established the Student Conflict Resolution Program, a university-wide initiative focused on developing a shared language and tools for managing difficult conversations and experiences.

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to hold posts that have allowed me to straddle both the academic and student affairs sides of the house, Harris said. I can recognize a wall as arbitrary and reach across real or imagined barriers in a way that engenders trust and goodwill  by simply asking how I can best be of help.

Such collaboration is essential for creating a cohesive framework wherein we can support each other to do our best work and serve as an example for our students.

At Boston University, Harris also regularly taught co-curricular courses centered around belonging and communication, served as an advisor to several student organizations and worked actively in the community as a presenter and consultant for nonprofit organizations, professional associations and educational institutions on well-being and mental health, the transition to college, conflict resolution and family mediation.

Harris holds a B.A. from Curry College, a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and certifications in mediation, restorative justice dialogue and social justice mediation.

I could not be more excited to join William & Mary, Harris said. When I came to campus, I knew instantly it was a special place. Its the people. The students were open about their challenges and dreams.

Their undeniable love of the university and pride in W&M made me want to be a part of that magic.
Displaying talent provides valuable publicity momentum to those who are too often overlooked in sector, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

This year sees the third edition of curator Zhu Yujie's group women art exhibition, a project hosted annually with the aim of offering more opportunities to women artists.

The exhibition Metaphor and Gaze opened in Shenzhen's La Vie Art Center, Guangdong Province, on Feb 27.

Zhu says that she has been consciously and continuously learning about gender theory since university, and her master's studies in culture, criticism and curation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom drew her attention to the understated roles of women in art history.

"Women artists still have relatively fewer opportunities to showcase their works at art museums and galleries, and few group exhibitions focus on women topics," Zhu says.

"Only by constantly exhibiting works by women artists and writing about these artworks, can they be known by more people and be written into art history."

The exhibition, which runs until March 28, features installations, videos, paintings, performance and textile works by 17 women artists.

According to Zhu, the title Metaphor and Gaze is about artists expressing women's real desires, conundrums, confusion and anxieties from different levels and perspectives, and exploring the love, healing and growth shared by humans.

"In these unique times (of the pandemic), we have had new life experiences and understandings, and I increasingly realize that art is the best medium to break down barriers and biases, and to bring people together. And for artists, their creation and thinking never stop," Zhu says.

"In art history, the images of women are often just objects to be gazed at. In our exhibition, women are the subject of creation."

Zhu says that she feels an increasing amount of people are supporting women art. While she overcame various hurdles hosting previous exhibitions with a limited budget, this year she was invited by Xiao Yu, founder of La Vie Art Center, who provided the venue.

The art center is an industrial space with coarse concrete walls, which, according to Zhu, tackles the stereotype of women being frail, and allows the artists to converse with the viewers through powerful artworks.

Because of the large space, the artists are able to exhibit artworks on a bigger scale and many decided to do the installation themselves, one of them being artist Yuan Xiaotian.

Her installation, Flow, weaves thin metal threads into translucent folded fabric that twists and hangs in midair.

"Many people, seeing this installation for the first time, will think it's made of cloth or silk, but it's in fact made of metal. I think it is just like women, who can be gentle, but also very strong on the inside. It is a representation of the saying 'an iron fist in a velvet glove'," Yuan says.

"Apart from three specially invited artists, we highlighted mostly artists born in the 1980s or 1990s. Most of them have learned art internationally, have a broad outlook, and excel at mixed-media art creations," says Xiao.

The exhibition also features a reading room section entitled Writing Her Power  Women's Situation and Writing, displaying books from 20 publishing houses on themes including women power, self-identity and relationships.

Zhu says that setting up a reading room has been a recurring feature at her previous exhibitions, because books have played a major role in her learning of gender theory.

Artist Wen Qiwen has been invited to create works of paper art entitled Go With the Flow for the reading room, with paper-made jellyfish hanging in the space. Wen believes the relationship between jellyfish and water is a metaphor for the one between humans and society.

(Source: China Daily)
BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua)  Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, sent a congratulatory letter to the fourth theory seminar between the CPC and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), which opened on Wednesday.

Noting that the CPC and the PCC are the leadership core of the socialist endeavor in their respective countries, Xi said in his letter that since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people in scoring historic achievements in reform and opening-up, and in socialist modernization, ushering in a new era for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Xi said that the Eighth Congress of the PCC has conducted strategic planning and deployment for the development of the PCC and the country of Cuba, both for the present time and into the future, laying out a blueprint for Cuba to build socialism featuring prosperity, democracy and sustainability.

In the face of new situations and new tasks, Xi said it is an opportune time for the two parties to hold the theory seminar, which is of great significance for the two sides to explore the socialist development paths suited to their national realities.

The CPC is willing to have an in-depth exchange of views with the PCC on major theoretical and practical issues, and to learn from each other regarding their experience of state governance, to promote the continuous development of Party building and the socialist cause in their respective countries, Xi stressed.

The theory seminar, co-hosted by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and the International Relations Department of the PCC Central Committee, is being held virtually from Wednesday to Thursday.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony of the seminar.

Huang said that under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the CPC and Chinese people have made historic achievements, and will certainly build a stronger Marxist ruling party and win a new, greater victory for the socialist cause.

In-depth exchanges and mutual learning between CPC and PCC in theory and practice will help strengthen their respective party building and governance capacity construction, and jointly promote the new development of relations between the two parties and the two countries, Huang said.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization and cadre policy of the PCC Central Committee, spoke highly of China's splendid achievements, saying that the PCC is willing to strengthen exchanges of experience in governing the party and the country with the CPC, promote cooperation with China in various fields, and jointly push forward bilateral relations and the development of socialist cause.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attends the opening ceremony of the fourth theory seminar between the CPC and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on March 23, 2022. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president, sent a congratulatory letter to the seminar, which is being held virtually from Wednesday to Thursday. Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization and cadre policy of the PCC Central Committee, attended the seminar. [Xinhua/Gao Jie]

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attends the opening ceremony of the fourth theory seminar between the CPC and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on March 23, 2022. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president, sent a congratulatory letter to the seminar, which is being held virtually from Wednesday to Thursday. Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization and cadre policy of the PCC Central Committee, attended the seminar. [Xinhua/Gao Jie]

(Source: Xinhua)
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer speaks with immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as a group of at least 25 asylum seekers were allowed to travel from a migrant camp in Mexico into the United States, in Matamoros, Mexico, on February 25, 2021.
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8144446 18.03.2022 Residents leave the city of Mariupol, Donetsk People's Republic. The city has been a site of intense fighting in recent weeks. Alexey Kudenko / Sputnik via AP
A&E waiting times and ambulance service targets not being met as pressure on NHS Wales grows

New figures released today show the continuing pressure facing Wales health service, with A&E attendances increasing and the ambulance service failing to meet performance targets.

On average 1,228 calls made to the Wales Ambulance Service per day, 3.1 per cent more on average per day than the previous month.

An average of 105 immediately life-threatening (red) calls were made per day in February 2022, making February the ninth month in a row where on average there were more than 100 immediately life-threatening calls made each day

The target of attending 65 per cent of red calls (immediately life-threatening, someone is in imminent danger of death, such as a cardiac arrest) within eight minutes, was not met.

Todays figures also show the growing demand on hospitals across Wales, with the Welsh Government citing staff sickness absences due to coronavirus combined with winter pressures, causing continuing delays in people waiting to be seen.

At the Wrexham Maelor Hospital just 41.8 per cent of attendees at the emergency department in February were seen within the four hour target.

This is worse that the 49 per cent achieved in January 2022.

Of the 4,165 people who visited Wrexhams emergency department last month, 60 per cent were seen within eight hours and 74.6 per cent were seen within 12 hours.

In North Wales 59.5 per cent of people attending A&E were seen within four hours.

Across Wales the average number of attendances per day in February at emergency departments was 8.7 per cent higher than in the previous month.

The average (median) time spent in emergency departments last month increased on the previous month to 3 hours. This is the third highest on record since current data collection began in April 2012.

Waiting lists for treatment are continuing to grow as the backlog caused coronavirus pressures and staff absences causes long delays.

688,836 were waiting to start treatment last month, leaving one in five people across Wales on the waiting list.

In January 148,884 people across the Wales remained on the waiting list, up slightly from the 147,862 in December 2021.

Of those 76,311 had been waiting up to 26 weeks to start their treatment, 15,384 waiting 26 to 36 weeks and 57,189 waiting over 36 weeks.

Todays figures have increased calls from opposition parties to act fast to tackle the growing pressures on the health service.

Welsh Conservative and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said: These sky-high numbers are devastating but not shocking because, sadly, they are becoming too common  but that cannot mean that we just accept that this is what Wales gets when it deserves so much better.

We know that the pandemic has had a huge effect on waiting lists  not that they were great then with as they doubled in the year before Covid struck  but the excuse will eventually wear thin and become unjustifiable.

This is all the more acute now as being stuck on a waiting list can prevent someone working or delay their return to their job, when earning a wage is all the more important when the cost of living is on the increase.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said it is clear the Welsh NHS remains in crisis.

She said: The Welsh Government should be taking urgent steps to boost local health services and GPs in order to reduce the massive amounts of pressure on A&E departments and the backlogs that are impacting the ambulance service.

We need to see more services moved back into local communities, which used to act as a vital buffer zone for A&E services.

I am also extremely concerned that Army support for the Welsh Ambulance Service is set to end before the close of winter. While I appreciate this is not the armed forces day job, now is not the time to be removing their support.

The ambulance service is barely coping as things are and I would be extremely worried that removing the support of the Army before the end of winter could worsen the waiting time crisis across Wales.

Plaid Cymrus spokesperson for substance misuse, Peredur Owen Griffiths MS, said: Todays updated NHS waiting times are another reminder of the immense pressure our health service continues to be under.

It is especially concerning news as the ambulance service was already under a huge amount of pressure before restrictions were lifted.

While freedom is to be celebrated, the resultant demand should not be. Its clear that the ambulance service is struggling to meet the increase in calls  and lets not forget that Covid has not yet gone away. We all have a role to play in helping prevent demand on our health services  and its more important than ever to see Welsh Government plans, which we understand are not due until April.

Their plan needs to be comprehensive and address all stages  from workforce to patient flow through hospitals  as well as incorporating preventative measures to ease the burden on frontline services in the first instance.

Responding to todays figures a Welsh Government spokesperson said January 2022 saw the highest level of staff sickness due to COVID since April 2020.

The spokesperson said: Unfortunately the combination of staffing, winter pressures and the ongoing Omicron wave meant some people continue to wait longer for treatment than we would like, with the over 36 week position increasing again this month.

Consultants continue to see all patients in order of clinical priority, with the most urgent patients seen first.

We are also focusing on long waiters and the January figure for waits over a year has shown a 2% decrease compared to December and is the lowest since August 2021.

As ever cancer services are in high demand referrals to cancer services have increased from December 2021. Whilst the number of patients starting cancer treatments decreased in January 2022, the number of patients told they do not have cancer increased on previous months with over 11,500 patients informed they do not have cancer.

This is in part due to the opening of Rapid Diagnostic Centres (RDC) across Wales which have helped to diagnose patients with concerning symptoms more quickly. These clinics coupled with the 248m to support our NHS recovery plan, will help us to reduce waiting times for cancer services in the coming months.

In April we will publish a detailed plan on how we will tackle the waiting times for patients whose treatment has been delayed by the pandemic.
New band and choir making music more accessible to youngsters in Wrexham

A new youth band and a childrens choir are offering young people a route back to normality after the easing of Covid restrictions.

Both have been set up for free by the award-winning North Wales Music Co-operative which has sister organisations in Wrexham and Denbighshire.

Sessions are free to join and, at the youth band, participants do not need to own their own instruments but can borrow from the Co-ops supply.

The idea is to make music more accessible for young people of all ages and backgrounds as well as boosting their mental well-being in the wake of hardships caused by the pandemic.

After just a few weeks in operation the band in Wrexham and the choir in Denbighshire have proved an invaluable lifeline for children across the two counties.

Among the latest to sign up is Ethan Roberts, aged eight, who is proud to be the only student of the tuba with the newly formed Belle Vue Community Youth Band.

At first he contemplated learning the cornet but when offered the tuba he jumped at the chance even though it is almost as big as he is.

Smiling widely behind the lowest pitched instrument in the brass family, he laughed: Its great. I love it. I want to be the most famous tuba player from Wrexham!

Fellow band members Angharad Roberts, 10, and David Moskal, nine, are excited at the chance to be learning face to face from professional tutors.

Live music lessons had to be put on hold during the pandemic lockdowns and were sorely missed by many young students, but the music co-operatives have worked hard to get them up and running again as restrictions ease.

Cornet learner Angharad said: Its great to be playing music with others in a group as it gives me more confidence. It helps to see others my age playing the same music and its reassuring to know that we all make similar mistakes and can learn techniques to overcome them.

David is also learning the cornet but has his heart set on the drums.

He said: Id love to play the drums one day. Theyre such a fantastic instrument. Maybe now Ive joined the band I might get the chance.

The youth band was set up for children aged eight to 16 by Wrexham Music Co-operative manager Scott Lloyd who said it has been a bumper success and now has about 20 regular attendees, with more places available.

He said: The social and cultural demographic of this area is hugely diverse which means we have children in the band who speak about five different languages.

Some have moved here with their families from war-torn and troubled destinations overseas and speak minimal English. But the beauty of music is that it is all encompassing. It has long been the language of friendship and harmony, and now it has become a catalyst for healing.

With all thats going on in the world its great to have a refuge in music, a safe space where youngsters can learn a new skill and freely enjoy being creative.

Veteran soldier Scott played in an Army brass band before returning to Civvie street as a full time music tutor. He also works closely with Ifton Colliery Band and the Wrexham Concert Band both of which, like the youth band, meet at the Parciau Community Centre in Bellevue Park, Wrexham.

The Bellevue Youth Band has been greatly supported by Wrexham councillor Phil Wynn, Wrexham Councils lead member for education, who helped arrange behind the scenes assistance including use of the park facilities for rehearsals.

He said: I must admit that I cant play any musical instruments myself but its great to come here and witness the enthusiasm and the joy on the faces of those who can.

Whether they are more advanced players or complete beginners, its obvious that these young people are benefitting hugely and in so many different ways from the chance to once again play music together.

Founder and Head of Service, Heather Powell set up the not-for-profit co-operatives nearly a decade ago after funding cuts were made to music education services across Wales.

Today they offer music sessions in 200 schools, covering more than 5,000 children, and they have more than 70 self-employed tutors on their books.

Heather thanked local and national arts and community organisations for their support, including Denbighshire and Wrexham Councils, Offa Community Council and the National Lottery community grants project.

She said: We have faced many challenges keeping music lessons alive over the two years of the pandemic. With social distancing in force, face to face lessons were off the table and some instruments could not be played at all.

It is massively rewarding not only to see our existing services back up and running again but the addition of new sessions like the youth band and childrens choir.

The Bellevue Youth Band meets on Tuesdays at Parciau Community Centre, Bellevue Park, Wrexham, from 6.30-7.30pm. For details email bellevueyouthband@gmail.com or visit their Facebook site.
The White House on Wednesday announced new actions to counter racial and ethnic bias in home valuations.
This is the second installment of a two-part series.Part 1 can be read here.

In addition to breaking up whatever was left of Soviet-era nationalized property and the social welfare state, austerity measures were aimed at disciplining Ukraines oligarchs. While their wealth was accumulated on the basis of the countrys integration into the world market, and thus made possible and sustained by the centers of global capital, investors from the West hesitated to descend directly into the dog-eat-dog world of Ukrainian big business, where bribe-taking, ever-changing economic laws, tax rates that on paper sometimes exceeded profits, and the use of bankruptcy for profiteering were rampant.

[O]mnipresent lawlessness were damaging for foreign relations, political and trade. Western investors from the USA, the EU and particularly Germany (Ukraines strongest EU-isation backers) became disenchanted with the country, notes Yurchenko. Still, they salivated at the prospect of getting access to tens of millions of consumers and wage-labor that was cheap and skilled. According to Yurchenko, In a personal interview with the Corporate Europe Observatory think-tank, the former Secretary General of ERT, Keith Richardson, said that the demise of the USSR was as if they have discovered a new South-East Asia on the [EU] doorstep.

Concerned not just about the loss of potential investment opportunities in Ukraine but also the geopolitical future of the country, the United States and Europe responded. First, a whole number of business associations and advisory groupsAmerican Chamber of Commerce (ACC), Centre for US-Ukraine Relations (CUSUR), US-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), the European Business Association (EBA), and the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)were either created or mobilized for the purposes of, in the words of the EBA, discussion and resolution of problems facing the private sector in Ukraine.

Established in 1999, the European Business Association provides a forum in which members can discuss and find solutions to common problems affecting business in Ukraine. Initially supported by the European Commission, the initiative has grown to one of the largest and most influential business communities in the country. Currently the EBA brings together about 970 European, Ukrainian and multinational companies. It has regional branches in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa.

These institutions were staffed with representatives from major Western corporations and Ukraines business elite, with many sitting on more than one board. By 2010, 105 of the worlds top 500 transnational corporations were active in them. They sought out, or even established, lobbying groups and advisory councils active in Ukraines government.

These include such bodies as the Investors Council under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Working Group of Justice (co-chaired by the European Business Association) under the Ukraines Ministry of Justice, the Working Group on Tax and Customs Policy (also co-chaired by the EBA) under the countrys Ministry of Finance, the Foreign Investment Advisory Council of Ukraine (FIAC) under the president of Ukraine, and the Public Councils that are within different ministries and state committees.

Over time, the lobbying groups and advisory councils, according to Yurchenko, collectively got their hands into all of the following areas of Ukrainian governance; the reduction of state control over economic activity and marketisation alike; the simplification of import and export procedures, harmonisation of regulations with the EU in IT and electronics sector, revoking of medication advertising ban, creation of State Land Cadastre in preparation for land privatisation, simplification of market entry for pharmaceutical and insurance companies from the EU; and market reform; fiscal and tax policy; banking and non-banking financial institutions and capital market.

Furthermore, being housed in government agencies, these groups did not just make suggestions as to how Ukraine ought to transform its economy, they were involved in the drafting of law and strategy documents laying out state policy. In short, there is not even one degree of separation between Ukrainian governance and Western corporations, financial interests, and state power.

Between 2006 and 2013 alone, Yurchenko found upwards of 50 instances of successful lobbying by just the European Business Associationin other words, the EBAs suggested policies became Ukrainian law. The Americans have also had their direct means of leverage. The Centre for International Private Enterprise, one of the many lobbying organizations active in Kiev, serves as a bridge agency between the US Congress and Ukraines authorities by proxy of ACC (American Chamber of Commerce). The Centre is run by the Chamber but is in fact one of the four programs of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) that is funded by the US Congress, notes the scholar.

As Western political and business interests have increasingly been integrated into the Ukrainian state, the IMF, other foreign lenders, and the EU have used the ongoing crisis in the countrys economy to pile on the pressure. They have regularly held back on releasing loans or signing trade agreements because Kiev has not privatized and cut enough. When, in order to get the promised money, the government has pushed through the required measures, the outcome for the population has been devastating.

An April 2009 article in the New York Times devoted to Ukraines failure, yet again, to meet the requirements of foreign lenders noted that while tens of thousands of jobs had been axed in the countrys industrial towns in the east, bankers viewed it as still not enough.

In Donetsk, unemployment has officially almost doubled, to 67,500, in the past two months, and the authorities suspect that up to one-third of the 1.2 million registered workers are toiling for a small fraction of their nominal salary, wrote the newspaper, adding, In Makeevka, with 400,000 residents, just outside Donetsk, the Kirov factory laid off nearly all its workers in December and January. Now, an average of four people vie for every job. In nearby towns, that ratio soars to 70 or 80 people for every available job, officials say.

But, citing the comments of a bank analyst in Kiev, the Times observed that still more was expected. Another steel producer in Donetsk, the analyst said, could easily cut 20,000 to 25,000 people and keep the same output.

Ruined Factory in Konstantinovka in Donetsk Oblast July 2008 (Creative Commons)

As part of the process of making Ukraines economy more competitive, the IMF and the EU have demanded the raising of the retirement age, the ending of fuel subsidies that enable households to afford to heat their homes and cook their meals, and the selling-off of the countrys highly profitable timber and agricultural lands. The latter in particular has been long sought, as Ukraine has 25 percent of the worlds black earth, some of the most naturally fertile soil in the world.

All of this and more have now been achieved. A 2017 study of Ukraines garment industry published in the Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Europe noted that the Kiev government has introduced the following measures in response to the demands of the international financial institutions and EU representatives over the last several years. It has:

Frozen the legal minimum wage and stopped adjusting it to the cost of living.

Reduced social welfare payments and pensions by ending cost of living indexing.

Changed the labor code to restrict union access to workplaces, make the disclosure of commercial secrets grounds for dismissal, require unionized workers to agree to overtime, end limits on the number of overtime hours workers must accept, permit factories to monitor workers using cameras and other technologies, and end the requirement that unions agree to a layoff.

Increased utility charges dramatically.

Placed a moratorium on inspections, including labor inspections, in small businesses. (This resulted in the growth of wage arrears from 1.3 million hryvnia in 2015 to 1.9 million in September 2016.)

Decreased employers mandatory social insurance contributions, thereby ensuring there is less money for social services and pensions.

Cut the number of public sector employees.

Canceled family payments for childbirth, childcare and schools.

Closed hundreds of hospitals.

Stripped higher education and cultural institutions of funding.

As the authors of this study note, all of this is extremely unpopular with ordinary people. Polls have found that 70 percent of citizens are upset about the growth of inequality, 58 percent about job loss, and 54 percent about interference of western countries in the governance of Ukraine.

But this continues unabated. The ongoing assault on Ukraines health care system has been particularly severe. Due to demands from the IMF and the terms of Ukraines EU Association Agreement, the country has been implementing health care reforms. On the grounds of increasing efficiency, it stopped paying medical institutions on the basis of their number of beds and instead on how many patients they treat. This has resulted in the layoff of an estimated 50,000 doctors and the shuttering of 332 hospitals, with rural areas being especially hard hit and left, for all intents and purposes, without medical services.

According to the Ministry of Health, as of 2020 half of Ukraines remaining 2,200 hospitals were underfunded. An article that same year in the online Current Time reported that the director of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Rehabilitation Hospital went on a hunger strike in late April of that year in protest. That month, the National Health Service slashed the facilitys monthly financing by more than five times, she told Current Time: from 2 million hryvnia, or about $75,224, to 237,000 hryvnia or $8,914.

All of this left Ukraine, in the words of Ukrainian President Zelensky in 2020, medically naked when it came time to combat the coronavirus. COVID-19 has infected over 5 million Ukrainians and killed 112,000. After Zelenskys pleading with the United States to send vaccines to help, in the summer of 2021 the Biden administration finally dispatched 2 million doses, enough to cover less than 4 percent of the countrys population.

Burial of Deceased Covid-19 patient in Chernivtsi Ukraine 2020 (Creative Commons)

Between just 2008 and 2019, Ukraine shed over 1.4 million industrial jobs, according to the data analysis firm CIEC. When measured in constant US dollars, World Bank data shows that the countrys GDP has now declined by 56 percent compared to what it was when it was still a Soviet republic in 1989.

According to President Zelensky, Ukraine is paying off billions of U.S. dollars annually to international organizations. And still, as of that year, Ukraine had $40 billion of non-performing loansi.e., debt it could not pay. In 2022, on top of the interest on its IMF loan, the country was supposed to pony up another $35 million to cover IMF surcharges in February and $29 million in March.

This disaster has been achieved not simply through the domination of Ukraines economy by foreign capital, but through direct American and European political interference. Over the last 15 years, the country has experienced two so-called revolutionsone in 2004 and one in 2014. In both cases, Washington and Brussels were directly involved, backing forces in the country that were committed to drawing the country out of Russias orbit and shoring up its relations with the West. They had no problem with neo-Nazi street fighters doing the dirty work necessary to secure their preferred outcome.

In the latest exercise in popular democracy, Ukraines 2014 Revolution of Dignity, US State Department official Victoria Nuland was caught on tape speaking to Americas ambassador to Ukraine with instructions as to what the composition of the new government in Kiev would be. Washingtons choice, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was installed as prime minister and immediately signed a deal paving the groundwork for Ukraines eventual ascension to the EU, resulting in the implementation of all of the policies listed above.

These historical facts are dismissed in the Western media as nothing but Russian disinformation. The Kremlin has its own reasons, which have nothing to do with concern over the well-being and freedom of Ukrainians, for drawing attention to the dirty role played by Washington and Brussels in Ukraines revolutions. But the use of these facts by the Putin government to promote Russian nationalism and justify its criminal invasion of Ukraine does not make the facts themselves untrue.

Ukrainian economic and political sovereignty, the democratic and social rights of its population, have been systematically and grossly violated for 30 years by the US and its NATO allies. No one in Washington, Brussels or elsewhere has ever lost a minutes sleep over the death of a Ukrainian man, woman or child from poverty, ill health, job loss or COVID.

Rather, they have orchestrated, welcomed, and profited off of Ukraines social misery. For them, ordinary Ukrainians are now little more than war materiel to be expended in the battle with Russia, whose working class they are also now strangling to death with economic sanctions, despite years of decrying their repression under the evil dictator, Vladimir Putin.
World Socialist Web Site reporters attended an event held outside Belmarsh prison yesterday afternoon to mark the wedding of Julian Assange and Stella Moris. They interviewed several of their supporters.

Reiko, currently unemployed, said, I am here to support Julianhe should not be in prison. All he did was publish information we should know about. It is such a dangerous precedent if the United States locks him up.

Reiko (WSWS Media)

They are desperate to stop people finding out the truth, this is what the American empire does everywhere. I think it is the first time they have used the Espionage Act to come after a journalist. It is so dangerous.

The media are just stenographers for the powerful, for the elite. They are not interested in educating the public. If people could see the truth, they wouldnt accept things as they are. They would see the injustice and do something about it. People are a bit brainwashed, lied to and misinformed and so accept things as they are.

Reiko criticised the Labour Party for refusing to defend Assange, They have ignored him. They do not say anything. Maybe a few do, now and then, but it is not enough. Jeremy Corbyn, when he was leader [of the Labour Party] did not say anything. Only afterwards did he say a little bit. Too little too late.

Yang Chen, who works as a carer and in a hotel, explained, Im here to support Julian and Stella Moris, because Julian is telling the truth. People who are honest, they suffer. And people who are lying and deceiving, they are not in prison. Julian is telling the truth to the worldits not a crime, that is humanity. The public should know the truth.

Yang Chen (WSWS Media)

The mainstream media dont report because they are just following the government, that is my opinion. And that is why theres not much exposed about what is happening to Julian. Only a few individuals are exposing that. Journalism is not a crime, and telling the truth is not a crime. It is not right that the honest person is in prison.

Yang said of the war in Ukraine, I think the war is totally the wrong thing, and it shouldnt happen. But the politicians, the world we live in, these things keep happening and the people who suffer most are the innocent people and the ordinary citizens, not the rich people in the high-up positions. So, that is completely wrong. Theres always one side they present, theyre not telling both sides. Its totally injustice.

Val has been protesting for Assanges freedom for more than a decade, It is terrible that it is here, in Belmarsh prison, that they are getting married. They should be in Westminster Abbey with thousands of people because they are two wonderful brave people. It is disgusting that they are getting shut up in that hell hole. We just have to be here to let them know how much they are loved. Had it been a weekend, there would have been thousands of people here.

Val (WSWS Media)

Without the truth, we cannot do anything. Over a million people took to the streets over Iraq but we were told that they had WMDs [weapons of mass destruction]. It is thanks to journalists that we learnt they did not have them. Journalists, real journalists, are so needed that we must do everything we can to protect them. That is why I am here, and other people are here, not just for Julian but for all journalists who are not afraid to tell us the truth.

Bill, who works as a builder, said, I am just here to support Julian and the star of the wedding. We all think he is innocent of any real charge. Its bad that hes been locked up and they have thrown away the key. I feel the world is getting fewer people telling the truth. Hes been alone, a thinking person, doing right, but they make him feel like a criminal. Its wrong, so today I would like to show my support.

Bill (WSWS Media)

The mainstream media have been putting untruths out there. People are asleep, watching the news and they dont know what is happening in the real world. I think the government should show some accountability. They wash their hands and get away with it. The media, like the New York Times, profited from WikiLeaks in terms of readership, and now they have closed the door on him.

Tom explained his reasons for supporting Assange, I think hes a prisoner of conscience, a political prisoner. The reason hes being held in custody is because he published evidence of war crimes.

He continued, Whats happened here, on purpose, is that people have forgotten what he revealed in the first place. Thats completely gone out of the public debate. These were total war crimes, but nobodys been punished for those war crimes. Assange had published evidence of those war crimes and now hes being punished, and I think its tremendously significant that the media has not been covering it, so therefore most people dont know what the hell is going on.

He was subject to a campaign of vilification with the rape allegations. I think its terrible how the media, including for example the Guardian, have been hanging him out to dry. What are they thinking of? If hes extradited that means in effect that you are criminalised from publishing details of war crimes or other crimes of state. So, what is the point of the media then? Thats supposed to be the whole point of the media, holding the powerful to account.

Theres so few people in the British media, in British politics, who will stand up for him and thats chilling, and I think its because his reputation has been so smeared.

And you know about this book by [UN special rapporteur on torture] Nils Melzer? Ive just read that book and thats a very important book. Hes got great credentials to write it. I think Assange is being persecuted, Nils Melzer says tortured psychologically. Tortured in order to, and this is the point, encourage others not to do the same thing or to discourage other people from doing the same thing, and meanwhile the rest of society is just lying down like that. Scary, I just find it very scary.

The BBC is the one that matters most because it is the one with the greatest credibility. Its the one that most people listen to, so it doesnt have to be the worst to matter the most, and its covered the story really badly, really badly.

Describing the importance of the case, Tom said, It depends on what you mean by being a citizen in 2022, whether you want to be able to ask difficult questions of your government and hold your government to account and not just take what is handed down to you. This is terrifying I think because you cannot have a more clearcut issue which is correct to bring to light than war crimes, particularly those war crimes and the deaths that were caused, and yet thats swept under the carpet by the whole system.

He concluded, There are lots of things that are scary in the world right now but this is one of them. And in fact, the higher the stakes with war and with climate change then the more you would want to be able to hold your government to account and the more they would want to hide, and we know that we cant trust them. So its incredibly important.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was married yesterday to fiance Stella Moris.

The ceremony took place in Britains Belmarsh maximum security prison, where Assange has been held for the last three years. He is fighting extradition to the United States on espionage charges which carry a life sentence, for exposing war crimes and human rights abuses carried out by the US government and its allies.

Gabriel Shipton, John Shipton, Stella Moris and Stella's mother (WSWS Media)

Supporters gathered outside the prison entrance from the early afternoon to welcome Moris. She emerged just after 4pm with her and Julians sons Max (3) and Gabriel (4), her mother, her father-in-law John Shipton and brother-in-law Gabriel.

Moris, in her wedding gown and veil, holding a bouquet of flowers, faced a cordon of police. It was a jarring sight as photographers jostled to capture images of the small wedding party as police officers held back supporters and the assembled media.

The bride joined well-wishers, stopping to cut a tiered wedding cake provided by a supporter of the Committee to Defend Julian Assange, which organised the celebration outside Belmarsh. After what must have been a wrenching departure from the prison, once the allotted two hours for a family visit were over, her remarks were brief but heartfelt, demonstrating Moriss characteristic courage and dignity in adversity.

The tiered wedding cake provided by long-time Assange campaigners. (WSWS Media)

Thank you. I dont know what to say. Im very happy and Im very sad. I love Julian with all my heart, and I wish he were here. What were going through is cruel, inhuman. The love that we have for each other carries us through this situation and any others that will come. Hes the most amazing person in the world, hes wonderful and he should be free.

The event was an act of defiance. As Moris explained in a comment published in the Guardian the day before, it is a declaration of love and resilience in spite of the prison walls, in spite of the political prosecution, in spite of the arbitrary detention, in spite of the harm and harassment inflicted on Julian and our family.

By holding and publicising their wedding, Moris said, they were fighting back against the British states efforts to keep Assange invisible to the public at all costs, to make him disappear from public consciousness.

Stella Moris outside Belmarsh prison after the wedding (WSWS Media)

Extraordinary and cruel lengths have been gone to in order to isolate Assange from the huge popular sympathy generated by WikiLeaks with its unflinching exposures of government crimes. He was held incommunicado in his final months of asylum in 2019, in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before being taken to Belmarsh, and has been barred from all but a token presence in his own court hearings. Multiple requests for bail, even under stringent conditions of house arrest, have been refused.

Last year, the prison authorities attempted to block the wedding taking place at all. A formal request for a wedding was sent to Belmarsh on October 7, after previous enquiries by the couple, and a few days later Assanges lawyers requested permission for Moris and a registrar to visit the prison to make the necessary arrangements. For weeks there was no response. Prison governor Jenny Louis eventually wrote that the request had been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service, representing the US government in this case.

Moris commented, Its galling that the agency that represents the country that has been plotting to kill Julian, that is psychologically torturing him and hounding him, is the one who is deciding whether we can get married.

Assange and Moris ultimately had to threaten legal action against Louis and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab for infringing their human rights by creating a total and indefinite barrier not only to marrying, but even to beginning the statutory process to marry. The couple were granted permission shortly before the notice period of their legal action expired.

Gabriel Shipton, John Shipton, Stella Moris Stella's mother, and children Max and Gabriel leave Belmarsh prison and head towards supporters and well-wishers after the wedding (WSWS Media)

Grudgingly agreed, the ceremony yesterday was tightly controlled. Only six witnesses were allowed to attend the event. Moris explained further in her Guardian comment, Behind the scenes we have been locked in a dispute with the Ministry of Justice and prison authorities, who have denied our proposed witnesses because they are journalists; and who have denied our proposed photographer because he also works as a press photographer, even though they would all attend in a private capacity.

According to the prison, these individuals would have posed a security risk. Moris pointedly notes, Belmarsh regularly permits photography. Tommy Robinson [the British fascist leader] and other convicted prisoners were allowed to be interviewed on camera when ITV filmed inside the prison.

One of the denied witnesses was Scottish journalist and former UK ambassador Craig Murray. He joined the event outside the prison.

Craig Murray (WSWS Media)

Speaking to reporters, Murray said of his last-minute exclusion, Its a part of the ongoing mental torture that even on this happiest day they will at the last moment strike off guests from his guestlist, just to mess him about. Just to try and make things as unpleasant as they can make them.

He described Assanges marriage to Moris as a real triumph of hope and love in extreme circumstances. This is a man who is facing the prospect that he will never be able to live with his wife and family

I think that this is a real victory for Julian. He has had to fight to assert his rights to get married, even though he plainly has that right.

Murray commented on the fact that a press photographer had been barred from Assanges guest list despite making clear he was attending in a personal capacity, The entire wedding will of course be photographed and surveilled for every single moment and probably from several different angles secretly, by the security state and not by a wedding photographer.

Asked why authorities were too scared to allow even a photo of Assange on his wedding day, Murray replied, They dont want him to have any kind of sympathetic media coverage. Thats why they are scared of a wedding photo and of me just writing an account of what it felt like to be there.

The wedding was held less than two weeks after the UK Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Assanges lawyers against an earlier High Court ruling ordering his extradition to the US. He retains the right to make various other appeals, but there is no guarantee the relevant courts will agree to hear them. If they refuse, his extradition could take place in a matter of months.

In the face of this relentless campaign, Assange and his family continue to show immense courage. Their fortitude is giving his supporters every opportunity to build a campaign to secure his freedom.

Supporters of Julian Assange and Stella Moris outside Belmarsh prison as the wedding took place (WSWS Media)

That campaign must urgently find mass support. It cannot do so through appeals to the corporate media, who themselves bear primary responsibility for the isolation, through smears and silences, of the WikiLeaks founder. Nor is there a route to popular backing through figures in the trade unions and lefts in the Labour Party, none of whom were in attendance yesterday and who in any case represent no significant forces outside of a thin layer of the middle class and the union bureaucracy.

The campaign to free Assange must instead be built through a direct turn to the international working class, as it comes forward in struggle against its governments over collapsing living standards, cuts to social spending, authoritarianism and the growing danger of war. Only by reconnecting Assange with a mass movement of workers and the oppressed masses around the world against dictatorship and imperialism can his persecution be ended and his torturers brought to justice.
A rapid spread of the BA.2 variant of COVID, more infectious and deadly than the original strain of Omicron, is such that it can no longer be hidden by a government-media cover-up. BA.2 was first detected in Australia months ago, and by the end of February was reportedly accounting for a third of new infections in New South Wales (NSW), the countrys most-populous state.

Despite the circulation of a variant that is resulting in unprecedented surges in a number of countries around the world, Australian governments and the official media have sought to present the pandemic as a thing of the past.

A pedestrian walks past vacant office space in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

The consequences of the live with the virus policy, however, are emerging, with infections now reaching levels not seen since the height of the Omicron tsunami of DecemberJanuary.

As with every previous surge, the current spread is not primarily the result of the biological characteristics of the virus. Rather, it is the outcome of deliberate government policies that have subordinated public health to private profit.

A speech by Premier Dominic Perrottet at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia summed up the conspiracy by the political establishment, to force the population to live with the virus, ensuring new waves of infection.

Perrottet explained that his partnership with Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews had been the central factor in allowing the governments to begin the new stage of the reopening in late January, early February. The centrepiece of this was the herding of millions of students and teachers back into the classrooms.

Perrottet explained that he and Dan had worked together on a daily basis. They had devised a tag team act. If there were criticism of the reopening policies of Perrottet, an extreme right-winger, he could point to identical measures being implemented by Andrews, who was previously associated with limited public health restrictions. Andrews, meanwhile, could present his lockstep march with Perrottet as proof that his latter-day conversion to the let it rip program was sincere.

The collaboration, overseen by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, had worked perfectly, Perrottet told the big business audience. It had succeeded in pushing back against a campaign of epidemiologists and other medical experts, who had warned that the school reopening would result in mass illness and death.

The partnership between Perrottet and Andrews is only the sharpest expression of a complete bipartisanship on the pandemic. Each stage of the reopening has been formulated by the national cabinet, composed of the state and territory leaders, most of them from Labor, and Morrison.

What has been the consequence? Hundreds of thousands of students have been infected in the past month-and-a-half. Despite a government insistence that schools remain open no matter what, some have been compelled to send entire year groups home because the spread of COVID means there are not enough teachers. The school transmission is fuelling a much wider uptick.

Nationally, 61,975 new infections were reported yesterday. That is the highest single-day tally since January 21, at the tail end of a tsunami of Omicron cases that overwhelmed the testing system over the summer holiday period. From March 16 to March 23, national infections surpassed 50,000 on four occasions and 40,000 on three.

The number of active cases, i.e., those people who have tested positive and remain infectious, is also ballooning. The figure has exceeded 420,000 today, up from fewer than 300,000 on March 16 and less than 200,000 on February 16.

Because the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing system was dismantled during the DecemberJanuary wave and its aftermath, the majority of new infections everyday are being self-reported after less reliable rapid antigen tests (RATs), generally administered by the infected person.

At the height of a Delta outbreak last year, a record of more than 250,000 PCR tests were conducted in the state of NSW alone. Now, most days fewer than 100,000 PCR results are being reported across the entire country. Some days the figure is far lower, with just 39,917 PCR test results revealed on Tuesday.

The arrangement is guaranteed to result in a substantial undercount of true infection numbers.

The absence of mass surveillance testing means that the vast majority of asymptomatic cases will not be detected. The RATs system, whereby individuals are supposed to notify the authorities of positive results, but not negative returns, means that there are no longer any accurate positivity figures. The positivity rate, indicating the proportion of positive results from the total number of tests conducted, is crucial to determining how widespread viral transmission is.

In NSW, daily infections are now approaching 25,000, having been in the teens for weeks, after lows of around 6,000 at the end of February. Health Minister Brad Hazzard declared earlier this month that BA.2 will likely be the dominant strain by the end of March, but the absence of mass genomic sequencing means the proportion of new cases that are BA.2 is unknown.

Other jurisdictions where infection numbers are rapidly rising, however, indicate that BA.2 is probably already dominant in large swathes of the country.

In the north-eastern state of Queensland, cases have increased by 15 percent over the past week, with daily infections around 9,000. The state Labor governments chief health officer, John Gerrard, revealed that 58 percent of cases sequenced over the past fortnight have been of BA.2.

Summing up the criminality of all the governments, Gerrard blithely declared that 'We can reasonably expect hospitalisation numbers will increase in the coming days and weeks. Gerrard added: 'We have always known that the virus will change, it will mutate and with that, cases will wax and wane.'

In reality, the emergence of new and potentially more lethal variants is the direct consequence of the decision by governments to allow COVID to circulate freely, on the grounds that the public health measures required to reduce transmission would impact on production and business profits. Gerrard, while acknowledging that BA.2 is more infectious even than Omicron, insisted that there would be no reintroduction of an indoor mask-mandate or any other safety restrictions.

A similar increase of infections is occurring in most states and territories, meaning that the new variant is likely taking hold across the country. This includes in Western Australia, where the Labor government ended a successful suppression strategy that had largely spared the state from the DecemberJanuary Omicron surge. Daily infections have skyrocketed from the double digits in mid-February, to over 8,400 yesterday.

The patchwork of often limited sequencing data means that an accurate national picture of the spread of BA.2 does not exist. According to GISAID, a global science initiative that tracks variants, some 69 percent of recent samples from across the country are of BA.2.

In several of those countries where BA.2 has rapidly become the dominant variant, infections, hospitalisations and deaths have exceeded even the Omicron surge. Hong Kong has been hit with an outbreak that for a period was claiming more daily deaths, per million people, than any upsurge of the virus, in any country, over the past two years.

Hospitalisations are already rising, with 2,138 patients admitted across the country, up from 1,782 on March 16. Each of the past three days have seen more than 25 deaths. As has been the case in every previous wave, both deaths and hospitalisations are lagging indicators, showing up in the figures weeks after infections rise. Some 3,577 fatalities have been reported this year, compared with 2,239 in the first two years of the pandemic.

The national cabinet has responded by seeking to ensure that the surge does nothing to disrupt business operations, with policies that will only result in further mass infection.

The body also called for a transition to not routinely undertaking PCR testing in otherwise healthy people with mild respiratory illness and promote voluntary self-isolation while symptomatic for this group. This policy effectively means forcing COVID-infected workers to remain on the job. In comments after the meeting, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made clear that the changes were dictated, not by public health, but by the need to ensure businesses did not suffer labour shortages.

According to media reports, health authorities in a number of states have voiced concerns over the plan to scrap the close contact regulations, warning that it will exacerbate the surge. Governments, however, are insisting that it is necessary to press ahead with the homicidal live with the virus program. Their refusal to even consider a reintroduction of indoor mask mandates, demonstrates that even the most rudimentary public health measures require an independent struggle by the working class against the entire political establishment.
Former President Donald Trump rescinded his endorsement of Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, one of six Republicans running to replace retiring Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, after Brooks urged him to move on from the 2020 election.

Brooks is one of the leading far-right Republican lawmakers who endorsed, organized and participated in Trumps efforts to overturn the election of Joe Biden. But no service, no matter how debased, ensures Trumps loyalty.

Republican operative Ali Alexander, who has been subpoenaed by the January 6 select committee investigating Trumps failed coup, admitted in a public video that he, along with Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (Arizona), Paul Gosar (Arizona) and Brooks organized the Stop the Steal rally outside of Congress on January 6 in order to put maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-AL., speaks Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, at a rally in support of President Donald Trump called the "Save America Rally." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Speaking outside the White House on January 6, 2021, in furtherance of Trumps coup, Brooks urged American patriots to start taking down names and kicking ass. Brooks told the assembled crowd of militia elements, current and former police/military members and Republican operatives that our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes and sometimes their lives  Are you willing to do the same? My answer is yes. Louder! Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America?

In a testament to the transformation of the Republican Party into a fascist party under the personalist leadership of Trump, the ex-president accused Brooks of being woke for suggesting that Trump not focus his as-of-yet unannounced 2024 presidential campaign on the claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that Biden is an illegitimate usurper.

Rejecting Brooks advice, Trump put out a statement Wednesday confirming that the centerpiece of his 2024 campaign will be the stolen election. Trump wrote that if we forget, the Radical Left Democrats will continue to Cheat and Steal Elections  The 2020 Election was rigged, and we cant let them get away with it.

In addition to accusing Brooks of not sufficiently backing his conspiracy theories, Trump also pointed to recent polling showing Brooks in a distant third in the GOP primary to justify his endorsement withdrawal.

When I endorsed Mo Brooks, he took a 44-point lead and was unstoppable. He then hired a new campaign staff who brilliantly convinced him to stop talking about the 2020 Election. He listened to them, said Trump.

A poll released Tuesday by Gray TV/Alabama Daily News showed multimillionaire and US Army veteran Mike Durant was the top choice of Republican primary voters, garnering 34.6 percent support.

Durant has parlayed his capture during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia into two books and multiple speaking engagements, which he charged the US military $17,375 for in 20202021, according to disclosures reported by Alabama Political Reporter. The publication notes that that over that same time period Durant gave additional paid speeches to the likes of Goldman Sachs, Capital One and Sigma Financial.

Closely following Durant in the latest polling is Katie Britt, former chief of staff for the retiring Sen. Shelby, with 28.4 percent. Meanwhile, the previously Trump-endorsed Brooks only garnered 16.1 percent, barely edging out undecided at 14.4 percent. While polls are often imprecise, these latest figures track with an earlier poll conducted in March which had Durant leading at 33.8 percent followed by Britt at 32.0 percent and Brooks at 17.6 percent.

The Alabama Republican primary will take place on May 24, and if no candidate achieves 50 percent of the vote the top two vote-getters will advance to a run-off election. Durant and Britt are considered to be candidates acceptable to the Republican establishment, although both are seeking Trumps endorsement and have met privately with him in the last month.

In an interview with Politico, the number two Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, admitted that if Brooks were to lose, leaving the Republican nomination to Durant or Britt, that would be an example of a no-lose proposition for Republicans.

People know what [Brooks] was like in the House. And I think theres a general desire to have people that will be constructive and that we can work with. So thats my view, and thats probably the view of most of the conference, Cornyn said.

Following the release of Trumps statement and his withdrawal of the endorsement, Brooks released his own statement, accusing Trump of being manipulated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. I wish President Trump wouldnt fall for McConnells ploys, but, once again, he has, wrote Brooks. He also claimed that he had not changed and that he was the only proven America First candidate in this Senate race.

I repeat what has prompted President Trumps ire, wrote Brooks. The only legal way America can prevent 2020s election debacle is for patriotic Americans to focus on and win the 2022 and 2024 elections so that we have the power to enact laws that give us honest and accurate elections.

In a startling admission, however, which confirms that Trumps coup plotting was well known in Washington D.C. prior to January 6 and that it continues to this day, Brooks said that Trump had asked him to remove Joe Biden from the White House.

President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. As a lawyer, Ive repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.

Essentially, Brooks is claiming that Trump demanded that in order to keep his endorsement and loyalty, Brooks would have to back a blatantly unconstitutional effort to have Congress invalidate the 2020 election and install Trump as dictator.

In a follow-up phone interview with NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard, Brooks confirmed that Trump asked him to rescind the election and thereby render it null and void. Brooks told Hillyard that Congress did not have that power, yet Trump still advocated for a new subsequent election for the presidency  after September 1, 2021.

Revealing the fecklessness of the Democratic-controlled January 6 select committee, which has held one public hearing since its inception last year, Brooks told Hillyard that nearly 15 months after the attack on the Capitol, he had not spoken with anyone from the select committee, nor, Brooks claimed, had they ever asked me for anything, so thats where we are.
Students and youth around Australia are taking part in rallies March 2528 as part of a global strike to demand action to halt climate change. Previous school strikes have involved tens or even hundreds of thousands of students in cities, towns and regional centres across the country, indicating young peoples anger at government inaction and a willingness to take up a fight for their future.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) welcomes the broadest participation in the strikes against climate change.

The perspective advanced by the organiser of the events in Australia, School Strike 4 Climate, however, is a political dead end. The announcement of Fridays rallies declares: We will be sending a clear message to voters as [sic] this election, we are asking people to stand up to our politicians and #VoteForOurFutures.

Climate change protesters marching in Sydney, 2021 [WSWS Media]

The School Strike 4 Climate organisers say that young people need to send our politicians a clear message demanding Climate Action. In line with this perspective, the Sydney rally was relocated at the last minute to the prime ministers residence in one of the most affluent areas of the city.

The IYSSE insists: you cannot pressure capitalist governments or politicians to act on climate change. They represent the ruling class and the profit system which is responsible for the climate crisis.

The strike this month comes amid stark expressions of the dangers that climate change presents in Australia and around the world.

Unprecedented flooding in recent weeks has devastated the east coast of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW). The flood crisis is the direct result of the subordination of society to the interests of the profits of the capitalist class. For decades, Liberal-National Coalition and Labor federal and state governments alike have presided over a decimation of flood mitigation and social services.

Like the 201920 bushfire catastrophe and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the floods have laid bare the inability of capitalism to protect the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people. So far, 23 people have died in the flood crisis.

And what has been the government response?

Visiting the northern NSW working-class town of Lismore earlier this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would do nothing for residents in Lismore and other areas ravaged by flooding. Morrison contemptuously declared: In any natural disaster the suggestion that it is only the governments that are involved in an emergency response, I dont think the community agrees with that.

Morrisons statement only sums up the line of the entire political establishment. Whether it is mounting poverty and social inequality, the surge of COVID resulting from the pro-business let it rip policies, or the climate catastrophe, Labor, the Liberals and the whole parliamentary set-up insist that working people are on their own.

Flood victims in Lismore were left to rescue one another, and have been given just a pittance in government aid. Tens of thousands in that city, and throughout the flood-affected regions, face destitution and homelessness.

While there is no money for them, the government and Labor are throwing almost limitless funds at the military and its war preparations.

Some $38 billion are earmarked to increase the Australian Defence Force (ADF) by 20,000 to 80,000 over the next 20 years, on top of more than $500 billion in funding this decade.

The same capitalist system that is destroying the environment is threatening humanity with the catastrophe of a nuclear world war.

The outbreak of war in Ukraine highlights the dangers. The conflict is a proxy war between the USNATO and Russia, both of which possess nuclear weapons.

The IYSSE unequivocally opposes the reactionary invasion by Russian President Vladimir Putins government. However, the war was deliberately provoked by the US and its allies, who are exploiting it to intensify longstanding plans for conflict with Russia. The aim is to stem the historic decline of the US through the use of its overwhelming military might. The primary targets are Russia and China.

Australia is on the frontlines. The weaponry being sent by the Australian government to Ukraine will be handed to that countrys fascistic militias, for use against Russian soldiers. At the same time, the Australian political and media establishment is whipping up a hysterical wartime atmosphere, based on anti-Russian chauvinism.

All of the official parties, including the Greens, have aligned Australia with a vast US military build-up throughout the Asia-Pacific, aimed at preparing for war with China.

There is not a sliver of difference between Morrison, Albanese, or for that matter Greens leader Adam Bandt. Albanese is insisting that Labor would be better placed to oversee Australias frontline role in the US war drive. Bandt has campaigned for expanded sanctions against Russia, while saying nothing about the USNATO aggression that has provoked the war.

The political establishment is similarly at one in blocking any measures aimed at addressing the climate crisis.

It should not be forgotten that the Greens-backed Labor government of Julia Gillard did nothing to reduce carbon emissions while in office from 2010 to 2013. Australias emissions actually increased under its carbon tax policy. That governments own modelling showed annual emissions would have grown from 582 to 621 million tonnes from 2012 to 2020 had the tax remained in place.

In this, like every other election campaign, Labor and the Greens climate policies will all centre on cash subsidies to big business, and market-based solutions, which have failed to reduce emissions wherever they have been implemented, while enriching the financial elite.

Likewise, the Greens are again signalling that they will work with Labor after the elections. A Greens-backed Labor government would intensify Australias involvement in US-led wars, force the working class to pay for the deepening economic crisis and would respond to the climate catastrophe with only window dressing, while serving the interests of the banks and corporations driving emissions.

The various international agreements and conferences, like last years COP26 summit in Glasgow, provide only false promises and posturing over national commitments, which even if met, would not end climate change. All of the governments that attend, represent their own nationally-based capitalist interests, each of which determined that no action can be taken which impacts upon profit-making operations.

Decades of scientific research, moreover, shows that climate change cannot be addressed on a country-by-country basis. Nor can it be ended within a system dominated by corporate and financial interests. Environmental destruction can only be averted on the basis of a rational, international program, harnessing the productive and scientific capabilities of humanity as a whole.

This is likewise demonstrated by the COVID pandemic.

Once held up as COVID success stories, governments in Australia and New Zealand have adopted the murderous live with the virus policy of capitalist governments around the world. All scientifically-determined public health measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 have been junked because they cut across the profit-making ability of the capitalist class. Students are being herded back into dangerous schools and universities as part of the return to normal where they are at risk of contracting COVID and spreading it to family and friends.

Climate change, like the other existential threats confronting humanity, is not merely a question of understanding the science. It is fundamentally a political question.

We insist that climate change, and the severe weather events and misery that come along with it, can only be stemmed by getting rid of the capitalist system which places the profits of the tiny, wealthy financial and corporate elite ahead of the interests of the working class, youth and the planet.

War and social counterrevolution are the ruling elites response to the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. These are between private ownership of societys resources by a tiny minority of capitalists, and the socialised nature of a production process that involves billions of people around the world. And also between the global economy and the outmoded division of the world into antagonistic capitalist nation-states.

The IYSSE calls on students and youth to link the struggle against climate change with the broader struggles against all the existential threats confronting humanity, above all imperialisms relentless march toward a catastrophic nuclear war.

To do this, young people must turn to the international working class as the only social force capable of overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with a world socialist system based on social need, not private profit.

The working class produces all of societys wealth. As the only international class, its interests are for the ending of the nation-state system and the unification of humanity. And the objective logic of the struggles of the working class are directed against the private ownership of societys resources and the dominance of the corporate-financial elite.

The deepening global crisis, expressed in the pandemic, the threat of war, the soaring cost of living, and massive social inequality, will propel workers into struggle.

Students and youth must take up the fight for a socialist perspective within these struggles and in the working class. The major political issues of the day will not be resolved through futile appeals to capitalist politicians, but through the development of a revolutionary and international movement, aimed at reorganising global society to meet human need, not private profit. Join the IYSSE and take up this fight!
Are you a worker at CP Rail? Contact us to let us know what you think of the Teamsters sabotage of your struggle and for information on building a rank-and-file committee to fight for workers demands.

The following letter was sent to the World Socialist Web Site by a veteran CP Rail employee. It details the gutting of safety regulations over an extended period and the dangerous working conditions this has produced.

CP Rail workers picket line in Edmonton, Alberta (Photo Credit: Teamsters Canada Rail Conference)

Since the letter was received, the Teamsters union has sabotaged the struggle by CP Rail workers by agreeing to binding arbitration. This decision robs workers of their rights to strike, take other job actions, and collectively bargain for years to come. To make matters worse, the Teamsters made clear that CPs brutal scheduling regime, which has led to numerous accidents and health problems for workers, will not even be considered by the arbitrator. Workers will have no right to vote on the arbitrators final decision.

***

Canadian Railway labour relations and public safety have been on a rapid descent. While there was an ongoing struggle in years predating the Federal Deregulation of Railways Act of 1992, once this Act was in place the decline accelerated at a blistering pace. This process was condoned by all levels of government, which are, in the experienced view of long-tenured rail workers, acting in concert with Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board. They are collectively complicit in an arms-length do nothing approach.

This dynamic has been exacerbated by the installment of a United States born and bred, senior management group, overseen by present day CP CEO Keith Creel. Creel has padded the companys senior echelon with a gang of yes men and thugs. Their collective effort has further driven down the overall safety environment. Workers are constantly confronted with their do it and grieve it or are you refusing duty? mantras. They have effectively reduced the well trained, hardworking men and women of CP into a position of folding under the constant pressure of fear of dismissal for speaking up when the actions requested of them would put either themselves, their fellow co-workers, or the public at elevated risk.

CPs present method of operational decision making is known in the business as calculated risk management. In other words, lets try this and see if it works. If it doesnt, lets find a reason, any reason, irrespective of whether or not it is actually the root cause of a derailment, to point the finger at the crew member(s) involved and make them scapegoats for any real, or perceived, rule violation that can be shown to be the cause of the incident. Never mind the fact that the CPRs myopic decision making created the scenario from the beginning.

If we look at (ex-CP, CN, and Illinois Central Railroad CEO) E. Hunter Harrisons book, Switching Points, wherein he outlines his self-touted brilliance in the railway industry, he explains how he would arrive in any railway terminal and commence his union busting processes, forcing his managerial subordinates to buy in to his lunacy or find somewhere else to work. In Switching Points, he effectively states: If I find that one employee that has the apparent following of others and the fortitude to stand up against my new tyrannical directives in any given terminal and fire that individual, the rest of the employees fall in line in short order.

Keith Creel has continued this path of oppression and bullying toward the good, hardworking men and women at Canadian Pacific. Both Harrison and Creel operate under the premise of I am going to do whatever I want to see an end goal achieved. It is up to the union(s) to keep it in line with the rules, regulations, and operational governance. How autocratic.

With the 1992 deregulation act in place, both the Transportation Safety Board and Transport Canada have been effectively castrated. Their lack of authority is apparent on many levels. We have seen the results of Transport Canadas myopic and apparent complicit stand back and wait and see approach to rail safety in the Lac Megantic tragedy, and in the more recent Field BC runaway, which took the lives of three railway workers. These horrific failures, like numerous others that do not make the headlines, were completely preventable. The fact that Transport Canada allowed the Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway to utilize, and self-regulate, single operator trainsets operated with a completely watered-down set of rules and regulations was one of the direct discovered causes of the Lac Megantic disaster.

Pressure-driven directives from CPs Network Management Center and CPs frontline rubber hose-wielding management group coerced a 3-man crew in the British Columbia interior to entrain and attempt to operate a trainset that was already having air brake issues as experienced by no less than 2 other crews, turning them into yet another statistic of failed railway operations decision-making. The most repugnant outcome from these preventable national tragedies is the fact that both Transport Canada and Labour Canada are sitting on their hands doing nothing to effect corrective action with the view to prevent future mishaps.

Recently, the CPR dismissed a 45-year-old Locomotive Engineer with over 20 years of service for napping on a trainset being held by a Rail Traffic Controller at a commonly used location for such purpose in the Hamilton area at approximately 2am on a Sunday morning. Imagine you are traveling on the 401 highway between Montreal and Toronto when all traffic comes to a standstill. Shortly after coming to a stop, a police officer happens along and advises that due to an obstruction ahead, you will not be moving anywhere for at least the better part of 2-3 hours. Would it not therefore be understandably acceptable to put your vehicle in park, recline your seat and maybe catch a nap? I am confident most would agree yes.

This is exactly what happened to our Locomotive Engineer, a railway employee whose work/life balance is always under pressure to comply with fatigue management. In other words, he is sleep-depriveda cumulative effect of poor fatigue countermeasures and constant pressure from management. In the end, the real victims are his family through the related ripple effects: loss of house and, or relationship due to financial hardship suffered due to harsh management discipline. Were there any issues with train delay or rail traffic fluidity? No, or so they claim.

He was dismissed due to a managerial interpretation of the Fatigue Management Plan that is a matter of record with Transport Canada. This document has specific langue ALLOWING for an opportunistic nap as a proven method of fatigue management countermeasures. The draconian managerial approach of the present-day CPR creates a situation where we have overreach by an out of touch Company Officer blatantly violating the regulations and procedures that have been in place long before his arrival at CP.

These frontline managers are either total inept or being outright obtuse in the discharge of their duties. It is an outright shame that the once safety-oriented railway(s) of Canada are now beating into submission the highly skilled workforce. These workers know how to do their jobs, yet they are under systemic threat of dismissal, for some trumped up over-reach by a manager whose sole goal is to make him/herself look good on paper to their higher ups, so when performance review time comes around, they get a wage increase and a performance bonus. By its very existence, the process is disgusting, but exist it does. All at the expense of both employee retention and the publics safety.

In todays railway industry in Canada, there needs to be accountability. When a companys top-down directives are the genesis of creative and applied oppression in the day-to-day operations, there needs to be a cry of stop the madness from the public in this regard. It is not the railway workers who are the cause of the recent and historical rail industry derailments. They are directly tied to the marching instructions of the CEOs of Canadian Railway operations, and their dispatching of goon squads of yes men/women, whom, for their part, are also doing as instructed out of their own fear of not being retained by the company.

The governing bodies, Transport Canada, Labour Canada, and the Transportation Safety Board, all need to have their collective teeth reinstalled and contribute to the goal or reigning in the terror presently in place. Even if provided with concrete evidence of mechanical defects on locomotives, numerous rules violations by the CPR, they still sit on their hands. In effect, they are lame duck organizations who only operate in the publics view, post-incident. This is wrong on so many levels. These organizations once had the authority to direct and control the rail carriers. Now, they are nothing more than the clean-up crew after a large outdoor festival.
The Democratic Socialists of America is embroiled in a deep internal crisis as it works to provide political cover for the Democratic Party and Biden administration as they drive headlong into war.

Perhaps the starkest indication of the level of crisis within the organization is its near total silence on the escalating campaign of the US and NATO powers to wage war against Russia. The world stands closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the entirety of the DSA commentary on the matter would hardly fill two pages. Democratic Left, the official magazine of the DSA, has not posted a single article on the war, let alone an analysis of its origins or an elaboration of the policy and perspective of the DSA.

Jamaal Bowman speaks during his primary-night party in New York on Tuesday June 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

DSA National Director Maria Svart, in her March 18 Directors Report to the membership, did not mention the war crisis at all. A single statement was issued by the DSA National Political Committee (NPC), in late February, On Russias invasion of Ukraine, coming in at a whopping 266 words. Its main and only political point was to reaffirm the call for the US to withdraw from NATO.

However, even this timid statement provoked a swift and coordinated attack from a whole host of Democratic Party politicians on social media. Not a single one of the so-called left Democratic Party politicians endorsed by the DSA, and in some cases even official members of the organization, defended the DSAs statement, as mild and toothless as it was. Instead, they rushed to distance themselves from any hint of criticism of US foreign policy.

The DSA leadership is now working overtime to correct its position and make clear its willingness to toe the Democratic Party line.

Early this week, the NPC dechartered the organizations BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) and Palestine Solidarity working group. The decision was made without any formal discussion or debate within the membership.

An official letter explaining the action from the NPC notes that all future DSA Palestine work will now be undertaken by the DSAs International Committee (DSA-IC), the leadership of which is hand-selected by the NPC.

The BDS working group was chartered and formalized by delegates in attendance at two consecutive DSA national conventions. At the 2019 convention, DSA members explicitly voted to give the working group autonomous leadership.

Dechartering is the most serious disciplinary action that the NPC can take against any working group. Not only does it disband the group, it also means that members of its steering committee are ineligible to hold DSA national leadership positions for one year. Since the action was taken, the DSA BDS working group web page has been suspended and its social media accounts silenced.

The public catalyst for the conflict between the BDS working group and the NPC emerged over the actions of DSA member and Democratic Party Congressman Jamaal Bowman.

In late September, Bowman voted to provide the Israeli military with $1.1 billion for its Iron Dome armament program in addition to the $3.3 billion in Israeli military funding for which Bowman previously voted in July. Less than two weeks after his Iron Dome vote, Bowman traveled to Israel as part of a Democratic Party delegation and met with far-right Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Bowmans open solidarization with Israeli war crimes provoked criticism from a section of DSA members, who began circulating a petition calling for his expulsion from the DSA.

After a drawn-out process of private discussions with Bowman, the NPC declared that he would not be removed. Dozens of chapters voted to dissent from the NPCs decision over the following months. The BDS working group issued a statement condemning the NPC for failing to expel Bowman.

While the immediate issue behind the action against the BDS working group is the controversy over Bowman, there is no doubt that the war drive against Russia is a central issue in discussions within the DSA leadership. Bowman was one of the elected DSA members to issue a public statement, in which he declared that he support[s] NATO and will continue to do so during this crisis, an open rebuff to the DSAs statement. Bowman went on to add that he fully backs the actions of the Biden administration, which is funneling weapons into Ukraine and amassing troops in Eastern Europe.

The congressman also issued a statement on March 9 after voting no on the $782 billion military budget. He hastened to explain that he would have voted yes on military aid to Ukraine and funding for the Iron Dome, if they had been separate provisions.

The NPC letter to its membership explaining the reasons for dechartering the BDS group is a mealy-mouthed attempt to cover over all the real political issues. It states that the behaviors of the working group pose a serious threat to the reputation and trustworthiness of DSA, and can make it difficult for the organization and chapters to work with partners and enact political strategy.

By a serious threat to the reputation and trustworthiness of the DSA, the DSA means the trust of the Democratic Party, in particular, and the ruling class in general. It wants to remove any suggestion that the DSA is not fully behind the political strategy of war being implemented by its partners in the Democratic Party leadership.

As for its own political strategy, this is premised on the lie that the Democratic Party will be pushed to the left by electing individuals like Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others. When these individuals do what they inevitably will, backing the agenda of the ruling class, the DSA capitulates all down the line.

Political strategy requires that one not scare away the politicians of the ruling class over any silly principled matters, such as opposition to world war. As for any internal groups that do not toe the line, the DSA follows the maxim, If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off

The reality is that the DSA is not seeking to pressure the Democratic Party to do anything. Rather, it is seeking to prevent a break with the Democratic Party and the building of a real, independent, mass socialist movement of the working class. In exchange for services rendered, the DSA leadership, comprised of and speaking for privileged sections of the upper-middle class, is looking for a seat at the table, i.e., positions and, most importantly, financial resources.

This has always been at the heart of the DSAs strategy since its inception in 1982. The organization was born from a merger between the New American Movement (NAM), a successor organization of the student protest group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and the Democratic Socialists Organizing Committee (DSOC), founded by Michael Harrington.

Harrington served as the chairperson of the DSA from its inception until his death in 1989. His politics were shaped by his mentor, Max Shachtman, who broke with the Trotskyist movement in 1939-40. Over the next several decades Shachtman drifted far to the right, eventually openly advocating support for American imperialism in the Vietnam War.

Harrington became a supporter and student of Shachtman during the latters rightward drift. During this time, he pressed the SDS to take a more explicitly anti-Communist position against the Soviet Union, always looking for an orientation which primarily served the foreign policy interests of US imperialism. Harrington would later demand that socialist organizations play a pro-American, Cold War, State Department kind of role.

The self-stated goal of the DSA since its inception has always been to pressure the Democratic Party to the left from within. Forty years later, what can it show for its efforts? The Democratic Party has spent decades destroying social services and suppressing working class struggles, and is now spearheading the drive to World War III.

As the political crisis intensifies, the DSA will do everything in its power to perform its given task: undermine the leftward movement of the masses, and, in particular, any opposition to war, and funnel workers back into the Democratic Party.

However, workers and young people have been through enormous experiences, under both Democrats and Republicans: countless US-led military interventions, ruthless attacks on immigrants, the massive growth of social inequality and, most profoundly, the criminal response of the ruling class to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now left one million people dead in the US.

The evident crisis within the DSA is ultimately produced by the fact that, under these conditions, its pretense to being anything other than a pro-imperialist adjunct of the Democratic Party is becoming increasingly impossible to maintain.
On Wednesday morning, the bargaining representative for nearly 350 Howard University adjunct and non-tenure track (NTT) professors posted a brief message to its social media page calling off the strike that was planned to begin that day.

Howard University (Wikimedia Commons)

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 500-affiliated University Lecturers Union declared that a historic victory had been won at the HBCU (Historically Black College and University) located in Washington D.C. and that a tentative agreement (TA) was being offered.

At 3:26 a.m. on March 23, 2022, the non-tenure track faculty and SEIU Local 500 reached a tentative agreement with Howard University administration, the unions message stated. While noting that the TA was still subject to member ratification in the coming weeks, the strike was being called off immediately.

Adjunct and NTT professors have been engaged in negotiations with Howard for nearly three years. During that time, Union leaders have accused the university of ignoring requests for information, walking out of contract bargaining meetings and canceling meetings at the last minute, reports the Washington Post .

According to the SEIU, based on the cost of living, Howard professors are the lowest paid among all HBCUs. Adjunct and non-tenured professors are forced to work multiple jobs simply to make ends meet. In addition, NTT professors are summarily fired after seven years (the 7 year rule). The university claims hiring qualified teachers after this period could result in significant financial harm to its bottom line.

University adjuncts make between $25,000 and $50,000 a year according to the American Federation of Teachers. According to Apartment List, Washington D.C. has a cost of living which is higher than your average with comparable rents to New York [City] and Miami [Florida]. It notes that rent costs have increased by 6.9 percent in the past year.

Numerous students and faculty had given their support to the teachers in the days before the planned walkout. Generally, students are all in support of the non-tenure track faculty and if there was a way to get every student to show up and go on strike with them we totally would, a Howard student told the World Socialist Web Site last week.

Nearly 500 students and faculty rallied in support of the teachers at an event held on campus last week. The Post reported on Wednesday that some students have been disciplined for participating.

The SEIU posted no further information substantiating the claim that a historic victory has been won. SEIU officials had spoken publicly in the days before the planned strike, insisting that progress was being made. After all this time, this is the first time real negotiations are taking place, stated lead SEIU negotiator Larry Alcoff to the Post. This comment came after the campus lecturers Twitter account stated that we remain far from a settlement, and continue to organize equally for the strike as we work to try to reach an agreement.

In response to the announcement, Howards provost published a statement declaring the administration was pleased to announce the agreement and that the union has agreed to call off its three-day strike and ensure that students continue to receive coursework as planned. The provost claimed to respect the bargaining process that our union-faculty are entitled to, and it is in the spirit of that commitment that our leaders remained in hours-long negotiations until an agreement was reached.

It is entirely possible that no agreement at all has been reached and that the SEIU and the Howard administration has come together in good faith simply to avert a strike which had considerable support throughout the region and would place further pressure on the university after lawsuits and student occupations have exposed deplorable living conditions.

As a premier HBCU, Howard has attracted national headlines recently, as it hired media celebrities such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the New York Times1619 Project, a racialist falsification of American history, as well as media commentator and reparations advocate Ta-Nehisi Coates to its tenured faculty. University President Wayne A.I. Frederick has a reported salary of $1.6 million and the school has a significant endowment of $712 million.

I hope that they [the teachers] arent settling for less than what they want, a student told the WSWS. Howard has a history of just putting band aids on things.

The facultys threat to strike came less than five months after a group of students occupied Howards Blackburn administration building in protest against unsanitary dorm living conditions. This included widespread vermin infestation and black mold growing in the ventilation systems and living quarters.

On Wednesday, Howard students posted pictures on Twitter showing seriously overheated dorms. Students in Howard Plaza West are experiencing hell right now. This is not an exaggeration, says one post, showing a temperature reading above 80 degrees.

How are students expected to sleep in this? Do their homework in this? On top of that, HPW [Howard Plaza Towers-West] has experienced a flood and multiple power outages in less than ONE MONTH! the student tweeted. The student added that students pay anywhere between 3k6k+ to live on-campus.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Howard would invest significant funds into renovation efforts thanks to a year of historic philanthropy and enrollment growth.

The $785 million investment include[s] a new health sciences complex to house the medical school and other programs, a center for arts and communications, and a building dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math fields. The university made no attempt to square this announcement with its previous claim that offering its employees job stability and a living wage would cause it significant financial harm.
As the old saying goes: You shall be known by the company you keep. That certainly applies to Mondays funeral for Labor Party Right faction senator Kimberley Kitching, who died this month of a suspected heart attack, aged 52.

Kimberley Kitching (Twitter)

Those who descended on Melbournes St Patricks Cathedral from across the country represented a roll call from the entire political and media establishment.

In a display of multi-party unity, opposition Labor and trade union leaders sat shoulder to shoulder with the Liberal-National Coalition governments senior ministers, spearheaded by Defence Minister Peter Dutton, the governments most outspoken war hawk. They were joined by leaders of the National Party, the Greens and the far-right One Nation.

This remarkable turnout was preceded by days of wall-to-wall media coverage virtually canonising Kitching. The first-term junior senator, who had never faced an election, was hailed as a patriot, a lioness and a true warrior.

How can this lauding of Kitching be explained? It is, above all, due to the incendiary part she played in demanding the escalation of the US-led confrontation with China, as well as Russia, and the realignment of Australian policy accordingly.

Especially significant was the attendance of militarist, anti-China figures, including far-right columnist Andrew Bolt, ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his former chief of staff, now Sky News presenter, Peta Credlin, and former Defence Minister Kevin Andrews.

Alongside them were Kitchings cross-party friends in an anti-China parliamentary group that calls itself the Wolverines: Liberals Andrew Hastie, Tim Wilson and James Paterson, plus Nationals Senator Matt Canavan.

This grouping, which closely echoes the positions of the US-backed Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), calls for political warfare against Beijing, starting the imposition of investment bans and external investigations into alleged genocide and torture in China.

Kitching was a founding co-chair of IPAC in 2020, alongside Paterson and similar right-wing figures in other countries, notably US senators Marco Rubio (Republican) and Bob Menendez (Democrat)both anti-China hawks.

Also conspicuous at the funeral were diplomatic representatives from the US, UK and Israel, as well as France, Japan, Taiwan and others. Kitching had strong links with Israel as well as the US. She was both the co-chair of the US-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group and the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel (PFI).

The Tibetan separatist Dalai Lama sent a condolence message, as did Bill Browder, founder of the Magnitsky movement for unilateral economic and diplomatic sanctions targeting individuals. Kitching was instrumental in securing the passage of Australias own Magnitsky Act last year, modelled on the US legislation, now being utilised against Russia.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, who maintains close US links, delivered one of the eulogies. It was Shorten, when party leader, who installed Kitching, unelected, to fill a six-year vacancy in the Senate in 2016.

Media-fuelled allegations that some of Kitchings Labor Senate colleagues bullied her by ostracising her are primarily bound up with factional wars inside Labor over China policy. These have been brought to a head by the escalating drive by Washington and its allies against China, which is regarded, with Russia, as an obstacle to US hegemony over the Eurasian landmass and globally.

Prime Minister Scott Morrisons Coalition government, totally backed by Labor, has been in the forefront of this offensive, including by signing last years AUKUS treaty with the US and UK governments, a military alliance against China that includes the supply of long-range nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. Most recently, Morrison labelled China and Russia as an arc of autocracy threatening the global order.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese quickly declared there was no difference whatsoever on the anti-China policy. In fact, in a keynote speech, he went further. He accused China of offering Russia relief from sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, and presented Labor as the party historically called to office during wartime to preside over the sharp geo-strategic shifts and domestic sacrifices needed for the war effort.

Nevertheless, war hawks like Kitching and her IPAC colleagues have been agitating for even more provocative confrontations with China. This year alone, IPAC has issued statements demanding legal investigations into crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, World Bank divestment from the region and import bans, declaring that the US-led diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics did not go far enough.

In the same vein, Kitching, whom Labor nominated to chair parliaments foreign affairs, defence and trade references committee, called for a conscience vote in parliament on declaring China in violation of UN protocols in Xinjiang, accused China of belligerent and hegemonic behaviour in the international arena, and backed Washingtons accusations that China was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

To indicate their warrior status, the IPAC-aligned Wolverines have stickers on their parliamentary office doors showing four wolf claw marks. They have demanded crackdowns on university links to China and denounced various people for being soft on China. Kitching helped one of their members, Liberal Eric Abetz, to use her parliamentary committee to demand that three Chinese Australians denounce the Chinese Communist Party.

Echoing Rubio, they have accused China of economic coercion against Australia, and pushed for a lessening of economic dependence on China, which remains by far Australian capitalisms largest export market, especially for lucrative iron ore.

IPAC issued a statement mourning the passing of a beloved colleague. It said: Kimberley devoted her work to the upholding of democracy and human rights internationally. She advocated tirelessly and fearlessly for the rights of oppressed peoples in Tibet, the Uyghur Region, Hong Kong and in China.

Kitching was simply a mouthpiece for Washingtons cynical human rights campaigns used to vilify China in particular, while ignoring the systematic abuse of democratic rights in American allies such as Saudi Arabia. As was the case in the US invasions and military interventions in the Middle East and Central Asia, the vilification of Beijing is the preparation for a US-led war against China.

Kitching was a pro-US lioness to the end. Only last month, she obtained notoriety by using parliamentary privilege in a Senate hearing to name a Chinese-Australian businessman as the alleged puppeteer behind a foreign interference plot supposedly foiled by the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). To her last tweet, she was urging on the massive US-NATO build-up in Europe and its supply of weaponry to Ukraine.

The all-party glorification of Kitching is a warning of the poisonous atmosphere that the media and political establishment is seeking to whip up to justify frontline Australian involvement in US-led wars against Russia and China, and overcome the deep public opposition to such wars, which threaten the prospect of a third world war fought with nuclear weapons.
The Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 27, to discuss how to take forward the struggle for Zero-COVID. Contact cersc.csppb@gmail.com to attend.

Ontarios mask mandate in schools ended this week following a decision earlier this month by the hard-right Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Doug Ford. The move could hardly come at a worse time, with the more infectious Omicron BA.2 sub-variant of COVID-19 starting to produce yet another surge of infections and deaths around the world.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford (Photo credit: Ontario government)

Incessant claims by Ford and his top medical official, chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore, that the pandemic is under control and has become endemic are being shattered in Hong Kong, where the fatality rate has risen to the highest in the world due to a BA.2 surge. South Korea and parts of Europe are also experiencing dramatic upticks in infections. In stark contrast to the let it rip policy pursued by all governments in North America and Europe, China placed over 30 million people in lockdown last week in its effort to contain the virus.

The lifting of the mask mandate immediately after March break, when many families visit relatives or go on vacation, appears to have been timed to encourage the widest possible spread of the virus. The decision coincides with waning vaccine immunity in the population and the abandonment of virtually all public health measures across the country, setting the stage for the next wave.

Medical experts, including one who has been closely aligned with the government during much of the pandemic, sharply criticized the governments axing of the mask mandate. Dr. Peter Juni, director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table, which advises the Ford government and provides it with statistics, told CTV News Channel prior to March break, It seems too early to be sure we can safely lift mask mandates. I would like to follow the data.

Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz, a developmental biologist and researcher at the University of Calgary, posted on social media, The next wave has started in Europe. BA2 is worse than BA1. Since two years Europe is a crystal ball. Removing protections now will cause deaths, sickness, and disabilities of many more Canadians. And no, not only vulnerable are at risk. Mask mandates and clean air save lives.

Dr. Andrea Chittle, a family physician based in Guelph, Ontario, launched a petition asking the province to extend mask mandates in schools. It quickly racked up more than 10,000 signatures, speaking to the widespread support for continued public health measures as the pandemic rages. Dr. Chittle expressed concern that The vaccination rate among children between five and 11 is still relatively low, with just over 55 per cent of kids in that age group having had at least one dose. Meanwhile, children under five arent yet eligible for vaccination, and COVID-19 is still circulating in the community. To remove those protections when we still have a lot of COVID circulating seems like its leaving those families and individuals in the lurch.

Despite all the attempts of governments and media around the world to downplay the risks of the BA.2 sub-variant, the normalization of mass death, and the absurd assertion that COVID is now endemic, there is significant skepticism and a growing hostility among education workers and students.

Opposing the politically motivated decision to end mask mandates, Ontario Schools for Covid Safety, a grassroots Ontario student group with over 2,000 followers on Twitter, called for an Ontario-wide walkout of students on Monday, March 21, to protest the government ending mask mandates. The message posted on the groups Twitter home page read, Removing mask mandates after March Break made it clear student needs are not being prioritized lets show them that safety still matters!

Education workers are also concerned about the return from March break. Michael, a Toronto District School Board caretaker, told the WSWS, This is the worst time to make such a move as the omicron BA.2 variant tsunami is fast approaching. This is a catastrophic recipe. Caretakers are anxious at the prospect of working next week in schools where some staff and students will show up maskless, allowing Omicron BA.2 to spread faster and infect more people. Caretakers who work at night are worried because COVID is airborne and the aerosol particles hang in the air for several hours. School buildings, especially the older buildings, are poorly ventilated. Many classrooms have at least one HEPA filter, often two, but this is by no means sufficient to clean the air.

The lifting of mask mandates and other COVID protections is a direct capitulation to the demands of the far-right Freedom Convoy, which was systematically built up and incited by a section of the ruling elite and media to batter down public support for COVID-19 public health measures. Their demands included the repealing of all COVID protections under the cynical slogan of learning to live with COVID. The far-right convoy, which explicitly advocated political violence to achieve its aims, was given wall-to-wall coverage in the corporate media to create the impression that the handful of participants represented a mass movement calling for the elimination of all public health measures.

For Michael, Its clear that the school board and even unions in Toronto do not care about the lives of its students and staff. CUPE, who represent support staff like caretakers and secretaries have shown zero interest in protecting the health of their membership. They have made no attempt to mobilize the rank and file in opposition to government policies such as the criminal back to school/back to work policies. In fact, the school boards & the unions are complicit because they have enforced this horrendous back-to-school, no-more-protections policy!

Educators have also voiced their dissatisfaction on social media. Ashley wrote on Twitter, Thinking of leaving #onted [Ontario education]. Feel pretty powerless, burnt out, unmotivated to put energy in when I feel completely unsupported in my profession and from my board wanting to maintain good health. So done with Dr. Moore and @fordnation.

Shannon wrote, This is the first March Break (in 24 years) that I really havent been able to let go of school. Things are so abysmal right now where Im workingI feel almost as though Im grieving. I do consider teaching my vocation; this is part of the struggle for sure. Another added, Same. Ive nearly had a breakdown this week and am at the lowest Ive ever felt. I cant afford to keep emotionally investing myself each day and will be focusing on showing up and doing what I can vs getting caught up in how much of the curriculum is left to teach.

The past two years have taught education workers many lessons that now must be assimilated. The political establishment, beholden to the interests of big business, will never take the necessary steps to end the pandemic. Half-hearted attempts to mitigate COVID have collapsed. Workers are being conditioned to accept a permanent pandemic where all students, teachers and their loved ones will eventually be infected and reinfected in perpetuity. Under the current policy, millions face a bleak future of ill health and reduced life expectancy under the current regime where public health has been turned into personal choice and everyone is on their own.

All of the teacher and education trade unions enforce this policy. No union in any industry or profession in the last two years has mobilized workers in mass opposition to dangerous workplaces. Governments around the world can conjure up billions of dollars for weapons and war, but they refuse to fight the war that must be foughtthe war against COVID-19.

Education workers and their supporters should draw the political lessons from these experiences and form rank-and-file safety committees in every school, educational institution, and workplace to fight for a Zero-COVID policy. This requires the shutdown of in-person learning and nonessential production with full pay for all workers impacted as part of a strategy for the global elimination of COVID-19. To join this fight, become a member of the Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee today.
The 800 sacked P&O workers face a struggle not just against the company that dismissed them with no notice last week and its allies in Conservative government. They are in a fight also with their false friends in the Labour and trade union bureaucracy.

Trades Union Congress leader Frances OGrady (third left) behind the banner at the demonstration proclaiming Save Britains Ferries (WSWS Media)

From the moment the workers were sacked last Thursday, the unions and Labour Party have mounted a nationalist campaign centred on the fact that a Dubai-based company, DP World, sacked British workers to bring in a foreign workforce. This was coupled to a campaign to pressurise the Johnson government to step in and do the right thing in the interests of Britain as a maritime nation.

This perspective did not survive its first brush with reality. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) union called a demonstration Tuesday outside DP Worlds London offices, before marching to a rally outside Parliament.

RMT leader Mick Lynch spoke alongside Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Frances OGrady and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

RMT leader Mick Lynch speaking at the P&O workers rally (WSWS Media)

Boosting the RMTs appeal to the government and politicians of all stripes, Lynch said, I never thought Id see the day where the RMT was supported by the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein, the Labour Party, some Tory politicians, the whole spectrum.

OGrady summed up the nationalist agenda of the campaign declaring, When it comes to P&O, they dont salute any flag, they dont respect any flag.

For the union bureaucracy, the main issue with the job losses is that they jeopardised national security! OGrady declared, This is a battle for the whole country. Because we cannot afford to lose those skilled jobs, we cannot afford to lose our maritime strategy and security.

TUC leader Frances O'Grady speaking at the P&O workers rally (WSWS Media)

No sooner had the assembled bureaucrats finished their speeches than their perspective fell apart. In parliament, Labours motion calling for the reinstatement of 800 sacked workers and the suspension of DP Worlds government contracts and licences to run freeports passed with 211 MPs votes for and none against because the Tories abstained. The motion also called for legislation outlawing fire and rehire. The Tories could let it through as Opposition Day motions allow the opposition parties to sound off about whatever they want, but are not binding.

When the real business began, the Tories voted on a three line whip to not hold a vote on even the toothless bill put forward by Labour MP Barry Gardiner to ban fire and rehire.

DP World is working in partnership with the Johnson government, which was forewarned and allowed the mass firings to proceed. The company is at the heart of the Tories Freeports agenda, seen as essential for UK corporations to compete globally. DP World, which employs 50,000 workers in 40 countries and specialises in creating free trade zones, runs the largest of eight freeports, the Thames Freeport, and is a member of the governments transport advisory group. Upon its appointment to the body in August 2020, the company said, DP World is delighted to be part of the UK Governments Transport Advisory Group as it steps up its plans to negotiate trade deals. We are looking forward to working with the Government to help global trade to and from the UK which will benefit our customers across the supply chain.

Barry Gardiner speaking at the P&O workers rally (WSWS Media)

In this context the jobs of 800 workers counts for very little, with the company likely to receive a slap on the wrist and maybe a fine by the government for its actions. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared in parliament that workers could take DP to court if they wished under the 1996 Employment Rights Act. But asked by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer if he would guarantee that these companies will not get a penny more of taxpayers money or a single tax break until they reinstate the workforce, he replied, What we will not do is launch a wholehearted campaign as they [Labour] would want against overseas investments because that is completely wrong, and wrong for those workers.

In their pathetic pleas to a government of Thatcher worshippers, Labour and the trade unions whine that sacking workers and replacing them with a workforce on a fraction of their wages is not the British way of doing things. Nonsense. As of last October, at least 28 companies in Britain either used fire and rehire or planned to, including British Airways, the leading supermarket retailer Tesco, and British Gas. At the height of the pandemic in April 2021, British Gas, owned by the British multinational energy and services company, Centrica, sackedafter 42 days of strikesalmost 500 engineers who refused to sign inferior contracts. The GMB union did nothing to defend them.

The RMT itself collaborated in P&O sacking at least 600 workers in early 2020, shortly after DP took over the company.

The Labour Party now claiming to be defending P&O workers are running local authorities that have imposed billions in cuts on behalf of central government. The Labour council in Coventry are at this moment spending millions of pounds in a scabbing operation against its refuse department workforce. This week, Labour-run Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire threatened to use fire-and-rehire to end a dispute in which community protection employees are opposing changes to working practices.

The nationalist Save Britains Ferries campaign only serves to divide the working class and facilitate the brutal worsening of pay and conditions being demanded by employers.

Such campaigns have ended without exception in defeats and mass job losses. In 1992, the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill advocated a nationalist alliance with the employers and sections of the Tory government to Save Our Pits. Nothing was saved. For years the unions ran one Save our Steel campaign after another. Each time one or another set of asset strippers took over and sold off chunks of what remains of the former nationalised industry, with just 33,000 workers remaining.

In the seafaring industries this process is particularly acute. Vast tranches of the workforce hail from India, the Philippines, and countries in eastern Europe because no effort was made by the unions to ensure equal pay for all rather than desperately trying to maintain higher wages for British crews.

Workers cannot successfully fight on a national basis against companies whose operations are based on a global strategy. They must base their struggles on the programme of socialist internationalism.

The Socialist Equality Party urges workers to form rank-and-file committees operating not just within companies but spanning industries and borders. The trade unions have a decades-long record of betrayal. But this is not the result of a few bad leaders. It is due to their nationalist, pro-capitalist orientation.

The speech by Corbyn to the rally was a flight of fancy, portraying the unions, (if youre not in a union, join a union now) as leading some monumental strugglerather than overseeing another defeat and the hundreds of redundancies they specialise in. The government, he declared, should take up the fight against DP World. But if they wont do it, we will do it. He told his audience to get there on the picket lines support the dispute. And above all, when weve won this one, theres a lot of other disputes well win as well.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the P&O workers rally (WSWS Media)

Who is he trying to kid? There are no picket lines or dispute to support because the unions have called no industrial action or any fight in response to P&Os attack. Instead, they have instructed seafarers to say nothing to the media about their sacking lest it affect their redundancy package. This only plays into the hands of the company, who said this week that receiving a redundancy package was conditional on workers signing a non-disclosure agreement.

The RMT only confirms that they are already reconciled to yet another crushing defeat for their members. As always, the main concern of the union bureaucracy is to maintain their role as an industrial police force for the corporations. As OGrady declared Wednesday, UK law requires companies to consult with workers and unions before making redundancies.
Are you a rail worker? Contact us and tell us about the working and safety conditions you face.

Early Monday morning a Union Pacific (UP) freight train derailed en route through Colton, California, sending 13 cars off the tracks. The locomotive initially caught fire, but the flames were quickly extinguished by Colton firefighters, according to a railroad spokesperson.

A contracted worker who was assisting in the cleanup process was injured and taken to a hospital. They were trying to move that car over there, and they put the hook on a spot that wasnt real strong on the car, so the tractor ripped it off and the chain hit him. So Im pretty sure it broke his arm, a witness told KABC News. No other injuries were reported.

Local media said the derailment occurred where tracks make a sharp turn to go under the busy I-10 Freeway as it heads north, while other tracks continue east.

The train derailment (Source: Colton Fire Department)

The derailed freight cars were carrying lumber. If the derailment had involved toxic chemicals, it would have caused a massive catastrophe. Colton, located 55 miles west of Los Angeles, is a suburb of San Bernardino and part of a vast metropolitan area with a population of 4.2 million people.

The UP tracks run through a residential area, and several homes are located close to the tracks. None of the homes was reportedly affected, but UP officials acknowledged that an unknown amount of diesel fuel was spilled.

While the cause of the accident has not been determined and is still under investigation, the decayed state of railroad infrastructure, maintenance cutbacks and the relentless job slashing by the railroads have led to regular accidents.

According to the National Transportation Safety Bureau, nearly every two hours, a person or vehicle is hit by a train in the US, and every year nearly 1,000 people are killed in train-related accidents. Almost every two weeks a train derailment leads to a chemical spill. The frequency of such events has been escalating over the last quarter century. During this period there have been a wave of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring schemes, led by billionaires like Warren Buffett who bought BNSF for $44 billion in 2009.

Nicknamed Hub City, Colton is the site of Colton Crossing, which was one of the busiest at grade railroad crossings in the United States where tracks owned by different freight lines intersect on the same level, causing extreme backups. With rail traffic sharply rising due to the vast expansion of cargo coming and going through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the primitive crossing was replaced with a fly over in 2013, which raised the east-to-west UP tracks over the north-to-south BNSF tracks.

This accident comes amidst a heated struggle between railroad workers and the multinational corporations they work for. Railway workers at Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Union Pacific (UP), Chessie Seaboard (CSX), Canadian Pacific (CP) and other companies are waging a struggle against unfair pay, draconian attendance policies and for improved safety conditions, including increased staff, adequate rest and shorter train lines.

The day after the Colton derailment, the Teamsters union shut down the struggle of 3,000 Canadian Pacific engineers, conductors and yard workers against hazardous working conditions, poverty-level pensions and wage stagnation. Bowing to the demands of management and the Canadian government, the union ended the strike and agreed to submit contract issues to binding arbitration, essentially stripping workers of the right to strike, and allowing workers terms of employment to be dictated by a government-appointed, pro-big business arbitrator.

In January, a US federal judge in Texas issued an injunction to block a strike by 17,000 BNSF workers against the implementation of a punitive attendance policy. The Hi Viz policy allots each worker 30 points and deducts points for every time that a worker takes off from work, regardless of the reason. To earn points back, workers must be on call 24 hours per day for at least two weeks straight. The policy is being used to discipline or fire workers who lose their points and to ensure that workers are available for duty virtually around the clock.

A Union Pacific locomotive pulls passenger cars, in Fremont, Neb., Wednesday, April 7, 2010.(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

The Teamsters and other unions have enforced the judges injunction, going so far as instructing BNSF workers not to make any public statements against the attendance policy.

Railway workers have repeatedly warned that labor shortages, exhausting work schedules and the lack on investment in necessary maintenance and upgrades pose enormous dangers to workers and the public.

In a recent interview with a conductor employed with CP Rail, the rail worker outlined these dangers. Citing CPs harsh attendance policy, which mimics the Hi-Viz attendance policy, he said, I might go to bed at 10:00 p.m. because Im expecting to get up to start work at 6:00 a.m. But the lineups [schedules] are wrong because they dont update them, either because theyre understaffed or dont care. So, Ive gone to bed at 10:00 p.m., and I get a call at midnight saying I have to be at work at 2:00 a.m. The result is that I go to work without any rest, the CP rail worker stated.

We need to be able to go to work rested. Nobody should have to think twice about getting behind the throttle of a train, he stressed. Employees need accurate resources, especially accurate train lineups, so they can determine when they go to work and avoid exhaustion.

Another CP rail worker stationed south of the border in Iowa testified to the increasingly dangerous working conditions placed upon workers for the sake of making a few extra dollars for the rich oligarchs who rule over this industry. Weve had multiple guys with 10 to 22 years seniority quit. You cant replace that kind of experience with a person off the street. The training of new employees is suspect at best.

The worker pointed to the much-hated Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) system, which has been implemented throughout North America since 2017. The PSR system has increased train cart lines (a dangerous increase in the number of freight cars), reduced routine maintenance and imposed mass layoffs even as traffic volume has increased over the years.

PSR is another huge problem, the rail worker in Iowa stated. We dont have the infrastructure to run these monster trains. Train makeup has basically been thrown out the window. Its all about building these monsters in blocks now to eliminate as much switching as possible. Constant run ins and run outs that you have no control over.

The railroad companies want to make more with less and expect rail workers to work like cattle with no consideration for their safety and then threaten to fire them if they protest or object. They cut maintenance workers, repair people, engineers, yard masters and other essential workers necessary for the safe operation of these rail companies. Any serious accidents are routinely blamed on human error, sacrificing safety for corporate profit.

Having been abandoned by the pro-company unions, railroad workers are increasingly seeking a way to organize opposition over these life-and-death matters. We urge UP, CP and other rail workers to follow the lead of the BNSF workers by building rank-and-file committees, independent of the Teamsters and other unions, to mobilize a fightback against the attack on jobs and working conditions.

Are you a rail worker? Contact us and tell us about the working and safety conditions you face.
Plantation Workers Action Committees (PWAC) from the Alton, Glenugie and Abbotsleigh estates are holding a joint online meeting at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 27 to demand the unconditional reinstatement of all sacked estate workers. A total of 54 workers have been victimised by management and sacked from the Alton, Katukelle and Welioya estates.

The meeting will discuss the escalating assault on workers rights, including increased workloads, wage cuts, the so-called revenue-share model, and other measures to drive up productivity. These cost-cutting attacks have the blessing of President Gotabhaya Rajapakses government and are fully supported by the trade unions.

Katukelle estate workers protesting near the muster shed on September 29 [Photo: WSWS media]

We urge workers and youth in estates and other sectors to participate in Sundays meeting and discuss the program needed to defeat this repression and defend jobs, wages and conditions.

Plantation workers have long resisted the exploitative revenue-share system, which distributes a plot of land with 1,000 to 1,500 tea bushes to individual workers on a contract basis. Workers and their families are expected to tend the tea bushes, with some inputs provided by the company, and harvest the crop. The leaves are handed over to the company, which deducts its expenses and profit, with the balance given to the worker as his/her income. When fully implemented, workers lose their Employees Provident Fund and other hard-won rights.

The revenue share system was first imposed in 2016 at the Maha Uva and Walapane estates in Central Province, and the Tillyrie, Battalgalla and Annfield estates at Dickoya, near Hatton. Estate management, however, had to abandon or only partially apply the system because of workers resistance.

Plantation companies started implementing revenue-sharing in full last year, after suppressing a series of struggles by workers at estates in Alton in Up-Cot, Katukelle in Talawakelle and Welioya near Hatton. The Horana Plantation Company (HPC) has begun imposing the system at its estates in Alton, Fairlawn, Gouraville, Stockholm and Mahanilu after a brutal assault on its workers at Alton .

Victimized Kaddukelle estate workers on their way to home after being released on harsh bail conditions bail on October 7 [Photo: WSWS media]

In February 2021, police arrested 24 workers and two youth from the Alton estate on frame up charges of physically assaulting estate managers. The witch hunt was launched after workers went on strike for 47 days to demand higher wages and oppose management harassment. The arrested workers now face a criminal court trial. Using the same bogus charges, HPC then summarily sacked 38 workers, who are now struggling to earn any income.

The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) has aided and abetted the company and the police conspiracy with the National Union of Workers (NUW) and Democratic Workers Front (DPF) silently endorsing this repression.

All four divisions of Alton estate were brought under the revenue-share system in October. Workers were also told that they had to pluck 18 kilogram of tea leaves per day in order to receive a 1,000-rupee (about $US4) daily wage. If this target is not met the worker is only paid 40 rupees a kilo, far less than 1,000 rupees per day.

As one female worker from Alton estate explained: Ive got land with nearly 1,500 tea bushes which has reduced my monthly wage by the half. I have to pluck and clean and do other work. Sometimes my husband, who has retired, helps me but its still very difficult to reach our target.

Last month she only received 4,000 rupees. The allocated tea bushes were at two different locations which meant time was wasted getting to the plots, making it difficult to achieve the daily target. The trade unions have ignored workers complaints.

Tea plantation workers at Del House Estate in Maskeliya (Source: WSWS Media)

A worker from Fairlawn estate said, Our rights are being removed by management, following introduction of the revenue-sharing system. The water supply system in our estate has completely collapsed and we have to bear the cost of its repair.

Katukelle estate is managed by Maskeliya Plantation Company. When workers began taking action against higher workloads last September they were targeted in a series of management and police attacks. Eleven workers were sacked and now face court cases.

The revenue-sharing model is backed by all the plantation unions, including the CWC, NUW, DPF, Up-Country Peoples Front (UPF) and the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union. During the last general election CWC leader Jeevan Thondaman and NUW leader P. Digambaram actively campaigned in support this exploitative system.

Thondaman is currently a state minister in the Rajapakse government and other union leaders have held ministerial posts in previous regimes. The plantation union leaders are part of the political establishment, and the unions that they lead serve the companies and the government of the day.

Last week, the Planters Association (PA) celebrated 30 years since the privatisation of previously state-owned estates by demanding full implementation of the revenue-share model. It claimed that 70 percent of tea production went in labour costs and had to be reduced.

PA leaders compared the production of Sri Lankan estate workers with low cost and high productivity in Kenya and South India. The new system was needed, they said, in order to compete in the world market. They also repeated claims that they were paying higher wages and providing social benefits, including decent housing, to Sri Lankan estate workers.

These claims are lies. Hundreds of thousands of tea plantation workers and their families live in overcrowded 10 x12 foot line rooms (about 3m x 3.5m) that lack rudimentary sanitary facilities. Estate schools and medical dispensaries have almost disappeared.

While several thousand families have been given new homes, these are not much different from the old line-rooms and were mainly built under foreign aid programs.

The escalating attack on plantation workers is being unleashed amid an unprecedented economic crisis of Sri Lankan capitalism with falling growth, declining foreign exchange and the danger of a default on foreign loans. The government has responded by increasing the price of essentials. Unable to pay for basic food items and fuel, the working class and the rural masses are bearing the brunt of this crisis.

Last week, President Rajapakse announced that his government would turn to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance, which means even deeper austerity measures.

Plantation workers, like their counterparts in other sectors, came forward in a series of struggles last year to defend wages and conditions. Sundays action meeting will discuss the necessity for a program of struggle on the following demands:

* The unconditional reinstatement of all sacked workers.

* No to the revenue-share system.

* Higher wages, linked to increases of cost of living, and a fully paid leave and pension scheme.

* Medical benefits for all workers and high-quality medical facilities on every estate.

* Decent, livable homes for all.

To fight for these demands, workers need to build their own action committees independent of the trade unions and their officials.

Initiated by the Socialist Equality Party, the Plantation Workers Action Committee (PWAC) has consistently fought to defend plantation workers from company, police and government attacks and exposed the betrayals of the unions.

We say workers can only achieve the above demands and win their basic rights in the fight for nationalisation of big plantation companies under the democratic control of the working class. This must part of a broader struggle for socialist policies and in unity with workers across Sri Lanka and internationally.

Plantation workers must turn to their international class brothers and sisters and join the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees initiated by the International Committee of the Fourth International.
Two tornadoes touched down in the New Orleans area Tuesday night killing at least one person and injuring several more. Thousands were left without power as emergency response crews searched through the wreckage for survivors.

A man walks his bicycle through destruction after a tornado in Arabi, La., Tuesday, March 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The one fatality in the neighborhood of Arabi was identified as 25-year-old Connor Lambert. According to St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohmann, Lambert was killed by multiple blunt force injuries caused by debris generated by the storm.

Additional reports from residents indicated that a school bus had been flipped, buildings had been torn off of their foundations into the street, and that people had even been trapped inside of their bathrooms seeking shelter from the storm.

The weaker of the two tornadoes, an EF1 with wind speeds around 90 mph, left a 12-mile-long trail of destruction in the town of Lacombe in St. Tammany Parish north of the city. The most concentrated destruction was caused by an EF3 tornado, with winds ranging between 158-206 mph, that touched down in New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward before destroying much of the neighborhood of Arabi just east of the city center.

An estimated 250 structures were damaged or destroyed along the two mile trail cut by the tornado. Images of overturned cars and severely damaged buildings were reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the same part of the city nearly 20 years ago, in 2005. This part of the city was also hit hard by Hurricane Ida just last year.

To aid with road clearance and search and rescue, 300 National Guard troops were deployed to the area on Wednesday morning.

While more commonly known for hurricanes, the New Orleans area is no stranger to strong tornado events. According to the Tornado Archives, at least seven significant tornadoes (EF2 or higher) have struck the city since 1950. The most recent event was an EF3 tornado that cut through 10 miles along the eastern part of the metro area in 2017.

The latest tornado outbreak in New Orleans was part of a much broader system of strong weather that affected southern states from Texas to Georgia, and is expected to continue to the Atlantic coast, albeit at a much reduced strength.

More than 60 tornado warnings were issued across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana on Monday alone, with 16 confirmed tornadoes in Texas throughout the day.

Severe weather first began in Texas at 3:41 p.m. local time when a tornado struck the town of Jacksboro, roughly 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Several buildings were damaged, including the local elementary school and high school. No injuries were reported.

By 6 p.m. that evening the system had moved east, spawning three more tornadoes near Round Rock and Granger, Texas, near the greater Austin area, and in Kingston, Oklahoma. Around this time large parts of the American South were put under advisory for moderate risk of severe thunderstorms and potential flooding events.

At least one other person was killed in Grayson County, Texas during these tornadoes, raising the total death toll to two for the entire storm system.

In a statement following the storms, Texas Governor Greg Abbott delivered a typical boilerplate response: We are devastated by the tornadoes that have hit our Texas communities, but remain confident and steadfast in our ability to rebuild together. Thank you to all emergency responders and members of the Jacksboro and Crockett communities who have come together to help both neighbors and strangers. As Texans, we have endured great storms before and have built back even stronger, and I have confidence in our ability to do so again.

As the storm system moved into Louisiana it caused nearly 100,000 customers to lose power on Tuesday across Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. The Louisiana energy company Entergy reported Wednesday that 3,700 people were still without power.

First responders were forced to navigate through downed power lines as they conducted searches for people trapped or injured during the storm.

Claudette Reuther, a St. Bernard Parish resident, told AccuWeather, Were both on the floor and it lasted probably a minute or two. It wasnt real long, but at the same time it feels like it was forever. It was a horrendous experience. You could feel the whole home vibrating and you hear this constant roar noise. And then all of a sudden literally everything just went silent, complete dead.

Christine Wiecek, a resident of Arabi, told CNN that she and her husband felt lucky to be alive. Their house sustained strong damage, with projectiles generated by the tornado punching holes through their roof.

When the watch turned to a warning, I shut off the stove, we grabbed the cats, and went into an interior bathroom, the one room without windows, said Wiecek. Within two minutes, the storm was passing over us. It was really loud, the house shook, and we couldnt stop the poor, startled cats from running around like crazy in the tiny space.

I was sitting on the floor with my back against the door, and could feel wind coming under the door, even though the doors and windows were closed.
Amid mounting evidence of a new surge in coronavirus driven by the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, federal funds for COVID-19 testing and treatment and future mass vaccinations are running out.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, March 18, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

At a White House briefing Wednesday, officials of the coronavirus task force warned that the congressional failure to approve a $15.6 billion funding package last week meant that federal financial support for a wide range of programs would be ending over the next month.

The first cutbacks have already been made, as the administration has reduced the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments being distributed to the states by 35 percent. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told the Wednesday briefing that this cut would be followed by ending federal reimbursement of the cost of COVID testing and treatment for the uninsured, and ending federal funding of vaccinations for the uninsured sometime in early April.

White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients, who is leaving the administration at the end of the month, told the briefing, The virus is not waiting for Congress to act. With every minute this funding request is stalled, were losing our ability to protect people and be prepared.

Zients was speaking only of the mitigation efforts conducted by the administration over the past year, which are nothing like a genuine campaign to suppress the deadly virus and actually protect the population. But even these limited actions are headed for the scrap heap.

The specific cutbacks outlined by Zients included a hold on placing orders for a second round of booster shots (fourth doses) of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, if these prove to be useful in extending immunity or combating further variants of coronavirus. He added, If things change, and if theres a need for that new vaccine, a new formulation, for example, a very specific vaccine, we wont be able to secure doses for the American people.

Zients said that funding has already been provided to secure a full supply of vaccine doses for children younger than age 6 when and if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes administration of those vaccines. Moderna announced Wednesday it was submitting a formal request for FDA approval for its version of the vaccine for young children.

At the same briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), confirmed that BA.2 now accounts for about 35 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the United States, and that in some regions this figure is over 50 percent.

BA.2 is significantly more infectious than Omicron BA.1, the subvariant which has wreaked such a deadly toll over the past three months. BA.2 has largely displaced BA.1 wherever it has had the chance, including in Britain and much of continental Europe, and it is now doing so in the United States.

In just the past week, BA.2 has gone from 22 percent of coronavirus infections to 35 percent, while in New England the figure has jumped from 39 percent a week ago to 55 percent. Other areas with higher levels of BA.2 include California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Texas.

Perhaps the most immediate damage from the funding cutbacks would be the impact on the use of monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals such as Pfizers Paxlovid, which has cut rates of hospitalization by as much as 90 percent when administered after the initial infection is detected. This is particularly valuable for millions of immunocompromised people and elderly people with severe underlying health conditions. Effective use of these treatments requires early detection, and therefore frequent and regular testing.

The funding crisis will lead to the shutting down of test administration facilities, cutbacks at laboratories which process test results, and a delay in orders to the manufacturers like Pfizer.

According to a White House fact sheet, the federal government has no more funding for additional monoclonals, including a planned order for March 25. This amounts to a death sentence for a large number of poor and uninsured, since the cost of a monoclonal treatment paid for by the patient runs to $2,000 per course.

For another treatment, AstraZenecas Evusheld, which in one study reduced the risk of immunocompromised people developing COVID-19 infection by 77 percent, the Biden administration has only bought enough to provide 850,000 courses of treatment. A planned purchase of a second allotment will be dropped unless funding is restored.

The looming cutback in monoclonal antibody and antiviral purchases and distribution is a particularly glaring demonstration of the class savagery that characterizes the response of the US ruling elite to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The death toll has reached the 1 million mark in the United States, its overwhelming majority consisting of working people, the elderly, and those with severe underlying health conditions, particularly those who were uninsured and therefore frequently untreated until too late.

The wealthy and powerful, by contrast, rarely die even when they contract COVID-19, because they have access to the type of all-encompassing medical treatment, including highly expensive ones like monoclonal antibodies, which first came to widespread public attention when they were administered to then President Donald Trump at the Walter Reed Medical Center in October 2020.

In the course of the past three months, in the Omicron upsurge, a raft of well-known political figures have contracted COVID-19, but they have so far suffered no deaths and few hospitalizations, because they had ready access to a Trump-style battery of treatments.

Most recently, former president Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton revealed they had tested positive for COVID, along with White House press secretary Jen Psaki (for the second time), and Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.

No less than 12 US senators and nearly 60 members of the House of Representatives have tested positive for COVID-19 since Omicron emerged as the dominant variant in early December 2021. The actual number is likely far higher, since many Republican legislators would not acknowledge the infection or even undergo testing for it.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning is extended for the following rivers in Indiana... White River at Edwardsport, Montezuma, Covington. ...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Indiana... Wabash River at Lafayette. White River at Elliston. .Recent rainfall will lead to minor flooding along the White and Wabash Rivers in Indiana. Additional rainfall is expected over the next several days, bringing additional flooding. 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 THURSDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Montezuma. * WHEN...Until Thursday afternoon. * IMPACTS...At 20.0 feet, Park in southern Montezuma begins to flood. Higher bottomlands begin to flood. Water backs up most local tributaries. River water is at the top of some private levees. Lowest county roads begin to flood. Parke CR 75 W begins to flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 10:45 AM EDT Thursday the stage was 13.2 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage this evening to a crest of 20.2 feet early Sunday morning. It will then fall below flood stage early Thursday morning. - Flood stage is 14.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
Weather Alert

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 182 IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS IN ARKANSAS THIS WATCH INCLUDES 4 COUNTIES IN EAST ARKANSAS CRITTENDEN LEE PHILLIPS ST. FRANCIS IN MISSISSIPPI THIS WATCH INCLUDES 22 COUNTIES IN NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALCORN BENTON CALHOUN CHICKASAW COAHOMA DESOTO ITAWAMBA LAFAYETTE LEE MARSHALL MONROE PANOLA PONTOTOC PRENTISS QUITMAN TALLAHATCHIE TATE TIPPAH TISHOMINGO TUNICA UNION YALOBUSHA IN TENNESSEE THIS WATCH INCLUDES 6 COUNTIES IN WEST TENNESSEE CHESTER FAYETTE HARDEMAN HARDIN MCNAIRY SHELBY THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF ABERDEEN, AMORY, ASHLAND, BARTLETT, BATESVILLE, BOLIVAR, BOONEVILLE, BRUCE, CALHOUN CITY, CHARLESTON, CLARKSDALE, COFFEEVILLE, COLLIERVILLE, CORINTH, FORREST CITY, FULTON, GERMANTOWN, HELENA, HENDERSON, HOLLY SPRINGS, HOUSTON, IUKA, MARIANNA, MARKS, MEMPHIS, MILLINGTON, NEW ALBANY, OAKLAND, OKOLONA, OLIVE BRANCH, OXFORD, PONTOTOC, RIPLEY MS, SAVANNAH, SELMER, SENATOBIA, SOMERVILLE, SOUTHAVEN, TUNICA, TUPELO, WATER VALLEY, WEST HELENA, AND WEST MEMPHIS.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Gabrielle Union discusses life as a stepmom to Zaya Wade, who came out as transgender in 2019.

Wade, unlike many other trans teens who come out, has received immense public support from Union and her father Dwayne Wade. Unsurprisingly, critics found an issue with that.

Union defended her stepdaughter and told the publication, "It's important for us to live and love out loud. We didn't exactly understand why [supporting Zaya's trans identity] was a thing because ... we love all our kids out loud."

She went on to say that she recognizes that she is setting an example to those who are still hateful when others come out. It's important to remember that when it comes to one's identity, whether they're your child or not, you have to trust that they know best, even throughout their evolution.

"It's our job to be loving, compassionate, protective guides for our children, but their lives are their lives and we have to respect that," she said. "We do not believe in any kind of shaming for existing. That is bizarre, cruel [and] harmful."

Union shared a message to trans youth in need of support:

"There are people just like you that want you to win in life. And by win, I mean to survive and thrive. And we will find a way. We will not stop working for all of our freedom, our salvation, and our liberation  whether that's in Texas, Florida, Idaho, or all the other states that are basically trying to outlaw your existence, demonize and criminalize your parents for loving you. This will not stand. As long as I have air in my lungs, we will be fighting for you and I will not be alone and you are not alone."
The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge

Samir Hussein/WireImage Kate Middleton and Prince William

Kate Middleton and Prince William's first official visit to Jamaica came to an end on Thursday as they wrapped up their three-day tour of the Caribbean country and took off for the Bahamas.

For her final appearance in Jamaica, the Duchess of Cambridge, 40, wore a special brooch in honor of Queen Elizabeth. Kate accessorized a green dress by Emilia Wickstead with the Queen's hummingbird brooch, which was gifted to the monarch by the people of Jamaica when she visited in 2002 in celebration of her Golden Jubilee.

Twenty years later, Kate has embarked on an eight-day Caribbean tour alongside her husband in honor of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which celebrates the monarch's 70 years on the throne.

Throughout the Caribbean tour, Kate has paid homage to her host countries (Belize and Jamaica) through her style, making a point to wear the colors of the various countries' flags. She has also made careful jewelry selections. In addition to borrowing jewels from the Queen, she also wore a pearl bracelet that belonged to Princess Diana and handcrafted jewelry from Jamaica and Belize.

Mentoring from the Queen, extensive preparation and the tour itself are all part of William and Kate's burgeoning role in exercising "soft power" on Britain's behalf.

RELATED: Kate Middleton and Prince William Echo Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on Final Outing in Jamaica

Duchess Of Cambridge

Samir Hussein/WireImage Kate Middleton

"The Queen has always been a believer in using her position not to exert power, which she really doesn't have, but to influence," royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE in this week's issue.

"She does that by example and honoring people by serving. And Charles and Camilla and William and Kate are doing thatlistening."

While Kate and William have received warm welcomes from many of the locals during their visits to Belize and Jamaica, they've also faced intense backlash amid anti-colonial protests and calls for the Queen to be dropped as head of state from Jamaica.

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Princess Kate  in Emilia Wickstead and accessorised with the Queens hummingbird brooch which was given when she visited Jamaica in 2002  at the official farewell to Jamaica. pic.twitter.com/6v9zXBpNmL  Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) March 24, 2022

At a dinner at King's House, the official residence of the Governor-General of Jamaica, William made a landmark speech in which he acknowledged Britain's role in the trafficking of people to the Caribbean and the United States.

"I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened," he said

His address came after a meeting with Jamaica's Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, who directly addressed his country's intention to break away from the British monarchy.

The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge

Samir Hussein/WireImage Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness watch as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge speaks on stage during a dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica at King's House

The rising tide of social and economic justice movements  including calls for slavery reparations and indigenous rights expansion  are rapidly reshaping contemporary views of the monarchy at a time when it is in transition: As Elizabeth, 95, marks 70 years on the throne, William and Kate are increasingly the modern face of both the family and the institution.

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The final leg of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's tour of the Caribbean will see them in the Bahamas, where they will take part in a sailing competition and champion environmental issues.

They may also face more criticism during their two-day visit. Ahead of their arrival, the Bahamas National Reparations Committee (BNRC) released a letter that stated: "The time is now for reparations."
Gayle Stewart

National Park Service Investigative Services Gayle Stewart

A search is underway for a Nevada woman once again after she last disappeared on Valentine's Day and was later found in a "miracle" rescue mission.

Authorities are searching for Gayle Stewart, 64, who previously went missing in February but was later found holding onto a tree on a cliff, NBC News reported.

In a March 17 news release about her latest disappearance, the National Park Service said Stewart, of Reno, was last seen on March 14.

Stewart was in the Bypass Bridge parking area near the Hoover Dam, officials said. She had been in the area taking photos, but never returned to her car.

RELATED: 8-Month-Old Baby Boy Found Alive in Louisiana Field a Day After Going Missing: 'Didn't Even Cry'

Hoover Dam from the back-side, the Lake Mead side

Getty Images Hoover Dam

The release described Stewart as a 5-foot-8-inch tall woman weighing about 125 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and was last seen dressed in a black long-sleeve shirt, black leggings, and black shoes.

According to the release, Stewart "did not have her phone or any identification on her at the time."

RELATED: Woman Missing After Falling from Carnival Cruise Ship Off the Coast of Mexico

Anyone with information related to Stewart's disappearance is encouraged to contact the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB) Tip Line at 888-653-0009. The ISB also has an online tip form and accepts email tips.

Stewart was previously rescued from a steep slope near Caughlin Ranch on Feb. 15 in what the Reno Fire Department called an "amazing find and rescue."

Gayle Stewart

Reno Fire Department Twitter Gayle Stewart's previous rescue in February

After her friends and family organized a search party, a friend of Stewart's son found her 300 to 400 feet from the road, holding onto the tree, local ABC affiliate KOLO reported at the time.

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While Stewart had been exposed to cold temperatures while missing, she was taken to the hospital and expected to fully recover.

Battalion Chief for the Reno Fire Department Seth Williams told KOLO that Stewart's rescue was "actually kind of a miracle story."

"The son called up some friends to start searching for her and one of the boys just decided to head off this cliff thinking maybe she fell down there and found her clinging to a tree," he said. "He said the last thing she said was 'help' and then didn't talk anymore."
A decade ago, when his documentary How to Survive a Plague rode a wave of festival acclaim to an Oscar nomination, journalist-turned-filmmaker David France probably didnt imagine that a similarly titled quasi-sequel was in the cards. A superb overview of the early years of HIV-AIDS activism in the face of political indifference and ineptitude  ultimately leading to game-changing medication and pharmaceutical policy change  that film has given France a solid grounding for another feature-length study of very different if somewhat comparable global health crisis, centered on the COVID-19 pandemic and the extraordinarily accelerated scientific race for a solution.

Researched and assembled with his characteristic intelligence and thoroughness, How to Survive a Pandemic serves as both a valuable potted history of the last two years of medical tumult and relief, and a critical progress report marking work yet to be done. Hardly the first high-profile documentary on the pandemic, but the most substantial yet to focus specifically on the trajectory of the vaccine, Frances film is assured a receptive audience when it bows on HBO next week, following docfest premiere slots in Thessaloniki and Copenhagen. (More so, perhaps, than COVID-themed docs released in earlier chapters of the pandemics ongoing narrative, when there was less light at the end of the tunnel.)

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Striking a balanced note of hopefulness and caution, How to Survive a Pandemic differs significantly from How to Survive a Plague in the largely present-tense nature of its investigation: Whereas the latter film had years of hindsight through which to process grief and evaluate systemic failures and breakthroughs, Pandemic has a rawness suited to its evolving moment, leaving many questions open even as it celebrates certain answers. One wouldnt be surprised to see a follow-up in years to come.

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To anchor a study that ranges far and wide, gradually expanding its purview beyond American borders to discuss First and Third World disparity in vaccine access, France centers renowned California-based science writer Jon Cohen as a kind of journalistic proxy. A specialist in epidemic coverage, noted for his expertise in global health relating to HIV-AIDS, he embarks on a globe-trotting vaccine research mission that gives these discursive proceedings a spine, and the film benefits not just from his genial, inquisitive presence but his formidable contacts book: This is someone who can quiz Dr. Anthony Fauci over a friendly glass of wine, to pleasingly candid effect.

Structurally, the doc is presented in two halves, focused respectively on vaccine development and rollout  which also break down, more or less, into the Trump and Biden administrations, with an attendant shift in mood and outlook. Were fucked on so many levels, Cohen despairs near the outset, when the vaccine is still predicted to be a year away. The film revisits the tension between politicians and scientists that followed the Trump administrations Operation Warp Speed initiative, which aimed to hasten the vaccine development process to a degree that concerned some experts. Oncologist Dr. Peter Marks, a research director at the FDA, is frank in repeated interviews about the political point-scoring at play, Fauci declares himself the only person telling Trump what he doesnt want to hear, while even Warp Speed head Moncef Slaoui, reflecting drolly but as diplomatically as possible on the former Presidents input, closes on a plea to the next pandemic not to be in an election year.

The various trials and approvals of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines lend How to Survive a Pandemic staggered surges of catharsis and optimism, though as the films second half takes on the vast international undertaking of distributing the jab, new problems and conflicts present themselves. Having hitherto been predominantly American in its coverage  with a digression into the catastrophic effects of the pandemic in Brazil, under the science-denying leadership of Jair Bolsonaro  Frances study turns more global.

A particular focus on the devastatingly slow, stalled rollout of the vaccine in South Africa exemplifies what one expert terms the catastrophic moral failure of private pharmaceutical companies and privileged national governments to bring the vaccine in adequate numbers to under-developed nations, as World Health Organization president Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advances the cause of vaccine equity. A spiky and unyielding interviewee, Cohen journeys to the Serum Institute of India to challenge CEO Adar Poonawalla on the Indian governments controversial export ban on vaccines: National interest supersedes contractual obligations, comes the cagey reply.

Closer to home, the film addresses the issue of vaccine hesitancy via the herculean efforts of Paul Abernathy, a priest serving a poor, mostly Black community of Pittsburgh, to talk his older parishioners through their anti-authoritarian skepticism over the vaccine and persuade them to take it  with mixed but ultimately heartening results.

Somewhat surprisingly, theres comparatively little mention of the more militant antivaxx movement that has held back a significant portion of Americas population from getting one potentially life-saving injection: Abernathy shrugs it off in passing as that QAnon stuff were not into, and perhaps France agrees thats all the discussion it merits. Smart, humane and gripping even as it rakes over events all too fresh in our memories, How to Survive a Pandemic ends with plenty yet to be discussed and explored: It provides a road map to survival, but doesnt suggest weve all made it just yet.

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Lily Collins attends Les Miserables Photo Call at Linwood Dunn Theater on June 08, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

Getty Images

Turns out, effortlessly sauntering around the cobblestone streets of Paris in sky-high heels is not as easy  or comfortable  as Lily Collins makes it look in Emily in Paris.

On Tuesday, the actress appeared on The Tonight Show and opened up about how her character's fashion choices on the hit Netflix series landed her in the doctor's office every week. After Fallon pointed out that fans of the show are "petitioning online to have Emily in different cities," the 33-year-old said that she'd "go all over the world with it" if she could  that is, however, as long as she could wear flats.

"The one thing is like, I just want to go to streets where you can wear flats because wearing heels, I mean, you wouldn't think how painful that could be in Paris," she told Fallon. "I actually literally went to a podiatrist every week to fix my feet because I was wearing heels all the time."

Collins went on to admit that she needed extra support in her shoes to make wearing heels for seemingly hours on end more bearable, saying "I had to have insoles made for every pair of shoes. I'm not kidding. I felt ancient." (Related: TikTok Users Say Spraying Your Feet with Lidocaine Makes Wearing High Heels Comfortable  But Is It Safe?)

Now, if you've ever worn a pair of pumps  even if just for, say, an hour  you're likely familiar with the discomfort that's sure to come with your style choice. And being that Collins had to wear 'em continuously while filming and on centuries-old, uneven streets, it's probably a good thing she made a point to visit a podiatrist weekly. After all, wearing stilettos regularly can have some serious repercussions. For starters, hours of wearing heels can result in chronic foot pain as well as increase the risk for injuries (e.g. sprains, strains, broken bones), according to the University of Utah Health Hospitals and Clinics.

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When you slip on a pair of high heels, you force your foot into a position such that your ankle is raised and your calf muscle is in a "shortened position," according to research. So, donning stilettos daily can ultimately lead to shortening and stiffening of the Achilles tendon, in particular, which can then cause plantar fasciitis. ICYDK, plantar fasciitis is a common condition that occurs when your plantar fascia (the thick band of connective tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot from your heel bone to your toes) gets inflamed, leaving you with a stabbing pain.

Not to mention, the unnatural design of heeled shoes (think: the "V" shape at the front of the shoe) can create foot deformities, such as hammertoes, bunions, and ingrown toenails, according to the University of Arizona Health Sciences. (Related: Foot-Care Products and Creams Podiatrists Use On Themselves) While there's no denying that high heels can (and often do) leave you with aching feet, they can also wreak havoc on other parts of your body. For starters, standing in stilettos  i.e. putting more weight on your toes, which tilts your body forward so you lean back for balance  can affect your entire posture, according to the University of Arizona Health Sciences.

"From an osteopathic perspective, we're looking for the body to be centered from head to toe. High heels put the foot at an angle and pull muscles and joints out of alignment, so the effects aren't limited to the feet," Sajid A. Surve, D.O., associate professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, told the American Osteopathic Association. "It's not unusual for people who spend lots of time in high heels to have low back, neck, and shoulder pain because the shoes disrupt the natural form of the body."

Sound familiar? And think heels are to blame? Then consider taking a page from Collin's book and visit a podiatrist to determine how to best alleviate your symptoms. You might also want to opt for more supportive shoes for a little while  something that Collins can hopefully do herself before returning to Paris to film season three.
Crime Scene

KiddNation

Detectives in Norfolk, Virginia are still investigating the deadly shooting that occurred outside of Chichos Pizza Backstage that left two people dead and three others injured.

Larry Boone, the Norfolk Police Chief said an argument broke out inside the establishment on March 19, but ended in tragic gunfire after the confrontation spiraled out of control in front of the pizza shop. Sierra Jenkins, a 25-year-old former CNN employee, and reporter for the Virginian-Pilot, was one of the victims caught in the line of fire during the chaotic shooting. CBS News reported, that an argument over a spilled drink may have led to the tragic incident.

Jenkins, who was described as a bright and talented woman with so much promise, was assigned to cover breaking news the night of the shooting. Coincidentally, an editor tried to contact her multiple times to head to the scene to report the incident, not realizing that the young journalist was one of the shooting victims.

When he didnt hear back, we called in another reporter, Kris Worrell, the editor-in-chief from the Virginian-Pilot told CNN. In reporting the story of the shooting, we discovered that Sierra was one of the victims.

Officers reported to the crime scene around 2 a.m. and found Jenkins and two men with life-threatening gunshot wounds. One of the men, named 25-year-old Devon M. Harris, was pronounced dead at the scene. Jenkins was rushed to a nearby hospital where she later died.

Worrell said Jenkins passion for journalism was undeniable.

She brought both energy and empathy to her work as an education reporter, Worrell continued. To have the life of such a talented young person cut short is devastating. Our thoughts are with Sierras family and all those who knew and loved her. We are absolutely heartbroken.

Jenkins graduated from Georgia State University and grew up in Norfolk. The passionate reporter had previously worked as a news assistant at CNN Health and as an editorial researcher at the Atlanta Magazine before joining the Virginian-Pilot in December 2020, according to CNN.

Boone said that investigators are still searching for the shooters and may consider issuing reward money to those with more information.

RELATED CONTENT: Gunfire Erupts Outside Of Teyana Taylors Halloween Bash
Tippecanoe County Offices of the Coroner, 629 North Sixth St., Monday, Aug. 2, 2021 in Lafayette.

LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Monday afternoon, Lafayette police responded to a call at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive facility, after employees walking through the parking lot noticed a man in distress in his vehicle.

The employees tried administrating CPR on Ryan Anguiano, 29, until police arrived, said Capt. Joseph J. Clyde, with the Detective Division at the Lafayette Police Department.

The employees were unable to resuscitate Anguiano by the time police arrived. The police determined that Anguiano died, said Clyde.

Anguiano was reportedly an employee at the SIA plant.

An autopsy was conducted on Anguianos body Wednesday morning, but the preliminary coroner report did not find any evidence of foul play or trauma, said Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello.

Coroner: Man hit by car in Subaru parking lot dies from injuries

The manner of Anguianos death, however, is pending toxicology reports, said Costello.

Costello expects the toxicology report to be completed within the next four to six weeks.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Man dies in Subaru parking lot after discovered in distress
Crystal Springs Cemetery is pictured on Tuesday, March 8, 2022. Two men were found dead at the cemetery on Sunday, March 6, 2022, police said.

Northwest police are still investigating a shooting that left two men dead in a Brunswick County cemetery earlier this month.

In the evening hours of March 6, Desmond Malik Radford, 22, and Demetrius Gibbs, 29, of Brunswick County were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds at Crystal Springs Cemetery.

According to Interim Northwest Police Chief Scott Perez, the town is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads investigators to an arrest and conviction in this case.

While no arrests have been made and no suspects have been publicly named, Perez said investigators believe the two victims knew one another and multiple shooters were involved in their slaying.

"Our leads are getting stronger," Perez said.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is assisting with the investigation, Perez said.

Earlier coverage: 'He was so young': Neighbors react after 2 Brunswick County men shot, killed in cemetery

Crystal Springs Cemetery is located roughly half a mile off Blue Banks Loop Road in Northwest, behind a large field and down a gravel road across the street from Crystal Springs Baptist Church.

Perez said officers responded after the men were located by family members who called police around 10:42 p.m. Both men were dead when law enforcement arrived at the scene, he said.

Officials believe the men were shot around 8:30 p.m.  approximately two hours before they were found.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Northwest Police Department at 910-655-3110.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Police continue to investigate Brunswick County double homicide
Mar. 24The Altamaha Riverkeeper is offering two opportunities to become trained as a certified volunteer for the state's Adopt A Stream program.

Community Water Quality Monitoring training will be offered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.on March 31 and on April 1.

Volunteers only need to attend one day of training to become certified. Training will take place at 715 Bay St. in Brunswick.

The opportunity is free.

"It's open to anyone in any watershed," said Maggie Van Cantfort, coast to confluence watershed specialist with Atlamaha Riverkeeper. "This is not just for people on the Altamaha. We will cover chemical water quality testing  that's testing for ph, dissolved oxygen, salinity, things like that  and bacterial training to test for E. coli."

The Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program is the state's volunteer water quality monitoring program that engages citizen scientists in water protection activities through a series of educational workshops.

Once trained, volunteers will be able adopt sites to monitor monthly and use their skills to protect waterways.

"Anyone who loves the river or being on and near the water, this is a way to spend 30 minutes to an hour once a month out by the water to take your samples and do your testing," she said. "And all of the data goes into the state Adopt-A-Stream website, which is used by EPD and any other organizations that want to access that data."

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division uses the data collected to make water quality designations and to identify issues that need to be investigated.

"The more eyes on the water and boots on the ground that we can have throughout the state, the better," Van Cantfort said. "We're able to catch things that need to be improved in our waterways."

A scientific background is not necessary to become a certified volunteer.

Van Cantfort can also offer training by request for those who are interested.

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"At the end of the training, there is a quiz that they have to pass to demonstrate their understanding of the protocols," she said. "After they pass that test, they're officially certified and we can help them choose a location for their monitoring."

Advance registration is required by March 28 and can be completed online at https://forms.gle/VPm5832UuAKv4uXY9.

Anyone with questions can contact Van Cantfort at maggie@altamahariverkeeper.org.

For more information, go to https://adoptastream.georgia.gov/.
A star of the Frozen musical has called out a group of audience members for racism after they walked out over his casting.

Obioma Ugoala, who plays Kristoff in the Disney musical, hit out at four audience members in their 50s who left the show, bemoaning my casting as woke culture silliness.

The actor has trained at Londons Drama Centre and acted in the Royal Shakespeare Companys Henry V and The Mouse and his Child.

Under a Twitter thread, titled #RepresentationMatters, the Nigerian-Irish Londoner recounted the incident which left him with sadness after Wednesday nights (24 March) performance in Londons West End.

Ugoala prefaced his post by calling the opportunity to play Kristoff the stuff of dreams for this little brown boy before addressing the group.

He wrote:  I feel sorry for you that this Nigerian-Irish Londoner selling ice with a reindeer as a BFF in a fictional land is a step too far for you.

I am sorry that in a world of Ice Queens and magic strikes, this d***** as you referred to me was outside of your imagination.

Perhaps you presumed you were safe to speak of me that way, not feeling youd be overheard, he continued.

However, Ugoala wrote that his experience paled in comparison with the feeling of watching hundreds of children... escape into a magical world for two hours every night.

I wish you had their eyes, the actor said, saying that the world is changing.

My Afro hair and melanated skin beyond the scope of what you could fathom.



But, sirs and madams, night after night, I see hundreds of children watch our talented cast of all hues and colours and escape into a magical world for two hours.



I wish you had their eyes.  Obioma Ugoala (@ObiomaUgoala) March 23, 2022

Ending his post on a hopeful note, Ugoala said: I am glad a new generation will watch our show and feel invited to dream of bigger, better and brighter.

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I am glad they will dream kindly and imagine worlds where we are all included.

Twitter followers and fans of Frozen shared their support of Ugoala, condemning the horrible incident.

One person tweeted: I showed a photo of the West End cast to my class (ages five and six). Nothing will compare to the faces of the black and mixed race children when they realised Kristoff looks like them.

Diversity on stage MATTERS. Diversity in Disney MATTERS.

In recent weeks, Disney has faced mounting criticism over its inaction against Floridas proposed legislation, the Dont Say Gay bill  which would prohibit state schools from teaching students about sexual orientation and gender issues.
SAN FRANCISCO  Mike Krzyzewski says the public nature of his farewell tour as Dukes basketball coach has come with a price.

It wears on you a little bit because everywhere you walk, everyone is taking a picture of you and they're watching everything, Krzyzewski said Wednesday. Look, that gets old. You know, that gets old.

Krzyzewski made the remarks in advance of the men's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 matchup between his second-seeded Blue Devils and third-seeded Texas Tech  and also explained why he chose to announce his plan to retire after this season before the season even began.

He referred to a meeting last spring with Duke President Vince Price.

I told him I would like to coach one more year, and if that was okay with him, Krzyzewski said, but I wanted to announce it in the spring or early summer because I didn't want to recruit in an unethical manner where you are telling a kid that he might play for you, and then you're going to pull the plug.

He agreed to that, and then they went through a selection process.

The selection process led the university to naming Duke assistant coach Jon Scheyer, which Krzyzewski said was a great decision on their part.

I've just tried to jump in and do this season like I do any other season, without thinking it's going to be my last one, he said. I didn't want to leave the program after COVID 13-11 (during the shortened 2020-21 season).

I love Duke. I love our program. I felt that continuity and how we might continue to have continuity was extremely important, and I think it's worked out great. Not good. It's worked out great.

WHERE DOES COACH K RATE? Ranking the Sweet 16 coaches in the men's NCAA Tournament

MARCH MADNESS RESEEDING: Ranking Sweet 16 teams based on national title ability

MARCH MADNESS: Men's NCAA Tournament schedule and results on the road to the national title

Mike Krzyzewski addresses the media at a press conference Wednesday at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Indeed, the Blue Devils are 30-6, coming off a stirring 85-76 victory over Michigan State in the Round of 32, and Krzyzewski still has a chance to win his sixth national title with one of his youngest squads ever.

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But Krzyzewski acknowledged the public nature of his retirement has put extra pressure on his players.

... I feel for my guys, he said.

At times the young Blue Devils have appeared to buckle under that pressure  such as a 91-73 loss to North Carolina in Krzyzewskis last home game at Dukes Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But in the NCAA Tournament, Duke has marched into the Sweet 16 for the 26th time of Krzyzewskis career. But the first time in which before each fielded questions about his impending retirement. And how has he stayed focused?

I've been fortunate to be on a very public stage for a long, long time, and in my young days I had great training at the United States Military Academy, and in five years as a military officer to focus on the job at hand, he said. That's your orders. That's your mission. It's not about the battle you won. It's about the battle you are going to fight.

Then when it's over, there's going to be another battle.

But eventually, the last battle.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Krzyzewski's Duke farewell tour reaches Sweet 16 vs. Texas Tech
Netflix is stepping up its game when it comes to affairs of the heart by ordering more Love Is Blind and Indian Matchmaking. It also has three new dating shows in the works to complement an already packed romance slate for 2022 and beyond.

TV Cancellations Photo Gallery: Shows Ending In 2022 & Beyond

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The streamer picked up two more seasons of Love is Blind, which returns for a third go-around this year. In addition, fans can revisit their faves from season two in the new Love is Blind: After The Altar, which is slated to bow in 2022.

. - Credit: Netflix

Netflix

Heres the official logline for Love Is Blinds season 3 that will be hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey: Singles who want to be loved for who they are, rather than what they look like, have signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating in Dallas where they hope to meet the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with  without ever having seen them. With no distractions from the outside world, the singles talk to a stream of potential love interests and when a meaningful connection is made, they propose and then lay their eyes on their fiance for the first time. Engaged and back in the real world, as the couples plan their wedding day, they will quickly discover whether they can turn their emotional connection into a physical one before the fast-approaching ceremony. This addictive 10-part series will uncover whether looks, race or age do matter, or if love really is blind.

Indian Matchmaking is not only returning for a second season this year, but a third installment has already been ordered for later. Matchmaker Sima Taparia is expected to return in the Emmy-nominated series from Industrial Medias The Intellectual Property Corporation (IPC), LLC and executive producers Aaron Saidman, Eli Holzman, Smriti Mundhra, and J.C. Begley

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Cancellations/Renewals Scorecard: TV Shows Ended Or Continuing In 2021-22 Season

Netflix is also planning an all-queer edition of The Ultimatum, a new show that premieres April 6 that focuses on six different couples on the verge of marriage but some of the lovers arent quite ready to take the plunge. That show is from Kinetic Content and executive producers Chris Coelen, Eric Detwiler, Sarah Dillistone, Stephanie Boyriven, Kelly Montalvo and Chris Cullen.

After streaming two seasons of the Australian version of Love on the Spectrum, Netflix has decided to launch a U.S. version this year. For those that didnt catch the show, it follows people on the autism spectrum who are entering the dating scene. Its from from Northern Pictures and executive producers Karina Holden and Cian OClery.

And then theres Jewish Matchmaking, also from the producers of Indian Matchmaking that goes like this: Jewish Matchmaking features singles in the US and Israel as they turn their dating life over to a top Jewish matchmaker. Will using the traditional practice of shidduch help them find their soulmate in todays world?

Finally, Netflix has an unnamed dating show in the works that will feature players from all the streamers romance joints who still havent found love. Heres the description of that new confection: Singles from Netflix reality shows have done some crazy things to find love. But theyre still single. In this new series, they will couple up to match each other and themselves in hopes of finding the perfect match. Stars will include participants from Too Hot To Handle, Love Is Blind, The Circle, Selling Tampa, among others. Its from Kinetic Content, too.

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Ron Perlman has slammed Ted Cruzs line of questioning for Ketanji Brown Jackson at one of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

The Texas senator posed a question to Ms Brown Jackson on critical race theory, a buzzword for the countrys conservatives, at Tuesdays hearing by asking if she believed babies were racist.

He specifically pointed to a book called Antiracist Baby by Dr Ibram Kendi and highlighted an illustration depicting a child with a header that said one should confess when being racist.

Soon after the hearing, Perlman hit out at Mr Cruz.

Hi Ted, Ron here, the actor said in a video posted on Twitter.

Listen, I know how tempting it is to appeal to the real lowest form of humanity here in the United States, the bottom feeders, people who pride themselves on hatred and un-education and inability to read and inability to understand the difference between true patriotism and the bulls*** youre selling.

I know how tempting it is to play to those people, he added. Because at least you have a base, but Jesus Christ Ted, for somebody with a really, really small d***, you get to be a bigger p***k every f****** day. Go f*** yourself.

Mr Cruz had asked Judge Jackson, Joe Bidens Supreme Court nominee, whether the theory was taught in K-12 schools and brought up how she is on the board of trustees of Georgetown Day School, a private school in Washington DC that many children of the citys elite attend.

Ms Brown Jackson had taken a long pause before replying to Mr Cruz: Senator... I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or as though they are not valued or that they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors. I dont believe in any of that.

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Georgetown Day School, just like the religious schools that Justice [Amy Coney] Barrett was on the board of, is a private school, she said.

Cruz then asked whether Jackson could admit the school taught critical race theory.

I dont know because the board does not control the curriculum, the board does not focus on that, Jackson replied. Thats not what we do as board members. So Im actually not sure.

Apart from Mr Cruz, Perlman also attacked Arkansas senator Tom Cotton by calling him a f****** white slaver piece of s***.

Mr Cotton had repeatedly asked Ms Brown Jackson during Tuesdays hearing whether sentences in general should be stronger for fentanyl traffickers and for child sex image offenders.

Republicans in the Senate have sought to portray the judge as soft on all manner of crime, including drugs and sexual offences.

Playback that line of questioning and tell me that wasnt the most racist thing Ive seen since Jefferson f****** Davis. F*** you, Perlman added.

Follow the latest updates about Jacksons hearing in our live blog here.
Vladimir Putins private army, the Russian Foreign Ministers stepdaughter and a billionaire friend of Roman Abramovich are among 65 new individuals and organisations being sanctioned, the Government announced on Thursday.

Polina Kovaleva, the defacto stepdaughter of the Russian minister Sergei Lavrov was among those who will have their assets frozen, the Foreign Office said.

The 26-year-old owns a 4.4million flat in Kensington and is the daughter of Mr Lavrovs alleged mistress Svetlana Polyakova.

Activists protested outside her luxury home earlier this month and branded her the daughter of a war criminal.

Billionaire Eugene Markovich Shvidler, who has business links to Chelsea owner Mr Abramovich, will also be subject to financial penalties.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged new sanctions - including against the paramilitary Wagner Group seen as the Russian Presidents private army - as he urged allies to "step up" defensive support to counter the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

It comes as US President Jo Biden announced additional sanctions on more than 400 Russian elites, lawmakers, and defense companies in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Biden said those who will face penalties personally gain from the Kremlins policies, and they should share in the pain.

Polina Kovaleva (Polina Kovaleva / East2west News)

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the latest round of sanction will hit oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs complicit in the murder of innocent civilians.

Some 59 Russian individuals and companies have been hit along with six from Belarus.

Russias largest private bank Alfa-Bank; Alrosa, the worlds largest diamond mining company; the billionaire founder of Tinkoff Bank Oleg Tinkov and the deputy chairman of Gazprom energy company Oleg Aksyutin will also have assets frozen in the UK.

Im announcing additional sanctions on over 400 Russian elites, lawmakers, and defense companies in response to Putins war of choice in Ukraine.



They personally gain from the Kremlins policies, and they should share in the pain.  President Biden (@POTUS) March 24, 2022

Ms Truss said: Putin should be under no illusions  we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up.

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All those sanctioned today will have their assets in the UK frozen which means no UK citizen or company can do business with them, and individuals subject to travel bans are also prohibited from travelling to or from the UK.

Todays sanctions will bring the total global asset value of the banks the UK has sanctioned since the invasion to 500bn and the net worth of the oligarchs and family members in excess of 150bn.

Polina Kovaleva (Polina Polyacova/Instagram)

The Prime Minister is using a Nato emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday to commit to a new package to shore up Ukrainian forces, including 6,000 more missiles.

Speaking to broadcasters after landing in Belgium, Mr Johnson said: "Vladimir Putin is plainly determined to double down on his path of violence and aggression."

Describing Mr Putin's treatment of Ukrainians as "absolutely brutal", he added: "We've got to step up. We've got to increase our support. We've got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today, as we are, sanctioning the Wagner Group, looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves, and also doing more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.

"We're moving, really, from a programme of supporting resistance to supporting the Ukrainian defence of their own country."
FILE PHOTO: Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara and President of the West African Economic and Monetary Union speaks during the summit of the Heads of state from the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union in Abidjan

BAMAKO (Reuters) -The court of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) on Thursday ordered suspension of the eight-nation body's sanctions against Mali, imposed in January after the junta delayed elections.

The sanctions severed Mali's access to regional financial markets and have contributed to its default on about $180 million in debt payments and jobs losses.

It was not immediately clear whether UEMOA would follow the court decision.

"It is a suspension measure pending a detailed ruling of the court," spokesperson Aminata Mbodj said.

UEMOA instructed all financial institutions under its umbrella to suspend Mali after the junta decided to delay elections intended to restore democratic rule after coups in 2020 and 2021.

The measures were imposed in conjunction with sanctions by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which froze Malian state assets, closed its borders and suspended non-essential financial transactions.

Malian authorities have repeatedly asked for the sanctions to be lifted and filed a legal complaint with the UEMOA court last month, saying they would have severe consequences for the population.

A regional banking source said the decision to unfreeze Malian assets can only be made by the heads of state who imposed the sanctions.

ECOWAS heads of state are due to meet on Friday in Ghana to discuss the post-coup situation in Mali. They will also discuss Guinea and Burkina Faso, which also had military takeovers in the last year.

Mali's interim President Assimi Goita, who was invited to attend the meeting in person, responded on Thursday saying he could only join via video link but would send minister-representatives.

The government later announced on Twitter that it would no longer be sending those ministers because discussions would only involve heads of state and take place behind closed doors.

It was not immediately clear whether Goita still planned to participate virtually.

(Reporting by Thiam Ndiaga in Ouagadougou and Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako; Additional reporting by Diadie Ba; Writing by Nellie Peyton and Sofia Christensen; Editing by Aaron Ross, Nick Macfie and Grant McCool)
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

Three years ago this month, Congress passed a law that got people killed.

The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, better known as SESTA/FOSTA, sailed through the House and Senate and were signed into law by then President Donald Trump in April 2018.

The bills sponsors said the laws were intended to address online sex trafficking by amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to create new liability for website owners and online platforms. Instead, they wreaked havoc on some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

In the immediate wake of SESTA/FOSTAs passage, sex workersparticularly queer and trans folks of colorwere cut off from online platforms and tools they used to make a living and keep themselves safe. This included collectively maintained bad date lists, commonly used to protect vulnerable workers from violent assaults on the job. Sex workers and advocates reported an increase in attacks, arrests, self-harm, and suicide. We cant screen clients like we used to, which is what was keeping us safe, Lexi, an escort from Florida, explained in an interview with HuffPost. This bill is killing us.

Now, four years later, lawmakers are once again obsessed with the idea of changing Section 230. Their reasons vary.

Sex Workers Fear for Their Future: How SESTA Is Putting Many Prostitutes in Peril

Republicans latched on to largely evidence-free claims of anti-conservative bias in content moderation. While their concerns about the power that large platforms hold over what can be seen and heard online are valid, they incorrectly believe that changing or repealing Section 230 will force tech platforms to moderate in a manner more to their liking (or they could just be cynically trying to rally their base while claiming to be the true defenders of free speech).

Ironically, according to the data from numerous studies, like this one from the Brennan Center for Justice, the groups most often censored and deplatformed on social media are those which conservatives regularly demonize and attack: people of color, trans women, and Arab and Muslim folks living outside the U.S., whose speech is systematically ensnared in the wide nets of automated anti-terrorism filters.

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Democrats, for their part, have misguidedly blamed Section 230 for a litany of real-world harmsranging from the viral spread of hateful and false content on social media platforms to vaccine hesitancy and teenage mental health. They tend to be right about the harms, as well as the ways Big Tech companies business practices exacerbate them. But they consistently fail to explain how their proposed changes to Section 230 would actually solve the problems theyre identifying. And worse, they often willfully ignore the ways that such changes can backfire, and harm the very communities Democrats say they want to protect.

All told, nearly 40 bills have been introduced in the last two congressional sessions that would amend Section 230, or repeal it entirely. One of those bills, the EARN IT Act, recently passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite overwhelming opposition from LGBTQ+ organizations, security experts, and human rights groups. There is a growing sense of inevitability in Washington, D.C., around Section 230.

One staffer for a top lawmaker told me outright, Look, we have to do something on 230 soon, whether its good or not.

Its unacceptable for lawmakers to legislate with the goal of scoring political points while ignoring the collateral damage to marginalized peoples safety and rights. If Congress actually wants to address the harms of Big Techand avoid repeating mistakes that have gotten people killedits essential that they learn from SESTA/FOSTAs catastrophic failure. Policymakers in Washington, DC, need to listen to sex workers.

Fortunately, theres a bill that would require the U.S. government to do just that: the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act, which was just re-introduced by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden, as well as Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna and Barbara Lee. It would task the Department of Health and Human Services with conducting a study on the public health impact that SESTA/FOSTA had on sex worker safety. And it would require the Justice Department to study whether the legislation actually accomplished its stated goal of cracking down on human trafficking.

Supporting a common sense information-gathering bill should be non-controversial for any lawmaker who is serious about legislating tech platforms responsibly. Even members of Congress who firmly believe that changes to Section 230 are needed should want to gather as much data as possible to inform their proposals.

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year showed that SESTA/FOSTA has almost never been used to aid federal prosecutions. Even worse than being ineffective, the loss of platforms has actually disrupted investigations into trafficking and identification of victims. Shouldnt lawmakers want to know more about that?

The SAFE SEX Worker Study Act has broad support beyond the sex worker communityfrom prominent LGBTQ+ organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and the National Center for Transgender Equality, anti-trafficking groups like Freedom Network USA, health advocates such as AIDS United, and civil rights leaders, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Color of Change.

We already know that SESTA/FOSTA set off a tidal wave of deplatforming and content removal. And it wasnt just adult content that was washed away. Platforms indiscriminate purges led to censorship of artwork, paintings, and cartoons by queer artists, and sex education videos made for at-risk youth.

Congress passed FOSTA/SESTA in 2018 largely in an attempt to rid the internet of websites like Backpage that allowed ads for sexually oriented personal services. However, its impact on the internet ecosystem was immediate and dramatic, Lawrence Walters, general counsel for the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, which is leading a lawsuit against SESTA/FOSTA, told me. Craigslist promptly eliminated all personal ads in direct response to the new law. Reddit shut down numerous subreddits and dozens of websites went dark or moved overseas. The law had no noticeable impact on sex trafficking, however consensual sex work was made much more dangerous, Walters added.

Im a Sex Worker and a Sex-Trafficking Survivor. Shame on Bill Maher for Mocking Us.

The lesson in all of this is that Big Tech platforms care a lot more about covering their butts and protecting their bottom line than they do about standing up for the human rights and free expression of marginalized people. And they will do almost anything to avoid a flood of expensive lawsuits, even if it means cracking down on perfectly legal content, or causing direct harm to vulnerable communities.

Faced with the threat of liability for moderation decisions and user-generated content, platforms dont moderate more thoughtfully or responsibly, they moderate in whatever way their lawyers tell them wont get them sued. That doesnt reduce online harms like hate speech, harassment, political censorship, disinformation, human trafficking, and child exploitationit makes them worse, or sweeps them under the rug.

The lesson of SESTA/FOSTAs failure has implications far beyond sex work and LGBTQ+ expression. Dozens of racial justice, immigrants rights, civil liberties and press freedom organizations have warned lawmakers about the danger of making rushed changes to Section 230.

We cannot have a conversation about changing CDA 230 without talking about the impacts on people of color, LGBTQ people, Muslims, sex workers, and others who will suffer those consequences of changes to CDA 230 most acutely, Kate Ruane, formerly of the ACLU and now of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, told me.

Nadim Nashif, executive director of 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, described widespread censorship of Arab and Muslim internet users, often spurred by pressure from the pro-Israel lobby or right wing anti-Arab groups in the US. If they could sue social media companies for allowing freedom of expression about Palestine, platforms would be even more likely to have policies that violate human rights and digital rights, he said.

Lawmakers from both parties have often described Section 230 as if it is a magical get out of jail free card specially made for Big Tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. They often fail to mention that Section 230 does not immunize platforms if they knowingly facilitate criminal activity, like sex trafficking or distribution of child abuse material.

Proponents of changing Section 230 also often fail to recognize that removing Section 230 protections does not automatically change platforms behavior the way they would like it to change. There is a lot of content that is harmful or distasteful but ultimately protected by the First Amendment, meaning that even if a lawsuit wasnt dismissed because of Section 230, it would likely fail anyway.

Misleading posts about COVID-19 vaccines, for example, are almost certainly constitutionally protected speech. Creating a carveout in Section 230 for health misinformation, or even for algorithmically amplifying it, wouldnt change that. All it would do is make lawsuits that are doomed to fail cost a lot more money. Silicon Valley giants can afford the armies of lawyers needed to stave off such an onslaught. But smaller platforms, nonprofits, and decentralized open source alternatives that serve marginalized communities would be easily bankrupted. Republican Sen. Mike Lee raised this concern in a hearing on the EARN IT Act, describing how even a small web forum hosted by a church group could be shut down if they dont have the resources for compliance.

Im an Oregon Sex Workerand the Idea of Gov. Nick Kristof Scares the Hell Out of Me

Thats exactly why Facebook has been aggressively lobbying for changes to Section 230: they know that such changes will only serve to solidify their dominance and monopoly power. Smaller competitors like Discord, Patreon, or Wikipedia would be unlikely to survive.

Big Tech giants surveillance capitalist business models are fundamentally incompatible with basic human rights and democracy. The techlash is more than justified. But even many of Big Techs most vocal critics agree that urgency should not be used as an excuse to enact regulations that do more harm than good.

During her testimony in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen referred to SESTA/FOSTA and urged lawmakers to be cautious when considering changes to Section 230. As you consider reforms to Section 230, I encourage you to move forward with eyes open to the consequences of reform, she said. Congress has instituted carve outs of Section 230 in recent years. I encourage you to talk to human rights advocates who can help provide context on how the last reform of 230 had dramatic impacts on the safety of some of the most vulnerable people in our society but has been rarely used for its original purpose.

If lawmakers really want to rein in the monopoly power and abusive practices of the largest tech companies, they should finally pass a strong Federal data privacy law. They should ban surveillance advertising and the type of pervasive data harvesting that drives Big Tech platforms harmful algorithms. They should pass antitrust reform bills like the American Innovation and Internet Choice Act and the Open App Markets Act. They should call on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to crack down on deceptive business practices, including privacy violations and discriminatory automated decision-making systems.

Once theyve done all that, if they still believe that changes to Section 230 are necessary, they should first do their due diligence and pass the SAFE SEX Worker Study Act to avoid repeating the deadly mistakes of the past.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge was published by Algonquin Books in March 2021. It retails for $16.95.

Amy Halvorson Miller works for Inklings Bookshop. She and other Inklings staffers review books in SCENE every week.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signs a bill that bans the manufacture, distribution and sale of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition on Wednesday at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. The measure was one of three in a package of bills tightening the states gun laws that were signed Wednesday.
Mothers are special. They give us life. They nurture us. And, they shape the way we think an
Ian McDowell is the author of two published novels, numerous anthologized short stories, and a whole lot of nonfiction and journalism, some of which hes proud of and none of which hes ashamed of.
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.
What changes after women enter the upper echelon teams of business organizations? As it turns out, quite a lot, according to new research from Corinne Post, PhD, Fred J. Springer Endowed Chair in Business Leadership and professor of Management at the Villanova School of Business, and her collaborators Boris Lokshin at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and Christophe Boone at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Post and her colleagues theorized that women appointed to upper management positions bring unique knowledge, contribute distinct perspectives, and foster team dynamics that shift ways of thinking in the C-suite, which in turn leads to different strategic renewal choices. Defined as the process, content, and outcome of refreshment or replacement of attributes of an organization that has the potential to substantially affect its long-term prospects, strategic renewal choices in this setting follow shifts in TMTs ways of thinking that occur after women join upper management.

And their theories are correct. In the year following a woman's entry into the TMT, there is a change in how the TMT thinks: their willingness to take risks declines by about 13.5 percent, and their openness to change increases by about 10 percent, on average. These numbers are even higher when a woman is appointed to a TMT that already includes women, indicating that female TMT appointments reshape innovation-oriented renewal strategies, especially when the TMT includes female incumbents. Post and her colleagues focused on M&A and R&D as a measure of shifts in renewal strategy because they epitomize TMT-level strategic decisions.

People often confound risk with innovation. We find that after adding women, firms still pursue innovation, but with more measured risks, Post says.

Additionally, Post and her colleagues provide unique insight into why female appointments influence firm outcomes. Their study suggests that no changes in TMT thinking occur after a male is appointed to a TMT position. Changes occur due to shifts in TMTs ways of thinking, which links female (and not male) TMT appointments with strategic change, presumably because of the values they bring (stereotypically or not) and because of the dynamics that unfold when groups diversify. Firms with diversified TMTs that experience these shifts in thinking go from a buying (M&A) to a building (R&D) approach to innovation.

The unique life experiences women have influence their path to the TMT. Post and her colleagues theorized that female executives are aware that they have lower perceived status and thus they more carefully weigh risks (and favor less risky gambles). Women understand that they are under heightened scrutiny and that one misstep may associate them with lesser competence. Thus, career derailment. Increasing evidence suggests that women develop strategies to balance assertiveness and acquiescence in leadership roles to navigate the complicated expectations of female leaders.

To prove themselves worthy of promotions to the highest corporate levels, women need to walk a difficult tightrope. They learn to stand out by promoting visionary and novel strategies to counter stereotypes, Post added. At the same time, they cannot afford to make any mistakes, because of the high career derailment price that comes with token-based hyper-visibility. Women in top management teams learn to carefully weigh the risks of their innovative strategies. It appears, their thinking may sway the elite groups that they join.

Post and her co-authors analyzed a sample of 163 multinational firms from 1998 to 2012, headquartered in 20 countries and representing multiple industries, allowing for wide generalization of their findings. All the firms were involved in strategic innovation actions (M&A and R&D). From that sample, researchers identified 2,771 appointments into top management teams, of which 276 (10 percent) were female appointments.

The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Academy of Management Journal.


WASHINGTON DC  Earlier this month, York Middle School Principal Kenny Loosvelt met with Congressional Representatives Don Bacon, Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith in the Capitol, to ask for resources to address the twin student mental health and educator shortage crises.

The meeting was part of the annual National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Advocacy Conference and National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) National Leaders Conference that brought 350 school leaders to meet with over 200 members of Congress and their staff as they finalize the FY 2022 federal education budget.

It was an honor to represent secondary school principals of Nebraska and both promote the amazing things our schools are doing as well as ask our Representatives for some much needed support with both mental health and educator shortage problems we are facing, Principal Loosvelt said.

To best serve our students, our elected officials must learn from educators who are actually leading our schools, said NASSP CEO Ronn Nozoe. These amazing educators know what works in their respective communities and we must use their hard earned knowledge to guide our way forward. But their efforts here today are just the beginning. Until we intentionally and systemically put principals at the design table, we will never break out of the cycle of try this try that, which has plagued education for decades.

NASSPs December 2021 nationally representative survey of principals captured the crisis principals and their students are facing. Findings include:

 School leader job satisfaction is at an ultimate low with almost 4 out of 10 principals (38%) expecting to leave the profession in the next three years.

 68% of principals report being concerned about the teacher shortage in the 2021-22 school year, with 41% reporting they are extremely concerned. Similarly, 68% are concerned about educator burnout, with 44% reporting they are extremely concerned.

 More than one-quarter (26%) report that the pandemic had a great deal of impact on their inclination to consider leaving their role as principal.

 9 out of 10 are concerned about student wellness this school year, with 49% reporting they are extremely concerned.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the leading organization of and voice for principals and other school leaders across the United States. NASSP seeks to transform education through school leadership, recognizing that the fulfillment of each student's potential relies on great leaders in every school committed to the success of each student. Reflecting its long-standing commitment to student leadership development, NASSP administers the National Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society, National Elementary Honor Society and National Student Council.


Ferrari is expanding its bounds with the new Ferrari Purosangue SUV. As per the recent updates, the Italian carmaker is all set to bring the new SUV to the market later this year. The automaker recently teased the SUV officially for the first time.

The new teaser gives a slight idea of what the new SUV looks like. It is evident that the new Purosangue will carry forward Ferrari's design language, mixing it with the body of an ideal SUV design.

The teaser covers the Purosangue with a dark veil revealing the design details in dim light. The teaser shows the bonnet with the new front grille and thin DRL lines. However, like an SUV, it is supposed to have a bigger road presence compared to any other Ferrari.

Also read: Mumbai Police promotes road safety in a fun manner using famous bike brand names

All of the looks of the Ferrari come down to the prancing horse logo on the grille. As per earlier spy shots, the new SUV has a front end with similarities with the Ferrari Roma

The powertrain on the Ferrari Purosangue is expected to be similar to on the Ferrari Roma. It will have a hybrid system with a 3.9-litre V8 engine. Being an SUV, it is likely to have an all-wheel-drive system.

Ferrari Purosangue is stepping into the market flooded with competitors like the Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX and many other powerful SUVs from the German carmakers. This is also the first time Ferrari will be exploring the SUV segment.

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The Mumbai Police Department has its own amusing method of sharing information. The department is well-known for its posts that appeal to the new generations. The cops have amassed millions of followers on social media as a result of this strategy.

In their latest campaign, Mumbai Police is using the names of the motorcycle manufacturing brands with a quirky touch to make people aware of the safety rules. They have used names of popular brands in India such as Royal Enfield, Ducati and Honda with slight changes.

The new post features multiple photos using the name of brands. One of the photos on social media read, "Royals on the field, wear your crown." Continuing with a similar quirky pattern, the post was captioned, "Follow Traffic Rules, Ya-Maha Fine Lagega."

Also read: India-bound Hyundai Creta facelift revealed at Thailand motor show, check pics

The quirky wordplay with the names of motorcycle brands has managed to keep the netizens engaged. In the process, the post managed to get more than 21k likes on Instagram, with people appreciating the post and praising the humour of Mumbai Police.

In a similar fashion, a few days back, the official handle of Mumbai Police was spreading awareness with the help of popular TV characters from the show Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah. The post managed to get more than 16k likes.

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International travellers are now only required to show negative PCR test results upon arrival, announced Indonesian President Joko Widodo on March 23.

Fully vaccinated international visitors are no longer required to undergo quarantine amid a decrease in Covid-19 cases in the Southeast Asian country. "If the PCR test result is negative, they can come out of the airport immediately and carry out activities," the President said in a statement.

The country's Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin told the parliament earlier that the number of imported Covid-19 cases is currently relatively much lower than that of domestically transmitted cases, making the mandatory quarantine for arriving visitors no longer necessary, Xinhua news agency reported.

Also read: How Black Box can solve the mystery of Boeing 737 plane crash in China? - Explained

The number of Covid-19 infections are declining in Indonesia. Health authorities on March 23 confirmed 6,376 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total tally to 5.98 million, with the death toll from the coronavirus rising by 159 to 154,221.

As the Indonesian government is accelerating its national vaccination programs to curb the spread of the virus, more than 195.22 million people in the country have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, while more than 156.13 million have taken their second dose.

(With inputs from IANS)

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Speaking in the Lok Sabha during the second half of Budget Session 2022, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that 15 per cent of total pilot strength in the country are women. Scindia said, "In all other countries in the world, only 5 per cent of the pilots is female. In India, over 15 percent of pilots are female. This is another example of women empowerment. There has been a lot of changes in the aviation industry in the last 20-25 years."

As per the data compiled by the International Society of Women Airline Pilots 2020, India has the highest ratio of female pilots in the world leading the list with 12.4 percent female commercial pilots as opposed to other nations. Next in line is Ireland with distant 9.9 percent female pilots. The data was compiled more than an year ago and since then, the number has further increased.

India soars at the top with the maximum number of female commercial pilots as compared to any other country. This #IWD2021, we celebrate the #NariShakti that #ChooseToChallenge the stereotypes and make Indian Aviation the success it is. pic.twitter.com/sRWCcLBBm2  MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) March 9, 2021

The survey further revealed that smaller regional airlines are the biggest employer of female pilots with 13.9 percent gender ratio, while cargo airlines have the least ratio at 8.5 percent in India. Indian female pilots like Capt Zoya Aggarwal who piloted the world's longest San Francisco to Bengaluru direct flight on Air India have been the talk of the town lately.

Globally, Ireland is second, closely followed by South Africa at third with 9.8 percent female pilots, while Canada is at fourth with distant 6.9 percent ratio. The fifth one is Germany with 6.9 percent as well. On the other side, countries like the US and the UK have only 5.4 and 4.7 percent female flight officers respectively.

Also read: Govt to build 220 airports by 2025, says Civil Aviation Minister Scindia

Highlighting that the Civil Aviation industry has become a key element of India's economy, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the simplification of pilot licence will be done in the coming days with the latest technology. He said that the Government plans to create 33 new domestic cargo terminals, set up 15 new flight training schools for pilots, create more jobs, and increase focus on the drone sector.

He also said that the Government has set a target of creating 220 new airports by 2025. Replying to the demands for grants of the Civil Aviation ministry for 2022-23, Scindia said that India had moved forward in domestic and international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With inputs from ANI

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NEW DELHI: Yami Gautam Dhar has collected great reviews from the masses for her superb performance in the latest release, 'A Thursday'. And without keeping her fans long waiting for the next release Yami's 'Dasvi' trailer is out and the actress is seen portraying the character of a Haryanvi cop and the actress has just nailed the accent.

Yami is a tremendously talented actress and is always seen playing a different kind of character in her films. In her latest OTT release 'A Thursday' she nailed the character of a school teacher who takes 16 students hostage. The intensity she bought to play the character has stunned the audience. And yet more brilliant performance she is all set to bring for the audience is in 'Dasvi'.

The trailer of the film is out and is steaming high on the internet. Yami in the character of a Haryanvi cop is winning the hearts. However, she has gone down a lot of preparations to put in a perfect dialect which is needed to justify the character.

Sharing about her preparations about the same, Yami shared," I took dictions classes from a teacher, Sisunita, to get the nuances right, to get the diction right. We worked on each and every dialogue and also how much to hold back because how much only is required for the character I think that's very important to identify. If it becomes too pure, if it becomes too detailed then it's difficult for the pan India audience to understand which is not what we want. So we identified and marked a combination of which is you understand her background but for the same time, you also understand what she is saying. And where to put the stress, because Haryanvi has certain width to it so how can we add it and what that adds to the character, so, we did the work to that kind of depth".

Apart from 'Dasvi' in which she will be seen alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur, Yami's interesting line-up includes 'OMG2' featuring Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathy and a few unannounced projects.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on March 23 informed the Parliament that a total of 10,60,707 electric vehicles were registered in India till last week, while 1,742 public charging stations (PCS) were operational in the country.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Gadkari said electric charging stations are to be provided by the developer on national highways as part of the wayside amenities (WSAs).

"The number of electric vehicles in the country, as per Vahan 4 data as on March 19, is 10,60,707, and a total of 1,742 Public Charging Stations (PCS), as per Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), are operational in the country as on March 21, 2022," Gadkari said.

Also read: Ola electric scooter customers complain about quality and aftersales service: Report

He said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already awarded 39 such facilities for development. Replying to a separate question, Gadkari said 816 toll plazas are operational on national highways across the country as on March 21, 2022.

On the policy regarding winding up of a toll plaza, he explained that as per National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, incase of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, after completion of the concession period, the user fee is to be collected by the central government at reduced rates of 40 percent. In case of public-funded projects, the user fee rates are to be reduced to 40 percent after recovery of capital cost of the project, the minister said.

According to Gadkari, Rajasthan (122), Uttar Pradesh (90) and Madhya Pradesh (77) have the maximum number of toll plazas.

Replying to another question, he said about Rs. 20,268.45 crore and an amount of Rs. 1,189.94 crore has been released/spent on projects sanctioned under the Central Road & Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) and Economic Importance & Interstate Connectivity (EI&IC) scheme respectively during the last three years.

(With inputs from PTI)

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A joyous Elon Musk burst into a sudden dance move as he delivered the first batch of Model Y electric cars made at the Tesla newest Gigafactory in Germany. The long delayed electric vehicle and battery manufacturing plant of Tesla better known as Gigafactory went live recently, rolling out the first batch of the companys Model Y crossover.

The video shot inside the factory has been making rounds on the social media platforms and receiving applause from Netizens as Elon Musk, the eclectic CEO of Tesla Inc is usually very reserved in his public appearances. Although, he is very quirky on his Twitter handle.

Elon Musk busted out his signature dance moves as Tesla officially opened its gigafactory in Germany, the company's first manufacturing facility in Europe https://t.co/rAOKN1qnHO $TSLA pic.twitter.com/lf8osh8msR  Reuters (@Reuters) March 22, 2022

Loud music was played as 30 clients and their families got a first glimpse of their shining new vehicles through a glitzy, neon-lit Tesla branded tunnel, clapping and cheering as Tesla Chief Executive Musk danced and joked with fans. "This is a great day for the factory," Musk said, describing it as "another step in the direction of a sustainable future".

Musk said that Tesla is likely to launch a test version of its new "Full Self-Driving" software in Europe, possibly next year depending on regulatory approval. "It's quite difficult to do full self-driving in Europe," he told factory workers on Tuesday, saying much work needs to be done to handle tricky driving situations in Europe where roads vary a lot by country.

Musk had hoped to begin output from the factory eight months ago, but licensing delays and local concerns around the plant's environmental impact held up the process. Tesla was forced to service European orders from Shanghai while it awaited its German licence, adding to rising logistics costs at a time when it was struggling with industry-wide chip shortages and other supply chain disruptions.

Also read: Teslas German Gigafactory opens for production

The new owners received the Model Y Performance configuration, a vehicle costing 63,990 euros ($70,500) with a 514 km (320 miles) range, Tesla said, adding that new orders from the plant could be delivered from April. Tesla said that around 3,500 of the plant's expected 12,000 workers have been hired so far.

At full capacity, the plant will produce 500,000 cars a year, more than the 450,000 battery-electric vehicles that German rival Volkswagen sold globally in 2021. It will also eventually generate 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery power, surpassing all other plants in Germany. Tesla is expected to initially import batteries from China for its German-made Model Ys before it starts local battery production.

With inputs from Reuters

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New Delhi: India has strongly rejected as uncalled for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's comments referring to Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, amid contacts between the two sides over a possible visit by him to New Delhi this week.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said China and other countries have ''no locus standi'' to comment on Jammu and Kashmir and they should note that India refrains from the public judgement of their internal issues, in what is seen as a strong reaction and message to Beijing.

The MEA's reaction came in the midst of contacts between New Delhi and Beijing over a possible visit by Wang to India going down to the wire with neither side giving any clarity on the proposed trip.

"We reject the uncalled reference to India by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the opening ceremony," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, in response to Wang's reference to Jammu and Kashmir in his speech at the OIC meeting.

Bagchi said matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are "entirely" internal affairs of India. "Other countries including China have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from the public judgement of their internal issues," he said.

We reject the uncalled reference to India by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the Opening Ceremony (of OIC in Pakistan). Matters related to J&K are entirely the internal affairs of India.Other countries including China have no locus standi to comment: MEA pic.twitter.com/5D5fg2hBnS  ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2022

Bagchi was responding to media queries on the comments by Wang. "On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope," Wang said at the OIC meeting in Islamabad.

The Chinese foreign minister began a two-day visit to Pakistan on Tuesday. Wang addressed the opening ceremony of the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

"This is the first time for China's foreign minister to participate in the OIC-CFM meeting. It fully demonstrates the sincere desire of China and the Islamic world to strengthen exchange and cooperation, and will surely lift our relations to a new level," Wang said in his address at the meeting on Tuesday.

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New Delhi: More than 100 school students were hospitalised after consuming lunch during Bihar Diwas celebrations in Patna.

As per IANS, these students are being treated at Patna Medical College and Hospital when they complained of uneasiness after eating lunch.

Dr Vibha Singh, Civil Surgeon told ANI that over 156 students have been admitted for treatment and are in a stable condition.

More than 156 students have been registered here for treatment. Everyone is in a stable condition. Most of them complained of upset stomach and vomiting, Singh informed.

Proper treatment is being given to them. We assume that there was some problem with the food. The District Magistrate has also formed a committee to investigate the matter: Dr Vibha Singh, Civil Surgeon pic.twitter.com/D5x8db1iZ9  ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2022

She also said that the district magistrate has formed a committee to probe the matter.

Proper treatment is being given to them. We assume that there was some problem with the food. The District Magistrate has also formed a committee to investigate the matter, she added.

Bihar Diwas celebrations were held on Tuesday (March 22) after three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had attended the event in Patna`s Gandhi Maidan where school students from across the state were invited.

March 22 is marked as Bihar Diwas or Bihar Day after in 1912 on the day the British regime divided the state of Bihar from Bengal. The celebrations are also in the neighbouring states and countries abroad by natives. The theme of this year's Bihar Diwas was Jal Jeevan Hariyali which aimed to raise awareness about the declining annual rainfall and water security in the state.

(With agency inputs)

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Slamming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over Birbhum violence in which eight people were charred to death earlier this week, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday said that the TMC supremo had destroyed West Bengal by creating `danav raj` in the state.

Chowdhury on Thursday visited the Bogtui village near Rampurhat in Birbhum in which the violence claimed eight lives on Tuesday. The Congress MP also said that TMC supremo`s visit to Bogtui village in Birbhum was like a picnic for her.

"Chief Minister came here today for a picnic. She came on a helicopter, held a meeting, had food and then left. She should have listened to the locals. She should have talked to the people here and could have heard their agonies," he added.

Speaking to ANI, the Congress leader said, "It is a living example of medieval barbarism. There is `danav raj` instead of `manav raj` in West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has destroyed Bengal. The connivance of ruling TMC and Police are looting the state. No other state in the country has this kind of situation. Yes, violence happened in Hathras and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. We also went there. But, the situation of Bengal is the worst."

Asked about the SIT investigation by the state government, Chowdhury said, "The SIT is just an eyewash. What happened in the Anish Khan case? An SIT was also made at that time. Nothing happened. Some sycophant officers of Didi (Mamata Banerjee) are made the head of SITs. We do not trust the SIT. We have demanded Article 355. We also want a court-monitored CBI probe."

Anis Khan, a former student leader was found dead outside his home in Howrah`s Amta area last month. His parents had alleged that he was thrown off the roof of the building by four police officers, who had come to search for their son. The police, however, denied the allegations. West Bengal government has formed an SIT to probe the matter.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday landed at Bagtui village to meet the kin of those who were killed in the Birbhum violence. A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal`s Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh.

Meanwhile, Calcutta High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident and directed the state government to submit a status report on the incident in 24 hours. The Court had also directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. Following the direction, CCTV cameras are being installed in the violence-affected area of Rampurhat. A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter.



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Opposition BJP MLAs staged a walkout in the Assembly on Thursday after the Speaker refused to grant time for a discussion on the recent Birbhum killings.

As soon as the members assembled, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, along with other saffron party MLAs, rushed to the well of the House, demanding a discussion on the violence in Birbhum that left eight dead, including two children.

The saffron party legislators held placards that had 'Manush mara sarkar, aar nei dorkar' (we do not want this government which kills people) written on them.

As Speaker Biman Banerjee turned down the demand, the BJP MLAs staged a walkout.

Replying to a debate on the budgetary grant of Rs 17,602 crore for her department, minister of state for health and family welfare Chandrima Bhattacharya said opposition members were keener on creating a ruckus than participating in the discussion on governance-related matters.

She pointed out that the Left Front government, during 2010-2011, had allocated just Rs 3,584 crore for the health department, and the grant under the TMC rule swelled to Rs 17,602 crore.

Bhattacharya also said that the Mamata Banerjee government had to incur huge expenditure for managing the situation that arose out of COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that the government set up oxygen plants in 27 hospitals and administered COVID-19 vaccines -- including the first, second and booster doses -- to 13.9 crore people.

She rued that the opposition failed to see these achievements of the TMC government and preferred to criticise the dispensation over other matters.

The minister further stated that the TMC government spent Rs 4,092 crore for its health scheme - Swasthya Sathi - which offers cover for secondary and tertiary care.

She claimed that the Centre's Ayushman Bharat health scheme was a copy of Swasthya Sathi.

Bhattacharya maintained that the number of nursing training schools, nursing colleges and multi-super speciality hospitals has also risen in the state over the past decade.

The budget for the health department was passed by a voice vote during the day.

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Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, known for his class-apart vocabulary, took a jibe at cabinet ministers on Thursday, saying that it's nearly impossible for any minister to not mention PM Narendra Modi while making an address inside the Parliament. "We are sliding into a brown-nosing version of North Korea," the senior Congress leader said in a Tweet.

As soon as Tharoor's tweet, a number of people were searching for meaning of the term "brown-nosing". For those who aren't aware, brown-nosing is a term used popularly in American English.

As per a definition on collinsdictionary.com, "if you accuse someone of brown-nosing, you are saying in a rather offensive way that they are agreeing with someone important in order to get their support."

The grammarist.com definition of the same says that the term came into use in the 1930s in the American armed forces. "Surprisingly, though the idiom has a vulgar origin, the term brown-nose or brownnose is not currently considered to be a vulgar term," it says.

Tharoor, who often engages with probing questions to the government in Parliament, has expressed disappointment with answers and interventions of ministers in the past.

"The current parliament session has made it painfully clear that it is no longer possible for any minister in this government to make a substantial intervention without repeatedly invoking the virtues of the Prime Minister," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram tweeted.
New Delhi: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in India Thursday evening in the highest-level visit between the two countries after the ties came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh standoff nearly two years ago.

Wang flew into New Delhi from Kabul and is set to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday morning.

It is learnt that the Chinese foreign minister's unannounced visit is more to do with the geopolitical powerplay in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with China even signalling its willingness to assist Moscow in dealing with crippling economic sanctions.

In the talks, India is unlikely to shift its focus from the eastern Ladakh border row as it is expected to press for complete disengagement of troops from all the friction points in the region.

The border issue is likely to figure extensively in the meeting between Wang and Doval who have been serving as the special representatives for boundary talks.

Both sides kept the visit under the wraps. It is not immediately clear whether the Indian side will facilitate a call on by Wang with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Ukraine crisis is expected to be the other major issue in the talks.

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Kolkata/Rampurhat (West Bengal): West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has reached Bogtui village, Rampurhat, to meet the kin of those who were killed in the Birbhum violence. Eight people, including three women and two children, were burnt alive in Bogtui village in West Bengal's Birbhum district. The carnage is suspected to have been triggered by the killing of a local TMC leader on Monday (March 21) evening.

Banerjee took a helicopter from Dumurjola Stadium in Howrah and landed on a helipad near the village amid tight security. She went to Bogtui village and spoke with the family members of those killed. The chief minister also separately spoke with the family members of slain local TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh. One of his family members fell ill while describing their ordeal to Banerjee.

Banerjee handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakhs to the kin of those killed in Birbhum violence. Financial aid of Rs 2 lakh will be given for reconstructing affected houses. Families of the people who died in the fire will be given a job and Rs 5 lakh, the CM said.

Watch Mamata Banerjee meeting the kin of those killed:

#WATCH | West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee meets the kin of those killed in #Birbhum violence. Visuals from Bagtui village, Rampurhat pic.twitter.com/iIhSQjLpu8  ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2022

Meanwhile, the autopsy report has revealed disturbing facts. As per preliminary findings of the forensic experts, who conducted the tests on the charred bodies found inside the houses that were allegedly set on fire by unidentified people early on Tuesday (March 22), the victims were first badly beaten up and then burnt alive, an official told PTI from Rampurhat hospital.

Security has been up in Rampurhat to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit. Taking suo motu cognisance of the Rampurhat incident, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday (March 23) directed the state government to install CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. The Court has also directed the state government to submit a status report on the incident in 24 hours (by around 2 pm on Thursday).

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee reaches Bagtui village, Rampurhat to meet the kin of those who were killed in the Birbhum violence. pic.twitter.com/Xk2iri2nAj  ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2022

Banerjee has vowed that strict action will be taken against the perpetrators irrespective of the party affiliation even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the killings as "heinous" and said that the culprits should not be forgiven.

Ahead of Mamata Banerjee's visit to Rampurhat, Superintendent of Police of Birbhum, Nagendra Nath Tripathi had inspected the village along with a large contingent of the police personnel. A special investigation team has been formed to probe the matter. The situation has been tense with several BJP leaders seeking the resignation of the chief minister.

TMC and Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has been at loggerheads. After meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah, TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said, "We've said that Governor of West Bengal should be removed, in view of the Rampurhat, Birbhum incident. His work is against our constitutional system. Parliamentary democratic system is under threat."

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New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi will be presiding over a meeting with the party's general secretaries and state in-charges on 26th March to discuss the current political situation.

The meeting will be held at party headquarters. All India Congress Committee General Secretaries and in-charges will be present at the meeting which will be chaired by General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal.

The Agenda for the meeting includes, "Special Membership Drive, Organizational Elections and Planning agitational programmes. The so-called G-23 leaders of the Congress party has been pushing internal reforms including organizational elections in the party."

On Tuesday afternoon, Sonia Gandhi met G23 leaders Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Vivek Tankha at her residence in New Delhi as part of her efforts to resolve the deepening rift within the party after the poll rout of Congress in fives states in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

Citing sources, the ANI report said that the Congress leaders in the meeting pointed out a lack of collective leadership in the decision-making process.

As G-23 leaders are pressing for organizational changes, the Congress chief is learnt to have said that the requisite measures will be taken after the August-September elections for party president.

Quoting Sonia, sources are quoted by ANI as saying "By August-September, the election for party`s president will be over. Focus on that. I can make changes only to a certain extent by then."

Further, sources reportedly said that neither the Gandhi family nor the G-23 leaders mentioned Kapil Sibal, who had questioned the party`s leadership, during the meeting. The G23 members have been raising the issue of a few leaders in the party taking every decision while their accountability is not being fixed.

The three Congress leaders told Sonia Gandhi that the general secretaries are making decisions in the name of Rahul Gandhi while accusing them for the poll rout.

"Who will take responsibility for the consequences of decisions being taken by a few in the party? The party cannot be handed over to a few people. Sonia Gandhi said that she will consider the issues raised by the party leaders in the meeting," sources are quoted as saying.

The G23 leaders are reportedly seen not happy with the party leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken and KC Venugopal, the general secretaries of Congress, and they have also demanded "collective and inclusive" leadership.

Notably, Gandhi`s meeting with more G-23 leaders is seen as an attempt to bridge the gap between the disgruntled bloc and the Congress leadership.

On March 18, veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met Sonia Gandhi after the Congress faced a debacle in five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand Goa, Manipur and Punjab that recently went to the polls.

Notably, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are due for assembly polls later this year.

(With ANI Inputs)

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NEW DELHI: A large part of Europe, the UK, the United States, China and Hong Kong have been witnessing a sharp rise in new cases of Covid-19 infections, triggering concerns about a possible fourth wave hitting India sooner or later.

Though the Covid-19 situation in India remains fully under control, with a sharp decline in new and active cases, experts have been sounding an alarm about the fourth wave hitting India around mid-June.

With more than 40 million confirmed cases, India is next only to the US which has the world's highest Covid-19 caseload. If top global health experts are to be believed, the Omicron sub-variant is behind the recent surge in the new Covid cases around the world.

Omicron, which carries more than 50 genetic mutations, is being blamed for the fresh wave of infections across the globe.

Covid surges across the globe

In several nations like the UK, China, the US, parts of Europe, the new Covid cases have more than doubled in the recent past. The situation is worst in China, which has announced travel bans and lockdown in more than 20 provinces and cities.

According to Chinese health authorities, the "stealth Omicron" is being largely blamed for a steep surge in new cases in China, which is also testing Beijing's zero-tolerance strategy. In Europe, Germany has witnessed 198,888 new infections on Tuesday, 42,000 higher than a week ago, according to a Reuters report.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy are among other countries seeing an uptick in new cases in the past week.

Where does India stand?

If health experts are to be believed, the fresh surge may not impact India, thanks to the strong immunity gained during the second wave. Though experts have been warning that the Covid threat has not fully gone and there's no need to lower the guard.

They have pressed for continuous monitoring of local level epidemiology, continuous genomic sequencing to identify any new variants of interest and concerns.

On 21 March, India recorded 1,410 new cases, down from a surge peak of 347,000 cases on 21 January. On the other hand, India has so far administered more than 1.8 billion doses of the Covid vaccine, fully vaccinating 80% of its adults. Some 94% have received the first dose.

In view of the massive vaccination programme, the authorities in several states have now lifted restrictions as part of measures to bring normal life and businesses on track again.

Another reason why India looks confident is the fact that a majority of Indians have acquired protective immunity to the virus by contracting the infection or by getting the vaccine.

However, some recent studies indicate that immunity wanes over time. Experts are now suggesting three doses of a vaccine or boosters to help protect people from severe disease and possible deaths.

This is why the central government has now started administering booster doses to its already vaccinated citizens and has so far administered more than 20 million vaccine doses to the targeted age groups - elderly citizens, health care workers etc.

India on Thursday reported 1,938 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours. With this, India's total tally of cases has risen to 4,30,14,687, according to Union health ministry data updated on March 24, 2022.

Indias death toll has climbed to 5,16,672 with 67 daily fatalities and the active cases further declined to 22,427 in the country.

(With Agency Inputs)

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With plans afoot to hold the Winter Session of Parliament in the new building, the Union government aims to complete the construction of the new Parliament complex by October this year.

Kaushal Kishore, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, told IANS that efforts are on to conduct the Winter Session of Parliament in the new building this year.

"Construction of the new Parliament building is underway as part of the Central Vista Project, and we are confident of completing the work by October. We are putting in all efforts into complete the project by October so that the Winter Session can be held at the new Parliament building," Kishore said.

Construction of the new Parliament building has achieved 44 per cent physical progress so far.

The minister admitted that the work was slowed down due to the Covid pandemic, but now it has picked up pace and should be completed by October as per the schedule.

"In Covid period, the work was slowed down. Now the construction work is going at a good pace and the new Parliament building will be ready by October," Kishore said.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on March 21, Kishore had shared the status and progress of various ongoing works under the Central Vista Master Plan.

"Under the Master Plan, the new Parliament building has achieved about 44 per cent physical progress and so far the government has spent Rs 480 crore on the project," the minister had said.

Kishore also informed the Upper House that about 80 per cent work of `Redevelopment of Central Vista Avenue` has been completed till now, and the government has spent Rs 441 crore on it.

"The Vice President`s Enclave and the common Central Secretariat buildings have achieved 3 per cent physical progress and the government has spent Rs 9 core and Rs 243 crore on them so far, respectively," Kishore had said.

The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that Rs 419.55 crore has been spent on various works under the Central Vista Master Plan since commencement of work in 2020-21.

"Rs 1,423.00 crore is the likely expenditure on the projects in 2021-22 and Rs 2,285 the is likely expenditure in 2022-23," the minister had said.

Kishore further stated that all the projects are monitored regularly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Central Public Works Department on a weekly basis to avoid delays and any inconvenience to the general public.
Its been days and we still cannot bypass the colourful and spirited memories of Holi. And for the one who roistered with Rang De Pune, arent you guys still rejoicing abstractedly? Sure you are, as it was one of the most remarkable Holi events of the year 2022.

Besides these attendees, Rang De Pune proved to be oh-so-special for Akash Pillay too. Here's how: As the founder of an event management company, this was his biggest event to date. And why not? This event, held at The Westin Pune Koregaon Park, accumulated the footfall of a whopping 7000 people, validating his vigorous success.

Talking about the gigantic megahit of Rang De Pune, here is what Akash Pillay said, "I will run out of words if I had to explain my overwhelming feelings. But, I must mention that making Rang De Pune this big wasnt feasible without my team and I cant thank them enough."

A coup is always the outcome of a supportive team, isnt it? While addressing his team and their ceaseless support, Akash Pillay also said, "I wholeheartedly thank George Kuruvilla, general manager of The Westin Pune, and Amel Joe, director of sales and marketing, because they bestowed me this great opportunity. My love remains underlined for my entire team, including Sunny Events, IceNation Events, and Elite Events. "

Starting from the House of Medici to now, not only hosting the events but also making them a smashing hit, Akash Pillay and his team have come a long way. Rang De Pune was spread all over the Internet via hundreds of Instagram stories and posts.

Akash Pillay is a brainchild with multiple interests. He is also thriving in the digital game with his fitness and fashion posts. Moreover, his influencer self has helped him fetch several endorsements too. We hope that Akash keeps our lives high-spirited with his spectacular events.

(Sponsored Feature)
New Delhi: India's position on the Ukraine conflict has been "steadfast and consistent" as it has been seeking immediate cessation of violence and calling for ending the crisis through talks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday (March 24). In the context of the unfolding developments in Ukraine, India has been emphasising that the global order is anchored on international law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, he said. Jaishankar was replying to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"India's position on the Ukraine conflict has been steadfast and consistent. We have expressed deep concern at the worsening situation and called for an immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities," he said. Jaishankar's comments came in the backdrop of increasing disquiet in the West over India not criticising Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and abstaining from the votes at the UN Security Council to condemn the Russian aggression.

"In our conversations with global leaders at the highest levels, we have emphasised to all member States of the UN that the global order is anchored on international law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states," he said. "Our position on the situation in Ukraine in various international fora and bodies reflects this reasoning," Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister said India, at the UN Security Council, has called for an urgent ceasefire and ensuring safe passage for stranded civilians. "As conveyed in our statements at the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, we have urged an urgent ceasefire and ensuring safe passage for stranded civilians," Jaishankar said.

"We have also highlighted the humanitarian assistance extended by India to Ukraine and its neighbours at this hour of crisis," he added.

Jaishankar also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken with the leadership of Russia, Ukraine, and its neighbours as well other major world leaders since the unfolding of the crisis. "He conveyed our considered view to all parties concerned that there is no other choice but the path of diplomacy and dialogue," Jaishankar said.

Modi spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 26 and again on March 7. "In these conversations, the prime minister expressed deep concern about the ongoing conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis. The prime minister reiterated his call for immediate cessation of violence and noted that India has always stood for peaceful resolution of issues and direct dialogue between the two parties," Jaishankar said.

He said Modi also thanked the Ukrainian authorities for their facilitation in enabling more than 22,000 Indian citizens to return from Ukraine. The external affairs minister also referred to Modi's phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, March 2 and March 7. "President Putin briefed the prime minister on the status of negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian teams. The prime minister welcomed the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and expressed hope that they would lead to cessation of the conflict," Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister said Modi suggested that a direct conversation between President Putin and President Zelenskyy may greatly assist the ongoing peace efforts. Jaishankar said the safety and security of Indians in Ukraine was the top priority for the government. "Even before the hostilities began, the safety of Indian nationals in Ukraine was our top priority. Accordingly, the evacuation of Indian nationals was undertaken on a mission mode," he said.

"We were able to safely bring home 22,500 Indian citizens, including 147 foreign nationals belonging to 18 countries, from Ukraine since February," he added.

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New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a Gautam Buddha University (GBU) professor was allegedly thrashed by unidentified miscreants after being dragged out of his car in Greater Noida. The GBU professor was brutally thrashed in front of several bystanders near the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS).

According to a newspaper report, the unidentified men also damaged the GBU professors car and fled the scene after they were confronted by a lab technician from the university.

The Greater Noida police have registered a non-cognizable report over the incident and are currently looking into the matter.

The victim, Professor Sanjay Sharma, who is the dean of the information and communications technology department of GBU, said that he was attacked on Monday when he had stepped out for some work.

As I was approaching GIMS, two vehicles overtook mine and stopped in front of my car. Within a few seconds another car, a Scorpio, rammed into my four-wheeler from behind. In the meantime, two men disembarked from the cars in front of mine and signalled to me to get out. Two more persons armed with sticks followed them, the GBU professor was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The report also informed that the unidentified miscreants broke Sanjays windshield with the sticks before dragging him out of the car.

ALSO READ | Covid-19 surge in US, Europe and China triggering fourth wave fears, should India worry?

One of them took the cars keys and the other started to bang the door of my car. I was clueless as to what is happening. They dragged me out of the car and three of them attacked me while the fourth stood nearby giving instructions, Sanjay claimed.

People just kept passing by or stood like mute spectators. The men left only after an acquaintance, a lab technician of the university, intervened. The acquaintance took me to GIMS and also called the police, he added. The professor also claimed that the police personnel had tried to hush up the matter.

In the meantime, the police have started the investigation and are trying to identify the accused.

The NCR has been filed under 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 427 (mischief). We are still verifying the details of the complaint and investigation is still underway, the SHO was quoted as saying in the report.

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New Delhi: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (March 24, 2022). Kerala CM is likely to discuss SilverLine project, which is facing a lot of backlash in the southern state, with the prime minister.

The meeting comes just a day after the Kerala Chief Minister informed that the land acquisition process for the Kochi-Bangalore Industrial Corridor, a leap forward in the industrial sector of Kerala, is progressing rapidly. The first major protest happened in Kottayam`s Madampally on March 18.

What is SilverLine project?

The SilverLine project is an ambitious project of the Kerala government led by CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The 529-km SilverLine railway project will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in north Kerala, covering 11 districts through 11 stations. The journey between two stations is expected to take four hours, whereas it currently takes 12 hours to reach from one end to another.

It is also being opposed by the opposition Congress-led UDF, which has been alleging that the project is "unscientific and impractical" and will put a huge financial burden on the state.

Where does the SilverLine project stand now?

Earlier, this month kerala CM said that Left Democratic Front (LDF) led Kerala government will implement the SilverLine project while assuring that the state government would pay four times the prevailing market prices as compensation for acquiring land.

"The LDF government will implement the SilverLine project. There are attempts to mislead people. It is natural that people whose land is being acquired for the project will be disappointed. But I want to tell you that the government will pay four times the market price as compensation," said Vijayan.

"Out of 2242 acres of land identified, the acquisition of 87 per cent is expected to be completed by May 2022," he said.

Why are there protests against the SilverLine project?

Many opposition parties, including Congress, BJP and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), are protesting against the project raising environmental issues.

Union Minister V Muraleedharan claimed that the rail project will be a disaster and will not help the state in any way. "The project will displace 30,000 families in Kerala," the Minister said.

The minister also stated that the government of Kerala has not done any study on the project and it is unviable. He also said that SilverLine project will be an ecological disaster as it is unscientifically planned.

The Opposition had also submitted a petition signed by 17 MPs from the state which said that the SilverLine project was an astronomical scam in the making and would sink the state further into debt. The petition highlighted that over 30,000 families will be displaced due to the project.

A forum of ecology experts, Kerala Paristhiti Aikya Vedi has urged the government to abandon the project and explore sustainable solutions.

A samiti also alleged that the project would cause great environmental harm as the building of embankments on either side of the major portion of the line will block natural drainage and cause floods during heavy rains.

Renowned Indian ecologist professor Madhav Gadgil said, Poor people will have to suffer the consequences of all this. The voices of protest raised by people will not be in vain."

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (March 24, 2022) expressed anguish over the sudden death of former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti. In his tweet, Modi acknowledged RC Lahotis remarkable contribution to the judiciary.

PM Modi in a tweet said, Anguished by the passing away of former CJI Shri RC Lahoti Ji. He will be remembered for his contributions to the judiciary and emphasis on ensuring speedy justice to the underprivileged. Condolences to his family and well-wishers. Om Shanti.

Anguished by the passing away of former CJI Shri RC Lahoti Ji. He will be remembered for his contributions to the judiciary and emphasis on ensuring speedy justice to the underprivileged. Condolences to his family and well-wishers. Om Shanti.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 24, 2022

The former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ramesh Chandra Lahoti died at a hospital in Delhi on Wednesday evening, family sources said. The former CJI was 81 years old.

Justice Lahoti was appointed as the 35th chief justice of India on June 1, 2004. He retired on November 1, 2005.

Born on November 1, 1940, he joined the Bar in Guna district in 1960 and enrolled as an advocate in 1962. He was recruited directly to the bench in April 1977, from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a district and sessions judge.

After serving in the post for a year, Justice Lohati resigned in May 1978 and returned to the Bar to practice mainly in the High Court. He was appointed an additional judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 3, 1988, and made a permanent judge on August 4 the next year.

He was transferred to Delhi High Court on February 7, 1994, and later appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on December 9, 1998.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met a group of eminent Sikh personalities and intellectuals and discussed diverse topics such as farmers' welfare, youth empowerment, drug-free society and Punjab's overall development trajectory.

In his meeting with the delegation of leading Sikh intellectual voices from across the country at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg here, Modi emphasised the importance of the spirit of unity, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.

The delegation thanked Modi for the invitation and said that they had never imagined that the prime minister would engage with them in such an informal setting.

They also appreciated the continuous and multiple steps taken by the prime minister for the betterment of Sikh community, the statement said.

The meeting witnessed freewheeling interaction by the prime minister with the delegation on diverse topics like farmers' welfare, youth empowerment, drug-free society, National Educational Policy, skilling, employment, technology and Punjab's overall development trajectory, it said.

While expressing his happiness at meeting the delegation, Modi said the intellectuals are opinion makers of society and urging the members of the delegation to engage and educate the public as well as work towards making the citizenry properly informed.

He emphasised the importance of the spirit of unity which acts as the central pillar amidst the wide and beautiful diversity of our country, the PMO said.

Modi talked about the significance of education in mother tongue and said that efforts are being made to develop professional courses in Indian languages so that higher education in mother tongue becomes reality.

The meeting went for over 90 minutes at the prime minister's residence as Modi spoke about his association with Sikhs over the years and the work his government has done for them, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who accompanied the group, said.

Sirsa added that Modi also asked the members of the group to reach out to him over any issue related to the community.

The prime minister said he considered himself lucky to be associated with several events and measures related to Sikhs his government has undertaken over the years.

"It (today's meeting) is like a hug by the prime minister to the Sikh community. The message was that community is important but the unity of the country is more important," Charanjit Singh Shah, an architect who met Modi, said.

Damanjit Kaur Sandhu, member Expert Panel National Commission For Women, said, "We discussed the drug issue in Punjab. Now we see youth from enriched families, they are also getting into drugs. Sir (PM) was very interested in making us read about the topic and raise concern about it at a larger level."

Retired IAS officer KBS Sidhu said in his 37 years of service, he had not seen anyone as concerned as the prime minister is about the Sikh community.

"I have not seen such commitment. Every Sikh, every Punjabi and every Indian should work shoulder to shoulder with him for his or her community, state and the country," he said.

Harmeet Singh Kalka, who was also present at the interaction, said there was no prime minister in history like Modi who would take every community along, not just Sikhs.

The group also included Karamjit Singh, VC of Jagat Guru Nanak Dev University, Patiala; and Guru Nanak Dev University (Amritsar) VC Jaspal Singh Sandhu among others, Sirsa said.

ALSO READ: Seeking financial aid to exchanging good wishes: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann meets PM Modi

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New Delhi: An Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel saved an 18-year-old boy who tried to kill himself by jumping in front of a train at Vitthalwadi railway station in Thane district of Maharashtra. The alert cop has been receiving plaudits on the internet for his quick reflex and taking up a daring action.

The incident took place on Wednesday (March 23, 2022) afternoon. The youth jumped on the railway tracks, when Madurai Express pulled into the platform, with an intention to kill himself. However, Constable Hrishiksh Mane, who grew suspicious after he saw an 18-year-old boy loitering on the railway platform, rushed to the rescue.

The heroic incident was caught on a CCTV camera and the Westen Railway shared it on social media. After the incident, the officers took the boy to Kalyan Railway Police station and called his parents.

#WATCH | Maharashtra: A police personnel saved a teenage boy's life by pushing him away from the railway track just seconds before an express train crossed the spot at Vitthalwadi railway station in Thane district. (23.03) Video Source: Western Railway pic.twitter.com/uVQmU798Zg  ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2022

Additionally, News agency PTI quoted an officer saying that Constable Mane did not care for his life, instead, he jumped onto the track and pushed the boy away to another track where no train was scheduled to arrive.

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New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi today (March 24). He is expected to call on Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal post his meeting with the PM.

"We need the support of the Centre to maintain national security. Punjab's financial condition is in doldrums. We've demanded Rs 50,000 crores package per year for 2 years to improve state's financial situation," Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann said on his meeting with PM Modi, earlier today.

Mann's Aam Aadmi Party had won 92 of the total 177 constituencies in Punjab. The Congress, which was the previous ruling government in the northern state, could only win 18 seats. Mann was sworn in as the chief minister last week. This is Mann's first meeting with the Prime Minister after his party AAP registered a landslide victory in the recently concluded assembly elections in Punjab.

Though the agenda of the meeting is not clear, it is being seen as a courtesy call by the AAP leader. Mann had earlier tweeted that he had sought time from PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a courtesy call to discuss issues related to Punjab.

Mann and PM Modi had interacted on Twitter on March 16 when the Prime Minister congratulated the AAP leader for becoming Punjab CM. "Congratulations to Bhagwant Mann on taking oath as Punjab CM. Will work together for the growth of Punjab and welfare of the state's people," Modi tweeted. Mann replied by saying, Thank you, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji.

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New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikha Parishad (UPMSP) is all set to conduct class 10, 12 examinations from Thursday (March 24, 2022). According to the reports, over 51 lakh students are likely to sit for the UPMSP Class 10, 12 exams this year.

As per the schedule, the state board will kick off Class 10 board exams with the Hindi paper on the first day, while Class 12 will commence with the Military Science and Hindi papers.

The Class 12 students need to note that the UP Board exams will be held in two shifts, the first from 8 am to 11:15 am, the second between 2 pm and 5:15 pm, while exams for Class 10 students will be held in the morning shift.

UPMSP 10th, 12th Exams 2022: Important guidelines

- Students must carry UP board admit cards to the exam centre, they need to reach the exam centre 30 minutes before the reporting time

- The students need to follow Covid-19 guidelines at exam centre- carrying face mask, hand sanitisers are mandatory. More than 25 students will not permitted in a class

- Students are not allowed to carry any type of electronic device to the exam hall

- The banned items in the exam centre include mobile phones, electronic devices, headphones, and any other electronic gadgets.

The students are advised to follow all these guidelines properly. The UPMSP Class 12 Exams would be conducted in 8,873 exam centres set up across the state. Class 10, 12 UP Board exams will get over on April 12.

The UP Board had released the full date sheet of class 12th board exams on March 8, 2022, and could be downloaded from the official website of UPMSP at upmsp.edu.in.

UP Board Exam 2022: Class 12 date sheet

Defence Studies, Hindi/General Hindi - March 24

Music (instrument and vocals) and Dance - March 25

Gujarati, Bangla, Marathi, Kannad, Malayalam, Tamil, Sindhi, Urdu and Punjabi and Accounting (new course) - March 26,

Geography and Home Science - March 28

Drawing and arts besides Economics and Commerce Geography (old course) - March 29

Pali, Arabic and Persian besides English new/old course - March 30

Mathematics and Elementary statistics (old course) and History - March 31

Psychology, Education, Biology and Mathematics - April 4

Computer - April 6

Economics and Physics - April 7

Sanskrit - April 9

Chemistry and sociology - April 11

Civics - April 12

UP Board Exam 2022: Class 10 date sheet

Hindi - March 24

Home Science - March 26

Painting Art - March 28

Computer - 30 March

English - April 1

Social Science - April 4

Science - 6 April

Sanskrit - April 8

Math - April 11

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Dehradun: In a significant development, Uttarakhand has decided to implement the Uniform Civil Code in the state, and will thus become the first state in India to do so. "The Uttarakhand Cabinet has decided to form a committee on the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in the state," said Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. A day after being sworn-in, the Uttarakhand Cabinet led by Chief Minister Dhami made the announcement. The decision was taken at the first meeting of the new cabinet held in Dehradun.

"We have decided to implement the Uniform Civil Code in the state. The state cabinet unanimously approved that a committee (of experts) will be constituted at the earliest and it will be implemented in the state. This will be the first state to do so," Dhami was quoted by ANI.

By taking a decision on the Uniform Civil Code in the very first meeting of the state cabinet, Dhami has fulfilled a major pre-poll promise made by him. He had announced on the last day of campaigning for the February 14 state assembly polls that if re-elected to power, the BJP government will form a high-powered committee consisting of legal experts, senior citizens, and intellectuals to draft the Uniform Civil Code.

Earlier on Wednesday, the newly-sworn in Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Dhami took part in the famous Ganga Arti at 'Har ki Pauri' in Haridwar. Dhami along with his family members reached Haridwar and offered his prayers to river Ganga and performed Ganga Arti on the banks of the Holy River after taking the oath as the chief minister of the state. CM performed puja of the holy river by making an offering of flowers and milk.

Dhami's oath-taking ceremony was attended by PM Narendra Modi, who expressed confidence that the new government will establish a new paradigm of development in line with people's aspirations.

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New Delhi: After being unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party on Thursday (March 24), Yogi Adityanath will take oath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh once again on Friday.

The meeting of the newly elected party BJP MLAs was held at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow today in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Speaking at Lok Bhawan, Adityanath said this is the first time in UP that a party has been reelected after completing five years and this happened because of Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership.

For the first time a CM completed his 5-year tenure and the party came to power once again for the second time (in Uttar Pradesh). This has happened for the first time. It has happened under the guidance and leadership of PM Modi, Yogi Adityanath said.

He further said a lot of work has to be completed in the state in the coming years.

The people of Uttar Pradesh had this belief 'Modi hai toh mumkin hai'. We have to work together again for the betterment of the state. UP is the most populated state in the country, there is a lot of work I have to do in the coming years, the UP CM-designate was quoted as saying by ANI.

For the first time a CM completed his 5-year tenure and the party came to power once again for the second time (in Uttar Pradesh). This has happened for the first time. It has happened under the guidance and leadership of PM Modi: UP CM-designate Yogi Adityanath pic.twitter.com/vCRQqqwbrd  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 24, 2022

There were several development projects successfully carried out in UP in last 5 years with the support of PM Modi. For the first time, people realised that homes for poor could be built, for the first time people realised that UP can be riot free, he added.

Praising Yogi Adityanath for the law and order situation in the state during his tenure as the UP CM, Shah said, "Yogi government has done the work of strengthening law and order situation in the last 5 years. Our government provided security to every single person of the state. We did not ask about anyone's religion before benefitting with our schemes."

"In the last 35 years, not a single political party has got majority for two consecutive terms in Uttar Pradesh. In 2014, BJP announced Narendra Modi as PM of India and under his leadership, we saw the dream of forming our government in UP in 2017 for the first time," the Union Home Minister said.

Adityanath will visit the Raj Bhawan in Lucknow to meet Governor Anandiben Patel and stake claim to form the government.

Uttar Pradesh CM-designate and Amit Shah had earlier offered floral tribute to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Indian Army has released several vacancies to hire for several Short Service Commission (SSC) posts. Eligible candidates can apply on the official website at joinindianarmy.nic.in on or before April 6, 2022.

The course will begin in October 2022 at Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The recruitment drive will fill a total of 191 vacancies in the Indian Army. Notably, applications have been invited from unmarried male and unmarried female Engineering Graduates and from Widows of Indian Armed Forces Defence Personnel who died in harness for grant of Short Service Commission (SSC) in the Indian Army, the official notification read.

Indian Army Recruitment 2022: Vacancy details

SSC Tech Men 59th course - 175 posts

SSC Tech Women 30th Course - 14 posts

Widows of Defence Personnel - 2 posts

Indian Army Recruitment 2022: Age limit

For SSC (Tech)- 59 Men and SSCW(Tech)- 30 Women: 20 to 27 years as on October 1, 2022

For widows of Indian Armed Forces Defence Personnel who Died in Harness Only: SSCW (Non Tech) [Non UPSC] and SSCW(Tech)- Upper age limit of 35 years of age as on October 1, 2022

Indian Army Recruitment 2022: Steps to apply

1. Visit the official website at www.joinindianarmy.nic.in.

2. Click on Officer Entry Appln/Login and then Registration (if not already registered).

3. Fill the form and submit

4. Download and take a printout for future reference.

For more details, read the official notification HERE.

ALSO READ: DRDO Recruitment 2022: Apply for various Apprentice posts, check details here

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New Delhi: HDFC Mutual Fund has filed a scheme information document (SID) with SEBI to come up with Indias first Defence Fund. Called the HDFC Defence Fund, it will be an open-ended equity scheme that will be investing in defence & allied sector companies.

In its draft paper, HDFC said that the Investment Objective will be to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related securities of Defence & allied sector companies. Allied sectors include Aerospace, Explosives, Ship Building, industries /stocks present on SIDM (Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers) list or any other similar industries / stocks allied to the Defence sector. (Also read: Secure your spouse's future with THIS scheme, here's how to get Rs 44,793 monthly pension)

"The Scheme offered being an open-ended scheme will offer Units for Sale / Switch-in and Redemption / Switch-out on every Business Day at NAV based prices when the Scheme re-opens for ongoing transactions (after the NFO). As per SEBI (MF) Regulations, the Mutual Fund shall despatch redemption proceeds within 10 Business Days from the date of redemption. A penal interest of 15% or such other rate as may be prescribed by SEBI from time to time, will be paid by the AMC in case the redemption proceeds are not dispatched within 10 Business Days from the date of redemption. However, under normal circumstances, the Mutual Fund would endeavour to pay the redemption proceeds within 3-4 Business Days (as applicable) from the date of redemption," said the draft paper.

The Minimum Application Amount During NFO Period Purchase will be Rs 5,000 and any amount thereafter. During continuous offer period (after scheme re-opens for repurchase and sale) Purchase will be Rs 5,000 and any amount thereafter. Additional Purchase will be Rs 1,000 and any amount thereafter.
New Delhi: While dismissing the bail petition of Anand Subramanian in connection with the NSE co-location case, the Special CBI court of Delhi on Thursday remarked on the mysterious "Himalayan Yogi" and said that the investigating agency is in the process of "removing the secret veil" to reveal "true face" of the Yogi who is "as elusive as the anecdotal Himalayan Yeti".

Earlier, the CBI claimed that former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna had been guided by a "Himalayan Yogi" while taking important decisions during her tenure and also shared the bourse`s internal matters with a mysterious person -- the Himalayan Yogi.

The court noted that the prosecution alleged that the present accused (Anand Subramanian) is the Himalayan Yogi, to whom confidential information regarding the structure and working of NSE was shared on the email rigyajursama@outlook.com by the co-accused Chitra Ramakrishna, who is alleged to have been working in tandem in this alleged insidious conspiracy called co-location scam.

The special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal while dismissing the bail plea of Anand Subramanian said that the prosecution at this stage of investigation is stated to be working on disjoint scattered dots, from which it has to conjure a final picture in the shape of a charge sheet. The investigations which are at the initial stage will crystalize into concrete form only after filing the charge sheet.

"Therefore, considering the grave and serious allegations against the present accused, as discussed above, no ground for his bail is made out at this stage. The application stands dismissed," said the court.Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and ex-advisor to former MD of National Stock Exchange (NSE) was the first person arrested by the CBI in the case last month.

Earlier, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, who appeared for Subramanian, argued that as far as the allegations contained in the FIR are concerned, the applicant has been wrongly implicated in the case, since he is not connected in any manner with the allegations so levelled. No offence is made out even from a reading of the FIR.

"In fact, the FIR pertains to the applicant`s alleged role in the unfair access to Co-location facilities to one Sanjay Gupta and his company OPG Security Pvt Ltd. It has been stated that Sanjay Gupta with help from unknown persons, managed the data centre staff of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who passed on information regarding switching on time of NSE exchange servers, which gave him an unfair advantage," submitted Singh.

Advocates Vishnu Mohan and Aakashi Lodha also appeared for Arvind Subramanian in the case.The CBI counsel while opposing the bail plea submitted that 832 GB of data was recovered."We recovered it from the archive. We have written to Microsoft to give us the complete data. He was not cooperating with us. He even deleted material and certain emails. Anand is very influential and there is every possibility that he might flee," said the CBI lawyer.

CBI further submitted that this person was known to Chitra Ramkrishna prior to joining the NSE."There are several emails of this person influencing Chitra. The emails that have been extracted suggests that sensitive information has been leaked," it said.Earlier, the CBI submitted that they are seriously looking at all the aspects of the investigation and a special team of 30 officials consisting of senior officials has been formed to probe the case."We are also probing the role of SEBI officials in the matter. We have also recently questioned Ravi Narain, former MD of NSE," the CBI said.

The court recently sent former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case in Judicial remand.According to the CBI investigation, group operating officer Anand Subramanian`s appointment was influenced by NSE chairman and MD Chitra Ramakrishnan.

The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers.Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) penalized the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former CEOs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

The market regulator observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.

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Mumbai: One can't surely miss eating pizzas while travelling in Europe, and it seems like actor Deepika Padukone is also satiating her taste buds with delicious pizza during her ongoing shooting schedule in Spain.

On Thursday, Deepika took to Instagram and shared a photograph of the pizza slices. The pizza oozed with cheese and had delectable tomato slices on the top. "drools," she captioned the post.

Deepika's picture of mouth-watering pizza has garnered several likes and comments from netizens. Some even wondered if the actor would eat an entire pizza by herself.

"How do you manage to stay slim by eating junk. Please share tips," a social media user commented.

"The pizza looks so yummy. Going to order one for me," another one wrote.

Deepika is currently in Spain for the shoot of her film 'Pathaan', which also stars Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham. It is scheduled to release in theatres on January 25, 2023.
New Delhi: The month of April has several holidays --some being observed nation-wide while some local festivities being celebrated across the country. Several bank branches will remain closed in various states owing to these festivities. Before visiting your bank branch in the month of April, you must note down the list of important days during which banks will remain closed.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mentioned some days when the banking operations will remain closed in the month of April 2022, although online banking activities will continue to work. (Also read: Secure your spouse's future with THIS scheme, here's how to get Rs 44,793 monthly pension)

Banks will remain closed for total 15 days in the month of April -- 9 as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) holiday calendar list and the remaining days are that of weekends. However, you must note that the banks will NOT be closed for 15 days in all states or regions. This is the total number of days when banks in different parts of the country will remain closed for state-observed holidays. For example bank branches might be closed for Bohag Bihu in Assam but not closed for the same in other states.

Reserve Bank of India places its Holidays under three brackets --Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act; Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday; and Banks Closing of Accounts. However, it must be noted that the bank holidays vary in various states as well not observed by all the banking companies. Banking holidays also depend on the festivals being observed in specific states or notification of specific occasions in those states.

Here is an elaborate list of bank holidays falling in the month of April 2022. Check out the list.

Holiday Description as per RBI

Yearly Closing of Bank Account: April 1

Gudi Padwa/Ugadi Festival/1st Navratra/Telugu New Year's Day/Sajibu Nongmapanba (Cheiraoba): April 2

Sarhul: April 4

Babu Jagjivan Rams Birthday: April 5

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti/Mahavir Jayanti/Baisakhi/Vaisakhi/Tamil New Year's Day/Cheiraoba/Biju Festival/Bohag Bihu: April 14

Good Friday/Bengali New Years Day (Nababarsha)/Himachal Day/Vishu/Bohag Bihu: April 15

Bohag Bihu: April 16

Garia Puja: April 21

Shab-I-Qadr/Jumat-ul-Vida: April 29

Apart from the above bank holidays, the second and fourth Saturdays, Sundays of the month are falling on the following dates:

Sunday: April 3

Second Saturday: April 9

Sunday: April 10

Sunday: April 17

Fourth Saturday: April 23

Sunday: April 24

Holidays of the mentioned days will be observed in various regions according to the state declared holidays, however for the gazetted holidays, banks will be closed all over the country.

If you keep a track of these holidays, you would be able to plan bank transaction activities in a better way. For long weekends, you can even plan your holidays well.

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New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Axis Bank for violation of merchant banker regulations. Axis Bank is registered as a merchant banker with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The regulator had conducted an examination of the debt capital market operations of Axis Bank during the August 2016 to August 2019 period. It was observed that Axis Bank (noticee) had acted as the merchant banker in respect of 22 public issuances of debt of various companies during the given period.

During that time, it had also acquired securities in respect of 9 public issues of debt made by the said companies.

However, Axis Bank failed to make the requisite disclosures under the merchant bankers regulations following which Sebi has imposed a penalty on the entity.

Under Sebi norms, every merchant banker should submit complete particulars of the transactions relating to the acquisition of securities of the body corporate whose securities are managed by the merchant banker. This has to be done within 15 days from the date of such transactions.

In a 11-page order, Sebi's Adjudicating Officer Suresh B Menon said the noticee has failed to comply with the requirements under the merchant bankers regulations for almost 3 years -- from August 2016 to August 2019.

"I find that the material made available has not shown any instances of investor complaints received against the noticee on account of the above non-compliance by the noticee. The noticee as per its submission has also taken necessary corrective steps to avoid recurrence of such lapses," he said in the order.

However, he noted that the noticee as a registered market intermediary has failed to comply with the obligation cast on it under the merchant bankers regulations for three consecutive years and imposed Rs 5 lakh penalty. Also Read: Petrol, diesel prices to increase again on Friday; check rates in Delhi, Mumbai

Sebi examined the noticee's debt capital market operations on the basis of a reference in December 2019 received from the bank with respect to the internal review of its debt capital market business. Also Read: Deadline for Aadhaar card linking with ration cards extended till June 30

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Time for COMELEC to flex its muscles vs. vote-buying;

be more pro-active and aggressive

Re-electionist Senator Leila M. de Lima urged the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to swiftly investigate election law violations, including vote-buying.

De Lima, a former election lawyer, said the COMELEC should exert extra effort in promoting clean and fair elections, especially now that the national elections are roughly just two months away.

"COMELEC, on its own can, investigate and prosecute election law violations. The Constitution and the Omnibus Election Code are clear on this. COMELEC has to be more pro-active and aggressive in addressing vote buying and other election malpractices," she said.

"With or without complaint, COMELEC must act promptly and decisively on reports of vote-buying with the view of prosecuting those involved. Hindi pwedeng magbulag-bulagan lang ang COMELEC sa lantarang mga paglabag sa batas at pangmamaliit sa kanilang mandato," she added.

Recently, Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla was criticized for giving away cash prizes in a dance contest during the campaign rally of the tandem of presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Sara Duterte.

De Lima, who is seeking re-election under the Pangilinan-Robredo ticket, lamented how there have been several reports of alleged vote-buying recently that are yet to be investigated.

"Panahon na para sampulan ang mga sangkot. Hindi pwedeng puro lang lip service. We should never normalize vote-buying," she said.

De Lima further said "Malaking dagok sa ating demokrasya ang vote-buying. We have seen how massive and rampant this malpractice is in past elections. Should COMELEC not flex its muscles this time, this scourge of vote-buying will most surely exacerbate in the current election campaign."

"The voters' sovereign will need to be freely and genuinely expressed, free from improper considerations like money," she added.
NEW DELHI: Punjab's newly-appointed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday (March 24, 2022). The two leaders are expected to meet around 11 am.

This will be Mann's first meeting with the Prime Minister after his party AAP registered a landslide victory in the recently concluded assembly elections in Punjab. Mann was sworn in as the chief minister last week.

Though the agenda of the meeting is not clear, it is being seen as a courtesy call by the AAP leader. Mann had earlier tweeted that he had sought time from PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a courtesy call to discuss issues related to Punjab.

Mann and PM Modi had interacted on Twitter on March 16 when the Prime Minister congratulated the AAP leader for becoming Punjab CM. "Congratulations to Bhagwant Mann on taking oath as Punjab CM. Will work together for the growth of Punjab and welfare of the state's people," Modi tweeted.

Mann replied by saying, Thank you, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji.

It may be recalled that Mann's AAP had won 92 of the total 177 constituencies in Punjab. The Congress, which was the previous ruling government in the northern state, could only win 18 seats.

Mann, who was contesting from Dhuri Assembly constituency in Sangrur district, defeated Congress leader Dalvir Singh Goldy by a margin of more than 58,000 votes.

Upon taking over as chief minister, Bhawant Mann held his first cabinet meeting and approved the provision of 25,000 jobs to youngsters in departments, boards and corporations of the Punjab government. Mann also said that the state government has started the process to regularize 35,000 contractual government employees.

Among other measures, he also launched an anti-corruption helpline to weed out corruption from the govt and other departments.

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New Delhi: Homegrown housing brokerage firm Anarock, which has got the mandate to sell around 5,400 unsold flats of erstwhile Amrapali group, on Thursday said it has facilitated the sale of 150 units for Rs 70 crore in the last one month and expects a total sales bookings of over Rs 2,200 crore in the next four years.

The state-owned NBCC has undertaken the completion of many residential projects in Noida and Greater Noida under the aegis of Amrapali Stalled Projects and Investment Reconstruction Establishment (ASPIRE) and supervision of the Supreme Court of India.

The proceeds from unsold units will be utilised to complete the stalled projects of Amrapali group.

"We have got the mandate as exclusive channel partner for the sale of around 5,400 unsold homes in projects by the erstwhile Amrapali Group. The total sales bookings in value terms is estimated at about Rs 2,200 crore," Anarock Vice Chairman Santhosh Kumar told PTI.

The company has already facilitated sales of 150 units for Rs 70 crore within just 30 days, the property consultant said in a statement.

Anarock, which was founded by Anuj Puri in April 2017, said it would deploy proprietary PropTech marketing tools to market these projects.

NBCC Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) P K Gupta said: "41,000+ sold and 5,000+ unsold units in 20+ stalled projects, together accounting for 46,000+ units, will be delivered by NBCC in tranches by June 2024. It is the beginning of the biggest customer redressal initiative in the history of Noida/Greater Noida's real estate market."

In the first phase, the properties on offer range from 1 BHKs to penthouses priced between Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore in 20 projects in Noida and Greater Noida.

According to Anarock, all included projects of Amrapali group will be completed and delivered by June 2024 at an estimated project cost of Rs 8,189.82 crore.

As per the estimate, Rs 3,870.38 crore will come from sold inventory, Rs 2,215.79 crore via marketing of currently unsold inventory, Rs 951.15 crore from attached properties, Rs 342.74 crore via surrendered units, and Rs 88.97 crore through marketable commercial spaces, and sale of FAR (Floor Area Ratio) for about Rs 1,220 crore.

"The real estate market in Noida and Greater Noida is once again in growth mode, and there is high demand for the revitalized NBCC projects," Kumar said.

Talking about the NCR property market, he said the unsold housing stock in Noida and Greater Noida has reduced by 21 per cent in the last two years.

The total unsold stock in the two cities collectively stood at 64,010 units by 2019-end and it came down to 50,260 units by 2021-end, Anarock said.

"NCR recorded the maximum project completions among the top seven cities in 2021. Approx 86,590 units were completed in 2021, out of which Noida 5,430 units completed while in Greater Noida saw 14,750 units completed. Buyer demand today is heavily tilted towards ready properties," he added.

It is to be noted that Noida and Greater Noida property markets have been badly affected due to defaults in deliveries by many developers including Jaypee Infratech, Amrapali and Unitech Ltd. Investment of thousands of homebuyers is stuck from 7-10 years.

Noida and Greater Noida markets are largely dominated by local players such as Gaurs group, ATS, Eldeco, Mahagun, Supertech, Prateek group, Migsun group and ACE group. However, in the last few years, some large players including DLF, Godrej Properties, Tata Housing, Kalpataru and Max Estate have entered this region with their real estate projects.

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#mute
New Delhi: The probe team, investigating the 2017 actress abduction case in which actor Dileep is the main accused, is likely to serve a notice to his wife and former actress Kavya Madhavan to appear before it.

Dileep, along with others, is also facing a trial for conspiring to kill the officials probing the assault case.

Kerala High Court has given the probe team time till April 15 to complete the probe and hence, apart from his wife, a few other VIPs are also likely to be called in.

Dileep has already been served a notice to appear before them which might take place on Monday.

It was a moral victory for the team when the High Court first refused to suspend the further probe and later a stay sought by the actor into the probe was also nixed.

Late last year, his former friend and director Balachandrakumar had come out in the open against him, disclosing that Dileep was conspiring to eliminate police officials investigating the 2017 actress abduction case in which he is presently out on bail.

However, the actor's counsel argued that the fresh disclosures were cooked up by the prosecution to book the actor and to fabricate evidence against him after the probe agency failed to find any concrete evidence.

A frontline south Indian heroine had complained that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of goons in 2017 and certain scenes were filmed to blackmail her.

After the main accused Sunil was arrested and questioned, Dileep was accused of being the main conspirator in the case and arrested.

According to the prosecution, Dileep, who is presently out on bail after spending two months in jail, had also seen the visuals of the attack on the actress.

Kavya Madhavan is the second wife of Dileep, whom he married after divorce with his first wife another frontline actress Manju Warrier who has since returned to acting.

Kavya has quit the film industry post her wedding.
NEW DELHI: The OTT-based reality show 'Lock Upp' hosted by Kangana Ranaut has gained immense popularity in a short span of time. In the latest episode, wild card entry Azma Fallah took Anjali Arora's towel and cleaned towel.

When Anjali confronts Azma, who is a Pakistani blogger, inside the bathroom for using her towel, the latter throws the dirty cloth on her and issues threats for getting physical with her.

Mandana Karimi, who is also a wild card entry, gets into an argument with Azma for using Anjali's towel for cleaning the bathroom. Azma calls her a flop actress and taunts her for not getting any work in the industry.

Payal Rohatgi tells Azma that she agrees with her thought process as she feels Anjali tortured her enough in the jail.

Breaking News flashes that fuel and gas prices have increased. Payal says that more the prices of fuel and gas goes up, market of chargeable vehicles will come in. Munawar objects to her opinion and says that its the poor people who suffers the most. Payal argues that raising fuel and gas prices could be a tactic to bring in the market of chargeable vehicles. Munawar says that going by this logic, diesel and petrol should get banned.

Guard asks Mandana and Azma to pick a team. Both Mandana and Azma choose the Orange team. Mandana and Azma get an oppotunity as they get to chargesheet one person each from the oppsite Blue team. Mandana nominates Sara, whereas Azma is unable to find her power guard.

Mandana tells her team members that Anjali had asked her to nominate Shivam during the chargesheet task. Azma shares this with Shivam and then Anjali confronts Mandana about it. Mandana denies saying that although Azma and she are in the same team, it doesn't mean that they like each other.

Ali Merchant tries to talk to Sara and appeals his fans to vote for him and Sara as both of them are chargesheeted for this week. Sara cries before Karanvir, Poonam and Shivam and says that Ali has been trying to prove himself innocent and has started flirting with him now. Shivam picks a fight with Ali and asks him not to talk or flirt with her anymore.

Azma finds her power card hidden in the kitchen and nominates Poonam.

Housemates enter the arena. Karan Kundrra tells Azma that she started playing her game well very soon. Azam calls herself a real badass. Karan hails the old contestants and says 'aap logo ki baat hi alag hai'.

Orange team wins the arena atyachaari task.

KV and Munawar discuss that while girls in other team were moving during the task, their team girl did not perform well.

Munawar breaks down inside the bathroom. Payal asks him to share it with her as she is also human being. She asks him if everything is fine and someone said something to him.

Payal tells her team that Munawar is acting and shedding tears. She says Munawar must be worried about the possibilities as someone from the Orange team will enter the Jhol Ghar and may be given a chance to eliminate someone.
Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath will be formally elected as the leader of the legislature party at a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday.

According to the party sources the meeting, which is scheduled to be held at Lok Bhawan, will be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who has been nominated as an observer for Uttar Pradesh and co-observer and former Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das.

After being elected as the leader, Yogi Adityanath will meet Governor Anandiben Patel and stake his claim to form the government in the state. The swearing-in ceremony will most likely be held on Friday at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Gomti Nagar.

Caretaker UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had discussed the government formation in the state with the top BJP leadership here. Sources said that the meeting held on Wednesday night, which lasted for more than two hours, at BJP chief JP Nadda`s residence was also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party`s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh.

"Names and the number of Deputy Chief Ministers were discussed in the meeting." sources said. "There are over a dozen vacancies as some sitting Ministers lost the elections, while a few left the party before the polls. While finalising the names, social engineering and regional balance will be also considered," a party insider said.

According to BJP sources, the new Yogi Cabinet is likely to have several new faces and first-time ministers. Names of 43 MLAs have been finalised who are likely to be inducted as ministers in the new Yogi cabinet.

Some influential ministers in the previous Yogi Adityanath may not be given any ministerial berths this time, the sources said. The selection of new ministers has been done purely on a merit basis - performance in the previous government and their clean public image, the sources said.

The BJP and its allies have won 273 seats out of 403 in the Vidhan Sabha. The party has set a record as after a gap of 37 years the BJP will form the government for the second consecutive term.

Besides, Yogi Adityanath has also set a personal record of being the only chief minister to win an election and enjoy a second consecutive term. A five-time MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath has been elected for the first from Gorakhpur (Sadar) seat in the just-concluded Assembly polls in the state.

He was elected to the state legislative council on September 8, 2017, after he became chief minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and others, along with the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and some prominent leaders and personalities have been invited for Adityanath's swearing-in ceremony.

(With Agency Inputs)

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit the violence-hit Birbhum district where at least eight people, including two children, were charred to death and several houses were set ablaze in a possible fallout of a village panchayat deputy chiefs murder.

The TMC chief had said o Wednesday that she would visit Bogtui village, where the shocking incident took place. She also assured that strict action would be taken against the perpetrators of violence in the Birbhum district.

Describing the incident as "unfortunate", she said, "It was an attempt by the BJP, Left and the Congress to malign our government. Strict action will be taken against all those responsible for the Birbhum incident, irrespective of their (political) colour. "We have already removed the (police) Officer-in-Charge, the SDPO and other senior officers. The DGP is in the district since yesterday," she underlined.

Referring to past incidents of violence in other states, she said that her party MPs were stopped at the airport in Assam, where they had gone to protest NRC implementation, and entry wasn't allowed in UP's Hathras and Unnao (where gang-rape cases occurred), too, but her government would never do the same.

"This is Bengal, not UP. We allowed everyone to visit Birbhum. "Not justifying the Birbhum killings, but such incidents are more frequent in UP, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan," she said.

Banerjee also claimed that such incidents are results of a conspiracy hatched to divert attention from issues of concern, such as price hike of petrol and other commodities.

In a veiled attack on Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, Banerjee said, "There is one 'Laat saheb' (lordly person) sitting here and describing Bengal as the worst state hurling abuses at the state government."

Banerjee and Dhankhar had been engaged in a heated exchange over the Birbhum incident since Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation on Wednesday visited the Bogtui village in Birbhum district to take stock of the situation there. The delegation was led by the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari, BJP MP Arjun Singh was also present in the delegation.

"It is a very unfortunate incident. No words are sufficient to condemn it. Calcutta High Court has given directions to Central Forensics. We demand an NIA or CBI probe. SIT is a wing of the state government. Chief Minister is trying to save the government. President`s rule is the only way to save our Bengal," Adhikari said.

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Seoul: North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state`s largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in the North`s development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

The North`s return to major weapons tests also poses a new national security headache for U.S. President Joe Biden as he responds to Russia`s invasion of Ukraine, and presents a challenge to South Korea`s incoming conservative administration.

"This launch is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement condemning the launch. "The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilising actions."

North Korea had put its ICBM and nuclear tests on hold since 2017, but has defended the weapons as necessary for self-defence, and said U.S. diplomatic overtures are insincere as long as Washington and its allies maintain "hostile policies" such as sanctions and military drills.

South Korea`s outgoing President Moon Jae-in, who made engaging North Korea a major goal of his administration, condemned the launch as "a breach of the moratorium on ICBM launches that Chairman Kim Jong Un himself promised to the international community".

It was also a serious threat to the Korean peninsula, the region and the international community, and a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, added Moon, who is due to leave office in May.

The latest missile launch was an "unacceptable act of violence", Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida said.

Thursday`s ICBM launch prompted South Korea to test-fire a volley of its own, smaller ballistic and air-to-ground missiles to demonstrate it has the "capability and readiness" to precisely strike missile launch sites, command and support facilities, and other targets in North Korea if necessary, South Korea`s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

NEW ICBM?

Thursday`s launch would be at least the 11th North Korean missile test this year, an unprecedented frequency.

Japanese authorities said the launch appeared to be a "new type" of ICBM that flew for about 71 minutes to an altitude of about 6,000km (3,728 miles) and a range of 1,100 km (684 miles) from its launch site.

It landed inside Japan`s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 170 km (106 miles) west of the northern prefecture of Aomori, at 3:44 p.m. (0644 GMT), the coast guard said.

South Korea`s Joint Chiefs of Staff put the missile`s maximum altitude at 6,200 km and its range at 1,080 km.

That is further and longer than North Korea`s last ICBM test in 2017, when it launched a Hwasong-15 missile that flew for 53 minutes to an altitude of about 4,475 km and range of 950 km.

South Korea`s JCS said the latest missile was launched from near Sunan, where Pyongyang`s international airport is located. On March 16, North Korea launched a suspected missile from that airport that appeared to explode shortly after liftoff, South Korea`s military said.

U.S. and South Korean officials have warned recently that North Korea had been preparing to test-fire its largest ICBM yet, the Hwasong-17.

U.S. officials said at least two recent tests, on Feb. 27 and March 5, featured the Hwasong-17 system, but did not demonstrate full ICBM range or capability.

Pyongyang did not identify the missile system used in those launches, but said they were testing components for a reconnaissance satellite system.

This month, leader Kim said North Korea would soon launch multiple satellites to monitor military movements by the United States and its allies.

Analysts say the Hwasong-17 is "considerably larger" than the Hwasong-15. It was first unveiled in October 2020 and displayed a second time in October 2021.

The missile, which has been shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the world`s largest road-mobile ICBMs.

`SERIOUS PROGRESS`

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, Kim declared a self-imposed moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearisation talks.

That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who held historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never gained a concrete pact to limit the North`s nuclear or missile arsenals.

On Jan. 19, North Korea said it would bolster its defences against the United States and consider resuming "all temporarily suspended activities", according to state news agency KCNA, an apparent reference to the self-imposed moratorium.

New construction has also been spotted at North Korea`s only known nuclear test site, which was shuttered in 2018.

The looming prospect of possible nuclear tests, more joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, and the new conservative South Korean president mean "all conditions are present for a tit-for-tat chain reaction of escalatory steps", said Chad O`Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.

"Though Biden would prefer to focus exclusively on the Ukraine crisis, it`s likely he will soon face crisis-level tensions between the Koreas," he said.

With the sanctions regime at an impasse at the U.N. Security Council and North Korea opposed to talks on denuclearisation for the foreseeable future, Pyongyang is now likely capable of making serious progress on its weapons development programme with little risk of substantive punishment, O`Carroll added.

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London: Britain will send thousands more missiles to Ukraine's government as Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Western allies to boost the supply of military aid to Ukraine.

Johnson is travelling to Brussels on Thursday for talks with NATO and leaders of the Group of Seven. He is expected to provide further details of the new British aid during the visit, including the donation of 6,000 more missiles comprising anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry.

The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight, Johnson said.

Britain has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.

The U.K. Government also says it is providing some 4 million pounds ($5.3 million) in emergency funding to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation in Russia and Ukraine.

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United Nations: India, along with 12 other UN Security Council members, abstained from a resolution by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The draft resolution by Russia was cosponsored by Syria, North Korea and Belarus. It failed to get adopted in the Council on Wednesday as it did not get the required nine yes votes to pass.

Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution while there were no countries voting against. India and the remaining Security Council members abstained.

India abstained in UNSC on a vote on a draft resolution by Russia on humanitarian situation in Ukraine Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution while India was among 13 countries who abstained. The draft resolution failed to get adopted.  ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2022

Permanent and veto-wielding Council member Russia had called for a vote in the 15-nation Security Council on its draft resolution that demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children are fully protected, calls for a negotiated ceasefire for enabling safe, rapid, voluntary and unhindered evacuation of civilians, and underscores the need for the parties concerned to agree on humanitarian pauses to this end.

The Russian resolution, which makes no reference to its invasion of Ukraine, calls upon all parties concerned to allow safe and unhindered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine, including to foreign nationals without discrimination, and facilitate safe and unhindered access of humanitarian assistance to those in need in and around Ukraine, taking into account the particular needs of women, girls, men and boys, older persons and persons with disabilities.

While other Council members made statements after the vote on the resolution, India did not make any statement. India had previously abstained on two occasions in the Security Council and once in the General Assembly on resolutions on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield tweeted that in a unified protest vote, 13 members of the Security Council abstained from Russia's farcical resolution deflecting blame for the humanitarian crisis it has created in Ukraine.

In the Explanation of Vote, Thomas-Greenfield said it really is "unconscionable" that Russia would have the audacity to put forward a resolution asking the international community to solve a humanitarian crisis that Russia alone created.

"The United States intends to abstain on this text because, to state the obvious, Russia does not care about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, or the millions of lives and dreams the war has shattered. If they cared, they would stop fighting.

"Russia is the aggressor, the attacker, the invader - the sole party in Ukraine engaged in a campaign of brutality against the people of Ukraine - and they want us to pass a resolution that does not acknowledge their culpability, she said.

UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that her country will not vote for any resolution, either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, that does not recognise that Russia is the sole cause of this unfolding humanitarian catastrophe - and therefore key to ending it.

"Russia's draft called for all parties to respect international humanitarian law. It ignored that Russia is committing war crimes. Russia's draft called for the protection of civilians, including women and children. But it omitted that Russia is bombing maternity hospitals, schools and homes, Woodward said.

The Russian resolution in the UN Security Council was one of the three resolutions on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine that were put up before the UN General Assembly and the Security Council Wednesday.

The UN General Assembly resumed its 11th Emergency Special Session on Ukraine Wednesday and had two resolutions for consideration before it. The 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on the resolutions Thursday.

One UNGA resolution by Ukraine and its western allies on the Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by Russia against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects. It also demands that civilians, including humanitarian personnel, journalists and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children, be fully protected.

It demands that the parties comply with their obligation to ensure the safe and unhindered humanitarian access of humanitarian personnel as well as their means of transport, supplies and equipment to those in need in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries.

The other rival resolution proposed by South Africa Humanitarian situation emanating out of the conflict in Ukraine' makes no mention of Russia. It calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties in the conflict, and encourages political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means aimed at achieving lasting peace.

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Moscow: Russia has expelled several American diplomats from the US Embassy in Moscow and declared them "persona non grata", a State Department spokesperson has said. The US Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday (March 23, 2022) received a list of its diplomats that were declared "persona non grata".

This development comes days after the US ousted Russian staff at the United Nations. Earlier last month, the US expelled 12 Russian diplomats at the country`s U.N. mission in New York over national security concerns and later announced it would oust an additional Russian at the U.N. who it said was a spy.

Meanwhile, Russia has denied all the allegations levied by the US and told Washington that it would throw out an unspecified number of American diplomats in response to the moves, Interfax news agency said.

"The American side was told very firmly that any hostile U.S. actions against Russia would provoke a decisive and comparable response," the agency said.

The move comes as the United States and its allies weigh further sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

A State Department spokesperson said, "We can confirm that the U.S. Embassy received a list of diplomats declared `persona non grata` from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 23."

"This is Russia`s latest unhelpful and unproductive step in our bilateral relationship ... Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments," the spokesperson said.

Neither the spokesperson nor Interfax specified how many people were affected or when they would have to leave.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: As the Russian invasion of Ukraine completes 30 days on Thursday (March 24, 2022), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video message, urged citizens around the world to take to the streets to protest against Russia`s invasion.

Zelenskyy in a video message posted on social media platforms by the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "From this day and after that, show your standing. Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life."

The video was tweeted with the caption, "The war of #Russia is not only the war against #Ukraine. started the war against freedom as it is. That`s why I ask you to stand against the war! Starting from March 24 - exactly one month after the Russian invasion All as one together who want to stop the war!"

.@ZelenskyyUa: The war of #Russia is not only the war against #Ukraine.started the war against freedom as it is. Thats why I ask you to stand against the war! Starting from March 24 - exactly one month after the Russian invasion All as one together who want to stop the war! pic.twitter.com/BUyqY3DJ37  MFA of Ukraine (@MFA_Ukraine) March 23, 2022

Calling for global protests beginning Thursday, one month after Russia`s invasion of Ukraine, speaking in English, Zelenskyy said, "Come to your schoolyards, your streets. Say that people matter, freedom matters, peace matters, Ukraine matters.

"In downtowns of your cities, all as one together who want to stop the war," he added.

In the early hours of February 24, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk People`s Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against the Kyiv forces.

Russia said that the aim of its special operation is to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine and that only military infrastructure is being targeted - the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the goal is to protect the people of Donbas, "who have been subjected to abuse, genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years."

However, the Western countries have strongly condemned Russia`s invasion of Ukraine and imposed heavy sanctions on Moscow.

(With ANI inputs)

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Kyiv: Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address US.

President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard, Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv.

Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.

Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provide effective and unrestricted support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian onslaught.

Biden was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to coordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with NATO members, and then talk with leaders of the G7 industrialised nations and the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.

On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

ALSO READ | Russia-Ukraine war: What would European Union membership mean for Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely. But a month into the fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition.

In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed - the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released, intentionally or not, and intelligence gathered from open sources.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.

ALSO READ | Russian President Vladimir Putin miscalculated his invasion of Ukraine, says Austrian FM Alexander Schallenberg

A senior US defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city centre.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritising the fight in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said.

The US also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going strictly in accordance with plans.

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance, said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities.

He noted in his televised remarks that Moscow's nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

US officials long have warned that Russia's military doctrine envisages an escalate to deescalate option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin, known for his bluster, did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin.

Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.

Zelenskyy noted in his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth, he said.

In Kyiv, where near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday as the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed since the war broke out.

The independent Russian news outlet The Insider said Russian journalist Oksana Baulina had been killed by shelling in a Kyiv neighbourhood on Wednesday.

In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting.

But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher.

Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theatre and an art school where civilians were sheltering.

Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war.

Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Kateryna Mytkevich, 39, who arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she said the city is without gas, electricity or running water, and entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed.

I don't understand why we have such a curse," she said.

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Kabul: Condemning the Taliban`s decision to prohibit girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade, United States ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the decision jeopardizes Afghanistan`s future and its role in the international community.

"This decision to deny education to women and girls reneges a long-standing pledge. The Taliban`s refusal to educate its citizens, including women and girls, jeopardizes Afghanistan`s future and its role in the international community," Thomas-Greenfield tweeted.

This decision to deny education to women and girls reneges a long standing pledge. The Talibans refusal to educate its citizens, including women and girls, jeopardizes Afghanistans future and its role in the international community. https://t.co/ljIPdPpZGO  Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) March 23, 2022

US State Department`s special representative for Afghan women, Rina Amiri, also condemned the decision as she said that the move was not incidental.

"We now know today`s decision to stop girls over grade 6 from returning to school was not incidental. It was made by Taliban leadership and is a betrayal of Afghan families. Let`s be clear about several things. One, there is nothing Islamic about denying girls an education. One need only look at other Muslim-majority countries to see that. Two, there is nothing Afghan about denying girls an education. Surveys show widespread support among the Afghan people for girls` education," she tweeted.

We now know today's decision to stop girls over grade 6 from returning to school was not incidental. It was made by Taliban leadership and is a betrayal of Afghan families. Let's be clear about several things (1/3)  U.S. Special Envoy Rina Amiri (@SE_AfghanWGH) March 23, 2022

Notably, as the new school year begins in Afghanistan, the Taliban has announced that the boys can continue their education normally, however, the doors of the schools will be closed to girls beyond the sixth grade, reported local media.

"The Ministry of Education once again assures our nation that it is fully committed to providing the educational rights of all our compatriots. In order to generalize and standardize the quality of education ..." Tolo News quoted Aziz Ahmad Rayan, director of publications and communications at the Taliban Ministry of Education.

Rayan added that the schools for the girls beyond grade six will remain closed for now and the final decision on the same will be made by Taliban leadership.

Earlier, after the reports regarding this decision, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) had also condemned the Taliban`s move as it tweeted, "The UN in Afghanistan deplores today`s reported announcement by the Taliban that they are further extending their indefinite ban on female students above the 6th grade being permitted to return school."

Teenage girls across Afghanistan were supposed to return to schools after being banned by the Islamic outfit earlier. Since taking over power in August last year, the Taliban have rolled back women`s rights in virtually every area, including crushing women`s freedom of movement.

According to HRW, women and girls are blocked from accessing health care as well. Reports suggest that women and girls facing violence have no escape route.

The majority of countries have refused to formally recognise the Taliban amid worries over their treatment of girls and women and other human rights issues.

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Press Release

March 24, 2022 Gordon the leading voice of Central Luzon in the Senate Senator Richard J. Gordon reminded Central Luzon voters the importance of having an own voice in the Upper House, leading to the region's development. Gordon, who hails from Olongapo City and has roots in Pampanga, said that the Philippines should take advantage of the thousands of hectares in Region III waiting to be used for economic and agricultural development. "[We must push for] Central Luzon as the Central Granary of the Philippines. We should be the economic firehouse in Asia," Gordon told Pampanga-based residents and reporters in a short dialogue. "If you use your land for investment for business marami tayong magagawang kabuhayan and we die happy may mga taong nagkaroon ng kabuhayan," he continued. It may be recalled that the Gordon-authored Regional Investment and Infrastructure Coordinating Hub (RICH) bill for Central Luzon hurdled Congress' deliberation but was vetoed by Pres. Duterte. The proposed measure would have created a one-stop shop that would converge all business, government, agriculture, and education sectors for an optimized operation of industry. According to Gordon, tax incentives would have also attracted a lot of foreign direct investments, which are desperately needed in the time of economic recovery from the pandemic. "Pag naipasa 'yang RICH bill ulit lalakas ang lahat ng kabuhayan [sa Central Luzon]," remarked Gordon. "The other thing that I'm pushing is 'yung tulay, tulay from Naic, Cavite going to Corregidor, lalabas sa Mariveles...Magkakarooon ng transportational system dito and we will create a super economic zone in Asia," continued Gordon. A monumental project that will benefit more than 43 million people, the bridge will connect the two major points of Manila Bay and will utilize the five airports and four seaports in the region. Planned to operate soon is the proposed airport in Bulacan, the former Sangley Point airport, and the existing Manila, Subic, and Clark international airports. Serving as former Olongapo mayor for a decade, Gordon raised the city and the region from rubble and ashes when he spearheaded the relief effort of several areas in the region brought about by the 1990 Luzon earthquake and 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Through Gordon's dynamic leadership as Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman, the former United States naval base was transformed into a premier investment hub and tourist attraction, generating more than $3 billion in investments and 200,000 jobs. Gordon also pushed for the passage of the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, which led to the development of SBMA and Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga. Already in the brink of collapse, Gordon overcame serious doubt after establishing the Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles, which has created over 100,000 jobs. The re-electionist garnered almost 3,000,000 votes from the region alone in the 2016 election, where he placed fifth overall in the overall tally. Gordon visited the provinces of Pangasinan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac over a span of five days to impart his vision with local leaders and residents.
Press Release

March 24, 2022 Statement by Presidential Aspirant Sen. Ping Lacson

More at: https://pinglacson.net/en/article/statement-of-presidential-aspirant-sen-ping-lacson Today, I officially announce my resignation as Chairman and member of Partido Ng Demokratikong Reporma, which effectively makes me an independent candidate for the presidency in the upcoming May 2022 elections. Yesterday, I was informed by the party president, former Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez, that their slate in Davao del Norte, led by the party secretary-general and Provincial Governor Edwin Jubahib, has decided to endorse another presidential candidate. Considering that it is at the behest of these top-tier officials that I was recruited as a member and the party's standard-bearer and thereafter elected as its chairman, I believe it is only decent and proper - consistent with my time-honored uncompromising principles - to make this decision. In the face of these recent developments, allow me to say, like a true-blooded warrior that I am all my life, I will continue this fight in pursuit of my quest to serve my country and our people, as your Chief Executive - if God and the Filipino people will it, come May 9, 2022. To Partido Reporma president, former Speaker Alvarez, Secretary General Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib - and the rest of the Davao del Norte Reporma candidates - let me tell you this: I harbor no ill feelings towards you and anyone who may hereafter opt to join them in their new choice of a presidential candidate. Sa lahat ng myembro at kandidato ng Partido Reporma sa labas ng Davao del Norte - who joined the party because of our shared advocacy to fight graft and corruption in pursuit of good governance, all for the sake of our beloved country and people - with or without party affiliation - I am not leaving you behind. I assure you that I will be your leader and supporter in our shared convictions and aspirations. Magkakasama pa rin tayo sa laban na ito. Tulad ng paulit-ulit kong sinasabi, tuloy ang laban hanggang sa dulo! God bless our beloved Philippines.
El premier Anibal Torres se reunio con la embajadora de @UKinPeru, @kate_harrisson, quien termina sus funciones en el pais. Durante el encuentro se destaco el fortalecimiento de la relacion bilateral y se manifesto el apoyo del Reino Unido para el ingreso del Peru a la OCDE. pic.twitter.com/o1wL6DGhhs




The message came within the framework of the National Day of Japan on the occasion of celebrations for the birthday of His Majesty Emperor Naruhito (February 23).





On this occasion, Ambassador Katayama noted that 2023 will mark the 150th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.





"Peru was the first country in Latin America to establish diplomatic relations with Japan. With the support of all of you, we will prepare a series of significant and memorable events," he wrote in a document which also reviews the main milestones of his current tenure as ambassador to the South American country.





Peru-Japan: Historical ties





The diplomat stressed that in 2024 Peru will host the APEC summit for the third time since the creation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in 1989 adding that in 3 years the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan will be held. Both activities will serve to boost a greater rapprochement between the two nations.





"Peru is the third country in the world with the largest number of Japanese immigrants and descendants. Among them are many from my homeland, Hiroshima," he added.





In this regard, the envoy assured that he feels "proud that the Nikkei, who are Peruvians of Japanese descent, are fulfilling a great role in Peruvian society and being a bridge which unites both countries."





"More than 1 year and 5 months have passed since I arrived in Peru," the ambassador said, welcoming the fact that diplomatic activities are gradually being reactivated in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.





"Thanks to the warm welcome and great support that the Peruvian people give me, my work and life in Peru are prospering more and more," he noted.





Diversity and cultural richness





Peru is rich in history and cultural heritage, the ambassador stressed, before listing the places he had visited in this country: Arequipa, Caral, Machu Picchu, Cusco, Huaral, Pachacamac, Pisco, Nazca, Iquitos, Tacna, Moquegua, Puno, Chiclayo, Trujillo, and Cajamarca, among others.





"Once again, I was amazed by Peruvian society and by the diversity and richness of its culture," Dr. Katayama highlighted.





"Besides, Peruvian gastronomy is one of the best in the world, and I am very lucky to enjoy it at world-famous restaurants," he added.





In relation to the efforts to confront COVID-19, the ambassador indicated that the Japanese Government has so far provided its Peruvian counterpart with support worth around US$12 million.





"I hope that this year will be the year of the overcoming the pandemic," he expressed.





Dr. Katayama's message also mentioned that "bilateral cooperation is being promoted both in the field of prevention of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as in the economic, social, and cultural spheres, among others."





Likewise, the diplomat recalled that in 2021 Peru's Independence Bicentennial was commemorated. In addition, general elections were held and the new Government took office.





"In Japan, the new Government of Prime Minister Kishida also began. I hope that, under the new leaders, the bilateral relationship as 'strategic partners' will be further strengthened," Dr. Katayama expressed.





"To conclude, I offer my prayers for the health of His Majesty the Emperor, as well as the further development of our bilateral relations with Peru and for the health of all of you," he wrote.





(END) CCH/MVB
18:44 | New York (U.S.), Mar. 23.





In his speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, Rodriguez Cuadros indicated that the intervention in said country is worsening "and the civilian population continues to unjustly suffer the ravages of the conflicts."





"This imperative that the peaceful and democratic conscience of mankind demands is also the call of the Government of Peru for the parties to the conflict to agree to a ceasefire, and that as an immediate measure. We further call for diplomatic negotiations to continue to be able to bring an end to the conflict," he said.





In this sense, he said that history has taught us that the only way, the most practical and effective way to bring an end into the suffering of the civilian population in armed conflict "is a cessation of hostilities, a ceasefire, the cessation of violence."





"While the conflict continues and the weapons continue to fire, we must demand compliance with the overwhelming obligation on the international law and international humanitarian law to limit the suffering of the civilian population, to protect the population, and to ensure the enjoyment of their human rights," the diplomat added.





Rodriguez Cuadros remarked that "these are not goodwill recommendations nor the guidelines for desirable conduct, these are international obligations contracted by the parties to the conflict. They must imperatively be complied with."





"The protection of populations cannot discriminate on political grounds. It solely and exclusively responds to the human dimension of its protection, without any form of discrimination. The United Nations have the mandate to protect all of the civilian population suffering in conflict," he added.





Moreover, he asked the parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law every day in every hour of the conflict, particularly, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocol from 1977; the parties should further guarantee the protection of the civilian population and detained persons.





(END) JCC/RMB
After thanking OEI for its efforts, the minister highlighted the importance of the projects implemented in Peru, despite the difficult situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Peru will actively participate in the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW, to be held next June, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue its efforts to promote the universalization and implementation of this important multilateral agreement," reads another tweet.

Canciller @CesarLanda0 sostuvo una reunion virtual con el Secretario General de la Organizacion de Estados Iberoamericanos @JaboneroOEI y el director de la oficina de la OEI en Peru, @jc_ruizr , con quienes coincidio en continuar la cooperacion en educacion, ciencia y cultura. pic.twitter.com/ncvZ80qzSW

Hoy, 23 de marzo de 2022, el Tratado sobre la Prohibicion de las Armas Nucleares (TPAN) entra en vigor para el Peru. Con su ratificacion, nuestro pais reafirma su compromiso con la paz y seguridad internacionales, asi como con el desarme y la no proliferacion nuclear.
09:11 | Lima, Mar. 24.

The designation was made official via Supreme Resolution No. 039-2022-RE , published on Thursday in the Official Gazette El Peruano
The country's top official remarked that "Peru cannot be stopped by a confrontation that has not been created by us."

Presidente @PedroCastilloTe en Puno: "Hablar del crecimiento y desarrollo integral es un trabajo conjunto entre los tres niveles de gobierno para atender las necesidades del pais y asegurar las inversiones sostenibles". pic.twitter.com/KmjN89Hlrv
"We have not come to enumerate the needs; we have come to provide solutions to the people. They (our opponents) won't overcome our forces to work for this generation," he expressed.

According to the Head of State, children like those in Plateria have major needs to be met.

Likewise, he assured that he will not get tired of traveling to the country's farthest corners.

"This task undertaken and commissioned by you (by being elected President in 2021) cannot be betrayed; it cannot be reversed," he added.

Presidente @PedroCastilloTe: "Con el proyecto de viviendas Sumaq Wasi, el Gobierno asume la responsabilidad de llegar a las comunidades mas alejadas y mejorar las condiciones habitacionales de la poblacion rural en la region Puno". pic.twitter.com/PFOw0wc86B
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. RASAMANJARI, which means Spring Blossom- a Gala Live In Concert will take place on March 31, at 19:00 in the Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall. The concert bearing the symbol of colourful spring will become a reality at the initiative of the Indian Embassy in Armenia, Indo-Armenian Friendship NGO and Indian Cultural Centre Armenia.

The featured artist of the evening is the internationally acclaimed Australian-Armenian musician Peter Davidian, whose roots are from Kolkata, India, but he lives in Australia. Peter's family moved to India from Iran, and so he was inspired to learn the Sitar, which he has mastered in the course of time.

Here is a small interview with Peter about his career and future plans:

1. How did you start your musical career ? Tell us about your journey as a musician.

I have studied music from the early age of 8, in formal lessons for melody and rhythm. I am proficient for Sitar, Guitar, Harmonium, Drumkit(Jazz etc), Darabuka and Tabla. First semi professional performance was at 12 years old and has continued for more than 50 years. I had intensive studies with Indian music professor Ustad Ghulam Qadir Khan of the Jaipur Gharana(school) throughout the 1980s for Sitar and Indian music theory.

I have been involved in numerous musical projects and events over the years. From Sitar recitals, world music projects, film soundtracks, studio recordings and education. I am also a composer with over 10 albums of recordings featuring Sitar, Indian, Armenian and western musical genres. Most recent albums are Instrumentalism, Artsakh and The Armenia Suite.

2. What do you like most in Armenia?

Armenia is my motherland and as a result of diaspora I am the first to return in 3 generations, from Australia. My familys ancestors were from Julfa, Nachijevan until early 17th century. Then to New Julfa, Isfahan, Iran, where my grandparents were born. They, like many from New Julfa, went to India. Subsequently moving to Indonesia and then to Australia after 2nd World War in 1946.

I like so many things in Armenia. The very welcoming people, the food, the beautiful mountain landscapes, the ancient churches and monasteries, the music and dance. The art, the culture. From the first time I arrived in January 2019 I felt that I had returned home at last.

3. Has Armenian music impacted you as a musician?

Yes, definitely. The melodic structures, the rhythmic cycles, the scales used. The instruments that touch my heart immediately upon hearing. The works of Komitas, Sayat Nova, Khatchaturian and all the current superb instrumentalists and composers.

4. Tell us about your future plans.

To continue to strive to master the Sitar and further develop my understanding of Armenian and Indian music systems. As my great grand uncle was an Ashugh musician travelling from Isfahan/New Julfa I feel the music is deep in our familys roots. There are many musicians in the younger generation of our large family in Australia.

I hope to return to Armenia on a yearly basis to continue the musical collaborations, that have now been established. It would be wonderful to take these musical collaborations to the rest of the world, if possible.

5. Who do you look up to in music?

For Sitar the 3 masters of 20th Century, Vilayat Khan, Nikhil Banerjee and of course Ravi Shankar.

Current living sitar master Shahid Parvez Khan is also a great inspiration. I also admire the great musicians and composers of the Jazz and Classical genres.

6. What is unique about sitar?

Sitar is a medieval period instrument that was designed by Amir Khusroo. He took the Persian Setar, Caucasian Tar and the Indian Veena and blended them into a new design with resonating strings under the main playing strings. With raised curved fretboard the player can perform many different embellishment techniques to emulate the human voice. Its resonant vibrating tone is quite hypnotic to both player and listener and is equally suited to slow meditative playing up to very fast Melodic structured improvisation.

Sitar has established itself as a preeminent instrument of North Indian, Hindustani, classical music.

7. Tell us about the upcoming concert.

The upcoming concert is part of the Indo Armenian Friendship NGO activities in Yerevan and Armenia. It will be a major event of Armenian and Indian music, song and dance. To be held on 31 March, from 7pm, at the Arno Babajayan Concert Hall on Abovyan St. Yerevan. I will be performing solo Sitar recital, duets with Indian Classical vocals, another duet with Armenian Bhul flute, and an ensemble, performing my Armenia Suite compositions for Sitar, wind and traditional percussion.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are actively examining the issue of Armenia on getting a status of an observer in the organization, SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming said in an interview to TASS.

As for getting an observer status by Armenia and Azerbaijan, the SCO member states are actively examining it, the Secretary General said. In this sense I am personally optimistic, but I cannot mention the exact date at the moment, he added.

The SCO Secretary General said the relations between the countries, of course, are an important factor which should be taken into account. At the same time the SCO member states agree that the bilateral contradictions should not be brought to the organization. It is also an obligation that must be fulfilled by each country that seeks to join the SCO family, he said.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Exports from Armenia to Russia dropped 30%, Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said when asked on the economic impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He said the figure is concerning.

At the same time, Kerobyan said there is growth of exports in other directions.

We are now working with exporters so that they re-sign their contracts in conditions of new prices, which will result, we think, in increase of exports volumes because the deficit which appeared in the Russian market after many Western companies shut down allows us to assume that we can increase the share of our market in the Russian market, he said.
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YEREVAN, 24 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 24 March, USD exchange rate up by 0.66 drams to 489.81 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.04 drams to 538.20 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.37 drams to 5.14 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.21 drams to 646.40 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 300.48 drams to 30420.73 drams. Silver price down by 0.57 drams to 393.93 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the line of contact in the direction of the village of Parukh in Artsakhs Askeran region, the Artsakh authorities said.

The government of Artsakh said representatives of the Artsakh Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh are attempting to prevent through negotiations the further advance of the Azerbaijani troops and return them to their original positions.

As a safety precaution, women and children in the village of Khramort in Askeran region have been evacuated.

We call on the population to remain calm, the situation is stable in all other parts of the line of contact, the Artsakh authorities said.
YEREVAN, 24 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China Fan Yong expressed his gratitude to ARMENPRESS news agency for supporting the work of the Embassy in Armenia expressing hope of continuation of good cooperation in the future.



ARMENPRESS reports the Ambassador particularly mentioned. On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Armenia I want to express my gratitude to ARMENPRESS news agency for the support of the work of the Embassy of Peoples Republic of China during these years.



The Ambassador congratulated Narine Nazaryan on the occasion of being appointed as the Director of the news agency.



I want to congratulate you on the occasion of being appointed as the first female Director of the agency. I am sure that by your smart leadership the agency will be able to achieve great success. Fan Yong emphasized.



He emphasized the long history of ARMENPRESS, and expressed the opinion that the agency has a good reputation. Fan Yong expressed hope that the Embassy and ARMENPRESS news agency will continue good cooperation in the future, and jointly promote the deep and lasting friendship of the two countries, and the development of traditional friendship between China and Armenia.
YEREVAN, 24 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The movement of the Azerbaijani armed forces is currently suspended in the territory of Artsakh, but the adversary has not yet returned to its initial positions ARMENPRESS reports the Artsakh Information Headquarters informs that the situation in the direction of Parukh-Khramort settlements of Askeran region is under the control of the Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in the Artsakh Republic.

"As a result of the talks and additional security measures, the movement of the Azerbaijani armed forces is currently suspended in our territory, but the adversary has not yet returned to its initial position," the statement said.

The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the line of contact in the direction of the village of Parukh in Artsakhs Askeran region.The government of Artsakh said representatives of the Artsakh Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh are attempting to prevent through negotiations the further advance of the Azerbaijani troops and return them to their original positions.

As a safety precaution, women and children in the village of Khramort in Askeran region have been evacuated.
US President Joe Biden will announce new sanctions against Russian politicians and businessmen during a series of summits in Brussels, CNN reported.

March 24, 2022, 10:28 Biden to announce new sanctions against Russia

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will also discuss the location of NATO forces on its eastern flank and action plans in case Russia might use chemical or nuclear weapons.

Biden will meet with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to "check the signals." According to Sullivan, Biden will attend the extraordinary NATO summit for about three hours.

Sullivan said the alliance would discuss the question of NATO's force posture on the Eastern flank. He said leaders would ratify certain decisions taken by defense ministers last week, and task their military and political officials to set out a longer term game plan for what forces and capabilities are going to be required in those eastern flank countries.

The long-term plan will be agreed upon at this summer's NATO summit in Madrid, as previously announced. The new force posture will provide "a long term footprint that is matched to the new security reality," Sullivan said.

He noted that at a subsequent G7 meeting, Biden and his fellow leaders "will agree on an initiative to coordinate on sanctions enforcement.

Biden will also announce a package of sanctions designations tomorrow that relate both to political figures and oligarchs."

And in all his discussions, Biden will consult on potential contingencies surrounding potential cyberattacks or the use of chemical or biological weapons, along with how to deal with the rhetoric and the commentary coming out of Russia on this whole question of the potential use of nuclear weapons.
The citizens of the Republic of Artsakh are deprived of natural gas supply for already three days, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting. He said that the supply was cut off as a result of Azerbaijans intervention.

March 24, 2022, 11:45 Azerbaijan seeks to finish ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, warns Armenian Prime Minister amid looming humanitarian disaster

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 24, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: As you know, on March 7 the pipeline supplying gas to Artsakh was blown up in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. Using the most various pretexts, Azerbaijan was not allowing repair works and eventually Azerbaijan itself repaired it. As a result, the information we have indicates that Azerbaijan installed a valve on the pipeline.

On March 18, 11 days later, after restoring the gas supply to Artsakh for 4 days Azerbaijan simply closed the valve without any explosions on March 21, thus proving that it was behind the March 7 explosion, the PM said.

PM Pashinyan highlighted the fact that both cases of the supply cut-off happened in unique circumstances.

On March 7, unprecedented amount of snowfalls in the last 30 years happened in Artsakh and unprecedented drop in air temperatures were recorded. New record snowfalls and freezing cold was recorded on March 21 and in some places the snowfalls reached one and a half meters, one meter in capital Stepanakert, and the temperature reached minus eight degrees. And in these conditions Artsakh was intentionally deprived by Azerbaijan from the vitally significant natural gas supplies for heating apartments, kindergartens, schools and hospitals, PM Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that this is enough to understand that as a result of Azerbaijans actions Artsakh is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.

Pashinyan said he has no doubts that the heroic people of Artsakh will overcome this trial as well.

But with this realization I must also say for the record that with its actions Azerbaijan is also rendering a service to the people of Artsakh, because this episode concerning the gas pipeline is a very precise and brief description of the Artsakh conflict for the international community. With this episode, the international community can understand the essence of the Karabakh conflict without reading hundreds of pages and studying the nuances of history.

This unequivocally showcases Azerbaijans policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh: That is  to make their life in their own homeland impossible. For one and a half years now, Azerbaijan is boasting of its so-called glorious victory in the 2020 44-day war, but everything shows that the fact that after so much suffering and deprivations, today, right now over 117,000 Armenians live in Artsakh, Azerbaijan considers this fact its biggest defeat and has set an objective to complete its policy of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, PM Pashinyan said.

In this context, Pashinyan said the Azerbaijani foreign ministrys latest statement is very symbolic and speaks volumes, because Baku said in this statement that the Artsakh gas supply issue is its internal affair.

If we interpret this from diplomatic language, this means that they are saying  international community, dont look this way and let us complete our policy of getting rid of Armenians by genocidal policy and ethnic cleansing in Artsakh under the pretext of so-called anti-terror actions or simply without obstructions, quietly. No such thing can happen, and the diplomatic service of Armenia, other government officials, political forces, media, NGOs and individuals should in detail and widely present to the international community through social media everything that happened in Artsakh in the past 15 days, Pashinyan said.

On March 8, the authorities of Artsakh said that the main pipeline supplying gas from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged on March 7 and the supply was stopped.

The Artsakh authorities had said the area where the damage occurred was in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. It was reported that the Azerbaijani military deliberately damaged the pipeline.

The Azerbaijani authorities obstructed repair works for days. Only on March 16 the authorities in Artsakh announced that the Azerbaijani side itself began the repair work. However, days later, the gas supply was cut again. Authorities said they have reasons to believe that during the repairs the Azeri authorities installed a valve on the pipeline in order to shut it down whenever they want.

Meanwhile, the population of Artsakh is without gas and heating amid freezing temperatures and snowfalls. The Artsakh foreign ministry described Azerbaijans actions as humanitarian terrorism.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the current situation emphasizes the urgency of clear response of the international community towards preventing the humanitarian crisis.

On March 22 the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan and the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan issued a joint statement, calling on international human rights organizations to pressure Azerbaijan and eliminate its gross and continuous human rights violations against the Armenians of Artsakh.

On March 23, the FM of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said they utilized all diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation.

On March 23, the European Union expressed its concerns.

On March 24, Freedom House urged Azerbaijan to prevent humanitarian crisis and restore gas supplies to Artsakh.
The United Kingdom will announce a new package of support for Ukraine at the March 24 NATO and G7 leaders meeting, the British Prime Ministers Office said in a statement.

March 24, 2022, 15:10 UK announces major new military support package for Ukraine

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: The measures announced today include 6,000 missiles, consisting of anti-tank and high explosive weapons, and 25 million in financial backing for the Ukrainian military. This more than doubles the defensive lethal aid provided to date to more than 10,000 missiles, and comes on top of the 400 million the UK has committed in humanitarian and economic aid for the crisis. The Prime Minister will set out the UKs intention to work with partners to bolster Ukraines defence capabilities, including longer-range targeting and intelligence, as the Ukrainian people face down an unprovoked invasion.

The UK will also provide an additional 4.1 million for the BBC World Service as part of a cross-government effort to tackle disinformation in Russia and Ukraine, as well as new financial and policing support for the International Criminal Courts investigation into war crimes, Downing Street said in part.
North Korea launched what could be a new-type intercontinental ballistic missile, the Japanese Defense Ministry said, Tass informs.

March 24, 2022, 16:17 North Korea launches new intercontinental ballistic missile, details revealed

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: According to the ministry, the launch was the most technically advanced one in terms of the duration and altitude of the missiles flight. This time, the missile flew for roughly 71 minutes and covered about 1,100 kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of over six kilometers. In 2017, when Pyongyang last test-fired the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, the flight lasted 53 minutes and the missile reached a maximum altitude of more than 4,000 kilometers.

According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, the missile fell inside Japans exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan 170 kilometers west of the Aomori Prefecture at 3:44 pm local time.

"North Koreas actions pose a serious direct threat to Japan, the region and the entire international community, they are absolutely unacceptable, we have issued a protest via diplomatic channels," a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesperson pointed out, adding that Tokyo would maintain close cooperation with the United States and the international community on the North Korean missile issue, and would also continue comprehensive efforts to strengthen its defense capabilities.
Western countries are making every effort to politicize humanitarian issues facing Ukraine on the United Nations platform, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer in Moscow on Thursday, Tass informs.

March 24, 2022, 17:32 West seeks to politicize Ukraines humanitarian issues within UN  Lavrov

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: "We can see that our Western colleagues are making every effort within the United Nations in order to politicize humanitarian issues and turn them against Russia. Another proof of that emerged yesterday during a vote on a resolution submitted by Russia, which - if passed - could have helped solve many problems on the ground, including those that the ICRC team is facing in Ukraine," Lavrov pointed out.

"We are interested in solving the problems that are piling up in Ukraine, as well as in removing artificial obstacles preventing the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid," the Russian top diplomat noted.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to pass a Russian draft resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, co-sponsored by Belarus, North Korea and Syria. Russia and China voted in favor of the document, while the other 13 members of the UN Security Council (France, the UK, the US, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the UAE) abstained from voting. For a resolution to be passed, it needed to be supported by at least nine out of 15 UN Security Council members, without one of the five permanent members using their veto power.
Speculation was rife on Wednesday that Mr Wang may reach New Delhi for a brief visit sometime on Thursday and leave for Kathmandu on Friday

New Delhi: India late on Wednesday evening hit back at Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for raking up the Kashmir issue at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers conclave hosted by Pakistan in Islamabad, saying that China has no locus standi to comment on Jammu and Kashmir, which is an internal matter of India, and reminding Beijing that India refrains from commenting publicly on Chinas internal issues.

The late-evening spat comes amidst a possible plan for Mr Wang to visit New Delhi on Thursday and stay on till Friday, although New Delhi had refused to officially confirm any visit by the Chinese foreign minister in the first place. Despite the latest row, however, the possibility of the visit has not been ruled out.

Mr Wang was quoted as saying at the OIC conclave in Islamabad, which he attended as a special guest: On the Kashmir issue, we have heard the voices of many Islamic friends again today, and China has the same desire for this, an apparent reference to a resolution of the issue as per the UN resolutions.

An angry New Delhi lashed out: We reject the uncalled-for reference to India by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi during his speech Matters related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir are entirely the internal affair of India. Other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from public judgement of their internal issues.

Speculation was rife earlier on Wednesday that Mr Wang may reach New Delhi for a brief visit sometime on Thursday and leave for Kathmandu on Friday. There was also the possibility that he may visit Kabul for a few hours on Thursday to meet the Taliban leaders there before undertaking a brief visit to Delhi.

If Mr Wangs visit does takes place, it could indicate the beginning of a thaw in Sino-Indian relations at the top level, especially since the Ukraine conflict has altered geopolitics quite significantly. The West, including the United States and President Joe Biden, is upset with India which has refused to condemn Russia for the military offensive in Ukraine, while calling for a cessation of violence and resolution through dialogue between the warring sides. This could be seen by the Chinese as an opportunity to mend ties with India. China is now seen globally as the main backer of Russia, which is also a time-tested friend of India. There is also a desire both in Moscow and Beijing to strengthen the trilateral Russia-India-China (RIC) forum, which is not possible till Sino-Indian relations are normalised.

If the visit does take place, it will be the first time a top-level visit will take place from either country to the other after the deadly conflict at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh between Indian and Chinese troops two years ago. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar and the Chinese foreign minister have held meetings in third countries, including in Moscow, as well as had telephonic conversations in the past two years, but neither has visited the other country after the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
Justice Dhulia becomes the second judge to be elevated to SC from Uttarakhand HC.
NASA will be giving another company a chance to send a lander to the moon, nearly a year after the agency announced that SpaceX beat out competitors including Blue Origin and Boeing for the opportunity.

Under the new plan, the agency will be opening up a second competition for a lander system for all American companies other than SpaceX, with the aim of having a second lander prepared to fly by 2026 or 2027. The winner of that second contract, dubbed the Sustaining Lunar Development contract, along with SpaceX "will pave the way to future recurring lunar transportation services for astronauts at the Moon, NASA said.

This isnt just good news for competitors. The agency also said that it is expanding its existing contract with SpaceX for yet another lander, which will fly an additional crewed demonstration mission in the latter part of the decade.

NASAs announcement Wednesday marks a major expansion for the Artemis program, the agencys ambitious series of planned missions to return humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo days.

It's also something of an about-face. The agency came under fire from both private industry and Congress after it awarded a single $2.89 billion contract for a landing system to SpaceX last April, with Blue Origin going so far as to sue NASA in federal court. (This was after the company and defense contractor Dynetics filed an objection -- which was subsequently dismissed -- with a government accountability watchdog.) But this time around, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the agency was all about fostering competition.

We think, and so does the Congress, that competition leads to better, more reliable outcomes and benefits everybody, he said. It benefits NASA, [it] benefits the American people. It is obvious, the benefits of competition.

The agency will release a draft request for proposals at the end of the month, HLS program manager Lisa Watson-Morgan told reporters Wednesday. That will be followed by a final request for proposals later in the spring, which will be open to all American companies besides SpaceX.

Story continues

So far, NASA is staying mum on how much all of this is likely to cost, beyond that it will be a fixed-price contract -- which is significant, as the agency said the reason it selected only one bidder for the landing system last year was partly due to budgetary constraints. Further details on the value of the contract will be coming next week, after President Biden announces the fiscal year 2023 budget, Nelson added.

"We're expecting to have both Congress['s] support and that of the Biden administration," he said.

Update: A Blue Origin spokesperson told TechCrunch, "Blue Origin is ready to compete and remains deeply committed to the success of Artemis. We will continue to work with NASA to achieve the United States goal to return to the Moon as soon as possible."

The story has been updated to reflect that SpaceX was selected for one additional mission, not two. That will be a crewed mission.
Auburn police say a woman who was previously labeled a "person of interest" in a fatal shooting last week is now considered a suspect in the homicide investigation.

In a press release Thursday, APD said it is still seeking the publics assistance in locating Shameek Marie Copes, who is wanted in connection with the March 15 shooting death of John Wesley Smith III.

Smith III, 37, of Syracuse, was found dead in front of Swifty's Tavern on Perrine Street after reports of shots-fired around 1:40 a.m. Officers said they found Smith lying outside of the bar, dead from a gunshot wound, and that numerous potential witnesses had fled the scene before officers arrived.

The shooting took place on Copes' 28th birthday.

Thursday's press release comes three days after APD had issued a release that said they wanted to speak with Copes, who was considered a "person on interest" at that point in the investigation.

Police said Copes current whereabouts are unknown but tips indicate she may have fled the state. Police said she has ties to individuals in North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, Georgia and Florida.

According to the press release, Copes, 28, with a last known address of 1 Jefferson St., Apt. 1, Auburn, also goes by the names of Skrizzy, Scrappy or Sckrap. She is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs approximately 230 pounds.

Police also said the investigation has found that people may have been helping Copes evade law enforcement. The department noted that people who aid and/or harbor a person known to have committed a crime, including murder, may be charged with hindering prosecution, a felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

Anyone who knows the whereabouts of Copes and/or any additional information relative to this investigation are asked to contact the Auburn Police Department at (315) 253-3231 or email communitywatch@auburnny.gov and/or lead Detective Sean DeRosa at (315) 255-4706 or email sderosa@auburnny.gov. Callers can remain anonymous.

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The New York State Police is striving to have more female troopers by the end of the decade.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that the state's lead law enforcement agency is joining more than 150 police departments in signing the 30x30 Pledge, an effort affiliated with the New York University School of Law's Policing Project and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives.

By signing the 30x30 Pledge, the state police aims to raise the percentage of female recruits to 30% by 2030. It also agrees to have bias-free policies, an inclusive culture, and promote equitable hiring.

As of Wednesday, 11.6% of state troopers are women.

Hochul noted that women played a role in the establishment of the state police more than 100 years ago. Katherine Mayo and Moyca Newell advocated for a state police force after one of Newell's workers was murdered in Westchester County. The state police was created four years later, in 1917. Fifty-seven years later, the first four women troopers graduated from the New York State Police Academy.

"Police work is about public service, and law enforcement agencies are more effective when they have strong connections and reflect the diversity of the communities they serve," Hochul said.

The state police signed the 30x30 Pledge as it launches a campaign to encourage prospective recruits to register for the entrance exam. According to Hochul's office, the agency redesigned its recruitment program to reach women and minority candidates.

One significant change the agency made: For the first time, the exam is available in a digital format. The exam can be taken at 54 testing centers in New York and more than 250 locations in the U.S.

The deadline to register for the exam is April 10. More information can be found at joinstatepolice.ny.gov.

"The future success of our agency will rest on our ability to attract the most talented and diverse group of candidates possible to become New York state troopers," said Kevin Bruen, state police superintendent. "We are proud to stand alongside the dozens of other law enforcement agencies that have made a commitment to the 30x30 initiative."

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul's budget proposal touted a $10 billion, multiyear plan to bolster New York's pandemic-battered health care industry, calling it "the largest investment in health care in state history."

State legislators want to spend even more.

In releasing their one-house budget proposals this month, the Assembly and Senate plan major spending on wage increases for the state's home care workers, some of the industry's lowest-paid professions.

Legislators also plan to convert some of the health care worker bonuses pitched by Hochul into permanent wage increases, seemingly taking what was a one-time cost and making it recurring.

Both houses also included money to provide health coverage for undocumented immigrants and an additional $1 billion to assist some of the state's most financially strained hospitals.

"Overall, this is a frenzy," said Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany.

"Hochul wrote a very generous budget. She has lots of money to spend. Some of it is state revenue, some of it is temporary aid," he said. "She wrote a very generous budget, and the Legislature just piled an awful lot on top of it.

This all, of course, is subject to intense negotiations underway now as the governor and legislators aim to iron out the state budget ahead of the April 1 deadline.

Looking at the entire budget, Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, pitched a record $216.3 billion proposal, with the state flush with cash from federal Covid-19 relief dollars and higher-than-expected tax revenues last year.

"Gov. Hochul's executive budget includes bold initiatives to embrace this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in our future, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature to finalize a budget that serves all New Yorkers," Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said.

The Assembly proposed spending that is about $8 billion more, or 3.6% higher than Hochul's budget, with big jumps in funds for child care, education and health care.

Bea Grause, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, which represents nonprofit and public hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies, said the group appreciates the Legislature's proposals to bolster the industry's workforce, infrastructure and finances.

The association, however, hopes to see greater improvements in the final budget to Medicaid payment rates, which many health care facilities rely on for a significant chunk of revenue. The one-house budgets agreed with Hochul's proposal in planning a 1% increase in Medicaid rates.

"We continue to urge state leaders to go further," she said.

Home care wages

When Hochul released her budget proposal, some legislators said there was one glaring omission: funding to boost the pay of home care workers.

As it is, a home health care worker's median annual salary is just $22,000, according to a recent report by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

Those low wages, industry officials argue, will make it difficult to meet a seemingly endless need for more home health and personal care aides, whose total employment in New York is projected to increase from 440,000 in 2018 to more than 700,000 by 2028, the report notes.

Both state houses included funding in their proposals for the Fair Pay for Home Care Act, which calls for home care aides to be paid 150% of the regional minimum wage.

In Western New York, that means home health care workers would make a minimum of $19.80 an hour  which, based on a 40-hour workweek, is about $41,200 annualized.

The proposal isn't cheap: The Assembly is proposing to spend $2.5 billion for Fair Pay for Home Care.

The proposal has backing from major labor unions, trade associations and key legislators.

Hammond, of the Empire Center for Public Policy, is worried about the ripple effects.

He points out that plenty of positions at nursing homes and hospitals pay less than what a home care worker would make under the proposal. For instance, a certified nursing assistant at a Western New York nursing home makes anywhere from $15 to $18 an hour.

"The dedicated staff who work in long-term care deserve better pay across all settings," said Jim Clyne, CEO of LeadingAge New York, which represents nursing homes across the state. "Raising wages for one type of provider and not the others will make staff shortages even worse for those providers that are left out."

That's why, LeadingAge New York argues, the state needs to increase the Medicaid reimbursement, which can help support the higher wages necessary to compete for workers.

Tweaks to wage proposals

The Assembly rejected Hochul's proposal to provide $1.2 billion in bonuses for health care workers, instead pitching a plan to use that money for permanent wage increases in the Health Department and various human service agencies.

"Instead of giving people a one-shot bonus, we're proposing to provide funding for permanent wage increases for the same workers," said Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat who has chaired the Health Committee since 1987.

The Assembly accepted Hochul's proposal to provide $120 million for bonus payments to state health care workers whose base salary is subject to collective bargaining.

The Assembly's proposal also provides $250 million to support wage increases for health care workers making less than $125,000 annually who would not be included in the Fair Pay for Home Care Act.

Health care for all

Gottfried said most of the arguments between the chambers and the budget division at this point revolve around cost.

One of the areas where the budget division argues the Assembly and Senate have underpriced their proposal is the plan to provide $345 million to include coverage for undocumented immigrants under the state's Essential Plan, which provides health benefits with no monthly premium for qualified low-income people.

"This is an important step in furthering the goal of achieving universal coverage, " said Eric Linzer, president and CEO of the New York Health Plan Association, which represents 29 health plans across the state.

The Health Plan Association also applauded the Senate and Assembly for rejecting Hochul's proposal to reduce the number of Medicaid managed care plans. The proposal envisioned a competitive procurement process that would have resulted in anywhere from two to five Medicaid plans in each region.

In Western New York, for instance, there are seven mainstream Medicaid managed care plans and eight managed long-term care plans, covering a combined 470,000 residents, the association said.

Hochul's plan would have eliminated a couple of those plans locally, potentially leading to job losses and fewer choices for residents, the association said.

Under the proposal, the state was projecting $100 million in savings in fiscal year 2024, which would have grown and recurred at $200 million in following years.

Money for facilities

Erie County Medical Center burned through $79 million of cash during the pandemic, with elective surgery restrictions and escalating Covid-related costs chipping away at its balance sheet.

So the safety-net hospital is optimistic about additional funding included in the budget proposals from the Assembly and Senate.

Both houses propose an additional $1 billion in assistance to financially distressed hospitals: $750 million for safety-net hospitals and $250 million for major public hospitals.

The "funding proposals for safety net providers like ECMC and creating a pool of funding for public hospitals are essential to our ability to continue to provide the services our patients need," ECMC spokesperson Peter Cutler said. "Without this critically important funding, we will not be able to reinvest in staff, patient care and improved technology. In fact, cuts to vital services and other hospital-related functions will be inevitable."

The Senate also includes an additional $400 million for the statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program. Both houses also aim to increase the allocation within that program for community-based providers.

Hochul's budget proposed making a total of $1.6 billion available to fund capital improvements for health care facilities and nursing homes. That funding would be on top of the $3.8 billion the state has appropriated for those purposes since 2014  $2.1 billion of which has not been spent, according to the Empire Center.

Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris.

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In Disney/Pixar's new animated film, "Turning Red," a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl named Mei Lee comes into puberty and turns into a giant, furry red panda whenever strong teenage emotions overwhelm her.

Mei freaks out the first time. Her mother, hearing screams in the bathroom, assumes it's because "the red peony" bloomed. She grabs up a box of assorted sanitary pads and stands at the ready with ibuprofen and a hot water bottle.

Brief references to menstruation in an animated film apparently are a bridge too far for some parents, because "Turning Red" has kicked up heated debate.

Angry moms say online that menstruation is too mature a topic for young audiences. Some say the movie should come with a warning label because it's "not appropriate for children."

The film, now streaming on Disney+, is rated PG, which means parental guidance is recommended because some material might not be suitable for kids.

Other parents, though, applaud the film for breaking a stigma that needs breaking by normalizing the conversation about puberty and menstruation because "the biological reality of little girls should not be a taboo," as one Twitter user said. It's the reality, actually, of every woman.

The film's creators themselves had worried that studio executives would object to the menstruation references, but they didn't.

"I think they saw it very much in the DNA of the film and the characters," producer Lindsey Collins told gaming website Polygon. "The hope is with putting it on the screen and having it be something that is cringy, but also funny, and a part of this story, it does normalize it."

Director Domee Shi  the first woman to solo-direct a Pixar film  wanted "Turning Red" to get people talking about periods and puberty. She knows firsthand how awkward that can be.

"I just wanted to give this movie to that 13-year-old me who was very confused and never got 'the talk' from her mom and who was in the bathroom freaking out like Mei is in the movie when she first turns into a red panda," Shi told lifestyle website Chatelaine.

"My hope is that this starts those conversations and that we can eventually just normalize talking about puberty and menstruation and not feel so weird about it. But until then, please watch this entertaining movie about a red panda running through Toronto."

Moms need to talk

In December, Jessica Lynn McClellan's nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, collected more than $30,000 worth of menstrual products for women in need in the metro.

The founder of Giving Hope & Help teaches menstruation classes to Girl Scouts as young as 8. She's seen that "deer in headlights" look in girls' eyes as they take in the information, and she knows some don't get that guidance at home. She didn't.

"Moms don't know how to talk about it," said McClellan. "And in all honesty and transparency, my mom didn't talk to me about it. I learned from having two older sisters. They didn't talk to me about it, but I saw. So I knew what to do when it happened because there were products under the bathroom sink."

Menstruation can be an uncomfortable, awkward topic for parents, even, as it turns out, for some physicians.

"To be quite frank, even though I talk about this every single day with moms and young girls, teenagers, adult women, I even get a little bit of the flutter thing, like I hope I don't say something wrong, I hope I don't offend anyone because this is such a formative time in patients' lives," said Dr. Ashli Lawson, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at Children's Mercy.

"Everyone remembers where they were when they got their first period, what their mom had told them, what a teacher had told them, and there's just so much emotion surrounding it."

Some parents have even asked Lawson to step in and have "the talk" with their child. Right there. On the spot. In the office.

When to start talking

There is no perfect time to talk to a child about puberty. Experts say parents should take their cue from their children. But for goodness' sake do not wait until a girl's first flow to talk about menstruation. It typically begins around age 12, though girls as young as 8 can have periods.

Cue the trauma of a grade-schooler finding blood in her underwear and thinking that she's dying. It happens.

"That is what we really, really, really want to avoid," said Lawson. "We don't want this to be scary for a child. Even though the unknown of what it's going to be like might be scary, we want (them) to be prepared for 'OK, my mom has gone through this, or my sister has gone through this, my aunt has gone through this, and every adult woman is going to go through this and I will be OK.'"

Lawson advises parents to start talking to their children about their bodies "from a very young age."

"The earlier you start these conversations the better," she said. "They should all be tailored to being age-appropriate, and you know your child's maturity level.

"But somewhere when they're a young child it's OK for either them to start driving the conversation or if they haven't brought it up, you start talking about it."

Doctors say an opportune time to talk to a girl about how her body will change is when she begins developing breasts, somewhere around age 8 to 10.

"Maybe opening up that conversation to them  how do you notice that your body is different from my body  and seeing what they know and what they're able to pick up on," said Lawson.

How to do the talk

Don't turn the "period talk" into one huge discussion, says the Mayo Clinic. Smaller conversations are better to help a girl feel that it's safe to ask questions that might be embarrassing. The goal is to become her go-to source of information instead of friends who might provide inaccurate information.

If you don't know how to answer a girl's questions it's OK to say that and tell her you'll find the answer together, medical experts advise.

One place to look for answers: Your hospital's website. For instance, Children's Mercy ( childrensmercy.org ) and Saint Luke's ( saintlukeskc.org ) in Kansas City have pages dedicated to topics of puberty, as does the Mayo Clinic.

"As much as you can, try to put your anxiety aside and open up to your child. Be there for them," said Lawson.

The Girl Scouts in McClellan's classes "ask all kinds of questions." How long is the menstrual cycle, how many days? And sometimes there are practicalities to iron out.

"I've even had girls that live in two homes, with Mom and Dad, (ask) how do I manage my cycle in two different homes?" McClellan said. "I teach them to have a hygiene kit at Dad's house under the sink, as well as Mom's house. And keep those products in their (school) locker in their backpack."

Moms might find an "oh by the way" opening to start the talk after a trip to the grocery store, said Lawson. Daughters find their moms' tampons and pads in the house, or watch Mom buy them at the store.

"Right then and there in the grocery store might not be the time to have that conversation," said Lawson.

"But as you're unpacking at home, say, 'Oh by the way, these are pads that Mommy uses because when you're starting to grow up you have some blood that comes from your vagina and this is kind of like a Band-Aid for Mom so that we can make sure that we stay clean. It doesn't hurt and we can talk about this later when we start to get closer to that time for you.'"

Avoid cutesy language

McClellan consults with Girl Scout troop leaders to tailor her talks to her young audiences. She is upfront with the girls about the mechanics of menstruation. And they celebrate their power as "reproducers of human life."

She and Lawson both encourage parents to use anatomically correct terms when talking to children about their bodies. A vagina is a vagina, not some cutesy euphemism.

Lawson's baby is nearly 4 months old. When she bathes him, she uses "medically appropriate" language to describe his body parts.

Medical experts say that can help reduce children's body shame and make them safer, less likely to be exploited the more they know about their own bodies.

Knowing the correct terminology can also help a girl explain to her mom and doctor when something is wrong with her period, Lawson said. A heavy flow, irregular flows, lots of pain. Those are all things a girl should speak up about.

"Puberty should definitely be normalized. Because when puberty is not going well, this is kind of my doctor side speaking, when puberty's not going as expected, we need to know that's not something that we should hide from other people," said Lawson. "That's an important thing that a pediatrician or gynecologist needs to (know) about as well."

Dads should talk, too

Lawson said it's important for Dad, or any other male figure in a girl's life, to be knowledgeable about and comfortable with talking about menstruation, too, "because the young girl is going to be affected by his discomfort."

And practically speaking, "there's the potential that he's the one taking his daughter to swim practice when she gets her first period."

It would not be inappropriate, Lawson said, for brothers, especially if they're also going through puberty, to be involved in those discussions. They could be part of conversations about how his body is changing, too.

"It's dependent on your child and what your family is going through at that time," Lawson said. "But of course you want to know whether your daughter wants the brother to know and when. It shouldn't be a taboo subject, but that is her body and she might not be ready to fully disclose everything to everyone in the family."

***

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Flagstaff police are investigating after the body of a Phoenix man was found near Butler Avenue and Ponderosa Parkway Wednesday.

The man was identified as 43-year-old Juan Barajas of Phoenix, according to Flagstaff police spokesman Sgt. Odis Brockman.

Brockman said a passerby spotted an unresponsive person, later identified as Barajas, in a landscaped area Thursday. Medics and police later determined the man was dead. He did not have any obvious signs of injury, police said.

The case remained under investigation Thursday. The department is working with the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office to determine a cause of death.

Reporter Bree Burkitt can be reached at 928-556-2250 or bburkitt@azdailysun.com.

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced a plan Wednesday to ensure every single person on the planet has access to early warning systems for extreme weather and climate disasters within the next five years.

Early warning systems inform people that dangerous weather is on the way. They have been crucial in saving lives in extreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones, flooding, storms, forest fires and tornadoes, and can help communities  particularly those that rely on farming  to adapt to upcoming changes in weather.

Yet a third of the world's population is not covered by these systems. And where they have been absent, hundreds, even thousands, of lives have been lost in single extreme weather events.

The climate crisis is expected to make many of these events more intense and frequent.

"Human-caused climate disruption is now damaging every region," said Guterres in a video message. "Half of humanity is already in the danger zone."

He added, "We must boost the power of prediction for everyone and build their capacity to act."

The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will spearhead the effort in an attempt to save not only lives but billions of dollars, by giving communities a heads up that a weather or climate-related threat is imminent.

While a lot of climate focus has been on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is a growing understanding that humans need to invest more into adapting to the crisis. A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that some ecosystems  and humans  are reaching tipping points where adapting to the new climate and conditions may become impossible if global warming isn't reined in.

"We must invest equally in adaptation and resilience. That includes the information that allows us to anticipate storms, heatwaves, floods and droughts," Guterres said.

Inadequate warnings

While a third of the world lives without these crucial warning systems, in Africa the number jumps to 60%.

That's had devastating consequences. The WMO pointed to Tropical Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019, as an example of inadequate warnings, communication and education, which Guterres said was "unacceptable, particularly with climate impacts sure to get even worse."

"The meteorological services of Malawi and Zimbabwe were not able to forecast the event at all," said Petteri Taalas, the Secretary-General of the WMO, in an email to CNN.

"In Mozambique the storm surge, wind speeds and rainfall amounts were forecasted by the national meteorological service, but the responsible authorities were not acting to prevent human and economic losses since they didn't fully understand the risks caused by Idai."

There were more than 1,300 deaths from Idai, U.N. figures show.

Over 50 years from 1970 to 2019, a weather, climate or water-related disaster occurred on average almost every day, killing 115 people a day with a cost of $202 million every day, according to a 2021 WMO report on disaster statistics.

The WMO report also points out that "the number of recorded disasters increased by a factor of five over that 50-year period, driven by human-induced climate change, more extreme weather events and improved reporting."

However, because of better warning systems in place, the number of lives lost has decreased by nearly three-fold.

In the case of Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013 and killed 6,000 people, warnings didn't reach those who needed them most, and when they did, many people didn't understand them, the WMO told CNN.

A WMO analysis of the typhoon's impact found people failed to evacuate because they underestimated the danger.

The research team concluded that there needed to be a more "integrated multi-hazard approach to warnings" and evacuation centers need to not be in areas that are at risk of flooding.

Giving a community a warning of just 24 hours ahead of a coming storm or heat wave can cut damage by 30%, according to the Global Commission on Adaptation.

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Jeffrey Kaye (Kaye), a former clinical psychologist in San Francisco who spent years researching US biological warfare during the Korean War, called upon the US to provide the documentation and publicize what's really being done. Kaye said that we need "more open records, exposure, and a true and believable investigation." The following is a full transcript of the interview between Kaye and Global Times (GT) reporter Yu Jincui.

GT: After you reviewed documents declassified by CIA, what have you found? Is there enough evidence to prove that the US conducted germ warfare during the Korean War?

Kaye: Instinctively, I am 100 percent sure the US engaged in germ warfare during the Korean War. Viewed from the angle of basic evidentiary standards, I'd say based on the evidence from hundreds of eyewitnesses given to different investigators over the years, the uncensored portions of Defense Department documents available from the US, and now the two dozen descriptions in CIA documents of communications intercepted during the Korean War from units of the Korean People's Army and Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and the contemporary statements of US Air Force and Marine Corps officers about the operations of the germ war, that the preponderance of the evidence, that is, over 50 percent of the evidence points to the truth of the germ warfare allegations. Some US academics have claimed they unearthed documents that show the Korean War evidence was a "hoax" perpetrated by Russia, China and North Korea. But those documents have never been seen in their original, and the claims within the documents are easily disconfirmed, as I've demonstrated on a number of occasions.

GT: The Japanese Unit 731's biological warfare research program is infamous to China as the majority of the victims were Chinese. The US also used biological weapons during the Korean War. But why, until recent years, was the US use of bioweapons in the Korean War confirmed by documents declassified by the CIA?

Kaye: The CIA in 2010, the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, decided to declassify hundreds of different communications intelligence reports, and other materials that it had in its archives. These were very highly top-secret documents. I found approximately two dozen that referenced the use of biological warfare. There are a lot of complaints by CIA analysts about propaganda from the Soviet Union or China or North Korea. But what finally struck my eye was the declassification of reports that were referenced in the radio intercepts and decoded by cryptanalysts working for the United States Army. It's something called the Armed Forces Security Agency, which later became the NSA which we know of today as the National Security Agency.

There are numerous instances which I've taken from those documents and published online for people to read, in which military units reported to their commanders they'd been attacked by bacteriological weapons, they needed DDT to help kill the insects that were infected, and their supply chain was all screwed up because they couldn't move because of biological weapons attacks, and so on. So these people weren't faking it. They didn't know that they were being overheard by US Army people listening in. This was real evidence that, in fact, the attacks were taking place. And the evidence was taken in real-time.

Why did it take so long to release them? Because so much of the materials during the Korean War period were classified and still remain classified. The US is a very secretive government.

GT: According to documents declassified by the CIA, the US applied Unit 731-inspired bioweapons during the Korean War. You suggested that the international community should establish an international commission to investigate, but why is it so hard to push an investigationWhat are the obstacles?

Kaye: The materials used by the United States when they used biological weapons were very similar to those used by Unit 731. I don't know whether they were exactly the same. Unfortunately, there are some dots there that I can't connect because the documents are classified. But it's obvious to anybody who knows the history of it that's most likely what occurred.

For instance, an internal document from the US Army's Chemical Corps in 1953 referenced the "limited war" in Korea and temporary measures involving bioweapons. I believe these were the Unit 731-type weapons, like the feather bomb, the US used in their germ war campaign, weapons utilizing insects and biowar sabotage, such as used by Unit 731 against China in World War II. These were "stop-gap" because more sophisticated weapons the US Army and Air Force were working on were not ready for use by 1951, 1952. It was essentially a kind of large-scale field testing or experiment using methods they had inherited from their agreement with Unit 731 and Shiro Ishii after World War II.

How come it's so hard to get the investigation? Or how hard is it to get people interested? Part of that is the legacy of the cold war, which continues the hostility of the US government and other Western governments to anyone who would expose their crimes. One can look to see what happened to Julian Assange, who did that in Iraq and today still sits in a British prison fighting extradition.

I don't know how to explain it to people. It's quite shocking. It's almost like a totalitarian kind of government that has penetrated the academic community to a large extent and they control the media.

People are afraid that their careers will be spoiled if they push this material. So instead, they don't say anything. Behind the scenes, I've seen that numerous times it's just that people are afraid to act on it. It's quite sad.

GT: There have been lots of doubts and questions over the US Fort Detrick and overseas biolabs around the world, especially in the commonwealth of independent countries around Russia. The US has 336 biolabs in 30 countries. What has the US done in those labs? Does it act in compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention? Are you concerned about it?

Kaye: There are a number of people who are concerned that the Biological Weapons Convention is being violated by the United States and possibly by other countries as well. A lot of secrecy goes into these labs - the destruction of the documents of the Ukraine labs which are taken away or removed or destroyed. No one can read them now, because they're not there.

I know that they say that they are mostly there to work with countries in determining surveillance of existing biological threats, not from other countries per se, but just in nature, but also perhaps from biological weapons attacks from other countries, they claim. But in fact, everyone who's ever looked very deeply or even a little bit into the biological weapons program of the US and other countries recognizes that there's an extremely thin line between what's done for defensive purposes, such as the surveillance of biological pathogens out in the world, and actually using such methods for offensive purposes.

And in fact, I found when I was researching about the Korean War, more than one instance in which there were admissions made that they were hiding biological weapons research behind the so-called defensive biological weapons. As early as 1948, the Chairman of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Advisory Board told the board that the work on offensive use of insect vectors to deliver biological agents was being hidden behind defensive work on "insect control."

So we can't know as we can't see, but we do know what the United States has been fighting against. The US for a long time has been fighting against the establishment of a verification mechanism for the Biological Warfare Convention so that there are no actual teeth to that treaty: If you're a bad actor, you can do whatever you want. You're not going to get called out on it. It's at least a good thing that this is finally coming out into the open, because there's a lot that people don't know about this, and we need to have investigations.

GT: White House officials are giving confusing information over the US biolabs in Ukraine. Based on your experience and observation, what purposes do you think the US biolabs in Ukraine are for? In order to convince the world, what does the US need to do?

Kaye: The US needs to open up to provide the documentation and open up to what's really being done in those labs. But the problem is, they're not going to do that. I think they need to open up about the whole truth of the biological warfare program that the US has had going back 70, 80 years now, because you can't understand what's happening in the labs unless you understand the history of the US biological warfare program, its secrecy, its connections with the CIA, and its connections with academia. Instead, what you hear in the US press is a lot of bad-mouthing of Russia because they accused the US of using birds to possibly spread biological pathogens.

The US has long had programs, particularly in the 1960s and 70s, researching bird migration patterns and pathogens and reporting to Fort Detrick as part of the biological warfare program. That's history. But if you don't know the history, you wouldn't know that they were lying. So what does the US need to do? It needs to open up all its archives. And we need to declassify the records going back all the way to the end of WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and so on. so that we can see what are they doing in these hundreds of biolabs.

GT: Why has the US repeatedly refused requests by the international community for access to its biolabs overseas, including the ones in Ukraine? What are they worried about or afraid of?

Kaye: I think what they're afraid of is that it will be shown that they're in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, and that a covert biological warfare program is, in fact, underway and has been underway for some time.

It was back in the late 1940s that the US government decided that it would make highly secret all the research that was being done about biological weapons, and that secrecy is maintained today. It's very difficult to get so many important documents that are classified and go back 70 years or more. What are they hiding? As I've looked into the biolabs a little bit, it seems possibly they're hiding the use of biological weapons. I'm still trying to gather the information, but my take is that there's a covert program going on.

GT: Let's talk about the Fort Detrick. You once mentioned in an interview that Fort Detrick was and still is at the center of US biological warfare research. Why did US public keep silent over this?

Kaye: The US public, I think, keeps silent because they don't really know everything that's going on there, and they've been told lies, or they just don't want to know. It's basic human psychology that people want to believe that their own government is good, or at least ok and not doing evil or terrible crimes.

There's a certain passivity. And the culture of the US is that it encourages that passivity. Fort Detrick has been, for many years, the heart of US biological warfare research. There are other areas and other places like Dugway Proving Ground in Utah that are associated with the US biological work program.

And there are also these biolabs now, which may or may not be associated with that program. Fort Detrick is the center and everything there is kept secret. It's been a culture of secrecy that goes back now three or four generations. So you get a sense. It's hard to break something like that when the whole political culture acts to reinforce it.




OMAHA -- Nomi Health, which offers COVID-19 testing in Nebraska, will offer $1 million in free behavioral health care to front-line health care workers in Nebraska and a handful of other states beginning this spring.

The free virtual care will be offered through a partnership with Tava Health, a 2-year-old company that typically provides such care through large employers such as hospitals, school districts and universities.

Nomi has offered COVID testing in Nebraska throughout much of the pandemic, first under contract as part of the state's TestNebraska program and later through its own community testing sites.

Dallen Allred, Tava's CEO and co-founder, said the free care will be primarily video-based talk therapy offered by providers in the communities that are being served. The company has contracts with therapists all over the country, including roughly 15 in Nebraska.

Services in Nebraska will start June 1, he said. A Tava team was slated to start reaching out to hospitals and clinics in Nebraska this week to help them begin getting the word out to employees.

Rebecca Langle, Nomi Health's director of corporate social responsibility, said the program is open to those who consider themselves front-line health care workers. Each person will have access to 12 sessions through the end of the year. The service also will be offered in Florida, Texas, Utah, Colorado and Hawaii.

Once a front-line health care worker signs up, Allred said, the company will determine what issues they're struggling with and whether they have any preferences in provider specialty or gender. If a patient meets with a therapist but later changes providers, their clinical notes will follow them.

While many employee assistance programs are designed for short-term use, he said, the Tava program is designed to work with short-, medium- and long-term cases.

With COVID-19, he said, demand for such services has skyrocketed. The good news is that awareness and acceptance of behavioral health issues is growing and the stigma is being pulled down bit by bit.

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[March 24, 2022] Enterprise Connect 2022 Successfully Brought the Enterprise Communications and Collaboration Industry Together to Learn and Network Enterprise Connect, the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise communications and collaboration, brought corporate IT decision makers together with solution providers for the first time in three years to focus on the issues central to the enterprise communications and collaboration industry. Over the course of four days - March 21-24 - attendees experienced a robust lineup of keynotes, general sessions and 40 conference sessions spanning nine tracks including: Contact Center & Customer Experience; Video Collaboration & A/V; Collaboration Platforms; Practical AI; CPaaS & APIs; Unified Communications & UCaaS; Workplace Strategies; Management & Networks; and Security & Compliance. "It was wonderful to gather our industry together in-person and virtually," said Eric Krapf, General Manager, Enterprise Connect. "We offered a wide range of content from thought leaders, an exhibit hall full of innovative technologies and solutions, and many opportunities for networking. We look forward to reconnecting with the enterprise communications and collaboration industry again in person in 2023, as well as digitally throughout the rest of 2022." Enterprise Connect event highlights: Keynotes The events keynotes included: Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President, Microsoft Teams; Javed Khan, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Collaboration; Diego Pantoja-Navajas, Vice President, New Products, Amazon Web Services; Gary Sorrentino, Global Deputy CIO, Zoom Video Communications; Kira Makagon, Chief Innovation Officer, RingCentral; and Andrew Moore, Vice President and General Manager, AI and Industry Solutions at Google Cloud. Exhibit Hall Enterprise Connect's Exhibit Hall featured the industry's leading solution providers showcasing their latest innovations to attendees: Titanium sponsors 8x8, Amazon Web Services, Ring Central, Vonage, Webex by Cisco and Zoom; Diamond sponsors Bandwidth, EPOS, Five9, Genesys Cloud Services, Google, GoTo, LiveVox, Microsoft, Sinch, Slack, Talkdesk and Twilio; Platinum sponsors AT&T Business, BlueJeans by Verizon, CallMiner, DTEN, Edify, IntelePeer, Jabra, Observe.AI, Pexip, Poly, Ribbon, Salesforce, Telnyx, ThreatLocker, Verizon Business and Yealink; Gold sponsors 911 inform, Biamp, Bicom Systems, Intel Unite, NICE, Oracle Communications, Shokz, Shure and Spectrum Enterprise; and Silver sponsors Airkit, AVer, Balto, Barco, Inc, Calabrio, Cognigy, Dialpad, Fusion Connect, Intrado, IR, Kandy, Kore.ai, Kurmi Software, Mavenir, NetSfere, SecureLogix, TD SYNNEX Corporation, Thrio, Inc., Treasure Data, UJET, Inc., Unify Square, Unimax, Virsae, VMware SASE, Zendesk and Zingtree. Women in Communications: Roundtable The Women in Communications: Roundtable gave a voice to the women in enterprise IT who are guiding their organizations on communications and collaboration technoogies and strategy. Enterprise Connect Program Co-Chair Lisa Schmeiser moderated a discussion among women IT professionals who have carved out a place for themselves in a traditionally male field. The panelists shared career highlights, discussed the opportunities they see ahead for women in IT and provided guidance for others looking to equalize their footing and elevate their presence within IT.

Best of Enterprise Connect Awards Program The Best of Enterprise Connect awards program recognized excellence and innovation in the enterprise communications and collaboration industry. Winners include: Best of Enterprise Connect Overall Winner: UJET: CX Intercloud

Best Innovation in Customer Experience Winner (four-way tie): 8x8: 8x8 Agent Workspace; IntelePeer: Atmosphere Marketplace; Journey: Journey Elevate Orchestration Engine; and LiveVox: SpeechIQ with Quality Management

Most Innovative Use of AI: Virsae: VSM Everywhere

Most Innovative Use of AI Runner-up: Thrio: ThrioRedact

Best Innovation for Virtual Meetings (two-way tie): BlueJeans by Verizon: BlueJeans Studio and Vonage: Vonage Experience Composer

Vonage Experience Composer Best Innovation for Meeting Rooms: DTEN: DTEN Onboard

DTEN Onboard Best Innovation for Meeting Rooms Runner-up: Zoom: Zoom Events Communications & Collaboration 2025 The one-day conference-within-a-conference, "Communications & Collaboration 2025," offered sessions focused on helping enterprise IT decision-makers craft their strategic technology plan for the next three years. This program included sessions on the future of cloud technologies, video, the workplace, and contact centers. Enterprise Connect 2023 will take place March 27-30, 2023, in Orlando, FL. For additional information on exhibition or sponsorship opportunities, contact Natalie Bustamante at natalie.bustamante@informa.com. Stay connected with Enterprise Connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. About Enterprise Connect For more than 30 years, Enterprise Connect has been the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise communications and collaboration in North America. Enterprise Connect brings corporate IT decision makers together with the industry's vendors, analysts and consultants to focus on the issues central to enterprise communications. Enterprise Connect owns and produces No Jitter, (nojitter.com), providing daily blogging and analysis of enterprise communications, and it also serves the community with a weekly email newsletter, research surveys and a Webinar Series. For more information, visit enterpriseconnect.com/orlando. Enterprise Connect is brought to you by Informa Tech. About Informa Tech Informa Tech is a market leading provider of integrated research, media, training and events to the global Technology community. We're an international business of more than 600 colleagues, operating in more than 20 markets. Our aim is to inspire the Technology community to design, build and run a better digital world through research, media, training and event brands that inform, educate and connect. Over 7,000 professionals subscribe to our research, with 225,000 delegates attending our events and over 18,000 students participating in our training programs each year, and nearly 4 million people visiting our digital communities each month. Learn more about Informa Tech. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005618/en/

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TABLE ROCK -- The Nebraska State Patrol has launched a large-scale search near Table Rock as the agency continues its investigation into the disappearance of a women who went missing last summer.

Participants with 10 government agencies from Nebraska and Kansas were to gather near the Pawnee County town Thursday to renew efforts in the search for Linda Dillard, a 55-year-old woman who hasn't been seen sine June 16.

The State Patrol identified the specific search area, near Table Rock Wildlife Management Area, as part of its investigation that has stretched on for more than nine months.

The agencies plan to search the area through Saturday if necessary.

Investigators believe Dillard may have been the victim of a crime, which led to her disappearance, according to the patrol. In search warrants filed in Lancaster and Pawnee counties, investigators have been more specific.

"Due to the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Linda Dillard as described, investigators suspect that she may have been the victim of a crime to include: theft, assault, kidnapping, and/or murder," Investigator Amanda DeFreece said in a sworn affidavit.

Authorities have been searching for Dillard since her ex-husband reported her missing June 20, four days after she was last seen.

In court filings, DeFreece said Dillard had left her home near Fairbury in mid-June to visit friends in the Falls City area.

Dillard and a friend drank at a bar in Salem on June 12, a Saturday, then visited an acreage near the search area and joined a group drinking in Table Rock the next day.

DeFreece said investigators believe the group went back to the farmstead and smoked methamphetamine. Dillard hasn't been seen since.

When family members went to the farmstead and asked to look around, they found the wig she'd been wearing in a bathroom, DeFreece said in the search warrants. Pawnee County Sheriff's deputies later found clothes that belonged to Dilllard on the property.

DeFreece said the man who lives there told investigators Dillard had walked away at about 3 a.m. June 16 after accusing him of sexual assault. He later said a friend picked her up and they drove away, according to the documents.

Since then, she hasn't used her cellphone or posted to social media accounts. And when law enforcement tried to ping her phone, it was turned off or dead.

And the four people believed to be the last to see her alive early June 16 have given conflicting statements, DeFreece said the affidavit.

The man who owns the farmstead is facing drug charges after a July search of the property allegedly turned up methamphetamine, ketamine and carisoprodol, a muscle relaxer, according to court records.

But no one yet has been charged in connection with Dillard's disappearance.

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KEARNEY  SkyWest Airlines might be abandoning its air service in Kearney, but City Manager Michael Morgan said the sky isnt falling.

People should keep booking their flights, Morgan said about the situation that began one week ago when SkyWest Airlines announced its plans to drop commuter air service in 31 cities, including Kearney.

Flights from Kearney to Denver and Chicago have been attracting record passenger numbers, but in its announcement to the federal Department of Transportation, SkyWest said a chronic shortage of pilots is causing havoc for the small airline based in St. George, Utah.

Thats because pilots are gaining flight time and experience that allows them to graduate from smaller jetliners like the 50-seat planes that serve Kearney, and land better-paying jobs flying full-size jetliners.

Morgan said SkyWest might be exaggerating the pilot shortage. He told the Kearney City Council Tuesday that SkyWest appears to be reassigning some of its pilots to fly non-federally subsidized routes. Morgan added that a group of the cities slated to lose air service offered to help ease the pilot shortage by accepting cutbacks in air service.

SkyWest wasnt interested, Morgan said.

Morgan said April 11 is the deadline for airlines to submit their proposals. DOT and cities hoping to salvage air service then will closely examine proposals to find the best match for each community, but Morgan believes there arent enough pilots and airlines to go around.

The challenge is, whos going to lose air service, Morgan said. The good news is that SkyWest has never left a city without a replacement airline.

Unpredictable flight schedules during the coronavirus pandemic complicated the situation for smaller carriers like SkyWest. The airline has been scrambling to meet its obligations under the contracts with DOT to provide subsidized Essential Air Service for airports like Kearneys.

To attract pilots, SkyWest is offering $40,000 bonuses and other incentives, but the shortage continues because the young pilots first fly smaller jetliners and generally move up to larger aircraft when they qualify for that work.

SkyWests initial EAS contract to serve Kearney paid the airline $3,675,276 per year from 2018 to 2020. Currently, SkyWests contract pays the airline $3,638,264 annually to serve Kearney with flights to Denver International Airport and Chicago OHare.

Morgan said the current EAS contract runs from Sept. 1, 2020, to Aug. 31, 2023.

Those dates are important, Morgan said, because it gives DOT time to recruit a replacement airline for SkyWest. The time also aids the city of Kearney, which must review proposals from airlines competing to serve Kearney.

SkyWest operates as United Express out of Kearney and other Nebraska airports it serves.

Morgan said its critical that passengers continue flying from the local airport. Kearneys record-breaking passenger counts in 2021 will help DOT with its recruiting to give Kearney leverage to dictate some of the conditions for the EAS contract, such as the size and type of aircrafts the airline will fly and the flight schedule it will keep.

Passenger numbers reached a record 25,238 in 2021. That compares with the COVID-suppressed 11,794 passengers in 2020 and the 21,287 who flew in 2019.

Morgan said he spoke last week with several people who could be key players in Kearneys search for a new airline. They included U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, the citys airline consultant and representatives of DOT.

Morgan said the current EAS contract expires on Aug. 31. Until that date, DOT can hold SkyWests feet to the fire to keep the obligations of its EAS contracts for subsidized air service.

After that contract runs out theres nothing holding that airline in Kearney, Morgan said.

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Northwest College is a two-year residential college in Powell, Wyoming, serving as a mainstay in the small town since 1946. With about 1,400 to 1,500 students in attendance at any given time, Northwest College is dedicated in its entirety to the support of its students, preparing them for careers and life. And it is precisely this mission that is carried out by the admissions team at the school. The team is composed of four individuals  a senior office assistant, two admissions representatives and an admissions coordinator  whose various roles include application processing, answering admissions questions, on-the-ground recruiting, virtual recruiting, day-to-day functioning of the office and a number of other responsibilities.

The admissions team and admissions process as a whole are unique in their simplicity. Our team is a one-stop enrollment services hub, says Kendle Jeffs, admissions coordinator at Northwest College. Weve been cross-trained enough to help students with their initial inquiries, class enrollment, advising for classes and financial aid. Were that one resource for each student as they start their college journey.

The admissions process at Northwest College can be broken down into a series of simple steps. Once students complete their free application for admission, they can activate their student portal. Next, in order to become a student, they must provide documentation, which includes high school transcripts, college transcripts or GED documentation. After these documents are processed and accepted, the applicant is considered an admitted student and can enroll in classes. Before applicants are officially accepted as students, they can apply for scholarships and aid, giving them a general idea of the amount theyll receive once accepted.

Cost of tuition is a common question for the admissions team. Tuition is $105 per credit hour for in-state students, $315 per credit hour for out-of-state students and $158 per credit hour for students within the Western Undergraduate Exchange  a program that automatically decreases tuition for students from certain states. In addition, all students pay $51 per credit hour in student fees.

Northwest College mainly attracts students from its service area schools, which include Powell High School, Cody High School, Meeteetse School, Lovell High School, Heart Mountain Academy, Shoshone Learning Center, Rocky Mountain High School, Riverside High School, Greybull High School, Burlington High School, Worland High School and Ten Sleep High School. Students also come from nearby and neighboring states, including Montana, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and the Dakotas.

Northwest College is more than just an institution  its a community. From the admissions team, the professors, to the staff and beyond, this college invests in its students. Northwest College has one of the highest completion rates in the state, ranking above the national average. I believe we go above and beyond for each student  theyre more than just a number, Jeffs says. The people here truly care about the success of our students, and Northwest College gives us a real opportunity to make a difference in their future, from start to finish.

While many answers to common questions can be found on the FAQ page, speaking to an admissions team member is always beneficial. They can be reached via phone at 307.754.6015, text message at 307.271.8314 or by email at admissions@nwc.edu.

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.

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Terms like the golden hour and the platinum 10-minutes emphasize the urgency with which a trauma patient must receive care in order to survive. But Montanans live in a trauma center desert that stretches over four states, meaning accessing timely care isnt always possible.

Montana is second worst in the nation when it comes to surviving severe trauma, partly due to geographic isolation. The nearest tertiary care facility is 548 miles away in Salt Lake City, Utah, meaning severely injured Montanans are spending their golden hour simply getting to a facility with the necessary resources.

To address the issue, leadership at Billings Clinic announced plans Thursday to become the regions first level I trauma center, the highest designation for trauma centers in the U.S.

The hospitals trauma department has seen a steady increase in volume over the last several years, making the designation a natural next step, said Dr. Michael Englehart, director of trauma services at Billings Clinic.

I believe that people in Montana and the region deserve to have the same quality level of care that they can get anywhere else in the country with a level I trauma center, Englehart said.

Currently, Billings Clinic operates as a level II regional trauma center along with St. Vincent Healthcare, Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula and Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls.

At level II centers, hospitals are able to assemble advanced trauma care for the region by calling in general surgeons and some other specialists, according to Rich Rasmussen, CEO of Montana Hospital Association. Tertiary care needs that require cardiac surgery or microvascular surgery are usually flown out to level I trauma centers.

With the level I designation, Billings Clinic will be required to have in-house coverage at all times by general surgeons and specialists in orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine, plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial, pediatric and critical care.

Additionally, level I centers are required to have research pursuits and demonstrate a commitment to education.

Billings Clinic started revving up its research efforts about a year ago looking into ideas and concepts surrounding unique injuries and barriers to care in Montana. The questions have already yielded evidence of unparalleled challenges in care.

While falls and motor vehicle accidents are the most common traumas in the state, injuries unique to Montana include animal-related injuries, particularly equine traumas.

We actually believe that we may have one of the largest series of equine-related trauma in the United States, said Dr. Gordon Riha, trauma surgeon at Billings Clinic.

Even experienced trauma surgeons across the nation see animal attacks so rarely that a single case of a bear attack presented at a national meeting was laughable, Englehart said.

I was laughing for a different reason because I see this all the time, regularly, Englehart said. So we very clearly have a niche area of expertise that is not seen elsewhere in the country.

About 63% of Montanans live in rural communities that often have a severe lack of services, creating health disparities that are unique to the region. Driving times and a physician shortage heavily felt in rural places results in a lack of primary, preventative and emergency care.

Billings Clinic announced a general surgery residency program earlier this year with a focused rural track to create a pipeline to facilities and build a network of care.

The first general surgery resident will begin training in June 2022.

Educating physicians while also conducting research ensures the next generation of doctors will be trained with the most recent literature, placing Montana on the cutting edge of medicine, Riha said. With Billings Clinic at the center, the hope is that the advancements will trickle down to Montanas rural facilities.

Theres a lot of other facilities in Montana (where we can) develop a network through education through support of these other facilities to help raise the level of care  the end goal is to get (rural facilities) where they need to be, but we also want to keep people close to home, so not transferring people out of state, Englehart said.

Christy Baxter, director of critical care at Billings Clinic, shared her own stories of family trauma on their ranch in Cohagen, Montana.

In 2017, Baxter's father was in an ATV accident on a dirt trail about 12 miles from the highway.

"For those of you who know Eastern Montana, (it's like) get to the highway. The ambulance will meet you there," Baxter said. Her father was then transported to the nearest rural hospital where doctors told her that her father likely wouldn't survive.

Luckily, Baxter had the number of a thoracic surgeon at Billings Clinic who was able to arrange his transport to Billings. Today, Baxter's 81-year-old father continues to ranch in rural Montana.

Building up

Data shows that seriously injured patients have a 25% greater survival rate at a level I trauma center.

And from a clinical standpoint, Billings Clinic has been operating as a level I trauma center for several years, but in order to meet all the criteria for level I designation, which requires in-house immediate services, there are multiple other commitments the hospital must make to bridge the gap from level II to level I.

For trauma I designation, a hospital must have operating rooms available and ready at any time to serve an injured patient. Now, Billings Clinic operating rooms are booked solid on a regular basis, making it hard to fit in emergent trauma surgeries.

To meet the designation criteria, operating rooms and the emergency department will be expanded and a new surgical intensive care unit will be built.

The Clinic will also need to serve 1,200 patients a year with a major trauma or an injury severity score (ISS) greater than 15. To support the demand, new construction on an inpatient cancer care unit, intermediate care unit, neonatal intensive care unit and a transfer center is needed.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Billings Clinic inpatient capacity has been pushed to the breaking point, forcing the hospital to turn away some trauma patients, said Englehart. To accommodate for the increasing volumes, 56 new patient rooms will be added.

But how long it will take for the hospital to become a level I trauma center is unknown. Not only does the hospital need to bulk up its infrastructure, but the research team is being built from the ground up.

One of the reasons were moving forward with the capital campaign is we need foundational money too to keep these projects ongoing, Riha said. This takes a lot of manpower, it takes a lot of hours and it takes a lot of effort.

Funding

The project comes with a $30 million price tag, the largest capital campaign in Billings Clinic's history. So far, the Clinic has secured $13 million in pledges with $5 million coming from an anonymous donor.

The Philip N. Fortin Foundation has contributed $7 million to the campaign and will provide the name for the center as The Philip N. Fortin Trauma Center. The philanthropic organization has already given thousands to the trauma center at Billings Clinic, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.

Another $1 million came from former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, CEO of Belgrade-based Ascent Vision Technologies and Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company.

At the press conference, Sheehy talked about his own brushes with the golden hour during his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He added that he was closer to a level I trauma center during his deployments in the Middle East than anyone in Montana.

"I was unfortunate enough to see the golden hour pass on some folks and see just how quickly that rate of survival dropped off," Sheehy said. Since his time in combat, Sheehy and his wife, Carmen, have been passionate about contributing to advancing trauma care in the state.

In 2021, Sheehy donated millions to Bozeman Health to bring integrated pediatric care to the hospital.

"Elevating our game from a trauma perspective means elevating everybody. Everybody rises and gets better, complex care," Englehart said. "Building a network of facilities that can handle those beyond what their currently able to do is the eventual goal. All boats rise."

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Sullivan Huebner, a Billings local, launched one of the first long-form Metaverse charity events on Sunday, March 20.

Huebner, an employee of Canadian startup XPR Labs, began planning the event as the Russia-Ukraine war began in late February. I realized that we had the power to do something to help, he said, so I just decided that we were going to do it.

At that time, Huebner had already spent nearly a year networking with performers, artists, and event organizers specializing in virtual reality performances. His employer, XPR Labs, also hosts a division specializing in producing VR events and Metaverse platforms, so a unique opportunity was born  why not bring as many VR artists and performers together as possible, and produce a livestreamed charity concert?

The show would run in the popular social VR platform VRChat, thanks to the high number of organizers, performers, and venues available there. It made sense to keep the show in familiar territory, said Huebner. Weve been doing events here for over a year, so we know all of the ins and outs of doing this kind of show in this kind of platform.

Over the course of four weeks, Huebner partnered with six other event organization groups, signed over 40 performers, and started setting goals  the event would run for 12 hours, featuring performers in rapid succession, and try to bring in at least $5,000. The show rapidly picked up a name  Love Always Wins: Project Hope  and aimed to send aid to Ukrainian refugees.

As far as we know, this is the first event of its kind, he said. While other charity events have been conducted in VR, few have reached the scale or level of organization as this campaign. We wanted to keep our target low and reasonable, but still high enough to make an impact.

And make an impact it did  the livestream drew a steady audience of 130 viewers throughout the entire show, keeping it in the top six streams running in VRChat. By the final hour, over $4,500 had been raised, but donations were starting to taper off.

At that point, we thought we were going to miss our goal by just five percent, in the final sprint, said Huebner. Then we caught a huge windfall  one of our performers, CharmingJo, dropped by and saved the day.

CharmingJo, a South Korean musician and YouTuber with over 700 thousand subscribers, attended as the last act of the show. With him, he brought over 400 new live viewers for the stream. Between the influx of viewers and the renewed generosity of the others, the charity goal was reached with minutes to spare.

At the end of the show, the final total for the campaign was announced: $5,182.42.

Its not that big of a number, all things considered, said Huebner. But, more than anything, its proof that the communities in VR can do big things when they band together.

All of the proceeds were donated directly to Project Hope, a charitable organization providing emergency aid to refugees escaping the Ukrainian war-zone.

About XPR Labs:

XPR Labs is a Quebec-based technology innovator specializing in business applications for virtual reality. Incorporated in February 2021, and led by successful serial entrepreneur Mickael Nadeau, XPR seeks to integrate the world of business and the world of virtual reality, to create a sustainable and secure virtual business ecosystem.

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Customers of NorthWestern Energy, alleging theyve for years been overbilled for power plants due to a state law written especially for the utility, got their day in court Wednesday in Missoula County District Court.

Eric and Abby Huseth, Jerome Walker and the group 350 Montana, are challenging the constitutionality of Montanas pre-approval law, which allows customers to be committed in advance to paying for power plants before financial risks are fully realized. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that customers have been overbilled millions of dollars since the law was created in 2007.

350 Montana is a climate advocacy group pursuing an urgent pivot away from fossil fuels because of unprecedented levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide contributing to a warming climate. When the lawsuit was filed, NorthWestern Energy was seeking pre-approval of a 175-megawatt gas-fired power plant it intends to build near Laurel, which 350 contends would prove more expensive than other options over time, both in electricity costs and climate damage.

NorthWestern and the State of Montana argue that the pre-approval law, created in 2007 by state lawmakers unwinding an attempt at utility deregulation, was necessary. Committing customers to a long-term debt schedule for power plants ahead of time lowers the utilitys risk. NorthWestern was emerging from bankruptcy in the years before the law was created. Preapproval gave assurance, before NorthWestern made an investment, that projects would be paid for by customers. Lawmakers wanted NorthWestern to own the power plants serving its customers.

But pre-approval has also resulted in customers paying for costs that never came to be. In 2014, for example, an additional $247 million was added to customer debt related to the price of 11 hydroelectric dams NorthWestern purchased from Pennsylvania Power and Light. The money was supposed to account for hydros value in a future world where the cost of carbon emissions were punitive. The total price was about $900 million.

Those carbon costs never materialized. The price customers paid for the dams hasnt changed. At the time Montanas Public Service Commission granted pre-approval for the dams, the state consumer advocate had argued the cost to consumers shouldnt be added unless the carbon regulation costs occurred.

The question before Judge Jason Marks was whether pre-approval violated the Montana Constitution. NorthWestern is the only utility in that state that gets to apply for pre-approval from the Public Service Commission. The law doesnt identify NorthWestern by name, but clearly states that the law applies only to a utility that previously sold its generating assets under the states 1997 deregulation law. The utility that sold its assets was Montana Power Company, to whom NorthWestern was the successor as the states largest utility.

After the hearing, Monica Tranel, attorney for the plaintiffs, said there was no dispute about whether the law only applied to NorthWestern.

"Theres no disputing the facts. Sec 421 (of the states reregulation law) only applies to a utility who removed its assets before 2007. Everyone agrees thats NorthWestern," Tranel said. "And, it's a special privilege."

It's that last part about special privilege that attorneys for NorthWestern argue against. There's only one utility the law applies to, they argue, but NorthWestern is also the only utility adding generating assets that only serve Montana customers.

Marks took the case under advisement following the hearing.

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Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen hailed a federal judges ruling this week to block new deportation rules set out by the Biden administration.

Arizona, Ohio and Montana challenged the new policy in November in federal court against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorka. The guidance ordered DHS officials to prioritize deportations of immigrants who pose a threat to national safety.

The states argue DHS bypassed Congress immigration statutes by issuing its own policy. Montana has staked its claim in federal immigration issues as a state that suffers from drug addiction propelled by Mexican drug cartels.

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Newman of Ohio granted the states motion to block DHS from carrying out certain provisions of the new policy while the legal proceedings play out.

This is a great victory for the rule of law, border security and public safety across the country, Knudsen said in a press release, adding that drugs from Mexico end up in Montana communities.

Newman also denied a motion by DHS to dismiss the states case. The judge acknowledged the executive branchs significant authority over immigration, but noted Congress, too, has broad powers over the matter.

 Can the executive displace clear congressional command in the name of resources allocation and enforcement goals? Newman wrote. Here, the answer is no.

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According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, people have come from near and far for employment opportunities in Billings.
In his role as an avalanche forecaster, Dave Zinn spends his days trying to keep backcountry skiers, snowmobilers and snowboarders safe.

Likewise, in his previous profession as a ski patroller for 11 years, Zinn facilitated hundreds of rescues. So when he was flung off his snowmobile during an Idaho backcountry ride this winter, Zinn was suddenly in the position of being a victim instead of a rescuer.

Still in the air coming off the machine I told myself, Boy, I think that I might have just dislocated my shoulder, he recalled. And when I got to the ground I had that moment where you say, Nope, I think I might be OK. And then you do your self-assessment and say, Nope, not OK. Im pretty sure the shoulder is dislocated.

Rescues up

Zinns situation is unfortunately becoming more common in some areas. In 2021, Gallatin County Search and Rescue reported its busiest year in history, according to Erin Metzger, administrative assistant for the group.

The group responded to 34 searches and 69 rescues, using helicopters in 17 of those calls. Collectively, 161 volunteers spent 4,472 hours responding to 134 missions, dedicating almost twice those hours to volunteer training. In the past the county averaged around 100 calls a year.

The type of requests for help have also changed, Metzger said, from mostly searches to more rescues. She pointed to the popularity of GPS devices giving adventurers more information on where to go, as well as machines with greater power and maneuverability  from snowmobiles to ATVs  as reasons for the increase. Because of this, accidents are often accompanied by more serious injuries, she said.

So far this year the trend is continuing, with calls outpacing 2021. In winter, work is often concentrated around West Yellowstone, the self-proclaimed snowmobiling capital of the world.

They see almost no activity once the snowmobile season is over, Metzger said.

Patrol

Robby Pohle, a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks warden based in West Yellowstone for five years, can attest to the increase in rescue situations. He spends much of his winter on a snowmobile and has responded to a variety of emergencies, most of them involving inexperienced riders.

Even the lowest powered machine is powerful these days, Pohle said.

Riders will round a corner too fast, and rather than brake they will accidentally grab a handful of throttle and crash into a tree or roll the machine, he said. Last year head injuries seemed more common. This winter it was leg injuries.

The whole COVID thing has put more people out in the woods, and with that comes more calls for service, he added.

Once Yellowstone National Park closes to winter travel, much of the snowmobile tourists also vanish, so things are pretty quiet right now, Pohle said.

Prepared

Zinn was well prepared for his medical emergency, as were his fellow riders, which included his boss at the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center and three members of the Fremont County Search and Rescue crew.

It was humbling because you start to realize how much even a minor injury  in the grand scheme of things a shoulder dislocation is a minor injury, its not life-threatening  how sort of debilitating that is and how that limits your ability to self-rescue, he said.

After some technical backcountry riding the group was about seven to eight miles deep into the Centennial Mountains near Island Park, Idaho. The accident occurred at 1:40 p.m. on Jan. 4, so still early enough in the day to activate search and rescue to come with a helicopter or toboggan and haul Zinn out to avoid spending a night in the woods.

One of the things we talked about, right off the bat as we started to think about what to do next, was asking ourselves the question: How do we get ourselves out of here, and what actions can we take to rescue ourselves? Zinn said.

Endeavors

At first, Zinn thought he might be able to pop the shoulder back in, easing the searing pain, and then navigate his snowmobile back out. But after 45 minutes of trying, it wasnt working. To relax his shoulder muscles in hopes of facilitating the repair, he took pain medication.

When that still wasnt helping, he tried to walk downhill but found it too difficult. So his partners made a toboggan out of a tarp and slid him downhill to a flat area where another member of the party had started a bonfire using gasoline and an emergency flare to burn green wood.

His partners then used a tarp and parachute cord to create a wind block and Zinn put on warm gloves and a down coat, sitting next to the fire as they calculated the next move.

Unfortunately, although it was clear in the mountains the search and rescue helicopter's base was socked in and couldnt fly. So using a radio the group called their fellow search and rescue volunteers to bring a toboggan.

Make the call early, dont wait, Pohle advised. We always get a lot of people who wait until its dark, even though theyve been stuck since one oclock.

Switch

When Zinns rescuers arrived, they gave him an opiate to ease the pain, loaded him into the toboggan and took off.

That was not a pleasant trip, he said. That position is not particularly comfortable.

The riding proved too technical for towing the sled. So Zinn transferred from the toboggan and sat on the front of another riders snowmobile as he drove downhill.

After finally reaching an awaiting ambulance, Zinn was transported to the nearby medical center in Rexburg, Idaho. An emergency room doctor put his shoulder back in place, about six-and-a-half hours after it was dislocated.

It was a special experience, Zinn joked.

Emphasis

For Zinn the incident drove home how important it is to be prepared for backcountry emergencies. In the winter, such situations can be even more deadly since theres the added problem of cold temperatures and exposure if the participants arent sufficiently equipped.

Ultimately it was a wise decision to activate the local search and rescue because it facilitated a timely evacuation, he said. Those rescuers need to be activated relatively quickly because it takes time to mobilize and arrive.

The groups equipment and training set them up for success, Zinn said, which he defined as everyone getting out that night without more problems.

People do get injured in the backcountry with some regularity, he added. Its easy to get focused on the fun part of these activities and forget about the consequences of them sometimes.

As an avalanche center, were always focusing on how do we prepare people for avalanches, how do we train people to assess the snowpack and train appropriately so they can avoid getting caught in an avalanche? How do we train people to carry the correct equipment, the beacon, shovel and probe to potentially rescue a partner should things go wrong? But theres this other side of backcountry safety that is equally as important.

Pohle agreed. Hes seen the backcountry riders in West Yellowstone  who come from as far away as Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas  steadily improve their gear and training to be prepared for avalanches. Yet hes not seeing those same riders equipped to spend a night out if something goes wrong.

A lot of the rescues this year, people were flat out not prepared to spend the night, he said.

He always carries food, water, a way to melt snow, several ways to start a fire, a saw, medical kit, dry clothing and something to make a shelter. He noted that on New Years Day the temperature dropped to minus 43 degrees at his house.

Hes also seen riders on their own get stuck, unable to get out, or riders that break off from their party and get lost on their own.

That goes against the rules, Pohle said. You go with people, and let people know where you are going.

Empathy

Zinn is willing to talk about his experience because he wants people to actively think about how they are going to get themselves out of a bad situation, as well as encouraging them to be humble enough to know when to call for help.

Which points to another important factor: having multiple communication devices can be a plus. His group had radios, a satellite phone, cellphones and two types of satellite rescue devices  a Garmin inReach and Spot beacon.

If someone would have had to ride to Island Park to get cell service, that would have slowed things down, he said.

Extra batteries or a way to charge electronic devices is also important, especially when outside in cold temperatures that can quickly drain battery power, Zinn noted.

Being able to communicate that you need help is a big part of it, he said.

As well as being humbled by his accident, Zinn said he has reconsidered some of the things hes told patients in the past.

The experience as a whole has given me a new type of empathy for all of the folks Ive helped out of the mountains through the years, he said.

One of his well-worn one-liners seemed particularly applicable to his own situation.

Ill say, Alright, were going to do this to get you out of the mountains. And then Ill say: Its going to get a little bit worse before it gets better.

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Bloomberg: Is State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visiting Afghanistan and India this week?



Wang Wenbin: If there is any information on that, we will release it in a timely manner.

Reuters: US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Wednesday that the Chinese authorities had invited the US National Transportation Safety Board to take part in the investigation of the crash. Could you give any comment from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on that?

Wang Wenbin: The Chinese side has been sparing no effort to conduct search and rescue efforts after the China Eastern Airlines passenger plane crash. We will conduct investigations according to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, its Annexes and Chinese civil aviation laws and regulations and maintain close contact with all parties concerned.

Yonhap News Agency: According to reports, the DPRK fired a new type of ballistic missile today, which is its 11th missile launch this year. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed concern over it and the DPRK criticized Japan in an article. Does China have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We have taken note of relevant reports. We hope all sides will bear in mind the overall interest of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, adhere to the right direction of dialogue and consultation, and jointly advance the political settlement of the Peninsula issue.

CCTV: Previously, the Chinese cybersecurity company named 360 released the report on indiscriminate cyberattack across the world launched by the APT-C-40 group of the US National Security Agency (NSA) over the past decade or so. The company recently disclosed in full the technical features of Quantum, the most powerful cyber weapon used by the NSA to attack targets in China mentioned in the report. Do you have any further comment?

Wang Wenbin: I noted relevant reports. The latest revelation shows that Quantum is an advanced cyber hijacking tool that the NSA has specially designed for attacking state-level Internet. The US can use this technology to attack all Internet users browsing US websites such as Twitter, YouTube, Amazon as well as Chinese social media applications. This means no matter who you are and where you are, Big Brother is probably watching you whenever you log on to a social media platform.

In recent years, the US has proposed to build the so-called Clean Network, has been brewing the so-called Alliance for the Future of the Internet, and has used cyber capacity building as a pretext to strengthen cybersecurity cooperation with many countries. However, as the report reveals, many countries the US works with are also targets of its cyberattacks. As we can see from exposed operations such as Dirtbox, PRISM, Irritant Horn and Telescreen, the US doesnt even spare its allies and partners in its global cyber surveillance and attacks. In this sense, the so-called Clean Network is nothing but a mirage to camouflage US surveillance and cyber theft across the globe and an invisibility cloak to conceal its true face as the empire of hacking.

We once again urge the US to act responsibly in cyberspace and stop cyber theft and attacks on China and the rest of the world. The US should implement the framework that it insists all other states abide by.

AFP: I have two questions. Which countries will participate in the meeting of Afghanistans neighbors to be hosted by Beijing later this month? Will India be invited? And the second question is, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has accused China of giving political backing to Russia as it attacks Ukraine by spreading blatant lies and misinformation. He has also expressed concerns that China could provide material support for the Russian invasion. How does the Chinese Foreign Ministry view these comments?

Wang Wenbin: On your first question, we are speeding up preparations for the third Foreign Ministers Meeting among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan. As Afghanistans neighbor, China stands ready to leverage its strength and contribute to the countrys lasting stability and security. With regard to your question about the specifics, we will release information in due course.

On your second question, accusing China of spreading misinformation related to Ukraine is in itself disinformation.

With an objective and just attitude, China has been working actively toward realizing cessation of hostilities as soon as possible, averting a humanitarian crisis and restoring peace and stability. We have always maintained that Ukraine should be a bridge for communication between the East and the West, not an outpost in major power rivalry. European countries should uphold the principle of strategic autonomy and work with Russia, Ukraine and other countries concerned to build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture through dialogue and negotiation following the spirit of indivisible security. The US and NATO should also engage in dialogue with Russia to address the root cause of the Ukraine crisis.

What is needed to resolve the crisis is a cool head and a rational mind, not adding fuel to the fire. What is needed to restore peace is dialogue and communication, not pressure or coercion. What is needed to achieve lasting peace and stability is efforts to accommodate the legitimate security concerns of all parties, not moves to seek bloc confrontation and absolute security.

Chinas position is in line with the wishes of most countries. Time will prove that Chinas position is on the right side of history, and all groundless accusations and suspicions against China are indefensible and will simply collapse.

Macau Monthly: The US Department of State claimed that China has been spreading disinformation that has in the first instance come from Moscow, including about various biological weapons programs. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: For some time now, the international community has had intense discussions on the US biolabs in Ukraine and raised many doubts. Regrettably, the US has given nothing but a deeply flawed response. All sides have every reason to question it. The US cannot muddle through by clamming up or dismissing it all as disinformation. The US needs to offer serious clarifications on whether it is disinformation or not.

What is the purpose of US research in Ukraine-based biolabs? Has the US conducted dangerous research banned at home in labs overseas including in Ukraine? The international community has major concerns over these issues.

The best way for the US to prove its innocence is to open up for international scrutiny. We urge the US to change its course, promptly give a convincing explanation for its biomilitary activities in Ukraine and other places around the globe and stop standing alone in opposing the establishment of a BWC verification mechanism.

Reuters: The US Trade Representatives Office said on Wednesday that it has reinstated 352 expired product exclusions from US Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports. This is well short of the 549 exclusions that it was previously considering. Does the foreign ministry have any comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: We have taken note of relevant reports. I would refer you to the competent authorities for this question. In principle, it is Chinas consistent view that China-US economic and trade relations are mutually-beneficial and all-win in nature and no one wins in a trade war.
Police have arrested a man on suspicion of murder stemming from a shooting that left a 22-year-old man dead Wednesday morning at a Hawken Street apartment complex in northwest Bismarck.

Kyle Riley, 26, of Bismarck, was arrested about 12:30 p.m., according to Lt. Luke Gardiner.

Officers responded to a report of shots fired at 8:50 a.m. and found the man dead from an apparent gunshot wound, the police department said. Authorities did not immediately release the man's identity.

A witness told police that Riley shot the man from the window of a pickup truck. Police found the abandoned pickup in the Brandon Loop area about 9:45 a.m. Information led investigators to the 2500 block of East Broadway, where they set up surveillance. A man matching Riley's description left that area in a car about 12:24 p.m. He was taken into custody about 12:30 p.m. after police initiated a traffic stop in the 1200 block of East Avenue C, Gardiner said.

The lieutenant said police believe the shooting was a targeted attack and that Riley and the 22-year-old knew each other.

Detectives asked that people who live in the area contact the department if they have any video evidence from door bell cameras or other home surveillance cameras.

Police blocked off roads near the incident Wednesday morning. Students at Centennial Elementary sheltered in place, which means they continued to receive instruction but didn't leave the classroom, according to Bismarck Public Schools. The district notified parents. BPS Spokesman Steve Koontz said the school's shelter in place order ended around 12:45 p.m.

(Reporter Sam Nelson contributed to this story. Check back for updates.)

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Voters in North Dakota's coal country can expect a Republican fight on the June ballot for the Legislature.

Sen. Jessica Unruh Bell, R-Beulah, announced her plans on Thursday to run in the primary. Last month she lost District 33 Republicans' endorsement to Mandan-area farmer and business owner Keith Boehm. Party endorsement is not required to run in the primary.

"North Dakota deserves strong, conservative leadership with experience now more than ever to boost our economy, foster growth in coal country and protect our communities from government overreach," Unruh Bell said in a statement. "I am that leader. I have and will continue to work tirelessly for the good of all the families of District 33."

She was first elected in 2012 for the district comprising Mercer and Oliver counties and parts of McLean and Morton counties. She is an environmental manager for North American Coal.

House race

Another Republican candidate joined the district's House race on Thursday -- "Faces of North Dakota Coal" founder Mark Pierce, of Beulah.

District 33 Republicans last month endorsed incumbent Reps. Jeff Delzer, R-Underwood, and Bill Tveit, R-Hazen. Five Republicans jostled for the two House endorsements at the district convention.

Pierce's organization is "dedicated to telling the stories of the hardworking men and women in the coal industry."

As a political outsider, an active member of my community, and the father of five young girls, Im running for the Legislature to protect our way of life in North Dakota, Pierce said in a statement. Growing up in western North Dakota taught me to appreciate the value of a hard days work, and I want to ensure that my children have the same opportunity.

He touts his and his family's background in the coal industry. He serves on his church council and a board of a local child care cooperative, emcees various events and volunteers in the community.

He has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Dickinson State University, and has worked in public accounting, agricultural lending and coal mining.

Voters in the June election will determine political parties' nominees for the November general election.

Ninety-eight seats in the Legislature are on the ballot this year, more than is usual due to decennial redistricting.

Republicans control the House of Representatives 80-14 and the Senate 40-7.

April 11 is the filing deadline for candidates.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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The North Dakota Supreme Court is weighing whether to overturn a ruling striking down a 2019 state law concerning small rock cavities used by the energy industry.

The justices heard an appeal Thursday from the state and oil producer Continental Resources, who seek a new ruling upholding the law after an unfavorable order from a judge in early 2021. The Northwest Landowners Association brought the original suit against the state, saying the law amounted to a taking of property owners rock cavities, known as pore space, depriving them of compensation and the ability to fight energy companies in court if a dispute arises.

Companies seek to use pore space for injecting natural gas, carbon dioxide or saltwater from oil production for storage. Pore space belongs to the propertys surface owner. Supporters of the 2019 law, which stems from Senate Bill 2344, say it was needed to clarify issues surrounding the use of the cavities.

North Dakota Solicitor General Matt Sagsveen argued that none of the laws in Senate Bill 2344 either individually or collectively constitute a taking.

He said mineral owners have the undisputed legal right to access and develop the minerals. That includes accessing the surface estate. Sagsveen added that energy companies must be able to dispose of byproducts associated with mineral development. Its not uncommon in North Dakota for the mineral owners in a particular location to differ from the landowners who own the surface estate.

The district court decision that surface owners have the right to complete control over their pore space because it has inherent value is erroneous as a matter of law, he said, referencing the decision striking down the legislation last year.

Sagsveen added that the Legislature has the authority to amend the statutory remedies available to surface owners.

An attorney for the landowners group, Derrick Braaten, told the justices that while state lawmakers can amend property rights, theres a caveat.

They can give property rights or they can take property rights away -- if it pays just compensation, he said.

Braaten said the 2019 legislation came about in response to a court ruling involving landowners in a dispute with an oil company over the use of their pore space for saltwater disposal.

The industry realized they were going to have to pay for pore space use, and they didnt like that, he said.

Braaten said the bill made it so that in any situation where landowners do have the ability to get compensation for their pore space or bring a trespass action, now they dont. The legislation, he said, is about the industry being able to use the pore space for free, period.

Continental Resources attorney Poe Leggette argued the Legislature found that the case involving saltwater disposal has caused inefficient outcomes for the people of North Dakota, and so it is reversing that through legislation.

Both he and Sagsveen disputed that the 2019 law bars individual landowners from accessing the courts if a problem arises. Leggette said they can still bring a claim if an energy company uses the surface estate unreasonably.

Thursdays oral arguments come just over a year after Northeast District Judge Anthony Benson ruled in the landowners associations favor, declaring the 2019 law unconstitutional and concluding that it acts to give North Dakota landowners value from pore space to the oil and gas industry, for free.

The dispute comes amid the states evolving energy landscape. Pore space issues have popped up in the course of the states oil boom over the past 15 years, and they are poised to continue as energy companies eye the states rock cavities to permanently store the climate-warming carbon dioxide emitted by coal and ethanol plants and other industrial facilities.

Theres a lot happening to pore space, and theres more to come, Braaten told the justices.

Chief Justice Jon Jensen said the court would take Thursday's arguments under advisement and rule at a later date.

Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com.

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The poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells a haunting tale. The famous lines haunt us now.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on

My soul in agony.

And this famous line from near the end of the poem:

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

Look up the poem and read this tale yourself. There are lots of interpretations of what this poem means. I will shorten my interpretation for todays tragic situation. Here in America, our ship of state is in crisis. Wickedly divided and like the ancient mariner, Americans hang a dead albatross around each others necks. We feel alone -- all, all, alone. We feel this aloneness is a curse from the divine, a double curse because we cannot escape, and must live on, when others, like the sailors on the ill-fated ship, have escaped by dying.

In Coleridges poem, the albatross was once friendly, following the ship, playing with sailors and feeding on scraps. The albatross seemed to bring good luck to the sailors, taking them through a treacherous sea of ice, mast high. But the mariner shot the albatross with his crossbow, just for the fun of it. Bad luck followed. The dead albatross became a curse.

The living albatross that brought America good luck was the imperfect idea that God loveth all creatures great and small. Americans declared that imperfect idea when declaring independence from England, but we have wounded that idea over and over. Americans knew God loveth the ship of Jews seeking sanctuary in the United States; our government turned it away. God loveth the children seeking their mothers, who came alone to the southern border; we imprisoned them. God loveth the Africans, kidnapped from their homes and forced into slavery in America; the Supreme Court of the United States ruled they were lawful property of people with white skin. God loveth Native Americans whose peaceful villages bordered the Great Lakes; they were shelled by the American Navy to force them to leave their homelands and relocate across the Mississippi. God loveth the millions of people who sought sanctuary in America, crossing the perilous ocean, who built what you see when you look out your window. We now build walls to keep them out.

The dead albatross that curses its wearer has a human face. In America, the face is of lynch mobs that terrorized Black people, of racists oppressing people of color, of political leaders destroying human life by stoking fear and hatred based on lies about those people. The dead albatross that curses its wearer has the face of the gun makers, whose assault weapons kill children. The dead albatross that curses America wears the face of those who believe profits are more important than the life of the planet, changing the climate with carbon dioxide. The world sees the curse as the face of Vladimir Putin.

What will cause those who wear the albatross of selfishness, fear and hatred, to bless their enemies, and allow the curse to fall off and sink like lead into the sea?

It is indeed a horrific tale, the journey of the worlds democracies. But those who still believe in the ability of people to govern themselves, who still believe God loves all creatures great and small, passionately believe they can write the next chapter in human history. In that chapter, the ship doesnt sink.

Bill Patrie has been recognized for his work as a cooperative developer by the National Farmers Union, the Association of Cooperative Educators and the National Cooperative Business Association.

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Whooping cranes are making their spring migration, and anyone who spots one of the endangered birds is asked to report the sighting so the birds can be tracked.

The whooping cranes that travel through North Dakota in spring are part of a population of about 500 birds on their way from wintering grounds in Texas to nesting grounds in Canada, a distance of about 2,500 miles, according to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

Whooping cranes stand about 5 feet tall and have a wingspan of about 7 feet from tip to tip. The birds are bright white with black wingtips that are visible only when the wings are outspread. Whooping cranes usually migrate singly, or in groups of two to three birds, and may be associated with sandhill cranes.

Anyone sighting whoopers should not disturb them, but record the date, time, location and the birds' activity. Observers also should look for and report colored identification bands, which may be on one or both legs.

Whooping crane sightings should be reported to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices at Lostwood, 701-848-2466; Audubon, 701-442-5474; Game and Fish headquarters in Bismarck, 701-328-6300; or to local game wardens across the state.

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What is cyber hygiene and why is it important? Cyber hygiene, or cybersecurity hygiene, is a set of practices organizations and individuals perform regularly to maintain the health and security of users, devices, networks, and data. But what are the benefits of cyber hygiene and why is it important? Read this guide to find out.

Why CISOs need advanced network security strategies now Network security has to move beyond the basics. With systems and data under assault by sophisticated attackers, CISOs and other security leaders need to put in place advanced network security strategies that incorporate the latest technologies -- AI, machine learning and more.

Threat detection and response demands proactive stance Cyberthreat volume, velocity and vectors are surging, taxing already stressed security teams. The time for a new cybersecurity approach is here. Threat detection and response tools are evolving just in time, as are the techniques to combat security alert fatigue.

Can a zero-trust approach fill the security perimeter void? Zero-trust security means more than trusting nothing and no one. It's the best way devised yet to fill the void that the disappearance of the enterprise perimeter left. Learn what steps security pros need to take to implement an effective, zero-trust approach to IT security.

Advanced cybersecurity fraud and how to fight it Fraud is as ancient as time, but cybersecurity fraud is hitting heights of sophistication the ancient Greeks never imagined. Learn the latest cyberfraud scams and how to thwart them with a combination of processes, tools and education.

Conquering cloud security threats with awareness and tools The global market for cloud security products and services is booming, and so are threats. Increasingly, a company must beware of nation-state hackers, though the problem of vulnerabilities caused by human error within the organization persists.

Getting the most from cyberthreat intelligence services A deluge of data is making it tough to put cyberthreat intelligence to work. This issue of 'Information Security' magazine focuses on what data makes a difference. This issue also includes a feature on top CISO concerns for 2020, plus an interview with Cisco's CISO Steve Martino.

How to get actionable threat intelligence from tech tools Automated threat intel products and services can't produce actionable threat intelligence without essential ingredients, like threat hunters, analysts and administrators. This guide teaches cybersecurity pros how to how to pluck usable threat intelligence from a sea of data.

Multifactor authentication methods, use cases and products Multifactor authentication protects businesses from cyberattacks by requiring two or more forms of authentication from the user before allowing access. In this buyer's guide, explore multifactor authentication methods, use cases and market-leading products before making a final buying decision.

How to implement a strong COVID-19 cybersecurity plan Cybercriminals aren't slowing down during the pandemic, and neither can your security. Learn about the biggest threats right now and how to stop them cold.

Employ AI for Cybersecurity, Reap Strong Defenses Faster Adversaries are constantly changing their hacking techniques to bypass the strongest enterprise security systems. Meanwhile, businesses are adopting new and advanced technologies to protect their assets. In this e-guide, explore considerations for implementing the latest applications of AI for cybersecurity in your enterprise.

Security Access Controls Over Identities Must Be Priority No company should take IAM for granted. Every business faces the potential of a breach, as evidenced by the access control struggles experienced by Amazon Web Services customers. In this e-guide, learn how important a role identity- and access-based security plays in keeping enterprise and individual data safe.

Finding a Secure Managed File Transfer Tool: Key considerations Read this expert guide to explore key considerations that should be reviewed prior to an MFT investment and learn about the advantages of using a solution with enterprise file synchronization and sharing abilities.

What secure email gateways can do for your enterprise It is important to evaluate secure email gateways before implementing them in your organization. Here's a look at some of the best email security gateway products in the industry, as well as implementation, cost and uses.

A Guide to SIEM Platforms, Benefits and Features SIEM systems enable organizations to centralize indecent response, detection and handling, as well as data logging for compliance. This e-guide is a collection of resources highlighting SIEM benefits, criteria and tools. Read on to evaluate which SIEM system is right for you.

Assess Secure Web Gateways to Suit Your Network Security Needs Secure web gateways are complex security controls that sit between the user and the internet to protect the organization from advanced web security threats. This buyers guide can help simplify the buying process by addressing the key considerations for evaluating a secure web gateway and the features and functionality these products offer.

Why EDR Technologies are Essential for Endpoint Protection While an organization's most valuable and sensitive data and systems are usually well-protected on interior servers situated inside data centers and behind firewalls, it is on the network endpoints where external attacks begin. In this handbook, learn how to address endpoint security issues in your organization.

Who Needs Security Orchestration, Automation and Response? Who needs SOAR? The understaffed security team. Or put it another way: most security teams. In this SOAR guide, our expert contributor providers a detailed list of potential uses and details of what SOAR can do to boost the security of an organization's systems and data.

Secure DevOps Brings Better, Faster, Safer Software In the rush to implement DevOps, security is too often overlooked. But DevSecOps is essential in these hack-filled days. Learn how you can add security to software development today.

Who needs security orchestration, automation and response? Who needs SOAR? Only those companies with understaffed, overworked IT security teams. Or in other words; most security teams. Learn how SOAR tools can help ease the burden of required security tasks and free up security pros for more challenging IT security projects.

The Best Email Security Comes Through Strategy and Tactics Achieving the best email security possible should be a top InfoSec priority. Why? Attackers work day and night thinking up new ways to bypass IT security. In this security handbook, learn how to approach email security both strategically and tactically.

Incident response playbook in flux as services, tools arrive The enterprise incident response "playbook" is getting a rewrite. An IR playbook guides an enterprise security team's work, identifying triggering events and outlining best practices or regulatory requirements. Download this handbook to learn more about the essential playbook revisions that are putting new technologies and services to use.

Explore the Threat Hunting Process The threat hunting process hinges on an expert's ability to create hypotheses and to hunt for patterns and indicators of compromise in data-driven networks. In this issues of Information Security, explore learn how threat hunting programs can find security holes that machine learning or automated systems fail to detect.

Allure of the threat hunter draws companies large and small Do you need a threat hunter on your analyst team? Threat hunting allows companies to be proactive, rather than wait for attackers to trigger alarms after they have already infiltrated an organization's systems. Yet not every company is ready to employ threat hunting techniques.
The 225th birthday of Blessed Antonio Rosmini is a good time to remember that heated debate on the intersection of faith and reason, philosophy and the Word of God, is to be encouraged. You you never know what light will be shedor when a saint is in the making. []

Christian philosophy and morality were far from my intellectual radar during the 1970s when I decided to focus on economic studies. At the time I was captivated by the writings of Ayn Rand. Rand respected Aristotles and Aquinas logical analyses but despised the latters religious tone and foundations. Later, when I went more deeply into these philosophers writings, I abandoned Randianism.

Debates in Christian philosophical circles are numerous, even among those who profess respect and admiration for Aquinas. I have come to appreciate different aspects of the teachings of philosophers, theologians, and moralists who had significant disagreements among themselves. One example is my admiration and respect for two prolific 19th-century intellectuals who had a remarkable impact on the Catholic world: Fr. Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (17971855) and Matteo Liberatore, S.J. (18101892).

Regarding Rosmini, Fr. Robert Sirico, in his foreword to the 2007 edition of Rosminis The Constitution Under Social Justice, wrote: Like Lord Acton, John Henry Cardinal Newman, and Count Alexis de Tocqueville, Fr. Antonio Rosmini was one of those comprehensive nineteenth-century Catholic thinkers whose breadth and depth of thought and analysis may be seen as all the more remarkable from the distance of time. Professor Carlos Hoevel of the Pontifical Argentine Catholic University, one of the leading experts on Rosmini, wrote in his own foreword to the same edition that the bookformed what was perhaps one of the first Catholic [treatments] of modern political and economic liberalism. And yet, as many in the Catholic Church could not distinguish between Rosminis liberalism and the extremist liberalism of the French Revolution, The Constitution ended up on the Index of Forbidden Books. More than a century later, however, John Paul II rehabilitated Rosmini and even recommended starting his cause for canonization. Rosminis beatification took place on November 18, 2007, in Novara, Italy.

Matteo Liberatore also left a significant legacy. With Luigi Taparelli DAzeglio, S.J., he was one of the founders of the magazine La Civilta Cattolica. He worked hard to restore a Thomistic understanding of natural law in Italy. J.H. Fisher wrote that Liberatore was regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of his day (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910). Liberatores last book, Principles of Political Economy (1889), in which he elaborated his views on property rights, was very influential in the drafting of Leo XIIIs encyclical Rerum novarum (1891).

Liberatore and Rosmini were strong defenders of property rights and other essential aspects of a free economy. However, Liberatore strongly criticized Rosminis reliance on reason alone as practically sufficient in itself to deduce principles of natural law and make moral judgments. Similar positions had been taken in earlier erasfor instance, many attacked Hugo Grotius (15831645) for developing some of his analyses as if God did not exist. Some of the Catholic late scholastics, who also stressed the importance of human reason, had used phrasing and ideas similar to Grotius long before the Dutch humanist published his works. The attacks on Rosmini remind me somewhat of the Grotius controversy: Even Lord Acton thought that Grotius phrasing was unfortunate. Yet Rosmini based his position on Aquinas statement that goodness and being are really the same and differ only in idea. Using reason to understand either gives us knowledge of both.

But Liberatore argued that Rosmini had gone too far. He wrote that the atheistic school of liberals was encouraged by Rosminis views. If the liberals look favorably at Rosminian philosophy, they have good reasons for doing so. Teachers and students could avoid relying on God to seek truth and use reason alone to understand being. When I read Liberatores criticism, I said to myself, Great! Perhaps Rosminis contributions can be a road to bring followers of Ayn Rand and other liberal atheists to the vision of the human person that inspires the Acton Institute.

Furthering his criticism, however, Liberatore wrote: There is no doubt about it. The Rosminian system is German Transcendentalism in Italian dress. Liberatore did not focus on Rosminis personal goals: I willingly admit that Rosmini entered into this cloud-land with the best intentions. But the blunder was that, in order to fight his adversaries with equal weapons, he accepted their method and their principles. Liberatores harshest words are toward the end of his lengthy book, when he summarizes his criticisms by stating that Rosminian philosophy might be defined as the devastation of Catholic theology.

History, though, was kind to Rosmini. John Paul II regarded the separation between reason and faith as a tragedy. In the encyclical Fides et ratio, he included Rosmini among the modern proponents of the dialogue between faith and reason: We see the same fruitful relationship between philosophy and the Word of God in the courageous research pursued by more recent thinkers, among whom I gladly mention, in a Western context, figures such as John Henry Newman, Antonio Rosmini, Jacques Maritain, Etienne Gilson and Edith Stein.

When I ponder the current disputes among Christians, I see that, as with the differences between Rosmini and Liberatore, they promote many aspects of a free economy but disagree in degree and in their philosophical foundations. Looking back on the many battles of the past, like the one waged by these two Italian priests, I take some comfort in what we are witnessing today. Influential Christian intellectuals are attacking each other as I have not seen before, true. Yet the vitriol should not prevent the independent reader from learning from the best contributions of opposing philosophical figures. As time has proved, both Rosmini and Liberatore deserve to be read, especially on economics. Who today needs to be read, thoughtfully considered, with an eye toward history?

Liberatore, Matteo, S.J., On Universals: An Exposition of Thomistic Doctrine (London: Art and Book, 1889)

Rosmini, Antonio, The Constitution Under Social Justice (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, [1848] 2007)
How to pray for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine

By Amy Richey
Arizona's Republican-majority legislature took one look at the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin and set out to make sure it could never happen there: accordingly, it's approved as total a ban on filming police as it thinks is constitutional. Refusal to comply when an officer orders you to stop recording could send you to jail.

The original proposal, crafted to prevent filming police under circumstances similar to Darnella Frazier's famous footage of Floyd's murder, has been sanded a little smoother. Amendments to the bill now mean that people in their own cars may film themselves interacting with police, and bystanders may film police from a distance. But the chilling threatthe new power of police to countermand First Amendment rights on the streetremains.

Democratic Minority Leader Reginald Bolding said that the measure is the wrong way to boost transparency and ease the perception in minority communities that they are not safe from police misconduct. "One way to not do that is telling them that they cannot use their cellphones or do any type of recording unless it's within a specific set of guidelines," Bolding said during the vote.

The bill must pass in the Republican-majority Senate and be signed by the governor, also Republican, before becoming law.
Newly acquired data in the Hayabusa2 mission suggests that the asteroid Ryugu is actually an extinct comet that lost its water ice due to heat from increased solar radiation after getting closer to the inner asteroid belt. CREDIT Hitoshi Miura from NCU, Japan

Asteroids hold many clues about the formation and evolution of planets and their satellites.

Understanding their history can, therefore, reveal much about our solar system. While observations made from a distance using electromagnetic waves and telescopes are useful, analyzing samples retrieved from asteroids can yield much more detail about their characteristics and how they may have formed. An endeavor in this direction was the Hayabusa mission, which, in 2010, returned to Earth after 7 years with samples from the asteroid Itokawa.

The successor to this mission, called Hayabusa2, was completed near the end of 2020, bringing back material from Asteroid 162173 "Ryugu," along with a collection of images and data gathered remotely from close proximity. While the material samples are still being analyzed, the information obtained remotely has revealed three important features about Ryugu. Firstly, Ryugu is a rubble-pile asteroid composed of small pieces of rock and solid material clumped together by gravity rather than a single, monolithic boulder. Secondly, Ryugu is shaped like a spinning top, likely caused by deformation induced by quick rotation. Third, Ryugu has a remarkably high organic matter content.

Of these, the third feature raises a question regarding the origin of this asteroid. The current scientific consensus is that Ryugu originated from the debris left by the collision of two larger asteroids. However, this cannot be true if the asteroid is high in organic content (which will confirmed once the analyses of the returned samples are complete). What could, then, be the true origin of Ryugu?

In a recent effort to answer this question, a research team led by Associate Professor Hitoshi Miura of Nagoya City University, Japan, proposed an alternative explanation backed up by a relatively simple physical model. As explained in their paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers suggest that Ryugu, as well as similar rubble-pile asteroids, could, in fact, be remnants of extinct comets. This study was carried out in collaboration with Professor Eizo Nakamura and Associate Professor Tak Kunihiro from Okayama University, Japan.

Comets are small bodies that form on the outer, colder regions of the solar system. They are mainly composed of water ice, with some rocky components (debris) mixed in. If a comet enters the inner solar system-- the space delimited by the asteroid belt "before" Jupiter--heat from the solar radiation causes the ice to sublimate and escape, leaving behind rocky debris that compacts due to gravity and forms a rubble-pile asteroid.

This process fits all the observed features of Ryugu, as Dr. Miura explains, "Ice sublimation causes the nucleus of the comet to lose mass and shrink, which increases its speed of rotation. As a result of this spin-up, the cometary nucleus may acquire the rotational speed required for the formation of a spinning-top shape. Additionally, the icy components of comets are thought to contain organic matter generated in the interstellar medium. These organic materials would be deposited on the rocky debris left behind as the ice sublimates."

To test their hypothesis, the research team conducted numerical simulations using a simple physical model to calculate the time it would take for the ice to sublimate and the increase in rotational speed of the resulting asteroid due to it. The results of their analysis suggested that Ryugu has likely spent a few tens of thousands of years as an active comet before moving into the inner asteroid belt, where the high temperatures vaporized its ice and turned it into a rubble-pile asteroid.

Overall, this study indicates that spinning top-shaped, rubble-pile objects with high organic content, such as Ryugu and Bennu (the target of the OSIRIS-Rex mission) are comet-asteroid transition objects (CATs). "CATs are small objects that were once active comets but have become extinct and apparently indistinguishable from asteroids," explains Dr. Miura. "Due to their similarities with both comets and asteroids, CATs could provide new insights into our solar system."

Hopefully, detailed compositional analyses of the samples from both Ryugu and Bennu will shed more light on these issues. Make sure to stay tuned!

Reference

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac4bd5

About Nagoya City University, Japan

Nagoya City University (NCU), a public university established in 1950, began with the Medical School and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Its origins, however, stretch back to the Nagoya School of Pharmacy, founded in 1884, and the Nagoya Municipal Women's Higher Medical School, founded in 1943. NCU has grown into an urban-style public university in the center of Nagoya, Japan, with around 4,000 students and 1,600 faculty members. In the last 60 years, NCU has graduated over 26,000 students. NCU continues to expand as an advanced education and research center to assist in the improvement of local health and welfare, as well as the development of the local economy and culture.

Website: https://www.nagoya-cu.ac.jp/english/

About Associate Professor Hitoshi Miura from Nagoya City University, Japan

Hitoshi Miura got his Ph.D. from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, in 2006. He joined Nagoya City University in 2013 as an Associate Professor. He has received awards from both the Planetary Science Society of Japan and Crystal Growth Society of Japan, as well as the 2019 Nagoya City University President's Award. He specializes in theory of crystal growth and planetary science, and has over 45 publications to his name in these topics.

Funding information

This study was partly supported by JSPS Kakenhi (numbers 19H00820 and 20K05347) and Daiko Foundation, as well as the Japanese Government Cabinet Office's "National University Innovation Creation Project 2020" to Okayama University.

The Asteroid 162173 Ryugu: a Cometary Origin

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Performance artist Ted Cruz has made quite a spectacle of himself during Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings (see video below). But his exaggerated outrage is not for the good of American citizens, nor even the good of his misled Texas voters. No, as confirmed yesterday by a Los Angeles Times photographer who snapped a photo of the narcissistic bad actor checking out his phone immediately after one of his outbursts, the Senator's mock ire is all for the sake of his Twitter likes (or lack thereof).

First came his grandstanding:

Ted Cruz throws a huge, grandstanding fit. Look for clips of this tonight on Hannity. pic.twitter.com/IDUGhDol72  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2022

Second came the immediate inspection of his phone (paying no more attention to the hearings before him now that his scene was over), shown in photo tweeted by L.A. Times reporter Nolan D. McCaskill:

Ted Cruz looks like he's checking his mentions after his back and forths with KBJ and Durbin. He's had his head down during all of Coons' testimony, even as Sasse and Tillis are clearly listening to their Democratic colleague and the nominee before them pic.twitter.com/Rrlud9FHov  Nolan D. McCaskill (@NolanDMcCaskill) March 23, 2022

And finally, the aha! photo snapped by L.A. Times photographer Kent Nishimura, who tweeted, "Can confirm this. He was searching twitter for his name, this was right after his exchange with Chairman Durbin."

Can confirm this. He was searching twitter for his name, this was right after his exchange with Chairman Durbin. https://t.co/pd7W6SHVPV pic.twitter.com/AKXoe4CYKK  Kent Nishimura () (@kentnish) March 23, 2022

Via HuffPost
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a very angry letter to a public school demanding they stop hosting Pride Week. The school district's superintendent's simple and direct response was perfect, they are proud of their LBGTQIA+ students and will protect them from political attacks.

Independent:

As Pride Week gets underway in one Texas school district, the state's attorney general has declared the whole event illegal.

In a stern letter to the Austin Independent School District  which he also posted on Twitter  Attorney General Ken Paxton said the week-long celebration of LGBTQ students violates state laws against teaching "human sexuality" without parents' permission.

"By hosting 'Pride Week,' your district has, at best, undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent," the Republican AG wrote on Tuesday. "Or, worse, your district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop. Either way, you are breaking state law."
What's in a name?

Local colleges, it seems, can't start calling themselves universities fast enough.

It started in February, when Buffalos DYouville College held a day-long party with music, food and gifts for students, faculty and staff to celebrate its new moniker, DYouville University.

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A month later, it was Daemen College in Amherst that renamed itself Daemen University. President Gary Olson announced a campus-wide celebration of this milestone to follow his State of the University address on April 27.

And Medaille College in Buffalo plans to do the same. It has announced it will also seek state approval to become Medaille University, which, based on the previous experience, will likely be further cause for celebration.

What's the big deal about a name?

It starts with a rule change.

Small, private colleges in New York that have been trying to qualify as universities for years won out in January, when the State Board of Regents updated its old-school definition of university.

The new definition broadened the wording about what qualifies as a university, bringing it in line with what's used in the nations other 49 states.

The result: Many New York colleges suddenly were able to apply for university status. So far, DYouville, Daemen, Utica College and Touro College in New York City have succeeded in making the switch.

Why does it matter? Branding, for one. The word university implies bigger, better and more prestigious than college, a word often applied to individual schools of discipline within a university.

New Yorks old definition also caused confusion for international students looking at schools in the U.S., and for New York students recruited by other state universities that met the same standards as colleges here.

What's the difference?

Using a definition from 1969 left New York as the only state requiring that an institution offer doctoral programs to be considered a university, among other issues, said Lola W. Brabham, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in Albany.

We applaud the New York State Board of Regents for updating the states definition of university, bringing New York into alignment with the rest of the country, Brabham said. CICU has advocated for years on behalf of our members  the 100-plus private, not-for-profit institutions of higher education across the Empire State  to make this critical change a reality.

The change helps level the playing field and promote fair competition," Daemen Provost Michael Brogan said. "For many years, New York State colleges competed against universities from other states that benefited from different naming rules  not only for students, but for faculty and federal research funding.

More recently, New York colleges also found themselves competing with a spate of online programs and degrees from out-of-state universities doing business in New York.

Many New York-based colleges offer more than their online competitors and will have no problem meeting the Board of Regents standards for their programs.

Expect to see more New York colleges becoming universities in the near future.

What's the change?

New Yorks old definition (1969-2022): University means a higher educational institution offering a range of registered undergraduate and graduate curricula in the liberal arts and sciences, degrees in two or more professional fields and doctoral programs in at least three academic fields.

New definition: University means a higher educational institution offering a range of registered undergraduate and graduate curricula in the liberal arts and sciences, including graduate programs registered in at least three of the following discipline areas: agriculture, biological sciences, business, education, engineering, fine arts, health professions, humanities, physical sciences and social sciences.

Welcome to Buffalo Next. This newsletter from The Buffalo News will bring you the latest coverage on the changing Buffalo Niagara economy  from real estate to health care to startups. Read more at BuffaloNext.com.

THE LATEST, IN CONTEXT

What: Medaille Colleges education department has devised new accelerated masters degree programs to allow people who hold bachelors degrees in other fields to get certified as elementary or high school teachers in only 16 months.

Both the masters in elementary education and the masters in adolescent education include one year of coursework and four months of student-teaching, which is required for teacher certification in New York state and Ontario, Canada.

Tell me more: The college developed these programs to address a teacher shortage in New York and Ontario. In her State of the State Address in January, Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York will need more than 180,000 new teachers in the next decade, and about one-third of current teachers are projected to retire within the next five years.

Why it matters: Medaille is among many colleges and universities seeking to stay relevant and increase enrollment by offering programs that directly contribute to regional workforce needs.

By developing education programs that make it as quick and easy as possible for prospective teachers to navigate the steps to certification and join the workforce, Medaille is doing just that.

ICYMI

Five reads from Buffalo Next:

Kaleida Health's pandemic-related losses near $230 million  and it wants its insurer to cover it: It is yet further proof of the financial beating that WNY's hospitals endured during the pandemic. Even before the first Kaleida patient tested positive for Covid-19 on March 16, 2020, the region's hospitals already were on a financial tightrope because of their high concentration of Medicaid and Medicare patients and the lower reimbursements that accompany them.

Where homebuilding is hot, and where it's not: Grand Island is seeing a surge of activity in new housing development, including single-family homes. It experienced a doubling of new building permits last year, and several hundred single-family homes, townhomes and apartments are on the drawing board. It is not the usual locale for that, but it demonstrates how homebuilders are going where there's land available, and you can see it in other local towns as well.

AML RightSource bets on continued success in Buffalo with promise of 363 new jobs: If the company fulfills its hiring commitment, it will have more than 540 employees in Western New York by 2026.

How a business accelerator in Buffalo aims to make entrepreneurship accessible to all: EforAll opened its Buffalo office in May and is helping entrepreneurs from Buffalo's underrepresented communities grow their own businesses. Their goal is to transform Buffalo one small business at a time.

With talk of new stadium, Orchard Park and Hamburg look for ways to encourage spinoff: After being shut out of the stadium negotiations, officials representing Orchard Park and Hamburg are eager for a seat at the table once the deal is done.

The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the regions economic revitalization. Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com or reach Deputy Business Editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.

Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul's budget proposal touted a $10 billion, multiyear plan to bolster New York's pandemic-battered health care industry, calling it "the largest investment in health care in state history."

State legislators want to spend even more.

In releasing their one-house budget proposals this month, the Assembly and Senate plan major spending on wage increases for the state's home care workers, some of the industry's lowest-paid professions.

Legislators also plan to convert some of the health care worker bonuses pitched by Hochul into permanent wage increases, seemingly taking what was a one-time cost and making it recurring.

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Both houses also included money to provide health coverage for undocumented immigrants and an additional $1 billion to assist some of the state's most financially strained hospitals.

"Overall, this is a frenzy," said Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany.

"Hochul wrote a very generous budget. She has lots of money to spend. Some of it is state revenue, some of it is temporary aid," he said. "She wrote a very generous budget, and the Legislature just piled an awful lot on top of it.

This all, of course, is subject to intense negotiations underway now as the governor and legislators aim to iron out the state budget ahead of the April 1 deadline.

Looking at the entire budget, Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, pitched a record $216.3 billion proposal, with the state flush with cash from federal Covid-19 relief dollars and higher-than-expected tax revenues last year.

"Gov. Hochul's executive budget includes bold initiatives to embrace this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in our future, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature to finalize a budget that serves all New Yorkers," Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said.

In an election year, Hochul proposes big spending hikes, tax breaks The governor proposed a total spending plan of $216.3 billion, up from the $208.9 billion budget enacted last April, and it includes enormous increases in education and health care.

The Assembly proposed spending that is about $8 billion more, or 3.6% higher than Hochul's budget, with big jumps in funds for child care, education and health care.

Bea Grause, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, which represents nonprofit and public hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies, said the group appreciates the Legislature's proposals to bolster the industry's workforce, infrastructure and finances.

The association, however, hopes to see greater improvements in the final budget to Medicaid payment rates, which many health care facilities rely on for a significant chunk of revenue. The one-house budgets agreed with Hochul's proposal in planning a 1% increase in Medicaid rates.

"We continue to urge state leaders to go further," she said.

A major boost for home care wages

When Hochul released her budget proposal, some legislators said there was one glaring omission: funding to boost the pay of home care workers.

As it is, a home health care worker's median annual salary is just $22,000, according to a recent report by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

Those low wages, industry officials argue, will make it difficult to meet a seemingly endless need for more home health and personal care aides, whose total employment in New York is projected to increase from 440,000 in 2018 to more than 700,000 by 2028, the report notes.

Both state houses included funding in their proposals for the Fair Pay for Home Care Act, which calls for home care aides to be paid 150% of the regional minimum wage.

In Western New York, that means home health care workers would make a minimum of $19.80 an hour  which, based on a 40-hour workweek, is about $41,200 annualized.

The proposal isn't cheap: The Assembly is proposing to spend $2.5 billion for Fair Pay for Home Care.

The proposal has backing from major labor unions, trade associations and key legislators.

Hammond, of the Empire Center for Public Policy, is worried about the ripple effects.

He points out that plenty of positions at nursing homes and hospitals pay less than what a home care worker would make under the proposal. For instance, a certified nursing assistant at a Western New York nursing home makes anywhere from $15 to $18 an hour.

"The dedicated staff who work in long-term care deserve better pay across all settings," said Jim Clyne, CEO of LeadingAge New York, which represents nursing homes across the state. "Raising wages for one type of provider and not the others will make staff shortages even worse for those providers that are left out."

That's why, LeadingAge New York argues, the state needs to increase the Medicaid reimbursement, which can help support the higher wages necessary to compete for workers.

Tweaks to health care worker wage proposals

The Assembly rejected Hochul's proposal to provide $1.2 billion in bonuses for health care workers, instead pitching a plan to use that money for permanent wage increases in the Health Department and various human service agencies.

"Instead of giving people a one-shot bonus, we're proposing to provide funding for permanent wage increases for the same workers," said Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat who has chaired the Health Committee since 1987.

Hochul's health care proposals: Worker bonuses, increased Medicaid rates and millions for Roswell Park "One hard lesson we learned about what happens when there's a lack of investment is how our health care system crumbled under the stress of the pandemic," Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

The Assembly accepted Hochul's proposal to provide $120 million for bonus payments to state health care workers whose base salary is subject to collective bargaining.

The Assembly's proposal also provides $250 million to support wage increases for health care workers making less than $125,000 annually who would not be included in the Fair Pay for Home Care Act.

Health care for all

Gottfried said most of the arguments between the chambers and the budget division at this point revolve around cost.

One of the areas where the budget division argues the Assembly and Senate have underpriced their proposal is the plan to provide $345 million to include coverage for undocumented immigrants under the state's Essential Plan, which provides health benefits with no monthly premium for qualified low-income people.

"This is an important step in furthering the goal of achieving universal coverage, " said Eric Linzer, president and CEO of the New York Health Plan Association, which represents 29 health plans across the state.

The Health Plan Association also applauded the Senate and Assembly for rejecting Hochul's proposal to reduce the number of Medicaid managed care plans. The proposal envisioned a competitive procurement process that would have resulted in anywhere from two to five Medicaid plans in each region.

In Western New York, for instance, there are seven mainstream Medicaid managed care plans and eight managed long-term care plans, covering a combined 470,000 residents, the association said.

Hochul's plan would have eliminated a couple of those plans locally, potentially leading to job losses and fewer choices for residents, the association said.

Under the proposal, the state was projecting $100 million in savings in fiscal year 2024, which would have grown and recurred at $200 million in following years.

More money for health care facilities

Erie County Medical Center burned through $79 million of cash during the pandemic, with elective surgery restrictions and escalating Covid-related costs chipping away at its balance sheet.

So the safety-net hospital is optimistic about additional funding included in the budget proposals from the Assembly and Senate.

Both houses propose an additional $1 billion in assistance to financially distressed hospitals: $750 million for safety-net hospitals and $250 million for major public hospitals.

The "funding proposals for safety net providers like ECMC and creating a pool of funding for public hospitals are essential to our ability to continue to provide the services our patients need," ECMC spokesperson Peter Cutler said. "Without this critically important funding, we will not be able to reinvest in staff, patient care and improved technology. In fact, cuts to vital services and other hospital-related functions will be inevitable."

Billions for health care construction tucked in Hochul's budget The governor's budget proposes making $1.6 billion available to fund capital improvements for health care facilities and nursing homes, as well as to build out ambulatory care infrastructure for struggling hospitals.

The Senate also includes an additional $400 million for the statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program. Both houses also aim to increase the allocation within that program for community-based providers.

Hochul's budget proposed making a total of $1.6 billion available to fund capital improvements for health care facilities and nursing homes. That funding would be on top of the $3.8 billion the state has appropriated for those purposes since 2014  $2.1 billion of which has not been spent, according to the Empire Center.

Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris.

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A state trooper's body camera video released Wednesday captured the tense exchange between the trooper and a motorist he fatally shot Feb. 12 after a lengthy police chase on the Thruway that reached speeds of more than 100 mph.

The video shows the trooper, Anthony Nigro IV, getting out of his patrol car and approaching a car stopped behind him on Eagle Street in downtown Buffalo. Nigro can be seen holding his gun in front of him.

Warning: Graphic content. Includes scenes of violence and profanity

Nigro can be heard yelling at the driver to get out of his car, repeatedly using expletives.

The driver, James Huber, 38, of North East, Pa., can be seen sitting in his car. He's wearing a ball cap and a tan-colored hoodie. He appears to turn his face away from the trooper while muttering something.

AG's Office investigating Thruway chase that ended in trooper fatally shooting man State Police Major Carla A. DiRienzo said the trooper fired his gun after reaching into the man's car as the man put the car into reverse.

"Get out! Get out!" Nigro orders, pointing his gun at Huber.

"Go away," Huber replies, quietly.

"Get out!" Nigro repeats.

"No," Huber says.

Huber reaches his right hand down to something around the center console.

Man shot to death by trooper may have been headed to Peace Bridge protest Cary Arnold, a Pennsylvania woman who had a daughter with James Huber, 38, of North East, Pa., 18 years ago, told The Buffalo News on Monday that she believes Huber might have been heading for the Peace Bridge rally in support of Canadian truckers protesting that country's Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

"Nope," he says.

The camera shows Nigro reaching into Huber's vehicle with his left hand to grab the hood on Huber's sweatshirt while holding his gun in his right hand near Huber's head.

"Get the...." Nigro says, followed by a sudden flurry of motion and sound. Nigro fires twice and the car lurches backward.

Nigro appears to fall on the ground as the car moves in reverse, out of view of the camera.

Seconds later, a loud crash can be heard in the background.

Nigro can be heard on his radio: "7415. Shots fired."

Nigro can next be seen running on Eagle toward Washington Street.

The video is one of three that the state Attorney General's Office released Wednesday.

A release from the office said the videos were obtained as part of an ongoing investigation and were released to the public "in order to increase transparency and strengthen public trust in these matters."

"The release of this footage is not an expression of any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of any party in a criminal matter or any opinion as to how or whether any individual may be charged with a crime," according to the release.

Two other videos show the chase, which began on the Thruway in Brant at about 10:38 a.m. Troopers said that the tan-colored sedan was traveling faster than 100 mph at times.

The chase continued to Exit 53, where Huber allegedly struck a state police vehicle and then continued north on Interstate 190 toward downtown. The troopers broke off the chase and then searched for Huber downtown, state police previously said.

The two other videos released Wednesday show Nigro driving during the chase. The third showed his encounter with Huber.

The facades of buildings along Washington Street can be seen through the windshield of Nigro's vehicle, before he makes a turn onto Eagle Street and quickly exits the vehicle, holding a gun in front of him with both hands.

At first, there is no audio to the video.

After the shooting, Huber's vehicle is turned over onto its passenger side in a driveway leading to the M&T building. A turn signal blinks. Several guardrails next to the driveway look damaged.

"Get out of here," Nigro yells to a passerby.

"Shots fired. Send an ambulance," Nigro says.

He gives his location as "Washington and Eagle."

"Driver's been hit. I'm fine," he reports.

He approaches the vehicle, looking into it through the windshield.

"You dumb-ass," Nigro says, his gun blocking the view of the camera.

A few moments later a man, possibly a security guard, walks up.

"Is this the one you were chasing?" he asks Nigro.

"He's dead," Nigro says.

"He's dead?" the man asks.

"Yup."

"You OK?" the man asks.

"I'll be good," Nigro replies.

Cary Arnold, a Pennsylvania woman who had a daughter with Huber 18 years ago, told The Buffalo News previously that she believes Huber might have been heading for the Peace Bridge rally in support of Canadian truckers protesting that country's Covid-19 vaccine mandates when the chase began.

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Federal agents and state police executed a search warrant Thursday morning at the Amherst home of State Supreme Court Justice John Michalski, who was hit by a train 13 months ago days after FBI agents questioned him about his friendship with the owner of a Cheektowaga strip club.

A lawyer representing Michalski confirmed to The Buffalo News that the search was underway.

A search warrant has been executed at home of Judge Michalski. He and his wife are fully cooperating, said Terrence M. Connors, the lawyer.

Michalski, 61, of Hunters Lane, who suffered a serious leg injury from the freight train incident, returned to the bench eight weeks ago after the State Office of Court Administration reinstated him.

The Feb. 28, 2021, train incident was called an apparent suicide attempt by State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Brown in a decision last year upholding the Village of Depews refusal to release a copy of a video showing Michalski being struck by the train.

Michalski was hit by the train in Depew days after he was questioned by the FBI about his longtime friendship with strip club owner Peter Gerace, who faces federal charges of drug trafficking, sex trafficking and bribing Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Bongiovanni, who was also indicted.

Gerace is the nephew of a man that the FBI has said is the head of the Buffalo Mafia.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security has an ongoing investigation into organized crime in Buffalo.

No charges have been filed against Michalski in connection with the federal probe.

Officers from the FBI, State Police and State Attorney General's Office arrived at Michalski's house at about 7 a.m. Thursday. They carried out several boxes and a case filled with materials.

Connors said he did not know if the search of Michalskis house was related to Gerace or his strip club, Pharaohs, which was raided by federal authorities in December 2019.

I have no knowledge of that because I have not seen the search warrant, Connors said.

Michalski has also been under investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. It is investigating allegations made by Geraces ex-wife that Michalski was paid $5,000 to perform Geraces wedding ceremony. Judges in New York State are prohibited from accepting more than $100 to perform a wedding.

Barbara Burns, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment when asked about the search of Michalski's house.

Gerace declined to comment on this latest development and instead referred inquiries to Steven M. Cohen, his attorney.

Cohen lambasted Geraces ex-wife, Katrina Nigro, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi, the lead prosecutor in the ongoing federal investigation into organized crime.

A disgruntled and disturbed ex-wife has been casting aspersions against some very fine people, and Judge Michalski is one in a long list who have been victimized by her," Cohen said.

Cohen called Michalski "one of the finest judges in the Eighth Judicial District.

Nigro has said she has testified on organized crime before a federal grand jury, but declined to comment on what she told the grand jury.

Of Tripi, Cohen said, Regrettably, a naive assistant U.S. attorney has swallowed everything this woman says hook, line and sinker.

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Police who raided Jeffrey Richards' apartment in a Niagara Falls public housing project in 2018 found what they said was a homemade bomb, about 10 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

On Friday, Richards pleaded guilty to federal felonies that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, although the plea agreement calls for a 15-year sentence.

Bombs, drugs, white supremacist lit part of case against Niagara Falls man The federal government says Jeffrey Richards is a self-proclaimed white supremacist who makes bombs, sell drugs, owns a small arsenal of guns and holds membership in an outlaw biker gang. In a photo posted on Facebook, Richards holds his right arm up in a Nazi-style salute between two friends, one wearing a T-shirt with a Confederate flag image and

Richards, 32, who the FBI said is a self-proclaimed white supremacist, admitted to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute it and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Defense attorney Michael J. Stachowski said Wednesday that Richards accepted the deal because it wiped out the most serious charge, manufacture of an explosive device, which carries a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence.

U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. ordered Richards to forfeit five shotguns, two rifles, 659 rounds of ammunition, $449, and "a suspected improvised explosive device" and components, including nails, nuts, bearings and fireworks.

"The FBI learned that Richards is a self-proclaimed white supremacist who acquires explosive materials and objects to include metal cans for bomb-making purposes," said the initial complaint against Richards by FBI Special Agent Thomas V. Weis.

In Richards' apartment, officers found a beverage can that contained black powder and about 150 pieces of potential shrapnel.

Falls man, 28, charged with heroin trafficking, bomb-making A Niagara Falls man was arrested on charges of heroin trafficking and weapons possession after federal agents discovered a homemade bomb in his residence, said U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. Jeffrey Richards, 28, of Packard Court, was identified by agents from the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force as a significant narcotic trafficker in the Niagara Falls area who also manufactured bombs. He

However, Stachowski said a defense expert determined the side of the beer can was slit open, so it wouldn't have done much damage, and the alleged shrapnel was pieces of ceramic tile.

An FBI agent arrested Richards at a traffic stop in Lewiston on Dec. 14, 2018, at the close of a two-month drug investigation. Their probe included an informant's purchase of fentanyl at Richards' apartment from someone other than Richards, according to pretrial testimony.

A stolen .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol was found under the driver's seat of the vehicle, which Stachowski said was driven by Richards but owned by Todd Biro, a passenger who wasn't arrested.

Richards' plea deal pertains to that gun, but it allows Stachowski to appeal Sinatra's ruling that the traffic stop and search were legal.

In a 2020 Buffalo News interview, Biro called himself a "white separatist" but denied Richards was a white supremacist, despite a Facebook photo showing Richards, Biro and another man making Nazi salutes.

The raid on the apartment uncovered 105 grams of fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl, small amounts of cocaine and marijuana, and 34 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, court papers said.

After the search, about 20 officers became ill with respiratory problems, according to the plea agreement.

Hazmat team combs raided apartment in Niagara Falls after FBI agents get sick A Niagara County hazmat team and police from at least two agencies swarmed a unit at the Packard Court Apartments in Niagara Falls Wednesday after several members of the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force got sick in the wake of a Dec. 14 raid that resulted in the arrest of the occupant for possessing drugs, firearms and improvised explosives.

"The defendant admits that the defendant's possession of the acetyl fentanyl and fentanyl endangered the lives of the law enforcement officers," the document said.

No sentencing date has been set as the prosecution and defense prepare arguments about whether the sentencing guidelines should be followed.

Meanwhile, Richards remains in the Niagara County Jail without bail.

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Two Buffalo nursing homes that have the same downstate investors were recently fined a total of $56,000 by the state Health Department.

Safire Rehabilitation of Southtowns, located in Buffalo, was fined $46,000 for failing to test some workers for Covid-19 in May 2021, failing to ensure workers washed their hands and wore required protective gear while working with Covid-19 patients in January 2021, and failing to have an infection prevention specialist on staff in January 2021, at a time when 52% of the 89 residents there had tested positive for Covid-19.

The one-star rated nursing home was also cited for not having enough nursing staff on duty to adequately care for residents, with residents telling state inspectors they were not given insulin and other medications on time.

Understaffing in nursing homes remains a problem in many nursing homes despite a state law passed in 2021 that required the facilities to meet minimum staffing ratios for the first time. The implementation of that law has been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and mandatory vaccination requirements that have impacted staffing levels.

Safire of Southtowns was also cited for a resident who fell out of bed and fractured her arm and for failing to quickly report another resident's abuse allegations.

Meanwhile, Safire Rehabilitation of Northtowns, a one-star rated facility in the Town of Tonawanda, was fined $10,000 by the state for failing to thoroughly investigate and report incidents of possible physical abuse of two residents.

In one of the possible abuse cases, a combative resident in December 2020 suffered bleeding from a lacerated lip, a missing tooth, a bruised chin and a fractured nose and jaw after a certified nursing assistant tried to change the incontinent resident by himself, instead of having another worker help him, as required. The nursing assistant said the resident tried to punch him and hit himself or herself in the face instead.

The two nursing homes were purchased in 2014 by limited liability corporations that had common partners. Judy Landa and Richard Platschek were the majority owners of the LLCs, according to State Department of Health records.

The two nursing homes' administrators and a spokesman for the owners did not respond to a request for comment.

Landa, a Long Island resident, has sued Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz for defamation for critical comments he made in August 2018 about two other Buffalo nursing homes that she had an ownership interest in at the time.

Understaffing

Understaffing is also a frequent complaint at many nursing homes in New York.

Residents at Safire Rehabilitation of Southtowns told inspectors in May 2021 that they often did not get their insulin and pain medications when they were supposed to receive them.

A licensed practical nurse at the facility told inspectors she was passing medications to 37 residents and "it is not possible to provide the medications as scheduled and sometimes treatments are not completed and left for the next shift because there is not enough nurses and time to get everything done." Residents' glucose levels were affected because they do not always get their insulin before breakfast, as scheduled, nurses told inspectors. Other nurses said they were too understaffed to give showers to all of the residents scheduled to get them.

The facility's administrator told inspectors that it is acceptable to have one nurse to administer medications to 30 to 40 residents. "The Administrator stated he believes there is sufficient staffing, some days are more challenging than others, but it's much better than the past," according to the inspection report.

Safire of Southtowns was fined $7,000 in 2019 by the state for understaffing and other violations, and it had been cited for understaffing on five other occasions in the two years before that.

Last year, the State Legislature passed a bill requiring for the first time that nursing homes and hospitals in New York meet minimum staffing ratios. It was signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, the states more than 600 nursing homes were to be required to provide 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Out of the 3.5 hours, no less than 2.2 hours of care must be given by a CNA or nurse aide, and no less than 1.1 hours of care supplied by a licensed nurse.

Another state law also adopted in May required nursing homes to spend a minimum of 70% of revenues on direct resident care with 40% of it going to resident-facing staffing, starting in 2022.

But the Covid-19 pandemic and mandatory vaccination requirements for health care workers in New York put extra stress on staffing in nursing homes, as some workers quit or were dismissed for refusing the vaccinations.

Gov. Kathy Hochul-issued executive orders this year postponed through March 31 the enforcement of the safe staffing law's requirements. She cited staffing shortages in hospitals and other health care facilities that are expected to continue.

Nursing homes are strongly encouraged to begin coming into compliance with these new requirements, but in light of the current health care worker staffing crisis, (the executive order) suspended these requirements to prevent disruptions in care or reductions in services at facilities that cannot comply due to the ongoing emergency," said Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesman for the State Health Department.

On Monday, Attorney General Letitia James and George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU, the union that represents many nursing home workers, held a news conference to call on the state to require nursing homes to implement appropriate staff-to-resident ratios and invest sufficiently in employee wages and facility operations, as was required by the 2021 law.

As the pandemic devastated our communities, it became painfully clear that our health care industry was ill-equipped to deal with such a crisis," James said. "Chronic understaffing, lack of infection control protocols, and poor training contributed to the tragic deaths of nursing home residents and workers alike."

Past fines

Safire of Southtowns and Safire of Northtowns have both been repeatedly fined for violations in recent years.

Safire of Southtowns was fined $85,925 by the federal government after inspectors discovered in May 2016 that a licensed practical nurse failed to disinfect a shared blood glucose meter when testing up to 20 residents, including two who had known communicable bloodborne diseases.

Including the latest fines, the state has fined Safire of Northtowns $68,500 since 2016 and Safire of Southtowns $59,000 in that time period.

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The Expedition 66 crew is turning its attention to the departure of three crew members late next week following the completion of a pair of spacewalks.

The International Space Station is also gearing up to welcome the first private astronaut mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon vehicle in early April.

Two astronauts had medical checkups and a light duty day today following Wednesday's spacewalk to install thermal gear and electronics components on the orbiting lab. Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Matthias Maurer spent a few moments Thursday morning getting blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate and breathing checks. The duo spent six hours and 54 minutes on Wednesday working outside the orbital lab readying it for a third roll-out solar array and connecting cables to the Bartolomeo science platform on the Columbus laboratory module. They were joined Thursday afternoon by NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn for a conference with spacewalk specialists on the ground.

The four astronauts also called down to mission controllers and discussed the upcoming private astronaut mission from Axiom currently targeted for launch no earlier than April 3. NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom mission managers will hold a media teleconference one hour after NASA's Flight Readiness Review, or approximately Friday at 6 p.m. EDT following their flight readiness review. Former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will command the Axiom-1 mission with Pilot Larry Connor and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour vehicle.

In the meantime, NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei is nearing his return to Earth with cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov on March 30. The trio will enter the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship, undock from the Rassvet module, and parachute to landing in Kazakhstan. Vande Hei will land with a NASA-record breaking 355 days in space surpassing former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's single spaceflight record of 340 days.

Shkaplerov continued packing the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship while Dubrov helped the station's three newest crew members get familiar with space station systems. Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev with first time space-flyers Sergey Korsakov and Denis Matveev are in the first week of six-and-a-half month mission that began on March 18 when they arrived aboard the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship.

On-Orbit Status Report

Payloads:

Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF): Four Plant Experiment Units were removed from the 1-G CBEF Incubator Unit Centrifuge. The CBEF, a JAXA subrack facility, is an incubator with an artificial gravity generator. CBEF is housed in the Saibo (living cell) Experiment Rack with the Clean Bench (CB).

Confocal Space Microscopy: Two USB cables were connected to the Payload Laptop Terminal 5 (PLT5) as part of the Confocal Space Microscopy Setup. The Confocal Space Microscope (Confocal Microscope) is a JAXA facility that provides fluorescence images of biological samples aboard the ISS. Confocal microscopy uses spatial filtering techniques to eliminate out-of-focus light or glare in specimens with thicknesses exceeding the immediate plane of focus. With the Confocal Microscope, data can be obtained on the fundamental nature of cellular and tissue structure and functions in real-time.

JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer-21 (J-SSOD-21): Photos were taken of the J-SSOD-21 deployed satellite KITSUNE from Launcher 2 (Wide) and IHI-SAT from Launcher 1 (Single). The J-SSOD provides a novel and safe small satellite launching capability to the ISS. The J-SSOD is a unique satellite launcher, handled by the JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS), which provides containment and deployment mechanisms for several individual small satellites. Once J-SSOD, including satellite install cases with small satellites, is installed onto the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) by crew members, it is passed through the JEM Airlock for retrieval, positioning, and deployment by the JEMRMS.

Light Ions Detector for ALTEA (LIDAL): A crewmember moved the Light Ions Detector in support of the crew gaining access to the COL1D1 Rack Front in order to support upcoming ESA/GRIP activities. The capability of Anomalous Long Term Effects in Astronauts (ALTEA) to measure the linear energy transfer (LET) of protons and helium and the kinetic energy of protons and heavy ions is to be upgraded by the addition of a new time of flight (TOF) system detector called the Light Ions Detector for ALTEA (LIDAL). LIDAL upgrades the ability of ALTEA to make measurements that can be converted, by dedicated software in real-time, into radiation risk coefficients - effectively enabling ALTEA to become the first ever dosimetric (risk meter) aboard the ISS.

Plant Habitat-05: Photos were taken of the Plant Habitat-05 plates. Unlocking the Cotton Genome to Precision Genetics (Plant Habitat-05) cultivates several cotton genotypes that differ in their ability to regenerate into whole plants from undifferentiated masses of cells known as a calli. Cotton is highly resistant to the process of plant regeneration, making it difficult to engineer stable, reproducing plants that have specific or enhanced traits such as drought resistance. The investigation could provide a better understanding of this behavior and a pathway to avert this problem.

Saibo: The CO2 Quick Disconnect (QD) was removed from the Saibo Rack. The Saibo Experiment Rack (Saibo) which means "living cell," includes a Clean Bench glovebox with a microscope that is capable of isolating the organisms being studied, and a Cell Biology Experiment Facility that includes an incubator and centrifuges.

Systems:

Post-Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Activities: Post-EVA activities were completed after yesterday's successful Radiator Beam Valve Module (RBVM) Jumper Install EVA. The crew performed a relocation of Station Support Computer (SSC) 12, an EVA debrief, Robotic Workstation (RWS) teardown to uninstall the Cupola Crew Restraint and power down the Display and Control Panels, and downlink of video files from the EVA GoPro and camera stowage.

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Manual Fill and Inspection: Today, the crew initiated a manual fill of the WHC E- (Water Container) using a Post-Flight Analysis Bag to capture any pressure relief to protect the dose pump, and analyzed the Urine Collection Device (UCD). The -CB is intended for short-term storage and manual water transportation between facilities. The WHC Pump Separator and associated hoses were also inspected due to a recent increase in Check Separator indications and slow startup. After successfully filling the E- and completing the inspection, the crew returned the WHC to nominal use.

Crew Arrival Preparations: In preparation for the arrival of the Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) crew, crew preference supplies were staged, and onboard crew reviewed the PAM Familiarization Big Picture Words and held a corresponding conference to prepare for PAM operations.

Completed Task List Activities:

None

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

JEMRMS Ground Control Main Arm Maneuver to Small Satellite Deploy Position

MCC-H Transition to Standard Mode

RWS Reconfiguration

MT Pre-Translation Check Out and Survey

MT Translation

MSS Maneuver

MCC-H Transition to External Ops Mode

Look Ahead Plan

Friday, March 25 (GMT 84)

Payloads:

CAL MTL Jumper Lk Check (NASA)

CBEF-Slide Rail Remove (JAXA)

EasyMotion Data D/L (ESA)

GRIP Seated Ops (ESA)

Standard Measures Saliva, Body and Fecal Collect, Cognition Test (NASA)

TOUCHS Deinstall (ESA)

Systems:

EHS Acoustic Monitor Setup

Crew Departure Prep

EVA Airlock Deconfiguration

EVA Battery Ops

Urine Transfer System Offload EDV Swap

EVA Camera Disassembly

IFM CQ Starboard Cleaning

EVA Tool Stow

Crew Dragon Tablet Sync/Stow

IMS Conference

OBT ISS Emergency HW Familiarization

SSC 10 and 22 Swap

T2 Daily Inspect

Saturday, March 26 (GMT 85)

Payloads:

Standard Measures Saliva Collect (NASA)

Systems:

Soyuz Nominal Descent Training

EVA Tool Stow

Sunday, March 27 (GMT 86)

Payloads:

Standard Measures Saliva collect and Urine setup (NASA)

Systems:

Crew Off-Duty Day

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations

Standard Measures Body Sampling Survey

Standard Measures Body Sampling Collection

Standard Measures Body Sampling Stow

Insertion of Russian experiments blood samples into MELFI

Acoustic Monitor Setup for Crew Worn Measurements

EML Reprogramming Cable Installation/Removal

EML High Speed Camera Lens Switch

ISS HAM Kenwood Radio Power Up

Columbus Payload Power Switching Box (PPSB) reconfiguration

Light Ions Detector Move 2

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Post EVA Examination - Subject

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Post EVA Examination - Crew Medical Officer (CMO)

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Post-EVA Periodic Health Status Examination - Stow

Actiwatch Plus HRF Rack 1 Setup/Stow

Insert USB thumb drive into ELC5

Confocal Space Microscopy (Microscope) and Payload Laptop Terminal 5 (PLT5) Setup

Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) Plant Experiment Unit 1G Removal

ESA Weekly crew conference

Experiment Laptop Terminal 2 Close Out

Return SSC (Station Support Computer) 12 to location from where it came prior to EVA

Saibo Rack CO2 QD Removal

JEMRMS Small Satellite Deployment Observation

Remove USB thumb drive from ELC5 and Label

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Manual Fill

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Debrief for US EVA

Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in JEM

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pump Separator Inspection

Relocate PBAs

Robotic Workstation (RWS) Teardown

Photo/TV Extravehicular Activity (EVA) GoPro Downlink and Stow

Polar Desiccant Swap

Columbus Bay Clean-up

Plant Habitat-05 Experiment Plate Photos

Crew Arrival Preparations

Food Physiology Crew Diet Briefing

Standard Measures Fecal Collection

Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth

Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) Familiarization Big Picture Words Review

Treadmill 2 Daily Inspection

Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) Familiarization Conference

Flight Director/ISS CREW CONFERENCE

Acoustic Monitor Battery Swap

HRF Generic Saliva Collection 10 Minutes

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WASHINGTON  The historic Senate hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated for the Supreme Court, have been joyful, combative and clarifying, putting on display the breadth of the nation's partisan divide and the unresolved problems of its past.

The fourth and final day of the Senate Judiciary Committee's consideration of Jackson wrapped up Thursday with several hours of testimony from outside experts.

The American Bar Association's standing committee on the federal judiciary has afforded its highest rating, "well qualified," to the Harvard-educated Jackson. A junior high school friend gushed over the "supernova" debate team champion. Skeptics, including the Alabama's attorney general, warned that her views on crime and policing are "outside the mainstream."

Yet in the 50-50 Senate, where a Trump-era rules change means it is no longer necessary to muster broad support to confirm Supreme Court nominees, the hearings have become less about the vote ahead and more about framing the politics of the eventual outcome.

Democrats are on track to confirm President Joe Biden's pick, with a vote expected by the time senators leave for a scheduled spring recess April 8.

Some takeaways from Day Four of the weeklong hearing:

Reviewing the record

"Outstanding, excellent, superior, superb."

The ABA committee gave Jackson the same highest rating that has been bestowed on most recent Supreme Court nominees, with the exception of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

The committee's chair, Ann Claire Williams, testified on the review of some 250 legal professionals on Jackson's record. Asked how Jackson's integrity was viewed, Williams said: "Those are the comments."

Supreme Court Nomination Ann Claire Williams, center, D. Jean Veta, left, and Joseph Drayton, right, of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal 

Republican senators are focusing on a narrow slice of the judge's work, the child pornography cases that Jackson herself has said are among "the most difficult" of her career  some of which still give her nightmares.

Much the way senators opposed to the first Black nominee to the court, Thurgood Marshall, a half-century ago portrayed the storied civil rights lawyer as soft on crime in his work defending Black people, Republicans have spotlighted Jackson's sentencings in criminal cases, saying they show too much "empathy" for defendants.

A witness for the Republican side, Attorney General Steven T. Marshall of Alabama, said he believes Jackson shows more deference to criminals appearing in her courtroom than she does victims. He said her views of law enforcement reforms are "outside the mainstream."

Republicans are trying to link Jackson to the left-leaning "defund the police" movements, but it's unclear if the approach is working. The judge has backing from the nation's largest law enforcement organization, the Fraternal Order of Police, and she has spoken emotionally about her brother and uncle who worked as police officers.

Trump's influence hovers

Donald Trump is gone from the White House, but his influence over Republicans endures.

One witness called by Republicans was Alessandra Serano, the chief legal officer of Operation Underground Railroad, a Utah based anti-trafficking nonprofit group. It is under criminal investigation in the state for exaggerating its role in law enforcement arrests involving child predators, in order to fundraise.

Supreme Court Nomination Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talks to witness Eleanor McCullen as the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Ke

The organization has become popular online and found success raising money off of conspiracy theories that have are popular among suburban mothers and groups that arose out of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which casts Trump as a hero fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring.

As Republicans focus on Jackson's rulings in the child pornography cases, they are tapping into this strain of the GOP and its popularity among backers of the former president, drumming up voter interest before the November elections that will determine control of Congress.

From retirement in Florida, Trump has insisted, falsely, that he won the 2020 election, a belief shared by many Republicans, despite dozens of court cases and independent reviews that have rejected GOP claims of a rigged election. Trump is considering another run for president in 2024.

At one point Thursday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., tried to air some of these points. He asked Alabama's Marshall whether Biden was the "duly elected president" of the United States.

Marshall replied that Biden was the president. Pressed if the witness was purposefully omitting the words "duly elected," Marshall simply reiterated: "I'm answering the question. He is the president of the United States."

Alabama, with Marshall, was among other states joining in a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 election.

The next civil rights era

The Senate hearings have been filled each day with some of the leading civil rights leaders celebrating, as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., put it, the "joy" of reaching this milestone in American history.

Testifying Thursday, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Joyce Beatty, said Booker "spoke not only to Black America, but to America."

Supreme Court Nomination Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., from left, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., get their picture taken with Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. J

Beatty, D-Ohio, put Jackson's moment alongside those of civil rights icon Rosa Parks and other Americans and urged senators to consider what the judge's confirmation to the high court would mean for the country.

"We are no longer looking at 50-65 years ago," she said, of the past era of civil rights battles, "but yet we're still fighting."

Counting the votes

Senators no longer need bipartisan cooperation to confirm judicial nominees, after rules changes that allow a simple 51-vote majority for the lifetime appointment to the court.

With Jackson's nomination almost assured by Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the 50-50 chamber with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break a tie, Republicans unable to stop the judge's confirmation at least want sow doubt in the outcome.

Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have led the charge, quizzing the federal judge about her views on issues of race and crime, amplifying election-year grievances and a backlash over changing culture.

Jackson is the first federal public defender to be nominated to the Supreme Court and her efforts representing those accused of crimes, alongside her work as a federal judge, have provided a lengthy record of difficult cases for senators to review.

If confirmed, Jackson would also become the sixth female justice in the court's history and the fourth among the nine members of the current court.
Sen. Cory Booker cut through a tense third day of hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday with a speech on racial progress that drew tears from the nominee and held the rapt attention of colleagues.

Booker, a Black Democrat from New Jersey, said he could no longer hold back his emotion over how Jackson has conducted herself in the face of combative questioning about her handling of child pornography cases, her representation of accused terrorists and her views on anti-racism teaching in schools.

Keep scrolling for a gallery of images from Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings

"You faced insults here that were shocking to me," Booker said, speaking directly to Jackson, who is nominated to become the first Black woman on the high court.

"Nobody's taking this away from me," Booker continued, choking up as he spoke. Republicans are "gonna accuse you of this and that. But don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. And how do I know that? Because you're here, and I know what it's taken for you to sit in that seat."

Jackson, who was sitting silently with her hands clasped, unlocked her fingers to grab a tissue and wiped tears streaming down her cheeks. It was the first time in nearly two dozen hours of questioning from senators that she had showed that much emotion.

Since the beginning of Jackson's hearings Monday, Democratic and Republican senators have saluted the nominee's history-making appointment, praised her pedigree, and noted her pleasant temperament and empathetic approach to the law.

But Booker used his remarks to ground Jackson's elevation to the Supreme Court in a significance beyond simple diversity. In order for Jackson to sit before the panel, he said, she had to overcome systemic barriers and overachieve at every level. Only then could she have the chance to break through one of the last remaining racial ceilings in American democracy.

"I want to tell you, when I look at you, this is why I get emotional," Booker said. "I'm sorry, you're a person that is so much more than your race and gender. You're a Christian. You're a mom. It's hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom. I see my ancestors and yours."

He added: "You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American."

After a day of charged partisanship, every Republican in the room gave Booker their full attention. Save for some sniffles, the room was completely quiet for the duration of his remarks.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recessed immediately after Booker's remarks for a short break. Jackson left the room quickly, accompanied by her husband.

During the recess, a line of people, including Jackson's father, approached Booker and hugged him, several wiping away tears.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who is white, later called Booker's speech an "epic Senate moment and also a moral reset after some truly poisonous, cynical behavior that trolled through the absolute bottom of what the Senate has done in dark times past."

When the hearing resumed, a question from Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., about her being an inspiration to young Americans elicited more emotion from Jackson. She said his remarks and question were "very moving."

Jackson choked up as she told the story of walking around at Harvard University, feeling as if she didn't belong, when another Black woman who she did not know passed and seemed to understand what she was feeling. "Persevere," she said the woman told her.

"I hope to inspire people to try to follow this path, because I love this country, because I love the law, because I think it is important that we all invest in our future," Jackson said. "And the young people are the future."

***

Morrison reported from New York. Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
I am very concerned about the scheduled speaking appearance on the SUNY at Brockport campus of a convicted murderer of New York City Police Department officers. This man, Anthony Bottom aka Jalil Muntaqim spent 49 years in prison for shooting and killing NYPD police officers Joseph A. Piagentini and Waverly Jones.

I lived in New York City then and I remember vividly the heart-rending scenes of Officer Piagentinis widow sobbing as she mourned her murdered husband. New York City was heartbroken by this criminal act.

My understanding is that he is being invited to participate in an intellectual conversation in which he is identified as a political prisoner. What utter balderdash. He wasnt imprisoned for political reasons, he was imprisoned after being convicted of murder. And what kind of intellectual conversation will occur at this event? Even though I killed a police officer for no reason I was a political prisoner?

Furthermore Bottom aka Muntaqim reportedly advocates the destruction of Israel, and has expressed support for terrorism against the worlds only Jewish state. This is a fundamentally antisemitic position.

Do SUNY at Brockport students need to be inculcated with historical distortions, antisemitic hatred, and examples of violent murder in our increasingly violent and hate-ridden world? I dont think so.

As a New York State taxpayer whose taxes help support SUNY at Brockport, I resent the inappropriate use of my tax dollars for this purpose. We all heard far too much from and about Anthony Bottom aka Jalil Muntaqim 51 years ago when he pointlessly murdered two New York City policemen.

Daniel H. Trigoboff, PhD

Williamsville
BioHarvest Sciences has started the process to obtain a production license in Israel for its cannabis products to complement the R&D license it has used to date

BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (CSE:BHSC, OTC:CNVCF) said it has produced cannabis biomass in large-scale industrial bioreactors, representing the completion of the company's cannabis R&D program.

On December 8, 2021, BioHarvest Sciences became the first-ever company to announce that it could produce cannabis biomass without growing the plant itself. The company has made significant progress since, producing cannabis in large-scale industrial bioreactors, marking the start of the transition to commercial-scale manufacturing.

"I am elated and proud of this achievement. The R&D team has relentlessly pursued this moment, which marks a new era for the cannabis industry. Our proprietary and unique amalgamated trichome structure has proven resistant to shear forces applied during the cell growth process in liquid media and it will demonstrate more advantages when it comes to the medicinal application of our products," Dr Yochi Hagay, BioHarvest Sciences CTO, said in a statement.

I have never doubted our ability to use our CELLicitation technology to produce cannabis without the need to grow the plant itself and we have broken biological barriers to grow high-performance trichomes in liquid suspension. We are now ready to bring our first unique cannabis compositions to the world. We will of course continue to invest in cannabis R&D to add more cannabis products to the portfolio, appreciate the IP assets and drive even further manufacturing efficiencies," he added.

The Canada-listed biotech company has started the process to obtain a production license in Israel for its cannabis products to complement the R&D license it has used to date for the cannabis development program.

The company plans to bring its first cannabis products to market in 2022 and will be converting the current VINIA two tons/year facility in Rehovot, Israel to produce cannabis. This is happening in conjunction with the transition of all VINIA manufacturing to the new 20 tons/year facility in Yavneh, Israel, which will support the scaling of successful sales of VINIA in the US and beyond.

Ilan Sobel, BioHarvest Sciences CEO, added: "Our unprecedented achievements present a great opportunity for the cannabis industry. Consistent, clean, and efficacious cannabis that is produced with the highest ESG credentials and capital efficiency with significantly lower manufacturing costs is the revolution this industry needs to gain further market traction and trust by the regulators worldwide."

"Our CELLicitation platform technology is a true market disruptor, cementing BioHarvest's position as a leader in plant cellular biology. With the completion of the initial cannabis R&D program, more focus can now be applied towards achieving the desired scale for our two business verticals, Polyphenols/Antioxidants and Cannabis," Sobel said.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
Leonor Pena is ready to push the play button on her future.

The 47-year-old Chippewa Falls woman received her CNA credential earlier in life but didnt make it a career long-term. She began raising her five children, was plagued with health issues and didnt have the opportunity to take the computer classes that interested her.

Its time for me to do what Ive always liked, Pena said. When I was a kid, my brother was the one who loved computers. I didnt understand them, but I wanted to.

Pena is a student of the first in a series of five, one-credit information technology courses Chippewa Valley Technical College offers to receive a Google IT Technical Support certificate.

The courses are offered at no charge through a grant secured by CVTC. People who complete the five courses and receive the Google certificate will earn three college credits towards CVTCs ITNetwork Specialist associate degree if they choose to move forward.

The courses, which are all online, fit Penas lifestyle. She plans to take all five courses to receive the certificate and then move on to an associate degree.

Joshua Walters can relate to Penas excitement over the introduction to IT through the eight-week courses. Its an opportunity to dip his toes in the field.

Walters hasnt had it easy.

The 32-year-old Eau Claire man has struggled with addiction and is determined to stay sober. During his 10 months of sobriety, Walters is realizing his passion with the help of Hope Gospel Mission and CVTC.

I come from addiction, and I struggled with addiction, Walters said. I came (to Hope Gospel Mission) because I knew it was a good program and a good place to grow. Right now, my main goal is to stay here another year and to go to CVTC.

Walters has been thinking about the IT networking field for years.

It seems like everywhere we go, people in businesses are relying on technology. There are so many different fields that you can go into and positions you can specialize in, he said. Theres a lot of room for growth, and it gets you thirsty for knowledge.

Josh Entzminger, IT-Network Specialist instructor, said Pena and Walters have excelled in the first course  Technical Support Fundamentals.

Pena finished all the course activities well before they were due, and her passion for IT is very evident, Entzminger said. She did a great job engaging in our online tech discussions and was very eager to get registered for the second course.

Entzminger said the goal of the courses is to provide students with the skills needed for an introductory-level job in IT support with no relevant experience required.

The Google IT Support courses offer students a low-risk way of getting started in the IT field and finding out if its something they enjoy and have the aptitude for, he said. These courses are also a great way for students to see if they would like to take their IT education further.

Jill Mayer, CVTC Adult Education and College Prep instructor, said for adults looking at a change of career or trying a new educational avenue, its a game-changer.

A lot of students go into a field that they have no experience in, she said. Here theyre getting kind of a look-see  an intro course into the IT world.

She said shes proud of the students in these new classes who are pursuing their passion no matter what factors may have held them back in the past.

Pena is grateful for the opportunity.

Ive always been a person who has been sick off and on all of my life, she said. You have to try every day to do the best and learn as much as you can. I always told my kids to learn now. Now Im taking my own advice.

To learn more about course offerings at Chippewa Valley Technical College, visit cvtc.edu.

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U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman was one of just eight U.S. House members last week to vote against a measure to suspend normal trade relations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but human rights experts say his justification doesnt make sense.

In a statement and telephone interview, the Sheboygan County Republican said the vote had nothing to do with suspending trade relations itself. Indeed, he added, he co-sponsored a separate bill, H.R. 7014, that would suspend normal trade relations with Russia.

Rather, Grothman said, his objections were to a provision in the bill to amend an existing law that allows the administration to impose sanctions on foreign actors who engage in corruption or human rights violations. The trade bill would expand that to anyone who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse, something Grothman said he feared could be used to punish foreign officials who support laws in their home countries opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

The revised law, Grothman said, would give the president the ability to threaten other countries to turn on their Christian heritage and change their laws to align with the views of the current White House.

But that amendment is identical to wording then-President Donald Trump, whom Grothman supported, used to broaden the law in an executive order. And experts in human rights law say the wording is aimed at combating crimes carried out by particular officials, such as arbitrary detention and murder, not broad social policies.

The bill Grothman voted against would replace language in a law first passed in 2012 calling for the U.S. government to sanction Russian citizens who are responsible for gross violations of human rights. In 2016, the law was expanded to apply to all countries.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act authorized the president to sanction and deny U.S. entry to people identified as having engaged in human rights violations or corruption.

The Magnitsky Act gained global attention in 2017 after it was revealed that a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, lobbied against the law in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and others from the Trump campaign at Trump Tower. The meeting was set up ostensibly to share compromising information the Russian government said it had on Trumps Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. After failing to produce evidence against Clinton, the lawyer turned to a critique of the Magnitsky Act and asked the campaign for help getting it removed, according to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.

That meeting was not unique. According to official documents, from the Mueller report to U.S. Senate reports, the Russian government had long tried to find ways to eliminate the law.

Grothman said he was unaware that Russians were lobbying against the Magnitsky Act and said nobody had lobbied him to oppose it. His opposition, he said, is to broadening the law, not the law itself.

Originated with Trump

The 2016 measure included a provision saying the punitive measures could extend to people responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals in any foreign country seeking to blow the whistle on government officials. It also extended to individuals trying to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms.

In amendments to the trade bill, the ability to seek sanctions was extended to anyone engaged in serious human rights abuse either directly or indirectly. That would permit the president to threaten foreign officials that hold traditional views on life or marriage, Grothman said.

But those terms were first used in an executive order Trump signed in 2017 to expand the Magnitsky Act  an order Trump continued to renew. Grothman said he didnt agree with the change now, or then. It makes it awkward for us, but Trump shouldnt have done it, he said.

The recently proposed amendments are just a means to codify Trumps order, said Marquette University assistant political science professor Mark Berlin, who studies international law, domestic law and human rights.

Grothman  who in 2011 told a reporter for Isthmus that he regarded homosexuality as a sin  said he and his colleagues have heard from foreign diplomats in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa that they feel pressured by President Joe Bidens administration to adapt to liberal Americans views on abortion and transgender rights.

Grothman would not identify any of his sources, saying they feared retaliation for speaking out against the United States. Nor did he say whether their concerns relate specifically to Magnitsky Act sanctions. At one point, he said a bishop in the Dominican Republic told him the United States was pressuring the country over an LGBTQ+ law, but he couldnt recall the bishops name or the law.

I dont like the U.S. using its economic force to force other countries to be more pro-abortion, Grothman said. And this opens up the ability to say, We want you to legalize abortion or legalize late-term abortion in your country.

Aimed at individuals

Berlin said it wouldnt be plausible for a president to sanction another country because of its prohibitions on same-sex marriage or abortions. Moreover, the Magnitsky Act only allows the president to sanction individuals, not countries.

While serious human rights abuse isnt defined in the bill, its generally believed that its bound by common understandings of what are accepted international human rights, or what would be recognized in international law, Berlin said. And the right to abortion or the right to gay marriage arent recognized in international human rights law.

Amanda Strayer, an associate attorney at Human Rights First, said there have been around 420 sanction designations under the Magnitsky Act, about 140 of which have been for serious human rights abuses. All of those, Strayer said, were for violence or arbitrary detention.

Because the program is aimed at individuals and because the U.S. Treasury Department has interpreted serious human rights abuses to mean violence or arbitrary detention, Strayer said, the United States could not use the law to target an entire country over its abortion laws or prohibitions on same-sex marriage, and it almost certainly wouldnt target an individual proposing those laws.

It really is focused on going after the most serious forms of human rights abuses and violence against individuals, she said.

Had Grothman known that before he voted, he said, he would maybe have changed his vote, he said.

We dont usually talk to lawyers before we take votes, added Grothman, who has a law degree from the University of Wisconsin.

The seven other House members voting against the bill were Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona; Dan Bishop, R-North Carolina; Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado; Matt Gaetz, R-Florida; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia; Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky; and Chip Roy, R-Texas.

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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said this week he might rescind subpoenas issued to mayors and election officials as part of the GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election, but only so that a Republican attorney general elected in November could file criminal charges.

Speaking on WSAU-AM on Tuesday, Vos, R-Rochester, said he is looking into the possibility of withdrawing subpoenas issued over the last several months as part of former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gablemans review, which Vos has allocated $676,000 in taxpayer dollars. Vos has already extended Gablemans contract through the end of April, but backing off on subpoenas could drastically shorten the ongoing review.

The one-party effort has missed previous deadlines due to multiple court challenges to the former justices demands for private meetings with the mayors of the states five largest cities, as well as state election officials and others.

Vos said his concern is that state law provides immunity from prosecution to anyone subpoenaed by the state Legislature.

I am seriously considering pulling back the subpoenas because it makes no sense to give people immunity now that we see that there is so much that has been found that a Republican attorney general could later prosecute, Vos said.

Vos didnt provide specifics on what criminal charges could be pursued and his office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

When reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Vos texted have to wait and see when asked if he was going to withdraw the subpoenas.

A recount, court decisions and multiple reviews have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Only 24 people out of nearly 3.3 million who cast ballots have been charged with election fraud in Wisconsin.

Despite that, some Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, have called for the Republican-controlled Legislature to pursue efforts to decertify the 2020 election results. Gableman has also suggested lawmakers consider doing so, though Vos  who has also made unfounded claims that there was widespread fraud in the election  has repeatedly said such an effort would be illegal and unconstitutional.

I wanted Donald Trump to win as much as anyone else in the state, but I also am not going to break the oath that I have to the constitution.  I dont have the unilateral authority to put Donald Trump back in office. It just cant happen, Vos said. No matter how much people yell or scream or pass resolutions or stomp their foot, it doesnt matter about 2020 and having us with the ability to change the results.

District attorneys in three counties have already declined to file charges against members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission after Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling requested prosecution after the agency waived laws related to absentee voting in nursing homes in the 2020 election.

Gableman has claimed 100% of nursing home residents in Dane and Milwaukee counties voted in 2020, insinuating that their votes were somehow cast fraudulently. A Wisconsin State Journal review found no evidence to corroborate that claim, finding only one Dane County nursing home where all 12 registered voters cast a ballot, and 42% to 91% of registered voters in other facilities casting ballots.

Gableman has issued subpoenas to local and state election officials, the mayors of the states five largest cities and two companies that make vote-counting systems, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems. Many of the subpoenaed parties have rejected Gablemans requests for in-person meetings or documents, while the former state Supreme Court justice has also withdrawn some requests, including one filed with immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera Action.

Gablemans subpoenas have been met with a slew of legal challenges, with Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filing a lawsuit in October challenging Gablemans authority to demand in-person interviews. Kaul has argued demanding private interviews outside a public setting is illegal.

Republicans have also passed more than a dozen election-related bills as a result of multiple reviews into the 2020 election, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has said he wont sign legislation that makes it harder to vote.

Vos said the Legislature will bring back those bills if a Republican governor is elected this fall.

Were going to pass those in the first month and it will be law by Valentines Day of 2023, but youve got to give us a Republican governor to sign the bills, Vos said.

In addition to court battles against Gablemans subpoenas, three other lawsuits have been filed by liberal watchdog group American Oversight seeking records related to the ongoing review.

Judge frustrated about records

Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn on Wednesday repeated frustration that Vos has not produced all the requested emails and text messages related to Gablemans probe. Bailey-Rihn had previously ordered attorneys for Vos to provide the deleted emails and text messages, or explain why they cant be produced. Vos attorney Ronald Stadler told the judge on Wednesday that the work to retrieve Vos deleted emails from his legislative account was ongoing and he would need up to two weeks to review whatever is recovered.

I dont know if Im getting back 200 emails or 200,000 emails, he said.

Bailey-Rihn ordered Stadler to finish searching for emails by April 7. She also scheduled a hearing for that day to hear from his expert witness.

Thats the last extension Im going to give people, she said. Bailey-Rihn said she wants to conclude the case by the time she retires in July.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The legislature has less than 15 days remaining of this short 60-day session, and we continue debating bills late into the evening most days of the week. The focus for the remainder of session will continue to be priority legislation and passage of the budget bills, including federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

Most of last week was spent debating the mid-biennium budget proposals. Three budget bills, LBs 1011, 1012, and 1013 passed the first round of debate. The budget includes a number of different items, including money for the Nebraska Capital Construction fund, and money to the Military Base Development fund, money which had previously been set aside for the construction of the U.S. Space Command Headquarters had Nebraska been chosen as the location for the headquarters.

One of my bills, LB1074 was also included in the budget. This bill creates the surface water irrigation cash fund to be administered by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. Over the interim, we surveyed Nebraskas irrigation districts to determine the condition, cost, and status of surface water projects and infrastructure in the state. The findings from this survey showed that many irrigation districts in central and western Nebraska have aging and deterioration problems with some of their critical infrastructure. This fund ensures our states farmers have continued access to essential water.

Speaker Hilgers scheduled debate on Senator Brieses bill, LB283, first thing on the agenda last Monday morning after we set our clocks forward and resumed daylight savings time. LB283 would implement year-round daylight savings time in Nebraska, provided two conditions are met: First, at least three neighboring states must pass similar legislation, and second, federal law must change to allow states the ability to enact this change. LB283 passed the first round of debate and was advanced to Select File.

Soon after, the United States Senate passed legislation that would make daylight savings time permanent beginning in 2023. Proponents of permanent daylight savings time argue having sunlight later into the evening can boost the economy and can reduce seasonal depression. In the coming days and weeks, we will see what happens with this proposal.

I would like to thank the 4th grade class from St. Wenceslaus Elementary School in Wahoo that I had the pleasure of meeting with and talking to last week. These students asked some great questions, and had an opportunity to tour the Capitol, listened to floor debate from the balcony, and learn about the three branches of government and the history of the Nebraska Legislature.

I appreciate hearing from constituents on issues affecting District 23 and encourage you to contact my office on legislation at 402-471-2719 or bbostelman@leg.ne.gov.
COVID-19 vaccinations for the youngest children just might be a step closer.

Moderna intends to seek U.S. authorization for kid-sized shots, releasing early study results Wednesday that suggest the two small doses work in tots younger than 6. Within weeks, competitor Pfizer hopes to learn if three of its even lower-dose shots do, too.

Here's what is known so far, and what's next before the nation's 18 million children under 5 can become eligible for vaccination.

Moderna's results

Moderna says tots as young as 6 months developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies from shots containing a quarter of the dose given to adults. Full study results are yet to come but the early findings suggest the vaccine may protect against severe illness in kids just like it does in adults.

One complication: Moderna's study was conducted during the omicron surge, and none of the COVID-19 vaccines protect as well against infection with that super-contagious mutant  at any age  as they do against earlier variants.

There were no severe illnesses in the kid study. But sure enough, the vaccine proved just under 44% effective at preventing milder infections in tots up to age 2, and nearly 38% effective in the preschoolers.

Pfizer's study

The vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech is the only one currently available for children in the U.S. Those 12 and older get adult-strength shots and 5- to 11-year-olds receive a third of that dose.

Pfizer is testing even smaller shots, a tenth of the adult dose, for kids under 5. Early results showed two shots produced enough antibodies to protect babies and toddlers but fell short for preschoolers.

Children's immature immune systems often require multiple doses of vaccines to properly protect against other diseases. So rather than testing a higher dose, Pfizer gave kids a third shot. Results are expected in early April.

What's next?

Once the Food and Drug Administration has an application from one or both companies, it's expected to publicly debate the evidence with its scientific advisers. If FDA authorizes shots for the littlest kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then will convene its own experts before recommending if all youngsters need them  or only those at higher risk from COVID-19.

While cases are dropping for now in the U.S., other countries are seeing increases. A lull could be "the best time to get immunized because then you'll be protected by the time the next surge starts," said Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, a researcher for Moderna's pediatric studies.

Why do kids need a vaccine?

While COVID-19 generally isn't as dangerous in youngsters as adults, some do become severely ill or even die. About 400 children younger than 5 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic's start, according to the CDC. The omicron variant hit children especially hard, with those under 5 hospitalized at higher rates than at the peak of the previous delta surge, the CDC found.

About 57% of those ages 12 to 17 have gotten two Pfizer doses so far, and 27% of those 5 to 11.

What about Moderna shots for older kids?

The FDA limits Moderna's vaccine to adults although it's used in kids as young as 6 in certain other countries. The FDA is looking into a very rare side effect  heart inflammation  that sometimes occurs in teens and young adults, mostly males.

Moderna is giving the FDA updated safety information that it says backs adult-size doses for 12- to 17-year-olds, and also is seeking authorization to use half that dose in 6- to 11-year-olds. Regulators are expected to consider all three age groups at once.

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Woman convicted in boys death

ANNVILLE  A Pennsylvania woman has been convicted of first- and third-degree murder in the death of a 12-year-old boy who authorities said was starved and beaten before his death almost two years ago.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour Tuesday before convicting Kimberly Maurer, 37, of all charges including child endangerment, involuntary manslaughter and criminal conspiracy in the May 2020 death of 12-year-old Maxwell Schollenberger, the Lebanon Daily News reported.

Defense attorney Andrew Race said Wednesday that his client faces a mandatory life term without possibility of parole when she is sentenced June 1.

Lebanon County authorities said the boys naked, feces-covered body was found in a soiled bed in a room that was caked with feces and urine. He had a broken eye socket and multiple signs of blunt force trauma, and the cause of death was attributed to prolonged starvation, malnutrition and blunt force trauma, officials said.

In September 2020, authorities accused Scott Schollenberger Jr., 43, and Maurer, his fiancee, of keeping the boy in a dark room for years, starving him and beating him while treating their other children well. The boys room had no lights and duct tape closed the shades while metal hooks kept the room locked from outside, officials said.

Scott Schollenberger pleaded guilty last month shortly before his scheduled trial date to charges including criminal homicide, child endangerment and conspiracy. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Pittsburgh to fire 5 cops

PITTSBURGH  Five Pittsburgh police officers will be fired following an internal investigation into their interaction with a 54-year-old man, who died a day after police shocked him multiple times with a stun gun, officials said Wednesday.

The names of the officers or details of the investigation were not released by Lee Schmidt, the citys public safety director, in accordance with the police departments collective bargaining agreement. The agreement gives each officer the opportunity to use arbitration to challenge the discipline imposed.

Schmidt said three other officers who were involved in the episode will keep their jobs.

All eight officers were suspended with pay and faced disciplinary hearings after the death of Jim Rogers in October. Police shocked him with a stun gun multiple times in connection with an alleged bicycle theft in the Bloomfield neighborhood.

The medical examiner in January ruled the death accidental and resulting from a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Mayor Ed Gainey said Rogers deserved to live a life of joy; he deserved to live a long one. And he didnt deserve to lose his life at the hands of police officers.

Agencies sending body armor to Ukraine

HARRISBURG  The Pennsylvania State Police and the state Capitol Police are donating used body armor to efforts in Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid amid Russias invasion of Ukraine, state officials said Wednesday.

Col. Robert Evanchick, the state police commissioner, said the ballistic vests and helmets are intended for Ukrainian police officers and aid workers in Ukraine, and are to be shipped by the California Army National Guard, as long as the federal government approves.

The two agencies produced about 110 used police bulletproof vests and 15 surplus ballistic helmets.

This is surplus equipment that would be thrown away otherwise, Gov. Tom Wolf said at a news conference at state police headquarters.

Wolf said states cannot send weapons to a foreign country, but said the Ukrainian consulate has asked for food and masks for protection from the coronavirus, so his administration is working on those requests.

Wolf also has asked the Legislature to approve $2 million in state aid for Ukrainians fleeing the invasion who may come to Pennsylvania. Wolf said Wednesday that he has no information about Ukrainian refugees arriving in the state.

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An area man has been charged with forgery and tampering with a vehicle in two separate cases after being charged just last month with 18 related counts, including forgery and trafficking in stolen items.

Dakota Pace, 25, of Park Hills, was charged this month in Washington County with felony stealing ($750 or more), identity theft, two counts of forgery, and two counts of fraudulent use of a credit/debit device.

In a separate Madison County case, the man was also charged with first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle.

According to a probable cause statement from the Potosi Police Department, Pace is accused of fraudulently obtaining banking information and using it to gain access into an account on July 2.

The report states that Pace acted as if he were the account owner on numerous occasions to complete transactions, purchase goods, and transfer money.

Upon formal interviewing by police, the report states that Pace admitted to using the alleged victim's identity, transferring money, making purchases, and even obtaining debit cards in the person's name. The debit cards were in Pace's possession upon the man's arrest, according to police.

The Madison County case in which Pace is charged with tampering with a motor vehicle was filed on Friday alleging that the man stole a minivan belonging to a Park Hills woman in December. Police reportedly found the van parked at a business in Fredericktown.

The probable cause statement indicates that on Dec. 28, at approximately 4:47 p.m., police in Fredericktown were dispatched to respond to the area of North Mine LaMotte Avenue and Church Street after a man reported that Pace was on foot wearing all black and carrying a black bag. The report states that local officers were aware of a felony arrest warrant for Pace, and they responded to the area but were unable to locate the man.

Officers reportedly searched for Pace in Darren's Detail parking lot, where they found an abandoned black backpack containing a car battery. The report states that authorities believed the battery had been removed out of a vehicle on the lot.

While checking the vehicles on the parking lot, a white 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan was located approximately 30 feet from the found backpack. The report states that police discovered that the van had been reported stolen from the Desloge area earlier that morning.

The van was then searched before being impounded, and the report states that officers found two receipts from area fast-food restaurants that showed time stamps from earlier in the morning and afternoon on Dec. 28.

An investigator reportedly went to one of the restaurants and reviewed surveillance footage from around the time the receipt was created. When watching the recorded transaction, the officer reported observing a man driving a van believed to be the same Dodge van recovered at Darren's Detail. The report states that the man appeared to be Pace wearing a fur-lined trapper hat and dark clothing.

Additionally, authorities reviewed surveillance footage from the detailing business and nearby Harp's grocery store and collected witness statements.

Pace has been in custody at the St. Francois County Jail on a $200,000 bond since being apprehended last month following a search related to other pending stealing-related charges and a subsequent police pursuit. In the case filed this month in Washington County, the man's bond was set at $100,000. His bond in the newly filed Madison County case was set at $10,000.

The St. Francois County Sheriff's Department said that shortly before 2 a.m. on Jan. 13, deputies were involved in a high-speed vehicle pursuit with Pace, who police had sought since earlier last month.

The chase reportedly ended after Pace crashed his vehicle into telephone poles on Karsch Boulevard in Farmington. Pace fled on foot from the vehicle crash and was soon apprehended by sheriff's deputies.

Following the pursuit, the man was charged with 18 criminal counts related to stolen property, including forgery, trafficking in stolen items, and 16 counts of receiving stolen property.

A probable-cause statement from the Park Hills Police Department states that on Nov. 9, at about 3:31 p.m., an officer saw a 2005 black Ford Focus traveling west on Parkway Drive. The officer stopped the vehicle for having a cracked windshield and no front license plate.

The report states the that officer ran Pace's identification and a records check of the man returned five active warrants. Pace was detained, and reportedly he provided consent to search the vehicle.

According to the statement, during a search of the vehicle, the officer located two wallets with many currency cards and identifications that did not have Pace's name on them. The officer reportedly located a black duffel bag that contained sensitive paperwork, and the names on the paperwork did not match Pace's identity. Additionally, the officer found a total of five driver's licenses, one driver's license with a paper copy of another driver's license taped over the top of it, and 17 debit/credit cards.

The report states that on Nov. 10, an officer with Bonne Terre Police Department was dispatched to New Era Bank at 2 E. School St. in Bonne Terre, in reference to a forgery.

The officer made contact with the bank supervisor identified, who stated that on Nov. 9, at 2:05 p.m., Pace came through the drive-thru and requested a withdrawal slip. The teller sent out a blank counter check. The man reportedly filled out the counter check completely, including the account number, signed the front and back of the slip, and requested a withdrawal for $3,500. The teller claimed the man presented a driver's license, which matched the name on the check.

The bank supervisor told police that the account owner later reported a fraudulent transaction for $3,500 had been withdrawn from his bank account. The supervisor stated the bank was able to verify the signature on the check used to withdraw the money was not done by the account owner by checking the signature card from the owner's account and pictures of his recent transactions.

The report states surveillance footage from New Era Bank shows a black or dark gray passenger car in lane three of the bank's drive-thru during the event. The vehicle's description matched Pace's car when he was stopped by police in Park Hills later that day. The man also reportedly had $3,500 cash on his person, and a paper copy of the New Era Bank account owner's driver's license taped onto a Missouri license of another individual.

Before the Jan. 13 pursuit and arrest, Pace was wanted on a felony warrant related to charges pending in Madison County for second-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. According to the probable cause statement, Pace threatened a 17-year-old male with a knife in November.

The warrant was issued on Dec. 2 for failure to appear in court.

The man was also being sought for the multiple theft investigations in St. Francois County.

Pace reportedly evaded capture Jan. 4 "by driving a stolen vehicle deep into the woods in northern St. Francois County. A manhunt ensued with deputies and the sheriff's department K-9 teams tracking approximately 20 miles of rugged terrain," the sheriff's department said in a previous social media post. "During the manhunt, it is suspected that Pace stole an ATV from private property to aid him in the escape."

A second case was then filed against Pace, charging the man with stealing a motor vehicle as a prior stealing offender.

A probable cause statement from the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department states that on Jan. 5, a deputy was in the area of King Arthur Court, near French Village, attempting to locate Pace, who had been evading law enforcement and had been seen in the King Arthur Court area earlier that morning.

The deputy was reportedly positioned at the end of King Arthur Court when an area resident approached his patrol vehicle and stated that his Yamaha Kodiak 400 four-wheeler was stolen.

On Jan. 6, an officer received information that Pace was seen in the area of Papin Road at the BP gas station. The source told police that Pace was seen on a four-wheeler which matched the description of the ATV stolen from the King Arthur Court resident.

Authorities then contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and provided them with descriptors and the possible location of the four-wheeler. At about 9 p.m., a deputy was contacted by Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, who said the four-wheeler had been located.

The deputy responded to the 3200 block of Papin Road, where he inspected and confirmed the four-wheeler was the same reported stolen on Jan. 5 from the King Arthur Court area.

Additionally, the report states the deputy noticed the four-wheeler's ignition was disabled so that a small instrument could be used to start the vehicle. Police reportedly later received video footage depicting Pace driving the four-wheeler.

When the charges in this case were filed, Pace was already in custody at the St. Francois County Jail with a $200,000 bond set.

The criminal complaints filed in the cases note Pace is a prior stealing offender. Records show that the man pleaded guilty to stealing on at least two previous occasions within ten years of the current offense.

Pace pleaded guilty in St. Francois County in June 2014 to theft/stealing $500 or less. Additionally, he entered a guilty plea in March 2015 in St. Francois County to theft/stealing more than $500 but less than $2,500.

Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com

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Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov has met with Director General of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) Yerlan Baydaulet.

The meeting was held within the 48th meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry reported.

During the meeting, Yerlan Baidaulet informed about the activities and programs implemented by the organization he leads.

He highly appreciated Azerbaijan's contribution to the projects implemented within the framework of the OIC and expressed his gratitude the country for its special support.

The Deputy Minister pointed out that Azerbaijan has always attached particular importance to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. He stressed that the country plays an active role in this organization.

Speaking about the importance of ensuring food security, Elnur Mammadov stressed that the leadership of Azerbaijan always pays attention to activities in this direction in the country. The Deputy Minister also stressed the importance of dialogue between OIC member countries on food security issues.

He thanked for providing detailed information on the activities of the Islamic Organization for Food Security.

Notably, the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) took place in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 22-23.

The session on the topic "Building a partnership for unity, justice and development"addresed many topics and the activities of the OIC General Secretariat on implementing the resolutions adopted on various issues in the Islamic world, including the issue of Palestine and Al-Quds Ash-Sharif and the dangerous developments since the last CFM in Niamey 2020.

The event also discussed several political files, most notably the developments in Afghanistan and its humanitarian consequences for the Afghan people and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.








Two years ago, New York emergency room physician Lorna Breen, who had been working non-stop to help COVID patients in her hospital, got sick and was diagnosed with COVID herself.

Lorna Breen stayed home for 14 days with COVID but then went right back to the emergency room in early April 2020, where she was overwhelmed by the scale of suffering and death. Weakened by COVID, she could not overcome her own feelings of despair about the pain around her. Lorna died by suicide later that month.

I met Lornas family, who live in Charlottesville, and began working with them to make sure that our frontline health care workers have the mental health resources they need. Even before COVID, the suicide rate among doctors was twice that of the general population. And the stresses of COVID worsened the problem. Sadly, many in our healing professions do not feel that they can seek counseling without jeopardizing their jobs or licensure.

In February of this year, after 18 months of advocacy, Congress passed the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, designed to support the mental health of our healers. President Biden invited congressional cosponsors and the Breen family to the Oval Office on March 18 to sign the bill into law.

We arrived around 4 p.m. President Biden had just completed a lengthy call with Chinas Xi Jinping, talking about Putins invasion of Ukraine and trying to convince him that aligning with a dictator bombing hospitals, schools, and theaters would do long-term damage to Chinas aspirations.

That day in Moscow, President Putin was holding a rally to celebrate the anniversary of the invasion and annexation of Crimea, where people have seen the grim hand of his tyranny for the last eight years, and to spew lies about his current invasion.

Despite his busy day, President Biden took a moment to welcome us into the Oval Office, whose previous occupant had illegally withheld military aid to Ukraine, leading to his first impeachment trial. President Biden greeted the legislators briefly, but then turned his attention to the Breen familyLornas mother Rosemary, her sister and brother-in-law Jennifer and Corey, and her niece Charlotte.

I saw at that moment what it means to have human decency in the White House. While the legislators waited for the bill signing, the president talked quietly with the family about Lorna, her work, and the pain of losing her. Jennifer explained that the day was the second anniversary of Lorna getting sick. President Biden expressed his admiration for their resolve to make things better for other health care workers, who have struggled so mightily during a tough time.

As the Presidents aides nudged him to complete the bill signing so he could depart on Marine One, he spent some time showing the Breen family pictures of his own extended family. Then, he made an impromptu request that they join him as he walked to the helicopter. Once aboard, he asked middle schooler Charlotte to take his seat beneath the Presidential seal. Using the familys phone, he snapped pictures of her while calling her Madame President. There was joy, even amidst the many painful emotions of the day.

Lornas family has suffered immensely. But they have a President who understands what it is to suffer deep and personal losses. The dignity and respect he accorded the Breen family made a huge impression on all of us in the Oval Office. It will be a day the family will never forget.

As I drove home to Richmond following the bill signing, I thought about leadership and the actions of the Russian and American Presidents on this day. One spent the day raving before a captive audience to justify an illegal war, even perverting Scripture from the Gospel of John to promote his depravity. The other alternated between high-stakes diplomacy to find peace and a moment with a grieving and courageous family committed to healing.

As we enter the third year of COVID, near a million US deaths from the pandemic, and witness atrocities in Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia, Burma, Venezuela, and many other places, dealing with division and disinformation at every turn, the world needs healing. Americans are lucky: we have a President realistic about our own imperfections but also firm in his patriotic faith that we can be healers, just as Lorna was, and just as her family is. Its been a painful past two years, but days like this one give me hope about our ability to work together to heal.
IX Art Park will present the national launch on Saturday of Discover Black Cville, a community-led partnership to help tell modern, historically accurate and inclusive Black stories in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. A new mural by James Johnson and Laura Lee will be unveiled, and there will be a Black Artisan Fair.

Discover Black Cville will make the formal launch announcement at 2 p.m. It will be launched in partnership with the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Vibefest, an annual celebration of Black music and culture, will focus on local and regional performers from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday. Listen for Jaewar & Vibe Riot, Mighty Joshua & The Zion #5, The Fuzz Band, Varina Taylor & Friends, Terry The Hippie and Sista Nickey McMullen.

The event is free. Learn more at visit charlottesville.org/black-cville.

McIntire Connaughton Gallerys Spring Art Reception and Exhibit will focus on 2 Plein Air Painters, featuring works by V-Anne Evans and Lee Christmas Halstead, through June 13. An Artists Reception is scheduled for 4:30 to. 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Head to the third floor of Rouss & Robertson Halls at the McIntire School of Commerce to see works in oil on linen, oil on canvas and oil on linen panel.

Masking is no longer required. The exhibit is open from 8 a.m. To 7 p.m. weekdays and closed on weekends.

Tabor Presbyterian Church is presenting an exhibit of paintings by local artist John Russell. Russell will sell his small, framed watercolor landscape and still-life prints for $100 each and donate the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders to help people in Ukraine.

A reception is planned for noon to 1:30 p.m. April 3. The exhibit can be seen in the fellowship hall and breezeway.

Art and Music at The Old Manse will take place Saturday and Sunday at 171 Landon Lane in Orange.

An art show can be seen from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. There will be paintings on display by Rita Carroll, owner of the historic home, and John and Lena Murray. Jess Cifizarri will display her ceramics and jewelry.

Pianist Victor Prudovsky will present a concert at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The concert can seat only about 30 people as a result of space limitations, so plan to make reservations.

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Virginia will present The Art in Life: Knitting at 7 p.m. March 31 on Zoom. Kluge-Ruhe is teaming up with The Fralin Museum of Art at UVa to explore creative practices that arent considered fine art but deserve new consideration.

Panelists include Louis Boria from Brooklyn Boy Knits, micro knitter Althea Crome, Lauren MacElroy of Mother of Purl and architectural knitters Jenny Underwood and Leanne Zika of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Registration is available at virginia.zoom.us. Find out more online at kluge-ruhe.org.

McGuffey Art Center is accepting Incubator Residency Program applications through Saturday.

The program offers up to six emerging artists room to grow in studio practice from July 1 through June 30, 2023. Details about the Call to Artists can be found at https://www.mcguffeyartcenter.com/incubator-residency-artists.
A Lebanon nursing assistant was censured March 16 for disobeying orders and administering narcotics to a patient who previously had been hospitalized for a drug overdose.

Amber Lynne Lawhon had been told not to administer the medication to the patient who was newly arrived at a care facility after a hospital had admitted that patient for a drug overdose, according to an Oregon State Board of Nursing disciplinary order.

The state licensing authority learned in July that Lawhon had administered the narcotics. It cited her for misconduct and failing to administer medications as ordered, placing a formal reprimand on her certified nursing assistant and medication aide licenses as a warning from the state.

Lawhon could have her licenses revoked if she violates the law again, according to the order.

Oregon licensed Lawhon as a nursing assistant in 2005 and as a medication aide in 2008.

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The Philippines looks set to allow full foreign ownership of companies in critical industries including telecommunications.

Ahead of presidential elections on 9th May, CommsUpdate reports that the outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte has allowed the move, signing off on Senate Bill 2094 to update the Public Services Act. Previously, foreign ownership in critical sectors has been restricted to 40%.

Duterte claimed that the move would encourage investment into the Philippines, thereby boosting quality of service and modernising several sectors of public service which would improve the delivery of essential services.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OSCE) welcomed the liberalisation of the market, but detractors argue that it could threaten the Philippines national security. In particular, this relates to Chinese-owned companies - such as DITO Telecommunity which is partially owned by China Telecom  as the Philippines and China continue to clash over territorial waters.
Finnish multinational telecommunications giant Nokia has been selected by TIME dotCom for the supply and delivery of a DWDM optical network for a nationwide rollout.

As per the contract, Nokia will help Time enhance connectivity across data centres and cable landing stations in Malaysia with its highly resilient optical network.

A media release from Nokia said that the optical network will connect multiple data centres, cable landing stations, and telecom exchanges spanning across peninsular Malaysia to Singapore and Thailand.

The deployment will feature Nokias 1830 PSS portfolio to provide a level of scalability for supporting a wide range of applications and services. The 1830 PSS platform will further allow TIME to deploy services rapidly, reduce network total cost of ownership, and extend network lifecycles, said the release.

The deployment will also be supported by Nokias fifth-generation PSE-V chipset and 400G multi-haul pluggable optics to power coherent transmission at the lowest possible cost per bit, with low power and space requirements, the company said.

"The optical solutions being deployed to further future-proof TIMEs network will offer customers enhanced service quality and higher speeds while TIME benefits from a simplified network that increases operational and cost efficiency," the release noted.

The solutions will also offer Nokia next-generation iROADM line system capabilities with a flexible grid, contentionless, directionless, and colourless (CDC-F) optical add-drop and restoration features, which eliminates the need for on-site visits to change wavelength connectivity and simplifies network planning. Built-in Layer 0 GMPLS capability, combined with CDC-F, enables automated traffic restoration and network re-optimisation for maximum network uptime and capacity utilisation.
The 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) took place in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 22-23.

The session on the topic "Building a partnership for unity, justice and development" covered a wide range of issues related to the Islamic world, including the activities of the OIC General Secretariat in the implementation of resolutions on Palestine and Jerusalem, as well as the security situation in the period after the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Niamey in 2020. Other political issues were also discussed at the session, in particular the events in Afghanistan and their humanitarian consequences for the Afghan people, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Azerbaijan was represented at the event by a delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov. Speaking at the meeting, the Deputy Minister brought to the attention of the participants the position of Azerbaijan on a number of fundamental issues, Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry reported.

Within the framework of the 48th session of the Council, four resolutions were adopted "Liquidation of the consequences of the Armenian aggression against the Republic of Azerbaijan", "Economic assistance to the Republic of Azerbaijan", "Destruction and insult of Islamic historical and cultural shrines in the territory of Azerbaijan as a result of the aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan" and " Solidarity with the victims of the Khojaly massacre", covering political, economic and cultural issues related to the consequences of the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan.

These resolutions, traditionally adopted annually by the OIC, include new provisions, taking into account the latest situation in the region.

The resolution "Liquidation of the Consequences of the Aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan" welcomes the trilateral statement of 10 on the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the cessation of hostilities. There was a call for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and international borders. Armenia's continued refusal to provide comprehensive and accurate maps of all mined areas and other information on the location of mined areas also was condemned. Full solidarity and support for the efforts of the government and people of Azerbaijan to protect their country and overcome the grave consequences of decades of Armenian aggression and occupation were reaffirmed.

The resolution "Destruction and insult of Islamic historical and cultural shrines in the territory of Azerbaijan as a result of the aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan" strongly condemns the destruction, looting, theft, illegal transfer or appropriation of Islamic historical and cultural monuments and shrines in the territories of Azerbaijan during the period of occupation, and also acts of vandalism against these objects, Armenia's insult to mosques located in the newly liberated territories. The resolution confirms the right of Azerbaijan to demand compensation for the damage caused to it and the obligation of Armenia to pay this compensation.

The resolution "Economic Assistance to the Republic of Azerbaijan" states that the liberation of Azerbaijani territories will allow more than one million internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan to safely return to their native lands and, thus, eliminate serious humanitarian problems. In this regard, Member States, the Islamic Development Bank and other Islamic institutions are called upon to assist the government and people of Azerbaijan in the reconstruction and restoration of the liberated lands in order to ensure their return to these territories. There was also an appeal to all international institutions to support the economic and social development of Azerbaijan.

Resolution "Solidarity with the victims of the Khojaly Massacre", adopted at the 48th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC, strongly condemns the mass atrocities committed by the armed forces of Armenia against the Azerbaijani civilian population and military personnel in February 1992 in Khojaly and other then occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Member States are called upon to make the necessary efforts to locally and internationally recognize the crimes committed during the conflict in Khojaly and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The resolution also praised the activities of the international campaign "Justice for Khojaly" and called on member states to support the campaign and actively participate in it.
Underlining the continuing growth of data centres in sub-Saharan Africa are recent announcements involving Raxio Group in Tanzania and Digital Parks Africa in South Africa.

African data centre operator Raxio Group already has a presence in Uganda and Ethiopia. It has now announced plans for Raxio Tanzania, described as the first carrier-neutral, privately-owned Tier III data centre in Dar es Salaam.

As well as full redundancy and maximized uptime, optimized power consumption and energy efficiency are promised for the multi-megawatt facility in what is described as the second-largest telecoms market in East Africa. Tanzania is already connected by three subsea cables, with another due next year.

The multi-megawatt colocation facility, meeting Uptime Tier III specifications, is set to be commissioned in 2023 as are Raxio DRC, Raxio Ivory Coast and Raxio Mozambique.

Meanwhile, wholesale data centre infrastructure service provider Digital Parks Africa (DPA), which already offers 100 percent wholesale colocation services in its facilities in South Africa and Zambia, has announced plans to grow its Samrand data centre campus in Centurion, South Africa, to 22MVA.

The announced expansion follows an investment of approximately R500 million (US $33.7 million) to meet growing demand in South Africa.

According to the Data Centre Dynamics website, once it is completed the facility will offer 9,000 square metres of white space and will have undergone Uptime Tier IV construction certification. Excellent redundancy and uptime of 99.999 percent are also promised thanks to its energy-efficient backup power system.

Much more data centre activity is expected in South Africa, the biggest data centre market in the region. However, deals in other countries are bringing data centres to many other sub-Saharan countries, not least thanks to the ongoing arrival of subsea cable systems, a trend that is likely to continue.
Africa's overall mobile phone market suffered a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 11.3% in Q4 2021 to a total 48.6 million units, said a study.

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the feature phone market was down 14.3% to 27.1 million units, while smartphone shipments declined 7.1% to 21.5 million units.

Africa's major smartphone markets all experienced a downturn in Q4 2021, except for South Africa, which saw slight YoY growth.

Global supply shortages were the main reason for the declines seen across the region, while Egypt was further hampered by the introduction of new tariffs  amounting to 10%  on mobile phone imports, said a study.

Transsion brands (Tecno, Infinix, and Itel) continued to lead Africa's smartphone space in Q4 2021, with a combined unit share of 47.9%, followed by Samsung and Xiaomi (including Poco) with respective shares of 19.6% and 7.1%.

Transsion brands also dominated the feature phone market, with a combined unit share of 78.0%, followed by Nokia (8.6%) and Alcatel (2.0%).

The low-end price bands (less than $200) continued to dominate Africa's smartphone market in Q4 2021 with an 81.1% share of shipments, although this was down from 86.8% in Q4 2020. The midrange price band ($200 to $400) saw its share increase from 10.1% to 14.0% over the same period.

IDC expects the African smartphone market to grow 3.8% YoY in unit terms for 2022 as a whole.

"Mobile phone imports constitute a notable portion of the current account deficit in many African countries," said Ramazan Yavuz, a senior research manager at IDC. "Considering the macroeconomic challenges faced by economies across the region, African governments will keep an eye on taxes and import tariffs on mobile phones. New import tariffs and increased tax rates have been implemented in North African countries and similar changes can be expected in many other African markets shortly."
Samsung has reportedly made a pledge to sign up for a government scheme to manufacture telecom gear in India.

The Korean manufacturer who is more known for its class-leading smartphones, also manufactures network equipment, and is apparently looking to sign up to the second iteration of Indias Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, reported Economic Times.

Samsung is currently in talks with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel to supply equipment for their 4G expansion and 5G rollout, according to sources speaking to ET.

Samsung has made its stance clear to the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) in recent meetings. During its discussions, Samsung shared a letter with the government that says it will be interested in phase two of the PLI scheme, said one source.

If proven to be true, this would be a reversal of course from Samsung which did not opt to take part in the first PLI scheme due to it not being a viable move as it had only one client at the time, Reliance Jio.

Samsung has plants in China, South Korea and Vietnam, the latter of which it will pump over US$900 million into to bolster smartphone manufacturing.

A Cisco executive revealed the US company is also considering setting up manufacturing in India to produce parts locally and feed demand for gear not manufactured in China.
Moscow, ID (83843)

Today

Showers this morning, becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. High 59F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 44F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Members of the local graduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. were among the nearly 6,000 members who attended the organizations 90th South Eastern Regional Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 1-6, 2022. The conference theme was Rolling Down the River with Excellence.

Kappa Pi Omega Chapter received several awards during the 6-day conference. Among them was the Cynthia J. Finch Mentoring Award, which is presented to both graduate and undergraduate chapters that have developed and implemented a mentoring program. Under the leadership of committee chairperson Dana Wilson of Troy, Kappa Pi Omega members mentor undergraduate sorority members of Mu Alpha chapter at Troy University in Troy.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. has an international program, Exemplifying Excellence Through Sustainable Service, which consists of five target areas developed by the organizations international president. Kappa Pi Omega was a runner up for two of the targets:

 Target 2: Womens Healthcare and Wellness, which focuses on Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention, Heart Health, Nutrition and Wellness for Life, and Care for the Caregivers. Adrienne Madison of Dothan is chairperson.

 Target 4: The Arts! which sponsors activities to increase opportunities for youth engagement and community awareness of visual and performing arts of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. This committee is chaired by Joan Dangerfield and Eva Matthews, both of Dothan.

Awards Chairperson Joan Dangerfield, who was responsible for submission of all award entries for the chapter, said, Every win is a win for the Wiregrass, the place we call home. Colonel Teresa A. Townsend, Ret., of Enterprise is the president of the Kappa Pi Omega chapter, which currently has approximately 100 members from the Dothan, Ozark, Enterprise, and Troy areas.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. is the first historically African-American sorority. It is currently composed of more than 1,000 graduate and undergraduate chapters with an international membership of more than 300,000 women who engage in programs of service that enhance the social, economic, and educational well-being of their local communities.
By Trend





Iran has been held Friendship Ascent to Tochal Peak in Iran by female mountaineers of ECO member states, on the occasion of Novruz, Trend reports.

Female mountaineers from ECO countries, led by Rashin Jahanbazi from the Islamic Republic of Iran, climbed Tochal peak in Tehran, Iran in the first days of the upcoming Nowruz (21-23 March 2022) with the aim of promoting friendship among ECO member countries.

According to the public relations of Tochal Telecabin (cable car), this historic ascent has been jointly organized by ECO Cultural Institute, Parsian Tourism Holding, Azadi International Tourism Organization (AITO), and Tochal Telecabin on March 22 with a friendship slogan.

According to the same report, on the third day of Nowruz (March 23), a ceremony in honor of the "Friendship Ascent team held, attending by Iranian officials, foreign diplomats including the ambassador of Republic of Azerbaijan to Tehran, Ali Alizadeh , as well as local and foreign journalists.

During the event, the memorial monument of " Friendship Ascent" unveiled at an altitude of 3600 meters on the roof of Tehran.
Business wants HCMC to focus on logistics infrastructure

Heads of major companies have exhorted HCMC authorities to improve the city's logistics capacity, with some signaling an interest in investing in the sector.

At a conference with businesses Tuesday, city people's committee chairman Phan Van Mai said development plans for the next decade are focused on innovations in management, infrastructure and business.

He called on investors and businesses to "join hands with the city to... implement [new initiatives]" and be "co-authors of the city's development."

Many of the executives responded by saying logistics infrastructure is the key to achieving those goals.

A bird's eye view of HCMC's Cat Lai Port, Vietnam's main gateway to international trade. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, chairwoman of conglomerate SOVICO and CEO of budget airline Vietjet, called for investing in transport and logistics infrastructure to turn the city into a hub for supporting industries and training for tech-based sectors.

"[I] propose developing more mechanisms to attract investment from the private sector such as PPP (publicprivate partnership) and BOT (buildoperatetransfer)."

The heads of logistics firms KCTC Vina and MSC Vietnam agreed on the need for upgrading Cat Lai Port in District 2.

Park Hyun Bae of KCTC Vina said he was looking forward to an AI-based information system to enhance managerial effectiveness, and MSC Vietnams Boris Cohen advocated upgrading Cat Lai and other nearby ports to international standards.

Cat Lai, Vietnam's largest port, handles 60 percent of the country's total containers and is its main gateway to international trade.

Chairman of conglomerate Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG), Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, said his company is seeking approval to build a logistics services hub in Thu Duc City.

The hub will fits IPPG's plans to have warehouses throughout the country to serve the cargo airline it is setting up, IPP Air Cargo.

Underlining the importance of human resources for the logistics sector, head of Gemadept, Nguyen Thanh Binh, said authorities should plan for innovation and setting up training centers.

The delegates also proposed ideas to improve industrial and digital infrastructure.

Dragon Capital's deputy chair, Tran Thanh Tan, said the fund is "ready to provide the city with technical and financial assistance to build the [international financial hub]."

It is also willing to help develop mechanisms for the fintech sector, he added.
The second International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Networks (ICSN) was hosted by Swinburne Vietnam on March 19 with the message: "People and technology working together for a better world."

ICISN 2022 received nearly 200 research projects from more than 10 countries: China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

ICISN is an annual conference for domestic and international experts and scientists to exchange ideas, evaluate research and seek future collaborations in the fields of electronics, communication and technology.

The presentations and workshops at ICISN 2022 were the essence of scholars and industry experts' innovative research in the fields of software engineering and software development methodology, computational information smart, mobile and wireless networks, signal processing, electronic and IoT applications, automation systems, image and video processing, and intelligent measurement control technology.

Dr. Hoang Viet Ha, director of Swinburne Vietnam, launches ICISN 2022. Photo by ICISN 2022

Out of nearly 200 submissions, 75 works that were approved by the Review Board to be presented at ICISN 2022 met high standards of innovation and academic robustness, along with having less than 15 percent of similarities and overlaps with other works. Approved studies and conference proceedings will be published in the Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems by the prestigious publisher, Springer.

Research topics were diverse, aiming to solve practical problems of business and society, including: Control design of thermoacoustic generator systems using reinforcement learning algorithms, Developing economical and effective ultraviolet (UVC) irradiation solutions and equipment for rapid disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 on N95 respirators; A new system for license plate recognition in traffic violation scenarios in Vietnam; Heart disease prediction using soft computing methods; Implementation of SMOTE and VGG-16 for Covid-19 radiography.

This year, ICISN welcomed renowned scholars with global recognition. Notable keynote speakers and delegates include Dr. Chutiporn Anutariya from the Asian Institute of Technology Thailand (AIT); Dr. Rafidah Md Noor, deputy dean at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya; Professor Lam Kwok Yan, professor of Computer Science at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Corporations joins hands for tech solutions

Offering a unique opportunity for scholars and industry experts to come together and collaborate for the common good, ICISN 2022 received attention and contributions from leaders of big tech companies.

Amid the fourth industrial revolution, academics and businesses see the great demand for timely and innovative solutions to help society adapt with the rapid technological change happening all around the world.

Some of the highlights at ICISN 2022 were the remarks from FPT Group's President, Dr. Truong Gia Binh, and Tran The Trung, director of FPT Smart Cloud. As a pioneer in technology research and application in Vietnam, FPT's participation was highly anticipated to bring in meaningful insights from a market perspective in the field of networks and intelligent systems.

"VinBrain is in the process of creating a unique, long-term health ecosystem capable of giving early validation within a near-real-time feedback loop through big data's power and AI assistants, like AIviCare, AI for telehealth and DrAid," Hung shared.

In the IoT era, Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as both an opportunity and challenge for businesses. Digital Health with the power of AI and democratizing AI in the modern world was the focus of the keynote presentation given by Truong Quoc Hung - CEO of VinBrain. The presentation demonstrated how AI and big data applications are becoming an essential practice for businesses who want to seize opportunities amid fast-changing digital transformation.

Dr. Le Nhan Tam, chief technology officer of IBM Vietnam, also gave a plenary talk about AI Data Lake - Redefining the traditional data lake.

Digital transformation has led to a significant increase in information traffic as cloud adoption grows, hence, streaming data is gaining significant popularity. Accordingly, data lake is a technology platform and supporting architecture for fast data collection with a natural storage model for complex multi-structured data, which provides cost-effective storage for large data sets and AI-powered data analysis.

ICISN 2022 received contributions and attention from industry leading corporations. Photo by ICISN 2022

The commitments of Vietnam's leading technology corporations at ICISN 2022 contribute to creating a complete ecosystem in which universities, research institutes, scientists and businesses join hands to accelerate technological advancement. In this ecosystem, businesses will participate and become research centers that aid the development and implementation of technology, which, in the long run, will nurture the startup community and promote innovation for society.
The HCMC education department is considering letting vaccinated students who are close contacts of Covid-19 cases to continue attend in-person classes.

Duong Tri Dung, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Education and Training, said they will cooperate with the Department of Health to evaluate available data and see if vaccinated students who are close contacts of Covid-19 cases can attend on-site classes, local reports said.

Under current rules, students who are close contacts of Covid-19 cases must self-isolate for five days if they are fully vaccinated, or seven days if they're unvaccinated.

Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, office head of the HCMC health department, said Monday that the proposal aims to "minimize impacts on students' studies." The students must continue to monitor their health and report any abnormality to medical authorities, she told local media.

HCMC has recorded nearly 587,000 Covid-19 cases so far, with 20,329 deaths. As Vietnam shifts from a "zero Covid" approach to one that adapts to the novel coronavirus, many schools have recorded rising numbers of Covid-19 cases among both its students and staff.
Giang A Lanh and Ly Thi Mai are held at a border guard station in Lao Cai Province with the heroin they were about to smuggle to China, March 24, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Trung Dung

Two Vietnamese traffickers transporting heroin from Laos to Vietnam were arrested Thursday before they could ship it to China.

Giang A Lanh, 34, and Ly Thi Mai, 32, in Vietnam's northern province of Dien Bien, are facing charges for "illegally transporting narcotic substances."

They were detained while on their way to transport around 11 kg of heroin from Dien Bien to Lao Cai Province, which borders China.

The two told police that they were hired by a Chinese person, whose identity has not been found, to travel to Laos and bring the drugs to Lao Cai. They were paid VND320 million ($14,000).

After returning to Dien Bien, they hid the drug on a hill before being instructed to send it to China. On Wednesday, Mai put the drug into a bag of clothes and traveled to Lao Cai on a passenger bus from Dien Bien.

Lanh followed her on a motorbike.

The two met in Lao Cai in the first hours of Thursday and as they were preparing to hand over the drug to a third person, were caught by border guards.

Police said they had kept the duo under surveillance for around a month.

Vietnam has in recent years become a key trafficking hub for narcotics around the Golden Triangle, an intersection of China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and the world's second-largest drug-producing region, after the Golden Crescent in South Asia.

It also has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty.
Vietnam will support and contribute to UN humanitarian relief activities for Ukraine with its capabilities and conditions, the foreign ministry said in a press release.

It said that Dang Hoang Giang, head of Vietnam's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, made this affirmation at the ongoing emergency special session of the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday.

The General Assembly resumed its 11th emergency special session on March 23-24 with a focus on humanitarian situation in Ukraine. The session had opened on Feb 28 and closed on March 2 after adopting a resolution in which the Assembly demanded that the Russian Federation immediately cease its unlawful use of force against its neighbour.

At the meeting, Giang also restated the country's support for humanitarian efforts of the Secretary-General, various U.N. agencies, countries in the region and international partners in Ukraine.

Vietnamese ambassador Dang Hoang Giang speaks at a U.N General Assembly session on March 23, 2022. Photo courtesy of Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Sharing the international community's deep concern about the humanitarian situation caused by the conflict in Ukraine, he emphasized the need to prioritize cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians, protection of essential civilian infrastructure, humanitarian operations and evacuation of citizens.

According to U.N. data, of Ukraine's population of 44 million, some 3.56 million have fled the country and 6.5 million have been internally displaced since February 24. This means one in four people have been uprooted, said Enrique Austria Manalo, Vice-President of the General Assembly.

Giang reaffirmed Vietnam's consistent stance on settling international disputes by peaceful means on the basis of respect for international law, the U.N. Charter, especially the principle of respect for independence, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations, non-interference in others' internal affairs, and non-use of force in international relations.

He emphasized that dialogue and negotiations between relevant parties should be carried out to find a peaceful solution on the basis of international law and the U.N. Charter, taking into account the interests and concerns of relevant parties.

More than 60 countries and regional organizations attended the session.
Foreign tourists cheer up for Vietnamese men's national football team during AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 on Bui Vien pedestrian Street in District 1, HCMC, on December, 2018. Photo by VnExpress/Phong Vinh

Vietnam should grant visa exemption to more countries and allow a stay of up to 30 days to increase foreign tourist numbers and their local spending, experts say.

Tran Dinh Thien, a member of the prime minister's economic advisory group, said at a tourism conference in the northern province of Quang Ninh that now "was the opportunity we need to take advantage of to open tourism wider and affirm Vietnam's position on the global tourism map."

The government had agreed last week to resume its unilateral visa exemption policy for citizens from 13 countries as Vietnam reopened inbound tourism after nearly two years of closure.

Citizens from Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K. will be allowed to visit Vietnam for up to 15 days without a visa regardless of passport type and entry purpose.

Thien said that though Vietnam has fully reopened its borders, the tourism industry can only welcome 25-30 percent of tourists against pre-pandemic levels. Therefore, the government should expand its visa exemption policy to include more countries like Australia and New Zealand.

"Vietnam should also consider prolonging the stay of tourists from European countries from the current 15 days because Westerners tend to make longer trips, especially retirees. Therefore, the 15-day visa exemption is not enough to attract them," Thien said.

Pham Thi Nguyet of Vietnam Airlines said the visa exemption with stay of up to 30 days will boost opportunities to attract international visitors to Vietnam, especially from Europe.

Currently, only citizens of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Kyrgyzstan are offered visa-free stay of 30 days. But most Asian tourists typically make short trips of four to five days, industry insiders say.

Pham Truong Hoang, who teaches hotel management and tourism at the National Economics University, said it was high time that Vietnam relaxed policies to attract more foreign tourists through expanded visa exemption, instead of remained focused on pre-pandemic markets.

Before the pandemic, Vietnam had among the strictest visa policies in Asia with only 24 countries qualifying for exemption, compared to Thailand's 64, Indonesia's 70, and the Philippines' 157.

Tran Nguyen, sales director of hospitality company and property developer Sun Group, also felt that the government should relax its visa exemption policy and include more potential tourism markets like New Zealand and Australia.

Nguyen Thi Le Huong, deputy general director of tour operator Vietravel, proposed the scrapping of Covid-19 tests for fully vaccinated foreign tourists arriving in Vietnam.

Though Vietnam has reopened international tourism with relaxed entry rules, it still requires foreign visitors to furnish negative Covid-19 test results on arrival.
Tourists lie on the sands at Sao Beach, one of the top destinations on Vietnam's Phu Quoc Island. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

Search data from online booking travel agency Agoda shows tourists from Singapore have shown the biggest interest in Vietnam's tourism reopening, followed by the U.S. and South Korea.

The rest of the top 10 were India, Malaysia, Australia, the U.K., Germany, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Vietnam, which closed inbound tourism in March 2020, fully reopened its borders to foreign visitors last Tuesday with relaxed entry rules after nearly two years of stringent restrictions.

It has resumed its visa waiver policy for citizens from 24 countries, including Japan, South Korea and several European economies.

According to Agoda, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's busiest metropolis, Hanoi and Da Nang were the most searched destinations by foreign tourists.

A day after Vietnam reopened international tourism, Singaporean authorities decided to restore two-way quarantine-free travel with the country starting March 16.

A survey of 1,000 people in January commissioned by the Changi Airport Group, operator of the island nation's award-winning airport, showed 90 percent of Singaporeans planned to visit Vietnam this year once entry restrictions were completely lifted.

In 2019, the year before the pandemic struck, more than 300,000 tourists from Singapore visited Vietnam.

With borders closed, the number of foreign arrivals to the country last year plunged by 96 percent against 2020.

This year, Vietnam has set a target of welcoming five to six million foreign tourists. In 2019, the year before the onset of the pandemic, it welcomed a record 18 million foreign tourists.
ELKO  Transparency is reaching another level for the Elko County School District with the availability of facts, figures, budgets, school enrollment, demographics and more in a new section on the districts website.

The addition is nearly completed and went live last week.

Im a kid in a candy shop. There is an incredible amount of data in there, said Trustee Matt McCarty. Its such a benefit to the community. I cannot rave enough about this.

Its nice to have one-stop shopping, said Trustee Susan Neal. Its much more convenient.

The districts chief financial officer, Julie Davis, told trustees on March 22 that the site includes a document portal allowing a look at budgets and audits going back to 2010, and an employee page showing numbers of staff and details. There is even a link to supplies and their costs.

There is a demographics link so people can look up class sizes, scores and the Nevada Department of Education budget including how much state money goes to Elko County. For instance, the state data for the 2020-2021 school year shows that Elko County received $11,529 in per pupil expenditures, the county has 34 schools, and there were 606 teachers last year.

There also is a link for people to request public documents.

There is a student breakdown by grade level back to 2017 and by school, said Davis, who also reported that once the checkbook module is online, spending details will probably be updated monthly.

Its a huge, huge job, trustee Jeff Durham said of the project.

Davis said the district site is what Elko County uses but had to be tailored toward schools. Those looking to check it out can go to the block on the districts main page and click on Financial Transparency Center. That takes users to the Elko County School Districts transparency page.

Enrollments

Enrollments also will be on the new site. School trustees on March 22 received a quarterly enrollment report showing 9,992 students enrolled in the school district as of March 21, 2022, up 294 from the 9,668 students enrolled at the same time last year.

The new figures show that there are 1,256 students at Elko High School as of March 21, 2022, compared with 1,224 students on March 22, 2021; and 835 students at Spring Creek High School, up 77 from the same time last year. West Wendover High School has 312 students, up from 306 last year, and Wells High School has 103 students, up from 98.

Carlin High School has 80 students, up 13 from 67 students in March 2021, and Jackpot High School has 42 students, up from 37 last year, while Owyhee High School has 95 students, up two from last year.

The Northeastern Nevada Virtual Academy lost 251 students, however, with 241 enrolled as of March of this year, compared with 492 during March 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. Adult education also was down, at 47, compared with 104 last year.

The figures also show that there are 657 students at Flagview Intermediate School, up 32 from last year; and the Adobe Middle School has 745 students, up from 732 in March 2021. Spring Creek Middle School has 712 students, up 67 from 758 last year.

Carlin Junior High has 54 students, up from 48, and the Jackpot Junior High has 20 students, down from 27. Owyhee Junior High has 43 students, down one from March 2021, and West Wendover Middle school has 222 students, up 66 from last year, while Wells Junior High has 44 students, down 8 from last year.

Looking at the elementary schools, Carlin Elementary School has 180 students, up from 167 on March 22, 2021; Grammar School 2 has 299 children, up 55 from last year; Independence Valley Elementary School has 8 pupils, down from 12 last year; Jackpot Elementary School has 62 children, up from 58; and Liberty Peak Elementary School has 609, up 89 from last March.

Montello Elementary School has 14, up from zero last year, and Mound Valley has 9, down from 14 the year before, while Mountain View Elementary has 605 pupils, up from 597 in March 2021, and Northside Elementary has 386, up 59 from last year, while Owyhee Elementary School has 175 children, up from 172 last year.

Ruby Valley has 23 pupils, up from 18, Sage Elementary has 401, up from 377 last year, and Southside Elementary has 626 pupils, up from 562 in March 2021, while Spring Creek Elementary has 387 children, up 85 from 302 last year. Wells Elementary has 181 children, up from 175, and West Wendover Elementary has 442 pupils, down 40 from 482 last year.

There are also 21 students at the Battle Born Youth Challenge Academy that is in its first full year, 13 at the conservation camp, down from 19, and 13 in Early Childhood, down 101 from last March. The early childhood students are now counted in zoned school enrollment.

School calendars

School trustees also approved a calendar for the next school year at Battle Born, which is operated by the Nevada National Guard but the educational staff is provided by the school district. The calendar is different, with school starting Aug. 1, a long break from Dec. 14 to Jan. 30 and the last day of school on June 14.

In addition, the school board approved a four-day class schedule that requires state approval for Carlin, Tuscarora, Jackpot, Montello, Jiggs, Ruby Valley, Wells and West Wendover, with school beginning Aug. 29 and ending June 8. The schedule meets the state hours requirements.

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ELKO  Bonuses of $1,000 will be given to each of 982 Elko County School District employees for going the extra mile during the COVID-19 pandemic, and federal COVID-19 relief funds will be used to cover most of the bonus costs.

Elko County school trustees voted on March 22 to pay the bonus to all employees who had not already received sign-on bonuses, incentive money or COVID-19 stipends during the pandemic. The district has roughly 1,100 employees.

Its a way to incentivize retention, said Superintendent Clayton Anderson. We would always love to give everyone a lot more. I know what goes into being a teacher, a secretary, a bus driver or a nurse. I have seen it firsthand, but COVID required people to do things they werent used to doing and a lot of people began looking for employment elsewhere.

He said that over the course of the last couple of years there has been a lot of federal funding thats come in to help kind of offset the impacts that COVID had on our schools and our communities. That money was put to a lot of things  basically anything connected to how COVID impacted schools.

Anderson said now we feel we can utilize those funds and some from the general fund  for every single one of our employees. To give a bonus to a lot of employees is rather a large price tag. He also told the board other school districts have paid bonuses.

According to the agenda for March 22, the district offered the incentive to hire staff for the 2021-2022 school year but didnt have the money to provide bonuses to everyone at that time. Money was freed up when the district wasnt able to recruit additional nurses using American Rescue Plan funds.

Chief Financial Officer Julie Davis said the tab will be a little more than $1 million, using $654,000 in federal funds and $352,000 from the general fund. Each eligible employee will receive $1,000 and there will be an extra roughly $25 cost to the district for each employee to pay workers compensation, unemployment and Medicare deductions.

We want to pretty much close out the grant, Davis said, also telling the school board that there should be money available from the general fund but there is also the contingency fund to dip into, if needed.

Part-time employees also will receive the bonus, but the districts communication specialist, Kayla Church, said on March 23 that the vast majority of our employees are full-time.

Trustee Jeff Durham of West Wendover said people he talked with in the community were in favor of paying the bonuses, and all felt the teachers did a good job. It will help with retention and attracting new people.

Trustee Matt McCarty figured that the bonus money coming out of the general fund would amount to roughly $360 per person, and I think that is a bargain for employees who kept on working through trying times.

He also said he wanted to see the $650,000 in grant money stay in Elko County rather than be returned to the federal government.

If we can use this to support teachers who suffered from COVID in a variety of ways and doing things theyve never done before, I think this is fantastic and I am definitely in favor, said the board president, Teresa Dastrup.

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New bitcoin ATMs have been popping up across the United States where people can buy and sell a range of cryptocurrencies. The number has grown more than sixfold in the past two years to over 32,000 nationwide according to Coin ATM Radar.

Currently, the machines are owned by private companies and mostly located in local convenience stores and gas stations. However, well-known companies like Circle K and Walmart have started installing them.

Also see:

Bitcoin ATM locations in the US

Just about anywhere you go in the United States you can find a bitcoin ATM not too far away looking at Coin ATM Radar locator. The machines allow people, especially those who are less tech savvy, an easier way to buy and sell digital currencies than going through a cryptocurrency exchange website. Customers can deposit money into the bitcoin ATMs and have it sent to a crypto wallet.

The virtual currency kiosks will be even more convenient to find as Circle K and Walmart roll them out at their stores across the US. In 2020, the world's largest convenience store chain, Circle K, began installing bitcoin ATMs in its stores provided by Bitcoin Depot. Now the company has over 700 machines in locations in 30 states.

No one thinks Bitcoin is an investment.



Strategic Intelligence Editor James Rickards discusses cryptocurrency strategies and more https://t.co/sKgTX9M2rC pic.twitter.com/v5cF69sCXb  Bloomberg (@business) March 22, 2022

Walmart started a limited rollout in October 2021 with 200 Coinstar virtual currency kiosks at various locations around the US. Coinstar, which has partnered with digital currency exchange and bitcoin ATM operator CoinMe, is known for its machines that can exchange physical coins for cash. The largest brick and mortar retailer plans to install 8,000 machines nationwide in the coming months.

Law enforcement warns of criminals targeting bitcoin ATMs

This proliferation also comes with risks allowing criminals to perform transactions with relative ease and in a largely anonymous manner. According to law enforcement officials the ATMs are being used for drug and human trafficking, money laundering along with a variety of fraud.

Although bitcoin ATM operators are required to register with the US Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network the regulations are lax in many states. Users can make sizeable transactions, in some cases up to $900, while providing no more than a cellphone number to identify themselves.

Last month, a study in the journal Joule found that Bitcoin mining worldwide may be responsible for about 65 megatons of carbon dioxide a year, comparable to the emissions of Greece. https://t.co/XSCXbr0EOS  NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) March 22, 2022

The cryptocurrency industry wants to establish guardrails

The federal government is looking into how to regulate cryptocurrencies and digital assets. President Biden signed an executive order in March directing agencies across the government to coordinate their efforts to develop a comprehensive, all-of-government framework to address the emerging risks and opportunities, White House economic advisor Brian Deese said.

Those within the cryptocurrency industry see a need to tackle the sinister use of the machines as well. A consortium of companies has formed the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative. The organization wants to see universal compliance standards in the cash-to-cryptocurrency industry.

A lack of Know Your Customer and Customer Identification Program requirements allows questionable transactions to go unnoticed by cryptocurrency providers. Minimal compliance to standards by cryptocurrency companies also expose banks, which take their deposits, to anti-money laundering and high-risk fraud violations according to the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative.
By Trend





The member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are actively considering the issue of obtaining observer status by Armenia and Azerbaijan, SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming said in an interview with TASS, Trend reports.

As for the issue of obtaining observer status by Azerbaijan and Armenia, the SCO member-states are actively considering it, Ming said. In this regard, I am optimistic although at the moment I can not name the exact time.

SCO secretary general stressed that of course, the relations between the two countries are an important factor that should be taken into account.

The SCO member-states are unanimous in not introducing bilateral contradictions into the organization, Ming added. This is also an obligation which any country that claims to join SCO must fulfill.
Headlines

- Biden confirms he would support removing Russia from the G20

- Russian forces surrounded northwest of Kyiv by Ukrainian forces.

- Ukrainian forces push back eastern forces to 34 miles from center of capital putting Russians on defensive footing.

- US secretary of state, Antony Blinken: "Members of Russias forces have committed war crimes"

- Ukrainian leaders accuse Russia of taking food delivery and aid workers hostage as they were entering Mariupol

- President Zelensky reports that 100,000 people still remain trapped in Mariupol, drone footage captures the destruction.

- Russia claims it used a hypersonic missile in Ukraine, what is it?

Russia-Ukraine: Conflict Background

- Foreign fighters like "Wali" are targets of the Russian army.

- What is the FSB?

- Sanctions on Russia begin to impact the cost of living around the world.

Related News
US employment situation following March's jobs figures

US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh gave an update on the employment situation in the US in the wake of March's report which detailed how jobless figures have decreased slightly compared to February's data.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 431,000 jobs in the month of March, and the unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, down from 3.8 percent in February. With 7.9 million jobs added since President Biden took office and unemployment close to pre-pandemic levels, this strong job growth continues our historic, worker-centered recovery.

The Administrations strategy to tackle the pandemic and grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out has gotten America back to work and brought real wage gains for many of the hardest-pressed families. For example, average weekly earnings for non-supervisory employees in Leisure and Hospitality businesses grew much faster than price increases over the past year. In addition, labor force participation continued to grow, with significant gains among women aged 25-54.

The Department of Labor remains focused on empowering all workers with access to good jobs and the skills and supports they need to fill them. Through the Good Jobs Initiative and more, we are investing in apprenticeships and career pathways that not only expand opportunity and equity for marginalized workers, but also strengthen key supply chain industries thereby lowering costs for families and small businesses.

Its clear that a strong focus on public health and workers needs has gotten results, and this is no time to let up. We need to make continued investments in the tools that workers, employers and communities need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and continue our historic recovery.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a month old and the expectation of a war over "within 72 hours," the Russians have yet to conquer Kyiv. Much of the east is under huge bombardment, as well as the siege of Mariupol in the south which has harkened minds back to some of the most vicious sieges in modern history.

Clearly, the invasion is not going how Russia planned, evidenced by the length of time the war has taken. Questions are being asked about how many Russian casualties there are, something difficult to ascertain due to the propagandist nature of 'official' data. We will piece the facts together as best as possible.

Related news:

What casualty data has been released so far?

Russian official estimates from March 2 said that 498 of its troops had been killed, so far, this is the only public acknowledgment of deaths from the attacks. However, in a now deleted online article, Kremlin mouthpiece Komsomolskaya Pravda revealed that almost 10,000 had died with another 16,000 injured. Russia was quick to say that this leak was a hack, so it is impossible to verify the claim made by the newspaper, or if the newspaper meant to post the article at all.

Ukraine's own information is that there have been around 15,600 Russian deaths in just one month of fighting. If accurate, it would be more Russian deaths than the 10 year war in Afghanistan from 1979-1989. A difference between the two conflicts is that the fighting in Ukraine is much more of a traditional war compared to counter-insurgency; there have been pitched battles and sieges much like wars of the early 20th century compared to what readers in the west may imagine a 21st century conflict to look like. In any case, these are severe losses.

Reported Russian Losses, Feb. 24-Mar. 22

Planes 101 (daily change+2) of 375

Helicopters 124 (+1) of 240 = 52%!

Tanks 517 (+8) of 1,700

Armored vehicles 1,578 (+22) of 4,300

Personnel ~15,600 killed (+300) of 150,000 (ground force)

Generals 6 of 20

Source: Ukraine Defense Ministry  Anders Aslund (@anders_aslund) March 23, 2022

Alongside the data released, or not released, by both sides, NATO has produced its own findings on what it considers to be an accurate portrayal of Russian casualties so far. During the ongoing talks in Brussels to coordinate NATO aims, an unnamed official is quoted as saying there are thought to be around 40,000 Russian casualties, including missing or captured. British intelligence released an update on Thursday to say they believed there to be "thousands" of Russian casualties.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 24 March 2022



Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/Pbtd58bPbQ



 #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/YIN7Z9muvJ  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) March 24, 2022

What else could be evidence of large Russian casualties?

Figures from both sides cannot be trusted, as Russia will underestimate while Ukraine will overestimate, but another way that losses can be analysed is the changing tactics of the Russian army.

Early in the war, there were bold attacks by paratroopers behind enemy lines, as well as armoured plunges into Ukraine. But evidence of these methods of war has become scarce in recent weeks. What has been more and more common has been attacks with unmanned weapons on civilian targets, such as the theatre in Mariupol and hospital in Kyiv. These tactics show Russia beginning to embrace a war of attrition, where only the total destruction of the enemy will result in victory. With too many losses, the war has bogged down to a stalemate.

Full screen A tank destroyed in fighting during Ukraine-Russia conflict is seen in front of a residential building, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine March 23, 2022 Alexander Ermochenko Reuters

Were seeing a country militarily implode. Robert Farley, professor at the University of Kentucky

Why has this happened? Some analysts are pointing to overestimates of Russian technological power and neglected to consider logistics. Videos throughout the war have shown Russian vehicles abandoned in mud, as well as tanks fighting alone in streets, a recipe for disaster for crews who become easy targets in urban combat.

The strength of Ukrainian resolve has also been greater than expected, and with the wealth of weapons supplied by NATO they seem to be holding their own. Further evidence for this is the destroyed Russian aircraft; the Ukrainian army was begging for more portable anti-aircraft weapons to deal with Russian air superiority.




President Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds phone talks with the RoKs President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol. (Photo: VNA)

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc highlighted important achievements the two countries have achieved in bilateral and multilateral fields during the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992.

The two countries become each other's strategic cooperative partners with an increasingly deep level of mutual trust and understanding, and practical and expanded cooperation, he said.

The State leader thanked the RoK government for actively donating medical equipment and vaccines to support Vietnam's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in recent times.

For his part, President Yoon affirmed that the RoK always attaches importance to the relationship with Vietnam, which, he said, is at its best ever. He also expressed his hope that that the two nations will further promote cooperative ties in the coming time, including tourism and people-to-people exchange.

The RoK will continue to encourage its businesses to invest and expand their operations in Vietnam in the future, especially in spearhead industries, he stressed, adding that the country will also create favourable conditions for Vietnamese citizens to enter the RoK.

President Yoon spoke highly of Vietnam's role in ASEAN and thanked Vietnam for its contributions to peace, stability, cooperation and development on the Korean Peninsula.

The leaders agreed to maintain the exchange of high-level delegations and meetings with various appropriate forms; support the strengthening of security, defence and defence industry cooperation; and closely cooperate in implementing activities to celebrate the 30th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties (1992-2022), towards upgrading the relations to a "comprehensive strategic partnership".

The two Presidents held that the two nations will coordinate in implementing measures to lift their bilateral trade to 100 billion USD by 2023 and 150 billion USD by 2030; as well as effectively performing existing trade agreements such as the Vietnam - RoK Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).

Vietnam and the RoK will continue to cooperate closely in regional and international issues, and assisting the Southeast Asian nation in performing its role as the coordinator of RoK-ASEAN relations in 2021-2024, they said.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc took the occasion to invite the RoK President to visit Vietnam. President Yoon accepted the invitation with pleasure, and he also invited the Vietnamese leader to visit the RoK in 2022./.
Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea (RoK)s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Yeo Han-koo (Photo: Reuters)

During his online meeting with Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh on March 23, Yeo said since late 2021, the RoK has conducted internal discussions and prepared procedures to join the CPTPP.

He also highly valued the close economic ties between Vietnam and the RoK, saying their trade link reached its peak last year.

Welcoming the RoKs application for the CPTPP membership, Khanh expressed his hope that Vietnam and the RoK will continue their cooperation in relevant areas.

The two sides also compared notes on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) which the US is stepping up in an effort to enhance comprehensive economic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

They held that relations within the IPEF should base on open, transparent and inclusive standards, and cooperation acceptable to many countries in the region.

Launched in December 2018, the CPTPP was signed by 11 countries, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Its total trade volume hit 5.7 trillion USD as of 2019, accounting for 15.2 percent of the total global trade value, according to a report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade./.
RoK President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol (Photo: VNA)

Speaking to the press, Ms. Kim Eun-hye affirmed that Vietnam is a friendly country with the RoK and has maintained a "relationship of trust" despite the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain breakage. This year the two countries celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Currently, the RoK-Vietnam bilateral relationship has been upgraded to a strategic partnership.

Ms. Kim Kim Eun-hye also emphasized the importance of Vietnam in the RoK's partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as Vietnam plays the role of coordinator.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc is the sixth foreign leader to talk by phone with Yoon Suk-yeol since he was elected RoK President on March 10. Earlier, Mr. Yoon Suk-yeol had phone talks with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi./.
At the meeting (Photo: congthuong.vn)

So said Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien during his co-chairmanship with Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak of the virtual 15th meeting of the Vietnam  Belarus Inter-Governmental Committee on economic - trade and scientific - technical cooperation.

Regarding economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An said during the meeting that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the two-way trade turnover in 2021 reached USD168.8 million, an increase of 131.6% compared to 2020.

After the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union took effect, bilateral trade recorded a high growth rate with traditional exports from Vietnam such as seafood, vegetables, cashew nuts, rubber, machinery, equipment, tools, spare parts, phones and components; as well as goods imported from Belarus to Vietnam such as fertilizers, spare parts; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts; milk and dairy products and pharmaceuticals.

Regarding investment, by the end of 2021, Belarus has 3 investment projects in Vietnam with a total investment capital of USD32.25 million, ranking 67th out of 140 countries and territories with direct investment capital into Vietnam.

Regarding cooperation in the industrial sector, Deputy Minister of Industry of Belarus Ogorodnikov Alexander reported positive results in the implementation of the Protocol of Cooperation on the production and assembly of means of transport in Vietnam, the construction of a dairy factory by the Minsk Dairy Factory joint venture in Hung Yen Province, and a cooperation project on heavy trucks of the Belarusian Belaz Company.

During the meeting, the delegates of the two sides conducted many exchanges on potential and measures for cooperation in the fields of industry, commerce, agriculture, science - technology, culture, sports, tourism and training.

Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak emphasized that Vietnam has always been a reliable and important partner of Belarus in the region. With the contents reached by the two sides at the meeting, Vietnam and Belarus will create a mechanism and legal framework to deploy and develop cooperation in the fields of mechanical engineering, food production, and technology transfer, pharmaceutical supply and, more importantly, increase trade turnover and investment projects in general.

At the end of the meeting, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Anatoly Sivak signed the minutes of meeting./.
Restoring the security of nuclear facilities, an oil embargo and stabilizing energy markets are the three key areas of opposition to Russia in the energy sector, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko said at the IEA Ministerial Meeting in Paris on Thursday.

"Haluschenko emphasized that the first direction of countering Russian aggression should be the issue of restoring the security of nuclear facilities. The minister of energy of Ukraine called on his colleagues to make every effort to force Russia to withdraw its mercenaries from Zaporizhia and Chornobyl nuclear power plants," the ministry said.

According to Haluschenko, the international community should also limit dependence on Russian oil, gas and coal, prohibit the development of Russian gas infrastructure through sanctions such as an oil embargo or a ban on Russian products containing CO2. In turn, this will contribute to the achievement of the goals of the European Green Deal and decarbonization.

"Thirdly, it is very important to stabilize energy markets. We have various tools at hand: to open energy markets to other traders, to help the market rebuild, to introduce additional taxes on energy excess profits, to open up oil reserves," he said.

He stressed Ukraine's readiness to contribute in this direction by offering its underground gas storage facilities and excess electricity generation to stabilize prices.
Ukraine is working with the Polish government to prepare a housing construction program for Ukrainians, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Andriy Deschytsia said.

"But the issue of accommodation, accommodation for Ukrainians will continue to be relevant. Therefore, we are working with the Polish government to prepare an appropriate housing construction program for Ukrainian citizens. But this is not an easy process. This requires a budget. This was not provided for by the Polish state budget, Ukrainians have no such funds, so we have to work together with the EU and work out various kinds of assistance from the EU to Poland, which will be provided to support the Ukrainians here," Deschytsia said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, Ukrainian citizens who applied for refugee status in Poland are literally isolated cases.

"In most cases, Ukrainians either rent lodgings, or while they are with their friends or relatives or complete strangers who are ready to provide a roof over their heads in difficult times," the ambassador said.

Deschytsia pointed out that Poland does not refuse to accept Ukrainians and declares its readiness to help them further.

"Of course, this enthusiasm and support will largely depend on financial resources. Together with the Poles, we want to convince the EU to allocate additional funds to Poland to support Ukrainians in Poland. It is clear that Poland now has the biggest challenge regarding the reception of Ukrainian citizens," he explained.

The diplomat said that now we are talking about a fund that was founded by the EU for the recovery of Poland and the Polish economy after COVID.

We are talking about EUR 160 billion. But due to certain circumstances, criticism from the EU of justice reforms in Poland, these funds were frozen and are still at the disposal of the EU. But these funds exist and everything must be done so that they are allocated to Poland. This will significantly improve the situation with Poland's budget, as well as provide a certain perspective that could help provide Ukrainians with housing and create conditions for employment, education, and medical care for Ukrainians," Deschytsia said.

The ambassador drew attention to the fact that this amount  EUR 160 billion - is allocated for the central government of Poland, but first of all, the burden from such a large number of Ukrainian citizens who fled the war falls on local governments, local authorities, because they are still directly in the city or village, where they solve their primary needs with housing, education, kindergarten, medical care and work.
Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) proposes to establish the international fund for the revival of the An-225 Mriya transport aircraft, according to the state enterprise's Facebook page.

The state enterprise notes that the An-225 Mriya is the largest aircraft in terms of the mass of cargo transportation and unsurpassed in its parameters. For more than 30 years of operation on air routes of countries of all continents, the aircraft has shown its unique flight performance and the ability to transport oversized cargo, which no other cargo aircraft is able to carry out. The An-225 has set 240 unbroken world records. In addition, the An-225 has the ability to carry out a horizontal launch of spacecraft and rockets in flight, transport certain types of cargo on the fuselage.

"In February 2022, a disaster struck. During the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the An-225 Mriya aircraft was destroyed. This loss stunned the Antonov team, the global aviation community, and many customers for the transportation of goods by the largest aircraft. Despite the difficult times, the staff of the Antonov state enterprise resolutely considers it necessary to prevent the complete irretrievable loss of the legendary aircraft as one of the symbols of modernity and to begin the revival of the flagship of transport aviation An-225 Mriya. There is every reason for this - design and scientific and technical documentation, and most importantly - the presence, a great desire and inspiration of the Antonov state enterprise staff. Unfortunately, in a difficult time for Ukraine and Antonov state enterprise, there is not enough money to solve this problem. We propose to establish the international fund for the revival of the An-225 Mriya transport aircraft," the enterprise said.

In this regard, Antonov applies with a proposal for financial support for the project of revival of Mriya to the heads of state and government of all countries of the world; to world firms for the aviation production of aircraft and their units; to foreign partner firms that took part in the creation of aircraft, other products of the AN brand and were suppliers of their products in the serial production of aircraft by the Antonov state enterprise; to the management of banks and other financial institutions of the countries of the world; to aviation fans and enthusiasts; to the entire global aviation community, including non-state associations; to all not indifferent people who admired the greatness of the Ukrainian Mriya.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

Dear Madame President,

I convey my sincere congratulations on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Hellenic Republic.

I hope that we will put joint efforts for the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Greece in line with interests of our peoples.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, happiness, and wish peace and prosperity to your people.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 18 March 2022
The start of Ukrainian electricity exports to Europe will help support the domestic energy system, which has enough capacity and capabilities to implement it, Dmytro Sakharuk, the executive director of DTEK Energy Holding, said.

"There is enough capacity in the Ukrainian system to start exporting to Europe. It will be very important to attract such necessary funds to the Ukrainian energy sector, which is now acutely lacking," he said at a briefing at the Media Center in Lviv on Thursday.

The executive director of DTEK noted that during the month of the war, electricity consumption fell by 30%, and payments for the consumed resource - by 70%.

"Under such conditions, each euro will be critical to support the energy system," Sakharuk stressed.

According to him, DTEK is in favor of the earliest possible resumption of electricity exports, which, together with imports, were stopped after the IPS of Ukraine, united with the trade zone of the Burshtyn Energy Island, went into an isolated mode on February 24 this year.

"We want the resumption of economic relations with Europe to begin as soon as possible, this will help support the energy system of Ukraine in this extremely difficult period," DTEK's top manager emphasized.

He also emphasized that the Ukrainian energy system is stable, the frequency is maintained at 50 Hz, which is "extremely important for Europeans, because the Ukrainian system, after synchronization, is part of a large European energy system."

Sakharuk also added that the stations of DTEK, which rebuilt its work on a war footing, consistently produce electricity and participate in balancing the energy system, and coal production in its mines reaches 90% of the national production.

According to him, during the hostilities, the company resumed power supply to more than 500,000 households in the zones of active hostilities - Kyiv and Donetsk regions.

"Unfortunately, there is no opportunity for this in Mariupol now, DTEK's executive director said.
Over the past day Wednesday, March 23, Enemy aircraft continue to be active, striking from the air, and more than 250 aircraft flights had been recorded, The enemy's main targets remain military and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has reported.

"Enemy aircraft continue to be active, striking from the air, and more than 250 aircraft flights have been recorded in the last 24 hours (60 more than on March 22). The enemy's main targets remain military and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions," the General Staff in the morning update on Facebook on Thursday.

"The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine repulses concentrated missile and air strikes and air attacks of the enemy, air cover of important objects of Ukraine and groups of troops. For the previous day, 11 enemy air targets were hit (7 planes, 1 UAV, 1 helicopter and 2 cruise missiles.) Information about their final downing is being clarified," the Ukrainian military added.

In the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region, in connection with peaceful protests against the occupation, the enemy resorted to terror of the local population, actively using Russian Guard units to prevent these actions of civil disobedience to the occupation authorities.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine is waiting for serious steps from NATO, the EU and the G7 countries, which will hold summits in the coming days.

"On March 24, in Europe, in Brussels, three important summits will take place at once. Important for the security of each of us. NATO summit. EU summit. G7 summit. I am sure that people will demonstrate how they support us. But also politicians must support freedom. All of them. They must support the fight for life. We are waiting for serious steps from NATO, the EU and the G7," Zelensky said in a video message on Wednesday night.

As the president said, the Russians have already begun to lobby their interests in the upcoming summits, which are to "put down the topic of war."

"We know that the Russians have already begun to lobby for their interests. These are the interests of the war. We know that they are working with some partners. We know that they want to extinguish this topic. The theme of the fight against the war. But the war needs to be extinguished," he said.

"Free people of the free world! Together we must prevent Russia from breaking anyone in NATO, the EU or the G7. Break and drag them to the side of the war. We'll see on March 24," Zelensky added.

The head of state also said that within the framework of the NATO, EU and G7 summits, Ukraine would have a strong position.

"These three summits will be our strong position We have asked for our skies to be closed. And we have asked for NATO assistance for Ukraine to be effective and without restrictions. Any weapon support we need. We have asked the Alliance to say that there will be comprehensive assistance to Ukraine to win this war, clear our territory of invaders and restore peace in Ukraine," the president said.

He added that "at these three summits we will see who is a friend, who is a partner, and who has sold out and betrayed."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will urge Allies to ensure Ukrainians have the means to continue to protect themselves at the NATO and G7 summits to be held on Thursday, the British government said in a statement.

"The UK will provide 6,000 new defensive missiles and 25 million for Ukraines armed forces," the government said.

According to the government, leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to discuss longer-term military, diplomatic and humanitarian support for Ukraine and strengthening measures against Russia, while Johnson will announce a major new support package for Ukraine.

According to the statement, the measures announced today include 6,000 missiles, consisting of anti-tank and high explosive weapons, and GBP 25 million in financial backing for the Ukrainian military. This more than doubles the defensive lethal aid provided to date to more than 10,000 missiles, and comes on top of the GBP 400 million the UK has committed in humanitarian and economic aid for the crisis.

The Prime Minister will set out the UKs intention to work with partners to bolster Ukraine's defence capabilities, including longer-range targeting and intelligence, as the Ukrainian people face down an unprovoked invasion.

In addition, the UK will also provide an additional GBP 4.1 million for the BBC World Service as part of a cross-government effort to tackle disinformation in Russia and Ukraine, as well as new financial and policing support for the International Criminal Court's investigation into war crimes.

"We cannot and will not stand by while Russia grinds Ukraine's towns and cities into dust. The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight," Prime Minister Johnson said.

According to the statement, the GBP 25 million in new non-ODA funding from the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund will help to pay the salaries of Ukrainian soldiers, pilots and police and ensure the armed forces are well equipped with high-quality equipment.

The Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, will also chair a meeting of justice and foreign ministers in The Hague today to coordinate support for the International Criminal Court's war crimes investigations. The Deputy Prime Minister is expected to announce an additional GBP 1 million in funding for the court, as well as new support from UK soldiers with expertise in intelligence gathering and the Met Police's War Crimes Team.
Zelensky: This is a war of independence, and we must win it

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the current war is a war for independence, in which the Ukrainians must win.

"It's been a month already. We held out six times longer than the enemy planned and what did the Russian command report to the Russian president. They were sure that Ukraine is not a state. They were sure that we are not a people. They deceived themselves. But we don't care about them. This is their state suicide," he said in a video message on the night of March 24. This day marks a month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"And we," Zelensky said, "are only defending our lives, our freedom, our own state, our children. And that means our future. This is a war for independence. And we must win."

He promised to rebuild "every city that heroically resists."

"For every crime, we will bring the occupiers to justice. Zhytomyr and Sumy, Kyiv and Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, Volnovakha and Mykolaiv, Okhtyrka and Hostomel, Kherson and Odesa, Izium and Donetsk, Luhansk, Chornobaivka...," Zelensky said.

"All our people will live in a free Ukraine after our victory, which will come the faster, the more we are together. Unity! On the battlefield and in political positions, at rallies and summits, in work and in communication with people. In all our actions, we must encourage Russia to seek peace. With all our actions, we must bring the victory of freedom closer," Zelensky said.
Over the past 24 hours, Russians have intensified their shelling of Kharkiv with MLRS "Grad" and "Uragan", and the center of the city was attacked with Caliber missiles from ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, head of the regional military administration Oleh Synehubov said.

"Over the past 24 hours, the Russians have dealt 44 strikes, activated the MLRS Grad and Uragan 140 times. In the center of the city, the invaders fired Caliber missiles from the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet," Synehubov wrote in his Telegram channel.

According to him, on the evening of March 23, the enemy fired at Stara Saltovka (a residential area of Kharkiv), and on the morning of March 24 - Zolochiv, there are victims. Also, the fighting continues in Izium region.

"Although the Russians are trying to strengthen the direction, the Ukrainian army repels all attacks near Izium," Synehubov wrote.

He also said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down two more Russian aircraft.

Synehubov said that the Kharkiv regional military administration, together with the Office of the President and Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk, are trying to find and return head of Tsyrkuny Mykola Sikalenko, who was abducted by the invaders on the morning of March 22.

"Tsyrkuny village head Mykola Sikalenko is still in captivity of the enemy. The invaders abducted him from his own house two days ago. Today, together with the President's Office, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk, we are doing everything to find and return Mykola Sikalenko," Synehubov wrote.
Ukrainian FM urges EU countries not to pay for Russian oil and gas in rubles

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on European states not to comply with Moscow's demands and not pay for the purchase of Russian oil and gas in rubles.

"If any EU country bows to Putins humiliating demands to pay for oil and gas in rubles, it will be like helping Ukraine with one hand and helping Russians kill Ukrainians with the other," Kuleba wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

He also urged "relevant countries to make a wise and responsible choice."

The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that payment for Russian gas supplies for export in the so-called "unfriendly countries" is switched into Russian rubles. He instructed the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the government to determine within a week the order of operations for the acquisition of rubles on the domestic market of the Russian Federation by buyers of Russian gas.
The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic has moved the Slovak Embassy in Ukraine from Kyiv to Uzhgorod, Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok said, as Slovak news agency TASR reports.

"The deputy ambassador of Slovakia is already working there. The ambassador will be sent to Uzhgorod on Thursday [March 24]," TASR said in a statement.

It is noted that with this step, Slovakia wants to show that it remains in Ukraine and, thus, the office will fully operate from Uzhgorod. The same employees who were evacuated from Kyiv will work at the embassy. The Ministry will constantly assess the situation in connection with the war.

"I consider this an important step towards Ukraine. This is also an important step for the diplomatic service, because they will help on the spot, at the border. They will fully carry out diplomatic activities and especially cover events in Ukraine," Korcok said.
Fires near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant cannot be completely extinguished, and some increase in cesium concentrations has been recorded in Kyiv and west of Chornobyl, the International Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA) said, citing the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine.

"Ukraine's regulatory authority informed the IAEA that firefighters were trying to extinguish wildfires near the Chornobyl NPP, an area which has seen such outbreaks also in previous years. The fire brigade from the town of Chornobyl has extinguished four fires, but there are still ongoing fires," the IAEA said on its website on Wednesday in the evening.

According to the release, the local fire station does not currently have access to the electricity grid, the regulator said. In the meantime, the station is relying on diesel generators for power, for which fuel is required, it added.

The IAEA also draws attention to the fact that, in the Exclusion Zone, the regulator said radiation measurements are not currently being performed. It said slight increases in caesium air concentrations had been detected in Kyiv and at two NPP sites west of Chornobyl, but the regulator told the IAEA that they did not pose significant radiological concerns.

At the same time, in a video message posted on the IAEA website on Wednesday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called the situation when major nuclear facilities operate in an armed conflict zone "dramatic and unique," and noted that the situation remains distressing, and "the need to prevent a nuclear accident becomes more pressing with each day that passes."

According to him, "intensive consultations have been ongoing for many days now, but a positive outcome still eludes us."
President of Lithuania to Ukrainian people: You are fighting bravely and you are not alone

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said that the Ukrainian people are bravely fighting against Russia and assured that the Ukrainians are not alone in this struggle.

"The day will come for the victory of the Ukrainian people. You are fighting bravely, and you are not alone. Every freedom-loving person or country is ready to support you. The Lithuanian people support you by all means possible. Your fight is also our fight. Your pain is our pain. And your freedom is our freedom too. For your and our freedom! Glory to Ukraine!" Nauseda said in a video message to the Ukrainian people posted on his Twitter page on Thursday.

He said that the Ukrainians are standing proud, firm and free, ready to repel the invaders.

"The Lithuanian people salute the Ukrainian heroes. You set an immortal example for us all fighting for every inch of your land. The glory of Ukraine is therefore everyone to admire," Nauseda said.

He also added that in Lithuania they see the shameful actions of Russia.

"Their many crimes are universally aborted and despised. The countless victims of this aggressive war shall not be forgotten," the head of state said.
Armenia should accept the offer from Azerbaijan and engage in serious and substantial dialogue to achieve full normalization on the basis of international principles, including recognition of territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of borders, said in the article related to the post-conflict situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia posted by Lord Kilclooney, a crossbench peer and vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) for Azerbaijan, in PoliticsHome news website which has numerous readers in the UK.

The article states that hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the 1990s occurred as a result of an Armenian large-scale military invasion of Azerbaijans internationally recognized territories.

Allegations of a so-called Armenian genocide in 2020 fails to take into account the atrocious murdering of the civilian population in the town of Khojaly in February 1992, the article said. A well-documented pre-mediated massacre of civilians killing over 600 people, including elderly and children, represents the systematic Armenian policy of ethnic cleansing that Armenia perpetrated in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

According to the article, as a result of the Armenian military invasion, close to one million Azerbaijanis were forced to flee their homes and become internally displaced in their own country.

As a country fully committed to the protection of territorial integrity and sovereignty, Azerbaijan has provided vital medical supplies worth over 10 million euros to the people of Ukraine, while also offering to host direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Baku, the article said. This is in stark contrast to the policies of Armenia, Russias closest ally in South Caucasus, which continues to host two Russian military bases on its territories.

According to the article, since the conclusion of hostilities in 2020, Azerbaijan has extended its hand of friendship to Armenia in the hope to normalize relations and rebuild the region for the benefit of both Azerbaijanis and Armenians.

Most recently, Azerbaijan offered five principles to Armenia on which both sides can begin drafting a final peace deal, the article said.

According to the article, however, Armenia continues to drag its feet and on other proposals of normalization.

It has failed to provide accurate mining maps and other relevant data to Azerbaijan, causing dozens of civilian deaths and injuries as a result of unexploded devices since 2020, the article said. This failure represents a clear breach of international humanitarian law obligations. They have also been silent on the demands from Azerbaijan to share information on the whereabouts of 4,000 Azerbaijani people who have been missing since hostilities in 1990s.

According to the article, in violation of the 2020 trilateral ceasefire agreement, Armenia continues to hamper efforts to unblock regional transportation routes, including the so-called Zangazur corridor.

I firmly support attempts to rebuild the region of South Caucasus, vital for UK interests, the article said. The continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrates the importance of producing lasting solutions to conflicts, including the one between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Here in the UK, we have to make our best efforts to contribute to this normalization by encouraging both sides to engage positively and constructively, the article said.
Mariupol City Council has announced that thousands of Mariupol residents are forced to evacuate to the territory of Russia, saying about 15,000 residents of the city are being illegally taken there. Some 6,000 residents have already arrived in Russia, the council said.

"Right now, the Russian occupiers are forcibly taking thousands of residents of Mariupol to Russia! Residents of the Left Bank region are being massively exported to the territory of Russia. In total, about 15,000 are subject to deportation. This is about half of all residents who are still in the Left Bank region," the council said on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

Russian occupation forces are ordering already exhausted residents to board busses. There is also evidence that the Russian military is taking away people's passports and other Ukrainian identity documents.

"Deported people are first taken to the so-called filtration camps, from where they are redistributed to various remote cities of Russia. About 6,000 Mariupol residents have already been forcibly taken to the territory of the occupier," the council said.

Also, Mariupol City Council informed that over the past 20 days, the invaders have been blocking the evacuation convoy and do not allow people to be safely rescued.

"Right now, the buses leaving Zaporizhia for Berdiansk are blocked. Obviously, this is done only to prevent people from returning to Ukraine-held territory, where residents want to go," the council said.
Ukraine's Ambassador to the State of Israel Yevhen Korniychuk calls on official Jerusalem to mediate in stopping Russia's aggression against Ukraine. He stated this in an interview with The Times of Israel.

I wish this exercise were done in a more active way; we are talking about peoples lives. Im nobody to teach your leadership how to deal with this issue, but I would be very much willing to see a full-time team at work, he said. Not necessarily, of course, the prime minister, but somebody designated who is credible for both parties, and who is dealing with this matter on a daily basis, - he said.

The Ambassador also stressed that if mediation fails, Israel must abandon its basically neutral stance.

Either do this, or join up with the rest of the democratic states and friends and help Ukraine, on the side of Ukraine We were asking America for defensive weapons for a long time. If wed had various types of defensive missiles that the Americans possess, different artillery, various naval capacities, we would definitely have been much stronger. And the Russians would probably have thought twice about making this move to invade, - said Yevhen Korniychuk.

He added: We are fighting the enemy alone, and we must be very well equipped. You see that the spirit is there, and the willingness to protect the country is there. The heroism is massive. We will not give up! - summed up the the Ambassador.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at the NATO summit, has said that the Alliance could provide Ukraine with 1% of all its tanks and aircraft.

The head of state recalled that Ukraine had applied to NATO representatives for combat aircraft and tanks, both on a reimbursable and non-reimbursable basis, to prevent deaths among its own population and unblock the cities surrounded and occupied by Russian troops.

"But they didn't give us a single one... This is the worst thing during the war  not to have clear answers to requests for help. Ukraine never wanted this war. And does not want to fight for years. We just want to save our people. We want to survive! Like anyone people, we have the right to this. The right to life. The right to this percentage," Zelensky said.

"I don't blame NATO. You shouldn't. It's not your rockets and bombs that are destroying our cities. There were phosphorus bombs today. Both adults and children were killed. I just want you to know: the Alliance can still prevent Ukrainians from dying from Russian strikes. By providing give us all the weapons we need," the president added.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at the NATO summit, has said that Ukraine needs military assistance without limitations, just as without limits, the Russian Federation has used its entire military arsenal against Ukraine.

"The Ukrainian army has been fighting for a month now in unequal conditions! And for a month now I have been repeating one thing to you. To save our people and our cities, Ukraine needs military unlimited assistance. Russia, without limitations, uses its entire arsenal against us. It is destroying all life. Everything, from residential buildings to churches to food warehouses and universities, from bridges to hospitals," Zelensky said.

According to him, over the decades, Russia has accumulated considerable military resources. "Manpower and technology. Air bombs and missiles. They invested crazy money in death while the world invested in life," he said.

"Ukraine does not have powerful anti-missile weapons. It has much smaller aviation than Russia. Therefore, their advantage in the sky is the use of weapons of mass destruction. And you see the consequences  how many people have been killed, how many peaceful cities have been destroyed," Zelensky said, adding that "Ukraine is still holding out, but the price for this is thousands of human lives, destroyed cities and tens of millions of migrants."

At the same time, the head of state thanked individual members of the North Atlantic Alliance for the assistance provided.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said, speaking in the Swedish Parliament, that Russia will not stop at Ukraine and expects to go further to Europe with the war.

"Russia went to war against Ukraine because it expects to go further into Europe. It expects to destroy freedom further in Europe. This is a fundamental challenge for the European security system," Zelensky said.

According to him, having attacked Ukraine, "the Russian leadership did not decide that it could travel through time, cancel the 21st century and act in the times of totalitarian ideologies."

"If Ukraine had not resisted, if it had not been able to defend itself, then this would have meant that everything that we living modern people value, everything that all free people in any state appreciate, would have lost. This would mean that all Russia's neighbors in insecurity. That would mean that you are insecure, because only the sea separates you from this aggressive Russian policy. And Russian propagandists are already discussing on state television how Russia is occupying, in particular, your island of Gotland," he said.

"And how will it keep it under its control for decades, showing it to the Russians on the map, demonstrating the directions of the offensive. You ask what the purpose of this is. They say that it will be beneficial for Russia to place air defenses and a military base on Gotland to cover the capture of the Baltic States," the president added.

Zelensky also called on Swedish parliamentarians to look at the consequences of Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine.

"Eight years of war in the east, occupation of Crimea, repressions, mockery of people, suppression of any manifestations of freedom and diversity ... A month of full-scale war. Total cruelty. Bombing of peaceful cities. Kidnapping of children. Forced removal of children and adults to Russia. Violence in the occupied areas. Large-scale looting by the Russian military. Tens of thousands of houses and apartments have been destroyed," the head of state said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the sanctions packages against Russia should be adopted on a weekly basis.

"Because Russian leadership does not understand another language than effective sanctions. But for peace to come sooner, sanctions packages against Russia should be applied weekly," he said on Thursday, speaking via video link in the Swedish Parliament.

"Not a single barrel of Russian oil! Not a single entry of Russian ships into your ports! Not a single euro of taxes from your companies in Russia! The Russian military machine should be left without a livelihood," Zelensky said.

According to him, the actions of Russian troops to destroy peaceful cities should receive an irreversible and principled reaction from all European countries. The President also thanked Sweden for providing weapons to Ukraine. "We are grateful to you for your prudence and foresight," he said.
On Thursday, Russian forces launched rocket attacks on the villages of Kyrdany and Rakivschyna in Korosten district of Zhytomyr region, the building of a lyceum, residential buildings were damaged, one person was injured, the State Emergency Service has said.

"On March 24, at about 9:00, as a result of rocket attacks, the building of the lyceum, the boiler room and the house of culture in the village of Kyrdany, Korosten district, were damaged without subsequent burning. No deaths or injuries are reported," the State Emergency Service said on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

Also, according to the State Emergency Service, the occupant's missile strikes destroyed five residential buildings and damaged 13 others, as well as seven outlying houses in Rakivschyna. One person has been injured.
Russian invaders are trying to storm the Chornobyl satellite town of Slavutych, Energoatom said on Thursday.

"Slavutych, a satellite city of Chornobyl nuclear power plant, is in danger. Russian troops are trying to take the city by storm. Ukrainian checkpoints are being shelled by the invaders. There is another threat of artillery shelling," Energoatom said on its Telegram channel.

As reported, Chornobyl nuclear power plant was captured by the occupiers since February 24, Zaporizhia NPP since March 4.
It is forbidden to go to forest in Rivne region until end of war - regional administration head

Head of Rivne Regional Military Administration Vitaliy Koval signed on Wednesday a decree banning civilians from visiting forest areas in the region for the duration of martial law.

"From now on, it is forbidden to visit the forest in Rivne region! The corresponding decree was signed yesterday. It is valid for the period of the war. The exception is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, security forces, representatives of executive authorities, local self-government and those working with the forest," Koval wrote in Telegram on Thursday.

He urged to treat such restrictions with understanding. "Your safety is the most important!" Koval said.
Four Russian helicopters shot down in the morning near Kherson  Ministry of Defense

Ukrainian air defense shot down four helicopters of the Russian occupation army near Kherson in the morning, according to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Thursday.

"Near Kherson this morning, air defense crews of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine masterfully eliminated four K-52 helicopters of the Russian Armed Forces. We are proud of the Ukrainian soldiers," the message, illustrated by a video of the destruction of enemy aircraft, says.
By Trend

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will visit India next month to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations and to take forward the strategic alliance between the two countries.

This will be Bennetts first official visit to India since he became the prime minister in mid-2021, though he and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi met on the margins of the UN climate change conference or COP26 in Glasgow last November.

Bennett, who will arrive in India on April 2 at the invitation of Modi, said in an official statement that he and Modi will together continue leading the way for our countries relations. He added: Modi restarted relations between India and Israel, and this is of historic importance.

India recognised Israel in 1950 but full-fledged diplomatic relations were established only in 1992. The two sides elevated their relations to a strategic partnership in 2017, when Modi made the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Israel.
Russian journalist Oksana Baulina, who died as a result of shelling in Kyiv, was in opposition to Russian authorities, she worked in Ukraine on legal grounds, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko said.

"Oksana Baulina was a journalist in opposition to the Russian authorities. She came to Ukraine to document all the crimes of Russia. Yesterday in Kyiv she worked on the territory of a shopping center shelled by Russia. She became an accidental victim of the occupiers," Gerashchenko was quoted as saying at a briefing in Kyiv by Ukraine Media Center in the telegram channel.

According to the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the journalist stayed legally on the territory of Ukraine. "The body of the deceased journalist will be transferred to Latvia, where her parents live," Gerashchenko said.

He said that a Ukrainian citizen was killed along with the journalist, and another one was injured. The police have already opened criminal proceedings on the fact of the murder of two people under article 155 of the Criminal Code - premeditated murder.
As result of shelling of Nova Poshta office in Kharkiv, six civilian killed, 15 wounded  local authorities

As a result of hostile shelling of Nova Poshta office in Kharkiv, where Kharkiv residents received humanitarian aid, six civilians were killed and 15 more were wounded, Head of Kharkiv Regional Miliraty Administration Oleh Synehubov has said.

"The Russians continue to commit terror against the civilian population. In Kharkiv, near Akademika Pavlova Street, Russians fired long-range weapons at Nova Poshta office, near which Kharkiv residents received humanitarian aid," the head of the Regional Miliraty Administration said in a Telegram channel on Thursday.

He said: "According to preliminary data, six civilians were killed, another 15 were wounded, they were hospitalized in medical institutions. The number of victims is being established."
The leaders of states and governments of NATO member states called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately end the war against Ukraine, assuring that those responsible for committing war crimes would be brought to justice.

This is discussed in the statement of the extraordinary summit, which took place in Brussels on Thursday. "We condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. We call on President Putin to immediately stop this war and withdraw military forces from Ukraine, and call on Belarus to end its complicity, in line with the Aggression Against Ukraine Resolution adopted at the UN General Assembly of 2 March 2022," the NATO member states leaders said in the statement.

The allies insist that Russia must abide by the decision of the International Court of Justice and cease hostilities immediately. "Russia's attack on Ukraine threatens global security. Its assault on international norms makes the world less safe. President Putin's escalatory rhetoric is irresponsible and destabilizing," the allies said in the statement.

They also said they strongly "condemn Russia's devastating attacks on civilians, including women, children, and persons in vulnerable situations." "We will work with the rest of the international community to hold accountable those responsible for violations of humanitarian and international law, including war crimes," according to the statement.

The leaders also "are deeply concerned about the increased risk of sexual violence and human trafficking."

"We urge Russia to allow rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access and safe passage for civilians, and to allow for humanitarian aid to be delivered to Mariupol and other besieged cities. We also condemn attacks against civilian infrastructure, including those endangering nuclear power plants," the allies said in the statement.

In addition, the leaders will continue to "counter Russia's lies about its attack on Ukraine and expose fabricated narratives or manufactured 'false flag' operations to prepare the ground for further escalation, including against the civilian population of Ukraine."

"Any use by Russia of a chemical or biological weapon would be unacceptable and result in severe consequences," the allies said.
Leaders of states and governments of NATO member states declare that they are committed to the Alliance's Open Door Policy.

"We remain committed to the foundational principles underpinning European and global security, including that each nation has the right to choose its own security arrangements free from outside interference. We reaffirm our commitment to NATO's Open Door Policy under Article 10 of the Washington Treaty," the allies said in the statement, following the alliance's extraordinary summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The allies said they are providing individual support to partners "affected by Russian threats and interference" and assured that they "will step up our assistance to help them resist Russian malign influence and strengthen their resilience, based on our partners' requests and our long-standing partnership programmes," "In April, Foreign Ministers will consider concrete proposals for enhancing our support to these partners," according to the statement.

The leaders also said they would continue to maintain international pressure on Russia to end the war it is waging against Ukraine. "Massive sanctions and heavy political costs have been imposed on Russia in order to bring an end to this war. We remain determined to maintain coordinated international pressure on Russia. We will continue to coordinate closely with relevant stakeholders and other international organizations, including the European Union," the allies said in the statement.

Leaders are confident that transatlantic coordination remains crucial for an effective response to the current crisis.
The Russian army has already forcibly deported about 6,000 residents of Mariupol to Russian filtration camps in order to use them as hostages for political pressure on Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.

"According to the information available, the Russian army has forcibly deported about 6,000 Mariupol residents to Russian filtration camps in order to use them as hostages and put more political pressure on Ukraine," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry explained that the Russian Federation began a new stage of terror against the city of Mariupol.

"Residents who survived Russian bombing and artillery shelling are now being forcibly deported to Russia. Some 15,000 residents of the Left Bank district of Mariupol are in grave danger. The Russian occupiers are forcing them to move to Russia. The invaders confiscate people's passports and other identity documents," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the ministry, in parallel, the Russian armed forces are firing at evacuation columns trying to leave Mariupol for the unoccupied territory of Ukraine. Russian troops continue to hold back a humanitarian convoy of buses, which a few days ago arrived for Mariupol residents from Zaporizhia.

"Such actions by Russia are a gross violation of the laws and customs of war, the norms of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. We call on the world leaders gathered in Brussels today for the NATO, Group of Seven and EU summits to take urgent action to save the lives of the residents of Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities who have found themselves in an inhumane siege by the Russian army," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry stressed that the international community must adopt tough new sanctions against the Russian Federation in order to stop its deadly war machine, as well as stop any business ties with Russian companies to stop financing Russia's war against Ukraine.
It is important for Ukraine that Israel become one of the guarantors of an international treaty on security guarantees, which would provide clear security guarantees for Ukraine after the end of the war with Russia, Andriy Yermak, the head of the President's Office, said.

"Israel could indeed become one of the guarantors of an international treaty on security guarantees, since it must understand us like no one else. Such an agreement provides for an extensive list of potential guarantor countries. Therefore, we hold separate consultations with each country in order to meet all together later," Yermak said on Telegram.

He also expressed hope for Israel's effective mediation assistance in trying to stop the Russia's further invasion of Ukraine.

"Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is determined to do whatever is necessary to bring peace. But it is important to understand that Ukraine will never compromise on our independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. And Israeli Prime Minister Bennett knows this," he said.

Also, Ukraine would like to receive more help from Israel, including weapons and military technology.

In addition, Ukraine is counting on the Israeli authorities to resolve the issue of changing the entry rules for Ukrainians and introducing electronic permits, which was previously negatively perceived in Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at the G7 summit, said that a global food crisis and political destabilization would come after the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"A global disaster has occurred. Russia has destroyed the global security architecture, dealt a powerful blow to international relations. But this is only the beginning. After this war, a global food crisis may come. The longer there is no peace on Ukrainian soil, the less food the world market will receive from Ukraine. In many countries of Asia, Africa, Europe, there may even be emergency problems with access to basic products and food prices," the head of state said.

This, according to the president, will definitely end in political destabilization. "Maybe this is also the goal of the Russian leadership. I do not know, but we all must act immediately. Immediately stop Russian troops, remove them from the territory of Ukraine. Peace is needed immediately, before the planet is faced with an even greater level of problems," he said.
Russia has data on the forced removal from the territory of Ukraine of 402,000 Ukrainians from Mariupol, Volnovakha and Stanytsia Luhanska, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

"We have information that the Russian occupiers are forcibly deporting our citizens from Mariupol, Volnovakha, Stanytsia Luhanska to the Russian Federation. I have testimonies of those people who were taken out, their relatives," she said.

According to her, there is no communication with those who were in touch with the Office of the Ukrainian Ombudsman on February 20.

Denisova said that the occupiers come to people in a bomb shelter and take them away for forced displacement.

"For example, on the left bank of Mariupol. A 92-year-old woman, almost lying down, another 67-year-old woman and her husband were forced to board the bus. They were put on the bus and taken to Taganrog ... Agents from Russia's Federal Security Agency (FSB) worked with them," Denisova said.

"Today, the data from the Russian Federation was confirmed. Yesterday there were 366,000, and today 402,000, number of Ukrainians who have been taken from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. Some 84,000 are children," she said.

At the same time, Denisova drew attention to the fact that it is impossible to say unequivocally whether this figure is reliable.

"Is this a Russian propaganda theory or is it really there," the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights added that this could be done "to create a propaganda picture."

"These are citizens of Ukraine who lived on the territory of Ukraine, on the territory controlled by Ukraine," Denisova said.

According to her, Ukrainians are first held in filtration camps in Donetsk region, then they are taken to the Russian Federation, and those who allegedly have no relatives in the Russian Federation are sent to filtration camps.

"The occupiers themselves are creating these" humanitarian corridors "... They are being taken to Omsk, Tomsk, Sakhalin," she added.
NATO is responsible for ensuring that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine does not become a full-fledged war between the Alliance and Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

"We discussed a wide range of issues. The message is that we have to stand united and that we need to provide support to Ukraine. At the same time, we have a responsibility to ensure that this conflict does not become a full-fledged war between NATO and Russia. That is also the reason why the allies have clearly stated that we will not deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine, because the only way to do that is to be prepared to engage in full conflict with Russian troops," Stoltenberg said at a press conference following the extraordinary summit of heads of state and NATO governments in Brussels on Thursday, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine.

Thus, Stoltenberg avoided answering the question of whether Poland presented a proposal for a NATO peacekeeping mission in Ukraine at the summit.
Now there are about 3 million citizens of Ukraine in Poland, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Andriy Deshchytsia said.

"According to the Polish border guard service, about 2 million people have crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border since the beginning of the war, that is, in a month. Now it is difficult to estimate the exact number of those who left the territory of Poland, but this can be understood by the amount of transport. We can say that about 1.5 million people remained in Poland. Another 1.5 million Ukrainians were in Poland before the start of the war. Thus, now there are about 3 million citizens of Ukraine in Poland," Deshchytsia said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He stressed that the assistance provided to Ukrainian citizens in Poland deserves great gratitude and praise.

"Ordinary Polish citizens, literally from the first days of the war, went to checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border and met our citizens themselves, mostly women, children, the elderly, picked them up in their cars and took them to their homes," Deshchytsia said.

According to him, there is also centralized assistance, which is very well organized.

"There is assistance both at the central and local government levels, as well as at the level of civil society. Non-governmental organizations, various foundations, volunteer organizations almost continuously provide assistance to Ukrainians," the ambassador said.

Deshchytsia added that if we are talking about the level of state support, then at the initiative of the government and unanimous supra-party support in the Senate and the Sejm of Poland, a law on assistance to Ukrainians was adopted, helping the citizens of Ukraine to more easily adapt to the conditions in which they found themselves in Poland.

"Firstly, it allows them to stay in Poland legally for the next 18 months with the right to extend their legal stay in the country for another year and a half, and with the documents they arrived with. Secondly, this is a one-time financial assistance for each person, amounting to approximately PLN 300 [equivalent to $80-100]. Thirdly, it is an opportunity to speed up the employment procedure, the opportunity to receive the same social, medical, and pension benefits that the Poles have. To do this, however, you need to get a Polish identification code. Fourthly, this involves helping Ukrainian children to get them into educational institutions, kindergartens, as well as free education in higher educational institutions," the Ukrainian ambassador explained.
By Trend





Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan discussed military-technical cooperation, the press service of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said, Trend reports citing Kabar.

On the sidelines of the 48th session of the Foreign Ministers of the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a bilateral meeting was held between Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Ruslan Kazakbaev and Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa on March 22.

During the conversation, the sides discussed issues of military-technical cooperation between the two countries, placing particular emphasis on the need to combine efforts in order to counter modern challenges and threats, such as terrorism, extremism and its other manifestations.

Minister Kazakbaev informed the Pakistani side about Kyrgyzstans focus on developing regional cooperation and, in this regard, noted the importance of intensifying cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan in terms of exchanging experience between representatives of the law enforcement agencies of the two countries and sending Kyrgyz military personnel to Pakistan to study at Pakistani military academies, said the Foreign Ministry.

In turn, Bajwa expressed readiness for further effective cooperation with the Kyrgyz side in order to ensure peace and stability in the region.
Deschytsia: Polish peacekeeper initiativehas no unequivocal support, it is worth talking about uniting with countries ready to fight for victory of Ukraine

Poland's initiative on a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine does not have unequivocal support in NATO, therefore, it may not be necessary to wait for the decision of the entire NATO, but it will be enough to unite with those countries that are ready to really and boldly fight for Ukraine's victory, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Andriy Deschytsia has said.

"At the moment, this initiative does not yet have unequivocal support in NATO. It turns out that NATO should also take these decisions unanimously. It is possible that this decision-making system also requires certain adjustments, given a real, not a play war," Deschytsia said in an exclusive interview to the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

The ambassador stressed that such a military and peacekeeping mission is needed.

"Not only for the image, but also for the practical support of Ukraine, it is important whether European countries that are not members of NATO or EU members are ready to join such a mission. Perhaps there is no need to wait for the decision of the entire NATO, perhaps it will be enough to unite with countries who are ready to really and boldly fight for the victory of Ukraine," Deschytsia said.

He noted that given that Poland has put forward such an initiative, it is ready to both lead it and be one of the leaders of this coalition.

"I think that there are already countries ready to join, at least the Czech Republic and Slovenia. The prime ministers of those countries, together with the leadership of the Polish government, recently traveled to Ukraine, are ready to join this project. Also, the Baltic countries will probably be able to join. But I also hear that Denmark and the UK are also ready to join. Perhaps there will be others who want to," Deschytsia added.

At the same time, the ambassador pointed out that Poland takes seriously the possible threat of an attack by the Russian Federation.

"At the end of last week, it adopted a relevant law on the defense of Poland. This law provides for doubling the Polish Armed Forces, up to 300,000 people, the issue of providing Poland with modern weapons and strengthening the Polish Armed Forces and territorial defense units," Deschytsia said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called on the G7 member countries to disconnect Russia from GPS and completely isolate the Central Bank of Russia.

"We need a complete embargo on trade with Russia. We need to deprive Russia of the ability to use GPS in war. This is essential. That this system does not help Russian missiles and bombs destroy civilian cities. Russian banks and, most importantly, the Central Bank should receive a complete blockade of the financial system. The military criminals should be left without money, and their frozen assets should turn, among other things, into reparations for the restoration of Ukraine," Zelensky said, speaking at the G7 summit on Thursday.

He said "it is better now to provide support to Ukraine with weapons that it really needs than to look for weapons for other countries later."

"The sooner it happens as we ask, the sooner there will be peace in the east of Europe. This is in our interests. This is also in your interests. This is in the interests of all democrats who must be able to defend themselves. Freedom must be armed," Zelensky said.
Speakers of the parliaments of Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Ruslan Stefanchuk, Juri Ratas, Inara Murniece and Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen called on the international community to immediately close the skies over Ukraine.

Such a requirement is contained in a joint statement by the heads of the legislative bodies of Ukraine and the Baltic countries, signed in Kyiv on Thursday.

"The statement calls on the international community to immediately create a no-fly zone over Ukraine to prevent massive civilian casualties," the website of the Ukrainian parliament reports.

The speakers of parliaments also supported the acceleration of Ukraine's membership in the EU, the continuation of NATO's open door policy. In addition, they invited the international community to impose a complete trade embargo against Russia; urged countries to increase the supply of weapons needed by Ukraine to win the war.

According to the leaders of the four parliaments, the war crimes of the Kremlin regime should not go unpunished by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. They also stated the need to start thinking about the restoration of Ukraine now and spoke in favor of a comprehensive assistance plan for the revival of the Ukrainian economy.
The European Commission has launched the ERA4Ukraine portal to provide information and support services to Ukrainian scientists forced to travel abroad due to the war, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

According to the press service of the ministry, on the portal you can find information about the recognition of diplomas, current vacancies, receiving social assistance and housing offers for scientists and their families.

"The ERA4Ukraine portal will operate within the EURAXESS network, which supports scientists from more than 600 research centers and contains 43 national portals in EU member states and countries that have become associate participants in the Horizon Europe research and innovation program. The portal contains information about support of Ukrainian scientists from 30 countries in English. The Ukrainian version will be available soon," the report says.
Some 67% of Belarusians against shelling of Ukraine by Russian troops from territory of Belarus - study by Chatham House

Almost half of Belarusians are in favor of the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the country. This is evidenced by the results of a study by Chatham House. The survey was conducted on March 5-14.

Some 39% of respondents said that Russian troops should be immediately withdrawn from the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

In addition, the Belarusians were asked about their attitude to the shelling of Ukraine from the territory of the Republic of Belarus. Some 67% said they were strongly opposed.

Also, according to the results of the survey, 60% of Belarusians expect the deterioration of living conditions in connection with Russia's military invasion of Ukraine.

The results of the survey were presented by Ryhor Astapenia, director of the Belarusian Initiative Chatham House.

Chatham House polled 896 respondents from March 5 to March 14, 2022. The sample corresponds to the structure of the urban population of Belarus and is adjusted for gender, age, size of settlements and level of education.

The survey was conducted via internet-based interviews (CAWI), which in practice means that the sample was limited to Internet users. Although according to various sources, 75-82% of the population of Belarus uses the Internet, Internet users are more economically and socially active.
Kuleba assures Egyptian FM of Kyiv's readiness to remain reliable supplier of agro products, but Russia must stop war to restore supply chain

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a telephone conversation with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, assured that Ukraine is ready to remain a reliable supplier of agricultural products, but Russia must stop hostilities in order to restore supply chains.

"Call with Egyptian FM Sameh Shoukry on bilateral & UN cooperation. Ukraine is ready to remain a reliable supplier of agricultural goods to Egypt & other countries, but Russia must cease hostilities to restore supply chains. Grateful for taking care of Ukrainian citizens in Egypt," Kuleba said on Twitter.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko had a conversation with Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who assured that Barcelona would continue to provide humanitarian aid to Kyiv and hand over special equipment to the city.

"Today I talked online with the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau. She noted that she understands what is really happening in Ukraine. And she focused on political support for Kyiv and Ukraine. She also testified to her readiness to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Kyiv. Of the necessary, I named medicines, protective equipment for doctors and rescuers, means of civil protection of the population. And my colleague also promised that Barcelona would transfer special equipment for the needs of Kyiv," Klitschko said on his Facebook page.

In the conversation, Klitschko noted that the war concerns every European, since Russia has challenged the entire civilized world.

"Stressed that Ukrainians, who heroically defend their land, are today defending the principles and their right to live in a democratic country, and not in Putin's dictatorship. The war with which Russia came to Ukraine concerns every citizen of Europe. Because Russia challenged the European values of democracy and freedom. I thank all our partners for their support and assistance to Ukraine," the mayor of the capital summed up.

Klitschko also called for further pressure on Russia - economic and political.
The UN General Assembly has supported document A/ES-11/L.2, which holds Russia responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Some 140 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 38 countries abstained, and another five countries voted against it.

Among those who voted "against" are Russia itself, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria. Among the countries that abstained from voting are Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Bolivia, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Tajikistan and others.

The document proposed by France and Mexico reaffirms the commitment to "the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine" and condemns Russia's military aggression on the country's territory. The draft document calls on Russia to stop hostilities, immediately withdraw its troops and return to the path of dialogue.

The General Assembly called for assistance and protection for civilians, and also criticized the aggressor country for creating a "difficult" humanitarian situation.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the adopted document contains a demand for Russia to immediately stop shelling civilians and civilian infrastructure, stop the siege of cities and ensure unhindered access for humanitarian personnel and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

"The document calls for the protection of civilians leaving the war zone, including foreign nationals, including students, and for their safe and unimpeded movement. In addition, the resolution warns of the possible consequences of Russian aggression on global food security, as well as on possible environmental consequences as a result of the shelling of nuclear facilities," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Thursday.

The UN Member States noted the need to fully implement the UN General Assembly document "Aggression against Ukraine" dated March 2, 2022, and also set the task for the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator to prepare a report on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry said the approved resolution was the result of the collective and thorough efforts of more than two dozen countries from all regions of the world, co-sponsored by 90 countries.
G7 leaders declare their support for Ukraine and call on Russia to stop hostilities and withdraw troops without further delay.

"We, the Leaders of the G7, met today in Brussels at the invitation of the German G7 Presidency, to further strengthen our cooperation in light of Russia's unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal aggression and President Putin's war of choice against independent and sovereign Ukraine. We will stand with the government and people of Ukraine," according to the statement released following the meeting held in Brussels on Thursday.

They said they were "united in our resolve to restore peace and stability and uphold international law." "Following the United Nations General Assembly resolution on 2 March 2022, we will continue to stand with the overwhelming majority of the international community, in condemning Russia's military aggression and the suffering and loss of life it continues to cause," the leaders said.

According to the statement also the G7 "appalled by and condemn the devastating attacks on the Ukrainian population and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools." "We welcome the investigations of international mechanisms, including by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. We will work together to support the gathering of evidence of war crimes. The siege of Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities, and the denial of humanitarian access by Russian military forces are unacceptable. Russian forces must immediately provide for safe pathways to other parts of Ukraine, as well as humanitarian aid to be delivered to Mariupol and other besieged cities," the leaders said.

They also insist that the Russian leadership without any further delay, comply with the order of the International Court of Justice to suspend hostilities that it commenced on February 24 on the territory of Ukraine. "We also urge Russia to withdraw its military forces and equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine," the leaders said in the statement.

In addition, the G7 leaders called upon the Belarusian authorities to avoid further escalation and refrain from using their armed forces against Ukraine. "Moreover, we urge all countries not to give military or other assistance to Russia to help continue its aggression in Ukraine. We will be vigilant regarding any such assistance. We will spare no efforts to hold President Putin and the architects and supporters of this aggression, including the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, accountable for their actions. To this end, we will continue to work together, along with our allies and partners around the world," the officials said.
American company Amazon.com, Inc. launched the Welcome Door program, which will offer resources and support to refugee and humanitarian immigrant workers, including citizenship assistance, free legal support and mentoring.

As part of this initiative, Amazon will also reimburse employees for Employment Authorization Document (EAD) fees, according to a post published on the Business Wire platform on Thursday.

Employees will also have access to professional development opportunities, including free college tuition and English as a Second Language (ESL) tuition.

These new resources will be offered to Amazon employees in the U.S. starting next month, and the company plans to expand the program globally by the end of the year.

"At Amazon, we have a variety of jobs and welcome all kinds of people, and we're proud to offer enhanced support for refugees around the world," according to the text of the message.

In addition to Welcome Door, Amazon supports Ukrainians through the Tent Partnership for Refugees program.

Amazon is among the companies that have pledged to provide immediate and long-term support for people leaving Ukraine.

"With millions of people fleeing war and conflict in countries like Afghanistan and Ukraine, a good job is one of the most impactful ways for refugees to build a new life. I hope the Welcome Door program inspires many more businesses to ensure these incredibly talented, resourceful, and dedicated people have the tools and support they need to thrive in their careers," said Veronica Rossini, acting executive director at the Tent Partnership for Refugees.

As previously reported, Amazon Web Service (AWS), a cloud platform division of the American company Amazon.com Inc., has stopped registering new users in the Russian Federation and Belarus.
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The meeting of Turkish National Security Council chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended, Trend reports citing Turkish media.

The meeting lasted approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes.

The National Security Council said that Turkey will continue its mediation efforts along with the implementation of the Montreux Convention to maintain peace and stability in the Black Sea.

It was noted that Turkey's balanced position to reduce tension in the northern part of the Black Sea and the purposefulness of its efforts to achieve global and regional peace have shown themselves in recent events.
The forward command post of the 49th Army of the Russian Federation in southern Ukraine has been destroyed, Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to the head of the President's Office, has said.

"According to preliminary data, the forward command post of the 49th Army of the Russian Federation in the south and a large landing ship were destroyed, which was carrying approximately 400 marines, 20 tanks and 45 armored personnel carriers. It suddenly exploded in the port of Berdiansk. The other was damaged. According to the Ukrainian Naval Forces, both ships were commanded by Ukrainian traitors who defected to Russia back in 2014," Arestovych said at a briefing at the President's Office.

Regarding the current information about the situation at the front, he noted that the enemy in many areas does not have the resources to continue the offensive.

"The front is almost frozen. The enemy stands still and has problems with the supply of fuel, ammunition and other types of material support. Naked and barefoot invaders," he said.

According to Arestovych, of the few areas where the enemy continues to concentrate efforts are Izium, Maryinka, Mariupol and the right bank of the Dnipro in Kherson region.

"But we must say that the enemy has actually become on the defensive there," the adviser to the head of the President's Office said.

As reported, a large landing ship Orsk was destroyed near the port of Berdiansk (Zaporizhia region).
Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) reported that on the eve of the Russian invasion, five An-124 aircraft were withdrawn from Ukraine; An-26, An-74 and An-225 Mriya aircraft were also ready to leave the country on February 24.

"As a result of Russia's hostile actions, the base in Hostomel was destroyed, the base at Sviatoshyne was damaged, the An-26, An-74 aircraft and the flagship of the world aviation fleet An-225 Mriya were destroyed," the statement on the company's Facebook page says.

Antonov said that back in December 2021, the company's management began to develop plans for the possible relocation of the aircraft fleet to Leipzig (Germany). At the same time, at the end of January, against the background of the aggravation of the political situation, the Western partners from NATO began to find out the possibility of uninterrupted support of their tasks by Antonov aircraft in accordance with the current contract.

"Antonov's management carried out a thorough work on the plan of preparatory actions for the redeployment, determined the volume of necessary technical resources and material support. These data were fully provided to the appropriate NATO body (NSPA) in Luxembourg, and in the first ten days of February, work began to determine the necessary resources from their side for material support," the company noted.

In mid-February, due to the unfavorable development of events on the part of Russia and Belarus, according to the enterprise, work was intensified to prepare for the redeployment. The necessary spare parts and consumables, equipment for repair work were prepared, specialists were preparing for a business trip, preparation and loading of An-26, An-74 and An-225 aircraft was carried out. Specialists in the relevant areas of activity were sent to Leipzig in order to inspect the readiness of the work base and the final agreements with the NSRA.

"Thus, five An-124 aircraft were withdrawn from Ukraine, two aircraft that were in the necessary maintenance in a disassembled state - one in the hangar of Hostomel, and one in the hangar of Sviatoshyne - were not able to take off. The An-26, An-74 aircraft were loaded, refueled and ready, people worked in emergency mode, and on the evening of February 23, the sixth engine was mounted on the An-225 in order to fly to Leipzig on February 24 in the morning. But the morning of February 24 brought its well-known terrible adjustments," the company said.
The leaders of states and governments of NATO member states called on Russia to immediately cease fire and sit down at the negotiating table.

"Russia needs to show it is serious about negotiations by immediately implementing a ceasefire. We call on Russia to engage constructively in credible negotiations with Ukraine to achieve concrete results, starting with a sustainable ceasefire and moving towards a complete withdrawal of its troops from Ukrainian territory," according to a statement adopted following the extraordinary summit of the alliance, which was held on Thursday in Brussels.

The leaders also said Russia's continued aggression during the discussion was "regrettable." "We support Ukraine's efforts to achieve peace, and those undertaken diplomatically by Allies to weigh in on Russia to end the war and relieve human suffering. We stand in full solidarity with President Zelensky, the government of Ukraine, and with the brave Ukrainian citizens who are defending their homeland," the statement reads.

"We honour all those killed, injured, and displaced by Russia's aggression, as well as their families. We reaffirm our unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders extending to its territorial waters," the statement reads.

"Ukraine has a fundamental right to self-defence under the United Nations Charter. Since 2014, we have provided extensive support to Ukraine's ability to exercise that right. We have trained Ukraine's armed forces, strengthening their military capabilities and capacities and enhancing their resilience. NATO Allies have stepped up their support and will continue to provide further political and practical support to Ukraine as it continues to defend itself," the allies said.

"NATO Allies will also continue to provide assistance in such areas as cybersecurity and protection against threats of a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear nature. NATO Allies also provide extensive humanitarian support and are hosting millions of refugees. Foreign Ministers will discuss further our support to Ukraine when they meet in April," the leaders said.
The Russian military-political leadership has decided to adjust plans for further military operations on the territory of Ukraine due to the fact that the goals set before the start of the war with Ukraine were not met on time, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces Ukraine.

According to available information, the Russian military leadership is aware of the insufficiency of the available forces and means of holding the territories temporarily occupied by them and conducting combat operations.

In order to restore combat readiness, a number of decisions were made to remove obsolete armored vehicles from storage and send them to military units. In particular, weapons and military equipment are currently being transferred to the territory of Belarus and the temporarily occupied Crimea in order to carry out an attempt to attack and encircle Kyiv.

At the same time, units of the Belarusian armed forces continue to be involved in covering certain sections of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.

In order to replenish the losses, the Russian invaders call up reserve officers, privates and non-commissioned officers from among those liable for military service. The practice of involving mercenaries, recruited by Russian PMCs, continues.

In the territories temporarily occupied by the enemy, rare cases of seizure of trucks and special agricultural equipment from private entrepreneurs and farmers are recorded.

According to operational information at 12.00, the enemy was conducting offensive operations only in Donetsk direction.

Regarding Kharkiv, the main efforts of the Russian occupiers were focused on the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

In Izium direction, the enemy suffered losses and retreated to the southern part of the city.

Enemy units continue to block Chernihiv and Sumy. However, they cannot capture Slavutych.

In Volyn and Polissia directions, the enemy is regrouping troops. In Pivdennobuzky direction, the enemy is on the defensive, restoring combat readiness in order to prepare for the resumption of offensive operations.
U.S. to provide more than $1 bln in humanitarian aid to Ukraine - Biden

The United States will provide more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced.

"We're prepared to provide more than $1 billion in new funding towards humanitarian assistance for those affected by Russia's war in Ukraine," Biden said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.
France, Turkey hope to carry out humanitarian operation in Mariupol in coming days  Macron

France and Turkey, together with other countries, plan to conduct a joint humanitarian operation in Ukraine, in particular in Mariupol, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

"We decided to work together on a joint humanitarian operation, in particular in Mariupol," Macron said at a press conference, answering a question about negotiations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Our ministers and our teams will work together so that we can carry out a humanitarian operation in the coming days, together with partners who want to join, in Mariupol," the French president added.

He believes that "the most tragic situation" is developing in Mariupol.
The United States is ready to accept 100,000 refugees from Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden said.

Many Ukrainian refugees want to stay in Europe, closer to home, but we also welcome 100,000 Ukrainians to the U.S. with a focus on family reunification, Biden said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.
From February 24, 2022, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, until 24:00 on March 23, 2022, civilian casualties amounted to 2,685 people (in the report a day earlier - 2,571), including 1,035 dead (977), reports the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday.

"UNHCHR believes that the real numbers are much higher, especially in government-controlled territory, and especially in recent days, as information from some places where there has been intense fighting has been delayed, and many reports are still awaiting confirmation," it said.

According to him, this applies, for example, to Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Severodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are reports of numerous civilian casualties. They are subject to further verification and are not included in the above statistics.

"The majority of civilian deaths or injuries were caused by the use of explosive devices with a wide area of effect, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket and air strikes," the report says.

According to confirmed UN data, 214 men, 160 women, 28 boys and 14 girls died, while the sex of 48 children and 571 adults has not yet been determined.

Among the 1,650 injured, there are 28 girls and 23 boys, as well as 67 children, whose sex has not yet been determined.

Compared to the previous day, nine children were killed and ten were injured, according to the UN.

The office indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on March 24, there were 255 (224) dead and 646 (621) injured in government-controlled territory, and 56 (55) dead and 211 (202) injured in the non-controlled territory.

In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 724 (698) dead and 793 (771) injured.
Propaganda work is constantly carried out among the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, imposing the opinion that the war against Ukraine must be completed before May 9, 2022, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.

"According to available information, propaganda work is constantly being carried out among the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, imposing the opinion that the war must be completed by May 9, 2022," the message on Facebook said.

The vast majority of Russian medical facilities in settlements near the territory of Ukraine are occupied by wounded Russian military personnel who participated in the war against Ukraine. The enemy is also urgently taking measures to restore the combat capability of the military units of the Airborne Forces.

In addition, in the unrecognized Transnistrian-Moldovan Republic, Russian curators of local authorities are spreading rumors that Transnistria is being drawn into a war with Ukraine.

"In the city of Dokuchaivsk, Donetsk region, a filtration camp has been set up for civilians trying to leave Mariupol. The punitive bodies of the Russian FSB are carrying out so-called filtration measures with detained people. In the areas of the settlements of Kreminna and Rubizhne, facts of forcible evacuation of citizens of Ukraine by the invaders and their transfer to the territory of Voronezh region were recorded," the General Staff said.

According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in some settlements of Chernihiv region, temporarily occupied by the occupying forces, there are facts of seizure of tractors from local farmers. Agricultural machinery is used to evacuate enemy equipment.

Also in Kharkiv region, the battalion tactical group from the 59th Tank Regiment of the Western Military District, which was operating in the direction of Kharkiv, came under fire from Ukrainian artillery, and the consolidated unit suffered significant damage in manpower and equipment.
Biden supports expelling Russia from G20, if this turns out to be impossible, he proposes inviting Ukraine to summit

U.S. President Joe Biden supports expelling Russia from the G20, but he admitted that he might not achieve this goal.

Yes, however, the decision depends on the G20 group itself, he said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, asked about whether he supports the idea of expelling the Russian Federation from the G20 in light of its invasion of Ukraine.

If that turns out to be impossible, then we should invite Ukraine to the meeting, Biden added, referring to the G20 summit due later in 2022.
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The program of reforms adopted in Uzbekistan covers all spheres of life, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at the opening ceremony of the first Tashkent International Investment Forum, Trend reports.

Uzbekistan is located in the center of the Central Asian region, which connects North and South, West and East with main transit corridors due to its geographical location, the president said. While adopting a strategy of action, we chose the path of large-scale democratic reforms five years ago.

President Mirziyoyev added that this program of reforms covers all spheres of life of Uzbekistan and society, including such important spheres as ensuring the rule of law, development of competition, and resolute fight against corruption.

The president stressed that first of all, Uzbekistan began to create favorable conditions for entrepreneurship by removing all obstacles that previously prevented investors from entering the Uzbek market and freely conducting the activity there.

We introduced free conversion of the national currency - the sum and removed all restrictions on the repatriation of foreign investors' profit in 2017, President Mirziyoyev said. We have introduced a visa-free regime for citizens of 90 foreign countries when entering Uzbekistan to ensure a policy of openness.

The president stressed that citizens of about 60 countries were able to obtain a visa in a simplified manner.

Uzbekistan, according to these indicators, has reached the status of the most open country in the region, President Mirziyoyev said. The trials caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the current difficulties in the economy and other problems that the whole world has faced in recent years teach us to make non-standard decisions, work in new conditions and achieve concrete results.

The president said that even in today's difficult situation in the world, Uzbekistan is recognized as a peaceful and safe place to live and work and no one can deny this.

We will further intensify our efforts to create the most comfortable and attractive conditions for investors, President Mirziyoyev added.
Biden believes Ukraine should decide whether to make territorial concessions, but does not believe this to happen

U.S. President Joe Biden believes that Ukraine itself should decide whether to make territorial concessions for the sake of a ceasefire, but does not believe that Ukraine will have to agree to this.

"That is a total judgement based on Ukraine. Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. I do not believe that they will have to do that. These are judgements of negotiations, discussions, that taking place I am not a part, including Ukrainians. It is their judgement to make," Biden told the press conference in Brussels on Thursday.

That was Biden's answer to a journalist's question about whether Ukraine should make territorial concessions in order to achieve a ceasefire.
In response to Belarus' unfriendly actions against employees of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in Minsk and Brest, Ukraine has taken a number of measures, in particular, reducing the number of staff of the Belarusian embassy in Ukraine to five people, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko has said.

In addition, the Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine is canceling the diplomatic accreditation of other employees of the Belarusian embassy. Their and the family members' stay on the territory of Ukraine is declared undesirable.

In addition, Ukraine establishes for Belarusian diplomats after their return to the country a permissive regime of movement outside the 40-kilometer zone from the center of Kyiv, and also cancels the exequatur of the honorary consul of Belarus in Lviv.

"We warn the Belarusian authorities that any further unfriendly steps towards Ukraine will receive an immediate and decisive response," Nikolenko said on his Facebook.

Earlier, the Belarusian authorities decided to expel some Ukrainian diplomats and close the Consulate General of Ukraine in Brest, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Sweden to take part in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

"I am sure that together we will be able to ensure peace, and therefore we need to think about the restoration of Ukraine after this war right now. And it will happen. I invite Swedish architects, Swedish companies, the Swedish state, your people to take part in this historical project. Ukraine was beautiful, and now it will become great, because such is our people," Zelensky said, speaking to the Swedish Parliament on Thursday.

"I invite you to demonstrate to the world, to all modern and future generations, that war does not give results, but peace does. And life," he said.

According to him, Sweden became the first state to which Ukraine offered a "big restoration project."

"You can take patronage over any city of Ukraine, region or industry for their restoration. I am sure that your leadership will be indispensable. Your technologies, business and love of life, the ability to organize space are in the interests of people," the president said.
The State of Ukraine is grateful to everyone who, with the beginning of the Russian aggression, helped to take the children to Israel for vital treatment. The Ambassador of Ukraine Yevhen Korniychuk stated this during a visit to children, the Embassy of Ukraine to the State of Israel posted this at Facebook.

After the start of the Russian war against our state, philanthropists and representatives of the Israeli medical industry sent 13 seriously ill children to Israel by special flight from the Ohmadit hospital, who needed emergency medical care and continued treatment courses, dialysis, and chemotherapy. At the Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Ukrainian children receive all the necessary medical care, - the massage noted.

During the visit, the Ambassador said: We are eternally grateful to everyone who helped bring our children to this medical facility and provide the life-saving treatment they so desperately need. Every saved life of a child is a priceless gift for the Ukrainian people.
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The Bank of Russia refutes information about a possible hacker attack on any of the regulator's systems, the regulators press service told TASS, Trend reports.

"The Bank of Russia refutes information about a possible hacking of any of its information systems," the press service said.

Earlier, there were reports on social media that the Anonymous hacker group had hacked into the systems of the Bank of Russia. The hackers promised to publish more than 35,000 files, including those with secret data.
Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW) said it will receive over the Eid El-Fitr holiday complaints, inquiries, reports or distress messages from girls and women to solve any crisis related to domestic violence by communicating with the concerned authorities.
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The 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Two members (Russia and China) voted in favor of the text and 13 others abstained. The text submitted by Russia was rejected.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.
The United Nations said Wednesday that the number of people without enough to eat on a daily basis reached all-time high last year and is poised to hit ``appalling'' new levels as the Ukraine war affects global food production.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration has made a formal determination that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Blinken said the assessment was based on a ``careful review'' of public and intelligence sources since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last month.

America's top diplomat said the United States would share that information with allies, partners, and international institutions tasked with investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Blinken made the announcement Wednesday in a statement released as he was traveling to Brussels with President Joe Biden for an emergency summit of NATO leaders.

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"Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as NATO leaders arrived for a meeting and the war marked one month.

"The harder our sanctions, the tougher our economic vice around the Putin regime, the more we can do to help the Ukrainians, I think the faster that this thing can be over," he said.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called on the 30-nation alliance to "double our efforts" to check the Kremlin's aggression against its pro-Western neighbour.

"Putin cannot win this war," she said. "We have to stop the war criminal."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country is not in NATO, was set to appeal for more advanced weaponry and greater intervention in a video address to leaders as he seeks to cajole the West into a tougher response.

"We are waiting for meaningful steps. From NATO, the EU and the G7," Zelensky said ahead of the day of summits of all three organisations in Brussels.

"At these three summits we will see: Who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money. Life can be defended only when united."

NATO leaders are vowing to bolster weapons deliveries to Ukraine and supply protection against chemical and nuclear threats from Russia.

"We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

But the alliance has rebuffed pleas from Kyiv to impose a no-fly zone to help halt Russia's onslaught for fear of getting dragged into a "full-fledged" conflict with Moscow.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that this conflict does not escalate beyond Ukraine that will cause even more suffering, even more death, even more destruction," Stoltenberg said.

'Big mistake'

He accused Putin of making a "big mistake" by attacking Ukraine and underestimating the strength of the Kyiv's resistance as its forces have stalled Moscow's advance.

Stoltenberg said the leaders of the US-led military alliance would "address the need for a reset of our deterrence and defence in the longer term", starting with agreeing new deployments to eastern members Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

NATO has already rushed tens of thousands of troops to its eastern flank in the wake of Russia's invasion to counter the threat of any spillover from the conflict into alliance countries.

Biden warned before heading to Europe of a "real threat" that the Kremlin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg told journalists that "any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict".

"It will be a blatant violation of international law, and it will have widespread and severe consequences."

Leaders refused to give details on how NATO would react if Moscow unleashed chemical weapons against Ukraine.

"I personally don't believe that Russian military itself will use chemical or biological weapons purposely for tactical achievements because this would be... very unwise and a shot in their own knee," said Slovenian premier Janez Jansa.

NATO allies are also to put pressure on China to drop what they see as its "political backing" for Russia amid fears that Beijing could start supplying military hardware to Moscow.

"I think the messages to China have been very, very clear," said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo -- "Please keep distance and up to now China has done so."
The death toll from twin attacks in central Somalia on Wednesday night has climbed above 30, the police chief in Beledweyne district told AFP on Thursday.

"We are still trying to establish the overall number of casualties, but so far we have confirmed that more than 30 people were killed in the second blast alone, which was caused by a car bomb," said Colonel Isak Ali Abdulle.

"The terrorists carried out the first attack using a suicide bomber and readied a car loaded with explosives in front of a hospital to cause more casualties," he said.

"These were devastating simultaneous attacks which damaged property as well as causing mass civilian casualties."

The first attack in Beledweyne killed two local lawmakers, including Amina Mohamed Abdi and several of her guards as she campaigned for re-election.

The second occurred minutes later outside the hospital and left cars in charred, twisted ruins.

The attacks occurred the same day as three people were killed near Mogadishu's airport in an attack claimed by the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab.

The Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently attack civilian, military and government targets in Somalia's capital and outside.

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President Joe Biden and Western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine, but their offers fell short of the more robust military assistance that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for in a pair of live-video appearances.

The leaders spent Thursday crafting their next steps to counter Russia's month-old invasion _ and huddling over how they might respond should Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon. They met in a trio of emergency summits that had them shuttling across Brussels for back-to-back-to-back meetings of NATO, the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the 27-member European Council.

Zelenskyy, while thankful for their help, made clear to the Western allies he needed far more than they're currently willing to give.

``One percent of all your planes, one percent of all your tanks,'' Zelenskyy asked members of the NATO alliance. ``We can't just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.''

U.S President Biden, who was attending all three summits, said more aid was on its way. But Western leaders also suggested they were treading carefully so as not to further escalate the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine.

``NATO has made a choice to support Ukraine in this war without going to war with Russia,`` said French President Emmanuel Macron. ``Therefore we have decided to intensify our ongoing work to prevent any escalation and to get organized in case there is an escalation.''

Billions of dollars of military hardware has already been provided. A U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations were discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.

``We are committed to identifying additional equipment, including air defense systems, to help Ukraine,'' Biden said in a written statement after the NATO meeting.

Separately, the White House announced the U.S. would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

Finland announced Thursday it would send more military equipment to Ukraine, its second shipment in about three weeks. And Belgium announced it will add one billion euros to its defense budget in response to Russia's invasion..

At the same time, Washington will expand its sanctions on Russia, targeting members of the country's parliament along with defense contractors. The U.S. will also work with other Western nations to ensure gold reserves held by Russia's central bank are subject to existing sanctions.

With Russia facing increasing international isolation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also warned China against coming to Moscow's rescue. He called on Beijing ``to join the rest of the world and clearly condemn the brutal war against Ukraine and not support Russia.''

But Stoltenberg also made clear that the West had a ``responsibility to prevent this conflict from becoming a full-fledged war in Europe.''

The possibility that Russia will use chemical or even nuclear weapons has been a grim topic of conversation in Brussels, but a possibility leaders were preparing for.

White House officials said that both the U.S. and NATO have been working on contingency planning should Russia deploy nonconventional weaponry. NATO has specially trained and equipped forces ready to be deployed if there should be such an attack against a member nation's population, territory, or forces.

Stoltenberg said that NATO leaders agreed Thursday to send equipment to Ukraine to help protect it against a chemical weapons attack.

``This could include detection equipment, protection and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management,'' he said.

Biden before departing for Europe on Wednesday said that the possibility of a chemical attack was a ``real threat.'' In addition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN this week that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there were ``an existential threat for our country.''

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday warned, ``Russia is capable of anything.''

``They don't respect any rules,'' Marin told reporters. ``They don't respect any international laws that they are actually committed to.''

The Russian invasion has spurred European nations to reconsider their military spending, and Stoltenberg opened the NATO summit by saying the alliance must ``respond to a new security reality in Europe.''

are united in condemning the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.''

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there's wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.

The bolstering of forces along NATO's eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will put pressure on national budgets.

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek U.S. help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

``To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession,`` Scholz said Wednesday.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive arm, said before Biden's visit that she wanted to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc ``for the next two winters.''

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.

The U.S. is looking for ways to ``surge'' LNG supplies to Europe to help, said Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be seeking clarity on how the U.S. and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiraling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where the energy and refugee issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

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Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba it is imperative to resolve the crisis with Russia peacefully and stop the bloodshed.

In a phone call on Thursday, Shoukry and Kuleba shared the latest humanitarian and field developments in Ukraine and the course of talks between Russia and Ukraine, a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.

Cairo and Kyiv enjoy distingushed economic relations, with Egypt importing 30 percent of its wheat needs from the Ukraine before the outbreak of Russian-Ukrainian war.

In a tweet after speaking to Shoukry, Kuleba wrote: "Call with Egyptian FM Sameh Shoukry on bilateral & UN cooperation. Ukraine is ready to remain a reliable supplier of agricultural goods to Egypt & other countries, but Russia must cease hostilities to restore supply chains. Grateful for taking care of Ukrainian citizens in Egypt."

After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Egypt paid for thousands of Ukrainian tourists in the country to stay in hotels until they are able to return home.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities facilitated the evacuation of hundreds of Egyptian nationals who were studying or living in the Ukraine at the time of the invasion.

During the call, Egypt's top diplomat briefed his Ukrainian counterpart on the outcome of the emergency meeting the Arab League (AL) held upon Egypts request to debate the crisis.

During the AL meeting, held in late February at the level of permanent delegates, Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the crisis should be resolved without resorting to military force.

Abul-Gheit warned of the "sad and high costs" of wars, calling for engaging in serious international action to put an end to the current crisis politically and diplomatically in a way that leads to restoring stability.

In early March, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi voiced in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Egypt's readiness to support the diplomatic endeavours that would facilitate reaching a political settlement between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict and preserve international security and stability.

Egypt was among the 141 countries that voted for a UN resolution at the General Assembly calling for a halt to Russias invasion of Ukraine and an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from its western neighbour in early March.

Egypt called at the General Assembly for a quick political solution to the Russia-Ukraine crisis through peaceful means, warning of the impact of the crisis on the fragile global economy.

Egypt also warned against economic sanctions that are not based on the mechanisms of the multilateral international system.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict, which started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, has so far claimed dozens of lives of Ukrainians and Russians, according to both countries' officials.

More than 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country to neighbouring countries as the Russian military continues its advance on Ukrainian cities.

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Extreme cold weather and rainfall will continue in Cairo and other governorates on Thursday, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) warned.

The North Coast and the northern Nile Delta have a 40-50 percent chance of moderate rainfall on Thursday and Friday, accompanied by hail and thunder in some parts, according to the EMA.

Greater Cairo, the southern Nile Delta, and the Suez Canal cities have a 30 percent chance of light to moderate rainfalls.

Meanwhile, Upper Egypt will witness active dusty winds.

Several parts of Cairo witnessed light rainfall since early Thursday.

Schools are suspended for the second day in a row on Thursday in Alexandria, Marsa Matrouh, Beheira and Kafr El-Sheikh due to the unstable weather conditions.

The EMA also warned that navigation will be disturbed in the Mediterranean Sea, but it will be stable in the Red Sea.

Greater Cairo and Lower Egypt are set to see highs of 17 degrees and lows of 9 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

The north coast, however, is expected to see highs of 16 degrees and lows of 10, while northern Upper Egypt is expected to see highs of 18 degrees and lows of 8.

Southern Upper Egypt is expected to see highs of 20 degrees and lows of 9.

Starting on Saturday, Egypt will see a gradual increase in temperature, the EMA added.

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Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with a delegation from Egypts American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) ahead of AmCham Egypts Limited Door-knock Mission to the US within the coming days, according to the Egyptian Cabinet.

During the meeting on Wednesday, which included heads of ministries and relevant bodies, Madbouly highlighted the mutual interest to establish a clear dialogue between the countries to find ways to bolster US investment and promote Egyptian-American business relations, particularly in areas of Egyptian manufacturing and production industries.

The last AmCham Egypt door-knock mission to Washington was in April 2019.

As part of the meeting, Madbouly stressed the role the private sector currently plays in various Egyptian industries, adding that Egypt is doing everything it can to provide the best climate for investment and is ready to provide all the required incentives to strengthen partnerships between the two countries.

We are ready to provide plots of land for serious investors to set up projects on them, as well as granting them the golden license, Madbouly said.

The golden license is a fast-tracked, single-approval license that aims to support projects in sectors of developmental priority to Egypt, according to the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA).

Egypt has already taken large steps in promoting sustainable development and creating a greener economy, Madbouly said, noting that the country is investing in a number of areas including information and communications technology, water treatment and desalination, renewable energy sources and public transport.

Egypt also received a delegation from the Egyptian-French Businessmen's Council that included representatives of 50 companies in various fields, as well as a German delegation that included the representatives of 16 additional companies, PM Madbouly said, citing the confidence of foreign companies to pump more investments into the Egyptian market.

Within this context, the PM called on American companies to begin increasing their investments in the Egyptian market in order to take advantage of the great business opportunities available in the country.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in a statement last year during the inauguration of a major industrial complex in Assiut that some 4,475 private companies have participated in national development projects nationwide worth EGP 1.1 trillion, adding that the projects created jobs for more than 3 million families.

"We are very serious about involving private sector companies in national projects," El-Sisi stressed, assuring that "the state is one family of private and public sectors, and the ultimate goal is to achieve what is in the nations interest."

He added that new factories would collapse again if the same course of borrowing for development continues.

In February, President El-Sisi instructed the government to continue to launch more Initial Public Offerings of state-owned companies to increase the ownership base at the Egyptian Stock of Exchange and lure direct investments.

Egypt is currently in talks with several national and international companies to manufacture battery-powered cars. It seeks to localise these environment-friendly cars, reduce dependence on fuels, and keep pace with global progress in the automobile industry.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel, the West Bank, Morocco and Algeria over March 26-30 to discuss the Ukraine war, Israeli-Palestinian relations and Iran, the State Department announced Thursday.

Blinken will meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on the first stage of the trip, and while in Morocco he will also meet the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

Discussions will include "the Russian government's war on Ukraine, Iran's destabilizing activities, the Abraham Accords and normalization agreements with Israel, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and preserving the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," State Department Spokesman Ned Price said.

The trip comes as the United States is close to reaching an agreement with Iran to restore the 2015 accord limiting Tehran's nuclear development program in return for removing sanctions on the country.

In February Bennett said he was "deeply troubled" by the prospect of a new nuclear deal, which Israel fears would not prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

The meeting in Morocco comes as the United Arab Emirates has displayed growing political influence around the region, showing an open door to Israel but also maintaining steady relations with Iran.

Washington was miffed last week Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, politically isolated since civil war erupted in his country in 2011, made a surprise visit to the UAE.

In Morocco Blinken will also meet with his counterpart Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.

In Algeria, he will see President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra for talks on regional security and commercial relations.

Algeria is a leading supplier of natural gas to Europe, playing a crucial role after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month halted the opening of a new large natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

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By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan-ITU ties have been discussed within the meeting of the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva.

Deputy Minister of the Azerbaijan Digital Development and Transport Rovshan Rustamov and Secretary General of the ITU Houlin Zhao praised the development of the Azerbaijan-ITU ties at a high level.

The Deputy Minister noted that Azerbaijan, as a member of the ITU Council, took an active part in the organization's work and cooperated closely with the three ITU bureaus.

The sides stressed the importance of further expanding partnership in accordance with the existing potential.

The meeting also discussed issues of preparation for the plenipotentiary conference to be held in Bucharest at the end of 2022.

In conclusion, Secretary General Houlin Zhao wished Azerbaijan every success in the elections to the ITU Council and the Radio Regulation Board (RRB).

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies  ICTs.

Founded in 1865 to facilitate international connectivity in communications networks, ITU allocates global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, develops the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect, and strives to improve access to ICTs to underserved communities worldwide.
'Hamlet From the Slums', the new film by Egyptian director Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, has been selected among 16 projects for the Festival de Cannes LAtelier programme that aims to "encourage the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers."

Together with their producers, they will be able to meet potential partners, a necessary step to finish their project and start the making of their film, stated the prestigious festival on Tuesday, saying LAtelier provides its participants with access to international co-productions, thus accelerating the films completion.

'Hamlet from the Slums is produced and co-written by Ahmed Amer and stars Ahmed Dash.

Saleh, 40, who is a 2009 graduate of the High Cinema Institute, is director, writer, and producer.

He is best known for his critically-acclaimed 2018 film Poisonous Roses.

The multi-awarded filmmaker, whose script for the 2020 TV series 'The Thief' is among his latest works, is also known for his 2010 documentary 'Living Skin'.

Since it was created in 2005 to to stimulate creative filmmaking and encourage the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers, LAtelier has worked on 231 projects.

Other Arab directors selected for LAtelier are Sudanese Suzannah Mirghani with 'Cotton Queen', Iraqi Ali Al-Fatlawi with 'The Blind Ferryman', and Palestinian Ihab Jadallah with 'The Doubt'.

From 21 to 27 May, LAtelier will arrange meetings with directors and film industry professionals interested in investing in its projects.

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Climate change and its effect on women was central to Egypts presentation at the Commission on the Status of Women.

President of the National Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsi headed to New York to participate in the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held from 9 to 25 March.

Morsi spoke about Egypts efforts to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environment, and disaster risk-reduction policies and programmes.

Morsi said Egypt was among the countries most affected by climate change even though it accounts for only 0.6 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

She noted the acceleration of national efforts and policies to protect the environment, due to its importance in advancing sustainable development, and honour the commitment to decent standards of living, in addition to Egypts commitment to relevant international conventions and above all the stipulation of the Egyptian constitution that every individual has the right to live in a healthy environment. The government is committed to adopting the necessary measures to preserve and rationally use its natural resources, she explained.

Regarding the impact of climate change on women, particularly their health, food security, and decent living standards, Egypt has taken many serious measures to implement a sustainable development model, she noted.

Egypt established the National Council for Climate Change, headed by the prime minister, she said. Moreover, Egypts cabinet includes the Ministry of Environment, headed by a female. There is a gender unit in the egypt, economy. an equal opportunity unit in the Ministry of Environment working in cooperation with the NCW, she said, adding the council also launched an approach to integrate womens needs into the environment sector and to regulate environmental sustainability standards.

The government has taken many initiatives to mitigate the effects of climate change, while taking into account womens empowerment such as raising their awareness of rural initiatives and eco-friendly agriculture methods, holding environmental camps to train women to engage in eco-friendly industries, raising awareness of the sustainable management of floods and launching an initiative to educate women on greenhouse gas emissions reduction methods.

Morsi pointed to the Decent Life initiative, launched last year, which makes women and their needs one of its main pillars. The initiative takes into account environmental dimensions and sustainability criteria and dedicates LE800 billion to 58 million Egyptians, 50 per cent of whom are women.

She said Egypts perspective on women, the environment, and climate change is based on seven actionable areas, including promoting gender-sensitive perspectives within adaptation, mitigation and responses, strengthening womens voices and having meaningful participation in environmental governance. It is also based on leveraging opportunities for women within the transition to a green economy and applying women-specific perspectives in financing climate action.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 March, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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March is the deadline for filing tax returns for individuals, three months after this years returns began to be received in January. The deadline for companies is in April. This is also the second year that the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) has been processing taxes electronically by accepting tax returns without the need to interact directly with officials.

All tax returns can be submitted electronically online, making it easier for taxpayers to submit their returns around the clock and saving time, energy, and money, according to Reda Abdel-Qader, head of the ETA.

Abdel-Qader said that the filing of tax returns was a legal obligation for taxpayers, who should take the initiative and not wait to the last minute before submitting their returns.

He said that the owners of small, medium-sized, and micro businesses could benefit from the simplified tax process, as stipulated by Law 152/2020, and pay a percentage of their taxes by registering with the Small Enterprises Development Authority and filling in the relevant forms.

The digital submission of tax documents, whether tax returns or invoices, could help businesses to streamline processes and increase revenues, he said.

Ragab Mohtadi, a tax expert and former director of inspections at the larger taxpayers centre, said the move towards electronic filing had eliminated drawbacks in the manual system, such as paperwork causing errors and taxpayers having to go to ETA offices in person, especially as the deadline approached, causing congestion and possible errors.

He said that over recent years the ETA has succeeded in overcoming difficulties in transitioning to a digital system with the support of the Ministry of Finance. It has provided taxpayers with technical support at 227 tax offices, 29 computer branches, 21 ETA tax training centres, and 20 tax guidance offices at chambers of commerce across the country, he said.

There are also mobile tax vehicles in various governorates offering technical support and tax guidance to taxpayers free of charge.

Abdullah Al-Adli, a chartered accountant, said that the ETAs digital transformation, including electronic invoices and tax returns, is part of Egypts 2030 Vision, but that it needed a more solid technology infrastructure before it could run smoothly.

Al-Adli said that he had had to submit the tax return of one of his clients, a major taxpayer, several times before it appeared in the system due to glitches on the website.

He added that there have been changes that have positively impacted dealings with the ETA, however, and that these will be reflected in tax revenues. Another problem with filing digitally, he said, was that the process should have been introduced gradually to ensure that everyone was familiar with it.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, merchants were given one year to substitute electronic invoices for paper ones, he said.

Erfan Fawzi, secretary of the Tax Legislation Association, said tax returns were now to be submitted electronically to the ETA by all, since all Egypts taxpayers have been required to submit their returns electronically, and not on paper, from last year.

But there are currently two systems to submit tax returns, he noted. First, there is electronic submission for major taxpayers and entrepreneurs and medium-sized taxpayers. Second, there is the other way of submitting returns by all other taxpayers at tax offices.

Fawzi said the penalty for not filing a tax return within 60 days of the deadline could reach a LE50,000 fine or escalate to imprisonment for repeat offenders. If taxes are still not filed more than 60 days after the deadline, the penalty could be a fine of between LE50,000 and LE2 million.

The law states that tax evasion by eligible taxpayers as stipulated in the tax law will be the responsibility of the official partner, manager, managing director, designated board member or board chairman of a company in charge of management. Such persons must meet the burden of proof to show that they were not aware of any tax evasion, should this take place.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 March, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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A short Facebook statement about the ship was accompanied with photos and videos of fire and thick plumes of smoke in the port.

The Russian military has not commented on what happened to the ship.

Berdyansk has been under Russian control since Feb. 27.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on NATO to provide ``effective and unrestricted'' support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.

``We ask that the alliance declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war, clear our territory of the invaders and restore peace in Ukraine,'' he said Wednesday during his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy will speak to the NATO summit Thursday by video, his office said.

He appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face what he says are Russia's efforts to ``lobby its interests'' with ``some partners'' to bring them over to its side.

``We will see who is a friend, who is a partner and who has sold out and betrayed us,'' he said in an emotional speech. ``Together we should not allow Russia to break anyone in NATO, the EU or G-7, to break them and drag them to the side of war.''

Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainian skies are still not closed to Russian aircraft and missiles and that Ukraine hasn't received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

``It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth,'' he said. ``We have lasted six times longer than the enemy had planned . but the Russian troops are destroying our cities, killing civilians indiscriminately, raping women, kidnapping children, shooting refugees, capturing aid columns and looting.''

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Russia's war in Ukraine has killed thousands of people, reduced entire cities to rubble and forced millions to flee their homes. The largest military conflict in Europe since World War II has also upset the international security order and sent dangerous ripples through the global economy.

A look at pivotal moments of the conflict, a month later:

THE ROAD TO WAR

In early 2021, a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine raised fears of an offensive. Moscow withdrew some of the forces in April, paving the way for a June summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their meeting failed to meaningfully ease Russia-U.S. tensions, however.

A renewed buildup of Russian troops along Ukrainian borders began in late October and reached an estimated 150,000 troops by the year's end. From the beginning of the troop surge, Moscow denied any plans to attack Ukraine, calling such Western concerns part of a campaign to discredit Russia. At the same time, it urged the U.S. and its allies to keep Ukraine from joining NATO and roll back the alliance forces from Eastern Europe, demands the West rejected as non-starters.

Then on Feb. 21, Putin abruptly upped the ante, recognizing the independence of pro-Russia rebel regions in eastern Ukraine. Insurgents have been fighting Ukrainian forces there since 2014, when Ukraine's Moscow-friendly president was driven from office by mass protests and Russia responded by annexing the Crimean Peninsula.

INVASION BEGINS

In a televised address on Feb. 24, Putin announced the launch of what he called a special military operation'' intended to demilitarize Ukraine and uproot alleged neo-Nazi nationalists. As he spoke, the Russian military unleashed a series of air raids and missile strikes on Ukraine's military facilities and key infrastructure. Russian troops rolled into Ukraine from Crimea in the south, all along the eastern border and from Moscow's ally Belarus, which borders Ukraine from the north.

Putin argued that Russia had no choice but to act after Washington and its allies ignored its demand for security guarantees. Western leaders dismissed the claims as a false pretext for the attack.

The Russian military advanced on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, located just 75 kilometers (47 miles) south of the border with Belarus, closed in on Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv in the east and pushed along the Sea of Azov and Black Sea coasts in the south.

While Russia claimed it was only targeting military facilities, air raids and artillery strikes hit residential areas, schools and hospitals across Ukraine.

The assault turned particularly deadly in March:

_ On March 1, a Russian rocket hit the regional administration building in Kharkiv, killing 24.

_ On March 9, a Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital in the besieged port of Mariupol, killing at least three and injuring 17.

_ On March 16, a Russian bomb flattened a historic theater in Mariupol, even after Ukrainians had scrawled the word `children' in huge white letters on the pavement next to it to indicate that civilians were sheltering inside. Officials said hundreds of people who were hiding in the basement survived.

_ On Monday, at least eight people died in a Russian airstrike on a shopping mall in Kyiv.

Russia's top objective in the south is Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov that has been under siege for weeks. Relentless bombardment by the Russians has reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble and killed thousands, turning the city into an emblem of civilian suffering.

Thousands have fled the city, part of a wave of refugees fleeing the country that United Nations officials estimate at more than 3.5 million.

RUSSIA STUNG BY WESTERN SANCTIONS

Western allies quickly responded to the invasion with unprecedented economic and financial sanctions.

Several waves of crippling penalties froze an estimated half of Russia's $640 billion hard-currency reserves, cut key Russian banks out of the SWIFT financial messaging system, barred Moscow from getting cash in dollars and euros and targeted broad sectors of the Russian economy with rigid trade restrictions. Major international companies moved quickly to leave the Russian market.

The severe measures _ of a magnitude previously only levied against such countries as Iran and North Korea _ sent the ruble into a nosedive, provoked a run on deposits and triggered consumer panic.

Russian authorities responded by introducing tight restrictions on hard-currency transactions and stock markets.

UKRAINE PLEADS FOR MORE WEAPONS, NO-FLY ZONE

While hailing Western sanctions and weapons supplies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has challenged the U.S. and other Western allies to take even stronger measures to stop Russia.

He has continuously urged the U.S. and NATO to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, a demand the allies rejected for fear that it could result in a direct confrontation with Russia and even spark a global conflict.

Zelenskyy also has pleaded with Western allies to provide Ukraine with warplanes and long-range air defense systems. Russia has sternly warned the West against such a move, and discussions on possible deliveries of Soviet-era fighter jets and air defense weapons from Eastern Europe to Ukraine have stalled as the West seeks to avoid a dangerous escalation.

Ukraine has also asked the U.S. and the EU to ramp up sanctions to include a ban on Russian oil and gas exports, a move opposed by many EU members that depend on Russia for a large share of their energy needs.

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE BOGS DOWN

From the first days, the invasion hasn't gone the way Putin expected. After quickly advancing to the outskirts of Kyiv in the first days of the invasion, Russian troops soon got bogged down in the suburbs.

Instead of surrendering as the Kremlin hoped, Ukrainian troops fought back fiercely in every sector, thwarting Russian attempts to quickly roll into other large cities, including Kharkiv and Chernihiv. Russia also failed to win full control of the skies over Ukraine despite massive strikes targeting the country's air force and air defense assets.

Russian military convoys have stretched for dozens of kilometers (miles) along a highway leading from Belarus, becoming an easy target for Ukrainian raids and ambushes. In the east, the Russian troops have faced reinforced Ukrainian positions in the rebel regions and made only incremental gains.

And despite their hold on Mariupol, and a quick capture of the ports of Berdyansk and Kherson, the Russians' have failed to capture the key shipbuilding center of Mykolaiv and press the offensive farther west toward Odesa.

Western officials say that throughout the war, Russian troops have been hampered by persistent supply shortages, struggling to get food and fuel and lacking proper cold weather gear.

In early March, the Russian military reported the loss of 498 soldiers, then never updated the toll again. In stark contrast, NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops were killed in four weeks of fighting. By way of comparison, the Soviet Union lost about 15,000 troops over a 10-year period during the war in Afghanistan.

NUCLEAR THREATS; CHEMICAL WEAPONS FEARS

On the very first day of the assault, Russian forces took control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where radioactivity is still leaking from history's worst nuclear disaster 36 years ago.

Several days later, they seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, hitting a training center there and sparking a brief fire that raised fears of a catastrophe until it was put out.

And on Wednesday, Russian military forces destroyed a new laboratory at Chernobyl, according to the Ukrainian state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The international community has raised concerns about both plants' safety.

There have been other threats as well.

On March 21, an ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy contaminated an area with a radius of more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) but didn't hurt any civilians in the city of 263,000 because the wind didn't blow in that direction.

The Russian military has repeatedly alleged that Ukrainian ``nationalists'' are hatching plans to blow up a nuclear or chemical facility and then blame it on the Russians _ warnings that Western officials fear could herald such an attack from Russia.

Many in the West also fear that with the Russian offensive stalled, Putin could order the use of tactical nuclear weapons or chemical weapons to scare Ukraine and bring it to its knees.

WHAT'S NEXT

Even as his offensive stalls and the Russian economy shudders under the blow of Western sanctions, Putin shows no sign of backing down.

Despite the plummeting ruble and soaring consumer prices, Russian polls show robust support for Putin. Observers attribute those results to the Kremlin's massive propaganda campaign and crackdown on dissent.

Putin demands that Ukraine adopt a neutral status, drop its bid to join NATO, agree to demilitarize, recognize Russia's sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge the independence of the rebel republics in the Donbas region.

Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukraine is ready to discuss a neutral status along with security guarantees that would preclude any further aggression. But he's said the status of Crimea and the separatist regions could be discussed only after a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Putin may now hope to gain more ground and negotiate from the position of force to strong-arm Zelenskyy into making concessions. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators say they are still far from drafting a prospective deal that Putin and Zelenskyy could discuss.

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U.S. President Joe Biden and world leaders opened a trio of emergency summits on Thursday with a sober warning from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that the alliance must boost its defenses to counter Russia's invasion of Ukraine and "respond to a new security reality in Europe.''

Stoltenberg commented as he called to order a NATO summit focused on increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the assault on Ukraine while tending to the economic and security fallout spreading across Europe and the world.

"We gather at a critical time for our security,'' Stoltenberg said, addressing the leaders seated at a large round table. "We are united in condemning the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.''

He said the alliance is "determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war.''

Over the course of Thursday, the European diplomatic capital is hosting the emergency NATO summit, a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the European Union. Biden will attend all three meetings and hold a news conference afterward.

The schedule left Brussels interlaced with multiple police checkpoints and road closures to help motorcades crisscross the city as the leaders go from one meeting to the next.

Biden arrived late Wednesday with the hopes of nudging allies to enact new sanctions on Russia, which has seen its economy crippled by several weeks of bans, boycotts and penalties.

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there's wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.

The bolstering of forces along NATO's eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next five to 10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will also put pressure on national budgets.

"We need to do more, and therefore we need to invest more. There is a new sense of urgency and I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments in defense,'' Stoltenberg said before the summit.

Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the U.S. wants to hear ``that the resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.''

The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek U.S. help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.

"To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession," Scholz said Wednesday.

Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be looking for clarity on how the United States and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiraling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.

Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Friday, where both issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda. Another significant moment could come shortly before Biden returns to Washington on Saturday. The White House said he plans to "deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.''

Sullivan said Biden and fellow leaders would aim to ``set out a longer-term game plan'' for what forces and capabilities are going to be required for the alliance's eastern flank countries.

Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is expected to address the NATO summit by video, said late Wednesday that he wants the alliance to "declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war'' by supplying any weapons necessary.

All the while, national security officials from Washington to Warsaw are increasingly worried that Putin might deploy chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry. Sullivan said the allies would consult on how to respond to ``potential contingencies'' of that sort.

Biden said this week that the possibility of Russia deploying chemical weapons was a ``real threat.''

Stoltenberg declined Thursday to discuss whether such a strike is a red line that would draw the alliance into war with Russia. ``I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect and to react to any type of attack on a NATO allied country,'' he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a CNN interview this week said that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there was ``an existential threat for our country.''

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive arm, said before Biden's visit that she wants to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc ``for the next two winters.''

The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.

Sullivan said the United States was looking for ways to ``surge'' LNG supplies to Europe to help.

Biden, for his part, was expected to detail plans for new sanctions against Russia and humanitarian assistance for the region.

One new sanctions option that Biden is weighing is to target members of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The new sanctions would be rolled out in coordination with Western allies.

Biden arrived in Brussels with Americans increasingly accepting of the need for the U.S. to help stop Putin, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

But even as concern among Americans has swelled and and support for a major U.S. role in the conflict strengthened in the last month, Biden's negative approval rating has not budged, the AP-NORC poll found. Few are very confident that he can handle a crisis, and a majority thinks he lacks toughness in dealing with Russia.

Biden promised voters that he had the experience to navigate a complicated international emergency like the one unfolding in Europe and his trip will be the latest test of that proposition as he tries to maintain unity among Western allies and brace for potentially even bigger challenges.

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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is stepping up its defenses against chemical and nuclear weapons as concern mounts that Russia might use such weapons in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg says that NATO leaders agreed at their summit Thursday to send equipment to Ukraine to help protect it against a chemical weapons attack.

``This could include detection equipment, protection, and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management,'' he told reporters after meeting in Brussels.

But Stoltenberg says the 30 NATO allies are boosting their own ``preparedness and readiness.''

The leaders agreed Thursday to deploy four new battlegroups, which usually number from 1,000-1,500 troops, to Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Four other battlegroups are stationed in the Baltic States and Poland.

NATO nations are concerned that Russia's attempt to falsely accuse them of working on chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine is part of a ruse by Moscow to create a pretext for using such arms itself.

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Germany's foreign minister says Europe needs to beware of Russian efforts to destabilize the Western Balkans against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Berlin on Thursday that such moves preceded Russia's military engagement in Ukraine, despite Moscow's continued denial that it was preparing an attack.

Similar support by Russia for breakaway movements in Bosnia, for example, could endanger the integrity and sovereignty of Western Balkans nations, Baerbock said after a meeting with her Croatian counterpart, Goran Grlic Radman.

Baerbock said the European Union and its partners would do what they can to help countries now taking in large numbers of Ukrainians fleeing the war, particularly tiny Moldova, which has received the highest number of refugees per capita so far.

Germany has organized a first direct flight to bring refugees from Moldova to Frankfurt on Friday, with more to follow, she said.

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Britain slapped sanctions Thursday on 59 more Russian individuals and entities, as well as six Belarusian enterprises over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, targeting a shadowy mercenary firm and the world's largest diamond producer.

The latest measures, against a range of key strategic industries and people, takes to more than 1,000 the number of Russian and Belarusian individuals and businesses sanctioned by London in recent weeks.

Those now include the billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, the founder of Tinkoff bank Oleg Tinkov, Sberbank chief executive Herman Gref, and Polina Kovaleva, said to be the stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Galina Danilchenko, installed by Moscow as mayor of the Ukrainian city Melitopol, became the first person sanctioned by London for collaboration with Russian forces currently in Ukraine.

Britain also targeted six more banks, Russian Railways, the defence company Kronshtadt -- the main producer of Russian drones -- and diamond giant Alrosa, according to the foreign ministry.

The Wagner Group, an organisation of Russian mercenaries which has been active in the Kremlin's other recent conflict zones and has reportedly been tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was also sanctioned.

"These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement announcing the new package of penalties.

"Putin should be under no illusions -- we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine," she added.

All those sanctioned will see their British assets frozen, meaning no UK citizen or company can do business with them, while individuals are subject to travel bans prohibiting them from travelling to or from Britain.

The latest measures will bring the total global asset value of the banks the UK has sanctioned since the invasion to 500 billion ($660 billion, 600 billion euros), the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said.

The net worth of oligarchs and family members targeted totals more than 150 billion, it added.

The announcement comes as Western leaders gather for emergency NATO and G7 summits in Brussels, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson will commit to a new military aid package to help Ukraine's fight against Russian forces.

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday the need to prioritise dialogue and diplomatic solutions to settle the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

El-Sisi expressed Egypt's support for all endeavours that would accelerate the political settlement of the crisis via the negotiations path, a statement by the Egyptian presidency said.

Menwhile, Zelenskyy briefed El-Sisi on the latest developments in the Ukrainian crisis, as well as the updates related to the negotiations efforts with Russia.

"Egypt is following with great concern the successive on-the-ground developments and the resulting deterioration of the humanitarian situation," El-Sisi said, expressing his appreciation for the measures taken by the Ukrainian side to facilitate the exit of Egyptian citizens from Ukraine, and to ensure their safety and security.

The Ukrainian authorities facilitated the evacuation of hundreds of Egyptian nationals who were studying or living in Ukraine at the time of the invasion to neighbouring Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

During the phone call, Zelenskyy expressed his appreciation and gratitude for the efforts made by Egypt for hosting Ukrainian tourists in Egypt's tourist resorts and facilitating their return to Ukraine's neighbouring countries.

Following the start of the Russian invasion, Egypt paid for the stay of all Ukrainian and Russian tourists at three-star Egyptian hotels.

EgyptAir and Cairo Air airlines also began in March flying out Ukrainian tourists who wanted to return at the expense of the Egyptian government.

Earlier on Thursday, following a phone call with Egyptian FM Sameh Shoukry, the Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: "Call with Egyptian FM Sameh Shoukry on bilateral & UN cooperation. Ukraine is ready to remain a reliable supplier of agricultural goods to Egypt & other countries, but Russia must cease hostilities to restore supply chains. Grateful for taking care of Ukrainian citizens in Egypt."

Cairo and Kyiv enjoy distingushed economic relations, with Egypt importing 30 percent of its imported wheat from Ukraine before the outbreak of Russian-Ukrainian war.

Shoukry told Kuleba that Egypt supports a peaceful resolution to the crisis with Russia and a stop to the bloodshed.

In early March, Egypt was among the 141 countries that voted for a UN resolution at the General Assembly calling for a halt to Russias invasion of Ukraine and an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from its western neighbour.

Egypt also called at the General Assembly for a quick political solution to the Russia-Ukraine crisis through peaceful means, warning of the impact of the crisis on the fragile global economy.

In early March, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi voiced in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Egypt's readiness to support the diplomatic endeavours that would facilitate reaching a political settlement between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict and preserve international security and stability.

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By Laman Ismayilova

Novruz spring holiday has been celebrated at the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation.

Speaking at the event, president of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Afandiyeva congratulated the guests with the spring arrival.

"On this significant day, we celebrate one of the ancient historical traditions of the Turkic peoples, a symbol of the arrival of spring, rebirth, renewal - the Novruz holiday. Novruz is a secular holiday symbolizing the awakening of nature, the purification of the soul. Today, the founding countries of the Foundation - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, as well as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Hungary, an observer country of the Foundation, and Lithuania, who signed a memorandum of cooperation with the organization last year, set up stands and present you samples of their national cuisine," she said.

In her speech, Gunay Afandiyeva also touched upon Azerbaijan's victory in the Second Karabakh War.

"For a second year now, the festive celebration in the Turkic world is mixed with the joy of victory due to the acquisition of the Sacred Victory and the liberation of Karabakh. We are eternally grateful to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and all the heroes who let us experience these wonderful feelings," she added.

Speaking about Novruz holiday, she pointed out that it is a tradition that concentrates the secrets of life, hope for the future, happiness, abundance, which the Turkic peoples have kept alive to this day, preserved, passed on to future generations, and consecrated.

"Novruz is a treasure. The pearl, which by its meaning and elements contributes to the Turkic world, as well as to world culture, enriching it. Novruz is the beginning. It is the belief that the future will be better. It is a new way of development. It is persistence. It is a beacon of hope that shines in spite of everything. Novruz is a challenge. It is a sound that slows down the continuous flow of time, realized in the collective memory, reminding us of our history, our ancestors, of the glorious path that we have walked," said Afandiyeva.

He stressed that Novruz holiday also symbolises peace in globalizing world.

"Children do not shed tears, people do not become distanced from their native land. It is the reconciliation of sinners. To forget about conflict, hatred, resentment, violence, means to come to an agreement, to walk hand in hand, to live peacefully together," she added.

The president of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation stressed that the organization she leads is always ready to promote the ancient history, culture, traditions, and values of the Turkic peoples.

In his speech, Deputy Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Fariz Rzayev noted that Novruz has received the status of an official international holiday of the United Nations.

"This is a joint achievement of Azerbaijan, our traditional friends, partner countries, and our closest neighbors. Novruz has great cultural and spiritual significance, power, and message. Novruz is a factor uniting countries, peoples, nations, societies. Novruz is already a dimension, an aspect of cultural diplomacy. The lands of Azerbaijan occupied for many years have been liberated for 2 years now. Our Novruz bonfires will remain in Shusha, on the Dzhidyr plain. The famous Yalla dance and our other national songs and traditions will be demonstrated in Shusha, Fuzuli, Aghdam, Jabrayil," he added.

Speaking at the event, Kazakh Ambassador to Azerbaijan Serzhan Abdikarimov, Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to Azerbaijan Kairat Osmanaliyev, First Deputy Ambassador of Turkey to Azerbaijan Barysh Saigyn, Uzbekh Ambassador to Azerbaijan Bahrom Ashrafkhanov, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan Mekan Ishanguliyev, Hungarian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Viktor Szederkenyi and Lithuanian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Egidius Navikan shared their thoughts on the ancient holiday of the Turkic world, highly appreciating the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation as a bridge that creates a link between peoples by keeping Turkic traditions alive.

Stands with samples of the traditional cuisine of the Turkic peoples were installed at the event to promote the rich heritage of the Turkic world.

Traditional costumes reflecting the centuries-old culture of the Foundations member and observer countries were demonstrated to the sounds of national music.

Furthermore, the guests participated in egg-cracking, which is one of the symbols of the holiday, and the Novruz bonfire was lit as well.

Initiated in 2012, Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation focuses on preservation of Turkic heritage in member countries as well as conducting projects in collaboration with partners in third countries.

The Foundation provides assistance in the protection, study and promotion of Turkic culture and heritage through supporting and funding various activities, projects and programs. It carries out its activities in cooperation with TURKSOY and the Turkic Academy.

Cooperation Council of the Turkic Speaking States (CCTSS) is an intergovernmental organization, which aims at promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic Speaking States.

The organization was established by the Nakhchivan Agreement, which was signed at the Turkic Summit in 2009.

In order to fulfill the objectives and tasks of the CCTSS, the organization has been divided into the following structures: Council of Heads of States; Council of Foreign Ministers, Senior Officials Committee, Council of Elders, Secretariat, Coordination Committee, Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest.
Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday. She was 84.

President Bill Clinton chose Albright as America's top diplomat in 1996, and she served in that capacity for the last four years of the Clinton administration. She had previously been Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations.

At the time, she was the highest-ranking woman in the history of U.S. government. She was not in the line of succession for the presidency, however, because she was a native of Prague. "She was surrounded by family and friends," her family announced on Twitter. "We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend."

In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Albright the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans. Albright remained outspoken through the years. After leaving office, she criticized President George W. Bush for using "the shock of force" rather than alliances to foster diplomacy and said Bush had driven away moderate Arab leaders and created potential for a dangerous rift with European allies.

However, as a refugee from Czechoslovakia, she was not a dove and played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get militarily involved in the conflict in Kosovo. She also toed a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not "cojones" but rather "cowardice."

She advised women "to act in a more confident manner" and "to ask questions when they occur and don't wait to ask." "It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent," she told HuffPost Living in 2010.

When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked her in January 2007 whether she approved of Bush's proposed "surge" in U.S. troops in bloodied Iraq, she responded, "I think we need a surge in diplomacy. We are viewed in the Middle East as a colonial power, and our motives are suspect."
Korea has authorized the emergency use of Merck's COVID-19 treatment Lagevrio, making it the second oral medication for the disease to be approved in the country.

The decision comes amid a severe shortage of Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid, which has made it necessary to find an alternative for high-risk patients. Lagevrio, also known as Molnupiravir, has been authorized in 15 other countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Japan.

Health authorities earlier said that 20,000 courses of Lagevrio have already arrived in Korea, and will be available by prescription at designated hospitals from Saturday.

The government signed a deal with Merck in November to secure enough courses for 242,000 patients.

Adult patients who are at relatively higher risk of developing severe symptoms are eligible.


KYODO NEWS - Mar 24, 2022 - 20:36 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan will start preparations for the administration of fourth shots of coronavirus vaccines, a health ministry subcommittee agreed Thursday, after the government said it would procure additional doses from two U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

The details, including whether to actually administer the additional booster shots and who would be eligible, will be determined later.

The agreement of the subcommittee members came after the government said it had agreed to procure a total of 145 million vaccine doses from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. to prepare for the rollout of fourth shots.

The subcommittee also approved the administration of third shots of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to children aged between 12 and 17, with vaccinations expected to begin as early as next month.

Fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines are recommended in Israel and Britain, with recipients limited to medical staff and individuals at high risk of developing severe symptoms.

The effectiveness of third shots against the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been found to wane over time.

In a meeting Thursday, the subcommittee members unanimously agreed to the health ministry's proposal to prepare for the administration of fourth shots, aimed at preventing development of the disease or severe symptoms, based on overseas data on their effectiveness and safety.

Under the proposal, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are expected to be used for the fourth shots. The administration of the fourth shots could start as early as in May, sources familiar with the matter said.

Some subcommittee members also said that defining who would receive the fourth shots was more significant compared to deciding eligibility for the first and second doses, with others saying it should be limited to medical staff and high-risk elderly patients.

Vaccinations for the coronavirus are currently free under the government's immunization law, but some members said fourth shots should be handled differently due to their nature, appearing to suggest that they be administered for a fee.

The interval between third shots and the additional boosters will be a minimum of six months in principle, but the ministry will re-examine the matter after taking into account the situation overseas.

Regarding the administration of the fourth shots, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said, "We need to study recipients (of the shots) and the timing for starting them based on the duration of third vaccinations and the effectiveness of fourth shots."

Matsuno added that the government will make a decision after hearing the views of experts.

According to government data released Thursday, currently over 46 million people in Japan, or 37 percent of the country's population, have received their third vaccine dose.

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KYODO NEWS - Mar 24, 2022 - 22:12 | All, World, Japan

Ministers from energy-consuming countries pledged Thursday to diversify energy sources and supply routes as part of efforts to strengthen energy security as international sanctions on Russia, a major gas and oil producer, for its invasion of Ukraine have prompted surges in energy prices on fears about supply disruptions.

Energy and climate ministers from member nations of the International Energy Agency, including the United States, Japan, and the other Group of Seven countries, also agreed to speed up their efforts to shift to renewable energy in a communique issued after their two-day meeting in Paris.

"We commit to continue working together to prevent energy and resource supply disruptions and ensure diversification of energy sources, supplies, routes, and means of transport to build system resilience and promote competitive, reliable energy markets based on transparent rules," the communique said.

While pointing out "recent volatility in markets has placed a burden on consumers at a critical moment of economic recovery," the communique did not refer to Moscow's aggression in the neighboring country, which started Feb. 24.

The ministers affirmed "energy reliability and affordability" is vital for successful clean energy transitions and vowed to accelerate such energy shifting "as a lasting solution to prevent energy price spikes, such as the recent ones."

The biennial ministerial gathering of the 31-member IEA came as Western countries aim to reduce their energy reliance on Russia, a non-IEA member.

Russia is the world's third-largest oil producer and the second-biggest natural gas producer, according to the Paris-based agency.

The United States has banned imports of crude oil, certain petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and coal from Russia, while the European Union, which is highly dependent on Russian energy, has also announced a plan to phase out its reliance on fossil fuels from Moscow before 2030.

To ensure the stability of global oil markets, the agency agreed early this month to release a total of 60 million barrels of oil from its emergency reserves, the first such coordinated action since 2011.

Koichi Hagiuda, minister of economy, trade and industry, and Kiyoshi Odawara, senior vice foreign minister, represented Japan at the Paris meeting, according to the government.

Hagiuda will visit Brussels for talks with top European Union officials before wrapping up his five-day European tour through Saturday.

On Wednesday, Hagiuda held separate talks in Paris with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

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KYODO NEWS - Mar 24, 2022 - 23:43 | All, Japan, World

North Korea fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, Japan's Defense Ministry said, making it the biggest-scale launch in terms of flight time and altitude at a time when international attention is focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The ICBM fell within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan about 150 kilometers west of the Oshima Peninsula on the country's northernmost main island of Hokkaido. A government official said it landed possibly closest-ever to the Japanese archipelago for a North Korean missile.

The government also indicated that the missile, apparently launched at a steep angle this time, is assessed to have the capability to travel 12,000 km and reach the U.S. East Coast, including the capital Washington, if it takes a normal trajectory.

The new ICBM was fired from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 2:33 p.m. and fell at 3:44 p.m. in the waters after flying about 1,100 km in range and reaching an altitude of 6,200 km during its 71-minute flight, according to the Japanese and South Korean governments.

Thursday's firing was the first ICBM launch by the North since November 2017 and marked an end to its self-imposed moratorium on ICBM launches since April 2018. Pyongyang had suggested in recent months that it may resume nuclear and ICBM tests.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida strongly condemned the ICBM launch as "reckless" and "unacceptable."

Kishida, on a visit to Brussels for a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, said he wants to confirm coordination among the members in responding to North Korea's repeated ballistic missile launches, which are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed that Pyongyang's firing was a "clear and serious challenge" to the international community, the minister told reporters after speaking with his counterpart by phone.

They also vowed to work closely and strengthen the Japan-U.S. security alliance's deterrent and response capabilities, Hayashi said. The two countries will work to keep North Korea from believing that "an opportunity to escalate its provocative actions has come" while the world is focused on Russia's aggression on Ukraine, he added.

The estimated flight time and altitude at its highest point attained by Thursday's ICBM makes it the longest and highest a North Korean missile has flown, according to a Defense Ministry official. An ICBM launched by Pyongyang in November 2017 flew 53 minutes and reached an altitude of over 4,000 km.

There were no reports of damage to aircraft or vessels within Japan due to the latest missile launch.

A North Korean projectile last dropped in Japan's EEZ in September last year, according to the Defense Ministry. North Korea flew ballistic missiles over Hokkaido in 2017.

The United States said Thursday that it "strongly condemns" the North Korean test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile, calling it a "brazen violation" of multiple Security Council resolutions.

In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae In also rapped the launch, saying at a meeting of the National Security Council that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM tests.

The action posed "threats to the Korean Peninsula and the international society, while clearly violating U.N. Security Council resolutions," the presidential office quoted the president as saying in a statement.

"The president seriously urged North Korea to immediately halt actions that create tension and return to the path of diplomatic settlement through conversations as soon as possible," the office added.

South Korea's military fired missiles from 4:25 p.m. to demonstrate Seoul's readiness to respond to the North's move, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A Japanese government official offered an assessment in a meeting with ruling party lawmakers after the North's ICBM test-firing that the new missile has the ability to reach the East Coast of the U.S. mainland if launched at a different angle, a participant said.

China, meanwhile, stressed the need for dialogue in pursuing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. Beijing is Pyongyang's closest and most influential ally in security and economic terms.

"All parties concerned" should "focus on the overall situation of peace and stability on the peninsula" and "work together to advance the process of political settlement" of the issue, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing.

China, one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, agreed to strengthen sanctions on North Korea after it launched what it said was its "most powerful" ICBM in November 2017, following its sixth nuclear test in September that year.

North Korea has conducted a flurry of ballistic missile tests since the beginning of this year. On March 16, Pyongyang appears to have conducted an unsuccessful ICBM launch from the same Sunan area, with the projectile exploding soon after liftoff.

In January, the North had hinted it could resume nuclear and ICBM tests for the first time since 2017, saying it may restart all "activities" it had temporarily suspended to build trust with former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The missile launch also came as Japan, the United States and South Korea are bracing for increased missile activity by North Korea ahead of a key anniversary on April 15, when the country marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, its founder and the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un.

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By Miya Tanaka, KYODO NEWS - Mar 25, 2022 - 06:23 | All, World

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Thursday vowed to keep close watch on any attempt to help Russia evade sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, in a possible warning to countries such as China that may seek to align with Moscow.

The announcement came as leaders from the United States, Japan and Europe gathered in Brussels for a series of summit meetings to affirm their resolve to stand with Ukraine and further pressure Russia to cease the military campaign it started a month ago.

"We underline our resolve to impose severe consequences on Russia, including by fully implementing the economic and financial measures we already imposed," the G-7 leaders said in a statement as they met in person for the first time since the invasion began.

"We stand ready to apply additional measures as required," they added.

Under a newly launched initiative, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union plan to monitor the full implementation of sanctions and coordinate their responses to evasive measures.

Russia's aggression has been met with actions aimed at isolating the country from the global economy, including freezing the Russian central bank's assets, banning key Russian financial institutions from a major international payment system and imposing export bans and controls to cut Russia off from advanced technologies.

A senior U.S. official said the Russian central bank may be trying to use its gold reserves to prop up the falling ruble and that the G-7 will make clear that any transaction involving gold related to the central bank is prohibited.

In coordination with other G-7 members, the United States announced new sanctions targeting over 400 Russian elites, members of parliament and defense companies. It also vowed to provide more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to support people in Ukraine and others suffering from food insecurity and other impacts of the war.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended the G-7 meeting as the sole Asian member in the group, with the Ukraine crisis seen as having implications for the Indo-Pacific, a region facing increasing Chinese military assertiveness.

Kishida said Japan will provide $100 million in fresh humanitarian aid to support Ukraine and nearby countries affected by the crisis, in addition to the $100 million in support already pledged. He also said more Russian individuals and entities will be added to the sanctions list.

As the conflict has pushed global energy prices and food costs higher amid concerns over supply disruptions, the G-7 members agreed to work with oil and gas producing countries to ensure stable and sustainable global energy supplies and to take actions to address the evolving global food security crisis.

Earlier in the day, NATO leaders agreed to provide additional security support so that Kyiv can defend itself, including equipment to help protect against chemical, biological and nuclear threats.

In an effort to bolster its defense in the eastern part of the 30-member alliance that is closer to Russia, four additional multinational battlegroups will be established in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, in addition to the four already in the Baltic countries and Poland.

In a statement issued after the summit, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization called on China to "abstain from supporting Russia's war effort in any way, and to refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions."

The U.S. government has recently expressed its concern that Beijing is considering directly assisting Moscow with military equipment to use against Ukraine.

While Ukraine forces have mounted stiffer-than-expected resistance since the invasion started on Feb. 24, Russia has continued its attack, and the brutality has increased as its targets have included hospitals, schools and places of shelter. Millions have fled their homes, pouring into neighboring countries.

Amid concerns that Russia may use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, NATO and the G-7 both warned against such tactics.

Asked whether the United States would take military action if Russia were to use chemical weapons, President Joe Biden said at a press conference, "We would respond." But he added that the "nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use."

In an effort to further isolate Russia, the G-7 leaders agreed that international organizations and multilateral fora should no longer conduct their activities with Russia "in a business as usual manner."

Biden said he believes Moscow should be removed from the Group of 20. The G-20 groups emerging economies including China plus the G-7.

As Japan has been acting on par with its other G-7 peers in imposing tough sanctions against Moscow, Russia has announced the suspension of negotiations for a bilateral postwar peace treaty, dampening prospects of any progress in a decades-long territorial row Tokyo has hoped to resolve.

During the G-7 meeting, Kishida said that Russia's latest move will not stop Tokyo from "decisively responding" to the aggression.

He also told reporters that the G-7 members affirmed their intention to work together in dealing with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats in the wake of Thursday's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first such test since 2017.

Related coverage:

NATO expected to urge China to refrain from aiding Russia war: chief

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Russia to halt peace treaty talks with Japan over sanctions
KYODO NEWS - Mar 25, 2022 - 03:07 | All, World

The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday adopted with overwhelming support a resolution calling for the protection of civilians in war-torn Ukraine and urging Russia to stop its aggression.

A total of 140 countries backed the document on the humanitarian consequences of Russia's military campaign, with Russia and four other countries voting against it and 38 countries including China and India abstaining. The results followed a classic pattern of voting behavior in key resolutions drafted by Western countries.

The resolution, initiated by France and Mexico, was jointly proposed by more than 80 countries including Britain, Japan and the United States.

The four other countries voting in opposition were Belarus, which supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria.

The resolution expresses "grave concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, in particular at the high number of civilian casualties, including women and children, and the increasing number of internally displaced persons and refugees in need of humanitarian assistance."

It also notes "the need to protect, without discrimination of any kind, the safety, dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of people fleeing the conflict and violence, regardless of their status," while "strongly condemning any attacks directed against civilians."

The resolution is symbolic as it is not legally binding, unlike U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In an emergency special session earlier this month, the General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the Russian invasion and demanding an immediate withdrawal from Ukraine, with 141 countries voting in support.

The emergency special session resumed on Wednesday to discuss the resolution on humanitarian consequences.
Women soldiers take part in a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence of Sierra Leone in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, April 27, 2011. (Xinhua/Bai Jingshan)

The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone on Monday declared June 24 as the official date for the country's 2023 presidential elections.

FREETOWN, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone on Monday declared June 24 as the official date for the country's 2023 presidential elections.

The presidential elections will go simultaneously with the elections of ordinary members of parliament and local councils representatives, Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh told a press conference in Freetown, the capital.

The commission confirmed that it plans to register eligible voters from Sept. 3 to Oct. 4 for the elections.
TEHRAN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the Saudi-led coalition's "destructive war" on Yemen has caused the country to face the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the century.

It said in a statement that as the coalition's war and blockade enter the eighth year, the direct and indirect consequences of the humanitarian catastrophe have seriously impacted the country's innocent civilians, including women and children.

Yemen's infrastructure has been destructed and vital sectors such as health, economy, and education have been ruined, the ministry noted.

It accused the coalition and its Western supporters of violating all international and human rights laws in Yemen by unleashing sales of weapons and adopting double-standard and biased approaches at the United Nations Security Council.

The ministry reaffirmed the only way to solve the Yemeni crisis is through a political solution led by the Yemenis.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of the northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the following year to support the Yemeni government. 




UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Wednesday expressed the hope that the UN Security Council would play a meaningful role in handling the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun made his explanation remarks at the council after it failed to adopt a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Leading ICT industry professionals discussed the important role being played by technologies in development of sustainable smart buildings and how it has ushered in a new era in sustainability, at a key industry seminar held in Dubai.

In addition, these innovations and solutions ensured maximum efficiency in energy consumption, reducing wastage, thus ushering in a new era in sustainability, stated ICT experts at the key event hosted by Superior Essex Communications, a leading manufacturer and supplier of communications cables in North America. The one-day seminar, which was held under the topic of 'Sustainable Technology Innovations and Solutions for Smart Buildings, is part of a 'Technical Seminar Series' for the Middle East and North Africa region by Superior Essex in partnership with AEM Test and Measurement and MHT Lighting.

The series focuses on supporting the expansive building projects in the region by deploying sustainable technologies that are more cost effective and drive greater return on investment for the future.

The Dubai event saw leading industry professionals discuss how sustainable smart buildings are being made possible through latest technologies.

Paul Weintraub, Director of International Business, Superior Essex Communications, said: "Sustainable solutions for the future require a better understanding of the new technology that is available. We at Superior Essex are therefore partnering with key players that are driving the convergence of the delivery of data and digital electricity; that is the integration of information technology (IT) systems with operational technology (OT) systems."

"This also enables us to create infrastructures that can adapt to the user while centralizing management of facilities systems and make smarter choices, ensuring power saving and better safety protocols," he added.

Representatives from each of the collaborating companies shared case studies and solutions on how smart buildings benefit from deploying sustainable technology.

Speaking at the seminar, Werner Heeren, Business Development Manager, AEM Test and Measurement, said: "Advances in technology have increased the access to information, connectedness, and convenience in our day-to-day life. This ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, storage and technology advances has also created the need for sustainability."

"Emergence of new technology systems and their integration requires an evolution in testing methods. Especially since there are various new parameters that need to be measured now. AEM understands the requirements of the future and is ready with an extensive range of tests to ensure that the new technology seamlessly and securely works in the decades to come," he added.

Ira Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer, MHT Lighting, said: "When you have children, as I do, it is impossible to look at them and not think about their future and the responsibility we have. Being a part of an organization like MHT that helps building managers and owners to implement sustainable solutions and the tools to visualize the impacts of those solutions is both productive and rewarding."

"We greatly appreciate the opportunity The Tech Seminar Series gives us to deliver on our commitment to share the sustainability message globally," he added.

Superior Essex recently announced MissionNext, its comprehensive and overarching vision for the future that greatly focuses on sustainable manufacturing, products and partnerships.

The US group's goal is to support further sustainable building projects technologies in the Mena region. It currently manufactures more than 35 families of sustainable cables.-TradeArabia News Service
CARACAS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 97 migrants from Ecuador were repatriated to Venezuela on Wednesday as part of the Return to the Homeland Plan (Plan Vuelta a la Patria) promoted by the Venezuelan government to support its nationals abroad, Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia said.

The migrants arrived from the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil and landed at the Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas.

The Venezuelan official explained on his Twitter account that this is a "new phase" of the program, "to continue serving our compatriots and bringing them back."

The Ministry of Popular Power for Foreign Affairs detailed on Tuesday that the new phase involves "tripling the number of flights" for the return of Venezuelan citizens to the South American country.

The program, initiated in August 2018, has facilitated the return to Venezuela of over 28,000 people from 19 countries. 
A cheese exhibitor works at a booth at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

by Dana Halawi

BEIRUT, March 24 (Xinhua) -- As visitors make their way through the crowded HORECA, a major trade show in Beirut that concludes on Thursday, they could hardly tell that Lebanon's food industry has been taking the hit of the country's unprecedented financial crisis.

After years of suspension due to the COVID-19, the three-day trade event came back this year to reconnect people in the food and agriculture sector, Joumana Dammous Salame, the founder of HORECA's sponsor hospitality services, told Xinhua.

"It is a hub where people in the food and agriculture field can meet, exchange expertise and gain business opportunities while joining in various discussions in sideline panels," Salame explained.

Chadi Tannous, chief product officer at Three Brothers Distillery, said he wants to introduce his products to new clients from Lebanon and abroad, and the event allows him to meet with businessmen from Asia and Europe.

"Although we have considerable sales in the Lebanese market, we are in need of U.S. dollars to be able to maintain our operations," Tannous told Xinhua.

Lebanon has been suffering from an unprecedented financial crisis with a shortage of foreign currency reserves which has caused a collapse in the local currency, plunging over 78 percent of the population into poverty.

Walid Abi Sleiman, sales manager at food factory Societe Michel Najjar, also attended the event to explore new opportunities in the local and overseas markets.

Abi Sleiman told Xinhua most business requests he received during the event were about exporting the Lebanese products, noting that the weak national currency has made the export of Lebanese products more competitive than selling them in the local market.

For his part, Jimmy Farhat, sales executive at MG Hotel Supplies, a factory producing hotel utensils and equipment, told Xinhua he is hopeful about the future of business in Lebanon, despite the numerous challenges and difficulties facing the country, which is why he is keen to take part in trade events such as HORECA.

"We will never give up on Lebanon," Farhat said, adding that hotels and restaurants prefer to buy locally produced goods to help Lebanese companies sustain their operations amid the current crisis.

He said his factory received requests from the hospitality industry in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.

This year's HORECA also features Lebanese aid groups and empowerment organizations that are helping the vulnerable.

Rene Moawad Foundation, with a focus on sustainable human development, has supported 1,300 Lebanese women in producing food for overseas markets.

"We participated after three years of absence to act as an intermediary between our beneficiaries and foreign importers which will enable us to expand the export market for these women," said Beauty Geitani, field coordinator at the foundation.

"We should never lose hope despite the current situation, this is why we are trying to support vulnerable communities at this time," she said. 

A visitor samples food at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

A tea exhibitor works at a booth at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

An exhibitor arranges products at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

People visit a booth at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

A food exhibitor works at a booth at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

People taste fresh juice at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)
Aerial photo taken on July 16, 2020 shows Wan Chai of south China's Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

Yang Yuchuan, a professor with the Hong Kong Financial Services Institute, believes that once the pandemic is controled and exchanges between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland resume, Hong Kong's economy is expected to achieve an even better development.

HONG KONG, March 24 (Xinhua) -- With the Chinese mainland's steadily growing economy, Hong Kong will gradually regain its economic growth momentum as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government implements multiple economic relief measures, experts have said.

Hong Kong has recently seen underperformance in export, employment and some other aspects. Observers believe that multiple internal and external factors have led to a slowdown in Hong Kong's momentum of economic recovery.

Data released by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council showed that Hong Kong's export index for the first quarter of 2022 was 24.7, down 12.5 points from the previous quarter, recording a downward trend for the third consecutive quarter.

Hong Hao, managing director and chief strategist of the Bank of Communications (International), said the extent of Hong Kong's economic slowdown will depend largely on the development of its epidemic situation.

Liang Haiming, a Hong Kong economist and chairman of China Silk Road iValley Research Institute, said the recent economic slowdown is due to volatility in the peripheral markets and mounting geopolitical tensions coupled with the epidemic situation in Hong Kong, which resulted in continued damage to the Hong Kong economy.

Staff members register information for people at a mobile nucleic acid testing site in Hong Kong, south China, March 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

In order to lower the rising unemployment rate under the epidemic, the HKSAR government launched a new round of Employment Support Scheme, which is expected to involve 26 billion to 31 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 3.3 billion to 3.96 billion U.S. dollars) to benefit 1.1 million to 1.3 million employees in Hong Kong.

A new round of the Consumption Voucher Scheme is also launched, with 5,000-Hong Kong-dollar (about 640 U.S. dollars) vouchers of Phase I to be disbursed in April, valued at over 30 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 3.8 billion U.S. dollars).

"It is hoped that the scheme will relieve the public's pressure in the face of the epidemic and will help the business of small and medium-sized enterprises," said Paul Chan, financial secretary of the HKSAR government.

Liang noted that as personal consumption accounts for more than 60 percent of Hong Kong's GDP, the new round of the Consumption Voucher Scheme will help stimulate the retail market and support Hong Kong's economy.

With the full support of the central government and concerted efforts of all sectors of the Hong Kong community in the fight against the epidemic, Hong Kong's economy will gradually recover, Liang said.

Girls wearing face masks jump ropes at a park in Hong Kong, south China, March 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

Observers believe that the epidemic has the short-term impact. Hong Kong's economy will be able to overcome the challenges with its own unique advantages and resilience. They are still confident in Hong Kong's competitiveness in the long run.

"As long as the epidemic situation is under control, Hong Kong will still have its attractiveness and a good economic outlook when traveling between places is resumed," Paul Chan told a recent press conference.

An assessment report released by the International Monetary Fund earlier this month reaffirmed Hong Kong's status as a major international financial center and agreed that Hong Kong's financial sector continued to expand and develop even during the epidemic.

Yang Yuchuan, a professor with the Hong Kong Financial Services Institute, believes that once the epidemic is controled and exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland resume, Hong Kong's economy is expected to achieve an even better development.

Liang said that the mainland's economy maintains steady growth and is the firm backup for Hong Kong. With the full support of the central government, Hong Kong's economy will regain growth momentum when the epidemic is contained. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.8 HK dollars)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Aubervilliers, Seine Saint Denis, France, on March 17, 2022. Macron presented his program for the presidential elections to be held in April. (Xinhua)

The French Constitutional Council has validated the candidacy of 12 persons, among them Emmanuel Macron, Marine le Pen and Valerie Pecresse.

PARIS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Some 48.7 million French citizens have registered to vote in this April's presidential election, the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) said on Thursday.

According to the institute, 47.05 million people registered on municipal lists, 1.43 million registered overseas on consular lists, and 0.22 million registered in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.

The Elysee presidential palace is pictured in the morning before its opening to the public in Paris, France, Sept. 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

In metropolitan France and the 13 French overseas territories, 95 percent of the citizens who are eligible to vote are registered on municipal lists, it said.

The French Constitutional Council has validated the candidacy of 12 persons, among them Emmanuel Macron, Marine le Pen and Valerie Pecresse.

If no candidate wins the absolute majority of the votes cast in the first election round on April 10, the top two candidates will progress to a runoff vote on April 24. 
Malawi's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo (R) and Chinese ambassador to Malawi Liu Hongyang pose for photos after a signing ceremony in Lilongwe, Malawi, March 23, 2022. Malawi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation on Wednesday in Lilongwe, becoming the latest country to join the multinational project. (Chinese Embassy in Malawi/Handout via Xinhua)

LILONGWE, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Malawi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation on Wednesday in Lilongwe, becoming the latest country to join the multinational project.

At the signing ceremony, Malawi's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo pointed out that joining the BRI will provide new impetus for cooperation between the two countries.

She calls for more bilateral cooperation in poverty reduction, agriculture, infrastructure, health care and other fields.

"Malawi Government remains committed to strengthening its relations with the People's Republic of China at both bilateral and multilateral levels on matters of shared interests," said the minister.

Chinese ambassador to Malawi Liu Hongyang said China stands ready to link the BRI with Malawi's 2063 Vision, and contribute to Malawi's building of an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation.

Over 170 countries and international organizations have so far signed BRI cooperation agreements with China.

Tembo applauded Liu's contributions to the development of China-Malawi ties since his appointment in August 2018.

She hailed the Chinese envoy for facilitating several infrastructural projects in Malawi through grants and concessional loans during his tenure of office.

She listed some of the key infrastructural projects including the Lilongwe Water Program worth 67.7 million U.S. dollars concessional loan, the construction of a dual carriageway in Lilongwe worth 50 million dollars grant and a 15 million dollars grant for the construction of 5 community technical colleges in the country.

"Ambassador Liu has contributed greatly to the Malawi-China relationship since his appointment in 2018," Tembo said. 
UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The 886 civilians reported killed, injured, abducted or missing in Mali in the second half of 2021 represented a 7 percent decrease from the previous 6-month period, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.

"It is still a lot of people killed, injured or abducted," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. There was the possibility of unreported victims.

Trends showed that extremist groups were the main perpetrators of violence against civilians, while violence by militias and other community self-defense groups decreased, Dujarric said. Also recorded in the report were violations by the Malian Defence and Security Forces.

The spokesman said the country's center bore the brunt of the violence. Investigations into incidents that may have occurred in the first quarter of this year are underway.

Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, is dominated by the Sahara Desert in the north, with the Sahel running along its southern edge. Bands of terrorist groups are known to use the Sahel to launch attacks. 
With the impending launch of his businesses, the founder and CEO of multinational companies in the UAE, is all set to enter the Indian market.

UAE citizen Abdalla Alshamsi was raised in an entrepreneurial community in Sharjah, where people had the skill to do any business. So, it was second nature for him to have prerequisite skillsets and exceptional talent from his early growing years. He owns a slew of businesses in a variety of industries, including food trading, logistics, and travel agencies, among others. Along with his numerous successful businesses, he is now focusing on investing in Indian real estate, the specifics of which have yet to be revealed to the public.

Given the prospects for expansion and Dubai's prominence as a worldwide hotspot for millions of job searchers, Abdalla Alshamsi has taken over a new venture, Abgulf, to provide an exceptional job-seeking platform to the UAE market. He expects that his new enterprise would assist young talent in connecting with legitimate recruiters rather than falling prey to internet unscrupulous groups. He is extremely happy to serve services in the sector of job hunting because of the life observations he obtained by connecting with enthusiastic job hunters who face tribulations in the process of seeking a job out of their reach. His new ambitions for growth into India will launch his vision of booming real estate marketplaces in underdeveloped regions of India. His visit to India earlier this year has made him comprehend the market opportunities and potential in generating various business tactics.

Abdalla Alshamsi fondness for travel has led to his success in running businesses around the Middle East. By embracing his passion for travel, he was able to preserve work-life balance while juggling his demanding professional lifestyle and highly dedicated corporate network. He has traveled to over 80 countries and keeps his own travel diary. His conviction in the consistent genuine effort, as well as his readiness to prioritize the things he wants to do, have all contributed to him being the person he is today.

Abdalla Alshamsi is entrepreneurial strategies are positioned to significantly improve the way business is being conducted currently, as seen by his aspirations to expand into India and other Asian countries. As a long-term investor, he applies technology and keen intelligence to bring any new business tactics to success.



Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Emirates.Abdalla

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/111uae

Prostitution was going on indiscriminately in this hotel of Nagpur, the police raided"

The customers of this bank are getting the benefit of interest ranging from 2.50% to 5.75%

RBI Governor said - India's economy is in better condition, able to face any challenge"
Colonnade BridgePort

Justins combination of local and international experience developing complex, large-scale projects is an ideal fit for both Colonnade BridgePort and the world-class cities it is helping to build

Justin George

Justin George, SVP, Head of DevelopmentColonnade BridgePort

OTTAWA, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colonnade BridgePort, a leading full service real estate investment and management company, is pleased to announce that Justin George has joined the company as Senior Vice President and Head of Development. In this new role, Justin will build on his track record of leading complex, large-scale projects to sustainably accelerate growth of Colonnade BridgePorts established development business in the Ottawa real estate market and expand its development activities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).



Colonnade BridgePort is a full-service real estate investment and operating company with over 35 years of experience enhancing the communities in which it operates for the benefit of tenants, employees, investors, and the community as a whole. Since 2015, the company has developed a number of successful office, residential, retail and mixed-use assets, and currently has a committed pipeline of projects with a value of more than $1 billion. As Ottawas largest real estate services and property management company with a growing presence in the GTA, Colonnade BridgePorts success is a result of its employees, their unparalleled understanding of the communities in which it operates, and their passion for enhancing the quality of life of its tenants through the built environment.

The addition of Justin to Colonnade BridgePorts executive leadership team marks a new phase of growth and maturity for the companys development business. With proven experience developing high-profile projects in Canada as well as around the world, Justin will lead the growth of the companys development team and implementation of scalable infrastructure to better position the company to take advantage of opportunities in the dynamic Ottawa and GTA markets. His expertise in environmental, social and governance (ESG) development practices, as well as his strategic focus on the innovative use of new technology, is a perfect fit for Colonnade BridgePort and the cities it is helping to build.

Story continues

We are excited to have a leader of Justins caliber join our team, says Hugh Gorman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Colonnade BridgePort. Creating a pipeline of new product in the residential, industrial, and commercial sectors in Ottawa and the GTA is a key driver for Colonnade BridgePorts clients and our future growth. Justins proven track record of building a development platform combined with his deep experience sourcing and executing development projects is instrumental as we continue to grow this core element of our business.

Justin, who has been a proud Ottawa resident since relocating from the UK in 2010, comes to Colonnade BridgePort from an Ottawa-based development company, where he led operations and development for six years. Prior to that, he held project management, consulting and senior leadership roles with international EPC and development firms, working on high-profile, transformative projects in major cities throughout Canada, the United States and UK.

When I looked at Colonnade BridgePorts track record, the quality of its people and plans for the future, it was my only choice, Justin says. The company has some of the industrys brightest talent, best located development sites and is exceptionally well positioned for expansion in Ottawa and the GTA. I am incredibly excited to build communities that will stand the test of time and be around for our children and their children. Its a pivotal time for the company, and everyone is motivated to build on the companys existing legacy by bringing new and inspiring ideas to the marketplace that will enhance lives and contribute to this new era of great Canadian cities.

About Colonnade BridgePort

Colonnade BridgePort is a full-service real estate company, offering property management and leasing services, acquisition, development, investment management and asset management for commercial and residential properties. We take the time to understand our clients objectives and then apply our real estate expertise and market knowledge to drive better performance. Colonnade BridgePort is headquartered in Ottawa with offices in Mississauga and Toronto. www.colonnadebridgeport.ca

Media Contacts:

Catherine Proulx, Director of Marketing & Communications

cproulx@colonnadebridgeport.ca

343-633-5079

INCL: Photo: Justin George

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/82229e23-ece2-4a71-b28c-7e756af81d2b








By Yuka Obayashi and Heekyong Yang

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian importers of Russian gas were scrambling on Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin said "unfriendly" countries must pay for Russian gas in roubles, in the latest jolt to global energy markets after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were on the list of countries deemed unfriendly. They all import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Sakhalin-2 and Yamal LNG projects in eastern Russia.

Putin said on Wednesday that Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation", would continue to supply gas in volumes and prices fixed in contracts but would require payment in Russian roubles.

Japan, the biggest importer of Russian LNG in Asia, had no idea how Russia would enforce that requirement.

"Currently, we're looking into the situation with relevant ministries as we don't quite understand what (Russia's) intention is and how they would do this," Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said in parliament.

Japan imported 6.84 million tonnes of LNG from Russia in 2021, according to Refinitiv trade flow data, making up nearly 9% of its LNG imports.

JERA, Japan's biggest LNG buyer, has not received any notification from Sakhalin Energy, the joint venture that operates Sakhalin-2, to change the currency of payment from the U.S. dollar, a company spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the country's biggest power generator will keep gathering information.

A thermal power and fuel joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings and Chubu Electric Power, JERA buys about 2 million tonnes a year (tpy) of LNG from the Sakhalin-2 project under long-term contracts, according to Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation's (JOGMEC) data.

Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas, the country's two biggest local gas suppliers, also were checking details on the rouble requirement, company spokespersons said on Thursday.

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Tokyo Gas, one of Japan's largest LNG buyers, declined to comment on any details of its long-term contract for 1.1 million tpy with Sakhalin Energy, including what currency it can use for payment.

Sakhalin Energy is 50% owned by Russia's Gazprom, with Shell holding a 27.5% stake while the rest is held by Japan's trading companies Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp. Shell said on Feb. 28 that it would quit the project and the Japanese government has said Shell's exit did not impact Japan's energy imports.

Mitsui and Mitsubishi are checking details of the Russia's announcement, their spokesmen said.

Graphic: Asia's Russian LNG imports: https://graphics.reuters.com/UKRAINE-CRISIS/RUSSIA-GAS-PUTIN/mopanbkoeva/chart.png

OTHER BUYERS

South Korea, Asia's third-largest importer of Russian LNG, expected to be able to continue imports, with the country's Financial Services Commission saying it would do whatever was necessary to facilitate trade.

Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) said it imports about 2 million tpy of Russian LNG, making up about 6% of the company's imports. However, KOGAS does not transact directly with Russia as its purchase contract is with Sakhalin Energy and payments for the gas go into a Japanese bank in Singapore, it added.

"Since we are making payments to that Japanese bank, we are not currently seeing issues now, but we are closely monitoring the development," a KOGAS official said.

Taiwan's economy ministry said state-owned CPC Corp has one gas shipment arriving from Russia at the end of this month.

It said they had received "no news that the payment system will be adjusted".

The call for payments in roubles was seen as Putin's way of trying to shore up the rouble, which has collapsed after the imposition of sanctions on Russia.

Putin said the government and central bank had one week to come up with a solution on moving operations into the Russian currency and that Gazprom would be ordered to make the corresponding changes to contracts.

However the move is unlikely to work for Moscow, said Eswar Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell University.

"Foreign importers would no doubt be happy to pay for their purchases of Russia's exports in a currency that is collapsing in value, although getting access to roubles in a manner that does not fall afoul of sanctions could be tricky," Prasad said.

Getting paid in roubles would do little to secure the hard currencies Russia needs to prop up its currency's value in global markets or pay for imports from other countries, he added.

Graphic: Global gas prices: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/lbvgnmgyzpq/Pasted%20image%201648088570088.png

(Reporting by reporting by Yuka Obayashi, Kantaro Komiya and Ritsuko Shimizu in Tokyo, Heekyong Yang and Joori Roh in Seoul, Jeanny Kao in Taipei and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Writing by Sonali Paul; Editing by Florence Tan and Gerry Doyle)
A land bridge project, which will link the western and eastern parts of the kingdom, could see costs spiral to around SR100 billion ($26 billion) once all factors are accounted for, reported Arab News, citing the the kingdom's minister of transport and logistics.

"The land bridge project is considered the most important project in Saudi Arabia, and it will be a quantum leap in the logistics sector after its completion. The final costs will include infrastructure and trains," stated Saleh Al Jasser.

The contracts will be signed within a year, and the implementation of the project will take 5 to 7 years, Al Jasser said in an interview with Rotana Khalejia.

"We have been working with an international coalition led by a Chinese company and including national companies for two years," stated the minister.

"A complete project plan was drawn up, cost and locations were determined. It will include 7 logistic centres and raise the level of the existing road from Riyadh to the Eastern Province," he added.
C$5-billion transaction marks the largest ever Green Bond in the Canadian dollar market and a paramount development in Canada's sustainable finance market.



Proceeds will support green investments, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing climate resilience, conserving nature and protecting the environment

TORONTO, March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO) (NYSE: BMO) today congratulated the Government of Canada on the successful completion of its inaugural Green Bond transaction and is proud to have acted as a joint-lead manager on this landmark achievement.

The C$5-billion transaction demonstrates Canada's environmental leadership, ensures government expenditures align with Canada's ESG goals and principles, and acts as a catalyst towards the continued development of the sustainable finance market in Canada. The Government of Canada recognizes that sustainable finance plays a key role in accelerating the transition to a cleaner economy, and that mobilizing capital is a critical part of Canada's work to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Nearly 100 investors participated in Canada's debut transaction, with final demand of over C$11 billion. 45 per cent of the transaction was distributed internationally, illustrating the strong appetite for CAD green bonds globally and a true testament to investors' interest for Canada's AAA credit rating.

The Government of Canada Green Bond Framework, developed in accordance with the International Capital Market Association's (ICMA) Green Bond Principles (2021), defines the criteria for the use of proceeds from green bonds as those projects that will facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy and contribute to the climate goals set out by the government.

"We're proud to be a joint lead-manager on the issuance of the first Government of Canada Green Bond," said Jonathan Hackett, Head, Sustainable Finance and Co-Head, Energy Transition Group, BMO Financial Group. "The establishing of a green financing program by the Government will help to accelerate sustainable finance adoption in Canada and is strongly aligned with BMO's Climate Ambition and our Purpose to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life."

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BMO is a recognized sustainability leader

Carbon neutral in its own operations since 2010, BMO announced its Climate Ambition in March 2021 with a commitment to deploy $300 billion in sustainable lending and underwriting to companies pursuing sustainable outcomes by 2025. BMO is focused on being its clients' lead partner in their transition to a net zero world and, since December 2019, has completed green and sustainability-linked loans for companies in a range of sectors, with targets including decarbonization, diversity & inclusion, and health and safety. To support clients' pursuit of opportunities driven by the increasing momentum of the global economy's shift in production and consumption of energy, in 2021 BMO established a dedicated Energy Transition Group and the BMO Climate Institute.

BMO's leadership on sustainability has been recognized on a number of rankings, including the Wall Street Journal's 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies in the World, Corporate Knights' Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World Index, and Ethisphere Institute's list of the World's Most Ethical Companies.

For more information on BMO's commitment to a sustainable future, please visit the bank's latest Sustainability Report. To learn more about sustainable finance at BMO click here. For BMO's climate ambition, visit its Climate page.

About BMO Financial Group

Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $1.02 trillion as of January 31, 2022, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

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SOURCE BMO Financial Group
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review for a group of China BanksGlobal Credit Research - 24 Mar 2022New York, March 24, 2022 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings -and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical units for the rated entities listed below.The review was conducted through a portfolio review discussion held on 17 March 2022 in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. A possible outcome from periodic reviews is a referral of a rating to a rating committee.This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement.Key Rating ConsiderationsThe principal methodology used for this review was Banks Methodology published in July 2021. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.Key rating considerations on a forward-looking basis may include but are not limited to the following summarized below.Asset Risk: a bank's asset risk is fundamental to creditworthiness because banks have high leverage, which implies that a small deterioration in asset value has a large effect on solvency. Credit quality problems are typically at the root of most bank failures, even though these problems can take a variety of forms, for example a deteriorating value of the loan collateral, resulting in higher losses. Asset risk includes a bank's other assets as well may also be vulnerable to other non-lending risk including market risk and operational risk.Capital: asset risk and the need for capital go hand in hand. The greater the risk of unexpected loss, the more capital a bank needs to hold in order to retain the confidence of creditors, which enables the bank to fund itself and to shield bondholders from loss.Profitability: profitability is an important indicator of an institution's ability to generate capital, and is hence another measure of its ability to absorb losses and recover from shocks. A bank with weak or negative profitability has less ability to absorb asset risks than one with strong internal capital generation capacity, other things being equal.Funding Structure: a bank's funding structure has a strong bearing on its probability of failure or requiring assistance, because some sources of funds are less reliable than others. A bank that makes significant use of an unreliable funding source  perhaps short-term in nature, or from particularly risk-sensitive counterparties  is more likely to suffer periodic difficulties in refinancing its debt, putting it at greater risk of needing support.Liquid resources: to provide a full picture of liquidity, an assessment of the funding structure of a bank has to be viewed in the context of the composition of its assets. Liquid resources are enhanced when a bank has high-quality liquid assets that can both be readily sold or pledged for cash in private markets in response to its funding counterparts' changing behavior, or that can in extremis be repoed with central banks under standard terms.Qualitative considerations: There are occasionally other bank-specific considerations that we believe can influence core fundamentals. These additional factors are typically qualitative in nature, although in some cases our assessments may be informed by certain quantitative indicators. These factors include Business Diversification, Opacity and Complexity and Corporate Behavior.The bank ratings are ultimately derived from the application of our Support and Structural Analysis, which comprises the following:Affiliate Support, where an entity may be supported by other entities within a group, or occasionally affiliated third parties, thus reducing its probability of default.Loss Given Failure (LGF), where we undertake a liability-side analysis to assess the impact of a failure  absent government support  in terms of the potential resultant loss on the bank's rated debt instruments. We also incorporate instrument-specific coupon features.Government Support, where an entity may be supported by public bodies, such as local, regional, national, or supranational institutions, again reducing the risk for some or all instruments. We assess this using our JDA framework.This announcement applies only to Rated Entities with EU rated, UK rated, EU endorsed and UK endorsed ratings. Rated Entities, with Non EU rated, non UK rated, non EU endorsed and non UK endorsed ratings may be referenced herein to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.Please see the Issuer page on www.moodys.com, for each of the ratings covered, most updated credit rating action, rating history, and Credit Rating action Press Release including the rating rationale and factors that could lead to a rating upgrade or downgrade.List of Issuers/Rated Entities Agricultural Bank of China Limited Bank of China Limited Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. Bank of Nanjing Co., Ltd. Bank of Ningbo Co., Ltd. Bank of Shanghai Co., Ltd. Bank of Suzhou Co., Ltd. China Bohai Bank Co., Ltd. China CITIC Bank Corporation Limited China Construction Bank Corporation China Everbright Bank Company Limited China Guangfa Bank Co., Ltd. China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. China Zheshang Bank Co., Ltd. Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. DBS Bank (China) Limited E. Sun Bank (China) Limited Fubon Bank (China) Co., Ltd. Hang Seng Bank (China) Limited HSBC Bank (China) Company Limited Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. Metropolitan Bank (China) Ltd. MUFG Bank (China), Ltd. Ping An Bank Co., Ltd Postal Savings Bank of China Co., Ltd. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank Corp Ltd WeBank Co., Ltd.This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history. Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653  2022 Moodys Corporation, Moodys Investors Service, Inc., Moodys Analytics, Inc. and/or their licensors and affiliates (collectively, MOODYS). All rights reserved.CREDIT RATINGS ISSUED BY MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS AFFILIATES ARE THEIR CURRENT OPINIONS OF THE RELATIVE FUTURE CREDIT RISK OF ENTITIES, CREDIT COMMITMENTS, OR DEBT OR DEBT-LIKE SECURITIES, AND MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND INFORMATION PUBLISHED BY MOODYS (COLLECTIVELY, PUBLICATIONS) MAY INCLUDE SUCH CURRENT OPINIONS. MOODYS DEFINES CREDIT RISK AS THE RISK THAT AN ENTITY MAY NOT MEET ITS CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS AS THEY COME DUE AND ANY ESTIMATED FINANCIAL LOSS IN THE EVENT OF DEFAULT OR IMPAIRMENT. SEE APPLICABLE MOODYS RATING SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS PUBLICATION FOR INFORMATION ON THE TYPES OF CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS ADDRESSED BY MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS. CREDIT RATINGS DO NOT ADDRESS ANY OTHER RISK, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LIQUIDITY RISK, MARKET VALUE RISK, OR PRICE VOLATILITY. CREDIT RATINGS, NON-CREDIT ASSESSMENTS (ASSESSMENTS), AND OTHER OPINIONS INCLUDED IN MOODYS PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT STATEMENTS OF CURRENT OR HISTORICAL FACT. MOODYS PUBLICATIONS MAY ALSO INCLUDE QUANTITATIVE MODEL-BASED ESTIMATES OF CREDIT RISK AND RELATED OPINIONS OR COMMENTARY PUBLISHED BY MOODYS ANALYTICS, INC. AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DO NOT CONSTITUTE OR PROVIDE INVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE, AND MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT AND DO NOT PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO PURCHASE, SELL, OR HOLD PARTICULAR SECURITIES. MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DO NOT COMMENT ON THE SUITABILITY OF AN INVESTMENT FOR ANY PARTICULAR INVESTOR. MOODYS ISSUES ITS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS AND OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLISHES ITS PUBLICATIONS WITH THE EXPECTATION AND UNDERSTANDING THAT EACH INVESTOR WILL, WITH DUE CARE, MAKE ITS OWN STUDY AND EVALUATION OF EACH SECURITY THAT IS UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR PURCHASE, HOLDING, OR SALE.MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS, AND PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY RETAIL INVESTORS AND IT WOULD BE RECKLESS AND INAPPROPRIATE FOR RETAIL INVESTORS TO USE MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS OR PUBLICATIONS WHEN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION. IF IN DOUBT YOU SHOULD CONTACT YOUR FINANCIAL OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVISER.ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS PROTECTED BY LAW, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, COPYRIGHT LAW, AND NONE OF SUCH INFORMATION MAY BE COPIED OR OTHERWISE REPRODUCED, REPACKAGED, FURTHER TRANSMITTED, TRANSFERRED, DISSEMINATED, REDISTRIBUTED OR RESOLD, OR STORED FOR SUBSEQUENT USE FOR ANY SUCH PURPOSE, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN ANY FORM OR MANNER OR BY ANY MEANS WHATSOEVER, BY ANY PERSON WITHOUT MOODYS PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT.MOODYS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY ANY PERSON AS A BENCHMARK AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED FOR REGULATORY PURPOSES AND MUST NOT BE USED IN ANY WAY THAT COULD RESULT IN THEM BEING CONSIDERED A BENCHMARK.All information contained herein is obtained by MOODYS from sources believed by it to be accurate and reliable. Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error as well as other factors, however, all information contained herein is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. MOODY'S adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses in assigning a credit rating is of sufficient quality and from sources MOODY'S considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent third-party sources. However, MOODYS is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate information received in the rating process or in preparing its Publications.To the extent permitted by law, MOODYS and its directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors and suppliers disclaim liability to any person or entity for any indirect, special, consequential, or incidental losses or damages whatsoever arising from or in connection with the information contained herein or the use of or inability to use any such information, even if MOODYS or any of its directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors or suppliers is advised in advance of the possibility of such losses or damages, including but not limited to: (a) any loss of present or prospective profits or (b) any loss or damage arising where the relevant financial instrument is not the subject of a particular credit rating assigned by MOODYS.To the extent permitted by law, MOODYS and its directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors and suppliers disclaim liability for any direct or compensatory losses or damages caused to any person or entity, including but not limited to by any negligence (but excluding fraud, willful misconduct or any other type of liability that, for the avoidance of doubt, by law cannot be excluded) on the part of, or any contingency within or beyond the control of, MOODYS or any of its directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors or suppliers, arising from or in connection with the information contained herein or the use of or inability to use any such information.NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OF ANY CREDIT RATING, ASSESSMENT, OTHER OPINION OR INFORMATION IS GIVEN OR MADE BY MOODYS IN ANY FORM OR MANNER WHATSOEVER.Moodys Investors Service, Inc., a wholly-owned credit rating agency subsidiary of Moodys Corporation (MCO), hereby discloses that most issuers of debt securities (including corporate and municipal bonds, debentures, notes and commercial paper) and preferred stock rated by Moodys Investors Service, Inc. have, prior to assignment of any credit rating, agreed to pay to Moodys Investors Service, Inc. for credit ratings opinions and services rendered by it fees ranging from $1,000 to approximately $5,000,000. MCO and Moodys Investors Service also maintain policies and procedures to address the independence of Moodys Investors Service credit ratings and credit rating processes. Information regarding certain affiliations that may exist between directors of MCO and rated entities, and between entities who hold credit ratings from Moodys Investors Service and have also publicly reported to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%, is posted annually at www.moodys.com under the heading Investor Relations  Corporate Governance  Director and Shareholder Affiliation Policy.Additional terms for Australia only: Any publication into Australia of this document is pursuant to the Australian Financial Services License of MOODYS affiliate, Moodys Investors Service Pty Limited ABN 61 003 399 657AFSL 336969 and/or Moodys Analytics Australia Pty Ltd ABN 94 105 136 972 AFSL 383569 (as applicable). This document is intended to be provided only to wholesale clients within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001. By continuing to access this document from within Australia, you represent to MOODYS that you are, or are accessing the document as a representative of, a wholesale client and that neither you nor the entity you represent will directly or indirectly disseminate this document or its contents to retail clients within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001. MOODYS credit rating is an opinion as to the creditworthiness of a debt obligation of the issuer, not on the equity securities of the issuer or any form of security that is available to retail investors.Additional terms for Japan only: Moody's Japan K.K. (MJKK) is a wholly-owned credit rating agency subsidiary of Moody's Group Japan G.K., which is wholly-owned by Moodys Overseas Holdings Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MCO. Moodys SF Japan K.K. (MSFJ) is a wholly-owned credit rating agency subsidiary of MJKK. MSFJ is not a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO). Therefore, credit ratings assigned by MSFJ are Non-NRSRO Credit Ratings. Non-NRSRO Credit Ratings are assigned by an entity that is not a NRSRO and, consequently, the rated obligation will not qualify for certain types of treatment under U.S. laws. MJKK and MSFJ are credit rating agencies registered with the Japan Financial Services Agency and their registration numbers are FSA Commissioner (Ratings) No. 2 and 3 respectively.MJKK or MSFJ (as applicable) hereby disclose that most issuers of debt securities (including corporate and municipal bonds, debentures, notes and commercial paper) and preferred stock rated by MJKK or MSFJ (as applicable) have, prior to assignment of any credit rating, agreed to pay to MJKK or MSFJ (as applicable) for credit ratings opinions and services rendered by it fees ranging from JPY100,000 to approximately JPY550,000,000.MJKK and MSFJ also maintain policies and procedures to address Japanese regulatory requirements. 
OTTAWA, ON, March 24, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) today declared dividends of $995 million to its shareholder, the Government of Canada.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation logo (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

CMHC's Board of Directors approved dividend payments of $250 million from our Mortgage Insurance business and $145 million from Mortgage Funding activities, as well as a special dividend of $600 million from Mortgage Insurance. The dividends are to be paid to the Government of Canada no later than April 30, 2022.

The dividend strikes the right balance between returning some excess capital to the Government of Canada and retaining sufficient capital to protect against economic factors that could impact our business. Strong risk management and financial stewardship come from making choices. By returning some excess capital to our shareholder, we enable the Government of Canada to use the funds to support Canadians where it is needed most.

CMHC supports the housing market and financial system stability by providing support for Canadians in housing need, and by offering housing research and advice to all orders of Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. For more information, follow us on Twitter , YouTube , LinkedIn , Facebook and Instagram .

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

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Cast of Shang-Chi to appear at The ACE Experience @ Awesome Con

NEW YORK, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ACE Universe and LeftField Media are proud to announce an exciting collaboration for a first-of-its-kind co-location, The ACE Experience @ Awesome Con, happening June 3, 4 and 5, 2022 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Awesome Con , the Mid-Atlantic's premiere pop culture convention, welcomes new partner ACE Universe to bring fans even more energetic programming, globally recognized special guests and one-of-a-kind experiences.

"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" stars Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Menger Zhang (Xialing) and Florian Munteanu (Razor Fist) will be attending The ACE Experience @ Awesome Con on Saturday, June 4, 2022.

The initial guest lineup featured in The ACE Experience are Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings stars Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Meng'er Zhang (Xialing) and Florian Munteanu (Razor Fist). General Admission tickets to Awesome Con are required for entry and are available for sale now by visiting here . Photo Ops and Autograph tickets for The ACE Experience will be available for purchase starting Tuesday, March 29 at 1 p.m. ET via here .

This partnership comes as the first announcement of what is planned to be a long-term and deeper relationship between the two Comic Con powerhouses.

"We've known the folks over at LeftField Media for over 10 years and we discuss working with one another every year or so, but now the time feels right," says Stephen Shamus, ACE Universe President. "We believe that LeftField Media is the premier showrunner in the industry, and nobody runs a more professional event. The combination of their expertise and our ability to provide the greatest VIP guests in Comic Con history is monumental."

Operating within the Awesome Con show floor, The ACE Experience will bring fans many of the same experiences they've come to know and love from ACE Comic Con including Celebrity Photo Ops, In-Person Autographs and a Q&A from the celebrities in attendance.

Now in its ninth year, Awesome Con returns to unite fans at one of the largest pop culture events in the country with celebrities and experts hosting panels; cosplay contests; gaming tournaments; iconic pop culture memorabilia; and as always, a diverse array of activities for the entire family. The ACE Experience joins a robust lineup of guests, a full list of which can be found here .

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"This is an opportunity for us to continue to provide our fans with top-notch entertainment and ACE Universe is helping us elevate the Awesome Con experience to new levels this year," shares Kelly Comboni, LeftField Media President. "We've always admired the programming that ACE Universe delivers and we look forward to combining our talents."

Tickets to Awesome Con are available now at AwesomeCon.com where exciting programming regarding guest announcements, special exhibits, and exclusive panels is updated regularly.

Connect with us and follow Awesome Con on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram , and ACE Universe on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

ABOUT ACE UNIVERSE

ACE Universe is a New York-based multi-media and experiential events company founded by Gareb and Stephen Shamus, who are the world's most innovative producers of Comic Con events. Gareb is a leading pop-culture expert, founder of the largest Comic Con tour in the world, an original producer of national Comic Cons and publisher of multiple award-winning magazines published in 75 countries worldwide. Stephen has personally produced over 175 Comic Con events, booked thousands of celebrity guests and played host to millions of happy fans. In addition to producing premium events, ACE Universe has launched a new service, ACE Signatures Send-In Service Today (ASSIST), connecting fans to their favorite celebrities through the on-going pandemic. Fans can view content from previous events and our virtual talent Q&As on www.youtube.com/ACEUniverseComicCon and engage with us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter @acecomiccon.

ABOUT LEFTFIELD MEDIA

LeftField Media, LLC is an events company focused on developing face-to-face events in a range of communities rooted in contemporary culture and shared passion. LeftField was formed in 2014 by Greg Topalian (President, LeftField Media) and is now owned by Topalian and Clarion Events Ltd. With a keen sense of the evolving needs of businesses and their consumers, as well as new opportunities created by change, LeftField takes a clean slate approach to its work. LeftField's portfolio includes Awesome Con (awesomecon.com), Washington D.C.'s Comic Con; Rose City Comic Con (rosecitycomiccon.com), in Portland, OR; Anime NYC (animenyc.com), New York City's Japanese pop culture festival; and Anime Frontier (animefrontier.com) in Dallas-Fort Worth. Additionally, LFM is Crunchyroll's official partner in building Crunchyroll Expo (crunchyrollexpo.com). LeftField Media is headquartered in Shelton, CT (leftfieldmedia.com).

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SOURCE ACE Universe
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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Thursday, March 24, 2022! I am happy to report that Haje is taking on the days startups section, as he will be sharing the Daily Crunch writing load starting next week (along with Christine)! A big thanks to the two of them for jumping in and taking on this lovely letter.

Before we start the news rundown, a few house announcements. Our newest podcast, Chain Reaction, is now live! Its focused on the crypto world and features Lucas Matney and Anita Ramaswamy. And from the events world, early-bird pricing on TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility is coming to a close soon, and you can register for our upcoming Austin shindig here. Now, to work! - Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

Lapsus$ hacking group hit with arrests: After it became news that a minor might be at the center of the Lapsus$ hacker group, U.K. police made seven arrests. The world of cybercrime is lucrative, but the arrests underscore that governments do find some of the malefactors trying to extort money from companies and individuals alike.

Instacart turns to software: Few companies had a better pandemic than Instacart. The company posted rocket-ship growth during COVID-19s opening year as consumers turned to its service to get groceries brought to their homes while under lockdown. Then in 2021, the companys growth moderated. To reignite growth, and generate perhaps higher-margin revenues, Instacart released a software suite this week. Our first read is that the news makes a lot of sense.

Russia is blocking Google News: Search giant Google confirmed that Russians are having problems accessing its news aggregator service, Google News, in the country. The move comes after the Russian government blocked other non-Russian tech companies inside its borders. Given that internet access restrictions and authoritarianism go hand-in-hand, the news is not a massive surprise. But it does underscore the widening digital fallout of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Startups and VC

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The startup ecosystem has traditionally been less-than-friendly to women founders and investors, but Mimi Aboubaker argues things arent as dire as the common narrative seems to indicate. We still have a ways to go, but a deep dive into the data shows that were making a smidge of progress.

Valuations are valuable  theres a trend going around where people are sharing their salaries with their co-workers, in part to keep the bosses honest about gender pay gaps. We are seeing a similar trend among startups sharing their valuations. Simetrik raising at a $100 million valuation, Digits raising at half a billion, and RapidAPI raising at a billion are some recent examples. Trust me; your competitors will know what valuation you raised at anyway, and you may help along some of your fellow entrepreneurs by sharing the valuations of your fundraise with reporters. (And journalists love it!)

As a fan of circular hardware, it pleases me that Oura is continuing its quest toward creating a ring to rule them all, a ring to find them, a ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie, the company today announced it has shipped its millionth ring. My precious.

Other awesome things happening across the startup ecosystem:

Oh, and dont miss Brians excellent Actuator newsletter, released today, which scans the world of robotics for signs of self-awareness, just in case we have to start gearing up for a Skynet invasion. Subscribe to that  and all other TC newsletters  here!

Using data to solve key pain points for todays banking customers

Illustration of fingers in mousetrap against colored background representing trapped

Image Credits: Malte Mueller (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Banks and fintechs have access to more data than ever, but many of the benefits have flowed in one direction.

Inflation and stagnant wages limit consumers ability to save, but services like buy now, pay later make it much easier to spend.

To give customers more financial support, "modern banks can use data and build trust to improve consumer financial health," writes Uday Akkaraju, CEO of fintech firm Bond.ai.

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

We often begin our startup coverage with a group, so why not do the same with our Big Tech notes today? Lets talk about mobility. First up, Uber has landed a deal of sorts to list taxis in its app in New York City. The Uber-versus-taxi saga has been long, winding and complex. But I did not see this bit of news coming, frankly. Next up, LG is going to boost battery production in the United States with a $1.4 billion investment, which seems like good news. And Bird, the recently public e-scooter company, is testing solutions for folks who need other options for getting around. Which we are more than here for.
Future Market Insights Global and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Market to Reach US$ 20 Bn by 2030 Amidst Rising Environmental Concerns

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The electrified aircraft propulsion market share is expected to reach US$ 6 Bn in 2021 and US$ 20 Bn by 2030, with a CAGR of 14.3% during the projected timeline. The adoption of cleaner and greener aircraft, advancements in sophisticated air mobility, and alternative energy sources are all driving the demand for electrified aircraft propulsion forward.

Attributes Details Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Market CAGR (2022  2032) 14.3% Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Market (2021) US$ 6 Bn Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Market (2030) US$ 20 Bn

Owing to the announced lockdowns and government restrictions on public meetings owing to the COVID-19 epidemic, research and development in the electrified aircraft propulsion market have been impeded around the world.

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The pandemic has slowed the production of components, including lithium-ion batteries and other power electronics parts. As the globe returns to normalcy, the sales of electrified aircraft propulsion will see a significant rise.

The shortage of replacement parts is hindering continued prototype research and development. Due to the current constraints, companies are unable to test their prepared prototypes, but this is expected to restart once the restrictions on aircraft propulsion are lifted.

With the growing size of the global aircraft fleet and increased airline travel, emission issues are expected to climb even more.

As a result, there is a desire for electrified aircraft, which is likely to aid in the reduction of carbon emissions. Institutions and local authorities such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency have called for viable aircraft fuel alternatives.

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Manufacturers strive to change effectiveness by substituting hydraulically operated systems with electric systems in the electrification of aircraft.

The poor energy density of batteries is one of the most significant issues that electric aircraft manufacturers confront when it comes to long-distance flights. The watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) unit of measurement for aircraft propulsion is commonly used.

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The current lithium-ion batteries have an energy density of 250 Wh/kg, which is far lower than the 12,000 Wh/kg energy density offered by conventional jet fuel or kerosene. As a result, all-electric long-haul commercial flights are still a long way off, as fossil fuels are 14 times more energy-dense than battery-powered alternatives.

Some of the major factors driving the growth of the global aircraft electrification market are an increase in global government concerns about environmental pollution, stringent rules regarding carbon emissions through airplanes by the aircraft industry to reduce aircraft noise, and low operational costs.

Electric aircraft's restricted range and capacity, on the other hand, are projected to hinder market expansion. On the other hand, advancements in superior power electronics components and Lithium-ion battery technology are expected to open up the attractive potential for the electrified aircraft propulsion market.

Key Takeaways

With a market dominance of 24.3 percent in 2021, the battery sector is anticipated to drive the electrified aircraft propulsion market over the projected period.

According to technology, the hybrid electric aircraft segment of the aircraft electrification market is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.

From 2021 through 2030, the North American market is expected to contribute the most. The increasing demand for new airplanes in North America is one of the main reasons for the region's leadership in the electrified aircraft propulsion market.

Turbogenerators for powering electric motors and batteries, electric actuators, and fly-by-wire are among the latest innovative technologies in the aviation electrification business.

For More Information or Query or Customization Before Buying, Visit: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-14414

Competitive Landscape

To consolidate their power in the electrified aircraft propulsion market, key players have used a variety of organic and inorganic techniques.

Safran, Thales Group, Raytheon Technologies, and GE Aviation have used a number of strategies to expand their market position, including acquisitions, contracts, new product launches, collaborations, and agreements.

Recent Developments

GE Aviation chose Boeing in February 2022 to assist flying tests of their hybrid-electric propulsion system on a modified Saab 340B aircraft with CT7-9B turboprop engines.

GE Aviation will get airplane modification, system integration, and flight-testing services from Boeing and its affiliate Aurora Flight Sciences.

MagniX and DESAER, a Brazilian aviation business, established cooperation in February 2022 to develop the ATL-100H, a hybrid-electric version of the ATL-100 regional aircraft.

Depending on the range of operation, the ATL-100H is predicted to save 25-40% of gasoline, which is a considerable reduction in carbon emissions. The hybrid-electric aircraft ATL-100H's revolutionary design is the first step toward DESAER's goal of developing an all-electric aircraft, addressing the world's growing recognition of the need to advance sustainable aviation practices.

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Explore wide-ranging Coverage of FMI's Oil and Gas Market Insights Landscape

Traction Batteries Market  The demand for traction batteries is estimated to surpass US$ 72 Bn by 2032, expanding at a staggering CAGR of 12% over the forecast period 2022-2032.

Clean Coal Technology Market  The global clean coal technology market is estimated to exceed US$ 5.4 Bn by the end of 2032. The demand for clean coal technology is expected to total US$ 3.8 Bn by 2022, exhibiting growth at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period 2022-2032.

Modular Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS) Market  According to the Future Market Insights report, the modular uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) market is anticipated to increase from USD 3.7 billion in 2020 to USD 6.0 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.3% throughout the projected period.

Carbon Capture and Storage Market  The global carbon capture and storage market is forecast to reach around US$ 4.2 Billion in 2022. With rising adoption of carbon capture and storage technologies across the world, the overall demand is slated to increase at over 14% CAGR from 2022 to 2032, totaling a valuation of around US$ 9 Billion by 2032.

Green UPS Market  Global green UPS demand is anticipated to increase at a substantial rate over the forecast period from 2022 to 2032

North and Central America Proppant Market  North and Central America Proppant demand is estimated to surpass US$ 1.1 Bn by 2022. The sales in the market is expected to total US$ 1.86 Bn by the end of 2032,

Protective Relay Market  Insights revealed by the assessment on the Protective Relay Market portray substantial gains, with the market expanding at around 5.5% to 6.5% CAGR from 2021 to 2031.

Traction Transformer Market  Insights revealed by the assessment on the Traction Transformer Market portray substantial gains, with the market expanding at around 4.5% to 5.5% CAGR from 2021 to 2031.

Portable Fuel Cells Market  According to latest research estimates, portable fuel cells market is projected to witness lucrative growth over the coming decade.

Portable Power Station Market  According to research estimates, Portable Power Station Market is predicted to witness robust growth in the next decade i.e. 2021-2031.

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OTTAWA, ON, March 24, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada is a global leader in the production of North American ginseng and it plays an important role in the economy as the largest field grown horticultural exports. Today, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced an investment of up to $849,192 to the Ontario Ginseng Growers Association for several activities through the AgriMarketing program.

This funding will help solidify Ontario Ginseng as a leading supplier of farmed North American ginseng, while contributing to the local economy and increasing Canadian agriculture exports for the industry. The project aims to increase and diversify exports to international markets and seize domestic market opportunities through industry-led promotional activities.

These activities will help differentiate Canadian products and producers, and leverage Canada's reputation for high-quality and safe food while supporting the brand reputation of North American ginseng. The Ontario Ginseng Growers Association will achieve these goals through market analysis of new and existing markets such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, India, Vietnam and other European markets.

In addition, this investment will also help to promote growth opportunities in new markets by increasing Ontario Ginseng Growers Association's on-line presence and educating consumers about the superior quality of Ontario grown Ginseng.

This strategic investment in Canadian-grown ginseng will help the sector enter new markets, build its competitive advantage, and contribute to the Government of Canada's goal of growing Canada's annual agriculture and food exports to $75 billion by 2025.

Quotes

"The increased demand for Canadian ginseng is bringing significant economic benefits to producers and their communities. This project will allow the Ontario Ginseng Growers Association to further develop the reputation of Canadian ginseng and expand its market prospects around the world."

- The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

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"The match funding provided through the Agri-Marketing program for the 2021-2023 term comes at a crucial time for the Ontario Ginseng Growers Association. The financial contribution the ginseng industry makes to Canada's export economy as well as the local economy has been hampered by geo-political tensions and pandemic lockdowns. This funding allows the association the opportunity to expand awareness in new and diverse markets. With increased concern for health & wellness world-wide, the OGGA is better positioned to promote to the health conscious; the benefits of including Canadian ginseng in their daily lives."

- Rebecca Coates, Executive Director, Ontario Ginseng Growers Association

Quick Facts

90 per cent of Canadian-grown ginseng is exported, and 95 per cent of those exports are destined for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where ginseng is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. New markets are emerging in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, India and Vietnam where focus on physical well being is increasing.

North American ginseng is native to Canada and is one of our oldest trades. Ginseng was found growing in the early 1700s near Montreal by a Jesuit Priest and has been traded for more than 300 years.

With more than 150 growers, the OGGA has the largest production of North American ginseng in the world.The Ontario Ginseng Growers Association (OGGA) is a non-profit organization representing producers of Panax quinquefolius who grow, harvest and sell the root.

The AgriMarketing Program, under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, aims to increase and diversify exports to international markets and seize domestic market opportunities through industry-led promotional activities that differentiate Canadian products and producers, and leverage Canada's reputation for high-quality and safe food.

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3 billion investment by federal-provincial and territorial governments, which will strengthen the agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector, ensuring continued innovation, growth and prosperity.

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Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE

Paris, Amsterdam, March 24, 2022

Press release

Holding conditions for the Combined General Meeting of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE on May 11, 2022, availability of its explanatory documentation and the 2021 Universal Registration Document

The Combined General Meeting of shareholders of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE will be held at Palais des Congres de Paris (2, place de la Porte Maillot, Espace Ternes - 75017 Paris, France) on Wednesday May 11, 2022, at 10:30 am.

Given the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, shareholders are invited to regularly consult the sectiondedicated to the General Meeting on the Company's website www.urw.com , which could be updated to specify, if applicable, the organizational arrangements for this General Meeting according to health and/or legal requirements.

The formal notice to shareholders (Avis de reunion a lAssemblee Generale) will be published on March 25, 2022, in the BALO (Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires) and will set out the Combined General Meeting agenda, the proposed resolutions, as well as the terms and conditions for voting at this General Meeting.

The 2021 Universal Registration Document of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE was filed today with the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers).

The 2021 Universal Registration Document includes:

the 2021 annual financial report,

the report of the Supervisory Board on the Corporate Governance,

the 2021 management report,

the remuneration report and the remuneration policy of the members of the Management Board and of the Supervisory Board,

the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report,

the description of the share buy-back program.

The explanatory documentation regarding this Combined General Meeting and the 2021 Universal Registration Document are available on request, in compliance with the laws and regulations in force, as well as on the www.urw.com website (under Investors/General Meetings).

For further information, please contact:

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Investor Relations

Maarten Otte

+33 7 63 86 88 78

Maarten.Ott e @urw.com

Media Relations

Nathalie Feld  Image 7

+ 33 6 30 47 18 37

nfeld@image7.fr

Cornelia Schnepf  FinElk

+44 7387 108 998

Cornelia.Schnepf@finelk.eu

About Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is the premier global developer and operator of Flagship Destinations, with a portfolio valued at 54.5 Bn as at December 31, 2021, of which 86% in retail, 6% in offices, 5% in convention & exhibition venues and 2% in services. Currently, the Group owns and operates 85 shopping centres, including 53 Flagships in the most dynamic cities in Europe and the United States. Present on 2 continents and in 12 countries, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield provides a unique platform for retailers and brand events and offers an exceptional and constantly renewed experience for customers.

With the support of its 2,800 professionals and an unparalleled track-record and know-how, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is ideally positioned to generate superior value and develop world-class projects.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield distinguishes itself by its Better Places 2030 agenda, that sets its ambition to create better places that respect the highest environmental standards and contribute to better cities.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stapled shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris (Euronext ticker: URW), with a secondary listing in Australia through Chess Depositary Interests. The Group benefits from an BBB+ rating from Standard & Poors and from a Baa2 rating from Moodys.

For more information, please visit www.urw.com

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Follow the Group updates on Twitter @urw_group , Linkedin @Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Instagram @urw_group

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Motley Fool

Shares of Nio (NYSE: NIO), the Chinese electric vehicle marker, were tumbling this morning as investors digested two pieces of negative news: ongoing fears that some Chinese stocks could be delisted from U.S. exchanges and an analyst's price target cut for one of Nio's competitors. First up, Nio investors may be a bit nervous today after the Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Global said that it's being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission about its IPO last year. Didi didn't disclose many details about the probe, but it comes on the heels of the Chinese government cracking down on U.S.-listed Chinese stocks.
Khalifa University has partnered with Coursera, one of the largest online platforms in the world, making its rich and relevant content accessible to Coursera learners worldwide.

Khalifa University, an internationally ranked research-intensive university located in Abu Dhabi, will launch six Specialisations on Coursera in the second half of 2022, including Machine Learning and Deep Learning Methods: From Data to Decisions; Artificial Intelligence for Executives; and Introduction to Digital Design FPGA Based Training.

The university will also offer courses targeted to a broader audience, including Arabic for Beginners and Online Course Development Processes. These courses have been carefully curated to align with the skills development agendas of the UAE and broader Middle East region.

Accelerating knowledge economy

We are excited to join forces with Coursera to equip learners in the region, and beyond, with the essential digital skills they need to contribute to the accelerating knowledge economy, said Dr Ahmed Al Shoaibi, Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Services at Khalifa University.

With the addition of Khalifa University, alongside Al Faisal University and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) in Saudi Arabia, and Jordan University of Science and Technology (Just) in Jordan, Coursera has doubled its number of university partners in the Middle East.

Coursera currently serves the needs of over 5.5 million learners in the Middle East, and offers a continuously expanding catalogue of world-class content, which currently includes over 2,000 courses in Arabic. The companys right-to-left functionalities make navigating Coursera in Arabic a more seamless experience for enterprise learners. These features enhance readability across the companys homepage, search and browse, assessments, grades, notes, transcripts, and e-mails.

Learners in the region have embraced online learning at a greater pace since the beginning of the pandemic -- over 1.4 million new Middle Eastern learners enrolled across the region in 2021. By expanding our range of partnerships with some of the regions pioneers in higher education, we look forward to continuing to deliver transformational, relevant learning to everyone, said Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer, Coursera.-- TradeArabia News Service
By Giuseppe Fonte and Francesca Landini

ROME, March 24 (Reuters) - Italy's Treasury has picked Equita and Gianni & Origoni as financial and legal advisers for the sale of stakes in ITA Airways, two sources close to the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as Rome intensifies efforts to find strategic partners for the carrier.

ITA took over from Alitalia in October, permanently grounding the 75-year-old, one-time symbol of Italian style and glamour after years of financial losses and failed rescue attempts.

Shipping group MSC and Germany's Lufthansa have expressed interest in buying a majority stake in ITA and are waiting to gain formal access to sensitive data on the state-owned airline.

The government, which is entitled to inject 1.35 billion euros ($1.48 billion) into the carrier over three years as agreed with European Union authorities, approved a decree on February listing ways to sell ITA Airways under an open and market-based procedure.

Rome prefers to keep the door open to other potential suitors, government officials told Reuters at the time.

Economy Minister Daniele Franco told parliament on Thursday that the ministry had picked advisers, without providing details.

Asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, the sources said the advisers were Equita and Gianni & Origoni.

They were not immediately available for comment.

"The progressive strengthening of ITA's activities, together with the presence of several parties apparently interested in acquiring it, should ensure the success of the sale," Franco said.

Under the government decree, the Treasury plans to privatise ITA through a direct sale or a public offer while retaining a minority, non-controlling stake in a first stage.

Governance agreements between the Treasury and the prospective partners will make it possible to pursue ITA's industrial targets.

In past decades, Alitalia tried and failed to clinch alliances with Air France, and more recently, Gulf airline Etihad.

Delta Air Lines Inc last week said it wanted to deepen its commercial ties with ITA Airways but was not interested in taking an equity stake in the carrier.

($1 = 0.9103 euros) (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome and Francesca Landini in Milan; Editing by Leslie Adler)
NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 24, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LBMC Investment Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisory firm with $1.9 billion in Assets Under Management, proudly announces that Managing Partner Greg Herman has been named a Barrons Top 1,200 Financial Advisor in 2022.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005251/en/

LBMC Investment Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisory firm with $1.9 billion in Assets Under Management, proudly announces that Managing Partner Greg Herman has been named a Barrons Top 1,200 Financial Advisor in 2022. (Photo: Business Wire)

Barrons ranks its Top 1,200 Financial Advisors list based on assets under management, revenues generated by advisors for their firms, and the quality of the advisors practices. When evaluating advisors for the list, Barrons examines regulatory records, internal company documents and more than 100 data points provided by the advisors themselves.

"I am honored to be recognized on Barrons prestigious Top Financial Advisors list for 2022," said Herman. "We believe the success of LBMC Investment Advisors can be attributed to putting our clients interests first, interacting with them on a fee rather than commission basis, retaining our talent, and avoiding the investment market noise of the day, while leveraging the strength of the LBMC brand and our partnership with the LBMC Family of Companies."

About LBMC Investment Advisors

LBMC Investment Advisors, LLC is a $1.9 Billion in Assets Under Management Registered Investment Advisory firm based in Tennessee with the mission of providing financial peace of mind for clients. A CNBC designated top 25 fee-only wealth management firm and member of the LBMC Family of Companies, LBMC Investment Advisors was founded more than 20 years ago with the value proposition of providing coordinated tax and investment advice. Today, LBMC Investment Advisors serves more than 450 clients and is growing at a rapid clip working with clients in the areas of investment strategy development, asset allocation planning, integrations of investments with tax planning, and portfolio analysis. For more information, visit www.lbmcinvestmentadvisors.com.

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About the LBMC Family of Companies

LBMC serves 10,000 clients with diverse needs across a spectrum of industries. The LBMC Family of Companies has more than 750 employees, with offices in Chattanooga, Nashville (Brentwood), and Knoxville, TN, and Charlotte, NC. Founded in 1984 as a traditional accounting firm, LBMC has expanded its focus to meet a broad range of advisory and business consulting needs for its diverse client base. Today, we've become industry leaders in financial, human resources, technology, information security, and wealth advisory services for businesses and individuals. For more information, visit lbmc.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005251/en/

Contacts

SUZANNE REED (615) 309-2282, suzannereed@lbmc.com
Machine Gun Kelly has released his new album, Mainstream Sellout (Getty Images)

The mainstreams waiting! Give em what they want! bawls Colson Baker on the title track of Mainstream Sellout. The rapper-turned-rocker duly delivers, knocking out 13 tracks that wrap generic angst around formulaic grunge-pop parcels. Its the kind of thing youd expect to hear in the Vans outlet of your local shopping mall.

This is Bakers sixth album as Machine Gun Kelly and, in a sketchy way, follows the arc of his life to date. We witness his journey from outsider kid (the child of divorced missionaries) through the additional outsidering he experienced as a young celebrity, to the soppy soulmatery hes found with fiancee Megan Fox. The pair have been delighting the press by drinking vials of each others blood and chaining themselves together. The actor  who calls Baker her twin flame  doesnt appear to be bothered by the recently resurfaced comments he made about Black women, or wanting to have sex with Kendall Jenner when he was 23 and she was 17 (the legal age of consent in California is 18).

The riffs throughout this album are catchy enough to keep the beanie heads nodding along. But producer Travis Barker (Blink 182) repeatedly fills out the sound to the extent that the exposing angularity required to express true anxiety is lost. Or maybe this is just an English critics reaction to a punk style that hits home harder in America. All but one of the advance singles from this record have hit the Top 10 of the US charts  but theyve all failed to dent the Top 40 in the UK.

Born With Horns opens on a clatter of drums and a gut-rumbling bass, as MGK describes how his mother and father both left him. Alienate me! Im not the one you want! he roars. Maybe (featuring British metal band Bring Me The Horizon) hammers home the theme: Ignore me, Im f***ed up! It also introduces some on-trend conspiracy stuff about UFOs and the government tapping his phone. Rapper Lil Wayne joins him on Drug Dealer, which pays dark tribute to a girl who supplies him with the Adderall to which he was addicted: Its hard to function when Im without you.

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The title track plays with the idea of the star as a poser with a guitar, like the Cobain-wannabe character MGK plays in new film Taurus. Over a guitar and bass thrashing that leaves every string vibrating to sludge, he sneers at the assumption that hes got it easy as a celebrity, and bangs out the old line about having sold his soul for fame. Things get more hummable on Emo Girl with fellow emo-pop revivalist Willow Smith. The undercurrent of violence is a little unsettling, but its Smith, not Baker, who delivers the lines: Choke-choke-choker on her neck, kiss me/ Holy f***, Im bleeding on your Blink tee.

The sound finally makes a little space around the notes on the mumble-groove of Paper Cut, where Baker snarks about people pretending to be nice. Lil Wayne returns to duet on the mellow bounce of Ay! where we get more sad-star dross: Did an interview with my eyes closed cut my hair like Britney. WW4 is uncomfortably close to geopolitical truth with its enthusiasm for the apocalypse.

Fans looking for the inside track on his romance with Fox need to flip to the final two tracks. Lets hope that despite his lyrical enthusiasm for murder-suicide, he doesnt really want them to end up like Sid and Nancy. In interviews, both stars gush about wandering about beaches while tripping on mushrooms, then coming home to watch Harry Potter movies together. I suspect theyre more like the characters MGK describes on Twin Flame: an acoustic serenade with a Hallmark-punk chorus: Youre too good for me/ Im too bad to keep/ Im too sad, lonely/ I want you only. Its catchy enough. But a bit dull, huh?
McGill is the first university in Canada to join the global platform that will accelerate the development of and expand the impact of mRNA vaccines and medicines

MONTREAL, March 24, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - McGill University has joined Moderna's mRNA Access program, which aims to accelerate innovation and enable new vaccines and medicines for emerging and neglected infectious diseases through collaborative research and preclinical development. McGill is the first university in Canada to join this program as it ramps up its international rollout.

"This partnership is a sign of McGill's strength in core research that changes lives," said Martha Crago, Vice-Principal, Research & Innovation. "We are an acknowledged leader in mRNA, and joining this platform will help us develop vaccines that will protect human health everywhere on the planet."

"Moderna's goal is to create a global community of scientists who leverage our mRNA vaccine technology to develop innovative approaches to address emerging and neglected infectious diseases that pose a risk to public health," said Hamilton Bennett, Senior Director of Vaccine Access and Partnerships, Moderna. "We look forward to working with McGill and our other global partners to prevent future pandemics and help millions of people around the world."

The on-going Covid-19 pandemic introduced the world to mRNA vaccine technology, which has quickly become a potent tool in the effort to contain this virus. However, mRNA research has the potential to provide effective vaccines for a panoply of illnesses, including emerging and neglected contagions.

The mRNA Access program offers researchers an inside track to rapidly prototyping and developing vaccine candidates by enabling institutional partners to use Moderna's state-of-the-art antigen design capabilities. Promising candidates can be brought to a clinical trial stage more rapidly, offering a chance to shorten the development path and bring effective and safe solutions to the populations that need them.

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Anne Gatignol, a senior investigator in the Department of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research is one of the many McGill researchers who will leverage the new platform. The Gatignol lab has identified conserved elements in HIV RNA. Gatignol and her team intend to use Moderna's mRNA Access platform to design novel HIV vaccine candidates based on HIV structural proteins.

"An effective vaccine against HIV remains a major unmet medical need," said Gatignol. "The mRNA Access platform will allow the McGill community to rapidly develop mRNA vaccines against a wide variety of viral infections affecting low-income countries or the entire world, thereby improving global health."

Another avenue enabled by the platform is the development of mRNA medicines against parasitic infections, such as Cryptosporidiosis  of which a major outbreak occurred in the USA in 1993  or Schistosomiasis, a water-borne pathogen that affects more than 250 million people and threatens almost 1 billion people worldwide. These and other parasites are the focus of Momar Ndao, a Professor in the Department of Medicine and a Principal Investigator of the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program (MI4), Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

"For example, there is no FDA approved medicine to treat immunocompromised individuals with Cryptosporidiosis," explained Ndao. "But leveraging the mRNA Access platform offers us a chance to eliminate these diseases and save lives at a global scale, all without adverse effects on the body."

This program provides an opportunity for Canadian researchers and talent to accelerate their research in key areas of public health and infectious disease, including the 15 priority pathogens identified by the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) as being persistent global health threats, but also in other research areas.

SOURCE McGill University

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Don't miss CoinDesk's Consensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12.

Former executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation Bruce Fenton is considering a self-funded run for the Republican nomination for New Hampshires seat in the U.S. Senate.

The long-time bitcoin (BTC) proponent has been active in New Hampshires libertarian movement, the Free State Project, for several years. Though he describes himself as a libertarian, Fenton plans to run as a Republican  he sometimes refers to himself as a Ron Paul Republican.

Fenton told CoinDesk he wants to be an advocate for bitcoin on the federal level, arguing that his deep knowledge of the technology and crypto-related issues would be a boon for the industry. Fenton served as the head of the Bitcoin Foundation, a now-defunct nonprofit organization aimed at legitimizing bitcoin, from April 2015 to July 2016.

Fenton is not the first vocal supporter of crypto to consider running for office. Messari founder Ryan Selkis has been flirting with the idea of a run for U.S. Senate in 2024, ever since Terra founder Do Kwon was served by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at a conference hosted by Messari.

And when they arent running themselves, bitcoiners are throwing money at crypto-friendly candidates such as Democrat Aarika Rhodes, an elementary school teacher trying to unseat Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who has emerged as one of cryptos biggest opponents on Capitol Hill.

Big names (and deep pockets) in crypto, including Custodia Banks (formerly known as Avanti) Caitlin Long and ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees, have already tweeted their support for Fenton.

As the crypto industry continues to grow and face regulatory obstacles, more crypto investors are becoming single-issue voters  a situation Fenton hopes to take advantage of.

Im in favor of limiting government involvement in our lives as much as possible, Fenton said. Whether its crypto or any other issue, I believe government should reduce regulatory burdens and get out of our lives and wallets.

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Fenton told CoinDesk hes opposed to any new crypto regulations.

Lawmakers should tear down existing obstacles rather than building new ones, he said.

The political landscape

If Fenton decides to run, he plans to start his campaign with a self-funded injection of $5 million of personal bitcoin wealth, but told CoinDesk hes open to accepting crypto donations and other types of contributions to his campaign.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), the states incumbent Democrat, is seeking reelection this year. Hassan is widely unpopular among her constituents, however, making her seat vulnerable to a Republican takeover.

New Hampshires Republican governor, Chris Sununu, was strongly expected to run against Hassan for the Senate seat, but declined the opportunity last November, leaving the race open to lesser-known candidates, including state senator Chuck Morse.

Fenton, if he decides to enter the fray, would be a latecomer.

Right now Im talking strategy and support with a great group of folks, Fenton told CoinDesk. Timing is key since the primary is soon. The primary election is slated for Sept. 13.

But, despite the challenges, Fenton believes hes well-positioned to make a positive impact on New Hampshire  and the crypto industry  if elected.

We are facing times of true good and evil, Fenton said, adding Tyranny versus freedom. The violence in Ukraine is a symptom of a larger problem of evil which is manifested in centralized power structures who use violence.

I think bitcoiners have a better-than-average understanding of human rights, freedom and peace. We all have to do all we can to further peace and freedom, he said.

Read more: Crypto Industry Heavyweights Form Political Action Committee
FILE PHOTO: The OPEC logo pictured ahead of an informal meeting between members in Algiers, Algeria

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC officials believe a possible European Union ban on oil from its partner Russia over the invasion of Ukraine would hurt consumers and the group has conveyed its concerns to Brussels, OPEC sources said.

Major OPEC members, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have tried to navigate a neutral course between the West and Moscow, while OPEC+, a grouping that includes Russia, has steered clear of the Ukraine issue in its policy meetings.

The EU, which relies heavily on Russian crude, has already imposed tough sanctions on Russia, including freezing its central bank's assets. The bloc has been discussing whether and how to put sanctions on Russia's energy industry.

OPEC officials including Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo met EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson on March 16 to discuss the "extraordinary times" for the energy market, Simson said on Twitter.

One of the OPEC sources said the group's concerns were made clear to the EU. "They are very well informed," said the source, declining to be identified.

Asked for comment on the March 16 meeting, an EU official said: "OPEC presented their analysis of the oil market situation and informed us of their plans in terms of oil production."

"As we have consistently said, nothing is off the table in terms of future sanctions," the EU official said.

OPEC's headquarters in Vienna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Additional reporting by Kate Abnett and Ahmad Ghaddar, Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Edmund Blair)
The nonprofit organization is working with animal welfare organizations to support on-the-ground relief and recovery efforts.

SAN ANTONIO, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Petco Love, a nonprofit dedicated to saving pet lives, announces $1 million in assistance to organizations helping pets and pet families affected by the war in Ukraine. Funds will be distributed immediately to organizations aiding shelters, rescues, and pet families fleeing the war-torn country and to support future recovery efforts and needs as they arise.

Photo credit: The HSUS

It is with love that we commit $1 million in support for immediate relief and long-term recovery.

Ukraine's needs are acute and will be ongoing as the humanitarian crisis continues. Those organizations receiving support from Petco Love  including Humane Society International and FOUR PAWS International  had been working with rescues and shelters across Ukraine and in bordering European Union countries prior to the war. Since the military invasion nearly a month ago, these non-governmental organizations have worked to support evolving needs to sustain pet health and welfare.

"It is devastating to see families seeking refuge as they leave areas afflicted by war. The entire Petco family is heartbroken by the suffering and touched by the love Ukrainians have for their pets, often carrying them as they flee their homes and country for safety. So as a company, we joined together to engage our teams and guests to help save pets and support Ukrainian pet parents affected by this war. It is with love that we commit $1 million in support for immediate relief and long-term recovery," said Petco Love president, Susanne Kogut.

Animal shelters and border refuge support centers in neighboring countries also need supplies, products, and veterinary care for family pets entering EU countries; future funding will be needed longer term as organizations rebuild from the war.

During crises, humanitarian efforts are necessarily focused on the essential safety of the people involved. But pets also suffer in wartime. Like the world at large, Petco Love seeks to mitigate some of the grief of the Ukrainian people. By helping their loving pets, we hope to make a demonstrable difference in all their lives.

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To learn more about Petco Love's lifesaving mission, please visit petcolove.org.

About Petco Love

Petco Love is a nonprofit changing lives by making communities and pet families healthier, stronger, and closer. Since our founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, we've empowered animal welfare organizations by investing $330 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We've helped find loving homes for more than 6.5 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide. Our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us.

Is love calling you? Visit petcolove.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter , and LinkedIn to join the lifesaving work we lead every day.

Media Contact:

Lisa Lane Cardin, Petco Love, media@petcolove.org

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SOURCE Petco Love
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met Mr. Lin Baifeng, President of Huawei Asia Pacific Region President, at the Peace Palace, Phnom Penh. The meeting focused on exchanged views on a broad range of topics, including advancing digital infrastructure in Cambodia, cultivation of information and telecommunication technology (ICT) talent, national digital policy etc.

Prime Minister Hun Sen encourages Huawei to enable Cambodias digital transformation

During the meeting, Mr. Lin Baifeng expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister for supporting his company for the past 23 years and giving trust to his company and allowing Huawei to participate in the development of ICT industry, cooperation in combating the spread of Covid-19 and other fields.

Mr. Lin Bai Feng said that the digital economy in Cambodia has grown very significantly. Cambodia ranks No.1 in ASEAN countries in term of mobile data usage per subscriber. Moreover, Cambodia has applied ICT in almost all sectors. Huawei is committed to contributing to Cambodia's development of ICT through the development of human resources, bringing the latest technology to Cambodia, and building the digital infrastructure to connect technologies and people in a safe and reliable manner. Mr. Lin also briefed the Prime Minister on Huawei Group's latest financial results, global 5G achievements, as well as Huawei's employment and ICT talent cultivation efforts in Cambodia.

In response, Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked Huawei and Mr. Lin Bai Feng for participating in and contributing to Cambodia's digital economy development and digital infrastructure modernization. Furthermore, Prime Minister welcomed and encouraged Mr. Lin Bai Feng to continue working with Mr. Chea Vandeth, Minister of Post and Telecommunications, to continue training human resources and to ensure that Cambodia has access to the latest technology that ensures security and sovereignty.

About Huawei

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have more than 194,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

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Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they're at home, in the office, or on the go.

For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:

http://www.linkedin.com/company/Huawei

http://www.twitter.com/Huawei

http://www.facebook.com/Huawei

http://www.google.com/+Huawei

http://www.youtube.com/Huawei

SOURCE Huawei
In-house capabilities will vertically integrate manufacturing and reduce carbon footprint

Safespill Purchases Aluminum Extrusion Line to Secure Supply Chain and Accommodate Future Demand.

HOUSTON, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Safespill, the leader in environmentally safe fire protection systems, announced it has executed a contract with Kautec Solutions, a premier supplier of aluminum extrusion equipment headquartered in Girona, Spain. The contract will allow for the delivery of a highly automated aluminum extrusion line to increase efficiency in producing Safespill floors.

The state-of-the-art extrusion line will further elevate Safespill's turnkey solutions for new builds and existing retrofits of commercial and the United States Military aircraft hangars. Around-the-clock production capabilities that will allow production capacity to increase to a maximum of 200 hangar projects annually will solidify Safespill's timely, efficient delivery of Safespill floors, generically known as ILDFAs.

"What is significant about our investment is its value to our clients, particularly Safespill's U.S. military clients, by minimizing potential bottlenecks in the manufacturing process," said Tristan Mackintosh, CEO of Safespill. "It will allow Safespill to continue delivering environmentally safe, chemical-free fire protection systems while being less dependent on suppliers struggling to meet market demand for aluminum extrusions."

Aligned with Safespill's environmental initiatives, this new extrusion press will significantly reduce the product's carbon footprint through increased energy efficiency as high as 25% compared to older extrusion lines used elsewhere in the industry. In-house capabilities will also allow Safespill to purchase certified recycled aluminum alloy billets  green aluminum  higher in the supply chain. As a result, fire protection and environmental protection will work in tandem in ways not being executed elsewhere in the industry.

Installation at the company's headquarters in Houston, Texas, is slated for early-2023 and is expected to be fully operational by mid-year.

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ABOUT SAFESPILL

Based in Houston, Texas, Safespill Systems, LLC was founded in 2013 and developed its ignitable liquid drainage floor assembly after many years of R&D and fire testing. The company earned the coveted FM Approval mark in 2017 following rigorous fire and materials testing. It earned a second FM Approval in 2020 for larger floor areas, such as those used in aircraft hangars and distribution centers. The company is dedicated to transitioning the world to environmentally safe fire protection.

To learn more about Safespill, please visit safespill.com.

To view PFAS (the family of chemicals used to make AFFF) contamination in the U.S., visit this interactive map or safespill.com/esg-sustainability/ for more.

ABOUT KAUTEC

Kautec Solutions is a premier supplier of aluminum extrusion equipment headquartered in Girona, Spain.

For more information, go to https://www.kautec.net/en/

Media Contact: Jessica Hurd, Marketing Manager

832.338.6867

jessicah@safespill.com

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SOURCE Safespill
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the worlds largest aluminium smelter ex-China, has confirmed that it is in the process to refinance its syndicated commercial loan facility of $1.247 billion.

The company said in a statement: In reference to what has been circulated today (Thursday 24 March 2022) on social media platforms, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) would like to confirm that it is in the process to refinance its Syndicated Commercial Loan Facility of US$1,247,475,000.

"Further details will be issued in due course," it said.

Starting as a 120,000 tonnes per annum smelter in 1971, Alba, today produced more than 1.561 million metric tonnes per annum (2021) of aluminium. Its diverse product portfolio of Standard and Value-Added Products (VAP) are exported to more than 240 global customers through its sales offices in Europe (Zurich), Asia (Hong Kong & Singapore) and subsidiary office in the US.

Alba is dual listed on Bahrain Bourse and London Stock Exchange and its shareholders are Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (69.38%), Sabic Industrial Investments Company (20.62%) and general public (10%). - TradeArabia News Service
JHVEPhoto / iStock.com

Along with McDonalds and Burger King, Wendys makes up the Big Three of U.S. fast-food burger chains. The Ohio-based company has more than 7,000 restaurants worldwide that serve up its famous square burgers and Frosty milk shakes. Wendys fans who qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits can use their SNAP electronic benefits payment (EBT) cards at participating Wendys restaurants, though their choices are very limited.

See: Does Taco Bell take EBT Food Stamps?

Find: Does KFC Accept SNAP EBT Cards?

Only select Wendys locations in a handful of California counties accept SNAP EBT cards for purchases, according to a 2021 Frugal Reality article. The Wendys website does not offer details on which of its locations accept SNAP EBT cards for payment.

SNAP is a federal program designed for families who need financial help buying food. Consumers used to pay with food stamps but now use reloadable EBT debit cards. Although SNAP is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program itself is administered at the state level.

Under the SNAP Restaurant Meals Program (RMP), qualified SNAP recipients can purchase food at SNAP authorized restaurants using their EBT cards, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Participating restaurants must offer meals at discount prices. In some cases, the program lets recipients buy food in the deli sections of participating grocery stores. The idea is to help SNAP recipients get hot prepared foods at restaurants  something many are unable to do at grocery stores.

To participate in the RMP, a restaurant must be located in a state that has an RMP, get approval from the state and provide a signed agreement to the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS)  and be authorized by FNS to accept SNAP benefits.

As GOBankingRates previously reported, seven states have opted into the RMP. It is widely available in Arizona and California, while five other states  Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Rhode Island and Virginia  offer the program in select cities or counties.

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As well, New York has passed a law that lets state social services agencies apply to the federal program.

Learn: Do Wawa Convenience Stores Take SNAP EBT Food Stamps?

Explore: Does Food Lion Accept SNAP EBT Cards for Groceries Online or Just In Stores?

To use your EBT card at Wendys, you must live in California and qualify for the CalFresh RMP per your state requirements. Wendys does not accept EBT cards for online, in-app delivery, or pickup orders placed via DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, or Grubhub, according to Frugal Reality.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: SNAP Usage: Does Wendys Accept SNAP EBT Food Stamps?
Tonic Wine Market by Type (Magnum Tonic Wine, Buckfast Tonic Wine, Sanatogen Tonic Wine, Mandingo Tonic Wine), Application (Household, Foodservices, Institution), End User (HoReCa and Household Retail), Sales Channel (Business to Business and Business to Consumer) & Region - Forecast 2022 - 2032

DUBAI, UAE, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global tonic wine market is expected to reach market valuation of US$ 1.9 Bn by the year 2021, accelerating at a CAGR of 6.1% by 2022-2032. Tonic wine sales forecast remains positive and is expected to total US$ 3.4 Bn globally by 2032.

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Tonic Wine Market Size (2022E) US$ 1.9 Bn Tonic Wine Market Projected Size (2032F) US$ 3.4 Bn Value CAGR (2022-2032) 6.1% Top 3 Countries Market Share 35.8%

Request a Report Sample to Gain Comprehensive Insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-14417

The pandemic had a huge impact on the tonic wine market due to the forced closure of on-trade vineyards in various nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and others to control the COVID-19's impact. On the other side, the current situation may present an opportunity for the wine industry to recapture lost consumer attention.

However, it is unclear if the current off-trade boom will persist as pantry supplies run out, the on-trade gradually reopens, and consumer behaviour returns to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Rising demand for tonic wine due to its health benefits and premiumization of wine products, as well as flavour innovation and more advanced distribution networks, are projected to drive the global tonic wine market.

"The tonic wine market is predicted to register steady as e-commerce platforms make deeper inroads. Tonic wine is difficult to come by. As a result, online sales channels may be able to give consumers with ideal product finder solutions. Key advantages of online sales channels that may improve tonic wine sales are easy home delivery and easy payment alternatives," said a lead analyst at FMI.

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Surge in Tonic Wine Consumption Slated in Asia-Pacific and Latin America

Asia-Pacific is leading in terms of the demand for wine, with China dominating the market in the region. Notably, the consumption of red wine is more of a tradition in China, as the color red is considered lucky in the country. Owing to this factor, China is one of the leading markets for red wine consumption, giving tough competition to France and Italy.

Australia is second in the consumption of wine in Asia-Pacific, followed by Japan. Also, India is the fastest-growing country in terms of wine consumption and registered a growth rate of approximately 7.1%. The Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam are the other potential wine-consuming markets in Asia-Pacific. Hong Kong has no import tax for wine, which is a driving factor for the market.

Request A Complete TOC Of This Report With Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-14417

Who is winning?

Some of the leading companies offering cheese are Buckfast Abbey, Leonard J Russell Snr, Campari Group, Scotland's, Sainsbury's, Portman Group, Reggae Treats, Dee Bee Wholesale, AhmadiAnswers, Herb Affair, Bristol, Jingjiu, Zhangyu, Wuliangye, and Othes.

Get Valuable Insights into Cheese market

Future Market Insights, in its new offering, provides an unbiased analysis of the cheese market presenting historical demand data (2016-2021) and forecast statistics for the period from 2022-2032. The study divulges compelling insights on the cheese market based on type (magnum tonic wine, buckfast tonic wine, sanatogen tonic wine, and mandingo tonic wine), by application (household, foodservices, and institution) by end user (horeca and household retail), by sales channel (business to business and business to consumer) and across seven major regions.

Key Questions Answered in the Report

How Big is the Tonic Wine Market?

What is the North America Tonic Wine Market Outlook?

At What Rate will Tonic Wine Demand Grow in Europe?

At What Rate Will Tonic Wine Demand Grow in Japan?

What is the South Asia Tonic Wine Market Outlook?

Contact Sales for Further Assistance in Purchasing this Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/14417

Top Reports Related To Food and Beverage Market Insights

Spirits Market: The global spirits market is estimated at US$ 56 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach US$ 92.9 Bn by 2032, at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2022 to 2032.

Champagne Market: The global champagne market is expected to reach a market valuation of US$ 7.0Bn by the year 2022, accelerating at a CAGR of 5.08% by 2022-2032, to reach a value of US$ 11.5Bn by 2032.

Butter Market: The global butter market is estimated to reach US$ 17.8 Bn in 2022 and is projected to surpass US$ 28.7 Bn by 2032, at a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period of 2022 to 2032.

About Future Market Insights (FMI)

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in Dubai, and has delivery centers in the UK, U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and make critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. A team of expert-led analysts at FMI continuously tracks emerging trends and events in a broad range of industries to ensure that our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.

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Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/tonic-wine-market

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SOURCE Future Market Insights
March 25 (Reuters) - New Zealand media firm NZME said on Friday it has signed a letter of intent with Google to outline terms for news content delivery, as the country's publishers take on digital platforms over fair payment for news displayed on their sites.

NZME, which owns the New Zealand Herald, also said it was in discussions with Facebook parent Meta Platforms over various digital projects for next year.

New Zealand's news publishers association had sought approval to collectively bargain with Meta Platforms and Alphabet Inc unit Google for fair payments, but NZME chose to engage with the tech giants directly.

NZME will enter a 90-day period of negotiation with Google to finalise key terms of the proposed supply of its news content to Google's News Showcase and other news products, it said on Friday.

The final deal was intended to be for a minimum of five years.

The company's portfolio includes several regional newspapers, as well as radio channels and online websites.

NZME also said it expects 2022 core earnings between NZ$67 million ($46.63 million) and NZ$72 million, if it finalises the deal with Google at the end of the negotiation period.

($1 = 1.4368 New Zealand dollars) (Reporting by Riya Sharma; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
When several families with a background in theater surveyed the area, looking at opportunities for youth to experience live performances, they realized thatespecially for large familiesthe costs involved were prohibitive and rallied folks in the community to create an affordable offering. In a short time, they upped their goal to launch a theater that would entail not only minimal costs but would be free of charge, not only to the young performers but also for audiences. Thus, Aspire Christian Theatre was born.

ACT originally began in 2019 with hopes of putting on The Wizard of Oz for the community, but the group had to cancel due to COVID-19. Health precautions during the height of the pandemic meant putting performances on hiatus for two years. It felt good for ACT to return to the stage in 2021 with more enthusiasm and energy than ever with its production of Aladdin Jr.

ACT President Michael Cannon recounts the excitement surrounding their first productionwith regard to everything from the number of young people who auditioned, to community members and parents who generously gave their financial support, time and talents, to viewers who attended the November performances at the Fredericksburg library.

Now ACT is set to debut Disneys Camp Rock on April 1 at the Caroline County Community Services Center.

As the story about vying music camps unfolds, we encounter a spectrum of personalities of emerging young performers and their response to the allures of the spotlight, peers adulation and the prospect of first love. These characters fall into, literally, two camps: down-home Camp Rock, which embodies the essence of a theater troupes camaraderie, friendships and bonds of heart; and Camp Star, the epitome of the flash, glitter and one-upmanship that could emerge from the performing arts world.

Some members of Camp Rock switch their allegiance, responding to the siren call of competing Camp Star, which uses any means to establish their superiority, and claim victory in a duel of competing performances. Yet, in the end, heart wins out and the qualities of the humble Camp Rock win back its members and even a new entourage of supporters in the community.

With a message of the power of authenticity and heart, Camp Rock seems to be a perfect fit for ACTs value-based mission, which is to develop character and creativity in kids of all ages through quality instruction in the performing arts and the technical skills that enhance them.

Cannon said, Because we want the kids who participate to have an authentic experience of quality theater, we do all we can to produce a great show and use a portion of our proceeds to compensate our artistic team.

The production features a cast of 30 youths, and their skills have been honed through the investment of director Alisha Shoffner, music director Anna Smith, stage manager Makenzi Wentela, and choreographers Samantha White and Eleanor Richards.

The saga of the dueling bands comes to life through the performances of a bevy of talented young actors, including Aliana Radman as Mitchie, who emerges as the Camp Rock leader; Larkin Komar as Tess, the Diva of Camp Rock; Collin Smith as Axel, the owner of Camp Star; and Malakai Ross as Luke, Camp Stars premier performer with an ego to match.

Aspire Christian Theatres auditions for Camp Rock elicited an enthusiastic response from youths throughout the area, including Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania, Stafford and Caroline counties, and even Annandale and Ashland.

I hope families will come out to see what the young people of our community are capable of. They put on incredible shows that may inspire their peers to join the fun, said Cannon.
An ordinance that allows Fredericksburg officials to declare a property blighted was updated this week to eliminate one final warning to landowners.

City Council voted 60 to revise the spot blight ordinance. Councilman Matt Kelly was absent.

City Attorney Kathleen Dooley recommended City Council delete the post-final opportunity for the property owner to make the required repairs before a tax lien is put on the property or the property is acquired through eminent domain.

The revised ordinance directs City Council to declare the property blighted and approve a spot-blight abatement plan.

The city manager then mails the approved spot-blight abatement plan to the owner. If acquisition is approved, it will be a notice of intent to acquire, and it may include the citys bona fide offer to purchase.

The city manager proceeds to acquire or repair the property or to abate the nuisance in accordance with the blight abatement plan approved by City Council.

The city manager will be able to hold, clear, manage or dispose of the property.

A section in the former ordinance that was removed called for a declaration of the property as a public nuisance and allowed the owner to take specific steps to abate the nuisance by a specified date. It also allowed for an additional warning after a City Council decision had been made.

Dooley said the post-final warning isnt necessary because there are several notifications in place before getting to that point.

Really, frankly, Im recommending that we eliminate that step, Dooley said. There are plenty of steps built into this policy prior to City Council taking action. Once council does take action, that action should be final and we should have the ability to move forward and make those repairs.

The spot blight ordinance has been in place since 2006. It was revised in 2007 and 2013.

The General Assembly has authorized local governing bodies to adopt an ordinance declaring a blighted property to be spot blighted. An abatement plan is then put in place to either acquire or repair the property.

If city officials do not acquire the property, but instead pays to repair it, the bill is recorded as a tax lien and it is referred to the treasurer for collections.

If the propertys assessed value is $100,000 or less and the lien remains unpaid as of Dec. 31 following the first anniversary of the date the lien was recorded, the treasurer is permitted to sell the property to collect the lien.

In addition to the end of the post-final notice, City Council made other changes to the blight ordinance.

Two certified mailing notices were previously required to be sent to the property owner. Now the second notice will be by regular mail. Dooley said certified mail is often less successful in reaching the intended recipient.

Language in the ordinance was updated to reflect State Code. Also, a delay in recording the citys statutory lien on the property for the cost of repair was eliminated. Dooley said that was to protect the citys ability to collect the expenditure and to protect against the purchase of the property by someone unaware of the lien.

Dooley said the city has no immediate plans to use eminent domain. In 2007, the city went in to repair a single-family home at 1108 Winchester Street but after removing one portion of the structure, it collapsed.

The lot was cleared and the cost of the work was recorded as a lien on the property. After the lien went unpaid, the property was auctioned in 2012.

In other business Tuesday, City Council adopted a resolution authorizing ARI Transportation Inc., which operates as Angel Rides and provides nonemergency medical transport, to apply for a license to provide emergency services to clients with Medicare.

The company would send all employees interested in becoming emergency providers to a course for training and licensure from the state, and through the EMT national registry. ARI Transportation would need to submit an application to the Virginia Department of Health to get EMS-certified.

The resolution specifies that the geographic boundaries of Angel Rides EMT services be within city limits.

Taft Coghill Jr: 540/374-5526 tcoghill@freelancestar.com

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Poultry officials are urging increased biosecurity measures for small backyard flocks amid an outbreak of bird flu in the area.

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture announced in a press release Tuesday that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in a commercial flock of 570,000 broiler chickens in Butler County.

HPAI is a contagious virus that spreads easily among birds through nasal and eye secretions as well as feces. Wild birds can carry the virus without becoming sick while domesticated birds can become very sick, according to the press release.

Don Reynolds, a poultry veterinarian and Nebraska Extension specialist, said there are two areas to consider when looking at poultry operations  commercial flocks and small backyard flocks.

In commercial birds, they monitor these birds very closely. So anything that they say see that is out of the normal range, then they look at as a disease entity, Reynolds said. Commercial operation officials monitor the birds food and water consumption. A drop in those consumptions can signify an illness, he said.

Because this is such a rapid onset, one of the things that happens is just a sudden depression. The birds dont move around much, they look droopy so to speak  and increased mortality, Reynolds said.

To get tested for HPAI, the birds receive a tracheal swab, the samples of which are sent to a diagnostic center in Nebraska. At the diagnostic facility, the samples go through polymerase chain reaction (also known as PCR) testing. If negative, the owner of the flock is notified and other diseases will be further considered.

But, if the test reveals another result  known at this stage as non-negative  the samples are immediately transported to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, for official confirmation, Reynolds said.

They immediately take those samples and run another test, usually a PCR test, and then they confirm that and when they have that as a confirmation, then they call them positive, he added.

Once a positive HPAI case is confirmed, state and federal officials are notified along with the owner of the flock. A quarantine area is set up at the facility in question, as well as a 6.2-mile control area. No birds or poultry products will not be allowed to be moved on or off premises that fall within those areas.

There is no vaccine for HPAI, so depopulating the infected  euthanizing the birds  is the best option to prevent further spread of the virus, Reynolds said.

Usually what they do in terms of what we call meat birds  broiler chickens or turkeys  they would compost those birds right within that facility, he added. Theyre trying to contain that virus, limit the spread of that virus.

According to the NDA press release, the Butler County farm is under quarantine and the 570,000 broilers will be depopulated. The 6.2-mile control zone will be established. Reynolds said the procedure includes disinfecting and removing the bird compost after a certain amount of time. The facility in question must remain empty for a bit before the poultry operation can repopulate the flock, he added.

You can see its a very arduous, costly scenario, Reynolds said. Not only does it cost the companies and the producers, but it costs taxpayers. The government comes in and does this, they do pay indemnities for the birds. Even with indemnity payments, you have people out of work for periods of time, you have all the downtime of that facility not being utilized.

The last major outbreak of bird flu in the United States was in 2015, according to the Lincoln Journal Star, and it had resulted in the deaths of about 50 million chickens and turkeys  more than 5 million in Nebraska. Earlier this year, reported the Journal Star, HPAI was discovered in a wild goose in Lincoln and it was also found in a backyard flock in Merrick County last week.

Having a second farm in Nebraska confirmed to have HPAI is unfortunate, but not completely unexpected, NDA Director Steve Wellman said, in a provided statement. NDA will use all the resources at our disposal, in coordination with our federal partners to manage a quick response.

Reynolds stressed that the risk of humans being infected with bird flu is highly unlikely. No human cases of avian influenza viruses have been reported in the United States, according to the NDA press release. But, people can unknowingly transmit the virus to birds, Reynolds said.

People are the transmitter in that they carry the virus on their shoes, their boots, dirty tools, vehicles, etc., and spread it around, he added.

Reynolds said that officials who work in commercial poultry remain vigilant and aware of HPAI. Those people are likely to step up their biosecurity programs even more, he added. We have more of a problem in the small backyard flocks because these people typically dont have biosecurity programs, dont know much about it and are more susceptible, Reynolds said, noting this is a concern during springtime with migratory fowl.

They become these kinds of what we call Typhoid Mary, these asymptomatic carriers, and they can deposit this in the feces so if theyre flying over and have to defecate or come down  in the field or if theyre swimming in a pond. Thats a real concern to these small producers, small backyard flock types, especially out in these acreages where they tend to let these birds run out and free and oftentimes they share water and things like that with wild birds.

The NDA press release states that people with poultry should keep an eye out for strange behavior, severe illness and sudden deaths; restrict access to their property and poultry; wear clean clothes, scrub boots and shoes with disinfect and wash your hands thoroughly after contact with your flock; clean and disinfect your vehicle tires and equipment when visiting other farms with livestock; dont share equipment, tools or other supplies; and prevent contact between your birds and wild birds.

Symptoms of HPAI in poultry include a decrease in water consumption; lack of energy and appetite; decreased egg production or soft-shelled, misshapen eggs; nasal discharge, coughing, sneezing; incoordination; and diarrhea.

Poultry owners should report unusual poultry bird deaths or sick birds to NDA at 402-471-2351, or through USDA at 866-536-7593.

Reynolds added that the Extension has a Big Red Biosecurity Program that helps poultry producers understand biosecurity and implement strategies to prevent the spread of disease. More information on this program can be found at bigredbiosecurity.unl.edu. Reynolds said that anyone with questions about increasing biosecurity on their farm can contact him at 402-472-2952.

Right now the way were trying to combat this is with good information and trying to get people to use the best biosecurity they can, Reynolds said.

Hannah Schrodt is the news editor for The Columbus Telegram. She can be reached at hannah.schrodt@lee.net.

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I certainly hope that the hearings on Ketanji Brown Jacksons Supreme Court nomination, which started on Monday, are what Sen. Dick Durbin wants them to be: Respectful and dignified. That would be such a pleasant change from recent experience.

I imagine that there are no friends from the nominees past who just now remember a high school party she might have attended where there might have been inappropriate activity on a night that no one else can actually recall.

That would be a terrible shame, and trigger such an unfortunate series of events, not to mention some really mediocre Saturday Night Livesketches.

Lets pray that there arent going to be any folks digging through the judges past religious affiliations, looking for evidence that she belongs to a cult. It would be so regrettable if Judge Browns family and former associates happened to be dragged through the mud by political partisans, who only care about ensuring that an ideologue of their particular tribe makes it to the high court.

Im still bitter about what happened during the Trump years when Democrats treated the nomination process as successive inquisitions of conservatives they mistrusted at best, hated at worst.

While they sheathed their claws when Neil Gorsuch was nominated to replace Antonin Scalia (even though they were justifiably outraged that Merrick Garland was deprived a hearing) they went nuclear when it came to Brett Kavanaugh.

The character assassination of that man was so brutal and so unjustified that it dwarfed what happened to Robert Bork a generation earlier.

Its hard to hear people plead for fairness and respect for Ketanji Brown Jackson when these are some of the same people who vilified Amy Coney Barrett for being a devout Catholic, having a lot of children and not being a judge for very long prior to being elevated to the bench.

Brown Jackson is clearly a qualified candidate, having graduated with honors from Harvard undergraduate and law schools, and presiding as a federal judge since 2013.

There is no reason that her qualifications should be questioned. But then again, neither should Kavanaugh or Coney Barrett (or Bork, or Clarence Thomas) have been.

All of them, with the exception of Barrett, were Ivy grads and all of them had long and distinguished careers in academia or on the bench.

But legal pedigrees are not the things that excite senators and the media, who feed like vampires on the blood of nomination carnage.

The real show, the real meat of the matter, is how a prospective justice thinks. If they do not align well with one particular extreme of either party (and lately that party has been the Democrats,) the hearings are turned into events that would make Nero happy.

So to hear Democrats plead for civility this time around is a bit rich, given the way theyve treated the last Republican nominees. From accusations of rape to suggestions that one female nominee is a living incubator or a Handmaid, the nomination process has been macabre.

So while I do hope that Republicans act with infinitely more grace than their liberal brothers and sisters shown themselves capable of, I have a big problem being preached to by those holier-than-thou hypocrites on the left.

There is little doubt that even the most unpredictable Democrats like Manchin and Sinema will vote to confirm Brown Jackson, because there isnt anything particularly radical in her past or present.

Yes, she went out of her way to represent Guantanamo detainees, but that was a personal choice that many other attorneys made, and while I dont agree with it, I remember John Adams representing the British after the Boston Massacre and I accept it as part of the oath we take to the constitution.

The fact that there is an even 50-50 split in the Senate and that another woman of color is set to cast the deciding vote, the likelihood that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will not become Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is slim to none. And thats fine, elections have consequences and Biden gets to choose who he wants.

But please, progressives, do not dare lecture us about dignity and respect after decades of spitting on those hallowed principles when the people in front of you didnt share your values, your skin color, your sexual apparatus or your conception of faith.

That sound youll hear is bitter, raucous, incredulous laughter at your (excuse the pun) supreme nerve.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.

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Saudi Arabias non-oil exports have witnessed a 27.5 per cent growth in January with the value surging to hit SR24.1 billion ($6.41 billion) compared to the last year's figures of SR18.9 billion ($5.03 billion), according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).

The most important non-oil goods were 'Plastics and Rubber and Articles Thereof' (32.7% of non-oil merchandise exports) with its exports up 28.9% to SR1.8 billion and 'Products of the Chemical or Allied Industries' (31.2% of non-oil merchandise exports) up 44.4% to SR2.3 billion from January last year, stated GASTAT in its international trade report for January 2022 issued today (March 24).

GASTAT said Saudi Arabias overall merchandise exports increased by 49.6% in January compared to last year and of this the share of oil exports increased from 73.7% in January last year to 77.6%.

Compared to December 2021, the total merchandise exports increased by SR1 billion or 1.0%, it stated.

According to GASTAT, the value of exports surged to SR107.6 billion in January from SR71.9 billion last year. This increase originated mainly from oil exports, which rose by SR30.5 billion or 57.5% in the same period.

The overall merchandise exports too witnessed a 49.6% growth compared to January 2021, the GASTAT report added.

The most important imported commodities were 'Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Electrical Equipment' (22.3% of total merchandise imports), and 'Products of the Chemical or Allied Industries' (15.0% of total merchandise imports).

According to the report, imports worth SR14.2 billion (around 27.4% of the total) entered the kingdom through Jeddah Islamic Sea Port followed by King Abdulaziz Port which saw 20.3% of the imports, King Khalid International Airport (12.7%), King Fahad Airport (6.1%) and Bat'ha (5.9%).

These five ports together accounted for 72.3% of the total merchandise imports of the kingdom, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
In a dramatic, last-minute decision, the Taliban backtracked on its pledge to reopen high schools for girls in Afghanistan, in a move that has attracted global condemnation.

The U-turn came after the militant group repeatedly promised to allow all girls access to education, a key demand from the international community for any future recognition of the Taliban administration that seized power in August.

The about-face was so sudden that the Talibans Education Ministry was caught off guard on March 23, the start of the school year, as were schools in large parts of the country. Some female high-school students returned to class, only to be ordered to go home.

A notice later posted by the ministry said high schools for girls would be closed until a plan was drawn up in accordance with Islamic Sharia law and Afghan traditions and culture."

That's despite most Afghan schools in the deeply conservative and religious nation of 38 million already operating in gender-segregated classrooms, with female high-school students donning Islamic headscarves.

Observers said the policy reversal reflected rifts in the Taliban leadership, which was convening in the southern city of Kandahar amid reports of a possible cabinet reshuffle.

The only way a sudden reversal like this takes place is a decision from the Amir, said Barnett Rubin, an academic and former adviser to the U.S. State Department on Afghanistan.

He referred to Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who is the supreme leader or Amir ul-Momineen, the leader of the faithful. He has the final say under the Talibans clerically led system.

Most of the leadership supports girls education, and that was the [initial] decision, Rubin added. [But] Akhundzada and a few others are said to be resisting [the reopening of girls high schools] despite the fact that they would benefit diplomatically from this.

Rubin said Akhundzada likely opted to appease ultraconservatives within the Taliban.

Veteran aid worker Anders Fange ran the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, one of the most significant humanitarian projects in the country, for decades. He said retaining power and maintaining internal cohesion is the Talibans priority.

They are obviously worried about internal tensions, and they try to avoid worsening these internal tensions, Fange said, alluding to frictions between the Talibans relatively pragmatic political leaders and hard-line clerics and field commanders.

Hameed Hakimi, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank based in Washington, described the Taliban leadership as risk adverse.

If reopening the schools means that their internal discussions become more fragmented and they have to deal with an extra thing that could become a headache for them, they would rather not deal with that, he said.

Pragmatic Divide

Since the Taliban seized power, there have been rifts between the Taliban's relatively pragmatic political leadership and hard-line clerics who are bent on implementing their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.

Those divisions have increased as the Taliban grapples with a series of political, social, and economic crises that have directly challenged its rule, including a freefalling economy and a devastating humanitarian crisis.

There is also believed to be growing competition between the Haqqani network -- a Taliban faction based in the east -- and a Kandahar-based faction of Taliban co-founders in the south of the country.

Those rifts are reflected in the Talibans uneven policies.

During its first stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban deprived all girls and women of education. After the Taliban toppled the Western-backed Afghan government last summer, it allowed girls from grades one to six to attend school. The group also permitted women to go to university, although it enforced a strict dress code and gender segregation.

At the same time, the militants have reimposed some of their former draconian policies, including limiting the movement of women and their access to employment.

Hakimi said many Taliban field commanders believe they won the nearly 20-year war against international troops in Afghanistan and do not need to conform to the expectations of outsiders.

Hakimi said the militants could also be trying to use girls' education as a bargaining chip to gain international recognition and aid.

The Talibans move rattled international humanitarian agencies, rights groups, and diplomats. It also sparked heartbreak among many Afghans.

Sam Mort, a spokeswoman for the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan, said the organization had spent months coordinating the reopening of girls high schools with the Talibans Education Ministry.

Mort said that under a European Union funded project, UNICEF is paid more than 194,000 Afghan schoolteachers their salaries for January and February. The agency has already distributed more than 2 million textbooks and plans to distribute an additional 36 million.



The sudden U-turn blindsided all of us and it has especially blindsided children," Mort said. "It is a major setback for children in Afghanistan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has met with members of the Taliban-led government in Kabul after arriving on March 24 ahead of a meeting of Afghanistan's neighbors next week that will be hosted by Beijing.

China has not recognized the Afghan government that formed after the Taliban took power in August last year following a blitz offensive across Afghanistan amid the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

But Beijing kept its embassy open during the hectic evacuation of foreign forces and diplomats from Kabul last year.

China hopes Afghanistan will fulfill its commitment of not allowing any external forces to use its territory as a tool to oppose neighbors or harm the security of other nations, Wang Yi said in a statement published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The statement also said that China welcomes Afghanistan's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, a global plan to insert China further into infrastructure and investment projects around the world and is willing to push for extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.

Wang made the comments in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, the statement said.

Wang met earlier with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Wang arrived in Kabul from Islamabad where he attended a two-day meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. From Afghanistan he traveled on to Inida, making the highest-level visit by a Chinese official to the country since border clashes soured relations two years ago, local media said.

Afghanistan has been grappling with financial and humanitarian crises. The United Nations and other aid agencies say more than half of the country's 38 million people are facing hunger.

China shares only a 76-kilometer border with Afghanistan, but maintaining stability after decades of war in the neighboring country is Beijing's main consideration.

China is also seeking to secure its borders and strategic infrastructure investments in Pakistan, home to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.



The Taliban has also repeatedly expressed hopes of developing good relations with China, which it sees as a crucial source of investment and economic support.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Greg Morrissey, with Mountain Goat Movement, and Tyler Lee with Kavu Inc., dressed in an inflatable shark outfit, walk past a display of snowboards painted by artists during the second day of the Outdoor Retailer Snow Show at the Colorado Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Gazette)
Democratic congressional candidate Adam Frisch, a former member of the Aspen City Council, is pictured in a publicity photo provided by his campaign. On Thursday, March 24, 2022, Colorado election officials notified Frisch that he had qualified for the 3rd Congressional District primary ballot by submitting enough valid petition signatures.
Against the backdrop of Indian exports crossing the $400 billion benchmark, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) signed by the UAE and India will be operational within one month, officials have said.

Cepa will simplify customs procedures, reduce logistics cost and open new opportunities for professional services, they said at the closing of the 3rd Edition of Logix India, in Dubai, supported by the UAEs National Association of Freight and Logistics (NAFL).

Cepa will boost UAEs logistics sector which contributes more than 14% to Dubais GDP, said Nadia Abdul Aziz, President of the UAEs National Association of Freight and Logistics (NAFL).

With Cepa in place, Indian products can penetrate the UAE market through which they can enter the GCC, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Africa and beyond, she said.

Era of joint economic growth

Earlier, Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs and CEO of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, said that the Cepa will pave the way for a new era of joint economic growth and prosperity in the two countries, improves mutual access to markets, enhances economic and investment opportunities and paves the way for broader prospects.

The three-day logistics conference concluded with a valedictory session at the India Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai addressed by top officials from both the countries.

Logix was organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and supported by Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) and NAFL.

NAFL and FFFAI to cooperate

Meanwhile, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between NAFL and FFFAI. The MoU covers mutual cooperation of the two federations of freight forwarders, exchange of knowledge, technology and exchange of students for internship.

The MoU provides for trade support, empowerment of women and youth, skill development and training and exchange of students, said Aziz.-- TradeArabia News Service
Shortly after being crowned 2022 European Car of the Year, the multi-award-winning Kia EV6 has claimed overall victory in the prestigious 2022 Red Dot Design Awards.

The 50-strong expert jury of the renowned international design competition awarded the EV6 with the Red Dot: Best of the Best accolade for its pioneering and forward-looking design. The all-electric crossover was also named winner of the Red Dot category: Innovative Products.

As Kia's first dedicated battery-electric vehicle, the EV6 symbolises the brand's new direction as it transitions into a leading sustainable mobility solutions provider. The ground-breaking electric crossover was created according to Kias new design philosophy Opposites United, which guarantees a powerful visual identity with contrasting combinations of sharp stylistic elements and sculptural shapes. The EV6 is also the first Kia to be based on the company's advanced Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). This innovative platform has enabled the EV6 to offer one of the most spacious interiors in its class, a driving range of up to 528 km, and 800-volt ultra-fast charging technology that enables the vehicle to be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in just 18 minutes.

Fully dedicated EV

Karim Habib, Head of Kia Global Design Centre, said: "The EV6 is a very important vehicle for the Kia brand, as it is our first fully dedicated EV with our best technology for a new era. We have the ambition to keep pushing the boundaries of automotive design and to back up product substance with inventive, bold and forward-looking designs.

These two Red Dot awards honor the hard work of our teams and encourage us to stay the course towards the future of environmentally responsible mobility for all.

The EV6 continues Kia's impressive run of success at the Red Dot Awards. Since 2009, when the Kia Soul became the first vehicle from a Korean brand to receive the award, a total of 27 Kia models have been awarded with a coveted Red Dot award. The EV6 is also the sixth Kia to receive the Red Dot Best of the Best accolade.

The Kia EV6 has met with an extremely positive response since its launch last year. As well as scooping Red Dot and 2022 European Car of the Year awards, the electric crossover has also won "German Car of the Year 2022" in the Premium category, "Irish Car of the Year 2022", UKs "What Car? Car of the Year 2022", "Crossover of the Year" at the TopGear.com Awards 2021 and the inaugural "Best Cars of the Year" Awards 2021/22.

Evaluating more than just aesthetics

The Red Dot Design Award is one of the largest design competitions in the world. It is announced annually by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen and is divided into three disciplines: Product Design, Brands & Communication Design and Design Concept. The history of the traditional Red Dot Award: Product Design goes back to 1955.

This year's entries were assessed by a 50-member international jury of independent designers, design professors and trade journalists. In addition to aesthetics, the product design competition also evaluates criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, quality and ecological compatibility. In the meta category "Innovative Products", the focus is on the innovative features of the submitted product.-- TradeArabia News Service

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The inaugural Middle East Fashion Week, to be held at The Agenda, Dubai Media City, next week, is set to host a fresh new line up of designers, both homegrown and international.

Guests can expect the ultimate fashion experience during the three-day extravaganza from March 27 to 29 where all are welcome to network with fashion enthusiasts or simply chill in the fashion lounge in between shows.

Kicking off the programme on March 27 is Middle East Fashion Council (MEFC)-sponsored Dubai-based Atelier Zuhra, founded in 2015 by Mouza Al Awfi, a businesswoman with a dream to create a fashion house. Her daughter Rayan Al Sulaimani took over a few years later and the brand has since gained regional and international recognition. Today, Rayan is amongst the top 40 "Women behind Middle Eastern brands" listed by Forbes Middle East.

Sustainability Fashion Forum

MEFC was launched in 2020 with sustainability as one of its core values, with a deep long-term vision and commitment to be the platform of reference and drive change across the MENA and Indian Sub-continent region.

In keeping with its mission, a Sustainable Fashion Forum will be held on March 28, co-hosted by The Sustainable City, bringing together thought leaders and change makers in the industry to address fundamental issues within sustainable fashion.

Fashion contributes around 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater, using more energy than both aviation and shipping combined, so platforms like ours aim to make a fundamental difference in creating positive change through collective action. We endeavour to work in this direction, being sincere in our approach. says Payal Kshatriya Cerri, CSO and Fashion Director of the MEFW and Co-founder of the MEFC.

Young talent pick of the show

Closing the programme is MEFC-sponsored young talent pick of the edition, QUOD, the brainchild of Ikshit Pande. An automobile marketeer-turned-fashion designer, Pande's career took a turn when he plunged into the fashion world with a Fashion Design degree from the Parsons New York school. Born in New York in 2019 and based in New Delhi, QUOD integrates sustainability in design thinking and speaks a global language that bridges East and West seamlessly.

As part of our mission to promote talent we are so very proud to sponsor QUOD at our inaugural week. My advice to audiences wishing to attend - make sure you are dressed as funky as what you are about to witness on that catwalk. said Cerri.

Paris-based designer and fashion guru, Jean Luc Amsler, will be gracing the stage with his latest creations, while global fashion houses include Barbara Rizzi and bridal specialist Amelia Casablanca.

We are so excited to have such a wide range of talent catering to an array of clientele on board that we have cherry picked said Simon Lo Gatto, CEO MEFW. We are truly humbled by the support from all our partners in the launch event of our platform

Not to be missed is a surprise live performance during an out-of-the-box show by Dubai-based, Si Fashion Showroom. This show will be a collective of some super cool brands distributed across the GCC. - TradeArabia News Service
When John Hopper, dean of students for the Granada School District, began teaching his history students about Camp Amache in the early 1990s, the site was a sage-brush strewn prairie dotted with concrete foundations.
Michael Allen is the District Attorney of Colorados Fourth Judicial District in El Paso County. John Kellneris the District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District, which includes Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties.
Prosecutors on Wednesday tried to prove that when a former El Paso County Sheriff's lieutenant played a Judy Collins song from his office it was misinterpreted as a sly dig against Sheriff Bill Elder and other Sheriff's Office employees.

Timothy Williams testified when he played Collins' recording of "Send in the Clowns" from his office on Nov. 3, 2016, he was paying homage to his late father and it was not intended to criticize Elder or the agency. The incident  which Elder testified this week was his "last straw" in what he said was a pattern of "insubordinate" and "disrespectful" behavior from Williams  occurred just days before the sheriff demoted Williams by two paygrades, from a lieutenant to a senior deputy assigned to floor duty in the jail.

In a lawsuit leveled at Elder and the Sheriff's Office, Williams claims his demotion happened because of his age and eventual plans to retire. Williams said he resigned immediately to avoid a negative effect on his retirement benefits. At the time, Williams was in his mid-50s and was eligible to retire in August 2022. Elder claims he demoted Williams for defiant behavior.

In district court Wednesday, Williams said it was common for him and other Sheriff's Office employees to play music, and he often listened to music on his lunch hour when other employees were out of the office and would not be disturbed. On Nov. 3, 2016, he was listening to a Judy Collins album, "Judith," because it was the anniversary of his father's funeral, he said. Williams and his father both enjoyed her music, he said.

Williams testified it was when the song "Send in the Clowns" began playing that Brian McPike, who had just begun working at the Sheriff's Office, passed his office on the way to a meeting with the office's volunteer coordinator at the time, Cathryn Richards.

McPike testified that the music was loud and disruptive enough to interrupt his meeting with Richards, but he did not recall being upset by the song. McPike's testimony contradicted claims Elder made in court Tuesday that McPike had come up to his office visibly upset after hearing the song, believing it was a derogatory reference to himself and other employees.

Williams, who has trouble hearing that stems from his time in the Army, said he did not wear hearing aids during his tenure at the Sheriff's Office. Williams said he played the song loud enough "so he could hear it," but when he noticed McPike walk by, he asked both McPike and Richards if the music was too loud.

Richards testified Wednesday she told Williams it was not too loud and resumed her conversation with McPike.

Soon after that, Williams said Elder confronted him about the song and asked him, "Are you done? If you're f---ing done, get out."

"I did not understand why the song made him upset," Williams said. "I said it had nothing to do with him, and that it was personal."

Williams said Elder then accused him of openly criticizing him and how he managed the agency with colleagues and others outside the office, and told Williams to stop. Elder believed Williams had been using the phrase "same circus, different clowns" to criticize his administration, Elder testified this week.

But Williams said he never used the phrase.

"I know how ... rumors fly," Williams said. "I knew [Elder] was trying to make that connection [between the song and the phrase about clowns]. I did not go into the reasons for my playing the song at that time ... because he was upset and there was no talking to him."

Debbie Stone, a human resources and organizational development expert, testified Wednesday for the defense, saying she believed Williams' actions were insubordinate. Because Elder believed Williams had been using the phrase "same circus, different clowns," it seemed "entirely likely" playing the song "could be a passive-aggressive action" that demonstrated the lieutenant's animosity toward the sheriff, she said.

"It's the verbal version of the finger we use to say the same thing," Stone said.

Williams said he didn't feel his actions were disrespectful. His attorneys disputed Elder's claims this week that the sheriff had pulled Williams aside several times to order him to stop openly criticizing the agency; that Elder sent written documentation to Williams ordering him to stop; that he was upset and flagrantly critical of some policy changes Elder wished to make; and that he did not bring his complaints to the appropriate people.

Williams said he was concerned appropriate procedures for disciplinary action were not followed in at least one investigation by the office's disciplinary action board. Williams was a permanent member of the board and helped create its policy. He said he took his concerns to the county attorney assigned to the Sheriff's Office, whom he believed was the appropriate person to contact.

Williams further said he was not openly critical of the policies Elder wished to change, but did candidly express to Elder he didn't think the changes would be well-received by other employees.

Williams seeks back pay, including vacation and sick time that he would have earned through his retirement-eligibility date, in restitution.

The trial resumes Thursday.
Abu Dhabis leading creator of destinations and experiences Miral has announced that work is moving at a steady pace on the landmark Natural History Museum coming up within the emirates Saadiyat Cultural District and the project is due for completion by the end of 2025.

Conceived and developed by the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) in partnership with Miral, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will be a scientific research and teaching institution and an educational resource for learning about the evolving story of our planet, aiming to ignite a life-long passion for the natural world in visitors of all ages.

It will feature some of the rarest wonders of natural history ever found, said DCT Abu Dhabi in a statement.

Visitors will travel on a 13.8-billion-year journey through time and space, which will include a thought-provoking perspective into a sustainable future for planet Earth. The new museum, currently under construction and due to be completed at the end of 2025, will be located in the emirates Saadiyat Cultural District, which is establishing itself as one of the worlds leading cultural centres, it added.

A highlight of the new museums collection will be the world-famous Stan, a remarkable 39-ft-long Tyrannosaurus rex, which is one of the best preserved and most studied fossils of this iconic predator from the Late Cretaceous Period.

Known by scientists around the world, years of scientific studies of Stan have furthered our knowledge of countless aspects of T. rex. Now that Stan has a new home at the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, this 67-million-year-old dinosaur will be in the care of expert scientists, and will continue to contribute to education and research and inspire future explorers, said the statement from DCT Abu Dhabi.

Stan will be joined by an extraordinary Murchison Meteorite specimen, which famously crash-landed in Australia more than 40 years ago and has since revealed to scientists new information about the early solar system.

Containing a huge range of organic stardust compounds as well as pre-solar grains which formed over 7 billion years ago  long before our current solar system existed  the meteorite provides ancient insight into the very building blocks of life, it added.

DCT Abu Dhabi Chairman Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak said: "Natural history has a new home in Abu Dhabi. A new museum which tells the story of our universe through some of the most incredible natural wonders known to mankind. These are awe-inspiring gifts from nature that we are proud to share with the world  unlocking millions of years of knowledge to not only advance scientific discovery but to inspire our children to protect our planets future."

"As we nurture a new generation of global advocates that are incredibly curious and passionate about natural history, we are fulfilling our vision to enrich lives and make Abu Dhabi the place for research, research, collaboration and discovery," he added.

The museum will join the diverse cultural institutions and museums in the Saadiyat Cultural District, which include Louvre Abu Dhabi and the upcoming Zayed National Museum and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, as part of Abu Dhabis strategy to position the emirate as a centre for culture, arts and creativity.

With a focus on immersive displays, curated collections with exceptional specimens, and innovative, interactive mediations, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi galleries will take visitors on a journey back to the very beginning of time, narrating the evolution of our universe, the Earth's formation, and the history of life on our planet  as well as providing a glimpse into our possible future.

Covering an area of more than 35,000 sq m, lead architects Mecanoo designed the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi to resonate with natural rock formations, reflecting the museums goal of improving understanding of and engagement with the natural world, said DCT Abu Dhabi in its statement.

Every element of the design uses geometry as an overriding theme, with pentagonal shapes resembling cellular structures. Also playing an important role in the design are water and vegetation, potent symbols of life in the desert.

In addition to the gallery display areas, the museum will include temporary exhibition spaces for special events and theatre facilities. Enabling and marine works have commenced on the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi construction site, it stated.

In addition to global natural history, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will for the first time present the history of life on Earth through an Arabian lens, where local natural assets of fauna, flora and the geological history of the region will be part of the visitor journey, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Colorado Springs' lone Steak 'n Shake apparently has served its last steakburger.

The restaurant, known for its Midwest roots and diner-like fare that includes fries, milkshakes and signature steakburgers, closed sometime over the last several weeks at 1560 Briargate Blvd., on the Springs' north side near the Chapel Hills Mall.

The free-standing, 3,319-square-foot building is being marketed for lease by the Denver office of national commercial real estate brokerage SRS Real Estate Partners, according to signs posted at the site.

Steak 'n Shake is a subsidiary of Biglari Holdings, a San Antonio, Texas, company whose assets include 536 corporate-owned and franchised locations of the restaurant chain, according to a 2021 annual report posted on Biglari's website.

The reasons behind Steak 'n Shake's closing and whether it might reopen weren't known.

A story by Colorado Springs television station Fox 21 in November quoted Steak 'n Shake's local franchisee as saying he had drastically reduced the restaurant's operating hours because of a staffing shortage.

A sign still posted on Steak 'n Shake's front door warned that the restaurant was only open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., was often short-staffed and thanked customers for their patience.

Representatives of Biglari Holdings didn't return phone calls this week and efforts to reach the local franchisee were unsuccessful.

NADG NNN, a commercial real estate investment trust that's part of Canadian-based North American Development Group and owner of the Steak 'n Shake building, also couldn't be reached for comment.

Steak 'n Shake was founded in 1934 in central Illinois; Biglari took control of the brand in 2008. The restaurant chain struggled financially in recent years, though it was profitable in 2021, according to a San Antonio Express-News story last month that quoted Biglari chairman Sardar Biglari in a letter to shareholders.

Steak 'n Shake came to Colorado Springs in 2013 and opened in a newly constructed building that replaced a demolished Pizza Hut on the Briargate Boulevard site. It originally was operated by the McD Restaurant Group of Carbondale; that group sold the building in 2019 to NADG NNN, El Paso County land records show.

Competition among fast-food restaurants, and hamburger outlets in particular, has become fierce in Colorado Springs.

Familiar national and regional brands such as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Red Robin and Carl's Jr. have been part of the local restaurant landscape for decades, along with local favorites such as Drifter's, Cy's Drive-in and Short Stop Deluxe Burgers.

In November 2020, they were joined by In-N-Out Burger of California, which now has two Springs locations. Whataburger, the iconic Texas chain, opened its first Colorado Springs restaurant in February and has at least two more locations planned.
Summer is right around the corner, and with it the demand for more dock space on the lake will soon be at the forefront of discussion.

However, on Tuesday morning the Clear Lake City Council disapproved of a proposal from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to add four new boat slips to the city.

The plan would have turned the public approach located on 20th Avenue South into an 80-foot-long dock that would include four new boat slips.

Currently, the approach is only available for small boat tie-ups, according to board member Jake Kopriva. The Parks and Rec Board has already received a permit for the dock project from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

"We want to see if we can increase this slip space for the community, due to the high demand," Kopriva said.

City council member Mike Callanan noted that the wait list in the community for a boat slip space currently stands at 348 people.

Kopriva also offered the possibility of future slip spaces being added to North Lakeview Drive, but that was noted as a future project as there is no permit for it at this time.

Overall, the Clear Lake City Council did not approve of the project proposal from the advisory board.

City Council member Bennett Smith opened the gates very critical of the proposal, stating that it doesn't resolve enough of the issue to be worthy of the city's consideration.

"This proposal does very little to solve that problem, and is simply not viable," Smith said. "A dock at that location would create significant problems related to access and use for others."

Smith didn't criticize the proposal without inserting a recommendation on how to solve the boat slip issue, however, putting forward the idea of a lottery system where everyone who applied for a boat slip would be eligible for a drawing.

"Frankly, we have some people who have occupied a public boat slip for a long time," Smith said, "while others have waited over 10 years on the list for their name to come to the top. ... A lottery system would be a much more fair and democratic approach to the use of these public slips."

Council member Gary Hugi was also not impressed by the advisory board's proposal for the new dock.

"I'm going to be very frank with it, I'm not going to put my support or recommendation for this dock to go in," Hugi said. "I can't get behind this at all."

Hugi cited the dimensions of the dock and the parking limitations on 20th Avenue South as major reasons for disapproving of the project.

Council member Dana Brant admitted he was more torn and wasn't sure which way he would ultimately vote but said he was leaning toward opposing the project like Smith and Hugi.

Brant's biggest concern was losing the public approach that currently occupies the space if the proposal was approved.

Brant was joined in uncertainty by council member Mark Ebeling, who said he wanted to at least wait until next year before potentially approving the project.

Callanan was the council's lone voice of support for the project, stating the issues raised by the council are overshadowed by the need to get people off the boat slip waiting list.

"I would ask the council to consider one thing," Callanan said. "If you do indeed vote this down, I would like to revisit it for next season and maybe look at it with a new look and new approach."

Both Callanan and Hugi also expressed opposition to Smith's idea of a lottery drawing for the public boat slips.

The council ultimately rejected having the proposal be brought forth at a future council meeting four votes to one, with Callanan casting the lone vote of approval.

City administrator Scott Flory noted that the vote was not an outright rejection of the project, rather a rejection of the council hearing the proposal at an official city council meeting at this time.

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

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Jack Garrett, a name in broadcast news for almost 44 years in Danville, signed off on his last broadcast at WBTM/WAKG last week.

I want to go out on the top of my game, the 65-year-old Danville native said.

Graduating from George Washington High School in 1974, Garrett was one of three Averett College students to earn the new English and journalism combined major in 1978.

It was the fledging year for that degree, and I took 12 hours for the double major. I needed to do an internship too, so my advisor, David Hoffman, said Lets try radio, Garrett recalled.

Hoffman, now retired as a journalism professor, remembers Garrett from those days, having had him as a student at both GW and Averett and when Garretts hair was down to his shoulders.

At both schools, Jack was a standout in my classes, Hoffman recalled. I loved having him during his senior year at Averett, and we got him placed at WBTM as an intern. As an announcer, he was top notch. Whatever Jack did, he did well. He is a kind and caring guy, and he always achieved to his fullest.

I am so proud of Jack for all he accomplished. He is, truly, a good guy.

As an intern Garrett started writing immediately and doing newscasts; he was offered a job afterward, working the evening newscasts.

He worked at the two stations until he was 40 years old and then accepted a job as bureau chief of WSET, the Lynchburg-based ABC affiliate.

He covered news in Danville, Martinsville and South Boston, breaking the news of the National Tobacco Settlement and winning an award on a documentary he produced about tobacco.

I worked there three years then returned to WBTM/WAKG after my son was born in 2000, said Garrett. I loved television, but I was in my 40s and was a one-man band.

A little bittersweet

And thats where Garrett has been until his last newscast on March 18.

It was bittersweet walking out for the last time, but Im ready for the next chapter, he said. The hardest part was sifting through 40-plus years of accumulated stuff.

Charlotte, his wife of almost two years, whom he calls a godsend, describes her husbands career as a lifelong career taking advantage of his incredible talent.

His voice, his integrity and his knowledge. How many people get to do this? And hes done it so well, she said.

Memories of the stories he has covered throughout the years bubble up to the surface easily.

He said homicides used to be more of a rarity than they are today, and the news organizations covered them all. Three of them stand out to him, which he relates with some chuckles.

There was a homicide in the Axton area, and there was no GPS then. I knew it was by a creek, so I found some trailers and knocked on the door, he recalled. There were eight Hispanic immigrants inside, and only one spoke broken English.

He said, Heres the guy who discovered the body, so I talked to him.

Garrett talked to him and filmed some B-roll (supplementary footage to support the story) and put the mans face and name up on the broadcast.

A couple of days later I found out he had been charged with the crime, Garrett said.

Another time he was in South Boston at a hotel waiting to film a man being arrested for a homicide when bullets started whizzing by his head, and he and his cameraman had to find cover.

Hes been covering news for so long that he also remembers covering a murder trial every day for two weeks in Chatham and having to call in his stories with rolls of quarters and a pay phone.

Awards

But now its time to retire. Garrett said he started considering retiring about six months ago.

Ive done the morning shift for the past six years, getting up at 2 a.m. and going to the station at 3, then staying until 10 a.m., he said. I would usually need a nap in the afternoon.

Garrett has some plans for his future, even though he said he promised his wife he wouldnt do anything for six months.

First on his list is to attend the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters Awards luncheon in Greenbriar on Saturday. The radio station is up for 18 AP awards. In 2019 the station won the big Kahuna, as Garrett called it for its coverage of Hurricane Michael, which battered Danville as a tropical storm.

I had 4 feet of water in my house and lost 700 record albums, but I made it out to cover it, he said.

In 2018 Garrett received first place in Virginia Associated Press awards in three categories: best reporter for Outstanding News Operation of the Virginias; best feature/human interest story for Danville Remembers the Virginia Tech Victims on the 10th Anniversary of the Tragedy; and best spot news for his reporting on Danvilles new police chief and community policing.

His coverage of Hurricane Michael was a large part of the best reporter award, he explained.

In 2020 he won the Gallimore Award, which honors a Virginia broadcaster for outstanding service in the public interest and exemplifies a commitment to journalism and reflects honorable on the news profession, according to the Virginia AP Broadcasters website.

His family

Then Garrett wants to spend more time with his wife and children. He has known his wife since his teenage years in the same neighborhood.

And its nice that Charlotte and I like doing things together, such as cooking, he said. I had my eye on her for a long time.

Garrett has three children: Jack III and 15-year-old twin daughters, Carol Anne and Sarah Beth.

My son, Jack, is in Averetts nursing program, Carol Anne will probably get a full running scholarship to college since she is third in the state in 2-mile distance running and Sarah is artistic and loves music, he said.

Garrett also is a musicologist and loves to write about music. He has been published in several music magazines, such as the quarterly magazine Ugly Things, and has even been encouraged to write his own book.

He writes for the music blog Garage Hangover. He has plenty of material since he has a collection of 10,000 record albums.

Garrett also plays the drums, although he isnt in a band.

I am apprehensive but excited about the future, he said.

The station

Garretts long-time work colleagues had glowing praise for Garrett.

Alex Vardavas, a program director, calls Garrett the consummate professional, last of his breed, the blood and guts of our organization and peerless.

Ive been with Jack for his entire ride at WBTM/WAKG, he said. His Averett education served him well. Hes always had a nose for news, the ability to gather it, to write it so coherently and succinctly, and deliver it flawlessly on the air. He has accrued countless awards and has competed against folks in larger markets, who have far more resources than Jack. But each year, he manages to make us all so proud.

They dont make em like Jack anymore. He will be sorely missed by Piedmont Broadcasting Corporation and our loyal listeners, who woke up to him every day to get their news and weather fix to start their day.

David Hutcheson, who works part-time at the station even after retirement, called his friends retirement the end of an era.

Jacks decades of newscasts and his unique on-air style served as a continuous narration of day-to-day life in Danville, he said. It was an honor to work with him because he was intelligent and fair, and that meant I always got positive comments about him from listeners and friends. I was always motivated to do my best and sound professional, because I was in the studio with someone who put pride in his work and wanted the station to sound on top of things. For decades, his life has been understanding and chronicling the events of our city and we as its people. That has made him a fascinating person to talk to, not to mention his encyclopedic knowledge of music.

I and the station will miss him, but hes overdue to get on a regular schedule and enjoy some sleep.

Asset to the community

Sherri Duarte, the vice president of operations for Piedmont Broadcasting, says her first memory of Garrett is her walking into the radio station 30 years ago after her graduation from Averett with communications degree in hand and ready for a job.

She didnt realize she had missed the window to apply for the job, but Garrett spoke to Vardavas and arranged an interview anyway.

And thats where my career at Piedmont Broadcasting began, so Im forever grateful to running into Jack at that moment, she said. Weve laughed about that story a lot.

She has enjoyed working with him through the years.

Jack is an incredible news man. Hes been such an asset to this company and this community, and we will miss him very much, she said. His hard work and dedication are second to none. I have enjoyed working with a true professional like Jack throughout the years and now look forward to wishing him only the very best in retirement. Its much deserved.

Elzey is a freelance writer at the Register & Bee. She can be reached at susanelzey@yahoo.com.
The citys housing shortage is not just affecting the average, moderate-income home buyer or renter, its hitting the most vulnerable as well.

The Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority is facing obstacles acquiring homes for residents in need of government-subsidized housing under its Housing Choice Voucher program, also known as Section 8.

Increased demand for rental units in the Danville and Martinsville areas has created a housing crisis for some of the areas most vulnerable citizens, said Executive Director and CEO Larissa Deedrich.

As a result, the authority is seeking to buy homes that are habitable or in need of minor repair or maintenance so the organization can rent them to low-income tenants.

The agency is also looking for landlords who would be willing to rent their properties to tenants under the program.

We are looking to purchase homes and engage landlords, Deedrich told the Danville Register & Bee on Thursday. There is such a need for housing, were looking at purchasing homes and rehabbing them for section 8 tenants.

For the current fiscal year, the group has about $7.3 million in funding available for landlords via its Housing Choice Voucher program.

Qualifying voucher holders are having trouble finding housing, said Caleb Milam, Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority director of purchasing. The situation is affecting everyone across the board, whether they are in need of assistance or not, he said.

Housing in general  rental properties and homeownership  is hard to come by because the market is so crazy, Milam said during an interview at the groups office Thursday morning.

Milam said the housing problem started about 18 months ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been a surge in costs for materials, fewer workers and a lower number of quality contractors, he said.

The majority of good contractors are going to be booked up, Milam said.

Also, the upcoming Caesars Virginia casino has led to investors buying up available stock and remodeling it to prepare for the influx of workers who will need housing, he said. That has contributed to the shortage, he added.

Other factors include a decrease in the number of landlords willing to rent their properties to Section 8 voucher holders, according to authority officials. Many of them assume potential tenants will not take care of their properties.

In addition, property owners may find the paperwork too cumbersome and others are unwilling to keep their rental properties up to livable standards.

Any private landlord can participate in the Section 8 program, which provides subsidies for renters under the program. The amount of rental assistance a tenant receives is based on their income.

Under the program, the housing authority pays the landlord a portion of the tenants rent, depending on that renters income.

An applicant must meet certain income requirements to qualify for the program. For example, the income limit for a family of four to be able to participate is $38,150 per year.

There are about 1,780 housing units in the groups section 8 program, Deedrich said. The program is available to residents in Danville, Martinsville and Pittsylvania and Henry counties.

In addition to its Section 8 program, the authority owns and manages 563 units in seven multi-family developments, with its public housing accommodating about 1,600 residents, according to its website.

Were buying property if we can get it at an affordable price, Milam said.

However, a property that needs too much work would be too costly to rehabilitate, he said.

If we buy a house and rehab it, its not affordable housing, Milam said.

The need for Section 8 rentals is at an all-time high.

The housing authority will use funding from state Acquire, Renovate or Sell (ARS) Funds, and a grant from the Western Piedmont Planning District to purchase homes. Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will also apply for other grants to help address the shortage.

Property owners looking to rent or sell their properties to the housing authority can contact Milam at cmilam@drhava.com.

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Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has issued a new law on local military pensions and social security fund in Dubai.



The move seeks to support Dubais vision in the domain of social security and pensions and ensure the implementation of best practices, reported Emirates News Agency WAM.



The Fund also seeks to improve the quality of services offered to its beneficiaries and ensure that all the rights and insurance needs of contributors, pensioners and their beneficiaries in the Fund are met.



According to the Law, the Director-General of the Department of Finance (DoF) is tasked with overseeing the administrative, technical and financial affairs of the Fund. In addition, the Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai will issue a decision to nominate an Executive Director for the Fund.



Furthermore, all liabilities and assets of the Local Military Pensions and Social Security Division at the DoF will be transferred to the Fund, once the Law comes into effect.



This Law annuls Executive Council Resolution No. (25) of 2006 pertaining to the creation of the Local Military Pensions and Social Security Division, and any other legislation that may contradict with it.



Law No. (7) of 2022 is effective from the date of issuance and will be published in the Official Gazette, the report said.
For horn players looking to show off their stuff, Steve Blake says, salsa is hard to beat.

With salsa, the arrangements are created so that the horns are integral to the musical form, the saxophonist said. In a lot of R&B stuff, the horn section is often playing backgrounds. Occasionally, youll have an intro or a horn solo. But in salsa, the forms are baked into the format. As a horn player, its a lot of fun to play because of that.

Blake has played with The Temptations and The Four Tops, but locally is probably best known for performing with Winston-Salem group West End Mambo.

In a recent interview, he spoke about the early days of West End Mambo, about trying to book post-pandemic gigs and about being inspired by bootleg jazz recordings.

How did you get your start in music?

I grew up in Winston-Salem, was born in Little Rock, Ark.

I went to UNC-Chapel Hill for a couple of years. I had gotten more and more interested in music there and really got into jazz. There was a guy from New York City in the dorms there, who would bring bootleg recordings of jazz performances. And we got a chance to hear a lot of cutting edge stuff like Mahavishnu Orchestra. And I worked my way backwards from the fusion stuff to John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.

I wound up at UNC-Charlotte, about 1973 or 1974, and we had a little jazz band down there, and then went to a two-year jazz program at the University of Maine at Augusta. I eventually graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1980.

How did you get involved with West End Mambo?

I played with some local jazz folks like Joe Robinson and Matt Kendrick in the 80s and 90s.

As far as West End Mambo, Andrew Valentine, who came from Ukraine, put the band together for a gig. He happened to live next door to a Cuban timbalero (someone who plays timbale drums), and sort of threw this band together on a whim, and we picked up a few gigs.

Andrew, who was bassist for the band, started going back and forth to Ukraine, and I inherited the band, and the guys in the band decided we were interested in continuing it. That was around 1998. Cesar (Oviedo), who played bass and salsa piano, got involved, and the band evolved from a Latin jazz venture to a full-blown salsa band. The Buena Vista Social Club had hit about the same time we were launching the band in that direction.

Who are some of your musical influences?

As far as the band is concerned, the Buena Vista Social Club, Johnny Pacheco, El Gran Combo.

How would you describe your music?

We arent doing a lot of original material but rather covers of classic salsa. Were trying to capture the energy and feeling of those styles, as opposed to some of the more romantic stuff, which came after that. Theres a little bit more of an energy and an edge to the old-school stuff. What were really trying to do is capture that energy. Weve done some recordings, but live performances are where its at.

And its great to have a place where folks can dance. When we go down to Charlotte or Raleigh or even Roanoke, Va., there is substantial salsa dance happening in those areas.

Can you tell me about playing with The Temptations and The Four Tops?

Ive played in the horn section with them. Ive done a few road trips. Theres a contractor out of Charlotte who contracted their horn sections back in the 90s. I played some of those shows. They were a lot of fun. They have a nine-piece horn section.

If you could open a show for any artist, who would it be and why?

Well, right now, Im just looking for any gig I can find. During the pandemic, we were able to do outdoor gigs, but that season ended in November. Right now, were booking stuff for the summer, but were still waiting for the indoor venues.

Whats the funniest or weirdest thing that has ever happened at one of your shows?

We had a keyboard player, a young guy from New York, who went off on a timbalero. The timbalero had studied charanga in Cuba, which is very old-school society music. Its not salsa music. And the keyboard player went off on him in the middle of a gig because he was dragging. But if youve played in bands, youve seen that kind of thing before. It happens.

Do you have a favorite song you like to play?

One of my favorites is Abran Paso, which was transcribed from a Larry Harlow chart.

I also like Don Goyo by El Gran Combo, which is a classic. And it has excellent horn arrangements. Very simple, but very effective.

Whats next for you?

Getting back to playing. Thankfully we are booking stuff for the spring and especially the summer. Im looking forward to getting back out there. Were busiest during the outdoor festival season.

 As told to Robert C. Lopez, roberto.lopez79@gmail.com
Final preparations are underway for the 94th Academy Awards and a long awaited return to Hollywoods glamourous normalcy after a muted ceremony and ratings low last year. Heres everything you need to know about the 2022 Oscars, including where to watch the live show, whos expected to win and what the big controversies are this year.

When and where are the Oscars? The Oscars will be at 8 p.m. March 27 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC (WXLV, Channel 45).

Who is hosting the show? Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes are taking the stage to co-host the ceremony, which has been without an emcee for the past three years. Producer Will Packer said each woman brings something different to the show.

Who is presenting? Show producers will continue adding names throughout the week, but at the moment expect to see Bill Murray, Lady Gaga, Kevin Costner, Samuel L. Jackson, Zoe Kravitz, Anthony Hopkins, Lily James, Daniel Kaluuya, Mila Kunis, John Leguizamo, Simu Liu, Rami Malek, Lupita Nyongo, Rosie Perez, Chris Rock, Naomi Scott, Wesley Snipes, Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Yuh-jung Youn, Ruth E. Carter, Halle Bailey, Sean Diddy Combs, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Shawn Mendes, Tyler Perry, Tracee Ellis Ross, Stephanie Beatriz, DJ Khaled, Jennifer Garner, H.E.R., Tiffany Haddish, Tony Hawk, Elliot Page, Kelly Slater and Shaun White.

Which movies are nominated for Best Picture? The 10 movies competing for best picture this year are: Belfast; CODA; Dont Look Up; Drive My Car; Dune; King Richard; Licorice Pizza; Nightmare Alley; The Power of the Dog and West Side Story.

What were the most surprising Oscar snubs? Some exclusions that stood out include Denis Villeneuve, whose Dune got the second most nominations (10) behind The Power of the Dog (12) including best picture, but who failed to get a directing nomination for himself.

The best actress category was especially brutal this year, leaving out Lady Gaga for House of Gucci, Jennifer Hudson for Respect, Caitriona Balfe for Belfast and Renate Reinsve for The Worst Person in the World.

What are the predictions for the winners? The Power of the Dog is the presumed frontrunner for best picture and best director, for Jane Campion, but there is also the possibility that CODA will take best picture, especially after it won at the Producers Guild Awards. Either way, itll be the first time a streaming service has won best picture.

Other likely winners include Will Smith for best actor (King Richard), Jessica Chastain for best actress (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), Troy Kotsur for best supporting actor (CODA) and Ariana DeBose for best supporting actress (West Side Story).

What else can we expect? Organizers have promised that they will keep the broadcast to three hours and Packer (whose films include crowd pleasers such as Girls Trip) wants to make it as entertaining as possible while still honoring the nominees and winners.

The show will flow, not unlike a movie, in that there will be different themes and a different feel and different energy throughout the night, Packer said. It will not feel or look or sound like one show for three hours. Its taking you through the course of this cinematic journey.

Best song nominees like Beyonce, Van Morrison and Billie Eilish are also in talks to perform.

Are there any controversies this year? The Oscars are so high profile that every year someone is upset about something (especially when changes are involved), but this year the biggest controversy is over the decision to present some awards before the live broadcast begins and edit them into the show later.

The eight awards are for shorts (live action, animated and documentary), editing, score, hair and makeup, sound, and production design. The decision has its defenders, but also an army of high-profile detractors, including Campion, Villeneuve, Steven Spielberg, Chastain and Penelope Cruz.
GREENSBORO  They have dreams. He has dreams.

But while the students of the Greensboro College Middle College are imagining leaving the area for life elsewhere, new City Manager Taiwo Jaieyeoba wants to create a place so wonderful they will want to stay or come back.

Jaieyeoba spoke with high school students Wednesday and took their questions on everything from job opportunities and Black-owned businesses to crime and homelessness during an event at Greensboro College. The Greensboro College Middle College is a high school located on Greensboro Colleges campus, where juniors and seniors can take a mix of high school classes and college courses.

Principal LaToya Caesar-Crawford came up with the idea for the event after attending one of Jaieyobas community listening sessions and realizing that student voices were missing from the conversation. She said she was familiar with Jaieyeoba as the former head of planning in Charlotte.

In the last 20 years, Caesar-Crawford said shes seen that city  North Carolinas largest  focus more on equity, job opportunities and innovation.

When I see the city of Greensboro, I see the same opportunities and the same magic that could happen here, and I want our kids to be part of that conversation, she said.

Early in the program, Caesar-Crawford asked students if they planned to live in Greensboro after college. No one raised their hands.

So its time to ask the hard questions, right? she said.

Some students shared questions they had prepared ahead of time  all of them respectful, but many challenging. One student asked about a comparison of spending and investments  or lack thereof  in eastern Greensboro versus the western part of the city. Another asked about attracting science, technology, engineering and math businesses.

Yet another student asked Jaieyeoba his vision of Greensboros future.

Jaieyeoba said that in five to 10 years, he pictures a street-car system in the center of Greensboro, connecting the east to the west. He also sees a reshaped skyline and improved roads connecting downtown with the interstate. More young people will be sharing their ideas and running for elected office. And he envisions Greensboro continuing to attract new businesses and residents while remaining affordable and drivable.

Students on Wednesday shared positive impressions of Jaieyeobas presentation and answers. Mostly, they said, they want to leave so they can experience something new.

Timothy Benton, a junior, said that hes actually considering living in Greensboro after college more now, based on what the city manager had to say.

Amya Simon, a junior, said there are lots of good things about Greensboro, but she is also unhappy with the violence here and the ways it has touched her life. She said shed like to try a similar city, like maybe Winston-Salem, Charlotte or somewhere in Virginia. Its not that she doesnt realize there can be violence in other cities, but she thinks that the experience would at least give her something to compare with time spent here.

Caesar-Crawford said shed love for her students to consider making lives in Greensboro and taking part in efforts to make the city a better, more equitable place.

I think that would be awesome, but certainly, again, even if they dont, I just want them to know they can use their voice anywhere, she said. They can lift their voice up in any city.

Contact Jessie Pounds at 336-373-7002 and follow @JessiePounds on Twitter.
GREENSBORO  The City Council agreed 7-1 on Wednesday to give the International Civil Rights Center & Museum $2 million to buy an adjacent building for an expansion  with some stipulations.

The first $1 million would be in a lump sum and the next $1 million  $250,000 paid over four years  would be contingent on a detailed report on the integrity of the building. It also is dependent on the museum obtaining funding from other entities to purchase the 2.2-acre property.

If the museum were ever to sell the building, it would have to repay the grant money.

The museums CEO, John Swaine, said last week he needs $5 million by March 31 toward the $10.25 million purchase price of the former First Citizens Bank at South Elm and Market streets. The museum has a contract on the five-story brick building.

Museum leaders say it is a crucial piece for consideration to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and there are only 24 sites with this designation in the United States. Among them are the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon.

Museum leaders want to bring more permanent and rotating exhibits to Greensboro, including those with international interest.

City Manager Taiwo Jaiyeoba said museum officials told him the expansion would increase attendance by 35% to 40%  the former Woolworths store attracts more than 70,000 paid visitors annually  and double its staff to about 30.

Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann voted against the project, stating she wanted to examine the museums finances more closely.

Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said the $2 million would come from the citys ABC revenues, which brought in $1.5 million to $2 million more than expected.

Museum officials also have asked Guilford County to pitch in $2 million for the purchase. The county has agreed to consider the deal by March 29.

Swaine said last week that said he is working to quickly obtain other financial commitments, such as a $500,000 gift from a local foundation.

It is a good way to support this institution, Councilwoman Sharon Hightower said.

Contact Kenwyn Caranna at 336-373-7082 and follow @kcaranna on Twitter.
HIGH POINT  This alert was canceled on March 24.

HIGH POINT  Authorities are asking the public's help in finding a missing 72-year-old woman last seen wearing a light blue short gown with a scarf and beige sandles.

Somboon P. Sloan is described as an Asian woman who is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 165 pounds with medium length black hair and brown eyes, according to information from the N.C. Center for Missing Persons.

A Silver Alert was issued for Sloan because she may be suffering from dementia or some other cognitive impairment. She was last seen in the 800 block of Hines Street in High Point.

Authorities are asking anyone with information to call High Point Police Officer P. Lashley at 336-883-3224.
GREENSBORO  State health officials are reporting results from test samples of wastewater from select treatment plants across North Carolina  including here  to detect the virus that causes COVID-19.

This data is among the new metrics being used by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to track and report on levels of COVID-19 across the state. The state plans to update its data each Wednesday on its website (covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard).

COVID-19 virus particles appearing in wastewater can signal how quickly the virus is spreading, even if people dont get tested or have symptoms, according to the agencys website.

Being able to gauge levels of the respiratory diseases community spread without relying on individual test results is one of the benefits of testing wastewater, according to Charles Naney, an epidemiologist with Guilford County Public Health.

Wastewater testing is proving to be an increasingly reliable alternative that is far more efficient, timely, as well as being naturally protective of personal health information, Naney said.

The state is partnering with UNC System researchers, wastewater utilities and public health departments to collect the data, which is showing a decline in COVID-19 since a surge in January.

In addition to monitoring wastewater, the new weekly state report released each Wednesday will follow these metrics:

Emergency room visits: The percentage of all emergency department visits in North Carolina for COVID-like symptoms was 2% for the week ending March 19, compared to 2% the previous week.

Hospital admissions: The number of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals across North Carolina each week was 401 for the week ending March 19 compared to 524 the previous week.

Cases reported by date of specimen collection: The number of new cases reported to the state was 2,842 for the week ending March 19, down from 3,924 the previous week.

Vaccines and boosters: Fifty percent of adults in the state have gotten at least one booster or additional dose; 76% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine; 38% of ages 5 to 17 have been inoculated with at least one shot.

COVID-19 variants: This metric measures the percentage of variants reported by laboratories. Of cases sequenced between Feb. 20 and March 5, the Omicron BA.1 variant was identified in 97% of them, and the Omicron BA.2 variant was identified in 3% of them.

Community levels by county: Guilford County is considered to have a low risk level, based on new cases and the impact on hospitals.
GREENSBORO  The once-grand mansion at 336 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive makes some neighbors nervous and leaves passersby sad and kind of spooked.

The neoclassical revival-style home, built for businessman John A. Hodgin around 1915, has become an eyesore and a safety hazard for the Southside neighborhood. Its caught fire at least twice and homeless people wander the property, squatting and doing their business, neighbors say.

The day we moved in they found a dead body over there, said Carl Butler, who lives in a townhome across the street.

That was James David McKenzie, 66, who was found at the home last June. His manner of death is undetermined, but Greensboro Deputy Police Chief Michael Terry said McKenzie's death isn't considered a homicide.

Butlers neighbor, Jennifer Sweeney, worries because she has small children at home.

It's just gotten increasingly worse over time with people loitering, said Sweeney, who moved into the neighborhood last August. Its not safe, it's a condemned building, so you don't know who's living in there. And if you have to go in there to help someone you don't even know if you can help them.

The building is among 84 on the city's demolition list. Deputy City Manager Chris Wilson would not speculate on why these properties generally go into decline, but he did say that some involve absentee landlords or heirs who don't want to invest in the property after the owner dies.

The city tries to work with property owners to bring the structures into compliance with housing code.

"Our desire is compliance," Wilson said. "It's always preferred because we need the housing stock and we want people to move on these, but sometimes it's just not achievable because of the condition or where they're at in terms of the condition."

Last week, the City Council turned up the heat. It voted to spend $500,000 to immediately begin catching up with a backlog of demolition orders.

The council was to vote on a larger amount  $1.3 million  which would allow the city to demolish nearly all of the homes on the list. However, new City Manager Taiwo Jaiyeoba asked for more time before the vote to make sure that we have things in the right order.

The issue will be discussed again at this weeks City Council retreat.

The item was added to the agenda after District 1 Councilwoman Sharon Hightower complained last month about the high number of vacant, boarded up properties in her district and District 2, which comprise parts of east Greensboro.

Houses can stay boarded up indefinitely, Hightower, whose district includes the southeastern part of the city, said at the Feb. 15 meeting.

At least one building has been slated to be razed since 2011  although demolition can take place 90 days after an order is issued.

We dont have the budget to actually go in and take those houses down, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said at the February meeting.

Since then, however, the city found $1.3 million in its general fund to carry out the demolition orders.

All demolitions require $350 asbestos testing ($450 if rushed), and the average cost of asbestos abatement is $4,500, Wilson said. In severe cases, the abatement can go as high as $20,000, he added.

The demolition itself costs about $12,000 for a 1,200 square-foot house. A lien is placed on the property to allow the city to recoup the loss if the property is ever sold.

And while there are 84 structures on the citys demolition list, only 73 of them are anticipated to be demolished, Wilson said. Work on 11 other buildings is being done to bring them into compliance with the city code.

Despite Jaiyeobas request for a delay, council members didnt want to wait to get started. So they voted to spend $500,000 to demolish 35 houses that are the most concerning.

This is a critical situation, said Councilwoman Tammi Thurm, whose District 5 encompasses the western part of the city. It's a matter of safety, public safety.

And while she voted for the $500,000, Hightower said more discussion is needed.

I don't want this to lead to a whole lot of pockets of empty lots," she said, "with no ability to rebuild in those spaces without having some discussion around what that will entail.

However, 74-year-old Gladys Jackson, said an empty lot would be better than the decrepit house she sees from her front windows.

A large tree fell on the vacant house at 2105 Maywood St. about two years ago, she said, and its been like that ever since.

The lot attracts illegal dumping, too. Theres a lot of people putting trash in the yard, she said.

The issue affects the citys Black and Hispanic neighborhoods much more than white neighborhoods, according to Director of Neighborhood Development Michelle Kennedy.

So if you talk about issues of, for example, racial equity, it's clear where this issue lives in our community, she said.

Claire Newman, a dog walker who traverses the Southside neighborhood several times a week, said its time the city did something about the house on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

It is interesting that they kind of allowed it to get to this point where now it's not only burned in the back, but the front is falling apart and the windows are broken," Newman said. "It kind of looks creepy.

You could use this property for so much more."

The loss of the old mansion saddens Noel Hart, who lives downtown on Elm Street.

I dont like to see history torn down, she said. You dont see houses like this much anymore.

And though he agrees with demolishing the building, even if the property remains a vacant lot, Butler also finds the situation sad.

Its too bad because it looks like it was a beautiful house at some point in time.

Contact Kenwyn Caranna at 336-373-7082 and follow @kcaranna on Twitter.
In July 2020, a fraud analyst with a North Carolina bank called Jalon Torres to tell him that his business account had been frozen for unauthorized activity, and that the bank would hold his money for at least 90 days.

The Florida man, according to an FBI affidavit, responded in an unusual way.

How do you feel closing someones account given the current situation regarding COVID-19, protests and Black Lives Matter, he said. You must feel good about yourself, how do you sleep at night.

Torres then asked for the Charlotte bank employees last name, which the FBI says she refused to give.

Torres found her anyway.

Within days of the phone call, Torres unleashed an eight-month barrage of racist, pornographic and life-threatening phone calls, emails and texts toward the banker, her husband and children, and her extended family, the FBI says.

Were coming for you dumb ass n------, Torres said in a December 2020 voicemail. We know where you live. We know youre (sic) whole f------ family and youre going to be dead. Just wait.

On Tuesday, justice found Torres.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn sentenced the 43-year-old, Boynton Beach man to 27 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in October to cyberstalking and two counts of making interstate threats. His crimes carried a maximum combined sentence of five years. Torres has been held in the Mecklenburg County jail since May.

Defense attorney Katryna Spearman of Atlanta said Wednesday in an email to The Charlotte Observer that she had no comment.

The FBI affidavit does not name the Charlotte bank.

According to the Stalking Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center, known as SPARC, some 13.5 million Americans are targeted each year, including nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men. Victims, according to the center, are more than twice as likely to be harassed by technology.

Court documents in the Torres case illustrate the point. Based on one phone call in which he only received a partial name, Torres was able to track down personal information about the bank employee  identified in court documents as Jane Doe  her husband and her husbands family. Some of Torres most disturbing threats came attached to family photographs or home addresses.

Racist messages and threats

The attacks began two weeks after Doe called Torres to tell him that his Charlotte bank account, under the name of The Student Loan Resolution Center LLC, had been locked.

On July 16, 2020, Torres sent a series of virulently racist text messages and images to Does husband and several of his family members. He also called the husbands sister and mother, saying that they would not survive the weekend.

PICK UP THE PHONE N----- I GOT SOMETHING YOUR WANNA HEAR!, Torres wrote the husband on July 16. A minute later, he sent a second text, with the couples home address.

In December 2020, a man later identified by the FBI as Torres left voicemails on the phones of Doe and her husband.

You guys like to play f------ games, well game on f------ n------, Torres said. He laughed, then added: (Jane Doe) is dead.

The bombardment, for long stretches at a time, was incessant. According to the FBI, Torres sent about 210 messages to Does husband alone from mid-July to mid-December 2020. At one point, the Charlotte family hired off-duty police officers to guard their home.

The texts and phone calls came from multiple numbers, which the FBI says it eventually tied to Torres. He was arrested in March 2021 in Colorado.

Torres criminal record shows multiple arrests for mostly drugs and driving but also for stalking and false imprisonment. He appears to have served at least one jail sentence  a 10-day incarceration for a misdemeanor 1997 theft conviction in Harris County (Houston), Texas.

In letters to Cogburn asking for leniency, Torres parents described a promising but troubled man whose life had been thrown off line at an early age after he discovered the body of his 15-month-old sister, whom, they say, had been killed by her babysitter.

He became very angry and short tempered which has caused him to make bad decisions, his mother said in her letter. But I remain convinced that he possesses the desire and determination to learn from the experience of being incarcerated and that he will move in a positive direction with his life.

Torres next move will be to a federal prison.